To a Person burdened with inward and outward Troubles.
_Worthy Sir_,
MY heart embraces you with all the tenderness and affection of Christian love; and I earnestly beg of God, to make me a messenger of _his peace_ to your soul.
You seem to apprehend, I may be much surprized at the account you have given of yourself; but I am neither surprized nor offended at it; I neither condemn nor lament your estate, but shall endeavour to shew you, how soon it may be made a blessing and happiness to you. In order to which, I shall not enter into a consideration of the different kinds of trouble you have set forth at large. I think it better to lay before you the ground and root, from whence all the evils of human life have sprung. This will make it easy for you to see what that is, which only can be the full remedy for all.
The scripture has assured us, that God made man in _his own image and likeness_; a sufficient proof, that man, in his first state, as he came forth from God, must have been absolutely free from all vanity, want, or distress; from any thing painful, either within or without him. It would be absurd to suppose, that a creature beginning to exist in the image of God, should have vanity of life, or vexation of spirit: a god-like perfection of nature, and a painful, distressed nature, stand in the utmost contrariety to one another.
_Again_, the scripture has assured us, _that man that is born of a woman, hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery_: Therefore man now is not the creature that he was by his creation. The first god-like nature of _Adam_, which was to have been immortally holy in union with God, is lost; and instead of it, a poor mortal of earthly flesh and blood, born like a wild ass’s colt, of a short life, and full of misery, is going thro’ a vain pilgrimage, to end in dust and ashes. Therefore, let every evil, whether inward or outward, teach you that man has lost his first life in God; and that no comfort, or deliverance is to be expected, but only in this one thing, that though man had lost his God, yet God is become man, that man may be again alive in God.
Now here are two things raised up in man, instead of the _life of God: First, selfishness, brought_ forth by his chusing to have a wisdom of _his own_; contrary to the will and instruction of his Creator. _Secondly_, an earthly, bestial life, brought forth by his eating that food, which was poison to his paradisaical nature. Both these must therefore be removed; that is, a man must totally die to himself, and all earthly desires, views, and intentions, before he can be again in God.
But now if this be an immutable truth, that man, so long as he is a _selfish earthly-minded_ creature, must be deprived of his true life, the life of God, in his soul; then how is the face of things changed! For then, what life is so much dreaded as a life of worldly ease and prosperity? What a curse is there in every thing that gratifies and nourishes our self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking? On the other hand, what happiness is there in all inward and outward troubles, when they force us to know the hell that is within us, and the vanity of every thing without us, when they turn all our self-love into self-abhorrence, and force us to call upon God to save us from ourselves, to give us a new life, and new spirit in _Christ Jesus_.
“O happy famine,” might the poor prodigal have said, “which by reducing me to eat husks with swine, _brought me to myself_, and caused my return to my first happiness in my father’s house.”
Now, I will suppose your state to be as you represent it; inwardly, heaviness and confusion of thoughts and passions; outwardly, ill usage from friends, relations, and all the world; with an inability to strike out the least spark of light or comfort, by any thought or reasoning of your own.
O happy famine, which leaves you not so much as the husk of one human comfort to feed upon! For this is the time and place for all that life and salvation to happen to you, which happened to the prodigal son. Your way is as short, and your success as certain as his was: you have no more to do than he had; you need not call out for books, or methods of devotion; for, in your present state, much reading, and borrowed prayers, are not your best method; all that you are to offer to God, all that is to help you to find him to be your Saviour and Redeemer, is best taught by the distressed state of your heart.