speaking our own words," Isa. lviii. 13, nor allowing ourselves in a gratifications that may interrupt our communion with the Father of Spirit Has " one day in his courts been preferable to a thousand,” Psalm lxxxiv. 1 spent either in the works of our calling, or in the scenes of recreation? Ha the memorials of our Redeemer's dying merits, and the seals of his unchang able loving-kindness, been relished as a feast, and prized as a portion?

Have we honoured God's holy word? What greater mark of disestee than to despise a person's discourse, and not to think his speech worthy our notice? especially when he addresses us with very great seriousness, an with the utmost affection. In our Bible, the God of glory speaks to h creatures, speaks with the most persuasive energy, and with all the yearnin of paternal tenderness. Have we listened to our Creator with reverence a delight; and rejoiced with trembling at-" Thus saith the Lord?"

Have we searched the oracles of truth, not merely as scholars, but sinners; not from a spirit of curiosity, or with an air of formality, but with solicitude and ardour becoming persons who inquire after the Saviour of the lost souls? Have we submitted our inmost thoughts to their imparti scrutiny; to receive conviction of sin from their awful remonstrances, at to hear the sentence of condemnation at their righteous bar? Have we be willing to suffer the reproach of conscious baseness, while they have ripp up the disguises of falsehood, laid open our secret iniquities, and brought our evil ways to remembrance? Thus Josiah acted: "His heart was tender, a he humbled himself before the Lord: he rent his clothes, and wept before t Lord, when he heard the words of the book of the law," 2 Chron. xxxiv. 2 Have we hid the glad tidings of the gospel within our memories, withi our hearts? Have we been diligent to suck this "honeycomb" (Cant. v. I of grace, by concomitant meditation, and subsequent prayer? Have w valued the precious promises, as gentlemen of wealth value the writings their private estates; or as enfranchised bodies esteem the charter of the public privileges? Have we, like the princely patriarch, longed for the words of edification, exhortation, and comfort, more than for our necessar food? Job xxiii. 12; and, like the royal prophet, prevented the nigh watches, that we may be occupied in those statutes and ordinances of heaven Psalm cxix. 148.

We have hitherto confined the examination to a few instances of the affi mative kind: how dreadfully will the dark account be swelled, if, instead love and obedience, there be hatred and opposition-hatred of the name glory, and worship of God-opposition to his interest, kingdom and service

God is infinite perfection, worthy of all admiration, exalted above praise. Yet do not our thoughts more frequently, or more naturally, tum upon our own accomplishments, than upon the adorable and shining attribute of the Almighty? This is, in itself, the most shameful dotage; and, God's sight, the most abominable idolatry. Yet let us observe what pass within, and we shall probably find, that as damps arise in the mines, or fo in the fenny grounds, so naturally and so copiously do these overweening reflections arise in our depraved minds.

God is an everlasting King. Have we not too often resisted his authority Have we not, as far as in us lay, deposed the omnipotent Sovereign, and exalted self into the throne? made self-will our law, and self-pleasing ou end? thus adding sacrilege to rebellion?

God is transcendently gracious and amiable. Have we not turned our backs upon him, by forgetting his mercies? Nay, have we not spurned him from our affections, by being "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God?" 2 Tim. iii. 4. Awake, conscience! bear thy impartial testimony; and I am persuaded, the Pharisee in our breasts, like the man unfurnished with the wedding garment, must be struck dumb, must be covered with confusion. Is our heart warm with brotherly love? Good manners will put expressions of civility into our mouths; but has a power from on high implanted the royal law of charity in our breasts? The character of a gentleman requires a deportment accessible, obliging, and courteous; has the spirit of Christianity taught us to love, "not in word," or plausible appearance only, "but in deed and in truth?" 1 John iii. 18. Do we love our neighbours, not merely on account of some relation they bear us, or some services they have done us; but because they are creatures of the blessed God, are the objects of his providential care, and capable, at least, of being conformed to his image? Do we love them, because we hope that the Lord Jesus Christ has bought them with his blood; is willing to make them partakers of his Spirit, and members of his mystical body?

If

Are we sincerely concerned for their present welfare and their eternal happiness? Do we embrace all opportunities of promoting both the one and the other? embrace them with the same alacrity, and improve them with the same zeal, which actuate us in seeking our own felicity? they exceed us in all that is amiable, and all that is prosperous, do we contemplate their superior excellence with a real complacency, and their more abundant success with a real satisfaction?

