Seventeenth letter of Mr. Hardcastle

These to the members and hearers of the congregation meeting in Broadmead, Bristol.

Beloved Friends, - Our next footing, for our further progress in this great point of a true and right faith, we take from Hebrews 11: 7. True faith believes the threatenings of God’s judgments, and will take warning, and prepares for prevention and escape. Jonah 3: 5, 10, compared.

A counterfeit faith will be secure, and meets with a surprisal; 1 Thessalonians v.2, 3, 6 compared. Fear is the handmaid of faith, and care and endeavor are the fruits and effects of fear. When the judgments of God are hanging over our heads, and public calamity approaching, true faith has a great deal of exercise and employment: -

1. It affects the heart with fear and trembling, with sensibleness and trouble. The mighty hand of God makes the soul humble, and lie very low. The eye sees the hand of God lifted up, and it affects the heart. This was the frame of king Josiah and the prophet Habakkuk; 2 Kings 22: 19; Habakkuk 3: 16. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? Amos 3: 8. Fear ye not me? Saith the Lord; will ye not tremble at my presence? Jeremiah 5: 22. When God rises from his place, and goes forth in indignation, he expects that we should reverence him; make our obeisance to him, and wait on him in the way of his judgments. Our iniquities have provoked him, and the tokens of his anger should make us melt and fall down before him. Indeed his mercies should command our respect; his common providence and daily provisions should make us fear before him; see Jeremiah 5: 22-24. If we will not acknowledge him for the good things he bestows, he will be known by the judgments that he executes. True faith differences a saint from a hypocrite very evidently and eminently by this matter; the one, when under affliction, murmurs, and his heart frets against the Lord, speaks proudly and hardens himself; the other is in a silent, humble, trembling, and submissive frame of spirit, confessing his sin, acknowledging justice, and praising God for the mercy that is left, and the punishment less than iniquity deserves.

2. True faith, in times of impending judgment, discovers to the soul the weakness, instability, and uncertainty of all earthly refuges, worldly securities, and carnal dependences; no city of refuge in the wilderness of this world; no sanctuary below God himself, whose name is a strong tower: the righteous in time of distress and tribulation run into it and there are safe. This faith, unfeigned, shows to a believer that the strongest hold upon earth is easily stormed by the just wrath of God; but a counterfeit, hypocritical faith admits of shifting and removing from one carnal shelter to another, as interest, friends, relations, riches, immunity, security, or a supposition that the evil will not come, compliance, escape by flight, external humiliations and reformings, formal performances, intercessions, and prayers of saints; universality of the scourge, (I shall do as well as others); present enjoyment, (let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die); general apprehension of God’s mercy, without considering his holiness, justice, and provocations; a groundless conceit that death will put an end to misery, without any provision made for another life; and such like little props and learning-stocks as these, the hypocrite propounds and promises to himself, in times of straits and difficulties. I might name more; but true faith does not only show the emptiness of the best creature-hold, but,

3. Leads the soul unto God, the Rock of ages. Deuteronomy 32: 31; I Samuel 2: 2; Psalm 61: 2, 9: 9, 10. Divine attributes, precious promises, the sons of prayers, seasonable providences, inward experiences, and such like, are a believer’s rock and refuge. When I am weak, then am I strong. When I am nothing, and can do nothing, can see nothing, can say nothing, then will I trust in Him, stay myself upon Him; he also shall be my salvation.

4. Faith sees through the most dark and dreadful dispensations; and discerns peace, and freedom, and tranquility, and happiness, beyond them; and can rejoice in hope. Abraham saw the day of Christ, and was glad. Gospel believers can by faith see Christ coming in his glory; sitting on his throne; his enemies made his footstool; bringing salvation and his reward with him. Sense and reason terminate their eyes in the midst of the trouble, and lose themselves in the clouds, and conclude that these days of misery will not have an end, or that they will make an end of us; that we shall never get through them alive, that we shall never be able to hold up, to hold on, to hold out, to continue faithful to the last. But this true faith speaks on this wise: - It is true the calamity is great, it has been a long and lasting hour of temptation, and who can tell when it will have an end? But this I am sure of, that it will have an end, a blessed end: that this time of trouble, compared with the succeeding time of peace and joy, is but very short and momentary.

       I see the wheels moving very fast; the Lord Jesus comes apace; salvation draws near; it is but a very little while and we shall be in the possession of it. The damnation of wicked men slumbers not; their destruction sleeps not; their measure is filling up apace. The Lord registers their sins, and records our sufferings. The times of mercy are set; the bounds of it cannot be exceeded. God will be faithful to his people; he will keep his word and promise. He will not suffer them to faint away; he will uphold them. I will venture myself upon him. I will take care of my present duty, and leave all issues to his all-wise good providence, which will care for my soul and body; that shall be my hiding place, and strong tower in time of trouble. Methinks, says faith, I see the wicked tumbling down, and calling on the mountains to cover them; and saying to the rocks Fall on us, and hide us, &c., Revelation 4: 15; and the saints singing the new song, Revelation 5: 9, 10.

To conclude. As Noah, by faith, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, so let us, being warned of God so many ways, by personal, private, and public trials and afflictions, let us get into the true ark, the Lord Jesus, to the saving of our souls, and the securing of all our concerns. The world now condemns you, but by this you will in the end condemn the world, as Noah did. Let not that which is your honor, to wit, suffering for righteousness sake, through the interpositions of flesh and blood, sense and reason, become your burden, and so you come to fall from your stedfastness. Confidence in God hath great recompense of reward. Banish the very thoughts of fear and falling off. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. You carry Jesus in your vessel, and you cannot sink. When you are ready to let go your hold, remember that your safety lies in the hold that he has of you, and none can pluck you out of his hands. Comfort yourselves with these words. Grace be with you all. Amen.

Your companion in tribulation,

                                                                                 Thomas Hardcastle

                                                                                 10th month, 3rd day, 1675