the commandments."

And we know that all who

are in the flesh do expect eternal life by the works of the law. These things cannot be spoken against; nor will any natural man ever oppose this way to heaven; nor does the devil himself; for he knows, as well as we do, that Moses never cast out devils; and he knows that the kingdom of God is not graven on tables of stone; these never make Satan fall like lightning from heaven; this way has ever seemed right to a man; nor is there one in ten thousand who will believe the end thereof to be the ways of death, till he is safely arrived in hell; and then, Christ says, he will lift up his eyes, being in torment. The offence of the cross does not attend the works of the law; "The law is not of faith; but the man that doeth them shall live in them."

Far be it from me to wrong either the elect or reprobate. God tells me to give a portion to seven and also to eight. I ever said that unconverted ministers of the letter are under the law, for the impression of the type on the paper is all they have to hope in; and we know that the letter killeth, but it is the Spirit that giveth life. And this appears in their ministry; for they call experience, that worketh hope, enthusiasm; and God's revealing his Son in his people, or, Christ manifesting himself to those whom God has given him out of the world, New Revelations; and charge the grace of God with licentiousness. These cannot be partakers of grace; nor are they born again of

the Spirit. Such as these should not meddle with the gospel; God himself rebukes them for taking his covenant in their mouth.

The children of old Adam are right in contending for legal preachers; for the voice of the law is to them; "We know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law." And as for their sneering and mocking at the children of God, they act in character. God has put enmity between the seed of the serpent and that of the woman; "He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was by promise," Gal. iv. 29. And so it is now, and will be to the end.

I am fully persuaded, and my own conscience bears me witness, that all those, who have sworn to and subscribed the Articles of the Church of England, and afterwards turn aside to vain jangling, and preach up the law, free-will, fleshly works, and abuse the grace of God, are under the law as their only rule of life: and will undoubtedly be damned by it, unless they are perfect as the law is perfect for the curse is as sure as the blessing, and has the oath of God to secure it. He has sworn in his wrath that they shall not enter into his rest; and the law is made for all liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any thing which they hold contrary to sound doctrine, 1 Tim. i. 10. Let no person therefore charge me with a denial of these things, for I never did deny the law being the only rule of action for those who begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh; or, in plain words, who

begin with the gospel and end in the law; for God declares that such are fallen from grace, or their profession of it, and that Christ shall profit them nothing. These things none can gainsay or resist. All that I contend for is this, that the law and its curse cannot be separated. He who brings a professing man under the law brings him into bondage, and under the sentence of God. Bring him under the yoke of the law, as his only rule of life and action; make him obedient to it, and make him act and work under it; and the scripture says he is of the works of the law; and " as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." Such a man is for legal works; of works he speaks, and under the curse he is. Wrath works in him directly, and will work in him perpetually all the time he stays there. Grace works not in him; nor are his works the works of faith, nor labours of love, nor the fruits of the Spirit. The law is not of faith; under grace he doth not abide; nor does Christ profit him any thing while he sticks to that yoke.

If my sister cannot believe this, let her watch the confusion and deadness of many of the sermons that she hears; the covetousness that appears in such preachers; their implacable enmity against Christ and them that preach him; and she will find that gossipping, tattling, tippling, backbiting, narrowness, bigotry, self-love, self-seeking, and railing at the power of religion, are the things that attend many of these unconverted ministers of the

letter; and often at sixty or seventy years of age you will see them soft, cottish, effeminate, doating about wedlock, and crawling alive with wanton amours. And it cannot be otherwise; for they that are in the flesh, the motions of sins, which are by the law, do work in their members to bring forth fruit unto death. Sin takes occasion by the commandment, and works in them all manner of concupiscence, Rom. vii. 5, 8. These are some of the good works that are to be found in these perjured hypocrites and moderate Calvinists, and in all who are enemies to the grace of God. Nothing can purify the heart but living faith and atoning blood; nothing can subdue sin but grace; and without Christ man can do nothing but sin. If God doth not keep man, man cannot keep himself. The motions of sins are by the law; the strength of sin is the law; and the devil leads the sinner captive at his will.

'Practical holiness' is a term I do not understand. One half of the pompous phrases that now creep into pulpits will not bear the balance of common sense. Holiness can neither be fetched from the law of Moses, nor from a carnal heart; nor is it a thing to be put in practice by free-will, or an arm of flesh. There is none supremely holy but One; that is, God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Christ is the Holy One of his people; and they who are purged from sin by his blood, sanctified by his Spirit, in covenant, in favour, and in spiritual union, with him, are complete in him,

their head; who is made of God unto them righteousness and sanctification. Such are new creatures, created in righteousness and true holiness; and it is God, and none else, who humbles them, and sanctifies them.. "He chastens us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness." Such persons are holy people; they walk in union with Christ, as the only way; and under the influence of the Spirit they live: they receive a supply of the Spirit of Christ as they stand in need, live in the fear of God, walk humbly with him, and labour to keep a conscience void of offence towards him. All who are destitute of this, and strangers to it, have no more real holiness than Satan himself: it is only an outward shew, which the scriptures call washing the platter, whiting the wall, or painting the sepulchre.

The law obeyed, and disarmed of its curse, is in the heart of the Mediator, who is Judge of quick and dead, and therefore keeps the keys of hell and of death. The believer is under the law of faith to Christ; and they that are his have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts: such are delivered from the law; and against such there is no law; and sin is not imputed where there is no law. I do insist upon it that, if a believer be brought to the law of Moses, to be under it in any other sense, sin stares him in the face, wrath works in his heart, his enmity is stirred up, bondage seizes him, and despondency or despair will sink him, unless the law of the Spirit of life make him free from the law of sin and death.