it is plain you are quite ignorant of the subject we are inquiring into, and indeed have yet to learn the first lessons of true religion. All that David says, of "beholding the beauty of the Lord," (Psalm xxvii. 4.) or being "satisfied as with marrow and fatness, when he remembered him upon his bed," (Psalm lxiii. 5, 6.) as well as "with the goodness of his house, even of his holy temple," (Psalm Ixv. 4.) is to be taken in the same sense, and can need very little explication to the truly experienced soul. But those who have known the light of God's countenance, and the shinings of his face, will, in proportion to the degree of that knowledge, be able to form some notion of the hiding of his face, or the withdrawing of the tokens he has given his people of his presence and favour, which sometimes greatly imbitters prosperity; as, where the contrary is found, it sweetens affliction, and often swallows up the sense of it.

4. And give me leave to remind you, my Christian friend, (for under that character I now address my reader,) that to be thus deprived of the sense of God's love, and of the tokens of his favour, may soon be the case with you, though you may now have the pleasure to see the candle of the Lord shining upon you, or though it may even seem to be sunshine and high noon in your soul. You may lose your lively views of the divine perfections and glory, in the contemplation of which you now find that inward satisfaction. You may think of the divine wisdom and power, of the divine mercy and fidelity, as well as of his righteousness and holiness, and feel little inward complacency of soul in the view: it may be, with respect to any lively impressions, as if it were the contemplation merely of a common object. It may seem to you, as if you had lost all idea of those important words, though the view has sometimes swallowed up your whole soul in transports of astonishment, admiration, and love. You may lose your delightful sense of the divine favour. It may be matter of great and sad doubt with you, whether you do indeed belong to God; and all the work of his blessed Spirit may be so veiled and shaded in the soul, that the peculiar cha

racters by which the hand of that sacred Agent might be distinguished, shall be in a great measure lost; and you may be ready to imagine you have only deluded yourself in all the former hopes you have entertained. In consequence of this, those ordinances in which you now rejoice may grow very uncomfortable to you, even when you do indeed desire communion with God in them. You may hear the most delightful evangelical truths opened, you may hear the privileges of God's children most affectionately represented, and not be aware that you have any part or lot in the matter, and from that very coldness and insensibility may be drawing a farther argument, that you have nothing to do with them. And then " And then "your heart" may "meditate terror," (Isaiah, xxxiii. 18.) and under the distress that overwhelms you, your dearest enjoyments may be reflected upon as adding to the weight of it, and making it more sensible, while you consider that you had once such a taste for these things, and have now lost it all. So that perhaps it may seem to you, that they who never felt any thing at all of religious impressions, are happier than you, or at least are less miserable. You may, perhaps, in these melancholy hours, even doubt whether you have ever prayed at all, and whether all that you called your enjoyment of God, was not some false delight, excited by the great enemy of souls, to make you apprehend that your state was good, that so you might continue his more secure prey.

5. Such as this may be your case for a considerable time; and ordinances may be attended in vain, and the presence of God may be in vain sought in them. You may pour out your soul in private, and then come to public worship, and find little satisfaction in either, but be forced to take up the Psalmist's complaint, "My God, I cry in the day-time, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent;" (Psalm xxii. 2.) or that of Job, "Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him." Job, xxiii. 8, 9. So that all which

looked like religion in your mind, shall seem as it were to be melted into grief, or chilled into fear, or crushed into a deep sense of your own unworthiness; in consequence of which, you shall dare not so much as to lift up your eyes before God, and be almost ashamed to take your place in a worshipping assembly, among any that you think his servants. I have known this to be the case of some excellent Christians, whose improvements in religion have been distinguished, and whom God hath honoured above many of their brethren in what he hath done for them, and by them. Give me leave therefore, having thus described it, to offer you some plain advice with regard to it; and let not that be imputed to enthusiastic fancy, which proceeds from an intimate and frequent view of facts on the one hand, and from a sincere affectionate desire on the other, to relieve the tender, pious heart in so desolate a state. At least I am persuaded the attempt will not be overlooked or disapproved by "the great Shepherd of the sheep," (Heb. xiii. 20.) who has charged us to "comfort the feeble-minded." 1 Thess. v. 14.

