John Downame on Covenant and Justification.

Was reading John Downame today and came across this gem, which among other things reminds us that the Reformed orthodox did, in fact, distinguish between the law and the gospel -- and for good reason. Enjoy.

"The condition of these two covenants differ: the Law or the Covenant of works offereth salvation, under condition of perfect obedience: the Gospel or Covenant of Grace, under the condition of faith, that is to say, if we believe in Christ, who hath done it for us.

Of both these covenants, the Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of Grace, Jeremie [Jeremiah] speaketh in his one and thirtieth Chapter, and Paul to the Galatians sheweth, how they were shadowed by two women, as by two types, that is to say, by Hagar the bond, and Sara the free-woman: for these women (saith he) are the two Covenants. You may see further touching them both, Phil 3. Rom 9. Rom 10. Gal 3. And these two being the only means, whereby true happiness may be attained, are so contrary one unto another, that where the one is, the other cannot be: neither can salvation come in part by the one, and in part by the other. Whereupon the apostle useth to dispute that we are justified by works only, or by faith alone. This is the sum of the whole argument in the three first chapters of the Epistle to the Romans: Either we are justified by Works or by Faith. But not by Works, neither of the Law of Nature, nor of the moral Law, neither Gentile, which is without the Law written, nor Jew which hath it. Therefore by Faith. So he saith, Gal 3.17. For if the inheritance be by the Law, then it is not any more by promise, making it impossible and absurd, that both should concur together in the act of justification."

John Downame, The Summe of Sacred Divinitie Briefly and Methodically Propounded: More Largely and Clearly Handled and Explaned (London: Stansby, 1625), pp. 307-308.