LETTER XLVIII.

To Mr. PARKER, Exmouth, near Exeter, Devon.

SIR,

IF you have either conscience or fear left, you might justly expect that I should commence hostilities against you, and pursue you with the unremitted rigour of a Syrian. Surely you must have forgotten whose daughter in the faith you married. During the time of your courtship, I was politely invited to your house, and made an acceptable guest; but, no sooner had my presence granted consent to the marriage, and you obtained the full possession of my daughter, than you treated the parent with cold indifference; neither have you paid any respect or reverence even to my cloth. What hast thou done, that thou hast stolen away unawares to me, and carried away my daughter, as a captive taken with the sword? Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away, if not with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp; yet I might have sent thee away with counsel, caution, petitions, and blessings? Thou hast not suffered me to take my leave of my daughter. Hast thou

done wisely in so doing? Knowest thou not, that it is in the power of mine hand to do you hurt either by striking you out of my will, or cutting you off with a shilling? Could not all the charmers in the great metropolis hold your soul a willing captive? How is it that you have broken all our bands asunder, and cast our cords from you? Besides, you never staid to see what portion or inheritance there is for you in your Father's house. If I had beguiled you with Leah; if ye were counted strangers to me: if I had sold you; if I had changed your wages; or, if I had quite devoured your money; you might well have set your face toward Mount Gilead, and I might have been content, but you know this was not the case.

And what can I do this day unto this my daughter, or unto the little one that she has borne? As to gathering stones, and turning them into witnesses, that is a work none can perform but he who raises up children unto Abraham. Nor am I willing to undertake the making of a new covenant, choosing rather to abide by that which is made ready to our hands. "If thou shalt afflict my daughter, or if thou shalt take another wife besides my daughter, no man is with us;" therefore you know who is witness, and what will undoubtedly be the consequence.

Before you took your journey, did you propose to go by the way of Mizpeh? Did you ascend the watch-tower, descry the leadings of Provi

dence, and follow hard after him who has promised to go before us, and to be our re reward also? Did the angels of God meet you, as a guard by the way, and as a sure token that your way was not perverse before him? Hast thou found a Bethel since thou left us? or any manifestation of Divine goodness and approbation, which has constrained thee to anoint a pillar, in commemoration of your happy deliverance from Blackfriars and Titchfield Street? Or, have you had one absolute promise applied by the Spirit, to assure your heart that you shall not make a Moabitish voyage of it; go out full, and return empty?

It is safe abiding under the wings of the Almighty. He keeps his court in Zion, and is a protection there; and has promised, that he will abundantly bless her provision, and satisfy her poor with bread: nor has he ever been a barren wilderness to those who cleave to, and put their trust in him. Your very name appears big with meaning. Parker signifies a park-keeper, or deerkeeper; one who is generally prowling about among the herds: but who would have thought that, after being so many years an established citizen of Mount Zion, thou wouldest, in thy declining age, have become a ranger of the forest! If, like Israel of old, we are forced into exile, the Lord promises to be a little sanctuary in all places whither we may come. Or, if God calls for a seven years famine, and says to the Shunamite, "Arise, thou and thy household, and sojourn where

thou canst sojourn;" she goes, in obedience to God: and, when she has served her apprenticeship, and returns, Gehazi shall be at court on the very day that she cries to the King for her house, and for her land; and a certain officer shall be appointed to restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the land, since the day that she left it until now, 2 Kings viii. 1—6. But if, like the prodigal, we make a peremptory demand of our portion; gather all together; and, without a divine warrant, set off into a far country; we may bring leanness into our souls, but we shall never gain much by trading.

It is an unconditional promise in Christ Jesus that secures the things of this life, and of that which is to come; and it is the blessing of God that multiplies them, and the presence of God that sweetens them, and makes a very little suffice. But, if we provoke God by giving way to a distrust of his providence, and he withdraw the light of his countenance from us, we shall soon find a tincture of Mara in every earthly enjoyment. "In the multitude of counsellors there is safety:" but, when Satan gets at the head of affairs, a man generally goes on after the counsel of his own will; and it is very rare that such an one consults any but the prophets of the grove, whose counsel is sure to stand with his own humour. Ahab had a multitude of these, but no safety. "A fool," says the proverb, "utters all his mind at once, but a wise man keeps it in till

afterwards." I belong to the former, for I am weary with holding in. There were three that had a joint hand in thy flight, and they are Satan, Covetousness, and Unbelief, and these three are two; and there are three that bear witness against it, namely, William Huntington, my daughter, and Mr. Parker's own conscience; and we three agree in one. Had either of us been consulted, and followed, the journey had been postponed to all eternity.

I am in a great strait: I long to be present with thee, and to change my voice; but alas! alas! thou art got too far from the first witness; who, then, shall I appoint over this business? My daughter, she is the second witness, but she is the weaker vessel; besides, "Her desire shall be to her husband, and he shall rule over her." I must appeal to Conscience, then; and to Conscience I will go, for I have none like minded with him, who will naturally care for your state; for every one seeketh his own, not the things that are Christ's.

Conscience, I charge thee to keep this commandment without spot; and, as thou art commissioned to act under the great king, that thou magnify thine office: yea, I adjure thee, that thou tell my dear friend Parker nothing but what is truth, in the name of the Lord. Tell him, that the root of all evil is a hinderance to the enjoyment of divine love; and that infidelity was the cause of his quitting the service of the sanctuary.