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PREFACE.

Courteous Reader,

I HAD determined in my own

mind to write a treatise to weak believers before the matter contained in this Letter was unexpectedly and hastily drawn from me. And as I have, since the first publication of this, published the History of Little Faith, from his conception to his grave; in which a great part of the matter of this Epistle is contained, though dressed up in another form; I did not intend ever to have printed this again. But the whole impression being sold off, and numerous applications having been made for it, I am constrained to reprint it; and, if my reader chooses to bind it up with the History of Little Faith, they will together make a good sized volume.

That God may bless the reader, and that he may so read it as to profit thereby, is the prayer and desire of him, who is of

Little Faith,

W. H.

A LETTER

IN DEFENCE OF

LITTLE FAITH.

DEAR SIR,

I

RECEIVED Your kind letter, and am glad, but somewhat surprised, at the rapid advances which you have made in so short a time. We are to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ;" which is what you do apace, it seems. I hope you do not make more haste than good speed. For my part, I was long stumbling upon the dark mountains, before I got to your stature in faith. God tried mine as fast as it grew; but you have grown up like the palm tree, and you will know your strength when the Saviour comes to take hold of the boughs thereof, Cant. vii. 8.

I should like to hear some account of your trials, as well as of your confidence; for, though faith be called gold tried, yet the trial of faith exceeds it, for that is more precious than gold, 1 Peter i. 7.

The full assurance of gospel faith is a most

comforting, soul-establishing, and God-glorifying grace; yet it must be acknowledged, that faith is the gift of God, and all the household of faith are not at the height of this stature. I have known something of this grace for these seventeen years, and it is well known that it has been sorely tried many ways; and for my part, I believe it is the faith of God's elect that I am favoured with, for it hath prevailed with God times without number; and, agreeable to scripture, I find that in quietness and in confidence is my strength, Isa. xxx. 15. But I cannot find that it is in my power to exercise this grace when I would, though I could wish it were always in exercise. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit; hence the Spirit is called, the spirit of faith; and if faith be a fruit of the Spirit, then the Spirit must be the life, power, and root, of faith; and this wind bloweth when and where it listeth. I cannot command the north wind to awake when I please; nor is the south wind in my power, that it should blow on my garden at my pleasure, and cause the spices to flow out at my command. This power rests entirely with God, who hath dealt to every believing man the measure of faith, Rom. xii. 3; who alone has the residue of the Spirit, Mal. ii. 15; and gives to his people, as need requires, a supply of the same, which influences faith, and every other grace, as it pleaseth God, who is the sovereign disposer of every good and every perfect gift. I find, by daily experience, that the life, power, courage, activity,

or exercise of faith, are far from being at my command: I can neither will nor do any thing truly good, but as God works inclination and motion in me of his own good pleasure. I am therefore compelled to acknowledge, that from the Lord is my fruit found; and without a sensible union with Christ I can do nothing; though God, who knows my heart, knows that I would willingly spend and be spent in his service, and in the service of his people.

However, I find this is not the experience of every professor: some are perfect in the flesh, while I am obliged to confess that in my flesh dwells nothing good: and you, sir, are arrived at the full assurance of faith, insomuch that you are purged from all doubts and fears; while I, at certain times, cannot trust God for a text to preach from, nor believe that he will own or bless my labours when I have got one: and I declare to you, to my shame, that I have known the time, even since I could call the Saviour my Father and my God, that I could not so much as trust to him for food and raiment; and, to be plain, I have been acquainted with some, who have boasted of as much assurance of faith as yourself, who have been as much straitened in the pulpit for matter, and as much puzzled for the necessaries of life, as I have been; which has given me reason to suspect there have been some doubts at the bottom, though they might have been overlooked; for I read that all things are possible to him that believeth; and, if

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