(_GOD'S SKILL TO BLESS BY AFFLICTION--UNKINDNESS OF MEN--NEAR THE DAY
OF MEETING THE LORD._)
MISTRESS,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--Though not acquainted,
yet at the desire of a Christian brother, I have thought good to write
a line unto you, entreating you, in the Lord Jesus, under your trials
to keep an ear open to Christ, who can speak for Himself, howbeit your
visitations,[326] and your own sense, should dream hard things of His
love and favour. Our Lord never getteth so kind a look of us, nor our
love in such a degree, nor our faith in such a measure of
stedfastness, as He getteth out of the furnace of our tempting fears
and sharp trials. I verily believe (and two sad proofs in me say no
less), that if our Lord would grind our whorish lusts into powder, the
very old ashes of our corruption would take life again, and live, and
hold us under so much bondage, that may humble us, and make us sad,
till we be in that country where we shall need no physic at all. Oh,
what violent means doth our Lord use to gain us to Him, as if indeed
we were a prize worthy His fighting for! And be sure, if leading would
do the turn, He would not use pulling of the hair, and drawing: but
the best of us will bide a strong pull of our Lord's right arm ere we
follow Him. Yet I say not this, as if our Lord always measured
afflictions by so many ounce-weights, answerable to the grain-weights
of our guiltiness. I know that He doth in many (and possibly in you)
seek nothing so much as faith, that can endure summer and winter in
their extremity. Oh, how precious to the Lord are faith and love, that
when threshed, beaten, and chased away, and bosted as it were by God
Himself, doth yet look warm-like, love-like, kind-like, and life-like,
home-over to Christ, and would be in at Him, ill and well as it may
be.
[326] The afflictions wherewith you have been visited, and your
feelings.
Think it not much that your husband, or the nearest to you in the
world, proveth to have the bowels and mercy of the ostrich, hard, and
rigorous, and cruel; for the Lord taketh up such fallen ones as these
(Ps. xxvii. 10). I could not wish a sweeter life, or more satisfying
expressions of kindness, till I be up at that Prince of kindness, than
the Lord's saints find, when the Lord taketh up men's refuse, and
lodgeth this world's outlaws, whom no man seeketh after. His breath is
never so hot, His love casteth never such a flame, as when this world,
and those who should be the helpers of our joy, cast water on our
coal. It is a sweet thing to see them cast out, and God taken in; and
to see them throw us away as the refuse of men, and God take us up as
His jewels and His treasure. Often He maketh gold of dross, as once He
made the cast-away stone, "the stone rejected by the builders," the
head of the corner. The princes of this world would not have our Lord
Jesus as a pinning in the wall, or to have any place in the building;
but the Lord made Him the master-stone of power and place. God be
thanked, that this world hath not power to cry us down so many pounds,
as rulers cry down light gold, or light silver. We shall stand for as
much as our master-coiner Christ, whose coin, arms, and stamp we bear,
will have us. Christ hath no miscarrying balance. Thank your Lord, who
chaseth your love through two kingdoms, and followeth you and it over
sea, to have you for Himself, as He speaketh (Hos. iii. 3). For God
layeth up His saints, as the wale and the choice of all the world, for
Himself; and this is like Christ and His love. Oh, what in heaven, or
out of heaven, is comparable to the smell of Christ's garments! Nay,
suppose that our Lord would manifest His art, and make ten thousand
heavens of good and glorious things, and of new joys, devised out of
the deep of infinite wisdom, He could not make the like of Christ; for
Christ is God, and God cannot be made. And therefore, let us hold
with Christ, howbeit we might have our wale and will of a host of
lovers, as many as three heavens could contain.
Oh that He and we were together! Oh, when Christ and ye shall meet
about the utmost march and borders of time, and the entry into
eternity, ye shall see heaven in His face at the first look, and
salvation and glory sitting in His countenance, and betwixt His eyes.
Faint not; the miles to heaven are but few and short. He is making a
green bed (as the word speaketh, Cant. i. 16) of love, for Himself and
you. There are many heads lying in Christ's bosom, but there is room
for yours among the rest; and, therefore, go on, and let hope go
before you. Sin not in your trials, and the victory is yours. Pray,
wrestle, and believe, and ye shall overcome and prevail with God, as
Jacob did. No windlestraws, no bits of clay, no temptations, which are
of no longer life than an hour, will then be able to withstand you,
when once you have prevailed with God.
Help me with your prayers, that it would please the Lord to give me
house-room again, to speak of His righteousness in the great
congregation, if it may seem good in His sight.
Grace, grace be with you.
Yours, in his sweet Lord Jesus,