SINCE I wrote to your Lordship, I have received a comfortable packet of letters from Georgia, giving me an account of my family’s safe return to their Bethesda. The deliverance of Georgia from the Spaniards, one of my friends writes me, is such as cannot be parralleled, but by some few instances out of the Old Testament. I find that the Spaniards had cast lots, and determined to give no quarter. They intended to attack Carolina, but wanting water they put into Georgia, and so would take that Colony in their way. But “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.” Providence ruleth all things. They were wonderfully repelled and sent away, before our ships were seen. Surely God remembered the prayers of the poor orphans, and the earnest cries which have been put up on their behalf. I find they now live at a smaller expence. They hunt and shoot for a good part of their food. Their crop gives them a considerable quantity of peas, potatoes, &c. and they kill some of their own stock. There has been a great sickness at Savannah. Some of the labourers have been taken off, but none of the children, as I hear, have died as yet. I hope this will find your Lordship perfectly recovered, and your honoured consort, Lady ——, and all your Lordship’s family, rejoicing in God. He is pleased to give me much of his love, and to bless me every day. Several of our friends in Wales have been unjustly excommunicated. I have sent two letters, and have received kind answers from the Bishop of Bangor. Perilous times, perhaps, are coming on; but this is my comfort, “the gates of hell shall never prevail against the church of Christ.” Hoping for a line from your Lordship, if it be not too much trouble, I subscribe myself, my Lord,
Your Lordship’s most obedient, obliged humble servant,
G. W.
LETTER CCCCLXXXVI.
To Miss W——.
London, November 23, 1742.
My dear Miss W——,
YOUR letter affected me much, and if it had not been for business, I should have answered it ere now. It is the hardest thing in the world to keep the creature in his proper place. We are apt to esteem the ministers of Jesus either too much or too little. One while, we could pluck out our eyes to give them; at another time, run into a contrary extreme, and not pay them that respect which is their due for their Master’s sake. The love that a child of God feels for its spiritual father, is certainly unspeakable. O how can I but love him, who under God has brought me from darkness into light! Methinks I hear dear Miss W—— say, “how indeed!” But here is danger, lest the affections should be too much entangled, and we unwilling to give up the beloved object to our God. This, I suppose, is dear Miss W——’s case, and I can say,
I know how sore this trial is,