Law. Again the law says, "Knowest thou not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; be not deceived," &c. 1 Cor. vi. 9. And therefore thou being a sinner, and not righteous, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Gos. But the gospel says, "God has made Christ to be sin for thee, who knew no sin; that thou mightest be made the righteousness of God in him, who is the Lord thy righteousness," Jer. xxiii. 6.

Law. Again the law says, Pay me that thou owest me, or else I will cast thee into prison," Matt. xviii. 28, 30.

Gos. But the gospel says, "Christ gave himself a ransom for thee," 1 Tim. ii. 6; "and so is made redemption unto thee," 1 Cor. i. 30.

Law. Again the law says, "Thou hast not continued in all that I require of thee, and therefore thou art accursed," Deut. xxvii. 6. Gos. But the gospel says, "Christ hath redeemed thee from the curse of the law, being made a curse for thee," Gal. iii. 13.

Law. Again the law says, "Thou art become guilty before God, and therefore shalt not escape the judgment of God," Rom. iii. 29; ii. 3.

Gos. But the gospel says, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son," John v. 12.

And now, knowing rightly how to distinguish between the law and the gospel, we must, in the fifth place, take heed that we break not the orders between these two in applying the law where the gospel is to be applied, either to ourselves or to others; for albeit the law and gospel, in order of doctrine, are many times to be joined together, yet, in the case of justification, the law must be utterly separated from the gospel.

Therefore, whensoever, or wheresoever, any doubt or question arises of salvation, or our justification before God, there the law and all good works must be utterly excluded and stand apart, that grace may appear free, and that the promise and faith may stand alone which faith alone, without law or works, brings thee in particular to thy justification and salvation, through the mere promise and free grace of God in Christ; so that I say, in the action and office of justification, both law and works are to be utterly excluded and exempted, as things which have nothing to do in that behalf. The reason is this; for, seeing that all our redemption springs out from the body of the Son of God crucified, then is there nothing that can stand us in stead, but that only wherewith the body of Christ is apprehended. Now, forasmuch as neither the law nor works, but faith only is the thing which apprehendeth the body and

passion of Christ, therefore faith only is that matter which justifies a man before God, through the strength of that object Jesus Christ, which it apprehends; like as the brazen serpent was the object only of the Israelites' looking, and not of their hands' working; by the strength of which object, through the promise of God, immediately proceeded health to the beholders: so the body of Christ being the object of our faith, strikes righteousness to our souls, not through working, but through believing.

Wherefore, when any person, or persons, do feel themselves oppressed and terrified with the burden of their sins, and feel themselves with the majesty of the law and judgment of God terrified and oppressed, outweighed and thrown down into utter discomfort, almost to the pit of hell, as happens sometimes to God's own dear servants, who have soft and timorous consciences; when such souls, I say, do read or hear any such place of Scripture which appertains to the law, let them then think and assure themselves that such places do not appertain or belong to them; nay, let not such only who are thus deeply humbled and terrified do this, but also let every one that does but make any doubt or question of their own salvation, through the sight and sense of their sin, do the like.

And to this end and purpose, let them consider and mark well the end why the law was given, which was not to bring us to salvation, nor to make us good, and so to procure God's love and favour towards us: but rather to declare and convict our wickedness, and make us feel the danger thereof; to this end and purpose, that we seeing our condemnation, and being in ourselves confounded, may be driven thereby to have our refuge in the Son of God, in whom alone is to be found our remedy. And when this is wrought in us, then the law has accomplished its end in us; and therefore it is now to give place unto Jesus Christ, who, as the apostle says, "is the end of the law," Rom. x. 3. Let every true convicted person, then, who fears the wrath of God, death, and hell, when they hear or read any such places of Scripture as do appertain to the law, not think the same to belong to them, no more than a mourning weed belongs to a marriage feast; and therefore removing utterly out of their minds all cogitations of the law, all fear of judgment and condemnation, let them only set before their eyes the gospel, viz. the glad and joyful tidings of Christ, the sweet comforts of God's promises, free forgiveness of sins in Christ, grace, redemption, liberty, psalms, thanks, singing a paradise of spiritual jocundity, and nothing else: thinking thus within themselves, the law hath now done its office in me, and therefore must now give place to its better; that is, it must needs give place to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is my Lord and Master, the fulfiller and accomplisher of the law.

