me over unto death." The Lord wrought faith in my heart, by that discourse, 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 gladnefs. And I really think, when I get to glory, that I fhall fing the loudest of redeeming love and fovereign grace of any there. I must 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 mifs'd,
And I'm as black as hell."

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 blessed 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 dress 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 crofs 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 Christ, which shall appear the crown of your joy and rejoicing in the great day, when "Here am I and the children which thou haft

you

fhall fay,

given me.' This is the humble and earneft 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 pleased 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 almost imperceptibly, the impreffions not being

deep,

deep, as in Job and Hezekiah, who, after a long profeffion, were led into awful difcoveries of their own depravity, and who afterwards were favoured with more confpicuous deliverances, and with brighter views of God's great falvation, and of their intereft in it. I fhould like to know whether you had any fight or sense 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 exercised 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 phyfician who are not fick? or those be reconciled who never felt their enmity? or thofe receive the love of God who have neither fear nor torment to caft out? No fmall number who stand 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 prison 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

have no chastisement are bastards, and not fons. A reply to this will greatly oblige,

I RECEIVED your kind epiftle, and do moft fincerely thank you for the fame, and fhall comply with your request, for I feel a pleafure in fo doing; and fhould I give too much fcope to my pen, I hope you will pardon it. To proceed. My parents being profeffors of religion, I was early brought to attend on the word preached, under the Rev. DB-. He being a

Calvinist

Calvinift diffenter, (and I believe he preached the doctrines of the gospel clearly) I fat under him till I was in my twentieth year; but it was from conftraint, and not out of any love to it. But during all these years I attained to no degree of knowledge of the doctrines I heard; and I believe that the heathens, who never faw a bible nor heard the word, could not be more blind and ignorant than I was.

But, at the end of this period of time, one Lord's day Mr. B― preached from these words, "O Ifrael, thou haft deftroyed thyfelf; but in me is thy help." As he went on treating of the first part, I found my attention drawn to it, and faw that I was interested in the subject; and I do believe there never was a truer defcription given of the fall of man, as far as it could be conveyed from light received from the letter of the word, than he gave at that time: it made me tremble from head to foot. I believed the report; and clearly did he fhew how fallen man was under the curfe of the law, and, as fuch, obnoxious to the wrath of God; and confcience made the application by bearing this teftimony, "Thou art the man." He then treated largely on free grace, and falvation by Christ, and shewed that it was only for finners that Chrift died, and that this falvation became ours by believing. I fhall not enlarge on his fermon, but tell you that these last tidings made my very heart leap for joy. I thought,