The

had her perfect work, we are to be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. And this feems to be the perfecting counfel of the apostle Paul, and which he prays the Holy Ghoft to perform. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ, 2 Theff. iii. 5. I believe that I am nine years older than you, and have long been exercised with rheumatic pains, nor do I expect to get better of these, but of course worfe and worse, because the outward man muft perifh, but the inward man fhall be renewed day by day. There has no temptation befell thee but what is common to men. chambers of imagery were exhibited before my mind, and impreffed upon my imagination also, two or three and thirty years ago; and within these three weeks I have had the fame. Sometimes an innumerable multitude, then diminished to few; then magnified to an enormous fize, and then reduced to dwarfs; and anon transformed into a thousand different and ghaftly forms: but this is one of the devil's old exhibitions, which took place in the heart of Ninus, fon of Nimrod, in the country of Chaldea, for God himself calls that country the bafis of it, Zech. v. 11. But my fon will find that Satan's mafter-piece is yet to come. Thou hast been long fince begotten to a lively hope, and we are faved by hope: but the perfecting of love, or the enjoyment of perfect love,

which cafts out all fear, has not as yet taken place: though thou haft often been brought to the place of the breaking forth of children, yet there has not been ftrength to bring forth; hence the continual relapse into legal labour. Charity edifieth, or raises up the edifice: and when God, by perfect love, builds up Zion, he will appear in his glory, and the hope of glory fucceeds; and this gives the Lord full poffeffion of his temple, for God's mystery among the Gentiles is Chrift in us the hope of glory. When this day of thy efpoufals takes place, Satan will then transform himself; his black garb, his deep and dark defigns, will difappear; and he will shine, but in falfe rays. He will truckle and fawn; he will congratulate you upon your happy deliverance, and appear to confirm you in the purposes and decrees of God, but at the end he will work in your corrupt affections to fuch a degree as to fet your bowels to founding like a harp for Moab, Edom, and the children of Ammon. Every corrupt affection and paffion will melt and move towards the enemies of God; but as Satan is never divided against himself, fo he makes these influences terminate in hard thoughts and rebellion against God. And this is the root, the life, and foul of Arminianifm, namely, the devil tranfformed into an angel of light, and as fuch working in the corrupt affections of mankind. Lay

this fcroll up by thee, and in fome future period

thou mayeft understand it.

Ever thine in the best of bonds,

W. H. S. S.

LETTER XXXII.

I KNOW not what to say, I know not how to exprefs myself, either in thanks and praises to my God, or in my rejoicing with thee. How haft thou broken forth? Neither bars nor bolts, gins nor chains; not the strong holds of Satan, nor the doors of the fhadow of death, can detain or confine this prifoner of hope. The jubilee trump has founded the release, and the Spirit of the Lord God is upon my fon; the decree is gone forth, the word is spoken, and all the infernal legions must tremble at the voice, "Loofe him, and let him go." O the wonders of sovereign and all-fubduing grace! The kingdom of God begins with a fingle word; one live coal from off the altar imperceptibly reaches the foul, and conveys divine life through all her powers; the illumined understanding difcerns the influences,

pursues its progrefs, while faith, small as a grain of mufiard feed, fuggefts, Surely it is fupernatural! who can tell? it may be a divine work. This fmall beginning greatly increases, at which Satan beftirs himself: the Holy Ghoft fearches the heart and lays the ufurper open, who fhuns the light, and feels the power, for the fword lies at him; this fills him with wrath, it awakens his despair, and inflames him with indignation. He is banished heaven, and he carries his hell within him, and is bound and caft out of the hearts of poor finners, whofe mifery is his ease, whofe fin is his food, and whofe falvation is his deftruction. The will is foon gained over, and becomes loyal; God makes us willing, and to will is prefent with us. The understanding fees the fubtleness of the object which the will hath chofen; but the mind, the affections, and the confcience muft fettle the account. When these meet with their unction, which completes the whole anointing (for this ointment must go from the head to the beard, and down to the fkirts of the clothing), then the royalty begins to appear. The mind must be fully perfuaded ere it can be fixed fo as to exclude perplexing doubts. The affections must be influenced and attracted by love, and the confcience muft join with faith, and reap the peaceful benefits of an imputed righteousness, before the lawful captive can be perfuaded that he is delivered. I will keep that

man in perfect peace whofe mind is stayed on me. With the heart, or confcience, man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confeffion is made; for when confcience bears her undoubted teftimony, the mouth proclaims the confidence, sentence, and teftimony of confcience while the Holy Ghoft fixes the heart. The affections feeling the peace, the tranquillity, the ferenity of confcience, embraces with redoubled love the King of Zion; and from that time there is a beauty in the feet of them who publish falvation, and who say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. This! this my beloved, crowns the whole work, raises the empire of Zion's King, and fixes the loyalty of the fubject. The lot of eternal life causes contention to cease, and parteth between the mighty; the Lord divides the portion with the great, and the fpoil with the ftrong; and when the foul is conquered, captured, and gained, enmity fubfides, the gift of life in fecret appeaseth anger, and the reward of love in the bofom, ftrong wrath. Every pain of my fon appears ftronger, the intervals more fharp, and the old man at these desertions appears more and more enraged, and the unexpected changes feem more intolerable. But every visit, revival, refreshing, renewal, or enlargement, expands the door, infpires the prisoner, brightens the difmal regions, and brings the King in his beauty, the land of delights, and the realities of invifibilities