form a perfect task, which he never can; for, while he seeks to the law to be made perfect by the flesh, Christ profits him nothing; and without Christ he can do nothing. In this quotation the law is indeed done away as a covenant of works. The next quotation brings it back, and sets it in full force again. So true are Paul's words, that the teachers of the law know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm. For thus it follows:

Quot. If the law is so done away, as that the believer, do what he will, cannot sin, because there is no law to forbid, and by forbidding, render the action criminal; why did the Holy Spirit dictate, under the gospel dispensation, this scripture; "Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law; for sin is the transgression of the law?"

Answ. I never heard that the law was done away till I read this iniquitous publication; in which the apostle John is made to say, The law is, indeed, done away, as a covenant of works. Which John never meant, and which I absolutely deny. This vile book is intended to debase the gospel, as no law of right and wrong. But, if faith be no law, then unbelief can be no transgression. The unpardonable sin, doing despite to the Spirit of grace, trampling under foot the Son of God, can be no transgression; for where there is no law there is no transgression. But by the law of faith shall all these be found guilty, and shall be judged, and damned, without the moral law.

I never heard, till I read this vile book, that the believer, do what he will, cannot sin; nor did I ever hear, till this abominable piece appeared, that the gospel was no rule of obedience, and that it was no rule or standard to try an hypocrite or an infidel by. It is a perfect rule for the saint to work and live by; a rule to try and judge a hypocrite by; and it has got the heaviest sentence annexed to it that ever dropped from the mouth of God. But if, as this book asserts, the law has ceased to exist as a covenant of works, its commanding and condemning power is gone; and it can make no action criminal; for where there is no law there is no transgression. This is your own doctrine; and you have tacked about, and destroyed it, and so made yourselves transgressors. I never heard, in all my life, that believers could not sin: I believe, in many things, they offend all. And when they do God proceeds against them by the laws of Zion, and corrects them in a fatherly way. And he that is under the law transgresseth the law, and is proceeded against in a judicial way. And the hypocrite, by the law of faith, is dealt worse with than the pharisee. The reprobate, that despised Moses's law, died without mercy. "Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God!" When God makes inquisition for blood, he will not forget the hypocrite. The drift of this book is to render the law of faith as no rule. Hence it is hinted that it

is insufficient to discover sin, and insufficient to punish sin, without the law! Whereas the law of faith has got its sentence as well as the law of works. He that continues not in all things written in the book of the law, is cursed by that; and the hypocrite in Zion, who believes not, shall be damned for his infidelity. Which sentence comes not from the moral law, for that is not of faith, but of works. Nor does it condemn for not believing, but for not doing. Paul says the latter is worthy of the sorer punishment. Hence it appears that the hypocrite transgresseth some law, by the judgment of which a sorer punishment shall be inflicted. Yea, it had been better, saith Peter, if such had never known the right way; better they had continued under the old veil, than, after they have known, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them; for such shall be beaten with many stripes. But, as to making the apostle say that, the moral law is the old commandment, which he calls the word which was preached from the beginning; and that the apostle laid down no other rule but the law for the believer to live and converse by; is, I say, a palpable lie, and a contradiction to every chapter in the new testament, let our opponents pick out what chapter they please. John tells us that the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The word of life, and the killing letter, are two things. If there be no rule but the moral law, the hypocrite will fare

very well; for that condemns no man for disbelieving, but for not doing. However, he will find damnation by another rule, and from another law: Christ's word, and not Moses's writings, shall condemn him.

Were I to extract one half of this piece, and put the other half against it, there is not one assertion but what itself contradicts. Who would have ever thought, that a man of sense, a scholar, a divine, a tutor, a master or mistress of arts, could ever publish such inconsistencies, such lies, such nonsense, as this; and then call it a confutation of errors, to deceive the simple, harden the base, and injure them that dearly love the Lord Jesus!

Quot. "Whosoever;" what can be a stronger expression? it takes in both the believer and unbeliever; "committeth sin," it is in the present tense, "transgresseth also the law." Consequently, the law still exists, or else the apostle wrote nonsense; which none but an antinomian can suppose.

Answ. In two former quotations it is asserted that the law has ceased to exist as a covenant of works; and, as a covenant of works, it is, indeed, done away. But, in this last quotation, the law still exists, or else the apostle wrote nonsense; and then the antinomian is represented as supposing what these blind authors have asserted. If Paul had not given a description of a vain jangler, one never could have imagined that any persons,

sober, and in their rationality, could have published such self contradictions.

John, in this last quotation, is made to speak what he never meant. In 1 John, chap. ii. the evangelist is writing about two sorts of people, Some were antichrists, and went out of the church, and from the apostles, because they were not of them, ver. 18, 19. Others had an unction that abode in them, and they needed not these false teachers to instruct them, ver. 27. In chap. iii. ver. 1, 2, 3, he writes to believers as the sons of God; and says, "Every man that hath this hope [of sonship and heirship] in him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Then, in ver. 4, he breaks off to the other class; "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is a transgression of the law." And by the word, also, he makes such hypocrites transgressors of some other law as well as the law moral. "Whoso sinneth hath not seen him, [Christ,] neither known him. He that committeth sin is of the devil." John makes the hypocrite a transgressor in a twofold sense; "Whoso transgresseth [by apostacy] and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God." Such an one is a transgressor against the gospel of Christ, and he transgresseth also the law. The law is the ministration of death to him, and the gospel is a savour of death unto death to him: he is cursed by the former, and damned by the latter. He that is under the law, and does it not, is