puts them in a Bottle of Remembrance he createth Jewels for himself Jer. 31. 18. out of the Dunghill and rakes them together into his Cabinet When thou faintest he fainteth not Lie down upon him view the Travel that he has made in the Person of Christ and in the Word of his Grace throughout the Scriptures and say How unsearchable is his Understanding and Condescention How wonderfully and fearfully am I made How undeservedly how almightily how compleatly freely and throughly am I called by his Grace and led along this present Wilderness by the Right Hand of infinite care power and condescending compassionate faithfulness Oh the depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God in the Riches thereof How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Rom. 11. 33 and 36. Albeit God has laid the Foundation of Faith never so sure in the God in Jesus Christ the only life and breath of his people and the advantages thereof Person of Christ and so in himself as it stands revealed in the Scriptures and albeit the Principle of believing be planted in the heart at the first converting Work and Covenant-closure with Jesus Christ yet every acting of Faith is still kept in the power of his own Will and lies lock'd up from any exercise till he open his hand and fills the Soul with good things And this God doth for singular ends viz. 1. That God might be truly all in all and all in every part that his people might both be rich and yet not able to say My Goods are increased that he may appear to be not only the Author of their life but of the Breathing of their breath also and that the whole life of the new Creature might not be at the least distance from the heart of Christ as the Flame of the Candle cannot live without the Wick so is it impossible that the Faith or refreshment of heart can live one moment without supply of radical Moisture descending from the Head Jesus Christ Which doth not at all shew the uncertainty of a Believer's state but rather tends to assure the same by a frequent sending the Soul to God in Christ by whom it is established 2. It gives check to all allowed sin and turning the Grace of God into wantonness because he will not suffer the refreshment of his Grace to be any where but where he is himself 3. And as breathings are tokens of life so do renewed influences witness the reality of life arising from the Union of the Soul with Christ 4. It also tends to make the Soul watchful against distance from Christ lest the Breath of Life withdraw and the Soul faint insensibly and fall into the Myre of a defiled Mind and so into sinful Actions and a wounded Conscience 5. It leaves no room for sloth or sleepiness of heart lest the Locks of Communion with God's influential Presence should be cut and Strength be gone for no comfort or strength lives any longer than by faith it derives vigour from the heart and mind of Christ 6. It represents Mercy purely in that it sheweth that the standing of a Believer is meerly at the good pleasure of God and doth necessitate the Soul to be a resigned Attendant upon the meer Will of God and so allures the Soul by a necessary Conquest of Love not to live to it self but to the pure Will of him who died and rose again and quickens all things By which Resignment unto Mercy it rests on the heart of Christ and all the Fulness of God that is there 7. It gives ground of hope in sad hours for as the Clouds come so they go There is hope of a tree saith Job Job 14. 7. though it be cut down that it will spring again through the reviving moisture at the root And why art thou troubled saith David to his Soul I shall yet praise him Psal 43. 5. And besides 8. This coming and going of the Spirits influence is as a Fan which blows and brings forth the lustre of all Graces Hereby Patience Waiting and Hope are exercised Faith and Love are exercised and every Grace gets as it were a frequent new Birth in the Soul and the spiritual fondness of the Love is revived and not suffered to die Every new Breath of the Spirit is a new Application of the Soul's Ingrafture into Christ and Demonstration of his Power and is arrayed afresh as in the day of its first Espousals 9. And lastly It gives assurance of the Resurrection of the Body of which every Resurrection by Faith and Hope freely visiting the heart and bringing it again to God is the fore-runner Whiles my Meditations are musing and expatiating after the invisible God and would fain comprehend his way methinks I receive a check from Zophar Job 11. 7. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou by searching find out the Almighty to perfection It is high as heaven What canst thou do Deeper than hell What canst thou know Keep within the revealed Word and in the patience and comfort of the Scriptures live by hope No flesh can see God and live Poor Man would be wise and see the upshot of all things but the Vessel of his Understanding cannot hold it Salvation by Christ has one kind of Rayment here another kind hereafter here it is a Kingdom of Patience and Hope but there a Kingdom of Glorious Enjoyment here is the Earnest there is the Fulness When I would look over and see some glimpses of Canaan a Jordan of difficulty stands in the way What an Adventure is it to go down into the depth of Death and the last concluding Change This is the last and great tryal of Faith to venture all my hope in Eternity at one Cast to expect to find the same God and Christ beyond the great Gulph who appears on this side by the Spirit of his Grace to enjoy the same God to Perfection whose Name I now call upon by Prayer O that victorious Faith which claspeth about that Love from which neither Life nor Death things present nor to come could divide Rom. 8. 38 39. I may not presumptuously go up into the Mount but be content a while with Wilderness-work there remaineth a Rest Return again O my Soul to thy labouring waiting state be upon thy Watch the Morning cometh by and by be not afraid to have thy Night changed into Day and all thy Weakness into Perfection only labour out thy Task and work out thy Salvation with fear and trembling in this day of Faith and Hope Am I called to work and travel How shall I undergo this Task Contemplation only is not the work of my twelve hours and Oh for freedom of heart and understanding that I may accomplish my work my Hirelings day Alas dear Christ I am willing to work thy works but would never be out of thy sight May I
Throw your self upon him for nothing shall separate you from his love in Christ Christ himself was once sick for your sake to the very death and in great darkness yet always beloved of his Father and his God and Father is your God and Father and therefore he will not forsake your Soul in Adversity but make your Bed in your Sickness for his tender Mercy towards you can never dry up Resign up your self to him and be comforted in him for he who is your own God and Saviour is Lord both of Life and Death My heart is melting over you and yet I am but an earthly Father all Affection is derived from him but his Affections his Love and Pity are infinite I do remember you and my poor Wife also both of us have and do spread your Case before the Lord and I have abundant satisfaction in the Lord that it is and will be well with you living or dying but we earnestly desire if it be his Will that you may yet live to shew forth the praises of him upon the Earth who has done great things for you For what greater favour can he give a poor Creature than to make you seek his Face and to number you amongst his Followers which he has given Evidence of blessed be his Name already Be not dejected but lift up your head and heart to your God and Saviour Throw all your sins and cares and fears upon him and spare not for so you honour him and can never please him better He sees you through a Cloud and delights to do you good and will never cease till he open before you the endless Volume of his eternal Love and so love you into his eternal Rest Therefore bear up and be revived for God himself is with you for a Refuge To him I leave you waiting his good pleasure c. 1668. To E. D. N o 95. I received yours of the 10th Instant October desiring to own the gracious hand of God in this speedy Recovery of yours When Hezekiah was reprieved from death for a season t is said he returned not according to the Benefit Take heed of that whatever Awakning you have had endeavour to retain it and that 's the best kind of thankfulness and this the Lord will give if you do often let him know 't is the real desire of your heart He satisfieth the longing Soul Present the same things to him by Faith and Prayer which you mention to me in your Letter and then you may expect to speed He can compose and direct your thoughts for Heart-work is his only to manage When you put Faith and Prayer to the Word you make it another thing than it was before in the meer Letter that 's the way to draw Water out of the Wells of Salvation And thus humbly seriously and chearfully expect whatever good there lies bequeathed to you in the New Testament which is your Legacy c. 1668. To M. D. N o 96. BE not discouraged in your Christian Warfare every one of Christ's Disciples Male and Female must be all Souldiers and we have the Lord of Life for the Captain of our Salvation who will teach our hands to war and fingers to fight He never slumbers If he seem to slumber one of your Groans will wake him for his Bowels are more tender than yours can be to the little Babe He has taken the work upon him and though we are weak he is strong and will be sure to manage the Trust which the Father hath given him and will never leave till he has perfected that which concerns every Lamb of his Flock Be glad in the Lord love him and rest in his Bosom his Love can never wither There I leave you and remain c. 1669. To D. H. N o 97. I Am refreshed in that experience you have had of the good hand of God towards you and though God has caused you to walk in many rough Paths as to your outward Condition yet he still appears a God of all Grace and doth in these things plainly tell you that this World is not your Rest and therefore you meet with Thorns and Briars here that you may have the fresher desires maintained in your heart aspiring upwards The greatest of earthly Contentments will be of no worth nor use in Heaven neither can they of themselves any way add to the Comfort or thriving of a spiritual Life here on Earth The only Life we are allowed to live in this World is the Life of Faith which grows better under difficulties than in a smooth state of Affairs in this World I know no sweeter Entertainment that God can give in this World to his poor Children than that he give often Convincement that the best of this World is too lean Diet for them to feed upon and so make them take the truer taste of that Marrow and Fatness which in Christ they are always to live upon that is no less than God himself the Fountain of Blessedness Safety Peace Sufficiency and solid Joy What can come amiss to that Soul which Christ undertakes by all things and through all things to bring to himself For this end he died and this is the great end of every Trial you meet with and upon this Ground the Spirit saith Rejoyce when you fall into divers Temptations All the Glory Fulness and Ease of this World is but horrour and distress to a convinced Soul that looks on God as an Enemy but nothing can be dismayingly sad when God saith I am thine when Infinite saith I am thine I who am the Maker of all things am thy Husband thy Trials shall not quite overwhelm thee thy sins shall not ruine thee Death it self shall not destroy thee O Death where is thy Destruction when God shall say I will be with thee in the Fire and in the Water Thy Person is accepted thy Prayers though in thy own eyes without any form or comeliness are sweet and accepted in Christ who hath chosen thee and thou hast chosen him What shall I say The freeness of God's Grace in Christ his powerful and most voluntary Love is such where-ever it darts that neither Sin nor Devil can stand before it to hinder a jot of all that good which such a God has promised and undertook to perform and that meerly upon the Account of his own Name streaming forth through Christ in the Gospel to such poor impenitent Creatures as you and I are I shall add no more at present but committing you to this God whose you are whom you serve and who will never leave nor forsake but guide you by his Counsel and support you by his Spirit till he has brought you to Glory the perfection and fulness of what you pray and long for c. 1669. To M. D. N o 98. I Have hitherto had some favourable presence of the Lord with me which I bless him for Whether the Fig-tree doth blossom or no yet he is good and can
as the Word of the over-living God saying I would so read the Scriptures or other good Books that in reading I would drink in the matter or things therein presented and have my heart to feed thereon all the while And that we should judge of every part of holy Scripture according to the proportion of Faith and body of Truth And more particularly touching the THREATNINGS we meet with in Scripture we must note they are always to be understood with a secret implied Condition that notwithstanding if we return to God they shall not be inflicted on us But when God swears to his Threatnings there he makes it good as in the Case of the unbelieving Israelites And for Scripture-PROMISES we must not look on any Promise but in and through Christ in whom alone they are Yea and Amen And that we should labour after the believing sight of a Promise which is more worth than all the Gold and Silver in the World And therefore we should catch at the Promises having a Right to them in Christ as a Man swimming lays hold on a thing when he sees himself in danger and bear our selves nakedly on them as a Swimmer upon his Bladders And for this get a through Belief that there is but one God that this God is the same his Covenant the same and ever the same that his words are the same as ever they were in Noah Abraham and David's time putting our selves in their Case As put case I were Noah Abraham Moses c. And we must come up to this Persuasion that God ever abideth faithful and that the Kernel of the Promise both then and now is God's Will in Christ And touching the COMMANDS of the Word we must note That 't is heavy work to eye God's Command only in our Obedience without looking to him for strength for to us under the Gospel God never intended the Commandment any otherwise than as a Rule not as our Strength for Power belongeth unto God he gives Power and Strength to fulfil his own Commands He was a strict Observer of His Observation of the Sabbath the Lord's Day and could not endure either to speak himself or hear spoken by others any thing that tended to withdraw the heart from the Sanctification of that sacred Season and would allow of nothing else to be then said or done but what was of Mercy and meer necessity according to that word in Isa 58. 13. and Lev. 19. 30. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary beside the express Injunction in the fourth Commandment He exceedingly loved the Habitation of God's House and the place where his Honour dwelleth He valued the Gospel-Ministry at a mighty rate He esteemed not of Men for Learning and Parts where he saw the Grace of God wanting and that they preached themselves and not Jesus Christ but where both concurred he had always the greatest Reverence and Veneration for them And to prepare himself and Family for the due Celebration of the Sabbath and for the Ordinances of that day he was heard to offer up in Prayer such Petitions as these That God would draw nigh to us in the powerful Working and Operation of his Grace and cause the Dew of Heaven to fall upon us that our Fleece might not be dry that our Witheredness might pass from us That we might have a Verdure a Greenness on our Spirits and be anointed as with fresh Oyl That as he hath presented us to another Sabbath so he would make it a good day to us giving us throughout the day that Thirsting and Hungering to which the Promise is intitled and cause his Omnipotent Arm to bring Salvation and establish it in our hearts granting us the Light of Life and making us so to hear that our Souls might live be made fat with the Fatness of his House and be made to drink of the River of his Pleasures That no Guilt might abide on us but be taken wholly away and our Souls freed from the Captivity of a Fleshly Mind and Will That he would cut those Fetters asunder and work some Renewing upon our hearts some spiritual Strength Warmth and Refreshing That we might have a free Intercourse with him throughout the day praying in Prayer and hear in Hearing and see the Face of God in his Ordinances and they made powerful and transforming That Jesus Christ might come in his Kingly Power in the Ministry of his Word and destroy all the Bonds of the Prince of Darkness That he would not suffer the evil Angels to disquiet and disturb his People in their waiting on him but that they might attend upon the Lord without distraction That in what we do we might honour him who is the Lord of the Sabbath That he in Jesus Christ might be well pleased with us and see and behold his own Working in us and upon us and say It is very good Taht he would grant us a solid Consideration of things spiritual and a higher prospect thereof so as to affect our hearts and that our Scope and Aym in all things might be to please him and profit our own Souls That he would grant us his Presence and Teaching and the Operations of his Spirit in the use of his Word which is spiritual and that our time and life be spent in his fear That our Hopes be upward our Considerations inward and our Converse with spiritual things as those that are above in the Mount with God c. And his manner was in the Evening of the Sabbath after the publick Solemnity was over to repeat himself or by some other in his Family both the Sermons preached on that day with Prayer both before and after the same accompanied with the singing of a Psalm after which he supped and then concluding the day again with solemn Prayer he retired himself to his private Devotion and so went to Rest He had a great Insight into the His Insight into Spiritual and Divine things Mystery of the Gospel and Divine things And this is evident in the several following Discourses in his Letters c. and in such Expressions as these That there is a Tang and Touch of the Gospel which only the Called of God knows And that none can know Christ savingly but those that are united unto him CONCERNING GOD'S UNCHANGEABLENESS That though Man be Changeable yet God stands to his Purpose and Promise appearing Righteous in his Works either in conquering a Sinner by his Justice or overcoming and removing of his Sin through Grace by Faith and so saving the Sinner ordering the very Sin of the Elect to exalt his Mercy Though Sin is not in its own nature but by Accident the cause of glorifying God's Grace And so most justly he punisheth the sinful World for their own Sins and the Sins of the Elect in their Mediator OF GOD'S LOVE AND TENDERNESS to his People That God never comes into any Soul but he leaves a Blessing behind him he pays well for
his Entertainment before he parts And more particularly That if a poor Child should come to his Father and say Father I would not offend you it goes to my very heart when-ever I do offend and grieve you Teach me therefore O my Father so as that I may not offend you in what I do Will not hereupon an indulgent Father compassionate such a Child And hath not God much more pity towards his Children who is the Fountain of Love and Tenderness Of the DIS-RELISH of SPIRITUAL THINGS to a GRACELESS HEART That the things of God and of Soul-Concern are but a dry Morsel to a Carnal heart that such an one may talk of Heaven of the Glory and Happiness thereof and may seem to be somewhat taken therewith but if a good Bargain or some Worldly Profit interpose the heart of such an one is presently taken up and tickled with another kind of delight Also Of the vast difference betwixt a true Christian and one that is not so That a Christian indeed is a strange thing one that outwardly appears to live in the World like others yet there is something within him unseen that is as different from what is in others as Heaven and Earth CONCERNING TRUE FAITH That it is the giving up of our Souls to God in an Act of Reliance on him for himself and those things we desire of him according to his Will that Assurance is rather the Flower or Seal of Faith than Faith properly That Christians are often much mistaken about Faith in taking it for a sure Confidence and Belief that God will help and deliver c. But Faith chiefly consists in a Recumbency and Reliance on God a leaning a rolling upon him to help us or for whatsoever Mercy we desire of him and not that he will help or deliver out of such a particular trouble or to bestow on us such or such a thing we want or remove such an Evil we fear that being rather the Product Effect and Privilege of Faith Many complain they have not Faith when they have no Assurance of God's Performance though they are all the while in the Exercise of Believing and that Faith is the Faith that justifies and true Faith is such as realizeth things absent remote and future That it is not the nearness of a thing makes it real but Faith seeth a thing to be real though afar off when we are apt to judge many times of the reality of things because they are near Also true Faith dwells in a pure Conscience it makes its Nest there it purifies the heart His Faith in God's Covenant His Faith in God's Covenant and Promise and Promise instead of many other Instances appeared in these short Sayings That those who cannot live nakedly upon a Promise in the want of a thing will not know how to use it as they should when they have it and if I were sure to live but one Hour this should be my Exercise The Acting of my Faith upon God's Promises and whilst the Soul is thus in an adventurous Frame this is not Presumption neither cannot be It also exerted it self in Prayer in such Expressions as these That the Lord would arm us by his Fear even with that Fear that is the Concomitant of Love and let them both be united in us for it is one Clause of the New Covenant that he will put his Fear into our hearts that we may fear him and his Goodness and that his Name be great in our Eye that may preserve us from departing from him That the Covenant of his Grace might be a Tree of ripe Fruit to us and that the Hand of Grace might shake it that the Fruit may fall down and we may gather it up for our daily Refreshment Nothing doth more satisfie me in the verity of the Religion I His Argument for the Truth of Christian Religion profess than the Oneness of the hearts of the People of God who all give in the self-same Testimony of the Work of Grace in the heart the same Spirit of Faith breathing in them all His Love to God and Christ was seen in the Course of his His Love to God and Christ Obedience to Divine Commands and his great Submission to all afflictive Dispensations from God Also in his great Love to the People of God in his frequent secret and close Communion with God here and a longing desire to be translated by Death into his immediate Presence and Fruition His Assurance of God's Love His Assurance of the Love of God His Practical Discourses Letters the solemn Covenant he entred into with God and his Dying Speeches do throughout plainly demonstrate And it was greatly promoted and maintained by his often renewing and ratifying of his said solemn Covenant some of which Ratifications annexed thereto are here inserted in his own words as followeth Finding some motion within me urging me seriously to view over this my Covenant and considering it was a most deliberate and voluntary Engagement and that God with whom I have to do remembers it and fails not on his part and that the frame of my heart is so sinfully prone to cast off the Cords of my Duty and so depart from the easie Yoke of Christ and the unspeakable Privileges of my Covenant-Interest in God my Saviour and having I fear sinfully omitted these three Years a through Review of this my Free-Will-Offering I have this Afternoon once more spread it and my Soul with it through the favour of my God before his face and do now again in his Fear and in Reliance on him willingly renew the same and again bind my self to be the Lord's and to be wholly subjected to his Will to own him as my God according to the full scope and purpose of the Covenant before expressed And now O God of all Grace and Glory let this Covenant that thou hast caused and drawn me to renew with thee be confirmed in Heaven and in the heart of thy poor Servant and casting my self upon thee I claim thee to be my God and I give my self to thee and this Evening an Evening greatly to be remembred the 28th of January 1663. I subscribe irrevocably hereunto with my Hand Henry Dorney Vnder much Infirmity yet in some Integrity in my scope and design I have perused over the forementioned Covenant and do own the same and do this day in Reliance on the good hand of my God enter anew into the Bonds thereof as the state of my most happy and most desirable Liberty and Privilege in which I humbly claim God in Christ to be mine and willingly render my self into the hands of his Power and Grace in all things to be his and at his dispose for ever To which I subscribe with my hand this 20th of February 1664. Henry Dorney It having pleased God after many other considerable Changes and various Trials and Exercises in my Life now of late to reduce me from a single to a
Heart-fixedness in Duty His Heart-fixedness in Duty further discovered it self in this one Passage That his Judgment being desired whether or no in Hearing and joyning with others in the Duty of Prayer one might strive to charge the Memory with any select Expressions uttered by the Speaker he replied only this I should not then have my End in that Duty He was a Companion of all them His Company and Converse that feared God and the Saints and Excellent of the Earth were all his delight That of Choice he desired to converse with no other And when he knew not well the Company that occasionally he was among he was somewhat unfree to speak but would rather hear others than speak himself though he wanted not Skill to deliver himself in proper Phrase and in the most apt Expressions And when at any time good things were spoken of where he was present if he perceived that they proceeded not from a heart in the Speaker duly affected with the things themselves it seemed very irksome to him And he would be frequently urging such Persons either in express words or by some other hints to be sure That they were in the Life Power and Practice of the serious Truths they spake of for that otherwise he accounted it but the taking of God's holy Name in vain He was an inward Friend to all he judged Gracious of what Persuasion soever for 't was the Image of Christ and Truth of Grace he looked at and where he perceived that in any Person there his Love went out and his heart was endeared unto such without further Enquiry And when-ever he was in the Society of any of what Rank or Degree soever if their Discourse tended to unprofitableness was Jejune and tasteless though in it self not sinful yet he would seek to free himself from them so soon as ever he could and he would be often complaining how his Soul suffered all that while He also much dis-liked the Conversation of those who were addicted to needless Debates or such who manage Disputes about Religious Affairs from Pride and Self-Interest with Passion and Strife of Words and not out of a Love to the things themselves which he judged to be extreamly pernicious whilst the Heats of such Disputes cool the inward Affections of the Soul to spiritual things and all the Warmth of the heart turns into the Vapour and Air of empty Notion For though he was one naturally inclined and much given to consider the reason of things and throughly to inform his Judgment in Points both Civil Moral and Religious And to that end he affected to be present at such Arguings which tended to find out discover and make plain useful Truths Yet he had a great Aversasion to and did much complain of Litigious and wrangling Debates as being so far from advancing Religion or Holiness as that it did principally arise from a decay of the same and want of the Sence and powerful Influence thereof And thence according to the Rule of the Apostle he would studiously and constantly endeavour to withdraw himself 1 Tim. 6. 4 5. and was wont to say of Persons he esteemed Religious Judicious and Savoury That such and such were Juicy Christians Trees of the Lord full of Sap whose Society he greatly prized His Charity in Case of Evil His Charity Reports was singular He was very shy and unwilling to hear or receive an evil Report of others much less of his own accord to mention it and principally if he judged them to be sincere in the main He had a great dislike of a Censorious Humour which some who are truly good through Inadvertence and Temper are too much addicted to not watching against it as they ought to do contrary to that Meekness of Christ which he did continually endeavour to imitate And when he saw it needful to condemn the Actions of any such yet he would shew Candor and Respect to their Persons either by concealing their Names or in putting the best Construction upon what was said or done as far as the matter would bear And he would commend and cherish the least true Good he saw in any And in case of private Wrongs he advised thus Forgive private Wrongs before you reprove them Forgive the Wrong before you repair your self upon the doer of it He was rich in good Works ready His Liberality to distribute willing to communicate And as 't is spoken of the Macedonians not only according to but beyond his power he was willing to relieve Persons in distress especially those who were of the Houshold of Faith And he did very much grieve when he could do no more The Sin of Covetousness was not at all seen in him and he would say 'T is a brave thing to be Large-hearted if done in the Spirit of Faith and Holiness When he exhorted any it His Faithfulness in Advising and Reproving was with weight and seriousness and when he reproved any it was with great respect to their Persons according to their Quality and Degree yet would not spare closely and sharply to blame what was reprovable in them and he often bewail'd Peoples Unfaithfulness in the Omission of that Commanded Duty And also he misliked their sinful forwardness in blazing abroad the Failings of others before they had observed Scripture-Order in dealing with them more privately Sympathy and Compassion His Sympathy and Compassion were deeply rooted in his heart and eminently exercised in his Life that in a great degree it may be said of him as Paul spake Who is weak and I am not weak Who is offended and I burn not And peculiarly towards his unconverted Relations Oh how bemoaningly would he upon all occasions be spreading their deplorable Condition before the Lord And with respect to outward Afflictions on any of his Friends he was most feelingly affected That in writing to a Kinswoman of the death of her Husband he used these words at the Close of his Letter I cannot enlarge at this present for every word I write makes my heart to ake And when a near Relation of his lay very sick and in great pain he told a Friend of his how much affected he was therewith and that he could not say which was in greater Anguish and suffered most himself with the sympathizing sence of that pain or his Relative that did personally and immediately bear the same And further in the hearing of the same Friend speaking of this Grace he said If we could make others Distresses our own by Fellow-feeling we might get Good by their Afflictions as if we our selves were in their Case And that we should by Sympathy as much as we may die with every one that dies and that would make us serious Christians In his Contracts and Dealings His Moral Righteousness he was very wary not to exact upon the necessities of any in buying or selling or to act by any indirect way whatsoever noted in Prov. 20. 14. but
