be heaven's everlasting rest! There may you meet him! and there find, as a monument of infinitely free grace in Christ, your truly affectionate, &c.

LETTER XCV.

Oct. 18. 1751.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-Two of your letters are now before me, who expected long ere this to have been before the Judge of quick and dead. Blessed be God I am got down stairs, and the day before yesterday went abroad in a coach. Oh! what great troubles and adversities hast thou shewed me! yet didst thou turn and refresh me; yea, and broughtest me from the depths of the earth again. Oh! my dear friend, how shall I be thankful? May that infinitely good and gracious God, who has given me such cause, give me power to be grateful. May I be enabled to devote every moment of that life which he has prolonged, and every faculty of that body which he hath preserved; devote them wholly to the honour of his blessed name.

Poor -'s case I commiserate. The charge attending my illness will be considerable; but I am not without hopes that my father will be so good as to defray it, then my hands will not be straitened: O bowels may never be straitened, but may I "draw out my soul to the hungry."

that my

I am glad to hear that a seventh edition of Dr Stonehouse's book is demanded. May it go forth in the name, in the strength, and for the honour of the blessed Jesus, and may it prosper! though, as you observe, he and I think differently on some points; nor is the doctor an admirer of my favourite author Mr Marshall. The acceptance, however, which God has given to his and to my own writings, should send both of us oftener to the throne of grace, and quicken our applications to the divine Goodness, that his all-powerful Spirit may accompany our instructions, and make them a real blessing to our readers.

I write as a poor prisoner that lately expected to have the sentence of death executed, but has now got a short, uncertain reprieve. May I never forget how much I shall want an assured faith in the allglorious Redeemer, when that awful change approaches. Let us labour after such a firm establishment in Christ, such an unshaken affiance in his merits, and such an unfeigned love of his name, as may make it gain to die, and the day of our dissolution better than the day of our nativity. Poor Dr

! Oh! may he and his afflicted partner find consolation in the faithfulness, the goodness, the unsearchable riches of Christ! These, apprehended by a sweet, assured, soul-reviving faith; these, I say, are our sovereign support under all troubles, and our most effectual preservative from all temptations. We believe; blessed, blessed Jesus, help our unbelief! I am, my dear sir, ever yours, &c.

LETTER XCVI.

London, Mile's-lane, Dec. 3. 1751. DEAR MR NIXON, IT is probable you may have heard of my late dangerous sickness; and it is more than probable, nay, I look upon it as a certainty, that your good-nature has admitted this circumstance as an excuse for my silence. Indeed, dear sir, I was sick, and nigh unto death. Little did I think of writing any more to my friends, or of being written any longer among the living. Oh that I may devote the life that has been prolonged, devote it wholly to the God of my health and my salvation!

I received by Dr your quotation from Plato, proving that the preposition a bears a vicarious signification. For which be pleased to accept my thanks. It is a most reviving and delightful truth, that Christ has suffered in our stead, and bore all our sins in his own body on the tree. When I was lately upon the verge of eternity, and just going to launch into the invisible world, I could find consola

tion in nothing but this precious, precious faith. If all my iniquities were laid upon the beloved Son, they will never be laid to my charge in the day of judgment. If the blessed Jesus made full satisfaction for my transgressions, the righteous God will never demand two payments of one debt. What an anchor for the soul is such a belief! how sure, how steadfast! May it be our solace in life, and our security in death!

A volume of letters, written by the Earl of Orrery to his son, has very much captivated the attention of the public. Dr Brown's Remarks too upon Lord Shaftesbury's Characteristics are, I think, equally worthy of universal acceptance. It is a refined entertainment to peruse such elegant and judicious compositions; but how flat are they all, how jejune and spiritless, compared with the sincere milk of the word, the lively oracles of God! I hope they will always prove a whet to our spiritual appetite; quicken our desires, and heighten our relish of that heavenly manna which is spread over every page of the Bible. I am, dear sir, your very affectionate friend, &c.

LETTER XCVII.

London, Jan. 14. 1752. MY DEAR FRIEND, I KNOW you will excuse my long silence, and acquit me on the receipt of this letter, though I own myself in your debt for another. When I have a lucid or a lively interval, I think it my duty to employ it in attempting to finish my little work; which, alas! proceeds as slowly as my blood creeps heavily through my veins. Happy, happy they, who have firmness of nerve, and fertility of thought, and are enabled to devote them both to their gracious Redeemer's service.

Please to pay my best thanks to Dr Cotton for his very delicate Visions. I wish they may do good, and promote virtue; then, I am persuaded, they will answer the benevolent intention of the author. I wish,

1

at the same time, that he would be a little explicit and courageous for Jesus Christ. He deserves it at our hands, who for our sake endured the cross, and despised the shame: he will recompense it into our bosom by owning us before his Father and the holy angels. Nor can I ever think that the spread of our performances will be obstructed by pleasing him who has all hearts and all events in his sovereign hand. A vision upon death, without a display of Christ, seems to me like a body without a heart, or a heart without animal spirits. I am sure, when I was lately (as myself and every one apprehended) on the brink of eternity, I found no consolation but in Christ. Then I felt, what I had so often read, that there is no other name given under heaven whereby man may obtain life and salvation, but only the name, the precious and inestimable name of Jesus Christ. Oh ! that its savour may be to us, both living and dying, "as ointment poured out."

Tell Mrs , that she has not offended me; but I am grieved that I should give her occasion for such a suspicion.

You refer me to 2 Esdras v. 33. "And I said, Speak on, my Lord; then said he unto me, Thou art sore troubled in mind for Israel's sake: lovest thou that people better than he that made them ?" It is a sweet passage, a noble and comfortable truth; and the apparent doctrine of Scripture, however found in an apocryphal book. Oh! that we may seek more assiduously to our all-condescending and omnipotent Friend. He will never upbraid us for our importunity; he will never disappoint our hope; he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think; and, blessed for ever be his name, as is his power so is his love to his people, his children, his heirs. In this blessed number may he rank my dear friend, and his ever affectionate, &c.

LETTER XCVIII.

Mile's-lane, March 24. 1752. MY DEAR FRIEND, I RECEIVED your favour. congratulate you on your success in your profession. Moses says, "It is God who giveth power to get wealth." May such accessions of prosperity enlarge your heart with gratitude, and attach your affections to our divine Benefactor! I am sorry to hear your account of dear -. O that we may be taught Φρονειν εις το σοφρονειν. "Lord lead me in a plain way," was the prayer of a noble sufferer. May the thing that he prayed for be the desire of our heart, and guide of our life.-I will very readily give him some Bibles; if he (for he is, if I mistake not, a member of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) will send me an order in his name, a dozen shall be at his service. I shall think my own books are published to good purpose, if they enable the author to distribute the invaluable book of God.

Upon reflection, I charge myself with folly for putting it into Mr's power to communicate a certain rumour. The wise man says, humorously and sarcastically, "Venture to conceal a secret, and behold it will not burst thee." Intimating withal, that a secret in most people's breast is like fermenting liquor in a cask, which must have vent, or else it will burst the vessel. Therefore,

Quid de quoque viro, et cui dicas, sæpe caveto.

Mr's last piece I have not read through. I cannot say I am fond of that controversy. The doctrine of the perseverance of Christ's servants, Christ's children, Christ's spouse, and Christ's members, I am thoroughly persuaded of. Predestination and reprobation I think of with fear and trembling. And if I should attempt to study them, I would study them on my

knees.

I wish you would ask Dr S's opinion about Eph. iv. 16. with relation to the anatomical propriety