On this part of my work, I have to thank you, Sir, for the opportunity your comment has afforded me for reconsideration. By reference to the learned Bishop Bull, I have certainly acquired information more correct than I possessed when I originally handled the point under review; and considering the imperfection of the human intellect, together with the progressive state of all acquired knowledge, I feel more cause for satisfaction than humiliation, in the acknowledgment of my being wiser to-day than I was yesterday. From the substance of the information that has been received, my conclusion is; that the language above made use of, by which two covenants, one of works, another of grace, appeared opposed to each other, as characteristic of the two different dispensations under which man, since his creation, has been placed, is certainly incorrect. "For it is not true," as my able reviewer (probably on the same authority) has observed, "that according to the first covenant he who kept the law, would have had a claim of right to life, as the covenanted reward of duty performed; if by life be meant eternal life, and by duty be meant moral virtue and rational piety; eternal life under every dispensation having been a free gift," to be secured only on the performance of a stipulated condition. Could man even in his state of innocence, by his works have acquired a right to eternal life, it must have been on the ground

"Discourse on the State of Man before the Fall." See Bull's Works, octavo edit. vol. iii. disc. v.

See Review of the "Appendix to the Guide" in the "British Critic" for March 1800.

that he was capable of doing what necessarily laid an obligation on the Author and Giver of life to confer it. But both the language of scripture, as well as that of the primitive Church, is in direct contradiction to such an arrogant and blasphemous pretension." If thou be righteous, (says Elihu in reproof to Job) what givest thou Him? Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit the son of man; therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.' "The friendship of God (says Iræneus) grants immortality to them that come unto Him: therefore in the beginning God formed Adam, not because he needed man, but that he might have an object whereon to place his bounty. Our service to God doth not give any thing to him, nor doth God need man's obedience; but He gives life and incorruption and eternal glory to those that follow and obey Him."+ Man was not created, strictly speaking, immortal, but capable of immortality; possessed, as Grotius observed, not of a vivisick power; that is, a power actually giving life; but of a vital power, a power so disposed as to preserve life for ever, by the use of appointed means. The tree of life was appointed

* Job xxxv. 7, 8, 16.

+ "Amicitiam Dei immortalitatis esse condonatricem iis, qui aggrediuntur eum.” Igitur initio non quasi indigens Deus hominis plasmavit Adam, sed ut haberet in quem collocaret sua beneficia, &c. Servitus erga Deum Deo quidem nihil præstat, nec opus est Deo humano obsequio: ipse autem sequentibus et servientibus ei vitam et incorruptelam et gloriam æternam attribuit." IRENEUS, lib. iv. cap. 28.

for that purpose, and so called by way of distinction, because it was either a sacrament and Divine sign, or else a natural means of immortality: either because it was through Divine power invested with a quality to repair the decays of nature, or because the due participation of it was accompanied with those spiritual effects, which were the pledge or earnest of immortality to the party. The reason for Adam's exclusion from Paradise after his fall is thus expressly given by God himself; "lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.' Immortality, then, according to Divine appointment, was to have been obtained by eating of the tree of life. But as every thing in Paradise, from the different parts of scripture in which allusion is made to it, is concluded to have been emblematical, it should seem that a material tree (as Bishop Hornet has observed in his excellent discourses on this subject) could only confer eternal life as a Divinely instituted symbol or sacrament; as outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace, given to Adam as a means whereby he was to receive the same, and a pledge to assure him thereof." The use of, and consequent advantage to be derived from this tree, were suspended, on the condition of Adam's abstaining from another tree which stood near it, with many tempting qualities belonging to it, called the "tree of knowledge of good and evil."

* Gen. iii. 22.

66 an

Adam's trial,

See Bishop Horne's excellent Discourses on "The Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge." Vol. i. disc. 3 and 4.

therefore, consisted in the exercise of his faith and dependence on God, and the complete subordination of his sensual appetite to his spiritual affections. His trial was, whether he would so far believe in God, as to look forward to the complete attainment of spiritual happiness according to the Divine plan, and in obedience to the Divine command; or seek a happiness for himself, by applying for it to a forbidden object of temporal gratification; "of which the tree in question must have been an emblematical representation." The grand trial was, in short, what it ever hath been, and ever will be, till the world shall cease to exist, a trial between earth and heaven; whether things visible or things invisible should have the preference; whether Adam would walk by sight, or by faith. Adam chose the former, and in consequence fell. Under the new covenant, which succeeded to the fall, man's trial is of a similar kind. Through the Mediator of this covenant, the immortality lost by Adam has been restored by Jesus Christ; but still on certain conditions. To Christians, Jesus Christ may be considered as standing in the place of the tree of life: and their trial is, whether they will go to Christ in faith, repentance, and obedience, for that happiness which has been graciously provided for them; or whether they will go to the world, that tree of knowledge of good and evil, and seek it from those gratifications of sense which it holds forth, continually tempting and seducing them into the path of death. Under the Gospel then, as under the first dispensation in Paradise, eternal life is "the gift of God.” No claim of

right consequently can in one case more than in the other, be maintained on the ground of service performed; the possession of the gift under each dispensation, having been suspended on conditions analogous to the circumstances of the party. According to the tenor of the Gospel covenant, "eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ;" whilst the works of a Christian, performed in faith and sincerity, though not his title to salvation, are still to be considered as his qualification for it; on which account they have been made the conditions on which, for the manifestation of God's honour and glory in the regeneration of his fallen creature, the covenant of grace has been made to depend. "For (says the Apostle) we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."+ We have a supernatural principle of new life conferred on us through faith in Christ, by which we become enabled to perform those good works which God has ordained as necessary to salvation, according to the terms of the Gospel

covenant.

Not being able to speak more plainly upon this subject, were I to write a volume, I cannot but flatter myself that my readers will think further enlargement unnecessary. I shall therefore trespass upon their patience only, whilst I make a brief remark or two on the objections that you have brought against the foregoing position.

You say (what nobody, it is presumed, will deny) "that the law always was that it now is, and ever † Ephes. ii. 10.

* Rom. vi. 23.