Prefent my Chriftian refpe&ts to Mrs. Hatton, your fifter, and all your friends, and accept the fame from your unworthy brother, I. F.

Miss Hatton.

My dear Friend,

Madeley, May, 1766.

I AM forry, after the manner of men, that you are ill, but glad in the Spirit, that the will of God takes place in you, and that he purges you, that you may bring forth more fruit. Now is the time for you to begin to be a Chriftian in good earneft-I mean, to follow the Man of sorrows; and to do it as a lamb, who goes to the flaughter and opens not his mouth by way of complaint; though as a Chriftian, I apprehend you may and ought to open it by way of praife.

One advice I will venture to give you, or rather to tranfcribe for you out of Ifaiah-The believer does not make haste, to doubt, to hurry, to forecast, and to reafon after the manner of men ;-" If I am a child of God, why am not I thus and thus?" Let Christ, either fuffering for you, or ordering your fufferings, be fo eyed, that you may in a manner forget and lofe yourself in him; or if a weak and pained body makes you think of wretched felf, let it be to lay it down with compofure at Jefus's feet, or to take up the burden of the crofs with cheerful refignation. I hope to hear foon of your being recovered in body and strengthened in foul by this affliction.

"Is any prayer acceptable to God, which is not the dictates of his own Spirit." If you mean by the dictates of the Spirit, his influence on the mind to fhew us our wants, and upon the heart to make us defire a fupply of them: I answer, no; for a prayer, which hath not, at leaft the above mentioned qualities, is only a vain babbling.

"Does a believer always pray with the Spirit's affiftance?" Yes, when he prays as a believer, and not

as a parrot for at his lowest times, he has, more or lefs, a fight of his wants, and a defire to have them fupplied and this he could not have, did not the Spirit work upon his mind and heart.

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I hope you fink inwardly into nothing, and through nothing into the immenfity of God. I see a little, through mercy, into the beauty of humiliation; I find the miniftry of condemnation glorious; and I love to take every moment, the curfe out of Mofes's hand, as well as the bleffing out of Chrift's. The Lord grant that you and I, and all our friends, may do it more feelingly and conftantly every hour!

May the Phyfician of foul and body refresh, strength. en, establish, and thoroughly heal you, by the virtue of his blood and the word of his power! Bear well, and farewell. Your unworthy fervant, I. F.

Miss Hatton.
Madam,

Madeley, May 27th, 1766.

I AM glad to hear that the God of all mercy and grace has raifed you from the bed of fickness, where his love had confined you. It is good to fee his works in the deep, and then to come and fing his praises in the land of the living. A touch of pain or fickness I find always profitable to me, as it rivets on my foul the thoughts of my nothingness, helpleffness, and mortality; and fhews me in a clearer light, the vanity of all the tranfitory fcenes of life. May your afflictions have the fame effect upon you, as long as you live. May you be more steadfast than I am, to retain the deep impreffions, which God's gracious rod may have left upon your foul: and may you learn to lay yourself out more for the Lord, and to do whatfoever your hand findeth to do, with all your might; knowing, that there is no wifdom, nor device in the grave, whither we are going.

If a fparrow falleth not to the ground, nor a hair from our head, without our heavenly Father's leave, it is certain, that higher circumftances of our life are planned by the wife and gracious Governor of all things. This kind of faith in Providence, I find of indifpenfible neceffity to go calinly through life, and, I think too, through death alfo.

The coming of Mr. Wefley's preachers into my parifh gives me no uneafinefs: As I ain fenfible that every body does better, and, of courfe, is more acceptable than myself, I fhould be forry to deprive any one of a bleffing; and I rejoice that the work of God goes on, by any inftrument, or in any place. How far it might have been expedient to have poftponed preaching regularly in my parish, till the minifter of

had been reconciled to the invasion of his; and how far this might have made my way fmoother, I do not pretend to determine; time will fhow it, and, in the mean while, I find it good to have faith in Providence.