Relation to him Ezek. 16. 38. he bare his own guilt before with distraction and horrour now Christ bears it from him before his very eyes and melts his heart into remorse at the sight of such a spectacle Zach. 12. 10. Ten thousand Rivers of Oyl could not expiate one Sin before but now they all pass away as a Cloud driven before the Wind and efficacy of the one Sacrifice of Christ to whom and to which by faith he is united his sins made him wander still farther and farther from God before now they are made contrary to their own nature to scourge him into the fresh Application of Jesus Christ by whom he draws near to God Psal 89. 30 31. 1 Pet. 3. 18. in all his Affliction he was alone before now Christ is his Partner Isa 63. 9. Christ is truly touched with his Calamities Zach. 1. 12. his smart is as the pricking of the Apple of Christ's Eye Zach. 2. 8. As for Losses in temporal things they were before Judgments upon him they are now gracious Trials of his faith and patience and means of purging him and drawing him into a nearer reliance on the Heir of all things So that his Losses and Crosses do not now tend to undo him but to awaken and transform him 1 Sam. 30. 6. in the midst of his fears he is not forsaken 2 Cor. 4. 9. but through this Union with Christ he is still in safe hands Psal 27. 1. Isa 43. 2. Dan. 3. 17 18 25. Temptations of Satan and his fury cannot destroy him because the Prince of Life to whom a renewed person is united has cast out the Prince of this World and tempers his poysonous Temptations into a phisical Potion curbing noxious humours in order to health Joh. 12. 31. working the Soul to more Humility Faith Prayer and patient Recumbency on God and Contentment in him 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9 10. The meer civil Actions of such a person though the same still in themselves yet in respect of the change of the Agent they have some different Consideration otherwise than they had before He sets about them with other motives other dispositions and other ends than he had before which appears in that although the thing be done or spoken never so well to the contentment of others yet if Christ to whom this new Creature is united be not served with singleness of heart therein this renewed Soul akes as much as if the Action it self had been done never so much amiss And whence comes this smiting of heart but from this Union with God in Jesus Christ 2 Sam. 24. 10. in that the proper sway and tendency of such Convictions do bring the Soul still nearer and nearer to God through Jesus Christ which gives a spiritual Discovery of the unseen and living Breath and Pulse of this Union Ezek. 20. 37. And this seems to have relation to that expression used by the Lord to his people of old The quarrel of my Covenant Levit. 26. 25. threatning to punish them for their sins as they were contrary not only to the Law of Righteousness but also contrary to the Law of Covenant-Relation Yea all the Labours Anxieties and solicitous Exigents in the affairs and business of a renewed person do run along through the Sympathy of Christ and by reason of this near Union cannot but be Copartner therein and looks to it that one way or other the incumbrance shall usher in advantage he condescends to be as one weak with them that are weak as one troubled with them who are troubled that he may discipline the Grace and exercise the Faith of his people whereby he glides them along into some unavoidable necessity of Resignation of themselves and their Cares into the Arms of his divine Power and so ripens in them the Application of this Union betwixt him and them in their hearts And his design being to bring his People as a chast Virgin to himself he aims rather at the carrying on of that drift than at the answering the natural desires of his people about Ease or Deliverance any otherwise than as may suit with that end of his in making of them partakers of his holiness and whispers secretly into their ear the Servant is not to be above his Master I trod the dirty and toilsome way before you and am treading over again every step of it with you and in you you must be conformable to my Death and shall be conformable to my Resurrection Come along with me and your burthens shall not break you because it cannot break me your own projects may fail but in me you are Heirs of Blessing and Deliverance and shall not go without it Heb. 6. 15. I will give you rest Matth. 11. 28. He relieved not his own Body against the Treachery of Judas and the Company that came to apprehend him although he was the Omnipotent God and had all Power in his hands because it suited not with the design of Man's Redemption and as it fared with that Body of his that was in personal Union with the Godhead so doth it fare in some proportion with each Member of his mystical Body Their burthens and perplexities do not at all import that his hand is shortned or that he is really absent or had forgotten them no more than his Divine Nature could be separated from the Humane Nature when the stress of his sorrow made him cry out My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me As that Union carried him through so will this Union carry through his Members also It being now about three years since that God was pleased to cast Some Considerations in order to the fresh Application and Improvement of this Grace of Vnion with God in Christ the aforesaid Meditations into my heart and since that time having been for a season a Stranger in a strange Land beyond the Sea and there passed through a dark Vale of Privation and Distance from those Ordinances and that Society which I formerly enjoyed and having there also layen in the Shadow of Death through a long and lingring Sickness of my Body and being now some Months past returned back to my own Native Country where the good hand of God which never left me quite desolate caused me to review the Solemn Covenant which through his Grace I entred into the 30th December 1660. which Covenant being yesterday renewed and having therein solemnly given up my self again to the Lord and accepted of him in the Tenders of his Grace to be my God and Saviour and to own him in all the Relations of his condescending Grace and Love and also to submit willingly to his blessed Yoke Rule and Will expressed by his Spirit in his Word I find still much longing in my Soul to know him more inwardly that I might the more enjoy him and be the more serviceable to him and to that purpose having perused over again the foregoing Meditations concerning the Union between God and all and every
shall the Shadows fly away Be very serious in exercising faith to represent the truth and reality of this Union-state that there is such a thing and in that Exercise dilate your thoughts in an awful serious comfortable Reverence and reverent love of God manifested in the Flesh to be Emanuel God with us Pursue this Meditation till you even make this Union as visible as may be to the eye of your faith Consider the Nature of it is unchangeable 2. The Nature of this Vnion it was made in God's Decree before all time and constituted for Eternity The Bond is God's Faithfulness and his Love which many Waters cannot quench an indissolvable Marriage an Ingrasture into the Fulness Fountain and Perfection of Life 'T is the Purchase Possession and unwithering Inheritance of him who is Yesterday to day and for ever 'T is Union reciprocal Christ is thine and thou art his My Beloved is mine and I am his What shall I give thee saith Christ Not only a Kingdom but my self What shall I render saith the Soul Not only my Praises but my whole self Possess me rule me fill me take my heart and give me thine let thy love be shed into my heart with a ravishing Inundation and let my love be passionate pure and find no Object elsewhere but thee 'T is an Union that has distinguishing Excellency in it a Remnant chosen out of many between which Remnant and the rest nothing made the difference but the free Choice of God An Union created of Contraries made up of unreconciled Parties who were at-the extreamest Enmity and now become of the most absolute and passionate Amity so it is in Christ and so it is in the Seed of it in all the Persons united to him An Union in which the Party wronged voluntarily began to love first 1 Joh. 4. 19. and wooed the offending Party to a Reconcilement An Union in all respects wonderfully made it issued from that peremptory yet deliberate Sentence I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy And what thoughts are sufficient for these things The Privileges of this Union are 3. The Privileges of this Vnion all on the Sinner's side Christ is exalted to give and Sinners called up to receive And what must Sinners receive who are received into this Union Come in O my Soul for thy share for the Treasury is unspeakably rich Through this Emanuel-knot of Union God is not ashamed to be called the God of poor Sinners only as he changeth their state he changeth their names they are now in proper true Appellation Saints though sin remains in them they are beloved who were not beloved they are Sons and Daughters of God every one is a Prince by a second Birth they are took out of Prison and do sit at the King's Table their filthy Garments removed away and are cloathed with white Rayment they are delivered from the Pit and return thither no more they have a goodly Heritage God himself is their Portion all the Power Truth Wisdom Goodness and Mercy that ever God made known to and for his People in all Ages is their Inheritance all the Promises and Providences which God made and wrought at any time are for their use experience teaching and comfort all the Directions Examples and Precepts in the Scripture and all the Reproofs and Threatnings there are for their Learning Consolation nud Discipline to purge strengthen and guard them till the Old Man be quite destroyed till they arrive beyond Sin Change and Hazard their Society is with the Spirit of the Father and the Son with the Image of Christ in his People the Mind of Christ in his Word the Breath Presence and Blessing of Christ in his Ordinances their Sufferings Difficulties and Fears have lost their destroying deadly Sting their Life is Christ in them the Hope of Glory their End is Peace their Death is their Gain however it is for a season with their outward or inward Man they are never otherwise than the Blessed of the Lord and Objects of his Delight Care Good Will and Protection Jer. 32. 38 41. Isa 27. 3. and after this Life that unutterable Blessedness which they are to enjoy when they shall be ever with the Lord Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor can any heart to the full understand much less can my Meditation reach it or Pen declare it only I may say it is an exceeding EXCELLENT ETERNAL WEIGHT OF GLORY Consider these Privileges O my Soul make the most of them This prize is in thy hand be not as a Fool that has no heart muse the matter peruse the Scriptures and muse it again and again these are not vain glosses the thing is real glorious and great have often and large thoughts of this Union with Christ let the Application of it dwell upon thee day and night And that thou maist come up to 4. Improve this Vnion by Exercise a clearer Vision of this Fountain of Life and drink aboundantly of the Water thereof visit it often pry modestly reverently and seriously into it not for Curiosity but for Transformation 't is thy Portion and now more abstractly than ever all thy Portion a Portion that hath seven Portions in it all Portion in it Mat. 19. 29. He that by faith overcometh and wins this Prise shall inherit all things Rev. 21. 7. for I saith the faithful Witness will be his God and he shall be my Son Here is the Union and the Privilege also Familiarize this Mystery of Union with Christ by remembring and having recourse to it in the use of all Ordinances of Worship in all Christian Duties in all use of Gifts in all conditions of Life and all Seasons day and night in the exercise of every Grace Send up many Ejaculatory Visits Be upon thy Watch continually Let this word always ring in your ear without me ABSTRACTED from me you can do nothing Joh 15. 5. Beware of cooling beware of dismay Remember this Union is grounded on God's eternal unchangeable Love his faithfulness upholds it 't is as the Sun in the Firmament thou hast but a little time to take hold of it the ruin of this Union is the only thing which thy Enemies World Flesh and Devil aim at And now O my precious Soul rowze up thy self to Exercise Thy labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Use every Ordinance to further this Union In Ordinances In hearing the Word digest all the 1. Hearing Matter into these two Heads as the main ultimate scope of whatever thou hearest either removing Obstructions which keep God and thee a sunder or a Supply of some uniting Power to bring God and thee together Come to the Word with expectation to meet the Lord himself there deliver thy SELF to the Word in the hand of God hear his Voice through Man's Words account the Physitian of Souls wiser than thy self lie before him as a meer Patient refuse no Potion which the Word of
himself by Jesus Christ Matth. 17. 5. accounting the Gospel of God declaring Salvation by Christ worthy of all Acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 11 15. 3. Do I put a value on this Propriety to God owning it with open Profession Ezra 5. 11. We are the Servants of the living God and by faith sheltering under it Isa 63. 19. we are thine c. 4. Do I improve it humbly and reverently and thankfully 2 Sam. 7. 18. to the end of vers 24. Who am I O Lord God c. Do I present my self to God as one that is made alive from the Dead Rom. 6. 13. renouncing all other Defence Hos 14. 3. and walking worthy of God who has called a vile Sinner out of his own pollution to be of the Houshold of God 1 Thes 2. 12. Ephes 2. 19. As for the Privileges of them Privileges of this Propriety who are in the Propriety of an infinite glorious God Who is he that is able to number the Dust thereof or bring an Account of the Sands of that Sea The whole Earth is full of that Glory of God which shines upon his People as their Interest unto which every particular person of that number is entitled But for the better Access with good welcome to this glorious Feast it is needful to see whether the Wedding Garment be on or no which brings in the third general Head viz. 3. That true Christians ought to know their renewed state viz. that they are not their own but Gods which seem to have these steps or rather parts included in it viz. 1. A discerning and understanding of the excellency of such a state 1 Cor. 2. 14. 2. An inward persuasion of the possibility of an Interest in such a state Isa 55. 6. Joel 2. 14. And 3. An Exercise of Faith engaging the heart to lay claim to be possessed of and actually enjoy an Interest therein 1 Joh. 5. 20. Joh. 20. 28. and altogether in Heb. 11. 13. The Means of this Knowledge are chiefly 1. The Word and Spirit of God Joh. 20. 31. and 16. 8 13 14. 1 Cor. 2. 12. 2. Prayer Psal 143. 8. Prov. 2. 3. Job 34. 32. 3. Serious Deliberation Meditation and Application Psal 143. 5. 2 Tim. 2. 7. Psal 104. 34. The Evidences which do declare a person to be the Lords are the Ecchoings back of the Soul to him in the warmth of his own Grace and Love wherein God draws the Soul to own him in a way suitable to his owning of such a person to be his stamping his own Image there and giving it life to act in a genuine true and proportionable method towards God again Which appears 1. In that mutual Avouchment mentioned in Deut. 26. 16 17. according to the Terms of the Covenant of Grace Jer. 24. 7. and 32. 38. I will give them a heart that they shall know that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God and they shall return to me with their whole heart And this is the Ground of those Expressions in the Scriptures wherein the People of God have ecchoed back their Faith and hope in him by the same manner of Expressions to him as he useth to them 1. As God has chosen them Mark 13. 20. they chuse God Josh 24. 15 22. and the things that please him Isa 56. 4. 2. God calls them his Inheritance Psal 33. 12. they call him their Inheritance Psal 16. 5. 3. God calls them his Habitation Ephe. 2. 22. they call him their Habitation and dwelling Place Psal 71. 3. and 90. 1. God dwelleth in them and they in him 1 Joh. 4. 13. 4. God walks in them 2 Cor. 6. 16. they walk in his Name Zac. 10. 12. They walk with God Gen. 5. 24. 5. They are precious to God Isa 43. 4. and the Lord is precious to them 1 Pet. 2. 7. 6. They are God's portion Deut. 32. 9. and God is theirs Lam. 3. 24. 7. God loves them Psal 146. 8. they love him Rom. 8. 28. In these and many other respects they bear the Image of God and therein do evidence that they are his and he theirs Let the heart examine it self whether these Properties of the Image of God be stamped there or no. 2. It appears in complying with God's aim and method in managing that Propriety of his in which he owns them he commands and they obey Deut. 11. 27. he reprooves and they take reproof he threatens and they fear he chastiseth and they accept the punishment of their iniquities he speaks and they hear he promiseth and they believe and thus they shew that they are his and he theirs Let the heart examine it self whether there be this compliance with the Mind and Will of God or no Isa 55. 3 4. 3. It appears in answering the duty of that Relation in which they stand to God They are the Spouse and he the Husband they the Children he the Father they the Flock he the Shepherd they the Husbandry he the Husband-man they the Workmanship he the Worker they the Clay he the Potter each Relation imports the duty of them who are thus many ways related unto God All which administers matter for several Queries by way of Trial whether God be mine and I am his If I am his he must necessarily be mine according to the tenour of the Covenant And therefore let me propound some Questions to my own Soul issuing from the former Considerations that I may know that I am mine own no longer but the Lords and that he is mine For making way to these Queries it is to be considered that the Scriptures do speak of several states of Mankind in the World 1. A state of Innocency Eccles 7. 29. 2. A state of Sin and Death Rom. 5. 12. 3. A state of Redemption and Pardon through Grace Ephes 1. 7. And thence cometh a state of Renewing and Sanctification Ephes 4. 24. and 5. 8. which issueth from Christ's Redemption Tit. 2. 14. and so lodgeth a Soul in this Propriety of being God's peculiar people shewing forth his Praises 1 Pet. 2. 9. and the holy God is not ashamed to be called their God Heb. 11. 16. The two first of these relate to all Men universally but all of them relate to them who arrive at this peculiar Interest in God The New Testament speaks but little about the primitive Innocency only glancing at it by implication under the words of Straying 1 Pet. 2. 25. Seeking that which was lost Luk. 19. 10. and alienated from the Life of God Ephes 4. 18. and such like and treats chiefly and most directly of the others viz. Sin Redemption and Holiness This is that which the Spirit is promised to convince the World of Joh. 16. 8. the state of Sin under Unbelief and of Redemption and Righteousness by Christ crucified and risen who testified and assured by his going to his Father that he obtained eternal Redemption Heb. 9. 12. and the state of Conquest over
many times our Warmth is gone our Locks cut our Strength and Comfort departed together and then the poor Soul looks upon his Corruption and all the Engines of his Back-sliding as Amnon did on his deflowred Sister Have her out of my sight Then the Soul lies as weak as any other in an equal Line to the Men of this World but God only who raiseth the Dead for his free Grace and eternal Covenant of Love recovers this loss again restores health to the heart and makes the Soul say I was dead but am alive That a Vein of Life and Beam of Light should run through so many Eclipses and yet live and not utterly be destroyed this is the work of the Lord and it is marvellous in our eyes As there is no Calling in the World that is useful for common Good but hath its Foundation in the Wisdom Pity and Care of God towards his poor Creatures so I believe the same of yours and my desire to God for you is that you may use your Calling only as under his eye and in the wisdom and fear of the Lord c. 1649. To C. A. D. N o 7. YOur friendly and Christian Lines I received and do with you rejoyce in the happiness of your nearest Relation The happiness is the greater in that your Principles do accord as well as your Affections which renders your Condition a more lively Type of the Conjugal Interest betwixt Christ and a Believer You say your experience tells you it is good to wait on God do not forget the same experience in other cases Abound in spiritual Affections to one another as much as you can and in ingenuous Marriage-Love and Affections also but beware of that which is inordinate remembring that they that marry are to be as if they married not 1 Cor. 7. 29 c. It may be you may find new Temptations in your new Condition and God teaching you thereby If so there is still cause of Thankfulness for God has many ways in variety of Trials to teach to purge and comfort I perceive there is that within you which takes little content in high Speculations without Power I think it is no small happiness to be preserved from the vain unsavoury Profession of the times consisting more in Phrase of Words Humane Wit and Pride than Power of Religion Doubtless the ancient Path of Sincerity Humility Patience Love and Fruits of Thankfulness is the best Path for Saints to travel in waiting on God for more enlarged hearts and enlightned eyes both to know and do his Will with the more integrity Ah! the Purity and Spiritualness of the Apostles Writings and the Sermons of Christ There is no cavelling jeering but Bowels of Tenderness and awful sweet Reverence in the things of God Let your thoughts still fix there associate with the most Tender and Sincere and you shall escape the destructive Influence of that seeming religious loosness and Atheism which has I doubt cankered many a hopeful Professor As for my own part I tumble to and fro under Temptations yet reaping this fruit thereby to thirst the more after the day of Christ's Appearance and my Deliverance c. 1651. To B. D. N o 8. I Have as well by others as by your own hand understood how the change of Affairs have layen upon you The Lord I trust will bless the present Suffering to your inward Advantage The less worldly your Affections were in your Employmen the more I hope the loss is alleviated and your heart supported It is good to be industrious so that the Interest above be as the Oyl to the Wheel of all our Actions The Lord in the Interest of his free Love and Presence is able to weigh down the Scale against never so much appearing trouble and to that blessed Portion and Security I do heartily commend you 1652. To B. D. N o 9. GOd has been pleased to put us and continue us long asunder and we have had our variety of Troubles Dangers and Temptations and in regard we can come no nearer each other let us speak at a distance By the view I have made of earthly matters and earthly conditions I can say with my whole heart The best Refreshment is vexation of Spirit and if so then comes this rebuke How have I laid out my Money for that which is not Bread God has delivered me from being a burthen to my Friends and yet my Body and Soul Ah when will it once be is not given up as a Sacrifice to him only Brother I perceive so much of the unsearchable pity of the Lord to me that I know not what to do or say Oh that my heart might break into a thousand pieces and be made up again by the Spirit of Renewing What a misery is it to desire that might live which is nailed to the Cross and crucified Oh for the Newness of the Spirit to see the new Creature that old things might pass away from one end of the Soul unto the other I tremble at the mention of these words because the Power is of God and the dark design of the Lust within me labours to destroy my Interest ruine my Peace and make me unserviceable to my God to whom I am going Oh that I could in the power of my dear Saviour raise my head so high out of the misery that easily besets me as to peep forth into the fresh Air of a whole Resignment even of what I have am or do expect unto God through Christ nakedly and unreservedly You are on my heart before the Lord that you may be saved from your self and World from your fears comforts and hopes that the Kingdom of our dear Lord exalt it self exceedingly in your heart The Lord himself be your Guide to whom alone I can adventure to surrender you I am again returning from my Wives Grave into to seek mine own c. 1652. To D. H. N o 10. DEar Sister I account it my duty to hold up an Intercourse of writing to you as opportunity and time will permit as being sensible in some measure of the state of your inward Man My words have no quickning life the bodily presence of Christ himself could not do it without the Spirit much less the Pen of a sinful Worm but I will send you where this Ware is to be sold at a cheap rate if Complements of Self-preparedness for I can call it no other do not hinder Isa 55. 1. Buy Wine and Milk without Money say it over again without Money What is this the voice of your Beloved without price Is it indeed without price How hard is this one Lesson without price My Guilt can press me down but can it press him down who bears up Heaven and Earth Can my weakness hinder me from lying down There is nothing more acceptable to him as for me to lie down upon him you can never lean too hard upon your well Beloved Nothing troubles him but when you lean from
of this Opportunity provoketh me to write to you by this Bearer who has promised to see my Child I desire that as she grows in capacity you would be dropping in somewhat of spiritual things for her tender thoughts to feed upon Though I cannot at this distance see your face yet I know your Temptations in some part and your Deliverance which will in due time appear 'T is good to be carried about and disposed by the hand of the Lord 't is a blessed thing and will one day appear so to rejoyce in the pleasure of the Lord let him do with a poor Creature what he will so he make it more like himself by unselfing you from carnal desires and carnal discontents and fears and transplanting you into the power and joy of believing accounting really the offer of eternal kindness in Christ more Glory than any earthly dying comfort and certainly where the Comforts here can comfort but little the Crosses here can cross but little and shortly farewel both Let your heart plod much on the free Covenant of Grace in Christ by Prayer and Meditation and let your sins come into the same Room with you while you are on that Enquiry When I am at a dead lift then sometimes the Spirit of God takes me up as it were into the Arms of that Covenant which he made with Christ concerning me and whosoever is not a wilful Unbeliever And the very glance of that Salvation wrought by the Lord concerning which I am only to believe sets me again upon my feet I have no other task but to be willing in truth to receive it and I shall have it and if so then you and I shall be sure never to want any one good thing Evil as Evil from the Lord cannot befall us You will then see the favour of God to you in earthly seeming Frowns No such favour as to be dead to sensible Comforts and as a Stranger to earthly carnal Contents though this be tedious to Flesh and Blood yet let it more appear that our Rest is not in these things but in the ever-living God he is your Teacher and I leave you to him 1653. To J. H. N o 15. I Have received your Letter and return you thanks for your love Should I give you a Draft of my Soul it would pity you to see it did not the Mercy of God prevent you would find me in the four last Vices mentioned in Rom. 1. but blessed be the Lord that though there be a Law in my Members warring and tormenting I have in the Lord a little strength and do sometimes view deliverance I have too long had too much content in a Carnal Walking with God and have been satisfied too much in a Carnal Appearance that way There is a way to live with God in the World but it is of his own making no visible or sensible thing can contribute any thing to it and yet I cannot die to these vain helps I shall never understand the word All noted in Matth. 22. 37. till the power of the Most High doth bear it in Ah when will it once be Certainly that Grace will one day be very glorious that hath attended a poor distressed heart through the uncomfortable sights and abundant frailties of this corrupt mortal condition One pure serious true long breathed desire of Christ's appearing gives some deliverance Oh the Glory of that day when the real appearing shall be and all filthy Garments removed and every filthy smell be for ever removed also Let us be found among those that wait for Redemption and wait waking Truly Brother we cannot word out one to another what is the State Duties and Privileges of an Interest in a new Life and hope of Glory The best means the best words yea the Scriptures though not so in themselves are even deceiving to a deceived carnal heart Such a heart will turn the most spiritual things into Flesh and so feed upon them to satisfie carnal Fancy Oh that you and I could start up from fleshly Consultation and listen quietly leisurely and yet greedily and obediently to the meer dictate of the blessed Spirit in his Word Your opportunity and mine of honouring God in the World is very far spent already I desire that you be not only for God in season but out of season also Dear Brother I thought fit to give you a touch of what my poor heart desires to be wrestling in I know you mind the same thing go on therein and prosper there is no other way of Peace but this I am rude but I had rather write my heart than my invention Well Brother I thank you for your good wishes to my poor Child I trust the Lord will vouchsafe her truth of Grace and shed abroad his Mercy and Love into her heart and make it appear as her tender years will bear and manifest the same Remember me to my Sister your Wife whom I have reason also to honour for the goodness of God to her and to you I trust in her I should rejoyce to hear that some others of yours and my poor Friends had the Lord alone for their whole desire and portion I would rather remember such in my Prayers than in my Letter Remember my love to your Sister D. who is I am much assured more precious in God's eye than in her own I leave all News to the Bearer and commend the Remembrance of you to the Lord and remain c. 1654. To S. D. H. N o 16. YOu see this state here is wavering unsetled moving to and fro 'T is a wondrous thing to see how the Lord is pleased to raise up one Wave of disquiet after another to molest the publick Peace and exercise the pains and patience of his people It is no Misery but a Privilege to one that is chosen hence to be emptied from Vessel to Vessel and indeed I scarce know a greater sign of Christ's Conjugal Love than by his Providence to render all other things and Conditions here to be unlovely and undesirable for then the Affections have no where else to centre but in Christ and that makes them go out strong that way Albeit my condition speaks much visible Uncertainty as to this outward Man yet I find a mighty War within me against a free and clear Closing with the certain Riches of Glory which is in Christ in which notwithstanding I trust I have an Interest and have recieved some witness thereof There is a secret joy in the inward part of my Soul and Refreshment at the Remembrance of the Promises of the God of Truth my Rock Sometimes Hope and Desire brings me near to Christ and he to me 'T is an admirable thing to think how a Soul can at the same time be covered over with its Guilt and yet be freed and triumph over the same as removed in Christ truly perfectly and for ever yet this is the Golpel-Doctrine and Experience A Body diseased through Sin yet
