LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER I.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount.

Nov. 6, 1786.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

Tabernacle House, Bristol.

LETTER II.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON,

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount, London.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER III.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount.

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER IV.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER V.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON

LETTER VI.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER VII.

TO ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER VIII.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER IX.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER X.

TO ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON

LETTER XI.

TO MISS ELIXABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER XII.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER XIII.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

EPISTLES OF FAITH,

ADDRESSED

TO

MISS ELIZABETH MORTON,

A RIGID PAPIST.

BY

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON, S.S.

BRIGHTON:

C. VERRALL, PRINCE ALBERT STREET, & STEDMAN,

St. JAMES'S STREET.

LONDON: R. GROOMBRIDGE, & SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND M. & S.

HIGHAM, 54, CHISWELL STREET.

1851.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

Sir,—I presume you will suppose it a very extraordinary thing that a rigid Catholic attempts to write to you on the subject of religion; but, as God has really been wonderful in his dealings towards me from my youth up until now, and being at present under much distress of soul from your most powerful and striking manner of preaching, having first been led through curiosity to transgress against the rules of the Catholic church to hear you, I think it necessary to relate to you my general experience, and my present opinion of the doctrines of religion; entreating you not to make public what shall be herein inserted; though I have prayed unto God that he will direct my pen at this moment, that I may write only what I have powerfully felt:—that he will also direct you, Sir, in an answer thereto, and crown the whole with his blessing.

First, My experience.—At the age of fourteen I was taken from boarding-school, where I had been for seven years. My father being a pious man, and having heard Mr. R—ne for several years, we all, in obedience to his command, constantly attended his ministry. In those days I loved rambling from place to place, though I had often strong convictions of sins, together with much devotion, as I thought; such as going to prayer all times in the day when alone—reading so many chapters in the Bible, &c., which I thought would be acceptable to God,—but was frequently stumbling at election: and I remember, at one time in particular, how much this doctrine was impressed on my mind, so that I thought it inconsistent with the mercy of God.

I was kept under much restraint, until I lost the best of parents, which exposed me to a dependent state:—but during this time I began to be more enlightened in the doctrines of what is called Methodism ; and at times had strong desires for heaven and glory. I delighted in sitting under the word; and it seemed often a blessing to my soul.

My first launch out into life was as Teacher in a boarding-school in North Wales. I used to lament before God, at the dry moral discourses I was frequently obligated to attend. This lasted near two years; when I found a coldness and deadness towards God, and seldom searched the scriptures, to my great shame and confusion. I came to London, where I soon began to participate of every diversion that the world calls innocent. During this period I attended my brother's ministry almost every Sabbath, and had continual remorse of conscience, that the blessing of God could not crown my proceedings: then I was sure his curse must: which upon reflection grieved me much: but I was sometimes enabled to pour forth my heart in prayer before God, and entreat his pardon for the sins of my life past, through the merits of Christ my Saviour. Alas! Sir, what are we, if left one instant to ourselves! And how naturally prone to that which is evil! Glory be to grace for a crucified Redeemer.

Now as I really think that every good desire cometh from God, he being the author of good and not of evil, I believe during this part of my life God began a work of grace on my heart: for I had shed many tears on account of sin, and had often reflected on the extreme vanity of the pleasures of time and sense. When I retired to my chamber, after having been to a ball or concert, alas! Thought I, this is murdering of time! These amusements only perish the soul in the enjoyment of them! what solid satisfaction can there be in all these! ‘tis seeking for happiness where ‘tis impossible to be found.

I had several situations in view: but the grand objection was my not knowing the French Tongue, which induced me to go over to France for a short time, having it then in my power: and by the persuasion of a few friends I put in practice this expedition, with many precautions from them against turning Roman Catholic. I was truly hurt at any person's forming an idea of this kind.

I proceeded to a convent, where for eight months I poured contempt on their insinuations and forms of devotion (for at that time I deemed them such), and thought by the grace of God I never would renounce the faith I had been brought up in, and in the belief of which I had received much comfort. “Surely said they to me many times, “you wish to make us all Methodists!" Some went so far as to assert that I had the gift of revelation, from my quoting scripture on all occasions, and having my Bible more in use than any other book. I was prejudiced to a degree: and often prayed that God would enlighten their dark minds, and manifest himself unto them in his Son,—that Christ, and him only, might be exalted in their hearts. I prayed that they might search the scriptures, and they would soon be delivered from such Egyptian darkness, provided they did, as Jacob of old, wrestle with God till they had obtained the blessing, and give him the glory due unto his name.

During this time, Sir, I was continually mourning before God how many various opinions there were upon earth; and yet, says I there is but one living and true way of salvation, even Christ Jesus our Lord. I thought there might be many pious men, of different opinions, that could not be condemned ; for God said a remnant of all should be saved :—and that, no one should be cast out that called upon him in the name of Jesus. I knew that I had done this, therefore supposed my state to be secure; and did not, as before, judge any to be lost that differed from me in points of faith, I prayed continually, that if I was in the true faith, God would strengthen me in it, and let no temptation whatever get the better of me.

I had many alarming impressions on my mind; for I began to doubt whether I was in that path that leadeth to eternal happiness: and when I began to examine strictly into the matter, I was for tracing my religion from the time our Saviour had been on earth. I was always thinking, Suppose I should after all be in an error, and that it has pleased God to send me here tor the good of my soul; that, seeing so much strict piety continually practiced, this may be a means of weaning me from the love of the world,—the love of those perishing pleasures that I saw the impropriety of, but had not then power to resist, though God had often said, " Come out from among them and be ye separate." I then began to see clearly that all on earth was a shadow, and all beyond substance; and, being naturally of a serious turn, I at last thought life not worth possessing, unless given up entirely to the service of him whose service is perfect freedom. I prayed more fervently than ever for the direction and protection of Providence. I desired not life but to live to his glory. I was much comforted under many scriptures powerfully applied to me; such as, " I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee."—" I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;" and many such like. Also these; “Ye cannot serve two masters."—“If thou wilt be my disciple, forsake all and follow me."—" He that loveth the world is an enemy to God'' &c. &c. Indeed I never shall forget these times; for I loved God with my whole heart, and even began to find myself deaden very strongly to everything that opposed his divine will. All worldly conversation really and truly became a burden to me; for in all I did and said I knew God to be present with me, and that he penetrated the inmost recesses of my heart: besides, Paul had said, " Whatsoever ye do, do to the glory of God;" and, “Let your life and conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ." O how my heart was grieved! And how I wanted to know whether I should turn Catholic for my eternal happiness!—God hath promised, That “whatsoever ye ask in faith, believing, ye shall receive." I asked light from above, and thought at that time I really had it granted me; for I began clearly to see and view all on earth as a vanity and vexation of spirit." Those pleasures I once delighted in, my heart loathed.—I was wishing to seek for a kingdom “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." But, above all, I desired that Christ might dwell in my heart by faith, the hope of glory; and that every idol there might be rooted out for his sake. In short, Sir, what I felt then is not to be expressed: nor have these impressions ever left me: they are now as strong as ever.

I at last consented to be well instructed in the doctrines of the Catholic faith: and my continual salutations were as follows, viz. “That there was but one holy Catholic church, out of which no one could be saved." “Beware," said they” of neglecting the means that God has appointed; for, if you resist his grace, shortly twill be too late for you: and, if you persist in heresy, you will be eternally damned." How can that be, said I, when Christ has died for all those that truly repent: other foundation can no man lay than him on whom I rest for salvation, by his death and sufferings. I build my hope on the pillar of truth : for he has said, " My word shall not be false and, being God, he cannot lie : therefore while I live in an humble and constant dependence on him —while I have an eye to his glory through life—depend entirely upon him for salvation, and no other—wherein can I err?

These, Sir, and many more disputes we had of a like nature. The priest then was introduced to me; and we had long arguments, but to no effect. At last, reflecting one day on the shortness of time— the immensity of eternity—and the importance of the soul—I began to see evidently the danger of my state by nature; and my sins were black as Satan before me. I really thought, that if the righteous would scarcely be saved, where should such a hell-deserving wretch as I appear! that if we were to give an account of every idle word, what would become of me at that day! I thought that God might require my soul that night—and how was I prepared!—that we were exhorted to repent to-day, while it is called to-day, lest the Lord should kindle his wrath against us, and banish us from his presence for evermore.

I was miserable in this state, and found my sins a burden almost too heavy for me to bear; and all I desired was to renounce all, take up my cross, and follow Christ, which was the only way to eternal happiness: and that, seeking it in God's way, I should find it to the comfort of my soul. Their arguments were powerful. I was assured that Luther and Calvin, two great imposters, were the authors of my profession. And many most awful anathemas were alleged by these people against all who did not allow the Roman Catholic faith to be the true and only religion appointed by our Saviour himself. All these persuasions and insinuations at that time had no effect with me; for I stuck close to the word of God, which seemed as a wall of fire around me, to guard me from such principles. I really felt that the holy scriptures at that time were as the sword of the Spirit, and as a powerful weapon in my hand.

But to be short: after all this, from a thorough knowledge of their doctrines, and an incessant sting of conscience that I had been brought up in a reformed, erroneous religion, and that God only could be the founder of this established church, (and indeed I had never seen so much seeming piety any where before) I concluded to embrace the Roman Catholic faith, upon two conditions: First, That I was not to renounce the Bible; that is, into the hands of the Priest, so as to be deprived the use of the divine word. Secondly, That I should not pray to the Virgin Mary: all other things I could submit to, being proved from scripture; but this last I could not. The Priest informed me, that praying to Saints, &c. was not a strict article of their faith; it was only commended in the word of God; of which, Sir, I shall presently give you a proof. As to the Bible, this has hurt me much; for, will you believe it (and I am sorry to say) that he wanted to take it from me, and used every means he could for this purpose; but I plainly told him, that many great and precious promises were to be found in that book that we could not meet in others; that I had found more comfort in what was therein contained than in the most sublime authors : besides, it was the word of God left us upon record ; and we were expressly commanded to search the scriptures; and God also, by Moses, commanded all to read and understand the holy scriptures. In short I absolutely would not give it up, but would renounce any other book instead of it; for where, said I, can you prove from it that God has desired us to give up his word? No, Sir, said I, rather would I give up my life; and therefore say no more on the subject; for I shall promote the reading of it wherever I go. I felt much, and even staggered, to think their religion should wish to keep us in darkness. I was allowed this privilege (for there was no remedy), and throughout the convent it was spoken of as a miraculous circumstance. And glory be to that grace that created in me these ideas; for I have since found the comfort of it. However, I find that all Catholic Priests are not equally severe in this respect: I shall presently relate to you a circumstance that will convince you to the contrary: but at that time I fought hard to keep this precious word in my possession, and praised God afterwards that I had gained the victory. I was so partial to St. Paul's Epistles, that I was perfectly well known throughout the monastery by the name of this man of God; and I often threatened, in a jocular way, to change my name for his, when I turned a Nun as one them; for, in taking the veil, these Nuns renounce their own name for that of some saint. However, true it was, that I found the desires of a monastic life so increase upon me, that I was no longer my own, but wished to offer my soul and body a sacrifice to God. I often said with Job, I long for death, but it cometh not, and to dig for it more than for hidden treasures." I grew weary of every thing on earth; for I longed to be with Christ, which I thought far better. These desires increased stronger and stronger. I thought the most sure way to keep myself unspotted from the world was, by the grace of God, to come out entirely from amongst them, and to set my face Zion-ward; for my sincere aim and end, Sir, was simply to give my heart, lip, and life, entirely to God, and to love him above all, in all, and through all Then, thought I, how can this be done in the world? If I marry, God will not have that entire possession of my heart I wish ;—neither can I be so unreservedly given up to his service. The perplexities, cares, and trials unavoidable in the world, will certainly prevent me that entire communion with my God I so ardently crave. But then, thought I, God has said, “Let your light shine before men, that ye may glorify your Father which is in heaven." Then I wished to live as if God and myself were only upon earth :—to shut my eyes and stop my ears to every thing that was not of him ;—to frequent his house continually, and to approach the sacrament constantly;—how was this to be done in the world ? and more particularly in a dependent state?—I prayed to God that he would enable me to conclude to his glory and the good of my soul.

All this time, Sir, I had not the means to settle me for life in this situation; but was well persuaded, that, if my desires were well grounded, and God had given me this calling, he had an equal power to grant me the sum I wanted.

But, observe, during this period I abjured publicly in the church the heresy I had been brought up in I anathematized all doctrines contrary to the Roman Catholic:—I swore, with my hand on the Bible, that I would hold those doctrines to the last moment of my life, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. After this, my abjuration was signed in a large book by, I think, four witnesses. I then proceeded to Boulogne, where I received the confirmation of the Bishop. The superior, or head of the convent I was in, resided with the Bishop; and I at that time revealed my mind concerning my desires of a monastic life. But, said I, Sir, the sum that should be paid down I have not. He approved so much my sentiments, that he offered to lay the money down, or that I should be admitted on his account. This was a great encouragement to me; and I wanted then but a trifle annually to complete my desires.

I shortly quitted France, with a full intent and promise to return, if it pleased God I should gain the means. When I returned to England, I was at a loss what situation to undertake, being then a rigid Catholic. I implored God that he would provide for me: he accordingly did; for in a fortnight I was summoned by a priest of the Greek Church (whom I became acquainted with in a surprising manner) to undertake a place as governess to one young lady in a nobleman's family in Russia. My salary would have gained me sufficient to return to this my desired abode in about three years.

To Russia I went. And here were luxuries of every nature—gaiety and pleasures of all kinds. I could have enjoyed the delights of this world in their true perfection. But I found my heart deaden to all; and often reflected that ere long these gay people must resign all, and give an account before God of the time they thus employed. No persuasion whatever could induce me to a play, or any kind of diversion: for I knew the blessing of God could not dwell amongst them.

I at this time enjoyed every affluence the human heart could wish. But I was a martyr almost two years. I prayed unto God for resignation and patience, for I really thought the time would never arrive, that I might quit entirely these abominations. I felt for my fellow mortals who were thus wallowing in sin: and only glorified God that I despised them all for his sake, and that I trusted my heart was truly united to him.

I took so much to heart this worldly situation, that my peace of mind was destroyed: and I was so truly miserable, Sir, that by degrees I lost my health entirely. I had the advice of two physicians, who assured me a change of air and climate must take place, or I never could recover. This obliged me to quit my situation and return to England, where I arrived at my brother's the latter end of June, and have been here ever since. He being a gospel minister I met with much opposition on account of religion. We had continual arguments on the subject, but to no purpose. I refused attending to family prayer; neither would I enter the chapel that joins his house. But observe, that I was determined to return to France, by the help of God, as soon as my health was established, to be a Nun.

During this time, I had a few friends call one lecture night to hear my brother preach. I was obliged to attend them through civility, but much against my inclination. I could not attend to the sermon, neither could I repeat afterwards a dozen words I had heard, for I was dreadfully agitated the whole time, fearing some heavy judgment would fall upon me for transgressing against the order of our church, and joining with heresy.

I was still praying to God to hasten the time of my return to France, and had continual entreaties from them to set out. At last my sister-in-law arrived in town, (for she had been two months in the country) whose pious zeal and real concern induced her to use every effort in order to convince me of the errors of those principles I had so strongly imbibed—but all was vain. Her great aim for this purpose was to draw me under the word. With very much persuasion I went three or four times, but was determined every time should be the last; for I had heard all such before, and I found no profit—indeed I did not pray for any. My mind was much distressed on this account—and I implored God to strengthen me more and more, and enable me to resist all insinuation and every heresy. I flew to the Bible, and said, surely God is my refuge, and Christ is my Saviour. I will not be cast down, nor fear what man can say or do unto me; for I humbly trust that he has wrote his law in my heart, and he can and will deliver me from every unclean beast.—I have embraced those doctrines that he himself taught on earth.—I entreated God to strengthen my faith.

All this time a close view of death was deeply impressed on my mind. I was in most horrid doubts and fears concerning the state of my soul. I was miserable on account of the burden of sin, and how little I lived to the glory of that God who had called me out of darkness into marvelous light. Night and day the horrors of death and sin, and the vanity of every thing this side the grave, were continually before me; and this last idea I believe will never leave me.

Now to the point.—My sister-in-law entreated me very much to hear a Mr Huntington, whom she said God had brought to the knowledge of the truth in a most astonishing manner. I would not consent to this: and rather reproached her for being a rambler. I said, surely this man is some spurt of the day that you are so much taken with. My brother, in a jocular way, replied, “I assure you she is quite a Huntingtonian; but," says he,” I believe him to be a chosen vessel, and that his ministry is made useful to many. However, I'll fetch from my study his “Bank of Faith,” which I think must induce you once at any rate to hear him preach." This being done, it was read; and I was highly entertained, and much struck at the singular providences that had attended him. I rejoiced my sister, by saying I would attend her the following Tuesday to Monkwell Street. I took care to say, — from no other motive than curiosity,—which was really the case. We went;—and I observed two things in his preaching which at once prepossessed me in favor of Mr. Huntington.

First, How he exalted Christ as our only happiness, and in whom only we should or could find rest for our souls. Thinks I, this man has my own ideas exactly, and yet he must be an enemy to my faith.

Secondly, How he exalted the word of God. Alas! thinks I, if this man was of the Catholic faith, he would be instrumental of much good being done—he would instruct the ignorant in those sacred truths—he would scatter the word of God among the people.

Now, Sir, I shall not relate all I felt under this sermon: for we sometimes think the Spirit of God has begun a work on our hearts, when our lives and conversation are a proof that it is the force of imagination; which I have known to be great during my life. I do not call you father; nor can I yet say I have been altogether called under your ministry; for I still am a strong Catholic in many points of faith, which I shall give you my reasons for. But you certainly have been a means of removing many prejudices from me; for, from your great knowledge of the scriptures, and the most striking manner in which you expound them: your deep experience, and the wonders of God towards you—I have these words always impressed on my mind concerning you, viz., Surely, this is indeed and of a truth a man sent of God.

"But, say you, "this is giving the lie to your own church; for they declare that all are lost out of their faith. How then can I in your opinion be a man of God?" I tell you what, Sir, I state my whole case as it really is. Now these ideas are so deeply impressed on my mind, that, was I giving my opinion to a Catholic Priest, I should repeat the same words. I always remember that God is the searcher of hearts; how therefore, can I give conscience the lie? God forbid!

After having been once, and those impressions continually pursuing me, I was obligated to hear you again and again; and have several times since left Monkwell-street under strong conviction of sin, and a heart overflowing with grief. I now hear you, Sir, from conscience, and not curiosity. I feel powerfully this passage of scripture—that it is becoming every man to be steady in the true faith, “and not tossed about with every wind of doctrine."

I desired much, Sir, from this, to converse with you on the doctrinal points of religion; nor could I rest until I had made this proposal. But hearing you so severe against the Arminians, &c, I rather thought you would not agree to reason the subject over in a rational manner, but begin in the same manner as in the pulpit, which I could not approve of. Many things may be well spoken to a public congregation that in private argument would be of no effect. Excuse my being so blunt; for out of the abundance of the heart my mouth speaketh.

I was informed that you would converse with me as becometh a minister of Christ. I heard you on Sunday evening: and, surely, never was I so deeply affected, especially at that part where the whore of Babylon was mentioned.—I prayed unto God that he would make me one of his clear children, and by his grace I would be happy to renounce all on earth.

I was happy when Mr. King informed me you desired me to write my sentiments—as relating my exact experience will give you some idea of the person. Though I might have mentioned many more little circumstances, but fear you will scarce have patience to go through this long epistle.

Now, Sir, if you are the instrument, in the hand of God, of removing my prejudice, or changing my heart, so as totally to renounce the Catholic religion, not unto you, but unto God alone be all the glory.—I shall then conclude that I have thoroughly been called under your ministry—or that you have been the instrument for this great work. For I assure you, Sir, many great efforts have been made without effect.—My brother is an acceptable minister, and hath used powerful arguments—also prayed for it continually—but "Paul may plant, Apollos water, but God only can give the increase."

My present state is this—I labour under much distress of mind— full of doubts and fears—a dreadful view of death and judgment-— which are continually before my eyes. In short, I desire only one thing, which is, to have an interest in Christ, and to be found in him at that day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be opened. But I am so presumptuous as to wish for some token that I am a child of God ; for I view myself in so black a light, that I really fear at the last day my sins must stare me in the face. O for faith to build on Christ—the only hope of my salvation!

As I have very candidly given you a retrospect of my life, I hope, Sir, it will rest with you, and not be exposed to another.

I now come to doctrinal points—but entreat your patience.

With regard to the doctrine of election, it is what I cannot believe, though your “Kingdom of Heaven taken by Prayer" points out a number of scriptures in favor of it. Surely Christ died for us all, and not a certain number; for as in Adam all died so in him were all made alive. Was he not a ransom for all? Is not the way that our Saviour has himself laid down in his word free for all? He has said, no one shall be cast out. When I believed in election, was always doubting whether Christ had shed his blood for me or not.

Now, in falling finally from grace—God has set before man's good and evil, to choose or refuse—consequently he has given man a free will and power:—if rejected, thy destruction be to thyself, 0 Israel! Paul says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," and not with presumption. And again, while he was preaching to others, he was in fear himself of becoming a cast-away.

With regard to the universal church of Christ—Before he left this earth he said unto his disciples, Lo! I am with you alway unto the end of the world;" if so, how is it possible that errors could creep into the church, and he leave it for many ages in darkness and absurdities? As to all appearance, what you call the light of the gospel, has not been known, so as to be professed, until the Reformation: now, how can that be proved to be the true church? for, if this be the case, Christ must have left his church, contrary to his promise.

With regard to images—The Catholics do not worship them, nor even honor the representations of Christ and his saints but, only as they tend to impress the real persons on their mind. This is no obligation; for I never have any in my possession, knowing that God regardeth not outward forms: but a contrite heart I believe to be more acceptable in his sight.

As to praying to saints—It is not an absolute command. For my part, I generally address my prayers to Christ, as Mediator.

As to confession—It is evident that Christ left a power upon earth to his ministers to pardon the sins of the penitent:” Whose soever sins," says he,” ye retain, they are retained; and whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted " Now, how were they to remit or retain them, unless by the knowledge of them? and how were they to come to the knowledge of them but by confession? for who can penetrate a sinner's heart?

With regard to the sacrament of the Lord's supper—We believe the reality of it, because Christ said, “This is my body and blood." For, when the unbelieving Jews murmured, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh?" he did not reply he meant figuratively, but “he that did not do it should have no part with him." All things being possible to them that believe, we build our faith on what God has himself declared.

With regard to traditions—This we call the unwritten word; and, as our Saviour taught by word of mouth only, as also did the Apostles at first, they trained up disciples capable of training up others, as you see in {2 Tim. 2: 2}. Faith obliges us to believe tradition; because it sprang from the same source as the word of God, even the inspirations of the Holy Ghost: " Brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or epistle."

Now, as to the word of God—My Priest in London never offered to pluck it from my hands; and if he had, I never would have permitted it; for God's word is to me a shield and buckler, and without it I should be exposed to many and great dangers. The reasons I had given me were—That the people were deprived those translations only of the Bible that were thought to deviate from the originals; as, in the time of the Reformation, different translations were published.

Another thing—Though Mr. Huntington observed in his sermon, that he would rather build upon Mary Magdalene than Peter; yet our Saviour certainly was very clear in the words he spoke, {Matt, 16: 18}, and I see some propriety in it; for, observe, that Peter could be no rock, unless built on Christ. So I view it.

I believe also in the sacrifice of the mass; but have my doubts about pardons and purgatory, more particularly since I have heard you preach.

I leave the event with God, and by his grace shall act from conviction. Beg your answer, Sir, when convenient, which I shall pay due attention to; at the same time beg of God, if I have backslidden from him, that he will bring me back to his fold, never more to wander from him.

I should be glad if you would deliver your answer to the care of Mr. King-, which will be forwarded to me; and, above all, entreat an interest in your prayers, and remain,

Your most humble servant,

Holywell Mount,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

Oct, 19, 1786.

LETTER I.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount.

Nov. 6, 1786.

Madam,—I received your long epistle, safely sealed. I laid it before God, and prayed over it; and earnestly entreated him to furnish me with an answer to you, and to give me such a one as shall stand the scrutiny of God's bar at the judgment-day. I will give you no flattering titles, nor give up one plain truth to your reasoning’s; as I do not want ff to compass either sea or land to make proselytes" to any sect, party, or non-essential opinion of mine.

I trust I can say, that I preach nothing but the very same truths that God himself revealed to me: those truths which God has honoured, owned, and blessed to the souls of hundreds. This I have seen ever since I began to open my mouth in his name; and I trust they are those truths that will make me happy for ever: and I know they are the doctrines that lay couched under the first promise that God revealed to Adam and Eve, and by the faith of which Abel obtained witness that he was righteous; and appeared the first martyr, the first saint, and the first fruit of sovereign grace that ever entered the Holy of Holies.

There is salvation in no other name, but in Christ Jesus; and his salvation can never be applied to any soul by any person but by the Holy Ghost himself, {John 16: 14}. The operations of the Holy Spirit are powerful, and must be so, to subdue such stubborn and rebellious wills as yours, {Psalm. 110: 3}. And, where this sin-subduing, and heart-dissolving power is felt, the neck is bowed to the yoke of Christ, {Matt. 11: 29}, and the heart is enlarged to receive the Saviour with all his benefits, as the only aid, friend, and lover of poor, wretched, ruined sinners.

The troubled mind is then made pure and spiritual, not erroneous, and is sweetly attended with that which you are destitute of, I mean life and peace," {Rom, 8: 6}. The conscience is purged from “dead works," and from guilt, {Heb. 9: 14}, the desires of the soul after God are fervent, {Isa. 26: 9}, and the affections divinely influenced, powerfully drawn forth, and warmly attached to God, {Rom. 5: 5}. This is what Paul calls a new creation in Christ; and such an one is a new creature: “Circumcision availeth nothing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature, and faith that worketh by love," {Gal. 6: l5}. It is not the “mystery of the whore of Babylon" in a hot head that will save your soul, but “the mystery of faith in a pure conscience," {1 Tim. 3: 9}. But this you are an entire stranger to; nor has your present religion produced it. All your profession has been vain in this respect; and your Popish faith is also vain, because “you are yet in your sins," {1 Cor. 15: 17}.

After I had read your letter, I happened promiscuously to turn up the seventeenth chapter of the Revelations, the reading of which forcibly struck me, as I think it contains a full description of the Popish church, and the awful judgments she is threatened with.

This letter of yours is not without partiality, nor without hypocrisy. I know Popery better than you do; I have seen their devotions, and am in possession of several volumes of their writings. However, it is not turning to this religion or that, which will save a soul. You may forsake Popery, and follow me ; and then forsake me, and turn Quaker; and then turn Baptist; and then turn Presbyterian; but you will never turn to God till God turns your heart: " Turn thou me, and I shall be turned," says Ephraim, " for thou art the Lord my God. Surely, after that I was turned, I repented," {Jer. 31: 18, 19}.

If you read the Prophet Hosea, you will see how many times Ephraim turned himself: first, by mixing himself among the people, as you have done in turning to Popery: he turned to the Assyrians, {Hos. 5: 13}; he turned Mammonist, {Hos. 12: 8}; and he turned Idolater, {Hos. 4: 17}. But, God said, “he was a cake not turned" after all, {Hos. 7: 8}. For, though he had “mixed himself" with people of many persuasions, heathens and idolaters not excluded, yet he had never” mixed faith with God's word," {Heb. 4: 2}, nor mixed his conscience with the witness of God's Spirit, {Rom. 9: 1}. Therefore, all his turning left him unconverted to God, destitute of peace, and without hope in the world, as you are to this day; or else you would never have joined yourself to a community that is involved in the crying guilt of so much innocent blood; which, if free grace prevent not, you have by oaths, vows, and profession, entailed upon your wretched head: as the Jews, by their prayers, entailed the blood of the Lord on themselves and their children.

Madam, ere long, you and I shall both appear at the bar of God; and, as I have obtained mercy to be found faithful, I am determined not to trifle with God's truth, nor with your soul, seeing God has cursed him that " doth his work deceitfully," {Jer. 48: 10}. Therefore, expect me to be as blunt with the word of God as you are with Satan's lies. I tell you, in God's name, that your conscience shall never get rid of this my faithful testimony for God to all eternity, whether you are saved or lost. I shall be a witness for God, either in your behalf, or against you—God grant it may be the former; but, if not, I trust I shall be a sweet smelling savour, as well in them that perish as in them that are saved," {2 Cor. 2: 15}. “If Israel be not gathered," saith the Prophet,” yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my work is with my God."

In order, therefore, to convey the light and force of truth as intelligibly to your judgment and conscience as possible, I will give you—

First, A scriptural account of Popery.

Secondly, Shew you, from God's word, what you have done in swerving from your former profession, and joining yourself to that community,

Thirdly, What you are entitled to, in consequence of your union with them.

Fourthly, I shall detect your hypocrisy, in wresting and perverting the word of God; and—

Lastly, Give you a scriptural account of the intoxication you felt when you turned Papist; and appeal to God, and your conscience, in his sight, as I go on.

