difeafe of your own foul, and pray heartily for the love of God to be implanted in your foul, and for his fan&tifying grace and holy spirit to purify and cleanse all its affections. These first springs of thought from the foul in a morning are a true index of the affection or ftate of the foul, for a good tree doth not bring forth evil fruits, neither do b a corrupt tree bring forth good fruits, and the fame fountain doth not fend forth bitter waters and sweet : as the fruit is, fo is the tree, and as the streams, fo is the fountain ; an unregenerate wicked foul will be continually fending forth wicked, impure, earth. ly, light, empty, vain, trifling and unholy thoughts, and every foul that is regenerated and fanctifyed by the Spirit of God will breathe forth in holy praifes and devout affections its ardours and ftrong defires to him, feeking with longings and fervency after further and ftronger communications of the fame Spirit to mould it into love and obedience to his will, that his name may be glorified by all its faculties and powers. At least fuch a foul will grieve and mourn when fuch a frame of spirit is wanting. And now, my Dear, can it be a reftraint on a foul thus difpofed, to refrain vain fongs, dancings, and fine drefs, or light and unprofitable difcourfe and diverfions? Or will not fpiritual fongs, hymns, and pfalms of praise be more noble, and fuitable, and agreeable to raife its affections to the true objects of its love? And will not a p'ain clean drefs, profitable difcourfe that may inform the judgment, and fuch diverfions D only only as may fit and prepare both body and foul for the true and only end of its being, (namely, to glorify God) be its only delight and conftant aim and happiness, even in this life? Then, and not till then can it truly say with the holy Pfalmist, Whom have I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that I defire befides (or like unto) thee, Pfal. xxiii. 25. for thou, O God, art the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. This is the happiness of the godly perfon even in this life, and fuch an one can fay further; God is on my fide, I will not fear, but will rejoice in him, the God of my salvation; is fpirit fhall comfort and support me, and by his power, fball I be delivered out of all adverfities. O! reft not, my Dear, in the love of worldly goods; get out of this fpiritual Sodom, from the vain fenfual delights which pollute the foul, left you be consumed with the wicked; flee to your most gracious redeemer, feek to him with ftrong and constant prayers to accept and justify you by his free grace, and fanctify your corrupt nature by his holy Spirit, that your whole foul and body may be prepared for his fervice, and devoted intirely to do his will. Let this advice fink deep into your heart! Pray over it as I do, that the bleffing of God's Spirit may accompany your foul in the perufal of it. Tohis moft gracious favour and protection 1 commit you; and may he reward the kindness of your Uncle and Aunt with all fpiritual and temporal Bleffings, as may be most expedient for them.- My love waits on them my family was well four days past. From your affectionate Father, NUM B. IV. . H. B. Another letter from Mr. Hugh Bryan to his Child. Dear Child, October 14th, 1740. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, and the na tural enmity of our hearts to the true love of him and his ways, I would, if poffible, perswade you. Indeed my foul is in pain for you till Christ be formed in you, for till then there can be no more true fellowship and communion betwixt God and the foul, than betwixt light and darknefs, God and Belial and in nothing are we more apt to deceive ourselves, than in the true state of our hearts towards God; our hearts are very deceitful, and continually prone to evil; and felf-love is partial, it feeks to put favourable conftructions on all our thoughts, words, and actions; we are apt to fay of our fins, as Lot of the city of Zoar, Is it not a little one? Forgetting the infinite purity and truth of God, that he hates all fin and will not clear the guilty, for he is just as well as merciful. If we break one tittle of the commandments we are guilty of all, and shall be justly condemned for our fin, except we repent, and by faith lay hold on the righteoufness of Jefus Chrift. Our most perfect obedi ence is chargeable with imperfection and fin; and even our moft ardent prayer and penitential cries, fland in need of our Lord's atonement and mediation. But, for ever bleffed be the name of the holy Jefus, who, feeing our mifery, and knowing the true value of our fouls, did, out of his free grace and love, become our furety, and, to save us, took upon him our nature and fullfilled the righteoufnels of the whole law of God in our ftead. He fhed his most precious blood, and died to expiate our guilt; he arofe again for our juftification, and afcended and entered into his glory with the Father, where he ever makes interceffion for the fins of fuch as come to him; that all those who truly believe in him fhould not perish, but have everlasting life. My Dear, fearch your heart diligently, in your prayers beg earneftly and conflantly of God to fhew you even the moft fecret fins of your life, left you be deceived and fall fhort of the grace of God; left, not embracing the opportu-, nity of his mercy in the ftrivings of his Spirit with your foul now to reclaim you, by putting you in mind of your miferable deprav'd nature, and your daily fins of commiffion and omiffion, of thoughts, words, and deeds, (each of which deferve damnation) and of God's great willingness to receive you to the arms of his mercy, thro' the merits and mediation of his fon, your day of grace be paft, and he, for your obftinate refufal or neglect, withdraw his holy Spirit, and leave you to the awakenings of a wounded confcience and of his awful judg ment. ment. Remember Efau, who, having once flight ed his father's bleffing, could not afterwards obtain it, tho' he fought it carefully with tears. Confider the infinite condefcention of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghoft, jointly concurring in the work of our redemption, giving the knowledge of fin by his holy law, and of the way for pardon and falvation, in his holy gofpel. Our gracious redeemer therein holding forth the tenders of his love and pardon to all that will come to him to be faved. I have not now time to enlarge on the condefcending goodnefs of God to us; I can only fay it is infinite; and could we love him with a feraphick love, and praise his holy name with the tongue of angels to all eternity, it would be infinitely fhort of his fuperabounding love to us in Jefus Christ. My Dear, be diligent in the use of means; read your Bible, not in a flight or fuperficial manner, but with a heart feeking to God to reveal the truth and light thereof to your foul. Read alfo Whitefield's and Allein's works, and books of that nature; look not upon them as too ftrict, for if you do, and content your felf with a lefs degree of holiness than they require, as confiftent with fcripture, you'll find your felf deceived, when probably it will be too late. The foul that is truly converted ftrives to be holy as God is holy, and to abound in the fruits of the Spirit: thro' the mistaken notions of religion, the true ways of God feem to the unregenerate and carnal world, as rigours and D 3 feve |