HAVING waded through many deep waters of late, and, I hope, learned many
interesting lessons in the School of the Cross, I cannot forbear dropping
you a few thoughts on the great things of God. It is my mercy and yours,
that our salvation is the joint work of the adorable Trinity in Unity,
originating in eternal love, planned in infinite wisdom, and executed by
almighty power. This salvation I have been led to prise, of late, more
than ever I did; and to bless a covenant God that I ever heard its joyful
sound; that I was ever convinced of my need of its blessings; that I ever
was enabled to receive it as my own: which glorious salvation consists in
the pardon of sin—the acceptation of the Saviour’s obedience—the clear
witness of God’s Spirit—and the happy heart-felt communion with God.
This is the salvation of the Gospel I have been made acquainted with in
some degree, and trust I shall yet more abundantly, even in this present
life, and beyond the grave be favored with it in body and soul for ever.
This is what I have in humble hope and expedition, and God declares it
shall not be cut off. The Spirit of God is given us as an earnest of
this, and faith is the evidence of it—and though I am not yet in the
enjoyment of it, the promise still stands firm, _Thine eyes shall see the
king in his beauty—they shall behold the land that is far off_. _Thine_
eyes: are you inclined to ask, Whose eyes?—the answer is ready—those who
are in possession of a good work of grace—hence, _having begun the good
work_, _he will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ_.—Sometimes you
hope, you believe, you trust, nay you are sure this work is begun; then I
am sure it will be carried on, and must be completed; for the Man will
not be in rest till the great work is done, and he presents us to himself
a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, nor any such thing. May
you and I live in the pleasing prospect of this, and finally, die to
enjoy it—no doubt it will be an heaven worth dying for—when I contemplate
this glory, I forget the trials of the way.
But, perhaps, my dear friend, while reading this, is particularly tried
_in_ the way; _for as vinegar upon nitre_, _so is he that singeth songs
to an heavy heart_. Well, then, I must pay you a visit in Achor’s vale,
where I know you are truly safe, though miserable; reflecting on the days
that are past, and contrasting them with what you now feel and fear—once
feeling light, joy, peace, comfort, love, zeal, activity, and diligence;
but now you feel darkness, insensibility, lowness the workings of inbred
sin, and too often have to lament the out-breakings of them. This may be
succeeded by legal bondage, unbelief, fretfulness, enmity, and a sad
distance between God and the soul; and instead of activity and diligence,
a general stupor; calling all in question, because you cannot act as you
have formerly done—quite forgetting him that has said, and who is now
making good his promise, _Even the youths shall faint and be weary_, _and
the young men shall utterly fail_, _but those who wait on the Lord shall
renew their strength_.
Permit me, my brother, just to intimate, that there is nothing singular
in your trials; it appears to be the very path the Redeemer went, and the
very footsteps of the flock. Hence we read, directly after the Baptism
of our dear Lord, when his soul was filled with all the fulness of God;
when the Father, with an audible voice, proclaimed from above, _This is
my beloved Son_!—and the Holy Spirit was seen hovering over his head, in
a body of light, just like a Dove in its descent—the Redeemer rising from
the watery tomb, and the gazing spectators astonished at the solemn
scene—immediately after this transaction we find him led into the
Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil; and he was with the wild beasts,
and evil angels came to him; and upon the back of this, Satan, the head,
the chief Devil, most daringly tempted him to presumption, to doubt his
Sonship, and to commit suicide!—and can my brother wonder that he is a
subject of temptation—_that_ he has forty days of mourning, without a
spiritual entertainment, or the manifestative presence of Christ—_that_
he is among the wild beasts of his inbred sins—that evil thoughts stirred
up by evil angels, should ever trouble or visit him? And can you wonder
that you should be tempted to doubt your sonship—tempted to presume—that
is, forbear to use the scripture means in time of trouble, or even
tempted to suicide? You think some strange thing has happened to you,
but this is the path the Redeemer trod, in his measure—and, recollect,
the servant is not greater than his Lord—it is enough to be as he was,
that we may be as he _is_. This part of your experience was strikingly
exhibited in the case of the Israelites, who came through the Red Sea
with joy and praise—shouted victory, through the mercy of Jehovah—and
felt happy that they were delivered. But their felicity was soon abated,
for they were ordered to encamp at Marah, in the Wilderness. So you find
