"This was his original righteousness and happiness that was lost in Adam; and to restore man to this happiness by the recovery of his original righteousness, was certainly God's design in admitting him to the state of trial on the world, and of our redemption by Jesus Christ. And surely this was a design truly worthy of God, and the greatest instance of mercy that even omnipotent goodness could exhibit to us.

"As the happiness of man consists in a due subordination of the inferior to the superior powers, &c., so the inversion of this order is the true source of human misery. There is in us all a natural propension towards the body and the world. The beauty, pleasures, and ease of the body strangely charm us; the wealth and honours of the world allure us; and all, under the manage of a subtle malicious adversary, give a prodigious force to present things: and if the animal life once get the ascendant of our reason, it utterly deprives us of our moral liberty, and by consequence makes us wretched. Therefore, for any man to endeavour after happiness in gratifying all his bodily appetites in opposition to his reason, is the greatest folly imaginable; because he seeks it where God has not designed he shall ever find it. But this is the case of the generality of men; they live as mere animals, wholly given up to the interests and pleasures of the body; and all the use of their understanding is to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof, without the least regard to future happiness or misery.

"It is true our eternal state lies under a vast disadvantage to us in this life, in that, that it is future and invisible; and it requires great attention and application of mind, frequent retirement, and intense thinking, to excite our affections, and beget such an habitual sense

of it as is requisite to enable us to walk steadily in the paths of virtue, in opposition to our corrupt nature, and all the vicious customs and maxims of the world. Our blessed Lord, who came from heaven to save us from our sins, as well as the punishment of them, as knowing that it was impossible for us to be happy in either world, unless we were holy, did not intend, by commanding us to take up the cross, that we should bid adieu to all joy and satisfaction indefinitely; but he opens and extends our views beyond time to eternity. He directs us where to place our joys; how to seek satisfaction durable as our being; which is not to be found in gratifying, but in retrenching, our sensual appetites; not in obeying the dictates of our irregular passions, but in correcting their exorbitancy, bringing every appetite of the body and power of the soul under subjection to his laws, if we would follow him to heaven. And because he knew we could not do this without great contradiction to our corrupt animality, therefore he enjoins us to take up this cross, and to fight under his banner against the flesh, the world, and the devil. And when, by the grace of God's Holy Spirit, we are so far conquerors, as that we never wlllingly offend, but still press after greater degrees of Christian perfection, sincerely endeavouring to plant each virtue in our minds, that may through Christ render us pleasing to God; we shall then experience the truth of Solomon's assertion, 'The ways of virtue are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.'

"I take Kempis to have been an honest weak man, who had more zeal than knowledge, by his condemning all mirth or pleasure as sinful or useless, in opposition to so many direct and plain texts of Scripture. Would you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of pleasure; of

the innocence or malignity of actions? Take this rule: Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind; that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself. And so on the contrary.

""Tis stupid to say nothing is an affliction to a good man. That is an affliction that makes an affliction, either to good or bad. Nor do I understand how any man can thank God for present misery; yet do I very well know what it is to rejoice in the midst of deep afflictions; not in the affliction itself, for then it would necessarily cease to be one; but in this we may rejoice, that we are in the hand of a God who never did, and never can, exert his power in any act of injustice, oppression, or cruelty; in the power of that Superior Wisdom which disposes all events, and has promised that all things shall work together for good (for the spiritual and eternal good) of those that love him. We may rejoice in hope that Almighty Goodness will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able; but will with the temptation make a way to escape, that we may be able to bear it. In a word, we may and ought to rejoice that God has assured us he will never leave or forsake us; but, if we continue faithful to him, he will take care to conduct us safely through all the changes and chances of this mortal life, to those blessed regions of joy and immortality where sin and sorrow can never enter."

There are many excellent sentiments and observations in the preceding letter; and the whole proves a capacious and well-disciplined mind, that tried itself to the bottom, and saw how little it could depend on its own

exertions without the especial help of the grace and Spirit of Christ.

In the following month she wrote a more direct answer to the question concerning election and predestination; and especially the seventeenth article of the church, on which her son appears to have been not a little puzzled.

To many these points will appear to be clearly stated, and satisfactorily discussed, in this letter.

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"Wroote, July 18, 1725.

I have often wondered that men should be so vain to amuse themselves by searching into the decrees of God, which no human wit can fathom; and do not rather employ their time and powers in working out their salvation, and making their own calling and election sure. Such studies tend more to confound than inform the understanding; and young people had best let them alone. But since I find you have some scruples concerning our article of predestination, I will tell you my thoughts of the matter; and if they satisfy not, you may desire your father's direction, who is surely better qualified for a casuist than me.

"The doctrine of predestination, as maintained by rigid Calvinists, is very shocking, and ought utterly to be abhorred, because it charges the most holy God with being the author of sin. And I think you reason very well and justly against it; for it is certainly inconsistent with the justice and goodness of God to lay any man under either a physical or moral necessity of committing sin, and then punish him for doing it. Far be this from the Lord! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

"I do firmly believe that God from all eternity, hath

elected some to everlasting life; but then I humbly conceive that this election is founded in his foreknowledge, according to that in the eighth of Romans, ver. 29, 30: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

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Whom, in his eternal prescience, God saw would make a right use of their powers, and accept of offered mercy, he did predestinate-adopt for his children, his peculiar treasure. And that they might be conformed to the image of his only Son, he called them to himself by his eternal word, through the preaching of the gospel; and internally, by his Holy Spirit: which call they obeying, repenting of their sins, and believing in the Lord Jesus, he justifies them-absolves them from the guilt of all their sins, and acknowledges them as just and righteous persons, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ. And having thus justified, he receives them to glory-to heaven.

"This is the sum of what I believe concerning predestination, which I think is agreeable to the analogy of faith; since it does in nowise derogate from the glory of God's free grace, nor impair the liberty of man. Nor can it with more reason be supposed that the prescience of God is the cause that so many finally perish, than that our knowing the sun will rise to-morrow is the cause of its rising."

Mr. Wesley found it difficult to reconcile the seventeenth article of the church, concerning predestination, to the general doctrines of the church, and to the holy