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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.
A NEW EPISTLE
BEING THE WISE AND BEAUTIFUL COUNSEL
OF THAT SAINTLY MAN, SAMUEL RUTHER-
FORD, TO ALL THOSE IN DOUBT, IN AFFLIC-
TION, AND IN PERIL OF THEIR SOULS.
SELECTED, EDITED AND ARRANGED
BY
. HEMBERT WESTLEY
i
?A
Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham
New York: Eaton and Mains
COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
JENNINGS AND GRAHAM
#
*
CU954752
Introduction
BORN in the year 1600, educated at the
Edinburgh University, where he was
distinguished for his mental abilities; ap-
pointed, after his graduation, one of the
regents of that institution — this in brief, is
the story of Samuel Rutherford 's early life.
Rutherford did not hasten to enter the
ministry ; for a short season he had experi-
ence with the vanities of the world. ' Like
a fool," he said in later years, " I suffered
my sun to be high in the heaven before ever
I took the gate." A false step and a bitter
lesson brought him to the feet of Christ.
He became a student of theology, and in
the twenty-seventh year of his age was
called to the pastorate at Anworth, a se-
cluded little parish beside the broad Sol-
way.
Of his devotion to his chosen work there
is much testimony. It is said of him that
he was always praying, always preaching,
always visiting the sick, always catechising,
always writing and studying. It was his
3
INTRODUCTION
habit to rise at three o'clock every morn-
1 ing, and after spending the early hours in
meditation and prayer he completed the
day with the more active duties of his ear-
nest pastorate. His unwearied zeal and
loving spirit endeared him to the people;
many came from far to listen to his inspir-
ing sermons, and he was spoken of as a
great strengthener of Christians in all that
country.
We get an intimate glimpse of Ruther-
ford as a preacher in the lines of an English
merchant, who wrote, "I heard a little,
fair man, and he showed me the loveliness
of Christ." Wodrow tells us he was "one
of the most moving and affectionate preach-
ers of his time/' while Doctor Thomson
says, "His sermons were usually radiant
with Christ." And again the same writer,
"He rejoiced in preaching as the lark or the
nightingale may be supposed to delight in
its song."
Nearly a decade passed in loving, and
successful service at Anwoth ; but this was
not to continue. Scotland at this period
was in a state of religious turbulence. King
James, through his bishops, was endeavor-
ing to force upon the Scottish people epis-
4
INTRODUCTION
copal doctrines. Rutherford was a rigid
Calvinist. The Five Articles of Perth,
passed in 1618, enjoined certain religious
practices which were abhorrent to him as
a Presbyterian. These had to do with
forms and ceremonies at baptism and holy
communion, with the observance of the
chief festivals of the Church, and like mat-
ters. Upright and fearless, Rutherford pro-
tested against these innovations from his
pulpit with all the energy and eloquence of
his perfervid nature. This antagonism to
their cherished plans brought upon him the
hostility of the prelates, which increased,
until in 1636, after his further offense of
publishing a treatise against Arminianism
then in favor with the bishops, he was
summoned before the High Commission
Court at Edinburgh, and by that body
deposed from his pastorate and forbidden,
" under pain of rebellion," to officiate as
minister in any part of Scotland. Further-
more, he was ordered to Aberdeen, there
to be confined during the King's pleasure.
Rutherford received his sentence with
the joy of a martyr. He gloried in the fact
that he was "counted worthy to suffer
shame for Christ's name." Aberdeen was
5
INTRODUCTION
the stronghold of his religious enemies; on
his arrival there he was denounced from the
pulpits and jeered at in the streets.
Of the two volumes of " Letters of
Samuel Rutherford' ' edited by Doctor
Bonar — letters three hundred and sixty-
five in number — nearly two-thirds were
written during his eighteen months' exile
at Aberdeen. It is from these celebrated
letters that I have drawn, mainly, in com-
piling this little work, though I have in-
corporated certain beautiful and helpful
passages from his published sermons. It
is perhaps needless to say that the original
letters are not in the chapter and verse
form that I have here employed.
Though Rutherford gloried in his trials
for Christ and for conscience, it was a
tremendous privation to him not to be al-
lowed to preach. "My closed mouth, " he
I wrote, "my silent Sabbaths, the memory
of my communion with Christ in the many
fair, fair days in Anwoth have almost
broken my faith in two halves/ 7 He
yearned towards his beloved brethren, his
flock left without a shepherd ; he was much
exercised for that they were surrounded by
teachers of false doctrine; he constantly
6
INTRODUCTION
feared for them lest their souls were "off
the Rock." And how pathetic is his letter
in which he envies the sparrows and swal-
lows that build their nests in the kirk of
his little parish, calling them "blessed
birds ;" and that other where he exclaims,
"O what service can a dumb body do in
Christ's house! O if I might but speak to
three or four herdboys of my worthy Mas-
ter I would be satisfied to be the meanest
and most obscure of all the pastors of this
land."
It was out of this turmoil of spirit that
there came what has been called "the \
most seraphic book in our literature/ ' An-
other has spoken of these ardent and touch-
ing letters as "a bundle of myrrh whose
ointment and perfume will revive and
gladden the heart of many generations."
While the great nonconformist, Richard
Baxter, said, "Hold off the Bible, and such
a book as this the world never saw."
When permitted to leave Aberdeen,
Rutherford returned to his beloved An-
woth and took up his labors again with
joy. Soon, however, he was called to a
larger service as Professor of Divinity at
St. Andrews, a post which he accepted
7
INTRODUCTION
with much reluctance. In later life he
wrote and published a number of religious
treatises, some of which aroused great con-
troversy. One of these, his "Lex Rex,"
was burnt by the common hangman in a
public place, and for its publication he was
cited to appear before Parliament on the
charge of treason. But a higher summons
had forestalled this citation — Rutherford
was on his deathbed.
He died as he lived, loving Christ with
a fervor that few have known upon this
earth. In his last hours he was possessed
of a singular rapture and elevation of
spirit. Once, near the end, he cried aloud,
"O for a well- tuned harp!" as though, says
Thomson, "he already heard the sound of
the radiant worshipers and yearned with a
holy impatience to join in their heavenly
symphonies."
He passed away on the morning of
March 20, 1661, his last words being,
"Glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel's
land!" He was buried at St. Andrews.
— G. H. W,
8
A New Epistle
Chapter I
The poorness of Christ's flock. 5 Worldly
possessions not to be desired. 8 Exhorta-
tion to hold Christ and the winning of souls
dear. 15 The world like a great fire.
AS the morning watch waiteth for the
** morning, so we see the saints holding
out their tired arms to God and longing
and looking over the mountains. And they
have little or nothing in hand but hope.
2 Worldlings say: What have ye that
we have not? Ye are a sick, poor, op-
pressed, and mocked people, and where is
your happiness?
3 We have an answer to such; we are
on waiters on God. Know ye not that
some are very rich and have thousands in
this man's hand and thousands in that
man's hand. If ye ask them where their
riches is and bid them let you see what
9
A NEW EPISTLE
they are worth, they can let you see noth-
ing but a number of papers and bonds —
even so heaven is the land of promise and
the land of hope to believers.
4 We are the poor of the flock, the noth-
ings of the world. We are nothing, that is,
but little less than a straw, a feather. But
stay, I pray you, our stock is in God's
hand ; fire or water can not destroy it, nor
can turn of the market lessen our store.
5 Brethren, what a trifling loss it is for
you to go through this wilderness and never
taste sin's sugared pleasures!
6 What poorer is a soul to want pride,
lust, and the gauds of this vain and worth-
less world? Nature hath no cause to weep
at the want of such toys as these. O es-
teem it your gain to be a child of God, an
heir of glory.
7 The very hope of heaven, under
troubles, is like wind and sails to the soul,
and like wings when the feet come out of
the snare.
8 I beseech you, let Christ be dearer and
dearer unto you.
9 Let the winning of souls be top and
root, flower and blossom of your joys and
desires on this side of the sun and moon.
10
A NEW EPISTLE
10 In the day when the Lord shall pull
up the four stakes of this clay tent of the
earth, and the last grain of sand shall be
at the point of falling down in your time-
glass, and the Master shall call the servants
of the vineyard to give them their hire, ye
will esteem the blossom of this world's
glory but like the colors of the rainbow
that no man can put into his purse.
11 Then your labor and pains will smile
upon you and ye shall rejoice and be glad
in the favor of your Lord.
12 Beloved, my Lord hath given me ex-
perience that our best fare here is hunger.
13 We are but at God's by-board in the
lower house; we have cause to long for
supper time and the full table up in the
King's palace.
14 The world deserveth nothing but the
outer court of our souls.
15 I see that this world is like a great
fire: if a cold man stand at a reasonable
distance it warms and comforts him; but
if he go into the midst of it it burns him.
16 Men who have an indifferent hold of
the world and stand at a proper distance
from it are benefited thereby; but those
who cast themselves into the midst of it
11
A NEW EPISTLE
are thereby swallowed up and forever lost.
O but poor worldlings get but a paltry
heaven !
17 Mark the fool's words: "Soul, take
thine ease, thou hast much goods laid up
for many years/ ' Every word here is like
the fool who speaks them. Blind liar! they
are not laid up for the soul; for all his full
barns and gold could never fill the soul.
The poor soul did but look out at the two
windows — the eyes — and behold them.
18 Then I counsel you, since you must
go to the market and buy, spend not your
money on an illusion; buy something that
can be seen and heard and felt; buy Jesus
Christ; Him ye may see and hear and
touch; He is the True Possession, the
Great and Everlasting Gain.
19 Ye can never make the world your
own, but you must leave it all at the
mouth of the grave and creep therein like
a naked worm into its hole.
20 Christ you may take into the grave
with you; ye may take Him up to heaven
with you; ye may take Him to back you
and speak for you in the last day of Judg-
ment.
12
Chapter II
Of youth and its dangers. 6 Watch to be
kept over thoughts and desires. 10 Youth
a nest of temptations. 14 Warning against
the deceitfulness of sin. 22 The gospel
God's candle. 26 Guides for daily con-
duct.
O YOUNG MEN, I counsel you to
prayer and watching over your sins
and the lusts of your body continually, for
I know that acting orders go between the
devil and your young blood.
2 Satan hath a friend at court in the
heart of youth, and there pride, luxury,
lust, revenge, and forgetfulness of God are
his hired agents.
3 I warn you there is not such a glassy,
icy, slippery piece of way betwixt you and
heaven as youth, and I have experience to
say with me here and to seal what I assert.
4 The ashes of the old sins of my youth
are new fire of sorrow to me. I have seen
the devil, as it were, dead and buried, and
yet rise again and be a worse devil than
13
A NEW EPISTLE
ever he was; therefore, my brother, beware
of a green young devil that hath never
been overcome.
5 In youth Satan findeth dry sticks and
dry coals and a hot hearthstone; and how
can he with his flint strike fire, and with
his bellows blow it up and fire the house.
6 Sanctified thoughts, thoughts made
conscience of and called in and kept in awe,
these are green fuel that burn not, and are
water for Satan's coal.
7 Ye know that it is easy to master an
arrow and to set it right ere the string be
drawn ; but when once it is shot and in the
air and the flight begun, then have ye no
more power to command it.
8 It were a blessed thing if your love
could now level only at Christ, that He
were the center of your aim and your de-
sire.
9 For when your affection is loosed and
out of hold, ye shall not then have power
to call home the arrow, or to be master
of your love ; and ye will hardly give Christ
what ye scarcely have yourself.
10 It is hard for you to conceive what a
nest of dangerous temptations youth is,
how inconsiderate, foolish, proud, vain,
14
A NEW EPISTLE
heady, rash, profane, and careless of God
this piece of your life is; so that the devil
findeth in you at this age a swept chamber
and a garnished lodging for himself, and
seven devils worse than himself.
11 For then the affections are, as it were,
on horseback, lofty and stirring; then the
old Adam hath blood-lust, much will and
little wit, and hands and feet and wanton
eyes and profane lips as servants to do his
bidding.
12 Then a green conscience is as supple
as the twig of a young tree. It is for every
way, every fancy; every temptation mov-
eth it and prevaileth with it.
13 Sinning will stupify the conscience
and bring upon it more coverings and
skin and less feeling and sense of guiltness ;
and when that is done the devil is like a
mad horse that hath broken his bridle and
runneth away with his rider whither he
'isteth.
14 O learn to know that which the
apostle knew, the deceitfulness of sin.
Give now in the morning of your life, I
pray you, your wit, your will, and the
green desires of youth's pleasures offhand
to Christ.
15
A NEW EPISTLE
15 If He be not in you, ye will have
guests and servants that do you ill and
waste your substance riotously, and bring
you at last into ruin and bankruptcy. But
happy is your soul if Christ enter and take
the keys of the house, and Himself com-
mand all your deeds and thoughts, your
will and your desires.
16 Therefore I entreat you, young men,
to begin now to frame your love and to
cast it in no mold but one, that it may be
for Christ only; for when your love is now
in its framing and molding it will best take
with Christ.
17 If any other get a hold of it when it
is green and young, Christ will be an unco
and strange world to you. Promise the
lodging of your soul first away to Christ,
and stand by your first covenant and keep
to Jesus that He may find you faithful.
18 I entreat you, set forward, while yet
your years are few, to climb the mountain
of God.
19 O take pains for your salvation. For-
sake the follies of vain and deceiving youth.
20 Acquaint yourselves with the Lord;
hold fast Christ; hear His voice only.
21 The gospel is God's candle to let you
16
A NEW EPISTLE
see the way to heaven; study it with dili-
gence.
22 Love not the world, neither the things
of the world. Give God some of your
thoughts both morning and evening, and
forget Him not at any time.
23 Beware of lying, swearing, unclean-
ness, and all the rest of the works of the
flesh, because "for these things the wrath
of God cometh upon the children of dis-
obedience."
24 If ye watch not night and day against
the evils that beset you, ye will fall short,
ye will be found wanting in the balance.
25 Strive to make prayer and reading
and study your delight. Seek good com-
panionship ; avoid late hours ; be wise in
your affections.
26 Keep faith and truth with all men in
bargains and covenants; fail not to give
due respect to women ; honor your parents ;
forget not the poor and needy.
27 Young men, I would that there were
such hearts in you as to fear God and give
your souls and bodies wholly to His service.
O what a sweet couple, what a glorious
yoke are youth and grace, Christ and a
young man !
2 17
A NEW EPISTLE
28 May God open your young eyes to be-
hold the beauty of righteousness, and guide
your young feet that run with eagerness
and guard them from the snares that are
set about you, for His name and mercy
sake. Amen.
18
Chapter III
Warning against selfishness. 8 Self the
root of all sin.
BRETHREN, unless ye slay the body of
sin in you by sanctified self-denial, ye
can not be Christ's martyrs and faithful
witnesses.
2 If I could be master of that house-idol,
Myself, my own mind, my own will, my
own credit, my own ease, how blessed
were I !
3 O how loath we are to forego our own
packs and burdens that hinder us to run
the race with patience. How hard it is to
win one foot or one inch out of our own
will, out of our own wit, out of our own ease
and worldly lusts.
4 Alas that Self is the master idol to
which we all bow. What made Eve sin,
and what hurried her headlong upon the
forbidden fruit but that wretched thing
Self.
5 What drew that brother murderer to
kill Abel? That wild, unruly Self. What
19
A NEW EPISTLE
was the cause of Solomon's falling into
idolatry and multiplying strange wives?
What but Self, whom he would rather pleas-
ure than God.
6 What led Peter to deny his Lord?
Was it not Self, the love of a whole skin?
What made Judas sell his Master for thirty
pieces of silver? The idolizing of avari-
cious Self.
7 What made Demas to go off of the
way of the gospel to embrace the present
world? Even self-love, the love of gain for
his own selfish delights.
8 Every man blameth the devil for his
sins; but the great devil, the house-devil
of every man, the house-devil that eateth
and lieth in every man's bosom, is that
idol that killeth all, Self.
9 O blessed are they who can deny Self
and put Christ in the room thereof!
10 Would God that I had not myself,
but Christ; not my lust, but Christ; not
my ease, but Christ; not my honor, but
Christ! O sweet to say, "I live no more,
but Christ liveth in me."
11 Brethren, beware how ye set up an
idol against Christ. If we are redeemed
from ourselves the world and the devil
20
A NEW EPISTLE
have no share in us. Be mindful of this,
therefore, that ye put out yourselves and
have none other to dwell within you but
Christ Jesus.
12 Then ye shall be able to say, "Not I,
but Christ; not my will, but Christ's; not
my pleasure or my gain, but Christ, only
Christ/ '
13 May God help you, then, to crucify
Self for your soul's sake. Amen.
21
Chapter IV
Comfort for loss of loved ones. 5 Tribula-
tion the portion of God's people; they
must conform to Christ, their model.
15 Why their way is hedged about with
thorns. 19 Benefits of trial.
YE have lost a child ; nay, she is not lost
to you who is found in Christ.
2 She is not sent away but only sent be-
fore, like unto a star which, going out of
our sight, doth not die but shineth in an-
other hemisphere.
3 Ye see her not, yet she shineth in an-
other country. If her glass were but a
short hour, what she wanteth of time she
hath gotten of eternity; and ye have to
rejoice that ye have now some plenishing
in heaven.
4 Build your nest upon no tree here;
for ye see that God hath sold the forest to
destruction; and every tree whereupon ye
would rest is ready to be cut down, to the
end that ye may fly and mount up and
22
A NEW EPISTLE
build upon the Rock, and dwell in the
holes of the Rock.
5 I entreat you, beloved, faint not in
the day of your adversity. Trust in Him
though He should slay you. Faith is ex-
ceeding charitable and believeth no evil of
God.
6 Men do lop the branches of their trees
round about, to the end that they may
grow up high and tall. The Lord hath
this way lopped your branch in taking
from you your child, to the end you should
grow upward like one of God's cedars, set-
ting your heart above where Christ is at
the right hand of the Father.
7 Prepare yourself; you are nearer your
child this day than you were yesterday.
While ye prodigally spend your time in
mourning for her, ye are speedily posting
after her. Resist not the will of your
Heavenly Father. Let God have His own ;
and ask of Him instead of your daughter
whom He hath taken from you the daughter
of faith, which is patience, and in calm and
holy fear possess your spirit.
8 Ye would be sorry either to be or to
be esteemed an atheist, and yet doth not
the apostle think those to be hopeless
23
A NEW EPISTLE
atheists who mourn excessively for the
dead?
9 God forbid that I should speak thus
to you in rebuke, but only fearing your
weakness; for your child was a part of
yourself and therefore nature in you, being,
as it were, cut and halved, will indeed be
grieved.
10 But ye have to rejoice that while a
part of you is on earth, a great part of you
is glorified in heaven.
11 Follow her, but envy not; for indeed
it is self-love in us that maketh us mourn
for them that die in the Lord.
12 Take heed, therefore, that in showing
your affection in mourning for your loved
one ye be not, out of self -affection, mourn-
ing for yourself. Consider what the Lord is
doing therein. Your child is plucked from
the burning; she resteth from her labors,
and your Lord, in that, is trying you and
casting you in His purging fire.
13 Verily I should be grieved if I were
not assured that ye have One with you in
the furnace of your trial whose visage is
like unto the Son of God.
14 I am convinced that if your health
did not require it, God would not spend so
24
A NEW EPISTLE
much medicine upon you. All the brethren
and sisters of Christ must conform to His
image and copy in suffering.
15 Think ye how great your glory to be
enrolled among those of whom it is said,
These are they who came out of great trib-
ulation and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
16 God buildeth a hedge of thorns in
your way to hinder you from straying — a
thorny hedge of daily grief, loss of children,
of uncertainty of estate, of lack of worldly
comforts, of fear of His anger for old, un-
repented-of sins.
17 What lose ye if your Lord twist and
plait the hedge daily thicker? Blessed be
God that He will not let you find your
paths !
18 Show yourselves His true followers
by suffering without murmur, and be as-
sured that they lose nothing who gain and
hold fast Christ Jesus.
19 O what I owe to the file and the ham-
mer and the furnace of my Lord Jesus!
Grace tried is better than grace; and it is
more than grace, it is glory in its infancy.
20 I now see that godliness is more than
the outside and the ornaments and the
25
A NEW EPISTLE
deckings of this world. Who knoweth the
truth of grace without a trial? Not one!
21 O how little Christ getteth of us but
that which He winneth with much toil and
pains! And how soon faith would freeze
without a cross!
22 Why should I start at the plough of
my Lord that maketh deep furrows on my
soul? I know that He is no idle husband-
man; He purposeth a fair harvest.
23 O that this white, withered ground
were made fertile to bear a rich crop for
Christ, by whom it is so painfully dressed;
and that this fallow ground were broken up !
24 Beloved, ye do well not to make
them witnesses of your grief who can not
be curers of it. To whom ye may turn ye
know.
25 I entreat you be exceeding generous
with your Lord, who loveth while He
chasteneth. I pray that the Comforter
may bind up your wounds, and that His
grace may be with you more and more
abundantly.
26
Chapter V
The world to be lightly regarded. 6 The
fleeting vanities thereof. 12 What to keep
and what to cast aside. 18 Lay hold
firmly upon Christ.
OTHAT our souls would so fall at odds
with the love of this world as to think
of it as a traveler doth of a drink of water,
which is not any part of his treasure, but
is only a help on his journeying.
2 For as a child can not hold two apples
in his little hand, but one putteth the
other out of its room, so neither can we be
masters and lords of two loves, the world
and Christ.
3 Many there be who settle down in this
inn of the world as though they were per-
manent lodgers thereat, and make no prep-
aration of scrip and baggage for the great
journey that is no near at hand.
4 They eat and drink, but time standeth
not still; they laugh, but the day fleeth
away; they sleep, but their hours are reck-
oned and put by as finished.
5 As a flood is carried back to the sea,
27
A NEW EPISTLE
so doth time carry us with wings to the
grave. What then will be the short-born
pleasures of our yesterdays, but as a snow-
ball melted quite away?
6 We know that this world is but a
shadow, a short-living creature under the
law of time. Within less than threescore
years, when we look back on it, we shall
laugh at the fleeting vanities thereof as
feathers flying in the air, and as the houses
of sand within the sea-mark which the
children of men are building.
7 "Ye which rejoice in a thing of
naught," God said of Israel, and so may
He also say of us. Surely we spin our
spider's web with pain, and build our
rotten and tottering house upon a lie and
falsehood and vanity.
8 For when the day is ended, and this
life's lease expired, what have men of this
world's glory but a fancied treasure, an
unenduring fabric, a dream that vanisheth
away?
9 Beloved, I entreat you, give up with
the courting of this vain world ; seek not
the alien's movables, but the Son's heritage
in heaven.
10 I rejoice that the favor of Christ in
28
A NEW EPISTLE
you can not be blown away with winds,
either from hell or the foul blasts from this
corrupted world.
11 O sit far back from the walls of this
pesthouse, even the pollutions of this defil-
ing world.
12 Keep your taste, your love, your hope
of heaven; it is not good that your love
and your Lord should be in two separate
countries.
13 Take in your journey what you may
carry with you — your conscience, faith,
hope, patience, meekness, goodness, broth-
erly kindness — for such wares as these are of
great price in that new country whither ye go.
14 As for other things, which are but the
world's vanity and trash, since they are
but the house-sweepings, ye will be wise to
make them none of your burden. Ye found
them here, leave them here and let them
keep the house.
15 Your sun is well-turned and low; be
nigh your lodging against night. We go
one and one out of this great market till
the town be empty and the two lodgings,
heaven and hell, be filled.
16 At length there will be nothing in the
earth but bare walls and burnt ashes, and
29
A NEW EPISTLE
therefore it is best to make away towards
home.
17 Antichrist and his master are busy to
plenish hell and to seduce many, and stars,
great Church lights, are falling from
heaven ; they fall from their birthrights by
going after strange doctrines.
18 Fasten your hold firmly upon Christ.
I verily esteem Him my richest possession;
He is my helper and strength in these my
bonds.
19 Having Him, though my cross were
as heavy as ten mountains of iron, when
He putteth His sweet shoulder under me
and it my cross is but a feather.
20 I please myself in the choice of
Christ; He is my choice portion in heaven
and earth. I rejoice that I have such a
Friend waiting for me in that fair country.
21 God, send a joyful meeting; and in
the meantime, the traveler's charges for the
way — I mean a burden of Christ's love to
sweeten the journey and to encourage a
breathless runner; for when I lose breath
climbing the mountain, He reneweth breath
within me.
22 Now the very God of peace establish
you to the day of His appearance.
Chapter VI
To his flock at Anwoth after his banishment.
5 He envies the birds that build in the
church there. 10 Sorrowing yet always
rejoicing. 16 The saints' refuge. 18 Ex-
hortation to stand fast in the truth.
BRETHREN in Christ, I write unto you
from Aberdeen, where I am a prisoner
by order of the authorities.
2 For it hath been adjudged that in my
eagerness for the truth I have uttered
treason against the king, for which cause I
am banished from you and condemned to
silence for a term that is in the king's
pleasure.
3 My closed mouth, my silent Sabbaths,
the memory of my communion with Christ
in many fair, fair days in Anwoth have
almost broken my faith in halves.
4 I had one joy out of heaven, next to
Christ my Lord, and that was to preach
Him to this faithless generation; and that
they have taken from me. It was to me
as the poor man's one eye; and they have
put out that eye.
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A NEW EPISTLE
5 When I think upon the sparrows and
swallows that build their nests in the kirk
at Anwoth, and of my dumb Sabbaths, my
sorrowful eyes make me look upon Christ
as angry with me ; but I forbid my thoughts
to receive slanders of my Preserver.
6 I desire to give no faith, no credit to
my sorrow when it suggests hard thoughts
of Christ; yet these thoughts awake with
me in the morning: what service can a
silenced man do in Christ's house? Alas,
I am a dry tree! I can neither plant nor
water. O if I might but speak to three
or four herdboys of my Master, I would
be satisfied to be the meanest and most
obscure of all the pastors in the land.
7 But He saith, "I will not send you; I
have no errands for you." My desire to
serve Him is sick of jealousy, lest He be
unwilling to employ me.
8 This thought is seconded with another,
What have I done in Anwoth? The fair
work that my Master began there is like a
bird dying in the shell; and what, then,
shall I have to show of all my labor in the
day of my appearance before Him, when
the Master of the vineyard calleth the la-
borers to give them their hire?
32
A NEW EPISTLE
9 Yet, thirdly, I truly repent and pray
Christ to pardon my querulous, unbeliev-
ing sadness and sorrow.
10 I rue from my heart that I yielded
so far to the law as to apprehend wrath
in my Lord Jesus, for truly I am a debtor
to His love; but I wish He would give me
grace to learn to do without His comforts,
and to give thanks and believe when the
sun is not in the firmament.
11 I look often with bleared and blind
eyes to my Lord's cross, and when I look
to the wrong side of His cross, I know I
miss a step and stumble. Surely I see that
I have not strength of my own for carrying
me to heaven; I must go in at heaven's
gate borrowing strength from Christ.
12 It was good for me to come to Aber-
deen, to learn a new mystery of Christ:
That His promise is to be believed against
all appearance.
13 It is true my silent Sabbaths have
been and still are glassy ice whereon my
faith can scarce hold its feet, and I am
often blown back with a storm of doubting;
yet truly my bonds all this time are per-
fumed with the deep love of Christ.
14 God hath made many flowers, but
3 33
A NEW EPISTLE
the fairest of them all is heaven, and the
Flower of all flowers is Christ.
15 O why do we not flee up to that
Lovely One! O for as much love as would
go round about the earth and over the
heaven — yea, the heaven of heavens and
ten thousand worlds — that I might let it
all out upon fair, fair, only fair Christ!
But alas! I have nothing for Him, yet He
hath much for me.
16 I creep under my Lord's wing in the
great shower, and the water can not reach
me. We may sing even in our winter's
storm, in expectation of a summer sun at
the turn of the year.
17 For no created power in hell or out
of hell can mar our Lord Jesus His music,
or spoil our song of joy. In that hope we
rest.
18 Beloved, stand fast in the truth of
Christ which ye have received. Yield to
no winds, but ride out the storm, Christ
being your firm anchor.
19 We expect tribulation here. God's
wheat in this land must go through Satan's
sieve; but their souls shall not faint,
neither shall their faith fail in the day of
trial.
34
A NEW EPISTLE
20 I beseech you, pray for me, God's
prisoner, that He would send me again
among you to preach and to minister unto
the needs of His people. His grace be with
you.
35
Chapter VII
Of sin and the world. 5 None can have two
heavens. 9 Sacrifice demanded of the
Christian. 14 Earthly things doomed to
destruction.
FOR he that counteth little of sin count-
eth little of God. Those who take sin
into their bosom are cruel to their Re-
deemer, for they love their lusts that pur-
sued Christ to His death and nailed Him
to the cross.
2 Beware, then, by going on in sin, of
saying "Amen" to the shedding of Christ's
blood.
3 When the workers of iniquity are taken
out of this life, it is said to be a cutting off ;
but it is not said so of the godly. " Merci-
ful men," saith the Prophet Isaiah, "are
taken away." God taketh away merciful
men in His arms as children; but the
wicked He cuts off like the trees of the
field, and pulls them up by the roots.
"Ekron shall be rooted up." (Zeph. 2:4.)
4 Set not your hearts upon the world,
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A NEW EPISTLE
since God hath not made it your portion;
for it will not fall to you to get two por-
tions and to rejoice twice, and to be happy
twice, and to have an upper heaven and an
under heaven also.
5 Christ our Lord and His saints were
not so, and therefore let go your grip of
this life and of the good things thereof.
Set not your affections upon them nor
desire them.
6 Where many mourn, wherefore should
ye have joy; where many lack comforts,
wherefore should ye have abundance and
ease?
7 Have ye great possessions, how can ye
fight the good fight with this hampering
burden upon your back? O cast it from
you. Divide with your neighbor who hath
need and it shall be as treasure put by in
heaven.
8 Ye know this, that ease and fullness
of bread and meat provoketh lusts and de-
sires of the flesh. "This was the iniquity
of thy sister Sodom,' ' saith the Prophet
Ezekiel; "pride, fullness of bread and
abundance of idleness was in her and in
her daughters.' '
9 It is not the part of God's children to
37
A NEW EPISTLE
make a treasure here. Anything under the
covering of heaven which we can build
upon is but ill ground and a sandy founda-
tion.
10 There is naught created that we can
lean upon that shall not fail us, and there-
fore it is better to rest upon God than to
sink or fall ; and our weak souls must have
a bottom and a building place, for they
can not stand of themselves.
11 Brethren, I beseech you lend your
thoughts earnestly to these things and
learn to contemn this world and to turn
your eyes and your heart away from be-
holding the masked beauty of all things
under Time's law and doom.
12 Look beyond these passing things
and behold Him who is invisible and ever-
lasting, and the exceeding riches and glory
of His everlasting Kingdom, which shall
be your abundant reward.
13 Fire will fly over this earth and all
that is in it; even lightnings of destruction
from the Almighty Hand. And all the
treasures thereof shall crumble away and
become as nothing.
14 Woe that men's souls should be mad
and drunken with the love of this passing,
38
A NEW EPISTLE
lawless life! They think to make a nest
for their hopes, and to take quarters and
conditions of hell and death, that they may
have ease, long life, and peace; but in the
morning they shall awake from their dream
and bitterness shall be their portion.
15 Their hope shall fail like a tree that
is withered at the root; their treasure
shall become a vain thing. Dismay shall
seize upon them and they shall mourn and
there shall be none to comfort them.
16 For the estates of the wicked, if they
do not repent, shall consume away, and
the ravens shall dwell in their houses, and
their glory shall be shame.
39
Chapter VIII
Of the way to heaven. 5 The Christian must
have trials. 13 He desires not a flowery
path.
DEAR ones in Christ, I know the way
to heaven is judged a harsh way, a
low-lifed, sad, and melancholy way, full of
tears and mourning.
2 It is known to all divines that in every
regenerated man there is, as it were, two
men, the new and the old, the spirit and
the flesh; and these two have contrary
ways, contrary hearts, and contrary judg-
ments.
3 When the children of God think the
way to heaven unpleasant and full of sor-
row, then the old nature bears rule in the
soul, and that is but the opinion of your
carnal man.
4 But ask the opinion of the new man
within you what he thinks of the way to
heaven. O he will say God is dearer to
him than thousands of gold and silver,
40
A NEW EPISTLE
sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
"Whom have I on earth but Thee, and
there is none upon earth that I desire be-
side Thee."
5 If then ye ask what is the reason of
their mourning, tears, wrestling, agonies,
and terrors of a guilty conscience, I answer,
We may not think the child of God, in his
way to heaven, will never get a shower.
Nay, ye have seen that sometimes near
midsummer there will fall a blast of hail;
but nature and the season of the year will
soon dry it up, and it will clear in the west,
and the birds will renew their songs, and
the roses will spread their leaves again
when the sun shines.
6 So, even whilst it is summer, the Sun
of Righteousness will hide His face from
the poor believer ; Christ will seem to with-
draw Himself and the [conscience will
quake and tremble. It was so with Heze-
kiah when he mourned to God as a dove
and chattered like a crane. It was not
fear of death, but because when he was so
near death God, in his feeling, was so far
from him.
7 For these withdrawings, I look upon
them as like unto leaving fields of lean and
41
A NEW EPISTLE
weak land to lie for a time unploughed,
until they gather sap for a better crop.
8 We know that as night and shadow are
good for flowers, and the moonlight and
dews are better than continual sun, so is
Christ's absence of special use, and that it
hath some nourishing virtue in it, and giv-
eth sap to humility, and putteth an edge
on hunger, and furnisheth a fair field to
faith to put forth itself and to exercise its
fingers in gripping it seeth not what.
9 A soul may be in as thriving a state
when thirsting, seeking, and mourning
after the Lord as when actually rejoicing
in Him, as much in earnest when fighting
in the valley as when singing on the moun-
tain.
10 It should be enough for us, if we were
wise, that Christ will have joy and sorrow
halvers of the life of the saints, and that
each of them should have a share of our
days, as the night and the day are kindly
partners and halvers of time and take it
up between them.
11 But if sorrow be the greedier halver
of our days here, I know that joy's day
will dawn and do more than recompense all
our sad hours.
42
A NEW EPISTLE
12 Let my Lord Jesus, since He willeth
so to do, weave my bit and span-length of
time with white and black, weal and woe,
with the Bridegroom's coming and His sad
departure as warp and woof in one web;
and let the rose be neighbored with the
thorn, yet hope that maketh not ashamed
hath written a letter and lines of cheer to
the mourners in Zion that it shall not be
long so.
13 I desire not to go on the lee-side or
sunny side of religion, or to put truth be-
twixt me and the storm; my Savior did
not so for me, who in His suffering took
the windy side of the hill.
14 When we are over the water, Christ
shall cry down crosses and up heaven for
evermore; and down hell and down earth
and down sin and down sorrow, and up
glory, up life, up joy for evermore.
15 In this hope I rest quietly in Christ's
bosom, until He come. Amen.
43
Chapter IX
The sin that remains in our nature. 9 Its
dominion broken by grace. 11 The guard
that is to be set.
THERE is a body of sin that remains in
our nature ; the apostle speaks of it as
if it had us clasped in its arms, "the sin
that doth so easily beset us," or goes round
about us.
2 For original sin has us in fetters as
captives; it is a thing we can not win from,
go where we may.
3 It is like a ghost, ever in our eye; be-
hind us pulling us back, before us standing
in our way, at our right hand hindering us
to hear, pray, believe, hope.
4 It is like the wind in our face, or in
the face of a weak traveler that blows him,
some steps back where he goes one forward.
5 It is as a man going round about us.
It is in the mind, darkening the judgment;
in the will, turning it in the contrary way.
God bids us walk in the lowest room down
in the affections, but we do the contrary.
44
A NEW EPISTLE
And this sin, as weedbind goes about a
tree, wraps about us in every way.
6 It is a serpent biting our heel, and
cries, "A lion in the way!" When God
draws, sin holds back, at meat, drink, and
sleep.
7 It is a mocker; it promises us much,
but gives us the wind; and yet we believe
it.
8 How, now, may we shake off this sin
which dwells in us and goes round about
us, even unto the grave.
9 The dominion of it we break by grace.
Every sore heart we have for this indwell-
ing sin breaks, as it were, a bone of old
Adam, weakens his strength, and makes
him cry out in pain.
10 As we repent and advance in holiness,
we conquer this indwelling sin.
1 1 Now, if ye shall ask a guard to watch
your soul, take these following. The first
soldier is "the fear of God." See that ye
set Him in the very entry of your souls.
12 The second soldier to set there is
"sobriety and temperance." Noah and Lot
forgot these, and therefore they fell into a
nap or sleep. This sobriety is a modest and
wise carriage in the enjoying of the pleas-
45
A NEW EPISTLE
ures of this life. "Be sober, be vigilant,"
says the Apostle Peter, "for thine adver-
sary goeth about like a roaring lion, seek-
ing whom he may devour."
13 The third soldier is that virtue which
Solomon calls "discretion;" let it be before
the door to try what guests come into the
soul, what thoughts enter in. As it is
written, "Try the spirits whether they be
of God or not." One devil is like another
devil, and when we are thinking we are
holding out one, another rushes in.
14 The fourth soldier is " suspicion and
fear of our own ways" which should hold
us waking. "Blessed is the man that
feareth always." Paul said to Timothy,
"In all things watch." Even in the things
of this life, in the setting of a cup to our
head, in the putting a bite to our mouth
at table we should watch, for did not the
devil enter into Judas with the meat?
Therefore, I entreat you, let no man believe
too well of himself or be caution for his
own heart, "for the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked; who
can know it?"
15 The fifth soldier to stand is "medita-
tion on death;" let the meditation of death
46
A NEW EPISTLE
stand in the threshold of the door. It is
written in Lamentations, " Wherefore doth
Jerusalem come down wonderfully, but be-
cause she remembered not her last end."
If men would remember Christ and that
death and judgment come in the night as a
thief, they would have their hand ever at
the door-bar and stand behind the door,
watching till the Lord should knock.
" Blessed is the man whom his Lord shall
find so doing. "
16 The sixth soldier, that keeps the soul
ever on foot, is "a continual practice of
good y and walking with God." Moving,
walking, and serious business keep men
from slumbering. Only be even-down
honest with God, walking with Him in
sincerity and truth and looking unto His
mercy, justice, kindness, and power.
17 The seventh soldier, and the last man
of the guard that I shall now mention, is
"Faith." These seven be valiant soldiers,
and strong in the service of Christ. These
are the graces of God that keep Christ in
the soul.
47
Chapter X
Danger of trusting to a name. 7 Conversion
no superficial work. 13 Exhortation to
make sure of Christ.
I BESEECH you, in the Lord Jesus, to
mind your country above, and now when
old age, the twilight going before the dark-
ness of the grave, is come upon you, advise
with Christ ere you put foot into the ship
and turn your back on this life.
2 Many are beguiled with this, that they
are free of scandalous and crying abomina-
tions; but the tree that bringeth not forth
good fruit is for the fire.
3 The man that is not born again can
not enter into the Kingdom of God. Com-
mon honesty will not take men to heaven.
4 Alas, that men should think that ever
they met with Christ who never had a sore
heart for sin !
5 I know that God hath given you light
and a knowledge of His will; but that is
not all, neither will that do your turn. I
48
A NEW EPISTLE
wish you an awakened soul, that ye may
not beguile yourself in the matter of your
salvation.
