their hearts; but the Lord, generally, difappoints those unhumbled feekers, though, as in the cafe of Gideon, he may gratify one in a thousand: for be

:

Trevers are not born of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The Jews expected the Meffiah, and there they were right but they expect. ed him in their own way, and there they stumbled and fell. While they looked for a mighty conqueror, another Alexander, to make them great, they overlooked the lowly Prince of peace, who came to make them good; and, at laft, they crucified him as a base impoftor. This Jewish difpofition is in all by nature. Hence Chrift is commonly rejected in the Spirit by Christians, as he was in the flesh by the Jews.

We would have him come to give us an idle reft, but he appears to teach us to deny ungodlinefs, and fight the good fight of faith: this we do not like. Our nature wants to step at once into a throne; but he offers first to nail us to the tree, and to crucify our flesh with its affections and lufts: and from this we fhrink as from the grave. We expect to be carried at once to the top of mount Tabor, to fee unutterable glory; but he leads to Gethsemane to watch and pray, or to Calvary to fuffer and die with him: here we recoil, and do not chufe to know him. Our forward impatience dictates, that he fhall inftantaneously turn our midnight into noonday; but instead of manifefting himself at once as the meridian fun, he will, perhaps, appear only as the morning ftar, that our light may fhine more and more unto the perfect day. This defeats our counfel, we defpife the day of fmall things, and do not think fo low an appearance worth our notice and thanks. If you, Sir, ever feek the faving knowledge of Jefus, never ftop till you can witness your fun goes down no more; but, in the mean time, never flight the leaft ray of heavenly light. The lealt may open into the broad day of eternity. Ceafe from your own falfe wifdom, and become as a little child, or you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, and fee the King in his beauty.

The 3d and laft inward means, I would recom mend to mourners in Sion, is a tender regard for the reproofs of the Spirit, a conftant attention to the drawings of the Father, obedience to the calls they have to fecret prayer, and a fear of depending upon their duties, and not folely upon the faithfulness of Jefus. Whoever follows thefe directions, according to the grace given him, will of course cease from outward evil, and do, as he can, the little good his hand finds to do. This is a better way of waiting for the revelation of Chrift, than to lie down in dejection and hopeless unbelief. All thofe, who fullenly bury their one talent, and wilfully retain the accurfed thing, complain in vain that their Lord makes long tarrying They obftinately grieve his convincing Spirit, and then abfurdly clamour, because he does not reward them for it, by the comforts of his heavenly prefence. Let us not be fo unreasonable. Let us "ftrive to enter in at the ftrait gate," remembering, that ny fhall feek to enter in, and fhall not be able." But let us ftrive lawfully, not making ourselves a righte oufnefs of our own feeking, knocking, and ftriving The fun fhines not because we deferve it, by undrawing our curtains, but because it is its nature. Jefus, vifits us, not because of any merit in our prayers, &c., but for his own fake, because his truth and compaffion fail not. Free grace opens the door of mercy, not to works and merit, but to want and mifery. That you and I may knock and prefs in, with all needy, peni.. tent, believing finners, is the earnest wish of a heart, which prompts me to fubfcribe myfelf, Sir, Yours; &c..

FIFTH LETTER.

SIR,

ma

WHEN I told you, that, in all ages, Jehovah Jefus manifefts himself in a peculiar manner to his peo

ple, you exclaimed against the affertion as altogether new and unfcriptural. It lies upon me therefore to prove, that antiquity and fcripture are on my fide. I fhall then in this letter appeal to the manifestations recorded in the Old Teftament. You cannot expect all the revelations of any child of God, much less thofe of every one, to be mentioned in fo fhort a history as that of the Bible. Nevertheless, enough is faid on the point to convince us, that, in every age of the church, God hath favoured the fons of men with peculiar difplays of his prefence.

Did not

Let us go back as far as Adam himself. the Lord familiarly converfe with him before the fall, both when he prefented him with a partner, and when he brought every beast of the field before him, to fee what he would call them? Did he not visit him after the fall, to pronounce his fentence, and to promife, that he would become the woman's feed, and bruife the ferpent's head? Was not this manifeftation granted to Abel, when the Lord had refpect to his facrifice, the very cause of Cain's envy, wrath, and murder? Did not Enoch's walking with God imply a conftant union and communion with Emmanuel? And how could this union have taken place, if the Lord had not firft revealed himfelf to the Patriarch? Muft not two perfons meet and agree, before they can walk and converfe together?

