as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." Burn in the mean time the unhallowed pens, and bridle the rash tongues, with which ye have pleaded, for the continuance of sin till death. Honour us with the right hand of fellowship; and, like reconciled brethren, let us, at every opportunity, lovingly fall upon our knees together, to implore the help of him who can do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Nor let us give him any rest, till he has perfected all our souls in the charity which rejoiceth in the truth without prejudice, in the obedience which keeps the commandments without reserve, and in the perseverance which finds that in keeping of them there is great reward.

Nothing but such a conduct as this, can remove the stumbling blocks, which the contentions ye breed have laid in the way of a deistical world. When the men whom your mistakes have hardened, will see you listen to scripture and reason, who knows bat their prejudices may subside, and some of them may yet say, "See the good which arises from friendly controversy! See how these christians desire to be perfected in one? They now understand one another. Babylonish confusion is at an end; evangelical truth prevails; and love, the most delicious fruit of truth, visibly grows to christian perfection."-God grant that [through the concurrence of your candour] this may soon be the language of all those, whom the bigotry of professors has confirmed in their prejudices against christianity.

Should this plain address have so far worked upon you, my dear brethren, as to abate the force of your aversion to the doctrine of pure love, or to stagger your unaccountable faith in a death-purgatory; and should you seriously ask which is the way to christian perfection, I intreat you to pass on to the next section, where, I hope, you will find a scriptural answer to some important questions, which, I trust, a few of you are by this time ready to propose.

SECTION XIX.

An Address to imperfect Believers, who cordially embrace the doctrine of christian perfection.

YOUR regard for scripture and reason, and your desire to answer the end of God's Predestination," by being conformed to the image of his Son," have happily kept, or reclaimed you from the Antiuomianism exposed in these sheets.

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Ye see the absolute necessity of personally fulfilling the law of Christ" your bosom glows with desire to "perfect holiness in the fear of God," and far from blushing to be called perfectionists, ye openly assert, that a perfect faith productive of perfect love to God and man, is the pearl of great price, for which ye are determined to sell all, and which (next to Christ) you will seek early and late, as the one thing needful for your spiritual and eternal welfare. Some directions therefore, about the manner of seeking this pearl, cannot but be acceptable to you, if they are scriptural and rational; and such, I humbly trust, are those which follow.

I. First, if ye would attain an evangelically-sinless perfection, let your full assent to the truth of that deep doctrine firmly stand upon the evangelical foundation of a precept and a promise. A precept without a promise would not sufficiently animate you: nor would a

promise without a precept properly bind you: but a divine precept, and a divine promise from an unshaken foundation might. Let then your faith deliberately rest her right foot upon these precepts.

"Hear, O Israel-thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might," Deut. vi. 5."Thou shalt not hate thy neighbour in thy heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord: ye shall keep my statutes," Lev. xix. 17, 18. "And now, Israel, what does the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good, &c. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked," Deut. x. 12, &c. "Serve God with a perfect heart, and a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth the imaginations of the thoughts." 1 Chron. xxviii. 9.

Should unbelief suggest, that these are only the Old Testament-injunctions, trample upon the false suggestion, and rest the same foot of your faith upon the following New-Testament-precepts: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets.-I say unto you, Love your enemies: bless them that curse you: do good to them that hate you, &c. that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, &c. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?-Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect, Matt. v. 17, 44, &c. "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command ments," Matt. xiv. 17. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." Gal. vi. 2. "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you," John xv. 12. "He that loveth

another hath fulfilled the law: for this, Thou shalt not commit. adultery, &c. Thou shalt not covet, and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill, &c. therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law," Rom. xiii. 8, 10. "This commandment we have from him, that he who loves God, love his brother also," 1 John iv. 21. "If ye fulfil the royal law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well. But, if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors." Jam. ii. 8, 9. "Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing [comparatively speaking] but [under Christ] the keeping of the commandments of God" [is the one thing needful] 1 Cor. vii 19. For, "The end of the commandment is charity; out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," 1 Tim. i. 5. "Though I have all faith, &c. and have not charity, I am nothing," 1 Cor. xiii. 2. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law [of liberty] and yet offend in one point, [in uncharitable respect of persons] he is guilty of all, &c. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty," [which requires perfect love, and therefore makes no allowance for the least degree of uncharitableness,] James ii. 10, 12.

When the right foot of your faith stands on these evangelical precepts and proclamations, lest she should stagger for want of a promise every way adequate to such weighty commandments, let her place her left foot upon the following promises, which are extracted from the VOL. 11.

Old Testament. "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with ali ihme heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live," Deut xxx. 6. "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," Isa. i. 11. That this promise chiefly refers to sanctification is evident, (1) From the verses which immediately precede it, "Make you clean, &c. cease to do evil, learn to do well," &c. And (2) From the verses which immediately follow it, "If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land ; but if ye refuse and rebel [or disobey] ye shall be devoured with the sword."-Again: "I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God [in a new and peculiar manner:] for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.-This shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people," Jer. xxiv. 7.—xxxi. 33. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean, from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you: a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within yon, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them,” Ezek. xxv. 27.

