+I. The law promises life to him who performs perfect obedience,+ and
that for his works. The Gospel promises life to him who doeth nothing
in the cause of his salvation, but only believes in Christ; and it
promises salvation to him who believeth, yet not for his faith or for
any works else, but for the merit of Christ. The law then requires
doing to salvation, and the Gospel believing and nothing else.
+II. The law does not teach true repentance,+ neither is it any cause
of it, but only an occasion. The Gospel only prescribes repentance
and the practice of it, yet only as it is a fruit of our faith and as
it is the way to salvation.
+III. The law requires faith in God,+ which is to put our affiance in
him. The Gospel requires faith in Christ, the Mediator God-man; and
this faith the law never knew.
+IV. The promises of the Gospel are not made to the work, but to the
worker;+ and to the worker not for his work, but for Christ's sake,
according to His work.
+V. The Gospel considers not faith as a virtue or work, but as an
instrument,+ or hand, to apprehend Christ. Faith does not cause or
procure our salvation, but as the beggar's hand it receives it, being
wholly wrought and given of God.
+VI. This distinction of the law and the Gospel must be observed
carefully,+ as the two have been often confounded. It has been
erroneously stated that the law of Moses, written in tables of stone,
is the law; the same law of Moses, written in the hearts of men by
the Holy Ghost, is the Gospel. But I say again that the law written
in our hearts is still the law of Moses. This oversight in mistaking
the distinction of the law and the Gospel is and has been the ruin of
the Gospel.--_Perkins._