endeavouring to put to flight the followers of the Lamb. But, bleffed be Immanuel, he ftill reigns, and will reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. O, I rejoice to think, that greater is he that is for us than he that is for the world. And our dear Lord is encouraging us by faying, "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."-Dear Sir, we with much to fee you. And I have often thought, if the deacon were here, I fhould lofe all fear of man, and go forth with courage; for I am but a faint-hearted foldier. The ftorm of perfecution has abated very much, and the enemies are become more peaceable: but, Sir, we are ftill in the field of battle, and surrounded by enemies on every fide. We need the whole armour of God, that we may be able to fight valiantly for the cause of Chrift. O for faith and a fpirit of prayer; thefe are weapons moft neceffary for the chriftian warfare.-Marfhfield has been vifited with a shower of grace, and many dry bones made to live. I have been to vifit the dear brothers and fifters, and my foul feemed to magnify the Lord, and rejoice in Chrift my Saviour, to think he has made fuch a glorious display of his victorious love and grace to poor fouls. Bridgewater is now receiving the word with joy, and many have come on the Lord's fide, and more are yielding up themselves living facrifices to the Lord.-The four winds of the Holy Spirit have blown away the refuges of lies from Abington. A glorious work of God is going on there. They meet every day, and the minifters have as much as they can do, to feed the fheep and lambs of the dear Immanuel. O Sir, the angel has come down to feal the children of God in their foreheads. Pray for us, that the Lord may pour out upon us his Spirit in greater .effufions. O for wrestling Jacobs, that will give him no reft till Zion is made a praife in the whole earth. O that Jefus would fet up his ftandard here, and get to himfelf glory and praife. I conclude, with wifhing that we might all meet here once more, if it be the Lord's will; if not, I hope we fhall all meet at the right hand

of Jefus, and join the holy faints and angels in the song of Mofes and the Lamb, and be made pillars in the temple of God, and go no more out.

Your unworthy friend,

P. I.

EXPERIENCE OF J. M.

Mr. DAVIS,

If the fubfequent late experience of a work of grace upon the heart fhould be efteemed fufficiently interefting to be inferted in your excellent Magazine, be pleased to publifh it, and gratify

A READER.

'S it not agreeable to the divine command to give

an answer to every man that afketh us a reafon of the hope that is in us, with meeknefs and fear? Come and hear, then, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my foul-Efpecially, fince it hath pleased a holy and fovereign God, after I had finned away the beft part of my fhort probation ftate, to convince me of my loft and undone condition, and to give me a comfortable hope of the pardon of my fins, and of a begun preparation for an awful eternity. Does not duty call me to render it thus public, in this congregation, and to narrate, in brief, the circumftances of a life marked by evil and rebellion against God?

I defire first of all to blefs God that I was born and educated in a land of gospel light and knowledge, and in a place where the truths of God's word were held up in a most clear and ftriking light-that I was born of religious, prayerful parents, who, in infancy, dedicated me to God, in the folemn covenanting ordinance of infant baptifm-that in the early part of my life I had the privilege of living in families of a religious character, where much pains were used to inftil into my mind, fentiments of piety. I look upon thefe exertions in my behalf, as the fureft pledges of guardian and parental

attachment. O how valuable did my parents and guardians view my rational foul, a foul that was formed by God for immortality. But while I recognise these kindneffes, my mind is filled with shame, in a view of the unhappy manner in which I improved them. I lived a life, indeed, outwardly civil, and, for the most part, might be supposed by the world (who form their judgment according to outward appearances, refpecting the true moral characters of mankind, and not according to God's holy law) an honest person; but it was in truth, a life of rebellion against the great and mighty God, upon whose mercy I daily depended for thefe forfeited bleffings and favours.

It muft, however, be remarked, that the impreffions I then received, ferved, in a very important degree, to restrain me from acting out the corrupt propenfities of my depraved heart. I have uniformly dreaded grofs immoralities; and I think the impreffions I received have never been wholly eradicated from my mind, but have had a confiderable influence over my behaviour to the present time.

