EVERY DIVINE LAW IN THE HEART OF CHRIST
AND HIS SPIRITUAL SEED, ETC

William Huntington
(1745-1813)

IT has been for some time the determination of my mind to publish no more; and I have continued long in this mind; and although I have had at times some very extensive views and fresh discoveries in the word of God to me, yet I have suppressed them, not choosing to bring them out, knowing that they would be now esteemed as they were in the days of old. "I have written to him the great things of my law; but they were counted as a strange thing," Hosea, viii. 12. The cause of my publishing this scrap is the continual attacks that are made upon me by the law-men of our day, falsely so called; among whom there is a man that wishes much to be noticed as an author. He is a person whom I never saw to my knowledge; I know nothing of him, nor does he know any thing of himself; so that he is an entire stranger both to himself and to me: yet this poor restless creature, unmolested and unprovoked, has taken up his pen twice against me upon the subject of the law; though I am fully persuaded that no one law, that ever came out of the mouth of God, was ever applied to him, or written either in his mind or on the fleshly tables of his heart; so that he is lawless, or destitute of every law of God. The crime that I am charged with is, that I do not hold forth the law as the rule of life to the believer, nor set it before the children of God as such. This is my crime; and I believe that more sermons and pamphlets have been preached and published against me for this supposed crime, than have been preached or published against all the Arians, Socinians, Sabellians, Atheists or Deists, Papists or Arminians, Rebels or Traitors, for these twenty years past. And, after all this terrible outcry, I have no doubt but many, who are reproached for lawless Antinomians, could compare notes with the best of these that commend themselves, either with respect to experience or power light or knowledge, diligence or industry, study or labour, success in the ministry, usefulness or fruitfulness, love to God or love to the neighbour, generosity or liberality, life or walk, conduct or conversation. For I believe in my conscience that every one to a man, that has written against me, is entirely destitute of every law of God, and in a state of unbelief, and "without faith it is impossible to please God," The unbelieving professor can do nothing right, as God says of Israel of old — "They are children in whom is no faith," Deut. xxxiii. 20. And therefore, says he, they do always "err in their hearts, and they have not known my ways; so I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest," Psalm xcv. 10, 11. "And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? so we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief," Heb. iii. 18, 19. Therefore, if I am erroneous in this one point, still I am nearer the mark than they who always err in their hearts, and who have not known God's ways; and, if they have not known his ways, they can never put others right. Now my reasons for not setting the law as a rule of life before the children of God are,

1. Because I do not find this rule in any one commission given forth of God to any of his evangelical servants; no, not in the commission of Christ himself. "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord," Luke, iv. 18, 19. And although it is true that he preached the law in all its spiritual meaning as no other ever did, yet he never sent sensible and seeking sinners to it, but always directed them to the good-will of the Father in himself. "He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven shall enter into the kingdom," Matt. vii. 21. "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish," Matt. xviii. 14. "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day," John, vi. 40. Our Lord here sets the Father's will before the children, which is his good-will of purpose and of promise in Christ But God is a master as well as a Father. "If I be a Father, where is my honour, and if I be a master, where is my fear?" Malachi, i. 6. Believers are not servants but sons; and before these sons he sets the heavenly Father's will; but the self-sufficient servant he always sends to the law, which is the commanding will of the master, and the servant's only rule. "What is written in the law; how readest thou? This do and thou shalt live," Luke, x. 26, 28. But our Lord never once called the law the believer's rule of life: nor does he call it the believer's law, but applies it to his enemies. "But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law," John, xv. 25.

2. I do not find this rule of life in the commission of the twelve apostles — "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," Mark, vi. 15.

3. Nor is it to be found in the commission given to Paul. "I send thee to the Gentiles, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me," Acts, xxvi. 17, 18.

4. Another reason why I do not choose to set the law before the saints as their rule of life, is because I do not find this rule, nor any words like them, in all the Bible. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature: and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God," Galat. vi. 15, 16.

5. My next reason is, I am informed that we "are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter," Rom. vii. 6. And to send believers to the law for fresh supplies of the spirit and his grace, to enable them for this service, is sending them to a barren mountain to get green pastures "This only would I learn of you; received ye the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Galat. iii. 2.

6. It is the will of God that we should live by faith, and walk by faith, and not by sight. "And the law is not of faith; but the man that doeth them shall live in them," Galat. iii. 12. "For, if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect," Rom. iv. 14.

7. I understand that a minister of the spirit, who preaches up and enforces the kingdom of God, obtains a good report both from heaven and earth. "For the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men," Rom. xiv. 17, 18.

8. I think that the saint's deliverance from the law is expressed in terms as strong as words can make them, that we may be joyful in, and thankful for, our glorious liberty by Christ; for it is said that "we are become dead to the law," Rom. vii. 4; "Redeemed from the law," Gal. iii. 13; "Delivered from the law," Rom. vii. 6; and "not under the law," Rom. vi. 14. And that the new covenant hath made the law old, and that it is "done away," 2 Cor. iii. 11; and "abolished," 2 Cor. iii. 13.

9. I understand that setting the law before believers as the rule of life is the only way to keep them in death, and at a distance from Christ, and from union and communion with him. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God," Rom. vii. 4.

10. I believe that there is a continual communication or flowing of grace by the Spirit from the fulness that is in Christ to all believers, insomuch that they are watered every moment, and kept night and day, Isai. xxvii. 3. And that driving them from the law to Christ, and enforcing an union with him, is the only way .to keep saints alive, warm, comfortable, grateful to God, or fruitful to his glory. "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit," John, xv. 5.

11. I believe that all law-men, falsely so called, or ministers of the letter cannot see this union, much less feel and enjoy it; but, being habitually flogged and driven by a legal conscience and the letter of the law, they know of no other springs or motions but slavish fear, nor of any allurements but the applause of men and therefore they conclude that every one that is delivered from the law, and influenced by the grace and operations of a spirit of love, of power, and of a sound mind, which breaks both the yoke of the law and the yoke of priestcraft, that this drives men to antinomianism. Hence they charge such with loose and licentious living. But the son of God says, No, it is not "For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." Luke, vi. 43. And he adds, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit," Matt. vii. 18.

12. I believe in my heart that I am redeemed, and delivered from the curse of the law, by the application of the atoning blood of Christ, sprinkled on my conscience by the Holy Spirit of God; and that, by the imputation of Christ's obedience to the law for me as my surety, and being placed to my account, I am delivered from the galling yoke of precept, "Do, and live." This is what I firmly believe; this I have long experienced, felt, and enjoyed; and, was I to deviate from this, I should preach lies, and preach what I do not believe; "and whatsoever is not of faith is sin," Rom. xiv. 23.

13. I believe that none of those who have written against me, calling me antinomian, ever performed one good work themselves in all their lives, being wholly destitute of a good root: and their performances destitute of the real properties of a good work. Good fruits must be fruits of the Spirit, and spring from union with the living vine: they must be done in the exercise of faith, and under the constraints of experienced love. But men destitute of the Spirit must be in the flesh; and "they that are in the flesh cannot please God," Rom. viii. 8. And "they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God," Rom. ix. 8. And if not united to Christ, what can they do? "Without me ye can do nothing," John, xv. 5. And "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Nor will any man love God till he is pardoned. "Where much is forgiven, the same loveth much," John, vii. 47. "And without charity a man is nothing," 1 Cor. xiii. 2. And, if the workman be nothing, his works are worse than nothing. But no one, that has put his pen to paper in order to vilify me, ever did, nor ever could describe either the Spirit's work, the forgiveness of his own sins, genuine faith in Christ, union with him, or the sweet constraints of pardoning love. Every one of them were and are dead in trespasses and sins, and all their performances as dead as themselves.

14. The most Holy Spirit of God is to guide us into all truth; and I firmly believe that he has for many years condescended to teach, lead, and guide me: and many of his sweet lessons and delightful influences have I been made sensible of and have much rejoiced and delighted in. But, among all the lessons that I have received for these thirty years from him, that of setting the moral law before the believer in Christ, as his rule of life, is not to be found, although he guides the children of God into all truth; but tells us that "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," John, i. 17. Yea, he tells me that even he himself, the spirit of all grace, and the spirit of all truth, came by Christ Jesus, and not by the law, or from the law. God ministers not the spirit by the works of the law.

15. I do not find, in all my Bible, that any of these law-men ever obtained a good report, either of God or of good men; or that they ever were acceptable to God, or approved of his saints. They are called ministers of the letter, which killeth, 2 Cor. iii. 6; Citizens of this country, Luke, xv. 15; that is, citizens of "Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children," Gal. iv. 25; subverters of souls, Acts, xv. 24; vain janglers, that know "neither what they say nor whereof they affirm," 1 Tim. i. 6; blind guides with the old veil upon their hearts, 2 Cor. iii. 15; blind watchmen, Isai. lvi. 10; shepherds that cannot understand, Isai. lvi. 11; "seducers deceiving and being deceived," 2 Tim. iii. 13; perverters of the gospel of Christ, Gal. i. 7; spies upon gospel liberty, to bring others into bondage, Gal. ii. 4; partial dealers, which have not kept God's ways, but have been partial in the law, Mal. ii. 9; dumb dogs that cannot bark, Isai. lvi. 10; deceitful workers and ministers of Satan, 2 Cor. xi. 14. These are the best titles that the Holy Spirit gives to these lawmen or letter preachers; who are destitute of the Holy Spirit of God.

16. No sort of professors are blamed more for hypocrisy than these law-men; they never feel, nor live up to, what they preach to others. "For neither they themselves who are circumcised, keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh," Gal. vi. 13. Thus poor Stephen's accusers and murderers, who stoned him to death, are charged with disobedience to that law for which they were contending.- "Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it," Acts, vii. 53. But these men, having guilt and enmity continually working in their hearts, keep their conscience in perpetual turmoil, always at strife and never at peace, conscience accusing and cursing them, and they spying out every mote in the eyes of others, and accusing and cursing others, as conscience accuses and curses them. "Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me?" John, vii. 19. They dent about the letter of the law, but are strangers to the spirituality of it; and, as for the glorious gospel of the blessed God, 1 Tim. i. 11, they cannot preach it. They may talk about the one God, about the Holy Trinity, and the Trinity in Unity; about the divinity of Christ, and of the unity of two natures in him; about the ancient settlements of eternity, and preach up what they may call the important doctrines of election and predestination, particular redemption, and effectual vocation, regeneration, justification, and sanctification, efficacious grace, and final perseverance, and yet at the same time be as destitute of the gospel of Christ as Satan himself. Men may "speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and yet be nothing," 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2. Yea, more, be destitute both of the law and of the gospel; and have no more than the letter of the law and the word of the gospel. But the law is spiritual, and that is more than letter; and the gospel of the kingdom stands in power, and power is more than word.