as if he had forgotten were far off did not hear were reserved exceeding ready to take exceptions and such like whereas we may go to a poor lump of Clay where a spark of his Nature dwells and have sometimes a taste of that Affection that is scarce capable of reflecting back any such prejudices or the least shadow of them And the reason is because there is a rooted persuasion of some predominant Principle of Christian spiritual and reciprocal Love O then how seriously should we pray that our hearts might be directed into the Love of Christ and that it may be shed abroad in our hearts A Christ who loves once ever always and to the full he loveth he loved and came he loved and died he loved and proclaimed the everlasting Gospel he loves and pardons he loves and teaches he loves and reproves he loves and holds fast for ever he loves and saves When a Soul is sunk as deep as Hell in sin and filth in love he redeems that Soul as out of a Jaques and is not ashamed nor thinks it much to cleanse it again because Love constrains him All his ways not one excepted are Mercy and Truth to them that fear him He has a noble and surmounting Love not capable of Melancholy Misprision or Mistake He knew all the defects of his Spouse before he betrothed himself to her in loving Kindness and tender Mercies And he so far abhors the declining of his Love that the very beholding of any defect there inflames his heart to remove it that he may present her to himself without spot When we have any Agony against our sins doth this come from the Flesh Is it not purely the Lord's Arm What shall I say The Lord reveal himself that we may purely rejoyce in God our Maker and cling upon him in the vertue and power of his own unsearchable and endless Grace and Love I long for other Society than I can have here few Friends here and little help especially as to that Interest in which you and I are most concerned but there is a River that never dries up and a Counsellor that never fails I am yet in health and as to outward freedom as it was when I came hither first but not without some daily Exercises but my chief Adversary lurks within which God will one day destroy and all Warfare will be over Let us pray to him for each other for it is not in vain 1662. To B. D. N o 64. AS for all things that relate to this and the next Life the Lord help you and I and all his People fully to commit our selves into the hands of GOd in the name and interest of Christ who is Lord of Quick and Dead He who hath said In nothing be careful Cast your burthen on the Lord and that All things shall turn for good to them that love him and he that hath said I will never leave you nor forsake you certainly he cannot forget his own Word Oh that we had Faith to believe it Let the great business of Faith be our work every day and night I leave you to him who is able to teach help and save c. 1662. To T. N. N o 65. DEar Sir However it goes with you I trust you have no reason to count your self alone whilst so good a Friend hath said I will be with you in the fire and water When we are at any plunge then is a time to act Scripture-Reason and not worldly Reason and draw such Conclusions in reference to Soul and Body as the Wisdom and Truth of God doth teach The Lord make his Furnace to be purifying at this day Some in one kind some in another have their various Trials but the Father of Mercies doth govern the matter so that at the Close it shall be well with the Righteous Let us labour with might and main to keep up good thoughts of God and the glory of our Interest in him Though the Heaven and Earth do shake the sense of his Covenant cannot change his Son cannot be dethroned nor the Promises of his Grace and Presence turn into the Blood of a dead Man Clouds may darken the Sun as to us but they can never diminish the natural light of the Sun nor stop its Course The Sun is as nigh the Earth when Clouds do interpose as it was before and our dear Lord is now as near his afflicted ones as when the Branch of earthly things was never so green in their hands Faith Repentance Love to the Lord Jesus are glorious Ornaments for a Pilgrim travelling towards that City that hath Foundations Sir I know not how it fares with you but I doubt not but it goes well For can any dealings of an infinite wise God a faithful and gracious Father be amiss seeing he has promised and will not fail to give Grace and Glory and will with-hold no good thing from them that fear him Let us not deny his Truth by Unbelief nor his Love by a lowring Dispondency of heart however the Waves rise and swell he is above them and the great Redemption is near 1662. To B. D. N o 66. YOur welfare is amongst the chiefest of my desires in this World and if the Afflictive Providence of God doth still remain be not dismayed yea if it increaseth let not a disponding heart put the Lie upon any Promise God hath made he is not a cruel Father his Bowels are tender but our misgiving hearts are they that are apt to plunge us Had we more dexterity in believing we might steer a comfortable Course when all sight of dry Land is out of sight And such a Faith is God's Gift who has promised us every good thing Let us both go to the Creator of the ends of the Earth for Faith and by Faith wait for more Faith that we may ride out the Storm and not be ashamed or wearied out under the Cross How 't is with you I know not but I have much confidence you are in as safe hands and in the bosom of as tender love as ever did shine upon you in the days of more earthly fulness and that the gracious Goodness of God and his unsensible Wisdom has ordered this present state of Affairs to exercise you withal One half hours time beyond Mortality will make amends for all and we are hastening to it and I trust at present freely entitled to the unalterable love of God who will never leave nor forsake to pity and succour the Off-spring of his own Grace If the Lord favour me with his Counsel and give me the Shield of his Presence I shall not be at a loss I dare not give way to hard thoughts of him but rather to covet after a greater freedom of Resignation to his sweet pleasure 1662. To B. D. N o 67. I Am affected with your trouble and yet comforted in your faith and comfort But who makes Rivers run in the Desart knows how to refresh the dry
Ground When we hear News that our Troubles will one day expire there is some refreshment with it and not a little support the while But Oh for ever blessed be that glorious Hope that not only outward Troubles but Sin also shall be no more yea and that while we are striving and toiling under a Body of Sin we are yet stated in the second Adam brought over from a state of Sin to a present state of Righteousness Acceptation and Blessing This is the Crown and Conquest of Faith Hope and Consolation All these things will I give yea said the Tempter if thou wilt fall down and worship me Ah cursed and deceitful Proffer Let my Portion and yours be found still and for ever in a crucified risen Christ If he loved us when he washed us in his own Blood then no slaying Providences can separate from the same Love so that we may musing the matter aright say he loved me when he hurried me hither and thither when he brake my Bones emptied me from Vessel to Vessel made me as the Mire of the Street Yet his Blessing once bequeathed can never be revoked nor his eternal Love change Though his Paths are in the Deep and his Ways and Judgments past finding out while he maintains in our Souls a Cry after him which is the voice of his own Spirit interceding in us he hath not forgotten to be gracious nor caused his Bowels to cease from yearning toward us Sin only makes outward Burthens intollerable Outward Troubles declare the venom of Sin and tends to open the ear to instruct us and so both of them sends the Souls of the Redeemed to the Atonement of Christ's Blood for Healing and into his Bosom for Refuge Certainly Brother his Promises are as good now as they were before the Storm rose upon us and the Covenant of Grace and Love and Good Will smiles as much as ever and when the Cloud is blown over and gone we shall see it Now to justifie God's truth and submit to his wise hand to maintain good and honourable thoughts of him and all his dealings when so many things from without and also from within do war against it this is like the faith of God's Elect and doth in some blessed measure betoken the knowledge of what God is in himself and what he is eternally to us and that the Seed of God remaineth in us I leave you in his hand and to strive under your Affairs as he shall give you Wisdom and Strength Lord purge and heal us he will do it and all will be well Let us hold on to pray for each other for the Vision will speak c. Yours to love and live with you in the Lord c. 1662. To P. D. N o 68. I Have no other thing to recommend to you but this that as you have already found this present World to be a slippery Foundation so beware how you lay the whole stress of your Expectation upon it or the persons in it A thirsty Man may dream that he drinketh yet when he awakes he may faint The drink of a Dream gives not nourishment 't is only the Water of Life issuing from the Rock Christ that is satisfying and healing He that drinks thereof shall never thirst Frowns and favours of Men are some of the strongest Engines the Devil has to shake a Soul from simple and single hearted following of the Lamb and besides them the treachery of our carnal and unbelieving hearts is ever watching to betray our poor Souls into a dis-relish of the pure paths of Life dulling the edge of Zeal and blinding the eye from beholding the Excellency that lies in the Person of Christ crucified and risen and the excellent Grace that has shone from Heaven for recovering poor Sinners out of the Snare of the Devil So that you and I have need to be much attending at the Foot-stool of that Throne where the Lord of Life sways the Scepter of Relief Mercy and saving Health for all Comers Let my Portion be in the Fountain of Life and not in the broken Cisterns of earthly deceitful Contents If you would save your self from grieving the good Spirit of God which I trust dwells in you retire your self as much as you can into the Contemplation of such things as may cause the fear and love of God to be and remain with some odoriferous Verdure and kindly grow in your Soul And take an ingenious and serious view whether the Plants of the Lord do flourish or else are blighted No less than an infiniteness of Power is requisite to such work and he only who engageth his heart to it lieth under the Promise of the Influences of Heaven to quicken and satisfie him with good things full of Marrow I have no more but recommending you to the Lord to keep you from declining in a declining time and that you may be preserved from evil and your Affections be where Christ is I remain c. 1662. To S. H. N o 69. I Know you yearn after the same Country which I have some hope through the Riches of that Bounty that has appeared from Heaven to Men to see and when the Groans here below are over to breath forth Blessing Honour and Praise to him who I trust has loved us both and washed us in his own Blood and I have some ground to hope the number there will be one the more for your company Only spend your love upon him your delight in him your desires after him and every part of his Will as well to carry the Cross as wear the Crown for both are privileges When your heart is opprest with sin or trouble then think Oh how free is he from sin who sits Conqueror at the Right Hand of God as my Advocate Surety Redeemer yea my principal self whose I am by his Redemption more than I am mine own Sins evil thoughts Heart-lusts dispondency of Spirit shall not always teare and torment for he has judged them in his Flesh upon the Tree and is risen on our behalf I could write a Volume had I words and time of the terrible Inroads which the Enemy especially my own corrupt heart makes upon me but I doubt not you know the same Warfare What remains but that with Faith Hope and Patience we cry out How long Lord holy and true how long ere the Canaanite be expelled and these Thorns in our Flesh be consumed for ever Oh what pure and uninterrupted Communion with Christ will that be when neither sin within nor troubles and fears without shall gaul any more when Melancholy Doubts and Uubelief as a black Cloud shall be dispelled and dried up for ever before the sparkling face ef the Sun of Righteousness solemnizing the Marriage of his Spouse We have no Oratory that can out-pass what he has already uttered concerning this and his words are not vain though ours are many times too too chaffy about these things the more is the pity it should
be so When he says Sin shall not have Dominion over you I will circumcise your hearts to love me I will redeem Jacob out of all his trouble I will be with you and deliver you his words are all true but our little exercise of Faith is either like a weak handed Gripe or a leaky Vessel yet our Faith it self is in his keeping and his Intercession is incessant and therefore it cannot utterly fail Dear Sister wait on him pluck up your Soul to the business your labour will not be in vain nor any unfaigned desire after him return disappointed and ashamed Throw Husband Child and self upon him into his Bosom and there lodge together by Faith in the Joy of the Holy Ghost and so take your rest I mean a laborious and yet a sweet Rest for He gives his Beloved Sleep His own Concernments are mixt in ours though his own are chief in his eye yet he can look upon them without beholding ours for the Covenant is made and the Blood that concerns it is already shed and fully accepted the Redemption compleat and the Lord's portion and delight is his People So that he as it were if I may say as it were in so true and real a business raiseth in himself an endless delight by loving his ransomed Seed and in dressing them according to his own heart and shedding out a measure of that Love into their hearts also for carrying on a Spirit of Conjugal Affection in the Souls of his People towards him now till the shadows slee away and we come to know him as we are known of him and so love him without interruption as we are loved of him Is the day near when a thousand fold more of this will really appear than words can utter For who can speak how much there lies in God's Purpose yea in his very heart to do for them for whom he died bought so dear and rescued with so high a hand Deut. 10. 15. How then should we look out to awaken our faith and lift up our heads because our Redeemer is alive and risen and our safety is in him Oh that my own heart and yours were more warmed in such a view I have no more but to recommend you to the Bosom of him who is the God of all Grace Pity Power and Consolation Yours in the hope of this saving Health and Relief c. 1663. To E. D. N o 70. I Received your Letter though not so well spelled as that I received before but as bad as it was a Father can pick out the meaning of his Child for Love is quick-sighted and the best Interpreter of words in the World God is so to me and teacheth me the same to you You wrote you would fain have a tender heart such as the Prophet calls a heart of Flesh but not a fleshly carnal heart What then must become of the hard heart Your earthly Father cannot take that away nor give you the other but beg of him who made the Promise and he can and will both give you the one and do the other also Be not a stranger to him I would part with some of your Affection towards me as far as he allows me that you might spend it on him You cannot speak to me but by a Letter at this distance but you may to God all hours of the day and night Read the Scriptures as the Word of him who deserves all your love and desire I am contented to have it only at the second hand Muse over as oft as you can by what you read and hear how sinful your Nature is and loathsome in God's eye and how wondrous his Goodness is to tell you he lays that loathsomness of yours on Christ and he has by his death brought in eternal Redemption for you Consider his exceeding love and the great travel of his Soul and bitter Agony that you in prizing and flying to him may be freed from the dreadful state of a hard and polluted heart you cannot ask any thing of him to this end only do it reverently and with reliance on him but he is as willing to give it You may open all your heat to him yea you must do it for he loves to have you do it that so your whole heart may be cured and my Child be found at last among the number of them who sing for ever Blessing and Honour Glory and Thanks to him who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood I leave you to his care c. 1663. To D. H. N o 71. I Have not yet found out a way of Employment but am looking out and do desire to be looking up for my advice and help comes from the Hills as David speaks Disappointments as a wise and faithful God orders them are as useful many times as Success God has not cast me out of his gracious Covenant nor my Soul into murmuring discouragement but tells me the Trial of my Faith is better much better than Gold However 't is with my outward Man yet my chiefest Want is not there and although my sinful and corrupt heart wars strongly against the Spirit and the new Creature yet I believe the Spirit in the Operations of his Grace in the new Creature will carry the day when all is done for our Redeemer is strong I am laden with Darkness Weakness corrupt Lusts Vanity Distrust unsteady and uneven Walking deadness and hardness of heart but I find the Fountain of Mercy for cleansing still open and the Grace Mercy and Truth of God in the Covenant unchangeable and in this stands all my Salvation all my chiefest desire 1 Sam. 23. 5. I want nothing but more Faith more spiritual Light and Furniture more of Christ's Image more renewing in the Spirit of my Mind to have less carnal Carefulness Luk. 12. 22. and more of the just Man's Life Hab. 2. 4. Sin makes a Man poor weak and fearful the Grace of God which brings Salvation makes a Soul rich strong and confident for the Covenant of Grace and the Promises are more than words The Treasure is full and if I could bring my empty Sack in earnest it would be filled in earnest I give you a short hint of my Convictions my Conditions Travels and desires that in the like you may see you are not alone and that we may strive in Spirit together towards the glorious Prize of our high Calling I commend you to your and my strong Rock the blessed and ever-living God c. 1663. To D. H. N o 72. I Am attending what the Providence of God will direct further to Now and then some Doors of Providence seem to open themselves a little but as yet nothing effectually but the God of Providence who is the God of all Grace also rules them and every thing is and will be most beautiful in its season He has glorious Lessons to teach me and others in such a method and Discipline as this is and
Affections The Lord's Promise is to satisfie the longing Soul To whose favourable Hand and rich Grace I commend you Faithful is God who hath called you into the Fellowship of his dear Son and thereby you have boldness to enter in within the Vail and he hath promised you shall never be cast out for your Iniquities he will remember them no more And though the Cross be somewhat difficult to bear yet the Reserve at last will fully recompence all and therefore lift up your head for Redemption is coming c. 1674. To B. D. N o 116. I Bless the Lord I can remember and mention you as one who is interested in that Promise Jer. 32. 41. I will rejoyce over them to do them good and that he will never leave you till he has perfected that which concerns you in a way of Grace Mercy and Love My great and often Request on your behalf is above all that God would preserve you from the Evil of Sin and from Snares in your daily Walk that he would sprinkle you with the Blood with the Merit of Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness that he would direct your Path and do all your Works in you and for you and cause you to lean strongly and chearfully on the Arm of his Truth and Grace in reference to all present and future Trials and that you may more than conquer through believing in every Exigence you do or may meet with till the Warfare be accomplished and the days of Trial finished in the Fruition of perfect Freedom For my own part I have reason to bless the Lord that he has favourably held me up and carried me along now these many years since we saw each other though exercised me with some difficulties and considerable Losses yet I hope and do think he has some way or other a Reserve of Kindness for me unworthy me and mine for the Earth is the Lords and the fulness of it And through this Grace I have in some measure and desire held on still to chuse him for my Portion as to things present and eternal As his time was writing of one deceased so your and my times are in the hands of God who is most wise and to be adored and submitted to The days of our anxious Pilgrimage are running out the Lord direct our eyes to that serene unchangeable State where Sins Fears Temptations Turmoils and Difficulties will cease for ever To the Care Counsel Comfort and Communion of whose gracious Spirit I commend you 1674. To T. M. N o 117. SOme time since I received from you a large and very savoury Letter which I do now and then peruse as a friendly Monitor and good help for taking the better view of mine own heart and that Letter together with the Acquaintance I had with you in London doth cause me the oftner to remember you with delight I have understood of your Health by several Friends which I desire if the Lord please may continue and prosper as I am persuaded through the Influences of the Spirit of Christ and his unchangeable Love your Soul prospers To that rich Grace of Christ and to his blessed Conduct in all your Concerns I commend you c. 1674. To H. W. N o 118. REmembring that ancient Amity and Respect that was heretofore between my Father and your self and the continuance thereof for a long time after his Decease between your self and his Family and being not at all conscious to my self that I have for my own part hitherto merited much less designed the Suspence of that good Will but being still heartily desirous of your Welfare I am though distant in place yet as occasion presents often enquiring how 't is with you and understanding that your days are yet drawn forth and that your Pilgrimage though under much infirmity of old Age doth yet continue I was willing to evidence my real Respects unto you by a Line or two and as I do not doubt but that your general aim throughout your days have been to employ your Talent in the Service of Christ while strength and time permitted so I earnestly desire that in the Approaches of a Dissolution you may find that fulfilled to you which David prayed for viz. That the Lord would not leave him in his old Age when Strength faileth Psal 71. 9. The same I desire for you even that you may now experience the refreshing vertue of all those Gospel-Truths which Christ hath so long intrusted you with as his Messenger unto others that you may have the Merit of his Satisfaction and Righteousness applied for your perfect Absolution from all Sin and Guilt the Influence and Conduct of his Spirit to water and steer all your Meditations thoughts hopes and desires the Consolations of his Grace and Love to sweeten your Travel through the Valley of Death and give you at last a refreshing Arrival at the Throne of eternal Rest and there harbour you after all the Incumbrance and Warfare of this present state in the Fruition of his immediate Presence without spot in Jesus Christ the Glimpses whereof I heartily desire you may before-hand partake of as an Earnest of that great full and perfect Revelation and Enjoyment when Time shall be no more So with my hearty and unfeigned Respects I remain yours in Truth and true Affection c. 1674. To H. W. N o 119. I Received yours of the 25th past which was exceeding welcome to me and therefore I return you hearty thanks both for it and your candid Acceptation of that Token I sent you being an Indication such as it was of the respect and value which from my very heart and that deservedly I bear towards you Your Letter written as I see with an aged feeble hand I have read over with great Acceptation and account it to me the same as a precious Balm I understand that Mr. Oxenb after a very small time of Sickness in a few moments space departed this Life And thus we are dropping away hastning towards a Dissolution where the eye that now seeth us shall see us no more Blessed be that Redeemer who will not call home any of his peculiar number before he has finished the design of his Grace and the purpose of his Will by them and in them And blessed are those Souls that are in any saving measure helped by his Spirit to creep out of themselves into his heart and in that Union partake of all the Benefits of his Death and Purchase both for present Grace and hope of Glory In which number I am undoubtedly persuaded that you are included and that you lie under the Aspect of that Divine Goodness and Love which will feed the Oyl in your Lamp and cause your Lamp to be ready trimmed and burning that so when the Bridegroom comes and calls you off to Immortality and Life you may be able to say Loe I come for all is ready Such a readiness the Lord grant also to my poor Soul To his
Lord is with me and I have Ground of Faith and Hope that I have favour in his Eyes April 24. He expressed himself as followeth I am upon the Term of two great things viz. At the Term of all my great Subjugation to Sin and at the Term of all the Receipt of the Liberty Christ hath purchased at the Term of Sins Thraldom and at the Term of springing up through the Grace of God to eternal Life These are great things and I cannot manage my thoughts about it thorowly through the greatness of it I am going from the Yellings of Sin in this World and the woful effects of it and I am going to a Congregation the only Church of the First-born written in Heaven to visit the Streets of the eternal Grace and Love of God and meet the Company that walk there And methinks I am in a Wood and God hath held me in the Portal a pretty while and here I cannot be perfected for I never had any fittedness but through him that is compleat and is in Heaven And here I abide an Expectant as the poor Man that expected to be put into the Pool and that Angel hath not yet put forth his hand My Body parcheth my Mind parcheth a little Faith and Hope is left me My Tongue begins again to cleave I leave this World as a place where there is no satisfying It may content others a while but it seems rather to hunt me away Body faint Spirit faint in a strange Land my Mind is all in a scatter It will not be so it is so now O Lord help me graciously to wait Death was always spoken of as a dark Valley a place of Darkness and Trial not a place of Joy and shall I find it so Notwithstanding I have hope in the Faith and Love of God by Christ there is a secret Relief That he will turn Death into Life for his own sake and suffer never a clinging Soul to be lopt off and perish I desire no Food my very Nature loaths it my Body is off from all means of help in this World and here I stay through the good hand of God like a poor Stranger I am going to another World and the Fruits of that World will not satisfie the Wants I have here it will not quench my Thirst it will not allay my Drought So that if I have not some Relief to my Soul which is not of this World if I have it not from another World I am undone I cannot speak my thoughts have a large Theam I am up and down in and out and I see a great thing before me and sometimes it causeth a Word to drop I see ETERNAL LIFE before me That great thing that concerns me Sure it is a great thing to be at the very Brink to see all Promises fulfilled made good and all the Demonstrations of the Gospel made patent To see the Foundation of Eternal Life for ever laid and to come and cast ones eye upon it in the abundance of Faith And these are the things that lie just before me only there hath been an entrance about them I have believed c. and now I go to see the Promise and the Faith of the Promise accomplished To a Friend saying you have a strong hand to carry you Sure there is our Security in his holding of us more than in our holding of him He answered There it only lies The Lord continue to be with you The Lord make good his Covenant to you I and all the rest even that which is written in that good Book of his in which we desire to have our hope Let nothing hinder our Faith nor disorder our Practise He proceeded further to speak that day in the Afternoon thus God makes all these things here with respect to me at this time as it were to change their kind A Draught of Spring-Water fresh Beer or such a like thing how sweet have I sometimes found it But now nothing The rare vertues of Apples and other Fruits they are to me now as Dirt they do not answer my End My natural Thirst and Desire cannot be gratified with any thing here Though my Body lies parching away with Thirst my Soul loatheth dainty Meats and the best of Liquors that have been pleasing they are now a burthen to me I can taste nothing that will give reviving God is drawing forth my Nature in the way of a Dissolution that I must have no more Chear now but what comes in by New Covenant Mercy and that will be to Soul to Body for ever and thanks be to his Name he will not have me feed with dirty Company He hath shewed me the way of Life he hath caused me to chuse him I bless his Name Oh that wonderful thing that thou shouldst cause me to chuse thee Oh that thou mightest be chosen by all those that ever I had Acquaintance with in all my Life Oh that none of them may go without it Oh for a turned heart Oh for the eyes of Light and Life Oh for Salvation out of Damnation to a changed People Blessed be God that ANY that so MANY near to me were turned in at the right Gate of Election upon the Downfall that came by Sin as I hope as I hope O Lord find out thine thou wilt find them out Work Miracles work Miracles by converting Power in turning Souls that the Earth may see thy Glory Oh thou hast been my God many ways hast thou declared it Thou hast been the God of the Family from whence thou chusest me The Family is almost at an end Thou hast not left our poor Family two of us are yet remaining on the Earth O my God let it be for an eternal Renown to thy Name that thou hast hitherto reached out thy Grace to we two poor Remainers of that numerous Family Oh thou hast left us thy self to be our God to be our Portion O Lord thou hast given thy self to us and and thou hast given thy Spirit into us and we to the Glory of thy Grace can say Thou art OUR GOD hast been our God and wilt be our God and wilt number us amongst those whom thou hast delighted to take pleasure in unto Eternity O Lord be thou the God of our Seed or of our Seeds Seed O Lord that thou wouldst take them in with all those thou hast brought into Relation with thy self We have Relations in the World some that lie under the power of Satan and thou makest us to know it that it might be a constant Grief unto our hearts O Lord that none relating to us or to any or either of us might be found in those Bonds O Lord that thou wouldst imprint thine Image that thou wouldst come with a powerful hand and clear them out of Satan's Kingdom into the Kingdom of Christ Lord we are mingled in the World we have many Relations now up and down and what shall we say for the Children of our People
