rooted in the earth, as some one remarks, needs many a stroke to bring it down; but when its roots which bound it to the soil have been previously broken one after another, very little effort is required to accomplish its fall: so when these roots and fibres which bound the Christian (alas! too strongly) to the present world have been loosened and broken, he finds it less difficult to reconcile his mind to death, his faith looks forward to that world where there is no separation among friends, he views with holy resignation, and even cheerfulness, the peaceful repose of the grave; and when the master saith, "Behold, I come quickly," he finds his whole soul in condition to reply, "Even so come, Lord Jesus." Amen..

J. H. K.

ADDRESS TO PROFESSORS.

THERE is a regular gradation, from the weed that grows under the hedge up to the Divine Being. Some vegetables seem almost animated; so that naturalists can hardly tell whether they are animal or vegetable productions. The bat, the turtle, and the flying-fish unite the different classes of brutes. The elephant, the horse, and the dog, evidently possess a degree of rationality. Man connects the material world with the spiritual. And Immanuel links the creature to the Creator.

There is a similar gradation from the shameless atheist and abandoned reprobate, up to the most orthodox believer and devoutest Christian. Infidelity and immorality gradually diminish, till we arrive at a set of people who are neither averse to Christianity nor inclined to it. Ascending through the various degrees of approbation, we reach at last to the exalted summit of evangelical faith and holiness. The world and the church softon and fade into each other so gently, like the colours of the rainbow, that we cannot tell where one ends and the other begins. The former gradation is beautiful; the latter frightful. The extreme boundaries of the church ought to be strongly marked, and perceptible at a glance. Professors of religion, who are only distinguishable from worldlings by their bare profession, are monsters, half saints and half sinners; like the centaurs of the heathen poets, who were half man and half horse. And as the centaurs could not be classed with the human species, neither can these amphibious professors be ranked with the people of God.

The object which they aim at seems to be, to have just religion enough to take them to Heaven when they die, yet not enough to disturb their worldly enjoyments while they live. They forget that an inspired apostle has declared, that "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him ;" and a greater than John has asserted, that his disciples are not of the world, even as he is not of the world.

ADDRESS TO PROFESSORS.

445

I would ask these frigid Laodicean professors, Do you imagine that such a costly price was paid for your redemption, that you might doze away your time doing nothing? Did Christ labour, suffer, and die, that you might accommodate your religion to the taste and manners of the world ? Are you the soldiers of Jesus Christ, yet at peace with the world? Are you following him in the regeneration, yet neither denying yourselves nor taking up your cross? True religion is seated in the heart, and is manifested in the life; where are the evidences that you possess it? The tree is known by its fruits :-what fruits of holiness do you produce? Many splendid professors will fall short of Heaven. Many will confidently appeal to Christ, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out Devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" The truth of these assertions will not be denied, yet the Lord will profess unto them, "I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

But you reply, "You have not wrought iniquity." This may be justly questioned. Has not your worldly-mindedness dishonoured Christ, and stumbled many? Has not your conduct given them a low opinion of religion? Have you not given them reason to suppose that a man may be a Christian without being a saint?

But religion is not merely negative. "What do ye more than others?" is a question which may be put with the greatest propriety to every one who calls himself a Christian. If a heathen or an infidel may be as moral, as amiable, and as devout as you are, who can believe that you are a Christian, without supposing that heathenism and infidelity are as excellent as Christianity, that is to say, without supposing that the Bible is a useless volume, and that Christ is dead in vain? There is no want of charity in questioning the picty of people who do not evidence it; for charity does not require us to believe them on their bare word.

Suppose there were no better Christians in the world than you, where should we find preachers disposed to renounce the prospects of worldly emolument which business affords, for the mode rate income, and frequently scanty pittance of an evangelical minister? Where should we find missionaries, willing to forsake their country, family, friends, and all the comforts of civilized society, and bury themselves alive in dreary desarts and inhospitable wildernesses, amongst hordes of savages, scarcely distinguishable from beasts, unless by their shape? If none were more active than you, the Sun of Righteousness would soon be totally eclipsed, and the gospel of salvation lost and forgotten.

A professor of this doubtful description is a sort of outcast both from the church and from the world. He has enough of religion to be obnoxious to the one, and too little to be agreeable to the other. Perhaps, every body treats him with civility, yet

nobody respects him. There is nothing positively bad to warrant our debarring him from the Lord's table; and nothing positively good to enable us to welcome him to it cordially. He is neither esteemed in life, nor regretted in death. Not a tear is dropped over his ashes, unless from the eyes of his immediate connexions; and his memory is forgotten before the grass can grow upon his grave. On the contrary, a holy, lively, decided, consistent Christian, is respected by all who know him. The pious love him dearly, and he lives down the prejudices of the profane.

Moderation in religion is one of the devices of Satan, to delude sinners to their ruin. He first temps them to presumption, assuring them that their sins are so trifling, and God is so mereiful, that they need not trouble themselves about being religious. When the Spirit of God has discovered to them their mistake, and filled them with terrible apprehensions of divine vengeance, he endeavours to drive them to despair, suggesting that their sins are too great to be forgiven; and that, however merciful God may be to others, he will shew no mercy to them. When this temptation proves ineffectual, and they perceive that salvation is attainable by the chief of sinners, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, his last resource is to persuade them to be satisfied with a moderate share of religion; that it is unnecessary to go to the extreme; that every body cannot have the holiness of David or of Paul; and that an inferior degree of sanctity will suffice. By so doing, he administers the gospel as an opiate to lull the pains of a troubled conscience, instead of a medicine to purify from guilt and effect a cure. It is to be feared that the number of persons who are fatally deceived by this artifice, is far from being small.

