c. 1718

Anne Cattel [later Dutton], Warwick, to the Revd John Skepp, London, c. 1718.

Very dear and honour’d Brother,

         May the boundless Love of the Father, in its eternal Flow thro’ the Mediator, abundantly grant the Desire of your Heart, by daily anointing you with fresh Oyl; as it descends from the Fulness of our glorious Head, for the Supply of each Member of his Body, in their several Places and Order! Oh! ’tis a living Communion with your glorious anointed Head, in all that Fulness of the Spirit, which it hath pleased the Father should dwell in him, that alone can make you an able Minister of the New Testament, a skilful Workman rightly to divide the Word of Truth. Oh what Cause have you to be thankful for a Supply of the Spirit of Jesus! That you should not be left, with many, to make a Composition of Matter, merely out of other Men’s Judgments, and then commit it to a few dead Notes to read to the People! Oh how glorious a Thing it is, to know the Mind of Christ, under the Holy Ghost’s Revelation! and to preach the Gospel, under a special Unction from the Holy One!

         Dear Sir, I can’t but take it exceeding kindly that you wrote to us; for which I return you many Thanks. My Father was pleased to give [18] me a good Meal by Means of some Things you wrote. I am glad to hear of your Prosperity: The Lord continue and increase it! I should be glad if it please my Father to cast my Lot among you again. My Soul was warm’d by those three Things, you wrote, that go to the Completion of Love. I bless my God, I know by Experience, what it is to be made perfect in Love, both as to its Nature, and Settement, under the Spirit’s Witness of personal Interest. But oh how little do I know, and how greatly do I long after a Perfection in Love to a compleat Assimilation! Oh! well might you say, that the ‘Third and last Thing was greatest.’ For verily it is exceeding great and comprehensive; full of Majesty and Glory. Well might the Apostle say, There is no Fear in Love, I John iv. 18. For were we but once come to that Perfection in Love; how powerfully should we be constrain’d to Obedience to all the Laws and Commands of Sion’s King, our glorious Head and Husband, and how Evangelick would it be? How free from servile Fear, as such that are no more Servants?

         As to our spiritual Entertainment, We have something of the Gospel; but with Abundance of Mixture, that greatly eclipseth the Glory of it. Yet I can’t but say, That My Lord feeds me; altho’ I am like a Lamb in a large Place. My Soul doth eat the Fat, and drink the Sweet, and the Joy of the Lord is my Strength: Which makes my Feet like the Feet of Hinds. He feeds me with royal Dainties, Meat from the King’s Table; even such upon which Himself feeds. Psa. xxxvi. 8. I think my Soul’s Liberty and Joy, in near Approaches to the Throne, has oft-times grew by the Opposites I mostly see and hear in this Place. Oh how has Grace abounded towards vile, unworthy me! Not only to distinguish me from the World, but also from this Company of Professors; (and it may be some [19] of ’em Believers) that while they stand at a Distance, as so many Strangers; unworthy I should be brought nigh, as one that is spotless thro’ Blood, and splendidly glorious in the Marriage-Robe! Oh! to walk in the comfortable Knowledge of my Interest, when most walk at Uncertainties; and at best, seem but to work and strdive to get that, which I know is freely, fully, and irreversibly given me in Christ Jesus: Even all that is comprehended in that eternal Life, which by an eternal Act of Settlement, was made sure to Christ and His! Oh here it is my Soul gathers Strength and Life, notwithstanding all that Sin and Death that works in me; even while I view my Father’s Love, as the Source and Origin of all my Happiness and Glory, to be infinitely unchangeable! Here I behold the Project of Eternity, (for the exuberant shinging forth of the Glory of the divine Being, in the Advancement of the Mediator, and his Seed, into Union and Communion with Jehovah) laid in such infinite Depths of Wisdom, that not all that Inundation of Sin, which came in by my first Father Adam, no, nor all my personal Transgressions, could ever be able to raise it, to alter this glorious Design! No; The Counsel of the Lord shall stand, and he will do all his Pleasure. I must confess, that my Neck is an Iron Sinew, and my Brow Brass: That I am bent to Backsliding, and have done as evil as I could. I, in myself, am an abominable, vile, and hateful Creature. But what then” Can this alter my Father’s Heart? Oh! No; It is unchangeable! And as it can’t alter his Heart, so neither the Thing that is gone out of his Mouth, Psa. lxxxix. 34. Because I am a disingenous Child, will He disinherit me? Oh! No. He’ll cleanse me, but not destroy me. He knew I would deal very Treacherously. And yet Grace breaks up, in free Forgiveness, thro’ Blood, with a go [yet] love a Woman beloved of her Friend, yet an Adulteress, Hos. iii. 1. [20] Oh how this Love breaks my Heart! I am loved into Self-loathing! I am loved into Hatred of Sin! I am loved into godly Sorrow! Oh how the Fire of this Love melts my Soul into Gospel Repentance! Oh! that I should be so unkind to my kind Father, that has not only loved me immanently and eternally in himself, but has loved me manifestatively; yea, loved into the Knowledge of Christ; yea, loves me frequently in the Displays of his Unchangeable Heart, notwithstanding my many, repeated Provocations! Oh! what shall I say? Surely, Grace reigns! Oh help me to praise HIM! I have nothing else to bring but a Tribute of Praise. I must for ever lie in the Dust at his Feet, as an undeserving, Hell-deserving Creature; while I behold that Love, that was eternally fixt on me in Christ, so freely flowing forth thro’ this smitten Rock, even to a mighty Deluge, like the Waters of the Flood, over all the highest Mountains of my Sins; triumphantly carrying on my Happiness, in a begun Deliverance from Sin and Satan, working me up into an initial Conformity to God’s First-born; (the eldest Glory-Son, the supreme Pattern above) and will undoubtedly carry on this Work, till in a Visibility of Glory, as a Jewel made up, I shall shine forth as the Sun, completely bearing his Glory-Likeness: The Image of the Heavenly! The eternal Flow of this Love, will waft me into Love’s Ocean; there for ever, with my Lord, as a vessel of Mercy, to be filled with Glory; in being swallow’d up in God, the Ultimate of Enjoyment! Of which we can but little conceive.

