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heart break with a defire to love him, till it actually melts with his love. Be you, if not the importunate widow, at least the importunate virgin, and get your Lord to avenge you of your adverfary-I mean your cold heart.

You ask me fome directions to get a mortified spirit: in order to get it, get recollection.

RECOLLECTION is a dwelling within ourselves; a being abftracted from the creature, and turned to wards God.

RECOLLECTION is both outward and inward. OUTWARD recollection confitts in filence from all idle and fuperfluous words; and in folitude or a wife difentanglement from the world, keeping to our own bufinefs, obferving and following the order of God for ourfelves, and fhutting the ear against all curious and unprofitable matters. INWARD recollection confifts in shutting the door of the fenfes, in a deep attention to the presence of God, and in a continual care of entertaining holy thoughts, for fear of fpiritual idleness.

Through the power of the Spirit, let this recollection be fteady even in the midst of hurrying bufinefs; let it be calm and peaceable; and let it be lasting. Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation.

To maintain this recollection, beware of engaging too deeply, and beyond what is neceffary, in outward things; beware of fuffering your affections to be entangled by worldly defire, your imagination to amufe itfelf with unprofitable objects, and indulging yourself in the commiffion of what are called fmall faults.

For want of continuing in a recollected frame all the day, our times of prayer are frequently dry and ufelefs, imagination prevails, and the heart wanders; whereas we pass eafily from recollection, to delightful prayer. Without this fpirit, there can be no usefnl felf-denial, nor can we know ourselves; but where it dwells, it makes the foul all eye, all ear; traces and difcovers fin, repels its firft affaults, or crushes it in its earlieft rifings.

In recollection let your mind act according to the drawings of grace, and it will probably lead you either to contemplate Jefus as crucified, and interceding for you, &c. or to watch your fenfes and fupprefs your paffions, to keep before God in refpectful filence of beart, and to watch and follow the motions of grace, and feed on the promifes.

But take care here, to be more taken up with the thoughts of God than of yourfelf; and confider how hardly recollection is fometimes obtained, and how eafily it is loft. Ufe no forced labour to raise a particular frame; nor tire, fret, and grow impatient, if you have no comfort; but meekly acquiefce and confefs yourself unworthy of it; lie proftrate in humble. fubmiffion before God, and patiently wait for the fmiles of Jefus.

May the following motives ftir you up to the pursuit of recollection-1. We muft forfake all and die to all firft by recollection. 2. Without it God's voice cannot be heard in the foul. 3. It is the altar, on which we must offer up our Ifaacs. 4. It is inftrumentally a ladder (if I may be allowed the expreffion) to afcend into God. 5. By it the foul gets to its centre, out of which it cannot reft. 6. Man's foul is the temple of God-recollection the holy of holies. 7. As the wicked by recollection find hell in their hearts, fo faithful fouls find heaven. 8. Without recollection all means of grace are useless, or make but a light and tranfitory impreffion.

If we would be recollected, we must expect to fuffer. Sometimes, God does not fpeak immediately to the heart; we must then continue to liften with a more humble filence. Sometimes, affaults of the heart, or of the tempter may follow, together with weariness and defire to turn the mind to fomething elfe here we must be patient-By patience anwearied we inherit the promises.

Diffipated fouls are feverely punished. If any man abide not in Chrift, he is caft out as a branch-caft out of the light of God's countenance into the drudgery

of the fenfes. He dries up, and a barrennefs follows in the ufe of the means. The world and Satan

gather and ufe him for their fervice. He is caft into the fire of the paffions, of guilt, of temptation, and, perhaps, of hell.

As diffipation always meets its punifhment, fo recollection never fails of its reward. After patient waiting comes communion with God, and the sweet sense of his peace and love. Recollection is a caftle, an inviolable fortrefs against the world and the devil: it renders all times and places alike, and is the habitation where Chrift and his Bride dwell.

