paid me more kindness and respect, than a much better or wiser man could either have expected or deferved. Nor am I only a fuitor for your pardon, but for the addition of a further charity, and that so great a one, that I have nothing to plead for it, but that I need it much,-your prayers. And I am hopeful as to that, to make you fome little, though very dif proportioned return; for whatsoever becomes of me, (through the help of God), while I live, you shall be no one day of my life forgotten by, Your most unworthy, but most affectionate, R. LEIGHTON. P. S. I do not fee whom it can offend, or how any shall disapprove of it, if you will appoint a faft throughout your bounds, to entreat a bleffing on the feed committed to the ground, and for the other grave causes that are still the fame they were the laft year, and the urgency of them no whit abated, but rather increased: but in this I prefcribe nothing, but leave it to your difcretion, and the direction of God. The two following Letters were written to Perfons under Trouble of Mind. Chriftian Friend, THOUGH I had very little vacant time for it, yet I would have feen you, if I could have prefumed it might have been any way useful for the quieting of your mind; however, fince I heard of your condition, I cease not daily, as I can, to present it to Him, who alone can effectually speak peace to your heart; and I am confident, in due time, will do fo. It is he that filleth the raging of the the fea; and, by a word, can turn the violenteft ftorm into a great calm. What the particular thoughts or temptations are that difquiet you, I know not; but whatfoever they are, look above them, and labour to fix your eye on that infinite goodness, which never faileth them, that, by naked faith, do abfolutely rely and reft upon it, and patiently wait upon Him, who hath pronounced them all, without exception, bleffed that do fo. Say often within your own heart, Though he flay me, yet will I trust in him; and if, after fome intervals, your troubled thoughts do return, check them ftill with the holy Pfalmift's words, Why art thou caft, down, O my foul? &c. If you can thoroughly fink yourself down, through your own nothingness, into Him who is all, and entirely renouncing your own will, embrace that bleft and holy will in all things, there, I am fure, you shall find that reft, which all your own diftempers, and all the powers of darknefs, fhall not be able to bereave you of. I incline not to multiply words; and indeed other advice than this I have none to give you. The Lord of peace, by the sprinkling of the blood of his fon Jefus, and the sweet breathings of the great Comforter, his own Holy Spirit, give you peace in himself. Amen. Madam, THOUGH I have not the honour to be acquainted with your Ladyship, yet a friend of yours has acquainted me with your condition, though I confefs the unfittest of all men to minister any thing of spiritual relief to any person, either by prayer or advice to you; but he could have imparted fuch a thing to none of greater fecrecy, and withal of greater fympathy and tender compaffion towards fuch as are exercifed with thofe kinds of conflicts; as, having been formerly acquainted with the like myself, all forts of fceptical and doubtful thoughts, touching thofe great points, having having not only paft through my head, but fome of them have for fome time fat more faft and painfully upon my mind; but, in the name of the Lord, they were at length quite difpelled and scattered. And oh! that I could love and bless Him, who is my deliverer and ftrength, my rock and fortrefs, where I have now found fafety from these incurfions; and I am very confident you fhall very fhortly find the fame; only wait patiently on the Lord, and hope in him, for you fhall yet praise him for the help of his countenance; and it is that alone that can enlighten you, and clear your mind of all thofe fogs and mifts that now poffefs it, and calm the ftorms that are raised within it. You do well to read good books that are. proper for your help, but rather the shortest and plaineft, than the more tedious and voluminous, that fometimes entangle a perplexed mind yet more, by grafping many more queftions, and anfwers and arguments, than is needful: But, above all, ftill cleave to the incomparable spring of light and divine comfort, the Holy Scriptures, even in defpite of all doubts concerning them; and when you find your thoughts in disorder, and at a lofs, entertain no dispute with them, by any means, at that time, but rather divert from them to short prayer, or to other thoughts, and fometimes to well chofen company, or the best you can have where you are; and at fome other time, when you