fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, long-fuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meeknefs, tempe rance, hereby you know that he abideth in you, by the Spirit which he hath given you, 1 John iii. 24. Labour likewife to clear up this difficulty, not only by the life, but by the growth of grace. If you grow more humble, felf abafing and felf-condemning: if you grow more penitent, and more paffionately groan under the burthen of, and mourn for deliverance from all your fins: if your love to God increases, and you take more delight in him and in his ways; or at least long after a life of nearer communion with him, with more ardent defire: if you are more fpiritual in your thoughts, meditations, and affections, more heavenly in your converfation; and more careful of your refpective duties both to God and man, then you may know that Christ abideth in you and you in him; in that you bring forth much fruit, John xv. 5.

If you get fatisfying evidences of your union to Chrift, adore, admire, and praise the infinite condefcenfion, and the astonishing love of the glorious Redeemer, in taking fuch duft and afhes, fuch fin and pollution, into union with himself. Contemplate the amazing tranfaction of love with admiration, and let the love of Chrift constrain you, to live to the praise of the glory of that grace, by which you become accepted in the beloved.

That Chrift may abide in you and you in him, that you may win Chrift, and be found in him at his appearance and kingdom, and that you may reign with him. for ever, is the prayer of,

Sir,

Yours, &c.

LETTER XVIII. Wherein fome ANTINOMIAN ABUSES of the Doctrine of Believers union to Chrift, or Pieas from it for LICENTIOUSNESS and SECURITY in finning, are confidered and obviated.

SIR,

A

LLOW me the freedom to tell you, that the con fequences you draw from the doctrine of our B b

.

union to Chrift, as I have reprefented it, are without any foundation; and that a juft view of the case must convince you, that this doctrine gives no advantage to • licentious and latitudinarian principles,' but the direct contrary. I shall therefore endeavour according to your defire, to confider the Antinomian principles you are pleafed to propofe; and see whether they naturally follow from what I taught in my laft.'

You do not fee (you tell me) if the principles I teach are allowed, how the Antinomians can be charged with error, in fuppofing that the true believer has 6 no caufe to repent of his fins, or to entertain any difquietment of mind with refpect to them, fince he is united to Chrift, and all his fins are charged to Christ's account, whereby he has fatisfied for them all. Why -therefore fhould the believer be concerned about a debt, which is fully difcharged? Juftice is fatisfied with respect to him; Chrift delights in him, as a member of his own body: the Spirit of God dwells in him, notwithstanding any of his fins and imperfections. Why may he not therefore be perfectly eafy with respect to fin; and look upon it (as a modern Antinomian expreffes himself) unworthy of our leaft regards?' To this I anfwer.

1. That no man who is practically conformed to this Antinomian principle, can know himself to be a believ er; and therefore there can be no foundation for this reafoning, ireny perfon whatsoever. Were your ar guing allowed to be juft, it can take place with none, but thofe who have infallible evidence of their union to Chrift; which it is impoffible any man fhould have,. who is not burthened with his fins, who does not hate them, and groan after deliverance from them. Repentance is the genuine and neceflary fruit of a true faith. They fhall look upon me whom they have pierced, • and shall mourn,' Zech. xii. 10. That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy fhame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thoù haft done, faith the Lord God,' Ezek. xvi. 63. And ye fhall be my people, and I will be your God. Then fhall ye re member your own evil ways and your doings which

were not good; and fhall loathe yourselves in your own fight, for your iniquities and for your abominations,' Ezek. xxxvi. 28. 31. It is the true believer, and he only, that is capable aright to mourn for fin, truly to hate it, and to groan under the burthen of it. Unbelievers may mourn under a sense of their guiltand danger, but this is not to repent of fin. It is the believ er only, who forrows for fin as fin; who hates all fin; who groans, being burthened, from a fenfe of his finful. nefs; and who cries out with the apoftle, O wretched man that I am, who fhall deliver me from the body of this death! What room can there then be for thofe licenti. ous conclufions you speak of? Who is the perfon that can thus rock his confcience to fleep, under the preva lence of his lufts, from the doctrine of our union to Chrift, as I have described it? Muft it be fuppofed to be one who is united to Chrift? Or one who is not united to Christ? Surely not the former; for how can he be indolent, carelefs and fecure in the commiflion of fin, from the doctrine of our union to Chrift, who has no evidence of this being his cafe; nor can have any fuch evidence, till he is poor in spirit, and is thereby qualified for the kingdom of heaven, Matth. v. 3. till he is one that mourns for his fins, and comes under the promise of comfort, ver. 4. and untill he is of a contrite and humble fpirit; for with fuch, and only with fuch, has the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, promised to dwell? Ifa. lvii. 15. And I think, I need not endeavour to prove, that he who is not united to Chrift, has no fhadow of a plea or pretence to make for careleffness and fecurity in fin, from the doctrine before us. Whence it follows, that all pretences of this kind are without any rational foundation. They only proceed from men's delight in fin, in a life of fenfual eafe and carnal fecurity; and not at all from the precious truth before us. This facred truth máy indeed be perverted and abused; and fo may all the other doctrines of the Gospel, 2 Pet. iii. 16. But they who thus turn the grace of God into wantonness, do it at the peril of their fouls; and will find but little comfort in it, when they come to make up their accounts. Whatever extravagant pretences men's licentious difpofitions may prom them to, they must in the conclusion find it true,

