trines of grace and justice, and before the throne of God's mercy and holiness, a sinner pardoned and sanctified must, in the very nature of things, be considered as a sinner, for if you consider him as a saint, absolutely abstracted from the character of a sinner, how can he be a pardoned and a sanctified sinner? To all eternity therefore, but much more while death [the wages of sin] is at your heels, and while ye are going to "appear before the judgment-seat of Christ," to receive your final sentence of absolution or condemnation: it will become you to say with St. Paul, "We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ"-although we are justified judicially, us believers, through faith;-as obedient believers, through the obedience of faith; and as perfect christians, through christian perfection.

VIII. Humble love becomes all things, [but sin] to all men, although it delights most in those who are most holy. Ye may, and ought to set your love of peculiar complacence upon God's dearest children,-upon those who, like yourselves, excel in virtue; because they more strongly reflect the image of the God of love, the Holy One of Israel." But, if ye despise the weak, and are above lending them an helping hand; ye are fallen from christian perfection, which teaches us to bear one another's burdens, especially the burdens of the weak. Imitate then the tenderness and wisdom of the good Shepherd, who carries the lambs in his bosom, gently leads the sheep which are big with young, feeds with milk those who cannot bear strong meat, and says to his imperfect disciples, "I have many things to say to you, but ye cannot bear them now.'

"

IX. "Where the loving Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Keep therefore at the utmost distance from the shackles of a nar. row, prejudiced, bigoted spirit. The moment ye confine your love to the people who think just as you do, and your regard to the preachers who exactly suit your taste, you fall from perfection and turn bigots. "I intreat you, [says Mr. Wesley, in his Plain Account,] beware of bigotry. Let not your love, or beneficence, be confined to Methodists (so called) only much less to that very small part of them, who seem to be renewed in love or to those who believe your's and their report. O make not this your Shibboleth."-On the contrary, as ye have time and ability, do good to all men. Let your benevolence shine upon all: let your charity send its cherishing beams towards all, in proper degrees. So shall ye be "perfect as your heavenly Father, who makes his sun to shine upon all;" although he sends the brightest and warmest beams of his favour upon the household of faith, and reserves his richest,

bounties for those, who lay out their five talents to the best advantage.

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X. Love, pure love, is satisfied with the supreme Good-with God. "Beware then of desiring any thing but him. Now you desire nothing else.. Every other desire is driven out see that none enter in again. "Keep thyself pure: let your eye remain single, and your whole body shall remain full of light." Admit no desire of pleasing food, or any other pleasure of sense; desire of pleasing the eye or the imagination : no desire of money, of praise, or esteem: of happiness in any creature. You may bring these desires back; but you need not; you may feel them no more. "O stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free." Be patterns to all of denying yourselves, and taking up your cross daily. Let them see that you make no account of any pleasure, which does not bring you nearer to God; nor regard any pain which does that you simply aim at pleasing him, whether by doing or suffering that the constant language of your heart, with regard to pleasure or pain, honour or dishonour, riches or poverty, is,

"All's alike to me, so I

'In my Lord may live and die !"

XI. The best soldiers are sent upon the most difficult and dangerous expeditions; and as you are the best soldiers of Jesus Christ, ye will probably be called to drink deepest of his cup, and to carry the heaviest burdens. Expect contradiction and opposition" [says the judicious divine, whom I have just quoted]" together with crosses of various kinds. Consider the words of St. Paul, To you it is given in the behalf of Christ,' for bis sake, as a fruit of his death and intercession for you, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake,' Phil. i. 23. It is given !' God gives you this opposition or reproach: it is a fresh token of his love. And will you disown the Giver? Or spurn his gift, and count it a misfortune? Will you not rather say, Father, the hour is come, that thou shouldst be glorified. Now thou givest thy child to suffer something for thee. Do with me according to thy will.'Know that these things, far from being hinderances to the work of God, or to your soul, unless by your own fault, are not only unavoidable in the course of Providence, but profitable, yea necessary for you. Therefore receive them from God (not from chance) with willingness, and thankfulness. Receive them from men with humility, meekness, yieldingness, gentleness, sweetness."

Love can never do, nor suffer too much for its divine Object. Be then ambitious, like St. Paul, to be made perfect in sufferings. I have already observed that the Apostle, not satisfied to be a perfect christian, would also

be a perfect martyr; earnestly desiring to "know the fellowship of Christ's [utmost sufferings." Follow him, as he followed his suffering, crucified Lord. Your feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, run after them both in the race of obedience, for the crown of martyrdom, if that crown is reserved for you. And if ye miss the crown of those who are martyrs in deed, ye shall however receive the reward of those who are martyrs in intention-the crown of righteousness and angelical perfection.

