(_TRUST EVEN THOUGH SLAIN--SECOND CAUSES NOT TO BE REGARDED--GOD'S
THOUGHTS OF PEACE THEREIN--ALL IN MERCY._)
MADAM,--Grace, mercy, and peace be to you.--Impute it not to a
disrespective forgetfulness of your Ladyship, who ministered to me in
my bonds, that I write not to you.
I wish that I could speak or write what might do good to your
Ladyship; especially now when I think we cannot but have deep thoughts
of the deep and bottomless ways of our Lord, in taking away, with a
sudden and wonderful stroke, your brethren and friends. Ye may know,
that all who die for sin die not in sin; and that "none can teach the
Almighty knowledge." He answereth none of our courts,[428] and no man
can say, "What doest Thou?" It is true that your brethren saw not many
summers; but adore and fear the sovereignty of the great Potter, who
maketh and marreth His clay-vessels when and how it pleaseth Him.
[428] When we summon Him into our court to explain.
The under-garden is absolutely His own, and all that groweth in it.
His absolute liberty is law-biding. The flowers are His own. If some
be but summer apples, He may pluck them down before others. Oh what
wisdom is it to believe, and not to dispute; to subject the thoughts
to His court, and not to repine at any act of His justice? He hath
done it: all flesh be silent! It is impossible to be submissive and
religiously patient, if ye stay your thoughts down among the confused
rollings and wheels of second causes; as, "Oh the place!" "Oh the
time!" "Oh if this had been, this had not followed!" Oh the linking of
this accident with this time and place! Look up to the master-motion
and the first wheel. See and read the decree of Heaven and the Creator
of man, who breweth death to His children, and the manner of it. And
they see far into a millstone, and have eyes that make a hole to see
through the one side of a mountain to the other, who can take up His
ways. "How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding
out!" His providence halteth not, but goeth with even and equal legs.
Yet are they not the greatest sinners upon whom the tower of Siloam
fell. Was not time's lease expired? and the sand of heaven's
sand-glass, set by our Lord, run out? Is not he an unjust debtor who
payeth due debt with chiding?
I believe, Christian lady, your faith leaveth that much charity to our
Lord's judgments as to believe (howbeit ye be in blood sib to that
cross) that yet ye are exempted and freed from the gall and wrath that
is in it. I dare not deny but "the king of terrors dwelleth in the
wicked man's tabernacle: brimstone shall be scattered on his
habitation" (Job xviii. 15); yet, Madam, it is safe for you to live
upon the faith of His love whose arrows are over-watered and pointed
with love and mercy to His own, and who knoweth how to take you and
yours out of the roll and book of the dead. Our Lord hath not the
eyes of flesh in distributing wrath to the thousandth generation
without exception. Seeing ye are not under the law, but under grace,
and married to another Husband, wrath is not the court that you are
liable to.
As I would not wish, neither do I believe, that your Ladyship doth
"_despise_," so neither "_faint_" (Prov. iii. 11). Read and spell
aright all the words and syllables in the visitation, and miscall
neither letter nor syllable in it. Come along with the Lord, and see;
and lay no more weight upon the law than your Christ hath laid upon
it. If the law's bill get an answer from Christ, the curses of it can
do more. And I hope you have resolved that, if He should grind you to
powder, your dust and powder will believe His salvation.
And who can tell what thoughts of love and peace our Lord hath to your
children? I trust He will make them famous in executing the written
judgments upon the enemies of the Lord ("this honour hath all the
saints," Ps. cxlix. 9), and that they shall bear stones on their
shoulders for building that fair city that is called "The Lord is
there" (Ezek. xlviii. 35). And happy shall they be who have a hand in
the sacking of Babel, and come out in the year of vengeance for the
controversy of Zion, against the land of graven images. Therefore,
Madam, let the Lord make out of your father's house any work, even of
judgment, that He pleaseth. What is wrath to others is mercy to you
and your house. It is faith's work to claim and challenge
loving-kindness out of all the roughest strokes of God. Do that for
the Lord which ye will do for time: time will calm your heart at that
which God hath done, and let our Lord have it now. What love ye did
bear to friends now dead, seeing they stand now in no need of it, let
it fall as just legacy to Christ. Oh how sweet to put out many strange
lovers, and to put in Christ! It is much for our half-slain affections
to part with that which we believe we have right unto; but the
servant's will should be our will, and he is the best servant who
retaineth least of his own will and most of his Master's. That much
wisdom must be ascribed to our Lord, that He knoweth how to lead His
own, in-through and out-through the little time-hells and the pieces
of time-during wraths in this life; and yet keep safe His love,
without any blur upon the old and great seal of free election. And,
seeing His mountains of brass,[429] the mighty and strong decrees of
free grace in Christ, stand sure, and the covenant standeth fast for
ever as the days of heaven, let Him strike and nurture. His striking
must be a very act of saving, seeing strokes upon His secret ones come
from the soft and heavenly hand of the Mediator, and His rods are
steeped and watered in that flood and river of love that cometh from
the God-man's heart of our soul-loving and soul-redeeming JESUS.
[429] Zech. vi. 1.
I hope that ye are content to frist the Cautioner of mankind His own
conquest, heaven, till He pay to you, and bring you to a state of
glory, where He will never crook a finger upon, nor lift a hand to you
again. And be content, and withal greedily covetous of grace, the
interest and pledge of glory. If I did not believe your crop to be on
the ground, and (your part of that heaven of the saints-heaven) white
and ruddy, fair, fair, and beautiful Jesus were come to the bloom and
the flower, and near your hook, I would not write this. But, seeing
time's thread is short, and ye are upon the entry of heaven's harvest,
and Christ, the field of heaven's glory, is white and ripe-like, the
losses that I wrote of to your Ladyship are but summer-showers that
will only wet your garments for an hour or two, and the sun of the New
Jerusalem shall quickly dry the wet coat; especially seeing rains of
affliction cannot stain the image of God, or cause grace to cast
colour. And, since ye will not alter upon Him who will not change upon
you, I durst, in my weakness, think myself no spiritual seer if I
should not prophesy that daylight is near, when such a morning-darkness
is upon you; and that this trial of your Christian mind towards Him
(whom you dare not leave, howbeit He should slay you) shall close with
a doubled mercy. It is time for faith to hold fast as much of Christ
as ever ye had, and to make the grip stronger, and to cleave closer to
Him, seeing Christ loveth to be believed in and trusted to. The glory
of laying strength upon one that is mighty to save is more than we can
think. That piece of service, believing in a smiting Redeemer, is a
precious part of obedience. Oh what glory to Him to lay over the
burden of our heaven upon Him that purchased for us an eternal
kingdom! O blessed soul, who can adore and kiss His lovely free grace!
The rich grace of Christ be with your spirit.
Yours, at all obedience in Christ Jesus,