Precious faith considered in its nature, working, and growth

Again they say, the Scriptures are but a dead letter, and we must not try the living by the dead. The holy Martyr Stephen long since styled them lively oracles, Act. 7.38. and if they are now but a dead letter, who hath murdered them? who so much as the Enthusiast? who goes about to separate the spirit from them. If the Law come to a man in the convincing spirit, and slay him with his own guilt, and set his conscience on fire with some tastes of hell, he may with the Apostle call it a killing letter, but he will hardly call it a dead one. If the Gospel come to him in the converting spirit, and open the glories of free-grace, and bring in a new creation into his heart, he must confess, that it is the very savour of life unto life, and the power and arm of God to salvation; and as the first life of grace is breathed through it into the dead sinner, so all the after-gales of the spirit come from it upon the new creature: Wherefore, whilst the spirit is in the word, it cannot be a dead letter; and where the spirit is in the heart, it will not be called so. The Enthusiast for all his swelling words of vanity, by calling the Scripture a dead letter, proves only the deadness of his own heart; and the true believer, who owns the Scripture for his rule, doth not try the living by the dead, but the lesser measure of the spirit in his heart, by the greater measure of it in the word.

Again they say, the Scriptures are but a dead letter, and we must not try the living by the dead. The holy Martyr Stephen long since stiled them lively oracles, Act. 7.38. and if they are now but a dead letter, who hath murdered them? who so much as the Enthusiast? who goes about to separate the spirit from them. If the Law come to a man in the convincing spirit, and slay him with his own guilt, and set his conscience on fire with some tasts of hell, he may with the Apostle call it a killing letter, but he will hardly call it a dead one. If the Gospel come to him in the converting spirit, and open the glories of free-grace, and bring in a new creation into his heart, he must confess, that it is the very savour of life unto life, and the power and arm of God to salvation; and as the first life of grace is breathed through it into the dead sinner, so all the after-gales of the spirit come from it upon the new creature: Wherefore, whilest the spirit is in the word, it cannot be a dead letter; and where the spirit is in the heart, it will not be called so. The Enthusiast for all his swelling words of vanity, by calling the Scripture a dead letter, proves only the deadness of his own heart; and the true believer, who owns the Scripture for his rule, doth not try the living by the dead, but the lesser measure of the spirit in his heart, by the greater measure of it in the word.