Section 9

tendenc :
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tendency which God gives to a heart loving him is fmplicity and liltlenefs. He is not truly ho- noured but by children, and they only render him per jell p^aije. I am very glad that you have an : inclination for littlenefs.
When {hall we be fo little as not to perceive ourfelves, nor be remarkable to others ; when fhall we be all infan- tine ! I own to you, that all that is great in religion, does not fuit me ; ah ! but the infancy gives me great plea- fure. I never think, rnyfelf well but with thofe that are, or are willing to become, chil- dren.
I pray, God may be all things to you, and that he aimfelf, and not his gifts, may 3e your ftrength and your fup- O2 port;
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port ; believe me in him truely your’s : defiring with all my
heart, that we may be united m him, for time and eternity.
July 24, 17 44-
LETTERS. 1-6 1
Two LETTERS,
CONCERNING
A Life truly Chriftian.
a ii d,
Al Difcourfe upon the univerfal love and goodnefs of God to man- kind, in and through Tefus Chrift.
Extra&ed from two late Authors.
LETTER I.
Concerning a Life trvly Chriftian.
[F we read th& holy fcriptures, and if the holy fpirit gives us the nderftanding of what we read, O 3 we
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we fhall find that God defires no- thing fo much, as to communicate himfelf to men, to dwell in them as in his true temple, and to have (humanly fpeaking) as familiar an intercourfe with them, nay, with greater intimacy and confidence than a hufband hath with his fpoufe whom he loves tenderly, and wit whom he fhares his heart, and the! goods he poffeffes. This the hoi fcriptures are full of, efpecially the writings of St. John, and the Son{ oj Songs i — Wifdorn delights to be, op to abide, with the children oj men Prov. viii. 31. ’Tis therefore sj treafure, and an honour we ouglr to afpire after, to become experi mentally acquainted wjth the mo narch of the univerfe, our gooc God, who is love itfelf. It is ir and by an intimate commerce with our God and Saviour Jefu Ohrift, that we acquire thole in
clination
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I clinations, and learn to love and praftife quite naturally, and with- out labour, what he loved and pra&ifed : who from an excefs of love for us, alfumed the human nature ; not to enjoy its gratifica- tions and pleafures, its honours, riches, and grandeur in this world; but to be defpifed, to live in po- » verty, to lead a fuffering and hid- den life, and at laft to die on the crofs, filled with ignominy and the bittereft pains, and all this out of 1 love for us : we mult then, from 1 a reciprocal love, follow a God who hath fo much love for us. — It is in 1 and by an intimate commerce with him, that we are made partakers of the divine nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. that we put off the old man, ouy old in- ' clinations, and earthly and carnal affeftions ; and that we require the grace to become citizens of hea- ven, even in this world. Phil. iii.
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20.**— But a great many fouls that defire to love and ferve God, give themfeltfes much trouble, labour hard and long, without advancing, for want of taking the right road to arrive thereat.-^The place where we may find our Lord Jefus Chrift (who is the light or gift of God to every man*) is our own heart. The kingdom of God, where he dwelleth, is within us, fays, Je- fus Chrift. (Luke 17.) This is the place where we may infallibly meet this faithful friend and guide : it is no where elfe. “ O ! how are “ numbers of fouls to be pitied, I “ who from the beginning of theirj “ life to the end, make not one “ ftep in the way of the fpirit ;
“ feeklng God without, when they “ have him within themfelves.
£{ —St. Auftin complained of this, ' s! with refpeft to himfelf. Lord I
“ went
John i. 9.
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“ went wandering like a Jlrayed Jheep, i “ feeking thee with anxious reafoning “ ‘without, whiljl thou wajl within me ; ‘•I wearied myf elf much in looking for
!“ thee without, and yet thou haji thy habitation within me, if 1 long and “ breath after thee. I went round the “ Jlreets and places of the city of this “ world, feeking thee : and found thee “ not ; becaufe in vain 1 fought with. “ out for him, who was within myfelf” (Solilogy, chap. 31.)
