of sin, godly sorrow, or evangelical repentance, described, enforced, or insisted on; no characteristic of a christian fairly drawn in all this Lookingglass. Not a morsel of wholesome food, nor one page of sound divinity, can I find in all this mirror for christians, in all this guide of the timorous. And I doubt not but many hypocrites, in the great day, will have cause to curse the hour they ever rested in the reflection of this glass, and the hour they first trusted in this guide.

Quot. If he now, as a new-born babe, desires the sincere milk of the word.

Answ. But then the thing is, how he is to know whether he be a new-born babe, or not? Mr. Priestley's text is, "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." And all that he has brought from the last clause of his text is a ray of light in the understanding, not in the heart; what they who lift their eyes in hell have experienced as well as he, and that with a more deep and more lasting impression of the importance and necessity of a spiritual birth than ever he did.

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This description of a new birth is such as is seldom seen. There is no account of God's begetting us of his own will, by the word of truth; no powerful convictions enforced, nor insisted on, to make an incision in the carnal mind, that the engrafted word, which is able to save the soul, might be received with meekness; no account of the reception and operation of the incorruptible

seed, by which the children of God have been born and brought forth in all ages, no account of receiving the seed into good ground, into an honest and good heart; nor any line drawn between the stony, thorny, and way-side hearers, and the husbandry of God. Here is no account of the conflicts between light and darkness, truth and error, grace and corruption, revealed wrath and the hopes of mercy, no sense of the intolerable burden of guilt, nor of the application of the atonement; no account of the forgiveness of sins, of being brought nigh to God by the blood of Christ; no fear of death, nor dread of damnation, nor of perfect love casting it out. All the features that our Timothy's christian has got, is an eye, and that is neither strong nor good: it neither sees clear, nor right. And, as for this timorous soul's guide, the guide is as blind, as confused, and as much at a loss to find the way to the city, as the timorous soul itself. The christian described in this glass is neither born of God, nor knows God.

Quot. The very desire of the light of God's countenance is a positive proof of the soul's being renewed.

Answ. This desire seemed to be very strong in Saul, when he went to the witch of Endor, and complained to the Devil in Samuel's mantle. The most weighty matter of his complaint is, "God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams." Nor was Balaam without this desire, when he wished to die

the death of the righteous, and that his latter end might be like his. Nor was this desire weak in Cain, when he said, "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth." All these seem to me to have had strong desires after the light of God's countenance; and yet they were neither renewed in the spirit of their minds, nor were their desires ever granted.

Quot. Let such bless the name of the Lord, that cannot sit down contented with a form, without the power.

Answ. Here is no power enforced nor described in all this Looking-glass. And as for the restlessness of such a sinner, it is no more than the experience of every hypocrite, when he is pushed from his false hopes, forced from his sandy foundation, plunged in black despair, and given up to a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation; and yet he is the last man in the world whose heart is in tune to bless God.

Quot. But the christian who makes this objection is wholly different; his light is not com

mon.

Answ. Then I would be glad to know the difference between the light that shone upon Balaam, and that which shone upon Paul; between the glory of the God of Israel, which was seen by the elders in the wilderness, and that which was

seen by Moses in the bush; and whether the light of the great God our Saviour, which will be seen by every eye at the great day, is not of the same nature, and will not appear far brighter than any light which our Timothy has ever yet beheld?

Quot. By special and saving grace, he can no more sit down and rest in a form of godliness, than a hungry man can content himself with seeing a well-spread table which he is debarred from partaking of: therefore want of knowledge, not of grace, is the cause of his complaint.

Answ. It is true, a partaker of special grace can never rest in a form of godliness; but our Timothy's christian has no more than a head belonging to him. It is desires after grace, not grace, that are to be the undoubted pledge of his safety. But the last clause of this quotation contradicts all that Timothy has said before: for the intention of this glass is to establish them in desires after food, not in being satisfied and filled with the bread of life; and our Author has neither discovered the table spread, the provision of it, nor enforced the necessity of fulness and satisfaction at it.

Quot. Want of knowledge, not of grace, is the cause of his complaint.

Answ. Paul says, "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace:" and tells us to look diligently, lest any fail of the grace of God: but as to knowledge, it puffeth up. Hence I conclude, that the want of grace, the want of

life, and love, not knowledge, is the cause of his complaint.

Quot. Saul, afterwards king Saul, might remember a great change, and the time of it; but the consequence proved it to be no saving one.

Answ. One would think, that if Saul could remember the time when, and the manner how, he was turned into another man, Mr. Priestley's christian, who has nothing but a head, and has nothing in that but light, might remember the time when, and the manner how, he was turned into a new man. The regeneration of a saint must make as deep an impression as the reformation of a hypocrite. One is called a new creation, and the other no more than a turn. And certainly it must require more power to turn a stubborn sinner from the power of Satan to God, and from disobedience to the wisdom of the just, than to turn a farmer into a sovereign, or a coward into a hero. The one is the effect of common providence; the other is the good-pleasure of God's will fulfilled in us, and the work of faith with power.

Quot. The revelation of God's salvation to sinners was given not at once, but by gradual and slow degrees; and so it is often in grace.

Answ. Unless salvation comes home to the heart, as it did to the gaoler, to Zaccheus, and to Israel at the Red sea. Then it comes unexpectedly, suddenly, and at an instant. And so it has come to the eternal safety of the elect in every age, without any of our Timothy's slow degrees.