ful if the Lord permits us to pass it over. I have had some little experience of these things, but my situation in Olney, amongst a poor afflicted people, who, from a confined and sedentary employment, (lace making,) are mostly affected with low spirits and nervous disorders, has made me something of # a theorist in the business; and I know not but I could write a volume upon it. But no words can adequately express the dreadful tempests some of God's dear children sustain. They pass through fire and floods, but He is with them, and therefore the floods cannot drown them, nor the flame destroy them. I doubt not but the severest part of Job's trials were of this kind. See likewise Ps. lxxxviii.

But I must write shorter notes, or my letter will be long indeed. Trail's three volumes are among the books I highly prize. I am acquainted with Durham, but never read Boston. Indeed, most of my reading was, before my admission into the ministry. The incumbent calls of my office, and a voluminous correspondence, &c. afford me but little time now and the Scripture, which is always at hand, and expresses the substance of volumes in a verse or two, renders reading other books less necessary though I would always recommend to young men to read a good deal, provided they are so happy as to make a good choice.

I believe there has not been a Gospel sermon preached at Weston Favell, since Mr Hervey's death; nor can I hear that there is one spiritual person in the parish. His other parish of Collingtree is likewise now a dark place, though there may be half a dozen people there who know something of the Lord. I preached twice a year at Colling-. tree, for about ten years, but I am now quite shut out. Mr. Hervey's usefulness was chiefly in his writings. A few people in the neighbourhood pro

fited by him, who, since his death, have mostly joined the dissenters; but he never knew that one soul was awakened in the parish where he lived, though he was in every respect one of the greatest preachers of the age: as plain in his pulpit service, as he is elegant in his writings. The Lord showed in him, that the work is all his own, and that the best instrument can do no more than he appoints. His own mother and sister lived with him. His temper was heavenly, his conversation always spiritual and instructive; yet he could make no impression upon them, living or dying.

I proceeded some way in the book I told you I was writing, but laid it aside in the middle, and have not resumed the design. I found, in writing against controversy, I insensibly caught the spirit of it; though I was not angry, I was growing minute and dry. If the Lord please, I will begin again de novo sometime, but I mean to limit myself to about the size of a six-penny pamphlet. I hardly expect to see prejudice give way every where, and Christians of all parties, all loving each other fervently; but I hope there are a few individuals of every party, who will enter into the views of their Lord, and cheerfully express their love to all who love him in sincerity.

I did not suppose that the Seceders, or any other spiritual people, confined the Church of Christ within their own pale, by express or positive declaration; but till I was acquainted with you, I thought the Seceders made a point of having as little communication as possible in spirituals, beyond their pale. If you are a proper specimen of the body you belong to, I have reason to be ashamed of thinking so harshly of them. But as I ought not to have judged of the whole, by the very few who have occasionally fallen in my way formerly, so, perhaps, I

should be in the other extreme, if I should suppose the majority of them are like you. Indeed, I believe all denominations, as such, abound with bigotry in favour of their own side; and that the ministers and private Christians in each, are more or less freed from it, in proportion as they are favoured with more of the unction of the Holy Spirit, and as they have more opportunities of observing his work carried on amongst other parties and perhaps the most catholic-minded Christian upon earth, has more bigotry in him than he is aware of. To esteem all modes and forms of worship, as equally agreeable to the Scriptures, or conducive to edification; or all difference of sentiment amongst those who hold the Head to be of no real importance, is quite a different thing. We have a right to judge and act for ourselves, and to follow the light we have received, and are only blameable when we censure or dislike others, only because they do not exactly see with our eyes, in matters which are not essential. But I need not enlarge upon this point, nor could I express my own sentiments more satisfactorily than by transcribing what you have written upon it.

I am indeed comparatively happy at Olney, in my ministry. Our lot is cast at a distance from the various winds of doctrine, which in many places occasion so much trouble and so many disputes; so that I have only to declare the truth, unmixed with controversy about it. I could only wish for an out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, to reveal the truths of the Gospel to many, who, though they are well content to hear them, and would hardly bear to hear any thing contrary to them, are yet strangers to their power and influence. and influence. Alas! a large majority of our congregation are, I fear, sermon-proof, VOL. IV.-No, VIII. 3 K

They come to the house of God, and return, like a door upon its hinges. Yet, through mercy, we have little or nothing of the Antinomian spirit amongst us. Very few, whom I do not think believers, are so far blinded as to think themselves so, or have a desire to pass for such. They know they are not; and, if asked the question, will acknowledge, that if they die as they are, they must be lost. But, alas! they do not lay it to heart.

As it is now pretty generally known, that the Lord was pleased, in his best time, to answer my desire, and give me an entrance into the ministry, another letter added to the Narrative, could hardly be said to give information upon that point: and the circumstances which led to my admission, were too personal and uninteresting to deserve the attention of the public. Therefore, though I am sorry to be backward to any thing you propose, I think any addition to the Narrative unnecessary, and that I have written enough already upon the subject of my insignificant self.

I thank you for your friend, Mr. -'s, verses. I am pleased with his mention of me, so far as it gives me hope that he remembers me in his prayers. For the rest, as I hinted to you, a journey to Olney would soon convince him how much he overrates the poor curate there. If you look over the third and sixth letters of the Narrative, you will judge how I ought to be affected by the handsome things which you and your friend are pleased to say of me. I trust I have tasted that the Lord is gracious, and that it is the desire and joy of my soul, to proclaim the power of that divine attraction, which could draw so vile a wretch to himself; of the mercy which could pardon such a sinner, and extricate him from such a state of wickedness and misery. O! if my heart were not still vile beyond expression, the

commendation of the whole universe, could have no other effect than to cover me with blushes and confusion. Ah! dear Sir, what would you have thought of me had you seen me when I lived at the Plantanes? The sight of me would have been offensive to your eyes, and my speech would have struck you with horror. Miserable and despicable in every view; pinched with want, and the common mark of scorn and insult, my whole wretched amusement and pleasure, seemed to lie in blaspheming the name and person of Jesus, and in feeding my imagination with schemes of wickedness, which I had not opportunity to perpetrate and now it seems, I am to be compared with my namesake, Sir Isaac. The Lord has since given me a name and a place among his children, favoured me with the friendship and love of many of his most honoured and excellent people upon earth; and I have reason to thank him, likewise, that he has given me an habitual recollection of these past dreadful scenes; so that there is seldom a day of my life in which my thoughts are not led back to my former state of estrangement from him, and that pre-eminence of wretchedness into which my sins plunged me. I hope he has often sanctified this review, to abate in some measure the force of the temptations I have been since exposed to, to think myself something. If he gives me a liberty in preaching, or enables me to write a letter to please a fellow-warm, should it not suffice to keep me from being elated? to remember that I am the same person, who once delighted to treat him as an impostor; to rank him with, or, upon the comparison, below Mohammed? or to think that some of my unhappy companions, (as I have reason to fear,) perished in their sins, who had just cause to charge the ruin of their souls to my account? For Satan himself, had he been

Sir Isaac Newton,