in Religion the thing that makes us Godliness bath the Promise of the Life that now is whatever they think it is certainly the surest and the next way to be Rich here if the Lord see it good for one to be so and God be thanked as he hath formerly so he still doth honour Religion in the face of the World by making some that are sincerely yea exemplarily Good very considerably Great in the World but however it doth certainly bring the best Riches along with it not the poorest Saint in the World but he hath that which will more then weigh down all the Riches of an Empire its true he hath not so much lumber as many of them have but for all that he hath Riches which cannot be told in a pearless Pearl in precious Jewels in good Bonds and be it so that we are most of us as Poor as they would have or make us and may live under much Obscurity and be little taken Notice of in the World unless it be in a way of Contempt and Reproach yet let them know we scorn the Motion of changing Estates with the best Man of them all but they will never give Credit to us or think that we really believe our selves if they see us as discontented and uneasy in and with our outward Conditions as hot and eager in our pursuit after these little trifling Vanities and as much dispirited dejected and heart broken under any our outward Afflictions at any our worldly Losses Crosses and Disappointments as they themselves in such like cases are 4. As a creditable honourable thing they think that to be called Religious under those soul dirty Terms the World hath put upon it is a real and an intollerable Reproach if we go to hear these pious godly Ministers and become serious O then say they every one almost will despise spite and trample on us No no you are mistaken what says wise King Solomon in this Case Exalt her that is wisdom and she shall promote thee She shall bring thee to Honour when thou dest embrace her she shall give to thine Head an Ornament of Grace a Crown of Glory shall she deliver to thee The Lord is an Honour unto such as some render that 1 Pet. 2.7 These are they whom the King will honour and they are honoured by the wisest and best Men upon Earth yea by the highest principallities and powers in Heaven nay they have an honourable Testimony in the very Hearts and Consciences of the worst of Men their greatest Enemies so far as they are Men and not turned into meer Bruits and as for our parts let them in our Life and Carriage see it clearly and abundantly that we are not ashamed of our blessed Master nor ashamed of Prayer or of any Part of his Work which is truly honourable both considered in it self and as it is his But let them see we are of the old Apostles mind who when they would make a high and holy Brag what say they I Paul a Servant of Jesus Christ Peter a Servant of Jesus Christ and so others of them 5. And lastly Let us invite them in by endeavouring in our Lives to recommend Religion to them as a chearful pleasant thing if Religion be real and practicable and some way profitable and creditable yet however for pleasure they think they are the Men and us they look upon as a company of poor sad and melancholly People and so are afraid to cast in their Lot among us now let us endeavour to rectify this great Mistake of theirs also by letting them see that wisdoms ways are Ways of Pleasantness that it is no rare thing with us to find that sweet delight satisfaction and joy in the views and embraces of our Precious though by them despised Jesus which they never did or can find in any things whatsoever which they account their topping Enjoyments though truly where Persons are under those bodily Distempers which much encline them to dulness and sadness I think as the Lord doth so we and others should give grains of allowance but such should be especially afflicted with and strive against such Distempers upon this as one main account as some may thence take occasion to think more frightfully of Religion and such should be very desirous that others did but know what is many times at their Hearts even when they may think there is a great deal of sorrow and heaviness in their Looks but especially that they did but know what there is at the heart of Religion and be it known unto them even to the greatest pleasure Mungers of them all that we have those delights such pure solid satisfying and lasting Delights and Joys as they have none for the truth of which we are ready to pawn our Souls and all that ever we are worth in the World yea and moreover to give them leave to be judges in the case themselves if so be they will but come and make a serious tryal of Roligion as far as we have done and yet there are far greater Matters still which many others have attained unto which we are in the prospect and pursuit of QUESTION X. How are we to manage our Spiritual watch IN general I Answer we must manage it after a godly Sort that is in such a manner as that the great Ends of it may be best attained by us Scil. God's glory together with the safety preservation and salvation of our own and others Souls More particularly 1. We must manage it obedientially the Lord hath given us many express Commands for this Duty Matth. 26.41 1 Cor. 16.13 2 Tim. 4.5 and in many other Places now it is not enough barely to do the thing commanded but we must do it in Obedience to the Divine Command do it because commanded we must also do it with respect to the Manner of it as it is commanded So 2. We must manage this Duty universally watch in all things so the Command runs in one place And here 1. God is in some sort the proper Object of our watch And that 1. In what he saith 2. In what he doth 3. Particularly in what Answers he is pleased at any time to give into our Prayers 1. In what he saith we should heedfully observe take notice what he speaketh to us in his Word by the inward Motions of his Spirit by his Ministers or by any of our Christian Brethren or by our Enemies yea though they may be wicked Men for sometimes the Lord may and doth speak to us by them though they think not so whenever or however the Lord speaks we should endeavour to watch so as to have our Ears ready open so as that whatever the Lord speaks we may have it presently like a Person that 's hearkning to one who is much his Superiour when about to speak something that doth vastly concern him whose mind doth as it were hang upon the Speakers lips so that the Word is hardly got well out
the crown of Life and Glory Surely no let it then be so seen in my looks carriage and behaviour let it appear that I have other manner of Thoughts of future invisible eternal Things than the Men of the World have that I do indeed look upon them as the greatest Realities and am suitably affected towards them let it now be manifested to the World that I do practically believe the indubitable Certainty and unparalel'd Excellency of the Saint's happiness in the life to come I should live with as much seriousness to day as though I was to die to morrow And why then may I not be as cheary to day as though I was to go to Heaven to morrow not knowing but I may And what a pleasant Life might I thus lead let my outward Circumstances in the World be what they will I say could I but live from day to day in the believeing views of near approaching Glory what a comfortable Life might I lead Why is it not thus with me Where doth the hinderance lie Is there any defect in the Object No no it s in my sight it s a carnal unbelieving a sloathful and negligent Heart that hinders me away with such a Heart And farther let me think how great a part of my evil Day 's are certainly already spent now above twenty Years are gone and for ought I know a twentieth Part doth not remain Faith and Patience lengthen out a while I cannot have long to suffer here it may be not near so long as I think of a few day 's more and the Tables are turned the Scene quite alter'd let me lift up my Head and hold up my Heart under present Pressures for the time of my full and compleat Redemption draws nigh my Salvation is nearer then when I first believed and every day its drawing on yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry any longer it s but waiting a while and I am with him the loss of whom I am now lamenting in the new Jerusalem the City of our God where sorrow and sighing flee away where God is all and in all to his Saints To conclude the time is short therefore let me weep as though I wept not let me have Life with all its Troubles in quiet enduring Patience and Death with its blissful Consequents in lively Hope and earnest Desire The PREFACE to his CATALOGUE of some of his dear Christian Friends and Relations whose Souls are now with GOD. METHINKS the sensible decays I have found of late are a fair Item that Death is not only upon its way towards me but that it may be nearer in its approaches then possibly I am aware of and so a loud call to me in good earnest to be thinking of it and of that eternal State I must immediately thereupon be fixed in Sometimes I cannot but verily hope that the Lord hath cut me out for Heaven though there is not nor ever was there a wretch upon the Face of God's Earth that less deserved it nor can I think there is a Saint in Heaven that will have more reason amazingly to adore such rich free distinguishing Grace and Mercy then my self But yet though I have this Hope that when Death turns me out of this World I have a better Place to go to and though I can thereupon sometimes rejoyce and please my Self with the thoughts of its Approach while I look upon it at some distance yet when I come nearer to it I find my thoughts and apprehensions concerning it and concerning the separate State of my Soul thereupon to have much strangness and terrour in them which its like doth much arise from my Ignorance and Unbelief I should account it a blessed thing could I but get to converse with these things in my Thoughts with that familiarity and delight as I wish and there is one thing I have sometimes found a little to befriend me herein which is to think how many of my dear Christian Friends with whom I have here had delightful Converse and Communion to think I say how many of these are gone before me and so ready to bid me welcome to that our blessed home Indeed was they not with my dearest Lord this Argument would loose its Force Heaven was not Heaven was he not there O let me live with Christ let me ever behold the King in his Beauty O let me but have my fill of Christ and then I am content to spend my Eternity any where was it in a Desert in a Denn But yet there is methinks some additional sweetness in it to think of enjoying Christ in the Fellowship and Communion of the blessed ones above and under the present low and languishing Circumstances of Faith and other Graces in my Soul it hath methinks some particular sweetness in it to think of my old Acquaintance who are got to Heaven I intend therefore to have in my view a Catalogue of some of them as they come to my Thoughts that so I may now and then make them a Visit and take a few turns with them in my serious Thoughts and this in order to the End above mentioned CHAP. XI Ten QVERIES seriously Propounded to CARD-GAMESTERS By one who much Questioneth the Lawfulness of that GAME Introduction I Doubt not but some Recreation is lawful yea needful and therefore a Duty to some Men But among things that go under this Denomination there are some utterly unlawful in their own Nature and others which may be lawful in Themselves are by the abuse of them rendred sinful or at best very doubtful among many other Games and Sports in common Practice amongst us I fear upon serious Examination this of Card's will be found extream Faulty I shall give you some of my Thoughts by Propounding the following Queries to you hoping I may do it inoffensively and if I may prevail with you so far as to be at the Pains to Read and entertain a few sober Thoughts about them I shall leave it to your Selves to draw up a Conclusion and pass Sentence according to the Merit of the Cause Query 1. Is it not unlawful or highly to be suspected as such to use Lots in so vain and trivial a Matter as Gameing is You will readily grant me this that it is a Sin of no small Magnitude to take God's sacred Name in Vain I mean to do it needlesly or but upon weighty Occasions Exod. 20.7 You cannot deny but God's name is used in Lots Prov. 16. 33. The disposing of the Lot is of the Lord. Not of Man or of Fortune it is an appealing to God's Sentence and that this Game do much depend upon Lottery if Persons play honestly is a thing notoriously Evident I deny not but Lot's have been and may be lawfully used in some Cases we We read of Divine Lot's which have been used upon a special Command Josh 7.14 15. Acts 1.24 26. There are also civil and political Lot's used in
