denounce that unalterable sentence, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels !" Matt. xxv. 41. Had you committed but one sin, this would have been your deserved doom: "The wages of sin," of every sin, "is death," Rom. vi. 23. How much more of those manifold sins and multiplied transgressions of which your consciences must accuse you. You are soon to suffer the punishment of the gallows, and you are liable to the vengeance of the most high God; for thus saith the holy word, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," Rom. i. 18. If against all and every instance of ungodliness, then how much more against your crimes, which have been of the most abominable and horrid kind! "The wrath of God!" Tremendous word! who knoweth the weight and terror of his wrath? At his rebuke the rocks melt like wax, the earth is shaken out of its place, and the pillars of heaven tremble. How then can you endure the furiousness of his wrath, and the severity of his vengeance? and that not for a day, a month, or a year, but through all the ages of eternity! Yet this is the doom of "them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They shall be punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." What can you do in this distressed condition? What, indeed! if you had a thousand years to live, you could not atone for one offence. How then can you make satisfaction for millions of provocations in the space of a few days? Alas! you are lost, utterly lost, in yourselves irrecoverably lost. May the God of all power make you sensible of your undone state! sensible that you are upon the brink, the very brink of an amazing, an unfathomable downfall. Perhaps you may say, Is there no hope then? is the door of heaven shut, and without any possibility of being opened to us? must we sink into unquenchable burnings; and is there not so much as a twig for us to catch at? Yes, my poor fellow-sinners,

there is not only a twig, but a tree, even the tree of life, a sure support, which, if the Lord enables you to lay hold on, you may yet, even yet, be saved. Oh! beg of his wonderful goodness to accompany what you are going to read with his Holy Spirit.

Christ, the all-glorious Son of God, pitied the deplorable case of such sinners. He not only pitied, but resolved to succour and relieve them. For this purpose he came into the world, and was made man. Nay, more, he came into the place, and stood in the stead of sinners. Because we had broke the commandments of the law, he fulfilled them in all their perfection. Because we deserved the punishment of the law, he sustained it in its utmost extremity. He became poor, and had not where to lay his head, though heaven and earth were all his own. He submitted to scorn and reproach, though all the angels of God are bidden to worship him. Nay, he was condemned to death, the most shameful and tormenting. death, far more shameful, and unspeakably more tormenting, than the death which you must shortly undergo. He suffered unknown pangs in his body, and inconceivable anguish in his soul, from the indignation of God. In a word, he suffered all that shame, all that torment, all that vengeance, which the unnumbered sins of the whole world deserved. Here then is your door of hope. Sins are borne by Christ; and though there be much iniquity, there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, Rom. viii. 1. Wrath is borne by Christ, so that sinners, who deserve eternal vengeance, are reconciled to God, and saved from wrath through him, Rom. v. 9, 10. A righteousness is wrought by Christ, a perfect and everlasting righteousness, such as brings incomparably greater honour to God's law, than all our transgressions bring dishonour. By all this, he has merited and obtained a full deliverance, and a complete redemption. Are you not ready to cry out, O blessed Saviour! O precious redemption! What a happiness, if we might be interested in this Saviour, and partake of this re

demption! Millions of worlds for such a blessing! You need not give millions of worlds, no, nor any individual thing. These blessings are given freely, without money, and without price, without any deserving qualifications in us. All that are justified, are justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. But we are sinners, vile sinners; we have not only nothing good, but much and grievous guilt. The Lord convince you of this more and more! Yet remember for whom Christ died; he "died for the ungodly." What What says St Paul? "In due time Christ died for the ungodly," Rom. v. 6. He died for the unjust. What says St Peter? "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust," 1 Pet. iii. 18. What says our Lord himself?" The Son of man is come to save that which was lost." Are you not ungodly men? are you not unjust persons? are you not lost creatures? For such, even for such, the divine Jesus died. Wonderful love! adorable compassion! The Lord enable you to lay hold on this hope set before you! Perhaps you may say, We are not only sinners, but the chief of sinners. O that convinced of this! To be the chief of sinners, makes you unpardonable before men; but this is no difficulty with Christ, and should be no hinderance of your coming to Christ. Christ's merit and righteousness are infinite. They are as able to satisfy for a debt of ten thousand talents, as for a debt of a single farthing. Hear what the Scriptures saith upon this subject: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief," 1 Tim. i. 15. He came, not to save sinners only, but the very chief of sinners. And he is able to save them to the very uttermost.” But our sins are heinous, they have been often repeated, and long continued in. What says the apostle?" The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." Another apostle declares, "By him," by the divinely excellent Redeemer, "all that believe are justified from all

