multitude to ridicule the faith. We know the ten commandments are not of faith, nor do they give any direction about it; they say nothing about a Saviour, nor promise one, nor do they direct to his blood and righteousness; they know nothing about repentance, they do not point to it, nor give it, nor accept it: it is perfect doing and perfect love that they require. But we are under a better teacher, namely the Spirit of promise, who teaches us to profit, and guides us into all truth; we are taught of God to love one another. The law tells me to love my neighbour as myself, but not better, as the gospel does, which says, we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren; to be offered up upon the service of their faith; to spend and be spent for them: nor does it tell me to deny myself daily, nor to take up my daily cross, nor to set my face against the world and oppose it, nor yet to follow another in the regeneration, nor yet be crying to God day and night in prayer, nor give any direction concerning the various branches of divine worship, not a word about baptism, nor of breaking bread. If the ten commandments are the only rule, I cannot find any of these things in it; and yet, many live in the practice of these things, which convinces me that believers have got other rules of life beside the ten commandments, and a spiritual rule too, besides this narrow legal one which some contend for; they must take these things from some other part of the will of God. It must be confessed that unregenerate professors

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may have the form of knowledge and of the truth, in the letter of the law, as well as the Jewish pharisees had, and these may make the law their rule of life, as it certainly is, for they must abide by the rule if they will live therein; and such may be alive to this form of knowledge, and alive to this rule, and be as Paul was, alive without the law, for the sinner's form of knowledge, and the spiritual law of God widely differ. Nevertheless, according to this form of knowledge, which is their rule, they may perform a deal of service, which is called serving in the oldness of the letter; these are the people who sit in Moses's seat, and give rules to the believer, and whatever they bid him observe, he by the Spirit does; and if he does these things, having them in his heart, he will at last judge the others; but the main drift of Satan in this business is, to turn the eyes of weak believers from the Saviour, and so bring them into bondage, as was the case with the Galatians. But the believer has more than a form of knowledge; God sends the law in its spiritual power to his heart, and by his Spirit he writes it there, which leaves so deep and lasting an impression as never to be blotted out. He is the man that knows righteousness, a man in whose heart is God's law; he is not alive without the law, but through the law alive to God; he walks in newness of life; he serves God in the newness of the spirit, not in the oldness of the letter. This man is sure to be right, he is in the covenant, and has the law of God in his heart;

grace subdues his sin, God guides him with his eye, and he serves God in the spirit; he is circumcised, and walks in love to God; he is a new creature, and follows Christ in the regeneration; he has a faith that worketh by love, and he is not idle, but abounds in the work of the Lord; and "as many as walk according to this rule, mercy on them and peace." If there is truth in the scriptures, this man shall be eternally saved; this doctrine will do to die by; the former may do to talk about, or to trade with in order to gain a penny for a livelihood, but it will afford no comfort at death, nor is it attended with any power in life. God sets not his seal to that; this is visible enough, and will be more so daily. The believer is the man that will perform good works; these vain janglers about the law only strive in vain; they say and do not. This is a faithful saying, "And these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God [for it is in vain that we expect them any where else] might be careful to maintain good works: these things are good and profitable unto men. But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain." This is the unlawful strife of workmongers against the grace of God; but, in this sense, the servant of the Lord must not strive.

Fourthly, To lie in wait for him that reproves in the gate; to make a man an offender for a word;

to ridicule a servant of God and his work, by falsehood, as the Rev. Mr. Belly at Gravesend did me, who ridiculed the providence of God in my Bank of Faith, declaring that I would spiritualize knives and forks. 'I have got my sermon,' says he, in my pocket, and am going to London to-morrow, to preach against the spirit of that book;' and he had got the materials in his pocket, nay, his behaviour was such as I am ashamed to mention; and the gentleman with him was so hurt at it, that he felt disposed to have written to me; however, when he came to town, he took care to let me know the plot by a friend. The Rev. Mr. B. knows the man; he lives at Dartford in Kent, and will prove it to his head. I think he is one of a party spirit, for he brought strife and contention with him, though he preached against contention. He proved the necessity of harmony by the chords of his instrument; why then did he breed a jargon with me? I had never seen him nor spoken to him. He enforced candour, and exclaimed against blood-thirsty rage, and fell foul of the text that I had handled, cavilling at the very words of God, which he was pleased to style immodest texts; which texts may shortly appear in print, and my sermons on them, if God permit. Can such conduct as this be of any use to the church of God? Can there be any edification in this? Will this make a bad spirit better? Is this the way to reconcile parties, or to cure a blood-thirsty disposition? Can this create any love among brethren? Can

playing with words, enforcing philosophy, treating of music, and cavilling at scripture, do any good? Is not this striving about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers? This is unlawful strife, and the servant of the Lord must not strive; which leads me to my third general head, which was to describe the gentleness of the Lord's servant, and how all sorts of men will try it more or less.

This gentleness in my text is not that tameness, laziness, or evenness of temper, which hypocrites so much admire, which is to be found in carnal men; this may be seen sometimes in deists, dead pharisees, reformed professors, or in a hypocrite when thunder-struck. Ahab seemed like a lion when the prophet met him; "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? and he answered, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord. I will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam, and the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls eat." These things tamed Ahab, and made him gentle and tractable; for he rent his clothes, put sackcloth on his flesh, fasted, and went softly; "Seest thou," saith God, "how Ahab humbles himself?" 1 Kings xxi. 22-29. But this is not the gentleness meant in my text. Nicodemus was very gentle in the senate concerning the rigorous measures proposed to be used against Christ; "Does our