nectOus$ Firítb. 6 and when they were fuch ?doth St.John write on- ly to the little children, and not to the young men and fathers alf ? He writes to them all,plainly fhewing,that no man, of what Rature foever in grace,did ever outgrow the Scripture. Again they fay, the Scriptures are but a dead letter, and we mutt not try the living by the dead.The holy Martyr Stephen long fince Riled them lively oracles,A411.7.3 $.and if they are now but a dead letter,who bath murdered them ?who fo much as the Enthufiaft ?who goes about to fe- parate the fpirit from them.lf the Law come to a man in the convincing fpirit,and flay him with his own guilt,and fet his confcience on fire with forne tags of hell,he may with the Apofile call it a killing letter, but he will hardly call it a dead one.If the Gofpel come to him in the converting fpirit, and open the glories of free-grace, and bring in a new creation into his heart, he mutt contèfs, that it ii the very favour of life unto life, and the power and arm of God to fálvation ;and as the firft life of grace is breathed through it into the dead linner,fo all the after -gales of the fpirit come from it upon the new creature:W herefore, whileft the fpirit is in the word, it cannot be a dead letter ; and where the fpirit is in the heart, it will not be called fo.The Enthufiajt for all his (welling words of vanity, by calling the Scrip- ture a dead letter,proves only the deadnefs of his own heart;andthe true believer, who owns the Scripture for his rule,doth not try the living by the dead,but the leffer meafúre of the fpirit in his heart,by thQ greater meafiare of it in the word. p A gain,
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