one "old things have passed away, and all things have become new," in the strict sense of the word. He has become a living man; his feelings are acute. He feels sin to be exceeding sinful and the commandment to be exceeding broad; and while he suffers the terrors of the Lord, he is distracted. He is now a seeing man; he has eyes given him to see the majesty of God in a broken law, his own ruin by nature and by practice, and as yet sees no way of escape from the "wrath to come." The command is given, "Bring forth the blind who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. The blind man had eyes before, but could not see, by reason of the scales which were upon them; but when a man is called out of darkness, these scales fall off, and he is enlightened with the light of the living. He had ears before, but was deaf. Having made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, he had virtually called the prince of the power of the air to his aid, who had planted a strong guard against "ear-gate," lest he should hear, and be converted, and healed. But when justice comes with its battering-ram, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, with a "Pay me that thou owest;" or, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them;" or, "He that offendeth in one point, is guilty of all,"—I say, when a sinner is brought here, his ears are open to discipline; he is now one of those of whom it may be said, "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law; that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity." "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise." But in this stage of divine discipline it would be useless to try to persuade a man that he was showing forth God's praise, yet it is a fact notwithstanding; for "Wisdom is justified of all her children." When a man can say from the heart, that God would be just and righteous in sending his soul to hell, he praises the justice of God. When he can with unfeigned lips say, "Behold, I am vile," he shows forth praise, and sets to his seal that what God had said of man is true to the letter, and he is not offended at such passages as these, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked;" and that the thoughts of every man in his natural state are "only evil, and that continually;" and he shows forth praise when he can say, "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him." In this state there is a watching and waiting to hear what God the Lord shall speak; for he well knows the sentence must come from the Majesty of heaven, whether it be for his condemnation or salvation. He is betwixt life and death, hope and despair, riches or eternal ruin, a kingdom or a prison, heaven or hell, a Father's smile or a Judge's frown. (To be continued in our next.) He who cannot live in an actual resignation of himself, and all his concerns, unto the sovereign pleasure of God, can neither glorify him in anything, nor have one hour's solid peace in his own mind.Owen. LETTER, FROM MISS E. MORTON TO MR. W. Dear Sir, In reading your last favor, I was much struck with the propriety of its contents. I am happy that God inclines you to reprove in me what you see inconsistent with his will. Nor will you wonder at the instrument in my apartment, when I assure you that music has ever been my predominant charm. There has been a time when (to my shame I write it) I have sat four hours in a day at a harpsichord; nor was it in the power of any person living to draw me from it. However, Sir, this I can now say, from my own conscience, that since it has pleased God to make me feel his wrath, and the vileness of my corrupt heart, I am thoroughly weaned from this vanity, as well as from many others. My heart is, indeed, and of a truth, thoroughly sick of all these vain enchantments. God is witness, that I desire more and more to be "pressing forward toward the mark, for the prize of our high calling;" that I sincerely crave to forsake all these things, to take up my cross, and to follow Christ. If you did but know my present state, and feel the real distress of mind I now labor under, with the horrors of an embittered conscience, which I almost continually feel, too powerfully to be expressed, you would not suppose that I have the least delight in amusing myself with "a rattle of the devil's." I find time too precious to employ it in this unprofitable manner. I feel my heart and conscience too deeply impressed with matters of greater importance than to take any delight in a musical instrument. I see you still doubt of my sincerity; but God knows it, and knows also the truth of what I am now penning. Indeed, had I been the same, I should have been very apt to have judged of the matter as you have done. But, believe me, this instrument was not brought to this house on my account. There I found it; and it was by the desire of a friend that I played upon it. God knows that my heart was by no means inclined to it, for I am convinced this is not glorifying God; quite the reverse; and for that alone do I desire