So

fion.

CHA P. III.

O much for the MEANS of recovering what was loft by Adam's tranfgref

In the entrance on this fubject, I cautioned the Reader to keep in mind the diftinction between the MEANS of recovering a loft benefit, and the CONDITION annexed to the enjoyment of that benefit, when recovered, as two different things, to be feparately confidered, and in their order.

With regard to the MEANS, (already explained at large,) it hath been fhewn, that they were of an arbitrary nature, at God's good pleasure to appoint; unreftrained by any thing he had established in the general system of his moral government of man.

Thefe MEANS, had not our holy Religion revealed them, could not, otherwise, have been known.

They were the DEATH AND SACRIFICE of his ever bleffed Son, Mediating for us. And now, Man being restored to his forfeited Inheritance, the fecure poffeffion of it ftill depended, as it did in the original

grant, on the performance of a CONDI

TION.

We have already fhewn, Why that first Condition was the obfervance of a POSITIVE COMMAND. Which reasoning, if it have any force, proves, that the new condition, annexed to the recovered bleffing, must be the obfervance of a POSITIVE COMMAND likewife.

IMMORTALITY (as hath been fhewn) was a FREE GIFT, as well when recovered, as when originally given; which might be bestowed, or recovered when forfeited, on what Condition the Divine Donor fhould be pleafed to annex to it.

Nay, if we confider the nature of the whole œconomy, we fhall find it could not well be given, or reftored when loft, on any other condition than the observance of a pofitive Command, fince the performance of MORAL DUTY was the condition already appropriated, by Natural Religion, to the procurement of GOD'S FAVOUr.

It is true, had IMMORTALITY not been a free gift, but what Man had a right to, on his Creation, while under the govern ment of Natural Religion, the condition annexed

annexed to immortality might have been the performance of Moral Duty.

And, indeed, thofe who fo far mistake. immortality as to esteem it a RIGHT, inherent in our nature, contend ftrongly for the condition's being of a moral kind; and that the command-not to eat of the Tree of good and evil, enjoined to Man in Paradife, is fo to be understood, though delivered under the cover of an Allegory.

But befides the reafon given to evince this mistake, another arifes from the facred Writer's not explaining this pretended AlJegory for where an Allegory contains a precept refpecting the whole of moral duty, it can never be too plainly nor fully deli. vered. There would be none of this neceffity if both the first and fecond condition of immortal Life were of a positive na· ture, though delivered in allegoric terms which spoke for themselves; for then the chief use of an interpretation had been little more than the gratification of our curiofity.

Allow, therefore, the reasoning here offered to explain the nature of the condition annexed

1

to the free gift (when first given, and when, after forfeiture, restored) to be folid and convincing, and it opens to us the abundant goodness of our Maker; who, that the poffeffion of this recovered bleffing might be no longer precarious, (as it was when first bestowed, on the condition, to Do or to forbear Doing,) was graciously pleafed to change one pofitive Command for another; and, inftead of fomething to be Done, hath now required of us something TO BE BELIEVED. From henceforth the free gift of immortality is become more permanent and certain: a GRACE, which the very nature of the new Difpenfation would lead us to hope for and expect; whereby IMMORTAL LIFE under the Gofpel, like the FAVOUR OF THE DEITY under natural Religion, is now, when forfeited, to be regained by REPENTANCE.

So much reafon, order, and beauty is feen in the various parts of God's moral Government of Man, when compared and explained by one another.

The new CONDITION, as we fay, is FAITH IN THE RedeemeR; or our own

ing and receiving him as the promised Mesfiah, by whom alone we are to receive that falvation, procured for us by the Sacrifice of himself on the Crofs.

And now, we begin to have fome reafonable Notion of that great and fundamental principle of Christianity, that FAITH ALONE JUSTIFIETH, or, in other words, is the fole condition of recovering the poffeffion of what we loft by ADAM.

This great Truth, though made the foundation of the Gospel of Jefus, yet (its reafon lying hid, or not carefully fought for, and the little of it that was feen being horribly abused) Believers, as well as Unbelievers, have, too generally, concurred in condemning, as abfurd in fpeculation, and fanatical and hurtful in practice. But the Divine who hath carefully studied the nature of God's moral or religious Difpenfations, throughout all their parts, will be eafily disposed to reft the whole of the Chriftian caufe on the reasonableness, the propriety, and even the neceffity of this capital Principle.