תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

to me, and of his coming one evening to Mr. Jenkins's door where I was, but his heart failed him; fo he returned and went home. Afterwards of his getting more of my writings, which encouraged him to hope, and of his coming up to Paddington to fee and hear me; and of the Lord's bleffing the reading of one of my pamphlets to him; and of God's fhining into his heart (2 Cor. iv. 6) in one of the meadows at Gaffons; at which time he kindly invited me to preach in his barn at Bolney; which I believe to be now about nine or ten years ago. From that night I found a heartfelt union with him, and was fully perfuaded that he was fixed upon the foundation which God has laid in Zion. Isaiah xxviii. 16. Nor did that union ever diffolve, nor did I ever once doubt after that of the goodness of his state. He always ftiled and acknowledged me his father in Chrift. My coal-fack was no bar to his acknowledgment of this relationship: and, as he acknowledged me in part (2 Cor. i. 13, 14), fo he acknowledged to the end; that the Gospel of Christ will do to die by as well as to live by, and give poffeffion as well as profeffion.

Faith is the fubftance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not feen. Heb. xi. 1. Faith, in its different exercifes, brings into the foul every needful grace from the Saviour's fulness; and the graces of the Spirit are called the first fruits.

Rom,

Rom. viii. 23. And the first fruits of the Spirit of grace are an earnest of the harvest of glory. Ephef. i. 14. It differs nothing in quality, but in quantity. Nor is there any one bleffing promifed, or one promise either of grace here or glory hereafter, but what faith embraces and hope expects. Hence the many confident claims, pofitive affertions, and firm expectations, left upon record by those who through faith and patience now inherit the promises. Heb. vi, 12. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.. Pf. lxxiii. 24. The elders which are among you I exhort, who alfo am an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and alfo a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. 1 Pet. v. 1. Lord, now lettest thou thy fervant depart in peace, according to thy word, for mine eyes bave feen thy falvation Luke ii. 29, 30. O that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book; that they were graven with an iron pen and laid in the rock for ever! Fur I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall ftand in the latter day upon the earth. And, though after my skin worms deftroy this body, yet in my flefb fball I fee God; whom I shall fee for myself, and mine eyes fhall behold, and not another. Job xxix. 22, 25. And the Apostle Paul alfo-For I am now ready to be offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I bave finished my course; I have kept the faith: bencefarth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,

[merged small][ocr errors]

which the Lord, the righteous judge, fhall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. 2 Tim. iv. 6, 8. You fee, by thefe few quotations how their faith grew and their hope abounded. They trod They trod upon the heels of the promifes, embraced with faith and affection what God promised to them, and called the glories of heaven their own before they received the inheri

tance.

On Tuesday laft, the 11th of December, I fet off from London early, and was at Crawley foon after nine o'clock, where I ftopped to change horfes; and, upon asking the waiter if any of their postlads knew the way to Bolney, he replied, "Yes; you are going to Mr. Blaker's. He is dead." I replied, "Dead!" "Yes," faid he, " he died yesterday; the doctor of this parish attended "him." Being but poorly, and the cross-country roads not paffable by carriage, I immediately returned, and breakfasted at Ryegate.

[ocr errors]

You never informed me, 'in any one of your letters, that your father expreffed any desire to see me, nor was he, in the whole courfe of his illness, under any fharp foul-exercifes, which require the elders of the church to pray over him, and to anoint him with fresh oil in the name of the Lord. James V. 14. The Almighty anointed him himself, and gave him according to his own promife, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the Spirit

Spirit of heaviness. Ifai. Ixi. 3. I gueffed that your defire of my coming was in hopes that the united prayers of many might prevail with God to spare him a little longer; but I had early intimation that this would not be granted, and against faith and confcience none can prevail. It was not fo with me when your mother was fo ill as to be given over by the doctor for three months.. I told you and your fifter both, before I fet out for Bolney, that I believed God would do more for her in anfwer to prayer, than by all the medicine she had taken; and you faw the truth of this in less than three days, and she is still alive. What faith credits, hope expects, and the promises of God are sure to both. There is not one of you that have any just ground to conclude that an eternal feparation has now taken place between you and your father. The unity of faith, meeting and centering in Christ, makes us all one in him. The bond of peace is one in God's family, whether above or below. Love, which is the bond of all perfectness, is neither broken nor diffolved by death. It goes from God the Father, by the Holy Spirit, through Chrift to all the family, and through the whole family itself, whether in grace or in glory. And for this Chrift prayed.Neither pray I for thefe alone, but for them also which fball believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as thou Father art in me, and I in thee; that they alfo may be one in us. John xvii. 21. Some di

vine graces will not be exercised or wanted in the world to come; as faith, which will not be wanted when we fee as we are feen. Hope, when in full poffeffion, we shall not want; for what a man feeth, why doth be yet hope for? Rom. viii, 24. Patience, meeknefs, contrition, godly forrow, and repentance; thefe will not be wanted nor exercised in the world to come. But light, life, love, peace, rest, joy, and humility, will abide with us, and pafs with us into the other world. Humility is afcribed to God himself (Pfal. cxiii. 6.) and will be found and exercifed by all the faints in heaven, as may be feen by their disclaiming any one good work done by them, even in a glorified state. Lord, when faw we thee an bungry and fed thee, or thirsty and gave thee drink? &c. Matt. xxv. 37. Seeing these bonds are not diffolved by death, it is to us an evident token of meeting again in Chrift; for all are one among themselves, and all are one in Chrift the head. The fame faith that dwelt in your father dwells also in you, and in the rest of the family. I have never yet feen a family, as far as I am able to judge, fo highly favored of God as yours. I will, fays God, take you one of a city, and two of a family, or tribe, and I will bring you to Zion. Jer. iii. 14. But to take a whole family is going out of his ufual way. You are not deftitute nor ignorant of the life and power of Godliness. You have confeffed many experiences of it; you have feen it in your father;

and

« הקודםהמשך »