DIVINE CONTEMPLATIONS AND Spiritual Breathings OF Mr. HENRY DORNEY Comprised in I. Practical DISCOURSES 1. Of the Nature Means and Method of Salvation on Isa 45. 17. 2. How to find God a Sanctuary in time of Trouble With the manner of the Author 's entring into Covenant with God on Rev. 1. 5. 3. Of Union with Christ on Joh. 17. 23. 4. Of Glorifying God on 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. With an Appendix how to pursue a Lawful Thing Lawfully II. His LETTERS III. His Last and Dying Speeches and Prayers Also an Account of his Life at the Close of the Preface LONDON Printed by James Rawlins for John Wright at the Crown on Ludgate-Hill 1684. THE PREFACE WHEN we see any extraordinary Effect 't is usual for us to enquire the Cause whether it be in things Natural Artificial or Moral Every new Appearance in the Heavens invites us to consider its Reason Any useful Engine framed by exquisite Art tempts the Curious to examine its inward Springs and Movements And when we observe a Person to manage his Province or Affairs succesfully we are willing to know the Rules and Measures by which he guides himself There is the like Tendency in the renewed Soul when it sees any one of extraordinary Elevation in Religion and Holiness to consider the inward Principles that act them The AVTHOR was observed to be a Person of great Wisdom and singular Holiness equally admired and loved by those who knew him And some who had the happiness to be intimately acquainted with him and have heard with what Clearness and inward Sense he would discourse of the sublimest things in Religion have been ready to say what was once said of Christ Whence hath this Man this Learning Whence did he derive his Knowledge and Holiness But the following DISCOVRSES lay open unto us the inward Springs of them both It hath been observed that there is nothing more influential upon the Divine Life than a constant and deep Impression of our own Corruption and Impotence together with a continual Dependance upon the Redeemer's Grace both which were in an eminent degree visible in him There is throughout the whole of his Discourses an admirable Depression of Sin and Self with an Exaltation of Christ and Divine Grace and a believing Admiration of his Person with a continual living upon him in the Exercises of Faith and Love And indeed there is no true Spring of Holiness but Faith in the Mediator the Purchaser of all Grace and the Spirit the Conveyer of it from which some having turned away have made Shipwrack both of Faith Holiness and even of Moral Vertue too There hath not been there cannot be any steady and firm Principle of Holiness but Faith in Christ Jesus the abundant Efficacy of which upon the Divine Life the AVTHOR was a very sensible and full Instance of If there be any thing in the following DISCOVRSES which may recede from Theological Accuracy you must know that he was but a private Person The Manner of his Phrase is somewhat peculiar yet such as he found most proper to express his inward Sentiments and whereas he could as he said to a Friend have altered and refined the Phrase yet he did rather let it alone writing it only for his own private use judging too that as he had his in Meditations a very special Assistance from the Spirit of God so the words which cloathed them were most genuine natural and agreeable to his purpose And indeed there is such a lively and sensible Affection in his Style that nothing else but an intimate feeling and experience of the things themselves could suggest which doth at the same time equally instruct and move In the Discourse of finding God a Sanctuary he doth in a very express manner enter into Covenant with God which may both encourage and direct in the performance of it Some holy Divines in their practical Discourses have advised to this but there are few who have put it in practice nay many have alledged this as the reason of their backwardness to it the sense that they had of their inability to perform it and the making it in so solemn a manner and then transgressing the same it might but involve them in the greater difficulties of Mind But the AVTHOR doth it in that way and manner as to take off the force of this Objection which doth much arise from the ignorance of the nature of the Gospel-Covenant wherein God calls us to nothing but what he hath promised his Grace shall enable us to perform He addresseth himself unto it in a very great sense of his own weakness and the Riches of Divine Grace relying on that to enable him to perform the Covenant on his part By which means his entring into Covenant was so far from being a Snare to him of which he was very cautious as that it became a mighty Support to his Faith and Assurance So that his Sins and Infirmities which were more discernable to himself than others did not make him as he said to question his Interest in the Covenant he found that an undue way of procedure but did excite him by a fresh Application of the Blood of Sprinkling according to the Tenure of that new Covenant to seek out both their Pardon and Mortification there being a Provision of Righteousness and Strength in it through him who is the Mediator and Head of it His LETTERS are but a very few in comparison of those multitudes that he wrote of the like nature and import more of which could not be procured And for Brevity sake the Preface and Close are sometimes omitted with what related to Civil Affairs He had a most earnest desire to do good So that what was said of Timothy may be well applied to him That he did naturally care for the Good of Men. And therefore he would both by his Exhortations when present and his Letters when absent endeavour to promote the spiritual Welfare of those who were blest with his Acquaintance As to his last and DYING SPEECHES and PRAYERS they were taken from him without his Observation by those who were constantly with him and were greatly affected therewith In which there may be some things a little abrupt by reason of his great weakness and pains diverting him But they have in them that deep savour of Religion and express so powerful a sense of Divine Grace as 't is thought they would not be unacceptable to serious Persons To conclude What is here exposed to view was without the AVTHOR's design and at the desire of Relations and Friends who being greatly affected therewith judged it might leave some good Impressions on those who read it wherein we have an useful Systeme of practical Divinity written with an inward Sense and Experience manifesting the vigorous and lively actings of Grace and giving us a clear and distinct Anatomy of his excellent Spirit How sublimely doth he soar in his Contemplations viewing Christ both in his Person and
married Estate and therein to favour me with the Society of one whom I account and believe to be precious in his sight and thereby called me to some further Exercise of Faith and a nearer Approach to himself for all Supply and Succour under the Wing of his Counsel Goodness Care and Faithfulness for Soul and Body and for his blessed Presence Good Will and Favour to my self and mine And withal in regard a very dark Cloud appears hovering over the Church of Christ I thought it my duty to betake my self to the surest Hold and to retire afresh into the Arms of God himself And therefore being under much sence of the loose earthly frame of my own heart I resolved to renew upon my Soul the Obligations of the fore-mentioned Covenant which through the favour of God I have this day done lying down at the Feet of a Gracious God I have again though with feeble hands been taking hold of Jehovah ' s Covenant humbly taking him to be my God and giving my self and mine to him I do I say with much struggling yet with some sincerity in my desire take God to be my Portion and exceeding great Reward and do render my self and all that concerns me to him and to his Will this present 23d of May 1666. and for ever And do subscribe the same with my own Hand Henry Dorney Moreover in a former Sickness and under Bodily Ailments being asked whether there were any thing burthensome upon his Spirit he replied I have no distrust in him whom I have believed I feel no sting at all There is no oppressing thing upon me no quelling thing in my Spirit Nothing troubles me from within nor without His Desires after Glory were His Desires after Glory in a peculiar manner exerted in his last and Dying Speeches and Prayers and at other times before in many and various Instances and chiefly upon this Ground that he should then be perfectly freed from Sin and serve God without distraction And it may be useful here to mention this following Passage that a dear Friend once making his moan to him about vain impertinent Thoughts wherewith he was greatly haunted and troubled in Attendance on God in Duty He said to him no more than this That that very thing should make us willing to be gone hence to be with Christ He had an entire Respect to His universal Obedience all God's Commands avoiding all Appearance of Evil and laying hold of all Opportunities for receiving and doing good and his very Soul was in it and it seemed as natural to him as for a person to eat when he is hungry Yea he was as a Creature out of his Element most uneasie and restless whilst he was not actually so exercised And his Submission to the Will of God's Providence as always so it was remarkably instanced in his last Sickness and also in a former Sickness when he was heard to say Lord if it may please thee make my Passage easie If thou wilt have me go meaning his departure by Death I am willing If thou wilt have me to stay a little longer I am willing but Oh! for Sufficiency of Divine Aid Likewise it was observed in these Petitions he offered up to God in Prayer That the Lord would manage every one of our Thoughts and spiritualize them for his whole Will and that his Spirit may have the Sovereignty in our hearts And seeing it is the property of his People so far as they are spiritualized to love and delight in all his Statutes and to love his commanding Will and Word as well as his promising Word That he would lead us into the Light and Life of Jesus Christ and cause us to yield up our selves universally to his Rule and Government and greedily take in all that Grace and Kindness he hath offered to us and get up into the Region of Christ's Teaching and Leading That we might be formed to his liking and as a People whom he delighteth to own and love and be fitted for the whole Will of God that he would have us to submit unto His Mortification was clearly His Mortification evinced by his Behaviour towards that which should be always the Objective Matter for that Grace to be exercised upon and by these directions he proposed as Means and Persuasives to it That we should always seek an occasion against the Flesh as 't is said of the King of Syria He seeketh a Quarrel against me and when we cannot pray it down or meditate it down then apply our selves to good Company and holy Conference with others and be ever engaged one way or other with one Weapon or other against the Flesh as Sampson against the Philistines who sought an occasion against them And that the way to receive any Temporal Mercy is to be dead to it And that as they that will be rich fall into Temptation and a Snare the like it may be said of those that will not be poor And he further added that we must be mortified as well to Saints as Sinners if we will have true Peace And that if all things were in a right frame the Soul would be dead to all carnal and earthly things and be ever under full Sail for Heaven and how then would the Breath of Grace appear in all the Actions of our Lives And for the promoting of this necessary Work he was observed earnestly to pray That mortifying renewing Grace might always appear active in us and that there might be a secret delight in us to take Vengeance of all that carnal Frame and corrupt Inclination that is within us and an eager desire to have this Body of Death crucified and taken away That a Sentence of Death might pass upon this Body of Sin and Death in us which Christ died to remove That this Body of Death might be battered down and wasted day by day And that he would cause us always to have a War against the Law of Sin within us And that we might long to have it subdued and the Soveraignty of God's Grace advanced in our Souls And that our Affections and Desires might decay more and more towards all things that are of a fading perishing Nature And that he would crucifie and destroy in us all the Attempts of the Body of Sin wherewith we are continually haunted And that he would help us to quit our selves as those that are engaged to God and favoured by him and know what it is to have our Natures changed and the natural Enmity slain And that we might be transplanted into Jesus Christ and made one with him That the things above might be the great things in our eye and have more Room in our hearts and the things here below accounted little and be of low Esteem with us The constant seriousness of his His constant Seriousness Spirit was seen not only in his Carriage but in his Cautions to others about it saying that there are many thousand Professors
perish eternally for want of Seriousness and that Isaiah herein was a great President for our Imitation And in company of some Friends he spake to this purpose We even very we must appear before the Judge of Heaven and Earth that judgeth the Quick and the Dead and the Enquiry will not be then How rich or how poor we have been But how did we thrive in the ways of Holiness What Work of Faith Labour of Love Patience of Hope What Exercise of Grace What Zeal for God How did we make the Glory of God shine forth in our Lives Therefore let our main Care be that we do not miss of Heaven at last for 't is possible after a glorious Profession the Soul may miscarry for all that And I do not speak this to put a damp upon you but to quicken and caution you His Zeal against all Sin was apparent His Zeal against Sin in his general Course He shunned all Appearances of Evil hating even the Garment spotted by the Flesh Whence he gave this Counsel Go not within the Clutches of a Temptation to see what it is before you resist 't is easier to pass by a Temptation than to come out of it When the Knot is knit and the Door barred 't is harder to get Freedom than before And also he was observed to say That the least Evil admitted hath a Tendency in it toward the utmost Link of Distance from God and the least Sin indulged is like unto a Cockatrice indulged which turns into a Fiery Flying Serpent Isa 14. 29. His Zeal and Activity for God His Zeal and Activity for God throughout his Christian Race did eminently shew it self by improving all opportunities to advance his Glory in doing good to Souls especially amongst his Relations and intimate Acquaintance where the Lord was pleased greatly to succeed his faithful and sincere Endeavours and the more in that there was such a Grateful Majesty in his Carriage and in those pathetical Expressions uttered by him That it may be truly said of him in his private Capacity That his Lips fed many and his Mouth was a Well of Life And he used to pray for his Relations in such words as these That the Lord would deal with Relations in a way of saving powerful Conviction and spiritual Operation And that such in whom is the Seed of God sown might grow up to be Plants of Righteousness in whom he might be glorified and have the Seal of his Grace and Favour put upon them and be numbred amongst those that are cared for by the Lord and housed in him And for such Relations as were at a distance from him he also frequently visited with Letters and would be sometimes sending them Books using variety of Means for their spiritual Welfare Likewise he would be writing them in Verse and instead of many Instances it may not be improper to insert these two of plain Verse which accompanied two Bibles he transmitted viz. To Jane Daunsy Jun. Sept. 1671. If Life Eternal doth surpass A Span of Time compar'd to Grass Neglect no time until aright Enform'd you are by Scripture-Light Deceipts of Sin how to eschew And then of Christ to take a view Vntil your heart be drawn to come Near unto him as to your Home So shall your tender Years be blest Your Soul obtain Eternal Rest And for this end this Book I send Accept the same and Lines above Coming from your Kinsman's Love Jane Daunsy Anagram AND IS VAIN The Scripture is the Rule of Truth The chiefest Guide for Age and Youth It truly shews the way to Bliss Even how Souls may be born again Then let Jane Daunsy study this AND say All other Skill IS VAIN To my honoured Unkle and Aunt Trevis Sept. 22. 1672. What Study can adorn gray Hairs More than true Wisdom Studies which Best Crown Old Age when Earths Affairs Shall cease and die must Poor and Rich. A Draught of that true Wisdom lies Within this Book which I present Oh let your Hearts and aged Eyes Therein be earnestly intent That while you do sill up your days A Heavenly Mind Earths Thoughts may quell And that on Earth you may always Spring to Eternal Life Farewel In all his Actions it did appear His eying the Glory of God that his Aim was to do the Will of his Father which is in Heaven and would oft say Whatever we do we should go up and down doing God's Work not our own and that would be a means to keep our Spirits even and the heart tender and calm His constant Converse holy His constant Converse with God Familiarity and nearness to God signally shewed it self in his Looks Speech and Behaviour As Moses when he had been with God in the Mount his Face shone And Peter and John's Courage before the Rulers and Elders of the Jews did evidence that they had been with Jesus And as hath been already suggested he had such a holy Intimacy with God that he would speak to him in Prayer as if one Friend were speaking to another yet with great Reverence Humility and Self-abasement And he would be frequently urging it upon his Friends that they should not rest till they had attained a more inward Acquaintance with God And that we should labour after a greater Intimacy with God than with any Person in the World and when we are alone we should have still retired Communion with God And that we get nothing by a cold Acquaintance but all things by a warm Acquaintance with him And speaking of his own experience said he It is my great disquiet that Christ hath so little of my company though I may not say I have not his And this was likewise manifest in those words he used in Prayer to this effect That the Lord would cause us to ripen into a greater Knowledge of him and into a greater Intimacy with him And that we may have more warm Communion with his Spirit in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus And that he would act towards us according to that Vndertaking of his with the Father on our behalf before we had a Being And that our hearts be actually springing towards him and be acquainted with the Mystery of God in Christ and be brought into the nearest Intimacy and Fellowship with himself attainable in this Life That it might be an Earnest and Pledge of our everlasting Fruition and Enjoyment of him in the other World His living in dependence on His living in dependence on God God was his constant Trade which also the following Expressions do evidence The Lord make us sensible of our weakness and inability to help our selves That he would preserve the Soul in a holy Fear in its ordinary Walk lest it grieve that Spirit by whose power alone it acts and cause the Soul to step forth into the Life of Believing prostrating it self at the foot of God and to say Lord I can have no Relief but from thee and
made ours Ah there is very little Christianity in the World I would be for God while I live and for Heaven when I die Mine own strength never did me good Faith abhors all manner of Aid that Flesh and Blood can give It undoes a poor Creature in a saving manner There is a holy venturing on God Little do we think how kindly God takes it when we throw our selves upon him such a venturous Soul is always acceptable to him Oh for some awakening Visit from Heaven that may alarm us out of our selves into the City of Refuge before we are benighted He also prayed That the Lord would come into us with Triumph and trample down whatever is opposite to the Purity of his Nature in our Souls And in regard all our mischief ariseth from the unmortifiedness of our Wills and our Sores and Wounds and the grieving of God's Spirit is caused by a sinful Indulgence towards them and the exercise of our faith love and all other Graces is suspended when we are lead Captive by them that therefore the Lord would save us from a selfish fleshly Will and divorce us wholly from it and then when we come to die the separation of the Soul from the Body will be but a small thing to us His Thankfulness to and Blessing His Thankfulness to God with Praise and Blessing of God was observed to be his continual Exercise He was not known at any time to murmur under the sharpest Trials but would evermorre be justifying God praising and speaking well of his Name and persuading others to do the like And he greatly delighted to praise God in singing of Psalms especially on the Lord's Day and he much bewailed and blamed the great neglect of it in this present Age. He had a great Esteem and Veneration His Reverence towards Superiors for Authority and Government as being a Divine Ordinance and did highly disapprove and condemn those who did manifest the least Contempt thereof And would pray for the Supream Powers according to Scripture-Rule His Thoughts and Meditations His Meditations on Death were much on his last Change And thereupon he would frequently take occasion to speak something concerning Death to awaken both himself and others to a due and serious Preparation for it in such Sayings as these That we are shortly to remove hence take our flight when the Volume of the Book will be closed up and the Ministration of Grace will be at an end There must now be through work in giving away our selves to God else 't will be a dismal day when we come to die Death will make us to have other manner of thoughts of things than we have now Death will represent things in other Colours 't will stretch every Vein assuredly We should live always as those that have hope towards God when they die and that are ready every day to step out of one World into another That such a flying to Christ as is accompanied with a Resignation of our Wills to his Will is the best Preparative for our Change When I am going to leave the Body if I have not an Ark to fly unto I must perish in the Water We are going to live with Spirits where will be no body at all to converse with and what a Life is that Let us then always follow the Leading and Conduct of the Spirit here We should by Sympathy as much as we may die with every one that dies and that would make us serious Christians We must shortly leave this World and because we are not willing to part with it God tears it off that himself may be all in all We are lanching out of the World apace and our last Change is near only I would not have it come as an unexpected Surprize God did not deliver the Martyrs of old but by Death and so he may do by us And what a wretched frame of heart have we that we are so easily satisfied to leave some things relating to our greatest Concern always undone Some little something as we account it still to do But when we come to die and to leave the World how will that swell at such an hour I know no Terror greater than for a Man to go out of the World out of God and out of Christ and yet the most do so And when at that time he was answered by a Person present Your Case is not so he replied It is an amazing Mercy I am wonderfully saved And he further said Time of Health is the Opportunity The great things of the Souls Interest in Sickness or on a dying Bed is a bad time to manage He lived much in an Exercise His Prospect of Glory of Faith upon the Glory of the future State which was a wonderful Support and Comfort to his Spirit and he did continually take in large Views and Prospects of it Whence he was observed to say before his last Sickness That he had such an IDEA of the Glory of Heaven that he thought he could furnish a Book with fit Matter on that Glorious Subject And as he lived in all manner His exemplary Carriage at his death of Conversation holily so he finished his Course and died triumphantly Which fully appears in his last Speeches and Prayers Continuing in a lively and vigorous Exercise of Spiritual and Heavenly Graces especially Faith Hope Patience Self-Resignation full Assurance and Longing to be with the Lord to the last period of his Life when Grace issued in Glory and an abundant Entrance was ministred to him into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ A PRACTICAL DISCOURSE OF THE Nature Means and Method OF SALVATION Isaiah 45. 17. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord. THE poor Dove being sent abroad and gliding over the great Flood at last found an Olive Branch and returned to the Ark. In like manner my confused thoughts have soared hither and thither over the face of that great deep which the first Apostacy drowned Mankind in and having turned over the Scriptures hoping thence to receive some news after such a dreadful Shipwrack this Scripture comes flying with an Olive Branch in its mouth Saved in the Lord the first word keeps from fainting till the next word comes in and shews the nature of the deliverance the certainty and the manner of it the first word like Ahimaaz says 2 Sam. 18. 28. All is well but Cushi declares the matter and how 't is accomplished Salvation plainly asserted is gladsome news but lest so weighty a business should be mistaken and that the understanding might the more be convinced the means by which 't is obtained and the hand from whence 't is procured is drawn forth In the Lord as delightful a sentence to a sinner as that which Belshazzar saw was terrible to him that made his Joynts to tremble but this makes the lame to leap as an Hart this makes the Wilderness to blossom as a Rose Saved The
