doubt not he will gladly do what you desire, unless it be prevented by his having a companion, a young man about sixteen, with whom he travels.

I see you are hot upon removing me to London; and you may well suppose that our complete union disposes me to some such change even more than before. But I candidly own that all my mind revolts from the idea of being burdensome to you. I have been thinking of a trial for a year without removing my family immediately. I know not what encouragement there might be with you for some kind of day school on liberal terms, or for private pupils in the mathematical sciences and classics. Were I independent of labouring for my bread, or had to labour only for my own support, I think I should be apt not to reside permanently in any one place, but after a residence for a year or two, according as there appeared work in the Lord's vineyard, should move my quarters. But here am I involved in talking of my foolish schemes. I have committed and do commit my way in this matter to the Lord, and I desire to rest it with him, daily praying that he may not leave me to my own will or wisdom. Your zeal in the circulation of tracts I

hope will provoke us to jealousy here. We greatly need to be stirred up to more exertion for spreading the truth. For the last three or four weeks we have been engaged in a renewed attempt on Sunday evenings to call the attention of the world to the Gospel. Very few attend; but still sufficient to warrant the continuance of the effort I am a little jealous of your seeming inference from the immense multitude of inhabitants in London, that there must be very many who have an ear for the word. Of all that multitude, how few are there who are not at present lending a willing ear to the grossest doctrines of Antichrist; and of the rest who make a more refined profession, how few perhaps would be found, when the unadulterated truth is laid before them, to close with it cordially, without wishing for some change in its statement or for some addition to it. No doubt they have scarcely yet been tried in this way; and how many people the Lord may have in that great city it is not for us to speculate on. But his ways are so sovereign that it might be, that more would be found in some country village than in all London; and to that revealed principle of his kingdom it is always wholesome for us to attend: "Few there be that find it." It is well calculated to beat down that carnal vanity which would always lead us to seek something that would make a figure in the eyes of men: and equally calculated to support our spirits in patience and hope, while we find so few to join us; and to keep us rejoicing in the prospect of that coming day, when the Lord shall appear to be glorified in his saints. I do not carry these ideas so far as I believe the Glasites do; for I fancy if they saw a few hundred disciples gathered together in London, they would be ready to conclude that it must be on Antichristian principles. Yet what a little flock would that be!

ΤΟ

XLIX.

1818.

SIR,-The letter you favoured me with, did not reach me till my return to Dublin, and it is but lately that I heard through Mr. K. how I should address an answer to it. Suffer me now to offer a few plain observations to your attention. Two things struck me with some surprise in your letter; the manifest inconsistency between the first paragraph, and almost all that follows;-the other-your taking offence at expressions used by me, which I am confident I never employed in my discourses, because they are a style of language that I have long thought unscriptural. The Scriptures are explicit in assigning the salvation of the righteous to the Lord, tracing it from the purpose of his grace, of which they were the objects in Christ Jesus before the world began, to the effectual working of his power, bringing them by the word of truth to the knowledge of him, in whom they are made partakers of righteousuess, and the adoption of children, guiding them by the spirit of truth, and keeping them through faith unto that glory of which they are heirs. The scriptures, I say, explicitly reveal this great salvation as his work, who has power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him. But they no where speak of the perdition of the ungodly as the effect of a divine decree that they should not believe and be saved: for this indeed would imply what is directly contrary to the truth,-namely, that they are all so well disposed, that if they were let they would gladly come to Christ that they might have life: whereas the carnal mind is so opposed to the true God, that it is impossible a single individual should ever come to Christ, unless drawn by the Father. It can hardly therefore require the exertion of his power to keep any back. Plainly as these things are revealed, I know they are opposed and blasphemed by the whole world, by religious and profane, have ever been so, and ever must; the world, thoroughly unintentionally, confirming that word that they reject and no objection against it is more constantly bandied in various forms than that, “Why doth he yet find fault? Who hath resisted his will?" If the work of a sinner's salvation from first to last be God's work, those whom he does not save, may equitably arraign him as the author of their ruin.' And truly I know not any specimen of human wickedness in this world coming nearer to what we may conceive exhibited in the regions of outer darkness, than this objection. While those who hardily make it, are wilfully rejecting that salvation which is revealed, and clothing their blasphemous sentiments in devout hymns and sermons. But what surprises me, sir, in you is that you appear, in the first sentence of your letter, unequivocally to assert that doctrine, against which this objection is brought. But I own to you that I fear there must be some latent

