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Wherefore, in my best frames, in my devoutest hours, when I feel the greatest veneration for the Deity, and the greatest regard to his law, and am most sorry that I ever have been, and am still such a vile rebel against my rightful sovereign, the GoD of GLORY; I am so far from thinking that I am fit to live, that my whole heart is ready to say, " No! but infinitely unfit to live! Eternal death is my due! And hell my proper home!" Yea, it appears to me, although I had attained to love God and Christ in the same degree as Saint Paul did, and were as willing to die in the cause of religion as he was, that yet I should merit hell every moment for not loving God and Christ more. And therefore, with him I would have no confidence in the flesh; and would seek to be found, not in myself, but in Christ; not having my own righteousness, but his. Phil. iii. 3. 9. And would say, In the Lord alone have I righteousness, and in him alone will I glory. Isai. xlv. 24, 25.

Yea, suffer me to say, I apprehend, and verily believe, that even Saint Paul himself deserved eternal damnation, for that wickedness which God saw in his heart, then, at that instant, when a little before he died a martyr, he said, I am now ready to be offered. For although he was willing, quite willing to die for his master; yet he did not love him perfectly as he ought. He himself owns, he had not already attained, nor was already perfect. But the least defect deserves punishment, yea, eternal damnation. Therefore, Saint Paul always felt in his heart, that hell was his proper due; and always looked on the law, even as a ministration of death and condemnation, to be glorious, (2 Cor. iii. 7. 9.) and always placed all his dependence, for acceptance in the sight of God, on Jesus Christ. He did so, not only when first converted, but habitually, all the days of his life, to his very last breath.

O, in how lively, how striking a manner, are all these sentiments expressed in those words of the blessed apostle, in Gal. ii. 19, 20. which were the genuine language of his heart,

ed. And they will all judge rightly. Rom. ii. 2. Nor will the wicked have any reason to dislike them for it; but rather to esteem their conduet herein truly praise-worthy. Rev. xix. 1. 6.

and give a picture of the inward temper of his soul. Ithrough the law, am dead to the law, that I might live to God. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life I live in the flesh, even to my latest breath, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Who loved me, as his own before the foundation of the world; and in the fulness of time, gave himself for me, as one whom the Father had given to him. For, in the midst of these holy views and gracious exercises of heart, Saint Paul's Calling and Election were always sure; and he steadily knew, that he was of that blessed number for whom Christ died, with an absolute design to save. Yet this knowledge was not the foundation, but rather the consequence of his faith and holiness.

Your Theron does no more doubt of God's readiness to be reconciled to the sinner, that returns to him through Jesus Christ, than he doubts of the truth of the Gospel. He believes the one just as firmly as he believes the other. If the chief facts related in the Gospel are true, he knows this consequence is equally true. If God has so If God has so pitied this apostate world, as to give his own Son to die a sacrifice for sin to answer the demands of his law, and secure the honour of his government, for this very end, that he might be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; and if he has testified his acceptance of the atonement, by raising him from the dead, and setting him at his own right hand in heaven. I say, if these facts are true, your Theron knows the consequence cannot but be true, viz. That any sinner, how ill deserving soever, who upon the invitation of the Gospel, shall repent and be converted, shall return to God through Jesus Christ, he will be accepted, pardoned, and saved, for Christ's sake. And, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, I cannot but return and give up myself to God through Jesus Christ with all my heart. Psalm cx. 3. John xvii. 3. 8. Psalm ix. 10. Such were the views; such were the tempers of the Apostle Paul, who wrote, and of the Christians to whom he direeted his Epistles; as he himself affirms. 2 Cor. iii. 18. And it was under such views, and in consequence of such tempers, that they were assured, the spiritual and everlasting

blessings of the Gospel were theirs ; as another Apostle asserts, 1 John ii. 3, 4, 5. And in such views, and with such tempers, Saint Paul might well expect, that the consideration of the infinite goodness of God towards them, in their election, redemption, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, and in the eternal joys of heaven, to be certainly be stowed upon them, would powerfully animate them to present themselves a living sacrifice to God, to be for ever entirely his. Rom. xii. 1.

