1 In all my visits to her, my hardest task was still to work Iser into a willingness to stay inthis world till all her doing and her suffering work was over.
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It was well said of [by] one, ' So far as we tremble at death, so far we want love.' It is sad, when the contract is made between Christ and a Christian, to see a Christian afraid of the making^-up of the niarriai^e. But your deceased relation was no such Ciiristiau. I know notliing- in this world that her heart was so much set upon as the completing of the marriage between Christ and her soul. My eye is upon that text, Isa. Ivii. 1, ' The righteous perisheth, and no man layelh it to heart, and merciful men are taken away, none consider- ing that the righteous are taken away from the evil to come.' I have read of one Philo, a Jew, and another, that when they came to any city or town, and heard of the death of any godly man, though never so poor, they would both of them mourn exceedingly, because of the great loss that place had by the death of that godly man, and because it was a warning piece from God of evil approaching. But ah, how many famous, godly ministers, and how many choice Christians, hath the Lord of hosts taken away from us, and yet who lays it to heart ! There is no greater prognostic of an approaching storm, than God's calling home so many worthies, 'of whom the world was not worthy,' as he has lately done. Now oh tliat God Avould beautify all your souls with all these twelve jewels, with which your mother was adorned in life and death !
Sir[s], your having signified to me that it was your mother's mind and your desires that her following experiences should be printed, I did think it might be somewhat reasonable to put you all in mind of such things as I had, among many others, observed, and which should be all yoiu" ambition to imitate, as you would give up your accounts at last with joy, and be happy with her for ever in the other world.
Considering that these Experiences may fall into other hands besides your own, I thought it meet to let such readers know that these were taken from her by one of you, when she was in a very weakly con- dition, and had little more strcngth than to speak ; and they are but some of those that lay most warm upon her heart at that time. God began to work upon her in the morning of her days, and had there been a collection of all her most close, inward, spiritual experiences, they would have been gi-eatly multiplied beyond what is now pre- sented to the reader's eye ; but that was a task too hard for her under those variety of weaknesses that she was every day contending with. The experiences of old disciples commonly rise high ; but the ingenu- ous reader may easily discern by the twelve jewels with which she was adorned, that she was a woman both of choice and great experi- ences. Austin observes on Ps. Ixvi. 16, 'Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul;' 'he doth not call them,' saith he, ' to acquaint them with speculations — how wide the earth is, and how far the heavens are stretched out, or what the number of the stars are, or what is the course of the sun ; — but come and I will tell you the wonders of his grace, the iaithfulness of his promises, and the riches of his mercy to my soul.' Now all ministers and Christians that had any inward acquaintance with her soul concernments, do very well know that she was most taken up with the wonders of God's free, rich, and sovereign grace, and with the sweetness, the fi-eeness, the riches, and the faithfulness of his pro- mises, and with the riches of his mercy in Christ to her soul.
To draw to a close, it is observable that even the holy apostles in
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