and strength as we need them. Whatever pretences to gracious assistance the patrons of this new law of grace may make, they do not pretend, that God has by covenant secured to us fresh supplies of grace for persevering obedience. According to the tenor of the old covenant of works, justification was suspended, upon the performance of the required obedience; and it was forfeited and lost by its non-performance and just thus it is likewise according to the tenor of this pretended new law of grace. I must therefore again demand, wherein this new law does any way differ from a proper covenant of works? : If it be pretended that the conditions of this new covenant are much easier than the conditions of the old covenant of works, which required perfect, and this but imperfect obedience, as the term of our acceptance with God; I answer, This supposal would nothing alter the general nature of the covenant. Works are works, obedience is obedience, whether perfect or imperfect. The condition of each covenant is works; and works come into the very formal nature of each, as they are covenants: and therefore how the one can be either more or less a covenant of works than the other I know not. Besides, it is a great mistake to suppose, that the conditions of this imaginary new law, or covenant, are easier than the conditions of the old covenant of works. The case is much otherwise. He with whom the first covenant was made, had sufficient power and ability to fulfil all its conditions, and fully to come up to all its demands. But fallen creatures are utterly incapable to perform sincere, though imperfect obedience: they have naturally no sincerity, no truth in the inward parts, no principle of new obedience; nor does this pretended covenant supply them with any, as before observed; and, therefore, whatever pretences are made that these conditions are easier, they are indeed rather harder to be complied with than the conditions of the first It is more difficult for a man, without legs, to walk, than for a perfect, vigorous, lively man covenant. to run. If it be further pretended, that this new law of grace differs from the covenant of works, in that faith is, according to this scheme, made the principal condition of the new covenant; this is but an empty pretence. For faith is here considered but as an act of obedience, and as being seminally, or virtually, all evangelical obedience, including the same in the nature of it; so that this faith is nothing else but a constitutive part and active principle of the works required, and not distinct from them in the office of justifying. And was not Adam as much obliged, by the covenant of works, to exercise faith in the conditional promise of life, and to subject himself to the authority of the Legislator, as we can be by this new law of grace? Let the case, therefore, be looked upon in any view, in every view; and this pretended new law, or covenant, of mild and favourable terms, will be found to be as truly a covenant of works, as the first covenant made with Adam. There will indeed appear some circumstantial differences between that covenant and this. For instance, that covenant was appointed and enjoined by God as a Sovereign; whereas this (as is pretended) was purchased by the blood of Christ, and is the law of a Mediator. That covenant admitted no renovation, when violated; but this leaves room for recovery, upon condition of repentance and future obedience, to such transgressors as do not happen to die in the sad interval of unbelief and insincerity. And that covenant required perfect, this accepts of imper fect obedience. But these things are only circumstances, and enter not into the nature of a covenant condition. From whatever inducement God was pleased to propose these conditions; whatever be the consequence of their violation; and whatever degree of obedience be required in order to our justification; yet (according to this new theology) sincere persevering obedience is the stated condition of each of these covenants. This, and this only, was what rendered the first covenant a covenant of works; and, therefore, when all the pretences are made that can be made, the second covenant, upon this scheme, is as strictly and properly a covenant of works as the first was. You seem to be aware of this consequence; and therefore demand of me, 66 Why it may not be supposed agreeable to the Divine perfections, to require of man a life of obedience now, proportioned to his present abilities, as the condition of his justification, as well as to make with him a covenant of works at first, proportioned to his primitive powers and capacities?" To which I answer : I have already shown you, that it is impossible that any covenant requiring sincere obedience as the condition of our justification, can be proportioned to our present abilities. For we have no natural ability for any sincere obedience at all. We "dead in trespasses and sins," Eph. ii. 1. are "The carnal mind in us is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God; neither indeed can be," Rom. viii. 7. But this is what I may have further occasion to inculcate, before I have finished this letter. I would now only add, that the scriptures represent to us an irreconcilable opposition between our being saved by works, and our being saved by the vealed in the gospel. I have shown grace re you, in my last, how strongly faith and works are opposed to each other, with respect to our justification. And I must also observe, that works and grace are, in like manner, opposed as irreconcilably inconsistent with each other, in this grand concern. "And if by grace, then it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace: but if it be of works, then is it no more grace; otherwise work is no more work," Rom. xi. 6. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast," Eph. ii. 8, 9. "Now to him that worketh is the reward reckoned not of grace, but of debt," Rom. iv. 4. Here are the most plain, express, and peremptory declarations, that can be made in human language, of the utter inconsistency of works and grace, the impossibility of their concurring in the affair of our justification and interest in the saving mercy of God. Whence it plainly appears, that we must be saved by works alone, or by grace alone. And if the former, it must be by the first covenant of works. But if the latter, then not by any works, by no obedience at all, as the condition of our justification and acceptance with God. You have indeed undertaken to obviate all such arguments against your scheme, by pretending that, "Where works are ejected as having no hand in our justification, and as being inconsistent with the grace of the gospel, it must be legal obedience which is there intended; whereas, the obedience pleaded for is evangelical. It is not supposed, that we are justified by obedience to the moral law, but by sincere obedience to the gospel institution." But I entreat you to consider, that if we are indeed justified by sincere obedience to the gospel, we must be justified by the works of the law, by obedience to the moral law, and therefore not by the faith of Christ, as revealed in the gospel. This appears evident from such considerations as these. The moral law is the very rule and standard of all our obedience to God: if, therefore, we obtain justification by sincere obedience, we must obtain it by a conformity to the moral law, without which there can be no obedience at all, and therefore no sincere obedience. All the duty and obedience which we can owe to God, as rational creatures, is comprised in that comprehensive summary of the moral law, to "love the Lord our God, with all our heart, mind, and strength; and to love our neighbour as ourselves;" and there neither is, nor can be, any obedience sincere and acceptable to God, but what flows from this principle of love, the source of all practical conformity to the moral law. Besides, the gospel does not make void the law, as a rule of obedience, but establishes it: and therefore our justification by sincere obedience to the gospel, is a justification by the deeds of the law, or by a conformity to it as the rule of life. It is no just objection against this, that there are some positive precepts in the gospel, which are not discoverable by the light of nature, nor directly required by the moral law: for, though these positive duties, such as receiving baptism and the Lord's supper, and faith in Jesus Christ, the Mediator, considered as an act of obedience to a gospel command, be not directly required; yet they are, by necessary consequence, enjoined in that fundamental statute of the moral law, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' Moreover our Lord Jesus Christ wrought out the work of redemption for us, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us," Rom. viii. 4. If, therefore, he wrought out our redemption in order to |