The Saints at Rome, viewed the wrath of God as revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, against the least sin, felt themselves without excuse, their mouths stopped, guilty before God, according to law; a law holy, just, and good; were therefore dead to the law and married to Christ, exercised faith in the blood of Christ, depending entirely on free grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. And as by virtue of their union with Adam, they became sinners; so by virtue of their union with Christ, by a true and living faith, they became righteous. And were dead to sin, so that they could not any longer live therein. For they not only approved the law as holy, just, and good, but even delighted in the law of God after the inward man, and maintained a constant conflict against every contrary bias. For they were made partakers of the divine nature; had every one of them the spirit of Christ dwelling in them; and walked not after the flesh, but after the spirit; were daily led by the spirit, and lived under the government of divine grace, feeling the temper of children towards God; crying, Abba, Father. And if children, they knew they were heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And as they were willing to suffer with Christ, they expected to reign with him. And they esteemed the sufferings of this present life not worthy to be compared with the glory they had in view, in a future state. Besides, they found by experience, that all their sufferings worked together for their good, brought them nearer to God, and made them more like him. And they were persuaded that nothing in life or death should ever separate them from the love of God; who, of his mere sovereign grace, had predestinated, called, and done all things for them; not because they had

any claim to make, but because he would have mercy on whom he would have mercy; of the same lump, making one a vessel to honour, and another a vessel to dishonour. Which sovereign right to dispose of his own grace, they saw belonged to God; of whom, and by whom, and to whom, are all things; to whom be glory for ever! Wherefore, as the fittest and happiest thing in the world, they brought themselves, soul and body, as the Jew used to bring his bullock to the altar, and presented themselves a living sacrifice to God; seeking daily to be more and more transformed into the divine image, and devoting themselves, in all humility and love, to the duties of their several places; not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. (Please to read the 12 first chapters of the Epistle to the Romans.)

The Saints at Ephesus also, who formerly had their understandings darkened, their hearts blind and alineated from God; yea, who were quite dead in sin; and so far from any right to claim mercy, that they were without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world: yea, even by nature children of wrath: yet these, of God's mere sovereign grace, according to his purpose before the foundation of the world, were quickened, had divine life communicated to them, were raised from the dead, were brought to know Jesus Christ, and trust in him ; in consequence of which they were sealed, had the holy Spirit given to dwell in them, whereby they were furnished to all good works. Aud conscious to this divine change and to the glorious blessings they were now made partakers of, they were fervently engaged to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they were called; to live up to their holy religion; to forgive others as God had forgiven them, and in all things to imitate their heavenly Father, being followers all with singleness of heart, as unto the Lord, &c. (Please to read over the whole Epistle.)

But time once was, O my dear Aspasio, when your Theron, not conscious of any sanctifying operations in his own 'breast, believed all the blessings of the Gospel to be his, without any "evidence from Scripture, sense or Which belief served to still his conscience, and keep him at ease, while blind to the beauty of the divine nature, and a

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stranger to divine life. And in this case, having no sufficient evidence from inherent graces, to support his confidence, he was obliged, without any evidence at all from any quarter, resolutely to maintain his belief, by believing. Oh, what awful delusion! How was I like one blindfold; one destitute of any sense or reason, or knowledge of the Scriptures, led captive by satan at his will! by satan transformed into an angel of light.

Oh, my dear Aspasio, pity an ignorant benighted world, who love to flatter themselves, and to hear no cry from their teachers, but PEACE, PEACE; and guard them against the sad delusion which had well-nigh proved the ruin of your own Theron.

If all your sentiments, as they exist in your own mind, are exactly right; if you had not the least design to convey one of those mistaken notions, which your Theron imbibed from your persuasive lips; if he misunderstood just every word, and framed a mere chimera in his own head, a chimera you abhor with all your heart; yet, O my kind, my tenderhearted, my dear Aspasio, pity an ignorant world, who are like generally to understand you as I have done; and in compassion to immortal souls, be entreated, once more to take your fine, your entertaining, charming pen, which commands the attention of thousands, and ten thousands through all the British dominions in Europe and America, and warn poor sinners of their dreadful danger; lest multitudes perish in the road the bewitching, the enchanting road, once trodden by your own pupil; and to which, but for the sovereign grace of God, he had been for ever lost! It is the humble and earnest request of

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YOUR EVER AFFECTIONATE

THERON.

END OF LETTERS AND DIALOGUES.

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