me an exact account of it; explain the operations of it, thy sensations under it, and a true account of the superabounding practical holiness that thy family, fellow-members, and neighbours, see in thee.

Not one holy motion, not one divine and pleasing sensation, not a single flame of pure love to God or man, wilt thou ever fetch from that covenant. "The law worketh wrath;" and the carnal mind is enmity against the lawgiver; nor can it be subject to the law. Those that are under it may cleave to one another, but the union is only the bond of natural affections; and some are held together by corrupt affections, and some given up to vile affections. But pure love flows freely from a reconciled God in Christ Jesus; and is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, who is the spirit of love and of a sound mind.

Thou canst not discern one from the other. No; for Paul says the preacher knows not what he says, nor whereof he affirms; and, if so, the flock, and thyself among them, must be tossed to and fro with a tempest; afflicted, and not comforted; nor will be, until God appears to lay their stones with fair colours: and, as soon as the elect Foundation, chief Corner Stone, Stone of Help, and the Living Stone appears with divine lustre, thou wilt quit the storm, and be glad to embrace the shadow of that Rock in this weary land. If thou aim at holiness by the law, remember thou must be perfect in the flesh as well as spirit. The

ław is perfect; it will allow of no infirmities, no evil thoughts, no adulterous looks, no anger nor evil tempers, no fire to be kindled on the Sabbath day; not speaking thy own words, nor thinking thy own thoughts on that day; thy neighbour must be loved as thyself; half thy goods must be given to the poor; one coat of the two must go to them that have none; and then there is no getting to heaven but by taking up the cross, and following Jesus. No man shall ever stand the test of that law without a pure love to God, divine life in Christ, holiness by the Spirit, and an everlasting righteousness from the God of his salvation. When you come to London again we will compare notes together, and see which has gained most by trading: until which time pursue your present path, and I will pursue mine.

Make the law your only rule of life; read it, keep your eyes upon it, and live by it; and I will

pray that I may be kept dead to the law, and alive

unto God; that I may be crucified with Christ, and yet live; yet not I, but that Christ may live in me. If you make the law your rule of life, you are alive to the law, and walk in the law. And, if Christ lives in me, I shall be kept alive unto God, and walk in newness of life.

Go you on with the commandments, and I will go on with the promises. Make the law your rule of walk, and I will pray God to perform his promise in me; for God hath said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them." Thus you go on by the

law, and I by the gospel. Do you perform your duty, and I will plead my privileges. Act thou as an industrious servant; and, by God's grace, I will act as an affectionate son. Be thou obedient to the law, and I will pray for grace for obedience to the faith. Live thou in the fear of thy master, and I will endeavour to honour my heavenly Father.

Make the law thy only rule of action, and act accordingly; and I will depend upon God to work in me both to will and to do of his own good pleasure; yea, to fulfil all the good pleasure of his will in me, and the work of faith with power.

Make the law your only rule of conversation. Speak of the commandments" when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates; that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children; in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them as the days of heaven upon the earth." And I will pray God to create the fruit of my lips; to give me a mouth and wisdom that all my enemies shall not be able to gainsay or resist; and that it may not be me that speaks, but that the Spirit of my heavenly Father may speak in me; and then my conversation will be with power, and my words seasoned with salt, ministering grace. Thus runs the promise, and the excellency and the power is of God; and, if God

perform his promise to me he will have all the glory; and, if thou perform thy task, thou hast whereof to glory, but not before God, whatever thou dost before men.

Let the ministers of the letter bind all the grievous burdens upon your shoulders that you can possibly bear, and I will cast my burdens on the Lord, who has promised to sustain me. Be thou careful to observe all the grievousness which they prescribe, and I will cast all my care upon him that careth for me. Walk thou by sight, and I by faith; walk thou in the letter, and I in the Spirit. Look thou to the commandments, and I will look to Jesus.

They that say this doctrine opens a door to all licentiousness know not what they say. You saw nothing like that in me; and those that are setting the law perpetually before your eyes, and enforcing holiness from that, in order to blind your mind, and prejudice your soul, against the truth and the preachers of it, give you no other proof of their superior holiness than what you hear from their mouth. There is no more power in their discourses, no more savour in their conversation, no more knowledge of the word, no more experience of grace, no more success in their ministry, no more liberality, no more prevalency with God in prayer, no more circumspection before men, nor conscientiousness towards God, than appears in some that are called Antinomians; nor half so much. Men who have nothing to recommend them either in

heart or life, must do all by the sound of a trumpet. He that laboured more abundantly than they all, and much more to the purpose, said, "It is not I, but the grace of God that was with me." But we have some in our days who tell us they fetch all their comfort from their holiness, and their holiness from the law: and I believe them; for they seem to have no fellowship with the God of comfort, nor experience of the Holy Ghost. Cleave thou to the Saviour, and depend on his grace; and, when these fail, then try the law. The way to Sinai is broader than the way to Zion; the path is the most beaten, and there are the greatest number of travellers. It is easier to get law than gospel; and a throne of judgment is more accessible than a throne of grace. We have legions of unconverted preachers of the letter, but ministers of the Spirit are few. Most men will proclaim their own goodness, but a faithful man who can find? Men who are unacquainted with the power of godliness must enforce the letter, for that is all their stock. With the letter, a great noise, and a fair shew in the flesh, they deceive the simple. The mystery of faith is a puzzling thing to an unexperienced heart and an unenlightened head: when they attempt this they only betray their ignorance. The gentleman was right; "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord:" and, if he has no holiness but what he gets from the law, he will never see the Lord with acceptance; for "Except a man be born again [of the Holy Ghost] he