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
holds up any Connexion betwixt my confused heart and that spiritual Interest I am carried up and down by him as a lighted Candle in a windy place and its Flame ever ready almost to flee from the Wick were it not preserved by the Hollow of his Hand his Discipline I cannot want and live And it is refreshment to me that your heart is under a constant pursuit of that Mark of the Prize of the high Calling Draw Water still from the Fountain as much as you can Be a Stranger to all Instruments Means and Helps while you use them Know none but God taste none but him in all the Earth and remember the gauled Feet of your Fellow-travellers I received a Letter from Mr. Cr. I pray return the Inclosed to him his Advice is very savoury I think indeed Christ best approves of a holy Latitude for Affection and Communion amongst his Members 1656. To C. A. D. N o 25. DEar and Christian Friend yours I received and am glad that both your self and Wife are in health I desire in this respect to offer up my share of Praise with you and to rejoyce for you that you have a good Will to be trudging forwards Whether your pace be swift or slow be sure to fix your eyes as right as you can and the eye will affect the heart and give Wings for motion You desire to be naturalized to the whole Will of our heavenly Father I bless the Lord I desire the same and that we may both gain our desires let us in the Name of the Lord dig after the Understanding of the Mystery of the Father and the Son and ponder over and over the Interest which God hath designed the Elect in his only Son and he in them and how it is brought about through his Incarnation and Operation of the Spirit of Holiness who has made the fruits of his Life and Death and Resurrection really ours so that we may say each of us by Faith I am crucified I am risen with Christ and all the loveliness that is in him we may with trembling and great joy say it is our own because himself is ours and that will make his Yoke easie his Will desirable his Work profitable and spiritually natural to us I think it would help much to pray meditate view and cast up Accounts often to watch the Phisiognomy of our Consciences to make often Appeals to the Mediator and to the Father through him and so to keep the Work moving upon the Wheels and we shall at length get to that blessed Country where Righteousness dwelleth At thy right hand saith David there is fulness c. 1656. To A. M. C. N o 26. I Find in some of my Friends a savoury Taste of Grace which in this unsavoury Age is no small Mercy I hope the Mercy of the Lord to your Father will descend upon all his Off-spring He or she is happy that can keep his Garments clean and heart established in the truth and power of Grace amongst so much prophaneness on the one hand and giddy wild and loose way of Profession on the other hand some professing Impiety and others professing a vain Attainment of some Excellency besides the native Current of the Scriptures and pure Christianity The Lord I trust will preserve you from the Tempter I lament the Affliction of my Unkle and Aunt c. 1657. To D. H. N o 27. BE not weary of believing of praying of hoping of contending of rejoycing Your Interest cannot be broken from Christ by sickness by disappointments nor by sins Read the latter end of the 4th and 7th Chapter of the Romans and the rest also of that Book and bless God for the Mystery of his Truth Pity Love and Condescention therein Be above Friends Fears Guilt and Drooping in the Name of Jesus Christ having through his Grace given up your Name to him Honour him by accepting him as joyfully as he gives himself Then praise him most when you think you have least reason and baffle that ugly thing Unbelief by that Hope and Faith which is commended most by Jesus Christ when it seems most unreasonable to lowring faint-hearted and sick Flesh and Blood What Sickness so large as a trembling Ague Remember 2 Tim. 1. 6 7. c. 1657. To S. D. H. N o 28. ALthough the Ordinances are most gloriously powerful yet I find a bad time with my heart since I came hither but I expect some Lesson from God out of it The Old Man must be cut in pieces ere it will die it will not lift up one finger to destroy it self 't is only Foreign Aid that doth the work and how to leave all selfish Endeavours and by Faith to be yielded up to the in-working power of the Spirit of Christ there is the difficulty Faith receives all and doth nothing and yet the Travel of a Christian is called the Fight of Faith It fights in beholding the Salvation of God it fights in leaving every burthen on Christ yea it then conquers when it is able to subject the Consequence of Guilt and Endeavours of Renewing to the only Righteousness of Christ and the Vertue and Spirit of his Cross and Resurrection Faith is a strong Grace and free Grace a strange Mystery 'T is an Herb that grows where nothing else can grow it must be alone it abhors all manner of Aid that Flesh and Blood can give it undoes a poor Creature in a saving manner When a poor sinner gets liberty to be most sensibly vile and weak then Grace triumphs most Let your Travel be spent in this Enquiry and Subjection to Gospel-method that Jesus Christ may be all in every thing that you are concerned in c. 1657. To B. D. N o 29. I Find it very unwholsome to the Soul to give way to discouragement or faintness The Soul goes down the Wind apace when it says my hope is lost I shall one day fall by the hand of the Enemy Let perfect Resignment be your labour every day how difficult soever it seems to be God is able to make your Bow abide in strength though the Archers from the Enemies Camp may daily molest you In the Name of Christ beg the Father of Blessing to cause you to inherit Jacob's Blessing till at last you arrive upon the everlasting Hills Oh blessed be the God of the unchangeable Covenant and blessed be the Author and Finisher of our Faith I have an incessant Turmoil with my evil heart but am I trust marching towards Deliverance God has not as yet turned aside my Prayer nor his Mercy from me I am under his Discipline attending Judgment will be brought forth to Victory and Weakness unto Strength Light and Truth Let us not be contented with small degrees of the new Creature but thankful for the least and yet thirst day and night for more renewing Light and Transformation Remember you are a Soldier and shall be more than a Conqueror through him who loveth you
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
