The same may be said of the supper of the Lord, however varied in its outward manner from what it was at first, if the inward truth, pointed at by it, is loved and adhered to by me, I have all the benefit that could be had by it, when it was kept in the same outward form, in which the first church used it.

And therefore the outward celebration of these sacraments is reverenced by me, wherever they are observed, as standing in the same place, and significant of the same inward blessing, as in their first institution.

I join therefore in the public assemblies, not because of the purity, or perfection of that which is done; but because of that which is meant and intended by them; they mean the holy, public worship of God; they mean the edification of Christians; they are of great use to many people; they keep the world from a total forgetfulness of God; they help the ignorant and letterless to such a knowledge of God, and the scriptures, as they would not have without them.

And therefore, fallen as these church assemblies are, from their first spiritual state, I reverence them, as the venerable remains of all that, which once was, and will, I hope, be again, the glory of church assemblies, viz. the ministration of the Spirit, and not of the letter.

And there are two great signs of the near approach of this day, in two very numerous, yet very different kinds of people in these kingdoms.

In the one sort, an extraordinary increase of new opinions, methods, and religious distinctions, is worked up to its utmost height. And we see them almost every day running with eagerness from one method to another, in quest of something, which they have not been able to find.

Now, as the vanity and emptiness of any thing, or way, is then only fully discovered, when it has run all its lengths, so that nothing remains untried, to keep up the deceit; so when strife of opinions, invented forms, and all outward distinctions, have done their utmost, have no farther that they can go, then if the zeal was simple and upright, all must end in this full conviction, that vanity and emptiness, burden and deceit, must follow us in every course we take, till we expect all, and receive all, from the invisible God blessing our hearts with all heavenly gifts, by his eternal, all-creating word, and life-giving spirit in our souls.

*And all that is wanting to be removed from every church, or Christian society, in order to its being a part of the heavenly Jerusalem, is that which may be called its own human will, and carnal wisdom; which is all to be given up, by turning the eyes and hearts of all its members, to an inward adoration, and total dependance upon the supernatural, invisible, omnipresent God of all spirits; to the inward teachings of Christ, as the power, the wisdom, and the light of God, working within them every good and blessing which they can ever receive, either on earth, or in heaven,

LETTER II.

To the Reverend Mr. S.

My dear Friend and Brother,

And God is always ours, in such proportion as we are his: as our faith is in him, such is his presence in us. What an error therefore, to turn one thought, from him, or cast a look after any help but his; for, if we ask all of him, if we seek for all in him, if we knock only at his own door for mercy in Christ Jesus, and patiently wait there, God’s kingdom must come, and his will must be done in us.

And therefore all the progress of your first conviction, which by the grace of God you have had from above, consists in the simplicity of your faith, in adhering to it, as the work of God in your soul, which can only go on in God’s way, and can never cease to go on in you, any more than God can cease to be that which he is, but so far as it is stopped by your want of faith in it, or trusting to something else along with it. God is found, as soon as he alone is sought; but to seek God alone, is nothing else but the giving up ourselves unto him. For God is not absent from us in any other respect, than as the spirit of our mind is turned from him, and not left wholly to him.

*This spirit of faith, which not here or there, or now and then, but every where, and in all things, looks up to God alone, trusts solely in him, depends absolutely upon him, expects all from him, and does all it does for him, is the utmost perfection of piety in this life. And this is that union with God, in which man was at first created, and to which he is again called, and will be fully restored by God and man being made one Christ.

Stephen was a man full of faith and the Holy Ghost. These are always together, the one can never be without the other.

This was Stephen’s qualification for the deaconship, not because of any thing high or peculiar in that office, but because the gospel dispensation was the opening a kingdom of God amongst men, a spiritual theocracy, in which as God, and man fallen from God, were united in Christ, so an union of immediate operation between God and man was restored. Hence this dispensation was called, in distinction from all that went before it in outward types, figures, and shadows, a ministration of the Spirit, that is, an immediate operation of the Spirit of God itself in man, in which nothing human, or depending upon the power of man’s wit, ability, or natural powers, had any place, but all things begun in and under obedience to the Spirit, and all were done in the power of faith united with God.

Therefore to be a faithful minister of this new covenant between God and man, is to live by faith alone, to act only, and constantly under its power, to desire no will, understanding, or ability as a labourer in Christ’s vineyard, but what comes from faith, and full dependance upon God’s immediate operation in and upon us.

This is that very thing which is expressly commanded by St. Peter, saying, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God, if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. For all which he giveth this reason, which will be a reason as long as the world standeth, viz. That in all things God may be glorified thro’ Jesus Christ. A plain declaration, that where this is not done, there God is not glorified by Christians through Christ Jesus.

