she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me,' ver. 15, 16. Consider also what the Lord saith in another place: Thy Maker is thine husband, (the Lord of Hosts is his name,) and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercy will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted; behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. In righteousness shalt thou be established; thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord,' Isaiah, liv. 5—17.

"It is a Christian duty to entertain very low and humble thoughts of thyself; but I tenderly caution thee, in the wisdom of God, to take heed of a satanical wile here, lest thou shouldst be tempted by the subtle adversary, because of thy unworthiness, to call in question the infinite mercy of God in Christ, when thou returnest to him by sincere repentance. For Christ is an all-sufficient, and an all-benevolent Saviour: there is no want of power, or of good-will in him, to save penitent sin

ners.

"1. No want of power: all power being given unto him in heaven and in earth. See Matt. xxviii. 18. Being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted,' Heb. ii. 18. 'He is also able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them,' Heb. vii. 25.

"2. No want of good-will: I am,' saith Christ, the light

of the world; he that followeth me shall not abide in darkness, but shall have the light of life,' John, viii. 12. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,' John, x. 10. 'I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep,' ver. 11. 'I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,' Matt. ix. 13. 'The son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost,' Luke, xix. 10. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world,' John, xii. 47. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,' John, iii. 16. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved,' ver. 17. Again, 'The Spirit of the Lord,' saith Christ, 'is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord,' Luke, iv. 18, 19.

6

"The Holy Scriptures abundantly testify of the good-will of Christ to penitent sinners, being 'not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,' 2 Pet. iii. 9. 'For to him,' saith Peter, 'give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him, shall receive remission of sins,' Acts, x. 43.

"And therefore his good-will is unto thee; for thou art One of the All, which are called to believe and repent: yea, thou art One of them for whom he died, and rose again, and ascended, and sitteth at the right hand of God, to make intercession for. It was with this comfortable cordial, that the apostle John revived the hearts of the little children or weak believers, under a sense of their sins, saying, 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world,' 1 John, ii. 1, 2.

"Objection. But the adversary may suggest to thee, That thou art an hypocrite, and 'an hypocrite shall not come before God,' Job, xiii. 16.

"Answer. When there is hypocrisy in the heart, the heart is not bowed down and broken before the Lord, under a sense of

its unfaithfulness to him: but where there is true brokenness and contrition of heart for sin, there is sincerity; and let sincerity be accompanied with earnest cries and supplications to God, for pardon and reconciliation with him, through Jesus Christ, and then our former hypocrisy shall be no bar to our acceptance with him. That saying therefore of Job relates to the finally impenitent hypocrite; not to him who turns from his hypocrisy, by true and unfeigned repentance.

"Objection. I am conscious to myself of many backslidings, and will the Lord have mercy upon such an one?

"Answer. Undoubtedly, upon the backslider's sincere return to the Lord for thus saith the Lord, to backsliding Israel, by the prophet Jeremiah, 'Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep mine anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God,' Jer. iii. 12, 13. 'He will heal thy backslidings and love thee freely.' See Hos. xiv. 4.

"My dear Friend, make no objections, I entreat thee, against either the length of my letter, or the many Scripture quotations; or, the repetitions I have used in it: for what I have written upon this occasion, is not the result of my sole reading and meditation; but what, I hope, I have received in waiting upon the Lord, in the use of those means he hath appointed.

"I have an high, yea, an higher esteem for the Holy Scriptures, than for any other writings extant whatsoever, and believe it to be my indispensable duty to be frequent in the perusal of them; but I give the preference to the immediate teachings of the holy Spirit in my heart, and have waited upon the Lord for his illumination, to open my understanding, that I might understand the Holy Scriptures to his glory, and thy peace and comfort, in this thy day of trial and distress.

"I conclude, with this fervent cry unto the Lord, that he will be graciously pleased to afford thee strength according to thy day, scatter the clouds that at present intercept thy comfortable enjoyment of his reconciled countenance, and restore the voice of spiritual joy and gladness to thine immortal soul; that thou mayst live to praise his most excellent name, all the days of thine abode in this earthly tabernacle; and hereafter, in the building of God, that house which is not made with hands, but

is eternal in the heavens, where there is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore. Amen, Amen, saith

“Thy truly sympathizing Friend and Brother,

"RICHARD CLARIDGE."

"George's Court, near Hick's Hall,

Middlesex, 5th of the First Month, 1722."

The last piece we find among his manuscripts, and which he lived not to finish, is part of a testimony, concerning his much honoured friend, that ancient and worthy man of God, George Whitehead being as follows.

"On the 13th day of the First Month, 1722, George Whitehead, aged about eighty-eight years, was buried from Devonshire-house meeting, in Friends' burying-ground near Bunhillfields. The meeting was very large, and his corpse was honourably interred, being attended by multitudes of Friends and others.

"The Lord had highly dignified him in his day, calling him about the sixteenth year of his age, to the acknowledgment of the blessed truth, and about the eighteenth, to bear a public testimony to it, in which testimony the Lord preserved him faithful unto the end of his days, which was on the 8th day of the First Month, called March, 1722-3.

"The Lord had bestowed upon him such a measure of his divine gifts, of faith, wisdom, judgment, understanding, selfdenial, patience, love, meekness, utterance, &c. that he was an instrument in his hand, to open blind eyes, and turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

"And as it pleased the Lord to make him an able minister of the New Testament; so his speech and his preaching was not in the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. So that when he spake, he spake as the oracles of God, and when he ministered, he did it as of the ability which God giveth. 1 Pet. iv. 11. He was not, as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight

of God, spake he in Christ. 2 Cor. ii. 17. His ministry was a sound and living ministry, and many yet living have a testimony thereunto, in their hearts and consciences. He was an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures, and fervent in the Spirit, Acts, xviii. 24, A good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and [through him] much people was added unto the Lord,' Acts, xi. 24.

"He was an elder, whom the Lord had anointed unto the spiritual and evangelical ministry, raised up among many others, near the first breaking forth of this gospel day, after a long night of apostasy, which had overspread this and other nations, with gross darkness in matters relating to Christianity.

"And though bonds and afflictions attended him, yet none of those things moved him, neither counted he his life dear unto himself, so that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry he had received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God, Acts, xx. 23, 24.

"For having this ministry, as he had received mercy, he fainted not; but renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, not handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2.”

Being now every day more sensible of an inward decay of strength, and expecting his near approaching dissolution, he revised his last will and testament, which he had kept by him several years, and ordered the same to be transcribed with some alterations; which being done, he signed and sealed it, on the 18th day of the month called April, 1723. The preamble to which will, being not a mere formal and customary course of words used on such occasions, but containing a sincere and substantial declaration of the well-grounded hope, and stable faith of a true Christian man, is here subjoined.

"Forasmuch as all men (the Man Christ Jesus excepted) have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, and there is