Chrift. Believe, faith the Lord, that I am in you, and you in me. And where this union never took place, communion with him was never enjoyed, and of courfe fuch fouls never could meet together in the unity of faith; that is,, they never did meet together in the covenant head, in the unity of the faith of God's elect and fuch fouls are deftitute of every joint peculiar to the body of Chrift, and of every band that holds that body together; and to purge out fuch, is denying all concord between Chrift and Belial; it is feparating the children of light from thofe of darkness, believers from infidels, faints from finners, the vile from the precious, the chaff from the wheat- My band finds this to do, and we intend to do it with all our might; for there is no work or device in the grave, whither all are baftening. I expect Jannes and Jambres, Korah and Dathan, to withftand me in this bufinefs; but I know he is curfed of God that doth his work deceitfully, and I know I am well armed, and well equipped, by the great Captain who ftands by me in the field. You fee I am in all things, and by all means inftructed; every anonymous letter that comes, and every obfervation that I make abroad, are brought forth to me in my ftudy, while every thing is opened up, expounded, and explained to me by the Lord,

whilft I fit at his foot and receive of his word: and he sweetly leads me to judge all things; but tells me in his word, that, in thefe fecret matters which he

fhews

fhews to me, I can be judged of none. What the good Lord fhews me I fhall communicate to you, as you have long known my manner of life, doctrine, purpose, faith, &c.

I am determined to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darknefs. For fure I am that fuch preachers are in the condemnation of the devil; they are lifted up with pride when they intrude themselves into the facred office, and in the gall of bitterness while they execute it. If Eli breaks his neck, the priests fall by the fword, and their widows make no lamentation for their lofs; if the ark goes into captivity, and the glory of God into the enemy's hand; if Ichabod comes upon Shiloh, and the houfe of Eli is never to be purged by facrifice nor offering for ever, for the vilenefs of Hophni and Phinehas under that difpenfation; what muft the end of them be, who carry on the works of Belial under the light and heat of life and immortality brought to light by the gofpel? I know what flesh and blood is, and the different luftings and continual war between flesh and fpirit. But to hold the bonds of iniquity in a feared confcience, and under unpardoned guilt to appear with a brazen brow as God's ambassador, and to enforce daring and damnable prefumption under the name of the affurance of faith; these are as evident tokens of perdition as ever was found upon the arch-leader of the rebel angels; but I have done. I pity my dear Lord and Mafter,

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Mafter, and I know he pities me, and I truly feel for his poor flock. Adieu; thine in the best of bonds.

Pray for me.

W. H. S. S.

LETTER LXXI.

To the Rev. Mr. HUNTINGTON,

MY DEAR FRIEND,

YOUR laft kind favour has been fafely received, and thankfully too. I believe that none of them has ever come without bringing me fomething that I am the better for receiving; and if I do not find it at the first reading, I am fure to meet with it at the fecond, or the third; they never get dry by lying in my houfe. I remember it was faid of one, that his letters were weighty and powerful; yea, and I can say that his fpeech and his bodily prefence are acceptable to me, and I wish I could both fee and hear him oftener. Nothing in this world, I am perfuaded, can ever make me forget you; I feel

fuch

fuch heartfelt friendship with you as I never did with any other living perfon. I do not know whether I may call it by any other name than friendship; I know it is that, and more than that, but I fhould rejoice for ever if it fhould prove at last to be fpiritual union. I have often wondered why I fhould be laid fo much upon your heart, when I know that I am fo unworthy of it. I hope, at times, that the Lord puts me there, and am thankful to him, and that he puts it in your heart to care for me; for this gentleness of yours, I can tell you, has often been very fweet to me, when I could find no fuch treatment from any other quarter. At other times I have attributed the whole of it to your natural tenderness, and at fome feafons I have trembled for you as well as for myself, and have been forry in my heart that you fhould have expofed your judgment to the rage and contempt of all the fools that would fee my destruction at last. I never have been angry with you in my life, but for one thing; and that is, that you have expofed me fo much; that you did not conceal me, pray for me, and write privately to me, and fay nothing more about me, but let me be hid until the indignation be overpast.

I am, at prefent, juft where you mention in your letter; in the balance, between hope and defpair: fometimes hope turns it, then I wait and expect; but that which is hoped for not coming, doubts arife, fear, and unbelief; then to fretting and murmuring I fall, and darknefs and bondage gather faft, and despondency

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spondency then weighs me down, and I give up all for loft. If I could but see that the Lord, by these things, is teaching me things profitable for me to know, I should be more patient and more refigned; sometimes I can see a glimmering light, but it foon goes off.

I see you can well defcribe the preparations for the pulpit, and the operations in it, and it is fome comfort to me that you have known and felt them as you have described. Indeed I know that the second fermon is a preparation for the third; and though I am loth to go at it the third time, and wish not to meddle with it any more, yet I can foon feel, when I begin, that I have been taught fomething by my last difappointment. But, above all, I think, the mocking of the Philiftines is the worst; I can fee it in their countenances, but have no ftrength to cut at them; I am fenfible then that quietnefs behoves me best, and pass over my tale as well as I can; and 1 have wished that the people would build me a little veftry behind the pulpit, and cut a door to go into it, that I might lock up myself immediately, and fee no face at all. I hope, when the days get a little longer, that I fhall be able to come and fee you. I have been very poorly all this winter, with gouty and rheumatic pains all over me, which make me unable to ride much. The Lord bless you, and give you power to pray for me, and my poor prayers fhall mix with yours.

J. J.