fallacy in your mind, and that you have not weighed the import of the words that you employ in that passage, or I think you could never have written as you do in the remainder. Think with yourself again, are you indeed persuaded that any sinner whatsoever, who believes the divine testimony concerning Jesus of Nazareth, is justified in him, and shall be eternally saved by him-that their faith, or knowledge of that testimony, is the gift and work of God-that they can do nothing, either to promote their acceptance in his sight at first, or (as you express it) to assist in their final salvationand that none, who persist in disbelieving that testimony, shall escape final condemnation. Why, sir, if you are persuaded of these things, we are agreed; and what is it you are objecting to? You know that, in this case, your creed differs from that of all the surrounding world-that they are indeed a little flock, who have received repentance to the acknowledging of this truth;-and may you not then answer your own objections, and the difficulties you start against the divine mercy from the number of those who perish. But consider again, I beseech you, what all these objections amount to. Is it to this? If God save not the majority of mankind, his character appears to have more cruelty than goodness? and will you really maintain this language? then, of course, if he save not all, he is but imperfectly good. Indeed, I would have supposed, from the tenor of your argument, that you held that fashionable lie of the final salvation of all men and devils, were it not that the first sentence of your letter appears to disavow it. But I cannot but fear that your notions of the divine mercy are altogether unscriptural; and that, like many others, you mean by the term something, the non-extension of which to sinners, would derogate from the divine equity and goodness; i. e. something that is not mercy, but which sinners may claim as a right, while they think it safer to pass the compliment of calling it mercy. If ever the word of truth, that declares the true grace or mercy of God in Christ Jesus, gain admission into your mind, I doubt not but it will bring down the high thoughts that are now exalting themselves against the knowledge of God; and while it discovers to you the distinctive glory of Him who is the only true God and eternal life, just and the justifier of the ungodly, will satisfy you of the importance of testifying against all that is called God, and that is worshipped by those who believe not the testimony of his name. You will see that your argument, about worshipping the true God falsely, is but a play on words. I have the decided authority of the Scriptures for asserting that none but those, who believe the revelation he has made of his name, do or can call upon the true God; and that whosoever calls upon him, shall be saved. Your argument, that Christ cannot be said to have destroyed the works of the devil if only a few of mankind be saved, has been already sufficiently answered. As to the number of the saved, I know nothing but what the Scriptures inform me. I know that when all are brought together they will form a multitude that no man can number; but I know also, from the same authority, that their number on earth, at any particular period, has hitherto been small indeed, in comparison of those who tread the broad way. Indeed, all who believe the gospel, will find

how few they are that think with them. What, therefore, do you mean by wishing me to represent the majority of men around me as in the way of salvation, when I see them despising and hating the testimony of the Saviour? This does not look as if you were persuaded that none but those who believe the truth will be saved. Excuse the plain fidelity with which I have written, and which, however it may displease you, has been dictated by the truest concern for your welfare. I am, &c.

ΤΟ

L.

1818.

SIR,- On my return from the country, I have received your letter of the 26th ult., which you tell me is the fourth you have written without receiving any answer. I beg you will forgive me this appearance of neglect. I think some of your former letters must have miscarried; for I do not recollect receiving any other from you except one last year from Mr. D, of Glasgow, accompanied with a pamphlet, "The ancient doctrine of the Seceders," &c. My silence upon that, partly arose from the nature and multiplicity of my engagements, (which forbid my attempting to hold epistolary correspondence with all who might desire it) but chiefly from your pamphlet leading me to apprehend that you are betrayed into a rashness of speculation in which I dare not follow you. Yet I confess that I then entertained more hope than I do now, that there was something of an unity of mind between us, upon the great truth of the Gospel. Your last letter, in which you explain your sentiments on the doctrine of a sinner's justification before God, leaves me only to wonder how you could so much mistake my mind, as to wish for communication with me. I am not altogether a stranger to the comforts that are connected with fellowship of brethren united in the gospel. But to that comfort unity of view, with respect to the doctrine of the gospel, is essentially requisite; and there, it appears from your letter, that we essentially differ. You would agree with me in saying that the Gospel is a revelation of righteousness to the guilty and ungodly; but we do not mean the same thing by the words. You mean that it communicates to them a mind and nature agreeable to the righteous and holy will of God; by participating in which, you conceive that men are justified in the sight of God. I mean that it reveals that perfect righteousness fulfilled by another, which God declares he has accepted for the justification of the evil and wicked before him. The hope of your Gospel must be a hope derived from the supposed perception of the new nature in you: the hope of the Apostolic gospel is derived solely from the perception of the work of

righteousness, finished by the Lord Jesus. The perception of this, (or the belief of the divine word that reports it) will indeed produce a new mind; but this mind, and all its correspondent fruits, are the "fruits of righteousness," not the righteousness, nor the cause of the righteousness of those who are saved. Of course, as you deny Christ made righteousness to his people by imputation, I suppose you deny their sins made his by imputation; and I confess, sir, that judging of your sentiments from your own statement of them, I am obliged to consider you as a stranger to the true grace of God. At the same time I thank you for your expressions of kindness and good will towards me, and will be happy to render you any service in my power. I am, &c.

LI.

TO J. B

1818.

I HAVE read your letter twice, with as much attention as you could desire for (while in my right mind) I can never be averse to examine the scriptural grounds of my conduct and principles, from whatever quarter the call to that examination may come. I received none of the shock from your sentiments which you seemed to apprehend, for the avowal of them did not surprise me. I had long conjectured that you were of the mind which you now express; partly collecting it from your former communications, but still more from knowing how closely connected is opposition to any of the divine precepts with the abandonment of the sanctity of them all. As I am also aware how closely connected this is with a departure from the truth of the unadulterated gospel, I seriously think that I can make you no kinder return for the trouble you have taken in trying to convert me to your ungodly system, than by sending you the enclosed tract, which I entreat you to read with close attention. I am persuaded that, if ever you be effectually arrested in that downward course which you are pursuing with such accelerated velocity, it must be by the sanctity of that truth (in which the only true God makes himself known to us) being brought more clearly to your view and more powerfully to your conscience.

I am at a loss to conceive why you thought the scriptural union, which the great mercy of God has lately produced in my family, was likely to dispose me to the unscriptural union which you so zealously contend for. But I hope it has led me to look with more confidence of expectation to Him, with whom nothing is impossible, to display the same mercy and power in other instances, according to his sovereign will. It is only in the hope of that divine blessing, that I proceed to make a few brief and detached remarks on your letters; but