glorious Emmanuel will be with you more and more. It is observable, that there is but one thing in scripture, that we are commanded to do out of season, preaching. Be instant therefore, dear Sir, in season and out of season. The Lord will stand by you and strengthen you, and deliver you from wicked and unreasonable men. You will find the blessedness of the cross, and the spirit of Christ and of glory to rest upon your soul. The Messrs. E and their adherents, would you think it, have appointed a publick fast to humble themselves, among other things, for my being received in Scotland, and for the delusion, as they term it, at Cambuslang, and other places; and all this, because I would not consent to preach only for them, till I had light into, and could take the solemn league and covenant.—But to what lengths may prejudice carry even good men?—From giving way to the first risings of bigotry and a party spirit, good Lord deliver us!
Your most affectionate brother in Christ, G. W.
LETTER CCCCXXXIII. To Mr. M A, at Morpeth.
Dear Sir, Edinburgh, July 26, 1742.
I Just now received and read your letter. It much affected me. It bespeaks the language of an uneasy restless heart. In reading it, I thought of the great Austin, who used, when he prayed against lust, secretly to wish that his prayer might not be answered, and yet he made a most eminent saint, and shone in the church as a star of the first magnitude. I likewise thought how our Saviour would receive you, if here on earth; even as he received and answered the poor woman taken in adultery.—I am sure he would say, "Neither do I condemn thee." Another text offers itself, "I will heal their backslidings, and love them freely." God does not say, I will heal thy backsliding for any certain term of years, but I will heal thy backslidings in general. Dear Sir, if you have been a backslider these fifty years, nay, was it possible for you to have been a backslider a thousand years, yet if with hearty repentance and true faith you turn unto him, he will abundantly pardon you. O dear Sir, if any one had need to despair of
