37? REESE LIBRARY OF THK UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Receive^. Accessions No.2tJT'2~4j- Shelf No. GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, AND THE BANK OF FAITH. OR, A DISPLAY OF THE PROVIDENCES OP GOD, WHICH HAVE AT SUNDRY TIMES ATTENDED THE AUTHOR. i BY WILLIAM ^HUNTINGTON, S. S. Minister of the Gospel at Providence Chapel, Little Titchfield street, and at Monkwell street Meeting. UNIVERSITY And he said unto them, When I sent you without pun*, arid scrip, and , , , hoes, lacked ye any thing f and they said, Nothing. Luke xiii. 35. 8KOOND AMEKICAN, FROM THE SEVENTH LONDON EDITION. LOWELL: P. D. & T. S. EDMANDS. BOSTON: SAXTON & PEIRCE. 1842. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, by P. D. & T. S. EDMANDS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts. BOSTON. PRINTED BY 8. N. DICKINSON, WASHINGTON STREET. UNIVERSITY TO THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES OF CHRIST, AT PROVIDENCE CHAPEL IN LONDON, AND AT RICHMOND IN SURREY. Dearly beloved in the Lord Jesus, and longed-for in the bowels of Christ whom I love in the faith, and to whom the love of Christ hath constrained me to become a debtor grace, mercy, and peace, be multiplied among you, through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I CHOSE to dedicate this little treatise to you, because, sometimes, those providences which appear rather out of the common line, are hard nuts in the mouth of a weak be- liever ; but some of you have known me from the beginning, . and have been eye-witnesses of most of the Jfacts which I j am going to relate. And if you will allow me to make an honest confession, my conscience has often lashed rne for not keeping a diary, or rather minuting down the many conspicuous providences of God, which have appeared to me in times of trouble ; but like ungrateful Israel, I went the only way to forget his works, and to be unmindful of the rock of my salvation ; and now I have nothing to trust / to on this occasion but my own treacherous memory, un- IV DEDICATION. less the Lord be pleased to send the Comforter to me ; and if he come, he will "bring all things to my remembrance," whatsoever God hath said unto me in a way of providence. I am sure " the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and all that is therein ; all the cattle of the forest are his, and so are the flocks of a thousand hills yea, the corn, and the wine, the oil, the wool, and the flax;" yea, and even the wicked deceiver, as well as the deceived, are the Lord's ; and it is he that maketh one man poor and another rich ; that bringeth down and lifteth up ; " and no man can add to the fixed stature of God, whether the stature be in grace or in providence. " The battle," saith the wise man, " is not to the strong, nor the race to the swift, nor bread to men of skill ; " the weak are often seen to win the field, and the cripple to win the heavenly race; and even fools to accumulate the great- est fortunes. There is no adding a cubit to this stature, even in the least circumstance then why take we thought for the rest ? I believe God never intended me to be a preacher to the rich, because he has ever kept me dependent on his provi- dence. Had I been rich, I might have been tempted to trust in uncertain riches ; and I know well that " where the treasure is, there will the heart be also." It must be a hard task to preach against covetousness while the heart is trad- ing at the stocks. I fear this is the case with some who are called ministers ; but sin always brings its own punishment with it such can have no communion with God, nor peace of conscience ; for it is sin that separateth between God and the soul ; and the love of money is the root of all evil. Nor have I any reason to believe that God ever in- tended me for a preacher to please pharisees, because he hath for many years given me an humbling sight, and a deep DEDICATION. V sense of my own wretched depravity ; so that I dare not place any confidence in the flesh, nor even in the fruits of faith ; knowing that a man can merit nothing, allowing that he were able to keep the law perfectly "When ye have done all these things, say, We are unprofitable servants ; we have done no more than was our duty to do." But I come infinitely short of doing all, therefore can never boast of doing a part. By nature we are all fond of a specious form of religion; and God permitted me to use a dry form for many years; but he never regarded any of those prayers put up by me, nor removed the guilt of my sin, in answer to them ; therefore, to use an English proverb, " I shall never speak well of that bridge, because it never bore me safe over the stream." I know that God tells us to turn away from those who " have a form of godliness," but deny the power thereof. And dry forms of devotion, used by people who deny the grace and spirit of God, is no better than a stage for anti- christ, a varnish for sepulchres, Matt, xxiii. 27 ; an apparel for harlots, Isa. iv. 1 ; a winding-sheet for pharisees, Isa. xxx. 1 ; a bribe of dead works put into the hands of an honest conscience, Heb. ix. 14 ; a trading stock for blind guides, Isa. Ivi. 11; a dish of husks to stifle convictions, Luke xv. 16 ; a mongrel service offered to God and Mam- mon, Mat. vi. 24 ; the mimicry of hypocrites, Mat xv. 8 ; a starting hole to shun the cross, Isa. xlii. 22 ; and infideli- ty's last refuge. God permitted me for many years to try what a form of devotion would do for me ; but, like the poor woman in the gospel, I got worse instead of better ; therefore was obliged to lay it by, and let the words of my mouth be the medita- tions of my heart. In this way the Holy Ghost helped my infirmities ; therefore I must preach up spiritual prayer ; VI DEDICATION. and, as Christ answered the spirit's call, I must preach Jesus as the eternal God that hears and answers prayer. This is a part of the ministry which I have received of the Lord ; and I hope, through grace, to take heed to it, and fulfil it. I believe God intended that I should preach faith ; be- cause he has kept me dependent by faith on himself both for spiritual and temporal supplies. And I am persuaded that he intended me for a minister to the ignorant and to the poor. To the ignorant, because he sent me to preach, and gave me many seals to my ministry, before I could read a chapter in .the Bible with propriety to the poor, be- cause he sent me without a penny in my pocket ; therefore, as a minister of the poor, I hope to magnify mine office. The vanity of worldly wisdom the excellency of divine knowledge the uncertainty of worldly riches the pre- ciousness of faith's wealth the blessed religion of Jesus, and the insufficiency of human inventions all these seem to be some of the things belonging to the gospel which is committed to my trust. And I know that it becomes a steward to be found faithful, and not to waste his master's goods. What farther convinces me of my being appointed by God for a preacher to the poor is this that the many seals of my ministry consisf chiefly of the poor, both in town and country; so that I can adopt with propriety the language of the apostle, and say, " You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called : but God hath chosen the fool- ish things of the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen ; yea, and things which DEDICATION. Vll are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. Although my ministry is chiefly among the poor, yet it is a copy the Saviour has set, and it is very much like his own ; for no man can prove Jesus a rich man after the flesh, nor a scholar after the flesh, nor a doctor after the flesh, nor a bishop after the flesh. And as for the followers of his personal ministry, they were poor; for "unto the poor the gospel was preached : " and those who received the glad tidings were babes in human knowledge "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes ; even so, Father, for so it seem- eth good in thy sight." Let us then take all the encourage- ment which God has given us to be contented in our re- spective stations, even though it be in servitude ; for Jesus was among men as one that serveth. As Christ himself then is entirely on our side of the question, let us evermore rejoice in this glorious pattern. One reason for my writing this treatise is, because we are often tempted to believe that God takes no notice of our temporal concerns. As the thoughts of the salvation of our souls lie near our hearts, and as that is of the greatest im- portance, we think God will not forget that ; but as for our private concerns in life, we suppose that they are beneath his notice and inspection. This latter is a temptation from the devil ; and such I hope I shall make it appear in the following treatise. Another reason why I have written this book is, that the word of God abounds with many similar circumstances of the divine providence of God ; such as, changing the color of Jacob's flocks and herds the Lord making Abraham rich in cattle feeding the prophet by a raven multiply- VI11 DEDICATION. ing the widow's oil and meal sending the apostles out without purse or scrip feeding Israel in the wilderness* with manna and cutting off that rich glutton Nabal, in order to relieve poor hungry David. All these are striking instances of God's tender regard for the poor of his flock. I shall only treat of what hath occurred in the course of my own experience, of which things many of you are liv- ing witnesses. And may God bless the work for the en- couragement of his children's faith, patience, and watch- fulness. To this end I shall descend to tljejnostjrnmute circumstances, in order to show the narrow inspection of God into the affairs of those who put their trust in him. I am aware of the reproach that will be cast upon such a work, as also upon the author; but this doth in no wise concern me. I only wish that I were as free from every sin as I am from the carnal fear of man ; I believe I should then shortly preach up sinless perfection. If we preachers get proud, worldly, and lifeless, we generally fall into dis- esteem with the most lively Christians : and, if the presence of God doth not keep up our reputation among these right- eous ones, we generally begin to undermine the reputation of those who cleave closer to God than ourselves ; and en- deavor to establish a character upon the ruins of other men's reputation ; and, while we are carrying on this busi- ness, God sets others to undermine ours. " As ye mete, so shall it be measured to you again." This is God's balance. And the wise man's appeal to conscience is, " Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken, lest thou hear thy ser- vant curse thee ; for oftentimes also thine own heart know- eth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others." Eccles. vii. 21. The first little treatise which I wrote was condemned by many, who at the same time never understood it ; but God D EDI CATION. IX blessed it to several souls, to their happy deliverance ; and if God sets his seal to it, we have no cause to look to the ap- probation of any other. Wh^n ' THE SKELETON' first appear- ed, the complaint was that it was wrote in a bad spirit ; that the divinity was tolerable but the spirit was bad. a Sound divinity and zeal for God, flowing from a bad spirit, is like the old contradiction we read of " How can Satan cast out Satan ? " However, although there were many who condemned it in private, yet I rejoice ; because several of them plundered the very bowels of it to preach in public. I should like to see a treatise upon the operations of the Holy Ghost, written by some of those who are infallible ; and then I should know, according to their views, how far that blessed Spirit ought to go in his operations, and where he ought to stop, according to their decree. If Elijah was on earth, I believe he would be loaded with as many re- proaches of uncharitableness as I have been. But why should I wonder at this, when Christ himself was accused by the doctors of old of preaching and working under the influence of a bad spirit ! They said that he cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince of devils. I would caution these infallible gentlemen, however, not to be too hasty in ascrib- ing a work which God owns and blesses to the dictates of an evil spirit, " lest haply they be found even to fight against God," the Holy Ghost. I much question if they are very well acquainted with that blessed Spirit's tuition; for, if they were, they would not talk at that rate. Natural affec- tions are often mistaken for the operations of the spirit of God ; but Christ sharply rebuked Peter for savoring the things of men more than the things of God. And I know that all the affections of nature are contra-distinguished from the influences or fruits of the spirit, by one who is an infal- lible judge. " That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and X DEDICATION that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Thou must be born again." The new man must come forth, and the old man must be crucified throughout. I own that natural affections are some of the best rags of fallen nature; but, as they are natural, they must not be mistaken for, nor coupled with, the Holy Ghost. " All mortality shall be swallowed up of life," when he who only hath immortality shall appear. Therefore make not that your celestial covering which is to be no more than your grave clothes. All these cloths and napkins must be wrapt together by themselves when Christ mystical shall awake and sing ; for we hope to be delivered from the whole body of sin and death ; because it is under this we groan, being burdened. Some, indeed, have no brighter views of heaven than Mahomet in his Alcoran. " I speak this to their shame ; " for some professors are ready to repeat the old in- quiry, " How are the dead raised up?" and with what crop of natural affections do they come 1 To whom I answer : The old, the natural grain, must entirely die, that the new and spiritual harvest may take place. " The seed which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain." However, God hath blessed 'The Skeleton,' to many souls, which satisfies me. And, whether men approve or disap- prove of the work, it matters not : for I find by history, that the book of the Revelations, written by John the divine, though it contains a certain and full prediction of all future events, both in churches and states, and a concise recapitu- lation of all past occurrences, was almost universally reject- ed by infallible prelates in the primitive church of Christ, (though Christ sent his angels to testify it to them) they being wise above what was written, though perhaps too ig- DEDICATION. XI norant to understand the writing ; therefore it was kept out of the church as uncanonical/ St. Jude's Epistle too, ap- pearing such a foe to universal charity, as well as to spots in their feasts of charity, and other counterfeit errors, and being expressive of so much zeal and warmth for God's glory, was kept out of the church for many years also ; and the excuse was as weighty as some in our days make against mine that it was written in a bad spirit, and that he had quoted an unscriptural expression; namely, that of " the devil contending for the body of Moses ; " which in my opin- ion, seems scriptural enough to any discerning Christian ; for, if the body of Moses be the offspring of Hagar, and fig- uratively the children of Jerusalem, which are in bondage ; and Jerusalem, the desolate, without God, and without an husband, and her children without a father ; these children are bond children under the law, and being under the law, are consequently under the curse. No wonder then, if the officer, the devil, accuseth them to justice, and contends for this mystical body of Moses, when Moses himself accuses them even before God. I hope these divines will show me some lenity, although I may be of a bad spirit, because I have not gone quite so far in the trial of universal charity as to execute him. Neither have I cut Agag in pieces, nor slain any of the prophets of Baal, as some have done at the command of God, and under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost. But, although I had, it would have been no crime, seeing God himself is a swift witness against sorcerers. My first pamphlet being condemned as nonsense, and the || second as the product of a bad spirit, so this will possibly II be condemned as savoring too much of self ; more especial- 11 ly as I treat only of the kind providences which occurred in I the course of my own experience. However, I hope to rest ' satisfied till the great day arrives, when God will make mani- Xll DEDICATION. fest the secrets of the heart, and show whom he approves and disapproves ; and then it will be seen that neither uni- versal charity nor natural affections shall be found among the redeemed of God; for it will not be said that natural affections shall be all, but that God shall be all in all. As for the kind advice which some of you have given me, I thank you, and can bear with your weaknesses ; knowing that " I (once) spake as a child, thought as a child, and un- derstood^as a child ; but, when I became a man, I put away childish things." I have no notion of getting a renowned preacher to preface any of my poor scribbling ; it appears, in my opinion, too much like the Satanic art of puffing at an auction. The fewer human inventions the better in di- vine things. Besides, I believe that many precious minis- ters of Jesus have in their young days put prefaces to com- mentaries and other works merely to please a bookseller ; who, when possessed of a riper judgment, were ashamed of the doctrines which they had formerly recommended to oth- ers ; yea, some, who I hear have condemned my book, have written prefaces to works now in my possession, out of which I defy all the masters of arts in Christendom to distil one thimbleful of evangelical divinity, exclusive of the holy name of God. Upon this principle I do not desire any good man to expose his judgment to contempt, by puffing off my abilities ; for I have not a single doubt but kind Providence will defray my expenses at the press as long as God intends that I should write any thing for him ; and, when this cruse of oil fails, you will hear no more of me from thence. Be- sides, if I was inclined to beg or cringe for a preface, I have no such tip-top ministers to go to ; for I find, by blessed experience, that I can creep into the very bosom of my dear Redeemer with more ease than I can touch the robes of a dignified clergyman. <. I have sometimes indeed been admit- DEDICATION. Xlll ted into the pulpits of some of these great men ; but, if the power of God has been present to heal, and the people have been happy under me, I have been admitted there no more. I am informed that it is common among horse-jockies to cry a horse down if his heels are too light. This custom may well become the turf, but it ill becomes the pulpit. However, God has given me a pulpit of my own, so I have no cause to borrow ; and this fulfils an ancient promise, once applied to my soul with power, even from God himself " thou shalt lend to many, but borrow of none." I choose that my doctrine and reputation should stand and fall together. It shall never be the coal-heaver and company. All that I preach or write, that is divine, God himself taught me ; for I never learned it of man, nor did I bring any of it into the world with me : therefore it is not my own, except the errors ; for I have nothing, nor am nothing, by nature, but sin : of course I think it my duty to be faithful in delivering what I have received to the benefit of others; and to be laborious, watchful, and faithful, over .those whom God hath committed to my care. I must beg leave to lead my reader a little farther on, in addition to the dedication, in order to show him what differ- ent receptions the BANK of FAITH has met with in the world. Indeed I did not expect that it should be in equal esteem with the Bank of England no ; I know the greater part of the human race have their portion in this life, whose purses and bellies God fills with his hid treasure. These have so far cast off God as to call their lands by their own names, to the dishonor of God who gave them ; and leave their substance as a trap to their posterity, who are too apt to praise their sayings, and go to the generation of their fathers without seeing light. The greatest curse under heaven is an impenitent heart XIV DEDICATION. clogged with the sorrow of this world " Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them," Lam. iii. 65. And the next curse is an independent fortune in the hands of such grace- less souls, whose infidelity turns every providential blessing into a curse. "If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings ; yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart." Mai. ii. 2. The BANK of FAITH has dropped into the hands of some of these gentlemen, and it has acted the part of Samson ; that is, it has made sport for them ; and no wonder, seeing they have attributed the government of the world to blind fortune, and the glory that is due to God is ascribed to a phantom on a wheel. But who would have thought that men calling themselves gospel ministers would have bought my book to ridicule it and pour contempt on the providence of God 1 Can such be called ministers of God's word, who laugh at the fulfilment of it ? If they deny the inspection of God into our tem- poral concerns, they must deny half the Bible, which informs us that God adorns the lilies, feeds the ravens when they cry, and gives the lion his prey ; when he opens his hand they are filled, and when he takes away their breath they die. Strange ! that professors of Christ should rob him of his glory, of which he is so tender which he will never give to another and which is due to him from all the human race ; but much more so from professors, who pre- tend to renounce all confidence in the flesh in point of jus- tification, and all pretensions to a portion in this life, when compared to the blessed earnest of a portion in the future. Surely such must differ much in spirit from the apostles, who seemed so zealous for the honor of Christ, that they would let no miracle of his slip unnoticed, unacknowledged, DEDICATION. XT nor unrecorded. They tell us of the five barley loaves, and the five thousand fed of the seven barley loaves, and the seven thousand fed of the baskets of fragments that remained and of the Saviour's strict command that noth- ing of the produce of these miracles should be lost. They inform us of the Lord's condescension in coming to them on the shore of the sea of Tiberias, and of his baking bread and broiling fish upon the coals to supply their wants of the liberality of those who were converted by their ministry of their selling their inheritances to support the gospel and feed the poor of Christ's flock and of Ananias and Sapphira being struck dead for mimicking the hospi- tality of the children of God. Israel's forty years' journey in the wilderness abounds with the miraculous providences of God, and so does the book of Ruth. To ridicule then the mystery of Providence is to make sport of one half of the Bible. But these gentle- men have got a stock in hand, like the prodigal at his first leaving his father's house ; therefore they laugh at those who are obliged to fetch their supplies daily from the foun- tain head. But, alas ! an independent fortune is too often like the manna that Israel kept, which bred worms and stunk, while that which was gathered daily was sweet food. This Paul applies to Providence " He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack." Let there be an equality (says Paul) in your contributions not one eased, and another burdened. Some have affirmed, since they read this little book of mine, that we have no warrant to pray for temporal things ; but blessed be God, he has given us " the promise of the life that now js, and of that which is to come ; " yea, the promise of all things pertaining to life, and godliness ; and whatever God has promised we may warrantably pray for. Those that XVI DEDICATION. came to the Saviour in the days of his flesh prayed chiefly for temporal mercies: the blind prayed for sight the le- pers for a cure the lame for the use of their limbs and the deaf for the use of their ears. And surely, had they prayed unwarrantably, their prayers would not have been so miraculously answered. Elijah prayed for a temporal mercy when he prayed for rain ; and it is clear that God answered him. Elisha works a miracle to produce a temporal mercy when he healed the barren plains of Jericho. God hath said that he " will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth ; and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil ; and they shall hear Jezreel." Hos. ii. 21, 22. If some professors are favored with an abundant stock in hand, it is not given them that they should requite the bounties of Providence with contempt. If they have got houses to eat in, they are not to shame them that have not ; and, if they have bottled up a store of the goat's milk, they are. not to cut off the breast from the poor that have none. Prov. xxvii. 23, 24, 27. Is my reader a poor Christian ? Take it patiently. God maketh the poor as well as the rich. Envy not the rich. Riches are often seen to be a canker- worm at the root of a good man's comfort, a snare in his life, and an iron pillar at the back of his pride. Agur prayed to be fed with food convenient for him; and you may pray for the same ; and what God gives you in answer to your prayers you will be thankful for. That state is surely best which keeps you dependent on God and thank- ful to him ; and so you shall find it in the end. Go on, poor Christian, trusting in the providence of God. God promised a preceding blessing on the Israelites who were to keep the year of jubilee ; and, though they were neither to plough, sow, nor reap, on this year of release, yet they had the promise of old store for food for the following year. DEDICATION. XVli Lev. xxv. 20, 21. God's blessing on the sixth year was to produce food for three years. And shall not God provide for Israelites indeed, who are released by the Gospel trum- pet from spiritual bondage, and made free by the Holy Ghost ! Surely such shall eat of the old store ; yea, in a two-fold sense for every scribe instructed in the kingdom is like an old householder who bringeth things out of his treasures new and old ; and all this to feed the Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile. In Egypt we find that God's blessing on the seven years of plenty was sufficient to serve Egypt, and numbers more, through the seven years of famine which followed. Surely these wonders of the Lord of hosts shall never be blotted out of the Bible by a few independent gentlemen, though preachers; nor shall Zion's blessings be chased from tho poor of her family by a few worldly professors, who " trust in uncertain riches," and sneer at the daily provision that God makes for the poor of his household. Reader, trust thou in the Father of all mercies, and the God of all com- fort, for every supply. Independent Adam, and the inde- pendent prodigal, came both to bankruptcy and beggary; therefore trade thou with the stock of God, and thou shall never fail. Use no unlawful means either to avoid having, or the care of, a numerous family. This is the root of God-dishonor- ing and damning unbelief; and the effect is Onanism; which God views as an act of infidelity, and distrust cast on his providence, an injury done to a fruitful womb, and the sin of murder committed on unsinning innocence, which he hath twice visited with immediate death in the very action. Gen. xxxviii. 