dear D—, you know a little about this, and your soul and mine can testify to the everlasting honour of his dear name. He is worth ten thousand worlds, and "more to be desired than rubies." Blessed be his dear name, he has not left my soul without an expectation from him, which I believe will not be cut off,-a comfortable hope in his dear name, which is as an anchor to the soul, both sure and steadfast. How sweet it is, my dear friend, to have a saving knowledge of the glorious plan of a covenant God in saving sinners! and I cannot but admire the wisdom and power displayed in the teaching of the Holy Ghost, in bringing a poor sinner to a feeling sense of his interest in it, and in enabling him to believe that he is accepted in the Beloved, notwithstanding his daily infirmities.

I heard Mr. W- regularly, whilst in London, and 1 can tell you that the Lord has blessed his ministry to my soul many times, and also to two or three of my old friends in London, who were members of dear Mr. Huntington's church, and who, as well as myself, are fully satisfied that we have heard the voice of our dear Shepherd in and through him. And poor Mr. -, my very soul is knit to him for the truth's sake, and sure I am, that notwithstanding all the cavillings of his enemies, the Lord has put him far above their reach. And you, my dear Friend, and myself, want no man to commend him to us, for our souls have been blessed under his ministry, to the joy and rejoicing of our hearts. When you see him give my love to him. Yours truly for the truth's sake,

Bere Regis, Dorset, Oct., 1821.

NATHANIEL MARRINER.

A FAITHFUL TESTIMONY.

Dear Brother, It is "out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh," or the fingers write. It is truly with regret that I write to you, at this time, upon a subject which troubles my mind, and which indeed gave me great pain of soul when I heard you say what you did, in your address at Mr.'s house. You truly surprised me then. I could not have thought you had got into such a delusion, or into such a presumptuous spirit.

In the first place, you spoke against a servant of Christ and his work, because he spoke of his doubts and his fears in his preaching upon the path of tribulation. You said, "What good was it? Would that feed the people? No." You said, "he had better preach Christ, the Way." But you must recollect that every servant of Christ has his proper gift of God, and his work all marked out for him, the way he is to go, and the persons to whom he is to be made useful, before the foundation of the world; so that what you said was an impeachment of the wisdom of God in employing his sent-servant. And as to your saying that it was of no use to talk about his doubts and fears in preaching, I say that it is, inasmuch as it picks up many a poor, hobbling, desponding soul, who is afraid that he has no part nor lot in the matter of this great salvation, because he is such a poor, unbelieving creature. You may say that it is encouraging them in doubts and fears; but I must say that it is

encouraging them to hope still in the Lord, whether in providence or grace, that they shall yet praise him for delivering mercy, seeing, as they do by such preaching, that it is the way in which all the saints of old have gone before them, and that many now are going the same way. And thus they see that they are not alone; for they can say, with Hart, that they

for they

And

"Dream not of faith so clear
As shuts all doubtings out;"

"Remember how the devil dared
To tempt e'en Christ to doubt."

"Think not he now will fail
To make us shrink and droop:
Our faith he daily will assail,
And dash our very hope.
"To cause despair's the scope
Of Satan and his powers:
Against hope to believe in hope,
My brethren, must be ours."

So that you see the Christian's path is a path of warfare while here, whether it is before liberty or afterwards. At times, therefore, he wants his case met with, under the word, by those that have been in like circumstances. Therefore, you see that it is a use and a good unto such, and helps to feed them, in a sense, with a knowledge of the path they are travelling, and how God is their Guide and Director every step of their journey.

But again, secondly. You said that they preached about the corruptions of their own base hearts, to seek for evidences of a spiritual life; though you said, at the first, that the Spirit bore witness to the sinner's heart of what he was as a sinner by nature before God. And if being made a sensible sinner before God is not an evidence of divine life, I do not know what is. But you have spoken falsely concerning them, that they seek their evidences of divine life by talking about their corruptions. They do no such thing; but they draw their evidences of their spiritual life (and a sure evidence it is too) from their struggling against sin, sighing and crying unto God on account of sin, wrestling with God in prayer, desiring, longing, wishing, and panting for communion with God, to have fellowship with him, to enjoy his presence, to be conformed unto him, to be like him, to wear his holy image upon them, and to be clothed in humility. Now, such things as these are real evidences of a spiritual life.

