Discourses on various important subjects, nearly concerning the great affair of the soul's eternal…

3. 'Tis in this Doctrine, that the most essential Difference lies, between the Covenant of Grace, and the first Covenant. The adverse Scheme of Justification supposes that we are justified by our Works, in the very same Sense wherein Man was to have been justified by his Works under the first Covenant. By that Covenant ⟨p. 125⟩our first Parents were not to have had eternal Life given them, for any proper Merit in their Obedience; because their perfect Obedience was a Debt that they owed God: Nor was it to be bestowed for any Proportion between the Dignity of their Obedience, and the Value of the Reward; but only it was to be bestowed from a Regard to a moral Fitness in the Virtue of their Obedience, to the Reward of God's Favour; and a Title to eternal Life was to be given them, as a Testimony of God's Pleasedness with their Works, or his Regard to the inherent Beauty of their Virtue. And so it is the very same Way that those in the adverse Scheme suppose that we are received into God's special Favour now, and to those saving Benefits that are the Testimonies of it. I am sensible the Divines of that Side, entirely disclaim the popish Doctrine of Merit; and are free to speak of our utter Unworthiness, and the great Imperfection of all our Services: But after all, 'tis our Virtue as imperfect as it is, that recommends Men to God, by which good Men come to have a saving Interest in Christ, and God's Favour, rather than others; and these Things are bestowed in Testimony of God's Respect to their Goodness. So that whether they will allow the Term Merit or no, yet they hold that we are accepted by our own Merit, in the same Sense, tho' not in the same Degree, as under the first Covenant.

3. 'Tis in this Doctrine, that the most essential Difference lies, between the Convenant of Grace, and the first Covenant. The adverse Scheme of Justification supposes that we are justified by our Works, in the very same Sense wherein Man was to have been justified by his Works under the first Covenant. By that Covenant ⟨p. 125⟩our first Parents were not to have had eternal Life given them, for any proper Merit in their Obedience; because their perfect Obedience was a Debt that they owed God: Nor was it to be bestowed for any Proportion between the Dignity of their Obedience, and the Value of the Reward; but only it was to be bestowed from a Regard to a moral Fitness in the Virtue of their Obedience, to the Reward of God's Favour; and a Title to eternal Life was to be given them, as a Testimony of God's Pleasedness with their Works, or his Regard to the inherent Beauty of their Virtue. And so it is the very same Way that those in the adverse Scheme suppose that we are received into God's special Favour now, and to those saving Benefits that are the Testimonies of it. I am sensible the Divines of that Side, intirely disclaim the popish Doctrine of Merit; and are free to speak of our utter Unworthiness, and the great Imperfection of all our Services: But after all, 'tis our Virtue as imperfect as it is, that recommends Men to God, by which good Men come to have a saving Interest in Christ, and God's Favour, rather than others; and these Things are bestowed in Testimony of God's Respect to their Goodness. So that whether they will allow the Term Merit or no, yet they hold that we are accepted by our own Merit, in the same Sense, tho' not in the same Degree, as under the first Covenant.