sight of God. What virtue then can there come out of such a corrupt and polluted place? What pureness can there flow out of a puddle so filthy, so dirty, so unclean, so stinking, so unsavoury ?

Thus ye see that ye have no way to pacify God's wrath, which ye have stirred up against yourselves through your own wickedness. What therefore remaineth, but only that you look for all cruel and grievous things ? Hell's mouth is open and ready to swallow you up. The fire of hell which shall never be quenched, awaiteth you. Everlasting torments, intolerable punishments, perpetual turmoilings abide you. Ye are appointed to that place where weeping and gnashing of teeth are ; where the fire is inextinguishable; where the worm of them that be there, never dies. What will ye do now, what shift will ye find ? Will you fulfil the law, which God gave you by Moses, and so pacify his wrath ? But this ye are not able to do; for of yourselves ye are nothing but flesh, and utterly without God. Flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God. They that are fleshly, regard those things that pertain to the flesh; and the desire of the flesh is death. Yea, the desire of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is no. subject to the law of God, neither can it be by any meansy They that are in the flesh cannot please God; yea, thes that live after the flesh shall die. He that hath not God't Spirit, pertaineth not to God. Now ye have not the Spirit of God, inasmuch as by Adain ye are all flesh; for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; how then will ye fulfil the law to appease God's wrath ?

Moreover, the law is spiritual; that is, it requires not only politic and civil works, * but also the pure affections, and clean motions of the Spirit ; and must be fulfilled, not with the external works only, but also with a frank and free heart, doing the works of the law not of constraint, and for fear of punishment, but of love. For perfect charity or love casteth out fear. But as the law is spiritual, so are ye carnal, that is, prone and ready to all naughtiness, buried in sin, and no less bond to Satan, than a bought slave is obstrictt and bound unto his master. Now is the law and you of contrary nature.

When then shall ye agree? The law, I confess, is holy, and the precept is holy, righteous, and good; but ye are unholy, wicked, and evil. How will ye then accomplish the law, • Outward actions.

+ Tied, under obligation.

that ye may pacify God's wrath, and deserve remission of your sins through your own merits and deserts ? Can he that is dead erect and lift up himself? Can he resume and take again his armour ? Can he recover new strength ? Can flesh teach flesh no more to sin ? Can the eagle command herself no more to fly? Can the dolphin cease to swim ? Can the man of India change his skin, and the cat of the mountain her spots ? Neither can ye of yourselves cease to be what ye are, nor yet work good, who so long have been exercised in evil. The law killeth, it giveth not life; the law worketh death, displeasure, and damnation ; it purchases not grace, favour, mercy, remission of sins, peace and tranquillity of conscience. For cursed is every one that abideth not in all things that are written in the book of the law that he may do them. No man fulfilleth the law, therefore no man is justified by the law, but rather cursed and brought to damnation. For he that keepeth the whole law, and yet offendeth in one, is made guilty of them all

. Moses gave you a law, and yet none of you all do fulfil it. Neither ye nor your fathers were ever able to bear the yoke of the law. Who ever entered into glory by the fulfilling of the law? While ye therefore seek to be justified by the law, ye are utterly fallen from that which ye sought. You, not knowing the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish your own righteousness, cannot be made subject to the righteousness of God.

The law was given you by Moses from God, not that you should seek to be made righteous by it, which is a thing impossible, but that it should declare to you the will of God; prove the obedience of your heart; keep you in an honest and godly manner of living; restrain you from wicked doing; repress idolatry, swearing, ungodliness, disobedience, theft, manslaughter, adultery, false witness, &c.; set before your eyes your abominable wickedness and sinful living, that you may learn to know yourselves, and make the more haste to approach unto God's miercy. For by the law corneth the knowledge of sin ; ye would not have known sin but by the law ; for ye

had not known concupiscence except the law had said, " Thou shalt not covet." The law is a schoolmaster to teach you what ye ought to do; whose admonitions, warnings, and instructions, seeing ye follow not, nor obey as it teaches, and as ye ought, it rather condemns than saves you ; it rather kills than quickens you. For no flesh shall be justified by the works of the law, in the sight of God. Your labour therefore in this behalf is vain, seeing that ye

seek God's favour, remission of sin, justification, salvation, and eternal glory by the works of the law only. Whither will ye now flee? Will ye pacify God's wrath by offering up the sacrifices of the ceremonial law? This also is in vain. For if the works of the moral law, I inean the Ten Commandments, bring no man to perfection, and are nothing less than able to appease the divine wrath, because of their uncleanness which do the commandments-yea rather, which do them not-how then can this be brought to pass by external and outward ceremonies, which are nothing but types, figures, clouds, and shadows of good things to come ? Here therefore do ye nothing else, than, as the common proverb is, go about to make an Ethiopian white. For as touching your sacrifices, it is manifest by divers places of the scriptures, that God hath no pleasure in them.

