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

There now remains nothing more than to show, that the Promises of Eternal Life made to the Believer, and the Ruin denounced against every Unbeliever, do not prove the Gospel to be a new Law; and that such Expressions as these, which we so often meet, He who believes shall be saved; and except you repent, you shall all likewise perish, do not speak Faith and Repentance to be properly commanded by the Gospel, nor promises Pardon and Justification, on condition these Precepts are obeyed, nor threatens Death if they are neglected. That it is not the Gospel, but the Law which threatens Death, I have already proved; that the Promises of the Gospel are not made unto Men, on condition of Obedience performed to it, is evident from this, that if they were so, they would not differ in their Nature from the Promises of the Law, and so the Covenant of Grace would be a Covenant of Works: which if the Apostle Paul says true, (as I really believe he doth) is a flat Contradiction, Rom. 11. 6. And if by Grace, then is it 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. For the Promises of the Law were made to Men, on condition that its Precepts were obeyed. If now the Promises of the Gospel are also made to Men, on condition that its Precepts are obeyed, then the Promises, both of the one and the other, are of the same Nature and King, being both made to Obedience. It is but a poor shifting Evasion, to say, that there is a great difference, because that the Law requires perfect unsinning Obedience, and the Gospel insists only on lower degrees of Duty: for this will not so much as prove the Obedience to be of different Kinds, but only of greater or lesser Measures, which, as every one knows, doth not alter the Species. But if it should be granted, that Obedience to the Law is of a various Nature from that enjoined by the Gospel, yet the Promises made to them both must be of the same Kind, for both of them are Works: since to obey a Precept, is to do a Work, or I know not what to make of it; and all the Difference then is, that the Promises of the Covenant of Works were made to Obedience to the old Law, and the Promises of the new Covenant of Grace were made to Obedience unto the new Law.

There now remains nothing more than to shew, that the Promises of Eternal Life made to the Believer, and the Ruin denounc'd against every Unbeliever, do not prove the Gospel to be a new Law; and that such Expressions as these, which we so often meet, He who believes shall be sav'd; and except you repent, you shall all likewise perish, do not speak Faith and Repentance to be properly commanded by the Gospel, nor promises Pardon and Justification, on condition these Precepts are obey'd, nor threatens Death if they are neglected. That it is not the Gospel, but the Law which threatens Death, I have already proved; that the Promises of the Gospel are not made unto Men, on condition of Obedience perform'd to it, is evident from this, that if they were so, they would not differ in their Nature from the Promises of the Law, and so the Covenant of Grace would be a Covenant of Works: which if the Apostle Paul says true, (as I really believe he doth) is a flat Contradiction,