The Goodness, Mercy, and Long-suffering Forbearance of a Covenant God towards JAMES MASON, (Minister of the Gospel, Sunning-hill, Sunning-dale, Berkshire.) DEAR BROTHER AND COMPANION IN TRIBULATION, AND IN THE KINGDOM AND PATIENCE OF JESUS CHRIST. I HAVE had it laid upon my mind for some time to write an account of the goodness, mercy, and long suffering forbearance of a covenant God, towards one of the chiefest of sinners. When this first struck my mind, a passage of Scripture dropt into my heart with some degree of power, preciousness, and sweetness" Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." First, here were the characters to be addressed; those that fear God, who are the only people upon the face of the earth who can understand the work of God in bringing a sinner to himself. Secondly, the declaration to be made; for it was not merely to tell them, but to declare what God had done for my soul; but so many things appeared to conspire to hinder me, that this feeling gradually departed from my mind. Again, at another period, this Scripture seemed to arouse the feeling which the first had created in my soul, "Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee;" which was followed by these words-" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might: for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest." All the feelings that I experienced from the application of these Scriptures, have lately been revived, and that by the perusal of the Earthen Vessel. I have read the Warning Voice; the Tree Cut Down; and Letters written in the Valley of Achor, and can truly say, "My soul doth magnify God" on your behalf. In your note to me of February 19th, you write concerning mine as follows:-"Your letter to me this morning, gave me to feel much union of soul to you;" and I tell you, my brother, that it is a reciprocal union: I have traced you in your sorrows, and have known what it is to weep with you; I have followed you in your deliverances, and have found my soul drawn out to bless the Lord for that grace bestowed upon you; though strangers in the flesh, we are one in the spirit, and as the dear Lord enables us, can join to celebrate the praises of him, who hath plucked us as brands from the burning, and shout unto him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins, in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, amen. My soul hath also been refreshed and comforted, in reading the testimonies of some of your correspondents; and from these things feel constrained, if the Lord spare me, and give me permission, to lay before you the dealings of God with a poor sinner, for you to use as you may think fit; I am no scholar, and therefore shall make no apology for grammatical blunders, feeling fully assured that the Lord's dear people in general, are not a learned people in the wisdom of this world, but a poor, tried, tempted, persecuted people, who love the truth as it is in Jesus, stated in a plain and simple way, and I hope and trust it will be for the glory of God, and the benefit of such poor souls, that I am constrained to write; desiring to be guided by wisdom from above, that in my experience God's dear children may see their path marked out, and that it may be made a blessing to the church of God. The eternal and ever-blessed God was pleased to begin to work effectually in my soul on the 26th of July, 1831. The 10th day of the aforesaid month was my birthday naturally, on which I completed my thirty-second year; during which period of time, a long-suffering, forbearing, and merciful God, had watched over me in the follies of my youth; preserved me, notwithstanding all the sins, madness, blasphemy, and rebellion of my riper years. Preserved me! "Why?" is a question I am often brought solemnly to ask in my own soul, when so many are cut off in their transgressions, who have never gone to that extent of iniquity and awful rebellion to which I was permitted to go, "why was I preserved, who so richly deserved the lowest hell? I, who never merited anything, at the hand of a holy, and just God, but eternal destruction, from the presence of his glory for ever and ever? The reason why, never can be found in me, for I daily feel I am a poor, empty, vile, and guilty creature in and of my self, and that in me, that is in my flesh "there dwelleth no good thing." The reason why can only be found in the sovereign love and discriminating grace, of a covenant God. This precious scripture, the sweetness of which, I have tasted, handled, and 'felt in my own soul's experience, hath opened the mystery, "Sanctified by God the Father, preserved in Christ Jesus, and called;" here is the why, and wherefore such a wretch as me, was preserved, and is still preserved and made a partaker of the rich and sovereign grace of God, which is treasured up in Christ Jesus. : But to return :-The 10th of July, 1831, found me an hardened infidel; dead in trespasses and sins; no fear of God before my eyes; it being my birth-day, I was determined to enjoy myself; such a blind infatuated fool was I by nature, that wallowing in sin, drinking in iniquity, as the ox drinketh in water, I called enjoyment, such was my wretched case: I invited a friend to dine with me, and several to spend the afternoon with us; one amongst our company was a professor of religion, but like thousands of professors, destitute of the power of vital godliness, or he never would have made one of our company: he was invited, (I write it with shame, and confusion of face, and my soul is humbled within me, under a sense of my exceeding sinfulness, and the riches of that grace that plucked me from such an awful state; he was invited,) on purpose to be our fool, to make our mirth in iniquity, the greater we knew that he would maintain the truth of the Bible, and thus by having an opponent I was able to belch out more