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form, quality and nature, and are now turned to threatnings out of love: There is no fuch threatning now to the believer, if thou do not, thou shalt die. The penalty of the law of works is condemnation and eternal death, which the believer hath no cause to fear, being dead to the law, any more than a living wife needs to fear the threatning of her dead hufband: There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. He that believes in him shall never die. Believers are under no threatning of eternal wrath, because under grace. It is a high expreffion that bleffed RUTHERFORD hath to this pofe, The gospel, fays he, forbids nothing under pain of damnation to a juftified believer, more than to Jefus Chrift. Tho' the fins of believers deserve hell, and the intrinfick demerit of fin is ftill the fame, yea, I think the fins of believers, being against so much love and fo many mercies, deferve a thoufand hells, where others deferve one; yet being dead to the law, he hath no vindictive wrath to fear, the blood of Chrift having quenched the fire of God's wrath, Rom. v. 9. While we were finners, Chrift died for us; and much more now being justified by his blood, we are faved from wrath thro' him. And fure he is not to fear that which God calls him to believe he is faved from. His flavish fear therefore is from unbelief, which weakens his hands in duties. But now the law in the hand of Chrift hath threatnings and punishments, but they are fatherly and loving. A fhort view of them you may read, Pfal. lxxxix. 30. If his children forfake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my flatutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I vifit their tranfgreffion with the rod, and their iniquities with ftripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness

kindness will not I utterly take from him, nor fuffer my faithfulness to fail: My covenant will I not break: Once have I fworn, &c. q. d. Tho' I will not fend them to hell, nor deprive them of heaven, no more than I will break my great oath to my eternal Son; yet, like a father, I will chaftife them, I will correct them for their faults, I will fqueeze them in the mortar of affliction, and prefs out the corrupt juice of old Adam that is in them; yea, I will hide my face, I will deny them that communion and fellowship with me which fometimes they had, and give them terror inftead of comfort, and bitterness instead of sweetness: And filial fear of these fatherly chastisements will do more to influence the believer to holinefs, and obedience, than all the unbelieving fears of hell and wrath can do. Fear left he want the sweetness of God's prefence, which fometimes he hath had, will make him fay to his fins and lufts, as the fig-tree in Jotham's parable, Shall I leave my fweetnefs, and be king over you O, fhall I leave all the sweetness that I have enjoyed with God, and engage with base lufts and idols? And hence, when the believer hath gone afide and backflidden, what is it that brings him back to God? He finds the Lord breaking him many ways, and he reflects thro' grace upon this fometimes, O how I am now deprived of these fweet blinks that once I enjoyed? Therefore I will go and return to my firft husband, for then it was better with me than now. Yea, his freedom from law-threatnings, and being only under fatherly correction, when he fees this, it breaks his heart, and melts it more than all the fire of hell could do. The flavish fear of vindictive wrath discourages him, and weakens his hands in duties, and VOL. II. makes

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makes him run away from God; but the filial fear of fatherly wrath, which is kindly, is a motive of love that encourages him to his duty. Which of these motives think you will work up the believer to most obedience, viz. This legal one, O my wrathful judge will fend me to hell, if I do fo and fo; or this gofpel one? O my God and Father in Christ Jefus will be angry at me, and deny me his love-tokens? I am fure the former works upon enmity, and raises it, but this works upon love, and inflames it. Quest. Ought not the believer to live unto God, even without refpect to the threatning of fatherly chastisement and punishment? Anf. No doubt the more perfect his obedience is, the better, and the more like to the obedience of the faints in heaven, where no chastisement is feared; but while he is here, he carries a body of fin about him, and needs to be ftirred up by fatherly correction: He should indeed ferve God purely out of love and respect to the command itself, and because he commands it; but thus the matter ftands, that as on the one hand, being perfect in his head Chrift Jefus, it is not his duty to have refpect to what the law of works either promises or threatens; fo on the other hand, being imperfect in himself while here, it is his duty to have refpect to what the law in the hand of Chrift promises and threatens, which indeed is a loving refpect, tending to advance holinefs.'

4. The whole form of the law as a covenant of works, being thus altered, the law in the hand of Chrift, is all love, all grace, and fo influences the man to fanctification. The man that is under the covenant of grace, hath a principle of grace within him, ftriving against fin; he hath the fpi

rit of grace within him, caufing him to walk in God's ftatutes; he hath the promife of grace to be fufficient for him; if fin prevail, and pollute him, he hath daily access to the fountain open for fin and uncleanness, to which he runs: if his backflidings encrease, he hath Chrift engaged by promise to heal his backflidings: Which, when he views by faith, it does not encourage him to fin, if he be in his wits, but draws him to his duty, like a cord of love, and brings him back to his kind Lord. In a word, being dead to the law, he is married to Chrift, who is like a green fir-tree, from whom all his fruit is found. Thus you fee what influence a man's being dead to the law, hath upon his living unto God. And thus much for the fourth head I proposed.

FIFTH HEAD.

The Fifth thing in the method, was the application. Is it fo, that being dead to the law in point of justification, is neceffary in order to living unto God in point of fanctification? Then, for information, hence we may fee,

1. That the doctrine of the gospel is not a doctrine of licentioufnefs, or carnal liberty, however it be reproached in the world; and if the preachers thereof, who would bring off people from the law of works, and from their felf-righteoufnefs, be reproached, as if they were enemies to holinefs, I will venture to fay it with confidence, in a place where falfhood fhould be an abomination, that it is a vile flander: For whatever finful weaknefs and imperfection may cleave to the preaching or practice of thefe, who defire to publish this gofpel doctrine, yet the Lord God of gods is wit

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nefs,

nefs, yea, the Lord God of gods knows, and aff Ifrael may know, and all whofe eyes God enlightens fhall know, that this doctrine of dying to the law in point of justification, is a doctrine according to godlinefs, and the very means of holiness itfelf, and of living unto God. If this be Antinomianifm, I am content to be called an Antinomian. But we see who are indeed Antinomians, and enemies to the law and to holiness, even all these who oppofe this doctrine, whereby we give the law all the honour imaginable. Do we make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law; as a covenant we establish it, while we preach Chrift as our righteoufnefs for juftification; and as a rule of holiness we establish it, while we preach Christ as our strength for fanctification of heart and life. And they that do not thus honour the law, do but difgrace and dishonour it, and are truly Antinomians, i. e. enemies to the law. And if this be called a new scheme of doctrine, by way of reproach, though I confefs it is a new covenant fcheme, in oppofition to that of the old, yet I will grant to no man that it is new otherwife; feeing it is not only as old as Paul here, but as old as the first publication of the covenant of grace in paradife. So that we fee where it is that the reproach of a new Scheme should be lodged. I would have reproachers to remember what Paul fays of this doctrine of his, Gal. i. 8. If we, or an angel from heaven, preach another gofpel, let him be accurfed. Here is the doom of fuch as preach another gofpel, which yet, fays the apoftle, is not another; but there are fome that trouble the Lord's people, and would pervert the gospel of Chrift. To be dead to the law, is not to turn a loose Antinomian; it is to live unto God.

2. Hence