in other words, he hath been enabled to believe through grace; or, by God's gracious gift of faith, he is enabled to believe and obey the gospel.

Ahimaaz. Certainly the above commands are done, or obeyed, by such a man; because, as you say, he has received grace for obedience to the faith; and if the grace of God doth not produce obedience to the doctrines of faith, what does? John says, "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith;" but the world always overcomes an unbeliever, and ever will. It is faith that purifies the heart; and he that is destitute of this grace is filled with guilt, enmity, and errors, and therefore as far from doing the commandments as Satan himself.

Cushi. Very true. Well, you find that all the law and the prophets hang on the hinge of love; but no man by his natural power can reach this hinge, because the carnal mind is enmity. Now, suppose God should fulfil this promise to a man, namely, circumcise his heart to love the Lord God with all his heart, and with all his soul, that he might live, Deut. xxx. 6; and enable a man to say, as John did, we love him because he first loved us; and such a man doth in his heart love both God and his neighbour; would not such an one do the commandments, seeing the scriptures declare, that "love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law?" And what says God of the faith of that man? why, "he that believeth shall be saved." And what says

the Holy Ghost of the love of him? why he says, "he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."

If this be the truth of the matter, does not such a man do the commandments? when God himself works in him both inclination and motion; or, to speak in the dialect of scripture, it is God that works in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure, Phil. ii. 13. And if it be God's work in him, what has such a man to glory'in but the grace of God? Faith is the gift of God, and the work of God; "this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent," John vi. 29. It is real faith in Jesus Christ, and pure love to God, that produces evangelical obedience: as it is written, the grace of God teacheth men to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in the world, Tit. ii. 12. Therefore we may conclude, that whosoever does not attribute his obedience to the grace of God, robs God of the glory of his own work; and he that ascribes it to free-will and human power, deifies himself.

Ahimaaz. I am sweetly instructed, and abundantly satisfied, with your opinion of the text, it tallies so exactly with my own experience; nor do I believe that all the advocates for free-will and self-righteousness upon earth could erase your evangelical sentiments from my judgment. I evidently see that it is the faithful man to whom the great reward is promised; and it is audacious pride in men to attribute that glory to fleshly works which

is due only to the God of grace: the humble believer is preserved, while the lofty work-monger meets with his just deserts. Well might the Psalmist say, "O love the Lord, all ye his saints; for the Lord preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer." It is clear to me that your doctrine wisely secures the glory of our salvation to God, and affords comfort and establishment to his adopted children; and, if I am not much mistaken, the glory of God, and the salvation of his elect by Jesus Christ, was the ultimate end that God had in view when he created the world; and that end he still aims at in his redeeming and reconciling sinners to himself; yea, his government of the world, as well as his works of creation and redemption, of providence and grace, was from the first the great and grand design of the Almighty; which will be accomplished when God displays the riches of his grace in glory by Jesus Christ. Then shall be known by the church, to the principalities and powers, in heavenly places, the manifold wisdom of God, Eph. iii. 10.

Cushi. Now you speak like one of the true circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and place no confidence in the flesh. But in some things I think you savour so much of the old cask, that you are, like Moab, settled on your lees, Jer. xlviii. 11.

Ahimaaz. Though you are not a professor of Greek or Hebrew, yet I find you are a very nice critic in the language of Canaan, Isaiah xix. 18.

Cushi. I have often heard of gentlemen who have endeavoured to tear me to pieces for a breach of grammar, which is but a breach of sense and sounds at most, and can only communicate a jargon to the ear; while such have made fifty breaches in divinity in one discourse; which ministers destruction to the soul. Therefore an ungrammatical divine is ten thousand times better than a learned and eloquent deist, though he be dignified with the title of learned. The blessed Saviour never made one breach in divinity, though, according to our rules, he made one in grammar, when he said, "Before Abraham was I am."

But to return to our subject; the glory of all good works wrought in men ought to be attributed to God, from whom every good and every perfect gift cometh. Hence the real church of God owns, to the honour of her head, that the Lord had wrought all her works in her, Isa. xxvi..12. For my part I have narrowly observed the lives of God's elect who appear to be sound in the truth, and called by grace; and by what I can gather, they are the only workers unto the kingdom of God. I generally find them employed like their blessed Lord; sometimes weeping and carrying the cross; at other times employed in acts of charity to the utmost of their ability; at other times at war with some sore temptation, besetting sin, or spreading error; at other times opposing the wise disputers of this world, who oppose the sovereignty of their Maker, and justify themselves;

sometimes I find them at the work of self-examination; at other times citing themselves before the tribunal of God for some misdemeanour, fighting against the flesh, confessing their faults, justifying their God, imploring forgiveness, and seeking reconciliation with him, as the summit of all their happiness; sometimes I find them bemoaning the loss of their Lord, and earnestly seeking his face; at other times, with the state of some poor sinner on their minds, travailing in birth till Christ be formed in him; at other times with the high praises of God in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, Psalm cxlix. 6; at other times I find them condoling the miserable, or weeping with them that weep; and sometimes holding forth the word of life, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, 1 Pet. iv. 10. In short, I never could apply the Lord's divine salutation of All hail, Matt. xxviii. 9; to any but to these; for these, in the strictest sense of the word, may be called holy workfolks.

I have narrowly watched the various tribes of legal workers, and indeed they sometimes seem to outrun the real saint in outward appearance; but, as the Lord says, there are last that shall be first, and first last; for many are called, but few chosen. While the self-righteous remain destitute of grace, whatever outward shew they may make, God is not glorified in them; their principles are corrupt, their judgments filled with confusion; their motives are base while destitute of the faith of God's