life. However, I will tell you the effect your letter has had on this subject. God crowns with a divine power every advice you give me. I have read attentively Dan. iii. and Amos vi., and find that your book of conscience (in this respect) and mine tally so exactly, that I am going to-morrow to order the immediate removal of this "rattle of the devil's." You will pardon me for smiling at this expression. My friends say that I am an Huntingtonian with a witness, and are much delighted that your advice has such weight with me. I tell you what, Sir, I view you as a mere instrument, and no more; (though, blessed be God for such;) and, as I before observed, I feel that God sends with a divine power to my soul what he inclines you to write. So that, if ever I see you again at my house, you shall never see that instrument there any more, nor any other. I shall have the privilege of being at Providence Chapel next Lord's Day; and, if I mistake not, we shall have you at Jewin Street that evening, where I hope to attend, and shall be glad of your answer to this when convenient; and so conclude, in humble acknowledgment of your just reproofs, faithful dealings, and tender care, Your obedient, dutiful, and affectionate daughter, ELIZABETH MORTON. [The above letter, it will be perceived, is an answer to that inserted in our last December Number. Mr. Huntington's objection to the harpsichord, the predecessor and parent of the modern piano, was, we presume, grounded on the inconsistency of a person in soul-trouble rattling over the keys and amusing herself with carnal tunes. Here, no doubt, he was perfectly right. But how far a person who has already learned to play on a musical instrument may or may not use it in the service of God, must, we think, be left much to a person's own conscience. That in itself there is no sin in playing on a musical instrument is clear from David's example and David's words: "Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance; praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals; praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals." In the public service of God, under our new and spiritual dispensation, musical instruments are certainly out of place; but whether a person called by grace commits a sin if ever he touch a musical instrument again, is another matter. Luther was not only exceedingly fond of music, and composed tunes some of which are sung to this day, but in singing the praises of God or pouring out his complaints, was accustomed to accompany himself on the lute. Take the case of a Christian family where one or two of the daughters can play. Is there any objection on a Lord's Day evening to the singing of a few hymns, and if accompanied on the piano, are they the worse? Is it not better thus to spend a part of the evening, after the Scriptures have been read, than to waste it in vain conversation or walking about the fields? It is well when by these means, in a grown-up family, sons and daughters can be kept quietly at home, and preserved from those numerous temptations which are ever spread to entangle their feet. Not being able to sing or play ourselves, we think we can give on these points an impartial opinion. It is easy to condemn a thing outright; but we think it more consistent with Christian fairness, to look at both sides of a question.-ED.] At length the first among the causes for which the Lord called Paul to Philippi appeared. A poor woman of the name of Lydia, who earned her bread by selling purple, (not a wearer of purple,) (1 Cor. i. 26,) came to the spot of Paul's preaching; she heard; she listened to what those servants of the most high God were delivering, of the way of salvation; and it is concerning her "whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things spoken by Paul." Here, then, we behold the blessed effects which follow, when the Lord's word and the Lord's Spirit work together, upon the hearts of the Lord's people. But the church of Christ to this hour has reason to bless the Lord for sending Paul to Philippi; for we have proofs of the Lord's planting his church there; and we partake in the blessedness of it from that divine epistle, which the apostle afterwards wrote by inspiration, to the church of the Philippians.-Hawker. · CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MR. BOSTON AND MR. DAVIDSON. Dear Sir,―There is no appearance of the dissolution of the cloud that for several years now has been over my wife. We have made a new essay this season in the use of means for her help; but all hitherto serves for nothing but to discover that "vain is the help of man" in the case. She has not wanted seasonable supports from a higher Hand; and when several coals were by a wise and holy providence cast together into our furnace, she who behoved to be waited on and served before was even helped to wait on and be very helpful to others in distress; and then the clouds returned after the rain, and now she comes little out of the bed at all. But all is necessary; and he is infinitely wise who has the