righteousness of the law could not be fulfilled in us; he is dead in the purpose of God, or we prisoners could not be enlarged; he is dead in the crucifixion of Christ, or we could not be delivered from the curse; he is put off by the putting on of the new man, or we could have no peace within. All this is true, but yet he cleaves to me; every member of him lives, and yet he has no life but in the love of the sinner. Then (say you) he was dead in Paul, for he says, "What I hate, that do I." That hatred comes from the new man, which is love, the love that comes from God; and this is that charity which thinketh no evil. It is the love of the flesh, corrupt, vile, or inordinate affections, these are the life of the old man, which is hatred to God, and love to sin: "all they that hate me love death," Prov. viii. 36. Sin is the sting of death, and death is the wages of sin, Our highest pinnacle is this, "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." Being wooed now, allured, attracted, and drawn by the love of God in Christ Jesus to seek, to follow, to serve, and to delight oneself in God: this, this is deaying, mortifying, putting off, and crucifying the old man : and as long as one grain of faith, or one spark of love, whether in the principle or in the practice, whether in the habit or in the actings, remain in us, there the old man reigns not. The good thing toward the Lord God of Israel remains, and grace shall reign. His grace (says Paul) was abundant upon me, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." You will now say that I am adding to your abundance, or sending coals to Newcastle, for you had, I doubt not, enough of the old man before my letter came. Yes, and I think Jwill set to his seal that that witness is true. Give my best respects to him, and accept the same from

THE COALHEAVER,

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM ONE AGED PILGRIM TO ANOTHER, BOTH OF WHOM ARE NOW IN GLORY.

Он, my friend, what a stimulus ought it to be to you and me as christians, to perseverance in patience, humility, and obedience, if we can take a view of our union with Christ, the effect it ought to have on us. I in Christ, and Christ in me. That God the Father hath chosen me in Christ in his eternal council before the world was created, and viewed in Christ by the Father all through time to this hour. Was in Christ representatively in his humility, lying in the manger for my humility in the sight of the Godhead. Was I in Christ representatively in all his life of obedience, obeying the whole divine law and will of the Godhead for me? Was the obedience imputed to me in God's sight? Was I in him representatively in the garden, when in his bitter agony and sufferings on the cross, to save me from that erernal suffering due to my transgressions and sins? Was I there considered in him, a member of that mystical body of which he was the suffering Head? Was I thus representatively in Christ? Then let me take a view of the other side of this most important of all concerns. Is Christ now in me? Paul speaks of Christ in you the hope of glory." Was I in him in his humility? Is Christ now in 'me working humility? Is Christ now in me working obedience to his own and his Father's holy law, mind, and will? Was I in him in his agony and sufferings? Is Christ now in me in all my trials, crosses, and afflictions, working in me patience and resignation to his will in his wise dispensations, seeing it is his loving chastisement, and with good old Eli say, It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good:" but that under all my sufferings he will grant strength according to my day, that in all things I may be able to bear and forbear, to endure, looking

to Him who is invisible. This I find to be the most comfortable way of wading through trials and afflictions, when I can look to the Lord for support, ("who is nigh to them that call upon him,") and rest upon him; it eases the burden wonderfully, and makes heavy afflictions light. But on the other hand I have been at times permitted to fall into fretfulness and peevishness, and that I consider to be heating the furnace seven times hotter than need to be heated. Now, my dear friend, may you and I experience more and more of this union with Christ, we in him and he in us; and the Holy Spirit work sanctification, until it is perfected in the grave, our bodies waiting for a glorious resurrection, incorruptible and immortal, when, the seventh trumpet being sounded, our bodies and souls shall be reunited, to receive this welcome, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you."

May the God of peace bless you with grace, peace, and joy, is the soul's desire of

Your unworthy brother,

J. W.

LETTER TO THE REV. J. CHAMBERLAIN, OF LEICESTER,

Concerning the Death of my Beloved Father in Christ Mr. Keyt.

Beloved Friend,

I HAVE embraced the present opportunity of conveying to you a few things respecting the closing scene of - our mutual friend, Mr. Keyt; and as this is a time when many who knew him will be assembled together, I thought a simple narration of what I had witnessed, on the last day of his sojourning among us, might not be unacceptable to yourself and them.

