same and before this age did not our Fathers and Grandfathers and great Grandfathers and so continued a testimony of ages from the time that they were done to this day witness to the truth of them and that so unanimously and resolutely that ten thousands have rather chosen to lose their lives than the truth of them Now put all these together and tell me canst thou doubt Away I see thou dost but trifle confess the truth or I am resolved to heed thee no longer Come take and embrace that crucified Jesus account all things else but as loss and dross and dung in comparison with him stick not at his outward meanness scruple not at his ignominious dying it is the very Christ the Saviour of the world Oh why shouldest-thou thus torment me Dost thou not see all thy fellow-Christians to glory in that Cross and in that Christ that died on it Do they not bear it as a badg of honour and shall it be to thee as shame Do not all the Christian World eat and drink as often as they can the Symbols of this their dying Lord And do they not all sing and joy and triumph in it and wilt thou the while lye vexing thy self over a company of needless fears and scruples Farewell all needless doubts and tormenting questions I see my faith is built on a Rock blow winds beat waves you cannot now remove me Blessed God! I thank thee for thy Son thou hast given his life for the spoiler thou hast bowed his back to the enemies long furrows have they plowed upon it and the day of his calamity they laughed at Lord thou hast wounded him for my sins and bruised him for my iniquities These speak the depth of thy counsels and the ways of thy mercy past finding out and the tenderness of thy Bowels Thou hast made him my Rock and my shield and my strong tower and in the day of my sorrow through him thou wilt hear me To thee O God will I make my vows and to thee will I pay them I will humble my self before thee I will always lye at the feet of my Redeemer Lord his Cross and his shame shall be no more a stumbling-block to me I will take it up and follow him it shall be my Crown my Song and the glory of my rejoicing I will enter into thy Courts with joy and in the Congregations of thy Saints shall be my delight I will remember thy loving-kindnesses of old and the days in which thou didst afflict thy only Son for the sins of my Soul I will call to mind the Covenant of thy Grace and my heart shall praise thee when I see it founded on blood Then will I betroth my self to thy Son join thou Lord both our hands and hearts and we will strike up a match for ever Praise thou the Lord Oh my soul and all you that love and fear him praise his holy name The SACRAMENT The Dress Lord where am I What! all the Children of the Bride-chamber up and drest and I slumbering in my bed Tell me ye fairest what make you up so early Alas our Lord was up before us all He called us up by break of the day and wondered that we were not triming our lamps knowing with whom we were to feast this day Oh! well then I will rise up too Oh what a shew do these bright and glittering Saints make in mine eyes What a brightness do these pearls and diamonds cast in mine eyes they do strike me into amazement Oh what a lovely humble look doth crown their brow and what a comely countenance hath joy and Heavenly delight cast on their cheeks surely they did not thus dress themselves it was my Father that made them thus prepar'd to entertain his Son But where are my Clothes Now for the fairest sweetest robe of thoughts and wishes that can be found or that the wardrobe of my Father can afford me Oh how naked am I But where are my silken golden twists of Faith to hang the jewels of joy and love and humility upon I am never drest till they be on Oh where where are they I saw them by me but just now I laid them by my heart before I went to bed Oh what was I so long a reasoning about Oh what long and many threds did my reason spin even now but to make these twines to tye up my joy and to raise up my love and to hang my Heavenly delight upon But ah I fear this envious world hath with her vanities stollen them away or hid them from me or the envious Devil or unbelief have been ravelling or snarling of them that now I am as far to seek as ever Whither O whither shall I go to find them out Now will the Bridegroom come and I am not ready I cannot dare not go to day Now will my Lord be angry and ask me why I came not and I have no answer to make him And if I go undrest he will ask me where is my Wedding-garment and then I shall be speechless Ah foolish simple heart that thou wouldst take no more care but to let these thoughts of earth so intangle themselves with thy so pure and Heavenly contemplations Now how to get them loose again thou knowest not this thou mightst by heed and care have prevented but now what help Lord I have sinned O holy Father pardon this time and I will take more heed Oh come and unty my thoughts from this earth and come and dress me up as best pleaseth thee Come be not discouraged Oh my soul Let but thy attire of Grace be whole that is sincere thy God and so thy Saviour will accept thee Though thy garments are not so much perfumed with heaven as thy brethrens are but yet if they are but white and free from the spots of flesh and spirit thou wilt be looked on and liked of well enough Thy Lord doth know that all have not talents alike and where he gives but a little he expects but little A Faith that is richly embroidered over with love and delight is not given to all and is not expected from any but from those to whom it is given Thou hast an honest willing serious heart that thinks it doth despise and trample under feet the nearest dearest pleasures profits and glories in the world in compare with him that gave himself to death for thee and hadst rather anger flesh and blood the dearest friends and all the world than him by sinning against him in the least If this be true fear not thou hast thy Wedding-garment on thou art well clad as mean soever as it is it is such a one as Heaven gave thee and such a one as thy dear Redeemer can and will embrace thee in The Presence-Chamber Fear not O my soul I charge thee do not faint Let not thy weakness and the poverty of thy grace discourage thee see how thy Lord draws nigh Fear not I say he will not ask
i' nt that I Do fear thou canst not save Nothing can hinder if thou please Nor Devil Hell nor Grave Nor do I doubt but 't is thy will To save some such as I For as vile wretches as I am Thy Son did freely die In the deep Seas of thy rich love Blaspheming Paul did swim He though thy Saints he sought to kill Yet thou didst pardon him The Harlot Mary Magdalen Who deeply ran on score Who did ten thousand talents owe Yet that debt-bond was tore A swearing cursing Peter thou Didst to thy mercy take That Son whom he did fear to own Thou pardon'st for his sake This makes me confident my God That Heav'n may be my place If thou would'st please to grant to me Maries or Peters Grace Give me O God to go aside And in some corner creep That there with Peter bitterly In dolors I may weep Give me but sinful Maries love Love shall my ointment be Which I upon my Lords feet will Pour out as well as she But ah my God! this is my fear Their faith and love I want My carnal proud and sensual heart Speaks me no penitent This only Lord I have to plead Those lusts my heart doth hate I long I wish to be set free From this sad sinful state Sure Lord I am no enemy To holiness within Thou seest my soul contend and strive To beat down every sin When that perchance my foot doth slip And thee I do offend Doth not my sin make me to mourn And don 't I strive to mend Had not I faith why should I fear The threatenings of thy Law Why should I dread thy Majesty And of thee stand in awe Had I not faith why should I long Thy face above to see Why should I praying sue so hard To get my liberty Did not I love thee why should I My loved self forsake Why should I loath my loved sins For thy beloved's sake Did I not love why don 't the shell Of duties me suffice In Sacraments and pray'rs why do I thus thy presence prize Did I dissemble to be seen Of men why doth my sin Which none knows but my self alone Me trouble that 's within Did I dissemble then my tears My sighs in company Would more be heard and seen then when My God alone stands by It 's true I love thee not enough Nor is my faith so strong But that with grief I do confess Thy faithfulness I wrong But Lord remember I 'm but dust In weakness here I live That little which I have thou gav'st The rest above shalt give Did not those Stars that now do shine With thee in Heav'n above While living on the earth complain Of want of faith and love Nay Lord do not I read that thou The hungry soul didst bless And it that thirsts for righteousness Such am I I confess But Lord remember he that thirsts And hungry is for grace He some degree of grace must want And I am in that case If he is blessed why not I My hung'rings thou dost see If thou hast said he shall be full Why sha'nt that word reach me I sin I sin but thou hast place't The righteous Christ on high To advocate and plead his cause That at his feet doth lye Lord there a sinner I do lye Thy promise I will trust For pardon and for love will hope Till I fall to the dust The Welcome I. WElcome my child on high Heaven joys to see thee here Be not afraid it is thy Fathers house And thy Saviour bought it dear It was for this he bled And his soul ' n offering did make When my Son thou didst accept this Jointure he thee made Now possess it for his sake Whyart thou asham'd come behold me behold me I have forgot thy sin And made thee clean within Now thou' rt arrived here above Of nought think but of love I shall ne're be angry with thee agen II. My servants that attend Put on his best attire Set a Crown on his brow in brightness that out-shines The clearest flames of fire Spread out that cloth of Gold His foot-cloth it must be If you have him drest come bring him set him here He must keep me company Have you done if you have bid him welcome bid him welcome He was our friend on earth And royal in his birth For whilest he lived I saw he Forsook all to love me And did truly serve me to his his death III. A child a bride a wife Ragg'd and adorn'd so soon From the Dungeon to the Throne how quickly am I rais'd And my midnight turn'd to noon Even now on my death-bed I sigh'd I sob'd I groan'd I weeping cri'd my God hath me forgot And by all my friends was moan'd What they think now on earth I do not know I do not know Nor for't do I much care What a weeping though they are Of little do they think I Do possess such glory That I 'm made so much-of here above IV. This is Jerusalem Pav'd o're with slates of Gold Her rows of houses like to towers stand It 's more stately than was told Here 's not a street but 's strow'd With flowers of Paradise Not a step that I tread but such sweetnesses I pownd More rich than Arabian spice Walls that her inclose are far brighter far brighter Than th' oriental flame Or a thing that wants a name Her sparkling gates are well known To be made up of such stone That the richest Diamonds doth excel V. Blest shades that here do dwell These mansions that possess I never till now a place or people saw That the God of Heaven doth bless Here 's not a look speaks care No sign of tear or grief Not a sigh or a groan through all the streets I hear Nor a beggar that wants relief All yet that I 've met are like Angels like Angels In clearness they surpass A Star or chrystal-glass Whose unsoil'd beauty doth seem To out-vye a Sun-beam Far Oh far more splendid than all these VI. Their locks like curls of light Their Lilly-necks hang o're Bedeckt with Ribbonds richer than of Gold I ne're saw such before Sweetness of spirit blooms And blossoms all the week In smiles of joy and love that do adorn In their flowrings on each cheek In mantles as white as the fair Moon the fair Moon They walk about each street And embrace all that they meet I never saw friends so love As they do here above Oh! I could lie at any of their feet VII I am where I would be In the City of my King This is the place I have desir'd to see And to hear the cherubs sing What lofty strains are these I ne're heard voice so lavish Not a note that I hear but melts me into joy And my heart doth in me ravish In the close when they shout Hallelujah Hallelujah Glory to God on high And the Lamb that below did die There 's warmth methinks in these names That melts me into
in the blood of Jesus for the pardoning of that sin and strength against it If not we may very well suspect that we did not resolve in the strength of Christ XXVII Says a poor Saint I have gone to prayer many a time and have been exceeding low and have pray'd with much carelesness just as if I were talking or telling a tale What shall I do in such a case Answ First That neither raisedness nor flatness in prayer is the reason why God heareth thee And therefore consider That in prayer thou art to approach a God-mediating a God-man and not a meer creature but thus thou dost if thou thinkest God will not hear thee except God raiseth thee thou makest raisedness the ground of thine acceptance which is but a meer created being as all other graces are Oh! Take heed then of depending upon Ashur say Ashur shall not help me but on the Lord will I depend Secondly Consider this for thy corafort that though thine heart is straitned here on earth towards God and in mourning as to thine own vileness yet Christs bowels are not in heaven straitned towards thee He is not so capable of mutability as thy condition Though thou losest thy first love yet he is the same yesterday to day and for ever Thirdly Consider that 't is Christs Intercession and pleading with his Father for thy prayer and not thy raisedness that is the ground of the return of thy prayer The consideration of Gods former dealings and dispensations of love is a good argument to move God in prayer when a soul is at a loss for love now or for strength or when God seems to hide himself as to the answering of thy request to say Lord why art thou so strange to me now Time was that thou borest me as a lamb in thy bosom and carriedst me into thy banqueting house and feedest me with love Time was that thou enravished'st my soul with a glance of thine eye what is become of thy former love hast thou shut up thy tender mercies in wrath see the Psalmist thus pleading in Psal 77. XXVIII I have been in such a temper that I have found mine heart in prayer even contradicting my tongue If for mortifying of pride in parts in learning mine heart hath been ready to say to its self that there could be no joy except in exaltation of self as good to have no learning as not to delight in it and applaud self by it truly this hath been the language of mine heart But