LETTER II.

To the Reverend Mr. S.

My dear Friend and Brother,

I

HOPE my long Silence has not occafioned your being offended at me, or any Sufpicion, that I have difregarded you, or the Matter you wrote upon. If I was to offer at a Reason in excuse of it, it would be an invented one, for it has never been known to myself. But I was contented to know, that my Heart was right towards you, full of all good Will and Defire to ferve you, in the Way that God fhould lead me to it. And fo it is come to país, that you have not heard from me fooner.

It is a great Pleasure to me to think (as you fay) that my Letter to you, will also be to two of your Brethren, who stand in the fame State of Earneftness, to know how to be faithful and useful in their Ministry, as you do: I hope God will increase your Number.

The

The first Business of a Clergyman awakened by God into a Senfibility, and Love of the Truths of the Gospel, and of making them equally felt, and loved by others, is thankfully, joyfully and calmly, to adhere to, and give way to the Increase of this new-risen Light, and by true Introverfion of his Heart to God, as the fole. Author of it humbly to beg of him, that all that, which he feels a Defire of doing to those under his Cure, may be first truly and fully done in himself.

Now the Way to become more and more awakened, to feel more and more of this firft Conviction, or Work of God within you, is not to reflect and reafon yourself into a farther and deeper Senfibility of it, by finding out Arguments to ftrengthen it in your Mind. But the one true Way is, in Faith and Love to keep close to the Prefence and Power of God, which has manifested itself within you, willingly refigned to, and folely depending upon the one Work of his all-creating Word, and allquickening Spirit, which is always more or lefs powerful in us, according as we are more or less trufting to, and depending upon it.

And thus it is, that by Faith we are faved, because God is always ours, in fuch

Pro

Proportion as we are his; as our Faith is in him, fuch is his Power and Presence in us. What an Error therefore, to turn one Thought from him, or caft a Look after any Help but his; for if we afk all of him, if we seek for all in him, if we knock only at his own Door of Mercy in Christ Jefus, and patiently wait and abide there, God's Kingdom must come, and his Will must be done in us.

For God is always Prefent, and always working towards the Life of the Soul, and its Deliverance from Captivity under Flesh and Blood. But this inward Work of God, though never ceafing, or altering, is yet always, and only hindred by the Activity of our own Nature, and Faculties, by bad Men through their Obedience to earthly Paffions, and by good Men through their striving to be good in their own Way, by their natural Strength, and à Multiplicity of seemingly holy Labours and Contrivances.

Both these forts of People obftruct the Work of God upon their Souls. For we can co-operate with God no other Way, than by fubmitting to the Work of God, and feeking, and leaving ourselves to it.

For the whole Nature of the fallen Soul, confifts in its being fallen from God, into itself, into a Self-government and Activity, under

under its own Powers broken off from God, and therefore dying to felf, as well to our Reason, as our Paffions and Defires,is the first and indifpenfible Step in Chriftian Redemption, and brings forth that Converfion to God, by which Chrift becomes formed and revealed in us. And nothing hinders this Converfion from being fruitful in all Good, and gaining all that we want from God, but the retaining Something to dwell in as our own, whether it be earthly Satisfactions, or a Righteousness of human Endeavours. And therefore all the Progrefs of your first Conviction, which by the Grace of God you have had from above, and from within, confifts in the Simplicity of your Faith, in adhering to it, as folely the Work of God in your Soul, which can only go on in God's Way, and can never cease to go on in you, any more than God can cease to be that which he is, but so far as it is stopped by your Want of Faith in it, or trufting to fomething elfe along with it. God is found, as foon as he alone is fought; but to feek God alone, is nothing else but the giving up ourselves wholly unto him. For God is not abfent from us in any other refpect, than as the Spirit of our Mind is turned from him, and not left wholly to him.

This Spirit of Faith, which not here, or

there

there, or now and then, but every where, and in all Things, looks up to God alone, trufts folely in him, depends abfolutely upon him, expects all from him, and does all it does for him, is the utmoft Perfection of Piety in this Life. The Worship of God in Spirit and Truth, can go no higher, it does that which is its Duty to do; it hath all that it Wants, it doth all that it will, it is one Power, one Spirit, one Will, and one Working with God. And this is that Union or Oneness with God, in which Man was at first created, and to which he is again called, and will be fully restored by God and Man being made one Christ.

Stephen was a Man full of Faith and the Holy Ghoft. Thefe are always together, the one can never be without the other.

This was Stephen's Qualification for the Deaconship, not because of any Thing high or peculiar in that Office, but because the Gospel Difpenfation was the opening a Kingdom of God amongst Men, a fpiritual Theocracy, in which as God,and Man fallen from God, were united in Chrift, fo an Union of immediate Operation between God and Man was restored. Hence this Difpenfation was called,in Diftinction from all that went before it in outward Types, Figures and Shadows, a Miniftration of the Spirit, that is, an immediate Ope