THE

MORAL LAW

NOT INJURED BY THE

EVERLASTING GOSPEL.

MATTHEW v. 17, 18, 19, 20.

THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS: I AM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE TITTLE SIFALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, TILL ALL BE FULFILLED,

WHOSOEVER THEREFORE SHALL BREAK ONE OF THESE LEAST COMMANDMENTS, AND SHALL TEACH MEN SQ, HE SHALL BE CALLED THE LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: BUT WHOSOEVER SHALL DO, AND TEACH THEM, THE SAME SHALL BE CALLED GREAT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

FOR I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT EXCEPT YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL EXCEED THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, YE SHALL IN NO CASE ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

HIS text has been no lefs than three times

THI

handled, or rather mangled, to knock your humble Servant about the head, by a certain Minifter of the Gospel.

When I was difmiffed from Greenwich Tabernacle, (which was done through the inftrumentality of the

above gentleman, and other holy men, who refufed to occupy a pulpit defiled by an Elect Sinner) I went and opened a place at Deptford. The good man, previous to this, gave the people a timely warning, telling them to "Go, and read the fifth chapter of "Matthew's Gofpel, before they came to hear me. "What, had nobody any brains till he came !" &c. Soon after my opening the place at Deptford, I went. to give them a lecture on a Wednesday evening: and fome of my friends were informed that the fame perfon intended to oppofe me and my doctrine in an adjacent meeting-house the fame night; which was accordingly done, and the oppofition to my doctrine was drawn from the last verse of my text. And fince that, the fame text has been handled at ́ Hammersmith; fo that, upon the whole, Antinomianifm-as the Gofpel is called-has received a deadly blow: therefore, it is needful that we examine the text, and fee what it fays against us and our doctrine, and fo let my Antinomianifm appear in public print.

In the beginning of this chapter, the Saviour afcends a certain mountain, and his difciples follow him; and, when he was feated, he opened his mouth and taught them. This was done in allufion to the two mountains, Ebal and Gerizim. Six tribes. of Ifrael were to ftand on Mount Ebal, to curfe; and fix on Mount Gerizim, to blefs, Deut, xxvii. 12. And when they had fo done, the bleffing was to be

put

put on Mount Gerizim, and the curfe upon Mount Ebal, Deut. xi. 29. Thefe two mountains were to reprefent Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. For Ebal, fignifying a collection of old age, or a mass that dif perfes, fitly reprefents the bond-children, who are in the flesh, collected together, and standing fast in the old Adam, under the yoke of Mofes; which, at lást, will be all difperfed, and carried away as with a flood. While Gerizim fignifies piercers, or cutters, and fitly represents the Elect in union with the Saviour, in whose strength they speak like the piercings of a sword, and who are the Lord's wood-cutters, his battle-axe, and weapons of war, Jer. li. 20. And fo, in the fpiritual fignification, here are the firft Adam and his family, and the second Adam and his family; or the children of the flesh, and the children of God; or, in other words, the bond-woman, and the free-woman. Hagar is, in the figure, Mount Sinai in Arabia, and anfwers to Jerufalem which is, and is in bondage with her children: but the heavenly Jerufalem is free, and is the mother of us all. Paul fixes the curfe on Mount Sinai-As many as are of the works of the Law are under the CURSE. And David fixes the bleffing on Mount ZionUpon Mount Zion bath God commanded the BLESSING, even life for evermore. In allufion to Gerizim, the Saviour afcends this mount; and, having got his little church with him, which he had just founded, and which church is to stand to the world's end, he

opens his mouth, and pronounces the bleflings of the everlasting Gofpel upon them: and, to let us know that his little church was Mount Zion, he calls it a city fet on a bill that cannot be bid; which city is Zion, the city of the Great King; and which bill is God's Holy Hill of Zion. The city, the bill, and the church, are one and the fame thing; and upon that mount Chrift executes his Father's command: he pronounces the bleffing; and fo he was commanded to do. For upon Mount Zion God commanded the bleffing, and fet his King upon that holy hill, to bestow it. Mount Calvary was to communicate all the bleffings of dying Love to Mount Zion, and pregnant Zion was to fpread her little hills on every fide; while the mountains should bring peace to the people, and the little hills by righteousness. "There "fhall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the "top of the mountains: the fruit thereof shall "fhake like Lebanon," Pfalm lxxii. 16. Here is the first fulfilment of that prophecy; here is Chrift, the first bandful of corn, the first-fruits; and here is his little church, "the firft-fruits of his creatures.' And as the cedars of Lebanon, when fhaken with the wind, fcatter their cones, and spread their feed→→→ by which means thousands of young plants fpring up, under the bleffing of Providence, without human labour-fo this handful of corn, and the fruits of it, being fhaken from the Mofaic difpenfation, ard fcattered by perfecution, have, under the ftrong

gales

gales of the Holy Ghoft, fpread the word of eternal" life throughout the world, while numerous young plants of righteousness have sprung up, the righthand planting of God, that he may be glorified.

But

The Saviour carefully describes the cafe and inward ftate of thofe gracious fouls upon whom his bleffings are pronounced--no random arrows are discharged from his bow, nor is any uncertain. artillery taken from his quiver, nor difcharged by his valiant men of Ifrael; for though they fight, they never beat the air. He firft difcovers the cafe, and then pours in the oil,

Bleffed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. True fpiritual poverty stands in a perfon's being made fenfible, under the convincing and convicting operations of the Holy Spirit of Power, that he is deftitute of all true riches: he has no righteousness to appear in before God; but is miferable and entirely naked, expofed to wrath, to. shame, and everlasting contempt, unless Divine clemency interfere.

"He owes five hundred pence, and has nothing "to pay with." He owes obedience to the Law; but has neither a heart to it, nor ability for it. He feels the arrow of fpiritual famine; he is in want, husks he cannot now fill his belly with, and the bread of life is not as yet broken to him; he feels his need of it, and hears of it, which fharpens his appetite

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