Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

communion in yt state) if it should please the Lord so to order it.

In july you wrote that then your aunt my sister in law was alive in health & continued her motherly affection to you & yours I long to hear how she is & if she received your brothers letter informing her of her sisters death I am desirous to keep up a correspondence wt her as long as we live, if I knew how to do it, pray in yours forget not to inform me how she is yt I may know she is alive & may continue my prayers for her I never forget you nor my dear daughter nor yours my dear grandchildren tho I have not yt desirableness of seeing them & I think never will, I say I never forget you both & them night nor day in my prayers to God & I hope never will so long as I am capable to pray for my selfe, I give thanks also to God for the comfortable account you give of them all, I had my fear about them after I heard the small pox was so near you, but do rejoice the Lord hath preserved them to you seeing you write nothing in yours to Mr James Christie of the small pox being in your family I entreat you as a dying father you will not ommitt sacrifice of writing to me & letting me know how it is with you & yours & studie to be wise useful to make sure the one thing needful yt shall never be taken from you, except by faith [torn] change of your hail by the inhabitation of the spirit, pardon of sin, reconciliation wt God through the Saviour & Mediation of the Lord Jesus, the alone Meditator between God & sinners, grow to hate sin & to be above ye world, grow to know love fear & obey God in Christ & to trust him w all your [word illegible] temporal & spiritual in the way of dutie, living so truly religiously & godly in his present world, evolving for the blessed home, choosing the greatest of afflictions rather than least of sin indeavour in a dependance in God Jesus Christ to be usefull in your station the Gospel of Christ by the presence of gospel holyness to Christs image & example endeavoring in the use of apparent means to grow in grace & to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, breathing after communion w God in Christ in all providences & ordinances y' you may taste how good & gracious God is in Christ, may have

some blessings of heaven in your soul, & may they be taught to be above the world & earthly things & find satisfaction enough in God in the ways in the faith of ye truths revealed in Gospel & worldly in y⚫ way of this precept by the guidance & assistance of his holy spirit, pray much for the reservation of your children yt they may be born again, may partake of life may be received unto the number of Gods children, yt he may be a father to yours & thers & yt they may bear his image may honor him in prayer as he may call them, & may be heirs of yt inheritance yt unsettled incorruptible & fades not away & is justice for all Gods children & for which they are kept by the power through such let not your wordly business push out the worship of God out of your familie induce nothing w'out acknowledgeing the Lord in all your wayes & he will direct your paths, so remitt the issue of all your affair to his pleasure be ready to make welcome the comeing w'ever it is, take care yt that your familie sanctify the Lords day pray alwise to be in a praying house keep your heart wt all diligence make sensore of your words ever give thanks in all you meet wt whether mercie or afflictions, we will profit by being in mistifying corruption especially the sin yt easyly befel you, look to Christ for Grace to know and do all he requires, so as you may be accepted according to the tenor of grace for all yt required is also promised in that everlasting covenant make not haste to be rich, having food & to a general endeavor to be yt with content Godlyness wt contentment is great gain be not expressly concerned about the provision of your children, endeavour to educat them for God & he will care for them & affix them y' provision y he sees best for them, your brother and you have been well provided & cared for tho I had laid up nothing for you, God does not forsake the righteous nor their seed do not hazard the loss if God forbear to give you the favour of men, let it be your chief aim to have the light of his countenance, if he smiles you need not care who frowns in his favour is life studie & sincerely respect to all Gods commands wtout exception or reservation hateing very false way that you may have the rejoicing of a good

