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of words.

"In all labour there is profit; but the talk of the lip tendeth only to penury."

A non-entity may be a rule as soon as love.' Is this true, sir? Is a non-entity, a thing that never had existence, as good a rule as love, which is the fulfilling of the law? Divine love, impressed on the soul by the Spirit, is more valuable than the word, love, in the letter, or on tables of stone. Love in the heart to God and our neighbour is the grand hinge of all the law and the prophets, and a fulfilling of them, for it is both the old and the new commandment. But is it not strange that the word, love, in the letter should be the believer's only rule of life, and the Spirit of love in the heart be nothing but a non-entity? And is it not more strange, that he who holds the killing letter a rule of life, should be an evangelist; and he who holds that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk in the Spirit, should be a black Antinomian? You will no more live by your letter rule, than you would by the word, bread, in the midst of famine. It is the substance, not the shadow; the thing, not the name; the power, not the word, of him that is puffed up; the life, not the letter; God's own work in the heart, not the talk of the lip, that God looks at; and that must save you, if ever you are saved. The will of God in the gospel is a perfect rule. This mystery of his will, which is the mystery of faith, when revealed to the heart, and held in a pure conscience, is the law of faith on the believer's mind and heart.

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Such a man is a spiritual man, and has a spiritual rule; is a new creature, and walks in newness of life; is guided by the Spirit of God, and serves in the newness of the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. "In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature: and as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God," Gal. vi. 15.

Query. If the law of Moses, or ten commandments, be the believer's only rule of life, should not a believer be said to walk, to live, and to work, by that rule? Does one text in the Book of God call the Pentateuch the believer's only rule? Or is there one text in that book which says that the believer is to walk, live, or work, by that rule? Does not the Scripture say that he walks by faith, and lives by faith, and works by faith? On which account his obedience is called the obedience of faith, his life the life of faith, and his works the works of faith. And the law of faith must be a perfect rule, if whatsoever be not of faith is sin.

Query 2. "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments of the Lord blameless," Luke i. 6. If they were both righteous, they were justified by faith, for "he that believeth not is condemned already, and the wrath of God abides upon him." And if they walked in God's commandments blameless, the commandments was the way they walked in, and

faith was the rule, by which they walked in that way.

"I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart." Unbelief and slavish fear contract the heart; faith, that worketh by love, enlarges it; love casteth out fear. Then he that walks in love, which you call a non-entity, walks the way of God's commandments, though he be called a black Antinomian, for love is the fulfilling of the law; and he that lives and walks by faith, as his rule, is a righteous man, and walks in, though not by, God's commandments, blameless, though he be never so much blamed.

I will keep my readers in suspense, and my opponents at bay, no longer; but, for the comfort and establishment of the former, and the confusion of the latter, I will put a few Queries: for hitherto some have cried one thing, and some another; the assemblies have been confused, and the greater part have not known wherefore they came together, nor what they were come to hear. Paul says, we are "not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." Here the believer has a law to God, and is under a law to Christ. Query, What law is this that a believer has, and holds, toward God? Is it the law of Moses, which worketh wrath? Is it the ten commandments, engraven on stone, that minister death? Is it the covenant of works, by which no flesh living can be justified? Is it the killing letter, that stops the mouth, and brings the world in guilty before God? If you

it

reply, yes, then, I say, we are just where we were; our faith is vain, we are yet in our sins, and Christ profits us nothing. And if you say, no, the believer is not without law to God, for he has his law in his heart, and holds a new covenant toward God; as it is written, "The days come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers when I took them out of the land of Egypt which my covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put my law in their inward part, and write upon their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more," Jer. xxxi. 31-34. I say, if you allow this to be the law that the believer has toward God, you must say, as Paul does, we are delivered from Moses's law, that we may serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Yea, you must allow that the believer is not under the law, but under grace; for this law is the law of faith, and this covenant is the covenant of grace: and if you allow this to be the law that a believer hath toward God (who is not without law to him), then what becomes of your only rule of life?

an Antinomian as I.

yea, and you are as black But if you reply, It is not

this new covenant, it is not this law of faith in the heart, that the believer has and holds toward God, but the old covenant, or the killing letter, then I ask, What is that law that we are redeemed from, and delivered from, and are not under? What is that law that the child of grace is not under? My opponents must either make Christ's redeeming us from under the law, his delivering us from the law, and his easy yoke of grace, nothing, in order to hold their only rule; or else confess themselves Moses's disciples altogether. They must either give up their rule, agree with Paul, and become rank Antinomians; or else drop their present title, and assume that of ministers of the letter, and hold their rule by virtue of that office. By the other they cannot; grace must be no more grace, or work must be no more work they must stick to the law, and give up the Saviour's yoke; or stand fast in Christ, and give up the yoke of bondage.

"We are under the law to Christ," 1 Cor. ix. 21. Query, What law is this that the believer is under to Christ? Is it your only rule of life? If so, what is that law, as was before observed, that Christ delivered us, and saved us, from? And if you say, It is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that the believer is under, which makes him free from the law of sin and death, Rom. viii, 2; then you agree with Paul, and submit to what all my opposers call rank Antinomianism: and where,

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