Last Sabbath morning, a few minutes before 10 o'clock, he came into my room (as was his custom) and sat down, preparatory to his going to New Providence Chapel. My wife

He then

said, I think I have been both in and out this morning.' I wished him to explain in what way. His reply was, I was sorely plagued with the inward warfare from the flesh and from the devil, and I was obliged to take a walk in the garden. I said 'But how did you get in, the door must have been opened.' He replied,

Well, I know I have been in some how or other; and immediately taking Mr. Hart's Hymn Book, said,

This is what let me in: alluding to the following verse from the hymn on Gethsemane, which he then read.

True I can't deserve to share,

In a favour so divine;
But since sin first fixed thee there,
None have greater sins than mine :
And to this my woeful plea
Witness thou Gethsemane."

He read the following verses, all but the last one. I observed to him, on the twenty-first verse, that it had often been very sweet to me, adding, that Mr. Hart in another hymn says,

"Why should I the poison cherish,
Why despair of cure and perish.
Look, my soul, though stung to death."
He then said,

"Other refugé have I none,

Hangs my helpless soul on thee."

Thus ended our conversation, and he went to chapel very cheerful and happy in soul, walked all the way there and back, complained of weariness, eat a hearty dinner, and went and laid down on his hed. About 4 o'clock he came down to tea in his usual health and spirits. About half past five he put on his great coat, purposing to go to Gower Street

Chapel, as was his custom when able, and on his way to call on his intimate friend Mr. Crowe, who lives close by it, and who had been sometime confined through a hurt in his leg. He reached this friend's house about ten minutes before six, who asked him how he did. He replied, I am a poor creature. Yet (Mr. Crowe said) you are the best man of the two.' He answered And I am not worth a far thing. After enquiring of his friend how his leg was going on, he sat down on a chair by his bed-side, and Mr. Crowe observed his head to lean back, and keep going back; he jumped off the bed, rang the bell, and with assistance placed another chair under his legs, which prevented his falling on the floor. He then immediately sent his son to the chapel for me, who arrived about five minutes before six, and found him in the position above described. I at first thought it might be only a fit, and that he would revive, but I soon discovered the vital spark had fled. We sent for a doctor, who came promptly, but all was over. I could compare it to nothing but a weary person falling into a sweet sleep, without the least convulsive motion. When I entered the room it was certainly a great shock to me, but I saw so much tenderness and mercy mingled in the dispensation, that I could not restrain exclaiming What an easy death,'

this subject, and likewise the liberty I have taken in addressing you. I must further add, that by his death I have lost an affectionate father, a most sympathizing friend, a hearty counsellor, and one who has often proved a fellow helper of my joy. I feel conscious that my loss in him is incalculable. As my paper is full, I must conclude, with love to yourself and friends. May the good Lord grant you much of his presence in your assemblies, and stand by his servant, encouraging you in his work whereunto I am a witness he hath called you, having found your ministry profitable in reproving, comforting, and instructing, and a light to guide my feet in many dark and intricate providences. And may your valuable life be long preserved for the churches sake. I stand in need of your prayers, (should it please God to give me an interest in them,) feeling myself the weakest of the weak, and have hitherto found the pathway (especially some parts) very rough and difficult, and truth hath said it must be so. But I must conclude, by subscribing myself, your unworthy friend and hearty well wisher,

Unto thee have I revealed my cause," Jer. xi. 20.

We here have the prophet Jeremiah in deep distress, on account of the secret plots of his enemies that were laid against him, as you perceive by the context (verse 19). Such is the case of all God's faithful sent servants, in every age: they have many enemies to contend with: and the case of Jeremiah appears to be a very trying one. He says, "I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cast him off

I I

:

from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. But, (he adds,) O Lord of Hosts that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I revealed my cause," Mark you, he does not say, Let me see my vengeance upon them, but thy vengeance; and you will bear in mind while considering this part of our subject, that the Lord's vengeance on the enemies of his church, in every instance, is for the aggrandizement of his own glory, not the personal gratification of an individual.

But

But amidst all these trials with which Jeremiah was surrounded, he goes to God as his reconciled Father in Christ Jesus, and he says, Unto thee have I revealed my cause. here it may be questioned, Was there any necessity for Jeremiah to make such a revelation of his cause to the Lord? was not the Lord acquainted with all his difficulties and troubles? Unquestionably he was, for as the Psalmist says, "Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways." There fore there is nothing hid from his omniscient and all-seeing eye. But though we admit all this to be strictly true, yet the Lord's command to his afflicted people is, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me," Ps. 1. 15. He has therefore commanded us so to do. Take an illustration from a natural parent towards its child, though a very homely one I grant. You behold with careful anxiety your little offspring in the pursuit of that which you know is tending to some unhappy result. You have observed its little hands engaged in that which in the end terminates as the cause of grief to that child. But though you may have watched over its movements during the whole transaction, and may be acquainted with its motives and designs; yet what an inward satisfaction does that child feel in reveal

