AMIDST a vast multitude of thoughts which occurred to my mind this
morning, one more than all the rest, seemed longest to abide, namely,
that as the Lord’s people are called Servants as well as Sons, it appears
to me that the services of none are accepted of God, but only the
services of those who are Sons by adoption and graces and by the
testimony of the Holy Spirit in the heart. Such Sons are also called his
Servants, who shall serve him: they were by nature the servants of the
Devil, wore his livery, and did his will; but Almighty grace having
wrought a glorious change in the heart, there is a change of the service;
and this service is not in the oldness of the letter, but in the newness
of the spirit; then it must be with a new heart, a new spirit; with new
views, aims, pursuits and ends. Into this service we are first
pressed—then we become volunteers, and though we meet with many
discouragements by the way, yet we are not tired of our Master, nor he of
us; nor do we serve in heart, in affection, in word and deed, as we wish
we could, yet he kindly accepts the will for the deed, and says, _If
there be a willing mind_, _it is accepted according to what a man hath_,
_and not according to what he hath not_. In the service of so divine a
Lord, our chariot wheels would fain run swift along. My dear Brother can
recollect when his feet run cheerfully in the way—_ye did run well_, _who
did hinder you_? and you had a divine command for it—_Rejoice_, _O young
man_, _in thy youth_, _and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy
youth_. Walk in the way of thy new heart, and in the light of truth that
you are favored with; but it is added, that all this work must be tried,
judged, and proved, that it may appear to be genuine, that what belongs
to God may go to God, and what belongs to nature you may discover, and
lament; for this is the design of the furnace, the design of the fire of
tribulation—therefore do not be alarmed, as though some unaccountable
thing had happened. In the days of prosperity you did right to be
joyful; in those days of adversity you must now consider, the Lord
approved of the days of your youth, and even promises a renewal of them;
and David declared he experienced it: this you may see in the following
texts—_I remember thee_, _and the kindness of thy youth_, _and the love
of thy __espousals_, _when thou wentest after me in a land that was not
sown_.—_He shall return to the days of his youth_. _Thy youth is renewed
as the Eagle’s_. This is experienced after a season of backsliding and
darkness, deadness, and misery. In these youthful days it is necessary
to be diligent, as dark days may come. Hence the exhortation, _Remember
thy Creator in the days of thy youth_. These youthful days do not so
much regard the time of life as the time of the light, love, and liberty
of the children of God; these are our first, best, and sweetest days.
Hence it is said, _it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his
youth_: whatever may be the sense of this text, it is a point beyond all
controversy, that it is a mercy to be taught out of the Law, in our first
setting out, to bear the yoke of our transgressions, and receive
deliverance from them by the precious blood and righteousness of Christ.
It is likewise a mercy to be in the service of Christ, in health and
strength of body and mind; the service of Christ is easy and his burden
light; so he told his disciples, _Take my yoke upon you_. The word
youth, does not always signify the term of years; this is evident from
Job’s pathetic moan—_O that it was with me as in the days of my youth_,
when I was blest with health of body, peace of mind, cheerful days,
plenty of ordinances, and means to get the knowledge Jesus; and an
inclination thereto, while the Spirit taught me to say, _My Father_,
_thou art the guide of my youth_. And hence the apostate and backslider
is said, to forsake the guide of her youth. Thus it appears the time to
remember our creators is the days when first imprest with the good things
of God; when powerfully drawn on by the cords of love; when we feel
strong, lively, warm, and affectionate; when peace, comfort, and joy, are
felt; when the mind is free from care, vexation, temptation, and misery;
when God blesses us with health and strength, with ministers and books,
with ordinances, and the company of saints. These are our most happy but
not most god-glorifying times; yet, while they last, Solomon advises a
careful attention to great truths, as we may meet with many crafty,
cruel, malicious enemies to God, enemies to the doctrines of the Trinity
in Unity; enemies to the Covenant of Redemption; enemies to free Grace,
to the Work of the Holy Ghost; to the Divinity and work of the adorable
Immanuel; and in fact, to every revealed truth. So Paul advises, _Put on
the whole armour of God_, _that ye may stand in the evil day_. Every
part of this armour will be needed, for it is provided for poor
believers, who have to wrestle hard with sins, and doubts, and fears,
nothing short of an experimental knowledge of the truth will abide the
furnace, will stand in the days of evil, which are coming on, and which
all the Lord’s children, either in a greater or less degree, must endure
for it is plain those who fall away had only the form of godliness,
without the power: there may be a form of sound words, a form of
knowledge; a form of faith, of hope of love, of humility—this is but
superficial; my dear Brother, I hope, has been convinced of the danger of
this, and that nothing short of the gracious teachings of the Holy Ghost
can satisfy his mind. This leads me to consider the second particular I
promised to attend to in my first letter—The glorious object—_Thy
Creators_.