Intermission and stoppage without the constant supply which they receive from the Sun and the Fountain And therefore a Biliever's eye and aim must be tending to an immediate pitching on and closing with himself as the proper course and sure way and only orderly means to find rest and safety to the Soul The next thing to be considered is to enquire how the Eye of Faith The Aim of Faiths Eye desirous to attain its Mark. is to be levelled at and exercised upon this perfect and glorious Object so as to change the Soul from bearing the burthen of its own guilt and to get power against the defiling nature and power of sin and so to carry on the change from Glory to Glory after the Image of Jesus Christ by the vertue of his Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. The Dispensation of the Gospel is the Glass the Glory of the Lord there appearing is that which Faith fixeth and feedeth upon it passeth through the Glass and seizeth upon Jesus Christ represented therein and there stays till it hath enamoured the Soul into the same likeness The Glory of Christ begets an Image of Glory in the heart of a Believer of the same nature with its self Indeed there is a transient closing with the Promises as with a Neighbour who can tell where the Souls Friend dwelleth and so do the Ordinances and so far the Spirit of the Father lodgeth in them for the help of the diligent seeker to draw him to Christ The first motion also of that diligent seeking proceedeth from the Father who worketh with the Son by the Spirit to draw the Soul in true method to the Person of the Son as Mediator in whom the Father Son and Spirit gives the Soul a satisfactory Meeting Joh. 5. 17. c. 6. 44 45. and c. 14. 23. But the Knot of Union by which the Soul partakes of the Life and Glory of God is not perfectly knit till the Soul actually enters into the Fellowship of Christ the Mediator 1 Cor. 1. 9. and for this very end serves the preaching of the Gospel in the Dispensation of it Col. 1. 28. The Soul being thus ushered in treats with and fixeth on Christ absolutely and immediately and lays hold on his Personal Worth only as the Foundation of its hope and help The Soul has gained a great deal of Beauty in Christ's Eye when once 't is brought by his Spirit to leave its own Idols and forsake its own Country and to trust singly under the shadow of his Wings there Blessedness begins as Boaz said to Ruth Ruth 2. 12. And here the Soul closeth with the All-sufficiency of the Mediator pondering the large extent thereof And whereas the Soul is usually more troubled with the Aggravations of sin and the Circumstances thereof than about the sin it self and about its insincerity and want of feeling remorse and sufficient detestation against sin in its repentance and much molested with the stain that Guilt leaves on the Conscience and finding that neither remove of Guilt nor power of Cleansing nor freedom from its just Accusation can be got from the Consultations of a â—ounded Spirit it falls nakedly on the All-sufficiency of the Mediator and there it beholds him as one able to take away all sins in their whole extent His Body was given him for that end and although his own Body was pure yet it was in the likeness of the flesh of sin or sinful flesh and depravation of Nature received from Adam that as far as any motions of sin or capacity of sinning is found in Mankind he did bear the likeness of that State And so is called the second Adam not only as one representing the Elect Seed of Grace but also as being the Superadequate Antidote to conquer and remove all Poyson that entred upon Mankind by the sin of the first Adam The Nature of the second Adam is made as perfectly holy as the first was defiled by sin and became perfectly sinful as appears in Rom. 5. And in regard the strength and slaying power of sin lies in the Law his Humane Nature was made under the Law subjected to the whole Law as far as it had to do with sinful Man for this end that he might redeem them who were under the Law from being under any condemning or accusing Sentence or sting of punishment from thence which he bringeth about by obeying it satisfying for the breach thereof made by sinful Man Sin is therefore sin because 't is against the Law he therefore is made under the Law and that to fulfil its Commands and bear its doom Though sin be finite in the Transgressor yet 't is infinite in respect of the Object the infinite God But the Obedience and Suffering of Christ was of an infinite extent in respect of the Person because 't was the Act of God-man and in the Vertue also because 't was a contrived Remedy in the Council of God's Love to outstretch the injury that was done to the infinite Divine Majesty by finite Man Hence it is that this Remedy carries with it the Terms of Abounding Grace Rom. 5. 17 20. and unsearchable Riches Ephes 3. 8. The All-sufficiency lies also in this that 't is a free Gift considering that the Gifts of God's Love are infinite as his Nature is the thoughts of which do by Faith bring in a Foundation for infinite Justification and Righteousness and makes way to the rest of the purchased Possession that lies in the Person of the same Redeemer the infiniteness of his Goodness and Drift in this design which could never suffer disappointment the infiniteness of his Wisdom that could never mistake the infiniteness of his Love that can never cease nor Power fail And since the Nature of the Salvation of God is infinite it is brought down into the Person of God-man and from him into the Ordinances and so by the Spirit into the heart of Man retaining still its infinite Nature In Jesus Christ the infinite God is made Flesh in the Ordinances he speaks by Man's Voice in the faith of the heart he dwelleth carrying the Soul by the Operation of his Spirit to look upon him and hear his Voice in the steps of his Condescention to the true enjoyment of himself 'T is comfortable to have the Testimony Faith taking a right Method of a good Conscience Prov. 15. 15. and power over Corruption and Soul-disquiet thereby but I must not begin there God begins my Righteousness and Freedom in himself and brings it forth in the Person of Jesus Christ I must begin it there also and as it is perfected in him I must perfectly suck it thence continuing perpetually at that Breast Heb. 10. 14. never expecting to have it mended by any thing I could do though it were the obeying of the whole Law Gal. 2. 16. for my Obedience is but the Obedience of a stained Nature that has already broken that righteous Law When Guilt Defilement and Weakness of a foolish
my own management and power to exercise the same This is the true Life of Faith this is the way of walking up and down in the Name of the Lord. When I actually acknowledge every Measure of Spiritual Strength to hold its Tenure from Jesus Christ singly and wholly and rest confidently upon him for it and that because he hath promised both Grace Glory and every good thing judging him faithful who hath promised and owning him thereon for my Inheritance and my self nothing but what he is for me Then I may be said to trust Jesus Christ and to trust in him only I trust him upon his Word to be All for me which I would spiritually be and I trust in him to enjoy the same through the Faith of my Interest in him and his abounding Grace and Unction This cuts the heart of Self-Pride spiritual Surfeiting and Slothfulness when I live every moment at the mercy of another even Jesus Christ both for Justifying Righteousness and every Influence thereof by the immediate Breathings of his Spirit according to his good pleasure having not the power so much as to make one Hair white or black but I must wholly work by his Hands see by his Eyes and in his Light behold the Light What more powerful Inducement can there be to Self-denial than this Boasting is excluded because Christ in his own Person and by his own Spirit doth whatsoever is done for me or in me Here lies the Mystery and Labour of Faith which the meer Notion thereof can never reach unto so as to improve the same to a self-denying Activity for God in the paths of Godliness and Travel towards Zion There is in our dear Lord Jesus Christ spiritually not personally communicated to Believers a two-fold Excellency to his Redeemed as he is their Portion His Essential Power Righteousness Goodness and Perfection in the Godhead and his proper Humane Nature personally united thereunto Col. 2. 9. and neither of these considered as such can be communicated unto the Children of Men his Person cannot be divided imparted or broken And there is another Excellency flowing from the former by way of Influence and inward Vertue communicated to the hearts of the Redeemed by Regeneration which formeth reneweth and quickneth the New Man the new Creature in the Soul The first of these though it cannot in a strict sense be communicated yet it is wholly by Covenant given to the Saints Isa 49. 8. So that God in his vast Essential Infiniteness is their God and his ve-Body that was dead and is now alive was also given to the Elect Isa 9. 6. and is become theirs by Covenant and they enjoy it in that Right though it remains personally to be his own and not theirs but for them to all Eternity the Excellency of which God and Man in the Perfection of both Natures is so far reckoned and imputed theirs by Covenant-Union and Mystical Ingrafture as may perfectly deliver them from all Evil and fill them with all Righteousness Purity and Perfection which Creature-capacity can take in for the enjoying of the Glory of God So that the Person of the Mediator remains distinct from the persons of the Redeemed and are not mixed but united through the Spirit in the Covenant and his Personal Assumption of the Humane Nature by Faith exercised therein Hence it is that the Interest The Advantages of Christ's being without us personally and yet spiritually in us who believe which the Saints have in Christ is enjoyable by them singly through believing which Enjoyment through the spiritual Nature of the Union is as certain strong and sure as whatsoever they enjoy in their own persons by sense and feeling Ephes 3. 17. Rom. 4. 16. And thus Christ as to the Perfection of his Person being without us and above us and yet by the Communication of the Spirit through Faith made near to us and dwelling in us yields much privilege and unspeakable advantage to a Believer viz. 1. The Excellency of a Believer's Portion in Christ is hereby more distinctly viewed the Soul has hereby room to go round about the unspotted Lustre of his Person and View him from head to foot as the Church in the Canticles doth Cant. 5. 10. as the choicest of ten thousands whereas the Glory of the same Christ as far as it appears only in the heart by Operation is much dimmed and sullyed with the defilement that is there and continual Conflicts but considering him seperated far away from sin and sinners Heb. 7. 26. furnished with utmost Perfection and cloathed with Garments of compleat Victory and Beauty in the behalf of his Redeemed This fills their hearts with joy and their mouths with singing 2. He is thereby become also the livelier Object of their Love for the eye affects the heart and nourisheth spiritual Enflamedness towards him Distance 'twixt the Soul and so excellent an Object I say distance of this sort between the Eye and its Object through Propriety in him enamours the Mind and withall it provokes desire towards him Cant. 6. 11. and makes the Soul of a Believer cry out for more nearness Come O my Beloved this desire quickens expectation to rejoyce in hope and leaves no room for a loathing wearisome Fulness in the heart 3. This objective enjoyment of Christ gives foundation for a kindly refuge in him it rationally leads the inward Man to depart from all other selfs and run to this objective self Jesus Christ through the drawing vertue of spiritual Union with him Cant. 1. 4. and thus was Christ typed out by the Cities of Refuge 4. This Enjoyment of Christ by way of Object is also a Fountain of Recovery when the Soul is foiled it can fetch fresh righteousness fresh pardon and be anointed again and again with fresh Oyl Psal 92. 10. as David speaks and seventy seven times a day yea every moment as oft as the heart pants after him 5. 'T is also a Fountain of Ease by pouring out a Complaint into his bosom 'T is great refreshment to have a Friend to whom one may declare ones misery were it only to receive pity from his hands Job 16. 14. but in Christ looked upon by Faith there is a power as well as pity to help be the Affliction and Burden what it will be Heb. 5. 2. and how great soever 6. 'T is a Fountain also of Confidence and hence doth the Prophet Micah in the name of the people of God argue against the Triumph of the Enemy Mic. 7. 7 8. I will look unto the Lord c. and therefore Rejoyce not over me O my enemy though I fall I shall rise again And Christ himself doth teach his people Confidence by his own Example in the day of his suffering Isa 50. 8. Rom. 8. 33 34. in that his Father was near to justifie him 7. Christ thus taken up helps against the solitariness of our Journey towards Heaven a Believer has a friend to talk with by
last and perfect Fulness Col. 2. 19. Ephes 1. 23. And that Jesus Christ may make this express Word of his effectual to accomplish the design of his love to the Souls of his Redeemed he guides them by his Spirit to the most advantagious improvement thereof that not one Jot of his Word may be lost The whole Scriptures are the Inspiration of the Spirit of God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ Heb. 1. 1. Col. 3. 16. 2 Tim. 3. 16. given to reveal the way of Salvation which is carried on by a way of History and Doctrine in both which the State of Mankind is discovered in reference to its Innocency Fall and Recovery The State of Innocency and the Fall comprehended all Mankind in the Persons of Adam and Eve the State of Recovery respects only a part of Mankind saved out of that universal Loss by Christ according to the Election of Grace and therefore he is called the second Adam Rom. 5. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 45. who infuseth the Gift and Operation of Righteousness to his Seed as the first Adam had infused the Guilt and enthralling corrupting Power of Sin into his Seed As the Fall was a perfect Fall so the Recovery to the Remnant recovered is a perfect Recovery compleated fully in God's Decree before the World was Ephes 1. 4. and actually solemnized at Christ's Suffering Col. 2. 15. which becomes applicable to every individual person of that number by the Spirit of Faith and Holiness and whereby they are fully and really freed from the matter of Guilt through Union with Christ albeit the afflicting sense and fear of Guilt appears many times through the weakness of Faith in that Union and through the incumbring defilement of Sin in them who are redeemed holds on a Conflict in the Flesh till the last Enemy viz. Death be destroyed and so Mankind stands divided the Persons of them who only bear the Image of the first Adam corrupted by the Serpent's Poyson and they who bear the Image of the second Adam and in the latter every redeemed person carries also a Sub-Division in his own heart for a time viz. the grand Principle of his renewed State and the afflicting Stain and Enmity of the first Adam's Nature remaining in the Flesh And in reference to these two Contraries viz. the Good and Bad Persons of Mankind and the different Principles of Good and Evil the Scripture doth display all the Threatnings and Comforts Reproofs and Encouragements Judgments and Promises Instructions and Rebukes that are found in that blessed Volume with manifestations of God's power and goodness to the one and his power and wrath against the other So that whatsoever is spoken of any one person is spoken of all persons in the same State and whatsoever is spoken of any Action or Qualification in any person is spoken of alike Actions and Qualifications in every person who is in the same state to the end of the World even as long as Mankind remains and as far as the Line of each State whether it be good or bad reacheth so far doth every person continuing in that State bear his proportionable share through the Grave to Eternity When the Spirit of God speaketh any thing in the Word it first looks through the State in which any person is and so deals with that particular person according to the state in which he is whether it be a state of Sin or Grace and so acts towards him according to the rules and method of such a state Hence 't is that comforts or afflictions or teachings that are one and the same in their own nature are exceeding different in the end and use which the Spirit makes of them through the different state of Light or Darkness Life or Death in which all men lie So that by this means the same Word is a savour of Life to one which is a savour of Death to another The general threatnings against Ungodliness concerns every particular ungodly Man The particular punishment inflicted upon any one ungodly Man shews what is equally due to the rest of ungodly Men. And although one evil Man may not commit the same wicked Action as another doth yet he has the Nature and the same evil State which is the Root of that Action and as it brings forth Actions equivolently evil it is by the Spirit of God equally sentenced to Punishment And as in all visible Actions the state of the person in the Scriptures is first considered so in all Actions the nature and spirit of that Action as it holds relation to the state of the person acting is regarded by the Spirit of God in the Word before the Action it self and involves every one within the Guilt of that Action if it be wicked or within the Blessing of that Action if it be good in whom the nature and spirit of such an Action worketh From this ground Christ calls wicked Anger Murther and unchast Lustings Adultery Matth. 5. 21 28. And from this ground a gracious desire and intention has the blessing of a gracious Action 2 Cor. 8. 12. And when the Action is one and the same and yet the Spirit and inward Mind of them who execute that Action different the Action is not accounted the same but different as in the case of Cain's killing Abel and Phineas's killing Zimri it was Murther in the one and Righteousness in the other So that Actions may agree and yet the spirit of that Action in the Actors not agree and the spirit of one Action may agree with the spirit of another Action or the spirit of one that acts may agree in some particular Action with the spirit of another who acts the same thing and yet the difference of their grand state disagree as appears in the case of David's Uncleanness through Lust and the Sin of his Son Ammon for the Repentance of the one is recorded but not of the other So that in the use of the Scriptures we are to consider how far Actions agree and how far the spirit or immediate inward working which produceth Actions agrees and how the grand state of persons do agree that we may know how to make use of the Reproofs and Punishments Promises and Rewards that we find given to others in Scripture As concerning the state of Godliness there is no Godly Man has any peculiar privilege which is not common to all who are in the same state because the Covenant is made to them all alike in Jesus Christ in whom God is become their God upon the equal terms of Free Grace and Christ is as well the Head of one Member as of another and all the privileges which can flow from such a common relation run down rightfully to every person within that relation viz. Justification Adoption Reconciliation Sanctification Preservation Instruction and such like Operations of the Spirit that issue from that relation and which tend to a living enjoyment thereof and the advancing of that state to perfection
them and from every part of his Resignation sends forth his Spirit to work Resignation also in them according to the measure of his own Gift in every part of his mystical Body by virtue of that Union to which he hath called them with himself and herein lies the ground and foundation of a Believer's holy Resignation to God As for the Properties of this holy Properties of Resignation Resignation there is a notion of weakness and subjection in the Resigned and of Power and Dominion in the Person to whom Resignation is made There is also an Alienation of some proper and private Interest and a change thereof into the Interest of another And so it is in the Resignation of the Soul to God The Soul being sensible of its own inability bequeaths it self to the Almighty Redeemer and doth subject it self to the Rules of his Dominion as the Clay to the hand of the Potter and so every Nerve of the Soul is loosed and lies down at the Will and Disposure of the Lord to do as it seemeth good unto him and so the Soul ceaseth from its own private Interest and submits it self to the Merit Mercy and Laws of the Mediator to be dieted cloathed and employed by him only and lives no longer by the Life of his own hand Isa 57. 10. Hos 14. 3. Now he stretcheth forth his hands and another girds him and leads him whither his fleshly Reason would not he knows never a step of his way but as the Word and Spirit guides him Isa 42. 16. he dares not say his Sins are his own nor his Righteousness his own but as Christ in the Gospel directs and suffers him to think and speak he can neither accuse nor excuse himself neither judge nor acquit himself any otherwise than as he who bought him will allow and give his consent Numb 30. 7 8. because he is now uuder the Dominion and Interest of another and is no longer his own but married to him who was raised from the dead Resignation is a free Act and is managed in the Will aiming to prevent a greater Evil or obtain a greater Good and therefore carries some content and delight with it and which is so much the more increased as the Power Authority and Faithfulness of the Person resigned to is great and sure so is it with a Believer's Resignation to God in Jesus Christ every glimpse of his infinite Power Truth and Mercy redounds to the increase of a Believer's refreshment because he hath a Right therein by Resignation thereunto in the Person of Jesus Christ and it eyes his Person in all the Worth Perfection and Excellency thereof in such a way of propriety therein that it affecteth the heart and makes way for the influence of that worth to enter upon the Mind and Affections and so renders it active according to the Mind of Christ and Spirit of the Gospel to obey believe and live upon that Mind of Christ represented to the Understanding improving his Worth by a sanctified Application to every part of the New Man as a holy Oyl sinking into every Faculty of the Soul and naturally inclining it to every Exercise of that new State to which it is begotten and brought forth by a spiritual Resignation The blessed Privileges which arise from hence are innumerable as God Privileges of Resignation to whom the Resignment is made is unmeasurable and infinite The Soul of a resigning Believer enters into Purity Establishment Protection Peace Love Liberty Boldness Satisfaction and Joy in the Holy Spirit and gains an entrance abundantly into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ As a Stick of Wood cast into the fire is changed into the property of Purity that fire so the casting of the Soul into the Blood of the immaculate Lamb abides no longer filthy but spotless through the price and preciousness of that Blood the Spirit of which Blood removes the Conscience and private owning of Guilt and transfers it into the Laver of Christ's Satisfaction and comes forth cloathed with Pardon Righteousness and Acceptation in the sight of God the righteous Judge who has constituted a Satisfaction to himself by such a method that his Mercy to a Sinner might be an Act of Righteousness to Jesus Christ the Mediator and that by Resignation to Christ a Believer might enjoy it in enjoying Christ whose nature is also shed abroad in the heart by the washing of the new Birth through the Word of his Grace to mortifie and cleanse the heart as a Seal of Implantation into the perfect Righteousness and Acceptation of his Person who bought it with his Blood Gal. 2. 20. 1 Joh. 1. 9. Which Resignation gives Establishment by engaging him who Establishment bears up the Pillars of the Earth to bear a poor sinner's weight and keep it from reeling Resignation doth incorporate a Believer into the very Rock of Ages it conveyeth a Sinner through the Word of Free Grace and Power clean from his own sin and gives it an Arrival in the very Breast of Christ where it abides without sin or change 1 Joh. 3. 6. Though sin remain in the natural Man and dwells with Humane Flesh through the whole Circuit of the first Adam's state yet Faith rejoyns the Soul into the second Adam who is wholly pure as the first Adam is wholly sinful So that a sinner in coming to him resigns himself up from perfect sin to perfect purity The Body of Christ as it is mystically below remains for a season under the washing of the Word but as it is mystically married to Christ risen from the Dead and sitting at the Right Hand of God with him 't is pure as the Sun in its brightness and established for ever above all shaking storms of the lower Region whether it be Guilt Change or Danger Resignation doth naturally claim Protection as appears in the case of Protection the Gibeonites Josh 10. 4 5 6. Charity and Pity would induce a noble Mind to help the distressed though there were no propriety of the distressed to move such a noble Mind It were cruelty to suffer a Neighbour's Ox to lie in the Ditch without some real willingness to help it out but Resignation gives a propriety in the Resigned to the person to whom the Resignment is made and therefore Christ owns the cherishing and protection of a resigning Soul upon the account of Conjugal Propriety Ephes 5. 29. No man ever yet hated his own flesh and not only protecteth but nourisheth it viz. as Christ the Church This Propriety makes every Branch of the Wants Griefs Burdens or Dangers that every resigning Believer has to be Christ's Concernment as truly and as much for the nature of them as the Salvation of all the Elect for which he came into the World and died His Salvation reacheth into every Crevice of their need He saveth to the utmost Heb. 7. 25. which saving Protection stands fitted to a resigned Soul as
am methinks like Jonah tumbling My Soul in a Tempest in the bottom of the Sea the Bars of an earthly and dark Mind are stopping my way and am as lifeless methinks as if I had no Interest in the Fountain of Saving Health The Weeds are wrapp'd about my head I am in the Deep but cannot cry unto the Lord as Jonah did And what the Lord is teaching me by this unexpected disappointment I cannot yet tell yet notwithstanding I have hope in him that I shall yet be rescued from this Captivity and see his Face again I have been searching after all my sins through the several Ages of my Life and endeavoured to view the Depravity of my Soul in all the sinful Circumstances of every sin but I cannot wind my self out my design was to get thereby to a more sincere Closure with Christ but e're I was aware I had challenged forth more Enemies than I could well suppress I thought by aggravating my sins to have gotten more hunger after Jesus Christ but like over-much cold Water it damped my Stomach and I found Sickness seizing upon me rather than Hunger a heartless Stupidity instead of Believing I concluded I was in some kind or other out of my way or else had not prepared my Stomach to keep out the Infection that exhaled from that Body of Death which is within me as I should have done whiles I was moving the Limbs thereof The thing I aimed at was quickning Then I remembred that word Luk. 24. 5. Why seek ye the living among the dead Come not amongst the Graves without his company who died for sins and is risen from the Dead I could not be satisfied about the sincerity of my Repentance and there I stuck till at length I remembred that Christ rose again as well to give Repentance as Remission of Sins Act. 5. 31. and 11. 18. so that I can bring no Repentance to him but I must first get it from him He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance c. A Saviour to take away all the defects of my Repentance a Prince to overcome all the difficulties and to create in me a sound Mind against the Infirmites of my Repentance and my halting therein Take then O mighty Prince and Saviour this work into thy own hands and create a right Spirit within me So that now my gadding Spirit is My Soul returning to its Strong Hold. brought back again to see that Christ is the Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of whatever doth concern the new Creature And although he be so yet how hard is it to venture my Soul and Body my whole Hope and Care into his hands by faith in his Word I had need know such an one very well with whom I am to venture my Journey through a Warfaring Life here and shortly through Death and Judgment too and so into the Ocean of Eternity O dear Jesus who art my Lord and my God who canst renew my heart and none else can do it breath upon me and say Receive the Holy Ghost Cast thy Mantle upon me and let the Unction of thy Spirit be so shed abroad throughout my whole Soul that my heart may be entirely thine thine only that thy self only may be the Covering of my eyes instead of all other Objects And now what should hinder but The Soul first improves Baptism that at length I should solemnly in the presence of God the Father Son and Spirit and in the presence of all the elect Angels pursue the ends of that Covenant which was sealed by Christ's Appointment to me in Baptism through whose hands soever that Ordinance was appointed and permitted to pass upon me Was not that a Divine Prophesie which Balaam himself spake which passed through his Mouth Numb 24. 17. There shall come a Star out of Jacob c. and can the Ordinance of Christ be made void through whose hands soever it came and in what unworthy Robe soever it was drest Did the sacred Ark lose its vertue by being in the Philistines Custody Did he forsake it who dwelt between the Cherubims Was the Mercy-seat forsaken and become like common Metal Why then should this Ordinance be lost to me in the substance of it though it may be some humane Scurf was laid upon it And have I not more reason to hope through Covenant-Grace that the Faith and Prayers of my dear Parents then and since are in force for a Blessing upon it to me than the defects of others in the manner of Administration can have to hinder it especially seeing now I desire humbly to take hold of the Covenant and with my own consent to say I agree to the Condescension of thy Grace and Love my dear Lord I catch hold on thy free Love and into thy Name O most holy God the Father Son and Spirit I give my self up through him who confirmed the Covenant and came by Water and Blood to make it effectual I believe Lord help my Unbelief I reach out my hand through thy Grace let thy Grace and Power pull me over to thy self that in the Ark of thy unchangeable Covenant I may be carried above my self and above a miserably drowned World Be not absent O thou who in thy Mercy didst make and impose this Seal of the Covenant as the Badge of one of thy Family for me to wear who also speakest words of Truth and Life when thou saist I baptise thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost fulfil thy good Word unto me thy Servant in which I desire to hope that thou mayest be mine and I may be thine wholly for ever that I may serve thee and glory in thee with all thy people who are thine own Inheritance Do not hang back O my poor Struggles with Vnbelief heart whose weakness and inconstancy have so often bruised my inward Man O Anxious Unbelief thou tellest me 't is a bargain soon made but how shall it be performed Thou urgest me with difficulties that will arise from the World from my self from the Tryals that I may undergo in my Body my Soul my Estate unwonted Tryals Thou tellest me of the great fits of Darkness and shameful declining I have had after much Refreshment and strong Resolutions to the contrary Thou tellest me that my Falls will now cost me dearer than ever they did and the Holy Spirit will be sooner vexed and grieved than before Thou tellest me I shall soon be weary of my Yoke and then my Sins will be of a deeper and more heart-hardning Die than ever But remember O Soul-destroying Unbelief I rowl my self upon the Rock of Ages I deliver my self up to the Covenant of Grace not to bring strength to it but to fetch strength from it and from that word which saith Sin shall not have Dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6. 14. And because I am weak
