work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. Rom. vii. 5. Here is fruit brought forth unto death, but no fruit to the living God. The first hufband, by his killing operations, and by his gendering to bondage, which contracts the womb of the foul, instead of enlarging it, becomes a killing letter; and the barren foul becomes dead to that deadly miniftration, or to that husband, and may be married to another. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Chrift; that ye fhould be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unio God (Rom. vii. 4), fome an hundred fold, fome fixty fold, fome thirty fold. Matt. xiii. 8.

The bond woman (with refpect to God) is faid to be barren, because fhe brings not forth the fruits of the Spirit; nor does fhe bring forth fpiritual children to God, because she is not married unto him. With respect to a divine husband, he is defolate; and, with refpect to Gud, fhe is barren. Yet fhe brings forth fruit unto death in a twofold fenfe. First, Dead works. Secondly, Dead children. More are the children of the defolate than the children of the married wife, faith the Lord. But then these children are in bondage to the miniftration of death,

under the fentence of death, and bound down to the fear of death. And a minifter of the letter is a dead man, and the letter of which he is the minifter killeth; and his profelytes are, as Chrift fays, the children of hell, baftards, bafe-born, children of the

Alefh.

flesh. These are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the feed; for in Adam all die. The decree of heaven has not brought forth fuch a minister (Zeph. ii. 2); the secret of election is not with him. Hence the divine prohibition; He that bath his ftones broken fhall not be a prieft. Lev. xxi. 20, 21. They that are broken off through unbelief, and are deftitute of the fecret mystery of faith, are dead men, minifters of the killing letter; and, though they and their profelytes may have a name to live, yet the Saviour fays they are dead.

QUOT. Some fay, the law cannot be a perfect rule of conduct, because it fays nothing upon some subjects which are noted in the precepts of the New Teftament.

ANSW. 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 defcribes it, promifes it, nor gives any information concerning it. But the good-will of God in Chrift Jefus does all this, and gives a man grace to perform what God requires. And it is a pity that a difpenfation which brings glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good-will towards men, fhould have no better a name than that of Antinomianifm. I believe the law to be more than a rule of conduct to them that are under it; for Paul fays that whatfoever the law faith, it faith to them that are under the law. It is to the bond children a rule of work :

6

work: What is written in the law?-This do-Keep the commandments. It is the rule of conversation: Thou shalt talk of this laws as thou lieft down, and risest up; as thou goeft out, and comeft in. It is the rule of life: This do, and thou shalt live. It is the rule of righteousness: This shall be our righteousness, if we obferve to do all these commandments. Deut. vi. 25. It is there a perfect rule of conduct: If a man keep the whole law, and offend in one point, he is guilty of all: yea, curfed is he that continueth not in all things, written in the book of the law, to do them. It is a rule for the fervant from first to last, and a rule to be continued in; and by this rule fhall children be judged at the great day. neth in the law fhall be judged by the law.

all the bond

He that fin

But the mystery of faith, the law of the Spirit, which comes from the good-will of God in Chrift Jefus, (which is one and the fame thing) is the fon's rule of life. It is the will of the Father that every one that feeth the Son, and believeth on him, should 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 Chrift's fulness grace and strength to perform every good work. It is the fon's rule of walk: I will lead them in a straight path, wherein they shall not fumble.-We walk by faith, not by fight. It is the fon's rule of work: I will direct their works in truth; which are the works of faith, labours of love, and patience of hope, in our Lord Jefus Chrift. 1 Theff. i. 3. The law is the

rulę

rule of the fervant's life, walk, and conduct; and, if the believer is under it as fuch a rule, the fervant and the fon are both on a level, for the law is no more than a rule of life to the fervant. 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 ftature 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 minifters of the Spirit, that provokes them to it; or, as Paul fays, "They creep in to spy out our liberty that we have in Chrift, that they may bring us into bondage." If the believer takes the law of Mofes upon him, will it change or renew his foul? Nay, fays Paul, while we look to Jefus, as through a glass darkly, we are changed into the fame image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. But, when Mofes is read, the veil is ftill upon the heart. Will taking the law on the believer serve to mortify the deeds of the body? No. If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Will taking this yoke increase the Spirit of holiness in the believer? No. He that miniftereth the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doth be it by the works of the law? Nay, but by the preaching of faith. Will this yoke keep the believer from, or affift the believer againft, fulfilling the lufts of the flesh? No. Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lufts of the flesh. Will this

yoke

yoke of the law fubdue fin? No. Sin fhall not have

dominion over you. Why not?

under the law, but under grace.

Because ye are not

Will this yoke of the law make the believer's fervice more acceptable to God? No. We are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should ferve in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Will this yoke of the law produce love and gratitude to God? No. The law worketh wrath; for where there is no law there is no tranfgreffion. It is the love of Christ that conftraineth us. Will this yoke of the law furnish the believer with love to his neighbour? or will it promote brotherly love? No: it will rather lead them to feek pre-eminence. It does not exclude boafting. We are taught of God to love one another; and it is the love of God in Christ, shed abroad in the heart by the Spirit, that is the bond of all perfectnefs among brethren. does this love come from the law? or does it come by the law? Neither of them. God's love to us is the bond of the covenant of grace; and, when thed abroad in our heart, it is our bond of union to the Lord. This love is the firft fruit of the Spirit; and is the main branch of the law of the Spirit which is in Chrift Jefus, which makes us free from the law of fin and death. Will the believer's taking this yoke upon him increafe his good works? No. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the fame bringeth forth much fruit. But will this yoke ftrengthen the believer's union with the Lord? No. They that

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