I need not tell you I am no scholar, I wish I was; but the passage must
be read in the plural, according to the testimony of most Hebrew
scholars—_Remember now thy_ CREATORS. There are other texts which must
be read in the same way: _Where is God thy_ MAKERS, _who giveth songs in
the night_? _Let Israel rejoice in_ THEM _that made him_. _Thy_ MAKERS
_is thy husband_; _the Lord of Hosts is his name_. We live in an awful
day, wherein the most crying sin of our nation is the dreadful opposition
to the doctrine of the most adorable Trinity in Unity, though it is a
truth so clearly revealed—the foundation of the Church and the
christian’s highest glory. Alas! how awfully opposed! Many great and
learned, experimental christians have employed their pens in proving from
sacred scripture, this most glorious point of Doctrine, the foundation of
all the rest. The adversaries of this truth pretend to hold the Unity of
the Godhead—so do we. They say there is but one God—so do we; but can
they prove that the Godhead does not, cannot admit of _three_ distinct
Persons in that Essence?—No! We, then, who are Trinitarians, can prove
that there is but one simple, undivided Essence; and, that, if there is
any truth in the Bible, there are _distinct subsistences_ in that one
Godhead—that these three are equal in power, majesty, dignity, and glory;
co-equal, co-essential, and co-eternal. There are not three Gods, but
_three Persons_ in the Godhead. That there are three distinct
Subsistences, which, for want of better words, we call _Persons_, is
evident from a vast many passages of scripture—distinct from each other,
in Person, Name, and Office; for, to what beside the term Person, can we
with any propriety apply the distinct acts of speaking, working, and
commanding? And the Persons in the Trinity are clearly set forth by
their personal characters, such as _I_, _me_, _him_, _thou_, _his_, _he_.
The scriptures plainly declare that _there are three that bear record in
heaven_, _the Father_, _the Word_, _and the Holy Ghost—and these three
are one_—one in the divine Essence, undivided, which Essence is peculiar
to the three; yet these have different modes of subsisting in this
Essence, which we must call Persons—and they must be Persons, to be
Testifiers—testifying is a personal act; if the Father is one testifier,
the Son another, and the Holy Ghost a third, they must be three
_Persons_, not three Gods; only one in the divine Essence, but three
distinct in Personality, Name, and Office. The Unity of the Godhead is
exprest in this text, _Hear O Israel_, _the Lord our God is one Lord_.
But the Plurality of Persons in the Godhead is exprest as before—_There
are three which bear record_, _the Father_, _the Word_, _and the Holy
Ghost_. There is one God; this is not said to the exclusion of the Son
and the Spirit, for the Word is applied to both as well as to the Father,
and in the same senses.
This doctrine will still appear more plain, to my dear brother, by the
_plural_ names of God. In the first verse of the Bible it is evident—_In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth_. That this name is
_plural_, is plain by the work of the distinct Persons. _And the spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters_. And the third person is
spoken of as the WORD, who said _Let there be light_. Thus the _three in
one_ were concerned in creation. In Ephesians iii, 9, God is said to
create all things by Jesus Christ—this is one Person—Christ is said to be
creator too—_by the word of the Lord was the heavens made_, _and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth_. Here is the Word that was with
God, and was God; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters. _By his spirit he garnished the heavens_, _and his hand framed
the crooked Serpent_. This is the Holy Trinity in Unity—the Persons who
said, _Let_ US _make man in_ OUR _image_, _after_ OUR _likeness_.
_Behold the man is become at one of_ US. _Go to_, _let_ US _go
down_.—_Whom shall I send_, _and who will go for_ US? These words
clearly prove a plurality of Persons. _If any man love me_, _my Father
will love him_, _and_ WE _will come unto him_, _and make_ OUR _abode with
him_.
