tended) understanding of the prudent. They are zealously affecting one another, but not well; and, if God prevent not, fo they will find it. Their outward pretence is against the man and his bad fpirit, as they fuppofe; but the ground of it is, because they cannot bear the light, neither will they come to it; and, in effect, it is faying you fpeak by the fpirit of Satan: fo that I find it is not fo much the man they are fighting against, as the fpirit that fpeaketh in the man; and all under a feigned pretence for the glory of God. Is Chrift divided? No; bleffed be his holy name he is not. It appears to me to be no lefs than doing defpite to the Spirit of grace, or finning againft the Holy Ghoft. They are upon the verge of a precipice, which, if they get in, will drown them in deftruction and perdition. "Woe unto them, for they are going in the way of "Cain, and running greedily after the error of Ba

laam for reward, and will perifh in the gainfaying "of Korah! These are spots in our feasts of cha"rity; bringing an evil report on the good land; "when they feaft with us feeding themfelves with"out fear; clouds without water carried about of "winds; trees whofe fruit withereth, without fruit, "twice dead (dead fpiritually here, and in God's "account dead eternally hereafter; and fo they will

find it, when God fhall pluck them up by the "roots); raging waves of the fea foaming out their "own fhame; wandering ftars, to whom is re

ferved the blackness of darkness for ever." I de

clare

clare I tremble, while I write, at a view of their awful state.

I lately faw a book that is published against you; but, bleffed be God, he gave me eyes to fee into the fpirit of it. The author's drift seems to be inintended to spoil your usefulness as a preacher, under the pretended love of a friend. Satan may stalk about in his white robe and deceive many, but, bleffed be God, he fhall never finally deceive God's elect. We have had fome fpitfire work amongst us concerning you, but it has turned out for good, as we begin to know who is on the Lord's fide. It has had a good effect upon me; it has ftirred up fuch a zeal, which I hope is according to knowledge, that I have not lately felt, in standing up in defence of the truth; I can speak it without flattery, which I hate. I have found more love to you for the truth's fake, fince these things have happened, than I ever felt before; and have read your books, as it were, with new eyes, though they have hacked, cut, and fmote me, and fometimes comforted me. But comfort I feldom get any where, though others fay they have been comforted by me. Your book entitled Living Epiftles, and Light Shining in Darknefs, have been made a bleffing amongst us. I heard fome fay that your Living Teftimonies were a golden store to them. I fhall finish this I fhall finish this part with David's prayer; Keep back thy fervant from prefumptuous fins, let them not have dominion over me; "then shall I be upright (in him), and I fhall be

" innocent

"innocent from the great tranfgreffion; and let the "words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable in thy fight, O Lord, my "ftrength and my Redeemer."

I fhall now, my dear friend, attempt to give you fome account how I have gone on fince you was so kind as to fend me your last letter, and may the Lord make me plain, fimple, and honeft in it; for I have a ftrong propensity in me to keep back fome things from you that I go through, and also to put in others that I ought not; I find my heart deceitful, and desperately wicked. I have been chiefly in darkness fince I wrote to you laft, except fome fmall intervals, when a bleffed ray has darted into my foul, and I have felt as if it had diffused itself through my whole foul; it has been momentary, but very fatisfactory for the time, and then all fhut up again, and I, like Abraham, returned to my own place. Sometimes I have felt as if I had no changes, and have been, as it were, challenged to find a warfare in my foul, and, upon examination, I could not diftinguish that I had; and from these fenfations have drawn a conclufion that all was a blank, that I had been deceived into a profeffion, and had only mocked God, and hitherto deceived his people, and really I felt as if I never had known the ways of God at all: this in the end has been a fore travail. In this ftate I have even longed for former experience, the terrors of the law, &c. but could not come at them, and have begged of God

to

to begin his work in me. This feemingly indifferent ftate has been worse to me than all that I ever felt in all my life. I remember, as I fat at my work one day in this state, fadly troubled indeed refpecting my foul (it was on the 9th of last November), I was praying earneftly to the Lord to deliver me from every weight, and to reveal his Son in me, these words fuddenly came into my mind, “ I will "fhew thee great and mighty things that thou knoweft "not." I thought they were furprifing words, but I would let them alone till night, and then I would have a search for them. Night came, but I could not find them at all; I fearched betimes all next day, but I could not find them, and began to think it was from another quarter; however, at night, I thought I would once more fearch, but in vain. I did not know what to do; I thought to myfelf, will it be presumption to put up a petition to the Lord respecting it, to know if it came from him or Satan? The scriptures fay, thought I," that all things are "poffible to him that believeth." However I put up a petition to the Lord nearly in these words: Lord, thou knoweft I cannot find it; be pleafed, if confiftent with thy divine will, if the paffage came from thee, to direct me where to find it in thy word. I had fome idea in my mind, and was going to look for the 33d chapter of Ezekiel and 33d verfe; but fome how or other I made a mistake, and turned to the 33d of Jeremiah, and fixed my eyes immediately upon it. I was aftonifhed to think I

was

was answered directly. But what great and mighty things these are, I know not, though I have not a doubt but I fhall know hereafter. I told my wife, if the paffage was from the Lord (which I had no reafon to difbelieve) I fhould foon have Satan at me. Not long after, as I fat by the fire musing on thefe wonderful words, this was fecretly, but powerfully, whispered to my mind, "This night thou fhalt << die." I thought, can this be what the Lord means? I concluded it might, and to confirm it I began to feel as if death was making inroads upon me; I was all in a tremble, and began to feel very weak. I got up and began to walk about, but felt myself weaker and weaker, was ready to stagger in my walk, and was in a cold fweat; I took fome ginger, and got fome camomile tea made, but I could not get rid of my feelings. As I walked about I began to confider the words; I thought they said, "This night I shall die," but if it comes from God it must be according to his word, and I do not remember that there are fuch words in the Bible. I fufpected what quarter it came from, began to cheer up a little, and ventured to defy the devil to find fuch a paffage in all God's book. The tempter began to leer off, and I really imagined I felt him leaving me; but my feelings did not altogether go off till I fell alleep. Praifed be God, I am now a living experimental witnefs that the devil is a liar. And although I thought I fhould be tempted if it was from God, fo blind was 1 when

the