children in such things? O! let us remember the Judge is at the door, and eternity is near. I heartily wish Mrs a speedy recovery, and a sanctified improvement of her affliction. See, my dear friend, how all flesh is grass; but Jesus and his great salvation endureth for ever: here is indeed an everlasting possession. The text particularly fit for me and for you to meditate on, (viz. Heb. i. 2, 3.) I will preach on next Sunday. Can any be more grand in itself, or more consolatory to us sinners? How go you on? do you see any opening in the affair we last talked about? are you come to any determination? Remember him who sees, this very moment, all the consequences of every step we take; and who hath said, in tender compassion to our ignorance, "The Lord shall guide thee continually." Pray, beware of precipitate resolutions; festina lente. Whatever we do, whithersoever we go, may we say with the Psalmist, "This God is our God for ever and ever; he shall be our guide even unto death.” My weak state of body dispirits my mind, and enervates my hand. Oh that I may be strong in faith, joyful through hope, and rooted in charity! and not I only, but my dear friend, whose I am cordially and inviolably, while, &c. LETTER CLXXXII. DEAR SIR, I SHOULD be glad to suggest any thing, either for your improvement or consolation. But what can I suggest while you entertain such hard thoughts of Christ, and will not be persuaded out of this strange notion, "That the curse of God has lighted on you, and will follow you to the grave?" Such a thought (and it must be taken up without any real foundation) not only renders you extremely miserable, but will blast all your future usefulness. Suppose you had rebelled against God, even in a more extraordinary degree than even your own imagination can paint; and suppose you was rejected by him at the present; yet what says the apostle St James? chap. iv. 10. "Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up." As to the quotations from Mr's letter to you, wherein he observes, with a kind of triumphant malignity, "That the devil had taken an advantage of you, in relation to some imprudent management in the affair at &c. &c. &c. and dragged you (as he expresses it) through a horse-pond, dirtied and wet, to the great diversion of the spectators;" I ask, of what spectators? Of the worldly-minded only, and the envious, to whom your former flourishing state, as a first-rate Christian, was a constant and visible reproach; yet Christ (though you are now thus depressed) is still your friend, and will break Satan's teeth; and though dirty, will cleanse you; though wet, will receive and warm you. Now let me put a question to you: Would you reject your child, because, when dressed in its best clothes, he had met with a like misfortune? Or suppose he had rambled out in the snow, and scratched himself with briers, and come to you bleeding and cold, would you turn him out of doors, when he claimed your pity? We do not know Christ well enough. How kind! how good he is to us! What is my kindness and compassion for you (on which you seem to place so high a value) in comparison of Christ's? Have I been nailed to the cross for you? Oh pray earnestly to HIM; for -To Him, to Him, 'tis given, Passion, and care, and anguish to destroy; PRIOR'S Solomon. He has satisfied God for all your sins; he is your advocate, and has procured for you the inestimable gift of the Holy Spirit to subdue your iniquities. Cultivate the love of God in your heart, and he will make your path of duty plain before you. I dare say, God will make you more abundantly useful than ever. Oh bring your mind off from this destructive notion, "That the curse of God follows you." This is a suggestion of Satan's to prevent your usefulness; but remember that text, "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation," 2 Pet. ii. 9.; and he will certainly deliver you out of this, and restore you to his wonted favour. Do not select such terrifying texts for your meditation, as in your letter you tell me you have done. It is as improper, as if you should eat the coldest melon, or use the most slight covering, when shivering with an ague. Chuse, the morning after you receive this letter, (by way of antidote to the texts of your own selecting), the following for your meditation: "His mercy is greater than the heavens," Psalm cviii. 4. "His mercy endureth for ever," Psalm cxviii. 