to be forgiven, you should remember that the Son of God has pardoned as great sinners as ever you were. I can assure you from holy writ, that if you by faith and prayer trust in the person, blood and righteousness of the Son of God, the Almighty Friend of sinners, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool," Isaiah i. 18. What think you of the dying thief upon the cross, Mary Magdalene, wicked Manasseh, the publican, and the three thousand that crucified and murdered the Lord of glory? These are all saved; and Christ is as able and as willing to save you, if you put your whole trust in him. I most earnestly beg of you never to deceive yourself by vainly imagining that God will show you mercy (or any other sinner) for any good thing you may think you can perform, for all that the best of men can do is mixed with sin, and deserves eternal death. Neither think for a moment that you can make your peace with God, no more than you can satisfy the violated laws of your country without suffering death. If you believe in Jesus Christ, he will show to your unspeakable joy and comfort, that he has for ever made your peace with God by shedding his precious blood, and thereby given complete satisfaction to his heavenly Father for all your sins. See Eph. 2nd chapter, particularly from the 8th verse to the end. Read also the 15th chapter of St. Luke's Gospel; also the 18th chapter, and the 7th chapter beginning at the 36th verse to the end, 23rd chapter from verse 39 to 50. See Isa. 55th chapter, read with humble prayer the whole chapter, particularly the 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9th verses.

And may the Lord by his Holy Spirit open your understanding, that you may know these scriptures which show you the way of salvation. Read the tracts also, and lend them to your fellow-prisoners. I shall be glad to hear when your brother returns that you are looking only to the Lord Jesus for life and eternal salvation in the world to come.

From your real friend and well-wisher,
HENRY HEAP.

TO JOSIAH PAINE,

Condemned Cell, Maidstone Gaol,

KENT.

This letter the Rev. Mr. Winter, the chaplain of the prison, read to him twice, and helped him to find out the different portions of Scripture to which I referred as ap

plicable to his case, and every sensibly lost sinner; and with great kindness and fidelity expounded the passages, which were greatly blessed to him.

The earnest exhortations of the Rev. Mr. Winter were the means through the unction of the divine Spirit of bringing him to a deep sense of his lost condition as a sinner, after the awful sentence of death was pronounced, which terminated, we have solid grounds to believe, in true repentance. Of the kind and unremitting attention of the chaplain, and the anxious solicitude he manifested for the salvation of his immortal soul, poor Paine spoke to me in pleasing and very grateful terms. Well would it be if all the prisons in London and the country, yea, and all the churches and chapels too, were favoured with such an able, affectionate, and excellent minister of Jesus Christ. As their numbers are comparatively few, and the harvest is great, may the Lord of the harvest send forth more faithful labourers into the vineyard. Amen.

The day before he suffered death, his brother Samuel called upon me early in the morning, to say that Josiah had a particular desire to see me. I set off in the after

noon, and reached the prison about half-past nine o'clock. I first had an interview with Mr. Winter, with whom I was at home in a few minutes; and being very desirous to see the prisoner that night, he gave me a note to Mr. Agar, the governor, who kindly conducted me to the cell.

My hearers, I will not attempt to describe what I felt when entering this dreary abode, in beholding a fine handsome young man, who was to be cut off by the hand of the executioner in a few hours, before he had reached the full bloom of youth! I first asked him if he knew me? He answered with considerable emotion, 'O yes! and remember both seeing and hearing you in Bury Street Chapel.' I then said, 'My poor dear fellow, I am truly distressed to find you in this awful situation.' He observed with a pleasant countenance, which was an indication of a thankful heart and great composure of mind, 'I am glad you are come, for I desired very much to see you. And I am not without hope that I shall be in heaven by this time to-morrow night!' I replied, 'The Lord grant that your expectation may be a good hope through grace: then I am certain you will possess a different mansion to this.' He then eagerly took up my letter, with the Bible, and said," Mr. Winter has read it to me two or three times, and highly approves it; and has kindly helped me

