against the good-will of the best of Fathers, who is offended at the provoking of his sons and daughters; he sins against the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus; and against the strongest tie of all, namely, the everlasting love of God. The consideration of such base ingratitude, when charged home with fatherly severity, as the sins of David and Peter were, cuts the believer deeper, and gives him a more noble and effectual wounding, than all the shafts of Sinai, should God heap mischiefs, and spend his arrows, upon him, Deut. xxxii. 23.

A bond child is never humbled by an arraignment at the bar of Justice: such cry not when the Lord bindeth them; but look up, and curse both their King and their God, Isa. viii. 21. It was against the law of faith, or the Saviour's judgment, that rests for a light, that Peter sinned; and this the Lord let him know, when, by a penetrating glance of his eye, he arraigned him. Peter understood it. The Lord need do no more than turn and look upon Peter, that shall wound him, and melt him too. Nathan aggravated the circumstances of David's crime, though he lived in Old Testament times, more, by repeating God's goodness and manifold gifts to him; 'And if that had been too little, I would have given thee such and such things;' than by arraigning him at the bar of the Law. David sinned against the love of God, which is both the old and the new commandment, and which commandment is life everlasting; sinning against which brought David to the pains of

hell; until a fresh manifestation of it sent him forth, like a child weaned of his mother.

Surely, gentlemen who write as this author does can never be experimentally acquainted with those high obligations, filial, tender, delicate, noble, and powerful, ties of the law of the Spirit of life, which bind the heir of promise so fast to the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort! God writes his law in the hearts of his children; and I thought this had been the better standard of vice and virtue; and that sins against this, had been the worst crimes, according to the deep sighs, heavy groans, and humble confessions, of Bible saints. Sure I am, that he who is made free from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, will be glad to kiss the Son, and cleave to this Sovereign; nor ever wish to break his bands asunder or cast his cords from him.

I think the Father's will of purpose and promise in Christ Jesus is the more perfect rule for us; and, when revealed in the mystery of faith, and applied by the Spirit, is a complete standard of vice and virtue. And submission to this is the first act of obedience: "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Every cross, trial, disappointment, or chastisement, is to bring the believer humbly resigned to the sovereign will of God; while your rule, Sir, works wrath; and the bond child is as far from Gospel submission as the Father of Lies himself. The Saviour's highest act of obedience lay in submission to his Father's will:

"Not my will, but thine be done." Nor is this act of obedience attributed to his servitude, but to his Sonship. It is not coupled with a, "Behold my Servant, whom I uphold;" but with a, "Though he were a Son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered." Nor was this highest act of obedience given to the rule of the moral law, or to the preceptive will of God, as you call it; for that law does not require a just man to suffer or die for a criminal. "I come to do thy will, O God.” He took away the first, God having explored both burnt offerings and the service of the Pharisees in the oldness of the letter, and established the second. It was the good-will of his Father, in purpose and promise, to which he bowed his dying head: "Father, into thy hand I commend my spirit." And by this will, "we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all," Heb. x. 10.

'His pretending to boast of the blood of Christ 'having ensured to him the pardon of his sins, 'when he has none.'

This is strange language! A believer cannot be ranked among the just until he has received the pardon of his sins: his blessedness consists in having his iniquity forgiven, and his sin covered; and his blessedness is confirmed by the good-will of God, in not imputing sin to the enlarged debtor any more, having imputed it to his surety: "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute

sin." Cometh this blessedness by your rule? Nay, but by the law of faith.

Pray, Sir, what is the Law? It is holy, just, good, and requires love. And does not the Father's will of purpose, or his decree, secure all these things to the elect? “Whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son," which image consists in righteousness and true holiness. The Holy Spirit, to make us holy; the gift of righteousness, to make us just; goodness laid up, to make us good, Psal. xxxi. 19; and the security of everlasting love, to draw us to Christ; are the four things which the law requires; and these are the things which the decree brings forth, Zeph. ii. 2.

Does not the covenant of grace secure these four things to us? I believe it does. "He that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy," Isa. iv. 3. "Thy people also shall be all righteous,” Isa. lx. 21. "My people shall be satisfied with my goodness saith the Lord," Jer. xxxi. 14. And I will circumcise their heart to love me, Deut. xxx. 6. Thus these things are found, held forth, and freely given to the elect, in the better covenant of promise.

And are not these things laid up for us in Christ Jesus? He says, "Thy law is within my heart;" and Paul says, it is the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ, that made him free. By his blood he shall sprinkle many nations; he received the promised

Spirit of the Father, and poured it out, to make us holy; he is the end of the law for righteousness, to make the believer just; we receive the good treasure of grace from his fulness, to make us good; and the love of Christ constrains us to love God and one another. Here are the four weighty matters of the law included in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

And does not the law of faith, when sealed on the believer's heart by the Spirit of God, produce these effects under his own influence? I think he does. He is the Spirit of holiness; he testifies of and reveals the good treasure of grace in the heart, and sheds abroad the Father's love there. Thus the believer is holy, as the law is holy; just, by faith, as the law is just; good, by grace, as the law is good; loves God, as the law requires: and is a spiritual man, as the law is spiritual. These four things, which the law called for, which we could never produce, and which that dispensation could never bestow, are secured to all the elect in the irrevocable decree of God; which, when、 made known, is the good-will of him that dwelt in the bush; attended with glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and good-will toward men.

As these things are held forth in a free, unconditional promise, the covenant of promise is called the better covenant, established upon better promises.

When considered as treasured up in Christ, it