Reflection 2
How firm and durable is the ancient and perfect Law of God, which requires perfect, constant and persevering Obedience? It is an eternal Law: It is not yet abolished, though the Gospel be introduced, nor shall it be through all the Ages of Mankind, and the several Dispensations of God toward Men. The moral Law is sometimes said to be a Transcript or Copy from the Nature and Attributes of God; the Duties there required bear the more perfect Stamp and Signature of his essential Perfections, and therefore the Law must be unchangeable.
And not only the Requirements of Duty, but I think the Sanctions of the Law also in its promised Rewards and threatened Penalties are everlasting. He that does these Commands perfectly shall live in, or by them: But Cursed is he that continues not in all the Commands of the Law to do them, and he must die, Galatians 3:10, 12. I do not find any Scripture that tells me, that the Commands, or the Sanctions are repealed, though God has provided a Way to deliver Men who receive the Gospel and enter into God's new Covenant from the Bondage of the Law as a Covenant of Works, and to release and free repenting Sinners from this cursed Death, to deliver them from this Sentence of Condemnation, and to bestow on them the Blessings of Eternal Life.
It is granted indeed, as the Apostle confesses, Romans 8:3. That through the Weakness of our Flesh the Law is become weak and unable to save Sinners; because their corrupt Nature and fleshly Inclinations render them unable to keep it perfectly; but, as I intimated before, it is not weak in its own Nature to give Life. Christ in my Text preaches the Law, and says, If you keep the Commandments. (that is with a persevering Constancy, and a sinless Perfection) you shall enter into Life: What Christ speaks is true. If any Man appear who has been guilty of no Sin, and has fulfilled the Law of God in every tittle of it in Thought, Word and Deed, he shall have eternal Happiness. Romans 2:7. They who seek for Glory, Honour and Immortality, by patient continuance in well doing (en ergo agatho, in one good Work, without intermission or interruption by any Sin) they shall have Eternal Life. This is the Language of the Law of Works. But our Incapacity to fulfill this Law in our fallen State, has awakened the Compassion of God to provide a Gospel of Grace and Pardon, and to send his Son Jesus Christ down from Heaven to Earth for this very Purpose, that humble, repenting, returning Sinners, who trust in the Mercy of God through a Mediator, might be saved, even while they cannot fulfill the perfect Demands of his pure and holy Law, though they sincerely endeavour it.
The Great and Blessed God maintains his holy Law still in its own Perfection and Glory, though we have lost our practical or moral Power of obeying it perfectly: I say, we have lost, by our Fall in Adam, our moral or practical Power of perfect Obedience to the Law; but our natural Powers of Understanding, Will and Affections remain, and there is no other natural Power or Faculty required, in order to obey it. And since our natural Powers remain, the Great God requires perfect Obedience of us, and all Men, to his holy Law, and yet he assures us by his Gospel, that he will not inflict the Curse of the Law on those who heartily repent of their Sins, and trust in Christ, though they do not or cannot yield perfect Obedience to this Law.
He does not lessen or diminish the Demands of his Law, which requires Perfection still; for his Nature is too pure to require only an imperfect Obedience. If God under the Gospel, had quite laid aside, or abolished his Law, and required or commanded no more than such a sincere imperfect Obedience, or such good Works which converted and pious Men perform, then they would fulfill the Requirements or Commands of God, and would have no Sin, and such Persons would need no Pardon. But this is contrary to the whole Tenor of the New Testament. If we say we have no Sin, we make God a Liar, we deceive ourselves, and the Truth is not in us, 1 John 1:10. The Law of God is Eternal, and demands perfect Obedience of every Creature: But his Grace pardons those who cannot come up to the perfect Demands of this Law, by reason of the moral Impotence contracted by the Fall, if they apply themselves to Jesus Christ his Son, according to the Rules of the Gospel.
The Law therefore is Holy, and Just, and Good, and will be so to all Generations, Romans 7:12. And when our Saviour was beginning his divine and admirable Exposition of it on the Mount, he warns us in Matthew 5:17, 18. Think not I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill: for verily I say unto you, till Heaven and Earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled; and our Lord Jesus Christ has put Honour upon his Father's Law several ways.
1. He preached and explained it in the glorious Purity and Perfection of it.
2. He fulfilled it all himself in most exact Obedience, and thereby set all his Followers an admirable Example how to fulfill it.
3. He suffered Death for the Dishonour we had cast upon it by our Sins, not to destroy the Sanction of it, but to free us from the Curse.
4. He has taken all the Rules or Commandments of it into the Scheme of his Gospel, as divine Rules and Directions for the constant Practice of Believers, and obliges them to obey it with their utmost Care and Endeavour, though he has taken away from them that Curse and Condemnation, which originally belongs to every degree of Disobedience.
5. He sends his own Holy Spirit continually to write this Law in the Hearts of his People, and to form and mold their Souls to a delightful Conformity to the Rules of it.
Thus it appears, that Christ Jesus himself and the very Scheme of the Gospel does confirm and not abolish the Law. Romans 3:31. The Law is everlasting, and the Gospel does not destroy it, while yet it relieves guilty Creatures from the deserved Penalties.