310 FAITH THE WAY TO SALVATION. [SERNI. X%ftT. mouth is stopped, and the whole world is become guilty before God, Rom. iii. 19. Though the nations of the Jews and christians, and perhaps the greatest part of the heathen world, have had some revelations of the gospel or covenant of grace, and have been under the outward offers of it ; yet Jews, heathens, and national christians, are all under the sentence of the covenant -of the law of works, till they enter into. the. covenant of grace by repentance and faith in the mercy of God. But the covenant of grace, or the gospel, is a new constitution,. which God bath ordained for the reliefof poor fallen miserable man, condemned and perishing under the curse of the law of works. It is a constitu- tion ofgrace, whereby alone fallen sinners can obtain salvation. The law of works demands universal obedience to all the commands of God, obedience perfect and persever- ing; for this is the language of it; the man that Both them shall live in them, Rom. x. 5. and it curses every sinner without hope or remedy; cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them, Gal. iii. 10, 12. But the voice of the gospel, the righteousness of faith, or the way of justification by Christ, speaketh on this wise With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; for the just ,shall live by faith, Rom. x. 10. Gal. iii. 11. The one proclaims eternal life to all that perfectlyobey, the other publishes salvation to all that believe, though their obe- dience be very imperfect. I grant indeed, that the apostle cites these descriptions of the law ofworks out of the books of Moses, and there- fore some persons would suppose him only to mean the particular law given to the Jews at mount Sinai, and not the general covenant of works made with Adam, and withall mankind in him. But to this I give these two answers : 1. Answer. The law of works, which the apostle speaks ofin the epistle to the Romans, particularly in the second and third chapters, cannot signify merely the Jewish law ; for it is such a law as includes all the heathen world, as appears plain, Rom, ii. 14, 15. and by which the hea- thens as well as the Jews were condemned, and could
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