phesy smooth things, prophesy deceits, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us; give us a little candour, make us kerchiefs, sew a few pillars under our arm holes, Ezek. xiii. 18. The servant of the Lord is not to spare the devil for his crying; now is the time for the good soldier to follow his blows, to speak like the piercing of a sword, for the tongue of the wise is health; now is the time to set fire to the hole of the asp, or lay the ax to the root; and if the iron be blunt, he must whet the edge with prayer, or put forth more strength, and look up for wisdom, which is profitable to direct him where to cut. This is a work that the Lord's servant findeth to do, and he is to do it with all his might, which requires striving, and is lawful strife, because it is opposing them that strive against the Lord, Jer. 1. 24.

Eighthly, Not only are the servants of the Lord who labour in the word and doctrine commanded to strive, but every awakened sinner, who is compassed about with numberless sins, corruptions, and fears, which bring him into so many straits and difficulties; he is commanded to strive to enter in at the strait gate, notwithstanding the many that will strive to enter in and shall not be able. The people of God are to strive to assist their minister that the Lord sends them, when God has made it manifest in their consciences that he is sent by him; and not stand at the helm and watch to see which way the stream of public applause runs, but to watch the waters of life that

make glad the city of God. Professors that aim at nothing but to take the strongest side, act like Alexander the coppersmith, and follow a multitude to do evil, in opposing the advocates for truth contrary to their own judgment and conscience; such thrive in their profession no better than Ahithophel, whose counsel was turned to foolishness; nor do I see how they can, for they strive against their Maker, Isa. xlv. 9; they strive against the priest, Hosea iv. 4; and they strive against the verdict of their own conscience. The saints of God are to strive to assist the public servants of the Lord in their work: "Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me." This is lawful striving.

Having shewn you negatively what is not meant in my text, or is lawful striving, I come now to the second branch of this head, which is to shew you positively what is meant, or to describe unlawful strife. "And the servant of the Lord must not strive."

First, Though it is lawful for every man of God to covet earnestly the best gifts, and to strive to excel for the edifying of the church; yet it is not lawful to slander and heap public reproach on others, in order to keep up our own popularity, or to establish it, by belying those that God is pleased to send; much less are we to monopolize the churches of God into our hands, in order to keep others

out, for fear of our own honour being eclipsed; much less are we to order churches that others have planted, to give the planter a final dismission from his own work before they can receive any assistance, as some have done, at Woking in Surry: this is lording it over our Lord's heritage, and aiming at the garland in an unlawful way. "If

a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully;" for men to combine and strive in this manner is altogether unbecoming. "Be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation;" this strife is unlawful, and in this sense, the servant of the Lord must not strive.

Secondly, We must not strive to oppose others in bearing their own testimony for God, nor be offended because they zealously defend the great truths that God has revealed to them; such as the sovereignty of the Almighty; his personal election of his people; the proper deity of our Lord; particular redemption; and justification unto life by him; as some do who depart from the faith, turn their ears from the truth, and turn to fables, boasting of free-will, while they are led captive by the devil at his will; talking of power, while they are servants of sin; and boasting of merit and selfrighteousness, while the sentence of the law is in them, and they are accused and condemned by their own thoughts and conscience all the day long. This is opposing God, his witnesses, and the testimony of his word, and taking part with

the world, and endeavouring to set the church of God on a level with the wicked. "Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of this earth, but wo to him that striveth with his Maker." This striving is unlawful; in this sense, the servant of the Lord must not strive.

Thirdly, Setting the law perpetually before the children of God, which has a tendency to terrify weak believers, and to take their mind from the Saviour, as too many do in our days, who make Moses's law to be the truth of Moses's rod, and set it to swallow up all the promises of the gospel, as if the law was against the promise of God, or the promise an enemy to the law. Surely the covenant of grace was in being before the law, and as it is a better covenant, and established upon better promises, one would think the covenant of grace ought to have an equal footing, if not the pre-eminence. But we have too many who are alive without the law; the law has not killed them; and being ignorant of the sentence of it, they are not dead to it. The law is to be used lawfully, to awaken careless sinners, and stop the mouths of proud boasters by bringing them in guilty by the law; "Whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped." We are to insist upon the saints ordering their steps in God's word, and on love to the law after the inner man, not to a part thereof, but to the whole will of God; "Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy com

mandments;" but this love to the law after the inner man is nonsense to them who are not acThose that can act

quainted with the new man. contrary to the commanding will of the Saviour in the new testament, while they are contending for one chapter in the old, are the worst of Antinomians. "Whosoever therefore shall break the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, [whether by word or example,] he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them [do first, and teach afterwards] shall be called great." It is vain to enforce the law to others, unless they give us an account of its operation on their own hearts, and a copy of it in their own life. Those that tell us perpetually that the ten commandments are the believer's only and all-sufficient rule of life, seem to give us no account of themselves being quickened; they are for excluding the Saviour's commands, for not one of these has ever mentioned to me one word about the spiritual rule that Christ gave by Paul, which is easily to be accounted for; for spiritual circumcision, the new creature, and faith that worketh by love, are difficult points to handle, therefore it is better to wave the subject, and go to Sinai, for Ishmael has more friends than Isaac; more are the children of the desolate than those of the married wife, and by these means, simple souls are entertained with a vain jangle, which serves to make a stir, employ the minds of the people, give a job to the devil, and raise a