God to give you to us again) may meet with the 1724. Wolves Spirit, or the Spirit of the Beaft, in fome or others among whom you may travel; then will the Counsel of Chrift, added to his Commiffion, be ' good for you to keep close to; Be ye wife as Serpents, but innocent or barmless as Doves.

And, dear Maidens, I look upon it as your Cross is great, you being two innocent, chafte young Women, to give up your Names to cross the Sea, which I know is a great Crofs to a chafte Woman, or Man either, the Seamen, too generally, being rude, diffolute People; fo your Crown will be 'great alfo. I have known that by keeping near to Christ, and his Truth and Power, there hath been 6 a wonderful Reformation divers Times in several of those rude Seamen; and fome have been so far • convinced, as to be exceedingly kind, and to fpeak well of Friends and their Converfation, when it has been coupled with the Fear and Wisdom of God. • When I have gone to Sea, I always found a religi⚫ous and Chriftian Concern upon me, for the poor • Sailors, the good Effects of which, have been much ⚫ more than I may fpeak of; but give this little Hint ⚫ for your Encouragement and Information.

• Well, dear Souls, if you go, I believe the Lord ‹ will go with you; and fure I am, that my Spirit • will go along with you, which will not hurt you, if

it do you no good. And altho' my Exercises and • Tribulations of late have been very great, both spi• ritual and natural, yet my very Heart within me ⚫ affects the Caufe of Chrift, according to the best of my Understanding; and I heartily with well to all my Fellow-Labourers, who are faithful, painful Servants of Chrift, and difinterested, except as to the • Intereft which they defire in Chrift and his Kingdom, ⚫ for the Sake of which, they love not their Lives unto • Death.

1724.

Chefter
County.

'I must now take Leave, after putting you in mind of remembring me, your poor Friend and Brother, when before the Throne you are fupplicating the Father of Mercies in fecret, even as my Heart is tenderly bowed and broken into Tears on your Behalf at this Time. The Lord be with you, and fanctify • the present Exercise and Concern that is upon you, and you to himself, with all the faithful Lovers and Followers of the Lamb, thro' bis Word, whofe Word is Truth. I am your Friend and Brother, in the Fellowship of the Gofpel of Chrift Jefus our great • Lord and good Mafter; and bleffed are all thofe, who by their fearing to offend him, manifeft him to be their Master, and by their honouring him, manifeft him to be their Lord."

T. C.

In the Twelfth Month I went to the Quarterly-meeting of Friends, held at Providence, for Chefter County, for Difcipline and Worship; which Meeting was large, and a Concern came upon Friends at that Meeting to fupprefs Excefs in Eating and Drinking, and great Entertainments at Marriages and Funerals, and spending Time idly in tippling Houfes; as alfo in feveral other Things for the well-ordering our Society, in which appeared great Love and Unanimity. The People were reminded of God's Love to them in this Land, and many Favours were recounted to them, which he had favoured the Inhabitants of the Land with, which were very fingular, and that he expected they fhould bring forth Fruits that might be anfwerable to the Labours of Love, which the Lord had beftowed upon them.

About this Time I had it in my Mind to write to one who was confcientiously concerned to preach the Gospel of Chrift, but was under great Exercife on that Occafion.

Frankfort,

Frankfort, 24th of the 12th Month 1724:

My Friend,

SIN

INCE Ilaft faw thee and converfed with thee, thou haft often been in my Mind, and thy Exercife has come before me; and not having an Opportunity to converfe with thee perfonally, I take this Way of communicating my Mind, hoping in • Chrift thou wilt reap fome Satisfaction and Advan<tage thereby. I think I know thou art concerned for Chrift's Cause, as also was that eminent Minister Apollos, Yet was inftructed more perfectly by good Aquila and Prifcilla. The Subject on which I have it in my Mind to write to thee, is the Ministry of the Gospel of Chrift Jefus, which I believe to be • very different from that which it is generally taken for, in moft Parts of the World, by many profeffing Christianity. First, The greatest Part of Chriftendom, fo called, calls and elects their Ministers ' themselves, and will not call them unless they have School-learning, altho' Chrift called and chofe un⚫ learned Men, as to that Sort of Learning, and the • Apostles were called, Not according to the Will of

