will of the Lord therein; but no sooner are you departed from me, than to work you go again at the law. "It is good to be zealously affected in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you." You run counter to your own experience, comfort, peace and quietness. You know that law-work has often brought you into darkness and confusion, yea, into bondage, barrenness, leanness, distress and misery; insomuch that you have panted for the courts of the Lord's house, in order to obtain some refreshing from his promised presence by the word of the gospel; and yet you have immediately turned again "to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire to be in bondage. You observe days, and months, and times, and years" —Hilary term, Easter term, and Trinity term. "I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”

I have lived long by faith, and have obtained house and home, food and raiment, peace and happiness, life and salvation, gold and silverby faith, without the works of the law. And I will insist upon it that one penny obtained by the gospel is of more worth than ten thousand pounds obtained by the works of the law, though falsely called sterling. The law is no more than a dead letter, it cannot give life: and they are in general the sons of death that deal in it and yet you go on with this necro

mantic art, consulting the dead; and are much pleased to get a cause to try: but he is the wisest man that tries and examines well his own cause; and who is clear (before God and conscience) when he judgeth?

Remember, I have counselled you this day: and I hope you will be no otherwise minded; and not set at nought my counsels, nor despise my reproof.

Q. in the Corner.

CCCCVIII.

March 13, 1810.

DEAR FRIEND,

I FEEL that my last bodily affliction has left a sensible debility upon me; so that long sermons will soon prove a task too hard for me. My Sunday's labour enfeebles me for the whole of the following day, and my legs swell with stand. ing so long; which in the work I feel not, being sensibly more than myself; though when I have done, nothing but self.

Long, sharp, and hot has been my warfare; but hitherto I have kept the faith, though heart and flesh have often failed. I believe that there

has not been less (at times) than fifty pulpits in

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one day sounding out warnings and cautions against the Antinomian, And thousands of hand-bills, large and small, have been put up in the streets of London, informing the public that on certain nights would be debated different subjects respecting the Coalheaver. The disputants, I am told, were hired, some for and some against me, and the audience paid sixpence each for admission.

In walking through the city on a Tuesday afternoon, being the day of my weekly lecture, I have been noticed by many, who have stopt, pointed, broke their jests, and regaled themselves with mirth, till I was out of sight. These have had their day, their sport, and their triumph; but mine is all to come.

I have had the honour of introducing two or three newspapers into the world; the public being informed that I was to be the subject of the newspaper about to be published. This was enough; for it soon made its way when once known that I was to be the subject of its preface, introduction and contents. I was then laid aside till another was to be hatched, when I came into use again. This work has, however, been carried on at the expense of my Master's honour; and faith tells me that the Lord God of recompenses will surely requite. And

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in all this the devil has failed; which shows

that rage and malice often hurry him on to the injury of his own interest; for curiosity has occasionally led many to hear, whom truth and power have met.

Satan, with all his fancied wisdom, is but a fool at best; for he stirred up the chief of the Jews to do the work of their father, who was a murderer from the beginning, in crucifying Christ; and Christ by his death "destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered them who through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."―There is his wisdom. Hence it is plain that the flaming rage of Satan's desperation drives him beyond his reason, his judg ment, his wisdom, and even to the injury of his wisest plans; so that the devil is outshot in his own bow.

And I believe that Satan has stirred up almost every tool in the nation, called a gospel minister, against me, his aim being, no doubt, to render me useless in my labours; but in this he has failed, and so have all his transformed servants; for I believe in my conscience that, through the good hand of my God upon me, I have had more success in the Lord's work than all the preachers in the nation. It is God's work, and who can let it? And the more I have been opposed the more I have been supported.

This has so endeared my God to me, that I love him, adore him, bless him, praise him, cleave to him, and follow after him, with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength.

God's covenant is the word of eternal life in the powerful hand of the Holy Ghost, which is never to depart from Christ nor his seed; Isai. lix. 21. These sons of God, and seed of Christ (there mentioned) are ministers of the Spirit and of the gospel; and are the only ministers of the New Testament; "of the Spirit, and not of the letter;" 2 Cor. iii. 6. In the souls of these living temples every divine law of God is written and fulfilled. And, as for all the rest of the world, whether they are profes sors or profane; whether letter preachers or lifeless hearers; they have no law in them; they are without law: "without the law (says Paul) sin was dead; for I was alive without the law; Rom. vii. 8, 9. The Gentiles sin without God's law, being a law to themselves, and shall perish without law; Rom. ii. 12. All unbelievers,: therefore, are lawless; 1 Tim. i. 9. There is not a text in the Bible that disproves what I here assert.

It is the Holy Ghost who qualifies, equips, furnishes, fortifies, and gives success to a minister, and his ministrations: and he that builds