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that you need not seek for any in order to your chear ful trust in him and dependance upon him, to juftify you by his righteousness, to fanctify you by his Spirit, and to make you an heir according to the hope of eternal life. The Gofpel brings glorious tidings of falvation to perifhing finners. It exempts and excludes none who will come to Christ for life, who will come to him as lost sinners, under a sense of their guilt and unworthi nefs; who will buy of him wine and milk, without money and without price and who will take of the water of life freely. Be their fins ever so great, his blood will cleanse them from all their fins. Be their hearts ever fo hard, he will take away their hearts of ftone, and give them hearts of flesh. Be they ever fo deftitute of any gracious qualification, of his fulness, they shall receive, even grace for grace. Whatever their cafe be, they may fafely trust in him, as the author of eternal salvation. But this alas! is the mifery and ruin of multitudes, who are pretending to seek falvation by Chrift, that they are for dividing the work of their falvation between him and them: And by fubftracting the honour of their falvation from him, who will do all or nothing for them, though they follow after the law of righteousness, they do not obtain it because they seek it, not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. Here then you fee, that good works have no place at all. We are to look after no recommending qualifications for an intereft in Chrift; but to come to him guilty and miserable as we are, that he may be all and in all, be all to us, and do all in us and for us. He came not to call the righteous, but finners to repentance, Matth. ix. 13.

I muft further add, that we are not to do good works, in expectation that we fhall by them obtain a title to the future inheritance. Heaven is a purchased poffeffion. Our title to it, our qualification for it, our perfeverance in the way that leads thither, and our eternal enjoyment of the glorious inheritance, are all purchased by the. blood of Chrift. In all these respects, Chrift Jefus is our hope, and when we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, we mult rejoice in Chrift Jefus, having no confidence in the Feb. It cannot be too deeply impreffed upon our hearts, that it is not by works of righteousness, which we have

aone, but of his mercy, that God faveth us. It is mere mercy in the eternal contrivance of our falvation by Chrift; mere mercy in his incarnation, humiliation, o-. bedience and fufferings for us; mere mercy in the application of his redemption to our fouls; mere mercy, that we are kept by the power of God, through faith to falvation; and mere mercy that Chrift will at laft prefent us faultless before the throne of God with exceeding joy. It is to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein we are made accepted in the beloved. Our good works cannot have any flare in purchasing our title to this falvation. They cannot make atonement for our fins; because the iniquity of our most holy things ftands in need of atonement. They cannot give us a covenant right to mercy; because we are antecedently finners, and obnoxious to the curfes of the broken law. They cannot make us meet for falvation; because by their imperfections they ftill expofe us to the curfe; and because they cannot fanctify our nature, and give us new hearts. Nor can they give us any claim to the fpecial influences of God; because then our fanctification would. be of debt, and not of grace. What then can they do?. No more, than to bring us to the foot of a fovereign. God, to wait upon him in the way of his appointments, that he would work in us both to will and to do, of his good pleasure.

You will remember, that I am here speaking of our being intitled to falvation by our good works, and not of their usefulness to our spiritual and eternal welfare. In the former fenfe, they must be utterly declaimed; and all our righteoufneffes efteemed but as filthy rags, as I have particularly fhewn you in fome former letters. In the latter fenfe, they muft be diligently and painfully pursued, and attended to: as I fhall more fully fet before you. Our business therefore is, with most earneft application to watch daily at wisdom's gates, and wait at the pofts of his doors, to use our most active en deavours in all the ways of godlinefs, righteousness, and charity, doing all in the name of Chrift, and when we have done all we can, to come ftill as loft, guilty, and worthless and helpless finners, felf-loathing and felf condemning, to the throne of mercy, acknowledging that

to us belongs fame and confufion of face, and that we have nothing to plead but the riches of redeeming love, and the boundlefs grace of God in Chrift, for the accep tance either of our perfons or fervices. In our highest attainments, we should come before God with that language of faith, Dan. ix. 18. We do not present our suppli cations before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.

