LETTER XXXV.
To Mr. .
Dear Mr. , Gibraltar, Feb. 25, 1738.
I Should think myself unworthy of your friendship, did I not send you a line now God has brought me in safety hither. I know you will give thanks, and therefore, God forbid I should sin against the Lord in not informing you of it.—Your prayers have already been heard; for God (ever adored be his free grace in Christ Jesus) hath been with us of a truth. He hath led us through the sea, as through a wilderness, and brought us to a haven, where I am honoured with many honours.—Any one that knows Gibraltar would be apt to say, Can any good come out from thence? Yes, I assure you, there may; for there are some that are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. About six o'clock this morning I went to the church, where was assembled a number of decent soldiers praying and singing psalms to Christ as God. They meet constantly three times a day, and I intend, God willing, henceforward to meet them. For my delight is in the saints who are in the earth, and those that excel in virtue. I have talked with some of them, and, blessed be God, can find the marks of the new birth in them. They pray without ceasing, have overcome the world, hate sin, as sin, love their enemies and one another. They glory in the cross of Christ, and rejoice that they are accounted worthy to suffer shame for the sake of Christ. O, who would but travel to see how the spirit of God is moving on the faces of poor sinners souls up and down the world! God, I find, has a people every where; Christ has a flock, though but a little flock, in all places.—God be praised, that we are of this flock, and that it will be our Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom!—Gibraltar is blessed with a governor, who hath not absented himself from public worship, unless when he was sick, for these seven years, and yet is very moderate towards the dissenters. Both conformists and nonconformists perform public worship, though at different times of the day, in the same place: They also have a religious society. The good Lord prosper this work of their hands upon them. Whenever we go away, may we leave a blessing behind us. He is a prayer-hearing God.—*
