the Lord your God before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains and while ye look for light he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness When folk will follow their own imaginations and will not walk in the light of the word of God the Lord fills them with drunkenness and leaves them to dash upon one another and destroy one another like drunken men fighting in the dark But neither words nor rods will be rightly understood or laid to heart till the Spirit be poured from on high If the Lord would pour out his Spirit we would not only be brought to see our sins but to be ashamed of them to take shame and confusion of face to our selves we would sorrow and mourn and lament after the Lord we would turn from our sins to the Lord and joyn our selves to the Lord and we would joyn together in seeking the Lord in his Ordinances then the Wilderness would be a fruitful field the dead and scattered bones would be joyned together and live then Judah and Israel would be one stick in the hand of the Lord Ezek. 37. Then the Children of Israel and Judah would come together going and weeping seeking the Lord their God asking the way to Sion with their faces thitherward saying Come and let us joyn our selves unto the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Jer. 50.4 5. When the Spirit is poured out from on high upon his people then the Lord turns to them a pure Language that they may call upon the Name of the Lord to serve him with one consent then they turn humble Suplicants and pour out their hearts in groans and sighs that cannot be uttered then Pride and Haughtiness is taken away and people become poor in Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh but trust in the Lord and rejoyce in the Lord Jesus Zeph. 3.9 10 11 12. Rom. 8.26 27. Phil. 3.3 Till the Lord come till he return with mercy and loving-kindness and turn us again and cause his face to shine and see our ways and heal us we will but wax worse and worse there is no remedy for us but in his Sovereign Gracc and those mercies that have been of old and endure for ever Let us look to him who is exalted to give Repentance to Israel and Remission of sins that he would turn us that we may be turned and heal our backslidings and heal our breaches that he may utter that quickning word Ezek. 37.9 Come from the four winds O breath and breath upon these slain that they may live O Lord come and overcome our evil with thy goodness for who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passes by the transgression of the Remnant of thy heritage and retains not anger for ever because thou delights in mercy who will turn again and will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins in the depth of the Sea thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn to our Fathers from the days of old Micha 7.18 19 20. We have not remembred our Covenant but have spoken words falsly in making a Covenant Nevertheless O Lord remember thy Covenant and establish to us an everlasting Covenant that we may remember our ways and be ashamed Establish thy Covenant with us that we may know that thou art the Lord that we may remember and be confounded and never open our mouth any more because of our shame when thou art pacified toward us for all that we have done O Lord Righteousness belongs to thee but unto us confusion of faces as it is this day to all of us to our Kings Princes Fathers Ministers people of all ranks belongs Confusion but to the Lord our God belongs mercies and forgiveness tho' we have sinned against him Lord give us Repentance and turn us and we shall be turned Let thy power be great according as thou hast spoken saying The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy forgiving iniquity and transgression Lord humble our uncircumcised hearts that we may take with our sins and accept of the punishment of them that we may remember them with shame and sorrow but do not thou remember against us former iniquities but according to thy mercy remember us for thy goodness sake O Lord remember for us thy Covenant and repent according to the multitude of thy mercies and for thy names-sake pardon our iniquities for they are many and great And when Wisdom and Council and Strength when Light and Life is gone and when Unity is gone when there is none to help and none of the Sons of Zion to take her by the hand in her distress when there is none to make up the breach no Intercessor let thine own arm bring salvation When all earthly Glory is stained blasted and gone appear in thine own Glory in the glory of thy wisdom power and Sovereign grace in building Sion build the house and bear the glory that when thou hast done the work by thy Spirit grace grace may be glorified and that this may be written for the Generations to come that the people which shall be created may praise the Lord. We do not present our Supplications before thee for our righteousness for we are all as an unclean thing and our righteousness as filthy rags but for thy great mercy O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thy own sake O our God! for this people are called by thy Name O Lord the hope of Israel the Savior thereof in the time of trouble though our iniquities testifie against us do for thy name sake if thou mark our iniquity we cannot stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou may be feared there is mercy with thee and plenteous redemption and thou redeemest Israel from all his iniquities and troubles O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us for we are brought very low help us O God of our Salvation for the Glory of thy name and deliver and purge away our sins for thy name sake save this people bless thy Inheritance feed them also and lift them up for ever Save us O Lord our God and gather us to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. Unto the King eternal immortal invisible the only wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and and ever Amen FINIS