I bless my God that he hath given me a joy and that above all that joy which creatures can possibly afford It was my non-experience of Gods love to me it was for want of spiritual enravishments that mine heart became so vain in its imaginations Oh that I could magnifie my God for this his love and goodness Again I have been sometime so carnal that I have even thought that there could be no Feaven more sweet pleasant and desirable than that which might be made up of created beings as to enjoy pleasures and never to be tired with them to please my taste in feeding and never be weary of feeding to hear the most sweet and melodious musick and never weary of hearing to delight mine eye in seeing and never be weary of seeing Thus have I delighted my soul with foolish imaginations as they soon appeared to be when God pluckt off these earthly and sensual scales from mine eyes He shew'd me more true joy in a smile of his reconciled countenance than in a Paradise made up of all the sweetest flowers which may grow in Natures garden can possibly afford me Magnifie the Lord Oh my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name For he hath been better to me than ten thousand worlds I will rejoice in thee so long as I have a being Oh my soul praise the Lord XXIX At sometimes it is hard for a man after the committing of some sin to believe that sin is pardoned and withall to mourn for it And it 's grounded on this thinks the soul what should I mourn for that which is not Answ Fear and sorrowing for sin may well be consistent with closing with a promise by faith for the taking away of guilt Observe therefore that the freeness of grace and the fulness of a promise ought no way to take off a Saints watchfulness over sin and the mourning for sin Further consider although God pardons the sin yet he ceaseth not to hate sin therefore mourn for sin because it offends him Again it is difficult for a man to think that he hath acted faith upon God for pardon of a sin when he hath not in prayer against that sin felt himself raised or his heart melted As for example after thou hast sinned whether in letting thine heart rove upon worldly businesses when thou hast been in duty at Church c. and apprehending it to arise from a carnal soul coming home thou goest to God by prayer to beg a pardon of that sin and for spiritual strength to subdue it and observing in that prayer that thine heart is not raised either in love to God or breathings after the discovery of love or else that thine heart is not melted for that sin in such a case it is hard for thee to conclude with thy self that thou hast acted faith upon Jesus Christ for the pardon of that sin For Answer I confess it is a difficult case but yet the soul may be exceedingly deceived in it Therefore it is good for such a soul to mark this that notwithstanding his present indisposition or blindness as to the discovery of pardon yet in a secret manner he may have pardon given in and hereby you shall know it That if God do afterwards a week or a month or more deaden and crucifie that corruption for thee thou maist conclude thou didst act faith in that application of thy soul to God The reason is clear because actings of faith do always accompany true Faith The instance of this is plain in Hannah she went to God to beg a Son 1 Sam. 1.7 10. And when she had done she knew not whether or no God would answer as appears from vers 11 12. but in the latter end of ver 9. we read that the Lord remembred Hannah And another example of this we have in Cornelius Act. 10.2 'T is said He was a devout man and one that feared God and pray'd to God alway And yet we read not that Cornelius knew that his prayers were accepted until the Angel came and said to him vers 4. Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God Hence the Inference is clear That God may hear a soul and see him acting faith for a mercy when as perhaps the soul that prays could never judg of it himself But it may be objected 'T is true God may hear a soul and the soul not discover it but as for acting of
refuse the seal thereof I know I am vile I am vile but thou hast pardoned me Lord I have abused thy love a thousand times refused thy offered self and withstood the tenders of thy Grace but thou hast covered all my sins thou hast freely justified me by thy Grace and made a full attonement for me by thy blood this is that thou freely biddest me take and I have freely drunk it Never was Wine so full as this is Never was Bowl so full of pleasure as this I have swallowed down my life and pardon at one draught I took it from my Saviours hand it was a cup of his own preparing If ever drink was sugared this was I never tasted better rellisht Wine in all my life The richest Cordials cannot match this draught Divine Spirits of pearls dissolved would but dead this Wine Oh when my hopes but kist the purple dews they hung and cleaved so As if they were loth to let thee go They strove and strugled to get near my heart As if intending there to take a part I dare not say them nay blood from that bowl May the best room command within my soul What a sudden strange yet happy alteration do I find within my languid spirits are revived my winter is over Methinks I feel my life and joy to spring amain My Aarons Rod a dry stick but now doth bloom and flourish My newly ingrafted soul is full of Infant-clusters Blood at the root of Vines They say produceth richest Wines Oh! if my Lord will undertake to dress this Vine and trickle down his blood into my root then draw it up into each branch of Grace by the warming beams of his reviving love then let my Dearest come let him come as he hath promised and bring my Father and his Father with him and sup both with me and in me Let them come and I will bid them a welcome I shall have a fruit to present them with which they themselves shall say is pleasant I shall not send my Father away now so oft complaining I came to seek for grapes and fruit but behold wild ones The Conclusion Oh! how unwillingly do I rise methinks I could sit here and feast my heart and eyes for ever What running-Banquets doth my Lord afford me here surely he should not need to fear that I should surfeit on himself But alas I must be gone what shall I do in yonder hungry soul-starving world again I have been feeding on my Paschal Lamb and now I must go and eat my sowr herbs but if it be his will I must obey if it be so I must arise I know thou hast prepared the endless feast above where I shall ever sit and enjoy thy love and glut my hungry eye and heart on the Banquet of thy everlasting self As yet I am now on earth my toil and work lyes heavy on my hands I have yet an afternoon to labour out God knows my work is hard too hard for me my self to perform I scarcely should have lasted out so long but that sometimes at such seasons as this is he repaired my sinking spirits by pouring in the Cordials of his Blood Now I must go and perhaps find as sharp conflicts with my self as ever I know the World and Hell have been laying their snares and gins to catch my new-fledg'd soul and all conspire against my welfare Now it is well if I escape a fall a bruise a breaking of my bones in which sad plight I have so often lain that my Lord might have took me for dead but that my groanings told him loudly I lived Lord must I leave this feast must I go Take me then by the hand and lead me if I must walk let me see thee by me that I may know I walk with my God Lead me away and I will go with thee and let me not go till thou bringst me hither again I cannot will not live without thee And do thou Lord say I must not shall not If both our hearts in love so well agree What then shall separate my Christ from me A Meditation on the Death of Christ Preparative to the Sacrament Pen'd for his private use BUT is he dead Oh sad yet joyful news how strangely is my soul amazed and diversly mov'd and troubl'd by these contrary passions methinks I could pull up the floodgates of my sorrow and vent it out in tears but something bids me hold Shall I mourn for him that 's just now past his state of mourning He 's dead and what of that And so are all his griefs his bloody sweats his sighs and groans concluded He hath drunk on the brook in the way bitter while they were in his mouth and he was living but sweet now they have sunk into his belly and and he in Heaven Sweet to him because it was his work and he hath finisht it and sweet to me because it was the potion of sorrow death hell that I must have taken And canst thou mourn methinks if thou didst love thine heart should rather sympathize with his He is singing and shalt thou be sighing He is joying that his work is done and now is welcoming into Heaven by God his Father and shouting up by Angels voices as the great Conquerour of the hearts of men on earth and that now in triumph he is returned And will a mournful weed a wet eye and a cloudy brow become thee at these times of Festivals Shall the Heavenly Angels be joyful and thou sad How strangely will this be construed Will it not be said thou dost not love him or thou dost envy his recovered glory that he had left and now again hath taken Or that thou canst not endure to see him wear his Princes Crown in Heaven that for a time he had laid aside to come down to the earth to fetch thee thence to Heaven But ah my Lord thou wilt not sure interpret sorrow thus thou hast not sure forgot to give a meaning unto tears to teach a sigh to speak and then to know its language Hath my Lord forgot so suddenly that he was on earth and that he sweat and groan'd and wept and bled as well as I do now What though now all tears and sorrow and sighing is done away and he ceaseth to be any longer subject to our infirmities yet sure he knows it is not thus with us I am not yet in Heaven nor am I yet quite past the vale of sorrow and it cannot then be strange to him if he sees sometimes our faces look of a sadder hue than those that are in Heaven But why should thus my tears be check'd and my throbbing heart be chidden were it for a thing of nought I might be counted fool or child but shall my Saviour die and vent his soul in a stream of blood and all in love to me and shall he thus forsake the world and die and then be laid in the grave and I be denied the liberty of following
God comes to make inquisition for blood How will you do if this sin shall find you out If God requires blood for blood what will become of yours If he had been no more than a common man the Law would then have required your lives for payment But how if in the end he prove a Prophet nay more than that the Son of the most high God the Prince and Saviour whom God had promised to raise the Messiah whom Moses and the Prophets bare witness to and him that you so long long'd and wisht to see How will you look what will you say what answer will you make when all these truths are cleared where will you hide your selves for shame and what will you do when confusion shall thus take hold upon you What! will you then confess the fact or will you deny it with what face can you do the first And if you do the latter the curse you and your Fathers drew upon your selves Let his blood be upon us and our children stands still on record against you and will cry you guilty Will you excuse it with your unbelieving ignorance But how will you be able to rub your brows into so much confidence How dare you say you were ignorant of him when you say you knew both Moses and the Prophets and they bare witness of him You askt a sign and did he not give you both signs and wonders How often did he cure your Lame How wonderfully did he heal your Lepers and those sick of the Palsie yea of all manner of diseases How did he open the eyes of the blind and give light to him that was born blind yea restore the withered hand and make the crooked straight and open the ears of the deaf and cast out Devils and raise the dead Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that Son Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ Upon which Text Act. 2.36 the Author Mr. Tho. Wadsworth preach'd at Gregories Church by Pauls March 29 1656. evidencing clearly from those words 1 That the poor life and ignominious death of him that was crucified at Jerusalem was no good argument why the Jews should reject him from being the promised Messiah 2 That that very God-man named Jesus Christ that was crucified at Hierusalem was the true Messiah whom God made and appointed to be Saviour to the World If his Notes were sufficiently legible in the proving and improving of these two Propositions so that they might have been publisht as they cannot unless any took them in short-hand for his own use there would have been found in that Discourse a notable antidote against the poysons of Judaism and the Atheism of this present age Three Letters of Mr. Tho. Wadsworth to his Sister Elizabeth Wadsworth in Southwark when he was a young Student in Christs-Colledg in Cambridge wherein we may see the early breathings of his pious Soul Dear Sister YOU may remember very well that I sent a Letter to you all in general to wit my Brother and other Sisters but it is my wonder and grief that I should receive an answer from none of you I thought that your loves to me were not so contracted but that I might have procured such a favour at your hands as three or four lines in a Letter but however your not regarding of me hath not begotten in my soul such regardlesness towards you and therefore from among the rest I have chosen you out in particular to see whether you in particular will give me an answer to my other Letter I remember that the last time I was with you upon Conference that I had with you I found a good and pliable nature in you some softness of heart appear'd by that crystal dew which trickled down your cheeks I would have wisht in some respects that it had continued until this time For truly nothing speaks fairer weather in Heaven than moistned cheeks below on earth you must not think to come to Mount Zion the Heavenly Jerusalem before you have past thorow a vail of tears Heaven is not a bauble and it can't be attain'd by mirth and jollity you must not think to live merrily in Earth and in Heaven too I know you are naturally merry and jocond but you must labour to mortifie that merry nature you have you are naturally full of talk but if you love your soul you must labour to bridle the tongue Perhaps you would say O Brother this I would willingly do but I cannot tell how I will give you this answer First Labour to live more seriously to talk less let your thoughts be on God and think that he hears every word you speak and as our Saviour says You must give an account for every idle word You must not think you shall ever be swallowed up in love that you shall ever bathe your self in Divine ravishments to all eternity with God in glory and walk so lightly and vainly here on earth O that I could but perswade your soul of this If I could I know that you would desire no other glory than to swim all your life-time in a river of tears I shall not here speak of the glory which your soul should enjoy in Heaven lest my soul in writing should be swallow'd up with confusion for if I knew where to begin yet I should never know where to make an end Angels themselves have been wading these five thousand years in this Ocean and cannot come to the depth of it yea and shall be wading to all eternity with the glorified Saints and yet shall never fathom it And now if thou art willing that thy soul should accompany my soul unto this Ocean of Love take notice then of these paths which I shall here set down which will lead thee unto this desir'd happiness And truly I beg of thee and likewise charge thee in the presence of the Almighty God as thou shalt one day answer it at the Judgment-seat when God shall judg the quick and the dead that you do not when you have read this Letter cast it away and look on it no more Therefore I beseech of thee as thou art dear to me as a Sister that thou wouldst put into practise every word that I shall say First then Be constant in prayer by thy self both evening and morning and if you find any good motion in the day-time go then again to prayer And if you ask me How you should pray I answer thee pray against every sin thou find'st thy heart prone to commit Pray against thy carnal joy and beg that thou maist be most serious in thy conversation Dost thou find in thy soul that thou canst not mourn for sin Pray that God would soften thy hard heart that he would make thee to mourn to weep and lament thy sins because they are against such a tender and loving Father as God Dost thou find that thou art given to anger pettishness and frowardness pray
