brilliant crown of martyrdom. Perilous as the fires of Smithfield were the places to which he resorted; and in the purest spirit of a holy and Scriptural warfare against the Popish mother of abominations, did he go, to make the temporal relief subservient to the preaching of the Gospel among her victims. Look at the sixth chapter of the Revelation, verses 9, 10, 11, and there you will see amongst whom our beloved one is numbered. He had long groaned in secret under the burden of flesh, and daily and hourly he took a survey of his undefiled inheritance.

All

is well now: and his joy is full. What he was to me I cannot even attempt to tell you-your dear father and brother might see some proof of it in the tears that were shed over me by those who loved him best-that is to say, those who best knew him. My situation is peculiarly helpless; in every point my need was met by that precious brother. We went to the house of God in company, and he used to repeat to me all the discourse; and even at the public meetings he would go on for four or five hours together, giving me all that was said. Often, often have I grieved his sweet and patient spirit by the perverseness, petulance, and ingratitude of my own; but, alike unruffled and unwearied, he pursued the work-a faithful reprover-an unflinching adviser-a brother born for adversity. My heart writhes at the view of what I have lost; and I feel it to be irreparable: but it is not for ever. Oh that we may have grace

* On his fingers, C. E. being entirely deaf.

to be indeed followers of him who, through faith and patience, now inherits every promise!

"I hope that your dear parent and brother took my intrusion into the funeral party as it was meant ; indeed, I broke through all rules; but I would not now take worlds for the comfort that abides even from having done so: and even in parting from them, probably to meet no more on earth, I could not, I would not think of anything else than that they were part of my own precious friend. You must write to me-pray do-and love me because David did-nay, he does -for his love is what death cannot interfere with. All his labour was to render me more meet for an eternal inheritance; and never, I think, were any feelings more spiritualized than were all his feelings. He seemed to throw a halo of sanctity around him, so cheerfully bright, yet so awfully pure. If I come short of the rest which remaineth for the people of God, my greatest condemnation will be in the privileges that I enjoyed in and through my beloved friend. I wanted to make a request, but was unwilling to do it at that season of deep sorrow. If there be any of his hair preserved, I would so gladly ask a little bit to mix with that of my own only brother, who was drowned. You can enclose it in a letter, under cover, to the dear friend of our departed-J. E. G——, Esq., M.P., his address is No. 2, St. James' Place, Pall Mall.

66

WORTHY AND DEAR SIR, - My heart embraces you with all the tenderness and affection of Christian love; and I earnestly beg of God to make me a messenger of his peace to your soul.

You seem to apprehend, I may be much surprised at the account you have given of yourself; but I am neither surprised nor offended at it; I neither condemn nor lament your estate, but shall endeavour to shew you how easily it may be made a blessing and happiness to you. In order to which, I shall not enter into a consideration of the different kinds of trouble you have set forth at large. I think it better to lay before you the one true ground and root from whence all the evil and disorders of human life have sprung. This will make it easy for you to see, what that is which must, and only can be, the full remedy and relief for all of them, how different soever either in kind or degree.

The Scripture has assured us, that God made man in his own image and likeness; a sufficient proof that man, in his first state as he came forth from God, must have been absolutely free from all vanity, want, or distress of any kind, from any thing either within or without him. It would be quite absurd and blasphemous to suppose, that a creature beginning to exist in the image and likeness of God, should have vanity of life, or vexation of spirit: a God-like perfection of nature, and a painful distressed nature, stand in the utmost contrariety to one another.

Again, the Scripture has assured us, that man that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery: therefore man now is not that creature that he was by his creation. The first Divine and Godlike nature of Adam, which was to have been immortally holy in union with God, is lost; and instead of it, a poor mortal of earthly flesh and blood, born like a wild ass's colt, of

a short life and full of misery, is through a vain pilgrimage to end in dust and ashes. Therefore, let every evil, whether inward or outward, only teach you this truth, that man has infallibly lost his first Divine life in God; and that no possible comfort, or deliverance is to be expected, but only in this one thing, that though man had lost his God, yet God is become man, that man may be again alive in God as at the first. For all the misery and distress of human nature, whether of body or mind, is wholly owing to this one cause, that God is not in man, nor man in God, as the state of his nature requires: it is because man has lost that first life of God in his soul in and for which he was created. He lost this light, and spirit, and life of God, by turning his will, imagination, and desire, into a tasting and sensibility of the good and evil of this earthly bestial world.

Now here are two things raised up in man, instead of the life of God: First, self, or selfishness, brought forth by his chusing to have a wisdom of his own, contrary to the will and instruction of his Creator. Secondly, an earthly, bestial, mortal life and body, brought forth by his eating that food which was poison to his paradisical nature. Both these must therefore be removed; that is, a man must first totally die to self, and all earthly desires, views, and intentions, before he can be again in God as his nature and first creation require.

