word of God, and it will appear as far from truth as it is from common sense. "Plow up the fallow ground of your hearts," says God, "and sow not among thorns." Fallow ground is plowed three or four times over; and the plough is to go deep enough to root up legality; hypocrisy; self-righteousness; infidelity; and the love of money, the root of all evil. These thorns are all to be turned up. We are not to sow among thorns; and it must be deep plowing to root up all these. The way-side, the stony ground, and the thorny ground, were all sharers in this shallow plowing; and, for a time, the corn seemed to grow well: but it all withered away, and all for want of the plough going sufficiently deep. Christ says, "Forthwith they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away."

Our Timothy's shallow plowing, which is to settle his Christian, is here declared by the Saviour to be the first means of the apostacy and final damnation of hypocrites. I have heard a person, raving mad, running over the scriptures, who has spoken more truth, and better sense, than the Author of this Looking-glass. Not that I believe such doctrine as this will be of no use; it will undoubtedly separate the vile from the precious. This glass, or fan, will collect the chaff from every barn-floor in the neighbourhood: for I should think, there is not an arch, not an accomplished,

not a profound, nor a restless hypocrite, in all the metropolis, but will fly for refuge to, and take sanctuary under, the prolific and expanded wings of Timothy Priestley; where they may be sure of shallow plowing, slight healing, no legal convictions, but all bolsters, pillows, plaisters, smooth things, and pleasing songs, even to the end of the chapter!

Quot. While the soul is looking to the law for salvation, there is a necessity the law should be set home. Paul was looking for salvation by it, therefore it was applied with power.

Answ. All men are born under the law; all are, by nature, the children of wrath; all have the veil upon their hearts; and, by nature, no man knows of any way of salvation but by the works of the law. The way of salvation by grace is a way that is hid from the eyes of all living, till God appears, whose prerogative it is to make known the path of life. Now as salvation by works is the only way that is seen by the light of nature, and as this is the way that seemeth right unto a man, though the end thereof be the ways of death, it is a mystery to me, how our Timothy's Christian, who is veiled with darkness and ignorance, should come by so much more knowledge, discernment, and wisdom, than Paul had in his natural state: for thus it follows

Quot. Paul was looking for salvation by the law; therefore it was applied with power: but

many who are trained up under the gospel did never expect salvation by it.

Answ. There never was a man in the world, let him be trained up how, or under what he might, that never expected salvation by the law. Let a carnal sinner be trained up under the gospel, all that he can attain to is a little speculative knowledge, and perhaps he may learn to prate a little; but still he is under the law, and holds his notions of truth in an unjustified, unrighteous state; and in all his unrighteousnesses, both original and actual. And if such an one stands in no need of a law-work, and is vain enough to think that the law will never bring him to a reckoning; sure I am that the law reveals its most dreadful contents against such an one; "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness," Rom. i. 18. This, Timothy, is making void, and setting aside, the lawful use of the law; and is rank Antinomianism, and the effect of a bad spirit.

Quot. Nothing is more common than for those who have had great terror by the law, to look on none to be Christians, but those who have gone through the same terrors themselves have experienced.

Answ. The sinner will never see, nor feel, his sin, till the law comes home to his heart; " By the law is the knowledge of sin." Nor will he ever see the way of salvation from sin, unless he has

some brighter light than this Looking-glass affords. God declares, the terrors of the law shall find the sly sinner out. He shall know the severity, as well as the goodness, of the Lord. To the law he must go, as well as to the testimony of the Lord. The saint who dwells on high; whose place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; whose eyes shall see the King in his beauty, and the land that is very far off; even his heart shall meditate terror! Then where is this scribe got?

Quot. Though frequently such are seeing more and more into their own emptiness, and also into the fulness which is in Christ; a sure sign of growing.

Answ. One would think that a man whose knees are weak through fasting, and whose flesh failed of fatness, could never call looking through the window of a cook's shop, a sure sign of his growing fat. These views would have sunk David in despair, if it had not been for faith: "I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." Sinners, in the great day, will see enough of their own emptiness, and of the fulness of glory in the Saviour; which will be no sign to them of growing, unless it is growing desperate. The Apostles tell us, that it is receiving out of Christ's fulness, and grace for grace, that is a sure sign of growing in grace. Quot. It is a pleasing circumstance to meet with a person thirsting after greater attainments: and as carnal security and insensibility are the com

mon badge of the hypocrite, such complaints as these are never made by them.

Answ. All hypocrites are thirsting after great attainments of some sort or other. Simon Magus thirsted for the gift of the Holy Ghost; Judas to be purse-bearer to the King of kings; Saul to be deemed a favourite of God, and for Samuel to honour him before the people as such; Jehu to be a zealot for the Lord, and a reformer of religion; and our Timothy thirsts to be deemed a standard of truth, a touchstone for sincerity, a Lookingglass for the Christian, and a guide to the timorous. But notwithstanding all their thirsting, the former were only promoted to shame; and the latter is left to betray his ignorance, and to discover his own nakedness. Nor are carnal security and insensibility the badge of every hypocrite. Some are given up to desperation; some to a fearful looking for of judgment; and others to violent persecution of the just, as Saul was. Nor are complaints peculiar to the saints; for there are more complaints among the hypocrites in hell, than there are among the saints in the church.

Quot. When the Spirit of God convinces the soul of sin, he never stops there, but goes on to convince of righteousness and judgment.

Answ. If the Spirit convinces of sin, one would think he must shew the sinner the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And if he convinces him of righteousness, he must make him see and feel the scantiness of his own obedi