LETTERS of J. C. Philpot (1839)
January 7, 1839
My dear Friend—As my time is in various ways a good deal occupied, I trust
you will excuse my not replying to your kind letter before.
I believe that we see eye to eye, and, I trust, feel
heart to heart, in most points; and this is what I rarely find in this great
day of widespread, but powerless profession. It seems to me that the grand
foundation of what I call 'dead experimental profession' is
this—natural conscience healed by sound doctrines. As to the professions of
Arminians, Independents, General Baptists, and the like, I conceive that
conscience has had nothing to do in the matter, and that they, for the most
part, have never had any convictions, natural or spiritual.
But the class which has puzzled me most are what I call
"doctrinal experimentalists"; that is, men who have a correct 'doctrine of
experience'. To make my meaning clear, I will just state that I believe, as
all truth may be divided into doctrine, experience, and practice, so each of
these three branches may be held doctrinally; that is, in the letter and
form, without the Spirit and power. Thus some hold doctrines doctrinally,
others hold experience doctrinally, and others hold practice doctrinally.
The first are dead Calvinists; the second, dead Experimentalists; and the
third, dead Pharisees. But you may say, "how can men hold experience
doctrinally?" I will tell you. They have felt convictions of natural
conscience, like Cain, Esau, Saul, Judas, and others of whom we read in the
Word of God. These convictions drove them into seriousness, and from chapel
to chapel, until at last the doctrines of grace met their ear, laid hold of
their understanding, and brought a relief to their natural convictions. And
now behold them "established in the full assurance of faith." Their bark has
found refuge in a harbor of the Dead Sea, and knows no storms nor waves.
Their tacklings are never loosed, nor are they ever driven up and down in
the Adriatic (Acts 27:27), but lie at their moorings, until they are rotten
from stem to stern, and from gangway to keel. This crew of landsmen in blue
jackets make a captain over them like unto themselves, a fireside traveler
and a chimney-corner voyager, who keeps telling them of the security of
their harbor, and of the stoutness of the vessel; and sometimes, perhaps,
amuses them with tales of waves, rocks, winds, and storms, which they listen
to as a very interesting piece of information, and then all turn in, and
sleep very comfortably below. No wonder such as these are free from doubts
and fears. You and I last night had not many doubts and fears about the
storm that blew over our heads, when we were cradled safely in our beds. But
if we had been on the sea, and near a rocky shore, we would have had terror
enough. I believe that in the absence of divine testimonies, and the
cheering smiles of the blessed Redeemer, we shall always have doubts and
fears in proportion to the sense and feelings of eternal things. There are
two seasons when I am pretty free from doubts and fears. The one when I feel
the anointings of the blessed Spirit leading my heart and affections upwards
where Jesus sits at the right hand of God; and the other when I am carnal
and careless, and as destitute (experimentally) of religion as a dead branch
of sap and verdure.
But on other occasions, when eternal things lie on my
conscience, I am filled with fears just in proportion to the weight that
accompanies Divine realities to my soul. It seems to me that a man's
religion needs continual motion to keep it alive. Like the air or the sea,
which breed corruption when stagnant, but are purified by winds and waves,
so true religion needs continual exercise and change, to preserve it in its
purity, life, health, and vigor. Our body without exercise becomes flabby,
diseased, unhealthy, and weak; and so our soul without continual exercises
becomes listless, stagnant, sickly, and pining. I have often thought of
Paul's words to Timothy, "Exercise yourself unto godliness," and have seen
and felt the blessing and the benefit of continual soul exercise.
When God cursed the ground for Adam's sake, He imposed on
him labor in the sweat of his brow; but this very original curse has become
a blessing, in rendering the body thereby vigorous and healthy; and thus
exercises of soul through strong corruptions, powerful lusts, violent
temptations, tormenting doubts, and harassing anxieties, are made a means of
keeping the soul healthy and strong. The Word of God becomes opened up to
us, promises are made sweet and suitable, salvation by sovereign grace
unctuous and savory, a compassionate Redeemer highly prized, and a throne of
grace sought and cleaved to.
But take any professor that is unexercised, or any child
of mercy even, when settled on his lees, his conversation is powerless, his
prayers wearisome, his company a burden, and his visits unacceptable. He may
say a few words about religion, just as he would ask after the mistress and
the children, for form and compliment's sake; but, as Solomon says, "his
heart is not with you."
As John Kay quotes in the Gospel Standard, "It
takes twenty years to learn that we are fools," an expression I fully agree
with; and I believe the more we know and feel of divine teaching, the deeper
we shall sink into nothingness, helplessness, and insufficiency. The High
and Holy One who inhabits eternity dwells with him that is of a contrite and
humble spirit, while He beholds the proud afar off. And sure am I that He
must prepare His own habitation, and bring down the heart with labor; for
"we are the clay, and He is the Potter," and we (if we know or feel anything
aright) are the work of His hands. I have read many books, but I have
never found spiritual profit in anything but Divine teachings, and am
deeply sensible of my own blindness, ignorance, and helplessness, perhaps
more so than many who despise what they never had, and are after all puffed
up with the little they know. Wishing you much of the Spirit's anointings,
and of the Redeemer's gracious presence,
I am, yours in the bonds of the gospel,
J. C. P.
June 7, 1839
My dear Friend, Joseph Parry—I have felt desirous for several reasons
to write to you before the time arrives when I hope to see you again in
person at Allington. I cannot, however, precisely fix the time when I intend
(D.V.) to visit my Wiltshire friends, owing to a cause which I doubt not you
will be sorry to hear. Coming up outside the coach from Welwyn has been the
cause, under God's designing wisdom, of giving me a severe attack on my
chest, such as you have witnessed at Allington in times past, and from which
I have been for some time mercifully free. I was able to preach twice last
Lord's-day at Zoar; but in the evening with great inconvenience, through
hoarseness, which, indeed, I sensibly felt in the morning. I have been
confined to the house ever since, and, indeed, for most of the time to bed,
but am, through mercy, slowly mending. I have been obliged to write to the
deacons at Zoar to decline preaching in this week and on Lord's-day next. It
gives me pain thus to disappoint them as well as the congregation, which is
so usually large and crowded; but I have no alternative, as I am utterly
unfit at present to preach. My wife's uncle [Mr. John Keal, of Upper Woburn
Place, W.C.] is attending me, and says I am better today.
