Ir is with much difficulty that I can get time to fend thee a scrap. The darkness which thou complaineft of is only in part, my friend; it is not Egyptian darknefs, nor the old vail of Sinai: for thou canft fee thyfelf, if thou canst not fee Chrift; and discover the old man plain enough, if thou canst not difcern the new; and all things that are reproved, and made manifeft, are reproved and made manifeft by the light. Thofe intervening rays you may call the day dawn, and the day ftar: the fhadows will foon flee away, the Lord will fhine, and thou fhalt rife when the glory of God is rifen upon thee. Thofe of the brighteft experience have been ready to call the whole work of God upon them into queftion, when under fpiritual desertions, in lukewarmnefs, or when buffeted by the adverfary: but the bruised reed muft be bound up, in order to make melody; the fmoking flax muft blaze, that a pure incenfe and grateful praifes may afcend up before the throne: the good work fhall be revived, the branch

branch must be purged, and the wind fhall blow on the garden, that the fpices may flow out, or elfe our great High Priest could not eat his pleasant fruits. The Lord will do the work over and over again, until the effect of righteousness be peace and affurance for ever. The fame paffage of fcripture to which you allude, was once fent in like manner to me, as is recorded in one of my pamphlets; with this difference only, the whole verfe came to me, Call upon me, and I will answer thee, and fhew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. At that time I had been fadly befet by a child of Satan, who was in the damnable herefy of Sabellianism, which I knew to be a lie, yet Satan forely haraffed me with ic; but it pleafed God to make good his word to me, and that in open vifion, which fully difcovered the artful fowler, broke his curfed fnare, and fent him off with all his infernal lies; while my foul felt itself sweetly compofed, becalmed, and fettled, in my heavenly Father's love, and in my dear Redeemer's faving benefits, and in the comforting witnefs of God the Holy Ghoft. The vifion, my fon, will fpeak in due time; wait for it: it is of the Lord, and will furely come; and bleffed is he that believed, for there will be a performance of what is told him by the Lord.

The above-mentioned conflict with Satan hath been of great ufe to me (under God) in the miniftry. For I believe that there is fcarce a depth of Satan, which is published either by the Arians, the Soci

nians, or Sabellians, which the devil did not fuggeft to my mind, and with these he puzzled, perplexed, and haraffed my foul, more or lefs, for two or three years, all which time I kept on (confused and bewildered as I was) preaching against them. But when the Lord delivered me, I was at a point in judgment about the ftate of fuch men; I knew by the deliverance which God wrought out for me, and by the light and glory that followed upon it, that thefe heretics were never taught of God, nor influenced by his Spirit; but that they were influenced, actuated, and inftructed, by the devil himself.

Once more. I was, about twenty-three years ago, forely befet by the adverfary in another way. I had presented to my mind a multitude of ghaftly figures; fome human, fome brutal, fome partly human and partly brutal, and fome infernal. I have been in the night, by the hour, in thefe chambers of imagery, with thefe images, figures, and fpectres, before me; which troubled me not a little, until it pleased God to deliver me. However, when I came to London, I faw, in the British Mufeum, and fince that in the collection of Sir Afhton Lever, feveral heathen gods exactly like them: and here I faw where all idolatry began; it was conceived in the carnal mind under the filthy operations of Satan; hence the finner is charged with being a whore to the devil: And they fall no more offer their facrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. Lev. xvii. 7. And the heretic conceives by forming

the

the fame conjunction. Satan begets every herefy that the children of men travail with and bring forth in this world: hence he is called, the father of lies; and these lies are called, doctrines of devils. Satan is the whoremonger, and the liar is the whore; what Satan begets, his ftrumpet brings forth: juft as Ananias and Sapphira did; Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Why bath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghoft? Aâs v. 3, 4. Here is both conception and pregnancy, conceiving and filling the heart; and to fuch finners Satan is a familiar spirit (Deut. xviii. 11), and they have fellowship with devils, 1 Cor. x. 20.

It is true, violent temptations often follow the manifeftations and communications of God-witness the temptations of Chrift after the Father's teftimony from heaven-this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed; and Paul's thorn in the flesh fucceeded his vifion of the third heaven. I do not wonder at the forgetfulness of thy former affertions when the temptation came on. Satan is like an highwayman, when he comes (for both are thieves) there is no time for deliberation or recollection; his bufinefs requires hafte; he cafts the poor foul into confufion, flurries him, and terrifies him, till he is fmitten with astonishment, and affrighted; the foul gets into a halty, peevish, and fretful temper, and knows not where it is, what it does, or what it fays; juft like a modeft damfel who falls fuddenly into the violent clutches of a ruffian. But when the rob

bery is committed, and the affurance of heaven repairs our lofs, we ftand aftonished at our own folly, to think that we fhould make no better ufe of our arms, but fo tamely fubmit to be plundered by a criminal curfed of God and bound with chains. This confideration, in former days, ufed to mortify me not a little; and I have fecretly bantered, challenged, defied, and almost wished him to make another attack while I was upon my watch and stood upon my arms, which was hardly ever the cafe; but as foon as I began to get fecure in my ward, or drowsy on my duty, then he came fo fuddenly and fo unfufpected, that I had not fo much as time to feel for either fhield or fword.

I am glad to hear that the Lord works by thee, though thou art determined never to work for him. He can load thee with afflictions for the confolation and falvation of his people, 2 Cor. i. 5; and make life work in them, and death in you. You are bound, but the word of God is not bound; and when your foul becomes more liberal, and devifes liberal things, by liberal things thou fhalt ftand. He that fcatters fhall yet increase, and he that waters fhall be watered alfo himfelf; but he that withholdeth more than is meet, it tendeth to penury. I am fully perfuaded that the Lord hath raifed thee up for fuch a time as this; and, if thou altogether hold thy peace, then fhall there enlargement and deliverance arife for Ifrael another way. In preaching the word the bow is drawn at a venture; the direction of the ar

row,