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No . II . Extracts from Letters . To Mr . J ohn Force * , As wick , 5 th ftfay , 1721 . N . B . After an account of difficulties in his ministry , he concludes thus : But whatever changes I am yet to pass
through , I know it cannot be long , and I hope I shall soon b £ above all the vicissitudes of time and chance , which happen to all men . I have not altogether escaped my share in the hatred , nor have been utterly destitute of the love of changeable men . But what is their love or hate to that of the
unchangeable God , whose I am , and whom I serve . " I hope , I take no anxious thought for to-morrow ; but labour to do my duty , leaving futurity and events to him , who knows how to rule them'all , so that none of his shall be losers by them . And yet I have been so used to put cases to myself , and erect
imaginary scenes of trial from all quarters , and in all forms ti : at I can think of , not to terrify but to season and prepare my mind to bear them the better , if they should any of them be real ; ( I have , been so used to this ) that I am apt to s . iy somewhat like what . / Eneas did * to the Sybil :
Non uUalaborum , O Virgo , novu mi facies inopinave surgit : Omni ^ priccepi , atque animo mccum ante peregi . . / Eneid , L . vi . v . 103 . l , ct me quickly hear from you .
Write me a long- letter ; for while I am reading , I am as it were with you . O . that we could live together ! but I trust we shall in those soft realms , to which we haste , above , where all the springs are joy , and all the mansion .- - love .
To a kinswoman , the wife of a minister , on her recovery from sickness . Goleibrd , 15 th Feb . ijzi . I cannot but hope and believe , that God who is the " length of our days , "
* A minister at Bovey 7 near Exeter .
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will be so merciful to my good brother in this day of visitation and affliction , as to give back the wife of hfs bosom into his arms again ; as thanks be to his holy name , he has done to me . Since
it was necessary now more than ever , that we should be crucified to the world and dead to its enjoyments , in comparison of those spiritual joys , which must be the life of our renewed souls , and give the relish to all other comforts ; it may be , God saw it
necessary for us , that we should be tried to the very extremity , before he interposed in mercy ; and that we should be brought to resign our dearest comforts , and to learn to enjoy them more as precarious and dependent streams of consolation , which the God of all consolation can in
a moment dry up ; and not as springs and founts ins , "which we are to expect ever to flow , as we are too apt to judge of all earthly enjoyments . I hope God has carried you by the borders of the , valley of the shadow of death , that life may be the less esteemed and yet better enjoyed . For certainly we lose that
comfort , which we might have in these inferior things , by our over-rating them . But when we are brought to resign them all in our hearts , before they are ravished from our arms , every day ' s possession will have a quicker relish and a purer one too . For then we consider not only the intrinsic value , but we consider them
as so many tokens of love also from our heavenly Father . With this frame of spirit , and always seasoned with this view of each other , may you and my wry dear friend and brother Hve many years in u the light of God ' s countenance / ' and the joys of his " loving kind ? iess ^ which are better" than life ! For you * ' to live , may it be Christ , " and " to die , unspeakable again /* Let
us " live" here *< by the faith of the Son of God / ' and u feel the power of his resurrection , " and ascension ce in newness of life / ' and mounting up after him in our desires and affections , be united
to him in the bonds of ardent , constrain * ing love , and seated " together "with him in heavenly places / ' in our close , frequent and exalted contemplation , and feel every day the weights drop off from our encumbered , and as yet too earthly souls , which are but spirits in prison ! and then whoever dies first of u * s , will have inexpressibly the best of it .
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£ 18 A Supplement to the Memoirs of the Rev . Hubert Stogdon .
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can only add ( and thou Lord knotvest thy servant , ) I hope , though " bonds and imprisonments" should ( C abide me , " for the cause of Christ and the gospel ; " none o £ these things should move me : " neither would cc I count my life dear / ' so I " may finish my cause with joy" and faithfulness ^ and the ministry I am about to receive .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1809, page 248, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1736/page/2/
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