very black and very polluted through my natural pollution and daily infirmity yet through the savour of thy Ointments O precious ever-living ever-interceding Christ let me now be a sweet savour in thy Nostrils and pleasant in thy sight and in the sight of thine and my Father and let me be breathed upon day and night by the Spirit of the Father and the Son that I may now go out about thy work with joy and be led forth by thee with Peace and renewed Testimonies of thy Help and Presence Let the Mountains and Hills break forth before me into singing and all the Trees of the Field clap their hands for joy Glory be to God on high on earth peace because the good Will of God has stooped to such a Worm as I. Instead of the Thorn now let there be a Firr Tree instead of the Bryar a Myrtle Tree let Righteousness and Conformity to thy Will prosper in my Soul as an everlasting sign of this Covenant that it shall never be cut off nor broken What am I O Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast brought me hitherto Stablish thy covenant to thy servant as the sure mercies of David for ever And seeing I do now rest in this blessed Covenant leaning upon thee my dearly Beloved let me never nourish halting Enquiries after these sacred Vows to the most high God Let me never devour and destroy this sacred Bond and so turn this present and holy design and inviolable Tie into a Snare Take this Burthen upon thy Sholders O Rock of Ages and let this Covenant and my personal Infirmity also be perpetually before thy eyes to make good thy Covenant upon all occasions and let thy everlasting Arms be always under me to keep my seet from falling To this Covenant with my God and to these my Supplications Confessions and Vows in the name of him who hath called me into this Liberty through the Blood of the Mediator and my dear Redeemer which I declare to be my Act and Deed through his Grace never to be reversed and that it may stand as a Mount and sure Witness all the days of my life that I have at this time and this Evening solemnly and with a sincere aim and full purpose of heart unfained consent and joyful satisfaction laid hold on the Covenant of Grace as my own interest relying on my Mediator's help and strength to see it all performed both on behalf of my God and me and into whose hand I leave it who knows the meaning of his own Spirit To this Covenant I say viz. the whole substance thereof and all the expostulations and desires concerning the same with some faith in fear of love to and hope towards him who alone worketh in me to will and to do according to his good pleasure according to that measure which I have received with a trembling joy I consent and do cast my self into his Arms and subscribe it with my own hand never to be revoked Henry Dorney And seeing this is the accepted The Soul explains its Engagement time in which God hath heard me and a day of Salvation in which he hath succoured me I would yet further put on the Bonds of this glorious Freedom as my Robe for ever and further declare that as my God has often repeated the Kernel of his gracious Covenant sometimes in reference to the time to come Ezek. 11. 20. and 36. 38. sometimes in reference to the time present Isa 43. 3 5. Ezek. 34. 30. sometimes speaking of his people Jer. 24. 7. and sometimes speaking to his people Jer. 30. 22. in all which he appears as one setting forth his unlimited Purpose of good things with variety of Illustration and ground of Assurance to all his Confederate People leading them forth to a plentiful way of righteous and abundant application thereof to themselves and for their use in all cases for ever I do also declare that my scope and sense in this my covenanting with God is that through his strength I will disown all rebellings and repinings against his threatnings reproofs and chastisements and that I will disown the stifling of any of his convictions because they are dispensations of his Grace and means whereby to partake more and more of his Holiness Heb. 12. 5 6 10. My scope and sence further is that my heart shall lie open to all the Commands of my God and that I will own them as my Heritage for ever Psal 119. 6 111. that they shall be my joy and delight and love whatever they require Psal 119. 97 111. and that because they are his good pleasure and because I account his Rebukes of all sorts and the Commands of all sorts to be the Representations and Beams of his Righteousness and Holiness Psal 119. 75. Jer. 12. 1. 1 Joh. 2. 29. and the very Rays also of the Covenant of his Grace Psal 119. 75. Here is more work for thee O my blessed Surety thy Grace must needs uphold me in all parts of my duty and perfect that which concerneth me I ground my Promise upon thine Isa 25. 4. Joel 3. 16. I had not durst to have promised these things if thou hadst not first promised to do all my Works in me and for me Isa 26. 12. Psal 57. 2. 1 Thes 5. 24. Put on strength O Arm of the Lord let not thy Name be polluted and my boasting in thee turn to thy Reproach Remember thou art all my strength and life For this end I would multiply all the Commands of God in my eye that under my impossibility of Performance through that contradiction and infirmity that is in my flesh I might be swayed by the spirit of Faith into the perfection of Strength and be able to do all things in Christ who strengthneth me and answereth for me Of all the thousands of God's Commands he never required me to do any of them with my own Arm as the Obedience in which he delights but that I should act in strength every moment received from Christ and so work my Works in God all the days of my life Reveal to thy Covenant-servant O Lord that strength which thou allowest me that I may know where it lies and how to derive it to my self for thy work and service according to the scope of this Covenant which at thy gracious Call I offer up my self unto How dost thou necessitate me to thy Yoke and allure me by a gracious violence of Necessity to delight in having my hands and heart tied with the heart-strings of thy love to thy self in this golden Covenant inextricably and for ever Take me O dearly beloved of my Soul nearer and nearer to thy self till all the shadows be gone that then I may behold thy Face and be satisfied with thy Image Oh how soon am I now dazled from a pure and diligent watchfulness how many precious Minutes do slide away from me Sometimes Food is my Snare and sometimes Abstinence is so too sometimes
Society and sometimes Retirement puts me behind-hand All my Composedness is soon discomposed Let thy eye be upon me O my God according to thy word and water me every moment Isa 27. 3. lest any thing assault and hurt my Soul which thou hast redeemed and quicken my faith and hope in thy Word for this Many a wretched stop do I meet with pardon me O my Lord and my God and renew a Spirit of truth tenderness sincerity and rightly seasoned heart for the work I am now upon My scope and meaning in giving my hand and closing with this Covenant of my God is further this viz. that through his help I will ascribe truth to all the words of his Promises by believing them and receiving them as that which shall be accomplished that I will labour to keep the Majesty of the Promiser in my eye and to preserve the faith and hope of his fulfilling his Word upon the account of his unsearchable Wisdom and Faithfulness and not by my uncertain taste that no Guilt of Sin shall keep me from the Fountain wherein Sinners are to be cleansed that I will through the Guidance of his Spirit aspire after a more practical and accustomed Exercise in living the life that I live by the faith of the Son of God and resting from my own works reach after that self-denying Activity which issues from my Union with Christ as my Head O my Lord mould my heart into this life this is the very Pearl that I would willingly sell all to get What a lovely Comportment would it settle between the Actions of my outward and inward Man How would it teach my Soul to rule my Body How willingly would my Soul and Body then be contradicted and take pleasure to be thwarted by the Spirit of Christ when the Crown is settled on the Head of the new Creature and the Scepter of Government in its hand acting as in the Throne of Christ in the vertue of his pure Life and glorious Arm and every imagination of the heart bowing down before it Oh when shall my inward Man be thus cloathed with Glory and Power looking forth through all my Sences as the Morning fair as the Moon and terrible as an Army with Banners This Gate of Heaven I would aspire towards through that means of Victory which overcometh the World the Devil and an earthly Mind even through the faith of the Son of God This is that which I have in my eye although it be as a Land that is afar off I faint with desire stay me and strengthen me with the Flagons of Hope O thou who hast suffered me to touch the Skirt of thy Garment and brought me within the Covenant of his Grace When I consider the Soveraignty of God that he doth whatsoever he will in Heaven and Earth that sometimes he has deserted his people as to the powerful Communications of Grace as it was with David Peter and others in the time of their sinful Back-sliding when I consider these things I begin to stagger about the constant Immutability of God's Purpose and uninterrupted Good Will which he declares in the Covenant Heb. 13. 8. Jer. 32. 40. who saith I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me And therefore to obviate this heart-fainting mistake I resolve to nourish the faith of his constant Love and Good Will in his Covenant upon the ground of his unchangeable Nature that he is not as a man that he should lie nor as the son of man that he should repent that nothing can come to pass but what is the effect of his Purpose that his Covenant is everlasting and his Purpose of Love therein the same for ever Jer. 31. 35. and 32. 40 41. that his Purpose to them whom he calls up to take hold of his Covenant is wholly a Purpose of Love and Grace 2 Tim. 1. 9. that he complains when a doubting heart makes question of it Isa 40. 27. that it is confirmed by the death of the Testator that the cause of Alienation is removed viz. the Guilt of my Sin by the one compleat and compleating Offering of the Body of Christ that Christ ever lives to intercede and is always heard because the Will of the Father and Son is the same Will breathing it self forth to the Objects of Grace by the everlasting Spirit And therefore when I seem to be forsaken I resolve to believe that that desertion is only Physick And to enquire what it is that God teacheth me thereby that so I may see ground as satisfyingly to thank him for the gracious frowns of his unchangeable Love as for his gracious Smiles and to take the advantage of that season to crave his Aid more importunately to loath my sinful self and to revive afresh more purely self-denying Exercises of believing and resigning to him fearing his righteous Judgments patiently waiting when the Spirit that I have grieved will return again with the Manifestation of his gracious Presence to my Soul In all these Considerations Resolutions and Desires in my Covenanting with God my meaning further is that I accept of Jesus Christ as he is the Gift of God to be the whole Covenant to me to work Faith and give the things believed to work desires and give the things desired to act for me and in me that the Covenant may never fail from me because of my sins and miscarriages in regard he has satisfied Justice in my stead and brought me into his everlasting Righteousness nor I fail from the Covenant through Unbelief and a languishing view of my own Infirmity because he is my Strength to labour Author and Finisher of my Faith who gave himself to sanctifie me by the Spirit of Regeneration in the Application of his Word to me for quickning that so Christ may be all in all to fulfil the Engagement of God to me and my Engagement in his Name to God And seeing that Breaches are like to fall out often on my part that he would still stand in the Gap that those Breaches may not obstruct the Good Will and Mercy of God from me nor harden my heart from him that so the Grace of the Covenant on God's part in Christ towards me and on Christ's part for me towards God may remain in the eye of my Faith inviolable when the Peace of the Covenant through my sinful diversions and darkness is interrupted and bruised And that he would still recover me again into a renewed personal Covenanting with God that in his Person I may behold eternal and sure Mercies as the Sun in the Firmament as the days of Eternity Psal 89. 29. And that by his Mediation and Suretyship applied to me by the effectual working of his Spirit I may in my own person be drawn under his shadow to recover my Hold-fast and have my face set towards the Covenant And that he would still lead me
though not particularly at this time rehearsed for every good thing for my Soul and Body here and hereafter as far as ever the purpose of thy Grace extended when thou saidst I will be thy God and that all that Goodness and Truth may follow me all my days and for ever Rom. 8. 32. And I willingly offer up my self to thy whole Will as thou shalt from time to time reveal it in the same word of thy Grace and do covenant Subjection thereto in thy strength through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and supply of thy Spirit And upon thy own Encouragement in thy Promise made to me in that same Covenant which thou madest with my Father Abraham and sealed it to him and his Seed that thou wouldst be his God and the God of his Seed and caused the Man-child of eight days old to receive the sign of that Covenant in his Flesh which Blessing thou hast now brought over to me a Gentile by Christ in whom thou saist Jew and Greek Male and Female are all one in Christ I do again offer up my Child who has been already baptized into thy Name relying on thee to make good thy Covenant in Christ to her together with my self in every Branch thereof which I have through thy favour and Grace entred into and spread before thee this day that she also may have a place in thy House and partake of all the Privileges and Inheritance of thy Chosen And now O Lord God what shall I say to thee Who am I And what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto All Praise be to thy glorious Name ever-living Jehovah the Father Son and Spirit Glory be to thee O Father who hast begotten me again to a lively Hope who hast drawn me to Jesus Christ whom thou deliveredst up for me to be my Ransom and hast made me to recieve him and in him to call thee my reconciled Father Glory be to thee O Eternal Son of the Father who camest into Flesh and undertookest the great Office of Mediatorship between a righteous God and sinful Man and hast transacted a Covenant of Peace for me and perfected it in thy own Person by thy Death and Resurrection And Glory be to thee O Eternal Spirit of the Father and Son who hast awakened my ear to hear the joyful sound of Reconciliation to God through the Blood of the Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the World who hast been pursuing me and didst never give over till thou hadst convinced my heart and conquered my Will to a willing Surrender of my self up to and a laying hold upon the Covenant of Grace held forth to Sinners in the Volume of thy Book Now O Lord God let all the words of thy Grace be effectually applied and established to me thy Servant Pardon all my sins and my failings and all my unsuitableness of heart while I have been before thee musing and taking thy Name and Covenant in my mouth and writing it with my own hand in thy presence and as a Fruit of thy Covenant-Grace and Truth let my approach to thee be accepted and prosper for which end I have delivered up my self and all that is mine with full purpose of heart according to all that I have said before thee this day and with an holy Awe of thy Presence in this great Work in confidence and hope of thy pardoning succouring and assisting Grace I lie at the Foot-stool of thy Mercy and call Heaven and Earth to witness that I have chosen thee to be my God and thy Will in all things to be my Inheritance and my delight and the matter of my pursuance all my days upon the ground and promise which thou hast said Hos 2. 23. I will say to them which were not my people thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God I have said it and do say it and do leave this Covenant in the hand of my Mediator to see it fulfilled to me and by me through all the days of my Infirmity and Warfare till I come to behold his face as he is and this vile Body of mine be made like to his glorious Body In reliance on which relief and blessed hope and help I cling upon this Covenant of Free Grace in which I do both take and give as I have said and do subscribe it irrevocably with my hand Henry Dorney Do not say O grumbling Unbelief The Soul chides Vnbelief that these are nothing but compiled words of Humane Invention I tell thee as far as they are only my invention I do loath them but the Spirit of God doth witness with my Spirit that amongst these words there hath been some hunger after God some awe of his Presence some love to be his devoted Servant some prizing of the excellency of a pure Life of Faith some holy Convictions of the importance and necessity at least of such an attempt as this to bring God and my Soul nearer together And therefore though there is much chaffiness of a dead heart yet I cannot gratifie my doubts and unbelief so far as to conclude there is no Wheat in the heap and I refer my self desirously and willingly to the heart-knowing Eye of him who has his Fan in his hand to blow away all the Chaff from my thoughts and words and to create in me a clean heart and pure language also and to gather what there is of secret panting after him into his own Garner and put my inward groanings after him how weak and faint soever into his Bottle and therefore I must and by his help will praise him for any Crumbs that fall from his Table and that I have any Stomach to eat them and any desire after larger Morsels My Redeemer is bountiful his Breasts are full and will not suffer a hungry Child to draw nothing but Wind. I remember well what he said to the Woman of Samaria If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water I have asked of him and have had his favour to wait on him now several days together and will he return my Bucket altogether empty This is not his custom The Kingdom of God is like Seed sown which springs up and grows with an insensible motion and yet a growing motion Mark 4. 26 27. He proceeds in the method of his own Word in which Word he saith Seek and ye shall find for every one that seeketh findeth and shall I say my Seekings are lost My Way is not hid from God when his Path is hid from me he hath said They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength which I have obliged my self to do and therefore though he humble me to preserve a watchful Appetite and to prevent some unhealthy Surfeit which he can discern in my Constitution growing upon me better than I yet I know I shall
continue at present in this place waiting the issue of things which the Lord direct and over-rule to the best In the midst of all these weighty Providences and rolling Waves 't is good to look well to our Anchor and to be securing the main Uncertain Peace uncertain created Comfort uncertain Life do require us to lean but gently upon such things and to grasp after an Inheritance a Life a Portion which fadeth not a Country where neither Sighs nor Groans nor Sins have any place If great Shakings cannot throughly awake 't is a sign the Drowziness is very great if not deadly 'T is good to be very busie when the Inch of Candle is near at an end The Lord teach us heartily to improve our present Minute and enter into the Ark before the Flood come c. 1660. To M. N. N o 51. I Having had some opportunity to discern the frame of your heart and the truth of your Thirst after Jesus Christ and Resignation up to him I thought fit while I was writing to other Friends at N. C. to present you also a Line or two 'T is but a little that one Friend can write to another but where there is a mutual Interest in the same Spirit there is a Freedom through that Communion to expatiate large and wide in one anothers joynt Concernments and to bear a sence of the various Travels of the inward Man and how it is exercised in you who are begotten of the same God and Father and nourished by the same Spirit in Jesus Christ And in this respect one Christian may in some measure read the Condition and Affairs of another in his own Experience though the manner of Trials may be different The most that I would say to you is this Labour to satisfie your heart against Guilt by the personal Righteousness and Worth of Christ which you are commanded to own and put on by believing as a Garment made and appointed of God for your wearing fixing your eye on his Appointment and not upon your Unsuitableness on his Grace and not at all on your own Worthiness unless it be to urge you towards him with the more speed and resolution This is a Lesson I am every day learning and I know no shelter like it The Improvement of the Covenant of Grace in this manner was to the Prophet David all his Salvation and all his desire This is the Shelter that will keep dry when the Floods come This will make a Soul out-face Terror and give an Answer to turmoiling Accusations This will make the Lame to leap as a Hart and the Dumb to sing when Woes do over-spread the Earth I recommend you to this Sanctuary c. 1661. To D. H. N o 52. I Perceive my Aunt hath had her Weakness returned upon her such is the Constitution of this Clayey Lump But what a wonder is it that a Treasure of Grace and eternal Life should ever dwell through all the days of our Sin Trouble and Vanity in such a Tabernacle and that the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Grace Holiness and Glory should never cease striving in the midst of all that Opposition and course Entertainment on our part and never give over till our Sins be utterly and for ever extinguished and Mortality swallowed up of Life and so these vile Bodies and polluted Souls made conformable to our Redeemer and the eternal Companions of his Bosom Let us fix our eye there and we shall be always projecting for him and never discontented with our Travel though we rid but little Ground Let us prize him and love him and all his Rules and Orders himself in the first place and all the rest for his sake only And that makes our work our delight not our toil and vexation for there is no want of help either for Strength or Pardon or both He takes Sinners to himself that he may spend Intimacy of Good Will upon them and never lets them go quite out of his hands any more Oh how little do we know him How little do we remember that every Conviction we have had every Groan every desire of Soul after him was born first in his heart and given to us as the new Creatures Food to ripen it for Glory We breath towards him in the strength of his own Breath We may be yet much more winnowed but cannot be lost nor our Faith quite fail because he prays for us as never meer Man did His Prayers cannot but speed for the Will of the Father Son and Spirit is one Will for they are one God and that Will is nothing but good Will to us who hope in him and catch hold of his free Covenantgood-Will to Men. I have now lately News out of the North that my dear Brother D. is departed out of this World How should these things make us love to be trading for that Country where all our best Friends go and not think it much that this World yields so many sorrowful bits because God never appointed it for our abiding place but only that we may hear his Voice and be contracted to him while we are below in order to the consummating the Marriage above The Lord make us chearfully serious in the business of our day while it lasteth to prepare to lanch forth when our Lord shall call Blessed are they who watch c. 1661. To D. A. N o 53. WHat God speaks in his Word we may take for our comfort to carry us through the Myre till we land beyond Sin and Pain The Salvation of such poor Sinners as you and I was and is the delight of the blessed Trinity The Father did in his Grace and Love elect the Son delighted to come and do the Father's Will in Redeeming the Holy Spirit loves to apply it and therefore is called the Comforter the Angels rejoyce that good Will from God is come to Men. If God say you must go to the Top of the Mount and die set your face towards him who has died before you to bring you through Fly to the meer Grace and Love of the glorious God that has designed Pardon and Righteousness for poor Sinners for his own sake in the Person of his own Son If he say you must lanch forth roll upon the Rock of Ages alone The wearier you are of your Sins the more welcome to a Saviour The wearier you are of your pains and burthens the sweeter will be the Bosom of an indulgent Father when you arrive at your Father's House The whole Race of the Residue of the Redeemed are your Fellow-travellers The whole Trinity is on your side the Scriptures on your side the eternal Covenant of Grace on your side while you bow your head and lean only on your beloved Redeemer Look up to him and fear not your passage I leave you to the Arms of endless Care Counsel Comfort Strength and Pity c. 1661. To D. H. N o 54. OUr work in this World is only to follow
after God under all the Changes and Trials that do accompany an earthly Life and we have this Encouragement I will never leave you nor forsake you Grace and the Exercise of it also comes from God None can cleanse a foul heart nor quicken a dead one but he who raised your and my Redeemer from the dead And therefore if my heart be as hard as a Stone as foul as a Dung-hill as weak as Water and as deceitful treacherous and vile as may be I have no Refuge but to fly to my most pure holy Redeemer to my unchangeable God in Jesus Christ who is both my Judge and Saviour He hears the inward panting of his own Spirit when we can scarce hear the voice of our own Prayers or scarce know what to make of them He who creates Light out of Darkness knows how to work up an Acceptation of us to himself in Christ when our Persons and Services as they come from us are as filthy Rags in our own eyes We never go down the Wind till we say in our hearts by Unbelief The Covenant cannot stand in Heaven because I have sinned against it on Earth I am God I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Truly Sister I find very often I have as much need of pardoning Grace as ever I needed at first Conversion And I scarce know any thing that states the difference betwixt me and the vilest of Hypocrites but only this That God makes my Distempers my Burthen and in the Riches of his Love inclines my heart to hanker towards him for help And for ever blessed be his Name that doth not suffer us to die away utterly from his Relief How great is his Goodness How wealthy and endless is that Store-house of Perfection that is laid up in Christ for his ransomed and new-born Seed Get Christ in your eye and that will affect your heart c. 1661. To D. H. N o 55. TOuching what you write that you have an Interest in the Mercies I receive it accords well with that word 1 Cor. 12. 27. Ye are the body of Christ and members in particular thereof And what a mutual Interest is that First Christ's and then one anothers in him Something of this Affinity appears in the Contentment of that mutual Society of Christians but more in the mutual Faith in which they communicate with one another Rom. 1. 12. The Streams are obvious to our sence but the Streams would dry up if the Fountain did not feed them The more we put on Jesus Christ the more doth the Morning-Star of Perfection in that and all other Contentment twinkle upon us Still honor God so as to lean upon him and love him and all the method he takes Nothing doth so much bring disquiet as disappointment and nothing doth so much bring disappointment as the fixing ones expectation upon Uncertainties Be ever therefore trimming up your Expectations on things above where Christ is and abides for ever Dissolve into his good Will and he will never disappoint your Hope nor suffer you to be at an utter loss What think you is the very meaning of that place Hab. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blessom c. Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord c. Doth it not speak out this viz. That God is the same his Word the same when all things fail besides If I have disquiet or fears let me enquire what it is that I fear and on what Ground whether about my present or future State of Body or Soul And let me not make Questions nor Answers but what Scripture doth countenance I may make use of former Experiences of my own or others as they bear witness to Divine Writ in the Scriptures and so be thankful but I may not make the Experiences of any sort my Rule nor Guide of my Faith My meaning is We are apt to oppose something or other that we find by Observation or Experience against the Word of the living God or expound the great and faithful Promises by those Experiences or Observations As where it is said Sin shall not have Dominion over you I will send you the Comforter and he shall teach you all things I will satisfie the longing Soul I will give a new heart I will circumcise your hearts to love me The Righteous shall not want any good thing Their Soul shall not be desolate No Evil shall come near them Your Sins and your Iniquities I will remember no more and such like which abounds throughout the Scriptures We are apt to cast cold Water out of our Experiences and Observations upon those Promises rather than kindle our Faith at them and so live by Faith on them We are apt to say yea but I do not find it so I find Sin prevails against me my Graces wither my Conscience clamours my heart is hard I pray and have no Answer my Condition is distressed and I fear it will be worse He that said No Evil shall come near doth yet suffer his people to be greatly distressed even so far sometimes as to die under it and therefore it is not directed to me or there is not that soveraign Good in it as the Gospel seems to proclaim But I would say as Solomon did Eccles 7. 10. Consider wisely concerning this 'T is impossible the Oath and Promise of God should fail the mistake is on our part considering not the Work of the Lord and the Operation of his hands He trieth rooteth and teacheth Faith by ways of Opposition for Christ is always labouring in this Vineyard The Father worketh hitherto and I work saith he His great design is to reveal himself and baptize his People into the Spirit of his Death and Resurrection He slays Sin by suffering his People sometimes to be in a sence slain by it that they more fully die from their own Power into his Life Gal. 2. 19. He brings the Soul to an utter stress to make it look out and venture upon him as the three Leppers who to flee from Famine ventured to flee to an Enemies Army When he would bring his People from sensible Refuges and from a Man's personal Worth and inherent Strength which usually gets in like Rust upon the Soul he dasheth all that to teach us that our Life and every Act of it is the meer Operation of his Grace who lives moves and breaths in his People How is it possible we should know Patience but by Sufferings and the infinite Power and Truth of God in great Deliverances if the Sun did always shine upon us This made David say In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me and Paul I will rejoyce in mine infirmities or weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me Growth of Grace lies chiefly in more and more expertness in owning of and living nakedly on the Good that is in Christ as being really mine own and deriving Good from him by perpetual Motion Man's Life lies not so much
