But you will answer, That at which I hesitate is embracing the promises, with application to myself. You are not required or allowed to take the promises in any other than their true meaning. So far as that meaning includes your case, so far you are warranted to apply them to it, and no farther. For example: if you return to the Lord, you have a right to conclude that you, as readily as any sinner in the world, shall receive abundant pardon; if you come to Jesus, you shall in no wise be cast out; but neither these promises, nor any other, hold up any assurance of salvation to the impenitent and unbelieving. First believe the promises to be what they profess to be, true, great, and precious, to the renouncing of every other foundation of hope; and then the consciousness of this will afford a ground of persuasion that the blesssings contained in them are your own.

But you add, you cannot repent, and cannot believe. Consider, I beseech you, what it is that hindereth; and whether it be any thing else than the latent enmity of your heart to God. If you loved him, surely you could repent; nay, surely you could not but repent, and mourn for all your transgressions against him: surely you could not be insensible to the glory of Christ, and the way of salvation by him. You love yourself, and can mourn on your own account: but for all that you have done against him you cannot be grieved! You love yourself, and would give the world, you had it, to escape the wrath to come: but, for all that the Saviour has done and suffered, you can perceive no loveliness in him! You can see no glory in being pardoned for the sake of his atonement; no comeliness in him, nor beauty, that you should desire him! Do I misrepresent the case? Let conscience answer.

if

O, my dear young friend, do not cover your sin, nor flatter yourself that the bar to your salvation does not lie in your own heart. With the secret purposes of God you have nothing to do, as a rule of conduct: the things that are revealed belong to you; and these are, that you should repent of your sins, and believe in Christ alone for salvation. If you be not found an unbeliever, you need not fear being found a reprobate.

I am,

Yours, with much affection.

ARCHIPPUS,

LETTER IV.

My dear Friend,

[Archippus to Epaphras.]

SEVERAL months have elapsed since I wrote to you, and I have received no answer. Am I to interpret your long silence as an intimation that you do not wish for any further correspondence with me, on the important subject of your last? If I felt no concern for your eternal welfare, I might not only so consider it, but remain as silent on my part as you do on yours. But I must write, at least this once. When I think of your situation, I feel somewhat as the Apostle did towards the Galatians—a travailing in birth, that Christ may be formed in you.

In looking over the copy of my last, I acknowledge I have felt some misgivings of heart. I am sometimes ready to ask, May it not appear to him as though I was unfeeling? Though what I wrote was according to the best of my judgment, the truth of God; yet was there not too much use of the probe for a single letter? Might I not have dwelt less on the searching, and more on the consolatory? Yet, after all, I am not sure that I ought. But, as the Apostle, after addressing a searching epistle to the Corinthians, had many conflicts in his own mind concerning the issue, and at times half repented, so it was with me. Yet what counsel or direction have I to offer, which has not already been offered? Ifthe free grace of the gospel, or the all-sufficient redemption of Jesus Christ would comfort you, I could joyfully enlarge upon them. The provisions of mercy are free and ample. All things are ready :

millions of sinners have already come to the marriage, and yet there is room. If there were only a peradventure that you

should

be accepted, that were sufficient to warrant an application. Thus

the lepers reasoned in their perishing condition: Why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into the city, the famine is there; and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore, come, and let us fall into the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us we can but die. Thus also reasoned Esther: I will go in unto the king, which is not according to law; and if I perish I perish! But in applying to the Saviour of sinners, there are no such peradventures. To cut off every objection, he has proclaimed with his own lips, Ho every one that thirsteth, let him come unto me and drink! Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest! Ask, and it shall be given seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you : for EVERY ONE THAT ASKETH Receiveth; and HE THAT SEEKETH FINDETH; AND TO HIM THAT KNOCKETH IT SHALL BE OPENED!

you;

But to all this you repulsively answer, 'I cannot repent, I cannot believe.' What then can I do? If the doctrine of the cross contain no charms which can attract you, it is not for me to coin another gospel, nor to bend the scriptures to the inclination of man's depraved heart. We must bend to them, and not they to us or if not, they will be found to be true, to our confusion.

I am aware that persons in your condition desire above all things to be soothed and comforted by something else than the gospel. They imagine themselves to be willing to be saved in God's way; as willing as the impotent man that waited at the pool was to be made whole; therefore they wish to be directed to wait and hope in the way that they are in, till it shall please God to release them, as by the moving of the waters. It is also grateful to them to be encouraged, on the ground of their present distress, to hope that God has mercy in reserve for them, for that it is his usual way, first to convince of sin, and afterwards to impart the joys of salvation. A company of gentlemen, (on board a ship that touched at one of the southernmost parts of South America,) had a mind to make a short botanical excursion. They accordingly ascended one of the mountains. Ere they were aware, night came on, and a very cold fog. They felt an unusual propensity to sleep: but a medical friend, who was with them, strongly remonstrated against every indulgence of the kind, as they would be in the utmost dan

ger of never waking again. What would you have thought of this gentleman's conduct, if, instead of urging his companions to escape from the mountain, he had indulged them in their wishes! The scriptures declare, he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him; and surely we ought not to contradict this declaration, either by directing to the use of means short of believing, or encouraging those who use them to hope for a happy issue. The crucifiers of Christ were in great distress; but Peter did not encourage them to take comfort from this, but directed them to repent and be converted-to repent and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins. The Philippian jailor was in great distress; but Paul had no comfort for him on this ground, nor any counsel to offer but believing in Jesus.

A necessity is laid upon me, and woe is me if I preach not the gospel! I have not deviated from this point in what I have hitherto written; nor will I deviate, whatever be the consequence. Wherefore? Because I love you not? God knoweth! I am determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified! If this doctrine fail to relieve you, the cause must be looked for, not in the want of encouragement, but of desire to embrace it. But, O my dear young man! consider Jesus Christ, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession! As one that has tasted that the Lord is gracious, though a perishing sinner like yourself, I do most heartily recommend him to you. I was brought low, and he helped me! The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord, O Lord I beseech thee, deliver my soul! By happy experience I can bear witness that gracious is the Lord and righteous: yea, our God is merciful. He delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. O taste and see that the Lord is gracious! The eyes of many are upon you: saints and angels stand ready to embrace you as a brother, as soon as you shall embrace their Lord. The Spirit and the bride say, Come; and he that heareth saith, Come; and Jesus himself, who testified these things, exalted as he is in the highest heavens, closes the invitation, saying Whosoever