man would have done it 2 And was not God himself slighted by those that were invited to the feast Was not Christ worse than slighted and was not Paul called a Babler and the Gospel foolishness 3 But consider further Is not the Gospel and the God of it slighted in thee the message thou knowest is not thine but his that sent thee 4 And think is it not natural for the carnal mind to have unsavoury dark foolish thoughts of the Gospel was it not always so did not Christ wonder seeing their unbelief 5 But think it 's God in Christ or the strictness and spiritualness of the Gospel that they undervalue and think nothing of the excellency of They say it 's thou speakest nothing they would say the other but they dare not speak out and so they cast it on thee and art thou not willing rather to suffer than it wouldst not thou have interposed thy face to Christ to have received the spittle and kept it from him and thine head to have been crowned with thorns and what dost thou shrink in taking of this 6 But think what reason have they to charge thee with a nothingness and impertinency in preaching what mean so many to follow thee they may hear nothings and impertinencies nearer home Wherefore go on chearfully and boldly in thy work and regard not what some few scoffers say when thou art carrying on that work for the good of souls which the Lord will own and bless HYMN I. WHat ails my soul to look so wan My vitals they are fled What faintings do I feel within My heart as 't were is dead Love-beams do shine full in my face From off the throne above They sparkle glories round my soul Yet yet I cannot love I see the Heavens open wide My Lord upon his throne I see his Saints all cloth'd in gold Bedeckt with glittering stone I fee a Crown held in his hand To set upon my head If once I were laid low in grave Yet yet my heart is dead What my distemper is God knows It 's cause I can unfold My heart lay down upon the earth And there it caught a cold This this alone had been enough My health to overthrow But I of flesh a surfeit took Which made my grief to grow Lord what compassions in thy looks What pearls stand in thine eye Like a kind friend thou turn'st away As loth to see me die No cordials can my sp'rits revive Those glorious sights do'nt move Oh I am lost there is no hope I see yet cannot love My God! my God! don 't me forsake If I must needs then die Whil'st I am breathing out my last Oh! do but thou stand by Help help thou great soul-curing God In languishments I lye Speak but the word my heart revives Oh yet I shall not die I find my native heat restor'd My wonted joys return I love thee Lord I love thee now With love my heart doth burn Oh what are all the things below What toys they seem to me When shall I leave them and come up To dwell my Lord with thee HYMN II. The Souls Farewell to her Body TIr'd with a body now at last In travel on my road I must take Inn and rest my self I must of flesh unload I see my prison-walls fall down And mold'ring into dust I feel my chains of flesh break off As eaten up with rust Oh! I am going help my God! A little respite give Reverse thy sentence add some years That I on earth may live Ah! foolish soul how fond of life Dost thou thy self betray Why a few minutes more dost thou With tears for life thus pray Are not the years enough thou ' st been A Pilgrim here below Thy Father calls bids come away Ah! fool thou wilt not go What seest thou in this wicked world That thus delights thine eye A father brother or dear friends Thou ' lt find them all on high Thy Saviour hath a Palace there Imbost about with Gold Thine's but a den where now thou dwell'st Whose walls scarce keep out cold What canst thou see more than thou hast The same Sun runs its round The rivers ebb and flow alike No new thing can be found The pleasant faces of thy friends Thou feest but o're again The sweets of meats and drinks thou tasts Are but the very same Yet these sweet and beloved things Have thorns been in thy side Their Prickles have so torn thy heart Thou scarce could'st them abide But Oh thou lump of Gold my Soul How full of dross and tin Thy Father would but melt thee now And purge thee of thy sin Thou art my Soul a ball of light Here in dark lanthorn place't God in a golden socket would Thee set to burn not waste Arise my Soul come shake thy plumes Prepare thy self for flight Like a fledg'd Eagle mount aloft And bid the world Good-night Farewell then dearest friends farewell Farewell fond world I say Lord now I come Oh take me up With sighs and groans I pray HYMN III. The Resurrection of our Blessed Lord. ON Golgotha that fatal day While Christ on Cross did bleed The whole Creation groan'd they say To see that bloody deed The Earths big heart with sorrow swells Which burst out in earth-quakes The Sun his eye hides in a cloud The lowring Heaven shakes The bodies of the dead arise Most ghastly look and wonder Because mens hearts nor garments rent The Vale doth tear asunder Yet one thing do I admire more To see a God-man dead His breathless royal trunk they took And laid in grave deaths-bed Like conquer'd captive there he lies In th' prison of a grave Three days the tyrant death him holds In fetters like a slave So long said he I 'le lye then cry'd Hell grave death do your worst Fast tye me bind me chain my hands I 'le all your fetters burst Rowl rowl a stone upon his tomb The Jews of Pilate pray Set watch and ward lest that his friends By night steal him away With bills and lanthorns there they stand With scoffs they him deride See how he riseth jeeringly They flout one very side At length the third days morn doth dawn Our Lord begins to ' wake Whilest the hard stony Cover-lid Away the Angel takes Look look the watch-men see they run As frighted hark their crys The buried Jesus he is risen We saw him with these eyes Shout shout for joy ye Saints of his This is your Saviour dear When you this wretched life must leave Graves Coffins do not fear This day a perfect conquest he Of grim-lookt death hath made Your moulder'd rotted bodies he Can raise as he hath said HYMN IV. Of our Lords Ascension into Heaven I Sometime wondred why thou Lord Those forty-days didst stay On earth betwixt thy Grave and Crown Or thy Ascension day It seems most like a Captain great After some bloody fights Who walks to shew his friends he lives And puts his Host to rights Thus all things
improvement of spiritual knowledg even whiles at the Vniversity which might make him a Workman that needed not be ashamed We shall look upon him though then but a Batchelor of Art who yet had gain'd respect by his Collegiate and Academical exercises and was well furnish'd with abilities as call'd to be employ'd in that exercise to which the former were only preparatory and subservient For it seems about the latter end of 1652 when his Father being admonisht by age was summon'd by sickness to leave this Temporary life he was concern'd to be at home the place of his Nativity where his custom was to call his Fathers servants to an account about their Souls and to Catechise them in the main Principles of Religion Here when he had as a most dutiful Son perform'd the last offices to his dying and deceased Father and was comforting his sorrowful Mother and instructing the Family He was importun'd by some good Christians of his acquaintance who soon found what excellent gifts and endowments this young Timothy had to employ his Talents in Preaching the Gospel as occasion should offer This upon their invitation he readily embrac'd and by his Preaching gave such evident proofs of his experimental knowledg utterance and zeal for God that upon the death of Mr. Morton a very Reverend and Worthy Minister the Parishioners of Mary Newington-Butts having heard him Preach and being satisfied of his Learning Piety and Ministerial abilities as the Instruments shew and Petition'd for him He was Feb. 16. 1652 ordered to that Rectory by those then in power as a Godly and Orthodox Divine And this was very remarkable in his Election to that Charge that though the Parishioners were divided into two several Parties and both went with their Petitions to Westminster upon the foresaid vacancy to have a Minister setled amongst them neither party knowing the others mind yet they both pitch'd upon him for whom the unanimous Petitioners did easily obtain a grant XXXVIII Hereupon this observant young Divine who was ever ready to acknowledg God in all his ways doth in his book with his own hand record this seasonable Call viz. God called me very clearly as I thought to the charge of Newington in which I used no means but Prayer wherein I was carried out in abundance of calmness of mind grounded on Faith This is remarkable in it that for some two weeks before I heard of it I was exceedingly troubled in my thoughts about means for subsisting at the Vniversity till my profits came in And behold how God graciously silenc'd all them by a gracious Providence but I look higher than so For much about this time as we conceive he was also Chosen Fellow of Christs Colledge yet to the satisfaction of the Reverend Dr. Bolton the Master and his particular friend He resolv'd to accept of the Charge at Newington where He was so unanimously desired and where he might have a greater opportunity of doing good to souls which was most upon his heart and the working of God upon others hearts by his Preaching was much heeded by him For we have him noting Feb. 17. 1652 3. I Preach'd at Mary-Overees wherein God wrought so graciously by me upon T. W. that through the urgencies of his spirit He wrote a large Letter to me indeed very spiritually wherein He blessed God particularly that He had heard me and that God had counted me so worthy as to become an Ambassador of so glorious a Gospel This was the first occasion of the renewing our acquaintance Bless the Lord O my soul that He hath made use of thy foolishness to manifest his Wisdom and his Grace to others XXXIX Afterwards on March 6. and 11. we find him again recording these Observables I heard from one of Newington that a wicked man of that Parish should say to him That he was very glad that they had made such a choice of me which forc'd him to these expressions through my weak preaching that he was perswaded if the Devil himself should come and preach to men he would perswade them to seek heaven O my soul admire the new Hierusalem Further Mr. Diaper brought one of Newington to me they called Mr. Langleys Convert who told me in our Converse that he had lain under a deadness of heart for almost a quarter of a year but since my Preaching there his spirit was exceedingly refresh'd and quickned This is the Lords doings and it is wonderful in mine eyes The same night in our Conference both concurred I mean the forementioned parties in this experiment that they have kneeled down on their knees yet through straitness of heart have risen up again and Petition'd nothing of God March 12. saith he my soul was in an exceeding spiritual frame wherein God exceedingly deadned me as to worldly-mindedness with which through a little dallying with a day or two before I was somewhat bewitch'd Oh! my soul take heed of jesting with covetous expressions lest it prove thy snare On Saturday night April the 1st my spirit was very much refresh'd in the light of Gods countenance the actings of my faith being very visible in relation to Newingtons salvation A friend of mine told me of a very carnal wretch that at hearing of me concerning the unkindness of sinners to God was very importunate with the said party to write out my Sermon for him which importunity lasted for a week or more but at length the said importunate party waxed cold and he heard no more of him when he had written it out for him Note All convictions and all meltings are not converting For the searching of such like we have this experimental Preacher recording You shall find it in your dealings with some souls that it is very hard to bring them off their good meanings and wishes especially such as are any thing moral and haply do subdue some of their grosser sins Examine such thus First How doth your soul take it if you find not God in prayer if you can rise up as you kneel down find God or not find him suspect thine heart for all is not right within Secondly Whether doth the absence of God or the loss of a creature a child or a wife or a husband most trouble thee thou maiest by this search thine heart to the quick for the loss of whatsoever it is that troubles thee most that is thine heart most upon Indeed the heart of this choice servant of the Lord was much upon his Masters work for the good of Souls For on a time June 1651. we find he had noted that he was furpriz'd in spirit with joy unutterable breaking out Oh! how did my bowels earn when I thought of Souls at a distance from God and sitting upon the shadow of death Whereupon he communicated his experience to his Chamber-fellow XL. And now having after thorow examination and profession of his faith been solemnly set apart to his Ministerial office and Pastoral Charge by the laying on of the hands of
