lity of temper on account of it; but nevertheless, after
the inner man, I praise God for the affliction, and I do desire from
my heart, that it may truly benefit me, and that it may not be
removed till the end has been answered, for which it has been sent.
God has blessed me in this trial, and is still blessing me.--As I know
you love me, (unworthy as I am of it), and feel interested about me,
I mention a few of the many mercies with which God has favoured me
during these twelve weeks. 1. At the commencement of my illness, when
my head was affected in a manner quite new to me, and when thus it
continued day after day, I feared lest I should lose my reason.--This
created more real internal suffering than ever I had known before.
But our gracious Lord supported me. His precious gospel was full of
comfort to me. All, all will be well, was invariably the conclusion,
the conclusion grounded upon Scripture, to which I came; yea, all
will be well with me eternally, though the heaviest of all earthly
trials should coins upon me, even that of dying in a state of
insanity.--I was once near death, as I then thought, nearly nine years
ago: I was full of comfort at that time; but to be comfortable,--to
be able quietly to repose upon God, with the prospect of an
affliction before one, such as I have now mentioned,--is more than to
be comfortable in the prospect of death, at least for a
believer.--Now, is it not well to be afflicted, in order to obtain
such an experience? And have I not reason, therefore, to thank God
for this affliction?

Oxford, Feb. 6, 1838.

When I began to write the foregoing lines, beloved brethren, I
intended to write but very briefly; but as I love you, and as I have
abundant reason to magnify the Lord, my pen ran on, till my head
would follow no longer.--I go on now to mention some other mercies
which the Lord has bestowed upon me, through my present affliction.

2. Through being deprived for so long a time of the privilege of
preaching the Word to sinners and saints, the Lord has been pleased
to create in me a longing for this blessed work, and to give me at
the same time to feel the importance of it, in a degree in which I
never had experienced it before. Thus the Lord has fitted me somewhat
more for His work, by laying me aside from it. Good therefore is the
Lord, and kind indeed, in disabling me from preaching. Great has been
my trial, after the self-willed old nature, not to be able to preach;
an