of Chrift with me, hath been the procuring cause of it from first to laft; and what is it all, when compared to the intolerable burden of unpardoned guilt and vindictive wrath? No more than a feather. Should the fame fuccefs attend thy labours, thou wilt fare no better; the power of God and the offence of the crofs are infeparable; when the former fails, the latter ceases. A minifter by whom Satan fuftains no lofs, is a minifter against whom he will raise no forces; but if the Lord works with thee, Satan will work against thee. Go forth with your ten thousand, and he will come against thee with twenty thousand; however, fend no embaffy, nor defire conditions of peace, for he is the enemy of Michael, and of all the works of heaven. Thou art informed, by an infallible pen, that the law worketh wrath; and fure none under heaven have appeared fo implacable and unmerciful to me as those who are continually contending for that rule; neither a good confcience, nor a healthy countenance; neither the teftimony of truth, nor the approbation of heaven; neither the feals of your ministry, nor the vifible figns of the empire of grace, can ftand acquitted before their envy. The going forth of the divine power of the gospel takes them, by day and by night it paffes over, and is a vexation only to understand the report; this ever will be the cafe of thofe whofe bed of carnal ease is too fhort to stretch themselves on, and their figleaved dress too narrow to wrap themselves in. The

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gospel

gospel is a riddle to those who turn afide to vain jangling. The wrath of God revealed in the law is the spirit of bondage, and the love of God fhed abroad in the heart is perfect liberty-Mount Zion never gendered the former, nor did Mount Sinaj ever produce the latter. God minifters not the Spirit by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith. Pray for them, and pity them; for the old vail is upon their hearts, and they know not what they do. Spend no breath, no time, in vindicating me or my character. I know my dear Master, and he knows his poor fervant, and will difcover, one day or other, who are his, and who not. He hath made me manifeft in the confciences of the worst of my enemies, by making me the favour of death unto death to them. Contend thou for the truth that he enables thee to fee, and for the power that thou haft felt in thy own heart, and for the mystery of faith in a pure confcience, and for the end of the life-giving commandment, which is charity out of a pure heart, a good confcience, and of faith unfeigned.

If thou follow after and enforce these things, which are things that accompany falvation, thou fhalt be a good minifter of Jefus Chrift, a workman that needeth not to be afhamed; for this is doing the work of an evangelift. There may be ten thousand inftructors, but there are not many fathers; for fuch, and only fuch, are honoured with the title of fathers, and with the honour of begetting poor finners to a life of faith in Jefus Chrift; and none but these are in the

bonds of the gofpel. Minifters of the letter may kill, or adminifter death, and that is all; for the fpirit of life goes not with the letter, but with the powerful promife of life; nor is it communicated by a bond child, but by the heirs of promife. It goes from faith to faith; I believed, therefore have I fpoken; we believe, and therefore fpeak. None but believers have life in them, the unbeliever is condemned already, and he may communicate that fentence, but he cannot communicate life, for he never had it. But will God still choose the foolish, the weak, and the bafe things of the world, to confound the wife, the ftrong, and the honourable? Am I to have another fellow-fervant after mine own heart, one out of whom the Lord will shine, and by whom the Lord will speak? Will he make thee a tabernacle for his Sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race? O! that thy line may go out into all the earth, and thy words to the world's end, fo that nothing may be hid from the light thereof. Day unto day uttereth fpeech-let the children of the day speak to each other. Night unto night fheweth knowledge-a blind guide that leads the children of the night, makes the children of light fhine the brighter. As God changes thy frame, so change thou in thy miniftry. If bound, defcribe legal bondage and the workings of it; if free, enforce liberty; if haraffed with inbred corruption, fhew the plague of the human heart, and the promise that

God

God hath made to them that feel it; if in darkness, describe it, and the neceffity of divine illumination; if weak, treat of human frailty; if strong, enforce the Spirit's might; if stirred up and fired with zeal, found an alarm in the holy mountain; if joyful, charm never so wifely. In this way thy word and thy fpirit, thy heart and tongue, will go all together; a gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it; whitherfoever it turneth, it profpereth. Of this be fure, the more fuccefs thou haft in God's work, the more violent will thine opposition be. If Satan fuffers any lofs by thee, he will lay about him with all his might. If God honours thee, thou wilt be loaded with all manner of reproach; and as thy fame spreads thy troubles will increase, in order to counterbalance popular applause, and to keep thy fpirit humble. Vifions of the third heaven, and the buffetings of Satan, will appear a strange contrast, but very needful; for the paffover lamb and the bitter herbs must be eaten together, or else pride would overfet us. The greatest enemies thou wilt ever find in this world, are men of gifts, who are destitute of the grace of God; legal preachers under the curfe of the law, and at the fame time appear with the word gospel in their mouth; and those profeffors who are ftiff in the form of godlinefs, but ftrangers to the power thereof: none fo far from the bond of the covenant, none fo far from the bond of all perfection, as these they love the world and the things of the world, and will pity and fympathize with hypocrites;

but he that is begotten of God, and he that begets, they cannot love; I am a living witnefs of this truth. But let none of these things move thee to defift from the good work to which thou art called and appointed; open thy mouth wherever an opportunity fhall offer, and the more you scatter, the more you fhall increase; and as you water, you fhall be watered also yourself. It hath long fince been revealed to me that thou art ordained to this good work, and in fome future period this fhall be revealed to thee. Believe in the Lord thy God, fo fhalt thou profper; believe his fervant, fo fhalt thou be established. And should I hear of thy profperity, and that thou quitteft thyfelf like a man, I will not fay that I will not come and vifit thee this fummer, fhould God direct my way to you. My love to all that love HIM. Ever thine in Chrift.

Yours, &c.

W. H. S.S.

LETTER