deal with thee in Severity according to thy Defervings) do thou cry to God for Faith in a Crucified Chrift, that thou mayeft have all thy Sins washed away in his Blood, and fuch a right Work of Grace wrought in thy Soul, that may ftand in the Judgment-Day.

Again fecondly, In the next place, you know I told you that a Man might go a great way in a Profeffion, and have many excellent Gifts, fo as to do many wondrous Works, and yet be but under the Law; from hence' you may learn, not to judge your felves to be the Children of God, i Cor. 1. because you may have fome Gifts of Knowledge or Understanding more than others: no, for thou mayeft be the knowingeft Man in all the Country, as to Head-knowledge, and yet be but under the Law, and fo confequently under the Curfe, notwithstanding that.

Now feeing it is fo, that Men may have all this and yet perifh; then what will become of thofe that do no good at all, and have no Underftanding, neither of their own Sadness, nor of Chrift's Mercy? O fad! read with Understanding, Ifa. 27. 11. Therefore he that made them, will have no Mercy on them; and he that formed them, will Shew no Favour. See alfo 2 Thef. 1. 8, 9.

Now there is one thing, which for want of, moft People do mifcarry in a very fad Manner; and that is, because they are not able to diftinguish between the Nature of the Law, and the Gofpel. O People, People, your being blinded here, as to the Knowledge of this, is one great Caufe of the ruining of many: As Paul faith, While Mofes is read, or while the Law is difcovered, the Veil is over their Hearts, 2 Cor. 3. 15. that is, the Veil of Ignorance is still upon L 2 their

their Hearts, fo that they cannot difcern neither the Nature of the Law, nor the Nature of the Gofpel, they being fo dark and blind in their Minds, as you may fee, if you compare it with Chap. 4. 3,4. And truly I am confident, that were you but well examined, I doubt many of you would be found fo ignotant, that you would not be able to give a Word of right anfwer concerning either the Law, or the Gofpel. Nay, my Friends, fet the Cafe one fhould afk you what Time you spend, what Pains you take, to the End you may understand the Nature and Difference of these two Covenants; would you not say (if you should speak the Truth) that you did not fo much as regard whether there were two or more? Would you not fay I did not think of Covenants, or study the Nature of them? I thought that if I had lived honeftly, and did as well as I could, that God would accept of me, and have Mercy upon me, as he had on others. Ah Friends, this is the Caufe of the Ruin of Thoufands, for if they are blinded to this, both the right Ufe of the Law, and alfo of the Gofpel, is hid from their Eyes; and fo for certain they will be in danger of perifhing moft miferably, (poor Souls that they. are) unless God of his meer Mercy and Love, doth rend the Vail from off their Hearts; the Vail of Ignorance, for that is it which doth keep thefe poor Souls in this befotted and blindfolded Condition, in which if they die, they may be damented for, but not helped; they may be pitied, but not preferved from the ftroak of God's everlafting Vengeance.

In the next Place, if you would indeed be delivered from the firft into the fecond Cove

nant,

nant, I do admonish you to the obferving of these following Particulars.

Firft, Have a Care that you do not content your felves, though you do good Works (that is, which in themselves are good) in, and with a Legal Spirit, which are done thefe ways as follow.

Firft, If you do any thing commanded in Scripture, and in your doing of it, do think that God is well pleafed therewith, because you, as you are Religious Men do the fame: Upon this mistake was Paul himfelf in danger of being deftroyed; for he thought, because he was zealous, and one of the ftricteft Sects for Religion, therefore God would have been good unto him, and have accepted his doings, as it is clear, for he counted them his Gain, Philippians 3. 4, 57 6, 7, 8..

Now this is done 'thus. When a Man doth. think, that because he thinks he is more Sincere, more Liberal, with more Difficulty, or to the weakening of his Eftate; I fay, if a Man because of this, doth think that God accepteth his Labour, it is done from an Old Covenant Spirit.

Again, Some Men they think, that they shall he heard, because they have Prayer in their Families, because they can pray long, and fpeak Expreffions, or exprefs themselves excellently in Prayer, that because they have great Enlarge ments in Prayer: I fay that therefore to think that God doth delight in their doings, and accept their Work, this is from a Legal Spirit. Again, fome Men think, that because their Parents have been Religious before them, and L. 3

have

have been indeed the People of God, they think if they alfo do as to the outward obferving of that which they learned from their Fore-runners, that therefore God doth accept them: But this alfo is from a wrong Spirit; and yet how many are there in England at this Day, that think the better of themselves, meerly upon that Account, I, and think the People of God ought to think fo too; not understanding that it is ordinary, for an Eli to have an Hophni and a Phinehas, both Sons of Belial: Also a good Samuel to have a perverse Off-spring; likewise David an Abfalom. I fay their being ignorant of, or elfe negligent in regarding this, they do think that because they do fpring from fuch and fuch, as the Jews in their Generations did, that, therefore they have a Privilege with God more than others, when there is no fuch Thing, John 8. 33, 34, 35. Mat. 3. 7, 8, 9. but for certain, if the fame Faith be not in them, which was in their Forerunners, to lay hold of the Chrift of God, in the fame Spirit as they did, they muft utterly perifh, for all their high Conceits that they have of themselves.

Secondly, When People come into the Prefence of God, without having their Eye upon their Divine Majefty, through the Flesh and Blood of the Son of Mary, the Son of God; then alfo do they come before God, and do whatsoever they do from a Legal Spirit, an old Covenant Spirit. As for Inftante, you have fome People, it's true, they will go to Prayer (in Appearance very fervently) and will plead very hard with God, that he would grant them their Defires, pleading their Want, nd the Abundance thereof; they will alfo plead

plead with God his great Mercy, and alfo his free Promifès; but yet they neglecting the aforefaid Body, or Perfon of Chrift, the righteous Lamb of God, to appear before him in. I fay, in thus doing, they do not appear before the Lord, no otherwife than in an old. Covenant Spirit; for they go to God only as a merciful Creator, and they themfelves as his Creatures; not as he is their Father in the Son, and they his Children by Regeneration through the Lord Jefus. I, and though they may call God their Father in the Notion (not knowing what they ay, only having learned fuch Things by Tradition) as the Pharifees did; yet Chrift will have his Time to fay to them, even to their Faces, as he did once to the Jews. Your Father (for all this your Profeffion) is the Devil to their own Grief and everlafting Mifery, John 8. 44.

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The third Thing that is to be obferved, if we would not be under the Law, or do Things in a legal Spirit is this; to have a Care that we do none of the Works of the holy Law of God, for Life, or Acceptance with him; no, nor of the Gofpel neither. To do the Works of the Law, to the End we may be accepted of God, or that we may please him, and to have our Defires of him, is to do Things from a legal or old Cove nant Spirit, and that is exprefly laid dowa, where it is faid, To him that worketh, is the Reward not reckoned of Grace, but of Debt; that is, he appears before God through the Law, and his Obedience to it, (Rom. 4. 4, 5.) And again, though they be in themfelves Golpel-Ordinar.. ces, as Baptifm, breaking of Bread, Hearing, Praying, Meditating, or the like; yet, I fay, if L 4

thes