to look out the passages and explained them to me, and they have been a great consolation to my troubled mind.' After further conversation with him in the presence of the governor, I said, 'Whatever time he would wish to see me in the morning (God willing) I would be with him,' and if I could have been of any service to him, I would cheerfully have remained with him all night; but as he was not to suffer till twelve o'clock the following day, I advised him in faith and earnest prayer to commit himself into the hands of his compassionate and Almighty Redeemer, and if possible to fall asleep for an hour or two; he would then be refreshed, and the better able to watch and pray. The time fixed was half-past five, and to the honour of the turnkeys I speak it, they would with pleasure have admitted me at two or three had I requested it. I entered the prison exactly at the time appointed, and when the cell door was opened I perceived that he was just finishing his last letter to his poor wife, whom he was leaving a destitute widow with two small children, and near her confinement with a third, herself only twenty-three years of age! I asked him how he felt in his mind, and whether he had been to sleep? He replied, he thought he had slept half an hour; that he felt great anxiety in his mind with regard to the safety of his eternal state.' I said, 'if you rest solely upon the glorious person of the God-man Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and trust in his blood and righteousness for the remission of your sins and the acceptance of your person in the sight of a just and holy God, there was no cause of fear; Christ came into this world on purpose to save such sinners as he was, and the more sinful, helpless, and wretched he saw and felt himself, he had the greater need of the Almighty Physician; that the divine Saviour was unspeakably more honoured and glorified in saving great sinners like him, than those who thought themselves better than other people, because they had not been permitted to break out into open and scandalous sins. And I could assure him, that Christ had saved some of the greatest sinners that ever lived upon earth, and that he never said an unkind word to any of them that humbly and earnestly applied to him for mercy; but on the contrary, according to his sovereign, free, rich, and abounding grace, he satisfied their most expanded desires, and gave more than they were able to ask or think. That these were left on record for our encouragement to trust in Christ, for he still possesses the same

tender heart and merciful nature; and observed, If you look to him by faith as a helpless, ruined sinner, acknowledging to him that you deserve to die eternally for your sins against God and man, he will set your soul at a happy liberty, saying, "Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven.' "Fear not, for I will be with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God!" Remember if you were not spiritually sick, you would not need the great Physician. If it were not for lost sinners he would have nothing to do, and his coming into the world would have been in vain. 66 They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." "He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Now, surely, he that left his Father's bosom to call by his grace sinners to repentance, will not relinquish a returning sinner like you. Persons may be too good for Christ in their own estimation, but they cannot be too bad. The skill of an eminent physician is displayed in some desperate case which is given up by others as incurable. Therefore, the more deadly sick we are, and receive the healing effects of the blood of Immanuel, for by his stripes we are healed, the more thankful we shall be, and celebrate in higher strains his endless praise!

I moreover showed him, that Christ neither expected nor required, that helpless sinners should love him before they applied to him for mercy: for he knows well that they would never come to him until they had tried all other expedients, and every other refuge had failed.This was precisely the case with the woman in the gospel, who had expended all her living upon other physicians; but instead of growing better, she was worse: and what brought her at last to Christ? nothing less than pure and pressing necessity. Did he upbraid her, and say, Yes, you can come to me when you can obtain no help from others? No, blessed be his name; he healed her without money, and without price. I likewise proved to him, that the converted thief who was crucified with Christ, was no other than a hardened villain when first nailed to the cross, as well as the other that was left; and confirmed the truth of this remark by the united testimony of St. Matt. xxvii. 44, and St. Mark xv. 32. I farther illustrated the free grace of God in the salvation of the vilest sinners, from the parable of, the prodigal son, and particularly impressed upon his mind, that the prodigal never thought of returning to his father's house until he began

to be in want, and actually perishing for bread; then he returned to his offended father, and was graciously received, not merely without a murmuring word, but with every demonstration of joy, music, and dancing. Believe me, my dear fellow-sinner, that not only God and Christ, but the angels in heaven, are rejoicing to see you return to God, and in a few hours they will welcome your happy spirit into everlasting rest.

He would occasionally say to me, "those scriptures are a great consolation to my mind, but I sometimes think my sins are too numerous to be forgiven!" I exhorted him to pray against this temptation, as proceeding from Satan and his own unbelieving heart, and to which the most eminent saints are often exposed in this world of sin and conflict; that if he gave way to unbelieving fears, it would be the greatest sin he ever committed, which consisted in rejecting the remedy God had in rich grace provided for the lost and unworthy, in disbelieving God's holy word, and believing Satan, the father of lies. It was undervaluing the precious blood of Christ, which was shed for the vilest transgressors; its cleansing power has brought millions of them that were ready to perish, to heaven. I am glad you feel yourself a sinner, but recollect the Son of God is a great Saviour. He is more able to save those who trust in him, than sin is able to destroy. That though I had not been permitted to offend capitally against the laws of my country, I was a far greater sinner than he was; for I had possessed greater advantages, and had not improved them as I ought, and therefore have sinned against greater light and knowledge; yet notwithstanding my aggravating and numberless transgressions, I trust my everlasting all into the hands of my most merciful Redeemer, and I believed that he would not disappoint my humble expectation. But if he is not able to save you, he is not able to save I rest upon his word of promise; and if you are enabled to do the same, you will happily find him as good as his word, and infinitely better than your fears. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation."

me.

To these plain gospel statements, with others of a similar nature, he listened with the most intense interest, which deeply affected my heart; and I think I shall never forget this solemn and truly interesting scene, in prayer, conversation, and expounding different passages of scripture,