lies and blasphemies against that precious book, and against that dear God who is the author of it, than otherwise I should have been able. I am often made to look back to this day; sometimes with sorrow of heart, sometimes with wonder and astonishment, sometimes with love and praise, language cannot describe the feelings of my heart. It was only last night, brother Banks, I retired to bed, between ten and eleven o'clock, I lay there, but the Lord kept me awake all night, and I did not drop to sleep till day-break this morning; I had all the events of my guilty life presented to my view; never did I experience the fulfilment of that scripture to such an extent as I did last night-"Thou shalt look back on all the way the Lord thy God hath led thee, these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, that thou mayest know what is in thine heart." I really was made literally to commune with mine own heart, and be still, whilst the God of my salvation talked with me, dropt his word into my soul and instructed my reins in the night season. But to return in the afternoon, the heavens gathered blackness, the rain fell in torrents, the lightnings flashed, and the thunders rolled in awful peals over our heads; God's judgments were abroad in the earth; the hail cut the ears of the standing corn, and laid fields waste, and a thunderbolt fell, about a mile from our scorner's assembly. During the awful storm, I was mocking the thunders of heaven, scorning, and denying the existence of a God; insulting the Majesty of heaven, and ridiculing the contents of the Bible. By night, I got intoxicated, and went to bed; rose the next morning with the feelings of all the sad effects of the intemperance of the preceeding day, unable to work, but able to enter again on the devil's drudgery, and continued in a state of intoxication till the night of the 14th. The apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians, 1 Epistle, thus addresses them"Know ye not that the unrighteous, shall not inherit the kingdom of God? be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves, with mankind; nor theives, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God:" and how does he sum the matter up? "and such were some of you." Ah, Paul! I plead guilty; such was I; and like the sensible sinners Paul was writing to, I hope, I trust, yea, I believe, I am interested in the glorious mercies which follow-" But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." I shall not run through a detail of my enormous transgressions, suffice it to say, that through drunkenness, and my own foolishness, I threw myself out of employment, and started from Wantage to London, a distance of sixty miles, and left my wife and children to follow me by the waggon; I left Wantage without a single penny, but that adorable, that kind providence, that has watched over such a wretch as me, and provided for me all my days, appeared for me now, in the midst of my folly, sin, madness and rebellion, but I knew him not, and heeded not the wonders of his hand; but attributed all! all, to fortune and good luck! Now! now, I can truly say, I once was blind, but now I see;" see his hand in innumerable instances, how he has preserved me, snatched me from destruction, and provided for me when I knew him not, and was a stranger to his ways. I stopt at the small town of Watlington, and here a kind providence appeared for me, and gave me a little work, and the opportunity of earning 4s. 6d., which I found a sufficiency to carry me to London, where I arrived on the 21st of July, and went to my sister's, and told her I expected my wife and children on the following morning, and borrowed money of her to pay their carriage, having left them nearly as destitute as myself; here, again, a kind providence appeared for me, although I plunged myself into difficulties, by my own sin and folly: oh! how free are his mercies! and I feel at this moment while I write, the language of good old Jacob, the language of my heart-"I am unworthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast shewn unto thy servant." The dear Lord inclined my sister's heart to lend the required sum; the following morning 66 I went to the waggon-office, and learned | to my surprise that my family had not arrived; low-spirited, and melancholy before, this added to my despondency, and a thousand anxious fears ran through my mind. This state of suspense I was kept in from the 22nd to the 26th. On the morning of the ever memorable, and ever to be remembered day of the 26th of July, 1831, I got up between three and four o'clock in the morning, full of anxious fears, very melancholy and proceeded to the waggon office at Warwick Arms, Warwick Lane, Newgate Street, unable to account for my strange feelings, I had often felt them before, but never felt as I now felt I had gone to meet them on similar occasions, but never felt as I now felt; my feelings seemed the presage of something awful, and so the reader will find: I arrived at the entrance of the waggon yard, and the first thing that saluted my astonished ears, was the shrieks and cries of my wife and children: my legs took wings, I ran to enquire what was the matter, but felt as though I was afraid to ask the question. I feel quite assured God brings his people to himself by terrible things in righteousness, and the first lesson he teaches them, is to know and feel that there is a God of holiness, and justice, against whom they have sinned, in a state of nature. I was an open, a professed, and an avowed, atheist; I find most men profess they believe there is a God, and will admit they are sinners; but I can find but very few, comparatively speaking, with the vast bulk of mankind, who know and feel there is a God, are made sensible by his almighty power, that they are, in, and of themselves, poor, lost, wretched, ruined, guilty