fill their granaries. Now that I am on the spot, I do not fee one who makes it neceffary for me to change my opinion:* Your bailiff cannot come from this Nazareth.

If the last efforts of the phyficians fail with refpe&t to Mifs Ireland, it will at least be a confolation to you, to know that they have been tried. When the last reed shall break under her hand, that will be the great fignal to her to embrace the crofs and the crucified, the tree of life and the fruits it bears, which give everlafting health and vigour. When we confider things with an evangelical eye, we discover that every thing dies. Things vifible are all tranfitory; but invisible ones abide for ever. If Chrift is our life and our refurrection, it is of little importance whether we die now, or 30 years hence; and if we die without embracing him, by dying now, we fhall have abused his mercies 30 years lefs than if we had lived fo many years longer. Every thing turns out well, both life and death, our own and that of those who are near to us.

Prefent my respects to your fon, and tell him, that laft week I buried three young perfons of a malignant fever, who, on the fecond day of their illness, were deprived of their speech and fenfes, and on the fifth, of their lives. Of what avail are youth and vigour when the Lord lifts his finger? And fhall we fin against the eternal power, the infinite love, the inexorable justice, and the immenfe goodness of this God, who gives us, from moment to moment, the breath which is in our noftrils? No-w -we will employ the precious gift in praifing and bleffing this good God, who is our Father in Jefus Christ.

I hope that you learn, as well as I, and better than I, to know Jefus in the Spirit. I have known him after the Aleth, and after the letter; I ftrive to know him in the power of his Spirit. Under the divine character of a quickening Spirit, he is every where. All that live, live in him, and they who are fpiritually

*Thank God this is not now the character of all the farmers of Madeley! Editor.

alive have a double life.
life more abundantly! Yours, I. F.

The Lord give us this fecond

Madeley, Dec. 5th, 1768.

Miss Ireland.

My dear afflicted Friend,

I HEAR you are returned from the laft journey you took in fearch of bodily health. Your heavenly Father fees fit to deny it you, not because he hateth you, (for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth) but because health and life might be fatal fnares to your foul, out of which you could not escape, but by tedious illness, and an early death. Who knows alfo, whether by all you have fuffered, and ftill fuffer, our gracious Lord does not intend to kill you to the flesh and to the world, and both to you? Befides, our hearts are fo ftupid, and our infenfibility fo great, that the Father of our fpirits fees it neceffary to put fome of his sharpeft and longeft thorns into our flesh, to make us go to our dear Jefus for the balmy graces of his Spirit.

I believe fome are driven out of all the refuges of crafty and indolent nature, only by the nearest and last approaches of that faithful minifter and fervant of Chrift, Death. Of this I had a remarkable inftance no later than laft Monday, when God took to himfelf one of my poor afflicted parishioners, a boy of fifteen years of age, who was turned out of the infirmary two years ago as incurable. From that time he grew weaker every day by the running of a wound; but his poor foul did not gather ftrength. In many refpects one would have thought his afflictions were loft upon him. He feemed to reft more in his sufferings, and in his patience under them, than in the Saviour's blood and righteoufnefs. Being worn to a fkeleton he took to his death bed; where I found him the week before laft, with his candle burning in the focket, and no oil feemingly in the veffel. I spent an hour in fetting before him the greatnefs of his guilt in this refpect, that he had been fo long under the

rod of God and had not been whipt out of his careless unbelief to the bofom of Jefus Chrift. He fell under the conviction, confeffed that particular guilt, and began to call on the Lord with all the earnestness his dying frame would allow. This was on the Wednefday; and on the Wednesday following, the God who delivers those that are appointed to die, fet one of his feet upon the rock, and the next Sunday the other. He had chiefly used that short petition of the Lord's prayer, Thy kingdom come; and spent his laft hours in teftifying, as his ftrength would allow, that the kingdom was come, and he was going to the King; to whom he invited his joyful, mournful mother to make the best of her way after him. Five or fix days before his death, my wicked, unbelieving heart might have faid, To what purpose hath God afflicted fo long and fo heavily this poor worm? But the Lord fhewed, that he had been all that while driving the fpear of confideration and conviction, till at last it touched him in a fenfible part, and made him cry to the Saviour in earnest. And who ever called upon him in vain? No one. Not even that poor indolent collier boy, who for two years would not fo much as cross the way to hear me preach. Yet how good was the Lord! because his body was too weak to bear any terrors in his mind, he fhewed him mercy without. The moment I heard him pray and faw him feel after a Saviour, my fears on his account vanished; and though he had not been fuffered to teftify fo clearly of God's kingdom, yet I fhould have had a joyful hope that God had taken him home.