I give you these hints not to fet Chrift afide, but that you may, according to the light and power given to you, take thefe ftones and place them upon the chief corner flone, and cement them with the blood of Jefus, until the fuperftructure in fome meafure, anfwers to the excellence of the foundation. I beg an intereft in your prayers for myfelf and thofe committed to my charge, and am, with fincerity, Madam, your fervant for Chrift's fake, I. F.

Miss Hatton,
Madam,

Madeley, Sept. 3d, 1764.

I THINK the ftate your foul is in, is not uncommon. The only advice I can at prefent give you, is not to look to felf, except it be to believe it away. Be generously determined not to live eafy, without the thought of Jefus on your mind, and his love, or at least endeavours after it, in your heart. Then get that love, or the increafe of it, by obftinately believing the love of Chrift to you, till you are afhamed into fome return of it. A paffage I have found much relief from, when my foul hath been in the ftate you defcribe, is, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. This reckoning by faith, I find, is not

* Rom. vi. 11.

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reckoning without one's hoft; but Chrift is always ready to fet his hand to the bill which faith draws.

With refpect to the hinderances your worldly bufinefs lays in the way of your foul, I would have you perfuaded, that they are by no means infurmountable. The following means, in due fubordination to faith in Jefus, may, by the bleffing of God, be of fervice to

you.

1. Get up early, and fave time before you go to bufinefs, to put on the whole armour of God, by clofe meditation and earnest prayer.

2. Confider the temptation that moft easily befets you, whether it be hurry or vanity, or lightnefs, or want of recollection to do what you do as unto God. Ponder the confequences of thofe fins, fee your weaknefs to refift them, and get at any rate a more feeling fenfe of your helpleffnefs: when you have it, you will naturally watch unto prayer, and look to Chrift for ftrength, from moment to moment.

3. When your mind hath been drawn afide, do not fret, or let yourself go down the ftream of nature, as if it was in vain to attempt to fwim against it; but confefs your fault, and calmly refume your former endeavour, but with more humility and watchfulness.

4. Steal from business now and then, though for two or three minutes only, and in the corner where you can be least observed, pour out your foul in confeffion, or a fhort ejaculation at the feet of Jefus, for power to watch, and to believe that he can keep you watch. ing. May you feelingly believe, that he hath bought the power for you, and then of a truth, you will find it done to you according to your faith.

As to your correfpondent's letter, I approve, its contents, but would have no one depend on my judg ment, efpecially on the points it treats of; as I have been thought, fometimes, to confider them with a mind prepoffeffed in their behalf. This I know, that all cannot, ought not to receive fome of the fayings that letter contains; and yet happier far, in my opinion, are thofe that can and do receive them.

Let every

one follow grace and Providence, and we shall be guided aright. I am, &c. I. F.

Madeley, Dec. 1764.

Miss Hatton.
Madam,

I AM fenfible how much I want advice in a thoufand particulars, and how incapable I am fafely to direct any one; I fhall, neverthelefs, venture to throw upon the feet the following obfervations, as they came to my mind on the reading your letter.

You cannot expect on the gospel plan, to attain to fuch a carriage as will pleafe all you converfe with. The Son of God, the original of all human perfection, was blamed fometimes for his filence, and fometimes for his fpeaking, &c. and fhall the handmaid be above her Mafter?

There is no fin in allowing yourself a little more latitude of fpeech, provided you liften to Chrift, by inward attention to his teaching, and the end of what you fay may be to introduce what is ufeful and edifying; for God judgeth of words according to the intention of the fpeaker. I may fpeak idly even in the pulpit; and I may speak to edification in the market, if what I fay is either neceffary, or proper to introduce, or drive the nail of a profitable truth. Some parables of our Lord would have been deemed idle talk, had it not been for the end he purfued, and, upon the whole, accomplished by them. No particular rule can be given here; a thoufand circumftances of perfons, tempers, places, times, ftates, &c. will neceffarily vary a Chriftian's plan.

There is no fin in looking cheerful. No, it is our duty to be cheerful-Rejoice evermore; and if it is our duty always to be filled with joy, it is our duty to appear what we are in reality. I hope, however, your friends know how to diftinguish between cheerfulness and levity.

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