salvation by Jesus Christ, as the Reconciler, and by the Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier, and these blessings are bestowed in touch greater abundance. This occasions it to be called a new covenant, though in truth, it is only a new and fairer edition of the ancient covenant of grace, much brighter than that which the Jews had at first, which was so mingled with, and partly obscured by the Sinai covenant.

XI. Thus it has been made evident, that the law of Moses, including the Sinai covenant, was so far an emblem of the origi nal covenant of works, in the rigour of its commands, do this and live, and in the severity of its punishments, the soul that sinneth shall die; Gal. iii. 12. The man that doth them, shall live in them; and verse 10. cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them; and it was also an emblem of the covenant of grace, and the benefits thereof; viz. pardon and sanctification in the purifications and atonements appointed by water and fire, and bloody sacrifices; Heb. ix. 9. 13, 14, 24. and x. 1-4. The law had a shadow of good things to come: It contained figures for the time then present: The holy places made with hands are the figures of the true, and the patterns of things in the heavens; the Greek words are Σκια, παραβολή, υποδειγματα αντίτυπα, &c. and the apostle argues upon this supposition; if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, mingled with running water, as in Num. xix. 17. sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, that is, to the removal of ceremonial defilement, how much more shall the blood of Christ—purge your consciences from dead works, that is, from works deserv ing death, to serve the living God.

XII. But we must remember also, what I said before, that the law of Moses was not only an emblem, but was really a covenant of works, so far as it related to temporal blessings, in the land of Canaan; and it was really a dispensation of the covenant of grace, so far as it contained in it various promises of eternal pardon and inward sanctification, and God's acceptance of those that repented of their sins, and trusted in his grace, so far as it was then revealed.

XIII. It is a further remarkable evidence of this truth, that St. Paul distinguishes the two different ways of justification by the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace, by texts cited from the law of Moses. See Rom. x. 5. compared with verse 6. "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, saying, that the man who doth those things shall live by them : But the righteousness which is of faith, speaketh on this wise, say not who shall ascend into heaven, &c. the word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach," &c. Here you see, is both law and gospel,

contained in Moses' writings, if we can but learn to distinguish them, and not confound them.

XIV. Nor indeed can I think of any other way, to account for this conduct of St. Paul, in citing so frequently the law of Moses in different parts of it, both to prove the universal condemnation of all mankind, both Jew and Gentile, by the law of innocence or covenant of works, and also to prove our justificacion by faith, through the grace of the gospel. This is the only clue, that I can find to lead me into the sense and meaning of the apostle in such texts, and the only method that I know of, to reconcile the reasoning of that great and holy writer, in the account he gives us of the Jewish and christian dispensations. But I now proceed.

CHAP. VII. Of the Christian Dispensation.

I. Notwithstanding God had done so much before in several ages, towards the salvation and recovery of mankind, from the ruins of their fall, and had set up his church in the Jewish nation, to maintain the light of true religion there, within sight of the Gentile kingdoms round about, yet the Gentiles multiplied their iniquities and idolatries, and the Jews turned almost all their religion into superstition and empty formalities, so that true vital godliness and morality were in a great measure lost out of the world. Therefore the blessed God saw it a proper season to put an end to this dispensation of Moses or Judaism, and to bring in the last and best of all the dispensations, aud that is christianity, which is revealed to us in the New Testament: This is the last edition of the covenant of grace, and is eminently called the gospel. Herein we have many plainer discoveries of the transactions of God with men, even from the creation; we have much clearer notices of our duty, and many richer promises of divine grace, than ever we had before, with greater assistances and encouragements to repentance, faith and holiness.

II. All this comes by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the promised seed of the woman, the Messiah, &c. The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; John i. 17. Jesus, who was the Son of God, before all worlds, the appointed Mediator of the new covenant, foretold by Moses, and by the, prophets, is now actually come down from heaven, and dwelt with men. In his incarnation, his poverty, his preaching, his holy life, his many miracles, his obedience and death, in his sacrifice of atonement, his burial and his resurrection from the dead, in his ascension to heaven, his intercession and exaltation to the kingdom, he fulfils the various offices of his mediation, which the ancient prophets foretold, and which the apostles have described, and explained to us, viz. that he was a teacher

of righteousness, a prophet, an example of holiness, a highpriest, a sacrifice, a Saviour, an intercessor, a king, and a head of life to his body the church, both spiritual and eternal.

III. As in this dispensation of Christ, revealed in the New Testament, we have a fuller and plainer discovery of our fallen state, our guilt and danger, our degenerate sinful natures, and our weakness to all that is good; so also we have much brighter manifestations made of the pardon of sin, and justification of our persons, the methods of its procurement by the obedience,' sufferings and death of Christ, which made a proper atonement for sin, the adoption of us into the family of God, the sanctification of our natures by the influences of the Holy Spirit, to enable us to repent of sin, and mortify it daily, together with all our consolations in life, and hope in death. And besides all this, the future state both of saints and sinners, the resurrection of the body, the everlasting happiness of good men, and the eternal misery of the wicked, are brought much nearer to our view, as motives to our duty, and support to our hope: And they are set much plainer before us in all the blessings and the terrors of them, together with the duties of faith and love toward the Son of God our Redeemer.

