the resurrection. Then they recovered from death, which otherwise all mankind should have continued under, lost for ever, as appears by St. Paul's arguing concerning the resurrection.

9. And thus men are by the second Adam restored to life again; that so by Adam's sin they may none of them lose any thing, which by their own righteousness they might have a title to. For righteousness, or an exact obedience to the law, seems by the Scripture to have a claim of right to eternal life: "To him that worketh," i. e. does the works of the law, "is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt:"* and, "blessed are they who do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God." If any of the posterity of Adam were just, they shall not lose the reward of it,-eternal life and bliss,-by being his mortal issue: Christ will bring them all to life again; and then they shall be put every one upon his own trial, and receive judgment, as he is found to be righteous or not: and the righteous, as our Saviour says,-"shall go into eternal life." Nor shall any one miss it, who has done what our Saviour directed the lawyer, who asked, "What he should do to inherit eternal life?" "Do this," that is, what is required by the law, "and thou shalt live."

peremptory decision has put it past doubt, that one may be in such an estate, that it had been "better for him not to have been born." But that such a temporary life as we now have, with all its frailties and ordinary miseries, is better than no being, is evident by the high value we put upon it ourselves. And therefore though all die in Adam, yet none are truly punished but for their own deeds. God will render to every one-how? according to his deeds. "To those that obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil." "We must appear before the judgmentseat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad." And Christ himself, who knew for what he should condemn men at the last day, assures us, in the two places where he describes his proceeding at the great judgment, that the sentence of condemnation passes only on the workers of iniquity, such as neglected to fulfil the law in acts of charity.* And again our Saviour tells the Jews, "that all shall come forth of their graves; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." But here is no condemnation of any one, for what his forefather Adam had done, which 10. On the other side, it seems the unalterable it is not likely should have been omitted, if that purpose of the divine justice, that no unrighteous should have been a cause why any one was ad- person, no one that is guilty of any breach of the judged to the fire with the devil and his angels.-law, should be in paradise; but that the wages of And he tells his disciples, that when he comes again with his angels in the glory of his Father, "that then he will render to every one according to his works."

7. Adam being thus turned out of paradise, and all his posterity born out of it, the consequence of it was, that all men should die, and remain under death for ever, and so be utterly lost.

8. From this estate of death Jesus Christ restores all mankind to life: "as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive." How this shall be, the same apostle tells us in the foregoing verse: "By man death came, by man also came the resurrection from the dead." Whereby it appears, that the life which Jesus Christ restores to all men, is that life which they receive again at

But Belial, finding, even in the midst of torment, some solace from meditation and conjectures at the endless future, entertains other opinions:

"We must exasperate

Th' Almighty victor to spend all his rage,
And that must end us, that must be our cure
To be no more:-sad cure! For who would lose,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity!
To perish rather, swallowed up and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night,
Devoid of sense and motion ?"

sin should be to every man, as it was to Adam, an exclusion of him out of that happy state of immortality, and bring death upon him. And this is so conformable to the eternal and established law of right and wrong, that it is spoken of too as if it could not be otherwise. St. James says, "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death," as it were by a natural and necessary production.

11. Sin entered into the world, and death by sin," says St. Paul; and, "the wages of sin is death." Death is the purchase of any, of every sin. "Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." And of this St. James gives a reason: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all: for he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also,Do not kill:" that is, he that offends in any one point, sins against the authority which established

the law.

12. Here then we have the standing and fixed measures of life and death. Immortality and bliss belong to the righteous; those who have lived in an exact conformity to the law of God, are out of the reach of death: but an exclusion from paradise, and loss of immortality, is the portion of sinners; of all those who have any way broke that law, and failed of a complete obedience to it by the guilt of any one transgression. And thus

Byron, in one of his gloomy moods, agrees with mankind, by the law, are put upon the issues of Moloch:

life or death; as they are righteous or unrighteous, just or unjust; that is, exact performers, or transgressors of the law.

13. But yet "all having sinned, and come short

"Count o'er the joys thine hours have seen
Count o'er thy days from anguish free,
And know, whatever thou hast been,
'Tis something better not to be."-Euthanasia.

[ED.

* Matt. vii. 23; Luke xiii. 27; Matt. xxv. 42.

