Imatges de pàgina
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Oct. 24, 1821.

MY DEAR T———-I dare say you will be surprised at getting a letter from me, but let me hope that you will not be displeased, even when you find it a letter of serious admonition and reproof. To the language of faithful reproof, we are all naturally averse. The pride of our vain and wicked heart rises up against it and while we are striving to cover our evil ways, even from our own view, we regard any attempt of any other to expose the evil to us, as intrusive and offensive, though it is really the most important expression of true affection. There is solemn weight in that divine declaration, the ear that heareth the reproof of life abideth among the wise;" but "he that refuseth instruction sinneth against his own soul." Prov. xv. 31, 32. But let me come at once to the immediate occasion of my writing.

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You have, I dare say, heard of the rich mercy that appears to have been extended to say appears-because God alone knows whether that word of eternal life which he now confesses, does indeed dwell in him. Every appearance at present is most gratifying, and I trust will be progressively confirmed by the practical fruits in his conduct; though he must probably, throughout his life, smart under the temporal effects of his former wickedness. That is a small thing, if his spirit be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. He mentioned to me, some days ago, his having met you several times before he left Dublin, in one of those gambling houses which he frequented-not (he admits) either playing yourself or betting. Being then in that mind which rejoices in iniquity, he states that he rejoiced to see you there-rejoiced in the idea of your having thrown off the trammels of the Christian profession; and it was with considerable surprise that he learned here, that you are still in outwardfellowship with us. He observes truly, that though you did not at the time engage in the gambling which you witnessed, yet the almost inevitable consequence of your frequenting such scenes must be, that you will be drawn in to take an active part in them: and the temporal ruin of this I need not enlarge on. Indeed, it is far the least important part of the subject.

But, my dear T-, supposing you were never to be led on to that further step, is a notorious gambling house a suitable scene for a disciple of the Lord to frequent? As children of the light and of the day, we are called to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove them." (Ephes. v. 11.) We are called " to let our light shine before men" to the glory of our heavenly Father (Mat. v. 16. 1 Pet. ii. 9.); and if we attempt to reconcile with this, our seeking amusement in the haunts of the grossest wickedness, avowedly appropriated to the prosecution of the works of darkness-and to reconcile the two under any pretence of exercising our Christian, liberty, we are plainly turning the grace of

God into lasciviousness, and might, with equal plausibility, vindicate our seeking amusement in a brothel. But even the persuading you to abandon all such practices would fall quite short of my real aim in writing. That is, to direct your attention to the root of the evilto the character of the unbelieving fleshly mind, after which we must be walking, when we walk in such a course. We must then have lost sight of the great things of God testified in the word from heaven. We must have fallen into a lifeless formal profession of the faith, in which we cease to be persuaded of the divine realities of the kingdom of heaven, though a remaining suspicion that they may turn out true, perhaps prevents our expressly renouncing the faith. But are we not then living to ourselves, and not unto Him whose we profess to be? Are we not then really walking after the flesh, after the imaginations of our own evil hearts, and not in the truth? Are we not deceiving ourselves with a name that we live, while we are dead? For if we say that we have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." 1 John i. 6. Is it not a fact, T—, that your intimate associates and pretended friends are young men of notorious profligacy of manners? And how can we fairly account for your complacency in them and their complacency in you? If, in your intercourse with them, you were acting and speaking as a disciple and witness of the Lord, they would soon be sick of your society. But is it not the fact, that in the idle vanity of imitating their licentious dissipation, you would be ashamed boldly to confess the Lord Jesus before them? And it is a solemn word which he has pronounced against those who are ashamed to confess his name before men. Well-I do not conceal from you that I think your state is a very awful one, -marked with the characters of an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Yet I view it with a hope derived from the nature of his glorious gospel, that he will open your ear to the reproof of his word-to the instruction of that divine wisdom, of which it is pronounced, "happy is the man that findeth her." Prov. iii. 13. O that you may hear "the voice behind you"-the voice of Him on whom you have turned your back-wooing you, in the accents of sovereign mercy, to turn to Him and live. His presence surrounds you while you read these lines. His faithful word testifies the rich mercy that is with him, the great salvation that belongeth to him-" Incline your ear and come unto Him; hear and your soul shall live." Is. lv. 3. Read the whole of that chapter, and read it as the voice of Him that speaketh from heaven, in connexion with the apostolic testimony of him whom man despiseth," but who is set for the salvation of God unto the ends of the earth;-once made a curse in the place of transgressors, that sinners, even the chief, may be blessed in Him and brought to eternal glory by Him. Brought back to the remembrance of His glorious truth, you will feel the force of that language-" Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." I shall wait in anxious expectation of hearing from you, and in the hope that your reply will afford me joy and not grief.

