138 MORAL LAW [INDER THE GOSPEL. men who receive the gospel and enter into God'snew covenant from the bondage of the law, as a covenant of works, and to release and free repenting sinners from thiscursed death, to de-. liver them from this sentence of condemnation, and to bestow on them the blessings of eternal life, 'It is granted indeed, as the apostle confesses ; Rom, viii. 3. That through theweakness ofour flesh, the law is become weak and unable to save sinners ; because their corrupt nature and fleshly inclinations render them unable to keep it perfectly ; but, as I intimatedbefore, it is not weak in its own nature to give life. Christ in my text preached the law, and says, " If thou keep the commandments," that is, with a persevering constancy, And a sinless perfection, " thou shalt enter into life :" What Christ speaks is true. Ifany man appear who bath been guilty of no sin, and hath fulfilled the law of God in every tittle of it in thought, word and deed, he shall have eternal happiness. Rom. ii. 7. They who seek for glory; honour and immortality, by patient continuancein well doing, e rpyw áynto, in one good work, without intermission or interruption by any sin, they shall have eternal life. This is the language of the law of works. But our incapacity to fulfil this law in our fallen state, hath Awakened the compassion of God toprovide a gospel of grace and pardon, and to send his Son Jesus Christ down from heaven to earth for this very purpose, that humble, repenting, returning sinners, who trust in the mercy of God through a Mediator, might be saved, even while they cannot fulfil the perfect demands of thispure and holy law, though they sincerely endeavoured it. The great and blessed God maintains Ids holy law still in its own perfection and glory, though we have lost our practicalor moral power of obeying it perfectly: I say, we have lost, by our fall in Adam, our moral or practical power of perfect obedience- to the law ; but our natural powers of understand- ing, will and affections remain, and there is no other natural power or faculty required, in order to obey it. And since our natural powers remain, the great God requires perfect obedience of us, and all men, to his holy law, and yet he as- sures us by his gospel, that hewill not inflict the curse of the law on those who heartily repent of their sins, and trust in Christ, though they do not or cannot. yield perfect obedience to this law. covenant of works to those who are notentered into the new covenant or a state of grace, by faith and repentance : Forhe adds, verse 12. that even.now " the law is holy, and the commandmentholy, and just, and good." If this might be explained by a similitude, I think it is much in the same planner as the penal laws against the protestant dissenters in England, are not abolished, but stand in force still : Yet they have nopower to hurt any person who accepts of the act 'of toleration, and qualifies himself accordingly: Though indeed there is this difference, that it can never be said, that those penal laws are nod, or ever were, either "holy, just or good," as The law of God is.
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