to the cross of Christ, when, like Christian in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," their burden has fallen off. Then the victory of the death of the Son of God is felt, and they are cleansed; for "the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” And when sin (the cause) is removed, the burden (the effect) ceases. "I have blotted out as a cloud thy transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee."

Now, if you look at David, you will see that he well knew all this by experience. Hence he says, "My sin is gone over my head, as a sore burden too heavy for me.' But how did he feel when this burden was removed? Why, rest in his soul, which he did not before; for he declared that there was no soundness in his flesh because of God's anger, nor rest in his bones because of his sin. But only observe the difference which he felt when led to this blessed fountain. "Return," says he, "unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee." And Jesus Christ is this fountain that cleanses, which removes this burden and gives rest. Hence he says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour;" that is, you labour to cleanse yourselves; but it is fruitless toil; for it is like the Ethiopian trying to change his skin, and the leopard his spots, and the harder you labour to do this, the more burdened with sin you are; for you are heavy laden. Now, do you come unto me without money and without price; and I will give you rest (Matt. xi. 28); for the work is all done which you are trying to do. I have opened a fountain, and it is the fountain of my blood. It is for sin and for uncleanness; and all souls that feel the sin of their nature, sin of their life, and are sick of their own way, and worn out with struggling and striving against their lusts and abominations, are welcome to come to me. I have made an end of sin. I removed the iniquity of all the elect in one day; and as you have been instructed by my Spirit to know your filthy, unclean state, now you shall experimentally know the real value of faith in my atonement; for it shall remove the weight and burden of your sin, and you shall feel rest from the hard bondage wherein you were made to serve. (Isa. xiv. 3.)

But, 8, when God is pleased manifestly to open this fountain to you, you will find access to him. This is another evident proofof being cleansed. Now before this, you will as a sensible sinner find a distance between God and yourself. For sin separates between God and our souls, &c. And till this is removed, there is no delighting in God, no pleasure and comfort in religion; but we are driven on, instead of being drawn. Indeed, we are more like slaves than like sons. And it is proper that we should learn our distance; and they that never did, never found access, let them say what they will. Head notions profit nothing. What I am writing is the experience which we all have, that we may highly prize access to a Covenant-God and Father through the atonement of his dear Son, the Mediator of the better covenant, or the

covenant of grace. Do you, or did you, reader, ever feel your distance, and that it is an evil and bitter thing to sin against God? Has your sin found you out? If so, there is no just ground to despair. God is only teaching you these things that you may be brought nigh to himself, through faith in the rich atonement of his dear Son; for we are made nigh by his blood that were afar off by wicked works. O, my friend, what hard and sore work have I found it! But still, at times, I do feel a humble hope in his mercy and access to him; but it ever will be a painful path.

4. Another thing you will find if ever you have come to this fountain; and that is justification enjoyed in the conscience. What do you mean, say you, by justification? I answer that God's elect, and no others, take their great trial for eternity in this world. This is an undeniable fact; and therefore Peter says that judgment must begin at the house of God. The house of God is not any earthly building; not even where God's children worship, strictly speaking; but the elect of God. This Paul clearly proves in Heb. iii. 6, when he says as follows: "But Christ, as a Son over his own house, whose house are we," &c. And here, says Peter, judgment begins. For we are brought to book, arraigned at God's bar, and condemned by law, conscience, and even by the letter of the gospel under this trial, and feel the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we feel we are lost and gone.

Reader, were you ever here? O what a dangerous path is this to walk in! I have been here, reader, I assure you; and a perilous path it is, but a safe one. I mean perilous in the feeling. This is the strait or difficult gate; for everything opposes us; sin stares us in the face; guilt pinches the conscience; terror and fear of God's majesty, and that he will consume us, make us tremble; and we envy the beasts, and indeed every one that we see, and would rejoice if we could but be annihilated. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Now it is that we see the following things, and feel what we discover. We see and feel ourselves on a sandy foundation, and expect it to give way every hour. We also can see and feel the true state of all the world, both professor and profane. We see and feel our real want of righteousness, and that we are destitute of every branch of it. Dreadful threatenings from God's Word are continually running in our minds, and they pierce our souls. Our hope gives way, and we keep sinking lower and lower. This Mr. Hart found; and therefore in one of his hymns says:

"When lower and lower we every day fell."

And we feel as though our nakedness appeared to every one we work with, or when we walk the streets; so keen are our feelings. O how few know this experience in the day in which we live! And yet what a glaring profession is there made of the gospel!

But after we have been for a season tried, cast, and condemned

in this way, God is pleased to raise us to a hope, and this generally arises from some part of his Word, that encourages such poor, lost, and ruined sinners. And for a time, though but a short time, we feel a little respite; concluding from what we hear preached, read, and hear related, that this may be God's work. But what tries us to the quick is that hypocrites are often alarmed and full of fears; and as we can't distinguish wherein we differ, down we go into this horrible pit and miry clay again, and appear in a worse plight than ever. "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." Now, could a poor soul see it, there is a difference between you and an hypocrite in this one thing; I may add two; and that is, you never will be altogether without a cry to the Lord for mercy. That is, you will find this cry come again and again; for God's elect come after him in chains; but hypocrites cry not when God binds them. And, second, there will be at times a keen appetite, which, though you may lose for a time, yet it will come again and again in the face of all opposition, though everything makes against us, and that shows there is life; and this appetite is an intense desire, thirst, and craving for a manifestation of Christ and his atonement to the soul; which nothing can beat us off from, and which no hypocrite ever had. For all their works are to be seen of men; but this is a secret thing between God and our souls.

