the grace, gifts, happiness, usefulness, and pure doctrine, of God's faithful ones. And that thefe men are destitute of the Spirit, is plain from their causeless anger, hatred, and unrighteous judgment. And that they are under the Law, and not under Grace, appears plain alfo, by their being in danger of bell-fire: which a juftified foul, in a state of grace, is not; for Chrift fays, he shall never come into condemnation; yea, he shall never die; he hath everlasting life. There is no bell-fire nor condemnation to them which are in Chrift Jefus: nor is it fin in a man of God to call a hypocrite, a wicked man, or an opposer of the Gospel, a foot: "Thou fool, (lays Paul) that which thou foweft is not quickened except it "die." The Lord goes on

Ye have beard that it was faid, Thou shalt not commit adultery, &c. but I fay unto you, that whofoever looketh on a woman, to luft after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Here the Lord enforces the fpirituality of the Law: that it reaches the foul and fpirit of a man; yea, the inmost thoughts and defires of the heart, as well as words and actions; and that all above yea, yea, and nay, nay, cometh of evil; and for every idle word, the finner that dies in his fin, and under this Law, must give an account at the day of judgment. The Lord here fhews the need of falt in the corrupt Spring of the human heart; for the Law is fo far from deftroying luft, that it works the more vigo

roufly by it: " For fin taking occafion by the com"mandment, wrought in me all manner of concu

pifcence; for without the Law fin was dead," Rom. vii. 8.-" Yea, when we were in the flesh, the mo"tions of fin, which are by the Law, did work in

our members to bring forth fruit unto death."Therefore the finner must become dead to the "Law by the body of Chrift, and be married to an"other, before he can bring forth fruit unto God.” Rom. vii. 4, 5. Terrible as this Law is, the Saviour fent every felf-fufficient enquirer to it, as his only Rule of Life; but he never fent one humble fuppliant, or fenfible finner, to it, during the whole of his ministry. However, the foul that is espoused to Chrift fees his old man, yea, the whole body of the fins of the flesh, condemned in his Surety, and crucified in his death; and he feels the old man put off when Chrift takes poffeffion of the heart. A new creature is formed, and the old man is dethroned. The will, mind, heart, and affections, are made loyal to Chrift, and take part with the new man; while the old man, like a rebel in alliance with Satan, wars against both the believer and his grace: "But "it is no more I that do it," fays Paul, "but fin, "that dwelleth in me."- -But my bleffed Mafter goes on to preach, and his own fervant follows him, to catch what he can.

Whosoever shall put away his wife, Saving for the caufe of fornication, caufeth her to commit adultery;

and

29.

and whofoever shall marry her that is divorced, committeth adultery. Fornication is unlawful connection between unmarried people. This crime, when committed by married perfons, is adultery, not fornication. The fin for the which fuch a woman might be divorced, appears to have been committed previous to her marriage. The husband finding her nota virgin, and finding himself deceived and impofed on by a vitiated perfon; in fuch a cafe, the marriage feems to be void, according to Deut. Chap. xxii, And, indeed, fuch a woman, in the fight of God, is the wife of him who first humbled her, Deut. xxii. though perhaps the Saviour, by fornication here, includes adultery alío. However, if the had been guilty of fornication with one man, and afterwards marries another, the marriage is null and void, for fhe is the wife of the firft man; and if the commits adultery afterwards, fhe breaks the marriagebond herself. In fuch cafes, and only fuch, might The be put away. The Lord goes on-Thou shalt not swear-Refift not evil-Love your enemies, &c. &c. In all which he explains what he means by breaking one of thefe least commandments. He that is angry with his brother without caufe; he that calls him vain, empty fellow; he that calls him a wicked reprobate; he that has eyes full of adultery, &c. &c. He that breaketh the leaft of thefe commandments

And teacheth men fo. What, then, fhall we fay of them, who hate the minifters that Chrift hath D 4

fent!

fent! and in whofe hearts envy has refted for years together! and who call them Antinomians, bad fpirits, devils, bubbles of the day, and blackg-ds, without any just charge either of error or immorality! Is not this breaking the commandments, and teaching men fo?-Did I ever tell you, in the course of my miniftry, that you should have more Gods than one? that you should make images, take the Lord's name in vain, prophane his day of reft, ridicule parents, kill, fteal, commit adultery, bear falfe witnefs, and covet your neighbour's goods? Did you ever see any thing of this in my practice, or did you ever hear any thing of it from my mouth? I trow not. I have enforced regeneration by the Spirit, as the only way to make men holy; and I have preached up a divorce from the Law, and union with Chrift, as the only way to make men fruitful. I have infisted on a walk in the Spirit, as the only way for men to efcape fulfilling the lufts of the flesh. And I have urged a life under the influence of Grace, as the only way to get disentangled from the reign of fin: and that fin fhall have dominion only over them that are under the Law; it fhall not have dominion over them that are under Grace. But can this be called "breaking the command

ments, and teaching men fo?" What, does the grace of God encourage fin? Or is the Law against the promises of God? Or does this doctrine make void the Law? Nay, it is established this way, and

no

no other. Again, do you find the advocates for Free Grace, who are found in their principles, and experimental in their fouls, loofe livers? Do you fee those who are in the clofeft connection with me, breakers of God's commandments, and, by example, teachers of the fame? Nay, fo far from it, that if you would find an ignorant, uninformed people; if a dead, fleepy congregation; if a light, vain, frothy community, who are envious in their minds, empty in heart, and fcandalous in life-you must look for them among those who have little or nothing but the Law of Mofes fet before them. The Law worketh wrath, the Law makes nothing perfect, but the better Hope does do it. The Hagarenes shall never heat the children of Zion at good works, for root and branch are both wanting. Then what is all this defperate outcry againit me for?Why, for this one voice that I cried among them, "The Law of Mofes is not the Saint's Rule of "Life." For this word I am made an offender; and they that make it fuch an offence, cannot bring one text in God's Book against it. Yea, farther; the best commentators now extant, who have advanced the Law as the Saint's Rule of Life from one text, have themselves contradicted it from another, as plainly as calling light darknefs, and darkness light and though all commentators have followed one another in that track, not one, that ever I have feen, has proved it from God's Book. The Mafter's commanding