Madeley, Jan. 1782.

The Right Hon. Lady Mary Fitzgerald.

I THANK you, my Lady, for your kind congra tulations on my marriage. The Lord has indeed bleffed me with a partner after my own heart-dead to the world, and wanting, as well as myfelf, to be filled with all the life of God. She joins me in dutiful thanks to your Ladyfhip, for your obliging remembrance of her in your kind letter, and will help me to welcome you to the little hermitage we fpoke of laft year in London, if your Ladyfhip's health or tafte, fhould call you to retire for a while from the hurry of the town.

What a difference between the court of the King of kings, and that of king George! How peaceable the former, how full of hurry the latter! The Prince himself welcomes us, and manifefts himself to us, as Prince of peace, as Emmanuel, God with us. He will even bring his kingdom, and keep his court in our hearts. If we open them, by the attention and recollection of faith, he will even fup with us, and make us tafte the fweetnefs of that bread, which came down from heaven, and the virtue of the blood, which cleanfes from all fin. That this may be our conftant experience, and that of our dear companions in tribulation in St. James's place, is the fincere and frequent wifh of, my Lady, your moft obliged and obedient fervant, I. F.

Madeley, Aug. 28th, 1782.
The Right Hon. Lady Mary Fitzgerald.

My honoured Friend,

GRACE mercy and humble love be multiplied to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jefus Chrift, through the eternal Spirit; in whofe name we were baptized into the body of the Church, the Spoufe of the Son of God. The Lord has peculiar

favours in ftore for your Ladyfhip, and for me: the proof is, that we are afflicted. Have you been in a weak state of health? I have had the honour to drink of your cup the influenza has laid me down but the Lord has raised me up again; and when I was partly well, I broke my fhin accidently (fhould I not fay providentially) against a bench, and the confequence was my being confined by a bad leg to my bed, whence I write thefe lines. O may they be lines of confolation to my dear friend! May the God of all Grace, who comforts unworthy me, rejoice your oppreffed heart, and make it overflow with his patient love, and fanctifying truth.

idol.

You ftill complain of vile felf: I wish you joy, for your knowing your enemy. Let vile felf be reduced to order, and, though he be a bad mafter, he will become an excellent fervant. If you fay, how fhall I do this? I reply, by letting the Lord, the Maker, the Preferver, the Redeemer, the lover of your foul, afcend upon the throne of your thoughts, will, and affections. Who deferves to engrofs and fill them better than he does? Is he not your firft Lord, your best Husband, your most faithful Friend, and your greatest Benefactor? If you fay, "I do not fee him;" I reply, that you never faw the foul of friends;-nor any of your do you fee even the body of him you call your O! allow Jehovah, the Supreme Being, to be to you, what he deferves to be, all in all. One lively act of faith, one affent and confent to this delightful truth, that your Father, who is in heaven, loves you a thoufand times more than you love your idol (for God's love is like himself, infinite and boundlefs) will fet your heart at liberty, and even make it dance for joy. What, if, to this ravishing confideration, you add the transporting truth, that the Son of God, fairer than the fons of men, and brighter than angels, has loved you unto death-to the death of the crofs, and loves you ftill, more than all your friends do, were their love collected into one heart; could you help thinking, with a degree of joyous gratitude, of fuch an inftance of

divine condefcenfion? No, your vile felf would be ennobled, raised, expanded, and fet at liberty, by this evangelical thought, and if you did not deftroy this divine conception, if you nourished this little degree of the love of Chrift, Emmanuel, the God of love would be more fully manifefted in you, and falvation would from this moment grow in your foul. Jefus would grow in your believing, loving heart; felf would be no body, Emmanue! would be all in all; and Lady Mary would fhare all the happinefs, and ere long, all the glory of that favoured Virgin whom all the nations fhall call bleffed. You bear her name; let her Son by the incorruptible feed of the Word, be alfo formed in you through faith; and you will be so taken up by this wonder of divine love, fo employed in praifing your Father's mercy, and Saviour's love, and tenderness, that you will have but little time to speak either of good or bad felf. When felf is forgotten as nothing before God, you put felf in its proper place; and you make room for the heavenly Being, whose holy and happy existence you are to fhadow out.

