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again, "Thou shalt call me, My Father, [not, My Master] and shalt not turn away from me," Jer. iii. 19. Such are redeemed from under the law, that they may receive the adoption of sons; and, because they are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father. "Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son; and, if a son, then an heir of God through Christ," Gal. iv. 7. Thus the son is no more a servant: He shall call me, My Father, says God. A free son he is, and an heir of God: and you may entangle him with the legal yoke of bondage again, if you can, but he never shall be a bond servant; for as soon as God's free Spirit operates on him, your yoke, as well as Samson's cords, will fly like tow; he will leap like a hart; and be more like a hind let loose, than a fool in the correction of the stocks, or a criminal in the cords of his sins.

'Men that blend together and confound the 'permissive and preceptive will of God, throw all 'sin, if they pursue the principle, from themselves upon God.'

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If men blend or confound the sufferance of God, in suffering the entry and reign of sin, with his law of commandments, they throw all sin from themselves upon God. That God suffered the entrance of sin is clear, because sin did enter, and death by sin; and the law was added because of transgression, that sin, by the law, might become exceeding sinful; that the reprobate might see his

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just doom beforehand, and the elect their need of a Saviour. But, though God suffered sin to lie at man's door, that is no excuse for him who opened the door, and let it in, when he was expressly commanded, by the will of precept, to shut it out; no more an excuse for man, than God's promise of safety to all who sailed in Paul's ship was an encouragement for some of them to fly out when he suffered a storm to wreck the vessel. Neither he who let sin into the world, nor those who, under colour, would have fled out of the ship, could charge God with their folly, or throw their sins upon him: they were both actuated by the freedom of their own will, though the mariners were compelled to abide, and Adam suffered to go on. Adam had God's preceptive will before him, before his permissive will, as you call it, suffered the entrance of sin; and every fleshly child of free-will has got the same before his eyes, that he may not throw the sin upon God, who by commandment forbids it; but take it to himself, who willingly commits it.

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'A very popular writer and preacher of this stamp, in order to prove that the moral law is not 'the only rule of life, if it be any at all, asks, with

an air of confidence, if our Lord would ever have 'said to Peter, had the moral law been intended as 'the only rule of life, before the cock crow twice, 'thou shalt, putting the word shalt in capitals, deny me thrice?'

I do not know who this popular writer and

preacher is of whom you speak; but, certain it is, that Peter was delivered from the yoke of the law, and the curse of it too, for the Saviour had pronounced him blessed before he fell. Had he been a child of the flesh, and under the law, he would have been without hope, and without help; and, consequently, would have risen no more; for, "Wo to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up." But, as he was delivered from the law, and the curse of it, and was in union, communion, and fellowship, with the Son of God, when Peter fell, the Saviour lift up his fellow. The devil was too much for Peter; but two shall withstand him: he cannot pluck the elect out of the Saviour's hand, nor out of the Father's hand; nor shall the Spirit of God ever be taken from them, and the threefold love of God is a cord that is not quickly broken, Eccles. iv. 12.

It is clear that our Lord never sent any of his elect to the law; nor did he call it their rule of life; nor did he ever say any thing to encourage self; the proud doer he always sent to the law; the humble supplicant and the serious inquirer were always pointed to faith; their usefulness and fruitfulness were to depend on their union with him, and abiding in him; and, as for Self, We, or Shall we, its impotence was often set forth, and its aid for ever rejected. "Without me you can do nothing." "He that will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow

me." But this doctrine was not enough for Peter; he must make an application of it in the fiery trial;

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Though all men be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended." "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." Peter stuck to Self, and the Lord withdrew his arm. I will, was Peter's bulwark; which, in the devil's sieve, was only chaff. Peter would not deny Self; nor would self own the Lord, although Peter had been blessed by the Saviour, as is clear: “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven." Which blessing must unavoidably have brought Peter from under the curse of the old covenant. Yet, it appears to me that there was in Peter a cleaving to the law, as his rule of life, by the self-confidence that he boasted of, "Though all be offended, I will never be offended:" for, as Paul says, "Where is boasting, then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith." So that Peter's confidence sprang from his legal adherence to the law; and his boasting of more steadfastness than the rest of the disciples must come by that covenant, for it doth not exclude boasting; it could never spring from the doctrine, nor from the Spirit, of the Gospel; both are averse to this; as it is written," Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice." And your rule, Sir, would do no more for you than it did for Peter, if you were to be tried as he was. That king walks boldly

against whom there is no rising up.

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'As though Peter had been yielding as much obedience in cursing, and swearing, and denying 'his Lord, as ever he did when performing an act ' of obedience to any precept of the moral law. And, if so, his tears must either have been 'crocodile ones, or very criminal ones, when he went out, as he presently did, and wept bitterly. And yet, these are the men whom many are 'ready to cry up as the only preachers of the pure 'gospel!'

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The Saviour did not speak to Peter here as a lawgiver, nor was he enforcing the law; but spoke as a King and Sovereign, being jealous of his own power and glory; which he will never give to another, by admitting a copartner; the Scriptures having, before Peter's fall, pronounced a curse on him that maketh flesh his arm; and branded him with the name of a fool that trusts in his own heart; together with a number of curses to them who continue not in all things written in the book of the law, to do them. That which follows, I find, is your own inference.

'As if Peter had been yielding as much obe'dience in cursing, and swearing, and denying his 'Lord, as ever he did when performing an act of obedience to the moral law.'

All the obedience that ever Peter performed in a state of nature, was, I believe, little worth; for he ranks himself among the revellers, banqueters, and abominable idolaters. It appears, by his resolutions, that he was going at that time to perform

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