♦ second letter “VII”, added “a” suffix
To Mr. _T. L._
IT matters not my friend, what you are upon, whether you would save a man from _deism_, _debauchery_, or _suicide_; you must begin in the same place, from one and the same ground, and this as unavoidably, as every fruit must have its beginning from the root, and from the root in its right state.
The amiableness of any virtue, or the horrid nature of any vice, whilst only considered as in themselves, are but as pictures set before our eyes, and have no other effect upon us. And this is the unprofitableness of all _moral instructions_, whether Heathen or Christian.
If you can help a man to seek, and find, and know himself, and his real relation to God; to know that he has neither inward nor outward evil, but because he has lost his _true state_, and place in God; and that therefore nothing can be his peace and happiness, but his first divine life restored again in him, then you have done all that you can for him, whatever his malady is.
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