་་་་་་འར་་་་་་་་་ར་བར་་ སློག་སློག པའི བཀ གཅརབས ྂ་་ང་་ར་�་ བ་་་་་་་་་་་ར་་་ཨ་་་ར་་་ན་་་་་་་་་་ར་་ར. ་ར“རས་ཨར་ར་ར་་་་་་ར་ར་་་་་་་་ར་་ར་་རབརར? A SECOND LEGACY, &c. LETTERS from the Dead to the Living are not very uncommon; and you therefore, I hope, will neither be furprifed nor alarmed at my fending you this friendly epiftle, especially as it relates to your eternal welfare, and is intended to fupply fome deficiences, and correct fome mistakes contained in that which you received from me previous to my decease. The fear left my former advice should not certainly reach your hands, nor produce the defired effect, induced me to deliver it under the fanction of a perfonal attendance; but as a visit cannot now be expected from me, and as fuch an appearance would rather terrify than comfort you, I confidently hope that fome one among you will do me the juftice to circulate this my fecond addrefs as extenfively as the former, and thereby better promote the good ends I had in view. None of you, I truft, have queftioned the fincerity of my advice, nor the benevolence of those intentions with which it was prefented; much lefs will you feel inclined to fufpect me on the prefent occafion, while I write to you under fuch fuperior advantages, and from thole invifible abodes where hypocrify and decep tion can have no place. The imperfections, necellarily attending a mortal ftate involve the mind in much darkness and error; nor can any of the fons of men plead exemption from this univerfal infelicity. Hence many good men, when laden with years, and crowned with wifdom, have feen occafion to, retract many of their former opinions, and even to repent of their folly and rafhnefs: and much stronger and brighter may you suppose fuch convictions to be in a state where nothing. but truth appears, and where nothing but eternal realities are feen. Such a retractation is the more incumbent in cafes where the publicity of their fentiments and conduct gives them a greater effect, and endangers the welfare of immortal fouls, The fear left any one fhould lay their eternal "ruin to my neglect, made me fhudder," while I miniftered among you; and convinced as I now am, of the incalculable evil that may arife from a mifrepresentation of divine truth on the one fide, and a misapprehension of the way of falvation, on the other, I molt carnefly befeech you feriously to regard the obfervations which I have now to offer. It is true, "I very of ten read to myself" the advice which I formerly gave you, and thought it afforded, to be fure, a very fafe guide to eternal life; but I now fear left it fhould mislead the unwa ry; and, if grace prevent not, plunge him. Ο into the gulf of perdition. The experienced navigator is a much fafer guide than the mere theorift, through the trackless paths of the mighty ocean; and having paffed the unfathomable abyfs, I may affume to myself all the advantages of the former in giving you that advice which the dangers of fuch a voyage require, and guarding you against thofe rocks on which fo many thousands have perished. The change confequent on the mortality of man has not leffened, but greatly ftrengthened my convictions of the abfolute and indifpenfible neceffity of REPENTANCE torvards God in order to eternal life. But there are two or three things in particular which I wish you to confider, as it is of the utmost importance to have right views of a fubject which lies at the foundation of all genuine religion. First, I have reprefented repentance as confifting in an endeavour to repent, rather than in the actual exercise of godly forrow for fin. "A "true penitent," I have faid, "endeavours to hate "his former fins : and if he is fincere in his "endeavours, he may humbly hope, that he fhall, "through Chrift, be accepted." But I now find that where he heart is not truly contrite there are no fincere defires after repen! tance. Repentance itself is required and nothing fhort of it. Man ftands charged with the breach of the divine law, and is called to immediate repentance; nor will God be fatisfied with fruitless. endeavours, or accept them under the pretence of their being "fincere." Many thus deceive them-felves with the idea that they fincerely endeavour to repent, while they have no real defire after it, nor poffefs any thing of a contrite and broken fpirit. Which of you having an undutiful fon, or faithlefs fervant, would merely require the one or the other to endeavour a change of difpofition and conduct, instead of their actually being of another heart; or would think of accepting or approving fuch endeavours while there was no evidence of any real change in their conduct and difpofition? Be not deceived with any fuppofed "endeavours while you are strangers to godly forrow, and cannot be brought to part with your fins. The hope is dangerous, and the prefumption great. "Verily, verily, I fay unto you, except ye repent, ye fhall all likewife perish." Secondly, I have unhappily led you into an error by representing the exercife of genuine repentance as being "attended with much difficulty," and fuch indeed as to require very "clofe appli cation". All the difficulty here however is of a moral nature. It is indeed difficult for a finner who is at enmity against God to find. it in hiss |