The gospel is the power of God displayed in saving mankind. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek," Rom. i. 16. This power removes the guilt and filth of sin; it subdues the reigning and destroying power of sin; it makes us free from the drudgery and slavery of it, and saves us from the bondage and curse of a broken law, and from the destructive tyranny of Satan. If this be the gospel of Christ, then an unpardoned minister of the letter, and an unpardoned professor, have no more of the gospel of Christ in them than Satan himself. Their profession is vain, and all letter preaching is vain, and all the presumptuous confidence that attends it is vain, because "they are yet in their sins," 1 Cor. xv. 17.

2. The gospel is the ministration of reconciliation. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation," 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. Pardoning love will excite love. Where much sin is forgiven the same sinner will love much. "We love him because he first loved us." Where no pardoning love is made manifest there is no love to God, and where there is no love to God, there the carnal mind is enmity; and where this enmity reigns, there can be no friendship with God. And what can the enemies of God have to do with the gospel of reconciliation? Christ made all his disciples friends. "Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you," John, xv. 15. Our Lord's forerunner calls himself the friend of the bridegroom. "But the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly, because of the bridegroom's voice," John, iii. 19. Our Lord here shows the state of carnal men, that they are servants, and not sons; and being legal servants, they are blinded by the old veil. They know not what the Lord doeth. And he hints that such are enemies, in opposition to these which he calls his friends; and informs them that he has used them as friends, by admitting them into the secrets of his heavenly father's will; and having made them friends, he sends them forth with the ministry of reconciliation. And sure I am that nothing under heaven cuts a worse figure than a man in a pulpit, with an accusing conscience and a cursing law within; and a fallen countenance, feigned and fettered speech, a stinking savour of self, and flesh and blood without.

3. The gospel is a divine call to the enjoyment of divine holiness. "God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness," 1 Thess. iv. 7. "And without holiness no man can see the Lord," Heb. xii. 14. And our holiness is of God, and not of ourselves. God chastens us "for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness," Heb. xii. 10; which stands in the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. "Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you," 1 Cor. vi. 19. As God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them," 2 Cor. vi. 19. The Holy Spirit taking possession of the soul, he plants his delightful crop of heavenly grace therein, called "the first fruits of the spirit," Rom. viii. 23. And which is an earnest of the glorious harvest, or the harvest of glory above. This delightful crop of divine grace is called the new man. "And be renewed in the Spirit of your mind. And that ye put on the new man, watch after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Ephes. iv, 23, 24. The principal graces that compose this new man, which is created in true holiness, are faith and love; and holiness is ascribed to both; hence you read, "But ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life," Jude, 20. 21. Thus the words "most holy" are ascribed to faith; and the same holiness is ascribed to love. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love," Ephes. i. 4. This is what the scriptures call true holiness, in opposition to ceremonial, negative, or the spurious holiness which is preached up in the present day; and adorns the feigned hypocrites, who make it to consist in an external reformation, decent carriage, affected speech, a demure appearance, head notions, feigned faith, voluntary humility, and dissembled love; which swell the carnal mind with pride, and then they say, "Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou." These, says God, "are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day," Isai. lxv. 5.

4. A preacher of the gospel is, or should be, a "good steward of the manifold grace of God," 2 Pet. iv. 10. He is a partaker of the sovereign love of God, which is the fountain of all grace; he has obtained "the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of God's grace," Eph. i. 7. He is "justified freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," Rom. iii. 24. He is an "heir of the grace of life," 1 Pet. iii. 7; is regenerated by the Spirit of Grace; and this grace is abundant "with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus," 1 Tim. i. 14. He enjoys the reigning power of divine grace, which reigns "through righteousness unto eternal life," Rom. v. 21. And obtains "everlasting consolation and good hope through grace," 2 Thess. ii. 16. And this grace works and labours in him mightily, and never sends forth a stinking savour, except it be in the nostrils of hypocrites. "I laboured more abundantly than they all," says Paul; "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me," 1 Cor. xv. 10. Pardoning grace makes him pure, and justifying grace makes him bold. The grace of life keeps him lively; the grace of love constrains him; the grace of faith keeps him at a point, and makes him positive and consistent with himself, and his gospel is yea and amen. He knows he runs at a certainty, and fights sure of victory; for his faith overcomes the world. The grace of patience enables him to bear his cross, and to bear up under all the reproach that is cast upon him. The grace of meekness gives vent to the troubles of Isis heart when it is overcharged with grief. The grace of Peace keeps him in friendship both with God and conscience; and the more kind his God appears the more he loathes himself. This clothes him with the grace of humility, and hides pride from his eyes when he has done his best; while the grace of hope adds spurs to his diligence and keeps him in expectation of the great reward of inheritance when he has fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith. And sure I am that God is not unrighteous to forget our "work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thess. i. 3.

5. The gospel is the ministration of the Spirit which exceeds all the glory of the law. "But, if the ministration of death written and engraves on stone was glorious, shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For, if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious," 2 Cor. iii. 7, 8, 11. The Holy Spirit's work is to convince us of sin, and to wound us by cutting reproofs for it, by the application of God's word, which is the Spirit's sword. He quickens us to make us feel the reproofs which he gives, which sink deep, and make us lay our sins to heart. He enlightens us to see our sins in the glass of God's holy law, and sets them in order before our face. He testifies of Christ, and sets him before the sinner in the gospel, as evidently crucified for him. He takes of the things of Christ, and exhibits them to the enlightened understanding; and works faith in the heart, to apply him with all his saving benefits, and with all his glorious fulness; and having enabled us to believe in him and receive him, he makes our sonship manifest, and enables us to claim it with the fullest assurance; yea, he himself cries, "Abba, Father," and bears his witness with our spirits that we are of the children of God. He applies the promises and the promised blessing. He helps our infirmities at a throne of grace, and makes us approach with fortitude and fervour, with faith and affection. He lets us know the things that are freely given us of God; and furnishes the mouth with petitions, pleas, and arguments, taken from the word of truth. He sheds abroad God's love in the heart, and excites our love to God. He leads us into the mysteries of Christ's kingdom, and into God's foreknowledge and absolute choice of us in Christ Jesus before the world began. He shows us God's secret counsel and covenant, his good-will of purpose and of promise. He puts on the imputed righteousness of Christ, and sanctifies us internally, by spreading his glorious beams and holy influences throughout the whole soul, adorning every faculty with his glorious train and treasure of divine grace: and this from a dear Redeemer's fulness. Divine power bows and bends the will; life and peace possess the heavenly mind; glorious light shines in the understanding; truth dwells richly in the judgment; the love of God engrosses and captivates the affections; while conscience is charmed with the "blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel," Heb. xii. 24. He increases the work of faith, and makes the soul abound in hope. He strengthens us by his might in the inner man, and seals the soul with the full assurance of faith up to the day of redemption, while he himself, abiding in the heart, is the earnest of the future inheritance. He prepares the heart, unseals the Bible, and creates the fruit of the lip, making grace to rise in the soul like a springing well, and the words of wisdom like a flowing brook. Now either this is the gospel or it is not; and, if it be, where is it, where does it appear? I see but little of it.

The religion of our day stands in an outside shew in the flesh. There is much talk and noise about holiness; and where the most of this noise is, even there the worst of beings off assemble, to meet their companions in wickedness. Nor would I part with one single chastisement of my covenant God and Father for all the holiness that such divines could describe in a thousand years.

The fame that has spread itself in our days is not the power of God in the salvation of men: but consists in the arrogant pretensions of a presumptuous boy to convert the Jewish nation; in renewing the pagan world with noodles and idiots; working the minds of uninformed people up into enthusiastic and fanatic phrensies; in collecting money for purchasing organs and bagpipes; charming souls with wind music; keeping an audience together by the cunning craft of Tubal Cain, and hiring young men and women without any grace in their hearts to charm this audience when gathered together, and to make melody to the preacher. And these things entertain and keep the people in perpetual motion, so that they shall neither attend to God or conscience. But should any thing of the power of godliness appear, it is traduced for antinomianism; and, if any man, who believes with his heart unto righteousness, presume to make confession with his mouth unto salvation, he is reprobated as a deceiver, and as an enemy to all laws, human and divine. These are some of the weapons of their warfare, and this is the generation work of the present day. And it is well if the God of this world be not the author and finisher of all this faith.

We compass sea and land to convert the Hottentots; and when they are made they are twofold more the children of hell than those who made them. So that we may take .up the lamentation of the prophet, and say, "We have been with child: we have been in pain; we have as it were brought forth wind: we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen," Isai. xxvi 18. Sad complaints! We have brought forth wind, and we blow others to and fro with every puff; but we have wrought no deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen so as to submit to the King of kings. And I am sure they never will until God send forth better workmen, and furnish them with better weapons.

6. The gospel is a revelation of the righteousness of God, which is the produce of his divine wisdom ordained and appointed from all eternity; wrought out and brought in by God the Son as the surety of the better testament: revealed in the everlasting Gospel, and brought to and put on every chosen vessel upon his believing in Christ, and that by the most holy and ever blessed Spirit of God. "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians; both to the wise and to the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, the just shall live by faith," Rom. i. 14-17. The righteousness which the Gospel reveals is the righteousness of God, which is to distinguish it from the law of righteousness, that calls for the righteousness of man. This righteousness is to all and upon all that believe, and upon no other; upon the imputation of it the sinner passes from death unto life, so as to come no more into condemnation, John, v. 25. Hence the justification of such a soul is called justification unto life, Rom. v. 18. Such a soul is justified by God himself; and who can condemn? Rom. viii. 33, 34; and, "being justified by faith he has peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," Rom. v. 1. Such a minister believes, and therefore speaks; he is one of the household of faith, and preaches the faith; he is alive, and holds forth the word of life. The righteousness of Christ is on him, and he is a preacher of righteousness. He has peace with God, and is an ambassador of peace. And, as faith goes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, so righteousness goes from the heart of the preacher of righteousness to the heart of all that believe unto righteousness. This righteousness goes from faith to faith; but not from criminal to criminal, nor from infidelity to infidelity; although presumptuous confidence may, and does; so that it is, "Like people like priest," Hosea, iv. 9.

