WHAT MEN MAY ATTAIN THAT ARE UNDER THIS COVENANT OF WORKS.
Quest. But, you will say, it is like, How should this be made manifest and appear?
Answ. I shall speak briefly in answer hereunto as follows—First, then, that man that doth take up any of the ordinances of God—namely, as prayer, baptism, breaking of bread, reading, hearing, alms-deeds, or the like; I say, he that doth practice any of these, or such like, supposing thereby to procure the love of Christ to his own soul, he doth do what he doth from a legal, and not from an evangelical or Gospel spirit: as thus—for a man to suppose that God will hear him for his prayer's sake, for his alm's sake, for his humiliation's sake, or because he hath promised to make God amends hereafter, whereas there is no such thing as a satisfaction to be made to God by our prayers or whatever we can do; I say, there is no such way to have reconciliation with God in. And so also for men to think, because they are got into such and such an ordinance, and have crowded themselves into such and such a society, that therefore they have got pretty good shelter from the wrath of the Almighty; when, alas, poor souls, there is no such thing. No, but God will so set His face against such professors that His very looks will make them tear their very flesh; yea, make them wish would they had the biggest millstone in the world hanged about their neck, and they cast into the midst of the sea. For your friends, let me tell you. However, you can now content yourselves without the holy, harmless, undefiled, perfect righteousness of Christ, yet there is a day a-coming in which there is not one of you shall be saved but those that are and shall be found clothed with that righteousness; God will say to all the rest, "Take them, bind them hand and foot, and cast them into outer darkness; there shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth" (Matt 22:13). For Christ will not say unto men in that day, Come, which of you made a profession of Me, and walked in church-fellowship with My saints: no; but then it shall be inquired into, who have the reality of the truth of grace wrought in their hearts. And, for sure, he that misseth of that shall indeed be cast into the Lake of Fire, there to burn with the devils and damned men and women; there to undergo the wrath of an eternal God, and that not for a day, a month, a year, but forever, forever, forever and ever; there is that which cutteth to the quick. Therefore, look to it, and consider now what you do, and whereon you hang your souls; for it is not every pin that will hold in the judgment, not every foundation that will be able to hold up the house against those mighty, terrible, soul-drowning floods and destroying tempests which then will roar against the soul and body of a sinner (Luke 6:47-49). And, if the principle is rotten, all will fall, and all will come to nothing. The principle is Not to do things because we would be saved but to do them from this—namely, because we believe that we are and shall be saved. But do not mistake me; I do not say we should slight any holy duties; God forbid; but I say, he that doth look for life because he doth do reasonable responsibilities, he is under the Covenant of Works, the law; let his duties be never so eminent, so often, so fervent, so zealous. Ay, and I say, as I said before, that if any man or men, or multitudes of people, do get into never so high, so eminent; and transparent practices and Gospel order, as to church discipline, if it be done to this end I have been speaking of, from this principle, they must and shall have these sad things fall to their share which I have made mention of.
Object. But, you will say, can a man use Gospel ordinances with a legal spirit?
Answ. Yes, as quickly as the Jews could use and practice circumcision, though not the moral or Ten Commandments. For this, I shall be bold to affirm that it is not the commands of the New Testament administration that can keep a man from using of its self [that administration] in a legal spirit; for know this for sure, that it is the principle, not the command, that makes the subjector to the same either legal or evangelical, and so his obedience from that command to be from legal convictions or evangelical principles.
Now, herein the devil is wondrous subtle and crafty, in suffering people to practise the ordinances and commands of the Gospel, if they do but do them in a legal spirit, [I beseech you, do not think because I say this, therefore I am against the ordinances of the Gospel, for I do honour them in their places, yet would not that any of them should be idolized, or done in a wrong spirit,] from a spirit of works; for he knows then, that if he can but get the soul to go on in such a spirit, though they do never so many duties, he shall hold them sure enough; for he knows full well that thereby they do set up something in the room of, or, at the least, to have some, though but a little, share with the Lord Jesus Christ in their salvation; and if he can but get thee here, he knows that he shall cause thee by thy depending a little upon the one, and so thy whole dependence being not upon the other, that is, Christ, and taking of him upon his own terms, thou wilt fall short of life by Christ, though thou do very much busy thyself in a suitable walking, in an outward conformity to the several commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you plainly, that I do verily believe that as Satan by his instruments did draw many of the Galatians by circumcision (though, I say, it was none of the commands of the moral law) to be debtors to do upon pain of eternal damnation the whole of the moral law, so also Satan, in the time of the Gospel, doth use even the commands laid down in the Gospel, some of them, to bind the soul over to do the same law; the thing being done and walked in, by and in the spirit; for, as I said before, it is not the obedience to the command that makes the subjector to it evangelical, or of a Gospel spirit; but, contrariwise, the principle that leads out the soul to the doing of the command, that makes the persons that do thus practice any command, together with the command by them practiced, either legal or evangelical. As, for instance, prayer—it is a Gospel command; yet if he that prays doth it in a legal spirit, he doth make that which in itself is a Gospel command an occasion of leading him into a Covenant of Works, since he doth it by and in that old covenant spirit.