it: you have been convinced of your lost state; you have felt the slavery
of sin and the Devil; you have felt the bondage of the Law; you have seen
the Redeemer making an atonement for sinners: your faith has received
this; your hope has enjoyed this; your love has been led out to him in
sweet return; and though you still felt yourself a sinner, yet your mind
was happy in Jesus, his glorious Person, and his great Work. Here you
sung with Moses and Miriam, with gospel ministers and people, _The Lord
is my strength and my song_, _he also is become my salvation_, _and I
will exalt him_. But your note was soon changed, for you presently found
yourself in the wilderness of fears, lest you had been deluded, and lest
you had presumed—lest your grief had been like Esau’s, and your joys the
raptures of a way-side hearer; quite forgetting that that religion which
comes from God, always leads to God, as our salvation and our eternal
all. This was certainly your experience; then why doubt the reality of
it? The commandment has gone forth, that you, for wise and
God-glorifying purposes, should pitch your tent at Marah; here you must
taste of the bitter cup of sorrow. This will only endear the Tree of
Life to you, who was cut down, and cast into deeper waters than you can
possibly go into; and will lead your faith to apprehend, that though your
waters are deep and bitter, yet faith tastes them sweet, by virtue of
Christ’s removing the curse—
Thus believing we rejoice,
To see the curse removed.
Your path may indeed be hard and thorny, but, bless God, there is no
curse in it; let this console your mind, I am sure it will, if the Holy
Spirit gives you power to believe it. Your present experience of
darkness, guilt, deadness, bondage, contraction of spirit, and great
stupor, are the days of evil that Solomon speaks of, which are many, but
must at last issue in an exceeding and an eternal weight of glory. But
seeing such are the days that must come on the followers of the dear
Saviour, how truly important, and how highly interesting that exhortation
in the twelfth of Ecclesiastes, _Remember now thy Creator_, _in the days
of thy youth_, _while the evil days come not_, _and the years draw nigh_,
_wherein thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them_. Solomon could well
talk of these things, for he had a wonderful share of them, and wrote the
whole Book of Ecclesiastes upon the subject. The word is said by some,
to mean the Preacher, but others think it signifies Restoration to the
Church. It was also written by him in his old age, after his recovery
from backsliding; as such it must be a precious treasure in the hands of
a poor sinner, who knows the plague of his heart, the weakness of human
nature, the inconstancy and mutability of all transitory things, of all
terrestial objects.
This book shews the vanity of all things out of Christ; that they are
fleeting, insubstantial, and disappointing; that they elude the grasp of
their followers, and leave the soul in darkness, misery, and woe. Having
learnt so much by deep heart-felt experience, of the power of grace and
the power of sin, and having been deeply taught by the Holy Ghost, he
advises as a father to his children, how to act, before the sad days of
tribulation come on; and this is agreeable to his own declaration, _The
prudent man foreseeth the evil_ (i.e.) _day and hideth himself_, _but the
simple pass on and are punished_. Thus in this chapter he exhorts,
which, through God’s assistance, I shall consider in an experimental
manner; and shew, I hope, the mind of the Spirit upon this important
theme.
I have often been grieved when this precious text has been taken by mere
Moralists, who knew nothing of the Spirit’s work upon the heart, as the
testifier of Jesus; and applied to youth, literally, who are destitute of
the grace of God—and by a mere moral harangue, they have set youth to
perform a task they themselves never did. Hence, in general, Sermons are
preached to young people from this passage, when the very passage shews
they are characters that have been taught of God; else why exhort to a
remembrance of that glorious object, Thy Creator? it must imply some
knowledge of him; and this great Creator can only be known by his own
Word and Spirit; only seen in his own light, _for the world by wisdom
knows not God_, nor can all the works of God lead us to God, as some
dream; there is no coming to a knowledge of trusting in, or loving, or
obeying God, but by the glorious Mediator, and the impulse of the Holy
Ghost. I consider it necessary then, my dear Brother, to shew you,
_First_, The Characters addressed in this important exhortation—the
_Youth_. _Secondly_, the grand object recommended to their attention,
_Thy Creators_. _Thirdly_, What is implied in the idea of _remembering
him_. _Fourthly_, The _Arguments_ the wise man makes use of to urge this
important act, viz. _The approach of evil days and years_—which I shall
endeavor to explain in a scriptural and experimental way, to comfort some
poor mourner; to show the value of a precious Saviour; and endear
salvation, by free grace alone.
