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natural affection loves nature; as saith the Saviour, Sinners love those that love them, Luke xvi. 32. "If ye were of the world the world would love his own; but, because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you:" but remember, "it hated me before it hated you." A godly man loves and pities sinners, for he has natural affections as well as divine; but a sinner never can love a saint as such; Christ says, "Ye shal! be hated of all men for my name's sake."

Thus, you see, natural love loveth sinful nature only; it is enmity against God; it hateth Christ, it hateth his saints, and it hateth the Saviour's choice of them; yet it loveth sinners, it loveth the world, and it loveth his own; thus the friend of the world is the enemy of God, James iv. 4. And Mr. Charity has shewn his enmity, both against Immanuel and against you. Against Immanuel, in sending you out of his road; for, by sending you to Sinai, he sent you from Christ; for, God has set his King upon his holy hill of Zion, Psalm ii. 6, not Sinai. He has also shewn his enmity against thee, in sending thee to the law, where there is nothing to be found for a guilty sinner but avenging justice and an accusing Moses.

'Immanuel makes us free, but the law genders to bondage, Gal. iv. 24, and veils the understanding; which is visible enough in thee, for thou art both blind and bound; thou canst neither see nor walk.' Then said I, 'Oh, wretched Charity, would

to God that I had never seen thee! I find that there are two men of the name of Charity; and being blind, I shall never know the one from the other.

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Pray, Mr. Evangelical, do inform me how I shall know Charity Divine, from Charity Natural.'

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Answer. Divine Charity is liberal in communicating divine things as well as temporal; it holds forth the pure word of God to the souls of others, and guides them in the way to heaven; and, when sinners are enabled to receive the grace of life, their sins are immediately covered by the righteousness of Christ, which grace has provided; as it is written, "And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves; for charity shall cover the mul titude of sins. Use hospitality one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God," 1 Pet. iv. 8, 9, 10.

Thus divine charity distributes sound divinity as well as temporal relief; whereas natural charity loves corrupt nature, loves sinners, loves errors, and loves the world; therefore is justly called vile affections, Rom. i. 26. And, as it hates God, his sovereignty, his dear son, and his chosen people, this charity must die. Real saints have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts, Gal. v. 24; for, Christ says, he that loveth father or mother, wife or children, better than me, is not worthy of me,

Matt. x. 37. Now, if inordinate lovers of near relations cannot be the Lord's disciples, what shall we say of the lovers of Cain, Judas, and Esau? However, his malice to you has been great; for, instead of sending you to mount Zion, where every saint must go, he has sent you to Sinai, the bondwoman, that God might curse you; "for, as many

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as are of the works of the law are under the curse,' Gal. iii. 10. And, instead of sending you into the church to the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, which is called a city sought out, not forsaken, Isaiah lxii. 12, but tenderly kept and enclosed with a wall of salvation, he has sent you into the wilderness: and here you might wander for ever, and speed no better than all the bondchildren have done, who are said to wander in the wilderness where there was no way, Psalm cvii. 4.

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But,' said I, the law commands us to love God and our neighbour.' 'Yes,' said Evangelical, it commands us to love, but it gives us no love, and we are filled with enmity against it; it tells us to do and live; but it gives us no strength to do with, and we have none of our own, consequently it can give us no life. Therefore all that cleaye to this law are called bond-children, and are in bondage as you are now yourself. Hagar is said to be the bond-mother of every bond-child; but Sarah, the mother of Isaac, was a free-woman, and a type of the heavenly Jerusalem above, which is said to be the mother of us all. Our reconciled

Father in Christ is the husband of her, and to him thou must go for love, for liberty, and for life; as it is written, "But ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel," Heb. xii. 22---24. Thus you find your freedom, your blessings, your reconciled God, and your mediator, your new covenant, the angels, and all the saints, are at mount Zion.

"What dost thou do slaving here? Dost thou think to produce evangelical obedience under the legal yoke? Canst thou fetch life from the sentence of death? Thou hast no business to toil here; thou art to serve God in the newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter, Rom. vii. 6. Thou art to walk in newness of life, Rom. vi. 4, and not under the ministration of death, 2 Cor. iii. 7. If thou seekest to be justified by the works of the law, thou art fallen from the method of grace. Think not to frustrate the grace of God; for, if rightéousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain, Gal. ii. 21. Thou hast got all thy road to go over again.'

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Then,' said I, 'I am blind, I cannot see: I shall never find my way back again. O Charity! Cha

rity! I would to God thou hadst never been born. Pray, Mr. Evangelical, is there not a string or something round my feet? I cannot see it myself, because I am blind; but I can feel it, for I cannot move one foot.' He said unto me, Yes, there is, and no wonder, it is a wicked thing to turn, as thou hast done, from the holy commandment delivered unto thee, 2 Pet. ii. 21. God has fulfilled his word to thine apostasy: "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins."

After he had said this to me he departed, and left me where I was; and I remained there in hold for nine months, without going one step forward or backward. My heart was too hard to pray, nor could I look up for help; for I found that the sentence of the law was already passed on me. At the end of nine months I groaned out the distress of my soul, and lamentably complained in my spirit: in answer to which these words came to my mind: "But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." This produced a beam of hope, for I felt it sensibly spring in my heart. I answered and said, Oh Lord, "I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart," Psalm cxix. 32. Soon after this a person came and spoke to me, of whom I asked an alms, for I was almost starved. The voice that I heard appeared to be the voice of a woman; who said unto me, 'Such as I have give I thee;' and then she sat down by me on the ground; or, in other

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