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of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life," 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6.

Now the scriptures declare that "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven," neither law nor gospel. A man may steal the word of God out of the mouth of his religious neighbour; but even this the Almighty hates. "Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues, and say, He saith. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness; yet I sent them not nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord," Jerem. xxiii. 30-32. And, as he is against those thieves that steal his words of prophesy, so he is against these unpardoned and unsanctified law-men, who trouble their heads with his statutes; "But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth?" Psal. 1. 16. All that such men can do is to take this covenant of works, which is called statutes, into their mouth; for none but God can put it into their hearts; and he never will write any one of his laws on the minds of reprobates, nor put it into their hearts. Hence, they are called ministers of the

letter, not of the law, for the law is spiritual, Rom. vii. 14. They have nothing of the law but the bare letter, which is all that the Holy Ghost allows them to have, and this is all they have to trade with. Hence the distinction; "Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life," 2 Cor. iii. 6. The stock of these preachers is the letter of the law; and they are dead men, dead in soul, and dead to God; and all their ministry is a dead work, being never quickened nor made alive by the Spirit of God; having nothing but death in their souls, and the killing letter of the law in their mouths, they minister death unto death, And any soul, that is alive by faith, may feel the effects of such a ministry as soon as he enters the place where such ministers are. A dismal gloom of darkness and a cold chill seizes and spreads itself through the whole soul. The sight of the audience increases this; and the taking of the text serves as a notice for the audience to get ready, and place themselves in their usual corners, for the most sound, sweet, and refreshing sleep that they enjoy throughout the whole week, being now out of the hurry of business; and the empty and barren noise of the preacher bidding defiance to all, not only the aged and the corpu lent, but even the youths and the skeletons, to keep their eyes open while he is at work. He operates upon your spirits like opium, and will

lay you in a crisis, or transport you into the land of Nod, in spite of your best efforts. Standing up, pinching the flesh, snuff-taking, beating the head against the pillars, or pricking yourself with a pin, is of no use. Morpheus, the god of sleep, is with him, and submit you must. "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Nor is it possible for a believer in Christ to enjoy even the life, much less the lively exercise, of any one grace, under the best discourse that a minister of the letter can deliver. Let a child of God go under the ministry of the letter in the sweetest revivals of grace; let him go in the most sensible refreshings from the presence of God, or in the most humbling frame of meekness, contrition, or self-abasement; let him go under the most lively or joyful frames; or let him venture even under the sweetest enlargement, arising from fresh discoveries of the dying love of Christ, and from the strongest confidence of interest in it; yet none of these, nor even all these together, are found to be proof against a minister of the letter. The believer may carry these in, but he will lose all this good company, and never bring them. away again." Beware of the leaven of the pharisees, which is hypocrisy." At the believer's departure the dew of heaven is exhaled by the barrenness of the preacher; death and bitterness of soul are communicated by the deadness and wrath that are in the preacher; straightness and bondage brace and contract the soul from the

servile fear which the letter of the law genders. Enmity to God, and hard thoughts of him, attended with self-pity, bitterness of soul, deadness, and backwardness to all that is good, are all that a soul can get under the letter. "The letter killeth." These fill the soul with murmuring and rebellion, and though they may not be spoken to the ear, nor suggested to the mind, yet experience repeats plain enough the ancient reproof, "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen," Luke xxiv. 5, 6. And, as Christ has taken his seat on the holy hill of Zion, and dwells with the broken and contrite heart, none but the devil himself will ever entice us to seek him at Sinai, or under the ministry of the letter. Many under the impulse of the father of lies, and in vain confidence of their own strength, or excited by curiosity, have received, under one lifeless discourse, such wounds and breaches in their souls as have not been healed nor closed for many months. Here is nothing but husks. The sleepy soul gets a composing draught; the pharisaical soul, head-notions to nurse his pride; the carnally secure, stronger in insensibility; and the arrogant and presumptuous, their foreheads more hardened, and their false confidence more stiffened. All letter-men are, as Paul once was, "Alive without the law," and sin is dead.

This service of the audience is rejected of God, as well as the labourer and his labour in the

letter. God seeks true worshippers to worship him, not typical nor hypocritical ones; spiritual worshippers, not carnal ones; such as shall worship him in faith and love, not in unbelief and in the enmity of their minds; worshippers that know God for themselves; not ignorant worshippers, who worship they know not what. All lip-labour without the heart, all bodily exercise without the soul, all outer-court worship and worshippers, all formal worship without the power, all service in the oldness of the letter without the newness of the Spirit, are rejected under the gospel. As heaven itself widely differs from the letters by which that holy place is named, so widely does the spiritual law of God, when he applies it, differ from the three letters which compose the word, law. They talk of the gospel, but their soul is at Horeb; for they are all zealous of the law, and the letter of the law they take, but not the law itself. The letter is all that the Holy Ghost allows them. "Thou art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?" Rom. ii. 19, 20, 27. Now not one of these were ever chastened or taught of God out of the law; if they had they would have been under the blessing, and not in

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