First, I shall give you the Holy Ghost's description of the Pope, and of Popery. He foretells of an awful apostasy from the truth, before the second coming of our Lord and Saviour; and declares that the day of judgment “shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition," {2 Thess. 2: 3}.

Now, to shew the certainty of the Lord's coming, and of the accomplishment of the prediction, thousands are daily falling away from an outward profession ; and you are a living witness of this truth; and God will surely make you feel the bitter effects of it, either in true repentance, or in hell for the want of it.

In the 4th verse of that chapter you have the character of him, as you have his name in the 3rd verse. His character is, “that he opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." These descriptions can be applied to no other monster than to that political and ecclesiastical head. “He opposeth God" in killing his saints, destroying, burning, and perverting his word. If he, was a friend of God, he would enforce his laws, and not burn the revelations of his mind and will. “He exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped," in selling his various bulls, or pardons, to all that apply for them; which God never did: and, also, in pretending to bring souls out of purgatory, which God never will do: for the " gulf" of God's decree is " fixed," " so that there is no passing into Abraham's bosom from hell." He “exalteth himself above all that is called God," in canonizing foolish, ignorant sinners, for money; which God never did, nor allowed. He refused to canonize a certain prince of England because his brother would not pay twenty-five thousand pounds for it. “He exalteth himself above God" in contradicting his laws, in behalf of his own traditions, and shutting up poor silly women, called Nuns, both from the light of divine revelation, and from an open profession of the truth, which Christ hath absolutely commanded :  “Search the scriptures ; what I have said in secret, proclaim on the house tops; let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works," which cannot be done in a nunnery. God doth not light a candle to put it under a bed of straw in a convent, nor under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that all may see the light. True religion is not to be hid in a corner. The church of Christ “is a city set on a hill that cannot be hid."

To shut up the word of God from poor sinners is the way to lead them to hell blindfold. God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," {Hos. 4: 6}. He that rejects knowledge, and forgets the law, is to be no priest of God, {Hos. 4: 6}. “A pastor after God's own heart is to feed the people with knowledge and understanding," {Jer. 3: 15}. And those souls are approved that search the scriptures. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, "in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, to see if the things were so," {Acts 17: 11}. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them," {Isa. 8: 20}.

“He sitteth in the temple of God:" That is, he assumed a supremacy over the church of Christ, when it was pure; and, in process of time, turned her into an harlot. The first Pope was established in his supremacy by ambitious men, confused synods, infernal fraud, and the force of the sword. Some he deceived by “lying wonders," others by the intoxication of errors, and others by the sword of war: so that “the whole world wondered after the beast," and impiously asked, "Who is able to make war with him?" {Rev. 13: 4}.

" He sheweth himself that he is God," by pardoning and absolving sinners, by anathematizing all that oppose him in his assumed supremacy, and by letting all his followers into heaven with his keys, as he tells them, and cursing, with bell, book, and candle, all others, as heritics. This prerogative belongs to God only.

“He sheweth himself that he is God," by his titles: God's Vicar —Christ's Vicar—Peter's Successor—our Lord God the Pope—His Holiness—Papa, &c. " Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your father, which is in heaven; and one is your master even Christ,” {Matt. 23: 9, 10}.

“He exalteth himself above all that is called God," by swearing an his followers. God never did this, nor commanded it. Christ's command to us is, “Swear not at all, neither by heaven, earth, or the hairs of our head, in behalf of religion; though it is lawful in civil matters, to put an end to all strife,” {Heb. 6: 16}. If God had set the Pope in his chair, he need not be afraid of being dismounted. God's power would be as sufficient in defending him in it, as in exalting him to it.

The Pope is called " a Prophet,” because he pretends to be the only infallible interpreter of scripture. He is called a “false Prophet,” {Rev. 16: 13}, because he rejects the word of the Lord, and sets up his own traditions. He is called “a Lamb," {Rev. 13: 11}, because, as antichrist, he mimics Christ, in his pretended humility, in washing the Cardinal's feet. He is called “a lamb with two horns," because of the twofold power that he has usurped, that of civil magistracy and ecclesiastical authority.

I come now to show his doctrines, which you will find in {1 Tim. 4: 2-5}. "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils: speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." The Holy Ghost says, "That if a minister put the people in remembrance of these things, he shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine" {1 Tim. 4: 6}. Now, you have, in this last quotation, the name, and a description of the doctrines, of the man of sin : God says, “They are doctrines of devils ;" and the contradiction of God himself is annexed to them.

Now, I ask you, in the presence of God, whether forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received, be not the Pope's doctrines? If you say, No; you will belie your own conscience, you will contradict your letter now before me; and I can contradict you from an hundred Popish authors. Forbidding to marry is a contradiction of the whole word of God. “Increase and multiply" is God's command. “Marriage is honourable, and the bed undefiled ; but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." “Blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of children." “The fruit of the womb is God's reward, and with such he will plant the heavens," {Isa. 51: 16}.

God himself is concerned in wedlock, and honours it by appropriating the title of a Husband to himself. “Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name,” {Isa. 54: 5}. Christ is concerned in it, and assumes the name of a " Bridegroom,” {Matt. 25: 5}; and the church is said to be espoused: “I have espoused you to a good husband, that I may present you as chaste virgins to Christ," {2 Cor. 11: 2}. “ I will," says God, “ that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully; for some are already turned aside after Satan," {1 Tim. 5: 14, 15}. The church of God goes by the name of “virgins, virgins espoused," the” bride" of Christ, the “Lamb’s wife;" and heaven is called by the Lord himself the “wedding-chamber;" and the enjoyment of Christ is called " the marriage of the Lamb," {Rev. 19: 7}.

In opposition to all this, you have joined yourself to that head that holds those doctrines of devils—“forbidding to marry;" though the covenant of grace is a covenant of wedlock, {Hos. 2: 19}. You are justly styled a " daughter of the whore of Babylon:" that is the name that God gives your mother, who commits a threefold adultery: First, By “forbidding to marry." Secondly, By licensing brothels; and, Thirdly, By forsaking a covenant of grace, by faith in which souls are espoused to Christ. This is the whore “that forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God," {Prov. 2: 17}.

You have embraced this Popish tenet, by your letter, and was going into a monastery, that you might merit heaven by disobedience to God's command. “I will that young women marry," says God,” and not turn aside after Satan." You desire to devote body and soul entirely pure to Christ. How dare you to cast a reflection on the honorable state of wedlock, that God himself ordained, and has greatly honored? God is called a “husband"—His church a “wife" —His decrees a “womb," {Zeph. 2: 2, Isa. 66: 9}. His word an “incorruptible seed," {1 Pet. 1: 23}. His powerful operations a “begetting of sinners,'' {James 1: 18}. Their troubles are called a “travailing"—their union an “espousing"—their enjoyment a “wedding"—and their deliverance from the law and sin a “bringing forth." God himself made the match between Christ and his church, and will appear as a Father to his chosen daughter for ever; and she will appear the free wife of his Son, the King's daughter, the queen in glorious majesty, and the admiration of angels to all eternity.

These truths you have already given up; and woe be to your soul, if God lets you die without a part or lot in them. Foolish virgins, destitute of oil, are for ever excluded.

As for your going into a monastery to be out of the world, and to keep body and soul both pure for Christ, as you mention in your letter, is a mere farce. You must talk at this rate to a Popish Priest, “who calls light darkness, and darkness light;" but not to any person who knows the plague of his own heart, and reads the Bible. I shall deal with you as Solomon did with Sheba, tell you a little of what is in your heart.

If you go into a nunnery, a guilty conscience, carnal desires, wanton passions, arrogant pride of being called Paul's daughter Awhile you are an enemy to his God, and to his doctrines), will follow you. Nothing will make you clean, nor keep you pure, but “the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," {Tit. 3: 5}. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit." I hint at this, to let you know that he “who is spiritual judgeth all things, but himself is judged of no man," {1 Cor. 2: 15}.

Popish contempt of wedlock falls on one of the sweetest mysteries in the Bible,—I mean the saints union and oneness with Christ. If God had intended such a doctrine should have been enforced, he would never have told Joseph to take unto him Mary his wife, to be the supposed father of that which she conceived by the Holy Ghost.  “These are the doctrines of devils," and this is “speaking lies in hypocrisy" with a witness, {1 Tim. 4: 1, 2}.

As to the other Popish tenet foretold, I mean, of “commanding to abstain from meats"—this is so palpable, that every fish-monger, or dealer in red-herrings in England, will avouch it. Will you call this a fast to the Lord? Is this ceasing from the sin of covetousness? Is this vomiting up riches to clothe the naked? Is abstaining from animal flesh, and filling the belly with fish, a fast? Is not one flesh as well as the other? Is there not ff one kind of flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds?" {1 Cor. 15: 39}. “Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Wilt thou call this a fast? an acceptable day unto the Lord? Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry? and that thou bring the poor that are cast Out to thine house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh ? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily," {Isa. 58: 5-8}.

The next portrait of antichrist's doctrine is, " that he holds the doctrines of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication," {Rev. 2: 14}. And what doctrines are they? but such as your letter specifies, and such as you are taught; namely, to curse the saints of God as heretics, and their doctrines as heresies ; and as such you have burnt them: and what was Balaam's work? but to curse Israel, and bless the wicked for money; and then to tempt the people of Israel to idolatry, that God might destroy them; which wretched device took effect, {Numb. 15: 1,2, 3}. This is the stumbling-block that he cast before the children of Israel; and this is the stumbling-block that mystical Balaam has cast in your way, out of which none but God can ever deliver you.

Another portrait of his doctrine is, that the mystical whore Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, is suffered to teach and seduce God's servants to commit fornication, {Rev. 2: 20}. And why is the church of Rome compared to Jezebel? First, because she was heathen, as Rome once was. Secondly, Because she destroyed all God's prophets but Elijah, as Rome has endeavoured to do; and kept four hundred and fifty false ones at her own expense, as Rome now does; which doctrines you have received already. She is said to “seduce God's servants:" and you are one that is seduced: but God will kill those converts that die on her lap—“I will cast her into a bed, and all that commit adultery with her, into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds: and I will kill her children with death," {Rev. 2: 22}. You feel something of these tribulations already in your own conscience; “which is but the beginning of sorrows."

Lastly, The Pope and his church are said to reign over the kings of the earth—" The horns of the whore are ten kings," {Rev. 17: 3}, which can be applied to no head nor body in all the world but to the Pope, and to the church of Rome: and it is well known to the world who these ten kings have been. Some are fallen off, and some are not: and “these are to hate her at last, and burn her with fire," {Rev. 17: 16}.

These wretched errors are to be made manifest by the light of Christ's gospel, and to be consumed with the Spirit of Christ's mouth, or by the power of the Holy Ghost, and " destroyed with the brightness of his coming," {2 Thess. 2: 8}.

I come now to shew you what you have done, by swearing and joining yourself to that body.

An oath is a solemn appeal to God for confirmation—a bringing of God in as the sole witness of the thing sworn to; and whatsoever a man parts with upon oath is gone for ever, by his own consent, in the name and presence of God himself; as may be seen in that profane wretch Esau, " who for a morsel of meat sold his birthright to his brother" Jacob, and swore by God's name at the sale of it; and, afterwards, " though he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected ; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears," {Heb. 12: 16, 17, 18}.

An oath is pawning all claim on God, and forfeiting all right and title to a gospel promise, or promised blessing if it be not true. This is the consequence of swearing by God's name; and is the reason why the Bible is produced at an oath; to shew that we forfeit all the blessings of God's word if we swear falsely; and this is done by laying the hand on it, or kissing of it. God says, “Thou shalt perform unto the Lord thine oath." If you perform yours, you must continue to do as you have done; that is, you must give up the doctrines which you have rejected as heresies, and reject the supremacy of Christ as the only head of the church, and cleave to the supremacy of antichrist as the universal head of that church which you have sworn to; and, if you perform your oath, and obtain the kingdom of God that way, all the saints in the Bible are deceived; and you are in the right way, though you confess that you are yet in your sins, in the fear of death, and terrors of hell; and that you have sorrow of heart, which God calls " his curse unto them;" therefore it is not likely that you should have found the infallible path, who have so much done on you by man, and yet act without God, and without hope in the world. I tell you, that you shall never escape the damnation of hell by these doctrines of yours. In behalf of this assertion, I have above one hundred Popish writers on my side, who own, that their best followers go to purgatory; which, if they do, I say, in God's name, that they shall never come out, world without end.

You assert that they do not worship angels; but God says they do. He that addresses an angel in worship, worships an angel; and he that bows down before an image, worships that image. Do you not fall down to the stock of a tree? {Isa. 44: 19, 20}. And he that implores the assistance of a saint in his devotion, worships that saint. He that has an image to remind him of the object of worship, sets up an abomination to God; and God has promised “to answer that man by himself," {Ezek. 14: 1-4}. Is an idol to remind you of a God? “To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him ? The workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold, and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh a cunning workman to prepare an image," {Isa. 40: 18, 19, 20}. What gross conceptions must you have of the “eternal power and Godhead, to think that it is like to silver, or gold, or stone, graven by art and man's device? The times of this ignorance [among the Pagans] God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent of it," {Acts 17: 29-30}. But I suppose you have your answer ready—that, though no likeness can be taken of the Deity, yet, the figure of a man reminds yon of the Saviour's human nature. “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him so no more," {2 Cor. 5: 16}. You are no more justifiable in likening him to the image of a sinful man, than the Israelites were in comparing him to a calf; for Christ is called the “fatted calf," as well as the " man of sorrows." “Israel changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass (when they bowed to the molten image): they forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt, and wonders in the land of Ham," {Psalm 106: 19-22}. And you do no less when " you corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female," {Deut. 4: 16}. It matters not whether you kiss a “silver Jesus," or whether you “kiss the calves of Bethel," {Hos. 13: 2}. They are both infernal idolatry. Will you call this a mark of the true church, which God has represented as the badge of so many thousand reprobates? “Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him," {1 Kings 19: 18}.

God says, “Let no man judge you in meats and drinks, (are not these Popish tenets?) or in respect of any holy-day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabhath days. Have you not hundreds of these days to be seen in all your chapels, even against every wall of them? I know you have. God says," The Sabhath day is a shadow of good things to come;" that is, it is a sign of eternal rest, that the saints “may rest from their works, as God did from his," {Heb. 4: 10}. “But the body is of Christ," not of the Pope; and the body consists of believers only, in spiritual union with Christ, by the bond of love, and not in assenting to the lies of a strumpet.

“Let no man beguile you," says God, "of your reward in a voluntary humility," such as you was going volunteer to, by entering into a monastery for life, to patch up a false righteousness, and a " feigned humility, and a worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which [the man of sin] hath not seen, vainly puffed up with his fleshly mind,” {Colos. 2: 16-23}.

In verse the 19th, you are charged with” not holding the head," which is Christ alone; and this head you gave up by oath, when you acknowledged and swore to the Pope, who is " antichrist/' Christ allows none of his servants “to be lords over his heritage," {1 Pet. 5: 3}, but to be “servants of all." But you are apostatized from Christ, the only head of influence, “from which all the body of Christ, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God,"

The Holy Ghost goes on in describing of Popery, and cautioning the saints against it—" Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world," as you pretend to be, by desiring a monastic life, why do you give up one evil, and cleave to another ? “why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" A monastic life is a human ordinance; fasting in Lent, and on Fridays, is a human ordinance; giving a wafer, instead of bread and wine, is a human ordinance. Therefore, God says, " Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish with the using, after the commandments and doctrines of men, and not after Christ: which things have indeed a shew of wisdom, in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body," or church of Christ; “not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh." A feigned humility, and a free-will worship, is all that you contend for in this letter of yours.

You have, by taking the oaths, received what God calls the “mark of the beast," {Rev. 13: 16}. As it is written: “And the beast caused all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their forehead." By the forehead is meant an open profession of Popery, and a brazen brow in defence of it; agreeable to what God says of the open prophecy of his open and faithful prophet Ezekiel: “As the adatnant is harder than the flint, so have I made thy forehead against their foreheads; therefore fear them not," {Ezek. 3: 8}.

I can feel the effects of the beast's mark on your forehead, by this letter; for it is already cased with an hardened boldness in the defense of lies; and every text of scripture that you have quoted, you have perverted; which is a proof that you have got what God calls a [spiritual] " whore's forehead," {Jer. 3: 3}, " because, as a woman wickedly departeth from her husband, and forsaketh her marriage covenant, so have you wickedly departed from God," and from the profession you made of a covenant of grace. A real Christian has the " name of God in his forehead:" “God is the health of his countenance;" and he is valiant for truth, {Rev. 9: 4; Rev. 14: 1}, while a soul hardened in Popish principles, bears the beast's mark, opposes God, and the word of his grace.

Notwithstanding your contention for free-will, I can see that you have fulfilled the will of God, even in this your apostasy: for God says, “All that dwell upon earth shall worship the beast, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," {Rev. 13: 8}. Nor do I wonder at your present distress of mind; for it is no more than what God has declared : he threatens all such apostates with ruin and destruction, except they repent; " They have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name," {Rev. 14: 11}. You own his mark, and the mark of his name, by styling yourself “a rigid Catholic." “Woe be to them that creep into houses, and lead captive silly women, led away with divers lusts and pleasures: ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth," {2 Tim. 3: 6, 7}. By their means poor deluded souls are led to wax spiritually wanton, and kick against Christ; prostituting their souls, by espousing the cause of antichrist, "having damnation, because they cast off their first faith," {1 Tim. 5: 2}.

I come now to shew the mark of the beast in the hand. The mark in the forehead is a sworn boldness in his cause, and an open profession of his religion: but his mark in the hand is a sworn power, exerted in the defense of Popery, either by the sword of war, or crafty argument. By hand we are to understand power. When God is said to deliver his people by the right hand of Moses, it means, that Moses stretched out the right hand of God's power; which was seen in his miracles, {Isa. 63: 12}. When God overthrew Pharaoh, and saved Israel, it is ascribed to his right hand, {Exod. 15: 6}. To be short, the mark of the beast in the forehead is swearing to make an open profession of the Pope's religion, and openly renouncing all other. To receive the mark in the right hand, is taking the oath of supremacy, and promising to exert all one's power in defense of antichrist, to keep him in his chair. This I believe to be the real meaning of God in his word; and your conscience shall never get from the power of this interpretation while you live in Popery. If you ask what God says of those who receive the mark of the beast, I refer you to his own word: read {Rev. 13: 16, 17.-14: 9, 11.-15: 2. - 16: 2.-19: 20.-20: 4}.

I shall now show you two doors of hope in the scriptures: but hope is God's gift; and, if you receive what Paul calls “a good hope through grace, these doors may be of use to you. The first is: If you are an elected soul, God is your Father in covenant, and Christ is your Husband, by the Father's choice and gift: and your Father or your Husband can make your vows and oaths void; but none other can. And, if neither of these spake to your conscience (which I believe they did); I say, if neither of these spake to your conscience when you made your vows, and bound your soul with them, their silence has established your vows, and God says, “All your vows shall stand—All the vows wherewith she has bound her soul shall stand." The silence of this Father, or this Husband, will establish them for ever: and it is their disapprobation and their power alone, that can make them void. Read {Numbers, chap. 30}.

The other door of hope is God's call to his elect that are incorporated in that wicked body, which God calls the " mother of harlots and, in God's call to them, he intimates that there is no salvation to them that die in her lap: " I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues," {Rev. chap, 18}, which plainly proves, that all who die in her sins are entitled to her plagues.

Thus I have showed you, by the word of God, what you have done: which interpretations I believe to be the truth; and so I fear you will find it in the end, if you live and die in your present state. Nor will the monkish tricks of a nun—the absolution of a priest—nor all the bulls of a Pope, ever deliver you: there is no salvation in any name under heaven but in the name of Jesus Christ; and, if ever he saves you from hell, he will save you from the delusions of Popery, and the snares of priestcraft.

I come now to show you, from the word of God, what you have entailed upon your soul, by commencing a proselyte of that true church. First, Jewry was a province of the Romish Empire in the days of Christ, as the Jews allowed, when they said, "We have no king but Csesar. Joseph and Marv were going to pay tribute to Caesar when Christ was born. By a Romish governor was the Saviour condemned, and under Tiberius Csesar he was crucified. The Jews were of the Romish empire, when Christ told them, that "upon them should be brought all the righteous blood shed, from the blood of Abel, to the blood of Zacharias," {Matt. 23: 35}. That blood is now transferred on antichrist and the whore of Babylon; and all the innocent blood that ever was shed in the world is to be found at last in her. “And in her was found the blood of Prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon earth," {Rev. 18: 24}.

The Pope “opens his mouth against God, to blaspheme him, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven," {Rev. 13: 6}, and this he does, when he calls the Virgin Mary the mother of God—" Mother of God, command thy Son." And he blasphemes his tabernacle, by cursing the saints for heretics, and destroying the scriptures. Jesus says, "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? They that hear the word of God and keep it (not burn it); the same is my mother, my sister, and my brother."

“There is but one holy Catholic church," say you. “The church of the living God is the ground and pillar of the truth," {1 Tim. 3: 15}, upon whose hearts God's truth is inscribed, and by whose life and public testimony it is borne up in the world, against the doctrines of devils.

As for the “holy Catholic church," I read of no such church in the Bible, nor you neither; it is a name that the disciples of Christ have nothing to do with. The grace of faith—the word of faith—and Christ the object of faith—must all be in a man's heart, if ever he be saved. The word Catholic is stuffed into the Common Prayer Book; but what have the saints of God to do with that?

God never tells me to approach him with any creeds; nor with any forms of prayer of human composition. "A man must know his own sore, and his own grief," {2 Chron. 6: 29}, and pray by the Spirit, if he prevails with God. The holy Catholic church that you contend for is national, which the church of God is not, nor ever was ; for though Israel were all called God's people, yet the promises were applied to none but the remnant of his heritage. All the world, if they choose, may belong to your church. Christ's kingdom is not of this world; he takes them out of it, as he did the elect Jews—one of a city, and two of a tribe.

The whole world are said to wonder after the beast; but not the elect of God : for they are not of it, but are chosen out of it; as it is written, " My kingdom is not of this world—I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given me out of it," but your Catholic church consists of whole nations ; thieves, robbers, murderers, persecutors, haters of God, whoremongers, Sodomites, mockers of God, burners of the Bible, and makers of idols; all are members of the Catholic church. Pray, what became of the church of God for four thousand years, before the dragon gave the Pope "his power, and his seat, and great authority?" {Rev. 13: 2}.

Is charging the word of God with errors, a sign of a holy church? when Christ says, his word " is all right to him that understandeth, and shall never fail or pass away." Is blotting out the second commandment, and many other parts of the scriptures, and introducing their own fables instead thereof, a sign of the true church? when God threatens that man with all the curses in his book that does it— and with no part in it that takes a word from it, {Rev. 22: 18, 19, Deut. 4: 2-12: 32}. If he be threatened that adds a word, or diminishes a word, what damnation shall they be thought worthy of that burn the whole? Were not the king of Judah, his servants, and all Israel sent into captivity for burning Jeremiah's roll? Are not these the men "that take away the key of knowledge?" "that enter not into heaven themselves, and hinder others?" Is it not "life eternal to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent?" and can we know him without the Bible? Does not "faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God?" Are burning the saints, hanging of them, drawing them to pieces with horses, devouring them with wild beasts, blowing them up with gunpowder, and cursing them with hell, book, and candle, any characteristics of the church of Christ? Are a bloody inquisition, racking upon the wheel, persecuting with fire and sword, extorting confessions that no understanding can comprehend, and which they themselves can never explain—I say, are these the weapons that Christ furnished his disciples with, to convert souls to the faith of the gospel?

If the whole word of God declares, that there is but one Mediator, one Advocate, one Intercessor; and that God sent Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, and all their company, into the pit alive, for wanting to multiply Mediators—and rebukes Aaron, and smites Miriam with leprosy, for interfering with the one Mediator ; what shall we say of them who have brought in saints of God's making, and saints of their own canonizing, angels, men, and women, as intercessors, mediators, and advocates ? God has set up his Son, Jesus Christ, upon his holy hill of Zion? but who set up all these ?

When Christ says, "Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you," {John 6: 53}, does it imply that the Son of God is to be turned into a wafer? And when Christ says, "The flesh profiteth nothing; it is the Spirit that quickened; the words which I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life," {John 6: 63}, does the Saviour mean that the mumbling over a few words by a blind priest, shall turn, or transubstantiate a wafer into what Christ calls " Spirit and life ?" It is the Holy Ghost that quickeneth—"the words that I speak are spirit, and they are life." Shall a juggling priest turn a wafer into immortality and eternal life? If Christ's expressions of “eating his flesh, and drinking his blood," are spirit and life, does he mean that so gross a substance should be turned into Divinity? If the Saviour's meat and drink be an entertainment for the bowels, instead of the mind and conscience, a body thus fed should never die. "This is the bread that came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die," {John 6: 50}. But by eating his flesh, and drinking his blood, pardon, peace, and eternal life are meant; which are procured by his death, and conveyed to the soul by his Spirit: and that is the entertainment that you want at this time; and the soul that is thus blessed and fed, shall never die the second death; nor shall a final separation ever take place between God and such an happy soul.

Are such relics as the tail of an ass—the splinters of a cross—the milk of a woman—a bit of a stick at the bosom—the bones of dead saints—and the tricks of living ones; I say are these the ornaments of Christ's church? Does not God command us not to "seek the living among the dead?" Did not our Saviour cast the legion of devils out of the crazy Gadarene, that he should grope among the tombs no more? and did he ever do it till the devil was in him ? Did not the angels rebuke the pious women for peeping into the Saviour's tomb? telling them that he was risen—that they might be " begotten again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead," and not settle their hopes in a grave?

Can the invention of purgatory, or an imaginary hell, used as a threatening to drive souls from the truth, and likewise as a charm to pick the pockets of the surviving, in order to procure a jail-delivery for the damned, be any part of Christ's gospel? Is selling four or five sorts of bulls, purchasing pardons with such corruptible things as silver and gold, telling sinners that they do works of supererogation while alive, and then sending of them to hell after all, and then fetching them out again for the sake of a little ready money, is this any part of the faith delivered to the saints? The Saviour in his days refused all the world, and the glory of it, when Satan offered it to him; but we hear of nothing of this in the Vicar; for he makes a penny of heaven, earth, and hell. He has got his thousands by canonizing and sending souls to heaven as he pretends. He has gained his thousands by licensing brothels, and selling pardons on earth; and he has gained millions by fetching souls out of hell itself. Is this using a gospel talent? Are these the profits that the Lord will seek after, when he comes to reckon with his servants, to know what every one has gained by trading?

If he is Peter's successor, why does he not say to every bull-monger, as his predecessor said to Simon Magus, when he wanted to buy the Holy Ghost: “Thy money perish with thee; because thou thinkest that the gift of God is to be purchased with money?" If he was in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity for offering to buy, he can be in no less that offers to sell.

If there be any such orders of men as Popes, Christ's Vicar, Peter's Successor, his Holiness, our Lord God the Pope, Cardinals, Hectors, Vicars, Priests, Jesuits, Monks, Father Confessors, and Friars, I would be glad to know where these officers are mentioned in the scriptures, and the account of their office and authority. If this cannot be found, I ask, Who gave them this authority?

If there be any command in God's word for cathedrals, nunneries, abbeys, and monasteries, where is the command? And if there be any command for such legions of Nuns, of various orders, and Monasteries, where is the command? God sent his servants to bear a public testimony: He sent Enoch to prophecy to the world—and Noah also—and Abraham to travel through the seven nations of Canaan— Jacob to Mesopotamia—Joseph into Egypt—Lot into Sodom—Jonah into Nineveh—David into Gath—and the Apostles into all the world ; and calls them " a city set on a hill—a candle set on a candlestick, that all that come in might see the light;" their light was to " shine before men, that others might see their good works and " a woman that feareth the Lord shall be praised, and the fruit of her own hands shall be given her " but it is her own works that must praise her in the gates of the city,” not in the cells of the convent, {Prov. 31: 31}.

One would have thought that the sufferings of that arch-hypocrite, Francis Spirah, after his recantation, would have been enough to have convinced all the world of the sin of Popery; besides, the unerring portrait that God himself has given of it in his word : but, alas! the god of this world has blinded their eyes ; therefore, “God has given them up to strong delusions, that they may believe a lie."

I come now to consider the texts that you have quoted; but have no aim at making you a proselyte to my doctrines: for if you had them all in your head, and at your tongue's end, yet it would be but holding the truth in unrighteousness, unless God justifies you in the court of your own conscience; which cannot be done but by the imputation of the Mediator's righteousness; and if he should do that, then you would be a sound believer indeed; for " he that believeth hath the witness in himself; and the testimony of God is greater than the witness of men."

“I believe," say you, “in the sacrifice of the mass." Then, I say, "God has given you up to believe in a lie," {2 Thess. 2: 11}. “He that sacrificeth a lamb is as if he cut off a dog's neck," {Isa. 66: 3}, and he that offers a wafer is no better. Your “faith stands in the wisdom of men, not in the power of God," {1 Cor. 2: 5}. Nor have you one text in all God's book to build such an absurdity upon.

