we follow after righteousness, peace, charity, meekness, patience, and faith, setting our minds upon them, and delighting our souls in these things, the old man gets neglected, and withers. "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," Gal. v. 16.

4. By leading us to love and to delight ourselves in reading and meditating on the word of God. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord: and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper," Psalm i. 1-3. Here we are informed that this delightful work is intended to keep our green, and to make us fruitful, like a tree that brings forth its fruit in due season.

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5. The Spirit assists us in mortifying the deeds of the body by his quickening influences upon us, which keep up a keen appetite for spiritual food; such souls thirst for the living God, and long for the courts of the Lord's house; saying, "When shall I come and appear before God?" And such have their promise; "Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God they shall be fat and flourishing, they shall bring forth fruit in old age, to shew that the

Lord is upright." A keen appetite and a heavenly banquet employ all the powers of the soul: "I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." And, when Christ's fruits are so sweet and delightful to our taste, the devil cannot vend his wares; the old man, with his deceitful lusts, are rather despised and blown upon than relished. This sorrowful meat is set before us when the better sort is withheld, when there is a famine and a compulsive fast. "Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days," Luke v. 34, 35. When these mournful days come, which are but too often, then Satan shews us all the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them, and the imaginary happiness of his children, who war after the flesh. These are the days for sour grout, and for filling the belly with the east wind. But Satan never tells us who is to pay the reckoning, nor informs us about an eternal fast, and begging water in hell, when the Lamb and his wife will be bathing in endless pleasures in heaven.

6. The Spirit helps us in mortifying the deeds. of the body, by exciting us to follow hard after Christ, and by encouraging us to cleave to him with full purpose of heart; to labour hard in order to our abiding sensibly in him, in his favour, in the light of his countenance, in the peace of him,

and in the love of him; in the joy of the Lord, and in communion and fellowship with him; and by constant visits to him, and abounding in the work of him. "I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as à branch, and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned," John xv. 5, 6. This is the most sure way to abound in fruitfulness; the more we com mune with the Saviour, the more we savour of his good ointments, and the more we are equipped against Satan and his wiles. When, on the other hand, if this be neglected and not attended to, the branch gets at a distance, till sin, guilt, fear, and shame, stop up the intercourse, and then deadness and barrenness follow; leanness comes into the soul, the heart sinks, the countenance falls; spiritual gifts, abilities, zeal, apparent liveliness, diligence, and all joys, seem to blight under the fire of inbred lust; and all wither away together, unless the Spirit displays his power in such a soul.

7. The deeds of the body are not a little mortified by the fiery trial. When the old man, with his deceitful lusts, are ready to be too much for the believer, insomuch as that the enjoyment of peace and common comforts are not sufficient to keep him, these are withdrawn; at which the soul is alarmed, fatherly anger lowers, fear and terrors follow up and flow in, and a spirit of heaviness

succeeds. Doubts and fears about the goodness of our state lay us under great concern; God seems to be gone; every thing looks dismal; and the devil tempts the poor soul that he has no part nor lot in the better inheritance, &c. This sometimes crucifies the old man, with all his lusts and pleasures. This terrible remedy was applied to the incestuous Corinthian; "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus," 1 Cor. v. 4, 5. Many times, but in a less degree, and not for public scandal, but to mortify the sins of the flesh, which are too strong for the believer in prosperity, does the fiery trial come on, only to subdue his sin and to purge his dross.

These, my dearly beloved son, are some of the kind helps with which the holy and blessed Spirit of God doth assist the believer in mortifying the deeds of the body. And eternal life will most surely attend and succeed this long and lingering toil and labour, which God has given to the sons of men to be exercised therein. Adieu; grace and peace be with thee. Amen and amen,

Says thine affectionate father in Christ Jesus,

W. H.

LETTER XVI.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS, Lewes, Sussex.

MY DEARLY BELOVED SON,

I TOLD thee, in my last, that the blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors, unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; and that these blessings shall be upon the head of my son, And this shall come to pass "by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts and of the womb." These blessings of heaven are the blessings that will bring us to the utmost bound of the eyerlasting hills; "I will lift "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth," Psalm cxxi, 1, 2. But, "Who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart," &c. Psal. xv. The best blessing in heaven is that of being filled with all the fulness of God; the best blessing that lieth under, is the victory Christ obtained over Satan, sin, death, and hell,