TO MR. CHAMBERLAIN,

LEICESTER.

My dear Son in the faith of our common Lord, grace and peace be with thee through Him.

SET off to go into Kent on the 4th day of this month, and did not return till yesterday, the 12th of courfe I faw neither of your letters until I came home. The first I opened mentioned your fifter's departure, which was no more than what I expected, and yet it was very affecting, and fo it was to all in my house, who heard the letters read. But I must tell you, that the unction that anointed her to her burial spread its odour far from Leicester; for Mr. B.Cort having mentioned that your fifter's happiness had provoked fome to jealoufy, and that T. Barfton was gone off in those flames to Grantham, upon reading thereof these words came into my mind, "But he answered one of them, and faid, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didft thou not agree with me for a penny?" Matt. xx. 13.

From that time the parable of the labourers in the vineyard hung upon my mind; and although I was (as I thought) furnished with a meffage for the Lord's day at Cranbrook, yet this continuing to open more and more to my view, my other text withdrew into the back ground, vanished, and went out of fight, and left the above paffage uppermost upon my mind, nearest to my heart,

and fhining brighter and brighter upon my understanding; so that I spoke from it for the first time at Cranbrook; and I think I was right in fo doing, for his prefence was with me; and I believe that I was little less than three hours in the pulpit; and, finding my cruife not empty, in the afternoon I took it again, and was in my pulpit full two hours more. I fhall fay no more upon this fubject, as many of the brethren at Cranbrook wish me to print the difcourfes; and, if God permit, and enable me, I intend to comply with their request.

My dear friend is not ignorant of the poor man who was the means of building that place, and of the dismal end he made; and yet you yourself, and your dear departed fifter alfo, were both be gotten to a lively hope, and received the firft live coal of eternal love in that place; nor have I a fingle doubt, but it will be faid when the Lord writeth up the people, that Joseph and Mary Chamberlain were born there, (Pfalm lxxxvii. 5. 6.) God will work, and who fhall let it?

The contents of yours filled me with grief mingled with joy; I was joyful at feeing the divine dexterity fhe manifefted in carrying on the thread of discourse, and adding her confiftent links to the golden chain, upon every hint dropped; which thewed how richly the word of God dwelt in her, in all knowledge, in all utterance, and spiritual understanding. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings God ordains ftrength, to

perfect praise, because of his enemies, that he may still the enemy and the avenger; for when the Spirit bears his teftimony Satan is put to filence, being rebuked by the finner's Advocate when the brand is plucked from the fire. The miniftry of the Spirit is not ceased; the gospel is ftill the power of God to falvation.

My dear fon has seen in his fifter, even when the outward man was half dead, the life, the vigour, the vivacity, activity, and spirituality of the hidden man of the heart; how agile, how angelic, even when on the verge of eternity; but the foul feels the rays and joys of eternal day. And, if the incorruptible feed seems so pregnant with heavenly treasure and divine fulness when only drawing near to perfection, and while it is unclothed with the body of death, what must it be, and what muft it feel, when the fhrouds, hoods, and vails, are put off for good and all! The Holy Spirit and his train of grace; the heavenly light and life, which are the quinteffence of faith, and glory, which is the foul of hope; and the divine power, which has been our support in much patience; and love, which is our holiness; and joy, which is the flame of love's fire; and peace, which is the calm of heaven, and which is now the end of all war, and will be in future the end of all trouble; and reft, which is the labouring man's home, his bed, his paradise; and the best robe, Zion's bridal attire; and a fulness of God, of the knowledge of God, and of the enjoy

ment of Him; which puts an end to the craving appetite, fo as there will be no more longing, defiring, hungering, nor thirfting; and of course no more begging, forrowing, nor crying. The fruits of the Spirit are the believer's fecret treasure, the good and perfect gifts from the Father of lights, the incorruptible feed of the second Adam, the bleffings of the better covenant, the empire of all-conquering grace, and the kingdom of God in obfcurity. All this treasure your fifter took with her; fhe left nothing but the body, confifting of earth and water; and when the foul departed from that, then the blood chilled, and the whole infernal crop of luft and corruption that moment died; and every evil thought of it, and evil thought from it, in that very day perifhed; you heard the Holy Spirit speak by her, you felt the force and fmelt the sweet favour of celeftial eloquence, which is the language of paradife; every grace had a voice, but affurance and love were the chief speakers.

All the powers of the foul, regenerated and renewed, proclaimed their happy ftate, bleffed readiness, and undoubted expectation. The will in sweet refignation; the busy mind lively and heavenly; the understanding sweetly illuminated; the judgment clear, found, and at a certainty; the confcience placed ferene and at reft; the affections glowing and flaming with the hallowed fire from the altar of burnt offering; while the ininistering angels stood listening, and learning from

the faints the manifold wifdom of God; (Eph. iii. 10.) and they watch and wait on the Holy Spirit, and on his poffeffion, to carry the foul into the bleffed enjoyment of God's eternal love, which is the bofom of Abraham, and of all his feed. Thus departs the heaven-born foul, enrobed with it's wedding garment, decked and adorned with every needful grace; furnished with all effential truth, anointed with the oil of joy, and perfumed with the odour of the grand oblation: this is the death of the righteous, and this is the bride adorned for her husband.

Now, if my dear fon confiders these few scraps that I have written, the foul departed in its regenerate and renewed ftate, and with all the divine endowments of its mental powers; the wedding robe of the Saviour on it, and the Holy Spirit and his work in it; the canopy of atoning blood over it, and every grace in vigour and lively exercise, reigning through righteousness to eternal life, and just ready to blaze forth in eternal glory; there is little room left for grief. Your fifter can laugh, think, talk, fing, rejoice, exult, and triumph even now, better than ever she could. Mofes on the mount of transfiguration could talk though without a body, as well as Elijah who had one, so that Peter and John could hear them and understand them too, (Luke ix. 31.) for "they fpake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerufalem." We fhall be as the angels; for, though they are fpirits, yet they talk and fing oo, Luke ii. 13.