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And lastly, Sir, as I have ventured fo far, I am defirous to speak to you of my walk. I do firmly believe we must walk in the Spirit, if we would not fulfil the lufts of the flesh. This is the walk I am seeking to attain; but whether I strive lawfully I cannot determine. I hope, in time, God will appear for me, though I certainly at prefent go very heartlessly on; but I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have finned against him; and surely it is of his tender mercies I am not confumed.

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Will you forgive my intrufion, reverend Sir, even if you should not feel a wish to answer me? I certainly am very unworthy your attention.

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To J-H

LETTER II.

Cove of Cork, Ireland.

FELLOW finner in Adam, and fellow faint in Chrift Jefus, grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the great channel of all conveyance. That the Moft High God fhould condefcend to own, blefs, or acknowledge any thing written or spoken by me, is wonderful to many, and a humbling confideration to me; but this treafure is in the earthen veffel, that the excellency may appear to be of God, and not of man; and the more weak and contemptible the veffel, the lefs liable to rob the fountain that fills it. I know of no difparity, Sir, between the children of men in God's fight, unless fovereign Grace has made it. Chrift will have nothing to do with any of the human race in a way of grace, but with fenfible finners; for though all men are the creatures of his care, thefe only are the people of his charge. Sinful and polluted is the whole fountain, Sir; and who can bring a clean thing from it? None but God, who hath fent forth his own Son, made of a woman, and yet holy, harmless, and undefiled, and who is a fountain that cleanfeth us from all fin.

The

The name of an Antinomian is to me like the ferpent upon a rock, or like the ship in the midft of the fea; the former makes no impreffion, and the latter foon lofes its wake. A confcience purged from guilt, and furnished with the Spirit's teftimony, is proof against all the counfel of devils, and artillery of men. If God chooses, who can reprobate? It is God that juftifieth, who can condemn? If he gives peace, who can create trouble? No weapon formed can profper. Let them all curfe, but bless thou.

You are shut out from ordinances, and from the converfation of the godly and experienced; this you intimate to be your lamentation, and I have, for upwards of twenty years, viewed fuch a fituation to be the one thing needful. My foul is fick of this world, fick of men, fick of preachers, fick of profeffors, and fick of many real faints, who are blown too and fro with every wind of doctrine, charmed with novelty, tranfported with an empty noife, zealously affected with the wanton allurements and empty oratory of the fons of Eclial, and who cannot diftinguish between Chrift and Satan ; nor between an ambaffidor of Chrift by whom the Lord fpeaks, and falfe teachers by whom Satan fpeaks. Satan, from the firft, fpoke by the ferpent, and proclaims his guile by a generation of vipers to this day. The Lord rebuked Balaam by the afs, and by defpicable means he still speaks to finners: now, the former is admired for his cunning, B 4 the

the latter rejected for its ftupidity. To distinguish here is the wisdom of the wife; and to pursue the confecrated path of the latter, is walking in the way which no fowl knoweth. God does all things well; his lips tranfgrefs not in judgment, nor can there be any error in his government; where he fixes our ftation is beft for us, and all things fhall work for our good. Company entice us to talk, loneliness leads us to think: the former empties the crufe, the latter fills it: the latter humbles, fweetens, and meekens us; the former exalts us, and nurses pride. The talk of the lip tendeth only to penury; but

meditation is sweet to the foul. You are welcome to your company; give me a place of wayfaring men; let the swallow fly with her fhoal, but let me be the sparrow alone upon the house-top; in the multitude of words there wanteth not fin, but prayer in the closet brings open reward. All difcontent flows from a consciousness of distance, guilt, or fome legal impediment, rebellion, carnal enmity, stubbornness, or some indulged luft, or prohibited idol, fenfibly felt as ftanding between God and the foul, which provokes the Lord to jealoufy, hides his face, clofes his ear to prayer, clafps his bountiful hand, and ftraitens the bowels of his mercy against us; for our God is a jealous God, and will never unite with inordinate affections, nor fuffer a rival to himself unrefented. When the intercourse between God and the foul is open, we good company; and when the heart is fixed,

every part of the globe is both a home and a habi tation.

I am not ignorant of the ghaftly images exhibited on the carnal mind, as fo many deformed representations of the object of worship. All idolatry began here: the idol was firft fet up in the heart, then represented to the limner, and formed by the artist. This was Ifrael's first stumbling-block: Satan drew the plan on the ftage of fancy, and, when the idol was formed, they worshipped the first founder in the idol; they facrificed to devils, and not to God. The advocate for catholic images should have told you what form you should conceive when you pray; but here the divine queftion is, To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? Isaiah xl. 18. 25; xlvi. 5. A human form must not be conceived; this conception is exploded. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether fuch an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and fet thy fins in order before thee; now confider this, ye that forget God, &c. The godhead is not to be likened to corruptible man, to fourfooted beafts, nor to creeping things, whether portrayed by the devil, or graven by art and man's device. Rom. i. 23; Acts xvii. 29. Ifrael faw no fimilitude, and therefore was strictly forbidden the making of any image, male or female, the likeness of any fowl, beast, creeping thing, or fifb. Read Deut. iv. The Deity compares himfelf to living water, Jer. ii. 13; to fire, Heb. xii. 29;

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