it may be a divine work. This small beginning greatly increases, at which Satan bestirs himself: the Holy Ghost searches the heart and lays the usurper open, who shuns the light, and feels the power, for the sword lies at him; this fills him with wrath, it awakens his despair, and inflames him with indignation. He is banished heaven, and he carries his hell within him, and is bound and cast out of the hearts of poor sinners, whose misery is his ease, whose sin is his food, and whose salvation is his destruction. The will is soon gained over, and becomes loyal; God makes us willing, and to will is present with us. The understanding sees the subtleness of the object which the will hath chosen; but the mind, the affections, and the conscience must settle the account. When these meet with their unction, which completes the whole anointing (for this ointment must go from the head to the beard, and down to the skirts of the clothing), then the royalty begins to appear. The mind must be fully persuaded ere it can be fixed so as to exclude perplexing doubts. The affections must be influenced and attracted by love, and the conscience must join with faith, and reap the peaceful benefits of an imputed righteousness, before the lawful captive can be persuaded that he is delivered. "I will keep that man in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me." "With the heart," or conscience, "man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made;" for when conscience bears her undoubted testimony, the mouth proclaims the confidence, sentence, and testimony of conscience, while the Holy Ghost fixes the heart. The affections feeling the peace, the tranquillity, the serenity of conscience, embraces with redoubled love the King of Zion; and from that time there is a beauty in the feet of them who publish salvation, and who say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. This! this! my beloved, crowns the whole work, raises the empire of Zion's King, and fixes the loyalty of the subject. "The lot [of eternal life] causeth contention to cease, and parteth between the mighty;" the Lord divides the portion with the great, and the spoil with the strong; and when the soul is conquered, captured, and gained, enmity subsides, the gift of life in secret appeaseth anger, and the reward of love in the bosom, strong wrath. Every pain of my son appears stronger, the intervals more sharp, and the old man at these desertions appears more and more enraged, and the unexpected changes seem more intolerable. But every visit, revival, refreshing, renewal, or enlargement, expands the door, inspires the prisoner, brightens the dismal regions, and brings the King in his beauty, the land of delights, and the realities of invisibilities nearer home. The Coalheaver rejoiceth in his son: "A wise son maketh a glad father;" "And he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him." The Lord bless and keep thee, be gracious unto thee, and lift the light of his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace," is the prayer of W. H. LETTER LXXX. To the Rev. J. JENKINS. more at his Paul begat THE Doctor still holds his integrity, and will by no means change his voice; but assert that my boasting before Titus is found a truth, that my poor little one is the most excellent of all my scraps; and, like Samson, he will kill death, than he has in all his life. many in his bonds, but my scrap has begotten an old woman in the pains of death; heaps upon heaps. But he complains that his sweet frames of meekness and contrition are short-lived. Not so, if he was a private believer. God not only stores the mind of his servants with fresh views of things, new and old; he not only discovers fresh ground of standing, and fires the mind with energy, and fills the mouth with utterance; but there is a secret dew, a moisture that attends meckness and godly sorrow; this is to refresh the bowels of the saints. Speaking the words of life is thus expressed, "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth;" this is sowing the word; but moisture is needed, and that is thus expressed, "He that watereth, shall be watered also himself." Now in preaching, not only do the words go from the memory, but all the dew from the soul. When pastor and flock are in union, and in the bond of the covenant, the dew of Hermon goes even to the skirt: that which would keep your soul a whole week, like a watered garden, will not last one hour in a pulpit. "I will water them every moment;" this is done chiefly by preaching the word. An old bachelor, who has none to feed but himself, a half-peck loaf may serve him for a week; but the father of a family in Israel will consume it in an hour: this is our case, all our incomes are for the good of the public. I have often gone to work for more than myself, and bold as a lion; but when I had done, so shorn and drained, that I have been ashamed to look any one in the face; and at these times saints often flock round you with their joys, smiles, and fluent words, triumphing in the treasure they have got from your heart, for your cruse is emptied to fill them. And when meditation has been sweet, views many, and dew much, I have longed for the pulpit as much as a cow at grass longs for the milk-maid. But I have been at such times among a barren set; the sincere milk went not down, there being no mouth of faith to draw it; but those that go forth, and grow up like calves of the stall, will fetch it down, and out too. God save my son. W. H. LETTER LXXXI. To the Rev. J. JENKINS. I AM now all alive with hopes and expectations of seeing the Vicar once more. I have of late had some dead hours, some barren times, which are not fit to come into the days of the week, or to be joined with the number of the months. But, "He will not always chide, he will not be always wroth; he will not keep his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy." But in his own time he came again with fresh life, with seasonable support, and with sensible relief. At which the heart expanded, the affections glowed, the mind was exhilarated, conscience charmed, and himself more sweet, more precious, more dear, more blessed than ever. What poor creatures we are, and yet what love, what kindness, tenderness, faithfulness, and truth, does he shew and confirm to us! And how does the heart enlarge and close, rise and fall; take courage or faint, fix or waver, according as he goes or comes, frowns or smiles, shines or eclipses, shows his pleasure or his displeasure. This, my dearly beloved, is our union, communion, and fellowship, both with the Father and with his Son Christ Jesus; and surely they must have life in him who have their souls so quick, so sensible, so tender, so soft, so susceptible as this. By love we come to God, the Judge of all; by faith we come to the Mediator of the new |