one of the days of the Son of man, and ye fhall not fee it." If thou purfue this my counsel, thou wilt be furnished with many powerful pleas in time to come; and, if thou minute down his gracious words and love vifits, these would, in fome future time, fill thy mouth with arguments. But, alas! thou art too bufy. This harveft will be paft, and thy fun will be declining; the fhadows of the evening will be stretching out, and the trial of faith be coming on. Satan will plunder thy memory of all the fweet promifcs thou haft obtained. He will address thee as an angel of light, and work upon all the natural and corrupt affections that thou art poffeffed of; and fhall fo influence thy natural paffions, as that thou fhalt even be at a lofs to know from whence they come. Then will he fift up, overhaul, and call in queftion, all this good work; and, while univerfal charity is flowing in, the best beloved will be drawing off; and then, like a young wanton spendthrift, thou wilt fet down and condemn thine own folly and indiscretion for not adopting these measures; for, during the furnace work, there will be only now and then a ftanding behind the wall, and a glimpfe through the lattice, which provokes to jealoufy, and, in the general, terminates in fainting fits and love ficknefs; at which feasons the comelinefs of the countenance is much defaced; the ornaments of a meck and quiet fpirit fullied; gospel fimplicity tarnished; the bowels

D 3

of

of mercy ftraitened; and, instead of well-set hair, baldness. The tabret becomes a bye-word; converfation lofes its favour, and the words their falt. Let me advise thee to provide for thyself a few high heaps of witneffes, and to set up a few private land marks, which fhall ferve thee in time to come; for the many that are looking to thee, and emptying thy barrel and crufe, will make thee the keeper of their vineyard; and thou shalt by and by confefs that thine own vineyard thou haft not kept. To be open, and to communicate, and to tell others what God hath done for our fouls, is right. The woman healed of her iffue was called forth before the whole company to confess what fhe had done, and what had been done in her; and it was approved. When with the heart we believe, with the mouth we must confefs; for this is being found to return, and to give glory to God. But to make thine own calling clear, and thine own election fure, is, and ought to be, the principal work, and is laying in a good foundation against the time to come. "When I am old and grey-headed forfake me not, O God of my falvation!" faith the Pfalmift. And, if thou doft not lay up for a future famine, future times of drought, or future desertions, thou fhalt furely complain, as others have done, "O that it was with me as in months paft, when God preserved me, when the Almighty was with me, when the fecret of God was upon my tabernacle, and when my glory

was

was fresh in me!" Lay this epiftle by thee, and read it over seven years hence; and then fend me word how many lying predictions are found in this fcribble of thine

The Defert.

Affectionate friend and fervant,

NOCTUA AURITA.

LETTER X.

To NOCTUA AURITA, in the Defert.

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WAS I perfect in the language of Canaan, I could convey to your mind the fenfations of love and gratitude I feel in my heart to you for the unparalleled kindness you shew to me in your work of faith and labour of love, in the Lord Jefus, to my foul. You never will know, till we fit down in glory together, what an inftrument the Lord makes you of confirming and eftablishing his work on my foul. However, fure I am that this kindness of yours fhall in no wife lofe its reward. I think that his Majesty's herald and yourself were both born into this world on

purpose to be useful to me.

"

I received a letter

from you last Wednesday, which prophefied of fome dark and cloudy days. Sure I am that my old man will procure me a large share of fatherly chastisement. But to the hungry foul every bitter thing is fweet." To be put and kept at a distance from him whom my foul loves, must be a hell upon earth; and I think will be more feverely felt by me now, fince I have been indulged with fuch manifeftations of his love to my foul as I have been lately. But there will be a sweetness in it when he shall turn again; for it is but for a fmall moment he will hide his face; and at that time there will be nothing of that bitter ingredient in it called vindictive wrath. I know you never yet fent me one lying prediction, and I am fure that you never will; for every epiftle you have sent me came under the feal of the Spirit of God; and precious they are to my foul, and a valuable treafure I efteem them. Their price is far above rubies, more defirable than fine gold, "fweeter alfo than the honey and the honeycomb." I must now dismiss your first letter, though I could fay much more about it, and the effects of it on my mind. But I have much to fay about your fecond letter, which I received on Saturday evening. It caused fleep to depart from my eyes, and flumber from my eyelids; and I was full of toffings to and fro until the dawning of the day. And, had I had the wings of a dove, I fhould have been at

Paddington

Paddington as early on fabbath-day morning as Mary was at the fepulchre of her dear Lord. The first page of it is a mystery to me. I have not wisdom to understand these words of the wife, and his dark faying, "The bee that came to your hive with the wax and honey." I cannot make it out. But it is the "feeling of the wind fhaking the cottage," which you think is haftening your arrival at the better houfe, which filled my heart with forrow. It made my heart tremble for the ark of God. My mind got a little compofed from the Lord's dealings with Ifrael when he was about to take away Elijah. He did not do it till he had anointed another prophet in his room. As there are fo few watchmen that God hath set on the walls of our Zion who can detect an enemy, and give the time of the night, I hope the Lord is not about to leave the city of our affemblies in the hands of blind watchmen, who cannot underftand; because he fays that "our teachers fhall not be moved into a corner any more." From what you fay next, in one of yours, I gather that you have fome more enemies to encounter. Perhaps you are in perils, according to custom, among false brethren. You speak of many loathing the manna, and calling it light food. This certainly calls for divine judgment. But, as you observe, your crown is fure, because your reward is with your God. Whoever they are that fight against the truth, and the power of it, fight against God.

But