Memoirs of Aaron Burr | Page 8

to check
inordinate ambition; to show us the insignificance of earthly greatness;
to wean our affections from transitory things, and elevate them to those
realities which are ever blooming at the right hand of God. When
affliction is thus sanctified, 'the heart at once it humbles and exalts.'
"Was it philosophy that supported you in your trials? There is an hour
approaching when philosophy will fail, and all human science will
desert you. What then will be your substitute? Tell me, Colonel Burr,
or rather answer it to your own heart, when the pale messenger appears,
how will you meet him--'undamped by doubts, undarkened by despair?'

"The enclosed is calculated to excite mingled sensations both of a
melancholy and pleasing nature. The hand that penned it is now among
'the just made perfect.' Your mother had given you up by faith. Have
you ever ratified the vows she made in your behalf? When she bade
you a long farewell, she commended you to the protection of Him who
had promised to be a father to the fatherless." The great Augustine, in
his early years, was an infidel in his principles, and a libertine in his
conduct, which his pious mother deplored with bitter weeping. But she
was told by her friends that 'the child of so many prayers, and tears
could not be lost;' and it was verified to her happy experience, for he
afterward became one of the grand luminaries of the church of Christ.
This remark has often been applied to you; and I trust you will yet have
the happiness to find that 'the prayers of the righteous' have 'availed
much.'
"One favour I would ask: when you have done with this, destroy it, that
it may never meet the eye of any third person. In the presence of that
God, before whom the inmost recesses of the heart are open, I have
written. I consulted him, and him only, respecting the propriety of
addressing it to you; and the answer he gave was, freedom in writing,
with a feeling of the deepest interest impressed upon my heart.
"Z. Y"

"To Col. A. BURR."
EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM MRS. BURR TO HER FATHER,
PRESIDENT EDWARDS.
"Princeton, Nov. 2, 1757.
"Honoured Sir,
"Your most affectionate, comforting letter, by my brother, was
exceedingly refreshing to me, although I was somewhat damped that I
should not see you until spring. But it is my comfort in this
disappointment, as well as under all my afflictions, that God knows
what is best for me and for his own glory. Perhaps I depended too
much on the company and conversation of such a near, and dear, and
affectionate father and guide. I cannot doubt but all is for the best, and I
am satisfied that God should order the affair of your removal as shall be
for his glory, whatever comes of me. Since I wrote my mother's letter,
God has carried me through new trials, and given me new supports. My

little son [1] has been sick with the slow fever ever since my brother
left us, and has been brought to the brink of the grave. But I hope, in
mercy, God is bringing him up again. I was enabled to resign the child
(after a severe struggle with nature) with the greatest freedom. God
showed me that the child was not my own, but his, and that he had a
right to recall what he had lent whenever he thought fit; and I had no
reason to complain, or say God dealt hard with me. This silenced me.
But how good is God! He hath not only kept me from complaining, but
comforted me, by enabling me to offer up the child by faith. I think, if
ever I acted faith, I saw the fullness there was in Christ for little infants,
and his willingness to accept of such as were offered to him. 'Suffer
little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the
kingdom of God,' were comforting words. God also showed me, in
such a lively manner, the fullness that was in himself of all spiritual
blessings, that I said, Although all streams were cut off, yet, so long as
my God lives, I have enough. He enabled me to say--'Although thou
slay me, yet will I trust in thee.' In this time of trial I was led to enter
into a renewed and explicit covenant with God, in a more solemn
manner than ever before, and with the greatest freedom and delight.
After much self-examination and prayer, I did give up myself and
children to God with my whole heart. Never, until now, had I a sense of
the privilege we are allowed in covenanting with God! This act of