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

The next Father, who is forced to come in to give witness to this new Law, is Augustine: But what he says will not at all serve the Cause. For in that his Discourse of Grace and Free-will, his Design is to prove against the Pelagians, that Man by the best use of his natural Powers, cannot obey the Precepts of the Moral Law; but that the Grace of the Gospel is absolutely necessary to strengthen a Christian to that Obedience which be pays; tho imperfectly, to the old Law as the Rule of his Actions. And that great Light of his Age makes the Difference between the new and old Law to be this that the old Law consisted wholly in Precepts and Commands, and so was a killing Letter to the Sinner; but the Nature of the Gospel is to promise, and give Grace:^b When it is said, (says he) 1 Joh. 4. 7. Let us love one another; this is Law: when it is said, Because Love is of God, this is Grace. He asserts ⟨p. 66⟩that there are Precepts in the New Testament, and none ever had so little Understanding as to deny it; but these Precepts do not properly belong to the pure Nature of the Gospel, but are only repeated and urged in it: but it is that Grace which promises Pardon to the Sinner, and that Grace which makes the Believer holy and obedient, that are the native Streams which are derived from this Spring. And it is apparent from the Words of Augustine, cited by my Reverend Brother, that this Father makes the old Law to be a Doctrine of Works, and so a killing Letter without Grace; that is, without the Gospel, which as a pure Doctrine of Grace, shows how the Law is satisfied by Christ, and how the Sinner and the Ungodly may be justified; and affords Supplies of Grace suitable to all the various Needs of the Believer. The other Place cited out of Augustine, proves no more than that we are freed from the Condemnation of the Law by the Law of Faith, which how it is to be understood of the Doctrine of Faith, I have before shown in rescuing Rom. 3. 27. from its perverted Meaning, Page 59. of this Discourse.

The next Father, who is forc'd to come in to give witness to this new Law, is Augustine: But what he says will not at all serve the Cause. For in that his Discourse of Grace and Free-will, his Design is to prove against the Pelagians, that Man by the best use of his natural Powers, cannot obey the Precepts of the Moral Law; but that the Grace of the Gospel is absolutely necessary to strengthen a Christian to that Obedience which be pays; tho imperfectly, to the old Law as the Rule of his Actions. And that great Light of his Age makes the Difference between the new and old Law to be this that the old Law consisted wholly in Precepts and Commands, and so was a killing Letter to the Sinner; but the Nature of the Gospel is to promise, and give Grace: