Bottomless, boundless, endless love!

 

My Dear Sister in our precious Lord,

What was there in us that God should set His heart upon us? Were we better than those that perish under His wrath? No, in no way! For myself, I must say that I am the most vile and ungrateful of all, and not worthy to be put among the children. And yet, how goodly has been my portion—how pleasant my heritage—because grace reigns, and Jehovah's love is free! Help me, my dear sister, to praise the Lord for His free grace, which has been so exceeding abundant towards me, and also to mourn before Him for all my poor returns to my kind Father, my dear Lord Jesus, and the blessed Comforter.

No man, no angel, no finite being could bear with my provocations, but they would have cast me from off all favor as an object of their just hatred. But oh, behold, though I am a lump of sin, a mass of uncleanness, a hell of iniquity—though my neck is an iron sinew and my brow brass—though I am bent to backsliding from God and have done evil things, yet Jehovah has not, will not cast me off, no, not for all that I have done! Yes, so far is He from casting me out of His favor as an object of His wrath, which I have justly deserved, that He still rest in His love towards me, rejoicing over me with singing; and all this, through a crucified Jesus, consistent with His strict justice and flaming holiness. Oh, infinite love!—bottomless, boundless, endless love!

Oh, love passing knowledge, the knowledge of men and angels in both worlds, through all time and unto all eternity! It has the heights, depths, lengths and breadths of the Godhead in it; and into this vast sea of glory shall all the vessels of mercy be cast when unclothed of mortal, sinful flesh, and there we shall take our fill of new delights unto ages without end, but shall never be able to comprehend incomprehensible love!

The gift of the Holy Spirit as a Comforter, to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, is a pledge of that eternal love-communion we shall have with Him when sin, sorrow and time shall flee away. And all those sweet emanations of divine love which are poured out through Christ upon our souls here, unto joy unspeakable and full of glory, are so many sweet foretastes of that fullness of joy—those rivers of pleasure—we shall have in His presence at His right hand for evermore!

We live in a world of snares and sins

 

Honored Sir,

We live in a world of snares and sins, with which our feet are often entangled and defiled. Have you been caught in any evil net? Jesus, who loved and died for you, will set you free. Have you gotten defiled? Your Savior, in sympathizing love, in condescending grace, with a joyful readiness, will wash your feet. And are you under present rebuke? As many as He loves He chastens. Since the rod is in your Father's hand, to answer all the ends of His most gracious heart towards you, there will be glorious deliverance from it, in the best way and time. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, as He delivered just Lot out of Sodom, whose righteous soul was vexed with seeing and hearing of their wicked deeds.

These cross-providences

 

 Dear Sir,

I am sometimes apt to be grieved at how things happen; but when I think that God fulfills His sure purposes for His glory and His people's good, by things which to us seem contingencies, and that He who shuts up our way in one place opens it in another—my spirit is at rest.

You will like these cross-providences well, when you see them overruled by infinite wisdom and grace to meet in their designed center—the glory of God, and your greatest advantage. We must believe now; we shall see before long. Meanwhile, O for a meek and humble, a patient, Christ-like spirit!

Trials do us no harm, nor will they much afflict us, if we are enabled to behave well under them. But if we foolishly look off from the 'supreme hand of God' therein, unto 'creatures', and our spirits fret and chafe at instruments—that wounds us instantly, and weakens our hands exceedingly. In patience let us possess our souls, and we shall see that our all-wise and all-gracious Lord has done, does, and will do, all things well. Most surely every man disquiets himself in vain—God's counsel shall stand, and He will do all His pleasure. Would we have things go otherwise than well—any better than best of all? And thus all things always go well for us in Christ—for us who are the delight, the care, and charge of Prince Emanuel—upon those mighty shoulders the whole weight of government is devolved by His and our Father!

We are almost home!

