pendent of him, and get far from him by riotous living.

True faith will view the world and the fulness thereof in the hand of Christ, for he is heir of all things. The gold, and the silver, the corn, the wine, the oil, the wool, and the flax, are his; and so are the fowls of the mountains, the beasts of the forest, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. These things are often thrown in great abundance to those who are to have their portion in this life; to such it is given to gather together and to heap up, but not an heart given to do good therewith. But, "The wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just." "He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor," Prov. xxviii. 8.

The miser is often afraid to make his will, lest death ensue; and death often ensues a neglect of it, and so he dies without it; by which means Providence holds back his hands, that he cannot perform his enterprise: this is a repetition of the ancient question, "Whose shall these things be which thou hast provided?" Let the true Christian's situation be what it may in this life, sure I am it is best for him; and, was he to choose for himself, he would never mend the matter, or add a cubit to his own stature. Sleep is sweeter with a hungry belly than with a full one. It is better to be poor and liberal, than to be rich and covetous. A saint with an empty stomach is often wakeful, active, lively, and can feed sweetly

under a sermon; when a full belly lulls the hearer to sleep. A pampered appetite is the same to the soul as a restive horse is to his rider; it carries him whither it will. I know not which is worse, a keen appetite and no food, or plenty of food and no appetite. I have experienced both.

The Lord hath chosen our inheritance for us; and what little of this world's good falls to our share, he will keep it in his own hands, and make the morrow take thought for the things of itself. We are to be diligent in business and fervent in spirit, and the prayer of faith will fetch in every supply that is needful for us; for our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of these things. The Egyptians carried all their complaints to Joseph, and Israel in the wilderness carried theirs to Moses; but we must look to Jesus, and we shall see all his goodness pass before us: faith will watch his hand, and gratitude acknowledge his mercies. “He that will observe these things, even he shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord."

Yours, in the faith of the gospel,

W. H.

LETTER V.

To WM. HUNTINGTON.

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REV. AND DEAR SIR,

HOPE you will excuse my writing to you at this time. I know your work is great, great, and your time much taken up, in feeding the household of faith. Having, by the blessing of God, received a morsel by your books and preaching, I cannot eat it alone, or conceal it any longer; but, as a penny of the Lord's coin, I am constrained to send this, that praise to God from you may redound on my account. About five years back, being in a barn threshing corn, a sense of guilt was powerfully impressed on my mind, and these words came, 'This do, and live; this do, and live.' This was repeated many times over, and for many days. Not knowing any thing of the word of God, being scarcely able to read a word therein, and having such an enmity to all that were called Dissenters; but having a brother who was partly a Dissenter, and partly a Churchman, I went to him, and asked him if there were any such words in the Bible, or in any author he had read. He told me he thought there were in Gen. xlii. This

set me to reading up and down the Bible; in doing this, God was pleased to direct me to the 5th of Amos, 6th verse, "Seek the Lord and ye shall live, lest he break out like fire, and devour the house of Joseph, and there be none in Bethel to quench it." But how to seek the Lord I knew not; yet the fear of this fire breaking out on me filled me with great dread. This drove me to hear a Baptist minister of C➖➖➖te; and he, insisting that the Lord was to be sought in all the appointed means, made me diligent in hearing. I now began to view his followers as angels; but found myself nothing but sin. I longed to be with them; but, alas! I viewed myself too bad, and the shew of my countenance witnessed against me. Thus I continued for six months; in which time several of his people would often converse with me, particularly J. Thurgood, who would often say, Come, will you tell us what God has done for you?' This was generally done when fresh members joined the church. But I wanted to know whether it was God or the devil that set me out in a profession. If I had but known that it was the Lord, I thought I could bear the indignation of the Lord, because I had sinned against him: but the minister often saying, this you may try yourself by, if you have left off sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, swearing, lying, and the like; if you love the ways and people of God, undoubtedly old things are done away, all things are become new. Once when he was preaching

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from Lamentations, "He sitteth alone, and putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope;" by what he said on those words, 'If you cannot go into the company of the world, and see yourself unfit for the society of God's people, thus you sit alone with a witness; thus you may have reason for hope;' here I first began to hope. Then he preached from these words, "Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord." This was to be done, he said, in the ways of God, and in the ordinances of his house. I, being zealous to know the Lord, and to follow on to know him, soon got into the water, hoping to leave my burden at the bottom of the pool; as the minister often used to say, 'Come to his ordinances, and you will get comfort;' yet, alas! I brought my burden up out of the water with me, which soon grew too heavy for me to bear. This being the case, I often broke my mind to friend Thurgood, still viewing him as an angel; and, my experience agreeing with his, I got upon his back, as it were, trusting to him as a guide; but when your letter to Caleb Evans came out it cut up all his religion, and down came he, and I too. I now thought that my guide was deceived by reading your books, because he began to be dissatisfied with the ministry that we sat under, which our minister said was the case. I being simple, believed every word that the preacher said, for so I had been taught, that every word spoken by him, when in the pulpit, must be