340 HARMONY OF ALL RELIGIONS. for sin, with faith or trust in thediscoveries of his mercy, so far as it is made known, or revealed to us, in our age. Or, perhaps, we may better describe this our acceptanceof and submission to every dispensation of grace, by such a faith, or hope in the mercy of God, so far as it is revealed, as raises in the heart anunfeigned repentance for having displeased him, with a sincere and hearty love to him, which love produces a' holy obedience to his will, or an upright and hearty desire to obey it, as far as it is made known to men. This last seems to be the most natural andproper way of describing our acceptanceof the covenant of grace, under every dispensation, because it is a hope or trust in the mercy of God, which is, and must be the spring of true repentance,and new obedience in every sinner ; for where there is no hope there is no encouragement to repent, or return to God; Ps. cxxx. 4. There'isforgiveness with thee, that thou may- est befeared f loved and obeyed. VIII. Hence it comes'to pass, that as under the covenant of works, man was to bejustified by his own perfect righteous- ness of works commensurate to the demands of the law ; Gal. iii. 12. and Rom. x. 5. So, under every edition of the covenant of grace, men, who can beno more justified by'their works, because they are imperfect, are to be justified by their faith, or depen- dence on grace ; as Rom. iv. 1-16.4. But this faith in the di- vine mercy, and forgiveness, cloth in the very nature of it imply, or in the necessary consequences carry with it, a hearty acknow- ledgment or confession of guilt, or want ofrighteousness in our- selves, as well as a sincere return to God, and constant desire to please him, arising from that humble trust or hope in pardoning grace. Thus Abraham and David, under their different dispen- sations, wereboth justified byfaith, or trusting in mercy, without a righteousness of works, as well as St. Paul and the Romans under the dispensation of christianity, as is most evident in Rom. ivf. IX. To make this yet more evident, let us consider that the very light of nature, which requires of every creature a perfect obedience to all the will of God requires also of every sinner, >s This doctrine is the chief design of the third and fourth chapters to the Romans. fee the note on the words wsstr and sefww atthe fifth section of the viii. chapter of this treatise. { Though God justified good men by faith, and not by works, under every dispensation of the covenant of grace, as the New Testament informs as ; Rotn. iv. yet there was no necessity, that every good man, who was justified should know this doctrine expressly and distinctly, under every darker dispensation of God. It was enough if they practiced repentance and new obedience, under the influence of faith or hope in the divine mercy, or a belief of tFe grace which God revealed. This runs through the chapter in hieb. xi. God forbid, that we should suppose the knowledge of these christian controversies, and sublime doctrines, to be necessary to the salvation of everygood man, under the darkness of those early dispensations. How far this accurate knowledge may be supposed tobe ne- cessary, under the New Testament, I will not debate here.
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