“When he says, 'This is my body,' he does not mean figuratively," say you. But, I say, he did mean it in a figurative, and in a spiritual sense; for one thing was spoken, and another meant:—the things spoken were flesh and blood; the things meant were spirit and life. So, when he says, “I come as a thief," does it mean that he is as a housebreaker? When he says, “I am the Lion," does it mean that he is a beast? When he is called a “Lamb," is he turned into mutton? When he says, “I am the morning star," does it imply that he is a planet? So, when he says, "I am the bread of life," does it mean that he is turned into a loaf? or into a wafer? You take his words in a gross, fleshly sense, and, therefore, reap no spiritual life or comfort from them; which is the sum and substance of the Bible: “Search the scriptures ; for in them you think you have eternal life, and these are they that testify of me." Himself tells you, “The flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

When he is called a Lamb, his innocency, meekness, and patient sufferings are shewed—When he calls himself a Lion, his power and terrible majesty are exhibited. When he calls himself a Star, his glorious rays are intended. And, when he calls himself the bread of God, spiritual and eternal life are meant.

If it be true, in your sense, Judas had Christ in him, even when Satan entered into him; but he went to hell, notwithstanding the sop; as others have gone to purgatory, notwithstanding the wafer.

When Christ says, " I will give my flesh for the life of the world,” he means, I will give myself for a sacrifice, to appease offended justice, and as a scabbard to his flaming sword, that peace may be proclaimed to sinners, and life communicated by the Holy Ghost. " It is the spirit that quickeneth," The promise of God is eternal life—" This life is in the Son. He that hath the Son in his heart (not in his bowels) hath life; he that hath not the Son, hath not life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. He that believeth is passed from death unto life, and shall never come into condemnation."

Now, Madam, if the sacrifice of the mass be in reality what the Saviour means, and, if your faith in it be the faith of God's elect, what life and peace have you received? You own that you have been to mass. How comes it to pass that your life still hangs in doubt before you? Guilt presses you down, and you are chained under the fear of death, and wrath of God; an utter stranger to peace, and destitute of divine .life. Facts, Madam, are stubborn things. It is plain, that the faith which you have received, and the mass that you believe in, have not been accompanied with the approbation, nor with "the testimony of God.”The day you believed,” says Paul to his disciples, “ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." But this is not your case: God has set no seal to your faith; for you are not impressed with the image of Christ, which consisteth in righteousness and true holiness. But you are oppressed with the horrors of a criminal, the sting of guilt, and the fears of death, which God calls a despised image, {Psal. 22: 20}.

The doctrine of God's election is a truth confirmed by every penman in the scriptures. All the angels in heaven were elected. Christ is an elect and precious stone. All the souls that are in heaven are called, chosen, and faithful, {Rev. 17: 14}. “His angels shall gather his elect from the four winds; and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire," {Rev. 20: 15}.

These are the decrees of the sovereign Majesty of heaven; and all the time you fight against them you are a rebel. Your loyalty must consist of submission to the sovereign will of your Creator; nor shall you ever be at reconciliation, or peace with him, nor find rest in your soul, until your will submits to his. The Saviour submitted to this, his Father's will, in his greatest agonies ; and teaches you to do the same, in his short prayer.

If you had made your calling and election sure, as Paul did, you would have found these doctrines a strong foundation in times of trouble, as well as he. “Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure," saith he " having this seal, God knoweth them that are his." “If this foundation could be removed, what would the righteous do?" This doctrine is a great comfort to the loyal subjects: “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven." But to the rebel it is a stumbling-block:” It shall," says God," “be a vexation to them only to understand the report."

“Good and evil are set before us," you say; " and we certainly have a will and power to choose or refuse. And if thou refuse, thy destruction be to thyself, O Israel!" True; but if thou choose the good part, thy salvation be all of God, O woman! “for thou hast not chosen him, hut he hath chosen you," {John 15: 16}. It is clear that thou hast been a free-wilier hitherto; and it is as clear that thou hast not chosen that good part that shall never be taken from thee.

Salvation must either be of the sovereign will of God, or of the free-will of man. God says it is of his sovereign will: “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." Paul says, “It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who showeth mercy." Solomon says, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill." John says, "That our new birth is not of man, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of blood; but of God." And Christ says, "The last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called but few chosen. God works all things after the counsel of his own will. God has revealed to his saints the mystery of his own will. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth. And this is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him that sent me, may have everlasting life. And this is the will of your heavenly father, that of all which he hath given me I should lose none, hut raise them up at the last day. It is the will of your heavenly Father, that not one of these little ones should perish." I see no room here for that free-will and power which you contend for, and suppose yourself possessed of. It is clear to me that you have made a wretched choice ; and you feel the dreadful effects of it; and, notwithstanding all your power, you are yet under the dominion of sin and Satan, and left without one glimpse of hope in the world. It ill becomes a guilty self-condemned criminal, under the sentence of death, to contend for sovereignty.

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," say you. Why did you leave the context out? Why did you want to obscure the sovereignty and power of God in his works, and aim at deifying yourself? “There is but one good that is God." There never was a good work done upon earth but God did it : he "creates the fruit of the lip, prepares the heart, and works in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure," Why was this left out ? "Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to keep back part of the price,” and that part which honors God most? “It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do." "Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou hast wrought all our works in us, {Isa. 26: 12}." “But you hatch the cockatrice egg, and weave spider's webs;" but God says, "That your webs shall not become garments, nor shall you clothe yourself with your works."

"Surely, Christ died for us all," say you,” and not for a certain number—was he not a ransom for all?" All the human race are not meant: some are in hell already; and there will be more goats than sheep in the great day. The gates of destruction receive more than the gates of life. “Narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it."

“Members only are intended by the word all; not all the people in the world." “You do therefore greatly err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God." You may contend for all the human race as long as you please; " but this I say, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."

“Did he not die a ransom for all?" say you. Chosen members are intended by the word all. "There is a nation pure in their own eyes"—I never read that he died for them. “There is a generation of vipers"—he died not for them. There are thousands righteous in their own sight—" he came not to call the righteous." There is a world of goats—he died not for them. “He laid down his life for his sheep"—but, says he to the serpents, “you are not of my sheep." He calls his own elect sheep before they be called by grace: “I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and them I must bring: and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." “I pray not for the world, but for them that thou hast given me out of it." "But you shall seek me, and shall not find me."

If by the word all you take all the world, you will set the one half of the Bible to contradict the other. And, pray, what will become of the heretics that have been cursed and burnt, if Christ gave himself a ransom for all? The curse of bell, book, and candle, is of no force; for, if universal redemption be a truth of the Bible, the poor heretics will be in heaven, in spite of all the anathemas and excommunications that have been sent out against them. And although your church holds a ransom for all men, yet you send the best of them to purgatory: but those that Christ ransomed never go there: God says, “Deliver them from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom," {Job 33: 24}.

Poor soul, thou art awfully entangled indeed! This is groping in the dark with a witness;—this is “stumbling upon the dark mountains" indeed, {Jer. 13: 16}. " There is no judgment in your goings;" as speaketh Isaiah—"You have made yourself a crooked path ; and while you walk therein you shall not know peace."

But you go on—and I after you.

“As to Confession," say you, "it is evident that Christ left power on earth to his disciples to pardon the sins of the penitent: Whosesoever sins,” says he, ye retain, they are retained: and whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted/ Now, how were they to remit or retain them without the knowledge of them? and how were they to come to the knowledge of them but by confession ? for who can penetrate a sinner's heart ?" Sound logic indeed. “When wilt thou cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" The whole drift of your letter is to rob God of his power and glory, and ascribe that to the instrument which God will never give to another. Take, heed to yourself, how you go on in this business: for God says, “Those that honor him will he honor, but those that despise him shall be lightly esteemed."

When Christ sent his servants out, he gave them the keys of the kingdom of God; which keys were his Spirit and his word—called “the key of knowledge." These “keys of the house of David" are said to be laid upon Christ, {Isa. 22: 22}, compare with {Rev. 3: 7}, which Isaiah calls " God's word put in the Saviour's mouth, and his Spirit upon him; which word and spirit, called keys, " were not to depart from Christ, nor from his seed for ever." These keys himself explains thus: " I have given them the word which thou gavest me." And again: “I will send the promise of the Father," which is the Spirit, "to guide you into all truth, and to testify of me, &c." Thus Christ gave them his word, and filled them with his Spirit, and promises to be with them always to the world's end: and to the world's end he will be with all those who have his word and Spirit.

Now, observe, it was by the word, the Spirit, and the presence of Christ, that they were to remit or retain sins: Receive the truth, and the truth shall make you free; that is, it shall free you from your guilt and bondage, by remission.

Secondly, Where the “Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty that is, freedom from the guilt of sin, and the bondage of the law; "If the Son make you free, then are ye free indeed." Thus the remission of sin lay, instrumentally, in the word which promises it; and, efficaciously, in the Spirit which applies it; and both come from the Saviour, who sends the word to a sinner's heart, "with power, in the Holy Ghost, and with much assurance."

Thus, they had "this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency and the power (in remitting of sins, and converting of sinners) might be of God," says Paul,” and not of us."

If this power be lodged in a Popish priest your sins no doubt have been remitted; for you have been to confession often enough; but, according to your letter, God and conscience have still retained your sins. I doubt you have been too sparing of the holy water; or else you have kept some secret back in confession; for Paul says, “If the worshippers are once purged, there should be no more conscience of sins." {Heb. 10: 2}. "But there is a remembrance of them every year under the old law ;" and I suppose twice a day in the convent : and yet you are bound in the chains of guilt after all, which plainly proves that this power is not in them ; because all your labor hitherto has been like "braying a fool in a mortar." {Prov. 27: 22}, or like "washing the Ethiopian clean," {Jer. 13: 23}. If the Saviour had authorized them, and they had been possessed of that faith that "stretches forth the Lord's hand to heal," no doubt but "signs and wonders would have been wrought on your soul in the name of the holy child Jesus." However, there is nothing of that sort done yet; and it is time enough to contend for it when it is. It is against God, and God only, that we have sinned; therefore to God only belongeth vengeance, as well as mercy and forgiveness; and to him confessions are to be made, {Psal. 32: 5. Rom. 14: 11. Rom. 15: 9. Dan. 19: 20. Ezra. 10: 11. Dan. 9: 4}. But if I have wronged or injured my neighbor, I am to confess my fault to him; If I have brought public scandal on the church of Christ that I belong to, after being openly rebuked, if God give me restoring grace, I am publicly to confess my injury before them, that the members may be satisfied with respect to my genuine repentance, and cordially receive me to favor; but in case of non-repentance, I am to be excluded as a sinner.

The words of James do not stand as you have quoted them. His meaning is this : If you have offended a good man, confess your fault to him, and do not lose an interest in his prayers—or if you are weak in faith —or if you privately labor under temptation, or the guilt of any heavy sin, and are troubled on that account, then hint at it, as far as modesty will permit, to some able saint, who is capable of strengthening the weak; ease your mind to him, receive instruction from him, and solicit his prayers on your behalf. But chiefly he means, if you have offended a brother, confess your fault. Take his own words for it: “Is any among you afflicted ? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church (which word signifies ministers and deacons), and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord." The word oil does not signify the oil of olives, nor the oil of whales; but it signifies administering spiritual consolations, by admonition, instruction, and spiritual prayer for him. “We have received an unction,” says John: “He that hath anointed us is God," says Paul: and in the next verse James explains the oil, which is a comfortable answer to prayer: “And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." There are no righteous men on earth, but those that are found in the imputed righteousness of Christ, which Papists deny; therefore their prayers avail but little: you are a living witness of this truth.

The above account of confession is what God means. But to swear souls to un-bosom all the secrets of their hearts, all the secrets of their families, and every lascivious thought, is a way that God never intended, nor commanded in all his word. I never wish to know the secrets of men, and their wives and families; this is being "a busy body in other men's matters," and enough to provoke any person averse to religion even to jealousy and indignation; and that priest can never be pure in his own mind that would wish to know all the hearts of persons and families. Such men, by adjuring of you? to confess all, make you a perjured person ; for I tell you, that modesty would never permit you to confess all, unless you had a " whore's forehead,” {Jer. 3: 3}. And if you do not confess all, you are perjured for withholding what you avow to declare. This, is driving souls into sin, and breeding discord in families; having souls under their power to impeach them; and is the only means of getting at any convictions that may arise in the conscience of a Papist about the truth of that religion; and every bud may be crop in time, every tongue tied by the confessor, and both conscience and property be at the disposal of the priest.

“How," say you, "can the priest remit sins without he knows them? and how can he know them but by confession ? can he penetrate the heart?" Oh wretched ignorance! I should have thought that you had never read the Bible. A minister of Christ is a candle put on a stick, that all that come in may see the light: " Whatsoever maketh manifest is light," says Paul; and there is nothing done in secret that is not made manifest by the light which doth appear. He tells you how this is done; " But if all prophecy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all; and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth," {1 Cor. 14: 24, 25}. This avouches the power of God in his ministers; and the power of their message shews who sent them. But they who are destitute of this power have no credentials from God, nor does his seal attend their attempts; nor shall any such efforts avail a sinner's conscience, because they are not ratified by the broad seal of heaven. You find that God has discovered as much of your heart under me, and more than you ever could confess to a priest; and if God applies pardon and peace to you under my ministry, or the ministry of any other, then you will say as Paul does, that such a minister is "manifest in your conscience." It is experiencing a change of heart, and that only, that can give you the true knowledge of a true minister from a false one. Christ's ministers leave the event to him, and leave the truth to go in its naked simplicity, and to bear its own evidence; and for the hearers to judge who sent them by the power that attends the word. Christ submitted himself and his ministry both to this: " Wisdom," saith he, " is justified of her children; and if I do not the works of God, believe me not." And again, “If ye believe not me, believe the works." But what evidence have you got to shew? what works have been wrought on you ? what testimony have you to embolden you to justify Popery ? None but a discovered enmity to the truth, swearing falsely, and retaining the awful testimony of a guilty conscience, and the wrath of God; a guilty conscience is an earnest of hell, and “the worm that never dies."

You say, that our religion never was professed till the Reformation —The doctrines, experience, and every branch of worship that I use, was carried on by the Spirit of God on the elect, and practiced by them ever since Abel offered to God, and Enoch began to prophecy; saving only in this, that legal sacrifices have ceased, because Christ the true sacrifice is offered; and I defy you to contradict me by the word of Christ in any doctrine or branch of worship that I use. And, further, I will undertake to prove to you, that there is not one branch of Popish worship that is scriptural, nor one doctrine which they preach or write that is consistent with the Bible. I desire you to pitch upon any one doctrine or branch of worship as they use it, and I will undertake to answer you with the word of God.

Christ says his people shall be persecuted, stoned, crucified, and put to death, and hated of all men for his name's sake. Shew me any one man that ever sealed Popery with his blood. I defy you. They were spiritual worshippers who always have suffered; and such carnal bigots as you that have always been the betrayers and murderers of them.

“Christ has promised to be with his church to the end of the world," you tell me. Blessed be God, I know that by experience: and if he had not, you would not have felt the power of my ministry as you have: and if he was with you, you. would not feel the power of your present guilt, nor ever rest till you had obtained a pardon for this awful step that you have taken, and for the scandal you have brought on his righteous cause, in burning the testimony of his servants, and embracing the bosom of a stranger.

How evidently do I see the meaning of God in his word with respect to you; namely, that the "whore of Babylon hath made all nations drunk with the wine of her fornication." Surely no person in intoxication could speak greater nonsense in common discourse than you do about religion. So true are the words of Paul, that if a man's ears are turned from the truth, they are turned unto fables.

I should be glad at my heart to be made instrumental in bringing your poor deluded soul to Christ; but I doubt you have gone too far for that: God only knows whether you can find any scriptural ground for repentance or not: scriptural ground, I say; for if it cannot be found there, it will never be found any where else.

I have much more to say; but being suddenly called to leave London for a mouth, I must break off: but if you choose to correspond with me, and God should incline you so to do, you may write to me at the Tabernacle House, Bristol; and I will answer you, if God permit.

I shall follow my epistle with my prayers, and hope God will attend both with his blessing. This you may depend upon, if there be truth in God, or in his word, you never can be saved in the state you are in, nor in the doctrines that you hold. Farewell.—Weigh well the matter. Examine both the Bible and your own conscience, and beg the direction of the Holy Ghost; and believe me to be thy soul's well wisher, as well as thy just reprover, and thy willing servant at command in the gospel of Christ.

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

Tabernacle House, Bristol.

Sir,—I have read with much attention your long epistle, and have made it a subject of meditation and prayer. I find myself compelled by the dictates of conscience to answer it: however, this will be impracticable before Christmas, as my present situation, (in a boarding- school) is too confining for such an undertaking at present; but am willing to send a few lines to convince you I am not offended at any one thing therein ; for I suppose you wrote as instructed of the Lord : only lament you have misunderstood me in some parts—shall be more explicit in my next.

I blame you not for striking at the root, God only knows my present sufferings, I am greatly alarmed, thoroughly miserable, and truly sorrowful for the evil I have done; I am now in a more desponding state than ever. You give me two doors of hope, but I see none; for the conduct of my past life is a proof to me that I was never born of God. And in making those vows, instead of feeling the remorse of conscience I do now, I perfectly well remember that I gloried in the victory. O what have I done! and how have I rebelled against the God of my life ! Alas! what difficulties am I plunged into ! out of which I see no way of escape, but conclude I must perish in them! I find many very precious promises in the word of God, but cannot claim them as my own. Lord save, or I perish!

My duty calls, therefore cannot enlarge. Indeed, had I much time for reflection at this present, unless prevented by the immediate help of a merciful God, I should, I really believe, inevitably sink under the burden. God pardon me in and through the merits of a Redeemer's blood. I entreat you, Sir, in the name of the Lord, to remember me in your prayers; and may a blessing be granted, through Christ our Saviour.

Yours.

ELIZABETH MORTON.

Nov. 24, 1786.

P.S. I hope nothing will prevent my answering your letter at Christmas agreeable to my present intention.

LETTER II.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON,

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount, London.

Madam,—I received yours, and am sensibly touched with sympathy for you in your perilous state of mind, knowing by long experience the terrors of the Lord. “God forbid that I should sin against him, in ceasing to pray for you," (1 Sam. 12: 23}. I hope he will make me a faithful reprover of you, and a prevailer in prayer for you: and, blessed be his name, I have hitherto been indulged with a good decree of freedom at a throne of grace; but this will speak for itself, if God gives you an answer of peace. However, it gives me some ground to hope that God will hear me in your calamity.

I am not ignorant, Madam, of your present feelings; for God has known my soul in much adversity; and, agreeable to his promise, has brought me through fire and water; for which I hope to bless him for ever.

If God should carry on his work on your heart, he will enable me to bear a part of your trouble. There is such a thing as "bearing each other's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ," {Gal. 6: 2}. O that I may “travail in birth till Christ be formed in you” {Gal. 4: 19}. Surely I should rejoice in your salvation, and view you as “a wonder from the Lord of hosts that dwelleth in Mount Zion," {Isa. 8: 18}.

God has promised that all his children shall be taught of him. Implore his divine tuition. Expose your conscience to the light and force of his word, without disputing against it. The scriptures will not submit to men's humor, they demand submission. Call upon God's name, confess your faults, plead the merits of the Saviour, the promise of his grace, your own wretchedness, and real need of mercy: but, above all, beg of God to give you the knowledge of salvation by a sensible remission of your sins; which is no more than what he has promised, and for the want of which many a chosen vessel has gone halting, without any comfortable assurance of their life. If the Almighty should bring you out, I shall think you are Paul's daughter indeed ; and in one sense your birth will be a true copy of his, who, on account of his persecuting the church, and opposing the Saviour, calls himself " one born out of due time," {1 Cor. 15: 8}.

Since I arrived at this place, I have been invited to visit a sick man, where I was informed by the mistress of the house, of the much distress of mind that she had formerly laboured under, which was so great as to weaken her rationality. She sought relief in most of the established churches in this city, but in vain; at last a Papist called on her, who promised to take her to a man that would relieve her; and as a sinking spirit will catch at any thing, she agreed to go the next evening, which she accordingly did. When she came there, the priest ordered her to kneel down; she fell into a trembling, and kneeled down, he placed a Bible by her, and told her to lay her hand on it, which she did. He mentioned some words in an unknown tongue, and bid her kiss the book; which when done, she rose up, crying out, "Lord, what have I done? Pray, Sir, what have I done?" Surely, that religion that begins with an oath can be no part of the faith of him that says, "Swear not at all." The poor woman went home a little intoxicated with the priest's conversation, who told her not to fear, she would soon get rid of her trouble, and all would be well. But in a few days alter, a Catholic called on her, and in the course of conversation told her that there was no salvation out of the Romish church. The poor woman asked the Catholic what was to become of all the people that died without their pale? and being informed that all were to be damned as heretics, she went to the priest to know if this assertion was true. The priest found fault with the rash conclusion of her informer; but could not allow that there was any salvation for those whom they call heretics. This sent this woman home greatly disgusted at Popery; and in a short time it brought all her legal travail on her again, which in process of time drove her to hear the gospel at the Tabernacle; where, through the rich mercy of God, she found Jesus Christ, the great Apostle and High Priest of a much better profession,” {Heb. 3: 1}, and received a blessing, without swearing to perform what she never understood.

This account gave me some encouragement to hope and pray for you, Madam; and indeed I thought that the Lord had sent it on purpose.

O Lord! how many ways there are that lead to the "wide gate!" and how many that lie in wait to deceive the souls of the simple ! But how few are there, comparatively speaking, that point the brokenhearted to the “great Physician;" and the guilty conscience to his "atoning blood," and “everlasting righteousness!" The Lord diminish the number of the former, and increase the number of the latter.

There is no call for so long an epistle as you intend to write. I shall be in town at Christmas, if God permit, where I shall have more time on my hands, and letters will be sooner conveyed.

I shall contend for nothing but what I believe to be the truth; and if there be any one text in the Bible that favors Popery, you shall be very welcome to it; but I don’t believe there is. For if the foundation be defective the superstructure can never be complete. In your first letter you give me to understand that Peter is the foundation of the Romish church, which I do not pretend to deny: but I know he is not the foundation of God's church. And it is plain to me that he is as unstable as ever he was; for he has not acted the faithful part with you, who have placed so much confidence in him; because you are sinking into the deep waters of despondency, where there is no standing. If he had been the rock of Israel, as you believe, it is not a few scriptures from the mouth of a Coalheaver that would have rased your foundation. But alas! alas! you must "dig deeper," and find a better rock than Peter; for if his faith was dashed out of countenance by a servant-maid, he can never be the fortitude of another. Nor is it likely that a man who, by all his resolutions, vows, and promises, could not keep his own soul out of “Satan’s sieve," should ever bear up the church of God “against the gates of hell." If Peter be the only foundation, pray what became of the church of God in the antediluvian, patriarchal, and prophetic ages? If Peter be the foundation, the ancient saints had none at all; for Peter was then in non-existence.

I must confess I am astonished at such an absurdity as making Peter the foundation of the church, when we all know that he blundered so much in laying the foundation, that he was even withstood, and charged with dissimulation, and frustrating the grace of God, by one who calls himself 'Mess than the least of all saints."

You do therefore greatly err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. It was the Rock that Peter confessed, not Peter the confessor that was to be the foundation of Zion. “Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am? Some say, John the Baptist, and some Elias. But whom say ye that I am? Simon answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonas; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it [namely this mystery] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven [hath revealed it.] And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this Rock [not upon thee Peter, but upon this Christ that thou hast confessed, yea, upon this Son of the living God, that my father hath revealed to thee] will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," {Matt. 16: 13-17}.

There is but one foundation for God's church; nor did I ever read of another. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ," {1 Cor. 3: 11}. It is true, Peter did begin to build a little upon Moses, when he preached the "gospel of circumcision," {Gal. 2: 7}, but Paul was sent to withstand him to the face in the midst of all the company, {Gal. 2: 11-14}. and after that we have reason to believe that Peter kept close to the only foundation which God himself had laid, even before poor fallen Adam. “To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious," {1 Pet. 2: 4, 6}. Peter mentions this stone in the singular number, and takes good care to leave himself out of the matter as a foundation; and he shall never be Peter's successor that takes so much pains to bring him in. However, as Peter has let thee drop, I hope thou wilt take care how thou venture upon him again; and my prayer shall be, that “the Lord may lead thee to the Rock that is higher than thou." Then thou mayest say with the Psalmist, " My heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord:" which blessed object of trust will never serve thee as the poor tottering shoulder of Peter has done. Dear Madam, adieu, while I remain, in the sincerity and simplicity of the gospel,

Yours to command,

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

Tabernacle House, Bristol, Nov. 28, 1776.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

Sir,—Indisposition of body, and want of time, have been the means of my not acknowledging your last favor, agreeable to request. As I am now returned home, embrace the first leisure moment.

Many thanks for your concern and attention on my behalf. O may your prayers ascend up before the most high God as a sweet- smelling savour, and bring down a blessing on my soul!

You tell me I need not trouble myself to write so long an epistle as I intended :—The trouble, Sir, to me, is none, provided God bless the means now appointed, to convince me of the error of my ways, and bring me to a full and saving knowledge of the truth. I confess a reply to the whole would be a task too tedious for me at this present to undertake; neither can it be necessary, as the matter now stands; for I am more and more convinced, from God's most holy word, and my own conscience, that in embracing the Catholic religion, I was led into gross errors ; it is therefore my sincere desire that " after the way which they call heresy, so may I worship the God of my fathers; believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets." Blessed be God, I am also fully persuaded that "there is no other name under heaven whereby I can be saved but the name of Jesus," and that of myself I can do nothing that is good. Glory be to grace, that "whereas I was once blind, now I see" that the precious blood of Christ is sufficient to atone for the sins of his people—that it is not works of penance that can expiate sins, nor works of righteousness that can justify a soul in the sight of God. As God liveth, I firmly believe that Christ has completed the work, and that those who are born of God are already justified by his blood, and have obtained eternal redemption.

The cause now of my present distress of mind I shall be more particular on at the conclusion of this letter; but wish to answer a few points only, wherein I think you mistook my meaning, and likewise some particulars which I confess myself at a loss to understand.

"This letter of yours," say you, is not without partiality, nor yet without hypocrisy." With regard to these accusations, I cannot say I fall under the conviction of either; for I can truly assert, that I wrote only the dictates of my heart, except the latter part wherein I treated of doctrines. At that period my judgment was rather wavering: I had no zeal to write on the subject; consequently it was rather what I had rigidly professed, than what I then so strictly believed.

The next point I wish to mention is that which you quote from my letter concerning a convent. I observed that my intention for going there was to keep body and soul pure for Christ. From these expressions you judge I meant to hint, "that wedlock is impure;"— however, this I must say, I meant no such thing;—but so far I contend, that of the two states a single life is the purer. “He that giveth her in marriage doeth well, but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better," {1 Cor. 7: 38}. and again {ver. 40},” But she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment;" and he adds—" I think also that I have the spirit of God." Why, Sir, did the Apostle Paul prefer a single state? I am of opinion, that he might as much as possible be freed from all the anxious cares and perplexing incumbrances of this present world, that he might with less hindrance and distraction be devoted to God.— {See ver. 35}. Nevertheless I think it better to marry than to expose one's self or any other to temptation, {ver. 9}. I think also that every person should act according to the gifts and dispositions with which God furnishes them. If there are earthly enjoyments, “would sincerely wish to sit loose to them as quite unsubstantial, and only so far to be accounted of as they are the gifts of God, and improved for his glory. In a word, that is best for us which is best for our souls; therefore, whether married or single, our chief end should be to please the Lord, and to be holy both in body and spirit. {See ver. 34}.—And “as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk," {ver. 17, 18}.

With regard to confession—I must allow that it was perfect bondage; and the effect it had on me, at first in particular, was inexpressible. I did not keep back any part of that which I thought God required me to declare: it was not from my having "a whore's forehead,” or u a conscience seared with a hot iron,” but rather the reverse: it was tenderness of conscience, though blinded, that compelled me so to do. But what am I saying? Surely I do not mistake Mr. Huntington for my Father Confessor. To be serious on this matter; God grant that he may be instrumental of more essential service to me than all the poor blind guides I once trusted in.

One thing more I cannot omit taking notice of, from the very deep impression it has made on my mind. “I should be glad at my heart,” say you, “to be made instrumental in bringing your deluded soul to Christ, not as a proselyte of my making, but as a proselyte of God's making; but I doubt you have gone too far for that." What, then, do you suppose, by this assertion, that I may have sinned beyond the reach of mercy? However I cannot cavil at it, as it corresponds so exactly with the views I have of my present state. This is my distress of mind: I am as it were covered with guilt and confusion at the remembrance of what I have done: sworn with my hand on God's most holy word, in the presence of many spectators, that I would profess no other faith than that of the Roman Catholic church so long as life should endure: signed my name to this in the presence of four witnesses and others. I am truly dejected at the idea of my own hand-writing appearing a swift witness against me at that great day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be made manifest. I would that it were erased at this hour from the book: but what would this avail, if it was not blotted out for ever by the blood of the everlasting covenant, which alone can make it void?

O! Sir, I stand astonished that I am not now lifting up my eyes in torments, where all are miserable, and without hope. What a mercy that God did not say to me as to Ephraim, “She is joined to idols, let her alone." O for that repentance that needs not to be repented of! for I am now viler than ever in my own eyes. God deliver me from the body of this death, and remove this burden of sin which now presses me sore.

