says, pass from death to life by faith, because the believer, according to them, is still under the snares of death; he is still under the law of death as his only rule of life. This is called preaching the gospel, doing the work of an evangelist, being a minister of the Spirit, making full proof of the ministry; and every man that cannot turn the law that worketh wrath into a law of love; that cannot bring the living fruits of the Spirit out of the killing letter; that cannot turn the snares cf death into rules of life; is an erroneous man and an Antinomian. Welcome reproach! welcome names! welcome Antinomian! These names bring no guilt on the conscience; they stop not up the new and living way between God and the soul; they seal not up God's book, nor bind the spirit of liberty. Election secures every minister in his station, and all the success that shall attend his labours. It has been observed that those, who have been the most forward at lampooning me for an Antinomian, have been the greatest novices in divinity; and, while they have been contending for the law as the only rule of life, they have preached the greatest confusion, discovered the greatest ignorance of the nature of the law, and have evidently appeared in the strongest bondage: "He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity;" he that binds grievous burdens on other men's shoulders goes a sure way to load his own back.

No wonder that legions are flocking back to Sinai; it is a proof that the law is not dead to

them, nor they to it; they begun in the Spirit before they had been killed by the letter. Their first husband, it is to be feared, is not dead, therefore they are not loosed from that law; and being adulteresses, the first husband has taken them up and brought them back, not being loosed from their old bond of wedlock, nor favoured with a writing of divorcement; therefore, as a wife of the first covenant, the eloped Lo-ruhamah is brought back, Hos. i. 6; Hos. ii. 1, 2; but Hephzibah, the Lord's delight, whom he has espoused to himself, if she goes back, will return again to her first husband, saying, It was better with me then than it is now. Consider, sir, and see if there be any thing that you want to make you holy or happy that does not come from the law of the Spirit of life; and whether any of these things come from the law of works; whether mercy, grace, hope, or help comes from that quarter: and take heed that you do not jumble these two covenants together. covenant of works, the other of grace;

law of death, the other the law of life;

One is a

one is the

bond chil

dren are under the law; free children are under grace; they that are under grace are under the blessing, those under the law are under the curse; one are heirs of promise, the other heirs of wrath; one are children of God, the other are children of the devil. The free-born children receive the inheritance freely, the bondchildren work to earn it. "The gift of God is eternal life," "the wages of sin is death." And, in order to clear this doctrine

from the charge of Antinomianism, I will inquire what this law of the Spirit of life produces, for we are told that the gospel brings forth fruit, Col. i. 6. Paul says, "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law."

Now let us see what the law of the wise, which Solomon calls a fountain of life, produces. I think we shall find the same things springing from his fountain as comes from Paul's law of the Spirit: Solomon says wisdom loves them that love her; and that love is better than a house full of sacrifices; and that, "if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned:" here is what Paul calls the first fruit of the Spirit; the next is Joy: "the heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." Peace; "wisdom's ways are pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Long-suffering; "the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." Gentleness; "be not hasty to go out of his sight; stand not in an evil thing." Goodness; "the upright shall have good things in possession." Faith; "in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence, and his children shall have a place of refuge." Meekness;

Surely he scorneth the scorners, but he giveth grace unto the lowly." Temperance; "the righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul." Thus the fruits of Paul's law of the spirit are the same as those that spring from Solomon's law of the wise,

which he calls a fountain of life: and remember the gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit, and the law is the ministration of the letter; "the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Solomon's fountain of life is supplied from God in covenant, who tells us that all his springs are in Zion; therefore it is vain to expect help from Sinai. The law of the Spirit will remain what it is, notwithstanding men's legality; and the ministration of the letter will remain what it is, notwithstanding men's faith and love; one will ever give life, and the other will ever give death: the one will ever produce freedom, and the other will ever gender to bondage.

Those that have felt the bondage, wrath, terrors, and death, that the law works, will prize their liberty, and take heed how they approach that blackness and darkness again; but those that never felt its power can play with it as with a bird, for they are alive without it. It is in vain that ministers send men to Sinai in order to promote holiness: "the works of the flesh are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness." And will sending men to the law destroy these? Nay, says Paul, these are the motions of sin, which are by the law that works in our members to bring forth fruit unto death, Rom. vii. 5. Nor was the law manifested to destroy these works of the devil, but to make them appear exceeding

sinful; nor does the law weaken sin but aggravate it; for "the strength of sin is the law." It is grace that makes the believer what he is, nor will the law ever make him better. Those that came privily in to spy out the apostles' liberty that they might bring them into bondage, Gal. ii. 4, agree exactly with you in sentiment; for, if the law be binding to the believer, and he be under it as a rule of life, it is the same as what they enforced ; namely, "it was needful to circumcise them, and command them to keep the law of Moses." They said this was needful; you say the believer is under this necessity they called it keeping the law of Moses; and you call the law of Moses the believer's rule of life. There is no more difference between your assertions and theirs than there is between my two eyes. If you object that it is circumcision only that is called the yoke that was unbearable; it is answered, they were circumcised at eight days old, therefore the fathers could give very little account of the unbearable pain of it. The yoke consisted in this; "he that is circumcised is a debtor to do the whole law:""Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God" is what is meant. Submitting to circumcision is rejecting Christ, who was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. And submitting to the yoke of keeping the law of Moses is rejecting Christ's yoke, which consists of faith and love in the Spirit.