An Answer to Fools; and a Word to the Wise - Acts 2:27

William Huntington  (1745-1813)

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THERE is nothing personal in my book, as to any living characters.

Answer.

This is true. There is not the personal character, in your book, of any one creature, either in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth; neither of angel nor spirit, saint nor sinner, brute nor devil. And what the Reviewers have said of your book, is true, that there are no such characters, no such antinomians, to be found, as are there described.

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It is possible that more than one, or one hundred persons, may find their own sentiments exploded, and their own characters drawn, in this piece.

Answer.

Though Maria owns there is nothing personal as to any living characters, yet a hundred living persons have found their characters drawn in her book; I cannot, for my own part, find out one character in it. There are several monsters, but no creature likenesses. There is a saint mentioned, with his grace in captivity to sin. There is an Arminian half described, but he is called an antinomian. There is a church mentioned like the moon in sanctification, but the real church has got the moon under her feet. There is a triumphant believer mentioned, and faith gives him his victory. Faith is represented as cutting a sinner off his old stock in one place, and working vital union in him in another. And there is Scanderbeg mentioned, but nothing described save his arm and his sword. Therefore, who these hundred persons there drawn can be, I cannot tell: but this I know, that there is not one of them alive at this time in England. If Maria was open to conviction, she would own her characters a fiction, and her assertions a contradiction: but women, as well as pigs, love to run their own way, and will make a terrible noise if an attempt be made to stop them; so we must go on.

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This has been particularly the case with Mr. William Huntington and Mr. Jones: they have met with their own likenesses so strong and picturesque, that they start at the resemblance; and each one cries out, This is me!

Answer.

Let another praise thee, and not thy own mouth. Let thy own works praise thee in the gate. However, my ugly face has hitherto baffled every artist that has attempted a likeness of it: but Maria has attempted a likeness of the inward state of my mind; and I think that my heart is as puzzling to a hypocrite as my face is to an artist. A hypocrite can no more delineate a sinner saved, than a bat can portray an eagle flying in the face of the sun. But Maria will insist upon it, that she has hit a likeness. For my own part, I would not wish to be positive in this matter, though I am better acquainted with Mr. Huntington's cast than most men are. Let us consider the outlines that Maria has drawn, She has called me a minister of the gospel, and a liar; a christian, and a conjuror; a partaker of grace, and a graceless person; an antinomian, and a diviner; a rancorous person to men, and yet familiar with the devil, or a dealer in black and magic art. Now, though I am no judge of pictures, yet I think that no antiquarian in the world will allow, if he is led by unbiassed reason, that all these lines can meet together in any one likeness. Wonderful are the changes that I have passed under since I have been in the metamorphosing hands of this mistress' of arts; and what she will make of me next, I know not, unless she turn me into a muscle, and carry me in a basket; or into a penny whistle, and sell me at Bartholomew Fair.

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Mr. Jones says, he has good grounds for concluding this book is aimed at him. No, says Mr. Huntington, it is a dreadful great bolus intended to choke me.

Answer.

I seldom make any use of quack medicines; for I believe quack doctors in physick, and quack doctresses in divinity, have ruined the bodies and souls of thousands, and have drowned themselves in destruction and perdition by so doing, and for nothing in the world but to get an idle penny. I have no doubt but Maria's pride, as a prophetess, would rather choke me with a bolus, than suffer me to take off any of her proud flesh, pierce the skin of her profession, or admit any salutary composition to her bleeding conscience. But, as many have tried to poison me, I am very careful what I commit either to stomach or conscience. I apply nothing that comes from Maria's hands, nor even eat a black pudding, unless I know who made it. I am no friend of fortunetellers, men-milliners, or women-clergy; for I believe the devil is the sole master of all such.

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Now, whether the book was aimed at Mr. Jones, or designed as a bolus to Mr. Huntington, I can assure the public, that neither of these gentlemen have been injured by it in the least; they are both in good health and spirits.

Answer.

A sufficient proof that the patients had better skill in drugs than the lady of the faculty; and more wisdom too, seeing they preserved their health when a plot was laid to choke them for the sake of a trifle of money. Mr. Ryland promised in public, that he had prepared a pill for me; and would give me a bolus, if that did not do. But then I did not know that they were to be pounded in Maria's mortar, or sent out in her gallipot, till I saw her name on the label; and then I treated them with all the contempt that they deserved; never dreaming that a physician would covet the sanction of a woman, or that a master of arts would defy his antagonist under the pitiful patronage of a parish girl.

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And, as a proof of this, they have each of them published an answer, and defended their cause as well as they are able.

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I am glad that the cause of truth is counted mine, and that I am considered as a co-worker with him who pleads his own cause against those who bring forth their strong reasons against the King of Jacob.

When a hypocrite becomes a plaintiff, and a believer the defendant; when blind guides are made councellors, and carnal reason draws the process; when pride and deceit are the parties aggrieved, and the truth of the gospel the aggressor; when the law is made the only rule of life, and the appeal is made to a candid world; there is never any doubt but the believer in Christ will carry the suit, so as to come off with a conscience to God, and a countenance to men. And, as to the applause of the world, and the seeking honour one of another, we leave that to Paulus and Maria, who cannot believe.

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In making a few remarks upon their publications, I mean to be as concise as possible.

Answer.

The reason is, Maria has squeezed out all the contents of her press. She has lately published a Journey to Enfield, &c. which must have greatly exhausted both her matter and intellects. Let her take another tour to the same place, and go part of the way by Lee river, and the rest by land carriage; and, at her return, publish both the voyage and the journal; it may be edifying to poor creatures like us, who seldom go out of the smoke of the chimney, and who know so little of the religion, customs, and manners, of the people of foreign countries! Useful writers should not be too concise. Maria's productions may serve as lark-lines, to entangle many a reprobate in a profession; as a shoeing-horn, to draw many an impostor to act upon the stage of Zion; and as a smoothing-plane, to finish the education of many who are ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Besides, there may be other poor girls in the rising generation, who may wish to mump a livelihood by a religious profession, without stooping to the menial drudgery of a servant, as well as Maria. Numbers have attempted this in the days of old; as Judas, Simon Magus, Demas, Ananias and Sapphira: however, they all failed, but Maria has succeeded; a proof of her good sense; and it is a pity that such a fund of good sense should die with her. Maria's instructions to me have neither been unseasonable nor unprofitable: for I had never known what a stageplayer, in the Greek tongue, had meant, had it not been for an old mistress of mine in the coal trade, and a long correspondence with my dear Maria; so that every where, and in all things, I am instructed. I know how to abound with governesses, and how to make shift without them.

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The love of truth, and sense of duty, constrain me once more to take up my pen upon this subject.

Answer.

A sense of duty has constrained Maria to take up her pen: but where is the command that requires this duty from Maria? God says, "I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence," as also saith the law. Indeed, the Lord saith, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them; they which lead them cause them to err, and destroy the way of their paths;" which is verified in Maria. But, then, this rule of women is usurped. Neither God, nor his word, call Maria to this duty, but tell her to hold her tongue; therefore Maria's constraint to this branch of duty can only come from the devil Let her not start at the name of her master; I say, from the devil, who takes her captive at his will: while pride constrains her to display the rebellion which dwelt first in her grandmother Athaliah, and the clerical authority of her mother Jezebel; and which, I am persuaded, both meet in this reverend Maria also. "It is a small matter," says Paul, "that I should be judged of man's judgment." But I cannot call mine a small, but a bulky, matter; for mine is not the judgment of a man, but of a woman. I have heard of a Pope Joan in the Papal chair; and I have seen a thing that wears petticoats in Moses's seat, who says much, and does nothing. I have received various mandates and womandates. But:

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Mr. Huntington is too high-spirited, &e. he disdains to be bound in the trammels of good sense, &c. truth cannot bind him in her chains.

Answer.

This is true. The wisdom that comes from above to God's saints is too high for a fool, he cannot attain unto it; and good sense is too dear to be spent upon foolish women, whose mouths must be stopped, and who are to be answered according to their folly. And as for the chains of truth, we leave them for Maria and her fellow prisoners. The freeborn sons of Zion never wish to exchange the Saviour's easy yoke for the fetters of a convict: God bringeth out those that are bound with chains; but the rebellious dwell in a dry land. Give us the cords and bands, but keep the trammels and chains to yourselves.

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A character sunk so low as this is truly contemptible; and falls so far beneath one's notice, that nothing but a love of the truth could induce me to take up my pen once more against such an opponent.

Ans. It was Maria's own choice to take notice of me at first; for I was determined never to take any of her: and it is still my desire, not only to appear contemptible to Maria, but to every one of her associates; for I know the religion of many of them, and that it has no affinity with that which the Lord wrought in me, either in root or fruit, heart or life. But the real truth is, that my dear and reverend Maria has not gained that idle penny by Mr. Huntington that she expected; and so she holds the commodity in contempt. And as for truth, Maria might just as well tell me, that a blind man loves crimson colour, and a dead man Milton oysters; as to tell me, that she loves the truth. Truth has a reviving and renewing power in it, which she never felt; and a beauty in it, which she never saw. I pay no regard to a person's professing a love to truth, unless truth confess a love to them. It is not enough to praise the truth, but to have praise of the truth.

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However, I can assure the public, that this shall be the last time I will exercise their patience, and my own, in hunting Mr. Huntington out of the quagmires of deception, the false coverts, the refuges of lies, under which he is constrained to hide.

Answer.

I will make no such rash vows. Maria began, and I am determined to finish. If her patience is worn out, mine is not: if she is offended, I burn not. "The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, instructing those that oppose themselves." I know God has sent men to hunt his chosen people out of the holes of the rocks, Jer. xvi. 16. And if he has sent Maria to be a cunning hunter, a woman of the field, I have no objection; let her pursue the chace, and not be weary in well doing. But let me presume, for once, to dictate to my governess. Quagmire, in scripture, language, does not mean deception, my dear Maria. Sticking fast in the horrible pit, and sinking in the miry clay, mean despair, or despondency, when the soul is quickened to feel its corruption, and sinks into self-despair of ever finding any solid foothold or foundation in the performances of fallen nature. And a refuge of lies is the starting hole of those persons who talk of the gospel, and yet make the law their rule by which they hope to live: they seek righteousness, as it were, by the works of the law, and so stumble at that stumbling stone. The table of the law becomes a snare unto them; and the gospel, that is for our welfare, becomes a trap. This is Maria's refuge; and where God sends a strong delusion, I never expect to break it.

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It is my intention to take a last farewell of him in these strictures.

Answer.

I have no ground to believe that we were ever made one in the ancient settlements of eternity'. I never would have any intimacy with you in time. We have never found any union, either in spirit, practice, or principle, in this world; and, it is to be feared, we shall feel no more in the next than there is between sheep and goats.

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Unless divine grace should make a wonderful change in him.

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The change on my side is too great already to allow of any fellowship with the unfruitful works or workers of darkness, only to reprove them. Besides, a new man, or a principle of grace, that is taken captive by sin, such as Maria describes, would make no change in me for the better, but for the worse. I expect grace to subdue my sin, instead of being a captive to it.

