their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion.” These persons here described are heathens, unregenerated persons, who neither worship God in truth, nor pray in the Spirit. They rage at the power and success of the gospel of Christ. They imagine a vain thing against the Lord's Anointed, by opposing his gospel, and cleaving to the law, which can neither justify them, sanctify them, encourage them, nor help them. They oppose the dominion of Christ's grace, and contend for works, which is vain jangling. They imagine a vain thing against his saints, in reproaching them, and condemning them, as erroneous and licentious persons, which are God's precious ones, "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." They take counsel together against the kingly power of Jesus, and exalt Moses against him, and above him, "We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." They break Zion's bands asunder, in that they speak and preach against the constraining influence of the law of the Spirit, which binds the church to Christ the head, "from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, in

creaseth with the increase of God." They cast Zion's cords from them; they either oppose the gospel altogether, or they turn from the holy commandment after a profession of it; and set themselves against the constraining ties, and the alluring cords of the everlasting love of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, that threefold cord which can never be broken; that is, it never can be broken by a soul secured by it, though an hypocrite may cast it from him, not being an object of it, and having never felt the power of it. Now if Maria rages at the gospel, which is the power of God to salvation; if she is vain enough to imagine, that she shall get help for herself, or others, by the law, as her rule of life; if she sets herself in behalf of the law against Christ, against the power in which his kingdom stands, against the empire of his grace, which is set up in the hearts of his saints; if she levels her rage at Zion's bands, that hold head and members together; or at the influence of the Spirit, by which we are joined to the Lord, and casts away the cords of love, and contends for the law that worketh wrath; the wrath of the law is pointed to her: God speaks to her in his wrath, and will vex her in his displeasure. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, who is under the law; and the heritage appointed unto him by God, in the law.

Furthermore, the law of God is armed with the avenging sword of Justice, and must undoubtedly fall upon them who make the law of works their

rule of life, instead of the law of faith: for "they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham; but as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse;" and are exposed to the avenging sword of Justice, having never fled from the wrath to come, nor taken shelter in the satisfaction of Christ, in whom the sword was bathed. "For my sword," says God, "shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse to judgment." This is the scripture account of the persons for whom the law is made, to whom the law speaks, and against whom the wrath of the law is revealed; and upon whom the avenging sword of Justice will undoubtedly come down to judgment, though such fools may contend for it, and sport with it, and make their boast of it, as the Pharisees of old did, till they had their bellyful of Sinai: as Paul says, "For Hagar is Mount Sinai, in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in

bondage with her children." But we go on

again.

Quot. Some say the law cannot be a perfect rule of conduct, because it says nothing upon some subjects which are noted in the precepts of the New Testament.

Answ. The law calls for doing, and the gospel for believing: he that contends for the law, and does not continue in all things written therein, is cursed of God; and he that hears the gospel, and believes not, shall be damned by Christ. The

law is not of faith, nor is faith of the law; nor does God minister the Spirit by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith; nor does God work any thing in them who cleave to the law but wrath; but by the gospel he works in us both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure. Nor does God attend with his seal the preaching of the law, but he gives testimony to the word of his grace. Nor did the apostles ever drop one hint to any one believer in their days, that the moral law was their rule of life, but committed them to God, and to the word of his grace; and commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. And I insist upon it, that there never was, and that there never will be, one good work found in, nor one good work performed by any one soul in this world, till union takes place between the soul and the Saviour; till the good treasure of grace be put into the earthen vessel, and until God work both inclination and motion in such a soul. But Maria and her company can no more describe or explain any one of those branches of vital godliness, than the Pope of Rome, or one of the Lapland witches.

Quot. All this is true; though the authors know nothing what they say, nor what they

mean.

Answ. This I did say; and yet I thought it needful to waste a page in aswering it; and in this I am not without a precedent. When the devil told Christ that he knew who he was, and called

matter.

him the Holy One of God, Christ rebuked him, and suffered him not to speak any more of that And, when the devil cried up Paul and Barnabas as servants of the Most High God, they rebuked him, though he spoke some things that were true. And, if Maria learns a word of scripture, and sets herself up as a teacher, she must be rebuked for her iniquity, because she is not permitted to teach her preachment, as well as the devil's confession, are both rejected by the word of Christ.

Quot. "If "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

Answ. What does Maria mean to prove by this text? Does this favour her notion, that the killing letter is the rule of the saint's life? The Saviour's commandment is not that which was given at Sinai. He brought no tables of stone with him: they were in the world before. Maria would have us believe that the law was given by Jesus, and that grace and truth came by Moses. The Saviour mentions two commandments, that of his Father, and that of his own. The former was an intolerable yoke, but that of his own is light, which he tells us to take upon us. The Father's commandment is the moral law, which the Saviour magnified and made honourable; but the evangelical commandment that the believer is to keep, is not engraven on tables of stone, which