OR, A SERIES OF DIALOGUES AND LETTERS, UPON THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING SUBJECTS. BY JAMES HERVEY, A.M. The memorial of thine abundant kindness shall be shewed, and IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE PROPRIETORS, BY J. F. DOVE. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LADY FRANCES SHIRLEY, MADAM, IF Christianity was inconsistent with true politeness, or prejudicial to real happiness, I should be extremely injudicious, and inexcusably ungrateful, in presenting these Essays to your Ladyship. But as the religion of Jesus is the grand ornament of our nature, and a source of the sublimest joy, the purport of the following pages cannot be unworthy the countenance and protection of the most accomplished person. Neither can there be a wish more suitable to the obligations or the dictates of a grateful heart, than that you may experience what you read, and be what you patronize. Did religion consist in a formal round of external observances, or a forced submission to some rigorous. austerities, I should not scruple to join with the infidel and the sensualist, to dread it in one view, and to despise it in another. You need not be informed, Madam, that it is as much superior to all such low and forbid. ding singularities, as the heavens are higher than the earth. It is described by an author, who learnt its theory in the regions of paradise, and who displayed its efficacy in his own most exemplary conversation.It is thus described by that incomparable author: "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." To be reconciled to the omnipotent God-to be inte rested in the unsearchable riches of Christ-to be renewed in our hearts, and influenced in our lives, by the sanctifying operations of the Divine Spirit-this is evangelical righteousness. This is genuine religion. This, Madam, is the kingdom of God established in the soul. How benign and inviting is such an institution! How honourable and advantageous such a state! And from such privileges what other effects can flow, but that peace, which passeth all understanding? That 'joy, which is unspeakable and glorious?" Is there any thing in the amusements of the gay, and pursuits of the ambitious, of greater, of equal, of comparable value? Is not all that wealth can purchase, all that grandeur can bestow, somewhat like those glittering bubbles, which when viewed are emptiness, when grasped are nothing? Whereas, the comforts, the benefits, the hopes of Christianity, are at once supremely excellent, and infinitely durable; a portion, suited to the dignity of a rational soul; large as its faculties, and immortal as its being. All these blessings are centered in Christ-were purchased by Christ-are communicated from Christ. It is for want of knowing those boundless and everlasting treasures of pardoning, justifying, saving merit, which the Lord Jesus Christ possesses, and which he freely dispenses even to sinners, that so many unthinking persons are attached to ignoble objects, and beguiled by delusory pleasures. Unhappy creatures! What can they do, but catch at shadows, and stoop to trifles, while they are ignorant of the grand, the substantial, the exalted good? It is for want of duly attending to that fulness of grace, and that plenteousness of redemption, which dwell in our most adorable Saviour, that so many serious persons are strangers to the tranquillity and sweetness of religion: are subject to all its restraints, but enjoy few, if any, of its delights. taken zealots! How can they avoid the gloomy situ ation, and the uncomfortable circumstance, so long as they withdraw themselves from the Sun of Righteousness, and his all.cheering beams? Mis May your Ladyship live continually under his hea-" venly light and healing wings; be more fully assured of his dying love, and have brighter, still brighter, manifestations of his immense perfections! By these. delightful views, and by that precious faith, may your heart be transformed into his holy, his amiable, his divine image! Your happiness will then be just such as is wished, but far greater than can be expressed by, Madam, your most obliged and Most obedient humble Servant, Weston-Favell, Jan. 6, 1755. PREFACE. THE reader will probably expect some account of the ensuing work; and to gratify him in this particular, will be a real pleasure to the Author. The beauty and excellency of the Scriptures-the ruin and depravity of human nature-its happy recovery, founded on the atonement, and effected by the Spirit of Christ-these are some of the chief points, vindicated, illustrated, and applied in the following sheets. But the grand article, that which makes the principal figure, is the imputed righteousness of our divine Lord; from whence arises our justification before God, and our title to every heavenly blessing. An article, which, though eminent for its importance, seems to be little understood, and less regarded; if not much mistaken, and almost forgotten. The importance of this great evangelical doctrinehow worthy it is of the most attentive consideration, and of universal acceptance-is hinted in the second dialogue. So that I need, in this place, do nothing more, than give the sense of a passage from Witsius, which is there introduced in the notes:-The doctrine of justification,' says that excellent author, 'spreads itself through the whole system of divinity. As this is either solidly established, or superficially touched; fully stated, or slightly dismissed; accordingly, the whole structure of religion, either rises graceful and magnificent, superior to assault, and beyond the power of decay; or else it appears disproportionate and de fective, totters on its foundation, and threatens an opprobrious fall.' The design is executed in the form of Dialogue; those parts only excepted, in which it was not easy to carry on a conversation, and assign to each person a * See p. 50. |