From the time I was eight or nine years old, I believe the Holy Spirit has, in many inftances, awakened me. Many times I have trembled in a contemplation of death, judgment, and eternity. When thus terrified, my ufual practice has been to cry unto God, and to attend to other duties. Sometimes I had the rash prefumption to hope God heard, and accepted my fearful, felfish importunities. I was very fenfible that if I died in this fituation and temper of mind, I fhould go to mifery, and reforted to thefe duties to get relief from my pain. I little thought that all my prayers were folemn mockery of the great and dreadful God, and that I was attempting to build up a legal righteoufnefs. In this way I lived till I was about twenty years of

age.

At the age of twenty, it pleafed the Lord to revive his work in the place where I then lived. Many were alarmed at their fituation. The queftion became gene

ral, What must I do to be faved? Places of worship and prayer became exceedingly thronged. Many laboured under the terrors of a broken law, who were made finally to bow to the mild fceptre of the Prince of Peace. The attention to religion became general through the place. Seeing fuch deep anxiety on the minds of others, my mind became deeply impreffed with a fenfe of my guilt and extreme danger. I was again brought to realife eternal things, and to cry for mercy. But I had not that penetrating difcovery and fenfe of my depravity which others appeared to have; and I had not the leaft idea of the evil of fin, as committed against an infinitely holy God. I experienced a forrow, but it was a forrow which arofe from a fear of damnation. In this fituation of diftrefs and anxiety, I remained almost a year, until a fufpenfion of inquiry began to take place. By degrees I became as ftupid and inattentive to matters of religion as ever. I knew the harvest was paft, the fummer ended, and I not faved; yet this gave me no peculiar uneafinefs. Now you may learn whence flow bad fentiments. Now learn whence flow universalism, deism, and infidelity. For now it was that I began to contrive many foolish, wicked ways, to gain happiness without a reconciliation of heart to God. I now began to call in queftion the reality of experimental religion. Sometimes I tried to think, that it was either prieftcraft, or a ftate policy to keep mankind in awe, and make them manageable by human laws. This I would have gladly believed; but divine revelation urged itself upon my better reason, and I could not difbelieve it. The awful authority of the fcripture declaration, "He that believeth, and is baptized, fhall be faved, but he that believeth not fhall be damned," had been substantiated to my confcience, while under serious impreffions of mind. The bible plainly declared that mankind were awful finners, and by nature condemned by the juft law of God; fuch I had felt myfelf to be. The doctrine of future rewards and punishments, and a day of righteous judgment I could not deny, without

denying what I had, with bitterness, experienced to be true. But another confideration which urged itself in an unwelcome manner on my mind and confcience, was this: Many perfons whom I efteemed to be perfons of much information and good abilities, were profeffors of christianity. They, moreover, lived, as I firmly believed, agreeably to their folemn profeffion. I fpeak with efpecial reference to fome minifters of the gofpel, who, I could not but think were fincere, and felt, and believed, the momentous truths which they fo earnestly inculcated. Their teftimony and example darted conviction through my mind. With them I faw religion was a great and glorious reality. Still, notwithstanding fuch a rational conviction of the truth and importance of divine revelation, as my heart hated the truth, and the bible afforded me not the leaft ground of hope, but cut off my profpect of future peace entirely, with the heart of which I was then poffeffed; I ftill tried to fortify my mind against truth, and ufed expedients for confolation, which I knew were forbidden. In this ftate of mind I read Thomas Paine's Age of Reafon; I read it contrary to my better judgment and confcience. I reasoned thus with myself: Surely there can be no harm in looking on both fides of a picture. This depraved way of thinking gave me a momentary cafe, and filenced the upbraidings of confcience. O how hard is the way of tranfgreffors! All this period I was going the way to hell, directly down to the chambers of death. I afterwards read an Apology for the Bible, in answer to Paine's mifchievous, wicked work. This more than ever confirmed me in the truth and authenticity of the fcriptures. Still, however, I caft off fear, and restrained prayer before God. He might with the greatest justice have gone out in ways of wrath against me. He might in perfect equity, have cut me off in the midft of my wickedness and folly, and fentenced me to the very lowest hell. My eternal damnation would have been very juft. Although all finners deferve everlafting mifery, yet none ever more deferved it than myfelf. But the Lord fpared