I spent a few days at Welwyn very pleasantly with friend
Smart. We walked, and talked, and confessed, and got on without one jarring
note. He is truly a gracious man, and, in my judgment, much improved.
Without losing any faithfulness, boldness, or decision, he has become more
softened in manner and expression. He preached a very sound, blessed,
and experimental sermon. The collection was £27 18s. 6d., which I consider
very handsome for so poor a people. The chapel, I believe, never was seen so
full as it was all three times.
I trust our friend Tiptaft was better when I left
Stamford. He finds that most beneficial which his hearers would willingly
not have so—cessation from preaching. Those only who are engaged know what a
trying thing it is to the health and constitution, and how it acts on mind
and body. I have felt sometimes most desperate rebellion against it on this
score. But our nature is so desperately crooked and rebellious that it
will quarrel with God Himself if He comes across our path or thwarts our
carnal wishes. Surely those who speak of growing sanctification know
nothing of that leprosy within which is always breaking out in thought if
not in actual word or deed. I am well convinced that we are incurables,
and that even the great remedy unapplied is like untasted medicine at the
bedside of the patient. I am baser and blacker than ever. I seem, at times,
the very prince of hypocrites and impostors, as I feel so unlike everything
a minister and a Christian should be. I am like a watch wound down, and need
a heavenly hand to put in the key, and I find that there is no such thing as
'winding one's self up' by prayers, reading, meditation, etc.; and I find
also that the Heavenly Engineer does not just wind up in twenty-four hours,
and then leave the machine to go; He puts in the key by littles and littles,
and no sooner does He take out the key than I stop. Neither do I find that
illness sanctifies the mind or creates religion. I am stupid and carnal, ill
or well, unless the blessed Lord makes me to feel otherwise.
Friend Justins has just been here, and expressed the
disappointment of the friends last evening. This being the case, I cannot
refuse to speak next Lord's-day, and therefore have promised to do my best.
I don't know that I would do it for any other place or people, but they were
quite crowded last evening, and will probably be more so on Sunday. A man
must pay dearly for being followed, both in his soul and body.
Believe me to be,
Your affectionate Friend,
J. C. P.
September 5, 1839
My dear Friend Joseph Parry—You will no doubt wish to hear how we
are, and how we arrived safely, through mercy, at our destination. We
arrived in London on the same day we left your hospitable abode. I went on
the following day to see my friend Justins, whom I found in great
perplexity, from not being able to procure a minister for the Thursday
evening; their supply having left them the day preceding. The old man said
he had been praying the Lord to send him a minister, and laid hold of me as
an answer to his prayer. I fought off as much as I well could, until I could
resist no longer, and consented to preach for them, upon which he said he
would do his best to make it known, and would publish a few handbills. Well,
to my surprise, and, I believe, to that of the deacons, when Thursday night
came there was quite a large congregation, the body of the chapel and
galleries being comfortably full. I trust the Lord was with me, and, I hope,
enabled me to tell them a little of what true religion was, and how the soul
came at it. I felt gratified to see such a congregation, as the notice was
so short, and there was no other means of giving it publicity than what
friend Justins adopted.
There were two very good congregations, morning and
afternoon, on last Lord's-day, and the friends seemed glad to welcome me
home.
I presume that J. Kay arrived safely on Friday. It is my
sincere desire that the Lord may come with him and bless him, and make him a
blessing. He may talk about golden and wooden trumpets, but "Who has made
man's mouth? Or who makes the dumb or deaf, or the seeing or the blind?" (Exod.
4:11.) One word spoken by God Himself to the soul will wound or heal,
kill or make alive, when all the words of human wisdom and power will fall
useless to the ground. If God chooses to speak by and through a man, who
or what shall hinder? And if He will not speak by him, who or what shall
make Him? No one contends more for this than J. Kay, and those who honor God
He will honor.
Preaching is a mysterious thing, and God's mode of
blessing souls through such weak, ignorant, defiled, worthless creatures, as
some of us feel ourselves to be, is a mystery of mysteries. I have not been
able often to receive a testimony of being blessed in preaching, from a
feeling of my ignorance and vileness. If I knew more, felt more, prayed and
read more, believed more, and were more diligent, fervent, jealous,
watchful, humble, separate from the world, and so on—I think I could believe
in the blessing more. But when I feel so dark, stupid, blind, worldly,
foolish, sinful, and guilty—I find it hard work to receive any testimony of
being made a blessing to any of God's elect. Yet, if I were all I wished to
be, I might soon burn incense to my own drag, and, instead of wondering how
God could bless me, might fall to wondering how He could not bless me for
being so diligent, prayerful, watchful, and so forth. Thus, God will take
care to secure to Himself all the glory, and in our right minds we are
willing to give it Him.
My dear wife is busy getting the house in order. We have
a servant whom we much like, being very steady and quiet. So we have
everything, as far as this world goes, to make us comfortable. But what is
all this in the absence of Divine consolations? I feel still tried about my
religion, and spend most of my days in Doubting Castle. I seem to want the
right marks, and more decisive and continual testimonies to my adoption into
the family of God. I do not at all regret my journey into Wilts, as I never
felt, I think, more union to the friends than during my last visit. Though
my heart is not a very capacious one, I think some of my Wiltshire friends
have a place in it. I have only to find fault with their kindness and
esteem, both of which are indeed undeserved. But those who have warm
friends, have generally bitter enemies, and so I have proved it. The friends
here, I understand, find fault with me for being absent so long, and hope I
shall not be away next year for so long a period.
