the Christian's wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, his all in all. In this state, while the strong man, armed with our ignorance, prejudice, self-love, and love of the world, keeps the castle of our hearts and his goods are in peace, the Lord finds those that are saved. By some providence or other, he brings them in the way of hearing some faithful and close preacher; or he brings them acquainted with some of his believing people; or he puts them upon a diligent reading of the Scriptures: these means he who gives the increase blesses to them; his Spirit convinces them of sin; they hear or read of God as a just and holy God; they find themselves affected in an uncommon manner with the discoveries made to their souls of these his attributes; they learn that he requires truth in the inward parts, the supreme unabated love of himself— the whole heart and soul: they find his law strict to the uttermost, making no allowance, requiring perfection, and pronouncing awful curses upon every transgressor; that h's perfection forbids him to make any other law; that his dealings with the angels that fell, with the old world, with Sodom and Gomorrah, with Egypt, with the seven nations of Canaan, yea, with his own people, the Jews, for their sins, loudly proclaim his strict justice and hatred of iniquity: comparing their lives, their tempers, their very imagined virtues and duties, with the strict and perfect law, they find that all come short; they are alarmed; they feel themselves sinners; they see their danger, and begin to seek for a remedy. But, being still strangers to the origin of these evils, the depravity of man's fallen nature, they think they can amend; as you say, assume an absolute power over themselves, when they please; they try, but are disappointed. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Perhaps they try again, and sometimes are in great distress. What must I do to be saved? becomes the question. Self, the world, and man's natural wisdom, make many answers. The soul makes trial of them all without success; till, finding its fears more pressing, and its corruptions more busy, its resolutions wavering, its services consciously imperfect and unpleasant, at length it is brought, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, to consider the apostle's answer, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.-As appears by your letter to me, you are not fully come up to this point yet. You must probably be left to try other schemes first, in order to being brought to a more deep experimental conviction of your lost state, your natural weakness and depravity, and the need you have of a Saviour. But, whether you know it or not, (I hope you will know it,) before you can serve God with comfort and acceptance, you need these two things. 1. Forgiveness of sins. You have been sinning against God in thought, word, and deed, all your life; as we all have. Your sins of heart and life, of omission and commission, stand against you; and, till they be accounted for and forgiven, your services cannot be accepted. Every duty you do is short of its perfection, and as such adds to your sins, and needs forgiveness. In this case, the gospel reveals forgiveness through the blood of Christ, freely given to every sinner who believes. Believe, and thou shalt be saved. Accept this freely as it is offered, and seek, by prayer, for faith to believe this record which God gives of his Son: and then, your sins being forgiven, you will no longer look upon God as an austere master, or severe judge, but as a loving father; and will, with acceptance and comfort, pay your services, though imperfect. For, 2. you need moreover a willing mind, and strength to resist temptation. Hitherto I dare say you have constrained your inclination in what you have done in religion: but, if you are brought to faith, living faith in Christ, he will give you other inclinations, a new heart, and a new spirit, a new nature. Then his yoke will be easy; his commandments not grievous; his ways ways of pleasantness.—But I must stop. If you attend to what, from my own experience, and from the Bible, I have said, it will, I trust, help you out of your waverings, and free you from your difficulties. ..... God bless you and yours. "Yours affectionately, 66 DEAR BROTHER, "THOMAS SCOTT." "Weston Underwood, February 5, 1780. "WE received your's, but it came too late for the purpose intended; for your sister arrived before her letter of recommendation. However, we ventured to take her in; and, on conversation, we found she carried about with her a better letter of recommendation than any you *My father's Northumbrian correspondent, to whom many letters inserted in his life, and some which follow in this volume, were addressed. could write for her; namely, an epistle of Christ, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on paper, but on the fleshy tables of the heart. 2 Cor. iii. 3. You know how it is with the free-masons: though not personally acquainted with one another, yet by means of some secret sign, which other people know nothing of, they can make themselves known to one another; and, when they discover any one to be a free-mason, though he come from the other end of the earth, they welcome him as a friend and a brother. Thus is the secret of the Lord with them that fear him. Truly converted persons, who have an experimental acquaintance with what Christ calls the new birth of the Spirit, and St. Paul the new creation; who know what it is to pass from death unto life, from a state of nature unto a state of grace, by the powerful teaching and iufluences of the Holy Spirit; have every one of them a certain set of inward experiences, of which none but themselves know any thing, but of which the least hint is readily understood by those who have experienced the