DTSC. 1V. LAW AND THE GOSPEL. ißi" to be pardoned, accepted, and justified, by trusting ¡i what Christ bath done and suffered on his account. And so all christians. Rom. iii. 22. And in this sense the gospel " justifieth the ungodly; Rom. iv. 5. i. e, those who have no righteousness of their own to- plead, whose best obedience is all defective. . Quest. But doth this gospel save and justify a mat: that bath no regard to the law of God ? How is his obedience to the law or holinesss secured, if a man be justified or pronounced righteous, and acquitted of sin; and accepted to eternal life, by believing or trusting in the promises of grace ? Surely_ many wicked men will say, " I trust in the promise of pardon through Jesus Christ ; and is this enough ? is there no security that these believers shall be obedient to the law, ás far as they can, though they cannot obey it perfectly ?" Answ. Yes, there is abundant security for their dili- gence in duty to the law, though they can never work out a righteousness for themselves, to be justified by the law. Let these reasons be considered : 1. It is the great design of the gospel to restore us ,to holiness as well as to happiness: and therefore the law, in the commands ofit, runs through all thegracious dis- pensations of God to fallen man, as I have shewn you; And God will have no regard to them in a wayof grace, who have no regard to his law in a way of obedience, The law constantly requires and points out our duty, it shews us our sin, it lays us under condemnation, and makes us seek a refuge in the gospel of forgiveness. Now the gospel is not prepared, for such as knowingly and wilfully renounce the law of God, which is holy, and just, and good, and who persist in this practice, and abandon the commandments of it. Can it be ever expected, that the great God should pardon and save those rebels through Jesus Christ, who knowingly and wilfully persist in their rebellions ? God forbid. The very light of nature will not suffer us to believe this. This would be to " make Christ the mi- nister of sin, and to build again the things which -Christ came to destroy ;" Gal. ii. 17, 18. For it is the design of all the blessings of the gospel, to make us conformable to God, and to this law, which is the unchangeable image of his holiness. The great design of it is to make N 3
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