himself. Next to my own falvation, there is nothing in this world that affords me greater fatisfaction than to see the hand of the Lord with you; your foul has been delivered from the battle, and you shall return in triumph. If you had been worsted in this conflict, I knew I must fall, and fall for ever; if the foundations can be deftroyed, then what fhall the righteous do! But this fhall never be, nor will he ever fuffer a fervant of his, whom he knows contends for his caufe, and for his truth, to be confounded in the prefence of fools. I knew, from the beginning, that you were encountering Satan in the garb of an angel of light, and a fervant of his, whom he had transformed into the likeness of a minister of righteousness. I never had a fingle doubt on my mind about the lawfulness or the neceffity of the war; no, nor of the event of it neither: and I now find that my faith was the substance of what I hoped for, and the evidence of what I did not then fee. But how grievous fuch things are to nature, none can tell but those who feel them. Far lefs than what you have met with makes me more like a devil than any thing elfe; every thing that touches me, or goes contrary to me, makes me rebel like a tiger; and, what is very ftrange, I find that all severities cannot tame me, nothing but kindnefs humbles me: and how can this be expected under fo much rebellion! But unexpectedly it comes at times. The account I had of the P- of B was fweetened; I cannot tell you what comfortable

and

and fweet views I had of its contents, and with what power they abode upon me for fome few days; and I thought, if I could lie in them, with the feelings and fenfations I had then, I should be contented to wait for health to the laft moment of my life. But O! they are gone! nothing continues with me long. I am like a broken veffel, in whom there is no pleafure. And where am I to look for more? Let me look where I may, I know that it will never come but from one object-it must come from Jefus, and no where else. It grieves me to fay give, give, when I know there are fo many things that call befides. The good Lord be with your Spirit, is the defire and prayer of

Your real friend,

J. J.

VOL. II.

Y

LETTER

LETTER LX.

To the Rev. Mr. J

I THANKFULLY received the epiftle of my friend, and blefs my God for owning, or attending with his bleffing, any thing written or fpoken by fo unlikely and unworthy an inftrument; but he knows his poor fervant, and I know my kind, dear, and ever bleffed Mafter; this bears me up, and helps me on. He has put the helmet of falvation on my head, he has clad me with zeal as with a cloak, he has girded me with ftrength for the battle, and has filled me with power and might, by his Spirit, that I may fhew Jacob his tranfgreffions, and the house of Ifrael their fins; he has told me in my study, that he will avenge his own elect, and deal treacherously with them that have dealt treacherously with me; and this reckoning will shortly be brought in, and they that hate me fhall pay it, and those that favour my righteous cause shall fee it, and iniquity fhall stop her mouth. Judgment may appear at times to linger, and because it is not fpeedily executed, the hearts of finners are fully fet in them to do evil; but when God is known by the judgments which he executes,

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ap

and he avenges the cause of his fervants, many a halting foul comes to be at a point, judgment fhall return unto righteoufefs, and the upright in heart shall follow it. When the flicks of the eleven tribes peared dry and barren, after being laid before the teftimony, and only Aaron's rod budded, it stopped the murmuring of the children of Ifrael; and this minifter of Satan, being fet up in oppofition to thy friend, will make the fimple look both ways, and in time fee for themselves, whether God profpers the calf-worshippers at Bethel, or his own inflitution at Jerufalem; or whether the throne of iniquity can have fellowship with God, who frame mischief by a law. The house of David will increase, and the houfe of Saul fhall decrease. And I must tell thee, that the things which happened unto me have fell out rather to the furtherance of the gofpel: the newspapers, hand-bills, and pamphlets, have been of the fame ufe; as the voice of the devil Pitbon, in the young witch, mentioned in the Acts, who proclaimed Paul and Barnabas as fervants of the Moft High God, who fhew us the way of falvation. Curiosity hath led many to hear what fort of a monfter I am, and not a few, like Doeg the Edomite, are detained before the Lord. Mr. Fenton, by his book, hath acted the part of thofe accufers of the adulterefs woman, who brought her to Christ, and left her there, when they themselves were fent off under the accufations and curfes of their own confcience; and his fcribble may be the means of fending fome to hear,

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hear, who fhall hear to profit, though the word hath never profited him. Howbeit he meaneth no good, nor doth his heart think it; but God may mean, think, and intend all this, for his thoughts are not as our thoughts.

The bondfmen who are to be refponfible, if report be true, are fix in number. They have begun to build without counting the coft; but the top of this tower will not reach unto heaven, for God hath bound himself, in honour to his great name, to confound their language, and to scatter the proud in the imagination of their hearts; he will pull down the mighty from their feats, in order to exalt them that are of low degree and of light efteem.

The majority of his audience, if report be true, are females; thefe fmell a fweet favour under him, and are very much benefited, especially thofe that have waxed wanton and kicked against Christ, and fuch as bave already turned afide after Satan: the ewes great with young, and thofe that feel the cloudy and dark day, abide by the old tents; thefe cannot feed themselves with their own deceivings, because of the terrible famine. The former clafs of thofe honourable women require a peculiar fort of classleaders; to be bishop of thefe, a man muft firft be proved whether he be, like Eli's fons, a real child of Belial, one that is fond of creeping into houses, apt to feel for, and fympathize with, the weaker veffels; moreover, he must have a good report amongst thefe daughters of Zion, as one that can

allure