knows how and is able to make me and the rest who are alike exercised to learn profit that 's my work at present Bless God with me that our Sun is in the Firmament though Clouds breed darkness his Nature his Word Covenant Mercy and Truth never fails and that is enough Remember that God even the Eternal Word came lived fulfilled all Righteousness died paid our Debts removed away the Curse and overcame in our Nature for us as our Mediator for us only not for himself he needed it not himself Your nature and mine is as really in Heaven as our persons are on Earth and that Magazine is open to every desiring and sincerely hankering Soul Our Redeemer is strong his heart tender his words true his Grace free and his Love strong as Death his Compassions never fail Oh let us love fear adore and believe him and in him alone lift up our heads To him I commend you c. 1663. To B. D. N o 73. I Perceive God has struck you off at last from any further hope about that troublesome business and that you did conceive you should be at London some time this Month. I think there is nothing at this day more remarkably experienced by the People of God than disappointments in the matters of this present Life but certainly 't is not their Doom but their Physick neither is the Dispensation wrath but fatherly Wisdom and rich Bounty to all the adopted Seed He gives his Children bitter Cups but yet healthful at least the issue will prove it so c. 1664. To B. D. N o 74. CLouds and darkness doth grow thicker and thicker but yet there is some light in the Lord in the midst of outward darkness Light is sown and the Harvest will come Our God is everlasting and the Covenant of his Love and Truth sure he is still unchangeably the same in his Grace whatever Changes he orders us to pass through that Promise is the same You shall not be tempted above what you are able What God spake to Jacob is every word of it true for our Faith and Learning Gen. 28. 15. I am with thee and will keep thee in all places c. Make as much room as you can for your Understanding and Affections to feed on Christ our daily Bread for Pardon Protection Direction Purging Blessing and Comfort There I leave you blessing God with you and for you that he doth make you cling upon him and to roll your eye beyond these uncertain momentany things Ply that aim and that work still for the good Will of him that dwelt and dwells in the burning Bush doth not change in the Fire and in the Water he will be with us c. 1664 To W. D. N o 75. THat you are walking Heavenward is the best News one Christian Friend can hear of another I doubt not but that you make that your Journey You as well as others have had that word of Christ fulfilled In the world you shall have trouble and I hope you have found it as true that In me viz. in Christ you shall have peace Certainly inward Peace can be had no where else in him alone that Jewel is to be enjoyed 'T is good that things below do frown when they force a Child of God to retreat and shelter himself in the bosom of him whose Love and good Will is everlasting We have but one great Care to spend our thoughts most about viz. To rest with joy in the Will of God seeking his Glory endeavouring after more of Christ's Image to be renewed in us and so with faith and patience to breath after that deliverance that will put an end to sin and trouble Afflictions are then prosperous when they are blest with a right instructing and weaning efficacy and are useful to render the excellency of things not seen more precious and desirable when they make a Soul to search and pray much and so wind out of the World then they are profitable Physick This is that frame I would be at and who can help us in this great work but he that has promised that he will never quench the smoaking Flax till he hath brought forth Judgment and Righteousness to Victory c. 1664. To D. H. N o 76. THe Lord himself be with you as a Guide Sometime fair Weather and sometime foul we must expect no other a while at the Evening it will be light yea constant clear Light and Peace when all these lower Shadows and Clouds are blown over and gone In the mean while we are sure to have Pardon Favour Life and the blessed Spirit of Life for our relief Our Prayers herein will be granted because we have a bountiful and faithful Promise for it and our Surety ready to make it good Here we are Soldiers but shall overcome through the victorious Blood of the Lamb and his Presence with us through Darkness and Light through Life and Death the Issue will be Victory through him who hath loved us Oh let the Children of Zion rejoyce in their King c. 1664. To B. J. D. N o 77. OUr Relation to each other require not only mutual Remembrance but now and then a Line or two to signifie the same As for News whatever I see or hear I write but little but would employ my thoughts and time in the best way of improvement that I can Time runs out apace with both of us the Redemption of it in order to Eternity will be found the best Wisdom What perilous times the last days will bring forth has been told us already 2 Tim. 3. 1. amongst which a dry heartless form of Godliness instead of sincere power is marked as the Mode of the last times Happy is that Soul that shall be enabled to escape those Rocks and Sands where many are like to split or run aground If God be pleased to conquer our hearts into an ingenious Resignation to his gracious Will and wise Providence and make room enough for his Authority to reign there we shall be more than Conquerors as to other difficulties The Truths we have heard concerning Christ and the way of Life by him being truly realized and become in good earnest of a transforming Power into our Souls that and that only will at length land us on a safe Shoar Let us search much pray and give serious Welcome to the Spirit of Christ our Head and the end of our work will be Peace c. 1664. To B. D. N o 78. WE must always cling upon our strong Refuge our Life our Peace present and eternal Blessedness lies in his hand and under his Covenant and Seal to give forth You are much upon my thoughts that you may be kept sincere and hold the things you have heard and received Let nothing dismay you preserve your Intercourse with Jesus Christ with all watchfulness he will provide things needful in their best season Wait on God creep to Heaven and God will order these outward
is most wise creep into him as near as you can and be assured the nearer you creep thither the better welcome and the more will your heart be composed The good hand of the Lord be with you c. 1667. To B. D. N o 86. I Do begin to long after a Line or two more from you how it stands as to your inward Man for that part is oft on my heart concerning you The Lord is favourable to me I have both the visitation of his favourable Frowns and Smiles and his Frowns are very wholsome for he never leaves me nor breaks so much as one Clause of his Covenant for his mercy endureth for ever I and my Family are in health I may say The Lord is my Shephard I shall not want any good thing Our God is a sweet Portion and Heaven a perfect Rest let us spring upwards and all will be well Your condition is often and sometimes solemnly presented by us before the Lord Who is a God hearing Prayer 'T is a comfort to me to think you are in his hands and that he will assuredly guide you by his Counsel until he has brought you to Glory I commend you to his care and kindness c. 1667. To J. A. N o 87. I Always perceive your friendly respect to me for which I return you many thanks As for the former part of your Letter there remaineth nothing on my thoughts that needeth any Apology from you for I never found your Lines any other than the meer proceed of Integrity and entire Affection towards me and therefore always very acceptable and the rather because they do not only leave Conviction upon me being privy to the burthen of mine own evil heart I groan under but are also by way of spur a good and weighty motive to stir up my Soul to pursue the harder after that Mark which I should and do daily long to attain unto Poor Worms as we are may hear and behold one another sometimes with some moral and affectionate Impressions but Oh what an influential Object is Jesus Christ who when yearningly beheld transforms the Soul into the same likeness and indeed the Graces of his Spirit in his People also improved through the Communication of the head have great force through that Communication to quicken one another All this tends to exalt that Fountain of Life and Grace in Christ that feeds all the Streams with its own vertue And blessed be for ever the God of all Grace that has called you and I into that glorious Fellowship and Communion To him we may complain and be pitied in him we may boast and can never exceed there Affection may be inflamed without danger for he infinitely surmounts all our love and all our praises into whose gracious Arms my dar Friend I commend you c. 1668. To B. D. N o 88. WE see how uncertain things below are but our Interest in the unchangeable Covenant of Grace will never fail nor deceive us that still you may say the Lord is good and every thing will work together for good if we let not go our Confidence The good and gracious God spread his Wing over you and direct and manage your Concernments for you You are much upon my heart praying that you may have the presence of God preserving and supporting your heart and ordering your Affairs I can commend you to him as one whom he is pleased through Christ to own within the rich sweet and precious Covenant of his Grace and whom he will care for and never leave till you are fully freed from every heart-oppressing care Therefore in the midst of all Cloudy Dispensations rouse up Faith and so pass through till you arrive at the Port of true Rest where the Fore-runner is entred for you There is a Rock which is not capable of Concussion A believing heart well digesting the 46th Psalm may behold Terrour without dismaying dread An unchangeable God is still the same Refuge in the midst of all other Changes To that Rock I commend you 1668. To C. E. D. N o 89. I Apprehend it a providential favour of God to me who gave me an opportunity of seeing my dear Cousin your Husband before the Lord removed him hence that I might have some fresh taste of the frame of his Soul when he stood upon the brink of Eternity ready to lanch forth I know it is an afflicting Providence to you to be deprived of the Society of so dear a Relation after you had so long enjoyed the Endearment of each others Affections and had passed through many afflicting Dispensations together in this Vale of trouble and had also I doubt not many joynt Applications to God praying together and according to the ability which God gave endeavouring to promote each others spiritual and everlasting Welfare But herein there is matter of Consolation and thankfulness to God not only that he lent you this choice Comfort through so many years of your Pilgrimage but that he caused you to see his faithfulness and goodness in carrying this your dear Husband through to the end of his spiritual Warfare and that God preserved him from staining his Profession in the eyes of the World and has rendred the remembrance of him precious amongst his People and fulfilled his Word touching him Mark the righteous Man and behold the upright c. And what though he be taken out of our sight for a little time there is no reason to repine that the Lord hath seen it good to take him into the Vision and perfect Fruition of himself among the Blessed as he hath given us ground to be fully persuaded and has now put an end to his troubles and disquiets has healed his aches cured his diseases and removed his pains of Body translated him from this World where he is yet pleased to leave you for a further exercise of your faith and patience And now what remains but that you gird up the Loyns of your Mind to run the remainder of your own Race And while you are here in time breath after the same eternal Rest rejoycing amidst all Trials and believing that our faithful and gracious God who has begun his good Work in your heart will never cease till he hath carried you through and landed you safe beyond all temptation sin and sorrow Into the hands of this gracious God I commend you c. 1668. To M. S. N o 90. I Am loath to omit the giving you a Line or two by my dear Sister who is this Morning turning over one Leaf more of her wandring Pilgrimage God is pleased so to order it that methinks I can hear little from any of my dear Friends but stories of worldly perplexity and who are they who are one way or other without their share therein This Life is like a troublesome Dream but blessed are they who when once the Dream is out and when once they come to awake shall be satisfied with realities of true
make it blossom when he please He that hath given us himself will not with-hold what is truly good from us All his Methods are lovely to a believing Eye Let us soar above and disown all other Comforts that contradict our Communion with him The Riches of free Grace and that blessed Interest in Christ doth sparkle sweetliest in a tastless dark World I have no greater thing to say to my own Soul or yours than this Let us chuse God in Christ for our Portion and exceeding Joy and then we shall have not only enough but our Cup will run over With my dearest Affections and true Love to your self and cordial Respects to all other Friends c. 1669. To M. D. N o 99. IT can never go ill while the Door of Access is by Christ's own hand kept open to converse with God and some favour this way he is pleased now and then to grant me The Concernments of his glorious Name do call for our greatest Solicitude and though I am now wandring up and down I desire still to bear that more tenderly upon my heart I hope our Prayers meet every day at the same Throne of Grace Let that Trade go on and other things will do well enough I see serious Persons have weighty thoughts about the present Providences of God towards us I have you much upon my heart Feed upon the Grace of the Gospel every day and pray for me that I may do so too c. 1669. To M. D. N o 100. MY heart will not suffer my hand to be quiet unless I take every opportunity to render my self as present with you as I can methinks the savour of Christianity in this place among many I converse with is like the smell of a field which God hath blessed Cherish whatever may render the Love of Christ predominant in your heart I think my heart hath felt the good of yours and others Prayers and I hope God has begun by what I hear to answer his Peoples Prayers for his Church Oh that he may go on and fill their Mouths with Praise I have no more but my choicest Affections to your dear self c. 1669. To B. D. N o 101. I Have heard by Mr. D. that you have been lately sick but yet recovering I doubt not but you always wait and prepare for your Change and are through Grace ready for it We see the mutability of all Terrene things but an Interest in an unchangeable Covenant of Grace will not fail nor deceive all such as are comprised in it who may always say the Lord is good and every thing will work together for good for us if we let not go our Confidence Seeing the Providence of God hath so ordered my Condition that I must while Health and Life continue have my hand in some endeavours for necessary Supply I am still waiting upon his Blessing in that way which he was pleased to direct me unto and I may say with Jacob God hath sed me all my life long and 't is safe and comfortable resting on his Arm. I commend your Person and Affairs to our most wise God to dispose guide and manage I know you need much Faith Wisdom Patience and Self-denial to carry you through but you have a strong Refuge still to flee unto and be accepted And there I leave you c. 1669. To S. M. N o 102. AFter much languishing Weakness the Lord was pleased to remove hence by Death Mr. H. D. much lamented by many He gave good evidence of his Interest in the unchangeable Covenant before his last Change came and so left a good savour behind him We have enjoyed much freedom here for some time but what times we are reserved for we know not but our times are in God's hand who seems to call upon us all to remember that this World is not our resting place and therefore we are still to prepare for fresh difficulties and the hurries and uncertainties here below should be as a Spur in our sides to our motion towards the Land of Rest and that purchased and promised Freedom for which the whole Creation groaneth Blessed are those disquiets that rouze the Soul thither for true Rest and Ease The Lord help us among all other business here to mind Eternity and be always ready that whensoever God please to summon us hence by Death it may not be as an uncomfortable Surprize c. 1669. To J. L. N o 103. I Desire that ancient Affection between us may never die though distance of Habitation has put us for a long time far asunder I have lived upon the care of my God hitherto and may say of him as Jacob did He has fed me all my life to this day and I have his Promise also for the future and faithful is he that hath promised Let us both have still a fresh pursuit after the chiefest good kept alive and growing more and more in our Souls c. 1670. To M. D. N o 104. I Know I am upon your heart and in your prayers as you are in mine Present my affectionate Respects to Mr. Br. and tell him I desire his serious Remembrance of me before the Lord and the like I desire of every praying Friend Be not anxious concerning the present Providence our times and every Case of ours are all in the hands of God to him let our Requests be made known and every thought composed in believing on him who hath said All things shall work together for good to them that love him as I hope in some measure of truth we do With utmost Affections to your self c. The good hand of the Lord be with you c. 1670. To M. D. N o 105. HOw many experiences doth God give us day after day of his Pity and Love and Oh that our hearts may be raised up to adore and love him again which is the principal Thankfulness that we are able to shew Be careful in nothing but let Faith and Prayer breath forth every Anxiety of Soul into the wise and gracious dispose of God and in him centre with a holy recumbent Acquiescence of heart 'T is a profitable sweet necessity to be forced upon the naked Arm of God and that he alone becomes the Stay and only Retirement of the Soul c. The Grace Power Wisdom and Faithfulness of God never becomes admired till we improve them in all Cases This is the Mark I aim at this is a most secure delightful Pasture to feed in when the World seems to be a barren Wilderness and the things thereof wither I commend you for Health Comfort and Preservation to my gracious God he is our Father and hath a Fathers heart and a Fathers care I hanker after my peculiar Station and to be amongst those dear Friends from whom I am at present separated by distance of place though not in Affection I remember them as God enables me in my daily Addresses and I know I am remembred by them
Lord's Vineyard Dear Cousin the Lord is pleased to use many ways and means to cause us to make the utmost improvement of Seasons and Opportunities of Grace and gives many Motives thereto amongst which this is one that the Prophets do not live for ever and therefore he requires us to make speed while the day of Grace and while the time of Life continues that we may not be found naked and unready when our Summons from hence by Death shall be sent us I have not arrived to the length of your days but the effects of old Age are much upon me and the shadows of the Evening have begun to appear therefore as it is always so especially it is needful for you and I that are almost at the utmost bounds of our time to look into and much to strive after the real and essential parts of Godliness which lies much in this viz. To ponder the Corruption of our own Nature and the Contradiction that it stands in against the pure Nature of God and his revealed Will till we arrive at such a Self-Abhorrence and Dispondence of any Relief which we can derive from whatever we are or whatever we can do as of our selves that we may betake our selves entirely and perfectly to the Grace revealed in Christ casting our Anchor of Hope there and there only flying to the Merits of Christ and his single Righteousness in the vertue and under the Covering whereof to appear before him when all Flesh shall stand and receive their unalterable Sentence that then we may have the comfortable Happiness of that good Word There is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ I cannot at present add more only this Let none of your past or present Troubles of what kind soever hinder your rejoycing in your gracious God and Saviour who hath fed you all your Life long and will be your God and your Guide and as I am abundantly persuaded you will find him according to all that he hath promised your exceeding great Reward when the days of Rest and endless Refreshing shall come I commit you to the gracious Guidance of God and the comfortable Fellowship and Communion of his Holy Spirit I pray for you and desire to be remembred also by you in your Prayers unto the God of all Grace even our own God and Father Under whose Wing I desire to leave you and remain c. 1681. To C. E. D. N o 129. GOd has been pleased to continue your Life unto a great length of days and though your outward Man hath been withering yet blessed be God I perceive your inward Man hath been assisted by his good Spirit hitherto to make a happy Voyage to the Haven of true Rest The Lord in Mercy accompany you through the remaining part of your Voyage till you enter safely into the Harbour and be setled in the Mansions which Christ is gone before to prepare for you I have my self much Infirmity of Body and am in daily Combat with the Corruption and Vileness of my own heart from which I hope through the Riches of free Grace to be ere long delivered and I have an abundant hope as to the same concerning your self Cast your eye upon the great Mediator roll your self upon him for he will never leave you nor forsake you One days Communion with God without all Sin in that Heavenly Country will make you full amends for all the difficulties you have passed through in your earthly Pilgrimage And though I am not like to see you in this World I hope through the Grace of the everlasting Covenant to see you where there will be neither Sin nor old Age c. to molest either you or me any more Dear Cousin the Arms of Divine Love Grace and Mercy be continually embracing you I can now add no more but do commend you into the hands of that God whose I am persuaded you are and whom you serve My affectionate Respects to your self and all your Relations and that Seed of God which he hath been pleased to plant in your Neighborhood I remain your affectionate Kinsman and Brother in Christ c. 1682. To B. D. N o 130. I Received yours from Tunbridge Wells c. and I think those who advise you to be as little thoughtful as you can while you drink the Waters do give you friendly Advice It may much concur to your health to be rather chearful than to be serious in the use of them for I know you have that matter within you through the Riches of Grace to render you chearful in the Lord. We must remember our Bodies as well as our Souls are redeemed and the very Body of a Believer is Christ's more than his own and what you do for the support of the meer Body is acceptable to God and especially under that Infirmity which you chiefly went thither for The Lord bless the Means which his Providence hath directed you to and be always with your Spirit c. Speeches and Prayers of Mr. Henry Dorney in his last Sickness from the 11th of March 1682 3. to the 25th of April following when he died being the Seventieth Year of his Age. I Am passing and I long to pass meaning through Death O Faith Faith that would bring down Heaven to Earth and carry the Soul up to Heaven I would willingly go out of Self and place the Soul wholly in God he calls me to come away saying Come up hither To a Friend asking whether Satan troubled him he answered No not at all Christ doth not suffer him so much as to peep in To the same saying What Counsel would you give us His Answer was Give up your selves to God perfectly Walk in the purest strictest closest Converse with him Be in the Life and Power of Holiness and that will Steel the Soul against all Temptations and Difficulties And let things be transacted throughly betwixt God and the Soul as if you were to appear presently at the Bar of Christ And let this be done incessantly To the same again asking Sir God seems to deny his Blessing upon the Means for your Recovery and you are not like to continue long with us He replied Blessed be the Lord Blessed be the Lord It is some Refreshment to me to think that the comfortable Minute of my sliding off is so near at hand The Saints and People of God that ever lived besides Enoch and Elijah pass'd through Death and it is needful it should be so for then all Dirt and Filth will be carried off And to one speaking to him of a good Conscience he said Ah how many are there that are now laying in Matter that will be one day wringing of hands and distress of heart unto them O my unchangeable God blessed be his Name that ever he treated with me and that he gave me time and Grace to transact things betwixt him and me and though now I can do little I am persuaded he loves me because he hath made
me to love him I have received a Sentence of Death in my self and I wholly acquiesce in God's Will therein yet if it please him that I should live any longer I desire it may be with greater Spirituality and more in the Life and Power of Holiness for I would not live one moment longer than that I may signifie something for in the Case I am in I signifie very little I am in Deaths often and which will be the concluding one I know not He farther took occasion to complain of the Formality and unedifying Walk of Christians their not pressing on to spiritual things their not savouring of the things of God when they meet one with another exhorting them that were then present that they would more value Converse with such as are truly Godly For said he if I am of another Country I should value the Society of those of the same Country As when I was in France when I saw an English Man I presently fell in with him and was glad to discourse him of the things relating to our own Country Now those that obey the high Gospel-Call they enter into another Country out of the Power of Satan into Christ's Kingdom and their Converse should be with respect to their glorious Country and that there ought to be open-heartedness in the Spirit of Grace and a Communication of some good thing when and where-ever they meet with each other And with respect to a particular Congregation he prayed for them viz. The Lord keep them in the Faith of the Gospel and in a mighty Union one with another and that they may have God's Appearance in his own Power to keep that Limb of Christ alive saved from Division and Pollution have Wisdom and Truth in the inward parts that they may be a sweet Bundle unto God c. March 16. To one that came to visit him he began to weep but presently checked himself saying These are not the Tears of Grief but of Weakness and Debility or rather Tears of Joy I am very sick but I have no sorrow I would be uncloathed that I might be cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life And Oh that it might be now now March 17. To one saying to him Sir you are going to Heaven before us which will be your gain but our loss He responded If my gain thereby were not a thousand times more than your loss it were an inconsiderable thing the Change which the Scripture speaks of but however My God will supply all your needs Phil. 4. 19. He further said I am as a Traveller that sees my Home a little before me which makes my Evening a sweet Morning to me To one taking leave of him he said The Lord's Blessing be upon you we here take leave one of another but shortly there will be no more taking leaves and the next Visit on the other side of the Voyage will be with another kind of Lustre March 19. He desired that Job 14 ch and Isa 32 ch might be read to him which being done he said I am going toward the Bars of Death blessed be the Lord yet a little while c. And demanding what of the Clock it was It being told him said How slow do the hours pass I speak as one that would fain have time to pass I would fly out of Time And to another speaking of the Joys of Heaven he was drawing near unto he said I would be in them I would be in them To a Friend that was to watch with him that night he said You are come to give me your helping hand your Christian hand at the going over the last Style I thank you I know that there is a Glory that will follow this Darkness March 20. He then spake saying The Grave is ready for me and I for it blessed be God and Oh with what welcome is it to me How do I delight in it Oh the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and God the Judge of all and the Spirits of Just Men made persect that I am going to be with Christ hath stopp'd the Mouth of the roaring Adversary meaning Satan that he doth not encumber me in the least and though I have the same matter within me as others have yet Christ holds him fast that he hath no power at all to trouble me March 21. Speaking to a Friend he said I am like one hurrying towards the Head-Quarters I long vehemently to be gone out of this present state and that God would say unto me Come away Come away Come up hither March 22. In the Morning he desired Joh. 3 ch to be read and at those words concerning the Change of a new born Soul he said There lies the Touch. And at the two last verses he said There is the Clinch After that he proceeded to speak to this effect viz. Ever since the Lord in his free Grace took hold of my heart I have had a sincere Reach after him and a Love to him and I have not dallied with him I have in some measure walked before him in truth now these scores of years and he hath made me to find no ease nor to take any rest any where but in himself and in being near to him and what I have done all along hath been in truth and with an upright heart God and I we were both agreed he mine and I his his Concerns I took to be my Concerns and mine were his and I could never take Content in any thing but in him I could get no comfort in any Duty in any Prayer in any Ordinance but in getting nigh to him in resigning up my self to him in closing with him and in having my Soul brought over to his Will March 24. He said I know the Lord minds me I can do but little but yet I love him 1683. March 26. He said What a poor pitiful thing is a dying Creature There is no Death in dying one good lift would set me free from all March 27. Then he said I am useless as one out of the World I cannot manage thoughts March 31. Finding himself very weak he spake saying Thus a poor Life expires blessed be God I am as an Hireling drawing towards the Evening of the day What shall I say When when when when With his eyes looking upwards April 3. He said thus I have layen so many days and so many nights and the days have been even as nights to a poor dead thing but I believe all is in love in tender love I have been taught in the Gospel God's free Grace in Christ and I fasten and cling on that which is all I can do I languish in pain here are all the tokens of a Dissolution and yet no Dissolution and how long the Lord may continue me thus I know not but the Lord is wise To some Friends near him he said I desire you to pray to the Lord for me that he would