7. The Gospel of Christ is proclaimed to the world to bring' poor lost apostatized man back to God, even to communion and fellowship with Christ, and with God through Christ. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ," 1 John, i. 3. This fellowship comes to pass by our cordial embracing of Christ in faith and affection; which is done when God reveals his Son in us, and then accepts us in him. Through Christ God's love flows into the heart, and our love through Christ flows out to God. We possess his love, and he possesses ours. Christ. sets up his kingdom within; and is known as our fountain by cleansing us; as our physician, by healing us; as our sovereign, by delivering us from the tyranny of Satan, sin, and death; as our righteousness, by silencing all accusers and condemners; as our peace, by the tranquillity that we feel; as our strength, by the support he grants us; as our life, by the lively frames we enjoy; and as our hope, by the lively expectations or glory to come. To all which the Spirit bears his witness, and cries "Abba, Father." And wherever sonship appears, there the inheritance is sure; for the inheritance is "of faith, that it might be by grace, that the promise might be sure to all the seed," Rom. iv. 16.

Having shewn what I conceive to be the Gospel, I shall now consider the law, and inquire who they are that have, and who have not, the law of God in their hearts. And I am sure that for what I am going to advance I shall be reproached for my singularity: but what I enforce I shall endeavour to support with the word of God, for by that I wish to stand or fall.

I do most assuredly believe in my conscience that, of all the laws which ever came forth from the Lord God of Israel (and the Jews say there are some hundreds), God never did, since Adam fell, apply any one to any man in this world but to the Son of God, and to the elect of God in him: to them, and to them only, are the laws of God applied. Nor do I believe that there ever was one non-elected soul, or reprobate, in this world, that could say, with truth and conscience, that God ever had, at any one time, put any one law of his into his mind, or written it on the fleshly tables of his heart.

No heathen, no Jewish or British Pharisee; no formalist; no outer-court worshipper whatever; no gifted minister, even such as have been enlightened, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come; nor any other, who hath received the external gifts of the Holy Ghost; nor even that servant who received the one talent, Matt. xxv. 25; nor the gifted man, that received the one pound, Luke, xix. 13; no minister of the letter; no, nor those that boast of wonderful works, and of casting out devils, Matt. vii. 22; no collegian or academician in the present day, however endowed with natural abilities; however learned, or however studious, eloquent, industrious, or laborious; if he be a non-inspired man, ever had any one law of God applied in its divine power to his heart. No graceless professor, no hypocrite in Zion, however reformed, varnished, embalmed, enrobed, adorned, or set off by the most illustrious minister of the letter, ever had one law of God in him or applied by God to him. Nor even Mr. L______ himself, who has written two treatises upon the subject of the law, in order to convince me and others of errors, and to set us right in the word and ways of God; even this man never had any one law of God, either moral or ceremonial, civil or evangelical, applied to him. "The law is made for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane," 1 Tim. i. 9. Now, although the law is made for such, yet the Apostle in the above passage calls them lawless; respecting the spirituality of the law they are lawless, and with respect to the Gospel disobedient. Though the law is not made for a righteous man, but for such ungodly sinners, yet he styles them outlawed, without law, or lawless, because no one law of God, in its spiritual meaning, in its latitude, in its unlimited demands, in its purity, holiness, and divine sanction, authority, and power, in the glory of it, in the majesty of it, was ever applied to any reprobate or uninspired man in this world; nor ever will be until the day of the grand assize; nor even then will the morality of it be applied, but its wrath and curse, and no more. "And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?" Job, xxiv. 25. Now we will act the part of the noble Bereans—search the scriptures, to see if these things be so, Acts, vii. 11. And,

First, We will begin with the heathen. "For, when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another," Rom. ii. 14, 15. Now these few fragments of the law that remain in the light of nature (which is in some measure a guide to some things, right and wrong, which agree with the law), and which are to be found in the ruins of the fall, are not the law itself; for the law is spiritual, but these poor heathens were carnal, and sold under sin; therefore they had not the law itself, but the works of it. The Gentiles, which have not the law, they do by nature these things. They have not the law; they are a law unto themselves; they sin without law, and shall perish without law, Rom. ii. 12. The light of nature, or natural conscience, is all that these poor creatures have; and this light of nature often puts darkness for light, and light for darkness, Isai. v. 20; as may be seen both among Jews and Gentiles. The Samaritans called Simon Magus the great power of God, when the prince of darkness was in him. These put darkness for lights and the Jews, who called the Son of God Beelzebub, put the true light for darkness. And, as the light of nature errs so fatally as to put darkness for light, so their thoughts and consciences err also; both among Jews and Gentiles. "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service," John, vi. 2. Paul's thoughts and conscience also acquitted him, for blaspheming the Saviour and murdering the saints, which confirms what Paul says of himself, that he was alive without the law, and that sin was dead; for God's law never countenances, much less justifies, blasphemers and murderers. Nor can it be supposed that the Gentiles, which sacrificed to devils and not to God, ever had that law in their hearts which allows of no God but one, and demands love to him with all the heart and soul.

2. Nor had any of the non-elect among the Jewish pharisees any one law of God ever applied to them, although they pretended to this. — "Then they reviled" (the blind man), "and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is," John, ix. 28, 29. The whole of this boasted claim was an arrant lie, for a real disciple of Moses is a man taught out of Moses' law, and one who imitates his master in learning and knowledge, and who treads in his master's steps. Hence Moses' law is called a schoolmaster. — "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith," Gal. iii. 24. Observe here that the apostle does not call the law their schoolmaster; it is not the schoolmaster of reprobates, or non-elect persons; but he calls it our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith: "but after that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster." According to the above passage the law is intended as a schoolmaster to God's own elect, and is applied to them as such. — "Whom God foreknew, them he did predestinate; and whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he loved. them he also justified," Rom. viii. 30. Now, if the law is our. schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of him, then it never was a schoolmaster applied to any of the non-elect, even among the Jewish pharisees; therefore their calling themselves Moses' disciples was an arrant lie; for they never had been sent to his law to school; they never had learned experimentally one lesson from him, neither moral not evangelical; for, instead of sitting at Moses' feet to be taught of him, they jostled him out of his chair. "The scribes and the pharisees sit in Moses' seat," Matt. xxiii. 2. And, as to Moses law they made the word of God (by Moses) of none effect through their own traditions, Mark, vii. 13. Yea, instead of embracing the instructions of Moses in his law, they rejected it altogether, "And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition," Mark, vii. 9. So far were they from submitting to Moses' tuition, that they rejected his commandments, turned him out of his seat, and set up their own traditions above his law: for all of which Moses became their accuser, instead of their teacher. "Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust," John, v. 45. There never was one self-righteous pharisee among the Jews, nor yet among the Gentiles or Britons, that ever had the law of God applied to them, or that ever had the law of God in them. Let us hear what the Holy Ghost himself says upon this head; and what he says ho speaks by the mouth of one who was once a pharisee of the first magnitude—a pharisee of the pharisees. "For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came sin revived, and I died," Rom. vii. 8, 9. Here the Holy Ghost affirms that during the time of Paul's continuing a pharisee, and while in an unconverted state, he was without the moral law. And he mentions this twice. "For without the law sin was dead; for I was alive without the law." And the Spirit confirms this still further, by asserting not only twice that he was without it, but takes notice of the application of the law to him, and that by God himself. "I was alive without the law: but when the commandment came sin revived, and I died," Rom. vii. 9. All that the non-elect, or unconverted among mankind, can pretend to, is,

1. That they are without the law.
2. That sin is dead, not purged; and,


3. That they themselves are alive without the law; that is, they are alive to sin, alive to the flesh, alive to themselves, alive in their own righteousness, and alive to their own ends and aims, which is their own applause.

Having thus proved that all heathens, and the best of all Jewish, and British pharisees, are without the moral law of God in its morality, in its power, and in its spiritual operation, as applied by God himself; so take notice, further, that it is God's prerogative to apply the law; man cannot do it. It is not only God's work to apply the law, but also to teach it, or to teach men out of it; to pick lessons out of the law and apply them, so as to make men know and feel them. "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law, that thou mayest give him rest," Psalm xciv. 12. If they, and only they, are blessed, whom God teaches out of the law, then it is plain that all are cursed who receive their teaching out of the law not from God, but from men only. They are ministers of the letter, and the letter killeth; therefore it is no wonder, for they are nothing else but blind guides. "The priests said not, where is the Lord? And they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal," Jerem. ii. 8. There is a veil upon the heart of these pretenders to the law, that blinds them to the last degree, which no pharisee is acquainted with. Hence we read of some who said, "Stand by thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou," Isai. ixv. 5; of others, who affirm that they have kept all these things from their youth up, Matt. xix. 20; and others who never at any time transgressed God's commandment, Luke, xv. 29. And sad teachers of the law must these be, seeing the Lord declares that publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before them, Matt. xxi. 31. But I shall now,

3dly. Go to another set of men, and see if the moral law is to be found in them. These are the gifted men that appear under the gospel, and we may call their name Legion, for they are many, Mark, v. 9. By these I mean such as got into the primitive church and were called believers. "Thou seest, brother," (Saul) "how many thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they are all zealous of the law," Acts, xxi. 20. Now these are called ministers of the letter, being destitute of the Spirit of God, and so are distinguished from those ministers which God sends out. "But our sufficiency is of God, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life," 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6.

