and trembling seized the Psalmist. A horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham. Hezekiah and Job did not escape it. And yet their dreadful fear, and yet their religion, came from a higher cause than Timothy's glass ever knew. "For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people; saying, say ye not, a confederacy, to all to whom this people shall say, a confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." Paul knew the terrors of the. Lord, as well as his love. God's saints see his goodness and severity. As is his fear, so is his wrath. They sing of mercy and of judgment. But our Timothy's Christian is trained up under the Gospel: he never looked to the law for salvation; nor has he ever found it in the Gospel. Here is no account of the covert; and the reason is, because he has never felt the

storm.

Quot. Nothing is more common than for creatures to act according to their kind.

Answ. It is true, in one sense. Nevertheless, I have discerned in a certain Looking-glass that there are creatures in the world that would act, if they could, contrary to their nature; and appear to be of a kind, with which there is no more comparison than between a man and a monkey: the latter is only an ugly likeness of the former. There are serpents that would appear as doves; there

are goats and wolves that would fain appear to be sheep; there are asses that would like to be thought oxen that tread out the corn; there are fools who would wish to be thought wise; hypocrites would like the name sincere; impostors would fain appear to be ambassadors; and ministers of Satan have been called apostles. This is not very uncommon. Timothy himself, in the compass of his great knowledge, must have seen, if not have felt, something of this.

Quot. Where there is a growing in grace and knowledge, there will be an increasing desire to see more clearly into all divine truth, and a greater sensibility of the necessity of the assistance of the Holy Ghost to open the understanding.

Answ. It is necessary that a man be a partaker of grace before he be set to growing. This Christian has only seen his own emptiness, and the Saviour's sufficiency. An increasing desire to see clearly,' will not do: it is not a desire, but the desire accomplished, that is sweet to the soul. It is not a desire to see divine truth, that will constitute a saint. Behold, God desires truth in the inward parts, Psal. li. 6. Nor will 'a greater sensibility of the necessity of the assistance of the Holy Ghost to open the understanding' do: he must be quickened by the Spirit, be brought into liberty by the Spirit, and have the seal, the witness, and the earnest, of the Spirit; or else, so far from his being a regenerated child of God, he will be as ignorant of it, as far from it, as destitute of it,

the nature of it, the account of it, or the common notions of it, as Timothy's glass itself. I doubt not but this close shaving will offend many a reader of this. My answer to such is, It was not thou, reader, that called me, commissioned me, or sent me. Gainsayers' mouths must be stopped, or they will subvert whole houses. Let me stand ör fall to my own master: he shall shew, in the great day, who is influenced by a bad spirit, and who by a good one; who is the deceiver, and who is a true guide; and who bears a false testimony for God, and who a true one; William Huntington, or Timothy Priestley. One of the two is most surely wrong, and the author of palpable deception.

Quot. As a sailor, in a storm, is supposed to use all the skill he is master of, so should a christian on his knees. All his light and knowledge ought to be in full exercise.

Answ. Light is God, for God is light; and the Christian is not able to exercise this great light as he can wave a torch or a taper. It is not in his power to command the light to shine out of darkness, nor to shine into it: he has no power nor authority to command the sun, nor the dayspring to know his place. And as to his exercising his knowledge, it is of but little use, seeing knowledge puffeth up; nor has such a dead sinner much encouragement to exercise his knowledge upon God, seeing God allows a hypocrite to have all knowledge, and yet be nothing. But why

do İ

go such a round to answer this, seeing Timothy's Christian, and Timothy himself, have neither light nor knowledge to exercise?

Quot. It is not the multitude of our words, but how our minds lay hold on an invisible God.

Answ. Neither the carnal nor the renewed mind can do this: it is peculiar to faith to lay hold; and it must be the faith of God's elect, or that faith which is of the operation of the Spirit of God, or else it cannot take hold. And I add, the mind must not only be enlightened, but it must be influenced by the Spirit of faith, and be purified by faith; yea, and the object must be presented to the mind, before any hold can be laid: the Lord must take hold of us, or our hold of him will be of little use. Nor is an invisible God, or unincarnate divinity, the first object of our hold: the real child of God knows that the son of man, the covenant head, who is called the covenant, the skirt of that Jew, the man made strong, is the object of hold. They "shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew;" "Let them take hold of

my covenant;" "Let him take hold of my strength, and he shall make peace with me." This is not coming by the door; this is not going, in the consecrated way, through the veil of Christ's flesh : this is casting anchor, but not considering the veil. "No man can come to the Father but by me." This, Timothy, is climbing up the wrong way. Not one page in all this devilish glass but what is pregnant with confusion

and deception. If my reader thinks me censorious or false, let him point out any one page, and I will confine my razor to that.

Quot. The believer has his mind wholly taken up with the general doctrines of the gospel. He may see those so clear and distinct, as to be puffed up with high notions of his own attainments: but this is the fault of his corrupt nature. A little knowledge puffeth up; but great knowledge lays the soul low.

Answ. Here we have a believer, whose mind is wholly taken up with gospel doctrines: he sees them clear and distinct. This believer's doctrines are afterwards called his notions, and his attainments; yet this believer is wholly taken up with these doctrines, and sees them both clear and distinct; therefore his knowledge must be great. However, Timothy having asserted that this clear and distinct viewer is puffed up, he then settles the point, by declaring that a little knowledge puffeth up, but great knowledge, such as seeing things clear and distinct, lays the soul low. I will not say, that he builds again that which he destroyed, and so makes himself a transgressor; but this I will say, that he himself disproves what he before asserted, and so makes himself inconsistent, though not a transgressor.

Paul had great knowledge, and he fetched some of it from the third heaven; and had a mesmenger of Satan sent to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure through the abundance