Then in the afternoon some of his choice Christian friends Ministers and others met to seek the Lord with fervency on his behalf When again pinch'd with recurring pains he said He was in an agony but not a bloody one And what are all my pains to those Christ did undergo for me When they were earnest with God in prayer for faith and patience He would often be saying Though thou killest me yet will I trust in thee And expressing much humility when they were importunate for his restoration Ah! poor useless sinful wretched creature that I am that they should be so earnest for my life But when it pleased the Lord that his pains should continue and the joint and ardent prayers of his dearest Relatives and people were not prevalent for his recovery He would be ever and anon thus stilling and quieting himself What shall I say unto thee O thou preserver of men One minute in heaven would make amends for all this pain LVIII On Friday 27th his repeated pains did continue yet the Doctor of Physick said There was no danger Towards evening he had some intermission and then was reading some part of his own Book concerning the Immortality of the Soul and Faiths Triumph over the fears of Death That Friday night his friend that much lov'd him Mr. Jeofferies sate up with him When being again rack'd with grievous pain he spake to this purpose Oh! the wonderful mysteries of the Providence of God! who can see a Job cast out upon a dunghil filled with botches and biles for saken by his friends and worried by Satan and yet at that very time God had not a more choice servant on the face of the earth nor one more dear to him than he was To another of his Congregation come with his Wife that evening to visit him and saying If it should please God he should then dye they should be a scattered flock as sheep without a shepherd He said The great shepherd of his flock liveth still or eternally He doubted not but he would take care of them LIX On Saturday morning 28th he by the help of his intimate friend Mr. Obadiah Sedgwick Merchant made his Last Will and Testament constituting his Wife sole Executrix he then as one who had set his house in order taking leave of this world told his Wife He had now done with Wife and Children and not less than twice to the Question How it was with him as to soul-concerns He answered I bless the Lord I have no cloud upon my spirit yet if my God should give Satan leave he may put me into an Agony before I dye Reverend Mr. Bragg in his Sermon p. 24 25. hath more He then spake of this nature yet further he repeated that of Solomons The soul knows his own bitterness and a stranger intermedles not with his joy He told Mr. Parsons his fellow-labourer in the Ministry All my self-righteousness I disown and I trust only to Christ and hope I have a Gospel-righteousness This evening seeing his Wife to weep He said I prethee weep not but turn thy face with Hezekiah to the wall and pray The night after when he was weaker his pains grew stronger but when an acute pain was a little over He would ever and anon say Now this pain is over and I shall know it no more And to one that stood by who he thought had not walk'd acurately Now see the benefit of a good conscience Then when they had given him something from the Apothecary to dispose him to sleep though his speech was somewhat interrupted with pain and drowsiness He was much concern'd for the People of God in England After a little slumber he said I long to see a people rich in spiritual graces as well as spiritual priviledges but surely God hath here a peculiar people a royal priesthood that serve him day and night in sincerity LX. On the Lords-day morning 29th his Wife asking him whether he knew her What saith he not know thee not know my Wife Thou would'st make me to think I am going to triumph before I am However his triumph was not many hours after For though his people in the solemn assembly that holy day had been earnest again with the Lord if he had seen good to have spared him longer to them about one of the Clock that Lords-day on which blessed days he had used to be much in an heavenly frame as before this choice servant of the Lord expired his last breath and his holy soul entred those joys he had often been labouring to get a Pisgaghsight of and to shew them to others whiles he was here in the body Upon his death that being dissected there was a stone took out of his bladder figured like an Egg which then did weigh 'twixt three and four ounces It may yet be seen in the hands of his Sister He had a brother who though a very strong young man when he was not above 20 years of age dyed being cut of the stone which much affected our compassionate Author and made him all his life after pre-apprehensive of those pains which nextly caused his own dissolution LXI If upon their departure as Erasmus saith in the life of Hierome We are ready to kiss the very shooes and shirts though soyl'd of those Saints we lov'd we should certainly account their Books their best Reliques most useful and efficacious The Works of our Author much beloved by those who knew him well already published with good effect are 1. His serious Exhortation to an Holy Life wherein he doth with great strength and much affection from Mat. 5.20 put in a plea for the absolute necessity of inherent righteousness in those that hope to be saved This was written when he had been six years at Newington as he saith in his Epistle to it 2. The Immortality of the soul prov'd by Scripture and Reason to the Saints joy and the Sinners terror Printed much about the time of his last marriage 1670. To which is annext 3. The Triumph of Faith being in a tendency to the Practical improvement of the former from Phil. 1.21 answering fears upon the conceiv'd approach of death 4. â— Sermon in the Printed Book of Farewell-Sermons though it seems that was not the very last he preached before stinging Bartholomew on Rev. 2.5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent Published 1663. where he presseth England to repent Lest said he if God be provoked by sin to go the Devil come And he adds prophetically enough the Plague Pestilence and Sword and all other manner of Evils follow God doth not go alone neither doth God remove his candlesticks alone I do not tell you that God threatens you to pull down all your lights I would not terrifie you by telling you that God is a departing from you when he puts out
although Men's wanton fancies would not have it so But by God's Post attempt to set their own As if that were too weak to stand alone 'T was not Event but Duty which his Eye Fixt as the measure to be guided by His Courage in this warfare was so great Nothing could ever force him to retreat But still he kept his ground as who should say If I lose that I also lose the day Therefore let Enemies do what they can My fear of God hath drown'd the fear of Man Thus did he sow in tears till now at last To him this low'ring stormy season 's past And his full sheaves of Glory make amends For light afflictions with what far transcends He liv'd belov'd and dy'd bewail'd and such Wh ' enjoy'd him most enjoy'd him not too much His Body's Earthen-vessel henceforth must Be laid up silent in its native dust Until that matter when the Trump shall sound Start with another form out of the ground He walks in his uprightness but the sense Of this his sleep should make our Diligence That when with Christ the Judg among the train Of Saints and Angels he shall come again Then in that General Assembly we May sing these Sion-songs eternally S. O. Not worthy to unloose The Latchet of his Shooes To the Reader on the Picture and Book HERE you may see some Lines of Wadsworth's face More of his thinking pow'r sublim'd by Grace His Sacramental thoughts in Prose are sweet His Sermons lively Fancies walk on feet His Letters great affections shew'd when young Yet all fall short of Wadsworth's Pulpit-Tongue A Pathetical Meditation on the Passion of Christ to be read by Communicants before their reception of the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper Quest WHat is the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper Ans It consists of two visible signs Bread and Wine which by the Lords appointment was to represent to the receiver his bloody death that so his Disciples may keep it fresh in their memories Q. But is it only to remember that there was a Christ and that he was crucified and no more Ans Experience tells us that such a bare remembrance as that doth little move upon the heart and upon the affections and so will do little or no good It is not the remembrance of any mans death that doth of it self affect me but as I consider him as a father or as a husband or as a friend with many other expressions of his love to me when living this will exceedingly work upon the heart so as to cause sorrow and grief and the like Quest What is it then that I must call to mind when I think upon a bleeding and dying Christ so as to affect my heart Answ The cruel and bloody nature of his Death here you may consider the whole story of his Arraignment his being betrayed by his own Apostle his being spit upon and crowned with thorns his being mocked and jeered by putting a reed into his hand instead of a scepter afterwards his bearing of a Cross and his being nailed to it in his hands and feet after that his being pierced through with a spear this Mat. 27. will fully acquaint you with Secondly the causes of his Death it was no natural disease neither was it for any evil done of his own but for us He bore our iniquities upon the cross Thirdly the effects of his death which was to obtain power of his Father to conquer the Devil and pull us out of his hands to break our hearts and to conquer us to himself to pardon our sins and to give unto us eternal life with himself in glory and this upon our faith and sincere repentance Now from all these things are your Meditations to be raised before you come to the Sacrament and when you are receiving of it An Example of Meditation I have here set you down as followeth Away these wanton wandering worldly thoughts you are clogs to my soul Away all trifling worldly business I cannot now attend your call my heart hath now something else to do Adieu my Friends farewell my Husband Wife and Child I must go see my bleeding Lord that 's dearer to me than you all Come now my soul thou art alone thou knowest the way make hast and speed look yonder see how the people flock cross but this vale and climb but up this Mount thou wilt soon arrive at bloody Golgotha where thou shalt see thy bleeding and dying Saviour to sigh and linger out a dying life on the Cross in love for thee This this might Oh my soul have been thy day and thou might'st have been the prisoner this I say might have been the day in which thou might'st have drunk the bitter cup of the fierce anger of God But look yonder there he goes that must drink up the dregs and all for thee Look again there he goes that must lay down his life that thou maist be reprieved But come my soul draw up a little nearer thou canst not see him well at so great a distance stand here and thou wilt see him passing look there he goes with a train of Virgins following But see how cruelly these barbarous Jews do use him they make him bear his Cross himself and press his wearied fainting limbs above his strength see how they laugh and scoff and wag their heads as if he were their May-game Methinks my heart boils up with rage to see these cruelties revenged Oh! how could the blessed God forbear to see his blessed Son thus wronged Why did he not send twelve Legions of Angels for his rescue Why doth he not send down fire from Heaven upon the heads of these his Sons enemies and so consume them But stay my foelish heart thou knowest not what spirit thou art of this debt was owing and it must be paid God requires so much and it must be given or thou canst not be saved Thy Lord did know this well enough for this he came from Heaven and committed himself to the rage of men he knew he must endure all these revilings and doth it grieve thy soul to see him thus abased Stay but a while and thou shalt see him more look up my soul come tell me what thou seest Oh I cannot sorrow tyes my tougue I cannot speak I see and hear those things that I want a power to utter I see a troop of Virgins following him their weeping eyes their blubbering lips their sighs and throbbings speak them mourners I see my Lord looks towards them and kindly chides their loving sorrow Why weep ye Oh ye Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me My Lord what need was there for that question Should not they weep when thou must bleed Would not their eyes have been flints if that then they should not drop tears for thee when as thou wert about to pour out thy life and blood for them Ah! could they chuse or do less then weep to see thine innocent self among a herd of Tygers what should
