your trial, fo you are ftill to be eying him in his prophetical office for light to give you just views of it. I fee our Lord, the great prophet, has come to you already in your darkness. I perceive the Interpreter, one among a thoufand, was with you in a particular manner on Monday Feb. 20. He was in these two hours exercifing his prophetical office in you. He was letting you fee your trial in its juft colours, not putting colours on it; for he is the Amen, the faithful and true witness; and therefore, though it do not always appear in these colours to you, that is the native hue of it, and the fault is in your eyes when it appears otherwise. He was taking you by the arms, and teaching you to go; and that you will employ him for his light, as well as his ftrength, in time to come; that if he comes not to you, you will go to him; and if a promise be not laid to your hand, you will go out and fetch in one : and welcome. The bleffed Bible is a richly-loaden tree of that kind of fruit. Sometimes his people has no more ado, but to take of the fruit falling into their lap; but that is only a piece of indulgence that they fometimes meet with; the ordinary way is to look up to the tree, and reach out the hand of faith, perhaps, with no little difficulty, and pluck the fruit ; and O but a sharp trial makes the promise sweet! Witness your experience of the two laft verfes of Pfal. cxxxiii.. Sir, you are in a plunge; but, I make no question, he that fits at the Father's right hand, having all judgement committed to him, will bring you out of it; and the day will come, when you will fay from leifurely obfervation, He hath done all things well. Yea, Sir, look for feeing God's wonders in the deeps, and he will not difappoint you. However, if you were through this trial, you will not be at the end of trials, leffer or greater, till you be in the better country; only this is a deep ftep, a deep water; but the Lord Jefus is the lifter up of mine head', you muft fay with David, Pfal. iii. That pfalm has appeared of late to me, to bear an inftance of as ftrong a faith as readily appears in the whole book of Pfalms, confidering its firmness, and the circumstances there defcribed: only it must be owned, the terror of God on his foul, with which nothing is to be laid in the balance, was indeed wanting in it. But O how piercing was that, that the common faying on that melancholy occafion was, There is no help in God for him,' (fay the Jews) who ftole the ewe and killed the fhepherd (Bathfheba and Uriah) ! the very thing God was pursuing him for. I was fo affected with your friend's manner of entertaining your trial, that I was obliged to give God thanks for it; and fince that time, my heart bleffes that perfon as acting like a Chriftian; and doubt not, but if that mind continue, as I hope it will, it will have a plentiful reward of free grace: but will own myself quite miftaken, if ever the change on that head prove a gainful one at balancing balancing accounts. The news of Mr Archibald Stewart's death and burial was ftunning. It is an awful difpenfation of a wrathful aspect to this generation. Oh! what does it speak, that fuch a promifing inftrument is laid afide at this time a-day. But the Lord's ways are not ours, nor his thoughts as our thoughts. We must be filent to him. That the state of your own affairs did not keep you from proceeding in mine, is a rare token of a rare kind of friendship. It will not be unacceptable to me to hear of the matter's being determined, with the joint advice of Mr W. and yourself, without hearing further from me. My infirmity increases apace. The leg, ftill painful, is now almost useless; so that I know not if I get down ftairs again, without being carried, till I be provided with two lilts. My wife, I hear, is fomewhat feverish to-day. The prefence of him who dwelt in the bush while it burned, be with you! I am, in the straiteft bonds, my V. D. Sir, yours affectionately, &c. (23) My V. D. Sir, March 23. 1732. The ufe of the providential diftrefs in your affairs, and its influence relative to your other business, I doubt not, you will fee in due time to be an event, both in the kind of it, and the timing of it, becoming the divine wisdom and goodness, and that God acts like himself. Efau and his pofterity, who had their lot by common Providence, were foon and eafily fettled in the land of Edom; but Jacob and his, whofe lot to be brought about in the way of accomplishing of a promise of the covenant, met with many rubs in their way, and fome of them fuch as feemed to render it quite hopelefs. Your prefent circumstances puts you in much need of direction from the Lord, as you remark. But, dear Sir, is it not a great privilege to be allowed to come to the great Counsellor in all our ftraits? and you may go to him with your greater and your smaller matters; for all is comprehended in the word Prov. iii. 6.; both the precept and promise takes in all. You are neither to look for impreffions, nor any thing elfe of that kind, whatever indulgence the Lord makes to fome of his people in fome circumftances: but lay you the matter before the Lord, and yourself open to the divine determination, and believe the promise of direction, with application to your own cafe, firmly trusting that he will be as good as his word, Prov. iii. 6. Pfalms xxv. 9. and xxxii. 