be past; that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me," Job xiv 3. 13.

Now, Job, you are at a throne of judgments and you feel my wrath in the law against you as a transgressor; and where are now all your good works? Will they answer for you? Oh, no; if he will en ter into judgment with man, he cannot a swer him one of a thousand. In this even balance you are found wanting, Job. I am indeed; there fore put me in a surety with thee.

And now where wilt thou go? O let me go to the throne of grace. "O that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat." What do you want to get there for, Job? Why to get away from a throne of judgment, from the hand-writing, from the wrath of God, and from my angry Judge; "For there," at the mercy-seat," the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my Judge."

A child of God, like Job, who has known the benefits and blessings of a mercy-seat; who has experienced the dew of God's grace; who has been blessed with the visitation of God; who has felt the candle of the Lord shining upon his head, and the Almighty's presence with him, and the glory of God fresh in him; I say, for such a soul to be brought to the darkness of the old mount, where the face of God is hid, to be placed afresh before the hand-writing of the law; to have his corruptions stirred up by it; to possess the iniqui ties of his youth; to feel the wrath of God, yea

the terrors, curses, and threatenings, of the law; all these "arrows of the Almighty are within me," saith Job, "the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit; the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me." I say, for a soul that is thus dealt with, and sensibly set before a throne of judgment, to be shut up in legal bondage, and grasped by the hand of an angry God, under which sensible anger Satan tempted him to blaspheme the Almighty, because he appeared in such wrath against him; I say, such a law-work works nothing but despondency and desperation; "Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate?"

We have got some fools in a profession, who tell us that a believer cannot be entangled again in legal bondage. It is the working of his own corruptions, say they, and Satan's temptations. But the Spirit of truth calls it the anger of God, the wrath of God, the arrows of God, the terrors of God, the indignation of God, the burning jealousy of God, the heavy hand of God, the provocations of God, and the judgment of God: and, until such fools can distinguish between the law of God and their own corruptions; between the arrows of God, and the fiery darts of Satan; they are ignorant of God's teaching, and ought to hold their peace, and be swift to hear and slow to speak, and not set themselves up for masters, lest they fall into the condemnation of the devil.

But the true case and state of such men is this,

they are conscious to themselves that they are in a splendid profession, and yet are ignorant of this divine teaching; wherefore they call the lashes of their consciences, their fears, their apprehensions, their bondage, &c. the workings of the old man, and Satan's devices against them; and that bearing up under and against these, is fighting the good fight of faith: whereas the truth of the matter is this, it is the wrath of God, the bondage of the law, and the curse of it, working in their souls for their hypocritical profession; being destitute of the grace of God, and having never been born again of God; so that their fighting is beating the air. It is not the fight of faith, but of rebellion; not against Satan, but against both God and conscience; and God makes this manifest in every professor, whom he gives up to hardness of heart, to a fearful looking-for of judgment, to damnable heresies, to open profanity, to madness, or to selfmurder. I proceed now,

Eighthly, To shew the sensible dryness and barrenness that attend legal bondage. By the law God doth not communicate his Spirit, and withuot his influence there can be no fruit. Refreshings come from God's presence; but in the law his presence can never be enjoyed; no good fruit, unless we abide in the vine; for under the legal yoke Christ profits us nothing, with respect to sensible union and communion; our joy withers, and love waxes cold. No blossoming like a rose with divine enlargement; no heavenly-mindedness,

no life and peace enjoyed; nothing felt within but God's anger, man's rebellion, and Satan's assaults; nothing without but gloominess, fresh scenes of troubles, and dissatisfaction with every thing. A preacher under this spirit may storm and rage, and think to frighten men out of their sins, and drive them to heaven with these lashes of legal terrors, and the thunderbolts of damnation; but all in vain; sinners are only hardened by it, and saints are starved. It is no better than attempting to force the Spirit of grace itself, and bind his consort Liberty.' Milton.

Such a soul, re-entangled with the yoke of bondage, communicates nothing but bondage to others. His conversation is nothing but complaints: groaning under sin, and talking of his doubts, fears, and dreadful apprehensions. His converse savours of nothing but horror, terror, torment, bondage, and wrath, dread, death, and damnation; and what he discourses of, that he leaves behind him wherever he goes. He is barren in his soul, barren in his closet, barren in his family, barren in the pulpit, barren in the pew, barren in the church, and barren in the world. No unction, no salt, no oil of joy, no savoury meat, no water of life, comes by the law: it is a dark and dry mountain in a barren land; and he that goes there is filled with darkness, and his conversation is nothing but confusion, vain jangling, inconsistencies, and self-contradiction. Such souls are dried up like a potsherd; their joys are withered

away, and they may cry, as others have done, "My leanness, my leanness, wo unto me!"

And, as for those poor blind souls who tell us that legal bondage can never again influence a child of God; but that all this bondage, fear, wrath, and terror, are only the stirrings of corruption; they would do well to inform us how corruption can work without the law; for where there is no law there is no transgression; the motions of sin are by the law; the strength of sin is the law; by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law was added that the offence might abound; and sin takes occasion by the commandment, and works in the members through the commandment. The law is man's debt book, and reveals the wrath of the creditor against the debtor. In Christ sin is done away, and God is well pleased; but no where else. And, as to making Satan the only instigator of the stirrings of corruption, is making him divided against himself. The strong man armed, in an unawakened sinner, keeps his goods in peace: and his work with a backsliding saint is to rock him to sleep, or lull him into carnal security, as he did David when he fell. It was not Satan, but God by his prophet, that awakened him out of his lethargy. The law therefore is a dreadful chastening rod in the hand of God; and, though there is no vindictive wrath to a chosen vessel, Christ having answered for him; yet a believer, influenced by a spirit of bondage, and gone back to the law, feels no less than the wrath and anger