Whether I am a child of God, or of the devil, I declare to you I know not: for, as a tree is known by its fruit, so have I reason to be staggered at the ideas of my future state? for it was in this convent I first experienced very deep impressions. Here was I given to see, in some measure, the exceedingly sinfulness of sin: I felt powerfully what I never did before, that the world and all its vain pursuits were enemies to God ; that in cleaving the one, as I formerly had done, I must of course forsake the other. I prayed unto God fervently that he would deaden me more and more to every thing that was contrary to his divine will, and that he would direct me in that path that was most to his glory. I passed many hours alone in this employ, and, as I thought at that time, in sweet communion with God.

Now it appears to me very strange, that in embracing an erroneous doctrine so great a change should have been wrought on my soul. God works in a mysterious way; and I must confess, that in the midst of all my distresses, I find some comfort from these words: "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them."

At present I have nothing further to add : but, from heart-felt experience, I can truly assert, that I desire more and more to know Jesus Christ only, and the power of his resurrection.

As to your ministry, you need not be under the smallest apprehension of my following you farther than you follow Christ: nor will I give up one tenet that I hold, unless taken from me by the light and force of truth.

I am Sir, Your most humble servant,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER III.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount.

Dear Madam,—There is no call for apologies. No thankfulness is required. What I have freely received, you are kindly welcome to. Hitherto you have had your share of my faithful dealings and fervent prayers; and I trust I can say, that the desire of my soul is to see your heart immutably fixed on the Rock of Israel; and then thou wilt bless God for sending the instrument, and willingly mingle your petitions with mine, in my calamities.

Whether I construed your meaning right or wrong, according to your judgment, I know not; but it is clear to me that God owned and blessed it, by the convincing ray that attended it.

Your first letter was not " without partiality, nor without hypocrisy —for in favor of legal works you say, " Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," and excluded the power of God annexed to the sentence, which is expressed thus: " For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure," {Phil. 2: 12, 13}. To plunder a divine sentence of a relative verb, and leave out God, the grand agent, is handling the word of God craftily, deceitfully, and hypocritically. All scripture is to lead the awakened sinner to God. All scripture came from God, and must be resolved into him. To leave him out, therefore, where he is principally concerned, is to deify one's self, and to dishonor God.

You have been at the old trade in this letter. I cannot make you honest with the scriptures, do all I can. You will not “keep your hands from picking and stealing." You wriggle and twist like the serpent, and turn all into bane. However, I am determined to follow you; and if by God's grace I can chase you into the "cleft of the rock," {Song 2: 14}. I shall then weary you no longer.

Your going into a convent, "to keep both body and soul pure for Christ," I well understood;—nor did I mistake your meaning. You style yourself "a rigid Papist;" and, you know, forbidding to marry is a Popish doctrine: now, if you did not intend a monastic life in order to escape marriage, and with the doctrine of Celibacy in your judgment as an essential article of faith, you can by no means be a real nor a rigid Catholic; and, if celibacy is keeping the body pure, as you affirm, then the natural consequence is, that marriage is impure. This conclusion appears to me to be fairly drawn from your letter; for, "of the two states a single life is the purer," say you.

For my part, I think wanton passions, lascivious thoughts, and a natural inclination hovering about a person's mind, are ten-fold worse than lawful wedlock; especially where there is the fear of God, mutual affection, a bed undefiled, and family devotion kept up.

It is not a very likely matter, that a company of light, frothy, carnal girls, destitute of the grace of God, sue led with pride and vain conceit, established in the doctrines of devils, kept in idleness, and boasting of merit, thinking to earn heaven by a few dead fleshly works, u after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ—after the doctrines and commandments of men," {Col. 2: 8}. I say, it is not very likely that there should be any purity in these. Paul says, "To the unbelieving there is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled," {Tit. 1: 15}.

When the Apostle says, "If we had been planted together in the likeness of Christ's death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection;" {Rom. 6: 5}. does it imply, that young women are to lie with their bodies and hands spread out on a stone floor, and to be covered with a velvet pall—-to have their head shaved and to be wrapped up in a veil—to vow to be cloistered for life —to be obedient to an old woman, or abbess—to vow to he converted in heart—to vow to continue poor and to continue unmarried : —will you call such a monkish funeral as this " a crucifixion to the world?" {Gal. 6: 14}. Is this "crucifying the old man?" {Rom. 6: 6}. Is binding your soul with five such wretched vow s as these any part of "the gospel of the grace of God?" Or does Jesus Christ command any thing like it?—When the Apostle tells us, that "if we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body we shall live"-—does he mean that we are all to be cooped up in a prison? Does God command poor believing women to “lodge in a dark cell, on an earthen floor, on straw beds and flannel sheets?” Where is there any command for all this? If Christ came "to proclaim liberty to captives, and to open the prison doors to them that are bound," {Isa. 42: 7}. this can be no part of his religion. He that declares his “yoke to be easy, and his burden light," {Matt. 11: 29, 30}. never commanded poor silly women to torment their "naked loins with an horsehair girdle and a flannel shift;" nor to " wale their flesh with a cat o' nine tails." This is making Christ "an austere master" indeed. "No man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the Church," {Eph. 5: 29}.

Madam, you know all the above account of Popery is true; and I defy you to deny it. Are these "the fruits of the Spirit?" Are these “the works of faith, and labors of love?” Alas! Madam, this is “washing the Ethiopian white," {Jer. 13: 23}, all labor in vain. You may wear out a hundred scourges of cord, and beat your breast till it is black and blue, and do penance all the year round, and leave just as much wickedness behind you as Solomon's fool did after he bad been " brayed in a mortar," {Prov. 27: 22}. This assertion you cannot deny: because you are obliged to go to your Father Confessor perpetually, with a "bless me, my Father, for I have sinned. Benissez moi, mon pere, parceque j'ai peche. I confess to God, and to the Virgin Mary—to John the Baptist—to St. Peter and St. Paul—and to all the saints—and to you my father—that I have sinned in thought, word, and deed. For all these sins, and those that I do not remember, I ask of God pardon; and of you, my father, penance and absolution." But, alas! we may say of this, as Paul does of a ceremonial cleansing, " They cannot make those that do the service perfect as pertaining to the conscience, which stand only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances," {Heb. 9: 9, 10}.

Madam, “the strong man armed will keen possession of the palace," {Luke 11: 21}, in spite of a “cat o’ nine tails." The "spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," {Eph. 2: 2}. will never quit his hold for a " smite on the breast;" nor leave his premises for fear of a little " holy water." “Christ was manifest in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil," {1 John 3: 8}. It is he alone that can "cast out the strong man," {Luke 11: 22}. and " purge the conscience from dead works, that we may serve the living God," {Heb. 9: 14}.

There is no purity nor holiness to be found in any person but in those happy souls who are under the blessed influence of God the Holy Ghost. Christ “saved us," says Paul,” by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," {Tit. 3: 5}.

Although you do not like to be called an idolatress, yet you are obliged, every Good Friday, to bow to, and adore a silver cross; yea, kiss it, and pray to it; for when you bow your knees, your prayer begins thus: " We adore thee, O cross ! our only hope, &c." Was not the "brazen serpent in the wilderness" a representation of the Saviour? but were the Israelites commanded either to bow to it, or pray to it? Where they not commanded only to look and live? And when Israel fell to burning incense to it, it was destroyed: as it was written: “Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord: he removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and he brake in pieces the brazen serpent that Moses had made; for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it; and he called it Nehushtan," in derision, {2 Kings. 18: 4}. If these were idolators. what must you be, who turn your back upon God, apostatize from his gospel, and pray to the imitation of a cursed tree, ''We adore thee, O cross? our only hope r" If this prayer and confession be true, "you are without God and without Christ in the world ; for the Lord is the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel," {Joel 3: 16}. But you hope in a silver cross, " Such are the paths of all that forget God, and the hypocrite's hope shall perish: whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web," {Job 8: 13, 14}.

We may say of Popery, as Peter does of the legal covenant, it is “a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear." And I am sure it is no part of “the ministration of the Spirit because it is “after the doctrines and commandments of men, and not after Christ" Pardon and peace, brought home to the heart by the Holy Ghost, will purge the conscience, subdue sin, purify the heart, and make the mind spiritual and heavenly. Then the knees will bow, the hands work, the feet move, the eyes see, the ears hear, and the mouth will speak for God. All purity short of this is only the name, not the thing.

As for marriage, Madam, and celibacy, they are things that I seldom or ever touch in my ministry. One hath the gift of continence: the other hath not. Jacob can see an hundred and forty-four thousand of his own offspring in heaven: while God says of another, "Write this man childless," {Jer. 22: 30}. If a single life be the purer in thine eyes, continue in it: but take heed that thou dost nothing in the dark that thou wilt have cause to blush at when it comes to be proclaimed upon the house-top. "The great day shall reveal every secret thing. There is nothing done in secret that shall not be made known and come abroad." Then it will be known what your purity really is, from what it only seems.

I should never have mentioned marriage, if you had not mentioned celibacy; and, as you contend for that Popish tenet, I asserted, from God's word, that it is one of “the doctrines of devils,” {1 Tim. 4: 1, 2, 3}.

I shall now discover to you some of your partiality and hypocrisy in this letter; " He that giveth her in marriage doeth well,” say you, “but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better," {1 Cor. 7: 38}. and again, {ver. 4}. “but she is happier if she so abide, after my judgment and, he adds, “I think also that I have the Spirit of God.” By this mode of arguing from scripture, you might say that Adam was God's son, {Luke 3: 38}. and that Eve was God's daughter, {Acts 17: 29}. and that when God brought her to Adam he did well; but if he had withheld her he would have done better. So when he told "Joseph to take Mary his wife,” he did well; but if he had withheld her it would have been better. So when God draws souls to close in with the blessed bridegroom of the church he does well; but to withhold them is doing better. Madam, marriage includes all these things; and they are all ordained of God: and to cast a slur, or any reflection of impurity on them, is to contemn the council of the Most High; for " the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make an help meet for him,” {Gen. 2: 18}. And of women God says, "I will that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully: for some are already turned aside after Satan," {1 Tim. 5: 14, 15}. You will allow this to be doing well; but for younger women to abide single, despise fruitfulness, disdain the guidance of an house, give occasion to the adversary to reproach religion, turn aside after Satan, and adhere to the doctrines of devils, which is, " forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has commanded to be received with thanksgiving of them that know the truth"—is doing better.

By such arguments, you would make the Apostle contradict the divine institution, and positive command of God, and make him the author of celibacy, which he himself declares is a doctrine of devils.

Ye do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God."

Let it be observed; the Apostle declares that his doctrines did not contradict any ordinance, command, or promise of God that had gone before; as it is written, “Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day; witnessing both to small and great; saving none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come," {Acts. 26: 22}. Paul's ministry, you find, consisted in saying no other things than what had been commanded and predicted before his time: therefore he could not, as you suppose, be an advancer or maintainer of the devil's doctrine of celibacy.

The Corinthians had written to Paul about keeping their virgins single, which the Bible was silent about: Paul therefore owns: “Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my judgment as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful," {1 Cor. 7: 25}. The church of God at that time was in a suffering state ; many were daily suffering or dying for the cause of God and truth; at which times they were like Jerusalem in her calamity, who should say, " Blessed are the barren, and the womb that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck," {Luke 23: 29}.

In such suffering times, a wife and family is a heavy burden, Hence the Apostle fixes his supposition to that distressing time: “I suppose, therefore, that this [counsel] is good for the present distress; I say that it is good for a man so to be," {1 Cor. 7: 26}. By this the Apostle does not contradict what he asserts of celibacy, when he calls it a doctrine of devils, and a snare; but he gave his advice for their good, and not with any intention to oppose God's appointment of marriage: " And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare on you, but for that which is comely, and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction," {1 Cor. 7: 35}.

I am determined to chase you out of every refuge of lies that you take shelter under, though I have one of the " worst of storms" to run through in my pursuits; "for a continual dropping in a very rainy day, and a contentious woman are both alike; whoso hideth her, hideth the wind for in errors she is just as wavering; and whoso dealeth unfaithfully with her grieves the Holy Ghost, “and hideth the ointment of his right hand, which betrayeth itself," by a visible declension of ministerial power, {Prov. 27: 15, 16}.

All my efforts will be in vain, unless God accompany my letters with his own power and blessing; for although you are one of the weaker sex, or, as Peter says, the weaker vessel, yet it can only be spoken of bodily and intellectual weakness; for in the head you are full as strong, if not stronger, than the masculine gender; for, as one of the most experienced judges hath well observed, " It is better to dwell in the wilderness, than with a contentious and an angry woman," {Prov. 21: 19}. Nay, he adds, “It is better to dwell in the corner of the house-top, than with a brawling woman in a wide house," {Prov. 21: 9}. However, I am determined to run all risks, oven if I should fall under the "scourge of the tongue; for the redemption of a soul is precious;" and I would willingly run through one of the worst of showers, if I could but point you to him who is a hiding place from the storm/' rather than give you up, even though I expose myself to " the contentions of a woman, which are a continual dropping,” {Pro.  19: 13}.

I might add—but in reality I both pity thee and spare thee. God Almighty pardon thee and bless thee. Confess thy faults to him against whom only thou hast sinned; and I hope he will both hear thee and heal thee. He has revealed himself rich in mercy, and abundant in goodness and in truth; therefore persevere in humble confession and prayer, and expect super abounding grace from him; while I remain, dear Madam, your faithful servant, affectionate friend, and should be glad to be your tender nurse.

Let me know how you go on; and expect a part in the poor prayers of him who, in the ties of the gospel, seeks the honor of Christ, and the welfare of your soul.

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

SIR, —Your last favor I received; and am sorry to Say it was by no means a word in season to my soul. The instant I read it through, I felt my whole frame affected. However, before I put pen to paper in answer to it, my heart was lifted up in prayer to God for his direction.

I am prepossessed that this letter is written too much in your own spirit. My mind is at present very unfit for controversy. But, say you, it was your own seeking. Well, then, as you will not give up the point, I will: and let us drop the subject of marriage; for I find no great advantage in disputing on that topic. As to the convent—I say but one thing more, which is—My ideas on that point are so changed, that, were I a nun, with my present sentiments, I should be miserable of a truth. It has pleased God wonderfully to deliver me from that bondage. He who well knows the inmost recesses of the heart is witness that I truly desire, in whatever situation I am, to be resigned to his will.

I am particularly struck with your continual accusations of my perverting the word of God. Pray then for me (as God knoweth I do for myself), that the veil of ignorance may be removed from my corrupt mind—that the eyes of my understanding may be thoroughly enlightened to comprehend the word; not only to know, but to feel the power of the truth as it is in Christ.

You are welcome, Sir, to anatomize my letter as much as you please, provided it be for the good of my soul; but not to endless disputations. I view you as one taught of God, therefore am determined by the help of his grace, not to take offence at any thing you may assert; though, believe me, I am not quite void of the feelings of human nature. Indeed, I have experienced myself wonderfully supported under the severity of your first and last letters. I think you do not “spare me an inch,” though you assert to the contrary. What! because I observed that believers were already justified by his blood, did that imply that I wished to exclude the active obedience of Christ? God forbid! it was {Rom. 5: 9}. that occurred to me as I was then writing ; for I remember it was applicable to my ideas. Had I penetrated the subject minutely, I should not have left it incomplete. In this I was wrong; though I confess myself very much surprised at your viewing it in such a light. I confess a distinction ought ever to be made between the active and passive obedience of Christ. I am truly convinced the former atones for sin, and the latter entitles to heaven. However, if I am wrong, I wish to be informed what is right; but should be glad for that purpose you would adopt the admonition of my father Paul, in {2 Tim. 2: 24, 25, 26}.

You desire to know how I am. Still distressed, and much dejected; though I find a glimmering hope that God has purposes of mercy towards me, from his singular and wonderful dealings with me. Could I but know that Christ would indeed receive me after my awful apostasy, and make void those vows, which are a continual grief to me, it might be some relief to my troubled conscience. “O Lord I am oppressed, undertake for me"

O! Sir, you cannot be a judge of my present complicated trials, not only with respect to what I have just related, but also an intricate circumstance just laid in my way concerning my future situation in life. I have lately received an invitation to return to Russia, by one of the first ships in the spring, to settle in a milder climate than I was before, and where I have every reason to believe I should enjoy my health. Great temporal advantages are offered me; but I can truly say my heart desires them not, any further than, as a means, shortly, (God willing) of enabling me to retire, independent of the world, and to give myself up to the service of God: for what hope have I, should I be settled in London, of attending the means of grace, more than in a foreign country? and much less time, I know from experience, of enjoying my own private meditations. Entreat the Lord's direction on my behalf.

I have herewith enclosed you a letter I received lately from a young lady who was my sister in the Popish faith. I had sent her your first epistle to read: such you will find is her opinion of it. I cannot help admiring the goodness of God that I was not left to make the same observations on it. Her life has been a remarkable one indeed, and in some respect similar to mine.

Happy is that man who is enabled to cast himself on the immediate care of God, {Psal. 37: 5}. Surely this must be the best expedient in distracting troubles, {Psal. 16: 3}. And although I am persuaded that the word of God is the great means of comfort in the day of affliction, {Psal. 119: 92, Rom. 15: 4}. yet, I can assure you, my mind is now much perplexed, fearing lest I should pervert or misinterpret the scriptures. Nevertheless, this I must assert, I desire fervently that Christ may be all and in all to my soul, and I be deadened to every thing short of him.

Give me leave to observe one more particular in your letter. You say, "In the dialect of scripture, you are a whore."—Take heed, Sir, I do not sue you at law for damages. — However, by thus accusing me, you are afterwards entrapped, by styling yourself my “tender nurse." Now, according to the rules of reason," you are absolutely the tender nurse of a whore. I sincerely wish you a better office. Excuse this raillery. Believe me still to remain,

Your obliged friend,

And faithful charge,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

Holywell Mount, December 29, 1786.

LETTER IV.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

Madam,—Yours is just arrived; and its weighty contents have been considered. As to carnal marriage, I should have said nothing about it, as it is no part of the ministry, if your letter had not savoured so strongly of celibacy: and, as that tenet seemed fixed in your judgment, I told you, from God's word, that it is a sentiment of “antichrist," and a “doctrine of the devil." Whether you continue single or marry, it is nothing to me;—but, if ever you are "espoused to Christ," you must give up those lies and doctrines of devils that you have imbibed, and not condemn what God ordains, nor reflect upon that "state" as impure that he declares to be " honorable."

“Sue me at the law," and welcome, so it be at the law of God, where I am sure to find an able advocate, and obtain a plea without a bribe. You have caught me in no trap.—Every idolater is a “seed of the adulterer and the whore," {Isa. 57: 3}. and those that apostatize from their profession of Christ—forsake his spouse, and his word, and join themselves to an erroneous assembly, and embrace errors, are said “to forsake the Lord—to inflame themselves with idols—to fall in love with another's bed—and discover themselves to another," {Isa. 57: 5, 9}. A backsliding heart bears the name that I have given you: " Because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eve3 that go a whoring after their idols:—and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations," {Ezek. 6: 9}. Thus my charge against you stands good; and by your referring me to Paul's tender charge for imitation, {2 Tim. 2: 24, 25, 26}, I take it for granted that you want me to be “gentle with you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children," {1 Thess. 2: 7}. If so, “your snare is broken, and I am delivered," {Psal. 124: 7}.

Whether I have written to you in a bad spirit, or in a good one, it is clear to me that God has both owned it and honored it, by the power that has attended it. I know that the “servant of God is not to strive, but to be gentle," {2 Tim. 2: 24}. especially with wounded spirits : but, against errors, and in defense of God's truth, he must be " an iron pillar, and a brazen wall," {Jer. 1: 18}. It is common for such as you to cry out, " Prophecy smooth things; prophecy deceit:—my people," says God, "love to have it so; and what will they do in the end thereof?" {Isa. 30: 10}.—“One builds up a wall, and another daubs it with un-tempered mortar,” {Ezek. 13: 10}. Another “sews pillows under the armholes," to prop the alarmed hypocrite up, {Ezek. 13: 18}. for fear he should feel after his God; and another " bites with his teeth, and cries, Peace, peace," {Micah 3: 5}. “when there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked," {Isa. 48: 22}.

The excellency and the power of religion, is of God. It is he that "maketh sore, and bindeth up," {Job 5: 18}. and, as he has used me to wound you, in all probability he will use me to heal you. When this is done, and you are “brought forth to the light," you will be better able to judge whether it was done by my temper, or by the Lord's Spirit.

Your going to Russia my soul hates: but as the devil is afraid of losing you, he thinks it is best policy to drive you out of the country, if he be permitted, that he may "keep possession of the palace, and his goods in peace," which are much disturbed at present; and, he thinks, in imminent danger.

Your aiming at an independency is nothing: but the wretched effects of distrust and unbelief; and is a wicked reflection cast on the tender care, kind providence, and promised support of the Almighty. You shall have no better success in your voyage to Russia, to accumulate an independency, than Ruth had in going to Moab, to secure her property. "Wo to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; that walk to go down into Egypt for help: therefore have I cried concerning this, Your strength is to sit still," {Isa. 30: 1-7}, Stay thou in this country. Thou wast obliged to flee here for health before; and take heed to thyself about a second flight, lest God say unto thee, as to the wicked Israelites of old, when they were chased both from their God and their country, "Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country," {Jer. 22: 10}.

If an independency had been best for thee, God would have given it thee; for "he maketh poor, and maketh rich. He bringeth down, and lifteth up," {1 Sam. 2: 7}. An independency was one of the three things that by prayer I earnestly solicited; to obtain which I could never prevail: and a life secluded from the world was another. I thought an independency would enable me to spend all my days in praising God, and a lonely life in a wood would take me out of the way of all temptations to sin : " but I spake as a child, I understood as a child, and thought as a child," {1 Cor. 13: 11}. for both were the effects of ignorance, childishness, and unbelief. It was no less than a distrust of the bounties of God’s providence, and the promised protection of his hand, who has declared that no good thing will be withheld from them that walk uprightly," {Psal. 33: 11}. He calls himself a "tried stone:" and you may warrantable try him. As a father he has promised us these necessary things; and commanded you to "prove him" by a reliance on his word, {Mal. 3: 10}. "His counsel stands fast for ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations," {Psa. 33: 11}. therefore he is worthy of credence. He bids you “call upon him in the day of trouble," and says "he will deliver you," {Psa. 50: 15}. Believe his word, and “thou shalt never be confounded," {I Pet. 2: 6}. "Trust in him, and thou shalt be as Mount Zion, that cannot be moved," {Psa. 125: 1}.

A flight to Russia is devised by the devil. “Where can you go, from God's Spirit? or whither can you flee from his presence? If you take the wings of the morning, and remain in the uttermost parts of the earth," that strong hand of God, that you are now under, will find you out, " though you fain would flee out of it," {Job. 27: 22}.

These skittish women, in their profession, are justly compared to the "wild ass that is used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away?" {Jer. 2: 24}. The Lord own and bless my plain dealings with thee, and "give thee grace for obedience to the faith," {Rom. 1: 5}.

With your present distress of mind, the burden of a guilty conscience, a confused understanding, and a broken judgment ; a company of routed, scattered thoughts, and a set of withered intellects, have rendered you as unfit for the charge of children, as a madman is for the office of an ambassador. Wait thou upon God until he " bind up thy broken spirit and then he will give thee the " spirit of love, of power, and of a sound mind which will qualify thee better for that work than ever thou has yet been. Obey my voice; and, if thou art wrong in so doing, thy wrong be upon me. “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass," {Psa. 37: 3, 4, 5}. By the power that thou now feelest, it must be manifest to thee that thou art in the hand of God ; and he bids thee "go forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tents," {Song. 1: 8}. which thou canst not do in Russia. Therefore I advise thee to continue where thou art, “and see whereunto this will grow," {Acts. 5: 24}.

Thou mayest easily get out of the reach of my tongue and pen; but thou canst never flee from God, from conscience, from the word of his grace, from my faithful testimony against Popery, nor from my counsel.

You are welcome to drop the controversy and correspondence with me whenever you please. I am determined that; my gospel shall not come a begging to thee. There are enough of my master's obedient children that would be glad to receive all the oil that springs up in my cruse, without sending it where it is rejected. Thou shalt have no more from me than what thou drawest out by letter. I am commanded not to go from house to house; but where I find the son of peace, there I am to abide, {Luke. 10: 5, 6, 7}.

I read the lady's letter with pity and indignation: with pity, to think of the perilous state such a soul must be in, that is travelling to the grave with nothing but " a lie in her hand," {Isa. 44: 20}.; with indignation, to think that wretched men, for pelf, a lazy life, or human applause, will lead so many souls " blindfold into the ditch," {Matt. 15: 14}. A likely matter, that divine miracles should be performed at a shrine, and God's approbation appear in a way that him self hath anathematized : " Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the 'Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it into a secret place; and all the people shall say, Amen," {Deut. 27: 15}. But you can produce no branch of Popery, but what I can find in an ancient prediction: these miracles are clearly foretold, and the description of the persons that shall be entangled in them; yea; both the deceiver and deceived; "even him, whose coming is after the coming of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And, for this cause, God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness," {2 Thess. 2: 9, 12}. In the above prophecy, the first appearance of the Pope in the church is compared to the devil's first appearance in Eden: it is called a “coming after the coming of Satan." His lying wonders are compared to Satan's lies, and the wonders that it was to produce in Eve, if she gave credit to it—"Ye shall not surely die—ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." And, “as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtilty," {2 Cor. 11: 3}. so the Pope at first beguiled the church. The devil's taking God's word in his mouth ("Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?)" {Gen. 3: 1}. was typical of the Pope's pretended infallibility in the scriptures: and the devil's contradicting God's word, and bringing in his own lies, was a copy of the Pope's contradicting the Bible, and bringing in his own traditions, such as you contended for in your former letter.

To be short;—the devil's coming into Eden was to deceive the woman, and bring Adam into her shame and dishonor: and " he whose coming is after the coming of Satan," aims at the destruction of the church of God; and, by his pretensions to be Christ's vicar, and the church's head, he dishonors Christ, "crucifies him afresh, and puts him to an open shame," {Heb. 6: 6}. As the Pope's " coming in was after the coming of Satan," so we have ground to believe that his going out will be after the same pattern. All that the devil got for his lies was to be "cursed above all cattle," {Gen. 3: 14}. And he that burns, perverts, takes from, or adds to the scriptures, shall be cursed above all sinners ; for he is heir to " all the plagues that are written in the Bible," {Rev. 22: 18, 19}. And as they begun alike, so they will end alike: " And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever," {Rev. 20: 10}.

The mystery of transubstantiation is one of these lying wonders foretold: and none hut a soul given up of God to a strong delusion could ever believe such a lie, as to think that a sinner, by mumbling over a few words, could turn a wafer into divinity. I wish you would bring me a consecrated wafer, after it is transubstantiated, and let me see if I cannot seal a letter with it: and if it be detained a prisoner by a sheet of paper, it can be no Saviour; consequently no object of worship: for although it be called an host, yet we know it is not the "Lord of hosts;" for if "we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto corruptible things,” {1 Pet. 1: 18}. "as gold or silver,” {Acts. 17: 29}. we have no warrant to think it is like such paltry things as paste or bees-wax.

I gave you just a few hints, to let you know that I could penetrate you a little farther than you discovered yourself by words. I can see through you just as well as if you were made of glass: “He that is spiritual judgeth all things, but himself is judged of none," {1 Cor. 2: 15}.

Your pretensions to a convent, to keep bodily purity, is no better than the Jewish Pharisees "washing the outside of the cups and platters, while their inward parts were full of extortion and excess." It is not a lazy life in a cell that will purge the mind, or keep it pure. The heart must be purified by faith, and the mind kept pure by the love of God. If ever any such thing as purity be found in you, it must be derived from this source.

You have a brother in the ministry, and you are very welcome to lay my letters before him. I have no cause to be afraid or ashamed of any thing that I have written to you.

As to your present troubles, they are no more than what you must expect: “They have no rest day nor night that worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name," {Rev. 14: 11}. If God saves thee, he will " visit thy sin with the rod, and thine iniquities with stripes:" therefore “despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor be weary of his correction. Shall a living man complain for the punishment of his sins? Bear the indignation of the Lord, for thou hast sinned against him. Who knows but he may bring thee forth to the light, and shew thee his righteousness?”

I never saw the scriptural meaning of the whore of Babylon's "intoxication, or drunkenness," {Rev. 17: 2}. nor the effects of her "wine of fornication," {Rev. 17: 2}. so clearly in all my life as I have seen it in these letters of yours; for they are as pregnant with inconsistency and confusion as the logic of a drunken man. In your former letter you tell me, “you believe in the sacrifice of the mass, but have your doubts about pardons and purgatory;" which, to me, is inconsistency; for, if you believe in the sacrifice of the mass, you have no reason to doubt of a portion in purgatory. If you die in the faith of a lie, you are as sure of a damnation as if you were in it. For, if he can never enter into the "heavenly Jerusalem that maketh a lie," {Rev. 21: 27}. as the scriptures witness, there can be no fear of the liars being excluded from hell; as it is written, " But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, find whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death," {Rev. 21: 8}. This being the case, Madam, as your faith is fixed in the sacrifice of the mass, you have no cause to doubt of purgatory; for the same just God that gives a rebel up to believe a lie, has as firmly fixed the dreadful doom of the liar.