same; by which they know and acknowledge one another as the children of the same father, love as brethen, and delight in doing good to each other as the disciples of the same master, and for his sake. These marks and notices, by which they know one another, are of such a nature as cannot be communicated to others; any more than a man who sees can communicate to a man born blind his perception of light and colours. However, they are such as follow: similar views of the evil of sin, of the depravity of man's nature, of the evil of their own hearts, and their deservedly lost condition in themselves; of their utter inability to save themselves; of their need of a Saviour, of the suitableness and preciousness of Christ, as the Saviour of lost sinners, with longings after him, and counting all but loss for him; sense of the need of conversion in order to salvation; deadness to the world, and love of holiness. I had no sooner begun to converse with your sister than I began to hope she was in Christ's school, and I am more confirmed in my persuasion continually, and feel assured that the Lord sent her among us for her further instruction and establishment. In the mean time, she is as welcome at our house as if she were at home, and to any good offices I can do her. She seems quite happy in our lonely way of living amidst a succes sion of preaching, praying, religious conversation, and reading. She is very industrious, &c. "Your sincerely affectionate brother, When in this letter the writer speaks of Christians as thus knowing one another by the coincidence of their views and experiences, he is not to be understood as asserting any infallible power of "discerning the spirits" of men: but only, as his explanation implies, that a probable opinion may generally be formed. Hypocrites may occasionally impose upon us; and good men may not always discover one another: but in general the congeniality or want of congeniality will be felt.-On the stigmatized topic of experiences, the reader may be referred to my Father's Remarks on the "Refutation of Calvinism," Book I. c. ii. $13. ፡፡ DEAR BROTHER, "Weston Underwood, July 5, 1780. "YOUR letter reminded me of that precious promise, Isaiah lxv. 24. And it shall come to pass that before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear. You express to the Lord your desire to be taught to pray; and immediately he (I doubt not) puts a most suitable prayer into your mouth, or rather, into your heart; which you have committed to writing, I suppose for my encouragement in writing to you. And it is accompanied, as all prayer ought to be, with thanksgiving, and supplication for others, according to that excellent rule, Phil. iv. 6. I mention these things to lead your attention to the Scripture promises and precepts, both that you may be directed to go by scriptural rules in your religious exercises, and to plead scripture promises in prayer, expecting a faithful God to be as good as his word; (which is the precise nature of hoping or trusting in God;) and also to encourage you to proceed in quietly waiting upon the Lord without distraction or doubting, by shewing you how, by his Spirit, he is leading you in the good old scriptural way; and has begun to answer your first attempt to pray, and to fulfill his own promises to you. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee; for thou, Lord, hast never failed them that seek thee. "You may rest assured that I thank my God on every remembrance of you, for the work of grace hopefully begun in you, and do frequently remember you in my prayers, making request with joy; hoping that it is indeed an effectual work, and being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Phil. i, 3—6. Would you know what I pray for on your behalf, read verses 9-11 of that chapter. And may God moreover make you an instrument, by your example, instruction, and prayers, of the eternal salvation of those around you; I doubt not that what God is doing for you is in answer to the prayers of your Weston relations, and of your sister, who has newly begun, like another Israel, to wrestle with God and prevail for abundant blessings. And, if the Lord stirs you up in good earnest to join us in these prayers for many around you, I shall confidently expect the most desirable answers. I know by my own experience, as well as from his unerring word, that God is a God that heareth prayer; and that, when two or three agree together on earth as touching any thing which they shall ask in the name of Jesus, it shall be done for them. And, though we cannot meet personally to join in prayer for each other, and others, yet we may, and do (I hope) spiritually meet before the throne of grace of an omnipresent God. And, if we do but agree daily to pray for the eternal salvation of our relations, friends, and neighbors, and persevere with the patience of the woman of Canaan, we shall in due time have the same answer, Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. "When you read your Bible, observe what wonderful things are spoken of, promised to, and affected by, prayer. Without prayer we can do nothing: but faith and prayer, engaging an almighty arm on our side, do all things :-And this is the reason why we are so much hindered, discouraged, and tempted in respect of prayer, and meet with so many excuses. It is Satan's business to keep us from prayer. If he can effect this, he holds us fast at his pleasure in his snare. If we will pray, he must lose us. And therefore so long as ever, by reason of our corruptions and worldly-mindedness, he can keep us from praying, he will. And so long as he can, by means of our foolish fear of men and wicked shame, work upon us, by setting his servants to laugh and scoff, or rail at us, he will. And, were it not that I have neither time nor room, I could shew you many |