Like the poor youth and myself, you have but one enemy, my dear friend-an indolent, unbelieving heart; but the Lord hath driven it to a corner, to make you cry to him, who hath been waiting at the door all thefe years of trouble, to bring you pardon, peace, and eternal life, in the midst of the pangs of bodily death. Jefus is his name. Salvation and love are his nature. He is the Father of eternity-your Father of courfe. All the love, that is in Mr. Ire

land's breast, is nothing to the abyfs of love that is in your Creator's heart. A mother may forget her fucking child; but I will not forget thee, fays he, to every poor diftreffed foul, that claims his help.

O fear not, my friend, to fay, I will arife and go to this Father, though I have finned greatly against heaven, and in his fight. Lo, he rifes, and runs to meet and embrace you. He hath already met you in the virgin's womb there he did fo cleave to your flesh and fpirit, that he affumed both and wears them as a pledge of love to you. Claim, in return, claim, as you can, his blood and fpirit. Both are now the property of every dying finner, that is not above receiving, by faith, the unfpeakable gift.

Your father has croffed the fea for you-Jefus has done more. He hath croffed the abyfs, that lies between heaven and earth, between the Creator and the creature. He has waded through the fea of his tears, blood and agonies, not to take you to the physician at Montpelier, but to become your phyfician and Saviour himself to fupport you under all your bodily tortures, to fanctify all your extremities, and to heal your foul by his multiplied ftripes. Your father has fpared no expence to restore you to health but Jefus, who wants you in your prime, hath fpared no blood in his veins, to wash you from your fins, write your pardon, and feal your title to glory.

O my friend delay not cheerfully to furrender yourfelf to this good Shepherd. He will gladly lay you on the arm of his power, torn as you are with the bruises of fin and difeafe, and will carry you triumphantly to his heavenly sheepfold. Look not at your fins, without beholding his blood and righteoufnefs. Eye not death, but to behold through that black door your gracious Saviour faying, Fear not, O thou of little faith; wherefore dost thou doubt ? Confider not eternity, but as the palace where you are going to enter with the Bridegroom of fouls, and reft from all your fins and miferies. View not the comdemning law of God, but as made honourable by him, who was

a curfe for you, and bore the malediction of the law, by hanging, bleeding, and dying on the curfed tree in your place. If you think of hell, let it be to put you in mind to believe, that the blood of God incarnate can quench its devouring flames. If you have no comfort, miftruft not Jefus on that account; on the contrary, take advantage from it to give greater glory to God, by believing, as Abraham, in hope against hope. And let this be your greatest comfort, that Jefus, who had all faith and patience, cried out for you in his dying moments-My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! As your ftrength will bear exertion, and his grace apprehended will allow, furrender yourself conftantly to him as the purchase of his blood, and invite him earneftly to you as a poor worm perishing without him. In this fimple, gofpel way, wait the Lord's leifure, and he will comfort your heart. He will make all his goodness to pafs before you here, or take you hence to fhew you, what you could not bear in flesh and blood, the direct beams of the uncreated beauty of your heavenly Spouse.

I hope you take care to have little, or nothing elfe mentioned to and about you, but his praises and promises, Your tongue and ears are going to be filent in the grave-now, or never, ufe them to hear and fpeak good of his name. Comfort your weeping friends. Reprove the backfliders. Encourage feekers. Water, and you fhall be watered. Death upon

you makes you, through Chrift, a mother in Ifrael. Arife, as Deborah. Remember the praying, believing, preaching, though dying thief: and be not afraid to drop a word for him who openeth a fountain of blood for you in his dying tortured body. Suffer, live, die, at his feet-and you will foon revive, fing, and reign in his bofom for evermore. Farewell in the Conqueror of death, and Prince of Life. I. F.