possible that real charity for others may make me wish them to embrace my principles ?

F. W. I am willing to think charitably of you; and so I am willing to admit that your motives may be good. But, really, it does not appear much like charity, to be so forward to condemn others.

Th. Charity is good will. If I wish well to another, and see him in a mistake about himself, of great importance, and one that endangers his soul, I shall wish to have him undeceived, and set right. I do believe that all selfish religion is false religion; and if a man trusts in it, and has no better, I believe he is in a fundamental and fatal error. Now, if I see one trusting in such an error, and venturing his soul upon it, as I fear many do, I think charity, that is, good will, would require me to try to undeceive him, and bring him to renounce his error and embrace the truth, that he may be saved. On the contrary, it would show a want of charity in me towards my neighbor, if I should let him go on in a fatal error; and, instead of trying to undeceive him, should encourage him in it, by treating him as if I supposed he was safe enough already.

F. W. You have a strange notion of charity. I always thought it to be a good opinion of others; or a disposition to think well of them, and to treat them as Christians, if they professed to be so. Where did you get your strange notion of it?

Th. From the King's book. The word which is translated charity, is the same that is translated love; and that makes me think they are both one.

F. W. Oh yes; they are both one. Love is the substance of all religion. And it is my love to my neighbor that prompts me to think well of him, and to be willing he should have his own way in religious matters, as well as I mine.

Th. Indeed! Do you think, then, that all religions are equally right, and equally safe?

F. W. No; I think my own is the best and safest.

Th. Then you are inconsistent with yourself. If you love your neighbor, you must wish to see him taking the best way to secure his eternal interests. And just as much as you think one way is safer than another, and really wish him well, you must wish to see him taking that way. And if you think your way is the best and safest, and wish your neighbor well, you must wish him to take your way. I think disinterested

religion is the only religion that will bear the trial of the great day; and therefore, charity, or love to my neighbor, makes me wish him to renounce every other and embrace that.

F. W. I have none of that disinterested religion, and I wish for none of it. My religion makes me happy; and by that I know it is right.

Th. How do you know your religion is right, from its making you happy?

F. W. The black tyrant cannot give me any happiness, for he has none himself. Men cannot give me any, for they have none to spare. The Celestial King only can give it to me; and he has done it; and I know I am right, because I feel happy. Glory to the King!

Th. If your own safety is your great object, and your happiness all arises from a belief that you are safe, I see not why the great deceiver or his earthly children could not make you happy, by telling you that you are safe, provided you believe them, even though it should be a lie that you believe; as I fear it is. F. W. How is it that I can think favorably of you, and embrace you as a brother pilgrim, while you cannot think so favorably of me?

Th. If you are right, I am safe: because I have some of your kind of religion as well as you. I have some selfish affections on religious subjects, and some animal feelings, as well as you; and I have some happy feelings too. But if my principles are right, you are not safe. For if disinterested religion is necessary, and you have none of it, you are lost. It is consistent, therefore, for you to think favorably of me, while it is not consistent for me to think favorably of you, if your religion is what you say it is. You approve of that in me, which I condemn, both in myself and you. And that which I approve, and which I believe will alone stand the test of the great day, you entirely disavow and condemn. Your selfishness leads you to have some fellowship for me, but charity itself forbids that I should have any fellowship for you, or for any kind of selfish religion, wherever it may be found.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Love-self. I do not like Brother Thoughtful's notions respecting charity at all; and I am persuaded very few pilgrims do. They are too bigoted for this enlightened and liberal age. No-law. I dislike them for another reason too. If I understand his scheme, he would have it, that we are still under

obligation to keep the moral law, and bound to love God with all our hearts, and our neighbor as ourselves; just as Adam was before he fell. Th. Certainly. The command is, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' suppose we are bound to keep this command.

I

N. L. Not at all. Such commands are only given to teach us our impotence, and lead us to appropriate to ourselves by faith the finished righteousness of the Prince Immanuel. His obedience was perfect; and when it becomes ours by faith, we are perfect as our Father in heaven. In ourselves we are nothing but sin; but in him we are nothing but righteousness. He has taken all our sins, and given us all his righteous

ness.'

Th. If your scheme is true, I see no need of a believer's exercising repentance for any act of sin into which he may fall.

N. L. No. One of my favorite authors says: "It would be a dishonor done to Christ, tarnishing the glory of his finished work, if a believer were ever to be sorry for his sin, or to bow down his head like a bulrush after the commission of it."

Th. Do you think the commission of sin can interrupt the believer's peace of mind, or his communion with God? N. L. No. The same author says, 66 'Sin can never disqualify him for any one mercy or blessing which God has promised him in his Son Jesus Christ, nor can ever for one moment break his peace with God, which is his from eternity through the everlasting mediation of Christ; his, whatever sin he may commit, even robbery and murder." Sin can do the children

of God no harm, holiness no good."