conscience signifying for you yt you have had your conversation in ye world in sympathie & godly sincerity & not wt fleshly influence mark ye perfect & behold the upright for the later end of that man is peace hold on in y way & thus you will wax stronger & stronger, the way of the Lord is strength to ye upright, make religion your chief business & all other things only your by works often be taking a view of the world and the things of it so as you will seed when you are taking an everlasting farewell of it delay not making religion your chief business our time host & verie uncertain Christ often comes in an hour wherein he is not lookt for, walk not after the customs & manners of your independant neighbours walk with God tho you should walk alone these are with trials and temptations afflictions, look not for your cross here whosoever will come after Christ must deny themselves take up his cross daily and follow him, think it not strange when you meet with them think not the worse of God nor of religion upon the account of them Moses choosed the afflictions of the people of God rather than the pleasure of sin yt are but for a season a sanctify'd affliction as y badge of our adoption, weerie not in well doing let not your goodness be as the morning dew & y early cloud yt soon passes away, shake off spiritual flesh, think not to get to heaven sleeping, we must strive to enter in & labour for the meat that endureth it over all life they are not the means of grace but rest in the [torn] but empty things in ym selves until the Lord fill you by his spirit, attend on Ym in obedience to Gods commands and in faith believing ye accomplish of his promise to come and bless y people where he now is avoided do not limit him as to the accomplishment of yt promise to your time, wait at wisdoms page, look not for the blessing from the messenger but from his master that sends him, when the Lord comes by ye spirit to convince and humble you to enlighten you to draw you from self sin and y⚫ world do not resist him but pray for grace to comply perfectly with these motives lest you provoke ye Lord to depart and strive no more with you, hold fast that you reserve & improve the same, this will be y way to hurry and increase the

same, if you be one sincerely ingaged in y way of religion you will not find it an easy thing you will find it above y power of nature & will see the necessitie of supernatural grace then you will see the need of anothers righteousnes then your own of another light then your own of another strength then your own, then you will see the need of a Saviour who is both god & man & he will become precious to you, & you will see that grace is well ordered in all things. I am affraid you will hardly read this letter I had a bad pen & had spectacles it would been fatigueing to me to write it over again, I hope you y are so well acquaint wt my hand writing will be better able to read it than another, Mr. Thos: Bell is ordaind a minister of a [torn] in Northumberland, I have thought of going to Whitsom next week to assist James at [torn] If I grow not worse later end of y last week I was under such oppression of my spirit & [torn] hardly walk but I bless God I am better this week, I am affraid I may be suddenly taken off, the [torn] the Lord be done, if M Scott had not come to this Countrie having no letters from you by the ships yt arrived in England from Newyork my uneasiness wt respect to you would been growing upon me I wrote no letters to you after your Mothers death it seems you have not received the Last I then in my last letter desired you to inform me wt tokens of her love she wrote to you She designed to leave to your children which you insinuate in yours which desire I repeat by this, & if they be in my house, they shall be sent to you, your mother spoke nothing to me or your brother with respect to these, halfe a dozen of Silver Spoons are here & shall be God willing secured for you I designed to order some when Of my affection to my Grandson Alex' your oldest Son, you know I cannot manage the world I have the Maintaince & wages of an assistant upon me beside the maintaince of three servants & my two grandchildren by your brother, so yt I am apprehensive I may have little to leave any I look upon it as a great mercie yt I am free of debt, I have been sometimes too much concerned about your mothers my dear wifes provision after my death, the Lord provided well for her all her life & at

her death. I thank God yt both you and your brother are provided for without me I pray heartyly y' God himself may be your God & father yt God father Sone & Holy Ghost may be not only the God & father to you and my dear Daughter your wife but the God & father of your dear children and then you both & they shall be close in tyme at death & for ever in heaven & I hope we shall meet together ther & know one another ther according to the opinion of some great & grave devines, and that the meantime our prayers for one another ther may meet daily at the throne of grace & may be sharers of the same spiritual blessings tho at a distance from one another, that the God of all grace & of all comfort May bless you both and yours continually by guiding & teaching you & them in all things-Ever doing all things yt be fall you in his province for his own Glorie & your spiritual & loving God is & shall be the prayer of

[blocks in formation]

I should be Extreamly glad it lay in my Power to communicate any thing agreable to you at this Juncture but thats Impossible for my weekly company are made up of the Dull flegmatick, and Designing the worst composition in The world, and my greatest Difficulty is to manager as To render my Self agreable to them all I think I have in some measure prevailed being (according to the parlimentary Dialect) well heard I shall always

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »