bearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a fervant, but a fon—no more a fervant under the ruling power of the law, but a fon, by the Spirit of adoption, and under the reign of adopting grace. Gal. iv. 1-7. David did not live to fee thefe jubilee days; he lived under the old difpenfation. The law and the prophets were until John; but David was dead before John came. Nevertheless, we will confider David's crimes, and God's proceeding against him; whether it was by the rule of works or by the rule of faith; whether in the court of judicature or in the court of chancery; whether at the bar of the law or at the mercy-feat. For, if God dealt with him according to the rule of the moral law, as an adulterer, he must be stoned; and, as a murderer, he must be killed. He that does violence to the blood of any perfon, let him flee to the pit; let no man stay him. Shimei curfed David, and stoned him, which is going by your rule; for this he knew he deserved by the law; and he expected that God, in juft judgment, was going to measure the fame to him as he had measured to others: The Lord bath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whofe ftead thou hast reigned; and the Lord bath delivered the kingdom into the band of Abfalom. And, behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man! The unalterable and eternal law was point blank against David, both for adultery and murder; and ftoning to death was the unrepealable fentence annexed to that law. And furely God will will be true to his precept, and to his threatening: for he is not a man, that he should lie; nor the fon of man, that he should repent.-He is without variablenefs, or shadow of turning. And, according to this vile book that I am oppofing, the moral law was David's only rule of life, and God's only rule of judgment. And yet Abfalom dies; and not one stone hits David, not a drop of his blood is fhed; repentance is granted him; he is reftored to the favour of God, to the joys of his falvation, to his throne and dignity, and excellent majesty is added to him. Now, let our opponents tell us, by the ten commandments, how God could appear just in all this, by that only rule which they contend for; and whether they do not, by that only rule of God and man, represent the Moft High in an awful point of light in his proceedings with David? But, if they fay that Jefus, David's furety, took his crimes upon himfelf, and was ftoned and died in David's room, then my answer is, that God must proceed against David by fome other rule, if he appears just in the matter, and yet juftifies fallen David from all his ungodlinefs. David knew the moral rule, and trembled at it as much as ever I did, and knew he could never stand by that rule of judgment. Enter not into judgment with thy fervant, O Lord; for in thy fight fhall no man living be justified. He knew God never could justify him, but must condemn him, or appear unjust, by that rule. Hence his pitiful plea, Be furety for thy fervant for good. But the ten com A mandments say nothing of furetyfhip; they will have good hearts and good works no evil deeds can be done away by that rule; no evil works can ever ftand by that rule. To the furety of the better teftament David fled; in a covenant relation to God he stood; and of the covenant of grace he reminded his Maker-Have refpect to the covenant. He confidered himself as a new creature, and begs God to respect the work of his own hands. To the mercyfeat he fled for refuge; and pleaded the worthiness of the Man of God's right-hand-the Son of Man, made ftrong for himself; who was to bear those heavy crimes of David, which he fays were a fore burden, too heavy for him to bear. The ceremonial law was David's gofpel, and through that he looked to Jefus : Purge me with hyffop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than fnow. Under the Saviour's wings, at the mercy-feat, David found his refuge from the wrath of the law, till all his calamities were overpaffed; and the application that Nathan made to David, Thou shalt not die, for God hath put away thy fin! never came from your rule; for, by that, the foul that fins fhall die. God will not, cannot, clear the guilty by that rule. This I infift upon, that, if the moral law was David's only rule of life, (and, if ever it was, it was in David's days, for Christ, the end of it, was not then come), and if the moral law was the only rule by which God proceeded against David, all the world could never have faved the life, nor the foul, of the sweet pfalmift pfalmift of Ifrael from that dreadful curfe. Nor did Nathan preach the parable of the ewe-lamb from the law; but fixed David's crime upon his confcience, by enforcing the goodnefs of God to him, and his ungrateful returns. Thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael, I anointed thee king over Ifrael; and I delivered thee out of the bands of Saul; and I gave thee thy master's boufe, and thy master's wives into thy bofom; and gave thee the house of Ifrael and Judah; and, if that had been too little, I would moreover have given thee fuch and fuch things. Wherefore hast thou defpifed the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his fight? David finned against both law and gospel: he did not keep that commandment which Paul gave to Timothy, without fpot. He finned not only against the moral law, but he finned against the commandment of life for evermore; which, he says, is the bleffing which God commanded on mount Zion; and which commandment, David knew, was given to Chrift touching him: Thou haft given a commandment to fave And he knew that it was a life-giving word: This is my comfort in my affliction, thy word bath quickened me. And in this word he believed, or he had perished for ever: I bad fainted, unless I had believed: but I believed, and therefore bave I spoken. me. Quor. We find, in David, a moft ftriking example of evangelical repentance, and godly forrow, upon the account of fin. He was a finner, but he was no Antinomian. ANSW. I will not fay that the authors of this book are Antinomians; but this I will fay, that the book contains the worst Antinomianifm that I ever read; and is a vile and damnable harangue, both against the law, the gofpel, and the grace of God. Against the law, because it declares "The law has ceafed to exift, and is done away, as a covenant "of works." Against the gospel, because " it is no rule of right and wrong." And against the grace of God, by declaring that "the new man is taken captive by fin." And, as for their mentioning evangelical repentance and godly forrow, they never experienced any thing of it; nor does <this book give any better description of it than old mother Shipton would have done. Befides, what fignifies talking of David's repentance, godly forrow, and pardon of fin? Minifters of the law fhould leave these things to the minifters of the Spirit. Your rule, engraven on tables of stone, accepts no repentance nor godly forrow; nor will it ever fhew mercy, nor pardon iniquity; it neither mentions it, accepts it, nor gives any information about it. Any fimple perfon, who fhould read this treatife, who has not eyes to fee through this mask of hypocrify, and who should be informed that this pill, or bolus, was prepared for me, muft conclude that, of all the : wretched beings out of hell, William Huntington must be the vileft finner, the worst liver, and the most dangerous preacher. What fimple foul could imagine that fuch a fpurious harangue could be levelled |