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with Christ in the new earth, which he has promised, and which we look for, 2 Pet. iii. 13. At the close of this time will these prisoners be visited; that is, their souls will come out of prison, and be again united to their bodies, and be judged according to their works, and sent away with a "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Matt. xxv. 41. And from this prison there will be no deli

verance.

2. The next branch of the penal part of the law is bondage. "These are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar," Gal. iv. 24. Now, when God applies the law with power, this bondage is felt with a witness, and these chains of iron enter into the soul, and gall, chafe, wound, and bruise not a little: but Christ is appointed to set at liberty them that are bruised, Isai. Ixi. 1; Luke iv. 18; and he is most faithful to his appointment; for, "He bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land," Psal. lxviii. 6. To this truth David sets his seal, and triumphs sweetly. "O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds." None are ever laid in irons, or quickened to feel these bonds, but the elect of God. When Christ told the Jews that if they received the truth the truth should make them free; and if the Son made them free they should be free

indeed, they told him that they were Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any. Yea, we read of some who are so far from feeling their bondage, that they preached liberty to others, being past the feeling of their own chains; "While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption," 2 Pet. ii. 19. But that which is the most astonishing of all is their insensibility, even at the brink of hell, and just ready to be plunged into it: "I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm,” Psal. lxxiii. 3, 4. and yet," Waters of a full cup are wrung out to them," Verse 10. The bonds of these are to come, when they will be bound hand and foot, and cast into outer darkness, Matt. xxii. 13,

3. The third branch of the penal part of the law is called the spirit of bondage to fear, Rom. viii. 15. And this slavish and servile fear is always attended with torment, and terrible meditations and apprehensions of future judgment, wrath, and ruin; of which the Psalmist complains. "Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me," Psal. lv. 5. Under this Isaiah cried out, "Wo is me! for I am undone;" and poor Job complains of the same. "Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him," Job xxiii. 15. But the testimony that God bears against the wicked is far from this; for he says, there is no

fear of God before their eyes, Psal. xxxvi. 1; much less in their hearts.

4. The fourth branch of this penal part of the law is wrath. "The law worketh wrath." Of this wrath and anger do the elect complain sadly, while God is teaching them out of the law. "I am the man," says Jeremiah, "that hath seen. affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light," Lam. iii. 1, 2. "O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past," Job xiv. 13. Of this the Psalmist complains. "Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deeps. Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves," Psal. lxxxviii. 6, "For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirits: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me." And again; "For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin." We have no such outcries from the mouth of the wicked. When the wrath of God came upon Israel in the wilderness, they sinned yet the more. When the wrath of God came upon Jerusalem to the uttermost, they felt it not; but persisted in their mutiny, murders, and cruelties, until they were all destroyed. Nor are the worst apostates or hypocrites in trouble

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like the saints, nor are they plagued like them. Saul hates David to the last, seeks the honour of the elders of Israel, and mocks God with hypocritical worship to obtain it, and then goes to the witch of Endor to consult the devil. Esau comforts himself with the thoughts of killing his brother Jacob, and goes into polygamy, then to farming and hunting. Cain, as soon as he had got a sign to secure him from being murdered, went out from the church, and from the presence of God in it, without any more complaints, and goes to building. None of these feel the arrows of wrath in them as the elect of God do; nor is it let into them, nor are they quickened to feel it. They are under wrath, and heirs of it; and the wrath of God abides upon all them that believe not, yet they feel it not as the elect do, nor will they until they go hence, when they expect to have it; for, "The expectation of the wicked is wrath.'

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5. The fifth branch of the penal part of the law is its dreadful curse. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." When this dreadful sentence reached the heart of Paul sin revived, and he died. This sentence pierced his conscience; it went through all his false hopes and wretched righteousness, and left him dead. "I through the law am dead to the law." "For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me," Rom. vii. 11.

But the worst that is said of the worst of hypocrites and apostates is, "That which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned," Heb. vi. 8. But there is a material difference between a deep sense of this curse already applied, and being nigh unto cursing.

6. The sixth branch of the penal part of the law is the dreadful discovery that the law makes of sin, and the judgment of an angry God upon it. "For thou writest bitter things against me; and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth." And again; "For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head: therefore my heart faileth me," Psal. xl. 12. And again. "What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God: Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?" 1 Kings xvii. 18. God comes near to such poor souls to judgment, and appears a swift witness against them, Mal. iii. 5. Of this Job complains. "And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee?" Thus God judges us, and chastens us, that we should not be condemned with the world, 1 Cor. xi. 32. But the wicked are not thus judged, nor will they be until the great day. Hence it is said of the worst of hypocrites. "For, if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,

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