You will soon be stretched upon your death-bed. When exhausted nature sinks under the violent disease, and the King of Terrors calls you to follow him, will the summons be wel come? Will it be cheerfully complied with? or submitted to reluctantly, through mere inability to disobey it? Convinced that there are two worlds, a good and a bad one, and entirely uncertain to which he will conduct you, you will take a leap in the dark ;" perhaps you may alight in Heaven, or perhaps you may miss it, and sink in bottoinless perdition.

Wotton under Edge.

W. W.

EXTRACT FROM AN ORIGINAL LETTER

OF THE LATE REV MR. FENN.

My dear Friend,

Yelling, February 21, 1789.

I AM obliged to you very much for your letter. It gives me much pleasure to hear such an attempt of some of my dear people at Huddersfield. I hope to spend eternity with them in

ORIGINAL LETTER FROM THE LATE REV. MR. VENN. 417 Heaven; and I bless our good God, our God for ever and ever, that he keeps you from the noisome pestilence of a corrupt world, and gives you to be loving and merciful. My dear friend, be assured, not even the deity of Christ is more necessary, as the foundation of saving faith in his name, than victory over the world as a proof of that faith: and victory over the world manifests itself in Christians who eat their daily bread in the sweat of their face, by not being surfeited with cares of the world, and by reposing themselves and their family in the hands of their God. Christians in trade and higher life, shew the reality of their saving faith by victory over the deceitfulness of riches, in being glad to distribute, willing to communicate, active in every good work, and by being able to say when they have got enough, not urged on by the love of money, which is insatiable, till they die scandalously rich (for it is a scandal in a Christian to die leaving treasures behind him, such as men love to leave whose portion is the world). What a melancholy tale is told at the death of many zealous professors when the world hear how much they were worth, and then compare their poor paltry acts of benevolence to the indigent members of Christ. I believe there is not a thing to be named which so strengthens the profane, so deludes serious professors, and so much brings contempt on the gospel. The joy, therefore, I felt was great in my heart on reading your letter, that you found the best way of counteracting the love of money was to give alms. Go on and increase, your soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Open your mouth wide, and the Lord will fill. Yours in the Lord Jesus.

them.

THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION

Sir,

RECOMMENDED.

Mr. Editor.

The following Letters were written by the late Rev. Mr. Milner, and give sø judicious an account of the doctrine of justification by faith, that though they have appeared before the public, yet as they are little known (the author's name not being affixed to them) and quite out of print, I ant persuaded they will be highly acceptable to your readers. Yours, &c.

ONE great reason why many reap little or no benefit from the perusal of the sacred oracles seems to be, that they have no clear and consistent idea of their general plan and design. If a mao looks on the Old Testament merely as containing the history of the Jews, and on the New, merely as describing some remarkable facts concerning Jesus Christ, though he view both of them as interspersed with many moral precepts, he will never

be able, while this is the case, to penetrate their real meaning, and to distinguish their real merit from the pretensions of fictitious revelations, or the dictates of human philosophy. It is the singular advantage of every revival of gospel truth, which the Lord is pleased to produce in different ages, that this chaos is always unravelled, and the true design of the whole is brought into view. The one great object of the Scriptures is understood, and its lesser and subordinate truths are taught to know each their due place and office, and to range themselves in just subserviency to the principal truth, which was meant, above all others, to engage our attention.

I need not acquaint those who have at all understood any thing of the spirit of that revival, which has happily taken place in our day, that the principal truth is, salvation by Jesus Christ. And as this supposes mankind to be in a fallen and condemned state, hence the doctrine of justification appears to be supremely necessary. As we are ever prone to corrupt, or to abuse, or to neglect this, it is the design of the following essay to recommend it to the special attention of all true Christians, but particularly of ministers of the gospel. To them indeed an invaluable treasure is committed: as stewards, they are required to be faithful in husbanding and improving it, and in transmitting it pure and sound to posterity. Even the excessive attention of the mind to lesser truths, as well as a spirit of lukewarm indifference and love to the world, may, through the wiles of Satan, wrest this treasure of the gospel out of their hands, devour the very vitals of their religion, and leave them neither root nor branch.

If I may judge of other mens' hearts by my own, the best and wisest ministers need to remind themselves perpetually of the plainest and most fundamental truths, that their practical influ ence may be preserved and increased; and this consideration supercedes the necessity of any apology to my brethren for the liberty I take of addressing them.

Certainly, the whole Scripture turns very much on the hinge of this doctrine. Scarcely is the account of the creation finished but the fall is described, which gave occasion to its introduction. “The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head," is the. Gospel in embryo. The father of the faithful is soon brought into view, as personally justified by faith; and we are taught to look to his seed as Him in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed: and what is the whole Mosaic oeconomy but a continued typical prophecy of Christ? what do all sacrifices ultimately mean but redemption by Christ? and what is the whole spirit of prophecy but the testimony of Jesus *? And though for wise reasons, which it is not the business of this essay to illustrate, our Lord himself did not so fully and so constantly

Rev. xix. 10.