 

My very Dear Sister in the Lord,

We are almost home! A few more trials, and then farewell, trials, forever! The bosom of Christ, the glory of the heavenly state is ready for us. In a little while, we shall be fully made fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. Do not grieve that you are left alone, and have few friends that you can open your heart to, for your dear Lord Jesus will never leave nor forsake you; and He is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You have had sweet experience of Christ's friendship ever since you were first acquainted with Him; and His love towards you, His care for you, and His power to save you are still as great as ever.

Time has not altered Christ's heart; no, nor all the weaknesses and provocations He has seen in you, but having loved you anciently, freely, and fully, He will love you eternally. Your Jesus, your best Friend, who has cared for you all along, will never cast you off. He has engraved you upon the palms of His hands, and your walls are continually before Him. Creatures may forget—the tenderest mother may forget her nursing child—but your Jesus, in His boundless compassions, will not, cannot forget you. He will know your soul in adversity, when all other refuges fail you, and no man cares for your soul.

As birds flying to support and defend their young, so will the Lord make haste to help you, for His care for you is infinite, and He will keep you as the apple of His eye. You are one of Christ's jewels, and His heart is the cabinet in which He will keep you; and from His heart-care of you, His providential care for you shall be shown. And as to the power of Christ, He is the Lord Almighty, and His everlasting arms will never grow weary of bearing you and all your burdens. The Lord well knew that His people would need to be dandled by Him and carried by Him for a long while—that they would at times be subject to fears, from their own weakness and unworthiness, and from the occurrence of new difficulties; and from hence that they would be anxious how they would get the rest of their way through the wilderness. And therefore he says, ""Listen to me, all you who are left in Israel. I created you and have cared for you since before you were born. I will be your God throughout your lifetime—until your hair is white with age. I made you, and I will care for you. I will carry you along and save you." (Isaiah 46:3, 4).

Oh, my dear sister, there is grace enough in this promise to carry you safely and comfortably through all your remaining trials, even down to death and up to glory. Therefore, trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. He is your ever-living and ever-loving Friend. Live upon Him for all in all, and as your all, and in all things labor to live to Him; so shall the name of our Lord Jesus be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the Will of God and our Father.

Our dear Lord is exceedingly kind to unworthy me. He heaps favors upon me, and surrounds me with mercies, because He will be gracious—even to me, a poor, vile, hell-deserving sinner. Oh, it is well for us that grace reigns through the righteousness of Jesus, and that we, receiving abundance of grace, shall reign with Him. Oh, bless the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together for all His great goodness, and His wonderful works for poor, sinful me. And pray for me, that I may be made holiness unto the Lord, very fruitful to the glory of His name, and very useful to His dear and tender lambs. All glory to my dear Lord! Oh, how great and many have been the precious thoughts of God's kindness towards me of old, which daily open in new wonders to my view!

I wish you a rich increase of all grace and peace, through the once slain, now reigning Lamb!

When we are in the furnace

 

Dear Sister,

Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied, from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, by the blessed Comforter.

I understand that you are exercised both with affliction of body and darkness of soul, and I sympathize with you herein. But think it not strange, my dear sister, concerning the fiery trials you meet with, as if some strange thing had happened unto you. Remember the Lord has His fire in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem (Isa. 31:9), to refine, not to destroy His people. God sends afflictions upon His children for their good. Sin and Satan indeed aim at our destruction herein, but God bounds their rage and overrules their malice to issue in His own glory and our salvation.

The design of Sin and Satan is the destruction of our graces as well as of our persons, and therefore they blow up the fire of affliction to the utmost, and would continue it until we are consumed. But "Hold," says the Lord, "My children are my gold, precious in my esteem, and they must pass through the fire to be refined, but not lie there until they suffer loss."

