life, when it only promised life in the land of Canaan. They sought righteousness by the works of it, and never attained to it; but stumbled at the Rock of ages. They called themselves Moses' disciples, who accuses them to the Father for rejecting the prophet he foretold should come; threatening them with destruction if they refused to obey his voice: hence, being dead, he yet speaketh in his testimony against them; but they clave to their accuser, and cursed and killed the only Advocate, who shewed himself to their fathers behind the skirt of Moses, and whose glorious gospel lay couched under his killing letter. This was the delusion of poor Paul; he thought the law was ordained to life; but, when the commandment came, he found it to be unto death. And thus their table, of the law, became a snare unto them, and that which should have been for their welfare, properly viewed, became a trap; the way that seemed right unto them became, in the end, the ways of death; for the way of God is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. The wise and learned scribe, and the self-righteous pharisee, who thought themselves, and no others, at the portals of heaven, were displaced by the publicans and harlots; and they themselves were left to add sin to sin, by not entering heaven themselves, and by hindering others who were going; and thus became the deceivers of the sons of men, the murderers of the

Son of God, and the awful heirs of the greater damnation.

And the church of God at the present day swarms with such as these; who have no holiness but a sheep's skin, an outward shew in the flesh, a voluntary humility, natural meekness, and the art of moving the passions of poor sinners, in order to counterfeit the operations of the Holy Ghost. And thus they who sit under them are deceived by the art of oratory, by having their feelings affected, their blood moved, and their natural and corrupt affections stirred up by an audible voice, a hollow speech, a whining heart, and crocodile tears; when such are conscious to themselves that they are destitute of grace, and in a state of enmity to God; that they aim at nothing but a livelihood, and that the work of the pulpit is the hardest labour they grapple through. Being destitute of the well of living water, the whole of their matter is pressed from their library, committed to a treacherous memory, and brought forth as empty husks from the external surface of the letter, without any light into the matter, or life in the means, unctuous experience of it, or faith in it: it is the work of a blind watchman, who speaks a vision out of his own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord; having seen nothing, and known nothing, but what he knows naturally.

Secondly. This vail was to shew the Israelites

that Christ, the light of God's Israel, and the coeternal beam with God the Father, was then shining in the face of Moses, to lead their minds to the sinner's only and everlasting friend; and that after that glory and that divine ray they should seek, however it might be vailed or wrapped up; whether by the law then given, or the cloud that went before the camp, or by the napkin that was before Moses' face, or by the vail which parted the holy place from the sanctum sanctorum, or by the lid of the ark; all these being types of the humanity of Christ. The way into the holy of holies is now consecrated through the vail of his flesh, and within that vail dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily; and through which vail, on mount Tabor, in the sight of Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, and John, the light shone, to the astonishment of every witness: which vision was to be published to the world after his resurrection from the dead; and for the which testimony I have obtained the name of a liar, a deceiver, an antinomian, a dangerous man, a disturber of the churches, a sower of discord, and a smiter of my fellow-servants. But my work is with my God; nor do I call one preacher in five hundred my fellow-servant in the kingdom and patience of Christ, unless acquainted with the power of Christ, in which his kingdom stands; with that righteousness, peace, and joy, of which it consists; and of the patience of Christ, which is a grace of his, exercised towards him, in his cause, and in the

defence of his truth. All other patience, however tried or exercised, is nothing but a being buffeted for their faults, and reproved for running unsent of God; for vitiating the minds of the people against the truth, for misleading the blind, and for corrupting the covenant of life and peace, which was with Levi. However, all who are real labourers in the Lord's vineyard; all that preach Christ crucified in sincerity and truth; such preachers, and only such, have my best wishes and hearty prayers. But I have no call to sound my own trumpet; God will bring this forth at the great day, when every heart will be open, every desire known, and every real petition in faith fully answered.

Secondly. This vail was to lead Israel to the incarnation of Christ, or to the long predicted and promised seed, in human nature, as hath been already hinted. Moses, with this vail on his face, was to point them to the glorious mediator Christ Jesus, and to the fulness of grace and truth that was to shine forth in him; as they have recorded who saw his glory and spake of him. And this was shewn with a witness when they pierced his side on the cross; at which instant the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, as a proof that the shadow was then vanished, and that the real substance was then come; that he who dwelt between the cherubims was gone out through the vail; that he had quitted his holy habitation, broke up housekeeping, and

left his house desolate; Christ now becoming the true tabernacle which God pitched and not man, called by the prophet Ezekiel a sanctuary." And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." Into which all the elect are to be gathered, in the unity of the faith, as to their Covenant Head and God of all grace and providence, who is to shelter all fowls of every wing.

But, thirdly, This vail was to convince Israel of their native guilt, enmity, and blindness of mind. Of their guilt, they could not see the light. Of enmity, they could not endure that which was spoken. Of blindness, they could not see to the end of that which is abolished. Hence to this day, when the old testament is read without the light of Christ, the vail of the law is all that is seen; and there is another vail upon their hearts, which is called a covering cast over all nations. The god of this world still blinds the minds of them which believe not, lest the glorious light of the gospel should shine unto them, and they should be saved. And which covering can only be destroyed by the anointing, that is, by the eyesalve, or unction of the Holy Ghost, who teacheth us all things, and is no lie; and by turning the heart to the Lord Jesus: when this is done, the vail shall be taken away; that is, when the heart of the sinner shall be turned to the Lord; then he shall see Moses' borrowed rays in Christ Jesus;