(_SUFFERINGS--HOPE OF FINAL DELIVERANCE--THE BELIEVER IN SAFE
KEEPING--THE RECOMPENSE MARRED BY TEMPTATIONS._)
WORTHY AND DEARLY BELOVED IN OUR LORD,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to
you.--I long to hear from you. I remain still a prisoner of hope, and
do think it service to the Lord to wait on still with submission, till
the Lord's morning sky break, and His summer day dawn. For I am
persuaded that it is a piece of the chief errand of our life (on which
God sent us for some years, down to this earth, among devils and men,
the firebrands of the devil, and temptations), that we might suffer
for a time here amongst our enemies; otherwise He might have made
heaven to wait on us, at our coming out of the womb, and have carried
us home to our country, without letting us set down our feet in this
knotty and thorny life. But seeing a piece of suffering is carved to
every one of us, less or more, as infinite Wisdom hath thought good,
our part is to harden and habituate our soft and thin-skinned nature
to endure fire and water, devils, lions, men, losses, wo hearts, as
those that are looked upon by God, angels, men, and devils. Oh, what
folly is it, to sit down and weep upon a decree of God, that is both
deaf and dumb to our tears, and must stand still as unmoveable as God
who made it! For who can come behind our Lord, to alter or better what
He hath decreed and done? It were better to make windows in our
prison, and to look out to God and our country, heaven, and to cry
like fettered men who long for the King's free air, "Lord, let Thy
kingdom come! Oh, let the Bridegroom come! And, O day, O fair day, O
everlasting summer day, dawn and shine out, break out from under the
black night sky, and shine!" I am persuaded that, if every day a
little stone in the prison-walls were broken, and thereby assurance
given to the chained prisoner, lying under twenty stone of irons upon
arms and legs, that at length his chain should wear into two pieces,
and a hole should be made at length as wide as he might come safely
over to his long-desired liberty; he would, in patience, wait on, till
time should hole the prison-wall and break his chains. The Lord's
hopeful prisoners, under their trials, are in that case. Years and
months will take out, now one little stone, then another, of this
house of clay; and at length time shall win out the breadth of a fair
door, and send out the imprisoned soul to the free air in heaven. And
time shall file off, by little and little, our iron bolts which are
now on legs and arms, and outdate and wear our troubles threadbare and
holey, and then wear them to nothing; for what I suffered yesterday, I
know, shall never come again to trouble me.
Oh that we could breathe out new hope, and new submission every day,
into Christ's lap! For, certainly, a weight of glory well weighed,
yea, increasing to a far more exceeding and eternal weight, shall
recompense both weight and length of light, and clipped, and
short-dated crosses. Our waters are but ebb, and come neither to our
chin, nor to the stopping of our breath. I may see (if I would borrow
eyes from Christ) dry land, and that near. Why then should we not
laugh at adversity, and scorn our short-born and soon-dying
temptations? I rejoice in the hope of that glory to be revealed, for
it is no uncertain glory which we look for. Our hope is not hung upon
such an untwisted thread as, "I imagine so," or "It is likely;" but
the cable, the strong towe of our fastened anchor, is the oath and
promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our salvation is fastened with
God's own hand, and with Christ's own strength, to the strong stoup of
God's unchangeable nature, "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye
sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Mal. iii. 6). We may play, and dance,
and leap upon our worthy and immoveable Rock. The ground is sure and
good, and will bide hell's brangling, and devils' brangling, and the
world's assaults.
Oh, if our faith could ride it out against the high and proud waves
and winds, when our sea seemeth to be all on fire! Oh, how oft do I
let my grips go! I am put to swimming and half sinking. I find that
the devil hath the advantage of the ground in this battle; for he
fighteth on known ground, in our corrupt nature. Alas! that is a
friend near of kin and blood to himself, and will not fail to fall
foul upon us. And hence it is, that He who saveth to the uttermost,
and leadeth many sons to glory, is still righting my salvation; and
twenty times a-day I ravel my heaven, and then I must come with my
ill-ravelled work to Christ, to cumber Him (as it were) to right it,
and to seek again the right end of the thread, and to fold up again my
eternal glory with His own hand, and to give a right cast of His holy
and gracious hand to my marred and spilled salvation. Certainly it is
a cumbersome thing to keep a foolish child from falls, and broken
brows, and weeping for this and that toy, and rash running, and
sickness, and bairns' diseases; ere he win through them all, and win
out of the mires, he costeth meikle black cumber and fashery to his
keepers. And so is a believer a cumbersome piece of work, and an
ill-ravelled hesp (as we use to say), to Christ. But God be thanked;
for many spilled salvations, and many ill-ravelled hesps hath Christ
mended, since first He entered Tutor to lost mankind. Oh, what could
we bairns do without Him! How soon would we mar all! But the less of
our weight be upon our own feeble legs, and the more that we be on
Christ the strong Rock, the better for us. It is good for us that ever
Christ took the cumber of us; it is our heaven to lay many weights and
burdens upon Christ, and to make Him all we have, root and top,
beginning and ending of our salvation. Lord, hold us here.
Now to this Tutor, and rich Lord, I recommend you. Hold fast till He
come; and remember His prisoner.
Grace, grace be with you.
Yours, in his and your Lord Jesus,