Part 22
I RETURN my dearest **** thanks for his last letter; the satisfaction which it and the conversation we had together on Saturday gave me, is inexpressible. Oh may you, by the assisting grace of God, continue in the happy way you are now in, and still press forward to higher degrees of faith and love. But, my dear, you must not think too highly of me; I am one of the most unworthy objects of the free mercy of God. I stand more, perhaps, in need of your prayers than you of mine; you must _too_ pray for me, and we must both strive to strengthen each other. I should be glad to know whether you, last night, notwithstanding the disagreeable manner of the preacher, received any comfort and satisfaction from what he said: I own I did; his words (under all these disadvantages) raised and strengthened _me_ in a remarkable manner. I wish it had been the same with you all; but your expectations were so highly raised by the name of ****, that an angel would hardly have satisfied them: and thus shall we be always disappointed, if we look more at man than God. The most famous preacher, let his eloquence, his manner, his doctrine, be ever so near perfection, can never make the soul taste the words of salvation, unless the Spirit of God accompanies and inforces his preaching. And the same blessed Spirit can make the words of the meanest, the most despicable preacher of the gospel, effectual to awaken, to convince, and to comfort. But in order to our reaping these benefits, we must hear with _singleness_ of intention; not seeking to have our outward ears and eyes delighted, but desiring the _sincere_ milk of the word, to nourish and strengthen our souls. Would it not be the highest madness to throw away the _water_ of life, because it was brought to us in an earthen vessel? _Solomon_ says, “To the _hungry soul_ every bitter thing is _sweet_.” So to the soul which really _hungers_ and _thirsts_ after _Christ_, the sound of the _gospel_ of _peace_, (let the voice which proclaims it be _harsh_ or _soft_) will be _sweet indeed_. Oh may you and I, my dear ****, always find it so to _us_! May that blessed Redeemer in whom we have _peace_, be dearer to us than _light_, than _life_, than any thing we can form to our imagination either _here_ or _hereafter_! In dangers, in difficulties, in temptations, may we still look to him as our defence, our deliverer, our strength. He is _all_ in _all_ throughout the oracles of God, both in the _Old_ and _New Testament_: may he be _all_ in _all_ to our _souls_; may we walk by his light, conquer by his _strength_, and in the end be joyful partakers of that everlasting felicity which he has prepared for those that love _him_. This is the constant wish and prayer of,
_Your affectionate_
****
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_Saturday the 17th._
I RECEIVED my dearest ****’s long letter, and have more and more reason to be thankful to God on your account. Oh how my soul exults in your happiness, in your increase in faith, and love to _Christ_!――Your conversation with the captain delights me; no doubt but he rejoiced over you――there _you_ see the true christian spirit. The advice he gave you is excellent: Oh may we be both enabled to follow it! Those who forsake all _for_ Christ, will certainly find all _in_ Christ.――As to ****, I would advise you to try first, to raise in him a _desire_ to receive the sacrament, before you persuade him _to receive_ it; and be earnest at the throne of grace on his behalf. All probable means are to be made use of, but it is the _Spirit_ of God alone can convince of sin.――I have been lately a good deal affected with the death of a lady in this neighbourhood, who led what is called an innocent life. Mr. **** attended her, and all his endeavours to convince her were in vain: her answers were, “Though she had not made such a shew of religion as _some others_, yet she had _done_ her duty.” This is the most fatal delusion of all; this blindness is the most dreadful state in which a soul can launch into eternity! Can you and I be ever enough thankful to that God who has opened our eyes, to see the things which make for our peace? Was our whole life to be one continued act of praise, it would be nothing in comparison to the blessings we have received; nay, even the eternity, which we shall spend in continual _praise_, is not enough _fully_ to express all we owe to our _redeeming God――Redemption_, how much is comprehended in this word! And how sweet does it sound to a soul sensible of its wants! May that pathetic prayer my dear **** has made for me be heard; then shall I experience that _fulness_ of redemption for which I long! Then shall I indeed be intirely dead to the world and sin, and live only to Christ. All this unspeakable happiness, I as sincerely wish to the brother of my soul as to myself;
_And am his truly affectionate_,
****
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_Sunday Afternoon, March 10, 1754._
_My dear ****_,