Give my affectionate remembrance to John Kay, friend
Dredge, Mrs. Wild, and all friends. We beg our united kind regards to Mrs.
Parry, Mrs. Cannings, Mr. and Mrs. Tuckwell, and all those friends for whose
kind attentions we desire to be grateful.
Your affectionate Friend,
J. C. P.
September 17, 1839
My dear Friend, George Isbell—I feel I have need to apologize for
neglecting to answer your last friendly and experimental letter. I have had,
however, many hindrances, some of an external, and others of an internal
nature. What with traveling, preaching, and moving from place to place, I
have had my time much occupied. These external hindrances, however, have not
operated so powerfully as internal ones. Sometimes unconquerable sloth and
lassitude, arising, perhaps, much from over pulpit exertion—at other times,
deadness and coldness of heart—at others, the feeling I could write nothing
worth sending—and at others, fears of writing hypocritically and
deceitfully. I must throw myself, therefore, on your kindness to excuse my
apparent, but not real, neglect and forgetfulness.
What a mass of filth and folly, blindness and
ignorance, deceit and hypocrisy, carnality, sensuality, and devilism are we!
Prone to all that is bad, utterly averse to all that is good—bent upon sin,
hating holiness, heavenly-mindedness, and spirituality—what earthly
wretches, guilty monsters, abominable creature are we! And if our minds are
sometimes drawn upwards in faith and affection, and we pant after the living
God, how soon, how almost instantly, do we drop down again into our earthly
self, whence we are utterly unable to rise until the Blessed Spirit lifts us
out again! What fits of unbelief, shakings of infidelity, fevers of lust,
agues of carelessness, consumptions of faith, hope, love and zeal; yes, what
a host of diseases dwell in our poor soul.
"Who heals," says David, "all your diseases." Well, then,
the soul must have many, and I am inclined to think there is some analogy
between the body and soul in their diseases, and that a scriptural and
spiritual parallel might be drawn between them. Some I have hinted at above,
and blindness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis, leprosy, etc., are scriptural
analogies. But they all admit of a twofold cure, that wonderful medicine
which John saw run from the wounded side of the Redeemer, blood and water,
the one to heal, the other to wash; the one to atone, the other to
cleanse—justification by blood, Rom. 5:9, and sanctification by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.
I feel I have but little religion, but I feel, also, that
many who think they have a great deal, have none at all. I have been cut off
from what they worship and idolize. "Tekel" and "Ichabod" have been written
on my conscience on scores of things set up by hundreds for religion. I
cannot build up the things I have destroyed, lest I make myself a
transgressor; and thus naked, empty, and bare of creature religion, human
faith, fleshly righteousness, and external sanctification, I stand often in
my feelings, devoid of religion altogether. If I am only to believe when
faith is given; hope, when the Spirit casts forth the anchor; love, when
divine affection is shed abroad; pray, when a spirit of grace and
supplication is poured out; be holy and spiritual when heavenly-mindedness
is communicated—what am I, and where am I, when divine communications are
withheld? A desolate being, without religion. Oh! tell it not in Plymouth,
publish it not in the streets of Devonport, that there can be such a wretch
as to have no religion but what, when, and how God gives! Why, Methodist,
Ranter, Baptist, Independent, Calvinist, and Hawkerite will all hold up
their hands in pious dismay, and cry, "Lives there such a man who only sees
when he has light; hears when words are spoken; runs when he is drawn; feels
when divinely wrought upon, and speaks when he has something to say? Where,
then, is all our religion, our family prayers, and personal piety,
progressive holiness, preaching, reading, prayer-meetings, love-feasts,
Calvinism, religious privileges, and morning and evening portions? Breathes
there a wretch whose grand aim, prayer, and desire it is to be the clay and
have God for his Potter?"
Aye, more than one, or a dozen, or a score, I trust, of
such wretches still cumber the ground, and spread dung upon the pious faces
(Mal. 2:3) of creature religionists. It is, indeed, an unpardonable offence
to be nothing; and a spiritual beggar and bankrupt is as much despised and
hated by the rich Laodicean church of our day as a shiftless, tattered and
torn ragamuffin by a purse-proud, richly fed alderman. As to the religion of
thousands, I have been scraping it off for about nine years, and it sticks
to me like pitch still. Oh, when tarred and feathered, I was a delightful
young man, so sweet, and holy, and spiritual! But when sickness, and
temptation, and doubts and fears, and gusts of infidelity, and boiling
corruptions, and a deep-growing conviction of the worthlessness of all but
divine teaching, and heaven-sent religion, began to scrape away the feathers
and show the naked skin—and as I was scraped myself I began to scrape
others—oh! then I was of a bad spirit, and in the eyes of some, a very
devil. And what is my trespass, and what is my sin, that they so hotly
pursue after me? That I make the creature nothing, and Christ all in all.
May I be more vile than thus, and drop daily into nothingness, and rise up
in Christ as my wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
I understand you have been at that great ice-house,
Exeter—that abode of deadness, ignorance, and heresy. I should be glad to
hear your message was blessed in that city of churches, where the power of
vital godliness is so little felt and known. It gives me pleasure to hear
that my relations sit under your ministry, and that you call occasionally
upon them. May the Lord bless the word to their souls. My chest has been
suffering pain from over-preaching, but is, through mercy, better. You,
perhaps, have not yet found the bodily as well as mental fatigue and labor
of preaching, It will surely come if you labor hard and often. I would say,
do not anticipate it unnecessarily; my friend Tiptaft is nearly laid aside
from this cause.
May the Lord guide and lead you, plant His fear deep in
your heart, give you many sweet testimonies of His favor, and bless you, and
make you a blessing.
