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theirs to God and the Lamb. For if endless mifery be unjust, exemption from it must be the finner's right, and can never be attributed to mercy; neither could a mediator be needed to induce a righteous God to liberate the finner, when he had fuffered his full defert. In fine, confider whether you do not contradict your own experience. I think you have told me of your great diftrefs of foul, arifing from a consciousness of your deferving to be caft out of God's favour, and banished for ever from his prefence. Can you now fay, that you did not deferve this? Do you not deferve it ftill? If you do, why not others?

"Secondly, Confider whether the genius of the sentiment in question, be not opposite to that of every other sentiment in the Bible. The whole tenor of Scripture saith to the righteous, it shall be well with him, and to the wicked, it shall be ill with him: But univerfal falvation faith not only to the righteous, but the wicked, it fhall be well at laft with him. Do confider whether you can find any one Scripture truth that resembles it in this refpect. What doctrine, befides this, can you find in the Bible, that affords encouragement to a finner going on still in his trefpaffes, and which furnishes ground for hope and joy, even fuppofing him to perfevere in fin till death? Inftead of fiding with God against a wicked world, as a fervant of God ought to do, is not this a fiding with a wicked world againft God, and encouraging them to believe, what they are apt enough to believe without encouragement, that they shall have peace, though they add drunkenness to thirst? Wo is me, faid an Apoftle, if I preach not the Gospel! If an angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel, he is declared to be accursed! Do seriously confider whether the doctrine of univerfal falvation will not render your preaching another Gospel. The Gofpel of Chrift is good tidings to the meek, healing to the broken hearted, and comfort to them that mourn; but must not yours be good tidings to the proud and the impenitent, and comfort to thofe whom the Scripture declares under condemnation and the curfe? The Gospel of Chrift is a fyftem of holiness, a fyftem entirely oppofite to every vicious bias of the human heart, a fyftem, therefore, which no unrenewed heart embraces he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God:-But the good news which you must publish requires no change of heart that it may be embraced, being just fuited to the wishes of an abandoned mind.

"Thirdly, Confider whether your miniftrations, on this principle, will not favor of his who taught our firft parents, Ye shall not surely die. If you should raise the hopes of

the ungodly part of your audience, that though they should live and die in their filthiness, yet they fhall not be filthy still; though they go down to the pit, yet it fhall not prove bottomless; though the worm may prey upon them, yet at fome period or other it shall die; and though they may have to encounter devouring fire, yet they fhall not dwell in everlasting burnings: If, I fay, you fhould raife fuch hopes, and if all at laft fhould prove a deception, think how you will be able to look them in the face another day; and what is ftill more, how you will be able to look Him in the face who charged you to be pure from the blood of all men, and to say unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him!

"My dear friend! do not take it unkindly. My foul is grieved for you, and for the fouls of many around you. How are you as to peace of mind, and communion with God? Beware of the whirlpool of Socinianifm. From what I understand of the nature and tendency of your prin ciples, it appears to me you are already within the influence of its deftructive ftream. All who hold this fentiment, I know, are not Socinians; but there are few, if any Socinians, who do not hold this fentiment, which is certainly of a piece with their whole fyftem. It would greatly rejoice iny heart to be able to acknowledge you, as heretofore, my brother, and fellow labourer in the Gospel of Jefus Chrift: Do let me hear from you, and believe me to be

Yours, very affectionately, &c. &c."

N. B. The writer of this letter was never indulged with an anfwer. If it may be thought of any ufe, you are at liberty to infert it in the Evangelical Magazine.

From yours,

GAIUS:

ON SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES.

HE following Rules are very ufeful;Firft, No part Tof Scripture appears mean, if it be rightly underflood: 2d. Though there be a moft lively and alluring fimplicity, in the true explication of Scripture, yet nothing but fpiritual experience can make that evidence rightly understood. 3d, As a paffage of Scripture, truly understood, under the illu minating influence of the Holy Ghoft, doth, by its own

light and power, manifeft itself to be the true mind of God, it is not fafe to deal too much in criticisms; as they are apt to lead men into uncertain fpeculations. 4th, If a truth be manifefted to our confcience, as clearly taught or enforced in many places of Scripture, we ought to hold it faft, notwithstanding many apparent difficulties, ftill waiting on the Lord, till he folve them in his own time and way, (Prov. ii. 1 to 7.) 5th. Though every adult child of God be, in his own meafure, enlightened in the knowledge of the Scriptures, by the Holy Ghoft, all of them ought earneftly to endeavour to obtain more and more of his illuminations. (Hof. vi. 3. 2 Pet. i. 19. Prov. iv. 7.) 6th. As we must carefully beware of impofing a meaning of our own upon any text of Scripture, fo we ought to beware of confining its fenfe, and fo neglecting to dig farther into its meaning. In many cafes, a proper confociation of parallel texts will be found of great ufe for explaining of the Lord's word, which is exceeding broad.

TIMOTHY.

MELANCHOLY EVENT.

