To Mrs. Dolier. Madeley, Nov. 1783. A ND were my dear Brother and Sifter Dolier pleafed by the receipt of a letter from fuch an unworthy worm? Oh that I could convey fome word from the mouth of my adorable Lord to your hearts! Oh that he would permit me, his poor creature, to drop a fentence, which might prove an encouragement to my dear friends in their way! You afk, "Shall I hope to attain the clean heart, and walk in purity while here below?" Why not? Abraham hoped against hope, and there sprang from him, as good as dead, as the stars of heaven for multitude. Does unbelief fay" Thou art dead; thou haft out stayed thy day, and it is all over?" then, arife out of the duft, roufe up all your powers; against hope, believe in hope, and by faith receive ftrength to apprehend the fulness of God. Remember Chrift is in your faith; hold faith, and you hold Chrift. If you know not how to get hold on faith, remember it is in the promife: feek for a promise, and lay hold there. But if you cry out, "I fee the links of the chain fo far off, that, alas! I cannot take hold on the promife; I don't know which is for me, I cannot reach fo far;" well, don't faint yet; there is another link ftill lower, that is to fay, your wants. Can you be fure there is a wound within; are you certain you are a finner? Well, then, reach your hand hither, I came not to call the righteous, but finners. Are you a helplefs finner? To them, who have no might, he increafeth frength. Are you an ungrateful, backfliding fliding finner? Hear him fay, Thou haft played the harlot with many lovers; but return unto me faith the Lord. And if you doubt, whether you may believe for a great measure of holinefs; whether your foul, already in old age and barren, fhall believe for abundant fruitfulness; answer yourfelf my dear friend, from that word, Whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely. I have juft told Mrs. Smyth of one of your fifters here, once a deeper unbeliever than yourfelf, but now quite full of God: I refer you to her letter. O my God, in mercy let thy power reft on thy dear fervants! Convey, even by this poor fcrawl, fome power to their hearts; fome fresh light into the mighty chain, which begins with mans wickednefs, hangs on God's mercy in the promifes, is continued by faith and victory fpringing therefrom, and ends with Chrift's fulness becoming all in all. We pray the God of love to be with your children, and all who meet with them. Tell fifter Hammond to keep hold of the chain: it fhall draw her into the holy of holies. With our kindeft, and moft grateful remembrance of you both, we remain, Your fincere, but unworthy friends, I. and M. F. Mr. Henry Brooke. Madeley, April 27th, 1784. My dear Brother, MERCY, peace, and perfect love attend you, your dear Partner, and the dear friends under your roof, Bb 3 with with whom I beg you may abide under the crofs, till, with John, Mary and Salome, &c, you all can fay, We are crucified with him, and the life we now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us. You are certainly right, when you prefer the inward to the outward: the former is the safer; but both together make up the beauty of holinefs. The inward life may be compared to the hufband, the outward to the fruitful wife: what God hath joined together, let no man, nor even angel put afunder. With refpect to the glory of the Lord, it is at hand, whatever falfe wifdom and unbelief may whisper to our hearts: it can be no farther off, than the prefence of Him, who fills all in all. Our wrong notions of things are a main hinderance to our stepping into it: and perhaps our minding more the cherubims of glory, than the plain tables, and the manna hid in the ark. There is a paffing," fays Bromley, "from "the outward to the inward, and from the in"ward to the inmoft; and it is only from the inmoft, that we can fee the Lord's fpiritual "glory."-Pray, my dear brother, when you get fo fixed in the inmoft, as not to lofe fight of him, who dwells in the light, and in the thick darkness, let me thare your joy. Love will make me partake of your happiness. With refpect to what you fay, of the kingdon not coming with the outward pomp, which is difcoverable by the men of the world, it is ftrictly true; but, that there is an inward display of power and glory under pentecoftal Chriftianity is undeniable, both from our Lord's promifes to his his difciples, and from their experiences, after the kingdom was come to them with power. It is, fometimes, fuggefted to me, that, as the apoftacy hath chiefly confifted in going after the pomp of the whore of Babylon, fo that while the woman, who fled into the wilderness, remains there as a widow, she must be deprived even of thofe true ornaments, and of that spiritual glory, which was bestowed upon her on the day of Pentecoft, the day of her efpoufals. I do not, however, clofe in with the fuggeftion, as I am not fure, that it cannot come from Satan transformed into an angel of light, to rob me of a bright jewel of my Christian hope. To wait in deep refignation, and with a conftant attention to what the Lord will please to do, or fay concerning us, and his Church; and to leave to him the times and the feafons, is what I am chiefly called to do'; taking care in the mean while of falling into either ditch:-I mean into speculation, which is careless of action, or into the activity, which is devoid of fpirituality. I would not have a lamp without oil, and I could not have oil without a lamp, and a veffel to hold it in for myself, and to communicate it to others. I thank you, my dear friend, for the books you have fent me. I read, with great pleasure, Ramfay's Theological Works, which were quite unknown to me. My good wishes attend both your brothers. Fare you all well in Chrift: fo prays, I. F. Madeley, Madeley, June 20th, 1784. Mrs. Greenwood. I Shall never forget the mercy, which the living and the dead have fhewed me; but the fight of Mr. Green, wood in his fon, has brought fome of my Newington fcenes fresh to my remembrance, and I beg leave to convey my tribute of thanks back by his hands. Thanks! Thanks! What no thing but words? Here is my humbling cafe; I wish to requite your manifold kindness, but I cannot; and fo I must be fatisfied to be ever your infolvent debtor. Nature and grace do not love it. Proud nature lies uneafy under great obligations, and thankful grace would be glad to put fomething in the fcale oppofite to that, which you have filled with fo many fayours. But what fhall I put? I wish I could fend you all the bank of England, and all the gofpel of Chrift; but the first is not mine, and the fecond is already yours: fo praying the Lord Jefus to make up my deficiencies with you, as he has done with his Father, I remain your ftill unprofitable, and ftill obliged Lazarus I. F. Madeley, Sep. 13th, 1784. James Ireland Efq. URELY the Lord keeps us both in flippery places, that we may ftill fet loose to all below. Let us do fo more |