with Christ had made him free, and was not entangled with the yoke of bondage a second time, having felt it severely before; for, "We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." This is the Comforter that is to abide with the saints for ever; who shall quicken our mortal bodies in the great day, fashion them like the glorious body of Christ, and fill them with all his fulness for ever. The law is a fiery law; and, whenever the spirit of. bondage to fear, and the wrath of God revealed therein, comes to be poured forth upon carnal professors, they will feel the effects of it as such. "The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites; who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" They shall find that the wrath of God revealed in the law is a fire kindled in his anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell. So that, instead of the spirit of bondage going with these professors to heaven, it shall only serve to bind them hand and foot when they are cast into utter darkness. "The strength of sin is the law;" and they that now mock shall find their bands strong; for fear, death, torment, wrath, and damnation, is the spirit of the law, and all that the law works in men, or ministers to men; and, as it is not made for the righteous, but for the lawless and disobedient, it will go with the wicked, and work all its contents in their souls in hell to all eternity; and this they know who are in that dreadful place. They know

what bondage is, by being bound; what the ministry of death is, by being in the second death; what the ministry of condemnation is, by being damned; and what the law that worketh wrath is, by being in the dreadful furnace of it. Thus the lawless and disobedient, with their violated law and broken covenant, with all its dreadful contents, shall go to hell together. For there is not one thing which the law works in men, or which it ministers to men; neither bondage, death, wrath, condemnation, nor damnation, and it works nothing else, I say, not one of all these things shall ever be found among the saints in heaven. But grace and truth, which make us free, and the church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth, shall enter heaven, with their law of truth in their hearts. "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." And thus grace shall be displayed in glory, truth settled in heaven, mercy shall be built up for ever, and faithfulness be established for evermore.

And, although some tell us that they never expect to be delivered from a law which commands them to love God with all their heart, yet I know that, if they are not redeemed from the law, and in every sense delivered from it, and not under it, but under grace, they never shall love God in this world, nor in the next. If a man love God, it must be because God first loved him: for the carnal mind is enmity against God,

and never can by nature be subject to the law, which commands love; nor does God love a sinner in the law, for the love of God is in Christ Jesus. He that is not delivered from the law is in bondage to fear, and hath torment; and nothing but the love of God in Christ can ever deliver him from it, or cast it out; and he that hath not this charity is an instrument without life, under the ministry of death, by which he cannot live; and, as the law worketh wrath, by the law he cannot love.

Ignorant, bold, presumptuous men may wanton, trifle, and sport, with these deep, momentous, and important things of God, in order to raise a shout from fools, to harden graceless professors, and to embolden daring hypocrites to lampoon the servants of God, and to ridicule and vilify the gospel of a dear Redeemer; which I think is sinning against the Holy Ghost, or doing despite to the Spirit; but, as the Lord liveth, it will be found to be bitterness in the end; and this some feel already; though, being blinded by the old vail, they know not whence their bondage comes, whereas in truth it comes from that law for which they so strenuously contend, and from an angry God, for slighting his dear Son; for he will speak in his wrath to all and vex them in his sore displeasure, who set themselves against his anointed; nor shall any enjoy his blessing who put not their trust in his King on Zion's hill. God's rejection

of the Jews is to this day an awful proof of this truth.

They must be born again that enter God's kingdom; and a real spiritual birth terminates in the enjoyment of love, which casts out fear and torment; for, "He that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God; but he that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." If bond servants, under a spirit of bondage, go in all their fetters to heaven, the Father's promise of the Spirit is of little value; the Saviour's death, to procure the Spirit, no blessing; and redemption and salvation from the bondage of the law must be one of the greatest evils.

I have pushed this point a little home, because it seems to go into the very bowels of arminianism, and of graceless professors, who discover such enmity to the grace of God. However, this I know by blessed experience, that the perfect obedience which the law required is now in the heart of our Surety; the satisfaction that justice required is now in a dear Redeemer; the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ; all the fulness of the Spirit is in him; all the fulness of grace, and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in him the law of the Spirit of life makes us free, and in him the believer is complete. Therefore, O believer, abide in him, and let neither Satan, ministers of Satan, justice, nor Moses, ever catch thee out of the cleft of the Rock, lest, like one of

old, thou get entangled again, and pray to be restored to the joys of Christ's salvation, and again to be upheld by his free Spirit; for the works of faith and labours of love are a service that is perfect freedom. This thousands confess with their mouth, and this thousands have felt in their heart.

But, without giving any more attention to the croaking of frogs, or spending my arguments on dogs that bark at the moon,

One would be ready to wonder where this almost universally received notion, of the law being the believer's rule of life, could come from, seeing the believer, and no other, is said to be redeemed from the law, delivered from it, and not under it, but under grace; why it should be called his rule, when the scripture says that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. If the law is made for the lawless, all of whom are out of Christ, under the law, and under the curse of it, one would have thought that they were the only men to whom the law is a rule of life, seeing Christ always sent the legalist to it with a "What is written in the law, how readest thou?" But always told the believer to abide in him.

I think the first that enforced and practised this doctrine was Cain. Cain and Abel were brethren. They both came at one time to bring their offerings to God. One was a keeper of sheep, and the other a tiller of the ground; and