law, by declaring the just shall live by faith. And he that denies this denies the satisfaction of Christ, either by his active or passive obedience. Nor does preaching this faith make void the law, but establish it. Redeeming my soul from death, and justifying me by faith, doth not abolish the law from its seat, but deliver my soul from its yoke, that I might serve God in truth, not with eye service; from a principle of love to him, not from the fear of damnation from him; in the newness of the Spirit, not in the oldness of the letter; from a sense of pardon, not from fear of punishment; in the ties of gratitude, not in the shackles of torment; as a dutiful son, not as a partial hireling. "Is the law against the promises of God? God forbid !"

Our present sovereign pardons many condemned criminals, but he doth not abolish his laws by the acts of his grace; but those who despise the acts of his clemency, and cleave to the law that condemned them, must die, for the law can shew them no favour. So those that turn their back upon the law of faith, and go to the law of works, fall from grace, and Christ shall profit them nothing, If the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in the man that walks in the Spirit, how can the ministry of the Spirit make void the law? If a woman capable of a numerous progeny marries, and lives ten years with a man, and all that time continues barren, she contributes nothing, during all that period, towards populating the nation to

which she belongs; and Wisdom says, "In the want of people is the destruction of the prince." But, if such a woman's husband die, and she marries again, and, by the second husband, bears ten or twenty children, that are useful in the army, navy, or to society, does she any injury, either to the government or laws of her country, by her fruitfulness? Is such an one entitled to the name of an outlaw, or an antinomian, for this? I suppose not. The parallel holds good; "For, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Here is fruit brought unto death, but no fruit to the living God. The first husband, by his killing operations, and by his gendering to bondage, which contracts the womb of the soul, instead of enlarging it, becomes a killing letter; and the barren soul becomes dead to that deadly ministration, or to that huband, and may be married to another. "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God; some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.

The bond woman, with respect to God, is șaid to be barren, because she brings not forth the fruits of the Spirit: nor does she bring forth spiritual children to God, because she is not married unto him. With respect to a divine husband she is desolate; and with respect to God,

she is barren. Yet she brings forth fruit unto death in a twofold sense. First, dead works. Secondly, dead children. "More are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord." But then these children are in bondage to the ministration of death, under the sentence of death, and bound down to the fear of death. And a minister of the letter is a dead man, and the letter of which he is the minister killeth; and his proselytes are, as Christ says, the children of hell, bastards, base-born, children of the flesh. "These are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed;" for in Adam all die. The decree of heaven has not brought forth such a minister, Zeph. ii. 2; the secret of election is not with him. Hence the divine prohibitition; He that hath his stones broken shall not be a priest, Lev. xxi. 20, 21. They that are broken off through unbelief, and are destitute of the secret mystery of faith, are dead men, ministers of the killing letter; and, though they and their proselytes may have a name to live, yet the Saviour says they are dead.

Quot. Some say, the law cannot be a perfect rule of conduct, because it says nothing upon some subjects which are noted in the precepts of the New Testament.

Anws. The moral law mentions nothing of repentance towards God, nor does it accept it. The law is not of faith, nor is faith of the law: it neither describes it, promises it, nor gives any information

concerning it. But the good-will of God in Christ Jesus does all this, and gives a man grace to perform what God requires. And it is a pity that a dispensation which brings glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good-will towards men,

should have no better a name than that of antinomianism. I believe the law to be more than a rule of conduct to them that are under it; for Paul says, that "whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law." It is to the bondchildren a rule of work. What is written in the law? "This do;" keep the commandments. It is the rule of conversation: Thou shalt talk of this law as thou liest down, and risest up; as thou goest out, and comest in, Deut vi. 7. It is the rule of life: "This do, and thou shalt live." It is the rule of righteousness: "And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments." It is there a perfect rule of conduct: "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all:" yea, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them." It is a rule for the servant from first to last, and a rule to be continued in; and by this rule shall all the bond-children be judged at the great day. "He that sinneth in the law shall be judged by the law."

But the mystery of faith, the law of the Spirit, which comes from the good-will of God in Christ Jesus, which is one and the same thing, is the son's

rule of life. "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life." "The just shall live by faith;" and by faith he is to abide in Christ, that he may be fruitful; and by faith to receive from Christ's fulness grace and strength to perform every good work. It is the son's rule of walk: "I will cause them to walk in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble.” "We walk by faith, not by sight." It is the son's rule of work: "I will direct their work in truth:" which are the works of faith, labours of love, and patience of hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thess. i. 3. The law is the rule of the servant's life, walk and conduct; and, if the believer is under it as such a rule, the servant and the son are both on a level, for the law is no more than a rule of life to the servant. Nor is this vain jangling, or enforcing the law as the believer's only rule of life, intended to promote holiness and good works; nor do the maintainers of this doctrine exceed, or even come near, the stature of those they oppose in good works. It is ignorance, or rather envy at the liberty and the happiness of the experimental Christian, and at the ministers of the Spirit, that provokes them to it: or, as Paul says, they creep in "to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they may bring us into bondage." If the believer takes the law of Moses upon him, will it change or renew his soul? Nay, says Paul, while we look to Jesus, as through a glass darkly,