Your affectionate Friend,
J. C. P.
October 16, 1839
My dear sister, Fanny—I was indeed deeply surprised, as well as
gratified with your letter, and cannot but receive your testimony to the
reality and power of the blessing you have received. It is indeed wonderful
that any guilty wretch of Adam's fallen race should receive such a blessing
as a revelation of the mercy and love of God in Christ Jesus, and to us a
wonder of all wonders that any of us so alienated from the life of God
should find any blessing at His hands. I have no doubt you have often
perceived how slow and backward I have been to speak or write to you about
religion. And what chiefly kept me back was that I could not receive your
religion at that time as divine. I always thought you far removed from
insincerity and hypocrisy, but still there was in my mind something lacking
which prevented me from receiving it as a divine work, and arising out of
heavenly teaching. But I cannot but fully receive your present testimony, as
the spirit and savor of it has much rested on my mind since I received your
letter. May you enjoy the sweetness of it for a long time, and may the
chilling blast of winter and the nipping frosts of temptation be held back
by the hand of the Saviour from your soul for some time to come. You must
expect persecution from a world lying in wickedness and a world lying dead
in profession, and your own corrupt, deceitful, treacherous heart will cause
you many a pang. Hart says—"When the pardon is signed, and the peace is
procured, tis then that the conflict begins,"—not "ends," as most
think. And this great change of heart and spirit will effect a corresponding
change in your life, and this will draw down persecution; as Paul says,
"Every one that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution;"
because your life and conversation will bear witness against the evil of
theirs, and this will stir up their carnal enmity against you.
I hope the Lord, who has dealt so graciously and
mercifully towards you, will keep you separate and peculiar, lead you up
into much and sweet communion with Himself, deaden your heart and affections
to the things of time and sense, and make you a pattern of faith, love, and
good works. I would not have you battle and argue with Mrs. R., it will only
make you barren, lean, and dry. Let her see by your spirituality of mind,
devotedness of life, tenderness of conscience, simplicity, and godly
sincerity, that you possess a treasure obtained not in the congregation of
the dead, but where God is worshiped in spirit and truth. If she be a
heaven-taught character she cannot resist heavenly evidences, and I would
not marvel if, after a time, she too had her eyes opened to see the
corruptions and formality of the Establishment.
People often fight for a while against convictions,
especially if they oppose strong prejudices or the worldliness and pride of
our heart, but are obliged after a time to bend to the force of truth. I
resisted convictions about the Church of England as long and as much as I
could, and could not bear to hear her spoken against, but I was obliged
after a time to feel those convictions were right, and that I must obey
them.
I can hardly gather from your letter whether Mrs. R. is
staying at your house, or living near so as often to come in. We breathe out
no curses against the Establishment, but simply proclaim her corruptions. As
for myself, it is very rare that I mention her name, or say anything about
her, having far more important work to do than batter her walls. Nor would I
lift up a finger to pull her down, nor do I covet any of her possessions. If
we act conscientiously we must prepare ourselves for persecution.
It must have been a trial to you to have refused standing
proxy for Mrs. Watts. You acted quite right, however, in refusing to go if
your conscience witnessed against it. And, indeed, how could you promise for
yourself or another, that the child should keep all the commandments, and
such vows as are made at the font by the sponsors. It would have been awful
mockery in you, having an enlightened conscience, to make such promises as
you knew no flesh, especially in an unregenerated person, could perform. May
the Lord make and keep your conscience increasingly tender, may He bring you
again to His blessed feet, and preserve you from backsliding in heart and
life from Him. The children of Israel, after they had passed through the Red
Sea, soon forgot His works, and their next step was to make an idol and bow
down before it.
I heard from Mr. Isbell this morning, and felt a sympathy
with his letter. He speaks of sending me some hymns to read. If so, you
might send them in your parcel to L. When the penny post comes into
operation I shall hope to correspond with you more frequently. You will be
increasingly anxious for our dear mother's and sister's spiritual welfare.
Oh, what a mercy it is to escape the wrath to come! What a terrible weight
of wrath will consume all that know not Jesus and the power of His
resurrection! May we have our evidences again and again renewed. Pray for me
that I may be blessed indeed. My chest is rather better. I have now less
pain in it. I was afraid at one time I must for a time give up preaching.
You will find Huntington's works profitable to read. Some
of them are published cheap, as The Kingdom of Heaven taken by Prayer,
and Contemplations on the God of Israel. The last is a very sweet
production of his pen. Hart's Hymns, too, are a choice treasure for a child
of God, who knows his own grief and his own sore. But, after all, the
Word of God, under the teachings of the Blessed Spirit, is the most
profitable companion for a living soul. It is said of Jesus, "Then
opened He their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures."
Blessed instruction is it when He who has the key of David opens His own
Word, and opens our heart to receive it with heavenly unction and divine
authority! When He puts His hand in by the hole of the lock, and moves our
hearts to hear His voice speaking in the Word!
You will, no doubt, attend as much as you can on Mr.
Isbell's ministry which the Lord has blessed to your soul. Under the word
you will find many secrets opened up, many mysteries of godliness as well as
of corruption discovered, and will be sometimes wounded and sometimes
healed, sometimes rebuked and sometimes comforted, sometimes cast down, and
sometimes lifted up. The life of faith is a strange, mysterious life to
lead, and contains many lessons of a painful, and some of a very pleasing
nature. Well may it be said, "Who teaches like God? "
I will add no more for the present than our united love
to our dear mother, Mary Ann, and yourself.
Your affectionate Brother,
J. C. P.
October 17, 1839
My dear Friend, Joseph Parry—We were expecting a letter from you for
several days, I had almost said weeks, before it came, and were disappointed
at seeing the postman so continually pass our door without entering our
gate. I was anxious to know how friend Kay was heard, and perhaps a little
jealous feeling intruded itself lest his larger foot should have obliterated
my footmark. I am glad you have heard him profitably, and that his testimony
has found an entrance into your conscience. Comfortable hearing is not
always profitable hearing, and often that which condemns us does us more
real and lasting good than that which encourages us. To hear others on
whom can we depend speak of their manifestations and enjoyments, while we
ourselves are dark and dead, writing bitter things against ourselves, and
cutting ourselves off from eternal life, often stirs up much jealousy as
well as self-pity and rebellion. But sometimes it gives us encouragement to
feel that they too had to grope for the wall before they got in at the gate,
and this stirs us up to cry, seek, and pray, and say, "Have You but one
blessing? Bless me, even me also."
