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and applaud your noble reliance on God and his providence; and were you a single man, I would not offer to interpose a prudential hint. But perhaps the other amiable parts of yourself may not have the same steady and triumphant faith. For their sakes, therefore, it may be advisable to take the ant for a pattern, and lay up something against a rainy day.

I heartily wish that good Providence on which you depend, may spread your piece and prosper it in the world. Sure you should suffer it to be advertised in some of the principal newspapers. I dare say you desire, you covet, you are ambitious to do good, and be extensively useful. As this then is a commodious open door, let not my friend's modesty or self-diffidence shut it.

I have no desire to reconcile you, dear sir, to systems, human systems, of religion; I know other devout and godly persons that dislike them. They have been serviceable to my soul; and whenever Iread them, I think they are blessed to my improvement and comfort; only let us all concur in prizing the blessed book of God. May we enter into its treasures more and more, and shed abroad the sweet savour of its doctrine in every place! Above all, my dear Mr --, may we never cease to testify of him who is the Alpha and Omega of the Scripture, and the soul and centre of the whole Christian religion; who is, by infinite degrees, the most grand and amiable representative of the eternal Godhead to the church; and the only source of pardon and acceptance, of wisdom and goodness, of grace and glory to the believer.

I rejoice to find, that you take in good part my very free remarks, and very feeble attempts to criticize. Indeed, I did not doubt but you would. I send two or three manuscripts, and beg of you to exercise the same frankness of admonition, and the same impartiality of censure upon them. My bookseller tells me it cannot be comprised in less than

three volumes. I have always had an aversion to so diffusive a work. Many will not have ability to purchase them; many not have leisure to read them; and to some, I fear, the very sight of three volumes would be like loads of meat to a sickly or squeamish stomach. Yet I cannot contract the work, and reduce it to the size of two, without omitting those parts which are intended to entertain the reader, keep him in good humour, and allure or bribe him to go on. What would you advise?

I have not seen Lord 's works. And since their character is so forbidding, their tendency so hurtful, I shall not attempt to see them. I do not question but the great Physician will provide an antidote for this poison, and the almighty Head of the church will enable his disciples to tread on such serpents.

I am this day a prisoner in my chamber, and write in much pain. Blessed be God for that world where all tears will be wiped away from our eyes, and "there will be no more pain." And blessed be God for a Saviour, who is the way to those happy mansions, and the door of admission into them. O that every thing may lead my dear friend and me more and more to Christ. In him alone, peace, and rest, and true joy, are to be found.

I send Letters viii. ix. x. xi. and Dial. xv. xvii. Do, my dear sir, improve, polish, and enrich them. And if God Almighty blesses them, if our adored Redeemer vouchsafes to work by them, I will thank you not only in these regions of sin and mortality, but when I meet you before the throne of the Lamb, and amidst the angels of light. Till then, may the Father of mercies keep you as the apple of his eye, and make you a polished arrow in his quiver. Believe me to be, dear sir, your sincere, obliged, and affectionate brother in Christ, &c.

LETTER CXVIII.

Weston, May 30. 1754. DEAR SIR,-YESTERDAY I received your valuable letter. I thank you for the comfortable prayer; it exactly suits my circumstances. May I be enabled to breathe it from my very soul in faith, and may it enter into the ears of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Pray make no apology for the length of your letter. letter. Whenever you favour me with an epistle, the more you suffer your pen to enlarge, the more you will oblige and improve your correspondent. I wish you success in finishing your chronological and historical treatise, and shall be much pleased to peruse it.

Your solution of the difficulty in Acts vii. is very ingenious, and subserves the purposes of piety. But do you think the patriarchs would inter the Sichemites in a burying place that belonged to a stranger; and not rather deposit them in their family vaults, or the sepulchres where their ancestors lay? I should be glad to see the sequel of your dissertation concerning the fallen angels. I send herewith four of my Dialogues, which I beg of you to examine with a kind severity. I do assure you I can bear to receive censure from a friend, and will kiss the lips that administer it, especially when it is intended to preserve my attempts to further the glorious gospel from the contempt of the public. I will, ere long, send you in a frank a general view of my plan, which in the execution is become too prolix, and cannot be comprehended in less than three volumes of the same size with the Meditations, unless some judicious friend will help me to curtail and abridge. I am very unwilling to publish a work consisting of three volumes: I apprehend this will obstruct the sale not a little. Be so kind as to serve my essays as you have treated Mr Goodby's expository notes; take the pruning-knife, and freely lop off the luxuriant

parts. Your notes on Taylor of Norwich I return with thankful acknowledgments; you will see what use I have made of them. I had penned more animadversions upon that piece; but, upon a review, I found they would swell the work too much. I have a note, Dial. iv. page 4. that is directly to the point; would you advise me to retain it? I had expunged it. I have directed the printer to restore it, but hesitantur hoc. You will receive half a dozen of a little collection of scripture promises,* which I lately printed in two small bits of paper, chiefly for the poor, to be pasted, one at the beginning, and the other at the end of their Bibles, or indeed of any pious book. Perhaps you may know some to whom such a present, though minute, may be welcome. As soon as you return these manuscripts, if I have your approbation, I purpose to employ the press. In the mean time, it shall be my prayer to God, that he may give you a right judgment in all things. Your most affectionate, &c.

LETTER CXIX.

June 12. 1754.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-Do you wonder why I have not acknowledged the receipt of your last? Indeed it deserved a most speedy and a most grateful acknowledgment; but I was unwilling to interrupt your thoughts with fresh inquiries. Your thoughts, I hope, have been employed in discovering the Rev. Dr -'s mistakes, and in teaching him what that means which our Lord gave as the commission to his ministers, "Preach the gospel." I received your present from Mr ; but I shall not want any memorial of your friendship, so long as you will give me leave to consult you about difficult passages in Scripture; and these memorials, I assure you, will not be transient: I shall carefully preserve

* This collection is inserted Vol. V. under the title of Promises to be pasted at the beginning and end of a Bible.

them; and when their number and size is a little more increased, shall form them into a volume, which will be more valuable to me than any book in my study.

The anecdotes of your own life are very welcome; if you could add others, they would be still more pleasing. As you are well acquainted with ancient history, have you met with any account of the four monarchies; concise, taking in only the most memorable and striking facts; and still more particularly calculated to explain the prophecies of Scripture, and demonstrate their exact accomplishments? This, with a succinct detail of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews, would, I think, be a very pretty historical furniture for young minds.

I think all your criticisms please and improve me, that only excepted which relates to 1 Cor. ix. 24. While I was writing this, Mr P, the bearer, came in; for which reason you will give me leave, for the sake of enjoying his company, to conclude: only let me add, that I purpose, if I live till the beginning of next week, to finish what I intended to say in a letter by the post; which very probably may anticipate what now comes from, dear sir, yours, &c.

LETTER CXX.

DEAR SIR, I THINK one guinea is full enough for giving away to a person whose character we are ignorant of. There are too many (dolet dictum!) to whom an alms in the way of money is only an administration of fuel to their lusts. Not that I presume to fix such a charge upon the present petitioner; yet this conviction makes me cautious, where I have no assurance of the person's sobriety. Had it not been for his father's worth, I should have almost thought it my duty to have shut my hand, till I received some more satisfactory recommenda

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