of grace was raised. But what God had in view in all this, was that sinners might be redeemed, which you seem to have left quite out of the question.

All that you have observed about the perfections of God shining in the law you stole out

of

f my sermon; they are all my own words, only you have not ranged them as I did, for fear of exposing your dishonesty, or for want of divine learning.

And all that you have said about a remedial law is to be found in one of the books that I have published; therefore I can say nothing against them, for I shall not contradict myself, though you do.

As for the Saviour's dying to make the law eternally venerable; I think that his unparalleled sufferings under the curse of it, as a covenant of works, makes it appear eternally terrible. And you would say so too, if you had felt the effects of it as Paul did; you would have been ready to conclude with him that the law is contrary to, and altogether against, man; and that the Lord Christ has slain the enmity, by "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, that was against us, and contrary to us, and taking it out of the way, nailing it to his cross," Col. ii. 14; "having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; so making peace," Eph. ii. 15.

Paul, in his way of establishing the law, has

set a task that you cannot learn; it is a path that no fowl knoweth; a path that you have never trod and I am bold to tell you to your head, that you have not, in this sermon, established the law upon one of Paul's bases. This sermon is a wall of your own daubing altogether; the more you labour, the farther you get from Paul's point, and are sure to run foul either of the promise or the command every attempt you make. And wo be to that man for ever that makes void either the law of God, or the faith of Christ.

Sometimes you settle the law as binding, or as a yoke of bondage, upon every saint, which sets aside the freedom the Saviour promised, and the liberty of the Spirit. Sometimes as the government of angels; this sets aside their election and confirmation in Christ. Sometimes as the food of the saints; this sets aside the bread of heaven. And sometimes you smite it, in order to get refreshment from it; this is setting aside the water of life, instead of drinking of the Saviour's fulness, or getting virtue out of him by faith. Sometimes you render it as a law by which all the saints are to be accountable to God in the great day; this sets aside the book of life, the promise of life, the blessing of Abraham, the covenant of grace, the justification of the saints, the mercy of God, and the deliverance of a Surety; for "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not:" and, if all are to be judged by the law, no flesh living can be justified. Paul never established

the law on one of these bases; and, if you was to attempt it for seven years, as I told you before, you would never establish it, without running foul of the benefits of Christ, or the liberty of his children, because you know not the scriptures nor the power of God. All your labour and toil is only venting the spleen of your heart, acting the ape of a party, deceiving the souls of the simple, laying stumbling blocks in the way of the blind, injuring the cause of the Almighty, belying and censuring the just, condemning yourself by your own words, proclaiming your own foolishness; and consequently you expose yourself as a mere impostor, by coming to deliver a message as God's servant, in his name, while you are ignorant of his will, ridicule his ambassadors, contradict the laws of his realm, and traduce the privileges of his subjects. Not a word of the necessity or nature of faith; not a word about the Spirit or grace of God, that teacheth men to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the world; this is never enforced; its operations never described; nor the blessed effects of it so much as hinted at, much less discovered.

Is this preaching Christ crucified? Is this being a good steward of the manifold grace of God? Is this holding forth the word of life? Is this doing the work of an evangelist?

If you are offended at my saying you have discovered yourself as an impostor, then contradict I tell you, and all your evangelical associa

me.

tion, from the press, that you have not established the law on any gospel basis; nor have you set it in any one scriptural point of light; and, if you reply, I will, God willing, answer you when you have done. But you go on to make the best of a bad commodity; and I, as your honest marketman, follow you, crying out, you, crying out, "It is naught, it is

naught, saith the buyer."

'The law is given, not only to shew us what obligations we are under, but to shew us what is right and wrong from the heresies continually surrounding the same. Now the Lord points out, in his commandments, what he is in himself; that he is a Spirit, unchangeable and eternal; and how he is to be worshipped; that we are to worship God alone; that we are to put down all idols in our affections in the room

' that

be set may

up

' of the blessed God.'

By the law, you say, we get at the knowledge of God; but Paul says, by the law is the knowledge of sin." You say, we find God therein to be a Spirit; but Paul says that "Moses put a vail. on his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished but their minds were blinded; for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart," 2 Cor. iii. 13, 14, 15. And you proclaim this loud enough; for you are smitten" with madness and

blindness; you grope at noon-day, as the blind gropeth in darkness, thou shalt not prosper in thy ways," Deut. xxviii. 28, 29.

Paul will have it that all saving knowledge of God is found in the Saviour's face, not in Moses' vail. "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. iv. 6. This is Paul's doctrine, sir, though it is nothing like your's. "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."

I am glad to find you assert, that the law is to throw down every idol that is set up in the affections in the room of the blessed God; for you know that covetousness is idolatry; and poor little Perkins, who is now a cobbler in Westminster, would be glad of a little of your idol: and, by the rules of scripture, he has a right, for he that sows ought to reap. For my part, I would ever wish to preach faith by my lips, and good works by my life; which is the Saviour's way. He tells us to let our light shine before men, that they may see, not hear of, our good works. But you go on.

'We do not say that the law of God, in its meaning as a schoolmaster, brings the sinner immediately to Jesus Christ, but remotely.'

If the law does bring the sinner to Jesus Christ, one would think that you must have been brought; but it is clear you have not; for, if Christ had