Spiritual Exercise to put the Soul into sure and quiet Possession thereof in a through and direct levelling its eye at the Object the Person of Jesus Christ and to that end it gets the Soul up above the Reasonings of the Old Man Flesh and Blood into the Mount of Gospel-reason and from thence through the Promises and demonstration of the Word of Truth by the Spirit as through a Prospective-Glass gathers into its eye the lovely view of a compleat Redeemer and gazeth upon him till a Dart strike through the Liver and the Soul be made like the Chariots of Aminadab and is both willingly and safely carried into a holy confidence of the truth of what it seeth and the truth of its own being comprehended within the free and liberal reach of the design of God's Free Mercy in a way of particular Application thereof and cryeth out My Lord and my God And O that my Soul were a little upon the wings of the Spirit to ascend by Faith into this Mount of God my Saviour Why abide I among the Folds of corrupt Nature to hear the bleating of my own Confusions and Lusts seeing the Sword of the Lord and his Gideon is drawn for my deliverance Awake O my Heart awake O my Conscience shake thee from thy Dust let the Testimony of Faith and Spirit of Adoption and Freedom lead my Captivity Captive for ever In this glorious Work Faith seizeth on the Soul as the Angel did seize upon Lot and as it were tear him out of Sodom with this blessed advantage that it makes the Soul willing in the day of God's Power to be pulled with violence out of Sodom out of all its fleshly filth and fleshly state it rejoyceth to see the Blood of former Lusts to be sprinkled on all its Raiment 'T is wrathful against the Inchantments of Self-Pride Man's Applause Carnal Reason Earthly Compliances Fleshly Fears and Distrust It roars against its Sensual Mind and Carnal Consultations as a Lyon over its Prey It unhingeth the Gates of its Captivity and carrieth them up to the top of the Mount never to return again Mighty is this Sampson-Faith when its Locks of sanctified Convictions and Manifestation of Grace are grown up to some happy maturity it looks further and further after Christ in every Scripture it rejoyceth exceedingly to find the free Gift of Christ in such Language as this I will give thee for a covenant of the people that thou mayest say to the prisoners Go forth Isa 49. 8 9. Not by works of righteousness which we had done but according to his mercy he saved us Tit. 3. 5. I am he that blotteth out thy sins for my own sake Isa 43. 25. and will not remember them any more But the poor Soul looks down upon the scars of its own vile heart and daily weaknesses and cries out Oh! but what are these Wounds in my heart and hands these thorns in my sides these pricks in my eyes The Understanding triumphing through Faith replies These are the Memorials of the Wounds with which Christ was wounded in the House of his Friends when he came to his own and they received him not and when the Sword of Indignation awoke against the Shepherd one who accounted it no Robbery to be equal with God he then saved the Sheep and after a sore Conflict slew the Wolf and gathered again the Poor of the Flock who were appointed by the Law of Moses to the Slaughter Arise therefore and be not dismayed at the Witnesses of Christ's Agony which dwells for a season in thy mortal Flesh The Battel was his not thine he mortally wounded the Dragon and the God of Peace will shortly tread down Satan and every Spawn of his under your feet These Enemies are left to prove your Faith Integrity and Patience that you might learn Spiritual War and be renowned by Victory through the mighty Spirit of the Captain of your Salvation Then Faith fixeth its eye again upon Jesus Christ through the Word and beholds him as a Lamb that was slain and yet risen and there sees the Grave where the guilt of Conscience was buried and argueth it self into Freedom Guilt is destroyed and none can raise the Dead but God only but God will not raise it up because he destroyed it himself that he might marry the Justified Soul to himself out of that Destruction of Guilt and Bondage in the Person of his own Son that he might thereby bring forth Life and Immortality to sinners 2 Tim. 1. 10. Rom. 5. 6. by Faith and therefore here Faith strives to keep its eye while hands and feet are working and by this Compass it steers its Course towards the Haven of Safety But the abundant Grace and vastness of this Salvation in and through the Person of Jesus Christ is so great that my eye is dazled I am not able to measure the Heavens I bring my Bucket to hold the Sea and 't is drowned in the great Waters And yet here Faith has a Refuge against Confusion of Mind viz. when it espies a passive sence in all the Justification and Acceptation of the Gospel and in all the Fruits thereof working me up to and making me to be content with a Conformity according to the Measure given me by Jesus Christ Hence are the words discovering it rendred in a passive sense Justified Redeemed and Saved and the Action of this is ascribed only to Christ or God in Christ who justifieth redeemeth and saveth And hence also Faith giveth the Soul Relief against Confusion of Mind about defect of knowledge by the thought of this that though I know little yet I am known perfectly of God Gal. 4. 9. and though I apprehend little of the great Mystery of this Salvation yet I am apprehended fully by Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 12. while I receive him by Faith and am willing to be comprehended and moulded by his Spirit It was but a small thing on Mans part to touch the Hem of Christ's Garment yet that being an Act of Reliance on Christ and subjecting the Soul to him presently there came in Health of Body and Pardon of Sins from that comprehending Relation in which Christ stood to such a Soul The Souls work in Faith or rather that to which the Soul is wrought is a contentedness to receive the Person of Christ by Faith as the Sum and Title of its Interest in more than it can be ever able to receive within its own capacity The Soul that receives the Person of Christ by one true closing hint through Faith receives a rightful Propriety to every Excellency and Perfection that is in God laid up in Christ for that end though the length of that Perfection and Blessing be never fully known As a Man who buyes a Field if no Exception in the Laws of that Nation be made he buyes all the Advantages of that piece of Earth downwards to the very Centre of the Earth and all between that and the Stars albeit
of my own Righteousness Rom. 6. 14. Tit. 3. 5. but I am under the Law of my own Lord which is to receive him and own his Righteousness as my own for he is the Lord my Righteousness When I believe then I obey for I am commanded to believe in the Name of the only begotten Son of God when I cast my self on him that fulfilled the whole Law then I fulfil the whole Law when I cast my self on his Righteousness I am in God's sight as white as Snow my sins in this new state are rather accounted my diseases than my faults for if I am not my own my sins are not my own but accounted his who loved me and washed me in his Blood This Obedience of Faith has the sight of Christ's Fulness and the Promises of the new Covenant to lean upon and so it takes its Journy from Flesh to Spirit from Weakness to Strength in the Name of the Lord. And from this Obedience in believing which is the highest and mysterious Obedience proceeds all manner of holiness as the fruits thereof which receive their Sap from this Root this Root makes them to be living Obedience as Branches from the same Root Children of the same Parent The first Subjection is to the Righteousness of Christ's Person to submit all Fear and Guilt to the fulness of Pardon and Life that is in him as the Store-house and there to enjoy it in the enjoying of him and then by the Spirit of Life which is in Christ the Soul with freedom acts forth answerably in some measure to such a renewed state from whence all Actions of Holiness are called the Fruits of Faith and Fruits of Righteousness Phil. 1. 