the of utterance, and grant you long life, and many days, for his and his church's fake! fo prays leaft of all faints. And if you count me worthy of your notice, pray for me, and please to answer this, to let me know whether it is right or wrong my writing to you, for I have been much exercifed about it. Sir, I have fent you the plain truth; learning I have none, but what I have felt that have I written. Please to direct thus, WILLIAM WOOD, N° 14, Frederick Place, August 4, 1809. Newington, Surry. MR. WILLIAM WOOD, Frederick Place, Newington, Surry. MY DEAR SON, YOURS OURS came to hand, and I thank you for it, and I have thanked my God for the pleafing contents. God has, as far as I can judge, led thee to the rock that is higher than thou; thou art upon the foundation that God hath laid in Zion; a living ftone upon the life-giving rock, hewn out of the quarry of nature, fquared by afflictions, fmoothed by pardon and repentance, and cemented by love, which conftrains him to adhere to us and we to him. You are a living witness, that what is called ftinking antinomianifin is the gofpel of the grace of God, and those styled men of a bad spirit are the ambasfadors of peace; and I have no doubt but you have found many, who call themselves evangelifts, loaded with chains, and in their miniftry the fons of death. But God has fhewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do juftly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? By doing justly thou wilt keep a confcience void of offence, and have rejoicing in thyself alone and not in another. You read in Ifaiah that God's everlasting covenant is the fure mercies of David; and this the prophet explains to be God's Spirit upon Chrift, and upon his feed. Read and compare Isaiah lv. 3, and lix. 21. Thefe fure mercies, and the Spirit's work, Paul puts together, laying, "Of his mercy he faved us by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghoft." This is the mercy of God in Chrift Jefus to us ward. To love mercy, therefore, is to love, revere, and admire, the Holy Spirit and his fruits, for the fruits of the Spirit are called mercies; and God ftyles himself the parent of thefe; he is the father of all mercies, and the God of all comfort, 2 Cor. i. 3. And, if you love mercy, you will loathe yourfelf, and your best performances, and glory alone in this, that you understand and know God, who exercifeth lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the carth, for in these things God delights, Jerem ix. 24. And when his delight is our delight, when what he loves we love, when his pleasure is our pleasure; then are we in heart-felt union and friendship with him; and truly this is fellowship both with the Father and with his Son Chrift Jefus the Lord. If you are favoured with this fellowship you will walk humbly with him; for nothing gives us so true a fight and fenfe of finful felf, nothing works felf-abasement and felfabhorrence fo effectually, as the glorious prefence of God. At this the wicked perish, Pfal. Ixviii. 2; at this Job, with all his boafted performances, came down to felf-abhorrence, and to repentance in duft and afhes, Job, xlii. 6. Take diligent heed to the good work begun in you, and move in harmony with the Holy Spirit's influences and operations; and follow after his fruits, in their wonderful exercises, and in the enjoyment of them. God now expects love, joy, gratitude, thankfulness, adoration, and praise. At our entrance into Zion we are to call our walls falvation, and our gates praife; and our justifying robe is called a garment of praife alfo; and, when the foul is moulded into faith, and formed to love, we are created anew in Chrift Jefus, that we should shew forth his praise. While prof perity lafts God tells you to be joyful, and when adverfity fucceeds we are bid to confider; God has fet the one over against the other. Every difcovery of finful felf furnishes us with confeffion; troubles, and a fenfe of need, will prompt us to prayer; but wedding days, feafting days, and jubilee days, call for thankf givings and the voice of melody. The Holy Spirit will infpire the heart, and furnish the mouth, for all these spiritual facrifices; and, if you are led by the Spirit, you will be exercised in all these. God's umpire is our own conscience; and when this is purged from dead works by the • blood of Chrift, and furnished with light, life, faith, hope and peace; and governed and inAuenced by the Holy Spirit of God; and made to bear a joint witness with the Holy Spirit to our adoption, juftification, and acceptance with God in Chrift Jefus; we are at a certainty about our state. These things, my dear fon, are the bleffed effects of our Lord's afcenfion and mediation; "The Lord is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and rigliteousness. And wifdom and knowledge fhall be the ftability of thy times, and firength of falvation; the fear of the Lord is his treasure," Ifaiah xxxiii. 5. 6. The Holy Spirit dwells in us, as in his own temple; and he erects his tribunal in our confcience, and keeps his court there. All the reproofs and rebukes, that found in our ears from the word preached, are always feconded by a voice from the court of confcience; without this reproof is not received, without this it has no weight. The Spirit always begins his work with confcience, that being the only ally that God has in fallen man; "Commending ourfelves to every man's confcience in the fight of God." Here the appeals are firft made, and to confcience the ambaffadors of peace commend themfelves in the fight of God. And the breath of eternal life is firit breathed into the confcience to alarm, awaken, and animate; and, when cenfcience is |