Now the scriptures declare that "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven," John, iii. 27; neither law nor gospel. A man may steal the word of God out of the mouth of his religious neighbour; but even this the Almighty hates. — "Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness; yet I sent them not nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord," Jerem. xxiii. 30-32. And, as he is against those thieves that steal his words of prophecy, so he is against these unpardoned and unsanctified law men, who trouble their heads with his statutes. "But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?" Psalm 1. 16. All that such men can do is to take this covenant of works, which is called statutes, into their mouth; for none but God can put it into their hearts; and he never will write any one of his laws on the minds of reprobates, nor put it into their hearts. Hence, they are called ministers of the letter, not of the law, for "the law is spiritual," Rom. vii. 14. They have nothing of the law but the bare letter, which is all that the Holy Ghost allows them to have, and this is all they have to trade with. Hence, the distinction. — "Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit; for the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life," 2 Cor. iii. 6. The stock of these preachers is the letter of the law; and they are dead men, dead in soul, and dead to God; and all their ministry is a dead work, being never quickened nor made alive by the Spirit of God; having nothing but death in their souls, and the killing letter of the law in their mouths, they minister death unto death. And any soul, that is alive by faith, may feel the effects of such a ministry as soon as he enters the place where such ministers are. A dismal gloom of darkness and a cold chill seizes and spreads itself through the whole soul. The sight of the audience increases this; and the taking of the text serves as a notice for the audience to get ready, and place themselves in their usual comers, for the most sound, sweet, and refreshing sleep that they enjoy throughout the whole week; being now out of the hurry of business, and the empty and barren noise of the preacher bidding defiance to all, not only the aged and the corpulent, but even the youths and the skeletons, to keep their eyes open while lie is at work. He operates upon your spirits like opium, and will lay you in a crisis, or transport you into the land of Nod, in spite of your best efforts. Standing up, pinching the flesh, snuff taking, beating the head against the pillars, or pricking yourself with a pin, is of no use. Morpheus, the god of sleep, is with him, and submit you must. "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Nor is it possible for a believer in Christ to enjoy even the life, much less the lively exercise, of any one grace, under the best discourse that a minister of the letter can deliver. Let a child of God go under the ministry of the letter in the sweetest revivals of grace; let him go in the most sensible refreshings from the presence of God, or in the most humbling frame of meekness, contrition, or self-abasement; let him go under the most lively or joyful frames; or let him venture even under the sweetest enlargement, arising from fresh discoveries of the dying love of Christ, and from the strongest confidence of interest in it; yet none of these, nor even all these together, are found to be proof against a minister of the letter. The believer may carry these in, but he will lose all this good company, and never bring them away again. — "Beware of the leaven of the pharisees, which is hypocrisy." At the believer's departure the dew of heaven is exhaled by the barrenness of the preacher; death and bitterness of soul are communicated by the deadness and wrath that are in the preacher; straightness and bondage brace and contract the soul from the servile fears which the letter of the law genders. Enmity to God, and hard thoughts of him, attended with self pity, bitterness of soul, deadness, and backwardness to all that is good, are all that a soul can get under the letter. "The letter killeth." These fill the soul with murmuring and rebellion, and though they may not be spoken to the ear, nor suggested to the mind, yet experience repeats plain enough the ancient reproof. "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen," Luke, xxiv. 5, 6. And as Christ has taken his seat on the holy hill of Zion, and dwells with the broken and contrite heart, none but the devil himself will ever entice us to seek him at Sinai, or under the ministry of the letter. Many under the impulse of the father of lies, and in vain confidence of their own strength, or excited by curiosity, have received under one lifeless discourse, such wounds and breaches in their souls, as have not been healed nor closed for many months. Here is nothing but husks. The sleepy soul gets a composing draught; the pharisaical soul head notions to nurse his pride; the carnally secure stronger in insensibility, and the arrogant and presumptuous their foreheads more hardened, and their false confidence more stiffened. All letter-men are, as Paul once was, "alive without the law," and sin is dead.

This service of the audience is rejected of God, as well as the labourer and his labour in the letter. God seeks true worshippers to worship him, not typical nor hypocritical ones; spiritual worshippers, not carnal ones; such as shall worship him in faith and love, not in unbelief and in the enmity of their minds; worshippers that know God for themselves; not ignorant worshippers who worship they know not what. All lip-labour without the heart, all bodily exercise without the soul, all outer-court worship and worshippers, all formal worship without the power, all service in the oldness of the letter without the newness of the Spirit, are rejected under the gospel. As heaven itself widely differs from the letters by which that holy place is named, so widely does the spiritual law of God, when he applies it, differ from the three letters which compose the word law. They talk of the gospel, but their soul is at Horeb; for they are all zealous of the law, and the letter of the law they take, but not the law itself. The letter is all that the Holy Ghost allows them. "Thou art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast. the form of knowledge and of truth in the law," Rom. ii. 19, 20. "And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?" Rom. ii. 27. Now not one of these were ever chastened or taught of God out of the law; if they had they would have been under the blessing, and not in danger of being judged and condemned by the poor heathens. They had the letter of the law, but had never heard or felt the voice of God in the law: they had a form of knowledge, but not the power; a form of truth in the law; a form of words as we teach our children by a catechism or creed: but a form of knowledge out of the law is not the law itself. Looking at letters, and moulding these into a form in the mind, is one thing; but coming "to the mount which burns with fire, to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words," is another, Heb. xii. 18, 19. There is a great difference between the letter and the terrible voice of God, and between a form of knowledge out of the law and the law sent home to the heart, attended with the judgment and sentence of God, by which sin is discovered; it rises out of its death, and the sinner himself dies. No reprobate whatever, no heathen among the Gentiles, no pharisee among the Jews, nor any minister of the letter, has, or ever had the law of God sent home or applied by God himself to his heart; and this will appear more plainly if we consider what the Spirit says of such preachers. "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: from which some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling; desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm," 1 Tim. i. 5-7. Observe here, these men are said first to turn their back upon charity, which the law requires; from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from unfeigned faith; and, instead of setting the proper rule of life before their hearers, they are said,

2. To swerve, that is to wander, deviate, or depart from a right rule.

3. The Spirit sets before us their earnest desire to preach the law, being ignorant of its spirituality and unlimited demands, as well as of its wrath and curse.

4. He takes notice of their wisdom; they know not what they say.

5. That they know not whereof they affirm, 1 Timothy, i. 7. And,

Lastly, that they handle it badly and unlawfully. The text these men handled was this, "Except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, ye cannot be saved."

The first branch of this text sets aside the surety of the better testament, and brings the sinner in debtor to do the whole law.

2. They gave the Holy Spirit himself the lie; for he says, "There is salvation in none other name given under heaven" but in Christ, Acts, iv. 12. These say there is no salvation but in the law. "Except ye keep the law of Moses ye cannot be saved." And,

3. Though they bound these burdens upon others, yet themselves never touched them with one of their fingers. "For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh," Gal vi. 13. Hence it is plain that none of these lettermen were ever taught of God out of his law; and all their pretensions to the gospel only increase their transgressions of the law; for a spiritual law condemns spiritual adultery; and these men, turning their back upon Christ, prove themselves to be adulterers. They had claimed a second husband before the first was dead. They must become dead to the law, and the law as the first husband dead to them, or else the second match is always set aside, and such souls charged with adultery; and they shill be judged as such, for "whoremongers and adulterers God will judge," Heb. xiii. 4.

Now we shall see the use these men made of the law, and the evil report they obtained through unbelief.

1. They are charged with tempting God, by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear.

2. They are charged with troubling the saints with words, not encouraging or refreshing them, but subverting their souls.

3. That they had no commandment, either from God or his apostles, to preach the law to them.

4. We are told that it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to the apostles also, to detect and discover the deception and hypocrisy of these law-men, Acts, chap. xv. Hence it is plain that no heathen among the Gentiles, no pharisee among Jews or Gentiles, no minister of the letter among the churches of Christ, ever had any one law of God written on his mind, or put into his heart. They are all alive without the law, and sin is dead in them all. There is none that can apply the law, or teach men out of it but God himself. And it is plain that none are taught of God but God's elect. "They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest," Heb. viii. 11. And it is out of the law that we learn our first lessons. "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law," Psal xciv. 12. And this man soon obtains another blessing, for he is sure to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and blessed are such; for they shall be filled, Mal. v. 6. And these are sure to come to Christ; for the law is our school-master to bring us to him, Gal. iii. 24. "It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me," John, vi. 45.

Let Mr. L__________ shew me from God's word, or point out any one among the heathen, among Jewish and Gentile pharisees, among the ministers of the letter, or among the non-elect or unconverted, any one soul to whom God himself has applied his law, or whom God has taught out of his law, if he can. And it is seldom that a preacher of the letter makes any pretensions to this. They tell you, in the general, they were drawn by love, which is confessing that they never were chastened of God, nor taught by God out of his law.

4. Nor do I believe that any graceless professor, hypocrite, or apostate; no, nor even those who have finally fallen away from their profession, and have trampled upon the blood of Christ, and done despite to the Spirit of grace, and who are already in despair, and have the evident tokens of perdition upon them and in them, and who are sure of being eternally damned, without hope and without help; even these are not taught of God out of the law; nor is the law properly and fully sent home to their souls, as it was to the heart of Job, chap. xiii. 26; Hezekiah, Isai. xxxviii. 13; or the apostle Paul, Rom. vii. 9. The most terrible account we have of such men is, that they are given up to a reprobate mind, and to "a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries," Heb. x. 97. Under these dreadful arrests of divine justice I see no difference between the terrors of these apostates and those of the pagan emperors when the wrath of the Lamb entered into them. Their confessions and horrors were as dreadful as those of Judas; they differed little in this world, though they may in the world to come, it being more tolerable for Sodom than for a gospel despiser. But this is not God's teaching, but God's sentence. The law is not a schoolmaster for such a stream of brimstone, Isai. xxx. 33. When God puts his laws into the heart, he promises a new spirit also; and the Spirit searches the heart, like a candle lighted up in the soul, Zeph. i. 12. What he searches out he enlightens us to see; and what he enlightens us to see, he quickens us to feel. Where the Holy Spirit comes not, the law is no schoolmaster. Not one of these were ever taught of God. No soul knows the spirituality of the law but those whom God quickens; nor is one grain of the morality of the law to be found in any but those who are born again. And even these apostates have no more than the sentence, and an earnest of future vengeance; for they are said to be in a fearful looking for of judgment. They are not yet in full possession of their fears, but "the fear of the wicked it shall come upon him," Prov. x. 24. And what is this looking for of judgment, but looking for the execution of the sentence? And the fiery indignation looked for is endless death, under the wrath of God, in a fiery law. These expect the wrath and curse of God, and so do other sorts of sinners as well as they, for "the expectation of the wicked is wrath," Prov. xi. 23. All sinners are children of wrath; and "as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse," Gal. iii. 10; and they who believe not in Christ, are condemned already, and the wrath of God abideth on them, John, iii. 36. Yet all do not know it alike. Those given up to a fearful looking for of judgment do not feel as the elect of God do when he teaches them. Cain sets off with the curse of God on him, and goes to work to build a city. But the psalmist, when the law was working in him, was not capable of laying a plan, much less of executing it, in braiding a city. "I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up; while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted," Psal. lxxxviii. 15.