6 My beloved brethren, search your
hearts diligently and try if the life of God
and Christ be truly in you.
7 Many are carried over sea to a far
country in a ship whileas they sleep much
of all the way; but men are not landed at
heaven sleeping.
8 I say unto you scarce are the righteous
saved ; and many run as fast as either you
or I who miss the prize and the crown.
9 Men think it but a stride or a step over
to heaven, but have w r e not cause to
tremble and ask our poor souls, " Whither
goest thou? Where shalt thou lodge at
night? Where are the charters and writs of
thy heavenly inheritance ?"
10 O see, see that ye give not your salva-
tion a wrong cast, and think all is well,
and leave your soul loose and uncertain
until the door is shut upon you.
11 I entreat you, look to your building
and your groundstone, and what signs of
Christ are in you, for your sun is low in the
heavens. Be watchful, be swift; strive to
go a step above and beyond ordinary pro-
4 49
A NEW EPISTLE
fessors; resolve to sweat more and run
faster than they do for salvation.
12 A slack, cold pace to heaven will cause
many a man to want his lodgings at night
and to lie in the fields. Therefore, while
the light remaineth, O hasten your steps,
delay not!
13 It is time now in the evening to cease
from your ordinary employ, and high time
to be assured of your lodging when night
falleth upon you. It is your salvation that
is in dependence, and that is a great and
weighty business, howbeit many make
light of the matter.
14 May the Lord Jesus enable you, by
His grace, to work it out, to be firm-fixed
in Him, and to be ready, so that ye come
safely into His Heavenly Kingdom.
50
Chapter XI
To one who suffered for the faith. 8 Ye
are the King's gold, stamped with His
image. 14 Forgive as you have been for-
given.
DEARLY beloved in Christ Jesus, I fear
that you are moved and cast down
because of the harshness of evil men against
you.
2 But I pray you be comforted, for a
just cause bides under the water only as
long as wicked men hold their hand above
it; their arm will weary, and then the just
cause shall swim above; and the light that
is sown for the righteous shall spring and
grow up.
3 If ye were not strangers here, the dogs
of the world would not bark at you.
4 Ye shall see all the windings and turn-
ings that are in your path to heaven out
of God's Word; for He will not lead you
to the Kingdom by the nearest way, but
you must go through "honor and dis-
honor, by evil and good report, as de-
ceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet
51
A NEW EPISTLE
well known, as dying, and, behold we live,
as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful
and yet always rejoicing/'
5 The world is one of the enemies that
we have to fight with, but a vanquished
and overcome enemy, a beaten soldier;
for hath not Christ, our Captain, said,
"Be of good courage, for I have overcome
the world ?"
6 You shall neither be free of the scourge
of the tongue nor of disgraces, if you follow
Christ.
7 I beseech you, by the blood of the
Redeemer, keep a good conscience, as I
trust you do.
8 You live not upon men's opinion;
gold may be gold and have the king's
stamp upon it, when it is trampled upon
by men.
9 Happy are you if, when the world
trampleth upon you in your credit and
good name, yet you are the Lord's gold,
stamped with our King's image, and sealed
by the Spirit unto the day of your re-
demption.
10 This is your glory, that Christ hath
put you in the roll with Himself, and with
the rest of the witnesses who are come out
52
A NEW EPISTLE
of great tribulation. Blessed are they who
are content to take strokes with weeping
Christ.
11 Open your hearts, I beseech you, to
the Spirit of love; for love beareth all
things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things, endureth all things.
12 Love hath strong, broad shoulders;
the high mountains and the heavy burdens
will not tire love. Love will never sweat,
faint, nor fall in a swoon, for God helpeth
love.
13 Get love and no burden Christ will
lay on you will be heavy. Lay all hell upon
a soul that has love to Christ and he will
run with the burden.
14 Pray for your adversaries; remem-
ber how many thousands of talents of sins
your Master hath forgiven you. Forgive
ye, therefore, your fellow-servant's one
talent.
15 It is a benefit to you that the wicked
are God's fan to purge you; and I hope
they shall blow away no wheat, or spir-
itual graces, but only your chaff.
16 May the Lord Jesus help you and
lead you to see the beauty of His way of
forgiveness and mercy and loving kindness.
53
Chapter XII
Comfort concerning the Church. 6 Christ
shall lead her again unto triumph. 11
Rules for Christian conduct.
DEARLY beloved, yet a little while and
ve shall see the salvation of the Lord.
2 Fear not for Mount Zion, for they
shall be sore disappointed who thirst for
her destruction.
3 They shall be as when a hungry man
dreameth that he eateth, but behold! he
awaketh and his soul is empty. Or like
when a thirsty man dreameth that he
drinketh, but behold! he awaketh and is
faint, and his soul is not satisfied ; so shall it
be with those who fight against Mount Zion.
4 Therefore let not the enemies of the
Lord affright you; they shall not make
Mount Zion their heritage, neither shall
they dwell within her walls.
5 For the enemies of Zion shall be found
out; He hath vengeance laid up in store
for them, and the poor and needy shall
not always be forgotten.
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A NEW EPISTLE
6 Howbeit this day be not Chrises, the
morrow shall be His. He will repair the
old waste places, and His ruined houses
shall again be made the dwelling place of
Jacob.
7 The dry olive tree shall bud again, and
the dry bones shall live; the Spirit shall
come upon them and they shall live.
8 The Bride will yet sing as in the days of
her youth; yea, she will rejoice as in times
past, and her joy none shall take from her.
9 Wait ye patiently, therefore, upon the
Bridegroom's coming, and ye shall behold
His triumph and rejoice again in His glory
and His strength.
10 Our fair day is coming, and the court
will change and wicked men will weep
after noon, and sorer than the sons of God
who weep in the morning. Let us believe
and hope for God's salvation.
11 Some among you urgently desire of
me rules for your guidance, that ye may
be faithful in your godly service.
12 Take these things to heart, therefore,
and follow them diligently. First, that
hours of the day, less or more time, for the
Word and prayer, be given to God, and
not grudgingly.
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A NEW EPISTLE
13 That in the midst of your worldly
employments there should be some
thoughts of sin, death, judgment, and
eternity, with at least a word of ejaculatory
prayer to God.
14 That ye beware of wandering of heart
in private prayers.
15 That ye grudge not, howbeit ye come
from prayer without a sense of joy. Down-
casting, sense of guiltiness, and hunger are
often best for us.
16 There be two herbs that grow quickly
in our souls in summer weather — security
and pride. Humility is a strong flower
that grows best in winter weather and
under storms and afflictions.
17 That the Lord's day, from morning to
night, be spent always in private and
public worship.
18 That the tongue be guarded, wan-
dering and idle thoughts avoided, and
sudden anger and desire for revenge, even
of such as persecute the truth, be shut out
of your hearts, for often we mix our wild-
fire with our zeal.
19 That in dealing with men, faith and
truth in covenants and trafficking be
scrupulously regarded; that ye deal with
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A NEW EPISTLE
all men in sincerity, and that your conduct
in all things, before the world, may speak
favorably of Christ, whom ye profess to
serve.
20 There are many minor things, also,
whereby I have been helped, albeit the de-
mands of the world upon you set some of
these beyond your doing. I have been
benefited by riding alone a long journey
in giving that time to meditation. By
abstinence and giving days to God. By
praying for others; for by making an
errand to God for them I have gotten a
blessing for myself.
21 I charge you, beware of pride.
Amongst all sins, pride takes the most
room; it is a cumbersome neighbor to God,
and would be upon His bounds.
22 Beware also of covetousness. The
covetous man can not enter into heaven;
there are strange tatters of clay hanging on
him. He can not enter till the bunch be
driven off his back.
23 Beware of worldliness. Worldy men
are too great to win through the strait door.
O how big worldliness doth make men!
24 Beware of impatience, repining, and
peevishness, which are the sins of sick
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A NEW EPISTLE
people. Wrong tempers indulged grieve,
if they do not quench the Spirit.
25 Take heed to all these things, observe
and deny them, that ye may glorify God
before men.
26 Finally, brethren, acquit yourselves
in all things good soldiers of Christ, who
is the Captain of your salvation.
58
Chapter XIII
Afflictions of God's chosen. 7 Christ and
His cross not separable here. 16 A glo-
rious company of martyrs. 21 Our soft
natures would choose ease and comfort.
I HAVE heard of your heaviness, and of
the temptations and trials that press
sore upon you.
2 Fear not, I entreat you, nor turn -aside
from Christ because of your afflictions.
3 So it was with the Lord's apostle when
he was come with the gospel to Macedonia;
his flesh had no rest; he was troubled on
every side and knew not what side to turn
him unto, without were fightings and
within were doubts and fears.
4 Your troubles also are many and
great, yet not an ounce weight beyond
the measure of Infinite Wisdom, nor be-
yond the measure of grace that He can
bestow.
5 Our blessed Lord never yet brake the
back of His child, nor marred the work of
His own hands.
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6 I know that no man hath a velvet
cross, but the cross is made of that of
which God will have it.
7 Take His cross with Him cheerfully.
Christ and His cross are not separable in
this life; howbeit Christ and His cross
part at heaven's door, for there is no house-
room for crosses in heaven.
8 One tear, one sigh, one sad heart, one
fear, one loss, one thought of trouble can
not find lodging there; they are but the
marks of our Lord Jesus down in this wide
inn and stormy country, on this side of
death.
9 Sorrow and the saints are not married
together; or suppose it were so, heaven
would make a divorce. In me my Lord's
sweet presence eateth the bitterness out of
all sorrow and suffering. Love hath given
my cup a pleasant savor.
10 I think it is a sweet thing that Christ
saith of my cross, "Half mine," and that
He divideth these sufferings with me and
taketh the larger share to Himself — nay,
that I and my cross are wholly Christ's.
11 My cross hath become, as it were, all
crystal, so that I can see through it Christ's
fair face and heaven.
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12 Beloved, ere we knew aught of Christ,
it was so that if we had the cross at our
own election, we would either have law-
surety for freedom from it, or else we
would have it honeyed and sugared with
comforts so as the sweet should over-
master the gall and wormwood.
13 But we have learned that Christ
knoweth how to breed the sons of His
house; let us then give Him leave to take
His own way of dispensation with us, and,
though it be rough and hard to endure, yet
we will trust His all-seeing wisdom and
loving kindness.
14 We can never have as much sweet
patience with our Lord as He hath borne
to us. I know that for our good there
can not be a dram-weight less of gall in
our cup.
15 When God's people can not have a
providence of silk and roses, they must be
content with such an one as He bestoweth
upon them.
16 We would not go to heaven but with
company, and we perceive that the way
of those who went before us was through
blood, through fire, and through many
afflictions. Nay, Christ Himself went in
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over the door-threshold of Paradise bleed-
ing to death.
17 Heaven is but a company of noble
venturers for Christ. They are not worthy
of Him who will not take a blow for the
Master's sake.
18 Brethren, I entertain no other
thought than that ye have learned to
stoop, and that ye have found that the
fruits which grow upon that crabbed tree
of the cross are as sweet as it is sour to
bear, especially since Christ hath borne
the entire cross, while His saints must bear
but the fragments, as the apostle says,
"the remnants" or "leavings" of the
cross.
19 What is this lower kingdom of grace
but Christ's hospital, the guest-house of
sick folks whom the Great Physician hath
cured upon a venture of life and death?
20 We know it is not the sunny side of
Christ that we must look to here, and we
must not forsake Him because of that, but
must set our faces against what may befall
us in following on till He and we be through
the briars and bushes on fair ground.
21 Our soft natures would be borne
through the troubles of this miserable life
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in Christ's arms, and it is His wisdom who
knoweth our mold, that His children go
wet-shod and sore-footed to heaven.
22 O how sweet a thing were it for us to
make our burdens easy by framing our
hearts to the burden and making our Lord's
will to be our law and our guide.
23 Verily I find Christ and His cross not
so ill to please, nor yet such troublesome
guests as many declare ; nay, with patience
the cup of water which Christ giveth us
becomes wine, and His dry bread turns
sweet and pleasant to the taste.
24 Blessed are they who hold the
crown upon His Kingly head and buy
Christ's honor with their own losses and
their own pains.
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Chapter XIV
Invocation to praise the Almighty. 7 Who
can lay rule upon God? 19 Christ's love
is as the sea.
OINDWELLERS of earth and heaven,
sea and air, and all created beings
within the utmost circle of the great world,
O come help to set on high the praises of
our Lord.
2 O fairness of creatures, blush before
His uncreated beauty!
3 O created strength, be amazed to stand
before your strong Lord of Hosts !
4 O created love, think shame of thy-
self before this unparalleled love of heaven !
5 O angel wisdom, hide thyself before
our Lord whose understanding passeth
finding out!
6 O sun in thy shining beauty, for shame
put up the web of darkness and cover thy-
self before thy brightest Master and
Maker!
7 Who can lay rule upon God; who can
measure Him whom we serve?
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8 Who can weigh Him; who can put
the Almighty in the balance?
9 Ten thousand heavens would not be
one scale, or half the scale of the balance
to contain Him.
10 O black angels in comparison of Him!
110 dim and dark and lightless sun in
regard of that fair Sun of Righteousness!
12 unsubstantial and worthless heaven
of heavens when they stand beside my
worthy and lofty and high and excellent
Well-Beloved!