If you read or hear the experience of gracious men, such
as enters with power and conviction into your heart, you will always find
that they wrestled much and long before they won the prize. And this
encourages us to wrestle too, and so run that we may obtain. I could wish
that our dear friend Mrs. Wild had obtained a blessing as well as E. Pope
and some others, whom I may call choice feeders. It is most desirable to
relieve friend Tiptaft of the burden he has borne so long and so cheerfully,
yet those who would push John Kay out should be well persuaded he is called
to the ministry, lest in their anxiety to befriend one party they really
injure the other, and act against God's Word. I know it is W. Tiptaft's
opinion that he will never hold a body of people together, and, I presume,
he speaks from what he had seen at Abingdon. I gather from your letter that
the chapel at Allington is not crowded.
I am convinced that a door of utterance, and some measure
of what is popularly called "a gift," is absolutely needful for a preacher
who is to be useful or generally acceptable to God's family. And, indeed, it
might be asked, why should a man mount a pulpit at all unless he can teach
the church of God; and how shall he teach, if not abundantly supplied with
spiritual feelings, thoughts, and words? The scriptural qualification of a
minister is, that he should be "apt to teach." A certain measure of divine
utterance is therefore absolutely needful for a minister of truth, and I
will defy anyone to point me out a minister widely or abundantly blessed who
is destitute of such a gift as renders him acceptable to God's family. I am
speaking all along of a divine gift, for all that falls short of this is
wind and vanity. I am glad to hear W. Tiptaft means to come for a short time
to Allington at the end of next month, and could wish for your sake that he
had accepted a longer invitation. He writes word to Oakham that he is
stronger and better.
I received a remarkable letter on Monday from my elder
sister; I say remarkable, for I was as much surprised at its contents as if
she had written it in Greek. It was written under the powerful influence of
a divine manifestation, and carried with it to my mind all the savor,
reality, and power of a heavenly blessing. In fact, she could scarcely write
from her feelings of joy and praise, which she was afraid would be too much
for her weak body. She has been under soul concern for some years, but there
was always to my mind something lacking, and I could not receive it as a
divine work. It appears she has been more tried lately, and sought much of
the Lord to manifest to her if she were a child of His. She especially
implored Him to make it plain under Mr. Isbell's ministry one evening, but
she could get nothing until towards the end of his sermon, when he suddenly
changed his subject, and began to read Isaiah 57. She says, when he came to
verse 10 the veil suddenly dropped from her eyes, she had a view by faith of
the Saviour and entered into the strait gate after so long groping for the
wall. She hurried home, fell upon her knees, and could say without a doubt,
"My Lord and my Saviour." She has been full of praise and blessing ever
since. I never saw such an alteration in my life. Her letter to me is full
of power, and I can scarcely believe she wrote it, so different is it from
anything I ever heard her write or speak of. She is a very sincere person
naturally, and has always been afraid to profess anything, and has never
been among experimental people to pick up canting whine. I know her so well
that it must be either a strong delusion or a divine work, and I dare not
say it is the former, lest I do despite to the Spirit of grace. It is fully
received by Isbell, from whom I have since heard, as a divine work, and he
appears to have been much led out in private prayer for her previously. The
savor has been on my mind nearly ever since, and has continually occupied my
thoughts. I trust it has stirred my spirit up, and led me to offer up many
fervent supplications by night and by day, that I too may enjoy a blessing.
She writes at present in the full assurance of faith, calls Jesus brother,
and says, whatever comes she is sure she is safe. I am astonished at her
language, and the way in which she expresses herself, which puts me in mind
of some of Huntington's correspondents.
Mr. Isbell is the person who writes in the Gospel
Standard as G. I., Stoke. I think him a well taught, and much tried and
exercised young man, who is, I have felt, encouraged to believe in God as
one who hears and answers prayer. Oh, it is a good thing to wait upon the
Lord, and, like Paul, to serve the Lord with all humility of mind, and with
many tears and temptations! What a dread sovereign is He! How fearful in
justice, and yet to His own how abundant in mercy!
My chest is, through mercy, better. It has been very
unwell, so much so that I thought I must diminish for a time my pulpit
labors.
I have been expecting a letter from friend Dredge; but I
know that he cannot sit down like many and write, whether he feels or not.
He must have something like a springing well before he can lay hold of the
pump-handle. I am glad he gets on well with Kay, and goes about with him to
the various villages and towns, where there is a door opened for him to
preach. Your Wiltshire professors will have a good opportunity to put John
Kay into the balance; but, perhaps, like the man who laid hold of a warrior
in the wilderness, you may find he has caught you instead of your taking
him.
I am sorry the bookseller's delay prevents your
accumulating a store of agricultural knowledge. You will find some useful
hints in the book, I doubt not; but, like other precepts, they must be
obeyed to know their value. At the same time, I should be sorry if Loudon
took you away from Huntington, or that you preferred reading his Cyclopaedia
to the Word of God. I wish I had more appetite for the blessed truths of
God, and could search and read the Scriptures more. How sweet, how suitable,
how wise, how heaven-tending, how world-deadening is the Word of God! What
rich treasures of truth are there stored up, and when we read them in God's
light, and feel them in God's life, what a penetrating power is there in the
truths there revealed! "Then opened He their understanding, that they might
understand the Scriptures." Blessed opening, when He who has the key of
David puts in His hand by the hole of the door, and opens our heart to
receive His own Word. Then when we go to the Word of Truth, after it has
come to us, our fingers drop with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of
the lock.
