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fbedding of Blood there is no Remiffion of Sins, Heb. ix. 22. Therefore God gave Chrift for a Covenant of Peace to the People, Ija. xlii.7. To be a bloody Sacrifice, to expiate and take away the Guilt of Sin out of the Hearts of his Chofen. For he gave his Life a Ranfom for many," Matt. xx. 28. That they might ferve God (by a free-will Offering) without (flavish) Fear in Righteousness all the Days of their Life, Luke i. 75. For the Promife to the Church is, that they fhall know (Chrift) the Truth, and the Truth fhall make them free: " For if the Son fhall make you free, ye fhall be free indeed," John viii. 32, 36. "For Chrift is the End of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth," Rom. x. 4. Chrift and the Believer are one, as the Hufband and Wife are one. My Beloved is mine, and I am his," Cant. ii. 16. Therefore, true Believ ers are become dead to the Law, by the Body of Christ for Chrift in his Body fulfilled all the Demands of the Law for us and in our ftead, and also went to Calvary's Crofs and offered up his holy Body on the Tree, and was made a Curfe for us for it is written, Curfed is every one that hangeth on a Tree, Gal. iii. 13. There he was bruised for our Iniquities, even for our tranfgreffing his Father's holy Law. "The Chaftisement of our Peace was upon him, and by his Wounds and Stripes we are healed," Ifa. liii. 5. "And every, believing Soul must look on him whom he hath pierced by his Sins, and mourn for him, as one mourneth in the bitterness of his Soul for his only Son, or firstborn," Zech. xii. 10. What Soul, when made fenfible that Chrift the flaughtered Lamb fhed his innocent Heart's Blood to fave him from the Sea of God's Wrath, the everlasting Burning, can help mourning with Rivers of Tears for his Soul's Beloved one? I cannot forget the Mixture of Joy

and

and Grief I experienced when firft I ey'd my bleeding God dying on the Crofs for me, and the Holy Ghost applying his precious Blood to my wounded Soul, to heal and cleanfe me from all Sin, 1 John i. 7. "Thus having made Peace by the Blood. of his Crofs, and reconciled us to God, in the suffering Body of his Flefh, through Death, he does present all his mourning Children (being thus made willing in the Day of his Power) holy, unblameable and unreproveable in his Sight," Col. i. 20, 22. Thus do the People of God mourn in Sion, viz. in the Church, when they are truly called into the Covenant of Grace, not only for their own Sins, but also for the Sins of others: And God takes Notice of them, and fends the bleffed Man, that wonderful Meffenger, clothed in fine Linen, with the Writer's Ink-horn by his Side, to fet a Mark upon the Foreheads of thofe Mourners that figh and cry, Ezek. ix. 4. Thus are they fealed with the Holy Spirit of Promife (which applies the Blood that iffued out of the Side (the mysterious Ink-horn) of the Son of God) even to the Day of Redemption, Eph. iv. 30. Now the Believer's Obligation to the Law, as a Covenant of Works, is cancell'd; his Security lies in the new Covenant made with Chrift, and his Perfeverance is certain, being kept by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation, 1 Peter i. 5. For the Believer is not bis own, but is bought with a Price, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. And bath no Confidence in the Flesh, Phil. iii. 3. But bis Sufficiency is of God, 2 Cor. iii. 5. And is brought into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God, Rom. viii. 21. And freed from the Dominion of Sin: and no marvel, when Chrift is King, for he is the King of Saints, as well as the Friend and Advocate for poor penitent Sinners. "Sin fhall not reign in the Saints (in Believers') mortal Bodies; for they

are

are not under the Law, but under Grace and therefore Sin fhail not have Dominion over them. What then? fhall we fin because we are not under the Law (not under it's condemnatory Power or Curfe) but under Grace? God forbid," Rom. vi. 14, 15. "Thus are Believers become dead to the Law by the Body of Chrift, and are married to another, even to him who is raised from the Dead, that they may bring forth Fruit unto God," Rom. vii. 4. For God works in his Bride (in Believers) both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure, Phil. 2. 13.