XII. But do not so desire to follow Christ to the garden of Gethsamane, as to refuse following him now to the carpenter's shop, if providence now calls you to it. Do not lose the present day by idly looking back at yesterday, or foolishly antedating the cares of to-morrow : but wisely use every hour; spending them as one who stands on the verge of time-on the border of eternity, and who has his work cut out by a wise providence from moment to moment. Never there fore neglect using the two talents you have now, and doing the duty which is now incumbent upon you. Should ye be tempted to it, under the plausible pretence of waiting for a greater number of talents; remember that God doubles our talents in the way of duty, and that it is a maxim advanced by Elisha Coles himself, 66 use grace and have [more] grace." Therefore, "to continual watchful ness and prayer, add continual employment," says Mr. Wesley," for grace flies a vacuum as well as nature; the devil fills whatever God does not fill." "As by works faith is made perfect, so the completing or destroying of the work of faith, and enjoying the favour, or suffering the displeasure of God, greatly depends on every single act of obedience."-If "you forget this, you will hardly do now whatsoever your hand findeth to do. Much less will you do it with all your might-for God -for eternity.

XIII. Love is modest it rather inclines to bashfulness and silence, than to talkative forwardness. "In a multitude of words there wanteth not sin :" be therefore slow to speak; nor cast your pearls before those who cannot distinguish them from pebbles. Never theless, when you are solemnly called upon, to bear testimony to the truth, and to say "what great things God has done for you;" it would be cowardice, or false prudence, not to do it with humility. Be then always ready to give an answer to every man who [properly] asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness [without fluttering anxiety] and with fear" [with a rever"ential awe of God upon your minds] 1 Pet. iii. 15. The perfect are burning and shining lights, and our Lord intimates, that, as candle is not lighted to be put under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may

a

give light to all the house: so God does not light the candle of perfect love to hide it in a corner, but to give light to all those who are within the reach of its brightness. If diamonds glitter, if stars shine, if flowers display their colours, and perfumes diffuse their fragrance, to the honour of the Father of lights, and Author of every good gift: if, without self-seeking, they disclose his glory to the utmost of their power, why should ye not go and do likewise ?" Gold answers its most valuable end when it is brought to light, and made to circulate for charitable and pious uses; and not when it lies concealed in a miser's strong box, or in the dark bosom of a mine. But when you lay out your spiritual gold for proper uses, beware of imitating the vanity of those coxcombs, who, as often as they are about to pay for a trifle, pull out a handful of gold, merely to make a shew of their wealth.

XIV. Love, or Charity, rejoiceth in the [display of an edifying] truth. Fact is fact all the world over. If you can say to the glory of God, that you are alive, and feel very well, when you are so; why could you not also testify to his honour, that you live not, but that Christ liveth in you; if you really find that this is your experience? Did not St. John say, "Our love is made perfectbecause as he is, so are we in this world!" Did not St. Paul write, "The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us, who walk after the Spirit?" Did he not with the same simplicity aver, that although he had nothing, and was sorrowful, yet he possessed all things, and was always rejoicing?

Hence it appears, that, with respect to the declaring or concealing what God has done for your soul, the line of your duty runs exactly between the proud forwardness of some stiff pharisees, and the voluntary humility of some stiff mystics. The former vainly boast of more than they experience: and by that means, they set up the cursed idol, self: the latter ungratefully hide the wonderful works of God, which the primitive christians spoke of publicly in a variety of languages: and by this means they refuse to exalt their gracious Benefactor, Christ. The first error is undoubtedly more odious than the second; but, what need is there of leaning to either? Would ye avoid them both? Let your tempers and lives always declare, that perfect love is attainable in this life. And when you have a proper call to declare it with your lips and pens, do it without forwardness, to the glory of God; do it with simplicity, for the edification of your neighbour; do it with godly jealousy, lest ye should shew the treasures of divine grace in your hearts, with the same self complacence, with which King He zekiah shewed his treasures, and the golden vessels of the temple to the ambassadors of the King of Babylon, remembering what a

dreadful curse this piece of vanity pulled down upon him: "And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. Behold the days come that all that is in thine house shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord." If God so severely punished Hezekiah's pride, how properly does St. Peter charge believers to "give with fear, an account of the grace which is in them!" and how careful should ye be to observe his important charge!

