* for a libel.” If every minifter of the Gospel, who vindicates his life and doctrine against fcandal, who preaches against errors, and who writes against falfe doctrines, or falle evidences, is to be fued at law for libels, we fhould foon caufe the Holy One of Ifrael to ceafe from before us, Ifai. xxx. 11. Peter might have profecuted Paul for this; for he withftood him to the face: and, indeed, the Scriptures are full of fuch libels; and who can efcape them, and be faithful? "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law?" Cor. vi, 1. Indeed, Mofes fays-" An eye for an eye, and tooth "for tooth:" but I have not injured you at all. Sure I am, that the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gospel gives no licence for fuch a practice. It tells me to give my cloak to him that fues for my coat; but you fhall most furely have both my cloak and coat, without fuing at law, if you fend for them.

But I trust, Reverend Sir, that your weapons are not carnal, (2 Cor. x. 4.) and that the fword of the Spirit is fufficient for you in all matters of controverly. Flying to the temporal fword, in fuch cafes, is making the Law the only Rule of Life with a witnefs. But I am perfuaded better things of you, Sir, though you may have thus fpoken; for I cannot believe that a man of fuch holiness, who refufes even to occupy a pulpit defiled by me, would ever act like the Jewish Pharifees, "who provoked the

"Saviour

"Saviour to speak many things, that they might "catch fomething out of his mouth, in order to "betray him into the hands of the governor.' That be far from my brother Rowland, and from every other fellow-labourer in the kingdom and patience of Chrift.

you

We are to do as we would be done by. If I have deviated from this rule in my conduct towards you, Reverend Sir, convince me of it; " and if you have "acted agreeably to this rule yourself," you will be no more offended at my addreffing my Sermon to for your perufal, than I was at your levelling your Sermon against me, to represent me as giving licence to fin. For my part, I am willing to come up to my brother Rowland's ftandard in every good work: if we differ, it fhall only be about words, or about which shall be the greatest; and, if we must strive for mastery, I hope that he, and only he, will be crowned, who frives lawfully. I have this comfort, however, that if all the courts of law in Great Britain were to be moved againft me, they would never drive a worse trade with me than Mofes did: he took both body and goods; he ftripped me, not only of my coat, but of every other covering that I had; he took my cloak-of hypocrify-and my bed from under me; and, at last, took my life alfo. For, as Paul fays, When the commandment came, fin revived, and I died; and at length he left me poor, and

wretched,

1

wretched, and miferable, and blind, and naked; and, though I gained my point in the end, yet this was all that I got by Law.

I fhall now beg leave to make a few Remarks on the Difcourfe that you levelled at my doctrine, and fhew you wherein we differ, and submit them to your judgment. This, I truft, can give no offence: for the Spirit of the prophets is fubject to the prophets; and thofe that are inftructed in the Word, are to communicate to him that teacheth in all good things. Your text is-Except your righteousness fball exceed the righteoufnefs of the Scribes and Pharifees, ye shall in no cafe enter into the kingdom of beaven, Matt. v. 20. What you have faid upon the text, may be put into a very finall compafs, and be answered with a very few words.

QUOT. "Now I dare venture to fay, that fome of you "expect, from this text, that I fhould give you the follow"ing interpretation of it: That fince the Scribes and "Pharifees made a great buftle about righteousness, that "the righteoufnefs here meant is the righteousness of "Chrift. But that is not the meaning of this text. Are r you alarmed at it? No; the text don't relate to Juftifi"cation, but to Sanctification."

ANSW. I think my brother Rowland is intirely wrong here; and that he does contradict the Saviour himself, who, in this text, fhews the need of what he had faid before. The Lord had, in a preceding

verse,

verfe, bleffed them that did hunger and thirst after righteousness, and faid they should be filled: and then goes on to tell them, that he came to fulfil the Law. Which fulfilling obedience of his was to fill them that hungred and thirfted after righteousness. And without this excellent obedience of his being imputed to them, (which exceeds all the obedience of the Scribes and Pharifees) they could in no fenfe be filled, nor in any cafe enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is righteoufnefs, Sir, that gives us a right and title to the kingdom; and it is fantification that gives us a mectnefs for it. Righteousness, and not Sanctification, is what the text means.

QUOT. "There is a meaning in thefe words, and it must "be a folemn one: Except your righteousness exceed the "righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees, je shall in no "cafe enter into the kingdom of heaven. And now I will be "bold to fay, that the righteousness of Chrift, here mentioned, "is this that when the Pharifees thought they should be

juftified by an external righteousness of their own per "formance, our Lord gives them to understand, that a

man will never enter into the kingdom of heaven, that "does not talk of being juftified by it. But he will never go to heaven, he will never be in a kingdom of grace in "time, he will never be in glory to eternity; unless in his "perfonal state, through the operation of the Holy Spirit, "he is made more righteous than a Scribe or a Pharifee, "inwardly, and experimentally, and internally. That is "the meaning of my text.",

ANSW.

ANSW. I must confefs, reverend and dear Sir, that I do not understand this. You here call it the righteoufnefs of Chrift mentioned. Before, you said, that it was not Chrift's righteousness meant in the text, &c. It is Juftification that brings a man into a state of grace, and it is the fame that gives a man a title to heaven: The righteous nation, that keepeth the truth, fhall enter in.-Whom God juftifies, them be glorifies. This act of justifying includes fanctification, both by the blood of Chrift and by the Spirit of God, for it is always accompanied with it. It is the Spirit that works faith in the heart to believe; it is the Spirit that applies the atonement; it is the Spirit that takes the righteousness of Chrift, and fhews it to us, and reveals it in us, and bears his foul-fatisfying witness to the glorious work: "We "are justified in the name of the Lord Jefus, and by the Spirit of our God." The righteousness of Faith, and the teftimony of the Spirit, always go together; "He that believes bath the witness in bimfelf."

QUOT. "I am speaking of Mr. Hart's Hymns: and, "was he to rife out of the grave, and his dear elect foul again to be embodied, I am fure, at this present day, "those things that many people of lax and wanton difpo"fitions are likely to fall into, he would draw forth such

a fword, and brandifh it in fuch a manner, as would "give you to understand there is no sword so well calculated to cut down fin to the very ground, as the glorious

"sword