thefe do the faints cry, pray, and fight, all their days; and, if they are foiled or overcome, it is called violence, captivity, or a rape, which God will highly resent; and, if they are preffed beyond measure, and despair even of life, and are thrown feven times, and complain, I die daily, or for thy fake we are killed all the day long; yet they up and at it again, and never give over, nor give up, till they die; for as he is, fo are we in this world. 1 John iv. 17. God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that we might live through him: and Chrift loved the church, and gave himself for it. And the Spirit's love appears in his convincing us of fin, righteoufnefs, and judgment; and in taking up his eternal abode with us, when we were the most vile, filthy, and abominable creatures, and to every good work reprobate.

The faints have fuffered all forts of torments, and every kind of death, that men or devils could invent, rather than difhonour their God, or lofe their exceeding great reward: hence they labour after conformity to him, and difallow of every luft and corruption that refifts his fovereign will.

If God arraign, they will not excufe; if he punish, they accept. If he fearch, they fubmit; if he condemn, they will not acquit; if he rebuke with fire, they approach the light; if he is wrath, they fear and quake; if he invite, they come up; if he chaften, they submit; if he attract, they follow on; if he frown, then they fear; if he command, they

commend;

commend; if he forbid, they forbear; if he withdraw, they defpond; if he threaten, they contract; if he allure, they enlarge; if he is abfent, they are jealous; if he indulge, they make free; if his anger burn, they are mute; if he refift, they withdraw; he hides himself, they go in fearch; his bowels move, their bowels yearn; if he contend, they attend; if kindness flow, their fpirits melt; if he forgive, they cannot forget; if he commune, their heart will burn; if he embrace, they fwoon in love; if he bind, they will not be free; if he pull down, they will not build up; if he should wound, none else shall heal ; if he lay on, they will not throw off; if he detain, none shall release; if he afflict, they will not be foothed; if he shut up, they will not come out; if he defert, they will not be wooed; if he caufe grief, they will not hear peace; and, if he chide, they will not flee; he bends his bow, they yield their breaft; if he delay, they still perfift; if he deny, they will not give up; he will not relieve, they still entreat; he says Begone,' they importune; he shuts the door, they knock the more.

The divine and effential Word has taken our nature into God; and there is a divine nature lodged in all the faints, and no feparation can be made, either by life or by death. O my brother, my mouth is opened to thee, my heart is enlarged; thou art not ftraitened in me, but in thy own bowels. Now for a recompence in the fame, (I speak as to my beloved fon,) be ye alfo enlarged. Adieu. Be ftrong in the grace that is in Chrift Jefus, and endure

G 2

endure hardness as a good foldier. The Captain has overcome the world, and the victory is yours.

Ever thine in him,

W. HUNTINGTON,

LETTER X.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS, Lewes, Suffex.

Fellow-fervant and fellow-fufferer, companion in travail and tribulation, peace and truth be with thee.

I AM glad that you approve, and that any thing clear, harmonious, consistent, informing, or establishing, appears to you. I fhall, therefore, propofe to bring forth what little yet remains on my mind, or may yet occur on the fublime fubject. Reason, or the dim light of nature, is a poor guide in this mystery. Light in the head, without love and reverence in the heart, has a tendency to exalt. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. A high look, a stiff neck, and a proud heart, God will not fuffer; but he will dwell with the humble and the contrite, and will own and acknowledge thofe that

reverence,

reverence, love, and fear him. In his light we fee light; and, if teachable and tractable, he will guide us with his eye, and lead us by his Spirit; while the inward anointing, which is the illuminating, renewing, foftening, and humbling influences of his grace and Holy Spirit, which the faints experience, will teach them all things neceffary to be known, or effential to falvation. Our fufficiency is of God, who can make us able minifters of the New Teftament; and, if he does not make us fo able as fome are, yet we muft minifter as of the ability which God giveth; that God in all things may be glorified through Jefus Chrift. 1 Pet. iv. 11. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and our unctuous experience of his divine impreffions and influence, muft regulate all our views, opinions, and conclufions, upon divine fubjects. Whatever the understanding discovers, and the mind conceives, is always handed down to the foul's experience of divine power; the Spirit's work on the foul being an exact and an infallible copy of the revealed mind and will of God in the fcriptures of truth; on which account the church is called the pillar and ground of the truth. 1 Tim. iii. 15. The Spirit is the author of the scriptures, both of the Old Testament and the New. The gospel is the miniftry of the Spirit. 2 Cor. ii. 8.

And the Spirit of

Christ, in the prophets of the Old Testament, tef tified beforehand of the fufferings of Christ, and of the glory that should follow. 1 Pet. i. 1. And we are told that the teftimony of Jefus is the spirit of prophecy. Rev.

xix. 10. Therefore, whatever the enlightened understanding discovers, and the mind perceives or conceives, it is immediately handed down to the experience of the Spirit's teaching within, to fee if it be confiftent with the anointing which teacheth all things; and, if it agree with the anointing, and has the fanction of the Holy Spirit, immediately the mind is led to the written word for fupport and confirmation, and the Spirit brings fome word home to the mind which proves and establishes it; and this witness of God is greater than the witnefs of all the men in the world: but, if it agree not with the anointing, and if it receive not the Spirit's fanction, nor any word come in to confirm it, it is rejected and caft out, as being contrary to the anointing. And ye need not that any fhould teach you, but as the fame anointing teacheth you. I John ii. 27. Whatfoever, therefore, contradicts the Spirit's work and his teaching is to be rejected. If my dear brother will attentively obferve this inward teaching, he will perceive something of it all the day long; and, without this divine compass, it is in vain to launch out into the profound depths of divine especially that of the Holy Trinity.

mysteries, and

Canft thou by

fearching find out God? Canft thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? The meafure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the fea. Job xi. 8, 9. Secret things belong unto the Lord our Ged: but things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children for ever. Deut. xxix. 29. And God has promifed

that