allow that, for secret prayer, if you have the teaching of God's Spirit, you must know what you want without a book, as well as with one: and words are nothing; the heart is all: and they who are not taught by God's Spirit may read prayers, but cannot pray.....

"Since you left us our poor little boy has been very bad again, and I thought we should have lost him too but the Lord is gracious, and he has at length restored him.'.... Numbers here and at Ravenstone have had the fever; but none have died since our poor dear babe.2 The smallpox is very fatal at Olney :3 but we are preserved yet.. As to the money affair, the Lord's will be done. I shall have, to a farthing, as much as is good for

"It is no small surprise and concern to both myself and your sister, that we have never for so long a time heard any thing from you. I have waited from one week to another, expecting a letter every post, till I am almost ready to conclude, that either you have totally forgotten us, or have determined never to write to us any more. How is this? Have we offended in any thing? This I cannot suspect; for I am not at all conscious of having done any thing to give offence, except an over-anxious assiduity for what I judge (as doth

2

'Life, pp. 127, 132. (129, 135.) Ib. p. 682. (702.) Ib. p. 151. (154.)

D

your con mience,) your best welfare: nor do I think you are ely to be offended with me, believing you to be both good-natured and sufficiently partial to me, and satisfied of the uprightness of my intentions.-May I conjecture the reason? If I am mistaken, I hope you will not be offended, as I am solicitous about you, and fearful lest by any means the tempter have tempted you, and my labour should be in vain; which to me would be a great grief, and to you-I cannot express what.— Is not the case thus? When you had got home, and engaged afresh in worldly business, and got again among former companions, were you not carried away with the stream? Your impressions gradually wearing off, and conscience making fainter and fainter resistance, hath not your goodness proved like the morning dew that passeth away? Have not the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, choked the word, and prevented its bringing forth any fruit to perfection? Hath not this rendered reflection, especially on what you heard, saw, and thought at Weston, painful and therefore, because you do not well know what to say in answer to my last, you delay answering it from time to time.-I have so large an experience of the deceitfulness of my own heart, of sin, and of the world, of its enchanting, bewitching wiles, and of Satan's snares and traps; and have seen so many such things as this, that I cannot but suspect it: especially as you are not statedly under that preaching, which is calculated to rub off the rust and dulness that we are all apt to contract in our converse with a wicked world.-Oh how glad

should I be to find myself mistaken this! for God is my record how earnestly I lor. after you in the bowels of Jesus Christ; that 1 lo bear a true brotherly affection towards you, long for your welfare, and not wholly forget to pray for you, and still hope that my prayers shall be answered. Let me, I beg, hear from you; and let the Lord hear from you. If the case be as I fear, oh read and think over the parable of the returning prodigal, and take his wise resolution: follow his example, and you shall have a like success. But remember who has said, If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him; and, The last state of that man is worse than the first; and, It were better not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after having known it, to turn from the holy commandment.-The Lord now waits to be gracious; but read the latter part of the first chapter of Proverbs.-Forgive my earnestness: I know the importance of the case, and wish you as well as my own soul. Believe me, the ways of Christ are pleasantness, and all his paths peace.

"I this morning received a letter from your excellent sister. She has been very ill, but wonderfully happy in her affliction. She says, 'My body was weak, and full of pain; but my soul was strengthened with the comforts of a merciful God. I had no choice to live or die, but that it might be which way was most for the glory of God. When I was on my expected deathbed, nature seemed to mourn at the thoughts of being separated from my dear parents and friends; but the Lord soon made that no trouble to me, by

assuring me that to depart and be with Christ was for better. Would you, dear brother, have this peace and joy upon a sick and dying bed? Would you die the death of the righteous? (Who would not) Then let nothing divert you from living their life.....We have had the children inoculated, and they are recovered; but John has been very bad since of an ague, with dangerous symptoms, but he is now recovering; the Lord being gracious unto us, that we might not have sorrow upon sorrow......Believe me to be with best wishes, your most affectionate brother,

"THOMAS SCOTT."

"DEAR BROTHER,

"Weston Underwood, January 11, 1781.

THIS morning I took pen in hand to answer your former letter upon a halfsheet, not purposing to say very much upon religious matters: but, when I had about half done, I received your last; on which I threw the former letter into the fire, and have begun on a larger scale, being encouraged thereby to speak more freely and fully on the vastly important subject....

"And now for the most agreeable and suitable subject of your letters. I rejoice exceedingly at what you tell me concerning yourself. I would not say too much in the way of encouragement. -I will not venture to say that you are in a state of grace; that you are converted: I have seen hopeful awakenings wear off; therefore be jealous of yourself: Be not high-minded, but fear; press

1

gommos iɔ 5'. Life, p. 153. (157.)

forward, forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching forth to the things that are before: but I will venture to say, that your last letter has made my heart leap for joy, and led me confidently to hope for a happy issue, an effectual answer to the many prayers I have, and your sister has offered for you. I hope in time all will be answered. In a former letter you mentioned the world being too much for you, and you hint at the same again. I hope God will give you that faith which overcometh the world, which cannot otherwise be overcome: but the following considerations may be in God's hand a means of good. Man is a creature capable of eternal happiness or eternal misery: the few years of his life here bear no more, nor so much proportion to his whole duration, as one moment doth to a million of ages: consequently all the interests and pleasures of a man's life in this world bear not so much proportion to his eternal interests, as the value of a grain of wheat does to the empire of the universe. How infatuated therefore must we be, to give that the preference in our choice, which in our judgment we perceive to be infinitely contemptible and worthless in the comparison. In temporal concerns we are more wise, and know how to proportion our estimation of things to the time we are to enjoy them; and are not willing to give so much for a dinner at a nobleman's table, or a walk in his park, as we would for the inheritance of his estate. V. How blind and perverse and depraved therefore must man by nature be, who universally, in things spiritual and eternal, acts contrary to this plain dictate of common