gated to this by some few texts that have been handled against me. The method likewise differs from the discourse when delivered, but the substance is nearly the same. That thou mayest read without prejudice, and profit by reading, is the desire of,

Thine to command,

In the Lord Jesus Christ,

W. H.

THE

MORAL LAW

NOT INJURED BY THE

EVERLASTING GOSPEL.

MATTHEW v. 17, 18, 19, 20.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall

teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do, and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

THIS text has been no less than three times handled, or rather mangled, to knock your humble servant about the head, by a certain minister of the gospel.

When I was dismissed from Greenwich Tabernacle, which was accomplished through the instrumentality of the above gentleman, and other holy men, who refused to occupy a pulpit defiled by an elect sinner, I went and opened a place at Deptford The good man, previous to this, gave the people a timely warning; telling them to go,

and read the fifth chapter, of Matthew's gospel, before they came to hear me. 'What had nobody any brains till he came!' &c. Soon after my opening the place at Deptford, I went to give them a lecture on a Wednesday evening: and some of my friends were informed that the same person intended to oppose me and my doctrine in an adjacent meeting-house the same night; which was accordingly done, and the opposition to my doctrine was drawn from the last verse of my text. And since that, the same text has been handled at Hammersmith; so that, upon the whole, Antinomianism, as the gospel is called, has received a deadly blow: therefore, it is needful that we examine the text, and see what it says against us and our doctrine, and so let my Antinomianism appear in public print.

In the beginning of this chapter, the Saviour ascends a certain mountain, and his disciples follow him; and, when he was seated, he opened his mouth and taught them. This was done in allusion to the two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim. Six tribes of Israel were to stand on Mount Ebal, to curse; and six on Mount Gerizim, to bless, Deut. xxvii. 12. And when they had so done, the blessing was to be put on Mount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal, Deut. xi. 29. These two mountains were to represent Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. For Ebal, signifying a collection of old age, or a mass that disperses, fitly represents the bond children, who are in the flesh,

collected together, and standing fast in the old Adam, under the yoke of Moses; which, at last, will be all dispersed, and carried away as with a flood. While Gerizim signifies piercers, or cutters, and fitly represents the elect in union with the Saviour, in whose strength they speak like the piercings of a sword, and who are the Lord's wood-cutters, his battle-axe, and weapons of war, Jer. li. 20. And so, in the spiritual signification, here are the first Adam and his family; and the second Adam and his family; or the children of the flesh, and the children of God; or, in other words, the bond woman, and the free woman. Hagar is, in the figure, Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which is, and is in bondage with her children: but the heavenly Jerusalem is free, and is the mother of us all. Paul fixes the curse upon Mount Sinai; "As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." And David fixes the blessing on Mount Zion; Upon Mount Zion hath God commanded the blessing, even life for evermore, Psal. cxxxiii. 3. In allusion to Gerizim, the Saviour ascends this mount; and, having got his little church with him, which he had just founded, and which church is to stand to the world's end, he opens his mouth, and pronounces the blessings of the everlasting gospel upon them: and, to let us know that his little church was Mount Zion, he calls it a city set on a hill that cannot be hid; which city is Zion, the city of the great King;

and which hill is God's holy hill of Zion. The city, the hill, and the church, are one and the same thing; and upon that mount Christ executes his Father's command: he pronounces the blessing; and so he was commanded to do. For upon Mount Zion God commanded the blessing, and set his King upon that holy hill, to bestow it. Mount Calvary was to communicate all the blessings of dying love to Mount Zion, and pregnant Zion was to spread her little hills on every side; while the mountains should bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. "There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains: the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon." Here is the first fulfilment of that prophecy; here is Christ, the first handful of corn, the firstfruits; and here is his little church, the firstfruits of his creatures. And as the cedars of Lebanon, when shaken with the wind, scatter their cones, and spread their seed; by which means thousands of young plants spring up, under the blessing of Providence, without human labour; so this handful of corn, and the fruits of it, being shaken from the Mosaic dispensation, and scattered by persecution, have, under the strong gales of the Holy Ghost, spread the word of eternal life throughout the world, while numerous young plants of righteousness have sprung up, the righthand planting of God, that he may be glorified. But,

The Saviour carefully describes the case and