a Mind towards the Brazen Serpent a flying to the Horns of the Altar and that does the work Oh the Justification through the means of believing and only plain-hearted believing is a strange thing yet not at all difficult where the Anoynting teaches and the Soul be made free by the Spirit from Carnal Quiddities and Complements as the poor believing Woman was who prest to touch the Hem of Christ's Garment without IFS and AND 's The Lord direct all your Paths and make you fruitful in Holiness through believing and fear no evil Fare you well in the Lord for ever 1654. To S. D. H. N o 17. MY Remembrance of you in my heart does not neither ought to bear proportion to my writing I have reason to esteem you an Heir of Blessing and I would gladly when I hear you own believingly and thrivingly the God of your Mercies and rejoyce in your joy as a Member of the same Body of Christ with you Be eyeing what the Redeemer has done what the vertue of his Sacrifice is not what difficult design he attempted unless it be to honour him the more who has overcome all that we can suppose to have most difficulty in it I think it is a matchless Mercy to let our sins of all sorts and aggravations be cast on his Cross with a humble Resignment to him waiting for Salvation and Strength as a penitent Sinner's Portion through Faith The Lord be with you in whom I rest c. 1654. To J. F. N o 18. MY dear Friend I understand by what I hear that you are like to stay some time in England whilst I am detained here and in regard I know your main desire is to serve Jesus Christ in the simplicity of the Gospel I desire the place of your abode and the people you labour amongst may be adapted to such a savoury design I do somewhat doubt that if you are persuaded to some populous City you will be troubled with itching Ears and find some Temptations more vigorous than in a more private Auditory Yet I will not disswade you from what the Call of God doth most apparently incline you to but do desire you may so lanch forth that the Room of those famous Worthies who are swept away may be supplied and the Word of Reconciliation held forth till the Mystery of God be finished And therefore act with all your might whilst the day lasts and remember the distracted Condition of your warfaring Friends Beware of discouragements your work is excellent your labour short your infirmities undertaken by Christ and your Temptations and the Tempter also judged Yours is a Warfare as well as mine blessed be the Captain of our Salvation through whose Blood alone is hope of Conquest And thus commending you to the Lord c. 1655. To S. D. H. N o 19. I Trust you find the Word of God faithful and creating faithfulness also in the Seed thereof in your heart I think this is a true Maxim One deliberate unfeigned desire of perfect Righteousness in Christ is the very fruit of the perfect Righteousness of Christ For who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean but he alone by his creating Power and Love Nourish Faith tenderly and humbly try the Lord's Will and your own heart prize that Faith which puts forward all Grace which takes away discouragement from Mortification and makes it as the Gate of Heaven and Hope of Glory for the Apostle found it so and pleads it just so to us Rom. 6. 5 6 7 8 c. You have a good Guide give him the honour solely to order your heart and way his voice is heard in the Scripture Believe not your own heart or reason against the naked word of Truth In Cases of Scruple or discouragement of any sort give your self the same Counsel as by the Scriptures you would give to another person in the same Case The work of Faith is not to make sin no sin but because of sin to bring the Soul to the Redeemer that the more sin it sees it may the more abhor it and triumph the more in that Grace doth super-abound through a Mediator And here lies the Mystery of Faith the Lord himself has it and you and I shall say we have enough 1655. To D. H. N o 20. SInce God made your heart pant after that World in which dwells Immortality and Righteousness did you ever upon good Grounds judge any earthly Friend a certain Comfort If so then has God by removing your Sister and now by removing your Father witnessed the contrary If you apprehended them as uncertain then why are they not sufficiently repayed in the fatherly respect of an unchangeable God Is it good to be angry with the Lord Do not study to be more sour and melancholy but how to be more holy self-denying and chearful on the account of a freely tendered Covenant rejoycing that shortly you shall take your Journey and go visit your Father your Sister c. and all the Saints since the beginning Never study how to dishonour the nature of the Gospel by a sullen carnal pleading of Self-unworthiness The truth is Self is not worthy to plead but Christ is worthy to be loved and believed and that 's enough If he will love me heal me purge me save me convince me accept me freely why should I be offended at it and say he cannot mean as the Gospel speaks My sullen heart is never broke till Almighty Convincement from God break my heart to powder till that time I play with Melancholy under a kind of vexing delight I trust God will teach you some good Lesson by this Visitation that the knowledge of God in Christ and the knowledge of your heart may be wisely taken in I earnestly desire this that all your thoughts be brought over to a subjection to the good pleasure of God with delight viz. in that good pleasure of his and be thankful for that yet you have an opportunity to honour him by saying and thinking all his ways are Mercy and Truth Though he take to himself your nearest Friends you do them so much right as to rejoyce that they reign though you mourn after your Beloved and long to leave your self that you may love him the better I leave you to him who can and will do more in his love and pity than I or any Friend can do Rejoyce in hope lift up your head the days of your Lamentation is almost ended I remain yours in the fellow-feeling of the same burthen c. 1655. To A. C. N o 21. I Enjoy my health through the goodness of God as yet My Soul has many dry and sapless Seasons many drowsie and fainty Qualms through the deceipt of heart that lies rooted within but yet the Lord cries ever and anon in my ear I am God and I change not therefore thou art not consumed I find it desperately dangerous to set my Reason and Sense in dispute with that which
of Time under the Hope of Eternal Life and through the Goodness of the Lord do yet enjoy the Company of my dear and suitable Yoak-fellow as a Helper and sweet Companion with me in my Voyage I had also a gracious Child my Daughter Elizabeth whom the Lord eminently prepared for himself and then translated her hence and God has left us one little Branch the Lord grant she may love to tread in the good steps of her Sister and enter at last into the same Rest I heartily desire it may every way go well with you and that though distance of place hinder our Converse here yet we may at last see the Face of Christ and one another in the perfection of Purity and fulness of Joy in a better Country 1676. To C. S. D. N o 125. I Understand by Mr. F. that you are all in health long may it continue and well may your Time and Health be improved And as to any Counsel that I am able to give you 't is far short of what you do or may receive not only from the solemn Ministration of the Gospel by the faithful Dispencers of the Word but also by those excellent Books fit for Meditation Use and Application of which I suppose you have many lying by you Only I would say this The chiefest part of Religion that which in Scripture is called the Kingdom of God lies chiefly in heart-renewing Power whereby the Throne and Dominion of Sin is broken with daily Warrings against it and daily labouring to be free from its Captivity and to that end there is a necessity of the Conviction of our sinful yea damnable Condition by Nature and that not only in our own Opinion and Judgment but in real view sense feeling and inward Operation and Exercise that so the knowledge of and Interest in Christ may appear indispensibly necessary and perfectly desirable as a Propitiation for Sin and to translate the Soul into the pure Image of himself in this World as the Fore-runner of an eternal Fruition of all that Blessedness he died to purchase And upon manifold Considerations it doth eminently concern you to dig for this Wisdom as for hid Treasure You have and may further see what a lean satisfaction it is that this lower World doth afford what a Sandy Foundation it is to build our hope delight or dependance upon and how soon every Flower withers Therefore daily beg of God Light Truth in the inward part and saving Wisdom to be your Principle and Guide through the residue of Time Unto his Grace I commend you and rest c. 1677. To C. H. D. N o 126. I Received your Letter and delivered that you sent my Brother both he and I are sensible of the loss of your only Brother It doth concern you to consider the Voice of God in these Afflictions one after another and to improve them so as to make God himself in Christ your only standing Refuge And certainly if these things do cause you to turn your eyes directly upon him and to centre in him alone you will find him the Husband of the Widow and Father of the Fatherless In every trouble our wisest course is to endeavour to learn what God is pleased to say to our Souls therein which is to get the hearts of his People more united unto himself by Faith and clear Resignation for though the things and Persons of this World do wither and fade yet God himself is the Rock of Ages and hath promised The Righteous shall not be utterly desolate for in the Fire and in the Water he will be with them and never leave or forsake them And therefore I would desire you to endeavour rather to improve your Affliction by Faith for spiritual use than to waste away your thoughts unprofitably through Unbelief in pondering and dejecting your heart under these outward Trials though they be great Therefore read and meditate the Word where provision of Support is made to answer all Cases of distress Spread your Soul often before the Lord open the bottom of your heart to him Fly to the Blood of Christ for daily Atonement and give your self up to him who has said Cast your burthen on the Lord and he will sustain you and then you will see reason at length to say It was good for me that I was afflicted and that He or she is blessed whom God afflicts and teacheth his Law Unto him I commend you praying for you that you and yours may have the gracious Shelter of his Love and Kindness in every Condition 1678. To M. R. N o 127. I Received yours of the 14th Instant and have been refreshed in reading those savoury Lines which you were pleased to send me I read them as if you your self had been conversing with me and my self present with you and do acknowledge the kindness of God in dropping down a Blessing upon your Soul in the midst of all the former and latter Exercises wherewith he has been pleased to try you This is the privilege of the Afflictions which come from the God of all Grace viz. That they produce the savoury Fruits of a more indeared hankering after him Dependance on him Resignation to him and a holy Longing that his own most wise and good Will may be accomplished Mr. T. G. has had a little Impression made upon him by his Journey and got Cold which hath not yet left him but we have enjoyed him amongst us this day in our praying work in which your self and other absent Friends were reremembred So commending you to the Lord and his gracious Support and Conduct I remain c. 1678. To C. E. D. N o 128. I Often think upon you and look upon it as a gracious dealing of God towards you not only to prolong your Life to this Age but also and chiefly that he hath crowned your old Age with an unwearied Tendency towards a better Life than you or I have ever yet seen with that Sight which we cannot here be capacious of I do hear sometimes by one or other both of your being in the Land of the Living and that you walk as becomes an aged Disciple of Christ adorning the Gospel you profess with a Conversation suitable thereunto The last time I heard from you was by our good Friend Mrs. Stubs who was here but a few days before her Husband that holy and laborious Minister of Christ took his leave of her breathing forth his last farewel to this present World and that Body of Clay in which he had served Christ for gaining of Souls into his Flock through a long Tract of years flourishing I hope prospering in the great Embassage which the great Shepherd employed him in His death was much bewailed by many especially by them that best knew his Worth as a great loss to the Interest and Cause of Christ both in City and Country The Lord in Mercy raise up more Supplies of like Sincerity Diligence and Faithfulness in the
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
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
not return ashamed but be kept in the more wakeful pursuits after him and while I follow him I am with him in my desire and if I desire him he desires me and there we meet Cant. 7. 10. in the Communion of desires till the shadows flee away A Sluggard indeed desireth and hath not because his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21 25. but a laborious desire after Christ enjoys him in the eye of Faith and Scripture-evidence Rev. 21. 6. and 22. 17. Joh. 7. 38. and therefore in the patience and faith of the Scriptures I have hope And what though some outward disadvantage has been occasioned which yet I know not of by this Retirement to seek him who knows my Soul loveth him will not he some way or other repay that loss and heal that breach O Lord pardon pity and care for him who in love to thy self and thy holy Will desires to seek the Kingdom of God first c. A DISCOURSE of UNION with CHRIST Joh. 17. 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one WHen I consider this true Loves Knot uttered by Christ himself and the wondrous Union in these three words I Thou and They declared by Christ at his passage from Earth to Heaven as the contrived Counsel of the eternal God Father Son and Spirit and when I find up and down in the Scriptures that the Elect when once they are quickned by the Spirit into the state of Regeneration are said to have their Life in God Col. 3. 3. and that God lives in them dwells in them and they in him 2 Cor. 6. 16. 1 Joh. 4. 13. that their works are wrought in God Joh. 3. 21. that God worketh in them 1 Cor. 12. 6. that God walks in them 2 Cor. 6. 16. that they walk with God and in his Name Gen. 5. 24. Mic. 4. 5. that Christ speaks in them and they in him 2 Cor. 13. 