and covenants, and gives us bright views of the ancient fettlements of eternity, and of the glorious and rich displays of grace; and leads us to fee a bleffed harmony in the doctrines of the gospel, and produces harmony in our mind and judgment; and a most sweet peace and tranquillity of foul follow upon these things. An earnest defire to establish thee is the cause of my leading thy mind through the above operations.

As to myself, my heart has long funk and rofe with my country. I view Old England as the feat of the church of the living God, and the valley of vifion, Ifa. xxii. 1. And, because of the houfe of the Lord my God, I will feek my country's good. Every time that I hear of any fuccefs attending the French I find uncommon energy in prayer against them; and every time they are defeated my foul pours forth her gratitude to my God. In all the circle of my acquaintance, whether in town or country, I do not know one child of God, who really knows his own heart, and the great Physician, but what has an earnest desire, a and a cry, prayer, in his heart to God against that base nation. And who furnishes us with these defires and prayers? That God that will fulfil our defires, and grant the request of our lips; for fure I am that the Spirit maketh interceffion for the faints according to the will of God, but never contrary to it. I believe I have some knowledge of about thirty perfons who, in their fimplicity,

have inadvertently fucked in the venom of Tom Paine; and nothing but barrennefs, confufion, guilt, and bondage, followed them. But, as foon as God led me to fhew his mind and will concerning it, they fell before it; and, by the furnace of affliction and humbling grace, they brought it up, and returned to their reft. But fome few that I know have drunk deep into it; and thefe, like the houfe of Eli, will not be cafily purged, either by facrifice or offering. They are too wife to be inftructed, and too ftrong to be brought down to fubmit to the word of truth. No private prayer, nor public warning, hath any effect upon them. And this hath made them manifeft to me, and to many more. And I believe in my heart that their wisdom will terminate in their own deftruction, because "they have not hearkened to my counsel," 2 Chron. xxv. 16. God will deftroy the fat and the ftrong; he will feed them with judgment, Ezek. xxxiv. 16. And I know of no profeffors fo ftrong, in the worst sense, as those which faithful reproof cannot pull down. But my God will never look to, nor dwell with, any but those who are of an humble and a contrite fpirit, and who tremble at his word. An awful proof of this hath lately been discovered. A man who refided not far from the chapel, and who had attended me for fome time diligently, and appeared to be a reformed man, and began to call upon God, and kept up prayer in his family, and, as Paul says of the Galatians, feemed to run well, but Satan hindered him,

by

by conveying the fentiments of Tom Paine to his mind; at which time he became a fworn enemy to government, and of course affociated with thofe who could ftrengthen his hands in rebellion. Nevertheless he did not leave the chapel, nor drop prayer in his family. And, though I was often led to bear my testimony against that infernal fpirit, yet he stood his ground; he obeyed not the voice of his teacher, nor was he to be fed with that part of God's wholesome word which tells every foul to be fubject to the higher powers. But it was not long before God fed him with judgment; for when I preached the "Watch-word and Warning" he was there; and God fent it home to his heart, and down he went; and when he got home he told his wife that he was a damned man, and that he was in the ftate that I had described; and from that time he left off praying. Soon after this he got up to Kenfington palace; and there he curfed and blafted the king, and told the people that he was king. Some of the military, hearing of this, took him into custody; but, perceiving him out of his mind, they difmiffed him. Thus he began with that doctrine that holds up the majefty of the people; and, when given up to the devil, he proclaimed himself a king. But, if we are obedient unto death, we fhall be more; for " he hath made us kings and priests unto God, and we fhall reign for ever and ever." Adieu.

The Defert.

NOCTUA AURITA.

LETTER

LETTER XXXIII.

To NOCTUA AURITA, in the Defert.

I HAVE received your epiftle, for which I feel more thanks in my heart than I have words to exprefs. I believe I fhall ever remain the greatest debtor you have; and I am fure I shall never be able to pay one mite towards it. But I know the Lord will return you fourfold; because he has said, "Whatsoever ye have done unto one of these my little ones, ye have done it unto me." You have never yet denied me any one request I have made; the confideration of which emboldens me to come to you again with fome difficulty which I have upon my mind. I told you, in my laft, that what you mentioned in your former letter of the latter rain which was to come down on the believer at death, had, in some measure, released my mind from fome fears which

have been long haraffed with. I thank you for enlarging on the fubject. Indeed, the matter lay with much weight on my mind. You mention this paffage, viz. that "the righteous have bands in their death;" and that these fhall be the last fetters that shall be broken. I am in the dark

what

what thefe bands are; snap at a dying hour. that is to be done on the foul at that time the greatest work of all. Is it not ftrange, then, that my mind should be again brought into bondage under the fear of death? You told me, in a former letter, that we were travelling in the fame path; but, indeed, I think it is otherwife now. But you must judge when I give you an account of my present feelings. And one thing in your letter confirms me in it, viz. where you say that the daily cross, which is intended to counteract the devices of Satan, the workings of the old man, and the pleafing defires of the flesh, is not all you expect in the course of your pilgrimage; but that you expect fome familiar vifits, fresh love-tokens, confirming renewals, and promifed revivals, of the good work of God, even unto the end. This is the place I seem to turn out of your path; and, indeed, I have at prefent no fuch things in expectation. And it feems to me that I am confirmed in this by the word of God. The paffage I refer to is recorded in Ezekiel: "But, when the people of the land fhall come before the Lord in the folemn feafts, he that entereth in by the north gate to worship fhall go out by the way of the fouth gate; and he that entereth in by the way of the fouth gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate; he fhall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but fhall go forth over

but it seems they are to But yet you call the work

against