over to perdition, it will be necessary to inquire whether these six words- the law the rule of life'; be in reality the great Shibboleth of the gospel; on the confidence, or rather the confession of which, hangs the everlasting wo or welfare of immortal souls. This error is the worst of heresies; consequently, the advancers of it are the worst of heretics; and an heretic, after the first and second admonition, is to be rejected; for he is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself, Titus iii. 10, 11. Some have been saved without ever hearing a sermon from this natural text; witness the thief upon the cross, and all others who have ever been enabled by grace to believe: "He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." If he that believes shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, and shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end, Isa. xlv 17, faith certainly is the only rule by which a man can obtain salvation. He that believes, saith the Saviour, hath life; then, without all contradiction, faith is the rule of life. "We walk by faith, not by sight," saith the Apostle: then certainly faith is the rule of walk. "I live by the faith of the Son of God," says Paul: then, without controversy, faith in Christ was the rule by which he lived. "The law is not of faith," says God: of works it treats, and for works it calls; and "they that are of the works of the law are under the curse," for it is the ministration of death. Then, to the legal

workmonger, it will be the rule of death, instead of life: "For the law which was ordained unto life I found to be unto death." He who believes is justified from all things, and obtains justification unto life: then believing is the rule by which he obtains life; and grace provides that rule, and enables him to obey the same. We have received grace for obedience unto the faith. If it be true that he who believes shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be damned, I think the grand hinge of the gospel is faith. It matters not whether a man can say, the law is the rule of life, but whether he believes with the heart unto righteousness, and makes confession with the mouth unto salvation. And if it be true, what the Scriptures assert, that he who believes is justified; hath everlasting life already; is to walk by faith, live by faith, work by faith, or produce the works of faith and labours of love; to believe to the saving of his soul; to be faithful unto death; and that Christ will give him the crown of life, as he did to Paul, who fought a good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith; how can such a believer be said to hold, by adhering to the doctrine of the Saviour, the worst of heresies, and be the worst of heretics, when God declares that all shall be damned except such believers?

Nor are your six words-' the law the rule of life;' the grand hinge of the law; for the weightier matters of the law are judgment and the love of God. The law requires strict justice between

man and man; but nothing short of the grace and fear of God will make our officers peace, and our exactors righteousness. The law requires love to God and man; the gospel gives it: "I will circumcise their hearts to love me, that they may live;" and we are taught of God to love one another. "He that loveth dwelleth in God, and God in him;" and he shall be saved, for "charity never faileth." But "he that loveth not, knoweth not God;" and "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."

Nor is the law once called the believer's rule of life: if it was, I should certainly enforce it as such; as it is the desire of my soul, and prayer to God also, that I may declare the whole counsel of God. Some in old time, which were certain of the sect of the Pharisees, rose up, saying, that it was needful to circumcise the brethren, and command them to keep the law of Moses, but they were said to tempt God, in putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, Acts xv. 5. 10; and it is expressly affirmed, that God gave them no such commandment. And I will boldly venture to affirm, and appeal to your own conscience for the truth of it, that God never gave you any such commandment; that he never put such words into your mouth, nor bid you go and speak thus, Numb. xxiii. 16.

Pray, what do you mean by setting aside the law? Does preaching the faith of Christ make

void the law? Does not the doctrine of faith set forth Christ as the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; and that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them who walk, not after the flesh, but after the Spirit? And, what would you have more than the righteousness of the law fulfilled? fulfilled by Christ himself, and fulfilled in the believer by God? Does not the faith of Christ establish the law, as magnified and made honourable in the heart of the Mediator? And is not the testimony of this bound, and the law of faith sealed, in the heart of every real disciple? If faith establish the magnified law in the heart of the Saviour, and the righteousness of it be fulfilled in the spiritual man, the doctrine of faith can never set it aside. Pray, how have you established the law? In no sense whatever. You have told us, that the law is magnified and made honourable in our justification; but I rather think the law was magnified and made honourable by the perfect obedience of Christ; God was well pleased for his righteousness sake. But the obedience of the Saviour is one thing, and God's work of imputation is another. By Christ was this righteousness wrought out and brought in; to me it is imputed, and becomes mine. By the former the law was magnified and made honourable; by the latter the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me. The former was Christ's work; the latter is the Father's. The first was completed by the Saviour; the latter fulfilled in

me.

This is one branch of your establishment of the law; and the second is like unto it.

The law is the rule of life.' I answer, What law? Is it the law of truth that was with Levi? Mal. ii. 6. The law of kindness? Prov. xxxi. 26. The perfect law of liberty? James i. 25. The law of faith? Rom. iii. 27. The law of life? Prov. xiii. 14. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes us free from the law of sin and death? Rom. viii. 2. Or is it the law of Moses? If you say, 'Yea, it is the law of Moses that the believer is under, as his rule of life,' then the believer is just where he was before; the old yoke is on him; he is neither redeemed from it nor delivered from it; he is under wrath, and in bondage; and Moses accuses him still. But, if you reply, nay, but he is under Moses's law to Christ;' then Moses is the saint's only lawgiver, and Christ is his second master; though the believer is to call no man master, for one is his master, even Christ. We know that the Galatians went to the law, to perfect by their life what God had begun by his Spirit: but they were not ministers of Christ who sent them there; nor did that persuasion come from him that called them. Nor does this doctrine of yours come from him that called me; nor do I believe that you ever got much of your doctrine or teaching from God's mouth; if you had, we should have had less of 'We, Shall we, and Shall not we.' When a man has a believing view of Christ, and finds union