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day and I saw him no more: "A poor man that oppresseth the poor, is like a sweeping rain that leaveth no food," Prov. xxviii. 3. And, as for the other person for whom I and my friend became surety, he soon became bankrupt, or broke to pieces. But such was the invariable providence of my God, that the devil himself could never make a bankrupt of me: my invariable Banker, who stood by me in six troubles, did not fail me in the seventh; for an elderly lady in town, who for some time sat under my ministry, fell sick; she requested my attendance during her illness, and after her departure a gentleman called and paid me ten pounds, which she left me by will; and soon after that a lady in the country sent me forty pounds. A most faithful and affectionate friend in the city, who, times without number, has ministered to my necessities, ordered me to go to a cabinet maker and bespeak a chest of drawers for my clothes, a writing desk, &c. and sent me home with forty guineas in my pocket. Thus a succession of crosses was followed with perpetual blessings; for, as sure as adversity led the van, so sure prosperity brought up the rear: "The heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." Never, no never, did the Holy Spirit wholly withhold his prevalent intercession from me in times of trouble, nor did my God ever turn a deaf ear to my prayer, or fail to deliver me out of that trouble; though he has

at times suffered me to labour long under them: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." But now for another cross.

God takes away another of my poor children; it died at my friend Chapman's, at Petersham, and was buried in the same ground where we since have erected our tomb. Upon the back of this disaster I fell sick, and lay some time; and soon after my little daughter was brought home from school with a violent fever, which continued on her many months; but, after my faith and patience had been a little tried, God raised her up again. About this time I had been digging a cellar and building a little room over it; had built an oven also, and been setting up a copper and purchasing brewingvessels; all of which, together with the building, had not cost me less than two hundred pounds. Some time after a fever broke out in the school where my sons were, and three of them came home, one of whom was ill, and had a fit of sickness; so that in a short time I had sixty or seventy pounds to pay to different gentlemen of the faculty, for attendance on me and them. Add to this, another fifty pounds of borrowed money was called in; not for want of it, but from private pique: this we made shift to get together, and informed the person where to call for it; but it lay a long time before it was fetched away. The grief was not from fear of losing it, but at my being able to

procure it: " By evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true." But my God now appeared again; a friend in the city gave me thirty pounds, another soon after sent me twenty pounds, and two more gave me forty pounds; and an elderly gentleman, who had for some time attended my ministry, and who had been a member of a church in the city for many years; but I have reason to believe that it pleased God to revive the work on his soul under me, for he at times called on me and acknowledged as much, and often lamented that this world had for a long time obscured the good work on him. Soon after this he left this world, leaving me fifty pounds by will, and several more legacies, as I have been informed, to other indigent persons. "In the day of prosperity be joyful, in the day of adversity consider; God has set the one against the other."

Dearly beloved, grace, mercy, and peace, be

with thee; so prays

Thine in covenant love,

W. H. S.S.

LETTER IV.

TO THE SPARROW ALONE.

Dear Friend, in eternal friendship,

I CONCLUDED my last with the sound of abundance of rain; the little hill had been watered with a shower of blessings, Ezek. xxxiv. 26; and my soul with abundance of peace; and now, in pursuit of the narrative, you must know what effect this had on the debt-books of my creditors. Why, by the good hand of my God upon me, I had now reduced the debt of my chapel down to little more than three hundred pounds; my friend Baker was almost my only creditor, and I had nothing to fear from him. I considered myself now as having the fore horse by the head, as they say who speak in proverbs, I could now compare creditor and debtor together, and see a balance in my own favour; so that I had no fears about me that any one friend would lose any thing by me, should it please God to remove me. I had also given forty pounds premium at the binding of one of my sons, and twenty pounds more to a mantua maker with my elder daughter; and had also curtailed some of my unnecessary expences-I mean with respect to preaching for other people. I had for

some years been Jack at every body's call; being invited to preach collection sermons continually: and wherever I went this was sure to be the case: sometimes I was to collect for the minister, sometimes to rub off the debt of the buildings, sometimes for the poor, but always for something or for somebody; and I was generally desired to give it out at my own chapels, as their hopes were more in the pockets of my followers than in their own. A meeting which had not long been erected within a few miles of Uxbridge, in Middlesex, had a debt upon it which the people wished to clear off, and therefore proposed to have two sermons preached on a certain day annually, and a collection at each sermon, as the best method of extricating the chapel out of debt; and of course I was once invited thither upon this business. I travelled at my own expence, and was entertained by a friend of my own at Uxbridge: I preached in the forenoon, and a gentleman from London was to preach in the afternoon; and, if I was rightly informed, my collection was fourteen pounds; what the gentleman got I know not, as I went off as soon as I had finished my discourse. The year following a minister of yearly fame was invited, who promised either to go himself or to send his curate, upon these conditions; namely, that they would promise him, 'never to suffer that fellow Huntington to preach among them any more;' which request the principal person of the meeting submissively listened to, and promised to admit

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