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DOUBTFUL.

IN

A LETTER from CHRISTIANUS to the virtuous and pious AMINTOor.

Ne efto Juftus nimium.

Dear AMINTOR,

ΤΗ

April 29, 1753.

HE laft Vifit you favoured me with gave me great Pleasure; more especially when I confider the Nature of our then Converfation, which ran upon Things relating to yourself, and thofe too of the most interesting Nature to you.

The Confidence you put in me (in notifying to me the Hiftory of your Life, from your younger Years to the prefent Time, though even now but young) gave me the highest Pleasure; and I affure you, I went along with you in your History Step by Step, in the most sympathizing Manner; which very Sympathy might be the

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very Caufe of my now-and-then interrupting you in the Thread of your Difcourse.

I thought the Vifit, on all Accounts, much too fhort, but especially as I fanfied the approaching Evening hurried you home, before you had quite difburdened yourself, and that there might remain fomething material to convey to me. If you will forgive me, I will now take my Part in this Affair, and endeavour to fettle you in those Principles which you say you have for fome Time embraced with fuch high Satiffaction: Those I mean of the Chriftian revealed Religion, thofe Truths that came by Jefus Chrift. And the Method I fhall take in fo doing fhall be,

First, By recapitulating and answering the feveral Charges you made upon yourself, and the moft material Things you opened to me about; and thereby endeavour to convince you, that you have not that Reason to be diffatisfied with yourfelf, as you have formerly imagined: And then I fhall offer fome Means of Confolation to you from the Holy Scriptures..

The firft Thing you mentioned to me was, I think, a want of a complete Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, and that too when you was but a Child: Now I would defire you, in this Cafe, to judge for yourself, as you would for another. Is it very likely, that the whole Will of God fhould be understood by a Child, who could not be supposed to have had fo many Opportunities of being informed as many have, who perhaps had none about him, who were at all skilled in Polemical Difputes? It is not to be wondered at, M 2

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that the feeming Contradictions in Scripture (and which only can be explained by themselves) should puzzle a young Mind; and the more Í affure you it would do fo, the more defirous you were to understand them; and that for this Reafon, because too eager a Defire takes away, in fome Measure, our digeftive Faculties, which, especially in young Perfons, can be improved but by flow Degrees.

The Uneafinefs you expreffed at the Want of Refolution (tho' you had the Defire) to open your Mind, and receive Inftruction, was to me a convincing Proof, and fure Mark of your Sincerity, and what I believe, and an fure, is the conftant Attendant of a well-difpofed Mind in its Refearches after Truth; and you need not fear, but your earnest Defire to know was accepted of, by him who fees the Heart, for as good a Service to him, as if you had fooner had an Opportunity of fatisfying yourself; fince it only came from Bashfulness, or a Fear of being laughed at as too religious: Things very natural to a Perfon of your Age, and Turn of Mind.

The higheft Charge you throw upon yourself. is your deiftical Principles, in believing no revealed Religion; nor no Satisfaction by Chrift; nor no need of this Sacrifice; and, at the fame Time, having a thorough Self-fatisfaction and Eafe.

This Charge, fuppofing it true, is a very heavy one; for it is abfolutely impoffible for us to have a well-grounded Hope, till we have a lively Faith: But I cannot be perfuaded, but

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there must have been fomething CONSTITUTIONAL in this, or fome unufual Impreffion made. upon your Mind, either by Converfation fimilar to thefe Principles (the which as you had not Answers ready to confute, fo you gave a kind of negative Affent thereto) or elfe, perhaps, these Notions might be imbibed from fome Books which fell into your Hands, which are the fame as Converfation, only rather more hurtful, because the Stile of Books generally exceeds the Oratory of moft Perfons.

That the Satisfaction of Mind, whilft in this State, was conftitutional, I can plainly prove to you, and that too from your next Obfervation on yourself, which I think was at the Death of your beloved Friend Theodoret; at which Time you fay you was fo affected, as to have no Satisfaction at all in these Principles, and to have had a kind of immediate Turn in the Mind impreffed by this Affliction; and this was plainly because the bodily Organs were differently affected, and, in confequence, you fawThings in a different Light. This I take to be the Cafe, and not from any rational Conviction wrought upon your Mind. But, however, I will coincide with you, and I will fuppofe that this Alteration of Sentiments was the Impulse of Heaven, that the Death of your Friend was a Means made use of by God for your Good (for he is merciful in his fevereft Difpenfations): And even confidered in this Light, which I take to be the Light you yourfelf confider it in, you have no Ground of Reflection upon yourself, in regard to your former Notions and State of Mind; for it might be the Wisdom

of God, who createth Evil to good Purposes, to fuffer your Mind to be as it were under Fetters and Chains for a Time, that you might rejoice the more when you (by the enlightening thereof) were admitted into the glorious Liberty of the Children of God.

This was the Cafe of St. Paul; and as you (with him) readily embraced the heavenly Summons, and divine Lights, when it fhone upon your Mind with a dazzling Luftre, fo you need not fear but you will be affifted, in the Profecution of your Duty, by the fame heavenly Guide as he was in his Ministry.

You obferved further, that, at the Time you were under the Power of thefe bad Impreffions, you ftill felt a fenfible Love of God, which is abfolutely inconfiftent with a Deift, for this plain Reafon, That if there was no Revelation there would want much of that Goodness and Mercy in God which the Difpenfation of the Gofpel offers: And further; whoever looks into their own Natures, and fee the many Defects that are obfervable in the beft managed Life and Converfation, must see sufficient Reason to fear, that fhould God be extreme to mark what is done amifs, none could abide; and that, therefore, unlefs God Almighty were pleased to reveal to us a Ground of Hope, and fhew us a Mediator between him and us (and that too (as he has done) in a Manner almost inconceivable) we fhould find ourfelves without Hope, and that might make us think that we were alfo without God in the World; and this Reprefentation of God to our Minds muft fix fuch a Fear of him, as is in

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