Esau could soon set off to farming and hunting, although the blessing, and all hope of it was gone for ever; while David, under the operation of the law, forgot to eat his bread, Psal. cii. 4. Reprobates and apostates have not half the keenness in their terrible sensations as the elect of God; for though such persons are alarmed, roused, awakened, and raised up, yet they have no spiritual life. But when God takes his children in hand to teach them out of his law, he breathes the breath of lift,, into them, which makes them feel their need of his blessed provision. It makes them hunger and thirst for the bread and water of life, and brings them into a starving condition; and such only shall come who are ready to perish. "The full soul loathes the honey-comb; but to the hungry every bitter thing is sweet." The law makes us feel our poverty, and it is the poor only that shall be fed. — "I will abundantly bless her provision, I will satisfy her poor with bread." Until the law is applied, and the sentence passed upon us, we cannot be proper objects of Christ's clemency. One of the characters of God's elect is that of dead men, and they are expressly called his dead men. "Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise," Isai. xxvi. 19. Upon this passage our Lord seems to have fixed his eyes when he said, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear, shall live," John, v. 25. As soon as God sent the law home to Paul he became one of these dead men. "Sin revived and I died. The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth," Acts, xxii. 14. And he owns that he was quickened, and lived; or rather that Christ lived in him. Now if the law be our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and one of our characters is that of dead men, because appointed to be slain in time by the law (and Paul tells us that the law was sent home to him that he might be found among the Lord's dead ones — "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God"; what can these ministers of the letter have to do with this law, who, instead of being one of Christ's dead men, are alive without the law, sin being dead? And surely such will never come to Christ, that they might have life, John, v. 40. Not one of those before described ever had any law of God applied to him, not even my antagonist himself; If he has ever learnt one lesson of God out of his law, let him send me an account of it, of his feelings under it, and what a spirit of bondage to fear is, together with an account of the different ingredients that compose a spirit of bondage; which if he cannot do, be is, as I have affirmed, and his own book confirms, dead in sin, and sin is dead in him; and he is alive without the law: nor is there any law that ever came from God applied to him, or to be found in his heart. And until this is the case the appointment and commission of Christ doth not extend to him; nor is he, or are such included in it. They tell us they are drawn by love, but I know they are rather led by Satan. Christ was not sent to heal the whole, but the sick; nor to feed the full, but the hungry; not to call the righteous, but sinners; nor to save the sound, but the lost! not to bring back those that stay at home, but those that went astray. His appointment is to preach the gospel to the poor in spirit, not the rich in self: and good tidings to the meek, not the impenitent: To speak a word in due season to them that are weary; to comfort all that mourn; to bind up the brokenhearted; to forgive them that have nothing to pay; to feed the poor of the flock, and such as were ready to perish; to set at liberty them that were bruised, and to comfort all that mourn Zion; to open the prison to them that are bound, and by the blood of his covenant to bring them forth out of the pit in which is no water; to guide the meek in judgment; to unstop deaf ears; to open blind eyes; to make the doubting soul, that stammers through unbelief, speak plainly; to give sinners beauty ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise the spirit of heaviness, that they may be trees of righteousness, the right-hand planting of God, that he may be glorified. But, as for the fit and the strong, he says he will not feed them, unless it he with judgment. Now these law men, or ministers of the letter, who are alive without the law, and in whom sin is dead, neither want light nor life; wherefore their ease is not described in all Christ's commission, nor once included in it, and therefore his anointing and appointment doth not extend itself to them. They make the law a refuge of lies, and by the help of God I will beat them out of it.

Having proved, by the word of God, that the law is a schoolmaster to his elect, to bring them to Christ, of course it cannot be the schoolmaster of the reprobates, because they never come to Christ.

2. That none but God's elect are chastened by him, and taught out of his law; and that all who have heard, and have learned of the Father, come to Christ; but, as the reprobates never come to the Saviour, it is plain that the rod of God is not upon them, nor are they taught of God out of his law. Such have never beard God's voice at any time, nor seen his shape, John, v. 37. "Man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven," John, iii. 27; neither law nor gospel. I shall therefore inquire now who they are that God teaches to know his laws, and to whom God has promised to apply them.

First, they are called the seed of David. — "The Lord hath sworn in troth unto David, he will not turn from it, Of the fruit of thy body will I sit upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant, and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children also shall sit upon thy throne for evermore. For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation," Psal. cxxxii. 11-13. These are called the seed of David, which is Christ and his seed, and not the seed of the serpent; and afterwards they are called Zion, not Hagar nor Sinai; the chosen of God, and not the rejected. These God teaches to know his covenant and his testimony, but none else.

2. "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out or thy law; that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance; but judgment shall return unto righteousness; and the upright in heart shall follow it," Psal. xciv. 12-15. The characters or these people are, that they are blessed of God, blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ; that they are chastened of God, which is the lot of sons, but not of bastards; that they find rest, as all believers do, in Christ; but none believe except those who are ordained to life. They are called God's people and God's inheritance. Their chastening and teaching .out of the law is called their judgment, which seems to go out against them; but it returns unto righteousness, or terminates in their justification; and then, being upright in heart, by faith that worketh by love, they follow after this righteousness. No lawmen, no ministers of the letter, none of the one-talent men, no wandering stars, no citizens of this country, are to be found in all this account.

3. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know, the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more," Heb. viii. 10-12. These persons are called the house of Israel; not Israel after the flesh, but after the Spirit; prevailers with God. God is not ashamed to call himself their God, nor to claim them for his own people, which is revealing to them the covenant he made with Abraham. They obtain the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Into the minds of these men God himself puts his laws; and by his own most holy Spirit he writes them on the fleshly tables of their hearts. These are the elect of God, Abraham's spiritual seed. No child of the flesh, no lawmen, or letter-preachers, are included in this text.

4. "Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation; for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people," Isai. li. 4. These persons our Lord calls his people, they being, given to him by his Father, and made his charge. They are his by redemption; and are not their own, being bought with a price. And he styles them his nation, in distinction from the nations of the world. A nation redeemed from among men, or a nation taken out of other nations. — "A nation whose God is the Lord," Psalm xxxiii. 12. Called "an holy nation," 1 Pet. ii. 9. The elect of God, and no other, are meant by this nation, as appears by what follows. — "Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation; that I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance," Psal. cvi. 4, 5. No law-men, or letter-preachers, are to be found in this text.

5. "Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law, among my disciples," Isai. viii. 13-16. This law-giver, whoever he be, is to be an offence to both the houses of Israel, and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; which, with her children, are all in bondage. But here is another set of men called disciples. A real disciple is one who sits at the Lord's feet, and receives his words, "Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand; and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words," Deut. xxxiii. 3. They are not said to hear his words only, as many do; but to receive of his words; which shews that they mix faith with the word, and so receive it into the heart in the love of it. Here is a testimony to be bound, and a law to be sealed, among these disciples. An angel from heaven tells us that "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," Rev. xix. 10. The binding cord, that attends the reception of this testimony, is the love of God the Father, which is the bond of the covenant and the bond of all perfectness. And this love of God always attends this testimony; for God's love is shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost given unto us. the law here spoken of seems to me to be the law of faith, and the seal to be the full assurance of faith, which the Spirit works in the heart when he comes to take up his abode as a comforter. "Knowing brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, bat also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in mud, assurance;" I Thess. i. 4, 5. This law and the seal are described by Paul himself. "In whom also, after that ye believed;" there is the law; "ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise;" there is the seal, Ephes. i. 13. No lawyers, no letter-men, are to be found among this class of disciples. It is plain, from all these passages, that the elect of God are to be taught of him, and to no other are these promises made: and, further, that all the statutes, judgments, or testimonies, which he requires them to observe, he himself will teach them, and furnish them for his work. "Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord: men shall call you the ministers of our God. And I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them," Isai. lxi. 6, 8. When God gave the law he ordered it to be put into the side of the ark; and all the laws to which he requires obedience he promises to put into the mind, and to write on the hearts of his children. It is God's desire to have his laws there. "Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shall make me to know wisdom," Psal. Ii. 6. I believe in my conscience, as firmly as I believe there is a God in heaven, that there is no one law in the book of God but what he himself hath put into my mind, and written upon my heart; and that he would enable me to give a simple and honest account of it to any sober inquirer, who might call upon me for that purpose. And yet the best names that I obtain among these letter-men are "that vile, that filthy, that stinking Antinomian." However, in this respect I am even with them, for I cannot stink more in their nostrils than they do in mine.

Having proved that no letter-men, no law-men, nor any other but the elect of God, have the promise of being taught of God, or of having any of God's laws put into their minds, or written o, the fleshly tables of their hearts; but that all these have as soon as they are called by grace, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit of promise; I shall now inquire who they are to whom God bears his testimony that his laws are in their hearts. — "For, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater," 1 John, v. 9.

First, he tells us that his dear Son has got his law in his heart. — "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt offering and sin offering thou hast not required. Then said I, Lo, I come; in the volume of the book it written of me; I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law it within my heart," Psal. xl. 6-8. This testimony is given by Christ himself, that the law of God was in his heart; and I am fully persuaded that the same law is in he hearts of all his spiritual followers, and in no other sort or sect of men under heaven.

"The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide," Psalm xxxvii. 30, 31. God having made many promises to the objects of his choice, that he would put his laws into their minds and write them upon their hearts, he here bears a glorious testimony to the honour of every one of those in whom this work is done.

1. He calls him righteous, God having by his spirit drawn him to Christ, united him with Christ, and accepted him in him, in the Lord he has righteousness and strength. And, as it is God's work to root a poor sinner out of the flesh and out of self, and to transplant him into Christ, so he is called a tree of righteousness, the right-hand planting of God, that he may be glorified.

2. Being pardoned and justified, he is made wise unto salvation through faith that is in Christ. There is no wisdom in those who are dead in trespasses and sins. All sinners are fools; and empty professors of religion who are carnally secure while in possession of their guilt and filth, are the greatest fools of. all, as may be seen in the parable of the foolish virgins.

3. His mouth talketh of judgment: he has been arraigned and judged at the bar of God, and at the bar of his own conscience, and has been taken from the throne of judgment to the mercyseat, and obtained both righteousness and the sentence of justification freely by grace. Through faith in him, judgment is brought forth unto victory; and so all find it, sooner or later, who wait for Christ's law.

4. God styles himself the God and lawgiver of this man. "The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide." What this law in the heart is I shall shew hereafter. His feet are the confidences he has in God; by faith he stands. His steps are the goings out, and the different actings or exercises of his faith upon God through Christ; called the stem of the faith of our father Abraham, and the footsteps of the flock. Now these feet may stagger at the promise, and at providence too, in times of trial; but the steps shall never slide from the foundation, because he is built up on his most holy faith; nor shall his steps slide from the path of life, for the Holy Spirit quickens his faith and gives it all its acting, directs his steps, and keepeth the feet of all the saints; besides, faith has got eternal life in it. This is the testimony that God gives of these men in whose heart he writes his laws; and sure I am that it is a good report through faith which these men obtain. Let all our ministers of the letter search the scriptures, and see if they can obtain as good a report as these; and let them tell us what laws have been written upon their hearts, what was their state before this writing took place, what were their feelings under the impression, what was the change that followed upon it, and what were the fruits and effects produced by it, and how their hearts stood affected towards God. But this we shall never obtain; for there is no one law of God in them, either moral or evangelical. They are lawless and disobedient; lawless with respect to the morality of the law, and disobedient with respect to faith. Once more,

"My salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation," Isai. ii. 6-8.

