ly poison in arrogant illustrations, and antichristian Fam ily Bibles.

"To know whom we worship, to entertain proper notions of GOD, is the first necessary principle of true religion. And these volumes are calculated to convey such exalted and amiable ideas of God, and to unfold in so rational and delightful a manner, the great mysteries of redemption and regeneration, that whoever peruses them with candour and attention will find in them a perfect key to the Holy Scriptures, "having (if I may be allowed the sacred language) the Glory of God, and his light, like unto a stone most precious, clear as crys tal." And, beside informing his understanding, if they do not elevate his heart to an exalted pitch of love and devotion to his great benefactor, and cause it to overflow in streams of grateful benevolence to all mankind, he must be among those obdurate insensibles who need our pity and our prayers.

"The happy effects here promised are not the mere speculative conjectures of fancy, for I have only described what were my own feelings upon the same occasion. And I will farther venture to declare, that I received more light and satisfaction from the perusal of these little volumes than I have been able to extract from many volumes of letter-learned commentators, darkened illustrations and bodies of Divinity, which I had before carefully read with the same temper and desire.

"I am so far in the same unfortunate predicament with Ouranius, never to have enjoyed the blessedness of that holy man's conversation; but I have it well authenticated that he faithfully practised what he taught, or, in Burkitt's words, that his was 66 a preaching life as well as a preaching doctrine." And that pious disregard and contempt of the riches and honours of the world, which he so pathetically recommends to others, himself eminently displayed in refusing some of the best preferments in the bishop of London's gift when proffered by his friend Dr. Sherlock, in reward of the unanswerable letters to the Bishop of Bangor.

"The charge of Methodism I never heard insinuated against him, and could proceed only from those who must be totally ignorant of the tenets of that sect, or un

acquainted with any among the writings of our able defender of church discipline and authority, and especially of the last except one, "on justification by Faith and Works."

"But not to leave myself liable to reprehension for the partiality I have noticed in another, I am persuaded, that whoever has imbibed knowledge at this pure fountain will never cease thirsting while there remains a drop of the sacred spring untasted. And that every scrip of that divinely-directed pen may be as extensive as the writer's benevolence, is the ardent prayer of your sincere well-wisher,

Yours, &c.

"THEOPHILOS." Z. COZENS.

The following are the Author's Letters to a Friend.

LETTER I.*

Worthy and dear Sir,

My heart embraces you, with all the tenderness and affection of christian love; and I earnestly beg of God to make me a messenger of his peace to your soul.

You seem to apprehend I may be much surprised at the account you have given of yourself. But, Sir, I am neither surprised nor offended at it. I neither condemn nor lament your state but shall endeavour to shew you how soon it may be made a blessing and happiness to you. In order to which, I shall not enter into a consideration of the different kinds of trouble you have set forth at large. I think it better to lay before you the one true ground and root, from whence all the evil and disorders of human life have sprung. This will make it easy for you to see what that is, which must and only can, be the full remedy and relief for all of them, how different soever, either in kind or degree.

The scripture has assured us, that God made man in his own image and likeness; a sufficient proof, that man, in his first state, as he came forth from God, must have

*The first of these Letters was written in the year 1749, the second in the year 1750, and the last about the year 1753.

been absolutely free from all vanity, want, or distress of any kind, from any thing, either within or without him. It would be quite absurd and blasphemous to suppose, that a creature beginning to exist in the image and likeness of God, should have a vanity of life, or vexation of spirit. A God-like perfection of nature, and a painful distressed nature, stand in the utmost contrariety to one another.

:

Again, the scripture has assured us, that man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery therefore man now is not that creature that he was by his creation. The first divine and God-like nature of Adam, which was to have been immortally holy in union with God is lost, and instead of it, a poor mortal of earthly flesh and blood, born like a wild ass's colt, of a short life and full of misery, is, through a vain pilgrimage, to end in dust and ashes. Therefore let every evil, whether inward or outward, only teach you this truth, that man has infallibly lost his first divine life in God; and that no possible comfort, or deliverance, is to be expected, but only in this one thing, that though man has lost his God, yet God is become man, that man may be again alive in God, as at his first creation. For all the misery and distress of human nature, whether of body or mind, is wholly owing to this one cause, that God is not in man, nor man in God, as the state of his nature requires: it is because man has lost that first life of God in his soul, in and for which he was created. He lost this light and spirit and life of God, by turning his will, imagination, and desire into a tasting and sensibility of the good and evil of this earthly, bestial world.