13 weak and infirm clay-kings! O
soft and feeble mountains of brass and
weak created strength in regard of our
mighty and strong Lord of armies!
14 O foolish wisdom of men and angels
when it is laid in the balance beside the
spotless, substantial wisdom of the Father!
15 If heaven and earth, and ten thou-
sand heavens even round about these
heavens that now are, were all in one
garden of Paradise, decked with the fairest
roses, flowers, and trees that can come
forth from the art of the Almighty Him-
self; yet set but our one Flower that
groweth out of the root of Jesse beside
that orchard of pleasure, one look of Him,
5 65
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one view, one glimpse would infinitely
exceed and go beyond the color, beauty,
and loveliness of that Paradise.
16 O worthy, worthy, worthy Loveli-
ness! O incomparable Jewel and Flower
of heaven!
17 O less of the creatures and more of
Thee* sweet Lord Jesus!
18 Open the passage of the well of love
and glory on us, dry pits and withered
trees.
19 What can quench the love of Christ?
Nothing, nothing, for His love is as the
sea. O to be a thousand fathoms deep in
this sea of love!
20 O cruel time that tormenteth us and
suspendeth our dearest enjoyments, when
shall we be bathed and steeped, soul and
body, down in the depths of this Love of
loves?
21 O time, I say, run fast! O motions,
mend your pace!
22 O Well-Beloved, be like a young roe
on the mountains of separation! Post,
post, and hasten our desired and hungered-
for meeting! Love is sick to hear tell of
to-morrow.
23 Who can find it in his heart to sin
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against love, and such a love as He beareth
for us who is our Shepherd and our Re-
deemer, even the Son of the Living God?
24 O that I had a river of love, a sea of
love that would never go dry, to bestow
upon Christ!
25 O all ye who know His voice, enjoy
your Beloved, and dwell upon His bound-
less love till Eternity come in Time's room
and possess you of your everlasting happi-
ness. Amen.
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Chapter XV
He writes again from exile. 5 Yearns to
preach again the beauty and glory of
Christ. 9 Divine comfort. 15 Would
not exchange his sadness for the world's
joy.
I AM at strange ups and downs here, and
seven times a day do I lose ground. I
am often put to swimming, and again my
feet are set upon the Rock that is higher
than myself.
2 My unfilled hours have given me to
look within, and what do I behold there
but abomination. Rebellion and anger
against God possess me, and impatience
maketh sour my spirit.
3 I sometimes think that Christ hath
casten me over the dyke of the vineyard
as a dry and withered tree and that He
would have no more of my service. My
dumb Sabbaths are like a stone tied to a
bird's foot, that wanteth not wings to fly
away.
4 O when shall this black night of my
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banishment be overpast and the day-star
of my deliverance shine in the heavens?
5 that I might preach His beauty and
glory as once I did before my clay-tent be
removed to darkness.
6 Nothing has given my faith a harder
back-set till it crack again than my closed
mouth. It is a painful battle for a soul
sick of love to fight with absence and
delays. Christ's "Not yet" is trying all
the joints and fastenings of my armor.
7 I upbraided Christ and cried out that
He was tired of me; my soul refused to be
comforted.
8 Yea, I upbraided my Lord and said,
"What aileth, Lord, that Thou shouldst
cast me off and bring my soul to shame, for I
have desired to be faithful in Thy house ?"
9 But He laid His hand upon me and
lifted me up; He hath poured balm upon
my wounds and healed them; He hath
opened my eyes to behold the grace be-
neath His gloom.
10 I see now that duties are ours, events
are the Lord's.
11 When our faith goeth to meddle with
events and to hold a court, as it were,
upon God's providence, and beginneth to
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say, "How wilt Thou do this and that?"
we lose ground.
12 We have nothing to do there. It is
our part to let the Almighty exercise His
own office and steer His own helm. And
He steereth well.
13 Now I rest in confidence upon my
Lord ; daily He giveth me feasts of His love.
14 Mine adversaries know not what a
courtier I am now with my royal Master,
in whose cause I suffer. Sweet, sweet is
His yoke, and His chains are of pure gold;
sufferings for Him are perfumed.
15 I would not give my weeping for the
laughing of all the fourteen prelates of
Scotland. I would not exchange my sad-
ness with the world's joy.
16 What further trials are before me I
know not; but I know that Christ will
have a saved soul of me over on the other
side of the water, on the yonder side of
crosses and beyond men's wrongs.
17 Beloved in Christ, thoughts of your
souls depart not from me even in my
sleep. Until it please God that I see you
and be permitted to minister unto you, ye
have the prayers of a prisoner of Christ,
to whom I recommend you in all things.
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Chapter XVI
Truth worth suffering for. 7 Joy sown, but
evil prevails in the world till Christ come.
12 A call to faith.
I BLESS the Lord that the cause for
which I suffer needeth not to blush be-
fore kings.
2 Christ's white, honest, and fair truth
needeth neither to wax pale for fear nor to
blush for shame.
3 I bless the Lord who hath given you
grace to owtl Christ now when so many
are afraid to profess Him and hide Him
for fear they suffer loss by avouching Him.
4 Alas! that so many in these days are
carried with the times; as if their con-
sciences rolled upon oiled wheels, so they
go any way the wind bloweth them.
5 And because Christ is not market
sweet men put Him away from them.
6 As for ye, I entreat you to go on the
strong upholders of Christ and His op-
pressed truth: the end of sufferings for
Him is rest and gladness.
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7 Light and joy are sown for the mourn-
ers in Zion, and the harvest which is of
God's own making, for time and manner,
is not far off.
8 There will be rain and hail and storms
in the saints' clouds ever, till God cleanse
with fire the works of creation, and till He
burn this botch-house of earth that men's
sins have subjected unto vanity.
9 Blessed are they who suffer and sin
not, for suffering is the badge that Christ
hath put upon His followers.
10 Take what way we can to heaven,
the way is hedged up with crosses; there
is no way but to break through them. Wit
and wiles, shifts and laws will not find out
a way round the cross of Christ, but we
must go through.
11 One thing by experience my Lord
hath taught me, that the waters betwixt
this and heaven may all be ridden if we
be well horsed ; that is, if we be in Christ ;
and not one shall drown by the way but
such as love their own destruction.
12 O if we could wait on for a long time
and believe in the salvation of God !
13 At least we are to believe good of
Christ till He gives us the slip (which is
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impossible) and to take His Word for
surety that He shall fill up the blanks in
His promises, and open our blind eyes to
read the mysteries beyond the veil.
14 Now the very peace of God establish
you till the day of His glorious appearance.
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■M
Chapter XVII
The emptiness of earthly glory. 7 We are
in an alien country. 13 Our attitude
towards the world.
IT has been told you that worldly glory
is but a vapor, a shadow, a foam of the
water; nay, less than this — even nothing.
2 Our Lord hath said in His Word, "The
fashion of this world passeth away," and
compared it to an image in a looking-glass,
for it is the looking-glass of Adam's sons.
3 Some come to the glass and see in it
the picture of Honor — and but a picture
indeed, for true honor is to be great in the
sight of God.
4 Others see in it the shadow of Riches —
and but a shadow, indeed, for durable
riches stand as one of the maids of Wis-
dom, upon her left hand. (Prov. 3:16.)
5 Again, a third sort see in it the face
of painted Pleasure; and the beholders will
not believe but the image they see in the
glass is a living creature till the Lord come
and break the glass in pieces.
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6 Then, like Pharoah awakened, they
will say, "And behold it was all a dream !"
7 I persuade myself, brethren, that this
world is to you an alien country, and that
ye are like a traveler who has his bundle
upon his back and his staff in his hand and
his feet upon the highway.
8 There is an instinct in new-born chil-
dren of Christ like the instinct of nature
that leads birds to love certain places, as
woods and forests, better than other places.
9 The instinct of nature makes a man
love his mother country above all coun-
tries; the instinct of renewed nature and
supernatural grace will lead you to love
your country above and to call this world
but a borrowed prison — to look upon it as
a pilgrim journeying through to your own
dear country.
10 This earth is but the clay portion of
the ungodly, and therefore no wonder that
the world should smile upon its own.
11 Ye know the mother will not let her
own children want. Better be sons of God
than the world's darlings.
12 I think it not ill that God's children
get a hard bed and poor cheer in this
world. Christ had not a house amongst
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them; they would not give Him a drink
of water in His thirst.
13 I think God's children may call the
world a strange inn and not their own home.
Let us carry ourselves like the good-natured
stranger who resolves never to quarrel
with his host, howbeit his meat be ill, and
his reckoning dear, and he have to sleep
on a straw bed.
76
Chapter XVIII
State of the Church. 5 Believers purified by
affliction. 10 Folly of seeking joy in a
doomed world. 16 Should esteem the
world a crucified idol. 22 Beauty of our
Father's House.
BRETHREN in Christ, my spirit is tor-
mented with excessive grief for our
present provocations and the rendings of
our beloved Church.
2 I find it hard work to believe when
the course of providence goeth crosswise to
our faith, and when misted souls in a dark
night can not know east by west, and our
sea-compass seemeth to fail us.
3 Every man is a believer in daylight;
a fair day seemeth to be made all of faith
and hope.
4 What a trial of gold is it to smoke it a
little above the fire?
5 But to keep gold of its fair color amidst
the flames, and to be turned from vessel to
vessel and yet to cause our furnace to
sound and speak and cry the praises of the
Lord is another matter.
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6 I know that my Lord made me not
for fire, howbeit He hath fitted me in some
measure for the fire.
7 I bless His high name that I wax not
paler, neither have I lost the color of gold,
and that His fire hath made me ready so
that He may pour me into any vessel He
pleaseth.
8 For a small wager I may justly quit
my part of this world's laughter and give
up with time and count the pleasures of
this life as nothing.
9 I see, above all things, that we who
have chosen the better part may sit down
with folded arms and stretch ourselves
upon Christ and laugh at the feathers that
children are chasing here.
10 For I think the men of this world are
like children in a dangerous storm in the
sea, that play and make sport with the
white foam of the waves thereof coming in
to sink and drown them.
11 So are men making fool's sports with
the white pleasures of a stormy world that
will overwhelm and destroy them.
12 But what have we to do with their
sports which they make?
13 If Solomon said of laughter that it
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A NEW EPISTLE
was madness, what may we say of this
world's laughing and sporting themselves
with gold and silver, and honors and court,
and broad, large conquests but that they
are poor souls in the height and rage of a
fever gone mad?
14 Then a straw and a fig for all created
sports and rejoicing out of Christ!
15 Nay, I think that this world at its
prime and perfection, when it is come to
the top of its excellency and to the bloom,
might be bought with an halfpenny, and
that it would scarce weigh the worth of a
drink of water.
16 There is nothing better than to es-
teem it our dead and slain idol, as did the
Apostle Paul: "But God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is cruci-
fied unto me and I unto the world."
17 Then let pleasures be crucified, and
riches be crucified, and court and worldly
honor be crucified.
18 And since the apostle saith that the
world is crucified unto him, we may put
this world to a hanged man's doom and
to the gallows; and who will give much
for a hanged man?
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19 Yet what a fair odor hath this dead
carrion to many fools in the world! and
how many wooers and suitors hath this
hanged and festering body!
20 Fools are pulling it off the gallows
and contending for it.
21 O when will we learn to be mortified
men, and to have our fill of those things
that have but their short summer quarter
of this life!
22 If we saw our Father's house, and that
great and fair city which is above the sun
and the moon, how should we scorn the
sham delights of this dying and decaying
earth?
23 Fix not your affections, therefore, on
the things of this life, but on the things to
come. Send forward your furnishings and
set your faces toward the New Jerusalem,
that beautiful city not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens.
24 May Christ be your guide and your
strength, and keep your feet from straying
into strange and fatal paths! His grace
be with you.
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Chapter XIX
Grace wither eth without adversity. 6 God's
workings incomprehensible. 13 Longing
after a drop of God's fullness.
GRACE withereth without adversity.
Dry wells send us to the fountain.
2 Faith is the better of the free air and
the sharp winter storm in its face.
3 If contentment were here, heaven
would not be heaven.
4 Beloved, I have still great heaviness
for my silence and my enforced standing
idle in the field when there needeth sowers
and reapers to make a great harvest for
Christ.
5 If any but He had put this burden
upon me, I could not have borne it. But
my Lord hath done it, and I will lay my
hand upon my mouth.
6 I know that His judgments, who hath
done this, are past finding out. I have no
knowledge to take up the Almighty in all
His strange ways and passages of deep and
unsearchable providences.
6 81
A NEW EPISTLE
7 For the Lord is before me, and I am
so beclouded that I can not follow Him;
He is behind me and following at my heels,
and I am not aware of Him; He is above
me, but His glory so dazzleth my twilight
of short knowledge that I can not look up
to Him.
8 He is upon my right hand, and I see
Him not; He is upon my left hand, and
within me, and goeth and cometh, and His
going and coming are a dream to me; He
is round about me and compasseth all my
goings, and still I have Him to seek.
9 He is in every way higher and deeper
and broader than the shallow and ebb
hand-breadth of my short and dim light
can take up, and therefore I would that
my heart could be silent and resigned
before Him who is above the understand-
ing of men and of angels.
