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feelings are when faith is at its lowest ebb, and when it acts most powerfully? I fhould be glad alfo if you would answer these questions-What views have you of another world? What fenfe have you of the nearness of Chrift? What degree of fellow fhip with the fouls nearest your heart? What particular intimations of the will of God in intricate affairs, and material steps? And whether you can reconcile the life of faith with one wrong ten per in the heart?

If you are fo good as to anfwer these questions at large, you will oblige me more, than if you were to fend me 200 waistcoats and as many pair of stockings. -Jefus is life, love, power, truth, and righteoufnefs. Jefus is ours; yea, he is over all, through all, and in us all. May we fo fathom this mystery, and fo evidence the reality of it, that many may fee, and fear, and turn to the Lord! My kind love and thanks wait upon your fifters, &c. Farewell in Jefus. Pray for your obliged, unworthy fervant, I. F.

Miss Hatton.

My very dear Friend,

Madeley, Sept. 1766.

GOD wonderfully fupports your tottering clay, that he may fill up what is lacking in your faith. Concur with the merciful defign: arife in fpirit, fhake off the dust of earthly thoughts, put on your glorious apparel-put on, every moment, the Lord Jefus Chrift. Dare to believe on Chrift lay hold; wrestle with Chrift in mighty, or even in feeble, prayer. He breaks not the bruifed reed; let the reed be grafted, by fimple faith, in the true vine,-in the tree of life, and it will bring forth glorious fruit; not only refignation, but power to welcome the king difarined of his terrors, and turned into a meffenger of joy, and a guide, under Chrift, to heavenly happinefs. Let not one feeble breath pafs, without carrying an act of defire, or of faith towards Christ. Beftir yourfelf to

lay hold on God, and when you find an abfolute want of power, be you the more careful to lie at the feet of him, who hath all power given him in earth and heaven for you. Farewell, my dear friend, that is, be found in Chrift; for there only can we farewell, whether we live or die. I. F.

Miss Hatton.

My dear Friend,

Madeley, Jan. 9th, 1767.

THE alteration for the worfe I difcovered in your health, the last time I had the pleasure of feeing you, makes me fit down to take a furvey with you of our approaching diffolution. The dream of life will foon be over; the morning of eternity will foon fucceed. Away then with all the fhadows of time. Away from them to the Eternal Subftance-to Jesus, the first and the last, by whom, and for whom, all things consist.

We ftand on the fhore of a boundlefs ocean: death, like a lion, comes to break our bones: let us quietly ftrip ourselves of our mortal robes, that he may do with us, as the Lord fhall permit. In the mean while, let us ftep into the ark; Chrift is the ark. My dear friend, believe in Jefus: believe that your fins, red as crimfen, are made white as fnow, by the fuperior tincture of his blood. Believe yourself into Chrift. By fimple faith, believe that he is your everlafting Head; nor can you believe a lie, for God hath given that dear Saviour to the worst of finners, to be received by a lively faith; and hath declared, that it fhall be done unto us, according to our faith. If you fimply take Jefus to be your head, by the mystery of faith, you will be united to the refurrection and the life. The bitternefs of death is paft, my dear friend. Only look to Jefus he died for you-died in your place died under the frowns of heaven, that we might die under its fmiles. The head was ftruck off, that the members might be fpared. Stand, then, in him; be found in him; plead that he hath wrought a finless righteous

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nefs for you, and hath more than fufficiently atoned for you, by his cruel fufferings and ignominious death.. Regard neither unbelief nor doubt; fear neither fin nor hell; chufe neither life nor death: all these are fwallowed up in the immenfity of Chrift, and triumphed over in his crofs. Believe, that he hath made an end of fin, that you are comely in him, that you are pardoned, accepted, and beloved of God, in the one Mediator, Jefus Chrift. Reafon not with the law, but only with him, who fays, Come and let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Fight the good fight of faith. Hold fast your confidence in the atoning, fanctifying blood of the Lamb of God; through his blood the accufer of the brethren is caft out. Confer no more with flesh and blood. Hunger and thirst after righteousness ; eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Redeemer; and live in Chrift, that you may die in him. Up, and be doing the work of God. Believe in him, whom he hath fent: kifs the Son left he be angry grafp him, as one, who hath fallen into deep waters, grafps the branch that hangs over him.