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LXXXV.

TO MRS. M

1821.

DEAR MRS. M.-I feel myself, on various accounts, at a loss in attempting to reply to your inquiry. You know that I do not think you, in your present mind, competent to judge upon that subject; and how far any of the parties are, about whom you are interested on the occasion, I am ignorant. However, I can have no objection to express my own views on the general question: and if any one should desire further communication with me in explanation of them, I believe you know that I am easily accessible.

Persuaded as I am that the Scriptures afford a rule sufficiently directive and divinely authoritative for the regulation of Christ's disciples, both in their individual and collective capacity-a rule which never has been annulled, and never can to the end of the world; I consider the precept in 1 Cor. v. 11. as binding on me now, as it was on the Corinthian believers when Paul sent them his letter. But this view binds me to consider the real meaning of the apostolic direction from the context, and from the whole analogy of Scripture; and thus I am led to view the precept as restricting the civil intercourse of disciples-not with those of the world, who have never walked with them in the fellowship of a Christian church-in which alone disciples can walk together scripturally-but with those who have appeared of that household of faith, but have been removed from it, according to the scriptural discipline by which its purity is to be maintained; and I consider the civil intercourse with such, which is prohibited, as that, which indicating complacency in them, would convey on the side of the disciples who should indulge in it-that their minds had ceased to be impressed with an awful sense of the evil, which had occasioned the separation of the offending brother from their fellowship, and would thus be injuriously calculated to weaken the solemn testimony of the body against it in his view. With respect to the Antichristian world around me, with whom I have never walked in the scriptural fellowship of the gospel, I do not think that this Apostolic precept bears at all on my social intercourse with them. But even in the case where it does apply, and where I and my brethren aim at observing it, I have another remark to make. From the whole analogy of Scripture I am sure that neither it, nor any precept rightly understood, will be found to trench upon any of those duties, which are connected with the various relations of life. I am, therefore, persuaded that the precept would be misunderstood, if a disciple took it in all cases literally. A husband and wife-a parent and child-a master and his apprentice, may be so circumstanced, that the wife, the child, or the apprentice, shall be called to be regulated by that precept, in their deportment towards the husband, the father, or the master.

Now, I conceive they would greatly mistake, if they thought themselves actually forbid to sit at the same table and eat with those, towards whom they stand in such an intimate relation, the duties of

