that I undertake in life, to spread this glorious and
blessed enthusiasm, which I know to be the anticipation of heaven, as
well as the most certain way to it.

But lest any should possibly imagine, that allowing the experiences which
have been described above to have been ever so solid and important, yet
there may be some appearances of boasting in so free a communication of
them, I must add to what I have hinted in reference to this above, that
I find in many of the papers before me very genuine expressions of the
deepest humility and self-abasement, which indeed such holy converse with
God in prayer and praise does, above all things in the world, tend to
inspire and promote. Thus, in one of his letters he says, "I am but as
a beast before him." In another he calls himself "a miserable
hell-deserving sinner." And in another he cries out, "Oh, how good
a master do I serve! but, alas, how ungrateful am I! What can be so
astonishing as the love of Christ to us, unless it be the coldness of our
sinful hearts towards such a Saviour?" There were many other clauses of
the like nature, which I shall not set myself more particularly to trace
through the variety of letters in which they occur.

It is a further instance of this unfeigned humility, that when (as his
lady with her usual propriety of language expresses it in one of her
letters to me concerning him,) "these divine joys and consolations were
not his daily allowance," he, with equal freedom, in the confidence of
Christian fellowship, acknowledges and laments it. Thus, in the first
letter I had the honour of receiving from him, dated from Leicester, July
9, 1739, after mentioning the blessing with which it had pleased God to
attend my last address to him, and the influence it had upon his mind,
he adds, "Much do I stand in need of every help to awaken me out of that
spiritual deadness which seizes me so often. Once, indeed, it was quite
otherwise with me, and that for many years:

"'Firm was my health, my day was bright,
And I presumed 't would ne'er be night,
Fondly I said within my heart,
Pleasure and peace shall ne'er depart,
But I forgot, thine arm was strong,
Which made my mountain stand so long;
Soon as thy face began to hide,
My health was gone, my comforts died.'

And here," adds he, "lies my sin and my folly."

I mention this, that the whole matter may be seen just as it was, and
that other Christians may not be discouraged if they feel