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ings of heart, forrows of mind, fainting fits, unbelieving fits, fits of love-fickness, fits of carnal and spiritual jealousy, hardness of heart, rebellion of heart, and ingratitude of heart; together with every other diforder, as the leprofy, the evil of the heart, the plague of the heart, and the plague of the head; together with deaf cars, blind eyes, feeble knees, languid hands, halting feet, and a ftiff neck; with many oppofitions, perfecutions, falfe charges, flanderous accufations, and vile reproaches; and have, by this fimple mean, got rid of them all at times. I have gone to this change with all forts of devils, as an unclean devil, a false preaching devil, a blafphemous devil, a reforming devil, a furious devil, a fawning devil, and a fleepy devil, and have left them in the hands of him that could manage them, when my ftrength has been all gone, and felf-defpair has feized me. All these, and thousands more, have I taken to this royal-exchange; and you know that one of the names of a believer is that of an exchanger (Matt. xxv. 27); and I have received in return thousands of kiffes, bleffings, mercies, and deliverances; many refrefhings, renewings, revivals, restorations, and returns of comfort, peace, love, and joy; together with fresh difcoveries, love tokens, wholesome truths, profound myfteries, glorious glimpses, bright prospects, terrestrial views, undoubted evidences, infallible proofs, heavenly leffons, confirming vifits, confpicuous deliverances,

earnefts,

earnests, pledges, and foretaftes, reviving cordials, precious promises, or bank notes, payable this day, and every day through life, and even to millions of ages after date, figned, fealed, and delivered, by Jehovah himfelf: and God knows, and conscience too, that I lie not.

Prayer has scattered many confederate enemies of my foul, marred the schemes of Jacobins, fruftrated the tokens of liars, and made diviners mad. It counteracts the defigns of Satan and his dear children; it hath made me the enemy of the world, the rival of impoftors, the envy of hypocrites, an eyefore to the devil, an admiration to perishing finners, a fpectacle to the world, and a wonder to myself. "He that prays to his Father, that feeth in fecret, fhall be rewarded openly."

By prayer the poor come up from the duft, and the beggar from the dunghill, and get a feat among the princes of God's people, and an inheritance in the throne of glory. Mental prayer hath brought me from fleeping in a barn to a comfortable lodging, from a lodging to a cottage, from a cottage to a house, and from a houfe to a little farm; it hath brought food for my need, apparel for my use, furniture for my dwelling, fuel to my hearth, money to my pocket, and faithful friends to my heart, and hath kept my pot boiling almoft thirty years. "For all thefe things I will be inquired of by the houfe of Ifrael, that I may do these things for them." Ezek. xxxvi. 37.

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Prayer brought me from the coal-barge to a pulpit, from being a fervant of fervants to be a ruler in the Lord's houfehold; it delivered my hands from the shovel, and my shoulders from the facks.

Yea, earneft defires hath raised four houses of prayer for God, and brought the prefence of God into the houses; it hath brought living waters to my well, oil to my crufe, joy to my heart, and a bleffing to many fouls. And what fhall I fay more? Why, prayer hath brought little animals to my fields, living creatures to my yard, a horf for my ufe, when the King's business requires haste, and a vehicle at my command in inclement weather. This has caufed the very abjects to gather together about me, and the eyes of the envious to look on me, who have seen it, and grieved, grudged, and gnafhed, and wandered down, and gone round the walls of my dwelling grinning like a dog. "No good thing will I withhold from them that walk uprightly.'

up

and

Prayer hath brought the fouls of fome, when departed, back into their bodies again. It engages the Almighty on the fide of the fuppliant, and eftablishes an alliance with God. It hath ftopped the bottles of heaven for three years and fix months, and opened them again at the expiration of that term; yea, and brought a miraculous plenty into the house of a poor widow, while deftruction and famine were riding all around in universal triumph,

triumph. "All things are poffible to him that believeth;"" and whatioever ye afk in prayer, believing, ye fhall receive."

Prayer hath brought health to the fick, hearing to the deaf, fpeech to the dumb, eyes to the blind, life to the dead, falvation to the loft; and even driven the devil himself from the heart of many, and brought the God of heaven to dwell in his

room.

Prayer is pouring out the foul before God, and fhewing him our troubles; it is cafting our cares upon him that careth for us, and our burdens upon him in whom we are to fay we have righteousness and ftrength; it is opening to our wellbeloved, opening our minds, our hearts, and our mouths, to him who tells us to let him hear our voice, and fee our faces, the one being fweet, and the other comely. This is beficging an everlasting kingdom, moving the throne of grace, and coming with a treble rat-tat at the door of mercy. In prayer we muft take no denial, if we have but, a feeling fenfe of our wants, a fcriptural warrant to go. upon, or one promise to plead; we muft. fue, argue, reafon, plead, fupplicate, intercede, confefs, acknowledge, thank, blefs, praife, adore, repeat, importune, obferve, take hold of, and turn every thing that we can to our own advantage, fo as we can but get fomething for the foul. Senfible finners, that are poor and needy, have gotten many invitations, encouragements, precedents, promifes,

the

the covenant, the oath of God, the merits of Chrift, and all his covenant engagements, undertakings, and performances; the covenant characters that he fuftains, his incarnation, and near relationship to us; together with all the glorious train of divine perfections found in the proclamation of the name of God to Moses; for they all harmonize and shine in Chrift crucified. Thus far I had written in this fecond epistle, my dear fifter, when your last letter came to hand. I fee where you are, and will endeavour to point it out to you.

And now observe: when God the Father is about to bring us, as his chofen children, to his dearly beloved Son, that we may be openly and experimentally espoused to him, he comes near to us in a broken law, as it is written, "Bleffed is the man whom thou chafteneft, O Lord, and teacheft him out of thy law, that thou mayeft give him reft from the days of adverfity, till the pit be digged up for the wicked." This reft from the days of adverfity is to be found only in Christ Jefus. He is our reft and our refreshing; and this reft Chrift promifes to them that are weary and heavy laden. This lading is fin, guilt, and wrath; and this labouring, and being weary of it, is our fruitless toil under the legal yoke; for the law works wrath and death in us, and this is truly hard labour; and, as we have no fuccefs in it, we faint, and get weary of it. This, my fifter, is our heavenly Father's teaching; and fo faith the

Saviour,

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