SECTION III. 125 very imperfect and far from righteousnesss, that is a per.. feet justifying righteousness, even if they put together all their works of obedience to the commands of Clod. David often speaks of the impossibility of our attaining the accept- ance of God by our works ; Ps. cxxx. 3. If thou ohouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Ps. exliii. 2. Enter not intojudgment with thy servant,for in thysightshall no man living bejustified. Ps. xiv. 3. There is none righteous ; no, not one. Ps. xix. 12. Who can understand his errors? seeks for pardon of sin by repentance and trust in the mercy of God ; Ps. li. 1, 6, 10. and cxliii. 1, 2. And he pronounces the blessed- ness of those to whom God forgives their iniquities ; Ps. xxxii. 1, 2. or to whom he imputes righteousness without works, as St. Paul explains him ; Rom. iv. G. ands` this encouragedhim to confess his sins, and repent of them, as in Ps. xxxii. 5. 6. and li. 3, 8, V. and cxxx. 3, 4. Thus it appears, that the bare keeping the commandments. of the law was neither under the Old Testament nor the New, the way to salvation and eternal life for sinners : But since the law was weak, and unable to save, by reason of the weakness of our flesh or sinful nature ; Rom. viii. 3. that is, since the law promises life only to those who obey the commands perfectly, and men could not obtain life this wayby reason of the imperfection Of their obedience, there were manycalls to repentance, and to trust in 'the mercy of God, given to the Jews in the Old Testa- ment, as the prescribed way for sinners to obtain salvation ; which duties, together with the grounds of them, and the bless- ings promised to them, are much more clearly revealed in the New Testament. I might confirm these answers to Doctor Whitby, out ofhis own exposition to Rom. x. 9. rr Justification, 'f And here, by the way, I would take occasion to relieve or explain one great difficulty, which occurs in reading of St. Paul's epistles; especially those to the Romans and Galatians. It is evident that when St. Paul amigos to repre- sent the terms of the covenant of works, viz. Do this and live ; Rom. x. 5. and cursed it every one that continues not in all things written in the book of the low to do them ; Gal. iii. 10, 12. he doth it by citations out of the Old Testament, or the Jewish scriptures, because the language of the political covenant which God made with the Jews,' as he was their king, and they were his nation or people, was the language of the covenant of works, and God governed them very much in that way with regard to their temporal rewards and punishments. On the other hand, when St. Paul gives us the terms of the covenant of grace or the gospel, viz. " Faith in the grace of God through a Saviour," he also cites the Old 'Testament or the Jewish scriptures.. So Rom. iii. 21. Rom. iv, 3, 6, 7. Rom. x. 6-11. Gal. iii. 8, 11. Because the covenant of grace, or the way of salvation and eternal life, was also prescribed, though in a more obscure manner in the Old Testament, partly by promises made to repentance and trust in the mercy of God, and a Messiah that was to come, and partly by sacri- fieésand washings, which were types and figures of repentance and pardon, through the blood of Christ, andsanctification of the Spirit. Thus the righteous. '.:as of God was witnessed by the law and the prophets; Rom. iii. 21. I think .eithout this clue it is impossible to read and understand the great apostle's way rareuing in those epistles. See lnore in.tbsftatmony of ill the Religious that -;d ever prescribed ; chapters v. and vi.
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