11. 2 Cor. 9. 10. Col. 1. 6. 2 Pet. 1. 4 5 6 7 8. After my Return from One of Faiths dark days and yet delivered I found sore Breaches made upon my Soul my inward Man had suffered loss while I travelled up and down my Soul was violently shaken the Bands of the wicked one conspired with my wicked heart and carried away my treacherous Soul so that my Glory was captivated into the Enemies hand A Wind from the Wilderness laid me in confusion the Tempest prevailed and I suffered Shipwreck all my own feeble Endeavours and former Meditations gave way and the raging Sea of filthy and foolish thoughts did beat sore upon me My Ship of former Resolutions of heart and my poor discovery of the Salvation of God was bulged and ready to sink yet my heart yerned after the Lord my Rock I cried secretly though confusedly to my God and he yet reserved a Plank for my almost drowned Soul to swim to the Shoar He has not utterly removed Mercy from me he has been yet preaching his own Free Grace to my Soul through a Voice of Thunder and Lightning Let me yet hear thy Voice O thou Preserver of Men let me yet gather up advantage through my loss help me yet to receive recovering and establishing vertue from my strong Hold. While my thoughts were thus working I endeavoured to get once more into the Sanctuary of God and there I found that although I carry about a Hell within me yet that Hell cannot devour the infinite Covenant of Peace which God made My Unbelief and Disobedience cannot make the Faith of God to be of no effect I would have lived upon Grace and Strength recieved and I trembled to see those selfish Confidences shaken to the Earth but now methinks Christ calls me again from my Father's House and promiseth me a better Name than that of Sons and Daughters of my own a Name in himself an Off-spring in himself Psal 45. 16. Isa 56. 5. which shall not be cut off I have had a Sentence of Death in my self that I might not trust any more in my self but in God who raised the Dead I am a dry Tree but he who was raised from the Dead is a green Tree and in him is my Fruit found O the Mystery and Power of this Salvation wherewith I am saved O that I might pass as it were through the Eye of a Needle into Christ's Power and there rest from the days of adversity And this Rest is glorious because 't is uncompounded it receives no Ingredients from abroad 't is singly made up of Christ and in him alone Venture O my Soul upon this naked Arm for 't is an Arm of Faithfulness and Mercy This Strength alone is a Fountain of Strength this is the River whose Streams make glad the City of God Wilt thou not be undone O my Soul that thou mayest be saved How long wilt thou set up thy Post by the Pillars of that Salvation which is wrought in God for thee and wrought in thee by single Union with God in Jesus Christ Is not his Arm stronger than thine Be thou translated by Faith into Divine Strength Let not thy Wine be mixed with Water Thy Confidences are rejected make a Voyage to the everlasting Hills enter into the Mount of God Thou hast broken both the Tables of the Covenant and yet the Prince of the same Covenant lives Wait for the Spirit to draw it over again and again by the indelible Character of his own Finger who lives to enliven thee for ever How hard is it to depart from Self from righteous Self and sinful Self I am wounded by sinful Self that I might flee from righteous Self and sinful Self also and cast Anchor only within the Vale. I am weary of the instability of the Streams Oh let me go to the Fountain When I am saying I shall die in my Nest my Nest is soon fired about my ears and turned to ashes Certainly there is a better Rest than this and it lieth in trusting Christ and trusting in him only I both trust Christ and trust in Christ when I believe that he is the Standard of all saving Righteousness communicable to Man and all my Righteousness and Holiness is but the Reflection of his I trust in Christ when I live resignedly at his Feet to be made holy And whatsoever composure of heart I do at any time receive I do not nor cannot hold it but 't is held by him while it remains and when it withdraws it lives in the Root for me I am ready to think if I had all Graces in my own dispose I would manage them to the Glory of God but how can God be glorified more than in a holy Content to live at his Allowance All his design is to allure me and so to force me out of my self to live in him as well as to live by him he bestows his Grace within doors I must not take his Graces to my self to put it to Usury for Increase but must fetch the Increase as well as the Principal from him by Union with him through Jesus Christ and my work is to rest on his Faithfulness Wisdom Willingness and Readiness to supply me as if every Grace of the Spirit were fully in
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
ever observing that blessed Rule of our Saviour in Matth. 7. 12. And when he had hired or made use of Persons in any Work or Labour he would not only pay them their due which was agreed to and promised but most frequently he would give them somewhat over and above especially if he judged them to be poor and needy That whilst he had bodily His Diligence in his Calling with a holy Frame of Spirit therein Strength and Health to manage Worldly Employments he was always active and industrious therein and he could not be ever charged with any wilful Omission Yet all the while he had his Mind so composed that he was ever in a readiness to a due and regular Attendance on the solemn Duties of his high Calling not suffering any outward Occurrence of what kind soever to distract or unsettle his Mind But when he approached to God in the actual Exercise of any Religious Duties he was still furnished with such variety of Matter and Divine Rhetorick as if all his preceding time had been taken up in and about spiritual Work Such was the habitual Frame of his Soul towards heavenly things And he gave this Advice That we should do Worldly Business with Diligence Patience Moderation and Faith and with such a self-denying respect as if it were the sole Interest and Concern of another rather than our own And when we would make a Judgment of our selves or Actions in matters doubtful we should put our selves in the Room of a third Person in the Case His great Love to the Church His Love to the Church and People of God and People of God rendred him a restless Supplicant and Intercessor in Prayer for them That upon whatsoever Immergency relating to the Church of Christ in general or any Member thereof in particular even for such whom he never knew or saw on the first notice of their Distresses he would be wrestling with God in secret Retirement And if other Christians were at such a time near or occasionally present he would be also urging them to the same Work saying Come let us lift up our joynt Requests to God for them And this at any time of the day and constantly at set times for Prayer he presented their Case and Concern most affectionately before the Lord as a thing which always lay very much on his heart And for the Church of Christ in general his Petitions were observed to be such as these That God would visit Zion the whole Church and visible Body of Christ here in this World That it might be a Glory in all the Earth That as he hath taken hold of the Plough he would carry on his own Work That he would look upon his Son look upon his Covenant look upon that Redemption he hath contrived and designed for the bringing in of Souls unto himself to bestow his own Free Grace upon in making them Vessels of Mercy and Glory That his Church might prosper and every faithful Member of it and become Glorious in Holiness That the Son of Righteousness would break forth and sparkle upon it That his Ordinances might be maintained his Gospel run and be glorified and get Ground every where That God would tender his People as the Apple of his Eye as a Royal Diadem in his hand and as the Object of his Delight That he would give a mighty Check and a dreadful Rebuke unto the fury of all such as bear ill Will to Zion And that all Oppositions and Combustions against his Interest might tend to the Advancement of it of his Glory and the furtherance of the Gospel That Holiness might spread it self throughout the World and the Mouth of Iniquity be stopt in all the Earth That all that Enmity against God and his People which hath been in the World ever since the Infection crept into our Natures from Satan the Prince of Darkness might be destroyed and come to an end That his People might glory in his great Salvation procured and purchased by the Vndertaking of Jesus Christ on their behalf That he would rule in the midst of his Enemies bearing down the Spirit of Wickedness and all the Contrivers of Mischief That he would remember his People under sore Trials and be in the midst of the Storm and say unto them It is I be not afraid and prepare them for every Shock they shall meet withal before the Son of Man appeareth That the Throne of his Grace be lifted up and the Rise of his Glory made conspicuous That the Sceptre of Jesus Christ might sway it self and become Glorious Counter-working all the Wisdom and crafty Counsel of the Serpent's Seed And that he would not suffer his People to be in any Pit out of which his Arm cannot help them That he would keep his Ministers as Stars in his Right Hand that his Enemies which are as the Tail of the Dragon might not scatter them That all his People might be enabled to meditate Terrour and not be afraid when he shall arise to shake terribly the Earth That Salvation might be for Walls round about his People and that God would cause his Glory to shine forth That God would save these Nations with a mighty Salvation and undertake for his own Glory in the midst thereof That for such as are under Bonds of Guilt he would deliver them by his Rescuing Pardoning Grace That he would be mindful of those under inward Trouble by reason of Pollutions within and Wounds of Temptation from without That spiritual Objects might be great in their sight and that he would bring them out with some notable advantage over all the Powers of Darkness that lay Siege against their Faith and Hope His whole Life attested the Tenderness of his Conscience His Tenderness of Conscience and it was particularly remarkable in these two Instances First When he had at any time Moneys lying by him to any value he would lend the same without demanding a Penny Interest And when-ever he received any Interest he would be sure to bestow it wholly in charitable and pious Uses Secondly Whilst he had Trading abroad on all Goods Exported and Imported he was very careful of paying the full Duty or Custom thereon rated and required without Diminution His high Esteem of the Grace His high Esteem of Repentance and Applications to Christ of Repentance with his Applications to Christ shewed it self in his frequent lamenting Confessions of Sin and praying for great measures of Repentance for himself and exhorted others to the same necessary Work And he was a diligent Searcher and curious watchful Observer of his own heart who could not bear with any Guilt but would make fresh Applications to the Blood of Sprinkling saying To be under Guilt was sad but when we are laden in the sence of it if we carry this Guilt to Christ and venture on him for Pardon and Mercy we shall not be cast out And how it was an evil and a bitter thing to
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
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
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
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
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
his own Word and bring me up to glorifie him in my Body and Spirit which I trust are his Let me yet farther demand of my self a few Questions which relate to the glorifying of God in my Soul and in my Walk 1. Is it so with me that I cannot be quiet but restless under guilt and distance from God Psal 32. 3 4 5. Do I cry Return O Lord Isa 63. 17. why art thou a Stranger Jer. 14. 8. 2. Do I hanker after more Heart-impressions of the Knowledge of God Exod. 33. 18. and 34. 6. Shew me thy Glory 3. Is the whole Will of God my delight and his Word my daily Diet Jer. 15. 16. Job 23. 12. 4. Do I praise Psal 50. 23. and acknowledge God in daily Providences Gen. 48. 15. Prov. 3. 6. not repining at his Discipline Psal 119. 75. but brought nearer to him by Calamities Isa 17. 7. 5. Do I own him so that the hiding of his face doth darken all other comforts to me Psal 77. 2. and his presence support and satisfie in the absence of earthly comforts Psal 142. 5. as it was with David at Ziglag 1 Sam. 30. 6. 6. Do I so approve my self to God that the Approbation Esteem or Praise of Man doth rather vex than please me when my Conscience within me doth smite me 2 Cor. 10. 18. Rom. 2. 29. 7. In case of guilt and fear Do I cast my self upon the boundless Mercy of God declared in Christ to be pardoned purged and revived as a sufficient Remedy 2 Cor. 12. 9. 8. Do I hanker after pure Communion with God so that my heart pants out Oh that my ways were directed c. Ps 119. 5. Cant. 8. 1. Oh Oh? Ps 38. 9. THESE and such like workings do testifie that God is the highest Good and the Centre of Blessedness and infinitely glorious And in these spiritual Operations the Soul doth declare and witness him to be so and therein do evidence that God is his and he is Gods and hereby is highly privileged God will not take things at the worst with him Matth. 26. 40 41. When such an one is at a loss Mercy will surprize and Deliverance overtake him Ezek. 36. 11. when dull his Ears shall be awakened to hear as the Learned Isa 50. 4. he shall be kept night and day Isa 27. 3. Christ will trim and dress him by the Word Ephes 5. 26. and he will earn towards him Job 14. 15. and be with him in trouble Isa 43. 2 3 c. and God will not be ashamed to be called his God Heb. 11. 16. he will wipe away his Tears teach him by his Spirit pardon his Sins justifie his Person in the Person of Christ and confess him to be his at the last day where he shall see his face with joy Job 33. 26. and ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. Happy is the people that is in such a case yea Happy is the people happy is every particular person whose God is the Lord Psal 144. 