+ Gal. iii. 10.

of the glory of God," that is, the kingdom of God in heaven, which is often called his glory, both Jews and Gentiles, so that "by the deeds of the law no one could be justified," it follows, that no one could then have eternal life and bliss.

of the law, that the man which doth those things shall live in them."* "The law is not of faith; but that man that doth them shall live in them."+ On the other side, transgress and die; no dispensation, no atonement. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them."

14. Perhaps it will be demanded,-Why did God give so hard a law to mankind, that to the apostles' time no one of Adam's issue had kept 18. Where this law of works was to be found, it ?* Answer. It was such a law as the purity the New Testament tells us, viz. in the law deof God's nature required, and must be the law of livered by Moses. "The law was given by Moses, such a creature as man, unless God would have but faith and truth came by Jesus Christ." "Did made him a rational creature, and not required not Moses give you the law?" says our Saviour, him to have lived by the law of reason, but would" and yet none of you keep the law." And this have countenanced in him irregularity and dis- is the law which he speaks of, where he asks the obedience to that light which he had, and that lawyer, "What is written in the law? How rule which was suitable to his nature; which readest thou? This do, and thou shalt live."would have been to have authorized disorder, con- This is that which St. Paul so often styles the fusion, and wickedness in his creatures. For that " law," without any other distinction: "Not the this law was the law of reason, or, as it is called, hearers of the law are just before God, but the of nature, we shall see by-and-by: and if rational doers of the law are justified." It is needless to creatures will not live up to the rule of their rea-quote any more places; his epistles are all full of son, who shall excuse them? If you will admit it, especially this to the Romans. them to forsake reason in one point, why not in another? Where will you stop? To disobey God in any part of his commands (and it is he that commands what reason does) is direct rebellion; which if dispensed with in any point, government and order are at an end, and there can be no bounds set to the lawless exorbitancy of unconfined men. "The law therefore was," as St. Paul tells us,-"holy, just, and good," and such as it ought, and could not otherwise be.

15. This then being the case, that whoever is guilty of any sin, should certainly die, and cease to be, the benefit of life restored by Christ at the resurrection would have been no great advantage, (forasmuch as here again death must have seized upon all mankind, because all had sinned; for the wages of sin is every where death, as well after, as before the resurrection,) if God had not found out a way to justify some; i. e. so many as obeyed another law, which God gave, which in the New Testament is called "the law of faith," and is opposed to "the law of works." And therefore the punishment of those who would not follow him was to lose their souls, i. e. their lives; as is plain, considering the occasion it was spoken on.

19. But the law given by Moses being not given to all mankind, how are all men sinners, since without a law there is no transgression? To this the apostle answers, "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do (i. e. find it reasonable to do) by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and amongst one another their thoughts accusing or excusing." By which, and other places in the following chapter, it is plain, that under the law of works is comprehended also the law of nature, knowable by reason, as well as the law given by Moses. "For," says St. Paul,

66

we have proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God:" which they could not do without a law.

20. Nay, whatever God requires any where to be done, without making any allowance for faith, that is a part of the law of works. So the forbidding Adam to eat of the tree of knowledge, was part of the law of works. Only we must take notice here, that some of God's positive commands 16. The better to understand "the law of faith," being for peculiar ends, and suited to particular it will be convenient in the first place to consider circumstances of times, places, and persons, having "the law of works." "The law of works," then, a limited and only temporary obligation, by virtue in short, is that law which requires perfect obe- of God's positive injunction; such as was that dience, without any remission or abatement; so part of Moses's law which concerned the outward that by that law a man cannot be just, or justified, worship or political constitution of the Jews, and without an exact performance of every tittle.is called the ceremonial and Judaical law, in conSuch a perfect obedience in the New Testament tradistinction to the moral part of it; which being is termed dixatoσuvn, which we translate righteous-conformable to the eternal law of right, is of eter

nal obligation, and therefore remains in force still under the gospel; nor is abrogated by the "law of faith," as St. Paul found some ready to infer : "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law."

21. Nor can it be otherwise; for were there no "law of works," there could be no "law of faith." For there could be no need of faith, which should be counted to men for righteousness, if there were no law to be the rule and measure of righteousness, which men failed in their obedience to.

