Son of God, the beloved of the Father, and he in whom he is for ever well pleased.

"O how inconceivably aggravated must the rejection of the gospel one day appear! May my dear, dear friend, so feel the weight of it now, as to fly from the wrath to come. May she be so reconciled to God's true character, and the character of the divine Redeemer, as to render him the chief of ten thousands, and altogether lovely in her view; while she beholds him magnifying the divine law, and making it honorable; vindicating the authority of God, and supporting the eternal throne of Deity.

"I am more and more confirmed, that there can be no true religion, or real happiness, any farther than the heart is really reconciled to the whole of the divine character. While there is a total alienation from the fountain and only source of perfection and happiness, there must be nothing but sin and misery. And while there is the least degree of this alienation and opposition it must be a constant source of pollution and unhappiness, which will, in a degree, taint and interrupt all our duties and enjoyments; though, blessed be God, there is a foundation laid in regeneration, by slaying the opposition and enmity of our hearts, for the highest perfection and enjoyment; and as far as we are reconciled and united to God, we enter into the beginning of a state of the most perfect holiness and consummate happiness, that our matures are capable of, when enlarged in the fountain of existence, to take in inconceivable communications from Deity, opening on vessels prepared for glory.

But O, where am I going! Why do I attempt what eye hath not seen, or ear heard; nor has my narrow, contracted heart, in any adequate degree, any conception of! May your superior powers, by the effectual operation of the Holy Spirit, be formed for, and enlarged in the divine, delightful, transforming contemplation, till you arrive to the most grand and noble height of holiness and happiness!

"I am, with much affection,

"Your much obliged friend,

"SUSA. ANTHONY."

The following extracts are from letters which she wrote to a

REVEREND SIR,

minister.

"Newport, July 15, 1770.

"I KNOW not what I shall be or do. I fear I am sinking into great stupidity; yea, that I am farther gone, than I was aware. I have indeed had relief from distressing conflicts; but I have misused and abused the mercy; and am even ready to covet them again : any thing rather than a sottish stupidity and carelessness. Conflicts often stir up the polluted fountain, and cause me to loath and abhor myself for all my abominations. But I fear my heart has since grown like a standing sink, which is not purged, but its scum remains. Some general abiding conviction I indeed have of great deficiency; especially in attending to Mr. Edwards on the nature of true virtue. When I come to separate or take away that sensation of secondary beauty, &c. natural conscience, and particular instincts in nature, alas, what have I left! So little, if any thing, that it scarce deserves the name, and appears less than the least of all seeds. Surely I and others have been greatly mistaken in me. Yet, even under this conviction, I find there is great want of a thorough, humbling sense of positive pollution, and universal depravity. My views are partial. My wretched, treacherous heart starts aside, and shifts off from full conviction.

"But will it not look unfriendly to attempt to lead you any farther into this horrid depth of my depraved, polluted heart, where you will find no bottom, or any way out? I will cease, and let it be for my own humiliation to dig into it, and search out its greater and greater abominations."

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,

"December 18, 1770.

"I THANK you for your kind, obliging letter, It has been inexpressibly affecting and welcome to your poor, vile, worthless friend. For though I know I am

utterly undeserving, yet I cannot help desiring the affection of my christian friends, even while I feel myself altogether unfit for any free conversation with them; and am ready to withdraw from them as a polluted, infectious leper. The strength, number, aggravation and infection of my sins, have been as an overflowing deluge. And I see myself unfit to have any thing to do with any but a Being of infinite patience and absolute purity, who can bear with me, and cannot possibly be polluted or tainted by my impurity, even in my nearest approaches to him. This is my comfort.

"O if it were not for the thought, that the infinitely wise and glorious Jehovah can bring good out of all this evil, and glory to himself from my dreadful wickedness, I should sink and die under it. For the thought of even my eternal interest being secure, seems to give me no relief. This is not the balsam that touches my wound. Here were opened some sources of comfort to me on the last Sabbath. And here, and here only, could I see myself of any importance, as the vilest wretch who ever lived is of importance to answer the great end of exalting and magnifying the exceeding greatness and riches of God's power and grace. O what superabounding grace must it eternally appear to be, to forgive such a guilty wretch as I am! to cleanse and sanctify such an amazingly polluted heart as mine is! and triumph, over all the infinite obstacles which lie in the way of my salvation! In this view, and in this only, at present, my salvation appears of any worth and importance: for I know I deserve the most dreadful and aggravated destruction : am nothing, and less than nothing, and of no importance, any further than God is glorified in me. But here I can only rejoice, that he will glorify himself in me; and not in the view that I in any respect glorify him.

O, sir, to see a soul so loaded with obligations; so bound by the strongest bonds; so urged by the most powerful motives and arguments, stupid, sottish and insensible; yea obstinate and opposing, is most astonishing! Yet not powerful enough suitably to rouse me from stupidity, or subdue the enmity of my carnal mind. These convictions force themselves upon me by the powerful pressure of undeniable facts and evi

dences but were they the genuine fruits of true self abhorrence and abasement, they would produce a better temper of soul, and would influence me to better obedience, and entire devotedness to God and his glory in my whole conduct.

"It is often a question that occurs, Whether such a dreadful heart as mine is can possibly be the new heart given in regeneration? But I suspect the inclination I sometimes feel to answer in the negative, arises from an unwillingness to admit the conviction of such aggravated guilt and vileness as bears in upon me, from the affirmative,

"But I will cease to lead your thoughts into a scene so dark and dreadful: and will yet rejoice, that I am in the hands of such an infinitely wise, glorious, and most worthy Being, who will secure his own glory, whatever becomes of me and all the advantages and obligations he has laid me under shall for ever justify his righteous procedures with me. If he say, he has no pleasure in me, he shall be glorious in his justice and righteousness; let him do to me, as seemeth good to him. I say, let God be glorified, and it is enough. But then, if I am sincere, why do I not glorify him? Why am I not some way active in this? But here I cease."

June 15, 1772.

"I NOW take my pen in hand to tell my dear friend, that I feel an inexpressible. happiness, that "Dominion is with Him." I have had a joy in this, this day, that has swallowed up every discouragement and grief. O what can I say, but expatiate on this most glorious truth! With Him, who is so infinitely excellent, amiable, worthy, wise and good, is dominion. The Lord reigns. Surely all heaven and earth may well rejoice, and rejoice for ever more. My soul says, it is enough! Happiness enough, not only for one immortal soul; but for myriads of enlarged, capacious spirits;

She had heard a sermon from these words the day before, preached by the Rev. Mr. Wales of Marshfield.

yea, the happiness of Jehovah himself. O shall this base, this guilty worm ever seek happiness aside from this! Now, let my thoughts roll where they will, they can centre with inexpressible delight, that dominion is with him. I love to dwell on these words; for I can express nothing equal to them. I want to have strength of body (or absence from it) and enlargement of capacity, without opposition of heart, to take in the full import of them.

"I have for the most part of late been either awfully and amazingly stupid, and had little or no sense of any thing, or such a view of my infinite guilt and vileness, the aggravation, strength and violence of my sin, as has filled me with the utmost confusion and astonishment. And while digging into the walls of greater and greater abominations, which have come up to view, I have been led to conclude, this, my own wickedness, ought to engross all my attention. But this has somehow betrayed me into an error; and I have not found that engaged, ness and enlargement for others, and my views of sovereign grace have been accordingly narrow and contracted, till the latter part of last week, reading in the xxxvith chapter of Ezekiel, what God had promised to do for the most wretched and guilty, and this for his own glory, gave me some strength and courage, and enlarged my desires. And now I see I may rejoice and triumph, and stretch my desires to unmeasurable, boundless grace, displayed in the highest degree to a guilty, ruined race, since dominion is with him."

66 DEAR SIR,

July 1, 1772.

"I JUST now came into my chamber to throw my feeble frame on the bed. But my thoughts have taken a turn to recreate myself by a moment's converse with you.

"I have been very feeble and broken this week; but supported, and, as it were, laid at rest on the bosom of divine compassion and faithfulness. O how tenderly does God deal with such an ungrateful wretch, and per