I take it for granted that this letter will be written too much in my own spirit, according to custom ; but you must leave my spirit out of the controversy, and see whether what I have written be the truths of God or not. It is by the words that God has spoken that we shall be judged in the great day, and not my temper.

For my part, I will not believe that there is one text in the Bible, if fairly stated in its spiritual meaning, that favors any one branch of Popery. For although there be some sound expressions in their creeds, yet their errors and conduct give all these things the lie. In short, though " they profess to know God, yet in works they deny him; being abominable, and disobedient, and to every real good work reprobate," {Tit. 1: 16}.

Indeed, Madam, I have dealt in the same plain way with you that God did with me; but I know that none but God can "give testimony to the word of his grace," {Acts. 14: 3}. " confirm the word of his servant, or perform the counsel of his messenger," {Isa. 44: 26}.

I have no favor to beg, but that you will expose your conscience to the light and force of truth. Act from conviction, agreeable to your promise; and I shall watch God's hand, and implore his aid. While God keeps you in suspense, or you “halt between two opinious," I bid you adieu: but, if truth sway you, I am your ready servitor in the gospel of Christ, and for his sake,

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

Sir,—Those were precious moments that I spent this night with you in the vestry; though, at the same time, I really can assure you, that, as true as there is a God in heaven, so sure I have a hell in my heart. O that I could fly from conscience! O that I could run from self! for surely I never can escape the judgments of an angry God. How can I suppose the Lord has ever set his love on me, the very vilest of the vile! I know not what to do. I do not cease praying night nor day, and yet my distress of soul increases so fast upon me, that I do, of a truth, expect shortly to be laid on a sick bed. Do you really think that Christ ever died for me? I have no assurance of this. O wretched state!—my sins are a sore burden, almost too heavy for me to bear.

Amazing change! I had never before felt what it has pleased God lately to inflict upon me. Methinks death is near at hand, I feel the plague of my wicked heart almost too intolerable for this weak frame to support. Life is no pleasure to me:—nor do I find enjoyment in any one thing on earth. In short, I cannot, in this situation, survive long. What will be my last doom, God only knows. My constant prayer is that the Lord will prepare me for death and judgment. In God's holy name I entreat you to pray for me.

O that I could say that God is really my heavenly Father—that Christ is my Saviour—and that the Holy Spirit is my Indweller! — Then—O then! I would count all the treasures, riches, pleasures, and enjoyments of this present evil world as dung and dross; indeed, I do as it is; for I see, more and more, an amazing vanity in all on this side the grave.

I often powerfully feel what you observed last Sabhath day evening, viz., “that the company of the dearest friend is a burden when one wishes to be pouring out one's grievances at a throne of mercy." I often wish to be alone when I cannot; for, though I find (to my great grief) little consolation or inclination to read the word of God, yet I never am left, in the deepest affliction, without a heart lifted up in prayer to God.

I entreat you, dear Sir, to excuse this continual pestering you with my strange experience. God keep me from trusting to an arm of flesh, or, in the least, from idolizing the creature: but this I well know, that the Lord has designed you au instrument of doing me good; therefore to him alone be the praise.

O the horrors of conscience ! O the vileness of my corrupt heart! —sin and sorrow separate me and my Saviour—while I daily envy those who are walking close with their God—who are making such great progress on their way Zion-ward. In short, I am as one without hope; nor do I find one grain of comfort but in two things: 1st. When I am enabled to make my requests known unto God, and have some glimmering hope that Christ will one day or other be all in all to my soul.—2-ndly, When you, as a man sent from God, sympathize with me in my distresses; for no mortal could possibly enter so much into the spirit of my feelings as you have done, unless God were with him. God is a wonder-working God, and has ordained very singular means to convince me of the errors of a false religion. Blessed be his name for such distinguishing grace! When I think of all this, my gratitude begins to flow.

Ah! say you, these are strange frames and feelings ! I expect you will trim me finely for this. But what can I do? Why, say you, tell God of all this. Well, I do continually; and much more I have to lament before him. But I am enabled to write to his servant; and am well persuaded that I do no wrong, and that you will answer me as his Spirit shall give you utterance.

I have now only to observe, that when comforts fail, I have this confidence, viz., " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever"—with him there is no variableness, nor the least shadow of a change. But do you firmly think that I can claim him as my Saviour and my God? If this were the case, methinks all my misery must vanish.

I cannot add more, for it is now one o'clock in the morning; but my heart feels too much to close mine eves ; and I have a dreadful headache—Believe me ever \ours, &c., in Christ,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

P S, Pray don't write until you have time; for I can easily judge how your hours are employed.

LETTER V.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

Dear Madam,—Grace, mercy, and peace be with thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Father of all mercies, and the God of all comfort, will lay no more upon thee than he will enable thee to bear. He has severely shaken thy sandy foundation; and, when thy false hope gives up the ghost, he, with his strong hand, will waft thee out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay: and, ere thou art aware, thou shall find thy " place of defense to be the munition of rocks. Then shalt thou see the King in his beauty, and behold the land that is very far off," {Isa. 33: 16, 17}.

Thy night is far spent—the day is at hand—the great Physician is "behind the wall," and will shortly "shew himself through the lattice," {Song 2: 9}. The gloomy veil will soon be rent—the Sun of Righteousness will shortly arise—thy present heaviness will go with thy present night—and a wonderful joy will be ushered in with the glorious dawn of everlasting day; then thou wilt reflect, with trembling, on the " shadow of death," and, with joy unutterable, behold "the path of life," {Psa. 16: 11}. He will strip thee of all thy Popish Coverings; and make thee “all glorious within," {Psalm 45: 13}. and illustrious without. “Then shalt thou break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily," {Isa. 58: 8}. In the mean while, let patience have her perfect work. Lie passive in the hand of God, and submit to be humbled under it, and he will surely exalt thee in due time. He will not destroy thee, nor forsake thee. When he has brought thee to resignation and submission, the storm will cease—a blessed calm will succeed—and thou wilt rise as high in spiritual prosperity, as you now sink in adversity. The balances of the sanctuary will turn in your favor, and excellent grace will be added unto you. Your future joys will more than counterbalance your present troubles; and you will bless God for ever for bringing you to himself in “this new and living way which himself hath consecrated."

A rigid Catholic requires rigorous management. A person that can perform works of supererogation is not easily brought to submit to the self-abasing terms of a surety. You must be brought in a debtor to free grace, and be taught to commit the keeping of your soul to Christ, as to a faithful Creator: and, when this is done, he will "work in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure."

Your present trials will scour your mind better than all the sanctified ashes that are used on an Ash Wednesday. All the consecrated candles of the Candlemas day will not vie with the rays of your faith; and your victory over the world will exceed all the childish triumphs of a Palm Sunday. A daily cross will be sent to discipline your mind, instead of a crucifix at your bosom, or a cat O' nine tails. Christ, formed in your heart the hope of glory, will be better than ten thousand silver Saviours in a trunk. Your own wants will teach you how and when to pray, better than any priest. You will look more to your own thoughts than to a string of beads— and watch your troubles, instead of counting them. Your greatest mortification, and the worst penance, will he the loss of the Lord's presence: “When the bridegroom is [sensibly] taken from thee, then wilt thou fast in those days.-" So I predict, and so you expect; — and “blessed is she that believeth, for there shall be a performance of what is told her from the Lord."—Your ready servitor in the gospel of Christ,

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON

Dear Sir,—I have to bless God for sending me for a short time to this retired spot, which seems so well to suit my present state of mind. I find Mr. and Mrs. C. pious, homely, honest kind of people; and they really treat me with the greatest kindness and attention imaginable. The Lord reward them. But my distress of mind has been exceeding great since I have been here; nor has it been in my power to conceal it. Mr. C. is an Israelite indeed; his conversation to me has been profitable; and he seems to know well the perilous path I am now treading.

Since I saw you I have been exceedingly ill. Within these few days I have been troubled with so violent a pain in my head, that I was obligated to have a Doctor, who informed me, that if I had anything on my mind, he could do me no good. However, upon the strength of supposing that I am in love, he has sent me a medicine, which he thinks will remove this pain in my head; but, alas! the worst pain lies in my heart, to cure which he is a physician of no value. God help me to wait patiently his time.

Tell me, I beseech you, dear Sir, do you really think that I have any part or lot in the matter? If so, why go I thus mourning all the day long? and why is my soul thus disquieted within me? It is evident that the Lord hath done great things for me; ought I not then to rejoice? But I have no enjoyment in any one thing in the world, neither alone, nor in the company of any one person; nor even in the word of God, except a few precious promises sometimes I feel powerfully applied to me when I am exceeding low. Now, what think you of all this?

My letters, of late, convey to you doleful tidings; but you know I keep none of my present experience from you. God only knows how long all this may continue. My sins are ever before me, and my continual dejection is very great; yet I am not without hope.

My temporal enjoyments are quite sufficient, and much more than I deserve: but the inward feelings of a racking conscience, what can be worse? Surely, it is no less than a foretaste of hell itself. O my father in Christ! cease not to pray unto our God for me; for "my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," and my bodily indisposition very great, But these afflictions are daily proofs to me, that this is not my resting-place. O that my peace were made with God! how then should I long to depart and to be with Christ!

Mr. C. is very kind. Seeing me much oppressed, a few hours since, he pointed me out, from God's word, some portions of scripture very suitable to my present case. But that dreadful sin of unbelief I feel so predominant, that I have not faith to believe even what God has declared. Alas! I know not how this will end; for I seem in a path, within these few months past, that I never trod before: and, if I thought this was a real work of grace begun on my soul, methinks I should so rejoice, even in tribulation, that I would not exchange my present state with the greatest monarch in the world.

I was reflecting, this morning, walking in the garden, on God's condescending love to poor sinners, and of that blessed union between God and his people; for they are said to be " temples of the living God," and that "he dwelleth in them, and walketh in them ." O happy enjoyment! Shall I ever know this? Surely, if I am destined to fight the good fight, and at last come off conqueror through him who hath loved us, when I get to heaven, I shall have reason to praise God more than any soul there.

I have one thing to inform you, which has caused me much uneasiness:—About three weeks since a person was informing us, that your first long epistle to me was by several persons expected to be shortly published, and that it was much desired. If you do this, Sir, I shall take it cruelly unkind. If this is true (which I hope it is not), I should like to converse with you a little on the subject, if ever an opportunity should offer. I cannot unburden my mind to you before a tribe; though I don't regard it at all before your dame. Therefore, as I must inevitably be in town about Lady Day, for a few days only, perhaps, if possible, I may give you a call for about a quarter or half an hour.

I have received a very affectionate letter from a venerable lady, who has a great regard for me, and who is now making continual enquiries about a situation for me. I expect her shortly in town; therefore shall wait upon her in the course of three weeks.

Mr. B. preached here three times last Sabbath day. His text in the morning was {Neh. 9: 20}. The good old man seemed so deeply affected that he wept much, and could scarce go on in one part of his sermon. Whatever others might have done who heard him, he himself seemed to feel powerfully the effects of the good Spirit of God. His text in the afternoon was {Prov. 10: 2}. Here he shewed the vanity and un-profitableness of riches—how they hardened the heart of a lost soul, and only fitted him for hell. He spoke much of the righteousness of Christ, which delivereth from eternal death. He observed, that all short of an experimental knowledge of the Saviour was vain, and of no value. His text in the evening was {Eph. 1: 2}. Here he shewed the excellency of God's decrees, and enforced much the doctrines of election and predestination. He observed, that all the doctrines of the gospel are according to God's purpose, counsel, and covenant; and gave much encouragement to God's people under trials and afflictions.

I hope we shall see you shortly. I am rather better since I first began this letter.

I thank you for your last, much of it is very sweet; but there was a little trimming, according to custom. Pray remember me at a throne of grace. Ever yours in Christ Jesus,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

March 7, 1787.

LETTER VI.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

Dear Madam, -- By the contents of your last, you are still in your grave clothes, and your head bound about with a napkin; but, ere it be long, Jesus will say of you, as he once did of Lazarus, " Loose her and let her go." As your convictions are still alive, and attended with prayer to God, it is clear that they are both from the Spirit of the Lord; for "the hypocrite will not always call upon God," {Job. 27: 8, 9, 10}. “nor will he cry, even when God bindeth him," {Job. 36: 13}.

I am persuaded your present sorrow is a " sorrowing to repentance —a godly sorrow"—that I trust will end in that “repentance that needeth not to be repented of," {2 Cor. 7: 10}. If I saw nothing of this about you, I could have no ground of hope for you; for if God " rebuke and chasten all that he loves," and " scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," what ground of hope could I have for you, who are an apostate, if you should go without chastisement? I must conclude, from scripture, that you are " a bastard, and not a child; for what son is he whom his father chasteneth not?" {Heb. 12: 7, 8}.

Your present sorrow is the ground of my joy with respect to you; for although I am sensibly touched with your present distress, yet I rejoice in the prospect of a future deliverance. “God will not bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth," {Isa. 66: 9}. This being the faithful promise, I say as Paul did: “For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me?" {2 Cor. 2: 2}. I am fully persuaded that God will deliver you with an outstretched arm; but " there is a time for every purpose;" and” the times and seasons are in God's hands:" it is enough for us that he has promised, “They shall not be ashamed that wait for him," {Isa. 49: 23}. God “has not dealt with you after your sin, nor rewarded you according to your iniquities," {Psa. 103: 10}. “Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sin?" {Lam. 3: 39}.

I found myself greatly disgusted at that musical instrument' that I saw in your apartments; and by its being open, I judged that you had been playing on it. It is one of the devil's rattles, intended to keep a crying conscience quiet. He was one of the cursed race of Cain, and the offspring of polygamy, that first invented those musical traps: “Jubal was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ," {Gen. 4: 21}. And Job says, they are the children of the wicked that “take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ," {Job. 21: 12}. I know you have your answer ready from the Psalms, “Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery and harp; praise him with the timbrel and dances; praise him with the stringed instruments and organs," {Psa. 90: 3, 4}. Get you first “David’s faith," and “David’s God," and then talk of David's joys and music.

I believe king David's music to be typical of the melody of gospel times, under the government of Zion's everlasting king ; " when joy and gladness should be found in the church, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody," {Isa. 51: 3}.

God commanded the use of “trumpets, rams horns, and golden bells." The first was to alarm the nation in times of danger, to gather the military forces for war, to proclaim a jubilee for slaves, and to call the tribes to their festivals. The “golden bells," intermixed with pomegranates, to be hung on the “skirt of Aaron's vestment,” {Exod. 28: 34}. The "pomegranates" typified the "sweetness of divine love,” {Cant. 8: 2}. and the "golden bells" prefigured the songs of rapturous souls, when their hearts are influenced and enlarged by the Holy Ghost. Compare {Zech. 14: 20}. with {Song 1: 9}.

The Jews were more taken with music than with their God, and therefore he gave them their fill of it from a royal band in the plains of Dura, when they were invited to a strange dedication, and commanded, "at the sound of the cornet, flute, &c., to worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up," {Dan. 3: 4, 5}. " Woe to them that are at ease in Zion; that put far away the evil day; that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David ; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph," {Amos. 6:1, 6}.

You are sensible, Madam, that our spiritual Joseph has been grieved and afflicted in his cause, and in his members, by your apostasy. His command to you is, “Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols," {Amos. 5: 23}. God has called you to lamentation for your folly. Obey his voice, “lest thy harp be turned into everlasting mourning, and thy organ into the voice of them that weep," {Job. 30: 31}.

I am obliged "to come to you with a rod," {1 Cor. 4: 21}. whether I am inclined to it or not, thou art "so unstable," {Gen. 49: 4}. I have written sharply, that I may know "whether you are obedient in all things," {2 Cor. 2: 9}.

" Fear not;" the Lord will shortly visit thee with his great salvation : then thou wilt find a better melody than that of bell wire; and the tender care and kind providence of God will appear in a thousand shapes and forms.

“The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace," {Numb. 6: 24, 25, 26}. I shall only add my prayers—my hearty Amen—and refer you to a rapturous text, appointed to be sung in future—" Yet will I rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hind's feet, and he will make me walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments," {Hab. 3: 18, 19},—and subscribe myself your willing servant to command in all godliness.

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

P.S.—Depend upon it, that not one letter to you shall ever be published without your consent, nor yet without your earnest desire.

LETTER

TO REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

Dear Sift,—In reading your last favor, I was much struck with the propriety of its contents. I am happy that God inclines you to reprove in me what you see inconsistent with his will. Nor will you wonder at the instrument in my apartment, when I assure you that music has ever been my predominant charm. There has been a time, when (to my shame I write it) I have sat four hours in a day at a harpsichord; nor was it in the power of any person living to draw me from it. However, Sir, this I can now say, from my own conscience, that, since it has pleased God to make me feel his wrath, and the vileness of my corrupt heart, I am thoroughly weaned from this vanity, as well as from many others. My heart is, indeed and of a truth, thoroughly sick of all these vain enchantments. God is witness, that I desire more and more to be pressing forward toward the mark for the prize of our high calling: that I sincerely crave to forsake all these things, to take up my cross, and to follow Christ.

If you did but know my present state, and feel the real distress of mind I now labor under, with the horrors of an embittered conscience, which I almost continually feel, too powerfully to be expressed, you would not suppose that I have the least delight in amusing myself with " a rattle of the devil's." I find time too precious to employ it in this unprofitable manner. I feel my heart and conscience too deeply impressed with matters of greater importance, than to take any delight in a musical instrument.

I see you still doubt of my sincerity; but God knoweth it, and knows also the truth of what I am now penning. Indeed, had I seen the same, I should have been very apt to have judged of the matter as you have done. But, believe me, this instrument was not brought to this house on my account. Here I found it; and it was by the desire of a friend that I played upon it. God knows that my heart was by no means inclined to it; for I am convinced this is not glorifying God; quite the reverse; and for that alone do I desire life. However, I’ll tell you the effect your letter has had on this subject. God crowns with a divine power every advice you give me. I have read attentively the third of Daniel, and the sixth of Amos; and find that your book of conscience (in this respect) and mine tally’s so exactly, that I am going to-morrow to order the immediate removal of this "rattle of the devil's;" you will pardon me for smiling at this expression.

My friends say, that I am a Huntingtonian with a witness; and are much delighted that your advice has such weight with me. I tell you what, Sir, I view you as a mere instrument, and no more (though blessed be God for such); and, as I before observed, I feel that God sends with a divine power to my soul what he inclines your heart to write to me. So that, if ever I see you again at my house, you shall never see that instrument there any more, nor any other.

I shall have the privilege of being at Providence Chapel next Sabbath day; and, if I mistake not, we shall have you at Jewin Street that evening, where I hope to attend; and shall be glad of your answer to this, when convenient: and so conclude in humble acknowledgment of your just reproofs, faithful dealings, and tender care, your obedient, dutiful, and affectionate daughter,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER VII.

TO ELIZABETH MORTON.

Bear Madam,—If my correspondence or ministry be of any use to you, you are welcome to it. If any power attends it, it is all of God. If any peace or comfort be communicated, the benefit is all your own, and you are indebted to God for all; yea, for the instrument, for the power, and for the consolation also.

What I see wrong in you, I shall reprove; and what I believe to be right, I shall endeavour to enforce. If you are offended, I shall not burn; but if you are delivered from your bondage, my soul shall rejoice; or, as Paul says, " I shall live, if you stand fast,” {1 Thess. 3: 8}.

At present, " I am sick, but not unto death," {John 11: 3, 4}, and very weak; but God says, “Let the weak say, I am strong," {Joel. 3: 10}. My body is "feeble, and sore broken;" but Christ is my “righteousness and strength," {Isa. 45: 24}. Although “My outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day," {2 Cor. 4: 16}. My tabernacle fails, but “God faileth not." The flesh gives way, but hope holds fast. In short, though “My flesh and my heart fail, God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever," {Psa.73: 26}.

I have got an ague, but my love is not quite cold. I have a violent fever, though I have received so much “cold water to my thirsty soul," {Prov. 25: 25}. I have a violent pain in my head, but my covenant head is without pain. Nor do I expect that I ever shall live, till it is firmly reported I am dead.

I have been afflicted with this disorder, at times, for three and twenty years; so that it is now constitutional, and somewhat like the " old man of sin," who will live as long as I shall.

But it is all appointed. I have had my share of terror; but that is now gone; and I am now under the other appointment, namely, that of the “burning ague," {Lev. 26: 16}.

You know I have been a long time recommending patience and resignation to you; but I have now a call to exercise all the patience that I have myself, and more than all: consequently I have none to spare, at present.

I bless God, in this letter, your mouth does not a call for strokes," {Prov. 28: 6}. which I am glad of as I am not in a proper frame for trimming you, while the Lord is trimming me. But, if I get about, you shall have it again if it be called for.

In these seasons, of which I have had many, I feel the blessed effects of an appropriating faith. My comfort lies in the object of my trust. “I know whom I have believed; and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day," {2 Tim. 1: 12}. It is “experience that worketh hope," {Rom. 5: 4}. and it is a good hope, through grace, that comforts the soul, and bears it up in a trying hour. I bless God, who, in a measure, Has kept me faithful in that gospel that I have received from him; but ray confidence rests not in my faithfulness to him, but in his faithfulness to me.

I have a pleasing prospect of your future deliverance; and could predict it in almost as strong a faith as Joseph did, when he “made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones “{Heb. 11: 22}. God grant I may not be disappointed of my expectation.

I shall say but little more at present, as the spring of my heart is more quick than the motion of my hand. Perhaps the Lord may lay his healing hand upon me; If he does, " I shall recover," and you may expect to hear from me as soon as " the fever has left me," {John 4: 52}. But at present a nurse is more in season than a correspondent.

" The Lord recompense thy difficult work of faith; and may a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust," {Ruth 2: 12}. “Yea, saith the Spirit, for such rest from their labors, and their works do follow them," {Rev. 14: 13}. This is my hope; and that it may be thine, is the sincere desire and prayer of,

Dear Madam,

Devotedly yours,

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

Dear Sir,—I bless God for having put it into your heart to share with me in my long afflictions; consequently I have an interest in your prayers at a throne of grace. I hope, also, that you do not despise my imperfect petitions on your behalf, as I hare your welfare ever on my heart, when I am pouring out my soul before God.

I have to acknowledge that God's grace has been sufficient for me, though I could not expect it. Blessed be his name, his promise in his word stands fast for the relief and comfort of distressed souls in a trying hour. I have felt, by blessed experience, God’s Almighty arm supporting me, when health and strength have both failed me, on account of my unhappy state of mind; when I have been doubting, fearing, dejected, nay, almost despairing. I have had powerfully impressed on me—the Lord will never suffer his faithfulness to fail, and that he is more willing to hear than we are to pray; for, " whatsoever," says Christ, " ye ask in my name, believing, ye shall receive it." Oh for faith to build our hopes, more and more, on his faithful word of promise, which stands firmer than the pillars of the earth.

When I reflect on the various scenes of my past life, I bless God with my whole heart that ever I was afflicted. I pray that I may never murmur, but rather bless our heavenly father for every dispensation of his providence towards me. Do you never find that sanctified trials are blessings in disguise? and that God often hides a smiling countenance under dark and frowning providences ? I have been often struck with this.

But to my present case —What have I to say ?—First, I sincerely feel myself the vilest of sinners—I grieve at the great depravity of my corrupt nature, that I was so easily seduced to believe those doctrines of devils that God has pronounced an eternal curse upon.

This sin is ever before me. At the same time, my heart glows with love and gratitude to God for having granted me so great and wonderful a deliverance; for having preserved me, while hundreds are daily cut off in their sins arid errors. Surely he has manifested covenant love towards me; for I can truly say, that my soul thirsteth after righteousness, and that my heart delighteth in no other than a God reconciled in Christ. I find by heartfelt experience, that I die daily to the trash of this present evil world. “Bless the Lord, O my soul! and all that is within me bless his holy name."

I am much concerned at your indisposition of body; but, " as thy day is, so shall thy strength be*" He that bringeth low, also raiseth up. Many and great have been my bodily afflictions; so that I can truly sympathize with you in the present case; for I had a violent ague upon me three months, and I had some hope that the Lord would raise me up, and to him I looked for a cure; for I had more faith there, than I had in any outward medicine, though I do not hold that means are to be despised: but I speak from experience; for it is good to wait the Lord's time. He knows what is best for us. It is a blessed thing to bear with patience and resignation what he is pleased to inflict upon us, and to say, " Thy will, O God be done,” In this same affliction, and indeed in all my mental distresses, and bodily infirmities, I have ever found that they have driven me to prayer. When my life has been despaired of, I declare to you, that I have found more relief in pouring out my spirit before God, than in all the medicines I ever took. However, during this ague I had prescribed me the best Peruvian bark; and I believe, with the blessing of God, this might have done me some temporal good ; for I had violent shiverings upon me, nor could they persuade me to any kind of medicine but this. By taking it three times a day the shiverings left me.

Excuse my thus writing to you. The Lord, I know, will direct you in every step; but out of the abundance of my heart my mouth speaketh. Indeed, it almost grieves me to intrude on your time at this juncture, as you have much to bear, and much to do: but I really may as well attempt to stop the current of the Thames, as stop my pen in writing to you. The Lord raise you up, and restore you, is the prayer of your affectionate daughter,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER VIII.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON

Madam,—Your letters are like what the prophet calls the "swift messengers :" they soon appear; but they are welcome ; for it is with pleasure that I behold the goodness of God to you: and, if I am not much deceived, I think I discern a budding hope spring up in you; if so, you will shortly find a door of entrance to a dear Redeemer: you will " go in and out, and find pasture :" and, when you prevail with the Lord in secret, he will surely reward yon openly. Aim at communion with Christ. It is that that will make your soul healthy, and your countenance comely. The Lord grant that you may obtain a good root; then we may expect good fruit: but unless the tree be made good, the fruit will not be good. We must let the world judge of the ray within us, by the light that shines without. If your faith be genuine, your future conduct will be exemplary; and you will no more turn aside to such weak and beggarly elements. Your late sufferings will be a terror behind you; and a hope of the glory of God, will be a powerful attraction before. I bless the Lord for his providential kindness towards you; and I trust you will see more and more of it every day: and if in mercy he keeps you steadfast and upright, I shall view you " my joy, and the crown of my rejoicing;" because, with respect to you, I shall think " I have not labored in vain, nor spent my strength for nought."

I am somewhat better, blessed be God. But I am in haste. I shall not forget you in my prayers. I crave an interest in yours also: and remain your ready servant in the bonds of the gospel.

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

Mon Cher Pere en Jesus Christ,

Surely I may call you thus, from what God has done for me through your instrumentality : but to him alone be the praise.

Well may you behold with pleasure the goodness of God towards the vilest of sinners, both in a way of providence as well as grace. But what must /do that begin to have a feeling sense of all this?

I trust I have a good hope through grace, that the work is really begun on my soul. This being the case, it shall surely go on in spite of every enemy; and as the Bible is certainly true, God will most certainly perfect the good work; nor will I believe that Satan, with all his artillery, can baffle me out of the present testimony of my own conscience.

I have this day felt the reality of what you assert in your kind letter, viz., “a door of entrance to a dear Redeemer." I feel lately a comfortable nearness and access to God in private prayer, and a glimmering hope that Christ has shed his precious blood, and procured heaven for me.

Alas! sin has really been my greatest burden for many months past. It has pleased our heavenly Father to lead me in a thorny path; so that this earthly tabernacle has been almost worn out through distress of soul; but in Jesus Christ alone is my help and confidence. I feel my need of him; and I have faith to believe (God increase it) that the Lord will savingly reveal this Saviour of sinners to my soul, and grant me a feeling sense of pardon, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, by the application of his atonement to my conscience.

At present my troubled mind feels something of an earnest of this. The Lord has granted me a fervent heart to pray for it; and by his grace I hope to wrestle hard till I get it; but not without taking his own word with me. Pleading his own promises, and the merits of his dear Son, are the best pleas.

O! Sir, how inexpressibly sweet it is to find access to a throne of grace in times of trouble: to pour out every complaint before God, and make our requests known unto him. I never experienced so much of this before; and even now I feel my extreme ignorance in divine things. My mind is very dark yet; but I can put up this prayer, What I know not, Lord teach thou me.

I have yet much to be subdued—a rebellious heart, n stubborn will, a proud spirit, and evil tempers, &c. The Lord Root out all that is displeasing to him, and strip me entirely of whole self, that I may take a whole Saviour. In one word, until Christ be all in all to my soul, I shall never be happy. I am persuaded " I shall know him for myself, and not for another:" and all this is, I humbly hope, in answer to the prayers that have been offered on my behalf, with my own feeble petitions included.

I am persuaded, it is not in the power of Satan to root out that fervency that you find in prayer before God on my behalf. This is the breathing of his own Spirit upon your heart. And I feel the answer in the joy of mind as a proof.

