he will think God is just like himself, Psalm 1. 21; and will preach the eternal love of the Godhead as universally fixed on all the human race: this is denying the Bible, which tells us thousands are in hell already, Ezek. xxxi. 16, 17; xxxii. 21, 22; and not one there but the object of his hatred. All these principles we bring into the world with us, and they are a superfluity of naughtiness; these old things must be done away, before we can be new creatures. A man in the old Adam is but a very poor divine at best, and will be a bad instru ment to proclaim the necessity of a new heart, a new spirit, and self-denial.

"Or a man that is broken footed, or broken handed." A man broken handed cannot work, and he that is broken footed cannot walk. A priest under the law was to receive and kill the sacrifice, and to wave it before the Lord; and if it was offered for himself, he must lay his hands upon the head of it, and confess his sins over it to God; he was to go to God to inquire for the people, and then to come out and lift up his hands, and bless them in the name of the Lord; therefore a ceremonial priest needed both feet and hands; and a gospel minister must be both a wayfaring man and a labourer, 2 Tim. ii. 6; he must walk by faith, 2 Cor. v. 7; and by faith lay hold on eternal life: Free-will is a withered arm, Isaiah lxiv. 7; and fleshly confidence is a foot out of joint, Prov. xxv. 19.

Not a man crooked-backed, verse the twentieth.

Surely it is not a deformed body that is meant in this passage; God is no respecter of persons, neither does he delight in any man's legs. Paul the apostle was a deformed man, and the devil tempted him enough about it, Gal. iv. 14; and fools often despised him for it, 2 Cor. x. 10. Every unrenewed man is one of Adam's crooked generation; and his ways are as crooked as himself, Prov. ii. 15. The worst crook in man is his serpentine, froward, stubborn, and perverse will; if his will be resigned to the will of God, he is an upright man; but if he is self-willed, he is a cursed child, therefore a very improper channel to convey blessings to others. If the self-willed are to be scattered in Israel, and divided in Jacob, Gen. xlix. 5-7, they are not very fit persons to call the elect to the unity of faith. Shew me a free-will person, and I will shew you a rebel; yea, a rebel against the sovereignty of the King, the laws of his kingdom, and every loyal subject of it. He must not be crookbacked, nor bowed down with a legal yoke; if he is a minister of Christ, he must go upright, Lev. xxvi. 13; 2 Chron. xxix, 34.

Not a dwarf shall offer the bread of his God, Lev. xxi. 20. Surely it doth not mean one of low stature in a gospel sense; if it did, Paul would have been excluded, for he was very small, or else they would not have been able to have got him out at a window, or let him down in a basket, Acts ix. 25. A dwarf is one stinted by illness; or ricketty, for want of good nursing. I have seen

poor infants crawling on their knees at three years old, when, if they had been properly nursed, they would have been on their feet at fifteen months. We have many bad mothers in our days, who, like the ostrich, are hardened against their young, and leave them for the sun and sand to hatch; forgetting that, if they lose the use of their limbs, every foot may crush them, Job xxxix. 15. Many such dwarfs we have in Zion's family, and it is much owing to bad nursing. Some nurses live on milk themselves, and use nothing but milk for others; these are unskilful in the word of righteousness; they are babes; and a family nursed by babes must be kept all their years in infancy. Hence the complaint; " As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them.”

Some there are who are afraid to reprove, or rebuke, for fear of distressing the weak; though God has commanded it, in order to make them sound in the faith, Tit. i. 13. Others are afraid to preach up the doctrine of God's election, lest their followers should grow licentious; as if the predestination of God, which is for our eternal welfare, were nothing but a trap. I know some who seldom mention the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ, for fear of crying down inherent righteousness, and making them slothful with regard to the works of righteousness; but if all self-righteousness be no better than filthy rags, the less we have of it the better: rags are not worth speaking of, therefore we ought to make mention of the Lord's

righteousness, and of his only, Psalm lxxi. 16. And with respect to good works, God has promised to direct their work in truth, and to work in them both to will and to do. Some do not choose to preach up too much of the final perseverance of the saints, lest it should stop them from striving; but fleshly strivings for mastery will not be crowned, because such do not strive lawfully. Nothing on earth is so bad for seeking sinners as a legal ministry; it keeps poor souls in perpetual bondage. Legal travail is attended with no growth; for how should a soul grow till it is born again? Legal fear makes a soul stick in the womb, Hos. xiii. 13; but "perfect love casteth out fear."

I once was in company with a woman, who sits under a very legal preacher, and her husband is in the same spirit; she was sorely wounded in her conscience with the terrors of God, and in her greatest distress she took herself to private prayer, and earnestly besieged the throne of grace; the kingdom suffered violence, and she took it by force, Matt. xi. 12. Being filled with light, love, and liberty, she broke forth in raptures to her husband, and told him what she felt: this burning lamp so dazzled his eyes, that he suspected the flame to come from the infernal regions, and told her she was deluded; but she continued still to blaze. He went and fetched other members of the society, and they declared the same; then the minister was desired to examine her; he also declared

she was deluded. So she pinned her faith to the priest's judgment, and resisted the Holy Ghost, taking his influences for false comfort; and very soon she lost all her joy and peace in believing; and to this day, for aught I know, sits in the shadow of death. Job calls this rebelling against the light, for such know not the way thereof, Job xxiv. 13. Milton calls it forcing the Spirit of grace itself, and binding his consort, liberty; and I think none but a fool will call this preaching up the new birth. That man who crushes the very vitals of godliness, or knocks the new creature at head as soon as it appears, is but a poor preacher of the kingdom of God. I told her if she ever recovered her comforts again, she must smuggle them.

These elder sons, who never transgressed at any time, cannot bear such music and dancing; they want a kid, as a reward for their labour; but they may cry my leanness, my leanness,' long enough before they shall get it. The shackles of a slave, and the wings of a dove, are two contrary things that will no more unite together than iron and clay. I know several souls at this time, who have long sat under these dwarfs, till their distress of soul has driven them elsewhere for food; and when God has set them at liberty, many arrows have been discharged at them from the pulpit; and many bitter words from the legal flock, only because Christ had made them free indeed. But I hope they will stand fast in that liberty where