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It has ferved to keep many feeking, finners in chains; and to blind fome difcerning people, who have been fo hoodwinked by the old veil, that a little dry morality will fuffice. It has armed legions of light, trifling profeffors, with malice, and matter for flander; fo that, as foon as a gospel minister brings forth the mystery of faith, it is blafphemed, and loaded with the name of black Antinomianifm; and the preacher of it is viewed as firft coufin to Simon Magus. By thefe means the bond-fervant keeps the pulpit, and the devil the palace; for Satan knows there is no fear of truth gaining ground upon the heart and affections while it is ridiculed and blafphemed. If this is not rebelling against the light, and doing defpite to the Spirit of grace, what is? The gospel is fet forth as having no fufficient rule, Chrift is divefted of his fovereignty, the old law as the better covenant, and Mofes as worthy of more honour than Jefus: his ambaffadors are reprefented as encouragers of vice, and the truths of the everlasting gospel as leading to licentioufnefs-and what can the devil himself do or fay more?

. I have in this little piece endeavoured to `furnish thee, reader, with a few arguments, that thou mayeft have somewhat to answer them that glory in appearance, but not in heart. Love thou the truth, and peace and be not difmayed and terrified at every minifter of confufion; fuch must come, but God will bring every work into judgment. If a preacher holds not the mystery of faith in a pure confcience,

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you know he has nothing to recommend him to the excellent of the earth: fuch always will be battering the middle wall, and warping to the flesh, and to the law; contending for no other holiness than a fair fhew in the flesh, an outward reformation; dealing in general terms; drawing no line between the elect and reprobate, faint and finner; obscuring the great truths of the gofpel; dealing in invitations; speaking well of the erroneous, and ridiculing the juft; aiming to affect and move the paffions; coveting the name and applause of a gentleman of candid and liberal fentiments, and giving up nine doctrines of the Bible out of ten in order to gain it. But this is not rightly dividing the word of truth, nor doing the work of an evangelift; no real converfion-work goes on here; God fets not his feal to this; this is not taking forth the vile from the precious, nor being valiant for truth; it is walking in craftinefs, and handling the word of God deceitfully; and fo it will appear when the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, in which he will render bis anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames of fire, Ifa. lxvi. 15. The canting applause of hypocrites will be no fhelter from that storm, nor armour proof fufficient to repel the force of thofe flames.

Take heed how, and what you hear; and, if a man hath not the doctrine of Chrift, Truth declares that he hath not God: receive him not, neither into your heart, nor into your house, nor bid him God speed. Let others justify him, and caress him, as

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they may; be not thou a partaker of other men's fins; nor entail his evil deeds on thy head, by wishing him fuccefs.

Prize your liberty, and ftand faft in it. If thou art a fon of the free woman, with a great fum thou didft obtain this freedom-freedom from the bondage and curfe of the law; freedom from the reigning and destroying power of fin; freedom of access to a throne of grace; freedom to call God Father; freedom of fpeech, and freedom of foul. Truth hath made thee free, therefore love the truth; the Spirit hath made thee free, therefore walk in the Spirit; Christ hath made thee free, and thou art free indeed. And may God bless thee with the joys of his falvation, and uphold thee with his free Spirit; and then thou wilt fay with truth and wisdom, what many have uttered in falfehood and ignorance, namely, that God's fervice is perfect freedom.

But, if thou once turn thy back upon the truth, thou hast neither fhield nor buckler. He who keeps the word of Chrift's patience shall be kept from the hour of temptation. He that erreth from the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. The prudent are crowned with knowledge; and they must hold fast that which they have, that no man take their crown. It is not candour that fecures the prize, but faithfulness. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life, Rev. ji. 10.

The fon and heir is not to be debased, nor re

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duced to a level with the bastard and the flave; nor is the fervant to be exalted to a footing with the fon. The fon, who is lord of all, differs much from him: for he is not now under tutors and governors; for the time appointed of the Father is come, and the Spirit of adoption is given, Gal. iv. 2, 6. The fon is not to wear the fervant's yoke, nor is the eafy yoke of the fon to be applied to the fervant. This is not rightly dividing the word. God hath mercy on whom be WILL have mercy; and this will of mercy is the good-will of God in Christ concerning his fons and daughters; it is the heavenly Father's will revealed, and is our rule. I will, and you fhall, runs through the whole mystery of faith: it is his will of purpose, and his will of promife; and is the faint's perfect, unalterable, and eternal rule of life, walk, and converfation.

And whom [God] WILL be hardeneth. This is his will of commandments; by which he wILL by no means clear the guilty, but WILL make his power known on the veffels of wrath. This will never humbled or foftened any finner (nor does his goodwill ever harden any). This is the fervant's rule of life, and rule of work for life, by which none can ever live: Wherefore I gave them alfo STATUTES that were not good, and JUDGMENTS WHEREBY THEY SHOULD NOT LIVE, Ezek. xx. 25.

When my opponents can make God's will of promife and his will of commandments, his good-will in Christ and his will of displeasure in the law, his will

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of mercy and his will of judgment, the Saviour's eafy yoke and Mofes' unbearable yoke, the covenant of grace and that of works, the killing letter and the quickening Spirit, to be one and the fame thingthen the elect and reprobate, the child of God and the child of the devil, are made one alfo. And, when this is done, all my rank Antinomianifm is confuted, and scattered into all winds.- -Which is juft as eafy to be done, as to unite the two poles; bring Christ and Belial, the family of heaven and hell, together: God's good-will fixes the one in heaven, and his will of judgment fixes the other in hell.

Reader, fare thee well. Grace, mercy, and peace, be with thee.-And, when it is well with thee, remember me in prayer, That I may speak of the glory of Christ's kingdom, and talk of the power; to make known unto the fons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom, Pfal. cxlv. 11, 12.— and thou wilt greatly oblige thy willing fervant, in the kingdom and patience of Christ,

W. HUNTINGTON, S.S,

P. S. When the last piece on this fubject appeared in the world, two young men, fearing to read it, laid it before God, and entreated him to convince them whether it contained the truth or not, that they might either embrace or reject it; and, after earneft prayer, they ventured

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