תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

with the rod, and our iniquities with fcourges, as he fays he will do; he turns us loose on the barren mountains of Sinai, he exercises us with legal bondage again. This ftirs up every inbred corruption, which aftonifhes us; this convinces us of the need of diligence and watchfulnefs, and that we have not much to be proud of, feeing the root of every fin is fill in us, though guilt is purged and fin is fubdued by grace. And here our beloved withdraws himself, and is gone. He is not to be found at Horeb, but at Zion. From this mount we get nothing but barrennefs, drynefs, and deadnefs of foul. Thefe things falling upon us, bring us to rue our pride, fecurity, lightness, and folly; and, though we come no more under the curfe, nor under vindictive wrath nor unpardoned guilt, yet it is a grievous yoke to an heavenborn foul, and not a little mortifying to one of the spouse's dignity. Bitter reflections, cruel jealoufies, and humbling mortifications, attend this purging rod. And it is very debafing to appear with the yoke of a flave, and a fallen countenance, like a thief, before the more meek and lowly foul; as it is written "Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women! My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of fpices." He was gone down to them that were more meek and lowly. But when we are humbled the Father leads us back again to the enjoyment of Chrift Jefus, who is God's falvation to the ends of the

earth;

earth; and we are again influenced by a spirit of love, of power, and of a found mind; and now we are all tenderness, care, and circumfpection, fimplicity, meeknefs, and gratitude. But, alas! this foon wears off again, and then another purging comes upon the fruitful branch; and, after that is over, sweet union is felt again, and we feel our abiding in him; and do, by thefe means, bring forth fruit: and thus "we go in and out, and find pasture." This, my dear fifter, is the purging hand that thou art now under. Thou art, for the third time, under the all-wife management of the great husbandman; and he is puzzling and confounding thy wifdom, and taking off fome of thy luxurious branches, and cafting down fome of thy high-reafonings and contentions, which exalt themselves against the knowledge of him. And now for the spouse's request in the Song. Know thou that, when God fhook the house where the apoftles were affembled, together with the rufhing of a mighty wind, and filled them all with the holy Comforter, under which influence they went forth and wrought, and the Lord worked by them, confirming their word with figns, that then was fulfilled this prophecy, " And the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and fhall go forth with whirlwinds of the fouth," Zech. ix. 14. Thus is the spirit of love called the fouth wind; wind being a known emblem of the Holy Ghoft. Read Isaiah, chap. xl. Whereas

L

Whereas the wrath of God in the law, which ftirs up our enmity, is the fpirit of bondage to fear; and, as it brings a cold chill on our love, and much fear and trembling, it is therefore called the north wind. Hence Solomon, knowing that bondage always precedes liberty, the one bring. ing grief and the other joy, fays, "In the day of profperity be joyful, and in the day of adverfity confider; for God hath fet the one against the other." Profperity is the time when our Lord embraces us; but our adverfity is the time when the Lord refrains from embracing. Hence Solomon represents the fpoufe as being diffatisfied with her carnal eafe, and dead, indifferent ftate; and that, to fuch a hungry foul, the bitterness of legal bondage would be fweeter than fuch a dead frame. He fets forth the fpoufe as praying thus: “Awake, O north wind, and come, thou fouth; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out;" knowing that there would be no divine embraces till humbling trials had taken place. In this way is the believer purged. Take notice further, that, as fome fouls are called fervants, and are under the law, in bondage to it, and ftrangers to grace; fo gracious fouls, though often humbled, and exercifed with the bondage of the law, are still under grace: the former being a corrupt tree in its natural ftate, and the other a good tree, purged, and made good by the grace of God. Solomon reprefents death as a

woodcutter,

woodcutter, cutting both down, and both falling under their own proper influence; or as bending under that wind that blows upon them: "Whether the tree falls toward the north, or toward the fouth, in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be." No change fhall be made in the foul after death. The former dies in self and selfrighteousness, looking to the law; the latter dies in faith, looking to Jefus: and fo fhall each appear in the great day. Let my fifter, therefore, kifs the chaftening rod, and confider that she procures it to herself, and God appoints it for her good, and it is intended to make the spouse fruitful. But not fo the fervant, who is in a falfe profeffion; who, without being dead to the law, or divorced from it, yet claims Chrift the fecond hufband before the first be dead. These are otherwife dealt with; and fo it follows: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away;" as he did Judas. And to fuch, and only fuch, in the most dreadful fense, is that awful text applicable, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God;" as every fruitless branch doth, which God the Father takes away from Chrift, and from his church. These foon wither, and foon burn. If any thing in this fcrawl is encouraging, comforting, or establishing, receive it as one espoused to the Lamb of God; for "all things are yours; whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas, or Chrift, or life, or death, or things prefent,

L 2

prefent, or things to come; all are yours;" and, among the reft, in the indiffoluble bond of the everlasting covenant, I fubfcribe myself, in the Covenant Head, and for his fake,

Devotedly yours,

The Defert.

NOCTUA AURITA.

LETTER XXIX.

To NOCTUA AURITA, of the Defert.

I HAVE received fafe your very va

luable epistle, and I thank you kindly for the fame. I was fomewhat surprised at your writing a letter to me on that fubject at that time. I will give you a little account how it has been with me fince I wrote to you laft.

The day after I wrote you the letter, which you know informed you that I was lying at anchor, wind bound, an unexpected breeze fprung up. I did expect the fouth wind, but, alas! it was the

north

« הקודםהמשך »