If you have left off attending on the princefs, attend on the Prince of peace with double diligence. If you have been wanting in that fweet and honourable duty, it is because the enemy has told you lies of your Saviour, and has caft a veil over the love of his heart, and the beauty of his face. See the fnare, and avoid it.

Shall we ever have the honour of feeing you, my Lady? My wife, who joins in refpectful love and thanks to your Ladyship for your remembrance-of her, fays, the will do her beft to render our cold house fafe for you, if not convenient. You would have had a repeated invitation from us, if fear, and a concern for your health, heightened by the bad weather, had not checked our defires to have an opportunity of affuring you here, how much we are devoted to your fervice. But the roads and the weather beginning to mend, we venture to offer you the best apartment in our hermitage. I wifh it were large enough to take

in dear Mrs. G- —, and our dear friend in St. James's Place; but we have only two fmall rooms; to which, however, you would be received with two enlarged hearts; I mean thofe of, My honoured Lady, Your Ladyfhip's obedient, devoted fervants, I. and M. F.

Madeley, Dec. 19th, 1782.

The Rev. Mr. Charles Wesley.

Rev. and dear Sir,

I THANK you for your hint about exemplifying the love of Chrift and his church. I hope we do. I was afraid, at firft, to fay much of the matter; for new married people do not at first know each other: but having now lived fourteen months in my new state, I can tell you, Providence has referved a prize for me, and that my wife is far better to me, than the church to Chrift; fo that if the parallel fails, it will be on my fide.

Be fo good as to perufe the enclofed fheets. Mr. De Luc, to whom they are addreffed, is Reader to the Queen, and the author of fome volumes of Letters to her he is a true philofopher. I flatter myfelf, he will prefent my letter to the Queen. Do you find any thing improper in the addition I have made to my Poem? 1 wish I were near you for your criticifins you would direct me, both as a poet and a Frenchman.

I have yet ftrength enough to do my parish duty without the help of a curate. O that the Lord would help me to do it acceptably and profitably! The colliers began to rife in this neighbourhood: happily the cockatrice's egg was crushed, before the ferpent came out. However, I got many a hearty curfe from the colliers, for the plain words I spoke on that occafion. I want to fee days of power both within and without; but in the mean time I would follow clofely my light in the narrow path. My wife joins me in respectful love to Mrs. Wefley and your

felf, and requefting an intereft in your prayers for us, I remain, My dear Sir, Your affectionate, obliged brother, fervant, and fon in the gospel, I. F.

Mrs. Thornton.

My dear Friend,

Madeley, March 3d, 1783.

YESTERDAY I received your melancholy, joyful letter, as I came from the facrament, where the grace of God had armed me to meet the awful news. And is my merciful hoft gone to reap the fruit of his mercy to me? I thought I fhould have been permitted to go firft and welcome him into everlasting habitations! but Providence has ordered it otherwise, and I am left behind to fay, with you and dear Mrs. Greenwood, The Lord gave, and has taken gave, and has taken away, and

blessed be his holy name!

The glory with which his setting fun was gilded, is the greatest comfort by which heaven could alleviate his lofs. Let me die as he did, and let my last end be like his; I was fo fenfibly affected by your account, that I could not help reading part of your letter at church in the afternoon, and defiring all the congregation to join me in thanksgiving for the late mercies he had vouchfafed to my generous benefactor. On fuch occafions, let fighs be loft in praife; and repining in humble fubmiffion and thankful acquiefcence. I hope dear Mrs. Greenwood mixes a tear of joy with a tear of forrow. Who would not be landed on the other fide the stream of time, if he were fure of fuch a paffage? Who would wifh his best friend back on the fhores of forrow fo triumphantly left by Mr. Greenwood?

I hope Mr. Thomas Greenwood, and his brother Jofiah, have been rooted and grounded in their good purposes by their dying father's exhortations and charges. Pray give my kindeft love to them both, and tell them, I join my entreaties to his, that they