Temptation and find a Proneness in our Hearts when we are as it were on the Top of the Hill to overlook despise contemn our poor Brethren that are below us in the Valley Job saith He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised of him that is at ease if so we must take heed of that Again Beware of unmercifulness towards them have we a care they do not want our Bowels but especially that we do not hurt their's take we heed that when we are at ease our selves we be not among them who are not greived for the Affliction of others but especially that we add not to their Affliction O beware we of any thing that looks like injury or oppression and as we must thus labour to discover and carefully to avoid those Sins and Temptations which respect to others So 2. Those which do more directly respect our slves and so take heed of Pride this was the Devils Sin and his Ruine and he would have us like him in both and do we not find our Spirits ready to be puffed up on this occasion I dare say they are no ordinary Christians with whom its otherwise Again Take we heed of Security when our Mountain seems to stand strong it s well if our Hearts say not next it shall never be moved take heed of that Again Take we heed of Prodigality an unlawful excessive wastful Spending or spending Wastfulness of the Creature I remember a choise Servant of God one that hath laboured much amongst us once when I was with him in a fit of Sickness taking a Medicine he called for the Spoon back to lick it saying Jesus Christ would have nothing lost in which as I concluded he had reference to his ordering the Fragments to be gathered up after that large and plentiful Feast upon a few Barly-loaves and two or three small Fishes Again Take we heed of Sensuality our Lusts will expect our Prosperity should be a Feast for them they will crave it and the Devil will sollicite for them but these Beggers must be denied we must take heed of sensuality and of worldiness take heed of sinful inordinate pantings after love to use of or delights in the Creature This as to the first General 2. We must labour to get acquainted with and then conscientiously and diligently to discharge those Duties and exercise those Graces which this Estate gives us a special call to and advangage for And 1. Those which more directly respect others And so 1. Those which more immediately respect God himself and so we must own and acknowledge God as the free and gracious author founder and maintainer of our Prosperity and then it naturally follows hence that we be thankful to him for it and here a true Christian hath far the Advantage of another Man and is thereby laid under a stronger Obligation to this Duty for he may see his outward Prosperity his outward Mercies coming from that self same loving Hand and Heart that gave him his dear Christ O how thankful should a Christian be In a mercy that in it self may be but small yet may he see and tast that which is of more worth then a World this is no phanatical Dream but a proved and experienced Truth Again Doth it not also follow that we should love him more dearly Love would and should be paid in its own Coin and by the way observe it if we can but find this that we love God more for our outward Prosperity this would be an infallible sign that it comes from his Love for as one saith this is a certain Rule that which causeth love cometh from love and then see that we grieve more ingenuously for our Sins against him and the consideration of the cursed Ingratitude and Disingenuity that there is in our Sin 's sure this will when the Spirit strikes it home open a Vein to purpose in a gracious Heart Again Let us see we learn to trust in him more stedfastly we have promises and experiences too see we trust him in our Prosperity see we trust in him and not in uncertain riches friends or the like and if he bring us into straits again let us now learn to trust him then trust him for these things if they be good for us however that he will give us that in himself which is infinitely better and so le ts learn to trust him for better things if from his Love he give us Earth will he not much more give us Heaven and all that we need in the way And then le ts see we make him the chief object of our delight and joy Again Let 's see we be more abundant vigorous and chearful in his Service in all acts of Obedience 2. Those which more directly respect our Brethren and so we must see we be humble courtious and affable in our Carriage towards them and that we do heartily pity and compassionate them in their Necessities and Troubles and that we do actually relieve and help them as we have abillity and opportunity remembring that the Lord hath more backs to cloath more bellies to fill more hearts to chear with our Prosperity then our own and as we must thus labour to get acquainted with and then conscientiously and diligently to discharge those Duties and exercise those Graces which a prosperous Estate calls to and gives us advantage for with respect to others So 2. Those which do more immediately respect our selves such as self-denial moderation holy contentation a grave and sober joy and rejoycing weanedness from the World heavenly mindedness and the like But I fear I have enlarged too much and would fain leave a little room for the last thing and so as that I may not streighten others neither So 3. As we would thus improve our outward Prosperity as hath been confusedly hinted we must carefully observe and follow some rules and directions To name five or six 1. We must labour to get throughly convinced of our own Impotency and utter insufficiency to do this of our selves and truly we know e'ne nothing of our selves if we know not this that of our selves without Christ we can do nothing alass we can't bare a Cross no more can we handle a single Comfort as we ought then what shall we do in a State of full Prosperity especially if of any long continuance How certainly it sinks us into security sensuallity worldliness into a neglect of God our Souls Eternity and the like if left to our selves 2. We must see to it that we be Christians indeed that we have a thorough work of Grace wrought in our Hearts there are many Natural carnal Men that know what it is to be in Prosperity what it is to Abound but not one of them knows how to Abound nor can they know any thing of it while they so continue in the right improving of Prosperity there are many spiritual Acts and Motions required as you have heard but this cannot be
a small Thread over such a place as the mouth of burning Etna would not our Bowels be moved our Flesh tremble for them Their real Case is sadder then so meer Humanity would do much in such a Case will not Grace do more 2. We must take great heed to our selves that we do nothing to harden them in this their sad and sinful Case that we do nothing to keep them where they are if we pretend to pity them as without and yet care not wilfully to shut and bolt the Door upon them this our pretended Pity is no better then a cruel wicked Lie and therefore we must take heed that by our sinful Compliance with them we do not confirm and strengthen them in that good Opinion which alass they falsly have concerning their own state and way And so we must take heed of doing any thing that may justly prejudice them against Religion against the good Ways of God particular Instances are too many to be here inserted But in General every thing that is contrary to the Truth and Purity of Religion every thing that is contrary to the Scripture Rules of Piety Justice Charity and Sobriety is carefully to be avoided by us here 3. We must see that we prudently conscientiously and diligently lay out our selves in our places doing what we can to bring them in And here 1. We must endeavour to pray them in the word is plain here that this is a thing according to God's will the Lord hath a wonderful great respect for and delight in Prayer And though he hath decreed to do this and that and though his Providence may be big with it yet ordinarily before it brings forth Prayer must come in and as it were act the Midwifes part and this would be much to our own benefit and advantage Yea though such and such we pray for should not be brought in yet being sincere this our adventure should not be lost no but should come richly home our prayers certainly returning with a blessing into our own bosoms 2. We must do what in us lieth that they may be furnished with and brought unto the ordinary necessary means of Salvation when Persons are distracted or under any such raging Distempers as take away their Senses and the use of their rational Faculties it is then peculiarly the Part of Friends and Relations to procure them a Physician and the necessary Means of their Recovery why the poor Hearts in the case before us they are besides themselves have this and that Death token on them and are not sensible of it and so care not for to look after the Lord Jesus his Ministers the necessary Means of their Salvation any more then a Man raging Mad in Bethlem cares for his Physician or for his necessary Prescriptions and then we should endeavour to bring by Perswasion such of them as are within our reach to the Means and such as are under us as Children and Servants we may and ought to use our Authority with them this way 3. We should our selves endeavour to recommend Religion its blessed Authors ways means and end unto them And that 1. With our Mouth 's 2. In our Lives 1. With our Mouth 's as we have a call and opportunity let us be speaking a good Word for God and his good Ways O they are worthy of it and we carry it very unworthily if we do not and when any of them dare let fly at God and Religion we should with a holy warmth Vindicate them to the Faces of them against any their false Charges their wicked and blasphemous Lies 2. In our Lives here one might be large but I shall confine my Thoughts to five things and that with all the Brevity I well may And 1. We should endeavour in our Lives to recommend Religion to them as a true and real thing 2. As a practicable and feasable thing 3. As a gainful and profitable thing 4. As an honourable laudable thing 5. As a cheaful pleasant thing 1. As a true and real thing they are ready to look upon Serious Religion as a meer Fancy a waking Dream of a few weak and superstitious People others as a cunning Plot and Design of some self-seeking Men tell them of Fellowship and Communion with God they believe no such thing though we are as sure of the reality of it from frequent blessed feeling convincing sweet experience as of any thing that ever we saw with our Eyes now let us labour to give them some convincing Evidences and Demonstrations of it when Moses came down from the Mount with his Face shining no doubt all the People that saw him fully concluded that the Lord and he had been together you will apply it We speak of Heaven and of our great Hopes laid up there in their Hearts they believe there is nothing in it but are ready to pity or it may be sometimes laugh at our weakness in laying so great stress upon these poor future unseen things now let us endeavour by our Carriage in the general Tenour of our Lives to strike their Hearts with this Conviction that certainly they must be mistaken that certainly there must be substance reality and life in the business we doing and suffering such things when called to them in the belief and hopes thereof and at such a rate as they cannot So 2. Let us endeavour to recommend it to them as a practicable and feasable thing be Religion true or false yet however they think as these Preachers set it forth it is Impracticable and so are ready to look on them and us as a company of Hypocrites for pretending to it O that we did not give them so much occasion here as we do But however be it known unto them they charge Religion falsly our Lord's yoak is another thing then they take it for easy and sweet all over and such of us as have had to do with his Cross have said and can still say as much for that too or the Fault hath been our own yea and they charge us falsly too as they shall know hereafter at least when they shall here our Lord say that for us which at present we have no great Mind to be saying for our selves but let us by taking out our Copy before their Eyes endeavour to convince them while it will do them any good that to mortify Lusts repel Temptations overcome the World that to deny our Selves forgive Enemies bear the greatest Afflictions from the hand of God the greatest Injuries Reproaches and Sufferings from the hands or tongues of Men that these things and the like with the Strength which Religion offers and actually affords to those who do sincerely embrace it are not such Matters of Impossibility as they take them to be 3. That it is a gainful profitable thing they think many of them that to become seriously Religious is the next way to poverty and ruine the ready way to be undone alass that they should be so mistaken
O happy Place and happy Persons whose continual Work is perfect love and joy and praise I am your loving obedient S. I. B. LETTER XXII To T. W. My dear F. YOUR lines were very welcome to me both as they express your Affection to me your readiness to Simpathize with me your hearty Prayers to God for me and likewise as they give some revival to our former intercourse which my thoughts were working upon a day or two since with much desire I can heartily bless God for the comfortable Society I have formerly had with you O can we not both of us remember many an Hour with Comfort when the Lord hath been pleased to make a Third with us Yea and I hope when a few Minutes of Time more are past we shall be removed out of this Vale of Tears and meet upon the Mountains of Spices O a happy meeting that will be will it not think you O should we not be looking and longing and with Patience waiting for that blessed Day And should we not be quickning and encouraging one another in the way It is my hearty desire now we cannot so frequently pray and discourse together as we have formerly done I am perswaded to the great Satisfaction of us both it is my desire I say that we may maintain a mutual Correspondence by writing And methinks I have much to tell my Friend of now but that streightness of Time and some bodily Indispositions will not suffer me the dispensations of the Lord towards me are very Gracious O how manifold are his Mercies Indeed goodness and mercy hath followed me all my Days and methinks there is so much of Love mixed with the severest of his Dispensations towards me that I cannot but love him the more and praise him the more for them O they are not the wounds of an enemy nor the chastizements of a cruel one God is all love yet even when he takes as well as when he gives O to see Love in every thing is not that sweet O what is this Heart of mine made of that it is no more affected O help me love the Lord for me praise the Lord for me come let us exalt his Name together the Lord hath dealt very favourable as to my F. his Distemper not so violent as it might have been though his Weakness hath been very great how the Lord may dispose of him I cannot tell he continues very Weak though I hope the Distemper is much abated but this I know God will do all things well pray for us still yea and praise the Lord on our behalf I am affectionaly Your's I. B. LETTER XXIII To S. M. Dear S. I Hope you will not take it ill that you have not heard from me before now I am sure you are much in my thoughts and I should be glad to exchange a Letter with you now and then I had many affectionate concerned Thoughts about you when I heard of your late illness and it was not a little Comfort to me when I heard of your recovery much more shall the health and prosperity of your Soul rejoyce my Heart and that it may be daily promoted by all the Methods of God's Providence as well as by his Ordinances is and shall be my daily Prayer to that God who I hope hath begun a good Work there Dear S. the near Relation I am in to you lays me under a strong Obligation to do the utmost I am able to promote the welfare of your outward Man but methinks I feel my Affections especially working towards your Soul Well how is it Is your Soul in health Doth your Soul prosper By nature our Souls are like Hospitals for spiritual Diseases O there is no sound Part left in them but the Lord out of his Divine pity and bounty hath provided a wife able and tender hearted Physician for us the Lord Jesus Christ who hath prepared a rich Medicine every way suitable to our Diseases of his own most precious Blood and he is daily begging for Patients and his great Complaint is that Men will not come to him who would assuredly and freely heal them but rather choose Death now O that you and I may see more of our need of him our Souls are really O that they were more sensibly Sick our Diseases are in their own Nature mortal ones and all others besides him are Physicians of no value but if he undertake our Cure the danger is over no fear of miscarrying under his Hands O that now we may be so thoroughly convinced of our need of him and of his ability skill and good will that we may now look after him indeed and no more neglect him as we have done but may sincerely heartily chearfully and thankfully accept him and fiducially put our lives our souls our all into his Hands confiding in him and in him alone and obedientially following his Prescriptions then our Souls should live and not die but I must take leave let me hear how it is with you You have a daily remembrance in my poor Prayers who am affectionately Yours I. B. LETTER XXIV To S. M. Dear S. I Receiv'd your's which I took very kindly I had thoughts of writing to you before I received it for I shall be glad of intercourse this way and desire it may be so managed as that it may prove to the great Advantage of us both we should ever act like Persons for another World and should endeavour to manage every thing so as may help our selves and others forward in our way to Heaven O that we may I have two things to advise you to and let my Councel be acceptable The First is highly esteem and accordingly improve your precious Time surely if we did but consider how much great and necessary Work lies upon our hands we could not so lightly esteem and squander away that short and precious Time allotted to us for the doing of it in we have much to do for God to promote his Honour and Glory much to do for our Selves for our Souls we have our Salvation to work out an Interest in Christ to secure and clear weak Graces to strengthen strong Corruptions to subdue many and strong Temptations to resist and overcome many hard and difficult Duties to discharge and we must expect that the task of Duties though in another Sense we should not look upon Duty as a task will be encreasing as we grow up and much we have to do for others to promote their good We have our Generation to serve in the places God sets us in and all this must be done in time and is not that Time to be accounted Precious And farther it may be much shorter then we think of what is Man's life taken at its full length It is but as a Span days and years pass away like the Wind are spent as a Tale that is told but let not you and I promise our selves long Life but be thinking of a shorter cut then ordinary
THE REMAINS OF Mr. Joseph Barrett Son of the Reverend Mr. JOHN BARRETT Minister of the Gospel AT NOTTINGHAM BEING The Second PART taken out of an Exact DIARY written by his own Hand LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and are to be Sold by him at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and John Richards at Nottingham 1700. TO THE READER IF you have conversed with the Former Volumn of this eminently holy Man's Papers we reckon we need do no more to envite you to a serious delightful Perusal of this Second then to assure You that they are more of Mr. Joseph Barrett's Papers and indeed we scarce need to certify that neither themselves do testify it they have the same Rich Vein of more then ordinary Judiciousness Savouringness and Spirituality running through and sparkling in them as did in the Former the same marks of eminent Impresses and large Supplies of God's Spirit and the same signs of a Man very much in Communion with God and inflamed with Love to and Zeal for God of one much in Heaven during the little time he was here on Earth his True and somewhat peculiar Character Which makes it not strange at all that he was so soon removed to Heaven the place his Heart was so much in and he drove such a great Trade with and that he was so soon removed from Earth a place so grievous to him by reason of its-aboundings Iniquity and withheld and which vexed his Righteous Soul from day to day in seeing and hearing its ungodly Deeds nothing revived him more than the Success of his Projects for Christ and Souls And in imitation of his Blessed Master whom we never find weeping for any of his own though peculiarly heavy Affliction and sore Sufferings but only for either the Sins or Calamities of others nothing grieved him more than to see the hardness of Men's Hearts their opposition to the Blessed Jesus and the sad prospect this gave of Judgment upon Them and the Nation If an ill Spirit broke out with any Prevalence and the Interest of Religion seemed to give ground if any Adventure of Prayer many of which he made and put others upon making and blessed be God with good Success but if at any time any such Adventure did not make the return he hoped for how near did it go to his Heart out of his Apprehension of God's Displeasure and fear of this precious Duty of Prayer come into Discredit This grived him much more than the failure of any the greatest Adventurers in the Business of his secular Calling Apprehesions of God's being provoked and displeased and fears of the Consequences of it sat heavy made deep Impressions upon the Spirit of this Josiah whose Heart through Grace was peculialy soft and tender the Zeal of God's house did eat him up Several things of his and upon many Accounts we have reason to conclude valuable ones are locked up from being publickly useful by being written in Characters But blessed be God that so ordered it that so much of the good Treasure of this Scribe instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven this well furnished Housholder is left unlocked and stands open for publick Vse The things this Second Volumn consists of we shall not stay you in giving you our Judgments particularly of them but leave you to make a Judgment of them your Selves when you have perused them Only it may not be amiss to give some brief Account of the nature and method of those Conferences that one of these Tracts hath relation to The Reader therefore is desired to take Notice That in the Congregation of which this Holy Man was a Member there is a meeting of several Christians once a Week from Five to Seven of the Clock at Night for mutual Edification which is spent only in Prayer repeating of Sermons and singing of Psams on those Nights when the Ministers are not present But usually once in a Month the Ministers are there and then some practical Question or Case of Conscience is propounded and discoursed of and every Man present hath liberty to propound his own Thoughts and speak his own Experience Prayer begin and together with a Psalm or Spiritual Hymn closes the Exercise The Minister opens the Question and in the Close sums up the substance of what hath been discoursed of These meetings this good Man was a great Lover and Promoter of yet such was his great Modesty that be seldom spoke himself but wrote his Thought and put them into a Friends hands with a charge of privacy as to the Author who read them towards the close of the Exercise Having thus acquainted you with what we think necessary in relation to these Papers we recommend them to your serious powerful Perusal you and them to the Blessing of the God of all Grace and our Selves to your Prayers who desire help through your Prayers and the supply of the Spirit he obtain help to be The furtherers of your Faith and helpers of your Joy in the Lord John Whitlock Jo. Whitlock Junior August 22. 1699. ADVERTISEMENT THE first Account of Mr. Joseph Barrett's Life printed contains Eight Chapters which is in several Hands single therefor these his Remains begins Chapter the Ninth BOOKS Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns the lower End of Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel Books written by the Reverend Mr. J. Howe OF Thoughtfulness for the Morrow With an Appendix concerning the immoderate Desire of foreknowing things to come Of Charity in reference to other Men's Sins A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Richard Adams M. A. Sometime Fellow of Brazen-Nose Colledge in Oxford The Redeemer's Tears wept over lost Souls In a Treatise on Luke 19.41 42. With an Appendix wherein somewhat is occasionally discoursed concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost and how God is said to will the Salvation of them that perish A Sermon directing what we are to do after a strict Enquiry whether or no we truly love God A Funeral Sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late Wife of Hen. Sampson Doctor of Physick who died Nov. 24. 1689. The Carnality of Religious Contention In two Sermons preach'd at the Merchants Lecture in Broadstreet A Sermon for Reformation of Manners A Sermon preach'd on the Day of Thanksgiving Decemb. 2. 1697. To which is perfix'd Dr. Bates's Congratulatory Speech to the KING A Sermon on the much lamented Death of the Reverend William Bates D. D. The Redeemers Dominion over the Invisible World being a Discourse on the Funeral of Mr. Houghton A Sermon at Mr. Mathew Meads Funeral CHAP. IX QUESTION I. How may a man know that he is led or acted by the Spirit of God BEfore I answer directly I beg leave to lay down a few things which I think may tend a little to clear the question and to prevent Mistakes about it As 1. That there must be a principial of Spiritual Life infused into the Soul in the Work of Regeneration before a Man can be said
Kingdom and forced to fly for his Life yet we see how sweetly they took it These and such like examples should both encourage and quicken our endeavours here 8. We should consider how good it is that we thus bear them hereby we shall please and honour God hereby we shall credit Religion letting the World see that whatever they faney yet we find something in it that is real something that yields us real Support Hereby we shall lay in for our own both present and future sweet Peace and Satisfaction 9. We should consider the Evil of the Contrary as thereby we shall dishonour God gratisy the Devil discredit Religion harden the World in their Mistakes about it break our present Peace and lay in for our future Sorrow which is the best that can come of it 10. We should consider if we are the Persons concerned in this Case Christians indeed then whatever we have lost yet our all is safe the Lord is his Peoples portion their All and so all that he is all that he hath it s all theirs as they need it and as it would be for their Good thus it is and thus it shall be in spite of Sin Earth and Hell for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it I will be their God and the Zeal of the Lord God of Host's shall perform this shall make it good O methinks there is life and soul in this consideration if we know but how to draw it out Other things might be added but I fear least before this I should be thought tedious 3. We must diligently apply our selves to other seasonable Christian Duties So 1. We must give diligence to clear up our special Covenant Interest in God I cannot reasonably think to perswade my Heart to bear such Losses as it should unless I can shew it something that I have or at least may have which is as good or better then that which I have lost and to bare worldly Losses quietly because I have much more of these things left this is not right and the bear having an Interest in God will not be sufficient for my Support unless it be in some measure known to me but if I know that this God whose Name is I am if I can make it out that he is my own God I need not fear then at next word to say all 's my own and then my Work here would be easy 2. We must exercise our selves much in lively believing Meditations on him and our unspeakable Happiness in him there is certainly that in God which doth amply suit our case and which would effectually do our work but we must not expect this in the way of a Charm or that God should work Miracles for us though I have the best Food upon my Table yet it will not nourish or strengthen me unless I open my Mouth take chew and digest it so it is here 3. We must endeavour all we can to maintain constant Communion with God while a Soul enjoys real Communion with God it s well with that Soul and much at one to it whether it enjoys more or less of the Creature a gracious Soul tasts that sweetness in near and intimate Communion with God that while this is enjoy'd it takes little or no notice of what of the World it either hath or wants O it finds Meat and Drink House and Lands Friènds Earth yea and Heaven too in Communion with God! Hereupon there are such ineffably swet Communications of God to the Soul and such mutual endearing Embraces as immediately fill the Soul in each corner of it with unspeakable Satisfaction and Joy but I must add there is yet something in it which is an unutterable Secret such as experimentally know what it is for the Lord to deal familiarly with them this way such will understand what I mean and would not this do our business now What think you 4. We must endeavour to keep up every Grace in good Heart but especially see we nourish and cherish the Grace of Faith and keep that close to its work every Grace hath its proper work and office in the Soul but among all the rest Faith is the great doer and not the least among the bearers of Burthens and in reference to this present Case it will be well or ill with us as our Faith is either lively or languishing 5. We must be much in the search and study of the holy Scriptures the Word of God abounds with precepts promises examples very Applicable to our present Case some little hath been hinted I had thoughts here to have added more but must forbear being sensible I have over done Once more 6. And lastly We must give our selves unto Prayer when we have done our best Satan will be solliciting Evil and distempered Frames will be creeping on us when it s thus we must run to God by earnest and believing Prayer there 's no way like it if ever we bear our Losses graciously it must be by the special help of the Spirit as hath been hinted and though the Lord sometimes in the way of Prerogative or of his soveraign Grace is found of those that seek him not yet the promise is made unto those that ask QUESTION VII How may a christian improve outward Prosperity to God 's Glory and to his own and others Good TO know how to abound is as high and rare an attainment of Grace as to know how to want but though few in comparison do yet some have and therefore we in our advantagious Circumstances may attain to it in the strength of the same Christ Phil. 4.12 13. Now in answer to this Question the scope and drift of which is as I take it to instruct us in this Lesson 1. We must labour to discover and then carefully to avoid those Sins and Temptations which this Estate doth especially expose us to 2. We must labour to get acquainted with and then dilligently and conscienciously to discharge those Duties and exercise those Graces which this Estate doth especially call us to and gives us an advantage for 3. As we would do thus we must carefully observe and follow some Rules and Directions 1. We must labour to discover and then carefully to avoid those Sins and Temptations which this Estate doth especially expose us to And 1. Those which do respect others And so 1. Those which more directly respect God himself such as these unmindfulness forgetfulness of God an alienation of our Hearts and Affections from him a careless neglect of the Duties of his Worship or a formal customary dead and heartless Performance of them O that in these things and the like we did not speak from so much sad experience as we do Again Disobedience and Rebellion if Jesheron be waxed fat the next news we hear of him is that he kicked we must beware of these things and the like 2. Those which do more directly respect our Brethren and do we never in Prosperity meet with a
so a Father when he strikes as well as when he stroaks What is his Design in this Affliction Assuredly he intends me Good and not Evil by this means he would set my Heart more against Sin causing me to taste of its Bitterness And wean me more from the Creature shewing me its vanity and insufficiency for my Happiness and so draw up my Affections more to himself who is the only Soul-satisfying good this is to mortisy and spiritualize me to make me place my Happiness in God and fetch my Comfort from him and those eternal Joys with him in a word to turn me from Sin to God to raise me from Earth to Heaven And is not all this Good Is not that good Physick which is a means to cure such mortal Distempers and he a good Physician who doth prescribe and give it though in it self it be a bitter Potion But farther as his Design is Gracious in sending this Affliction so his Providence exercised about it is very Compassionate this stroke might have come with many more sad and aggravating Circumstances he might have given me a larger Dose but like a wise and merciful Phycian he considereth my Strength or he might have left me to my self to have sunk under this heavy Pressure But behold underneath is his supporting Arm he helps to bear the Burthen himself lays on And when is it so well with me when have I so much of God when do I enjoy such sweet incomes from the Spirit as then when all things look black and dark about me in the World It s ordinarily God's use to know me my felicity to enjoy him most in the time of my greatest Adversity O therefore let me kiss that Rod which is bound up with so much love 6thly God even my God is all sufficient a few serious Thoughts of this may tend much to my Satisfaction and Comfort He who is the only self sufficient independent Being is his Peoples Potion and enough for them all O how happy do ten thousand times ten thousand of his Saints justly deem themselves in him And is he not enough for me Why what 's the matter Sure either I do not know him or else my interest in him is doubtful or I am inconsiderate not truly weighing my Happiness in him Ah what a poor Creature should I be had nothing but a God left me Why what would I have more To have God is as much as to have God and all the World have I him O then I have all in him I am ready to cry out wo is me for I am broken with a grievous breach this day Ah my loss how great it is I have lost a loving tender hearted careful Father one that had not only the name and relation but the heart and bowels of a Father as well How solicitous he was for my Welfare What care he took for my temporal Welfare but especially how concerned he was for my Soul O! Methinks I have sometimes seen even his very Heart in his Prayers Counsels Warnings Reproofs yea and Corrections too but now I am at once deprived of all O sad loss Why true my loss is very Great it pincheth sore it is my Duty to be sensible of it and much affected with it But hold what is become of my God of my heavenly Father He is yet alive and behold he lives for evermore Let it be with me here as it was with Jacob of Old when he was convinced that his Son Joseph was alive the good old Man his Spirit revived within him and so let mine upon this Consideration and let me say with him it is enough Is it not he that hath cared for me all this while and may I not humbly and confidently rely upon him still Is he not the same he was Nay is he not in a more especial manner the helper of the Fatherless What though this instrument and the other be removed out of the way He never wants Instruments to do his Work he can either make use of new Ones or do his Work without them when his People are in Distress if he see it good he can and will create Deliverance for them and that 's a Work done without a Tool I but what will become of that poor Family What will become of poor Relations Why by Faith and Prayer let me commit them all to the same God who will look after and provide for them too I have great Incouragement thus to do whether I look at him or them the little knowledge I have of him may assure me that they cannot be in better Hands He wants neither Wisdom Power nor Will to do them good under his Fatherly care and custody they are sure to want no good Thing which is consistent with his Love to bestow and their real Benefit to enjoy and are secured here from all real and destructive Evils It seems on purpose to strengthen the Faith and revive the Souls of his poor Creatures under such Tryals that he hath taken upon him those sweet relative Titles of a Father a Husband Again If I look at them I have farther Incouragement having a comfortable Assurance of the special covenant Interest that the most of them have in this God and a good Hope concerning the rest now let God alone he loves and will take care of his Children Let me not at once both grieve and dishonour him and torment my self with my Distrust But farther the loss is Publick O my Father the Chariots of England and the Horse men thereof God's poor Church hath lost a judicious faithful and painful Minister how many poor Souls that may want him How will that poor Place where he lived want him Well though here is a wide gap made yet sure such a God can fill and stop it up which of the Prophets live for ever God that sends his Servants appoints them their Work and when they have done that they must away and others come in their room He will not have all his Work done by one Minister or in one Generation but by a Succession of such in his Church to the end of the World so this precious Servant of his having acted his Part is gone down to make way for such as the Lord shall send having dispatched the Work given him to do he is gone to his Great Lord and Master to receive an ample Reward And still God's Church while upheld that is so long as the World stands shall be provided for 7thly The inconceivable Happiness his Soul enjoyeth the Soul of Man is a spiritual immortal Substance and Jesus Christ hath purchased eternal Life for all true Believers and firmly entituled it upon them in the Gospel So that their Souls no sooner depart this Life but immediately they are with him It is my great Sin and Misery both that my belief of such great and comfortable Truths as these is no more firm and stable And what a shame it is that I should be so wavering