ing to you its trouble, and the circumstances attendant on the same. Or, in another more favourable light, You behold in that infant's countenance an index, if I may so speak, of the joy that perhaps some trifling incident has given rise to. You are conscious that something has arisen to cause that pleasure which bespeaks itself in the countenance: yet with what tender feelings of delight and satisfaction do you listen to the simple narration of the child; with what parental affection do you enter into minúte circumstances of the cause of its joy, and, as it were, share in the emotions of triumph which the event has produced.

And our gracious Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, in his predestinating love and faithfulness towards his afflicted child, not only listens with attention to their inward breathings of complaint, but graciously sends answers of peace to that troubled soul. Such was Jeremiah's case, as you read in the following verses.

We read of David's lifting up his soul to God: he says, " Unto thee do I lift up my soul," Psalm xxv. 1. Witness also the case of Hannah, that servant of the Lord, as recorded in 1 Sam. i.-She" poured out her soul to God:" her prayer consisted of the inmost breathings of her soul, "She spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard," verse 13. She cried unto the Lord in the "bitterness of soul," and amidst the reviling and false accusations of Eli the priest her language is, "I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit, I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord." Or, as the prophet says, "Unto thee have I revealed my cause." And you will perceive by the subsequent verses that his prayer was heard and answered.

How blessed is it, my brethren, to have such a God and Father in Christ, to whom we may "reveal our cause,' whatever that cause may be; yea, he

"

has commanded us so to do. How kind and condescending of our heavenly Father to listen to the prayer of his sorrowing, supplicating child! O that it may teach us to bring all our diversified complaints and wants before him, that we may make no reserve, but come to him as a guilty, helpless, undone sinner. Not as Aaron who endeavoured to hide his transgression from his Maker under the plea of ignorance, "They gave it me (saith he), then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf," Exod. xxxii. 24. The same spirit was manifested by our first parent Adam, "The woman gave it me (saith he) and I did eat." And also in Gen. iii. in endeavouring to hide himself from the presence of God: "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself."

In all our approaches to the throne of grace may we come with humility, beholding on the one hand our dependance, Christ's all-sufficiency; our need, Christ's fulness; our imbecility, Christ's omnipotence. Remember he has never said to the praying seed of Jacob, seek ye my face in vain. There never was a seeking soul yet disappointed of his hope: and why, because he is the faithful God." He is not a "man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent." Oh that you may cultivate a prayerful and waiting frame of mind, and that you may come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in every time of need. Wareham.

"

J. JENKINS.

BELOVED amidst the many changes that are continually taking place in this wilderness state, both within and without, it is the distinguished privilege of all God's children to recognize

the hand of their heavenly Father, "who is too wise to err," guiding and working all things "after the counsel of his own will." It is with the deepest humility they can prostrate their souls at the footstool of the great Eternal, and with the saints of old raise their Ebenezers, inscribing thereon Thus far the Lord hath helped us."

Gratitude well becomes every son and daughter of Adam, for all, whether they know it or no, have been and are now, the recipients of many great and undeserved favours. We are fed by God's bountiful hand, and all that we have or ever had comes from the hand of our God:"He hath not dealt with us after our sins, neither rewarded us according to our iniquities," but in spite of all our sins, backslidings, and wicked thoughts, he has led us to see and know, that “ high as the heaven is above the earth, so far are the Lord's thoughts above our thoughts and his ways above our ways." Oh that we might, on a review of all his goodness towards us, be enabled to pour out our souls in thankfulness and adoration, for all his undeserved mercies which he has given and is still continuing to us; and especially for that grace which has kept us amid all the teeming fluctuations of time, firm to the truth, looking to and living on the Lord Jesus Christ," in whom is no variableness, nor the shadow of a turning :" that amidst all the hetercdoxes and heresies of the present day, we are, through the goodness of our God to us, kept from the many false doctrines and flesh-pleasing systems that so awfully abound, looking unto Jesus, who is our constant sun, and feeling the mild, warm, and quickening rays of his superabounding love, warming our cold hearts, dispelling our darkness, and filling us with love. joy, and peace in believing. And being strengthened with might by his Spirit in our inward man, we are enabled to contend for the faith, and