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And remove far from him the way of lying, which, I am sorry to say, at present seems as natural to him as to breathe.

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Maria is the first that has brought this charge, and I am sorry to see such a morsel of candour break through all her patent trammels of good manners. I fear Maria's philanthropy will be found upon trial to be nothing but a cockatrice egg; and I think another crush or two will make it break out into a viper. However, I shall turn these tables upon Maria herself before I finish this piece.

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And enable him not only to preach the gospel, but to give substantial proof that he is influenced by the spirit of the gospel.

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All along the doctrine that I preach has been traduced, by this Maria, as antinomianism and licentiousness; and now she calls it gospel. In the last quotation she would have nothing further to do with me, unless divine grace should make a wonderful change; in which she represents me graceless: and now she calls upon me to give substantial proof that I am influenced by the spirit of the gospel; which is what a graceless man can no more do than graceless Maria herself.

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Should this be the case, and I live to see it, he may very likely hear from me again. It would give me the greatest pleasure; and I would be one of the first to congratulate him on so excellent and desirable a change.

Answer.

I believe that you both wish and desire a change; for I know that a child of God is a living dagger to a hypocrite: and such characters would be glad to make a saint just as vile as themselves. And sure I am, that a dreadful change for the worse must take place on me, before any congratulation could be received from such hands. I must get into a far country, and join myself with the citizen of it, waste my substance with riotous living, and spend all upon harlots, before I could feed such swine, or sit down to feed with them. And I think I have given ample proof of this some years ago, when Maria's hostess came five or six times repeatedly into the vestry in the city, to invite me to her house; which she did, till I was obliged to break through the trammels of good manners, and tell her abruptly, that I would not spend my time in gadding after a parcel of old women; for I know a society of hypocrites, who can do nothing but sin, are very fond of getting a tool called a minister into their class, to give sanction to their wickedness, that they may carry on their works of darkness with a better grace; and by being visited by a supposed minister of Christ, they may be less suspected by the religious world. But this is no part of the ministry that I have received, and I hope never to fulfil it.

The standing crop of carbuncles that appeared in the face of Maria's hostess, give me room to suspect that she was not a Rechabite, or one that paid any regard to the commandment of Jonadab. Jer. xxxv.

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Mr. Huntington has thought proper to address his answer to my book, to the Rev. Mr. Ryland, senior.

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And did not Maria address her answer to Miss Morton's book, to the Rev. Mr. Huntington, sinner saved? Will my governess condemn me for copying after her example, when I have acted so agreeable to her only rule of life? Does she bind burdens on others, and refuse to touch them? Does she say, and do not? And If I do the things contained in the law, shall I not judge her who transgresses the same? "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets."

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And chuses to consider that gentleman as the author of it, directly and repeatedly.

Answer.

No, I have represented it as coming in the natural way, from male and female; it was moulded together by a conjunction of heads. Mr. Ryland is the father of it, but Maria travailed in the birth of it, and brought it forth; and a poor little idiot it is: it will do little honour to the venerable parents. "A foolish child is the calamity of its mother; and the father of a fool hath no joy."

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Yet in doing this, he must have done violence to his conscience; and has asserted not only a falsehood, but a wilful falsehood,

Answer.

Then at whose door does this falsehood lay? When Maria published her first twopenny volume against me, I asked Mr. Ryland, before ten persons in the vestry, if he had not a hand in it? He declared, but not without some inward checks, that he had not. Three days after that, he acknowledged to Mr. and Mrs. Terry, at their house, that he had a hand in it. If the declaration was true, the acknowledgment was false; but then it lies with Mr. Ryland, not with me.

When the volume entitled, Antinomianism Unmasked, appeared, Mr. George King, of Aldersgate street, asked Maria, 'Does this book contain Mr. Ryland's sentiments?' She replied, 'They are Mr. Ryland's sentiments.' Mr. King has given me leave to assert this, with his name, in this book. Then of course I addressed my answer to the father of the sentiments, but not to the exclusion of the mother, who bore the birth-throes in bringing them forth. And if my calling the book Mr. Ryland's be false, where did the falsehood originate? It was Maria that spoke it, and when she spoke it, she spake of her own. I can be no more than the propagator; she is the liar, and the mother of it. Let Mr. Ryland disprove what he said to Mr. Terry's face, and let Maria do the same to Air. King; but this will never be attempted.

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There is no more similarity between that gentleman's style and mine, than there is between the twinkling of a taper and the bright beams of the sun.

Answer.

I never knew that Mr. Ryland had any method, manner, or style, peculiar to himself, till now. He has always appeared to me to be only the echo of Joseph Alleine. His manner and matter appears to be all reflected from his works; and as for Maria, she reflects from Mr. Ryland; and the light has gathered such dimness by this treble reflection, that at last Maria acknowledges that her refutations of error are nothing but a twinkling taper; she might have said a will-a-wisp.

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It is impossible for me to treat it as it ought to he treated, without indulging those flights of levity; and, perhaps, stooping to make use of such language as would set me nearly upon a level with Mr. Huntington.

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Wisdom dwells with prudence, and finds out knowledge of witty inventions. A prophet of the Lord doth sometimes indulge a little good humour, even when the worshippers of Baal are in the midst of their devotions, both crying and cutting themselves. Let Maria stick in the bog, and me stand upon the rock, and there will be no fear of our getting upon a level.

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While I have got truth and right reason on my side, Mr. Huntington is welcome to have all the laugh upon his.

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God and truth must not only be of your side, but turn your captivity, before your mouth can be filled with laughter, or your tongue with singing. Poor souls that have got nothing about them but the sheep's clothing, have little cause to laugh. They have got a guilty conscience, and a troop of despairing thoughts, inwardly preying upon their vitals, which keep them down; and if they make an effort to raise their shackled spirits out of the gloomy regions in chearful company, still the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. Yea, "even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness." But he that eats his bread with joy, and drinks his wine with a merry heart, knowing that God accepteth his works, his mirth is both food and physic. "A merry heart," saith Wisdom, "doeth good like a medicine;" and, "He that hath a merry heart hath a continual feast."

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He says, Wist ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine. Here our astonishment ceases; or, rather, it greatly increases. What? Mr. Huntington a diviner?

Answer.

Yes: and he hath found out the iniquity of this pretended servant of the Lord, who would fain pass for a true prophetess: but I say, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land she is come, not to buy corn, but to mump for bread; and, by the life of Pharaoh, she is nothing but a spy, who comes to spy out our liberty that we have in Christ, that she may bring us into bondage.

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He has been, to be sure, of various occupations. This he has informed the world of long ago; but, who ever thought him a conjuror before? This is a strange piece of news! I don't know how tong Mr. Huntington has studied the black art: he has not informed us that. However, we are obliged to him for the intelligence that he is a master of it; and I presume, in the next publication, the letters M. B. A. will appear in addition to S.S. Many, no doubt, will stand in awe of this sublime character: many pens, which were about to be taken up, will, no doubt, be laid down in silence; and, indeed, it may be prudent to keep out of the circle of Mr. Huntington's magic wand.

Answer.

The reverend Maria here attempts a flight of levity; and takes back a little, and but little, of the laugh to herself, which before she granted wholly to me. However, in this branch of business I am not alone; others trade in a sort of magic as well as I. Tash-she declared to the doctor, that Mar-rat and Mac-tesh had finished seventeen bottles in fourteen days at Islington, and he feared they would kill themselves. If this be true, there must be witches as well as wizards in the world; and that if I deal in magic art, such must deal largely with familiar spirits. I know the goddess of Endor fetched her spirit out of the earth, but all do not: for some folks keep them, as doctors keep leeches; I mean, in a bottle. Witness the long score that stood a long time, for a long number of foreign, though not familiar spirits, at the end of St. Martin's-le-grand. But what has this to do with my beloved Maria? Nothing at all. It is to whom it may concern: she is for what she calls personal holiness; and well she may, for such washing must clean both cup and platter. Maria is for personal holiness, I say. This sound is gone out into all the world, and there is nothing wanting on our side but faith to believe it: and if we cannot believe what she says and writes, our faith will get no help from what she does; and, what is still more wonderful than even the picture of magic itself, is, these two venerable ladies were both, in pretence, great advocates for the holy law of God. Yea, one of them was, at the same time, even a writer of morality, a propagator of good works, and an opposer of antinomianism, licentious doctrines, and all loose living in persons against whom no such charge could ever be brought. Now, if truly pious Maria would know who this spirituous prophetess is, let her divine, as I do; let her divine by her god, or inquire of her neighbour. She has one god, named belly; and one neighbour, and that is the same: either of them can inform her. I have one favour to beg of Miss De Fleury, and that is, that she would be particular in pointing out the place of her residence in all her title-pages for the future, lest she hurt the sale of her books. Mr. Davidson, stationer, at Tower Hill, who was so kind as to procure me the Last Farewell to Mr. Huntington, inquired for Maria from one end of Jew in Street to the other, without the least intelligence; till a thought struck him to inquire at a gin shop, and the first word of inquiry there brought out both the name of the prophetess and her hostess together. Ira' porters of foreign spirits, and dealers in familial; generally know one another; they are like spigot and faucet, one cannot do without the other; one will peep for the money, and the other will mutter about religion, in order to get it.

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Many pens that were about to be taken up, will no doubt be laid down in silence.

Answer.

Many a goose has run at me when I was young, and many quills have been shaken at me since I have been old; but I am no more afraid of the quill, than I was of the goose: the former was nothing but a noise, and the latter is nothing but a vapour.

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However, as I have God and truth, and a good conscience on my side, I think I need not fear either Mr. Huntington, or his familiar spirit, who, I believe, resides not a hundred miles from Paternoster row.

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I would charitably hope, that in this last quotation, Maria has spoken allegorically; that is, that some things are mentioned, and others meant. If, by her god, she means what Paul calls Belly, no doubt but this god is of her side; though, even that deity sometimes rises up against a worshipper that makes it sick with an abundance of drink offerings. And if, by truth, Maria means the chimeras of her own brain, she is right; these are chiefly of her own side, for there are but few, yea, very few to be found in all the bible, which I shall hereafter endeavour to prove. As for my dear Maria's good conscience, I can say nothing to; I have not wisdom enough to fathom that profound depth, nor skill enough in navigation to explore that vast expanse; and if I have one poor familial' spirit in Paternoster row, the prophetess greatly exceeds me, both in number and nearness; for she has a thousand favourite and familiar spirits in every street in London, and may consult either of them whenever she pleases, for twopence or threepence a time. And in this the prophetess has gone to the utmost of her ability; yea, and I bear her record, beyond her ability: witness the long score above-mentioned.

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For surely, there is no enchantment against Jacob, nor divination against Israel.

Answer.

Yes there is; Joseph's divination stands on record against eight Israelites at once; and he brought them all to confess, that they were verily guilty concerning their brother. And I shall yet divine against this serpent, who feigns to bite without enchantment; for she is a babbler in religion, and that is no better, Eccl. x. 11.

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Familiar spirits, I am told, are always lying spirits.

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And they are sometimes staggering spirits; witness the hobbling walk from the D .... r's across Bartholomew Close: and sometimes they are noisy spirits; witness Paulus, or J..n 11, R?.d, senior, last summer, at a coach door, with two gentlemen, one on each side of him, at the York-shire Stingo. But these are not the base acts of antinomians, though they were rather stumbling to a gentleman of our vestry, named Randall; nevertheless, these are good works: this is not will worship and neglecting the body; no, no; " No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it." The belly is a near neighbour, and a man must love his neighbour as himself. This is letting their light shine before men: this is preaching by example as well as precept.

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Without any further introduction, I shall now, by divine assistance, proceed to make a few strictures upon the Broken Cistern and Springing Well.

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Divine assistance is never granted, to aid a rebel in the act of disobedience. "God will not cast away a perfect man, nor will he help an evil doer." "I," saith God, "suffer not a woman to teach"

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I shall, in the next place, shew what ideas Mr. Huntington entertains of my book, and what he says of it.

Answer.

I say, the book is a turning things upside down; inverting the order of Christ and his apostles; and a rowing against the whole current of scripture. Christ and his apostles began with the law, and ended with the gospel; Maria begins with Christ, and ends in the law. They preached the law to sinners, to shew them their lost estate; and then pointed out the refuge. Maria begins with the refuge, and then points to the law. They made the law a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; Maria makes Christ a schoolmaster, to bring us to the law. Paul says, those that are in Christ, are no longer under a schoolmaster; but Maria makes Christ's scholars to be all under that schoolmaster still, as their only rule of conduct; yea, as the only rule of right and wrong. Christ represents Moses as an accuser, that we may apply to him as the advocate; Maria brings us from the advocate, and delivers us up to the accuser. The apostles lead us from the works of the flesh under the law, to end in the works of the Spirit; but Maria begins with the letter of the ministration of the Spirit, and ends in the flesh. The apostles proclaimed a divorce from Moses, and a marriage with Christ, that we might bring forth fruit unto God; Maria takes us from Christ to the law, that we may not be licentious antinomians. This is the drift of her book, and the base purposes that it was intended to answer; and it was published at the request of Mr. Lovegrove, who promised a little money to the authors of the book; and who himself has been twice an Arminian, and twice a Calvinist.

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I shall prove that they are founded on the word of God, and are clear bible and experimental truths; not head notions, but heart religion; not vain jangling, but sound doctrine.

Answer.

And my business shall be, when I come to her doctrines, to clear that blessed book from those things that have no foundation there; and consider the singular experience contained in what Maria calls experimental truths. For I say, and will insist upon it, that if every unregenerate person in the world was to read that joint work, called Antinomianism Unmasked, till they acquired all the experimental knowledge that it treats of, they would be without a good hope through grace, and without any saving knowledge of God in this world. Graceless persons may make graceless proselytes; hypocrites may gain hypocrites to contend for their notions, and espouse their cause; but they never shall bring one soul to close in with Christ Jesus. God sets no seal to an usurper; he never blesses with his power the specious pretences of impostors. They ran, I have not sent them, saith God, "therefore they shall not profit this people at all."

Let us come to facts. Let me appeal to the bottomless, boundless abyss, of Maria's conscience. Was one soul ever effectually awakened, or one gracious weakling ever established, by any productions of Maria's pen, except the man in Hertfordshire, and the other in London; enemies to me, and to my doctrine; mentioned in my last answer? These, it is true, were built up greatly; they espoused Maria's cause, circulated her books, and opposed antinomianism to the last: but then the former fled his country for sodomy, and the latter hanged himself; and all for want of the grace of God. Maria laboured hard, and laboured long, with a certain nobleman, lately circumcised and become Jew, to bring him from the law to the gospel; and, on the other hand, this Zipporah would have taken a sharp stone, and have done the office of a bloody wife to me, in order to bring me under the law. And in this sense she becomes all things to all men, that she may gain some things, by all means: but then both the nobleman and myself remain just were we were. She may have received an alms from him; and, by her books, made a penny of me; but then the one remains a Jew, and the other an antinomian still; so that, in this sense, Maria runs in vain, and labours in vain; her preaching is vain, and her faith vain; and, for aught she has done for us, we are yet in our sins.

Maria has laboured hard, I believe, almost five years, against my licentious life and doctrines, and without proving one just charge against me of immorality; and, on the other hand, she has not produced one person to bear witness, before the churches, of any one good work, either work of the law, work of faith, or work of the hands, that ever she performed, but one; and that was cooking the calf's head, the night that the synod was convened against me, and she threw that into the ashes. As saith the poet:

Malice concerts in envy's strains,
O'er heads of calves, and brutal brains:
But, ere the guests procur'd the lot,
The head was leaping from the pot;
The dish defil'd, that nature crav'd,
The clergy smil'd, the cook was sav'd.

It was deemed no less than a miracle, that Maria was not drowned in the pottage pot; but some of the opposite party viewed it as a bad omen to them, that their councils and their religious profession would as surely fall to the ground, as the calf's head fell into the ashes.

Quote.

Give me leave to observe here, that it is very strange that the ignorance and foolishness of the authors, to use Mr. Huntington's expressions, should be confuted and established by this book: it is a contradiction in terms, and must strike every reader of common sense, as being an assertion not one step above nonsense.

Answer.

If it be nonsense, it rests with my opponent. What I have asserted is good sense. The authors confute their own assertions; and, by so doing, establish themselves, in the judgment of discerning Christians, as ignorant and foolish in the things of God. For, as the wise man says, "The lips of a fool swallow up himself:" that is, he is entangled in his own words, cast by his own counsels, and falls into his own pit; and says to every one that goes by the way, I am a fool! And so do the authors of this book. They says, 'The law is done away as a covenant of works.' In this, the law has lost all its power; and yet 'every believer is under it, as the only rule of life and conduct, and of right and wrong.' And afterwards, the antinomian is charged with declaring that the law is done away. They make the antinomian guilty, for declaring what they themselves assert; and confute in one place what they state in another, and so establish nothing but their own foolishness, in the judgment of the wise and discerning reader; or, to repeat the wise man's words, such an one says to all that go by the way, I am a fool! And, if a discerning person hears the saying, and observes the conduct of such a person, and finds they corroborate, then they establish their foolishness.

I have called the Treatise of these co-workers an iniquitous publication, and a vile book, intended to debase the gospel; and I stand to it. The law is brought in as the believer's only rule of conduct, which takes in every thing in this life; and, in the matter of David, it is brought in as the only rule or standard of right and wrong. If the mystery of faith be no law, what is the obedience of faith? Nothing but a phantom! If the gospel be no rule of lift, how came the just to live by faith? And if it be no rule of wrong; how come the disobedient thereto to be judged by Christ's word, and to be condemned for infidelity already? And if the gospel be no rule of walk, how comes the just to walk by faith, and be blessed in so doing? And if it be no rule of conduct, how come the scriptures to declare, that whatsoever is not of faith, or in obedience to the law of faith, is sin, and without faith it is impossible to please God? And if the law be the only rule, how is it that the Father should tell us to obey the voice of his Son, and threaten the soul with everlasting destruction that refuses to hear his word?

The gospel says, it is more blessed to give than to receive. Some judge it more profitable to receive than to give: some favourers of the gospel have worked with their own hands, to have to give to them that have need; when some folks have made others needy, rather than work with their own hands.

My dear Maria wants candour, she is too hasty with her aspersions; she should not magnify herself till our feet slip; she should see that we are down before she cry, "Ah! ah! so would we have it:" she should have some just ground for a charge of immorality, before she sets us forth as loose livers, licentious persons, enemies to holiness, and to every good work reprobate; lest, after all, she be found to be not a doer of the law, but a judge. The spiritual man, not woman, judgeth all things, but himself is judged of no man, much less of a woman. Furthermore, people should know the force of truth before they pretend to refute error; they should know the scriptures and the power of God, the force of the law, and the power of the gospel too, or else they will only doat about questions whereof cometh strife and envy. No soul will ever prize a throne of grace, till he has been at a throne of judgment; no man will prize access to God by faith, till he has attempted to gaze at the bounds of the mount; he will ever love Mount Zion, who has felt the storm of Sinai; he will prize the blessing, who has felt the curse; he will be thankful for a free spirit, who has felt the spirit of bondage; and rejoice in the promise of life, who has felt the sentence of death: he will bless God for a court of equity, who has been arraigned in a court of judicature; and they that have been galled with the yoke of the law, will value the yoke of the gospel: they will sing of mercy best, who have felt most of the force of judgment; and those will prize the Lord's goodness, who have felt his severity; and those who know that without Christ they can do nothing, will bless God for working all their works in them. Moreover, before good old women get into Moses's chair, to issue out their womandates, in order to make the Lord's servants obedient in word and deed, it is necessary that they set something of an example before us, as a pattern of good works. They should leave off the use of the noggin, and leave off tattling; they must not be idle nor busy bodies, nor wander from house to house; they must work with their own hands, that they may have to give to them that have need; they must not teach, nor usurp authority over the man, but be in silence; yea, they must be well reported of for good works. But what does my dear Maria work? Does she lodge strangers? Does she bring up children? Does she wash the saints feet? Does she relieve the afflicted? Does she make garments for the poor? No. She does not. Women must not be accusers; they must not he given to wine; they must be discreet, chaste, and keepers at home. But are these the good works of my dear Maria? No. She used to make scraps of poetry, and carry them, and read them to Mrs. Bosswell, a good banking-house. And when she died, and that bank failed, several novices who had usurped the ministry, envious at God for sending me into the ministry; these little masters of arts employed or prompted Maria and Co. against me, and vended her commodities among their people. A gentleman of Heathfield, in Sussex, who received my favours in town, did this at the same time in the country.

And when a hymn is wanted for a charity sermon by them who know nothing of God, then giving to poor children is styled the 'triumphal car of charity divine.' Giving a trifle of money is that charity that never faileth. Thus to the blind Maria becomes ignorant, and to the strong she becomes weak; to them that are under the law she is for the gospel, and to them in the gospel she becomes a Jewess; and by all these time-serving labours, Maria's own hands have ministered to her necessities.

Now, reader, I am going to consider Maria's experimental truths, which she calls sound doctrine, and heart religion, all founded, as she says, upon the word of God. Therefore, reader, judge for thyself as thou readest; for in examining her scraps, I shall drop a few words to the wise, and here and there a fragment for a fool.

Quote.

Stop a moment, Mr. Huntington, for I am afraid you have run yourself out of breath already.

Answer.

I thank Maria, that her candour and. care for me have flourished again. However, I believe she will find me full as long-winded as she would wish; for I intend to pursue this wild ass of the wilderness, till I chase her out of the King's meadows into her own deserts, and her foals with her; for the Lord has no need of them.

Quote.

What think ye of Christ? Of all questions which it is possible to propose to mankind, this is one of the most important.

Answer.

This is one of Maria's experimental truths, a part of what she calls heart religion, she thinks; but, blessed be God, we, through grace, are enabled to believe. What Maria thinks, she speaks; but we know what we do speak, and testify that which we have seen. Believing is more than thinking, and Christ in the heart is more than either.

Quote.

This is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Answer.

Where is Maria's experience of this experimental truth? as she is pleased to call her head notions. Satan knows God, believes and trembles; in which, I believe, he goes beyond Maria. Satan feels the chains of his sin, and the curse of God's law, which is still further. Satan knew Christ, confessed his knowledge of him, felt the power of his arm, and the dint of his sword; all which Maria could never say, with the testimony either of truth or conscience. Yea, Satan acknowledged that he knew Jesus, and Paul too; and that Paul and Barnabas were servants of the most High God: but Maria don't know a servant of God from a liar, nor a spiritual minister from a conjuror; so that, to give the Devil his due, he goes in many things beyond Maria: and I cannot hut believe, that Satan has some hateful knowledge of me, and of the work in which I am engaged, or else I should never have had so many addresses from this daughter of his; for truth hath said, that children will do their father's works.

Quote.

The scriptures also speak of the Lord Jesus under the dignified character of a King.

Answer.

Where is the experience of this experimental truth? The King of Babylon brought this confession from his own heart: "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment; and those what walk in pride he is able to abase." All this was brought from vision, and the experience of terrible majesty; but Maria only cites a passage of scripture. In this the King of Babylon beats Maria in experience and confession, and does exceed her as much in this quotation as the devil did in the last; and yet the King of Babylon appears to have no more of that experience that worketh hope than Maria herself, who has boasted that she can write upon any subject. She should have added, except the subject of experimental godliness.

Quote.

Offering himself up a sacrifice to God, to make reconciliation, and purchase an atonement.

Answer.

The latter part of this is not a bible truth, it is not to be found in God's book. Christ, as a priest, offered up himself; an atonement was made; peace also was made; and in Christ, God did reconcile the world to himself, and the church is bought with a price; the Redeemer laid down his life, he paid the price of Zion's redemption, and she is his purchased possession. This is bible truth, the other is head notion.

Quote.

The antinomian denies vital, experimental, personal union, wrought in the soul by faith.

Answer.

Then the antinomian is right, for this is a head notion, not a bible doctrine; it is not a scripture truth, but an arrant lie. The bond of union is God's love to his chosen in Christ Jesus, which is from eternity; the manifestation of this union appears by drawing us to Christ, and to a participation of this love in Christ; which love is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, who, as a Spirit of love, maintains love there; which is the joint by which we are joined to the Lord, and the bond of union by which we are made one spirit with him, being under the influence of the spirit of love. But then, who works this? Maria says, faith works it; but God says, he does. "I," saith the Lord, "will circumcise their hearts, that they may love me with all their heart and with all their s0ul, that they may live." This union, in the highest sense and enjoyment, is called a mutual indwelling: "He that loveth dwelleth in God, and God dwelleth in him." But then I ask, does faith work God in the sinner, or does God work faith in him? Maria is for the former, but the scripture is for the latter: "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." If faith is God's workmanship, it is not likely that the thing formed should produce him that formed it. This is such an experimental truth as never was found in the bible, nor in the experience of the church of God; it is all of Maria's side.

Quote.

The Lord Jesus Christ is made of God, sanctification to his people, as he is their great head of influence, who imparts to every member of his mystical body, by virtue of his kingly office, his Holy Spirit, to sanctify them.

Answer.

This is another of Maria's experimental truths. However, in the first place, the scriptures aver, that we were sanctified and cleansed by God the Father, in his secret purpose, from eternity. "What God hath cleansed, that call thou not common. Secondly, Christ sanctified the elect by his sacrifice in his office of priesthood: "For your sakes I sanctify myself." And, "That he might sanctify the people with his own blood, he suffered without the gate." And, "By his one offering, he hath perfected for ever all them that are sanctified." So that he is made sanctification to us as a priest, and that work was perfected forever when his sufferings were accomplished. Thirdly, the elect are sanctified internally by the Holy Spirit, "That the offering up of the Gentiles might be accepted, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." What Christ did upon the cross, Maria entails upon the Spirit in conversion. What was completed, finished, and forever perfected, in death; is, according to Maria, now doing in glory. What was effected by one person, is attributed to the other; and the benefits that flow from the Lord's priesthood, are all ascribed to his kingly office; and for what cause, I cannot tell. Christ was anointed to be a Priest, as well as a King; both these offices meet in our Melchizedek, and he is still invested with them both, Aaron had an unction, as well as David, which ran to his beard, and to the skirts of his clothing. Christ is still our high priest, and ever lives to intercede, as well as to reign. It was in his priestly habit that he appeared among the golden candlesticks. Jesus is a priest upon his throne, as well as a king; and the descent of the Spirit is as much from the priest as the king. Read Psalm cxxxiii. How these poor night birds do puzzle themselves, for want of knowing the scriptures, and the power of God!

Quote.

By his justifying righteousness he saves them from the guilt and condemnation of sin.

Answer.

In this Maria makes sin the judge, and the sentence to come of it: but I say, condemnation is not of sin, but of God; nor from sin, but from the judge it comes, and that for sin. I read, that it is the blood of Christ that purges the conscience, and cleanses us from all sin, or makes us clean; and by the righteousness of Christ we are justified, or made righteous as well as clean. By the former we are washed, by the latter we are clothed; the former delivers us from the curse of the law, the latter from the yoke of precept. The Saviour's obedience unto death justifies us from the demand of vindictive justice; his obedience to the precept justifies us from Maria's rule of life, or from the command, Do and live. Maria's guilt and sentence are both of sin, and righteousness saves from both; though Christ is made of God unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But then this is bible doctrine, the others are Maria's propositions.

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The church shall not only be clear as the sun in her justification, but she shall also be fair as the moon in her sanctification.

Answer.

In the antediluvian world, and in the days of the patriarchs, the church is compared to the looking forth of the morning. Under the Mosaic dispensation, her appearance is compared to the fairness of the moon. Under the gospel, the church is declared to be clear as the sun, having risen under the beams of the sun of righteousness, above that moon-light dispensation; on which account she is represented as clothed with the sun, and having the moon, or that moon-light dispensation, under her feet, Maria's sanctification is under the church's feet, instead of being her in, ward glory. However, Maria is more honest here than she intended, and this agrees with all her strivings about the law. She looks to the sun, and moon too; to Christ for righteousness, and to the law for sanctification; and her account amounts to this, that the church's sanctification under the gospel by the blood of Christ, and by the Holy Ghost, is as fair as the law, or the moonlight dispensation, which made nothing perfect. But as the moon is a liquid light, perhaps Maria means no more by it than a little French eye-water; what the smugglers in my country call moonshine, because they are obliged to carry it in the night for fear of the excise officer: which, I believe, is all the sanctification that Maria knows any thing of; and which, when in her god, which Paul calls belly, affords her all that aid in writing, which she in one place calls divine assistance, which gives her, her sense of duty.

Quote.

This faith unites the soul to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Answer.

The elect were united to Christ before ever faith was found upon earth; and this union will subsist after the believer has received the end of his faith, the salvation of his soul, and the glory of his hope. Charity never faileth. This doctrine, as well as Maria's conscience, is all on her own side; faith is never called the uniting bond in scripture, though there is a unity, or similarity of faith, in which the saints must all meet.

Quote.

This faith makes Christ precious: it purifies his heart, and constrains him to hate sin; because of it's deformity, because it is Christ's enemy, and crucified him; and because Christ abhors it, and a triune God abhors it.

Answer.

That faith purifies the heart by an application of the blood of atonement, is granted; for it is a scripture phrase. But it is the presence of Christ enjoyed that makes him precious to the believer. But Paul says, it is love that constrains the believer, not faith; and, as to the deformity of sin, sin never appears to have any but where God shines into the heart, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 'But this Maria never saw, nor has her faith produced any one thing of all this in her, nor has she any one of these works to praise her in the gate. If she has, let her produce them, and bring her witnesses to prove them; and if she can charge her supposed antinomian with living in any allowed sin or act of wickedness, let her point it out, and prove the same. And as to loving of holiness, because of it's own beauty and excellence, is a doctrine that Maria never learned from the law, for that worketh wrath; sin takes an occasion by it, and all concupiscence is stirred up. "We love God," who is the fountain of holiness, and perfection of Zion's beauty, "because he first loved us."

Quote.

Faith gives the soul victory over sin, Satan, and the world.

Answer.

Every word of this is a palpable lie. There is an incomparable difference between two armies engaged in a field of battle, and the God of armies who dwells in heaven. There is a great difference also between the victory gained by one army over the other, and God, who giveth that army the victory. Faith, which is a fruit of the Spirit, is one thing, but the giver of faith is another. Victory is faith, and the giver of victory is God. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." And, "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." These are the refuters of error, who know no distinction between a grace of the Spirit and the God of all grace!

Quote.

In this way the Lord Jesus Christ sanctifies his people; and actually saves them from the love and power of sin.

Answer.

And I assert, that there never was one soul sanctified and actually saved, either from the love or power of sin in this way, except Maria herself, who fetches all her sanctity from what she calls the moon, or from what the smugglers call moonshine.

Quote.

Holiness of heart and life is indispensably necessary to enable the believer to maintain Communion and fellowship with God.

Answer.

This doctrine, as here stated, has no foundation in God's book. Fallen man has no holiness, either of heart or life, till God, by his Spirit, takes up his dwelling in the soul; at which instant union and communion take place, and the soul becomes the seat, and the body the temple, of the living God. But where this holiness of heart and life is to come from previous to this, which, as Maria says, is so indispensably necessary to this communion and fellowship, I know not. Maria's heart-holiness comes from her moonshine, and fellowship follows that. But we know that God communicates his Spirit to us, and takes up his residence in us, and brings us into fellowship with himself and his dear Son, that holiness of heart and life may follow his possession of us, and flow from his indwelling in us.

Quote.

Sanctification, then, it appears from the word of God, is a personal thing, wrought upon the soul by the power of the Holy Ghost.

Answer.

There is no such language as this in the bible; this is not the voice of God's oracles.

The man that has made his calling and election sure, knows that God sanctified him in Christ Jesus from eternity; and, by coming to the blood of sprinkling, he knows that Christ sanctified him by his death on the cross; and by his spiritual birth he knows that God the Spirit is in him, and has sanctified him; and such an one possesses his vessel in sanctification and honour, and not in the lust of concupiscence: but as for Maria's personal thing, wrought upon the soul, it is nothing but a spark of wild-fire from her own taper. We have nothing to do with that; let her walk in the light of her own fire, and in the sparks that she has kindled. The holiness of the saint consists in the Spirit's being a well of living water in him; not in a thing put upon him: it consists in the indwelling or inbeing of the Spirit of God, for ever; but as to Maria's personal thing, we have nothing to do with that.

Quote.

