God hath set on that most holy hill. Making the letter the only rule of life, is sending the saints wrong, forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto them, they shall henceforth return no more that way, Deut. xvii. 16. They have compassed that mount long enough, Deut. ii. 2, 3. Moses is dead and buried, Joshua i. 2. Joshua is to take the lead. It is bewitching the people, Gal. iii. 1; it is sending them to the old yoke of bondage, Gal. v. 1; which is a contempt of the Saviour's yoke, Matt. xi. 29; it is turning their back upon grace; it is abusing their liberty; it is making Christ of none effect to them, Gal. v. 4; and that he should profit them nothing, Gal. v. 2.

Elijah, who travelled forty days into the wilderness in order to go to Horeb, instead of going to mount Zion, was asked twice, by way of reproof, first in a storm, and then by a still voice, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" 1 Kings xix. 9. 13; which was attended with an earthquake, a whirlwind, and a fire; God would not take him to heaven from that mount, though he requested to die there; that is not the new and living way, Heb. x. 20; he must go back to the Holy Land, over the river Jordan again, and into the plains of Jericho, where Joshua, typical of our Captain, first took the lead, before the fiery chariot appeared to take him to heaven, 2 Kings ii. 11.

Nor can sending living souls to a killing letter for rules of life be any way promotive of fruitfulness. There can be no fruit brought forth to God's

glory without an union, by the Spirit of love, to Christ the living vine: the branch cannot bear fruit of itself. No good fruit till the corrupt tree be made good by grace; "make the tree good and his fruit will be good; a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit." No good works without faith; "whatsoever is not of faith is sin:" no honest labours without love: no spiritual fruits without the Spirit of God produce them: no works done acceptable to God, unless he work in us both to will and to do them.

Nor does this doctrine remove the bounds of the church, nor leave her without her enclosures, unless it can be proved that God's putting his laws in their hearts, and writing them in their minds, giving them a new heart and a new spirit; putting his fear within them, and promising they shall not depart from him; holding them in his hand so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against them; causing them to walk in his statutes, to keep his judgments and do them; being a wall of fire round about them, placing salvation for walls and bulwarks, and keeping them by his mighty power through faith; can be called removing the bounds and taking away the enclosures of the church. And I think it is a pity that such a dispensation of superabounding grace, the ministration of God's eternal Spirit, should find no more favour in the eyes of poor miserable sinners, nor any better name than that of Antinomianism. For my part, I believe it will go by another name at the restitution

of all things; for, if Christ restores all things, he will doubtless restore his own gospel to its proper

name.

As for correcting unruly Christians by the law, I believe the saints' law is written on the fleshly tables of every believing heart by the Spirit of God; and that Christ dwells in them by faith; and that he keeps his royal court in mount Zion for all his friends, as he is crowned king there but, as for Sinai, it is his court of judicature; he appears there as the judge of all. We are to apprehend the unruly, and take them to the royal court, and to the bar of equity; and appeal, as Paul did, to God and to conscience in God's sight : and when the unruly feels the force of faithful reproof, backed with the Scriptures of truth, and seconded by his own conscience, it will be more mortifying and humbling to him than flogging him with all the scourges that can be brought from the ministration of death. This never brought a sinner to Christ, nor restored a backslider; it is with the cords of love that God leads a soul to the Saviour; and by the same is the backslider restored. will heal their backslidings; I will love them freely."

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I

Your enforcing the command to love God, calling it the believer's rule, that must ever remain binding, is not speaking as the oracles of God. We know that the law commands us to love God; and we have received favours enough to bring us in debtors so to do; but the carnal mind is enmity

VOL. VIII.

against God; it is not subject to that law, nor can be. There is nothing that the law demands but what the gospel gives; and there is nothing that the law commands that it helps us to perform, nor does it afford strength, life, love, holiness, mercy, inclination, or power, to enable us to give it its dues.

I know we are commanded to walk in love as Christ hath loved us; but we must settle things on their own proper basis. The end of the commandment is charity; but where do we get this charity or love? why, it is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. If it is given, it is from the covenant of promise, not from the covenant of works; if salvation be of grace in every part, it is no more of works in any part. Love is the basis of a covenant of grace; "I have loved thee with an everlasting love;" the gift of Christ is the wonderful effect of it; "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son." It is with lovingkindness that God draws us to Christ; no man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." Love is the bond of the everlasting covenant; "My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail." Love is the bond of eternal union between Christ and his church; Thou, O Father, hast loved them as thou hast loved me, John xvii. 23. Love is the bond of heartfelt union between the Lord and us; "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in

him;" and it is called the love of God perfected in us, not our love, which is of the law; for it is said not that we loved God, but that he loved us. And who ever sent men to preach, who can make no difference between the law that worketh wrath, and love which casteth out fear, which the law genders; no difference between the killing letter and the bond of the everlasting covenant? Let love stand upon its own bottom, fix it not on the letter of the law. The law reveals the wrath to come; it is God's magazine which contains all the treasures of hail reserved against the day of battle and war, Job xxxviii. 22. And who could ever have thought that the only rule of life for believers could be brought from the ministration of condemnation, 2 Cor. iii. 9; the snares of death, Prov. xiii. 14; the voice of words, Heb. xii. 19; the law that worketh wrath, Rom. iv. 15; the killing letter, 2 Cor. iii. 6; the law that is against us, Col. ii. 14; the adversary that delivers us to the judge to be cast into prison, Matt. v. 25; a law that furnishes the sinner with an accuser before God, John v. 45; that is contrary to us, Col. ii. 14; that cursed the Saviour himself, though innocent, Gal. iii. 13; because he undertook for his friends. A fiery law, Deut. xxxiii. 2; a fire kindled in God's anger, Deut. xxxii. 22; seven thunders that are to utter their voices, Rev. x. 3; a shower of snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, Psalm xi. 6; a fire that shall burn to the lowest hell, Deut. xxxii. 22. But so it is;