my road to town, I never was fo miferably harassed with them before.

There is one thing, in a letter of yours to a young man, that I have often wifhed as well as you, viz. that it had pleafed God to keep me from fin in the days of my youth. I then had a tender confcience; but bad company and evil practices hardened it; and a profeffion of religion, without the power of it, almoft feared it: this ferved as a cloak to many things that confcience would not bear with in the days of my youth; and this I expect to rue as long as I live, and I am afraid the fword will never depart from my house.

Accounts abound with me of the books being much bleffed to many. I believe they are read day and night, and I cannot find one that repents buying the book. Those letters between you and me I find are most perufed yet, and indeed they feem as if they had received fresh courage from them, and arguments to reply against their adverfaries. There is one thing you have said that they all witness to; viz. " that many have kept a

jealous eye upon me, fearing that I should be "enlarged, and they left bound." This they all confefs with one confent; and if at any time I have gone a little higher than ufual, then they have trembled but is not this ftrange, that they fhould rather hear me ftammering in my fetters, than

7

preach

preach the liberty of the gospel? But I must leave off, as I am going again to-day to work in the country-a poor workman, truly! May the God of heaven bless you, and profper you, is the hearty prayer of,

Your much obliged friend,

J. J.

VOL. II.

G

LETTER

LETTER XVI.

To the Rev. J. J.

REV. SIR,

My fon is ftill alive, though he can form no judgment of himself, and though he knows not where he is; it is Abraham's path, my fon, who obeyed, and went out, not knowing whither he went. Chrift will find the loft sheep, if it cannot find him; for he leads us in paths that we have not known. But we fhall know both what he does, and where he leads, hereafter, when he makes darkness light before us, and crooked things ftraight. If my fon knows where he is, and what he is, he cannot be loft.

The oil of joy is promised for a fpirit of heaviness, light to the blind, reft for the heavy laden, a phyfician for the plague, order for confufion, a mouth and wisdom for the miniftry, and divine fufficiency for them that know they are not fufficient for these things. But this poor child of mine dreams of allfufficiency in himfelf; looking to the hills from whence cometh our help, and to the Lord for grace and strength in every time of need, feems to be too dazzling a profpect for his near fight.

Never refolve either to give all up, or hold all faft; for thou canft do neither. "I will be their "God, and they fhall be my people," is the language of the better covenant from end to end, and shall stand faft from everlasting to everlasting, let men's refolutions be what they may. Job, in the furnace, poffeffed the iniquity of his youth as well as you. Nathan told David, God hath put away thy fin; and yet he laboured and cried long under the venom and guilt of it. It is one thing for God to view my crimes cancelled by the Surety, and it is another thing for him to let me feel and enjoy it. Jealoufy offerings were to bring iniquity to light; inquifitions must be made, and iniquity fearched out, and found to be hateful, and we must suffer under a fense of them, and smart for them, that we may remember our affliction and our mifery, the wormwood and the gall; that we may have a sympathy for the Saviour, and feel, in a fmall degree, his intolerable fufferings for us; this, under the influence of grace, makes the confcience tender, excites gratitude, and fills the foul with pious grief when we offend him, or hear others difhonour him. There is a peculiar mark of protection fet upon fuch as figh and cry for their own fins, and for the abominations that are done in the land, and fuch fhall not fall in the common deftruction.

To quit ourselves like men, to refift the devil steadfast in the faith, and give no ground to him, well becomes every foldier that God has armed.

And "to defy him, and tell him to his face that his "labour is in vain," is doubtless a very heroic act in my fon. Nevertheless, rejoice not in this; but rather rejoice because thy name is written in heaven.

It doubtlefs is a peculiar favour, like Joseph and Timothy, to be called young; their cords and yokes are not fo ftrong as ours, nor may their old vices ply them fo close and hard as ours do; yet we are the greatest debtors to grace.

It is not ftrange at all, my fon, "that the flock " chooses rather to hear you stammering in your fet"ters, than to preach liberty." If they were free, they would like to hear of freedom; but to fee Naphtali a bind let loofe, while Iffachar crouches down between two burdens, is, like Jofeph's many-coloured coat, a provocation to jealoufy; and who can reft contented when fcorched with fo vehement a flame?

I have no doubt but the reproach and flander cast upon thee, will spread abroad the report of the good hand of God upon thee, while the ointment of thy right band will betray itself.

When the pulpits in London were ringing perpetual peals against antinomianifm and a bad fpirit, they rung fo many bees down to my hive, that we were obliged to spend twelve hundred pounds to enlarge it. The place is too ftrait for us now; and there are many that are willing to go again to Jordan to fetch beams, if we had but ground to lengthen the cords upon. However, God's word fhall have free courfe, it fhall run and be glorified, and accom