add to the melody of thy heart, and to afford fome fresh matter for the fong, is the caufe of my fending thefe" to the chief finger on my stringed inftruments." Hab. iii. 18.

The Desert.

NOCTUA AURITA.

LETTER XIV.

To NOCTUA AURITA, in the Defert.

YOUR having informed me that the bee came to your hive with wax on its legs, and honey in its bag, encouraged me to come again to you. Precious was your last to me! delicious fare for really it has been fo refreshing to my foul, that I can feed upon nothing else: therefore have compaffion on me, and go on ftill to help me; and you will certainly experience the wife man's words to be true, viz. "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth." Confider that this week there is no going up to Bethel. Our watchman is removed into a corner, fo that we can neither fee him nor hear him. The Lord blefs the interview, and grant that he may foon return, and

come to us in all the fulness of the bleffings of the gospel of Chrift. I have read again and again your laft letters, and found a fecond benefit. I believe, while I remain upon this earth, that I fhall never have done with them. Some of the myfteries I had the key to before they came, or I never could have found out the riddle. Sweetly was my foul led into the experience and enjoyment of thofe bleffed truths; which did fo humble and meeken my foul, that it crucified me afresh to this finful world; fo that I am not fit to live in it. I feem quite infenfible to every thing in it, and hardly at times know what I am about, or where I am. This has given me fome light into those words of our bleffed Saviour, in his prayer to the Father before he entered upon his fufferings. Praying for his difciples, he fays,

They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." I cannot but think that you have been lately a fabbath-day's journey into fome part of the promised land, and have reached as far as the brooks of Efhcol; for what you have sent to me feems to be fome of the first ripe fruits, a most precious clufter. It could not be carried by one; but it hath been laid on a ftaff, and born betwixt two. It was one of the choiceft of all bleffings; no lefs than an earnest of the whole inheritance. O that I was but with you,

to tell you what I enjoy now, while the King's herald is with you! But this is impoffible. Wives

and

and mothers must be keepers at home. But the heaven-born foul cannot be confined. Though abfent in body, yet am I prefent in fpirit; and, had I the wings of a dove, nothing under heaven fhould hinder my flight, for once, into the Defert.

I know now, by bleffed experience, that nothing but a sense of the dying love of Jefus can humble a proud heart, and foften the ftubborn fpirit of a finner, fo as to bring him to the Lord's feet; and I am a living witnefs that this will do it. This will fubdue the most hardened, rebellious, and defperate wretch that ever breathed on this earth; and this will be my wonder and admiration to all eternity. O that I was but above, that I might "praise him, who is the health of my coun tenance, and my God!" How do I long to join with the hundred and forty-four thousand in their fong to him that hath loved us, and redeemed us, and wafhed us from our fins in his own blood. Surely voice will be the loudest my them. among My foul thanks you for what I have received this week from you. I have had a banquet indeed. May a full reward be given you by your Father, and my Father, your God and my God! A fweet fhelter indeed my foul has found from the windy ftorm and tempeft. I find it as the fhadow of a great rock in this weary land. My foul has ftill in remembrance the wormwood and the gall, which were bitter enough to my foul. But all is

paft;

past; and nothing of vindictive wrath shall my foul know henceforth and for ever. What aftonishing love was it for the Lord to pass by fuch a rebel as I was, and to fay unto me, when I was in my blood, "Live." Yea, he has spread his skirt over me; and in that bleffed robe shall I appear before him in the great day, without fpot or wrinkle, or any fuch thing; and, though black as the tents of Kedar, fair as the curtains of Solomon. As you observe, could we always live on the mount, without any interruption; but, alas! down from the mount we must come. But I am, like Peter, for detaining the Lord, and building a tabernacle, that I may abide with him till he shall take me to the upper and better house.

What the Lord is preparing me for, I know not; and what my path will be next, I am in the dark about. You intimate that he is preparing me for the field of action. May I be taught to endure hardness as a good foldier of Jefus Chrift! The world, the flesh, and the devil, are against me, I know; but this I know likewife, that I can do all things through Chrift strengthening me. However, at prefent I feem as if I had no enemies; for the Lord has made the corruptions of my heart, and Satan too, as ftill as a ftone. And sweetly does he commune with my foul, which humbles me in the duft before him; and I feel fuch meltings of heart as I never knew any thing of before; which have been much produced by

my

your two laft letters. The mystic gates and wards that Wisdom is leading my foul through are fome of the fecrets that are with them in whose heart he has put his fear. I," fays Wisdom, "lead in the way of righteoufnefs, in the midft of the paths of judgment, to cause them that love me to inherit fubftance; and I will fill their treasures." I believe that what I am now in the enjoyment of is fome of that fubftance, that fabbath-day's portion, which told me in you dream I fhould enjoy. Surely the Lord does now, as well as in days of old, inftruct by dreams and vifions of the night. "When deep fleep falleth upon men, then he fealeth their inftructions." I am fure I can witness to the truth of this. We were greatly in expectation of feeing you before now. But the Lord knows best when to fend you. I hope, when you do come, it will be with good news from a far country, and make it one of the days of the Son of Man to us. I think I need not tell you that I fhall be happy to hear from you again. I have a young hidden one with me who defires to be remembered to you. She wifhes you the enjoyment of every fpiritual bleffing. She is one that is waiting at the pool for the moving of the waters, to be healed of all her spiritual diseases. Our little fifter, who hath no breafts, is much indisposed. I think the would greatly esteem a letter from you. Remember my love to Father G―n. I hope he is not offended at the liberty I took in writing

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