1. The account that God gives of these men is, that they know righteousness; they have had a fearful experience of the righteousness or justice of God; have had the law set home upon their consciences in all its spiritual meaning, and they know what that rule of righteousness requires; they know the blessings and benefits of an imputed righteousness; and they have had an experience of that divine love which is the fulfilling of the law of righteousness; nor are they ignorant of righteousness at the bar of equity, nor of the witness and inward peace that attend it.

2. God owns that his people have his law in their hearts, attended with his righteousness and his salvation, both of which shall be for ever; and therefore he tells them not to fear the reproach of men, nor to be afraid of their revilings; that the secret curse of God, like a moth, shall prey upon them as upon an old garment, they being covered with nothing but the spider's web of their own righteousness. Read Zech. v. 4. And, being but mere wolves in sheep's clothing, their own guilty conscience, like a worm, shall recoil upon them for their deception, requite them for their hypocrisy, and prey upon them as a moth doth upon a fleece of wool. Having proved that God never promises to write his laws on the hearts of any but those of his own elect, and that none but spiritual men (or men born again) have any of God's laws in their hearts, according to the account God gives in the scriptures of truth, I shall now proceed to shew what the law is.

It consists of two parts: the preceptive and the penal; the commandments and the awful threatenings; the morality it requires, and the wrath it reveals against the immoral. The morality of it consists in its being holy, just, and good. "Wherefore the law is holy; and the commandment holy, and just, and good," Rom. vii. 12. Love is the real morality of all these three branches.

First, Love is real holiness. "God hath chosen us in Christ, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love," Ephes. i. 4. A real lover of God is one that is holy and without blame before him.

2. Love is real righteousness, love to God and to one's neighbour. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets," Matt. xxii. 37-40. The law, which is the rule of righteousness, hangs its whole weight upon love; therefore love fulfils all righteousness. "Love is the fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 10.

3. Love is goodness. "Charity thinketh no evil; and love worketh no ill to his neighbour; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 10. Again, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law," Rom. xiii. 8. Love therefore is real holiness, righteousness, and goodness.

2. The penal part of the law has three branches also. "The commandment is a lamp, and the law is light," Prov. vi. 23; and as such it discovers sin, and makes manifest the filth and pollution of the soul. "For by the law is the knowledge of sin," Rom. iii. 20. The law, as a lamp, discovers it, makes it abound and shew itself in its true colours. "Sin by the commandment becomes exceeding sinful," Rom. vii. 13.

3. The law is "the ministration of death," 2 Cor. iii. 7. It discovers the sinner's crimes, and passes the sentence of death upon the transgressor. "When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died," Rom. vii. 9. The sentence was passed, and the apostle gave himself up to death, feeling the dreadful sentence, and knowing that he was a dead man by the law. And wherever God applies the law in its power, as he did to Paul, the sinner not only feels the sentence, but finds the sentence of the law in a measure already executed, for the wrath of God attends the sentence; and where sin and wrath meet there is sad work in the sinner's conscience. "The law worketh wrath," Rom. iv. 15. And this wrath begets bondage to fear; "the law gendereth to bondage," Gal. iv. 24; and binds the sinner's guilt and filth close to his conscience, and himself, soul and body, over to endless misery. "The strength of sin is the law," 1 Cor. xv. 56.

The law requires knowledge also; for if I am to love God with all my soul, and to worship him alone, it is needful that I should know something of him, or else I must love and worship I know not what, John, iv. 22. To Adam was this law given; and the image of God in Adam stood in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness: for to all these we are said to be renewed, or made anew, or made new creatures again. "Put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," Col. iii. 10; "in righteousness and true holiness," Ephes. iv. 24 Tills was God's image, and the glory of God in Adam; and he enjoyed it on the conditions of his obedience; but he sinned, and we in him. "All have sinned, and come short of this glory of God," Rom. iii. 23.

Some rays of this glory appeared again at the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. Moses represented the second Adam, anti the better Mediator; the glory of whom was reflected from Moses' face, to teach Israel to look through Moses to him who is the end of the law for righteousness, where we have "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. iv. 6. But Israel could not behold the face of the earthly mediator, much less the heavenly one; and therefore Moses put a veil upon his face, and the God of this world put a worse veil upon Israel's heart; "that they could not look to the end of that which is abolished, for their minds were blinded," 2 Cor. iii. 13, 14. They could look to the letter of the law, and to the voice of words, but no further. "They are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith," Deut. xxxii. 20. These also sinned, and came short of this glory of God, which we that believe see and enjoy. "For we all with open face, holding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord," 2 Cor. iii. 15.

What is a law given for? The grand design of giving a law is that it may be observed, obeyed, inviolably kept, and punctually fulfilled, and then the end is answered; but all have sinned; both Jew and Gentile are all under sin; "there is none righteous, no not one." Here every mouth must be stopped, and the whole world become guilty before God. This being the true state and case, the law looked to another, who was to magnify it and make it honourable; and it was to stand in full force until he came in whom it was to have its fulfilling end; and every branch of its morality was to be fulfilled in his spiritual seed, and that for evermore; and this was the grand design of giving the law. To Christ the law looked, and stood in full force until he came. "Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a Mediator," Gal. iii. 19. "The law and the prophets were until John; since that time the kingdom of God is preached," Luke, vi. 16. To Christ Moses and all the prophets looked, and both Moses and Elias resigned their offices to our Messiah on the mount of transfiguration, Matt. vii. 3; then leaving the true prophet and only mediator alone with his disciples, they disappeared and were never seen more; though Peter wished to detain them, not knowing what be said, or what he meant; no more do they know what they say, or whereof they affirm, who are labouring to bring them in again. "Before faith came we were kept under the law. shut up unto the faith which should afterwards ye revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster," Gal. ii. 23-25.

God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, and made under the law; and on the eighth day he was circumcised, and became debtor in our room, and stood as surety in our law-place. And on the eight day, and upon his circumcision, the whole body of the sins of our flesh was charged to his account, and laid on him; for we are said to put off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, Col. ii. 11. And, if we put our sins off by the circumcision of Christ, then by Christ's circumcision he took them all on him; for they never departed from our account until they were placed to his. Thus he came with the law of God in his heart, saying, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God;" both his will of commandments and his good will of promise. As a servant, he obeyed his master's law, and then took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and by his one sacrifice he put an end to the ceremonial law, leaving us in full possession both of God's good will of purpose and of promise; and declared the will of the Father to be this—that whosoever seeth the Son, and believeth on him, should not perish, but have eternal life, and be raised up at the last day. And thus, "he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all," Heb. x. 9, 10.

Milton says,
"The law of God exact he shall fulfil,
Both by obedience and by love, though love
Alone fulfil the law." Book xii. line 402.

And, having as man's surety given a perfect and perpetual obedience to the precepts of the law, by which he brought in an everlasting righteousness, he then died in our room, and was made a curse for us. That he might redeem us from the dreadful penalty of the law, he endured the spirit of bondage to fear; "and was heard in that he feared," Heb. v. 7. He trod the wine-press of his Father's wrath alone, was made a curse for us, and tasted death for every man, and God was "well pleased for his righteousness sake," Isa. xlii. 21. Here we see that the law has been so exactly observed, obeyed, and fulfilled, by our surety, as that the lawgiver has proclaimed himself from heaven well pleased with it. This law never can be fulfilled by any natural man, or man in a state of nature; for such cannot love God with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all understanding; for the sinner is blinded by the old veil, and cannot see him; he is ignorant, and doth not know God; and is an enemy to God, for "the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be," Rom. viii. 7. Nor do natural affections fulfil the law; for, though a man may with these love his neighbour, yet he is sure to love himself better, 2 Tim. iii. 2. And, as for God, the natural man is alienated from the life of him, Ephes. iv. 18. We see that those who received the word of God with joy, and sprung up into a profession, had their natural affections stirred, and their passions moved; but natural love is not a root that can hold them; for "when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away," Mark, iv. 6. The law is spiritual: but man is carnal, sold under sin, Rom. vii. 14. And, if the Apostle may be credited, the natural man cannot love his neighbour as himself. "For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another," Titus, iii. 3. Enmity against God, and being hateful and hating one another, is all the morality that is to be found in the carnal man. Ministers of the letter may love ministers of the letter, heretics may love heretics, felons love felons, and hypocrites may love hypocrites; and these may join hand in hand to hold each other up against the underminings of conscience; all which amounts to nothing more than sinners loving sinners. "For sinners also love those that love them," Luke, vi. 32. But then sin in all these lovers is the gall of bitterness, and their love nothing else but the bond of iniquity.

I shall now endeavour to prove that all God's laws are fulfilled in the souls of every one of God's spiritual children, for God promises to put his laws into the minds, and to write them upon the hearts of his own elect, attended with a new heart and a new spirit, Jerem. xxxi. 33; Ezek. xi. 19. And God, who is the best judge of his own work, bears his testimony to such. "The law of his God is in his heart, none of his steps shall slide," Psal. xxxvii. 31. "Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law," Isai. Ii. 7. The law of God in all its branches is applied, sooner or later, to all the elect of God. In its dreadful bondage, and under its curse and wrath, did our dear Redeemer suffer and die; and we must taste of his cup; all his elect must be "planted together in the likeness of his death," if they are to "be planted together in the likeness of his resurrection," Rom. vi. 5. The promises of life, and of a spiritual resurrection, are not made to the living, who tell us that they were drawn by love; but to the dead. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise," Isai. xxvi. 19. These living men, that were drawn by love, are bond-slaves, kept in subjection under the law. "Know ye not brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?" Rom. vii. 1. Such are alive without the law, as Paul once was: "For I was alive without the law once," Rom. vii. 9. And "without the law sin was dead," Rom. vii. 8. He that is alive without the application of the law, is a subject of the law; sin in him is dead, and neither stirred up nor discovered. And the sinner is dead; not raised, nor awakened, nor even alarmed. And the law hath dominion over that man as long as he liveth in such a state. Nor will Christ give eternal life to these living men, in whom sin is dead. Not the living; but "the time cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live," John, v. 25. Christ came that we might have life, and he gives life to all his sheep; but none, except those condemned by the law and under the sentence of death, will ever hunger or thirst after the bread of life, after the righteousness of faith, or after the favour and love of the living God. Self-condemned sinners, and none but such, will come hungering and thirsting to Christ. All that come rich, full, or alive without the law, are sure to be sent empty away.

The moral law, with all its penal sanction, is sure, some time or other, to find out the elect of God. All God's children are to be taught of him; none are exempt; all that are blessed with spiritual blessings in Christ are taught of God. "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law," Psalm xciv. 12. And every one that hears and learns of the Father cometh to me, says Christ, and none else, John, vi. 45. The law is our debt-book; it is the hand-writing that is against us, and contrary to us; and when this book is opened, and its spiritual meaning explained, sin revives. This handwriting found Job out before it was written upon tables of stone. "For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth," Job, xiii. 26.

