ations God hath razed, whose deceitful coverings have been torn off by almighty power, and who has been brought a naked, guilty sinner to Jesus Christ, with a Lord, save or I perish;" such an one will be opposed, and more or less find the various conflicts that attend a warfare with the world, the flesh, and the devil. But the Conqueror says, I have overcome, I have fought the tremendous battle, in which sin and hell, the curse and death, the wrath of God, and all the vengeance of holiness and justice against transgression, was met, felt, and sustained by me, in all the fullest form and fury thereof. I have vanquished, my people shall overcome. The vanquished foes may give them great annoyance, but the deadly power of these cruel enemies is for ever gone. The weakest lamb in the flock cannot be destroyed, nor shall any of my redeemed be lacking to fill the throne of my glory.

Your letter tells me your spiritual eye is on this Almighty Captain; may the Holy Spirit keep it there. There is all safety in looking to him. He is the Head, and at the head of his people as Leader and Commander, all is weakness before him. All the springs of faith, love, hope, grace, mercy, peace, patience, strength and fortitude, all are in him, and through him to us, a never-failing, full, and suitable supply. Victory blazes on his banner. More than conquerors through Him that hath loved us," is our indelible motto, and causeth us to shout victory, whilst we are still engaged in the contest. The great drift of the enemies of our peace is, to keep us away from the side of our Captain; and therefore simple faith in Christ, is attacked by every hellish suggestion. When we are in close company with Jesus, Satan cannot prevail against our confidence. The questionings and scruples we often betrayed into, afford him the means to distress our minds, and

are

bring our unbelief into such activity, that faith seems to faint and stagger in its hold of the promise. But let Emanuel come again in sight, and every snare is broken. Oh, may he keep you believing on him through thick and thin, and every devilish obstacle, is my hearty prayer. I am concerned to hear of your affliction, but, through rich grace and mercy, yours is not a case wherein we have cause for sorrow as men without hope. If it is the sovereign determination of your heavenly Father, that your state of mortal existence shall be of short duration, he has vouchsafed you the pledge and earnest of future glory, and will bear you safe to the mansions of bliss, to possess his joy eternally.

With respect to the request of administering to you the ordinance of baptism, our dear and mutual friend Mr. M. has, I conclude, informed you my reply to him on that subject; therefore I have now the less to say. If the Lord permits, I shall be in the society of my beloved friends at G— in May; if you are willing to wait till then, and your bodily state will admit, I hope to rejoice in the privilege afforded me of uniting with you in the solemn delightful act of faith. Your views of the ordinance, and the motives you assign for your obedience, are quite congenial with my own views of it; it is therefore needless for me to attempt an explana. tion of its nature. We have only to look up and implore the Lord's gracious presence and crowning blessing upon our services when permitted to engage in it. I suppose by this time, our never-failing support has carried you through the painful task of bearing your testimony before the church, which seemed to fill you with such painful apprehension. If you have passed the trial, I trust you have found Him faithful. To them that have no might he increaseth strength.' Or if you are still in the suspense, I can with safety suggest, you will not

He

find him worse than his word. will not fail thee nor forsake thee. The people who form the church, are a company of poor needy sinners, whom grace has gathered from nature's waste, and made them sensible of their entire need of Christ and his great salvation; revealed that Christ is in them the hope of glory; but keeps them still sensible of their entire sinnership, that they may prize his gospel, and glory in him. Therefore you have not to stand before a set of popish inquisitors, but those who are great and feeling debtors to Sovereign grace; who in listening to the feeblest testimony of grace received, find it to be of a kindling nature, drawing out and cementing the souls of pardoned sinners into

oneness.

If I had promised to come in April, it seems I should scarce have been able to fulfil such promise, through difficulty in obtaining supplies, &c. There is no want of inclination on my part to come, but my will, and circumstances to gratify that will, are under the controul of my unerring Master, to whom I beg for grace to be submissive. Sometimes I think if I could step to G, as often as I feel communion in spirit with Mr. M., he would have a frequent visitor indeed. My bodily health has been very indifferent for some time past, and continues so at present. My pulpit labours are with great difficulty, and followed with much weakness and weariness. Lord's day my soul was full of precious matter, but bodily strength was insufficient for the toil of utterance. I have experienced much of the same in the course of my ministry; yet He, whose I am and whom I serve, has renewed my strength, and can and will again if he wants me. He hath done, is doing, and will do all things well. How prone are we to judge by sight, sense and feeling; and these, alas, are sorry counselors. We too frequently for our peace,

Last

draw conclusions from God's providences instead of his promises. It is our misery we bring, not God's promises and the faithfulness of his nature together, to look at. Second causes always distress the mind, and nothing can relieve the oppressed saint, and quiet the soul to rest in God, but the divine Remembrancer, leading the thoughts into the blessed certainty, that God is of one mind, and according thereto in all dispensations, let them be as deeply trying as they may; he is pursuing the invariable designs of his own everlasting love and unerring counsel towards his people. The cause of God's love is in himself; the reason why he loves us is in Immanuel. He loves him, the God-man. He is the object of love, and in him there is every assurance why Jehovah's love to his church can sustain no change. The glorious Head and the mystic members, form but one undivided object of love from eternity to eternity. In this my soul centers. In Him who is before all things, and by whom all things consist. Col. i. 17. He who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, is the glorious rock of all my hope, the treasure house of all the grace and glory I am raised by divine power to look for, the throne of grace itself, that emboldens all that come to him. May the glories of his person, the wonders of his love, the riches of his grace, the aboundings of his mercy, the fulness and freshness of his salvation, the glory of his righteousness, the efficacy of his atoning blood, the greatness of his power, and the faithfulness of his nature, be opened in increased discoveries to your heart by the Holy Spirit, that if the outer man decays, the inner man; through divine renewings, may anticipate that weight, that exceeding weight of glory which is in certain reversion for you; and for the enjoyment of it, the Holy Ghost has made you meet.