And let no body suppose, that the promises of the circumcision, the cleansing, the clean water, and the Spirit, which are mentioned in these scriptures, and by which the hearts of believers are to be made new, and God's law is to be so written therein, that they shall keep his judgments and do them :-Let none, I say, suppose that these glorious promises belong only to the Jews; for their full ac complishment peculiarly refers to the christian dispensation. Besides, if sprinkling of the spirit were sufficient, under the jewish dispensation, to raise the plant of jewish perfection in jewish believers: how much more will the revelation of the horn of our salvation, and the outpourings of the Spirit, raise the plant of christian perfection in faithful, christian believers! And, that this revelation of Christ, in the spirit, as well as in the flesh, these effusions of the water of life, these baptisms of fire, which burn the chaff of sin, thoroughly purge God's spiritual floor, save us from all our uncleannesses, and deliver us from all our enemies;-that these blessings, I say, are peculiarly promised to christians, is demonstrable by the following cloud of New-Testament declarations and promises.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath-raised up an horn of salvation for us, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, that we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies, might serve him without [unbelieving] fear, [that is, with perfect love] in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life," Luke i. 68, 75. Blessed are the poor in spirit, who thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled," Matt. v. 3, 6. "If thou knewest the gift of God, &c. thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water :-And the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life," John iv. 10, 14.-"Jesus stood and cried, saying: If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me, [when I

shall have ascended up on high, to receive gifts tor men out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water [to cleanse his soul, and to keep it clean.] But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive; for the Holy Ghost was not yet given [in such a manner as to raise the plant of christian perfection] because Jesus was not yet glorified, and his spiritual dispensation was not yet fully opened," John vii. 37, &c. Mr. Wesley, in his Plain Account of Christian Perfection, has published some excellent queries, and propose them to those who deny perfection to be attainable in this life. They are close to the point, and therefore the two first attack the Imperfectionists from the very ground from which I want you to stand. They run thus: (1) "Has there not been a larger measure of the Holy Spirit given under the gospel, than under the jewish dispensation? If not, in what sense was the Spirit not given before Christ was glorified?" John vii. 39. 2. Was that "glory which followed the sufferings of Christ, 1 Pet. i. 11, an external glory, or an internal, viz. the glory of holiness?" Always rest the doctrine of christian perfection, on this scriptural foundation, and it will stand as firm as revelation itself.

It is allowed on all sides, that the dispensation of John the Baptist exceeded that of the other prophets, because it immediately introduced the gospel of Christ, and because John was not only appointed to preach the baptism of repentance, but also clearly to point out the very person of Christ, and to “ give knowledge of salvation to God's people by the remission of sin," Luke i. 77; and nevertheless, John only promised the blessing of the spirit, which Christ bestowed when he had received gifts for men. "I indeed, said John, baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I,-He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire,” Matt. iii. 11. Such is the importance of this promise, that it is particularly recorded not only by the three other evangelists [See Mark i. 8; Luke iii. 16; and John i. 26;] but also by our Lord himself, who said just before his ascension, "John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence," Acts i. 5. So capital is this promise of the Spirit's stronger influences to raise the rare plant of christian perfection, that when our Lord speaks of this promise, he emphatically calls it The promise of the Father ; because it shines among the other promises of the gospel of Christ, as the moon does among the stars. Thus, Acts i. 4, Wait, says he, for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of me." And again, Luke xxiv. 49," Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you." Agreeably to this, St. Peter says, "Jesus being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he has shed forth this:"-He has begun abundantly to fulfil that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out [bestow a more abundant measure] of my spirit upon all flesh. Therefore repent and be baptized" [i. e. make an open profession of your faith] "in the name of the Lord Jesus, for the remission of sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost: for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call," [to enjoy the full blessings of the christian dispensation,] Acts ii. 17, 33, 38. This promise [when it is received in its fulness] is undoubtedly the greatest of all the "exceedingly great and precious

promises, which are given to us, that by them you might be partakers of the divine nature" [that is of pure love and unmixed holine s,] 2 Pet. i. 4. Have therefore a peculiar eye to it, and to these dep words of our Lord, "I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth [and power] whom the world knows not, &c. but ye know him, for he remaineth with you, and shall be in you. At that day ye shall know, that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. For, If any man [i. e. any believer] love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him." John xiv. 19, 23. "Which," says Mr Wesley, in his note on the place," implies such a large manifestation of the divine presence and love, that the former in justification, is as nothing in comparison of it." Agreeable to this, the same judicious divine expresses himself thus in another of his publications: "These virtues [meekness, humility, and true resignation to God] are the only wedding garment; they are the lamps and vessels well furnished with oil. There is nothing that will do instead of them; they must have their full and perfect work in you, or the soul can never be delivered from its fallen, wrathful state. There is no possibility of salvation but this. And when the Lamb of God has brought forth his own meekness, &c. in our souls, then are our lamps trimmed, and our virgin-hearts made ready for the marriage feast. This marriage feast signifies the entrance into the highest state of union that can be between God and the soul in this life. This birth-day of the spirit of love in our souls whenever we attain, will feast our souls with such peace and joy in God, as will blot out the remembrance of every thing that we called peace or joy before."

To make you believe this important promise with more ardour, consider that our Lord spent some of his last moments in sealing it with his powerful intercession. After having prayed the Father to sanctify his disciples through the truth, firmly embraced by their faith, and powerfully applied by his spirit, he adds, "neither pray I for these alone, but for them, who will believe on me through their word." And what is it that our Lord asks for these believers? Truly what St. Paul asked for the imperfect believers at Corinth, even their perfection. 2 Cor. xiii. 9. A state of soul this, which Christ describes thus: "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art ime, and I in thee, that they may be one in us, &c. that they may be one, as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected in one, and that the world may know, that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me." John xvii. 17, 23. Our Lord could not pray in vain: it is not to be supposed, that the scriptures are silent with respect to the effect of this solemn prayer, an answer to which was to give the world an idea of the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven-a specimen of the power, which introduces believers into the state of christian perfection, and therefore we read, that, on the day of pentecost, the kingdom of Satan was powerfully shaken, and the kingdom of God, [righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost] began to come with a new power: then were thousands wonderfully converted, and clearly justified then was the kingdom of heaven taken by force; and the love of Christ, and of brethren, began to burn the chaff of selfishness and sin with a force which the world had never seen before. See Acts ii. 42. &c.-Some time after, another