dangerous dream, they will be sensible of their mistake, and frankly acknowledge, "God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; and that, "if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning."

Leaving these lukewarm, formal, Laodicean professors to the mercy of God, I subscribe myself, Sir, Yours, &c.

LETTER IV.

Our Lord suits the manifestations of himself to the various states of the church, and considers us as rational creatures, in a state of probation.

SIR,

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V. THAT some persons are blessed with clearer, stronger, or earlier manifestations than others, is undeniable; and why it is so, is one of the mysteries of God's kingdom, that shall not be explained until the day of judgment. In the mean time, the following reflections may possibly cast some light on that dark subject, and help us to say, He does all things well.

1. Our Lord suits the manifestations of himself to the various states of the church. Under the Mosaic dispensation, which consisted much in externals, divine manifestations had, generally, some external circum stances but the Christian church, being formed upon a more spiritual plan, is favoured with revelations of a more spiritual and internal nature.

2. The Lord considers us as rational creatures, in a state of probation. Were he to indulge us with powerful, incessant, overwhelming discoveries of himself, he would rather violently force, than gently lead us to repentance and obedience. Every day is not a day of Pentecost. Soon after the Son of God had seen the heavens open, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil; and so is his spouse after him.* St. Paul, by observing, that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, and that he kept his body under, lest he should become a cast-way, intimates his bright manifestation was not of such continuance and force, but he might have disobeyed, as Jonah did in a similar case. Some have, in fact, resisted bright manifestations in their

Hos. ii. 14.

So

day: witness Cain, Judas, Balaam, Saul, Nebuchadnezzar, and the Israelites who perished in the wilderness; and too many backsliders are resisting them now. sure, then, as there is a time of trial for faith, hope, and patience, there is also an abatement of the power, which attends divine manifestations..

3. Our wise Redeemer proportions the means to the end. If the effect of a manifestation of his love is to be exceeding great, the manifestation must be exceeding bright. Suppose the burden of guilt and hardness, temptation, and sorrow, under which one groans is ten times greater than that, which oppresses another, it is plain the manifestation, which is to remove the tenfold weight is to be ten times stronger. The same rule holds also with regard to sufferings and la bours. The hotter the fight of afflictions God's children are to go through, the stron ger and the brighter also is the celestial ar mour put upon them, at the revelation of the Captain of their salvation.

4. Neither can it be doubted, but that our good God, in fixing the degree of divine manifestations, hath a peculiar respect to the state and capacity of the souls to whom he discovers himself. The deeper sinners mourn for him, the deeper he makes

them drink of the cup of salvation at his appearing. Blessed are they that greatly hunger and thirst after righteousness; their souls are thereby greatly enlarged to receive the oil of gladness, and the wine of the kingdom. Blessed are the poor in spirit, those, whose souls are empty as the vessels of the desolate widow, in the days of Elisha: when the heavenly Prophet shall visit them, the streams of his fulness shall cer tainly flow according to the degree of their emptiness.

5. A skilful physician prescribes weaker or stronger medicines, according to the state of his patients. So does the Physician of souls; he weighs, if I may so speak, every dram of the heavenly power in the scales of goodness and wisdom. He knows what quantity of the heavenly cordial our spirits can bear, and will not, without the greatest care, put the strong wine of his powerful love into a weak vessel. He sees, that as some persons can stand, for a time, the sight of the meridian sun, when others are hurt by the first appearance of a taper, so some Christians can bear the strong beams of his gracious presence, while others are almost overpowered by his fainter rays.

6. If some live and die without any manifestations of the Redeemer's love and

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glory, the reasons of it may possibly be found in the abysses of his justice and goodness. They grieve and quench the Spirit, that convinces the world of sin; and it is very fit they should not have him as a Comforter, whom they obstinately reject as a reprover. Add to this, that as our Lord foresees, that if such people were favoured with tokens of his more distinguishing condescension, they would only abuse them, as Cain and the Pharisees did, he puts them not to the trial, nor suffers them to enhance their guilt by trampling richer mercy and love under foot: so that this seeming seve rity is, in fact, real benignity.

7. The Lord not only proportions the de gree of his powerful appearance to the weakness of our souls, but also to that of our bodies. He knoweth whereof we are made, and remembers that we are but flesh, If the natural sun, that glorious emblem of our Emmanuel, was to approach as near our earth, and shine as bright as possible, the insufferable blaze and heat would instantly blind and consume us. By a parity of reason, was our bright Sun of righteousness to manifest his unclouded glory, or to appear without the tempering medium of his manhood, no flesh could support the sight. The brain, unable to bear the high