But again. You said that we talk about our corruptions till we are pleased with talking about our bad hearts, and so are looking into ourselves instead of looking unto Christ, which it is our privilege to do; and to believe in Christ, and not to nurse or cherish our doubts and fears; "for" you said, "what good is it?" But let me tell you, my brother, that God's servants do not talk about the corruptions of their own hearts because they like to talk about these things; no, neither are they always or wholly talking about these things; but when they feel the plague of them, and the trouble and anguish of

mind it causes them, they cannot help then but talk about them; and, in doing so, they often find that there are many of the Lord's tried ones in the same circumstances. And thus their case is met, and it is a comfort to them that they are not alone. They also speak of these things that they feel within in order to be faithful unto the souls of men, and not deceive their souls in any way, but to show man how bad he is by nature, in a ministerial way, from their own experience, if haply they may feel any desire or wish constraining them to cry to God for mercy and forgiveness of their sins; not to encourage souls to love sin, or to be pleased with it. No, they cannot be pleased with what is a burden, a grief, a trouble that distresses them and often causes them to sigh and groan before God, like Paul, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Not that he was at a loss to know how or who could then deliver him, in his judgment; for he knew how sin was put away by Christ; but this was his experience inwardly, more especially when he was overburdened with its weight and plague, in a feeling sense; for I have heard that he had been above twenty years in the divine life when he wrote this; and I think it appears from the chapter that he must have been in it some years, to write as he did in the 7th and 8th chapters of Romans.

Again. You said that it is our privilege to believe in Christ, and to look unto him, who is the Way of salvation. It is, when God speaks home the word with power to our souls afresh, and brings up faith in act and exercise, and so renews us with strength like the eagle's. Then indeed it is our privilege to believe in Christ, and to look unto him in very deed and reality; and not till then can we do SO. An Arminian would not talk much worse than you have done; for we cannot act faith when we please; it is not at our command to perform in any way whatever.

Again. You said that the servants of the Lord had better preach the Way, Christ, instead of talking about their doubts and fears; so that there is a plausibility about what you said. But it will not bear inspection; for the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat," says Job. Now, if Christ is to be preached as the Way, what is he a Way from, what is he a Way unto, and to whom is he a Way? He is called a Physician, and a skilful one; but how is he to be known and proved as such, unless we have some wounds that he is well acquainted with? And though he sees fit to probe them, he is sure and able to effect a cure. He is also a Priest that has atoned. But am I a filthy, polluted wretch to need that atonement to wash me clean, every whit, sensibly so? I have been nearly twenty years in the divine life, and about sixteen years I have known what the liberty of the gospel is; but I find and feel that I need the fresh applications of his pardoning love and atoning blood as much as ever, at times; yea, I seem to need it more; for I see, feel, and find myself weaker, filthier, and more helpless than ever. Therefore, I dare not say presumptuously, as some do, that I do not need the fresh applications of his pardoning love and blood again and again; O, no; for though Christ has for ever settled the debt for me and all

the chosen race, yet I cannot be satisfied unless I have the enjoyment of it more or less in my soul; and I hope that I never may be satisfied with a form without the power. Such preaching as this will not lead us to rest in ourselves, as you say, nor to look there to rest for any thing; no; but it will make us look and rest out of ourselves to, in, and upon Christ, our All in all.

66

Thus, my brother, you appear to have fallen from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ, to become a fashionable preacher of the present day, instead of being one of the old sort, not giving up truth in any part of it whatever; for "if we study to please men," says Paul, we are no longer the servants of Christ;" and it appears to me that you are aiming, by your talk, to be like the fashionable preachers of the day. The Lord restore you from your error; for I believe that the Lord has called you to preach his gospel; and may he make you an honest, faithful, experimental, plain, simple, yet an humble preacher of his holy gospel.