We can no otherwise worship God in spirit and in truth, than as our spirit seeks only to, depends only upon, and in all things adores, the life-giving power of his universal Spirit; as the creator, upholder, and doer of all that is or can be good, either in time or eternity. For nothing can be good, but that which is according to the will of God, and nothing can be according to the will of God, but that which is done by his own Spirit. This is unchangeable, whether in heaven, or in earth. And this is the one end of all the dispensations of God, however various, towards fallen man, viz. to bring man into an union with God. Comply with all the outward modes and institutions of religion, believe the letter, own the meaning of scripture facts, symbols, and doctrines; but if you seek to gain some other good from them, than that of being led from your own will, and own spirit, that the will of God, and the Spirit of God may do all that is willed, and done by you; however steadily you may adhere to such a religion, you stand as fixed and steadily in your own fallen state. For the restoration of fallen man, is nothing else but the restoration of him to his first state, under the will and Spirit of God, in and for which he was created.

You may here perhaps think that I am speaking too much at large, and not closely to the particular matter of your enquiry. But my intention hath been, so to speak to you on this occasion, as to lay a ground for a proper behaviour, under every circumstance of the outward work of your ministry. All things must be set right in yourself first, before you can rightly assist others.

I do not mean, that you must be first in a state of perfection, before you can be fitted to teach others. But I mean that you must first see, in what to place your own perfection, before you can rightly direct others in the way to it.

For this reason I have said all that is said above, to help you to set out under a right sense of all that religion is to do for yourself. When these things are not notionally, but practically known, then are you enabled, according to your measure, to speak of the truths of religion, to those that are ignorant, or insensible of them.

Your work is, to call every one home to himself, and help every heart to know its own state, to seek and find, and feel his inward life and death, which have their birth, and growth, and strife, against one another, in every son of Adam.

And as this is the one good way of preaching, so it is, of all others, the most powerful and penetrating into the hearts of all men, let their condition be what it will.

Their hearing ears, though ever so sunk into dullness, will be forced more or less, to feel the power of that voice which speaks nothing but what is, and must be in some sort within themselves.

And this is the great end of outward preaching, to give loud notice of the call of God in their souls, which though unheard, or neglected by them, is yet always subsisting within them. It is to make such outward sounds, as may reach and stir up the inward hearing of the heart. It is so to strike all the outward senses of the soul, that from sleeping in an inward insensibility of its own life and death, it may be brought into an awakened perception of itself, and be forced to know, that the evil of death which is in it, will be its eternal master, unless it seeks for victory in the name, and power, and mediation of Christ, the only Prince of life, and Lord of glory, and who only hath the keys of heaven, of death and hell, in his hands.

Hence you will be qualified, to open in your hearers, a right knowledge of the reality of every virtue and vice you are discoursing upon.

Your next great point, as a preacher, should be to bring men to an entire faith in, and absolute dependance upon, the continual power and operation of the Spirit of God in them.

All churches, even down to the Socinians, are forced, in obedience to the letter of scripture, to hold something of this doctrine.

But as all churches, for many ages, have had as much recourse to learning, art, and science to qualify ministers for the preaching of the gospel, as if it was merely a work of man’s wisdom, so ecclesiastics, for the most part, come forth in the power of human qualifications, and more or less trust to their own ability, according as they are more or less proficients in science and literature, languages and rhetoric.

To this, more than to any other cause, is the great apostasy of all Christendom to be attributed. This was the door, at which the whole spirit of the world entered into possession of the Christian church.

Humility, meekness, patience, faith, hope, contempt of the world and heavenly affections (the very life of Jesus in the soul) are by few people less desired, or more hard to be practised, than by great wits, classical critics, linguists, historians and orators in holy orders.

Now to bring a man to a full dependance upon, and faith in the continual operation of the Holy Spirit, as the only raiser and preserver of the life of God in their hearts, it is not enough, you sometimes, or often preach upon the subject, but every thing that you inculcate, should be directed constantly to it, and all that you exhort men to, should be required, only as a means of obtaining, and concurring with, that Holy Spirit, which is, and only can be, the life and truth of goodness. And all that you turn them from, should be as from something that resists, and grieves that blessed Spirit of God, which always wills to remove all evil out of our souls, and make us again partakers of the divine nature.

The labour of the preacher is, for the most part, to display logic, argument, and eloquence, upon religious subjects; and so he is just as much united to God by his own religious discourses, as the pleader at the bar is, by his law and oratory upon right and wrong.

And the hearers, by their regarding such accomplishments, go away just as much helped, to be new men in Christ Jesus, as by hearing a cause of great equity well pleaded at the bar.

