ral nature in this county. The kind part you take in my happiness demands my warmeft thanks; and I beg you will accept them multiplied by thofe, which my dear partner prefents to you. Yes, my dear friend, I am married in my old age, and have a new opportunity of confidering a great mystery, in the most perfect type of our Lord's myftical union with his church. I have now a new call to pray for a fulness of Chrift's holy, gentle, meek, loving Spirit, that I may love my wife, as he loved his Spouse, the Church. But the emblem is greatly deficient: the Lamb is worthy of his spouse, and more than worthy, whereas I must acknowledge myself unworthy of the yoke-fellow, whom heaven has referved for me. She is a perfon after my own heart; and I make no doubt we shall increafe the number of the happy marriages in the Church Militant. Indeed they are not fo many, but it may be worth a Chriftian's while to add one more to the number. God declared it was not good, that man, a focial being, fhould live alone, and therefore he gave him a help-meet for him: for the fame reafon our Lord fent forth his difciples two and two. Had I fearched the three kingdoms, I could not have found one brother willing to fhare gratis my weal, woe, and labours, and complaifant enough to unite his fortunes to mine; but God has found me a partner, a fifter, a wife, to ufe St. Paul's language, who is not afraid to face with me the Colliers and Bargemen of my Parish, until death part us. Buried together in our country village, we fhall help one ano ther to trim our lamps, and wait, as I truft you do continually, for the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom. Well; for us the heavenly child is born, to us a double fon is given, and with him the whole kingdom of grace and glory. O my dear friend, let us prefs into, and meet in both of thefe kingdoms. Our Surety and Saviour is the way and the door into them; and bleffed be free grace, the way is free, as the King's highway, and the door open, like the arms of Jefus crucified. January 1ft, 1782. I live, bleffed be God, to devote myself again to his bleffed fervice in this world, or in the next, and to with my dear friends all the bleffings of a year of Jubilee. Whatever this year bring forth, may it bring us the fullest measures of falvation attainable on earth, and the moft complete preparation for heaven. I have a folemn call to gird my loins and keep my lamp burning. Strangely restored to health and ftrength confidering my years, by the good nurfing of my dear partner; I ventured to preach of late as often as I did formerly, and after having read prayers and preached twice on Chriftmas day, &c, I did, laft Sunday what I had never done, ---- I continued doing duty from ten till paft four in the afternoon, owing to chriftenings, churchings, and the facrament, which I adminiftered to a church full of people; fo that I was obliged to go from the communion table to begin the evening fervice, and then to vifit fome fick. This has brought back upon me one of my old, dangerous fymp toms, toms, so that I had flattered myself in vain, to do the whole duty of my own Parish. My dear wife is nurfing me with the tendereft care, gives me up to God with the greatest refignation, and helps me to rejoice, that life and death, health and fickness, work all for our good, and are all ours, as blessed inftruments to forward us in our journey to heaven. We intend to fet out for Madeley, to morrow. The profpe&t of a winter's journey is not fweet; but the profpect of meeting you and your dear fifter, and Lady Mary, and Mrs. L. and Mrs. G. and all our other companions in tribulation in heaven, is delightful. The Lord prepare and fit us for that glorious meeting! As foon as I reach Madeley, I fhall write to Lady Mary. Give my belt respects to her, to our dear fifter, and to the ladies I have just named; and believe me to be, my dear friend and fellow traveller to Zion, your moft obliged and affectionate fervant, J. F. P. S. If Lady Huntingdon is in London, I would beg you to prefent my duty to her, with my best wishes. To the Right Hon. Lady MARY FITZGERALD. Thank Madeley, Jan. 1782. I you, my Lady, for your kind congratulations on my marriage. The Lord has indeed bleffed me with a Partner after my own heart;-dead to the world, and wanting, as well as myself, to be filled with all the life of God. She joins me in dutiful thanks to your Ladyfhip, for your obliging remembrance of her in your kind letter, and will help kind letter, and will help me to welcome you to the little hermitage we fpoke of last year in London, if your Ladyfhip's