In the Epistle of John we read of Communion with the Father, and the Son;
and Paul speaks of Communion with the Holy Ghost. The glorious Covenant
of Grace shews a Plurality of Persons. Divine worship is to be given to
the three Persons. Baptism is in their Names: sometimes one Person is
mentioned before the other; _the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ_, _the
love of God_, _and the communion of the Holy Ghost_; here Christ is first
mentioned. _The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God_, _and into
a patient waiting for Christ_. _The acknowledgement of God_, _and of the
Father_, _and of Christ_—thus we see the Spirit is mentioned first. In
the first chapter of Ephesians the Father is first introduced—Paul prays
that the _Father of our Lord Jesus Christ would grant the spirit of
wisdom in the knowledge of Christ_. These, and many other passages
evidently prove that there are _Three_ in _One_ and _One_ in _Three_, God
blessed for evermore; so the Scripture teaches, and so must we believe;
to err in this subject is fatal. But the Spirit has engaged to lead us
into all truth, nor can one humble follower of Jesus go down to the
shades of death, opposing this glorious doctrine. How these are _one_,
and how each Person subsists in the one Divine Essence, is not for us to
know, nor is it of any importance, it is enough for me to know, that the
terms of Father, Son, and Spirit, are not given to shew what the Trinity
is in the divine Essence, as God; but what they are to the church in an
everlasting Covenant; and this is life eternal to know the Father, that
adopted me as his own—to know the Lord Jesus, in the greatness of his
salvation, by the teaching and leading of the Holy Ghost. This is the
harmonious witness in the word, and I bless God for the same in the
heart. There are three which bear witness; and he that believeth on the
Son hath the witness in himself; and this is the witness, the Father
says, _Yea I have loved thee_; the Redeemer says, _I have redeemed thee_;
and the voice of the Spirit is known, _I have called thee_. This is the
point I want you, my brother, to apprehend, to feel, and enjoy. This is
a religion that will stand the test, will bear the furnace, and all
religion, besides what comes from, and leads to the adorable Trinity, is
madness, delusion and daring presumption! This is the _maker_ or
MAKERS—CREATORS, _father_, _husband_, _friend_, and _God_.
The wise man not only points out the glorious Object, but the Work in
which they are engaged, even the Work of Creation. These glorious
Persons having formed the grand plan of salvation, which was the first
great act of Jehovah, in Council and Covenant, now brings forth the grand
theatre of the Universe, whereon to display the glories of rich, free,
restoring grace; and this act of power, love, wisdom, and goodness, is
the joint Work of the _three Persons_; as the word _God_ is a plural
term, _Elohim_, or as some term it _Alehim_—the Persons engaged, the
Covenanters. This is a point that has been long proved by good and great
men—the several acts of Creation—God created the heaven and earth, formed
both; then the Spirit’s, act—_and the Spirit of God_, the Lord and giver
of life, _moved upon the face of the waters_, to separate the parts which
were mixed together, and to give them a quickening virtue, to produce
living creatures in them. Then the Saviour is represented as saying,
_Let there be light_, _and there was light_. This came from himself, who
is called the Light of the World. _And God said_ (this is repeated nine
times over; and as the term God is plural, and includes the Three, there
is great propriety and beauty in the expression) _Let_ US _make man in_
OUR _image_, _after_ OUR _likeness_. This consultation is designed to
point out that honor and dignity that was to be conferred on Man, the
noblest work of all his creatures—_in his image_, as God’s vicegerent;
having dominion over the creatures; erect in his body; with every
excellent endowment of his mind; in purity, holiness, and righteousness;
in wisdom and beauty—thus man was made in his image. But though this is
a great truth, yet I humbly conceive this is not all; from all eternity
God had a favour towards man; and having exalted the dear Saviour to be
the great Head of the Church, he set him up in the nature of his people,
so that Adam was formed in the nature, in the very image which God had
designed to honour Christ in; that image made he man: this was agreeable
to divine consultation. In this image our dear Lord four thousand years
afterwards made his appearance; and this was the joint work of the Holy
Trinity—_a body hast thou prepared me_. He took part of the children’s
flesh and blood—_The power of the Holy Ghost shall come on thee_, _and
that which shall be born unto thee shall be called the Child of the Most
High_.
Thus the formation of our nature is the joint work of the Trinity, in the
first and second Adam; but this point will appear of equal importance if
we contemplate our New Creation, as the work of the same divine Persons.
Our Regeneration is called a Creation, but more of this in my next. The
best of blessings attend you.
So prays your willing servant to command
in all Godliness,
[Picture: Signature of J. C.]
_LETTER III_.