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never have been as mount Zion that cannot be moved, under all these storms above, and inundations beneath. This is your portion, take it: "Thou hast been a help to the poor in his distress, a strength to the needy, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall." Every saving effect of life has been and is in the soul of my beloved. Sin is his grief, and corruption his plague, which cannot be the case where only one nature reigns. He feels the frowns of God and his smiles; his near approaches and departures; his enlarging presence and contracting absence; he gets callous at his anger, and melts in his love; he has an appetite for all the promises, and greedily snaps at every crumb that falls, and feeds upon bitter stripes more than on carnal ease; and if this be not life, I am an utter stranger to Zion's choicest blessing.

Remember the poor

W. H.

LETTER LXXIV.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS.

I AM coming once more to inquire after my dear ΙΑ friend's welfare. He is so straitened, and so narrow in soul; he is so delicate and nice in his

choice of food, that nothing but honey and butter, as Isaiah speaks, or else milk, oil, or the new wine of the kingdom, will keep him from casting away his confidence. He limits the whole of the Spirit's operations and fruits to love, joy, and meekness. He takes no notice of the Spirit's power and might in the inner man; no notice is taken of the life of hope, salvation from guilt and filth, deliverance from shame and fear, from bondage and wrath, from terror and torment; all these are overlooked in his examinations. He doth not labour under the burden of unpardoned sin, the black scroll is not set in battle array before his eyes, the sting of death doth not rankle in his conscience, nor do the arrows of wrath stick in his reins: you are not chained down to the meditations of terror, nor are you shut up in unbelief, nor confined (like a state prisoner) in the dismal regions of the shadow of death; nor given up to a reprobate mind, nor to a fearful looking for of judgment; all of which you have as just a right to expect as the many that I know who appear plain to be in such perilous circumstances. Look back, and remember your long hypocritical profession: your assumption of the ministerial office, without any call to it, or qualifications for it. The high speculative notions of divine things, in which you dealt; the pride, the arrogant claims you made upon God, without the least awe, reverence, or fear of him; and without the least knowledge of yourself, of God, or of his ways. Much

But

hardness of heart, unhallowed boldness, and daring presumption, were by you communicated to the hardening of many insensible and unhumbled sinners, and to the establishment of numbers in their hypocrisy. In this hard way what swarms do you see, who sprung from the same nest that you did; hatched, not under the hen, nor under the dove, but under the vulture? You read of such ungodly preachers and professors, called sensual, having not the Spirit, Jude 19; and who were before of old ordained to this condemnation. the Almighty has undeceived thee; he has sent the storm beforehand, when it was not expected, and thy sandy foundation has been carried away with the flood, and yet the house is not destroyed; it fell into trouble, into distress, into cutting convictions, into self-despair, into legal bondage, and into the horrible pit, and into the miry clay, but not into hell. God gave you, from the first lesson of his divine and incomparable teaching, an honest heart, or an honest conscience, for that is what is meant by an honest heart: and when the Holy Spirit entered the heart, the heart was made good by his entrance, and honest by his influence. Conscience, receiving authority, light, and information, by the Spirit, magnified his office, and did his duty. He condemned your sinful life and sinful nature, your false profession and your superficial preaching; and you confessed all these both to God and man; and you forsook all these things, and such shall find mercy. All this I discerned

in you at the first interview, and our Lord's pa rable convinced me, and assured me, that the ground was made good; and in this confidence I have continued to this day. Nor did the Almighty leave thee here; he gave you repentance for all the above things, and to the utmost of your power you made restitution, in labouring to undeceive others; and though your success in this did not succeed according to your wishes, yet you may rest upon this, that the elect of God will neither be finally deceived nor destroyed: and as for the contrary part, no means, either human or divine, will ever lessen their number or alter their state.

Ever yours,

W. H. S. S,

LETTER LXXV.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS.

My silence to my best beloved was in obedience to his own orders, as I concluded he was weary of so many scraps, and therefore I waited till I had further orders. No man goes on better than my son; he is not dead, but quickened; "And unto God the Lord belong the issues from death." He is begotten to a lively hope, and that hope is exhilarating, and goes forth in watching, waiting,

and expecting, and will not suffer despondency, when thy peevishness would give all up, sink, and even try to despond; yea, when thy mind is bent upon it, heart and conscience both forbid it, counteract it, and stand firm and unmoved, even when thou temptest them to give way. And all this thou canst not deny. Learn to distinguish between head and heart, and between mind and conscience; and thou wilt find the heart firm when the mind is moved. The nearer the birth, the sharper the pains, and the longer the intervals; and the sharper the pains, the sweeter the cordials; and when these are withheld, the greater the loss, and the more severe the disappointment; but a daily cross is allotted, and we are sure to be in the way while the cross abides. My son comes behind in no gift; every blessing, every grace, and all truth, are in my son. He could never war with the world, the flesh, and the devil, if he had no faith. He could never persevere in prayer, when heaven and earth appear to combine against him, without strong faith: my son takes no denial, nor will he restrain prayer; the kingdom suffers violence, and the violent take it by force; nor will my son cease besieging, withdraw his forces, or raise the siege. And, if he be blind, how comes he to see such comeliness in the beauty of Israel? and if no love to the Holy One, why all this labour and toil to gain him? and if no hope of reaching the haven, why all this unabated, unwearied sailing against wind and tide? My son

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