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There is another work going on by the same Spirit of truth; also his purchase and gift-Sanctification. In this, I am called to occupy, watch, strive, fight. Life is given; means of support and growth provided; weapons of warfare-all things necessary to life and godliness: these are promised to the diligent use of means; and poverty, stagnation, discomfort, threatened to the indolent. O how sovereign and gracious has my God been in his dealings with me in this respect also. For a sluggard have I been in the days of youth, and the prime of life; yet to me hath he given the comforts promised only to the diligent. Here I sit on the verge of three-score; my heart in some good measure loosened from the world, although in full possession of it. Health, ease, plenty, elegance, friendship, respectability; old age welcome, death unstung, become a familiar friend: the messenger of my Father to fetch me home to those mansions which my Redeemer has taken possession of in my name. My hope is strong for my offspring, now my only care. I leave my fatherless children on the Lord, he has promised to save them alive. Stately have been his steps of mercy towards them already, and he saved them from their mother's snares; he heard and answered my prayers, for his name's sake, and overruled my practices; he is my God, and the God of my seed, the God of my seed's seed to the latest generation; my cup is full of comfort, temporal and spiritual. O praise him, praise him, for he is your God, and the God of your seed also!

2 U

June 4, 1802.

MAKING allowances for the difference of time, and supposing my dear children in health, all about them is in a racket. This is his majesty's birth day; you have no doubt, on the above supposition, been drinking his health, and are at this moment, perhaps, set in some social company, by invitation, to honour the anniversary, to repeat the wish of long life, health, and comfort to the lawful sovereign of Britain.

Here sit in my dear little room, with a lovely landscape in view; B- M.'s park in velvet verdure; the full grown trees scattered thin to display the carpet, and in full foliage; the clump of willows weeping to the very ground, with a gentle wave, agitated by the zephyr; while the other trees keep their firm majestic posture: the Hudson river covered with vessels crowded with sail to catch the scanty breeze; some sweet little chirpers bring in the ear for its share of pleasure. I think, I never heard any little warbler in this land, sing so sweet as those which now salute my ear:

"These are thy glorious works, Parent of good."

Can all the philosophic ingenuity of London, this evening produce such a scene? The gardens no doubt will be glorious, but the ground work is also God's : but, why say I that in particular? all is his: the very notes that warble through so many guilty throats are his creation; all the art of man cannot add to their number. Sweet bird, thy notes are innocent, O how sweet! lovely trees! ye who stand erect, and ye who weep and wave; I wish no I wish no brighter scene. The shadows lengthen fast, so do yours and mine, my Sovereign*: a few, a very few anniversaries, and we must

* Mrs, Graham received a pension, as a British officer's widow, until her death.

change the scene; change to where no courtiers flatter; no false meteors blaze; where shadows flee away, realities appear, and nothing but realities will stand in any stead.

O may we meet! for me, I nothing have, I nothing am. But one there is, who was, and is, all that the mind of saint or angel can conceive of glory and of happiness; and he is mine, and I am most blessed. Lengthen on, ye shadows, until all is shadow on these orbs of flesh. Then, O then,

"My captive soul set free
"From cloggish earth which oft has made me sigh,
"Ascends the eternal hills, as seen to see,

"As known to know, and grasp the Deity."

1802.

gone

to

OUR friend B-, has now proved how far it is safe to leave the fate of eternity unsettled. He is the state of the dead; with whom his soul is gathered, He only knows, whose mercy none ought to limit: he is gone to his own place; if without a surety-righteousness, which he sought not after in health, we know where that place is: but after reading of a thief on the cross, nothing with God is impossible. My mind is much impressed, that sentence rings in my ears, so often repeated-"I am determined to do all the good I can, and leave the rest to God. I have no time to search." Oh! oh! one thing is needful.

"Life's a folly, age a dream,
Borne along the common stream;
Earth's a bubble light as air,
If my rest be center'd there.

How can that be solid joy
Which a moment may destroy."

Mr. B- was seized with the fever in its most ma-. lignant form; for him, every genius was exerted, and the medical store ransacked for the healing balsam, but in vain. The Judge calls for the soul, and the body must, at his command, dislodge its tenant: how awful, if no surety was at hand, if he must stand naked—we know the rest; did I say, we know? O no; what can we know of that wrath, which in the garden of Gethsemane, when no murderous hand was near, High Priest, Council nor Cross, wrung the blood through every pore of the pure, the innocent Lamb of God, supported by Godhead. If such things were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?

TO THE SAME IN NEW-YORK.

Boston, August, 1800.

I YESTERDAY received my dear J's letter, which gives fresh cause for thankfulness. The more my absence is lengthened, the less I am able to support the want of intelligence. Let us bless God together for all his mercies; among those which are temporal, health is the chief; and I believe to most mothers it is more valued in their children, than in their own persons. I rejoice with you over our restored J―y. O that our Covenant God may give the more important blessing of divine life. You had need to be importunate for this, after the importunity exercised for natural life. I thank God also for the alleviation of your own distress, for our dear D-'s restoration from complaints, less alarming so far as they existed, but which might have been the seeds of serious affliction. I could go on enumerating, for causes of thankfulness crowd into my mind: but all are swallowed up in the grand mer

cy, the distinguishing mercy of redeeming love to our souls. Salvation, not only to me, but to my house! Oh! all words fail here. Read over with me, sing with me, in your heart, the ciii. Psalm. O my God, dare I even sigh in thy presence, under any temporary pain, or hurt of body or mind, with such a Father, such a Christ, such a Comforter, such a richly furnished well-ordered Covenant, such a constitution of Grace and Providence; O such an All in all, even all the fulness of God! My God, and the God of my seed, the God of my house; yea, and the God of my prodigal, who shall in heaven, if never on earth, join the song, To him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, be glory, honour, dominion, power and praise, for ever and ever. Amen. O shall a murmur ever pass these lips; shall this unthankful heart indulge even a sigh over any object but sin; shall I shrink from any cross with such a crown?

Father, glorify thy name.

I have been to Church; the subject, Be not weary in well doing. Many arguments for exertion, all just, but very little Gospel furniture. O that my friends could hear our Shepherd; he would sound his master's voice more in unison with their own heart's experience, and views of new Covenant provision and Gospel motives; except in the Baptist congregations, the Gospel is much mutilated here, and kept out of sight even by the few who are supposed to build upon it. It appears to me, only Dr. M— declares boldly according to his views without keeping back; he is esteemed their only champion: I love him dearly, though he uses the word probation, and one or two others, which my dear, and first in my heart, as a pastor, J. M- likes

not.

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