I will only fubjoin, that we must not depend upon our good works for a progreffive fanctification, for renewed fupplies of grace, and for a continued progress in holiness and comfort unto God's heavenly kingdom. It is a dangerous miftake, which too many feem to fall into, that we are to depend upon Christ alone for justi. fying righteousness: but truft to our own active endea vours for inherent righteoufnefs, for a victory over our corruptions, and for a conformity of heart and life unto the divine nature and will. Thence it is, that although they carry on a dreadful struggle with their corruptions, yet thefe, notwithstanding all their purposes, promifes, vows, watchings, faftings, and other mechanical endea vours, will still prevail, and often throw them into great perplexity and confufion. They are fenfible, that God demands their hearts; and that it is impoffible, their external reformations fhould be acceptable, while their hearts are far from him, and led away with divers lufts. With what agony and toil do they therefore worry with their carnal and fenfual affections, their impetuous ap petites and paffions; ufing various methods of mortification and difcipline, to correct the diforders of their na ture: and are but fill relling a stone up the hill, which as foon as they let go, it is at the bottom again. They are fenfible, that God requires fincerity in the inward man, in all the duties of religious worship. They there fore groan under the burden of their religious defects, their deadnefs, formality, and wandering thoughts in their approaches to God; condemn every duty they per form, and refolve upon more watchfulnefs and care for the future: but alas! the difficulty remains; and they are ready to fink under difcouraging apprehenfions of their hypocrify. Indeed, when they gain a little ground, their hopes are revived and their endeavours animated:

but when deadness and corruption prevail, their diftrefs and fear return and prevail with them, their fpirits fink, and they are ready to be quite difcouraged. How ma ny poor fouls are thus labouring in the very fire, making a toilfome and melancholy drudgery of religion, by their legal attempts and their fpirit of bondage?

How far thefe characters are applicable to yourself, Sir, you can beft tell. But this I know by experience, that fo far as this legal difpofition prevails in us, it will not only darken our way, but check our progrefs in grace and holiness. If you would make any proficiency in your fpiritual courfe, you ought to remember, that the divine life must be carried on in your foul, in the fame manner, and by the fame means, that it was begun there. We are not only justified by faith: but we must be fanctified by faith too; and of Christ's fulness, must receive, even grace for grace. A chearful dependance upon Chrift for all fupplies of grace and strength is the way to obtain his quickening, comforting, and ftrengthening influences: to have our hearts enlarged in the service of God; and to run the way of his commandments with delight. We must be dead to the law (to all dependance upon it and hope from it) if we would live unto God, Gal. ii. 13. Though we must difcharge the duties of the law, and live in conformity to it: yet these must be done with a gospel fpirit, from gofpel principles, and motives. What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God fending his own Son, in the likeness of finful flesh, and for fin, condemned fin in the flesh. Would you then maintain a truly fpiritual life, the life which you live in the flesh, must be by the faith of the Son of God, Gal. ii. 20. Would you maintain a converfation worthy of your holy profeffion, your good converfation must be in Chrift, 1 Pet. iii. 16. Would you live in the love of God and your neighbour, it is faith which works by love, Gal. v. 9. Would you get a victory over the world, and all its allurements, This is the

victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,' I John v. 4. Would you be able to withstand temprations, it is the fhield of faith, by which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked,' Eph. vi

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16. Would you walk honeftly as in the day, you must put on the Lord Jefus Chrift, Rom. xiii. 13, 14. Would you be frengthened in the fervice of God against all oppofition, you muftbe ftrong in the Lord, and in the power of his might,' Eph. vi. 10. Would you have your heart purified from finful lufts, appetites, and paffions, you must get your heart purified by faith,' Acts xv. 9. Would you go on in your way rejoicing, you muft rejoice in Chrift Jefus, having no confidence in the flesh, Phil. iii. 3. Would you persevere in the fear and fervice of God, you must be kept by the power of God through faith unto falvation, 1 Pet. i. 5. It is not your business to run without legs, or fly without wings: but to go 'forth in the ftrength of the Lord.' Defpair of all fufficiency of your own, to mortify your corruptions, and quicken your foul in the ways of God and godlinefs. Humbly repair to the Lord Jefus Chrif, and chearfully truft in him for grace and ftrength, to make a fuccessful progrefs in your fpiritual courfe. Let not your imperfections or corruptions difcourage you; nor let your good purpofes or performances be the ground of your hopes: but in a diligent ufe of gospel means, commit your way to the Lord, truft alfo in him, and he will bring it to pafs. I think, you cannot fo far mifunderftand me, as to fuppofe I am exhorting you to depend on Chrift for holiness, in the careless neglect of good works. This would be prefumption, and not faith. No! I am exhorting you to a realizing impreffion, that your works will not fanctify your heart, your affections, or converfation; when you have done all you can, that you must rely wholly upon the Lord Jefus Chrift, and that you may rely confidently upon him, to fulfil the good pleafure of his goodness in your foul; and carry you on from grace to grace, and from ftrength to ftrength, till you come to the measure of the ftature of a perfect man in Chrift Jefus. Thus I have fewn you negatively in fome inftances, to what purposes our good works are not neceffary, and in what refpects they may not be depended upon.

I proceed in the next place to fhew you affirmatively, in what refpects they are of ncceflity; and to what pur