A discourse of the true nature of the Gospel demonstrating that it is no…

It doth not therefore by any consequence follow, that the Gospel is a new Law because it commands Faith as a Duty, and threatens Unbelief, since the old Law had done the same before, and the Gospel only employs its Precepts, and applies them to its own Design and Use. To say that we are enjoined in the Gospel to believe on Christ as the Redeemer, to deliver us from Sin and Death, will not weaken the Force of the Argument urged; for the Act even of this Faith is commanded by the Law, and is its proper Precept: That which belongs to the Gospel, is to direct this Act to an Object suited and proportioned to help us in the Misery of our present sinful State. Adam was by the Law commanded to believe, and trust in God for the Preservation and Continuance of him in Happiness. And we are commanded to trust in the same God for the Restoring this lost Happiness, and our Recovery of it again. The Act and Object of Faith, is the same (Christ being God), and all the Difference is only made by that which is the Circumstance (tho a deplorable one) of our own Persons. But this will not alter the Nature of the Faith it-self; for if so, then according to the Variety of these sad Cases and Exigences wherein we trust on Christ, our Faith would alter to a different Nature. Since then the Faith of Adam, which the Moral Law commanded him to act on God, was a Trust in him that he would preserve his innocent Creature in all the Blessedness of his primitive Condition; and the Faith of a Sinner coming to Christ for Life, is a Trust in the same God, (he being the second Person of the Divinity) that he will restore his wretched Creature to its lost Happiness, the Faith is the same in both Instances as to the Nature of it, (tho the Circumstances of the Persons are different:) and therefore if our first Father was by the Moral Law commanded to believe on God, the same Precept requires, and obligeth Sinners to believe on the eternal Son of God.

It doth not therefore by any consequence follow, that the Gospel is a new Law because it commands Faith as a Duty, and threatens Unbelief, since the old Law had done the same before, and the Gospel only imploys its Precepts, and applies them to its own Design and Use. To say that we are enjoin'd in the Gospel to believe on Christ as the Redeemer, to deliver us from Sin and Death, will not weaken the Force of the Argument urg'd; for the Act even of this Faith is commanded by the Law, and is its proper Precept: That which belongs to the Gospel, is to direct this Act to an Object suted and proportioned to help us in the Misery of our present sinful State. Adam was by the Law commanded to believe, and trust in God for the Preservation and Continuance of him in Happiness. And we are commanded to trust in the same God for the Restoring this lost Happiness, and our Recovery of it again. The Act and Object of Faith, is the same (Christ being God), and all the Difference is only made by that which is the Circumstance (tho a deplorable one) of our own Persons. But this will not alter the Nature of the Faith it-self; for if so, then according to the Variety of these sad Cases and Exigences wherein we trust on Christ, our Faith would alter to a different Nature. Since then the Faith of Adam, which the Moral Law commanded him to act on God, was a Trust in him that he would preserve his innocent Creature in all the Blessedness of his primitive Condition; and the Faith of a Sinner coming to Christ for Life, is a Trust in the same God, (he being the second Person of the Divinity) that he will restore his wretched Creature to its lost Happiness, the Faith is the same in both Instances as to the Nature of it, (tho the Circumstances of the Persons are different:) and therefore if our first Father was by the Moral Law commanded to believe on God, the same Precept requires, and obligeth Sinners to believe on the eternal Son of God.