15. AN APPENDIX A CONFLICT of Mind HOw soon did Peter James and John forget the glorious Transfiguration and fell asleep when the Temptation came How soon is Sight gone when the Sun is eclipsed So it is with me When shall I have skill to discern and resist the beginnings of Decay How soon doth a Troop of Armed Men break in at an unguarded Gap I cannot thrust them out again my self but will rather go to him who hath his Bridle in their Jaws and can both turn them back and also lock the Door against them Oh that I could lift up a Jehoshaphat's Cry to the Lord of Hosts Then would the day clear up and I should yet see my Salvation come flying upon the Wings of the Wind and mounted upon the Glouds for my help I have one hard task to do but O thou to whom nothing is hard reveal thy Will and conquer mine My sore Task and Travel is this How to retain a close Application of Union with God in Christ so as that I may prevent the loss of tender Converse and holy reverential Familiarity and Intercourse with him An immoderate minding of somewhat in it self for ought I can yet see not unlawful has been a thorn in my flesh for several days which has spent much venom against my inward Man but I must not succumb to any Adversary there is no safety but in overcoming Help me throughly O my God at this plunge and thou shalt have the honour of the day I would fain enquire into my Soul how I contracted this Distemper and upon enquiry I find it had such steps as these I was withdrawn I know not how from the tender sight of Christ and influences of spiritual Warmth being damp'd Night came upon me and I considered it not my Soul fell asleep but without any Refreshment I awaked a little now and then but Slumber benummed me that I could not rise up I would fain cry out for help but my words were like an Arrow without Feathers that would not reach the Mark and all this while an earthly and momentany matter of delight solicited my fancy aad proffered some pleasure to my mind and in regard I judged it not materially evil I gave way till it had eaten into my Soul like a Canker and began to build its Nest in the very place which I had lately prepared and devoted for the Entertainment of Christ only It was restless and would not yield to Christ's Supremacy in my Affections but still offered some Moon-light Satisfaction to my Mind insteed of the withdrawn Beams of the Sun and when Christ whispered some Conviction into my heart and made it ake and raised some small yernings after him this Glo-worm glistered upon me and though it had neither light nor heat yet it would pretend a competent Ballance instead of the true spiritual light and warmth which I lately had but now found it was retired at a distance from me for my trial and exercise I discerned the Snare but herein lay my Strait My Judgment told me the matter it self was necessary and that a moderate diligence might be employed about it but neither that nor any thing else must dethrone Christ from the chief Seat in my Affections but I found it had so twisted into my fancy that I knew not how to use my thoughts about it with that moderation as would consist with Christ's supream Government and Sway in my inmost delight and affections So that how to divide between the matter it self and my excessive affection to it to do the one and guard against the other here lies the difficulty The matter on which this inordinate fancy fed it self was something relating to LITERATURE which I judged in its own nature lawful and useful To remedy which distemper I poured out my complaint before the Lord and began to muse the following Meditations How to pursue a lawful thing lawfully Be silent O clamorous unreasonable Sence thy Fancy
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
Faith only should take up viz. Reconcilement upon free Terms If there be any Sinfulness or any Aggravation of Sin which seems to except it self from the Remedy of Christ's Atonement then certainly the Eye of Faith takes not up its Mark as it should do If there be any Weakness and Darkness and the Soul think to get over it without a humble Resignation of the Case to Christ for help it will find the Cure come badly on A heart which would not have a liberty for sinning can never engage in a free-hearted Adventure on Christ too far for Pardon and Strength Christ never refused any one Sinner that came to him on Earth unless it were the mocking treacherous and spightful Pharisees and therefore I am bound to believe he hears and accepts every unfeigned Request though hardness and darkness do afflict So that I am with my lamenting after him to rejoyce also that he is himself the Corner-stone of that work in my heart that yearns after him in a dry Land I recommend you to the Lord and rest c. 1655. To A. C. N o 22. I Thought good to send you a few Lines which while I am writing serves instead of a Conference there only wants your Answer to every Sentence and the mutual refreshing of your Voice I can at a distance guess at your thoughts I can also take Refreshment in this that the Arm of the Lord seen by you or unseen yet it holds you teacheth you and is always near you We may not think the unchangeable God doth change as oft as we use to change Not every Cloud nor all the Clouds of the Sky are able to hinder the Course of the Sun because the Sun is above them and so is the Covenant of our Peace above our Darkness and Weakness A small matter if Seasons of Weakness and Dulness may be called so is enough when Unbelief is cherished to make as much mischief in the Soul as a Woolf among a Flock of Sheep Indeed every Sin is hateful in the sight of God and a sluggish heart that is rather prone continually to all that is evil inwardly and outwardly than inclined to good is grievous to the Spirit of God But this is perpetually the Refuge that God accounts the Sinfulness of his People their Sickness not their State and to purge and cure them he useth sometimes one Means and sometimes another witness Psal 89. 31 32 33 34. and Isa 27. 8 9. But still the Covenant being wholly of his Contrivement stands fixed in Heaven and Jesus Christ who has both your Nature as much as if your self were there and God's Nature too in one Person to preserve that Covenant in your stead for your good There is no creature-goodness of any sort soever that prefers any person to have an Interest in that Covenant because he sheweth Mercy to whom he will And there is nothing essentially needful to give any one a Right to apply this Covenant but a sense of necessity and a willingness to accept it and be saved by it only As wicked people fancy the way to Heaven so as that they think they can obtain it and yet desire still to keep their sins in their Bosoms and cannot hear of parting with them so many gracious people though beloved of God cannot imagine that Eternal Life being a Blessing of that greatness can be got so easie as by believing only Or if they grant it is to be had only by Believing yet they do so much look upon personal Qualifications by which to try their Faith that unless it be to such and such a degree they think they have not Faith And when they have got the degree they desire they are as much to seek as before And all is because God has left no such Qualifications as things that shall give rest to the Soul for they are but the Garments of Faith That Soul that is willing Christ should both save him and purge him shall be saved and purged and God cannot but account him clean from condemning Guilt I hope you live in the Study and Consolation of these glad Tidings