This vessel is brought

point which grace aims at. up to the harbour in one tide, whereas ours must wait several. The necessary degree of scrutiny is only to see or rather feel whether the impulse is specifically right, and something divine, and then we are to follow it, without further dissecting it a priori; for under that operation it will only evaporate and die. What hurt in all the world can there be in following it simply? It only leads us to trust in a Redeemer, to rejoice in his love, take hold of his strength, &c. things which in their nature cannot be wrong for any individual, and so there is no need of that demure and jealous criticism which may very justly be placed as door-keeper to the sallies of fanaticism, which is quite another thing, as it affects our neighbour, and tends to subvert the order of society.

3. A nice sense of equity and fitness. This is a good prompter to what is right in human affairs; though even then it is apt to exert itself chiefly on out of the way points; such as escape the notice of a vulgar taste; and what the vulgar moral sense or taste is struck and feels itself constrained to (which are, however, the more substantial duties) about these the more refined taste is silent, they being no subjects to refine upon, and so gives but a very cold exhortation thereto. But in the affair between us and our Saviour, a great delicacy in the sentiments of equity and fitness may do us much mischief, when we consult it as master of the ceremonies in our first admission to, and interview with him. For we must then venture on something which might seem mon

strous and excessive, shocking, and unjust, somewhat like a sick beggar's reeling against his prince, if he happens to stand next him in the street; somewhat like a starving person's snatching at a loaf of bread and eating it, though he knows it is not his, and that he never bought it. Our Saviour himself has much to do to encourage even a plain man to accept of the pardon and indulgence, the interest in him, and all the rich favours he then confers on him; for even he is ready to think they do not belong to him, and that his benefactor stretches the covenant of grace too far; nay if it did not appear so to the person himself, but he could for a moment imagine himself qualified, though it were but the qualification of a due repentance, this would be an absolute disqualification. But a man who is full of the notions of equity and fitness, is however most of all on a wrong scent; for he of course contradicts his Saviour's love, until he thinks it can justly be extended towards him, and alas! as soon as he is able to think it justly can, it must and will be no more extended. We must, therefore, consent to have a chasm made for once in our supposed chain of equity and fitness, and as downright sinners receive a treatment the very reverse of what rationally is due to us. Afterwards our utmost delicacy concerning equity may again revive, and show itself, in the fidelity of our attention and obedience to our deliverer, after we have once tasted his pardoning love.

These obstacles of nature's education I have often sighed under with respect to myself, and imagining I knew where the shoe pinched in your case also, I

advised the most artless, direct and confident laying hold of the scripture declaration, without the ceremony and circuitions of a man of learning and a man of prudence, or a man of decorum, but simply as a plain man (for that one is after all) who wants for his own soul to experience the manifestation of redeeming grace. The words of our Saviour and his apostles, which I said we are to take quite simply (and there will be room for both you and me to do so more and more) are such as these. "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. He that believeth shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. If thou canst believe, all things are possible unto him that believeth. My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in thy weakness. This is a faithful saying, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief."

I believe you will scarcely any more put me on explaining what is to be done in this grand affair. Our Saviour himself is nearer to us, kinder and more intelligible than any other man can be. You see that to avoid undertaking this, I have run into a sort of satire on sciences and complexions, and used any evasion I could invent. Yet one thing I might perhaps do, if it would be of any use, I could relate a little historically how it has gone with me, my own turnings and windings, though this be what I do not much choose, and indeed it would be nothing different, only fuller and less edifying than what you read

specimens enough of in the Brethren's hymn-book. But now I think of it, what need I refer you to any thing after the Bible but old Tindal?

GOOD SIR,

LETTER TO E. V. ESQ.

J. G.

WHAT have you thought of me all this long time? A long time to defer giving myself the honour, and, if I have any principle of gratitude in me, the ease of writing to you! I am driven desperately to wish, that you might not have thought of me at all; since I must needs appear, if any kind of reflection is spent upon me, deserving of the most severe. What if I have been, since you saw me, mostly pensive and dejected, surrounded with solitude, sickness and silence, not gathering strength like the heroes from rich circumstances, but like vulgar minds contracting an abjectness, that blunts every finer sentiment, and damps every nobler ardour of the soul? Yet was there no genial hour, no gay interval, in which the kindly moral heat did again thrill through my soul, and enable me both duly to feel my obligations to you, and, what. I think a pity to do, except in such intervals, exchange a few ideas with you." It is a pity, I say, in the least to sully or interrupt that easy and lovely cheerfulness of youth, which may you long preserve, with any afflatus from darker and sourer minds. For this

reason, I thought, when I wrote you, I would, however oddly, turn a patron for cheerfulness. I would summon all the lightsome images I was master of, and recall, if possible, some of those agreeable sensations, which youth, soon blasted with grief and thought, had produced in myself; the paradisiacal bloom that did then, to the fresh and innocent imagination, dwell on the whole face of things; the soft and solemn delight that even a balmy air, a sunny landscape, the beauties of the vegetable world, hills and vales, a brook or a pebble did then excite. And surely there is something mysteriously great and noble in the first years of our life; which being my notion, you will not be offended that I speak to you, a young man, more as young, than as man, for the former implies something very happy, and the latter something very miserable. If the celestial spheres, by a regularity of their circulations, are said to make music; much better may we affirm it of the motions of animal-nature within us, in those years of health and vivacity, when the tide of life keeps at its full height, nor alters its course for petty obstructions. The soul is not like an intelligence listening to his sphere; her harmony springs within her own being; and is but the comprising of all the inferior powers to give her pleasure, while she, by a soft enchantment, is tied down to her throne of sense, where she receives their homages. It is true, indeed, to a brave mind, the grosser gratifications arising from the body, are not much. But youth has something, which even such minds must needs enjoy and cultivate, and can scarce support their heroism without,