You do not give enough to that kind of implicit confidence in Chrift, which fays, I will trust in thee, though thou slay me. Now this is a leffon which you must learn. Sink or fwim, a believer must learn to caft himself headlong into the boundless fea of divine truth and love. 2. You have not learned to hold faft what you have, and to be thankful for it, till the Lord comes with more: till he baptizes you with the Holy Ghoft and with fire. 3. You do not make a proper ufe of the joy of hope, which, nevertheless, is to be your ftrength, till the Lord comes to his temple to make his abode there. Adieu. I. F.

Mr. Henry Brooke,
Dear Sir,

Madeley, Sep. 6th, 1772.

IF to do was as prefent with me, as to wifh, you would have been half ruined in the poftage of letters." I cannot tell you how often I have thought of thanking you for your kind letter. My controverfy made me put it off fome time, and when I was going one day to answer you, a clergyman called upon me, read your letter, faid you were a fenfible author, and if I would let him have it, he would let me have your Fool of Quality, of which I had never heard. I forgot to take your direction, and my backwardnefs to writing had a very good excufe to indulge itself. However, it ceases now: after fome months, my friend has fent me back your unexpected, but welcome favour. I know in what street you live; a thoufand thanks for it; and a thousand more for the amiable character of your Harry, my kind, my new correfpondent. May this fheet convey them warm from my heart to yours; and thence may they return like a thousand drops into that immenfe ocean of goodne fs, truth, love and delight, whence come all the ftreams, which gladden the univerfe, and ravifh the city of God.

I thankfully accept the pleasure, profit, and honour of your correfpondence. But I must not deceive

P

you: I have not yet learned the blessed precept of our Lord in refpect of writing and receiving letters. I ftill find it more bleffed to receive than to give; and till I have got out of that felfifhnefs, never depend on a letter from me till you fee it, and be perfuaded, nevertheless, that one from you will always be welcome.

I fee, by your works, that you love truth, and that you will force your way through all the barriers of prejudice, to embrace it in its meaneft drefs. That makes me love you. I hope to improve by your example and your leffons. One thing I want truly to learn, that is, that creatures and visible things are but shadows, and that God is God, Jehovah, the true eternal fubftance. To live practically in this truth is to live in the fuburbs of heaven. Really to believe, that in God we live, move, and have our being, is to find and enjoy the root of our exiftence; it is to flide from felf into our original principle, from the carnal into the fpiritual, from the vifible into the invifible, from time into eternity. Give me, at your leifure, fome directions, how to ceafe from bufying myself about the husk of things, and how I fhall break through the shell till I come to the kernel of refurrection, life, and power, that lies hid from the unbelievers fight. You mention, "A fhort sketch of your path already pasfed, and of your prefent feelings :" I believe it will be profitable to me for inftruction and reproof; therefore, I fhall gladly accept it.

Pray, my dear Sir, about feelings ;-Are you po ffeffed of all the feelings of your Clinton, Clement and Harry? Are they natural to you, I mean, previous to what we generally call converfion? I have often thought, that fome of the feelings you defcribe, depend a good deal upon the fineness of the nerves and bodily organs and, as I am rather of a ftoic turn, I have, fometimes, comforted myfelf in thinking, that my want of feelings night, in a degree, proceed from the dulnefs of Swifs nerves. If I am not mistaken, Providence directs me to you to have this important queftion folved. May not fome perfons have as much

true faith, love, humanity, and pity, as others, who are ten times more affected, at least for a feafon? And what directions would you give to a Christian ftoic, if these two ideas are not abfolutely incompatible. My ftoicifm helps me, I think, to weather out a ftorm of difpleasure, which my little pamphlets have raifed against me. You fee I at once confult you as an old friend and spiritual cafuift, nor know I how to teftify better to you, how unrefervedly I begin to be, my very dear friend, Yours in the Lord.* I. F.

Mr. Vaughan.

Madeley, Feb. 11th, 1773.

