*I THANK you for your last letter, and I bless God, that you was not offended at mine. This bearing of plain-dealing is a comfortable proof to me of your sincerity. If temptations increase, God will give a proportionable increase of strength. There wants nothing but faithfulness on your part to the grace already given. I know not the particulars of your sufferings, but I know it is good to suffer. It is a discipline all must go through, who make any tolerable advance in the school of Christ. I could wish you to seek more after religion, than comfort. Constant and heart-felt resignation is a bulwark against every trial, and a foundation for solid peace, and joy transcendently pure. The whole state of a soul made perfect in love stands in that one petition, _Thy will be done_: and if we could but preserve that temper which these words describe, I know not what could hurt us. Suppose now when I first wake in a morning I should lift up my heart, “Lord I bless thee for this new day which thou hast given me. In this day I shall have fresh manifestations of thy will concerning me, either in comforts or in sufferings. Lord, I am thy creature, deal with me as it shall please thee: only leave me not to myself, but let thy grace be sufficient for me, and thy strength be made perfect in my weakness.” When settled in this frame of mind, suppose my trials to begin. I am tempted by the perverseness and evil tempers of my own family to impatience, to anger; but I immediately recollect myself, “Lord it is thy will I should bear this; pardon their perverseness, and give me to be thankful for every opportunity of self-denial and forbearance.” Well! now another, and more difficult trial appears. I am to behave to people, whom I know to be my bitter enemies, whom I know to be continually seeking occasions of evil against me, as if they were my dear friends. Here every faculty of the soul is alarmed, and nature shrinks back affrighted. But what does grace say? “Lord I thank thee for this glorious trial! What a blessing is it I should be permitted to drink of the same cup my Saviour drank of! Oh bless these mine enemies; fill their hearts with thy love; let thy will be perfected both in them and me.” This temptation is conquered, but another and a more trying one immediately succeeds. I am treated unkindly by people I love, and who are really my friends. Here my heart is wounded, it sinks, it is ready to faint; but recovering itself it rests upon God, and says, “Lord, even in this, thy will be done, and let the sufferings of Christ be perfected in me, that I may be also a partaker of his glory.” In this manner one might instance in all kinds of affliction, and find comfort and strength in each.