340 RUIN AND RECOVERY,. &c. was the mere effect of God's free mercy and sovereign good- Will, therefore he wasat liberty to appoint the exercise of his own grace, and the gift of this salvation to fallen man, in such ways and manners, under such limitations, with such terms or con- ditions, and in such degrees, as he pleased. Now, to set this matter in the clearest light I can, I would shew what were the measures or limitations of this grace or salvation provided for fallen man. 1. This grace or salvation did not extend so far as to abolish or destroy the general terms, commands or sanctions of the law of innocence, or the law of works, as it is called, under which Adam the first man was constituted. This general law is a law of nature and creation : It is founded in the very nature of things, and the relation between God andacreature, which re-^ quires all the creatures of God to yield perfect obedience to the . whole will of their Maker, whether manifested by reason or re- velation : And the penalty of this law abides still in force, in that it threatens the curse, or death to every one that con- tinues not in all things contained in this law ; Gal. iii. 10. and the judgment of God, or the the righteous sen- tence of the law, is, That they who cornntit such things are wor- thy of death ; Rom. i. 32. The wages, or reward, ofsin, is death ; Rom. vi. 23. This death in general implies a forfeiture of life and being, and all the blessings of it, both in soul and body, as far as God is pleased to resume them, as I have &hewn under questions IX. and XI. 2. As the law with its penalty, which threatens death to dis- obedience, is not abrogated, so the promise of eternal life to perfect obedience, which was superadded to the law, and turned it into a covenant, was not formally abrogated or abolished ; though indeed it became unable to procure eternal life for any.. son or daughter of Adam, because they all were. sinners : And there are some scriptures which seem to shew that this promise and covenant stand still in force ; Gal. iii. I2. " The man that Both them shall live in them ;" Rom. ii. 7. as To themwho by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality," the law promises eternal life; Rom. viii. 3. i0 What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, &c." Observe, it was not weak in itself to give life ; the law still remained capable of giving life to any man who could produce and spew a perfect obedience to it : But " it is weak only through the flesh," or the sinfulness of human nature and, our impotence to fulfil the conditions of it. 3. Neither did this grace and salvation of Christ extend so far as to provide an immediate and present release of fallen mankind, nor of any part of them, from all that sin and misery which the disobedience of Adam had introduced into the world.
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