The way or means to find Chrijl in us, (Col. i. 2 7.) is the prayer of the heart : for this is a capital truth, CHRIST IN US. AND HIS MANIFESTATION IN US, IS THE BASIS OFCHRISTI ANI-
9TY, It is known only to thofe who are fo happy as to experience it, that this truth is as real as it is unknown :o thofe who do not experience it, ivho know God and religion, and ill divine things, only by the way
of
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. Henct tile rea
fruit among Chriftians, who never thelefs know very Well how to fpcal and reafon about religious matters! and have a great deal of know}! I ledge. This comes from their no having learned to love, with buy which all the reft is but a vain fci ' j ence. You may fay perhaps, Bu how does one learn to love God — It is my greateft trouble that j do not love him enough. I anfwe, however, that prayer is the pro pereft means : But by the won prayer, little elfe is underftcod b molt people, but vocal prayer, o l the words that we addrefs to God i — I think it neceffary to explaii this matter a little. Our Lord tell! us, that we ought to pray always (Luk xviii. i.) and St. Paul fays pra\ without ceafmg (i Theft, v. 17.) ant alfo in another place, that we knot1
of reafoningand fpeculation it comes that we fee fo li
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lot what to pray for as we ought, but he/pirit it/elj maketh interce/pon Jor s with groans that cannot be uttered, lorn. viii. 26. Our Lord fays* I/e not many words, as the Heathens \o, who think they Jkall be heard Jor heir much /peaking. (Mat. vi. 7.) Fhefe inftru&ions, to pray without eajing, and not to ufe many words in .ur prayers, would contradift each ther, if prayer confided only of rords, either by form, or even ex- ;mpore only ; which could not e performed continually or without °.a/ing. — Prayer then, muft be fome ther thing, if it can or ought to e continual-, and that which we 1, ave juft fpoke of, (which is very ood, provided it is ufed with mo- eration) is but one kind of prayer.
take it then that prayer in itfelf t an inclination of the heart to- wards him, who is the objeft we iefire to love. It is an a£lion of
the
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the heart, which is altogether na- tural to man ; for it is natural to the heart to love, and to -incline towards the object of its love. We love inceffantly; and though we;j lay hold on different objefrs on which we beftow our love, fonie- times on one, and fometimes on another, and moft commonly on ourfelves, who are our. principal end, and to which we would refer; every other thing ; yet we alwayt j love, apd experience by our in- conftancy, and by the little fatis! faction we find in the objefts we choofe, that our hearts want to bejj filled with fomething more excel- lent than all the creatures together, and that it is God alone in whom this fulnefs and fatisfa&ion are tc be found. — Therefore in order tc pray aright, one needs only turn away his heart from all the crea- tures and himfelf, and bend it to
wacd,'|
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wards God ; and this fweet exer- cife may be performed continually, and without labour. There is none neceffary in order to remain quiet in the prefence of a friend in whom we perfectly confide ; now and then we fpeak to him, then we are fi- lent ; afterwards we look at him,
Iand with gladnefs and fatisfa&ion enjoy his prefence, we poffefs him, and it is fatisfa&ion enough to us to know that he is prefent. Let us thus behave towards God ; though our fenfes do neither fee nor comprehend him, we know that he is always prefent, filling all things; but after a particular man- ner, he is in the hearts of all thofe to whom he has already given the grace to defire to love him. This grace, if but very weak and im- perfeft, is from him, and is his ope- ration, and none of ours, whocrc l not able of ourfelves to have one good r thought. Let us be perfuaded that P God
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God is more nearer to us than we are to ourfelves. Let us accuftom ourfelves to do all our actions in his pr^fence, and for the love of him. Let us offer up to him with an inward glance of our foul, all that we do, think and fpeak. Thus fhall we accuftom ourfelves by de- 1 grees to walk in his prefence. More- over let usufe the means which by experience we find to be mod ef- ficacious for recalling the remem- brance of God, and awakening his love in our hearts. And as foon as we perceive a forgetfulnefs ol God, let us return to him inward- ly and calmly, without troubling or difquieting ourfelves. Whe^ we commit faults, let us have re courfe immediately to him ; le neither fear nor fhame hinder u from prefenting ourfelves befori him, how filthy and' impure foeve we feel ourfelves to 'be* Let u
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ufe fuch reading as may draw us to him : the holy fcripture is the book of books : there are others which may be a great help : we are fenfi- ble enough of thofe which inflame the heart and nourifli it, which is always preferable to what fills the mind with images and ideas, which often confume the heart inftead of feeding it. By this procedure we form a commerce in our inward man with God, which by degrees becomes continual, by frequently addreffing him with the mouth or in fpirit, fome little word, and lay- ing open before him with confi- dence our prefent difpofition and ftate, as to a mod faithful friend, either by a fingle figh, or barely looking up to him. — If we apply ourfelves to this holy exercife of walking and living in his prefence, of fpeaking to him rather with the heart than the mouth, though vocal P 2 prayer
i72
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prayer is very commendable too at certain times, when we find it Juits our prefent fate : if we do this, we fli all foon find a great change in
ourfelves ; that the love of God lhall take poffeffion of our hearts, and difengage us more and more from ourfelves and the creatures. The whole bufinefs confifts in turn- ing away, the molt we can, our thoughts, from every thing that is not God ; employing ourfelves quietly and calmly with God pre- lent, without pretending to form diftinft ideas of him. Thus fhall we be made capable, and difpofed to receive a thoufand graces and favours from him. This attention does not confift in expe&ing to hearfome extraordinary voice with our bodily ears. — God does not fpeak after that manner, his lan- guage is to the heart.-— The change of inclinatio ns defires and affec-
tions,
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tions, which we experience by de~ grees, from earthly and carnal, to become more and more heavenly and divine, is the language of Chrift in us : he creates and operates what 1 he fpeaks, all at the fame time ;
I we do not hear his voice with our ears, but we experience the effedts of it. — He lo vesfilence, retirement , and recollection. In this difpofition he makes himfelf manifeft to, and felt by the heart, in a manner in- comprehenfible to human reafon. There he teaches us inwardly, in fo real and efficacious a manner, that when we experience it, we perceive that all the voices that (trike our fenfes outwardly, however good, have not the efficacy, the reality of what we experience within us. ! Therefore it is that our Lord faith, Matt. 23. One is your teacher. It is becaufe his voice alone is able to operate in us what he teaches us.