Sometimes divine grace treads indwelling sin under it's feet, and then the Christian is holy, humble, and happy in his God. At other times, sin rouses up all it's powers, attempts to shake off the yoke, and even preveils so far as to take the new man captive; and then the Christian groans, being burdened, Rom. vi. 22, 24.

Answer.

Maria told us, some time ago, what a deep sense constrained her to this duty, of writing, and a claim was made upon divine assistance in the discharge of it: and all that we have seen as yet, has been setting her mouth against the heavens, and telling lies in the name of God. Maria can see no difference between Paul, and the grace of God in Paul; no difference between a saint, who is called a new creature in Christ Jesus, and the principle of grace in the saint, which is called the new man, or hidden man of the heart. Paul does say, I find a law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members; but that me is not the new man. The seed of God cannot sin; the inward man is renewed day by day, even though the outward man perish. The grace of God is produced in the soul by the Spirit of grace: the Holy Ghost produces it under his operations, and he is t life of it, the spirit of it, the defender of it, and the protector of it; he is the wind that gives it motion, and the river that gives it refreshing; and it shall reign through the righteousness of Christ to eternal life: it never was, and it never shall be, taken captive by sin.

These are Mr. Ryland's sentiments, and Maria's experimental truths; so that they give us a description of Mr. Ryland's head, and Maria's heart, and both are nothing but lies. Their grace has got feet, and when these feet tread upon indwelling sin, then they are holy, &c. and when sin takes their grace captive, then they groan. If sin could ever prevail and capture grace, sure I am that there would be great reason to fear that the devil, who is sin's great ally, would never open the door to this his prisoner, Maria has attempted to tell the public what ideas I entertain of her book; if she can do it, let her: but I never shall be able to describe the awful thoughts that I have of it, nor the awful thoughts that I have of their state who wrote it. However, it may do for persons who are inwardly seared with a hot iron; vain in life, and empty of thought; destitute of grace, and at enmity with the power of it: but the time will come when such lies and liars will be weighed in an even balance; and we shall see what they are, as well as hear what they say. "The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed."

Quote.

That to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, the moral law has ceased to exist as a covenant of works is a grand and glorious truth.

Answer.

Every new-born soul under heaven, that is a twelvemonth old in grace, will prove this assertion to be a lie from his own testimony. Let the believer lose sight of Christ, and doubt of his interest in him, the old vail wilt gather on his mind; legal bondage will find him out, and will gender fear in him, and set him to legal striving and working; the law will work wrath in him, stir up his corruptions, and the enmity of his heart; and sin will prevail over him, for the strength of sin is the law; the old yoke will gall him, and terrors will beset him round about; and such an one will cry out, "Bring my soul out of prison:" or else, "Restore unto me the joys of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit." The law can entangle a foolish Galatian still, if he looks there: hence the exhortation, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage." Many souls, who have tasted that God is gracious, have been brought into and kept long in bondage by such scribbling fools as the authors of this book; I say, fools; and Paul calls them the same: "For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise; for ye suffer if a man bring you into bondage." If the law has ceased to exist as a covenant of works, then its authority must of course cease also. It never had any power but to command to do, and to condemn for not doing; and if these are gone, where is its authority over the believer? The English of this is, that the believer is under a power that has no existence. This at once pulls down all that Maria has built, and must sap the foundation of all that she intends to build. A certain preacher in the Borough is ten times more honest than these authors; for, when he was going to preach from this text, "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ," he confessed, that he could not say, with Paul, that unto me is this grace given:" But, says he, I can preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. The former is an open and ingenuous confession, but the latter is a mystery: for how a man, destitute of grace, can preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, is what I cannot comprehend; seeing the riches of Christ do not lie in a knowledge of the letter of scripture, which a man may preach, but in the redemption of his soul, and the forgiveness of his sins, which he must have an experience of, "according to the riches of his grace," Ephes. i. 7. But these authors have no such honesty in them: they will injure the law, and belie both God and conscience, rather than not make some pretensions to grace, in order to oppose the mystery of it; but, when they come to describe it, the weakest believer may see that it has not the least resemblance of the grace of God. I shall not preach the law into nonexistence. I say, as God's word does, that the believer is redeemed from the law, and delivered from it; that he is not under it, but under grace; that he is no more a servant, but a son; no longer under a schoolmaster, but under the great Prophet of the church. This is his liberty, his glory, and his privilege: but, if he abuses this liberty, or suffers fools to seduce him from it, it is his folly, and his shame; and such a backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways.

Quote.

Because the Lord Jesus is become the end of the law, both moral and ceremonial, to every one that believeth.

Answer.

By the perfect obedience of the Saviour to the precept of the moral law, he became the end thereof for righteousness to every one that believeth; and forever delivered the believer from the yoke of that precept, which is, Do, and live. And, by his sacrifice, he became the fulfilling end of the ceremonial taw for sanctification: for "by his one offering he perfected for ever all them that are sanctified."

Quote.

That the moral law ought still to be considered as the rule of a believer's conduct, is as great a truth: it is the eternal rule of righteousness, and is incapable of any variation.

Answer.

It is impossible for a dove to wriggle through every maze that a serpent can crawl through, only to discover that all its ways are crooked. 'That the law has ceased to exist as a covenant of works, is a grand and glorious truth.' This Maria affirms; and then says, 'The Law is the believer's rule of conduct, being the eternal rule of righteousness; and is incapable of any variation.' If it ever was a covenant of works, and has now ceased to exist as such, it must have varied some way or other. If this is not vain jangling what is? Hence it follows, that there needs no exhortations to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free; no call to caution believers against the yoke of bondage, and the wrath that is revealed in the law, and that Christ shall profit them nothing who seek perfection by it. Paul's labour with the Galatians was all in vain, for the law has ceased to exist as a covenant of works; and yet it is the believer's only rule of works, which is here called his conduct, by which he is to live and walk. These are Maria's experimental truths; these are her refutations of error, and Mr. Ryland's sentiments; and such I am willing to call them, for they have no more foundation in the scriptures of truth, than truth has place in Maria's heart.

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Among men, the idea of a king and people supposes also a law subsisting between the parties, agreeable to which, the king is to rule, and the people to frame their actions. The subjects of Christ are under a threefold obligation; a natural obligation, a moral obligation, and a spiritual obligation, &c.

Answer.

They that were left to use the natural obligation, acted the same rebellious part that Maria does, by presuming, as a woman, to teach, and usurp authority over the man, which is strictly forbidden by Christ. They said in words, as she doth by works, "We will not have this man to reign over us:" and, as for the moral obligation, that was given by Moses, and those that cleaved to that were the greatest enemies to Christ, but grace and truth came by Jesus. The spiritual obligation is that which came by the King of Zion. The law of faith was to go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. But this is what Paul calls the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that made him free from the law of sin and death. This came not by Moses, but by Christ; as it is written, "A law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people, and the isles shall wait for my law." In short, the kingdom of God stands not in the letter of the law, nor yet in the natural obligations of flesh and blood, which is nothing; nor yet in word: no, not in the word of the gospel, much less in the speech of them that are puffed up: but the kingdom stands in power, in the inward reign of special grace, super-abounding in power over Sin; and it stands in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. One pillar of Maria's kingdom stands in fallen nature, the other in the killing letter given at Horeb: but self is to be denied, and the law, which worketh wrath, is to he fled from, and the King of Zion to be adhered to. "I have set my King upon my holy hill." "Kiss the Son." "Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." But Maria owns, that her new man of grace is taken captive by sin; so that she needs the assistance of her natural and moral obligations to pick her new man up, and keep him upon his feet.

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As for me, says Paul, I am determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." But he also adds, "I am not without law to God, but under the law to Christ."

Answer.

Paul is of age, we can ask him what law he held to God; he shall speak for himself. God hath said, saith Paul, "Behold the days come that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now, that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. For this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days; I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; I will be merciful to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more." And this law, written in the mind, is the law that proceeded from Christ, which, in Christ Jesus, Paul calls the law of the Spirit of life; which, when communicated to Paul, made him free from the law of sin and death. And this new covenant, or law of faith, written on Paul's mind, is what he means, when he says, "I delight in the law of God after the inward man," as he afterwards explains it himself: "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind."

Here Paul declares, that God's new covenant is not according to the old: that was written on tables of stone; this is written in the mind, and on the fleshly tables of the heart: that with the finger of God, this by the holy Ghost: that law is the killing letter given by Moses; this is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That was the law of works, this is the law of faith.

Faith, says Paul, is the gift of God; and God writ this law of faith on Paul's mind, so that he was not without law to God; and Paul receiving delivering grace from Christ's fullness, says, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death;" and this he calls being under the law to Christ, or under grace, which means one and the same thing.

But the law of Moses is the law of the bondwoman and her children, for they that are of the works of the law are under the curse; but the law of faith is the law of the saint's inward man, which after the inward man Paul loved. But he found another law, warring against that law of the inward man, which he afterwards explains thus, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit;" but the law cannot be called the Spirit. In all this Paul speaks consistent with himself.

God, says Paul, promised a new covenant, which is a covenant of grace. And I, saith the apostle, am under this grace.

This covenant, saith the Most High, shall not be according to the old. Then, says the apostle, I am not under the law.

I will put my laws in their hearts, says God. And I love this law, says Paul, after the inward man.

I will, says God, write my laws in their mind. And "I, with my mind, serve the law of God," saith Paul. "But I find another law in my members warring against the law of my mind."

I will give them a new heart and a new spirit, saith the Almighty. That we might be delivered from the law, says Paul, and "serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."

But those authors, by enforcing that Paul's law of the mind is the moral law, make Paul contradict himself throughout. As it follows, "We are delivered from the law," saith Paul, "that we should serve in newness of spirit;" and yet adds, "I am not without law to God." Here is a deliverance from it, that we might be under it to God. "The law [saith Paul] was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; but after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster," Gal. iii. 24, 25. And then he adds," I am under the law to Christ." According to Maria's sense, we are no longer under a schoolmaster, when faith comes, that we may be under a schoolmaster as soon as we are enabled to believe in Christ: this is what these authors make Paul speak. Again, The law is against us and contrary to us, saith the apostle; and yet adds, "I delight in the law after the inward man." This is a contradiction, unless the two laws are brought in. The law is the ministration of death, saith Paul. That it might be the believer's only rule of life, says Maria. "We are become dead to the law by the body of Christ," says Paul. That the law might bee0methe only rule of conduct to them that are in Christ, saith Maria. The first husband is dead, and ye are married to another, saith the apostle, That your fruitfullness may spring from the embraces of the first husband, saith the prophetess. These are the self-contradictions that these poor blind bats palm upon Paul; these are their refutations of error, these are their experimental truths. Alas! alas! they neither know the scriptures, nor the power of God.

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What law? the moral law? Some say the law of love, and I grant it; for the moral law, and the law of love, are synonimous terms, and mean one and the self-same thing.

Answer.