LAST night after you were gone, I read your letter, and thought of what you had told me with the greatest satisfaction. What reason have you to be thankful, that God should at so early a time of your life convince you of _sin_, and give you to _know_, that you have redemption through Christ! How might you have plunged into all the follies and vices of youth, and laid up a large stock for future and bitter repentance, had not the free and unbounded grace of God displayed its power in your soul! Oh continue earnestly to seek still more and more of the _fulness_ of Christ. Think not because you have had a sense of the _pardoning love_ of God, that you are to _rest here_: no, still seek for fresh evidences of his love to your soul; press forward with unwearied diligence towards the mark of the _high calling_ of God in Christ Jesus; seek and _strive_ to gain the _abiding witness_ of the _Spirit_; strive for that perfect renewal of heart by which you may say, “’Tis no more I that live, but Christ liveth _in me_.”――You tell me you was assaulted, some days after you had this dear sense of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus, with doubts and fears. Whenever you are attacked in this manner again, argue thus with yourself:――“This peace and joy which I felt, this sense of forgiveness _seemed_ to me to be the work of God upon my soul: but was it really so? Might not a warm imagination deceive me, or might not the great enemy of souls transform himself into an angel of light, in order to lull me into a fatal security? But have I not an infallible rule to judge by, whether this work was of God? What were the fruits it produced? Did I upon this grow more careless and remiss? Was my mind puffed up with spiritual pride? Did I allow myself liberties which before I was afraid to take?――Or did I, on the contrary, watch still more diligently against the most distant approaches of sin? Did I find increasing power over sins of the heart, as well as outward sin? Did I find in me a _still_ deeper sense of my own nothingness and the all-sufficiency of my Redeemer, and a large increase of the love of God and all mankind? If these were the happy fruits of this evidence, I have no cause to doubt this work _was certainly_ of God.”
In this manner, my dear, if you will examine yourself, begging the assistance of the blessed Spirit, to enable you to search every winding and turning of your heart, you can never be deceived, and will always be able by the shield of faith to repel all the fiery darts of the devil. I thank you for your affectionate prayer for me (may God return all those blessings double on your own head) and am,
_Your ever-affectionate friend_,
****
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I DID not expect to see my dear **** on Saturday, for the weather was so extremely bad, that I thought you would make the best of your way to ****. I have read your letter with great pleasure, and hope you will continue thus diligently to examine the state of your own mind: and that on every examination you will find an increase of that “treasure which never faileth.”――I rejoice that you have been happy enough to suffer reproach for the sake of Christ, and more especially for the grace given you to _suffer joyfully_. You may depend upon it that there is the same real distinction between Christians and the world now, that there was when our blessed Master said, “Because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” And how ought our hearts to exult with praise and thanksgiving, when we can say _we_ are _not_ of the _world_! What unspeakable happiness will it be for us to be found (when our Redeemer comes to judgment) among those who were not ashamed of him in this “adulterous and perverse generation!” Is any thing too much to suffer, when animated by the hopes of having these glorious words addressed to us, “Come ye blessed!”
I am now with my poor aunt ****, who is in great affliction for the loss of poor Mrs. _C._ See my dear ****, *how little all that is esteemed in this world avails, when God is pleased to lay his hand upon us! Here was youth, beauty, riches, friends; but how, as in a moment, was the possessor of all these cut off! And by a dreadful disease, brought to be the companion of loathsome worms! Alas, how is that sweet smile, which once sat upon her countenance, now changed to ghastliness! How are her fine features and delicate complexion now become even horrible to behold! Oh that some proud beauty would here stop, and consider what she herself must one day assuredly be! And Oh that this thought might strike me still with deeper seriousness, that she who was my friend and confidant, even from my earliest youth; she whom I loved with _more_ than a _sister_’s tenderness; is now――alas, where is now her precious soul? Dearest Redeemer, thy grace is all-sufficient, and thy mercies infinite! Is it not now rejoicing with thee? Were not all those helps afforded her by thy boundless love, which, even to the last, her ill-judging friends denied her? O had I but seen her rejoicing in the love of God, and filled with the prospects of a blessed eternity, how would my soul have joyed in her departure! How would my heart have dilated itself with the glorious thought, that my friend was delivered from the gilded snares that surrounded her, and gone to sure and unbounded happiness! And even now I cannot doubt the mercies of my God; surely we shall meet again, and join in eternal praises to the great author of our salvation!
