Brother Jacob, beloved in my heart, there liveth not in whom I have so good hope and trust, and in whom mine heart rejoiceth and my soul comforteth herself, as in you: not the thousandth part so much for your learning, and what other gifts else you have, as that you will creep alow in the ground, and walk in those things, that the conscience may feel, and not in the imaginations of the brain; in fear and not in boldness; in open necessary things, and not to pronounce or define of hid secrets, or things that neither help or hinder, whether they be so or not, in unity and not in seditious opinions: insomuch, that if you be sure you know, yet in things that may abide leisure you will defer, or say (till others agree with you) methinks the text requireth this sense or understanding: yea, and that if you be sure that your part be good, and another hold the contrary, yet if it be a thing that maketh no matter, you will laugh and let it pass, and refer the thing to other men, and stick you stiffly and stubbornly in earnest and necessary things. And I trust you be persuaded even so of me. For I call God to record, against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, to give a reckoning of our doings, that I never altered one syllable of God's word against my conscience, nor would this day, if all that is in the earth, whether it be pleasure, honor, or riches might be given me. Moreover, I take God to record to my conscience, that I desire of God to myself in this world no more than that without which I cannot keep his laws.

Finally, if there were in me any gift that could help at hand, and aid you if need required; I promise you I would not be far off, and commit the end to

God: my soul is not faint, though my body be weary. But God hath made me evil favoured in this world, and without grace in the sight of men, speechless and rude, dull and slow witted: your part shall be to supply that which lacketh in me, remembering, that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God, even so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men. Nature giveth age authority, but meekness is the glory of youth, and giveth them honour. Abundance of love maketh me exceed in babling.

For they preached word, and alleged a

Sir, as concerning purgatory, and many other things, if you be demanded, you may say, if you err, the spirituality hath so led you, and that they have taught you to believe as you do. you all such things out of God's thousand texts, by reason of which texts you believed as they taught you. But now you find them liars, and that the texts mean no such things, and therefore you can believe them no longer, but are as you were before they taught you, and believe no such thing: howbeit, you are ready to believe if they have any other way to prove it, for without proof you cannot believe them, when you have found them with so many lies. If you perceive wherein we may help, either in being still or doing somewhat, let us have word, and I will do mine uttermost.

My lord of London hath a servant called John Tisen, and was once my scholar; he was seen in Antwerp, but came not among the Englishmen ; whether he is gone as ambassador secret I wot not.

The mighty God of Jacob be with you to supplant

his enemies, and give you the favour of Joseph; and the wisdom and the spirit of Stephen be with your heart and with your mouth, and teach your lips what they shall say, and how to answer to all things. He is our God if we despair in ourselves and trust in him, and his is the glory. Amen.

WILLIAM TINDAL.

I hope our redemption is nigh.'

THE ROCK.

"Which things are an Allegory."

I THOUGHT I was, with a vast number besides, of all ranks and ages, travelling over a very extensive plain. The general character of this plain was, in my eye, barren and uninviting: indeed, the farther I advanced, the more desolate it appeared. Its atmosphere was sultry and oppressive; so much so, that every traveller, whether he exerted himself or not, was weary and faint. I should observe, that in the midst of the plain, and within sight of all that would look that way, there stood a great and overshadowing Rock it was a very wonderful Rock. nothing at all like it any where else.

There was

It had also

flowed un

this marvellous peculiarity-out of it ceasingly streams of cool, refreshing water. If I carried my view forward to the extreme distance, I could just descry a range of lofty mountains, whose tops lost themselves in the clouds: but

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this was all that I could see. Now I was not a little surprised to observe, how very few of the weary and almost fainting multitude availed themselves of this "shadow of a great Rock in a weary land," and these streams in the desert." They could not well be ignorant that this Rock was there; for a report of it had been circulated far and wide through the whole plain, or nearly so. This infatuation of the people I could not understand. The Rock and the streams that issued from it seemed to me to be exactly what we poor panting travellers stood in need of. It was evident that they themselves did not think so. They were pressing forward, I could perceive, after something else, something that they appeared to see, but what I could not. And so I thought that they were spending their strength for nought. Whilst I was thus wondering within myself at what I saw, I espied a venerable old man standing very near the Rock. He was looking, I thought, very compassionately and benevolently towards me; and after a little while he invited me, as he did the others, to draw near. This appeared to be his sole employment and delight. Sometimes, and not unfrequently, he would cry aloud, so that every one who had ears to ear might hear; and his words were such as these, Let the "weary and heavy laden" come to this Rock for rest. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!" "If any man thirst, let him come unto this Rock and drink!" I could almost have wept aloud when I saw how generally these kind and earnest invitations were disregarded. For the great multitude still pursued "every one his own way;" and, in spite of all they suffered from fatigue and thirst, pursued it still.

I could not forbear asking for an explanation of this, to me, unaccountable conduct of the multitude, in turning away from their richest mercies. Son, said the old man, fixing his mild and somewhat sorrowful eyes on me, "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not; lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him!" The refreshment that I enjoyed at the Rock was inexpressibly delightful. My thirst was assuaged; my strength was renewed: I was enabled to "run and not be weary;" and I went on my way rejoicing. The wilderness that before was so desolate, now" blossomed as the rose." The distant mountains lost their asperity and indistinctness. I had been begotten again unto a "lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." A never setting sun gilded the distance. The streams of the Rock flow beside me in my pilgrimage: "and that Rock is Christ." J. R.

"THOUGHTS BY THE WAY.

The new creature in Christ Jesus, seldom, if ever, loses his sensible enjoyment of the divine favour without being himself to blame. For the Lord does not willingly afflict; he takes no pleasure in hiding himself from those who are accepted in the beloved; the