126 MORAL LAW UNDER THE GOSPEL. saith he, is here expressly ascribed to faith ; and that not as including works, but only as being that principle which, when it is cordial and sincere, will certainly produce them : I say, " not as including all those works" which by the gospel are required to salvation, for then the righteousness of faith must be des- cribed as the righteousness of the law,` viz. that the man that doth these things shall live in them, which is contrary to the words of the apostle," verses 5, 6. So far does the force of truth, in some places, constrain honest minds to admit and confess, what in other places they are very unwilling to allow, and which they almost contradict : But this must be charged on the common or universal influence of human frailty and mistaken prejudices, and for want of an equal, uniform, simultaneous and comprehensive view of all the parts of religion together, which no human mind perhaps in the present state can arriveat. Objection IV. There is another objection which may be started against my exposition of this text, that is drawn from Rev. xxii. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, andenter through the gates into the city ; that is, into heaven, and enjoy eternal life. Surely, say some, these words must be acknowledged to be the language of thegospel, or the covenant of grace, and not of the law or the covenant of works: For they are the words of Christ himself, after his ascension to heaven, and yet it is plain that doing the commandments is here represented as the way to obtain eternal life in heaven. Answer. But it is ;as plain that doing the commandments of the moral law, are not the only things that are meant here in this text ; But these commandments which give a right to the treeof life, &c. include at least, if not chiefly design, the pecu- liar commands of God in the gospel, viz. repentance of sin, faith in the pardoning mercy of God through a Redeemer, which is productive of love, to God and man. To prove this, read Mat. iv. 17. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. .Mark i. 15. Repent and believe the gospel. Mark xvi. 16. He that believeth shall be saved. 1 John iii. 22, 23. " And what- soever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his command- ments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight : And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us com- mandment." Now as Adam, by doing the peculiar commands which God gave to him, might have obtained a right to the benefits of the literal tree of life in the garden of Eden, that is, immortality ; so christians by doing the peculiar commandments of the gospel, may be said, in some sense, to obtain a right to the benefits of the spiritual tree of life, that is, Christ Jesus, and may enter into heaven ; but a mere obedience to the commandments of the moral
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