69. - To Mrs. Dolier.
our desires to have an opportunity of assuring you here how much we are devoted to your service. But the roads and the weather beginning to amend, we venture to offer you the best apartment in our hermitage. I wish it were large enough to take in dear Mrs. G - - - - - , and our dear friends in St. James’ Place; but we have only two small rooms; to which, however, you would be received with two enlarged hearts: I mean those of, my honoured lady, your ladyship’s obedient devoted servants, J. AND M. FLETCHER
69. - TO MRS. DOLIER.
MADELEY, Nov., 1783.
AND were my dear brother and sister Dolier pleased by the receipt of a letter from such an unworthy worm? O that I could convey some word from the mouth of my adorable Lord to your hearts! O that he would permit me, his poor creature, to drop a sentence which may prove an encouragement to my dear friends in their way! You ask, “Shall I hope to obtain the clean heart, and walk in purity while here below?” Why not? “Abraham hoped against hope, and there sprang from him, as good as dead, as the stars of the heaven for multitude.” Does unbelief say, “Thou art dead; thou hast outstayed thy day, and it is all over?” Then arise out of the dust, rouse up all your powers, “against hope believe in hope,” and by faith receive strength to apprehend the fulness of God. Remember, Christ is in “your faith;” hold faith and you hold Christ. If vou know not how to get hold on faith, remember it is “in the promise” seek for a promise, and lay hold there. But if you cry out, “I see the links of the chain so far off, that, alas! I cannot take hold on the promise; I don’t know which is for me, I cannot reach so far:” well, don’t faint yet; there is another link still lower, that is to say, your wants. Can you be sure there is a wound within? Are you certain you are a sinner? Well, then, reach your hand hither, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Are you a helpless sinner? “To them who have no might he increaseth strength.” Are you an ungrateful, backsliding sinner? Hear him say, “ Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; but return unto me, saith the Lord;” and if you doubt whether you may believe for a great measure of holiness; whether your soul, already in old age and barren, shall believe for abundant fruitfulness; answer yourself my dear friend, from that word, “Whosoever will, let him come, and take of the water of life freely.” I have just told Mrs. Smyth of one of your sisters here, once a deeper unbeliever than yourself, but now quite full of God; I refer you to her letter. O my God, in mercy let thy power rest on thy dear servants! Convey, even by this poor scrawl, some power to their poor hearts; some fresh light into the mighty chain which begins with man’s wickedness, hangs on God’s mercy in the promises, is continued by faith and victory springing therefrom, and ends with Christ’s fulness becoming all in all. We pray the God of love to be with your children, and all who meet with them. Tell sister Hammond to keep hold on the chain: it shall draw her into the holy of holies. With our kindest and most grateful remembrance of you both, we remain your sincere, but unworthy friends, J. AND M. FLETCHER.
70. - TO MR. HENRY BROOKE.
MADELEY, April 27, 1784.
MY DEAR BROTHER, - Mercy, peace, and perfect love attend you, your dear partner, and the dear friends under your roof, with whom I beg you may abide under the cross, till, with John, Mary, and Salome, &c, you all can say, “We are crucified with him, and the life we now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us.” You are certainly right when you prefer the inward to the outward: the former is the safer, but both together make up the beauty of holiness. The inward life may be compared to the husband, the outward to the fruitful wife: what God hath joined together, let no man, nor even angel, put asunder.
With respect to the glory of the Lord, “it is at hand, whatever false wisdom and unbelief may whisper to our hearts: it can be no farther off than the presence of Him who fills all in all. Our wrong notions of things are a main hinderance to our stepping into it: and perhaps our minding more the cherubim of glory than the plain tables and the manna hid in the ark.” “There is a passing,” says Bromley, “from the outward to the inward, and from the inward to the inmost, and it is only from the inmost that we can see the Lord’s spiritual glory.” Pray, my dear brother, when you get so fixed in the inmost, as not to lose sight of Him who dwells in the light and in the thick darkness, may we share your joy. Love will make me partake of your happiness.