Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., late of Pembroke-College, Oxford, and Chaplain to the Rt. Hon. the Countess of Huntingdon (1771 Volume 2).djvu/320

 I not to do so, to express my gratitude to him, who for my sake had not where to lay his head, and though he was rich, yet he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. Much, yea very much of his divine unction do I pray may be given to my dear Mr. H in his present plan. May the make your pen the pen of a ready writer, and after death may your writings be blest to thousands yet unborn! I believe they will. O my dear friend, whilst I am writing the fire kindles. Blessed be for ! Blessed be for all the mercies he hath conferred upon us! O that this new year may be filled with good works, flowing from a principle of love and a new nature! That the may bless and keep you, and fill you with all his divine fulness, is the continual earnest prayer of, my dear, dear old friend,  Yours most affectionately in our common, G. W.     LETTER DCCCVII. To the Reverend Mr. B.

My very dear Sir,                  London, Jan. 12, 1750.

LEST I should be hindered to-morrow, or in the beginning of the week, I now sit down to answer your kind letter. O that I may be helped to write something that may do you service, and be a means of quickening you in that delightful cause in which you are embarked. I see, my dear Sir, you are like to have hot work, before you quit the field:—For I find you have begun to batter Satan's strongest hold, I mean the self-righteousness of man. Here, Sir, you must expect the strongest opposition. It is the Diana of every age. It is the golden image, which that apostate Nebuchadnezzar, Man, continually sets up; and the not falling down to worship it, but much more for us to speak, write, or preach against it, exposes one immediately to the fury of its blind votaries, and we are thrown directly into a den of devouring lions. But fear not, Mr. B, the whom we serve, the captain under whose banner we are lifted, is able to deliver us. He knows how to train us up gradually for war, and is engaged to bring us off more than conquerors from the field