ed, I had three children living: but two were taken from me within a very short time, and John, the only surviving one, was so dangerously ill, that his life was not expected. My heart was overwhelmed: but, after very much prayer, I felt my will submissive, and was resigned to part with him also, unless it should please God to spare him to do some good in the world. He shortly after recovered; and, I trust, was spared for usefulness.-But I have here anticipated; as some things, about to be stated, occurred before these events." In the last-mentioned incident, my dear father records what deeply and lastingly affected his own mind, and what he has often, in relating it, made affecting to the minds of others-particularly of him who now remarks upon it. Neither was it forgotten amid the solemnities of his dying bed. May the prayers offered up under the pressure of the affliction, and often, no doubt, repeated afterwards through succeeding years, be much more abundantly answered than they have ever yet been! He adds, "In this situation I wrote and published the Force of Truth; which was revised by Mr. Cowper, and, as to style and externals, but not otherwise, considerably improved by his advice." On this publication, which has already been repeatedly referred to, I shall here make no further remark, than that the first edition is dated February 26, 1779; deferring, with respect to it, as I shall do with respect to my father's other works, whatever observations I may have to offer, to the close of these memoirs. CHAPTER VI. LETTERS BELONGING TO THE PERIOD OF HERE again it may be proper to suspend a little the progress of the narration, for the purpose of introducing to the reader's notice extracts of several letters, bearing upon the events, or pertaining to the times, which we have been reviewing.-The following relate to the deaths which have been mentioned, and some others with which, about this period, my father's family was visited. Το my mother's sister, dated October 19, 1779: "I have to inform you that it has pleased the Lord, who gave, also to take away from us, our youngest boy, your husband's godson; and thereby to discharge both him and us from our trust. After a lingering and wasting disorder, in which the poor thing appeared to suffer very much, he was released from this world of sin and sorrow, and, I doubt not, joined the blessed assembly above, to unite in their song of praise to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed them to God with his blood. He died on the morning of September 25th. Nature will feel and heave the anxious sigh, but faith looks within the veil, beholds the happy deliverance, approves, and rejoices: and I trust we both are enabled to say from our hearts, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name of the Lord. So long as the poor infant was amongst the number of sufferers, it was a sharp trial to us both; but, when he was released, I believe, in our better judgment, we both rejoiced.But I am speaking all these things to one who knows not experimentally a parent's heart; and, if I can judge by myself, and my way of thinking before I was a parent, I can fancy you saying, There is no such great loss, nor such a mighty resignation, in being willing to part with a little infant, that seems well out of the way.' Thus I used to think: but it comes nearer a parent's heart than you can imagine: and it would be no easy matter to me to resign patiently to this loss, were it not that I assuredly believe that, as the Lord knows best what is good for me, so he is engaged by promise to make all work together for my good; and were I not also assured (which too often one cannot be concerning deceased persons,) that he is now a blessed spirit in heaven; from whence, if they in heaven have knowledge of the concerns of those they leave behind, he looks down, with a mixture of pity and astonishment, to see us so ignorantly, I had almost said enviously, wishing him a sharer of our vain enjoyments, embittered with numberless sorrows, and defiled by continual sins.-Death has been very busy indeed of late in my family. Within about six years I have lost my father and mother, two own sisters, two brothers in law, an own aunt, a nephew, and a son These are remembrancers to me to take heed, be ready, watch, and pray, for I know not when the time is. As such losses loosen our hearts gradu .K ally from the world, so they also make us feel ourselves dying creatures. Hearing of one, and then another, and then another taken off by such unexpected strokes, I seem to wonder at myself, that I am yet spared; and to fancy I see death brandishing his lance over my head, ready to strike the fatal blow. I feel to stand on the brink of a precipice, ready by the slightest touch to be thrown down into eternity. I seem to hear a voice behind me saying, Prepare to meet thy God. I bless the Lord, this fills me with no uneasy, anxious thoughts. Through grace, I trust that, having, as a poor sinner, fled for refuge to the hope set before us in a crucified Saviour, through the sprinkling of his most precious blood, my soul is cleansed from the guilt of all its sins; and that I have the experience of what is meant by the sanctification of the spirit unto obedience; and can join with Peter, 1st Epist. i. 2-4, (to which I refer you,) and therefore can say, I know that, when this earthly house of my tabernacle shall be dissolved, I have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And, as to those that belong to me, though they are my closest tie to life, I can nevertheless leave them with satisfaction in the hands of that God, who hath fed me all my life long, and who hath said, Leave thy fatherless children with me, and I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.-However you will observe that I am at present in a very tolerable state of health, and no more like dying, than at any other time in my whole life; and, though we may not argue from such reasons, yet I sometimes fancy, that the Lord has somewhat more for me to do, before he takes me to that rest reserved for the people of God. -However, this habitual frame of mind, which my own frequent sickness, and so many instances of mortality have brought me into, doth very much mortify me to this world; and I cannot but wonder to think of my former castle-building frame of mind, when, with eager hopes and sanguine expectations, I was forming schemes of satisfying and durable happiness in such a vain uncertain world. My dreams and visions are now vanished like a morning cloud. I find now that neither riches, nor preferment, nor reputation, nor pleasure, nor any worldly good, can afford that happiness I was seeking. I bless the Lord, I did not discover the cheat, nor lose the shadow, before I found the substance. I did not discover all else to be vanity and vexation of spirit, until I found out, that to fear God and keep his commandments is the whole of man. Oh how many thousands, that, like him in the gospel who never lifted up his eyes till in hell, never find their sad mistake till it is too late! When I look around upon a busy bustling world, eagerly pursuing vanity and courting disappointment, neglecting nothing so much as the one thing needful; and who, in order to have their portion in this life, disregard the world to come, and only treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; it makes me think of a farmer, who should, with vast labour, cultivate his lands, and gather in his crop, and thresh it out, and separate the corn from the chaff, and then sweep the corn out upon the dunghill, and carefully lay by the chaff! Such a person would be supposed mad: but how faint a shadow would this be of his madness, who labours for the |