the vail still on their heart, and never will have any light in them till their heart is turned to Christ. The above testimony is the gospel of Christ, and the above law is the law of faith, which the prophet calls the word, which word is the word of life. All which the prophet himself explains. He tells us that Christ shall be for a sanctuary to them that fear him, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel; and that many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. But, though this would be the case with some, yet not with all; for, saith the prophet, "Bind up the testimony, seal the law, among my disciples." Now what is this testimony? It is truth, which came by Jesus Chris, which Christ testified, and is his testimony; which truth is to make us free. But what is this bond that binds the testimony? Paul says it is receiving the truth in the love of it, which love casts out fear and makes us free indeed. And what is the above law sealed among the disciples? Paul says the law of faith; "The day you believed you were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise." These are the laws that God promises to write in his people's hearts, and to put in their minds. One law God calls the law of truth, which he himself explains to be the covenant of life and peace: and the other law, which is sealed, is called the law of faith; by which the just shall live, and which excludes all boasting.

And of such God says, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Now what does Paul call a man with whom this new covenant is made, who has received his pardon, who is blessed with a new heart and a new spirit, and in whose heart and mind these laws are written? He calls them the manifest epistle of Christ, "ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." And which ministration of the gospel, written on the fleshly tables of the heart by the Spirit, Paul opposes to the moral law throughout this whole chapter from whence my text is taken.

Now, as the Spirit writes these laws on the believer's heart, it will be necessary to inquire where this Spirit and his laws are. Paul says they are all in Christ. God's word and his Spirit are never to depart from Christ and his seed; and therefore in Christ we must look for them; "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Here is the law of faith and of truth, called the Spirit's law; which by Isaiah is called Christ's law; "The isles shall wait for his law;" but by Ezekiel they are called God's laws; I will write my laws in their hearts. All which are plain enough. They are God's laws, being his good will of purpose and promise in a covenant of grace in Christ Jesus to It is Christ's law, because grace and truth

us.

came by him; and is called the law of the Spirit, because he writes them on the fleshly tables of our hearts. Now what did this law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus do for Paul? Why he says it made him free from the law of sin and death. What is the law of sin? The law in our members. And what is the law of death? The moral law on tables of stone. And Paul was made free from both; from the guilt, from the reigning and destroying power of the law of sin, and from the commanding and damning power of the moral law. And this is being made free indeed; not free to sin, but in the above sense free from it. All this is done in us by the Spirit; "Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage." Which moral law genders to bondage, and worketh wrath.

Now can we say that a man, in whom God has written these laws, and in whom he has done all these things, is an antinomian? Surely he is not without law to God, but under this law to Christ; or, as Doctor Gill says, 'under the law of Christ, which is the law of love.' And so it is, for we are to bear each other's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ; for it was love constrained Christ to bear the burden of us all. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Under this law of love; call it grace,

faith, truth, and liberty, or whatever you please, these are all in Christ; and the believer in Christ is under these, and under no other; nor did God ever by his Spirit write any other laws than these on the minds and hearts of his saints, who stand fast and complete in Christ, since the world began; and I am sure he never will; for service in the oldness of the letter, and legal works, are both rejected. The obedience of faith, and service in the newness of the Spirit, is what God will have: and he that in these things serves Christ is accepted of God, and approved of men; and, "As many as walk according to this rule, mercy on them, and peace, and upon the Israel of God."

The new covenant revealed to us is sometimes in scripture called laws, in the plural, "I will write my laws," &c. and sometimes in the singular number, law, "The isles shall wait for his law." Let this be observed, that the law of truth, Mal. ii. 6; which is called the covenant of life and peace, verse 5, includes the whole of the everlasting gospel, with all the grace of God held forth and promised therein; which grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; and, because the Spirit applies faith to the sinner's heart by hearing of it, it is called the law of faith; and, because love is promised and applied by it, it is called the law of love; and, as love by the Spirit casts out fear and torment, and enlightens the eyes and enlarges the heart, it is called a looking into the perfect law of liberty; and, because the Spirit comes to us and

quickens us by this ministration, and no other, it is called the law of the Spirit of life. This accounts for the plural and singular number of the word, law, being alternately used in scripture.

Hence I conclude that the believer, who is in Christ, is not under the moral law, and that the moral law is a rod in the hand of God, and a schoolmaster, by which the Father teaches and corrects the sinner, that he may know his dreadful state, and then leads him from the law to Christ, where salvation may be had; which is called passing from death to life. So that we may safely conclude the moral law is no part of the rod of Christ's strength, by which he rules his saints.

Yea, and even Doctor Gill himself, notwithstanding all his distinctions, so close doth Paul press him, when commenting upon my text, he is obliged to speak as follows: 'Now this vail upon Moses's face had a mystery in it; it was an emblem of the gospel being vailed under the law, and of the darkness and obscurity of the law in the business of life and salvation; and also of the future blindness of the Jews, when the glory of the gospel should break forth in the times of Christ and his apostles; and which was such, that the children of Israel, the Jews, as in the times of Moses, so in the times of Christ and his apostles, could not stedfastly look to, nor upon the face of Moses, whose face was vailed: not that they might not look, but because they could not bear