This Man contends for a mild Law; certainly the Moral Law remains a perpetual Rule of perfect Obedience: let this Man show us where and how he can prove that God in the Gospel only commands sincere imperfect Obedience to the Moral Law: the Law surely loses no part of its sanction by the Gospel; that is as holy, just and good as ever:1 Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. We are still to love the Lord our God with all our Hearts, with all our Souls, and with all our Strength. Our Faith, Love, Patience, &c. ought to be perfect; the Law or Commands of the Gospel know no bounds or limits: tho the Law is abrogated as a Covenant of Works, yet not as a rule of perfect Obedience. See what Reverend Mr. Cross says,2 i.e. Either the Gospel Law, or Law of Faith must require perfection in those Duties, or some other Divine Law, or else God would become an indulger of Sin by Law; if it be by another Law, viz. the Moral, that requires perfect Obedience, and this sincere only: then these Laws differ but in degree, not in Specie or Kind; because both require the same Duties or Works: and so this Gospel Law would be no distinct ⟨p. 51⟩Law, but only the measure of sincere Obedience, would receive a new Use of its giving right, &c. which we own it has, to wit, to be an index or mark of our Justification, tho we can't own that use of giving right, &c.—a distinct Law they must hold, or quit their Cause, or this Foundation of it; for the Text sets the Law of Faith down as an opposite Law to that of Works, and that they hold: then if it be a perfect Law requiring perfect Obedience, there is no possibility of Justification in this Life — but this is not all the difficulty, for it's the adding a load to a burden: Is this Gospel to a Man that is not able to perform the least part of the Moral Law, to tell him that God or the Mediator requires perfect Obedience to it for the future, and another too? Or is this Gospel, to say you shall perish eternally, and have the Fire of Hell seven times heated, if you obey not the Gospel! it's indeed a conditional Hell, but it is more dreadful than the Fire of Hell; and the condition is more impossible, because we have less Power to shun this difficulty of two perfect Laws: Mr. Bull owns no other perfect Law but the Gospel, since Man fell; but by shunning one difficulty he falls into as great.
This Man contends for a mild Law; certainly the Moral Law remains a perpetual Rule of perfect Obedience: let this Man shew us where and how he can prove that God in the Gospel only commands sincere imperfect Obedience to the Moral Law: the Law surely loses no part of its sanction by the Gospel; that is as holy, just and good as ever:1 Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. We are still to love the Lord our God with all our Hearts, with all our Souls, and with all our Strength. Our Faith, Love, Patience, &c. ought to be perfect; the Law or Commands of the Gospel know no bounds or limits: tho the Law is abrogated as a Covenant of Works, yet not as a rule of perfect Obedience. See what Reverend Mr. Cross says,2 i.e. Either the Gospel Law, or Law of Faith must require perfection in those Duties, or some other Divine Law, or else God would become an indulger of Sin by Law; if it be by another Law, viz. the Moral, that requires perfect Obedience, and this sincere only: then these Laws differ but in degree, not in Specie or Kind; because both require the same Duties or Works: and so this Gospel Law would be no distinct ⟨p. 51⟩Law, but only the measure of sincere Obedience, would receive a new Use of its giving right, &c. which we own it has, to wit, to be an index or mark of our Justification, tho we can't own that use of giving right, &c.—a distinct Law they must hold, or quit their Cause, or this Foundation of it; for the Text sets the Law of Faith down as an opposite Law to that of Works, and that they hold: then if it be a perfect Law requiring perfect Obedience, there is no possibility of Justification in this Life — but this is not all the difficulty, for it's the adding a load to a burden: Is this Gospel to a Man that is not able to perform the least part of the Moral Law, to tell him that God or the Mediator requires perfect Obedience to it for the future, and another too? Or is this Gospel, to say you shall perish eternally, and have the Fire of Hell seven times heated, if you obey not the Gospel! it's indeed a conditional Hell, but it is more dreadful than the Fire of Hell; and the condition is more impossible, because we have less Power to shun this difficulty of two perfect Laws: Mr. Bull owns no other perfect Law but the Gospel, since Man fell; but by shunning one difficulty he falls into as great.
- 1Mat. 5.48.
- 2Serm. on Rom. 4.5.
