Letter XXII.

To the same.

My dear Friend,

[Ltrs-22-1] I know not myself, how to write to the most illuminated person upon earth, for advice, or instruction. And the more dark, and distressed my state should be, the more I should be averse to seek counsel of any creature; not from an opinion of any sufficiency in myself, but from a fullness of conviction, that I run away from relief, and deprive myself of the true light, and comfort, by not seeking, and depending upon God ALONE for it.

[Ltrs-22-2] All my writings have no other end, but to communicate this conviction to my readers, and consequently to teach them to have done with me, as soon as I have convinced them, that GOD and CHRIST and the kingdom of heaven are only to be found by man, in his own heart, and only capable of being found there, by his own love of them, faith in them, and absolute dependence upon them.

[Ltrs-22-3] What room, therefore, for calling out for help and direction, when once it is known, that all consists in an implicit blind faith, in purity of love, and total resignation to the Spirit of GOD? For where can these be exercised, but in the states and trials through which human life must pass.

[Ltrs-22-4] And to acquiesce in God, when things are inwardly, and outwardly easy with us, but to cast about for help from something that is not God, when distress and darkness come upon us, is the error of errors, and the greatest hindrance to our true union with GOD in CHRIST JESUS.

I am with much Truth and Sincerity,

Your affectionate Friend.

Sept. 22, 1754