8. to you: and then, depending on the promife of Heaven's directions, fet yourfelf as a Chriftian man to perceive what in the circumstances appears reafonable to be done; to the clearing whereof, obfervation of concurring difpenfations of Providence notably contributes, that being in many cafes the finger of God pointing out our way. In this way of management, there is a real communion with God God to be had in providences as in ordinances, Pfal. cvii. ult. You have here my whole day's work. I am at my ne plus ultra, my diftrefs being confiderable, whereof there is fome account in the inclofed. The eternal God be your refuge; and underneath the everlasting arms, may he be eyes, and all to you in the wilderness! Kindly remembering your fon, I am, in the ftraiteft bonds, V. D. Sir, yours moft affectionately, &c. P. S. I have got Mr Du Pont's letter. I am forry Prof. Mauritius had not vouchfafed a few lines to me for the many fheets I fent him. The Lord has for my trial restrained him, and I take it kindly off that hand; but I keep foot in the main under the several pieces of that treatment: Quam fi dura filex aut ftet cautes. No 17. Letter from the Author to the Reverend Mr James Hogg minifter of the gospel at Carnock. Nov. 24. 1727. R. and V. D. Sir, YOURS of the 22d September came to my hand Oct. 28. and I have taken this very first occafion to make you a return, that E may fhew the cordial fympathy I have with you in your afflicted lot, and may not put you to a tirefome waiting for any thing that can come from me to you, from whom I would rather hear, than speak to in fuch matters. I could not but think, that the very writing of your letter to me, behoved, through the divine bleffing accompanying it, to be of ufe to you in your affliction for your comfort. Sure I am it was an apt mean; though the most fit means can of themfelves effect nothing, but only as they are blown upon by the Spirit, and fo rendered effectual to their ends. The account you give of the fituation of matters with you with respect to the way, as it has a comfortable diftinctnefs in it, without any thing of the confufion you fpeak of difcernible to me; fo it carries fuch an agreeablenefs to the way-marks fet up by the Spirit, the leader in the way, to be feen ftanding for the direction of travellers in the fcripture of truth, that you have ground from, the word to take the comfort of your being in the way in fpite of hell, and confequently of your coming afluredly to the end of the journey in a happy fort, fince the great leader drops none by the way, but perfects what he has begun, and never leaves nor forfakes the work of his own hands, nor thofe in whom it is wrought. I think I need not infift to add to what you have advanced from the fcripture on that head. What pincheth you, feems to be the blowing of the wind in your face, particularly the rifing of forms and tempells upon you, fo that fometimes you lofe fight, are blown afide, yea, blown down and foundered. But, D. Sir, if you were beyond thele, you would not be a traveller, but one got home from your travels; you would not be in, or by the way, but come to the end of it. It is the glory of the man who is the Father's fellow, to be "an hi ding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempeft,' If. xxxii. 2. to be a ftrength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, when the blast of the terrible ones is a ftorm against the wall. When should that glory of his be, if thefe tempefts and storms did not rife, if the terrible ones did not get leave to blow fometimes furioufly, like a storm against the wall? If then our Lord Jefus, whofe ftrength is made perfect in weakness, fees meet to take away your eafe for a time, to make of it a stepping-stone to his own glory, where you hear the Lord hath need of it, you will ftraightway fend it. I verily think, that when a poor believer is engaged in a combat with the powers of darkness, our Lord Jefus has an occafion of fignalizing his victory over the bruifed ferpent next to that which he had on the crofs. It is true, that staggering, even on that place, is to be lamented as a finful weaknels; but, I think, all the travellers and combatants will be found to have been ftaggerers through ftrefs, though that gives them not their denomination from their believing. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, yet we hear very much of his impatience too. Peter remained with an unfailing faith when he was fifted, yet he was fhamefully foundered. Even Abraham, though in that inftance, Rom. iv. he ftaggered not; yet in another cafe he did, Gen. xii. 11. and downwards and in that fame inftance Sarah, who was a type of the church, as Abraham was of Chrift, ftaggered'; and fell foully, but recovered, Gen. xviii. In this laft faith had but one fingle word, "My lord," and unbelief had all the rest of the fpeech; and yet the Spirit of God makes honourable mention of that one word in the New Testament, Peter iii. 6.; drawing a vail over the reft. I own that temptations within, and troubles from without, trysting together, make a very heavy cafe; yet it is fcriptural too, that without be fightings, and within be fears. You have been particularly honoured of God to contend for the faith; and it is no wonder Satan's malice prompt him to difpute it with you immediately and the wisdom of the God of truth appears in permitting it to be fo, to teach dependence on himself in managing the contending otherwife. The ftrong champion of truth, Luther, found himself hardly bestead in the feveral conflicts within his own breaft. I defire to maintain a cordial fympathy with you in all your trials; being yours very affectionately. : No 18. A letter from an eminent Dissenting Minister in Essex, to [As this letter contains a minute and circumftantial narrative My very dear Sir, March 26. 1776. SINCE the receipt of your laft, I have been thinking of The Moderator, who was himself a very folemn grave man, ⚫ now |