it Did I so firmly believe this great Truth as I ought to do it would infallibly help me with more comfort and confidence to resign my own Soul and the Souls of departing Friends into the hands of a dear Redeemer who though he was dead yet is a live and lives for ever more therefore let me frequently and seriously think of those firm substantial Grounds which I have for my belief of this grand Article of the Christian Faith and with abhorrence reject any vain and trifling Cavils or Objections which may by any means be raised in me about it seeing the Power of the omnipotent God is here engaged by word of Promise and having once sufficiently cleared up the Matter to my Judgment let me bring it near and close unto my Heart and take to my self the comfort of it and let the thoughts hereof keep me from sinking under this heavy smarting Affliction while with weeping Eyes I am peeping into his Grave let Faith the Eye of the Soul which can see afar off have a clear and fixed view of the Resurrection 9thly My case is not singular none other Affliction hath befallen me then what is common unto Men the daily Experience of the World testifieth that it s no rare thing for Children to see your dear Parents head 's laid in the Dust And this if soberly weighed might do something towards the mitigation of my present Trouble when any Affliction befals a Man which is strange unheard of this consideration puts a signal Acerbity into it touches the very quick as it may possibly point at some signal Guilt in the Person on whom it is inflicted or may be a token of God's signal Displeasure against him but God be thanked this is not my Case I am ready in a fit of peevish unruly Passion to cry out would God I had dwelt in perpetual silence Or would God I had never lived to see this sad and doleful day Hath this Affliction of mine its paralel Is there any Sorrow like unto mine But hold a little what meaneth this great Heat Is not this strange Language to come from the Mouth of such a one as I profess my self to be Would not sober Reason utterly condemn it I am not the first by Millions that have been in this Case how many if I consider that in a short time I may reckon up and such as upon sundry Accounts might have promised themselves an exemption from this tryal of Affliction before me and yet it came upon them and yet with such aggravating Circumstances as mine doth not many have been snatched away suddenly and such as they had just cause to fear was in their natural unregenerate Estate But I have had a fair time of warning to prepare my self and as to his good Estate God-ward better assurance I could not well desire and what sayest thou How wouldest thou have escaped the stroke Why I would have gone first By the way I doubt my desires after Heaven are not rightly grounded I fear I do not truly desire Heaven and so am not like to come there ever the sooner for such desires if it be only or chiefly that I may be eased of or escape and avoid Afflictions here was I the most miserable Creature in the World yet the thoughts of being rid of Corruption and Temptation thus freed from Sin this should make Heaven more desirable to me then the being eased of all my miseries here But to return was not he more fit for Heaven by far than I more ripe for Glory more meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in light And is it not a thing very fitting and equal that he should go first Since he hath been so hard at work and so quick in the dispatch of it why should I think much that the Lord should give this his laborious Servant a writ of ease admitting him into his rest before such an idle lazay loiterer as I Your young Scholars who have made some good proficiency in Learning at your Country Schools are sent to the University But what should dull raw School boy's do there They must be whipt and whipt again before they will learn to say their Lessons just so it s here The Lord Jesus Christ the great Doctor of his Church hath kept him a considerable time at his School here on Earth and very teachable he was he had learnt to take out his Lesson exceeding well few so good at it as he he had learnt Christ indeed and so being ripe he is gone to take his Degrees in the University of Heaven Whereas such a dull blockish sot as I such a loiterer who love my ease and my play better then my book am like to have many a frown and many a blow many a whiping bout before I can follow him or come where he is if ever I come there if I hold on this idle lazy rate Thousands will get the start of me will get to Heaven before me while I lie loitering behind if I do not in the end fall short of it why true I must grant that he was more fit for Heaven then I and that God's ways are equal in taking them first who are most speedy in their Preparations But O that he would have spared him a little longer Would he but have lengthned out his Life one Year more Yea how thankful would I have been for one Month or one Week more But one Day one Hour will not be granted He is gone so that I must never see his Face more here in the land of the living the dark and silent Grave hath inclosed and shut him in and that he should be snatched away so hastily and at a time when I could so ill have parted with him is not this sad Do I not well if not to be angry yet to grieve to purpose Is not this a sufficient Apology for me was my Heart more imbittered with grief by many degrees then it is let me here a little expostulate the case with my self And I must needs say this that fretful Anger and immoderate Grief are each of them both highly sinful and unreasonable I beg nay I command a true and sober Answer to these few Queries hath not the Lord indulged me with him a considerable time and that since I was in a capacity to have improved him Methinks so many years Mercy of this Nature should seem something to me who would now be so glad of one Day have I not had many and many an opportunity of geting good by him which I have carelesly let slip Such a time he was preaching to me and such a time he was praying with me and many a time he hath been privately at work for my good reproving exorting directing and comforting me both by word of mouth and writing how fain would he have had me been some body for a Christian But alass I have not known the day of my visitation O that I had been wise in time I may well
give my self leave to grieve for my folly here in bitterness of Spirit And farther had I not good reason to expect and a fair time of warning to prepare for that which is now come upon me The comman fate of Mankind more by far dying before his Age then exceeding it should not this have put me in mind of his approaching change Again the weakness of his Body the many Distempers that have been almost continually preying upon him was not this a fair item Hath not his Body for several Years been like a poor old crazy building that must be underpropt again and again to keep it from falling in How many supporters that poor tottering Cottage of his hath continually required to make it a tollerable dwelling for his Soul Is it not a wonder that so tender neat and delicate an inhabitant hath not forsaken it before now Many a time he hath been at the Graves mouth and seemed to have as good as one Foot in when yet the Lord hath said return and shall I yet have a face to say he was snatched away hastily as if the Lord had taken me at an advantage and urge this as an excuse for my Impatience This is shameful Impudence indeed And farther how many plain hints I have had from his own Mouth How oft hath he been droping words of that nature lest after all when the time of his departure came I should be surprized and so taken unprovided So that its evident the Lord hath been no way a-wanting to me here and let me have a care how I reflect upon his Wisdom in the ordering of this sad Providence as to the circumstance of time He doth all things well and in their proper Season To preposterate and act disorderly belongs to such as I but is below a Being so infinitely Perfect as God's is speak out is it a fitting thing that I should be his Counceller That my Folly should correct his infinite Wisdom Look back to hints of this nature given under the 5th Head and if they be not sufficient thou shalt have another Lecture and another after that till thou be forced to yield up the cause for God will he must and shall have the day and now seeing my Afflictions is rather singular for its alleviating then aggravating Circumstances let it be my great care and endeavour that my Carriage and Behaviour under it be singularly Pious and Exemplary 10thly My time here is likely to be very short with which all my Troubles and Sufferings will expire if I be one to whom the Lord hath graciously forgiven the everlasting Punishment a truly regenerate sanctified Person interested in the righteousness and satisfaction of Jesus Christ as I hope I am I may then easily see to an end of these temporal Afflictions Death will put a final Period to them all and why should these things grieve me much which shall not grieve me long The length and continuance of any Affliction or Calamity doth hughly aggravate it This consideration doth most amaze and torment the Damned when they think on their intollerable insupportable Miseries as endless was but that one word everlasting out of their Sentence though it was inconceiveably sad to be separated from God the fountain of bliss and cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone though but for a short term yet me-thinks it was not one half so terrifying the hopes of approaching ease and rest will make a Man go through present pain and labour with Patience in the midst of my troubled thoughts within me when I am poreing upon my Crosses and Afflictions here let me think with seriousness and delight how short lived both they and I am like to be and of those pure and eternal joy's that will abide me I must expect a multitude of Calamities constantly to attend me here Sin and Suffering being so linked together it is a wonder of God's mercy that I am not afflicted only and oppressed always While I Sin I must expect to smart for it if I reckon otherwise its fond and groundless flat contrary to what God in his Word and in the constant methods of his Providence teacheth what can the issue then be but my most shameful Disappointment Let me not therefore promise my self ease and rest and quiet here as if this was Jerusalem when alass it is the Wilderness Yet for my comfort this though the day 's of my life here are evil full of trouble yet they are but few What is my life but a vapor which appeareth for a little time and then passeth away My day 's upon earth are a shadow they are swifter then a Post they fly away they are spent as a tale that is told what are a thousand Years to the eternal God who knows neither beginning nor end of Day 's Alass they are as nothing And what are they to future Eternity A very small inconsiderable thing then why should short momentary Afflictions make so deep an impression upon an immortal Spirit that hath endless Felicity in its eye Should not the lively Contemplations of those eternal Joy's reserved for me in Heaven even swallow me up and make me as it were forget my present Miseries Though for the present I am confin'd to this poor Cottage and kept in hold in this dark sinful dirty World and am put upon many inconveniencies and endure many hardships here Yet I may look up and see a glorious Mansion prepared for me and be surveying a very large and fair Estate indeed Heaven a glorious Kingdom which the Lord hath made over to me by deed of gift sealed and ratified in his Son's blood which I am at present Heir to through the abundant riches of his Grace and shall be put into full possession of when once I come at Age here is something for my thoughts to work upon indeed A large and pleasant Field to walk in by holy Meditation had I never so much time was I as well acquainted with this spiritual Art as ever Saint on earth was and should I spend never so many thoughts upon this most delightful Subject and make use of the greatest helps that earth affords yet I should never be able to reckon up my spiritual Riches here able either to conceive or express what the Sum of all amounts to all this World is not sufficient to contain it I am not able to imagine what happiness Angels and Saints enjoy in one single hours Communion with God and Jesus Christ in Heaven O then what will Eternity be Blessed eternity Here I am quite lost how comes it to pass that I can so easily forget such things as these How sad and shameful a thing it is that I should have a Heart and find time and leisure to think of almost any thing else but not of God and Christ and Heaven And why is my Heart no more filled with heavenly Joy in such divine Contemplations Doth Earth out-ballance Heaven Light momentary Afflictions weigh down
