_To Mr. W――――, at Portsmouth._
_New-York, Aug. 27, 1747._
_Very dear Sir_,
IS it right when we have committed a fault, to persist in, and not
confess and amend it? By no means. I must therefore write to you,
whom (though you have received no letter from me) I dearly love in the
bowels of the ever-loving, ever-lovely JESUS. I thank you, dear Sir,
for all favours, and exhort you, as the best return I can make, to walk
worthy of that GOD, who has called you to his kingdom and his glory.
May you be enabled to live above, and overcome the world! O that JESUS
may be at all times, your only All! O that you may look up continually
to him for light, life, and every thing! Then will he direct your steps,
and cause every change and scene of life to be a means of changing and
transforming your dear soul more and more into his own divine likeness.
You are shortly to enter into a new and untried state. Dear Sir, call
JESUS and his Disciples to your marriage; marry in and for the LORD,
or your life will be exceedingly uneasy and miserable. Remember, that
new states call for new strength. Let your eyes then be fixed on JESUS.
From him every good and perfect gift cometh. He alone can teach you to
use the world, and every worldly enjoyment, so as not to abuse it. I
commend you to his tender mercy. I pray continually for you, and humbly
intreat you to remember unworthy, ungrateful, ill and hell-deserving
me. I can now only most heartily thank you for all favours, beg to be
remembered to all friends, and subscribe myself, dear Sir,
Yours in Him that liveth for ever,
_G. W._