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benefit of God, be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season: they through grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like unto the image of his only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ: they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity." And " as this godly consideration of their election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort—to such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things, so it doth greatly establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation, and fervently kindle their love to God."

Now with all this life, union, and holy fellowship, are there no corresponding feelings and enjoyments? No tasting the powers of the world to come? No lively impressions of their heavenly inheritance? No consciousness of His love to them, or their love to Him, in whom they dwell? No peace or joy in believing ?-If this were indeed so, then I am afraid, the life, the union, of which those feelings and impressions have been considered as the gracious marks, have no real existence; and the system which boasts of a peace, of which the possessor has no consciousness, a joy which raiseth not "the mind to high and heavenly things," and a hope which is not full of immortality, may triumphantly take its place in the Congregation of the dead!

But it will be asked, did she not lay an undue stress upon these things? I believe not. I have not perceived it. On the contrary, I have seen, even when she believed herself led by the Spirit of God to do that good which was the settled purpose of her whole life, she mani

fested the greatest care to walk according to St. John's direction, Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God. In obedience to this, she considered and pondered all her ways, and brought every purpose and act to the only sure touchstone, the unerring word of God. The same charge was often brought against Mr. Wesley, and for precisely the same reasons. Answering the most respectable of those who thus laid to his charge things that he knew not; viz. Dr. Gibson, the venerable Bishop of London, he replies, "In the whole compass of language, there is not a proposition which belongs less to me than this. I have declared again and again, that I make the word of God the rule of all my actions ; and that I no more follow any secret impulse instead thereof, than I follow Mahomet or Confucius.'

Let Mrs. Fletcher be weighed in this balance, and I believe she will not be found wanting. She, like Mr. Wesley, and her excellent husband, served God in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. Hence her life was hid with Christ in God, and she had impressions, and consolations, which are the fruits and evidences of that life. But she well knew that the Spirit of truth never contradicts, never is inconsistent with Himself. His written Oracles, and his lively, and life-giving teaching, agree together. She humbly and earnestly attended to that direction to the law, and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. A writer of the present day has strangely said, that he knew of no witness, no influence, no teaching, but the written word of God. Perhaps he does not know any other. But there are many who walk with God who do. But if that writer only means, that he

knows, or acknowledges, no witness, no influence, no teaching, that is contrary to that holy word, or that is inconsistent with its one design, to save us from all sin, into all holiness, every true Christian will applaud the sentiment. Mrs. Fletcher was watchful in this respect, being aware of the danger. Hence, though she might err, she never deviated from the path. She might mistake; but she was always preserved from any departure from her God.

The pious reader will be glad to be assured, that the whole of these memoirs are from Mrs. Fletcher's pen. In compiling her life, I have left out much valuable matter, which was either contained, in substance, in other parts of these memoirs, or were not of sufficient interest to appear in the publication. I have also compressed what I thought was redundant, that the work might not be needlessly swelled. I have also thought it right to press her sentences into more conciseness. She wrote in the fulness of her heart, and with admirable sense; but her style was rather too copious, and sometimes too diffuse, for Narrative or History. But I have taken care, at the same time, to give the admirable issues of her enlightened mind, with all the force and simplicity with which she recorded them.

Those who have read the lives of those truly pious women, Madame Guion, Chantel, Bourignon, and others of the same class, which so abundantly prove, that even the cloud of Romish superstition does not preclude the rays of the Sun of righteousness, and that involuntary ignorance God still winketh at; will be glad to see a life in the Protestant Church superior to any of them. Especially, they will see, that all in her may be safely

imitated, being all according to the faith once delivered to the saints. They will see also, not the fair picture only, but how it came to bear the stamp divine. They may trace its progress, and be encouraged to believe, that the Lord, who is ever the same, will thus work in them to will and to do, notwithstanding opposing corruptions and they will thus be encouraged to give themselves up to that grace of God, which teaches us to deny ungodliness, and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

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