I fear I have left as great a ftink at Bath as Mr. Brown a' fweet favour here. Every thing is good to me that fhews me my unprofitableness more and more ; but I defire to grieve, that the good of my private hu- . miliation is fo much over-balanced by the lofs of many about me. The Lord fill you with all peace and joy in your foul, and with all strength and health in your body! My refpects wait upon your mother and fifter, and all friends. Farewell. I. F.

Miss Hatton.

My dear Friend,

Madeley, June 21st, 1766.

I AM much concerned to hear, by Mrs. Power, that you are fo weak; but my concern has greatly increafed, fince I was told, that the foundation of your illness was laid at Madeley, and I am afraid by my imprudence, in taking you to the woman, with whom we received the facrament. I ask God's pardon and

yours for it, and I hope it will be a means of humbling me, and making me more tender of my friends.

The advice you give me about my health is feafonable: I hope to follow it, nor am I confcious to have neglected it at all: however, I will endeavour, that there be not fo much as the fhadow of a call for repeating it.

If the air at Wem does not agree with you, could you not come fo far as Madeley? The remedy is often moft fuccefsfully applied where the wound was given ; and though I am no nurse, though I have been the contrary of one to you, I hope we fhould wait upon you with more tendernefs, than when you were here laft. Mrs. Power would nurse you, and I would talk to you of the love of Jefus as well as I could.

You know that I perceived your bodily weakness when you were here, and charged you with what you charge me with," a neglect of your body." If I was right, I hope you will follow yourfelf the advice you give me I am fure you will the burnt child will dread the fire for the time to come.

With regard to kneeling, you must confider what your body can bear, without inconvenience to your health. To recover that, is your outward calling now: therefore, fo fplit the hair between the indolence of nature and the weakness of your body, that neither of the two may be increased. Offer yourself to God for life or death, for ease or pain, for ftrength or weaknefs. Let him chufe and refufe for you; only do you chufe him for your prefent and eternal portion. I want you to be a little bolder in venturing upon the bofom of our Lord: we lofe (I for one) much fweetnefs, and many degrees of holiness, in being fhy of the Friend, the loving Friend of finners. Pray, for God's fake, don't forget that your Phyfician is your husband. The joy of the Lord, as well as his peace is to be your ftrength. Love is a paffion that wants to be stirred : do it in all calmnefs-" I will love him, I do love him "little, I fhall love him much, because he has first loved 66 me, &c." ply, I pray you, this fweet gospel task.

Accuftom yourself to look upon your body as the temple of the Holy Ghoft, and meet him in your heart by fimple recollection, and a fteady belief of thefe gofpel truths, "He is here," "he is in me, &c." nor do you let them go for any thing you do feel, or you do not feel. May God blefs, comfort, eftablifh, and raife you! Farewell. I. F.

Miss Ireland.

Madeley, July, 1766.

My very dear Friend,

THE poor account your father has brought us of your health, and his apprehenfions of not feeing you any more, before that folemn day when all people, nations and tongues fhall ftand together at the bar of God, make me venture (together with my love to you) to fend you a few lines; and my earnest prayer to God is, that they may be bleffed to your foul.

First, then, my dear friend, let me befeech you not to flatter yourself with the hopes of living long here on earth. Thefe hopes fill us with worldly thoughts, and make us backward to prepare for our change. I would not, for the world, entertain fuch thoughts about myself. I have now in my parish, a young man, who has been these two years under the furgeon's hand. Since they have given him up, which is about two months ago, he has fled to the Lord, and found in him, that faving health which furpaffes a thousand times that which the furgeons flattered him with; and he now longs to depart and be with Chrift, which is far better. To fee the bridge of life cut off behind us, and to have done with all the thoughts of repairing it to go back into the world, has a natural tendency to make us venture forward to the foot of the crofs.

2dly. Confider, my dear, how good the Lord is to call you to be tranfplanted into a better world, before you have taken deeper root in this finful world: and, if it is hard to nature to die now, how much harder, do