A Letter To Mr Copcutt – September 20th, 1858

Dear Mr. Copcutt.

I am much obliged to you for the interesting account which you have given of the removal from this valley of tears of both your parents, and hope the God of all grace will give you power to follow them as they followed Christ. Your deceased mother was one of the most remarkable women of whose experience I ever heard or read. I was much struck with one expression concerning her in a letter which I received from one of her family — “That she lived for no other object but the salvation of her soul.” The Lord had separated her in a remarkable manner, not only from the profane world, but from the professing world. No doubt she saw the necessity of it, and that it was bearing the strongest testimony against it; but it did not diminish her affection for the real saints of God, or make her less kind and affectionate to her own family. And now your aged father is gone, as we hope, to join her in that blessed land where sin and sorrow are alike unknown, and where the Lord Himself wipes the tears from off all faces.

As you cannot hear the pure Gospel, and have no confidence in the ministers by whom you are surrounded, I think you do well to be separate from them, and follow out your mother’s plan and read the Scriptures and the writings of sound authors. You cannot do better than read the writings of such gracious men as Bunyan, Erskine, and especially Mr. Huntington. These men had the Spirit of God, and were taught of Him to preach and write. They had tasted, felt, and handled what they wrote, and so far as we are taught by the same Spirit, we shall see eye to eye with them, and feel a dew, unction, and power attend their writings to our soul. It must be a very trying path for you to walk in, as it must bring down upon your head much reproach and misrepresentation. But if you are favoured with the testimony of God in your own conscience, and have some manifestations of His presence, it will amply make up for any reproach that may assail you.

It is a great mercy to keep close to the oracles of God and to a throne of grace, to distrust our own wisdom and our own way, and to seek divine teaching. The great difficulty and snare in standing separate is, lest it should foster a self-righteous or censorious spirit, into which we may easily fall, unless preserved by the special grace of God. You will probably therefore have many deep discoveries of the evil of your heart, and many temptations spread in your path; that you may learn thereby that you are internally as sinful and as deeply fallen as any of those from whom you have felt compelled to separate. When separation is a necessity, as appears to have been the case with your late mother and yourselves, the Lord will support you in it, and give you the testimony of His Spirit. Otherwise separation from the church of God is a great evil, and very much to be dreaded.

Being so imperfectly acquainted with the state of things in your country, I am not able to say how far I myself would walk in that path. It is my privilege and mercy to find here in this land saints of God with whom I can unite, and indeed feel that they are profitable companions, and such as I should wish to live and die with. But if my lot were cast in a land or in a spot where there were scarcely any of the manifested saints of God, I would desire to worship God in my own house, or where I could meet with two or three of the living family, with whom I might take sweet counsel in the things which belong to our eternal peace. It is not separation that will do us any good, unless we have good grounds for separating; and it will be tried over and over again how far our walk in this or that point is consistent with the will and Word of God. Our own conscience, our doubting mind, the word of truth, our great adversary, the opposition of enemies, the suspicion of saints, will all in various ways try those movements which seem different from the usual course of the Lord’s family. And as you will have to die alone, and salvation is a personal matter, it will be well for you to consider how far you are influenced by the fear and grace of God, or how far you are acting merely out of respect to your mother’s example. You must feel at times your isolated condition, and long for the ordinances of God’s house, and especially for the Gospel as preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. I hope the Lord may guide your steps, and seal His own instruction upon your heart.

We hear in this country of what is called the great revival in the United States; but those who know the work of the Spirit have much difficulty in receiving it as the work of God, knowing how much of the flesh there is in these matters, and what error is maintained by those who are first and foremost in such revivals. It will do much if it spread a healthier tone of morality among those who profess to be converted by the grace of God, and lead them to exemplify in their life and conduct the precepts and the practice of the Gospel, which they profess to receive by the power of God. But if it be mere fleshly zeal, it will end as it began, or worse, according to the true proverb as quoted, 2 Peter 2:22.

I am much obliged to you for your kind invitation to visit your country; but there are two insuperable obstacles:

(1) My health, which is very delicate, having a tender chest which could neither bear the winter nor the summer of your latitude; besides which, I am a most wretched sailor, and could not, unless compelled by the most powerful necessity, face the storms and waves of the wide Atlantic.

(2) The second objection is my numerous engagements in this country, not only as the pastor of two churches, and as preaching to various congregations, but as conducting The Gospel Standard. But I am equally obliged to you for your kind invitation, and though personally unknown, respect and esteem you for your dear mother’s sake, and your kind liberality to the saints of God. I am much interested in the Aged Pilgrims’ Friend Society, as I believe it affords relief to many saints of God—some of them personally known to me, and others by report. I have received two contributions from Australia, so that even distant lands concur in sending help to the saints of God in this country, as they did in Paul’s time to the saints in Judea.

Please to present to your sisters my Christian regards and affectionate respects, for their parents’ sake as well as their own, and accept the same from,
Your sincere and obliged friend,
J. C. P.