and worse continued contests Our nakedness-discovering writings what have they done but added oyl to the flame For Christs sake my reverend and dear Brethren hearken to this word in season from the Oracles of God and treasures of pure antiquity pointing out the way of a godly and edifying peace It will be no grief of heart but sweet peace and consolation when we are to appear before the Judg of the quick and the deed Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus So heartily prayeth your Brother and fellow-â—ervant ROBERT BLAIR Thus far Reverend Mr. Blair who was both a Son of Thunder â—nd a Son of Peace a Peace maker O with what authority and seriousneâ—s did I hear him press unity in Preaching before a Synod from these words Phil. 2.1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind And I heard him say upon Preaching before a general Assembly That he could be content to be carried from the place in which he was Preaching to his grave to have the rent that then was in the Church cured Ignorant and rash youths who have not experience and consider not what an abominable sin Schism is and what are the mischievous consequences of it and how it ordinarily ends in the ruin desolation of a Church they know little what they are doing when they are blowing up the fire of contention and it 's a sport to some to cast such fire-brands But they who have Heavenly wisdom see that that sporting is mischievous madness that it will be bitter in the latter end It is not for nought that the Spirit of God directed the Apost Paul in writing to the Church of the Corinthians in which there were many things wrong to fall first upon the ill of divisions 1 Cor. 1.10 and when he is shutting up that Epistle he exhorts that all these things be done with charity and to greet one another with an holy kiss And when he is shutting up the 2 Epist he concludes Finally Brethren farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you Greet one another with an holy kiss So thus he begins and ends with this unity and peace 9. And because no speaking nor reasoning will prevail against the working of a spirit of error and schism without the effectual working of the pirit of the Lord let us humbly and earnestly pray that the Lord would have mercy upon us for his Sons sake who came to destroy the works of the Devil pour upon us the spirit of grace and of supplications the spirit of faith repentance that we may look on him whom we have pierced mourn the spirit of a sound mind the spirit of love peace And that every one Magistrates Ministers and people may be made sensible of their own sins We should pray that the Lord would send his Spirit that convinces the world of sin to let us see our sins and to let us see them written in our judgments that we may accept of the punishment of our sins justifie the Lord when he judges The Lord often writes the sins of men in so great and legible letters in their judgments that they who run may read them David despised the Lord and occasioned the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme by his adultery and murther incestuous filthiness breaks out in his house the sword departs not from his house his people despise him and follow Absalom Shimei an exasperate Benjamite is let loose upon him to revile and curse him and cast stones at him he disowns him as no King gives him no title of honour but only calls him a man and which was worse a bloody man a man of Belial and does not cry and then flee but goes along in the sight and hearing of the King Courtiers and Soldiers cursing casting stones and dust David sees that tho' Shimei did this contrary to the Law of God which says Thou shalt not revile the Gods nor curse the ruler of thy people Yet that he did it not without the over-ruling Providence of God he saw that the Lord had let Shimei loose upon him is humbled under the hand of God Uzziah will needs go to the Temple exercise the Priests Office the Lord by Leprosie cuts him off from the House of the Lord and from the exercise of his Kingly Office When the Priests did not impartially apply the Law of God to reclaim the people from their sins no doubt they thought thus to keep in with the people but this brought them to be base contemptible before all the people Mal. 2.9 The Jews that remained in the land after the ruin of the Temple though they had but one Prophet yet they despise him they will not hear the word which Jeremiah spoke in the name of the Lord but they would do what went out of their own mouth and therefore the Lord leaves them to live like Pagans swears by his great name that his name should not be named any more in their mouths they should not have so much as the form profession of the worship of the true God Jer. 44.16 26. they would not be reproved by Ezek. ch 3.26 they are plagued with the want of a reprover When people will reject the counsel of the Lord will not hearken to his voice nor take his gracious offer made in the Gospel when they will not endure sound Doctrine nor desire the sincere milk of the word nor receive the truth in love the Lord justly gives them up to their own hearts lusts to walk in their own counsels to strong delusions to believe lyes to be tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine to turn aside to fables When they despise his servants will not receive his mâ—ssengers their message count them enemies for telling the truth the Lord removes his servants from them leaves them to be deluded with teachers which are after their own humours and lusts When people refuse to hear the Lords words and walk after the imaginations of their own heart Jer. 13.10 the Lord fills them with drunkenness that they destroy one another like drunken men who know not what they are doing v. 13. Behold I will fill all the Inhabitants of this Land even the Kings that sit upon Davids Throne and the Priests and the Prophets and all the Inhabitants of Jerusalem with drunkenness And I will dash them one against another even the Fathers and the Sons together saith the Lord I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy but destroy them Hear ye and give car be not proud for the Lord hath spoken Give glory to