foolish And as for Patience O what an unreasonable thing is a fretting murmuring impatient Carriage in a Creature and much more in a Child under the righteous wise and gracious Disposals of God's Providence it is especially unreasonable and sinful in such who may see not only God's Hand but also his Heart in their Afflictions therefore in our Patience let us possess our Souls let us consider our Afflictions are but the just procurement of our Sin and light in comparison of what we deserve and they are but short for a moment and such as we have need of and God hath gracious End 's in them and will bring our good out of them a gracious Design I verily believe he is now carrying on upon your Soul which could not have been so well effected another way And in Heaven all our sad day's will be forgotten only so far as they will administer Occasion for God's eternal Praises 6thly Let us labour after a joyful thankful Frame what abundant Cause there is that we should not only be patient but in joyful Tribulation let it be our care to clear up our Interest in God and then let us take a survey of the Heritage of his People the many glorious Priviledges the Covenant of Grace entitles us unto and then let us live up to our Means poor honest Hearts are frequently to blame here in living below their Estates alass we place so much of our Happiness in the Creature that much of our Comfort depends upon it but thus it should not be if God be our Portion let us live upon him let the World see that however some cry down a Religious Life as a sad melancholy Life and however others exalt their own Fancies Conceits and gross Delusions above it yet let it appear that we find that solid ground of Comfort in it as can bear up our Hearts under our greatest Pressures dear Cozen how unlike are we unto and how unfit for the blessed Society of Angels and Saints above who are continually singing forth the high Praises of our God Yea how unlike we are to those we here profess our selves to be Is not Praise ever comely for the upright O what a dishonour we are to God and Religion when every petty Cross in the Creature can sadden and sink our Hearts whilst we have the God of all Consolation to live upon O what strangers we are to our own Happiness in being such strangers to a Life of joyful Praise O what merry Christians might we be even under our saddest Circumstances were we but duly sensible of our highly priviledged Estate even here Lord vouchsafe unto us the joy of thy Salvation Finally be instant in Prayer I bring this in last because nothing I have said will be of use to us without some Divine Influences be fetched in this way O be frequent and earnest with God in Prayer that he would by his Spirit teach you what is the errand of this sad Providence that he would help you by your Affliction to see more of the Evil of Sin and more of the Vanity of the Creature and help you under it to keep up high honourable and good Thoughts of himself and that he would help you to act Faith and exercise Patience yea and to live in his joyful Praises And here I would promise you my hand the best of my assistance I can give you that little Interest I have at the Throne of Grace shall be employed for you Thus I have given you some of my Thoughts excuse my boldness herein I hope you will I would have spent some Thoughts upon the particular Nature of your Affliction and so of your particular Duties and Supports but that I am deeply sensible of my own unfitness and consider what able experienced Ministers and Christians you may have opportunity to converse with I must break of being sensible my Pen hath been quite too nimble for me I having been much more tedious then I first intended Dear Cozen I commend you to God and the Word of his Grace This poor confused piece of Nonsense the Lord was pleased to Bless O what a workman is he Let me learn this if he will undertake a Work no matter then how mean and sorry his Tools be Who am affectionately Yours I. B. LETTER II. To S. E. July 16. 1684. Dr. S. BY a hint from my F. in his last I understand you have received but two Letters from me since you went to N. But either you are mistaken or else some of them have miscarried but why am I solicitous about them How little are they all worth How little of God in them all Which makes me wonder why you should be so desirous of them Alass are they not as wast Paper How much precious Time have I thus wasted in writing a little nonsense to you And not only so but I have caused you to mispend time in reading that you could get little or no benefit by but Sister I would not have you think that I have any inclination to leave of my wonted way of Converse with you no I intend to be more constant than ever only I am ashamed to think that what I have done this way hath been to no better Purpose O that we were but soundly Sensible of the worth of precious Time on which depends Eternity How would this influence us in the whole of our Lives here which are but short and very uncertain It is not for nothing that you and I are brought into and still kept in Christ's School Well Dr. S. there is one Lesson I am very desirous to learn I will tell you what it is that so you may help me by your Prayers and also bear me company it is to redeem Time a thing soon spoken soon written but not so soon or easily learnt but the advantages that would come in by it would more then counterballance all its difficulties Well will you be my fellow Student I question not but you are willing yea I hope you are better learnt a greater proficient here then my self O happy Souls who in Time know the worth of Time O thrice happy Souls that are so wise as to cut off all occasions of those sad Reflection which I have of my mispent Time I am your tender and loving Brother I. B. LETTER III. To S. E. August 15. 1689. Dear S. I Receiv'd Your's but am displeased with the Term you give my Letter if you have got any Good give God all the Glory to whom its due and for a requital help poor me with your Prayers but I must earnestly entreat you to be ever very Cautious how you mention any thing that may be an incentive to Pride you would not think what a small Spark sets this base Heart of mine on Fire O my Pride my Pride Yea I am afraid least there should be something of it in what I now write O lamentable Case O abominable Sin And it is especially intollerable in me you
if my poor Spark added any thing to your flame but especially I am pleased with what you write in the Commendation of our loving Saviour I would be grieved when any Blaspheme that worthy Name but methinks it sounds something like Heaven when any are celebrating the Praises of the Lamb indeed I have both seen and heard that of him lately that would not have left me so Tongue ty'd in this Matter as I am was not my Heart so bad as it is O the Love of Christ methinks it should be the burthèn of all our Songs methinks I would fain be saying something I know not how to cull out a more excellent Heart affecting Subject to write to you on but I am afraid to meddle almost because my low and ill Management will be but a disparagement of his matchless Love O that I knew but what to think or write that might affect my own Heart and Your's But what a strange Heart have I to deal with What can affect me if this do not O thou Stone or harder if harder can be May your Heart be more affected in reading then mine is in writing and when it is so O then remember poor me O how should our Hearts be affected when we consider the Person loving the Manner how he hath loved us the rich Benefits his Love hath put him upon procuring for us or we our selves the Persons beloved That he the only begotten Son of God who was his Father's delight from all Eternity ever rejoycing in his Presence that he should have such a gracious Respect to us such poor sorry contemptible vile and sinful Wretches as we are that he should Love us and that at such a rate as he hath done even to die for us and this when he knew before hand how disingeniously we should carry it towards him even returning him Hatred for his Love O this is the most prodigious stupendious Act of condesending Love imaginable And then O think his Love is eternal Love though he was not actually our Saviour from Eternity yet he was so appointed in God's eternal Purpose and Decree O that the ever blessed God should have such eternal projects of Love for such worms as we And his Love is to Eternity for whom he thus loves once he loves to the end and should not this stir our Hearts if we have any Life in us to think that the Son of God should have such a special Eye upon us in his Death procuring the effectual Application of that Redemption he was then working out to our Souls in whom there was nothing antecedently to move him to such distinguishing Love O what shall we think of those invaluable Benefits he hath procured for us as reconciliation justification sanctification and eternal Glory O that I could get my Heart more affected with this astonishing Love Lord I cannot comprehend I cannot reach it no wonder it passeth Knowledge its Love in a Mystery but I do and will admire it and look and long for a sight of thee in Heaven where I shall know thee better with all the Heart affecting Circumstances of thy Love being ever under the warm and melting Influences thereof Hath Christ so loved us what follows but that we hate Sin more and love the World less but Him more and express our love in obedience to the things he commands us and in a willingness and readiness to deny our Selves in any thing dear to us for his Sake well I hope you will pick something out of these confused hints But my Paper begin to tell me I forget my self I am Your's I. B. LETTER VI. To S. E. October 31. 1684. Dear S. YOUR'S I receiv'd and to your request that we may hence forward live a Life of Thankfulness unto and in the joyful Praises of God and our dear Redeemer I heartily desire to say Amen I looked upon it as a great Mercy that the Lord was pleased to give us to see the Faces one of another once more with Comfort but a greater still that he was pleased to indulge us with another opportunity of joyning in that precious Ordinance of sitting down together once more at his Table O what cause we have to love exalt and bless the Name of our dear Redeemer who hath I hope brought us into a special spiritual relation to himself and one to another O how should we love him our Head and one another as fellow members of his body I thought I had loved you as well as I could before but now methinks I feel a fresh and stronger Obligation then that which is purely Natural shall we be fed and feasted together by our dear Lord and shall we be hereafter glorisied together by and with him and shall we not dearly love him and one another Alass but am I one of those blessed and happy Souls am I What do I more then others more then a meer painted Hypocrite may do What have I to prove my interest in Christ my title to his precious Benefits Alass my Evidences are most to seek when I think what a difference there is between Heaven and Hell and so between their Inhabitants O what fears arise in my Soul Ah Sister these eternal Concerns of ours are not things to be left at such uncertainty by us who are so near them we must not be satissfied with a may be O let us go upon sure grounds for Eternity Yet I find which doth sometimes a little revive my Heart the Lord hath said he taketh pleasure in them that hope in his Mercy and I do hope so far as I know my Heart that I have indeed chosen him in Christ for my Portion and Felicity and that I do in the main sincerely desire and endeavour to live to him as my ultimate End But much ado I have to make this out many times Methinks I can plainly see a pious Principle acting you O that I was but as sure of my own Sincerity as I am well satisfied concerning Your's See if you can pray a little more peace into my sinful and sometimes sad and now I fear declining Soul see what you can do your Father and I would say my Father hears of you daily by me whom am Yours I. B. LETTER VII To S. E. November 18. 1684. Dear S. I Receiv'd an account of your Illness last Saturday by a Letter from my F. and to let you see I am not unmindful of you I here visit you with a few Lines though I cannot at present in Person and O that the Lord who many times makes use of poor unlikely means yet that when he pleaseth can do his Work without them would hereby encrease your Spiritual liveliness I remember I receiv'd a Letter from you not long since wherein you complain much of a dead and dull Frame which I did not answer Will a word or two now be acceptable Methought when I read your Letter it should have been my own only for this difference that you seem to