It is said that "the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God, and those who hear shall live." Oh, to hear the voice of the Son of
God in our hearts! Surely it shall make our dead hearts, cold frames,
withering hopes, drooping love, dying faith, languishing prayers, and
fainting minds live; yes, revive as the corn, and grow as the vine. What
is all religion without a Divine beginning, middle, and end, commencing,
carried on, and accomplished with a heavenly power, supernatural life, and
spiritual unction? Well may we be ashamed, sick, and sorry of all our
thoughts, words, and works, all our knowledge and profession that have not
stood, or do not stand, in the power, teaching, and wisdom of God. All our
talk has been but vain babbling, our prayers lip service, our preaching wind
and vanity, our profession hypocrisy, our knowledge the worst kind of
ignorance, and all our religion carnality or delusion, if they have not been
divinely communicated.
Sir Isaac Newton, the wisest philosopher, is said to have
remarked to one who congratulated him on his knowledge, "I have been like a
little child on the sea-shore taking up a little water in a shell when the
vast ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me." Much more may a spiritual
man feel how little, how nothing, he knows of the unsearchable riches of
Christ, and the boundless stores of wisdom hidden in them. As John Kay
somewhere quotes, "It takes a man twenty years to become a fool." Look back,
and see how, with Hart, you can say, "His light and airy dreams I took for
solid food." What has become of the tons of instruction you have heard in
your chapel from the old Supplies? Surely they have all vanished, like the
gas from a torn balloon; and all the "preliminary remarks," as well as the
"concluding observations," have been to you as the morning cloud and early
dew.
I believe we must learn to be ashamed of our religion
as well as of our sins. I see such hypocrisy, presumption, deceit, and
falsehood in my profession, that I am obliged to confess it continually, and
seek pardon for and deliverance from it. Anything does us good which racks
us off from our lees, stirs us up to cry and pray, leads us to search the
Word of God, and makes us earnest and sincere. I am so rarely sincere, so
seldom in downright earnest, and am so lukewarm, and cold, and careless, and
carnal, and sensual, that I have reason to take a low place. Some professors
are always, as they think, sincere; but those who think so are the most
remote from spiritual sincerity, and know it not as God's gift and work. If
they knew their own hypocrisy it would make them cry for sincerity, and they
would learn that to be sincere brings with it a daily cross, and very often
a furnace.
My love to John Kay and the friends.
Your affectionate Friend,
J. C. P.
November 18, 1839
My dear sister Fanny—I was glad to hear that the good Lord was still
dealing graciously with you. I also received a letter and package of hymns,
etc., from Mr. Isbell, which I hope shortly to acknowledge. I have read the
hymns, and think they have many beauties; but there are roughnesses which
need polishing, and in some instances false rhymes, which, if possible,
should be altered. I think I prefer the first, entitled, "The Bloodhound,"
to any. There are, I think, too few for publication, unless through the
medium of some periodical, as the Gospel Standard. His hymns would
appear diminutive indeed in print, and the expense would be nearly as great
as a larger volume. Purchasers like some quantity as well as quality, and so
few would hardly find a sale beyond his own congregation and immediate
friends. If he would go on composing more, and polish what he has already
written, I think it would be a preferable step to a hasty, perhaps
premature, publication. A certain amount of poetry is absolutely requisite
in hymns, the lack of which, as in the case of Herbert's (of Sudbury), is a
positive impediment to their wide diffusion, in spite of choice experience
and sound doctrine; while Cowper's and Kent's owe much of their circulation
to the sweetness of the poetry. It may be said these are carnal
embellishments, but it may be replied that we may as well write in prose if
we set aside the main essence of poetry, and by choosing that mode of
conveying our feelings and ideas we tacitly assume that we take with poetry
that which belongs to its essence. Hart, the chief of hymn-writers, had an
especial gift for that work, but next to the experience and blessed unction
that rests upon them, I admire the beautiful fullness of every line where
every word conveys an idea. If I did not like much of Mr. Isbell's hymns I
would not advise him to go on writing more. I hope to write to him more at
length on this and other subjects, but don't know whether it will be just at
present.
I felt your letters profitable to my soul, and this
induced the desire of sending some extracts to the Gospel Standard—only
initials—and I have erased or altered anything of a family nature. May the
promise spoken to your soul be fulfilled. My faith cannot rise so far. But
continue in prayer and supplications, my dear sister, for all whom you
believe that promise to encircle, and for me also, that I may have the love
of God shed abroad in my heart, and the atoning blood of Jesus sprinkled on
my conscience. It is not always those who manifest enmity are farthest from
the kingdom of God. Pliables are sometimes worse than opposers. Rachel
envied Leah's fruitfulness, which, if it stirred up her enmity, also
awakened her desire, and she in time had a similar blessing, though she paid
for it with her life.
Nothing is impossible with the Lord, and nothing can
frustrate His designs; no, not our dreadful corruptions and wretched
unworthiness. You were not allowed to fall into those outward sins which
many of God's elect have been betrayed into before called by grace, but if
sin could have defeated God's purposes of mercy towards you, you would never
have had the blessing. You will have to learn many painful lessons of
inward corruption, and will have to wade through depths of which you
have little present experience. When the flame of indwelling sin is stirred
up, and Satan blows the coals, and the blessed Lord hides His face, you will
find that a Christian soldier has to "fight with hell by faith," as Hart
says. But whatever trials and difficulties you may be called upon to pass
through, faithful is He who has called you, who also will do it.
Like yourself, I have been often much exercised upon
family prayer. I cannot think written prayers acceptable to God, who as a
Spirit must be worshiped in spirit and in truth. And if prayer be the cry of
a child to his father, it should come freely from the heart, and not
according to a written form. If a child were to ask for bread from its
parent according to a paper put into its hand, it would seem more to be at
play than really in need of food. I certainly would not advise you to act
contrary to conscience, or any way seem to mock God. But could you not offer
up a few words yourself, extempore, as it is called? There is nothing
to forbid a female praying among females, for we read (1 Cor. 11:5) of a
woman praying, that is, publicly, though not before males, for then
she is to keep silence (1 Tim. 2:12; 1 Cor. 14:34). A few simple words might
be more blessed to the rest and would relieve your conscience, for then you
need only utter what you feel. What is called "a gift of prayer" is not
needful so long as a person does not break down, and can express his needs
in simple language. But I desire to leave the matter entirely to yourself,
and may you seek counsel and direction from the Wonderful Counselor.