Now here are two things raised up in man, instead of the life of God:-First; self or selfishness, brought forth by his choosing to have a wisdom of his own, contrary to the will and instruction of his Creator. Secondly; an earthly bestial, mortal life and body, brought forth by his eating that food, which was poison to his paradisiacal nature. Both these must therefore be removed; that is, a man must first totally die to self, and all earthly desires, views and intentions, before he can be again in God, as his nature and first creation requires.

But now, if this be a certain and immutable truth, thats

man, so long as he is a selfish earthly minded creature, must be deprived of his true life, the life of God, the spirit of heaven in his soul; then how is the face of things changed; for then, what life is so much to be dreaded, as a life of worldly ease and prosperity? what a misery, nay, what a curse, is there in every thing that gratifies and nourishes our self-love, self-esteem and selfseeking? On the other hand, what a happiness is there in all inward and outward troubles and vexations, when they force us to feel and know the hell that is hidden within us, and the vanity of every thing without us: when they turn our self-love into self-abhorrence, and force us to call upon God, to save us from ourselves, to give us a new life, new light, and new spirit in Christ Jesus.

O happy famine! might the poor prodigal have well said, "which by reducing me to the necessity of asking to eat husks with swine, brought me to myself, and caused my return to my first happiness, in my father's house."

Now, sir, I will suppose your distressed state to be as you represent it; inwardly, darkness, heaviness, and confusion of thoughts and passions; outwardly, ill usage from friends, relations and all the world; unable to strike up the least spark of light or comfort, by any thought or reasoning of your own.

O happy famine, which leaves you not so much as the husk of one human comfort to feed upon! For my dear friend, this is the time and place for all that good and life, and salvation, to happen to you, which happened to the prodigal son. Your way is as short, and your success as certain, as his was, You have no more to do than he had. You need not call out for books and methods of devotion: for, in your present state, much reading, and borrowed prayers, are not your best method. All that you are to offer to God, all that is to help you to find him to be your Saviour and Redeemer, is best taught and expressed by the distressed state of your heart.

Only let your present and past distress make you feel and acknowledge this two-fold great truth: first, that in and of yourself, you are nothing but darkness, vanity and misery. Secondly, that of yourself, you can no

more help yourself to light and comfort, than you can create an angel. People, at all times, can seem to assent to these two truths, but then it is an assent that has no depth or reality, and so is of little or no use. But your condition has opened your heart, for a deep and full conviction of these truths. Now give way, I beseech you, to this conviction, and hold these two truths in the same degree of certainty, as you know two and two to be four; and then my dear friend, you are, with the prodigal, come to yourself; and above HALF YOUR WORK

IS DONE.

Being now in the full possession of these two truths, feeling them in the same degree of certainty, as you feel your own existence, you are under this sensibility to give yourself absolutely and entirely to God in Christ Jesus, as into the hands of infinite love: firmly believing this great and infallible truth, that God has no will towards you, but that of infinite love, and infinite desire to make you a partaker of his divine nature; and that it is as absolutely impossible for the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to refuse you all that good, and life, and salvation, which you want, as it is for you to take it by your own power.

O, sir, drink deep of this cup; for the precious water of eternal life is in it. Turn unto God with this faith; cast yourself into this abyss of love; and then you will be in that state the prodigal was in, when he said, I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; and all that, will be fulfilled in you, which is related of him.

Make. this, therefore, the two-fold exercise of your heart: Now, bowing yourself down before God, in the deepest sense and acknowledgement of your own nothingness and vileness; then, looking up to God in faith and love, consider him as always extending the arms of his mercy towards you, and full of an infinite desire to dwell in you, as he dwells in the angels in heaven. Content yourself with this inward and simple exercise of your heart, for a while; and seek, or like nothing in any book but that which nourishes and strengthens this state of your heart.