_To Mr. C――――._
_On board the Savannah, April 10, 1740._
_My dear Brother_,
YOU, as well as your dear associates, are much upon my heart. I long
to hear that you are advanced in grace, and grown in the knowledge of
CHRIST JESUS your LORD. I say _your Lord_; for I hope, ere now, you
can appropriate CHRIST to yourself, and, without the least diffidence
or doubt, cry out assuredly, “My LORD and my GOD.” When the soul
says this, _then_, but not till then, is it truly married to the dear
LORD JESUS; then are we true children of the bridegroom, and are real
partakers of the supper of the Lamb. This, this is faith: this is
believing; not with the head; not in notion only; but with the heart,
indeed and in truth. The soul now puts its _amen_, and sets the seal
to GOD’s everlasting promises; it now soars upwards towards heavenly
things, and feels continually the invisible realities of another world.
Though sometimes overshadowed by a cloud, yet still it knows that
its Redeemer liveth, and justifieth the ungodly. It cannot doubt of
his favour, though sometimes he is pleased to withdraw his sensible
presence. The root of the matter is twisted round every faculty of the
soul, which daily is supported with this assurance, that CHRIST can
no more forsake the soul he loves, than he can forsake himself. Oh my
dear brother, I find myself much carried out to write of that divine
life, that divine mystery of godliness, the hidden kingdom of GOD in
the heart. If any thing I can say, or do, or write, may be any way
serviceable to dear Mr. _C――――_, it will much rejoice
His most unworthy brother and servant in CHRIST,
_G. W._