Being a native of the Weald of Kent, which is none of the most polite parts of the world, I retained a good deal of my provincial dialect; and many of my expressions, to the ears of a grammarian, sounded very harsh and uncouth. This circumstance caused many unsanctified critics to laugh and cavil at me. But, when God permitted me to drop promiscuously into company with any of those who were so very learned, and they began to pour contempt on some of my expressions, I generally found them very deficient in the work of the Spirit on their own souls: and, though some of them seemed very wise in gospel doctrines, yet I could easily find that their knowledge was borrowed from commentators, by their appearing great strangers to the experience of them on their hearts, and also to the happy enjoyment of them; which I knew they would be able to give an account of if they had received them wet with dew and warm with love from heaven, in answer to the prayer of faith. It is true that some have often confounded me in the sense and meaning of words, as also in the original texts; yet I found that I could as much confound them in the sensible operations of the Holy Ghost, agreeable to the word of God; and, by my own experience of the Spirit's work, could overthrow some expressions of theirs from the Hebrew language, especi ally those who laboured to overthrow the divinity of the Son of God; the manifestation of whom to my own soul, agreeable to his word, has enabled

me to foil the most accomplished Arian I have ever yet contended with upon that point. The only way to prove Christ's divinity is to go to him when overwhelmed with guilt and horror, and to pray to him as the eternal God; and, if he appears to honour our faith and to answer our prayers, and delivers us from the wrath of God, the guilt of sin, the power of Satan, the fear of death, the curse of the law, and eternal damnation, and blesses us with pardon, peace, love, and liberty, he shall be the eternal God of our soul's salvation, though Satan be the god of this unhallowed world. For, though the Arians talk of Christ as a stone of help, yet if they allow him to be no more than a creature, they might as well call him a sandy foundation as a rock; for all flesh is dust, and to dust it must return. If he had not been God, he certainly would have seen corruption, as well as other creatures have done; and that he was raised from the dead is not owing to his being man, but to his being God; "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." His flesh was raised without seeing corruption, because he was the Son of God with power, and had immortality and eternal life in himself, as the self-existent and independent Jehovah. And, as God the Father prepared a body for him, and he willingly came and took it on him to do his Father's will, so he wore that fleshly garment till he had finished the work his Father gave him to do, and then dipped it in blood, and sanctified himself for our sakes,

that he might sanctify us; he then laid it down for our life, and raised it again for our justification; took it at last to heaven as the first-fruits of them that sleep; and appears in it as in an eternal temple, wherein dwells the glorious Shekinah, or all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. All our access to God is only through that rent vail of his flesh; and he, who allows Christ to be no more than a creature, denies all the intrinsic glory of the eternal Godhead that ever dwelt between the cherubims, and condemns every hoping soul that ever took shelter under the shadowing wings of the Almighty.

Upon the whole, I found my ignorance of Greek and Hebrew to be no impediment in the way of the Spirit of power, as I firmly believed that God had written his law on my heart: and I am persuaded that what the Holy Ghost writes on the mind of man is always agreeable to the original text; and that, if there are any errors in our English translation, the blessed Spirit will never impress the minds of God's elect from a false copy, nor appear as the broad seal of heaven to ratify a lie. No; he shall guide you into all truth; and he shall glorify me, John xvi. 13, 14.

But I shall now return to my former subject, and inform my reader how my faith managed the great debt before mentioned, God having long exercised my faith and patience, until I began to despair of ever getting it paid. It so happened that a capital error crept into the church of God

at Horsham, in Sussex; and some friends sent for me, as it was a place where I had often preached; indeed it was the first place that I ever preached at in a public manner. I therefore complied with their request; and in my way thither was blessed with one of the most comfortable and lively frames of mind that I had ever enjoyed. This frame was attended with a most delightful chain of heavenly meditations; which, when I arrived at my journey's end, I committed to paper, and sent to a friend in town. This circumstance, under God, paved a way for my being invited to preach at Chelsea, where I delivered a discourse from this text, "Children, have ye any meat?" I was afterward informed that a confirmed Arian came out of curiosity to hear me; and, though I knew nothing of it, I was led, in the course of my sermon, to be very severe against the destructive tenets of that sect. In consequence of which he went home convinced; and upon his arrival there was seized with a fit of illness, during which Christ was graciously pleased to manifest his atonement to his conscience. When he felt the power, he cried out, "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." He continued in this divine ecstasy till his body dropped into the jaws of death, which was about a fortnight after the above discourse was delivered. Thus God fulfils his word, "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine,"

But to return to my subject. A gentleman, famous for a liberal turn of mind, asked me to lodge at his house, with which I gladly complied; and in the evening he inquired about my health, ministerial success, and also concerning my circumstances. As God alone knew my wants, so none but God could have inclined his heart to relieve me. At my departure he gave me ten guineas. This precious answer to prayer, coming so seasonably in a time of need, put my discontent to the blush, dashed infidelity itself out of countenance, and stopped the mouth of an accusing devil. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed," Psal. xxxvii. 3.

I found God's promises to be the Christian's bank note; and a living faith will always draw on the divine Banker: yea, and the Spirit of prayer, and a deep sense of want, will give an heir of promise a filial boldness at the inexhaustible bank of heaven.

Indeed the providence of God is a great mystery; nor could I unriddle it, even while I was daily exercised with it. During my residence at Ewell I have often begun the week with eighteen or twenty pence, sometimes with two shillings, and sometimes with half a crown; and we have lived through the whole week upon that only, without contracting any debt. And I found it impossible at the week's end, upon the best reflection I could make, to tell how we had been supported