O! what condefcenfion, what humiliation, is this in God, to behold the things that are done on earth! And will God, in very deed, dwell with men? Yes: though he be high, yet hath he refpect to the lowly; for a finner created anew in Chrift Jefus is the mafterpiece of divine workmanship, and from fuch the King of kings receives his greateft revenue; this people have I formed for myself, they fhall fhew forth my praife. They fhall celebrate the illuftrious perfections of his nature, his counfels of old, which are faithfulness and truth, the wonderous works of his hands, the innumerable folds of his wifdom, and the glorious majefty of his kingdom.

I bless my God for thee, my fon, and on thine account, because the glorious work profpers in the hand of Zion's King; he fhares a portion with the great, and divides the fpoil with the ftrong; the travail of his foul, and the fruits of his labour, creep forth from the lions den, and from the mountains of the leopards. By the blood of the covenant the prifoners fill go forth from their cells, and thofe that fit in darkness fhew themfelves, and fhine under the fpring of eternal day; and ere long the remains of the vail which now too often intervenes fhall be done away, and we shall know as we are known; and all thefe fad and dangerous allurements, with the whole of this grofs matter which is now in view, fhall diffolve and vanish, and we fhall awake in his likenefs, and be fatisfied therewith; for he that hath fhewed us great and fore troubles fall quicken us again, and bring us

up again from the depths of the earth; he shall increase our greatness, and comfort us on every fide. Then shall we see him as he is, and be filled with all his fulness.

But I must counsel thee a little, and tell thee what will befall thee, more or less, in the course of thy pilgrimage. Thou art now in the banqueting house, in perfect friendship, and in sweet union with the best beloved, and his voice to us at fuch times is, Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. This is the language of the heavenly wooer in the day of espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart. But look up, and fee; what is that which hangs over thy head? His banner over me is love. True; but a banner is a sign of war, and the Shulamite is a company of two armies; time will tell thee what that means. The new wine, of which thou speakest, is in general poured forth plentifully on the day of espousals; but the time will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then fhall they faft in thofe days. Yea, the time will come, when ye fhall defire to fee one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not fee it. Weaning days are terrible days to the little heirs of promife, and days of abfence and fpiritual defertion are no less difinal to a wife of youth; but the God of Ifrael, the Saviour, is verily a God that hideth himself; and when he does fo, who then can behold him? At these times his wonders in the land are obfcured, and his commandment is hid. The hills of

8

Judah

Judah flow neither with wine, nor with milk. Wif dom refuses to fleep with us, and even to talk with us; we feek him, but he is not to be found; we call him, but he gives us no answer. Looking up, recoils with grief; and looking to months past, is attended with aggravation. We have been driven, yea, wooed and won from all earthly enjoyments, and wholly absorbed in divine and heavenly realities; and now dead to the one, and bereft of the other. But faith must be tried. The adverfary falutes us with the old taunt, where is now thy God? The old man, which we thought to be crucified, dead, buryed, and for ever gone, rifes again in a worse appearance than in Samuel's mantle; for he appears with seven heads and ten horns, and all his members more clearly and more diftinctly feen than ever they were before, and if poffible more desperate, and all against the empire of grace, with Satan at the head of them-a true emblem of the Gog and Magog army encompaffing the camp of the faints; worst of all is, Jefus is not to be found. must have an engagement in the wilderness, before we return in the power of the Spirit, in order that our fonship may be confirmed in us, and that we may know, by bleffed experience, that his grace is fufficient for us. In thefe trying times every bait that can poffibly gratify flesh and blood will be hung upon Satan's hook, and all our former pleasurable fins will be prefented to view, and the natural enmity and rebellion of the heart not a little stirred up; which, to

and the

But we

a foul

a foul reconciled to God, appears a frange thing. But this is the time for the believer to quit himself like a man; to be conftant in prayer, though no anfwer be given; to be diligent in the means, though nothing appears to be gained by trading; to be much in private, though followed up by the worft of company; ftill to feek him, though it appears to be labour in vain; to read, although every thing runs against us; and to watch his hand, though we fee not our figns, nor one token for good. When we have laboured through this fiery trial, faith ap pears more precious than gold, the way more clearly caft up, and our feet to stand in a more even place. I now commit thee to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build thee up, and to give thee an inheritance among all them that are fanctified, by faith that is in Chrift Jefus; and remain, in the best of bonds, your friend and fervant for his fake,

W. H. S.S.

Church-ftreet, Paddington.

LETTER

LETTER XXV.

To the Rev. Mr. HUNTINGTON.

DEARLY BELOVED AND HONOURED FATHER IN

CHRIST JESUS,

As fuch I fhall ever efteem you; for through your inftrumentality alone it is that the Lord has been pleased to beget me to a lively hope that I shall never perish, but have everlafting life, and be found to be a member of Christ's mystical body when time fhall be no more.

You have long been made manifest in my heart and confcience as a fervant of the Lord; and the doctrines that you preach as the only true doctrines of the gofpel, being the very fame that the apostles and prophets taught in the days of old: laying Christ Jefus, and him crucified, as the only foundation for poor finners to build all their hopes and expectations of complete falvation and everlafting glory upon, I have no more doubt of the word of the Lord in your mouth being truth, than I have of my perfonal existence; no more. Because it hath come with power to my heart, and by it the Lord hath effected a moft wonderful change.