cannot see [much less enter into] the kingdom of God." The kingdom of God is in power: regeneration enlightens us into it, and gives us a sensible enjoyment of it; for it stands in righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost; nothing of which comes to us from the law. If enforcing the law as the only rule of life, and setting it before thee as thy only standard of holiness, be accompanied with power; if it produce love to God and man; if it promote true holiness; if it refresh the new man, and clothe the soul with humility and self loathing; if it endear Christ, and strengthen faith; if it produce spiritual life and peace; if it enlighten the eyes, enlarge the heart, wean from the world, purify the soul, encourage diligence, and make God, his ways and worship, the delight of thy soul, thou mayest well bear with them; for these things come from God, and do accompany salvation. But I know there is nothing of all this attends such preaching; and this letter of yours is a sufficient proof of it. I have set before my sister the law and the gospel, commandments and promises, life and death, a blessing and a curse. If thou cleave to the letter of the law, and make that thy rule of life, walk, actions, and conversation; then thy obedience will be the obedience of the law, not of faith; they will be thy fruits, not the fruits of the Spirit. By the law you work, by the gospel God works in me. You produce fruit in obedience to the letter; in Christ is my fruit found. You work by the law; by the gospel God works all

my works in me. By the law you must make a new heart, and a new spirit; by the gospel God creates me anew in Christ Jesus. By the law you must love God; by the gospel God's love is shed abroad in my heart. By the law you must wash you, and make you clean; by the gospel God cleanses me from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit. Thus God works by the gospel, and by the law you work: by the one self is denied, and Christ is all in all; by the other, self is exalted, and you are all in all. One of these agents must give way: grace must be grace, and works no more works; or works must be all, and grace nothing at all. “I do not frustrate the grace of God; for, if righteousness come by the law, Christ is dead in vain." And as righteousness did not come by the law, so neither did holiness, life, or sanctification come by the law. Christ is made of God unto us wisdom, life, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption; and he doth sanctify and cleanse his church, and present it without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing. If this opens a door to all licentiousness, then it follows that man's dead works are true holiness; and all God's works, which are perfect, licentiousness. Will not this be bitterness in the end? God tells me that I am become dead to the law, am delivered from the law, and that I am not under the law. And what is all this death and deliverance for? That we might live in sin? Nay, we are become dead to the law, that we may live unto God; we are delivered from it, that we may

serve God in newness of the Spirit; and we are brought from under it that we might be under grace. But why living unto God, serving in the Spirit, and being under grace, should be called a door to all licentiousness, I know not: I must refer this to the hearing of the great God when the year of revenges comes on for the controversy of Zion. But, if my sister chooses to live to the law, be under it as her only rule of life, walk, and action, not accepting deliverance, she is welcome: let her bow her shoulders to bear, and become a servant to tribute; she will find, ere long, that that lamp will go out, and then she will be calling for oil. She is poor and needy now; but the legal veil sometimes blinds the eyes to that degree, that a person may be poor and wretched, miserable, blind, and naked, and yet not know it. If thou wast to adhere to the voice of Christ in the promises, and to the voice of the Spirit in thy conscience, if it be there, thou wouldst find a living rule much preferable to a killing letter and a yoke of bondage. On the other hand, she is at full liberty; I have no dominion over her faith. Let her take the portion of goods that fall to her, and gather all together, and trade away with her rule of action; it will not be long before she will find the law, with its gendering yoke, will bring her into the wilderness; and when in a far country and a dry land, she may remember her first husband, turn beggar, and be glad to live by faith on the fatted calf and bread of life. Until when I

shall leave Mrs. Instability to make the most of her two opinions: only adding that, should she ever fail in business; should the citizen of that country turn swindler; should she waste her present substance; should the ministers of the letter starve her with husks; when she comes to herself, when her belly is in want, when she is humbled to beg, and longs to come home, I shall not be offended at the music and dancing, but remain the willing servant of Mrs. Prodigalis when the father makes merry.

WINCHESTER Row,
Dec. 29, 1788.

WM. HUNTINGTON.

TO MRS. R. J. AT B-N-D.

Ar the first sight of my sister's letter these words darted into my mind, "Behold, yonder is that Shunamite! Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?" I mean, is it well with conscience? is it well between Christ and thee? is it well with the new creature, which is created after the image of him that created him in righteousness and true holiness, which is so often called a licentious Antinomian ?

There is little in this letter that savours of union with the true and living vine; or of joy and

the reverse.

peace, the blessed effects of that union; but quite The veil hangs heavy on thy mind, which has obscured him that is fairer than the children of men. Thou dost not with open face behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, that changes us into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Moses is turned accuser; and that is the way he serves all who put their trust in him. No enlargement of heart dost thou enjoy; no fresh discoveries of the beauty, suitableness, and invaluable worth of the blessed Saviour. Bondage damps all joys, contracts the heart, produces servile fear, opposes love, and fills the soul with fruitless slavery, rebellion, murmuring, discontent, deadness in devotion, leanness of soul, and enmity at those who stand fast in the Lord, and in the liberty wherewith he has made them free. I have, by the help of God, brought my religion into a narrow compass: that is, by faith, by prayer, by examination, by self denial, by confession, by watchfulness, by reading, by meditation, and by diligence in these things, to keep up a comfortable communion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ; and in this way I am as happy, as holy, as free and lively in the pulpit, as useful in my ministry, as much favoured of God both in providence and grace; am as well attended in my ministry, and by as discerning, knowing, experimental, and upright a people, as any evangelist in London who is a stranger to this sort of Antinomianism. And my poor sister, after she has