know not how confident I write this; and who gives confidence? he that owns it and honours it. The heaven of heavens blefs the fcrap of excellence-So prays his faithful affectionate friend, W. H. LETTER XXXVII. I AM coming once more to vifit the invalid. His outward man gets feeble, and his old man is as ftrong as ever. But neither of these can injure the new man: what God does is done. for ever, nothing can be added to it or taken from it; and God doth it that men fhould fear before him. The effect of this work on the fouls of men is FEAR, "and the fear of the Lord is his treasure :" a treasure from the Saviour's fulness, and is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. And this grace is in my beloved. Nor is this all; for he is light in the Lord. He can see himself, his finful nature, the old man and all his members, the devil and all his wiles; and you may depend upon this, that whatsoever makes fin and finners vile in their own fight, and at the fame time makes Chrift the moft lovely, and the moft defirable of all objects, this, this is the true light; and it now shines in my beloved, and it is at-. tended with unfeigned love to the brethren, and fuch dwell in the light, and there is no real or juft occafion of ftumbling in fuch; fuch being the children of light, and God is the father of these lights,, and "the father of glory," as Paul calls him; being the father of lights; for light is glory. Moreover, my beloved is not without love to Chrift Jefus; for what does he make all this ado about him for; what is all this hunger and thirst after him; what is all this love, joy, meeknefs, weeping, crying, forrowing, and fobbing over him when he comes; and all this fear and dread; this bitterness, this mifery, and trembling; this hell and distraction within when he is gone? Surely he must be the chiefelt among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely; lovely in the eyes of poor finners that make fo much of him, efteem him fo highly, and who count themselves, and all things elfe, but dung and drofs, when compared to him. Can fuch lovers and admirers of Chrift be among that number who say unto him, depart from us, for we defire not the knowledge of thy ways? or among them who fay there is no beauty in him; no form or comelinefs, whereby he fhould be defired or admired? &c. And of this, my dear friend, be affured, that the law will never allow wrath to be executed, either upon fathers or upon children, unless they hate God. And fure I am, that those who have nothing but a hell without Chrift, and who defire nothing elfe but him, muft love him; and even the law itfel fhews mercy unto thousands of them that love him, and keep his commandments; and love to God keeps every commandment that ever came from God. And I am fure that I love my friend with an unfeigned, undiffembled, and unadulterated love in Chrift Jefus; and this love is not in the flesh, nor in nature. For I once faw my friend in the ftate of nature, and he took me by the hand, at Ashdown; and so far from loving him, a toad, a dog, or a devil, would have been just as acceptable to me as he was. My foul loathed him as a fenfelefs hardened finner, a rebel, and a deceiver, a hypocrite, and a prefumptuous invader of the priest's office. But it is not fo now; he is a loft finner, and he knows it, and fuch the Lord came to seek and fave; and as fuch I love him in Chrift Jefus, and as fuch I fhall ever hold him as one dear to me, dear to the Lord, and dear to all humble fouls who know him. God bless thee! W. H. S. S. LETTER XXXVIII. My best beloved feems quite in the dark about his own head. My views and firm opinion of him is, that a very gentle ftroke of the paralytic kind has gone imperceptibly through his whole frame; of this I have been long affured in my own mind; and when you was last with me, I watched you narrowly, and compared what I faw in you with what I have seen in others, and was confirmed in my own private opinion. And this seems to me a most easy, gentle, and gradual way of gathering lilies, Song vi. 2. This relaxing, enfeebling, and debilitating complaint, not only weakens the joints and limbs, but the brain, eyes, ears, and even the fpeech. It alfo affects the memory and the recollection, by confufing and difturbing the head; fo that the power of thinking, of recollecting, and even of attending, obferving, and that also of looking and hearing, is at times much difturbed, difordered, or imp aired. ut all cannot alter or injure the noble powers or faculties of the foul; fuch as the will, the mind, the understanding, the affections, and the confcience; in all which the Holy Ghoft works, and which are the proper receptacles of his prefence, his power, and of his grace. Bodily afflictions are bodily afflictions: nothing fhall ever damn a foul but a mind armed with enmity against God, a will furnished with rebellion against Chritt, a confcience defiled with unpardoned fin and guilt, and the affections alienated from the life of him, and fixed upon pleafures, fin, Satan, and the world. The work of regeneration is begun carried on, and will be perfected on the mental powers above defcribed. Hence he is called the Spirit of power in the will, making the finner willing. The Spirit of a found mird, putting the law of faith into the mind, and making it found in the faith. The Spirit of revelation in the understanding. The Spirit of love in the affections; and the Spirit of peace and fanctification in the confcience. And this his work is perfect; and it is done for ever; nothing can be added to it, or taken from it. Ever yours, W. H. |