you were

things;" from all accusations, be they ever so numerous; from all iniquities, be they ever so enormous. Nay, so wonderfully efficacious is the power of his death, that, through his great atonement, sins which are as crimson, are made white, white as snow, Isa. i. 18. But will Christ vouchsafe his great salvation to us? Hear his own words, "Him that cometh to me" for pardon and salvation, "I will in no wise cast out." Be his guilt ever so great, this

shall be no bar. I will not on any consideration reject or deny his suit. Only let him come as a poor undone creature, and he shall find me willing and mighty to save. Nay, he invites you to come. These are his gracious words, "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden," heavy laden with sin and misery, "and I will give you rest," Matt. xi. 28. I will deliver you from going down into the pit; I will deliver you from the vengeance of eternal fire. All your sin shall be upon me, and all my righteousness shall be upon you. Go to a great man on earth, beg of him to use his interest in your behalf; he would scorn to take notice of you. But your dear, tender, compassionate, most condescending Saviour, invites you to come to him, and assures you he will not abhor nor cast you out. Go to your earthly judge, entreat him on your bended knees to pardon you: He perhaps cannot, must not: the laws forbid him. But it is not so with Jesus Christ: he has made a full satisfaction for sin; he has made an infinite atonement for sin; and were your sins ten thousand thousand times greater than they are, before the power of his death they would all vanish away; by the washing of his blood they would all be as though they had never been.

This then should be the one desire of your souls, your incessant prayer to God, that you may come to Christ, that you may believe in Christ, that you may be found in Christ: then you will not perish, though you deserve it, but have everlasting life through his name; then you will have just the same foundation for your hope, as I must myself have when I shall

depart this life. When I shall be summoned to the great tribunal, what will be my plea, what my dependence? Nothing but Christ! Christ, would I say, has been wounded for my sins, therefore they will not be punished in me. Christ has fulfilled all righteousness in my stead, therefore I trust to be justified when I am judged. I am a poor unworthy sinner; but worthy is the Lamb that was slain, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, for whose sake I shall receive both pardoning mercy, and everlasting glory. This is my only hope, and this is as free for you as it is for your friend and fellow-sinner, &c.

P. S.-What I have written, I shall beg of God to bless; and will attend you with my prayers, though I cannot visit you in person,

· LETTER CXLII.

Weston-Favell, Sept. 10. 1755. MY DEAR FRIEND,-You may justly wonder that I have not acknowledged the favour of your last, long before this. Do me the justice to believe, that this is not owing to the least disesteem of your correspondence, or any insensibility of your kindness. I hope my heart is, though sadly depraved, yet sincerely grateful; and I am sure, I esteem your letters as treasures. Though I destroy almost all I receive, every one of yours is preserved. Let me, therefore, earnestly beg that you will not follow my example, but suffer your letters to be much more speedy in their arrival than mine. You would more easily excuse me if you knew me. The grasshopper is a burden to me. Every blast blows me down, or my continual indisposition and inconceivable languors pierce through me. I now hang a swelled face over my paper; occasioned only by taking the air yesterday in my chair, and finding a sharper atmosphere than for many weeks I had been accustomed to. Pray for me, dear sir, that, established in Christ, and strong in his faith, I may be looking for, and hasten to the coming of the day of God; when this