Now it is not the intention of the Almighty that we should always go on in this deplorable state. No; but it is that we may be deeply instructed into our fallen state; and that by these discoveries which we have both of ourselves and of the terrible majesty of Jehovah, we may be brought to know that if ever we are saved it must be by an act of sovereign grace from first to last. All these lessons we are made to feel as we go on; for the fires which we get into open up the fountain of iniquity within more and more; and God appears a swift witness against us. And to tell you the truth, you will feel a good deal of this teaching after justification if you get worldly, light, and trifling, and backslide from the Lord. But you will say, What is justification? I answer, in the enjoyment of it, it is removing all the evil which we feel and fear, and giving all the good which we have long sought after, through all opposition. And therefore all slavish fear, guilt, filth, sin, and every weight is taken away; and peace, rest, quietness, full assurance of faith, a firm hope of everlasting glory, a strong love and affection to God, his family, and his ways take their place; and a witness is felt in the conscience that we are justified freely from all things. Hence you read that "by faith Abel obtained witness that he was righteous; which is a very wonderful thing; for whether you believe it or not, every man living by nature is destitute of all righteousness, both elect and reprobate. "There is none righteous, no, not one." But then, say you, what accounts for all the difference that we see amongst men? For some are openly profane, and others quite

opposite. I answer, It is wholly and altogether owing to the overruling providence of God, and to bring about his vast designs; and we need go no further for a proof of this than to poor Job, who was led to act very righteously and justly; indeed, we never heard nor read of one like him; and yet he had no righteousness by nature, but was destitute of every branch of righteousness. Hence he says, "Thou writest bitter things against me," &c. "Behold, I am vile." "I have sinned," &c. And therefore, the one and only way that a sinner can be righteous is by the imputation of the perfect, pure, and spotless righteousness of the Son of God. Take this away, and every soul must perish in his own corruption; for all men are, in the strict sense of the word, like the devil by nature, birth, and practice. But "by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous." Say you, You are always harping on these things. Yes; and the reason is, I feel myself such a vile sinner more and more from day to day. How could the thief on the cross have ever entered paradise, or the third heaven, if not in this way? For on the cross he joined the other thief in reviling the Saviour; and yet he entered glory, perfectly righteous, without the least taint of sin, holy, having obeyed every part of God's righteous law in his Surety, who discharged the infinite debt.

(To be continued.)

EPISTLES TO VARIOUS FRIENDS.

"Whilst the long cloud of witnesses Shows the same path to heaven." My dear Friends,-May grace, mercy, and peace be multiplied toward you.

Sometimes it pleases the blessed Remembrancer to revive in the hearts of the children of God a remembrance of past associations and conversations between those whose hearts have been knit together in love to the truth, and for the truth's sake. Such has been the case with myself in reference to you, particularly during the last few days. On mentioning the same to my dear wife, she told me that I was a debtor to you, as you had written last to me. I, therefore, sit down for a little to say a few things by means of paper, pen, and ink.

Circumstances do sometimes arise whereby for a season intercourse with those whom we love is either stopped or suspended. But, as between the living Head of the church himself and the members of his mystical body there can be no separation,— many waters not being able to quench love, nor the floods to drown it, so also between each member of that glorious body shall this vital union continue indestructible. It is true that Christ's love to us differs from our love to him and to each other in degree, though not in its nature; both originating in the same fountain. Christ's love to his dear people is, as expressed by the poet," one continued flame," and never can be either increased or diminished.

"No change can turn its course; Immutably the same, it flows From one eternal source."

Could we by faith apprehend and believe in it as ours, at all times, under all circumstances and changes, and frames and feelings, we should not be so tossed up and down as we ofttimes are. I am, however, persuaded that those favoured souls who have had but a sip or taste of this pure fountain will never be able to find real solace or satisfaction in any creature or created stream. Moreover, whatever tribulations, temptations, losses, crosses, or sorrows it may please the Lord to exercise them with during their pilgrimage journey, nothing shall ever be able to erase "the mark of that celestial seal." It may be, and often is, hid from our view, and far enough removed from our feelings, and buried under the ashes of sin, and covered over by clouds of darkness; and we may be left so in the dark under the fiery assaults of the enemy as to come to the painful conclusion that we have been altogether deceived; yet is this distressing experience only for the trial of our faith, which is to be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Yes, dear friends, I have, through the abundant mercy of my God, proved that

"Gold in the furnace tried,

Ne'er loses ought but dross;
So is the Christian purified,
And bettered by the cross.

And I must here add another line of our favourite poet Hart:

We are sometimes commanded to go down to the potter's house, and behold him work a work upon the wheels; and we may imagine that he is doing indeed a strange work-a work that will render the vessel useless; but he knows what he is about, while we, judging merely from reason, may be left for a time to misconstrue his purposes. Thus have I found the truth of Cowper's words:

"Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan his work in vain;

God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain."

How desirable, then, when under cloudy and dark dispensations, is waiting grace, and a power to attend to the apostle's exhortation: "Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the hearts." Had the three friends of poor afflicted Job attended to such an admonition, they would not have formed so wrong a judgment of his case and character; and would also have been preserved from helping on instead of assuaging his grief. However, the Lord is pleased, in the exercise of his consummate wisdom, so to manage the affairs of those whose trust is in him, that those very things