for thee and wilt thou love thy friend the worse because he shares in sorrow with thee for thou canst not but know that he came from Heaven to take to himself a Spouse on Earth and if I was one that he loved and grieved for to see my stubborn heart so hard to yield was this the cause he wanted beauty Oh such a want as this is lovely and methinks my heart could have cleaved the closer to him There was no beauty or comeliness in him and what of that my ugly and deformed soul deserves more loathing my righteousness the comeliest part about me is but rags or a menstruous cloth if there were no more desirableness in him than in me Oh had I loved him then and left all for him it were no wonder but that he should love me I rather stand amazed There was no beauty in him it may be so but could it be otherwise expected from him who came to work in fire and smoke who came to quench the flames of Hell and to satisfie Gods wrath and justice to pull out filthy souls from the jaws of lustful sensual flesh and blood it was not beauty but strength that was here needful A glance of an amorous eye would not have wounded Satan and made him fall from Heaven like a flash of Lightning A comely countenance could not have inchanted and unbar'd Hell-gates and made them fall and break before him into shatters What need a fair hand to touch our filthy rotten souls and take them up in menstruous blood and wash them clean or what need such clean hands to clasp about the rusty iron gates wherein I and all the world lay bound in chains and to pull them down to take our cankered bolts and knock them off to take us by the hand to help us up and lead us out Alas there needs no such eye face or hand for such a work It is powerful all-conquering strength that is here required It was a powerful victorious arm that here was needed and such a one he had But what should he do with a beauteous body that must be so abased and abused as his was an uncomely face will serve where it must be spit on What must he do with a fair soft delicate tender hand which must be pierced another kind of hand is good enough to knock a nail into And what needs his body be of a clear white thin transparent skin will not any serve that body that must be bruised and wounded as his was nay as it was necessary his should be But why thus necessary either he must be thus dealt with or else my sin cannot be pardoned Either he must be despised of men or I must be of God Oh he must drink up this bitter cup with all its dregs or else I must have drunk it up my self It was I that sinned and I must have suffered this cursed proud and earthly heart of mine rebelled and broke the Laws and should have suffered and born the punishment had not he stept in and born the stroke off from me I had been now burning in everlasting flames and have been lingering out this time in torment which I am now spending in the sweet thoughts of my escape And is not this all true speak out my soul hath not the Prophet said as much Surely saith he he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace lay upon him and by his stripes we are healed All we like sheep are gone astray we are every one turned to his own way and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all He was oppressed he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before the shearers was dumb so he opened not his mouth He was taken from prison and judgment and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off from the land of the living And for the transgression of my people was he smitten Thou seest thy debt and thy Saviours payment of it these are no fictions thou hast just now read a sure word of Prophecy that hath confirmed it Those wounds those stripes those bruises which thou readest of he bore for thee and which were due to thee It was thou that shouldst have been led from prison to judgment from prison to the Judgment-seat of the great God who should have sat as Judg he should have arraigned thee sentenced thee and have sent thee to the slaughter-house of Hell where thou shouldst have been weeping and wailing and gnashing of thy teeth But Oh amazing love and grace the Son of God that loved me better than his life stept off his Throne and took my nature on him and became a man like to me only sin excepted he came and bid me comfort my trembling heart he would put himself in my condition and become the prisoner and if my sin would cost his life he would freely part with it Methinks I feel my bowels turn my spirits melt within me was ever love like to his love he was a stranger to me why did he not let me die It was his Father I did wrong why did he not let me suffer What if my punishment was as great as Hell surely I did deserve it What if my pains and screeches were eternal Ah! I was a creature a worm a fly a nothing to him and what need he have cared but he loved me and could he love a prisoner at the Bar I was a sinner a vile polluted one methinks he should have loathed me but he did wash thee and make thee clean again I but I was his Fathers enemy and so no friend to him or would he love an enemy or did he not know so much but how could that be when he saw my heart and the enmity that was in it yes he did and yet he loved thee even while we were enemies he died for us But why did he love an enemy or how could he do it I know not why it is past my reason to imagine it Oh inexpressible love Oh love past thought I cannot fathom thee with my reason thy ways are unaccountable he loves because he will love And though his love displeaseth us yet it pleaseth him to love us What ails my heart I cannot find it stir What dead under the reviving thoughts of thy dearest Redeemer I just now said he loved thee though an enemy and when thou lovedst not him I see the enmity is not quite remov'd thou canst not love him yet Arise shake up thy self and look about thee thou dost not sure see thy mercy surely thou understandest not what thou oughtest to understand Come away Oh come away lift up thy drowsie head I will make thee look and love while I set thee all on burning and make thee ere I leave thee confess thou lovest him Think think Oh my soul
that thou hadst just now sinned and broke that law which threatned death and upon the breach doth find thee guilty Think that thou sawest a flaming Cherubim a messenger of the Court of Heaven flirt in at that door and arrest thee for High treason and give thee a summons to rise from the seat thou sittest on to make a sudden answer for thy life Look then my soul Ah! I lookt just now I see that door wide open What 's this a spirit Ah me I am undone for I have sinned I think the room shakes under me or else 't is my heart that 's trembling What 's this I hear I must now answer for my life Oh what shall I say I know not what I have sinned my Conscience tells me that I have sinned the witness within will cast me I see the Inditement writ with blood on my heart the pride sensuality and the earthliness of which I am charged with I am not able to deny one tittle Oh for a mountain to cover me Oh whither shall I go whither shall I fly That Bed these Curtains this Closet cannot hide me My Mother Father Wife or Child cannot help me O who then shall I run whither I know not vengeance will find me out where ever I go Oh cursed and subtil Satan are all thy fair promises and inticements come to this O my wicked cursed foolish heart that ever I should believe him before my Creator that told me the day I sinned I should surely die Oh that for a little simple transient pleasure I should so madly hazard my eternal life and now I must be cast to Hell to bear the punishment of my folly Think once again think that this were the day and this the very place in which God should come and sit in Judgment on thee Methinks I see the Heavens bow themselves Oh what a crackling do I hear in the Clouds look yonder see who comes it is my Judg his countenance is as a flame of fire he utters his voice like Thunder the mountains skip or rather shake or rather tremble Now now is the time of my utter destruction near at hand Oh how shall I look him in the face his looks do already affright me I shall not say one word and I have not one friend that will say one word for me It 's true I see a terrible glorious Troop of Angels that do attend him but they are all his friends and therefore all my enemies I dare not speak a word to them and alas if I should they are all but his servants and fellow-creatures with my self alas they cannot yea they will not help me It 's true there is one that one that seems as one with God the beams of whose countenance are far brighter than all the Host of Heaven Besides if God have a Son it may be it is he methinks he is a mirrour of his Fathers Glory but this I know not be what he will he cannot pity me a sinner the doors of hope are all shut up and now as a miserable wretch I must prepare to hear my sentence the Judg is set and with trembling heart and joints I stand a prisoner at the bar for my life and now I must attend his call God speaks Sinner where art thou The Sinner answers Lord here am I. God speaks How darest thou thus abuse my Grace and kindle up my zeal against thee that now as stubble it will consume thee Is this the thanks that thou hast returned for all the love that I have shewed to thee Must I make a whole world and give it to thee and as if that was too little I bid thee freely take my self and all and would not this content thee Was I not as a father to thee the time thou lovedst me and didst obey me Did I not make thy seat a Paradise and strewed thy paths with pleasure Did I not rejoice over thee as a young man over his bride What evil hast thou found in me that thou shouldst thus rebelliously revolt and break my Laws and for a trifle sell my favour and hazard my eternal pleasures Speak sinner was it not so The Sinner answers My God these weeping eyes and bended knees confess so much God speaks Had I not told thee that sin would have cost thee thy life then thou hadst had some excuse have I said it and will the great God change Sinner thou must die I told thee so before and now I tell thee again the God of Heaven cannot lye Get thee gone thou cursed wretch into eternal flames and keep that Devil company in chains and torments with whom thou hast rebelled against me and go see what pleasure thou hast in sinning The Sinner answereth Thou great God and terrible Judg I do confess thy sentence just but if there be any bowels of mercy in thee pity me or I die for ever Mercy mercy Lord for I am thy creature the workmanship of thy hands If there be any thing in the trembling heart and hands and knees of this thy sentenced prisoner that will move compassion Oh pity pity a condemned sinner God speaks What! stays he longer to trouble my patience I say be gone thou cursed though thou art my creature know that my wrath hath kindled on better creatures than thou art get thee to Hell and the howling Devils will tell thee as much The Sinner speaks Ah wo wo wo to me for ever cursed I am and cursed must I go for ever My Righteous Judg and ye Glorious Angels adieu for ever Live live for ever blessed and happy in his love I might have lived and joyed and gloried in that God that made both ye and me but like a wretch that I am wo that ever I was born I sold his favour and so my eternal life for a thing of nought a vain lust a sinful pleasure that lasted but for a season and I go I go into eternal flames What says my heart to this Methinks the very thoughts of it do make my heart to quiver and my flesh to shake all round about me I feel no strength in all my joints God speaks So so I am glad something moves thee But think again that the Devil did take hold of thee and drag thee from the place thou sittest on to Hell suppose the Father frowning on thee and all the Angels shouting thee down to Hell and glorying in thy damnation but think again thou sawest when all were joying to see thee sentenced to Hell that he that sat just by the Judg whom thou thoughtest even now to be his Son but knewest it not Look look methinks I see him rise off his Throne see see how the Angels fall to adore him methinks he is a coming near thee Oh how my heart doth tremble Oh what will he torment me before my time Ah me my doom is great enough already Sinner speaks Thou wilt not send me to a worser place than Hell my Judg hath passed my
through the merits of his Death and sufferings Come tell me is not this thy language I know thou darest not to speak so much in words But ah my Heart I find thou hast got a Tongue as well as my Mouth that often mutters and speaks a different language But tell me if thy unbelief hath any ground for it What makes it then that thy self is so free from fears and terrours when thou shouldst believe the Almighty of thy Bodies Death Resurrection and coming to Judgment if thou thoughtest him not thy friend and reconciled to thee in his Son if not methinks thy fears should fright thee and trembling seize on every joint and yet thou wilt foolishly mutter against thine own feeling Soul speaks O blessed God! I feel thou hast overcome I yield I yield I have not left a word to speak against thy love thy Son hath offered satisfaction and thou hast accepted it thou hast laid down O my Saviour thy life for mine and thy Father and my Father is well pleased with it Blood is paid Justice is satisfied Heavens doors are widened thine arms opened to receive me nothing is wanting but my heart make it such as thou wilt have it and then take it to thy self Come up my soul thou hast an heart and there is a Christ the Father thou feest is willing and the Son is willing give but thy consent and he is thine for ever Fear not thy hardness blindness deadness loathsomeness all these cannot hinder if thou be but willing He hath been in the world to ask the worlds consent already and also thine thou canst not doubt of his good-will speak but the word and he hath thine too What stickest thou at surely thou art a sluggish spirit what dost thou ail Half of this ado would find a heart for a little mire or dirt or something else that is worse and is not Christ better But ah yet I feel a spice of unbelief still working in thy very bowels as if that Jesus that died at Jerusalem were not the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world And is this all O were I certain thou wouldst ne're doubt more how freely should I make satisfaction But Oh! I faint and tire with the trips and stumblings of my unbelief But mount my soul thou must resolve to tire and put to silence all thy unbelieving bablings or they will thee which if they do never expect an hours peace or quiet more thou must resolve to conquer thy unbelief or to be conquered thou knowest her tyranny too well to let her go away the victoress He was not the Christ thou sayest but tell me why Object His Parentage was too low and mean what the Saviour of the world a Carpenters Son how can it be Answ My unbelief in the first place thou lyest his Mother was a Virgin and her Conception knew no Father but the Almighty power of the overshadowing Holy Ghost he was more truly the Son of God than Joseph's Son And was his birth thinkst thou so mean whose Parentage was so glorious Object His birth but mean and beggarly no sooner born but cradled in a manger and could Heaven suffer this Answ It is confest But yet it was as glorious for did not a Star proclaim him born and did not a whole Host of Angels sing and shout it up for joy and did not wise men yea and Kings bring Incense Myrrh and Frankincense being but as so much tribute unto the new-born King and heir of all things as if by instinct they knew they held their Crowns of him a greater honour than ever any new-born Prince hath yet received before him or ever shall or will do after him Methinks my unbelieving heart I could dare to tell thee that room was no stable it was a Palace and did not the cost presents and glorious presence of Kings speak as much Object But his days were spent in poverty meanness and disgrace and can I dare I trust my soul with such a one and take him to be the Son of God Answ And now I wonder at thee it's true what thou fayest if thou lookst upon him one way his life was such as thou tellest me of but 't is a strong argument against thy self for just such a one was the Christ to be according to the Prophets the 53 Chapter of Isaiah shews as much But yet if thou truly understandest what true pomp and glory means even to an eye of sense as well as to