10 For the noonday light of the highest
angels who see Him face to face seeth
not the borders of His infiniteness and
wisdom.
11 And therefore I would have it my
happiness to look afar off, and to light my
dark candle at the brightness of His glory,
and to have leave to sit and content my-
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self with a traveler's light without the
clear vision of an en j oyer.
12 1 would see no more till I were in my
country than a little watering and sprink-
ling of a withered soul, with some half-
outbreakings and outlookings of the beams
and small ravishing smiles of my Lord's
dear face.
13 A little of God would make my soul
to overflow as a river in the time of spring
freshets.
14 Beloved, remember my bonds and
help me with your thoughts and your
prayers.
83
Chapter XX
Warns against backsliding. 8 Rejoices in
his bonds for Christ. 17 Be free with the
grace of God.
IT will be my joy that ye follow after
Christ till ye find Him.
2 My conscience is a feast of joy to me
that I sought in singleness of heart, for
Christ's love, to put you upon the King's
highway, on the road which leads to our
Father's house. Thrice blessed are ye if
ye hold the way.
3 If ye depart from what I taught you,
for fear or favor of men, or for desire of
ease in this world, it can not be well with
you in the end.
4 Build not your nest here; this is a
hard, ill-made bed— no rest is in it for
your soul.
5 Awake, awake and make haste to see
that Pearl, Christ, that this world seeth
not.
6 Time posteth away. Your night and
your Master will be upon you within a
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clap; your hand-breadth of time will not
bide you.
7 Take Christ, although a storm follow
Him. Howbeit this day be not yours and
Christ's, the morrow will be yours and His.
8 I would not exchange the joy of my
bonds and imprisonment for Christ for all
the joy of this miserable and foul-skinned
world.
9 I rest joyfully on Christ and am filled
with His love. The smell of Christ's wine
and apples bloweth upon my soul. His
cross is the sweetest that ever I bare; it
is such a burden as wings are to a bird or
sails are to a ship — to carry me forward to
my harbor.
10 I charge you, brethren, be constant
in watching and in prayer. Love not the
world nor the vanities thereof; be humble
and esteem little of yourselves.
1 1 Love your enemies and pray for them.
12 Make conscience of speaking the
truth when none knoweth but God.
13 Keep your garments clean, as ye
would walk with the Lamb clothed in
white.
14 Strive to be dead to the world and
to your own will and lusts; let Christ have
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a commanding power and a King's throne
in you.
15 Desire the beauty of Christ; give out
all your love to Him and let none fall by;
learn in prayer to speak with Him.
16 Follow on; cling to your Savior and
stray not from Him, who is the Rock of
your salvation.
17 Take as many to heaven with you as
ye are able to draw. The more ye draw
with you, ye will be the welcomer yourself.
Be no niggard or sparing churl of the
grace of God.
18 Praise Him and glorify His name be-
fore men at all times and in all places.
19 I send water to the sea to speak of
these things to you; but it easeth me to
desire you to help me pay tribute of praise
and honor to our loving Lord and King.
20 O for a soul as wide as the utmost
circle of the highest heaven, that contain-
eth all, to contain His love, which passeth
all human understanding.
21 I beseech you to remember me in
your prayers, as I remember you always.
86
Chapter XXI
To his brethren at Anwoth, exhorting them
to abide in the truth. 5 Rules for Chris-
tian conduct. 16 Free, though in prison.
21 The exceeding loveliness of Christ.
DEARLY beloved in Christ, my only
joy out of heaven is to hear that the
seed of God sown among you is growing
and coming to a harvest.
2 For I ceased not while I was among
you, in season and out of season, according
to the measure of grace given unto me, to
warn and stir up your souls to seek Christ,
and I did communicate unto you the whole
counsel of God.
3 And now again I charge and warn you,
in the great and dreadful name and in the
sovereign authority of the King of kings
and Lord of lords, and I beseech you also
by the mercies of God and by your hope
of eternal salvation that ye keep the truth
of God as I delivered it unto you before
many witnesses, in the sight of God and
His holy angels.
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4 Remember that I counseled you in
many things, and not least in these: That
ye should forbear the dishonoring of the
Lord's blessed name in swearing, blasphem-
ing, cursing, and profaning the Lord's
Sabbath.
5 That ye should give that day, from
morning to night, to praying, praising, and
hearing of the Word, conferring and speak-
ing not on your own things, but on the
things of God, thinking and meditating on
God's nature, Word, and work.
6 That ye should be humble, sober, and
modest, forbearing pride, envy, malice,
wrath, hatred, contention, lying, slander-
ing, stealing, and defrauding your neighbor
in grass, corn, cattle, in buying or selling,
borrowing or lending, taking or giving, in
bargains or in covenants.
7 That ye should work with your own
hands and be content with that which God
hath given you.
8 That ye remember that of all the
created comforts God is the Lender ; ye are
but the borrower, not the owner; that ye
may consider the poor and the needy.
9 That ye should study to know God and
His will, and keep in mind the doctrine
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which I expounded unto you and speak of
it in your houses and forget it not in the
hours of your labor, nor when ye lie down
at night, nor when ye arise in the morning.
10 And that ye should believe in the
Son of God and obey His commandments,
and to make your accounts in time with
your Judge, because death and judgment
are before you.
1 1 And if ye now have penury and want
of that Word which I delivered unto you
in abundance while I was among you,
mourn for your loss of time and repent.
12 My soul pitieth you that ye should
suck at dry breasts and be put to draw at
dry wells. O that ye would esteem above
everything else the Sun of Righteousness,
the Lamb of God, and our well-beloved
Jesus Christ, whose virtues and praises I
have preached unto you with joy whi'e I
dwelt with you at Anwoth.
13 And that ye should call to mind the
many glorious feasts in our Lord's house
that ye and I had in Christ Jesus.
14 Dearly beloved brethren, fulfill my
joy by keeping all these things in all dili-
gence and sincerity.
15 I pray you also, beloved, be not an-
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gered against those in authority for that I
am not free to come unto you. I am filled
with joy and with the comforts of God.
And howbeit this town be my prison, yet
Christ hath made it my palace — a garden
of pleasure, a field and orchard of delights.
16 I know likewise, though I be in bonds
yet the Word of God is not in bonds. My
spirit also is in free ward and beyond man's
power to bind.
17 Sweet, sweet have His comforts been
to my soul; my pen, my tongue, and my
heart have not words to express the kind-
ness, love, and mercy of my Well-Beloved
to me in this house of my pilgrimage.
18 I charge you to fear and love Christ
and to seek a house not made with hands,
but your Father's house above.
19 This laughing and white - skinned
world beguileth you like a harlot, and if ye
seek more than God it shall give you the
slip, to the endless sorrow of your heart.
20 Yet once again suffer me to exhort,
beseech, and obtest you in the Lord, to
think of His love and to rejoice in Him
who is to be desired above and over all.
I give you the word of a King that ye
shall not repent your choice.
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A NEW EPISTLE
21 O the exceeding loveliness of Christ!
Angels' pens, angels' tongues — nay, as
many worlds of angels as there are drops
of water in the seas and fountains and
rivers of the earth can not paint Him out
to you. I think His sweetness, since I
was a prisoner, has swelled upon me to the
greatness of two heavens.
22 for a soul as wide as the utmost
circle of the highest heaven that containeth
all to contain His great, immeasurable love!
23 I beseech you to love Christ, who is
worthy of your love, and to rejoice that ye
are privileged to suffer here for so kind and
tender a Master.
24 Beloved, ye are in my prayers night
and day. I can not forget you. I do not
eat, I do not drink but I pray for you all.
Fail not to remember me in your supplica-
tions to the Most High.
25 Grace and peace be with you, now
and forever.
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Chapter XXII
Win Christ at all hazards. 8 Many run
far but fall by the way. 16 A violence to
corrupt nature to be holy.
I BESEECH you, brethren, by the
mercies of God, to make good and sure
work of your salvation, and try upon what
foundation ye have builded.
2 If ye be upon sinking ground, a storm
of death and a blast will loose Christ and
you and wash you away off the Rock.
3 I entreat you, read over your life with
the light of God's daylight and sun.
4 It is good to look to your compass
and all that ye have need of ere you take
shipping, for no wind can blow you back
again.
5 O how fair have many ships been
plying before the wind that, in an hour's
space, have been lying in the sea bottom.
6 How many professors cast a golden
luster, as if they were pure gold, and yet
are under the skin and cover but base and
reprobate metal?
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A NEW EPISTLE
7 How many would shape the law like
a wide coat, to take in both God and their
own lusts?
8 And how many keep breath in their
race many miles and yet come short of the
garland and the prize.
9 My soul would mourn in secret for you
if I knew your case with God to be but
false work. Desire to have you anchored
upon Christ maketh me fear your tottering
and slips.
10 False underwater, not seen in the
ground of an enlightened conscience, is
dangerous; so is often falling and sinning
against light.
11 O how fearfully are thousands be-
guiled with false skin grown over old sins
as if the soul were cured and healed.
12 Beloved, I know the nature of some
of you to be lofty, heady, and strong in
you, and that it is more for you to be morti-
fied and dead to the world than for others
cf less pride.
13 Ye will take a low ebb and a deep cut
and a long lance to go to the bottom of
your wounds in saving humiliation and to
make you a won prey for Christ.
14 O be humbled, I pray you; walk
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A NEW EPISTLE
softly! Down, down, for God's sake, with
your top-sail! Stoop, stoop! it is a low
entry to go in at heaven's gate.
15 There is infinite justice in the party
ye have to do with; it is His nature not
to acquit the guilty and the sinner; every
man must pay either in his person or in
bis surety, Christ.
16 It is a struggle, a violence to corrupt
nature for a man to be holy, to lie down
under Christ's feet, to quit will, pleasure,
worldly love, earthly hopes, and an itching
of the heart after this gaudy and over-
gilded world, and to be content that Christ
trample upon all.
17 Come in, come in to Christ and see
what ye want and find it in Him. He is
the straight path, the nearest way of escape
from all your burdens. I dare avouch that
ye shall be dearly welcome to Him; my
soul would be glad to take even the smallest
part of the joy ye shall have in your
Savior.
18 Grace, grace and peace be with you,
from your pastor and prisoner in Christ.
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Chapter XXIII
Comforting the brethren. 6 Christ kindest
in His love when we are at our weakest.
9 We would have a cross of our own
choosing. 14 God's way with His chil-
dren.
DEARLY beloved in Christ, I have
heard of your troubles, how that men
despise and afflict you; and the heaviness
of your trials is sore upon me.
2 There are many heads lying in Christ's
bosom, but there is room for yours among
the rest; therefore, I entreat you, recline
upon your dear Lord whose heart is all
love and tenderness for His afflicted chil-
dren.
3 Be comforted to know that the darkest
path was walked by your Lord and Master.
Trust Him and He will lead you through.
4 Often we employ not His love, and
therefore we know it not. Put Christ's
love to the trial and put upon it your
burdens, and then it will appear love in-
deed.
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A NEW EPISTLE
5 I should twenty times have perished
in my affliction if I had not leaned my weak
back and laid my pressing burden both
upon the Stone, the Foundation Stone, the
Corner-stone laid in Zion. And I desire
never to remove from this safe and holy
place.
6 Beloved, I know that Christ is kindest
in His love when we are at our weakest.
His mercy hath a set period and appointed
place how far and no farther the sea of
affliction shall flow, and where the waves
thereof shall be stayed.
7 He prescribeth how much pain and
sorrow, both for weight and measure, we
must endure. Ye have then good cause to
give your love to Christ; He who is
afflicted in all your afflictions looketh not
on you in your sad hours with an insensible
heart or dry eyes.
8 God aimeth in all His dealings with
His children to bring them to a high con-
tempt of and deadly feud with the world.
He withholdeth from them the childish
toys and the earthly delights that He
giveth unto others, but that He may have
all their affections centered upon Himself.
9 Ah, we would have a cross of our own
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A NEW EPISTLE
choosing, and would have our gall and
wormwood sugared, our fire cold, and our
death and grave warmed with the heat of
life; but He who has brought many chil-
dren to glory and lost none is our best
Tutor.
10 Blessed be His name that the wheels
of this confused world are rolled and cogged,
driven according as the wise God willeth.
I rejoice that His sovereignty is lustered
with loving kindness and mercy.
1 1 Rebuke your soul as doth the Psalm-
ist, saying, "Why art thou cast down, O
my soul; why art thou disquieted within
me?"
12 That was the cry of one who was at
the very overgoing of the precipice; but
God held a grip on him.
13 In your tribulations, I entreat you,
cling to the promises; they are our Lord's
branches overhanging the dark waters that
His poor, half-drowned children may grasp
and save themselves from sinking.
14 I rejoice that He hath chosen you in
the furnace. This is an old way of Christ's;
He keepeth the good old fashion with you
that was in Hosea's days, "Therefore,
behold, I will allure her and bring her into
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A NEW EPISTLE
the wilderness and speak to her heart/ '
There was no talking to her heart while He
and she were in the fair and flourishing
city and at ease; but out in the cold,
hungry, waste wilderness there could He
speak unto her so that she might hear and
heed.
15 Even so He brought you into the
wilderness that He might win you unto
Himself.