Do we dislike to hear, and abhor to spread, defamatory tales, even when our adversaries are the men whom they tend to blacken? When rudely affronted, or causelessly abused, do we pity the offenders for the wrong done to their own souls, rather than kindle into resentment at the indignity offered to ourselves? When greatly injured, are we slow to anger, and not easily provoked? Are we much more willing to be reconciled, than to foment displeasure and prosecute revenge? In a word, do we "love our enemies; bless them that curse us; do good to them that hate us; and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us?" Matth. v. 44. Without this loving and lovely disposition, we abide, says the apostle, in death, 1 John iii. 4; are destitute of spiritual, and have no title to eternal life*.

Let me add-are all our graces, and all our works, "clothed with humility?" This should be the dress in which they severally appear, as well as the bond of connexion with unites them all. Do we maintain a very low opinion of our own accomplishments, and "in honour prefer others to ourselves?" Rom. xii. 10; habitually sensible that we are less than the least of the divine mercies, and the very chiefest of sinners?

I might easily have branched out the preceding subjects into a much greater variety of interrogatory articles. But I intend only to present you with a specimen. Your own meditations will enlarge the sketch, and supply what is defective. Only let me beg of you, my dear friend, to try your state

• What manner of love is this? How disinterested! how extensive! how triumphant ! Must not all the boasted benevolence of the philosopher and moralist strike sail to this evangelical charity? Must not both moralist and philosopher acknowledge the necessity of a divine operation, thus to enlarge, exalt, and refine their social affections?

by this touchstone, to prove your conduct by this standard. And may the Father of lights give you an understanding to discern the exact purity and sublime perfection of his holy law!

Have you lived in the uninterrupted observance of all these duties, avoid ing whatever is forbidden, and obeying whatever is commanded? Your outward behaviour, I know, has been free from notorious violations; but has your inward temper been preserved from all ungodly motions, and from every irregular desire? Is there no enmity in your heart to any of the precepts; nor any backwardness, nor any failure in performing each and every injunction?

When you put these questions to yourself, remember that if you fail in one point, or in any degree, you are guilty of all; James ii. 10. If your conformity be not persevering as well as perfect, you incur the penalty, and are abandoned to the curse; Gal. iii. 10. You stand charged, before the Judge of the world, with all the guilt of all your sins, both original and actual; and there is not one circumstance, nor one aggravation, of any of your iniquities, overlooked or forgotten-unless, renouncing all your personal performances, you place your whole affiance on a Saviour's atonement and a Saviour's righteousness. I think you will not dare to put the issue of your everlasting state upon the former footing, which is not only hazardous, but must be inevitably ruinous. You will infinitely rather chuse to acknowledge yourself a poor insolvent, and plead the unsearchable riches of your Redeemer's obedience.

To those who believe, the law, though strict, is not terrible, because, be its precepts of holiness ever so extensive, they have been most completely fulfilled by their glorious Surety. Be its penal sanctions ever so rigorous, they have been satisfied to the utmost by their great Mediator. Believers, therefore, may make their boast of their adorable Sponsor; they "may sit under his shadow with great delight," Cant. ii. 3; while the thunderings of Mount Sinai, and all the terrors of the legal dispensation, tend only to increase and quicken the refreshing sense of their safety: just as the possessor of a plentiful estate, in some peaceful and prosperous country, reposes himself under the shade of his vine, or the shelter of his fig-tree; and, hearing of the wars which embroil, or the plagues which depopulate other nations, tastes with augmented relish his own felicity.

Let me close with the affectionate and emphatical wish of an inspired epistolary writer" That the Lord of Peace may give" my dear Theron "peace -always by all means!" 2 Thess. iii. 16. Then I shall think my wishes are accomplishing, and this blessing is at the door, when he sees the purity of the divine law-sees the depravity of his own nature-and the impossibility of being justified without an interest in the great Mediator's righteousness: that righteousness which, as it is the only hope and the constant joy, is therefore the darling theme, of your ever faithful

ASPASIO.

P. S. Shall I abridge the preceding letter, and contract the whole into those two great commandments which made the first awakening impressions on my own mind? "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Amazing! said your Aspasio. Are these the commands of God? as obligatory as the prohibition of adul

tery, or the observation of the Sabbath?

Then has my whole life been a continual act of disobedience: not a day, no, nor an hour, in which I have performed my duty. This conviction struck me, as the hand-writing upon the wall struck the presumptuous monarch. It pursued me as Saul pursued the Christians, not only to my own house, but even to distant cities; nor ever gave up the great controversy, till, under the influences of the Spirit, it brought me weary and heavy laden to Jesus Christ."

LETTER II.-THERON TO ASPASIO.

DEAR ASPASIO,-More than three weeks are elapsed since you favoured me with your improving company, during which interval I have frequently recollected the most material parts of our late discourses. I have carefully considered both the doctrines you advanced and the answers you returned to my several objections. I have often reviewed your valuable letter, have used it as a touchstone to examine my state, and have with great punctuality observed your parting advice. I have sat every evening for a picture of my mind, and have endeavoured to take a true unflattering draught of all its distinguishing qualities. And if the diary is a faithful mirror, if it does not aggravate the deformity of my features, I shall be absolutely out of conceit with myself: I shall ever entertain the meanest opinion of my own, either moral or religious, qualifications.