XV. If you will keep at the utmost distance from the vanity which proved so fatal to good King Hezekiah, follow an excellent direction of Mr. Wesley. When you have done any thing for God, or received any favour from him, retire, if not into your closets, into your hearts, and say, I come, Lord, to restore to thee what thou hast given, and I freely relinquish it, to enter again into my own nothingness. For what is the most perfect creature in heaven or earth in thy presence, but a void, capable of being filled with thee and by thee, as the air which is void and dark, is capable of being filled with the light of the sun? Grant therefore, O Lord, that I may never appropriate thy grace to myself, any more than the air appropriates the light of the sun who withdraws it every day to restore it the next; there being nothing in the air, that either appropriates his lights or resists it. O give me the same facility of receiving and restoring thy grace and good works! I say, thine: for I acknowledge that the root from which they spring, is in thee, and not in me." The true means to be filled anew with the riches of grace, is thus to strip ourselves of it: without this it is extremely difficult not to faint in the practice of good works." And therefore, that your good works may receive their last perfection, let them lose themselves in God. This is a kind of death to them, resembling that of our bodies, which will not attain their highest life, their immortality, till they lose themselves in the glory of our souls, or rather of God, wherewith they shall be filled. And it is only what they had of earthly and mortal, which good works lose by this spiritual death."

He

XVI. Would ye see this deep precept put in practice? Consider St. Paul. Already possessed of christian perfection, he does good works from morning till night: he warns every one night and day with tears. carries the gospel from East to West. Whereever he stops, he plants a church at the hazard of his life. But instead of resting in his present perfection, and in the good works which sprung from it, he "grows in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; unweariedly following after, if that he may apprehend that [perfection] for which also he is apprehended of Christ Jesus,"that celestial perfection, of which he got lively

ideas, when he was "caught up to the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter." With what amazing ardour does he run his race of christian perfection for the prize of that higher perfection! How does he forget the works of yesterday, when he lays himself out for God to-day! "Though dead, he yet speaketh," nor can an address to perfect christians be closed by a more proper speech than his. "Brethren, says he, "Be followers of me-I.count not myself to have apprehended [my angelical perfection :] but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind [settling in none of my former experiences, resting in none of my good works] and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark, for the [celestial] prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you." In the mean time you may sing the following hymn of the Rev. Mr. Charles Wesley, which is descriptive of the destruction of corrupt self-will, and expressive of the absolute resignation which characterises a perfect believer.

To do, or not to do; to have,
Or not to have, I leave to Thee:
To be, or not to be, I leave:

Thy only will be done in me:
All my requests are lost in one,
Father, thy only will be done.

Suffice that, for the season past,

Myself, in things divine 1 sought, For comforts cried with eager haste, And murmur'd that I found them not: I leave it now to thee alone, Father, thy only will be done.

Thy gifts I clamour for no more,
Or selfishly thy grace require,
An evil heart to varnish o'er;

Jesus, the Giver, I desire;
After the flesh no longer known:
Father, thy only will be done.

Welcome alike the crown or cross;
Trouble I cannot ask, nor peace,
Nor toil, nor rest, nor gain, nor loss,
Nor joy, nor grief, nor pain, nor ease,
Nor life, nor death; but ever groan,
Father, thy only will be done.

This hymn suits all the believers who are at the bottom of Mount Sion, and begin to join the spirits of just men made perfect. But when the triumphal chariot of perfect love gloriously carries you to the top of perfection's hill;-when you are raised far above the common heights of the perfect-when you are almost translated into glory like Elijah, then you may sing another hymn of the same christian poet, with the Rev. Mr. Madan, and the numerous body of imperfectionists who use his collection of Psalms, &c.

Who in Jesus confide, They are bold to outride
The storms of affliction beneath :

With the prophet they soar, To that heavenly shore,
And out fly all the arrows of death.

By faith we are come To our permanent home;
By hope we the rapture improve:

By love we still rise, And look down on the skies-
For the heaven of heavens is love!

Who on earth can conceive How happy we live
In the city of God the great King!
What a concert of praise, When our Jesus's grace
The whole heavenly company sing!

What a rapturous song, When the glorified throng,
In the spirit of harmony join!
Join all the glad choirs, Hearts, voices, and lyres,
And the burden is mercy divine!

