might be taken out of the way, laid down for thee, for thy foul, a plenary fatisfaction, and have bought thee for my felf; a price not of corruptible things, as of filver and gold, but a price of blood, mine own blood, which I have freely fpilt upon the ground to make thee mine. So I have reconciled thee, O my Manfoul, to my Father, and intrusted thee in the mansion-houses that are with my Father in the royal city, where things are, O my Manfoul, that eye hath not feen, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive.

Emanuel's great love to

Manfoul.

"Besides, O my Manfoul, thou feeft what I have done, and how I have taken thee out of the hand of thine enemies; unto whom thou haft deeply revolted from my Father, and by whom thou waft content to be poffeffed, and alfo to be destroyed. I came to thee first by my law, then by my gofpel, to awaken thee and fhew thee my glory. And thou knoweft what thou waft, what thou faidft, what thou didst, and how many times thou rebelledst against my Father and me; yet I left thee not, as thou seeft this day, but came to thee, have borne thy manners, have waited upon thee, and, after all, accepted of thee even of my mere grace and favour; and would not suffer thee to be loft, as thou moft willingly wouldft have been. I also compaffed thee about, afflicted thee on every fide, that I might make thee weary of thy ways, and bring down thy heart with moleftation to a willingness to clofe with thy good and happiness. And when I had gotten a complete conqueft over thee, I turned it to thy advantage. (a)

"Thou feeft alfo what a company of my Father's hoft I have lodged within thy borders, captains and rulers, foldiers,

(a) By the whole of this evangelical fpeech, all boafting and free-will are utterly excluded; agreeable to the oracles of truth, which declare, that " by grace ye are faved, through faith, and not of yourfelves; it is the gift of God; not of works, left any man fhould boaft," Eph. ii. 5, 6.

diers, men of war, engines, and excellent devices, to fubdue and bring down thy foes; thou knoweft my meaning, O Manfoul. And they are my fervants, and thine too, Manfoul. Yea, my design of poffeffing of thee with them, and the natural tendency of each of them, is to defend, purge, ftrengthen, and fweeten thee for myself, O Manfoul, and to make thee meet for my Father's prefence, bleffing, and glory; for thou, my Manfoul, art created to be prepared unto these.

Manfoul faved from her ene

and mercy,

"Thou feeft moreover, my Manfoul, how I have paffed by thy backflidings, and have healed thee. Indeed I was angry with thee, but I have mies by Ema- turned away my anger, and mine indignanuel's power tion is ceased in the deftruction of thine enemies, O Manfoul. Nor did thy goodness fetch me again unto thee, after that I for thy tranfgreffions had hid my face, and withdrawn my prefence from thee. (a) The way of backfliding was thine, but the way and means of recovery was mine. I invented the means of thy return; it is I that made an hedge and a wall, when thou waft beginning to turn to things in which I delighted not. It was I that made thy fweet bitter, thy day night, thy fmooth way thorny, and that also confounded all that fought thy deftruction. It was. I that fet Mr. Godly fear to work in Manfoul. It was I that ftirred up thy confcience and understanding, thy will and thy affections, after thy great and woful decay. It was I that put life into thee, O Manfoul, to feek me, that thou mighteft find me, and, in thy finding, find thine own health, happiness and falvation. It was I that fetched the second time the Diabo

(a) Mercy, from firft to laft. We must ever remember, that Jehovah in covenant, by Jefus the Mediator, begins, carries on, and perfects the whole work of falvation, by the powerful influence of the eternal Spirit: fo that when the head-flone is put on the fpiritual building in glory, it will be with fhouting of Grace, grace unto it, it, Zech. iv. 7.

Diabolonians out of Manfoul; it was I that overcame them, and that destroyed them before thy face.

