To The Rev. Mr. Law

well, but are now turned back; and they fear for themselves, lest they also be tempted; yet, through the mercy of God, they despair not, but have still a good hope that they shall endure to the end. Not that this hope has any resemblance to enthusiasm, which is a hope to attain the end without the means: This they know is impossible, and therefore ground their hope on a constant, careful use of all the means. And, if they keep in this way, with lowliness patience, and meekness of resignation, they cannot carry the principle of pressing toward perfection too far. O may you and I carry it far enough! Be fervent in spirit. “Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.” Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Abound more and more in all holiness, and in zeal for every good word and work.

XXXII. — To the Rev. William Law.

REVEREND SIR, Lincoln College, OXON., June 26,

1734.

I MUST earnestly beg your immediate advice, in a case of the greatest importance. Above two years since, I was intrusted with a young gentleman of good sense, and even generous temper; and pretty good learning. Religion he had heard little of; but Mr. Jackson’s “Practice of Devotion,” your two treatises, and Thomas a Kempis, by the blessing of God awakened him, by degrees, to a true notion and serious practice of it. In this he continued sensibly improving till last Lent; at the beginning of which, I advised him to do as he had done the year before, namely, to obey the order of the Church, by using such a sort and measure of abstinence as his health permitted, and his spiritual wants required. He said he did not think his health would permit to use that abstinence which he did the year before. And, notwithstanding my reply, that his athletic habit could be in no danger by only abstaining from flesh, and using moderately some less pleasing food, he persisted in his resolution of not altering his food at all. A little before Easter, perceiving he had much contracted the time he had till then set apart for religious reading, I asked him whether he was not himself convinced that he spent too much time in reading secular authors. He answered, he was convinced any time was too much; and that he should be a better Christian, if he never read them at all. I then pressed him earnestly to pray for strength, according to that conviction; and he resolved to try for a week. When that was expired, he said his desire of classical reading was not inflamed, but a little abated: Upon which, I begged him to repeat his resolution for a week or two longer. He said, it signified nothing; for he could never part with the classics entirely. I desired him to read that which you say in the “Christian Perfection,” on reading vain authors. He readily agreed to every word of it, but still, in his practice, denied it; though appearing, in most other particulars, an humble, active, zealous Christian. On Tuesday, April 3, being one of the days the statutes require us to communicate at St. Mary’s, I called upon him just before church, being to set out for Lincolnshire as soon as the service was over. I asked whether he still halted between two opinions; and, after exhorting him as I could to renounce himself, and serve his Master with simplicity, I left him. He did not communicate that day. On my return, May 21, I immediately inquired what state he was in, and found he had never communicated since, which he used to do weekly; that he had left of rising early, visiting the poor, and almost all religious reading, and entirely given himself up to secular. When I asked him why he had left off the holy eucharist, he said fairly, because to partake of it implied a fresh promise to renounce himself entirely, and to please God alone; and he did not design to do so. I asked whether he was well convinced he ought to do so. He said, “Yes.” Whether he wished he could design it. He answered, No, he did not desire it.

From time to time, particularly a few days ago, I wished him to tell me upon what he grounded his hope of salvation. He replied, after some pause, that “Christ died for all men; but if none were saved by him without performing the conditions, his death would not avail one in a thousand, which was inconsistent with the goodness of God.” But this answer, and every part of it, he soon gave up; adding, with the utmost seriousness, that he cared not whether it was true or no; he was very happy at present, and he desired nothing further.

This morning I again asked him what he thought of his; own state. He said he thought nothing about it. I desired to know whether he could, if he considered it ever so little, expect to be saved by the terms of the Christian covenant He answered, he did not consider it at all: Nor did all I could say

in the least move him. He assented to all, but was affected with nothing. He grants, with all composure that he is not in a salvable state, and shows no degree of concern, while he owns he cannot find mercy. I am now entirely at a loss what step to take: Pray he cannot, or will not. When I lent him several prayers, he returned them unused, saying, he does not desire to be otherwise than he is, and why should he pray for it? I do not seem so much as to understand his distemper. It appears to me quite incomprehensible. Much less can I tell what remedies are proper for it. I therefore beseech you, Sir, by the mercies of God, that you would not be slack, according to the ability He shall give, to advise and pray for him; and am,

Reverend Sir,

Your most obliged servant.