let them be glorious in this World in Holiness and be bound up with thee for ever in the Covenant of Grace into which thou hast called them Let my poor Friends that have loved me and have seen but little Grace something it may be they have seen through thy Goodness Oh be with them and make them grow abundantly Let thy Glory arise hasten it let the Kingdom of Christ be exalted Oh that the days of this Darkness may be blown away and let there be a mighty coming in of Truth Holiness Sincerity and spiritual Light and Manifestation that there may be a mighty Child-like Spirit in all thy Children I desire all these Petitions in truth Let thy People be the Wisdom the Truth the Joy of the Earth Be with me and be with all thine and this I beg in the Lord Jesus Let thy good Spirit come upon all thine Oh glorifie thy self now and ever Oh let thy good Will be done Oh let thy own Will be done Let my Will follow thy Will as the Thread follows the Needle and let it be so eternally Let my Soul believe every word that thou hast spoken shall be accomplished Thou wilt never leave till thou hast made thy Name conspicuous and all thy People rejoyce Oh why why why may not the slow coming on now make haste Oh why may not the Growth of spiritual Wisdom be sprouting forth with great Improvement as being the very Operation of the Spirit Why may not Love to thee come and damp all other Loves Why may not the Observation of thy Love thou shewest me be powerful and transforming of my Soul Why should I lie back Lord I am not sanctified at the rate thou usest means for the same Oh that I might have more of the Spirit much much more and may see the Power of God from Heaven mightily changing me Oh let not thy Spirit be wanting Oh let Truth and Power be given in O God fill the World with thy Spirit that thy work may be done tidily tidily Oh let there be a nearness between thee and the Souls of thy People Oh that never that dull Spirit in Religion may come into the World again a God-provoking Temper of Soul Oh that thy People may judge of their love to thee by the very Out-goings of their Souls to thee and account nothing a Token of Love to thee unless the Soul be as it were in some Surprizes of being thine joyned to thee perfectly as if it were about to be carried out of the World I have been a withered dry Branch Oh hasten a Spring-time in one World or another Thou hast given me Truth in the inward parts I bless thee but there is no Answer answerably I wait now I wait every day and every night a poor Waiter I am O Lord be found Oh let God be glorified Oh that I might see Religion to be something I have professed Religion scores of Years one after another and yet to have got no more of the Glory of the Grace of that Religion methinks doth import that the Devil hath a strange debilitating power but God is pleased to leave him to put a slur upon the Glory of Christ's Church in the Life of Grace and to make the ways of God seem not so exceeding different from the way of Flesh as it is and all this for Trial and all this for Shame when the eyes of the spiritual Mind be a little opened Oh when a little satisfaction is got that there is truth of Grace how doth a seduced Soul nuzzle it self in that that it is safe and doth not make out for a great Progress in Grace and Holiness And if God should leave that Soul at last under those terrible Trials that may arise from thence it may shake and put it into a terrible Consternation Alas never can I fly too far from that devouring Lion never can I fly too soon April 16. Ah sweet Grave where I shall not need any cooling Drink Being spoken to from a near Friend viz. I hope the Lord will give you in of himself some such Prospect as he did to Stephen when he was leaving the World He replied I have a little sight of him and I find no dark passage to the enjoyment of him To another Friend he said He that hath you by the hand will never leave you To a near Relation he spake thus Say to your Soul I have a Fountain that will never dry up My Lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place yea I have a goodly Heritage There should be frequent fondnesses between God and us as Children towards their Parents He farther declared that though he had an earnest desire to be gone hence yet if the Lord pleased he could be content and willing to be the last Man in the Brunt of Suffering for his sake and Name in this World or words to that effect Again he spake saying O Lord come quickly come quickly answer me by thy self My wise God is still pleased to continue me though there are no signs of a Reserve for further Service to him in this World I bless the Lord for his Goodness towards me The Consolation of God is no small thing it is no small thing it is strong Consolation the Consolation of Christ is a great thing April 17. A Friend taking his leave of him saying that he was going to visit a Person of Honour he spake to this effect Pray remember me to my Lord and tell him that I am an Expectant hoping for a Meeting where we may dwell for ever April 18. In the Morning he spake saying O Lord how do I pass through nights and days O wise God and dost thou speaking to himself account him so Lord make me to account thee wise and good Lord pardon me and receive me O happy day that is coming O blessed day that is coming I pass through Death unto eternal Life After that he said The Captive shall return there will be no Captivity O sweet Redemption Much of our Heaven here lies but in a little talk about it and when we speak a word of it we have scarce a Thought suitable to the greatness of it Some space after he fetch'd a deep Groan and with his eyes lifted up and his Right hand stretched forth as if the pains of death were upon him he said Sharp and welcome Sharp and welcome And a while after he said praying Lord let me not die with any Guilt upon me but leave it all behind Oh let not any Sin remain in me unrepented of Let not any Concurrence with the least Guilt be in me Let there be upon my Will an edge of Hatred against every Sin Create it in me now Thou canst make me to delight in that that is contrary to my own Will Oh let thy Will be pleasing to me and let my Will be every way according to thy Will Let not the Agonies of Death be too terrible let not the Surge of it be too
kept up a rare thirst through his goodness after him and a delight in the ways of his communications But I would not it is not for me to speak these things you should be vain in your own conceit But go on I see the Foundation laid he will never leave you be at rest And now study the great mystery of the Gospel of which you have a large notion but I would have you turn every notion into a practical work a practical acting into a practical use I would have you turn it all and labour to do it every day that what you believe may be so to you as substance and not Air and the Lord will visit you and help you Your Nature is timorous and fearful but God coming in to fill your Soul with Faith and fill Faith with powerful workings you will have a great Friend at every turn to be for you to be with you for you will be able to trust God when you see not why nor wherefore to trust to his promise c. His Speech and Charge to his only Child was as followeth MARY I and you must part I and you must part I leave you behind me in the World and my Prayer to God is to keep my child to teach my child to keep you and to make your heart to be full of love to spiritual things that you may not be befooled of your Soul that you may not be befooled of Heaven that you may not perish like a Fool. And I charge you I charge you I charge you in the name of God who is your Judge that you hearken attentively to all the Counsel of your Dear Mother and do not play it away bable and trifle it away see you do it for your everlasting good and concernment and be obedient to her and do not only be fondling but hearken seriously to her Counsel and take it in MARY come to me that I may give you one Kiss I am about to kiss you and this Kiss must be a witness of my true desire of your good I Kiss you in love and my very Kiss will be a witness against my Child if you do not tread in the steps of your PARENTS such as you have observed to be good O my dear Child be not careless therein I leave you now to the conduct of him who is my conducter To a Christian Friend who said we must be willing to part with you you have a Pisga-sight of Canaan he replied I think I am at the very end and yet I do not go out all the day long I am thirsting O blessed be my God I am perswaded he will perform all that concerneth me To another Christian Friend at his taking leave of him he said thus I expect again to see you and an innumerable company more of Saints c. He further spake with respect to his languishing Body If I could have something or other to refresh my Body if the Lord saw it fit but the whole Earth I think is insufficient for it April 25. This day being Wednesday which proved the day of his Death in the Morning he spake to a dear Friend a Minister saying The blessing of the everlasting Gospel be upon you the Lord be with you And about Eleven of the Clock he began to Change having several Agonies and between them he desired to be prayed for saying Lift up a Prayer for me and speak that I may hear you For whatsoever ye shall ask on Earth shall be granted in Heaven let then the Earth be full of Prayer And coming out of another fit said Hitherto hath the Lord helped me I am in the hand of God I am in his hand and under his promise the end of this affliction is in the hand of my God the Lord enable me to abide his Will And the 5th Fit or Agony which was ' twixt four and five of the Clock in the Afternoon he in that Breathed out his Soul into the Arms and Embraces of his dear Lord and Redeemer retaining his senses to the last for even a little before his Decease his Wife asking him how he did he answered with great composure I am almost Dead and desired to be lifted up a little higher which were the last words he spake and a few moments preceding his Departure he opened wide his Eyes and immediately closed them again and so Expired FINIS ERRATA PAge 7. line 16. read see for let p. 10. l. 26. dele and p. 29. l. 32. r. person for perso p. 35. l. 8. del word of the p. 61. l. 8. r. Vail for Vale p. 62. l. 9. r. therein for thereon p. 63. l. 15. r. very for ve p. 70. l. 3. r. converse for dally p. 100. l. 5. r. expatiating for expiating p. 104. l. 34. del he p. 124. l. 28. add him p. 143. l. 15. r. hast for has p. 160. l. 18. add he p. 188. l. 1. r. means for mens p. 203. l. 19. r. floweth for followeth p. 213. l. 14. r. clouds for glouds p. 306. l. 11. r. heart for heat p. 313. l. 5. r. omnipotent for omnipent p. 328. l. 23. r. the for lhe p. 327. l. 3. add not And for any other literal Errors or false Pointings which are very few and inconsiderable the Reader is desired to Correct
feeble but Millions of Sins Cares Fears and Disquiets fly before one hearty Closure with Christ his Power and Grace by Faith If Christ in the Soul saith I AM HE whole Troops of Adversaries fall backwards Difficulties vanish and desponding Consultations of Unbelief in our Flesh fly as Dust before the Wind and that because our Redeemer is strong though we are weak Methinks sometimes 't is pity that we should hear so much read so much spoke or writ to each other so ordinarily of this certain real Refuge and yet account it not more real What a thing is this that Christ hath engaged that not one of his shall be able to lose what he purchased and bequeathed for them Such a good Will and free Grace that our Sins shall never be able to sin away no more than they can be able to sin away Christ from the Right Hand of his Father for were it otherwise we were undone every moment Who is it that maintains any Thirst after him that enables poor Dust and Ashes to conflict against all the powers of Darkness and of weak sometimes becomes strong Who is it that maintains any indignation against the Law of our Flesh that is in our Members but he who hath overcome in his own Person and will shortly tread down Satan under our feet also and is hastning the day when the last Enemy shall be destroyed and every Sigh and Tear removed Let us comfort our hearts in this and pray for each other that we may as good Soldiers of Jesus Christ fight this good Fight of Faith laying hold on Eternal Life and so surmount the Miseries of a present evil World c. Pray present my hearty Respects to your Daughter whose Soul I know is labouring in this Work c. 1661. To B. D. N o 57. THe Lord direct our Course the Waves will allay the Calm is coming our Pilot is skilful our God unchangeably gracious he is infinitely pure and will never leave till our filth be done away that we may be like him and bear Likeness to him to all Eternity Plunge through as well as you can never say your hope is lost and your Judgment is passed over by your God Our Bottom is good our Redeemer is strong and there I leave you c. 1661. To S. D. N o 58. THe Lord is yours if you are willing to be his and I doubt not but that is your desire and aim Stand up in the midst of all your Dumps and Trials and venture one Halelujah to him that rides upon the Heavens for your help yea in the thickest of your doubts about Soul or Body do but cast a wishly eye to him who hath swallowed up all manner of Deaths in Victory and you shall overcome and rise above the Waves because he is risen It may be you may little think how it chears the heart of Christ to see you sit down and sing a Psalm of Praise for all his Loving-kindnesses in the midst of Worldly Darkness Measure not spiritual and eternal things by those that are for a moment Do not wrong the Wisdom of God your Father by repining against the Instruments and the Events of his Providence Let your design be how to fortifie each others Faith and Joy and never ask Counsel of Flesh and Blood in the business Read over the 46th Psalm and make it yours by Meditation and Prayer Dear Sister fare you well in the Lord hasten Heavenwards and count all things else but trifles that you may finish your Course with joy Let the same Mind be in you as was in Christ who emptied himself to do the Will of his Father for saving such poor Sinners as you and I when he might have enjoyed all the Glory of the World he refused it and wandred up and down despised of Men. Love the Foot-steps of the Captain of your Salvation and whenever your heart boils up any sinful disquiets carry your heart and your disquiets to the Lord and beg of him to judge them and give you the new heart he promised in Ezek. 36. 26. The good Will the heart-refreshing Peace and Comfort of a dear Father a dear Redeemer and the dear and blessed Spirit be with you Blessed he blessed she that overcomes and blessed be the Son of God that hath undertaken we shall overcome in his Victory Once more farewel fear not only believe 1661. To B. D. N o 59. I Perceive your Family is still visited The God of the Spirits of all Flesh knows what Scourges are most suitable for them whom he designs for Glory Honour and Eternal Life among whom I trust you and your Yoak-fellow are enrolled There is hope that good lies in the bottom when the heart is drawn the more to seek resign up to and wait patiently for the Salvation of God to a delightful thought of the Appearance of Christ and your gathering to him the whole World cannot purchase one quarter of an hours free Access to God If he draws and drives the heart to himself let us bless and love him whatever means he useth to bring it about I desire to bless the Lord that you are striving to trace the steps of that Faith that believed under hope above hope such Faith such Hope will never return ashamed I am strugling with the same difficulties and none can help me but the faithful Promiser who is able to quicken his Word to me and soaken my heart to mix it with Faith As you write he has not been a barren Wilderness to you which is unspeakable Grace so I have often found and therefore I have hope that at length he will perfect the design of favour and pity upon such a poor Worm Lord help you and me to find Fountains in the Valley of Baca till the last Sourge be over and every Tear removed We have no other way now to communicate with each other but in Prayers and Faith Affections and Letters Letters indeed may miscarry but no earthly Obstruction can hinder the three former Faith and Prayer flies invisibly and Christian Affections also As for my self the Lord is every day forcing my Soul to look out more after the mysterious privilege of his most absolute free Grace in Christ There the wearied find Rest the polluted finds purity and the dejected find there an Anchor of Hope Sometimes I am confounded in mine own thoughts and my Prayers rather shame me than comfort me then I stand still and look for the Salvation of God only He sends his naked Arm out of the thick Cloud and creates some Beam of Light and Refuge which makes a Pilgrim sing in a Land of darkness He seems to be gone sometimes but returns again He withdraws but never bids farewell utterly He suffers me sometimes to tumble in mine own filth but brings me to the Laver again to the Fountain opened to the House of David c. for Sin and Uncleanness His unchangeable Purpose and Grace holds its Course as the
Sun and therefore poor Worms are never undone though never so low Could I more actually resign up to his Will and read that Golden Line of his Love that runs within every Providence of his and in every part of his Discipline and put my Seal to it how might I triumph and say O Sin where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Death He dasheth earthly Comforts that himself might comfort alone he suffers Corruption to swell and rage that he may appear to be the only mighty Redeemer he glorifies the Excellency of his Word by forcing the Soul thither for Refuge Brother let us be flying into this Ark his Word endures to a thousand Generations we have the same God and no other than what Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses David and Paul had He never left a poor Supplicant nor will do it for the Spirit of Supplication is his own Breath and himself deeply concerned in all the Concernments of his People they are his and their Concernments his also Let us muse this Privilege seriously and glorifie his good Will by Faith and Thankfulness and so rejoyce in believing above hope The Lord be a hiding place to you and me never yield to let him go but let us cling fast by Faith and Hope till he cause Salvation and Light to shine forth out of Obscurity and Comfort all that mourn Glorifie God by Faith Patience and Thankfulness lose not that and you will be no loser though the day be dark the Sun is not down The times of refreshing will come to us and we to them for our Redeemer lives for ever I leave you to that God and remain c. 1661. To S. D. N o 60. THat 's the happiest Man or Woman in the World that can truly hear the voice of God in his Rod. That happy profit I press and long for and that happiness I heartily wish to your self and my Brother that as God hath made you Partners in Affliction you would endeavour to the utmost to support each others Faith and holy Patience in a stormy day Afflictions be they what they will can never make you miserable Nothing makes the Rod tedious but unwarrantable vexations of Spirit and in days of trouble that is the usual Temptation and there is no such Cure as the naked sight of God's wise disposing hand If there have been any misgiving thoughts between you about future Concernments relating to your selves and your Children as under such Surges you have met withal our frailty is very apt unto spread that infirmity before the Lord who is abundant in Pardon Mercy and Truth who can spare the Lives of the rest if he please and will not suffer the Seed of his Servants to be desolate All the Scriptures be full of Counsel and infallible grounds of Consolation yet such is our Carnality Darkness and Unbelief many times that we think the Rock cannot yield Honey and so we gage things by fleshly and worldly Observation and are apt secretly to condemn the Wisdom Goodness and Faithfulness of God before we are aware whereas the only way to find the Pearl of real advantage in the blessed Word is to lay the heart to the Word by an exercise of Faith and then roll the Soul upon the Lord though it seems to be never so much against that Sense and Reason which Flesh and Blood is always dictating to us Dear Sister I must confess I travel under a treacherous heart of mine own which is ever betraying away my Peace my Strength my Faith and Hope and that is my daily burthen but I never come before the Lord with any openness and unfeigned Resignation to him for Pardon and Succour in vain I am somewhat a Partner with you in the Temptations and Waves of a present World but cannot call it dismal so long as God doth in some measure steer my Course in any sincerity after him Let us provoke one another to this and the Storm will be over the day will break and the darksome shadows will flee away or we shall flee through or flee beyond them for faithful is he that hath promised 1661. To J. L. N o 61. IT is good to mind our Interest in Christ seriously where-ever we are that when-ever we step out of this World we may step into a better in which dwells none but righteous Inhabitants and righteous things And were it not for this hope how miserable a life would Christianity be but one foretaste of Christ makes a dismal World pleasant That made Paul and Silas sing in their Bonds and John to be ravished in the Spirit in the Isle of Patmos and truly nothing else can do it 'T is our happiness that things which are seen are only temporal but things unseen are eternal I oft think of the comfortable society I had once with you but the Kernel of that which made Society then comfortable lies still safe so long as that Promise holds Loe I am with you alway even to the end of the World I recommend you into the hands of that precious Friend and remain c. 1661. To D. S. N o 62. LEt it be your and my study still to derive mortifying Power from the Grace and Cross of him who was dead and is alive I mean the Lamb who stands before the Throne in the vertue of his own Sacrifice Rev. 5. 6. perpetually to intercede for effectuating all the ends of his Mediation to them who come to God through him Our Prayers winged with faith in Christ and fellow-feeling one of another's troubles may fly faster than Letters can and there is no fear of their miscarriage if once placed by faith in the Mediator's hand The Lord who dwells in Houses not made with hands is the Habitation of his People Let the fulness of all manner of Contentment that is on the other side Jordan so warm our hope and faith that nothing on this side may discompose And Oh that I could dwell more in the view of him who is lifted up to draw all Men to him that so these earthly Affections might be transformed and fetch satiating delight from the place where Christ sits who is even now our life I commend you to him at his Throne let us meet and make merry in the Author of Consolation and our blessed Hope 1662. To D. H. N o 63. TRuly Sister I do sometimes wonder at the sottishness of my heart that can be so affected with the Christian tender Respects of a dear Friend and yet have no more flames of Affection to the Fountain of all Love and Loveliness Methinks nothing makes any Friend truly excellent in my thoughts but Grace and the Inhabitation of Christ there And if a Beam of his Grace creates a delightful Aspect where-ever it pitches how excellent for Perfection is Jesus Christ himself Sometimes our hearts are apt to fancy Christ as if he were humoursome revengeful as if he would make the worst of things and not the better sometimes
Peace and Comfort in the Fountain of Freedom and Goodness We find our comforts and expectations here little better than a Bed of Thorns because this is not the Rest that is designed for the People of God and 't will be some help to us under this disquieting exercise and condition to remember that while we are passing through we are held in the hand of him who has a fellow-feeling of our Case who did once pass through the difficulties and drank of the Brook in the way but now lifts up his head and so is become the Foundadation of our Hope that such poor Wretches as we are shall one day through saith and patience arrive where our Fore-runner is entred Only let us now cling upon him till we become transformed into his Likeness and be compleatly dressed with the white Robe of his Righteousness that in him and only in him we may be found without spot In the mean space let us pray and abound therein for our selves and one another to our gracious God who will at length perfect that which concerneth us To him I commend you c. 1668. To T. M. P. N o 91. I Put you both together in my Letter because I have understood that you are now no longer two but one I was very glad to hear that all your prudential Demurs had at last resolved themselves into a Consummation of this long intended Union My hearty desire for you both is that the Blessing and Guidance of the Lord may render your mutual Society a real and constant Comfort to each other and mutual advantage in reference to all Soul-Concernments There is no Condition in this World so desirable but is attended with Temptations and Trials and therefore 't is needful as you have given your selves to each other so also that you give up your selves particularly and joyntly as Yoke-fellows together unto the sweet Yoak and belessed Will of our Lord Jesus Christ One of the greatest Resemblances that we find in Scripture whereby the Love of Christ is set forth to Believers is this state of Marriage And whatever Content therefore you find in this changed Condition let it steer your thoughts to that glorious Mystery of Christ's espousing our Nature that we might become partakers of the Image of God in him and long for that appearing of his when the full solemnizing of the mystical Marriage betwixt Christ and his Church will come and the Union in all degrees be perfected I commend you to the good hand of the Lord c. 1668. To C. M. P. N o 92. THe Present is to acquaint you that my Cousin J. B. died Tuesday last and was this Evening buried God was pleased to order it so that I had notice of his sickness till after his death which was and is a great trouble to me but I understand Means were not wanting for his Recovery His Master much bewails the loss of so faithful a Servant He had as I understand some darkness upon his Spirit till a little before his death and then uttered as well as he could these words Eye hath not seen nor ear heard c. the things which God hath prepared for them that love him and so died almost immediately and has left a sweet savour behind him and a Warning for us his Friends that we make ready and be not found unprepared when the like Summons come unto us We see by daily experience that Life-time and Health is not in our own keeping and therefore are concerned to improve it well while it continues c. The gracious Presence of the Lord be with you c. 1668. To E. D. N o 93. SInce my former God has been pleased to draw a Cloud upon my poor Family Tuesday last little Tho. fell sick and on Wednesday Morning died and is this day to be buried a great and suddain stroak which doth almost overwhelm my dear Wife who goes up and down lamenting and often crying out that she has sinned away her sweet Babe into the Grave You may see in short how 't is with us at present I need not add more for I know what tender Love your self did bear to this sweet and heart-taking Infant Only I desire both you and my dear Sister and our Friends there to pray for us that this stroak may be blest to us all and that my desolate dear Wife may be guided through her present Confusion of Spirit to the only and right Refuge I delivered her your Letter which was very acceptable and therefore pray write her something again and I desire my Sister would do the same 'T is good to help in time of need Her heart is much broken and my Affliction not a little and I believe it is for some further good that God intends to us both a few Lines from you whom I know she doth dearly value will be very seasonable No Affliction is at present joyous but grievous but afterwards comes the sweet and wholsome Fruit and this is the Portion of them who take hold of the full and sure Covenant and the crucified risen Christ who dies no more There is nothing will so wean Affections hence and from the mischief of Creature-love as the Study of Christ viewing him in the Gospel pondering his excellent Person and his glorious Mediatory Office for us and so pitch the Affections on him to be inflamed with his Love in our own Propriety in him And therefore not only with the Bowels of an Earthly Father but in the Bowels of Jesus Christ I intreat and in his Name do charge you to study and muse day and night the unmeasurable endless Love of God who sent his Son the infinite unwearied and endless Love of Christ who came died rose again and lives for ever to be your only Portion and to make you even you a delightful Portion to him and to render you through the Blood of Sprinkling and the Communion and Influence of that one Spirit of the Father and Son an Object of his Delight and a Monument of his pardoning Grace and his purifying Vertue to all Eternity To him I commend you 1668. To E. D. N o 94. BOth my self and my Wife are very sensible of this sore Storm with which the Lord is pleased to exercise your faith and patience at this time But Christ is in the Vessel and therefore you cannot perish in the Fire and in the Water in every cold and hot fit he is with you and has a tender sense of every jot of your pain and sickness t is a Father's Chastisement and Trial and all his aim is to purifie and fit you for an Object of his eternal delight I know his everlasting Arms are under you and though the Dispensation be dark yet he is doing you good with all his heart according to his Covenant and with all his Soul He enclined your heart of his own Grace to chuse him because he chose you first and will yet chuse you in the Furnace