Where is that intense and supreme love of God which his transcendent perfections challenge, and his ineffable goodness claims? Where that firm and joyful reliance on Christ Jesus in any degree proportioned to his infinite merits and inviolable promises? Where that cordial and tender affection for my fellow Christians, which is due to the servants of a divine Redeemer ; the people whom he ransomed by his agonies, and purchased with his very blood? Where is the incense of holy contemplation and refined desire? where the flame of fervent devotion and ever active zeal; such as become the living temple of God, in which his most immaculate and glorious Spirit vouchsafes to reside? These fundamental graces, like the grand organs in the animal system, should impart health to the soul, and spread the beauty of holiness through all the conversation. But these, alas! far from beating with a vigorous and uniform pulse, hardly heave with life; only just struggle, now and then, with some faint, intermitted, uneven throes.

How seldom do my actions spring from gratitude to the everlasting Benefactor, or aim at the glory of his superexcellent majesty? In addressing the King immortal, invisible, how languid are my affections, and how wandering is my attention! how great my unbelief, and how little my reverential awe! I receive innumerable mercies; but where are my returns of correspondent thankfulness? I am visited with many gracious chastisements; but without proper resignation, or due improvement. Alas, for my heartless devotions, my lifeless virtues, and the multitude of my refined iniquities! Hid behind the mask of outward decency, and some customary forms of religion, I was altogether unacquainted with my spiritual state. I fancied myself "rich, and increased with goods, and to have need of nothing;" even while I wa "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," Rev. iii. 17. If I look back, and review the years of youth and manhood, what has b

the tenor, what is the aspect of my life? More like a desolate and horri wilderness than a cultivated garden, or a fruitful vineyard. In youth, what sordid gratifications of appetite! In manhood, what base compliances with wicked world! In both, what shoals of evil inclinations have polluted my heart! what swarms of vain imaginations have debased my thoughts! wha frothy and unprofitable words have dropped from my lips! By all which how have I disobeyed, and how dishonoured God! how have I denied, ant how crucified the Lord Jesus Christ! and yet supposed myself, all the while to be good enough!

It is something unaccountable, that a person of my inquisitive disposition should, through the course of so many years, be such an utter stranger t himself. I wonder at my own preposterous folly! To travel into foreig countries, and visit the most renowned cities of Europe; yet never step ove the threshold, nor look within the apartments of my own breast! To carry on a correspondence with my friends, even in the remotest nations; and neve enter upon a conference, nor hold any intelligence with my own heart! T inquire after news from the fleet, news from the army, news from the court yet exercise neither curiosity nor care with regard to the hope of heaven, and the concerns of eternity! What egregious misconduct is this! A most per nicious error in the economy of religious life!

Sometimes I have cast a transient glance on my outward behaviour, but never extended my search to the delinquent, the traitor, the rebel within. And even my outward behaviour has been surveyed with as much erroneous partiality as superficial levity. It has been compared, not with that exact and sublime standard, the Scriptures of truth; but, as in the case of the selfdeceiving Pharisee, with the unjust, extortionate, adulterous practices of some other people. From whence I most unwarrantably concluded, that being not quite so abandoned as the most profligate creatures, my character must be good, and my condition safe. But, thanks to your last friendly letter, and the searching expedient it recommended, I am now in a different way of thinking.

It is strange to recollect, and indeed it is shameful to confess, the many artifices which I have used to put a cheat upon myself. Sometimes I have fancied that the divine law could never be so strict as to condemn us inexorably, if we continue not in all its precepts. Sometimes I have pleaded the infirmity of our nature, and endeavoured to make the works of darkness appear only as pitiable failings. Sometimes I have taken refuge in the excellency of our church, and plumed myself with the borrowed feathers of a religious profession. At other times I have soothed my conscience to rest, by a punctuality of attendance on places, or a zealous attachment to forms. And all this to seduce, cajole, and betray myself;-betray myself, first into a vain conceit of my own endowments, then into a contemptuous disregard of Christ, and at last into eternal destruction. But now I see my guilt, I apprehend my danger, and feel my helpless condition.

Indeed, my Aspasio, I am now convinced that the darkest colours cannot be too dark for the portrait of my spiritual state. I see myself overspread with an habitual depravity, and cannot forbear crying out, with the abashed leper, "Unclean! unclean!" Lev. xiii. 45. The sacred oracles in no wise misrepresent fallen man, when they describe him as altogether become abominable, Job xv. 16. They are far from underrating human works, when