ness of eternal life and happiness, but had to continue under the displeasure and wrath of God, save as they believed in the promised Redeemer.

But in the fulness of time, Christ Jesus appeared, who is the end of the law, having fulfilled it in that he has satisfied its demands, and became the Author of a new and better covenant of perfect liberty; the true and shining light, which was prefigured by those dark shadows of the law; who came as sent from God, having full power in heaven and on earth, and is the same that hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.

Moreover, He hath established a new covenant or testament with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; to which covenant he hath invited all the Gentile nations of the earth, who were before afar off and enemies, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise. To whom, through grace, a door is opened, and a road prepared through the Gospel, by the obedience to which, they all may become fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God. And this is the word of reconciliation, by which God worketh, by the influence of the divine Spirit, faith and regeneration, with all the attendant good fruits of the Spirit wrought in the hearts of the sons of men. In which word of the new covenant or testament, is

published and offered to us, consummate grace, peace, absolution from sin, and life everlasting; with all things that pertain unto life and godliness: yea, all the counsel of God. According to this copy, all the children of the new covenant must order and direct their whole life and conversation, by adhering to its precepts, and by obeying its commands and injunctions, inasmuch as it is the word whereby the righteous Judge will judge the world, and pass an irreversible sentence at the last day. And this testament is of so much the more worth and honour than the old, as it was delivered by a more glorious Ambassador, and ratified and sealed with more precious blood, even the blood of Christ, as of a Lainb without blemish and without spot; and also as it is an everlasting covenant which will continue to the end of the world.

And as it is unlawful, though it be but a man's covenant or testament, if it be confirmed, to disannul or add thereto, so, much more will it be unlawful to disannul or add to the everlasting covenant, which was ratified and sealed with that precious blood of Christ Jesus. It is therefore the unbounded duty of every Christian not to handle the word of God deceitfully, or to construe it so as to suit his own opinion, but to bow submissively under the obedience of Christ and the teaching of the divine Spirit, and thus to be guided and led to the true import and meaning of the word of God and the mind of the Spirit, and to be conformable to it in their faith and practice.

According to the New Testament, the Old must be construed, explained, understood, and with it conjoined; and thus be taught the people of God with discrimination: Moses, with his rigorous, threatening and correcting Law, to all unregenerate and impenitent sinners who are yet under the Law; and Christ, with the glad tidings of his glorious Gospel, to all the faithful, regenerate, penitent sinners, who are not under the law, but under grace.

To this new covenant of Jesus Christ must yield and give way all decrees, councils, institutions and ordinances of man, which have been formed contrary to it; and all consistent Christians must, in their faith and practice, truly conform to the precepts and commands of this glorious Gospel. And as the natural man subsists on the natural bread, receiving thereby nourishment and strength, so does the spiritual man live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Therefore the Word of God must be taught, heard, received and preserved in its purity, and without prevarication.

Of the Law of Moses, how it was written with the finger of God, in tables of stone, and administered by the disposition of angels, read: -And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, cut of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, etc. Exod. 20: 1-17. Deut. 5: 6--21.And he gave unto Moses, when he had made

an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. Exod. 31: 18.--And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. 32: 16.-Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. Acts 7: 53.-For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. John 1: 17.

Of the rigour of the law, and that there shall be nothing added thereto nor diminished from it, read: Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them and all the people shall say, Amen. Deut. 27: 26.--For as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Gal. 3: 10.

What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. Deut. 12: 32.---Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you. 4: 2.

Of the imperfection of the law, read:----For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. Heb. 10: 1.----Which was a

figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience. 9: 9.----For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God. 7: 12, 18, 19. ---Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Gal. 2: 16.----Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts 13: 38.----For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Rom. 8: 3, 4.

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How Christ is the end and accomplishment of the law, read :---For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.