There certainly is such a law as the law of love. Paul says, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." And it certainly was the law of love in Christ, that moved him to pity, and to bear the burden of us; as it is written; "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Yet, I think there is some difference between the law of love in Christ's heart, which moved him to pity us, and the moral law, that cursed him for his kind undertaking, and worked such wrath in him as made him cry out, "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels."

The wrath of God is revealed in the law; the law worketh wrath, and they that are under it are under the curse of it, as we all were. The Redeemer, to redeem us, suffered this wrath, and endured the curse, out of love and pity to his elect: but those who can make the love of Christ, and the ministration of death, one and the same thing; who can make the sentence of condemnation and redeeming grace, or eternal death and everlasting life, synonimous terms, are guilty of such lies as never came out of the mouth of a devil. The Almighty does not call the law the effect of his Clemency, but a fiery law; not a beam of his love, but a fire kindled in his anger; not to raise souls to heaven, but to burn to the lowest hell. The spirit of the law is not to enlarge the heart, but it is of bondage to fear; it does not proclaim a prisoners enlargement, but shuts him up till faith is revealed; when it comes to the sinner's heart, it does not minister love, but revives his sin, and kills him. This last quotation sets aside all the use of a sacrifice, and of the mercy seat, and makes the redemption of Christ nothing worth. Maria has implored the divine assistance, that she might give God himself the lie, and belie the testimony of all the cloud of witnesses, and the terrible experience of the whole church of God. And if such vile writers as these, who are driven on by pride and envy to utter such arrogance against the gospel, do not find, sooner or later, something in God's law besides love, whenever they come to a reckoning, I am willing to be called a false prophet for ever.

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Neither Paul nor James had any idea that the law was ever abolished or done away.

Answer.

Maria says, it has ceased to exist as a covenant of works; and this, she says, is a glorious truth: then it must be done away as to its authority and power. But neither Paul nor James had any such ideas. The law is still a covenant of works to them that are under it, for they are of' the works of it, and under the curse of it; yea, the very heathens have got the works of it written on their hearts; and by it, the ungodly world will be found guilty at last, and be judged and cursed by it. But I say, the believer in Christ is not under it, but under grace; not under the curse of it, but under the blessing of Abraham. However, I am informed that Mr. Townsend says, that the law belongs wholly to the believer; for as to the carnal man, he says, his mind is enmity against it, and not subject to it; therefore the law is to be preached to believers only. 'This is his reasoning: however, the scriptures testify the reverse of this. Let us inquire,

Answer.

"Knowing this," saith the apostle, "that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for man-slayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." According to this declaration, if my dear Maria be lawless; that is, if the law of faith, the law of truth, the law of liberty, the law of life and peace, be not put into her mind, and written on the fleshly tables of her heart, she is entitled to all the benefits of this law of works. Furthermore, if she be disobedient to the gospel, if she has not received grace for the obedience of faith, the law is made for her. If she be ungodly, destitute of the image of Christ; if a sinner, neither pardoned nor justified; if unholy, destitute of the Holy Ghost; if profane in mind, life, or conversation; if a murderer, or hater of the brotherhood; if a thief, or a liar; if a perjured person, the law is made for her; it is her only rule of life, walk, and conversation: for the above text declares, it is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.

Having taken notice, who the law is made for, we will now proceed to inquire, who the law speaks to.

"Now we know, that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God." According to this text, and what goes before in this chapter, if my dear Maria, or any of her company, be unrighteous, if she has no understanding, if she seeks not after God, if she is out of the way, if she is unprofitable, if her throat be an open sepulchre, if her tongue has used deceit, if the poison of asps be under her lips, if her mouth be full of cursing and bitterness, if her feet be swift to shed blood, if destruction and misery are in her ways, if she is a stranger to the way of peace, if there be no fear of God before her eyes, she is entitled to the yoke of this law: for, according to Paul, these are the things which the law saith, and it saith them to those that are under the law, that Maria's mouth may be stopped, and that she, with the rest of the world, may become guilty before God.

Having extracted the characters described in the scriptures that the law is made for, and the persons that the law speaks to; I shall, in the next place, describe the characters that are entitled to the wrath of God revealed in the law. The law is a voice of wrath. "Fury," says God, "is not in me." It is revealed in the law: "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.

Hence God speaks not to his believing children in the law, because it is a voice of wrath; but by his holy Spirit of promise, and by his Son: "God hath, in these last days, spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things." Now, let us consider the objects, and the characters of those objects to whom God speaks in his wrath; which wrath is revealed in the law.

"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." These persons here described are heathens, unregenerated persons, who neither worship God in truth, nor pray in the Spirit. They rage at the power and success of the gospel of Christ. They imagine a vain thing against the Lord's Anointed, by opposing his gospel, and cleaving to the law, which can neither justify them, sanctify them, encourage them, nor help them. They oppose the dominion of Christ's grace, and contend for works, which is vain jangling. They imagine a vain thing against his saints, in reproaching them, and condemning them, as erroneous and licentious persons, which are God's precious ones. "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." They take counsel together against the kingly power of Jesus, and exalt Moses against him, and above him, "We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." They break Zion's bands asunder, in that they speak and preach against the constraining influence of the law of the Spirit, which binds the church to Christ the head, "from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." They cast Zion's cords from them; they either oppose the gospel altogether, or they turn from the holy commandment after a profession of it; and set themselves against the constraining ties, and the alluring cords of the everlasting love of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, that threefold cord which can never be broken; that is, it never can be broken by a soul secured by it, though au hypocrite may cast it from him, not being an object of it, and having never felt the power of it. Now if Maria rages at the gospel, which is the power of God to salvation; if she is vain enough to imagine, that she shall get help for herself, or others, by the law, as her rule of life; if she sets herself in behalf of the law against Christ, against the power in which his kingdom stands, against the empire of his grace, which is set up in the hearts of his saints; if she levels her rage at Zion's bands, that hold head and members together; or at the influence of the Spirit, by which we are joined to the Lord, and casts away the cords of love, and contends for the law that worketh wrath; the wrath of the' law is pointed to her: God speaks to her in his wrath, and will vex her in his displeasure. This is the portion of a wicked man from God, who is under the law; and the heritage appointed unto him by God, in the law.

Furthermore, the law of God is armed with the avenging sword of Justice, and must undoubtedly fall upon them who make the law of works their rule of life, instead of the law of faith: for "they which be of faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham; but as many as are of the works of the law, are under the curse;" and are exposed to the avenging sword of Justice, having never fled from the wrath to come, nor taken shelter in the satisfaction of Christ, in whom the sword was bathed. "For my sword," says God, "shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse to judgment." This is the scripture account of the persons for whom the law is made, to whom the law speaks, and against whom the wrath of the law is revealed; and upon whom the avenging sword of Justice will undoubtedly come down to judgment, though such fools may contend for it, and sport with it, and make their boast of it, as the Pharisees of old did, till they had their bellyful of Sinai: as Paul says, "For Hagar is Mount Sinai, in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." But we go on again.

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Some say the law cannot be a perfect rule of conduct, because it says nothing upon some subjects which are noted in the precepts of the New Testament.

Answer.

The law calls for doing, and the gospel for believing: he that contends for the law, and does not continue in all things written therein, is cursed of God; and he that hears the gospel, and believes not, shall be damned by Christ. The law is not of faith, nor is faith of the law; nor does God minister the Spirit by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith; nor does God work any thing in them who cleave to the law but wrath; but by the gospel he works in us both to will and to do, of his own good pleasure. Nor does God attend with his seal the preaching of the law, but he gives testimony to the word of his grace. Nor did the apostles ever drop one hint to any one believer in their days, that the moral law was their rule of life, but committed them to God, and to the word of his grace; and commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. And I insist upon it, that there never was, and that there never will be, one good work found in, nor one good work performed by any one soul in this world, till union takes place between the soul and the Saviour; till the good treasure of grace be put into the earthen vessel, and until God work both inclination and motion in such a soul But Maria and her company can no more describe or explain any one of those branches of vital godliness, than the Pope of Rome, or one of the Lapland witches.

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All this is true; though the authors know nothing what they say, nor what they mean.

Answer.

This I did say: and yet I thought it needful to waste a page in answering it; and in this I am not without a precedent. When the devil told Christ that he knew who he was, and called him the Holy One of God, Christ rebuked him, and suffered him not to speak any more of that matter. And, when the devil cried up Paul and Barnabas as servants of the Most High God, they rebuked him, though he spoke some things that were true. And, if Maria learns a word of scripture, and sets herself up as a teacher, she must be rebuked for her iniquity, because she is not permitted to teach: her preachment, as well as the devil's confession, are both rejected by the word of Christ.

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"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

Answer.

What does Maria mean to prove by this text? Does this favour her notion, that the killing letter is the rule of the saint's life? The Saviour's commandment is not that which was given at Sinai. He brought no tables of stone with him: they were in the world before. Maria would have us believe that the law was given by Jesus, and that grace and truth came by Moses. The Saviour mentions two commandments, that of his Father, and that of his own. The former was an intolerable yoke, but that of his own is light, which he tells us to take upon us. The Father's commandment is the moral law, which the Saviour magnified and made honourable; but the evangelical commandment that the believer is to keep, is not engraven on tables of stone, which says, Do, and live; but it is a commandment made known unto all nations for the obedience of faith. Upon Mount Zion God hath commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. This is the King of Zion's commandment, which we citizens hope ever to keep. The other commandment belongs to Maria and Co. it is for the lawless and disobedient; it is not made for a righteous man. "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts; and against such there is no law." Another commandment of the Saviour is, that we should love one another. And I do believe, that if I was a real conjuror, a magician, an antinomian, and a liar, as Maria calls me, that she would have some affection for me; for hypocrites love hypocrites, drunkards love drunkards, sinners love sinners. But, as Maria cannot love me, I do conclude that God has made me of a different cast from her, because there was a popular preacher against whom Maria never wrote, though he was an antinomian with a witness. Of this man Maria and Co. were dotingly fond. It was Brother B ....and Sister M .... and Sister D .... to the end of the chapter. And, soon after God discovered Brother B .... that we might see the bonds of iniquity that held Sister M .... and D .... to Brother B .... But my dear Maria is for piety: and so was Judas, or he would never have rebuked the woman for wasting the ointment. But the former seeks her belly, and the latter sought the bag. Mary had wrought a good work on the Saviour, and the Saviour has wrought a good work in me; and the latter is as displeasing to the hypocrite as the former was to the devil.

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The Rev. Mr. Ryland, senior, is as far superior to Mr. Huntington's low calumny, as the moon walking in brightness is to the barking of the village cur.

Answer.

I want no female puffers at my auction. I would sooner have Maria cry me down in three market towns, than advance one penny upon my name. The testimony of man is not sufficient to establish the mind of a spiritual ambassador, much less that of a woman, and lesser still that of a hypocrite. The Pope will not canonize for nothing; and I believe it has cost Mr. Ryland some pounds to be put in red letters, into Maria's almanack. However, I had rather be Maria's village dog than have my office stained by the encomiums of such a pitiful patroness; whom to resist is as much my duty as to resist the devil himself; who, in a late work, has invoked Hymen, the Sun in his firmament, and the Holy Ghost together, to attend the marriage-bed, and the carnal embraces, of a new-married couple. God will, some time or other, let such professors know, that the feigned deities of Heathens have no fellowship with him. But, as Mr. Ryland and Mr. Wills have been so kind as to recommend such a work for Maria, it is but right that she should cast her spikenard upon their name.

