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was a means appointed to bring me to Mr. Walker, Mr. Painter bringing me [to you], for which I did not really love you at first, because such a life was entirely against my sinful and wicked nature, and we may both say it was good for us to be here, that the Lord was in it and we did not know it, for we may say that with you we had a Saviour, and a pardon, and eternal life preached in the name of Jesus. And surely if we do not accept of it, mercy shall not excuse us, because it did take pity on us, if we did but forsake sin; I mean in sparing us and bringing us to a place where we had so much conviction of our sins and misery; but I hope that we may have it to say that there is a balm in Truro, and a physician there. Therefore it must be all our own faults if we perish, for we indeed own and acknowledge that we had the way of God expounded to us plainly. I would advise my brethren soldiers1 that are with you not to neglect the means as I did, especially those who seem to have any concern for their souls; for if they do they may come to repent it, as I am just doing now. In case we are to stay here, I shall, if possible, God willing, see you in a short time; [if not,] you may be assured it is not for want of a good will, but for want of oppor tunity. Therefore, being in haste, I conclude, and so does Serjeant Moore, with our kind compliments to worthy Mr. Walker, our father in the Lord, not forgetting you and all the rest of our brethren that shall humble themselves so far as to [inquire] [after] us.

1 A detachment that came into Truro on the same day the first party left, with whom Mr. Walker and his good people were equally diligent during their short stay.

We wish [well for] all that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and they are in the prayers of us

who are

Yours, with esteem and regard,

JOHN MURD,

and

ROBERT MOORE.

These simple expressions of gratitude and Christian affection gave real joy to Mr. Walker, and will be read with pleasure by all those, who know the happiness arising from the consciousness of having been honored of God, by such seals to their labours of love.

The good minister of Truro experienced the pain, that every one in like circumstances is called to suffer, from constant backslidings among those who had commenced a course of religion. In him, however, every emotion, whether joyous or grievous, was productive of some valuable result; the scorching fire of trial and the refreshing dew of the divine blessing, seemed equally to fertilize his well cultivated mind. The fruit of his sorrow, under the frequent declensions he was called to witness, was a most valuable help to the discovery of symptoms of drawing back in the various states of spiritual progress. He divided the Christian life into three distinct stages, Infancy, Youth, and Manhood, and depicted the forerunners of decline in each, that the awful danger might be detected and avoided.

SYMPTOMS OF BACKSLIDING AND THeir remedIES, IN THE THREE DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, AS POINTED OUT BY MR. WALKER.

"First. In its state of Infancy, when the eyes are first opened to a serious view of the importance of religion, and to an unwonted solicitude about salvation; when the terms of wrath are discovered, and the soul is humbled with such a sense of its vileness, as to come (in the Scripture expression) in dust and ashes before God, crying to him for pardon, and resolving upon an entire change of life. Such a scene as this all persons must experience, though not all in the same degree, except those few happy people who, through the care of pious parents, may be said to have been born again from their cradles, and to have been brought to a hatred of sin, and flying from it in their tender years, and who withal have never fallen into any indifferent or wicked course afterwards. Your safety is in a growing conviction of your sin and vileness in such a state of infancy. I would desire you particularly to consider therefore, whether find your sorrows and uneasiness lessening, before your sins are subdued and heart changed? Whilst temptations plead strongly with you, your grief and dread are your only security. Whilst you are truly humbled and afflicted, you may be tempted, as no doubt you will; you may fall too in some measure, though not as formerly; but whilst the sense of sin oppresses you, you will be as safe as people in so dangerous a situa

you

tion can be. But if your fear and trembling begin to wear off, when yet you are not a match for your trials, you are not far from falling back. Your sorrow being removed, your care will proportionably lessen, and your calls for grace and pardon will be still weaker, till you give up the whole pretence you had to a religious life; your views of eternity will fade, your resolutions languish, and you will quickly run with your old and a worse insensibility, to the company of the former partners of your sins. Now if the sense of guilt must be kept alive till the custom of sin be worn out, it will be no difficult matter to preserve such an afflicting persuasion of your present state, of the eternal fire before you, and of the glorious heaven you have now become a candidate for. Think of the dying hour, and the sick bed, and that you know not how near the one and the other may be to you; think that the present call of God's grace may be to prepare you for them; think of God as your Creator and Lord, your Redeemer and Judge; think of him as having no pleasure in you. Should fall away, think of your past life with all attention, and call up the blackest circumstances of it, the days and years you have spent denying God, and ruining your perishing soul; let your thoughts be much upon this, and never imagine you have discovered enough of your iniquities, for indeed you have not discovered the smallest part of them. And to all these your constant thoughts, add as earnest and as frequent prayers to God as you can, and avoid all other but sober and religious conversation. Do this, and you shall not need fear but the sorrows of your heart shall be

you

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enlarged, till God shall deliver you out of your sins and troubles together.

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Secondly. Religion in an advanced state is as a time of youth, wherein men are, in a good degree, set at liberty from the power of their sins, and are free and active to bestir themselves, in gaining a more complete victory from day to day over their hidden iniquities; a state in which we may adventure with some degree of boldness to resist unavoidable temptations, whereas before we must fly from them for safety; a state in which sin having been avoided for a good season, it is notoriously not only unpractised but really hated and abhorred, and we begin to look upon it with an indifference we were before unacquainted with; [a state] wherein we can hear or see the follies and vanities, which formerly engrossed all our souls, with dislike rather than with indifference, and very coldly pass by the doors where our old sins dwelt, without having any secret temptation or desire to enter into them; a state, in a word, wherein we begin to taste the reasonable, peaceful comforts of our freedom, and find our pursuits and prospects directing all our conversation towards spiritual and heavenly things, being renewed in the temper of our souls. Now in this more advanced state, I suppose we may find the distressing terrors of guilt removed, and that our hopes have prevailed over our fears; and I suppose likewise that in a while, the violent spring which the soul took in the new satisfactions and gratifications it is now become [more] acquainted with, may by degrees grow weaker, and in the mean time the sensible comforts of godliness may improve themselves into more

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