enmity, nor any delight in a killing letter, nor in a law that worketh wrath. And this the law really does, if once viewed out of the heart of the Mediator, or once separated from the operations of the Holy Ghost. In the Spirit the saint must live, in the Spirit he must walk, in the Spirit he must worship, and in the newness of the Spirit he must serve, if ever he enters heaven, or sees the face of God with acceptance.

"We might further ask, if the law of God be ' not a rule to them, what is a rule to them?'

The good-will of God in Christ Jesus is the saint's rule; which is called the mystery of his will, and is the mystery of faith, and the law of faith: and, if the father's will be not the child's rule, nothing is; and, if the law of faith be no rule, it is not worthy the name of a law; nor is it likely that men will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of God for not obeying it; nor can the saint be said to receive grace for obedience to the faith, if the law of faith be no rule of obedience. The good-will of God in Christ Jesus, made known in the mystery of faith, which is the law of faith, is the saint's rule; for it is by the Father's will that we live, walk, and work, by faith. To this the Holy Ghost bows the stubborn sinner's will. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." "Son, go work to-day in my vineyard;" that is my will. "I will not," says the rebel, that made the cross; "but, afterwards, he repented, and went." This was a com

mandment that had life, and was attended with the grace of repentance. "Son, go thou, work today in my vineyard. I Igo, Sir;" said the self-important bond child, but went not. And which did the will of his father? This hath been asserted by the best of prophets; "This is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may not perish, but have everlasting life." This, Sir, is the Father's will; and this is the Son's rule: by purifying faith, which worketh by love, he is to live, to walk, to work, to pray, to stand, to fight, to overcome, and to die at last: "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." The believer is not to draw back to the yoke of bondage, nor to perdition, but to believe to the saving of the soul. And this, Sir, is so perfect a rule, that, without it, it is impossible to please God; for, "whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

'What standard is there of sin and holiness, 'vice and virtue?” ·

This is debasing the Gospel with a witness. Is the Gospel no standard of sin and holiness, vice and virtue? If it be not, how can a man be guilty of the great transgression, or the unpardonable sin, by doing despite to the Spirit of grace, if the law of the Spirit of life be no rule? How can men be punished with everlasting destruction for not obeying the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, if the Gospel of the grace of God be no rule? How can ́the infidel be damned for his unbelief, if the

law of faith be no rule? Or, how can the believer be rewarded with the crown of life, if the law of faith be no rule? Surely, the Judge of all the earth will not do wrong in rewarding the faithful and punishing the infidel. If the Gospel be no standard of sin and holiness, the Gentiles who have fled to that standard for reconciliation and rest will be disappointed, and the rebel who has refused it can have nothing to fear; for, according to your account, it is no rule of life or obedience, nor any standard of sin or holiness, vice or virtue: then the holy and the virtuous cannot be saved by obeying it, nor the vicious sinner be damned for rejecting it. However, it is a dispensation that makes manifest the counsels of the heart; quick and powerful; and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, Heb. iv. 12, that brings in the alarmed sinner guilty, condemned of all, and judged of all; and makes him cry out, and report that God, of a truth, is in the preacher. It is a law that discovers a lascivious look to be adultery; anger in the heart to be murder in the abstract; a glass for the natural man to see his face in; a sea of glass, to discover every spot or wrinkle; reveals covetousness, as the root of all evil; the self-righteous to be further from the kingdom of heaven than publicans and harlots; an outward appearance of holiness to be the varnish of the worst of hypocrites;

the sin of unbelief to be the basis of damnation; and a covetous man to be the worst of idolaterswhich the law of Moses forbids, but never discovers as the dispensation of the Spirit does, which convinces the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.. Nor did Paul find out the evil of lust effectually, though the Law had said, "Thou shalt not covet," until the light of the Gospel, from the face of the Saviour, shined round about him: for, before this light came, and the commandment in the blaze of it, he was alive without the law; and, as touching the righteousness of it, he thought himself blameless. You do, Sir, with reverence be it spoken! mutilate, disfigure, and debase, the glorious Gospel of the Son of God!

'And what becomes of the glory of the Gospel, as magnifying and making honourable the 'Law?'

The Law was made honourable by the obedient life and passive death of the Son of God; who trod the wine-press alone, when of the people there was none with him. When there was none to help, nor any to uphold, then his own arm brought salvation unto him, and his fury it sustained him; and, as there was no hand to help, nor people to uphold, there are to be no sharers in the glory of the conquest, though many share in the spoils: My glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images."

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'If Christ came to take away the law as the

"rule of life, is he not the minister of sin? And is 'not the law made void through faith?'

No: for Christ came to reveal God's will of purpose and promise, which terminates in glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good-will toward men. He came to reveal a better rule: "For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God." If this rule brings glory to God, peace upon earth, and good-will to men; makes them perfect, and brings them nigh unto God, as reconciled through Christ, which the law never revealed, nor ever did; how can the glorious Redeemer, the author of it, be the minister of sin? The ministration of sin in the Scriptures is not applied to Christ, nor to those who preach him; but to such as blend his Gospel with legality. "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ; even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners; is, therefore, Christ the minister of sin? God forbid! For, if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless, I live; yet, not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh,