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life that now is and in that which is to come. But God means nothing wrathful in your affliction: it was not anger, but love, that brought this chastening upon you. I do not know how far you have thought of your own heart; but I think, if you take some pains to observe and watch it, you will find that it is very apt to be averse from and to neglect the duty which God requires; very backward to think of God, to learn and read his word, to seek him and pray unto him. Now, my dear, there is no friend like God, or, what is the same thing, like Jesus Christ: none ever did so much for you, or provided so much for you, or promised so much to you. Your dear parents tenderly love you, and care for you: they love you, because God loves you, and puts it into their hearts to love you but they cannot love you as God loves you. They love and pray for you, and take pains to instruct you in the knowledge of God, that you may fear him and love him, and pray to him, and give your heart to him, and have him for your God and Father for ever: but God loves you, though your sinful heart has naturally nothing in it but what is hateful in his sight, and shews an aversion from him and from every thing he requires. He loved you, and gave his beloved Son to suffer unspeakable agony and death for you; and now he loves you, and has spoken good, great good, concerning you. If you will but hear his voice, and turn away from sin and the world, and all the va nities of childhood and youth, and with a thankful

soul accept of his grace, and call him Father, and love and honour him, and, as far as in you lies, behave towards him as his dear child, he promises that he will be a Father to you; that his mercy shall, through the precious blood of Jesus, pardon all your sins that his own Spirit shall give you a new heart, such a heart as a child of God should have; a heart capable of knowing and serving him, and bowing before him with some degree of that reverence, and love, and obedience, and humbleness of mind, that becomes a child: he promises to love you, and watch over you, and come to you, and provide for you, and at last take you home to heaven, and exaltyou to the honours and joys that belong to a child of God. It is, my dear, a very great and blessed promise: your dear parents have accepted it for you under the great seal of Heaven in your baptism; and they have engaged to do all they can, to instruct you in the knowledge of God, and incline you to receive it with a thankful joyful heart, and give yourself entirely to the Lord. Regard this, my dear, as what God had in view in your affliction: he saw there needed something to engage and fix your wandering mind: and therefore he came in a dark cloud, that you may never forget his coming to you; and the voice from the cloud is this, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?" Oh, it is great mercy to hear the voice of God, though amidst darkness and death! May you never forget it! May your very soul reply, and that

without ceasing, "O God, thou art my God, early

will I seek thee! "

LETTER XII.

TO MR. AND MRS. W. B

Tooting, Jan. 2, 1800.

MY DEAR W- AND M—,

ANOTHER year of life's pilgrimage is past, and, blessed be God, he has crowned it with his goodness. It is pleasant to review the multiplied and long-continued expressions of Divine mercy. It is pleasant to commit ourselves, at the commencement of a new year, and under the darkness that veils futurity, into the hands of a covenant God, on the ground of eternal truth, and the encouragement of long-continued experience. What a mercy, what a privilege in this world of vanity, sin, and sorrow, where multitudes are labouring for that which satisfieth not, nay, are "treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath," to have a mind in any degree directed into the love of God, at rest in the Supreme Good, cheered with the aspect of Providence, and animated with the opening prospects of an eternal inheritance among the saints in light! Oh the multitudes who have not found the way of peace! who shall find, even in Jesus, when " he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired of all them that be

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soul accept of his grace, and call him Father, and love and honour him, and, as far as in you lies, behave towards him as his dear child, he promises that be will be a Father to you; that his mercy shall, through the precious blood of Jesus, pardon all your sins: that his own Spirit shall give you a new heart, such a beart as a child of God should have; a heart capable of knowing and serving him, and bowing before him with some degree of that reverence, and love, and obedience, and bumbleness of mind, that becomes a child: be promises to love you, and watch over you, and come to you, and provide for you, and at last take you home to heaven, and exalt you to the honours andys that belong to a child of God. It is, my dear, a very great and blessed promise: your dear parents have accepted it for you under the great seal of Heaven in your baptism; and they have engaged to do all they can, to instruct you in the knowledge of God, and incline you to receive it with a thankful joyful heart, and give yourself entirely to the Lord. Regard this, my dear, as what God had in view in your affiction: he saw there needed something to engage and fix your wandering mind: and therefore he came in a dark cloud, that you may never forget his coming to you; and the voice from the cloud is this, “Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My Father, thou art the guide of my wwwth. Oh, it is great mercy to hear the voice of God, though amidst darkness and death! May you never forget it! May your very soul reply, and that

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without ceasing, "O God, thou art my God, early

will I seek thee!

LETTER XII.

TO MR. AND MRS. W. B——.

MY DEAR W- AND M~,

Tooting, Jan. 2, 1800.

ANOTHER year of life's pilgrimage is past, and, blessed be God, he has crowned it with his goodness. It is pleasant to review the multiplied and long-continued expressions of Divine mercy. It is pleasant to cominit ourselves, at the commencement of a new year, and under the darkness that veils futurity, into the hands of a covenant God, on the ground of eternal truth, and the encouragement of long-continued experience. What a mercy, what a privilege in this world of vanity, sin, and sorrow, where multitudes are labouring for that which satisfieth not, nay, are "treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath," to have a mind in any degree directed into the love of God, at rest in the Supreme Good, cheered with the aspect of Providence, and animated with the opening prospects of an eternal inheritance among the saints in light! Oh the multitudes who have not found the way of peace! who shall find, even in Jesus, when come to be glorified in his saints, and summer of all them that be

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