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ful, to trace the analogy between the first and the second Adam, To trace the sad consequences of our relation to the first Adam is, in itself considered, mournful in the extreme. There we contemplate the pregnant source, the origin of all evil; thence all seems to spring-guilt, and sorrow, and death, with all their gloomy attendants; a defiled mind, a defiled conscience, a hard heart, and the destructive influence of the god of this world. But in our relation to, and connection with, the second Adam, we trace advantages, beyond all estimation, precious. This union with the Redeemer was in the decree of God from all eternity. Christ's people are chosen in him, and given to him, to be redeemed and saved from everlasting. They were virtually united to him when he was made under the law to obey its precepts and suffer its penalties. They all obeyed, suffered, died, in him, and were raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus! By renewing grace they are actually brought into the fellowship of the Son of God; the second Adam then becomes to their souls, what he will, at the great resurrection day, be to their bodies a quickening spirit. From him they derive spiritual life; the life of new-born babes, feeble in its faculties and actings, but still life-life by a heavenly birth-the life of the chil, dren of God, and therefore holy and heavenly, divine and immortal; and, as far as this life prevails, its passions and affections, its cares and desires, its

hopes and its fears, its griefs and its joys, will correspond with its blessed original: as truly as the new-born babe rests on the arm and hangs on the breast of its nursing mother, so will the heavenborn soul lean upon Jesus, depending on him for all it needs, and "desiring the sincere milk of the word, that it may grow thereby." There is one material circumstance, however, and the only one that I at present recollect, wherein the allegory will not accord, and that is this: the child of nature, after a while, becomes able to care for itself, and independent of its nurse. This is never the case with the child of grace: he is every day, and every hour dependent: years make no difference in this respect; he can never go alone, yea, he can never stand alone; he cannot pray, he cannot breathe, he cannot live, but as he has communion with the Prince of Life if the Spirit of Jesus withhold his influence, alas, how he languishes! how doth sin, which is the very essence of death, work within him!

But what a ground of rejoicing to the humble believer is the everlasting covenant of grace, "ordered in all things, and sure!" How delightful to those who are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, to think, that "it hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;" that however their frames may vary, and faith, the bond of union on their part, be enfeebled, yet their "life is hid with Christ in God!" What a comfort to find, that as the branch is nourished by the vine, and the

members of the body by the head, so our souls are continually nourished, and fed, and comforted, and quickened, and strengthened, by indissoluble union and communion with the Lord Jesus! What encouragement it affords, in the prospect of arduous duty, to hear him say, "My grace is sufficient for thee!" How it relieves the mind, under the apprehension of unusual and grievous trials, to be assured that by tender sympathy he participates in all our sorrows, and that he will proportion the supply of his Spirit to all our need! How it tends to compose and satisfy our minds, amidst the darkness that veils futurity from our view, to remember Jesus as our life, and hear him say, "Because I live, ye shall live also!" The blessed Apostle Paul had a sweet sense of the reality of this union, when, amidst all his labours and sufferings, he said, "I an crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me." Blessed Jesus! How doth this union proclaim the immensity of his nature, the fulness of his grace, and the unmeasurable tenderness of his heart! How happy that man who is thus united to Christ, and has an abiding sense of this union upon his heart! What a life of high privilege and distinguished honour does he live, whose experience has taught him to say, "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me!" Oh! here is a blessed preparation for the closet and the pulpit; for all the duties, the cares, the labours, the temp

tations, and troubles of life, and also for its close. The believer sleeps in Jesus, but he never dies; he leaves the world, but it is only leaving the humbling, painful discipline of his minority, to go to his Father's home, to enter upon the possession of his own proper inheritance, and be for ever with the Lord. With the most affectionate wish for your comfort and usefulness,

I remain, dear R,

Your Father,

J. BOWDEN.

LETTER XXIX.

TO THE REV. R B

May, 1800.

MY DEAR R,

I AM glad to find you have any encouraging appearances among the people of your charge. You have a large field, and for the most part it has the appearance of an uncultivated and neglected soil. May it be your solicitude, and your happiness, to present yourself before God approved now, in the day of your labour, and in the evening when you give up your account! Experience has long taught me, that in keeping his commandments there is great reward; that duty and privilege, service and recompence, are close companions. While we serva

the Lord with our spirits, "in all labour there is profit:" but how hard is it to rise above self, and to act with true singleness of heart for the glory of the Lord; to covet, not the esteem and praise of men, but the approving smiles of Christ! Alas! how prone are we to be governed by carnal and worldly views, and to take more pains to display our own gifts, than to unfold the grace and glory of our Master! And have we not, sometimes, even when we would be understood as zealously preaching Christ, felt a great deal more anxiety, as to what the people will think of us, than as to what they will think of Christ? My dear R, experience, which has often made me ashamed, yea even confounded at myself, constrains me to admonish you to be afraid of your own heart.

I wish you to apply to the reading of such books as are calculated to furnish your understanding with the most enlarged and distinguishing views of Gospel truth, and to cherish the sacred fervour of your spirit in serving the Lord. You have Dr. Owen's works, and therein you will find the deep things of God, as they relate to the religion of the heart, admirably illustrated. You have Hervey's Dialogues; and I know of no publication that af fords a clearer representation of Gospel truth, in a more rational, amiable, or beneficial point of view. Very many have had reason, from experience, to give this book a very high recommendation. You have Hill's sermons, and I think Henry's: they are good models. But while I thus strongly recommend your

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