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LETTER XXXVI.

To PHILOMELA, in the King's Dale.

YOURS came fafe to hand; in

which you intimate that the fnare of the fowler is, in fome measure, broken. Satan can quote and apply scripture when it will serve his own turn; but he is never divided against himself in that work.

As the angels were the first creatures that God made, and are called the morning ftars, and fons of God, who fung their anthem together, and fhouted for joy at the creation of the world, Job xxxviii. 7; fo I have no doubt but they were present when God gave the law to Adam, as they were alfo at the giving it to Ifrael at Sinai, Heb. ii. 2. And this appears plain by Satan (after his fall from heaven) quoting the word of God in his first attempt to deceive Eve: "Yea, hath God faid, Ye fhall not eat of every tree of the garden?" He ufed the fame art in his tempting Chrift to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple: "It is written," faith Satan, "He fhall give his angels charge over thee, and in their hands they fhall bear thee up." Matt, iv. 6,

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In this way Satan labours to difcourage every broken-hearted finner whom the Lord hath awakened, quickened, and wounded; I mean, by quoting and applying the moft terrible texts of fcripture to them, which he does to obftruct our way to Chrift, to difhearten us, to fink us in despair, and to stop the mouth of prayer, and to stir up hard thoughts of Chrift; and fome of the moft alarming paffages in the Bible are thrown as ftumbling-blocks in our way, and we stumble upon the dark mountains of Sinai, and ftumble at election, and at reprobation, Zech. vi. 1. Heb. xii. 18. In this way he haraffed me, by bringing continually to my mind the unpardonable fin, or fin unto death; and that of Efau's finding no place of repentance, though he fought it with tears; the deplorable state of Saul, when God anfwered him no more; that alfo of man giving an account at the day of judgment for every idle word; and the foul that fins fhall die: all these, and many more of the like import, were perpetually brought to my mind with forcible fuggeftions that I was the man; and that God had fent me into the world, as he did Pharaoh, to fhew his wrath and power in me. Thefe, and many more, were brought hourly to me, and set before me as my forrowful meat. And who applied them to me? not God; for, if he had, they muft all have been fulfilled; for whatever God fays, whether against us or for us, fhall moft furely come to pass.

But

But none of thefe came to pafs with me in the way that Satan predicted they would.

But, on the other hand, every promise that God fent to me ftood faft. The firft word that ever came to me from him was, "Believe that I am in you, and you in me;" and that moment everlafting light shone into my foul, to shew me where I was; and there it is to this day.

The next was, "He that overcometh fhall inherit all things." God did enable me to overcome in that dreadful temptation; and I believe to this day that God hath called me that I might receive the reward of eternal inheritance.

The next was,

"Bleffed are the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And at that time righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghoft, filled my heart.

Being once much concerned in my mind about the state of many poor quiet people who did not run to the fame excefs of riot as many do, I asked the Lord what would become of them, and he faid, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Being at another time brought into bondage by difputing with an old Arminian, and being fadly toffed in my mind between free will and free grace, and fome paffages of fcripture which feem to favour both, the Lord spoke to me thus, "Do not the fcriptures fay that no man can come to me except the Father draw him?” I answered, I know

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know they fay fo. Then it came again, faying, "If you can find a place where it fays that a man can come without being drawn, then you may prove the Bible lies;" and away went all my confufion and bondage, and fweet tranquillity followed. From that moment Arminianifm kicked the beam, nor did it ever tagger me afterwards; and I am at a point that none but the devil is the author of that fyftem.

When I carried coals, a perfon came into the neighbourhood, and took a room for an Oxford Blue to preach in. A voice told me that that room was opened for me. When the man came to fpeak his mouth was ftopped, and I was invited to peak there, which I afterwards did for fome ye.irs.

One Sunday morning, going out to hear a minifter that was to preach out of doors, a voice came to me faying, "You muft preach out of doors to-day;" and it told me what text I was to fpeak from alfo; and the minifter that was expected difappointed the people, for he came not; fo they constrained me to fpeak, which I did all that fummer, and the fummer following.

Being once in great diftrefs and want, these words were spoken to my heart, "I know thy tribulation, and poverty; but thou art rich." And I believe, with my whole heart, that the Lord did take notice of my poverty and fufferings, by his kind appearance for me afterwards in providence;

and

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and that the Lord is the portion of my foul I have no doubt, for he hath redeemed me; and "the ransom of a man's life is his riches." Prov. xiii. 8. When he fent me to London he told me to prophefy upon the thick boughs." And furely none could be more opposed than I have been, by almost every diffenting minifter and congregation; befides the oppofitions that I have met with from falfe-hearted friends, from worldlings, from devils, heretics, and hypocrites. And still the boughs are thick, and thick they will be as long as it pleafes God to fpeak by me.

When I had that disturbance in the church, which you know of, God told me, by his Spirit, that he would avenge his own elect. And no finall number have got that vengeance lodged in their confcience to this day; befides the many that went out of the world in lefs than two years after God had discovered the bane of their hearts.

Soon after this, when I was wondering at their hardness of heart, and hearing of their continual calumny, he spoke thefe words to me, "When they fhall ceafe to deal treacheroufly thou fhalt deal treacherously with them." This paffage fhewed me that they were to fill up their measure this way, and to go on reproaching me till they were weary of it; and that fome would then defire to come back again; and that others, in their diftrefs, when the judgments of God overtook

them,

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