would make them perfect. But Paul knew that perfection, righteoufnefs, fanctification, and redemption, were all in Chrift; and that thofe who went to the law would neither enjoy Chrift, nor any of these things in him, for he is king at Zion, not at Sinai ; and all his fprings, rivers, and streams, are in the city, not in the wilderness; it is the rebellious, not the obedient, that dwell in a dry land. This is the yoke in which they wanted to entangle them, that they might leave the liberty of fons, and be influented with the bondage of fervants; that God might be viewed as a master, not as a father; that they might work for God, and not God work in them; that the reward might be reckoned to them of debt, not of grace; that they might be excluded from Chrift the advocate, and go to the accufations of Mofes; reject the furety, and work at their own debt-book. This is the devil's witchcraft, and this is the Galatians' foolishnefs; and because this branch of prieftcraft required much infernal wisdom and policy to entangle these Galatians in this yoke, it is called witchcraft.

The word entangled feems to be an allufion to fifh entangled by an hook or net, to a bird entangled in a fnare, or to a fheep or deer entangled in a bush; into which they are all brought unawares. And, as believers are compared to fifh, to fowls, to fheep, and to harts with horns, Satan employs various artists against the boufbold of faith, in order to enfnare them; fome of which are compared to fowlers, others to fishers, who facrifice to their own net, and burn incense to .

their own drag. And legal preachers, who handle the law unlawfully, make the Jewish altars and the two tables of stone, which are intended for our welfare, a trap, and a ftumbling block, to the people. And fuch entanglers are in their fins, and under the curfe; and, while they entangle the fheep of Chrift, themfelves are nothing but thorns and briers, who are nigh unto curfing, whofe end is to be burned. This Paul knew, and declares that they should bear their own judgment, whoever they were, being accurfed of God; and he wished thofe cut off that troubled them; pronouncing a curfe upon all, either angels or men, that should preach any other gospel than that which he had preached. Which leads me,

5thly, To treat of the poffibility of a believer's being entangled again with the yoke of legal bondage. This is a point that will not eafily go down with many profeffors in our days. Men, who have been healed without being wounded; faved before they were loft; and juftified by grace before they were condemned by the law; who have made their calling and election fure, without crying day and night unto God; who understand all mysteries, but are destitute of charity; whofe faith stands in the word of the gospel, but not in the power thereof; who have escaped the task of felf-denial, and fhunned the perilous path of tribulation; who have no changes in their life, nor bands in their death; whofe own will is their rule, and whofe felf-fufficiency is their god, and the object of their adoration; who know every thing but their own ignorance, and all men but themfelves;

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felves; who have never been chaftened every day, nor plagued every morning; who have defeated Satan without receiving one fiery dart, and overcome the world without one war with it, or frown from it, who are got into the large room, and into the wealthy place, without coming either through fire or through water; who are purified without either the fiery trial, or the furnace of affliction:-these have not only overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil; but they can defy the armies of the living God, without being able to defcribe one part of the experience or fufferings of a Chriftian foldier, or one piece of the faints' heavenly panoply. They have defied both death and the devil, without ever refifting unto blood, or ftriving against fin. The war of these men is not with Satan, but with Chrift; not with the enemies of God, but with the minifters of Jefus; not with the worldlings, but with the faints. These are not the weak who are to say they are strong; these do not wait upon God to renew their strength, but to gainfay the mouth and wisdom that God has promifed to give to his fervants. God's ftrength is not expected to be made perfect in the weakness of these their strength is firm: fuch a champion is as Solomon's lion, the strongest among beasts, who trufts in his paws, and turns not away for any. He is the be-goat that is comely in his going, whose trust is in his horns; the greyhound, who confides in his heels; and the king against whom there is no rifing up; having never been engaged in the fight of faith:

Some

Some tell us that a believer cannot be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.-They cannot allow that the north wind can awake, and the fouth wind (which are quite oppofite to each other) blow upon one and the fame garden. They think it is impoffible for a difciple of Jefus to be puffed up and foured with the leaven of the pharifees; and that the Lord's kind caution to them to take heed and beware of their doctrines of free-will, felf-righteousness, and legal bondage, was altogether ufelefs and impertinent. But furely the Lord fays nothing in vain. And, if the Galatians were in no danger of this leaven, Paul must be in great fear where no fear was. But Paul knew what this bondage is, and could fee that the greatest part of the Galatians were infected with it; he therefore tells them a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

Others, who are wifer in their own conceit than feven men that can render a reason, tell us that these Galatians were never converted at all, and therefore they might be entangled again with this yoke. If they had never been delivered from it previous to this re-entanglement, Paul's fpeech must be tinctured with either flattery or falfehood when he tells them that Chrift had made them free, and cautions them to stand faft in the liberty which they never had.

But thefe children and old women, who are our teachers and rulers, tell us that, " Paul ftood in doubt of these Galatians." And he had cause enough for

it, feeing the whole lump was fermented with this leaven. He might justly doubt whether they would not submit to circumcifion, efpecially as their minds were fo prejudiced against him as to count him their enemy for telling them the truth. Paul knew that, if they went to the law, their eyes and their dependance would foon be taken from the fulness of Chrift; that they would thereby fall from grace; and that Christ would not leave mount Zion, and meet them at Sinai, to communicate his grace to them there; therefore tells them that Chrift fhall profit them nothing. Moreover, Paul knew that, if the Saviour's eafy yoke was flighted, God would foon handle the fair neck of thefe Galatians, as he did the neck of Ephraim, and bring a heavier yoke upon them. They that are not fatisfied with Chrift, in whom God is well pleased, shall feel his fore displeasure from another quarter; and they that turn from him that Speaks from heaven shall hear another voice that once Shock the carth. God will not have Chrift, the darling of his foul, flighted; he has not only a purging furnace for a fruitful branch in Chrift, but he keeps a yoke for the heifer's neck, a rod for the fool's back, and he has his stocks for the feet of those that pervert their way. If his children abuse, flight, or mifufe their glorious liberty, he will bow their necks, fcourge their backs, and lay them by the heels, till they know the worth of their liberty, how to use it, and how to prize it; as others have done, who with the

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