         Indeed you have rightly judged, ‘That hitherto it has been rather, Christ loving and embracing me, than I Him, in the Trial of Faith in the Dark.’ For I am even filled with Amazement, while I see, that none of all my Vileness, is able to stop the Current of his Love! [21]

         Oh! it was well you said, ‘The best Wine is reserv’d till last; and that what we enjoy here, can’t lessen our Enjoyment at last.’ For what is it we enjoy here, but God? And God can’t be lessened. The Sun communicates of his Influences, in which we are warmed, and enlightned; and yet there’s never the less Light or Heat in the Sun for all that it communicates. And if it may be so said of the Creature-Sun, how much more of our God! And as there will be never the less to be enjoy’d at last, for what we enjoy here; so neither do I conceive, that the Sweetness we have tasted here, will in the least cloy the New-Man’s Appetite, or render the Marriage-Supper less sweet. The Lamb shall lead us to living Fountains; (not a standing Pool) and the living Virtue of these living Waters, will constantly maintain in us a living Appetite; which will fit us for a delightful Participation, with our Lord, of that Glory, which will be new, new to Eternity! – I humbly conceive, That it will be something higher, than barely, Salvation, that will fill our Souls with new Pleasures to Eternity. I conceive, there is more in that Oneness our Lord has pray’d for, John xvii. 21, 22. That they may be are in us, as thou Father and I am one. Some Rays having shined into my Soul, That my highest Glory will consist, in a sharing with my Lord, in that Glory of Oneness: even the highest Union and Communion with the infinitely Boundless Deity! And Oh! is not here Room enough, in the highest Glory-Communion, that ever Creatures can enjoy, with the boundless Deity, dwelling in our own Nature; for the largest Soul to expiate, and without the least Cloy, with new Wonder, delectably to take in an inconceivable Variety of Glory to Eternity! What is there in that Covenant-grant given out to Abraham, Gen. xvii. 7. I am thy God, and the God of thy Seed! But oh! how glorious is [22] it, if we trace it to the grand Original, even the eternal Deed of Settlement, on Christ and his Seed! Of which that was but a Copy. Surely here’s his, and my Charter, even in the Volume of the everlasting Rolls! And if our Lord, in the Joy of his Heart, says, The Lines are fallen unto me in pleasant Places; and that he hath a goodly Heritage, in having of us for his Portion; Oh how much more may we say so! What manner of Love is this, that our Inheritance by Lot, should be no less, than to have the Lord Himself for our Portion!

         Well might our Lord say, I will not leave you Orphans, John xiv. 18. And as we are not left Fatherless, so neither are we left Comfortless, or destitute of a Habitation. For what saith the Psalmist? Lord, Thou hast been our Dwelling-place in all Generations, Psa. xc. 1. And with what a Glory doth this break up in the New-Testament, to be no less than dwelling in God, as He is Love, I John iv. 16. They that have no Dwelling-houses, are exposed to Heat and Cold, and all manner of Storms. But oh how safe are we! Let the Weather be how it will without, we are safe within; our Dwelling-place is the Rock of Ages! And, Oh! were we blest into an abiding in Love, a constant dwelling at home in our Father’s Heart, no Storms whatsoever, neither moral, nor providential, could hurt us. The Thunder and Lightning of Mount Sinai, can neither hurt, nor affright the Soul, that securely dwells in the Man Christ Jesus, as an Hiding-place from the Wind, and Covert from the Storm. And as these can’t hurt us, so neither can all the Mutations and Changes we see in the World. There is such a Thing as entring into Rest by Believing, That the Government is laid upon Christ’s Shoulder; and that all the cross Lines of Providence, are drawn exactly correspondent to the Counsel of Jehovah’s Will; all working together, and unanimously [23] carrying on the vast Design of his Glory, and the Good of his Chosen, in a glorious Order of infinite Wisdom. – But I must break off, desiring a Share in your Prayers, that I may be under fresh Oil, and greatly skill’d in Dealing with a full Christ, under all my felt Emptiness.

         And now, May the great Shepherd of the Sheep, brought again from the Dead, by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in Love, keep you faithful, and make you useful; preserving you Blameless till the Day of his appearing! concerning which he hath said, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus. In Him I rest,

         Your unworthy Sister,

A.    C.  [Anne Cattel]

Text: A.  D. [Anne Dutton]. A Brief Account of the Gracious Dealings of God, with a poor, sinful, unworthy Creature, relating to some particular Experiences of the Lord’s goodness, in bringing out several little Tracts, to the Furtherance and Joy of Faith. With an Appendix, and a Letter prefix’d on the Lawfulnes of a Woman’s appearing in Print. Parts I, II, and III. London: Printed by J. Hart, in Popping’s Court, Fleet-street; and sold by J. Lewis, in Pater-noster-row, near Cheapside. 1750.  Part II, pp. 17-23.