SECTION III. 127 law is never pretcribed as the way to obtain a right to the bene- fits of Christ, but rather an obedience to the commands of the gospel which are peculiarly repentance and faith in Christ. It may be yet further observed, that the commands to which Christ directed the youngman in my text, in order to enter into life, were not faith and repentance, but only the tencommands of the moral law : For he directs the young man precisely to the commands of the moral law, and tells him, "Thou know- est what these commands are." Now this young man was so full of his own obedience to that law, and so confident of it, that he seems not to know the commands of confession of sin and repentance for it ? much less did he think of the other command of "faith in the mercy of God through a Mediator." So that if it be never so much allowed, that obedi- ence to these humbling and self-abasing commands of the gospel, faith and repentance may give a right to the benefits of Christ, and to an entrance into heaven, yet an obedience to the ten com- mands ofthe moral law could not make a sinner's way to heaven and eternal life : But these ten commands are those which Christ pointsout to the young Pharisaical enquirer. Upon the whole it appears, that when our Saviour saith to the young man in my text, If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments, he did not mean to give him the plain and direct prescription of the gospel in order to the salvation of a sinner, but rather began with him in preaching the law, in order to show him his duty by the law, and to convince him of sin. And front this view of things, I think we may draw this plain observation, viz. That wheresoever the keeping the commandsof God is pro- posed to men in scriptureas the way to life, it either means that the way to obtain long temporal life and temporal blessings, was to observe the Jewish laws, according to the political covenant of God madewith the Jewish nationat Sinai ; or it means that per- fect obedience of thought, word, and action to all these com- mands which God givesus, is the way to obtain life eternal by the covenant of works, and law of innocency : Or if at any time the context plainly determines this phrase, " keeping the com. mandments," to signify the way to obtain salvation under the gospel, then the word " commands" must extend to include the evangelical commands of repentance for sin, and trust in the par- doning mercy of God through a Mediator. And the reason is plain ; for this is the great difference always observed between the law and gospel, or between the covenant of works, and the covenant of grace, viz. that the covenant of works or the law, teaches us to claim life as a debt by our own exact obedience to the commands of the law ; but thecovenant of grace or the gos- pel, teaches us humbly to seek for life or salvation by confession of sin and repentance, and by depending on the free mercy of
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