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accompany as earthly life: & we have this encouragement; "I
will never leave you, nor forsake you." Grace & the exercise of
it also, comes from God: None can cleanse a foul heart, nor
quicken a dead one, but he who raised our Redeemer from
the dead. Therefore if my heart be hard, foul, weak, deceitful,
treacherous, & vile as may be, I have no refuge, but to fly to
my most pure, holy Redeemer, to my unchangeable God in
Jesus Christ, who is both my Judge & Savior. He hears
the inward pantings of his own spirit, when we can scarce
hear the voice of our own prayers. He who creats light
out of darkness, knows how to work up an acceptation
of us to himself in Christ, when our penant, & services, as
they came from us, are lothesome in our own eyes.
We never go down the wind, till we say in our hearts by
unbelief, The Covenant cannot stand in Heaven, because
I have sinned against it on Earth. "I am God,
I change not; Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."
Truely, I find very often as much need of pardon
Grace, as at first conversion, & I scarce know any thing
that states the difference betwixt me & the vilest hypocrites,
but only this, that God makes my distempers, my burthen;
and in the riches of his love, inclines my heart
to harken? partner? toward him for help. And forever blessed be
his Name, that doth not suffer us to die away utterly,
from Belief. How great is his Goodness! How wealthy &
endless is that store-house of perfection that is laid up in
Christ for his ransomed, & new-born seed.
.
Extracts from Dorney's Letters.