managing of all in his hand. It is a very sweet view of affliction to view it as the discipline of the covenant; and so it is indeed, and nothing else, to the children of our Father's family. In that respect it is medicinal; it shines with many gracious purposes about it; and, end as it will, one may have the confidence of faith that it shall end well. And O how happy would it be if we could always maintain the confidence of faith! The soul in that case would be like the babe in the shipwrecked woman's arms on the plank, smiling amidst the waves, unconcerned with the hazard. I desire to remember and be remembered by you. T. BOSTON. Aug. 8th, 1724. Very dear Sir,-Yours bearing the resolve about the sacrament came to hand some weeks ago. Difficulties taken away in holy, wise providence from your own circumstances, as likewise from those of your ordinary assistants, I make no doubt have caused various thoughts not a little perplexing to every one of us. I would fain hope, the Lord our Head, as the breaker up going before, will make the way clear. When we are saying among ourselves and within ourselves, "Who shall roll us away the stone?" he will possibly show us the stone, though very great, rolled away. The account of your weakness, and your wife's distress, gave me no little pain. Infinite wisdom and love make all things work together for good. His ways and thoughts are above ours. In due time the perplexing riddles shall be fully expounded, and it shall then be seen, what we are now to believe, that our God and Guide has not taken one wrong step, and that unquestionably he had a very good reason for whatever he did. We must account that our Lord has ever gone the best way that could have been gone in all that is past, and we should have no doubting thoughts about what he will do afterwards. Very dear Sir, yours affectionately, May 11th, 1730. H. DAVIDSON.. The soul is never safer than when it is, as it were, overwhelmed with infirmities.—Owen. A LETTER BY THE LATE MR. GOULDING. (Concluded from page 58.) I now come to my third general head, viz., III. To show what is election. Election, as I have frequently told you, signifies choice; and, respecting the Lord, it signifies that he did from everlasting fix an eternal love upon a part of Adam's fallen offspring, though there was nothing at all in them to merit his favor, for they were just as bad as those passed by. Nay, we generally find some of the very worst of sinners called. Hence we read of this number, chosen according to the free sovereign will of God, under the title of "a remnant according to the election of grace;" and sure "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of the Lord only and alone, that showeth mercy." To all appearance these are "children of wrath, even as others," until the Lord is pleased to make them manifest by effectual calling and conversion; for let a person prove his calling, and then it is as clear as a sunbeam he is elected, for if he was not of that number, he never would have been called at all. "For," says Christ, "my sheep hear my voice;" but none else. And "whom the Lord foreknew" with a knowledge of love and of special grace, with a knowledge of choice and acceptance, “them he did predestinate," or fore-appoint, to receive grace here and glory hereafter; and "whom he did predestinate, them he called" to the knowledge and fellowship of Christ; and this is the first beginning of the manifestation to us of our eternal election. This is a plain proof of our election; for, had we not been chosen in Christ and loved in him with an everlasting love, we never should have yielded the obedience of faith, or have been changed in time. A change wrought in a sinner's heart in time, is a fruit and effect of the Lord's purpose and decree from before time; for he gave us life in Christ Jesus before ever this world was made, and ordained that we should bring forth fruit to the honor and glory of his holy name. Thus: But how am I to know that I am one of the elect? The elect are said to "cry day and night" to be avenged of their adversaries; and the very moment the Spirit of God convinces them of sin, that very moment they begin to pray, and will keep on at it, and never give it up. Thus the elect are praying, crying souls. A sure and infallible mark also is this, when the heart of a sinner is circumcised to love God. Then such a one is evidently a chosen vessel; because, as I said before, the Lord's love kindles ours, and we never could love him unless he were to shed abroad his love in our hearts. When this then is done, the Lord has loved that soul with an everlasting love. But," say you, "how can I know the love of God from natural affection?" Thus you may know it. Natural affection always fights against the sovereignty of God, and it can never love a real child of God, who contends for the power of the Spirit's work upon the heart. Such a soul will pity all the reprobates we read of, and enmity will arise in such a heart against the Lord, forma display of his discriminating grace, in passing by 66 |