And therefore, when we are in the furnace our God sits by to see that the fire be not too hot, nor continued too long upon us, as the refiner watches his gold, manages it while in the furnace, and takes it out thence when it is fully purified. "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver." Malachi 3:3

Well, then, my dear sister, since you are one of those who are precious in the sight of the Lord you must pass through the fire of affliction, but since it is the Lord's fire, which He has appointed, which He manages, and which he will restrain at His pleasure, trust yourself in the hands of your infinitely wise and gracious Refiner and you shall come out of it both with present and eternal advantage. This affliction, as an instrument in the hand of God the Almighty agent, is at work upon you, and for you, to exercise and increase your graces here, and to prepare you for your future crown. Therefore, endure the trial, for, "Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." James 1:12

But it may be you will say, "Aye, if I was sure I was one that loved God, I would patiently wait for and expect a happy outcome, but I am afraid lest I should deceive myself, deceive others, and at last come short of that rest which remains for the people of God."

As for these your fears, and ten thousand more of a like nature which may arise in your heart in a time of darkness, they are altogether groundless, and though they may rob you of your comfort they cannot rob you of your safety in Christ, nor of that inheritance which is reserved for you in Heaven. No, blessed be God, you are still just where free grace set you; God has fixed you in His Son, and laid you, by faith, upon Him, the Rock of Ages; and now your salvation stands as immovable as the rock on which it is founded. The rain may descend, the floods come, and the winds blow, all kinds of afflictions and temptations together may beat vehemently against your faith of safety in Christ, but your security in Him shall never fall, because founded upon a rock which is able to bear the greatest weights which are laid upon it, and to secure the building from all danger in the greatest stress of weather which can possibly befall it. The rock of immutability is still beneath you, and unless Christ could sink, the salvation of your soul—that leans upon Him can never fall. You may fall as to your frames, but you can never sustain one shake as to your state. No, "The foundation God has laid in Zion is a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, and he who believes on Him shall not be confounded" (Isa. 28:16, 1 Peter 2:6). And now, let all the objections be brought out that all the legions of devils and armies of corruptions combined can raise against the salvation of that sinner that looks unto Christ for life, and down they must fall before the grace of this promise—God's word shall stand, to the eternal salvation of that soul and the confusion of all its enemies!

Into His arms I commit you, earnestly desiring that happy morning of Divine favor which shall arise upon your soul when the short night of your present weeping is over; Christ will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and "your joy shall no man take from you." And meanwhile, though clouds and darkness cover you, commotions and tempests shake your mind, yet all is clear as to your state in the upper region of Christ's love!

My ingratitude unkindness and unfruitfulness

My Dear Brother,

Oh, the sweet whispers of God's free distinguishing kindness which I hear at times melt my soul down. Sometimes the Lord draws near to my spirit and talks with me about His love, and of the great things He has done and will do for me. And then I fall down in the dust before Him, acknowledge my iniquity, bewail my subtlety, and loath myself in my own sight for all my abominations, when I see that He is pacified towards me for all that I have done. Oh, it is well for me that not only the salvation of my soul, but all the work the Lord has designed me to do for Him in this world, stands alone upon His free sovereign grace! Oh, not an inch of service would ever have been laid out for me, if rich, free grace had not cast the lot! I wonder that the Lord should do anything for me, above all His children, because I am so vile, so unfit and unworthy! But the grace of God is His own; like Himself, infinite; and a sovereign right He has to bestow it where he pleases; He may do what He will with His own!

But oh, my ingratitude, unkindness, and unfruitfulness breaks my heart; and often I groan under an insensibility of divine kindness. And glad am I that, when rid of a body of sin and death, I shall give free grace all the glory, and never sin against it to the days of eternity! Meantime, pray for me, my brother, that I may love God greatly, increasingly, and serve Him much in the little I have aimed to do for him, and in that very little which yet may remain to be done before I enter into everlasting rest.

That the grace of Christ may be with your spirit, and His hand with you in your work, to the glory of His name, the good of His people, and your own present joy and future crown, is my hearty desire.

The bosom of His eternal Love!

 

My Dear Sister in Christ,

Oh, what heart can conceive or tongue express a thousandth part of that joy and glory which He has reserved for His people in the world to come, when He will bid them enter into His own joy, and Himself will be their everlasting light, and as their God, their glory! Oh, then we shall have the light of life, of glory-life, in such manner and measure as far surpasses all our present thought!