Now I beseech you my dear Neighbours, to give me Leave to ask you one Queftion, viz. Whether you are really married to Jefus Chrift, or to the Works of the Law? furely, you must know who you love, and on whom you rely! If you are wedded to the Law, i. e. if you depend on the Law for Salvation, you are wedded to the Curfe: For curfed is every one that continueth not in all Things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them, Gal. iii. 10. If you have not from your Heart been efpoufed to one Hufband (Chrift), and prefented to him as chafte Virgins, loving him above all, 2 Cor. xi. 2. you cannot bring forth Fruit unto God. Chafte Virgins do not wed two Hufbands! do not expect to be faved by Works and by Grace; "for it we are faved by Works, then it is no more of Grace: otherwife, if it be by Grace, then it is no more by Works," Rom. xi. 6. Now if Mofes Vail is not taken off your Hearts, if you like Slaves are ftriving to keep the Commandments, as a Condition of Life, and truft partly in your own good Works, and partly on the Merits of Chrift, you are become Adulteresses : here you come with your old Garment of Selfrighteousness to compleat what is deficient in it

out

out of Chrift's new Cloth (his new Covenantrighteoufnefs), but that Cloth he will take away, and make the Rent worfe (he'll put you to fhame), Mat. ix. 16. Yet, this is generally the Way we are taught by unconverted Teachers, but Saint Paul inftructs us otherwife: "For the Woman is bound to the Law of her Husband fo long as he liveth, but if her Hufband be dead, fhe is loofed from the Law of her Hufband, and might be married to another Man, without being called an Adulterefs," Rom. vii. 2, 3. We all by Nature wed the Law, and very few out-live it, to fee by Faith it's Burial in the Body of Christ. Some in deed are feverely whipped, and grievously chaftifed by the Law; which, as already obferved, is our School-master, to bring us unto Chrift; but when Faith comes, we are no longer under a Schoolmafter, being dead to our former Hufband, and become the Children of God by Faith in Chrift Jefus, Gal. iii. 23, 24, 25, 26. Now as every pious Woman according to Reafon) would be well off at the Death of a very wicked, inexorable Husband, whom the in her Childhood through Ignorance unfortunately married; efpecially if the be fo fortunate afterwards as to be wedded to a virtuous. Man: fo fhould we be well off if Christ would kill in us the Body of Sin, by Faith in his Blood; and free us from the tyrannizing Power of the Law, which on every Tranfgreffion like a bad Husband on the least Offence) doth fcourge us, and threaten us with eternal Damnation. There is no Peace until we be buried with Christ in Baptifm, through the Power of the Holy Ghoft (or breathing Winds), and he through his prophetic, prieftly and kingly Office brings us to himself, and fubdues Sin in us, then we become dead to the condemning Power of the Law, and expect Deliverance by Faith in the Merits

E

as

Merits of the Death of Chrift, which is rendered effectual by the Operation of the Holy Spirit convincing and alluring our Souls, like the Bride whom he brings up out of the Wilderness of Sin and Unbelief, leaning on her new Beloved. I fay, until thofe Things are done in us and for us, we cannot fay we have put off or buried the old Man, our former vexatious Hufband, and have put on Christ (who alone is refponfible to the Law for his Bride), and by receiving his divine Nature are created a-new after the Image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness, Eph. iv. 22, 24. Rendered by Grace upright in Heart and fincere, we become free from the Power of the Law, being thus married to Christ, as a Woman is from conjugal Duties to her buried Hufband. Has the Spirit of Christ, my Friends, revealed unto you, that by his priestly Office he has made a full Atonement and Satisfaction to God for all your Sins, by offering up his holy Body as a Free-will Offering for your Souls ? And was it ever applied to your Hearts? Did you ever find his atoning Blood, the fovereign Balm, an efficacious. Remedy to your afflicted Souls, your wounded Confciences, which the Word of God by his Spirit, as a Heart-fearching Prophet, had a little before fmitten like a two-edged Sword, "dividing affunder of Soul and Spirit, Joints and Marrow?" Heb. iv. 12. For this balmy Blood of Jefus Christ, applied by Faith, will cleanfe us from all Sin, 1 John i. 7. And does he as a King daily fubdue the Remainder of your Corruptions, fo that as the outward Man grows weaker and weaker, the inward Man grows ftronger and stronger? 2. Cor. iv. 16. Many would be Chriftians, but do not care to go through the Operation. If you are thus juftified and fanctified, then you are leffed, for you fhall walk in the Light, of his reconciled Heart-cheering

Countenance,