Man, but by the Revelation of Chrift Jefus. And • Chrift thanked his Father that He had revealed the Myfteries of bis Kingdom to Babes and Sucklings. And the wife Jews (the Scribes and Pharifees) admired at the Apostles, who fo wonderfully preached Chrift, and were fo wonderfully carried forth in their Ministry, and yet few of them were Men of Learning; fo that the Call, Election, and Wages of Chrift's Ministers, is fpiritual, and not carnal, and therefore their Miniftry is with divine Life and Power, by which they are qualify'd for this Service without either Study or Premeditation: Tho' it is not denied, that Chrift may fhew a Minister before-hand, what he fhall, or is to fpeak, at fuch a Time or • Place,

K 4

1724.

1724. Place, as he may fee meet; but that studying or writing Sermons, and afterwards preaching, or rather reading them to the People, was, or is, the • Practice of the true Minifters of Jefus, our great • Lord and Mafter, is deny'd; of which, I do believe, thou haft a real Sense.

I fhall impart to thee fomething of my own Experience for thy Edification in this great Work, viz. As in the Work of Converfion, or Regeneration, there is a Growth and Increase from the State of a Child to that of a Man in Chrift, fo in the Work of the Ministry, or preaching the Gofpel, there is alfo • a Growth from a Babe to an able Minifter, in all ⚫ which the Power and Grace of the holy Spirit must be our Guide, our Help, and Support, keeping close to which, we fhall encrease in divine Wisdom and found Judgment, and our Hearts and Underftandings will be more and more opened and enlarged. The Apostle Paul faid, When I was a Child, I Spake as a Child, understood as a Child, and thought as a Child; and yet he was an excellent Child of God, ⚫ and Minister of Chrift, and as he grew in his Gift, * and Chrift's Grace, he became a wonderful, fervice⚫able Inftrument in the Hand of God. Now a Child's State in the Miniftry is too much overlooked by many, fome thinking to be Men, as foon as they are brought forth into the Miniftry; and, according to my Observation, divers have been at a Lofs, and fome quite loft, for Want of a patient Continuing • in Well-doing, and not waiting to feel a Growth and Increase from above, have gone on in their • own Strength and Will, perhaps against the Advice • and Inftruction of a found and honeft Aquila and • Prifcilla, and have been hurt; and fome, who had • received a Gift, have had that fame Gift taken from them, even by the Lord, who gave it them.

As I take it, a true Minister of Chrift, is to take no Thought what to fay, but it will be given him in

'the

⚫ the fame Hour that which he fhould fpeak to the 1724. People (that is, in a general Way) and if it is not • given from above, I believe he or he ought to be filent; for they receive freely, if they do receive any Thing from Chrift, and fo they ought freely to adminifter; and where little is given, little is required, all which is plain from Chrift's own Words in the • New Teftament; and Chrift's Crofs is to be taken up by his Minifters in their Preaching, as well as in their Conversation.

It is a Practice which the holy Scriptures have "not acquainted us with, that the Minifters of Chrift fhould take a Verfe, or a Line, out of the holy • Scriptures, and write, or study before-hand, a Dif⚫ course on it, and preach it, or rather read it, to the People. The holy Men of old (as we read both in the Old and New Teftament) fpoke as they were moved by the holy Ghoft, and by it they were gifted for the convincing, converting, and reforming the World, and for comforting and edifying of the Saints, quite contrary to the latter Practice of "modern-reading Divines, who difpute, write, and preach against the immediate and divine Revelation of the Spirit of Chrift, and therefore cannot be of his Minifters, but must be the Minifters of Antichrist, and Minifters of the Letter, and not of the • Spirit of Chrift, or of his Gospel. And where the Apoftle fays, When I was a Child, I fpake as a Child, I take him to point at the being brought forth newly into the Work of the Miniftry, as well as the Work of Converfion, and that he ufeth those Expreffions by Way of Comparison, and therefore • I compare it thus: A Child when it first begins or ⚫ ventures to speak, he speaks but a few Words, and thofe ftammering fometimes, and its Judgment is • weak, and must be put upon fpeaking by his Father over and over, if he be a backward Child, otherwife if he be forward, and fpeaks too much,

• he