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some trumpeters sound to arms, and others sound the alarms of danger; and the sounds are so uncertain, that none who are in the camp of David have repaired to this battle; but, on the contrary, their trumpets rather further the cause than hinder it; because these young recruits dare not take up arms against their own king and country. I believe I once mentioned to you a certain matron, who received an uncommon inflammation under the late strange fire which burnt among us, which was long since kindled by the gainsaying of Korah: that this flame might never go out, but be kept continually burning on her altar, she generously made a tender of her heart, her hand, and her purse; had the carcase been included, it had been a whole burnt offering. However, the heart and the hand are both now in the grave, and not so much left behind as Jezebel had; for all that remains is the purse: a funeral sermon has been adopted instead of a fiery chariot, and she has been sent to heaven by one who is under the sentence of death; and who so fit to go to the house of mourning as those who are going to be executed? She had of late been not a little comforted because she had got rid of the hacking and cutting of parson Sack, and was determined to have no more of it. But the worst of it is, that there is a prophet, an axe, a sword, a bow, and a whole quiver of arrows beyond the grave; but not one dauber, not one to prophesy smooth things, not one to heal the wound slightly, not

one to cry Peace, Peace, nor one to play on the corrupted passions of nature, much less to provoke the lust of a wanton professor. We must reprove and rebuke with all authority, and so separate the vile from the precious, the chaff from the wheat, whatever names of pride, bigotry, narrowness, rancour, bad spirit, censorious, conceited, we may bear, knowing that the promised pronunciation of "Well done, thou good and faithful servant," will make amends for all. My son, go on; and thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after faith, charity, righteousness, peace with them that call upon God out of a pure heart. My heart, my hand, and my purse, are at thy service.

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I RECEIVE RECEIVED my dear brother's epistle, and am thankful to God and to him for it. I am not in

a frame at present to come to thee with a rod, but in love, and in the spirit of meekness,

I have at times, for these six months past, been exercised in my soul in a very singular manner; my temptations have been great, and my conflicts severe beyond description; I have gone much bound in spirit, sorely beset by Satan, and with a continual sense of my own natural weakness, ignorance, and depravity: not about my eternal state; this has been cleared to me, and settled in the court of conscience for many years, and it terminated in the justification of my soul, and in a happy departure from death to life, and into that state of condemnation I shall not come any more. I view this last awakening sound to be an alarm; a call to arms and to prepare for the battle. "But who is sufficient for these things?" I trust my sufficiency is of God. I have sat down and counted the cost; I am humbled and meekened, but not intimidated, not terrified, for, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day." Therefore, though twenty thousand are expected against those who have but ten thousand, yet more are with the just than with the wicked. A person, whom it pleased God to discover to me the first moment that I saw him, and whom he discovered to you the first time that you heard him, has opened his mouth against the incomprehensible mystery of God, by which he has confirmed me in my judgment, and in yours, that presumption was visible there. And were I to tell you

you

of some that are drinking into these stolen waters, you would repeat the unanswerable question, What is man? I know that the deceivableness of unrighteousness cannot work effectually only in them that perish; and that false Christs and false prophets shall come, and shall deceive many, is true; yet not the elect, they shall never be finally deceived. Nor am I afraid of being deceived myself in these things, because Satan the father of lies, has tried me with all these heresies himself; and God kept me, even then, when I was weaker than all common weakness; more blind than a bat, and more ignorant than a brute; and upheld me with his hand, and led me safely, even by a way that I knew not.

I tremble for the weak in faith, for the little ones of the household, knowing that Satan is come down to them in great wrath; with nothing less than damnable heresies, or those errors that are evident tokens of perdition, and accompanying damnation. I wish I was a little more purged from universal charity; but a nurse must have skill, tenderness, and nourishment, to minister. I know that magicians can counterfeit divine miracles; but where the honour of God is concerned, his wisdom, power, and presence, are promised; and sure I am that he will plead their cause who have pleaded the cause of truth, and who for his sake have suffered reproach. I have often said, Take me, Lord, it is enough! and have longed for the grave. But, alas! other battles, I

believe, are yet to be fought. I am now getting old, and my eyes are dim, my nervous system weak, and my intellects and memory much fail me; but I must stand my ground: God's lines are fallen to me in it, and I hope he will maintain my lot. Some truths are plain and obvious, others more mysterious, dark, and obscure; but the mystery of the ever blessed, and ever adorable Trinity, is infinite, inconceivable, and incomprehensible; and to be pushed or driven into a controversy on this point, is not pleasing, especially in the decline of life. Not that I have any consciousness of wrong in the doctrine, for it is deeply rooted in my soul; but I know that Satan can equip, where it becomes the man of God to put the harness off: and such can ascend the scorner's chair, when a child of God dares not sit in the seat of Moses. I know that God is furnishing me for some fight of faith; for, at my study, provide or get whatever I may in the week, it is all taken from me on the Lord's day morning; and this subject is sure to be set before me, with a "Go and speak thus." Some cavil, dispute, rage, storm, and have wrote to me, but all in vain: the more they say against it, the firmer I am fixed in it. And it is these things that comfort me, "I will give you a mouth and wisdom." While seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, the path of the just shall shine more and more, even to the perfect day, Prov. iv. 18. A divine testimony from God is

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