Wherefore, saith God, do ye bring unto me incense out of Seba, and sweet smelling calamus out of far countries ? Your burnt offerings are not accepted, and your sacrifices have not pleased me. Again, Put your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.

For I did not speak with your fathers, neither did I command them on that day when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, any thing at all of burnt offerings and sacrifices; but I commanded them this word, saying, Hear you my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; walk in every way that I have commanded you, that ye may prosper. But they would not once hear me, nor give attendance to me; but they followed their own pleasures, and walked in the wickedness of their inalicious hearts, so that they fell wholly from me. To what

offer unto me the multitude of your sacrifices, saith the Lord ? I am full of them. The burnt offerings of your wethers, and the fat of your fatlings, and the blood of your calves, of your lambs and goats, I would not have. When ye come before my sight, who requireth these things of your hands ? Offer, I pray yoú, no more sacrifice to me thus in vain. Your incense is abomination to me. Your sabbaths and holy days, by no means ean I away with. He that offereth an ox, is like to him that killeth a man. He that slayeth a beast, is like unto him that braineth a dog. He that offereth an oblation, is like unto him that offereth swine's blood.

Here you see that God hath no pleasure in these external sacrifices, but rather abhors them. Then you perceive full well that this is no way to deliver yourselves out of captivity, and to obtain the favour of God.

What will ye now do? Will ye invent new things of your own fancy, and offer them to God of a good intent, that by this means he may be the more merciful to you? This also is yet most vain. For if things prescribed and commanded of God himself, cannot obtain for you

remission of your sins; what shall then your dreams, your fancies, your inventions, your good intentions, your godly zeal, do in this behalf ? Verily ye are in a miserable case. For ye may not put anything to the word of God, nor yet pluck ought from it. Ye must walk in the way that God hath appointed you, neither may ye decline on the right hand or on the left hand. Yea, ye may not do to your Lord God that which ye think best in your own eyes, but that only which he commands you. Here, therefore, is no evasion, nor way to escape the fierce plagues of God. Certainly the longer ye wrestle and entangle yourselves in this behalf, the worse ye are, so far as I can perceive; so unable are you of yourselves in any point to satisfy God's wrath, and to make him your friend. What refuge then can ye now invent ? Yet is there nothing set before your eyes, but only desperation and eternal death ; for

ye

have deserved no other; and the reward of sin, is death. Certainly the axe is laid at the root of the tree; and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. How now will ye escape from the wrath that is to come? Wo be unto them that sin and keep not my commandments, saith the Lord, surely I will not spare them. Sinners shall be turned into hell, yea, and all those people that forget God. For God shall rain snares upon sinners; fire and brimstone, storm and tempest shall be part of their cup. As smoke decayeth, so shall the wicked decay; and as wax melteth before the fire, 30 shall sinners perish before the face of God. The Most High hateth sinners, and he will be avenged of the wicked. The soul that has sinned, shall die. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, that he may root the remembrance of them out of the earth. He that committeth sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth

from the beginning. God is a consuming fire. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Woe be to you therefore, O ye ungodly men, who have forsaken the law of the Lord, that most high God! If that

ye be born, in cursing shall ye be born ; and if ye die, in cursing shall be your part. What will ye now do? Here ye see nothing but malediction, cursing, wrath, vengeance, destruction, perdition, damnation. Here perceive ye no way to escape the great displeasure of God, but only to precipitate and cast yourself headlong into hell-pit, to be burnt with the continual flames of that most terrible and grievous fire. Remedy is there none, all comfort is gone; besides sorrow and mourning, nothing here doth appear. Oh the miserable case wherein ye stand! Methinks I see you now again very sorrowful, much lamenting, wringing your hands, tearing your hair, cursing the time of your birth, having pleasure in nothing, walking as persons in distress, void of all consolation and comfort.

Verily, I have brought you into this case that your joy afterward should be the greater, and that you should have the more pleasant and joyful news, which I now bring to you out of heaven. For no man knows how precious a pbysician is; except first of all he feel himself diseased, and perceives that he has need of a physician if he intend to enjoy the benefit of health. They that are strong have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. Now, therefore, hear again your most pleasant news, that your sadness may be turned into joy, and that your joy may be full and perfect.

God perceiving in what miserable case Adam and all his posterity were set, through the breaking of his most blessed and holy commandment; again, that by the envy of Satan death had come over all the world ; willing, of his own free mercy,

without

any

of

your merits or deserts, to show himself of no less power to save man, than the devil was to condemn him; said to Satan at that time, when Adam had offended, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed, and that selfsame seed shall tread down thy head. Oh most sweet and comfortable promise! Oh most heavenly word of grace! Here is the beginning of your joy and gladness! In Adam were ye all lost, but in this seed of a woman are ye all saved! But who is this seed ? Not Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, nor David. Who then ? Verily the

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