sinners; and none but these, who are made to feel so, by the quickening, and convincing operations of God the Holy Ghost, can ever value Jesus Christ, the Almighty, all-sufficient Saviour. God of heaven, for my sins and transgressions; it was an unknown visitor, and an unwelcome guest; I began to enquire where it came from; I endeavoured to believe it was the effect of a superstitious education, which was a term I gave to a religious education of any kind; but, lest I should be mistaken, I will here say a word concerning my early life :-I was the child of poor parents, cast into the lap of poverty from the womb, and have been kept in that vale all my life, as my father was before me; who used to say, "poverty was no sin; better to say there goes a poor man, than there goes a thief." My parents were moral, strict, church-going people; and when I arrived at a proper age I was sent to a charity school, where I received all my natural education; and was brought up as the rules of the school expressed it, in the principles of christianity as by law established. I knew what it was in early life, to have natural convictions; my mother died when I was fifteen, and her death made a strong impression on my naturatural mind; I thought of death, judgment, heaven and hell, and began to think about being religious; under these feelings I went to hear Alexander Fletcher, of Albion Chapel, Moorfields, and became, what would be called by the religious world, a pious youth; but, alas! it was all natural, and rottenness was at the core. It was when I was about eighteen, that I began to drink in the withering, blighting, and blasting principles of infidelity. These principles swept away like a mighty flood, all my piety all my religion, and all moral restraint, and left me like the poor mad Gadarene, who had his dwelling among the tombs, no man could bind him: no, not with chains, because he had been bound with fetters and chains, the chains had been plucked assunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him; possessed with a legion of devils; this was my state And none but sinners value him." when I received my child into my arms; and the thought in my heart with irresistable But to return:-My legs quickly brought power, "a judgment from the God of me up to the waggon. I put the question, heaven, for thy sins." Talk of men hav"What is the matter?" and received this ing power to repent, and turn to God; answer from my wife, "My child is dead;" those who thus talk, know not the depth of to use a common expression, you might the fall, and are strangers to the depravity have knocked me down with a feather; I of their own hearts; yea, are unbelievers, quickly enquired which child? and received though they profess, and call themselves for answer, "Mark." Mark was a fine baby christians. Man has neither will nor power six months old: I had left him about a week to turn unto God, this I know, for God ago in perfect health, and now received him hath taught me this lesson by heart-felt into my hands, a lifeless corpse, but still experience; neither is man a tractable bewarm, and with the anxious hopes of a parenting, the carnal mind is enmity (in the abI ran to a surgeon's, but it was too late, his spirit had fled to God that gave it; when I took him into my arms, a thought, yes, a thought, struck my mind like lightning, that this awful event, was a judgment from the "Sinners are high in his esteem, stract,) against God. Man by nature is READER!—you and I must die. Have you | fellowship! Oh, that I could put it ever been brought solemnly to cry out from the very bottom of your soul-" Let me die the death of the righteous ?" If you havecome and see what it is for the righteous to die. The publication of "the Life of Mrs. JUDD, by the REV. BERNARD GILPIN, has indeed been rendered a great blessing unto many of the Lord's living family. We purpose to review at length the correspondence of Mrs. JUDD in future numbers, but for the present confine ourselves to a short extract (from this most invaluable work,) descriptive of her approach unto, and passage through the Jordan of death. Under the head of "Mrs. JUDD's declining years, and death," our esteemed author says : "About half-a-year before Mrs. Judd left Black-fan Wood, she had a re markable and very clear revival of the good work in her soul, accompanied with great joy and peace, which seemed intended to strengthen her faith and hope during the trials which followed to the end of her life. I will therefore give some account of it, being the substance of several conversatious which I and another friend had with her at the time. She had long been in a feeble state, and was at that time confined to her bed. Having found her, during the previous week, low in mind, I expected she might still be so; but no sooner had I entered than she exclaimed, 'Oh blessed, blessed, blessed be the Lord for ever! glory, glory to his name! To think of his mercy to such a wretch as I am.' I replied, 'Is the glorious light of his presence with you?' 