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that was blindly pursuing vanity, and madly rushing into misery, shame, and death? Oh, what could creature-friendship, and all created power, have done! Had all the angels in heaven received it in charge to stand in the way of one poor sinner, running, with all his might, to destruction, and drive him back, without the concurrence of the Almighty Power and Spirit of God, those heavenly hosts would have been too feeble and too few to have blocked up all the passages between sin and hell, and turn him into the way of peace. It is the arm of the Lord that has done it; in amazing grace and condescension and sovereignty, done it. Then how should my feeble lips labour to speak his praise, and all that is within me attempt to serve him!

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Let us not think it strange to be reminded, and sometimes to be made very painfully to feel, that we are in the wilderness; but let us admire the mercy that has encompassed our path with so many refreshing springs, that sheds so blessed an influence upon us, and entertains us with the prospects and songs of Sion in this strange land. For my own part, I have been (in respect of personal, and especially of relative mercies) satiated, and sometimes almost overwhelmed, with the Lord's great and various goodness: and I have superadded pleasure in congratulating you on the aboundings of the mercy of God unto you and yours. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards an

other, and towards all men, even as we do towards you! The Lord be with you, my dear friend, and bless you, and perform all things for you, and then nothing but good will happen to you!

I am, &c.

J. BOWDEN.

LETTER LV.

TO MISS B.

I THANK YOU, my dear young friend, for your free and affectionate address. You could not have furnished occasion of higher gratification to me, than when you thus state," I do not find that pleasure or profit I could wish in reading the Bible, or in the duty of private prayer; which is a great grief to me, and at times depresses my spirits exceedingly. Yet, if I know my own heart, there is not any thing on earth but what I would cheerfully resign, to possess an interest in Christ and his salvation. I impute my present feelings to the hardness and unbelief of my own sinful heart, though it is my constant prayer to be cleansed from all secret faults. Those seasons, when I can feel and acknowledge my own weakness and insufficiency, and rely only on my blessed Saviour, are very delightful." But you are discouraged, because you never experience any joys and raptures as many do; because your

that was blindly pursuing vanity, and madly rushing into misery, shame, and death? Oh, what could creature-friendship, and all created power, have done! Had all the angels in heaven received it in charge to stand in the way of one poor sinner, running, with all his might, to destruction, and drive him back, without the concurrence of the Almighty Power and Spirit of God, those heavenly hosts would have been too feeble and too few to have blocked up all the passages between sin and hell, and turn him into the way of peace. It is the arm of the Lord that has done it; in amazing grace and condescension and sovereignty, done it. Then how should my feeble lips labour to speak his praise, and all that is within me attempt to serve him!

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Let us not think it strange to be reminded, and sometimes to be made very painfully to feel, that we are in the wilderness; but let us admire the mercy that has encompassed our path with so many refreshing springs, that sheds so blessed an influence upon us, and entertains us with the prospects and songs of Sion in this strange land. For my own part, I have been (in respect of personal, and especially of relative mercies) satiated, and sometimes almost overwhelmed, with the Lord's great and various goodness: and I have superadded pleasure in congratulating you on the aboundings of the mercy of God unto you and yours. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards an

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other, and towards all men, even as we do towards you! The Lord be with you, my dear friend, and bless you, and perform all things for you, and then nothing but good will happen to you!

I am, &c.

J. BOWDEN.

LETTER LV.

TO MISS B.

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I THANK YOU, my dear young friend, for your free and affectionate address. You could not have furnished occasion of higher gratification to me, than when you thus state," I do not find that pleasure or profit I could wish in reading the Bible, or in the duty of private prayer; which is a great grief to me, and at times depresses my spirits exceeding a Yet, if I know my own heart, there is not any g on earth but what I would cheerfully resno possess an interest in Christ and his salvation. I inpute my present feelings to the harda and unbe. lief of my own sinful heart, though I constant prayer to be cleansed from all secret faits. Those seasons, when I can feel and acknowledge my own weakness and insufficiency, and rely only on my blessed Saviour, are very deligi But you are discouraged, because you never experience any joys and raptures as many de; because your

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heart appears cold in closet duties, and very unwilling to pay attention to any thing which is serious; because you feel no evidence in yourself of a saving change; therefore, sometimes, you even fear that you never shall be called by grace. Now, my friend, I will tell you what appears to me to be the mind of the Spirit of God in the Word, respecting your case thus stated. There is a change that passes on the saved sinner, and it is great and indispensable: it is a passing from death to life, from darkness to light, from a state of condemnation and wrath into a state of acceptance and covenant-friendship with God; from a state of servile subjection to sin and satan, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Of this distinguished happy family of new-created hea ven-born minds, Christ is the head. It is in virtue of their being brought into the fellowship of Christ, and being by faith and love united to him, that they are made to partake of spiritual life, and begin to taste and savour the good word of God, to be sensible of pleasures and pains, and to express desires and any tipathies, to which they had been strangers... The Second Adam has been to them a quickening Spirit; their new and spiritual life is manifested; and all the sufficiency of that life is in Christ, and to be received out of his fulness; so that the life and strength, and growth and comfort, of a soul born from above, will be according as his believing regards are: to the Lord Jesus Christ, His dependance on Christ is absolute, far more so than that of the sucking

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