_I am, with all affection, your faithful friend_,
****
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_My dearest ****_,
I AM obliged to you for your letter, though the first side of it frighted me extreamly. I have been so accustomed to see you strong in faith, and rejoicing in God, that the very mention of weak faith alarmed me. But thanks be to God, who has not suffered you to be tempted above what you were able to bear, but has with the temptation also made a way for you to escape: and I hope this trial will be a means of making you still more watchful. You have need to watch and pray always, and more especially at those times, when your enemies seem to be at peace with you. When we are blessed with the light of God’s countenance, and have power over the sin which most easily besets us, we are very apt to be off our guard; and by being secure, we lay ourselves open to danger from that grand tempter, who is always watching over us for evil. And if we take not care to keep the loving eye of our mind constantly fixed on that God who is always watching over us for good, we must fall. Here all our strength lies: but God will not give us this strength, unless we carefully and continually seek it: therefore, now the free grace of God has again raised you up, be doubly careful in every thought, word, and action, and be assured that your merciful Redeemer will be ever ready to hear you when you call upon him. That his love may daily abound in your heart more and more, is the sincere prayer of,
_Your affectionate_,
****
_July 12, 1754._
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_Monday, August 5, 1754._
_My dear ****_,
YOU are indeed a great stranger; sure you might contrive to call, though it were but for half an hour.――I am glad you heard Mr. ****; for to _hear him_ and to _profit_, to a _sincere_ soul is the same thing. I thank God too, that you are in so happy a state of mind, and your soul so charmingly alive to God; that you seem so much in love with holiness, and so eagerly pressing after it in all its branches: depend upon it, for every degree of holiness you gain here, you will also gain a new degree of happiness both _here_ and _hereafter_. The nearer the soul is to the image of Christ, the more it will love him, and the more it will be loved by him, and by the Father through him: and this love is the highest felicity both of saints and angels. Imperfect (in degree) as it is here below, the soul that tastes it, would not change it for all that earth or heaven could give. And what then must it be above in the kingdom of eternal glory! Where the soul, delivered from this earthly clog, will have no hindrances or obstructions to the pure love of God, but will be wholly swallowed up in it.
Your **** gave me an account of your yesterday’s conversation: I congratulate you that you can so boldly and judiciously too, speak for the truth. I pray God to increase you in every good word and work, and am,
_Your ever-affectionate Friend_,
****
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_My dear ****_,
I RETURN you many thanks for your letter. Just before I received it I was thinking of you, and to tell you the truth, with some fear, (occasioned by your long absence) either that you were grown cold to me, or, what was infinitely worse, were grown cold to the ways of God. But your letter dispelled all my fears, and I rejoice and give thanks to our heavenly Father for his great and manifold mercies to your soul!――I wish I could have seen you often in your last illness, but that you know was impossible: however, the small time I was with you gave me the utmost satisfaction, and I cannot be enough sensible of the goodness of my God, that I (weak and unworthy as I am) should be made an instrument of such increase of comfort to you. Had you then died, you would doubtless now be singing praises to God and the Lamb; but as you are suffered to continue longer upon earth, it is to this end, that you should approve yourself a faithful servant to God, in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, that you should shine as a light in the world, and by spending yourself in the service of God here, increase your capacity of happiness hereafter. God is merciful to you in a peculiar manner. To be kept as you are, when so much engaged in business, and with so few opportunities of attending the means of grace, calls for the utmost gratitude; therefore let no occasion pass of shewing your love to that Redeemer, who has thus saved you from sin and the love of the world. All you can do, is by far too small a return for such unbounded goodness. Your present state of mind is a glorious and happy one indeed; but suffer not yourself to be off your watch for one moment, for Satan is always watching to hurt a soul that is thus happily escaped from his snare. But your certain help lies in Christ; keep therefore the eye of the mind fixed upon him, and you will still go on conquering, and to conquer.