'Indeed,' she answered, it is. This glory does not appear outwardly, but I have it within. It is the greatest joy, in the midst of the greatest sorrow. I said, You remind me of the words, Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." That's the fellowship she exclaimed, 'Oh what a beautiful fellowship that is! Who can express the feeling of that VOL. II. PART XVII. June. into the heart of all who come to see me! I have not enjoyed this peace without opposition, for the enemy has striven hard to rob me of it; but oh, what a thing it is to see a great God come in, stop him in his career, and not suffer him to have his will!' "I then read with her the twentythird Psalm; The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want! He maketh me to eth me beside the still waters!' Here lie down in green pastures, he leadshe broke out saying, 'That's what I'm doing now, walking beside those still waters! Tell me (I said,) what they are?'Oh, (she replied,) peace in private with my good God, my great God, my Redeemer! I said, "The waters have not always been still you have often been in deep waters, in which (as David says in the 107th Fsalm) you have reeled to and fro, and been at your wit's end.' She answered, 'Oh, many, many a time; oh, how dreadful those waters have been! Over and over again I have thought I should be overwhelmed in them; and now what a stillness there is! How calm, how quiet are those waters! And how sweet is my fellowship! Oh, my precious Christ and Saviour, to think what he has done to bring wretches to God! I know and feel I am altogether a hell-deserving sinner; though I am saved from it, I am only worthy of it, that I know.' I said, I know that words cannot set forth how destitute you have felt your soul to be, when the Lord has withdrawn, and left.' 'True Sir,' she replied; 'destitute, poor, blind, naked.' 'Yes,' I added, and besides all, fallen among thieves.' 'Just so, indeed,' she went on; like the poor man in the parable: and to think how many passed by him in that case, and could not help him, till the Good Samaritan, came. Now I say that good Samaritan, Jesus Christ, has come to me, and saved me, and taken care of me. Though I am very weak, and all is in private between me and my God, and no one can see my feelings, yet I am strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."" "I asked her to give me an account of the coming in of this great joy; P which she did, partly at the time, and partly in a subsequent visit as follows: "When I saw you last week, sir, I had none of this joy. At that very time I was going down; and soon after you left me, I quite despaired of my self. I said, 'I am taken away! Oh, I am taken away! I shall sink for ever! Surely I am not right! Surely I am going down to the everlasting pit! I prayed and cried, 'Oh manifest thyself to me! Oh shew me my sins, hide nothing from me!' Then he shewed me my sins, and I saw that if he cast me off for ever, I deserved it. None need despair, if I am saved. I am more brutish than any-yes, brutish, brutish! I have followed the ways of the enemy; I have not set forth the Lord's glory when I might have done it! But oh! that any one would help me to praise God. Before the great and blessed light of the Lord came in, he sent me these words, 'Be still and know that I am God' Then these words followed, 'The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.' I wondered what sort of a coming this would be, for the feeling of my sins made me to fear; but behold it was coming in wonderful and unspeakable mercy, to deliver me from all my fears and doubts: For the Lord broke in at that time, I wish I could describe it, but I cannot, and it almost seems as if I should not, because it is too great. This I can say, he renewed his first covenant with me over again-aye, his marriage covenant, he renewed it over again. It was as if we had been parted a great number of years, and came to meet again; and the joy of our meeting was unspeakable. It was as if my great and blessed God took it hard of me that I should ever have doubted. It was as if one friend were to meet another friend after a long separation, and to say, 'Do you think I forgot you?' It was of that nature, only it was spiritual. Blessed, for ever blessed! Oh I can now say, My beloved is the chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. My darkness was as if a person was out in a dark night, and could not so much as see his own hand, and behold the glorious light sprang in. Oh, wonderful! "And now, as I lie here, it is as if heaven opened to receive me. I think of the blessed company the spirits of just men made perfect; I think of the blessed Redeemer in all his beauty and glory, and I am swallowed up in love. Neither is the time long, for the blessed word of God in my heart shortens the time that it is nothing.' "She continued in this state of heavenly joy for some time, and the power of it gradually withdrew." * * * "True it was, that from this time, to the end of her life, which was rather more than four years, she was deeply tried both outwardly and inwardly. The death of her only surviving son, and the embitterment of all family enjoyments, were no small afflictions in her most helpless condition. She suffered much at times, through severe illness, as well as from the increasing infirmities of old age; and these things pressed more heavily because of her lonely solitude and blindness. Nevertheless, her spiritual joy and peace often abounded, though every revival was quickly overpowered in returning conflict and darkness. What appeared, as I thought, most conspicuous of all, was the strength and power of God in supporting her spirit under the heavy cross which she endured; so that on the whole we may say, that her bow abode in strength: though the archers sorely grieved her, and shot at her, and hated her.' (Gen. xlix. 22.) Next to this, what I felt most was that she was preserved as a monument, to shew the excellency of spiritual repentance in the sight of God. Her mourning under this tedious course of affliction, because of her sin which was so brought ever before her, is that part of pure and undefiled religion which man despises, but God despises not; as it is written, "The sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise." The word was indeed verified in her case, "They called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after." (Jer. xxx. 17.) The mourning and the desolation were great, but there was glory within: so that she was often like a fire smothered in embers; if we blow away the ashes the fire will glow. I remember once after she had expressed great mourning for sin, something directed her spirit to hope, and I over |