Lastly, As we must take heed and beware that we apply not the law where the gospel is applied, so must we also take heed and beware, that we apply not the gospel where the law is to be applied. Let us not apply the gospel instead of the law; for, as before, the other was even as much as to put on a mourning-gown at a marriage feast, so this is but even the casting of pearls before swine, wherein is great abuse amongst many; for commonly it is seen, that these proud self-conceited and unhumbled persons, these worldly epicures and secure mammonists, to whom the doctrine of the law does properly appertain, do yet notwithstanding put it away from them, and bless themselves with the sweet promises of the gospel, saying, "They hope they have as good a share in Christ as the best of them all, for God is merciful and the like." And contrariwise, the other contrite and bruised hearts, to whom belongs not the law, but the joyful tidings of the gospel, for the most part receive and apply to themselves the terrible voice and sentence of the law. Whereby it comes to pass, that many do rejoice when they should mourn; and on the other side, many do fear and mourn when they should rejoice. Wherefore, to conclude, in private use of life, let every person discreetly discern between the law and the gospel, and apply to himself that which belongs to him. Let the man or the woman, who did never yet to any purpose (especially in the time of health and prosperity) think of, or consider their latter end, that did never yet fear the wrath of God, nor death, nor devil, nor hell, but have lived and do still live a jocund merry life; let them apply the curse of the law to themselves, for to them it belongs: yea, and let all your civil honest men and women, who it may be, do sometimes think of their latter end, and have had some kind of fear of the wrath of God, death, and hell, in their hearts, and yet have salved up the sore, with a plaister made of their own civil righteousness, with a salve compounded of their outward conformity to the duties contained in the law, their freedom from gross sins, and their upright and just dealing with men; let these hearken to the voice of the law, when it says, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them;" but let all self-denying, fearful, trembling souls, apply the gracious and sweet promises of God in Christ unto themselves. and rejoice because their names are written in the Book of Life.

APPENDIX.

The Occasion of the "Marrow" Controversy, stated by the late Rev. John Brown of Haddington.

WHILE the Church of Scotland was clear and exact in her standards, and many of her preachers truly evangelical, a flood of legal doctrine filled many pulpits about the time of the Revolution.

The Arminian errors of Professor Simpson were also prevalent after this time; but the Assembly used him with great tenderness. However, they were far from being equally kind to such as earnestly endeavoured a clear illustration of the doctrines of God's free grace reigning through the righteousness of Christ. Mr Hamilton of Airth having published a catechetical treatise concerning the covenant of works and grace, and the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, in a more evangelical strain than some wished, the Assembly 1710, prohibited all ministers or members of this church to print, or disperse in writ, any catechism, without the allowance of the Presbytery of the bounds, or the Commission. The Presbytery of Auchterarder having begun to require candidates for license, to acknowledge it unsound to teach that men must forsake their sins in order to come to Christ, the Assembly 1717, on the same day they had dealt so gently with Professor Simpson, declared their abhorrence of that principle as unsound and most detestable—as if men ought only to come to Christ, the alone Saviour from sins, after they have got rid of them by repentance. Mr. James Hogg, one of the holiest ministers in the kingdom, having published or recommended a celebrated and edifying tract of the Cromwellian age, called The Marrow of Modern Divinity, the Assembly 1720, fell upon it with great fury, as if it had been replete with Antinomian errors, though it is believed many of these zealots never read it, at least had never perused it, in connexion with the Second Part of it, which is wholly taken up in manifestation of the obligation, meaning, and advantage of observing the law of God. They condemned the offering of Christ as a Saviour to all men, or to sinners as such, and the doctrine of believers' full deliverance from under the law as a broken covenant of works, they asserted men's holiness to be a federal or conditional mean of their obtaining eternal happiness. They condemned those almost express declarations of Scripture, that believers are not under the law, that they do not commit sin,that the Lord sees no sin in them, and cannot be angry with them, as Antinomian paradoxes, and condemned the distinction of the Moral law as a covenant of works, and as a binding rule of duty in the hand of Christ. In order to explain these expressions, Messrs James Hogg, Thomas Boston, Ebenezer and Ralph Erskines, Gabriel Watson, and seven others, remonstrated to the next Assembly against these decisions as injurious to the doctrine of God's grace. And in their answers to the Commission's Twelve Queries, they illustrated these doctrines with no small clearness and evidence. Perhaps influenced by this as well as by the wide spread detestation of their acts 1720 on that point, the Assembly 1722, re-considered the same, and made an act explaining and confirming them. This was less gross and erroneous. Nevertheless the twelve representers protested against it as injurious to truth; but this protest was not allowed to be marked. The Moderator, by the Assembly's appointment, rebuked them for their reflections on the Assembly 1720, in their representation, and admonished them to beware of the time coming; against which they protested.

