of Darkness hath shined in our Hearts to give the Light of the knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 That is The way that God doth take to exalt his Grace and Mercy to his Elect is in a way that doth agree with his Justice He beholds the eternal Word Creator united to the Childrens Nature by it giving Satisfaction to Justice The stoppage of Grace being removed Grace doth shine down upon them The Spirit of Adoption which is the inward Witness meets Grace in the way that it comes forth The Soul admires the Wisdom and Goodness of God in appointing the way of its Salvation in such a way as exalts Grace and wrongs not Justice Grace being no less to us by making its way through Christ to us because it was the Father that appointed the Son this Work and it was to answer the Father's Will that he performed it This inward Witness incourageth a poor Sinner that is weary of Sin to go to Christ and to God through him For altho there seems a great distance betwixt a poor guilty Sinner and a holy God to behold each of them as they are in themselves yet this middle Person the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Reconciler or the maker up of the Breach betwixt them being inwardly discovered in the Gospel-Glass by the Holy Ghost working with it those who were far off before are brought nigh by the Blood of this blessed Jesus Divine Love descends Faith enables the Soul to mount up and with Wings to ascend We love him saith St. John because he first loved us This Light of the Holy Ghost is a distinct thing from the first Covenant-Principle That lays the Soul under Guilt for Sin but takes not in the way of Reconciliation The Holy Ghost takes in the way of Reconciliation and gives Evidence of the Souls Interest in it It is by the Apostle called the Spirit of the Son because it is by the Intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ that the Holy Ghost is sent and because it leads the Soul to pay the Tribute of Divine Honour to him as being the way to the Father It leads the Soul wholly in another way than the first Covenant-Principle leads in Its Motives by which it stirs up the Soul to watch against Sin are from Mercy and Goodness that is spiritual Mercies received by the Soul The first Covenant-Principle breaks the Soul off from Sin by shewing the Wrath and Misery that attends it The Holy Ghost stirs up the Soul to set a Watch against the first motions of Lust by discovering the loathsom nature of it which if the Soul joins with it will thereby be unfit for Communion with God As it is by the Holy Ghost that Sanctification is carried or in the Soul to prepare it for the Enjoyment of God in Glory so the Apostle seems to put the Cure of the Bodies of the Saints even when they are under a Dissolution upon the Holy Ghost in order to their recovery out of that state Rom. 8.11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you I have gone through the first Head and laid before you the dealings of God with me in bringing of me to the Enjoyment of himself by Faith and shall now proceed to the second Head Secondly The Counsel and Direction which I recommend unto you if I should be shortly removed from you 1st Endeavour to get imprinted upon your Hearts the thoughts of God in his Soveraignty over you and those outward Providences which he exerciseth towards you God is so incomprehensible in his Being that he cannot be fathom'd by the Creature What an Awe and Reverence of him hath the Consideration of his Incomprehensibleness made upon the Hearts of his dearest Children In his discovering of himself to them in the greatness of his Power how hath he treated them as Worms and nothing Creatures And they in their expressing of themselves before him their Language hath carried in it the Evidences of a humble Heart Psal 22.4 5 6. Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them They cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded But I am a Worm and no Man a reproach of Men and despised of the People We see here the Psalmist David who is recorded to be a Man after God's owh Heart how he expresses himself before God First In acknowledging God in his Power to deliver And then secondly In acknowledging his Unworthiness to be delivered by him in these words I am a Worm and no Man The clearer Discovery that the Soul gets of God in the Absoluteness of his Power and that incomprehensible Greatness he is invested withal hath that Effect upon the Heart as to lay it in the Dust before him Remember my Children that in your Creation you were in the hands of the wise Creator as the Clay is in the hand of the Potter The forming and the fashioning of you lay wholly in his own Will and Pleasure Psal 119.73 Thy hands have made and fashioned me give me Vnderstanding that I may learn thy Commandments That there is no defect in the Members of your Bodies is a Mercy to you but that there is no defect in the Faculties of your Souls is a greater Mercy What great Obligations are you under to the great Creator seeing you have received your Being from him 2. Consider how the Creator has disposed of you and how his Providential Dealings are towards you Acts 17.26 And hath made of one Blood all Nations of Men to dwell on the face of the Earth and hath determined the Times afore appointed and the Bounds of their Habitation That is He hath determined the time that he allows every one in this World and their place for a Habitation in it How bountiful is the great Creator unto you that he should appoint you your place in England and not in India or some other dark place of the World that is full of the Habitations of Cruelty that your Lot should be hitherto to have a full supply of outward Necessaries whereas many others are attended by great outward Wants and Penury 3. Consider God's Providential Dealings towards you that your Parents have been hitherto continued and made a Blessing to you that they have not been wanting to your outward Man by their utmost care to provide for it But above all what a Blessing have they been made unto you as to your Souls if it be but sanctified unto you What proof have your poor Parents given of their Care over your Souls in giving you your Education in such a way as hath been a means to bring them under great outward Straits their Eyes being fixt upon the good of your immortal Souls in what they have done that you might not be exposed
experience and that is by leading a poor sensible Sinner to the Declaration of the Sufferings of the Blessed Jesus and conveying the Declaration into the Soul and with it giving the Soul an inward Glance of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ from whom the Soul by the help of the Spirit doth draw such Virtue as causeth an immediate removal of inward Guilt which the Soul hath contracted by Sin and under much Brokenness the Soul is brought to close with him Where this Closure is witnessed there doth an Intercourse with the Father attend it The Name of the Blessed Jesus is with this Closure engraven so on the Heart that the Injoyment of him becomes exceeding pleasant and comfortable 3ly I shall proceed to shew how the Holy Spirit doth break down Corruption in the Soul and carries on the Work of Sanctification 1. By discovering unto the Soul the polluting Nature of Sin that unless the Soul be preserved from it Communion with a holy God cannot be enjoyed It leads the Soul to watch against Temptations that draw into Sin and it leads the Soul through Christ to the Father for power to be kept from it The Lord Jesus Christ as Mediator is the Person upon the account of whose Worthiness the Soul craves help from God No sooner is the Soul come before God to seek him in its private Addresses but if Christ be enjoy'd by Faith the Outgoings of the Heart are to him and through him to the Father The Soul claims a Right of Relation or Kindred with him and so useth Plainness of Speech with him about its State and Condition and by beholding that its own nature in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ stands nighly related to the Father it puts him upon taking its Condition and the managing of it into his own hands as being able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him seeing he ever lives to make Intercession for them 2. The Spirit of God doth put the Soul upon seeking unto God for more light that so those Seeds of Sin that lie undiscovered in the Soul may not only be brought to light but likewise be rooted out as saith the Psalmit Search me O God and know my Heart try me and know my Thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting Such is the nature of Holiness in the Souls of the Saints that it would have the very Seeds of Corruption removed and as the Spirit of God doth put the Soul upon the using that means which God hath appointed for the subduing of Sin and Corruption so it likewise doth not only beget a Principle of Grace in the Soul by the Soul's Union with the Lord Jesus Christ but by its inward Supplies it puts fresh Vigor and Life into it by which the Heart comes more and more to be led forth unto God to seek after him and engaged more closely to follow him 3. The H. Spirit doth encourage the Soul to persevere in the Way that leads to Communion with God by letting the Soul feel the peaceable Fruit that it doth bear in it in this Life and likewise that eternal Happiness that it fits the Soul for in glory The Saints sow in Tears here but they shall reap in Joy they go on their way weeping bearing pretious Seed but at the Morning of the Resurrection then they shall appear bearing their Sheaves with them I come now in the third place to prove how all this is subservient to the Decree of Election and answers the designs of it Ephesians the first Chapter ver 3 4 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings in heavenly places in Christ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the World that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will to the praise of the glory of his Grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Compared with the first Epistle of Peter the first Chapter 2 3 4 5th Verses Elect according to the Fore-knowledg of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ Grace unto you and Peace be multiplied Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you Who are kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation ready to be revealed in the last time These Scriptures do fully prove the Truths of which I have been treating the Oneness of the Covenant of Grace and Redemption for here the Decree as it proceeds from God is eternal and passeth through Time into Eternity to the effecting or perfecting what was designed by it Can any Person separate the means comprehended in the Womb of the Decree to attain the End and not do manifest Wrong to the Decree it self Let the serious Reader judg Here is the Lord Jesus Christ the second Person in the Godhead set up by the Decree as the Head of the Elect all the Elect comprehended in him He appears in a State of Humiliation for the Elect they have the Offers of Grace by him and are brought to give Obedience to the Offers have his Blood applied to their Souls for their Justification and through him have the Spirit sanctifying them and by his mighty Power bringing them to the Glory which the Decree hath designed for them All these outward Acts which were transacted in time were but the gradual fulfilling of what was comprehended in the Decree which in it self was eternal which I hope doth prove that which was designed by the second Part of this Book that is that the Covenant of Grace and Redemption is but one Covenant For a Conclusion This Doctrine administers a great deal of Comfort to those that have the Marks of Election already wrought in their Souls to see their Salvation sixt upon such a sure Foundation and the Accomplishment in such a way as brings the greatest Motives with it to Humility and Thankfulness of engaging the Heart unto God And for those that are under the means which lead to attain the End it is not discouraging Doctrine to them because who are comprehended in the Decree is a Secret wholly reserved to God alone and we no otherwise know that our selves or others are in it but as we come under effectual Calling which is that which opens the Door into it Therefore it is in vain for the Creature to think to know what God at present conceals from him any other way but that which is of his own appointing Secret things belong to
secret before God for Counsel and Direction and blessed be his holy Name he did not leave me but open'd a way for my Escape which Mercy I desire to keep in remembrance while I am in this World The night before the Warrant was to be executed I was very sick all the night but in the morning something better the Officers meeting together about that wicked Work to which they were all averse sent for me but my Excuse of not being well would not serve their turn but they proceeded by Lot to take the Houses of that poor People and sent me my Lots which I received with a great deal of joy seeing they desired me either to send Mony or get one to officiate I sent them the Mony rejoicing and upon my Knees blessed God for that great Mercy and tho the poor Quakers did offer me my Mony again yet I durst not for Conscience sake receive it I leave this with you as my Judgment that a misguided Conscience ought to be informed not forced God hath appointed other ways in his Word to reclaim those that are in an Error than by ruining Mens Persons and Estates The Liberty for Dissenters being granted by King James I was brought to hear five or six dissenting Ministers at Richard Cockeril's which through the Blessing of God so far wrought upon me as to take off that Prejudice that I had conceived against them but my Understanding remained dark without any inward discovery of the precious Doctrine of the Gospel until I sat under the Ministry of Mr. Humphreys being before that time a high Asserter of Free-will and general Redemption which naturally falls under the first Covenant-Principle His Personal Failings which brought a stain upon the precious Truths f the Gospel through Mercy I abhorr'd and took the freedom at times to speak to him about it yet his Doctrine which he preached was the instrumental means to bring me and many other poor Sinners to join with the Truth which through Mercy I was inabled to do upon the account of its own Worth and Excellency And mark it my Children that which must establish your Hearts in the Truths of God must be the holy Spirit 's inlightening your Souls to behold the Truth in the Scripture-Glass and inabling your Souls to see a native Beauty and Excellency in it above any Lustre that the Creature can put upon it by any Rhetorical Florishes whatsoever I cannot see what solid ground Persons can have to lay claim to an Interest in the Foundation-Truths of Christianity before the charming Simplicity that doth appear in Truth doth allure and win upon the Heart to lay hold of it When the holy Spirit doth present Truth unto the Soul it puts such a Divine Authority into it as constrains the Soul to bow before it and to submit unto it That Scripture which the Holy Ghost was pleased to make use of to present the Lord Jesus Christ unto my Soul and to seal unto it an Interest in God as my God through him was the words of Christ to Mary Joh. 20. the latter part of the 17th Verse Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God In which words the Lord Jesus Christ was presented unto my Soul as the Person by whom we are brought into relation with God and so was I inabled to lay hold of him with my whole Heart as the Person that opens the door of Grace and Mercy and under the inward sense and feeling of that Grace and Mercy which I did then receive from my heavenly Father as an Evidence of his accepting of me through his Son my Heart was exceedingly melted before him and drawn forth by the Spirit of Adoption into such a familiarity with him as to lay open my Heart before him being not then afraid to let him know the worst of my Condition from that Confidence that I had in that blessed Mediator that stood betwixt us I then experienced a new Principle begotten in my Soul which knit my Heart to the Person of the Lord Jesus I felt my Heart leaning towards him for Security and Safety and while the inward Evidence of my Union with him did last I look'd upon my self to be without the reach of the Tempter and altho many Clouds and Temptations have been upon me since the time of my first closing with him yet he hath not suffered me to be overwhelmed by them but in the midst of Troubles hath discovered himself unto me And this frequently I have experienced that when some sudden surprizing Providence hath fallen upon me that seem'd to be of a frowning nature my Soul being rouz'd did shake it self to see if it 's spiritual Strength remained Its first search hath been after its Union with its Lord and to get the Heart raised to God through him If Grace remained so as to keep the Heart knit unto Christ to wrestle with the Father through him generally slavish Fear fled away and a submissive frame of Spirit took place of it to be disposed of by God according to his Wisdom and before the Trouble was wholly over some comfortable Scripture was born in as an earnest that the Deliverance was coming My hope for Heaven lies in this that I am in the way that all the Flock have walk'd in unto this day For the New Testament stands upon the Credit and Authority of the Old If the Messiah were yet to come to work out Man's Salvation the Old Testament Prophecies concerning him could have their Accomplishment in no other way than they are laid down fulfilled in the New in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of Sins And besides this my Heart hath been inwardly made sensible of the preventing Grace of God put forth outwardly towards me and his pardoning and renewing Grace hath been manifested inwardly in me First His preventing Grace hath been put forth outwardly towards me in that tender Watchfulness that my Heavenly Father hath shewed towards me to this day How many times have I been in danger of being led away by grievous Temptations and have been without the sense of the danger that I was in and yet something hath fallen out that hath prevented my falling by the Temptation and afterwards I have been made sensible of the Danger and of the Mercy received This was a great means of settling my Soul in the Doctrine of Election for I was many times constrained to cry out Why dost thou manifest such Grace unto me a worthless Creature For my Children I must acknowledg as standing under the first Covenant I was a Sinner before God and liable to his Justice His condemning of me could have been no Injustice in him therefore his dealing with me in Mercy 's way must lead me to acknowledg that it is by Grace I stand Secondly His