written these laws, and in whom he has done all these things, is an Antinomian? Surely he is not without law to God, but under this law to Chrift; or, as Doctor Gill fays, " under the law of Chrift, which is the law of love." And fo it is, for we are to bear each other's burdens, and fo fulfill the law of Chrift; for it was love constrained Chrift to bear the burden of us all.-Greater love hath no man than this, that be lay down his life for his friends. Under this law of love; call it grace, faith, truth, and liberty, or whatever you please these are all in Chrift; and the believer in Chrift is under these, and under no other; nor did God ever by his Spirit write any other laws than these on the minds and hearts of his faints, who ftand faft and complete in Chrift, fince the world began; and I am fure he never will; for fervice in the oldness of the letter, and legal works, are both rejected. The obedience of faith, and fervice in the newness of the Spirit, is what God will have: and he that in these things ferves Chrift is accepted of God, and approved of men; and as many as walk according to this rule, mercy on them, and peace upon the Ifrael of God.

The new covenant revealed to us is fometimes in fcripture called laws, in the plural-I will write my laws, &c; and fometimes in the fingular number law-The ifles fhall wait for his law. Let this be obferved, that the law of truth (Mal. ii. 6), which is called the covenant of life and peace (verse 5), includes the whole of the everlafting gospel, with all

the

the grace of God held forth and promifed therein; which grace and truth came by Jefus Chrift; and, because the Spirit applies faith to the finner's heart by hearing of it, it is called the law of faith; and, because love is promifed and applied by it, it is called the law of love; and, as love by the Spirit cafts out fear and torment, and enlightens the eyes and enlarges the heart, it is called a looking into the perfect law of liberty; and, because the Spirit comes to us and quickens us by this miniftration, and no other, it is called the law of the Spirit of life. This accounts for the plural and fingular number of the word law being alternately ufed in fcripture.

Hence I conclude that the believer, who is in Chrift, is not under the moral law, and that the moral law is a rod in the hand of God, and a fchoolmaster, by which the Father teaches and corrects the finner, that he may know his dreadful state, and then leads him from the law to Chrift, where falvation may be had; which is called paffing from death to life. So that we may fafely conclude the moral law is no part of the rod of Chrift's ftrength, by which he rules his faints.

Yea, and even Doctor Gill himself, notwithftanding all his diftinctions (fo close doth Paul prefs him) when commenting upon my text, he is obliged to speak as follows: "Now this vail upon Mofes's face had a mystery in it; it was an emblem of the gospel being vailed under the law, and of the darkness and obfcurity of the law in the bufinefs of

life and falvation; and alfo of the future blindness of the Jews, when the glory of the gospel should break forth in the times of Chrift and his apostles; and which was fuch, that the children of Ifrael, the Jews, as in the times of Mofes, fo in the times of Chrift and his apoftles, could not ftedfastly look to; nor upon the face of Mofes, whofe face was vailed: not that they might not look, but because they could not bear to look upon him; but they could not look to the end of that which is abolished-that is, to Chrift, who is the end of the law, which is abrogated by him: to him they could not look, nor could they fee him to be the fulfilling end of the law for righteoufnefs; which, being fulfilled, is done away by him." And, in his comment on the 17th verfe, fpeaking of liberty, he fays " A liberty from the bondage and fervitude of it—a liberty from the law's rigorous exactions, curfe, and condemnation." Which Peter calls an unbearable yoke; and which yoke differs much from that of a dear Redeemer, whofe yoke is eafy and whofe burden is light. In thefe quotations the Doctor has faid as much as I ever did, only we differ in words. I fay, we are not under the law, nor under the commanding power of it.-And the Doctor fays, we are delivered from the Service of it; and from its rigorous exaltions, curse and condemnation. Thus far the Doctor speaks plainly. But how the moral law can be abrogated, done away, and abolished, in one fenfe, and the faints be under it as their rule of life in another, I know not; Christ

never came to alter the law, nor divide it. And how the whole mofaical difpenfation can be removed, as the Doctor in another place confeffes, and yet remain to the believer; and how it can be abrogated by Chrift, and we under it in the hand of Chriftare myfterious things to me, and want fcripture proof; for it is no part of the Saviour's rod by which he rules his faints, as I have already proved, However, I believe the difference between the Doctor and myself, on this point, confifts more in learning and in words than in heart and judgment. I proceed again.

Paul, writing to the Coloffians, fays, And you being dead in your fins and the uncircumcifion of your flesh, bath be quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trefpaffes, blotting out the band writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Now to whom was the apoftle writing? To the Coloffians, who are here called the uncircumcifion; for the gospel of the uncircumcifion was committed to Paul. Then what was the band writing, or debt book, that flood against thefe uncircumcifed ones? If you fay it was the ceremonial law; I reply, that was never given to them; but, if you add, that the judaizing teachers were bringing them under their ceremonies and facrifices; I answer, that the Jews held it unlawful to offer facrifices any where but in their own land; in their Babylonifh captivity, and in their prefent difperfion, they were, and still are, without

without an ephod, without a facrifice, and without a teraphim. If it be urged that the Gentiles used facrifices as well as the Jews, and therefore were under the ceremonial law; it may be answered, God never gave that law to them, and, as he did not, they cannot be faid to be under it-nay, they are faid to facrifice to devils, and not to God. It remains, therefore, that this book debt, or hand writing, is the works of the moral law written upon their bearts, their thoughts and their confcience accufing or excufing one another. And whoever has felt a wounded fpirit, or a guilty confcience, knows by fad experience what a restless creditor, wretched hand writing, and dreadful debt book, that is; and that it may well be faid to be against us, and contrary to us: but, bleffed be God, Christ took it out of the way, and nailed it to his crofs. This fame law upon tables of stone was the debt book, or hand writing, against the Jews, and not the ceremonial law; For 1 fpake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or facrifices; but this thing commanded Ithem, faying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God. Jer. vii. 22, 23. The debt that God exacted of them was perfect obedience to the moral law, which is here called his voice; and which law Paul calls a voice of words. The debt book of the Jews, therefore, is the moral law on tables of ftone; and that of the Gentiles is the fame, which fhews the work of the law written in their hearts; and by this law

both