I must tell you, that dreadful horror and guilt, which was no less than a hell within, is greatly removed from me. And when I reflect on that black catalogue that has stared me in the face for so many months, they seem, as it were, in a small degree obliterated ; for I read that " the blood of Christ cleanses from all sin:" and, though I am a sinner of the deepest die, yet he can wash me winter than snow : and what crowns all* he has given the greatest encouragement to just such rebels as I feel myself, to come to "the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness,” {Zech. 13: 1}. to wash and be clean. O what a blessed thing is this! I'll take him at his word: for I know it cannot fail; and keep "looking to him until the whole burden falls off my back." I will trust and not be afraid; for he has been better to me than all my fears. I have sought him, and he hath heard me, and his ears have been open to my cry. “Why, then, art thou cast down, O my soul! and why art thou disquieted within me ? Fear not, the Lord is with thee; be not dismayed, he is thy God."

Strange language indeed, say you, for one who is “absolutely as blind as a bat." This is really so; but 1 feel now and then a glimmering light, breaking through a very dark cloud: and I can appeal to God and conscience, that all I have here written has passed through my heart.

I did not think of wearying you with so long a letter; but as I find a growing timidity in conversation on divine things, so, likewise, I find, that when I can unburden my thoughts to one whom I can unite in spirit with, I can write with boldness what I know experimentally.

I beseech you, in God's name, never to forget me in your prayers. O for a saving knowledge of him, whom to know is life eternal! O for a living faith, and a bright evidence: a heartfelt union and communion with Jesus Christ, and the everlasting love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost!

These things my soul desires, and these I expect; and will you pray for me that these things may be granted me?

My paper is full,—May God bless you abundantly, in spirituals and temporals, is the hearty prayer of your dutiful daughter,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER IX.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

At Mr. Terry's, Engraver, No. 54, Paternoster Row, Cheapside.

Dear Daughter,—It is with great delight that I perceive you to look out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The prison doors are now unfolding, and shortly you will begin to show yourself: then the many secret groans, prayers, and wrestlings, that have been carried on in “secret, will be rewarded openly." The winter is wearing away. The sun begins to shine. The rain is almost "over, and gone; and the voice of the turtle will be heard in the land," {Song. 2: 11,12}. You do not "peep and mutter" as formerly, {Isa. 8: 19}. Nor is your "speech quite so low out of the dust," as usual, Isa, xxix. 4. I trust that God will soon “turn to you a pure language, that will enable us to call upon his name, and serve him with one consent," {Zeph. 3: 9}. As the burden of guilt wears away, peace and love will succeed:—" where much is forgiven, the same loveth much."

There appears some consistency in your last:—it is not so pregnant with confusion as some of your former epistles: which gives me ground to hope that you are on the frontiers of the promised land. If so, the language of Babylon will soon be forgot.

I come now to call you to auricular confession; for if the old proverb that goes current amongst us, “That one good turn deserves another," be true, you must allow my following requests to be just. I have taken a deal of pains to make known to you the “mysteries of godliness," 1 Tim. iii. 16. and I expect you will give me your present thoughts of the " mystery of iniquity," {2 Thess. 2: 7}. consisting of Popery and Arminianism.

What think you now of “free-will, and human power to choose or refuse life," according to your old tenets?—Is “salvation of him that willeth, or of him that runneth; or is it of God that sheweth mercy?" {Rom. 9: 16}.

Are the doctrines of God's sovereignty, his election of his people, his “predestinating of them to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will; to the praise and glory of his grace," {Eph. 1: 5, 6}. I say, are these stumbling blocks in your way? Are they rocks of offence? Do you stumble at these things? Or are they articles of your present faith? Do they bring horror or peace to your mind? Are they enemies? or do they appear friendly ? I trust you have examined them by this time; and if they have entered into your heart with power, your bonds have been broken: for the Saviour says, “If we receive the truth, the truth shall make us free."

What think you now of human penance, holy water, knocking the breast, a horse-hair girdle, and a cat o’ nine tails? Are these any parts of the armour of God, with which we are to “mortify the flesh, resist the devil, fight the good fight of faith, and overcome the world? {Rom. 8: 13, James 4: 7, 1 John 5: 4}.

What think you now of a monastic life? Can people that are cooped up in a cell be compared “to a city set on a hill, that cannot be hid ?" or can perpetual imprisonment, with any degree of propriety, be called a " taking up the cross ?" a letting one's " light shine before men ?" and "following the Lord through evil report and good?"

What think you now of the venerable appearance, and of the whimsical mandates of a mother abbess? Do you think that “bowing the knee," and " confessing your faults" to her, is any better than " pouring out a drink offering to the queen of heaven ?" Or is obeying her orders any better than "consulting with the witch of Endor," or crying out, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians?”

Are auricular confession, pardons, indulgences, bulls, dispensations, the weeds of St. Domonic, the sanctified candle, and the palm branch, any of the things that “Christ received for the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell among them?" {Psa. 68: 18}.

Has God commanded women that fear him to despise his wisdom, by shaving of the “hair which he has given them for ornament and covering??” {1 Cor. 11: 15}. Is not a bald head on the shoulders of a female, rather a scriptural badge of her adultery than her chastity? seeing God has said, that " instead of well-set hair they shall have baldness; instead of a girdle, a rent; and instead of a stomacher, a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty," {Isa. 3: 24}. Whereas souls entering into covenant with God, are compared to “women whose breasts are fashioned, and whose hair is grown," {Ezek. 16: 6, 7, 8}.

Is a naked head, a white bandeau across the forehead, a linen gamp under the chin, and a black veil on the head, any part of Zion's lustre, who is said to be “all glorious within ?" {Psa. 45: 13}. Or can they be called “the ornaments of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price?" {1 Pet. 3: 4}.

And whether you think cowls, hoods, and habits, horrid oaths, rash vows, rigorous fasts, cruel penance, a starved carcase, and perpetual bondage, be any part of " the faith that was once delivered to the saints," {Jude. 1: 3}, or any of "the things that accompany salvation," {Heb. 6: 9}. For my part I find nothing of this in my Bible; and I take it for granted there is nothing of it in yours; if there had, they would not have wished to deprive you of it; but by their attempting to burn it, it is plain that it exposes and opposes their cause.

As God makes souls that are brought your way, feel both the “pains of hell," {Psa. 116: 3}, and “the powers of the world to come,” {Heb. 6: 5}. I ask, if any middle state, or any such place as purgatory, ever occurred to your thoughts, or was impressed on your mind as a truth of God? I know by experience, that souls which are exercised as you have been, anticipate both the horrors of the damned and, the joy of heaven. And I know that the Spirit leads us into all truth; but he never led me to feel, to fear, or even to think of any purgatory, short of the eternal residence of devils.

Or did you ever find one precept or precedent in all God's book, of praying for people that are dead? "As the tree falls, so it lies," says Wisdom, {Eccl. 11: 3}. If this be true, saying mass for a little money will never move it. When man gives up the ghost, “the dust shall return to the earth, and the spirit returns to God that gave it," {Eccl. 12: 7}, and if it be a sanctified soul, it goes to “Abraham’s bosom," {Luke 16: 23}, but if it be a wicked soul, it goes “quick into hell," {Psa. 55: 15}. The thief on the cross went that day to "paradise," {Luke 23: 43}. Stephen called upon Christ to “receive his spirit;" and "the heavens were open for the admission of it," {Acts. 7: 59}. The patriarchs “yielded up the Ghost;" if so, it did not sink into purgatory. Christ commended his soul to his Father; and says we shall follow him. If his soul was offered up to God, it never went to purgatory; and if his did not, the believer's will not. We read of the “mouth of hell," and of the “bosom of Abraham;" but we read of no middle state, but the " gulph that God has fixed," to keep angels and saints, devils and sinners apart, that they may trouble one another no more. “The end of our faith is to be the salvation of our souls,” {1 Pet. 1: 9}, not a damnation in purgatory. David would not” fear when he walked through the shadow of death; for he knew that" God would guide him with his counsel, and receive him to glory."

Those words of Peter, “By which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison," {1 Pet. 3: 18, 19}, are blasphemously perverted, by the Papists, He means, that the Spirit of Jesus Christ was in all God's Prophets; and that it was the Spirit of Christ in Noah that preached to the antediluvians, " while the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah," whose souls are how in the prison of hell for their rebellion in resisting the Holy Ghost, of whom God said, " My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Compare {Gen. 6: 3, with 1 Pet. 3: 18, 19, 20}.

The word of God by Paul, {1 Cor. 3: 13, 14, 15}, is perverted by the Papists also. The Apostle is writing to preachers, that if any man built, on the foundation that he had laid, either false doctrines or false professors, fiery trials, when they come, would try both the building and the cement, and if either were destroyed, the preacher, or the builder, would suffer loss in his ministerial works, as the popish priest that converted you has done, and so has the bishop that confirmed you: all their untempered mortar, and all their " hay, straw, and stubble, is burnt up," {1 Cor. 3: 12}, in the fiery trials that you have passed through; and you will see whether the work that God has wrought on you, and the truths that you now hold, will not abide every future fire of affliction. When the Apostle says, himself, “shall be saved so as by fire," {1 Cor. 3: 15}, he means, if the preacher belong to God—God will try him in the " furnace of affliction," where all his errors and legality will be purged from him by the " spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning," {Isa. 4: 4}, " and he shall be saved, yet so as by fire," which God calls " bringing them through the fire," {Zech. 13: 9}. Those words in {Psalm 16: 10}, and in {Acts. 2: 27}, about the soul of Christ being left in hell, are wretchedly perverted; it was a hell of sufferings that is meant, not the regions of the damned; it was our sins on him, the curse that ho endured, the wrath that he felt, the powers of darkness that derided him, and the Father's departure from him; that was the hell in which he was not left. He was to make "his soul an offering for sin," and into God's " hands he commended his spirit,” That day he told the thief he should be with him in paradise—not in hell. When he yielded up the ghost, he said, “it is finished," which if he had gone to hell, the worst had been to come.

Are a cross at the breast, an image? in a box, the reliques of the dead, and a trust in human absolution, any of the articles that are essential to that faith, that is said to " purify the heart, to work by love," to make a man "prevalent with God in prayer," and to "take the kingdom of heaven by violence ?

Tell me also, what your present thoughts are of a monastic purity; and whether you do not think that the " chastening hand of God," that has been upon you, and is now attended with humbling grace, is not more effectual to mortify the deeds of the body, and produce mental purity, than the straw-bed, the flannel sheets, flannel shifts, extreme unction, holy water, the consecrated wafer, and the abominated ashes? And whether answers to prayers, and the operations of God's Spirit, do not influence your soul with real holiness, and subdue every wanton passion, more than telling a carnal priest every amorous thought, amorous glance, carnal desire, or lascivious motion, that stirs in the body, or hovers over the mind; and whether that wretched puddle did not appear in greater motion after it had been stirred up by confession, than it did before the priest asked such filthy questions?

Tell me also, whether you believe that God ever commanded young women, that desired to fear his name and obtain heaven, to be debarred human society, to abstain from animal food all their days ; and whether filling the belly with fish, eggs, or roots, can be called a fast in the sight of God any more than satisfying nature with what God allows in his law, namely, the "flesh of the ox, the sheep, the goat, the hart, the roebuck, and the fallow deer," {Deut. 14: 4, 5}, and whether you cannot find your present faith, experience, peace, comfort, doctrines, and devotion in the patriarchs and prophets, who " obtained a good report through faith," and afterwards died in the faith, even before Peter, your former foundation, was born, or thought of? and whether you think that Luther and Calvin were the authors of that religion that exercised your mind with such terrors, changed your heart, and has now terminated in such peace, love, and-divine consolation as you now enjoy ? and whether poor sinners thus broken by terror, humbled by repentance, purified by faith, and renewed by the Holy Ghost, be, in reality, as the Papists pretend, the people that the apostle Paul calls " heretics," {Tit. 3: 10}, under which name they are condemned and destroyed? and whether those glorious truths of the Bible, that are now the food of your soul, and the joy of your heart, be, in the scriptural sense of the word, what Papists assert to be "heresy," {1 Cor. 11:19}, and, likewise, whether a poor sinner, who has labored through such soul travail as you have, in order to make his "calling and election sure," be the object that Christ has empowered a vicar—and Peter a successor—to curse with book, and candle? or whether a divine sentence he to be administered, and souls sent to endless darkness, with musical sound and artificial light, or in the names of such trumpery things as bells and candles ? and whether you now think damnation be such a trifling thing as to be executed with artificial illumination and rough music ?

Tell me also, whether your legal travail and evangelical deliverance be not exactly agreeable to our present translation of the Bible? and whether you think that the Popish unwritten traditions " did spring," as you formerly asserted, from the "same source as the Bible did?" and whether you do not think your present deliverance from guilt, and conversion to God, which has been performed by Jesus Christ alone, who is the only mediator, advocate, and intercessor, be not as effectual, as saving, as establishing, and as valuable in the sight of God, as if the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and Paul, and all the angels in heaven, or Thomas a Beckett, St. Benoit, Larbe, Joseph, St, Bernard, St. Francois de Sales, and all the inhabitants of purgatory had been called in to assist ? for as the Saviour's own arm brought salvation to him, so his own arm sends salvation from him, without calling in either saints or sinners to assist his power, or share his glory.

Tell me also, what you think of monastic craft, in entrapping women for nuns? whether the most subtle of them be not used as decoy ducks ? whether they do not appear in their feigned sanctity to be mistresses of arts, in entangling others, by trying to provoke them to jealousy, and to bring them to envy them their feigned holiness and shew of happiness ? and whether they are not satanically skilled in courting by proxy for the devil ? and whether you did not strongly feel the twofold operations of what the scriptures call “intoxication" and “fornication," even to such a pitch as to wish yourself one of the masculine gender for the sake of some nun ? I mean so as to be carried away with an unnatural and inordinate love, that is not common to your sexes, not like a spiritual union, but a love carnal and brutal. This is what the scriptures call one of the depths of Satan," {Rev. 2: 24}. A false church is a mystical mistress of Witchcrafts, and the devil's bawd, because she is in union of spirit with him. To adhere to her, to embrace her false doctrines, and unite in spirit with her, is becoming a spiritual whore; and embracing lies instead of truth, is called in scripture "a conception by the devil; Ananias, why hast thou conceived this in thine heart ?" {Acts 5: 4}. Such are said to be pregnant by Satan; “why hath Satan filled thine heart?" {Acts. 5: 8}. When souls embrace error, and unite with erroneous people, their minds are stupified, puzzled, and confounded, and the devil ceases to tempt them, until they think real divinity is springing up in their hearts; hence it is compared to "getting drunk" in scripture; and as drunkenness often leads to adultery, so it is called the " wine of fornication," because it produces an alienation from the profession of God and his truth, and is therefore called a " committing fornication," {Rev. 17: 2}. The devil is called the “dragon" that gave antichrist” his seat," {Rev. 13}. And the anti- christian body is called the “great whore," {Rev. 17: 1}.

Young converts, such as you were, are called the "children of Jezabel." and the end of that mother and her family is pointed out in the following text, " I will east her into a bed, and all that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent; and I will kill her children [or converts] with death," {Rev. 2: 23}. It is by the rain of souls that they get their wealth, as may be seen in the word of God, which particularly mentions her wealth and luxuries, and then brings in the souls of men at last as paying the whole reckoning; as it is written, " the merchandize of gold and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyme wood, and all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and of iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men," {Rev. 18: 12, 13}.

It was from the city of Rome that John was banished to the isle of Patmos; and in the isle of Patmos John saw the eternal banishment of that city. The Roman empire first began in Nimrod, that “mighty hunter before the Lord," and his kingdom took its rise at Babylon, {Gen. 10: 10}. From this its infant state in Nimrod, it soon got to be a mighty motley monster of iniquity, called an image with a golden head; the golden head was the king, Dan. ii. 28. Next, the empire is compared to a "ram with two horns," {Dan. 8: 3}. which beast appeared when God divided the Babylonish empire, and gave it to the Medes and Persians, {Dan. 5: 28}. After that the empire fell into the jaws of an “he-goat," {Dan. 8: 5}. which was the Grecian empire; Alexander was the great horn; " the rough goat was the king of Grecian the great horn was the first king," {Dan. 8: 21}, At the death of Alexander the empire was divided among his four servants. The rough goat having lost its notable horn, or Alexander, now appeared with four horns, which are “four kings," {Dan. 8: 22}, After this the empire rolled about till it became Roman; under which Christ was crucified, and many of his servants destroyed; he stood up against the " Prince of princes, and destroyed the mighty and holy people," {Dan. 8: 24, 25}. That empire is now the “fourth beast, dreadful and terrible; it is diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it has ten horns," {Dan. 7: 7}. “The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings," {Dan. 7: 24}. These ten horns are the ten toes belonging to the feet of Daniel's image, where Christ, the Stone of Israel, will smite it, {Dan. 2: 34, 41}. which John says will be done by turning the hearts of these ten kings to hate the whore, and " burn her flesh with file." Daniel compares the ten kings to the ten toes of the image, to shew it is on its last legs, when upheld by ten kings; and what Daniel calls smiting the feet, John calls turning the heart of the ten kings to hate the whore—" then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy by the brightness of his coming," {2 Thess. 2: 8}.

Thus that mighty empire, which began in Nimrod, shall end in antichrist. The former was a “mighty hunter before the Lord," and the latter has been a dreadful hunter after him; I mean, that Nimrod began to hunt souls under his dominion, before the Lord set up his kingdom; and the other has been hunting the Lord's subjects since his kingdom has been set up. Blessed be God for ever, for that grace that has delivered thee from their power, and from their end. You will say, I am an odd father confessor, to lead thee such a round-about way: therefore I shall come again to books.

What money do the nuns pay down at their entrance into & monastic life? What pocket-money are they allowed? What interest does money fetch in the funds of Park? What is the nuns' chief diet? and whether their chief penances do not consist in fasting?

How have our English gentry appeared in your eyes since you have waded through these many months distress of soul? I mean such of them as send their children to a convent for education, as you went, and so expose them to those snares of the devil that have entangled so many of them, to their utter ruin and destruction ? What figure do you think such parents will make at the bar of God, when they are summoned to give an account of their proceedings both with respect to themselves and their offspring, which account can be little better than that of those who “sacrificed their children to Moloch?” {Jer. 32: 35}. And whether you think that any one branch of Popery has got any foothold or foundation in the book of God? or if there be any one text in the Bible that favors or countenances any part of it? I know that a convinced soul meditates terror; if so, you have weighed over in your mind all these things that I now call for a confession of.

And likewise, whether you do not now prize those English testimonies for God that you burnt at your recantation? and whether that can be the true militant church that burns the records of the church triumphant? or whether a church that is the "ground and pillar of the truth," {1 Tim. 3: 15}. can ever destroy the truth of her own pillars?

And lastly, whether any one charge that I have brought against you as a Papist, or against Popery, be false—according to your present experience and judgment of scripture?

I beg your pardon for detaining you so long in confession; but I have a right to receive as well as to give; and be assured that your ready compliance with these my requests will confer a lasting obligation on one who desires to subscribe himself, Dear Daughter,

Year reverend, venerable,

And affectionate father confessor,

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

Rev. and Dear Father in, Christ Jesus,

Your last letter came safe to hand, I have read it with much attention, and perceive it requires a minute answer; but permit me first to vent the present feelings of my heart.

In taking a retrospect of my past experience, and the wonderful manner in which it has pleased #God to set my soul at liberty, under the same powerful ministry by which God first struck deep arrows of conviction into my mind; and finding my soul more and more established in the truth as it is in Jesus—for I believe that God has absolutely cast all my sins into the depths of the sea, and I know that he will remember them no more for ever; (The Holy Ghost, I trust, has " sealed me to the day of redemption") —in consequence of this, permit me to impart unto you these blessed tidings, namely, that I hare not at present a single doubt of my eternal salvation in Christ Jesus. O what a change! and what a debtor am I to God's free sovereign grace! He really has given me the “oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." I now experience the truth of that scripture which says, “the tongue of the dumb shall sing, the blind shall see out of obscurity, and the lame man shall leap as an hart." Can a sinner doubt of the salvation of his soul, under a feeling sense of God's unchangeable love, and a clear view of the stability of his everlasting covenant? It is impossible.

You have justly observed, and so I find it that, as the darkness wears off, the true light begins to shine; and as the winter disappears, “so the voice of the turtle is heard in the land." True, I have peeped a long time, and saw nothing; and muttered a great deal, but said little to the purpose, as my first letter to you evidently shews. My speech cannot now be so low out of the dust: for, blessed be God, I can say, my “conversation is in heaven," where my heart and my treasure are.

You wish to know the purity of my language. I will speak then of the “Mighty God, the Wonderful Counselor, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace." In all these characters he is near and dear to me. Truly, where “much is forgiven, the same loveth much." O that I could love him more, and cleave closer to him: this is my wish, and most ardent desire.

As you have called me to auricular confession, I am willing to comply with your every request, and will confess, a vous mon pere, without disguise, all I know of the mystery of iniquity; and I bless God for the opportunity of exposing their abominations.

As to free will and power, I felt myself under the power of his wrath; and though I was willing to be saved, yet found I had no power to remove the guilt from my conscience, until God removed it by applying the blood of atonement. I was shut up, but could not come forth, until the prison doors were opened. Blessed be God, I was among the number of those who were “reserved unto the faith that should afterwards be revealed." It was the Saviour, and not I, “that opened the two-leaved gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron asunder," and said to the prisoner of hope, come forth. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”

Election I find now no stumbling-block, but a blessed foundation for rejoicing; for if his electing love and distinguishing grace had not loosed my bonds, and set my soul at liberty, I must have remained miserable in this world, and in that which is to come, to all eternity.

When I had no strength, he did that for me that neither myself nor any other creature could do; which is an evidence that nothing but the discriminating grace, the everlasting love, and almighty power of God, could have plucked me from the very gates of hell. Let them who will rail against election; they that doubt it have never experienced it. When I had no ground of hope in myself, the riches of his grace were manifested. , When I had no strength his power appeared. When I had no knowledge, his wisdom was revealed. So that I can truly say, “he was," at first, " found of them that sought him not," and afterwards heard of them that called on him; and to them that heard not of him he said, " Behold me, behold me. I looked and was enlightened." Thus was “the prey taken from the mighty;" and thus was "the lawful captive delivered."

Human penance stood in no stead while Satan found access to my heart; for while the “strong man armed keeps possession of the house," such armour as that keeps him in greater security. He must first quit his hold, which must be done only by a power mightier than he. It is in vain to fortify a city while there is a traitor in it; or to sprinkle the body with holy water, while the heart is unclean, and the conscience polluted with guilt. Knocking the breast will never disturb Satan's quiet, nor break a “stony heart." A horsehair girdle will never gall him, nor & cat-o’-nine-tails make him flinch; for he “laughs at the shaking of a spear, he counts iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood," {Job. 41: 27}. So far from thinking he is afraid of these things, I firmly believe, they are altogether his own devices —invented to intoxicate the minds of people, and laugh at their folly, and lead them blindfold into perdition. It cannot be the "armour of God," because the apostle Paul says, “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and mighty through God, to the pulling down the strong holds of Satan." These are not spiritual, but carnal; of human invention, and stand in human wisdom; and the scriptures declare, “that this wisdom is not from above, but is earthly, sensual, and devilish." The victory that overcometh the world is even our faith. There can be no victory where there is no combat. There can be no combat with the world when excluded from it, and locked up within the walls of a monastery or the confines of a cell. I bless God for ever, for delivering me from that hellish infatuation that had taken so fast hold of my foolish heart. They know nothing of following the Saviour through evil and good report. They labor hard only to exalt themselves, and keep their good name. I was a slave to this myself, until I found a " woe unto you when all men speak well of you," {Luke. 6: 26}.

As to the mother abbess; this head or superior assumes an authority as one in the place of Christ over the flock: it is true they confess their faults privately to her once a week and the younger Nuns address her always on one knee. Abominable practice! Infernal idolatry! Doing that which the angels in heaven forbade when John attempted it, {Rev. 22: 8,9}, and which Peter an Apostle forbade in Cornelius, {Acts. 10: 25, 26}. “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow not to a mother abbess, nor to a graven image, much less to a dead man's bone, or a trumpery wafer.

My soul abhors the remembrance of auricular confession. I am a living witness of this abomination. David " confessed his transgressions to the Lord, and he forgave him the iniquity of his sin.” I really never felt (when a Catholic) any satisfaction in confessing my sins to the priest, but I have found it in pouring out my broken petitions before God by myself in private. Surely this is a most vile and sinful practice.

I shall open to you the whole mystery without reserve, as you have questioned me so closely on the subject. “Reward her, says God even as she rewarded you; and double unto her double, according to her works,” {Rev. 18: 6}. It is a shame for a woman to approach these confessionals: if they were never wise in the scenes of iniquity before, the priest will be sure to instruct them by asking such filthy and indecent questions, that a modest woman would blush to think of. I declare to you that I was confined three days to my bed, from my first confession; and thought then I never could have gone to confession a second time, being so abashed and confounded by the abominations that he had put in my head. I was truly terrified at a sinful thought, more from the idea of telling it to the priest, than a fear of offending the Almighty God. O what a penance was this! At the same time, when it was over, my cursed pride was nursed, and I was congratulated as being an angel, without a sin on my conscience.

Alas, Sir I this is being “drunk indeed with the wine of her fornication.” They cannot boast of “the knowledge of salvation, by the forgiveness of their sins,” {1 Luke 1: 77}. This they are strangers to; for “God hath given them up to strong delusions, that they should believe a lie and woe be to those who die in that monster's lap.

I bless God for ever, that he has taken from me the veil of ignorance, and enabled me totally to renounce the horrid and vile delusions of that infernal synagogue of Satan, the Roman Catholics. This is not the religion of Jesus. We are to confess our sins unto God alone, who “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I am convinced, from my own experience, it is not a few words muttered in Latin by a Popish priest that can absolve a soul from his guilt in the sight of God. All the absolutions I ever obtained, never purged my conscience, or subdued the power of sin within me.

A shaved head, a white linen bandeau, a gamp, a black veil, and starved carcase; I find no such things as these in the whole book of God. “If a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her," {1 Cor. 11: 15}. A bandeau round the head will never strengthen a weak judgment, establish an unsettled mind, or rectify a whimsical brain, any more than shaving a head can cool a hot one. Beshrouding the face with a gamp, may make a woman look like a moving ghost; but it can never familiarize death, or sooth that triumphant king of terrors. He will be found, I believe, as unfriendly to a be-shrouded Nun, as to an Egyptian mummy. Death and hell are subservient to none but the Saviour. By faith in him alone we can overcome both, and not by faith in such childish trumpery as this. Starving the carcase may gripe the bowels, but it is a most whimsical remedy for a wounded conscience.

Now it hath pleased God to bring me a little to my senses, I would just as soon recommend a copper of scalding water to cure the St. Anthony's fire, or a wet bed in an ice-house to cure an ague, as I would recommend a poor fainting sin-sick soul to such cursed remedies as these. Surely, Sir, natural reason must have been exhausted in her researches, and the strength of uncommon folly rule all, together with the assistance of the art and malice of devils, to have furnished men with devices like these, so contrary to scripture, nature, and reason.

The middle state you mention, viz. purgatory, often presented itself to my view when I was a professor of that church: I often staggered at it as I never read of a threefold state in the word of God. When I contemplated the term, it always brought horror to my mind; nor could I ever form the least idea of any opposite states, except those of heaven and hell. If there be a middle state, it is that of natural life; for in that the miseries of hell are not complete, nor the joys of heaven fully known. The thief on the cross is a sufficient proof that there is no intermediate state of purgatory after death; for if any mortal needed purgation after death, surely he must, whose wicked life was so long, and his repentance so short; and to him the Saviour says, " This day shalt thou be with me in paradise and that was in the after part of the day.

As to monastic purity: query, whether you mean the purity of their minds or their persons, who pass their whole lives under the same roof, inhabiting a cell not more than four yards square, with a very small casement window, a straw bed, sleeping in woolen habits, which are not cleaned for years together; flannel sheets and shifts, changed only once a month: take these things, together with a mortified body, the want of pure air, and that in hot summer weather, and they will enable you to draw a suitable conclusion with regard to this part of their purity. This savours no more of their cleanliness, than their imprisonment does of the liberty of the gospel. But if it be mental purity you mean, judge ye of their minds, who, contrary to all the laws of God, of modesty, and decency, are constantly exposed to the filthy and lewd interrogations of such carnal priests; notwithstanding God has fixed a bar of modesty on every female mind, this is perpetually broken through, by putting questions to them on such subjects as the scriptures declare ought not so much as " to be named amongst the Gentiles," {1 Cor. 5: 1}.

Further, Sir, the uncommon and unnatural affection that" prevails between women in these convents, which I have been an observing witness of, is rather an indication of unnatural unchastity than mental purity. I have known some of the boarders, who have been sent from England for education, notwithstanding all. their former resolutions, by the insinuations of these Nuns, who have, in the course of a few weeks, been wrought into so unnatural an infatuation, as to strip themselves and friends of all they could to supply them.

