by faith in Christ Jesus; and, if sons, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."

Faith is an undoubted certainty which silences all misgivings of heart; it is assurance itself, that persuades the mind, and stays it on the object believed in; it discovers future things to the believer, brings them near, and embraces them, and realizes them to the soul.

It believes in divine life, and applies it; it believes in atoning blood, and purifies the heart by it; it believes in an imputed righteousness, and puts it on; it believes in the promised comforts of the Spirit; and "we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."

It believes in the love of God, and receives it in the enjoyment of it, and works by it both to God and to his children. And what shall I say more to my son? for time would fail me to tell of half that I have felt.

Heaven is a place of rest; and we that believe do enter into rest.

Heaven is a place of peace; and, "being justified by faith, we have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

With joy and rejoicing shall the church be brought to Christ, and shall enter into the king's palace; and God fills us now with joy and peace in believing.

Heaven is a place of endless day; and the path of a just man, who lives by faith, shines more and more till that perfect day take place.

The gift of God promised in heaven is eternal life; and "he that believeth hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation."

The inheritance above is endless glory; and even this begins in this life:

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of God is risen upon thee." This fills the soul with joy unspeakable and full of glory.

All these, my beloved son, are the foretastes of eternal fulness, the streams of grace (which make glad the city) flowing from the river of divine pleasure, the head of which is God, the fountain of life; for "unto the place whence the rivers come, thither they return again,” Eccl. i. 7.

All these worketh the Holy Spirit of God through Christ the mediator, from whose fulness all grace is communicated to us, and through whom all grace flows back again, even to its own proper fountain.

What rich security is this, that the heirs of promise might have a strong consolation! God, with his own finger, writes his laws on the fleshly tables of our hearts, and puts them into our minds. He binds up the testimony in the bond of love to us; then he seals the law among his disciples with a comfortable assurance; yea, more, the Spirit himself is the seal. He is the divine impress of heaven, he stamps the divine image upon us, he affixes the truth and power of it, he makes and maintains a melting impression on the soul, he confirms and establishes the heart, he is the attestation and the ratification of all to us. In his quickening, enlivening, enlarging, and cheering operations, he is the pledge of the first resurrection. In his operations of love, joy, light, and comfort, he is the first-fruits of the glorious harvest; and in all these the

earnest of the future inheritance. Well may Paul say, "It is of faith, that it might be by grace, to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed."

Matters thus settled between Father, Son, and Spirit; revealed and made known, ratified and confirmed, by the triune God to his chosen and beloved family; testified by God's hand-writing upon our hearts, sealed with the broad seal of heaven, and a pledge and earnest given: O this stands faster than moun tains of brass! O the immutability of his counsel, the stability of his covenant, the security and safety of the blessed inheritance!

An earnest differs nothing from the whole lump in quality, only in quantity. The first-fruits are the same as all the rest of the harvest, only they are a very small part of an abundant crop: whether, therefore, we glean a handful (like Ruth) or reap a sheaf (like Joseph in his dream), it will at last terminate in a barnful, "Gather the wheat into my barn," Matt. xiii. 30. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his

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judgments, and his ways past finding out! For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be all glory, might, majesty, dominion, and power, both now and for ever." So be it, so be it; says

The chiefest of all sinners,

W. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER XVIII.

ΤΟ THE REV. J. JENKINS, AT THE NEW VICARAGE, LEWES, SUSSEX.

Dearly beloved and longed-for, my joy, and the crown of my rejoicing; stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

METHINKS I hear thee crying out, "Hast thou but one blessing, O my Father?" Yes, my son, I have many blessings. I have as many spiritual and temporal blessings from my God, and as many curses from hypocrites in Zion, as most men living; and the latter is the consequence of the discriminating