The testimony of Robert Baron
Thesis XXXIII. Finally Robert Baron, a Scot and professor of theology at the Academy of Aberdeen, published a short treatise on the possibility of fulfilling God's law considered according to evangelical equity (ἐπιείκεια), which he attached as an appendix to his disputation on mortal and venial sin. There he distinguishes two kinds of obedience.
The first is the obedience demanded by the law as opposed to the Gospel, from anyone who tries to reach life and happiness by virtue of the legal covenant, under its solemn clause 'Do and you will live'. The second is the obedience to the law that the Gospel itself, the covenant of grace, requires of us as strictly necessary for salvation, without which it admits no one to eternal life.
For although the Gospel offers hope of salvation even to the greatest sinners and lawbreakers, whom the law strictly taken condemns and shuts out of life, on condition that they truly repent and embrace Christ by faith, it allows no one to hope for eternal life who does not, after repenting, give the divine law some true and sincere obedience. It declares that without holiness of life no one will see the Lord.
With this distinction between the two obediences in place, one required by the covenant of works opposed to grace and the other by the covenant of grace itself, the doctor maintains the following. The obedience that the covenant of works, the law in its strictness, demands of man is not possible even for the regenerate, and in that respect no believer can fulfil the law. But the obedience to the law that the Gospel itself declares necessary for salvation is possible for the regenerate through the ordinary helps of grace, and to that extent they can fulfil the law and keep the commandments of God and of Christ.
Indeed, in the first section of that treatise his first assertion reads: 'The obedience to the law that the covenant of works, or the law considered in its strictness, demands of us as strictly necessary for salvation is possible for us neither by the powers of nature nor by the ordinary helps of grace.' His second assertion reads: 'The obedience to the law that the Gospel, or covenant of grace, demands of us as strictly necessary for salvation is possible for us through the ordinary helps of grace. Indeed all God's commandments, legal or evangelical, can be fulfilled one by one in the respect in which God now sets them before us as strictly and precisely binding, under threat and penalty of eternal damnation.'
Latin
XXXIII. Denique Robertus Baronius Scotus, in Academia Abredonensi Theologiae Professor, tractatum brevem edidit de possibilitate implendi legem Dei consideratam secundum ἐπιείκειαν Evangelicam, quem subjunxit, instar appendicis, disputationi de peccato mortali & veniali, ubi distinguit inter obedientiam quam lex Evangelio opposita exigit, ab eo qui, vi foederis legalis, ad vitam & foelicitatem pervenire contendit, juxta solennem illam clausulam fac & vives: Et inter legis obedientiam quam ipsum Evangelium, seu foedus gratiae, ut praecise necessariam ad salutem, a nobis postulat, & sine qua neminem ad vitam aeternam admittit. Quia, licet Evangelium maximis etiam ipsis peccatoribus, & legis transgressoribus, quos lex rigide sumpta damnat, & a vita excludit, spem salutis faciat, modo serio resipiscant, & Christum fide amplectantur, neminem tamen patitur vitam aeternam sperare, qui non acta poenitentia, verum aliquod & sincerum legi divinae obsequium praestet: quandoquidem declarat sine vitae sanctimonia neminem visurum esse Dominum. Posita vero ista distinctione duplicis obedientiae, unius quam foedus operum gratiae oppositum, alterius quam ipsum foedus gratiae postulat: affirmat Doctor ille obedientiam quam foedus operum, sive lex in rigore suo considerata, ab homine exigit, homini etiam Renato non esse possibilem, neque hoc respectu legem a fidelibus ullis impleri posse: sed eam legis obedientiam quam ipsum Evangelium necessarium esse ad salutem declarat, per ordinaria gratiae auxilia regenitis esse possibilem, illosque eatenus posse legem implere, & Dei Christique mandata servare. Etenim sectione prima modo dicti tractatus haec est ejus prima assertio, Ea legis obedientia quam foedus operum, seu lex secundum rigorem suum considerata, a nobis exigit ut praecise necessariam ad salutem, neque per naturae vires, neque per ordinaria gratiae auxilia, nobis est possibilis. Secunda vero assertio sic habet, Ea legis obedientia quam Evangelium, seu foedus gratiae a nobis ut praecise necessariam ad salutem exigit, per ordinaria gratiae auxilia nobis est possibilis. Imo omnia Dei mandata, sive legalia, sive Evangelica, sigillatim ex ea parte impleri possunt, ex qua a Deo nunc proponuntur, ut stricte & praecise obligativa, sub periculo & poena damnationis aeternae.