be more seriously affected with your Case then I am with mine who have more cause O if ever poor Creature had need to make such complaints it s I Well but do we not hear Persons most eminently Pious making such complaints very frequently We should not be quite discouraged as though our case was singular How often doth warm hearted David pray for quickning which argues a sense of his want Sensible we should be but not discouraged O that we could confess and bewail our deadness more sensibly more lively But all our work lieth not in complaining but we must use the means God hath appointed for our quickning I verily believe our greatest work lieth in prevailing with our own Hearts to the diligent constant and believing use of the means certainly quickning enlivening Grace is purchased for us by the Lord Jesus and now he hath gone through the most painful part of his Work is he not willing to apply to our Souls what he hath purchased O let us not once question this O let us not wrong a dear Redeemer so much as to think otherwise of him O methinks was I but once made a meet recipient of these influences of his Spirit I should not doubt but I should have them Well it is Grace that must make us so and we have a gracious God to deal with who delights in Communicating of his grace and goodness to his Creatures let us call to mind what we heard of this Subject when we was last together let us ply our Hearts with the serious Consideration of the Sin and Evil of such a Frame together with the necessity reasonableness excellency and usefulness of the Contrary let us pray hard for it and use other means But pray S. take heed of that ungrateful Partiality as to judge and conclude from the remainders of Sin in you that you are in a state of Sin and Death the best on Earth complain of deadness and they do not Complement but have real Cause for it a perfect freedom from all Sin and its Effects remember that is reserved for Heaven Have you not a principle of Spiritual life Else whence comes the Sense you have of your deadness Methinks if I was with you and you would be faithful to your self I should not doubt but I could convince you think as ill of Sin as you will as you can but acknowledge and honour Grace joyfully and thankfully entertain any quickning Motions you have as you would have more what I say to you I would speak home to my own Soul the Lord help me that I may The Lord who is all perfect Spirit and Life make us more like unto himself I am your truly Affectionate Loving Brother I. B. LETTER VIII To S. E. December 15. 1684. Dear S. I Receiv'd both your's and owe you more then thanks for them I would bless the Lord that hath directed us to this way of Correspondence by Writing and that about the great Concernments of our Souls which I hope may prove profitable to each of us and very comfortable in the review I am sorry to hear of the bodily grievances you are under but stormy and pationate at the providential Dispensations of our wise and good God I dare not I would not be certainly if there be any true rest and satisfaction for the Creature it is in the will of its Creator who is goodness it self and I am glad to hear of the calmness of your Spirit my daily Prayers to God are for your spiritual and eternal Welfare and that you may not want any good thing here that the Lord would rebuke Distempers and lengthen out your Life but in that you are mindful of Death I rejoyce for to tell you true I love in my Heart to read and hear and think of Death my self indeed I have now out-lived my self my own expectation some Years But O the unaccountable folly that I am guilty of in that I am yet no more fit to die O strange almost incredible I Profess to believe a Future Judgment that there is a day wherein the great God by Jesus Christ will Judge me with all the World for all my Thoughts and Words and Actions whether they have been good or bad and so sentence me to my final State But O how unaffecting are my Apprehensions of this certain great and dreadful Truth and how inconsistent is my Practice to the belief hereof I am daily running on in my Errors heaping one Sin upon the back of another so laying my self under an unavoidable necessity either of bitter Repentance here or else exposing my self to the condemning Sentence of a most just and righteous Judge hereafter to a State of inconceivable and endless Misery which is enough to make any Heart except such a Flint as mine to tremble if seriously thought of Well shall I go on in this careless Frame and Course I fear I fear I shall but God forbid Well there are two things I would commend to my self and you in order to our Preparation for Death and Judgment 1st Let us make sure of a true and thorough work of Sanctification upon our Hearts O how shall we dare to look Death in the Face if found in an unsanctified Estate Sin is the sting of Death but then how may we with undanted Courage look it in the Face and as it were play with it when the Sting is taken out when we are passed from Death to Life if Sin be dead to be sure it s pardoned so otherwise how shall we think of Judgment to which Death immediately carries our Souls Will God clear the Guilty The turning point at that Day will be whether we be such as have come up to the Terms required of us in the remedying Law of Grace all are Sinners that is certain but all are not impenitent unbelieving Sinners O Sister penitent believing holy Souls and they alone shall be able to stand in Judgment shall obtain Mercy from the Lord in that Day and none but such have real ground of Comfort in the forethoughts of it 2dly Let us labour after clear and certain Evidences of our sincerity O how sweet a thing is Assurance of God's Love peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost How would these chear and revive our Souls in a dying Hour Sure I am a well grounded Assurance would then pay us our own with Interest though we should be at never so much pains to attain it but how sad to be sent to bed in the Dark it must needs be very uncomfortable to a gracious Soul to leave this World uncertain how it shall go with it in the next therefore let us study the Word more which is the Rule by which we must be judged and impartially compare our Hearts and Lives therewith by which means through God's help we may come to know how it will go with us then Blessed be God for that Revelation of his Will Well that our mortality and immortality may
to the Grave I question not but Death is triping up the Heels of some young Persons about you in D. as well as here let us take warning by them and learn to prize and improve our precious Time I could wish you knew what sad Reflections I have upon my self for the mispent of time that I should have lived so long to so little Purpose Now dear S. you have several of those years before your Face if the Lord lengthen out your Life which alass are got behind my back and cannot be recalled O lay hold on this advantage and cut off the occasion of such sad Reflections now in time My Second advice is That you would keep up a constant Course of religious Duties and labour in them for sweet and sensible Communion with God I have suffered much by my neglect of Duties and by trifling in them O the long and sad interruptions of my Communion with God! O the sad effects of this Methinks sloath idleness and formality hath even cloathed my poor Soul with raggs Take heed S. take heed It can never be well with us when we are strange with God and live at a distance from him To live without God in the World is an Hell upon Earth O keep your Heart close to God in a course of Holy Duties be oft in God's walks and be not contented unless you meet with him there but alass while I am writing this methinks Conscience is whispering thou dost not follow this advice thy self as thou shouldst I must confess this is a Truth and a sad one but I think it is good Advice and I would fain have it better with me then it hath been in these respects or then it may at present be with me and besides I would have you better much better then my self therefore take and follow it my daily Prayers are for you the Lord be your God and Guide and everlasting Portion I am affectionately Your's I. B. LETTER XXV To T. W. My dear Friend METHINKS its long since I saw you and I cannot be quiet till I have imparted some of my Thoughts to you I doubt not but you have been wrestling with God for us in reference to our late Exercise methinks I feel that you and other dear Friends have been praying for us the Lord return your kindness and your prayers into your bosom double and may these lines farther engage them and also put a note of praise into your lips O love the Lord O praise the Lord for his goodness We can do little help us help us add your instrument say his goodness endureth for ever surely he hath not contended with his great Power nor withdrawn his supporting Arm we have been afflicted but he hath been with us in six Troubles and in seven he hath not forsaken us surely all his Paths are Mercy and Truth are not all things our's if we be Christ's Shall not nay is not this already working for our good Faith should and Heaven will make us see and say that God hath done all things well even just as we would have them trust his God let your dependance be upon him we have tried him and have found him very Faithful yea very Gracious and Merciful Blessed be the God of Patience the God of Meekness the God of all Grace and the God of all Comforts for what of these he hath given in at this needful time help us to make his praise Glorious and continue instant in Prayer for us that we may reap some special Benefit and that our Fruit may remain My dear Father besides his wonderful inward Supports and Joys hath had a greater freedom from his bodily Distempers at this time then he hath had for some years past bless God for that too I cannot tell you all his Mercies have been manifold have we not been full of his Goodness O may our hearts our lips our lives be full of his Praise Now what shall we render What projects for Jesus Christ now I will tell you of one when I see you which I would have your Assistance in think on me as to that great Affair of mine you know of I do not see but that Providence still smiles upon it and am apt to think it may not be long before it be put to an issue I am oft full of discouraging Fears about it pray for me and if providence do not yet cross it help me to call our great Friend to the Marriage him that turned their Water into Wine O a good guest would he be A guest did I say nay let him be an inhabitant pray him entreat him beseech him tell him I do not Complement with him But I forgot my self the Lord fill your Soul full of his Goodness and bless you in all your Ways I am your real affectionate Friend I. B. LETTER XXVI To my M. Dear M. I Have been deeply concerned for you for some time of late upon the account of that excessive trouble and sadness of Spirit which hath so sorely born you down of late and as it is my Duty so it would be greatly delightful to me could I but do any thing to help you against that which as it cannot but be displeasing unto God so also very Afflictive to your self and to all that love and tender you I was last week casting in my Thoughts for some Cordial for you and I hope the good Providence of God hath directed me to that which I have here sent you enclosed the God of all comfort bless and make it Effectual it is that which I have sometimes found a wonderful Virtue in my self and therefore I can the better recommend it to you will you promise me to read it over and not only now when you first receive it but whenever you find a fainting fit of Sorrow coming upon you Will you promise me to read it seriously and believingly Why then I dare give you leave to be sad and disconsolate if you can O that I knew but what argument to use with you or with God for you for you are never out of my praying Thoughts I dare not be unfaithful to you I must tell you plainly there is more Sin in it then you are aware of and it is the cause of much Sin I know it by too sad experience my self when I have sometimes been in your Case though then I could not see it alass things were hidden from me Again your Sorrow makes the Devil Merry O it pleaseth him he knows he cannot hurt you hereafter it will be out of his Hands therefore he takes delight in your disquiet here and I tell you mark it for its that I have experienced every time you indulge your self in it will he get the stronger hank upon you which you will be less able to shake off Herein you are very ingenious to your self you know not what inward Peace it deprives you of it quenches the Spirit then it greatly injures you as to your outward