of Gospel-Peace I trust also that God has and doth sanctifie all his Dispensations to your heart that you may be chearful in believing and fruitful in Holiness as one who is taught of the Lord and thus commending you to the Lord your Rock I rest yours in Truth and Love c. 1655. To B. D. N o 23. I Hear that the same hand of a good God that carried you forth hath brought you home to visit the Habitations of some Friends and view the Monuments of others deceased amongst which our Parents and Sister and Grandmother of refreshful Memory How God has dealt with you in that Wilderness of Pits and Snares from whence you came I know not but I hope the Prayers of those deceased in the hand of a living Christ are at this Hour pleading for you The God of all Power preach Freedom of Resignment unto him into your heart I wish there may be more of pure Communion with God in your heart than my feeble Soul can reach unto 'T is rich Bounty from God if I have never so little truth of desire towards him But I may mourn out all my moisture that my hard heart cannot come fully away to him Oh for a broken believing heart the Merchandize thereof is better than the Merchandize of Silver c. Such as have listed themselves into that spiritual Warfare there is no fear of miscarrying while they keep to their Colours and are given up to the Lamb's Conduct 1655. To C. A. D. N o 24. YOurs of the 25th of September last I received and do thank you for your Christian Love and Tenderness therein exprest and for the Heads of that searching refreshing Sermon for indeed nothing can be refreshing but what is searching and convincing The Vertue and the Excellency of Gospel-Remedies can never be welcome nor do their work till they be permitted to search and overcome that Truth may break forth to Victory and there may be healing without Putrefaction at the bottom And when a poor Soul cannot order his own Distempers yet then to consent to and approve of the Soveraignty of the Medicine and Skill of the Physician Could I come up to that Truth Faith and Resignment I should then more magnifie that Grace and be more fruitfully refreshed in the Salvation of God There is a pure Releif in the Gospel conveyable only by the Arm the Spirit of the Lord but it is oftentimes in a great measure spoiled and defiled in a carnal way of Endeavour to receive it To entertain spiritual Truths in the Spirit and to be subjected to their Law and formed over into their Mould Complexion and Constitution this I think were Religion indeed For my own part I view these things at such a distance that sometimes I even doubt whether there be any more than Notion left or if more what it is that
lower Ebbings and Flowings The Lord be with you c. 1659. To B. D. N o 37. IT were a miserable thing for a gracious heart to suffer Crosses if the Curse were in them but seeing their Nature is changed our misery doth not lie in such Dispensations but our Instructions are therein though it is hard to say and believe it and when the Clouds seem to gather thick over ones head then to claim sheltering teaching and purging Power under the Wings of God and to sing as Luther was wont Psal 46. God is a Refuge for us Selah that is a posture some way becoming an Heir of Life and Glory whose Estate is truly secured beyond Thief or Moth. I am sometimes even amazed to think how short I come of what I seem to be and of real acknowledging that God and living in that absolute blessed Covenant which I profess my self a sharer in And doth not these things require rough Dispensations inward or outward to awaken and send a poor Sinner home to that Advocate who is King Prophet and Priest to help But alas dry words my leanness my leanness yet strong is he who hath in some part already and will yet further one day totally remove all things that offend Let us bless him love him and honour all his ways The Lord help you and I to live above the Changes of this lower World There is a Magnanimity in Faith which overcometh the World if we could but attain that pitch The Lord establish our hearts and hopes upon himself he changes not and blessed be his Name I leave you with him and rest c. 1659. To D. D. N o 38. I Know no Refuge but in God and blessed be his Name his Name is a strong Tower this World is but a withering Portion a bad Prop to lean upon the Covenant of Grace will make amends for all I may not complain unless it be against my Unbelief God must have the Glory of all his works and therefore blessed again and again be his Name he hath not left his people whatever the World expect or think and therefore let us charge our hearts to resist sinful Melancholy his ways are still Mercy and Truth and the Children of Zion must shall and will rejoyce in their King a mighty King their and our Saviour The Lord is the Pilot of his Church and People the Vessel may be tost but cannot miscarry such honour and privilege have all believing Penitents The Clouds are thick below but the Lord rules above and hath said It shall be well with the Righteous And though I am unrighteous yet he who I desire to make the Object of my Faith is perfect and in his Righteousness I trust mine there I would cling and rejoyce in the hope of the Glory of God yet to be revealed c. 1659. To D. H. N o 39. SEeing our time here is a Warfare 't is a comfort to perceive the Lord's presence with any poor Soul so as to make it stand out in hope and prayer while Temptations and Corruptions like fiery Darts are flying thick on every side It never goes desperately ill with those that travel towards Zion and are acquainted with Assaults from Satan and hearttreachery from themselves till they begin secretly to whisper Rebellion against the Covenant and Law of God's Grace and say There is no help for me in God David's Excellency lay not so much that he was freer from Sin and sinful Miscarriages than others but in this that he could not endure to say or hear others say of him There is no help for him in God Psal 71. 11. c. 3. 2. and c. 42. 10. That was the Anchor that made him ride out Storms and the Rope that drew him up out of many a deep Pit Let us use the same means with reverence and yet with freedom God is a jealous God and cannot endure to be accounted changeable Jer. 33. 24 25. he keeps both ends of the Covenant and will not give the Glory of any part of that Trust out of his own hands Every Desire every Thirst and Exercise of Resolution or Hope heavenwards and every Soul and Body-deliverance to such ariseth from this viz. that God is faithful 2 Thes 3. 