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Mr. Ryland's name and writings will be in everlasting remembrance, and a sweet savour to thousands, when Mr. Huntington's will be swallowed up in the gulph of oblivion.

Answer.

I have learned to be quite content with my present state. I by no means envy the state of Mr. Ryland, nor the everlasting remembrance of his name or writings. I know whom I have believed, who pardoned me, who justified me, and who sent me into the ministry; and that is enough for me; and I believe more than Mr. Ryland, or his patroness, ever knew, or could ever say with truth on their side. And if all my writings are swallowed up in the gulph of oblivion, it will be no grief to me, because the truths contained in them will then be found in the evangelical parts of the scriptures, where many of Mr. Ryland's never were.

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The reader will observe, these are not my words, but they were spoken by the lips of infallible truth: they are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, John xv. 10.

Answer.

I know the words are true, but the sense that you have put upon them is a lie. When Christ mentions these words, my commandments, he never once means, in all the four evangelists, the moral law; he never puts the word, my, to that: he mentions that on this wise: "Did not Moses give you the law, and none of you keepeth the law?" "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" He calls the moral law, the law; and Moses, the giver of the law. And this law, given by Moses, Jesus entails upon those bond children that opposed the gospel of his grace; and this Maria might have found, if she had read the chapter throughout: "But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause." But my commandments, my words, and my sayings, are the words of eternal life; and differ as much from the killing letter engraven on tables of stone, as the perversions of Maria differ from the experimental truths of the gospel. "The law and the prophets were until John," says Christ; "since that time," not the moral law, but, "the kingdom of God is preached." Maria does pervert the scriptures, and tells lies in the name of God.

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"Hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him: but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected."

Answer.

This text gives Maria the lie in its own explanation; and tells her, as plain as words can speak, that the killing letter is never once intended. What is called the Saviour's commandments, is afterwards called truth, and truth is afterwards called his word. The commandment that the Father gave me, saith the Saviour, is life everlasting. And truth, says John, as well as grace, came by Jesus Christ. And surely Christ's word, here mentioned, cannot be the killing letter. No, saith the Saviour, "My word is spirit, and my word is life." The meaning of this text is this: whosoever receives Christ's life-giving commandment, which is his word, and his truth, into his heart, in the power of it, so as to believe it, and love it, to keep it, and hold it fast; in him verily is the love of God perfected: but as for the law, neither life nor love come by that, but by Jesus Christ. He that loveth me, and keepeth my words, saith the Saviour, I will love him; but he that loveth me not, keepeth not my sayings. This is another of Maria's damnable perversions of the doctrines of Christ.

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This, to be sure, presses hard upon Mr. Huntington's ideas, that the believer has nothing to do with the commandments.

Answer.

I never said, the believer had nothing to do with the commandments: that is Maria's own lie. I say, the righteousness of the moral law is fulfilled in the believer who walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and, as for the life-giving commandment of Christ, I know that that dwells richly in every saint of God; for God declares, that the word that he put into Christ's mouth, and the Spirit that he put upon him, shall never depart out of his mouth, nor out of the mouth of his seed, nor out of the mouth of his seed's seed, from henceforth and for ever. This, saith God, "is my covenant with them." But, to make the incorruptible seed, the word of God, that liveth and abideth for ever, and by which a saint is born again, to be the moral law, is a most dreadful perversion of scripture.

And why should this press 'hard upon Mr. Huntington, who has a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly? Indeed, if I had guided lily affairs with so much indiscretion as to contract enormous debts, and never pay; or mump a livelihood, by putting on of a sheep's-skin, and telling lies in the name of God; every part of God's word would doubtless press hard upon me, if I had any feeling at all. But then these things lie upon my enemies: they can lay no such things to my charge. Blessed be God, I can say through grace, that if they come upon the footing of good works, I should have no objection to be weighed in an even balance with ten thousand John Rylands, and all the prophetesses that have appeared in Great Britain since the first rise of the venerable Mother Shipton.

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As though the apostle had said, I lay down no new rule for you as believers, to form your life and conversation by.

Answer.

This lie never came out of the mouth of John. He declared, that if any man had not the doctrine of Christ, he had not God; and, if a man brought the whole law of Moses in his head into one of the saints' assemblies, it had no weight with John. If a man come unto you, and bring not this doctrine of Christ, receive him not into your house, nor bid him God speed. John, and all the rest of the apostles, give Maria the lie; as it is written, "Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain, which went out from us, have troubled you with words subverting your souls; saying, Ye must be circumcised and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment." Hence we see, that this lie is wholly Maria's own. John the evangelist is by no means the father of it, though John at Enfield may.

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I lay down no new rule for you as believers.

Answer.

This is another lie: the apostles lay down a new rule for new creatures, and that in opposition to Maria's rule: "For, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature: and, as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."

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I refer you to the old commandment, the same that was given to you from the beginning.

Answer.

This old commandment is not the moral law; and that Maria might have seen, if she had read the whole chapter. The old commandment, from the beginning of Christ's ministry, was the commandment of life upon mount Zion, which John counsels his disciples to keep in their heart. "Let that, therefore, abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father," 1 John, ii. 24. But the moral law, which worketh wrath, reveals no such union as this which is here called an abiding in the Son and in the Father; for those that are of the works of the law, are under the curse; and instead of being in the Son, and in the Father, they are without God, and without Christ, in the world; and as far from Father and Son as the vengeance of heaven can set them.

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If the law is so done away, as that the believer, do what he will, cannot sin, because there is no law to forbid; and, by forbidding, render the action criminal, &c. why did the Holy Spirit dictate, under the gospel dispensation, this scripture; "Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the taw, for sin is the transgression of the law?"

Answer.

My reader will see, that this is an oblique stroke at the gospel of the Son of God; that the believer in Christ, whom the Holy Ghost declares is redeemed from the law, Gal. iii. 13; delivered from the law, Rom. vii. 6; and who is not under the law, but under grace, Rom. vi. 14; do what he will, says Maria, cannot sin; because, as he is delivered from the law, there is no law to forbid sin; and as God has declared that he is not under the law, there is no law forbidding, so as to render his actions criminal, saith Maria. This is making Christ the minister of sin, and rendering the gospel as no rule of right and wrong; for, if the believer is delivered from the law, he cannot sin, for there is no other law to forbid, and not forbidding, cannot make the action criminal, so that, according to Maria, the gospel is an encourager of sin. Maria knows nothing of any law but the moral law: she knows nothing of the law of equity or conscience, against which the heathens sin without the moral law, and shall perish without law, being a law to themselves.

She knows nothing of the law of faith, which is Christ's law, by which those that believe, shall be justified; and those that believe not, shall be damned; and, by transgressing the same, they sin against Christ. But I had forgot, that this law excludes boasting, and therefore it must press exceeding hard upon Maria, John Ryland, and Co. who seek honour one of another.

Maria knows nothing of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus; and that those who do despite to the Spirit of grace, or sin against the Holy Ghost, have never forgiveness.

Nor does she know any thing of a throne of grace, nor of the laws of Zion, where God cites his own children for their misdemeanors, which Paul speaks of: "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged; but, when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world."

Nor does Maria know any thing of James's glorious law, which regulates both the words and actions of the saints of God, and by which they must all be judged, and not by the moral law; for God himself declares, that we are not under that. But this law, mentioned by James, Maria never saw: "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty; for he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy [in the heart of the saint] rejoiceth against judgment," by the law of liberty. But Maria adds,

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"Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law."

Answer.

Sin is a transgression of every law of God and man; nor can we suppose, that God delivers his children from the law, which is the strength of sin, that we should live in every abomination. Paul says, that we are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that we should be married to another, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. However, charging the grace of God with such consequences, has ever been the labour of the Arminian, and of every bond child in a profession. And Paul assigns a reason why we are delivered from the law; not that we should live in sin, but that we should be made fruitful by grace: "For, when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to being forth fruit unto death;" therefore a deliverance from the law was needful. How shall the believer, who is dead to sin, live any longer therein.: saith Paul. The soul that is born of God, cannot live in sin; he is kept by the mighty power of God through faith, not through the law, to salvation. Now, let us consider the import of this text out of John. Now are we the sons of God. And when Christ shall appear, we shall be like him. And every man that hath this hope in himself, of appearing in glory, in the image of Christ, purifieth himself, by faith in Christ's blood, and by unfeigned love of the brethren, even as he is pure. This is the description of a son of God, with a good hope through grace in his heart, and of the purity of one renewed and purified by the Spirit of adoption. Now comes in the sinful hypocrite. "Whosoever committeth sin, transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him, [Christ,] neither known him:" so shat the sinner here, or the transgressor of the law, is just such an one as Maria herself, who never saw Christ, and who never knew Christ. John goes on, and says, "He that committeth sin [is not a believer, but he] is of the devil." This is the sinner, not the saint: the one is a son with a good hope, the other is a sinner under the law; the former purifies himself, the other transgresseth the law; the former has a seed in him, and he cannot sin, being born of God; the other committeth sin, and is of the devil. And then John concludes; "In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil," 1 John iii. 10. John yokes the law upon the sinner, who, he says, belongs to the devil, and who is a child of the devil; who is under the law, and who transgresseth the law; who hath never seen the Saviour, nor known the Saviour; therefore, it is impossible that he should be delivered from the law, or from his sin, which is a transgression of the law. This is the very doctrine that I contend for. The law is made for the ungodly and for sinners, and upon them John saddles it: but the child of God is under the grace of Christ; he hath seen Christ, he hath known Christ, he hath a hope of glory in himself, he is born of God, has a pure heart, and he cannot sin; he is delivered from the law, that he might bring forth fruit unto God; his iniquity is forgiven, his sin is covered; and to him God never will impute sin. The law is not made for a righteous man; he is in Christ Jesus, and has crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts, and against such there is no law. Yea, he is delivered from the law, he is not under the law; and sin is not imputed where there is no law. The sins of Israel shall be sought for, but they shall not be found; for there shall be none, saith the Lord. These are the children of God, and this is God's testimony concerning them.

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The law is still remaining in full force, as the rule of righteousness.

Answer.

It is the only rule of righteousness, but not to the believer, but to the bond woman, and all her children, who go about to establish their own righteousness, not submitting to the righteousness of God, and so stumble at that stumbling stone. But the elect receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, and shall reign in life by Jesus Christ. They are justified by faith, live by faith, and walk by faith; they walk in the Spirit, and are not under the law.

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Zacharias and Elizabeth were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless.

Answer.