that of faith Solomon's life imbroidered with all his glorious acts was not comparable to this life of his Was it not filled with miracles and wonders was he not proclaimed the Son of God with voices from Heaven did he not conquer Devils and therefore the Kingdom of Hell Was ever Prince on Earth honoured with so great a Conquest Were not his miraculous Feasts more splendid than those of Princes the fare was but poor and mean but the miracles made it rich and glorious Had I been present should I not have wondered and gazed more at the Master of this Feast and have taken more pleasure to have seen him sit down with these five thousands than with a Table full of Princes and great men Alas it were a trifling sight to this Methinks my unbelief that pleads so much for sense sense it self pleads too strongly against thee for thou canst not argue one syllable Object But would the Son of God be hanged and crucified could Heaven have suffered this could not the Saviour of the world save himself how could he then save me Answ Hadst thou not the blindness of the Jews thou couldest not reason thus like them but was it not necessary it should be so Did not the Prophets foretell his death and such a death Had he not died and died as he did I might then have had some ground to doubt him whether he were the Messias or not for it was needful that the Prophesies should be fulfilled Dan. 9. But yet as wretched and as contemptible a going out of the world as he had and his manner of dying on the Cross how vile soever it seemed to be yet was there not enough to silence all the doubts that could possibly from thence arise and much for the confirmation of my faith in the wonderful Eclipse of the Sun the rending of the veil of the Temple the opening of the Graves the raising of the dead and afterwards his own rising the third day and ascending up to Heaven in a Cloud If my faith might have staggered in seeing him on the Cross dying it could not when it saw him risen and in the Clouds ascending Object But were those wonders true and certain Answ But hast thou any ground to doubt them are they not written in thy Bible and art thou not certain that it is the word of God or hast thou not sufficient reason to believe it to be so But hast thou not a whole Nation yea Nations that do believe the
earnestly beg of God on thy knees as if thou wert pleading for thy life that God would humble thee and give thee more love to himself and to the rest of thy brethren and take heed likewise of angering them O that thou wouldst but practise this truly truly I should rejoice Angels in Heaven would rejoice as it is written The Angels rejoise at the conversion of a sinner Secondly Look that thou readest the Scriptures diligently every day and let this be thy first work in the morning and the last at night And if thou canst not understand go to God and beg that he would give thee more light and if thou dost this likewise happy shalt thou be And seeing it is late before you go to supper and bed therefore thou maist set apart some time for this duty in the afternoon And this you must do and then wait upon God for a blessing And truly do but reflect on your self and tell me what 's the cause of all that gross ignorance which is in you Truly 't is because you read little in the Scripture and other good Books And if perhaps you read a Chapter now and then it is either because you are forc'd to it or because you would read some story in the Old Testament only to recreate your carnal mind Let me but ask you this one question Do you when you take the Bible in your hand consider it is the book of God and if you do not practise what you read it will turn to your condemnation Do but consider this thing seriously and the God of Heaven bless it to your soul Now I pray and entreat you not to slight this which I have said but turn it into practise And it will be my desire thâ—t you will write this out fair that thou maist read it sometimes and maist know that thy brother loves thy soul as dearly as his own What I have now writ unto thee in particular thou wilt do well if thou communicatest it to all thy brethren that they may not be wanting in these things which I have here desired of thee in particular for I could desire that thou mightest begin to lead the way to Heaven in that family but especially let this be known to my Sister Anne I pray her not to think much that I direct this to you and not to her for I thought you would write to me and I questioned whether she hath not forgot but if she doth write I assure her if my soul and body can do her service it shall I shall not mention my Sister Mary because I have hinted her case in my Fathers Letter The God of Heaven be with you So I pray who am Your tender and most affectionate Brother Tho. Wadsworth Dear and Loving Sister IT hath been such a great interval of time since we last exchang'd Letters with one another that I know not whether to charge you or my self with negligence but I hope neither of us are guilty of forgetfulness God is my witness that I daily make mention of you in my prayers and I assure you it will exceedingly raise my heart in praises if God will but answer them upon your soul And truly my expectations are very great towards you and the rest of my friends I know not who they shall be either in that family or some where else but rather there for God of late hath shewn me much of his goodness as to the answering of my prayers as to particular persons And I am assured that he hath several times drawn out my heart as much if not more for that family So that I live in continual expectations of hearing of the Sun of Righteousness to rise among you and the day star of holiness and purity to break out of some of your souls And to this purpose I have sent you this Letter that you among the rest might be one that may fulfil my joy in the Lord. I am sorry that all this while I have not heard from my Brother John I hope that the Lord will stir up his heart likewise Heaven-ward Tell him that I would have writ to him but that I had so much to write to others so that I was fain to steal a little time to write these few lines As for your self for the present I shall only desire you to read Scripture much and pray constantly if possibly you can twice or three times a day For directions herein I desire you to peruse seriously my Sister Anne's Letter which I have here sent her Lastly Take a special care of my Sister Mary labour to get her to pray though she can but chatter God can hear He hears the young Ravens when they cry and feeds them and will he not much more hear a young child To whom I pray you commend my love very kindly I have no more at this present but that I am Your ever Loving Brother Tho. Wadsworth Loving Sister AS the Letter was with great affection desired so was it as gratefully received by me Neither was it so much because that you did write but because you writ so well and heartily And I shall here assure you that you cannot rejoice me more than in letting me see such sentences dropping from your pen as did in the last Letter And I am likewise as certain that your discovery of them proceeding from your heart carries in it a far more exceeding weight of joy to your own soul I shall have but one or two things to you at this time and I shall conclude First Be constant in Prayer morning and evening and labour not only to speak words but let your words express your heart Secondly Before and after Prayer join reading of the Scriptures Thirdly Take heed of vain and foolish discourse be as little in talk as may be without it is in good discourse I shall now only desire you to write to me every week or fortnight and I doubt not but you will find your parts encrease and abour but to put Letters in practice and you shall find likewise your graces encrease And with this I conclude only desiring you to remember me to your Brother and Sisters and I shall be as I ever was Your Loving Brother T. W. A SERMON PREACHED BY Mr. THO. WADSWORTH Taken in Short-hand REV. XII 1. And there appeared a great wonder in Heaven a Woman clothed with the Sun and the Moon under her feet and upon her head a Crown of twelve Stars IN these words you have a description of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth the Church of Christ is of all Societies of the world the most glorious it is a Society founded by the Counsel of the great God a Society that is purchased and bought by the blood of the Son of God 't is a Society called out of this wicked world to worship God in spirit and in truth 't is a Society that is to God himself as the apple of his eye 't is a Society
the Lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years That is between the threatning and between the performance between the execution So that the Deluge was of God it was of Gods deliberate determination he decreed it he was the author of it So again as to the burning of Sodom God first sitteth in judgment upon Sodom trieth Sodom heareth evidence against Sodom casts her passeth sentence upon her and all this before execution day the righteous Judg of the world did proceed righteously he hath a trial and a sentence before execution And as he dealt with Sodom doubtless he dealt with London too Gen. 18.20 21. Sodom had grievously sinned to provoke God as London may have done and there came continual tidings from earth to heaven Lot sent them up in his lamentations good Angels peradventure declaims against them crying out How long how long holy and true wilt thou spare yonder wicked Sodom And the Lord said Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin is very grievous I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know I will deal very fairly with them I will not burn them without they deserve it And you know the Lord sent two Angels who came to Lots house who were eye-witnesses of their abominations for thither came the wretched Sodomites there to force the men that came to Lot's house and what was the issue of it Gen. 19.13 Haste thee hence saith the Angels we will destroy this place There is the sentence for we will destroy this place because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it And do you think my Brethren though it may be perhaps hard for you to understand it do you think London was not tried before burnt as well as Sodom ay no doubt London's drunkenness and uncleanness and formality cried in the ears of the Lord God of Sabbaths God looked down to see what London did and how London lived and how London improved the Gospel it had and upon trial it was found too light and God sent them first the Pestilence then the Fire First destroy the Citizens with the Plague saith God then burn the City God decreed it it was decreed before done The Lord help us to have reverent thoughts of God in all his works here among the children of men Again I might instance in two more and that was the first and second destruction of Jerusalem They were destroyed who destroyed them the Lord destroyed them How was the Lord said to be the author of the destruction of Jerusalem because it was decreed before it was done God decreed the destruction of it and God sent Jeremiah to tell the people of Israel that he would bring the Babylonians upon them a strong and mighty Nation God had purposed to do it and that many years before he did it It had past in the sentence of God the judgment of God was past upon them So again the second time when the Temple of Jerusalem was destroyed and burnt by Titus Vespasian when it was burnt destroyed and laid desolate by the Romans it is true the Romans were the Executioners but it was God that had past the judgment upon them Nay it had passed in the judgment of God five hundred years before it was done God had reckoned with the Israelites reckoned up their sins from their forefathers he had kept an account of them all from generation to generation and foretold their destruction from the time of Daniel which was to the destruction of Jerusalem about five hundred years Dan. 9.26 and what Daniel foretold so long before that Jesus Christ foretold in his day to be nigh at hand Christ looking upon that beautiful structure of the Temple of Solomon in the 24th of Mat. saith unto them Do you not see a beautiful Temple here the Temple of Jerusalem Verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down How did Christ know that Christ knew that his Father had determined to destroy the Temple How long before near five hundred years For it is spoken of about five hundred years before by Daniel as I have said When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy place that is compass the City besiege the City whoso readeth let him understand Why so for now is the time spoken of by Daniel for to destroy this City and for to destroy this Temple Thus you see in these instances how God is the author of all the punishment that is in the world in as much as he doth decree it before it comes to pass Secondly God is the author of all the punishments because he seeth he provideth means and instruments for the execution of his Decrees God doth not only say let such a plague come let such a fire come but God taketh care to see it done When God will have a thing done there shall not want instruments it shall be done in a way and manner of his own contriving If you will ask me who are these executioners of Gods decrees in inflicting punishments upon this world upon the Kingdoms and Cities and Towns and Persons thereof I answer you the whole Creation all the parts of it they all stand ready as Ministers of God to do his pleasure when God will have any punishment inflicted both Heaven and Sea and Earth Men and Devils they are all ready to execute his wrath and vengeance upon the World The Heavens they are the executioners of Gods decree to punish men When God had a mind to defeat Sisera's army the very Stars in their courses stood on Gods side and fought against Sisera You have such a passage as that is in the Judges The stars fought against Gods enemies the clouds the hail they are ready to do according as they are capable in executing Gods wrath when God would punish the Egyptians and their Cattel with Hail the Clouds they did as ministers of God charge themselves with Hail and discharge like so many Harquibusses discharged themselves again upon the Egyptians and their Cattel and destroyed multitudes of them The Winds they are ready to serve the Lord and to do what ever he would have them do The Winds ye shall see how David put them all together as Ministers servants of God ready to do his pleasure in Psal 148.8 Fire hail snow and vapours stormy winds fulfilling his word they all stand ready at the word of God to go and come to do what God will have them do all of them ready to fulfil his word Will God use the Seas to punish the wicked those senseless creatures those deaf creatures they have
humble our selves by confessing it was justly done Take the course that Daniel did upon a Fast-day as this may be when he was interceding with God for the people of Israel to bring them back out of Captivity as you are this day that God would not burn it again he did it by confessing of sin and all sorts of sin Dan. 9.5 O Lord saith he thou art a great God a God on thy part keeping covenant and promise to them that love thee and keep thy commandments but as for us we have sinned and committed iniquity and done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments neither have we hearkened to thy servants the Prophets which spake in thy name to our King and Princes and Fathers O Lord righteousness belongeth to thee but to us belongeth confusion of face To us who of us to our King to our Princes to our Fathers all deserve to be put to shame why because we have sinned against thee This is our work this day to humble our selves before God to humble our selves for our sins here in this City against God whereby he was provoked to burn our Habitations Thirdly Is God the cause of all punishments and are all punishments for sin then from hence you may gather that London is a very wicked City Why because God is very angry with it and it is certain he is never angry without great cause men may be angry without a cause and we may chide one another without a cause yet God never is angry without cause and in as much as God hath shewn himself angry with London it is a sign London hath given God a great deal of cause for his anger What cause hath London given God to be angry with them Truly when I begin to think of London's sins they are so many that it puzzles me where to begin or where to make an end but however let us name some of them why did God burn London for London's pride London had lifted it self up in pride against God and God pulled London down he pulled it into ashes to make the proud ones of London know what they are and what their Cities are nothing but dust and ashes My Brethren God is a great enemy against pride for the great King of Babylon's pride he took away his reason and turned him into a beast and turned him a grazing with the Cattel Pride God resisteth the proud he is a great enemy to the proud a great adversary to them and to their projects and designs but he sheweth grace to the humble Wherein doth London appear proud proud in their Apparel proud in their Houses proud in their gestures proud in their Professions they are guilty of all these sorts of pride I cannot stand to speak much of it but the Lord open your understandings and your hearts that you may see where the guilt lyeth the fantastick dresses of many of the Londoners that is one sort the pride of their hearts that 's another sort The next sort of sins are London's luxury drunkenness gluttony their excessive feasting their prodigal expences London is a wanton City instead of worshipping God in spirit it is a City for a great part that sacrificeth as it were unto Bacchus and Ceres they make their belly their god Oh the drunkenness of London the gluttony of London Is it not so Again the covetousness of London God was angry with Israel for being covetous why you covet gold more than grace covet earth more than heaven Oh the injustice the wrong-getting the lying the perjury in getting of Estates Oh the covetousness in keeping in not laying out proportionable to what God gave you to do good to others God hath given you a Talent and you wrap it in a napkin or which is worse you prodigally spend it upon your lusts that make nothing of ten or twenty pounds to bestow upon a vain feast and grudg to give an Angel or twenty shillings for the help of any of the poor servants of God is not this a sin do you think when you are so liberal to your own lusts and you are so heart-bound and hand-bound towards God and his people yea certainly and an highly provoking sin too Again London's prophanation of the Lords-day God all the time of the Law was very zealous for his Sabbath and he had a Controversie with Israel often upon the account of his Sabbath and there are many Promises that he gave them to encourage them to keep his Sabbath If thou wilt keep my Sabbaths and count them thy delight the holy of the Lord honourable I will make thee honourable and great in the world but if not I will pull thee down and destroy thee and make thee the tail and not the head Hath not this been one of London's great sins How full of walkers have the streets been on the Sabbath how full have the fields about this City been on the Lords day what playing what drinking what drunkenness at every Alehouse especially your by Alehouses in London and in the Fields How few in London do strictly observe the Lords-day that pray with their Family in the morning that take care that their whole Family wait upon God all that day in his Ordinances that when they come home at night are careful to see what they profit by what they hear How few are there in London that spend the Lords day as they should do God hath a Controversie with you for this What account can you Masters give of your servants souls What care have you had over them either all the week days or else on the Lords day What have you done for them For your sinful neglect herein God is angry with you For the adultery and uncleanness of London for the whoredoms of Israel the land mourneth for the whoredom of London London was burnt God punished the City with one fire for the sin of another that is the fire of lust But my Brethren it is not barely these sins that God hath been angry with London for but for the aggravations of them Why wherein First For the brazen-facedness of them alas we know that these sins may be found every where ay but we are grown impudent sinners brazen-faced sinners we are not ashamed of our sins but we can be drunk with boldness and commit adultery and boast of it We can sin as Absalom lay with his Fathers Concubines in the face of the Sun before all Israel Here is the aggravation of the sin now it is not the drunkenness only of London and swearing and perjury and Sabbath-breaking but London's shamelesness in it As God when he came to reprove Israel and threatens Judgments upon her saith he Thou hast a brazen face thou hast the looks of an harlot thou dost sin and thou dost not blush at it Truly this hath been London's sin they will swear and receive no reproof be drunk and scorn a reproof it is the very mode of
thousands that will not What if we here resolve to be sober how many will go on to be drunk if we resolve to keep the Lords-day how many shall we find selling next Lords-day in the fields or streets playing and at Ale-houses and Taverns drinking to drunkenness What shall we do here let not others wickedness discourage you to be good Despair not God doth not stand upon the repentance of a whole City as to make it necessary for him to save it or to save a Kingdom but if there be any that do convert and turn if there be any that do set themselves to humble themselves for the sins of others and do intercede for Gods mercy in his staying with a people God will have respect to a City and a Kingdom for their sake Let us and let all that fear the Lord this day up and down London resolve all to reform and bemoan the sins of London before God and therein become intercessors for London so we might prevent London's ruin For a conclusion let me add these encouragements to perswade you to reform notwithstanding the generality of London will not reform still 1. Because God will have you to reform though others do not God speaketh to all to reform do not you say I will not because others will not it is thy duty if others do not thou dost but thy duty when thou dost it though ten thousands neglect it 2ly God will take it better at thine hands if thou wilt reform in a wicked City than if the whole City were generally good Why because the service is more difficult it is an harder thing for a righteous Lot to live in a Sodom than to live in a place where more godly persons dwell It is an eminent piece of service and an eminent testimony we give to God of our love to him when we can serve him in a place where he is despised his Laws broken and he rebelled against 3ly Some of you must reform or it is certain God will go on still to be angry with London and if God go on wo unto us surely it will be very bitter in the end God hath not yet spent all his venom'd darts He hath more and greater plagues than yet we have felt and nothing but the repentance and heart-reformation at least of some of us I say of some of us that we may become fit intercessors for the rest can prevent the pouring of them forth upon us But you will say Is it possible to have greater than to have an hundred thousand swept away by the Pestilence in one City and in one year than to have such a famous City burnt down in three days Yes If God should but suffer Popery to come in it would be greater If God should bring in a company of bloody Papists that should threaten you with burning or else with provoking God by gross Idolatry you will say it is a greater when you shall live in a London and in England and not hear of Christ Jesus preached to you from one end of the year to the other I think it will be a plague and to have it brought in too by a foreign enemy No perhaps you will say God will never do so This was Israels old presumption What God that brought us out of Egypt he destroy us What! that God that hath known us and hath been our God and hath signified himself our God by many mercies He that walked with us and we with him he send a foreign enemy it is impossible Do not deceive your selves God was as much engaged to the seed of Abraham as to London as to England and what he hath done he can do again This is one of the greatest Judgments that can befall the Land if God should take away the Gospel leave us in darkness and blindness take the Candlestick away and give us up to Idolatry and say as to Ephraim He is joined to Idols let him alone Repent reform lest worse things come upon you Let the Lord see you after this day that you are a more careful watchful circumspect people in the whole course of your lives and conversations and if so doubtless God will have this day an ear open to your prayer he will have an heart ready to pity you and to compassionate you when you cry you shall be numbred among those Intercessors that have stood in the gap that have kept wrath from coming in upon England to the utter ruin of it A Meditation for the raising of mine heart above discouragements under slightings in my Ministry WHAT mean these drooping groans and this languor of thy spirits as if thou hadst neither life nor heat What 's become of thy wonted joy and magnanimity in the course of thy Ministry Thou lookest and seemest as if a weary of thy work what is the cause Is it that Gods glory is less that thou car'st not whether he is honoured or dishonoured by men or what is it That he is not so good to theee as formerly Hast thou not meat drink and cloaths as freely and fully as ever Is thine health or strength abated Or is the Throne of Grace or the way to it shut up Is God angry with thee This were cause indeed but nothing else if thou enjoyest this Or what is it that thou canst not see these so well his honour and these mercies are so much prized Oh! none of these are the cause Gods glory is the same and his mercies they are continued and constant to me as ever And it 's not because I want a rellish of them I do not serve an hard Master that makes me weary of serving him Why what then is the matter Hath he recalled his promise or denied himself and abated thy wages Oh! no Heaven and earth shall pass away but not a tittle of his word and let God be true though all else be lyars What is it are the souls of men less precious or their eternal life and safety now less dangerous Is fire less hot and Hell less tormenting Are not the joys of Heaven so much to be desired and so is the work of the Ministry less needful Is not the case the same to deliver men from so many burning coals as when Christ his Prophets and Apostles preached Art thou then weary Oh! no my strength 's the same But Oh! I am unprofitable to my God I am slighted they wonder I can come into a Pulpit and have no more to say How and is that me a poor worm and wilt thou be thus crusht with such a straw and lose thy spirits under such a contemptible weight 1 And didst thou not expect to meet with such things before who bid thee go and set thee on this work and promis'd thee every hour a word wa st not told thou shouldst be persecuted slighted scoffed at And was it not predicted there should be scoffers in the last times as in the first Why didst not think of this before a wise