Come, lie down by faith, in the bosom of His eternal Love! It is a sweet, soft bed, that will delight and refresh you exceedingly. Here is a basin of heavenly wine, or rather a sea of boundless bliss! Drink your fill, bathe your soul in pleasures, and shout the glories, the fullness, the praises of the strong Jehovah amid all your felt emptiness, weakness, and imperfections! So shall you be exceeding joyful and fruitful, and your obedience highly pleasing to your God and Father in the Son of His love.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Our light and momentary troubles

 

Anne Dutton's Letters on Spiritual Subjects

Dear Sister,

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

It is the pleasure of our dear Father to exercise you in a very particular manner, and to continue it long upon you. But be not cast down thereat, as if some strange thing had happened, for as many as the Lord loves He rebukes and chastens. But it may be you will say, "My affliction is very uncommon, has lasted a great while, and it is likely to endure so long as I am in this world."

Well, be it so. Yet remember that God's special love to you ordained this particular trial, and His everlasting kindness keeps it still upon you. This was the means Infinite Wisdom pitched on for the display of boundless love to you. By this you are to be made conformable to Christ in sufferings and fitted for a conformity to Him in glory. Since free grace has saved you—give it leave to carry on your salvation in its own way. What though you pass through much tribulation, the Kingdom is at the end. I doubt not but the Lord at times has opened much of His love to your soul in the present afflictions, but the brightest discoveries are ahead. The great opening of God's heart, in the gift of every trial, is reserved for us until we get over Jordan, on the other side of death, into the land of promise. Then we shall remember all the way the Lord led us through the wilderness, and see it was the right way to the city of God.

Then the mysteries of Divine Providence shall be unfolded, the cloud taken off every dark dispensation, and the veil from our understandings. There the secret springs of boundless love, infinite wisdom, and Almighty power which ordained, managed, and overruled every scene of providence, for the glory of God and our advantage, shall be laid open, for we shall see as we are seen. We shall bless God when we come to heaven for every trial, even the bitterest, sharpest, longest affliction that attended our mortal life; because we shall see how the Lord uninterruptedly carried on the designs of His own glory and our salvation by every change that passed over us.

Meanwhile, we must live by faith, and labor after an increasing submission to the Divine Will under the sorest rebukes; and bless God for every stroke, until grace is swallowed up in glory, when our wills, with the highest complacency, shall everlastingly flow into the will of God. And even now we have reason not only to be patient, but also to rejoice and glory in tribulation. And were the eye of our faith, strong enough to pierce the cloud of afflictive providences, and discern the love of our Father's heart, which, as an infinite deep, couches beneath, and is the spring of every dispensation, we would sing in sorrow, take pleasure in distresses, and glorify God in the fires!

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Cor. 4:17) There are three things comprised in these words, which I desire you may be enabled frequently to meditate upon.

First, the lightness of the saints' affliction.

Secondly, the shortness of it.

Thirdly, the advantage of all their present trials.

First, the lightness of the saints' affliction. "Our light affliction." It is not said the afflictions of the world are light; but OUR affliction is light. And it is so, if compared with what we have deserved, and the damned in hell endure. Light, if compared with what Christ once bore, when for us he was the Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Light, because by virtue of Christ's suffering for us in our room and stead, the curse is taken out of all our afflictions. Again, they are light, because Omnipotent strength is engaged to support us under them; underneath are the everlasting arms.

We have not, are not, shall not be left to go through any trial alone. The God of Jacob is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. The Lord Jesus is our sweet companion in tribulation. He is with us, to sympathize with us in our sorrows, to sustain us under our burdens, to pardon all our unbelief and impatience when in the furnace, and at last completely and gloriously to deliver us and bring us forth as gold seven times refined.

No affliction, indeed, for the present is joyous, but grievous to our frail flesh. It is so in itself, but much more so to us; because we live so much by sense, and so little by faith. Every trial that passes over us has a light as well as a dark side. And we should look upon every affliction with a double view; as it is oppressing and grieving to weak nature, it is, in itself, evil; and calls for submission to the Divine will. But then, as the same affliction is viewed as flowing from God's love, and effectually managed for His glory and our advantage, so it is good, and ought to be a matter of our joy and thanksgiving.

