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you think it would be if you lived to be the mother of a family, and to cleave to earth by the ties of many new relations, fchemes of gain, or profpects of happinefs?

3dly. Reflect, by your illness, the Lord, who forecasts for us, intimates long life would not be for his glory nor your happiness. I believe he takes many young people from the evil to come, and out of the way of those temptations or misfortunes which would have made them miferable in time and in eternity.

4thly. Your earthly father loves you much ;witnefs the hundreds of miles he has gone for the bare profpect of your health: but, my dear, your heavenly Father loves you a thousand times better; and he is all wifdom, as well as all goodness. Allow, then, fuck a loving, gracious Father to chufe for you; and, if he chufes death, acquiefce, and fay, as you can, Good is the will of the Lord, his choice must be best!

5thly. Weigh the finfulness of fin, both original and actual, and firmly believe the wages of fin is death. This will make you patiently accept the punishment; efpecially, if you confider, that Jefus Chrift, by dying for us, has taken away the fting of death, and turned the grave into a paffage to a bleffed eternity.

6thly. Try, my dear, to get nearer to the dear Redeemer. He hath delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. *He hath quenched the wrath of God in his atoning blood. By his atoning blood, by his harmless life, and painful death, he has fatisfied all the demands of the law, and juftice of God; by his refurrection he afferted the full discharge of all our fpiritual debts; by his afcenfion into heaven, where he is gone to prepare us a place, he has opened a way to 'endtefs glory. By his powerful interceffion, and the merits of his blood, which plead continually for us, he keeps that way open; and to encourage us, he affures us, He is the way, the truth and the life, and that, he who comes to him, he will in no wise cast out. He mildly offers reft to the heavy laden,

* Gal. iii. 9.

pardon to the guilty, ftrength to the feeble, and life to the dead. You know his words, I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die.

With

7thly. When you have confidered your loft ftate, as a finner by nature, together with the greatness, the fulness, the freenefs and fuitableness of Christ's falvation, and when you have diligently viewed the glo. ries and charms of his perfon, believe in him. out any ceremony, chufe him for your Physician, your Husband, and your King. Be not afraid to venture upon and truft in him; caft yourself on him in frequent acts of reliance, and ftay your foul on him by means of his promifes. Pray much for faith, and be not afraid of accepting, uling, and thanking God for a little. The fmoaking flax he will not quench; only pray hard, that he would blow it up into a blaze of light and love.

8thly. Beware of impatience, repining, and peevifhnefs, which are the fins of fick people. Be gentle, eafy to be pleased, and refigned as the bleeding Lamb of God. Wrong tempers indulged, grieve, if they do not quench, the Spirit.

9thly. Do not repine at being in a strange country, far from your friends; and, if your going to France does not answer the end propofed to your body, it will answer a fpiritual end to your foul. God fuffers the broken reeds of your acquaintance to be out of your reach, that you may not catch at them, and that you may, at once, caft your lonefome foul on the bofom of him, who fills heaven and earth.

10thly. In praying, reading, hearing any perfon read, and meditating, do not confult feeble, fainting, weary flesh and blood; for at this rate, death may find you idle and fupine, inftead of ftriving to enter in at the ftrait gate; and when your spirits and vigour fail, remember that the Lord is the ftrength of your life, and your portion for ever. O death, where is thy

fting? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through Jefus Chrift our Lord!

Many pray hard for you, that you may acquit yourfelf living or dying, in eafe or in pain, as a wife virgin, and as a good foldier of Jefus Chrift; but, above all, Jefus, the Captain of your falvation, and the High Priest of your profeffion, intercedes mightily for you. Look to him, and be faved, even from the ends of France. To his pity, love, and power, I recom mend you. May he blefs you, my dear friend-lift up the light of his countenance upon you, and give you peace and courage, repentance, faith, hope, and patient love, both now and evermore! I am your af fectionate, fincere friend, and fervant in Jefus, I. F.

Madeley, July

James Ireland, Esq.
My very dear Friend,

1766.

YOUR abfence made me poftpone thanking you for all the kindnefs you fhewed me when at Bristol; and, to lay me under ftill greater obligations, you have fent me a hamper full of wine, and broad cloth; as if it were not enough to adorn and cover the outfide, but you must alfo warm and nourish the infide of the body.

