thing without him; and to abide in the vine is the only way to bring forth much fruit.

This book treats largely about the words fan&tification and boliness-but it is all forced: there is no one part of it that flows from a favoury, unctuous experience in the heart; nor yet from the power, influence, or enjoyment, of the Spirit upon the foul. The whole of it is extorted, preffed, and fqueezed, from the letter of fcripture; moulded together by the dint of human wisdom; and unnaturally decorated with a little fulfome, flowery rhetorick, reflected from the natural ingenuity of others. I am not alone in my judgment; Confcience, when this book was written, bore the fame honeft teftimony, Counsel in the heart is as deep waters, and the words of Wisdom a flowing brook-but this treatise came not from the Spring, but from the prefs.

QUOT. Sanctification, then, it appears from the word of God, is a personal thing, wrought upon the foul by the power of the Holy Ghost.

ANSW. In a former quotation Maria's personal union was wrought in the foul by faith, and the Antinomian is charged with error for denying this, which Maria now denies herself, and fays it is wrought by the Holy Ghoft, That which made Canaan the holy land, Jerufalem the holy city, the temple the holy place, and Tabor the holy mount, was the prefence and appearance of the Holy One there; and that which makes a man an holy man is

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the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the Holy Ghoft in him. He is the spirit of power in the will; the fpirit of love in the affections; the spirit of revelation in the mind; the fpirit of illumination in the understanding; the fpirit of faith in the heart; the fpirit of judgment to them that fit in judgment, and of strength to them that turn the battle to the gate; and is an infallible witnefs in the court of conscience. He creates the fruit of the lip, is a watch before the mouth, and gives motion to the tongue. He produces a filial fear in the heart, and fets the object of fear before the eyes. He bars both heart and ears against the pretenfions of deceivers, and attends the found with joy to the heart when a child of wisdom bears his teftimony. He gives both inclination and motion to the whole man; actuates the hands to honeft labour, and fhakes them from dishonest gain. He teaches the eye to watch the goodness of God that paffes before the faint, and fweetly conftrains him to purfue the leadings of Providence, and the footsteps of faith. He is a free spirit among the free-born fons of Zion, a fpirit of unity to all that are within the bonds of the covenant; and makes the heart of a believer leap for joy at the rapturous falutation of a heaven-born foul. The elect, as confidered in Chrift, were fanctified from eternity in the purpose of God; and their fanctification was held forth in the promife of God; and in their covenant head they were fanctified when he offered up himself, and by the word of truth when applied to

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the heart, or they are clean through the word spoken to them; and they are fanctified by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, as above defcribed. But, as to fanctification which is called a perfonal thing, wrought upon the foul by the power of the Holy Ghoft, I know nothing of, nor this book neither.-Yet I declare before God that, notwithstanding all the calumny, reproach, hard names, and bad fpirit, with which I am loaded and charged, I would not exchange what Chrift has done for my foul, and by his Spirit wrought in me, and done by me, for all the fanctification of this book; nor for all the perfonal holiness, fruitfulness, and good works, of five hundred fuch authors, put them all together, for they know not God.

QUOT. From these two jarring principles, fo oppofite to each other, proceeds a continual warfare. Sometimes divine grace treads indwelling fin under its feet, and then the christian is holy, humble, and happy in his God. At other times, fin roufes up all its powers, attempts to fhake off the yoke, and even prevails fo far as to take the new man captive; and then the Chriftian groans, being burdened. Page 31.

ANSW. If this be true, the Chriftian may well groan. And how can the believer himself be really. delivered from the love and dominion of all fin (according to a former quotation), if the feed of God, the production of the Holy Ghoft, the new man of grace, falls under the prevailing power of fin, and is taken captive ?

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captive? Sin is Satan's ally, but the new man is in close alliance with the Spirit of God. The ftrong man armed muft, therefore, overcome Him that is stronger than he, and regain his loft poffeffion, before this new man, this principle of grace, which is to reign through righteousness, can be conquered by the prevailing power of fin, so as to be taken captive. The distinction here between the believer, and the feed of God in him, is this: the believer is delivered from the power of fin, but grace is taken captive by fin. To speak without irony, and without lightness-I do believe in my confcience that perfons who learn notions, and a wild cant, from the letter of the scriptures, and from the people of God; who darken and confound every thing they learn, being ignorant, and deftitute of the power of God; and who get into a profeffion of religion, and publifh fuch strange gibberish as this, and blend the facred names of fanctification and the Holy Ghost · with their own fubtle inventions-are guilty of fpiritual wickednefs; and their fin, in the great day, will be found to be more dreadful than that of the openly profane curfers and fwearers, who never once troubled themselves or interfered with religion. And fure I am that the aim and end of fuch people can be nothing but feeking honour from the blind and ignorant, and a livelihood in idleness; to perplex and puzzle seeking finners, and to oppofe and blacken those whom God has fent to lead them.

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QUOT,

Quor. The next thing I mean to confider is that grand Antinomian tenet, that the moral law has ceased to be the rule of a believer's conduct, as much as it has ceased to be a covenant of works.

ANSW. My reader will obferve here that the only rule of life is now termed the rule of conduct. Pray, does the author, or do the authors, of this book make the Moral Law the rule of their conduct? Do they labour fix days, and do all they have to do? Do they keep holy every Saturday, not doing their own works, nor finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words, on that day? Do they teach them diligently? Do they talk about this law when they fit in their house, when they walk by the way, when they fit down, and when they rife up ? Do they bind them for a fign upon their hands, and wear them as frontlets between their eyes? Do they write them upon the pofts of their house, and upon their gates? Deut. vi. Do they love God, whom they have not seen, when they knowingly endeavour to injure his children (in his own work) whom they have feen? Or, is loving in word instead of deed the love that the law requires? Do they not take the name of God in vain when they pretend to the operations of the Holy Ghost, and tell us that a partaker of grace is delivered from the power of fin, but that the grace of God is prevailed over and taken captive by fin? Do they not kill when they bear enmity against the just without cause, and begin C 2

and