Let us leave it then to those who have no interest in the God of all Grace to think afflictions heavy; for woe to them that are alone. But as for us, that are savingly interested in God (in all His Persons and in all His perfections as engaged in covenant for our good), let us go on rejoicing in tribulation, esteeming all our afflictions, as indeed they are, light.

Secondly, the shortness of the saints' affliction is matter of great consolation; it is but for a moment. A moment is but a short space—the smallest division of time; and unto this of a moment are our longest afflictions compared. Suppose they should last as long as we are in this world; yet, even our whole life if compared with a vast eternity is but like a moment; and as Mr. Dod well says, "What can be great to him that counts the world nothing? or long, to him that counts his life but a span?"

Oh! were we more frequent in our converse with eternity, it would make the afflictions of this present time appear short. Did we live more in the views of approaching glory, we would remember our afflictions as waters that pass away; that are here one moment and gone the next. But alas! such is our folly, that we are taking thought for a great while to come, and so make our 'imagined future trials' present distresses; whereas, were we under the most pressing weights, and did take thought for no more than the day (and sufficient to it is the evil thereof), living by faith on the borders of glory, as just entering into the mansions of rest, it would alleviate our sorrows, and make the longest trial appear short.

Could we thus reason with ourselves every day, "Well, I have got one day nearer home; the afflictions of the past day I shall never go through any more, and perhaps before I see another day in this world I may see glory's day—a morning that will have no clouds nor evening to succeed it, no sorrows, sin, nor death to darken its luster!" Oh, what a means would this be to increase our patience, and make us of an enduring spirit! And what matter of comfort is it that while our short-lived afflictions last, Christ will be with us in them! He is with us when we pass through the waters, that the rivers do not overflow us, that the swelling waves of affliction do not overwhelm us; and when we walk through the fires, that the flames kindle not upon us, that fiery trials do not consume us. The priest's feet were to stand in Jordan until all Israel were fully passed over. So our dear Lord Jesus will stand among the distresses, dividing the waters before us, until all His children are fully passed through them. His presence with us in affliction will make it light; and His delivering-kindness out of it will make it short.

Thirdly, the advantage of the saints' affliction is also an encouragement to faith and patience—it works for us. But what does it work? Why, no less than glory! And it works glory for us as it prepares us for it. Glory was prepared for us, and settled upon us, in God's everlasting covenant with His Son, before the world was. And affliction is a means Infinite Wisdom, Power, and Grace makes use of to prepare us for glory; that glory which was prepared for us before time, and will last to an eternal space beyond it. And who would think it much to endure affliction, who sees it is but for the trial and perfecting of his graces, and that the exercise of each might be found unto praise, honor, and glory at Christ's appearing.

Now then, let us bring things to the balance of the Sanctuary, and learn to judge of them aright. Let us amass together all the afflictions of a believer's life, and put them in one scale, and glory in the other, and see if that does not infinitely outweigh them, especially, if we cast in the additional weights that are on glory's side! Here is affliction on the one side, but glory on the other; light affliction, for a moment, but a weight of glory, yes, an exceeding, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory! Well might the Apostle say, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).

Lie down in the bosom of Christ

 

Anne Dutton's Letters on Spiritual Subjects

My Dear Brother in Christ—our Life, our Love, our All,

You desire a line from me. What shall I write? Methinks you want to hear of your Beloved; and if His Spirit, sent from the Father and the Son, will please to take of the things of Christ, and show them unto you by so weak, so unworthy a worm, it will be to our mutual joy, and the Lord shall have all the glory. It is grace unknown, my dear brother—free, rich, superabounding grace, that gave you a saving acquaintance with Christ in love—in that infinite love which is in His heart toward poor lost sinners who are enabled to look unto Him for all salvation.

