more fevere in the fuddennefs of it, or in ten thousand other circumstances of it; nay, that it has not been fome of yourselves. In the midft of wrath he remembers mercy. Though he caufe grief, he will have compaffion. HADDINGTON, June 16. 1775. Yours affectionately, J. B. DEAR SIR, LETTER IV. Having heard fome time ago of your affliction, I would defire to fympathize with you therein: God has been plucking up the roots whereby you are fastened to this earth: And, O! may your heart, and the heart of every one in the family, be weaned from this world by means of it. How vain is life, even in its best estate, the days of youth. Let us, then, truft only to the living Redeemer, who was dead and is alive, and lives for evermore-Because he liveth, may we live alfo.-God has taken your only fon from you by death, that you, under fenfe of want, may take his only beloved Son from him. O what a blest exchange may you thus make !—I am glad to hear that there were fome promising signs about your fon before his death. I wish the fifters may take their brother's early death as a folemn warning to them, calling them to confider their latter-end. Now they have a precious feafon of early efpoufals to the dear Redeemer among their hands; and may God grant them ner, them early grace to improve it, that they may live in a conftant readiness for death. Oh to be early married to the bleffed Jefus ! to have one's heart early melted with his love, that is better than life. Methinks I hear Jefus faying, in this death of your fon, to you, your wife, children, and family, "Arife and come away with me, from Lebanon, from lions dens, and mountains of leopards." If children increase or flourish, fet not your hearts upon them, for they, like riches, take the wings of the morning and fly away. Did your fon die and you and I live? Doth it not preach to us, in the most striking man"Be ye alfo ready, for ye know not when the Son of man cometh ?" but, come when he will, by death or judgment, may he find you and me, and our families, hid in himself; and bleffed fhall we be if we die in the Lord Nay, to what purpose were we born, or to what purpose do we live, if we do not live in the Lord as our root and dwelling place, with the Lord as our compa-nion and friend, and to the Lord as our end. The providence you have met with is bitter, but you know Mofes, by cafting a tree into the waters of Marah, fweetened them; go you and do likewife; mingle Jefus, the tree of life, as one that bare your griefs and carried your forrows, with the troubles you have met with, and that will fufficiently fweeten it. This with my compliments to your family. HADDINGTON, March 11. 1763.. Yours affectionately, J. B. LETTER DEAR M LETTER V. Having heard of your late illness, my regard and manifold obligations to your family challenged my fympathy, and emboldened me to write you these hints. Within these few years God has, by the death of a brother, the death of a grandmother, and your own late weakness, been trying to teach you, a young woman, to be fober-minded. O, faith God by thefe, that you were wife! that you understood this! that you would confider your latter-end ! These have come to call your fin to remembrance, to remind you, that childhood and youth are vanity, to remind you that now you have spent twenty years, or thereabouts, all filled up with mercies, great and unnumbered on God's fide. And, Oh! all filled up with ingratitude and wickedness on yours. I hope Jefus hath given you a faving view of your heart, as deceitful above all things, and defperately wicked; but, my dear friend, not yet the ten thousandth part of your iniquity is dif covered even to yourfelf. Now, now is the feafon of your foul, of your falvation. O make your calling and election fure! care for the one thing needful! choofe the better part that fhall never be taken from you! Now the Saviour knocks at the door of your heart, now he cries, “Thou haft fpoken, and done evil things as thou couldft: Wilt thou not, from this time, this moment, cry unto me, thou art my Father, and the guide of my youth. My daughter give me thy heart, open to me my fifter, my love, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night". O fay not the Saviour nay, confent that your worthlefs, your wicked, your pol juted luted felf should be wholly his, wholly apprehended and faved of him. Tremble and deteft the thought of even giving your heart to any as an hufband, as an intimate, before you give it to Jefus, the excellent, the divine Jefus, who loved us, and gave himself for us. Think, often think if any deserves it like him; early religion, early concern about eternal realities, will be a pleasant back-look, when, like your brother, you come to ly amid the agonies of death. This wishing you Jefus for your all, andin all for your God, and the guide of your youth. May you and your fifters, each one now fay, I am the Lord's. No date Yours affectionately, LETTER VI. J. B. DEAR God has, indeed, manifefted, in your cafe, the vanity of all earthly enjoyments, in giving you a child to look about her and die. However, O mind! It is the Lord, let him do what feemeth to him good. She was not given, but lent you. Grudge not the recall of the loan. I am fure he did not recall it till he faw it proper and neceffary. In plenty of wisdom, as well as justice, he doth afflict. Nay, in plenty of mercy too, Heb. xii. 6.--11. Pfal. cxix. 71. Beware of ftupidity under his hand, or finful murmuring at his management. Spend fome time in folemn furrendering of yourselves and concerns to God, God, that is an excellent mean of balancing the affections, and calming the tumultuous paffions. I beseech you beware of immoderate forrow for the lofs of your only child. If you do not, it may break your own delicate constitution, and quickly hurry you to the grave. You have not reason to forrow as those who have no hope. Why grudge a child- to God himself? Cannot he bear, care for, and fatisfy her longing foul better than you ? Cannot he be to her better than ten mothers, and be better to you than ten daughters? Indulge not your mind in recollecting her agreeable looks and the like, but turn afide, looking unto Jefus, the Child, the Son of God. The Lord demands you to balance matters with him, in thinking on, esteeming, delighting in, and filling your heart with his infinitely precious Son instead of your child. Fellowship, close fellowship with him can allay the bittereft griefs, and make up the greatest loffes on earth. Wonder at this mercy that your hufband, as well as your child, is not taken from you. It is of the Lord's mercies. that we are not confumed. to have life on his never-dying self, as our all and all! No date. Yours affectionately, &c. LETTER VII. DEAR SIR, I was glad to hear, by the bearer, that your family, to whose kindness I have been fo much obliged, are in ordinary health. O for health from above to us! for God himself to be the health of our countenance and our |