To this you have added a kind, but melancholy letter from Dover. Melancholy I fay, as well as kind, by the account it gives of the worldlinefs of our Proteftant brethren abroad, and of the little hope you have of feeing your daughter again. My reafon for not answering it immediately was the hope of fending by fome friends going to Briftol; and now, I have the opportunity of telling you, without farther delay, that you should have a little mercy on your friends, in not loading them with fuch burdens of beneficence. How would you like to be loaded with kindneffes you could not return? Were it not for a little of that grace, which makes us not only willing, but happy to be nothing, to be obliged and dependant, your prefent

would make me quite miferable. But the mountains of divine mercy, which prefs down my foul, have inured me to bear the hills of brotherly kindness.

I fubmit to be clothed and nourished by you, as your fervants are, without having the happinefs of ferving you. To yield to this is as hard to friendship, as, to fubmit to be faved by free grace, without one fcrap of our own righteoufnefs. However, we are allowed,. both in religion and friendship, to cafe ourselves by thanks and prayers, till we have an opportunity of doing it by actions. I thank you then, my dear friend, and pray to God, that you may receive his benefits as I do yours! Your broad cloth can lap me round two or three times; but the mantle of divine love, the precious fine robe of Jefus's righteoufuefs, can cover your foul a thousand times. The cloth, fine and good as it is, will not keep out a hard fhower; but that garment of falvation will keep out even a fhower of brimstone and fire. Your cloth will wear out, but that fine linen, the righteousness of the faints, will appear with a finer luftre the more it is worn. The moth may fret your prefent, or the tailor may spoil it in cutting; but the prefent, which Jefus has made you, is out of the reach of the spoiler, and ready for prefent wear; nor is there any fear of cutting it out wrong; for it is feamless, woven from the top throughcut, with the white unbroken warp of thirty-three years perfect obedience, and the red weft of his agony and fufferings unto death.

Now, my dear friend, let me befeech you to accept of this heavenly prefent, as I accept of your earthly one. I did not fend you one farthing to purchase it; it came unfought, unafked, unexpected, as the Seed of the woman; and it came just as I was sending a tailor to buy me fome cloth for a new coat; immediately I flopt him, and I hope when you next fee me, it will be in your prefent. Now let Jefus fee you in his. Walk in white, adorn his gofpel, while he beautifies you with the garment of falvation. Accept it freely; wear no more the old rufty coat of nature and self

righteoufnefs,-fend no more to have it patched,* make your boaft of an unbought fuit, and love to wear the livery of Jefus. You will then love to do his work; it will be your meat and drink to do it; and that you may be vigorous in doing it, as I fhall take a little of your wine for my ftomach's fake, take you a good deal of the wine of the kingdom for your foul's fake. Every promife of the gospel is a bottle, a cask that has a fpring within, and can never be drawn out. But draw the cork of unbelief, and drink abundantly, O beloved, nor be afraid of intoxication; and if an inflammation follows, it will only be that of divine love.

I beg you will be more free with the heavenly wine, than I have been with the earthly, which you fent me. I have not tafted it yet, but whofe fault is it? Not yours certainly, but mine. If you do not drink daily fpiritual health out of the cup of falvation, whofe fault is it? Not Jefus's, but yours; for he gives you his righteoufnefs to cover your nakednefs, and the confolations of his Spirit to cheer and invigorate your foul. Accept and ufe. Wear, drink, and live to God. That you may heartily and conftantly do this, is my fincere prayer for you and yours; efpecially your poor daughter, whom I truft you have refigned into the hands of him, to whom the is nearer than to you. The wife Difpofer of all things knows what is beft for her. The hairs of her head, much more the days of her life, are all numbered. The Lord often deftroys the body, that the foul may be faved; and if this is the cafe here, as one may reasonably hope, you will not fay unto the Lord, What doest thou? But fay with the father, who loft two fons in one day, It is the Lord, let him do whatsoever he pleaseth; or with him, who loft ten children at one ftroke, The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. Adiey. 1. F.

Mr. Fletcher's generous friend had kindly requested him not to fend his coat to be patched; hence this ingenious and affectionate reply.

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