for such feelings; are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me; and I said, O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I flee away and be at rest," Psalm lv. 5, 6.

"Fearfulness and trembling

But the bones, it is said, "came together;" and so they do; for, were there fifty sinners quickened near each other, you would see them communing together, and comparing their experience one with another; and they would cleave to and feel one for the other-the bones do come together, and also "bone to his bone." Christ is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; and whenever divine life enters the souls of sinners, and they begin to move God-wards, to shake and tremble at his word, these shall all, not only be brought into heartfelt union with one another, but also into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit shall reveal the everlasting love of God, the bond of the covenant, and of all real union, to and in them; and then the joint is effectually made, for " he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" with him, 1 Cor. vi. 17. All this is the effect of life communicated to the soul. And I am confident that you can appeal both to God and conscience that these things have been found in some degree in you. If you say, Yes; then eternal life was given you, though at the time perhaps you could not take the comfort of it.

Again, you say,

"When I was first wounded

with a sense of my guilt and unworthiness, the law was applied in all its spiritual meaning, and I found all my sins set in order before me, and an angry God appeared against me, ready to execute and pour forth all his just wrath upon me. I was then in a very distressing situation; my sleep in a great measure left me, and I was terrified with dreams. I then began to pray, and promise to God new obedience, and set a watch over my tongue; but I found that I was not able to yield that obedience to the law which it required. In this distressing situation I had none to guide my feet to that path which leads to Zion, to shew me the merits of Christ, and how God could be reconciled to sinners."

When the Lord is pleased to quicken the soul, then he sends his law home upon the conscience in all its unlimited demands; and, by the dreadful reproof and rebuke we feel in our hearts, we cannot go on any longer in sin. Our old wicked ways we cannot pursue. He plants his fear in our hearts, which represents us always under the eye and narrow inspection of God, and so springs up, attended with severe lashes of conscience, whenever we would pursue evil, that we are sensibly withstood; and this the Lord declares shall be the case; "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," Prov. ix. 10. "I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall that she (the church) shall not find her paths," Hos. ii. 6. And such keen convictions and cutting reproofs

reach the heart, when God's power is first put forth in us, that we are effectually stopped in our evil way, and cannot go on in it. The Lord declares that he will thus come near to all his people in judgment, and that he will be a swift witness against them, Mal. iii. 5. And, when he thus comes, he arraigns us at the bar of our conscience, bringing us in guilty there; and at the bar of his holy law, where we are cursed and condemned. Indeed, without a law-work upon the heart, it is impossible that we could ever be made sensible of sin, or feel that we are lost; be brought to hunger and thirst after righteousness, or feel the need of salvation. David says, "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law; that thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked," Psalm xciv. 12, 13.What we learn by this (for it is our schoolmaster) is, that we are sinners: "By the law is the knowledge of sin."-" The strength of sin is the law." And, when the commandment came home to Paul, he says, "Sin revived and I died;" and " I had not known sin but by the law." When David felt the law come home he speaks thus; "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy sore displeasure; for thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore: there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin; for mine iniquities are gone over my head,

as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me," Psalm xxxviii. 1-4. Again, "When thou (O Lord) with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth," (fretting a garment), Psalm xxxix. 11.

When the law comes and stirs up our sins, and they are set in order before our eyes, then follows the curse. The law works wrath in us, brings us into bondage to the fear of death, and under the dread of destruction; for it is the ministration of death, and brings the soul sensibly into a state of death and condemnation before God, stirring up our enmity against him: for no sooner does it work wrath in us, but our enmity and hatred spring up against God; and we then view him in his justice and terrible majesty, as a consuming fire. All the law can do for us, is to bring us in guilty, to curse us, work wrath in us, condemn us to death, and set an angry God before us. As our schoolmaster, it teaches us these things, or by it we are so taught, and they are lessons that must be learned. I may add one thing more; which is, that here we are all taught to feel that we have no strength, and cannot atone for one sin; and by this chastening rod God is pleased to drive us out of all confidence in the flesh. In order to which he is determined that we shall have a fair trial, to see what free-will and human power can effect; and therefore no sooner does he quicken our dead souls to feel, and shine into our hearts to see, that we are sinners, under the curse of the law and the

F

wrath of God, which it reveals, but directly we set to work, in our own strength, to turn over a new leaf (as we say), to work out our own salvation, and to bring God in debtor by our obedience to the law. We see this in David, who, as soon as he was brought to think on his ways, and found himself burdened with sin, set to work to keep the law; for this is the way that seemeth right unto us all when first awakened, though the end of it is death. "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies; I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments," Psalm cxix. 59, 60. In this same way you went to work when the law came home to you. You then promised new obedience; and determined to work out your own salvation; but, after all your labour and toil, you had no success, were cursed both by law and conscience, and still under sin, do all you could, as you say; "I set to work, according to their plan (the Arminians and bastard Calvinists), to work out my own salvation; but found that, instead of growing better, I grew worse, by adding sin to sin. I found that I could not live one day without sin in word or thought; and had no chance of getting works in store to atone for my past sins; which caused me to go heavy laden with them, both to the Arminians and Calvinists, asking many questions, but receiv ing few satisfactory answers."

Here you had a fair trial of keeping the law. You worked hard, and meant well; but still there