7 10. I have been married upwards of twenty years, have had I 3 DEDICATION. thirteen children ; just Jacob's number, thirteen to the doz- en ; and, instead of being a beggar, am as rich as ever I was : and do believe that, was I to die this day, if all mat- ters were properly settled, I should be clear of the world. And I am s r ure that faith is satisfied with an honorable dis- charge through this world ; but, if we aim to supply the wants of infidelity, all the world is not sufficient to satisfy her demands. I have been acquainted with several professors of consid- erable property ; but, as God liveth, after a strict observa- tion of their conduct, I never envied their happiness, nor wished to exchange situations ; for I found some, who were warmly attached to the form of prayer, and to the walls of the established church, would give a thousand pounds to support the forms and walls of the Church of England, be- fore they would give five shillings to support those who enforced the Spirit's work on the sQulft pf m>n And oth- ers who were filled with head notions from commentators rather than the grace of God in their hearts, expected every preacher that partook of their liberality to say as they did, and offer both conscience and affections (which are due to God only) to their purse; which compliance being denied, has caused great offence, and the honest servants of Christ have received many wounds both in their reputation and labors; which have made the cross of poverty the more heavy, stirred up the corruptions of the honest suffering saint to be more rebellious against God, and made his mind recoil with indignation against the aspiring rival of Christ. To be short, among all the rich professors that I have known, upon a proper reflection, I have found that they expended the greatest part of the bounties of Providence in support of their own humors, their bigotry, their prejudices, DEDICATION. XIX and their own personal honor ; being most liberal where their liberality was received by those of dignity, and where it was to "appear in print. Such as these have their reward as they proceed, but can have no reward of their Father which is in heaven. I be- lieve it will appear in the great day, that the greatest part of the liberality of rich professors has been expended more in their own cause than in the support of the spiritual reign of the Son of God. This has been made evident by the many apostates who have been long held up by the spirit of bigotry and the purse of wealth; whom, notwithstanding, God hath cast down, in defiance of all their sanction, pat- ronage, and liberality. I am much deceived if the purse of worldly professors is not a snare in our days to many a servant of Christ. The liberal purse, and the besetting sin of the 'squire, has muz- zled the mouth of many a poor laborer in the vineyard ; while the preacher has die\rr me. I generally found those blessings the sweetest which had caused me the most importunity in prayer. This makes the " dinner of herbs, where love is, better than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." Prov. xv. 17. Some time after this I was brought into another strait, by receiving a letter that required me to give up one of my little flocks, which happened to be at that time my chief support. This plot was laid by a person who made a god of his wealth, and therefore found fault with my sermons, conceiving them levelled at him. And indeed the allega- tion was certainly well founded ; for, if a man has got the world in his heart, the preacher is sure of hitting him, if he should only draw a bow at a venture. For, if, the love of money be the root of all evil, it is impossible to wield the sword of the Spirit without cutting either root or branch. This treatment drove me to London. When I left my own home on the Lord's day morning, my whole stock of money amounted to no more than two pence ; of which I took one half, and left my dame the other. One halfpenny of this I paid at Hampton Court bridge; and soon after a poor man asked alms of me, to whom I gave the other half penny. Then I besought the Lord not to send any other person to ask alms of me, until his bountiful hand had sup- plied my own wants. However, this trial also worked together for my good ; for it was the means of bringing me to preach constantly in London ; and many who had heard me in town, met with me at my friend's house, and invited me to preach at Margaret Street Chapel. Several friends also sent for me to their houses. One gave me a guinea, and others half a guinea, till I had enough to discharge the debt I owed. Mentioning these minute circumstances has offended 60 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, many ; and some (of an independent fortune) have con- demned my prayers as carnal, in praying for such temporal things ; but I know that they have taken many worse steps both to accumulate and to keep their independence ; and I think it is better to beg than to steal, as say those who speak in proverbs. I now wanted to return home, fearing that my family would want bread ; but just before the time of my departure, a friend from Richmond arrived, who informed me that he had been to Ditton, and supplied the wants of my family ; for he said he had been informed of the affair, and guessed how my pocket stood. " Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men ! " " Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart ; for God now accepteth thy works." Eccles. ix. 7. At my returnhome I discharged my debts, and for a time went sweetly on, under the sunshine both of Providence and grace ; and God sent me back again to the flock which I had been commanded to leave by the mouth of a rich and covetous professor. Thus God frustrates the counsels of the wicked, so that his hands cannot perform his enter- prise. But, as the life of faith consists in bearing the cross of Christ, we must not expect to be long without trials. Prov- idence soon frowned on me again, and I got behind hand as usual. This happened, too, at a time when my wife was lying in, destitute of those necessaries / of life which are needful at such times. The nurse came and told her there was no tea in the house. My wife replied, " Set the kettle on, if there is not." The nurse (whose name was Ann Webb, a daughter of mine in the faith, and the first soul that God called by me,) said, " You have no tea, nor can AND THE BANK OP FAITH 61 you get any." My wife replied, " Set on the kettle." She did so; and before it boiled, a woman (with whom at that time we had no acquaintance,') came to the door, and ti>! you as much as you want." I soon after awoke, and be- hold it was a dream ! therefore I took little notice of it. But in a few hours the person sent me word that he was going to leave his house, and should expect me to come and see the things appraised the next morning, and pay him for the same. Then I began to think it was more than a dream. The same night, Mr. Monday, of Kingston, called on me ; and to the best of my remembrance, he had never been at my house before. I asked him if he would lend me a little money ; he replied, " I will .lend you all I have in my pocket ; and, if you will call on me to-morrow at Kings- ton, I will lend you five pounds if you want it." He ac- cordingly lent me what he then had with him; and the next morning, after the things were appraised to me, I paid for them, having just nine shillings left. This is the end of my dream. Whether this blessing came from Fortune on the wheel, or from the Searcher and Disposer of hearts, I shall leave those to determine who have got learning and an inde- pendent fortune at command. My year being now expired, I wanted a new parsonic livery ; wherefore in humble prayer I told my most blessed Lord and Master that my year was out, and my apparel bad that I had no where to go for these things but to him ; and as he had promised to give his servants food and raiment, I hoped he would fulfil his promise to rne, though one of the worst of them. Seeing no immediate signs of my livery coming, I began to omit praying for it ; though God says, " For all these things I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, that I may do these things for them." It fell out one day that I called on a poor man, who complained that he could not attend the word of God for want of apparel This drove me to pray again for my new suit of clothes, that I might give my old ones to him. A few days after 9 66 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, this I was desired to call at a gentleman's house near Lon- don. Indeed it had been impressed on my mind for six weeks before, that God would use that gentleman as an instrument to furnish me with my next suit. And so it fell out: for, when I called on him, upon leaving his house he went a little way with me ; and while we were on the road he said, " I think you want a suit of clothes." I answered, " Yes, Sir, I do ; and I know a poor man that would be very glad of this which I have on, if my master would furnish me with another." When we parted he desired me to call on him the next morning, which I accordingly did ; when he sent a tailor into the room, and generously told me to be measured for what clothes I chose, and a great coat also. When I got the new, I furnished the poor man with my old suit. This was the fourth suit of apparel that rny Master gave me in this providential manner, in answer to the prayer of faith. This God, who kept Israel's clothes from waxing old, though in constant use for forty years, gave me a new suit every year. I was soon afterwards brought into another strait. Hav- ing contracted a debt of five pounds for some necessaries which I wanted, I promised to pay it on a certain day ; and I put up many prayers that God would enable me to fulfil my promise. At last the day arrived, and I had not one farthing towards it. About ten o'clock the bell rung at my gate. Supposing it to be my creditor, I kneeled down, and begged of God not to let him come till he had sent me the money to pay him. It proved not to be the man I expected, but soon after the bell rung again, and I kneeled down again, and prayed with the same words ; and was informed a stranger wanted to see me. He had much to say to me about the things of God ; and when he left me he gave me two guineas. Soon after this I went to work in my garden, and another person, who lived at a great distance, came to AND THE BANK OP FAITH. 67 speak with me, and gave me another guinea. After that I took a walk in the fields, and met with two gentlemen who feared God, and \vho came from London on purpose to see me. They gave me two guineas. The next day my cred- itor came, and his money was ready for him. This is like the Lord's dealings with the poor widow by Elisha; when the .creditor came to take the mother and son for bond-ser- vants, God sent the creditor all his demands in a pot of oil. I have omitted one providence which has just occurred to my mind, and which happened at the time I carried coals for my bread. It fell out one night that we were forc- ed to put our little ones to bed without a supper, which grieved me much, and on which account I got but little sleep all night; for I lay and wept bitterly all night under my hard fate. While I was weeping and praying a person came to the window and told me there was a load of wooden hoops come to the wharf from Dorking, in Surrey, and that I must get up and unload them, which I soon did. When I had done, the farmer told me he had brought me a little meat pie and a flagon of cider, of which he had heard me say I was very fond. As soon as he was gone I went home, and endeavored to awake my young ones, but in vain ; how- ever, I set them up on the bolster, and they began to eat before they were fully awake. Thus God sent food from a very remote place, in answer to the groaning petition of my burdened heart. God grant that, if my reader be a poor Christian, he may take encouragement from these accounts to pray and watch the hand of God in every time of trouble ; until he sees, agreeable to the promise, that God causes all his goodness tp pass before him. Oh, how sweet is the least mercy when fitly timed, and brought forth so seasonably ! how it endears God to the soul ! When the poor widow of Zarepta was gathering two sticks to bake the last cake for 68 GOD THE GUARDIAN OP THE POOR, her and her son, that they might eat once more before they died, then comes the man of God, and swears that the bar- rel of meal shall not fail till God send rain upon the earth. 1 Kings, xvii. 14. At this time I had many doors opened to me for preach- ing the gospel, very wide apart. I preached at Margaret street, in London; at Richmond, at Ditton, at Cobham, at Wooking, at Worplesdon, and at Farnham, in Surrey. This I found too much for my strength. However, I continued for a considerable time, till at last I was generally laid up sick about once a month. I found I had great need of a horse ; but feared I should not be able to keep it, if I had one. However, it happened that I had a very severe week's work to do ; I was to go to Wooking and preach on the Lord's day morning, to Worplesdon in the afternoon, and from thence to Farnham in the evening ; to preach at Pet- worth, in Sussex, on the Monday, at Horsham on the Tues- day, at Margaret street chapel on the Wednesday, and at Ditton on the Thursday evening; but before I could reach Ditton on the Wednesday I was so far spent, that I thought I must have lain down on the road ; yet with much diffi- culty I reached home ; and then I had to go to Lon- don. Finding myself wholly unable to perform all his labor, I went to prayer, and besought God to give me more strength, less work, or a horse. I used my prayers as gunners use their swivels; turning them every way as the various cases required. I then hired a horse to ride to town ; and, when I came there, went to put him up at Mr. Jackson's livery-stables, near the chapel, in Margaret street; but the ostler told me they had not room to take him in. I asked if his master was in the yard. He said, yes. I de- sired to see him ; and he told me he could not take the horse in. I was then going out of the yard, when he step- ped after me, and asked if I was the person that preached AND THE BANK OF FAITH. ()'. at Margaret street chapel. I told him I was. He burst into tears, saying he would send one of his own horses out and take mine in ; and in for mod me of his coining one night to hear me out of curiosity, because he had been informed that I had been a coal-heaver. He then told me that, under the first sermon, God showed him the insufficiency of his own wretched righteousness the carnality and hypocrisy of his religion the true state of his soul and the neces- sity of the spirit and grace of Christ Jesus the Lord to change his heart if ever he was saved ; and blessed God for sending me there. This was good news to me. He also said that some of my friends had been gathering money to buy me a horse, and that he gave something towards him. Directly after I found the horse was bought and paid for ; and one person gave me a guinea to buy a bridle, another gave me two whips, a third gave me some things necessary for the stable, another trusted me for a saddle and here was a full answer to my prayer. So I mounted my horse and rode home ; and he turned out as good an animal as ever was rode. I believe this horse was the gift of God, because he tells me in his word that all the beasts of the forest are his, and so are the cattle on a thousand hills. I have often thought that, if my horse could have spoken, he would have had more to say than Balaam's ass ; as he might have said, " I am an answer to my master's prayers I live by my master's faith, travel with mysteries, and suffer persecu- tion, but I do not know for what :" for many a stone has been thrown at him. On my road home, while meditating on the manifold bles- sings I had received from God, both in a way of grace and providence, how unworthy I was of them, and how unthank- ful I had been for them, I told God that I had more work for my faith now than heretofore ; for the horse would cost 10 70 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, half as much to keep him as my whole family. In answer to which this scripture came to my mind with power and comfort, " Dwell in the land and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed." This was a bank note put into the hand of my faith ; which, when I got poor, I pleaded before God ; and he answered it. So that I lived and cleared my way just as well when I had my horse to keep as I did before ; for I could not then get any thing either to eat, drink, wear, or use, without begging it of God. Sometimes I found much murmuring in my heart against being held in so tight a rein ; for which I was sure to suffer afterwards. So I found, by daily experience, that I could not add one cubit to God's stature, no, not even in the least thing ; therefore it was in vain for me to take thought for the rest. Having now had my horse for some time, and riding a great deal every week, I soon wore my breeches out, as they were not fit to ride in. I hope the reader will excuse my mentioning the word breeches, which I should have avoided, had not this passage of scripture obtruded into my rnind, just as I had resolved in my own thoughts not to mention this kind providence of God. " And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness ; from the loins even unto the thighs shall they reach. And they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons when they come into the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near un- to the altar to minister in the holy place ; that they bear not iniquity and die. It shall be a statute forever unto him and his seed after him." Exod. xxviii. 42, 43. By which, and three others, (namely, Ezek. xliv. 18; Lev. vi. 10; and Lev. xvi. 4,) I saw that it was no crime to mention the word breeches, nor the way in which God sent them to me ; Aaron and his sons being clothed entirely by Providence ; and as God himself condescended to give orders what they should AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 71 be made of, and how they should be cut. And I believe the same God ordered mine, as I trust it will appear in the following history. The scripture tells us to call no man master, for one is our master, even Christ. I therefore told my most bounti- ful and ever-adored Master what I wanted ; and he, who stripped Adam and Eve of their fig-leaved aprons, and made coats of skin and clothed them ; and who clothes the grass of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven ; must clothe us, or we shall soon go naked ; and so Israel found it, when God took away his wool and his flax, which he gave to cover their nakedness, and which they prepared for Baal ; for which iniquity was their skirts discovered, and their heels made bare. Jer. xiii. 22. I often made very free in my prayers with my invaluable Master for this favor ; but he still kept me so amazingly poor that I could not get them at any rate. At last I was determined to go to a friend of mine at Kingston, who is of that branch of business, to bespeak a pair; and to get him to trust me until my Master sent me money to pay him. I was that day going to London, fully determined to bespeak them as I rode through the town. However, when I passed the shop, I forgot it ; but when I came to London I called on Mr. Croucher, a shoemaker in Shepherd's Market, who told me a parcel was left there for me, but what it was he knew not. I opened it, and behold there was a pair of leather breeches with a note in them ! the substance of which was, to the best of my remembrance, as follows : " SIR, " I have sent you a pair of breeches, and hope they will fit. I beg your acceptance of them ; and, if they want any alteration, leave in a note what the alteration is, and I will call in a few days and alter them. I. S." 72 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, I tried them on, and they fitted as well as if I had been measured for them at which I was amazed, having never been measured by any leather breeches maker in London. I wrote an answer to the note to this effect : " SIR, " I received your present, and thank you for it. I was going to order a pair of leather breeches to be made, because I did not know till now that my Master had bespoke them of you. They fit very well, which fully convinces me, that the same God, who moved thy heart to give, guided thy hand to cut ; because he perfectly knows my size, having clothed me in a miraculous manner for near five years. When you are in trouble, Sir, I hope you will tell my Master of this, and what you have done for me, and he will repay you with honor." This is as near as I am able to relate it, and I added, " I cannot make out /. S. unless I put / for Israelite indeed, and S. for Sincerity ; because you did not " sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do." About that time twelve-month I got another pair of breeches in the same extraordinary manner, without my ev- er being measured for them. But perhaps my reader may blame me for this relation ; and think that, as the good man gave his alms entirely in secret, it ought not to be published to the world. To which I answer Our blessed Saviour, when he was on earth, spake his parables openly ; but when in private, he communicated to his disciples all the rich treasures of wisdom and knowledge that lay couched in them. Thus Christ gave his spiritual alms in secret ; yet he commanded them to proclaim the riches of his grace upon the house-tops. It is true, he charged his patients when he healed them not to tell any man what he had done ; AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 73 to show them that ho sought not the applause of man, but the honor of God, while he remained a bond-servant under the law, and in the state of humiliation ; yet, after his death, they were to proclaim the whole of it to all the world. And all that Christ healed by the disciples were allowed to pro- claim it; and sometimes were presented before the councils as witnesses of his power. And though our alms are to be in secret, and we are commanded to say we are unprofitable servants ; yet the Redeemer who graciously condescends to receive and accept the fruits of our faith, will proclaim them one day before all the offspring of Adam. "I was an hun- gered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; sick and in prison, and ye visited me." And being stript of all Arminianism, they said, " Lord, when saw we thee an hungered," &c. &,c. " Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these little ones, ye have done it unto me." These things plainly show us That our alms ought to be given in secret, and that the giver ought to be silent about it ; but the receiver ought not to be mute, but proclaim it to the honor of God, who opens the heart ; and to the praise of his brother, who has done well through grace. Thus Paul and John, in their epistles,commend many who abound- ed in the grace of liberality. As I was one frosty night going to Richmond to preach, when there was much snow on the ground, I met a poor cripple in a very deplorable condition. He solicited alms of me, and I refused him, because I had but one shilling in all the world, and did not choose to part with that ; however, I found myself greatly distressed because I did not give it to him, he appeared in such a miserable condition. I thought, perhaps, in such a severe night as that was, he 74 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, might perish for want of the necessaries of life. When I came to Richmond I told a friend of it, and said I thought him to be in a dreadful situation, because I was so much distressed about refusing to relieve him; declaring that if I met him again, I would give it to him, if I never had another shilling of my own. The next night, as I was go- ing to preach at a village adjacent, I met the same poor object, and had got the same shilling in my pocket, and no more. The poor creature passed me, but asked nothing of me ; however, I turned back and gave him the shilling. The poor man received it with great joy and thankfulness, and told me a deal of his sufferings, which fully convinced me he was in great want ; and this blessed passage of scrip- ture came to my mind : " He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth to the Lord ; and that which he hath given will he pay him again." Prov. xix. 17. I went that night and de- livered my discourse, and when I had done a woman took me aside into a room, and put three half-crown pieces into my hand, saying, " I was commanded to give you that." I asked her "By whom?" She replied, "By a gentle- man ; but you are not to know his name." Thus I received my shilling again, with very considerable interest ; and thus also the fulfilment of the word took place. " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to penury." Prov. xi. 24. One providence I had almost forgot. We were at that time very badly off for beds and bedding ; my children were no better provided than the Saviour when he laid in a manger, for they slept upon bags of hay ; but prayer at a long run brought in these things also. Some of my most intimate acquaintances knew how I was tried in this respect, though I never made it known to any body who was capable of helping me out of my trouble. But one night, after I AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 75 had done preaching at Richmond, a person invited me home to his house, and showed me a large bundle tied up, saying it was for me. I asked who the donor was; he replied, " You are not to know that." I carried it home, when lo, it proved to be bedding, and the very thing I stood so much in need of! Thus the blessed Saviour fulfils his gracious promise which he made to his servants, " Whatsoever ye ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glo- rified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." John xiv. 13, 14. Some time after this I took gospel courage, and asked my Master to give me a new bed ; and importuned his ever- blessed and most excellent Majesty until I got it. Perceiv- ing that the Lord approved of a bold, though not of a presumptuous beggar, agreeable to his word, " Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace," &c., I boldly asked him the favor, and persevered in it, until I was one day informed by a ifriend that four or five pious people were coming on such a day from London to visit me. Then my faith told me I should soon have the bed. Accordingly they came, and we had some comfortable conversation together. To- wards evening they departed, giving me four guineas. O ! what Christian in his right mind would murmur and com- plain at his poverty, when, with a watchful eye, he sees such liberal supplies poured forth from the inexhaustible stores of Providence! Thus God, who provided a comfor- table lodging for Elisha the prophet, provided me " a bed, a table, a stool, and a candlestick." 