"By the law is the knowledge of sin," which it discovers in its true colours; and a sense of an angry God shining, with the eye of divine justice with it, into the soul, brings all our sins fresh to the mind, and sets them in battle array against us. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes," Psalm 1:21. "For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me," Psalm li. 3.

The elect are all exercised with a spirit of bondage to fear, more or less; and the foundation of this fear is a broken law; for "where there is no law there is no transgression," and of course nothing to fear. But the law genders to bondage; and this is bondage to fear; and it is a slavish fear which has the wrath of an angry God for its object; and this fear hath torment. "My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments," Psalm cxix. 120.

The law is the ministration of death. "The soul that sinneth it shall die," Ezek. xviii. 20. This sentence is sure to take place in the conscience of all the elect of God, some time or other. "When the commandment came sin revived, and I died," says Paul. "I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind," Psalm xxxi. 12. "I am counted with them that go down into the pit: I am as a man that hath no strength; free among the dead," Psalm lxxxviii. 4, 5. "I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness," Job, x. 21, 22.

Now, I will not pretend to affirm that all the elect of God are exercised with the bondage and terrors of the law alike; but this I will affirm, that all, more or less, are made to feel every, branch of this penal part of the law. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." And sure I am that none will seek Christ with all their heart but sensible sinners; nor is Christ sent to any others. "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance."

Every one of God's elect are made to feel their bondage, and are chafed in their minds, by the rebukes of conscience and the reflections of divine anger; and to none else is Christ sent. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath appointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; and to set at liberty them that are bruised," Luke, iv. 18.

And this I know, that there is not one of God's elect but, sooner or later, he will feel himself in a state of condemnation, and under the sentence of death; both from his own conscience, and from the word of God whenever it comes with power. "But, if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth," 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25. He is convinced of all, and judged of all; and the secrets of his heart are made manifest: and such an one owns that the searcher of all hearts is come near to him to judgment; and to this omniscient God he bows, adores, worships, and confesses; and ascribes the whole of this work to him; not to the prophets, nor to them that prophesy; for the excellency of this power is not of them, but it is of God, who is in the prophets: and this the poor criminal confesses without either an if or a but. He reports that God is in them of a truth. These poor souls, dead in sin and dead in law, are the persons that hunger after the bread of life, feeling the sentence,, and hastening to get from under it. "The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: the Lord of hosts is his name," Isai. Ii. 14, 15. Here God owns himself to be the God of these captive exiles, who are in the horrible pit, hastening, and fearing that the bread of life will never be broken to them.

Now, though this penal part of the law, when applied, doth not remain in the elect of God, they being born heirs of the promise of life, which is the blessing of a better covenant, established upon better promises; yet they will never forget this law-work, nor the misery under it, while in this life. "And I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord; remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me," Lam. iii 18—20.

Upon such souls as these the law has done its office. "This soul that sins shall die." The commandment comes home with all its power, discovers sin, works wrath, and passes its awful sentence; upon which sin revives, and the sinner dies. And such souls suffer death, both in their representative Christ and in themselves, being planted together in the likeness of his death; and by the application of the law suffer death also, yea, they suffer the law: and when this is done the law has done its office, for such souls are condemned by it, and are dead. "The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth," Rom. vii. 1; and no longer.

Now, if the law allows of a surety and substitute to stand in my law place, and the gift of eternal life can possibly be granted to me through him, by an act of free sovereign grace, I am no more under obligations to that law, for this undeserved and unexpected favour, than a poor criminal, who is condemned by the law, and going to suffer death, is, when he meets with the king's pardon on the road to the gallows.

"For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but, if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God," Rom. vii. 2-4. Hagar is the figure in the covenant of works; and all the children of that mother are in bondage, and under the law, and under the curse of it; and the elect themselves "are by nature the children of wrath, even as others," Ephes. ii. 3. And, as the law genders to bondage, our legal souls being born in sin and under the law, we cleave to it: but, when the law has condemned us to death and filled us with wrath, all our hopes in it and expectations from it die. By its cursing us, and giving us no life, it becomes dead to us; and we, being condemned and delivered over to endless death by it, become dead to that; upon which Christ in pity marries the poor widow, purges away our sins, which the law discovers, and silences law, conscience, and Satan, saying, "Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more; for thy Maker is thine husband," Isai. liv. 4, 5. Thus Christ, who is both our brother and next of kin, marries the desolate and disconsolate widow: and raises up the name of the dead upon the inheritance, Ruth, iv .5. And this name that Christ raiseth up is the name of a son by adoption; for upon his marrying the widow the new man is formed, anti he that is born of God hath the seed of God in him, which entitles us to this "new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name," Isai. lxii. 2. "I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off," Isai. lvi. 5. Thus "are we become dead to the law that we should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God," Rom. vii. 4. For all that are under the law bring forth unto death, Rom. vii. 5; or else they bring fruit unto themselves, Hosea, x. 1; which is one and the same thing. The apostle mentions one thing in this allegory which I must not forget, and that is, that, if the bond-woman, or any of her children, marry again, or offer to marry while the first husband be living, while they alive without the application of the law, and while sin is dead them, such shall be called adulteresses. And holy often have I seen this verified in bond-children. They begin their profession m the flesh, and after awhile seem awakened out of their sleep, and go about for some one to take them by the hand; their eyes seem opened, and they with much fiery zeal advance something like the truth, but in a wild, terrible, and violent manner; and such style themselves evangelical. But, when this zeal is quenched by the power of sin, the checks of conscience, and the frowns of God, they sink into the flesh again, and seldom or ever rise any more, but go back to the old husband. Nor is this to be wondered at; for even the wild Arabs, which the scriptures call Ishmaelites, from Ishmael, Gen. vi. 11; and Hagarenes, from Hagar, Psalm lxxxiii. 6; even these are ashamed of their pedigree; and, wishing to be thought the genuine offspring of Sarah, call themselves Saracens. And the offspring of allegorical Hagar do the same in our day. Nothing is more common among us than for these bond-children to call themselves the evangelical society and the evangelical association; and we hear of the evangelical magazine. And these names are as applicable as the name holiness is to the pope, or holy mother to the whore of Babylon. An evangelist is one influenced by love, not slavish fear; who moves in faith, not in presumption; who seasons souls with grace, not with terrors; who shines in truth, not stumbling on the dark mountains of Horeb and Sinai; who savours of Christ, not of self: who communicates liberty, not bondage; and who anoints others with the oil of joy, not with desperate sorrow: who ministers divine life, not death; who enforces filial fear, not servile; who ministers sweetness, not the sour leaven of the Pharisee; who is as the dew upon the grass, and not as a dry exhalation; who brings the sinner under the noble constraints of love gratitude, and thankfulness, not driving with an army of wild distracting terrors; who leads souls to delight themselves, in the Almighty, not frightening them from him by their description of an unknown God. And, if this be doing the work of an evangelist, where do we find it? Is there any thing like this in our monthly production beside the name on the blue cover? There is neither dew nor rain, neither light nor heat, no unction, or savour, nothing weighty or powerful, no views into nor discoveries of the holy mysteries, nothing brought up or set forth: but it answers the end for which it is intended; namely, to increase the number of hypocrites in Zion, and in them to stir enmity against every one that God sends, or that appear to have the seal of God upon them, Rev. vii. 3. I have often, under concern for the Saviour's honour, been grieved at my heart, and shed many tears in secret, to see such numbers of thoughtless, frothy, light, empty, and vain young men assume the office of the ministry, under whom hypocrites have been fed and believers starved. "They shame the counsel of the poor, because God is his refuge," Psalm xiv. 6. But thus it must be; for those that were of old ordained to this condemnation shall surely have it, in spite of Zion and all her tears. I shall now proceed to shew how the morality or the moral part of the law is fulfilled in spiritual men And,

1. It is done by another law taking place, and this law is of the Holy Spirit of God. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death," Rom. viii. 2. This law of the Spirit is the law of faith, for faith and life are inseparable; faith comes to the sinner by hearing, and hearing by the word of God; and whensoever or wheresoever the word comes with power there it comes in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance, 1 Thess. i. 5. Hence the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of faith, and faith is called a fruit of the Spirit.

2. Now this law makes us free from the law of sin and death. By the law of sin I understand the law in the members, which Paul expressly ceils "the law of sin," Rom. vii. 25. To be made free from this law of sin means to be purged from the guilt of it by the blood of Christ, to be justified from the destroying power of it by the righteousness of Christ, to have its tyranny subdued by the grace of Christ, and never to have it imputed to us, it having been imputed to Christ, who is our surety.

3. By the law of death I understand the moral law, which Paul calls "the ministration of death written and engraven on stones," 2 Cor. iii. 7. Sin is the transgression of the old covenant, and the old covenant ministers condemnation and death to all sinners. But the Spirit of life in Christ, and his law of faith, which come to us from the new covenant, make us free from the law of sin and death.

And, if Paul may be credited, this is done in a way by which the old covenant sustains no loss, and upon which no dishonour is reflected; for it actually fulfils it by furnishing us with all the real morality the law of God requires. For through Christ "the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Rom. viii. 4. Now this righteousness of the law is the morality of it, or the righteousness which is required by the precepts of the law. The righteousness of the law is put in opposition to the penalty of it, which part Christ bore for us when on the tree. This righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us by imputation, which is the act of God, who is our creditor; for, as our sins were imputed to Christ, so his obedience is imputed to us; and, as condemnation unto death passed upon him, justification unto life (Rom. v. 18) passes upon us. Hence Christ, who is our surety, is called "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth," Rom. x. 4; and "by the obedience of (that) one shall many be made righteous," Rom. v. 19.

But the law requires a holy nature within us, as well as the best robe without. The king's daughter must not only have the wedding garment without, but she must be all glorious within. "Without holiness no man can see the Lord."

Adam, when he stood complete under the first covenant, knew his God, he was made upright before God, he was very good and stood in God's image, which consisted in righteousness and true holiness. And sure I am that every soul in whom the righteousness of the law is fulfilled must "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him," Col. iii. 10. All that are under the law have the old veil upon their hearts, 2 Cor. iii. 15; with which "the god of this world hath blinded their minds," 2 Cor iv. 4; and vengeance is to be taken on them that know not God, 2 Thess. i. 8: therefore we must be renewed in knowledge; and not only be renewed in knowledge, but we must have likewise a righteous and a holy nature. "Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv. 24. The righteousness of this new man is love. The law is the rule of righteousness, and "love is the fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 10. "The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," 1 Tim. i. 5.

