will be content if there be but uprightness in us, if there be but sincere desires to obey, if there be faithful endeavours to obey, if there be a hearty willingness to obey. Well, saith God, though I stood upon perfect obedience in the covenant of works, 2 Cor. viii. 12 ; yet now I will be satisfied with the will for the deed ; if there be but uprightness of hearty though that be attended with many weaknesses and infirmities, yet I will be satisfied and contented with that. God, under the covenant of grace, will for Christ's sake accept of less than he requires in the covenant of works. He re- quires perfection of degrees, but he will accept of perfection of parts ; he requires us to live without sin, but he will accept of our sincere endeavours to do it Though a believer, in his own person, cannot perform all that God commands, yet Jesus Christ, as his surety and in his stead, hath fulfilled the law for him. So that Christ's perfect righteousness is a complete cover for a believer's imperfect righteousness. Hence the believer flies from the covenant of works to the covenant of grace ; from his own unrighteousness to the righteousness of Christ.i If we consider the law in a liigh and rigid notion, so no believer can fulfil it ; but if we consider the law in a soft and mild notion, so every believer does fulfil it : Acts xiii. 22, ' I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will ;' rrrdvTa to, OeXtjfiara, ' All my wills,' to note the universality and sincerity of his obedience. David had many slips and falls, he often transgressed the royal law ; but being sincere in the main bent and frame of his heart, and in the course of his life, God looked upon his sincere obedience as perfect obedience. A sincere Christian's obedience is an entire obedience to all the commands of God, though not in respect of practice, which is impossible, but in disposition and afiection.2 A sincere obedience is a universal obedi- ence. It is universal in respect of the subject, the whole man ; it is universal in respect of the object, the whole law ; and it is universal in respect of durance, the whole life ; he who obeys sincerely obeys universally. There is no man that serves God truly that doth not endeavour to serve God fully: sincerity turns upon the hinges of universality ; he who obeys sincerely endeavours to obey thoroughly, Num. xiv. 24. A sincere Christian does not only love the law, and like the law, and approve of the law, and delight in the law, and con- sent to the law, that it is holy, just, and good, but he obeys it in part, Kom. vii. 12, 16, 22 ; which, though it be but in part, yet he being sincere therein, pressing towards the mark, and desiring and endea- vouring to arrive at what is perfect, Phil. iii. 13, 14, God 'accepts of such a soul, and is as well pleased with such a soul, as if he had per- fectly fulfilled the law. Where the heart is sincerely resolved to obey, there it does obey. A heart to obey, is our obeying ; a heart to do, is our doing ; a heart to believe, is our believing ; a heart to repent, is our repenting ; a heart to wait, is our waiting ; a heart to suffer, is our suffering ; a heart to pray, is our praying ; a heart to hear, is our hearing ; a heart to give, feed, clothe, visit, is our giving, feeding,
1 Luke i. 5, 6 ; Mat. xxviii. 20 ; Acts xxiv. 16 ; 1 Pet. i. 14, 15; Heb. xiii. 18. Lex data est id gratia qucereretur ; gratia data est ut lex mpZere^wr.— Augustine. ' Ps. cxix. 6. Heb., When my eye is to all tliy commandments.
THE COVENANT OF REDEMPTION CLEARLY OPENED. 329
clothing, visiting ; a heart to walk circumspeetlj, is our walking cir- cumspectly ; a heart to work righteousness, is our working righteous- ness ; a heart to shew mercy, is our shewing mercy ; a heart to sympathise with others, is our sympathising with others. He that sincerely desires and resolves to keep the commandments of God, he does keep the commandments of God, and he that truly desires and resolves to walk in the statutes of God, he does walk in the statutes of God. In God's account and God's acceptation, every believer, every sincere Christian, is as wise, holy, humble, heavenly, spiritual, watchful, faithful, fruitful, useful, thankful, joyful, &c., as he desires to be, as he resolves to be, and as he endeavours to be ; and this is the glory of the new covenant, and the happiness that we gain by dear Jesus. And, my friends, it is remarkable that our inchoate, partial and very imperfect obedience is frequently set forth in the blessed Scriptures by our fulfilling of the law, Luke x. 25-27. Take a few places for a taste : Kom. ii. 27, ' And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee?' &c. ; Kom. xiii. 8, 'He that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law ;' ver. 10, ' Love is the fulfilling of the law.' Not to love is to do ill and to break the law, but love is the fulfilling of it ; Non potest peccari per illam, quce legis est perfectio ; we cannot do ill by that which is the perfection and the fulfilling of the law.i Love is the sum of the law, love is the perfection of the law ; and were love perfect in us, it would make us perfect keepers of the law. Love works the saints to keep the law in desires and endea- vours, with care and study to observe it in perfection of parts, though not in perfection of degrees : GaL v. 14, ' All the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself ;' Gal. vi. 2, ' Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.' Now in this sense that is under consideration, the saints in themselves, even in this life, do keep the royal law. Now, from what has been said, a believer may form up this plea : —
0 blessed God, in Christ my head I have perfectly and completely kept thy royal laio ; and in my own person I liave evangelically kept thy royal law, in respect of my sincere desires, purposes, resolutions, and endeavours to keep it : and this evangelical keeping in Christ, and in the new covenant, thou art pleased to accept of, and art well satis- fed with it. I knoio that breaches made in the first covenant ivere irreparable, but breaches made in the covenant of grace are not so ; because this covenant is established in Christ; ivho is still a-making up all breaches. Now this is my plea, 0 holy God, and by this plea
1 shall stand. Well, saith God, I cannot in honour or justice but accept of this plea, and therefore enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
X. The tenth plea that a believer may form up, as to the ten scrip- tures that are in the margin,2 that refer to the great day of account, or to a man's particular account, may be drawn up from the considera- tion of that compact, covenant, and agreement, that was solemnly made between God and Christ, touching the whole business of mxin's salvation
' Eccles. xi. 9, and xii. 14 ; Mat. xii. 14, and xviii. 23j; Luke xvi. 2; Rom. liv. 10;