Speeches are Persecutions Matth. 5.11 Jer. 18.18 they incite one another to devise devices against Jeremiah and to smite him with the Tongue I remember not of any thing in the Letters which I have missed except his Predictions for the Historian is a sort of a Prophet he hath a faculty of foretelling things to come I know not how he hath fallen upon it or whether it be be ill come or not he very confidently affirmed in the year 1677. That if Mr. John Welsh had hearkened to the desire of drawing near to the shelter of an house for meeting with the people but for one Sabbath though that might have contributed for taking off all Sentences against himself and others and to an Universal Liberty for all outed Ministers to preach without Molestation that then he would have forefaulted all the protection and countenance he had singularly enjoyed before that time This was far said No sober judicious Person will think that it could be unlawful in such Circumstances at least to preach at a house but though there had been somewhat wrong in it how comes he to know that for that failing Mr. Welsh would have lost the Protection and Countenance which he had formerly enjoyed it was presumptuous boldness for him to take upon him to determine so peremptorily concerning the forefaulting of the Protection and Countenance of God who hath mercy on whom he will have mercy and does for his names sake even when his peoples sins testifie against them and remembers his Covenant and Mercy for his People Another of his Predictions is That all indifferent Spectators will judge as he says and that Posterity will see and say as he says whether the indulged men will or not But I think they are over-credulous who will believe that he had the foreknowledge what way the Judgments of men present and of the Generations to come would incline and determine There is yet a third Prediction of another Author which is That the Indulgence should become as odious and detestable to all the godly in the Land as ever Prelacy was To this Prophecy the Author of the History and Letters makes an Addition while he says in one of his Letters That what that person was perswaded of will quickly appear the first had only said it would be but he says it will quickly appear augur augurem but these Prophets were so fearfully mistaken in seeing things that were that there is very good reason to doubt of their foresight of things to come yet there is more Art in this inartificial Argument founded upon the Authority of a man who hath but confidence to say boldly what he says concerning things to come than in many artificial Arguments and these Predictions will go further with weak credulous people than very solid reasons for people of that sort especially if they be curious think more of a man who will take upon him to tell but some things that will be though the event be of small consequence than they will think of a solid judicious man who can tell them from the word of God what they should do that they may glorifie and enjoy God and therefore there is such flocking of people to Fortune-tellers Speamen Dummeos Wizzards and Southsayers Now if curious people have such a conceit of those who foretel though they be suspected to have their Knowledge from the Devil they will think much more of men who are in reputation for Religion if they take on them to foretel things to come they will readily be very desirous that such Predictions may not fail I know one who pressed some of his acquaintaince to get weapons for fighting in such a year upon this ground That if there were not Blood that year then such a person who had foretold that there would be Blood would prove a false Prophet These Predictions are very taking when they suit with peoples Inclinations and when the fulfilling of these Predictions contribute to their honour and when they who are not active in fulfilling them are casten as ungodly and despicable and therefore these Predictions of Ministers which did foretel That the Indulgence would become despicable could not but be very taking with people who were inclined to despise it and this could not but be very effectual to press them to despise it that if they did it not then they would be known to be none of the godly and this would press others to despise it that they might not be ranked among the ungodly I have observed that several have an Art of bringing about several things by foretelling them some make people offend at these things which they would never have offended at by foretelling that the people will be offended So Satan hath brought about many mischiefs by foretelling them and the Actors of them this was a very effectual trick to render the Indulgence despicable to foretel that it would become odious and detestable to all the godly for they who believe these Predictions would reason them If we do not detest and hate the Indulgence we cannot list our selves among the godly and then if the Indulged Ministers did not relinquish the Indulgence and hate it that they could not be reckoned among the godly and if they did not make haste to hate it and detest it very shortly that then they could not be accounted godly because this Prediction was to be quickly accomplished It was no great matter to foretell that the Indulgence and indulged Ministers would become odious when there was so many Letters and Copies of printed Books full of odious reproaches cast at the Indulgence and Indulged Ministers when such causes were working and such Fire-balls cast and the people were so prepared to take fire it was an easie thing without any Spirit of Prophesie to foretel a Fire when such trains were laid and kindled Again when a poor Church is going to ruin the ordinary Forerunner of that ruin is the contempt of the Ministers 2 Chron. last They mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people till there was no remedy O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou who killest the Prophets read Matth. 23. ver 34. to the end so that if these two Ministers had spoken a little more indefinitely they might have passed for pretty good Guessors if they had said only that the Indulgence would be detestable to the godly but taking on them to foretel that it would be detestable to all the godly and that quickly hath quite broken their credit as Prophets for there are many of the godly who have always been far from detesting the Indulgence and they are much further from detesting it now than before And the Authors of these Predictions have by these Predictions and some other Practices of that nature much wronged their own Reputation This is ordinary when a Church is going to ruin the Despisers of the Lords Servants go before this contempt uses