But now if this be a certain and immutable truth, that man, so long as he is a selfish, earthly-minded creature, must be deprived of his true life, the Life of God, the Spirit of Heaven in his soul, then how is the face of things changed! For, then, what life is so much to be dreaded as a life of worldly ease and prosperity? What a misery, nay, what a curse, is there in everything that gratifies and nourishes our self-love, self-esteem,

and self-seeking! On the other hand, what happiness is there in all inward and outward troubles and vexations, when they force us to feel and know the hell that is hidden within us, and the vanity of everything without us, when they turn all our self-love into self-abhorrence, and force us to call upon God to save us from ourselves, to give us a new life, new light, and new spirit in Christ Jesus.

poor

"O happy famine," might the prodigal have well said, "which, by reducing me to the necessity of asking to eat husks with swine, brought me to myself, and caused my return to my first happiness in my father's house."

Now I will suppose your distressed state to be as you represent it; inwardly, darkness, heaviness, and confusion of thoughts and passions; outwardly, ill-usage from friends, relations, and all the world; unable to strike up the least spark of light or comfort by any thought or reasoning of your own.

O happy famine, which leaves you not so much as the husk of one human comfort to feed upon! For this is the time and place for all that good and life and salvation to happen to you, which happened to the prodigal son. Your way is as short, and your success as certain as his was: you have no more to do than he had; you need not call out for books, or methods of devotion; for in your present state, much reading and borrowed prayers are not your best method: all that you are to offer to God, all that is to help you to find him to be your Saviour and Redeemer, is best taught and expressed by the distressed state of your heart.

Only let your present and past distress make you feel and acknowledge this twofold great truth: First, that in and of yourself you are nothing but darkness, vanity, and misery; Secondly, that of yourself, you can no more help yourself to light and comfort, than you can create an angel. People at all times can seem to assent to these two truths; but then it is an assent that has no depth or reality, and so is of little or no use: but your

condition has opened your heart for a deep and full conviction of these truths. Now give way, I beseech you, to this conviction, and hold these two truths in the same degree of certainty as you know two and two to be four, and then you are with the prodigal come to yourself, and above

HALF YOUR WORK IS DONE.

Being now in the full possession of these two truths, feeling them in the same degree of certainty as you feel your own existence, you are, under this sensibility, to give up yourself absolutely and entirely to God in Christ Jesus, as into the hands of infinite love; firmly believing this great and infallible truth, that God has no will towards you but that of infinite love, and infinite desire to make you a partaker of his Divine nature; and that it is as absolutely impossible for the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to refuse all that good and life and salvation which you want, as it is for you to take it by your own power.

O drink deep of this cup! for the precious water of an eternal life is in it. Turn unto God with this faith; cast yourself into this abyss of love; and then you will be in that state the prodigal was in, when he said, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son;" and all that will be fulfilled in you which is related of him.

Make this, therefore, the twofold exercise of your heart; now, bowing yourself down before God in the deepest sense, and acknowledgment of your own nothingness and vileness; then, looking up unto God in faith and love, consider him as always extending the arms of his mercy towards you, and full of an infinite desire to dwell in you, as he dwells in angels in heaven. Content yourself with this inward and simple exercise of your heart for awhile; and seek or like nothing in any book, but that which nourishes and strengthens this state of your heart.

"Come unto me," says the holy Jesus, "all ye that labour, and are

heavy laden, and I will refresh you." Here is more for you to live upon, more light for your mind, more of unction for your heart, than in volumes of human instruction. Pick up the words of the holy Jesus, and beg of him to be the light and life of your soul: love the sound of his name; for Jesus is the love, the sweetness, the compassionate goodness of the Deity itself; which became man, that so men might have power to become the sons of God. Love and pity and wish well to every soul in the world; dwell in love, and then you dwell in God, hate nothing but the evil that stirs in your own heart.

Teach your heart this prayer, till your heart continually saith, though not with outward words, "O holy Jesus; meek Lamb of God! bread that came down from heaven! light and life of all holy souls! help me to a true and living faith in thee. O do thou open thyself within me with all thy holy nature, spirit, tempers, and inclinations, that I may be born again of thee, in thee a new creature, quickened and revived, led and governed by thy Holy Spirit.".

Prayer so practised becomes the life of the soul, and the true food of eternity. Keep in this state of application to God, and then you will infallibly find it to be the true way of rising out of the vanity of time into the riches of eternity.

Do not expect or look for the same degrees of sensible fervour. The matter lies not there. Nature will have its share; but the ups and downs of that are to be overlooked. Whilst your will-spirit is good and set right, the changes of creaturely fervour lessen not your union with God. It is the abyss of the heart, an unfathomable depth of eternity within us, as much above sensible fervour as heaven is above earth; it is this that works our way to God, and unites with heaven. This abyss of the heart is the Divine nature and power within us, which never calls upon God in vain, but whether helped or deserted by bodily fervour, penetrates through all outward nature, as easily and effectually as our thoughts can leave our

bodies, and reach into the regions of eternity.