6. And here I would first advise you most carefully to inquire, whether your present distress does indeed arise from causes which are truly spiritual. Or whether it may not rather have its foundation in some disorder of the body, or in the circumstances of life in which you are providentially placed, which may break your spirits and deject your mind. The influence of the inferior part of our nature on the nobler, the immortal spirit, while we continue in this embodied state, is so evident, that no attentive person can, in the general, fail to observe it; and yet there are cases, in which it seems not to be sufficiently considered; and perhaps your own may be one of them. The state of the blood is often such, as necessarily to suggest gloomy ideas even in dreams, and to indispose the soul for taking pleasure in any thing; and when it is so, why should it be imagined to proceed from any peculiar divine displeasure, if the soul does not find its usual delight in religion? Or why should God be thought to have departed from us, because he suffers natural causes to produce natural effects,

without opposing by miracle to break the connexion ? When this is the case, the help of the physician is to be sought, rather than that of the divine; or at least, by all means, together with it; and medicine, diet, exercise, and air, may in a few weeks effect what the strongest reasonings, the most pathetic exhortations or consolations, might for many months have attempted in vain.

7. In other instances, the dejection and feebleness of the mind may arise from something uncomfortable in our worldly circumstances. These may cloud as well as distract the thoughts, and embitter the temper, and thus render us in a great degree unfit for religious services or pleasures; and when it is so, the remedy is to be sought in submission to Divine Providence, in abstracting our affections as far as possible from the present world, in a prudent care to ease ourselves of the burden so far as we can. by moderating unnecessary expenses, and by diligent application to business, in humbled the divine dependence on blessing; in the mean time, endeavouring by faith to look up to him, who sometimes suffers his children to be brought into such difficulties, that he may endear himself more sensibly to them by the method he shall take for their relief.

8. On the principles here laid down, it may perhaps appear, on inquiry, that the distress complained of may have a foundation very different from what was at first supposed. But where the health is sound, and the circumstances easy; when the animal spirits are disposed for gaiety and entertainment, while all taste for religious pleasure is in a manner gone; when the soul is seized with a kind of lethargic insensibility, or what I had almost called a paralytic weakness, with respect to every religious exercise, even though there should not be that deep terrifying distress, or pungent amazement, which I before represented as the effect. of melancholy, nor that anxiety about the accommodations of life, which strait circumstances naturally produce; I would in that case vary my advice, and urge you, with all possible attention and impartiality, to search into the cause which has brought upon you that great evil under which you justly mourn. And probably, in the general, the cause

is sin some secret sin, which has not been discovered or observed by the eye of the world; for enormities that draw on them the observation and censure of others, will probably fall under the case mentioned in the former chapter, as they must be instances of known and deliberate guilt. Now the eye of God hath seen these evils which have escaped the notice of your fellow-creatures; and in consequence of this care to conceal them from others, while you could not but know they were open to him, God has seen himself in a peculiar manner affronted and injured, I had almost said insulted, by them; and hence his righteous displeasure. Oh! let that never be forgotten, which is so plainly said, so commonly known, so familiar to almost every religious ear, yet too little felt by any of our hearts, "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear." Isaiah, lix. 1, 2. And this is, on the whole, a merciful dispensation of God, though it may seem severe regard it not, therefore, merely as your calamity, but as intended to awaken you, that you may not content yourself, even with lying in tears of humiliation before the Lord, but, like Joshua, rise and exert yourself vigorously, to "put away from you that accursed thing," whatever it be. Let this be your immediate and earnest care, that your pride may be humbled, that your watchfulness may be maintained, that your affections to the world may be deadened, and that, on the whole, your fitness for heaven may in every respect be increased. These are the designs of your heavenly Father, and let it be your great concern to co-operate with them.

9. Receive it, therefore, on the whole, as the most important advice that can be given you, immediately to enter on a strict examination of your conscience. Attend to its gentlest whispers. If a suspicion arises in your mind, that any thing has not been right, trace that suspicion, search into every secret folding of your heart; improve to the purposes of a fuller discovery, the advice of your friends, the reproaches of your enemies; recollect for what your heart hath smitten you at the table of the Lord, for