Where there is no law, there is no sin; all are righteous equally with or without faith.

without a full measure of works, which is exact obedience. Saying, "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

24. This faith for which God justified Abraham, what was it? It was the believing God when he engaged his promise in the covenant he made with him. This will be plain to any one who considers these places together, Gen. xv. 6: "He believed in the Lord," or "believed the Lord:" for that the Hebrew phrase "believing in," signifies no more but "believing," is plain from St. Paul's citation of this place, Rom. iv. 3, where he repeats it thus: "Abraham believed God," which he thus explains, "Who against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations: according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God: and being fully persuaded, that what he had promised he was also able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." By which it is clear, that the faith which God counted to Abraham for righteousness, was nothing but a firm belief of what God declared to him, and a steadfast relying on him for the accomplishment of what he had promised.

22. The rule therefore of right is the same that ever it was; the obligation to observe it is also the same: the difference between the law of works and the law of faith is only this-that the law of works makes no allowance for failing on any occasion. Those that obey are righteous; those that in any part disobey are unrighteous, and must not expect life, the reward of righteousness. But by the law of faith, faith is allowed to supply the defect of full obedience; and so the believers are admitted to life and immortality, as if they were righteous. Only here we must take notice, that when St. Paul says, that the gospel establishes the law, he means the moral part of the law of Moses: for that he could not mean the ceremonial or political part of it, is evident by what I quoted out of him just now, where he says, "The Gentiles that do by nature the things contained in the law, their consciences bearing witness." For the Gentiles neither did nor thought of the Judaical or ceremonial institutions of Moses; it was only the moral part their consciences were concerned in. As for the rest, St. Paul tells the Gallatians, chap. iv., they are not under that part of the law, which, verse 3, he calls "elements of the world ;" and verse 9, "weak and beggarly elements." And our Saviour himself, in his gospel-sermon on the mount, tells them, that whatever they might think, he was not come to dissolve the law, but to make it more full and strict; for that that is meant by Anwaat, is evident from the following part of that chapter, where he gives the precepts in a stricter sense than they were received in before. But they are all precepts of the moral law which he reinforces what should become of the ritual law he tells the woman of Samaria in these words: "The hour cometh when ye shall neither in thisness of our faith, without staggering; and not the mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him."

23. Thus then as to the law, in short: the civil and ritual part of the law delivered by Moses obliges not Christians, though to the Jews it were a part of the law of works; it being a part of the law of nature, that man ought to obey every positive law of God, whenever he shall please to make any such addition to the law of his nature. But the moral part of Moses's law, or the moral law, (which is every where the same, the eternal rule of right,) obliges Christians and all men every where, and is to all men the standing law of works. But Christian believers have the privilege to be under the "law of faith" too; which is that law whereby God justifies a man for believing, though by his works he be not just or righteous; i. e. though he came short of perfect obedience to the law of works. God alone does, or can justify or make just those who by their works are not so; which he doth by counting their faith for righteousness; i. e. for a complete performance of the law. Abraham "believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works;" i. e.

25. "Now this," says St. Paul, "was not writ for his (Abraham's) sake alone, but for us also;" teaching us, that as Abraham was justified for his faith, so also ours shall be accounted to us for righteousness, if we believe God as Abraham believed him. Whereby it is plain is meant the firm

believing the same propositions that Abraham believed; viz. that though he and Sarah were old, and past the time and hopes of children, yet he should have a son by her, and by him become the father of a great people, which should possess the the land of Canaan. This was what Abraham believed, and was counted to him for righteousness: but nobody, I think, will say, that any one's believing this now, shall be imputed to him for righteousness. The law of faith then, in short, is for every one to believe what God requires him to believe, as a condition of the covenant he makes with him, and not to doubt of the performance of his promises. This the apostle intimates in the close here: "but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." We must therefore examine and see what God requires us to believe now, under the revelation of the gospel; for the belief of one invisible, eternal, omnipotent God, maker of heaven and earth, &c. was required before, as well as now.

26. What we are now required to believe to obtain eternal life, is plainly set down in the gospel. St. John tells us, John iii. 36, "He that believeth on the Son, hath eternal life; and he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life." What this believing on him is, we are also told in the next chapter. "The woman saith unto him, I know that the Messiah cometh: when he is come, he will tell us

all things. Jesus said unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. The woman then went into the city, and saith to the men, come, see a man that hath told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Messiah? And many of the Samaritans believed on him, for the saying of the woman; who testified, he told me all that ever I did. So when the Samaritans were come unto him, many more believed because of his words; and said to the woman, We believe not any longer because of thy saying, for we have heard ourselves, and we know that this man is truly the Saviour of the world, the Messiah."