16 Beloved, sin not in your trials and
the victory is yours. Pray, wrestle, and
believe and ye shall overcome and prevail
with God, as did Jacob. " Rejoice/' says
the apostle, " inasmuch as ye are par-
takers of Christ's sufferings/ '
17 I know that His sackcloth and ashes
are better than the fool's laughter, which
is like "the crackling of thorns under a
pot."
18 Now the very God of peace confirm
and establish you unto the day of the
blessed appearance of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.
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Chapter XXIV
Heaven not easily won. 5 Many are lured
from the path. 10 Small value of earthly
possessions.
GRACE, mercy, and peace be with you.
2 Dearly beloved in the Lord, I
earnestly desire to know the case of your
souls and to understand that ye have made
sure work of heaven and salvation.
3 Remember that it is by siege heaven
is taken, and not by ease and supineness.
The prize is free, but the race is not lightly
won.
4 Many there be who start towards
heaven who fall on their back and win not
up to the top of the mount. It plucketh
heart and legs from them and they sit
down and give it over because the devil
setteth a sweet smelling flower (this vain
world) to their nose, wherewith they are
beguiled and so forget or refuse to go
forward.
5 Many again go far on and reform
many things, and can find tears, as did
Esau; and suffer hunger for truth, as did
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A NEW EPISTLE
Judas; and wish and desire the end of the
righteous, as did Balaam; and profess fair
and fight for the Lord, as did Saul; and
desire the saints of God to pray for them,
as did Pharaoh.
6 Many prophesy and speak of Christ,
as Caiaphas did; and walk softly and
mourn for fear of judgments, as Ahab did;
and put away gross sins and idolatry, as
Jehu did; and hear the Word of God
gladly and reform their life in many
things, as Herod did; and say to Christ,
"Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever
Thou goest," as did the man who offered
to be Christ's servant.
7 And yet all these are but like gold in
outward color and appearance, being within
naught but plated brass and base metal.
8 Take note, then, to try your hearts
that ye be like none of these who, having
gone far, yet fail of the heavenly goal.
9 Brethren, I recommend Christ to you
in all things. Let Him have the flower of
your heart and your love.
10 Set a low price upon all things but
Christ, and cry down in your hearts the
vain possessions of this world that will not
comfort you when ye get summons to re-
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A NEW EPISTLE
move and appear before your God and
your Judge.
11 Remember that when the race is
ended, and the play either won or lost, and
ye are at the utmost circle and border of
time, and shall put your foot within the
march of Eternity, and all the good things
of this short night-dream shall seem to
you like the ashes of a bleeze of thorns or
straw, and your poor soul shall be crying,
u Lodging! lodging, for God's sake!" then
shall your soul be more glad at one of your
Lord's lovely and homely smiles than if
ye had the charters of three worlds for all
eternity.
12 O let pleasures and gain, will and de-
sires of this world be put over into God's
hand as arrested and guarded goods that
ye can not meddle with.
13 Blessed were we if we could make
ourselves master of that invaluable treas-
ure, the love of Christ, or rather suffer our-
selves to be mastered and subdued to
Christ's love so as Christ were our "all
things," and all other things our nothings
and the refuse of our delights.
14 To God, who can direct, quicken, and
strengthen you. I commend you. Amen.
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Chapter XXV
To his parishioners. 3 Protestation of
anxiety for their souls. 9 Delight in his
ministry and in his Lord. 18 Warning
against errors of the day. 22 Woe unto
the hypocrite and the slumber er. 28 In-
tense admiration of Christ. 33 Wise
admonitions.
DEARLY beloved and longed-for in the
Lord, my crown and my joy in the
day of Christ. Grace be unto you and
peace from God the Father, and from our
Lord Jesus Christ.
2 I long exceedingly to know if the tie
betwixt you and Christ holdeth, and if ye
follow on to know the Lord.
3 My day thoughts and my night
thoughts are of you: while ye sleep I am
afraid for your souls that they be off the
Rock.
4 Next to my Lord Jesus and His broken
Church ye have the greatest share of my
sorrow and of my joy; ye are the subject
of my tears and the daily prayers of an
oppressed prisoner of Christ.
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A NEW EPISTLE
5 As I am in bonds for my high and
lofty One, my royal and princely Master,
my Lord Jesus, so I am in bonds for you.
6 For I could have slept in my warm
nest and kept the fat world in my arms;
I could have sung an evangel of ease to
my soul and you for a time with my
brethren, the sons of my mother, that were
angry at me and have thrust me out of
the vineyard.
7 If I could have been broken and
drawn on to mire you, the Lord's flock,
and to cause you to eat at pastures trodden
upon with men's feet, and to drink foul
and muddy waters.
8 But I could not, for the Almighty was
a terror unto me, and His fear made me
afraid. Therefore they drave me out from
among you and made me to dwell, as it
were, in the desert, where I mourn and am
desolate.
9 For next to Christ I had but one joy,
the apple of the eye of my delights — to
preach Christ my Lord; and they have
violently plucked that from me. It was to
me like the poor man's one eye; and they
have put out that eye and quenched my
light in the inheritance of the Lord.
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A NEW EPISTLE
10 But my faith looketh towards my
Redeemer ; I know that I shall see the
salvation of God, and that my hope shall
not always be cut off.
11 I charge you, brethren, beware of
false doctrines that spring up and flourish
about you. The breath of God's anger shall
blow upon them and they shall wither
away. They shall pass as a dream; they
shall vanish utterly.
12 My sorrow shall want nothing to
complete it if ye follow the voice of a
stranger, one that cometh into the fold not
by Christ, the door, but climbeth up
another way.
13 If a man build his hay and stubble
upon the golden foundation, Christ Jesus
(already laid among you), and ye follow
him, be assured that man's work shall not
stand. The fire of God shall utterly con-
sume it, and ye and he both, except ye
repent, shall come under sure condemna-
tion.
14 O if any pain, any sorrow, any loss
I can suffer for Christ and for you were
laid in pledge to buy Christ's love to you!
15 If I could obtain of my Lord, before
whom I stand for you, the salvation of
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A NEW EPISTLE
you all, how rich a prisoner were I! My
witness is above, your heaven would be
two heavens to me, and the salvation of
you all as two salvations.
16 O that I could make you possess the
unspeakable riches of Christ; that I could
set your feet upon the one sure path to
the Kingdom; and that I could lay my
dearest joys, next to Christ my Lord, in
the gap betwixt you and eternal destruc-
tion !
17 Dearly beloved, ye have heard of me
the whole counsel of God. I charge you,
by the blood of Christ, continue still in the
truth which ye have received.
18 Beware of the new and strange
leaven of men's invention now coming
among you, and having no warrant from
Christ, our Captain and our Lawgiver.
I adjure you, open not your hearts to new
doctrines born of the flesh and the lusts of
the flesh that appeal to your softness and
your love of ease.
19 Ye know that this is not your coun-
try; ye are in a rough and alien land that
rejected your dear Lord and would have
naught of Him: and shall the servant be
treated better than his Master?
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A NEW EPISTLE
20 O then take Christ in His rags and
losses, and as persecuted by men, and be
content to sigh and pant up the mountain
with Christ's cross on your back.
21 Woe unto him that hath one God and
one faith for summer, and another God and
another faith for winter; that hath a con-
science for every fair and market, and the
soul of him runneth upon these oiled wheels,
time, custom, the world, and command of
men.
22 Woe unto him that shifteth his bur-
den upon another, that saith, "God forgive
our pastors if they lead us wrong — we
must do as they command,' ' and layeth
down his head upon Time's bosom, and
giveth his conscience to a deputy, and
sleepeth so till the smoke of hell-fire fly up
in his throat and cause him to start out of
his doleful bed. O that such a man would
awake !
23 Woe unto them that slumber, their
souls being drugged with a false sense of
security. All men say they have faith:
as many men and women now, as many
saints in heaven. They had never a sick
night for sin ; conversion came to them in
a dream.
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A NEW EPISTLE
24 Alas! it is neither easy nor ordinary
to believe and to be saved.
25 Many must stand, in the end, at
heaven's gates. (Luke 13:25.) When they
go to take out their faith they take out a
fair nothing, a mockery, an illusion. O
lamentable disappointment! I pray you, I
charge you in the name of Christ, make
fast work of Christ and salvation.
26 I know there are some believers
among you, and I write to you, O poor,
broken-hearted believers, all the comforts
of Christ in the Old and New Testaments
are yours. O what a Father and loving
Savior ye have!
27 Ten thousand worlds, as many worlds
as angels can number, would not be a
grain in the balance to weigh Christ's ex-
cellency, sweetness, and love. His beauty
is above all imaginable and created glory.
28 I would esteem myself blessed if I
could make open proclamation and gather
all the world that are living upon this
earth, Jew and Gentile, and all that shall
be born till the blowing of the last trumpet,
to flock round about Christ and to stand
gazing, wondering, and adoring His beauty
and His sweetness.
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A NEW EPISTLE
29 For His fire is hotter than any other
fire, His love sweeter than common love,
his beauty surpasseth all other beauty.
O if ye would fall in love with my Master,
how blessed were I! How glad would my
soul be to help you to love Him only!
30 But amongst us all how small is the
best of our love against His great deserts!
31 O invite Him and take Him into
your houses in the exercise of prayer morn-
ing and evening, as I often desired you;
especially now let Him not want lodging in
your houses, nor lie in the fields when He
is shut out of pulpits and churches.
32 I pray you, think not that the com-
mon way of serving God, as neighbors and
others do, will bring you to heaven. I
know this world is a forest of thorns in
your path, but ye must go through it.
33 Acquaint yourselves with the Lord;
hold fast Christ; hear His voice only.
34 Bless His name; sanctify and keep
holy His day; keep the new command-
ment, namely, "Love one another ;" let
the Holy Spirit dwell in your bodies, and
be ye clean and holy.
35 Love not the world; lie not, love and
follow truth; learn to know God.
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36 Bear in mind the things I taught
unto you, for God will seek an account
thereof when I am far from you.
37 Abstain from all evil and all appear-
ance of evil; follow good carefully, and
seek peace and follow after it; honor your
king and pray that strength and wisdom
may sit at his right hand.
38 Remember me in your daily supplica-
tions; I can not forget you, my beloved
flock robbed of its shepherd. Ye are in
my thoughts continually.
39 Let us abound in faith and wait
patiently upon Him who knoweth all
things. The prayers and blessings of a
prisoner of Christ, in bonds for Him and
for you, be with you all. Amen.
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Chapter XXVI
This world's vain glory. 6 Heaven a be-
sieged castle to be taken by force. 13
Christ's true servants known by these
signs.
MY witness is in heaven that I would
not exchange my chains and bonds
for Christ, and my sighs, for ten worlds'
glory. I esteem suffering for Him a king's
life.
2 I judge this earthly idol which Adam's
sons are setting up at auction and selling
their souls for not worth a drink of cold
water.
3 May flowers, and morning vapor, and
summer mists post not away so fast as these
worm-eaten pleasures which we follow.
Lo, we build castles of cloud that pass
away, and as night dreams that vanish are
the vain treasures that our hearts desire.
4 O contend for salvation, which is
precious above all the things of earth.
5 I say, Contend, for heaven is not to be
lightly won. There is not a promise of
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heaven made but to such as are willing to
suffer for it.
6 Your Master, even Christ, won heaven
with strokes; it is a besieged castle, it
must be taken with violence.
7 It is a woeful thing to die and miss
heaven, and to lose house-room with
Christ when the night cometh.
8 Alas that all come not home at night
who suppose that they have set their faces
heavenward !
9 I see that ordinary profession, and to
be ranked amongst the children of God,
and to have a name among men, and to
give liberally of one's substance, without
sacrifice, is counted sufficient to carry
professors to heaven.
10 O beware of this delusion ; Christ will
not mistake you, man may!
Ill persuade myself, with sorrow, that
thousands shall be deceived and ashamed
of their hope in that great day; because
they cast their anchor in sinking sands
they must lose it.
12 I entreat you, beloved, give not your
soul or Christ rest, nor your eyes sleep
till ye have gotten something that will
endure the fire and stand out the storm,
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A NEW EPISTLE
13 If ye have these marks, then are ye
Christ's true servants — that ye prize Him
and His truth so as ye will sell all and buy
Him, and suffer for it — that the love of
Christ keepeth you back from sinning
more than the law or fear of hell, that ye
be humble and deny your own will, credit,
ease, honor, the world, and the vanity and
glory of the world.
14 Moreover, your profession must not
be barren and void of good works; ye
must in all things aim at God's honor; ye
must in all your goings and comings, your
dealings and tradings, remember God.
15 Ye must show yourselves without
ceasing an enemy to sin and reprove the
works of darkness, such as drunkenness,
swearing, and lying, albeit those whom ye
reprove should hate you for so doing.
16 By these things shall ye know that
ye are the children of God and not hypo-
crites and sinners.
17 To your Lord Jesus and His love I
commend you. Amen.
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Chapter XXVII
Of self-denial. 4 Our treasure in heaven.
8 Waiting on the Lord.
UNDERSTANDING of the going of
the bearer, I would not omit the op-
portunity of writing to you, still harping
upon that string which can never be too
often touched upon, nor is our lesson ever
well enough learned — that there is a neces-
sity of advancing in the way to the King-
dom of God, of the contempt of the world,
of denying ourselves and bearing our Lord's
cross, which is no less needful for us than
our daily food.
