Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that ye should walk in them; as dear children, holy and beloved, walking worthy of God to all well-pleasing, as knowing your election of God.

Those spoken of 1 John ii. 13. are evidently the same persons considered in different respects, and not believers of different ranks, or degrees in grace, as weaker and stronger: Certain it is, the weakest of them, even in your view, are not described as doubting of their interest in Christ, but assured of that; in which point they are equal all of them. I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you • for his name's sake.—I have not written to because you you, know not the truth, but 'because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth for ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things.' And again, Hereby know we that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us. that we are of God.-And we

And we know

know that the

Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, ‹ and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.'

It is now entreated of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, that you excuse this freedom, and consider the answers which have been given to your arguments, whereby your principal weapons

have been endeavoured to be wrested out of your hands, that you might not for the future endea vour to abuse yourselves, and your hearers, by abusing the book of Psalms, or any other portion of the book of God; and that, at least, one might be clear of the blood of all men. Beware, O beware of that judaizing spirit of yours, lest thereby it come to pass, that Christ profit you and your followers nothing; and you be found guilty of undoing, to all intents and purposes, before God and man, the doctrine of sanctification, which is by the Spirit of Christ; as the former set of men were found guilty of undoing by their doctrines (which you hated) the doctrine of justification, which is by the blood of Christ.

There is a third set of people whom it is not easy to describe at full length, as being a mixture of many things, but who seem to be strongly characterized by their leading features in the writings of the apostles, as deceiving, and being deceived, spoiled and spoiling, with philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments, or elements, of the world, and not after Christ; being given up to profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called. One of these gentlemen will think nothing of reading you a text, for example, out of the iid, xvith, or lxxiid Psalm; and then, without any ceremony, apply it to some earthly constitution, or establishment of human wisdom's devising, which may have struck his fancy as a

proper subject for him to display his talents upon, as much (if the Holy Ghost, Acts ii. and xiii. chap. may be allowed to know his own meaning) in the spirit of the Psalm, as if you had been entertained by the performer with a story or two out of the Fairy Tales, or with a parcel of Lady Mary Wortley Montague's Letters from Constantinople, instructing you concerning the seraglios, customs, and dresses, that obtain among the Turks.

This way of doing puts one in mind of that precious creature who courted his mistress in the words of the Song of Solomon, and called her the Fair Circassian; or that other, a minister too, who, in a letter I lately saw, congratulated his friend on his having married a wife with a portion, in the very language of the Lord Jesus, saying, The lines have fallen to me in 'pleasant places. How terrible is this! Were even those rare divines of the last age farther gone in guilt and absurdity, who, in all the long-robed gravity of their wisdom, solemnly burlesqued the Psalms, and that in the name of the Lord, after prayers read, and a blessing implored, that they might be enabled suitably to apply and improve? And so with a vengeance they did apply and improve-how suitably, let the world judge! The King-the Lord's Anointed-his righteousness-his righteous cause→→→ his glory filling the whole land-his flourishing crown-righteous sceptre-peace of his government, &c. To whom were all those eulogiums

from the Psalms applied? To the Lord, of whom they were meant? No. To David? Nor to him neither. To whom then? To whom but to the good King Charles of blessed memory! Let Eikon Basilikê and Dr Juxon speak the rest, and tell the world one manner in which the Psalms have been abused to the vilest of purposes-and let all others who chuse contend in this point for the palm of impiety and downright jargon with Bonaventure the Monk, who applied, in an abominable piece of his (rendered afterwards infallible by his Holiness at Rome, so they call their pope) every word of the Psalms, speaking of the Lord Jesus, to his virgin mother. But those who have ears to hear, let them hear, and beware of wresting the holy word, lest they wrest it to their own destruction; after the manner of a certain celebrated plunderer of hills and glens, who was wont to evade the edge of the eighth commandment, by alledging, that Moses was no friend to honest gentlemen of his profession, when he said, Thou shalt not steal;' but that David, a far better fellow, had repealed that law of Moses, when he said, Psalm 1. 10. The cattle upon a thousand hills are mine.'

You see now, it was not of yesterday that the Psalms began to be perverted; nor in one manner only. But to conjure, if it be possible, at least to essay it, all those dreams and delusions, puns and forgeries, upon the book of Psalms, let it be seriously weighed, if it be lawful for us to give an interpretation of any part thereof dif

ferent from, that is, contrary to, what the Holy Ghost hath given. Would not you plainly say, that the man openly blasphemed, who should give another interpretation of the parables of the sower and seeds, of the wheat and tares, than the Lord hath given? And why, pray, should not we look with equal detestation and contempt upon the man who should deal so by the Psalms, or any other part of the Holy Scriptures? Here, perhaps, you will say, that some of the Psalms may be safely explained in the manner you speak of: There is no question; but would you have us to explain the whole of them after the same fa shion? Yes indeed; the whole hundred and fifty; if so be the Spirit by whom they were inspired hath given us a key so to do. Make that ap pear, and the controversy is at an end. Amen. Here we rest the issue. Take your Bible then, with the parallel places, and finish the proof yourself. You will find your profit in the pursuit, and the process of the argument simple and easy, if you afford but a moderate degree of candour and attention,

1st, Carefully mark all the Psalms whereof you see any part applied to Christ in the New Testament, as spoken of him, or by him. Now, where any part of a Psalm is explained as spoken of, or in the person of Christ, so must the whole of that Psalm, whatever seeming objections lie against it; for this obvious reason, that (as will appear by occular demonstration, if you read the places in question) the whole of every