You will find that many who have heard of your having
received a blessing will very narrowly watch your conduct to detect some
inconsistency. Those especially who go to the same chapel will minutely
examine your dress, looks, and very gestures to find some flaw inconsistent
with Christian perfection, for many believers, as well as unbelievers, form
an idea that such is the state of one who has received a blessing. And
marvel not if some of that mire and mud which is so liberally bespattered on
Mr. Isbell should be thrown at you, for similar doctrines and experience
will call forth similar enmity. Satan, too, has his baits skillfully
prepared and set. You will not find yourself dead to the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life. And Satan has
temptations, too, as the angel of light, and can instill presumption,
hypocrisy, spiritual pride, Pharisaism, and a host of other evils. But He
who has called you to be a soldier, will teach your hands to war and your
fingers to fight, and greater is He who is in you, than he who is in the
world.
What a wonderful revolution is effected by divine
teaching and heavenly visitations! The soul is brought to live in a new
world and breathe a new element. Old things pass away, and behold, all
things become new. New desires, feelings, hopes, fears, and exercises arise,
and the soul becomes a new creature. The world appears in its true colors,
as a painted bauble, and as its pleasures are valued at their due
worth, so its good opinion is little cared for or desired.
But what complete dependents are we on the bounty and
love of God, and on the divine operation of the Blessed Spirit, to feel or
realize one grain or atom of heavenly things! And how unable to believe,
feel, taste, handle, or enjoy the smallest particle of eternal realities,
except from spiritual manifestation of them!
Of reading as well as of making many books there is no
end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. It is not advisable for
children of God to read much of the writings of fallible men. Their
writings often confuse the mind, and lead to controversies and vain
jangling, or, at any rate, tend more to impart that knowledge which puffs
up, than that love which edifies. Not but that a sound, savory, experimental
author is sometimes profitable, especially at those seasons when we cannot
read the sacred Scriptures from distracting thoughts. But when there is an
appetite for God's Word, far more weighty, powerful, heavenly instruction is
to be derived thence than from any writings penned by man. And why need we
go to cisterns when we have the fountain? All that is good in human
writings has been gotten from the Bible, and why need we obtain that at
secondhand which we can have immediately from the same source? And the pen
of man has been far more frequently wielded to propagate or support error
than the cause of God and truth.
We return to Stamford tomorrow, yesterday being my
Lord's-day here. We like our new house much, and have a very steady,
confidential servant, whom we like much. My love to our dear mother, Mary
Ann, and her little ones. My very kind regards to R. and Mrs. R., whom I so
well remember from almost her infancy.
Your affectionate Brother,
J. C. P.
November 29, 1839
My dear Friend, Joseph Parry—Knowing you are one of those who do not
grudge postage when a letter comes from a friend, I answer your letter
earlier than I otherwise should have done, especially as it contains some
questions which require an immediate reply. . .
I can well sympathize with you in your various doubts and
fears. I often feel as if I had not one grain of religion nor spark of
divine life. I am often groanless and sighless, and as reckless as if there
were no heaven or hell; and then wake, as it were, out of my sleep and sigh
out a desire. But I cannot swim in —'s vessel, nor any such smooth-sailing
craft—I, like a shipwrecked mariner, must be picked up out of the deep
unfathomable sea—or perish. My sister's deliverance for a while much stirred
up my mind, but, alas! I am got pretty much into my old spot again. An
extract from two of her letters will appear in the Gospel Standard
for next month. Some may quarrel with it, and others doubt it, but let those
who quarrel and those who doubt bring forward a better one of their own. I
should myself be well satisfied with such a one, and if similarly favored
would fight for it against flesh, devil, conscience, law, the world, the
Pharisee, and the Antinomian, professor or profane, God's children and the
devil's. And I find we need hold fast what we have, however little, for
doves will pick at it as well as ravens, and sheep will nibble as well as
goats. But he who has God's testimony in his soul will stand by that, and
that, too, will stand by him when all other witnesses fail or bear testimony
against him.
When we first start, we are like a child learning to run
alone. We lean on a chair, or get hold of somebody's hand, but by-and-by,
when we have had some tumbles, and fallen sometimes over a friend's foot,
and sometimes through an enemy's push, and sometimes slipped down through
our own corruptions, we learn to walk alone, hanging only on free grace and
divine teaching.
People are looking to me to teach them, and what can I
teach them but this, that we are fools and God only wise—and that,
therefore, none teaches but He and like Him? And this makes people angry who
have not yet learned their folly. People are building up religion all over
the country, but there is not one of a thousand who has yet learned the
first lesson– to be nothing. Some extol faith and some works; some are
preaching free-grace and others free-will; but of all this noisy crowd, how
few lie at Jesus' feet, helpless and hopeless, and find help and hope in
Him! I wish we lived nearer, that we might sometimes compare notes, and talk
over some of these hidden mysteries.
The review of Hawker and Huntington has stirred up the
wrath of many, but I believe experimental Christians will not very much
quarrel with it. I wrote it out of my own heart and described my own
feelings. Many, I believe, have given up the Standard in consequence.
William Tiptaft's letter is much liked at Oakham. I think "a Traveler" (J.
H., I believe) has written well, and touched some strings that will vibrate
in feeling hearts.
Mr. R. is discontented at my drawing away his hearers,
and says he has lost his very best. Mrs. —, once a lost one, but now
reformed if not regenerated, begins to find, I believe, that all he could do
was to build her up in presumption, and the trowel having got into a chink
which he did not sufficiently plaster up has made the whole coating tremble.
When it has all come down she will begin to learn a little of what religion
is. I can't help picking away at every piece of untempered mortar, whether
Pharisaism or Antinomianism, presumptuous confidence or feigned humility–
but as soon as it is all down, I foolishly try to build it up again with
better materials. But I am a sad and bungling workman, and sometimes,
perhaps, stick the pick into sound mortar while aiming at the rotten, and at
other times put up a plaster of road mud instead of well-tempered cement.
But my way is to keep picking at what I find in myself rotten and unsound,
and not to put on any cement that does not satisfy or heal my own soul.
Sometimes guilt makes one's hand shake, and, anon,
recollection of inconsistencies makes the uplifted blow come down more
softly, and then doubts and fears of presumption make all the cement fall
out of one's hand. I find this to both pull down aright as well as to build
up aright. Hart, in his "Preface," that invaluable piece, has hit the right
nail on the head, where he advises "no one to trust the directions of his
own heart, or of any other man; therefore let the Christian ask direction of
his God." I find myself more and more brought off from looking to or
leaning upon man, as I see and feel all are liable to err, and that none can
teach but God.
Mr. Isbell has written to me some very nice letters
lately. He speaks very highly of William Tiptaft's letter in this month's
Gospel Standard. Remember me affectionately to him, your wife, and
children. My kind love to Dredge, Mrs. Wild, E. Pope, the Cannings' women,
etc., etc. I have few friends, after all, better than my Allington ones.
Your affectionate Friend,
J. C. P.
December 24, 1839
My dear sister, Fanny—I received safely your packet yesterday, and
was much interested in J. G.'s letter to George Isbell, and think with a
little revising it will do very well for the Gospel Standard. Surely
every quickened and regenerated vessel of mercy is a fresh proof of
that sweet passage, "Where sin has abounded, there did grace much more
abound." And those who owe all they are, and all they have, to sovereign,
distinguishing, superabounding grace must sing to the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He has made them accepted in the Beloved. Well may we hang
solely and wholly on grace, for the past, the present, and the future, and
while others spin their spider-woven garments out of their own works, may
the grace of the Three-One Jehovah be all our hope here and all our song
hereafter.
I am not surprised that you feel your ignorance. This is
far better than boasting of your knowledge. You will see one day, if not
now, that it was your mercy your head was not stored with knowledge, as it
makes the change more striking and evident. By feeling your ignorance, too,
you are made more dependent on divine teaching, and will be kept from
sacrificing to your own drag, and the cry of your soul will be, "What I know
not, You teach me." "Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of
Your law." I have long been deeply convinced of the necessity of divine
teaching, and have at different times, and do still from day to day, put up
many earnest petitions for the blessed teachings of the Holy Spirit. The
promise stands fast for evermore—"All your children shall be taught of the
Lord." And Jesus Himself has put His own blessed seal upon it where He says,
"It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every
man therefore who has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes unto Me"
(John 6:45). This is the "unction from the Holy One, whereby the children of
God know all things;" "the anointing which teaches of all things, and is
truth, and is no lie" (1 John 2:20, 27).
You will find it good to read much of the blessed Word of
truth. It is, when applied by the eternal Comforter, "spirit and life" (John
6:63); and the leaves of this tree are for medicine, and the fruit thereof
for food (Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 22:2). "For all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness." By continually reading the
Word you will make up for a defective memory, and let none despise having
the Word of truth stored up in the mind, as the Blessed Spirit will sooner
or later apply to the heart many passages which at present may be only in
the memory. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom" (Col.
3:16). "This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; but then
shall meditate herein day and night" (Josh. 1:8). See also the following
scriptures—Deut. 6:6-9; 17:18, 19; 30:11-14. Compare with Rom. 10:6-10,
Psalm 1:2, 3; 119:97, 99, 103, 115, 130, 148.
You have received such encouragement to pray that I doubt
not you still persevere in making your requests known unto God. I have not
been blessed with that spirit of prayer nor assurance of an answer that you
have been favored with. My earnest desires and breathings have been more for
a blessing on my own soul. I feel my daily need of visitations and
manifestations from the Lord. Jabez offered a sweet prayer (1 Chron.
4:10)—"Oh that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that
Your hand might be with me," etc. To be blessed indeed is the soul's desire
of one taught of God, and the application of His love and blood to the
conscience is a blessing indeed. And to have His guiding, directing,
supporting, upholding hand with us, what more can we desire? And to be kept
from evil that it may not grieve us—what tender conscience does not desire
such a blessing too?
I am not surprised Mrs. — is cold. Expect many such
chilling looks from former friends. There can be no real union with, nor
cordial approbation of people who condemn us. "Can two walk together except
they be agreed?" To be brought out of Egypt condemns those that are yet in
the house of bondage, well pleased with the leeks, onions, and garlic. Such
coarse fare pleases well an earthly appetite, however little suitable to
those that have tasted the hidden manna. You will find your motives
misrepresented, your words misinterpreted, your actions narrowly observed,
your gestures, dress, and general appearance strictly scrutinized.
I am sorry to hear your health continues weak, but it may
be a blessing to keep you more at home, and thus in some measure preserve
you from the keen eye of saint and sinner, professor and profane. May the
Lord in His own time and way bless the word to our dear mother. Encourage
her to seek for mercy from Him who is merciful, yes, rich in mercy. And as
the Lord enables you, continue in prayer and supplication for her, and may I
add, for me also, that the Lord would bless me indeed, by the manifestations
of His love to my soul.
I seem to think that in hearing Mr. Isbell you are
somewhat under the influence of 'excitement', at least it struck me so in
your last, from the feeling you express of expecting to hear a scream or a
shout under his preaching. The Lord does not usually work in that
way—witness yourself when He speaks with power. He was neither in the storm,
the earthquake, nor the fire, but in the still, small voice. The waiting
prophet did not wrap his face in his mantle, nor go out of the cave during
the raging war of elements, but when he heard the still small voice of love
and power, he went forth and stood in the entrance of the cave. Excitement
is frequently substituted for religion, as among the Wesleyans and Ranters.
[The remainder of this letter is lost.]
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