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/404

 LETTER DCCCLXXXI.

To Doctor S.

My dear Doctor,     Ashby, Feb. 4, 1751.

YOUR letter distresses me. hasten the time when you shall sing chearfully,

''Be gone, vain world, my heart resign, For I must be no longer thine; A nobler, a diviner guest, Has got possession of my breast.''

Why will you not shake off your chains? Why will you be stricken any more? You must come back, or be undone for ever. What have you gained by running from your father's house? His servants have bread enough, whilst you are perishing with hunger. Say, say, I pray you, without delay, "I will arise and go to my Father." His love keeps you uneasy; his love hedges up your way; his love follows and pursues you with this mighty famine. The language of all is, "Give me thy heart." Be content to become a fool for 's sake. Your body as well as soul, will suffer even in this world, if you do not comply. You are half dead already. Faith in, and the love of shed abroad in your heart, can alone cure you. You know too much to be happy without it: and O that dreadful sentence, "It had been better for them never to have known &c." For 's sake, remember Lot's wife. You are almost become a pillar of salt already. Out of anguish I write this. May 's love so constrain you, that you may never rest till you find solid rest in him! Good Lady Hn is gone to take the air. Your message shall be delivered. She is but poorly; and my wife writes me word, that she is exceeding bad. This must hasten my remove from hence. I insist upon Mr. Hly's coming directly to Ashby, if he has any regard for good Lady Hn. She ought always to have a christian friend with her. That you may have a feeling possession of in your heart, is the hearty prayer of, my dear Sir,

Yours, &c. in great haste, but greater concern for you, G. W.