IV. As I have also before observed, that the whole system of natural duties, or the whole moral law, is taken into every edition of the covenant of grace, so in the New Testament also, or in the dispensation of christianity, it should not be forgotten, that we have a much larger, clearer, and fuller explication of the moral law in all the parts and precepts of it, with the more particular application of them to the occurrences of human life, and a more express notice, that they reach to the thoughts and desires of the heart, as well as to words and actions: So that our love and duty to God, to our neighbours, and ourselves, was never so plainly and fully set forth, either by the light of reason, or by revelation, as it is in this last dispensation. This is sufficiently evident in the sermons of Christ, and in the writings of his apostles. To these I add also, the special exaltation of the duty of love to our neighbours, and forgiveness of injuries to a superior heighth in the gospel of Christ. Our love to one another is made the sign and token of our christianity; and our love even to enemies is required and enforced by the love of God to us, and an universal holiness of heart and life, proceeding from love to God and man, is frequently prescribed.

V. Under this dispensation, almost all the former emblems of the covenant of grace, required of us as duties, are entirely left out and abrogated; and the chief, if not the only emblems, signs, or seals, required in it are baptism and the Lord's supper, which are usually called the two sacraments. This new covenant

is as were sealed between God and man, in the promised blessings of it, and all the duties, by God's appointment of these signs or ceremonies on one side, and by man's acceptance of them with a sincere heart on the other.

VI. One of these sacraments, viz. baptism, more peculiarly represents the blessings of regeneration, or the purification of our souls from the sinful principles that work in us, by the Holy represented under the figure of baptismal water: Our submission to this ordinance, is our acceptance of this covenant. The other, viz. the Lord's-supper, more especially relates to our pardon of sin, through the death of the body of Christ, and effusion of his blood, which are represented by the bread broken, and the wine poured out in the Lord's-supper: Our partaking of this bread and wine, is our consent to this covenant.

VII. Here then we may take notice, that in all these five dispensations of grace, there have always been some emblems or figures of pardon of sin through the great atonement that was made or to be made by the death of Christ: Such were the sacrifices or the slaughter of beasts, under the four ancient dispensations, designed to prefigure this atonement, before it was actually made. And such is the Lord's supper, wherein bread is broken, and wine poured out, under the dispensation of christianity, as memorials of the dying body and blood of our blessed Saviour, to bring this atonement to remembrance, after it was made,

VIII. There hath been also under the three last and clearest dispensations, some emblem to represent the mortification of sin, repentence and regeneration, or newness of heart and life, viz. Abrahamical circumcision, the Jewish washings, and christian baptism*. Whence I think we may reasonably in er, that these two doctrines of pardon of sin through the atonement of Christ, and regeneration or satisfaction by the Holy Spirit, are of vast importance in the covenant of grace: And that the christian, as he hath the greatest advantages by the clear discovery of thes things, so is under the strongest necessity and command, to make these doctrines the matters of his faith, and these blessings the objects of his hope and prayer.

CHAP. VIII.-The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, farther Explained under the Gospel of Christ,

I. Though our justification before God is ascribed to faith, and not to works, under every dispensation of the covenant of

*We are told also by St. Peter; 1 Pet. i. 20, 21. that the ark of Noak wherein eight souls were saved by water, was a sort of emblem or figure tike baptism. which now saves us, not by putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the parallel is not so obvious and easy, as to encourage me to mention, it as an emblem of regeneration or sanctification, in the dispensation of Noab; and there may be some

grace*, yet, under the christian dispensation, our pardon of sin, and our justification and acceptance with God are more clearly represented to us, and more strongly denied to be owing to our works of obedience, and are much more frequently ascribed to faith; especially in those places where the holy writers are directly and expressly teaching us the way of justification, according to the gospel, such as the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians.

II. This faith is sometimes represented as faith in the gospel, faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the righteousness of God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, faith in God through Jesus Christ, &c. All these phrases imply or include acknowledgment of insufficiency in ourselves, and dependence on the grace of God, or the mediation of Christ. And they hold forth this lesson to us, viz. that we cannot perform works of obedience or righteousness, answerable to the perfect demands of God, so as to stand entitled to impunity and life thereby, under this or any other of his dispensations, as we have shewed before in chapter ii. therefore we cannot be justified by any law of righteousness, or any righteousness of works, which we can do: For St. Paul tells us, that if there had been any law which could have given life to fallen mankind, verily righteousness or a right to life should have been appointed and obtained by that law; Gal. iii. 21. but now since we cannot obtain a right to forgiveness and acceptance with God unto salvation by our works, therefore it must be done by the righteousness of faith, and dependence; Rom. ix. 30. that is, a righteousness or rectitude in the court of God, or right to life, which we are made partakers of, by our trusting in mere mercyt.

III. This blessing must come upon us, therefore, as a gift of righteousness as Rom. v. 17. or as a justifying righteousness imputed to us; as Rom. iv. 5, 6, 22-24. or reckoned to our account, because we have no justifying righteousness of our own working. And therefore, it is often called the righteousness of God; because it is God out of his free grace appointed it, and it is God imputes or bestows it, or accepts us into his favour, as though we were perfectly righteous, when we believe or trust in Christ.

IV. It is called the righteousness of faith, the righteousness

doubt whether the apostle doth not introduce it here, rather as a figure or emblem of that part of our salvation which consists in our deliverance from the guilt of sin, and in pardoning grace.

* See this matter discoursed of in chapter ii. which should be reviewed, before this chapter is read.

† In this and the like scriptures, where mention is made of the righteousness of God, of faith, imputed for righteousness, of the righteousness which is of the law, the righteousness which is of faith, &c the word righteousness is taken in a forensic sense; not for one or more acts of obedience or holiness, but for a rectitude in the court of God, or a right to impunity and life.