epiftles I always went before thee by the fpirit of prophecy; and, as thou cameft after, thou didst set to thy feal that the word of the Lord was true. But, moving from my old habitation, and the troubles which have attended it, have fo interrupted our correfpondence, that I know not where thou art. However, I will pursue the footsteps of the flock; and I have no douht but I fhall overtake thee, either in the vallies, or in the heights of Ifrael.

To go back to the days of thy difperfion, when thou waft ftumbling upon the dark mountains, must be altogether vain. The Shepherd's promise to thee in that state hath been fulfilled: “ I will feek my sheep, and fearch them out; and I will gather them out of all places whither they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark days." From these difmal and dark regions he hath put thee forth, and gone before thee, and caused thee to pass under the rod, and to hear his voice; and he hath led thee into the bond of the covenant, that thou mightest be bound up in the bundle of life with the chief Shepherd. This is the fummit of all happiness, the height of Zion's dignity, the high mountain and the eminent on which fo many have faid, "I fhall never be moved; thou, Lord, of thy goodness haft made my hill fo ftrong." Upon this eminence he carries the lambs in his bofom, as well as leads gently those that

are

young.

The former feel the warmth of

But

are with his heart, the latter the ftrength of his arm. it is vexatious, grievous, yea, and dangerous, coming down from this mount; because the horrible pit and the miry clay are so near to the foot of it, one of old tumbled into it: "I ftick faft; I am come into the deep waters, fo that the floods overflow me." This stiffened his joints, and relaxed his nerves, and made him stagger and waddle in his walk. "I am ready to halt, and my forrows are continually before me." This being put out of the bofom, and driven from the fuckling-house, and turned adrift to go behind, and only now and then allowed to hear the Shepherd's voice, and being bid to follow him instead of riding in the bofom, appears to be hard treatment. However, he always heals them that halt, binds. up that which is broken, and feeds that which is faint: "The Lord is my fhepherd, therefore I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green paftures; he leadeth me befide the ftill waters; he restoreth foul; my he leadeth me in paths of righteousness for his name's fake." Thus to lie down and find reft and fatisfaction, encompaffed and fupported by the lively oracles, or life-giving words of promife, and to be led by the ftreams which flow from the river of divine pleafure, makes us fat and flourishing. But, alas! these vanish again, and we lofe fight of these wa ters: "I am a ftranger with thee; hide not thy commandment

commandment from me. O, when wilt thou come and comfort me!" Here the old man, and the fheep's worst enemy, entangle him; he is hung up: "Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; for he fhall pluck my feet out of the net. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; O bring thou me out of my diftreffes!" Out he comes again: "I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou haft confidered my trouble; thou hast known my foul in adverfities, and haft not fhut me up into the hand of the enemy. Thou hast set my feet in a large room." But he foon wanders out of this into the defert, and gets upon the barren mountains of Sinai, and here gets both blinded and impoverished: "I have gone aftray like a loft sheep; feek thy fervant, for I do not forget thy commandments." What part of this path of tribulation my fifter is now on, or which of these footfteps of the flock fuits her prefent fteps, I know not; but, when I faw her laft, fhe was fhut up, and could not come forth; and, when I informed her of a future enlargement, her anfwer agreed with that of her fifter of old, "Nay, thou man of God, do not lie to thine handmaid;" for I fhall never be comfortable any more in this world. Has experience, from that time to this, proved that faying to be true? or did the Lord confirm the word of his fervant, and perform the counfel of his meffenger?

Once more: Haft thou found, in the courfe of

thy

thy pilgrimage, any thing to confirm that common faying of many, namely, that those who, by the Spirit, are brought once into liberty, are never exercised with, nor entangled in, legal bondage again? or whether this bondage be not one ingredient in the cup of Zion's forrow, which all muft drink of, more or lefs, who follow the Lamb whitherfoever he goeth? A folution of these matters will lay me under an obligation, which shall be acknowledged with that thankfulnefs which I hope will ever abound in

Your affectionate friend and brother,

From the Desert.

NOCTUA AURITA.

LETTER XXVII.

To NOCTUA AURITA, in the Defert.

I RECEIVED your kind letter, and

am obliged to you for your kind inquiry after my fpiritual welfare. Your letter found me in the footsteps of the flock; though I must tell it

you

ཟླ

did not find me on the heights of Zion. I am got on the barren mountains of Sinai; and my foul is as the mountains of Gilboa, without either dew or rain therefore these words of David fuit me, "I have gone aftray like a loft fheep; feek thy fervant:" for I can fay alfo, with him, that I do not forget God's commandments. Since I wrote. to you laft, which is now more than four months, I have been led in a strange path. If you recollect, I wrote to you just before the Lord had granted me that fecond enlargement from the bondage in which I had lain for five months. This was a sweet revival of the work. But, alas! gradually did those fweet fenfations on my foul wither, and down from the mount I came before I was aware; and for two months I had not the leaft light on the path I was in; only I knew what I had loft. Nor could I get any help from the fanctuary, nor strength out of Zion; and, for want of light, I could not defcribe my ftrange feelings to any one; yet I was not in deep diftress all this time, though I knew I was not comfortable. However, I was fure it was a path I had not been in before. But, about a month ago, under one of the orations of his Majefty's herald, the Lord was pleafed to fhine with a ray of light while he was deferibing a fpeech of my great great grandmother's, recorded in the annals of antiquity; where the fays, "I fleep, but my heart waketh." In a moment I was given to fee that I was in the

fame