I add no more. May God bless the same to your soul, for his name and mercy's sake. Amen and amen. London, May 17, 1844.

COMMUNION OF SAINTS.

R. J.

My dear Sister, I felt glad when I read your account of the Lord's manifested goodness to your soul. It appeared evident to me that his work was revived in you, and I felt humbled before him that favour should be shown me in inclining the hearts of his children to write to me. I do assure you, that instead of being puffed up with pride, I am made truly humble; and the tear starts into my eyes while I write, to think that the dear Lord should take such a sweet method to endear himself to my heart, and thereby cause me to bless him with my whole heart and soul; and then again I feel such an increase of pure love to him and his beloved children, that it dissolves my very heart. My language I think sometimes is too strong, but I assure you the strongest expressions fall vastly short of the inward feelings of my heart. I love them, and bless them, and call upon the name of the Lord to increase them more and more. There is a secret something in the communion of saints that language cannot set forth. It is a peculiar feeling, that makes Jesus Christ increasingly precious, that helps the body to edify itself in love; it separates from earth, it exalts and enriches the soul, it sweetens the cross, gives cheerfulness in the midst of troubles, and produces a holy smile, mingled with a rising tear, in the very midst of afflictions; it raises and strengthens our confidence, it animates our hope, it sweetly brightens our prospects, and wings upward our expectations; it brings eternal realities into our hearts, and sinks our miseries and fears. In a word, my blessed Lord sometimes so indulges me in sweet communion with himself, through his saints, that I am melted down with love, and filled with oneness of spirit with himself and his dear children, and so established and confirmed in his sweet mercy towards me, that I am gladdened and relieved in giving vent to a

heart filled with gratitude in tears, and sometimes my very soul looks forward to the time when there will be no interruption to love, joy, or praise. O! how my soul breaks out in the language of the poet: "Happy songsters!

When shall I your chorus join?"

And yet there is no one thing I am more ready to halt in, notwithstanding these precious feelings. I am at times so befooled by the devil, so blinded by unbelief, so confused in my judgment, that I can neither believe, hope, nor think right about anything; and I feel that I cannot make that straight which appears crooked, neither can I make darkness light, but am obliged, from necessity felt, and grace given, to ask the Lord to do it, and to teach me, and lead me, and move me to do that which is good, and to keep me from doing that which is evil. And I trust that he is graciously moving me now. But what ground have I for such a trust? Why, felt love, which is of God. He that dwells in love dwells in God; for God is love.. But is it pure? I answer, yes. How do I prove it? Why, take the truth, take Jesus Christ from you, and I will be bold to say that you would not touch my heart, much less move it.

I feel at times, my dear sister, a solemn sweetness in appealing to a heart-searching God, and feeling his approbation; knowing, by witnessing power, that I hold the mystery of faith in a pure conscience, and that I have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. It is a sweet mercy not to be left to call that common or unclean which God hath cleansed. We are all one in Christ Jesus; there is no difference; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

When I thought of beginning to write, my heart well nigh failed. I felt such utter destitution that I feared I should fail in writing, for want of matter; but these things came springing up in my mind. When the Lord sent forth his disciples without purse or scrip, he asked them a question, "Lacked ye anything ?" and they all said, "Nothing, Lord;" and so say I; and yet how hard it is to venture! What a keen struggling I feel betwixt flesh and spirit! How fear presses me sore, whilst faith seems dormant! My feelings are expressed by the poet:

""Tis to credit contradictions;

Talk with him one never sees;
Cry and groan beneath afflictions,
Yet to dread the thoughts of ease.

""Tis to feel the fight against us,
Yet the victory hope to gain;
To believe that Christ has cleansed us,
Though the leprosy remain," &c.

The Lord tries the righteous, that their offerings may be pure. When I came to the latter part of your letter, it seemed as if the unction was gone, and darkness crept on. At first, I thought that it was a mark against me; but the thought would not, could not abide. Then I was led to ponder the matter over in my mind; and it struck me respecting the Israelites trying to keep the daily manna till the