Now in both these cases, with regard to preacher and people, the error is, trusting to a power in themselves; the one in an ability, to persuade powerfully; the other in an ability, to act according to that which they hear.

And so the natural man goes on preaching, and the natural man goes on hearing the things of God, in a fruitless course. And thus it must be, so long as either preacher or hearers, seek any thing else but to edify, and be edified in, and through the immediate power and essential presence of the Holy Spirit, working in them.

As to the other parts of your office, whether they relate to things prescribed, or to such as are to be done, according to your best discretion, there will not be much difficulty, if you stand in the state above described.

As to several outward forms and orders in the church, they must be supposed to partake, in their degree, of that Spirit, which has so long bore rule in all church divisions. But the private man is not to consider, how outward things should be, according to the primitive plan, but how the inward truth, which is meant by them, may be fully adhered to.

Baptism and the Lord’s supper, are differently practised in almost every particular church.

But the way to be free from scruples herein, is to keep yourself, and your people wholly intent on that spiritual good, of which these institutions are the appointed outward figures, namely that spiritual regeneration, which is meant by baptism, and that spiritual living in Christ, and Christ in us, which is meant by the supper of the Lord. And then, though the sacraments practised by you should have any outward imperfection in them, they would be of the same benefit to you, as they were to those who used them in their first, outwardly perfect form. And thus you will be led neither to over-rate, nor disregard such use of them, as is according to the present state of the church. It is only the inward regenerate Christian, that knows how to make a right use of all outward things. His soul being in such a state of union with God and man, as it ought to be, takes every thing by the right handle, and turns every thing into a means of carrying on his love towards God and man. To the pure, all things are pure.

LETTER III.

To a Clergyman of Bucks.

I AM much surprised, my friend, that you should still want more to be said about the doctrine of imputation, whether of Adam’s sin, or the righteousness of Christ to his followers. Cain could not possibly have any other natural life, than that which was in Adam; and therefore so sure as Adam in soul, spirit, and body, was all sin and corruption, so sure is it, that all his offspring must come from him in the same depravity of soul, spirit and body. And to talk of their having this disordered fallen nature not from their natural birth, but by an outward imputation, is only as absurd as to say, that they have their hands and feet, or the whole form of their body, not from their natural birth, but by an outward imputation of such a form, and members to them.

As in Adam all die, says the text: Is not this the same, as saying, that all men have their fallen nature, because born of Adam?

Take now the other part of the text, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Is it not a flat denial of all this, to say, they are not made alive by a real new birth, but are accounted as if they were alive, by the imputation of Christ’s life to them? Could dead Lazarus have been said to have been made alive again, if still lying in the grave, he had only been accounted as alive, by having the nature of a living man, imputed to him?

If Christ’s holy nature, be not formed in us, but only outwardly imputed to us, then no virtue, or power of an holy life, can have any more real existence in us, than in the devils, but are only called ours, and not theirs, though we have no more of them within us, than they have. Thus, be ye holy, for I am holy; be ye perfect, as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect; thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, &c. all these are but vain exhortations. For these virtues are, in their whole nature, nothing else but the very righteousness of Christ, therefore if that can be only outwardly imputed to us, the same must be said of all these virtues. And indeed, unless Christ be truly born in us, we can have no more of any Christian virtue, but the empty name. For neither man, nor angel ever did, or can thus love God with all his heart, be holy because God is holy, be perfect as he is perfect, but because there is a spirit living in them, which is of God, from God, and partakes of the divine nature.

Take notice, Sir, that if Christ’s righteousness, is only imputed to Christians, then all of them, whether they are called good, or bad, are without any difference as to their inward man, and all under the same unaltered fallen nature, as much after, as they were before Christ’s righteousness was imputed.

Is it matter of transport to think, that fallen man will to all eternity live destitute of his first heavenly nature, his first divine life, which he had in, and from God? But this must be the case, if Christ’s righteousness is only outwardly imputed to him, and not essentially wrought in him.

Transports, my friend, are but poor proofs of truth, or of the goodness of the heart, from whence they proceed. Martyrdom has had its fools, as well as its saints, and zealots may live and die in a joy, that has all its strength from delusion.

*Wonder not then, if the inquisition has its pious defenders, for inquisition cruelty, nay, every barbarity that must have an end, is mere mercy, if compared with this doctrines.——And to be in love with it, to draw sweet comfort from it, and wish it God-speed, is a love that absolutely forbids the loving our neighbour as ourselves, and makes the wish, that all men might be saved, no less than rebellion against God.——It is a love, with which, the cursed hater of all men, would willingly unite and take comfort; for could he know from St. Paul, that millions, and millions of mankind, are created and doomed to be his eternal slaves, he might be as content with this doctrine, as some good preachers are, and cease going about, as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; as knowing, that his kingdom, was so sufficiently provided for, without any labours of his own.

