this will raise the spirits, and restore strength; this will animate us to hold on, and to hold out; this will do it, and nothing but this can. So, if obedience be the thing in question, looking unto Jesus is the object that melts the soul into love and gratitude, and those who greatly love, and are greatly obliged, find obedience easy. When Jesus is upon our thoughts, either in his humbled or his exalted state, either as bleeding on the cross, or as worshipped in our nature by all the host of heaven, then we can ask the apostle's question with a becoming disdain, "Shall we continue in sin that

grace may abound?" God forbid. What! shall I sin against my Lord, my love, my friend, who once died for my sins, and now lives and reigns on my behalf; who supports, and leads, and guides, and feeds me every day? God forbid. No; rather I would wish for a thousand hands, and eyes, and feet, and tongues, for ten thousand lives, that I might devote them all to his service: he should have all then; and surely he shall have all now! Alas, that in spite of myself there still remains something that resists his will! but I long and pray for its destruction, and I see a day coming when my wish shall be accomplished, and I shall be wholly and for ever the Lord's.

I am your affectionate servant.

My Dear Sister,

LETTER II.

To Miss M****.

November 2, 1761.

YOUR letter was welcome and comfortable. I praise

the Lord on your behalf, and shall not cease to pray, "that you may be filled with his will in all wisdom

and spiritual understanding;" that you may go on "to "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things;" and that a sense of his presence and power" who so "loved us as to wash us from our sins in his own "blood," may be your establishment, and strength, and comfort continually. You have reason, indeed, to praise him, and so have I. O what a wonder of grace, that he should say to those who were children of wrath, "Behold, I go to my Father, and to your Father, to my "God and to your God." "Henceforth I call you

not servants but friends," and as a proof of it, "Ask "what you will, and it shall be done unto you." Here are words sufficient either to raise our souls up to heaven, or to bring heaven down into our souls, according to that glorious promise which to many is Rev. xxi. 3.

fulfilled even in our day.

Let us not be greatly discouraged at the many tribulations, difficulties, and disappointments which lie in the path that leads to glory: seeing our Lord has told us before; has made a suitable provision for every case we can meet with, and is himself always near to those that call upon him; a sure refuge, an almighty strength, a never-failing, ever-present help in every

time of trouble; seeing likewise that he himself was a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief for our sakes. He drank off the full cup of unmixed wrath for us; shall we then refuse to taste of the cup of affliction at his appointment? especially when his wisdom and love prepare it for us, and proportion every circumstance to our strength; when he puts it into our hands, not in anger, but in tender mercy, to do us good, to bring us near to himself; and when he sweetens every bitter draught with those comforts which none but he can give. Let us rather say, None of these things move us, neither do we count any thing on this side eternity dear, so that we may finish our course with joy, and run with patience the race which is set before us.

The time is short:-the world is passing away; all its cares and all its vanities will soon be at an end. Yet a little while and we shall see him who has found a way to make us love him, though we have not yet beheld him-" we shall see him, as he is," every vail will be taken away, every seeming frown be removed from his face, and every tear wiped away from ours. We shall also be like him. Even now, when we contemplate his glory as shining in the glass of the Gospel, we feel ourselves, in some measure, transformed into the same image; what a sudden, wonderful, and abiding change shall we then experience, when he shall shine directly, immediately, and eternally upon our souls without one interposing cloud between! Because he lives, we shall live also:-because he shines, we likewise shall shine forth as the sun, in our Saviour's brightness; then shall we sing with understanding those glorious songs, Isaiah xii. lxi. 10. Rev. v. 9. and vii. 10. without one jarring note, or one wandering thought fer ever.

"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord;"— Let us lay aside every weight;""Let us not be sloth«< ful," "but followers of that cloud of witnesses who in every age have set their word to the truth and power of God. They were once as we are now; they had their complaints and their fears, their enemies and temptations; they were exercised with a wicked heart, and a wicked world; and I doubt not but many of them, in a fit of unbelief, have been ready to conclude, "I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul," but at length, the "blood of Jesus, and the word of his testi

mony," made them more than conquerors, and now their warfare is finished, they are "before the throne "of God and the Lamb, and shall go no more out.” While we are sighing, they are singing; while we are fighting, they are triumphing; but their song, their triumph, their joy, will not be complete till we are called up to join them. The Lord prepare us for, and hasten, the happy hour.

The strain of your present experience requires you, above all others, to be humble and watchful, and I trust you are so. However, it is our duty to exhort one another daily. One of the greatest contradictions in human nature, and the very strongest proof of our depravity, is that the communication of extraordinary measures of divine comforts, which in their own nature have a direct tendency to humble, has, through our corruptions, sometimes a contrary effect; not in the present moment, indeed that is impossible, but afterward. Paul himself was liable to danger in this matter. See 2 Cor. xii. 7. You will do well, therefore, to entreat the Lord to give you a double guard on this side, to VOL. VI.

C

keep you in continual remembrance what you were by nature, and what you still are in yourselves. We are often forced to buy this recollection by bitter experience.

Again, be watchful:many eyes are upon you. Satan envies you. Oh! he hates to see any persons, especially young persons, walking very closely with God; so far as he is permitted, he will spread snares for your feet every hour: he desires to have you, that "he may sift you as wheat." Further, the world observes you; many would rejoice at your halting; and a little thing in you would give them more pleasure and advantage in opposing the truth, than a greater slip in some others who are content to plod on in the common way. Nay, it is well if there are not some even among yourselves, professors and members who would be glad to see you brought down to a level with themselves, since they cannot persuade themselves to join and imitate you. These things you know without my telling you, and I do not mention them to discourage you. No, were every leaf upon the trees, and every blade of grass a sworn enemy to our souls, we are safe under the shadow of our great rock; the blessing is his, and he will not withhold it; but the appointed means are our part, and it is our wisdom and happiness to be found waiting on him in the use of them.

Yours, &c.