curfe of God, attending it, will keep his mind. boiling and smoking in defperation and vengeance to all eternity. And this may be seen in all thofe profeffors who are given up to a reprobate mind, to work all uncleannefs with greedinefs, Ephes. iv. 19; and in them alfo who are faid to be given up to a "fearful looking for of judgment and. fiery indignation, which fhall devour the adverfaries," Heb. x. 27. Thefe are called adverfaries. And this principle of enmity is manifeft in common worldlings, who hate the faints of God for Chrift's fake; in profeffors, who love the killing letter, but hate the life of God; in the pharifee, who admires the form, but hates the power of godliness; and in every lunatic, who has this fire of hell already kindled in him.

This law of fin is the ruling principle even in Satan to this he is given up; under this he carries on all his dark defigns; and by this he is actuated, influenced, and hurried on, in all his works. Could he get rid of fin, and fin's dominion, he would gain his point: but this he cannot do; for God has delivered him into these dark chains, and hence eternal reftleffness drives

him on.

Chrift fays he feeks reft, but findeth none, Matt. xii. 43.

Could Satan fubdue his own fin, root it out of himself, or deliver himself from its reigning power, its burning fury, or its defperate workings, he would find reft: but this never can be

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therefore all his feekings are in vain; he secks reft, and finds none. Hence it appears plain that love to evil and hatred to God are the law of fin, even in Satan, and in all mankind; and this is the law in the faints, members, which even in them maintains a perpetual war against the Spirit and his grace. So that Satan himfelf, even the god of this world, is no more than a fubject, a fervant, a flave, and even a drudge, to fin. This is the law that he obeys, the dark chains in which he is held, and the mafter that he ferves; "Whofoever committeth fin is the fervant of fin," John viii. 34, whether he be angel or man. And it is worth the faint's obfervation, that, whenever the fin of Satan or graceless finners is mentioned in the epiftles of John, it is generally in the prefent tenfe, finneth,' which implies one continual act of finning, and nothing else. "He that committeth fin is of the devil; for the devil finneth from the beginning," 1 John iii. 8. "Whofoever abideth in him finneth not; whofoever finneth hath not seen him, neither known him," &c. One continual trade of finning, both in Satan and in finners, is what the evangelift means. And likewife the new man, or the feed of God, from which immortal principle the faint takes his title, and from which he is denominated a child of God, is the utmoft of what John can mean; for in every other sense there is not a juft man upon earth that doeth good and finneth not.

From all which I conclude, that loving and making lies; that all deceivableness and lying wonders; all malice and rage againft God and his faints; all foulnefs, filth, and uncleanness, that work in Satan, called a foul and an unclean fpirit; all this love to, and delight in falfehood, falfe doctrines, deception or deceivableness of unrighteousness; and all the foulness, filthiness, and uncleanness, that work both in devils and in mankind; together with all the rage, defperation, madness, enmity, and malice, that burn and smoke both in devils and men at the faints of God; proceed from the corrupt affections which reign. and rule both in devils and finners; fo that our apoftle calls it exprefsly, the law of fin. I fhall fubmit this to my dear friend, and to his fuperior judgment, while I remain, in the path of much tribulation,

THE COALHEAVER.

P. S. These contending parties are variously fet forth in the word of God.

1. They respect the perfons of different births. Some are born of blood, of the will of the flesh, and of the will of man, John i. 13; this is the natural birth of all mankind. But the believer who in faith and love receives Chrift is faid to be born of God, John i. 13.

2. These different births bring forth different principals, which never change, nor will be

changed in their nature; "That which is born. of the flesh, is flesh; andthat which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit," John iii. 6. The flesh is all in all, the flesh bears rule; the foul with all its natural light, knowledge, wifdom, or judgment, cannot fubdue fin, nor keep it within the bounds -prescribed by God in his word.

The luft of the eye, the luft of the flesh, and the pride of life, conquered Eve through the malice of Satan, although the fhared with Adam in the image of God. The luft of the eye prevailed at the fight of the forbidden fruit, the appetite craved it, it was in her opinion good for food; and above all, it was defirable to make one wife; and this prevailed in Adam, though he was not deceived, yet he was in the tranfgreffion; from hence God denominates man to be flesh, My Spirit fhall not always ftrive with man, seeing he is flesh;" "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit," efpecially faith, hope, light, life, and love; thefe are called the incorruptible feed, and they are by Peter called the divine nature, and by Paul the life of God, which man is alienated from through ignorance. Thefe fruits are derived to us by the Spirit from the fulness of the fecond Adam. These are the foul and the fprings of real godliness, and the Spirit of God working in thefe is the power of godlinefs, and where thefe are not there is nothing but the form of it.

3. These contending parties are called laws; the law of fin, and the law of the mind, as hath been fhewn: the law of fin is the corrupt affections working in the carnal mind, which feeds. upon the imagined lufts of the flesh, hates God, and wars againft God, and against the foul of man. The law of the mind is, firft, faith that worketh by love, and thefe are influenced, guided, and directed in all their acts, works, and exercises, according to the mind of the Spirit. For instance, the Holy Spirit fet before Paul's mind a diftreffed finner praying to Paul for help. Paul fets off, affured God had called him to Macedonia to the work; ere long the gaoler appears before Paul on his knees, praying for falvation, and Paul points him to faith in Chrift, and tells him to believe, and he fhall have it; the gaoler believes and is faved. The Spirit gave Paul the vifion, and affured his mind of the divine call; he fends the gaoler to Paul in the greateft diftrefs, the Spirit spoke by Paul to him, and entered the gaoler's heart at the found of Paul's voice, and wrought faith, falvation, and joy in his foul: all this was the mind of the Spirit in Paul. And I am more than fure that every branch of fuch work, and every branch of real worship which meets with the approbation of heaven, is performed by the fame most holy and ever-bleffed agent. God will be ferved in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the old