*Oh, the sweetness of God’s election, crys out the ravished preacher! Oh, the sweetness of God’s reprobation! might the hellish Satan well say, could he believe that God had made him a free gift of such myriads, and myriads of men, of all nations, tongues and languages, from the beginning to the end of the world, and reserved so small a number for himself.

*What a complaint, and condemnation is there made in scripture, of those who sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils? And yet this reprobation doctrine, represents God as sacrificing myriads of his own creatures, made in his own image, to an everlasting hell.

*There is not an absurdity of heathenish faith and religion, but what is less shocking than this doctrine. And yet so blindly are some zealous doctors of the gospel bigotted to it, as to set it forth, as the glorious manifestation of the supreme sovereignty of God!

Little children, saith St. John, let no man deceive you; [N. B.] He that doth righteousness, is righteous, [N. B.] even as he is righteous. Therefore to expect, or trust to be made righteous, merely by the righteousness of another, outwardly imputed to us, is, according to the apostle, deceiving ourselves.

*To speak of the operation of the Holy Spirit, as only an assistance, or an occasional assistance, is as short of the truth, as to say, that Christ shall only assist the resurrection of our bodies. For not a spark of any divine virtue can arise up in us, but what must wholly and solely be wrought by that same power, which alone can call our dead bodies out of the dust and darkness of the grave.

If you turn to your own strength to have Christian piety and goodness; or are so deceived, as to think that learning, or local abilities, critical acuteness, skill in languages, church systems, rules and orders, articles and opinions, are to do that for you which the Spirit of Christ did, and only could do for the first Christians; your diligent reading of the history of the gospel, will leave you as poor, and empty, and dead to God, as if you had been only a diligent reader of the history of all the religions in the world.

Ask then, my friend, no more where you shall go, or what you shall do, to be in the truth; for you can have the truth no where but in Jesus, nor in him any farther than as his holy nature is born within you.

Farewell.

LETTER V.

To a Person of Quality.

Madam,

Nothing but the life of God, wrought by his Holy Spirit within us, can be the renewal of our souls, and we shall want this renewal no longer, than whilst we are seeking it in something that is not God. The faith that ascribes all to God, and expects all from him, cannot be disappointed.

Nothing could hinder the Centurion from having that which he asked of Christ, because his heart could thus speak, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof, speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

He that has this sense of himself, and this faith in God, is in the truth of religion: if we knew the goodness of this state, we should be always content with the simplicity of it, and let every thing else come and go, as it would; all is well and safe so long as the heart rests all upon God alone.

I do not wonder that the audience of Mr. ———— is so much increased, since he has preached the doctrine of regeneration among them. All other preaching passes away as a tale that is told, and indeed is nothing better, till it enters into the things within man, brings him to a sensibility of the state of his heart, and its want of God’s Holy Spirit therein.

LETTER VI.

To Mr. J. T.

My dear worthy Friend,

YOUR letter, though full of complaints about the state of your heart, was very much according to my mind, and gives me great hopes that God will carry on the good work he has begun in you, and lead you by his Holy Spirit through all those difficulties, under which you at present labour.

The desire that you have to be better than you find yourself at present, is God’s call, and will make itself to be more heard within you, if you give but way to it, and reverence it as such, humbly believing that he that calls, will, and only can help you to pay right and full obedience to it.

And was you in a better state, as to your own thinking, the matter would be worse with you. For the badness in your heart, though you had no sensibility of it, would still be there, and would only be concealed to your much greater hurt. For there it certainly is, whether it be seen and found, or not, and sooner or later, must shew itself in its full deformity, or the old man will never die the death which must be undergone, before the new man can be formed in us.

All that you complain of in your heart is common to man, as man. There is no heart that is without it. And this is the one ground, why every man, as such, however different in temper, complexion, or natural endowments from others, has one and the same reason, and absolute necessity of being born again.

For faint as they are, they as certainly proceed from the goodness of God working in your soul, as the first dawning of the morning is wrought by the same sun, which helps us to the noon-day light. Firmly, therefore believe this, as a certain truth, that the present sensibility of your incapacity for goodness, is to be cherished as a heavenly seed, as the blessed work of God in your soul.

Could you like any thing in your own heart, or fancy any good to be in it, or believe that you had any power of your own to embrace the following truth, this comfortable opinion, would be your turning away from God and all goodness, and building iron walls of separation betwixt God and your soul.

