mourns under the burden of sins, and mourns after Christ, after his pardoning blood, and justifying righteousness: at last, righteousness comes to him as the light, and salvation from sin like a lamp that burneth. Salvation is applied, and light comes to the poor sinner with it, that he may see it, and the love of God attends it like a fire that melts the soul; and this fire burns and inflames the heart; then the oil of joy flows in, love, joy, and peace, abound. Here is the lamp, here is the vessel; and here is the oil of joy, the joy of the Lord, which springs from the love of God shed abroad in the heart; and now he having entered into the joy of the Lord, into his love, liberty, grace, and favour, off he goes to meet the bridegroom, and meet him he shall, and into the wedding-chamber he shall enter at last. The foolish virgin feels some few light convictions, and lashes of natural conscience, which gripes the sinner; but such an one comes and hears the word till his natural affections are moved and stirred up, and anon with joy he receives the word; his joy springs from nature's passions, or affections, and off he sets; his light terrors subside, and conscience is composed, but neither fear nor torment are cast out by the love of God; but the law is still in him, and is called a light to his feet and a lamp to his path. As for the vessel, a new heart, or a broken heart is what he never had. His lamp is the law, and his light is natural joy, which springs from the motion of his passions. Here is

the difference betwixt two, the fool and the wise! By and by the sun waxes hot, temptation and persecution rise, because of the word; this withers natural joy. The apostles go from the council, rejoicing that they are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name: here this oil of joy blazes, the other is offended; terror and torment, which were never cast out by pardoning love, begin to operate, and all his joy is dried up. "Joy," says Joel, is withered away from the sons of men,' because it has no root; the heart is not rooted in love to Christ, 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 wise emboldens him, when the other is offended and falls away. The oil of the wise flames, when the light of the fool is smothered. In short, "The light of the righteous rejoiceth, when the lamp of the foolish is put out." The Lord's appearing stirs up terrors, and the enmity of the carnal mind: and, for this reason, the wise 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 arises the joy of the one, and the enmity of the other. "The light of the righteous rejoiceth, when the lamp of the wicked shall be put out." The one is a believer, the other an infidel; the one righteous, or a justified person, the 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 eternal darkness. But God's supplicants must follow where he leads; with supplications 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 supplicant 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 speaking I will answer." All this is easily understood; but not so the reverse. I have heard the groanings of the children of Israel, and am come down to deliver them. But this is followed with a double tale of brick, no straw is to be allowed; the old men are beaten, and the young men faint; no audience at the court, nor diminishing the impossible task; what cannot be done, must be done, or the back must smart for it: such a deliverance as this puzzles one. It is a little like Job's case: God owns he was perfect and upright, and Job fears God with all his heart, and wishes to do it with all his house, and therefore rises early every morning, sends and sanctifies all his ten children, and offers a sacrifice for every one of them, lest they should have sinned

against God; and he continues at this till a wind from the four corners of heaven smites 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 LXXII.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS.

I AM sorry to hear of my dearly beloved friend's increasing weakness; but I am more than sure that the inward man will revive and be renewed day by day. I am more than sure of this, for, "Your heart shall live that seek God." Their heart, or conscience that is alarmed, awakened, and quickened, shall live; their convictions, their awakenings, their feelings, their sensations, their appetites, their cravings, longing desires, and struggles, shall never die away, as the alarms of Ahab and Judas did, who sought not to God, but to Satan. Their heart shall live; they shall never get into carnal ease, so as to abide in it; nor into dead insensibility; nor shall they ever settle on their legal lees of self-righteousness; nor shall they rest in their own performances; nor shall the devil ever regain his palace and keep his goods in

à false peace. "Your heart shall live that seek God." If faith be weak, and hope low; if joys abate, and love cools; if meekness fails, and patience gives up the ghost; if fears abound, and heart and flesh fail, yet life shall abide; their conscience shall live that seek God. The holy spouse, who felt every power of the soul cold and indifferent, and every grace dormant and inactive, felt her heart, her conscience alive and upon the watch: "I sleep, but my heart waketh; 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 sleep. It is life, my beloved, that gives us our longing appetites, and nothing else; and you know that the Lord has pronounced them blessed that hunger and thirst after righteousness, and promises that they shall be filled. It is life that gives us all our spiritual relish to savour, taste, and approve, of the death and satisfaction of Christ, and that animates us to crave and feast upon that savoury meat, which all the heirs of promise are so doatingly fond of. "My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” "Your heart shall live that seek God;" and so shall my dearly beloved, and I shall live with him.

Ever yours,

W. H.