God is fmiting us with terrors, horrors, flashes of divine anger, reproofs, rebukes, the lafhes of conscience, bitter reflections, and fmiting us with the application of the threatenings and fentences of a broken law, and with the fore buffetings of Satan, and the killing ftings and remorfes of guilt. To come into the bond of the covenant is to have the love of God fhed abroad in our heart by the Holy Ghost given unto us. The work on you seems to me to be very much like that of Hezekiah, much joy and confidence. And no wonder; for at that time he knew nothing of the plague of his own heart; but, when God fhewed him this, his joy, confidence, and hopes, all funk together: "I faid, I fhall not fee the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the living: I fhall behold man no more with the inhabitants of the world: he will cut me off with pining ficknefs; from day even to night wilt thou make an end of me." Ifa. xxxviii. 11, 12. And, indeed, nothing will hide pride from our eyes but an abiding fenfe of our own depravity, and of the fuperabounding and undeserved mercy of God in Chrift Jefus to us. May this religion ever reft with thee and me. So prays

Thy friend and fervant in Christ Jesus,

The Defert.

NOCTUA AURITA.

A CORRESPONDENCE.

of

LETTER 1.

To PHILOMELA, on the Spray, Mount Tabor.

THE long, cold, dreary winter

my beloved fifter in God is paft; the difinal cloud of mount Sinai, which hath long rained its entangling fnares on thy foul, is now over and gone; the hiding place from the impending forms, and the covert from the dreadful tempeft, is found at laft; " being wet with the showers of the mountains, fhe hath embraced the rock for want of a fhelter." " He was angry with me," fays Philomela; " but his anger is turned away, and he comforts me." "In his favour is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."

"The flowers appear on the earth, the time of finging of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." Ifrael buds and bloffoms as the rofe; the lilies of the valley ap

pear among the thorns; those that have long lain, felf-condemned, among the pots and potfherds of the earth, obtain the wings of a dove, and their feathers fhine with burnished gold, while the voice of the turtle bemoans his mate. "Nor will he deliver the foul of his turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked, nor forget the congregation of his poor for ever." Pfalm lxxiv. 19. Two turtle doves were always offered together under the old difpenfation; but one was never offered alone. Jefus died not alone; we were crucified with him. How precious is the facrifice of a crucified Saviour to poor perishing finners! and how precious is the facrifice of a broken and contrite heart to Chrift Jefus! These were both offered up, and they will ever go together; as in type, fo in truth. The voice of the heavenly turtle is heard and understood; and his approving and commanding voice to his mate is, "O my dove, that art in the cleft of the rock, in the fecret places of the ftairs! Let me fee thy countenance; let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." Love in the heart ravishes him, and truth on the tongue charms his bleffed ears; while a cheerful countenance, reflected from a joyful confcience, carries all before it, and holds him a willing and a joyful captive to the charms of a mortal's affections: "The King is held in the galleries." How humbling, how condescending, is the King of kings, and

Lord

Lord of lords, to bow the heavens and come down to manifest himself, and pay his divine vifits to rebels, to criminals in chains, who are shut up in unbelief, in legal bondage, and in the strong holds of fin and Satan! But he comes; and "his reward is with him, and his work before him." He enters and takes poffeffion of the purchase of his own blood, and rejoices over the trophy of his own victory; feparates the objects of his choice from among the reft of the captives, and efpouses the foreigner. What a brilliant train of glory, majefty, and power, attend him when the everlafting doors are lifted up, and the King of glory enters in! Then we bow to his fceptre, fubmit to his eafy yoke, embrace the heavenly proclamation, and, with joy unfpeakable, come over to the divine ftandard; while the banner, that he has given to them that fear him, is displayed, that his beloved may be delivered from that fear and torment that is more bitter than death. How wonderful are his works to the children of men! The clay lies paffive in the hand of the potter, while he forms the broken pitcher into another veffel, as it seemeth good unto the potter to make it. He enlightens the understanding to behold his beauty, fuitablenefs, and worth; he renews the mind, writes the law of faith in it, and entertains it with heavenly things; he binds up the broken heart, and sheds abroad his love in it; he purges the confcience, and endows it with