SEC4'ION V. 135 holiness in thought, word and deed ; because otherwise we can- not yield aperfect obedience. 'Whereas it is much more glorious to God, the Governor of the world, to suppose his holy law still maintains its own perfect purity, and its original demands of constant universal obedience; and it is more glorious to God our Saviour, to suppose that he has provided an effectual way for the salvationofsinful creatures, who trust in divine mercy, and who love the law of God, though their best obedience to it bevery defective, 3. " Such a mistake will lead ministers to neglect the men- tion of the death and sufferings of Christ as a sacrifice for sin, and as the foundation of our pardon and our hope ;", it will lead them to omit these important points in their descriptions of the gospel, and in their accounts of faith in Christ ; because Christ never spoke so publicly and plainly to the people, of mak- ing atonement for sin by his death, &c. And upon this account we shall be in danger of leaving this doctrine out of our directions of sinners when they seek the way to salvatior, which is now made plainer and more necessarysince thedeath and resurrection of Christ are accomplished, since the apostles have particularly explained this doctrine, and the New Testament is complete. 4. " This mistake will tempt us to set Christ and his apostles at variance about the wayofsalvation." Christ says, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments :" and the apostles say, "The law is the ministration of death, but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved ; andwe are justified by faith without the works of the law, &c." And thus we shall make theholy scripture contradict itself: Or if we endeavour to accommodate and reconcile these seeming oppositions, upon a supposition that Christ in the language of my text preached the gospel, it can never be done, with fairnessand justness ofthought, without straining the words of scripturefrom their natural sense ; and it will ever bring a darkness upon the distinction between the law and gospel, and leave the way of salvation bythe gospel under much confusion. 5. " This will tempt and incline us to expound the clear gospel, which we find in the writings and preaching of St. Paul', St. Peter, and St. John, after the death and resurrection of Christ, by oneof the legal expressions of our Saviour," when in his own life -time he preached the law for the conviction of sin- ners : We shall interpret the words and language of the gospel into the sense of the law of works : We shall almost explain away the covenant of grace, and make a covenant of works of it : And thus, perhaps, expose ourselves to the danger of St. Paul's censure and " anathema," by " preaching another gospel, or perverting the gospel of Christ;" Gal. i. 8.
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