2 Kings, iv. 10. I was determined to keep this money for a bed ; and therefore went to a good man in London, and bespoke one ; which he very soon sent me, with a rug also, and a pair of very good blankets. Soon after I called to pay him for it ; when he told me to pay his clerk, who gave me a receipt 76 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, for the same ; but afterwards the gentleman went a little way with me, and at his departure gave me all the money back again. How sweet are temporal mercies, when received by those who are under the influence of grace ! when they are seen to come from a covenant God and Father, in answer to the simple prayer of faith ! Surely he that " will observe these things, even he shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." Psalm cvii. 43. The promises of God pleaded in humble prayer, and promised mercies received in answer thereto, always come so as to make a divine impression, being sweetened with love to us; for every such mercy is " sactified by the word of God and prayer." But to the unbelieving and prayerless there is nothing clean, though there be ever so much stock in hand. "A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the treas- ures of many wicked." Psalm xxxvi. 16. I have sometimes been proud and vain enough to think that my habitation and temporal mercies, which my God has sent me, attended with the blessed influences of com- forting grace, have been as much consecrated to me as any cathedral church or church-yard in Europe, which had even the consecration of a bishop to make it sacred : being per- suaded that it is the presence of God, and that only, which consecrates a house of prayer ; that it is God's blessing the habitation of the just with his presence that makes their tents holy ; and that on whatever spot God is pleased to visit a soul with his powerful and free salvation, and to man- ifest himself a sin-pardoning God, through Christ, by his most Holy Spirit, such spots of ground, and such only, can with propriety be called holy ground. And 1 believe it would puzzle even the learned themselves to show any other consecration than this that is good for any thing. As for the consecration of church-yards, which some are AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 77 so fond of laying their bodies in, I have no desire after them, as I believe all the corpses that lie there were sown in weakness, sown in dishonor, and sown in corruption ; and living consecration doth not dwell with dead men's bones and all uncleanness, but with living souls, who are consecrated kings, priests, and Nazarites, to God for ever- more. I hope my reader will excuse my running so far out of the way after consecration ; but indeed I am not the first man that mock consecration has led astray : however, I should not have meddled with it had it not intruded itself into my thoughts ; wherefore, rather than displease my reader, I will resume my subject. Another year having rolled over my head, I began to look about for my livery ; for I always took care to let my most propitious Master know when my year was out. And indeed I wanted it bad enough, for riding on horseback soiled my clothes much more than walking did. However, my Lord exercised my faith and patience for six weeks together about this livery ; and I looked all manner of ways for it ; but every door seemed shut up ; and I could not see from what quarter it was to come. (You know, reader, we are all very fond of running before God ; but he takes his own pace.) At length I was informed by Mr. Byrch- more that a gentleman in Wells street wanted to see me. Accordingly I went ; and was admitted into the parlor to the gentleman and his spouse. He wept, and begged I would not be angry at what he was going to relate ; which was, that he had for some time desired to make me a pres- ent of a suit of clothes, but was afraid that I should be offended at his offer, and refuse it. " Ah ! " says Envy, "there need be no fear of that, for Methodist parsons are all for what they can get." It is true ; for we are com- 78 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, manded to " covet earnestly the best things ; " and so we do, and expect a double reward of the Lord one in this world, the other in the next. And this is no more than our Master has promised to give us ; for we are to " receive an hundred fold in this world, and in the world to come, life everlasting." I told the good man that I had been for some time expecting a suit of clothes, but knew not how to procure them. They both wept for joy upon my accepting them, and I wept for joy that they gave them so freely. As they had been fearful that I should be offended at their offer, anc^not receive them ; so I had been much exercised in my mind, lest my Master would not give them to me, as he usually had done. However, our minds were now eased of our fears, on both sides, and I was clothed ; and it was the best suit that I ever had. This is the fifth livery that my trembling hand of faith put on my back, and every one came from a different quarter. The name of the good man who gave me this suit is Randall, in Wells street, Oxford market. I mention his name to show that I cannot keep such secrets, because he strictly charged me not to let it be known. However, I have imitated the disciples of old in this, for it is said of them that "the more Christ charged them to keep silence, the more they spread it abroad." And indeed it must be so, or else the Lord would be deprived of the honor that is due to his holy name. Though by the Saviour's charge it plainly appeared that he sought not the applause of men, yet it is the indispensable duty of every Christian to applaud the Saviour. With my reader's permission, I will show my opinion why he charged them to keep his miracles concealed. I believe one reason was, because those whom he healed were in general very igno- rant of his deity ; yea, and even his disciples themselves, at that time, had but very gross, low, and shallow thoughts AND THE BANK OF FAI and views of his being the omnipotent 'and "self-existent Jehovah. We often hear them calling him by the name of his manhood only : as when he rebuked the waves of the sea, they said, " What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him ? " And as two of them were going to Emmaus, and the Saviour drew near to them, asking them the reason of their being sad, they said, "Art thou a stranger in Jerusalem, and knowest not these things?" When he said, " What things? " they replied, " concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man mighty in words and deeds before God and all the people," &/c. mentioning his manhood only. And Martha too, at her brother's grave, had her gross thoughts lifted up no higher, when she said, " But even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee." The Saviour's answer was, " I am the resur- rection and the life ; he that believeth in me, (mark, in me) though he were dead, yet shall he live ; and he that liveth and believeth shall never die. Dost thou believe this ? " " Thou believest that I am prevalent with God in prayer, and that God will give me what I ask of him. If thy faith, Martha, centres in me, as one who is only prevalent with God in prayer, thou makest me no more than Noah, Daniel, and Job were. But dost thou believe that I am the resur- rection itself, and that eternal life which lives in all the just, and which all the just live in? Dost thou believe this?" It is to be observed that, if any came to our Lord Jesus Christ with their carnal thoughts hovering altogether about his manhood, they generally met with a sharp reproof. " Good master, what good thing shall I do?" said one. " Why callest thou me good ? " said the Saviour ; " there is none good but one, that is God." But, if any approached him as the Omnipotent Jehovah, the real object of faith and 80 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, worship, they were sure to meet with his approbation. Thus the tenth leper who was healed, worshipped him as the real object of faith ; and his faith was approved, and peace added to it. " Go thy way," said Christ, " thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace." And when Thomas cried out, " My Lord and my God ! " " Ay, Thomas," said the Saviour, " ay." And again, " You called me Lord and Master ; and ye say well, for so I am." Thus it appears that our dear Lord often lifted their thoughts up to his godhead, when (like the birds upon Abraham's sacri- fice) they were settling upon his flesh and blood only, as the Arians in our days do ; just like a shoal of eagles, always working upon the carcass, but cannot see the altar that sanctified the sacrifice. Job's eagle did not so ; she mounted up when God commanded her, and made her nest on high. She dwelt and abode upon the rock, not upon the sand ; yea, she sat upon the crag of the Rock, even the arm of Omnipotence, that strong place, from thenc'e she sought the prey ; that is, she fed upon Christ crucified by faith. And her eyes beheld afar off; that is, in hope she looked at Christ glorified, now in the highest heavens ; and there she saw the king in his beauty, in that land which is very far off. Isa. xxxiii. 17. " Her young ones also suck up blood; " they live by faith on the atonement ; " and where the slain are, there is she ; " agreeable to the Saviour's comment on these words, " Where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." Matt. xxiv. 28. Job xxxix. 27 30. But to return to my subject. I had an invitation to go and preach at Horsham, in Sussex, one Monday evening. On the preceding Lord's day I preached at Wooking, in Surrey, and had to ride from thence to Horsham on the Monday. Then I set out to go across the country : (it was AND THE BANK OP FAITH. 81 in the winter season ;) and just as I had got out of Guild- ford town it began to rain, and continued in a violent man- ner all the time I was on the road. It so happened that I had but one shilling in my pocket, which would only pro- cure a feed of corn for my horse, and pay the turnpikes. My surtout, which was a very thin Bath coat, was of very little use, being almost worn out ; wherefore I was much exposed to this violent storm of rain ; and I think I never had been so wet before. I was obliged to strip, and even to have my shirt washed before I could preach. I then secretly wished for a large horseman's coat, being obliged to ride in all weathers : but, as I had been begging so many things of my most indulgent Master, I thought by my con- tinual coming I should weary him ; not considering that God commands us to open our mouths wide that he may fill them ; which I believe means that our desires should be as extensive at a throne of grace as God's pregnant prom- ises, which he made us in the dear Son of his love. Christ is the heir of all things, and the Christian is an heir of promise ; therefore he has a right to ask for those things that will defray his expenses through this world with that honor which becomes a saint, and not a miser. My mock-modesty would not allow me to ask God for a great coat ; though I earnestly desired it, and murmured at God's providence because I was kept so poor that I could not purchase one. However, it was not in the power of my unbelief, nor yet in the power of my sinful murmuring, to close the bountiful hand of my Maker ; for, when I came to London on the Wednesday following, and had preached at Margaret Street Chapel in the evening, a person approached me just as I came out of the chapel, saying, " I want to speak to you ; " which was to inform me that he intended, with the assistance of some more friends, to make 11 82 GOD THE GUARDIAN OPTHE POOR, me a present of a horseman's coat; wherefore he desired me to be measured for it ; accordingly I was, and that gen- tleman with a few others honorably paid for it. Surely to deny the overruling providence of God is to deny the whole journal of the children of Israel, and all the wondrous works of God which daily appeared on the?r behalf for forty years together. But there are some who consider not " the oper- ation of God's hands ; therefore he shall destroy them, and not build them up." Psalms xxviii. 5. Thus my mock-modesty and unbelief could not make the promise of God of none effect ; and God forbid it ever 'should. Zechariah desired a sign when the angel told him that his prayer was heard, and a son was, to be given : and God gave him an awful sign, but his unbelief did not hinder the birth of John. After receiving this gift from God this scripture came sweet to my soul. " I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound : every where, and in in all things, I am instructed, both to be full and to be hun- gry, both to abound and to suffer need." Phil. iv. 12. And indeed I found by all these trials that I also was instructed ; for I learned one blessed doctrine by this providence ; which I never saw clearly before ; namely, the power of internal or mental prayer ascending so prevalently to God, .under the influences of the Spirit, even when the understanding and the lips were both unfruitful. And the application of the following texts gave me sweet views of it : " Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble ; thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear." Psalm x. 17. " Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desire of thine heart." " Commit thy ways unto the Lord ; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass." Psalm xxxvii. 4, 5. These scriptures led me to consider, and apply with comfort to my own soul, the many precious AND THE BANK OF FA1TU. 83 promises which God has made in Christ Jesus to the spiritual anxiety of a renewed soul at the throne of grace, even when the sound of the voice, the sound of the organ, and that confused gabbling of monkish mimicry, called chanting of prayers, are left quite out of the promise; as will appear in the following passages, which I beseech my reader to con- sider. "The desire of the righteous shall be granted." Prov. x. 24. " For he satisfieth the longing soul, and fill- eth the hungry soul with goodness." Psal. cvii. 9. " For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord ; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." " For he looked down from the height of his sanctuary ; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth, to hear the groaning of the prisoner; (mark that, to hear the groaning of the prisoner,) to loose those that are appointed to death." Psal. cii. 19, 20. Thus the Holy Ghost makes " intercession for the saints according to the will of God ; and God, who searcheth the heart, knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit." Rom. viii. 27. Hence observe, reader, that the promise is made to a spiritual hunger a spiritual thirst an holy longing a deep heart-felt sigh an earnest desire and groaning from a burdened mind. All these are petitions put up by the blessed Spirit of supplication alone, (without the use of the lips,) who " maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." These were the prayers which our blessed Saviour put up at Lazarus's grave, " when he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled." " Jesus therefore again groaned" in spirit. John xi. 33, 33. Again, " And Jesus looking up to heaven, sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha ; that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain." Mark vii. 34, 35. Thus it appears that 84 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, agonies, tears, groans, and sighs, were chiefly the all-pre- vailing petitions put up by our dear Redeemer when in a state of humiliation. Christian, learn thou of him who is meek and lowly in heart, and thou shalt find rest for thy soul. It is not an eloquent voice, elegant speech, lofty compli- ments, swelling words, much speaking, long prayers, nor yet the numberless repetitions of " We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord," that shall ever prevail with God : it is " not every one that saith, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the king- dom." The foolish virgins were too late with, Lord, Lord. God will accept of no sacrifice but that which* comes in the hallowed flame of his own kindling, and perfumed with the sweet-smelling savor of that blessed, ever-availing, and ever- living sacrifice of his dear Son. The prayers of that man who calls himself a Christian, or a follower of the Saviour, but is an utter stranger to mental prayer, have never yet reached the ears of God : for God is a spirit, and will ac- cept of nothing short of spiritual prayer. It was the groan- ings of the children of Israel that went up before God, and brought him down to deliver them, as declared by God him- self to Moses at Horeb. Exo. ii. 24. Let this encourage thee, reader, if thou art one who cannot find words to ex- press thyself at the throne of Grace. If thou canst pour out thy soul before the Lord, show him thy trouble, and leave thy burden with him these are precious prayers; and, if thou comest from thy knees with thy mind eased, thy faith strengthened, thy hope encouraged, thy bowels refreshed, and with confidence that God hath heard thy prayer for his dear Son's sake, oh ! these are sweet answers from God. Be thankful, and pray on. Such was the answer that Han- nah got when she went from Shiloh with her countenance no more sad. During the space of three years I secretly wished in my AND THE BANK OP FAITH. 85 soul that God would favor me with a chapel of my own, be- ing sick of the errors that were perpetually broached by some one or other in Margaret street chapel, where I then preached. But, though I so much desired this, yet I could not ask God for such a favor, thinking it was not to be brought about by one so very mean, low, and poor, as my- self. However, God sent a person, unknown to me, to look at a certain spot, who afterward took me to look at it ; but I trembled at the very thought of such an immense undertak- ing. Then God stirred up a wise man to offer to build a chapel, and to manage the whole work without fee or re- ward. God drew the pattern on his imagination while he was hearing me preach a sermon. I then took the ground ; this person executed the plan ; and the chapel sprung up like a mushroom. As soon as it was finished this precious scripture came sweet to my soul, " He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him." Psal. cxlv. 19. Thus the chapel appeared as an answer to the earnest desire which God had kindled in my heart ; and which he intended to fulfil in his own good time, to the honor of his own great name, the good of many souls, and to the encouragement of my poor, weak, tottering faith. It is confessed in the church of England service, that " all holy desires, all good counsels, and just works, proceed from God ; " and I believe they do. Another kind providence I experienced while I resided at Thames Ditton. My surtout coat had got very thin and bad, and the weather at that time was very cold. It hap- pened that I was invited to preach at a little place near Lon- don. As I went thither I felt the cold very severely ; and as soon as I had delivered my discourse, I desired a young man to fetch my old great coat in order to put it on before I went out of the warm meeting-house. When he came back, lo, he brought me a new one ! I told him that was not 12 86 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, mine. lie said it was. And though I insisted upon it that it was not, he persisted in saying it was. So I put it on, and it fitted me very well. In one of the pockets there was a letter, which informed me that my blessed Lord and Mas- ter had sent it to me to wrap my poor worthless carcass in during that very severe winter. Oh the tender care of our most gracious Lord and Master ! Solomon says, " The favor of a king is as a cloud of the latter rain." I think he must mean the cloud of God's divine favor ; which blotted out our transgressions as a cloud, and appears as a cloud by day to screen us from the storm of wrath : and, if my reader watches the bountiful hand of God, he will see this blessed cloud daily discharging itself in the genial showers of grace and providence ; as it is written, " And I will make them, and the places round about my hill, a blessing ; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season ; there shall be showers of blessings." Ezek. xxxiv. 26. They have a common saying in the Wild of Kent when the daughter of an old farmer is married. If it be inquired what portion the old man gave, the answer is, " He gave not much money ; but the old people are always sending them something there is always something sent from a' farm-house." Then the observation usually is, " Ay, hers is a hand-basket portion, which is generally the best ; for there is no end to that." Even so our everlasting Father gives to his poor children a hand-basket portion a basket being that which we generally fetch our daily provisions in : and God sometimes puts his blessing even in the basket, and then it seldom comes tyome empty : as it is written, " Bless- ed shall be thy basket." Deut. xxviii. 5. Our blessed Saviour eyed this promise on the mount. When he was going to feed five thousand men. besides women and chil- dren, with five barley loaves and two small fishes, it is said, he AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 87 looked up to heaven, and blessed and brake, &c. And that blessing was enough; for they were all filled, and there were twelve, baskets full of fragments. Thus the blessing appeared in the basket ; and that made the Saviour so fond of the fragments as to give this strict charge to his disciples, " Let nothing be lost." Thus, too, the proverb of the hand- basket portion appears true ; and our blessed Saviour him- self lived on it while he dwelt below; yea, the whole Levit- ical tribe lived on the hand-basket portion : for the shew- bread, that was set hot before God on the golden table, was brought in a basket. * So that God himself has highly hon- ored the basket. I am firmly of opinion that the hand-basket portion is the best, both for. soul and body ; because it keeps us to prayer, exercises our faith, engages our watchfulness, and excites to gratitude. It does not appear that the prodigal sen added much to his fortune when he desired the portion of goods that fell to him; that is, he desired to be an Arminian, to have an independent stock of his own, and to be left to im- prove it by himself; wherefore he did not choose to live near his father, lest he should interfere ; but went into a far country, that his father might see how he flourished in the world when once he became independent. But self-will, free-agency, self-sufficiency, and independency of God, sel- dom gain much by trading ; for we all know that this inde- pendent merchant would have been starved and damned too, if free-grace had not undertook to feed him, and to save him. Poor soul ! I warrant you he flourished away at first, but he soon brought himself down upon a level with the swine. Free-agency, with her boasted dignity, made but a poor figure while she sat banqueting at the hog-trough ! And one would .imagine that, if any thing would have excluded boasting, this certainly would. He could not boast of the 88 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, entertainment, because it was nothing but husks ; nor could he boast much of company, they being only swine. I be- lieve the prodigal left all boasting behind when he forsook the pig's pound. If my reader, therefore, is an unbeliever, and has got a stock in hand, he may murmur against his portion, and view it as a snare or trap. Indeed it is a trap to many who set their hearts upon it. This was the case with Israel Their table "became a trap, a stumbling- block, and a recompense unto them ; yea, that which should have been for their welfare became a trap." But, if my reader be a believer in a dear Redeemer, his stock is a blessing while he is thankful to God for it, and does not place his affections on it : and, if he is liberal of the stock God has given him, his liberality daily sanctifies it " Give alms," says the Saviour, " of such things as ye have, and behold all things are clean unto you." Paul declares that the lively faith of a believing husband would sanctify an unbelieving wife, and make her a temporal blessing. The first sheaf under the law, being given to God, sanctified the harvest; therefore I refer my reader, if he be one that has a stock in hand, to God's promised blessing, " Blessed shall be thy store." Deut. xxviii. 5. I once preached on the Lord's day at Wooking, in Sur- rey ; and the week before that time I and my family had been sorely tried for want of the common necessaries of life. I was very fond of feeding my little ones when I had where- withal to feed them, because I knew how much I had suf- fered when young through my parents' poverty. That week the little ones had lived chiefly on bread, which grieved me much, as the appetite of young growing children is so crav- ing after food. When I used to shut the cupboard door, and give them nothing but bread, my eldest daughter would look me in the face with much earnestness and solemnity, AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 89 and ask me this important question, " Is the boo all boppee daddy?" which gibberish, by interpretation, signified, "Is the butter all gone father?" She would at such times lean her head on one shoulder, look me full in the face, and lay a particular emphasis upon the particle //, which she would draw out with a very long tone. Then she would use some of her logic, and reason the point with me, asking me many strange questions ; which I partly understood, as they amounted chiefly to the inquiry when the butter would come, or whether there was any ground to hope for any : but at that time I could give her no promise as a ground for her hope, every door being apparently shut. We had nt that season but little fuel, though it was a very severe frost and the snow laid on the ground. As I was .re- turning from Wooking on the Monday morning, before I came to Cobham, (having left Wooking very early without breakfast,) I was exceedingly hungry and weary, and had but little to expect when I arrived at home ; for I knew I had nothing but bread, and perhaps not that. When I came on the common which is called Fair Mile, lying between Cobham and Esher, I fretted and wept bitterly at my hard fate, and yet trembled for fear of offending God by my complaining, as he had given me so full a persuasion of my eternal salva- tion through Christ. I often feared that he would hear my murmuring as he did the murmuring of Israel in the wilderness, when he answered them by terrible things ; namely, " He gave them meat for their lust, but sent lean- ness into their souls." And I thought, if God should take away#the happy enjoyment of his love from me, and lay me in a stock of temporal things instead thereof, I should have cause, like Job, to curse the day wherein the change was made ; therefore I often prayed against that, and the blessed Spirit greatly helped my infirmities in those prayers. 90 GOD THE GUARDIAN OP THE POOR, But when I got about half over the common, it came suddenly into my mind to go out of the horse road into a little narrow track, which leads over the hills, between the hand-post and the Bath-house. I could gain but very little ground by this, nor do I remember that I had ever gone that way before; but I soon found what this impression meant ; for there was to be a battle fought between a stoat, or weasel, and a large rabbit. The stoat, or weasel, was to fight the battle and to win the field, and I was to take the prey. So I took up my rabbit, and gladly carried him home ; and it proved as fine a one as I ever saw, being quite in season, in every sense of the word, for we had nothing but bread in the house. This occurrence happened before I received the horse. But I cannot recollect every circumstance so as to range it in its proper place, my memory being naturally bad. I liv- ed in this manner for seven or eight years together, and every day afforded some providence or trial. My dame about this time was pregnant, and not far from her lying-in. She gave me a large catalogue of the necessa- ries that she should want against that time. I told her I had no money, nor was there any signs of my having any, and we could not get them without. She went on in suspense this way, till she expected her time every day, and began at last to fret amazingly. I told her I thought that God tried her thus because she was remiss in the blessed privilege of pri- vate prayer. I also remarked to her that God would be in- quired of by us, that he might -do these things for us, and that if she did not pray for them, she was not like to- have them. I believe this drove my dame to prayer ; for soon after this there was a parcel sent from Lambeth, another from Kingston, another from Richmond, and a few things from some neighbors nearer home. I now asked the old AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 91 woman if she thought she had got enough. She replied, " Yes, and more than enough." God had exceeded all her desires, for she had feared that she should not get money to buy the stuff to make up her little things; and that if she did get it, it would have been so late that she should not have had time to make them. " But God," said she, " has sent them ready made." So Mary was very well pleased, and richly supplied. Thus the universal Provider of all in heaven and earth richly provides not only for them that are in the world, but for them also that are coming into it. This providence rather appeared strange to me, as I had not made known the case to any person, to the best of my knowledge; but God, who knew our straits, and heard and answered our prayers, did, by some means or other, inform some friends of our wants, and then touched their hearts with a spirit of sympathy and liberality. And I think for three or four births successively, the Almighty raised up one Dorcas here, and another there, to provide for my dame against her lying-in. Thus the ever-blessed God, who in- flicted the judgment of sorrow on women in bringing forth children, as a punishment to their sex for being first in the transgression, richly supplies their wants against the hour in which his own decreed and predicted sorrow comes on ; so likewise the just sentence denounced in his just displea- sure against the female sex, for their disobedience, only makes more work for sovereign mercy, in supplying their wants, supporting them in their troubles, and bringing them throft ' 1J7 ry ' ^ I asked her if she was sure the Lord was with her. She said, " Yes." I asked her how she came by the knowledge of God's comfortable presence. She told me she was a na- tive of Scotland, where she had often heard people speak of their comforts and peace, but used to envy them for it, and at other times thought they spoke nonsense ; but still she found a secret want of something, which she had long sought ; and she told me that she had never found that power until I preached the sermon from the text in Habbakuk " he had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power." " Under that discourse," said she, " the Spirit of power came to me. My husband is a stone-mason, and is gone to Ireland, to be the foreman of a very large building there, and I am in time to go after him, if God .spares my life ; but, as my good man has left me for a time, the Al- mighty has come in his room." She now gave me a very sweet account of the operations of the Holy Ghost, and of the precious liberty which he proclaimed by the revelation and application of Christ crucified to her understanding, mind, and conscience. These tidings made my bowels yearn, as I could call to my remembrance the soul-travail I had been exercised with on the day that the text was brought to my mind, and the blessed mystery that was opened to me in it; as also God's goodness in accompanying it with such power to her soul, and now to lay her on a sick bed, that she might send for me, to inform me that I had not preached nor travailed in vain. O ! the conversion of such souls is greater riches to me than all the treasures of Egypt ! God in mercy soon after raised her up again ; and she attended my ministry for about two years, appearing a most amiable Christian. She always sat with her head down, and heard me with all the attention imaginable ; and, when she had got her portion, like Hannah, she would set off without eith- 16 118 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, er looking or speaking to any body, as if she suspected ev- ery one that spoke to her to be a robber of her conscience. Indeed she was no bastard, she was my own daughter she loved a private religion, that lay between Christ crucified and her own conscience ; and I believe she kept her day- book very strictly. Her name is Stuart. I dearly loved her soul in the bowels of Christ, as I had begotten her, and had sorely travailed for her. She has now been in Baron's Court in Ireland for several years, a place where there is no gospel preached ; yet she corresponds with her pious friends at Richmond, still stands fast in the faith of Christ, and is shortly expected in Eng- land. May God land her and her spouse safe on the coast of our Israel, and at last on the shore of " that land which is very far off." The conversion of this woman seemed to me such a testi- mony from God, that it confirmed me more in my call to preach at Richmond than the testimony of all the divines in Britain would have done ; for, " if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." I hope never to de- spise the former but choose to stick close by the latter. This conversion appeared .still more conspicuous, as her head was well stocked with gospel notions ; for I have often found those, whose judgments were furnished with evangel- ical creeds, to be the forwardest to laugh at those who in- sisted on the force, the power, and happy enjoyment, of truth en the souls of God's elect. I shall now return to my subject, of leaving Ditton, and coming to settle in London. After having seen so much of the vision fulfilled, I began to watch for the developement of the words thick boughs. I knew thick boughs in Ezekiel's prophecy meant sinners, and the boughs of the palm-tree in the song of Solomon meant AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 119 saints ; therefore, if I could see my ministry well attended, either with sinners or saints, the whole vision would appear evidently to be from God ; for, if the Lord speaks, it is done ; and, if he commands, it comes to pass. After I had been some time in London, I found our chapel in Margaret street was open to every erroneous preacher. This stirred up the hearts of my hearers to look out for another place for me, and very soon a larger chapel was proposed to be built. This still appeared to pave the way more and more for the fulfilment of the words brought to my mind, " prophesy on the thick boughs." The chapel was soon erected ; and the good hand of our God was with us, in the work, to our comfort. But when it was opened, I saw the strong opposition it would meet with from every quarter. This at first rather surprised me ; but soon after these words returned on my mind, " prophesy on the thick boughs." I was enabled to rest on them, and gathered much comfort to my soul from the consideration of its being opposed ; for I have ever observed that when a work has appeared to be of God, it has generally met with the greatest opposition; and when a cause flourishes in the face of many opposers, it appears still plainer to be God's work. The fewer human props there are to support the ark, the clearer God's hand is perceived ; for then God appears to work, and none can let it, though they try at it. In this way God endears himself to the instrument he employs, weans the instrument from the creature, and secures all the glory to himself. I have often thought that if Martin Lu- ther, John Burtyan, or George Whitefield, had been alive in my days, they would rather have invited me, than shut me out of their pulpits. However, I believe I shall still prophesy on the thick boughs ; and according to my faith, so it will be unto me. I have found my very soul at times 120 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, melted down with gratitude at the goodness of God to so unworthy a creature as myself, when I have heard that sev- eral good people in London have asked great men, employed under God, to let me preach in their pulpits, as Margaret street chapel was too small for me ; but this favor could not be granted. I thought my case was similar to that of poor sore-eyed Leah, who said, " the Lord saw that I was despised, therefore he gave me this son also." And I have now reason to conclude with her, that God hath endowed me with a good dowry of spiritual children, though he saw that I was hated, and these spotted sheep shall be for my hire when they shall appear before the Lord ; so shall the righteousness which I have preached answer for me in that day when my ministry and the seals of it shall appear before God to witness for me. I will now inform my reader of the kind providence of my God at the time of building the chapel, which I named Providence Chapel ; and also mention a few free-will offer- ings which the people brought. The name that I gave to the chapel has offended many. However, since it was named, I have seen a place called Providence Court, and a chapel called Trinity Chapel, where- the Trinity is little known, I believe ; this was not the case at the naming of Providence Chapel. But to return. They first offered about eleven pounds, and laid it on the foundation at the beginning of the build- ing. A good gentleman, with whom I had but little ac- quaintance, and of whom I bought a load of timber, sent it me in with a bill and receipt in full, as a present to the Chapel of Providence. Another good man came with tears in his eyes, and blessed me, and desired to paint my pulpit, desk, &c., as a present to the chapel. Another per- son gave half a dozen chairs for the vestry ; and my friends AND THE BANK OF FAlTH. 121 Mr. and Mrs Lion furnished me with a tea-chest well stored. and a set of china. My good friends Mr. and Mrs. Smith furnished me with a very handsome bed, bedstead, and all its furniture and necessaries, that I might not be under the necessity of walking home in the cold winter nights. A daughter of mine in the faith, gave me a looking-glass for my chapel-study. Another friend gave me my pulpit-cush- ion, and a book-case for my study. Another gave me a book-case ,for the vestry. And my good friend Mr. E. seemed to level all his displeasure at the devil ; for he was in hopes I should be. enabled, through the gracious arm of the Lord, to cut Rahab in pieces ; therefore he furnished me with a sword of the spirit a new Bible, with morocco binding and silver clasps. Perhaps, too, he had his eyes fixed on the rams' horns and silver trumpets that sounded the destruction of Jericho, which some say typified two sorts of ministers the illiterate and the learned ; the illit- erate was represented by the rams' horns, and the learned by the silver trumpets; so according to this, our blessed Lord, who spake as never man spake, and all his apostles, are jumbled in among the rams' horns. But I think, as a ram's horn has a very rough unpleasing sound, it rather typified the legal ministry under the law, where so many rams are offered ; and the silver trumpets, having a more pleasing sound, held forth the evangelical ministry under the dispensation of the spirit ; which exceeds the old econ- omy in glory as much as the sound of a silver trumpet doep that of a ram's horn. The revelation of St. John holds forth every sound from the death of Christ to the general judgment, to be by seven trumpets, not horns. I think we may speak thus without offering any violence to the scrip- tures, and without nursing the pride or pedantry of a scholar. 122 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, A certain gentleman some time ago preached from Pha- raoh's vision of the seven fat and seven lean kine. The lean kine he made out to be poor, mean, illiterate people ; and as he had a great many rich, dressy hearers, he made out the fat kine and well-favored to hold forth the rich, honorable and learned of the earth ; though God says it is the rich that grind the face of the poor, and eat up his peo- ple as they would eat bread ; but I never read in all the Bible that the poor eat up the rich ; for I think every poor man in England will hold with me in this particular, that the rich are agreed to keep that person poor who is poor. But I shall return to my subject, and leave these men-pleas- ers to themselves ; as they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies ; and with fair speeches and feigned words make merchandise of souls. But I shall show that I have yet to speak on the behalf of Providence, which was so conspicuous in furnishing me with money necessary for building the chapel. I never went to one person to borrow money for the building who denied me. God so opened their hearts, that I was amazed at his providence and their kindness towards me. As for my friend Mr. Lloyd, by his cheap way of going to work, I believed he saved me two or three hundred pounds at least ; which I should not have desired him to have done had I been a man of property ; for I think it is the duty of every man, who is able, to encourage trade, it being the strength of a nation : and it appears to me that those who make it their business to shake that pillar are sure to pull down the house about their own ears. " Seek ye the peace of the city, for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace." Some time after these things, God seemed wholly to with- draw his conspicuous providential acts; and I began to lay aside my watchfulness and daily dependence on his bounties, AND THE BANK OP FAITH 123 as my stated income began to be tolerable. However, it is the safest and sweetest way to live from hand to mouth, as say those who speak in proverbs ; for it is impossible that men should be so grateful to God when they have a stock in hand as when they receive a daily supply from the never- failing stock in God's hand. After some little time I was forced to look to htm again for temporals as well as spirit- uals ; for as my income increased, my family increased also ; so that I was shortly brought into as great straits as ever : money began to run short, and clothes were want- ing. But God, who fainteth not, neither is weary, was pleased to appear in a way of providence again ; and after this manner showed he himself. I had been doing a little work in my flower garden, and finding that it wanted a few additional roots, I went to a garden at a little distance from my house to look over a few things. While I was walking about by myself among the flowers, a well-dressed motherly-looking woman stepped up to me, and supposing me to be the gardener, (for my appear- ance was more like a slave than a prelate,) she thus addres- sed me in a free and jocose manner : "Now Mr. Gardener, if you please, I want a root to put in my pot ; and it must be a root that will last." I looked up very seriously at the lady, and replied, " Well, I believe I can tell you where you may get such a root." At this answer she smilingly asked, "Where?" I answered, "In the book of Job; for he says ' The root of the matter is found in me.' Job xix. 28. And if you can get that root into your pot, both the root and the pot will last for ever." She then asked, " And pray have you got that root in you ? " I answered her, " I verily believe I have." Upon which she replied, " It is well with you, and it is very true what you have said." I then told her that I was not the gardener, but that 124 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, she would find him at the bottom of the garden, attend- ing some ladies and gentlemen. She dropped a courtesy, and departed with a smile. I thought by her pertinent re- ply, that she was not altogether ignorant of that wisdom which dwells with prudence, and finds out knowledge of witty inventions. Prov. viii. 12. And I secretly wished that the words which I had spoken might dwell on her mind until the root of gospel love struck an everlasting fibre in her heart. I believe the lady above mentioned inquired of the gar- dener who I was ; for soon after both she and her spouse came to hear me, and have continued so to do ever since. God grant that the word of his grace may take deep root in their hearts, that they may be " trees of righteousness, the right-hand planting of God, that he may be glorified." Some time after this there came a person to my house, and left a letter, the contents of which were as follow : " SIR, I wish you would be at home on such a day, if conve- nient ; as a person will call to measure you for a great coat, which you are desired to accept, and to ask no questions of the person who comes to measure you," &-c. I looked upon this letter as sent from some enemy to the gospel of Christ ; because it came soon after my Bank of Faith had made its appearance in the world ; and I daily heard of some professor or other ridiculing it, because I had therein taken notice of very insignificant things, at least in their opinion. However, had they been exercised with a hungry belly, as the prophet Elijah was, they would have been glad of a cake baked with two sticks, and have thanked God for commanding the widow woman to sustain him with that. 1 Kings, xvii. 9. The Holy Ghost though AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 125 this kind providence of God, which appeared in sending the prophet that cake, worthy of being recorded in divine rev- elation : if so, what kind of spirit must those professors be of, who deem the special and minute interference of Provi- dence worthy only of their public scorn and contempt? Such men are rebuked even by the brute creation ; for " the ox knovveth his owner, and the ass his master's crib," but the carnal professor knovveth not the God of his mercies ; and although he loves the crib, yet he doth not consider who it is that keeps his crib full. Some bought my book on purpose to laugh at it ; and then lent it to others for them to do the same, to whom God blessed it ; and who, instead of laughing at it, wept over it, and had their faith encouraged by it. Those gentlemen acted the part of the pharisees in the Saviour's days, who would not accept of his grace themselves, yet were made instrumental in bringing the poor adulterous woman to him. And, when such persons called on those to whom they lent my book, and learned how they approved of it, they (like the pharisees) sneaked away as soon as conscience had done her office. Wisdom's children will justify their ven- erable mother, and disdain to slight the breasts that have afforded them perpetual nourishment, or to accuse a poor preacher for endeavoring to encourage the faith of his pjoor brethren, by displaying the parental care, tender regard, and narrow inspection, of God in his universal providence. I know the word of God bears me out in it, and much far- ther than I have gone ; for I have taken no notice of the hairs of our head, which Christ says are all numbered, and not one shall ever be lost ; nay, he affirms that there shall not a hair of our head perish. Luke xxi. 18. But alas ! such men are not acquainted with the Spirit of God, nor with the word of God ; if they were, they would acknowl- 126 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, edge the tender mercies of God to be over all his works ; Psalm cxlv. 9 ; and his love, seen in executing judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and even to the stranger in giving him food and raiment. Deut. x. 18. Indeed it is not worth my while to take notice of such professors, or even to regard their reproaches ; for no per- son's heart can ever be right with God who laughs at his word or works ; nor can they fare any better for their con- tempt of the truth than the pharisees did, who came to accuse the poor woman even before Christ himself, whom heaven had appointed for her wonderful counsellor and ever-prevailing advocate. But to return to my subject. I was deceived in supposing that the letter was sent as a trap to keep me at home on such a day, that they might have to laugh at my vain expec- tation, as I conjectured; for it was sent by a friend; and the man came as was appointed to measure me for a great coat. I asked who sent him. He told me that was to be kept secret. But, as I suspected the letter to be a cheat sent by some enemy, I insisted on knowing who sent him. He then said that he was sent by a woman who once asked me for a root to put in her pot. I told him that I had got two very good great coats, but stood in need of a close- bodied one ; and, if the lady thought proper to make me a present of 'such, I should be obliged to her ; but that I had no need of a great coat. The man measured me, and brought me the coat home. I offered him a small present for his trouble; but he refused it, saying, that he had received orders not to take any thing. Christian reader, give God the glory for his wonderful works, and let not fortune and luck rob him of his honor. " Jesus we know, but who are they?" Some have objected to my book, saying, that asking for AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 127 carnal things shows a carnal heart. It is true, that, if a man follows Christ for loaves and fishes, it certainly does. But for a believer in Christ and a laborer in the vineyard to ask his heavenly Father to bless the work of his hands and to send him food and raiment, shows just as much carnality as the Saviour's looking up to heaven for a blessing to multiply the barley loaves to feed his hungry followers, when he said, " I have compassion on the multitude ; I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint by the way." Mark viii. 23. The man that robs God of his glory, and makes a god of his money, shows more carnality than he does who prays for neither poverty nor riches, but to be fed with food con- venient for him, lest he be full and deny God (by giving glory to his own wisdom or good luck;) or lest he be poor, and steal, and take God's name in vain, (to escape the whip or the pillory.) Prov. xxx. 8, 9. I found at times a great desire to read some old com- mentators, in order to see how my judgment agreed with theirs in some particular texts of scripture. And, when I have heard of a book being published, I have found a great desire to have it, if I thought the author was sound. This bookish fit, coming often upon me, drained my pocket of now and then a guinea, which I wanted more ways than one. In short, I found buying of books to be like Solo- mon's account of compiling them, "In making many books there is no end ;" nor is there any end in buying of them, except you have plenty of money to go to market with. However, the Almighty condescended to stop the rapid spreading of this disease by a singular circumstance. I received the following note from an unknown friend : " MR. ANTI-ARMINIUS'S free-grace love to Mr. Hunting- ton, begs his acceptance of a dish of dead men's brains ; 128 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, he believes most of them are of the evangelical family ; they will be with him in a day or two: he is desired to ask no questions of the bearers. " Dead-man's Place," &c. What these dead men's brains were I could not conjec- ture ; but suspected something to be sent by way of con- tempt, as the doctrines which God hath taught me are point blank against arminianism. ^Howbeit, in a day or two the dead men's brains arrived in a very large packing-case, brought by two chairmen ; which I at first refused to take in, suspecting an arminian cheat ; however, I opened the skull, examined the brains, and found them to be three or four hundred volumes of divinity, geography, history, &c. A few days afterwards he was pleased to send me another dish of brains, or a second course ; which he informed me, by note, consisted of some good and some bad. And so I found them, for, among others, were the tracts of the irrev- erent Dr. Priestley, clothed in a suit of red morocco, embroidered with gold. I had not read much of him before his priestly craft greatly disgusted me. I stripped him out of his coat of many colors, and served it as I think Christ will serve the author ; that is, I cut it asunder, and appointed it a portion in the fire, as the Lord will do with all hypo- crites and unbelievers. I confess I was much displeased to find some precious old authors, who were administering comfort to the people of God, with nothing but a sheep's skin jacket about them ; while the doctor, that sworn enemy to the God of armies, (busy in undermining and destroying that comfort,) was strutting about with an embroidered uniform ! " Ah, doctor !" thought I, " I will put this scar- let suit on one of these old warriors who have been good soldiers of Jesus Christ; they shall .walk in embroidery, AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 129 for they are worthy." There were a few more sly hypo- crites crept in among them, to whom I gave house-room until I found them out, when I sent them bag and baggage after the doctor. This present of books served to quench my bookish thirst for the time being ; for they will take me two or three years to read over, sort out, and vamp up ; and then perhaps the fit may take me again. Who the friend was that sent them to me I know not, nor do I believe he intends I ever shall. Some time after I received these dead men's brains, God was pleased to lay his afflicting hand upon my body, and to bring me very low ; so that, as it were, he laid me aside for a month. To this I very reluctantly submitted, being very poor in pocket. My wife and eldest daughter were also taken ill at the same time. However, the morrow took thought for the things of itself; for in a day or two a person brought me a guinea, another two guineas ; and a few days after a lady sent me six : so that God paid me my wages while I lay useless, the same as if I had been bearing the burden of the day. I learned one blessed lesson in this affliction, agreeable to that holy text which affirms that " all things work together for good to them that love god, and are the called according to his purpose." For during my illness I was several nights insensible, while the fever was at its height : and, during the time that I was in a state of insensibility as to every thing around me, I discerned a most glorious ray of divine light, which shone conspicuously on the covenant of grace agreed on in the ancient council and settlements of the Trinity, sweetly executed of the stability of it to poor penitent sin- ners : and, to be plain, I had no doubt of my own interest in it. This taught me a lesson which I had long wished to learn, having often thought with myself, " Suppose I should 17 130 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, die delirious in a high fever, or go out of the world without the use of my rational faculties, how would it be then '? " I now clearly saw, by this glorious display of divine light, during my state of insensibility, that the holy and blessed Spirit of God can, and I believe often does, operate as the candle of the Lord, as the Spirit of love and of power, and make his glory appear fresh in us, even if we are delir- ious ; as saith the Psalmist, " My heart and my flesh fail ; but the Lord is the strength of rny heart, and my portion for ever." In which words I presume something more is meant than simply heart and flesh in a natural sense ; for neither heart nor flesh can support a soul in a trying or dying hour. The sweet and bright views which I had during my illness grew fainter as I recovered, though there still appeared a glimmering ray of it at a distance ; yet I could riot collect my views so as to form them into a sermon. But it afforded me great satisfaction to think of the condescension of God, who has promised to make our bed in our sickness ; and that, as our days are, so shall our strength be. For my part, I comfortably believed that a soul, once effectually enlightened by the Holy Ghost, shall never totally lose sight of the covenant again ; as appears by the prophets, who even in their darkest seasons spoke the most glorious truths. O ! happy and blessed is that soul upon whom the Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in his beams; such shall find the Lor^ to be their everlasting light, and their sun shall no more go down. I once had a most glorious view of a passage in the book of Daniel during a fit of sickness which I had at Thames- Ditton. The text that occurred to my mind was this ; " I saw in the night visions ; and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the An- AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 131 cient of Days, and they brought him near before him." Dan. vii. 13. This text rolled over my mind perpetually during a great part of m'y illness, bringing great light and comfort with it ; and led me to see the clear and concise views that the old testament saints had of the blessed Sa- viour. One of them saw conspicuously his ancient under- taking in the eternal council of the Trinity; and his goings forth from of old, yea, from everlasting. Mic. v. 2. An- other had clear views of his coming to assume human nature. " Burnt-offerings, and offerings for sin, thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me." Another saw his birth, and says, " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." Another saw Herod, that wretched blood- hound, grinning like a dog, pursuing or chasing the " hind of the morning." Another represents Rachael as weeping in Ramah over her slaughtered grand-children ; the offspring of her Benoni, the son of her sorrow. Another saw Joseph and Mary bring the young child out of Egypt, and says, " Out of Egypt have I called my son." Another saw him sitting among the doctors, and mentions the first text that he publicly handled, " The Spirit of God is upon me," &c. Another saw his harbinger John preparing his way before him, and making ready a people prepared for the Lord. Another saw him tempted in the wilderness, &c., and at last placed on the ^nnacle of the temple ; and says, " He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Another saw him in the ministry, spreading his glorious light and truth ; and says, " The land of Naphtali, &c., the people that walked in darkness have seen a great light ; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath {he light shined." Zachariah saw Judas selling his master; and tells the rabbis who bought his 132 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, blood to cast the thirty pieces of silver to the potter. Da- vid saw the band of soldiers apprehending him in the garden, and going back and falling to the ground, when Jesus said, " Whom seek ye 1 " and says, " When they came to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell." Isaiah saw him nailed to the cross " as a nail fastened in a sure place," that every vessel of mercy, even from the cups to the flagons, might hang all their hopes on him with safety. And all the glory of their salvation must hang there too. Isa. xxii. 23 25. David beholds this, and says, "They have pierced my hands and my feet; I may tell all my bones; they stare and look upon me." Psalm xxii. 16, 17. David hears his confession and complaint, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Psalm xxii. 1. And expresses the cruel insults of his murderers, which were afterwards repeated, " He trusted in God that he would deliver him ; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him." He saw them giving him gall for his meat, and vinegar for his drink ; parting his garments among them, and casting lots upon his vesture ; and after that yielding up his spirit to God, and sinking into the shades of death. Isaiah saw his resurrection, and says, (speaking by his spirit,) "With my dead body shall they arise." Hosea saw him vanquishing death ; " O Death, I will be thy plague ! O Grave, I will be thy destruction ! Rlpentance shall be hid from mine eyes." David saw him ascend, after he had captured the devil, sin, death, and the world ; saying, " He hath ascended on high, he hath led captivity captive, and received gifts from men, yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them." David also saw him enter the royal pavilions of heaven, when he says, " Lift up your heads, ye gates; and be lifted up, ye ever- lasting doors ; and the King of Glory shall enter in." This AND THE BANK OP FAITH. 133 was prefigured when the ark was brought into the taberna- cle in Zion ; and realized when the anti-typical Ark ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on high, as " a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which God pitched, and not man." Heb. viii. 2, David likewise hears the heavenly anthems sung ; " Who is the King of Glory ? The Lord of Hosts; mighty in battle." He then reflects on his own blessed hope, saying, " I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." Psalm xvii. 15. Daniel's faith takes him up where David left him ; namely, just as he ascended ; and saw the son of man come with the clouds of heaven. By which may be meant, first, the cloud that received him out of the apostles' sight. But the angelic host, and the spirits of the just made perfect, seem chiefly to be intended here ; the cloud of witnesses with which we are compassed about. Heb. xii. 1. Who fled as a cloud to the rock of ages, or "as the doves to their windows." Isa. Ix. S. And who, like a cloud, fled, and spread their heavenly testimony among men, while " their doctrines dropped as the rain, and their speech dis- tilled as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." Deut. xxxii. 2. " He came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him." Dan. vii. 13. The angels attended his glorious Majesty as their confirmative Head ; and the spirits of just men made perfect followed him as their Redeemer, Saviour, and Al- mighty Deliverer ; and attended him to the Ancient of days ; and in all the glorious acclamations of heaven they brought their glorious Head near before him ; mercy and truth being met together, righteousness and peace having kissed each other. The grand Creditor was well pleased at the infinite satisfaction given by the Surety, while all the 18 134 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, hosts of heaven attended the solemn coronation of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who appeared in his garments (of human nature) dipped in blood. This was typified by the coronation of Solomon while the acclamations of the attendants made the earth ring again. But it was verified at the coronation of Christ after he had vanquished all his enemies ; there was " a crown given unto him ; and he went forth conquering and to con- quer." Rev. vi. 2. Or, as it is in Daniel vii. 14, " There was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom; that all the people, nations, and languages, should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be de- stroyed." The triumphant church above, who is the mother of us all, is the mother of Christ also, as touching his human nature ; even as Christ's Father is our Father (John xx. 17) by spiritual regeneration. Of Zion it shall be said, that he was born in her, Ps. Ixxxvii. 6; even as we are said to be born of God, John i. .13. Salvation is of the Jews, John iv. 22 ; " of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all God blessed for ever." Rom. iv. 5. And it is plain that his venerable mother, the triumphant church, dropped her crown before him, and crowned him with the praise and glory of all her salvation at his glorious coronation, when God set his king upon his holy hill of Zion. Ps. ii. 6. And we must, while here below, copy after her, and submit to the sovereignty of his grace, his mental government, and eternal reign. " Go forth, oh ye daugh- ters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown, wherewith his mother crowned him on the day of his es- pousals, and on the day of the gladness of his heart." Song iii. 11. AND THE BANK OP FAITH. 135 He ascended his throne as David's son hereditary, and as a lamb slain, to show that he was to appear as a perfect sac- rifice once, for all his members; and now as an everliving interceding priest, to make intercession for us ; " He shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." Zech. vi. 13. So that " he ever lives to make intercession for us." Thus God led me to trace the blessed Saviour up to his glorious exaltation on his throne a blessed view ! to see his human nature (which is a part of ours) exalted so high, " far above all principality, and power, and might, and do- minion, and every name that is named." Eph. i. 21. His being a lamb slain, shows him to be both a sacrifice and a priest ; and his throne shows his divine sovereignty, as it is written, " And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes." The seven horns were represented to me as showing his perfect and universal dominion, or as repre- senting his seven-fold government. First, he is " king of glory." Ps. xxiv. 10. Secondly, he is " king of Zion." Ps. ii. 6. Thirdly, he is "king of nations." Jer. x. 7. Fourthly, he is " king of [all earthly] kings." Rev. xix. 16. Fifthly, as the God of armies, he is king over all devils. Eph. iv. 8. Sixthly, as the Holy One, he is king over all sin. Rom. vi. 14. And, seventhly, as the resurrection and the life, he is king over dgath; Hosea xiii. 14; or the lord of life and death ; Rom. xiv. 9. This is thy king, O Zion, who once came unto thee riding upon an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass ; who is now risen, exalted, and crowned. God the Father delivers the book with all its seals into his hand ; containing the Father's will, the number and names of all the elect, and all the promises made to Christ and his seed, which were these First, God promised that 136 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, of the fruit of David's body he would raise up Christ to sit on David's throne, and build up his throne to all genera- tions ; a throne of grace to all generations of the cbvenant line ; or all generations shall submit to his iron rod, or peaceable sceptre. This you see is fulfilled ; he is crowned and seated upon the throne of David according to the pro- mise, " Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end ; upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform (hath performed) this." Isa. ix. 7. Secondly, That he would give him the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his pos- session. Not that all the human race are the special gift of God the Father to him, nor were all redeemed by him ; for all are not sheep No : but God gave him power over all flesh, (to awe and control them,) that he might give eternal life to as many as the Father hath given him. John xvii. 2. Thirdly, The Father promised to give him the sure mer- cies of David. These mercies, given to him as a federal head, were to be sure to all his seed, or offspring ; for lov- ing-kindness is never to be taken from him, nor the faith- fulness of God to fail them. This mercy, given to him as a federal head, was given to him as a king likewise, and is secured to all his subjects ; so that it is to terminate in one single kingdom a kingdom that will outlive all other kingdoms, and be a proof against all revolutions and com- motions whatever ; as it is written, " Once more I shake not only earth, but heaven ; but we, having received a king- dom that cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." Heb. xiii. 27, 28. This kingdom shall surely demolish all AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 137 these earthly kingdoms, and make them like the chaff of the summer's threshing floor; survive them all, and appear the only kingdom in the " new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Thus " mercy shall be built up for ever, and [God's] faithfulness shall be estab- lished in the very heavens." Ps. Ixxxix. 2. Fourthly, God promised that the Saviour should see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied that the pleasures of the Lord should prosper in his hand that kings should shut their mouths at him ; and that he should have dominion fro-m sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. That every chosen vessel should be gathered by him, and gathered to him as their proper head; be governed by him as their rightful sovereign, and wait for his second com- ing, as the grand accomplished of the whole divine scheme of man's salvation and glorification. Then he shall appear to be admired by all that know and love the truth, when the world shall be destroyed, the mys- tery of God finished, the church exalted at the right hand of the king ; in which will be manifested the secret intention of God, which was to display " the riches of his grace in glory by Christ Jesus." The angels above, and the spirits of just men made per- fect ; who are perfect in knowledge when compared to us, understanding these things better than we can in this state of ignorance, seem wonderfully enraptured at the exaltation and coronation of their great Confirmer and Deliverer ; and each host, both angels and glorified souls, sung their corona- tion carols. The spirits of just men made perfect began first, as it was impossible for them to keep silence when the Lord of Hosts appeared in human nature, as one that had trod a wine vat ; or as a man of war, with his garments roll- ed in blood. They saw the scars of war on his humanity, 138 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, and the sword of eternal victory by his side, a proof of his Deity. " He hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, arid Lord of lords." Rev. xix. 16 I say the redeemed first began their carol. "This was pre- figured when he rode triumphant into Jerusalem on an ass ; the multitudes pulling off their clothes, covering the ass, spreading boughs, casting their garments in the way, and crying, " Save, Lord, we beseech thee," or, " We beseech thee, send prosperity." But it was realized when Jesus en- tered the heavenly Jerusalem above ; not on an ass, but in the triumphant chariot of an Almighty Conqueror ; and where he received the kingdom, while his enemies in local Jerusalem sent after him saying, " We will not have this man to reign over us." But when he had received the kingdom he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city. Luke xii. 12. Matt, xxii. 7. When the Saviour entered the earthly Jerusalem he said, if his infant attendants held their peace, the stones would immediately cry out; how much more when he entered the heavenly Jerusalem, where all knew his divine majesty, his super-excellent amiableness, and what he had done for them ! They did not deride him, refuse him, nor withhold divine homage from him ; but began their triumphant an- them (or songs) without hesitation, when the solemnity of his coronation, was ended. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne ; " And when he had taken the book, the four beasts, (or rep- resentatives of all the hosts of gospel witnesses, including both ministers and people but chiefly ministers,) and the four and twenty elders, (or twelve patriarchs and twelve apostles, the natural and ministerial foundation of the Jew- ish and Gentile churches, as representatives of them both,) AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 139 fell down before the Lamb ; having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth." And indeed the militant church, whom they represent, does reign on the earth, through grace ; but in the new heaven and new earth they shall reign without an enemy, and their king without a rival. The angels' coronation carol comes next, and ends with a united chorus. " And I beheld, and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts and the elders ; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand of thousands ; saying, with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive pow- er, (to govern;) and riches, (to endow;) and wisdom, (to direct ;) and strength, (to support ;) and honor, (as an ever- lasting Father;) and glory, (as the God of all salvation;) and blessing," (as the sinner's loving, immutable, and best friend.) Rev. v. 12. Now comes the united chorus ; some hymn his glorious grace, some his creation work, and some his universal provi- dence ; which is echoed from the heavens, the church, the world, and the sea. " And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying blessing, and hon- or, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever arid ever. And the four beasts said, Amen." Rev. v. 13. Thus the fruit of David's body ascended the throne, and appeared as a lamb slain. As God, he never was from the throne ; for, as God, 140 GOD THE GUARDIAN OF THE POOR, he is both throne and king. As man he was crowned ; and as man he received wisdom, power, and strength : and, as God-man, he received honor, and glory, and blessing ; but as God he could receive nothing for all things were cre- ated by him, and for him, and by him all thing consist. Reader, I could have mentioned many more blessings which came to me in a way of providence ; but, as I have recited, perhaps, too many of them already, I have here given the only few fathoms of heavenly meditation, with which the God of all grace enabled me to sound this mys- tery in a fit of sickness that befell me at Thames Ditton. Then it was that I received the greatest part of this con- sistent chain ; the links of which kept every faculty of my soul, and every thought of my heart, so delighted and enter- tained, that I sat down a most willing, submissive, and de- lighted captive, at the foot of my prevailing lover and al- mighty conqueror. If my reader should meet with any wordly professor, who tells him that temporal mercies are not promised to us, nor to be sought by us, let him examine all the prayers that are left upon record in the Bible, and he will find nine out of ten of them to have temporal mercies included. And sure- ly he must be a native of Ashdod, or a bastard Jew, that contradicts the consecrated languages, and gives the Divine Speaker the lie. Such men appear to me to be the figura- tive offspring of Epicurus, who first assaulted the doctrine of Providence ; of whom Cotta declares that, " by making God careless of the affairs of men, he utterly subverted all religion." And I think Aristotle's reply to Epicurus's sys- tem of nullity is applicable to many bastard professors in our days ; wherefore I shall bring him to rebuke them. " Di- versity of questions," says he, " requires diversity of an- swers. Some ask whether fire be hot ! These must be AND THE BANK OF FAITH. 141 answered by being made to touch it. Some ask whether their parents are to be honored ! These are not to be dis- coursed with, but rebuked. Others ask whether there be \ any providence that rules the world, and refuse to believe it without apparent demonstration ! Such men should be an- swered by a whip rather than by a philosopher." Reader, fare thee well. Grace and providence be with thee, while I remain, Thine to serve, W. H. UNIVERSITY END OF THE FIRST PART. THE BANK OF FAITH. J)art STtoo. LETTER I. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Beloved in the Lord Jesus : BELIEVING in my heart that the good hand of God has been revealed to you, and that his providence is observed by you ; and having long had a most intimate acquaintance with, and a most cordial affection for your lovely family, to whom I have reason to believe God has made me in some measure useful ; and knowing that you are stationed at a distance from the main stock of the family, and in a barren land, where no water is; and being too remote from the breasts of consolation to pay attendance at the nurseries ; I have determined with myself to send these displays of divine providence to you, hoping, under God, they may supply that lack of service which the distance between you and Bethel forbids in the common Bourse of the ministry. I know that neither you nor yours are, or ever were, re- duced to such a state of indigence as myself; nevertheless, the long acquaintance that I have had with you, and the soul-union I have felt in your company, together with the pious grief I have seen manifested by you in others' calam- 144 THE BANK OF FAITH. ities, and your joy of countenance at the report of their deliverance, convinces me of the certain indwelling of a spirit of love and meekness in you, enabling you to weep with them that weep, and to rejoice with them that rejoice. In this confidence, and with these motives, I send these things to you, hoping they will be neither unpleasant nor un- profitable. Moreover, as I have kept no diary of one single provi- dence, and have nothing to trust to but a treacherous mem- ory, which seldom refunds what is intrusted with it, espec- ially mine, which begins of late sensibly to fail, unless it should please God to bring back what has elapsed for more than sixteen years. I am more inclined to pen the matters down in epistles to you, than to sit down and write a volume off-hand, because I shall have more opportunity between the times of writing to consider and recollect the facts; besides, I can redeem time for an epistle, when ,1 cannot for a large pamphlet. What I request, my beloved friend, of thee, is to lay them up carefully, and together, as I send them, in case they should, in some future period, be called for to be scattered from the press. Among all my acquaintance in rural life, I know of none whose mind is so free from incumbrance, and whose heart is less engaged and less entangled in the affairs of this life, than yours, and therefore you are more at leisure to attend to and to keep this charge. And as you acknowledged to me that you gained ground in the path of life by retirement, reading, meditation and prayer, I hope these remarks will add strength to your feet, prospects to your sight, encour- agement to your hope, and divine love to your heart. Adieu, S. S. When I laid the foundation of the chapel I was twenty pounds in debt for the necessaries of life, and when I had THE BANK OF FAITH. 145 finished it I was in arrears one thousand pounds more ; so that I hid plenty of work for faith, if I could but get plenty of faith to work : and while some deny a providence, Prov- idence was the only resource I had. I had forty-seven pounds per annum ground rent, and almost fifty pounds per annum for interest, a large chapel, and a smaJl congrega- tion ; and those who lent me the money a poor, industrious people, and weak in faith, being but young in the ways of God ; and there were plenty of hypocrites in Zion to tell them that all who had a hand in that chapel would burn their fingers. If God sends Moses and Aaron to preach, Satan sends Jannes and Jambres to oppose : and if Zerub- babel and Joshua begin to build, Stnballat and Tobiah are raised up to discourage them. And here I must bring in a circumstance which is truly laughable: A gentleman who had for some time frequented Margaret-street Chapel, and to all appearance he was a very penitent hearer, as he was-generally bedewed with tears; but whether they were tears of misery from a sense of sin, or tears of gratitude from a sense of pardon, I knew not ; but I have been con- vinced since that they were neither. This good gentleman came to us when the chapel was in building, and hearing the builder say he should want some window sills, and some columns to stand in the cellar to support the ground floor, he generously offered his service to go into the country to buy them, as he had formerly been in the wood way himself. This kind offer was gratefully accepted; and another gen- tleman offered him his horse to go on. He accordingly received his orders of the length of the columns, the size of the heart at the small end, and that they must be the ground ends of young trees, able to support the weight they were intended to bear. So off he went, and in a day or two returned, and informed several of my friends that he 19 146 THE BANK OF FAITH. had saved me three pounds by the journey; which to me was something considerable. Soon after his return the timbers came, but by no means fit for the purpose they were designed, being only the lirnbs of large oaks, small, and not one straight among them. The builder appearing disgusted at them, he ordered the carter to reload them and take them home to his own house, which he accordingly did. The builder then went over the water and bought a fine, large, straight stick, at the price of nine pounds, and intended to cut it into proper lengths, and quarter it ; which when our kind friend saw, he got a cart and brought his materials back again, and threw them down on the premises, which rather hindered tha helped us. He then delivered the bill to me, which to the best of my remembrance, was five pounds seven shillings, which with three pounds that he had saved me by the bargain, made them worth eight pounds seven shillings. I offered to pay his bill, and to make him a present of the timber if he would accept it, but he would not, nor could we use it ; so that this good man's favors became a hinderance rather than a help. At last I resolved to have them valued, and sent for a timber merchant, who attended me to value them : he valued them at two guineas; but thinking the gentleman might undervalue them through partiality to me, I sent for an entire stranger, who was a timber merchant also, and he fixed their price at forty shil- lings. Upon this my good friend took the materials away, and for this price he sold them, clearing much less for him- self than he saved me. But to return to my subject. These were the difficulties I had to surmount; and for three years together I lost ground, for Satan waylaid me in a path which I knew to be charity. My bowels were moved to extricate from debt a man that I took to be a fallen saint, nor could all the inward checks God gave me stop me from THE BANK OF FAITH. 147 embarking in this good work, though I had many. He cost me forty guineas ; and when God unmasked the hypo- crite, then I saw where the inward caution came from. Three chapels were opened about the same time not far from mine, and one set up an additional lecture, in order to keep the sheep from straying; but the inward anointed taught me that by these means I should see more clearly the hand of God, for where there is no opposition there is no salvation ; and where a multitude of hands are employed in one work, it is not so easy to see the distinguishing approbation of the employer. I must stand alone, and work alone, that I might not say a confederacy, nor rely on hu- man aid. Paul's companions all forsook him at Nero's bar, that by him the preaching might be fully known ; for Paul's doctrine was immediately from Christ, but theirs mediately from him. After this blank of forty guineas loss, another borrowed three more, and another ten pounds, neither of which ever paid a mite again ; and soon after thirty pounds were de- manded for the follies of my youth, and another thirty pounds for rent for the chapel I had left; and thirty guineas more for a law-suit about a little meeting-house for which I had collected forty pounds to build at Sunbury, in Middle- sex. All these blanks, at three years' end, set me down just where I began; and all this time my income was only twenty-five pounds per quarter, and my children at one time nine in number. This sailing against wind and tide, not only tried the faith of the debtor, but it exercised the faith of my poor creditors also; for if I could not go on, they must go back ; nevertheless, most of them exercised more patience than I could, though I could do no more than just keep the interest paid up. At length God enabled me to put out several little books, which were almost universally 148 THE BANK OF FAITH. exclaimed against, both by preachers and professors, and by these means God sent them into all winds; so that I soon rubbed off one hundred, and soon after another, so that in a short time I had reduced my thousand pounds down to seven hundred. The booksellers in general would neither countenance nor circulate the works, being influ- enced, as I suppose, by some of their employers. But as the workman began to be known, so the works spread ; and what some despised others admired ; and the doctrine that starved the self-sufficient, fattened the poor in spirit. Peo- ple who attend my ministry, coming from various parts of the country, often bought them, and sent them down among their friends. By these means they made their way where I was not permitted to go myself. But it often happened that where they came the preachers warned the people much against them, which frequently excited the curiosity of some to read them ; and if they found any thing in them that suited their cases, they judged by the unction they felt. They are calculated in some measure to suit the earnest inquirer ; the soul in bondage, in the furnace, in the path of tribulation, or in the strong hold of Satan ; and I have heard of them from Wales, from Scotland, from Ireland, from various parts of America, from Cadiz in Spain, from Alexandria in Egypt, and I believe from both the East and West Indies : and as they have fallen in divers hands, I accor- dingly received various reports. Many vilifying and scur- rilous letters from different parts; and to counterbalance these, many letters of blessings to God, and thanks to the author ; which put together, make it to be the good old beaten path ; through evil report and good report, as deceiv- ers and yet true. Beloved, farewell. Thine to command, W. H. S. S. LETTER II. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Beloved in the Lord : SINCE I sent off the last, many fresh things have occurred to my mind. I concluded with the circulation of my books : and about that time I was invited to preach a weekly lec- ture in the city, by which means it pleased my God to bring me more publicly forth into the world ; and as the chapel filled, and the people approved, of course my pedigree, my residence, my station in the camp, my family and fortune, were inquired into ; and that at a time when some of my cred- itors wanted their money. In a short time after this de- mand, a small number of gentlemen offered to lend ine one hundred pounds, without either note of hand or interest; and, being a little from each of them, they took it as God prospered me, till all was cleared. But poor men's dif- ficulties, like women's work, are never done, for soon after < fifty pounds more was called in, besides many little debts which were contracted while the former sums were paying off; so that I was encompassed about with a whole crowd of creditors; and who can expect less who make them- selves debtors to all ? A gentleman of the city, who had a little house at Peckham, asked me to go on a week day evening to preach in that neighborhood, and to take a sup- per and bed at his house, which I agreed to; and, being without either purse or scrip, gold or silver, when I set off, 1 called on my invaluable and never-failing friend Mr. Ba- ker, of Oxford street, and asked him if there was any of the chapel money in his hands? To my great comfort he told me, No ; so I borrowed a few shillings and set off. But, 20 150 THE BANK OF FAITH. that I might give vent to my grief, and bemoan my hard fate in secret, I called a coach, and got in, the old man and the devil both following me ; so we went all three together, like the adulterous woman and her accusers ; and to be sure I had not one six-penny or shilling debt in all the world but what the devil set before me, together with various prisons for poor debtors ; and aggravated rny misery by set- ting before me the power of God to help me if he would, the wealth that he gave to many wicked persons, and his hard dealings with those that loved him. I listened to mine enemy till I was in such a frame as Elisha was, when the forty children followed him, crying, Go up, thou bald head. But at. length recollecting myself, I bnntered the devil. I said, Satan, hast thou got any cash by thee? if thou hast, bring it; I do not care where you get it, bring it if you have any, I will receive it, and thank God for it; but, if thou art as poor as myself, -let my debts alone. The devil left me at this. Resist the dtvil, says God, and he will Jlee from you; and so he did, and my soul was delivered as a roe from the hand of the hunter, or as a bird from the hand of the fowler. When I came to the end of St George's Fields, I got out and walked the rest of the way, and that night had a glorious time in the Lord's work ; Satan had for a season left me, and I returned in the power of the Spirit. I spent a comfortable evening with my friends, and had a most uncommon time in prayer by myself at going to bed, and a most sweet frame of meekness, gratitude, and godly sorrow, given me when in bed ; and in the morning I arose sweetly becalmed, and much resigned to the will of God. However, in my road home, the old serpent set at me again ; but, having found faith strong in exercise over night, he could not make those inroads on my soul as he had done the day before. I called on my dear friends Mr. and THE BANK OF FAITH. 151 Mrs. Baker, and tcld them that I should shortly have a lift- up, as I usually called it ; and that I had got it already in fa th, and should shortly have it in hand. These poor souls and I moved in concert, like the cherubim and his wheels, for when I was down they were down, when I was exalted so were they. On the next Sunday morning came a gentle- man of the city into the vestry to me, with a bank note in his hand, and gave it to me, saying, I am desired to give you that. I asked who it came from; he replied, "You do not know the person ; you never spoke to him but once ; but he told me that it was strong upon his mind that you was in want, and he put it into his pocket for you last Thursday, and it had burnt in it ever since, but he knew not how to convey it to you.'' That same Thursday was the day in which Satan beset me so violently ; and while Satan was reproaching me with my debts, God's good Spirit was preaching to that gentleman to lessen them. The same person continues in communion with me to this day. Upon this a gentleman, to whom God had made me useful, gen- erously offered to lend me eighty pounds to answer my pre- sent demands, and to take it of me as I could pay it : this I gladly accepted, and then answered the present demand of those gentlemen who at times stood in need of their money. At this time a gentleman from Bristol came frequently to hear me, and who invited me to that place, to which I con- sented, and was to have a letter previous to the time of my going thither. After some time waiting, the letter came, and when it came my pocket was empty ; but at that junc- ture a letter came from a lady in the country, with a twenty- pound note in it ; with part of this I took my journey to Bristol, as Joseph and Mary took theirs to Egypt with the wise men's gold presented to Christ in the stable. Soon after my return, I one night, in my discourse in the city, 152 THE BANK OF FAITH. I opened my mind freely and scripturally upon the^use and end of the law of God, describing who were under it and who not. A great man, next to a great woman, happened to be there, who had light enough to see my darkness; and from that time sounded the alarm, and preached up the law, till he was ten times blinder than I was; this alarm spread, and most pulpits rang with warnings against antinomianism ; this terrified the people, and many fled from me, some halted, and some few abode. However, the continual warnings on every hind soon reduced a crowded audience to a very small number, and the longer I preached the fewer I had, till J was sure the small number could not defray the expenses attending the lecture ; and now was the time for my old enemy to work. He condemned my doctrine, which I did not wonder at, as an accuser has nothing to work upon but sin, nor any thing to work by but a broken law ; for where there is no law there is no transgression, and where there is no transgression there can be no accusation. He harassed me with the great number of divines all against me, with my debts also, with the visible disappro- bation of God by the almost general absence of the whole congregation ; and, last of all, that my own poor pocket must defray the expenses of the place, and that money was the property of others, and it is the wicked that borrow and pay not again. That Tuesday was a day of darkness and gloominess to me ; however, I replied, that God was not tied to that congregation, he could discharge the debts I should contract by keeping open that place many other ways, and therefore I determined to continue there till there were but ten to hear. That night the number was much greater than the time before ;' and the same night I received a letter with these words : " Sir, I have the honor of being a steward to your Master, and am at times intrusted with a THE BANK OF FAITH. 153 trifle for the benefit of his servants, and I know of none more worthy than yourself." And that was all, except a ten-pound note, which bore me through that quarter ; and from that night we increased, till the house was filled with guests. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless Ms holy name. The people had now an opportunity of trying both Sinai and Zion ; many ran to and fro, and knowledge was in- creased. Some found it as I had done, the more law the more bondage, and the more gospel the more love. It served also to separate between servants and sons : some cleaved to the citizens of Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage, which Christ calls citizens of this country, who feed with husks; and some cleaved to the citizens of Zion, on which mountain the feast of fat things is promised, and where God promises to destroy the face of the covering cast over all nations, and to swallow up death in victory. Never, I think, had Moses more disciples than at that time; both pulpit and press proclaimed little else but the law ; but, as those who preached it knew not what they said, so these that published it knew not what they wrote, for not one that I read had ever experienced the application of it ; and I knew that I was at a point in this, namely, that I retained the whole morality of the law, by enforcing holiness by the Spirit of God. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us by the faith of Christ, and love to God and the brother- hood, by the love of God shed abroad in the heart; and all beside these is death. But now the eighty pounds, kindly lent me as before re- lated, began to hang heavy upon my mind, and I labored long to scrape together some part of it; and having got together upwards of thirty pounds, I was earnestly desired to have the chapel white-washed, and to buy six or eight chandeliers to illuminate the gallery. These, with the 154 THE BANK OP FAITH. white-washing, cost me near forty pounds. At this I fretted, and thought that both friends and foes labored to keep the borrower a perpetual servant to the lender. I envied every soul that was out of debt, however poor, Satan delivered so many harangues from this text, Owe no man any thing, but to love one another. After many long struggles I foresaw, that by my books and the chapel's increase, I should shortly be able to pay off forty pounds, and the time drew near, and everything bid fair; but, alas! an unforeseen event took place, which frustrated this design : a building next the chnpel took fire, and burnt from street to street. Some of the roof of my chapel was a little burnt, and the spectators get poles and pushed a stack of chimneys on the building, which fell through and injured the gallery. This disaster cost me upwards of forty pounds more, which drove me to my wits' end. I was like a wild bull in a net, entangled every way ; and was determined to go and vent my grief to the gentleman, and make an apology and beg his patience till I could pay him. I went ; but God had been before me; for, before I could find an opportunity to speak, he looked up at me and said, " I shall never take that money again of you which you had of me, nor did I ever intend it." I knew not where to hide my head ; I was ashamed of my impatience, distrust, rebellion, and murmuring, and loathed myself for it; and admired the wisdom and good- ness of my God to so unstable and unbelieving a wretch. But this frame lasted not long; I was soon at it ag:iin ; and was not God long-suffering, he would never bear with such an one as I am. For, being informed that the house I then dwelt in was to be sold, and being desired by my landlord to admit any person into it that came, unsettled my mind exceedingly, interrupted me in my studies and in my writing, and made me as peevish and as fretful as one chained to a galley. THE BANK OF FAITH. 155 However, sold it must be, and sold it was : and I being a tenant at will, must prepare my stuff for removing. Some of my friends attended the sale on my behalf, but the price ran too high. As it was but a leasehold, a person in the neighborhood, a possessor of much money and a professor of religion, (who was resolved to have it,) bought it for himself and family. I had expended a few pounds in paving the walk to the door and the yard behind the house, which the auctioneer said should be paid to me, but that pay never came. Some few days were spent in looking after a house, and at length one presented itself, which was empty, and had stood empty for some time ; the rent was double to that which I was leaving, that being twenty pounds per annum, this forty. Nevertheless I took it, longing to be settled somewhere. I got the keys, and immediately began to move, though it was six or seven weeks before the time ex- pired of my other house, for the which I must pay rent, having entered upon that quarter. When I had removed all my goods I lent the gentleman who had bought the premises the keys of the house, that he might get it in order for his own reception, for which he was much pleased, and kindly thanked me ; but he soon requited me for my kind- ness, by sending me an attorney's letter for taking up a lit- tle favorite tree which I had planted. Satan, upon this, tempted me to take out my knife and cut off another of my own phnting close by the ground. But vengeance belong- eth to God, and he will repay : and so I found it, for in less than nine months my successor and his wife were both in their graves, and the house sold again. They removed me, and God removed them. But time calls me elsewhere. Beloved, farewell. Ever thine, W. H. S. S. LETTER III. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Dear Friend : I CONCLUDED my last with my old habitation, and shall begin this new epistle with my new house. My new habi- tation being so much larger than the other, my little furni- ture was almost lost in it : That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that lohich is wanting cannot be number- ed. Eccl. i. 15. However, the unerring and never-failing providence of God, which has, in uniformity with his word of promise, incessantly followed me and presided over me all my days, most conspicuously appeared at this time also. A lady in the country sent me in a letter a forty -pound bank note. A gentleman in the city gave me a handsome new bureau and two mahogany elbow chairs. Another gentleman sent me anew handsome chamber-chair with stuffed back and sides, and a handsome cover and cushion. While another, who came to see my new habitation, said, " My friend, I think you want a carpet for this large room," and left me a ten-pound note to .purchase one. And here I must set up mine Ebenezer, and say, with a pious prophet of old, Hith- erto hast the Lord helped us. But this stream of prosperity must not continue. I must be tried, I must learn my doctrine in the furnace of afflic- tion, and fetch my sermons from God's powerful application and my own soul's experience ; that I may be at a point and speak with authority, and that my hearers may se God's fatherly goodness and severity follow me and work in me, as well as hear an account of it from me. Elijah's sons must see the spirit of Elijah rest upon Elisha, before they THE BANK OF FAITH. 157 can receive him and revere him as his successor. I fell sick, and lay for some time ; and for three or four years, one after another, I had much sickness in my family, and my doctor's bills of course came heavy. Besides one young child at wet-nurse, I had five more at school, and three, one after another, lately dead. I had my eldest daughter at a school at Greenwich, and her governess gained the ap- plause of many persons for her liberality to me ; who averred that she educated my child for nothing, though I paid her sixteen guineas per annum for her all the time she was there, with one guinea earnest at her going, which was two guin- eas per annum more than she had for one half of her schol- ars. A little boy, which I had at wet-nurse at Wai worth, was much desired by a gentlewoman in that neighborhood, as soon as it was proper to wean him ; which desire I grant- ed, and she dry-nursed him, and had him for three or four years. She also gained the esteem of many of my friends for keeping one of my children gratis, because of my large family : but God knows that I paid her after the rate of twenty pounds per annum for every day she kept him. Thus some made the miraculous providence of God to favor me where it never appeared, while others denied the whole of it, and some burnt the relation of it where it really did. / am a wonder unto many, but thou art my strong refuge, Psalm Ixxi. 7. About this time I called upon my dear and unwearied friends, Mr. and Mrs. Baker, of Oxford street, who, from the time God first made me manifest in their consciences to the present moment, never failed me, forsook me, nor turn- ed their backs on me. For while the chapel was build- ing, when money was continually demanded, if there was one shilling in the house I was sure to have it. God never suffered their souls to get one morsel of the bread of life bat 158 THE BANK OP FAITH under me; and it is seldom that one quarter has rolled over my head, for these sixteen years, but what I have stood in need of some assistance from them : thus God tied us to- gether. As they had no* children of their own, God kept them caring and travailing many years for me ; for when- ever I was, like Issachar, couching down between two bur- dens, my constant haunt was there for condolence, sympa- thy, and succor; yea, when sorrow has quite driven sleep from rny eyes, I have often called them up at three or four o'clock in the morning, either to bear a part of my burdens, or to unite with me in prayer to God that he would. These friends, at that time, were my largest or principal creditors; but I knew I was safe enough in their hands, and that they would suffer themselves to starve in a ditch before they would let rne die in a jail. At the same time God sorely tried them, by various losses in business, by bankruptcies and bad debts continually ; and, to add a little more fire to the furnace, a very near re- lation in the flesh fell into insanity, who has been confined in a private mad-house at their expense for many years, and is still on their hands, as I and my concerns were many years on their backs; but still God supported them, meek- ened them, comforted them, and kept their souls alive in their trouble. Many efforts have been made, both by men and devils, to disunite us, but all in vain ; for all my predic- tions to them God always confirmed, and their confidence in my being his servant was never once shaken. These things bound us together for life and for eternity ; and we have agreed, if God approve, not to be divided in death ; for some years ago, they, myself, and my friend Chapman at Petersham, subscribed and purchased a spot of ground in that neighborhood, and erected a substantial tomb, under Mr. Chapman's direction ; where we hope, if God permit, THE BANK OP FAITH. 159 to rest together in the dust, till the archangel's trump shall silence that of the gospel, and proclaim an eternal jubilee to the covenant seed of the Son of God. But I must get me back again to another fight of afflictions, for there is no living without them. A large sum of money was now demanded of one of my creditors, and it was demanded in haste, being wanted. At this time my pocket had been well drained for furniture, and many more things were still wanting; however, the sum must be had, and it was one hundred and sixty pounds ! My heart sunk at the sound. " James," says I, " what shall I do ? " " Do," says he, " you shall pay it ; the wo- man that has called it in does not want it, she receives her interest, and is in no danger of losing the principal ; the devil has stirred her up on purpose to plague you." But I replied, " James, where shall I get one hundred pounds?" " Why," says he, " you shall have it of James Baker." " Why," said I, " have you an hundred to spare ? " " Yes," said he, "one hundred more; it lies by itself; it cost me eighty pounds in, and it is a good time to sell out." And he sold it out for one hundred and one pounds. The rest we made up, and I carried it to the person who demanded it : and she purchased two hundred pounds stock, which cost her two hundred and two pounds. Thus my dear friend cleared twenty-one pounds by serving me, and she lost as much by distressing me. Now Satan sat another snare for my feet, and I went very reluctantly into it; but unremitted importunity dragged me like an ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks. The snare was this : A person had spoke to another to lend a friend of theirs in debt one hundred and fifty pounds, which sum that person would lend if I would pass my word for half of it ; this I did, and thus a fool's lips 160 THE BANK OF FAITH. are the, snare of his soul. This office of suretyship cost me many a groan, for we lost every farthing of it ; and, to help forward my calamity, another person, that came lately out of the country, and who was set up in business in town, and had newly scraped a little acquaintance with me, called on me to borrow a few guineas, which were to be paid the next week without fail ; but this friend vanished out of my sight that very day, and I saw him no more : A poor man that oppresscth the poor, is a sweeping rain that leavcth no food. Prov. xxviii. 3. And, as for the other person for whom I and my friend became surety, he soon became bankrupt, or broke to pieces. But such was the invariable providence of my God, that the devil himself could never make a bank- rupt of me : my invariable Banker, who stood by me in six troubles, did not fail me in the seventh ; for an elderly lady in town, who for some time sat under my ministry, fell sick : she requested my attendance during her illness, and after her departure a gentleman called and paid me ten pounds, which she left me by will ; and soon after that a lady in the coun- try sent me forty pounds. A most faithful and affectionate friend in the city, who, times without number, has minis- tered to my necessities, ordered me to go to a cabinet-ma- ker and bespeak a chest of drawers for my clothes, a writing desk, &,c., and sent me home with forty guineas in my pocket. Thus a succession of crosses was followed with perpetual blessings ; for, as sure as adversity led the van, so sure prosperity brought up the rear : The heart knoiocth its own bitter ness y and a stranger intermeddleth not with his joy. Never, no never, did the Holy Spirit wholly withhold his prevalent intercession from me in times of trouble, nor did my God ever turn a deaf ear to my prayer, or fail to deliver me out of that trouble : though he has at times suf- fered me to labor long under them ; Many are the afflictions THE BANK OF FAITH, 161 of the righteous, but the Lord deliver eth him out of them all. But now for another cross. God takes away another of my poor children ; it died at my friend Chapman's, at Petersham, and was buried in the same ground where we since have erected our tomb. Upon the back of this disaster I fell sick, and lay some time ; and soon after my little daughter was brought home from school with a violent fever, which continued on her many months : but after my faith and patience had been a little tried, God raised her up again. About this time I had been digging a cellar and building a little room over it; had built an oven also, and had been setting up a copper and purchasing brew- ing vessels ; all of which, together with the building, had not cost me less than two hundred pounds. Some time after a fe- ver broke out in the school where my sons were, and three of them came home, one of whom was ill, and had a fit of sick- ness ; so that in a short time I had sixty or seventy pounds to pay to different gentlemen of the faculty, for attendance on me and them. Add to this, another fifty pounds of borrowed money was called in ; not for want of it, but from private pique : this we made shift to get together and informed the person where to call for it ; but it lay a long time before it was fetched away. . The grief was not from fear of losing it, but at my being able to procure it : By evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true. But my God now appeared again : a friend in the city gave me thirty pounds, another soon after sent me twenty pounds ; and two more gave me forty pounds; and an elderly gentleman, who had for some time attended my ministry and who had been a member of a church in the city for many years ; but I have reason to believe that it pleased God to revive the work on his soul under me, for he at times called on me and acknowledged as much, and often lamented that this world had for along time 21 162 THE BANK OF FAITH. obscured the good work on him. Soon after this he left this world, leaving me fifty pounds by will, and. several more lega- cies, as I have been informed, to other indigent persons. In the day of prosperity be joyful, in the day of adversity consider ; God has set the one against the other. Dearly beloved, grace, mercy, and peace, be with thee ; so prays Thine in covenant love, W. H. S. S. LETTER IV. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Dear Friend, in eternal Friendship : I CONCLUDED my last with the sound of abundance of rain ; the little hill had been watered with a shower of bles- sings ; Ezek. xxxiv. 26 ; and my soul with abundance of peace ; and now, in pursuit of the narrative, you must know what effect this had on the debt books of my creditors. Why, by the good hand of my God upon me, I had now reduced the debt of my chapel down to little more than three hundred pounds ; my friend Baker was almost my only creditor, and I had nothing to fear from him. I considered myself now as having the fore horse by the head, as they say who speak in proverbs. I could now compare creditor and debtor together, and see a balance in my own favor ; so that I had no fears about me that any one friend would lose any thing by me, should it please God to remove me. I had also given forty pounds premium at the binding of one of my sons, and twenty pounds more to a mantua-maker with my elder daughter ; and had also curtailed some of my unnecessary expenses I mean with respect to preaching for other people. I had for some years been Jack at every body's call ; being invited to preach collection sermons continually : and wherever I went this was sure to be the case : sometimes I was to collect for the minister, sometimes to rub off the debt of the buildings, sometimes for the poor, but always for something or for somebody, and I was gen- erally desired to give it out at my own chapels, as their hopes were more in the pockets of my followers than in 164 THE BANK OP FAITH. their own. A meeting which had not long been erected within a few miles of Uxbridge, in Middlesex, had a debt upon it which the people wished to clear off, and therefore proposed to have two sermons preached on a certain day annually, and a collection at each sermon, as the best method of extricating the chapel out of debt ; and of course I was once invited thither upon this business. I travelled at my own expense, and was entertained by a friend of my own at Uxbridge : I preached in the forenoon, and a gen- tleman from London was to preach in the afternoon ; and if I was rightly informed, my collection was fourteen pounds ; what the gentleman got I know not, as I went off as soon as I had finished my discourse. The year following a minister of yearly fame was invited, who promised either to go himself or to send his curate, upon these conditions ; namely, that they would promise him " never to suffer that fellow Huntington to preach among them any more ; " which request the principal person of the meeting submis- sively listened to, and promised to admit me there no more: Who can stand before envy? Upon these conditions the good man promised either to go or to send ; but at the same time observed, that the travelling expenses must be borne; which was making a sure bargain, and in which the vicar displayed more wisdom than I did ; and this they agreed to also, knowing, as every man must, that the laborer is worthy of his hire. The time came round for another anniversary, and the curate went and preached, and enforced the collec- tion : and when the preacher's entertainment, travelling expenses, &c., were defrayed, there remained two pence towards the debt of the chapel. Neither their promise nor their conscience would ever suffer them again to invite me : and as for the curate, they found him (in money matters) to be an unprofitable servant, and therefore they took coun- THE BANK OP FAITH. 165 sel, and laid the anniversary aside from that day forward ; which was a better work in the sight of God than that of O bringing it into use. I was formerly often invited to preach at a meeting in Little St. Helens, where I preached at seven o'clock on a Lord's day morning. That lecture had been long estab- lished for the benefit of servants, who by reason of their domestic employ, could not attend on the service of God at the usual times of public worship. The persons who in- vited me, informed me that most of the supporters of that lecture were dead, and that whenever they had a collection sermon for it they seldom got more than twenty or thirty shillings. Hearing'these things I therefore promised to go, and was well attended. Not long after, I was invited again, and the place was so crowded that great numbers could not get in ; and as I was informed, I collected ten pounds. I inquired at last, as they came frequently to ask me to preach, who the ministers were that preached the lectures, and they told me their names, but I knew none of them ; and farther, that they had a guinea a time for preaching, and that they were board-ministers, or ministers belonging to the board. But I was not a board-minister, therefore the lecture had my labor gratis : my office was to preach the guineas together, while that of the board-ministers was to preach them away. I thought of a story that I once heardr namely, of a man putting potatoes into the fire to roast, while a monkey sitting before it observed him : the mon- key wanted the potatoes, but fearing to burn his own pawj took the fore foot of the cat to rake it out of the fire, whilst he ate it himself. Whoever was the monkey, I was the cat. At length I got sick of this; nevertheless they came again, and entreated me to come and give them another sermon. I replied, " There is to be a collection, I suppose." 22 166 THE BANK OF 'FAITH. They answered, "O yes, sir." I replied, "I have no doubt of it, but depend upon it I will be your cat's paw no longer ; " and I saw them no more. But soon after I heard the lecture was dropped, though I think it might have been kept up to this day, if the board-men had labored on as reasonable terms as I did. Some years I toiled up and down in this way, preaching collections for one minister or other. Every where, and in all things, I am instructed, says Paul ; and so am I : for the vicar's bargain for his curate, and the board-men leaving off when money failed, brought me a determination not to labor for nothing; es- pecially, having, been , informed that some called ministers have been sitting at home while I have been preaching for them, who have ridiculed me after I had begged money ; and well they might, for who but a fool, when God has used a shepherd to collect a flock together, would lead that flock from post to pillar, on purpose to shear them, and give the wool to men whom I know not whence they be? Bless my God, these board-men have taught me better things ; I keep my flock at home, and shear them for my own profit ; and sure none can have so much right to the wool as those who labor day and night to feed the sheep; and I have vanity enough to think that they had rather the profits of the fleece fell to my share than to any other. Many journeys of one hundred, two hundred, or three hundred miles, which have cost ten, twenty, or thirty pounds a journey, have I travelled, and at the same time paid one pound five shillings per week for a supply at home in my ab- sence ; but I confine my labors now, not to every place where I am invited, but where I am well known, and where there are poor hungry Souls to feed : to these my mouth is open, and to me their heart is. God has not sons of peace in every house. But I must now return from this digression, seeing THE BANK OP FAITH. 167 it is high time that some other burden be laid on my shoul- ders, which soon came to pass ; but more of this at some future opportunity. Excuse the length of the epistle ; the largeness of its bulk was occasioned by the opportunity I had of conveying it, for two shillings worth of postage could not have produced half this quantity of tidings. I had now and then a pleasing fit of laughter while writing it, and thou wilt feel something besides a spring of tears in reading it ; so I conclude, and so you will confess. Beloved, adieu. w. ft. s. s. LETTER V. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Dear Fiiend : AT the conclusion of my last, I intimated that another load was much wanting : and now a council was held, to consult about laying a few more sacks upon the mill : this second addition, or second edition of burdens with addi- tions, is what I am going next to relate ; the reading of which will make you feel for me, as the weight of it made me feel for myself. The congregation began greatly to increase, and the heat of the place in times of service began to be almost unbear- able ; it was of course thought necessary to enlarge the chapel. Now there was a spare bit of ground, which lay about the middle of the chapel against the east wall, the dimensions of which were thirty feet by twenty-five, and this spare morsel of ground had nothing on it but a shed : this ground we endeavored to get, and intended to break through on that side the chapel, and so to throw the chapel into a triangular form, and to move the pulpit to the centre of the gallery on the west side, that so it might face the new-intended erection. The gentleman who held this ground by lease was applied to; and he, in company with a builder, met with me and a few friends of mine, and inti- mated that he was willing to accommodate us; of course we wished to know his terms, or what he expected for ground-rent, and he told us his price was one hundred guineas per annum : The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's ; but the earth hath he given to the children of men. THE BANK OF FAITH. 169 Psalm cxv. 16. And so I found it, and they are determined to make the most of it. I have been informed, but I can- not avouch it, that all the ground on which that oblong pile of buildings stands within the compass of the four streets, of which my chapel is a part, pays no more to his Grace, the Duke of Portland, than fourteen pounds a year ; but, if it was all to be let in the same proportion as was demanded of me it could not (I think) bring in less than ten thousand pounds per annum. But, as Canaan was to be a servant of servants, so I must have been a tenant of tenants. Finding nothing could be done with the earth- holders, I turned my eyes another way, and determined to build my stories in the heaven, (Amos ix. 6,) where I should find more room and less rent : and to this my friends agreed ; namely, to raise the chapel one story higher, and to carry a flight of galleries all round it. The next thing was to find out a man to execute this design, and one was soon pitched upon as capable of the undertaking. But what I wanted to get at most, was whereabouts the expense would be : For the destruction of the poor is their poverty. Besides, my shoulders having been kept raw for seven or eight years together, and it was but lately that they had begun to heal, and remaining exceeding sore and tender, I was more afraid of another burden than I was of the heat of the day, lest it should terminate in an abscess, and I should be -left to the accusations of the devil as an incura- ble. But, when the expense was named, it did not appear so alarming; he told me he thought it would amount to four hundred pounds; this was a shoeing-horn, only to draw me on. But, as the person often sat under me as a hearer, I thought it was not likely that one who could face the rays of light, and stand the force of truth, would, or could, willingly and wilfully deceive a servant of Christ : But 170 THE BANK OP FAITH. their inward thought and heart is deep; (Psalm Ixiv. 6:) sharper than a thorn hedge. Mic. vii. 4. When wisdom wakes Suspicion sleeps at wisdom's gate, And up to simplicity resigns her charge : Where Goodness thinks no ill where no ill seems. MILTON. We must not measure every body's corn by our own bushel; those who can make the ephah small and shekel great, will abide by their own standard, till they have filled up the measure of the fathers. However, we began and went on with the work. Hith- *erto the tub had stood upon its own bottom ; or, in other words, I had not only the care of the church, the care of a large family, and for a long time the principal care of the poor, till they made me poorer than themselves ; but I had, also, the whole burden of chapel debt, and ten thousand cares how to get that burden off. Many, perceiving that it was with the greatest reluctance that I bowed my shoulders the second time, advised me to try the liberality of my friends, and to see if they would not put their shoulders to the work. To this I readily agreed : but we determined to move only in the circle of our own acquaintance, or to call upon such, and only such, as attended my ministry, leaving other ministers to enjoy their own fleece ; and by this rule we abode : into any other little hill of Zion, into the way of the Gentiles, or into any of the cities of the Samaritans, we entered not. To begging, therefore, we went ; and as the work of the chapel went on, so I saw more and more the necessity of pursuing this calling : for I shortly per- ceived that I was in the hands of a man who could have no feeling for my shoulders, nor any more mercy upon my pocket than an angry God will have upon a hypocrite in THE BANK OF FAITH. 171 Zion ; and, to the honor of God and the credit of his peo- ple be it spoken, there was not one we visited that frowned upon us, or that showed an angry countenance, or that sent us empty away. They were as generous to me with their pocket as I am to them with a springing cruse in the pulpit, and we found begging to be a delightful employ. Besides, God kept us so happy in visiting the brethren, that we sowed many spiritual things while we reaped carnal ; so that they were as glad to see us as we were to rob them ; and after a few of these trading tours we came to a conclusion of the business ; and when we sat down under the hedge, and had put the money into our hats, and had counted it up, we found it to amount to the total sum of seven hundred pounds : so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed, not only over books of curious arts, but over the root of all evil. But all this wonderful and unexpected liberality was far from being sufficient to enable me to go upright : I must still bow my shoulders to bear, and become a servant to tribute. Gen. xlix. 15. For, when the work was finished, and the bills brought in, the four hundred was swelled to that degree that it amounted to one thousand two hundred and thirty pounds ! I believe it to be the best job, and the worst, that ever he took in hand. I cannot forget it, nor do I believe that ever he will. By these exorbitant charges my debts were greatly increased : but the reason he as- signed for it was, that I had given the men so much victuals and drink that they wasted much of his time in consuming it ; and, though he and his sons shared in my liberality, yet he made me redeem the time they lost, because my bounty was evil : nevertheless, I would sooner bear the burden of a thousand such bills, than the weight of such a builder's conscience. The remains of my old debt were upwards of three hundred pounds ; this new addition was five hundred 172 THE BANK OF FAITH. and thirty : and these, together with small debts contracted while this work was doing (besides my liberality to the men,) made the weight of my future burden amount to about nine hundred pounds. With this load I began my second stage; but before I had travelled far an additional weight was added. I had got together one hundred pounds, and I had it in my pocket, intending in a day or two to pay it away. A friend of .mine (falsely so called) knew this, and on the Lord's day morning came into the vestry to me, and in- formed me that a person whom I respected was going to be arrested for the small sum of sixty pounds, and pressed me hard to lend, him the money I then had in my pocket. I told him I was altogether a stranger to the gentleman's circumstances : " But," says he, " I am not, and had I a thousand pounds I would lend it him." I replied, " I have no objection. to lend it to you." Upon this a friend in the vestry interfered, and took him to task for dragging the money from me. Nevertheless, he followed me up : but I still replied, " I am willing to lend it to you." And at last he replied, " Well, do then." So I gave it him. In the evening he came into the vestry to me, with such a counte- nance as I shall never forget, and put a scrap of paper doubled up down upon the table, and departed : which, when I examined, I found to be the gentleman's note, not his own. In a few days after the gentleman failed in busi- ness, and went to prison, and then the whole matter came to light. The person who was in danger of losing the sixty pounds, was brother-in-law to him who squeezed the money from me: so that the plan was well laid, and well executed. He that pressed me to lend the money was worth some thousands himself, and so was he that got in his sixty pound debt, and I had one hundred pounds more added to the other nine, which set me down within twenty or thirty THE BANK OF FAIT pounds of the same sum with which I started at first. The men of this world arc in their generation wisei^than the. **^, children of light ; and yet one child of light is wiser than all the men of this generation. Finding this recruiting of the burden to sit very heavy, except at times when much favored with the presence of God, and it being such a matter for the old accuser to work upon in every time of trouble, I determined to take an account of my books, I mean my own publications; and when this was done, and the value of the stock cast up, I found I had eight hundred pounds worth of books, and the stationer and printer both clear. I resolved with myself to part with them, and with my copy-right : and here I had various struggles between feeling for self, and feeling for others ; I thought, on the one hand, that rny books might be of some service to the large family I might leave behind, never expecting to leave them any thing else ; and, on the other hand, being continually in debt was a sore burden, and the fears of dying so would not suffer me at times to sleep. I therefore resolved to part with them ; but then who to apply to was the next thing to be considered ; and I , knew that whoever bought them had need of some money, as some of them would lie long on their hands, which I also considered ; and afterwards I fixed the price in my own mind, which was four hundred pounds, no more nor less ; and then I mentioned it to a gentleman of the city, who agreed to take them, and who paid me the money ; and this reduced my debt to somewhat less than six hundred pounds. Soon after this, the gentleman who failed in bus- iness above mentioned, who had my hundred pounds, sent me fifty pounds of it back again, which was all he could ever pay, and this was more than I ever expected. A kind friend of mine, at the other end of the town, about this 174 THE BANK OF FAITH. time gave me twenty pounds, and another sent me ten pounds ; and now I was enabled to diminish my debt to the sum of five hundred pounds ; and there it remained for a long time, without either addition or diminution. In the mean time I continually entreated the Lord to let his good- ness pass before me, and to enable his own servant to answer all just demands that might be made upon me ; and, bless his Majesty, in his own time he did, as will appear in my next. Farewell, mercy and peace be with thee : so prays Ever thine in the Lord, W. H. S. S. LETTER VI. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Dear Fiiend in the beat of Bonds : You may say of me at the reception of this, as Joseph's brethren said at the sight of him, Behold, the dreamer cometh; for the ensuing contents were prefaced with a dream. I one night dreamed that I was in a garden in company with another person, but know not who that per- son was. This garden was some part walled, and some part of the walls was in ruins : some parts of the garden were cultivated, well cropped and planted, and the plants were in a very thriving condition. Other parts were undug, very foul, and covered over with various heaps of rubbish, and with many old slabs of oak timber thrown about, and on these uncultivated parts I saw a vast number of large black toads, as big as a Jersey croppo : I was not in this ground as an idle spectator, but as a laborer, digging, plant- ing, &-c. I got hold of a tool resembling a gardener's edging-iron, and advised the man who was with me to help me in killing these reptiles; and we both laid about us like madmen ; and I saw that I laid the back of every one open that I struck at ; and as we were killing these I saw others creeping away, some under the old slabs, and others in among the old bricks which lay in the heaps of rubbish ; and, having killed all we saw, I said, Now let us dig, and clear away all these parts where the toads lay, and let us sow and plant them ; and when we have done that, then we will fall upon the others ; we will turn over a slab at a time and kill all we find, and then we will have at them that are hid in the rubbish. To this we agreed, and to digging we 176 THE BANK OF FAITH. ,went; but laboring, as I thought, exceeding hard, I woke myself, and behold it was a dream. Mr. Jermine, at Pad- dington, and Morgan, one of my pew-openers, were that morning brewing for me, and to them I told the dream, but none of us could make any thing of it. It came to pass soon after this that a gentleman from Plymouth-dock came to town, and who often attended my ministry during his stay ; and before he departed he wrote me a very kind letter, inviting me to preach at a meeting at the dock, to which himself and some of his family belonged ; and gave me to understand that he thought they had the gospel tolerably clear preached to them. This I considered ; and, having formerly had various invitations to go to that part of the country, signed by many persons, I was inclined to go ; and I have no doubt now but it really was the mind and will of God that I should go. But being sometimes much put to it to get a supply in my absence, and the good man's letter intimating that he thought the preacher they had was sound in doctrine, and useful in the work, I thought it best to agree with the old gentleman's request, to let their preacher come up and officiate for me in my absence ; and this was agreed on, and I took my journey. But, previous to my going down, I had been much grieved and exercised in my mind at seeing the rapid progress of the sentiments and rebellion of Tom Paine; and especially when I saw some simple, God-fearing people much leavened with it. Never did I see so evil a spirit so rapidly spread before, and I hope I never shall again : many of the poorer sort neglected all business, and all care for their families, till they brought death into .the pot. And many of the real children of God, when they saw that whole families and crowded societies were all moved as the trees of the wood are moved, and that many ministers in the pulpit, and THE BANK OF FAITH. 