and thereby have all their graces and pious affec tions maintained in a lively exercife; others live in conftant holy raptures, (fuch as Bonne Armelle) transported with divine love, receiving hourly new and fresh evidence of God's love to them, and returning back to God vows of eternal fidelity; fome he calls to the fervice of the church, and crowns the labours of others with a fabbath of reft and contemplation in this life: happy the man that is faithful to the divine attraction, and that abides with God in his inward calling, our Lord Jesus Christ, "that great pattern of the faints, (as you ftiled him when I heard you laft) was a man of uninterrupted prayer and praise day and night, fleeping and waking;" and when it is faid, "He went into a mountain and continued all night in the prayer of God," (as I take it) it was not spoke only of that night but of every night and every hour, for every action of his life was done in the moment of eternity, and he was always upon the mountain of divine prayer.

A man that loves and prays may do what he will, for he can will nothing amifs; fuch a man will make it his whole ftudy how he fhall walk before God in all the ftrictness of an innocent life, how he shall exercise himself in all the duties of his holy religion, how he may render himself amiable in the eyes of God, and may avoid every thing

that

that may in the leaft offend him; fuch a man thinks it a joyful (rather than an awful) thought that God fearches the heart and fees our most fecret imaginations, and he is never fo happy as when remote from every human eye and ear, he can freely pour out his foul in rapid prayer to that God whofe eyes are upon the righteous, and his ears always open to their cry, and who underftands the language which words cannot utter; may this be your and my hourly delightful practice till our imperfect prayers be changed into triumphant praises, and we never cease saying, "Holy! Holy! Holy! unto him that loved us and washed us from fin in his own blood be eternal glory!"

I wish you unwearied conftancy and increasing advances in that path of perfection you have made fo great progrefs in, and all poffible happiness, temporal, fpiritual, and eternal; and am, your moft obedient humble fervant,

J. PETTIT.

Ifaiah xxxiii. 7. I believe this is fpoken of the angels weeping bitterly while our Lord hung upon the cross, as the context in ver. 5. plainly fhews, and I think it a noble teftimony to the folemn pomp of the paffion.

LETTER

LETTER III.

REV. SIR,

December 3,

As I have told you that I admire

your book (which I fincerely do) fo I cannot forbear hinting fomething wherein I do not fo exactly agree with you, I think you are too fevere upon the poor ignorant Roman catholics, who kifs a crucifix in teftimony of devotion; which (when done with a temper of mind correfponding to the outward action) I think worthy the highest commendation, confidering that the love of the facred humanity of Jefus, is the most natural guide to the practice of all virtue, and perfectly level to the capacity of the vulgar; your own thoughts will fuggeft more upon this head, to illuftrate my fentiments, than I can fay myfelf. And then you are ftill harder upon the head of Romish enthufiafts, who you represent as appearing more like furies than chriftians this is fo unlike good Mr. Watts, who, I am fure, is full of that charity that thinks no evil, and believeth all things, that I account for it by fuppofing it to be an obliging deference to the opinion of an auditory, averfe to popery, and which upon fecond thoughts you yourself may judge a little too harsh. As to the Romish religion, I esteem it the worst in the world, a complication of folly

folly and wickednefs; but to my astonishment I have found that God has raifed up amongst them fuch examples of fublime devotion, fervent charity, ftrict temperance; fuch men, whofe days were spent in unwearied obedience, and their nights in uninterrupted prayer and contemplation, that of them it might be faid, that they lived the religion of Jefus, that they brought heaven down to earth, that their life of Chrift was manifeft in their mortal bodies, and that they ftood complete in the whole will of their God. I may guess that you had in your thoughts Sir Francis or St. Anthony, who to the eyes of the world appeared ridiculous and distracted, but they were inwardly inflamed, and the love of God was in their hearts like a fire fhut up in their bones; I often wonder that pious and devout men do not commit (what the world would call) greater extravagancies, fuch as speaking aloud the name of Jefus in the streets before they were aware, which I think would be a natural result of that infinite fund of love, and bank of devotion, they feel in their breafts; indeed, when men lift up their eye balls with a defign to deceive, this is mean and contemptible beyond the reach of words, but when I fee any man do so I never fufpect him, because I think it an unavoidable effect of an elevated foul, and because the world rather treat fuch a man with

laughter and scorn than encourage him to affect and diffemble a religious exterior. I would not have sent this if I had not been fure (from what I know of you) that you would take it in good part. I write it in fimplicity, and not in the fpirit of reproof and finding fault, for I look upon you as one anointed with the Holy Ghost, whom I believe God has made a spiritual father to many an heir of heaven, and to whom I am well affured Jefus will fay, "Well done good and faithful fervant."

Take not this as a compliment, for flattery I abhor.

I have fent the three other volumes of Poems; your fentiments of them would be acceptable to your humble fervant,

J. PETTIT.

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