experimental knowledge of God, and a new state of holy communion with him. How delightful a thing it is to count, and not to count but feel, the Christian's gains-faith and fidelity; peace with God through Jesus Christ; a renewed will; increasing love; and hope full of immortality! And how short is the time of our suffering! if, upon the whole, we do suffer, and are not richly compensated, even here, in every condition by the afore-mentioned advantages. Go on, madam, knowing whom you have chosen, and let neither your own weakness, nor the frowns of the world, terrify you. Christ will have his grace exalted, in opposition to all discouraging, unbelieving thoughts from the former; and a faithful acceptance of it, and establishment in it, will make you victorious over the latter. Never to ask ourselves what our great want is, or what we should ask of God if we might have the wish of our hearts, is great blindness and stupidity; and yet it is the case, not only of the grossly irreligious, but of all those who are in the practice of an external form only. The awakening of the soul from this sleep of nature is necessarily the first step toward a recovery. To know that we want remission of sin, and strength against it; a will to live to the glory of God, and mercy to save in our very best estate; and that the Gospel comes home to our case in every one of these points, answers all our wishes, and reveals our wants only to relieve them, is illumination in the understanding. But the great work is still to come, which is the spiritual life of faith, or the closing of the heart, resolutely and fully, with this blessed scheme of redemption. ว May God Almighty support and bless you in the benefit of this redemption, comfort you in the blood of Christ, and carry you on swiftly in the way of holiness, conformity to the cross, and self-renunciation. As Christ has wrought salvation by himself, and gotten the victory for us with his own right hand, he must have the whole glory of our recovery. But though he wants nothing of ours to make his payment full weight, and scorns whatever we can offer him by way of purchase, he expects and is well pleased with the free tender of our service; and all he has done and suffered fails of its end, if it does not make us a willing people. You, dear lady, love the Lord Jesus in sincerity. Love him more, that you may be still more happy in him, and taste more of his love. Make communion with him, and access to God by him, the delight of your soul, and the great end you live for. Love his commands, because they are his, and then not one of them will be grievous. Love his friends because they are such; and his enemies, to wish and make them his friends. I write not to instruct you, who are much higher in the divine school than myself; nor can I have any end in flattering you, as I am unknown. But my desire is to animate you to ardour and perseverance in the glorious race; and my hope is, that, whatever state you are in, you will set no value upon present attainments, but be always pressing on to still greater heights. A progressive state is always a hopeful one, because it is both sincere and self-condemning; and if it has one eye upon perfection, keeps the other steadily fixed on Christ. To him, your Saviour, gracious Helper, and bountiful Rewarder, I commend you, and myself to your prayers, and am, from a far country, Madam, Yours in Christian sincerity, No. II. To the Reverend Mr. B. June 27, 1760. DEAR SIR, I AM letters in your debt, and should certainly have wrote before now, if I had not expected you here every week. My wife too has been desiring it with great good will, and some degree of impatience. Alas! she is in a very weak condition, and, I fear, sinking under the infirmities of a broken constitution. God be gracious to her. Help us with your prayers. I hope she knows her refuge, and flies to it. Nothing in life or death for strong consolation like our great High Priest, and his atonement for sinners. It is very mortifying to nature to be saved as the thief upon the cross was; but there is no other way, and in our best estate we are brands plucked out of the fire. Settle yourself and your hearers upon this ground. If our good works follow us, we are beholden to our faith for them, and to faith, first and last, for our whole salvation. I hear you are labouring hard, in conjunction with Mr. Venn, to whom I desire my best respects. Go on, and the blessing of God go along with you. Keep a watchful eye on the risings of pride. It will beset you on all occasions, and success or disappointment, evil report and good report, will add fuel to it. I have received a dozen franks from Lord D. for the use of Mr. Venn. I suppose his work goes on. Though it is a delicate affair, his light and spirit will carry him through. The Whole Duty of Man is in possession of the general esteem, and in many hands; but for that very reason the insufficiency of it, as not answering the title, should be laid open. To do justice to it, it is perhaps the completest system of Christian ethics we have. I never read a section of it without being convinced by it of sin; and, in that view, as well as a directory to those who are aiming at perfection under Christ, it is of great use, and cannot be too much commended. The apology commonly made for its defect in not laying the foundation of Christian doctrine, is, that it was wrote at a time when faith was disgraced by practice. Ever since, things have been wheeling about to the other extreme; and there has long been a necessity of insisting on the glorious peculiarities of the Gospel, and reminding men that there is no possibility of being in the way of duty without the love of God; which can never take place in the heart without a sense of redeeming mercy. Moral writing and preaching only, is destructive of morality, as it concerns the inward man, and has a fatal tendency to make persons, even of the best natural tempers, fly to an outward decency of behaviour, and lay the weight of their salvation upon it, instead of faith in the pardoning love of God, humbling the soul, and productive of real holiness. Mr. Venn's performance, I imagine, will, in the main, be a working upon this plan; and, I hope, he will convince us of the necessity and great efficacy of Gospel principles, in order to our acceptable obedience; and, that what is too generally thought the whole duty of man, is neither the whole nor the better half of it, but self-deceit, and a poor substitute for them. I cannot find Rivington's letter to Mr. Venn, but suppose it is of no great consequence. I hoped I should have delivered Mr. Walker's Helps, &c. into your own hands, but, if you do not come shortly, will send it, if you desire it. The archdeacon, who will be glad to see you, told me lately he had wrote for a number of the "Ordina "tion Question," but could not get them. Pray tell me whether and how they are to be had. What is become of the man of Truro? I have not heard from him of many months, though my last letter to him was of an interesting nature. I am obliged to you and Mr. Venn for his sabbath sermon, and heartily wish it may have an effect far and near; but there were some leaves wanting. It is very much to be lamented that men of learning and piety should ever have struck in with the corruption of mankind as they once did in this nation, to weaken the obligation of a command, which is not only of a moral nature, as a guard and security to all the rest, but more especially sacred for its spiritual import, as the soul's call from earth to heaven. Certainly more was intended by it than only to take the yoke of servile labour from off our necks; and the man has no more benefit from it than his beast, who sees nothing else in it but a liberty to skip in his pasture. I trust you are always in the right school, and know that your fall and fever were the lessons of the day; perhaps, you find too, by experience, that knowledge and strength are gained in the school of affliction. I do, for domestic trouble presses hard upon me. What is the use of this but to humble us in the dust, to ground us in the sense of our weakness, and thereby hinder us from thinking a lie of ourselves; to make us call louder, and keep us close to our remedy? Dear sir, God bless you. Come when you can; it is but a day's journey, and you will be heartily welcome to Your affectionate brother, THO. ADAM. |