1. Put together these two expressions, and see whether they do not amount to more than either your imprudences or your distress. You have, to be sure, done amiss, and dealt foolishly in the matGod forbid I should justify your conduct; but oh! let it not be said, let it not be once surmised, that it is beyond the reach of God's unmeasurable goodness to pardon, or of Christ's immensely rich merits to expiate. The Lord loves you with an everlasting love; and take, if you please, the latter part of the xxxth of Isaiah, ver. 18. for your contemplation: the words are, "For the Lord is a God of judgment; blessed are they that wait for ter of him." None can tell, none can think, what mercy there is with the Lord; with inconceivable tenderness his bowels yearn towards the weakest, frailest believer in his dear Son. We have dishonoured his holiness, and violated his law; but let us not, to accumulate our follies, derogate from the boundless riches of his mercy in Jesus Christ, to all those who seek and entreat it. There is a wide difference between humiliation and despair. Draw near to Christ with an humble boldness. May you see many, many years on earth; and when the earth shall be no more, may you be received into the New Jerusalem; where dwelleth righteousness, consummate righteousness, and everlasting happiness. This, my dear sir, is my earnest wish and my fervent prayer for you, and for myself; who am, with great compassion and true regard, your obliged humble servant and friend. P. S.-My favourite author Liborius Zimmermannus, whispers to me on this occasion the following passage: "Said I not unto thee, If thou wouldst BELIEVE, thou shouldst SEE the glory of God, and experience his goodness, when least deserved, or rather notoriously forfeited?" Hence may we be convinced, that his loving kindness is unbounded, is unwearied, is infinite; as much surpassing all our follies and all our thoughts, as the world of waters exceeds the drop of a bucket. Oh for a spirit of steady faith, to live under the continual belief of this precious, precious truth. LETTER CLXXXIII. Saturday morning. DEAR SIR, I AM Sorry to hear that Mr should think my doctrine tends to the introduction of licentiousness. Far, very far from it! Mine is the genuine doctrine of the Scriptures; and the only doctrine to reclaim mankind, as it encourages sinners not to continue in their sins, but to turn unto their injured Lord, and receive salvation at his beneficent hand. "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out," are our blessed Master's own words; and all my writings, preaching, and conversation, are founded on that comfortable declaration to my lost, undone fellow-creatures; that tender invitation to those, in whom there is no health. But Mr is offended at this. He, like the Egyptian taskmasters of old, requires men to make brick without straw. "Let us (says he, unmindful of our impotence) make ourselves better, and then go to Christ, who will receive us favourably for our works' sake." But in this view, our works, even if we could perform them without the grace of Christ, would be ineffectual; Luke xvii. 20. Are these capable of expiating the guilt of a polluted race, and of procuring salvation? If our works could do this, then these and not Christ would be our Saviour. If we had a right to demand a recompense for our works, even on a supposition they were perfect, then a Redeemer and his death would be useless. Surely, therefore, Mr. -'s notions are contrary to the whole tenor of the gospel! May the divine Spirit open his eyes, and incline his heart, to discover that Christ offers himself to all who will come. The vilest of men have just the same right to Christ and his merits, as the best of men; a right founded not on their awakened desires, not on any thing in themselves, but purely, solely, entirely on the free grant of a Saviour. We are all sinners, though in a more or less degree; and we must all flee to Christ for spiritual blessings, not as deserving, but as guilty creatures;-a sad mortification this to the proud worldlings, or to the self-righteous moralist, whom it is the design of the gospel to humble. Mr- (as I dare say you have often heard him) speaks of heaven made easy, "upon condition of obedience to the gospel commands." This would not be very easy to me, whatever it might be to him. But if heaven and eternal life be "the gift of God through Jesus Christ," and given us on account of his obedience unto death, then it is easy indeed. What love is here! Well might the apostle Paul say, that "the love of Christ constraineth us." Christ makes us free; and those whom He makes free, are free indeed, John viii. 36. This is the way of sal * Mr Hervey had seen so bad an use made by the Socinians of conditions and requisites, in opposition to the doctrine of free grace, that he could by no means allow even faith, much less our obedience, to be called a condition. |