Among other instances, I knew a lady, who has a husband and three fine children, who, after being in the convent a little time, became so violently attached to one of these Nuns, that she was ready to give up her husband and children, and almost lost her senses, from the predominacy of that violent passion, which, though now it may appear unaccountable, will one day or other be fully explained, when the " mystery of iniquity is revealed," and he " whose eyes are as a flame of fire shall appear as a swift witness against the adulterer and the sorcerer." Well may the church of Rome be called a sorceress," and her wine “the wine of fornication;" for nothing but the powers of darkness could ever be capable of working human minds into so dreadful a frenzy. For a confirmation of all this, I refer you to any lady who is familiarly acquainted with the practice of convents.

O the goodness of God! to open eyes so blind as mine; to " break the infernal fowler's snare, and set the poor silly bird at liberty. Had I leaned upon him who is infinite in power and wisdom, instead of leaning to my own understanding; and built upon him who is the rock of ages, instead of building on my own strength, as Peter did, my house would have stood as firm as I trust it now stands.

I cannot help smiling at some parts of your letter. By your close questioning me, one would imagine, Sir, that you had been accustomed to sit in a confessional box, if your doctrine and life had not convinced me to the contrary; but, as you desire it, I will endeavour to be as explicit in my answers, as you are particular in your requests.

Imprimis. I find now, by my Bible, and my past experience, that Satan is so far from being affrighted at a phial of holy water, that he is said to be an inhabitant of the sea; therefore an ocean of it cannot drown him. He is called “Leviathan, that crooked serpent that is in the midst of the sea." Nothing but the “great and strong sword of the Lord" can ever wound him. The intent of holy water is to chase the devil from one, and purify the mind. I cannot say it ever had this effect on me: nothing short of “the washing of regeneration" can accomplish this:” the pure water of life," or God’ Spirit operating on the heart, cleanses it from "all filthiness both of flesh and spirit," which no external water and washing can ever do.

Consecrated ashes. Surely none but minds given up to strong delusions could ever be guilty of such a contradiction as that of consecrating the devil's daily bread; for it is said in scripture, " He feeds upon ashes, and dust shall be the serpent's meat:" and for my part, 1 have fed so long upon this, that I never more desire to be a partaker of his dainty meats. How they can think of consecrating ashes, which God rejects, the devil feeds on, and death triumphs in, I know not. These things might with more propriety be prescribed for the purification of rusty firelocks, and kitchen furniture, than to make tender consciences and troubled minds meet for heaven. The apostle Paul says, "The ashes of an heifer," under the old dispensation,” could not purify the conscience:" how much less the ashes of a burnt faggot, or a kitchen cinder, dispensed by the hand of a lying prophet or a Popish priest.

Rigorous fasts, cruel penances, and human absolutions, I firmly believe to be nothing but the carnal traditions of men: and not the commandments of God, nor at all like them. I fasted till I brought myself to the verge of the grave; but my near approaches to these chambers of darkness, by a rigid abstinence, never brought either life or light into my deluded soul. I see now, it is the prerogative of God alone to mortify and revive, to kill and to make alive, to bring down to the grave, and to lift up. It is not for us to wrest the sceptre out of his hand, by destroying our bodies more than our souls; and the willful destruction of the body, either by neglect, fasting, mortification, or abuse, is as evidently self-murder in the sight of God as suicide. Though he afflicts the body with pain or disease, he does it in judgment: and the judge of all the earth cannot do wrong.

The most cruel penance I ever had given me was, to say so many prayers in the course of such a time. Here it appears that prayer, in this way, becomes a task; whereas God has enjoined it as the privilege of his people, by which they get communion, intercourse, and fellowship with him; but being used as a rigid talk, and the repetition of them as so many mortifications,! found that ordinance which God had appointed to convey peace, joy, and happiness to the mind, used as a penance, became an intolerable burden, an intolerable load, an insufferable weight; and produced in me fretfulness, murmurings, rebellion, and grief; and instead of humility, it wrought pride and self-deification; for I was not satisfied with the thought of being saved, unless I had an exalted seat in heaven, which I thought I was entitled to, in proportion as I underwent these mortifications; so that which was ordained of God for life, viz. prayer, proved death unto me.

Human absolutions never left on my mind any persuasion of the remission of sins; nor do I believe God ever vested such power in men; much less in men like those, who make a gain of pretended godliness; for these persons sell absolutions and remissions of sins willfully to be committed. If the Saviour had given such power as this, he must have been the “minister of sin," and not of righteousness, which will ever be far from him. How I could submit to this imposition I know not; since the Jews, in their dark state, could say in malicious opposition to the Saviour, “Who is this that forgiveth sins? None is able to forgive sins but God alone." He wrought a miracle to convince them of his proper Deity.

As you desire me to tell you honestly, whether your charge against me as a Papist, and against Popery, be true or false, I will not only tell you honestly, but critically, if I can, if you will promise not to be offended at that honesty and criticism I have learned of you.

I have reason to bless God for ever for his grace conveyed through your instrumentality. Your charge against me as a Papist is now false: for whereas I once gloried in it, which was my shame, I now hate the name of it: therefore I now deny your charge.

As to Popery, and my having been a Papist: by woeful experience I can cordially assent to the truth of all your' assertions.

But once more, as a critic, I believe Popery has an existence in the word of God, but not in the kingdom of God. It has an existence in the predictions, threatenings, and the denunciation of God's wrath, and the fulfillment of his decrees; for the scriptures cannot be fulfilled “till that man of sin, that son of perdition in the mystery of iniquity" be revealed. But it has no existence in the promises of God, the commandments of God, the blessings of God, the glory of God, nor in the kingdom of Christ; for " he will destroy it by the breath of his lips, by the glory of his appearance, and the brightness of his coming.

As to her government, titles, customs, ceremonies, doctrines, traditions, and the rest of her trumpery, such as beads, bones, bells, books, and consecrated candles, these have no foundation in the word of God, but are all of her own manufacturing, and part of that merchandise so clearly described in the book of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Revelations.

As to the religion and experience of my own heart: among the patriarchs and prophets, it is with comfort I find they were possessed of the same corrupt, fallen, and depraved nature; and restored by the same efficacious grace and Almighty power that I am. God in Christ revealed to their souls was the ground of all their hope, the foundation of all their happiness, and the plea of their acceptance, as well as mine. I find Noah, Abraham, Moses, Daniel, David, and the rest of the Prophets, that whole cloud of witnesses, bear a testimony to that way of salvation held forth by the Apostles, and now joyfully experienced by your unworthy daughter, yourself, and hundreds in this day, and will be to the end of the world; for when the Son of Man cometh, " he shall find faith on the earth for the same Spirit which spake by the Prophets hath in these latter days revealed Christ unto us.

As to Luther and Calvin, I know but little about them, further than reading their histories. I never studied their controversial writings; nor did I learn any of their principles by reading their works. That horror I felt, was a feeling sense of my lost estate, as a vile sinner, under the wrath and curse of God, which Luther or Calvin, or any other creature, could never have communicated to me; but it arose from clear and sensible conviction of having broken the law of God, without any possibility of restoring myself to God's favor, or making up the breach between him and me. That burden of guilt was removed, and tranquility of soul restored, not by Luther or Calvin, nor by the kissing of a silver cross, or swallowing a wafer, but by the powerful influence of God's Spirit working faith in my heart, in answer to prayer at a throne of grace. This gave the death-wound to sin and the love of it, the guilt and the terror of it, and produced in my soul the peaceable fruits of righteousness, which like Mary's good part, I trust will never be taken from me. The Apostle never anathematized, or called one a heretic that “loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth," for he was a lover of all such; but these pretended vicars of Christ and Peter take upon them, and assume an authority that Peter never had, nor the Saviour ever gave to any of his Apostles. They anathematize all those that are out of their church, whether they love the Saviour or love him not; and bless all those within the pale of their church, whether they hate God or love him: whereas Paul says, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathematized and blesses them only that love him and his appearance, let them be of what denomination they may.

True it was, Sir, that the soul distress I experienced for many months together, without a hope of relief in the "legal travail" you mention, which I underwent, I found it exactly described and denounced in the word of God against sinners in a state of unbelief: and the " evangelical deliverance" you speak of, and I experience to my great joy and comfort; I find it described and promised in that same blessed book of God, the Bible; and according to the present translation, I experience it, believe, and rejoice in it. I need say but little concerning their traditions, or the source they spring from, knowing they have led me, and are now leading thousands, to act and think in direct contradiction to the word of God, which they have made of none effect by their traditions, as the Pharisees of old did.

As to the Virgin Mary, Peter, Paul, or the inhabitants of the upper world, or St. Thomas a Beckett, St. Benoit, Larbe, Joseph, St. Francois, or St. Bernard, the inhabitants of purgatory, I would not give a single straw for the testimony of the whole of them, since I trust I have within the testimony of a good conscience; the witness of God's Spirit bearing witness with my spirit that I am his, and all these agreeing with the testimony of a " more sure word of prophecy," even the word of God, that liveth and abideth for ever.

You have really brought me to a very close confession, and as I have hitherto kept nothing back from a father confessor, you shall certainly find me faithful to the truth: it is with heartfelt grief I reflect, that I have felt, as well as others, the infatuation towards one of these nuns, and have really been ready to regret my being one of the same *' * *. I never was happy but in her company, and only desired we might have the same place in heaven; but blessed be God, I have been long since weaned from such an affection, and God has totally delivered me from those " depths of Satan" by the manifestation of his light, which manifests that darkness I was enveloped in, though insensible of it. I truly feel at this hour that Jesus Christ reigns and rules unrivalled in my heart. Alas! Sir, when I consider the darkness of the human mind, the subtlety of Satan, and the vile insinuations of such women, I shudder at the idea of English ladies going there for a knowledge of the language; also at those parents who send their children there for education. What will some have to answer for at the great day, when they find their daughters have been entrapped as nuns, or taken the veil, and bound their souls for ever by vows that must condemn them to all eternity—there are living witnesses of this in the convent I was in.

The "money the nuns pay down at their entering into a monastic life" depends on their fortune and circumstances. A useful and valuable subject (as they style it) may find interest in some convents to be admitted gratis. I mean such as have no fortunes ; on the contrary, those who may be possessed of many thousands are generally wheedled to give up the whole; but the sum necessary to be paid down is, in some convents, five hundred pounds; in others, three hundred; in others, two hundred; and I believe there are that take less. Any money sunk in the funds at Paris, I am partly sure fetches 10 per cent.

There is no particular rule for the pocket-money of the nuns. In some convents they have three guineas a year; two; and one; as their friends are able to supply them. In others, they have a general purse, where each puts her money as she receives it; but they receive none from the convent, and all of them share equally in the purchasing of the things for which this money is appropriated; such as tea, sugar, wine, &c.

The nuns’ chief diet is fish, eggs, and vegetables, but no meat, after taking the veil. They are allowed, by way of treat now and then, different kinds of fruits in their season. But pray tell me, Sir, what is your reason for asking these curious questions?

Their chief penances are fasting, flogging, and keeping hours of silence, which are very frequent. I find no command or injunction for any of this in all the scriptures, nor did I ever see a nun that knew the plague of her own heart, or that ever felt the horrors of a guilty conscience. They are total strangers to a "broken and a contrite spirit;" but how should it be otherwise with those that are wrapt up in self-righteousness, and given up to strong delusions?

Having weighed well all you have called "for a confession of" I sincerely assure you that I am thoroughly persuaded Popery is condemned altogether from the beginning to the end of the Bible; and if they were not conscious of this, they would never dare to keep it as a sealed book, and prevent the reading of it. “Search the scriptures," says Christ to his worst enemies, the Pharisees, " for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me,” No scripture is of a private interpretation. And in the Revelations, that blessed book, which they reject above all the rest, and no wonder, seeing it so clearly rejects them; and, notwithstanding the Spirit says, " these sayings are faithful and true, and blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book, and if any man take away from the words of this book of prophecy, God shall take his part out of the book of life." They have taken away not a part but a whole.

With shame I confess my weakness and folly, in delivering up those English testimonies of divine truths into the hands of their enemies, particularly as I have lately found those very books afford me much consolation.

O wretched pretenders to the succession of Peter, who hate Peter's doctrines. Wretched vicars of Christ upon earth, who burn those truths he has proclaimed both in earth and heaven. Wretched foundation of truth, who burn the truth itself, and the adherence of it, the foundation of every believer's hope, of every angel's joy, and of God's throne. Here might I take up the lamentation of a blessed saint, and say? if this " foundation be removed, what shall the righteous do?"

You need not apologize for detaining me so long in confession, since I have found as much pleasure in “witnessing a good confession" as you can possibly have in being a witness to it. My sensations on this occasion are so widely different from what I have experienced at the tribunal of a Catholic priest, that I could wish for enlargement of heart, and liberty of speech, even to “proclaim on the house tops" what God has done for my soul in the secret chambers. To you, or to any other of his dear people that should think proper at any time to ask a "reason of the hope that is in me," I shall willingly give it. But for the present I must conclude, requesting an interest in your prayers, and subscribe myself, in unfeigned affection, Reverend, venerable, and dear father in Christ, and truly welcome father confessor, your most dutiful and affectionate daughter in the faith of the gospel,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

P.S. Blessed be God, after all the various turnings and vicissitudes of Providence, instead of baldness, I shall wear my hair as an ornament; a stomacher, instead of a girdle of sackcloth; and hope for divine beauty, instead of burning in purgatory. Glory be to that God, whose voice I have heard and obeyed, saying, " Go ye forth out of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with the voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the ends of the earth : say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob," {Isa. 48: 20}. As a shaver you have cut me so close, that I have sent you some bandeaus that I had made for my convent dress, and entreat you to use them as shaving cloths. I also beg your opinion of the presents I sent you lately ; of the ,holy water ; of the consecrated host, which may serve to seal a few letters; of the incense; of the relic that has touched St. Pie;* also of the nun you have in your possession. Adieu! dear father, for ever thine.

* St. Pie is a saint that died lately, swarming with lice; who, as they report, had fasted till his heart was turned to a stone; he has been lately canonized, is now in great repute, and wondrous miracles are performed by the skeleton of him.

LETTER X.

TO ELIZABETH MORTON.

My Dear Daughter,—Your long confession is safely arrived, and the curiosities also, consisting of a Doll in a nun's habit, an host of three wafers, a paper of incense, a phial of holy water, and the sacred bit of ribbon which, as you say, has touched the bones of St. Pie.

The doll with its gamp, veil, and flannel underpinning, cuts such a wretched figure, that my children would have nothing to do with it, unless it was to rob it of the cross, beads, and other trinkets, that are hooked to its waist.

I burnt some of the incense, but we thought it was rather a stench than an odour. Surely this is not such incense as was offered under the law; that " pure incense was made of sweet spices,” {Exod. 37: 29}. and was to be " offered upon the golden altar," {Exod. 40: 5}. and was typical of the sweet smelling savour of the Redeemer's sacrifice, when he offered himself through the eternal Spirit to God; and it was typical also of his ever-prevalent intercession in our behalf. But there is no command given to men to offer such incense as this under the gospel dispensation. Every minister, or angel, of the gospel is to " offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God—by Jesus Christ,” {1 Pet. 2: 5}. The savour of the knowledge of Christ, made known by ministers, {2 Cor. 2: 14}. And, “the spirit of grace and supplication,” under whose influence " supplications are made for all saints," {Eph. 6: 18}. is, in one sense of the words, what is meant of the "much incense" which is given to the angel that he should offer it with the " prayers of saints upon the golden altar," {Rev. 8: 3}. Humble confessions, supplications, intercessions, giving of thanks, and lively praises, offered up in spirit and in truth, from the fire of divine love in the heart, and attended with fervent breathings and desires after God, are compared to incense, " Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice," {Psa. 141: 2}. But to offer up such trumpery stuff as this under the gospel, which is the ministration of the Spirit under which the sacrifices of a broken heart, a contrite spirit, and worship performed in spirit and in truth, is commanded, is a contempt of the sacrifice of Christ, and of the intercession of the Spirit of God, as well as rebellion against the commands of God, which strictly forbid it— " Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to me," {Isa. 1: 13}.—" to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; and he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol," {Isa. 46: 2, 3}.

The religion of Jesus Christ consists in being a partaker of that faith, which is of the operation of the Spirit of God,—of evangelical repentance towards God,—and of being born of God; this makes us new creatures in Christ—In Christ Jesus " circumcision and un-circumcision availeth nothing, but a new creature—and faith which worketh by love," {Gal. 6: 15, and 5: 6}.

This religion is of Christ, and Christ is the substance of this religion; it came from Christ, and will lead to, and end in Christ; he will own it, and honour it, when all other will appear like “a garment that is moth-eaten." A religion of human contrivance is all outside —it stands in “bodily exercise, which profiteth little," {1 Tim. 4: 8}. —in “will worship," {Col. 2: 23}.—in “voluntary humility," {Col. 2: 18}. —in “divers washings," {Heb. 9: 10}.—in " abstaining from meats," {1 Tim. 4: 3}.—in " sham fasts," {Isa. 58: 5}.—in " making a fair shew in the flesh," {Gal. 6: 12}.—in bowing to idols, wafers, and relics,—in " worshipping angels," {Col. 2: 18}. saints and sinners. Their confidence stands in u lying wonders," {2 Thess. 2: 9}. — in “devil’s miracles," {Rev. 16: 14}.—in " dead men's bones," {Mat. 23: 27}.— in " old wives’ fables," {1 Tim. 4: 7}.—in " observance of days," {Gal. 4: 10}.—in " priestcraft," {Eph. 4: 14}.—and " fleshly wisdom," {2 Cor. 1: 12}. And all this by “philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ," {Col. 2: 8}.

Such devotees perform their devotions as punishments for their sins—which makes it eye-service,—performed in the shackles of a slave—in servile fear, after the doctrines and commandments of men. Such devotion is perfect bondage; there can be no joy nor happiness till it be over, and the poor slate slips his feet out of the stocks. Groping in the tombs; bowing to skeletons; and cringing to bones, makes professors look more like moles and bats than the “wings of a dove, covered with silver and her feathers with gold," {Psa.68: 13}.

Your confession is very honest, plain, and faithful, and well becoming a monument of mercy, who aims at the glory of God, and desires that grace may appear in its own lustre. They that are in the flesh will always take care that fallen nature shall be exalted, but those that have tasted that the Lord is gracious, will ever acknowledge themselves the chief of sinners, and that by the grace of God they are what they are.

I bless God, on thy behalf, that my labors have not been in vain with respect to thee. God has put thee into the furnace that he might strip and purge thee effectually. The more the “wedge" is purged, {Isa. 13: 12}. the brighter it shines; the more the vessel is emptied from its " lees," {Zeph. 1: 12}. the more divine treasure it will contain; and God has promised, that those that " hunger and thirst shall be filled."

Thou wilt now experience uncommon indulgence, and joy unspeakable; and when this is the case, be sure to entreat the Lord to keep thee in future trials. Act as the Psalmist did— lay up a few petitions in heaven against a rainy day—" Now also when I am old and gray- headed, O forsake me not," {Psa. 71: 18}. For the want of a little of this wisdom, at times, of holy familiarity with God, many have desired again “to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and have not seen it," {Luke. 17: 22}. They have wished that they had been better observers of the work of God on them; that they had penned the promises they then obtained, and had opened their mouth a little wider when God was so indulgent to fill it, {Psa. 81: 10}. This is a wise step in young Christians: but, alas! in this we are like our father Abraham, in his intercession for Sodom, " Peradventure there be fifty found righteous," saith he, and then carried his suit, with six successive pleas, and every plea was heard with approbation, and answered in the affirmative; but Abraham0 fainted in suing, before God did in granting; for when he had brought his number down to ten, {Gen. 18: 32}. there he stuck, though the Lord stood to hear if he had anything further to urge,—but Abraham ceased to plead, and the Lord ceased to grant; and, as he had no more to ask, “the Lord went his way," for Abraham had left off communing, and the Lord " left communing with Abraham," {Gen. 18:33}.

Come boldly to a throne of grace. A broken-hearted believer with Christ in the arms of his faith, and the promises of God in his mouth is as formidable, when he besieges heaven, as an army with banners; for living faith will never raise the siege, until the banner of love strike. All things are possible to him that believes.

Aim at an heartfelt union, under the influence of the spirit of love; a man that is a stranger to this, will surely cease yielding fruit, or shake it off before it be ripe. Unless we are united to the vine, we cannot receive life. Unless by faith we touch his garment^ we cannot get virtue from him; and unless the " Root of David” afford us life, where is the leaf and fruit of religion to come from.” The branch cannot bear fruit of itself;" but the Lord has “loosed thy bonds," and removed the “stony heart," and has given thee “a door of hope in the valley of Achor," {Hos. 2: 15}. thou canst " go in and out, and find pasture," {John 10: 9}. which is the greatest blessing that ever was enjoyed in this world, and the only happiness that ever will be found in it.

1 am very sorry to see thy poor tabernacle in such a shattered condition, but it is no worse than mine was; you are not the only one whose beauty has consumed like a moth fretting a garment; others have felt their " knees weak through fasting, and on their eye-lids the shadow of death," as well as you; but if God has disabled thee for getting thy bread, he will enable another to do it; in such cases, " the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just," {Prov. 13: 22}. You know the contents of the promises, and you know where to take them. There is a bank in heaven as well as in London: and paper goes as current there as it does here, unless it be forged or counterfeited by the skill of the craftsman. God knows his own promises, and will never deny his own acts and deeds, nor refuse to honor his own notes: that which puzzles us at this bank is, the hypocrisy of our own hearts, and our unbelief. We are commanded to come with a “true heart," and to trade” in faith," and it is owing to the want of these things that we gain so little by trading.

I must take my leave of you for the present. I have much on my hands, but little in my head, and less in my heart. Let your conversation and conduct be as becometh the gospel of Christ, and then thou wilt be my joy and crown in this life, as well as in the next.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with thee while I remain a fellow helper of thy joy, as well as thy father confessor.

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON

Dear Father,—I am going to make a proposal to you, and that is concerning the first long letter you sent me: I have weighed it well over in my mind, and made it a matter of prayer, that God would bless it to others, as he has done to me. Now as I thirst more and more for the glory of God, and the good of souls, I give very heartily my assent and consent to its being published, if you choose, in your next Epistle of Faith. I have marked through with the pen what I wish you either to alter or entirely leave out. If you don't object to this proposal (for it entirely rests with you), I will give it to you to correct the very first opportunity. To be candid my dear Sir, if it is not made public, I shall be sorry and uneasy; for suppose it might be a means of bringing some poor deluded Catholic to a saving knowledge of the truth; and I am keeping it locked up; I should (if I knew this) reproach myself, as being the occasion: besides, I wish to send a few copies over to some English ladies in France; and my own sister informs me she has been in company with a Catholic priest, who has heard of me, and wishes much to see it. I am prepossessed it will be made useful; and you are welcome to put the initials of my name as they stand; otherwise those whom I shall send it to in France may not believe it is addressed to me. But these things I shall leave entirely to you. Now you know my sentiments; act in it as seemeth to you good.

ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER XI.

TO MISS ELIXABETH MORTON.

Dear Madam,—I received your proposal concerning my first long letter, which you have weighed over in your mind, and have given your assent and consent to its being made public in my next Epistle of Faith; and that I may put the initials of your name to it, &c. For my part I have no desire to publish it, though it is much desired by many, as I think I have many letters by me more valuable than that. However, as you have sent me your proposals, I now send you my conditions.

On these conditions will I comply with your request; that is, I will strike out of your letters, or you shall, which you please, every family affair that has nothing to do with the controversy; and I will correct, enlarge, strike out, or alter what I think proper in my own, as they were written in a hurry; only I shall take care to preserve the substance of them, and then publish both your letters and mine ; and instead of putting the initials of your name, I will put both your name and mine at full length, that people may know who we are, and where we live. On these conditions, and on no other, will I make the first letter public. I take it for granted that your name stands at full length in the genealogy of “mystery Babylon." If so, it can reflect no dishonor on your rank to be enrolled among the " worthies in Mount Zion especially as we have reason to believe that your name is " written in the Lamb's book of life," or "among the living in Jerusalem."

We have no cause to be ashamed of our name being prefixed to the cause of truth, and the work of God, when we consider that our blessed Saviour became the Son of Man, and was " made sin for us" when he undertook our cause, though himself had no sin. The Psalmist, though a crowned head,, was not ashamed to " tell all that feared God," yea, and even to make public to the world " what God had done for his soul;" and it is our duty to do the same. “All God's works are to praise him, and his saints are to bless him: they are to speak of the glory of his kingdom, and to talk of the power: to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom," {Psa. 145: 10, 11, 12}. You are no stranger to this: the power of the “Lord’s hand," and the “compassion of his bowels," have not been restrained toward you. He has revealed that salvation to you that w as not " wrought out in a corner therefore you have no cause to be ashamed to publish it, seeing he has commanded us to " proclaim on the house top what he has said in secret." “Now you know my sentiments; act in the matter as seemeth to you good."

I can truly say that my soul rejoices in your salvation. I now take a pleasure in writing to you. You get now into my own pleasing element. You creep to the same compassionate bosom, trust in the same object, call on the same name, approach in the same new and living way, and watch the same bountiful hand. I know now where to find you, and hope daily to meet you at that throne where all prevalent petitions are sent, where divine audience is given, where every soul distress is considered, where all grievances are redressed, where the cause of the just is sure to be heard, and from whence all saving instruction, direction, correction, support, and comfort cometh. Christ is the only object in whom mercy and truth meet, and where a reconciled God and we meet. The Lord evermore " send thee help from his sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; accept thy burnt- offerings; grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfill all thy counsels."

Let God's honor and his cause lay near your heart, and have a part in all your petitions: highly prize a tender conscience; stand aloof from all sin; break not the bounds of filial fear: make the whole word of God your rule of faith and practice: and lay your experience, your principles, yea every sentiment, every impulse, every trial, every change, every cross, and every spiritual sensation to that: and so " cleanse your way, by taking heed thereto according to God's word." “Stand fast in your liberty: and be not again entangled with the yoke of bondage." “Trust in the Saviour with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding."

As I have borne a part of your sorrows, so am I a partaker of your joys also: and from my heart I bless God for his super abounding grace toward you, and hope he will keep you steadfast in the faith, that you may be no longer a child " tossed about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." And as you are now indulged with " freedom of access to God," and with an holy familiarity, see that you se covet earnestly the best gifts;" mark your answers to prayer; obtain promises, and record them; and they shall afford you support in times of trouble, when you come to plead them like the Psalmist: " Remember thy word to thy servant, on which thou hast caused me to hope." Above all, aim at an heart-felt union with the Lord; learn to trade for yourself, and live not altogether at another's fire. The eternal bond of union is love, called " the bond of all perfection:" and where this union is close, the communion and fellowship will be sweet: while this is enjoyed, you will be able to un-bosom your complaints to your sympathizing Lord: and by pouring out your soul before him, like your sister Hannah, " you will go from your knees with a cheerful countenance." Cast every care and every burden there, as you are commanded, and “he shall sustain thee," as he has promised. Let your hourly requests be made known to him, and he will reveal his mind and will to you. Meditate on his word and works, and he will let you know " the thoughts of his heart, which stand fast to a thousand generations." God has promised to “rest in his love," {Zeph. 3: 17}. and I hope he will enable thee to rest in thine. “If two lay together, they have heat," {Eccl. 4: 11}. We have the promise of " fellowship both with the Father and the Son:" aim to keep this up: be like Enoch, " walk with the Saviour," and then you will walk safely: " for if one fall, the other will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to lift him up. If one prevail against thee, two shall withstand him: and a threefold cord is not quickly broken," {Eccl. 4: 12}.

Thrice blessed be thy soul, if it be thus twisted into a union and fellowship with the Father and the Son Christ Jesus: for thou wilt feel the dew of heaven on thy heart, and the light of God on thy head: then will thy mind be pure, spiritual, and heavenly: thy affections will be divinely influenced with the love of God: heaven will be full in view, and many foretastes of it daily enjoyed: thou wilt " add to thy faith virtue," and possess a soul blessed with divine chastity, and kept pure from the dregs of spiritual wickedness, and from all the sophistry, sorcery, intoxication, fornication, and all the secret infernal lewdness of every mystic bell, bawd, and bunter. " Who can find such a virtuous woman ? for her price is above rubies. Strength and honour are her clothing ; and she shall rejoice in time to come. Many daughters have done virtuously, but such an one excelleth them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates," Prov. xxxi. Amen and Amen, says thy affectionate friend and father in the bonds of the gospel.

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

My Dear Father in Christy,

Since it has pleased God to convince me of the desperate evil of sin, the terrors of his law, and the horrors of a guilty conscience, which I laboured under for many months, it is with no small consolation I acquaint you of the essential and joyful change I still experience and enjoy in my soul; a more particular account of which I will give you the next opportunity.

From a deep sense of my lost state as an undone sinner, I have been brought to the foot of the Saviour's cross, to receive, through the merits of his atoning blood, both pardon and peace ; and have found him a prayer hearing and a prayer answering God. What sweet invitations do I read in his word for the vilest of sinners to approach him !—-having felt myself such, and, on the other hand, my need of a Saviour, " to me then is the word of this salvation sent," He has granted me pardoning and quickening grace ; so that by continually pleading his promises, praying fervently for an increase of faith, and begging of him to remove unbelief, and dispel every doubt and fear, (which I really believe lie will grant in his own due time, through his beloved Son Christ Jesus,) though 1 have often groaned all this out, without words to utter it, yet he well knew the state I was in, and took pity on me, and shared with me in the distress: all this, and much more than I can express to you, Sir, I now feel.