On the first head of this subject, I would just observe, the blessedness
of being early called by the grace of God, can never be fully appreciated
in this world. We read of some who were called at a very early period:
Jeremiah was really sanctified from the womb: John the Baptist was filled
with the Holy Ghost in the womb; which shews the possibility of a work of
grace in the souls of those who die in infancy, as they are in general,
if not _all_, influenced by the Holy Spirit before their departure, and
are passively the subjects of Regeneration. What a consolation for a
parent bereaved of a _lovely babe_!—It appears Joseph was early taught of
God; perhaps the first martyr, Abel, was—it is very clear Obadiah,
Josiah, David, and Solomon, were early converted. Samuel and Timothy
knew the Saviour at a very early period—the Lord was their guide from
their youth. This saves a person from many a bitter pang,—many a sigh,
many a tear, many a deep, black, sad reflection of parents, broken
hearts, violated sabbaths, a despised gospel, a ruined pocket, and
constitution. To be sure grace shines very bright in the calling of
such; but you and I must say, we are greater debtors to preserving grace.
I rejoice your mind was so early imprest with the power of godliness, and
that you was directed under a sound ministry, which clearly pointed out
the way of salvation, by free grace alone; for the labour of some foolish
preachers wearieth every one, because they know not how to go to the
city. But this is not the youth in the text, they are the seed which the
Lord hath blessed—the seed of God; the seed that was to serve the Lord,
called the seed of Jacob; for these the Redeemer entered into a covenant
with his Father—for these he travailed in spirit, groaned, cried, obeyed,
bled, and died. Hence the promise, _He shall see of the travail of his
soul and be satisfied_. This is begun in our conversion, and will be
accomplished in our final glorification. Hence the Psalmist says, _As
arrows in the hand of the mighty so are the children of thy youth_. And
the matter of the covenant between the Father and the Son, is thus
exhibited—_Thy people shall be willing __in the day of thy power_, _in
the beauties of holiness_. _From the womb of the morning thou hast the
dew of thy youth_—which beautiful passage Mr. Hervey translates, and
paraphrases thus: “As the morning is the mother of dews; produces them,
as it were, from a prolific womb; and scatters them with the most lavish
abundance, over all the surface of the earth: _So shall thy seed be_, O
thou everlasting Father! By the preaching of thy word, shall such an
innumerable race of regenerate children be born to thee, and fill all
lands. Millions, millions of willing converts, shall _croud_ into thy
family, and _replenish_ thy church; till they become like the stars of
Heaven, or the sands of the sea, for multitude; or even as _numberless_,
as these fine _spangles_, which now cover the face of nature.”
Of the same opinion was the late Mr. Huntington; see his “Light shining
in Darkness;” on the 110th _Psalm_. “The youth which is to spring from
the womb and is to be numerous as the drops of the dew, seem to _be_ a
time yet to come; when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the
earth—when a nation shall be born at once—when a little one shall become
a thousand—and when the Lord’s family will consist of strong men in the
faith; who are called youth; instead of thy fathers, shall be thy
children, whom thou mayest make Princes in the earth;” this must be when
the greatest kingdom under the whole heavens shall be given to the saints
of the most high, and they shall take it, and possess it, for
Jesus shall reign where’er the Sun
Does his successive journies run.
The truly excellent Dr. Hawker reads this passage in reference to the
heavenly extraction of the Lord’s people, to shew, That sovereign grace
will give to Christ an abundance of souls, like the dew drops; so
numerous as to be perfectly incalculable: “And they shall come of
heavenly extraction, as the dew from God, _being born not of the will of
the flesh_, _but of God_; and unperceived, unnoticed, and unknown, as the
silent drops of the morn; _for the kingdom of God cometh not by
observation_: and as they are begotten like the dew, without the aid of
man, so also shall they be preserved by the same predisposing cause,
without man’s descent.—_Not by might or by power_, _but by my spirit_,
_saith the Lord of Hosts_.” Thus the youth to whom Solomon writes are
the spiritual seed of God, and not to mere carnal worldly youth, who are
destitute of the knowledge of God. Dear _Amicus_, adieu—Grace and peace
be with you.