P3 It
i74 LETTERS.
It may be objeQed, if fo it be that the voice of God, or what they would have us to believe to be fuch, is not a voice which one hears with his bodily ears, why do they fo earneftly recommend fi- lence, retirement, recollection, and to avoid the diftra&ions of the mind ? What matters it what the fenfes be employed about? I anfwer, that though the voice of God to the foul, doth not with its found (trike the fenfes, yet it requires recollec- I tion, and avoiding diftraftions, if it is to operate with efficacy in our hearts ; becaufe the diftrafctions and diffipation of the fenfes among various objefts, are the very things which draw away the will and the love, and beget an attachment to thofe objects which the fenfes pre- fent to us ; they are the windows of the foul, and the gates by which the creatures enter into it. There- fore*
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fore, as foon as the foul has a delire of being converted to God, and of loving him with all its pow- ers ; it feels within itfelf an inclina- tion and bias to retirement, in order to turn itfelf freely, and without interruption towards its God ; and to follow the good motions he vouchfafes, and what the confci- ence diftates to be the things that draw it to him, and difengage it from the creatures :• thefe are the effe&s of what he operates or fpeaks in the bottom of the heart : his lan- guage is conformable to his fpiritual 1 nature, and makes itfelf to be un- 1 derftood by our fpirit, which is alfo 1 af the fame nature ; —God is fpirit »
1 ind the true worfhippers worjhip him n fpirit, John 3. The more we idvance in the ways of God, and ollow the good motions of his fpi- it in our hearts, the more is this natter unfolded, and the hiddenman
of
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of the heart, (1 Pet. iii. 4.) made manifeft, which is as it were buried in the fenfes, as long as they have dominion over us. Therefore it hath been the pratlice of all the faints in all ages to mortify their fenfes. — And every faint in every age hath teftified, that it is our own experience alone that can explain to us what that life of the fpirit is, of which St. Paul fpeaks when he fays, ( Rom. §.) They that are after the Jlejh, do mind the things of the Jlefh , and they that are after the fpirit the things of the fpirit ,
May 14, 1735. |
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LETTER II.
Defcribing fome of the temptations which attend a life truly Chrifian.
“ r I ’’HAT which hinders the JL progrefs of the divine life in moft well difpofed perfons, is, their refting too much not only in externals, but more efpecially in that which is internal, namely, the fentiments, confolations, and fer- i ;■ for encouraging young beginners to walk in the way of fdf denial, and to pafs on further. God gives them thefe fenfibilities, not that they may reft in them, but in order to their further progrefs : he gives them becaufe of our want of faith and confidence in him, above all
thefe
i;8 LETTERS.
thefe fweetneffes; to which we muf ; abfolutely die, if we would attaii the true good. Souls in that ftaUj knowing nothing better, and mor profound, God withdraws thof fenfibilities after a certain fpace o time; in which the foul ought t(| have acquired ftrength and cou rage enough to abandon herfelf t the condu6t of God; which iswha he propofes by withdrawing al thofe confolations and fervours that allure and render her fenfua and dainty. But when the foul i deprived thereof, Ihe fuppofes al is loft. Many drawback at thill time, and return to the love o this prefent evil world : others ftop Ihort for want of courage, whc continue languifliing all their lift long, without entering into the trut rejl promifed to the children of God (Heb. iv. 5 ) always in anguilh vexation, and uncertainty. Othen
entirely
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entirely internal prayer, and
content them felves to live likeother folks, and look upon all that for- merly paft within them like unto pleafant dreams ; and confider others, who ftill enjoy thefe fweet confolations and lively fentiments, as harmlefs, innocent people, but of weak underftanding, whom they pity. All this proceeds from their not having at the beginning laid a good foundation, and fet out in the only path that leads to God : I mean, living by faith, and refigna- ition to God; entirely furrendering themfelves into his hands without prefcribing any terms. This is t that good foundation, which can- not be -fhaken ; namely, the unre- referved furrendering ourfelves into the hands of God ; willing no- thing but him, and the accom- plifhment of his will ; renouncing all confolations and felf-gratificati-