ftill in force 'tis confider'd as a Rule of Life. So Chrift has freed us from the Curfe of the Law as it was a Covenant of Works, but ftronglier enforc'd the Obedience of the Law as it is a Rule of Life. For as a Covenant, twas rigorous and condemning, Do this and Live, Fail in one Tittle and Dye! and that Rigour and Condemnation Christ has taken away; but as a Rule it was equal and holy and juft and good, and that Equity and Holiness and Juftice and Goodness he has by no means taken away, he has rather eftablish'd and confirm'd. Think not, fays he, that I am come to deftroy the Law, I am not come to deftroy the Law, but to fulfil it; and St Paul, Do we then make void the Law by Faith? God forbid! yea, we establish the Law. In fine, the Duties of the Moral Law being fuch as are not Good because commanded, but commanded because Good, are of indifpenfable and never-ceafing Obligation, fo exactly conformable to the Eternal ReAtitude and Immutable Holiness of God, the Copy not only of his Will but his Nature, that it is as impoffible that God fhould ever abrogate or difpenfe with these, as it is that he should deny himself.

They who run down this as Legal Preaching, and as the more Evangelical Way lay themselves out in exhorting their Hearers to get Chrift, to roll and cast themselves upon Chrift,

S

Chrift, one would almost think had discover'd fome Other Chrift, than the Gospel fpeaks of. His Doctrine was of a different Form and Tendency. In his first Divine Difcourfe on the Mount, he profeffes, as ye heard, that he came not to deftroy the Law; but to fulfil it. Not to cancel any Part of our Duty towards God or Man, but to advance it to a higher Degree of Perfection, and by more terrible Threatnings and more precious Promises to enforce the Obligation to it. His whole Sermon is of Holiness and Happiness, of the feveral Kinds of good Works to be done, and the feveral refpective Bleffings that attend the doing of them. In fhort, the whole Defign of his Religion is to promote good Works, and according to them he affures us, that he will judge the World. According to them shall be pronounc'd the Irreversible Sentence, Go ye Curfed into everlasting Fire, or Come ye Bleffed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the World. Holiness then is the Condition upon which all our future Happiness depends, and as the Law of God, as was before hinted, is not the arbitrary Declaration of his Will, but a Sample of his Effential Goodness, the Image and Reflexion of his Divine Nature; fo this Allotment of Happiness to the Conformity to that Law, in which Conformity our Ho

linefs

linefs confifts, is not a pofitive only and merely arbitrary Appointment, but grounded on the unchangeable Refpect of things, the rational and eternal Agreement that is between the One and the Other. For were it poffible, that an unholy Perfon could be admitted there, even Heaven it felf could not make him Happy. For Happiness confifts in the Enjoyment of an Object suitable and fatisfying to our Defires; nor can God, the Holy God, be our Felicity, unless we in fome Measure partake of his Nature, and are transformed into his Likeness.

By this time the abfolute Neceffity of Good Works may plainly appear, not indeed as meritorious Causes of Salvation, but yet as requifite Qualifications, in every One that fhall be fav'd. They are not Cause Regnandi, but they are Via ad Regnum, as the Father expreffes it, not the Caufes for which the Heavenly Kingdom is by Right due, but the Way thorough which every One that feeks to enter into that Kingdom muft neceffarily pass.

The Merit of them in my laft Discourse on this Text was utterly renounc'd, and, I think, fufficiently confuted from feveral Arguments not to be repeated. I fhall only now add, That fince 'tis on all hands allow'd, that we cannot without Grace perform any good Work, the better our Works

are, and the more of them we do, the more ftill we are indebted to him, that enables us to work; and as our Debt to him increases, fo our Title to merit any thing at his hands must proportionably without doubt decrease. But let not this in the least flacken our Endeavours, or abate our Hopes. Tho' we cannot in ftrict Juftice claim any Reward, His Goodness will crown our Endeavours, and exceed our Hopes. God is not, cannot be a Debtor to the Holieft of his Creatures,; but to Himself he is, to his Own Inviolable Truth, whereby he stands voluntarily oblig'd to repay even inconfiderable Services, if perform'd in Belief of his Promife and Obedience to his Command, with an Eternal Weight of Glory. As we therefore expect to be Sav'd by Grace, all our Works must be done in Faith, without which it is impoffible to pleafe God. For we may safely invert the Words of St James, and as He fpakes of Faith without Works, fo may we fay of the best Works, that as the Body without the Soul is dead, fo without Faith they are dead alfo. For Faith alone it is that animates and gives Life unto them by directing their firft Intention to it's proper End, by doing 'em for the Love of Chrift and to his Father's Glory, by teaching us to expect the Acceptation of their Imperfection for the fake of his Perfect

Righteouf

Righteousness, by minding us from whom they fpring, and to whom all the Goodnefs in them is to be afcrib'd, by setting a right Value upon 'em, and laftly by affuring us of as certain a Reward to them from his gracious Promife, as if they had merited it from their Own Intrinfick Worth. Let us therefore by the Grace of God, through Faith, heartily fet about thefe Works that accompany Salvation. Let none fo rely upon God's Electing Grace, as to difregard his Sanctifying Grace, which is abfolutely Neceffary to make that prefum'd Election fure. 'Tis a mortal Delufion for any to think, Electing Mercy will bring him to Glory, if he continue in Sin, or that he can reap any Benefit through Chift's Death by Faith, without Conformity to his Life by Obedience. Let us not flatter and cheat Ourfelves with the fond Opinion of Our being predeftinated to Eternal Life, by an Irreverfible Defignation of the Secret Will of God, except we be ftudious and careful to perform that Will of his, which he has reveal'd. Let us not trouble our heads with the Order of God's Councils, nor prefumptuously take upon us to range, after this or that Manner and Method, his Decrees, among which in reality there is neither Priority nor Subfequence, fore nor after, being all One fimple uncompounded Eternal Act S 3

of