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THE

LOVE OF CHRIST

ALWAYS THE SAME.

BY

WILLIAM HUNTINGTON, S.S.

MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL

AT PROVIDENCE CHAPEL, LITTLE TITCHFIELD STREET,

AND THE CITY CHAPEL. >

Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

JOHN XIII. 1.

LONDON:

Printed by T. BENSLEY, Bolt Court, Fleet Street.

Published by E. HUNTINGTON, Bookfeller, No. 55, High
Street, Bloomsbury.

Sold alfo at Providence and the City Chapel, Grub-Street; at Jireh
Chapel, Lewes, Suffex; at the Rev. Mr. Brook's Chapel, Brighton;
by J. Cuthbert, Battle, Suffex; J. Troup, Welwyn, Herts; Thomas
Barton, Market Place, Grantham, Lincolnshire; S. Eades, 58, High
Street, Ramfgate; George Calladine, Leicester; and J. Jamefon, Penrith,
Cumberland.

1809.

THE REV. MR. HUNTINGTON.

I.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

CONCEIVE it will give you no fmall degree of pleasure to hear, how God has honoured his fervant, and given teftimony to the word of his grace during your late bleffed vifit to us in the Ifle of Ely. I therefore take the earliest opportunity to inform you that the good Lord has, through your inftrumentality, been pleased to deliver from fore bondage the poor man that you faw at work in our garden. He came this morning to acquaint me of the glorious liberty that God has proclaimed to him while under the word; and also of the love and peace that he has enjoyed fince you left us. For he told me that he was as fure that he should be faved, as that there is a God, and repeated it feveral times: and added, Nor fhall all the devils in hell ever prevent it.' He faid he fhould have cause to bless you to the day of his death, let it come when it may. He is fo fully perfuaded of this, that he has not one doubt but he shall die in the joys of a good hope. At the beginning of his diftress

he occafionally heard at Downham Meeting; but after Mr. Jenkins had been amongst us the former took on himfelf to burlefque the difcourfes of the latter, at which this poor man was fo difgufted that he never went again: they that fear God fhall come forth of them all. He fays he was first raised to hope under you, and has frequently been much indulged and encouraged while hearing the word; but as foon as you had finifhed the difcourfe all was gone. He tells me he has fuffered deeply in his foul of late, and had concluded, before you came down, that it was impoffible for God himself to fave a finner fo vile as he found himself to be: he fays his troubles at times were fuch, that he thought he could not live, yet he knew that, if he died in the fate that he was then in, he fhould moft certainly be damned. But, as foon as ever you opened your mouth in prayer, he declares that he felt fuch comfort flow into his heart as he cannot defcribe. In fhort, he declares you asked for every thing that he wanted, and when you preached the word came with fuch amazing power and confolation into his foul, that it caft out all fear, and all torment. This was on the Sunday morning at Downham. He is now fitting by me while I am writing this; he came to me last night, and again this morning, between five and fix o'clock. He defires me to give his kind love to his dear father in Chrift.

Jefus, for fuch, he says, he knows you to be; and begs to be favoured with an intereft in your prayers; and, if you would condefcend to favour him with a few lines, he fhall eficem it a peculiar favour: for he fays he knows you have begotten him in the bonds of the gofpel; and fuch a love does he feel to you that he thall never be able to exprefs. His name is Waddelow Stevens; he defired me to say that he is now in the thirtieth year of his age. He told me this morning that he had some converfation with his wife last night, and he is in hope that God has not forgotten. her, as fhe is far from being at ease in Zion. He is a very simple, honeft man; both myself and Mr. M― have long entertained a favourable opinion of him; but, being a man of very few words, and having never once opened his mouth. before to us on a religious fubject, we were the more surprised to hear this glorious account. He tells us that he fhould have come to you before you left Downham, but, as he knew the liberality of your heart, he dared not. He fays that he shall have caufe to blefs you as long as he is in the world; and, let his end come whenever it may, he is fully perfuaded, and that without one doubt, that he fhall end his days in peace. He fays, he thinks, if poffible, that his comforts. have increased more and more ever fince you left us; yea, he declares that heaven itself cannot

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