3. and 12. 19. I say when I consider such like expressions plentifully scattered by the holy Spirit in the Scriptures I conclude there is some admirable Union betwixt the Father of Glory and every one of his elect Seed in Christ which is a Mystery so spiritual a sacred Palace so secret that the most exquisite parts of Nature can never enter in to view it as it is 't is new Jerusalem under a Vail into which Flesh and Blood cannot enter But seeing Christ has said To you it is given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of God Mark 4. 11. I would humbly wait for the power of the Spirit to transform and fit me and the manifestation of the Spirit to teach me that so enquiring I may enter and entring may possess this purchased Possession at least in the First Fruits and Earnest thereof and although methinks I shrivle up before the mysterious heat and lustre of this Gospel yet being commanded to seek the Lord and being under a Promise of help Jer. 31. 9. I wait on God for Strength and Wisdom to attempt this Enquiry methinks these steps do offer themselves The infinitely wise God decreed to make Mankind and the visible World to be his Habitation and the Creatures to serve him Man is made in a state of Righteousness and so stands upon his own legs and as it were in a moment he begins to totter and falls from that state into a state of sin and misery God so permitting it that his Justice and Mercy might the more be exalted a Remnant of undone Mankind are decreed to Salvation in a way of Mercy And that the Justice of God against Sin and Sinners may be preserved and yet the Elect Remnant saved God himself in the Person of the eternal Son assumes the Nature of Mankind into the Union of his Person and in that Nature pays to his own Justice all the Debt which this elect Remnant among the rest of fallen Mankind had involved themselves into in performing whereof he unites himself so near to them and they so near to himself that what he did for them was reckoned by Justice it self accountable to the Behoof and Concernment of each elected person as much as if every one of them had compleatly satisfied Justice in their own persons and the Union is so near betwixt him and them that whereas he is the express Image of the Father and having all power committed to him he stamps upon them the Image of God anew viz. Righteousness and true Holiness which becomes theirs only through Union with him and do only exist in their existing in him which existence is wrought by the holy Spirit forming him spiritually in their hearts as it formed him bodily in the Virgin 's Womb which Formation of Christ in their hearts becomes a mystical spiritual and true Union betwixt him and them which same Spirit works Faith in them that they may be made living Subjects and suitably capacitated for this mutual Union betwixt them also and him And thus the Lord of Life having enlivened to himself a living Spouse they enjoy each other by an unutterable nearness of spiritual In-dwelling in each other so near that the Spirit of God who manageth the Match sticks not to say that the Church and so every particular person thereof is a Member of his Body of his Flesh and of his Bones and not only that but he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Ephes 5. 30. 1 Cor. 6. 15 17. Hence it comes to pass that from the very moment that the Soul hath accepted of Jesus Christ being seized upon to that purpose by the Spirit of Regeneration proceeding from the Father through the Son and received by believing that believing person so effectually visited by the Call of the Gospel doth now and never before become a new Man and though Sins and Temptations never so many do batter and bruise yet his House cannot fall nor his State be altered because God himself has laid his Foundation on a Rock and has drawn the Soul's Consent by believing to lay it there too and this Rock is Christ in whom the Almighty God receives this believing and renewed person into that Union and true real nearness which lies shadowed forth in the Scriptures of Truth under the terms of Father and Child 2 Cor. 6. 17 18. Husband and Wife Ephes 5. 25. c. Vine and Branches yea as one Body consisting of Head and Members and many such like similitudes in the Scriptures to set forth this wonderful Nearness and Union from whence it followeth that no Action State or Condition of such a renewed Person whether it be inward or outward is so entirely his own and of private Concernment to himself alone as it was before his sins were more entirely his own damage before now they wound his Relation and grieve Christ Ephes 4. 30. he sinned before against the Law of God he now sins in all his miscarriages against Christ also 1 Cor. 8. 12. and against the Law of his
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
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
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