For conversion to God, only then begins to be in truth, when we see nothing that can give us the least degree of hope, of trust, or comfort in any thing, that we are of ourselves.

To see vanity of vanities in all outward things, to loath and abhor certain sins, is indeed something, but yet as nothing in comparison of seeing and believing the vanity of vanities within us, and ourselves as unable to take one single step in true goodness, as to add one cubit to our stature.

Our first goodness is lost, because our first father departed from a full, absolute dependance upon God. For a full, continual, unwavering dependance upon God, is that alone which keeps God in the creature, and the creature in God.

Our lost goodness can never come again, till by a power from Christ, we are brought out of ourselves, into that full and blessed dependance upon God, in which our first father should have lived.

God must for ever be God alone; heaven, and the heavenly nature are his, and must for ever be received only from him, and preserved, by an entire dependance upon, and trust in him. Now as all the religion of fallen man, fallen from God into himself, and the spirit of this world, has no other end, but to bring us back to an entire dependance upon God; so we may justly say, Blessed is that light, happy is that conviction, which brings us into a full and settled despair, of ever having the least good from ourselves.

Then we are truly brought, and laid at the gate of mercy: at which gate, no soul ever did, or can lie in vain.

A broken and contrite heart God will not despise. That is, God will not pass by, overlook, or disregard it. But the heart is then only broken and contrite, when all its strong holds are broken down, and false coverings taken off, and it sees, with inwardly opened eyes, every thing to be bad, false, and rotten, that does, or can proceed from it as its own.

But you will perhaps, say, that your conviction is only an uneasy sensibility of your own state, and has not the goodness of a broken and contrite heart in it.

But whatever is wanting in your conviction, be it what it will, it cannot be added by yourself, nor come any other way, than as the highest degree of the divine life can come.

Know therefore your want of this, as of all other goodness. But know also at the same time, that it cannot be had through your own willing and running, but through God that sheweth mercy; that is to say, through God who giveth us Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ is the one only mercy of God to all the fallen world.

Now if all the mercy of God is only to be found in Christ, if he alone can save us from our sins; if he alone has power to heal all our infirmities, and restore original righteousness, what room for any other pains, labour, or enquiry, but where and how Christ is to be found.

*It matters not what our evils are, deadness, blindness, infatuation, hardness of heart, covetousness, wrath, pride, and ambition, our remedy is always one and the same, always at hand, always certain and infallible. Seven devils are as easily cast out by Christ as one. He came into the world, not to save from this, or that disorder, but to destroy all the power and works of the devil in man.

If you ask where, and how Christ is to be found? I answer, in your heart, and no where else.

Hear him, reverence him, submit to him as a discoverer and reprover of sin. Own his power and presence in the feeling of your guilt, and then he that wounded, will heal, he that found out the sin, will take it away, and he who shewed you your den of thieves, will turn it into a holy temple of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

And now, Sir, you may see, that your doubt whether your will was really free, or not, was groundless.

You have no freedom, or power of will, to assume any holy temper, or take hold of such degrees of goodness, as you have a mind to. For nothing is, or ever can be goodness in you, but the one life, light, and spirit of Christ, revealed, and formed in your soul. Christ in us, is our only goodness, as Christ in us, is our hope of glory. But Christ in us is the pure free gift of God to us.

But you have a freedom of will, either to give up your helpless self, to the operation of God on your soul, or to rely upon your own rational industry, and natural strength of mind. This is the freedom in first setting out, which no man wants, or can want so long as he is in the body.

Beware of the eagerness of your own natural temper. Run not in any hasty ways of your own. Be patient under the sense of your own vanity and weakness; and patiently wait for God to do his own work in his own way. For you can go no faster than a full dependance upon God can carry you.

You will perhaps say, Am I then to be idle, and do nothing towards the salvation of my soul? No, you must by no means be idle, be but earnestly diligent, according to your measure, in all good works, which the law and the gospel direct you to, both with regard to yourself, and other people.

Outward good works to other people, may be justly considered as God’s errand on which you are sent, and therefore to be done faithfully, according to the will, and in obedience to him that sent you.

But nothing that you do, is in its proper state, or reaches its true end, till you do not depend upon any doing that which is good, but by Christ, the wisdom and power of God. I caution you only against all eagerness of spirit, so far as it leads you to seek, and trust to something that is not God.

I recommend to you stillness, calmness, patience, not to make you lifeless, and indifferent about good works, or indeed with any regard to them, but solely with regard to your faith, that it may have its proper soil to grow in, and because all eagerness, restlessness, haste, and impatience, either with regard to God, or ourselves, are not only great hindrances, but real defects of our faith and dependance upon God.