XXXIII. — To the Same.

REVEREND SIR, May 14, 1738.

IT is in obedience to what I think to be the call of God, that I, who have the sentence of death in my own soul, take upon me to write to you, of whom I have often desired to learn the first elements of the Gospel of Christ. If you are born of God, you will approve of the design, though it may be but weakly executed. If not, I shall grieve for you, not for myself. For as I seek not the praise of men, so neither regard I the contempt either of you or of any other.

For two years (more especially) I have been preaching after the model of your two practical treatises; and all that heard have allowed, that the law is great, wonderful, and holy. But no sooner did they attempt to fulfilll it, but they found that it is too high for man: And that by doing “the works of the law shall no flesh living be justified.”

To remedy this, I exhorted them, and stirred up myself, to pray earnestly for the grace of God, and to use all the other means of obtaining that grace, which the all wise God hath appointed. But still, both they and I were more and more convinced, that this is a law by which a man cannot live; the law in our members continually warring against it, and bringing us into deeper captivity to the law of sin.

Under this heavy yoke I might have groaned till death, had not a holy man, to whom God lately directed me, upon my complaining thereof, answered at once, “Believe, and thou shalt be saved. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all thy heart, and nothing shall be impossible to thee. This faith, indeed, as well as the salvation it brings, is the free gift of God. But seek, and thou shalt find. Strip thyself naked of thy own works, and thy own righteousness, and fly to him. For whosoever cometh unto him, he will in no wise cast out.”

Now, Sir, suffer me to ask, How will you answer it to our common Lord, that you never gave me this advice? Did you never read the Acts of the Apostles, or the answer of Paul to him who said, “What must I do to be saved?” Or are you wiser than he? Why did I scarce ever hear you name the name of Christ? never, so as to ground anything upon “faith in his blood?” Who is this who is laying another foundation? If you say, you advised other things as preparatory to this; what is this, but laying a foundation below the foundation? Is not Christ then the first, as well as the last? If you say you advised them because you knew that I had faith already, verily you knew nothing of me; you discerned not my spirit at all. I know that I had not faith, unless the faith of a devil, the faith of Judas, that speculative, notional, airy shadow, which lives in the head, not in the heart. But what is this to the living, justifying faith in the blood of Jesus? the faith that cleanseth from sin; that gives us to have free access to the Father; to “rejoice in hope of the glory of God;” to have “ the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by, the Holy Ghost” which dwelleth in us; and “the Spirit itself bearing witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God?”

I beseech you, Sir, by the mercies of God, to consider deeply and impartially, whether the true reason of your never pressing this upon me was not this, — that you had it not yourself? whether that man of God was not in the right, who gave this account of a late interview he had with

you? — “I began speaking to him of faith in Christ: He was silent. Then he began to speak of mystical matters. I spake to him of faith in Christ again: He was silent. Then he began to speak of mystical matters again. I saw his state at once.” And a very dangerous one, in his judgment, whom I know to have the Spirit of God.

Once more, Sir, let me beg you to consider, whether your extreme roughness, and morose and sour behavior, at least on many occasions, can possibly be the fruit of a living faith in Christ? If not, may the God of peace and love fill up what is yet wanting in you!

I am, Reverend Sir,

Your humble servant.

XXXIV. — To the Same.

REVEREND SIR, May 30, 1738.

I SINCERELY thank you for a favor I did not expect, and presume to trouble you once more.

How I have preached all my life, — how qualified or unqualified I was to correct a translation of Kempis, and to translate a preface to it, — whether I have now, or how long I have had, a living faith, — whether Peter Bohler spoke truth in what he said, when two others were present besides me, — are circumstances on which the main question does not turn, which is this and no other: “Whether you ever advised me, or directed me to books that did advise me, to seek first a living faith in the blood of Christ; and that thereby alone I could be justified.”

You appeal to three facts to prove that you did:

1. That you put into my hands “Theologia Germanica.”

2. That you published an answer to “The plain Account of the Sacrament.” And,

3. That you are governed through all that you have written and done by these two fundamental maxims of our Lord: “Without me ye