Isaiah xlii. 19-21. Though men might call him blind, yet he was perfect, and seeing many things. Who is deaf as my messenger? opening the ears but thou hearest not. Though he was blind, yet he saw many things; and though he was deaf, yet he opened the ears of others. And one of the many things, which the Lord's perfect messenger saw, was the day of Jerusalem's destruction; and this he declared eight or nine hundred years before it came to pass. "I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." The day of vengeance, that was in his heart, was the day of Jerusalem's destruction: "Let not them that are in the countries enter into the city; for these be the days of vengeance," Luke xxi. 21, 22. The year of his redeemed was not the year in which Christ died, when he redeemed his elect from death and hell; but the time of the saints' redemption from Jewish persecution. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh,” Luke xxi. 28. Christ redeems his people from the deceit and violence of men, as well as from the wrath of God; " And precious shall their blood be in his sight," Psal. lxxii. 14. And so the Jews found it when all the righteous

blood shed, from the blood of Abel to Zacharias, was required of that generation.

The going forth of the commandment to build Jerusalem, and from that time to the coming of Messiah the prince, and to the cutting off the Messiah; and the people of the Roman prince that was to come to Jerusalem to destroy the city and the sanctuary; together with the seven years' peace with many nations, which the Romans were to make during the time of their war with the Jews till God's decreed indignation was poured out upon the desolate; were all foretold by the angel Gabriel to Daniel, Dan. ix. 25-28. And the whole of this matter was made known to Gabriel by a man clothed in linen, which was no other than the high-priest of our profession. "And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision," Dan. viii. 16. Hence it appears that, though he knew not that woful day as man, yet he knew it as God, and highly re sented their cruel treatment of him, and their blasphemy against his Holy Spirit; for it was Christ that executed that fearful judgment upon them, God having committed all judgment to the Son, and all power in heaven and on earth. And he displayed it with a witness, as he foretold them he would; "Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up his heel against me. But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may re

quite them, Psalm xli. 9, 10. And he did requite them: for it was he that mustered the Roman army, and brought it against them: and the appearance of that was the sign of the Son of man in heaven, when all the tribes of the earth were to mourn, Matt. xxiv. 30. The Jews had long required of him a sign from heaven, and he gave them one. The destruction and desolation of the Jews was not to come till Messiah was cut off; and their ruin and destruction was a sure sign that Jesus was the Messiah; and, though the blind Jews could not see it, the children of light did.

These, my dearly-beloved brother, are the men that labour at Zion's foundation, which to them is a stumbling-stone and a rock of offence; and too often do they prevail, till the foundations are almost hid, and then God raiseth up others to bring them forth again. "And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundation of many generations; and thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in," Isa. lviii. 12. Thus some bring to light, and some bury; some pull

down, and some build up.

"He that is not with

me is against me, and he that me, scattereth.”

gathereth not with

True, yoke-fellow, adieu. Grace and peace be multiplied. So prays

Yours in the path of tribulation,

W. H. S. S

LETTER VIII.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS, at the new Vicarage, Lewes, Sussex.

I

DEARLY-BELOVED AND LONGED-FOR, MY JOY, AND THE CROWN OF MY REJOICING!

WISH above all things that thou mayest prosper in thy labours, and be in health for the work, knowing that hard labour and a frail tabernacle make us move heavily: but our God has promised that, as our day so shall our strength be. I shall now resume my former subject, as I find you are by no means weary of it. And what I purpose to send to my dear brother is something of the unctuous experience which believers have of the glorious mystery that I have been writing about. I shewed you in a former epistle that if ever our hearts were comforted, if they were ever knit together in love, and if ever we come to the full assurance of understanding, it must be by an humble " acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," Col. ii. 2, 3. This mystery is not only to be acknowledged or assented to as a revealed truth, but it is to be em

braced by faith, and to be held, and held fast, as many violent and unwearied attacks, both by devils and heretics, will be made against it; and, if we are unsound or unsettled in the ground-work or foundation, all the rest will be out of order. The building cannot be fitly framed, according to the account of a wise master-builder, unless the glorious proprietor of the building be savingly known; for it is amystical building, founded in faith, and cemented together in love, and grows up in wisdom, knowledge, and power, not by human might nor by the power of free-will, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Take the apostle's account; "Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom all the building, fifty framed together,. groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit," Eph. ii. 19–22. The apostle tells us that the living stones, the choice materials of this building, are God's household, freeborn citizens; and that Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone that unites all saints, Jews and Gentiles, antediluvian and postdiluvian saints, together; and that the building grows up into an holy temple in the Lord, an habitation of God through the Spirit. If God the Son be left out of our faith, there is no foundation; and if God the Father, or the Holy