The poverty of our fallen nature, the depraved workings of flesh and blood, the corrupt tempers of our polluted birth in this world, do us no hurt so long as the spirit of prayer works contrary to them, and longs for the birth of the light and spirit of heaven. All our natural evil ceases to be our own evil, as soon as our will-spirit turns from it; it then changes its nature, loses all its poison and death, and only becomes our holy cross, on which we happily die from self and this world into the kingdom of heaven.

Would you have done with error, scruple, and delusion? Consider the Deity to be the greatest love, the greatest meekness, the greatest sweetness, the eternal unchangeable will to be a good and blessing to every creature; and that all the misery, darkness, and death of fallen angels and fallen men, consist in their having lost their likeness to this Divine nature. Consider yourself, and all the fallen world, as having nothing to seek or wish for, but by the spirit of prayer to draw into the life of your soul, rays and sparks of this Divine, meek, loving, tender nature of God. Consider the holy Jesus as the gift of God to your soul, to begin and finish the birth of God and heaven within you in spite of every inward and outward enemy. These three infallible truths heartily embraced, and made the nourishment of your soul, shorten and secure the way to heaven, and leave no room for error, scruple, or delusion.

Expect no life, light, strength, or comfort, but from the Spirit of God dwelling and manifesting his own goodness in your soul. The best of men and the best of books, can only do you good, so far as they turn you from themselves, and every human thing, to seek, and have, and receive every kind of good from God alone; not a distant, or an absent God, but a God living, moving, and always working in the spirit and heart of your soul.

They never find God who seek for him by reasoning and speculation;

for since God is the highest spirit, and the highest life, nothing but a like spirit, and a like life, can unite with him, find or feel, or know anything of him. Hence it is, that faith, and hope, and love, turned towards God, are the only possible, and also infallible means of obtaining a true and living knowledge of him. And the reason is plain, it is because by these holy tempers, which are the workings of spirit and life within us, we seek the God of life where he is, we call upon him by his own voice, we draw near to him by his own spirit; for nothing can breathe forth faith, and love, and hope to God, but that spirit and life which is of God, and which, therefore, through flesh and blood thus presses towards him, and readily unites with him.

There is not a more infallible truth in the world than this, that neither reasoning nor learning can ever introduce a spark of heaven into our souls: but if this be so, then you have nothing to seek, nor any thing to fear, from reason. Life and death are the things in question: they are neither of them the growth of reasoning or learning, but each of them is a state of the soul, and only thus differ, death is the want, and life the enjoyment of its highest good. Reason therefore and learning have no power here; but only by their vain activity to keep the soul insensible of that life and death, one of which is always growing up in it, according as the will and desire of the heart worketh. Add reason to a vegetable, and you add nothing to its life or death. Its life and fruitfulness lieth in the soundness of its root, the goodness of its soil, and the riches it derives from air and light. Heaven and hell grow thus in the soul of every man; his heart is his root; if that is turned from all evil, it is then like the plant in a good soil; when it hungers and thirsts after the Divine life, it then infallibly draws the light and spirit of God into it, which are infinitely more ready and willing to live and fructify in the soul, than light and air to enter into the plant that hungers after them. For the soul has its breath, and being, and life, for no other end, but that the TRIUNE God

may manifest the riches and powers of his own life in it.

When therefore it is the one ruling, never-ceasing desire of our hearts, that God may be the beginning and end, the reason and motive, the rule and measure, of our doing or not doing, from morning to night, then everywhere, whether speaking or silent, whether inwardly or outwardly employed, we are equally offered up to the Eternal Spirit, have our life in him and from him, and are united to him by that spirit of prayer, which is the comfort, the support, the strength, and security of the soul, travelling by the help of God through the vanity of time into the riches of eternity. For this spirit of prayer let us willingly give up all that we inherit from our fallen father, to be all hunger and thirst after God, and to have no thought or care, but how to be wholly his devoted instruments; everywhere, and in every thing, his adoring, joyful, and thankful servants. Have your eyes shut, and ears stopped to every thing, that is not a step in that ladder that reaches from earth to heaven.

Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation and meditation are good; but then they are only good at times and occasions, in a certain degree, and must be used and governed with such caution, as we eat and drink, and refresh ourselves, or they will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance. But the Spirit of Prayer is for all times, and all occasions; it is a lamp that is to be always burning, a light to be ever shining; every thing calls for it, every thing is to be done in it, and governed by it; because it is, and means, and wills nothing else, but the whole totality of the soul, not doing this or that, but wholly incessantly given up to God, to be where, and what, and how he pleases.

This state of absolute resignation, naked faith, and pure love of God, is the highest perfection, and most purified life of those who are born again from above, and through the Divine power become Sons of God: and it is neither more nor less, than what our blessed Redeemer has called, and qualified us to long and aspire