which may require that they should do so. And, although those who wish to set aside all the peculiar precepts of the divine word, may think that, in saying this, I concede a case in which one of them cannot be obeyed, it is really no such thing. Such a case is as supposable when the apostle wrote, as at this day; and only proves that the thing really forbidden, is that voluntary needless intercourse which is sought for the purpose of mutual satisfaction, and indicative of mutual complacency. I should not, therefore, consider myself debarred at all by the precept, from remaining at the table of one of the world who had bid me to a feast, though I found seated at it a person who had been removed from the fellowship of the church, and whom I, therefore, could not ask as a guest to my own; and though I should literally eat with him in such a case, yet, if I bear in mind the divine direction in its real import, it will importantly regulate my deportment and demeanour towards him, though certainly not so as to produce moroseness or incivility. He knows that I have not sought his society, and nothing in my manner should lead him to think that I enjoy it. When I have marked voluntary needless intercourse even in civil life, as the thing forbidden in that passage, I mean to include all that intercourse which does not arise from, and is not connected with, the duties of the various relations in which the providence of God places disciples; and among these duties there is, I think, a degree of kind correspondence and occasional intercourse with those, with whom I stand in other very close fleshly relations besides the few I have mentioned. I have two sisters, for instance, who once stood in Christian fellowship with me, but have long ceased to do so, from their turning aside to the religions of the world. Our intercourse is in consequence very little, very dry, and unsatisfactory: yet I occasionally write to them; and were I in their neighbourhood, would think myself called to see them; or if they came to London I should have them, if they needed the accomodation, at my house: and yet I might all the time be regulated by that divine precept, which I am sure was not designed to interfere with the natural kindness due to such near relations according to the flesh. As to the precept in 2 John 10, I think it simply forbids disciples to extend that hospitality to teachers of another doctrine, which would indicate a desire to forward the objects they have in view. Disciples were called to be helpful to those who were indeed engaged in the ministration of the word of Christ; and, as in other ways, so in receiving them into their houses, and affording them such accommodations of lodging and of food as they might need. But this help they are forbidden to afford to any one who taught differently from the apostles, lest they should even appear to countenance "his evil deeds." I conceive that I might occasionally have at my table, in the way of courteous neighbourly intercourse, one of the clergy or preachers of the religious world, who are teaching (I am sure) in direct opposition to the word of the apostles, and yet without at all violating that precept in John: because it would not even appear to be done for abetting his evil deeds. Yet I own that in proportion as I observe any of them calculated to deceive, by an approximation of language and profession to the truth, I am disposed, and feel myself called in general, to avoid them.

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LXXXVI.

1821.

You ask my opinion on the letter which you gave me to read, and the character of the writer. The general complexion of the letter is indeed bitter bad, for it seems to be an attempt to encourage some one, who spoke the language of unbelief, to entertain some favourable opinion about his state and character. Any attempt so to encourage any one (believer or unbeliever) is contrary to the truth-as much so as the state of mind that needs such ungodly encouragement, that wants to see something favourable about them, in order to come to God with confidence. It is true, that the encouragement afforded in many passages of the letter, would appear to be derived from the consideration of the revealed truth of God-the mercy that is with him. But how inconsistent with that is the idea of encouraging a fellow sinner, to whom the divine testimony is sent, to believe what God reveals. The apostles, in setting forth Jesus Christ as the propitiation, warned men indeed of the awful consequences of disbelieving the record which God hath given of his Son; but when did they set about encouraging, and coaxing, and entreating, and charging them "to receive into their hearts the joyful tidings' —or, in plain language, to believe it? The idea is more suitable to those who mean, by believing, some venturesome act (as they call it) of the mind: which is nothing more or less than a presumptuous venture to believe that they are believers. Its inconsistency with the scriptural simple meaning of faith will be manifest, if we apply it to a human testimony, from the reception of which the apostle illustrates the reception of the divine. 1 John v. 9. Ah! do believe what I have told you." What nonsense in the affairs of men! What wicked nonsense when applied to the things of God! But one encouragement plainly suggested in the letter, is plainly contrary to the truth-Has he not given you to wish to be delivered from it? That is thorough language of the insidious teachers of a gospel that is not the gospel of Christ-daubing the wall with untempered mortar. Whether the person addressed was encouraged by the supposed discovery of that wish in his heart, or continued mourning at not being able to find it, the person addressed was alike in either case astray from the hope of the gospel, and the encouragement which it affords and conveys to any ungodly sinner who believes it. The writer of the letter would seem then to have no gospel, no glad tidings, nothing joyfully encouraging to lay before a man absolutely so wicked, as to have no wish that is not opposed to the truth of God. Yet to such the apostles published their gospel, and all, that believed what they told, rejoiced. Their gospel to be sure is only fit for such. When I am asked my opinion

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