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/344

 your Excellency, you are not forgotten by me at the throne of grace. Ere now, I thought to have waited upon you in person, but it hath pleased Him, whose I am, and whom I desire to serve in the gospel of his dear Son, to detain me longer than I expected in my native country. The door for usefulness opens wider and wider. The seed sown among the rich, springs up and bears fruit in some; and the poor in various places receive the gospel more gladly than ever. Last fall was a glorious seed-time in the North of England. In London we had a warm winter; and in the country we have had reason to sing, that "the voice of the turtle is again heard in the land." willing, I purpose ranging this Summer, and then to embark for my beloved America once more. Whether I shall see your Excellency is uncertain. You are upon the decline of life; and for my own part, I wonder that I live so long. But I trust I shall meet your Excellency in heaven, where the wicked heart, the wicked world, and wicked devil will cease from troubling, and every soul enjoy an uninterrupted and eternal rest. This I am waiting for every day; and according to the present frame of my soul, desire no continuing city, till I arrive at and take possession of the New-Jerusalem above. My Master makes ranging exceedingly pleasant; and I hope in his strength to begin now to begin to spend and be spent for him, who shed his own dear heart's blood for sinful, ill, and hell-deserving me. O that death may find me either praying or preaching! I hope your Excellency will increase my obligations, by continuing to pray for me. My prayer for you is, "That your Excellency may bring forth much fruit in old age; and that whensoever you go off, you may be gathered like a ripe shock of corn into the Redeemer's heavenly garner!" That you may till then go on from strength to strength, and increase with all the increase of, is the earnest desire of, honoured Sir,

Your Excellency's most obliged, dutiful, and ready servant for 's sake, G. W.