in a state of grace, are hard sayings; who can hear them? For our natural reason to be called darkness; our understanding foolishness; and our wisdom earthly, sensual, and devilish; for self, holy, righteous self; consequential, co-working, and wonder-performing self; to be denied daily, and a cross laid on it, to keep it fretting under the burden, that it may not intermix its bane with the stream that comes forth from the springing well that God has put in the earthen vessel; to have the sentence of death in one's self, that we may not trust there; to be debtors to grace for a mouth, wisdom, and a door of utterance; to be buffeted by the devil, till self is nothing but weakness, that the power of Christ may therein be made perfect; that the decay of self should be the life of the inward man, and the weakness of self the cause of divine power and grace being manifested, are lessons hard to learn, but they are the lessons of the gospel; on which account unhumbled, unrenewed, and uninspired preachers and professors, do not love the dispensation of the Spirit. The law of Moses has not these self-abasing tasks in it. The grand human agent,' thou,' stands almost in every verse; thou' shalt not do this, and thou' shalt do that. Boasting is not excluded by the though by the law of faith it is. This the bond family are aware of, and therefore are determined to stick to that covenant that sets man forth; choosing rather to be the acting, I,'

law of works,

than the passive, thou;' without considering the great and terrible name that stands in the preface, I am the Lord.

Circumcision and signs are called for among the Jews; wisdom among the Greeks; free-will, self-righteousness, and legal rules, among the Arminians; and traditions among the Papists: but we preach Christ crucified; to the Jews a stumblingblock; to the Greeks foolishness; to the Arminians, Antinomians, and to Papists, heresy. By them self is exalted, the Saviour debased, and the offence of the cross is ceased. If we are under the law as a rule of life, walk, and action, our Arminians, or moderate Calvinists, ought to preach up circumcision, for it is that which makes a man a debtor to do the whole law; but driving the saints of God from mount Zion, from union with Christ, from the Saviour's yoke, from the service of the Spirit, from the liberty of the gospel, and from a life of faith, and at the same time, not insisting upon circumcision, is not doing the duty of a minister of the letter.

What a terrible thing it is that a dispensation for the salvation of sinners should be sent into the world on purpose to stain the pride of all glory! that free-agency should be brought to nothing; and her magnificence be despised, whom not only the Ephesians, but the whole unelected world. worshippeth! But so it is: the greatest apostle, and the brightest saint, must stoop to this; that it is God that prepares the heart; yea, is the

strength of the heart when heart and flesh both fail; that the excellency and the power of religion are of him; that the fruit of the lip, the success of the ministry, and the strength and fortitude of the minister, are all of God. All our fruits must be attributed to the Spirit; all our labours to love; our works to faith; and our victories must be ascribed to Him that hath loved us. Poor freeagency must be excluded in every sense. Excluded from God's decrees; He works all things after the counsel of his own will. From predestination; "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." From the spiritual birth; "Born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, nor of blood, but of God." From ministerial labour also; "Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." And all the share that falls to poor free-agency is, that she has done all the mischief she could, and been a hinderer instead of a helpmate. The flesh and the Spirit; "These are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." This indignity, and the title of an unprofitable servant, is all the share that falls to self; the glory must all be given to God: and we must be satisfied with the honour that God confers, if we would be found among the faithful; for "How can ye believe that receive honour one of another, and not the honour that cometh from God only? Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich

man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." Shame, abasement, and disgrace, are all that will fall to the old man in the saints, and to old Adam's family under the law: and to glory in the knowledge of God, in the lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, which he exercises will be the delight of the new creatures in Christ Jesus to all eternity; and I believe that every one who knows the plague of his heart, and the grace of God in truth, will cheerfully pocket the affront; though the Arminian is determined to shoot the gulph, blaspheme the decrees, alter the Bible, arraign and contemn the Most High, rather than be brought in guilty, or submit to the self-abasing terms of the covenant of grace.

Now for the passage quoted, "Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God." It is a text in the mouth of every child of the flesh, though there is not a word in it but what militates against them. They are not enlightened into the mysteries of the kingdom of God, therefore God hath not shewed them what is good; and as they are for bringing something to God, instead of receiving the cup of salvation, or grace, from him, the text cuts off their withered arm; "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with

burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" Micah vi. 6, 7. If burnt offerings, calves of a year old, thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, and the fruit of one's body, will not do for a man to present himself before God with in this life, what figure must they cut who think to stand before God's tribunal, to merit, and live in the heavenly glory; by boasting of free-will, which is corrupt; by self-righteousness, which is filthy rags; by trusting in an arm of flesh, for which they are cursed of God; and by dead works, performed under the sentence of death and damnation!

The unbeliever, who is condemned already, and under the wrath of God; to whom there is nothing clean, but even his mind and conscience are defiled, and who without faith cannot please God; cannot be the person that is supposed in the text to do justly: they must be persons in covenant with God and partakers of the sure mercies of David, or obtain mercy, as the text means. How can he love mercy that has not obtained mercy? He may justify the wicked, and call that mercy; or give alms with an intention of getting a name or meriting heaven: but these tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, for they cheat the soul; and as to walking humbly with thy God, we know he is the God of the living, not of the dead. The