health or tafte, fhould call you to retire for a while from the hurry of the Town. What a difference between the court of the King of kings, and that of King George! How peaceable the former, how full of hurry the latter! The Prince himself welcomes us, and manifefts himfelf to us, as Prince of Peace, as Emmanuel, God with us. He will even bring his kingdom, and keep his court in our hearts, if we open them, by the attention and recollection of faith: He will even fup with us, and make us tafte the sweetness of that bread, which came down from heaven, and the virtue of the blood, which cleanses from all fin. That this may be our conftant experience, and that of our dear companions in tribulation in St. James's place, is the fincere and frequent wifh of, My Lady, Your moft obliged and obedient fervant, To the Right Hon. Lady MARY FITZGERALD. My honoured Friend, J. F. Madeley, August 28, 1782. G RACE, Mercy, and humble love, be multiplied to you, from God our Father and from our Lord Jefus Chrift, through the eternal Spirit; in whofe name we were baptized into the body of the Church, the Spouse of the Son of God. The Lord has peculiar favours in ftore for your ladyfhip, and for me; the proof is, that we are afflicted. Have you been in a weak state of health? I have had the honour to drink of your cup: the influenza has laid me down, but the Lord has raife! me up again; and when I was partly well, I broke my fhin accidentally (fhould I not fay providentially) again a bench, and the confequence was my being confined by a bad leg to my bed, whence I write thefe lines. O may they be lines of confolation to my dear friend! May the God of all grace, who comforts unworthy me, rejoice your oppreffed heart, and make it overflow with his patient love, and fanctifying truth. You ftill complain of vile felf: I wifh you joy, for your know ing your enemy. Let vile felf be reduced to order, and, though he be a bad mafter, he will become an excellent fervant. If you fay, "How fhall I do this ?" I reply, by letting the Lord, the Maker, the Preferver, the Redeemer, the Lover of your foul, afcend upon the throne of your thoughts, will, and affections. Who deferves to engrofs and fill them better than he does? Is he not your firft Lord, your beft Hufband, your most faithful Friend, and your greatest Benefactor? If you fay, "I do not fee him; " I reply, that you never faw the foul of any of your, Friends; nor do call your the body of him even idol. O allow Jehovah, the Supreme Being, to be to you, what he deferves to be, all in all. One lively act of faith, one affent and confent to this delightful truth, that your Father, who is in heaven, loves you a thousand times more than you love your idol, (for God's Love is like himself, infinite and boundless) will fet your heart at liberty, and even make it dance for joy. What, if to this ravifhing confideration, you add the transporting truth, that the Son of God, fairer than the fons of men, and brighter than angels, has loved you unto death, to the death ---- you fee you of the cross, and loves you ftill, more than all your friends do, were their love collected into one heart; could you help thinking, with a degree of joyous gratitude, of fuch an inftance of divine condefcenfion? No, your vile felf would be enobled, raised, expanded, and fet at liberty, by this evangelical thought; and if you did not destroy this divine conception, if you nourished this little degree of the love of Chrift,-Emmanuel, the God of love, would be more fully manifefted in you, and falvation would from this moment grow in your foul. Jefus would grow in your believing, loving heart; felf would be no-body, and Emmanuel would be all in all. Let Chrift by the incorruptible feed of the word, be formed in you through faith; and you will be fo taken up by this wonder of divine love, fo employed in praifing your Father's mercy, and Saviour's love and tendernefs, that you will have but little time to speak either of good or bad felf. When felf is forgotten as nothing before God, you put felf in its proVOL. XIX. May, 1796. per per place; and you make room for the heavenly Being, whose holy and happy existence you are to shadow out. If you have left off attending on the Princess, attend on the Prince of Peace with double diligence. If you have been wanting in that sweet and honourable duty, it is because the enemy has told you lies of your Saviour, and has caft a veil over the love of his heart, and the beauty of his face. See the snare, and avoid it. Shall we ever have the honour of seeing you, my Lady? My wife, who joins in refpectful love and thanks to your Ladyfhip for your remembrance of her, fays, fhe will do her best to render our cold house safe for you, if not convenient. You would have had a repeated invitation from us, if fear, and a concern for your health, heightened by the bad weather, had not checked our defires to have an opportunity of affuring you here, how much we are devoted to your fervice. But the roads and the weather beginning to mend, we venture to offer you the best apartment in our hermitage. I wish it were large enough to take in dear Mrs. G. and our dear friends in St. James's Place; but we have only two small rooms; to which, however, you would be received with two enlarged hearts; I mean thofe of, your Ladyship's obedient, devoted servants, J. and M. F. To the Rev. Mr. CHARLES WESLEY. Rev. and dear Sir, Madeley, Dec. 19, 1782. Thank you for your hint about exemplifying the love of Chrift and his Church. I hope we do. I was afraid, at first, to say much of the matter: for new married people do not at first know each other: but having now lived fourteen months in my new ftate, I can tell you, Providence has referved a prize for me, and that my wife is far better to me, than the Church to Chrift; fo that if the parallel fails, it will be on my fide. Be fo good as to perufe the enclofed fheets. Mr. De Luc, to whom they are addreffed, is Reader to the Queen, and the Author of fome volumes of Letters to her he is a true philofopher. I flatter myself, be will prefent my letter to the Queen. Do you find any thing improper in the addition I have made to my Poem? I wish I were near you for your criticisms: you would direct me, both as a Poet and a Frenchman. I have yet ftrength enough to do my parifh duty without the help of a Curate. O that the Lord would help me to do it acceptably and profitably! The Colliers begun to rife in this neighbourhood: happily the cockatrice's egg was crushed, before the ferpent came out. However, I got many a hearty curfe from the Colliers, for the plain words I fpoke on that occafion. I want to fee they of power both within and without; but in the mean time I would follow clofely my light in the narrow path. My wife joins me in respectful love to Mrs. Welley and yourself, and requesting requesting an intereft in your prayers for us, I remain, my dear Sir, your affectionate, obliged brother, fervant, and fon in the gofpel, YEST To MRS. THORNTON. J. F. My dear Friend, Madeley, March 3, 1783. ESTERDAY I received your melancholy, joyful letter, as I came from the facrament, where the grace of God had armed me to meet the awful news. And is my merciful Hoft gone to reap the fruit of his mercy to me? I thought I fhould have been permitted to go firft and welcome him into everlafting habitations; but Providence has ordered it otherwife, and I am left behind to fay, with you and dear Mrs. Greenwood, "The Lord gave, and has taken away, and bleffed be his holy name!" The glory with which his fetting fun was gilded, is the greatest comfort by which heaven could alleviate his lofs. Let me die as he did, and let my laft end be like his! I was fo fenfibly affected by your account, that I could not help reading part of your letter at church in the afternoon, and defiring all the congregation to join me in thankfgiving for the late mercies he had vouchfafed to my generous benefactor. On fuch occafions, let fighs be loft in praife; and repining in humble fubmiffion and thankful acquiefcence. I hope dear Mrs. Greenwood mixes a tear of joy with a tear of forrow. Who would not be landed on the other fide the ftream of time, if he were fure of fuch a paffage? Who would with his best friend back on the fhores of forrow fo triumphantly left by Mr. Greenwood? I hope Mr. Thomas Greenwood, and his brother Jofiah, have been rooted and grounded in their good purposes by their dying father's exhortations and charges. Pray give my kindeft love to them both, and tell them, I join my entreaties to his, that they would take to and keep in the way, that brought their parent peace and joy at the last. So Mr. and Mrs. Perronet are no more; and Lazarus is ftill alive! What scenes does this world afford? But the most amazing is certainly that of Emmanuel crucified, and offering us pardons and crowns of glory. May we ever gaze at that wonderful object, until it has formed us into love, peace, and joy! We thank you for the fweet name you ftill call us by, and we heartily take the hint and fubfcribe ourselves, your affectionate, grateful friends, and ready fervants in Christ, J. and M. F. Two LETTERS ON MARRIAGE. HE questions you defire me to refolve, are undoubtedly re- |