A golden mine opened, or, The glory of God's rich grace displayed in the…

1. It is because Sin and Death cannot be removed out of the Way to Life, but only by Jesus Christ, and so by Grace only. The Law of God is broke, and Justice calls for Wrath and Vengeance to be executed upon the Transgressor. Justice must be satisfied, but Man cannot make a Compensation for the Violation of God's Holy Law, nor will God acquit the Sinner unless that be done; the Law is but an Impression of God's Holy Nature, it resulted not from a bare Act of his Sovereignty, but from his Holiness and perfect Rectitude of his blessed Nature. If Man could have attained to Life by any Works of Obedience done by him, Christ died in vain; and if it had consisted with the Wisdom and Holiness of God to have accepted of imperfect Obedience, provided it had been sincere, he could at first have given Man such a Law, and so have saved the Life of his Son. For any therefore to affirm that God accepteth sinful Man for the sake of his imperfect (though sincere) Obedience, it is to assert, in effect, that he accepted of some sinful and polluted Acts as a Recompense and Satisfaction for other sinful Acts and Deeds of Darkness; for all our best Services are unclean in themselves. Paul accounted all his own Righteousness but Dung, &c. Besides, the Obedience under the Gospel which God requires, is to be performed in the highest perfection imaginable; Be ye Perfect, as your Father in Heaven is Perfect. ¹The Law of the Gospel is the same in Nature with the Moral ⟨p. 153⟩Law, therefore (if it may be called a Law) it is a perfect Law; we are still commanded to love the Lord our God with all our Hearts, with all our Souls, and with all our Strength; yea, and to live and sin not. Little Children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. Our Faith, ²Love, and Patience, &c. ought to be perfect; the Law or Commands of the Gospel know no Bounds nor Limits; Until we all ³come in the Unity of the Faith, and of the Knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect Man, unto the measure of the stature of the Fullness of Christ. It would therefore be a Work becoming the New-Lawyers to show where the Commands lie in the Gospel, that God's Law only requires sincere Obedience unto; the Law certainly loses no part of its Sanction by the Gospel, that is as Holy, Just and Good as ever, and a perpetual Rule of Life and Obedience: