This furely must be what David meant when he faid the pains of hell got hold of him; for sure I am that my feelings were fimilar to what the damned in hell feel. Here I let go my hold of the Rock, and fo I lay expofed to all the fhafts of Satan; and this was his hour, and the powers of darkness; for there was nothing to refift him, for I had not one piece of that armour that God has provided in exercise; and fure I am that, if my fafety had depended on my hold of the Rock, I had funk to rife no more. But the Rock held me, and followed me through this dark path. The third day I could write a few lines to his excellency, and he sent me a letter; and God did give him a word for me which did in a measure abate the violence of the temptation. He told me it was Satan, and I was helped in a measure to believe it; and I felt a calmness in my mind, and these words afforded fome confolation to me, namely, the conversation between John and the angel in the Revelation, where he fays, "Who are these, and whence came they?" and the angel's reply, "These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; therefore are they before the throne of God." I faw much in this word therefore; by it I clearer than ever faw that there was no getting to heaven but through a rough path; and these words of James added fomething to the calm on my mind, "Bleffed

"Bleffed is he that endureth temptation, for when he is tried he fhall receive the crown of. life." And I know that I had been made to endure this conflict, and alfo who had fupported. me through it. But Satan was not fully difcovered till I received your letter; and, when I had read it twice, I faid with David, "Though an hoft encamp against me, 1 will not fear; though war rife up against me, in this will I be confident, for God is with me of a truth." And fure I am that all that Satan has told me about not being on your heart as aforetime, is a lie. And the Lord has been pleased to set his broad seal to the contents of your letter, that my mind might be, if poffible, more than fully satisfied that it came from him, and that you gave me the mind of the Spirit; for, on reading the xlvith of Ezekiel after perufing your letter, and after reading the 10th verfe, which fays, "And the prince in the midft of them when they go in fhall go in, and when they go forth fhall go forth;" to think Satan fhould hold me in fuch dark nefs fo long quite astonished me, when that one verfe is quite fufficient to prove all the interpretations that he had put on the verfe before to be nothing but lies. After I had communicated the dream and the conflict to his Majefty's herald, I had concluded never to rehearse it again; but the light that accompanied your letter to me made me alter my mind, for I thought you would see more of the work

O 2

work of Satan and his craft than I could. May the Lord bless with the bleffings of the upper

you

and nether springs, and abundantly reward all your labours of love to my foul! This is, and ever will be, the prayer (when privileged with accefs to God) of

Your very

fincere and affectionate fifter

The King's Dale.

in the bonds of the gospel,

PHILOMELA.

P. S. My partner unites with me in kind love. We should be very glad to fee you at our cottage this fummer; and the poor Shunamite will be very glad to accommodate you with a bed, and a table, and a ftool, and a candlestick.

LETTER

LETTER XXXVI.

To PHILOMELA, in the King's Dale.

YOURS came fafe to hand; in which you intimate that the fnare of the fowler is, in fome measure, broken. Satan can quote and apply fcripture when it will serve his own turn; but he is never divided against himself in that work.

As the angels were the firft creatures that God made, and are called the morning ftars, and fons of God, who fung their anthem together, and fhouted for joy at the creation of the world, Job xxxviii. 7; fo I have no doubt but they were present when God gave the law to Adam, as they were alfo at the giving it to Ifrael at Sinai, Heb. ii. 2. And this appears plain by Satan (after his fall from heaven) quoting the word of God in his first attempt to deceive Eve: "Yea, hath God faid, Ye fhall not eat of every tree of the garden?" He used the same art in his tempting Chrift to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple: "It is written," faith Satan, "He fhall give his angels charge over thee, and in their hands they fhall bear thee up." Matt.

iv. 6.

In this way Satan labours to difcourage every broken-hearted finner whom the Lord hath awakened, quickened, and wounded; I mean, by quoting and applying the moft terrible texts of fcripture to them, which he does to obftruct our way to Chrift, to difhearten us, to fink us in defpair, and to ftop the mouth of prayer, and to ftir up hard thoughts of Chrift; and fome of the moft alarming paffages in the Bible are thrown as ftumbling-blocks in our way, and we stumble upon the dark mountains of Sinai, and ftumble at election, and at reprobation, Zech. vi. 1. Heb. xii. 18. In this way he haraffed me, by bringing continually to my mind the unpardonable fin, or fin unto death; and that of Efau's finding no place of repentance, though he fought it with tears; the deplorable ftate of Saul, when God anfwered him no more; that also of man giving an account at the day of judgment for every word; and the foul that fins fhall die: all these, and many more of the like import, were perpetually brought to my mind with forcible fuggeftions that I was the man; and that God had fent me into the world, as he did Pharaoh, to fhew his wrath and power in me. Thefe, and many more, were brought hourly to me, and fet before me as my forrowful meat. And who applied them to me? not God; for, if he had, they must all have been fulfilled; for whatever God fays, whether against us or for us, fhall most surely come to pass.

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