and the son of thy handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds; I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people; in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord," Psalm cxvi. 16-19. When my sister gets her feet out of the stocks she will offer praise as well as David. Delivering grace does not lead to licentiousness; it lays us under the strongest, highest, and most constraining obligations to God that it is possible for a mortal to feel; such as bondchildren and hypocrites never felt.

Paul loved the law of God after the inner man. True; stick to that, and you are right; and, when you hear a man crying up and enforcing the law upon you, mark him, and see if he can define the new man, and whether he feeds the new man in you. Christ in the heart eats his honeycomb with his honey. If no power attends the word, no refreshing comes from the Lord's presence; if he is a stranger to that experience that worketh hope, he knows not God; he believes neither Moses' writings nor the Saviour's words; he is not a new creature, but is in the flesh, not in the Spirit, and only trades with the letter. He does not know the law; he has not got the law, nor does he love the law. The end of the law is love: God's love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Such love the law after the inner man, and love is the fulfilling of the law. To walk in love, as

Christ hath loved us, is Paul's more excellent way; and this David calls the way of God's commandments, which he pursued when love cast out the slavish fear of the law, delivered him from the bondage of it, and enlarged his heart from the contraction and straitness which the law brought him into. "I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight."

Thou art endeavouring to fetch all thy good works from the law of Moses, and to make that thy only rule of life and action; but David fetched his help from another quarter, which did not lead him to licentiousness. He would praise God when he had loosed his bonds; but thou contendest for more bonds. He would run the way of God's commandments when God's love had enlarged his heart; but the law of the Spirit of life and love is not sufficient for you. He delighted in God's path, and says, make me to go in it; but God's spiritual might in the inner man is not sufficient for thee. David's liberty from bonds, his heart-enlarging love, and God's strengthening him with strength in his soul, lead to licentiousness, according to the doctrine you hear. Your divines fetch all their works from a dead letter, and keep the law without imitating poor David in his humble petition; "Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe."

"Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments." If this

quotation be true, that respect to all God's commandments sets a man out of the reach of shame, then it follows that, if I go on enforcing the everlasting love of God to us, and insisting on a pure love to him, and a love to the law after the inner man; a walk in love, or keeping ourselves in the love of God; which love is the fulfilment of the law, and the bond of the everlasting covenant, and which is called serving God in the newness of the Spirit, for he is the Spirit of love and of a sound mind; I shall with my mind serve the law of God, and therefore have no cause to be ashamed, though all the world call me an Antinomian; for respect to all God's commandments sets me out of the reach of shame. Let me live then under the influence of God's everlasting love, and let my sister go to the law. Be the former my yoke, and the latter hers. Work thou in the letter, and may love for ever work in me! With this bond I will box the compass all round with my sister, or any of her legal preachers. Is she labouring to keep the law? God is not forgetful of my labours of love. Does she make the law her only rule of action?" Love is the fulfilling of the law." Is she trying to fulfil the second table? "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour." Is she trying to keep all the commandments? "Love is the end of the commandment." Or, is she sick of the old veil, the old yoke, and the bond child's rule of life? If so, let her return to her first husband: love is an easy yoke, and a light burden. Would she believe?

Charity believeth all things." Would she be saved by hope? Love "hopeth all things." Would she escape real Antinomianism? Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Would she escape legal pride? Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Would she escape evil thoughts? Love thinketh no evil. Would she be patient? Love beareth and endureth all things. Would she be free? Love is a free spirit. Would she escape. the arrogant behaviour and carnal conversation of hypocrites? Love doth not behave unseemly. Would she run the path of holiness? Love is the more excellent way. Would she keep the commandments? He that hath the gospel in his heart, and keepeth it, he it is that loveth Christ, and in him verily is the love of God perfected. Would she enjoy the pardon of sin? "Where much is forgiven, the same loveth much." Would she know her state to be safe? "We know that we are passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Would you know what it is draws souls to Christ? "With lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Would you know the reason why some preachers get worse in their ministry instead of better? and why some professors stand still, or go backwards instead of forwards? It is because the Lord doth not draw them with love; therefore they do not run after him. Would you know who they are that love Christ?" He that hath my word [the gospel], he it is that loveth me, and shall be loved of my Father." Would you know why

so many, in Christ's days, went back or fell away? The love of God was not in them; they had no root in themselves. Would you know why so many stick in the birth, and never come forth? It is because perfect love never casts out their fear. Would you know why you halt so long between two opinions? Because thou art not made perfect in love. Would you enjoy a spiritual birth, and a knowledge of God?" He that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God." Would you know who doth, and who doth not, know God? Mark their descriptions of love, and the power that attends it: "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." Would you know who they are that obtain victory over sin? They whom God crowns with lovingkindness and tender mercy. Would know what brings the saints through all their heavy trials, and the shadow of death? It is love, which is strong as death; which no water can quench, nor flood drown. Would you know what keeps the saints alive, active, and obedient? "The love of Christ constraineth us." Would you know what brings us off victorious? "We are more than conquerors through him that hath loved us." Would you know what it is that unites to God? It is love: "He that loveth dwelleth in God, and God in him." Would you know who they are that keep the commandments? Those that live in union with Christ; He that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. Would you know to whom God speaks in his word?