Object. But you will say, “Methinks, that giving of ourselves up to live a righteous life should make God like the better of us, and so let us be saved by Christ, because we are so willing to obey His law.”
Answ. The motive that moveth God to have mercy upon sinners is not because they are willing to follow the law, but because He is willing to save them. “Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprighteous of thine heart dost thou go to possess their land” (Deu 9:4-6). Now understand this: if thy will to do righteousness was the first moving cause why God had mercy on thee through Christ, then it must not be freely by grace—I say, freely. But the Lord loves thee and saves thee upon free terms, having nothing beforehand to make Him accept of thy soul, but only the blood of Christ; therefore to allow of such a principle it is to allow that grace is to be obtained by the works of the law, which is as gross darkness as lies in the darkest dungeon in Popery, and is also directly opposite to Scripture—For we are “justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ”; not through the good that is in our selves, or done by us, no, “but by faith, without”—mark that—“without the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:24-28). Again, “Not of works, least any man should boast” (Eph 2:9). No, no, saith he, “Not according to our works,” or righteousness, “but according to His own purpose”; mark “according to His own purpose and grace, which was” a free gift, “given us in Christ Jesus,” not lately, but “before the world began” (2 Tim 1:9).
Object. But you will say, “Then why did God give the law, if we cannot have salvation by following of it?”
Answ. I told you before that the law was given for these following reasons—1. That thou mightest be convinced by it of thy sins, and that thy sins might indeed appear very sinful unto thee, which is done by the law these ways—(1.) By showing of thee what a holy God He is that did give the law; and, (2.) By showing thee thy vileness and wickedness, in that thou, contrary to this holy God, hast transgressed against and broken this His holy Law; therefore, saith Paul, “the law entered, that the offence might abound,” that is, by showing the creature the holiness of God, and also its own vileness (Rom 5:20). 2. That thou mayest know that God will not damn thee for nothing in the judgment-day. 3. Because He would have no quarreling at His just condemning of them at that day. 4. Because He will make thee to know that He is a holy God and pure.
WHAT MEN MAY ATTAIN TO THAT ARE UNDER THIS COVENANT OF WORKS.
[FOURTH] Quest. “But seeing you have spoken thus far, I wish you would do so much as to show in some particulars, both what men have done, and how far they have gone, and what they have received, being yet under this covenant, which you call the ministration of condemnation.”
Answ. This is somewhat a difficult question, and had need be not only warily, but also home and soundly answered. The question consists of three particulars—First, What men have done; Second, How far men have gone; Third, What they have received, and yet to be under the law, or Covenant of Works, and so in a state of condemnation.
[First.] As for the first, I have spoken something in general to that already; but for thy better understanding I shall yet speak more particularly.
1. A man hath and may be convinced and troubled for his sins, and yet be under this covenant, and that in a very heavy and dreadful manner, insomuch that he find the weight of them to be intolerable and too heavy for him to bear, as it was with Cain, “My punishment,” saith he, “is greater than I can bear” (Gen 4:13).
2. A man living thus under a sense of his sins may repent and be sorry for them, and yet be under this covenant, and yet be in a damned state. And when he, Judas, saw what was done, he “repented” (Matt 27:3).