2 And among the many marks that we
are on this journey and under sail towards
heaven, this is one: When the love of God
so filleth our hearts that we forget to love
and care not much for the having or want-
ing of other things, as one extreme heat
burneth out another.
3 By this ye know that ye have be-
trothed your soul in marriage to Christ,
when ye do make small reckoning of all
other suitors or wooers; and when ye can,
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A NEW EPISTLE
having little in hand but much in hope,
live as a young heir in the time of his
minority, being content to be hardly
handled and under as precise a reckoning as
servants, beciause his hope is upon his
inheritance.
4 For this cause God's children take well
to the spoiling of their goods, knowing that
they have in heaven a better and an en-
during substance.
5 That day that the earth and the works
therein shall be burned with fire your hid-
den hope and your life shall appear. And,
therefore, since ye have not now many
years to your endless eternity, what better
course can ye take than to think that your
one foot is here and your other foot in the
life to come, and to leave off loving, desir-
ing, or grieving for the wants that shall be
made up when your Lord and ye shall
meet and when ye shall give in your bill,
that day, of all your wants here.
6 If your losses be not made up, ye have
place to challenge the Almighty; but it
shall not be so.
7 Ye shall then rejoice with joy un-
speakable, and your joy none shall take
from you.
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A NEW EPISTLE
8 It is enough that the Lord hath prom-
ised you great things, only let the time of
bestowing them be in His own carving. It
is not for us to set an hour-glass to the
Creator of time.
9 We will put that in His own will; we
will bide His harvest and wait upon His
term-day.
10 For His day is better than our day;
He putteth not His sickle into the corn till
it be ripe and full-eared.
1 1 The great Angel of the Covenant bear
you company till the trumpet shall sound
and the voice of the Archangel awaken the
dead.
115
Chapter XXVIII
Of faith required. 7 Many would have
Christ divided. 15 The subtlety of sin.
THE faith that God requireth of sinners
is that they rely upon Christ, as de-
spairing of their own righteousness, leaning
wholly and withal humbly, as weary and
laden, upon Christ as on the resting stone
laid in Zion.
2 But He seeketh not that without being
weary of their sin they rely on Christ as
mankind's Savior, for to rely on Christ and
not be weary of sin is presumption, not
faith.
3 Faith is ever neighbor to a contrite
spirit, and it is impossible that faith can
be where there is not a cast-down and
contrite heart in some measure for sin.
4 O beloved, search your hearts and
try if your lusts be dead and sin mortified.
If the world and you are as great friends as
ever you were, I shall not believe that you
are joined with Christ.
5 If ye and the world are hand-fastened
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A NEW EPISTLE
together, that marriage must be divorced,
or else He will not look on that side of the
house that ye are in.
6 Sad it is that Christ getteth but only
broken and halved work of us, and, alas!
too often against the grain. Sanctification
and mortification of our natural desires are
the hardest part of Christianity.
7 How many of us would have Christ
divided into two halves, that we might take
a portion of Him only.
8 We take His office, Friend, and Medi-
ator, but "Lord" is a cumbersome word,
and to obey and work out our own salva-
tion, and to perfect holiness, is the wintry
and stormy north side of Christ and that
which we eschew and shift.
9 I see this, that nature is a sluggard
and loveth not the labor of religion. Can
a man come to heaven lying on his back?
Not so. Paul says, "Let us run the race."
Running shows there is need for haste.
The way is long and we have far to go.
10 Luke admonishes us, "Strive to en-
ter in." That is, Fight and throng in by
force. When God by faith lets a man see
heaven, He resolves that in he must, come
what will.
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A NEW EPISTLE
11 "I press forward towards the mark,"
says the apostle. That is, he ran so that
his head and breast pressed forward before
his feet, and his two arms reached out to
catch hold of Christ.
12 To speak so, he pursues Christ and
heaven, and they seem to flee from him,
and he follows: so should we do.
13 So speed on; the prize seems to flee
from us, but it can not flee further than to
heaven's gates, and there we will get hold
of it.
14 I see this also, that in prosperity
men's consciences will not start at small
sins. In ease lieth danger; luxury and
lust dwell in the same house.
15 Sin lieth ever in wait for us. Some
it tricks out of the way and lays asleep in
security like a drunken traveler who sleeps
in a moor till the sun be down; then he
awakes and is terrified.
16 Alas! that the world hath many who
sell their souls for sin; and what a pitiful
thing, for what can the world give in
exchange for their souls? Be ye not of
these.
17 I recommend to you, brethren, that
ye daily set about to mend your nature,
118
A NEW EPISTLE
to reform your failings, one or the other,
every week; and to put off a sin, or a piece
of it, as anger, wrath, slothfulness, intem-
perance, lying, every day, that ye may the
more easily master the remnant of your
corruption.
18 May God in His mercy help you so
to do!
119
Chapter XXIX
Comforting the saints in their temporary
afflictions. 6 Christ suffered before us.
10 The shallow mirth of the ungodly;
their fleeting joys. 15 Exhortation to re-
joice in the unfailing promises of God.
I ENTREAT you, brethren, be not dis-
couraged nor dismayed under the chas-
tening hand of your God.
2 Strokes of a loving father are not
given in wantonness; take them as evi-
dences of your Heavenly Father's kindness
and care.
3 If ye were not Christ's wheat, ap-
pointed to be bread in His house, He would
not grind you.
4 His most loved are often His most
tried. The lintel-stone and pillars of His
New Jerusalem suffer more knocks of
God's hammer than the common side-wall
stones. They must be carven and shaped
to His divine purpose.
5 Losses and disgraces are the wheels of
Christ's triumphant chariot.
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A NEW EPISTLE
6 The cup of sorrow that ye drink was
at the lip of our Lord Jesus, and He drank
of it. Let the cross be dear to you, for it
was borne by your Redeemer before you.
7 It is one and the same cross, albeit
there be sundry faces and diverse circum-
stances behind the sufferings of Christ and
yours. And the grave, because He did lie
in it, is so much softer and more refreshful
a bed of rest.
8 I see that in the sufferings of His
saints, as He intendeth their good, so He
intendeth His own glory, and that is the
butt His arrows shoot at.
9 The children of this world have much
joy that is ill-gotten; they steal joy, as it
were, from God, for He commandeth them
to weep and howl for the miseries that
shall come upon them.
10 It is no good sport that they laugh
at; the sound of their mirth is the sound
of fever and of raging.
11 But faith may dance because Christ
singe th. None have a right to joy but the
redeemed, for joy is sown for us, and an
ill summer will not spoil the harvest.
12 Let fools laugh the fool's laughter,
and scorn Christ, and bid the weeping cap-
121
A NEW EPISTLE
tives in Babylon, "Sing us one of the songs
of Zion, play a sprightly air to cheer up
your sad-hearted God."
13 We may sing upon luck's head before-
hand, even in our winter storm, in the hope
and expectation of a summer sun at the
turn of the year.
14 For no created power in hell, or out
of hell, can mar the music of our Lord
Jesus, nor spoil our song of joy.
15 Let us then be glad and rejoice in
the salvation of our Lord, for faith had
never yet cause to have wet cheeks and
hanging-down brows, or to droop or die.
16 The only wise God strengthen you
with all might, according to His glorious
power, unto all patience and long-suffering
with joyfulness. Amen.
122
Chapter XXX
Christ's way of showing Himself the best.
8 Our need of humility and faith. 16
Shall we teach the All-wise God? 20 The
believer's course.
GRACE, mercy, and peace be unto you.
I am constrained to write unto you
concerning the mystery of Christ's deal-
ings with us His servants.
2 I find that my Lord cometh not in that
precise way that I mark out for Him; He
hath a way of His own, higher than the
highest above my way or your way.
3 It is best not to offer to teach Him a
lesson, but to give Him absolutely His own
way in coming, going, ebbing, flowing, and
in the manner of His gracious working.
At present I see but little of my dear Lord ;
He hath hidden His face from me.
4 He hath fettered me with His love
and run away and left me a chained man.
5 Woe is me that I was so loose, rash,
vain, and graceless in my unbelieving
thoughts of Christ's love!
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A NEW EPISTLE
6 I had not learned, as I should, to put
my stock and all my treasure into Christ's
hand, but I would have stock and treasure
of my own. I forgot that grace is the only
garland that is worn in heaven upon the
heads of the glorified.
7 And now I half rejoice that I have
sickness of spirit for Christ to work upon.
Since I must have wounds, well it is for my
soul; my wounds cry aloud for the Great
Physician.
8 Brethren, our greatest need here is
humility and faith, for out of faith cometh
patience and out of a chastened spirit per-
fect trust.
9 Faith should be long-headed and not
soon tired, and should lie believing and
praying till the gray hairs.
10 Believers often seek in themselves
what they should seek in Christ. There is
as much need to watch over grace as to
watch over sin.
11 It is best for us, in the obedience of
faith and in holy submission, to give that to
God which the law of His almighty and
just power will have of us.
12 Your Lord willeth you in all states of
life to say, "Thy will be done in earth as it
124
A NEW EPISTLE
is in heaven,' ' and herein shall ye have
comfort, that He who seeth perfectly
through all your evils and knoweth the
frame and constitution of your nature, and
what is most healthful for your soul, hold-
eth every cup of affliction to your lips with
His own gracious hand.
13 Never believe that your tender-
hearted Savior who knoweth the strength
of your being will mix that cup with one
dram-weight of poison.
14 When the Lord's blessed will bloweth
across your desires, do ye strike sail to
Him in humbleness and trust. Christ
hath another sea-compass He saileth by
than our short and raw thoughts; learn
to believe Christ better than His strokes,
Himself and His promises better than His
glooms.
15 We are prone to grieve that the
Lord lingereth, enemies triumph, goodly
ones suffer, atheists blaspheme.
16 Ah, we pray not, but wonder that
Christ cometh not the higher way — by
might, by power, by garments rolled in
blood. What if He come the lower way?
Sure we sin in putting the book in His
hand. Shall we teach the Almighty knowl-
125
A NEW EPISTLE
edge? Shall we lay out the courses of the
Omnipotent?
17 We make haste; we believe not.
Let the wise God alone; He steereth well.
18 He draweth straight lines, though we
think and say they are crooked.
19 It is right that some should die and
their breasts full of milk; and yet we are
angry that God dealeth so with them. O
that we could adore Him in all His hidden
ways, when there is darkness under His
feet and darkness in His pavilion, and
black clouds are about His throne!
20 Beloved, hoping, believing, patient
praying is our life. He loseth no time.
21 Let us charge our souls to believe and
to wait for Him, and to follow His Provi-
dence, and not go before nor stay behind it.
22 The Lord Jesus be with you and di-
rect you, and minister unto the needs of
your souls. Pray for your servant that he
may be patient in his bonds.
126
Chapter XXXI
The devil a deceitful merchant. 13 A good
conscience is like a glass. 21 He warns
against covetousness.
BLESSED are they who are weaned
from the love of the world.
2 Alas, how many Esaus there be in the
world who sell their heavenly inheritance
for a mess of pottage!
3 The devil is a deceitful merchant; he
causeth us to buy sin before we see our
merchandise.
4 Pleasure is the devil's common bait
that he puts upon all his hooks.
5 Woe is me that the holy profession of
Christ is made a stage garment by many
to bring home a vain fame, and that Christ
is made to serve men's ends. This is, as
it were, to stop an oven with a king's robes.
6 Woe is me that we run our souls out
of breath and tire them in coursing and
galloping after our night dreams to get
some created good thing in this life and on
this side of death.
127
A NEW EPISTLE
7 We would fain stay and spin out a
heaven to ourselves on this side of the
water; but sorrow, want, change, crosses,
and sin are both the woof and the warp in
that ill-spun web.
8 Bind a ship to a rush-bush to hold her
by; that is but a slim anchor — it can not
hold her when she begins to be moved.
9 He who thinks he has little need of
Christ is ready to fall.
10 He who loveth his chains deserve th
chains.
11 Beloved, regard your conscience. See
that ye keep it void of offense toward God
and man.
12 Conscience is like an earthen vessel
when ye break it — ye will not mend it again.
13 That which is called a good conscience
is like a glass wherein a man may see his
face. Whereas the wicked have a con-
science like a foul, muddy fountain, where
the bottom can not be seen.
14 Nay, he dare not in a heavy tempta-
tion, or in death, go into his conscience;
his thefts, his covetousness, his backbit-
ings, and wrongs done to this man and to
that man are such nauseous things he dare
not stir them up lest they cause him to
vomit. 128
A NEW EPISTLE
15 Woe is me to see so many men land-
masters of their consciences: as if their
conscience was so great that they might
sell part of it in fairs and markets to the
highest bidder.
16 Some count little of their conscience;
they will take an edge thereoff to augment
their house.
17 Another will dispense with a part of
it to enlarge his possessions.
18 Yet another will yield up half his
conscience to enhance his credit.
19 Many pay little respect to their con-
science in buying and selling, if they can
get gain. The merchant wastes his con-
science; for, before he quit an inch of his
credit, he would rather quit an ell of his
conscience.
20 The proud man wastes his conscience
to carry on his pride.
21 O beware of the devil's and the
world's hammer of covetousness lest it
light on your conscience and break it all
to pieces. Keep your conscience sound
and pure, for a sound, clear conscience in a
dying hour will give more satisfaction than
all this world can afford.
22 To the only wise God be praise.
Amen. 129
J
OCT 11 1913
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