the right hand of his Heavenly Father, and seeing the promise verified, that "God will make his foes his "footstool:"-the kingdoms of the world becoming the kingdoms of God, and of his Christ; -holiness, happiness, and harmony, incessantly extending themselves, and vivifying the assurance that not one jot or one. tittle of what the Scriptures announce shall fail. Topics such as these, far from being ignoble, far from tending to contract the mind, give it an expansion of occupation, and a glow of delight, which no discoverer but him who has found "the Pearl of great price" can ever attain! " Ye are come" (says St. Paul, and invites us to unite with him in the sublime and extatic contemplation), "ye are come unto Mount Sion, and " unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jeru" salem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to "the general assembly and church of the first-born " which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge " of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, "and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, " and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better "things than that of Abel. See, then, that you re"fuse not him that speaketh;" and suffer not men who, whatever may be their knowledge in other respects, are ignorant of religion, to tempt you to reject it.

I address you thus earnestly, my friend, because I know that they who misconceive the characteristics of our faith, in consequence underrate its mental tendencies; not seeing that while it is more certain, more attainable, and more useful, than any other knowledge, it is also more refined and elevated; and because I am anxious to impress it upon your mind, that Christianity, apart from its distinguishing doctrines (if it be possible to conceive of so strange a disruption of body and soul, in that which will endure for ever), will have no firm hold upon the heart; nor, in those great conjunctures where its aid is most necessary, can it reasonably be expected to have any abiding influence upon the conduct. I wish you, farther, to believe (and trust I shall, ere I close these letters, succeed in causing you to believe) that there is no intermediate ground in argument, which a fair, candid, and unsophistical reasoner can render tenable, between pure Deism, and moderate orthodoxy; that is, hetween the system exploded in my first letter, and that which in the remainder of the series I purpose to defend. Let me also be permitted to remark, that it is no new scheme of religion which I am recommending for your adoption. I have not argued, nor will I argue, exclusively in favour of Calvinism, or Arminianism, or Methodism, or any set of opinions of human fabrication; but shall endeavour to attain that middle point where all that is good in either seems to meet, and all that is exceptionable to be excluded; (q) and therefore

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shall defend those sentiments and doctrines which are so clearly contained in the Bible, that none deny them who are not in consequence compelled to give up the authority of some part of Sacred Writ, which were held and taught by the ablest and best men in the first three centuries, which warmed the breasts of saints and martyrs, which have inspired the hopes and regulated the conduct of a great majority of pious

"expressly or plainly reveals or asserts the particular sentiments of " either of these sects, with an exclusion of the other: but the reason of "these different assertions of men is this, that the holy writers in differ"ent texts, pursuing different subjects, and speaking to different per"sons, sometimes SEEM to favour each of these two opinions; and men "being at a loss to reconcile them by any medium, run into different "extremes, and entirely follow one of these tracks of thought, and ne"glect the other. But surely, if there can be a way found to reconcile "these two doctrines of the absolute salvation of the elect, by the obe"dience, righteousness, and death of Christ procuring it for them, with "all things necessary to the possession of it; and also of the conditional " salvation provided for all mankind, and offered to them in the Gospel, " through the all-sufficient and overflowing value of the obedience and " sufferings of Christ; this will be the most fair, natural, and easy way " of reconciling these different texts of Scripture, without any strain or " torture put upon any of them." Watts's Ruin and Recovery of Mankind, Quest. 13. See also, Baxter on Doctrinal Controversies, pp. 17, 18; and the Rev. Robert Hall's preface to the 3d edition of his father's "Help to Zion's Travellers."

The second passage relates to the Divinity of Christ. " In my younger " years (says he) when I endeavoured to form my judgment on that arti"cle, the Socinians were the chief or only popular opponents. Upon " an honest search of the Scripture, and a comparison of their notions " with it, I wondered how it was possible for any person to believe the "Bible to be the Word of God, and yet to believe that Jesus Christ "was a mere man. So perverse and preposterous did their sense of the "Scripture appear, that I was amazed how men, who pretended to rea" son above their neighbours, could wrench and strain their understand“ings, and subdue their assent to such interpretations. And I am of " the same mind still." Pref. to Chris. Doct. of Trinity.

men in all ages of the universal church, which, through the providence of God, have been inserted in the formularies of most established churches, and which, if language have a plain and obvious interpretation, are defined in the Articles, incorporated in the Ritual, and enforced in the Homilies of the Church of England.

The adoption of these opinions, and especially the manifestation of them in a holy, pure, and exemplary life, will probably subject you to the ridicule of the most thoughtless of your former associates. But for this you will be amply compensated by enjoying peace of conscience, and "reconciliation with God." And that you may be in some measure fortified by the observation of others against the derision to which you will be exposed, allow me to extract for your use three or. four quotations from authors of the present times, whom no person of taste and judgment (to say nothing of piety) will affect to despise.

You may, perhaps, be called an enthusiast, or at least told that these notions lead to enthusiasm; but you may repel the charge by the following quotation. "The preacher (or the religious writer) who neglects "the peculiarities of the Gospel, neglects the most " profound and the most copious-the most important " and the most interesting-the most impressive and "the most moral, part of his profession; and, above "all, he affords an advantage to the delusions of en"thusiasts, of which an opposite system would effec"tually deprive them. Enthusiasm, in the sense here " used, is not a natural product of the Gospel, but "an accidental perversion of its tendencies; the " origin of which is to be traced, in every age, to the "neglect of the Gospel as a peculiar system, and to the " confounding its authoritative sanctions with the more " indefinite obligations of natural morality. Look at "the early ages of Christianity, when its peculiarities " were first communicated, and largely insisted on, as "the essential parts of the system, in every sermon. "The effect was powerful, and it was moral, beyond "all example,-producing the utmost efforts of heroic " and disinterested virtue, with very few, and com"paratively feeble, examples of that wretched enthu"siasm, or interested hypocrisy, which combines the " profession of the most important truths with the "practice of the most contemptible and sordid "vices." (r)

Seeing that the vocabulary of reproach is indefinite, others may apply to you a different term, and brand you as a methodist. If so, try whether you cannot laugh at the unmeaning absurdity of the appellation. "The vain and malignant spirit (says a most acute " and profound Essayist), which had descried the ele"vated piety of the Puritans, sought about, as Milton "describes the wicked one in Paradise, for some " vehicle in which it might again, with facility, come " forth to hiss at zealous Christianity, and in another " lucky moment fell on the term methodist. If there " is no sense in the word as now applied, there seems, " however, to be a great deal of aptitude and execution. "It has the advantage of being comprehensive as a

(7) Edinburgh Review, vol. xvii. p. 470.