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holds his peace, and is content. The lion sculks off to his thicket, and the old man faints and dies once more, while we look to the cross. The nails pierce him, the spear lays at him, the cancelled debt-book silences him, and God, shining reconciled in the face of Christ, banishes him. Our old man is crucified with him: but crucifixion is a long lingering death, and the old man dies hard. He is of the same lineage, and in the same state, as the devil his father; both are condemned, both cursed, both are destroyed; and yet both are in being, and we know it to our sorrow. God was with Judah, and they drove the Canaanites out of the mountains; but they could not drive them out of the vallies, because they had chariots of iron, Judges i. 19. To keep them out of the mind and affections is a great thing; but to root them out of the heart is a work not to be done till we engage the last enemy; I mean death; for, though there is no discharge from that war, yet there will be a full discharge when that war is over; and then there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts, This encounter completes the victory, and the crown awaits the conquerors. Sin and death entered the first paradise, but both shall be debarred the second. The first Adam let them in, and the last Adam shall drive them out. O long looked-for, blessed and happy day, when and where the inhabitants shall no more say, I am sick! Where sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Where we shall see the lustre of a million suns, who shall shine on us, and shine through us, and with all his fulness satisfy us, and that for ever and ever. So prays

Thy ready servitor

The Desert.

NOCTUA AURITA.

LETTER II.

To NOCTUA AURITA, of the Desert.

I RECEIVED your very kind letter; and may the Lord reward your labour of love to me, one of the most unworthy creatures that ever the Lord condescended to work upon. All that you tell me, concerning what are the effects of cleaving to Moses, I have found in my own experience, in the course of two months before my journey to Gasson's Bower. It is a mystery to me how I got there. But the Lord blessed the conversation I had with you the morning we all walked in the fields together, and gave me light to see how I

was entangled; and I believe Satan will never bring me into that snare again. He must come in a different way the next time, if ever he gets me there again; which God in his mercy prevent! However, I am not at that mount now, and dread the thoughts of ever going there again. I know the Lord sent you to Gasson's Bower, and me too. It was a happy season to my soul, for the Lord was with us. If you recollect, I told you a dream I had had, which I was sure was from the Lord. What was most remarkable in the dream, the sabbath-day's portion, that you said to me, in my dream, I should enjoy; and I dreamt that you tried to encourage and to comfort me under the sore trial I was then in. It was above ten days before you came down that I had the dream. I knew I had lost what was dearer to me than all the world; I mean that nearness to God, and communion with him, which I had once enjoyed. But the other part of my dream was something I was expecting the enjoyment of; and my expectation has not been cut off, as you will see by what I will relate to you. I had not set out on my journey to Gasson's Bower one hour before I felt such a spirit of uniting love flow into my heart to those that were with me, and to those I expected to meet, as I have not words to express; and your sermon that evening in the barn was a seal and confirmation of all that I had felt. It was the new commandment indeed, written with the finger of God on my heart. And, as I

said before, a happy season I had. Moses' bands began to burst, for I could be holden no longer with them; and from Elijah's cave in the wilderness I was brought, and God has put me into the cleft of the rock, the sweet place you told me of. I find it is a sweet place; for he is making all his goodness to pass before me, and proclaiming his name to be merciful and gracious, &c. : and what I now enjoy can be nothing less than an earnest of that rest in endless glory which the sabbathday is a type of. And therefore the words which you told me in my dream are fulfilled; for I do enjoy 'a sabbath-day's portion.' The Lord is pouring down such a blessing, that there is not room to receive it. I want my coast enlarged. Jabez prayed for it, and had it; and, my dear friend, do ask it for me; for I must be enlarged, or die under it, and that God knows. Surely this is singing in the heights of Zion, and feeding on the high places. I hope the Lord will never remove me from this cleft of the rock till he takes down this clay tabernacle, which I feel to be such a clog as I never felt it before. What I enjoy is some

thing more than faith and hope, though these abide; but it is the greatest of all, which is charity, or love. But, though it is thus with me, I know that Satan is very near to me, and would deprive me of all, if he could. I feel such fiery darts from him, at times, as I have never experienced before. But he is not permitted to hurt me. Christ was manifested in the flesh to destroy

the works of the devil. I did grieve sadly at something you said in your letter; it was this; your saying I should be at the old work of cleaving to Moses again and again. But I shall certainly die to him and his law; and that has been predicted to me in another dream, which I had the night before last. It was this: I dreamed I was from home in a friend's house. A person came in to me, and told me I was dead, and wanted me to go with him to see my corpse, which was at a house a little distance off. I was moved with indignation against him, and told him I was heartily glad I was dead, for I had plague enough of myself all my life-time, and would not move one step to view my own corpse; and that any body might have the trouble of my funeral that pleased. Perhaps this will be fulfilled when I can say, with Paul, “I, through the law, am dead to the law." Pardon my troubling you so much about dreams; for, when I write to you, I cannot write only what I feel. I hope we shall see you soon. I have every indulgence heart can wish; I mean that of attending on his Majesty's heralds, whose glorious orations are remarkably blessed to me. Surely "the lines are fallen to me in pleasant places, and I have a goodly heritage." I assure you, when we all get together we talk much about you. I know we all feel much soul union to you. Pray remember our little sister Moorhen; you know she has no breasts. She has received your kind epistle, and

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