betwixt two, the fool and the wife. By and by the "fun waxes hot," temptation and perfecution rife, because of the word; this withers natural joy. The apoftles go from the council, rejoicing that they are counted worthy to fuffer fhame for his name: here this oil of joy blazes, the other is offended; terror and torment, which were never caft out by pardoning love, begin to operate, and all his joy is dried up. Joy, fays Joel, withers away from the fons of men, because it has no root; the heart is not rooted in love to Chrift, nor built up in him, as Paul speaks. Hence the joy of the Lord, which springs from his love, flourishes, when the joy of nature withers away. The love of God in the wife cmboldens him, when the other is offended and falls away. The oil of the wife flames, when the light of the fool is fmothered. In fhort, the light of the righteous rejoiceth, when the lamp of the foolish is put out. The Lord's appearing ftirs up terrors, and the enmity of the carnal mind: and, for this reason, the wife expect the Saviour to appear, to be admired by him, and by all that love the truth; the other expects an angry judge to appear to condemn him for a hypocrite. Hence arifes the joy of the one, and the enmity of the other. The light of the righteous rejoiceth, when the lamp of the wicked fhall be put out. The one is a believer, the other an infidel; the one righteous, or a juftified person, the

G

other wicked, or a condemned infidel. The one has the joy of the Lord with which he was anointed; the other the joy of nature, by which he was deceived. The light of the one rejoiceth. which light and joy are an earnest of endless day and eternal happiness; the lamp of the wicked goes out, which is a prelude to cternal darkness. But God's fupplicants must follow where he leads; with fupplications and bitter weeping he leads them; and one path in which they are led may truly be called a path in the deep waters; and here his footsteps are not known. If God answers the prayers of his fupplicant in the joy of his heart, or gives him an answer of peace; or if he enlarges him and comforts him while on his knees, it is fulfilling his word—“ Before they speak I will hear, and while they are yet fpeaking I will answer" them. All this is easily underftood; but not fo the reverse. I have heard the groanings of the children of Ifrael, and am come down to deliver them. But this is followed with a double tale of brick, no ftraw is to be allowed; the old men are beaten, and the young men faint; no audience at the court, nor diminishing the impoffible tafk; what cannot be done, muft be done, or the back muft fmart for it: fuch a deliverance as this puzzles one. It is a little like Job's cafe: God owns he was perfect and upright, and Job fears God with all his heart, and wishes to do it with all his houfe, and therefore

rifes early every morning, fends and fanctifies all his ten children, and offers a facrifice for every one of them, left they should have finned against God; and he continues at this till a wind from the four corners of heaven fmites the house, and kills them altogether. And here we may repeat," by terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation."

W. H. S. S.

LETTER XXV.

I AM forry to hear of my dearly beloved friend's increafing weakness; but I am more than fure that the inward man will revive and be renewed day by day. I am more than fure of this, for their heart fhall live that feek God." Their heart, or confcience that is alarmed, awakened, and quickened, shall live; their convictions, their awakenings, their feelings, their fenfations, their appetites, their cravings, longing defires, and ftruggles, fhall never die away, as the alarms of Ahab and Judas did, who fought not to God, but to Satan. Their heart fhall live; they fhall never get into carnal eafe, fo as

to abide in it; nor into dead infenfibility; nor fhall they ever fettle on their legal lees of felfrighteoufnefs; nor fhall they reft in their own performances; nor shall the devil ever regain his palace and keep his goods in a falfe peace. Their heart fhall live that feek God. If faith be weak, and hope low; if joys abate, and love cools; if meeknefs fails, and patience gives up the ghoft; if fears abound, and heart and flesh fail, yet life shall abide; their confcience fhall live that feek God. The holy fpoufe, who felt every power of the foul cold and indifferent, and every grace dormant and inactive, felt her heart, her confcience alive and upon the watch: "I fleep, but my heart awaketh," it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh. She had life, and felt his reproofs, and knew where the voice came from, and calls him her beloved, though cold, and in a deep fleep. It is life, my beloved, that gives us our longing appetites, and nothing else; and you know that the Lord has pronounced them bleffed that hunger and thirst after righteousness, and promises that they fhall be filled. It is life that gives us all our fpiritual relish to favour, taste, and approve, of the death and fatisfaction of Christ, and that animates us to crave and fealt upon that favory meat, which all the heirs of promife are fo doatingly fond of. My fleth Is meat indeed, and my blood is drink deed. Their heart fhall live that feek God; and fo

fhall my dearly beloved, and I fhall live with,

him.

Ever yours,

W. H.

LETTER XXVI.

November 19, 1806.

LAST night my dear friend's letter came by Dinah Stock to Monkwell; in which I find he is still indifpofed, weak, and low; doubting, fearing, ftaggering, and halting, limping, and wavering. However, this I believe, that the Spirit of all grace is the fruit and effect of Chrift's death, and of his mediation; and is received by the Mediator, and comes from him, and from God through him; and that every grace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, even from the first implantation of fear to the perfection of love and that every grace has a fecondary fruit, which is called the revival of the good work. Activity, which keeps the foul on the wing, or on the stretch for God, fprings from the life of grace; when these are languid, we hear complaints: "Strengthen the things which remain,