That horror, dejection, and guilt, which I felt, is removed; while joy and peace is springing up in my heart. I feel a pardon and forgiveness of my sins, by the application of his atoning blood. I know he is exalted to give repentance to just such sinners as I am; and, having experienced a heartfelt sorrow for sin, and the foolish vows that I made, I humbly trust, that a godly sorrow, which worketh repentance to salvation " that needeth not to be repented of," is now given to me. Blessed be God, I know mercy to be his darling attribute, to those who feel their need of mercy. Have I not a right then to claim him as my Saviour? Surely I have: “For the Spirit itself beareth witness with my Spirit that I am his child." I find that I can approach a throne of grace with a humble boldness, a strong confidence, and a full persuasion that God is my Father in covenant. Methinks I find sweet access to him; for I have had conspicuous answers to prayer lately, and have found a fervency in requesting those things he has since granted me. How delightful is prayer to the soul when God gives a Spirit of grace and supplication! Here all grievances are redressed, as you observe. When the heart is overwhelmed with affliction and distress, here is the bosom of a gracious Saviour to pour them into; who, being " a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” tried and tempted like unto us, knowing our infirmities, and whereof we are made, can sympathize with us, when confidence in the creature will prove vain. When we are enabled, in times of trouble, to pour out our complaints before him, how it eases the troubled mind! and we are encouraged to this, for he hath said " he will be enquired of.'' He commands us to persevere in wrestling hard with him by fervent prayer; and he delights in answering prayer; for he “said not to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me, in vain. Knowing him, therefore, to be faithful to his promise, may God incline our hearts to seek his face daily, and to come moment after moment for a fresh supply of his grace. May we feel more and mo re real spiritual poverty; for “the rich," he hath declared, "shall be sent empty away."

He is said "to dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit," to” revive" them, not “deaden" them. This is sweet comfort to a brokenhearted sinner, and has often struck me with great power and comfort. O happy state! a "knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of sins;" a firm persuasion of an interest in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ; a good hope through grace; and to know that I am free from the bondage and sentence of the law, by his perfect obedience to it; nor can it, in any one point, condemn them that are in Christ Jesus. Blessed is that soul whom God hath made willing in the day of his power, to be saved by*free grace alone.

For my part; I find inexpressible comfort at present in the doctrine of election. When a soul is born again of the Spirit from above; renewed day by day in the inward man, with the everlasting love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost, and Christ formed in him the hope of glory, when one can say, from the testimony of a purged conscience, the Lord hath chosen me; and, at the same time, experience these precious words, " Son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee; and also in {Rom. 8: 1}. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus: (this whole chapter, and the {17th of John}, in short, the whole Bible, is full of comfort to those that can make their " calling and election sure,") I say, when this is the case, electing love, and an imputed righteousness, are pillars indeed to the soul; for such are heavenly-minded, and their hearts "are fixed, trusting in God."

I have often thought that the salvation of Noah's family was a distinguishing display of God's sovereign and distinguishing grace. What must they have felt, when sheltered safely in the ark! while God's judgments swept away all the rest! O highly favored and happy Noah! thou didst find grace in the sight of the Lord! all thy house were safely secured! while all the rest were exposed to a double flood! And so it is now with a soul who is born of God. He feels himself perfectly secure in the cleft of the rock, from all the storm of God's wrath. Noah's family were not afraid of being drowned in the flood; for God was faithful to his promise: he shut them in, and kept them in: and so it is now. I will never believe that a soul can finally fall that Christ has purchased with his blood, and renewed by his grace: it is impossible. The word of God expressly declares to the contrary; for “he loves to the end." God “hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love;" and he will glorify such in the end, for all that are with him are “called, chosen and faithful."

People that oppose these things, as I once did, never knew the comfort of these doctrines; if they had, they could never exclaim against them. I bless God for ever for having delivered me from that work; and I humbly trust he has established me in the truth as it is in Jesus.

The scriptures declare that faith is the gift of God; and that without it ‘tis impossible to please him, for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin;" if so, good works are the fruits of faith: and how sweet is it to work from the principles of faith and love, rather than slavish fear! Our delight is to do the will of God, and "to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." The desires of our hearts are after him, as the object supreme in the affections; the soul deadens to the things of time and sense; all created good withers as a green herb; and our only grief springs from a fear of offending him.

When a dear Redeemer is thus all in all, what a heartfelt union there is between Christ and the soul, and sweet communion with him at a throne of grace! I have lately found him the sweetest companion I ever conversed with in my life, so that I wean daily from every other object. Truly happy is that soul that can lay his hand upon his conscience, and say, Jesus is precious to me! I know, as God-Man, he is all sufficient to save me; and he has promised that he will cast out none that come unto him; and blessed be his name he has made me willing in the day of his power to close in with him. O that I could love him more! O that I could cleave closer to him! live more dependent on him, and glorify him more in my life and conversation!

I confess, Sir, that I had awfully fallen, to the great dishonor of the gospel, by turning Papist: but though I had heard the truth before, yet I never understood it clearly; nor did I ever feel the power of it, till God struck me under your ministry, and in a most singular manner stopped me in my mad career of returning to France, which very shortly would have taken place.

I think also I may assert, that most of your letters have been attended with a divine power to me: you are therefore at full liberty to make them public; and you may publish mine also, if you think it right in the sight of God. And the Lord grant that they may be instrumental of some good to sinners. I earnestly pray that some poor deluded Catholic, who is deprived the use of the Bible, may be cut down under them, as I have been.

It really was a thorny path that the Lord led me; but he has brought me forth by a right way; and I now know of a truth, that I shall shortly arrive “to a city of habitation." The “Lord increase my faith."

Alas! in what an awful light do I view the state of that Roman church at this hour! How many are there travelling blindfold to hell, in ignorance and Egyptian darkness! totally deprived of the word of God, when he has strictly commanded us " to search the scriptures;" and told us that " no scripture is of any private interpretation." Some of the Priests deny that they withhold the Bible from the people; but I am a living witness of the truth of it; for I struggled hard to keep mine; and sure I am that this book will be a swift witness against them at the great day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed. But how can it be otherwise, when God has “hardened their hearts," as he did Pharaoh's? for they refuse to be instructed by his word, and are destitute of the power of his Spirit. Awful state indeed!

When I reflect on all this, and on what God has done for me, may I not say with David, " Who am I, O Lord God, that thou hast brought me hitherto!" while thousands are left to perish under the curse denounced against that " mother of harlots." When I consider hundreds, to my knowledge, who would be useful members to society, buried alive within the walls of a monastery, " drunk with the wine of that whore's fornication," and, on the other hand, how wonderfully God has delivered me from that pit of destruction—surely my very soul melteth within me while I write, under a feeling sense of my own un-deservedness, and the distinguishing mercy of God to so vile a sinner as me.

Alas, Sir, one step farther would have sunk me deeper than the grave! How can I sufficiently prize this mark of redeeming love! for he hath delivered my soul from the very jaws of hell, and purchased it for heaven and glory. “Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name!" and never may I be unmindful of that God who has done such wonders for me.

Your labors have been blessed in a most conspicuous manner on my behalf, and I believe also on the behalf of hundreds. God has honored your ministry, and continues to own it in spite of every opposition. From what I can see, the more you are opposed, the more God blesses you; and I firmly believe that his ears are open to the prayers of hundreds, who adore him for sending so faithful a laborer into his vineyard. You always have a share in my feeble petitions; and I hope God will never permit you to forget me.

I did not think of sending you so long a letter; but I am in a sweet frame of mind at present, and happy in heart; I therefore let my pen glide on as you see—and now conclude; praying for a growth in grace, in knowledge, and in understanding, and a greater love to Christ Jesus; while I remain yours sincerely in gospel affection,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER XII.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

My dearly beloved Daughter, I am just arrived at Winchester Row, and was glad to find an epistle of yours; by the contents of which you are still on the “Mount," and your present prospects seem clear and enlivening; may God keep you there. “In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen," {Gen. 22: 14}. Your fervent desire to keep up a communion with the Lord, and to bring an honour on your profession, is well-pleasing to me; if the former be attended to, no fear of the latter.

Mrs. Bull, who wrote the little pamphlet called “Zion’s Ornaments and Offerings," is no more She has taken an affectionate and a final leave of all “beneath the sun." “Few and evil have her days been." I shall entertain you a little with an account of her, as I had it from her own mouth.

About ten years ago she was provoked to jealousy by her husband s indecent familiarity with a young woman, who was at her house at supper, with whom he went from home, and continued out all night, which she judged a sufficient confirmation of her jealous suspicion.

While she lay under the raging of that cruel fire, she went into Hyde Park, with an intent to dispatch herself in the Serpentine River; but was instantly rebuked, stopped, and sent back, by the application of this text, “Do thyself no harm," {Acts. 16: 28}. She went home, and for some time continued low and melancholy. This being perceived, she was invited by a gentleman and his wife, to Hammersmith, for the benefit of the air.

During her stay there, 1 had some trouble with the rioters at Thames Ditton, and was obliged to come to London; but had an invitation to preach at Hammersmith in my way, where the gentleman at whose house Mrs. Bull was, asked me to sup and sleep at his house. The evening was spent in telling the gentleman and his wife what God had done for me; under which conversation Mrs. Bull was smitten, and effectually convinced that all beneath the sun was vanity; and, by the happiness she saw in me, she was persuaded that there was a God to be known and enjoyed. This operated on. her spirits till she took to her bed, and had the advice of the faculty, who owned that her affliction lay in her mind.

In process of time her horrors abated, and she recovered, and was brought to hear me preach from this text, “The Lord is my Shepherd,. I shall not wantunder which sermon God brought her forth to the light; and at her return home he brought this text with power to her mind, at the threshold of her door, " That thy trust may be in the Lord I have made known to thee this day, even to thee," Prov. xxii. 19. Here she found a better husband, who never slighted her affections, nor took pleasure in provoking her to "jealousy. Her husband and his parents had all been professors, and had taken her under the means; but when God made her a possessor of grace, matters were altered; her trials became great, and, as she was an orphan, she had none to take her part.

She being an heiress, at the death of her father her husband came in for all. The ready money he soon dispatched; and, after her conversion to God, he sold his life in the land estate, and sold all his furniture to a broker, who came to the lodgings, and took her bed, and all but her wearing apparel; and she was turned out into the street, until a neighbor took her in.

The husband acted like the good man in the Proverbs, “took the bag of money with him, and returned at the time appointed," that was, when the last mite was spent, {Prov. 7: 20}. Then he insisted on her selling her life in the estate, though they had a child living, which his unwearied persuasions brought her to do. He ordered her to put an hundred pounds in my hands, which I gave to my managers, for him to draw it out as he wanted it. In about eight or nine months he drew out and spent the whole of it. Thus, a freehold estate, sufficient to have kept them genteelly, went for a mere song. The husband having blasphemed God to his face, burnt two of his wife's bibles, got into debt, and pawned her clothes; left her big with child, and went home to his father and mother, who live on their means at Lisson Green. A gentleman of the faculty, being related to her, took her in, and gave her bed and board, but told her that she could not lie-in-there. She got a place at Mrs. Howe's, in Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital, at which she was to lie-in.

Some few days before she died, her husband came to the house in liquor, and abused the woman for harboring his wife, and others for supporting her. The next day the poor woman took Mrs. Bull in a coach to her husband's father and mother, for them to take care of their daughter; but they pleaded poverty, and told her she could not be there, neither should she: she was therefore obliged to go back again to Mrs. Howe's.

After this, Mr. B— sent me two letters by his son, which I here inclose to you, that you may see the infernal depths of hypocrisy that an apostate under the influence of the devil is capable of.

On Monday night, the 17th instant, she was at Providence Chapel, and came into the study, and asked me how I did. She seemed remarkably happy, which I was surprised at, as she was such an enormous size, that she must have been a burden to herself.

On the 18th instant, at nine o'clock in the morning, she was taken in labor: and in the afternoon brought forth a daughter, and said, “if this is labor, it is nothing to what I suffered in bringing forth my first child." In about four hours and a half afterwards, she travailed again, and brought forth a son. Mrs. Howes perceiving her to be going, said so; she replied, “I am going," and wished to speak; but the Doctor, using every effort to save his kinswoman, rather interrupted her. She said to the Doctor,

“The best of blessings be with you, for your goodness to me." “God be with you all! Ere long I shall be in Paradise. Give my love to Mr. Huntington, and tell him I am gone to Paradise, and he will not be long after me;” then turning round said; “My God! My God!" and with a smile gave up the ghost. “Mark, the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."

The husband visited the corpse drunk, and wanted her clothes, the first day; but never ordered her burial, nor provided for the children. The woman at whose house she died buried her, and carried the little ones to Mary-le-Bone workhouse, for which hospitable act she has been since threatened with a prosecution. So truly verified were the scriptures—" through much tribulation she entered the kingdom of God." But God's “hand was known toward his servant," and so will his “indignation toward his enemies." Surely it is an unspeakable blessing to be enabled to triumph in the jaws of death. God grant that thy end may be like hers—that when: “thy heart and thy flesh fail, God may be the strength of thy heart and thy portion for ever." Surely this is the desire of,

Dear Daughter, Your affectionate father in Christ Jesus,

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

Rev. and Dearest Friend,—Your kind letter I received. Should have been better satisfied had it been on the long paper instead of the short —but little as it is, I find it very precious to me.

At this present moment, I am rather unfit for writing, as I have just been attending on those that are under my care. I am exposed much to that conversation that is not seasoned with grace. I am obliged to attend my charge into all company—which, God knows, is not a little wounding; but it becomes such monuments of mercy as me to be content with my lot, as my duties oblige me to submit.

I hope the Lord, in his due time, will settle me nearer his house of prayer, that I .may enjoy the company of his chosen; this I long for, though I have every civility shewed me imaginable—yet judge ye of my living, surrounded thus; but in all this, I find wonderful support—my heart is so much in heaven, and my Saviour is so precious to me, that all goes well. I find no murmuring, blessed be God, but my will is submissive to his, who is, I am well persuaded, directing my every step.

The Lord, who is abundant in goodness and in truth, continues to grant me fresh supplies of heavenly manna; and I find the inward man refreshed, revived, entertained, and renewed day by day—for I still enjoy a sweet sense of my great and happy deliverance. 0, Sir! what God impresses on the mind with a divine power is not easily obliterated—Salvation sinks deep. It is not like a few dry notions in the head. The soul melts under it. Neither sin nor Satan can stand before it, nor destroy it. What God does, he does it for ever—nothing can be added to it, or taken from it, and he doth it " that men may fear before him."

God has taken another of his children home, I find. Her path was more thorny than mine has been; but, blessed be God, he has taken her out of it —none considering “that the righteous are taken from the evil to come." Our end shall be peace, as well as hers—the promise is sure to all the seed. We must have tribulation from this world that we may learn to prize our peace in Christ Jesus.

At present I am very comfortable—I must acquaint you with all my sweet frames—and when I get into difficulties, I shall not move one step without consulting you; and hope ever to follow your advice, having hitherto experienced it to be for the glory of God, and the good of my soul.

I have pestered you long enough with my troubles, and my Popish nonsense, which I now stand astonished at, and cannot help wondering at my ignorance, and laughing at my own former letters. How strange they do appear now. I told you in my first and second letters, that I would treat of doctrines, but I cannot find a doctrine in them.

I sadly regret my forgetting the text you preached on when God delivered my soul. I would wish to remember every minute circumstance. 0 blessed change! I experienced a translation from darkness to light—from sorrow to joy—from horror of mind to quietude and peace of conscience—from a state of enmity to a state of reconciliation to God, through the sufferings of Christ Jesus my Lord. I wish, Sir, you would recollect and send me the text, it was preached one evening at Providence Chapel—I was then in great distress of mind. I remember you treated chiefly of prayer, and observed that six things were necessary to find access to a throne of grace: 1st, That we were to plead the promises. 2dly, That prayer must be put up under a feeling sense of our wants. 3dly, That prayer must be offered in faith. 4thly, That we must pray in the name of Jesus, " for no man can come to the Father but by him,” 5thly, That we were not to limit God to time. And 6thly, to pray for patience, and to conclude with resignation to God's will, and then to watch his hand and wait for answers. These were the chief heads of the discourse. I well remember, for Mr. T—helped me out in what had slipped my mind.

The text of this sermon I cannot recollect; but I believed then, and still believe, that the whole sermon was a message sent from God to my soul— I found the whole of it so powerfully impressed on my mind, and is deeply rooted in my heart. I remember you were very explicit on your heads, which helped me much, for I left the chapel in a most humble melting frame of spirit, and both the sermon and my frame followed me all the way home; nor could I rest until I had wrestled hard with God in prayer, to remove the whole burden of guilt from my conscience, and grant me a feeling sense of the pardon and forgiveness of my sins, by the application of the blood of Jesus. I told God all I felt, and found great liberty in pouring out all my complaints before him, and in pleading the many precious promises, which at that time powerfully flowed in upon my mind; and, indeed, I have continued so to do ever since. I will send you a few of the promises that I then pleaded, as well as I can remember them, for I think I shall never forget them. My memory is not very good: it has been much weakened by trouble; but it now gets better. You know Christ says, “when the Comforter comes he shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." Surely I shall never forget the place nor the time. I have not time to put the scriptures down at full length, but you may read them at your leisure,—{Matt. 21: 22, Matt. 11: 28, Matt. 5: 6, Luke. 11: 9, Isa. 45: 19, 1 John. 1: 7, Zech. 13: 1}. All these, Sir, and many more, I felt the power of; and the blessed effects were, that my unbelief, at that time gave way, and faith sprung up in my heart. I was as certain that God heard my prayers, and would answer them, as that I existed; for he had granted me the spirit of grace and supplication, and had already loosed my bonds; and these texts melted my very soul—" Son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee," {Matt. 9: 2}. and again, thou " wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea," {Micah. 7: 19}. O, Sir! this is the religion of Jesus—this is heaven indeed.

I found, at that time, an appropriating faith. I could lay hold of the promises, and claim them as my own. I could say, “I am my beloved's, and his desire is towards me." This removed my doubts and fears. I was convinced of his all-sufficiency, and willingness to save. I knew he was able before; but, until I believed him to be willing, I could get no comfort —But, Oh! when I felt his love to my soul, my darkness and blindness were, in a measure, dispelled, by the glorious light of the " Sun of righteousness arising" on my soul " with healing in his wings.” This, Sir, makes horror and dejection imperceptibly glide away, while joy and peace, tranquility of soul, and inward consolations, such as no words can ever express, sweetly succeed. The word of God then becomes precious to the soul. I said, with David, " how sweet are thy words unto my taste; yea sweeter than the honey, and the honey comb. it is the food of my soul—a light to my feet, and a lamp to my path.

1 have been in this sweet frame of mind almost ever since—for I feel the everlasting love of God shed abroad in my heart. Surely, " as far as the east is from the west, so far hath he separated my transgression from me.”

I hope I shall ever cleave close to him. He answers my prayers conspicuously. I bless him. He keeps my heart in heaven, " where my treasure is”—it is not fixed on the things of the earth. He has “brought me out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay;" and I trust he will keep my feet on the rock, and “establish my goings." Surely I “will sing unto the Lord as long as I live. 1 will sing praises to my God while I have my being."

Excuse my long letter: it is the heartfelt experience of

Your affectionate and dutiful Daughter,

ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER XIII.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

Dear Daughter,—Yours came safely to hand. The more you write or converse, the purer the stream runs, I find. They that drink at the “well of salvation," as the scriptures have said, “out of their belly shall flow rivers of living water. Your language begins now to be pure and refreshing. The thick puddle of Arminian and Popish dregs has been well stirred up in your late tribulation; and now the "well spring of life" begins to rise the filth will be worked out," and we shall have it clearer and clearer. The spirit of love has burnt up the filthy dregs and spiders' webs, and the “King’s daughter is all glorious within." Her prison garments are put off, and her ornaments are put on. You have now done “lying among the pots," and are blessed with "the wings of a dove;" and your plumage "is of yellow gold." The " old man" is dead and buried—out of sight and out of mind— and you never expect, nor desire to find or feel, any future motion, struggling, or opposition from that quarter. No, say you, blessed be God, he is sunk into oblivion, and I have sung sweeetly at his funeral pile. So far so good.

The devil, he is rebuked, and sent off pack and package. The angel has bound him with a chain, cast him into the pit, shut the mouth of the same, set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more; so that you see no ground to fear a fresh attack from that cave. Unbelief is dashed out of countenance; so that you never expect that she will shew her face again. And as for the perverseness of your will, the enmity and hypocrisy of your heart, you take it for granted that you shall never hear or feel any more of them. All these kings and infernal warriors, like the armies of Sodom, are fled and tumbled into the slime pits, while the banner over my daughter's head is love. There is to be no more enchantments against the child of Jacob, nor any divinations against this daughter of Israel. She is to rest with the Lord's flock, under the noon of the sun; she is to “lie down in the green pastures, and drink of the still waters of comfort," while the devil and unbelief are to sit in sackcloth, and never to annoy her peace or disturb her happiness again. These are blessed days, Betty! these are " days of the Son of man," blessed is the soul that is in such a case, yea blessed is that soul " whose God is the Lord."

The Saviour at first appeared angry and coy, but thou hast jealously wooed him. He is now loving, and thou praisest him. He appears suitable and amiable, and thou admirest him; but thou dost not suppose that he will ever appear terrible or majestic to keep thee at a distance, or to beget a fear with the least tincture of slavery. All the past frowns, rebukes, chastisements, and terrors that he brought thee under, are now forgotten. One smile has made up the whole breach, and amply rewarded all thy former sufferings and toil. He is now the "fairest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely." These are precious seasons, my Daughter. This is the rest that I earnestly sought for thee, that " it might be well with thee;’ and, as thou hast found grace in the eyes of the Lord of the harvest, and hast obtained leave to glean even among the sheaves, I hope thou wilt abide close by his maidens, for that is good; and let them not catch thee in any other field. Continue steadfast till his harvest with thee is ended, and then he will actually marry the gleaner, and bring her into the guest's chamber, where he that sowed, they that reaped, and she that gleaned, shall all rejoice together. We have an harvest home in the promise, as well as the worldling, where the joy of harvest shall never cease, and where we shall rejoice with a better joy than those whose glee was so great “when their corn, wine, and oil abounded."

You say nothing new about your old venerable mother; I mean the queen of Babylon. She seems to be out of date. “How is the most fine gold changed—how is the once faithful city (in thine eyes) become an harlot," {Isa. 1: 21}. Ay, say you, “whatsoever maketh manifest is light"—it is in “the light of the Lord that we see light." All sinks into nothing before the pleasing, reconciling countenance of the ever blessed Saviour. When he smiles, salvation is at the door. “Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and we shall be saved." Keep these things my daughter. “In his favor is life, and at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Follow the pleasing beam that first dawned upon thee, and that will lead thee to him. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light," we shall not miscarry, but end in the fullness of his presence. “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined;" and "we are to come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just men made perfect—to God the Judge of all—and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant—and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

There is but one spirit that runs through the divine family, both of heaven and earth; only they are filled, and we hunger and thirst after their fullness. They are at the fountain head, but we must cleave to that "river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God." They are in everlasting day, but we are on the “path of the just, that shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day." They have won the prize, but we are running the race. They have taken “heaven by violence." But we are still wrestling for it. In short, Moses, Aaron, and Hor arc on the mount, but we are at war with Amalek. But what of that, Joshua is in the valley with us. They are in eternity, and we are under the quickening influences of everlasting life, though in time. The glorious Sun of Righteousness that is risen upon us is under a perpetual eclipse, because of the vail of mortality. This earthly body still wavers to obscure his rays, so that but little light is discovered to the world from us; and we must pass through a total eclipse with respect to others. They must lose sight both of us and our light; but there is but one step between faith and vision; faith and vision, did I say—I beg pardon —the light of faith is vision—there is but one step between vision and full fruition.

There was a street between the city of Zion and Jerusalem—the wall of Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, had a street between me; and a bridge over it, which, according to history, was called the "bridge of Zion;" on Zion's side of the bridge " stood the house of the mighty," {Neh. 3: 16}, but on Jerusalem's side of the bridge stood Solomon's "ivory throne of judgment, with its six steps, and twelve lions," {1 Kings 10: 18, 19, 20}. You know how to apply it. We are in Mount Zion, and hope shortly to arrive at Jerusalem above, " which is the mother of us all;" but we must cross the valley of death's shadow first; but Christ is the way to the Father, and more safe to venture on than the bride of Zion; and one step brings us from the house of the mighty to the throne of glory. Our faith, our hope, our hearts, our desires, and our conversation are there already, and we shall follow- by and by. While thou art on this side the bridge, endeavour to " follow them, who, through faith and patience, now inherit the promises;" tread in the footsteps of their faith, converse with them in their journals, get acquainted with their pilgrimage, dive into their thoughts, feelings, and views, observe the promises they obtained, their confidence, and their conduct; mark their straits and difficulties their deliverance and divine indulgences; treasure up their doctrines, and drink into their spirit; get into the midst of that whole cloud of witnesses; converse with them in the scriptures, "whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation," {Heb. 13: 7}. These are an evangelical society indeed, and the best that ever I conferred or associated with. These conversed with God in his promises, brought distant things near by their faith, and embraced them in their affections; they fetched all their divine support and nourishment from futurity; they endured their trials "as seeing him (their Protector) who is invisible," and gave up the thoughts of their heart to another world; they had here " no continuing city," and yet had always .one in view; they " confessed themselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth," and never expected to find either this country or their home till they were dead.

We have many professors, in our day, who are more like vermin than merchant-men. They live altogether on the comfort of others, instead of trading to heaven for themselves: be not thou therefore like unto them; find the way to God for yourself, and trade therein; God is not far from every one of us, if haply we might feel after him. Feel him out therefore, and then shalt thou have rejoicing in thyself, and trust not altogether to the candle of another. Paul says, "I know whom I have believed;" and Job says, “I shall see him for myself and not for another." If you would live up to the privileges of God's children, then be as much as possible in private in reading, meditating, praying, confessing, praising, and contemplating, which leads the minds daily to anticipate the real joys of heaven; this strikes out and erases from the mind that clog of earthly and carnal anxiety, with which the devil shackles the half-hearted professor, and the imprisoned worldling. Such, with all their property, are the worst of slaves, for they are both servants and subjects to that which God has sent to serve them, and to serve others. Never aim at an independency, or at any stock in hand, to take your eye from the mysterious hand of Providence. I have been as sharply tried in soul and circumstances as any mortal living, and yet there is not a man in the world whose prosperity I envy, or with whom I would wish to change my state. Such as we, are obliged to try the faithfulness of God every day, and he takes a pleasure in displaying his faithfulness and truth, and in “shewing himself strong in the behalf of them who put their trust in him." I have frequently been in company with professors who have entertained my ears with their prosperity in the world, and the abundance of their riches; but I could clearly see what they could not, that is, the damning sin of covetousness, and the curse of God with it, which sunk their souls as much beneath my joys, as my wants were beneath their abundance. It is common for the poor believer to “envy the prosperity of the wicked." {Psa. 73: 3}, and for the tempted and buffeted saint to " call the proud happy," {Mai. 3: 15}, but God curseth the former, {Mai. 2: 2}, and resisteth the latter, {James. 4: 6}.

According to your desire I have written to you a long letter, which you must not expect in future. God has owned my faithful dealings to awaken you, and has honored me in begetting thee in the bonds of the gospel. He has made me thy midwife also; he has conveyed the spirit of love to thee by my ministry, which is the new birth, “he that loveth is born of God and knoweth God." I have endeavoured to “nourish" thee, {1 Thess. 2: 7}; “suckle" thee, {Isa. 66: 11};" swaddle" thee, {Lam. 2: 22}; and “counsel" thee, {Eccl. 8: 2}. Thou art now “delivered from the snare of the fowler, and the hand of the hunter," {Prov. 6: 5}. Thou must now leave my skirt, seeing thou hast got hold of the “skirt of him that is a Jew." I have many more to nurse, thou must therefore get from under my feathers, and take shelter in God, to whom I commit thee, and “to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up." You are now in the cleft of the rock, and “he that dwelleth in that secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." It is now a time of love with thee, the Lord has spread his skirt over thee, and taken thee into covenant with himself, continue thou in the barn's floor till he winnow the grain, and burn the chaff. Plead thine affinity, and expect from him the kinsman's part: and depend upon it that he will do worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem. Dear Daughter, adieu! while I remain thine affectionate friend and father in Christ Jesus,

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON.

THE END.

Table of Contents

LETTER

TO MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER I.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON.

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount.

Nov. 6, 1786.

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

Tabernacle House, Bristol.

LETTER II.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON,

At the Rev. Mr. Morton's, Holywell Mount, London.

LETTER III.

LETTER IV.

LETTER V.

TO MR. HUNTINGTON

LETTER VI.

TO REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER VII.

TO ELIZABETH MORTON.

LETTER VIII.

TO MISS ELIZABETH MORTON

LETTER IX.

LETTER X.

TO THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON

LETTER XI.

TO MISS ELIXABETH MORTON.

LETTER XII.

LETTER XIII.