opportunity of them these private Meetings which were kept in England in a separating way from the solemn Assembly became the Seminaries of error and heresie when the sheep leave the shepherds tents and the green Pastures of the Lords own Ordinances what wonder if they wander and grow sick and dote about questions 5. In your private converse seek for the things which make for peace and for mutual edification beware ye waste not your time in vain janglings and unedifying debates which distemper the minds and hearts of those who dote upon them and diverts them from edifying purposes When ye meet with those who are given to these janglings if ye can by Scripture and reason reclaim them from that snare essay it with meekness of wisdom If ye find them impatient to be contradicted and not capable through passion and prejudice to receive instruction then fall upon some good edâ—fying purposes wherein you and they agree that whereunto ye have attained ye may walk according to the same rule If you find that they will neither hold off their janglings and that 's very ordinary for a spirit of error or schism to hold people perpetually upon those things which foster error or division nor yet receive instruction your converse with such is not like to be fruitful imploy others to deal with them and be much in praying for them and be ready to do them any good that they will admit or accept of Beware of wasting your time in speaking ill of absent persons remember the words Tit. 3. To speak evil of no man c. Make not that your design to wrong the fame of any person as the word imports hate the way of such whose work it is to render Ministers and those who differ from them in any thing hateful and to put them out of capacity as far as in them lyes to serve the Lord in their generation and station Beware of rash determinations of questions which ye understand not some people are so rash that no question is started but they will presently determine it and having vented their judgment they will not readily retract Meddle not as a busie-body in other mens matters and in things too high for you which are not within the compass of your calling Waste not your precious time as many people do in State-intrigues It belongs to the Representatives of Nations and not to private persons to determine matters of that nature What the Representatives of Nations may do for righting what is wrong in the Government of Nations is a question which the Representatives of Nations and not private persons should move and resolve It 's a trick of Satan and seditious Jesuits to divert people from the duties of their Christian and particular callings and to break and crack their brains in over-stretching them to reach things that are above them and to grasp matters which they can never comprehend and though they could understand them have no call to meddle with them And if private persons take the sword which God hath not given to them to right what they think wrong by strong hand And if private persons take upon them to depose Ministers for real or apprehended faults this is the high-way to all confusion to turn State and Church upside down and to fill the world with murthers and butcheries to turn it into a Butcher-house and to fill the Church with schism and damnable errors These are the methods of the lying and murthering spirit to make havock of the souls and bodies of men 6. Imitate the example of our Lord Jesus Ephes 5.1 Be followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Put on therefore as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another If any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And above all things put on charity which is the bond of perfectness Love them that hate you Bless and curse not Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good Learn of Christ to be meek and lowly in heart shew all meekness to all men The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is of great price in the sight of God When ye are injured and persecuted learn of Christ to be patient and in your patience possess your souls Look above men who wrong you unto God who is correcting or trying you and be humbled and patient under the mighty hand of God fret not at the prosperity of those who for a while bring evil devices to pass but trust in the Lord and be doing good And delight thy self in the Lord Commit your way to him Wait on the Lord and in well-doing commit your self to him as to a faithful Creator Take heed to your spirit beware that ye be not deluded by Satan and brought to imagine that wrathful revenge is zeal Who is a wise man and endued with knowledg among you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom hut if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and be not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish for where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace The Spirit of Christ opposeth that spirit which lusteth to envy and revenge When James and John would have been at fire from Heaven to consume the Samaritans Christ turned and rebuked them and said Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of for the Son of man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Let that be your constant design and endeavour to express the praises the vertues of Christ in resembling him in loveliness in love in bowels and mercies in humility lowliness of heart in self-denial in gentleness meekness patience long-suffering forbearance forgiveness that the same mind may be in you that was in Christ Jesus that ye may be in the world as he was in the world that ye may walk in his steps that ye may be conformed to the Image of the Son of God and Christ formed in you He countenanced the Ordinances he heard John was baptized of him when the people were baptized he was Circumcised he Prayed Preached and eated the Passover when Judas the Traytor was present he directed the Lepers whom he cured to shew themselves to the Priest he was subject to Joseph