God for it; and when it is well with you, forget

not to pray for

Paddington.

W. H. S. S

I

LETTER LXVI.

To the Rev. MR. HUNTINGTON.

HAVE longed to hear from my dear friend ever since he has left us, and he, perhaps, has expected to hear from me before this time; and he would, if I had not been so slow of heart to every thing that is good. This is my case, and this is the reason I did not write sooner. I do not know how you now do, nor what your thoughts are respecting your last visit to us; but I believe it was the most profitable, in general, that ever you paid L――; and I think I can say so with respect to myself in particular. My views have since been more brightened, widened, and extended; and some very sweet and comfortable seasons I have found, both in private and public; and I find, that when we are diligent and earnest with him in the closet, that he will reward us openly. I had begged the Saviour to communicate some gift to me by your coming, and my prayer was not in vain; I was

refreshed and strengthened, and I feel the effects still abiding with me, and I am sure it was of him. But what a composition of light and darkness, faith and infidelity, I feel myself to be! Sometimes, as I think, all light, and can discover deep things out of darkness; and then again all darkness and confusion, and feel for some one to lead me by the hand. At times stand so strong, that I am ready to conclude nothing can throw me down any more; but, by and by, I am at the gates of death, and can hardly believe that there is a God in heaven, but that every thing I have felt, seen, or heard of, is a delusion. Some seasons of sweet melting and weeping in private, then I am comfortable; but it is not long before I meet something that throws me into a passion, or the sweetness will begin to wear off; then I am trying to catch it and keep it, and if I cannot I begin to fret, then it is all over. After a few seasons of enlargement in the pulpit, I begin to think that I am going to be moved into a new climate, that I shall get no more into the dreary regions of darkness, bondage, and bitterness again; but oh! how I am disappointed! and then conclude it was nothing but froth. But that which staggers and distresses me most of all, is the attacks which the filthy corruptions of my heart make when they come all of a sudden into my thoughts, just as if the devil had been mustering them up; when I have no inclination for them they force themselves. These are chiefly the sins that I used to be a slave to, and

my

they often now get into my thoughts, and there is something that is for indulging them, which makes me fear that grace does not reign; for if it did, it would not be so. This throws me into fretting and rebelling, and then all hope and comfort are gone. Oh! this is the pest and the plague of soul! Would to God they were destroyed, for I do not want them, nor wish for them. I long indulged them, and was a willing slave to them; but I had rather go again through many years more of this misery, wrath, guilt, and terror, than be under the dominion of them; and I often beg God to throw me back again, if he sees it necessary, rather than to be an hypocrite in Zion.

Many kind respects are sent to you from this place. Several have told me they never could understand you so well before, and I believe them; but the alteration is in themselves. I am often grudging in my heart, that I have been obliged to hunt them through all the dirty holes of the devil, and you come to find them, and have the sweetness of discovering them. I have, at times, said that I will do no more of it. I am fully persuaded that the Lord sent you down to us, though he burnt our coats. I often grudge this, though I say nothing.

J. J.

REV. SIR,

I HAVE

LETTER LXVII.

To the Rev. J. J.

HAVE no doubt, my dear brother, but that God approved and blessed the visit; and I think some poor souls, for the first time, had a glimpse of the Saviour's countenance, which hath left a little myrrh upon the handle of the lock, and which is a prelude to the future glorious anointing. Since I left L I have had another little excursion into the country, where I found another that is shut up and cannot come forth. This sort of work seems, in a great measure, to be appointed for me, having now trod the hospitals for above three apprenticeships. But I am at present confined to my room, as a dumb man, in whose mouth are no reproofs. That my former visits were not so profitable, is easy to be accounted for: you had got them all so near the tropic of Cancer, that they were quite beyond my present climate, as I have not now sailed in that latitude for many years, nor do I wish to go those northern voyages again. But as the Sun of Righteousness has lately thawed their frozen hearts, and melted and softened their souls, under these sweet beams the Lord hath drawn them nea.er the torrid zone.

I

Christ did not finish the work of our redemption at the extremities of the earth, either north or south, but nearer the centre, that sinners might look to Calvary from all the ends of the earth and be saved. I have long travailed in pain for thee, my son, and I hope I shall shortly see the blessed effects of it. When God restores comfort to Ephraim, he will not forget his mourners. expect great things at L--; not a spurious race of hypocrites, not a mingled seed, nor such as are clothed with strange apparel. God hath planted thee wholly a right seed, and thine offspring will be like thyself; it will be like people, like priest. Such, and only such, are the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. The nearer they come to the sun, the better they will understand me; and when you and I begin to see clearly eye to eye, they will perceive that we speak the same things, and walk in the same steps. This beginning work of bursting the bands and breaking the yokes, will be attended with a spirit of jealousy and emulation among them, which will provoke very many; many will be gathering round these children of light, to inquire and examine who hath opened their eyes; and many will see these men upon whose bodies the fire had no power, and the sound of these things will spread abroad, while Sanballat and Tobiah will be much cast down in their own eyes, perceiving that this work is done of the Lord. Those intruding visiters, of which thou complainest, are