Queries agreed unto by the commission of the general Assembly, and put to those Ministers who gave in a Representation and Petition against the 5th and 8th Acts of Assembly 1720, with the answers given by these Ministers to the said Queries."

Adhering to, and holding, as here repeated, our subscribed Answer given in to the Reverend commission, when by them called to receive these Queries, we come to adventure, under the conduct of the faithful and true Witness, who has promised the Spirit of truth to lead his people into truth, to make answer to the said Queries. To the which, before we proceed, we crave leave to represent, that the title thereto prefixed, viz. "Queries to be put to Mr. James Hog, and other Ministers who gave in a representation in favours of the Marrow, to the general Assembly 1721," as well as that prefixed to the Commission's overture anent this affair, has a native tendency to divert and bemist the reader, to expose us, and to turn the matter off its proper hinge, by giving a wrong colour to our representation, as if the chief design of it was to plead not for the precious truths of the gospel, which we conceived to be wounded by the condemnatory act, but for "The Marrow of Modern Divinity," the which, though we value for a good and useful book, and doubt not but the Church of God may be much edified by it, as we ourselves have been, yet came it never into our minds to hold it, or any other private writing, faultless, nor to put it on a level with our approved standards of doctrine.

QUERY I.—Whether are there any precepts in the gospel that were not actually given before the gospel was revealed?

ANSWER. The passages in our representation, marked out to us for the grounds of this query, are these:-" The gospel doctrine, known only by a new revelation after the fall. Of the same dismal tendency we apprehend to be the declaring of that distinction of the law, as it is the law of works, and as it is the law of Christ, as the author applies to it, to be altogether groundless. The erroneous doctrine of justification, for something wrought in, or done by the sinner, as his righteousness, or keeping the new and gospel-law." Now, leaving it to others to judge if these passages gave any just occasion to this question, we answer,

1st, In the gospel, taken strictly, and as contradistinct from the law, for a doctrine of grace, or good news from heaven, of help in God through Jesus Christ, to lost selfdestroying creatures of Adam's race, or the glad tidings of a Saviour, with life and salvation in him to the chief of sinners, there are no precepts; all these, the command to believe, and repent, not excepted, belonging to, and flowing from the law, which fastens the new duty on us, the same moment the gospel reveals the new object.

That in the gospel, taken strictly, there are no precepts, to us seems evident from the holy Scriptures. In the first revelation of it, made in these words,-" The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent," we find no precept, but a promise containing glad tidings of a Saviour, with grace, mercy, life, and salvation in him, to lost sinners of Adam's family. And the gospel preached unto Abraham, namely, "In thee," i.e. in thy seed, which is Christ, "shall all nations be blessed," is of the same nature. The good tidings of great joy to all people of a Saviour born in the city of David, who is Christ the Lord, brought and proclaimed from heaven by the angels, we take to have been the gospel, strictly and properly so called; yet is there no pre

* "A masterly production," says the judicious Mr. Fraser of Kennoway," which has undergone many impressions, and which discusses the points at issue with a perspicuity and energy that has commanded the esteem and admiration of Mr James Hervey, and many others who had no immediate concern in the controversy."