LETTER

Dear Sir,

CCXXXVII.

[From the fame, to the fame.]

May 28, 1762. Am often afhamed of myfelf, for writing fo freely to you. I think my Letters have an appearance of self-sufficiency. And yet I do not know how it is, that when I begin to write, I cannot help it.

One leffon I fee God means to teach me, by all the various occurrences that have lately happened, is the folly, weakness, and instability of human Nature. Lord, what is man! The name of Jefus alone fhall be exalted: hereby we are forced to depend alone on Him, in whom is no variableness, neither fhadow of turning.

My defire is, to fit at the Saviour's feet, and hear his words which are spirit and life. I feel the neceffity of inwardly following God, and being free from all care and every incumbrance of spirit, that my foul may be at leifure to receive the communications of his love and power. Fellowship with God is the thing my foul thirfts after: to live in his presence, and to be taught by the Spirit, to walk in the truth, and to do the will of my heavenly Father in all things. I find more communication with God, and knowledge of the Three-One Jehovah. My foul beholds, as with open face, the glory of the Lord. The veil is more withdrawn, and by faith I enter into the holieft, and feel the preciousness of that Blood, which alone speaks my peace. So that I can fay,

"For ever here my rest shall be,

Close to thy bleeding-fide:

This all my hope, and all my plea,

For me the Saviour diéd!"

I am, &c.

POETRY.

**

POETRY.

THOUGHTS ON IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS,

Occafioned by reading the Rev. Mr. Hervey's Dialogues between Theron and Afpafio. By Dr. Byrom.

PART II.

To fhun much novel fentiment and nice,

I take the thing from its apparent rife;

It should feem then, as if imputed fin
Had made imputed Righteoufnefs begin:
The one fuppofed, the other to be sure,
Would follow after-like difeafe and cure:
Let us examine then imputed guilt,
And fee on what foundation it is built.

As our first parent loft a heavenly state,
All their defcendants share their hapless fate,
Forewarned of God, when tempted not to eat,
Of the forbidden tree's pernicious meat;
Because incorporating mortal leaven

Would kill, of course, in them the life of heaven.
They difobeyed, both Adam and his wife,
And died of course to their true heavenly life:
That life thus loft the day they disobeyed,
Could not by them be poffibly conveyed;
No other life could children have from them,
But what could rife from the parental ftem:
That love of God, alone, which we adore,
The life, fo loft, could poffibly restore;

Their children could not, being born to earth,
Be born to heaven, but by a heavenly birth:
God found a way, (explain it how we will,)
To fave the human race from endless ill;
To fave the very disobeying pair;
And made their whole pofterity his care.

Has this great Goodness any thing a-kin,
To God's imputing our firft parents' fin
To their unborn pofterity?-What sense
In fuch a flrange, and fcripturclefs pretence?
For though men feel-(so far we are agreed)
The confequences of a finful deed:

'Yet where afcribéd, by any facred pen

But to the doers, is the deed of men?

Where to be found, in all the fcripture through,
This imputation thus advanced anew?

From the OLNEY

COLLECTION.

Will ye alfo go away? John vi. 67-69.

WHEN any turn from Zion's way,

(Alas! what numbers do!)

Methinks I hear my Saviour fay,

"Wilt thou forfake me too?"

Ah Lord! with fuch a heart as mine,
Unless thou hold me faft;

I feel I muft, I fhall decline,
And prove like them at last.

Yet thou alone haft power, I know,
To save a wretch like me;
To whom, or whither, could I go,

If I fhould turn from thee?

Beyond

VERSES to the Memory of the late Rev. Mr. Smith Dunning.

A

[By Mifs E

LAS! what mifèries o'er the life of man,

By fad Mortality's dread law are spread! How like a vapour glides the fleeting span, Which quickly ranks him with the silent dead!

Man like a beauteous flower in morn appears,
Fresh opening all its glories to the day;
But cropt ere noon, a withered afpect wears,
Trod under foot, he fhrinks to quick decay.

So

!

So often in the pride of youthful bloom,

The fons of Adam fall a prey to Death;
From honours torn, to drop into the tomb,

Whilft weeping friends deplore their parting breath.

Here mourns a father o'er a much-loved fon;
Here fighs a wretched widow and forlorn;
Whilft by the anxious cares of life undone,
Are by a thousand fruitlefs paffions torn.

But foft-from whence proceeds this mournful found!
From yonder room?-Ah! what a difmal groan!
Who by yon funéral bed fits weeping round?
In agonizing woe they figh and moan.

A mournful eloquence dwells in their eyes;
Silent and fad their looks to heaven afcend:
But breathless, cold, and pale here ever lies,
Their kind protector, brother, father, friend.

Dear, tender names! in one for ever fled;
Ye fympathizing friends that pity know:
Approach with awe, and juftly mourn the dead,
To grief like theirs a facred revèrence show.

For ne'er from forrow's ever-ftreaming eye,

The human tears more reason had to flow:
Ne'er did the wounded bofom heave a figh,
Or prove a more afflictive cause of woe.

No more fhall his inftructive language cheer
The heart when fad, or calmly whisper peace:
For Friendship's facred force can banish fear,

And bid each tumult in the bosom cease.