We are in daily expectation of our friend H. I wish you could make up the triumvirate of the guests. At all our social interviews, our news is fetched from the Bible; Christ is the monarch, and heaven the country, on which we discourse. O that I may be enabled to improve these precious opportunities ! not be like Pharaoh's lean kine, destitute of growth, though crammed with plenty! My flock would have been peculiarly delighted to have heard your voice in the pulpit; they would have hung on your lips; and, I verily believe, the words would not have been in vain in the Lord. There is no expedient so effectual to warm our hearts, as an unremitted endeavour to awaken the love of a bleeding Saviour in the breast of others.

I am truly grieved at the account of yourself. You know who has said, "I will heal their backslidings, and love them freely;" and dare we, by giving way to unbelief, make the God of truth a liar? Hear the words of the Lord, spoken by Jeremiah, chap. iii. 12. "Return, thou backsliding Israel, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you; only acknowledge thine iniquities which thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God."

Recommend Jenks's Victory of Chastity to Mr

and tell him, that though the lusts of the flesh are inveterate enemies, yet three methods may be prescribed for a victory over them. 1. A believing application of the Redeemer's death. The saints in glory, once men of like passions with ourselves, overcame through the blood of the Lamb. He "bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead unto sin, might live unto righteousness." 2. An habitual reliance on the Spirit of God." If ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." Christ by his Spirit acts on our depraved, polluted hearts, as a refiner's fire, and as fuller's soap. 3. An improvement of the divine promises. God " has given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these we might be

partakers of a divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." These, tell Mr to lay up in his memory; on these let him meditate; and plead them before our heavenly Father in frequent, frequent prayer. And let him be of good comfort, the blessing of Gad will be his portion. "Gad, a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last." See Gen. xlix. 19.

Our dear friend presents his love; and wishes you may be very zealous for the Lord God of hosts. You have constantly an interest in my best prayers, but I am utterly unworthy to approach the immaculate purity and infinite holiness of the great God; yet blessed be his adorable name for Jesus Christ. Oh let us fly to Christ! "Turn ye to this stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." Let us cast our every burden upon the Lord Redeemer; have access into the holiest through his precious blood; and trust in his ever-acceptable intercession; for he intercedes, delightful truth! he intercedes for transgressors. I am, dear sir, &c.

LETTER CLXXX.

DEAR SIR,-MR HAYWARD and Mr Pike's Cases of Conscience are printed in two volumes, the first of which I here send you. I return you Smollett's History of England, and West's Pindar, with thanks. How empty all these polite pieces appear, compared with the sacred page! May this delight our taste, for this alone can comfort our heart. What I proposed to write relating to the subject of Visiting on Sundays, (See Vol. V.) was executed the beginning of last week: Yet, to say the truth, I am in some measure backward to propagate and enforce it; because, till people begin to taste something of the love of God, and find delight in Christ Jesus, such truths, I doubt, will only startle, and make them dread religion as burdensome.

Thanks for the venison. We cannot dress it today. All my family are to be at court this morning. The King of heaven has sent positive orders, and will not excuse either man-servant or maid-servant. Will you not give us your company in the afternoon? When Mr performs the whole service at my church, I fancy you will not be disappointed nor unedified; he seems to have a ready utterance, a very good voice, and a fervent zeal for the honour of Christ may the arrow of the gospel go forth from his lips as the lightning! I hope you will bring your wife with you; such lively preaching as I expect, may be a blessing to both of you. O that Christ may guide us with his counsel, and warm us with his love; make us useful in our generation, and meet for his heavenly kingdom!

Why does our friend talk of not accepting because it is a paltry living? Surely he would not reckon that a paltry thing, which gave him an opportunity of preaching Christ, and winning souls. If he did, he would not be able to say, with a certain minister now in glory, "I seek not yours, but you." The blessed hope of that glory is enough, is enough: Lord, strengthen it, brighten it, increase it, ever more and more. O that ministers may work for their dying Lord, while they have health; remembering, that sickness may confine them to their chamber, and death will imprison them in the grave. God Almighty give us courage, that we may fight the good fight of faith; and prudence, that we may not dishonour our high calling. Ere long, eternity receives us, and then we rest from our labours; then we forget our transient toil, amidst innumerable ages of perfection, and glory, and joy. For all this, not unto us, O Lord Jesus, not unto us, but unto thy love, thy righteousness, thy intercession, be the praise!

What say you to my late well-meant admonition? You are not offended, I hope. We must be faithful to each other, or else how can we expect to meet with comfort at the great tribunal; to meet with transport amidst the angels of light?

I have not heard from Biddeford; as soon as I receive information, it shall be communicated to you. And may the Lord fulfil that promise to us both; "I will inform thee, and teach thee, in the way wherein thou shalt go."

Pray have you got Dr Armstrong's poem on Health? It is highly extolled by Mr Wharton, the translator of Virgil, as a most correct, and (which with him seems to comprehend all excellency) a classical performance. I should like to peep upon it by way of amusement; for as to the blessing it celebrates, I expect it not, till this vile body is made like unto Christ's glorious body. Blessed be God for this delightful hope: may it every day be brighter in you, and brighter in your most affectionate, &c.

LETTER CLXXXI.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-SINCEREST thanks for your benevolent offices; may they, through our great HighPriest, and in the incense of his atonement, go up as a memorial before God; not as a demand, (we may observe), not as a bill drawn upon Heaven, but only as a memorial.

I had a very restless night, tore almost to pieces by my cough. Strange! that these flimsy vessels can bear such violent straining! that none of them will burst, and let the battered soul slip away to her eternal rest in Christ!

Here are two sets of the Meditations, with which you may gratify some of your acquaintance. The Lord Jesus Christ grant that they may promote his glory. Do not you often wish, often pray, that the same blessed effect may be produced by your book? We authors should not be like the ostriches in the wilderness, cruel and forgetful of their young, Lam. iv. 3.

If you have Dr Grey's translation of Hawkins Browne's Latin poem on the Immortality of the Soul, favour me with the sight of it: it is a grand

subject; it is a glorious subject; and, when considered in connexion with Jesus Christ, it is a delightful subject. Oh! that it may incite us to aim, not at the things which are seen, for they are temporal; but at the things which are not seen, for they are eternal.

I have found the little treatise, entitled, Recovery from Sickness. It is one of the most pertinent and rational, the most animating and encouraging, that I have seen on the occasion. Few properer pieces, I think, can be put into a sick person's hand. May the Lord God, omnipotent and gracious, accompany it with his blessing!

I am always complaining; complaining of my poor body; but, I trust, more and more resigned to the unerring and gracious will of my Lord.

I beg, I entreat you, if you value the honour of the gospel, that you will dissuade those polite persons you mention, from coming to hear me to-morrow. My spirits sink more and more. I am visited with some returns of my hacking cough, perhaps I shall not be able to speak at all. Such disagreeable circumstances will only expose me, and create in them very unpleasing ideas of what I shall deliver. My imagination is gone. I am sensible my sermons are flat, and my voice spiritless. Why therefore should you bring persons of taste to see the nakedness of the land? The poor country people love me tenderly, and therefore bear with my infirmities; else I should no longer attempt to preach even before them. I am now unfit to appear in the pulpit.

I hope Dr Swan's journey will be blessed to the restoration and establishment of his health. I wish I may never forget the text on which he heard the minister of Weston preach: I wish we may all enjoy the blessing comprised and promised in it: "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." Do not you, my dear friend, think of such things? talk of such things to your lady, and instruct your