went boldly into the house; the workmen and servants rushed close upon them and soon disarmed them, and bound them hand and foot, and saw they were the same men that had bound them, when their master's house was robbed; and thus they were taken and afterwards hung. This is a parable I know to be true, as Mr. Mauditt was my grandmother Southcott's 'uncle; Here we may see credulity and folly in Mr. Mauditt, to let the man sleep in his house, after the servants had so clearly told him he was an impostor, as he proved" afterwards to be; but will men plead that Mr. Mauditt's credulity should be any screen for the men's villainy? Then they must say these men ought not to be hung. Now in this I see as great folly in Mr. Mauditt, to give credit to the man, as I see in Messrs. Sharp and Wilson, to give credit to Mr, King's honesty; but here my opinion differs from mankind, as I was taught by my mother, from this" circumstance, to believe that the Lord permitted Mr. Mauditt to be blind to the arts of the man, and to work a suspicion in the servant to bring their villainy all to light. This in my opinion was done by divine interference, working two different ways in the hearts of men; for without Mr. Mauditt s credulity, they could not have taken the villains in a net by their own feet, to fall into the pit they were digging for others; for had M. Mauditt turned the out of doors, and told him his suspicions, by. what he had heard from his servants, they might have gone on longer to rob others, and contrived some other way to injure him; and therefore in my opinion the interference of the Lord is often worked upon the heart, where he does not visit by his Spirit to speak by words; and it is from men's judging there is no divine interference that they o on to seck the ruin of others, till they bring utter ruin and destruction on themselves: and here I may say with David 1 How wondrous are thy works, O Lord! Thy secret track in wisdom lies, And from these parables, that I have brought forward, it may be plainly discerned how hardened sinners are blind to their own ruin; but as the readers may say I speak in parables, I must refer them to the 2nd book of Samuel, 12th chapter, and there they will find how Nathan first comes to David with a parable, to lay his own iniquities before him. Now David, from the parable, saw the iniquity in the rich man, and his anger was kindled; and then Nathan Brings it to him-thou art the man, which convinced David of his crimes, that he might not have as clearly seen in himself, if Nathan had not brought forward his crimes in another. Now perfectly so I say of Mr. King, and those who are joined with him; they might not as clearly have seen their crimes, and that there is a divine interference to overtake them, from the letters I sent to Mr. King as they may see it from the parables I have brought forward; and my motive in this is to convince these men, from parables, that if they go on to seek the ruin of others, they will surely bring on their own in the end. And now I shall come further to parables. In the 5th chapter of Isaiah we find the Lord speaking by the mouth of bis prophet; he is comparing his people to a vineyard, saying, "Now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge I pray you between ME and my vineyard; what could I have done more for my vineyard than I have done in it? for when I looked that it should have brought forth grapes, it brought forth wild grapes." Here the Lord is speaking by the prophet, how he had fenced them and built a tower in the midst to secure them, in the likeness of a vineyard, that a man would plant and put a fence to it; but when he found the vine 66 yard produced nothing but sour grapes, HE takes away the hedge that it may be trodden down, in this 1.keness of the parable that the Lord spoke to the people, that he would do unto them, if they did not repent. In the 3rd chapter of Jeremiah we find the Lord is speaking to his people in the parable of an adulterous woman, to shew them their crimes, in departing from him, and adulterating his words and his commands, which he compares to a woman playing the harlot, to shew them how detestable were their crimes. In the same chapter the Lord invites them to return; for he will be married to them, if they are united to him. In this the Lord brings forward a parable of a man and his wife, concerting himself and the people; but he says further, a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with ME, saith the Lord.” And it we discern the Scriptures through, we shall see the Lord bringing forward parables by the mouth of his prophets, to shew the people the likeness of their crimes; then let no man marvel that the Lord hath worked in my heart to bring forward such parables as I have brought forward in this book, to prove there is a divine interference, and that the watchful eye of the Lord is over them that trust in him, as in another parable I brought forward to my friends; for though the Lord, to shew us our own weakness, often leaves us to ourselves, to shew us that we cannot trust to ourselves, but must live dependent upon the protections of the Lord, as it was by the children and the father, which I brought forward to my friends in the beginning. It was a story I read in a magazine, of a gentleman who had two little children, who said, how happy they should be when they were men and women, to be their own masters. The father hearing them, made this answer, "Go to bed like good children, and you shall be your own masters to-morrow and all the week following." The children said, "O papa, you are jesting with us." The gentleman answered, "No; I am in earnest." Then the children went to bed filled with joy, that. they should be their own masters. The following. day in the morning, they reflected on their father's, words, and indulged themselves late in bed; after. breakfast they went to their amusement to play, and when they were called to dinner, they threw away their play things in anger one with the other, saying, they had wasted part of the day in no pleasure, wherein they had been their own masters. When they came to dinner they chused every thing at the table that was improper, and called for plenty of wine, which they had not been allowed by their father; the lady said, in a low voice to her husband, "I fear they will injure their health, and make themselves sick." The gentleman answered, “I fear so too; but I would rather convince them from their own folly than for me to lay my restraint. After dinner they went to the garden, where the tender father followed them unperceived by the children, to watch them, fearing what dangers they might fall into. The children went to a fish pond that was in the garden, and in the pond there was a boat that was near the edge; but the pond was nearly dry. The little boy said to the girl, We will go into the boat. The girl answered, You know papa always charged us never to go into the boat. But the boy answered, you know we are now our own masters, and we may do what we like. She said, I forgot that; and so she agreed with her brother to go into the boat; and getting upon the brim of the boat, they both fell over into the pond; but the father being near, who had followed them so close, ran to their assistance, and took them out immediately. The children grew very sick from falling into the muddy water and eating and drinking too much at their dinner. The father then asked them who should be their master now. The children cried out eagerly, Q papa, you shall be our master; we will never be our own masters more. He then told them they must take a bitter draught to cleanse their stomach from what it was filled with, by their being their own masters; and to this the children consented. This I brought forward to my friends, that like the children, if we trusted to ourselves we should fall into dangers; and the Lord sometimes left us to ourselves, as the father did the children, to convince us we could not trust ourselves to keep ourselves out of all dangers, without the Lord's protecion; but as the eye of the father was overthe children, to take them out of the dangers they had fallen into, so was the eye of the Lord over them to take them out of their dangers, if they committed themselves to the Lord to be their master and their father, as the children said to their father they would no longer be their own masters, but trust to him. This parable struck deep upon my mind and heart, that it was a perfect likeness of God and man, and the perfect likeness of my friends; and I do by no means marvel, while the world mocks their belief in putting their whole trust and confidence in the Lord, that the Lord should leave them to theirselves for a while, to shew them plainly to what destruction the unbelieving world, that mocks their reliance upon the Lord, to be their director and protector, but advising them to be like the children to be their own masters, and throw off the protection of the Lord, persuading the that all happiness is in the world-I do not mar vel that they should be permitted to be drawn away by the world for a while, that they may clearly see their dingers, if they trust the world for their masters; but as their eye was to the Lord, though drawn away by the arts of men, yet his watchful eye was over them, as the eve of the tender father was over the children, to take them out of the pit into which they had fallen, that they might not be completely drowned; for thus far was the Lord's permission, to strengthen their faith, that they might trust in him for the future, and clearly dis |