less than blaspheme God, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven, who utter such blasphemy. However, it is a covenant of free grace that God has made with Christ, and with us in him; and their dead works can find no footing in it. It is the ministration of the Spirit; and natural men discern not the things of it, for they are foolishness to them. As they know not the Lord, they have nothing to trust in but their own righteousness; which they perceive cannot be established by the gospel, for it reveals only the righteousness of God; "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for therein is the righteousness of God revealed, from faith to faith." This the bond children are aware of; and therefore abuse the grace of God, charge it with bad consequences, and run to the law for some ground of boasting; and, being ignorant of its spiritual meaning, they trust in the letter, make a fair shew in the flesh, and establish a righteousness of their own before men, which cannot stand the inquest of their own thoughts, much less the impartial test of the Judge of quick and dead. But, without an union with the true vine, Christ says they can do nothing: by our abiding in Christ we shall bring forth much fruit. Without faith they shall never please God; but those that are strong in faith shall give glory to him. By the law let them glory in the flesh; by grace we shall be to the praise of his glory who have trusted in Christ. If thou bring thyself under the law in any sense whatever, thou wilt soon lose sight of Christ, and sin will gain the ascendancy over thee. Sin shall not have dominion over them that are under grace; but those that are in the flesh, the motions of sin, which are by the law, do work in their members to bring forth fruit unto death, Rom. vii. 5. These are all the fruits they produce, and all the good works they perform: God and their own conscience know it. They may talk about works, as the Jews of old did; and say that the grace of God leads to licentiousness, as they said Christ kept not the sabbath-day; that he was not of God; that he cast out devils by Beelzebub; and that he received sinners and ate with them; and, under all this pretended shew of zeal for holiness, they blasphemed against the Holy Ghost, and exposed themselves to the sentence of eternal damnation. Paul gives us a description of the people who perform good works in reality. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared; teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world: looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works," Titus ii. 11-14. These are the people who perform good works: they are redeemed from all iniquity; they are purified unto the Lord by faith; they have a good hope through grace; they look for the appearing of the Lord Jesus; and are zealous of good works, knowing their own election of God, and their being unto him a peculiar people. Thus zeal for good works is the effect of redemption and purifying grace. Ask these hypocrites what they know of redemption, and how applied? What of faith, the operations of it, and its purifying effects? And, if they are strangers to these things, they are dead in sin, condemned already, and the wrath of God abides upon them. And if you watch them narrowly, you will hear nothing but vanity from their mouth, nor see any thing in their life but sin. To be short, "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts;" and against such there is no law. Those that in faith, love, and purity of heart, serve Christ, are accepted of God, and approved of all good men. And, if sister is not satisfied with the truth, blessings, and benefits, of an everlasting gospel, let her try the yoke of an eternal law; that will soon discover her folly, make every offence abound, stir up all her carnal enmity, and make her temper unbearable. Peevishness; hastiness of spirit; discontentedness with her frame of mind; doubts about her state; hard thoughts of God; labouring to make herself better, and getting worse; striving against sin and her own evil tempers, and tumbling into them; making secret vows, and breaking them ; watching against evil, and being daily entangled in it; are the things that will ever follow a legal my spirit under the law; insomuch that the bodily frame withers, weakens, faints, and sinks under the burden and I should not wonder if I were to hear that my poor friend goes sick to bed every month in the year. I shall add no more at present; only wish to see her contented with one husband; and let her go back to the law as soon as Jesus ceases to do worthily in Ephratah, or fails to be famous in Bethlehem. WINCHESTER Row, W. H. TO MRS. R. J. AT B-N-D. My sister need make no apologies; she is very welcome to any instruction that the Lord shall think meet to give her by me. I know the terrors and bondage of the law, and the natural bent of our own legal spirits to it; and I know by sad experience the miserable effects of such miserable doctrine, having formerly sat under a deal of it, and to little purpose. When they have delivered an unintelligible harangue on the letter of the law, none are fed or refreshed but the carnal hypocrite; he applauds it, and is furnished from the pulpit with weapons to wound and torment the simple babes of Christ. The goats are polished and armed; while the poor flock is sent off stripped, wounded, and put to shame. The free children are bound, the bond family encouraged: by which means the uncircumcised and the unclean are huddled among the saints, till you scarcely know the one from the other. Judgment, mercy, faith, and the love of God, are the weighty matters of the law. These are called the great things of it, though at present they bear a very scandalous name; and so they ever did by hypocritical professors: "I have written to him the great things of my law," says God, "but they were counted as a strange thing," Hosea viii. 12. These are called the weighty matters, or great things of the law; not because they come from thence, for they do not, but because they are the great things that the Old Testament treats of; for on love to God and our neighbour hang all the law and the prophets. And, if shewing the judgment of God to unrenewed sinners concerning their state, enforcing the sure mercies of David in Christ, preaching faith and the love of God, be making void the law, then all the apostles made it void. However, Paul says we establish the law through faith; and I think it would puzzle the learned to shew how the law can be established, to the honour of God, or to the comfort of his people, any other way. If preaching the faith of Christ be establishing the law, how can it make it void? and, if it be making it void, then all the primitive servants of God did it; for they preached Christ to the people as the sinner's only Saviour, refuge, and example; and performed all their won |