A fruits of the Spirit. By the law you work, by the gofpel God works in me. You produce fruit in obedience to the letter; in Chrift is my fruit found. You work by the law; by the gospel God works all my works in me. By the law you must make a new heart, and a new fpirit; by the gospel God creates me anew in Chrift Jefus. By the law you muft love God; by the gospel God's love is fhed abroad in my heart. By the law you must wash you, and make you clean; by the gofpel God cleanfes me from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit. Thus God works by the gofpel, and by the law you work by the one felf is denied, and Chrift is all in all; by the other, felf is exalted, and you are all in all. One of thefe agents must give way: grace must be grace, and works no more works; or works must be all, and grace nothing at all. I do not fruftrate the grace of God; for, if righteoufnefs come by the law, Chrift is dead in vain. And as righteousness did not come by the law, fo neither did holinefs, life, or fanctification come by the law. Chrift is made of God unto us wifdom, life, righteousness, fanctification, and redemption; and he doth fanctify and cleanfe his church, and prefent it without fpot or wrinkle, or any fuch thing. If this open a door to all licentiousness, then it follows that man's dead works are true holinefs; and all God's works, which are perfect, licentiousness. Will not this be bitterness in the end? God tells me that I am become dead to the law, am delivered from 1 from the law, and that I am not under the law. And what is all this death and deliverance for? That we might live in fin? Nay, we are become dead to the law, that we may live unto God; we are delivered from it, that we may serve God in newness of the Spirit; and we are brought from under it that we might be under grace. But why living unto God, ferving in the Spirit, and being under grace, fhould be called a door to all licentioufnefs, I know not: I muft refer this to the hearing of the great God when the year of revenges comes on for the controverfy of Zion. But, if my fifter chufes to live to the law, be under it as her only rule of life, walk, and action, not accepting deliverance, fhe is welcome: let her bow her fhoulders to bear, and become a fervant to tribute; she will find, ere long that that lamp will go out, and then she will be calling for oil. She is poor and needy now; but the legal veil fometimes blinds the eyes to that degree, that a person may be poor and wretched, miferable, blind, and naked, and yet not know it. If thou waft to adhere to the voice of Chrift in the promises, and to the voice of the Spirit in thy confcience (if it be there), thou wouldst find a living rule much preferable to a killing letter and a yoke of bondage. On the other hand, she is at full liberty; I have no dominion over her faith. Let her take the portion of goods that fall to her, and gather all together, and trade away with her "rule of action;" it will not be be long before she will find the law, with its gendering yoke, will bring her into the wilderness; and when in a far country and a dry land, fhe may remember her first husband, turn beggar, and be glad to live by faith on the fatted calf and bread of life. Until when I fhall leave Mrs. Inftability to make the most of her two opinions: only adding that, fhould fhe ever fail in bufinefs; fhould the citizen of that country turn fwindler; fhould fhe wafte her present fubftance; fhould the minifters of the letter ftarve her with hufks; when she comes to herself, when her belly is in want, when she is humbled to beg, and longs to come home, I fhall not be offended at the mufic and dancing, but remain the willing fervant of Mrs. Prodigalis when the father makes merry. WINCHESTER Row, WM. HUNTINGTON. TO MRS. R. J. AT B-N-D. Ar the first fight of my fifter's letter these words darted into my mind, Behold, yonder is that Shunamite! Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? I mean, is it well with confcience? is it well between Chrift and thee? is it well with the new creature, which is created after the image of him that created him in righteousness and true holiness, which is fo often called a licentious Antinomian ? There is little in this letter that favours of union with the true and living vine; or of joy and peace, the bleffed effects of that union; but quite the reverse. The veil hangs heavy on thy mind, which has obfcured him that is fairer than the children of men. Thou doft not with open face behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, that changes us into the fame image, from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. Mofes is turned accufer; and that is the way he ferves all who put their truft in him. No enlargement of heart doft thou enjoy; no fresh difcoveries of the beauty, fuitablenefs, and invaluable worth of the bleffed Saviour. Bondage damps all joys, contracts the heart, produces fervile fear, oppofes love, and fills the foul with fruitlefs flavery, rebellion, murmuring, discontent, deadness deadness in devotion, leanness of foul, and enmity at those who stand faft in the Lord, and in the liberty wherewith he has made them free. I have, by the help of God, brought my religion into a narrow compass: that is, by faith, by prayer, by examination, by self-denial, by confeffion, by watchfulness, by reading, by meditation, and by diligence in these things, to keep up a comfortable communion and fellowship with the Lord Jefus Chrift; and in this way I am as happy, as holy, as free and lively in the pulpit, as ufeful in my ministry, as much favoured of God both in providence and grace; am as well attended in my ministry, and by as difcerning, knowing, experimental, and upright a people, as any evangelift in London who is a ftranger to this fort of Antinomianifm. And my poor fifter, after she has galled her neck, spent her ftrength, and wasted her fubftance, with her rule of life, walk, and action, must come back again, and fetch virtue from the fame vine, if ever she brings forth any fruit unto God. Without Chrift fhe can do nothing. If the branch abide not in the vine, it is caft forth, and withered. He that abides in Chrift brings forth much fruit; and God purges fuch that they may bring forth more fruit. Blinding folks with Mofes's veil is not fowing light for the righteous, and gladnefs for the upright in heart. Chrift came to proclaim liberty to captives, and to open the prifon doors to them that were bound: he therefore, that brings thee into bondage, does not |