LETTER V.

THERON TO ASPASIO.

New-England, April 4, 1759,

MY DEAR ASPASIO,

WHILE I view God the Creator, whose almighty word gave existence to the whole system: while I view him as the original author and sole proprietor of the whole universe ; whose are all things in heaven and earth; I see the right of government naturally belongs to him. It is meet, that he should be KING in his own world. And he cannot but have a rightful authority over the works of his own hands. While I view him as moral governor of the world, seated at the head of the intelligent creation, on a throne high and lifted up, heaven and earth filled with his glory as the THRICE HOLY ONE; and hear him utter his voice, saying, I AM THE LORD, and BESIDES ME THERE IS NO OTHER GOD; and hear him command all the world to love and adore and obey him, on pain of eternal damnation : a spirit of love to his glorious majesty inspires me with joy, and makes me exult, to see him thus exalted, and thus honoured. I love to hear him proclaim his law, a law holy, just, and good, glorious and amiable. I am glad with all my heart, the almighty Monarch of the universe is so engaged, that all his subjects give unto God the glory due unto his name. Ps. xcvi. 8.

His law, his glorious law, which once, enemy to God that I was, appeared like "the laws of Draco," now shines with a beauty all divine. I had almost said, it is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person. For indeed it is an exact transcript of his glorious perfections, the very picture of his heart, holy, just, and good. Rom. vii. 12.

When the God of glory dwelt in the Jewish temple, in the pillar of cloud, over the mercy-seat, his law was by his special command deposited in the ark, the very holiest place in the holy of holies, as the dearest choicest treasure. Thus

was it done to the law, which God delighted to honour. But this honour, great as it was, is not to be mentioned, nor is it worthy to come into mind, since that infinitely greater regard to the divine law, which God has shown in the gift of his Son. An incarnate God on the cross, has magnified the law, and made it honourable, beyond, infinitely beyond, what was ever done before. But all this honour, infinitely great as it was, was but just equal to what the law deserved.

While I view God, my creator, my rightful Lord and owner, my sovereign king, the God of glory; and see his infinite worthiness of supreme love and honour; I feel, that the least disrespect of his glorious majesty is an infinite evil. I pronounce the law in all its rigour, holy, just, and good. Even as a ministration of death and condemnation, it appears glorious, (2 Cor. iii. 7, 8.) and I heartily acquiesce in the equity of the sentence, with application to myself. This makes me feel my need of CHRIST, and prepares my heart to return home to God, for ever to live to him. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Gal. ii. 19.

The law, my dear Aspasio, threatens eternal damnation for the very first transgression, for even the least defect. Gal. iii. 10. I break the law every moment; and therefore every moment I merit eternal wo. Such an infinite evil is sin. It appeared glorious in the eyes of GoD, thus to punish sin, when he made his law; it appeared glorious in the eyes of CHRIST, that sin should be thus punished, when he went as a lamb to the altar, and voluntarily stretched himself upon the cross to die in the sinner's room. And in a clear view of the glory of the God of glory, I see the grounds and reasons of the law; it is holy, just, and good. I see why Christ was so willing to be nailed to the cross in the sinner's stead; to magnify the law and make it honourable. And I have fellowship, a fellow-feeling, with Christ in his sufferings; and in the temper of my heart, am made conformable to his death. Phil. iii. 10. I feel towards God, and law, and sin, in a measure, as he did. Or, to express all my heart in one emphatical phrase I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST. Gal. ii. 20. "The law is good, I deserve to die. I lay my neck

upon

upon

the cross:

the block, or rather stretch my hands and say, the law is holy, just, and good, and cry, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, twelve times going :" as God, of old taught his church to do. Deut. xxvi. 14. 20 f.

Oh, my dear Aspasio! in the time of the late rebellion, when I lived in England, had I, through a hearty attachment to the pretender's interest, secretly, poisoned ten of the house of Lords, and twenty of the house of Commons, from mere spite, only because of their loyalty to their rightful sovereign; and had I laid a plot to blow up King and Parliament, burn the city of London, and deliver the nation into the hands of a popish pretender, all through pure malignity, what would it have availed before a court of justice, after I was arraigned, convicted, and condemned, to have pleaded, "Oh, spare my