On Saturday August 15th, the following melancholy event happened at the Mill, near West-lane, Rotherhithe.

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As S John Barefoot was fuperintending fome part of the bufinefs of the mill, he was fuddenly entangled by it, and literally torn to pieces before it could be stopped. has left a wife and one child. His widow, who is again pregnant, is in neceffitous circumftances; and the gentlemen. who own the mill are foliciting fubfcriptions for her fupport, till she has laid-in, when the means to go out to service.

About a year and a half ago, as this young man was paffing Mr. T's meeting, on the evening of a Lord's day, after having spent the other part of it in a careless, prophane manner; he was prompted by curiofity to go in. He no fooner was feated, and began to liften, than he fufpected Mr. T's eyes were principally directed towards him, and he was, he thought, confirmed in this idea, by the things spoken being fo very applicable to his character and conduct. He was alhamed to go out, and yet the addrefs which the minifter was making to thoughtless finners in general, apVOL. I.

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peared fo immediately directed to him, that he was much agitated, and afhamed to look up. Service being ended, he hafted out of the place, and told fome of his companions that he would never be caught in there any more. Notwithftanding this ftrong and hafty refolution, the truths he had heard continued fo powerfully to imprefs his mind, that he could not get rid of them, and the more he thought of them, the more his mind was affected by them; and on the return of the Lord's day, he found himself unable to resist the defire he had to attend worship again in the fame place. He accordingly went, and fo abundantly did the Lord blefs the word to his foul, that he became an earnest seeker after the kingdom of God, and his righteoufnefs, Matt. vi. 33; never more forfook the ordinances of God's houfe, but walked in the way of God, with growing comfort and delight, to the day on which God took him home to himself.

The morning on which this awful providence befel him, he was reading his Bible the whole time he was at breakfaft His breakfast finished, and his Bible closed, he returned to the mill, little fufpecting that he was just upon the point of going to his father's houfe above. John xiv. 2.

A LETTER to a young Female Friend, cautioning her against the danger of an improper connexion.

MADAM,

OME apology would perhaps be neceffary for troubling you with the following lines, did not the exigency of the cafe warrant me to trespass on your patience; and as it is on a fubject which of all others moft concerns your future welfare, I truft you will attend to what I have to fay with deliberate compofure, and weigh whatever arguments I may adduce in the fcale of unbiaffed judgment. But as it is requifite to make known the motives which induced me to intereft myself in a caufe which cannot any way affect me, I must premife, that, from my fituation in life I cannot have the fmalleft intereft, either directly, or indirectly, in the iffue of any tranfaction of yours; and confequently must be exonerated from the moft diftant charge of finifter motives in the prefent cafe. I have for fome years known you as a profeffor of Chriftianity, and may venture to fay, have long refpected you as a difciple of Chrift; and though I can boaft of an acquaintance with you, yet it is by no

means prudent to myfelf to hazard a verbal converfation on the fubject. With a view therefore to fave you from deftruction, I take up my pen to fay it was with much aftonishment I lately heard you were on the eve of a matrimonial alliance with Mr.. At first I confidered it as the production of a flanderous tongue; but it has fince been told me in fo unquestionable a fhape, that I am neceffitated to give credit to a tale, I would gladly have believed to be untrue. You cannot be unacquainted, Madam, with the treatment the late wife of Mr. received at his hands; as I am perfuaded there are but few persons in --who knew that pair, but can witness he ruled her with a rod of iron. If this was experienced by a woman whose age was nearly parallel with his own, is it likely you will meet a milder fate, whofe years are fo difproportionate? Reflection muft convince you there is no ftation in life where jealousy is more predominate than in the unequal union of the fexes, whether confidered as to age or fortune.

Love is caufed by a fimilitude in the difpofitions and affections, and must be cemented by a mutual confidence and efteem! but, is it probable that youth and age can experience the power of attraction, when their paffions and pursuits are not the fame? Surely not; and therefore fuch an union must be contrary to the laws of nature, and the moral precepts of the Deity. Mr.- is also a man whofe debilitated habit of body renders him totally unfit to be the companion of a woman of fenfibility; more than half the year he is afflicted with a diforder which often over-balances the tempers of the meek and patient; and if fo, I leave to your own reflection what must the experience of a man whofe conduct is by no means fuch as fhould adorn the husband of a pious woman.-It cannot be unknown to you, that the family in general, fo far from being profeffors of Chriftianity, evidently evince the depravity of their morals, by liv ing in the open practice of iniquity, and declaring by their actions, that, if not profeffional, they are practical Atheists. As the younger branches of that family are (I believe) individually older than yourfelf, you will naturally imagine they are (and I know it to be the cafe), totally averfe to the union in every point of view: What felicity can you then expect in your domeftic concerns? Can your happiness centre in a man, whofe age is more than double your own, especially when you find yourfeif degraded and despised by his own kindred? Suppofe for a moment, Madam, your partner taken off by death, yourfelf perhaps furrounded with an infant family, neglected by your husband's relations, your offspring expofed to the infults and degradation of those

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