affliction, and yet I am afflicted. I fee the abfurdity of grief, yet I am grieved. What can I do more? I fubmit entirely to the difpenfations of Providence. My will fubmits. I do not wish to recall my departed friend to life: But this fubmiffion does not clear my heart of forrow. Surely it has fome connections which are not obedient to the will, and from which it derives involuntary pleasure or pain. Is not this true? We experience it in all inftances of affection: we are fenfible of attachments we cannot account

for

; and as those attachments are facilitated or interrupted, we are happy or miserable, independently of reafon or the will. If thefe obfervations are founded upon truth and nature, I hope I shall stand excufed both before you, and at a higher tribunal, not only for those tears that have hitherto fallen, but for those that yet must fall over the grave of my Sophia.

Think not that I implicitly give myself up to the dominion of forrow. I have been too well acquainted with her not to know by what means her influence is increafed or abated. I do not deepen the gloom of melancholy by solitary reflection; I feek the fociety of the fifterhood, and

endeavour to enter into their amusements, as well as to join their devotions. In those hours when I must neceffarily be alone, if the uneafiness of my heart hinders the approach of fleep, I have recourse to my books; till at last the weariness of attention prevails over the force of sorrow, and procures me that reft, which the latter would have prevented.

In the course of this reading I have met with many things on which I wanted to consult you, but most of them have efcaped me. Some of thefe, however, I remember. In a book of divinity, which, I fuppofe, must have been written by one of the heresy of Calvin, the author afferts that the "Almighty has appointed a day of grace "to every man, beyond which there can be no "remiffion of fin."* I muft own I was startled by this affertion, as it seemed to me to be very confequential. The following, I think, were fome of the texts on which he founded this belief:

"Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found; "call ye upon him, while he is near.

* Many of our modern Fanatics hold this doctrine.

"Oh, that thou hadst known, even thou, in "this thy day, the things that belong unto thy "peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes.

Again, he limiteth a day, faying, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." In another part of his book, he maintains that it is impoffible for those who fall into fin, after having once been converted, to repent, or to be faved.* This doctrine he supports by the following paffage in the epiftle to the Hebrews:

"It is impoffible for those who were once en"lightened, and have tafted of the heavenly gift, "and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, "and have tafted the good word of God, and "the powers of the world to come; if they shall "fall away, to renew them again unto repent"ance: feeing they crucify to themselves the Son "of God afresh, and put him to open shame."

To this paffage he adds another, selected from the fame book.

"If we fin wilfully after we have received the "knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no

* This is another doctrine of Fanaticism.

"more facrifice for fins, but a certain fearful "looking for of judgment, and fiery indigna❝tion which shall devour the adversaries. “He "that defpifed Mofes's law died without mercy, "under two or three witneffes. Of how much "forer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be "thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot "the Son of God, and hath counted the blood "of the covenant, werewith he was fanctified,

an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the "Spirit of grace?"

I must own these texts appeared to me to make 'very strongly for his argument; and yet if these doctrines were generally received, I think, they would open more avenues to despair; for many Christians, I fear, must have sinned wilfully after repentance and converfion. But, possibly, I do not behold these Scriptures in a right point of view. Let me hope for your kind instructions; and pray for your

CONSTANTIA.

་

LETTER XVI.

THEODOSIUS TO CONSTANTIA.

your me

You do well to amuse yourself by books and company; that amusement will divert lancholy more effectually than any precepts of philofophy.

But what shall I fay to your controverfial studies? Shall I praise you for wearying your eyes over the pages of Calviniftic dreamers?-For honouring with your attention the groundless doctrines of narrow-fighted fanatics! who either from want of knowledge or of candour, or more probably from want of both, have seized a limb of a text, and without attending either to the writer's defign, or to the analogy of his reafoning, have founded upon the mere letter, doctrines that dishonour their God?

Such, and fo founded, are those mentioned.

you have

That God hath appointed a certain period in the life of man, beyond which he will not extend

F f