Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

suit a bride just espoused, but it would not be to each of the household a portion of meat in due season. There is a difference between a private and a public character; between a rural shepherd and a chamberlain of a city; and between a saint in private life and one in the public ministry. All that the private saint gets, he marks, learns, and inwardly digests for himself; and one visit with the bridegroom's presence may feed and feast him for many days; for all that he gets he keeps, having none to feed but his own soul. This is the case with private believers, but not with public preachers; this is the case with children, but not with fathers. Officers must care for the public, fathers must lay up for the children. All the above stock of heavenly treasure, though in all its fulness, would be exhaled by a thirsty flock in two full discourses; whereas it might entertain our own hearts a whole month, were there no public expenditures. But our light must shine to others; we must feed, keep, watch over, and water; and the freer we receive, the freer we must give. Thine office, my son, will forbid what thou hast long imagined; and let it be so, since blessed are those servants whom their Lord hath made rulers over his household, to give to each a portion of meat in due season; "Blessed is that servant, whom, when the Lord cometh, he shall find so doing." Envy not the private believer; he brings forth fruit, but it turns chiefly to his own account. However, we see the en

comiums that are put upon them who in this way occupy till the Lord comes; witness the applause given to the men of five and of two talents; we are a sweet savour unto God; whether of life or of death, the bearer of this will tell his own tale.

Ever thine,

W. H.

LETTER LXXVII.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS.

LAST AST night I arrived safe at Cricklewood, through a dismal, dark, windy, and rainy night; God being my only protector. And this morning I found a letter from my dear friend, the sight of which always does me good; for my love to him has never abated, nor my confidence of his salvation ever yet sunk or failed: he is still in my heart to live and die with him; and he is the first man in my heart, and the highest in my affections of any man living in all the world. But this muttering and repining, murmuring and complaining, I hate, both in him and in myself also. My own conflicts, both without and within, have far exceeded yours, and yet I believe they have been wisely ordered to answer some good purpose, and have been overruled for my good in the end. If thou wast not a branch of the Lord, and if thou

wast not in the true vine, why all this purging? God sends no rods upon the wicked; bastards are not chastened; they are not in trouble as other men. God often destroys the false hopes of such sinners, and he makes them relinquish all their claims upon him; he exposes their deception and arrogance, and lets them see his rejection of them; and they seeking self in their profession, their pride is hurt, and they hate the Almighty, and his choice of his people. God makes them contemptible and base before all his family, and they contemn him and his counsel both. He takes off all the restraints of his providence, and they get past feeling in sin; and if he fills them, and consumes them with terrors, their desperation and rebellion rise the more against him, and aim at counteracting him in all his designs and works of mercy, which is doing despite to his Holy Spirit. He throws them out of the faith, hope, prayers, and affections of all his saints, and suffers them no more to lift up a cry or prayer for them, declaring that he will not answer them; these were his orders to Jeremiah against the Jews. To Samuel, against Saul. To John, against those that sinned unto death, in fighting against Christ the life. I ask, in the name of God, if this is your state? God has purged you; and if great fruits in the ministry have not been produced, the fruits of the Spirit have appeared in you, by which it is plan yours are purging, and not hardening trials. Humility, self-abase

ment, compunction, meekness, contrition, faith hope, love, joy, and peace, have all appeared at times; and you cannot deny it, without belying both God and conscience. You tell me your hope is almost gone. Job's hope was removed like a tree; and there is no removing a tree without grubbing it up, and carrying it away. Yea, Job adds, "Thou destroyest the hope of man.” You are in the steps of the flock, upon consecrated ground; and you must not limit nor restrain God's love to fondling, swaddling, and comforting; nor the whole work of his Spirit to meekness and joy. His power upholds you now, or you would have been in black despair, or in hell, long ago.

Adieu,

W. H.

LETTER LXXVIII.

To the Rev. J. JENKINS.

Cricklewood.

To the dear son of my vows, thine affectionate father sendeth greeting, with perfect peace, and at such a

time.

Or this, my beloved, be assured, that God does nothing in vain; he gives us grace to be exer

[blocks in formation]

cised: and he will try every grace that he plants in the heart. When he hath performed the good pleasure of his will in us, and the work of faith with power, he will then try that faith with fire: the fiery darts of Satan, and his infernal rage, the wrath of enemies, the hot displeasure of God in the fiery law, and the bondage of it, the flames of inbred lusts and corruptions, shall all combine and conspire to try the faith of the saint. And the plain language of Providence at such times is, fight or flee: believe, or faint; "I had utterly fainted unless I had believed." So, long denials to prayer, postponed deliverances, hope desired, delaying to avenge us of our enemies, sorely try hope; all which suggest, take part with corruption, or with grace; join with the enemies, or with God; hope, or despond; cast away your confidence, or muster up all your courage: between which we at times halt; but after a while come to a point, as David did at the burning of Ziklag; he strengthened himself in his God;

[ocr errors]

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him." Indigence trieth humility and submission, and leads to selfdenial; but Paul's lesson is not easily learnt, namely, in whatever state I am to be therewith content: this, indeed, is walking humbly with God; but these peaceable fruits are not produced but by the Spirit's influence, who sanctifies the affliction; and then experience tells us that the heart is made better by them, and that all things

« ForrigeFortsæt »