epistle; for, under God, these are the means that bring me along, if I am coming along at all.

Ir is true, my dear friend, I did think that I was out of sight and out of mind; or, at least, the same devil that told you that I should write to you no more, bore the same lying testimony at Paddington. God knows how sorely I long after you in the bowels of Christ, and how thankful I am for every visitation of God to you. I have long indulged this confidence, that the Lord hath a great work for

you to do, and he is fitting thee for it. The knowledge of sin and the law, of self and of Christ, of hypocrites and of saints, of profession and possession, is absolutely necessary to every one that is a workman, who does the work of an evangelist, and who rightly divides the word of truth, and makes a difference between the clean and unclean, the vile and the precious. I know the Lord is with

thee, thou art holpen 'with a little help; hope works against despair, and counterbalances it, and we are saved by hope. Faith has got a fast hold of him; this is plain, by the violence used by sin and Satan against it; neither of which can make faith relinquish her hold; she will overcome the world by the Spirit's assistance, and by the help she brings from the Saviour; who will ever honour faith, because faith always honours him, and excludes all boasting from the creature, by leading the sinner to rest alone in the finished work of our great Deliverer. Against this reliance alone on Jesus proud nature argues and brings forth her strong reasons; at this she spurns, rebels, and opposes herself, till her strength is exhausted, and the soul is bewildered, confounded, and befooled, insomuch that the sinner becomes a mystery and a riddle to himself, and knows nothing as he ought to know; and when this clay is taught to lie passive in the hand of the potter, it is moulded into another vessel, as it seemeth good to the potter to make it.

I wonder not at thy unexpected enlargement in the pulpit; for when we enter upon this work selfdebased, we are sure to be exalted; when many silent groans, tears, and petitions, have been poured out in secret, we are rewarded openly; when we appear self-emptied, his fulness is sufficient, and we find that our sufficiency is of God; in our weakness his strength is made perfect; and when we appear dumb men, in whose mouth are no reproofs,

then it is," Son of man, when I want thee to speak I will open thy mouth;" a door of utterance, is given, the Spirit of our heavenly Father speaketh in us, and we ourselves are astonished, both

at the matter, the manner, the fluency, and the fortitude. When we have been thus indulged, and we leave off full of then power and energy, we expect to cut a greater figure the next time; and, in this confidence, we are minded to go unto them; and if we are furnished with a text, and some tolerable views into it, this heightens our zeal, braces and equips us, and at it we go, full of self, self-dependance, and self-sufficiency. In the first prayer we find that we are more mighty in self than we are in word; and though the text and the heads be given out with some degree of boldness, yet when we come to explain them, that lock of hair wherein our great strength lay is cut off; we shake ourselves, but it is nothing but a a sham or a banter, and the Philistines themselves can see it. Our heads of discourse are half lost, for Satan has stole two parts out of three of that which we committed to memory. Soon after we lose sight of the text, and then every thing that presents itself flies away from us; and in hunting after these views we lose ourselves, and then, like the hireling, we earnestly look for the shadow, not to get the reward of our work, for that is only shame and confusion of face; and this sends us home as abashed and self abased as we went out in the morning; and we are more fit for the work

when the battle is over, than when we began the attack; for I often think that the second discourse is a preparation for the third, or an emptying us, in order to another supply.

I long much to see you. You see the hand of God against his and

your enemies, and you know

I AM just come home from Mr. M. with whom I dined yesterday, and heard your letter read, and from that I ventured to publish you last night at M.; but now having received yours, I am quite confirmed and satisfied. Great are the expectations, in town and country, of your coming, and glad they will be to be informed of it. I hope the country air will be of great service to you after your late illness, to brace up your body, and that ministry, under God, will brace and gird up the minds of many.

your

My soul rejoices to hear how you have been enabled to prevail with God on the behalf of that poor sinner; how good the Lord is! Oh! how Satan deals with us poor mortals! first gets us to sin against God, hardens our heart, and blinds our eyes, and we endeavour to hide our transgressions in our bosom, and yet hope in a God all mercy; but when God cuts the cable of that anchor, down we go, and then Satan knows it is his time to belabour us; and we rightly deserve it for giving heed to the father of lies. O! how we have followed his lying vanities, and forsaken our own mercies! O! what long suffering has the Almighty shewn, towards me especially, the vilest of the vile. I have feared often that the devil would kill me, if I did not kill myself; but I have found him a liar more than once. The Lord would send that scripture often to my mind, and though it was but a conditional one, yet it greatly supported me; "Whoso confesseth and forsaketh his sins, shall find mercy." I know he has heard me; but yet I am a mystery, I cannot understand myself. If I receive a little lift, I think soon after that I sink lower than ever. I never had such seasons in my life as I have had of late, and that was through a few lines in your letter. I never had so much melting and shame on my knees before, so much enlargement, and such a profuse flow in the pulpit, as I had all day last sabbath; I almost thought my fetters were gone, and so did the people; but I am, now, I think, darker and more shut up than