DISCOURSE IV. 215 or such a person guilty according to his non- performance of it. In like manner justification by the gospel is not a new act in God, but the sentence of his gospel, pronouncing humble peni- tents and believers in Christ pardoned,' forgiven, and acçepted unto eternal life. According to the different characters of men, the word of God, i, e. his law or hisgospel, pronounces them guilty and con- demned, or pardoned, justified, and accepted of God, unto eternal life. This is a very plain and easy doctrine to be apprehended bysuch weak creatures as we are. Observ. V. Man, who is condemned by the law, maybe saved by the promise ; i. e. by the promise of grace and reconci- liation to God, which was given first to Adam, then toAbraham, and made further known to the people of God by Moses and David, and the prophets, according to the different revelations of God to man ; but completed by the gospel of Christ, and the ministry of his apostles. A promise to Adam, of the destruction of the works of the devil, by the seedof the woman; asit is explained ; 1 John iii. 8. A promise that God would be our God, and give us an inherit- ance, made to Abraham, &c. Gen. xvii. 7, 8. A promise con- firmed by many types of the Jewish law. A promise ofall the blessingsof the new covenant, expressed, Heb. viii. 10, 12. cited from the several prophets Jeremiah and Zechariah. C0 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel afterthose days, saith the Lord ; I will put my laws into their mind, and writethem in their hearts : And 1 will be to them a God, and they shall be tome a'people. For I will be mercifulto their un- righteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember ° no more." It is the saine promise, more particularly and fully set before us, by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in his gospel, and byhis blessed apostles in their writings, which, in plain and express language, includes in it, not only pardon of sin and reconciliation to God, but the sanctificationof our natures, andour preservation to eternal life, in a state of happiness, which shall never end. Observ. VI. The way of obtaining an interest in these promised blessings, is through faith. It is to all that trust in the grace of the gospel, so far as it was manifested in' the several ages ofthe world, i. e. to Adam, Abraham, andDavid; and as it is more fully manifested in and by Jesus Christ. It is obtained by a renouncing all claim by one's own works and trusting'in graceentirely. IfAdam was saved, it is in a way of grace and forgiveness` through a Mediator, which was promised under the title of the seed ofthe woman, who should bruise the head of the serpent ; :. d which was typified by sacrifices, and intimated by God's
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