mand deliverance for us, fubdue our mighty lufts, defend and fupport us against every foe. Behold, Madam, what the Son of God, in our nature, is to you! Your Shepherd to support you against want, to lead you befide the still waters of his everlasting love, his redeeming blood, his new covenant promife; to reftore your foul again, and make you walk in the paths of righteoufnefs for his name's fake. Your Father that. has begotten you to a lively hope, to be an heir of God, a joint heir with Chrift; your divine Hufband that rejoices over you in finging, and refts in his hope; your boaft, your blifs, your rock, your refuge, your comforter and comfort; in fine, your God and your all. Methinks your ravifhed heart cries out, "Is the Son of God fa much to me, and, ah! do I regard him fo little? Has he fo little room in my heart; and am I of so little ufe, fa little fervice to him ?" Think again, did the eter nal God pass by lofty angels, pafs by millions of men, pafs by multitudes of my fellow nobles, and think of me, no better than the worft? engage for me? obey the rigid law, and bear infinite wrath for me?. die for me? rife and afcend for me? pour forth unceasing prayers for me fend his word to heal me? and, at laf, in a pang of Almighty love, break in, notwithstanding all that the world from around, hell from beneath, inexpreffible guilt, and raging corruptions from within, could do to oppofe him, and fix his eternal refidence in that hidden hell my heart? O day of power, indeed, in which he made me, fo outrageous an enemy, willing to be what he pleafed; when my haughtiness was. brought down, when all the unnumbered idols in my heart were tumbled headlong, and the Lord alone was exalted! O time of love, when Jefus came to me in my blood, and faid to me live; when my foul was courted with the words, the fighs, the bloody tears, the dying" groans of an incarnate God! How my heart burnt within me while he talked with me, and opened the fcriptures! When he rehearfed, in the manner of Godhead, the story of his everlasting love to me! When he fhew-> ed me his pierced hands, his wounded fide, his melted... heart! How then, my foul, all captivated, all inflamed with his love if I love not the Lord Jefus let me be anathema maranatha: Bleffed day of efpoufals, when he betrothed me to himself in righteoufnefs and in judg ment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies; yea, even betrothed me to him in faithfulness, and made me know the Lord! When he made ftupid, obftinate, and un reasonable me, to reason together with him, till he washed me in his blood, clothed me in his righteouf ness, made my scarlet-crimson tranfgreffions whité as wool and fnow! When he teftified againf me, I am God, even thy God; and, with overpowering evidence, made my careless and unbelieving heart cry out, Amen, fo be it, Lord, my Lord and my God! When he put to me the everlasting, covenant, well ordered in all things and fure, which is all my falvation, and all mỹ defire! When Chrift was effectually made, of God to me, wifdom, righteousness, fanétification, and redemption! Birth day indeed, when it pleased: God to reveal his Son in me! When Chrift was formed in my heart! When I was made God's workmanship, created in Chrift ན་ 1 Jefits! Jefus unto good works! When he that fat on the throne made all things new! Think, further, what is in referve for you; a going to God, your exceeding joy; an eternal, an immediate vifion and fellowship with the Three-one God, as your all in all; a fitting with Chrift on his throne; a being for ever with the Lord; a being for ever like him, by seeing him as he is, and knowing him even as he is known. Ah! puny joys of earth, when compared with the rivers, the oceans, the fulness of joy that is at his right hand. But, whence fpring these living waters? Not from works, left any man fhould boast, but from the free, the abundant, the exceeding abundant grace of God. What is their price? Not human works, but the works, the blood, the death of God! o Once more, think what is my charter of rights to this inheritance of grace, of glory, of falvation, of God himself? It is the new covenant, the New Testament. of Chrift's blood. How much more firm than all thy claims on the estate of Huntingdon ? O bleffed charter, planned by God, written by God, confirmed by his oath, and ratified by his blood! May I pore much on it. ? May his word be found of me, and I eat it, and it be to?) me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. May I efteemoi the words of his mouth more than my neceffary food. When he has fo framed his promifes, that I cannot-but-l fee my own fhameful name, finner, rebellious, flouthearted, and far from righteousness, marked in them; and when he fo points his bleffings to my cafe, and urges them on my foul, that I cannor fhift them without blafphemous reproachings of Gody as a liar, a perjured perfon; perfon; without defperate fighting against his grace: What am I, that I should withstand God? Lord, I be lieve, help thou my unbelief. May your life be the life of faith on the Son of God, who loved you, and gave himfelf for you. May God enable you to adorn your station, not only with the rea lity of religion, but with a livelinefs in it, fuccefsful in winning many to Chrift, as your accounts at Jesus' tri bunal cannot fail to be very extenfive and important. May himself enable you so to act in all your ways, as may give them with joy, and not with grief. Thus, wishing the choiceft bleflings of time and eternity to you and family, I am, MADAM, HADDINGTON, July 25. 1771.3 Your most humble fervant, JOHN BROWN. LETTER X. te Lady H Extract of a letter from Mr B Suppofed to be from the left. If I never write to you more, be thefe my laft words: There is none like Chrift, none like Chrift, none like Chrift. Nothing like redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of fins, according to the riches of his grace. There is no learning nor knowledge like the | knowledge of Chrift. No life like Chrift living in the heart: heart by faith. service of Chrift. No work like the fervice, the fpiritual No reward like the free of Chrift. No riches nor wealth like the unfearchable riches of Christ. No reft, no comfort, like the rest, the confolations of Chrift. No pleafure like the pleasure of fellowship with Chrift. Little as I know of Chrift, and it is my dreadful fin and fhame that I know fo little of him, I would not exchange the learning of one hour's fellowship with Chrift, for all the liberal learning in ten thousand univerfities, during ten thoufand ages, even though angels were to be my teachers. Nor would I exchange the pleasure my foul hath found in a word or two about Chrift, as, thy God, my God, for all the cried-up pleasures of creation since the world began. For what, then, would I exchange the being for ever with Chrift, to behold his glory, fee God in him as he is, and enter into the joy of my Lord? No date. A BRIEF |