find yourself in a calmer and ferener temper, and upon the vantage ground of a little more confidence in God, then you may resume your reafons against unbelief, yet fo as to beware of cafting yourself into new difturbance; for when your mind is in a fober temper, there is nothing so suitable to its strongest reason, nothing fo wife and noble, as religion; and believe it is fo rational, that, as now I am framed, I am afraid that my belief proceeds too much from reason, and is not fo divine and fpiritual as I would have it, only when I find (as in fome measure through the grace of God I do) that it hath VOL. II. 3 M fome* fome real virtue and influence upon my affections and track of life, I hope there is fomewhat of a higher tincture in it; but, in point of reafon, I am well affured, that all that I have heard from the wittieft atheifts and libertines in the world, is nothing but bold revery and madness, and their whole difcourfe a heap of folly and ridiculous nonfenfe: for, what probable account can they give of the wonderful frame of the vifible world, without the fuppofition of an eternal and infinite power, and wisdom and goodness, that formed it and themfelves, and all things in it? And what can they think of the many thousands of martyrs in the firft age of Chriftianity, that endured. not fimple death, but all the inventions of the most exquifite tortures, for their belief of that moft holy faith; which, if the miracles that confirmed it had not perfuaded them to, they themfelves had been thought the moft prodigious miracles of madness in all the world? It is not want of reafon on the fide of religion that makes fools difbelieve it, but the intereft of their brutish lufts and diffolute lives makes them with it were not true; and there is the vast difference betwixt you and them; they would gladly believe less than they do, and you would alfo gladly believe more than they do: They are fometimes pained and tormented with apprehenfions, that the doctrine of religion is or may be true; and you are perplexed with fuggeftions to doubt of it, which are to you as unwilling and unwelcome, as thefe apprehenfions of its truth are to them. Believe it, Madam, these different thoughts of yours, are not yours, but his that inferts them, and throws them, as fiery darts, into your mind; and they fhall affuredly be laid to his charge, and not to yours. Think you, that infinite goodness is ready to take advantage of his poor creatures, and to reject and condemn those, that, against all the affaults made upon them, defire to keep their heart for him, and to acknowledge him, and to love him, and live to him. He made us, and knows our mould, mould, and, as a father, pities his children, and pitie them that fear him; for he is their father, and the tenderest and kindest of all fathers; and, as a father pities his child when it is fick, and in the rage and revery of a fever, though it even utter reproachful words against himself, shall not our deareft Father both forgive and pity thofe thoughts in any child of his, that arise not from any wilful hatred of him, but ́ are kindled in hell within them? And no temptation hath befallen you in this, but that which has been incident to men, and to the beft of men; and their heavenly Father hath not only forgiven them, but in due time hath given them an happy issue out of them, and fo he will affuredly do to you; in the mean time, when thefe affaults come thickest and violenteft upon you, throw yourself down at his footftool, and fay, "O God, Father of mercies, fave me "from this hell within me. I acknowledge, I adore, "I bless thee, whofe throne is in heaven, with thy "bleffed Son and crucified Jefus, and thy Holy Spi"rit, and also, though thou flay me, yet will I truft "in thee: But I cannot think thou canst hate and 66 reject a poor foul that defires to love thee, and "cleave to thee, fo long as I can hold by the skirts "of thy garment, until thou violently thake me off, "which I am confident thou would not do, because "thou art love and goodness itself, and thy mercies "endure for ever." Thus, or in what other frame your foul fhall be carried to vent itself into his bofom, be affured, your words, yea, your filent fighs and breathings fhall not be loft, but fhall have a moft powerful voice, and afcend into his ear, and fhall return to you with meffages of peace and love, in due. time, and, in the mean time, with fecret fupports, that you faint not, nor fink in thefe deeps that threaten to swallow you up. But I have wearied you, inftead of refreshing you. I will add no more, but that the poor prayers of one of the unworthieft caitiffs in the world, fuch as they be, fhall not be wanting |