My affectionate regard to your dear

Lying has a ruinous tendency: it strikes a damp upon business and dissolves the cement of society. Like gunpowder, it is all noise and smoke: it darkens the air, disturbs the sight, and blows up as far as it reaches. No upright person can close with a liar; there is danger in the correspondence: and, more than that, we do not like to associate with those who make it their business to deceive It is part of the devil's image: You are of your father the devil,

us.

-Prov. ii. 22.

"Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among the people."-Lev. xi、.

16.

ALL that will live godly in Christ must suffer persecution. As one says, our rest is not here in this world; this world is an ark of travel, a school of lying vanities, a labyrinth of errors, a tempestuous sea, a vale of tears, full of miseries. The word of God is the standard to try all, and all who are taught by the Spirit take heed unto it, as a light shining in a dark place." The word of God declares that " lying lips are an abomination

to the Lord."

The practice of lying, says one, is so prevalent in the visible church, and appears under so many forms, that a firm adherence to truth in every thing is considered as a disagreeeble singularity by many professors. Even they who are not guilty of open lies, are too often found in the shameful practice of equivocation. Let all such, however, remember, that he who wilfully deceives his neighbour, either by his tongue or his conduct, is a being to be dreaded in society; and while attempting to deceive and injure others, he is actually imposing upon and will eventually deceive himself.

Lying, in discourse, is a disagreement between the speech and the mind of the speaker; when one thing is declared and another meant, and the words are no image of the thoughts.

66

He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight." And God bas declared in his word, that none shall enter the heavenly city who love and make lies. Rev. xxii. 13.

The ivy is a climbing plant; if it meets with any support it will climb to a great height, and send out its roots on every side, which strike into joints of walls and bark of trees. It is difficult to eradicate, and often undermines that on which it hangs for support, Not unfrequently are we reminded of the ivy by the insidious conduct of designing men, who, not having the means to elevate or support themselves, craftily attach themselves to spiritual persons, of real worth in the church of God; and so rise by respectability which does not belong to themselves, but often, while thus entwining, they undermine the interest of those who befriend them, and sink them into ruins. We have reason to be cautious of those, who by lying and deceiving would cling and twine like the ivy to injure us. Their enmity is hidden, because the outbreaking of it is restrained by fear. It lies like an enemy in ambush; that dare not come out before a superior force. And because God has allowed him hitherto to have his own way, his schemes have prospered, his desires have been granted, and he thinks himself right in his own eyes.

But

he is only a concealed enemy to the Lord's dear children. The viper may lie coiled up in his nest, no light disturbs him, no spear pricks him, his fears keep him within: yet he is not the less venomous, or spiteful, or treacherous. Let but a ray of sunshine fall upon him, let his hiding place be exposed, let his slumbers be disturbed, let irritation awaken him to sensibility, and at once up he springs, malignant as ever, the well known foe of God's children. If their design be to represent themselves, as guiltless of a suspicion or a fault, they deny the fact, and double it.

Evil men seek for content out of things that cannot satisfy: they raise war to enjoy present peace, they strive to depress others and injure them to get gain and reputation to themselves. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words." Jer. xviii. 18. "But his hand shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward their enemies." Under the mantle of a nominal profession of practical godliness, I could unfold the most awful depravity and heart-rending descriptions; but I will leave such awful characters to that day when the hearts of such shall be made manifest. Such are double tongued; who speak smooth to your face, and in your absence scandalize your character. Oh, these are wolves in sheep's clothing, of whom Christ says, " beware," Mat. vii. 15; for they have all the outward appearance so calculated to deceive, but "6 Winwardly they are ravening wolves," such as Paul called "grievous wolves, not sparing the flock," Acts xx. 29. and are both ravenous and grievous to many a servant of God.

The poor servants of God suffer severely from the poisoned arrows of uncircumcised liars and backbiters. Ps. xi. 3. Such characters prove by their conduct they have made a covenant with death, and with hell they are at agreement; "for the devil is

a liar from the beginning." The end of such characters, if they die in that state, is enough to make the stoutest heart to tremble. Rev. xxi. 8. There is no particular in which persons of all ages, conditions, sexes, and complexions universally agree, except in their thirst for scandal. Is there a plain and simple hearted follower of Jesus, whose desires are to magnify the riches of divine grace, who speaks from his own experience of the evil of sin, whose end and aim is to abase the sinner and to exalt the Saviour; who endeavours to lay open the mystery of iniquity, and the deceivableness of unrighteousness; and to beat off the sinner from all dependence upon self, and from all opinion of any power, or wisdom, or goodness, or righteousness, or holiness, but what he has in and from Christ, ascribing salvation full and free to the unmerited grace, love and mercy of his God and Saviour? This man will often, unexpectedly to himself, be the occasion of provoking that malice, and calling it forth into action, which before had lain hid and smothered in the breast of some Judas or Balaam, by reason of whom the way of trath and men of truth are evil spoken of. Many of God's dear children are often prejudiced one against another, from evil reports and misrepresentations. Needs must that offences come, but woe be to that man by whom the offence cometh; it would have been good for that man, if he had not been born." It would not answer their purpose to do it openly, it must be done secretly, under the profession of religious humility, and pretended zeal for God and godliness, a violent outcry against open and notorious sin.

Our blessed Lord, though he was in himself holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; who did no evil, neither was guile found in his mouth, nor yet in his heart; yet his spotless life, his holy walk and conversation, could not exempt him from