Lastly, Be courageous, and full of hope, not by looking at any strength of your own; no, this will only help you to find more and more defects and weakness in yourself; but be courageous in faith, and hope, and dependance upon God. And be assured, that the one infallible way to all that is good, is never to be weary in waiting, trusting, and depending upon God manifested in Christ Jesus.

I am your hearty friend and well-wisher.

LETTER VII.

To a Person burdened with inward and outward Troubles.

Worthy Sir,

MY heart embraces you with all the tenderness and affection of Christian love; and I earnestly beg of God, to make me a messenger of his peace to your soul.

You seem to apprehend, I may be much surprized at the account you have given of yourself; but I am neither surprized nor offended at it; I neither condemn nor lament your estate, but shall endeavour to shew you, how soon it may be made a blessing and happiness to you. In order to which, I shall not enter into a consideration of the different kinds of trouble you have set forth at large. I think it better to lay before you the ground and root, from whence all the evils of human life have sprung. This will make it easy for you to see what that is, which only can be the full remedy for all.

The scripture has assured us, that God made man in his own image and likeness; a sufficient proof, that man, in his first state, as he came forth from God, must have been absolutely free from all vanity, want, or distress; from any thing painful, either within or without him. It would be absurd to suppose, that a creature beginning to exist in the image of God, should have vanity of life, or vexation of spirit: a god-like perfection of nature, and a painful, distressed nature, stand in the utmost contrariety to one another.

Now here are two things raised up in man, instead of the life of God: First, selfishness, brought forth by his chusing to have a wisdom of his own; contrary to the will and instruction of his Creator. Secondly, an earthly, bestial life, brought forth by his eating that food, which was poison to his paradisaical nature. Both these must therefore be removed; that is, a man must totally die to himself, and all earthly desires, views, and intentions, before he can be again in God.

“O happy famine,” might the poor prodigal have said, “which by reducing me to eat husks with swine, brought me to myself, and caused my return to my first happiness in my father’s house.”

Now, I will suppose your state to be as you represent it; inwardly, heaviness and confusion of thoughts and passions; outwardly, ill usage from friends, relations, and all the world; with an inability to strike out the least spark of light or comfort, by any thought or reasoning of your own.

Only let your present and past distress make you feel and acknowledge this two-fold great truth: First, That in and of yourself, you are nothing but darkness, vanity, and misery. Secondly, That of yourself, you can no more help yourself to light and comfort, than you can create an angel. People at all times seem to assent to these truths; but then it is an assent that has no depth or reality, and so is of little or no use: but your condition has opened your heart for a full conviction of them. Now give way, I beseech you, to this conviction, and hold these two truths in the same degree of certainty as you know two and two to be four, and then you are with the prodigal come to yourself, and above half your work is done.

*Being now in the full possession of these two truths, feeling them, as you feel your own existence, you are to give up yourself entirely to God in Christ Jesus, as into the hands of infinite love; firmly believing that God has no will towards you, but that of infinite love, and infinite desire to make you a partaker of his divine nature; and that it is as impossible for the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to refuse all that life and salvation which you want, as it is for you to take it by your own power.

*O drink deep of this cup! for the precious water of eternal life is in it. Turn unto God with this faith; cast yourself into this abyss of love: and then you will be in that state the prodigal was in, when he said, I will arise, and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; and all that will be fulfilled in you, which is related of him.

*Make this, therefore, the two-fold exercise of your heart: now, bowing yourself down before God, in the deepest sense and acknowledgment of your own nothingness and vileness; then, looking up unto God in faith and love, consider him as always extending the arms of his mercy towards you, and full of an infinite desire to dwell in you, as he dwells in angels in heaven. Content yourself with this simple exercise of your heart for awhile; and seek nothing in any book, but that which nourishes it.

*Teach your heart this prayer, till your heart continually saith, though not with outward words; “O holy Jesus: meek Lamb of God! Bread that came down from heaven! Light and life of all holy souls! help me to a true and living faith in thee. O do thou open thyself within me, with all thy holy nature, spirit, tempers, and inclinations, that I may be born again of thee, quickened and revived, led and governed by thy Holy Spirit.”

Prayer so practised, becomes the life of the soul, and the true food of eternity. Keep in this state of application to God; and then you will infallibly find it to be the true way of rising out of the vanity of time, into the riches of eternity.

The poverty of our fallen nature, the depraved workings of flesh and blood, cannot destroy us, so long as the spirit of prayer works contrary to them, and longs for the light and spirit of heaven. Our natural evil loses its poison and death, and only becomes our holy cross, on which we happily die from ourselves and this world, into the kingdom of heaven.