O flumber no more! Go meet the Bridegroom. Behold, he cometh! Trim your lamp; hold up the vessel of your heart to the ftreaming wounds of Jefus, and it fhall be filled with the oil of peace and gladness. Quit yourself like a foldier of Jefus. Look back to the world, the things, and friends about you no more. I entreat you, as a companion in tribulation, I charge you, as a minifter, go, at every breath you draw, according to the grace and power given you, to the Phyfician, who gives no body over that fays, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out; and, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,

O my

Ere long there will be time no more. friend! ftir up yourfelf to lay hold on him by faith and prayer; and let not thofe few fands, that remain in your glass, flow without the blood of Jefus. They are too precious to be offered up to Lothful flesh, which

is going to turn out its immortal inhabitant. Gladly refign your duft to the duft whence it was taken, and your fpirit to him who gave and redeemed it. Look to him, in fpite of flesh and blood, of Satan and unbelief; and joyfully fing the believer's fong, O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God. who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ! Let your furviving friends rejoice over you, as one faithful unto death-as one triumphing in death itself.

I am juft informed of dear Mifs Fragena's death. She caught a fever in vifiting the poor, fick of that diftemper, and lived a week to ftand and rejoice in dying pains. As the lived, he died, a burning and a fhining light. Ere long you will meet her in Abraham's bofom, whence he beckons you to follow her as the followed Chrift. Be of good cheer, be not afraid the fame God, who helped her, will carry you through. Your bufinefs is to commend yourself to him-his, to keep fafe that which you commit to him unto that day. To his faithfulness and love I commend you; and am, My dear Friend, yours in him, I. F.

Mrs. Hatton.

Dear Madam,

Madeley, Jan. 30th, 1767.

I HEARD laft night the news of Mifs Hatton's death. As the ftroke had long threatened you, and as fhe had, through mercy, long ago refigned herself to it; I hope it hath not found you without the shield of refignation, patience, and confidence in God. A fparrow, you know, falls not to the ground without his permiffion, much lefs can a member of his Son fall into the grave without his direction. Surely his wif dom is infallible; he hath chofen the better part both for you and your daughter; he hath chofen to take her out of her mifery, to tranflate her to the place where the weary are at reft, and to give you, by re

moving her, an opportunity of caring for your foul, as you cared for her body.

Now, what have you to do, Madam, but to put your hand upon your mouth, and fay, It is the Lord; he gave, and he hath taken away; blessed be his holy name! If you forrow, let it be in hope of meeting her foon, all glorious within and without, whom you lately faw fuch a fpectacle of mortality. David obferved, in the leffon for this morning, that the love of Jonathan had been better to him than the love of women. O dwell much upon the contideration of the love of Jefus, and you will find that it far furpaffes that of the moft dutiful children: and comfort yourself by the believing thought, that Jefus lives, lives for you, and that your daughter lives in him; where you will foon have the joy to meet her as an incarnate angel.

I am, with prayers for you and Mifs Fanny, to whom I wifh much confolation in her elder, never dying brother, Dear Madam, your unworthy obliged fervant in Chrift, I. F.

James Ireland, Esq.

My very dear Friend,

Madeley, Feb. 1767.

THE Lord will spare your daughter as long as the can get good, and do you and others good by the fight of her fufferings: when that cup is drunk up, fhe will be willing to go, and you to let her go. Remember he is the Lord's much more than yours; and that what we call dying is only breaking the fhell of a trouble fome body, that Chrift may fully come at the kernel of the foul, which he has bought.

Poor Mifs Hatton died laft Sunday fortnight, full of ferenity, faith, and love. The four laft hours of her life were better than all her fickness. When the pangs of death were upon her, the comforts of the Almighty bore her triumphantly through, and fome of her lat words were "Grieve not at my happiness→→ this world is no more to me than a bit of burnt

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