QUOT. Whofoever is born of God, doth not commit fin; for his feed remaineth in him, and he cannot fin.

ANSW. This is a contradiction of what you af ferted before. You fay the believer is delivered from fin, but the new man is taken captive by fin. If the faint is free from fin, and the new man is a captive to fin, this feed can be of no use to the believer, but rather the believer should help this captive. I would to God that fuch ignorant, unenlightened perfons, would never meddle with fuch fublime matters, and handle them in fo vile a way. Talk about the feed of God-and then about the new creature, created in righteoufnefs and true holiness, falling a captive to the devil! O, what judicial blindness, confufion, and hardness of heart, is this! What enmity against the gofpel, and the preachers of it, must rage in the breafts of such persons, to drive them, over all bounds, into fuch a defperate frenzy as to plunder, pervert, mifconftrue, and prostitute the divine oracies of God to fuch bafe purposes, as to deceive the fimple, and injure (in the Lord's work) the faithful labourers of the vineyard! However, as you have got a bridle in your jaws, caufing you to err, go on, and, by God's help, I will follow you as long as I can hold a pen. You are got into worse than Egyptian darkness now, and the veil will gather fafter and faster on your heels. But I find the path of the just fhines more and more unto perfect day. Let me contend for

the faith once delivered to the faints, and do you contend for the law; and our readers will foon fee which is the burning and the fhining light; for, by your darkness paffing before, the true light will shine after it.

QUOT. In Zacharias and Elizabeth, the father and mother of John the Baptift, we have a beautiful example of what the Chriftian is, or, at least, ought to be. It is faid of them, " They were both righteous before God; walking in all the commandments of the Lord, blameless. Luke i. 6.

ANSW. The authors of this book can charge William Huntington with no more ungodlinefs, or finful walking, fince his converfion, than they can charge the above-mentioned perfons; and yet their whole drift is to reprefent me a Magus in doctrine, and a devil in life: however, they can never overthrow the doctrines that I hold. This laft quotation juftifies my doctrine; for, if they were both righteous, they were justified by an imputed righteoufness. And it is clear that the grace of God did not lead them into licentioufnefs: for, as they walked in the Spirit, they did not fulfil the lufts of the flesh; for they walked in all the ordinances and commandments of the Lord blameless; so that the righteousness of the law was fulfilled in them, and grace taught them to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts. And this is what I affert. But, after all, this paffage of fcripture ferves my purpose much better than

the

the purpose of my opponents. For, though the law of works had no charge against Zacharias, because he was under grace, yet the law of faith had; which fhews that faith is a rule of obedience: and his tranfgreffing that rule brought a fore and a public judgment upon him: Behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to fpeak, until the day that these things fhall be performed; because thou believeft not my words, which fhall be fulfilled in their feafon. Luke i. 20. Is it not ftrange that a good man, a faint of God, fhould be rebuked by an angel from heaven; ftruck dumb for nine months for his unbelief, or for tranfgreffing the law of faith; and yet the law of faith (as this book fuggefts) is no rule of obedience; is no law to difcover and forbid fin; no law to arraign the tranfgreffor of it; nor yet a law furnished with a fentence to punish the disobedient thereto! However, though the law of works brought nothing against Zacharias's walk, the law of faith brought a heavy charge against his unbelieving heart. If this word, spoken by an angel, was steadfast, and Zacharias's tranfgreffion and difobedience thereto received a juft recompence of reward; how will thofe efcape who obfcure and traduce the law of faith (which at firft began to be fpoken by the Lord), as no rule of right and wrong; and fo make the kingdom of God, which stands not in word, nor in letter, but in power, in righteoufnefs, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghoft, a mere fancy! Let thefe enemies to Antinomianifin look to it; left, after all their contention for the letter, they

are

are found doing defpite to the Spirit of grace. For, although they think the law of faith, in the hand of the Spirit, is no rule, yet finning against it is the great tranfgreffion (Pfal. xix. 13); yea, it is the unpardonable fin. Which fhews, that the Spirit's law, or law of the Spirit, is the grandeft rule, and the greatest of all laws: for all other fins are pardonable but this-this is the fin unto death.

If my reader thinks that I bear too hard upon them in faying they think the law of faith to be no rule of obedience, confequently no law to punish the tranfgreffors of it, let him well weigh the next quotation, and thofe parts which I have put in Italicks, where the moral law is brought in as the only rule of right and wrong; for nothing but transgreffing thofe precepts is fin, and without that no process against a finner can be drawn; and it is only by that rule that a punishment can be inflicted: so that the hypocrite in Zion, the infidel in profeffion, and the unpardonable finner, have nothing to fear; for the decalogue fays nothing about them; but by Chrift's word fhall thofe be judged; and the twelve apostles, in their teftimony, fhall be witnesses against them.

QUOT. If there is no law, and, confequently, no fin, to a believer, why was David's conduct with respect to Bathsheba, and Uriah the Hittite, fo peculiarly marked, fo strictly ftigmatized, fo feverely punished? His conduct in this affair, in the very nature of things, must be either right

right or wrong; and none will dare to say it was right, becaufe it was followed by the most evident and unequivocal proofs of divine difpleafure: but, if it was wrong, what was it conftituted it fo? It must be a deviation from the rule of right; and, what can be that rule, but the moral law, which fays-Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery?

The day had not away, in his days.

ANSW. The law of faith goes closer than Thou fhalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery; for it declares that hatred to a brother (fuch as thefe authors bear to me) is murder; and that a lafcivious eye is adultery; and that fuch as Maria, who will not work, fhall not eat; yea, that such as take no care for themselves, and their own house, have denied the faith, and are worfe than infidels. But now to the quotation. It is well known that David lived under the old difpenfation. broke, the fhadows did not flee He was obliged to attend the mountains of myrrh and hills of frankincenfe. The children under that difpenfation were like children in nonage. They differed little from fervants, though lords of all; but were under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. Even fo we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But, when the fulness of time was come, God Jent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of fons. And, because ye are fons, God hath fent forth the Spirit of his Son into your

bearts,