84. - To James Ireland, Esq.

some pills, change of air, and moderate exercise, make the whole of my physical regimen, if you add bleeding.

With respect to my mind, I am calm, and wait in submission what the Lord will say concerning me. I wait to be baptized into all his fulness, and trust the word, the faithful word of his grace. Afflictions and shakes may be a ploughing necessary to make way for the heavenly seed, and to prepare me to bring some fruit in life, or in death. Whether it be in the former or in the latter, I hope I shall live and die the object of your love, and subject of your prayers, as you are of the cordial affection and good wishes of, my very dear friend, your devoted brother, and obliged companion in tribulation, J. FLETCHER.

84. - TO JAMES IRELAND, ESQ.

MADELEY, Sept. 7, 1776.

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND, - I thank you for your kind letter, and am glad you will continue to oppose bigotry, though I would not have you bring a whole house about your ears, for the sake of so insignificant a creature as I am. As many, who espouse the sentiments of my opponents, condemn me without having heard me out, and upon the dreadful charges which they have brought against me, they are not much to blame; for what good man can think well of a blasphemer, and an enemy to the Gospel? I hope, for my part, to do what shall be in my power to remove prejudices, and trust to gain some resignation and patience, by what I shall not be able to remove. God is my witness, that I honour and love them, though I will never part with my liberty of exposing error, wherever I shall detect it. Why might I not endeavour to take off a spot from a friend’s sleeve, without running the risk of losing his friendship, and incurring his ill will? My health is, I thank God, better than when I wrote last. I have not yet preached, rather from a sense of my duty to my friends, and high thoughts of Mr. Greaves’ labours, (who does the work of an evangelist to better purpose than I,) than to spare myself; for, if I am not mistaken, I am as able to do my work now, as I was a year ago.

A fortnight ago I paid a visit to West Bromwick: I ran away from the kindness of my parishioners, who oppressed me with tokens of their love. To me there is nothing so extremely trying as excessive kindness. I am of the king’s mind; when the people showed their love to him on his journey to Portsmouth, “I can bear,” he said, “the hissings of a London mob, but these shouts of joy are too much for me.” You, my dear friend, Mrs. Ireland, Mrs. Norman, and all your family, have put me to that severe trial, to which all trials caused by the hard words that have been spoken of me are nothing. I return you all my warmest thanks, and pray that, excess excepted, you may all meet, in the day of your weakness, as kind nurses and benefactors, as you have proved to me.

At our age, a recovery can be but a short reprieve: let us, then, give up ourselves daily to the Lord, as people who have no confidence in the flesh, and do not trust to to - morrow. I find my weakness, unprofitableness, and wretchedness, daily more and more; and the more I find them, the more need I have to sink into self abhorrence. Nor do I despair to sink one day so in it, as to die to self, and revive in my God. Farewell. J. FLETCHER.

85. - TO THE REV. MR. CHARLES WESLEY.

MADELEY, Sept. 15, 1776.

MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, - I lately consulted a pious gentleman, near Lichfield, famous for his skill in the disorders of the breast. He assures me I am in no immediate danger of a consumption of the lungs; and that my disorder is upon the nerves, in consequence of too much close thinking. He permitted me to write and preach in moderation, and gave me medicines, which, I think, are of service in taking off my feverish heats. My spitting of blood is stopped, and I may yet be spared to travel with you as an invalid. If God adds one inch to my span I see my calling. I desire to know nothing but Christ, and him crucified, revealed in the Spirit. I long to feel the utmost power of the Spirit’s dispensation; and I will endeavour to bear my testimony to the glory of that dispensation, both with my pen and tongue. Some of our injudicious or inattentive friends will probably charge me with novelty for it; but be that as it will, let us meekly stand for the truth as it is in Jesus, and trust the Lord for every thing. I thank God I feel so dead to popular applause, that, I trust, I should not be afraid to maintain a truth against all the world; and yet I dread to dissent from any child of God, and feel ready to condescend to every one. O what depths of humble love, and what heights of Gospel truth do I sometimes see! I want to sink into the former and rise into the latter. Help me by your example, letters, and