_To the Mr. ――――_.
_Basingstoke, Feb. 8, 1739._
_Dear Sir_,
THOUGH I desired you to write first, yet the love I bear you, will
not suffer me to wait so long before you hear from me.――Just now has
GOD brought us to _Basingstoke_, where I hope an effectual door will
be opened before we leave it, as well as at _Windsor_.――Oh my dear
friend, more and more do I see the benefit of confessing our blessed
LORD before men.――You have not been ashamed of the cross.――No, dear
Mr. ―――― has put his hand to the plough; he will not, surely he cannot
look back; but JESUS CHRIST alone can keep me and my dear friend from
falling. He has begun and he will carry on, he will finish the good
work in our souls.――We have nothing to do, but to lay hold on him by
faith, and to depend on him for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. Not but we must be workers together with him; for a
true faith in JESUS CHRIST will not suffer us to be idle.――No, it is
an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it
cannot be easy, till it is doing something for JESUS CHRIST.――Methinks
I hear my dear friend crying out, “LORD, evermore give me this faith!”
Believe me, I heartily say, _Amen_. Ask then, my dear Sir, and it
shall be given you, seek and strive for it, and yet a little while and
I shall see you a new creature; your heart I hope is somewhat broken
already.――All praise be to GOD’s free grace in CHRIST.――Go on, my dear
friend, and never cease till you know you are CHRIST’s, by the spirit
that shall be given you. Never fear your carnal friends, renounce
them and every thing else that stands in competition with your duty to
GOD.――What have we to do to know any one after the flesh? Let him, who
doth the will of our Father in heaven, be our brother, our sister, our
mother. For this reason I subscribe myself, dear Sir,
Your’s most affectionately in CHRIST,
_G. W._