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and, in confequence of it, was made acquainted with his righteous defigns, and received directions how to efcape from a perishing world. The hiftory of Abraham is full of accounts of fuch manifestations. In one of them, the Lord called him out of his fins, and from his kindred, to go both to the heavenly and earthly Canaan. In others he promifed him Ifaac and Ifaac's myfterious feed. Several years after, for the trial of his faith, he commanded him to facrifice that favourite fon; and when the trial was over, he teftified his approbation of Abraham's conduct. He went farther.

Read Gen. ch. 18, and you will fee, how the divine Philanthrophy, or the love of God towards man appeared, in condefcending to clothe himself, before hand, with the nature he was to affume in the virgin's womb, and to converfe in this undrefs with the father of the faithful, as a prince with his favourite, or a friend with his confident.

Sarah and Agar, Ifaac and Rebekah, had their divine manifestations; but thofe of Jacob deferve our particular attention. When he filed to Syria from the face of his brother Efau, and lay defolate in a field, having only a heap of ftones for his pillow, the God of all confolation appeared to him; "and behold the Lord ftood above the myfterious ladder, on which the angels of God afcended and defcended, and said, I am the Lord-behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places, whither thou goeft. And Jacob called that place Bethel, the houfe of God, and the gate of heaven;" as if he had wanted to intiinate, no one ever found the gate of heaven, but by a manifeftation of Chrift, who is alone the way to the Father, and the door into glory. When the fame patriarch returned to Canaan, and was left alone one night, there wrefiled a man with him till the breaking of the day. And when this extraordinary perfon faid, "Let me go for the day breaketh; he replied, I will not let thee go, unless thou bless me;" and he bleffed him there, acknowledging that he had power with man and God, even with him, whofe name is Emmanuel, God with us. "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel (the face of God) for he faid I have feen God face to face, and my life is preferved." The defign of this manifeftation was merely to ftrengthen his faith, and we learn from it, that the children of faithful Abraham wreftle in prayer with the God-man, as Jacob did, till they prevail, and are bleffed as he was.

Mofes was favoured with numberless manifeftations, fometimes as prime minifter of the King of the Jews, and at other times only as a common believer. "There

appeared to him, in the wildernefs of mount Sinai, the angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bufh; and when Mofes faw it, he drew near, and the voice of the Lord came unto him faying, I am the God of thy fathers," &c. Many partook of a fight equally glorious: Mofes, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and feventy of the elders of Ifrael went up and SAW the God of Ifrael, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of fapphire ftone, and as it were of the body of heaven in his clearness; and upon the nobles of the children of Ifrael he laid not his hand; alfo they SAW God, and did eat and drink."t "Behold," faid Mofes upon the occafion," the Lord our God hath fhewed us his glory, and we have heard his voice out of the midft of the fire, and we have feen this day, that God doth talk with man and he liveth." All Ifrael fhared fometimes in the glorious manifeftation. They all drank of that fpiritual rock that followed them, fays St. Paul, and that rock was Chrift. The cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, fays the Jewish hiftorian, and fire was upon it by night, in the fight of all the houfe of Ifrael. "It came to pafs as Mofes entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar defcended, and ftood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Mofes, and all the people faw the cloudy pillar, and rofe up and worfhipped every man in the door of his tent. And the Lord fpake to Mofes face to face, as a man fpeaketh to his friend." So indulgent was Emmanuel to him, that when he faid, "I befeech thee fhew me thy glory, the Lord answered, I will make all my goodnefs pafs before thee; but thou canft not fee my face (without fome veil) and live. And (Oh aftonishing condefcenfion) the Lord defcended in the cloud, and flood with him, and proclaimed the name of the Lord." Jehovah, Jefus paffed before him, and proclaimed Jehovah, Jehovah, i. e. revealed to him the Father and the Holy Ghost one merciful God together with himfelf. And Mofes made hafte, bowed his head towards Acts vii. 30. † Ex. xxiv. 10, 11. Deut. v. 24. Ex. xxxiii. 9.