27. By which place it is plain, that believing on the Son, is the believing that Jesus was the Messiah; giving credit to the miracles he did, and the profession he made of himself: for those who were said to believe on him for the saying of the woman, tell the woman that they now believed not any longer because of her saying; but that having heard him themselves, they knew, i. e. believed past doubt, that he was the Messiah.

28. This was the great proposition that was then controverted concerning Jesus of Nazareth, whether he was the Messiah or no; and the assent to that, was that which distinguished believers from unbelievers. When many of the disciples had forsaken him, upon his declaring that he was the bread of life which came down from heaven, he said to the apostles, "Will ye also go away?" Then Simon Peter answered him; "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life and we believe, and are sure thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God." This was the faith which distinguished them from apostates and unbelievers, and was sufficient to continue them in the rank of apostles: and it was upon the same proposition, "That Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God," owned by St. Peter, that our Saviour said he would build his church.*

29. To convince men of this, he did his miracles; and their assent to, or not assenting to this, made them to be, or not to be of his church; believers, or not believers. "The Jews came round about him, and said unto him, how long dost thou make us doubt? If thou be the Messiah, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep." Conformable hereunto St. John tells us, "That many deceivers are entered into the world, who confessed not that Jesus, the Messiah, is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist: whosoever abideth not in the doctrine of the Messiah has not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of the Messiah," i. e. that Jesus is he, "hath both the Father and the Son." That this is the meaning of the place, is plain from what he says in his foregoing epistle : "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Messiah, is born of God." And therefore, drawing to a close of his gospel, and showing the end for which he wrote it, he has these words: "Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." Whereby it is plain, that the gospel was written to induce men into a belief of this proposition-that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah; which, if they believed they should have life.

30. Accordingly the great question amongst the Jews was, whether he were the Messiah or no: and the great point insisted on and promulgated in the gospel was, that he was the Messiah. The first glad tidings of his birth, brought to the shepherds by an angel, was in these words: "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for to you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord." Our Saviour discoursing with Martha about the means of attaining

eternal life, saith to her, "Whosoever believeth in

me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Messiah, the Son of God, which should come into the world." This answer of hers showeth what it is to believe in Jesus Christ, so as to have eternal life; viz. to believe that he is the Messiah, the Son of God, whose coming was foretold by the prophets. And thus Andrew and Philip express

* Though I shall, in the Appendix, have occasion to refer more than once to the conformity of opinion between Locke and that great and excellent prelate, Jeremy Taylor, the reader may not, perhaps, be displeased to find his testimony introduced here at the outset. Nothing can be more explicit, or more to the purpose, than the following: "Now the great object which I speak of is Jesus Christ crucified. 'I have determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified; so said St. Paul to the church of Corinth. This is the article upon the confession of which Christ but his church; viz. only upon St. Peter's creed, which was no more but this simple enunciation, 'We believe it: Andrew says to his brother Simon, "We have and are sure that thou art Christ, the Son of the liv- found the Messiah; which is, being interpreted, ing God; and to this salvation particularly is promised, as in the case of Martha's creed. (John xi. 27.) To this the Scripture gives the greatest testimony, and to all them that confess it; 'for every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God;' and, 'whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God: the believing this article is the end of writing the four gospels: 'These things are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God:" and then that this sufficient follows: and that believing,' viz. this article (for this was only instanced in,) 'ye might have life through his name.' This is that great article, which, as to the nature of the things to be believed, is sufficient disposition to prepare a catechumen to baptism; as

appears in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, whose creed was only this: 'I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God;' and upon this confession (saith the story) they both went into the water, and the Ethiop was washed, and became as white as snow." -Liberty of Prophesying, § 1. p. 8, 9. But with this learned and eloquent work the readers of the "Sa cred Classics" are already familiar; and must there fore know that it contains the entire foundation of Locke's Treatise. See particularly the sections on Faith and Heresy, whish no man can read without benefit; since, were the spirit in which they are written the predominant spirit in the Christian world, great distinct bodies of heretics would scarce ly be found.

the Christ." Philip saith to Nathaniel, "We have daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceasfound him of whom Moses in the law and the pro-ed not to teach and preach Jesus the Messiah." phets did write; Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph." John i. 41, 45. According to what the evangelist says in this place, I have, for the clearer understanding of the Scripture, all along put Messiah for Christ; Christ being but the Greek name for the Hebrew Messiah, and both signifying