3. though our Labour and Prayer ought therein also to be employed viz. as the means which God has commanded on our part for a Closing with the efficatious vertue of his Spirit by believing whereby the force of Christ's Death and Resurrection becomes singly applicable to remove Guilt and confer a gracious Conformity to his Nature and the Law of Righteousness in the Soul I see you level at the right Mark and own your Relief from the right place and why may I not say You shall yet see greater things than these c. 1659. To D. H. N o 40. THe Lord be praised that you are within such a Covenant that nothing can befall us for evil while our eye is truly rolling heaven-ward yea within such a Covenant as is confirmed in the Blood of him who is able to turn the heart and eye heaven-ward That God hath dealt so favourably with your heart as to tie it to a hungry pursuit after him is much comfort to my Soul and matter of praise to his Name And I account it no small Mercy that my Child is under your care and both of you under God's gracious Wing When we acquaint one another that every day we live is a day of Battel and that the Enemy within us doth rage this is no reason of discouragement because the Battel is the Lords I am put every day to fly to the City of Refuge and I bless the Lord I never found the Gate quite shut against me yet I am forced sometimes methinks to squeeze in Which difficulty ariseth from my Unbelief and want of retaining a frame of tender Resignation not from any straitening in his Bowels but in my own but these days of distance are hastening away I perceive your eye grows dim the Lord bless the Means for Recovery however be not dismayed you shall want never an eye when your Body shall be raised incorruptibly 't is not long thither the Redeemer will be seen eye to eye and then farewel all Imperfections c. 1659. To D. H. N o 41. I Perceieve B. Cr. hath much trouble through Indisposition of Body and it is good it should be so though disquieting to the Flesh and you have a gracious share I perceive also In such Cases it will be some help to turn our thoughts from poring upon the Affliction it self and endeavour by all means to find out the Lesson which God is teaching thereby for that is properly and truly our work in that Christ hath born the Curse for us he hath taken away the wrathful Penalty and left only an awakening and instructory Nature in all the Afflictions that his People meet with Isa 27. 7 8 9. and 63. 9. Psal 89. 30 31 32 c. Oh that
us read the Word as them that do believe it and pray over it for the truth of that will abide when the present World must vanish and all the things and persons in it Nourish the Meditation of Christ's Righteousness imputed to you and your Sins born by him as the principal means to make you hearty spiritual and useful to others c. 1660. To D. D. N o 46. I am refreshed that you are refreshed in the Lord. Brother cling there and be sure the scarlet and white Thread of the Blood and Spirit of Christ will never break though it be but as it were a Thread till it hath landed you safely If I am lifted up saith Christ I will draw all men viz. all Comers to him to me and according to the sense of your own words I would say Let none of us be discouraged in the toyl and hazard of things temporal Man liveth not by Bread alone but by every word of Promise that comes out of God's Mouth God has us upon the Anvil but himself only guides the Hammer A temporal Life is soon over Yet a little while and he that shall come will come Be still digging in the Mine of Wisdom Be often realizing to your self a departure hence Improve present Trials for present use for that God aims at and they are as needful whatever we think as the Thorn at the Nightingals Breast to keep him waking Let us strike in with God's Providences towards us as Co-workers that his designs upon us and in us may be promoted vigorously praying and believing against and above every Dispondency because his Word is strong when we are weak his good Will is the same though sometimes unseen naked Faith exalts him and so his blessed Will be done c. 1660. To D. D. N o 47. WHatever hazards or difficulties you may fear they are all under the compass of God's absolute dispose and the same Faith that carries us to rest on him for one thing in self-denying dependance which at this time God calls upon us eminently and graciously to exercise the same Faith having such a God and Christ in its eye is as extensive and under promise of Success to all things All things are possible to him that believeth Mar. 9. 23. As once Christ said Remember Lot's Wife so I would say to you Remember Lot himself Observe how infirmly he carried the matter although his Faith and Obedience was stronger than his Wives in the general and being sincere was accepted yet although he saw the Wonders of God before his face and his irresistable Power in destroying those Cities in that manner and preserving him as a Father would preserve a Child yet he feared to go to the Mountain where God appointed him lest he perished And when he was in Zoar a Town which God told him he would save for his sake yet there also he was afraid and departed thence as if he had no longer an Interest in the Power of God to save him And how sadly he fell when he thought he had secured himself in a Cave the story doth relate And such like Instances doth the Scripture yield in the History of Jacob David and others And because after every Exercise of Faith we are apt to enter into a Cave God doth hold out new Matter for our Exercise as it were to keep us in the open Air to make our Faith hardy and Warlike God loves not to have his Children crule about the Fire-side the refuge and sparks of their own kindling but for their healths sake enures them to the Weather that they may be hardy in believing according as the variety and difficulty and hazards do appear and the imagination of such things start into the Mind Let us beg of God the practice of our own Letters one to another and we shall yet see the Salvation of God in that kind as shall be best even it may be to the outward Man He that can be contented to venture his Estate his Safety his Credit his Soul his Body his Labours and the Success of them barely upon God and sit down and sing a Psalm to his Almighty Mercy Goodness and Truth that Man has got a Castle over his head let the Wind blow which way it will And herein the blessed God and Giver of Faith will not fail no more than the Truth of his Nature and Truth of his Word can change I would fain be at this practice However I must so far commend the way of my God and justifie the method of his Discipline both to me and to you that the Crown of our Profession and the Glory of a Christian Life lies in this Life in this kind of Life of Believing I do experience so many Obstructions against clear Dependance and Resignation to the safe hand of God's Power and Love and so many aching contradicting fits of Flesh and Blood that it would in some sense grieve me to put any friend that acts only in a carnal Mind upon such uncouth work as this is But knowing that you have already started the Game I would have you pursue merrily to perfect Surrender and Gloriation in God Believe it as bad a place as you are in God has made it for a season his School to you and till God doth some way clear things by his Providence for your Remove expect more practical Teaching and more Shelter under his Wing where you are than elsewhere although your company would be to me exceeding desirable c. 1660. To J. L. N o 48. I Am glad you are fitting your self to go through the Storm rather than to be dejected under it Nothing is more becoming a Christian than to make all ready in reference to a Dissolution I perceive you have lighted upon good Anchor-ground fix there and you will be well I desire to be fixed there with you 'T is an ill Choice to part with a Dram of Christ and Peace of Conscience for the greatest earthly Furniture That word I will never leave you nor forsake you is a Vessel that hath carried many a Soul through furious Tempests and still landed them safe and the same Vessel holds Tithe still It was built of good Timber and it hath a good Pilot always at the Helm and therefore it is safe venturing there Certainly the more freely and resignedly we can adventure Soul and Body upon him with a single heart purged in the Lamb's Blood the safer and the more satisfying will our Passage be 1660. To M. K. N o 49. I Desire both you and I may so improve all the Providences of God towards us that we may every day creep nearer to him in whom alone Pardon Peace and Eternal Life is treasured up for them who thirst for it Among which number I desire you and I may be found when God shall summon Quick and Dead to receive their Sentence c. 1660. To J. N. N o 50. I Am glad upon any occasion to hear of your welfare I
