precept of the law, as a covenant of works, is under this conditional form, do, and live. Now, if any fay then, the believer is delivered from obligation, to do, or to obey the law, I deny that, for this do is eternally binding; but the precept of the law, as a covenant of works, is not fimply do, but do and live; and this conditional form, which is properly the precept and command of the covenant of works, he is indeed delivered from; for Chrift as furety came under the law as a covenant of works, or as it stood in this conditional do, and live; For he yielded perfect obedience to it, to procure life by it; and fo the believer is wholly delivered from obedience to it, that is, to obtain life by it, or to procure everlafting life by his obedience. The precept, thus formed as the condition of life, by virtue of the annexing of the promife of life to the obedience of it, is the precept of the covenant of works; and from this precept he is freed, and fo is dead to the law in refpect of the precept of it, in and through Jefus Chrift his furety. 2dly, The promife of life is another thing in the covenant of works; and this runs in the fame line with the former, being fo connected with it. The promife of life in the law, or covenant of works, was just the promife of eternal life, upon condition of perfect obedience: Now the believer's freedom from the law in this refpect, flows from his freedom from it in the former refpect: For if he be freed from the do, or obedience, as required in that old covenant-form, then he is not to expect eternal life, as it is promised in that covenant: Nay, the law is divefted of its promife of life to the believer that is to fay, his obedience to the law hath not the promife of eternal life, as the legal ground and title upon which he is to obtain it; he holds his title to eternal eternal life in Jefus Chrift, his furety, in whom he hath a perfect obedience, to which eternal life is promised; and which is now the alone fure ground upon which it is to be procured The believer's own obedience to the law, or his gofpel obedience, and conformity to the law, wrought in him, and done by him, thro' the help of the fpirit of grace; even this obedience of his, I fay, hath not the legal promise of eternal life, as if it were the legal condition of his obtaining eternal life: No, his gofpel obedience, hath indeed a gospel promife, connecting it with eternal life, as it is an evidence of his union to Chrift, in whom all the promises are yea and amen; and as it is a walking in the way to heaven, without which none fhall ever come to the end, For without holiness it is impoffible to fee God. But the legal promife of eternal life, made to obedience, and which makes our perfonal obedience to be the cause and matter of our juftification, and as the proper condition of falvation and eternal life, this is the promife of the law, or covenant of works; and this promise it is now wholly divefted of, as to the believer in Jefus Chrift, who has taken his law-room, and yielded that perfect obedience to which the promise of eternal life is now made. And the reafon why I fay, the promise of eternal life is now made to Chrift's perfect obedience in our room and ftead, is, because the law or covenant of works made no promife of life properly but to man's own perfonal obedience; it made no mention of a furety: But now, in fovereign mercy, this law-rigour is abated, and the furety is accepted, to whofe obedience life is promifed. 3dly, The threatening of death in cafe of difobedience, is another thing in the covenant of works; death and wrath, and the curfe, is the penalty of the law; death is the re ward ward of fin and difobedience to the law, In the day thou finneft thou shalt die; and this the believer is alfo freed from by the death of Chrift, who died for our fins. The law faith, Curfed is every one that continueth not, &c. but the gofpel faith, Chrift bath redeemed us from the curfe of the law, being made a curfe for us, Gal. iii. 10, 13. As the law then to the believer is divefted of its promife of life, fo as it cannot justify him for his obedience; fo it is divefted of its threatening of death, and cannot condemn him for his difobedience to it as a covenant, that covenant form of it being done away in Chrift Jefus with refpect to the believer. I think fome will, it may be, object, and fay, that the believer is delivered from the curfe of the law; but ftill we cannot understand how he is dead to the command of the law. That he is dead to the condemning power of the law is plain: but how he is dead to the preceptive, mandatory commanding power of the law? I anfwer to you again, he is dead to, and delivered from the preceptive part of the law, not materially, but formally; for the command of it materially, is, do, or yield obedience; this he can never be delivered from fo long as he is a creature, and God his Creator. But the command formally, or under the form of the covenant of works, is, do, and live; do by your own ftrength, do, as the condition of your eternal life, and do under the pain of eternal death and damnation; this I fay, which is the commanding part of the law formally confidered, as it is a covenant of works, he is wholly and altogether delivered from. To preach the mandatory part of the law as a covenant of works, is to preach the moral law, not merely as a rule of life, but as the condition of life eternal, in which fenfe the believer is not at all bound to acknowledge it; and and to fay, that the believer is delivered from the law, that is, only from the curfe of the law, would make fome very ftrange gloffes upon many fcriptures; for example, Gal. iii. 10. As many as are of the works of the law, are under the curfe; the meaning of it then would be, as many as are under the curfe, are under the curfe. It must therefore be meant of the precept of the law, as many as are under the precept, are under the penalty thereof. The believer then is dead to, and delivered from the law in its commanding and condemning power, and that in, and through Chrift: And I am not afraid, nor ashamed to fay it, in the words of the famous doctor Owen, that the whole power and fanction of the firft covenant was conferred upon Christ, and in him fulfilled and ended: And I think I fay no more than what the apostle, a greater than he, faith, Rom. x. 4. Chrift is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. Thus you fee what it is in the law, the believer is dead to, more generally. Third thing here propofed, was, what it is to be dead to the law, more particularly as it comes under the notion of death. And here, 1. I fhall fhew the import of this death. 2. Some of the qualities of it. FIRST, To fhew the import of this death. The notion of death may here help us to the right understanding of it: For, (1.) As in death there is no relation takes place; it diffolves the relation betwixt master and fervant, husband and wife, Job iii. 19. So here, the man being dead to the law, the relation betwixt him and it is diffolved, Rom. vii. 1, 2, 3, 4. He is now married to Chrift, divorced from the law. While the man is alive to VOL. II. . K the the law, the relation ftands. See Gal. v. 3. (2.) In death there is no care or thoughtfulness, Eccl. ix. 10. There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wifdom in the grave, whither thou goeft; intimating to us, that in death there is no care nor thoughtfulness, nor concern about doing any thing; fo the man that is dead to the law, hath no more care, nor concern about the works of the law in point of JUSTIFICATION, than a dead corps about the work in which it was occupied while living. While the man is alive to the law, all his care and concern is about the works of the law, Do, and live. (3.) In death there is no hope. The land of the living is the land of hope, Eccl. ix. 4. Even fo the man that is dead to the law, hath no hope nor expectation from the law, or from his obedience thereto. The man that is alive to the law hath hope, that God will pardon him, and pity him. Why? Because he does fo and fo; he is a good neighbour, he wrongs nobody, he is juft in his dealings, and careful in his duties, and touching the law, he is blameless; he hath a good heart towards God, and he hath a good life too; and therefore he hopes to be justified and faved of God, for Chrift's fake. For he hath learned, it may be, to make fo much use of Chrift, as to think he cannot be faved without him; but ftill his hope and expectation is founded upon the law: But now the man dead to the law, hath no hope from the law, nay, he defpairs of falvation by the deeds of the law, as he fees he cannot do any thing without grace and ftrength from above; fo even when he does any thing by the help of grace, he sees it so lame and imperfect, that God cannot juftify or fave him to the honour and credit of his juftice, unless he hath a perfect righteoufnefs. He hath |