others, and I have nothing to do but what is most agreeable to myself.

Our mentioning Newton's Treatise on the Prophecies brings to my mind an anecdote of Dr Young, who, you know, died lately at Welwyn.* Dr Cotton, who was intimate with him, paid him a visit about a fortnight before he was seized with his last illness. The old man was then in perfect health; the antiquity of his person, the gravity of his utterance, and the earnestness with which he discoursed about religion, gave him, in the doctor's eye, the appearance of a prophet. They had been delivering their sentiments upon this book of Newton, when Young closed the conference thus: "My friend, there are two considerations upon which my faith in Christ is built as upon a rock: the Fall of man, the Redemption of man, and the Resurrection of man, the three cardinal articles of our religion, are such as human ingenuity could never have invented; therefore they must be divine. The other argument is this, If the prophecies have been fulfilled, (of which there is abundant demonstration,) the Scripture must be the word of God; and if the Scripture is the word of God, Christianity must be true."

This treatise on the Prophecies serves a double purpose; it not only proves the truth of religion, in a manner that never has been nor ever can be controverted, but it proves likewise, that the Roman Catholic is the apostate and antichristian church, so frequently foretold both in the Old and New Testaments. Indeed, so fatally connected is the refutation of Popery with the truth of Christianity, when the latter is evinced by the completion of the prophecies, that in proportion as light is thrown upon the one, the deformities and errors of the other are more plainly exhibited. But I leave you to the book itself: there are parts of it which may possibly afford you less entertainment than the rest, because you have never been a schoolboy; but, in the main, it is so interesting, and you are so fond of that which is so, that I am sure you will like it.†

* Dr Edward Young, author of the "Night Thoughts," born 1679, died 1760.

+ Dr Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol, was born at Litchfield, 1704, and died at Bristol, 1782. The argument in the excellent work alluded to in the text, may be thus stated," The gift of prophecy is of God, and a revelation so supported must be from Him: Christianity is authenticated by predictions which can be proved to have been fulfilled; therefore, the Christian faith is of divine authority, and comes from God."

My dear cousin, how happy am I in having a friend to whom I can open my heart upon these subjects! I have many intimates in the world, and have had many more than I shall have hereafter, to whom a long letter upon these most important articles would appear tiresome, at least, if not impertinent. But I am not afraid of meeting with that reception from you, who have never yet made it your interest that there should be no truth in the word of God. May this everlasting truth be your comfort while you live, and attend you with peace and joy in your last moments! I love you too well not to make this a part of my prayers, and when I remember my friends on these occasions, there is no likelihood that you can be forgotten. Yours ever, W. C.

rooms.

P.S.-Cambridge.-I add this postscript at my brother's He desires to be affectionately remembered to you. and if you are in town about a fortnight hence, when he proposes to be there himself, will take a breakfast with you.

NEGLECT OF GOD'S WORD THE GREAT CAUSE OF IRRELIGION BEAUTY AND PATHOS OF THE LANGUAGE OF SCRIPTURE.

HUNTINGDON, August 1, 1765. MY DEAR COUSIN,-If I was to measure your obligation to write by my own desire to hear from you, I should call you an idle correspondent if a post went by without bringing me a letter; but I am not so unreasonable: on the contrary, I think myself very happy in hearing from you upon your own terms, as you find most convenient. Your short history of my family is a very acceptable part of your letter; if they really interest themselves in my welfare, it is a mark of their great charity for one, who has been a disappointment and a vexation to them ever since he has been of consequence enough to be either. My friend the Major's behaviour to me, after all he suffered by my abandoning his interest and my own in so miserable a manner, is a noble instance of generosity and true greatness of mind: and, indeed, I know no man in whom those qualities are more conspicuous; one need only furnish him with an opportunity to display them, and they are always ready to shew themselves in his words and actions, and even in his countenance, at a moment's warning. I have great reason to be thankful, I have lost none of my acquaintance but those

whom I determined not to keep. I am sorry this class is so numerous. What would I not give, that every friend I have in the world were not almost, but altogether Christians! My dear cousin, I am half afraid to talk in this style, lest I should seem to indulge a censorious humour, instead of hoping, as I ought, the best for all men. But what can be said against ocular proof? and what is hope when it is built upon presumption? To use the most holy name in the universe for no purpose, or a bad one, contrary to his own express commandment-to pass the day, and the succeeding days, weeks, and months, and years, without one act of private devotion, one confession of our sins, or one thanksgiving for the numberless blessings we enjoy to hear the Word of God in public with a distracted attention, or with none at all—to absent ourselves voluntarily from the blessed communion, and to live in the total neglect of it, though our Saviour has charged it upon us with an express injunction. -are the common and ordinary liberties which the generality of professors allow themselves; and what is this but to live without God in the world? Many causes may be assigned for this antichristian spirit, so prevalent among Christians; but one of the principal I take to be their utter forgetfulness that they have the word of God in their possession.

