LETTER XIX.
[The character and privileges of true believers.]
To the most beloved people, the servants of God in Taunton, grace and peace.
Most dearly beloved,
I REJOICE to hear of God’s continual goodness towards you; he is your shepherd, and therefore it is that you do not want. Me you have not always, but he is ever with you; his rod and his staff shall comfort you. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow you all your days, and you shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
In this my dear brethren, rejoice, that God is engaged in so near and so sweet a relation to you. Doubtless your souls shall lodge in goodness, and be provided for carefully, that have the Almighty for your shepherd. Blessed are the flock of his hands, and the sheep of his pasture; happy are the people that are in such a case.
But who are Christ’s sheep?
Not all professors. I beseech you to take heed how you rest in profession. It is not profession, but conversion that turns a man from a swine to a sheep. Let none of you flatter yourselves, that because you have escaped the gross pollutions of the world, therefore you are among the number of Christ’s sheep. All this you may attain to, and yet be but washed swine; there must be an inward, deep, thorough, universal change upon your natures, dispositions, inclinations, or else you are not Christ’s sheep.
*If you will be put out of doubt whether you are his sheep or not, you must try it by the mark that Christ sets upon all his sheep, even your sanctification. You that will stand to the trial, answer me truly and deliberately to these questions. Do you hate every sin as the sheep doth the mire? Do you regard no iniquity in your hearts? Do you strive against, and oppose all sin, though it may seem never so necessary, never so natural to you, or have you not your secret haunts for evil? For every swine will have his swill. Do you abstain from sin out of fear, or out of dislike? Are you at peace with no sin? Do you not hide some iniquity as a sweet morsel under your tongue? Is there not some practice that you are not willing to know is a sin for fear you should be forced to leave it? Do you love the commandment that forbids your sin, or do you not wish it out of the bible, as that evil man wished, God had never made the seventh commandment? Again, How do you stand affected towards holiness? Do you love it? Do you choose it? Do you hunger and thirst after it, and desire it more than any temporal good? Have you chosen the way of God’s precepts, and had rather live holily than be allowed to live in your sins? Do you in your very hearts prefer a strict life in communion with and conformity to God, before the prosperity of the world? Do you chuse holiness, not out of bare necessity, because you cannot go to heaven without it, but out of love to it, and from a deep sense that you have of the surpassing loveliness, and beauty of it? If it be thus with you, you are the persons that the Lord Jesus hath marked for his sheep.
And now, come all that have this mark, come and understand your happiness. You are marked out for preservation, and let it go how it will with the rest, it shall go well with you. You are the separated ones upon whom the angel hath set the seal of the living God; you are redeemed unto God from among men, being the first fruits unto God and the Lamb, and have your Father’s name written in your foreheads.