Man and it is very Afflictive to all that love you as for my own part it clouds and dasheth all my outward Comfort when ever I think of you and the Lord knows that is not seldom and my poor F. is declining fast and your cheariness I am well satisfied would be better to him then any Physick Well dear M. I am daily pleading with G. for you as I have now been pleading with you I shall now wait for my Answer from you both may it be a comfortable one May it I then promise to bless G. for it more then I ever did for any outward Mercy he ever gave me in all my Life I am concerned for my poor S. that she hath learnt to bear her Trials no better alass we must learn to stoop and hold our Tongues the Lord will have us at that before he brings us to Heaven I intend to let her hear from me shortly but my Affection engaged me to deal with you first O that it may not be in vain I would fain take fast hold on you both and engage him to drive the nail home carry it like a Christian an that hath already a Christ in possession and an Heaven in hope the God of all grace and comfort revive and chear you dear M. what I have written comes from the tender Affection of your loving obedient S. I. B. LETTER XXVII To my M. Dear M. I Was much concerned to see you so low when you was here in Town I earnestly beg the Lord would make your burthen lighter and in the mean time encrease your Strength to bear it and it would much rejoyce my Heart could I do any thing to help you either of these Ways your Exercises are many and great and you are one of a sorrowful Spirit whereby all your other burthens fasten themselves the more and deeper upon you I can say something to your Case from my own Experience being many times much troubled with the same Distemper I will therefore tell you how I find it with my self and what course I have found most helpful to me I have my exercises many ways both inward and outward and such as are no small ones and when a melancholy Fit takes me I am many times ready quite to sink under them and can do little else but aggravate my Troubles and make every little thing great and inwardly lash and torment my self not only with what I at present feel but also with future fears being ready to conclude it will never be better but worse and worse with me a thousand sad perplexing Thoughts crowd into my Mind and I please my self in this tormenting of my self though when the fit is over I cannot but condemn my self for it yet while under it I really think I cannot do otherwise nay that I do well in it and then sometimes I can neither read nor hear any thing but I must meditate Terrour from it and make nothing of bearing false witness against my self every thing must go against me be it right or wrong at other times the best Friends I have can scarce say or do any thing to please me but I can find something to disquiet both my self and them sometimes I have gone alone to think it out but I find there is no end of that but now I will tell you of two things wherein I have found the most Relief the one is secret Prayer when I find one of these Fits is creeping on me when I find my self pinched or burthened one way or other I then take the first opportunity I can possibly get to go alone and there to give my Heart free vent endeavouring to turn my Trouble into a right Channel confessing and bewailing my Sins and while I am thus endeavouring to lay this load on my other burthens are removed before I am aware and moreover it s ten to one the Lord removes that burthen too before I have done believe me I have sometimes gone to that Duty with as heavy an Heart as I think any poor Creature ever had and have come away with it as light as though I had been in a corner of Heaven I do not say this as though I thought you a stranger to this sweet remedy but to put you in mind to take it seasonably do not defer it to your wonted times of Prayer but take the very first opportunity that you can sometimes when I have thus deferred my Heart hath been so strangely bound up that I could scarce pray at all be sure to observe this to take the remedy in time before the Distemper hath got too much hold I believe this which follows is a very needful piece of Advice to you because I know you have used much to neglect your self and I am afraid you do so still whereby you injure your self both Soul and Body more then you are aware in this case use those Creature comforts and supports the Lord affords you not only as a thing Lawful but as your Duty You assuredly Sin if you do not I dare say it is the Lord's mind that you should not deny your self any thing that might make you more chearful in his Service and he hath so provided in his Providence that you need not want any thing that tends to the support or comfort of your Life and then how dare you deny your self Dear M. I write not these things at random for I know much of your Case by my own and having tried these things I recommend them to you now let my Councel be acceptable to you and that the Lord would make it effectual my earnest Prayers shall follow these poor Lines and if I might understand they are of Advantage to you it would very much rejoyce my Heart even mine who am Your's I. B. LEETTER XXVIII To C. W. upon the Death of his Child Sept. 13. 1693. My dear F. I Now understand our gracious G. hath been pleased to remove your Babe to take away that part of the delight of your Eye with a stroke I would endeavour to bear a part with you and I think my self obliged by that bond you know of though as I may say yet unscaled to attempt to administer some relief to you under your present Presures as the Lord shall enable me for some reasons I do it this way and the Lord give my Pen good speed Methinks I hear you thus bespeaking me have pity upon me have pity upon me O my Friend for the hand of God hath touched me Well I would direct your Thoughts to that Scripture 2 Sam. 12.19 20 21 22 23. and the Lord help you to take out the Copy that is there set before you an intire humble and chearful Submission and self Resignation to the good Pleasure of God is certainly our Duty even when we are under his sadest Dispensations this he stands upon and there is the greatest Reason in the world he should and now my Friend to further you herein I would have you let
would not have one praying Hour intermitted and yet I am loath my Pen should go the round a second time before I have somthing from you I beg you would be urgent with your worthy Ministers for a second Call to the whole Kingdom which I shall in impatiently long for not to ease my Pains but to do the Work much more universally and effectually and to encourage them to it let them know that the Iron is now hot with many of us by the experiments I have made I find a great readiness of Mind to the Duty and dare almost promise them a general universal Correspondence with the thing by those whose Prayers are likely to stand poor England in any stead at this dark and trembling Point of Time though it cannot be expected that all should fall in exactly with every Circumstance the good Lord give them an one-rest of Heart in this Affair and the whole Nation in complying with them If the Lord should encline their Hearts to do any thing this way I shall hope for some Copies I shall think the time long till I hear from you but I know not when to end it s well I have a Man of Patience to deal with I am dear Sir your very affectionate humble and much obliged Servant Jo. Barrett LETTER XXXVI To Mr. L. May 25. 1696. SIR I Cannot but eagerly take hold of the first Opportunity to let you know how well I was pleased with the short hint you gave me in the close of your last the Lord help me to do it so as may be to your eternal Advantage Since you took the little good Advice I gave you so well I am encouraged thereby to tell you more of my Heart I do not dissemble with you in telling you that yon have a great share of my Affections if you was my own Brother I think I could not love you better and I am well satisfied that as we use to say there is no love lost between us that you bear the like Affection unto me now I would endeavour to make the best improvement of the Interest I have in you and surely that cannot be better done then by doing my utmost to in-title my great Master a dear and lovely Jesus to it I do heartily rejoyce in your outward prosperity but more earnestly desire the Prosperity of your Soul and should exceedingly rejoyce might I any way be an instrument in promoting it the thing I aim at is not so much the proselyting you the bringing you over to my way and party but the engaging you in a course of serious Godliness though as I have found G. in the way that I am in I dare not forsake it my self so far as I am satisfied it is according to his Word yet I am far from thinking that Religion lies in Notions and Opinions and I doubt not but that there are many serious Christians that differ from me in their Opinions about lesser Matters but this all serious Christians in the World are agreed in that without conversion regeneration true repentance faith and real holiness both of Heart and Life there is no hopes of Salvation Now this is the Business you and I must look after to see that we have past the new birth are throughly changed from what we were by Nature and truly Grace makes a mighty great Change where it comes it is a thing above Morality common Civillity above a formal Profession above outward Attendance or Ordinances above the common Works of the Spirit in the Hearts of Men it is an inward deep powerful abiding thing The Lord give us to experience it in and upon our own Souls without which its impossible that all the Words in the World should make us rightly understand it The poor miserable deluded World thinks all this is meer Phancy but assure your self it s otherwise I know you will meet with a great many Objections arising from Satan and your own Heart as I and all others who have experience of a saving work of G. upon their Souls have done before you He will its like endeavour to make you shy of Convictions of your sin and misery by Nature which in some degree or other ever goes before a sound Conversion but as you love your Soul when ever you feel the holy Spirit of G. this way at work do not stifle but encourage them all you can when you feel your self pained this way take the first opportunity you can to retire into some private Place and there pour out your Complaint before the Lord acknowledge your sinfulness lament your misery cry to him for Mercy cast your Soul at his Feet and though you should not have ease and satisfaction at first yet be not discouraged but hold on seek him in good earnest and my Soul for your's he is found of you And its like he will endeavour to prejudice you against Religion as too strict as a moross dull melancholy Thing as that which would deprive you of all the Comfort of your Life but this is notoriously False I would not delude you and I do and must seriously profess to you this in just commendation of my dear Master and his Service that I am fully satisfied upon the little trial I have made that a religious godly Life is the most pleasant Life in all the World again Wisdoms Ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her paths are Peace I have now been acquainted with Him and his Service many Years and still the more I know of Him and his Service the better I am pleased with both and that upon solid substantial Grounds really I speak my very Heart to you in these things and nothing but what you shall certainly find your Self if you will but come and see if you will but make trial as I have done Indeed Religion doth forbid all beastly Pleasures but it doth not need them for it brings others infinitely better in their room which are peculiar to it self which strangers intermeddle not with and then as to sober manlike Pleasures it s so far from depriving of them that it gives the best right unto the sweetest Enjoyments and the surest hold of them And the best is still behind even those Rivers of Joys and Pleasures at God's right Hand for ever more where others must ly down in endless Sorrow but I am afraid you will think me too tedious do not take it ill from me I verily think you will not God is my witness that love to my Master whom I can never admire never commend never save so much or so well as he deserves I should and love to your Soul a longing desire that you two may come to be savingly acquainted together hath set my Pen on work let him give it good speed I greatly delight in you here but I would very fain take you along with me to Heaven let us not part But I dare not for a World delude and flatter you here without a sound Conversion