good night What must be suffer'd why is' t fear'd I can't my life defend Fear or not fear it 's all a case My life must have an end Death comes why let it why should I Plead priviledg from what My God hath pointed out for all It must be then my lot He lent me to my self a while My lent-out life recalls What is his own he may demand He wrongs me not at all Why should I tremble at the grave Alas it is not Hell Why should not I thank God and die That it 's not worse it 's well Art thou new-born then thou hast felt The pains of death to lust They 'r greater than those thou wilt feel Which brings thee to the dust To leave a sin to wicked men Doth far more torment bring Than shame than beggery or death Or any other thing Think how the wicked go to hell How careless do they die Shalt thou less fear it than they do Though thou must fore on high Think that thy grave were but thy bed That God thee there did keep That when that dying thou wert but A falling fast asleep Think what a quiet undisturb'd Repose thou there shalt take That God when thou hast slept enough Himself will thee awake Think that thy Lord and Saviour In this cold bed did lie Wilt thou not with him lay thy self What love him and deny Think that a thousand thousand Saints Have hither crept for rest Have long'd and hop'd to be dissolv'd All counting it the best Think what 's this world that thou must leave It is not Paradise A hell of torment sin shame grief A cinque of filthy vice Where lust and pride do sit and reign Grace goodness subjects are If thou art good thou maist go pack That 's all the world doth care How often their ungodly lives Have vext thy soul but think Their selling Heaven for a lust For dross a cup of drink It 's true thou maist them contradict But what get'st thou by that They curse thee wish thee in some pit Where thou maist lye and rot Thou say'st there 's good as well as bad That thou must leave behind If good men make thee will to stay Above thou'lt better find The best on earth are bitter-sweet Weaknesses have their stings They can thee hurt and will sometimes Till God to Heaven them brings Thou say'st if God the shepherd smite The sheep will scatter'd be If they were safe it matters not What did become of thee Thou fool God will them bless or curse If curse thou must not live But if for them he blessings hath Better than thee he 'l give I come then Oh ye Heavenly host Of Angels take me up I 've broke my fast with grace on earth With you above I 'le sup I come my Father and my God! Now to thy self me take Through my Lords wounds I hope for love Oh love me for his sake HYMN XI Comfortable at the death of a dear friend DRY up thy eyes and let thy looks Again seem fair and clear Let not those briny staining streams Thy blubber'd cheeks besmear Who knows not man was made to die Can tears blur the decree Or spunge it out those Heavenly rowls What God wills that must be Was he not made of dust that 's dead Can dust for ever last What wonder is it then to see That dust on dust is cast Hath not the wisest God all things Made subject unto change Why should he thee or thine except Is not thy folly strange Why his departure thus bemoan'd He paid but nature's score He me not leaves I follow him He 's only rid before It 's God commanded him away 'T was he that gave him thee Is it not reason more than thou the Giver pleased be Thou say'st no sorrows like to mine None e're lost such a friend How many thousands say the like Complaints will ne'r have end Nay think how far others in grief Have cause thee to exceed Thou ' st lost a friend but they a child Thou weep'st but they do bleed Is thine a child their is a wife Or else some dead husband But if this last be thine own case Think his is worse that 's damn'd Look round and view that num'rous heap Of houses that do stand Tell me the house that hath not mourn'd By strokes giv'n by deaths hand Go round about the Royal Tombs Number the Queens and Kings How oft have Palaces worn Black By wounds made by Deaths stings Or think how many mourners thou hast cheered up before Let the same reasons on thee move That thy heart grieve no more Or think of him as ne'r been born Or born not known to thee He might have di'd a thousand times 'T would ne'r have troubled thee But did thy life and livelihood On him alone depend For shame do not forget thy God Who meat to Ravens sends But ah alas he lov'd me more Than all the world beside Ah! take thou care in saying so Thy God he be'nt be-li'd But Oh the friend of my bosom He cannot be forgot But fool didst think he could not die What did thy mind besot Play not the child my grown-up soul Many spectators gaze At thy-high spirit under grief Soul-weakness will amaze Think thy employment calls aloud To lay aside complaints Think that thy Friends thy Country Church Cry to thee as in wants Or else look up unto thy God In whom contentment lyes His heating brightness will dry up All tears from out thine eyes If all the reasons I have us'd Will nothing move thy heart Then take thy course I only wish Thy cure be wrought by smart HYMN XII Of Thanksgiving for the restoration of Health ' THE God of Heav'n is but one To him alone I pray To him in straits I made my vows Which now in health I 'le pay My God is light life help hearts ease Physician Nurse and Friend Himself was the best Physick I Could take to make me mend For sin me weakness did confine Within my Chamber-walls In prison as with Iron-bolts My limbs were sore with gauls My bones were all as out of joint My sinews lax and loose Each member was so feebly hung As if 't had lost its use All elements did seem to strive To raise my misery They would have surely me orewhelm'd But that my God was by My trembling skin my chattering teeth The shiverings of my bones My shoulders shrugging up with cold Thus sadly made their moans As if all hail and snow and rain Their coldnesses had lent To some night-stormy blustring winds My body to torment I was like weary pilgrim that All night in forest lies While rain and snow and chilling winds Do pinch him till he dies But my good God! those nipping blasts Screen'd off me with his palm He sweetly rockt me fast asleep So they did me no harm The freezing air now thaw'd I thought Me safe but was deceiv'd For straight a watry vapour rose As much my body griev'd Each
love-flames Those Oh those are names make melodie VIII But see what is' t there stands A tablet all of Gold Spread with a cloth of threads as fine as light Oh its pity 't should be foul'd What dainty Fare is that How richly is 't persum'd Oh it smells and it looks as drest of fires of love Meat that 's eat yet ne're consum'd May I taste may I taste yea welcome welcome Thy Lord did it prepare That thou mightest have a share Now he hath got thee above He will feast thee with love Thou must now forget all grief and care IX Here 's honey-combs indeed Sweets that will ne're annoy I scarcely could think that Heav'n it self could yield Such delights that could not cloy This wine I have but sipt It will make a sick soul well One drop it would fetch a soul to life again That with grief were sunk to Hell Will this life always last yea for ever for ever Of want there can't be fear When God will make the cheer And that provision must last That with eating can't waste Such is all the food that we have here X. What lulling murmur's this That thus salutes mine ear It 's pleasant muttering accents almost made Me quite forget my chear These are the silver streams Of joys sprung from the Throne Of which each drop's more beautiful than pearl And more rich than th' Onyx stone Transparent it is as the Chrystal the Chrystal Of taste and smell more sweet Than th' ointment on his feet Here souls and angels leap in And together all swim Who along her banks like arrows fleet XI These dainty curling streams About her shores that twine Is sweetly shaded with a tree of life Yielding juice more rich than th'vine It 's roots spreads in th' clouds As old as th' night and day Twelve sorts of fruits twelve times each several year It doth yield yet don't decay The Pomegranate or the grape a' nt so pleasant so pleasant Compar'd to th' worst of these Never fruit did half so please Besides who tasts but one bit Is made immortal by it For its juice is clean from dregs or lees XII Here always it is spring A long continued May Our Sun standing still makes Summer ever last And an everlasting day For my heart I cannot sleep No though I were to die Those ravishing Sun-beams keep me broad-awake Yea and will eternally It 's God and the Lamb that thus glissen thus glissen Whose faces blush with light If I wink it straight were night Whilest with these beams I 'm then blest I 'le never think upon rest But conclude that waking's always best MORTALITY I. FRom the womb From the womb Do I pass to my tomb For my passage is quick in the cast of an eye I here that am living you 'l straight see me die This warm breathing dust to a clod of cold clay In a trice will be turn'd then molder away Hark you but a while you 'l soon hear the bell Toul out my Funeral-knel My thread is e'en spun My glass almost run That on earth I here cannot long dwell II. Ev'ry breath ev'ry breath Is a step to my death My flesh is consuming each thought that I think Each minute that passeth to my grave I do sink The hungry worms my neighbours will be And my guests too that shortly will feed upon me I was born of corruption a cruel step-mother That brought me but forth to smother No sooner in th' world But out I am hurld So I 'm shufled from th' one to th' other III. What is death what is death But a stop of th'breath Some small puff of wind that will blow a flame out Or the turn of a door for a soul to step out It 's no more than the wreck of a Ship that hath crost A Sea that 's tempestuous where no passenger's lost The planks of my body may be tomb'd in a wave But my God will my spirit save It 's but to step in At most to unpin My rags that are fit for a grave IV. What 's a groan What 's a groan That our friends thus bemoan When they by our beds side sit to close up our eyes It 's no more than a crack from the Heaven that flies Our souls then like lightning are breaking their way From the clods of our bodies and why should they stay It 's a pang of corruption our mother that brings Forth souls that she breeds to be Kings For no sooner I 'm dead But a Crown 's on my head And Hosannah in Heaven I sing V. Not a day Not a day That doth pass but I pray That my work were dispatcht that I might hence but go Though the first Inn I lodg at is the grave I do know Those chambers of darkness my soul do'nt affright It is but mine Inn I dare lodg there one night In my Coffin I 'le creep as into my bed And my winding-sheet I 'le not dread There soundly I 'le sleep Till the morning doth peep From the dust then I 'le raise up my head Self-Estimation MOunt up my soul and stroke into a calm The surges of proud passions with a Psalm Stretcht out on either side tower up thy head O'retop the waves stear on let reason lead Be 't as thy Polar-star while thou art tost Lest 'mong perplexing billows thou be lost Look how the first fiercely comes rowling on Which reason calls Self-Estimation A sporting-wave turns visage now bold now shie How fond as if in love with thy Egoifie She fawns and with her circling arms Embraceth that which quickly feels her charms See how she soars aloft and on her wing Mounts self yet all this while but flattering When at the height her sleiked face turns glass Which represents self's vertues in a mass Thrice double to their proper magnitude Take heed don't look my soul it doth delude Think what 's but a wave will quickly sink And mounts so weak in vallies sooner shrink Waves quickly fall they cannot stand so fast Their weight will press their fainting knees at last Thus with her higher gusts of flattery She turns thy brain then turns thine enemy Strange metamorphis'd passion glass just now Fit for reflection of an amorous brow Now in a cup she 's turn'd bow'd fit for th'lip Presents thee with a Nectar bids thee sip Sip not my soul waters that brackish are Are much too strong for weaker heads to bear Their duller spirits they will soon convey And chill thy brains to ice for as they say Salt will freez hard though in a thawing day CONTEMPT A Dialogue betwixt Flesh and Spirit Flesh WHat all to small Nothing seems big enough To entertain thee yet doth th'housholdstuff Of this vaste Microcosm prove now too small To dress and trim thy swoln-big heart withal Sp. Her gusts to great contraction cannot bound That which infinite can scarce surround Contentment she must have which cannot be Found cloister'd in the cells of poverty F. Won't
arise Out of a pit by which a Beldam lies Stirring her urine thence doth darkness fleet Baffling the light making the day retreat Clouds in the air ingender double charge Themselves with thunder then themselves enlarge In sheets of flame thence follow winds That strike amazement to the hearers minds What shall I say of Wizards that are whirl'd In cloudy chariots round the airy world What of Amantius and Rotarius set Perched on tops of Oaks bemir'd and wet Whence in a trice from out the shepherds sight A wind them snatches and then take their flight Like two cock-sparrows 't length were seen to hop Upon a towring lofty houses top One trembling th' other laughing bid him cheer It was as safe to be in th' air as there Thus was Mag. Warrin hackned on the back Of some foul Fien that made the welkin crack With storms and tempests as he her did rear A loft jolting along yet void of fear Lighting at last on th' top of a tall oak Was seen condemn'd and in a rope did choak Wondrous is' t easie tell me to conceive That air should thus condense it self then heave Such weighty bodies upward or bare words Or ceremonious charms make them as birds To course about the air ma'n't we with ease Rather imagin sp'rits t' produce all these Strike sail my muse thou 'rt now in sight of shore Laden with traffick hath inricht me more Than Indian voyage knowledg of sp'rits to me Is far more sweet than Arab spices be They may embalm the body what care I Let body rot and stink my soul can't die Spirits are all immortal so 's my soul It cannot wast nor die Bells they may toul Their mortal knells for Bodies but I have What the Father of Sp'rits alive will save Welcome ye Angels then 't is for your sake That I in part this tedious voyage make My undisturbed reason free from doubt Spirits hath seen in flesh and some without Lord when this prison falls and I am free Let me i' th' number of just spirits be FINIS The TABLE A Preface of the Authors Life and Death An Elegy on the Authors death Octob. 29. 1676. Verses on the Picture and Book The Contents of the Book viz. Three Preparatory Questions about the Sacrament Pag. 1 An example of Meditation about the sufferings of Christ Pag. 2 c. The causes of Christs death consider'd in that Meditation Pag. 6 c. A Colloquy 'twixt the Judg Sinner and Saviour Pag. 14 c. Objections about Gods love c. answer'd Pag. 20 c. The Sacrament particularly the Dress Pag. 31 c. The Presence-chamber Pag. 33 The Communion plate and the Bread Pag. 35 The Wine Pag. 37 The Conclusion Pag. 40 A Meditation on Christs death preparatory to the Sacrament for private use Pag. 42 Three pious Letters to his Sister when he was but a young Student at Christs Colledg Pag. 50 A Sermon on Rev. 12.1 Of the Church compar'd to a Woman Pag. 58 A Sermon on Amos 3.6 Preach'd Sept. 2. 1673. Pag. 81 A Meditation for raising his heart under slightings Pag. 123 POEMS Hymn 1. On the Souls Love-sickness Pag. 126 Hymn 2. The Souls Farewell to her Body Pag. 128 Hymn 3. The Resurrection of our Blessed Lord Pag. 130 Hymn 4. Of our Lords Ascension into Heaven Pag. 132 Hymn 5. The Souls Access Pag. 133 Hymn 6. The descent of the Spirit Pag. 135 Hymn 7. Of Gods Providence and Judgment Pag. 137 Hymn 8. The vanity of created enjoyments Pag. 142 Hymn 9. On Isaiah 53. Pag. 144 Hymn 10. A Consolatory against the fear of Death Pag. 146 Hymn 11. Comfortable at the death of a dear friend Pag. 150 Hymn 12. Of Thanksgiving for the restoration of health Pag. 153 Hymn 13. Remedies against discontentments in four Parts Pag. 156 Hymn 14. The desire of Assurance Pag. 161 The Welcome Pag. 166 Mortality Pag. 172 Self-estimation Pag. 174 Contempt A Dialogue 'twixt Flesh and Spirit Pag. 176 The Alarm Pag. 177 A Song of the Pilgrim Pag. 181 A Spiritual Song of Triumph Pag. 182 A description of Paul 's Shipwrack Act. 27. Pag. 184 A sinners unregenerate inside turn'd outside or the language of the Kingdom of darkness Pag. 192 The Rout of Demetrius Pag. 195 The Flint Pag. 200 A Divine Song of the Brides stay for her Beloved Pag. 202 A wounded Conscience Pag. 205 The Petition for a Prospect of Immortalities Pag. 207