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
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
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
be able to speak to the hearing of the ends of the whole Heavens O the Melody of that great day when Saints and Angels innumerable shall be the Pronouncers Oh never such Melody Melody that may be heard Millions of Years Millions of Miles O Lord keep me in my present work till thou callest me to future work and prepare me for the glorifying of thee for ever Help me in this instant help me leave me not now help me through this Thicket graciously Lord graciously deal with me at my Dissolution that nothing but Actings of Love and Grace may be shining upon Me. I leave me with thee I desire to do it perfectly April 19. He spake to one that had watched with him the foregoing Night You see how it is with me You are young the Lord affect your heart with a true sense of your eternal State that you may not be befooled of your immortal Soul by a tempting Devil and a tempting World Some space after he took occasion to say It makes my Soul ashamed within me sometimes that I have had the whole Book of all God's Promises and Covenant before me and do believe that there is mine Inheritance and yet to be in such a posture as I am Alas to be made the Children of the Most High and to live like Fools it should make the Soul long to have the utmost of the Grace promised I expect every night and every day and every piece of a day to be gone that when-ever any Qualm comes upon me I am ready to think this is the time and yet I find in my self a natural Reluctancy against Death that I would and I would not but where-ever my Damp my Black my Disquiet is it ariseth from some Tardiness in my Soul to my God I have a great desire to be freed from my Burthens and to be in that State I greatly long for but yet I would willingly that God should pitch my Stakes and determine the matter God's Wisdom and his Goodness goes together for God's Attributes do not cross one another I ought to have a Manly Walk with God it is not a crouching crimbling childish foolish unexpert Walk By Manly I mean to weigh things as they are in the grave Discovery of Scripture Surely I long to be in the Fountain to see it and be for ever in it To one asking him how he did he said It is a great Mercy that my Mind abides in any Conjuncture and that the Wheels of the Clock do not fall all out of order I cannot now converse but I think the Trade meaning the Heavenly Trade goes on and the Lord make it a smart Trade Lord teach me how frail I am all things are best known by Experience as Learning is obtained by Observation Rules and Precepts April 20. Finding himself exceeding faint and weak said I could now lie down and say This is my last if the Lord saw it fit having much ado to retain Life To a Christian Friend that came to visit him he said Blessed be the Lord for the Covenant of Grace and the Surety of that Covenant where our stay is All Goodness all Mercy all Peace c. The way and method God takes he himself hath cut out but what his scope is in this my present Case I do not know Afterward it being told him of the death of an aged Relation who lived to above fourscore Years he spake to this effect Is he dead with whom I never had the opportunity seriously to converse with in the things of a spiritual World Surely this is the time to do any thing for God and to be helpful to others The Lord bless the Providence to that poor Woman his Wife To another Friend taking leave and saying The Lord be with you I hope he will carry you to your Journeys end he replied I hope he will I believe he will never leave me nor forsake me To another poor Christian he gave this Counsel Cling upon Christ and he will never leave you I cannot say much but be sure of that follow hard after Christ and he will never leave you That is all my Experience all that I have been a learning of the Truth and Faithfulness of God these scores of Years Only love him only obey him entirely seek him pray to him much for that is the only likeliest way and I never heard of any that did it faithfully and was lost Then he prayed O my God be near me suffer nothing to miscarry through the All-sufficiency of thy infinitely great Grace To a dear Friend that came to visit him telling him that he was very much upon the hearts of the People of God who prayed for him he replied these words That one heart of Christ sets other hearts awork He farther said I am glad to see you upon account of former Intimacy but I chiefly rejoyce that you have found the same God in Prayer that I have done and that you are hankering after the same Fountain and Spring and cannot live without it as God hath given me also an unwearied Reach after and upon these Grounds I am glad to see you My dear Friend fare you well the Lord be with you To a Relation he spake thus Spring to Heaven though for your springing you spring out of the Body and leave it behind you Let us look to it lest you and I fall short of our Hope Multitudes of Professors standing aloof off have lost their way they have lost their work they have lost their end Our opportunity is as clear in our hand now as ever it was in the hand of David or Paul or any of the Saints of God that lived before us Oh how do I love to see Grace grow in Friends in Relations c. The Lord be with you and carry you and make your Affliction to be a sanctified Affliction that in a little while you may not have any burthen but may see your Salvation and have it April 21. To another Visitant he spake thus I may not stand wondering meaning in reference to his long Sickness but yet I may wonder indeed that ever God made me a Man that ever he made me a rational Creature that ever he brought me forth into the World where the Gospel was and that he hath told me that he will save me for ever Oh that I could wonder admire and adore it You duggle up and down and so I have done heretofore and here we walk over but a little Ground and if we obtain little or much it is but a little got in a little Ground and we have therein trouble But Oh what is it to flee over the whole Heavens and to be every where in God and in Christ In all other good things relating only to this Life all the pleasure we have in seeking them is to think how pleasurable they will be to us when obtained But the delight and pleasure of spiritual things lie much in the very seeking of them
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
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