a life of continued repentance of fin, a life of continued self abasement and self-judging, and a life of repeated and renewed mourning after pardon of and victory over our remaining corruptions, is a neceffary fruit and evidence of our union to Chrift; and belongs to the way which leadeth to life eternal, and in which the faints walk to heaven. If therefore we would not too late be found with a lie in our right hand, we must with Daniel, pray to the Lord, and make our confeffion, Dan. ix. 4. We muft, with the church, acknowledge ourselves as an unclean thing, Ifa. lxiv. 6. We muft, with Job, even abhor ourselves, and repent in dust and afbes, Job xlii. 6. We muft, with Ephraim, bemoan ourselves, Jer. xxxi. 18. And with David, have our hearts fail us, on account of the number and aggravations of our fins, Pfal. xl. 12. For these are the characters, these are the dif pofitions of fuch, who are indeed united to Chrift.

2. There is greater guilt in the fins of believers than in the fins of others. They have therefore greater cause to be humbled for them, and to lament them before God. They are indeed united to Chrift, reconciled to God, freed from all condemnation, and made heirs ac• cording to the hope of eternal life, the fatisfying evidences of which bleffed flate muft carry them above any tormenting fears of hell and eternal perdition; and deliver them from that legal repentance, which is the product of defponding thoughts, and a fear of amazement. But is there no other motive to repentance, but flavish fears of hell? Does not a true repentance and a genuine forrow for fin always flow from an affecting fenfe of the contrariety of fin to the nature and will of God; from a fenfe of the ingratitude there is in fin, to a bountiful benefactor and a compaffionate Saviour; and from a fenfe of the difhonour to God's name, the violation of his law, the abuse of his mercy and love, the affront and provocation to his holy Spirit, the diftance procured between God and us; and the prejudice to others, as well as to our own fouls, occafioned by our finning against God. Now in all these respects, the fins of believers are more aggravated than the fins of other men. They are diftinguished from the most of the world, by renewing and faving grace: and must it not cut them to the

heart, to think of their vile ingratitude to fuch an infinitely kind and beneficent friend; and of their horrid abufe of fuch an unmerited mercy and love! They are united to Chrift, washed in his precious blood, and jus tified by his righteousness; and can they be content to load him with indignities, who has not thought his own blood too dear a ranfom for their fouls; and who has by the power of his grace plucked them out of the guilt and danger of a perifhing world, and made them heirs of the eternal inheritance! They have felt the divine influences and confolations of the bleffed Spirit; and have tafted that the Lord is gracious, and fhall they by their fins grieve the Spirit of God, provoke him to with draw, and to with-hold his quickening and comforting influences from them? They are the friends and children of God, the fworn fubjects of the eternal majefty; yea, even the spouse of Jefus Chrift. And fhall fuch make little account of fin! Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Is it a light thing for a child to rebel against his compaffionate Father; for a fubject to take up arms against his prince; or for a wife to violate her marriage vows? Certainly the fins of believers are aggravated, in proportion to the various obligations they are under, and though they have no caufe of defponding and difcouraging fears, they have the greatest caufe to groan under the burden of their fins, and to groan after deliverance from them. Their union to Chrift is fo far from extenuating their fins, that it renders them more heinous in the fight of God; and is the strongest reafon why they fhould watch against them, lament and hate them. For this reafon, God may jufily expoftulate with them upon their finning against him, as in Deut. xxxii. 6. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwife? Is not he tby Father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee, and established thee?

3. It is true of believers, as well as of others, that except they repent they fhall furely perish. They are indeed fafe in the hands of Chrift; and none fall pluck them out of his hands: he will preferve them to his heavenly kingdom. But then, he will fave them in his own way, in the way of a repeated renewed exercife of re