The next branch of morality which the law requires is true holiness, in opposition to all ceremonial, negative, or spurious holiness, such as abounds in the present day; and it stands,

1. In the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17.

2. True holiness is ascribed to the faith of the gospel; for, as the mind and conscience of unbelievers are defiled, and to them there is nothing pure, Titus, i. 1.5; so, on the other hand, the possessors of purifying faith are called the beloved of God, and are exhorted to build themselves up on their most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Jude 20.

The third branch of this true holiness is perfect love, or love made perfect; and they are said to be made perfect in love where love has cast out all fear and torment; hence charity, when mature, is called "the bond of perfectness," Col. iii. 14. And this is also the highest branch of true holiness. "According as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love," Ephes. i. 4. And thus is the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. And this was the grand work of the Son of God, who came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil, Matt. v. 17. And he did fulfil all righteousness in his own person; and as our covenant head, and head of influence, we are said to be "filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God," Philip. i. 11. This is the real morality which the law requires; and the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, and for ever established, in all those who are thus favoured. And, "if by preaching these things I make void the law, then the law is made void through faith," Rom. iii. 31; and the whole law is against the promises of God, Gal. iii. 21; and thus it is with the saints of God, that in them the new covenant maketh the first old; and "that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away," Heb. viii. 13, and in time disappears, while we look as through a glass darkly, for this changes us into the image of Christ, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Under which soul-transforming view every thing old takes flight, and all that succeeds is entirely new. "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new," 2 Cor. v. 17. And, "if preaching this doctrine entitles me to the name of 'a vile, filthy, and stinking Antinomian," God grant that I never may lose my title till the following promise hath its accomplishment "He will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it," Isai. xxv. 8.

I shall now proceed to shew that all other divine laws, which are essential to salvation, are fulfilled in the souls of spiritual men; and I am encouraged to this by the apostle himself. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts," Gal v. 22—24.

himself, and differs somewhat from the old. "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another," John, xiii. 34. This law never can be fulfilled in, nor by, any but those who are partakers of the Holy Ghost; for the saints are to be hated of all men for Christ's sake. And he that loves God must first be loved of him, and he that loveth is born of God. "Every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him," 1 John, v. 1. This law was first observed and fulfilled by Christ himself, who so loved us as to lay down his life for us. And so we have the explanation of it by John. "Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth," 1 John, ii. 8. This commandment was true in him, says John, for "hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us:" and, if it be true in us, "we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren," 1 John, iii. l6; and he that thus loves the brethren is delivered from the powers of darkness, and from that hatred and malice with which the devil inflames the hearts of hypocrites; and of such we may truly say that "the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth;" for "he that hateth his brother is in darkness until now;" but "he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him," 1 John, ii. 9, 10. This law is in the hearts of all spiritual men.

2. The law of sacrifices and offerings; whether sin-offerings, burnt-offerings, or free-offerings; the truth of all these types is Christ and his one offering. These types served to purify the flesh; but the blood of the Son of God purifies the mind and conscience. "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these," Heb. ix. 22, 23. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin; and faith applies the atonement, and purifies the heart with it: but it is the Holy Spirit that produces faith, and that gives it life and all its lively exercises.

3. The law of the leper. Levit. xiv. 2. The leper was cleansed with blood and water: and Christ came by water and by blood, and from his side both ran. And the truth of all this is in every spiritual man, but in no other. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh," Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26.

4. "The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death," Prov. xiii. 14. The wise man is one in pardoned and renewed state, made wise unto salvation through faith in Christ. Faith is the wise man's law; and, as he that believes hath everlasting life, faith in its lively actings and exercises attending the wise man's prayer, praises, thanksgivings, and sacrifices of joy, is called a fountain of life. The sins of men are the snares of death. "Upon the wicked God shall rain snares," Psalm xi. 6; that is, "the heavens shall reveal his iniquity, and the earth shall rise up against him," Job, xx. 27. Bad works, yea and even bad words, are snares. "A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul," Prov. xviii. 7. Sins are called the snares of death because every sinner is under the ministration of death and condemnation, and the strength of sin is the law; and yet in this law the fool trusts. This is the "way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death," Prov. xiv. 12. "Christ Jesus, the blessed mediator, is the believer's way to the Father, upon whom he ascends and descends, John, i. 51; and goes in and out and finds pasture," John, i. 9. "The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath," Prov. xv. 24.

5. The law of liberty. "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed," James, i. 25. This law of liberty alludes to the law of release under the former dispensation, and is nothing else but the law of faith, as may be seen by the following observations, which the word liberty points out.

As, first, we are in bondage to sin; yea, holden with the cords of our sins. And what makes us free? Faith purifies the heart.

We are under the yoke of legal precepts. "This do, and thou shalt live." But he that believes hath everlasting life already. This yoke is easy; and, though attended with a daily cross, the burden is light.

We were in bondage under the law of death; but when faith comes we are no longer under that schoolmaster.

We were servants unto sin, and in bondage to slavish fear of wrath to come: but we are "the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus;" and therefore "no more servants, but sons; and if sons, then heirs."

We were in bondage to the killing sentence of the law: but he that believes is justified freely from all things.

We were in bondage to the fear of the second death: "but we have known and believed the love that God hath to us," 1 John, iv. 16. And as faith brings this love in, so love casts this fear out.

We were in bondage to the spirit of this world: but "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."

In short, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty; and we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

Now he that believes is, sure to have an understanding given him to look into this law; for "he that believeth on me shall not abide in darkness, but shall have the light of life," John, xii. 46. The doer of this work is he that exercises himself under the different graces of God's Spirit, called the "work of faith, labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Thess. i. 3. "For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men," Rom. xiv. 18. Now this man is said to be blessed in his deed, though not for it. God's blessing is life for ever more; and "as many as are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham;" but "he that believeth not is condemned already," and under the curse; and therefore is cursed in his deed instead of being blessed.

6. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," Gal. vi. 2. This law of Christ is love to his neighbours and friends; for sure I am that he bore the burden of us all. But what law moved him to it? Free and undeserved love. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," John, xv. 13. He would not call us enemies, but friends: but sworn enemies we were, both in heart and life, or else we could not be said to be reconciled by his death. None but spiritual men are in possession of this law; for what can a minister of the letter, or a bond-child, do to lighten the burdens of others? Just as much as the Jewish Pharisees did when Judas confessed to them. Such men are ball in hell themselves. They may heal the wound slightly, and cry "Peace, peace," where there is no peace. They may soothe conscience by comforting in vain; or may beget presumption, and rock the soul to sleep in carnal security: but they will by these means only increase the poor creature's burden in the end, and their own burden too; for such are no better than forgers of lies, and physicians of no value. He must know his own heart who can draw the grief out of the heart of another. He must have an experience of a work of grace who dissolves another's doubts. He that has the oil of joy may anoint another with fresh oil in the name of the Lord; and be that is prevalent with God in prayer may take a part of his brother's burdens, and cast them on the Lord when he has done.

7. "Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a lair shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth," Isa. Ii. 4, 5. These persons are called the Lord's people and his nation; and three blessings are promised in this text.

1. A law.
2. The Lord's righteousness. And
3. The Lord's salvation.

Faith, with every other grace, comes by the Spirit from the Saviour's fulness; and the Lord's righteousness is to all and upon all that believe, and upon no other. And they that believe shall be saved in him, and none else; for they that believe not shall be damned. And this judging and justifying the Lord's people rests as a light to them, and is of use to the saints in trying and proving ministers by; for, if he cannot describe the workings of unbelief and the work of faith, neither sin by the law nor pardon by the gospel either condemnation by the one nor justification by the other, neither righteousness nor the peaceable knits of it, the believer knows that he is not in the secret, and considers him no more than an impostor. Past experience is a word behind us, "saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left," Isai. xxx. 21.

8. The law of circumcision. This law stands in having the veil of ignorance removed from the mind by the illuminating operations of the spirit of revelation, and in having the body of the sins of the flesh put off by the circumcision of Christ, Col. ii. 11. And, when faith has purified the heart from guilt and filth, and the body of sins are put off, and Christ by faith put on, such a soul, having much forgiven, loves much, being constrained to it by a sweet sense of God's pardoning love shed abroad in his heart. This is the circumcision which God promises to his elect. "And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee," Deut. xxx. 6, 7. This law is in the soul of all regenerate persons, and in no other. "For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh," Philip. iii 13.

9. I shall now proceed to the law of truth. "My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity," Mal. ii. 5, 6. This covenant is the covenant of grace, which is now called the Gospel of Christ; and the promises and blessings of it are the free gifts of God. I gave my covenant to him, says God. It is called a covenant of life and peace. The Spirit of God had quickened him and given him life; for it is the Spirit that quickeneth. The Holy Spirit had regenerated and sanctified him; for there is no walking with God in equity with an unpurged and unrenewed conscience. Nor can an unpardoned sinner walk with God, for it is sin that separates between us and our God. They that walk with God must be made nigh by the blood of Christ. Nor hath an unpardoned sinner any peace. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isai. lvii. 21. They must be pardoned and justified by faith who have the peace of God in their hearts. "Thy sins are forgiven thee, go in peace," says the Saviour. "O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world; grant us thy peace!" says the Book of Common Prayer. Nor is there any peace to a self-righteous pharisee, but a false peace kept up by Satan in those souls in whom he reigns and rules. "When a strong man armed keeps possession of the palace his goods are in peace," Luke, xi. 21. Peace is the fruit of an imputed righteousness. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." And it is the Holy Spirit of God who brings this righteousness near, makes it known, and works faith in the heart, to put it on; for "we are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God," 1 Cor. vi. 11. Wherever this work is done, there the fruits of the Spirit are made manifest, which are Love, Joy, Peace. This law is in the soul of every spiritual man, and in no other; for God declares of all carnal men, that they are so far from his covenant of life and peace, and from walking with him in equity, that they are strangers to the covenant of promise, dead in trespasses and sins, with mind and conscience both defiled; and the way of peace they have never known. I shall now consider,

10. The law of the house. "This is the law of the house; upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house," Ezek. xliii. 12. This house in the type was the second temple, which was to stand till Christ came; and when he came he set up in truth his own temple, of which the other was a figure. "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Matt. vi. 18. This house goes by various names, as "the household of faith," Gal. vi. 10, consisting of true believers and no other. "The house of God, the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth," 1 Tim. iii. 15. "The temple of the living God," 2 Cor. vi. 16. "An habitation of God through the Spirit," Ephes. ii. 22. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house; an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," 1 Pet. ii. 5. The materials of this house consist of stones, for the solidity and beauty of them, bein