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velation of wrath; one working friendship and the other the motions of sin and vengeance. the-e the things that will fit; or what is the fitness that rises from them? I should like to hear that author again of this matter.

In order to convince my friend further that we do not make void the law through faith, or represent the believer without law to God, I will fetch in another law, which is not properly distinct from, but a branch of this that has been considered; and it is a branch that debases the proud boaster, cuts up the self-righteous, discovers the fool, lays the legalist in the dust, exposes the blind guide, furnishes the spiritual soldier of Christ with weapons against him, and secures the whole glory of salvation to God, to whom it belongs, and to whom it must be given without reserve.

By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin; but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in

Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law; of works? Nay, but by the law of faith." But what doth Paul mean by the law of faith? Does he mean the gospel, which is sometimes called faith, as Paul, who persecuted the saints in times past, is said now to preach the faith? No; for the gospel is the revelation and explanation of the covenant of promise; and all the blessings of it are the free gifts of God; Christ the covenant head, the Spirit of promise, everlasting righteousness, everlasting salvation, life, and glory, are all the gifts of God, held forth in unconditional promises, which are all yea and amen, to the glory of God, and our everlasting salvation.

As all these things come freely from God, from the better covenant, a covenant of promise, made with Christ, and with his seed in him, and are purely free in their fountain, in their administration, and bestowed to a God-dishonouring and hell-deserving people, irrespective of any work, worth, or worthiness in them, there can be nothing like a law in it; that is, there is nothing that binds with rigour to obedience, or that threatens damnation for non-performance; there is nothing in it that sets a man to work for life, reckoning the reward to be of debt; for God gives grace to make us obedient to the faith, and by grace he preserveth and rewardeth the faithful. The Lord gives both grace and glory, and will display the riches of his grace in glory by Christ Jesus: yea, even the kingdom itself is given of God in his good pleasure.

Therefore I presume that the word of faith dwelling richly in us, the spirit of faith working powerfully, and the grace of faith working by love, purifying the heart, holding an imputed righteousness, and giving Christ a residence within us, is Paul's law of faith. For it is not hearing the gospel, nor imbibing a speculative knowledge of it, that will exclude boasting; but the word, Spirit, and grace of faith, when powerfully applied to the heart, will stop the sinner's mouth, and for ever silence him upon that head. If you ask why Paul calls this the law of faith? I answer, because faith works by love, which is the fulfilling of the law, which is the end of the commandment, and lays hold of Christ, who is the end of the law; and puts on an everlasting righteousness adequate to the law; because it is Christ's obedience thereto, and because he that believes hath everlasting life, which was the greatest thing that the law ever promised, and which that law could never give; and because the believer has the Spirit of holiness, as the law is holy; by faith he is a just man, as the law is just; a good man, as the law is good; a spiritual man, as the law is spiritual and thus "the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit," Rom. viii. 4. I will shew my friend that I have yet to speak on the saints' behalf, on the subject of their being not without law to God.

As Paul divides the believer from the infidel, and divides the laws between them also, applying

the law of faith to the believer, and the law of works to the infidel, declaring " that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law;" and those that are under the law are under sin, and under the curse, Gal. iii. 22, 10; so James divides the hearer from the doer. He tells us that "God of his own will begat us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures;" and then tells us to be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves. By doing he means the works or fruits of faith; "Shew me," saith he, "thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works;" and then adds; "For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Here James compares the gospel preached to a glass, the light of which reflecting upon the sinner's conscience makes manifest the state of his soul; as Paul speaks; "but we all with open face beholding as in a glass;" so here the sinner hates the light, and goeth his way; he will come no more to it; this glass has shewed, and the light of it has reproved his deeds, therefore he hates it, and goeth his way into the world again, and so hardens his heart and sears his conscience, until all is forgot, and then he sinks into a deeper security; or, as the text saith, "he straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into

the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed," James i. 25. Here is a law of perfect liberty, or a perfect law of liberty, to be looked into, and to be continued in, if a man will be blessed in his deed. If my friend asks what this law of liberty is, I will endeavour to shew him. It is taken from the law of release, when the jubilee trumpet was to be sounded, and liberty to be proclaimed according to the tenor of that law. "If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself he shall go out by himself; if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him." Every poor elect sinner is like this Hebrew servant, he has sold himself for nought, Isaiah lii. 3; and is the servant of sin, and under the dominion of the law-two hard masters indeed, who shew no favour; he that is under the dominion of sin is also under the law of death; he that is delivered from the power of sin, is delivered from the law also, as the apostle intimates, "sin shall not have dominion over you;" but why? you are not under the law, [which is the strength of sin,] but under grace," which reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. In this state of servitude the sinner lies till the great trumpet is blown, Isaiah xxvii. 13; and the joyful sound reaches his ears, Psal. lxxxix. 15; by which Christ preached deliverance to captives, and sets at liberty

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