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weeping, and rejoicing, when thou art ftanding in the pillory; and hanging down their heads like a bulrufh, when Naphtali is a hind let loofe: and this will bring thee into a ftrait betwixt two; whether, as a father, thou wouldeft have thy children fed, while every morfel goes by thy mouth; or eat thy morfel alone, when they are fent empty away. To fee them enlarged when thou art bound, will have fome appearance of cruelty; and to fee them grieve when thou art fhouting, will be confidered as perverfeness; but fo it will be where the work of an evangelift is done, and where the Spirit operates, and the word of God grows and prevails, and no where else. And I muft tell thee, that I have got another little man of war in tow: he proceeds with great caution, but now and then opens his mouth in private, and great execution is done; he goes from houfe to houfe, but in the fynagogue fays nothing. There is a great fhaking among the dry bones; many have conceived, and not a few are ncar their time of labour: but if the doctor offers any affiftance, the devil belabours him in fuch a manner going home, that he is afraid to exercise his skill. Not lefs than twenty have got their hands upon their loins, but there is not ftrength to bring forth and there is a whole. drove of the king of Spain's trumpeters round the neighbourhood, which continually repeat the found-Gospel; but not a breath of that power

which is fo effential to falvation. However, the poor and diftreffed in foul, thofe that are difcontented and in debt, have got that fellow, that Huntington's books among them; against these fome trumpeters found to arms, and others found the alarms of danger; and the founds are fo uncertain, that none who are in the camp of David have repaired to this battle; but, on the contrary, their trumpets rather further the cause than hinder it; because these young recruits dare not take up arms against their own king and country. I believe I once mentioned to you a certain matron, who received an uncommon inflammation under the late ftrange fire which burnt among us, which was long fince kindled "by the gainfaying of Corah :" that this flame might never go out, but be kept continually burning on her altar, she generously made a tender of her heart, her hand, and her purfe; had the carcafe been included, it had been a whole burnt offering. However, the heart and the hand are both now in the grave, and not fo much left behind as Jezebel had; for all that remains is the purse: a funeral fermon has been adopted inftead of a fiery chariot, and fhe has been fent to heaven by one who is under the fentence of death; and who fo fit to go to the house of mourning as thofe who are going to be executed? She had of late been not a little comforted because she had got rid of the hacking and cutting of parfon Sack, and was

determined to have no more of it. But the worst of it is, that there is a prophet, an ax, a fword, a bow, and a whole quiver of arrows beyond the grave; but not one dauber, not one to prophefy smooth things, not one to heal the wound flightly, not one to cry peace, peace, nor one to play on the corrupted paffions of nature, much lefs to provoke the luft of a wanton profeffor. We must reprove and rebuke with all authority, and so separate the vile from the precious, the chaff from the wheat, whatever names of pride, bigotry, narrownefs, rancour, bad fpirit, cenforious, conceited, we may bear, knowing that the promised pronunciation of "Well done, thou good and faithful fervant," will make amends for all. My fon, go on; and thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after faith, charity, righteousness, peace with them that call upon God out of a pure heart. My heart, my hand, and my purse, are at thy fervice. God bless thee.

W. H. S. S.

Send me an account of your dream.

LETTER XXI.

Jan. 30, 1796.

I RECEIVED my dear brother's epistle, and am thankful to God and to him for it. I am not in a frame at prefent to come to thee with a rod, but in love, and in the fpirit of meeknefs.

I have at times, for these fix months paft, been exercised in my foul in a very fingular manner; my temptations have been great, and my conflicts fevere beyond defcription; I have gone much. bound in fpirit, forely befet by Satan, and with a continual fenfe of my own natural weakness, ignorance, and depravity: not about my eternal state; this has been cleared to me, and fettled in the court of confcience for many years, and it terminated in the juftification of my foul, and in a happy departure from death to life, and into that state of condemnation I fhall not come any more. I view this laft awakening found to be an alarm; a call to arms, and to prepare for the battle. But who is fufficient for these things? I trust my fufficiency is of God. I have fat down and counted the coft; I am humbled and meekened, but not intimidated, not terrified, for I know in whom I have believed, and am per

fuaded that he is able to keep that which I have. committed to him again that day. Therefore, though twenty thousand are expected against those who have but ten thousand, yet more are with the juft than with the wicked. A perfon, whom it pleafed God to difcover to me the first moment that I faw him, and whom he difcovered to you the first time that you heard him, has opened his mouth against the incomprehenfible myftery of God, by which he has confirmed me in my judgment, and you in yours, that that prefumption was visible there. And were I to tell you of fome that are drinking into thefe ftolen waters, you would repeat the unanfwerable question, What is man? I know that the deceivableness of unrighteoufnefs cannot work effe&ually only in them that perish; and that falfe Chrifis and falfe prophets fhall come, and fhall deceive many, is true; yet not the elect, they fhall never be finally deceived. Nor am I afraid of being deceived myself in these things, becaufe Satan, the father of lies, has tried me with all thefe herefies himfelf; and God kept me, even then, when I was weaker than all common weaknefs; more blind. than a bat, and more ignorant than a brute, and upheld me with his hand, and led me safely, even by a way that I knew not.

I tremble for the weak in faith, for the little ones of the household, knowing that Satan is come down to them in great wrath; with no

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