Practical truths tending to promote the power of godliness

I shall not in this Epistle, leave any words of more peculiar Advice with you, having done that already, in another ⟨image ?⟩Dedication to your selves, written ten years ago, when I did not think of living until this day. All that I have to add at present, is to encourage you in well-doing. And if I (who, you will all say, have not been wont to flatter you) take notice of some virtues, wherein the the Lord hath caused you to excel, and shine as lights unto others, I trust I shall therein, follow the holy Example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who doth not only reprove the failings, but take notice of the Graces in His Churches, before all the world. Let me then say, that there are several things wherein you have (through the Grace of Christ) been exemplary, and wherein the Lord hath owned you, unto mine, and other mens admiration. Let God in Christ Jesus alone have all the glory!

I shall not in this Epistle, leave any words of more peculiar Advice with you, having done that already, in another ⟨image ?⟩Dedication to your selves, written ten years ago, when I did not think of living until this day. All that I have to add at present, is to encourage you in well-doing. And if I (who, you will all say, have not been wont to flatter you) take notice of some vertues, wherein the the Lord hath caused you to excel, and shine as lights unto others, I trust I shall therein, follow the holy Example of the Lord Jesus Christ, who doth not only reprove the failings, but take notice of the Graces in His Churches, before all the world. Let me then say, that there are several things wherein you have (through the Grace of Christ) been exemplary, and wherein the Lord hath owned you, unto mine, and other mens admiration. Let God in Christ Jesus alone have all the glory!

One thing wherein you have set a good Example, is, in that four years ago, you set apart a day for no other cause but only that so you might, by Fasting and Prayer, cry unto the Lord, for converting Grace to be poured down upon the souls of our poor Children. You were told for your encouragement (in the Sermon which was then Preached) that within the space of seven years before that near upon fourscore persons had presented themselves, and declared before the Church what God had done for their Souls. Let me now add, that since your agreement to keep that day of Fasting and Prayer, there have appeared upwards of seventy more (the most of them of the Rising Generation) who have publicly expressed the Experiences which they have had of the work of God upon them, in convincing them of their misery by nature, and in helping them to come unto Jesus Christ, and to close with him according to the terms of the Gospel. And besides all thse, there is a considerable number of young persons, belonging to this Congregation, with whom I have had occasion, personally to treat, and concerning whom I am persuaded God hath