of faith, are chiefly intended in that passage? the object of faith, because he has already obtained the victory, and led captivity captive; the system of faith, because eternal victory is promised and given in that sytem. They that overcome do it by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony. By the former it is obtained for us: in the latter it is promised to us.

Quot. In this way the Lord Jesus Christ sanctifies his people, and actually saves them from the love and power of sin.

Answ. I am glad to hear that there are professors in the church who have pressed forward, and are got so nigh to perfection; and I believe it is true with respect to the inner man. But, for my own part, I will openly confess that, although I can find in myself a principle that opposes, resists, and at times strongly and sensibly detests and hates all sin, and I lothe myself on the account even of the workings of it; yet I find that, with my flesh, I not only love, but in many things serve, the law of sin; which the contrary principle neither roots up, destroys, nor perfectly keeps under. I believe that sin shall never be my ruin; and that the sovereign sway, or reigning power of sin, is destroyed in my soul; and that the seed of God, or the new creature, produced by a spiritual birth in me, will never love sin: yet the life and power that I feel in the perpetual strugglings of sin are sufficient to lay all my honour in the dust; and to send me, with humble confession,

confusion of face, and contrition of heart, to God, in secret prayer, from year's end to year's end: and there are many sins in the world which, in an unguarded hour, and in an insensible frame, are presented to my foolish heart as a sweet morsel. And, perhaps, if all was known, the compilers of this book can describe no more experience of the protecting power of God, no more trophies of abstaining from sin, or victory over it, nor any more ocular demonstrations of an aversion to it, than William Huntington.

Quot. Holiness of heart and life is indispensably necessary to enable the believer to maintain communion and fellowship with God.

Answ. But the great question is, Where this holiness of heart and life is to be had, in order to maintain this fellowship? For my part, I find no other way of obtaining holiness, either in heart or life, but by enjoying union and communion with Christ. So that holiness is the effect of union, according to my feelings; and which I find no other way of keeping up, than by fervent prayer in private, humble confession, reading, meditating, and, diligence in the use of means. Pointing to holiness in heart and life, in order to maintain communion and fellowship, is always the method of those who deal in the letter; but those who are accquainted with Jesus by the Spirit, and who know the Spirit's work, have not so learned Christ; they tell the believer to hold fast the head, and that he can do nothing without him; and to abide

in the vine is the only way to bring forth much fruit.

This book treats largely about the words sanctification and holiness, but it is all forced: there is no one part of it that flows from a savoury, unctuous experience in the heart; nor yet from the power, influence, or enjoyment, of the Spirit upon the soul. The whole of it is extorted, pressed, and squeezed, from the letter of scripture; moulded together by the dint of human wisdom; and unnaturally decorated with a little fulsome, flowery rhetorick, reflected from the natural ingenuity of others. I am not alone in my judgment; Conscience, when this book was written, bore the same honest testimony. "The words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, and the well-spring of wisdom as a flowing brook;" but this treatise came not from the spring, but from the press.

Quot. Sanctification, then, it appears from the word of God, is a personal thing, wrought upon the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Answ. In a former quotation Maria's personal union was wrought in the soul by faith, and the Antinomian is charged with error for denying this, which Maria now denies herself, and says it is wrought by the Holy Ghost. That which made Canaan the holy land, Jerusalem the holy city, the temple the holy place, and Tabor the holy mount, was the presence and appearance of the Holy One there; and that which makes a man an holy man is the indwelling and perpetual abiding of the

Holy Ghost in him. He is the spirit of power in the will; the spirit of love in the affections; the spirit of revelation in the mind; the spirit of illumination in the understanding; the spirit of faith in the heart; the spirit of judgment to them that sit in judgment, and of strength to them that turn the battle to the gate; and is an infallible witness in the court of conscience. He creates the fruit of the lip, is a watch before the mouth, and gives motion to the tongue. He produces a filial fear in the heart, and sets the object of fear before the eyes. He bars both heart and ears against the pretensions of deceivers, and attends the sound with joy to the heart when a child of wisdom bears his testimony. He gives both inclination and motion to the whole man; actuates the hands to honest labour, and shakes them from dishonest gain. He teaches the eye to watch the goodness of God that passes before the saint, and sweetly constrains him to pursue the leadings of providence, and the footsteps of faith. He is a free spirit among the free-born sons of Zion, a spirit of unity to all that are within the bonds of the covenant, and makes the heart of a believer leap for joy at the rapturous salutation of a heaven-born soul. The elect, as considered in Christ, were sanctified from eternity in the purpose of God; and their sanctification was held forth in the promise of God; and in their covenant head they were sanctified when he offered up himself; and by the word of truth when applied to the heart, or they are clean through

the word spoken to them; and they are sanctified by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, as above described. But, as to sanctification which is called a personal thing, wrought upon the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost, I know nothing of, nor this book neither. Yet I declare before God, that, notwithstanding all the calumny, reproach, hard names, and bad spirit, with which I am loaded and charged, I would not exchange what Christ has done for my soul, and by his Spirit wrought in me, and done by me, for all the sanctification of this book; nor for all the personal holiness, fruitfulness, and good works, of five hundred such authors, put them altogether, for they know not God.

Quot. From these two jarring principles, so opposite to each other, proceeds a continual warfare. Sometimes divine grace treads indwelling sin under its feet, and then the Christian is holy, humble, and happy in his God. At other times, sin rouses up all its powers, attempts to shake off the yoke, and even prevails so far as to take the new man captive: and then the Christian groans, being burdened.

Answ. If this be true, the Christian may well groan. And how can the believer himself be really delivered from the love and dominion of all sin, according to a former quotation, if the seed of God, the production of the Holy Ghost, the new man of grace, falls under the prevailing power of sin, and is taken captive? Sin is Satan's ally, but the