My very dear Friend,

YOUR kind letter I received in the beginning of the week, and your kind prefent at the end of it.For both I heartily thank you: nevertheless, I could wish it were your laft prefent, for I find it more blessed to give than to receive, and in point of the good things of this life, my body does not want much, and I can do with what is more common, and cheaper than the rarities you ply me with. Your bounty upon bounty reminds me of the repeated mercies of our God. They follow one another as wave does wave at fea; and all to waft us to the pleasing shore of confidence and gratitude, where we can not only caft anchor near, but calmly ftand on the rock of ages, and defy the rage of tempefts. But you complain, you are not there billows of temptation drive you from the haven, where you would be, and you cry out ftill, O wretched man! who shall deliver me?

Here I would ask, Are you willing, really willing to be delivered? Is your fin, is the prevalence of temptation, a burden too heavy for you to bear? If it is, if your complaint is not a kind of religious compliment,

* Mr. Fletcher, when he wrote the above, miftook Mr. Henry Brooke jun. for Mr. Henry Brooke fenior, the author of the Fool of Quality.

Lock up, for your near that delivers, Caft your foul upon

be of good cheer, only believe. redemption draws near. He is that juftifies, that fanctifies you. him; an act of faith will help you to a lift, but one act of faith will not do ;-faith must be our life, I mean, in conjunction with its grand object. You cannot live by one breath; you must breathe on, and draw the electric, vital fire into your lungs, together with the air. So muft you believe, and draw the divine power, and the fire of Jefus's love, together with the truth of the gofpel, which is the bleffed element in which believers live.

My kind Chriftian love to Mrs. Vaughan. Tell her, I am filled with joy in thinking, that though we no more ferve the fame earthly mafter, yet we still ferve the fame heavenly one; who will, ere long, admit us to fit with Abraham himfelf, if we hold fast our confidence to the end.

Beware of the world. If you have loffes, be not caft down, nor root in the earth with more might and main to repair them. If profperity fmiles upon you, you are in double danger. Think, my friend, that earthly profperity is like a coloured cloud, which paffes away and is foon loft in the fhades of night and death. Beware of hurry. Martha, Martha, one thing is needful. Chufe it, ftand to your choice, and the good part fhall not be taken from you by fickness or death. God bless you and yours with all that makes for his glory and your peace! I am, my dear Friend, yours, &c. I. F.

Madeley, Sep. 21st, 1773.

James Ireland, Esq.
My very dear Friend,

I DO not hear from my brother: my views of a journey abroad continue the fame. I have confidered what you fay about the tranflation of my Appeal; and, I think, I might from it take the hint and do it fome day nay, I tried to turn a paragraph or two the

day after I received your letter, but found it would be a difficult, if not an impoffible work for me. I am fure I could not do it abroad. On a journey I am just like a cask of wine-I am good for nothing till I have fome time to fettle.

What you fay about Mr. Wesley adds weight to your kind arguments; but fuppofing he or the people did not alter his mind, this would not fufficiently turn the fcale in point of confcience, though it is already turned in point of affection. My fpiritual circumftances are what I muft look at. I am brought to a point: like a woman with child, I must have a deliverance into the liberty of a higher difpenfation, and I tremble left outward things should hurt me. The multiplicity of objects, circumstances, and avocations, which attend travelling, is as little fuited to my cafe, as to that of a woman with child. I think, that all things confidered, I fhould fin against my confcience in going, unless I had a call from neceffity, or from clearer providences. Should Mr. Wefley find a defire of accompanying you, I think you might fet out with a fingle eye according to your light and faith; and I trust the journey would be of fervice to both, and in that cafe my heart fhall go along with you. If you go, pray find out, and converfe with the Convulfionaries. My request is, that you may fee your way plain, be fully perfuaded in your own mind, and be led and covered by the cloud of divine protection.

I thank you for having dared to speak a word for me at Worcester, but the ftream of prejudice ran too high for you to stop it: it was drowning yourself without faving your friend. It is good to know when to yield.

My laft check will be as much in behalf of free grace as of holinefs. So I hope upon that plan, all the candid and moderate will be able to fhake hands. It will be of a reconciling nature; and I call it an Equal Check to Pharifaifm and Antinomianifin.

I fee life fo fhort, and that time paffes away with fuch rapidity, that I fhould be very glad to fpend it