Th. Your language shocks me. I did not expect any one would talk so, who professed any attachment to the blessed Redeemer.

N. L. You do not understand my scheme. It is more honorable to him than yours, or any other scheme of which good works are a part. I exalt his grace; but you depreciate it, by mixing your good works.

Th. I should rather think it would be dishonoring him in the highest degree to call myself a disciple of his, and yet live in the open and allowed violation of his commandments.

N. L. You not only depreciate the grace of God, but his justice too. For it would be as unjust to exact obedience of believers after their surety had rendered it for them, as to exact punishment of them after their surety had suffered that for them. One of my favorite authors says, "While the Mediator was in the world, he rendered a perfect active obedience to the moral law, as the expanded covenant of works, in the room

He

and stead of all those persons whom the Father gave him to be redeemed; and this righteousness is reckoned to all believers for their justification and adoption by the Father, as the legal, perfect, and meritorious cause of the same." says also, "The Father justifies every one of the elect in the moment in which he is so united to Christ as to believe in him, in consequence of the perfect vicarious righteousness of Christ, which is imputed to the believer, because by the mystical union it has actually become his righteousness, according to covenant." Also, "None can be pronounced by the judicial sentence of God to be just, but those that are perfectly just; and righteousness can be reckoned or imputed to none but to those that possess it." He also says, "While the Mediator was in our world, he endured in his sufferings even unto death, the penalty of the violated law, in the place of all who were given to him by the Father to be redeemed; so that all the sins of believers, past, present, and to come, were legally punished in him, to the full satisfaction of divine justice.' Another favorite author asks, “Can they, for whom this satisfaction has been made, be punished for the same sins, for which justice is declared to be satisfied? How can the same crimes be punished twice over in a just government?" And another affirms, "The justice of God renders their salvation absolutely certain; because it would be incompatible with the first principles of equity to punish in their own persons those for whose sins Christ has made ample satisfaction." In view of what these learned doctors say, I infer that neither sufferings nor obedience can be justly exacted of us believers, both having been rendered for us, to the full satisfaction of justice, by our great Surety.

Th. It seems to me that this whole scheme is contrary to Scripture, reason, and common sense; and destructive of all true piety and morality. Religion consists in conformity to God, in heart and in life.

N. L. No. Religion consists in faith. You talk like a legalist, and you oppose salvation by grace, as I told you once before.

Th. I consider your faith as no better than your works. It consists in believing that "Christ has taken all your sins, and given you all his righteousness," which is not true with respect to any; and if it were, you have no evidence that it is with respect to yourself.

N. L. Not true with respect to any! Do you think those learned doctors, to whom I have referred, have taught what is not true? You must not accuse such great men of teach. ing unsound doctrine.

Th. They may have believed what they taught; but if they did, that does not make it true. I learn from the divine oracles to call no man master on earth; but to try every thing by the law and the testimony: If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

N. L. I will cite another learned doctor, in confirmation of what I have said already. He observes, "Our sins so became Christ's that he stood the sinner in our stead, and we discharged. It is the iniquity itself that the Lord laid upon Christ; I mean, it is the fault of the transgression itself. To speak more plainly, hast thou been an idolater, a blasphemer, a murderer, a thief, a liar, or a drunkard? If thou hast part in the Lord, all these transgressions of thine become actually the transgressions of Christ. Nor are we so completely sinful, but Christ being made sin was as completely sinful as we.' What do you say to this?

Th. I say I abhor such perversions of Scripture, and that whole scheme which leads to them.

N. L. Take heed, then, lest seeking to be justified by the law, you prove that you have no interest in the Redeemer, and

fall under the curse.

Th. I thank you for your admonition. I am sensible that I need to take heed lest I be deceived by myself or others. But is your system, and not mine, which makes justification to be by the law.

N. L. How does that appear ?

Th. You hold that Christ both obeyed the law for us, and suffered its penalty for us, and so satisfied all its demands upon us; and if so I conclude the law itself must grant our discharge. And agreeably to this, one of the authors you cited says, "This righteousness [of Christ] is reckoned to all believers for their justification, as the legal cause of the same.' He also says, "None can be pronounced by the judicial sentence of God to be just, but those that are perfectly just." And he says this of believers, to show how they are justified. His plain meaning is, that believers are, in the act of justification, pronounced perfectly just; and he thinks they are so. But those who are perfectly just, are justified by the law. When a perfectly just man is brought to trial, the law justifies him, and sets him at liberty. And when a man who has committed a crime has paid the fine which the law imposes, or has been imprisoned as long as the law requires, and is then discharged, his discharge is by the law, and not by grace or pardon. He would be treated unjustly if he were detained longer. He claims his discharge as a matter of right; he does not ask it as a favor. And accordingly, another of your same favorite