Anne Dutton's
Letters on Spiritual Subjects
My Dear Brother in our most precious Jesus,
Your last kind letter I most thankfully received; the Lord made it sweet and
savory to my taste. I rejoice before God, and give thanks to Him for the
rich display of His kindness towards you, for the bright manifestations of
His everlasting love, through the bleeding Lamb with which you have been so
highly favored. It is sweet indeed, heart-ravishing
and soul-attracting, to be with Christ on the Mount for a few
moments, to behold His glory by faith. It is no wonder that when we are
blessed with a glance of His infinite beauty, who has the fairest face in
both worlds, that we are winged with a desire to see Him as He is, without a
veil or intervening cloud, to a blessed eternity. It is spiritually natural
to the newborn, when they have a glimpse of the glory of Christ, to long for
the full and immediate vision of that infinitely bright and glorious object,
in whom all glories meet and forever shine with transforming rays. The
language of such souls at such times is—
"Nothing but glory can suffice
The appetite of grace,
I long for Christ with restless eyes,
I languish for His face."
And with the full enjoyment of His blessed self, and with
the endless vision of His infinite glory, shall every such longing soul be
satisfied.
I rejoice, my dear brother, that the Lord was pleased to
bless what I wrote to excite you to take up and endure the cross of Christ,
and that you have found it under the rich supplies of the Spirit of grace to
be exceeding sweet, light, and easy. Marvelously has the Lord made bare His
arm in causing mountains, which stood in our way and seemed insuperable, to
flow down at His presence. Do you see how good it is to follow the Lord
fully? how mighty He is to save? and how faithful He is to His promise? And
will you not learn hence to cleave unto Him in time to come whenever He
calls you to follow Him through difficulties? Will you not henceforth put
your trust in Him who with a word can break gates of brass and cut bars of
iron asunder? that with His word, "Peace, be still," can silence winds and
waves when most tempestuous?
The calm you now enjoy is the effect of your Lord's love
and power; prize and praise Him for it accordingly, and learn to trust in
Him continually. You see, my dear brother, how easily the Lion of the tribe
of Judah could stop the roar of the lion of hell where you were most apt to
fear it; and how false the father of lies has proved in that suggestion
which he cast your way. Learn hence to cleave unto, and trust in, Christ,
and not to listen to Satan. And does this enemy roar at you still from a
greater distance? Remember your Lord, the Almighty God, has him in chains!
Roar he may, but he shall not hurt you, while you keep on the King's
highway, nor would the Prince of peace allow the rage of hell in any sort to
vent itself against you if His design were not to overrule it for His own
glory and your advantage.
Keep close to Christ, love, honor, and obey Him in all
things, and then fear nothing. Be valiant for the truth, for the doctrines,
the appointments of Jesus, and with all humility, and a single eye to His
glory, bear a becoming testimony for the same in word and practice, adorning
the doctrine of Christ with a good conversation in Him, and then fear not
what either men or devils can do unto you, for "Who is he who shall harm you
if you be a follower of that which is good?" What if a thousand reproaches
are cast upon you? the Lord will plead your cause, and make your glory so
much the greater. Reproaches, meekly borne for Christ's sake, are the
honors which free grace puts upon you here, and will be as so many gems to
enrich your crown of glory hereafter. With Moses then, "esteem the reproach
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt."
I humbly think, my dear brother, from the rich enjoyments
which our Lord gives you of Himself, from the great trials which He calls
you to endure for Him, and from the angry roars of the enemy against you,
that He designs to honor you with some eminent service for Him, and
usefulness to His in the present world, in order to a weighty crown of glory
in the world to come. Oh, walk humbly with God, and wait to see how His
rich, free grace will exalt you. Perhaps all the bright displays of
amazing favor which your blessed eyes have hitherto seen are but, as it
were, the first opening beams of more refulgent rays of infinite grace and
glory which are yet to be cast upon you.
O, my brother, does God love you? He will love you like
Himself! God who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved
you, even when you were dead in sins, has quickened you together with Christ
(both mystically and influentially) that in the ages to come He might show
the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards you through Christ
Jesus! The Lord who loved you from eternity past; who loves you freely,
infinitely, and unchangeably; will love you forever, and forever rejoice
over you to show new wonders of infinite kindness towards you; therefore,
wait on your God continually.
A few hints next as to the things you desire me to write
to you of.
1. You say, my dear brother, "That the thoughts and
contemplations of the flowings of God's love towards you through the blood
of Jesus do so little affect your soul that you are sometimes ready to doubt
whether it be not all a mere delusion."
And can it be that a soul who has seen, felt, and tasted
the love of God through Christ in its ineffable sweetness, in its
all-conquering power and soul-transforming glory, should, after this, be
ready to doubt, if all be not a mere delusion? Ah! yes; when the efficacious
influence of love's sweetness, power, and glory is withdrawn, a believer, in
times of temptation, through the strength of unbelief, may be ready to
doubt, yes, even yield to doubt, if the reality of his own experience be not
all a mere delusion, so unsteady in faith is a believer himself, though set
upon a rock of ages, until his goings are established; until the Lord,
taking him by the arms, has taught him to go—to go by faith, without the
prop of spiritual sense—until he is eminently sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise, and has a steeled assurance of faith given him.
And yet I am persuaded that, if at the same time of such
inward hesitations a believer were set upon by outward enemies, who should
say but the same things to him which Satan indiscernibly suggests to his
mind, his soul would rise up in arms against them, and boldly stand on God's
side as a witness for Him and Him infinite love, and the truth and reality
of his own experience thereof; but the enemy being within, the soul
often discerns him not until it is wounded by him; it yields to hold a
parley with Satan, supposing it to be only the reasoning of its own mind.
But such parleys are exceedingly dangerous; the soul thereby enters into
temptation, disbelieves God, and credits the father of lies; dishonors
infinite love, truth, and faithfulness; weakens his own faith and every
grace; joins with God's enemy to reproach and deny His work—a work in which
His brightest glory shines; yes, gives the enemy vast advantages over him.
Then let such souls beware, and whenever put upon this kind of doubting, let
them be assured that the enemy is just before them, set in battle-array
against them, and, instantly asking support of the Captain of salvation, let
them gird on their armor, stand to their arms, and as good soldiers of Jesus
Christ, resist the devil, steadfast in faith, and away he shall flee from
them, to God's honor and to their joy, both present and eternal.
But perhaps, my brother, you will ask, "What must I say
to Satan when he tempts me?" Tell him, God, the God of infinite purity,
through His sacrificed Son, loves sinners; that He can, does, and will love
them freely, notwithstanding all their unloveliness and ingratitude and evil
requiting of His for the infinite kindness of His manifested love; that as a
sinner, the very chief, you will go hide yourself in the Lamb's wounds and
blood, and that there you shall now and forever find God to be unto you the
God of love and peace. Tell him, you will confess and bewail your
ingratitude before God, and that He will forgive the iniquity of your sin;
but you will not doubt His love, or think the shine of it on your soul to be
a delusion, because the father of lies suggests it. And if Satan finds you
take this course, and answer him thus, you will soon find him depart from
you. And if he returns again, as he thinks, at a more convenient season, as
often as he appears resist him, steadfast in the faith, and you shall find
that he flees before you.
And for your own satisfaction concerning this doubt,
which is raised from the greatness of God's love and the
littleness of your love to Him, or the small influence it has on your
heart, whence you are put upon thinking that if the manifestation of so
great a love was real it would have greater effect upon your soul, consider
that this great love is not always greatly manifested. There are times
wherein it is, and times wherein it is not manifested, wherein it shines,
and wherein it does not shine on the soul. And when love's bright and
burning beams do not directly beat upon your heart, wonder not that you are
lamentably unaffected therewith and unenkindled thereby.
It is our duty to meditate on the love of God, and He
often meets us therein, casts upon us its piercing rays, and kindles up our
hearts to a holy flame. But in this, as in all His dealings with us, He acts
as a sovereign, and casts His influence as pleases Him, the suspension
whereof at one time is designed by him to command and set off the glorious
flow of it at another. And at such times of 'suspended influence', we may
think of the great love of God, and to our sorrow find that it has but
little effect upon our hearts. But when God Himself casts abroad the glory
of His love upon our souls, our hearts are instantly set on fire. Love's
light never breaks in upon our hearts without love's heat; love's shine, as
the cause, is never without love's flame as the effect—God's love
enkindles ours. But then, there are different degrees in love's
manifestation, and as different degrees of the effects thereof upon us—the
degree of love's shine upon us and the degree of love's flame within us, or
of our love, enkindled by the shine of God's love—do always hold a strict
proportion with and exactly answer to each other.
Do not think, then, my dear brother, that the flowing of
God's love to you through Christ are a mere delusion, because the thoughts
and contemplations thereof do so little affect your soul, for when you are
unaffected therewith, and unattracted thereby, you are not under the
immediate flows of all-affecting, all-attracting love. And learn to look for
the blessed effects you desire, from their proper causes, and at the proper
times of their existence; to look for the powers of your soul being
enkindled with the love of God, when it shines upon your heart, and
according to the degree of its influence on your soul. Learn, also, from
your unaffectedness herewith at other seasons, what a cold, icy mountain
your heart is, when the bright sun of infinite love does not cast upon
it, its penetrating rays, its melting beams—and humble yourself before God
for the hardness of your heart. Learn also, hence, to seek most earnestly
communion with God in love—to pray for the Holy Spirit to shed abroad the
love of God in your heart—to prize His influence—and to give thanks for the
same when you experience it. And no more think that the flowings of God's
love towards you through Christ are delusion because the thoughts thereof
affect you so little when you are not under love's immediate influence, its
bright, its powerful manifestation. But,
2. You say, my dear brother, "Satan often robs me of my
comfort by telling me that I carry faith above reason."
Tell Satan, my brother, "That is right. That as
revelation is above nature, faith ought to be above reason." Faith is not,
ought not, to be without or contrary to reason; but it is, it ought
to be above it. There was no ground in nature, no natural reason, for
Abraham and Sarah to believe that he should beget and she should bear a son
when Abraham's body was dead and Sarah past age. But because God had
revealed it, it was fit that their faith should receive it. There was good
spiritual reason, though there was no natural reason, that they should
credit what God had spoken; because He had revealed it who could not lie, or
deceive, who was the God of truth, and infinitely able and faithful to
perform what He had promised. And thus Abraham's children, in like manner,
are called to act faith as he the father of the faithful was. They are
called to set faith above reason, to believe in hope even against hope—to
believe that as God has wrought faith in their hearts, to look, to come to
His dear Son for all salvation, and as such has given them the promise of
eternal life in Christ, so there shall certainly be a performance thereof,
notwithstanding a thousand improbabilities and seeming contradictions in
themselves, because God, who cannot lie has promised it, who is also able
and faithful to do that which He has spoken.
And as they are thus to believe the promise of life in
general—that they shall be saved at last—because God has said it, so,
likewise, are they to believe all the manifestations of His love to them
which He is pleased to make through the application of particular promises
of life and grace, for their consolation in the present time, that things
are and shall be as God has spoken, because He has said it, who cannot lie;
and this they are to hold fast by faith, notwithstanding a thousand seeming
contraries in themselves, and gainsayings which may arise from carnal
reason. Abraham considered not his own body now dead as a sufficient
obstacle in the way of the promise, nor should his children so consider the
deadness of their own souls as to think it a sufficient hindrance and bar in
the way of what God has spoken, as if the manifestations of His love to
them, through the promise of life, were not true and real, or would not,
could not stand, because of their own deadness. Reason is a good handmaid
to faith, but a bad mistress. Reason is good when spiritualized and
subservient to faith, but bad when merely natural, and domineers over faith.
But once more,
3. You say, my dear brother, "I am amazed to find my
heart so prone to a covenant of works."
Bless God that you find it so; not that it is
so, but that you find it so to your grief. That same grief which you feel
when you find any motions in your heart which gender to bondage, is an
evidence that you are one of the free children, or the children of promise.
Remember that you have a renewed and an unrenewed part in the same soul—that
so far as you are renewed by grace, your heart submits to the reign of
grace, or cleaves to the covenant of grace; and so far as in this respect
your soul is unrenewed, in so far your heart, your old heart, is for
cleaving to the law as a covenant of works. But be of good cheer; for if you
were not a child of the new covenant, those motions which you find in your
heart of cleaving to the old covenant would be no trouble to you. It is
evident from hence that grace has the throne in your heart, that you are
under its dominion, that you submit to, like, and approve of its reign, that
you choose to be under it as a subject under his lawful prince, whose
dominion over him is no burden but a pleasure to him. And be not surprised
or amazed that a rebel party still remain in your soul, which rise up in
arms at times to set the law again upon the throne in your heart, for they
shall never effect their enterprise. And their very attempts being
afflicting and grieving to you, it is evident that you do not submit to the
law, that, as a new creature in Christ, you do not join with legal motions,
but esteem them as rebels against your Prince, and their very appearance in
your heart as an usurpation upon your Prince's dominions.
And the trouble and afflictions which legal motions give
you make you cry to your Prince for help against them as His and your
enemies. The appearance of these rebels makes you prize your Prince the
more, and cleave the closer to the glorious reign of His grace. But the case
is far otherwise with an unregenerate soul, with a man who is under the law.
He likes and approves of its dominion. He is all of one piece. Legal motions
are not disagreeable to him, but treated by him as we treat natives and
fellow-subjects. But if the motions of the law appear in a regenerate man,
the are disagreeable and terrible to him, he belonging to another Prince,
and being under the dominion of grace.
Great grace be with you.