Christ is a fountain of all supplies. You cannot need more than Christ has to give, is willing to bestow, and will enrich you with in your every time of need. It has pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. All fullness dwells in Christ, to supply us in all our emptiness. Do you see your nakedness? Christ's name is, "The Lord our Righteousness." Do you groan under your unholiness of heart and life? Christ is made of God unto us sanctification, to present such defiled worms as us, perfectly holy before God in His own personal purity now, and to maintain, increase, and perfect that purity of heart which is begun in us by His Holy Spirit, until we are perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, our holy Head. Does your folly, your inability to know the things of God in their greatness and glory, grieve you? Christ of God is made unto us wisdom. It is His office, as our prophet, to teach the most ignorant souls who come to Him. He will teach the meek his way. It is His joy to teach us, and His teachings are efficacious to those who humbly wait upon Him for the same.

Does your spiritual poverty distress, and your spiritual enemies afflict you? Christ is made of God unto us redemption. Our Redeemer is great and strong. His redemption by price and power is and shall be perfect. Your Redeemer has paid all your debts; He has bought you and your inheritance.

Your whole person, made perfect, shall be taken by Him into His own embrace to enjoy the most intimate communion with Him and His Father—in love, life, and glory—to a blessed eternity! And can your heart conceive, my dear brother, the one-half, the thousandth part of that bliss, that vast inheritance of God, of which, by Christ, as a believer in Him, you are now made an heir, and of which, by Him, you shall shortly be a possessor? I tell you no! Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, in a mortal state, to conceive of those great things, according to their greatness, which God has prepared for those who love Him, to be enjoyed by them in immortal glory!

Come then, my dear brother, come by faith, and lie down in the bosom of Christ, in His Person and fullness, as made yours by infinite love. For, this, this Jesus, is the rest, and this the refreshing with which the weary soul may rest. The love of Christ to you, and your salvation in Him, are unchangeable amid all the changes of your frames. The good work of God, begun in your soul, shall be performed until the day of Christ. Abide in Him by faith, and cleave unto him by love. In every path of duty follow on to know the Lord, and you shall know Him to your full and endless joy and glory!

remaining enmity, sin, and ungodliness

Anne Dutton's Letters on Spiritual Subjects

Dear Sir,

It is well for us that Jesus, our elder Brother, now appears in the presence of God for us—of God our Father, who loves us—that God's first-born Son—His holy, His beloved Son, exalted at the right-hand of the Majesty in heaven—is not ashamed to call us brethren, who are so much unlike Him on the earth! How great is the wonder that He, who is surrounded with myriads of angels and archangels—those 'bright flames of love to Him' who incessantly warble out His praises—should ever cast one kind thought upon such dull, cold, lifeless pieces of earth as we sometimes feel ourselves to be!

But our Lord loves us—loves us freely. Loves us infinitely— notwithstanding all our unloveliness, and ingratitude, and evil requitings of Him, for all His manifest kindness! And love binds His heart to us, and fixes His kind thoughts upon us. Loved by Him—freely, greatly, unchangeably, and eternally—we shall be remembered by Him perpetually in an infinity of flowing compassions, under all our sicknesses, our griefs, our miseries—from which by an infinite, an all-producing resolve, He will save us unto full and endless glory with Him hereafter!

That love of Christ, which was strong enough to engage Him to die for us when enemies, as sinners, as ungodly—will never fail towards us, because of that remaining enmity, sin, and ungodliness, which abides and works to our grief—in the corrupt, unregenerate part of our souls, and sadly at times produces backslidings in our lives. The love of Christ will go on with its great design—to save us from all sin and misery—unto all grace and glory—with Him, unto ages without end!

His love to us is infinitely great for the accomplishment of His great design—to bring us all up to be with Him where He is, to behold His glory, to be one in Him and in the Father, as He and the Father are one, by love-union and glory-communion—unto our full joy and ineffable and endless bliss!

Let us lift up our heads in faith—and with stretched-out necks in hope, let us look and long for the glory of that day. I wish you rich times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, who, having loved His own who are in the world, loves them unto the end!