_I am, your ever-affectionate friend_,
****
_Sunday, December 8, 1754._
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_My dear ****_,
I AM delighted with the rules you have laid down for your conduct: you must constantly look up to God for grace and strength faithfully to practise them. I rejoice in your love to your Redeemer; and be assured, the longer you live, the more you will be convinced, that this is your only sure refuge and lasting happiness. *In regard to your going so often to ****, take the following advice; shun, as you would poison, every thing that you find a means of making you less alive to God. Life is short. We have a great work to do, and God only knows how few of those hours, which are ever on the wing, may be given us to do it in. Therefore lose not a moment! Remember a Christian cannot stand still; he must go either forwards or backwards; and if you have not made some advances toward heaven since the clock struck last, you have gone back towards the contrary road. Keep this constantly in your mind, particularly in your visits.――May the peace and love of God be ever with you, and fail not to remember at the throne ♦of grace,
_Your ever-affectionate friend_,
****
_November 27, 1755._
♦ duplicate word “of” removed
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To Miss ****.
_Sunday Morning._
_My dear Friend_,
I HAVE just time enough to wish that your soul may this day prosper, and that God may be found by you in all his ordinances. Oh that his love may be more and more shed abroad in your heart! And this it certainly will be, if you walk closely with him, and suffer not your imagination to lead you from your only true happiness. Oh strive continually after a constant recollection, and communion with God.――I know the unprofitable manner in which you will be employed this afternoon; but this need not hinder your heart from being with your Saviour; he will support and comfort you.――Take care that you run not into making observations, either on the persons, manners, or dress of your visitors: four young ladies in a house together, are in the utmost danger from this sin: and depend upon it, it is as contrary to Christian love as lying or stealing. _Adieu._
****
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_My dear friend_,
I HAVE been thinking, since I saw you, of all the snares to which you are going to be exposed, and I sincerely pray that God may protect you in every danger, and hold up your goings in _his paths_. But in order to gain this gracious protection, you must take the greatest care that you do nothing to grieve his blessed Spirit, and cause him to depart from you. And this any sinful compliance will certainly do: therefore when you are desired to do any thing unbecoming a christian, fear not (young as you are) to bear your testimony for God against an evil world. But do it in the spirit of meekness; and if by this means you draw upon yourself the appellations of whimsical, obstinate, and ridiculous, look upon the reproach as matter of rejoicing, and as adding a greater lustre to the crown you will hereafter receive. There is one temptation, which at your age is peculiarly dangerous, and that is a desire of being thought handsome. You must be ever on your watch against this; for it will raise a thousand tempers in your soul, as contrary to the mind which was in Christ as darkness is to light. There is nothing which is a greater counter-poise to this desire, than bringing the mind to be contented, nay even to rejoice that another should outshine us. Let Miss _F_ be the means by which you acquire a conquest over this first born of female pride: set yourself every day to take delight in her beauty; to wish for its embellishment, and to be most pleased when she appears to the greatest advantage.――If when you read this you colour, and cry, “Dear! what can she mean? this is vastly odd!”――depend upon it there is something in your heart which makes the advice I have given highly necessary; and fail not, as you prize your peace of mind and increase of grace, to put it in practice. We should enjoy much more of the light of God’s countenance, and of that peace which passeth all understanding, if we would attend to, and watch against, those occasions of falling, which from their commonness we are apt to call _little_.――A soul is often cast into heaviness for hours, by an unguarded word.――You will not, my love, be angry with me that I deal thus freely with you: I watch over your soul in tender love; and though sensible of my own unworthiness, either to advise or persuade; though sensible of my own great and manifold sins and imperfections, I cannot desist from guarding you against all that may hinder your being made perfect in the love of God. I am,
_Your ever-affectionate_,
****
_November 30, 1754._
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