Chapter VII: Letter VII: Achor’s Vale, June 14, 1819

Mrs. E.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I trust you are better in health than you was; I feel very anxious about you both; I pray God to spare you, to see his good hand of grace toward me; and that he has heard many prayers on my behalf, although he has not heard them in the way I requested; but though the Lord often changes his promise, yet, he never breaks his promise. He often changes the promise of a temporal blessing into a spiritual good; but he never changes his mind nor falsifies his word—he is the only faithful Friend on whom we can rely; all others are like glasses, they are to be used, but no weight to be put upon them. Hence the command, Trust ye not in a friend; lean not too heavy, nor build upon glass. This blessing is the gift of God, it is grace given to the friend; and it is worthy of observation, that a disposition to act friendly, is from God, and the befriended should look to Jesus through the friend, as Christ shines through them. And this is evidenced by the effects produced, because it draws up the mind to the Saviour in a way of gratitude and wonder, love and praise. I will magnify the Lord with a song. The shall please the Lord better than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs. This is the way the Lord deals, at times, with me; when particularly sensible of sin, I confess, supplicate, plead, and submit; if grief overflow, I pray, read much, and think; and when I am favored with the least glimpse of his face, or a sensation of his love, or a little life in my spirit, then I praise, love, adore, and offer up the sacrifice of thanksgiving—this is called the calves of the lips.

I have not written my thoughts on the subject we last discoursed on, but shall by and by, God willing. I have been much grieved lately that Mr. — has made use of such warm expressions in the pulpit, concerning the decrees of God. What he has asserted are undoubted truths, but I object to the _manner_ in which they are stated. I have no objection to the preaching these awful and sublime subjects, but it requires a man of _some_ wisdom to state them properly, or else the subject may be rendered disgustful, even to believers themselves. God has chosen his people in Christ before the world began: this is a truth worthy of our deepest regard; that the Lord should cause millions and millions of beings, angels and men, to rise in his infinite mind, and out of them to select a people for himself, to the glory of his own name, and, as a Sovereign, to display upon them the riches of his grace—this was the favour shewed them, and this favour is called _grace_, electing sovereign grace, because he passed the rest by, he did not confer on them this favour. No reason can be assigned for this, but his own sovereign good-will. The rest he passed by; he did not choose them to damn them, nor predestinate them to be damned, nor make them on purpose to damn them; that was not the business; he passed them by in reference to his act, but he chose the rest, both angels and men, in the dear Covenant Head, and fixed them, standing most secure in Christ, before they fell. Those whom the Lord passed by, stood in Adam only; here they sinned, fell, and became guilty: as they grow up, they evidence God has passed them by, as they live and die regardless of God, ignorant of the Saviour, and heart enemies to him; but as God did not choose the elect for any foreseen good in them, or done by them, so neither did he pass by the rest because they would be so vile, but he chose the one in the riches of his grace, and passed by the other in his divine sovereignty. Mark—he does not damn them because he is a Sovereign, and has a right to do it; No, he only passed by them as a Sovereign, and he punishes them because they hate him, and have so awfully signed against him, so that our God is holy, gracious, sovereign, and just.

I thought it acceptable to you, to drop you this line, to state the simple truth as it is in scripture; a subject that puzzled me for many years, and which has still a mystery in it that we cannot comprehend; yet there is enough revealed to faith to receive, admire, and adore. And as to the damnation of infants, which Mr. — advanced last Sunday, the scriptures are silent about it; nor do I think it forms any part of the gospel which Jesus and Paul preached. We have nothing to do with it. Where the bible has no mouth, we ought to have no ears. I am of opinion that children are saved, but I have no positive scripture for it—as the glories of heaven are rather described by negatives, what they are not, so the salvation of children is by a negative also, where they are not; for in the account of those that are lost, and in hell now, and will be punished there, we read nothing of children. Our dear friend Mr. Fosset, wishes me to write on these subjects, at the next church meeting, to set this matter at rest a little, by explaining the subject in my simple, humble manner. What a mercy the Lord has not passed us by, as he might have done; and as an evidence he loves us, he has given us some taste of that love, and created his fear in our hearts.

Your’s
_Ruhamah_.