influence in the tender, the free, the self-denying, and expressive offices of a friend, in distressful circumstances, to attract and command the heart. Think, my friend, what was your deplorable situation, and mine, when Jesus appeared for our salvation: the Law was uttering its tremendous thunders against us, as children of deserved wrath, and "dead in trespasses and sins;" and " you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor;" voluntarily offering himself a sacrifice for sin, and redeeming us from the arm of the Law, by being "made a curse for us." When, then, temptation appears, appears, and you find your heart almost ready to yield, "set the Lord before you :" think you:" from what infinite exaltation, and blessedness, and glory he came down. Remember, it was your misery touched his heart; it was the purpose of your salvation brought him down. Survey the amazing circumstances of his bitter humiliation. Contemplate the shame, and spitting; the reed, and the scourge; the piercing thorns, and the bloody sweat; the nails, and the spear. Behold him, suffering the derision and outrage of men, the fury of the powers of darkness, and the wrath of Heaven, due to all our transgressions. Oh! look into the bitter cup, and say, was it not a cup of unmingled fury? Behold him denied the affectionate attention of friends; denied even the smiles of his heavenly Father; while for your sake" he endured the cross, despising

the shame." Was ever love so great? Can any endearments, or bonds, or motives of affection, be yet wanting? Can you refuse such a friend the throne of your heart? Can you spare his murderers, and by sin grieve his Spirit, and pierce and wilfully crucify the Son of God afresh? Come, take your standing near the cross of Jesus. When corruptions revive, and plead for indulgence; when temptations come, and by delusive arts would relax your opposition to sin; come, behold Jesus, your Saviour, in the very hands of that dreadful monster, and contemplate his agony, and his horror,-his body mangled, his soul exceeding sorrowful. Methinks, there is a voice proceeding from every bleeding wound, which cries with loud and powerful importunity, "Oh, do not spare that accursed thing, which bruised and pierced the Lord of glory! Remember your sacred engagements, the solemn seasons of your covenanting with God." " Oh, my wretched heart," (will you say), "I am ashamed and confounded in the review! How deeply did I at that time feel the importance of eternal things! How powerfully, and how sweetly was I drawn by the love and the loveliness of Jesus! Yea, he was in my esteem altogether lovely!' What desires I felt, what resolutions I expressed, with how prostrate a soul I engaged to be the Lord's! I called heaven and earth to witness to the sacred vow: I made a covenant with sacrifice, and imprecated the vengeance that fell on the devoted Lamb of God,

if I proved false to a covenant so solemnly sealed. Ah! where is now that impression? Where now those melting affections? Alas! my heart has turned aside, like a deceitful bow. My Lord has seen it inconsistent and estranged: he has seen the accursed thing allowed a place there. Ah! how can I bear the thought of being an apostate! How can I ever look upon the face of my injured Lord! How could I ever endure it, if with a frown he should say, 'If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him! Or even, if in love he should ask,

Wilt thou also go away?' O how should I even sustain the piercing expostulation of his eye!" These expressions, my friend, were not the effect of a hasty transport of the mind. I hope, they flowed from a heart that is burdened with iniquity, and that would choose affliction rather than sin. These sentiments are serious, and deserve to be well considered; and therefore, to deepen your conviction of the evil of sin, and particularly the evil you complain of, I beg leave further to say, Charge your soul with the consideration of the injury which this evil may expose you to from Divine resentment: nothing so much prevents the acceptance of the offering we present. The smallest offering, when it is our best, and presented with clean hands, and a pure heart, finds ready acceptance; but, "if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." He will not suffer a corrupt thing on his altar: he will frown away the offerer that brings strange fire there: there

fore, "stand in awe, and sin not." Indeed, iniquity, set up in the heart of one who is a subject of renewing grace, is a sacrilegious profanation of the temple of the Lord: "Know ye not that ye are the temples of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." Nothing so much grieves the Holy Spirit. "The Lord our God is a jealous God:" his pure and Holy Spirit will not dwell in a heart where impure and unholy thoughts are indulged. Sin indulged there, is the abomination that maketh desolate; for if God depart, what irreparable loss is sustained, what destructive evils follow! What can supply the want of his presence? If he say, "he is joined to idols, let him alone," or "let no dew fall on him henceforth for ever," what a seat of misery does the heart of man become! What dismal darkness, coldness, barrenness, deadness, takes place there! " Yea, woe unto you when I depart from you, saith the Lord." By providential rebukes also, God is pleased often to punish secret iniquity. Many times, the griefs and troubles that a professor feels are plainly to mark with characters of Divine displeasure, "the iniquity that he knows." He who delivered the disobedient prophet unto the lion, is never at a loss for instruments whereby to reprove the sin of his people. He says, and frowns, "How shall I pardon thee for this?" He frowns perhaps on your comforts, and the

favourite gourd withers and dies. vides the hearts of friends from us;

Perhaps, he disuffers the enemy

to have advantage against us; or gives some disease a commission to arrest us. And "when thou, Lord, with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth." I may add: nothing can represent in a stronger light the malignity and hatefulness of any sin, than God's making it the punishment of other sins, even sins of the deepest dye. In this view, that word has an awful import, "For this cause God gave them up."

I am, &c. &c.

J. BOWDEN.

LETTER L.

TO MISS B

MY DEAR FRIEND,

My soul shall magnify the Lord with you, for the frame of mind which you have been enabled to preserve in a season of painful trial. It is, indeed, mercy for a poor sinful creature, with a sense of forgiving grace, to see the face of Infinite Majesty arrayed in smiles; to be able to get as piritual view of pains and griefs; to see the rod blossoming; and to find a store of sweetness in the carcase of the