The death of

"And now my Manfoul, I am returned to thee in peace, and thy tranfgreffions against me are as if they had not been. Nor fhall it be with thee as in former days, but I will do better for thee than at thy beginning. For yet a little while, O my Manfoul, even after a few more times are gone over thy head, I will (but be not thou troubled at what I fay) take down this famous town of Manfoul, ftick and stone, to the body. the ground. And I will carry the ftones thereof, and the timber thereof, and the walls thereof, and the duft thereof, and inhabitants thereof, into mine own country, even into the kingdom of my The refurretFather; and will there fet it up in fuch tion unto life ftrength and glory as it never did fee in the eternal. kingdom where now it is placed. I will even there set it up for my Father's habitation, because for that purpose it was at first erected in the kingdom of Univerfe; and there will I make it a fpectacle of wonder, a monument of mercy. There fhall the natives of Manfoul fee all that of which they have feen nothing here; there fhall they be equal to thofe unto whom they have been inferior here. And there fhalt thou, O my Manfoul, have fuch communion with me, with my Father, and with your lord Secretary, as is not poffible here to be enjoyed, nor ever could be, fhouldst thou live in Univerfe the fpace of a thousand years. (a)

There, O my Manfoul, thou shalt be afraid of murderers no more; of Diabolonians no more. There shall be no more plots, nor contrivances, nor defigns against thee, O There thou shalt no more hear Manfoul. my

(a) There fhall our grateful fongs abound,
And ev'ry tear be wip'd away;

No fin, no forrow fhall be found,

evil

No night o'ercloud the endless day." WATTS,

Alf fhall be

ven.

evil tidings, or the noife of the Diabolonian drum. There thou fhalt not fee the Diabolonian peace and hap- ftandard-bearers, nor yet behold Diabolus's pinefs in hea ftandard. No Diabolonian mount shall be caft up against thee there, nor fhall there the Diabolonian standard be fet up to make thee afraid. There thou fhalt meet with no forrow nor grief, nor fhall it be poffible that any Diabolonian fhould again (for ever) be able to creep into thy fkirts, burrow in thy walls, or be feen within thy borders all the days of eternity. Life fhall there laft longer than here you are able to defire it should, and yet it shall always be fweet and new, nor fhall any pediment attend it for ever.

"There, O Manfoul, thou fhalt meet with many of those that have been like thee, and that have been partakers of thy forrows; even fuch as I have chofen and redeemed, and fet apart, as thou, for my Father's court and city royal. All they will be glad in thee; and thou, when thou feeft them, fhalt be glad in thine heart.

"There are things, O Manfoul, even things of thy Father's providing and mine, that never were feen fince the beginning of the world, and they are laid up with my Father, and fealed up among his treafures for thee, till thou shalt come hither to them. (a) I told you before that I would remove my Manfoul, and fet it up eifewhere; and where I will fet it, there are those that love thee, and those that rejoice in thee now, but much more when they fee thee exalted to honour. My Father will then fend them for you to fetch you; and their bofoms are chariots to put you in. And thou, O my Manfoul, fhalt ride upon

the

(a) Seeing there are fo many great and precious promises made to us in Chrift by the fcriptures, and fuch an exceeding and eternal weight of glory fet before us, let us implore grace to run with patience the race fet before us, looking unto Jefus, that we may be found of him in peace.

the wings of the wind, Pfal. Ixviii. 17. They will come so convey, conduct, and bring you to that, when your eyes fee more, that will be your defired haven.

"And thus, O my Manfoul, I have fhewed unto thee, what fhall be done to thee hereafter, if thou canst understand; and now I will tell thee what at prefent muft be thy duty and practice, until I fhall come and fetch the to myfelf, according as is related in the fcriptures of truth.

faints.

First, I charge thee that thou dost hereafter keep more white and clean the liveries which I gave thee before any laft withdrawing from thee. Do it, I fay, for this will be thy wisdom. They are in themselves Fine linen, the fine linen, but thou must keep them white righteoufnefs of and clean. This will be your wisdom, your honour, and will be greatly for my glory. When your garments are white, the world will count you mine. Alf when your garments are white, then I am delighted in your ways; for then your goings to and fro will be like a flash of lightning, that thofe that are prefent must take notice of, alfo their eyes will be made to dazzle thereat. Deck thyself therefore according to my bidding, and make thyfelf by my law ftraight fteps for thy feet, (a) so shall thy King greatly defire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him.

"Now that thou mayeft keep them as I bid thee, I have, as I before told thee, provided for thee an open fountain to wash thy garments in. Look therefore that thou wath often in my fountain, and go not in defiled garments;

for

(a) Holiness of heart and life are indifpenfable ingredients in the compofition of a true disciple of the holy Jefus ;-not to justify us, but to evidence our election to eternal life. "As he that hath called you is holy, fo be ye alfo holy in all manner of conversation and godlinefs," Pet. i. 15. A holy walk preserves communion with our loving Lord, whe is our righteoufnels and ftrength,