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cruelty of a wolf.

Besides, after reading your correspondence, I had no doubt but it was the will of God, that Christians should learn their religion from the Scriptures, to which divine volumes I had been too great a stranger.

I told Miss Neville that this was not to be wondered at; that it was not merely the case with the members of the church of Rome, but also with the generality of protestants, all unbelievers being as ignorant of the truth as she, and frequently possessing as much enmity against the children of God as she had manifested toward her sister.-Indeed, madam, she feels so much compunction on account of her guilt, that I find it necessary to console her with the precious declarations of mercy made to sinners in the gospel, lest she should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.

On reading her sister's letter, she said she was glad that her brother had left a religion which encouraged its members to propagate it by fire and sword. O Miranda, added she, how infatuated, how blind have I been! Can any proposition be plainer than this, that to be a Christian is to be like Christ; to have the same spirit and disposition with him; to embrace those truths which he delivered; and to be obedient to all his commands? I should imagine, did I not know the contrary by sad experience, that no one could be so ignorant as to suppose that the merciful Redeemer permitted his followers to injure any person either in word or deed.

I replied, that she was undoubtedly right; and that although God did indeed compel sinners to come in that his house might be filled, it was not the compulsion of racks and gibbets. They are compelled, said I, by his Spirit and 'truth, to lay down their arms with which they fought against him, and to become his willing people, as I hope, my dear Maria, is now your own case.

Ah, Miss Barnwell, cried she, weeping, you have spoken many consoling things concerning the mercy of God, and I believe they are true, and that all those will receive the heavenly inheritance for whom it was intended: but my sins are so numerous and so aggravated, that I of all the

one of the elect.

That you are one of the elect, replied I, is what you are not commanded to believe, it not being the subject of Revelation. You are exhorted to believe that which is true, whether you believe it or not, namely, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the only Saviour of sin

ners.

I was convinced, cried she, before I had finished reading Mrs. Worthington's and your correspondence with my sister, that nothing can save a guilty sinner but the obedience and death of the Son of God; and that penances and pilgrimages, pardons and indulgences, the merit of good works, and every other foundation of hope, were false refuges.

You saw them in their proper colours, replied I. And protestants are no more at a loss than catholics in substituting something to depend upon in the room of the perfect work of the Son of God. How specious soever this something may seem, its intrinsic value is no greater than that of popish pardons and pilgrimages. The songs of the redeemed will be addressed to him that loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood. They will with one consent lay their crowns at his feet, and give him the honour of his achievements. To rob the Redeemer of his glory, or to weaken our obligations to love him, is not our interest; since to love God perfectly is that which will constitute the happiness of angels and saints to all eternity. The angels who kept their first estate will adore him who graciously preserved them from the apostacy of Satan, and his companions in rebellion; and redeemed men will have to praise him for an act of kindness, in its nature somewhat similar, but of much greater magnitude. You tell me, Miss Neville, that you are convinced of this momentous truth, and yet fear you are not one of the elect. If you sincerely believe the things related by the apostles con

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are made to all who believe what God has revealed con

cerning his Son.

Very true, answered she: but of those who received the seed of the word, there was only one kind that continu ed in the truth and brought forth fruit. I replied, that this parable was spoken by our Saviour, that his children might be cautious, lest, a promise being left them of entering into his rest, any of them should even so much as seem to come short of it; and also to remind us that though we are saved by mere mercy, yet it is in such a way as will not dispense with our labouring to make our calling and election sure, or with keeping our bodies under lest we should be disapproved.

My friend, said she, I beg you will pray for me, that I may lie at the footstool of the Redeemer, from which place -I desire never more to remove. The displeasure of my

Oh,

father, I suppose, will be exceedingly great. I shall not wonder if he turn me and my dear brother and sister out of doors, and sell off all, and go to live in a catholic country with Signior Albino. But these are little things. how little, when compared with the loss of the divine favour! The sense I have already had of the divine displeasure is such, that I am convinced no evil will bear to be comparth the wrath of an offended God.

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Since I wrote the Miss Neville, at my request, sent for our friend Thomas LIVse to whom the change which had taken place in her gave very The good man answered every question she put to him very pertinently. The principal were concerning election, and the unpardonable sin, which she feared she had committed. Miss Neville unites in kind respects to you, with,

Dear Madam,

Your dutiful and

Affectionate Niece,

MIRANDA BARNWELL.

LETTER XXXV.

From Mrs. Worthington to Miss Neville.

MY DEAR MISS NEVILLE,

I HAVE received a letter from my niece, which was as

welcome as it was unexpected. I may truly say concerning you, as the Lord said concerning Jerusalem by the prophet Zechariah, Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? The conversion of one sinner is of much greater importance than the temporal concerns of all the empires and kingdoms which have existed since the world began; for, notwithstanding many thousands of millions of individuals are comprehended in this account, yet were their number ten thousand times increased, their temporal happiness or misery would bear no proportion to the eternal happiness or misery of one of the descendants of Adam. To be delivered from the wrath to come, is a thought which must overwhelm the capacities of the cherubim and seraphim, who behold the face of the infinite I AM. But the very little they know is more than sufficient to fill that vast and happy assembly with joy at the conversion of a sinner.

The kingdom of Satan is a kingdom of error; and all bis subjects, at the very time they think themselves the most wise, are immersed in ignorance and foll minds of them who believe not are

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ued by the god of this world. In bringi us to a right mind, God shines upon us we light of the glorious gospel of Christ, a enlightens the eyes of our understanding: he causes us to discern those things to which we were before strangers, and to love those things which we before hated. I hope that this divine change has taken place in you; that you are now convinced that you are a perishing sinner; and that you have fled for refuge to Christ as the only Saviour. The state of man by nature, and salvation by Jesus Christ, are the leading topics in the correspondence between your sister, my niece, and myself. And I wish you ever to re

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acquainted with his person, the work he came to finish, and God's well-pleasedness in him, is a knowledge big with every blessing. It is that by which we are transformed into the divine image. It produces a pure morality, of which the love of God is the basis, and with which eternal life is inseparably and very wisely connected. Knowledge and faith are twins: they are born together, and can never be separated. If God therefore has given you an understanding to know him that is true, you may infer with the apostle that you are in him that is true, even in his son Jesus Christ.

I wish you, my dear young lady, to consider this well. It is a common device of Satan to raise a mist before the cyes of those who have escaped out of his kingdom, and to persuade them that they are not travelling in the road to Zion. He is a lying spirit, and the author both of vain confidence and of unreasonable fear. God will not let you pursue your journey to the new Jerusalem, without giving you proofs that he has adopted you into his family and that he has given you a right to enter into that glorious city. Jesus Christ, it is truc, is ascended into heaven to prepare mansions for his people; but he has not left them orphans. The Spirit of God is given to abide with his church for ever; and he now beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, by making us partakers of that peace and joy, which the world' can no more understand by any description, than a man born blind could understand a lecture on light and colours. To which I will add, that if God has adopted you into his family, he has given you a childlike disposition; you will be continually going to him as to your parent; and "My Father," and "My God," will afford you more comfort than all the words in our language besides. They who have received this happy privilege, will say with Saul after Jesus had met him, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? The

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