evening, and from half past four to fix in the morning. I now fept little and ate little, and the grief of my foul drank up my fpirits. But yet I could not believe, tho' I continued in prayer and fupplication day and night feeking God in fincerity of heart, and carefully departing from evil.

17. About this time my Wife and I were permitted to stay at the meeting of one of the Claffes. I was much pleased and refreshed: but the faid, "They had all agreed what to say, in order to catch us." Such is the folly of prejudice! It was foon after this, that you returned from the Bristol Hotwells, being juft recovered from your Confumption) namely, on Easter Eve, 1754. The next day you preached at West-street, April the 14th: it was the first time I ever faw or heard you. Under that fermon God fet my heart at liberty, removing my fins from me, as far as the Eaft is from the Weft: which the very change of my countenance téftified, before my tongue could utter it. I had no great transport of joy; but my load was gone, and I could praife God from the ground of my heart: all my forrow, and fear, and anguish of spirit, being changed into a solid peace.

[From the Rev. Mr. Fletcher to the Rev. Mr. Welley.]

Rev. Sir,

IF

London, May 26, 1757.

F I did not write to you before Mrs. Wesley had asked me, 'tis not that I wanted a remembrancer within, but rather

an encourager without. There is generally upon my heart

fuch a fense of my unworthinefs, that I dare hardly open my mouth before a child of God fometimes, and think it is an unfpeakable honour to fland before one who has recovered. fomething of the image of God, or fincerely feeks after it. Is it poffible that such a finful worm as me fhould have the privilege to converfe with one, whofe foul is befprinkled with the blood of my Lord? The thought amazes-confounds me, and fills my eyes with tears of humble joy. Judge then at what diftance I must fee myself from you, if I am fo much below the leaft of your children; and whether a remembrancer within fuffices to make me prefume to write to one, whose fhoes I am not worthy to hear. I rejoice that you find every where an increase of praying fouls. I doubt not but the prayer of the juft has great power with God; but I cannot believe that it fhould hinder the fulfilling of Chrift's gracious promifes to his Church: he muft and will certainly come at the time appointed, for he is not flack as fome men count flacknefs; and though he would have all yet he has not forgot to be true and juft. with more mercy, and will increase the light that fhall be at evening-tide, according to his promife in Zach. xiv. 7. I fhould rather think that the vifions are not yet plainly disclosed, and that the day and year in which the Lord will begin to make bare his arm openly, is ftill concealed from us. I muft fay concerning Mr. Walsh, as he said once to me, concerning God. I wish I could attend him every where as Elisha attended Elias; but fince the will of God calls me from him, I must submit and drink the cup prepared for me. I have not feen him, unlefs for a few moments, three or four times before divine fervice: we must meet at the throne of grace, or meet but feldom. O when will the communion of faints be compleat? Lord haften the time, and let me have a place among them that love thee, and love one another in fincerity!

come to repentance, Only he will come

I fet out in two days for the country. O may I be faithful! harmless like a dove, wife like a ferpent, and bold as a lion,

for

for the common caufe! O Lord do not forfake me, ftand by the weakest of thy fervants and enable thy children to bear with me, and wrestle with thee in my behalf! O bear with me dear Sir, and give me your bleffing every day, and the Lord will return to you feyenfold.

I am,

Rev. Sir,

Your unworthy Servant,

JOHN FLETCHER.

LETTER

XCIX.

[Of PUBLIC WORSHIP, in a Letter to a Friend, by the Rev. Mr. John Wesley.]

Sept, 20, 1757.

Dear Sir,

THE

longer I am abfent from London, and the more I attend the service of the Church in other places, the more I am convinced of the unspeakable advantage which the people called Methodists enjoy. I mean, even with regard to Public Worship, particularly on the Lord's Day. The Church where they affemble is not gay or fplendid; which might be an hindrance on the one hand: nor fordid or dirty, which might give distaste on the other: but plain as well as clean. The perfons who affemble there, are not a gay, giddy crowd, who come chiefly to fee and be feen: nor a company of goodly, formal, outside Christians, whose religion lies in a dull round of duties: but a people most of whom know, and the reft earnestly seek to worship God in fpirit and in truth. Accordingly, they do not fpend their time there in bowing and curtfeying, or in ftaring about them: but in looking upward and looking inward, in harkening to the voice of God, and pouring out their hearts before him.

It is alfo no fmall advantage that the perfon who reads prayers (though not always the fame,) yet is always one, who may be fuppofed to fpeak from his heart, one whofe life is no reproach to his profeffion; and one who performs that folemp part of divine fervice, not in a careless, hurrying, flovenly 'manner, but ferioufly and flowly, as becomes him who is tranfacting fo high an affair between God and man.

Nor is their folemn addreffes to God interrupted either by the formal drawl of a parish clerk, the fcreaming of boys, who bawl out what they neither feel nor underftand, or the unfeafonable and unmeaning impertinence of a voluntary on the organ. When it is seasonable to fing praise to God, they do it with the fpirit, and with the understanding also: not in the miferable, fcandalous doggerel of Hopkins and Sternhold, but in pfalms and hymns which are both sense and poetry; fuch as would fooner provoke a Critic to turn Chriftian, than at Chriftian to turn Critic. What they fing is therefore a proper continuation of the fpiritual and reafonable fervice; being felected for that end (not by a poor hum-drum wretch who can fcarce read what he drones out with fuch an air of importance, but) by one who knows what he is about, and how to connect the preceding with the following part of the fervice. Nor does he take juft" two ftaves," but more or less, as may best raise the foul to God: especially when fung in well compofed and well adapted tunes, not by a handful of wild unawakened ftriplings, but by a whole serious congregation: and then not lolling at ease or in the indecent posture of fitting, drawling out one word after another, but all flanding before God, and praifing him luftily and with a good

courage,

Nor is it a little advantage as to the next part of the service, to hear a Preacher whom you know to live as he fpeaks, fpeaking the genuine gofpel of prefent Salvation through Faith, wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghoft: declaring prefent, free, full Juftification, and enforcing every branch

of

of inward and outward Holinefs. And this you hear done in the most clear, plain, fimple, unaffected language; yet with an earneftness becoming the importance of the fubject, and with the demonftration of the fpirit.

With regard to the last and most awful part of divine fervice, the celebration of the Lord's Supper, altho' we cannot fay that either the unworthiness of the Minifter, or the unholinefs of fome of the Communicants, deprives the rest of a bleffing from God, yet do they greatly leffen the comfort of receiving. But these discouragements are removed from you: you have proof that he who adminifters, fears God: and you have no reason to believe, that any of your Fellow-Communicants walk unworthy of their profeffion. Add to that the whole fervice is performed in a decent and folemn manner, is inlivened by hymns fuitable to the occafion, and concluded with prayer that comes not out of feigned lips.

Surely then of all the people in Great-Britain, the Metho. difts would be the most inexcufable, fhould they let any oppor tunity flip of attending that worship which has fo many advan tages, fhould they prefer any before it; or not continually improve by the advantages they enjoy! What can be pleaded for them, if they do not worship God in spirit and in truth: if they are still outward worshippers only, approaching God with their lips while their hearts are far from him? Yea, if having known him, they do not daily grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jefus Chrift!

LETTER C.

J. W.

[From Mr. John Walsh to the Rev. Mr. Wesley, containing an Account of a Clergyman.]

Knightsbridge, June 21, 1758.

My very dear Father in Chrift,

SINCE the more than Egyptian darkness was removed from my foul, I have not once written to you; fuppofing the many thousands of Ifrael would write more, than well fuits

your