Would you have done with error, scruple, and delusion? Consider the Deity to be the greatest love, the greatest meekness, the greatest sweetness, the eternal unchangeable will to be a good and blessing to every creature; and that all the misery, darkness, and death of fallen angels and fallen men, consist in their having lost their likeness to this divine nature. Consider yourself and all the fallen world, as having nothing to wish for, but by the spirit of prayer to draw into your soul this divine, meek, loving, nature of God. Consider the holy Jesus as the gift of God to your soul, to begin and finish this within you, in spite of every inward or outward enemy. These three infallible truths, heartily embraced, and made the nourishment of your soul, shorten and secure the way to heaven, and leave no room for error, scruple, or delusion.

Expect no life, strength, or comfort, but from the Spirit of God, dwelling and manifesting his own goodness in your soul. The best of men, and the best of books, can only do you good, so far as they turn you from themselves, and every human thing, to seek and receive every kind of good from God alone; not a distant, or an absent God, but a God living, moving, and working in your inmost soul.

There is not a more infallible truth in the world than this, that neither reasoning nor learning can ever introduce a spark of heaven into our souls: but if this be so, then you have nothing to seek, nor any thing to fear, from reason. Life and death are the things in question: they are neither of them the growth of reasoning or learning, but each of them is a state of the soul, and only thus differ, death is the want, and life the enjoyment of its highest good. Reason, therefore, and learning, have no power here; but only by their vain activity to keep the soul insensible of that life and death, one of which is always growing up in it, according to the desire of the heart.

Thus you see, and feel, that the spirit of prayer is your certain way of returning to God.

*Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation and meditation are good, but then they are only good at proper times and occasions. But the spirit of prayer is for all times, and all occasions; it is a lamp that is to be always burning, a light to be ever shining; every thing calls for it, every thing is to be done in it, and governed by it; because it is, and means, and wills nothing else but the whole soul, incessantly given up to God, to be where, and what, and how he pleases.

All preachers of the true spiritual gospel, of a birth, and life from above, by Jesus Christ, ever were, and will be, treated by the reigning fashionable orthodoxy, as enemies to the outward gospel, and its services, just as the prophets of God were by the then reigning orthodoxy, condemned and despised, for calling people to a spiritual meaning of the letter, to a holiness infinitely greater than that of their outward sacrifices, types, and ceremonies.

But hear what our blessed Lord saith, of the place and origin of truth: he refers us not to the current doctrines of the times: My sheep, says he, hear my voice. Here the whole matter is determined, both where truth is, and who they are that can have any knowledge of it.

Heavenly truth is no where spoke but by the voice of Christ, nor heard but by a power of Christ in the hearer. As he is the only word of God, that speaks forth all the wisdom, and wonders of God; so he alone is the word, that speaks forth all the life, wisdom, and goodness, that can be in any creature; it can have none but what it has in him and from him: this is the one unchangeable boundary of truth, goodness, and every perfection of men on earth, or angels in heaven.

Literary learning, from the beginning to the end of time, will have no more of heavenly wisdom, nor any less of worldly foolishness in it, at one time than at another; its nature is the same through all ages; what it was in the Jew, that same it is in the Christian. Its name, as well as nature, is unalterable, viz. foolishness with God.

*I shall add no more, but the two or three following words.

II. Look at no inward or outward trouble, in any other view; reject every other thought about it; and then every kind of trial and distress will become the blessed day of thy prosperity.

III. Be afraid of seeking or finding comfort in any thing, but God alone; for that which gives thee comfort, takes so much of thy heart from God. “What is a pure heart? One to which God alone is totally, and purely sufficient; to which nothing relishes, or gives delight, but God alone.”

IV. That state is best, which exerciseth the highest faith in, and fullest resignation to God.

V. What is it you want and seek, but that God may be all in all in you? But how can this be, unless all worldly good and evil become as nothing to you?

“O my soul! abstract thyself from every thing. What hast thou to do with changeable creatures? Waiting and expecting thy bridegroom, who is the author of all creatures, let it be thy sole concern, that he may find thy heart free and disengaged, as often as it shall please him to visit thee.”

*Give up yourself to God without reserve. This implies such a state of heart, as does nothing of itself, from its own reason, will or choice, but stands always in an absolute dependance upon being led by the Spirit of God into every thing that is according to his will; in singleness of heart meeting every thing that every day brings forth, as something that comes from God, and is to be received, and gone through by you, in such an heavenly use of it, as you would suppose the holy Jesus would have done, in such occurrences.——This is an attainable degree of perfection; and by having Christ and his Spirit always in your eye, and nothing else, you will never be left to yourself, nor without the full guidance of God.

