not cause to bring forth?" Shall I begin, shall I quicken, and by fears and terrors cause to travail, and not shed abroad my love in their hearts, when I have promised by love to draw them to me? Or shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb, saith thy God? Shall I cause light, life, hope and faith to come forth, and keep back, and shut up my purposed and promised love, by withholding the promised consolations? No; "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem;' that is, in the new covenant, the promises of which are Zion's breasts; and the comfort of love is the milk; and, when the promises flow in, then "you shall suck the breasts of her consolation, you shall milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory."

Charity edifieth, or buildeth up; and, when God builds up Zion, then he appears in his glory. But faith works by love, and love builds up in God; and encouraging faith is building upon our most holy faith; on faith, but in love. But what I call Zion's bearing pains often abate, and a senseless stupor succeeds; for this wind bloweth when and where, and how it listeth; but the pains are never hard, dry, hopeless, barren, nor void of energy, as formerly; and this is true, because much softness, sweetness, and tenderness, are felt,

and much evangelical refreshments are enjoyed. Much love to God, much pity to Christ, and vengeance on self, attend these bearing pains

of Zion..

I wonder not at B. T. He has rendered evil for good, and evil shall never depart from his house. All the devil's puff's, which have served to lift him up with notions of the prophetic office, he has embraced as impulses from God: but he will be undeceived when Satan enters into him.

CCCCLXIX.

W. H. S. S.

November 19, 1806,

LAST night my dear friend's letter came to hand; in which I find he is still indisposed, weak and low; doubting, fearing, staggering and halting, limping and wavering. However, this I believe, that the Spirit of all grace is the fruit and effects of Christ's death, and of his mediation; and is received by the Mediator, and comes from him and from God through him; 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 secondary fruit, which is called the revivals of the good work. Activity, which keeps the soul on the wing, or on the stretch for God, springs from the life of grace. When these are languid, we hear complaints; "Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God.”

Thus activity and vigour spring from life; joy from faith; comfort from love; quietude from peace; patience from hope; and humility, or lowly mindedness, from weakness. But the thief upon the cross could not enjoy any of these supernumeraries; and some are saved and delivered at last, "who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage ;" and some have received the word with joy who were never saved at all. But not one that ever received the word in faith, or that was broken and made contrite by it, or brought to tremble at it, was eyer cast away, Nor is faith to be proved by joy, nor the strength of it to be measured by love. The faith of Job never appeared so strong as when Satan laid hard at him. Actual transgressions beset him; inbred corruptions made him desperate; Providence stripped him; bondage seared him; God's wrath lowered over him,

and his arrows stuck fast in him; enemies reviled him, and friends condemned him: Nevertheless, says he, "Though he slay me yet will I trust in him, and maintain my own ways before him." He knew the integrity, the honesty, and uprightness, of his soul, however perverse his

nature was.

Many that you and I know, who pretend to much more joy, peace, quietude, and apparent assurance, than ever you have had, were they stripped of these, and their souls put in thy soul's stead, would sink, and not stand; lie down, and not fight; give up, and not hold fast; but say, with Hezekiah, I shall see man no more in this world, nor God in the next: "as a lion, so will he break all my bones; from morning even to night he will make an end of me." It is easy to believe when love burns, joy flames, the glory of grace is fresh in us, the light shining on the path, the bow renewed in our hand, God's secret choice of us uppermost in our frail tabernacles, when God is blessing the work of our hands, and peace and prosperity attending the house, and all in it. But my faith has stood in a sevenfold strength, as undaunted as the endless hills of Zion, when the reverse of all the above attended me;: fears on every side, and no prospects but of worse troubles. We never read of the joy or

peace, but of the spirit and power of Elijah: nor do I believe that Jeremiah, during forty years, enjoyed only what is found in his fiftyfirst chapter; but likewise zeal, anger, sorrow, fortitude and courage; if it be true that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Neither does God search, try, chasten, and scourge, such sinners as are not in these troubles, who never see nor feel sin, being destitute of light and life; for he will not search these till the great day, when the heavens shall reveal their iniquity, and the earth shall rise. in judgment against them. It is the churches that Christ tries; "All the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and the hearts." And such, and only such, are sinners in God's sense; and he hath sworn that he has no pleasure in the death of such, nor shall they ever die.

If you had not stood by faith, you must ere now have fallen into apostasy; if you had no hope, you must have despaired; and, if no trust in the Lord, you could never have been as mount Zion, that cannot be moved, under all the storms above, and inundations beneath. This is your portion; take it" thou hast been a help to the poor in his distress, a strength to the needy when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." Every saving