If we prevail in our disputes, (though I believe there is not a single instance in which either of the antagonists ever condescended publicly to own himself in the wrong), our adversaries then become baffled worldlings; if they prevail, then they become worldlings triumphant. When we deal much in disputes, we soil our souls, and endanger the temper of meekness and love, which we are so frequently enjoined to cultivate, and which are the very badge of Christianity.

As for amicable disputes in religion, it is as errant cant as an amicable suit at law. A dispute about the sacrament as naturally removes the mind out of its state of perfect charity, as a quarrel about a whore. The subject alters nothing; it is the temper of mind wherewith we handle these matters that defiles the man; and it is morally impossible to meddle to any purpose, without having the mind disordered.

St Paul was plainly of the same opinion, when he wrote thus to Timothy; " If any man consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, and surmises, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself;" 1 Tim. vi. 3-5.

This is the constant case of all the disputers in the gospel itself. The more they argued, the further they were always from the point; insomuch that even those who are said to believe on Christ, at the beginning of the chapter of dispute, before the end of it take up stones to cast at him.

In short, till a man be a Christian in some measure, he has neither ability, nor any right in nature to talk about it. It is more absurd than a controversy between a fish and a fowl, about the best and most commodious element to breathe in.

The peace and purity of our own minds, is of more value than of every other endowment. For my own part, I had rather be able to bear patiently the nickname of fool, or madman, than to become famous for all the wisdom and prudence which the world knows how to commend and esteem.

In this poverty of spirit, I would heartily entreat all my friends earnestly to seek after that love and peace, which is only to be found in the face or similitude of our dear Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, The want of this most amiable and Christian disposition in some eminent professors, for I never admired a rough and boisterous zeal, has often startled and chagrined him who is, dear sir, yours very sincerely, R. W. P.S.-We may talk what we will about religion, it is nothing less than a divine temper. What is short of this is prating about religion, and that is all. I meet with many doctrinal Christians, who are very dabs at chapter and verse, and yet very bond-slaves to earth and self. Spiritual Christians (which are the only true ones) are almost as scarce as phoenixes.

LETTER CLIII.

Saturday morning. MY DEAR FRIEND,-LET me exhort you to live as on the borders of eternity, and often to reflect where the late fall from your horse might have hurried you. Eternity is at hand. "He that cometh will come, and will not tarry." O that your soul may prosper! for without that, what are all the riches, pleasures, and honours of this earth? But it cannot prosper, unless the world be under foot, and your affections fixed on Jesus. What besides him, my dear friend, deserves a thought? And how tenderly has he dealt with us, notwithstanding all our ingratitude and provocations? I can say no more than I have said to you; but I pity you, and I pray for

you, that you may conquer this fear of man. I wish you would every day, for the next month, read some part of Professor Franck's Nicodemus, or, The Fear of Man. Dr told me he had a great re

gard for you, and wished you would set your face as a flint; exert your lively talents to promote the gospel, and confess the Lord Jesus boldly before men on every proper occasion: and when they talk obscenely, or take the Lord's name in vain, you ought genteelly to reprove them, or leave the company. This would be acting like a Christian! But while you are thus silent, meally-mouthed, stand so much upon your politeness, and have such a fear of being censured by worldly-minded people, you may take my word for it, you will do very little good, and be a stranger to the comfort and peace which others, who stick closer to Christ, daily experience; that comfortable peace of God, which (as Archbishop Secker finely observes, page 132 of his Nine Sermons) is that sense of being in friendship with him, that feeling of comfort and joy flowing from him, which passeth all understanding; exceeds the conception of those who have not experienced it, and will exceed hereafter the present conceptions of those who have. Adieu, my dear friend. Think well on what the Archbishop has so pathetically described, and then meditate on this alarming text, and reconcile it with your own pusillanimous conduct, which you miscall prudence: "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with his holy angels," Mark viii. 38. Once more, adieu! Remember that this is the declaration of the Lord who bought us with his blood, and suffered the unknown agonies of crucifixion to save you, and yours very sincerely.

P.S.-When people come to visit me, they expect to hear of Christ; and few come to Weston but those to whom such discourse is agreeable, nor do I desire

the company of any others. Talking of Christ is my touchstone, to see whether a person is worth my acquaintance. If you was once to take this method, you will tell me, perhaps, that such and such a one will abuse you, and all the principal gentlemen will ridicule and forsake you. And what then? You are much better without them. In their stead you will have the esteem and friendship of those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity; and Christ himself will be in the midst, who has laid up for you, and all such as love his appearing, a crown of righteousness. Has this consideration no weight with my dear friend? Do not let me apply to you what saint Paul says of Demas to Timothy, chap. iv. 10. "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world." Read the cxixth Psalm, and see whether you and your worldly-wise company have the spirit of the Psalmist. He, though a king, delighted to talk of God. He not only talked of him, observe, but delighted to do it; and it was pain and grief to him to forbear. Psal. xxxix. 3.

LETTER CLIV.

Saturday morning.

DEAR SIR,-IN reply to your question, "Why so many learned and very clever men in all worldly affairs, should treat religion with so much indifference, and remain unaffected by every argument that can be urged to rouse them from such a state of delusion?" I send you my opinion in a few words, viz. "Because they do not pray for the assistance* of the Holy Spirit." And I send you an answer more at large, extracted from a book of the celebrated Dr Bates, which I was lately reading, entitled, "THE SOVEREIGN AND FINAL HAPPINESS OF MAN, with the effectual means to obtain it."+

* See Christ's own words, Luke xi. 13. which the generality of mankind disregard; no wonder, then, the world should lie so much in darkness, and be thus dead to vital religion.

+ See Dr Bates's Works, folio, p. 466.

"The efficacious influence," says the Doctor, "of the Holy Spirit, is requisite to change the WILL, that, with a free and full consent, OUR WILL may desire and prosecute the spiritual, eternal good. Without this, the conviction of the mind is not powerful enough to convert the soul from the love of the world to chuse heaven. There may be an enlightened conscience without a renewed heart. Though the JUDGMENT assents that God is the supreme good; yet till the heart be circumcised, and the sensuality of the affections taken away, divine love (which directs our life to God as our blessed end) can never possess it.

"If men had a sensible and strong assurance of the eternal state hereafter; if all those who lived godly in a visible manner ascended with Elias to heaven; and if all who continued in their sins visibly descended into hell (as Corah and his company were swallowed up alive by the earth before the Israelites); if men could hear the joyful exultations of the saints above, and their high praises of God; then hear the desperate cries and deep complaints of the damned; nay, if one, according to the desire of the rich man, was sent from the doleful regions below, and with his fiery tongue should preach a sermon on those torments, not describing them at a distance, but by a sensible demonstration in himself; yet THIS ALONE would not be sufficient to draw off men's hearts from the deceitful and transitory happiness of this world, and to fasten them on the perfect and eternal happiness in the next. Indeed, they could not then indulge their vices so securely; but yet they would be strangers to the life of God, such an inveterate alienation of heart is in men from real holiness: for till the quickening Spirit of God (by a directing persuasive light, that represents the truth and goodness of spiritual things) transforms the soul, and makes it spiritual in its valuations and affections, it is inwardly, averse from grace and glory.

"How earnestly therefore ought we all TO PRAY,