177 swarms of hypocrites in the pews, were carried away with it it tarnished not a few in the simplicity of the gospel; and the image of Christ began to be sadly defaced in many ; and instead thereof sprung up self-conceit, worldly wisdom, high notions of equality, and a thirst for revenge against all that differed in sentiment from them. Many professing people,, as well as others, began to meet together in compa- nies to read the wisdom of Tom Paine, till the strongest union was cemented among them by disaffection to others : wherever it came it preyed upon the very vitals of godli- ness ; filial fear, tenaerness of heart, conscience before God, timidity in prayer, self-diffidence, humility, meekness, watch- fulness, quietude, peace, diligence in business, zeal for God, and fervor in devotion, seemed to have forsaken many ; and not a few that my soul loved were sadly fermented with this leaven of malice and wickedness. Satan cares. not what we strive and contend about, so that we do not strive at the straight gate, nor contend for the faith of the saints. When I saw what a hand the devil made, and the advantage he gained by trading with Tom Paine, my soul was grieved and my zeal inflamed against this monopoly of Satan, and God filled me with power and might by his Spirit to oppose it; and the farther I went on in it the more the word of God opened to me, until he was pleased to show me where- abouts in his word this trying hour stood. Much displeasure did I incur at this work : some (like the Galatians) who would formerly have parted with their own eyes for me, now viewed me as their greatest enemy for enforcing the clearest truth; not a few hissed like a viper in the gallery, while I was insisting on obedience to him that bruised the serpent's tyead. About this time I published my sermon on The Books and the Parchments, and this exasperated many still more, till one would have 23 178 THE BANK OF FAITH. thought that the former cry of Hosanna, was now changed into that of Crucify him, Crucify him. But God's servants have a better foundation than either the testimony or the applause of men. I was upon the rock long before either their applause or reproach fell upon me. The Jews re- joicing in John's light added nothing to his grace, and their changing their minds and calling him a devil never .altered his complexion. What God doctli it is done for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it ; and God doth it that men might fear bcforehim. Eccl. iii. 14. In the midst of this bustle, and under this cloud of pleas- ure, I set off for Plymouth-dock, and the preacher at the dock came up as a supply in my absence. The man was an entire stranger to me, and so he remains still, for to this day I do not know him. When I came to the place I heard that there had been a division and a sub-division among the people, which I never knew till then ; and during my stay there I had various reports from those of my own chapel, some greatly disgusted at his doctrine, and others as much admiring it ; but before I left the place I heard very disa- greeable things from a real friend of his own, who was compelled in point of conscience to divulge what he did. This sent me home with a heavy heart ; and at rny return I saw a wonderful blaze, but I was sure the coals were never taken from the altar of burnt-offering; they were zealously affected, but not well. Wild rant and empty oratory, moving the corrupt affections of depraved nature, produced all these sparks ; and many poor souls walked in the light of this fire, and in the sparks that they had kin- dled ; but the light of this flame burns no longer than the audible accents of the orator operate ; it all dies before the hearer can reach the threshold of his door ; and at a dying hour, and at the midnight cry, the very remembrance of it THE BANK OF FAITH. 179 shall vanish. Walk in the light of your Jire, and in the sparks that you have kindled; this shall you have at my hand, you shall lie down in sorrow. Isa. 1. 11. I had all . these briars and thorns to cope with. And surely the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear, and they shall be utterly burnt in the same place. 2 Sam. xxiii. 6, 7. When I insisted upon fire from the altar of burnt-offer- ing, and that it appertained to the tribe of Eevi, or to them that were joined to the Lord, to burn incense, this brought the whole company of Korah upon me ; and, if I enforced obedience to rulers for conscience' sake, this stirred up all the disciples of Tom Paine. And now I had need be made a new sharp threshing-instrument, having teeth, to thresh these mountains, and make these hills as chaff; in order to fan them, that the wind might carry them away, and that the whirlwind might scatter them, that those that were left might rejoice in flie Lord, and glory in the Holy One of Israel. Isa. xli. 15, 16. And by the good hand of our God upon us we saw every word of this prophecy exactly ful- filled ; for as the thffesher went on the vermin hissed in the mow, the chaff flew like smoke out of the chimney, while the pure grain fell not to the ground, but under a spirit of meekness consolidated together into one heap, and the rest were scattered in the imagination of their hearts, and soon after not less than fifteen were in their graves. While it pleased God to continue me at this work of threshing, the Holy Ghost spoke these words to my heart : Shall not God avenge his own elect? A word spoken in due season, how good is it? I thanked my God, and took courage still to labor at threshing the mountains, expecting more, wheat as soon as the chaff was gone : for I had not a single doubt but I should still prophesy upon the thick boughs. In this 180 THE BANK OF FAITH. I was not disappointed of my hopes, nor were my expecta- tions out off; for, when the floor was purged, those that were scattered sent for this new standard-bearer up, with many promises of fidelity. But those who are false to the true riches are never true to the unrighteous mammon, for they abode less time under him than thy did under me. And sure I am that this work was of God ; for some few among us, who were much looked up to as something more than men, were now looked away from as being less than nothing : others, who had some exalting notions of their own self-sufficiency to tread out the corn, set up a prayer- meeting, as an introduction to the pulpit : but, not succeed- ing in this, with shame they took the loioest room; while many poor honest souls, who could read only the Bible before, now learnt to read men ; and not a few, who long had appeared all meekness and placidity, lost that garb, and the envy in their bosom never suffered them to put it on again. In the torm I had a five hundred pound debt upon the chapel, and many, filled with envy, prophesied that I should carry that burden to my grave : but all men know not the thoughts of the Lord. I one^day, sitting in my chair in the chapel, asked the Almighty what I had done to these men, wherein I had misled them, or whom I had wronged? And the Spirit of God answered, When they shall make an end to deal treacherously, thou shalt deal treacherously with them. Isa. xxxiii. 1. And so it fell out, for not a few acted the parts of Sanballat and Tobiah; when they grew weary and ashamed of hindering the work, turned about and offered to assist in building : but there is little trust to be put in men whose hearts are not fixed trusting in God. But time fails ; I must therefore take my leave of my dearly beloved friend, with my best wishes attending these THE BANK OF FAITH. 181 scraps; and, as you seem pleased with them, and are no great admirer of money, the postman will, in all probability, call for another Eighteen Pence,. as soon as my head and my hands can collect materials for another packet, which in time will bring you to live by faith, as well as Your humble servant, W. H. S. S. LETTER VII. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Dearly beloved in the Lord Jesus : AFTER some persons, who had done me much wrong, were returning, and offering to assist, I had another dream, or rather the old dream exhibited over again. I dreamed that I was in the same piece of ground that I was in before : I was standing in the middle of the garden, where it was well planted, and in a very flourishing state, while the out- sides all round were covered with heaps of rubbish, in which the large black toads were hid; to clear away that rubbish, and carry it forth without the walls, and to kill the toads, was the work then in hand. And it was made out to me, that those who grieved for the afflictions of Joseph, and bemoaned his son Ephraim, to them God would restore comfort; and that those who were glad at Zion's calamities must be left to the punishment of the Lord : He that re- ceiveth you receiveth me, says Christ, and he that despiscth you despiseth me. We therefore united as one man and separated the despisers from the receivers ; the living stones they cleaved together, and the rubbish we conveyed with- out the pale. To accomplish this work was Absalom suf- fered to rise up against David in Jerusalem, and for the same cause were the false apostles permitted to enter the church of Corinth. During this time it- was the work of Samson to make sport for the Philistines : I was long the principal subject of a Sunday's newspaper ; and for some years was I baited weekly or monthly by a club of pouters, who hired the THE BANK OP FAITH. 183 Westminster Forum for that purpose ; and if I have been rightly informed, the chief men of the club, assisted by a few hand-bills, have cleared thirty pounds on an eve- ning, by a crowded mob paying sixpence per head for the entertainment ; thus one way or other, have I kept fools alive in their continual sport for upwards of seven years together, besides bringing bread to their cupboard ; many of whom would no doubt have suffered want, had not the grace of God raised me up to lend them this assistance, which they had never gratitude enough to acknowledge. Nor are these ungrateful ones the only set of men who are indebted to me : many of our young spurious missiona- ries, who spring up in a night and wither in a day, when they have come to town to preach, have been sadly at a loss at times to fill up thirty or forty minutes, when a few throws at me have made matters hang together ; and this must pass for a watering time. But to return. While numbers were rejoicing at the thinness of the con- gregation, and at the apparent diminution of my income, God moved the hearts of my friends to contribute among themselves to clear off the debt of the chapel : they gave me near four hundred pounds, and in a little time after a person left me two hundred more by will. This at once cleared the whole debt, and left me something in hand. It is a bad wind that blows good to none. By this fanning wind God not only purged the floor, but my debt also ; for many of the Lord's people, who stood for some time amaz- ed at the strange flame, and as -it were halting between two opinions, were brought to a conclusion, by seeing how soon the candle of the wicked went out; it was quenched at once, and we heard no more of it, and then the affections of the people came back to me : which put me in Paul's path of experience, when he said, But I rejoice in the Lord 184 THE BANK OF FAITH. greatly, that now at last your care for me hath flourished again, (Phil. iv. 10,) for they even spoke to the gentleman to whom I sold my books, and he sold them back to them, and contributed handsomely himself; they not only sub- scribed to buy the books, but raised a fund to reprint some that were out of print. God hath given us all things in Christ: For your shame you shall have double, and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion ; therefore in their land they shall possess double ; everlasting joy shall be unto them. Isai. Ixi. 7. I had long entreated the Lord to remove this load from my shoulders ; and by terrible things in righteousness did the God of my salvation answer me ; who is the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea. Psalm Ixv. 5. But the good hand of my God stopped not here. I had told the whole company that rose up against me, and that publicly in the chapel, that so far from their being able to pull me down, they must not wonder to see me in my coach when old age came on me ; nor was the hand of God with- drawn till this came to pass. Upon the house I then lived in, and on the garden, I had not expended less than three hundred pounds ; my lease was only for the term of seven years; but as I gave the landlord all the rent he asked, and paid it punctually every quarter, I had no doubt he was contented with his tenant ; yea, so much so, that he wished me to get a tenant that I liked to occupy the other house which joined to mine ; and moreover told a friend who paid him my rent, that I might prolong my lease whenever I would, so that I thought myself secure enough. But this it not the first time that I have trusted in man, in whom there is no help. It fell out that one night, while I was at Bolney in Sussex, I had a dream : I dreamed that I was standing in my yard 41 the back side of my house, and all on t THE BANK OP FAITH. 185 a sudden I saw my house fall to the ground : it fell with the front downwards, and in my dream I saw it when it was down, and I stood neither alarmed nor concerned about it; and soon I awoke, and behold it was a dream. And as I seemed so composed about the fall of it, I thought that nei- ther me nor my family would be hurt by this fall, whatever it meant. The next morning at breakfast, I told the gen- tleman'? family, at whose house I was, the dream ; but we could make nothing of it. When I returned home, my dame informed me that my landlord had been to inquire after me ; and in a day or two he came again to inform me that he was going to sell his houses. I desired him to bring a builder, and I would get another, and they two should value the house ; to this he agreed. But in stead of two builders meeting, he brought up an auctioneer, who set the price of my house at nine hundred pounds ; whereas, not many years before, both of them were sold for four hun- dred pounds, and at that time they were let for twenty pounds a year each. The auction came on, and they were sold ; and if I remember right, my house fetched six hun- dred guineas, and the other four hundred and fifty pounds ; my improvements made that difference. My lease being nearly out, I had another habitation to seek, and went two days, but in vain, as I wanted some rural and retired spot. A few friends, seeing the lease of my present residence advertised to be sold, went (unknown to me) to see it, and much approved of it. But my pen must stop ; I have again exceeded the bounds of a letter. Dearly beloved and longed-for, my joy and crown, stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved; so prays Your affectionate friend, W H. S. S. LETTER VIII. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Dear Friend in the Lord : I AM contriving to put thee to a little more expense ; and, if I continue at this rate, I shall make you as poor as myself. Except the old H is a little more prolific than in the last year, twins will never do ; but, as money is no part of your God, I shall venture. After my friends had been once or twice to see the house they informed me of it, and advised me to go and see it ; which I did : but the concern appeared so weighty, that I set myself against it to the utmost, remembering my former affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall ; nor was there one in all my family who approved of it but Dame, the distance appeared so far from town. However, my friends mightily pressed me to it ; ami.as the time drew nigh when the lease was to be sold, they determined to attend the sale.* I prayed day and night that they might not succeed in buying it, and charged them to bid no higher than thirty pounds ; but they resolved among themselves to bid to seventy pounds. It was put up at five pounds, and there was not one bidder till one of my friends bid the five pounds, and it was knocked down to him. At this time I had another dream. I dreamed I was in a large room, and the room was full of serpents, and the bodies of the ser- pents were divided at the middle and so each of them had two necks and two heads ; and many of them crawled furiously up to me open-mouthed, but not one of them bit me ; nor was I at all terrified at them. I awaked, and be- THE BANK OP FAITH. 187 held it was a dream. But, when I came to see the per- son that I had to deal with, the dream came fresh into my mind. I saw the serpent ; and I had no doubt but that there were more heads than one ; yea, many in union with him. There are serpents, and a generation of vipers ; and Christ says they are of their father. And never, in this world, did I see so great a likeness of him. The things on the premises were to be taken by an appraisement ; the good man was to choose one, and I the other. I had, in my own mind, fixed upon one in much practice ; and, had I made choice ofrhim, I should have added a third head to the crooked fraternity. But this* was not to be ; my God will have a hand in all my affairs ; and I was directed by him to inquire after another of great note, and who stands very high and honorable in his profession. And this gentleman was well acquainted with the reptile that I had to deal with. The gentleman that he employed went through the work first, and the person who was for me soon went after him ; and, when they met upon the business, they could not agree together so as to settle the affairs. During which time my kind friend with two heads very politely offered me possession of the premises, and urged the necessity of it, as the second crop of grass was fit to cut, which I well knew, and took it very kindly of him from one of his heads ; but I could not take my eye from the other, being not ignorant of Satan's devices ; and, suspecting that I must be brought to submit to any terms after I had taken possession, I therefore declined it till the matters could be properly adjusted. The principal matter in debate was respecting a small quantity of manure, worth about six pounds, and which, according to the tenor of the lease, should have been laid on the land before that period. My appraiser would not allow me to pay for that, 188 THE BANK OF FAITH. and at last he carried his point ; and, striking the dung and other matters off from the inventory, they both agreed, and for the stock and fixtures I paid three hundred and seventy pounds ; and then took possession with all the formalities and punctilios of human laws, my attorney and friends being present with me. And now I must beg my dearly beloved friend's pardon for digressing a little from my intended subject, in order to pursue this wriggling family a little farther, and to convince thee that what God showed me in vision he afterwards showed me in reality ; or, to speak more plainly, I really saw with my bodily eyes those very creatures creeping upon the earth, which at first appeared only in imagination ; for I had not been long in possession of my new habitation before I received a squib, or rather a cracker, for there were many folds and doubles in its meaning. It came from an honest lawyer. The contents were, " That he was absent from town at the settling of our affairs; that the notion of not paying for the dung was a false one ; and that, if he had been at the meeting, his client should have been paid. And farther, he wished to know what I thought of the matter." This opened the monstrous mystery of .wo heads a little more plainly. A secret something within told me to take no notice of this. I showed the letter to Father Green; and Mrs. Green said she knew the honest lawyer well, and spoke very highly of his wisdom in his profession, telling me that her former husband, who died a member with us, had lent a person twenty pounds ; and as the borrower proved a villain, her husband employed this honest attorney to recover the mon- ey : but he never recovered one farthing of it, only brought in a bill of twenty pounds more for his trying, or not trying, to get it. And surely, if the unjust steward in the gospel, THE BANK OF FAITH. 189 for reducing the debts of his lord's debtors to nearly half the amount, be commended because he had done wisely, this good man has a right to the same honor ; for he just doubled the debt, and got the same sum of his client for himself that the debtor had cheated him of before. But to return. The silent contempt that I poured upon this three- and-fourpenny squib brought another scrap of the same price, "desiring to know where my attorney lived, that, as I chose to remain silent and come to no terms, he might debate the matter with him," &c. I took the wise man's counsel ; I still held my peace, that I might be esteemed a man of understanding ; for he that opcncth wide his lips (in such cases) shall have destruction. Prov. xiii. 3. Soon after I was served with a something, I know not what, as it was a text that I had never handled ; but I remember one of the heads of the subject was " forty pounds for dung." After some little trouble of collecting witnesses and some few materials together, it came into Westminster Hall. My antagonist seemed quite in his element. Courts of law were his sunny banks, where he folded himself in many a coil, and raised his crest to such a Freight, that he was heard by my friends to say that he knew law enough for twenty men. I would to God that he had been taught a few lessons from the old lawgiver of the Jews. Moses would have made him talk less and do more. However, these laws are still to be learnt, and must be learnt, sooner or later, by all the offspring of Adam, at the last and grand assize. When the matter came into court his counsellor began & to open his mouth, and to go en with the business, till the venerable judge stopped him, telling him he need not pro- ceed, for he had no foundation to go upon, and showed his reason for it; and added; "You must nonsuit him." Here 190 THE BANK OP FAITH. it ended for the present ; but soon after I heard that he had obtained a something, but I know not what, from the twelve judges. It was to try this matter over again, and to collect more forces for the trial. All this time I kept my eye upon my dream. I saw the creatures, and their mouths open; and I know that the scriptures say of the king of Babylon, Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them 1 Hab. ii. 7. And this is what I wanted to know, whether God would suffer these to bite as well as vex, and at last to make a booty of me*. In my dream they did not. After a time this trial came on again, and then a young man stepped forth, and swore and said, that the two apprai- sers could not, and did not, settle the matter, but it was left to be settled between me and my antagonist. This was another of the crooked ones. At which time the counsel for me gave the young man the inventory, and asked him who wrote that on the back of it? He replied, after some time, that he himself did. And the words were, " This is to certify, that no one thing crossed out in this inventory is to be paid for." Signed by himself. The venerable lord cried out, " Villany indeed!" Here it ended, with all cost and suit on his shoulders who wore the two heads. And I was informed that it cost the crooked one two hun- dred and seventy pounds. And all this time I was not once bitten. God speaks once, yea twice, in dreams, in visions, by his judgments, by his providence, by his Son, by his Spirit, and sometimes by his servants ; but, let him speak however he may, I set to rny seal that God is true. Having given my dearly beloved an account how the wonderful Counsellor brought his poor client through all the wisdom and hissing of this venomous brood, I must conclude this long scrawl, only adding, that yours came THE BANK OP FAITH. 191 safe to hand. Am sorry to hear of the late eclipse ; but he did so in the eastern countries as well as in ours, and in the days of old as well as now ; and so you read, He hold- eth back the face of Ids throne, and sprcadeth Ids cloud upon it. Job. xxyi. 9. But, when the sun breaks out again thou wilt shine brighter, and see better than ever. The path of the just shines more and more to perfect day. Seek him, with all thy soul, in the broad ways and in the narrow paths, as the spouse did. He would often withdraw himself when upon earth, and sometimes stay behind, and send the disciples off in a boat alone ; sometimes he went into a mountain by himself, and sometimes in a house, and would have no man know it : but the scriptures say, He could not be hid; for God the Father is determined to reveal him, let him go wherever he will. After him, follow him, call, knock, beg, importune, never give it up ; for, as God liveth, this is he whom Moses and the prophets did write of. Heaven itself is in him ; therefore find him again, and pur- sue him till you do, if you die in the pursuit. God the Father, and God the Holy Ghott, all the angels in heaven, and all the saints upon earth, are on your side while you are seeking him ; and, as for me, my dearly beloved, the language of my heart and soul, and every prayer of mine, is and shall be, Good success in the name of the Lord. W. H. S. S. LETTER IX. TO THE SPARROW ALONE. Dearly beloved of God : MY last epistle was pregnant with the disagreeable en- tanglements of the litigious, and of the windings and turn- ings of a crooked generation ; but, by the goodness of my God, I escaped with both my coat and my cloak. I must now prepare my stuff for removing. For some few years before I was married all my personal effects used to be carried in my hand, or on my shoulders, in one or two large handkerchiefs ; but, after marriage, for some few years, I used to carry all the goods that we had gotten on my shoulders in a large sack. But, when we moved from Thames Ditton to London, we loaded two large carts with furniture and other necessaries, besides a post-chaise well filled with children. But at this time God had given me such treasure in my sack, that it was increased to a multi- tude : we were almost a fortnight in getting away the stuff. The many things on the premises which I had to purchase, and the expenses that would attend my moving, together with rent for both houses for some time to come, had pre- viously exercised my mind not a little. And you know that I have always kept Claremarket, but never did any business at the Stocks-market in my life-; so that I could not look there for any supply. But I looked to the market in Hon- ey lane ; for his word has often been sweeter to me than honey or the honeycomb, for it contains the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come ; and here I never sought, I never looked, I never prayed in vain. God raised up a most invaluable friend, who richly supplied me, THE BANK OF FAITH. 193 and has long ministered to my necessities. But the trouble of moving drove me quite out of my element ; it interrupted my peace, scattered my thoughts, and prevented all medita- tion. The door of hope seemed tofce off the hooks, and the best members of the new man out of joint. I appeared quite unfurnished for the pulpit, and my mind too unsettled for any one branch of my delightful labor. No man that warretJi entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, says Paul ; and sad entanglements are all wordly concerns to a spiritual soldier. But if this world, and the domestic con- cerns of it, are a burden, and not a pleasure ; a vanity, and not a substance ; a vexation, and not a delight ; a rival, and not a real lover ; we must of course be crucified to it, and alive to him that was crucified in it. Being in some measure settled in my new habitation, I watched, and sought, and felt, after that Friend that loveth at all times ; and, blessed be his revered name, I found him. If I had failed in this I had been undone ; for he is our dwelling-place in all generations ; and sensible sinners have no sure dwelling nor quiet resting-place but this. But now many cares came on me. I was five miles from my chapel, and a cold winter was coming on ; and how to get my fam- ily so far to the house of God was my chief concern. A person of Streatham, in Surrey, had made me a present of a little sorrel horse, which is a most excellent creature, and would carry me very well ; but how to get a large family there was the difficulty. A man and his wife, whom I have been for some years acquainted with at Streatham, and who had managed a farm for a gentleman there had been for some time before this out of employ, through the gentle- man's letting his farm. I had spoken to two friends in Lon- don about joining with me in taking a farm, and putting him into it to manage it for us, for the sake of a dairy, &,c., 25 194 . THE BANK OF FAITH. to supply our three families ; but we could not hear of any such thing near town that would do for that purpose. The man and his wife therefore took a coal shed, and dealt in green grocery, &>c.