The world, the flesh, and the devil, are God's enemies; and against these do the saints say, pray, and fight, all their days; and, if they are foiled or overcome, it is called violence, captivity, or a rape, which God will highly resent; and, if they are pressed beyond measure, and despair even of life, and are thrown seven times, and complain, "I die daily," or "for thy sake we are killed all the day long ;" yet they up and at it again, and never give over, nor give up, till they die; for "as he is, so are we in this world," 1 John iv. 17. "God so loved the world that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that we might live through him," and "Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it." And the Spirit's love appears in his convincing us of sin, righteousness, and judgment ; and in taking up his eternal abode with us, when we were the most vile, filthy, and abominable creatures, and to every good work reprobate.

The saints have suffered all sorts of torments, and every kind of death that inen or devils could invent, rather than dishonour their God, or lose their exceeding great reward; hence they

labour after conformity to him, and disallow of every lust and corruption that resists his sovereign will.

If God arraign, they will not excuse; if he punish, they accept. If he search, they submit; if he condemn, they will not acquit; if he rebuke with fire, they approach the light; if he is wroth, they fear and quake; if he invite, they come up; if he chasten, they submit; if he attract, they follow on; if he frown, then they fear; if he command, they commend; if he forbid, they forbear; if he withdraw, they despond; if he threaten, they contract; if he allure, they enlarge; if he is absent, they are jealous; if he indulge, they make free; if his anger burn, they are mute; if he resist, they withdraw; he hides himself, they go in search; his bowels move, their bowels yearn; if he contend, they attend; if kindness flow, their spirits melt; if he forgive, they cannot forget; if he commune, their heart will burn; if he embrace, they swoon in love; if he bind, they will not be free; if he pull down, they will not build up; if he should wound, none else shall heal; if he lay on, they will not throw off; if

he detain, none shall release ; if he afflict, they will not be soothed; if he shut up, they will not come out; if he desert, they will not be wooed; if he cause grief, they will not hear peace; and, if he chide, they will not flee; he bends his bow, they yield their breast; if he delay, they still persist: if he deny, they will not give up; he will not relieve, they still entreat; he says "Begone," they importune; he shuts the door, they knock the more.

The divine and essential Word has taken our nature into God: and there is a divine nature lodged in all the saints, and no separation can be made, either by life or by death. O my brother, my mouth is opened to thee, my heart is enlarged; thou art not straitened in me, but in thine own bowels. Now for a recompense in the same (I speak as to my beloved son), be ye also enlarged. Adieu. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and endure hardness as a good soldier. The Captain has overcome the world, and the victory is yours. Ever thine in him,

W. HUNTINGTON.

LETTER IX.

TO THE REV. J. JENKINS, LEWES,

SUSSEX.

Fellow-servant and fellow-sufferer, companion in travail and tribulation, peace and truth be with thee.

I AM glad that you approve, and that any thing clear, harmonious, consistent, informing, or establishing, appears to you. I shall, therefore, propose to bring forth what little yet remains on my mind, or may yet occur on the sublime subject. Reason, or the dim light of nature, is a poor guide in this mystery. Light in the head, without love and reverence in the heart, has a tendency to exalt. "Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." A high look, a stiff neck, and a proud heart, God will not suffer; but he will dwell with the humble and the contrite, and will own and acknowledge those that reverence, love, and fear him. In his light we see light; and, if teachable and tractable, he will guide us with his eye, and lead us by his Spirit; while the inward anointing, which is the illu

minating, renewing, softening, and humbling influences of his grace and Holy Spirit, which the saints experience, will teach them all things necessary to be known, or essential to salvation. Our sufficiency is of God, who can make us able ministers of the New Testament; and, if he does not make us so able as some are, yet we must "minister as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ," 1 Pet. iv. 11. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and our unctuous experienceof his divine impressions and influence, must regulate all our views, opinions, and conclusions, upon divine subjects. Whatever the understanding discovers, and the mind conceives, is always handed down to the soul's experience of divine power; the Spirit's work on the soul being an exact and an infallible copy of the revealed mind and will of God in the scriptures of 'truth; on which account the church is called "the pillar and ground of the truth," 1 Tim. iii. 15. The Spirit is the author of the scriptures, both of the Old Testament and the New. The gospel is