Then they were justified by faith; and if they walked blameless, it is a full proof that the grace of God did not lead them to licentiousness, as Maria insinuates. But Zacharias did not obtain a very good report through faith, for he was struck dumb nine months for his infidelity, or disobedience to the law of faith; which looks, as if the law of faith was something like a rule of right and wrong, and a rule of obedience; though Maria says, it is not. If no rule of right, why is the virgin blessed for her obedience? and, if no rule that forbids wrong, why was the priest punished nine months for disobedience? Maria has forgot, that the old testament saints were under the legal commandments and ordinances; that the law and the prophets were until John; and, since that time, the kingdom of God is preached.

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David's conduct with Bathsheba and Uriah must be-either right or wrong; and if it was wrong, what constituted it so? It must be a deviation from the rule of right; and what can that rule be but the moral law, which says, 'Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery?'

Answer.

God will visit the sins of his children with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes; this he has declared he will do: but this is no proof that the law, under the gospel dispensation, is the only rule of life. Christ says, "The law and the prophets were until John." But even David, if he was under the moral law as his only rule of life, doubtless God must have proceeded against him according to that only rule; for, surely, the God of all the earth will do right. And yet God did not proceed against him according to that law, for by it he must have been cursed; for, by that, God never will clear the guilty. God proceeds against sinners according to the law they are under; against the heathens he proceeds according to their conscience, they being a law to themselves; against the bond children under the moral law, according to that; but those that are under grace, according to the law of faith. "If we would judge ourselves," says Paul, "we should not be judged." And David was shewn, that he ought to' have done this himself; but, as he neglected it, the parable of the ewe lamb is brought in to remind him of it, which sets David upon the judgment seat in unsuspection; and he passed the sentence of the law, which is death, and swears to the execution of it: "And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die," 2 Sam. xii. 5. Here is David, according to Maria, under the law; which, as she asserts, was his only rule of right and wrong; and he is here cast by his own counsel, and condemned by his own mouth; yea, and an oath of God by David assures the execution of the sentence; and yet David lives. God does not say to him, "Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant: cast ye the unprofitable servant into outward darkness." Nothing like it. God certainly viewed him under some other law, and proceeded against him by some other rule; for God is without partiality, and without hypocrisy. It was with David, as Paul says:" But when we [the saints] are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world." But this fatherly chastisement, and security from being condemned with the world, comes not from the two tables of stone; for that curses all that are under it, and all that are of the works of it; but it comes from the book of life, or law of faith, as it is written; "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty." But those mysteries Maria and her company know nothing of; they are hid from the wise and prudent; bond servants that are under the law, know not what their Lord doth. "But I," saith the Saviour, "have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of the Father, I have made known unto you."

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We find in David a most striking example of evangelical repentance and godly sorrow on the account of sin. He was a sinner, but he was no antinomian.

Answer.

Here my amazement ceases; or, rather, to use Maria's words, it greatly increases. I never knew, till now, that the name, antinomian, meant a saint that never fell. David was a sinner, but no antinomian. I thought that, by the name antinomian, Maria intended to have represented me as one of the worst of sinners, which is the sole cause of my offence at the name; knowing, in my own conscience, that I have laboured hard through numberless temptations that have befallen me in the way, to shun the paths of the destroyer. But a sinner and an antinomian are two things; then I have no objection to the name.

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Faith is the grand bond of union between Christ and his people.

Answer.

This is one of Maria's experimental truths: which, by the by, is an arrant lie. The elect were united to Christ from eternity, before ever faith was upon earth, and will be in union with him in heaven to all eternity, when faith will be no more. I proved this to be a lie in my last answer, and Maria must have the face of a devil to publish it the second time; but she cannot deliver her soul from the works of her father, nor say, Is there not a lie in my hand?

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So that those who live and die without being made partakers of vital faith, it is evident, never were united to Christ any other way.

Answer.

This is half truth, and half lies. They that live and die without real faith shall perish. But all the elect were united to Christ, not by faith, but by another way; namely, by the bond of God's everlasting love to them in Christ Jesus; so that the bond of union is God the Father's love to us, not our faith in the Saviour.

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In the fullness of time he unites those to himself, by implanting in their hearts vital faith, as a divine abiding, holy principle, by which they are cut off from their old stock, and are ingrafted into the new and living Vine.

Answer.

Christ takes into union his people, by implanting in their hearts vital faith. Faith cuts them off from the old stock, and faith unites to the living Vine. Here are three lies. God, by lovingkindness, not faith, draws us to Christ, and calls us to the fellowship of his Son. The sword of the Spirit, which is the word, and not faith, cuts us from the old stock; and the Spirit of love, not faith, unites us to the living Vine.

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On this grand union, which is faith, doth all sanctification, and communion, and walking with God, depend.

Answer.

This is another lie, Sanctification, by the decree of God from eternity, and by the death of Christ on the cross, and by the reception and operations of the Spirit, does not depend upon, faith; for faith is not that first and grand cause on which sanctification depends, but faith depends upon that, and is the effect and fruit of it.

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It is God the Holy Ghost who alone can create this faith.

Answer.

Real faith is produced under the operations of the Spirit, and is therefore called a fruit of his; but, as to Maria's created faith, I read nothing of that. It was made at Enfield; for I am sure, that God had never any hand in making such a creature.

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It is impossible for a dead sinner; that is, a dead man in sin; to give himself spiritual life, that is, divine faith.

Answer.

I read of Christ living in Paul, and of Paul's living by the faith of Christ; but there is a difference between Christ, who is the life, and faith, by which we live on Christ. Christ is the bread, faith is the hand; man's hands are not his life, but bread; men live not upon their hands, which God makes, but upon loaves of bread, which the bakers make.

Thou seest, reader, the drift and end aimed at in this mystery of iniquity, in this composition of lies and deception; it is to bring the child of God under the unbearable yoke of the law, and into the spirit of bondage: for the law is represented as the only rule of right and wrong, as the only law that requires obedience. No obedience is mentioned in her whole piece but obedience to God, or to Christ, under the moral law, as the only rule of life, walk, and conduct. The devil, that set these authors to work, has blinded their eyes, so that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shines not unto them. God has hid their heart from understanding, and therefore he shall not exalt them; and Satan, who sets these blind hypocrites on, knows how prone weak believers are to seek heaven by the works of the law; because, such a poor soul thinks it is making God some amends for past faults. Hence the wise man says, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." This way is not the broad way, or way of sin, for no man thinks that to be the way to heaven; conscience will not allow of such a thought: the way to heaven, by the works of the law, is the way that seems right. Hence some blind guides, who are called gospel preachers, cry out, ' If we are not under the law, what are we to obey? What is the rule of obedience? What, doth the believer yield no obedience? What, live as we list?' This is their ignorance; this their carnal logick, and their damnable deceptions: this is the very doctrine of the Judaising teachers, who followed Paul, and subverted the Galatians. They had begun in the Spirit, and then they aimed to be made perfect by the flesh. The Galatians' perfection by the law, and Maria's conduct by her rule, are synonymous terms, and mean one and the same thing. But what doth God call this turning to the law, for perfection or sanctification? he calls it disobedience. And what does he call their conformity to the law? he calls it foolishness: O foolish Galatians! And what name does he give the spirit of these seducers; that of witchcraft: Who hath bewitched you? Maria's experimental truths are nothing but witchcraft; and, if there is life in that muscle, I hope to kill her by the sword of the Spirit; for God hath said, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." "O foolish Galatians! who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?"

But, perhaps, my reader will say, what does Paul mean by obeying the truth? Answer.

Grace and truth are set in opposition to the law. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Truth signifies the covenant of life and peace, which is sometimes called a commandment: as it is written; "And ye shall know, that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips; he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." Now, reader, observe, here is, in the first place, a commandment mentioned, which God says, is my covenant, the covenant of life and peace. It is afterwards called the law of truth; and afterwards it is called knowledge, that the priest's lips should keep, and the law that should be sought at his mouth. This law of truth is not now to be found in Levi, but in Melchizedek; not in a legal priest, but in our great High-priest; for he is the great messenger of the covenant, and of the Lord of hosts: and this law is to be found in the mouth of every minister of the Spirit. As truth is here called a law, which requires spiritual obedience and service in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter; it makes Paul cry out, "O foolish Galatians! who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?" "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Obey the truth, stick to this covenant of life and peace, and go on with your service in the newness of the Spirit; for, "As many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God." Receiving the truth in the faith of it, and in the love of it, and walking in that faith that worketh by love, and keeping a good conscience toward God, is obeying the truth to all intents and purposes, and never mind being called antinomians; such souls obtain a good report through faith. God says of such an one, that he feared me, and was afraid before my name; that he walked with me in peace, and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity. But what does he say of these hypocrites that subvert the souls of his saints, and traduce them as vile and licentious? "But ye are departed out of the way: ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the law of truth," Mal. ii. 8, 9. And I should not wonder if God were to make some of our modern hypocrites as base and contemptible as he made the Jewish priests; for their vain jangling is of the same cast. Perverting the scriptures, and subverting the saints, was the trade that they carried on, and so do these.

I know that I might have extracted one half of the book, and have set it to contradict the other, and so have couched an answer in a three halfpenny volume. But as the glorious liberty of the children of God is a doctrine that to me shines brighter and brighter, I am glad of every opportunity to assert it; and, when I can silence a fool, by enforcing the truth, I think I kill two birds with one stone; and make nay own lamp shine the brighter, by placing it opposite to Maria's Will-o'-the-wisp.

But Maria tells us, that she has taken off an hundred likenesses in her wonderful performance; and I now intend to shew the reader, that the physiognomy of John Ryland, and his maid Maria, are the most striking and picturesque in all the exhibition.

Maria's piece, reader, is, she tells us, a refutation of errors; and, if you read the following extracts, you will say, That is a truth, and we cannot deny it: for Maria's experimental truths entirely refute her sound doctrines, and Mr. Ryland's tenets refute all his sentiments; so that the pill entirely swallows up the bolus, and chokes the quack instead of the patient. But this is no wonder: Maria can write upon any subject; it should have been many subjects; because this piece is a miscellany of many things, truth and grace excepted.

I doubt, reader, whether thou wilt be able to follow me through the following refutations, without tittering and laughing. If thou canst, thou hast got more solidity about thee than I have: for, surely, I never laughed more than I have in this work. The wise man says, "A foolish woman is clamorous; she is simple, and knoweth nothing." And, by following me a little further, thou wilt find the truth of another proverb, that of her ways thou wilt know nothing: "Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them."

I have, reader, selected some of her sound doctrines, and placed them against her experimental truths, in an opposite column; so that, when thou hast read one doctrine established, thou must look to the opposite extract that destroys it.

The left-hand column, in the page, builds up, the right-hand column knocks down. Moreover, lest the reader should puzzle or involve his mind in these deep mysteries, I have placed my key over every quotation, in order to unlock the mystery, and guide the reader into the sense of the prophetess. At the beginning of every introduction of mine, the reader will find the word Key; and at the beginning of every extract from her, the word Quote.

N.B. The Reader must not read the whole column down, but he must read one extract on the left-hand at a time, and then the opposite extract which contradicts it.