f I must confess, my dear Aspasio, I am shocked to hear some divines represent the law as a tyrant, as tyrannizing over Christ upon the cross, as tyrannizing over sinners, as being slain for its tyranny, &c. For these hard speeches are not so much against the law, as against the God that made it. Just as if God and his law were tyrants, while Christ and his Gospel are all made up of LOVE! But shocking as this is, yet I must own, this was once the very temper of my heart. (See the Marrow of Modern Divinity, with Notes, p. 146.) I loved the Gospel : I did not love the law. The dying love of Christ, O how sweet a theme! Law, obligation, duty, were disagreeable, dead, and legal things. Faith, pardon, joy, heaven, grace, free grace, these topics only ravished my heart. Christ loved the law, or he had never died: I only loved myself. The honour of his Father's law was dear to him. Heb. i. 9. Ps. xl. 8. Matt. v. 17, 18. Myself alone was dear to me. I viewed his death, his dying love, as all for me. His agony in the garden, his bloody sweat, his dying groans, all out of love to me! This pleased my heart. His Father's glory I had never seen the law's beauty I had never beheld. The wisdom of God in the death of his Son, I had never brought into the account. Love, love! love to me, to me! was all in all. This only ravished my heart. I loved myself, I only loved myself. Strange, that I should think my love to Christ so great! The very joy I had, to think he died for me, was a full proof that I loved him not at all; since I did not delight in the law, nor love the law, in honour to which he died. Had my wife, or child, or friend, or any whom I loved, been punished by that law, I had been full of grief, and thought it very hard: for indeed that law appeared to me like the laws of Draco. But when CHRIST was the victim, I was pleased; for I loved myself: but CHRIST I did not love. I cared not what he suffered, nor why; if I myself was safe. In truth, if the law is not holy, just, and good, glorious and amiable, the death of CHRIST, to answer its demands, is the most shoeking affair that ever happened. But I was wholly swallowed up in self: and, "if I was but safe, I cared not how."

life; I am sorry for what I have done; I will never do so any more; I will be a good and loyal subject for the time to come! Especially, if all the court knew I was a jacobite by blood, and had shown myself a jacobite, in ten thousand instances, all my life long, and had still very much of the heart of a jacobite; and had lived and died a perfect jacobite in heart and practice, were it not for some irresistible arguments, or rather something more powerful than arguments, that had begun to give me a new turn of mind; would my penitence be esteemed any atonement for my horrid crimes? Nay, rather, would not the whole nation cry, " Away with such a vile wretch from the earth, for he is not fit to live!" And were I brought to view the whole affair in a right light, and to feel right; what would be the language of my heart? would it not echo back the general cry?" Right! right! away with such a vile wretch from the earth! for, indeed, I am not fit to live!" And on the gallows, even in my dying agonies, I should not have the least reason to dislike the law, by which I was condemned; or to love my judges ever the less for pronouncing the sentence of condemnation upon me. But rather, with all my heart, I ought to approve the law as conduct to be truly praise-worthy.

good; and esteem their

But to murder thirty of my fellow-worms, blow up King and parliament, burn a city, ruin a nation, viewed only as injuries to a civil community, and breaches of a civil law, are no crimes, in comparison with rising in rebellion against the INFINITELY GLORIOUS MONARCH OF THE UNIVERSE; compared with whom, the whole created system is less than nothing and vanity &.

g Is it a sinner's duty to be willing to be damned? No, by no means. The damned will for ever hate God. The sinner ought for ever to love him. The damned will be for ever miserable. The sinner is invited to be for ever happy, through Christ. His duty is to be reconciled to God, and return to him through Jesus Christ. Indeed, were there no other way to support the honour of the divine government, but by the eternal misery of the sinner, the sinner ought to be willing that the honour of the divine government should be supported, although at the expense of his eternal sufferings. God and Christ, angels and saints, will all be of this mind at the day of judgment, with respect to the wick

Wherefore, in my best frames, in my devoutest hours, when I feel the greatest veneration for the Deity, aud the greatest regard to his law, and am most sorry that I ever have been, and am still such a vile rebel against my rightful sovereign, the GoD of GLORY; I am so far from thinking that I am fit to live, that my whole heart is ready to say, "No! but infinitely unfit to live! Eternal death is my due! And hell my proper home!" Yea, it appears to me, although I had attained to love God and Christ in the same degree as Saint Paui did, and were as willing to die in the cause of religion as he was, that yet I should merit hell every moment for not loving God and Christ more. And therefore, with him I would have no confidence in the flesh; and would seek to be found, not in myself, but in Christ; not having my own righteousness, but his. Phil. iii. 3. 9. And would say, In the Lord alone have I righteousness, and in him alone will I glory. Isai. xlv. 24, 25.

Yea, suffer me to say, I apprehend, and verily believe, that even Saint Paul himself deserved eternal damnation, for that wickedness which God saw in his heart, then, at that instant, when a little before he died a martyr, he said, I am now ready to be offered. For although he was willing, quite willing to die for his master; yet he did not love him perfectly as he ought. He himself owns, he had not already attained, nor was already perfect. But the least defect deserves punishment, yea, eternal damnation. Therefore, Saint Paul always felt in his heart, that hell was his proper due; and always looked on the law, even as a ministration of death and condemnation, to be glorious, (2 Cor. iii. 7. 9.) and always placed all his dependence, for acceptance in the sight of God, on Jesus Christ. He did so, not only when first converted, but habitually, all the days of his life, to his very last breath.

O, in how lively, how striking a manner, are all these sentiments expressed in those words of the blessed apostle, in Gal. ii. 19, 20. which were the genuine language of his heart,

ed. And they will all judge rightly. Rom. ii. 2. Nor will the wicked have any reason to dislike them for it; but rather to esteem their conduct herein truly praise-worthy. Rev. xix. 1. 6.