LETTER DCCXLIV.
To Mr. S.
London, March 11, 1749.
My very dear Mr. S,
I Wish you joy. I trust you may now say, "Now I begin to be a disciple of Jesus Christ." You know who has commanded us to rejoice and be exceeding glad when men separate from our company, and speak all manner of evil against us falsely for his name's sake. Thanks be to God, you have at length found out, that whosoever attempts to reconcile God and the world, is attempting to reconcile two irreconcilable differences. They are as opposite as light and darkness, heaven and hell. You have nothing to do, but to go on doing, and then sing with an holy triumph,
For this let men revile my name,
I shun no cross, I fear no shame;
All hail reproach, and welcome pain,
Only thy terrors, Lord, restrain.
You know he is faithful, who hath promised, "that he will never leave nor forsake you." Wait on him therefore, dear Sir, and you shall renew your strength, nay you shall mount on wings like an eagle; you shall walk and not be weary, you shall run and not be faint. Various are the trials inward and outward that you will meet with. It is in the spiritual as in the natural birth. The after-pangs are sometimes sharper than those that precede the new-birth itself. If you are made use of by Jesus Christ, no wonder that satan desires to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But fear not; Jesus prays for you; your faith therefore shall not fail. How was Paul humbled and struck down before he was sent forth to preach the everlasting gospel? Prayer, temptation, and meditation, says Luther, are necessary ingredients for a minister. If God teaches us humility, it must be as Gideon taught the men of Succoth, by thorns. This I suppose is what dear Mr. H means; he has been conversant with Mr. L, and writes much therefore in his way. I find he is for making thorough work of it, and digging deep in order to build high. He is certainly