The piercing critic may, and naturally will grow in pride, as fast as his skill in words discovers itself. And every kind of knowledge that shews the scholar, the orator, the disputer, the commentator, the historian, his own powers and abilities, are the same temptation to him, that Eve had from the serpent; and he will get no more good by the love and relish of such knowledge, than she got by her love of the tree, that was so desirable to make one wise.

LETTER IX.

To G. W.

THE large account you have given of yourself, is very affecting, and I hope God will turn all the variety of your past distress, into means of a future solid peace, and rest in his divine love.

To be weary and heavy laden, is to have the highest fitness to receive that rest, that Christ alone can give. These are the persons that he called to him, when he was upon earth. They who are content with themselves, are in the utmost danger of never knowing that happiness, for which they were created.

*For a while, consider yourself in such a solitude, as if there was only God and you in the world, free from every thought, but that of desiring to be wholly and solely his, and looking wholly to his goodness, to be delivered out of the misery of your fallen state.

Be not too eager about much reading: nor read any thing but that which nourishes, strengthens, and establishes that faith in you, of an inward Saviour, who is the life of your soul. To grow up in this faith, is taking the best means of attaining to knowledge in all divine matters.

Cast away all reflections about the world. And let all be swallowed up in this joyful thought, that you had found the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, not in books, but in your own soul. Give yourself up to this, expect all from it, let it be the humble, faithful, longing desire of your heart, and desire no knowledge, but that which proceeds from it. Stand only in this thirst of knowledge, and then all that you know will be spirit and life.

With a heart full of good wishes to you,
I am,

Your’s, &c.

LETTER X.

To Mr. T. L.

My dear L.

You think, if you was to live an hundred years in an abstracted contemplation, some property of nature, would still be occasionally breaking forth in you. What occasion had you, my friend, to make this complaint about such a contemplation?

*You have no business with it, nor any reason to expect it should do any thing for you. Had you changed your words, and said, I believe if I was for a hundred years to be wholly trusting in, and depending upon God, to do that for me which he has promised to do for all that trust in him, it would not be done: had you expressed your complaint in these words, you would have seen, that neither faith, nor hope, nor love, nor resignation would have allowed you to make it. Look at yourself, at the power of time, or any thing that this or that complexion does, and then you may be afraid of every thing; but look at God, as him that is to do all for you, and in you, and then you need be afraid of nothing. A thorn, or no thorn, bad or good blood, with all its effects, loose all their difference, as soon as you know that you are not your own, nor left to yourself to seek a physician, that will not leave you unhealed.

Farewell.

LETTER XI.

To a Clergyman of Westmoreland.

Reverend Sir,

ADAM’s turning from God, to hear the voice of his own reason and imagination, and the suggestions of a satanical serpent, was that which created in him a new hardened heart, bold enough to eat of the forbidden tree. Now this rise of the first sin, demonstrates how the matter stands between God and every sinner, to the end of the world. The whole nature of God, his one unalterable will and work, stands in the same full opposition and contrariety to every work of sin in every man, as it did to Adam’s first transgression. And that which God did to prevent the first sin, saying to Adam, Eat not, that same voice of love, keeps saying, to every son of Adam, Sin not.

Yet so wise in the ways of God, are some divinity students, as to teach and preach, that the whole world through its thousands of years, has been bringing forth its millions of myriads of sinners all round the globe, who as soon as they have done with the vanity and misery of this world, are to be roaring in the hottest fire of an eternal hell. For what? Why, because they have been just as wicked, as the decrees of God required and forced them to be. And also thro’ every age of the world, there hath always been a little number of righteous, who were to go to heaven, which number had no littleness in it, but because God would not suffer it to be greater.

Can a charge like this be brought against Satan? Nay, doth it not even free Satan from all the evil that is charged upon him, and make him, though going about as a roaring lion, to be as insignificant a tool in the work of sin, as the preacher is in the work of godliness, though with ever so loud a voice, he beseeches the reprobate to be reconciled to God, or with tears in his eyes, exhorts the elect not to depart from him?

Without me ye can do nothing, saith Christ. That which a man soweth, that shall he reap, saith the apostle. Truths like these, of which the scripture is full, would keep all believers in the true church, attentive to the one thing needful, had not a learning, falsely so called, filled all eyes with the dust of darkness.

Now, Sir, be as sober as you will about the use and power of learning, logic, and eloquence, in the doctrines of salvation; condemn the bad use that heretics, schismatics, arians and socinians have made of them; yet let me whisper this truth into your ear, that you will never be delivered from the delusion and cheat of your own learning, till by a light risen up within you, you come to see, and know, that you want no more learning, to change you from a sinner into a saint, than Mary Magdalen did.

Farewell.