[Fifth.] But again; another thing that hath great influence upon the heart to make it lean to the law for life is, the false names that Satan and his instruments have put upon it; such as these—to call the law the gospel; conscience, the Spirit of Christ; works, faith; and the like: with these, weak consciences have been mightily pestered; yea, thousands deluded and destroyed. This was the way whereby the enemy attempted to overthrow the church of Christ of old; as, namely, those in Galatia and at Corinth, &c. (2 Cor 11:3,4,13,14). I say, by the feigned notion that the law was the gospel, the Galatians were removed from the gospel of Christ; and Satan, by appropriating to himself and his ministers the names and titles of the ministers of the Lord Jesus, prevailed with many at Corinth to forsake Paul and his doctrine. Where the Lord Jesus hath been preached in truth, and something of his doctrine known, it is not there so easy to turn people aside from the sound of the promise of grace, unless it be by the noise and sound of a gospel. Therefore, I say, the false apostles came thus among the churches: ‘another gospel, another gospel’; which, in truth, saith Paul, ‘is not another; but some would pervert the gospel of Christ,’ and thrust that out of doors, by gilding the law with that glorious name (Gal 1:6-8). So again, for the ministers of Satan, they must be called the apostles of Christ, and ministers of righteousness; which thing, I say, is of great force, especially being accompanied with so holy and just a doctrine as the word of the law is; for what better to the eye of reason than to love God above all, and our neighbor as ourselves, which doctrine, being the scope of the ten words given on Sinai, no man can contradict; for, in truth, they are holy and good.
But here is the poison; to set this law in the room of a mediator, as those do that seek to stand just before God thereby, and then nothing is so dishonorable to Christ, nor of so soul-destroying a nature as the law; for that, thus placed, hath not only power when souls are deluded, but power to delude, by its real holiness, the understanding, conscience, and reason of a man; and by giving the soul a semblance of heaven, to cause it to throw away Christ, grace, and faith. Wherefore it behooved all men to take heed of names, and of appearances of holiness and goodness.
[Sixth.] Lastly, Satan will yet go further; he will make use of something that may be at a distance from a moral precept, and therewith bring souls under the law. Thus he did with some of old; he did not make the Galatians fall from Christ by virtue of one of the ten words, but by something that was aloof off; by circumcision, days, and months, that were Levitical ceremonies; for he knows it is no matter, nor in what Testament he found it, if he can therewith hide Christ from the soul—’Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law (Gal 5:2,3). Why so, seeing circumcision is not one of the ten words [commandments]? Why, because they did it in conscience to God, to stand just before him thereby. Now here we may behold much cunning of the devil; he begins with some at a distance from that law which curse, and so by little and little bringeth them under it; even as by circumcision the Galatians were at length brought under the law that condemned all men to the wrath and judgment of God. I have often wondered when I have read how God cried out against the Jews, for observing his own commandment (Isa 1:11-14). But I perceive by Paul that by these things a man may reject and condemn the Lord Jesus; which those do, that for life set up aught, whether moral or other institution, besides the faith of Jesus. Let men therefore warily distinguish betwixt names and things, betwixt statute and commandment, lest they by doing the one transgress against the other (2 Cor 1:19,20). Study, therefore, the nature and end of the law with the nature and end of the gospel; and if thou canst keep them distinct in thy understanding and conscience, neither names nor things, neither statutes nor commandments, can draw thee from the faith of the gospel. And that thou mayest yet be helped in this matter, I shall now come to speak to the second conclusion.
Apprehended 