CHAPTER I.

A SUMMARY VIEW OF THE DOCTRINES PROPOSED IN THE SCRIPTURES AS MATTERS OF FAITH TO

THE CHILDREN OF MEN.

WHEN we are entering upon an account of the belief of the Gospel, it is proper to begin with a brief representation of the scheme of divine truth, or of that "faith which was once delivered to the saints." The mind cannot form any abstract idea of believing, but is constrained as necessarily to think on some testimony which is believed, as it is to conceive of subjection, when it thinks on magistracy, or of service, while it considers the character of a master. In the most general sense, believing is ordinarily defined a persuasion of the mind concerning some truth; but as it is used in a religious sense, it invariably signifies a persuasion of the mind concerning the truths of God. Without understanding these truths, we can have no knowledge of a divine faith; and unless we understand the genuine meaning, authority, and design of the scripture-revelation, our notions about faith must be erroneous and unfruitful.

Wherefore, it must be of the greatest consequence, in the progress of our inquiries concerning the faith of God's elect, that we have just apprehensions at first about the doctrine of Christ; because our ideas of believing will be according to the views

we have of the testimony which God hath delivered unto us. I humbly think the testimony of God, proposed in the Scriptures to our faith, may, as far as is necessary for our present purpose, be considered under these three heads; namely, the law, the gospel, and the manner of proposing both of them unto mankind. What is most important on these articles, shall be suggested in distinct sections.

SECTION I.-The Scripture-doctrine concerning the Law of Works.

God created man after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. The capacities of man were originally adapted to the law of God; and his absolute dependence on his Maker, in whom he lived, moved, and had his being, obliged him to serve and obey his Creator. He both knew, and delighted to do, the will of God; for, being made upright, the ways of the Lord were in his heart. He was both a holy and a happy creature; he had favour with God, and dominion was given him over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. He was allowed to serve himself of these creatures, and order them like a governor, but not to riot upon them like an epicure, nor abuse them like a tyrant. All the duties required of him were, in his own view, reasonable, pleasant, and advantageous for promoting his own happiness. He could say from constant experience, "I delight to do thy will, O God; in keeping of his commandments there is

great reward; his ways are pleasantness, and his paths are peace; and the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver."

Adam was created the natural root of a very numerous posterity, who were, in successive generations, to "replenish the earth ;" and it pleased God to constitute him a representative of all this posterity, who should descend from him by ordinary generation. To execute his own sovereign purpose concerning man, he entered into a covenant of life with the first Adam, not only in his own person, but in the name of all his posterity, who were to proceed out of his loins, in virtue of the law of his creation; wherein happiness was secured to himself and them, upon condition of his perfect personal obedience to the law of God, until the period of his state of bation was ended; and the wrath and curse of God were denounced against both him and all mankind whom he represented, if at any time he swerved in thought, word, or deed, from any thing prescribed unto him as his duty in the law of God. Perfect obedience was indeed to be continued ever afterwards; but then I conceive it would have been considered in Adam and the rest of mankind, rather as an indispensable obligation of the law of nature, than as the condition of the covenant of works.

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"How long," says Dr. Guyse, "this probationary state would have lasted, we are not able to determine. Some suppose it would have been till Adam should have children capable of yielding obedience, or of sinning in their own persons; but, if I may be allowed to offer a conjecture in this case, perhaps it was to have been no longer than the fruit

of that season should hang upon the forbidden tree. However, be this as it will, we may reasonably suppose the goodness of God made the period of his probationary state as short as might well consist with the honour of his government, in passing an act of confirmation upon his fulfilling it without default." This conjecture seems to be the more probable, when it is considered, that the tree of knowledge was to be a constant trial of Adam's obedience to the will of God, and that it was not to bear fruit all the year, any more than the rest of the vegetable productions in the garden of Eden.

That God really made such a covenant with man, and that Adam acquiesced in the terms of it, may be clearly gathered from the Mosaic narrative : "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." In these words, the threatening of death is directly expressed, and a promise of life is strongly implied. Sin procures death, as this passage expressly affirms, and death could not enter into human nature, except by sin.

To vindicate the reasonableness, wisdom, equity, and goodness of this dispensation, is foreign to my present purpose. The reader that has an opportunity to examine the writings referred to in the footnote, may expect all reasonable satisfaction on these heads, from a careful perusal of any or all of them.

* Strong on the Covenants, Witsius' Economy, Boston on the Covenant of Works.

That Adam was a representative of all his posterity, descending from him by ordinary generation, is demonstrably evident from the consequences of his sin, upon which the apostle reasons thus: "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" as if he had said, 'By the first man Adam, who was the father of us all, and with whom the covenant was made in innocency, for himself and his posterity, sin, that worst of evils, even the first sin committed by him, broke in upon, and was propagated from him to all the inhabitants of this world, and became the source of all the iniquity that has ever since been found among mankind; and a sentence, together with the beginning of death temporal, spiritual, and eternal, inclusive of all the miseries of this life, and that which is to come, made its way into the world by his first sin; and so death, in all its hideous forms, passed to the whole human race, through him in whom they all sinned, as in their public head and representative, in whose loins they likewise were; in so much that they, on this account, are by legal estimation deemed sinners in him, his offence being imputed to, and punished in them.'

"Sin is not imputed where there is no law." To charge sin upon any person, so as to punish him for it, where there is not a law to convict him of having that sin, for which he is punished, actually lying upon him, would be a flagrant act of injustice and tyranny. But it is an undeniable fact in the experience of all nations, and of all ages, that "death reigns over them who have not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," by committing