But when you cannot follow Mr. Madan, and the imperfectionists of the Lock-chapel, to those rapturous heights of perfection, you need not give up your shield. You may still rank among the perfect, if you can heartily join in this version of Psalm cxxxi.

Lord, thou dost thy grace impart!
Poor in spirit, meek in heart,
I will as my Master be
Rooted in humility.

Now, dear Lord, that thee I know,
Nothing will I seek below,
Aim at nothing great or high,
Lowly both in heart and eye.

Simple, teachable, and mild,
Aw'd into a little child,
Quiet now without my food.
Wean'd from every creature good.

Hangs my new-born soul on thee,
Kept from all idolatry;

Nothing wants beneath, above,
Resting in thy perfect love.

That your earthen vessels may be filled with this love till they break, and you enjoy the divine Object of your faith without an interposing veil of gross flesh and blood, is the wish of one who sincerely praises God on your account, and ardently prays,

"Make up thy jewels, Lord, and shew
The glorious spotless church below:
The fellowship of saints make known;
And Oh my God, might I be one!

O might my lot be cast with these,
'The least of Jesu's witnesses !
O that my Lord would count me meet
To wash his dear disciple's feet!

To wait upon his saints below!
On gospel-errands for them go!
Enjoy the grace to angels given!
And serve the royal heirs of heaven!

WHEN

the Author of Pietas Oxoniensis took his temporary leave of me, in his Finish ing Stroke, he recommended to the public the book which I am going to answer. His re commendation runs thus: "Whosoever will consult the Rev. Mr. Toplady's last publica tion, entitled, More Work for Mr. J. Wesley, [or, A Vindication of the Decrees, &c.] will there find a full answer to all those cavils which Papists, Socinians, Pelagians, Arminians, and Perfectionists bring against those doctrines commonly called Calvinist, as if they tended to promote licentiousness, or to make God cruel, unjust, and unmerciful; and will see every one of their objections retorted upon themselves in the most masterly manner. Fin. Stroke, page 33. Soon after Mr. Hill has thus extolled Mr. Toplady's performance, I was informed that many of the Calvinists said, that it was an unanswerable defence of their doctrines. This raised in me a desire to judge for myself; and when I had read this admired book, I was so far from being of Mr. Hill's sentiment, that I promised my readers to demonstrate, from that very book, the inconclusiveness of the strongest arguments, by which Calvinism is supported. Mr. Hill, by unexpectedly entering the lists again, caused me to delay the fulfilling of my promise. But now having completed my answer to his fictitious creeds, I hasten to complete also my Logica Gene vensis.

Did I write a book entitled Charitas Genevensis, I might easily shew from Mr. Toplady's performance, that "the doctrines of grace" [so called] are closely connected with "the doctrines of free wrath." But if that gentleman, in his controversial heat, has forgotten what he owed to Mr. Wesley and to himself, this is no reason why I should forget the title of my book, which calls me to point out the bad arguments of our opponents, and not their ill humour. If I absurdly spent my time in passing a censure upon Mr. Toplady's

spirit, he would with reason say, as he does in the Introduction to his Historic Proof, page 35, "After all, what has my pride or my hu mility to do with the argument in hand? Whether I am haughty or meek, is of no more consequence either to that or to the public, than whether I am tall or short.” Besides having again and again, myself, requested our opponents not to wiredraw the controversy, by personal reflections, but to weigh with candour the arguments which are offered, I should be inexcusable if I did not set them the example. Should it be said that Mr. Wesley's character, which Mr. Toplady has so severely attacked, is at stake, and that I ought purposely to stand up in his defence: I reply, that the personal charges which Mr, Toplady interweaves with his arguments, have been already fully answered + by Mr. Olivers; and that these charges, being chiefly founded upon Mr. Toplady's logical mistakes, they will, of their own accord, fall to the ground, as soon as the mistakes on which they rest shall be exposed. If Logica Gene vensis is disarmed, Charitas Genevensis will not be able to keep the field. If good sense takes the former prisoner, the latter will be obliged to surrender to good nature. Should this be the case, how great a blessing will our controversy prove to both parties! The conquerors shall have the glory of vindicating truth and the conquered shall have the profit of retiring from the field, with their judgments better informed, and their tempers better regulated! May the GoD of truth and love grant, that if Mr. Toplady has the honour of producing the best arguments, I [for one] may have the advantage of yielding to them! To be conquered by truth and love, is to prove conqueror over our two greatest enemies, error and sin.