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allures him, and draws him on. Thus both assist

him on the way.

Whatever thou dost, be sure to hold fast thy first love: thou wilt find it a slippery thing, which will need the strength of both hands. the midst of thy heart; let it not go,

Keep it in

for that is the life of thy joys; the bond of union; the bond of all perfectness; the firstfruit of the Spirit; and the very soul and motion of the living creature in the wheels, that make it move like the chariots of Amminadib. It may be left, it cannot be lust. God's love to us is from everlasting; ours to him begins when his to us is discovered. He can command his lovingkindness; we have no dominion over ours. His love is the body; ours is only a reflection from his.

I believe that divine dreams and visions are from the Spirit of God: "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants, and upon the handmaids, in those days, will I pour out my Spirit," Joel ii. 28, 29. The blessed effects of Isaiah's vision were, that his iniquity was taken away, and his sin purged. If pardon and peace be not the effects of the vision, the visions are no better than Balaam's, though his were from God; but they respected the safety of others, not his own.

I laughed at your catching at the bird, while others drew their swords at it. You read of the

Her

voice of the turtle being heard in the land when the time of the singing of birds is come. cooing note is charming to a sin-sick soul, though many, whose words are like drawn swords, open their mouths against her. However, the bird is your own, and you know it is the voice of the turtle that sets the soul to singing. Blessed is the young man who remembers and fears his Creator in the days of his youth; while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. And the man who never embraced the good tidings of the turtle while it is spring with us, will hear her strange note another day, "When he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, when all the daughters of music shall be brought low. Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way," Eccles. xii. 4, 5.

Above all things, aim at union, communion, and fellowship, with Jesus Christ. Without this, a profession is nothing but a galling yoke, an empty lamp, a sheep's skin, and a mere mask. By virtue of union with him, we feel his strength made perfect in our weakness; his peace is felt, and enjoyed; and you know it is his own promise that, "The upright shall dwell in his presence." The professor who is a stranger to this union in times of trouble and temptation, is a vessel without an anchor, and in perpetual danger of shipwreck. The Lord hath done great things for you, in delivering you from your melancholy;

and where much is given, much is required. It well becomes the just to be thankful. Consider what an honour it is to be a son of God; it is an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Farewell: be of good comfort, be strong, and be vigilant.

Excuse haste. Mercy and truth be with thee; while I remain,

Dearly Beloved,

Thy willing Servant,

In the gospel of Christ,

LETTER XXII

W. H.

As

MY DEAR FRIEND,

you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk you in him; and pay no regard to every Lo here! and Lo there! Such leaders were never strengthened, stablished, and settled upon the rock of ages; and therefore their ways are moveable.

The burdened soul that is led to the

Saviour, the dejected spirit that is settled on the rock, feels his heart fixed, trusting in the Lord: and he is not to fly like a bird to the mountain, but to stand fast in the Lord. His strength is to stand still, and see the salvation of God.

The secret leaven of legal pride, rooted and spread in the heart, and a set of gospel notions floating in the head, make a complete and profound Antinomian, let the moral conduct be what it may. His heart is at Horeb, and his head at Zion. His soul is bound, only the tongue is free; and what the tongue advances, the feelings contradict. The understanding takes part with the tongue; while an unpurged conscience opposes both, knowing there never was any divine application made to the heart: so that, in time, the accusations of conscience become too strong for the understanding; and, in order to obtain quietude within, such an one is obliged to bring the legal leaven out. Then light withdraws, and darkness succeeds; the holy commandment is turned from; and such a beginning in the dispensation of the Spirit withers away. The man that preaches to pacify a legal conscience, contrary to the light in his head, is said to rebel against the light; and only to speak a vision out of his own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

The Saviour always deals with such in a conditional way: "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;" but, if not, they

never were his disciples, only in shew. And the Saviour's conditions shew that he knows their hearts; and their forsaking his word makes them manifest to us. It is the Spirit of the Lord's mouth that quickens, iufluences, and instructs the soul; and it was the same mouth and Spirit that commanded and dictated the word of God: he, therefore, that speaks under a divine influence, speaks a vision out of the mouth of the Lord; while he declares to others what God has done for his soul, and revealed in him.

We have many in our day, who are called God's children; and who call themselves servants of Christ, and of his church; and who procure the titles of such, and are had in honour; who are no friends to the Redeemer, to his cause, nor to his family. But surely I know that it shall go well with them that fear the Lord, with them that fear before him. God may, in time, raise up from among yourselves one that may be enabled to admonish, instruct, and comfort the little company. Two or three have the promise of his presence to the world's end; and every private worshipper shall find him a little sanctuary in every place where he shall come, if he seeks him in sincerity, and in faith. I know, to my soul's comfort, in whom I have believed; and be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. The legalist rejects the Mediator of the new covenant, and finds the old Mediator nothing but an accuser; he accuses him before God. And Moses's

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