5. You have nothing to do with fin and felf, although they will have much to do with you. Your bu finefs is with Jefus, with his free, unmerited love, with his glorious promifes, &c. &c.

6. Strongly expect no good from your own heart: expect nothing but unbelief, hardnefs, unfaithfulness, and backfliding, and when you find them there, be not fhaken nor difcompofed; rather rejoice that you are to live, by faith, on the faithful heart of Chrift, and caft not away your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

7. When you are dull and heavy, as will often be, remember to live on Chrift, and claim him the more by naked faith. I have not time to fay more, but Jefus whom you hold by the hem of his promife, will teach you all the day long. Look unto him, and be faved, and remember he forgives feventy times seven in one day. May his dawning love attend you till it is noon day in your foul; and pray for him, who earneftly prays for you, I mean for your unworthy fer

vant, I. F.

Mrs. Glynne.

Dear Madam,

Madeley, Sep. 2d, 1763.

I THANK you for your kind remembrance, and good wishes that I might eat the everlasting bread of our Father's houfe, expreffed by a prefent of the most incorruptible bread our earth affords. I fhould be glad to take the opportunity of Mr. Wefley's ftay at Salop, to thank you in perfon, and eat with you the bread-the unleavened bread of fincerity and truth, handed out by him; but I am obliged to fet out today for Lady Huntingdon's college, and fhall not, I fear, be in Shropshire, when Mr. Welley comes..

If the Father of lights hath drawn your foul in any warmer defires after the glorious fenfe of his love, and enabled you to fit down, and count the cost, and give up fully, whatever may have a tendency to keep you

out of the delightful enjoyment of the pearl of great price, I fhall rejoice greatly; for it is my hearty defire, that all my Chriftian friends, and I, might grow up daily towards the measure of the full flature of Christ.

I return you my most affectionate thanks, Madam, for your book, and for the franks you added to it. May you use all the promifes of the gofpel as franks from Jefus, to fend momentary petitions to heaven, and may an unwearied faith be the diligent meffenger!

What proved a difappointment to you, was none to me, having been forced, by many fuch difappointments, to look for comfort in nothing but thefe comprehenfive words-Thy will be done! a few more trials will convince you, experimentally, of the heavenly balm they contain, to fweeten the pains and heal the wounds that croffes and afflictions may caufe. We often improve more, by one hour's refignation, than by a month's reading; and when we can exercise neither gifts nor graces, one of the last is always excepted-Patience; which is then worth all the reft. Olet us make the best of our day, Madam: a day of grace a gofpel day-a day of health-a precarious day of life! Let us believe, hope, love, obey, repent, fpend and be fpent for him, who hath loved us unto death.

Mr. M. faid your portmanteau would go to day; but whether it goes or flays, let neither wind nor tide keep us back from Jefus Chrift. That his love may fill our hearts, is the repeated with of, Dear Madam, your unworthy friend and fervant in Chrift, I. F.

Madeley, Sept. 9th, 1763. The Rev. Mr. Charles Wesley.

My dear Sir,

I SEE that we ought to learn continually to caft our burdens on the Lord, who alone can bear them without fatigue and pain. If M returns, the

Lord

may correct his errors, and give hira fo to infift

on the fruits of faith as to prevent antinomianifm. I believe him fincere; and though obftinate and suspicious, I am perfuaded he has a true defire to know the will and live the life of God. I reply in the fame words you quoted to me in one of your letters, “Don't be afraid of a wreck, for Jefus is in the fhip." After the most violent ftorm, the Lord will, perhaps, all at once, bring our fhip into the defired haven.

You ask me a very fingular question with respect to women; I fhall however anfwer it with a fmile, as I fuppofe you asked it. You might have remarked that for fome days before I fet off for Madeley, I confidered matrimony with a different eye to what I had done; and the perfon, who then prefented herself to my imagination was Mifs Bofanquet. Her image purfued me for fome hours the laft day, and that fo warmly, that I should, perhaps, have loft my peace, if a fufpicion of the truth of Juvenal's proverb, Veniunt a dote fagittæ, had not made me blufh, fight, and fly to Jefus, who delivered ine at the fame moment, from her image and the idea of marriage. Since that time, I have been more than ever on my guard against admitting the idea of matrimony, fometimes by the confideration of the love of Jefus, which ought to be my whole felicity, and at others by the following reflections.

It is true the fcripture fays, that a good wife is a gift of the Lord, and it is alfo true, that there may be one in a thousand; but who would put in a lottery where are 999 blanks to one prize; and fuppofe I could difcover this Phoenix, this woman of a thoufand, what fhould I gain by it? A diftreffing refusal. How could the chufe fuch a man as me? If, notwithstanding all my felf-love, I am compelled cordially to defpife myself, could I be fo wanting in generofity, as to expect another to do that for me, which I cannot do for myself to engage to love, to esteem, and to honour me?

I will throw on my paper fome reflections, which the last paragraphs of your letter gave rife to, and I

beg you will weigh them with me, in the balances of

Reasons for, and against Matrimony.

AS you defire me to tell you fimply what I think of the ftate of your foul, as defcribed in your letter, I will do it as the Lord hall enable me.

I praise him that he has begun a good work in you, which, I make no doubt, he will finish, if you do not counteract the operations of his grace. Your having fometimes free aceefs to the throne of grace, but foon falling back into deadnefs and darknefs, is the common experience of many who walk fincerely, though flowly towards Sion. It argues, on one fide, the drawings of faith; and, on the other, the power of unbelief. I would compare fuch fouls to the child of the patriarch, who came to the birth, nay, faw the light of this world, and yet returned again into his mother's womb, until, after a greater ftruggle, he broke through all that was in his way, and left the place where he had been fo long in prison.

If you fall fhort, yet be not caft down; on the contrary, rejoice that God has begun, and will finish his work in you; and strive more earnestly to enter in æt the ftrait gate. Watch more unto prayer, and pray for that faith, which enables the believer now to lay hold on eternal life. Remember, however, that your prayers will not avail much unless you deny yourself, and take up every crofs, which the Lord fuffers men, devils, or your own heart to lay upon you. In the name of Jefus, and in the power of his might, break through all; and you will find daily more and more, that Jefus is the light of the world, and that he, who follows him, fhall not walk in darkness. The peace of Jefus be with you! Farewell, Yours, &c. I. F.

Miss Hatton,

Madeley, March 5th, 1764.

YOU feem, Madam, not to have a clear idea of the happinefs of the love of Jefus, or, at leaft, of your privilege of loving him again. Your dulnefs in private prayer arifes from the want of familiar friendship with Jefus. To obviate it, go to your clofet, as if you were going to meet the dearest friend you ever had; caft yourfelf immediately at his feet, bemoan your coldnefs before him, extol his love to you, and let your