THE WHOLE WORKS OF THE REV. JAMES HERVEY, A. M. RECTOR OF WESTON-FAVELL, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. IN SIX VOLUMES. VOLUME II. CONTAINING THERON AND ASPASIO; OR A SERIES OF DIALOGUES AND LETTERS UPON THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING SUBJECTS. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73. CHEAPSIDE; AND R. GRIFFIN & CO. GLASGOW. 1825. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY. MADAM, Ir Christianity was inconsistent with true politeness, or prejudicial to real happiness, I should be extremely injudicious, and inexcusably ungrateful, in presenting these Essays to your Ladyship. But as the religion of Jesus is the grand ornament of our nature, and a source of the sublimest joy, the purport of the following pages cannot be unworthy the countenance and protection of the most accomplished person. Neither can there be a wish more suitable to the obligations or the dictates of a grateful heart, than that you may experience what you read, and be what you patronize. Did religion consist in a formal round of external observances, or a forced submission to some rigorous austerities, I should not scruple to join with the infidel and the sensualist to dread it in one view, and to despise it in another. You need not be informed, Madam, that it is as much superior to all such low and forbidding singularities, as the heavens are higher than the earth. It is described by an author, who learned its theory in the regions of Paradise, and who displayed its efficacy in his own most exemplary conversation;—it is thus described by that incomparable author: "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” To be reconciled to the Omnipotent God; to be interested in the unsearchable riches of Christ; to be renewed in our hearts, and influenced in our lives, by the sanctifying operations of the Divine Spirit— this is evangelical righteousness; this is genuine religion; this, Madam, is the kingdom of God established in the soul. How benign and inviting is such an institution! How honourable and advantageous such a state! And from such privileges, what other effects can flow, but that "peace, which passeth all understanding;" that "joy, which is unspeakable and glorious?" Is there any thing in the amusements of the gay, and pursuits of the ambitious, of greater, of equal, of comparable value? Is not all that wealth can purchase, all that grandeur can bestow, somewhat like those glittering bubbles, which, when viewed, are emptiness, when grasped, are nothing? Whereas the comforts, the benefits, the hopes of Christianity, are at once supremely excellent, and infinitely durable; a portion suited to the dignity of a rational soul; large as its faculties, and immortal as its being. VOL. II. All these blessings are centered in Christ; were purchased by Christ are communicated from Christ. It is for want of knowing those boundless and everlasting treasures of pardoning, justifying, saving merit, which the Lord Jesus Christ possesses, and which he freely dispenses even to sinners, that so many unthinking persons are attached to ignoble objects, and beguiled by delusory pleasures. Unhappy creatures! what can they do but catch at shadows, and stoop to trifles, while they are ignorant of the grand, the substantial, the exalted good? It is for want of duly attending to that fulness of grace, and that plenteousness of redemption, which dwell in our most adorable Saviour, that so many serious persons are strangers to the tranquillity and sweetness of religion; are subject to all its restraints, but enjoy few, if any, of its delights. Mistaken zealots! How can they avoid the gloomy situation, and the uncomfortable circumstance, so long as they withdraw themselves from the Sun of Righteousness, and his all-cheering beams? May your Ladyship live continually under his heavenly light and healing wings; be more fully assured of his dying love; and have brighter, still brighter manifestations of his immense perfections! By these delightful views, and by that precious faith, may your heart be transformed into his holy, his amiable, his divine image! Your happiness will then be just such as is wished, but far greater than can be expressed, by, MADAM, Your most obliged, and Most obedient humble servant, Weston-Favel, Jan. 6. 1755. JAMES HERVEY. |