My friend Sir William Russel* was distantly related to a very accomplished man, who, though he never believed the Gospel, admired the Scriptures as the sublimest compositions in the world, and read them often. I have been intimate myself with a man of fine taste, who has confessed to me that, though he could not subscribe to the truth of Christianity itself, yet he never could read St Luke's account of our Saviour's appearance to the two disciples going to Emmaus, without being wonderfully affected by it; and he thought that if the stamp of divinity was anywhere to be found in Scripture, it was strongly marked and visibly impressed upon that passage. If these men, whose hearts were chilled with the darkness of infidelity, could find such charms in the mere style of the Scripture, what must they find there, whose eye penetrates deeper than the letter, and who firmly believe themselves interested in all the invaluable privileges of the Gospel! "He that believeth on me is passed from death unto life," though it be as plain a sentence as words can form, has more beauties in it for such a person than all the labours

* Sir William Russel, Cowper's classfellow at Westminster, was drowned in early life.

antiquity can boast of. If my poor man of taste, whom I have just mentioned, had searched a little farther, he might have found other parts of the sacred history as strongly marked with the characters of divinity as that he mentioned. The parable of the prodigal son, the most beautiful fiction that ever was invented-our Saviour's speech to his disciples, with which he closes his earthly ministration, full of the sublimest dignity and tenderest affection,-surpass every thing that I ever read, and, like the Spirit by which they were dictated, fly directly to the heart. If the Scripture did not disdain all affectation of ornament, one should call these, and such as these, the ornamental parts of it; but the matter of it is that upon which it principally stakes its credit with us, and the style, however excellent and peculiar to itself, is only one of those many external evidences by which it recommends itself to our belief.

I shall be very much obliged to you for the book* you mention; you could not have sent me any thing that would have been more welcome, unless you had sent me your own meditations instead of them.. Yours, W. C.

7. TO LADY HESKETH.

PEARSALL'S "MEDITATIONS SUPERIORITY OF FAITH AMONG THE

CHRISTIAN VIRTUES.

HUNTINGDON, August 17, 1765. You told me, my dear cousin, that I need not fear writing too often, and you perceive I take you at your word. At present, however, I shall do little more than thank you for your Meditations, which I admire exceedingly. The author of them manifestly loved the truth with an undissembled affection, had made great progress in the knowledge of it, and experienced all the happiness that naturally results from that noblest of all attainments. There is one circumstance, which he gives us frequent occasion to observe in him, which, I believe, will ever be found in the philosophy of every true Christian: I mean the eminent rank which he assigns to faith among the virtues, as the source and parent of them all. There is nothing more infallibly true than this, and doubtless it is with a view to the purifying and sanctifying nature of a true faith, that our Saviour says, "He that believeth in me hath everlasting life," with many other expressions to the same purpose. Considered in this light, no wonder it has the

*Pearsall's Meditations, as appears from a subsequent letter.

power of salvation ascribed to it. Considered in any other, we must suppose it to operate like an oriental talisman, if it obtains for us the least advantage; which is an affront to him who insists upon our having it, and will on no other terms admit us to his favour. I mention this distinguishing article in his Reflections, the rather because it serves for a solid foundation to the distinction I made, in my last, between the specious professor and the true believer, between him whose faith is his Sunday suit, and him who never puts it off at all -a distinction I am a little fearful sometimes of making, because it is a heavy stroke upon the practice of more than half the Christians in the world.

My dear cousin, I told you I read the book with great pleasure, which may be accounted for from its own merit, but perhaps it pleased me the more because you had travelled the same road before me. You know there is such a pleasure as this, which would want great explanation to some folks, being perhaps a mystery to those whose hearts are a mere muscle, and serve only for the purposes of an even circulation.

W. C.

8.TO LADY HESKETH.

REFLECTIONS ON A PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE COMFORT IN THIS DOCTRINE AS SANCTIFYING OUR SENSE OF MERCIES.

September 4, 1765.

THOUGH I have some very agreeable acquaintance at Huntingdon, my dear cousin, none of their visits are so agreeable as the arrival of your letters. I thank you for that which I have just received from Droxford; and particularly for that part of it where you give me an unlimited liberty on the subject I have already so often written upon. Whatever interests us deeply, as naturally flows into the pen as it does from the lips, when every restraint is taken away, and we meet with a friend indulgent enough to attend to us. How many, in all that variety of characters with whom I am acquainted, could I find, after the strictest search, to whom I could write as I do to you? I hope the number will increase. I am sure it cannot easily be diminished. Poor! I have heard the whole of his history, and can only lament what I am sure I can make no apology for. Two of my friends have been cut off, during my illness, in the midst of such a life as it is frightful to reflect upon; and here am I, in better health Probably Churchill and Lloyd.

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