"fword of a free grace Gospel, through Jefus Chrift, "So that I fimply afk you to look at the meaning of my text, "Except your righteoufness shall exceed the righteousness

of the Scribes and Pharifees, ye fhall in no cafe enter "into the kingdom of heaven."

ANSW. I do not rightly comprehend this, Sir. You fay, at one place, that the text means San&tification. 2dly, You fay your text hath a meaning, and it must be a folemn one. 3dly, To be made righteous by the Spirit internally, is the meaning of the text. And, 4thly, The Sword of a Free-grace Gospel is the meaning of it-which you go on to confirm.

QUOT. "I preached from this text not long ago before: "and I was faying to one, a worthy, good minifter, I often ❝ wondered why people are fo unobserving, not to know "the meaning of that text, "Why," fays he, "I confefs, "to my fhame, when reading it fo a little while ago, I 66 was fo grieved to think I fhould fancy that word could "mean any thing but Regeneration: "Except your righte ❝oufness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes," &c. &c.

ANSW. This, Sir, is all the explanation that you have given of the text; and it hath left me full as dark as the good minifter himself. However, I will be bold to say, that the Law is by no means, nor in any sense, established by this Difcourfe; not one truth made plain, nor one doctrine that I hold either difproved or touched. And you may call me Antinomian,

nomian, Devil, an Encourager of Sin, a Fellow, a B-kg-d, or what you pleafe; your tongue is your own, and you may depend upon it that I fhall never fue you for damages-but I declare before God, that I would not be found ftanding up in God's name, and thus darkening counfel by words without knowledge, for a million worlds.

QUOT. Why does it not ftrike you as being horrid, "that a man fhould make out a licence to commit fin?"

ANSW. Yes, Sir; this is enough to ftrike any good man with horror. And was I to ftand up congregation, as you did, and throw out fuch reproachful hints as thefe against a fervant of God, who I knew in my confcience exceeded me in experience, power, knowledge, ufefulnefs, and converfation, I should have thought that I had "made "out a licence to commit fin," with a witnefs. For in the fifth chapter of Matthew's Gofpel, this is called "breaking the commandments, and teaching "men fo." It is "hating a brother without a cause, "which is murder." And Chrift fays, the man that thus reprobates the juft is in danger of hell-fire. And I will leave you to judge who the man is that does thefe things. I have been in the miniftry almost nineteen years, and you can prove no charge of evil againft my life or doctrine; nor could you overthrow, by the Scriptures of truth, one doctrine that 1 hold,

I hold, if you was to preach or write a thousand years. Nor was I ever once fo left of God in the whole courfe of my miniftry, as to deliver fo inconfiftent a Discourse as this. If you will lay afide your prejudice, and controvert the point, I will undertake to prove to your face, that there is not one page confiftent with the oracles of God in it.

QUOT: "Don't you think that man preaches like a devil«fent minifter, that teaches men that they may break "God's commandments, that breaks God's command"ments himself, and teaches men the fame ?",

ANSW. These are the charges, but I defy him to bring one proof. This is the good man that keepeth the Law, that threatens men with profecution for a libel! Who fhall vindicate their character and doctrine, and prove a false accuser to be what he really is? This is an heavier charge than was brought against Paul; whofe accufers faid, "We have found "this man a peftilent fellow, and a mover of fedition r among all the Jews throughout the world, and a

ringleader of the fett of the Nazarenes; who alfo "hath gone about to prophane the Temple: whom "we would have judged [or profecuted for a libel] "according to our law; but Captain Lyfias took "him out of our hands." A&s, xxiv. 5, 6.But you go on

QUOT.

QUOT. "We have no ground for repentance, but under "a fenfe of our fins, and a feeling that our fins are deteft"able, damnable, and abominable.-Then a man will " repent."

ANSW. Repentance is not of the will of man, Sir; nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. Judas felt his fins deteftable and damnable, and he repented himself, and banged himself. Repentance is the grant of the Father, and the gift of the Son; and is produced, under the operations of pardoning love, by the Spirit; and it is reflecting with inward contrition on the long forbearance of God, that leads to it. Pardon must be fealed, love felt, God muft appear pacified, (Ezek. xxxvi. 31.) and the finner raised to hope, before any evangelical repentance, such as needs not to be repented of, can take place. When God appeared to Job, in order to turn his captivity, "he abhorred himself, and repented." When God "turned Ephraim, and called him his dear fon,” Ephraim repented: and when the prodigal got the kifs, the ring, and the robe, then he repented. Man is not driven to repentance by a sense of fin, but drawn to it by a fenfe of pardon. When man's mifery and God's mercy meet together on the foul; when the self-defpairing child and the loving parent meet; there is repentance indeed.

QUOT. "If God has cleanfed our hearts by his Holy "Spirit, we shall feel an abhorrence of those fins that are near to us; nay, the nearer they are to us, the more we "abhor them."

ANSW.

ANSW. What proof do you give, Sir, of this doctrine being practised by you?" Is going to Green"wich, Uxbridge, Bristol, &c. &c. telling the people "that, if ever they admitted me into their pulpit,

you would never appear there any more," doing the work of a peace-maker? or is this abhorring evil? Doth not envy, hatred, and malice, against me, lie near to you, and that without caufe? And can cafting the vilest names-such as you have cast upon me-be any proof of an inward abhorrence of evil? or can fuch a difcourfe as this be called the produce of Divine Inspiration?

QUOT. "Our Lord talks-It does not fignify, he "preached the Gofpel. I do believe he preached a great ❝ deal about holinefs-" Think not that I am come to de"ftroy the Law or the Prophets." Nobody will come to do that but the Devil."

ANSW. I cannot think that the Devil would wish to destroy the Law which God has given to men, if he had it in his power; for, had there been no Law in Paradife, Satan could not have tempted our parents to a tranfgreffion of it; for where there is no Law, there can be no tranfgreffion. He took an advantage of the Law, and tempted to a breach of it; at which breach Sin and Satan came in, and took poffeffion of the disobedient; and they have worked in the children of disobedience ever fince. It is the Law, Sir, that delivers the finner to the Judge, and b 2

the