recollection at this time. She went from you, and I think, if I am not mistaken, it was but a few days after, as she was attending your ministry, that the Lord appeared for her, burft her bonds, and delivered her foul; and the next time you faw her she told you a better tale, as you had predicted. This account took off the edge of those feelings which were communicated by the other relation, as I thought I faw a near resemblance between her condition and mine. When you had related this, you turned to me again, and asked me the fame question as before, to tell you what was the matter with me. I did then open my mouth, and told you it was on account of the hardness and rebellion I felt in my heart. You then ordered a glafs of beer, and one for me, and faid, " Come, you and I will drink together." You asked me what I would drink to you. I anfwered, "I can drink my kind love to you." from your heart?" I faid, "What can you love me for? thing of God which you find in me; for no foul can love me for God's fake, unless they are loved of God; for we are to be hated of all men for his name's fake." And you added, "As fure as the Lord liveth, so sure shall you and I fit down together in the kingdom of heaven." That you fhould speak in fuch pofitive language to me, was very ftrange; neither could I credit you then. You then entered into converfation with me, and told b 2 You faid, "Can you, "Yes." You faid, It must be for fome me me all my feelings, as if you had been privy to all that had paffed in my heart for three years back; and even fome particular things which I had been exercised with but a few days before, which I knew none could know but God and myself; and which I had not mentioned even to the King's herald; therefore I knew you could have no information of them from him. You came to me that day, as Chrift came to the woman of Samaria, and told me all things that ever I did. And fent of God you was, I am well perfuaded, by the bleffed effects that followed. You had your commiffion from God to" ftrengthen the weak hands, and to confirm the feeble knees;" for my foul was refreshed; and I received a confidence at that time that God would appear for me; nor did I ever fink fo low afterwards; and it was about a month after this that God was pleafed to appear and deliver my foul. You faid unto me, "You fhall not die in the pit, for in the pit I know you are." I fhall never forget this interview, nor the effects of it, as long as I have an existence. When the Lord faw that my ftrength was gone, and that there was none fhut up or left, then he graciously appeared for me, and made the ministry of his excellency, by which I was alarmed and pulled down, the means of bringing me forth into the light and liberty of the children of God. The fermon was preached from thefe words: "Thou haft chaftened me fore, but thou haft not given me me over unto death." The Lord wrought faith in my heart, by that difcourfe, to believe in the dear Redeemer; and faith brought fuch joy into my foul as a stranger intermeddleth not with. I could now fay, with David, that God had turned my mourning into dancing, and had taken off my fackcloth, and girded me with gladness. And I really think, when I get to glory, that I shall fing the loudeft of redeeming love and fovereign grace of any there. I muft adopt, as my own, the language of Mr. Hart, "That finners, black as hell, by Chrift Are fav'd, I know full well; For I his mercy have not miss'd, I have fent you more than I intended when I fat down to write. But I believe every fact was brought to my mind by that bleffed Spirit under whofe operations they were wrought in my foul. Therefore I did not think that I should do right if I fuppreffed any part. I hope the homely drefs in which it appears will not obfcure it, fo as to make it unintelligible. I believe you will find it out, as you have travelled the fame path. before I was brought into it. I prefent it to you with this requeft, that I may have an intereft in your prayers, that the Lord would perfect that which is ftill lacking in my faith, and continue to work in me to will and to do of his own good pleasure; that I b 3 may may be helped to deny felf, and to take up the cross daily. And may the Lord long spare you to be useful in his vineyard, that you may daily fee the fruit of your labours in espousing fouls to Chrift, which fhall appear the crown of your joy and rejoicing in the great day, when you shall fay, "Here am I and the children which thou haft This is the humble and earnest given me." prayer of The King's Dale. PHILOMELA. To PHILOMELA, in the King's Dale. As I have heard that thou waft long in a profeffion before it pleafed God, by the mouth of his herald, to pull thee down and renew thee, I fhould like (if it be not too great a favour) to know how that firft work began. I know that God's work is perfect, and that nothing can be added to it, or taken from it; and that God doth it that men may fear before him. But fometimes the work hath small beginnings, and goes on almoft imperceptibly, the impreffions not being deep, deep, as in Job and Hezekiah, who, after a long profeffion, were led into awful discoveries of their own depravity, and who afterwards were favoured with more confpicuous deliverances, and with brighter views of God's great salvation, and of their intereft in it. I fhould like to know whether you had any fight or fenfe of the plague of your own heart, the natural hardness and impenitency of it, the infidelity, the rebellion, and carnal enmity of it; and if you were exercifed with legal bondage, the wrath of God, and the terrors of a broken law; the fear of death, and the torments which attend it; all of which the faints in the Bible complain much about. And, indeed, how can those be made free who are infenfible of their bonds, or those need the physician who are not fick? or those be reconciled who never felt their enmity? or those receive the love of God who have neither fear nor torment to caft out? No Imall number who ftand high in their profeffion are ignorant of all these things; and fure I am that the office and appointment of Chrift doth not reach them, for he was not fent to feed the full, to heal the whole, to fupport the ftrong, nor to call the righteous. He was fent to bind up the broken-hearted, to open the prifon to those that were bound, &c. They tell us that they were drawn by love; but all that God loves he rebukes and chaftens, and fcourges every fon whom he receiveth; and declares that those who |