So far as I have been able to find, the Westminster Confession never once uses the distinction of law and gospel as many theologians today use it, as a distinction between two “principles” of life. Nor does it introduce this distinction to describe the difference between the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace.
Rather, where the distinction appears, it refers to the distinction between the age of the law and the age of the gospel. To be “under the gospel” in Confessional terminology is simply to live after Jesus.
via Peter J. Leithart » Blog Archive » Law/Gospel.
Yeah, I’ve read that somewhere before.
well…
“So as, a man’s doing good, and refraining from evil, because the law encourages to the one and deters from the other, is no evidence of his being under the law: and not under grace”
‘under the law’ is there formed as a possible accusation against a person, which would seem to include the idea that the person is working by a principle which he should not.