ARE COLD.)
CCCXXXIX.—For Grizzel Fullerton. [Letter V.] (EXHORTATION TO FOLLOW CHRIST FULLY WHEN OTHERS
ARE COLD.)
MISTRESS,—Remembering well what relation I had to your dear mother (now blessed and perfected with glory),1 and being confident that yourself looketh that way (which, except I be eternally lost, is the way of peace and of life), I should be ungrateful to forget those, whom, by the covenant of the Lord, I cannot but remember to God.
I shall speak nothing to you of the present sad differences;2 but if I have, or ever had, any nearness to God, that other way (which I trust I shall never follow) is the way of man. And for the present powers,3 I suffer from them, and look for more. God hath a controversy with them; and, my soul, enter not into their secrets! Only, I would beseech, request, and obtest you in the Lord, and by your appearance before Christ, to follow the way of the Lord and the steps trod by the gracious in that place, which the Lord followed with life and power. My heart is filled with sorrow, considering what communion with God some of that country had, and how much they were in edifying and helping one another, in His way; and how little of that there is now in that country.