when he taught his Disciples that Prayer Could I but pray this Prayer in the Latitude of it I should think my foot within the threshold of Heaven The main Gospel-killing work lies The blessedness of a mortified Vnderstanding and mortified Will. in mortifying the Understanding and the Will into the Wisdom and Dominion of the Spirit and in regard my present Controversie is against my own Carnal Will I would deal with that first did not my unmortified Understanding stand in the way My unmortified Understanding can easily dally with all the Notions about the Trinity Law and Gospel Promises and Covenant Faith and every Grace of the Spirit and every Duty of Godliness and yet but trifle all the while The renewed Understanding sucks in the lively Evidence of the Mind of God in all those things and is called the Demonstration of Spirit and Power 1 Cor. 2. 4. and the very Mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. 16. This Mind of Jesus Christ represents to Faith the infinite God wrapped up in every Particle of his Word and is the Spirit of every revealed Truth Hence comes that Expression You have not so learned Christ Ephes 4. 20. A renewed Understanding is not taught by Words and Sentences be they what they will and though never so good but by the Mind of God and Christ in them Ephes 4. 21. The whole Volumne of the Scriptures is but as it were a small hint of the unmeasurable Will of God And this is the reason why the Scriptures though the words are the same and not altered yet do they by the Spirit speak variety of Instructions in the Unity of the same Truth as the Spirit pleaseth to reveal it self therein which doth not at all argue defect in the Scriptures but infiniteness in the Mind of Christ therein contained This Fulness of the Mind of Christ in the Word is that which makes it divide between the Soul and the Spirit the Joynts and the Marrow and is a Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4. 12. A renewed Understanding makes use of the Word and all the Expressions therein but as the Door by which to enter into the whole Vision of God in Jesus Christ and the Revelation of his Will and so takes up the Truth truly in the method in which the infinite God is pleased to condescend A renewed Understanding sees the Mystery of Truth to be Substance and Life through that report of it which words do speak It converseth with Life through the Conduit of Words Phrases and Terms It gives way to the Truth as it is in Jesus by believing and not mangle it with carnal Reason and so makes way for the renewed Will to give Obedience by believing doing and suffering the Pleasure and Will of God The renewed Will is one with God's Will in a way of Submission thereto It lies down broken heartedly in the pleasure of God 'T is zealous in Obedience secure in believing quiet in suffering because the Will of God reigneth and cannot be disappointed It makes the Soul in all things give thanks and rejoyce evermore It grieves where the Holy Spirit is grieved and it delights where God delights If God say to Abraham Offer up Isaac he doth it with joy Reluctancy is gone because the Will of God dwells in the renewed Will and the Consultations of Flesh and Blood are mortified It grieves for Sin because it crosseth the revealed Will of God and yet rejoyceth in Hope because all things shall work together for good to them that love him The renewed Will is always renewing it self by Faith in Christ and looking into the Law of Liberty It thanks God heartily for Life Death Health Sickness Success or Disappointment in High Degree or Low Degree because 't is baptized into his Will And that the nature of this new Creation in the Will may provoke my heart to withdraw from the Servitude of my corrupt Will I would ponder the nature of it a little further The first Parent of the Grace of Adoption by Jesus Christ was the good pleasure of the Will of God in his Decree Ephes 1. 5. and actual Conversion by the Word is the Operation also of the Will of God Jam. 1. 18. which bringeth forth a Birth in the new Man of the same likeness Psal 110. 3. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power and by this the truth of all Obedience is measured Isa 1. 19. It is also the first thing the Spirit of God hath in its eye and which doth in a way of Acceptation fill up the defect of all other Service 2 Cor. 8. 12. The State of Death in Sin is Captivity to the Will of Satan and the Flesh and Subjection to the Will of God is the First-born from the Dead it first appears and so goes on as the living Token of true Christianity and never ceaseth till 't is filled with the Fulness of God who brought it forth and so it is the undoing Principle to Flesh and Blood and captivates Fear Care and Bondage into the Liberty of Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God and makes Christ and a Believer no longer twain but one in the Union and Operation of the Spirit whereby the Dominion and sure Protection of God secures the Soul as the Waters cover the Sea Here I stick and here I groan Alas alas for this day of the Lord Oh for this day spring from on high to reveal this light and breath in the Life of this renewed Understanding and Will from the rolling bowels of his own Grace and Spirit I am sick yea I am sick my Pen shakes my heart quivers with desire after this renewing Work Give way O Carnal Mind of Unbelief Darkness Sin and Vanity that my heart may faint away into the bosom of this changing Power of the Spirit of Christ who has redeemed it This glorius Work of renewing The use of the Scriptures the Mind is carried on by the eternal Word of God by which he made the World All Creating Work is effected through the eternal Word the Son of God by the eternal Spirit from the everlasting Father in which God is all in all This eternal Word hath declared himself by a word of Faith Reconciliation and Comfort contained and expressed in a way suitable to the Capacity of Humane Sense Reason and Understanding in the Scriptures that so the incomprehensible Will of God might look into the heart of Man through the inlets of natural Sense and the faculties of a natural Mind making them subservient in this renewing Change Therefore is it made visible to the eye and receivable by the ear retainable by the memory and meditable by the heart in the use of the Scriptures and so doth in a rational way by Reproofs Instructions Convincements and Comforts bring forth the new Creature and hold it in a Spiritual Union and Fellowship with the Father Son and Spirit through a daily Increase tending to the
may not rush into this Mystery I must be unshod that I may enter in and stand upon holy Ground No man cometh to the Son but whom the Father draweth I may get the notion of something about it but can come to no heart-enjoyment without the Unction of the Spirit of Christ to possess and so to lead me in within the shadow of this Almighty Redeemer 'T is wearisom and barren work to gape towards this Mystery by a meer speculative Search and therefore I would fain make it my design to give away my whole self in every step of this Enquiry to Jesus Christ that I may be taught this mysterious Privilege as the truth is in him whom thus to know is Eternal Life And therefore with a holy fear and tenderness I desire to wade according to the Scriptures into this Deep by the Spirit which searcheth the deep things of God As a foundation for further search How to enjoy Christ actually I find that Christ himself 1 Cor. 3. 11. and a Conscience purged from guilt by means of his death Heb. 9. 14 15. are things enjoyable and so offered and held forth in the Gospel My work in the next place is to enquire how I may actually enjoy an Interest in so high a privilege I am in the first place under a sense of my own necessity to lie down at the Foot of God and suffer Jesus Christ as crucified and risen again to march with all his Train into my heart and take Possession there and then am to suffer his Spirit shutting my eyes and stopping my ears against carnal Reasonings to lead me into a willing Resignation to this crucified and risen Christ my Redeemer which is a spiritual Marriage to his Person A notional Landskip of this state will not serve my turn O thou in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen renew a right Spirit within me and let my very Soul be moulded into the Truth by every Meditation My Guilt has increased upon me this day I have lost my Thirst after God and do find my strength to waste my Drift is not pure and am carried away into a withered frame and my heart cannot return The sounding of thy Bowels is able to bring me back and enlighten me with the light of Life An impure Eye cannot behold thee nor a surfeited Mind eat of this Manna My Disease is great but there is no healing Medicine to be had but in thee O my Redeemer Wouldst thou in earnest O my Soul be cured and effectually enjoy the Redemption of Christ Then retire thy self only to him and let thy eye be singly fixed there Render up thy Guilt to him who has bought it out of thy hands Withdraw thy sholder from the burthen and with a loathing of thy self and thy sin leave it upon Jesus Christ his Father and thine laid thy Guilt upon him already upon the Cross and when thou dost by Faith lay thy Guilt upon him thou dost not crucifie the Son of God afresh but dost only put to thy Seal that he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World He bought thy sins to destroy them he shed his Blood that thy Guilt might be condemned and waits upon thee to bring them forth to him for Execution 'T is not a pain but a pleasure to him that a Sinner delivers up his sins to him because the Vengeance he sustained for sins has fixed a day of Vengeance in his heart against the daily Guilt of his Redeemed and Revenge is sweet Whatever Bryars and Thorns are set before him in Battel he will go through them and burn them together Isa 27. 4. and 63. 5 6. He sustained the Curse satisfied Justice and returned to his Father with the tokens of his Conquest and now attends in the Gospel upon the Elect to cause them to shake themselves from their Dust and bring forth their Dead the Slain of the Lord to the Burial A Sinner then lays his sins on Christ when he believes that God the Father laid them upon him God the Father imposed the burthen and a Sinner by Faith concurs and melteth under the sight of Divine Justice and cries out Even so O Father because it pleased him to bruise him Even so O dear Redeemer because thou lovedst not thy Life to the Death that thou mightest redeem me by thy own Blood I leave my sins upon the Sacrifice of thy Flesh and would crave leave to look upon him whom the Father made an Offering for my sins and whom I have pierced and in the view of this costly Redemption would mourn over him as a Man mourneth for his only Child But yet that I may improve this mysterious Happiness to the more full advantage I would beg help from the Lord to assist me with a true view of the real Existence of those things which relate to Jesus Christ and God's Covenant concerning me and with me in him and what is the mysterious method and power of the actual exercising of Faith thereupon The real Existence of all Gospel-privileges The Gospel is a real thing is witnessed by the Scriptures which do positively attest that those things are so and so as is exprest But such is the cursed Treachery of my heart that the custom of reading and hearing those things makes them seem common and debaseth their Majestick Worth and so beholding them through a literal and common Estimate my eye loseth at once their true colour and certainty which infeebles my Apprehensions as to the lively Belief of their real Existence And in order to the curing of this Disease I am waiting on the God of Light and Truth to breath upon my heart such a quickned frame of Meditation as may humbly and effectually steer my Soul to the Mark which I aim at Unmortified Invention would be busie to hammer out some Answer to my Query but alas 't is a Physician of no value For who can reason a blind Man into the use of his sight He only who brings Life and Immortality to light is able to make the things that appear not to be seen Hast thou not heard O my Soul that thy true and only welfare lies in things which neither the eye of the Body nor the natural eye of the Mind can attain to How self-denyingly then shouldst thou attempt this Search And therefore lest thou catch a shadow instead of substance turn thy self once more by Prayer to him who opens the eyes of the Blind who hath promised he will not give thee a Stone when thou askest Bread for thy necessity And then First Consider To what end dost thou profess that thou believest the Scriptures to be the Word of God unless also thou puttest to thy Seal that it is the very Will and Mind of God exprest in those words of truth Consider also that 2. The most serious discourse of the people of God about spiritual things although their hearts are not under an equal degree of
spiritual Warmth do attest those things are really true The more spiritually any thing is preached or spoken it gives the more relishable taste to their inward Man and though they are of divers Nations yet they accord in the same main Principles of the new Creature and the same substantial inward exercise of heart 3. Observe also with what Radical Uniformity the Opposers of Grace do resist the Convictions of his Spirit And besides 4. Doth not thy truest Rest lie in thy nearest Approaches to God in Christ as thy Centre towards which thou art restlesly rowling as the true and real bottom of all thy hope and comfort But wouldst thou indeed know that the matters contained in the Word of Christ are real things Then never read or hear for meer knowledge sake Look for some Beams of Christ's Glory and Power in every Verse Account nothing Knowledge but as it is seasoned with some Revelation of the glorious Presence of Christ and his quickning Spirit Use no Conference about spiritual Truths for Conference sake but still mind the promoting of something for real Edification Use not Duties for Custom and meer Service sake but for Approach and nearer Communion with God Make no person thy Pattern more nor less than as some warmth of the Presence of Christ appears in his Words Walk and Conversation Let thy Recreation be Prayer suffer not Guilt to wranckle wash often in the Blood of Christ do not slightly grieve the Spirit but pray for the fulfilling of the Promise that the Spirit shall teach you all things Let nothing bar up your way from craving pardon of sin and hope of relief And if you thus trade in spiritual things as real they will appear more and more to be real according to the Promise Joh. 7. 17. If any man do his will he shall know c. But alas while I would thus muse my heart into some spiritual Freedom and Activity I am again dismally invaded my filthy and vile heart rebels the Prince of Darkness hath violently broke in upon me my Conscience is defiled and my Peace wounded my Prayers are heartless I have turned my self round into a Giddiness I have lost my Station and am bleating up and down like a Lamb in a large place I got a glimpse of Relief but cannot fix my eye upon it But what gain I by solitary Complaint I have sinned in the sight of God Angels and Men in the sight of my Redeemer in the sight of my own Conscience and Oh that I could pour out my Soul as Water before the Lord It would be a rich Mercy to me to be admitted to tumble at the feet of my Judge and get so near as Mary did to wash his feet with Tears and wipe them with the Hairs of perpetual Resignation to himself and to his disposal of me to purge me in what method soever so I may be clean and the seven Abominations of my heart cast out I would fain say in faith I will yet look to thy holy Temple Blessed be the name of him who is strong merciful gracious and abundant in Pardon Blessed be that God that Redeemer the Lord although unworthy sinful Wretch that I am yet my Righteousness O that God would yet spirit me to enquire into and taste the Bread which came down from Heaven I am searching after the real Existence of Christ and the benefit which flows from Union with him And I perceive that my peculiar Happiness lies not in this that these things have real Existence in themselves but that I know them to exist and my self to exist in them and they in me The things themselves are spiritual I cannot know them naturally but by the Spirit of Faith for Flesh cannot see Spirit In the Mount will the Lord be seen As far as God shines upon my heart and Ordinances so far I behold a real worth and glorious power in them In his light only I see light Psal 36. 9. As far as Grace gets life in my Soul so far I see the real Excellency of it As the Life of God opens it self to my heart so far I live and know the ravishing comfort of spiritual Life for with him is the Fountain of Life when he withdraws his Breath I do as it were return to the Dust for in him I live and move I know no worth in any Christian but as I partake with him in the same Spirit and Life Divine Commands Reproofs and Comforts do so far affect my heart powerfully as my Soul doth live in him who speaketh them The demonstration of spiritual things doth so far appear convincing as my heart is really transformed by them into the Image of Jesus Christ my Lord and my Head Though I have a renewed Principle of Light and Sight yet I cannot exercise the Sense of spiritual Sight till the Son of Righteousness sends forth a Beam to me by which I may behold in the Reflection of his own Light And this binds over my Soul to a necessity of a mortified believing Resignation to the Author of all Light Sight and Strength who is an unchangeable Rock and his work is perfect although I am full of Changes yet this Covenant keeps me from utter falling my strength and sight is ever decaying but he renews his Loving-kindness every Morning O let the day hasten in which I may know as I am known and the shadows of darkness and infirmity slee away I might come to a more real view of Jesus Christ and appropriate him and his benefits nearer to my heart if I had practically learnt the Exercise of Faith God has allowed a venturing boldness to Believing that it may step forth and stand in the breach when all seems to be lost When Lot is taken and Ziglag burnt and all carried away Captive then can Faith turn the day and recover the Spoil Faith is a distinct Grace wrought Faith only brings the heart to Christ freely by the holy Spirit quickning the heart to assent to and rest upon the Word of God upon the account of the Truth of God who spoke it 'T is distinct as Seeing and Hearing is distinct from other Senses 'T is wrought freely by the Spirit and so no acquired Notion it quickens through conveying Life from Christ to the heart by Divine Appointment It assents to and rests upon the Word against the Contradiction of Flesh and Blood It eyes the Truth of God as the Fountain of its Satisfaction and Success And so it first unites the heart to Christ and gives actual Propriety in him and in the Covenant which God made with him before the World was and consequently to all the Blessings contained in the Covenant 2 Tim. 1. 9. Ephes 1. 3 4. As the Gospel offers Christ Pardon and Life so Faith takes it freely not measuring the Ground of accepting it from below but from above It sees the Word to be the breathing of God in Jesus Christ in which all his Attributes are
spirit and sence of this short word Saved Isa 49. 6. reacheth The meaning of Salvation far even to the ends of the Earth It importeth a state of security from the evil of sin Mat. 1. 21. of Enemies Luk. 1. 71. of Satan 2 Tim. 2. 26. of Hell Wrath Condemnation 1 Thes 1. 10. from the evil of all distress in this life c. Gen. 48. 16. and hereafter 1 Thes 1. 10. It importeth an investiture and possession of all real good in this life and in that to come viz. Conversion Calling Acts 11. 14. 2 Tim. 1. 9. Justification Sanctification Adoption Strength Acceptation with God Blessing Manifestation of God Knowledge of the Truth and every good thing that may tend to enable the heirs of life to dispatch their work quit themselves victorious and lead them at last to their Fathers house Act. 4. 12. 1 Joh. 1. 9. Jer. 31. 9. Jer. 15. 20. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Psal 28. 9. Isa 35. 4. Act. 11. 14. Deut. 33. 29. the walls whereof are God's part thereby for discharging of which he is made a high Priest and so he procures it and maintains it in the power of a King and reveals it as a Prophet all which Offices he was anointed to and qualified for in his own Person And by reason of that Essential Union with the Godhead in which he stood the Father delights in and owns him as Son of Man and doth every way suit with him as the Father of such a Son who is both God and Man The Spirit also which proceedeth from the Father and the Son doth through the same Union of the Divine Essence also suit with him and operate by and through him as the Spirit of him who is both God and Man in one Person Hence ariseth the Perfection and absolute Compleatness of the Mediatorship I am not alone saith Christ but I and the Father that sent me Joh. 8. 16. And the comforting Spirit shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Joh. 16. 14. For the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily Col. 2. 9. and joyntly and carries on the work of Mediatorship which was personally untertook by the Eternal Son who is made Emanuel And this answers the Question which Philip made Shew us the Father Hast thou not seen me saith Christ He that hath seen me viz. by the eye of Faith as I really am and ought to be looked upon hath seen the Father Joh. 14. 7. Every Action and Revelation of himself is the Revelation of the Father Son and Spirit in the distinguishable working of each Person and yet united in the same God who worketh all in all Christ suffered as the Son of such a Father and the Father in this design of Mediatorship was cloathed with a true Fatherly Relation to the incarnate suffering Son and the Eternal Spirit which proceedeth from the Father and the Son did put forth his Almighty Essential Vertue in the offering up of the Body of Christ upon the Cross Which Union of Father Son and Spirit in God our Saviour Tit. 2. 13. appears in Joh. 17. and Heb. 9. 14. So that all the Persons in the saving of Man doth as it were concenter and work together in the Person of the Mediator The Will of the Father Joh. 4. 34. The Mercy of the Son Heb. 4. 13 14. And the Power of the Spirit Heb. 9. 14. and Rom. 1. 4. All which being one in the Divine Essence of God meet together in the Person of the Son who is according to the Eternal Decree God and Man through his Union with and in the Godhead God thus manifested in the Flesh and as Father Son and Spirit laying the foundation of Mediatorship in Jesus Christ the Eternal Son God and Man doth also in and with him carry it on as a Father to and Spirit of him who is God-man And for this cause the Gospel is called the Word of Truth in respect not only of the Matter of it but the legal Testimony that it receives from these three Witnesses as the Declaration of the Counsel of their own Essential Will and Purpose And in regard the Son of God in the Name and Co-working of Father Son and Spirit undertook the Mediatorship by taking Man's Nature every mortal person that has the nature of Man stands alike near to him in the Dispensation of the Gospel-Call It puts aside other Mediators The Angels are Spirits and have not Humane Nature in which to mediate for Man Christ himself is nearer to us than they are he is Man The Spirits of Just Men made perfect cannot mediate for us for though they are Humane yet they want living Bodies but Christ has his Humane Body with him and therefore is nearer to Men who are cloathed with Flesh Neither can one mortal Man mediate as a Mediator 'twixt God and Man because though he have the Humane Nature in him yet it is in him personally and not representing the whole Race of Man as the pure Nature of Christ the second Adam doth And besides Mortal Man is but Man but Christ is both God and Man that he might lay his hand on both parties God and Man to reconcile them together as they are reconciled in the Person of the Mediator Col. 1. 19 20 21 22. Promises cannot mediate for Man has no right to them but through Christ first Duties cannot mediate because they are loathsome without a foregoing Interest in Christ Graces cannot mediate because they are Fruits of Reconciliation through the Mediator the Fruit cannot be the cause of the Root from whence they come So that as Jesus Christ in being Mediator took our Nature viz. that Humane Nature that is in every person of Mankind into immediate Union with the Godhead dwelling in his Person so this Jesus Christ God and Man in the Relation he bears to the Father and Spirit and they to him in their mutual concurrence in this great work of his Mediation with him having sealed and anointed him thereto that he might compleatly effect it he is the true immediate Object of a Believer's eye and he who renouncing all other names and helps flies thither shall be saved by him Act. 4. 12. He that seeth the Son and believeth on him shall have everlasting life His appearing in the Promises doth make them a Convoy to bring the Soul to him which would otherwise be no better Guides than the Light to a blind Man His presence in Duties makes them the way and door of approach which would otherwise be no better Guides by single gazing on and using of them than a Lanthorn in a Man's hand can be a Guide by gazing on it and leading himself round about in a Circle by the light thereof not minding the way or the door to find which that light was appointed and intended The Graces of his Spirit are the Beams of that Excellency that is in his Person and the Streams which flow from the Fountain which are subject to
the way who is a Guide also and therefore great is the loss of that man who walks alone and compasseth himself about with his own sparks if he fall as Solomon speaks he has none to raise him up again Eccles 4. 10. and thus Christ is held forth as a comfortable Leader and Companion Isa 57. 18. Jer. 3. 14. And the Church improves this Privilege by leaning on her Beloved as she comes forth out of the Wilderness This blessed Companion makes way for his peoples safety in the Fire and in the Water of Affliction Dan. 3. 25. Isa 43. 2. 8. And by this means also Faith has got a true and faithful Witness on the Believers side to clear off Accusations and from hence are those expressions used in the Psalms Plead my cause Be surety for me c. and the often Appeals made to God who trieth the Heart and Reins and who standeth up on the side of his people and on their behalf These and infinitely more Privileges do arise to every Believer from the Interest that he hath in Christ's entire and incommunicable Person by the Union of Free Govenant and Mystical Ingrafture and the Communion of Vertue derived from the Person of this Mediator in which Mystery of Grace he enjoys Christ as the Hand enjoys the Head yet both of them are distinctly considered in the Body or as the Eye enjoys the influence and vertue of that very light and heat which is in the very body of the Sun although the body of the Sun be many thousand Miles distant from that Eye which doth actually enjoy that Sun in the light and heat of its influence and doth as truly enjoy it as if it lay in the material Body of the Sun and in a way of greater advantage fitted for its capacity and use So is the Person of Christ enjoyed really and truly with all Privileges relating to Believers whiles he retains his Personality uncommunicated and undivided to any other as the very Water of the Fountain is enjoyed in the Streams and the Sap of the Root enjoyed in the Branches and yet the Stream is not the Fountain nor yet the Branches any part of the Root The way of the Souls enjoyment Christ's Entrance upon the heart works Renewing there of Christ in all the Privileges of his Person and Offices of his Mediatorship and in all the Influences of Spiritual Unction and Transformation of the heart into the power and likeness of Jesus Christ is wrought by the Spirit of Regeneration through Faith which causeth the Soul to pass over from its self from all its strength from all its own carnal hope fear and selfish care into the Death Life Righteousness and Perfection of the Person of Jesus Christ and so is enabled to say in truth I am not mine own I live yet no longer I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God viz. by the very Life and in the very Life of Christ apprehended received enjoyed and working effectually in me by Faith in him who loved me and washed me from my sins in his own blood Gal. 2. 20. Rev. 1. 5. This is that translating renewing changing and quickning work which the Scripture doth so often mention as the design of the Gospel And 't is with reference unto this that Christ is called a Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence sinful and selfish Nature strives to preserve its life against the killing vertue of the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel preached to the World This is the reason of so much Carnal Profession and Barrenness in Christianity when the hearts of Men turn the nature of the Gospel which is a Law of Grace and obeyed only by Faith into the similitude of the Law of Moses and make it a matter of Man's working and subject it to the poor and lame endeavours of unrenewed Man not remembring or at least not understanding that the Tree must first be made good before the Fruits can be good This was meant by the Apostle when he bewails the Jews who though they followed after Righteousness attained it not because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law Rom. 9. 31 32. Ever since the Fall of Man Righteousness forsook the created Nature of Man which is largely shewed Rom. 3. 10. and is only now in Christ revealed from Heaven in receiving of whom by being baptised spiritually into his Death and Life his Righteousness is enjoyed Every Command of the Gospel doth first require Faith which is the great Commandment and in the vertue and power thereof requires and works Holiness in all the Fruits of a new Life by the vertue of Jesus Christ working in every Precept and Command of God in the whole Scriptures being Gospellized by his Spirit And here my heart begins again to groan while I find so little of this killing renewing power accomplishing its work upon me How far am I from this renewed State I am weary of the lifeless Notion of the thing I faint in my sighing and find no rest I long for the breath of the Lord and lament out my Complaint before him When will the Lord come into his Temple My flesh trembleth 'twixt hope fear and desire I am as a Bottle dried in the Smoak my heart is pained and in Travel O preserver of Men make no tarrying lest I be like them who go down to the pit Oh let Death feed upon me till the Foundation of Life Power and Peace be laid in my Soul and Deliverance come from another place Droopings are deadly O my Soul do not say thy Wound is incurable the Creator of the ends of the Earth doth undertake for thee he will yet reveal abundance of Truth and Peace Come then O Fountain of Help and do thine own Will upon me How easie is it to say the word Renewing in comparison of the thing really executed and done All that can be spoken about it is but words the Change it self is the thing I long for my eyes fail with hoping for the very Salvation of God in this work Oh that the Heavens might drop down their Dew Why are the Influences of the Clouds with-held Oh for the sounding of his Bowels who is gone into a far Country and has promised to return My musing heart cannot fetch him but my groaning is before him and the tears and cries of my Soul is in his sight O Earth cover thou not my blood let the cry of my distress be heard Anguish is upon my heart and Oh let the Season of my Redemption come According to the measure of the power of Christ given to me I would yet struggle against this Gyant unmortified self I would rather take a Sling and a Stone in the power of Christ than all the Weapons of a Carnal Arm and Understanding Christ well knew the length of that Petition Thy Will be done
working and beholds it as it were the audible Voice of God and the very Mind of Christ It cannot be satisfied in the weakness of the Letter but passeth through the Letter immediately to the Person of Jesus Christ and converseth with God in him The whole Scriptures in the eye of Faith is as a pair of Spectacles through which Faith gets the sight and closeth with the Promise It magnifies the Scriptures Ordinances and Sabbaths as they are the Portal through which to enter into Communion and Converse with God himself It believes the Scriptures that makes Report of the Will and Pleasure of God and so passeth through them to the Will Mind and Name of God himself Faith visits as a faithful Guide in its Journey and useth it no farther than a means tending to bring the Soul and God together The Word reports that Christ is there his Life his Strength his Grace is there and requires the Soul to enter in and take it Faith enters in finds and receives it Faith having found its Object and espying the way how to come at it is quickned by the Spirit in pure Obedience to God's Command to attempt some holy Adventures upon the Word and passeth by all Considerations of Flesh and Blood as deaf and blind to all things but what the Word speaketh 't is resolved to take as it were a senceless Journey to Christ even upon the Sea for 't is contented to feel no Ground but the Promise It stays not to enquire whether it hath strength enough to walk or no but looks on the Word of Truth and considers its need and so ventures and by venturing engageth all the Attributes of Jehovah Father Son and Spirit for its relief If I perish I perish The faithful and true Witness hath said Fear not only believe Faith so far as it works doth Faith doth both possess the Vnderstanding Judgment and Will and puts them to exercise persuade the heart of the Truth Power Wisdom and Goodness of God that speaketh and of the true performance of the thing spoken and is singly of it self through the overshadowing of the holy Spirit a principle of appropriating to the heart the Truths spoken from the Mouth of an infinitely true holy and wise God in his Word and so fixeth a blessed Satisfaction in the heart through the real Existence of the things spoken and apprehended by the renewed Understanding so far at least as they are by an actual Exercise of Faith apprehended Luk. 1. 45. Blessed is she who believed for there shall be a performance of the things told her from the Lord. The Understanding being renewed The Vnderstanding exercised views over the Covenant as it was made with Christ before all time Tit. 1. 2. and considers what method God has used to manifest it in the World He created the habitable World and made Man at first righteous and then permitted him to fall into the Breach of the first Covenant viz. of Works whereby he gave entrance and footing to the second Covenant viz. of Grace Gen. 3. 15. and carried it along in a holy Line through the corrupt Race of Mankind before the Flood he then sweeps away the ungodly World and preserves the Covenant-line in Noah and from him carries it on to Abraham and kept it on in its course amidst much Prophaneness and Idolatry that was in the World He then renewed it more distinctly with Abraham and gave it a more visible Being than ever before that time and by reason thereof called Abraham the Father of the Faithful He confirmed it also to Isaac and Jacob who are oftentimes mentioned in the Scriptures as the three grand Witnesses of this Covenant-favour From thence it descended to the twelve Tribes representing the elect visible Church After which it was brought forth in a Typical Demonstration of Christ and his managing of all things needful to make that Covenant applicable which is carried on under the shadows of the Ceremonial Law The Prophets succeed asserting this Covenant of Grace and expounding it At last Christ comes in Flesh and seals it with his Blood and the Apostles are sent sorth to discover and preach this eternal Purpose of Grace to the wide World for calling in the Elect. So that the Covenant of Grace which was made of God in Christ before the Creation of the World appears as the main scope of the Scriptures and issues forth its vertue through all the Promises Fatherly Commands Reproofs Consolations and the Deliverances which are recorded in Scripture as the various Streams Operations Experiences and Effects of the Covenant of Grace in and towards the Heirs of Life It bears the Name of the Old Covenant during the time while the Passover was in use and after the Lord's Supper was instituted it was called the New Covenant both Old and New are one Covenant of Grace differing from the Covenant of Works as far as Grace and Works do differ The Understanding having perused The exercised Judgment the Scriptures and so made its view and deliberated the matter digesting it by Meditation and Prayer the Judgment resolves to make Covenant-refuge its Sanctuary and thereupon forbids the heart to admit the Contradiction of Flesh and Blood and the reasoning of Carnal Wisdom and Observation resolves to determine nothing according to the Flesh endeavours to shut up all passages by which Unbelief carnal Mis-construction and fear were wont to enter and labours to keep open every Port that may admit the naked recourse of the Spirit in the Word and opens the Windows of the Soul to take in the Testimony and Evidence of a faithful and merciful God only And when this mighty Discovery and Conquest is made the foundations of Bondage Terror and Tyranny which before tormented the Conscience and enslaved the heart doth now begin to totter The Understanding and Judgment The Will assents having gone thus far in the Conduct of the Spirit do attempt effectually the persuading of the Will to accept a new Lord viz. the Messenger and Prince of the Covenant him in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen Sanctified Conviction begins to sway the Will as Nathaniel was moved by Philip to come and see him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write and assuies the Conscience that God is ever mindful of his Covenant has sealed it with the Blood of his own Son and has sworn that it shall stand sure as the Ordinances of Heaven and that no particle of it shall ever fail to which the Will assents But alas how doth my Pen as it were gash my own Soul in writing what I cannot heartily and at full liberty put in practice Oh that my Understanding and Judgment had thus far in a powerful Gale of the Spirit led my Soul forth to the Gates of Freedom and thus far brought me within the Bond of the Covenant How soon would the same mighty Power conquer over my Will to a holy Security and Rest in believing I
am methinks like Jonah tumbling My Soul in a Tempest in the bottom of the Sea the Bars of an earthly and dark Mind are stopping my way and am as lifeless methinks as if I had no Interest in the Fountain of Saving Health The Weeds are wrapp'd about my head I am in the Deep but cannot cry unto the Lord as Jonah did And what the Lord is teaching me by this unexpected disappointment I cannot yet tell yet notwithstanding I have hope in him that I shall yet be rescued from this Captivity and see his Face again I have been searching after all my sins through the several Ages of my Life and endeavoured to view the Depravity of my Soul in all the sinful Circumstances of every sin but I cannot wind my self out my design was to get thereby to a more sincere Closure with Christ but e're I was aware I had challenged forth more Enemies than I could well suppress I thought by aggravating my sins to have gotten more hunger after Jesus Christ but like over-much cold Water it damped my Stomach and I found Sickness seizing upon me rather than Hunger a heartless Stupidity instead of Believing I concluded I was in some kind or other out of my way or else had not prepared my Stomach to keep out the Infection that exhaled from that Body of Death which is within me as I should have done whiles I was moving the Limbs thereof The thing I aimed at was quickning Then I remembred that word Luk. 24. 5. Why seek ye the living among the dead Come not amongst the Graves without his company who died for sins and is risen from the Dead I could not be satisfied about the sincerity of my Repentance and there I stuck till at length I remembred that Christ rose again as well to give Repentance as Remission of Sins Act. 5. 31. and 11. 18. so that I can bring no Repentance to him but I must first get it from him He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance c. A Saviour to take away all the defects of my Repentance a Prince to overcome all the difficulties and to create in me a sound Mind against the Infirmites of my Repentance and my halting therein Take then O mighty Prince and Saviour this work into thy own hands and create a right Spirit within me So that now my gadding Spirit is My Soul returning to its Strong Hold. brought back again to see that Christ is the Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of whatever doth concern the new Creature And although he be so yet how hard is it to venture my Soul and Body my whole Hope and Care into his hands by faith in his Word I had need know such an one very well with whom I am to venture my Journey through a Warfaring Life here and shortly through Death and Judgment too and so into the Ocean of Eternity O dear Jesus who art my Lord and my God who canst renew my heart and none else can do it breath upon me and say Receive the Holy Ghost Cast thy Mantle upon me and let the Unction of thy Spirit be so shed abroad throughout my whole Soul that my heart may be entirely thine thine only that thy self only may be the Covering of my eyes instead of all other Objects And now what should hinder but The Soul first improves Baptism that at length I should solemnly in the presence of God the Father Son and Spirit and in the presence of all the elect Angels pursue the ends of that Covenant which was sealed by Christ's Appointment to me in Baptism through whose hands soever that Ordinance was appointed and permitted to pass upon me Was not that a Divine Prophesie which Balaam himself spake which passed through his Mouth Numb 24. 17. There shall come a Star out of Jacob c. and can the Ordinance of Christ be made void through whose hands soever it came and in what unworthy Robe soever it was drest Did the sacred Ark lose its vertue by being in the Philistines Custody Did he forsake it who dwelt between the Cherubims Was the Mercy-seat forsaken and become like common Metal Why then should this Ordinance be lost to me in the substance of it though it may be some humane Scurf was laid upon it And have I not more reason to hope through Covenant-Grace that the Faith and Prayers of my dear Parents then and since are in force for a Blessing upon it to me than the defects of others in the manner of Administration can have to hinder it especially seeing now I desire humbly to take hold of the Covenant and with my own consent to say I agree to the Condescension of thy Grace and Love my dear Lord I catch hold on thy free Love and into thy Name O most holy God the Father Son and Spirit I give my self up through him who confirmed the Covenant and came by Water and Blood to make it effectual I believe Lord help my Unbelief I reach out my hand through thy Grace let thy Grace and Power pull me over to thy self that in the Ark of thy unchangeable Covenant I may be carried above my self and above a miserably drowned World Be not absent O thou who in thy Mercy didst make and impose this Seal of the Covenant as the Badge of one of thy Family for me to wear who also speakest words of Truth and Life when thou saist I baptise thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost fulfil thy good Word unto me thy Servant in which I desire to hope that thou mayest be mine and I may be thine wholly for ever that I may serve thee and glory in thee with all thy people who are thine own Inheritance Do not hang back O my poor Struggles with Vnbelief heart whose weakness and inconstancy have so often bruised my inward Man O Anxious Unbelief thou tellest me 't is a bargain soon made but how shall it be performed Thou urgest me with difficulties that will arise from the World from my self from the Tryals that I may undergo in my Body my Soul my Estate unwonted Tryals Thou tellest me of the great fits of Darkness and shameful declining I have had after much Refreshment and strong Resolutions to the contrary Thou tellest me that my Falls will now cost me dearer than ever they did and the Holy Spirit will be sooner vexed and grieved than before Thou tellest me I shall soon be weary of my Yoke and then my Sins will be of a deeper and more heart-hardning Die than ever But remember O Soul-destroying Unbelief I rowl my self upon the Rock of Ages I deliver my self up to the Covenant of Grace not to bring strength to it but to fetch strength from it and from that word which saith Sin shall not have Dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6. 14. And because I am weak
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
let them be glorious in this World in Holiness and be bound up with thee for ever in the Covenant of Grace into which thou hast called them Let my poor Friends that have loved me and have seen but little Grace something it may be they have seen through thy Goodness Oh be with them and make them grow abundantly Let thy Glory arise hasten it let the Kingdom of Christ be exalted Oh that the days of this Darkness may be blown away and let there be a mighty coming in of Truth Holiness Sincerity and spiritual Light and Manifestation that there may be a mighty Child-like Spirit in all thy Children I desire all these Petitions in truth Let thy People be the Wisdom the Truth the Joy of the Earth Be with me and be with all thine and this I beg in the Lord Jesus Let thy good Spirit come upon all thine Oh glorifie thy self now and ever Oh let thy good Will be done Oh let thy own Will be done Let my Will follow thy Will as the Thread follows the Needle and let it be so eternally Let my Soul believe every word that thou hast spoken shall be accomplished Thou wilt never leave till thou hast made thy Name conspicuous and all thy People rejoyce Oh why why why may not the slow coming on now make haste Oh why may not the Growth of spiritual Wisdom be sprouting forth with great Improvement as being the very Operation of the Spirit Why may not Love to thee come and damp all other Loves Why may not the Observation of thy Love thou shewest me be powerful and transforming of my Soul Why should I lie back Lord I am not sanctified at the rate thou usest means for the same Oh that I might have more of the Spirit much much more and may see the Power of God from Heaven mightily changing me Oh let not thy Spirit be wanting Oh let Truth and Power be given in O God fill the World with thy Spirit that thy work may be done tidily tidily Oh let there be a nearness between thee and the Souls of thy People Oh that never that dull Spirit in Religion may come into the World again a God-provoking Temper of Soul Oh that thy People may judge of their love to thee by the very Out-goings of their Souls to thee and account nothing a Token of Love to thee unless the Soul be as it were in some Surprizes of being thine joyned to thee perfectly as if it were about to be carried out of the World I have been a withered dry Branch Oh hasten a Spring-time in one World or another Thou hast given me Truth in the inward parts I bless thee but there is no Answer answerably I wait now I wait every day and every night a poor Waiter I am O Lord be found Oh let God be glorified Oh that I might see Religion to be something I have professed Religion scores of Years one after another and yet to have got no more of the Glory of the Grace of that Religion methinks doth import that the Devil hath a strange debilitating power but God is pleased to leave him to put a slur upon the Glory of Christ's Church in the Life of Grace and to make the ways of God seem not so exceeding different from the way of Flesh as it is and all this for Trial and all this for Shame when the eyes of the spiritual Mind be a little opened Oh when a little satisfaction is got that there is truth of Grace how doth a seduced Soul nuzzle it self in that that it is safe and doth not make out for a great Progress in Grace and Holiness And if God should leave that Soul at last under those terrible Trials that may arise from thence it may shake and put it into a terrible Consternation Alas never can I fly too far from that devouring Lion never can I fly too soon April 16. Ah sweet Grave where I shall not need any cooling Drink Being spoken to from a near Friend viz. I hope the Lord will give you in of himself some such Prospect as he did to Stephen when he was leaving the World He replied I have a little sight of him and I find no dark passage to the enjoyment of him To another Friend he said He that hath you by the hand will never leave you To a near Relation he spake thus Say to your Soul I have a Fountain that will never dry up My Lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place yea I have a goodly Heritage There should be frequent fondnesses between God and us as Children towards their Parents He farther declared that though he had an earnest desire to be gone hence yet if the Lord pleased he could be content and willing to be the last Man in the Brunt of Suffering for his sake and Name in this World or words to that effect Again he spake saying O Lord come quickly come quickly answer me by thy self My wise God is still pleased to continue me though there are no signs of a Reserve for further Service to him in this World I bless the Lord for his Goodness towards me The Consolation of God is no small thing it is no small thing it is strong Consolation the Consolation of Christ is a great thing April 17. A Friend taking his leave of him saying that he was going to visit a Person of Honour he spake to this effect Pray remember me to my Lord and tell him that I am an Expectant hoping for a Meeting where we may dwell for ever April 18. In the Morning he spake saying O Lord how do I pass through nights and days O wise God and dost thou speaking to himself account him so Lord make me to account thee wise and good Lord pardon me and receive me O happy day that is coming O blessed day that is coming I pass through Death unto eternal Life After that he said The Captive shall return there will be no Captivity O sweet Redemption Much of our Heaven here lies but in a little talk about it and when we speak a word of it we have scarce a Thought suitable to the greatness of it Some space after he fetch'd a deep Groan and with his eyes lifted up and his Right hand stretched forth as if the pains of death were upon him he said Sharp and welcome Sharp and welcome And a while after he said praying Lord let me not die with any Guilt upon me but leave it all behind Oh let not any Sin remain in me unrepented of Let not any Concurrence with the least Guilt be in me Let there be upon my Will an edge of Hatred against every Sin Create it in me now Thou canst make me to delight in that that is contrary to my own Will Oh let thy Will be pleasing to me and let my Will be every way according to thy Will Let not the Agonies of Death be too terrible let not the Surge of it be too
BATTEL all my days not to look for any thing of my own procuring but to throw my self on thy procuring Grace there hath been the WAR I said if there be not the Son of God to save me all my Works are vain there is no bottom in what I have done It is alone what thou dost in thy Council and Purpose of Grace There I have desired to lie and to comfort my self in and have had comfort therein And upon that score thou hast made me ashamed of the unsuitable Actings of mine thou hast made me ashamed of them Now I would flee over these my great Sins upon the Wings of Faith and now Lord let me have Light and Truth Thou knowest I appeal to thee thy self O God thou knowest things contradictory to thy Doctrine and the Grace contained in it have been my burthen Thou knowest I have not had Quiet but in Reliance on thine own Free Grace and this thou hast done Thou layedst not in this Principle for no use but to assure the Soul thou wilt not mis-lead it O Lord save the present contending part of thy Church in the World This hath been the BATTEL all along Man lost himself quite Thou hast brought in a Salvation and didst give it and thy People have received it and thy People never had Comfort but as this Grace did shine forth Thy Children have been killed and slain for this very thing And now O Lord maintain Oh maintain the great Quarrel What doth all thy Peoples Salvation depend on this and shall the Enemy despoil them of it No no. I am going to thee and let me go upon the Wing of thy abundant Grace and so let all that have found this Grace and have given Credit to it I have a World of Evil to say of my self for I have nothing else but that that I lean upon is the Truth the Vertue the Grace and Faithfulness of my God Lord help me in this great thing and all thy People in this particular that they may be comforted in it and rejoyce in the hopes of it There is none of us yet that hath passed through Death divers Christian Friends being then present many of us have been brought near to it but have not actually passed it And now seeing some of us are dropping into it Lord let not these great things be strange to us nor be little to us as to the settling of our ALL Oh had we made better Markets of it better Improvements we might have been at a mighty Brightness in Holiness Blessed be thy Name we have been kept doing but we have had many Put-bies we have not walked like Persons of so high a Calling but thou pardonest in such a way that the whole Heaven will ring of thy pardoning Goodness Help us to jog on help us to jog on that every one of us may come up and fulfil our Task that when we leave the World we may look upon it as a Memento of that unspeakable thing of a GOD that makes his own Choice between one Soul and another He further prayed thus Help me till I come help me a while O Lord I know I am in the Flesh and have the things relating to the Flesh But O Lord till thou removest me hence be teaching me still care for me still let all things preceding so great a Change be wrought in me and let thy Care Blessing Love and Grace be upon my dear Associates Kindred and Friends I leave behind Lord keep them purge them make them shine more and more make the Generation now and hereafter more holy Let the Vengeance of the Wicked return upon their own heads let none of thine faint in the day of Battel give in Strength Faith superabundant to the Troubles thy People meet with Give Courage Joy and Valour which the Enemy cannot vanquish and rid the World of these Impurities O Lord make haste and destroy Autichrist O Lord meet with the Proud Oh cut their Hoofs make them ashamed with perpetual Confusion and undo their Projects make them stink all the Earth over I leave these things with thee I have perused thy Word through thy Mercy if in any thing I step aside pardon it for thou hast infinite Measures of Pardon with thee O God be with me for ever and receive my Spirit whenever thou takest me out of the World Then he directed his Speech to an aged Person present thus You have lived in Profession long as I have done set your self before God with sincerity as if you had never yet put any Foot in his Paths beg of him Truth in the inward parts beg his Spirit and with full subjection to him account a Communion in it self only considered a pitiful thing and that that is to be feared hath been the occasion of the Ruin of many a Soul See to it that you be a real Member of Christ I do not know but that I have as much reason to question mine own Soul and it may be more than to question yours But hearken a little for now I come to the upshot there is no dallying my God hath a piercing eye the Truths I have heard they are from God The same Care Fear Cautiousness I would have concerning others as of my self Then he spake to all in general Oh that after so much of the Spirit of God appearing we might not be poor simple unlearned things for here we have had a little and seen a little of the Temptations of the Devil and a great deal too much What is the end of our Church-Communion but that we may be brought into the Fellowship of Jesus Christ indeed in-deed in-deed And then he hath taken care for the Outward and the Inward Man to make the Soul steady ingenious and diligent and to study always to honour him to give him Honour and to defend his Honour And thus I hope the Lord will go along with us also Oh Oh Oh let there be none of the ugly stench of a barren Religion Oh Oh Oh that the Holy Spirit may be doing in every one of our hearts that such a little pittance of time may not be lost We are even at the Judgment-Seat every one of us here is a Judgment-Seat Each of us have often Sicknesses and I perceive my concluding Sickness is come and to the Judgment-Seat of Christ I must go Oh for my ADVOCATE he will not hide himself We talk of the World to come and mind not the nature of it the Lord open our eyes I would be at it I would be at it My dear Friends it is a pleasant sight to see one another but suppose before a general known Appearance of Christ we might have a Months time and that to be together one would think with what exceeding seriousness we should improve that time And truly now is much alike in the length of time here It is but a short thing when we have considered it God hath said such a thing and it is true
perish eternally for want of Seriousness and that Isaiah herein was a great President for our Imitation And in company of some Friends he spake to this purpose We even very we must appear before the Judge of Heaven and Earth that judgeth the Quick and the Dead and the Enquiry will not be then How rich or how poor we have been But how did we thrive in the ways of Holiness What Work of Faith Labour of Love Patience of Hope What Exercise of Grace What Zeal for God How did we make the Glory of God shine forth in our Lives Therefore let our main Care be that we do not miss of Heaven at last for 't is possible after a glorious Profession the Soul may miscarry for all that And I do not speak this to put a damp upon you but to quicken and caution you His Zeal against all Sin was apparent His Zeal against Sin in his general Course He shunned all Appearances of Evil hating even the Garment spotted by the Flesh Whence he gave this Counsel Go not within the Clutches of a Temptation to see what it is before you resist 't is easier to pass by a Temptation than to come out of it When the Knot is knit and the Door barred 't is harder to get Freedom than before And also he was observed to say That the least Evil admitted hath a Tendency in it toward the utmost Link of Distance from God and the least Sin indulged is like unto a Cockatrice indulged which turns into a Fiery Flying Serpent Isa 14. 29. His Zeal and Activity for God His Zeal and Activity for God throughout his Christian Race did eminently shew it self by improving all opportunities to advance his Glory in doing good to Souls especially amongst his Relations and intimate Acquaintance where the Lord was pleased greatly to succeed his faithful and sincere Endeavours and the more in that there was such a Grateful Majesty in his Carriage and in those pathetical Expressions uttered by him That it may be truly said of him in his private Capacity That his Lips fed many and his Mouth was a Well of Life And he used to pray for his Relations in such words as these That the Lord would deal with Relations in a way of saving powerful Conviction and spiritual Operation And that such in whom is the Seed of God sown might grow up to be Plants of Righteousness in whom he might be glorified and have the Seal of his Grace and Favour put upon them and be numbred amongst those that are cared for by the Lord and housed in him And for such Relations as were at a distance from him he also frequently visited with Letters and would be sometimes sending them Books using variety of Means for their spiritual Welfare Likewise he would be writing them in Verse and instead of many Instances it may not be improper to insert these two of plain Verse which accompanied two Bibles he transmitted viz. To Jane Daunsy Jun. Sept. 1671. If Life Eternal doth surpass A Span of Time compar'd to Grass Neglect no time until aright Enform'd you are by Scripture-Light Deceipts of Sin how to eschew And then of Christ to take a view Vntil your heart be drawn to come Near unto him as to your Home So shall your tender Years be blest Your Soul obtain Eternal Rest And for this end this Book I send Accept the same and Lines above Coming from your Kinsman's Love Jane Daunsy Anagram AND IS VAIN The Scripture is the Rule of Truth The chiefest Guide for Age and Youth It truly shews the way to Bliss Even how Souls may be born again Then let Jane Daunsy study this AND say All other Skill IS VAIN To my honoured Unkle and Aunt Trevis Sept. 22. 1672. What Study can adorn gray Hairs More than true Wisdom Studies which Best Crown Old Age when Earths Affairs Shall cease and die must Poor and Rich. A Draught of that true Wisdom lies Within this Book which I present Oh let your Hearts and aged Eyes Therein be earnestly intent That while you do sill up your days A Heavenly Mind Earths Thoughts may quell And that on Earth you may always Spring to Eternal Life Farewel In all his Actions it did appear His eying the Glory of God that his Aim was to do the Will of his Father which is in Heaven and would oft say Whatever we do we should go up and down doing God's Work not our own and that would be a means to keep our Spirits even and the heart tender and calm His constant Converse holy His constant Converse with God Familiarity and nearness to God signally shewed it self in his Looks Speech and Behaviour As Moses when he had been with God in the Mount his Face shone And Peter and John's Courage before the Rulers and Elders of the Jews did evidence that they had been with Jesus And as hath been already suggested he had such a holy Intimacy with God that he would speak to him in Prayer as if one Friend were speaking to another yet with great Reverence Humility and Self-abasement And he would be frequently urging it upon his Friends that they should not rest till they had attained a more inward Acquaintance with God And that we should labour after a greater Intimacy with God than with any Person in the World and when we are alone we should have still retired Communion with God And that we get nothing by a cold Acquaintance but all things by a warm Acquaintance with him And speaking of his own experience said he It is my great disquiet that Christ hath so little of my company though I may not say I have not his And this was likewise manifest in those words he used in Prayer to this effect That the Lord would cause us to ripen into a greater Knowledge of him and into a greater Intimacy with him And that we may have more warm Communion with his Spirit in Faith and Love which is in Christ Jesus And that he would act towards us according to that Vndertaking of his with the Father on our behalf before we had a Being And that our hearts be actually springing towards him and be acquainted with the Mystery of God in Christ and be brought into the nearest Intimacy and Fellowship with himself attainable in this Life That it might be an Earnest and Pledge of our everlasting Fruition and Enjoyment of him in the other World His living in dependence on His living in dependence on God God was his constant Trade which also the following Expressions do evidence The Lord make us sensible of our weakness and inability to help our selves That he would preserve the Soul in a holy Fear in its ordinary Walk lest it grieve that Spirit by whose power alone it acts and cause the Soul to step forth into the Life of Believing prostrating it self at the foot of God and to say Lord I can have no Relief but from thee and
God as never to return to a Carnal Frame and Temper any more and yield our selves to be ordered by him as a Child that is ordered by its Nurse And that the want of a through Surrender of our selves to God makes one lame in all other Duties Therefore our Religion should not lie only in Notion but in a total Delivery over of our selves to God And until we come to that clear Resignation our Life will always be a burthen to us And this giving away of our selves to God should be with that perfect Surrender as not to grieve at the Cast Oh! said he could I embark my self in God being born up by the Wings of his Spirit and God guiding the Steerage with his own hand What need I then fear meeting with Storms Then no matter at all unto what Port soever I were carried Then every Cross every outward Affliction Trouble Danger Loss would be my Friend Did I make God my dwelling place all the World would be Privileges to me all things would be turned into Privileges and redound for my good Whence also he prayed That we might come to that clearness of Surrender unto God as to bear a stamp and likeness to the infinite kindness Christ manifested in giving himself for us and to us That as he did all things willingly to work out purchase and procure Salvation for us so we might accept of all the Gracious Offers of his Love and improve it accordingly That Renewing Work might be carried on daily And that we might lanch out of the Circuit of our own Wills into his Will in all things and be influenced by the Spirit of Christ to a Conformity to him and growing up in him as his living Members His Natural Courage was fully His Courage and Fortitude experienced by those that best knew him in his younger Years and so forward to have been without blemish or defect His Spiritual Courage and Fortitude was discerned throughout his Christian Walk and in these following Expressions In shaking Times get such a Courage as flows from Faith and not a meer Manly Prowess To be in a dead-hearted discouraged Frame under Crosses is bad and to be joccund out of a meer Manly Stoutness and so to bear up is sadder but a humble submissive Carriage and a Liveliness nourished by Believing in going out of our selves and casting all our Care upon God who careth for us is an excellent Frame And speaking to some who were even ruined by outward Losses he said We should have been dead to our Estates when we had them Let us therefore now be dead to our Discouragements in the want of them And if we would not be Cowed at every Cross let us be sure to make Death familiar and be in a posture to die every hour And that will fill the Soul with undaunted Valour and Courage that nothing shall move it for it is sence of Guilt that plucks down the heart and nothing else And if the Sting of Death which is Sin be removed how bold will the Soul be And that holy Valour rises as Difficulties and Dangers rise as the Ship upon the top of the Waves riseth with the Waves That 't is no natural Valour will hold out in a day of Sufferings but a mortified Frame of Spirit will then abide the Shock And 't is the Glory of a Christian not to be faint-hearted under Trials The excellent Moderation and Temperance of his Spirit was exerted His Moderation and Temperance in his own Conduct and Behaviour His Moderation was known unto all Men His Temperance also was interwoven in the Contexture of his whole Walk and Converse who being Master of his own Passions and Affections was temperate in all things So that his heart was neither over-charged with the Cares and Incumbrances of this present Life nor ensnared by its Blandishments Sensitive Delights and Pleasures or in any thing that might run into excess And with a sedate serene Mind he improved all Providential Occurrences to ripen his Grace and Experience so as to render him useful in his Station for the Good of others the Glory of God and his own Profit and Comfort He was a great Redeemer of His Redemption of Time Time That where-ever he came he endeavoured as Opportunity offered to be improving it on the best Account either in holy Conference or by Counsel and Advice or in Prayer c. especially where he knew he might be free And upon that account by way of Complaint he once said How useless and helpless are we one unto another in the matters of our Souls but in other Affairs there our hearts can easily mix and run one into another And his Carriage and Behaviour was with such a Graceful Authority tempered with Meekness and Humility and Respect to all according to their Rank and Degree that even in his Minority he was both loved and admired for his extraordinary Activity in all Religious Concerns And he won exceedingly upon the hearts of most that conversed with him in and about spiritual things leaving a sweet savour behind him where-ever he came And this was never perceived to abate or decay but continued in its Vigour and Fervour even to Old Age. In his Childhood and so forwards he was an Enemy to all vain and idle Pass-time but still striving to be receiving or doing good to his Power And until he was hindred and prevented by bodily Distempers and Infirmities of Old Age he would be both early and late industriously painful and unwearied in the Concerns of his own Soul allowing no more time for Sleep Food or any other necessary Refreshments than was absolutely needful That when all the Family besides were in Bed and fast asleep he made choice of that time as a sweet Repast to him for Reading Meditation and secret Prayer And it was his usual Custom which very rarely was omitted when he went to take his Rest to have a Light standing by his Bed-side and his Bible before him and as he lay in Bed to be looking into it musing on some Scripture or other for a considerable time ere he would compose himself to Rest Which occasionally a Friend in the same Room once observing asked him how he could possibly refrain all that time from Sleep Unto which he replied to this effect That the things he read and considered of were so serious that they would not suffer him to sleep whilst his Thoughts were therein exercised And he had such a Command of the Temper of his Mind and Body that there was not seen in him any Oppression of Drowsiness whenever he was actually concerned in the performance of any solemn spiritual Duty And to obviate and prevent such Indisposure his Care was to set apart the fittest Season for Religious Services That instead of the torn lame and corrupt thing spoken of in Mal. 1. 13 14. the best part of his Time and Strength was devoted and offered up to the Lord in Sacrifice His
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
depraved heart lies upon me as a lump of Lead I get nothing by talking with it as Solomon saith of the Fool Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou be like him Prov. 26. 4. for this talking with Guilt and Weakness draweth my Soul which is made free indeed by the Son of God to the likeness of that Guilt and Weakness and my justified Conscience begins again to lick up the old Vomit of Fear and Bondage but my work is then to cast my self by naked Reliance on Jesus Christ who justifieth the Ungodly Rom. 4. 5. as being compassed about with the Guard of God's free everlasting Justification in the Person of Jesus Christ and having the shelter of this Guard then I may return and plead with Guilt and hear the complaints of my heart and the accusations of my Conscience and give them Answers from the fulness of Christ's Atonement and thus again the Fool if such a term may be used in this comparison is answered lest he should be wise in his own conceit Prov. 26. 5. I mean that the Spirit of Bondage which by the advantage of my own sin pleads rationally against my Peace till Faith comes with the Tongue of the Learned and pleads the Mystery of Free Grace against the Plea of Reason and the Righteousness of Christ and his Holiness against Sin and Guilt Nothing prevailed against Sampson till he betrayed the Vow of God that was upon him so nothing can prevail against the Peace of Justification till Guilt divide between the Soul and naked Reliance upon the personal Perfection of Christs Sacrifice and Mediatorship The Soul that lays his Foundation thus will not boast in himself Rom. 3. 27. nor wrong the Visits of God's favourable Countenance by Pride and Wantonness nor yet despair when Storms arise because his foundation is upon a Rock and his safety is not at all any of his own Handy-work As far as he beholds this All-sufficiency of Christ's Mediatorship the eye affects the heart to security and strength and crumbles all Self-sufficiency to powder and blows away the Egyptian Locusts of Guilt and Fears into the Red Sea and restores Pacification and Quiet to the Conscience and from this glorious Sanctuary the Soul comes forth to do the Actions of a new Life by the vertue of another Spirit the Spirit of Love and a sound Mind and worketh the Works of God in the World and takes pleasure in obeying the Truth and if it were possible it would actually keep the whole Law in as much as being now eternally knit to Christ's Person by Faith the Law by the Spirit of Christ is written in the heart This naked Reliance on Christ's Person was the great endeavour and left to us as the experience of the Apostles A Faith of which nature was exercised eminently by the holy Men of old Abraham Rom. 4. 20. David Psal 71. 16. Paul 1 Cor. 2. 2. and Phil. 3. 8 9. There were two foundational Reasons mentioned why the Soul is wholly to cast it self on the naked personal Merit of Jesus Christ viz. because he began our Righteousness and he only perfected the same for ever and those reasons well weighed have great strength and motive-vertue in them to beget Faith and besides 't is commanded as the absolute Condition of Salvation Act. 16. 31. Believe and thou shalt be saved in opposition to which Unbelief is made in the dispensation of the Gospel the reason of dying under the guilt of sin Joh. 8. 24. For the Gospel doth so perfectly hold out Jesus Christ to be the Propitiation for all the sins of the World through the value of his Death and open freeness of the Tender thereof that the very Hinge of Salvation and Damnation is turned upon the Faith of the heart therein or Unbelief thereof as being the most necessary and suitable Requisites for the stating of the Soul into an actual condition of Life or Death eternally Yea Christ pronounceth forgiveness of sins to the Palsie-man Luk. 5. 20. upon the meer Account of Believing And the Apostle Paul declares the Righteousness of God to be upon all that believe without making any difference upon any other respect Rom. 3. 22. This one thing saved the Thief upon the Cross when he had not opportunity to make Satisfaction for all the Wrongs and Robberies he had done This makes the Apostle Paul so laborious to preserve this Mystery from the least mixture of Legal Righteousness Gal. 5. 2. Because a Believer's State and Life is wholly by Grace 1 Cor. 15. 10. which entirely treats with the Faith of a Believer and not with his Works of Righteousness or Sin the one cannot help nor the other hinder because they are as the Elements of another World as they are called Gal. 4. 3. and can neither mend nor hurt that Justification by Jesus Christ revealed from Heaven to a Believer no more than Earthly Food can feed a Spirit or a material Sword wound an Angel And reason is because the Person of Christ is the Ark where Righteousness and Pardon is kept and conveyed singly by the Spirit of Grace to Faith which is the Acceptance of the same and so it is sure from any personal qualifications on Man's part to hinder it where 't is by the Spirit of Believing accepted Rom. 4. 16. This Justification of a sinner by Faith in the Personal Satisfaction and Righteousness of Jesus Christ is that which lays a firm ground for Assurance of Perseverance because the guilt of sin is done away and pardoned at the first believing on Jesus Christ and if they be then done away their guilt cannot really return for the pardon of sins and remembring them no more are joyned together Heb. 8. 12. Neither can sins committed after the Souls Conversion to God by Faith in Jesus Christ hazard the final state of such an one because his person was made accepted at the first closing with Christ by Faith and Pardon of sins is but the Consequent of the Acceptation of his Person Ephes 1. 6. Rev. 1. 5. So that Christ having espoused a sinner to himself by Faith doth wash him from his filth and presents him to himself at length without Spot Ephes 5. 25 26 27. and the person being recieved upon the account of meer Grace sin has no equal Plea against such an one because the strength of his Plea must be by the Law and Grace having supplanted the Accusation of the Law Joh. 1. 17. the Trial depends in another Court where sin is cast out Rom. 6. 17. And if sin could not at first hinder the Acceptation of the person much less can it procure a Dis-acceptation afterwards Rom. 5. 10. And besides the person of every Convert is considered in his true Interest through Grace in the Person of Jesus Christ in whom all Accusations are fully answered Faith having got this Foundation Encouragment and Rightful Interest in the Remission of Sins Righteousness Life and Peace sets it self by
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
All Commands also and Duties bear with them an equal Engagement to every person alike related within the state of Covenant-Interest because those Commands and Duties relate to the same Interest in which all the people of God are one Joh. 17. 20. Matth. 28. 20. So that this Interest in God which is helpful in one case is applicable to all alike cases wherein the Saints who enjoy that Interest are concerned which makes every Promise to have a kind of Infiniteness as God is infinite From this Ground the same Promise that armed Joshua against fear through the presence and faithfulness of God Josh 1. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee is used likewise to every Saint to arm him against Covetousness and fear of Want Heb. 13. 5. And thus the Experience of one Saint becomes advantagious to another through their mutual Interest in the same Root of Spiritual Life in Christ by which they are one with him and Co-partners each with other of the same Grace From this Ground there is no Member of Christ that can say he has not need of anothers help because the Spirit of God by which they are united into one Body conveys its operation through one to another as it pleaseth him 1 Cor. 12. 11. which Spirit of God is the new Life of the Weak as well as of the Strong as he pleaseth to manifest his Power and Vertue in the one or the other more or less by which they are strong or weak that so they might love pity and sympathize each with other being all interested in the same Life and whereby they are all one Body and Members one of another Rom. 12. 5. Hence it is that all things spoken in the Scriptures are of true and proper use to every Child of God as far as their condition agrees with or stands in need of that Help Comfort Counsel or Reproof mentioned there which is the scope of the Spirit of God in all those Promises Instructions or Reproofs recorded in the Scriptures as if they and their particular Cases had been first or only in the eye of God when that word was spoken or that instance given be it what it will What I say to you saith Christ Matth. 13. 37. I say to all watch for whatsoever things were written afore time to others were written for our learning as the Apostle tells the Church of the Romans Rom. 15. 4 5. That we through patience and comfort of the same scriptures might have the same enjoyment and ground of hope as they had being equally interested in the same God who by his Spirit breaths Grounds and Influence of the same Grace of Patience and Consolation as it did to them to whom the Spirit through the Scripture had formerly spoken And thus the same Word being the Inspiration of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and the sound thereof is gone forth into all the World and the spirit drift scope and use of the words of Life to the end of the Earth as far as the Spirit which breathed it begets any Soul into the Life of Union with God in Jesus Christ who is the Eternal Word and Mind of the Eternal Father from whom all the Children of Adoption receive their Being and Birth through the Gospel of that only begotten Son of God spiritually shed abroad into their hearts So that every one who is Christ's may say the History of the Scriptures is for me the Prophets are mine the Apostles are mine and all their Prophesies and Preachings all Promises Reproofs and Comforts Counsels Warnings and Examples the Gospel under Moses his Vail and as it shines in the Teachings and Miracles of Christ and his Apostles all things all persons Paul Apollos Cephas Life and Death are the Inventory of my Happiness things past present and to come are mine and for my use and advantage because the Spirit which worketh in and by all these is mine and Christ to whom I come and whom I serve is mine and Christ is God's and his God and Father is mine because I am his Heir and Co-heir with him Let such a privilege cause the Soul to cry out Breath O Spirit open your selves O blessed Scriptures and water me with all manner of Teaching Let mysterious Grace possess my Understanding powerful Wisdom from God in the Scriptures make me wise to Salvation Let Strength and Vertue from on high renew both Spirit Soul and Body to all power of a spiritual mind that I may comprehend with all Saints what is the heighth length depth and breadth of the love of God in Christ and be built amongst them upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ himself being my Corner-stone and his Power enlivening me to every good word and work through that common Salvation wrought by him for every Member of his Body among whom I also am allowed to claim my share in the Inheritance of Light through the faith and patience of the Scriptures and Testimony of Jesus my Lord. Abraham's Faith was exercised upon the Covenant which God made with him saying I will be thy God and the God of thy seed which Faith was further confirmed by the Sign of Circumcision that was added to that Covenant and tried yet further by offering up his Son in all which he had the faithfulness of God and his free Grace and Power in his eye and saw Christ's day a far off therein although 't is like he saw not distinctly the very manner of Christ's coming in the Flesh and the manner of his Death and Resurrection yet his faith in the substance of the Covenant of God's free Grace and in his wisdom and power to accomplish the same in his own way and time led him to embrace that Covenant so dispensed and to that measure discovered deriving Interest in God to his Soul and the Righteousness of Justification thereby which the Spirit doth record in the Scriptures to be the same justifying Exercise of Faith which in the fulness of time should and so did more distinctly put forth its self upon Christ dead and risen and upon the power and truth of God therein to confirm and actually execute in the Person of Christ the Branches and Method of that Covenant relating to the taking away Sin applying Righteousness and uniting Man to God in the Mystery of Grace and Salvation and therefore 't is said the same Righteousness is now imputed to Believers as was to him because the nature of their Faith and the substance of the Object of that Faith is one and the same In the exercise of which they walk in his steps Rom. 4. 12. and so are justified with believing Abraham and inherit his Blessing Gal. 3. 9. And thus the Scriptures in the spiritual use thereof do run through all visibly different Dispensations Administrations Instances and Cases of the Saints with one and the same invisible scope and secret tendency agreeable to the state of Godliness and relating to all persons within
not talk with thee and look upon thy face and yet work too The presence of my Christ makes any toil to be perfect freedom Methinks I can easier find in some measure my work throughout the whole Scriptures though that requires also the teachings of the Spirit necessarily than I can know how to compose my heart to keep the Faith of Union and Communion with God fresh and so to work and labour in the strength of that Fellowship whatever I do in the World When I am earnest in Contemplation I fear I fail in the matter of Action when I am acting I fear losing the Marrow of my Communion with my God Here lies Divine Skill to put both these together as being of the same nature and tending to the same end each of them helping and not hindring one another And to this end I desire help from on high to find out my way and method that I may so run that I may at length finish my course with joy The Spring of all Christian Conversation How to hold Communion with God in worldly business is Justifying Faith which cleanseth the Soul and quickens it at the same time by Union with Jesus Christ and as in the order of Nature Life is first infused before any Action of Life can appear so Faith being the accepting and digesting vertue which receives in a way of spiritual digesture Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life doth cleanse and save the Soul which new Life puts forth Actions of its own nature which Actions do add a Perfection of Growth and Manifestation but not of Essence to that new Life of Justification Regeneration and Reconcilement All good works of a holy Conversation are the improving of that Life but neither the cause nor matter of it the cause of it is the meer Grace and Favour of God Ephes 1. 4 5 6. the matter of this Life is the Spirit of Jesus Christ quickning the Soul through Union with it and from thence grows Action as the delightful Exercise of the Life of the new Man So that my more or less improvement must not question the Essence of this Life the least Action notes Life as well as the greatest though the vigour thereof be in a different measure and if I doubt of Life I cannot produce it by Action Leaves will not put life into the Tree but I am in that case by Soul-resigning and Self-renouncing Recumbency of heart to lie down upon Christ to receive Life from him All Life lies in the Root and comes thence by naked believing whereby God through Christ vents his own Life by meer Grace in my Soul that all Actions of Holiness may be no other than the Life of God working in me Now that the Soul may both enjoy its Communion with God and also act with vigour the works of Righteousness in an active Conversation there must be Order and Uniformity in every Action suitable to the Spirit of Communion with God without Order there can be no Peace but Confusion 1 Cor. 14. 23. and without Uniformity also arising from the Root of Union that is between the Action and the Spirit of the Actor there can be no Peace for Unity breeds Peace Ephes 4. 3. by making things different or distinguishable to agree in one by some common and uniting likeness or other And because this Uniformity seems naturally to offer it self to Consideration in the first place I would let a few thoughts pass upon it In all Christan and morally good Actions forbearing to speak of ungodly Actions which are plainly opposite to the Spirit of Holiness no Action though it be in it self materially good ought to be left to its own swinge but always ought to move in the hand of the Spirit as it gives direction by and suitable to the Word The natural motion of a Wheel is to run downwards yet we read Ezek. 1. 19 20 21. that the Spirit of the living Creature being in the Wheels it guided the Wheels from their natural motion to the pleasure and Will of the Spirit that was in the Wheels up or down hither or thither as the Spirit moved them the Spirit and the Wheels were made one in motion by reason of their Union And even so in all good Actions spiritually performed there is a Union betwixt the Principle of Holiness in the new Man and the outward Action that is done which forms the Action into a homogeneous suitableness to that inward Principle and prevents discord betwixt the Action and the Principle Thus it was with Job when he said My heart shall not reproach me Job 27. 6. And hence comes a peaceable Execution of any Actions when the Principle of Holiness does spirit the Action and the Action outwardly manifest a justifying Concurrence with the Principle in and by which it acts the Action and the Principle having the same united Tendency to the Will of God And as Union and Symphony betwixt a gracious efficient Principle and a gracious Action renders it a comfortable Service whatever the work be which is done so the Order betwixt these two do add a further supply to carry on a heavenly Conversation here on Earth The goodness of every Action as to Comfort in the Execution thereof ariseth from Communion with God for whom and to whom that Action and Service is performed Although both be the Exercise of the New Man yet each of them act in their own order the heart is first under true warmth within and then the suitable discoveries do follow Psal 39. 3. While I was musing saith David the fire burned and then spake I with my tongue A good Action loseth its inward beauty when it keeps not its inside order it is numbred amongst dead works and moves but in a ghastly manner when the Spirit within moves not first much like to the irrational Actions of a Man who walks up and down and talks by some strength of fancy when he is in a dead sleep all the while But when the Root of Communion with God bears the Soul forth unto fruitfulness in any Service that Service is comely because it springs naturally from a Spirit of Faith in the New Man and carries along the nature of the New Man in whatsoever is done These two being observed would so carry on the course of Christianity that in the various affairs of this life inward Peace would not be broken there would be readiness at all times to pray praise and rejoyce Thus Abraham and Enoch walked with God and this is the glorious Promise They shall walk up and down in the name of the Lord Zach. 10. 12. All good Actions being thus rooted and ordered have the Glory of God in their eye and run forth in way of duty and carry with them the encouragement of Acceptation with God And although the Actions of such a man may visibly be successless yet his heart is never wrung with disappointment because his secret Communion with and Subjection to
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
a curious Key to the Wards of a Lock and intermits not the least moment from suitable and needful help Isa 27. 3. only he manageth it in his own method which a resigned Soul owns he is satisfied and delighted in Hence comes Peace when the Soul Peace of a Believer by Resignment having viewed the Compass of plentiful Redemption the strength of the Rock that is under him and the Helmet of Salvation that is over him saith Return O my soul to thy rest for God hath dealt bountifully with thee God hath delivered my life from going down to the pit and my eyes from tears and my feet from falling Psal 116. 7 8. I will now lay me down and sleep for no less than God himself makes me to dwell in safety Psal 4. 8. The Peace of Resignation is Christ's Peace which none can divide from a Believer it is his Garison and fortified Security Col. 3. 15. Joh. 14. 27. And from hence flows Love to God the Father Son and Spirit The Love Love of the Father in the Son and by the Spirit in all the unspeakable discoveries of it warms the heart into this Resignation unto him 1 Joh. 4. 19. Christ appearing so amply furnished to conciliate Love and presenting the Bracelets of his kindness and declaring his Wealth Power and Glory of his Kingdom Psal 145. 11. as once Abraham's Servant did to Rebeccah in behalf of Isaac he gains the heart of a Believer to forsake former Contents and resign up the utmost Affections to him The more the Soul resigns the more doth it love and the more it loves the more it doth resign to him The Love of God shed abroad into the heart by the Spirit from the heart of Christ breeds Resignation and that Resignation still feeds Love each moving other with a perpetual motion and so from an endless Principle of Union with Christ runs forth to all Eternity From whence ariseth also a sense Freedom of perfect Freedom the Pales of distance are broken down free Access to God in Christ is gained Mis-apprehensions removed and Open-heartedness interweaves betwixt Christ and the Soul The Heir is no longer Servant but a Son Esther is brought from the Custody of Hegai to the King's Palace The boundless Deity in all its Purity Power and Protection is the Range of a resigning Believer The Law is removed the Prince of this World is judged and cast out the former state of Enmity and Bondage is over and gone and now the Soul dilates it self with full spread into that Freedom wherewith Christ hath made it free Joh. 8. 36. Gal. 5. 1. Which Freedom brings in Boldness along with it the Soul being Boldness once resigned up to Christ is no longer a Stranger but of his Houshold yea betrothed to his Person in Righteousness and Tender Mercy and is always in his eye Resignation betwixt Christ and the Soul being mutually past Darkness is swallowed up of Light there is no shelter for the Beasts of Prey no Weapon that is formed against a Believer can prosper who has resigned himself to the Former of all things he may now dwell safely in the Wilderness and sleep in the Woods a Lyon-like Courage grows in the Soul from the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah to whom by Resignation it is united What now may hinder Satisfaction Why may not the Soul say I Satisfaction have enough my Inheritance is lawfully gotten neither have I got it with my Sword and Bow as Jacob got a Portion from the hand of the Amorite but I have given my self for it I have resigned my whole self to Christ and he has resigned his whole self to me I own and accept his Resignation and he accepts mine What further remains than that I bid farewel to mine own Poverty and Wretchedness and put on Change of Raiment Why may not I dwell amidst the Flagons Cant. 2. 5. of his satisfying Presence I am filled and my Cup runs over And now also who may hinder a satisfied Soul from Joy Will not Joy all the Foundation-work and Walls of this Building bear a Superstructure of Joy in the Holy Spirit Is not the upshot of this Resignation betwixt Christ and a Believer mutual Joy He joys over his beloved with singing Zeph. 3. 17. and her soul rejoyceth in God her Saviour Luk. 1. 47. As far as any degrees of this Resignation tastes these high Privileges so doth a relish of Joy grow in the Soul Resignation brings the Soul into the heart of Christ who hath triumphed gloriously in rescuing his Spouse and now rejoyceth over her as a Bridegroom rejoyceth over the Bride Isa 62. 4. and in the day of the gladness of his heart calls her Hephzibah My delight is in her Which Joy begets an Eccho of its own likeness from her again My delight is in him And thus the Crown of Joy is placed on the Head of Spiritual Resignment The Soul cannot resign to God without Joy in him nor rejoyce in him without Resignment They live in one another because the Seed and Nature of all spiritual Privileges lies in every Privilege and the Nature of this Privilege being endless because God is everlasting the Crown of Joy can therefore never wither And the more this Resignation to God in Christ gets Ground in An Entrance to the purchased Possession the Soul the more is an Entrance made into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ not as it is a Work done by us but wrought in us in which the heart is made to give way and is made voluntary therein by the Spirit of Grace Which Work is here carried on through much Contradiction in the Flesh which strives against it while the Inward Man in every Believer pants after it and finds no Rest but as the Power of this holy Resignation to God in all things prevails till at last it steps over Mortality and leaves every Obstruction behind perfectly and for ever and then God is all in all Christ enjoying his Spouse without any Reluctancy or Unsuitableness in her and she enjoying her Husband without any Vail upon his Face she hears his pure Language and returns pure Language again Love has its full vent on both sides the mutual Yerning of Bowels will then be satisfied the Voice of COME which sounds from Christ above and the Believer below will period it self in one eternal unseparable Meeting Resignation will then enjoy an uninterrupted Delight How astonishing is the thought of this When the thought of it is strained through the weakness of my Faith conflicting with so much Darkness and present Treachery of heart and Self-unworthiness the Glympses thereof makes me both fear and rejoyce at once and yet am not able to rejoyce perfectly for fear nor fear perfectly for hope O infinite Redeemer be over and above all my fear and faintness act like thy self almightily and freely that my heart may shout for Joy in the hope of the
therefore I go to everlasting Strength The more I make infinite Power my Lord and Master the more is that Divine Power engaged to hold me up Rom. 14. 4. Let my own Power languish into nothing so long as I can claim on the account of Free Grace undoubted Right to the Arm of God my own strength never did me good but deceived me Dost thou not know O mis-giving heart that I am shortly to leave the whole weight of my Soul in lanching from Mortality upon the same word of Promise which doth now offer strength to wade through difficulties of my present Warfare And what do I more than step forth to behold the Lord sealing his Covenant and Promise that he will be my God and will guide me by his Grace and afterwards bring me to Glory To which Covenant in faith though with fear and trembling I desire to give my consent which I trust in some measure of sincerity I have done Neither do thou O Satan vaunt and say to me as Eliab said to David 1 Sam. 17. 28. I know the pride of thy heart I shall yet bring thee down Know O thou false Accuser I go to him who is both able to hold me up and make me humble too that I may be more and more abased and die away from the workings and lustings of Flesh and Blood into the Power Grace Wisdom and Truth of God to whose Covenant for that end by his own Appointment I declare my consent and do desire with a broken and bleeding heart to bless him that ever he allowed me to come so near him in this manner Though I fall I shall not fall utterly I shall be raised up again because my Redeemer is risen and he is strong who pleads my Cause What is the Volumne of the Scriptures but a divine Oeconomy containing the Laws of Relation betwixt a God of all Grace and his chosen Institutions and Commands of Grace Threatnings and Reproofs of Grace Promises and Betrothings of Grace and meer Grace Has not the same God who said I will betroth thee to me for ever in Righteousness and Judgment in Loving-kindness and tender Mercies and in Faithfulness Hos 2. 19 20. said also to me Thou shalt know the Lord Has he not said to me Thy Maker Father Son and Spirit is thy Husband Isa 54. 5. even while I am grieved in Spirit and tossed about with the Tempest of my own Confusions And has he not said that I shall say The Lord is my God Hos 2. 19 20. And he will say I am one of his people and will not be ashamed to be called my God Heb. 11. 16. Yea hath he not said that I shall say I am the Lords and that I shall bear his Name and Sir-name with his Jacob and his Israel and that I shall even subscribe it with my hand never to be reversed Isa 44. 5. O Fountain of Life and living Waters reveal thy self that I may not go about to marry Flesh and Spirit together but that I may be spirited as a chaste Virgin espoused to Christ and so enter into this glorious spiritual Flesh-mortifying and mystical Wedlock Let it not be meerly speculative but real and influenced with light life and power from thy heart to mine Oh how doth this unwilling heart of mine pull back What canst thou close with besides God in Christ but it will perish and while it is in thy hand will be a broken Reed that will make thee fall in leaning upon it Is not the Covenant of Grace somewhat which God himself hath devised for his own Glory and thy Establishment Has he required thee to bind thy self to fear and love him and hath not he engaged to circumcise thy heart that thou maist love and fear him Deut. 30. 6. Jer. 32. 38 39 40 41. Oh that I could put faith to this Word till the warmth thereof grew up into a Flame which many Waters might never quench and Oh let my faithful God who has expresly promised by Covenant to give me one heart and one way with the rest of them who are Confederates of Grace that I may fear him for ever for my Good remember it and fulfil it as he hath said with all his heart and all his soul Oh pardon my unbelief that I do stand so far aloof from putting to my Seal that God who cannot lie will accomplish his word to a tittle MY Soul longs to be at some The Soul longs for clear work more distinct and express Closure with such a God and would fain reckon before-hand what it will cost me When I consider that word 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you and that you are not your own for you are bought with a price And therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which is God's I even faint under the Majesty of such a Covenant of unutterable Grace which calls me up to such dignity and duty at once Body and Spirit which are God's what a word is this You are not your own how far doth this reach The whole Concernments of my Soul and Body which are my own are to be given up to God by Faith and new Obedience that they may be his and at my own dispose no longer Oh a thousand Worlds for a Surrender suitable to this Estate and Calling of God in Christ Jesus Oh let the Creator of Israel my King fashion the value of this Pearl in every Affection of my Soul that I may in his own meaning sell all to purchase it Christ Jesus was in earnest when he gave his Body to the Cross and his very Soul an Offering for my sake O that I could be in a like seriousness in giving away my Body and Soul to him again Strengthen O Lord my weak hands and confirm my feeble knees Methinks I hear the voice of my The Soul is invited by Christ beloved Jesus calling out Fear not O anxious Soul behold it is I be not asraid I who am thy Redeemer am strong I am mighty to save and therefore Hearken O Daughter and consider incline thine ear forget also thy father's house and thine own people Let me be the Object of all thy Affections rest in my pleasure only and always so will I thy King and Husband greatly desire thy Beauty and be always trimming thee for my own Society for I am thy Lord and thou must worship and fully rest in and be devoted to me alone and to no other I consent dear Christ and here And doth consent and engage I offer my Body and Soul to the Agreement I give it up dear and precious Redeemer I give it up unto thee for ever in obedience to thy Commands and relying upon thy Strength I write it with my own hand that I will be thine and for thee and not for any other My Beloved is mine and I am his Though I am
Society and sometimes Retirement puts me behind-hand All my Composedness is soon discomposed Let thy eye be upon me O my God according to thy word and water me every moment Isa 27. 3. lest any thing assault and hurt my Soul which thou hast redeemed and quicken my faith and hope in thy Word for this Many a wretched stop do I meet with pardon me O my Lord and my God and renew a Spirit of truth tenderness sincerity and rightly seasoned heart for the work I am now upon My scope and meaning in giving my hand and closing with this Covenant of my God is further this viz. that through his help I will ascribe truth to all the words of his Promises by believing them and receiving them as that which shall be accomplished that I will labour to keep the Majesty of the Promiser in my eye and to preserve the faith and hope of his fulfilling his Word upon the account of his unsearchable Wisdom and Faithfulness and not by my uncertain taste that no Guilt of Sin shall keep me from the Fountain wherein Sinners are to be cleansed that I will through the Guidance of his Spirit aspire after a more practical and accustomed Exercise in living the life that I live by the faith of the Son of God and resting from my own works reach after that self-denying Activity which issues from my Union with Christ as my Head O my Lord mould my heart into this life this is the very Pearl that I would willingly sell all to get What a lovely Comportment would it settle between the Actions of my outward and inward Man How would it teach my Soul to rule my Body How willingly would my Soul and Body then be contradicted and take pleasure to be thwarted by the Spirit of Christ when the Crown is settled on the Head of the new Creature and the Scepter of Government in its hand acting as in the Throne of Christ in the vertue of his pure Life and glorious Arm and every imagination of the heart bowing down before it Oh when shall my inward Man be thus cloathed with Glory and Power looking forth through all my Sences as the Morning fair as the Moon and terrible as an Army with Banners This Gate of Heaven I would aspire towards through that means of Victory which overcometh the World the Devil and an earthly Mind even through the faith of the Son of God This is that which I have in my eye although it be as a Land that is afar off I faint with desire stay me and strengthen me with the Flagons of Hope O thou who hast suffered me to touch the Skirt of thy Garment and brought me within the Covenant of his Grace When I consider the Soveraignty of God that he doth whatsoever he will in Heaven and Earth that sometimes he has deserted his people as to the powerful Communications of Grace as it was with David Peter and others in the time of their sinful Back-sliding when I consider these things I begin to stagger about the constant Immutability of God's Purpose and uninterrupted Good Will which he declares in the Covenant Heb. 13. 8. Jer. 32. 40. who saith I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me And therefore to obviate this heart-fainting mistake I resolve to nourish the faith of his constant Love and Good Will in his Covenant upon the ground of his unchangeable Nature that he is not as a man that he should lie nor as the son of man that he should repent that nothing can come to pass but what is the effect of his Purpose that his Covenant is everlasting and his Purpose of Love therein the same for ever Jer. 31. 35. and 32. 40 41. that his Purpose to them whom he calls up to take hold of his Covenant is wholly a Purpose of Love and Grace 2 Tim. 1. 9. that he complains when a doubting heart makes question of it Isa 40. 27. that it is confirmed by the death of the Testator that the cause of Alienation is removed viz. the Guilt of my Sin by the one compleat and compleating Offering of the Body of Christ that Christ ever lives to intercede and is always heard because the Will of the Father and Son is the same Will breathing it self forth to the Objects of Grace by the everlasting Spirit And therefore when I seem to be forsaken I resolve to believe that that desertion is only Physick And to enquire what it is that God teacheth me thereby that so I may see ground as satisfyingly to thank him for the gracious frowns of his unchangeable Love as for his gracious Smiles and to take the advantage of that season to crave his Aid more importunately to loath my sinful self and to revive afresh more purely self-denying Exercises of believing and resigning to him fearing his righteous Judgments patiently waiting when the Spirit that I have grieved will return again with the Manifestation of his gracious Presence to my Soul In all these Considerations Resolutions and Desires in my Covenanting with God my meaning further is that I accept of Jesus Christ as he is the Gift of God to be the whole Covenant to me to work Faith and give the things believed to work desires and give the things desired to act for me and in me that the Covenant may never fail from me because of my sins and miscarriages in regard he has satisfied Justice in my stead and brought me into his everlasting Righteousness nor I fail from the Covenant through Unbelief and a languishing view of my own Infirmity because he is my Strength to labour Author and Finisher of my Faith who gave himself to sanctifie me by the Spirit of Regeneration in the Application of his Word to me for quickning that so Christ may be all in all to fulfil the Engagement of God to me and my Engagement in his Name to God And seeing that Breaches are like to fall out often on my part that he would still stand in the Gap that those Breaches may not obstruct the Good Will and Mercy of God from me nor harden my heart from him that so the Grace of the Covenant on God's part in Christ towards me and on Christ's part for me towards God may remain in the eye of my Faith inviolable when the Peace of the Covenant through my sinful diversions and darkness is interrupted and bruised And that he would still recover me again into a renewed personal Covenanting with God that in his Person I may behold eternal and sure Mercies as the Sun in the Firmament as the days of Eternity Psal 89. 29. And that by his Mediation and Suretyship applied to me by the effectual working of his Spirit I may in my own person be drawn under his shadow to recover my Hold-fast and have my face set towards the Covenant And that he would still lead me
again and again with weeping and supplications to God in him as my resting place and that he would cause this glorious word to ring as an Alarm in my ears Return unto me for I am married unto thee Jer. 3. 14. I will be and I am thy King Where is any other that can comfort thee or save thee in all thy wandrings Hos 13. 10. And that he would cause my bowels to be moved at the voice and to give answer It is the voice of my Beloved behold I come unto thee for thou art the Lord my God Jer. 3. 22. And that I may now sum up the The Soul enters into more ample and express Covenant with God matter of this my Covenant which God has called me to make and which in obedience to his Call I do heartily resolve in his strength to adhere unto guard my heart guard my pen guard my voice and words O thou who leadest the Blind to thy self by a way which Nature knows not but thou knowest thy own way and knowest how to lead the thoughts of my heart and words of my pen and my mouth that my lips may utter nothing rashly before thee Thou hast made a Covenant of Grace and often repeated the terms of the Covenant and hast said I shall say The Lord is my God Hos 2. 23. and has recorded the mutual avouching between thee and thy people Deut. 26. 17 18. in express words Yea Strangers are invited to serve thee to love thy Name to be thy Servants and to lay hold on thy Covenant Isa 56. 6. to joyn themselves to thee and to observe thy Sabbaths and Ordinances of Worship And when thy people did enter into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul and sware to thee with a loud voice and rejoyced at the Oath and sought thee with full desire thou wast found of them 2 Chron. 15. 12 15. And this way have thy Servants appropriated thee to themselves Psal 105. 7 8. and appropriated themselves to thee Psal 116. 16 18. Isa 63. 16 19. And thou hast said These things are written for my learning Rom. 15. 4. and that I am to imitate and follow them who through faith and patience did inherit the promises giving my self to thee 2 Cor. 8. 5. with full purpose of heart Act. 11. 23. Having this Warrant and Encouragement I do here bring my Body and Soul and all that I have and am to thee as a First-Fruit Offering and claiming Right to thy self through thy free Grace being invited thereto Jer. 3. 4 19. Hos 2. 23. I do declare in thy presence O The Soul makes Confession of its Faith most righteous holy and gracious God that as thou hast declared in thy Word I do acknowledge I am one of the Posterity of the first Adam and was in his Loins both when thou madest him pure bearing the Image of Righteousness and Holiness and when he transgressed thy righteous Command by eating the Fruit which thou hadst forbidden him to eat and that I stand before thee guilty of the sin which he then committed in all the extent circumstances and aggravations thereof and that I am thereby become rightful Heir to all that sinful pollution which by him entred in upon all Mankind and rightful Heir also to all that Curse and Punishment which thou denouncedst upon him when thou saidst In the day wherein thou eatest thereof thou shalt die and that I am by this my nature and descent liable to thy righteous Sentence of Death and Wrath eternally that I did in that day lose thy favour and incurred the accursed effects of that loss to my Body and Soul relating both to my temporal and eternal state I do acknowledge that of thy free Grace and that alone thou didst speedily make promise of a Redeemer which should arise of the Seed of the Woman and be manifested in the Flesh which accordingly thou didst perform by sending thy only Son into the World having a Body framed by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Womb of a Virgin and was born free from all that Hereditary Corruption which the first Parents of Mankind did derive to their Posterity by natural Propagation who by his voluntary Obedience fulfilled thy whole Law and by his death did bear the whole Curse and Punishment due to me and all elected Mankind in the Body of his Flesh And that being thy eternal Son the express Image of thy Person and God blessed for ever he did fully pay the Debt and remove the Curse and deserved Punishment from so many which thou hadst in thy eternal Purpose given him to be a Ransom for and superabundantly recovered thy Image and favour to them again And that being truly dead he raised himself by his own Divine Power and is ascended into the highest Heavens where he sitteth on the Right Hand of the Majesty on high appearing always in thy presence as Mediator consisting of the two Natures of God and Man in one Person continually interceding before thee on the behalf of them whom he redeemed and making the ends and vertue of his Mediatorship effectual for their good and on their behalf That he hath brought this state of Life and Salvation to light by the Gospel contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament and effectually dispensed the same under dark Types and Prophesies till his Incarnation since which time he hath mightily declared himself by his Word and Works the Father also from Heaven and the Holy Spirit testifying of him that he is the Saviour of the World and that believing in him they who believe shall have life through his Name That he has declared himself by chosen Witnesses who conversed with him and saw his Miracles that he is the eternal God and also true Humane Nature in one glorious Person and has appointed them to testifie that he is the Judge of Quick and Dead and that whosoever beliveth in him shall receive Remission of Sins and be justified from all Conscience of Guilt and interested in a more abundant Righteousness Life and Happiness than was lost before that he sendeth forth his Spirit to breath a new Life by Faith through the dispensation of this Gospel whereby he gathers all the Elect into a Mystical true spiritual Union with himself who is the Door of their Communion with God and his Communion with them and having in himself the terms and parts of the Covenant relating to each Party he has so united them together in a Covenant-Bond that the most righteous God reacheth to them his hand and proclaims himself theirs and they reach forth their hands by Faith and Resignation and declare they are wholly his By which Covenant-Union they are partakers of God and all communicable good things in him and are spirited to give up themselves and all that they have and are to his dispose in newness of life and have freedom to come to
the Mediator for Teaching Strength and Purging through the means appointed by him for that end as their daily necessity and weakness doth require for carrying on the true scope and to answer the true end of their Covenant-Relation to God while they live on Earth and through the Resurrection of Christ have an assured Pledge of safe Convoy through the Grave to an eternal and visible Fellowship with him and unutterable Enjoyment of Communion with the Father Son and Spirit being perfected for ever suitable to such a state both in Body and in Soul Now according to this Confession A solemn Covenant with God in the Name of Christ and Acknowledgment grounded upon thy own Word breathed by thy Spirit and experienced by all thy chosen people according to the measure of thy Revelation and spiritual Application thereof I throw my self down before thee O most holy righteous all-powerful and gracious God I cast my self before thee as a poor Syrian ready to perish without any strength at all to extricate my self from the guilt of sin and its deserved punishment I once lost thee quite and had been lost from thee for ever if thy naked Arm had not brought thy Salvation near and opened my ear to hear it And now I do here declare before thee and before thy holy Angels that I do accept of and give up my self and all that is mine to comply with the design of my Restoration which thy gracious Wisdom has found out I do accept of Jesus Christ thy Son to be my Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption I do accept of him only to be my Access to thy favourable Presence and to enable me to walk acceptable before thee I close with thy appointment for laying my sins and all my guiltiness upon him and do profess through thy Grace that I will not hazard thy displeasure by covering my guilt or bearing it my self by Unbelief cherished within me In him I do accept of thy glorious Self to be my God and all the Attributes of thy glorious Nature to be my Portion and all ready for my relief and advantage I do accept of the sanctifying Vertue of thy Spirit and am grieved that I have so often vexed and grieved him by Disobedience and Unbelief I do own to my self thy free and unchangeable Love in Christ I do take the whole Scriptures and acknowledge them to be thy express Will and all thy gracious Commands Threatnings and Promises to be in all things most right and to be the Issues of thy Wisdom Holiness Goodness and truth for my Instruction Purging Comfort and Establishment in all cases all days of my life which I engage in thy strength to adhere unto as the Rule of my Faith and Conversation I embrace the Covenant wherein thou hast promised and sworn to be mine and that blessing thou wilt bless me in Christ for thy own sake And I do here heartily willingly and joyfully with fear and trembling offer up my self to thee and the Belief of thy Word and do bind my self to thee this day with my whole heart and in express words to be thine and to yield my self mine and all that do concern me to the good pleasure of thy Will and that I will attend upon thee through thy Grace for Wisdom and Strength to love fear serve and obey thee that I will chuse the things that please thee and not repine at thy dealings towards me as if thou hadst forgotten at any time to be gracious I bind my self in the scope and vertue of this holy Covenant with God to have tender Affections to all thy people who are the joynt Object of thy Love and to attend upon the Manifestation of the Spirit and Power in thy Ordinances and through thy strength contentedly to bear the Cross thou shalt lay upon me in conformity to the death of Christ and that thy self and pure Will shall be the supream mark and object of my Affections And O my most glorious God who pitiest the Poor and such who have no strength accept this Offering from my hand and heart and succour thy Servant who under much reluctancy of Unbelief doth strive to yield himself to be wholly bound to thee When I look upon my own strength I loath it and am astonished at such work as this but I implore thee and do profess I do with full desire of heart cast my self upon the Wings of thy Power to be carried above all impediments that shall arise from Satan from this present evil World and from the Body of Sin and Death which is within me O thou who camest in Flesh to purchase me visit the Soul which thou hast allured to seek and follow thee and cause the North and South Wind of thy seasonable help to blow upon thy Garden my Soul which with delight doth long after thee in this day of thy Power to see and be possessed of and cloathed with thy Power and Glory And whensoever I shall walk unsuitably to any of these things for I am ready to halt and thou shalt as an offended Father be angry with me and turn away thy face then behold the Atonement which thou hast set forth for Sinners and melt my heart before thee and lead me to the Fountain that is opened for Sin and Uncleanness and graciously renew thy Covenant with me and let me know that thou dost graciously accept of this my Free-Will Offering by vouchsafing thy self to be ready to be found and by causing me to be established in a daily experience that this my labour and purpose of heart though in much infirmity yet in love to thy Name is not in vain Let no part of thy Yoke be a burthen to me at any time but a joy to my heart because 't is thy Yoke and thou hast said 't is easie and light make it so and now let an Interest be abundantly administred to me into the Kingdom of my Christ and my God I profess before thee that I do humbly expect these things from thee O faithful God who canst not lie as that which thou hast graciously covenanted to give Jer. 32. 38 39 40 41. and 31. 33 34. which Covenant I do this day in thy fear and in the faith of thy performance lay hold upon and in reference to all the difficulties of this present Life of all sorts and for needful supply of daily Bread I accept of thy Promises and roll my self upon thee in them through the Mediator for Faith Courage Patience Contentedness Deliverance and Supply according to thy Word Psal 27. 1 2 3 5. Mich. 7. 7 8 9. Heb. 13. 5 6. Matth. 6. 31 32. as my need from time to time shall require And also to be kept from polluting thy Name by sinful and scandalous Miscarriages and appearance of Evil in the sight of Men as thou hast promised Psal 91. 10 11 12. I accept of and relie upon thy infinite Goodness and Truth contained in every Clause of thy Word
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
through its Union with the Soul the whole Person is called a Believer who lives by faith both in regard of its inward invisible Operation and also in moulding anew the outward and visible Conversation So that a Believer both lives by faith Heb. 10. 38. and walks by faith 2 Cor. 5. 7. not only in himself but manifestly to others by Words Rom. 1. 12. and Examples Heb. 13. 7. It s chief Seat is the Understanding and the Will Whatever it discovers And prosperous it calls in the Will to assent to working up the whole Soul to a Propensity of Resignation to the Power and Soveraignty of every divine Truth and in particular to the Enjoyment and Privilege Government and Laws of this Union-state And so it sets it self as a mighty Champion in the hand of the Lord to exercise its skill and power in the Soul And now Oh that it might be up and be doing in my Soul and so go on and prosper And Oh! that its Bow may abide in strength and the arms of its hands made strong through the hands of the mighty God of Jacob and under the influence of Divine Grace be blessed and made to go on increase be enlarged and conquer Rise up O Shield and Buckler O Arm of the Lord I have waited and do wait for thy Salvation O Lord Leave me not A DISCOURSE of GLORIFYING GOD. 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. What know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and ye are not your own For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's THere are four principal things which this part of Scripture do offer to serious Meditation and Improvement viz. 1. That a true Christian is not his own 2. That he is the Lords 3. That he ought to know his renewed State 4. That his renewed Constitution does oblige him to promote the Glory of God and live up thereto in Soul and Body Not your own c. implies three things viz. 1. That naturally a Man is his own Tyrant 2. That true Christianity is more than speculative 't is a real Change of the Man You are not your own 3. That it doth mysteriously divide a Man from himself This real Alteration and mysterious Contrariety is not a natural Change but spiritual viz. the Body the Soul the Faculties of the Soul and the rational Exercise of those Faculties are still the same and yet a spiritual Change doth affect them all and passeth upon the whole Man This spiritual Change begins in the most hidden part of Man viz. the Mind and therefore Repentance is called the Change of the Mind which Change of the Mind doth influence the whole Man The Mind is said to be changed when the Spirit of God enters in and exerciseth its Soveraign Dominion of Holiness against the Usurpation of the Devil and Natural Corruption which reigned there before whereby the Mind is controlled into a willing Propensity of Subjection to the Authority of the Spirit of God against the Invasion of Sin which still retains some Haunt there as a lurking subdued Enemy called the Flesh lusting against the Spirit till it be destroyed utterly at the day of full Redemption This Dominion of the Spirit steers the natural Faculties of the Soul in their rational Exercise to new Employment and arrays them thereunto with new Habits The Understanding has a sublimer Light the Judgment a better Rule the Will and Affections a better Object better Motives and a better End viz. Spiritual So that such a person is now said not to be his own he is not under that universal Darkness Pollution and Bondage to Sin which he was conceived and born in at first that was his own natural state but he is now rescued from it and is no longer his own 1. While he was his own he taught himself by the Light of fleshly Wisdom and accounted the Gospel Foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 23. but now loaths it and being at a loss cries Lord what wouldst thou have me to do Act. 9. 6. and as they did who burnt the Books in which they learnt curious Arts before Act. 19. 19. in which lay no savour of Christ and spiritual Knowledge 2. While he was his own he ruled himself by the sight of his eyes and imagination of his heart Jer. 7. 27. by the custom and course of the World but now consults not with Flesh and Blood Gal. 1. 16. he sees his own Byass is false and his own Weights too light 3. Motives of Pleasure Profit Honour do not now draw him he was lead by his own Concupiscence but now he is dead to these and saith I have no pleasure in them 4. He designs not his own things neither Health Phil. 2. 30. nor Liberty Act. 20. 23. nor Ease 1 Cor. 11. 10. nor Safety 1 Cor. 15. 13. nor Wealth Heb. 11. 26. nor Honour nor Pleasure as Moses who refused to be Father of a great Nation Exod. 32. 10. and Esther not satisfied with having the honour and delights of being Queen when God's Honour lay at stake Yea he designs not an unworthy preservation of his own life Act. 20. 24. 5. The Spirit of carnal Comforts is gone in such an ones esteem as Esther could not endure the thoughts of her Peoples Ruin though she was at the Royal Feast and to such an one the tickling comfort of such things affect not but are as the White of an Egg yea the unnecessary Conference of such things is tastless as Meat to a sick Man and all because such an one is not his own any longer When a Man is not his own he stands invested with many privileges he has hereby a shelter 1. Against outward Afflictions they sting not their profit reacheth farther than their pain when a Man as in an extasie is not his own therefore Paul rejoyced in them 2. Persecution on the Outward Man reach not him who is not his own who is not at his own home as it was with David when Saul's Messengers came to kill him they found him not but an Image 1 Sam. 19. 16. 3. He can answer the Accusations of Guilt I am not my own and therefore my own Guilt must not stick on me 4. When Flesh and Blood demands Service he can reply I who am not my own am not Debtor to the Flesh When Sin doth vex and molest by its pollutions in the Flesh he can say What make I here I am not my own Let me go hence 5. When spiritual Pride solicits he can reply What I have is not my own 6. And against carnal Security he can say I cannot maintain my own Grace nor restore my self when fallen and therefore am to work out my Salvation with fear I am not my own 7. Against Solicitude about future Events and carking Despondency I am not at my own dispose and therefore such Anxieties are to be
is a poysonous Delectation the Object of thy Aim is momentary thy Workings are carnal proud impetuous and tyrannous spawned from the Serpent in the day that it said to Eve Ye shall be as Gods Thou didst then feed thy Expectation with forbidden Fruit thou forsookest Divine Counsel lost thy Aim and art ever since crawling upon thy Belly to the Earth and feeding upon the Dust there lies something in that first Promise The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's head to loose me in the inward Man from the Bonds of thy Captivity That blessed word began the second Creation sentenced Carnal Sense and the way of its Reason and brought in the Draft of a new created State in which the Image of Christ is renewed upon the Soul swaying it by spiritual Knowledge and Understanding into a state of Righteousness and Holiness and has given it Dominion by a holy Force and rightful Power to subject all Humane Sense and Reason Knowledge Understanding and the Delights thereof to the Authority and full Command of the Wisdom of the Spirit And therefore I would wait for some Dew from this Wisdom that is from above to water and guide me and by this Conduct I would lay down these Grounds The pursuit of a lawful thing is so far sinful to me as the pursuit thereof doth tend to distract my Prayers and Converse with God and that which makes the Mind of Christ in his Word and Godly Conference unrelishable to me That which tends to contract and confine my view of the Worth of Christ my necessity of him and relation to him That which hinders me from a penitent and vigorous watchfulness and reluctancy against the defiling nature of my Heart-corruptions That which weakens the exercise of my faith about the reality of Divine Truths God's all-seeing Eye the constant necessity of Holiness in my heart and in my aim unlimited and free Resignation to the Will of God and a hungry expectation of the appearing of Christ and my own Dissolution That which offers violence to all or any Christian Duty which takes off my desire to the Ordinances and profitable use of them as if the time were lost which is spent in such work That which cares not for an Exercise of Faith and Prayer for a blessing upon it and direction and assistance from God in it doth declare it self so far to be a Work of the Flesh and not wrought in God For if I am wholly redeemed then nothing in me is to be any longer at my natural Command but my whole self and all my ways and Concernments do come under the Laws of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ In all which forementioned Particulars I have found Guilt sliding in upon me with a strong hand In the next place I would consider what civil Actions Labours or Studies may be truly accounted lawful and within that Command and Permission in the fourth Commandment Six days shalt thou labonr and do all that thou hast to do viz. Whatsoever may conduce to administer any true natural good to the Body Estate or Credit of my self or others which lies included in all the Precepts of the second Table Exod. 20. 12 13 14 15 16 17 c. Whatsoever may conduce to polish true Reason and free the discerning faculty of the Mind from that Captivity Darkness and Infirmity contracted by the Fall of our first Parents which disabled the Understanding in a great measure to discern between things truly morally good and evil without which the discoursive faculty of the Soul cannot act within it self or be capable of any impressions for its good from the words of others the freeing of which would tend much to make way for the entrance of gracious Convictions where the Word of God is heard or leave that Soul more wilfully inexcusable which seems te be hinted in Isa 44. 18 19. where the Prophet speaks of the very irrationality of Idol-worship as that which contradicts the true use even of natural Reason And in order hereunto Whatsoever may help Reason in its Exercise as Conference with and reading the Labours of such whom God hath fitted in any measure for repairing the sad Breach made on Humane Nature And whatsoever may conduce for the help of Memory as the Art of Reading and Writing which Art we find justified in the Scriptures Dan. 9. 2. Deut. 6. 9. Whatsoever may make the Offices of Humanity as well as Christianity more communicable as the knowledge of Tongues the ordinary learning of which seems to be justified by the extraordinary Gift of Tongues whereby the Apostles were enabled to dispense the Gospel in the World Whatsoever also may tend to the understanding of the Letter of the Scriptures as the Knowledge especially of the Original Tongues And whatsoever may facilitate the lawful Employments of Men as Arithmetick Navigation and other Arts and Manufactures not properly serving the bare Lust but the true advantage and lawful comfort and conveniency of the rational Creature Which curious Manufactures and ingenious Arts were used at the making of the Mosaical Tabernacle and Solomon's Temple in the fitting and adorning of it for that use for which it was intended of God Having weighed the lawfulness of the forementioned Particulars among which one of those Cases do at present more than the rest concern my own Consideration and further Enquiry and therefore I would next consider how a natural or civil lawful Action may be done lawfully so as not to prejudice the inward Man by grieving the Spirit in the manner of a Man's labour care pains diligence or study or in his utmost end and design therein A right spiritual End in natural and moral Actions lies in these respects 1. When I serve the Will of God intentionally in obeying that Law of Nature as in Eating Drinking Physick Cloathing Sleep which God has subjected me to 1 Tim. 4. 3 4. 1 Cor. 10. 31. 2. When I design more Serviceableness to the Will and Glory of God by my Health Estate Credit and Endowment of Mind than I could attain unto without those Means Prov. 3. 9. 3. When the Will and Glory of God is so far the Soul of my natural and civil Actions and Designs that my delight doth not terminate in the thing done or enjoyed but passing through them takes up its rest in the enjoying pleasing and serving God therein 1 Chron. 29. 9. For the better regulating the Mind in such Actions and Labours in pursuance of a right End consider these Rules and Helps Consider 1. A Christian Life lies in Union with Christ and not in any of the things or Enjoyments here below 2. They are such things and Enjoyments which the Enemies of God may be employed in and possessed of in this World as well as the Servants of God And therefore that such common work may be done spiritually 1. Sanctifie it by Prayer 1 Tim. 4. 5. Ruth 2. 4. 2. Lean on God by Faith for such Abilities
of Body or Mind as are suitable to such work 3. Let not the Thoughts be inrodinately devoured in it and to that end 4. Force the heart to read and meditate the Scriptures with more seriousness and labour for an inward value thereof above any other labour or study 5. Judge not any useful Labour Work or Study to be materially evil because your inordinate Affection about it is sinful but rather regulate your desires to Moderation and a right end in what you do 6. Be contented in the measure of your Attainment 7. View the excellency of God in Christ appearing in all created Skill Excellency and Worth Strive to wind up your heart by Creature-Excellencies instantly to a more actual Enjoyment of them as his Gift only and so to himself as the Fountain of Perfection Thus have I been wrestling with a Monster bred in my own Bowels but O Captain of my Salvation breath Truth Faith Vertue and Blessing upon these Meditations or else all my labour is lost and my enquiry into my disease spent in vain Every good and perfect Gift comes down from above and therefore my eyes are to the Hills from whence comes my help Let not the Poor return ashamed of his Hope I leave my Success upon thy hands who hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth And seeing a gracious God hath favoured me thus far to drill me along sometimes wooing sometimes reproving sometimes comforting and confirming me in the various roulings of my heart in these Meditations from time to time I would now lean upon him to make good all the movings of his Spirit in my heart and issue forth from himself through Christ by his Spirit a suitable Supply according as my daily need and proneness to decay doth require that it may be evidenced to my Soul that these Meditations how much frailty soever I have been laden with under them were not meer Humane Labour and Invention but that the Breath of the Holy Spirit hath been in some true measure present And therefore O thou who art the God of all my Hope be pleased to cause all that love to and desire after pure Union and Fellowship with thee in Christ which hath been at any time working towards thee in any of these Meditations and at any other time to be purged from my personal Guilt that cleaves to the best thing which I do And vouchsafe a Return of my desires from the Throne of Grace as far as any exercise of Spirit in me hath been acceptable in thy sight through my dear Redeemer That whether I sleep or wake the groanings of thy Spirit may be acceptable before thee day and night and though my heart be vile yet let it still be as a Garden watered by thy hand a Soul which the Lord careth for Bring me through the great Waters that one day I may be utterly and eternally delivered from every evil work inward and outward and purely serve love and glorifie thee being presented spotless through Christ among that glorious Host of the Spirits of just Men made perfect LETTERS 1638. To D. B. N o 1. YOur Letter I very gladly received and 't is no small delight to me to see that your eyes are towards Heaven and your desires to the fear of your Maker Before I was hopeful but now I am confident And being the beautiful Light of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ hath enlightned your Soul and purified your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God seeing 't is thus fear not only be strong Be thrifty of your time exact in your course spiritual in your aim bearing about an undaunted Triumph in believing One thing among the rest not unneedful I must advise you that you set your self to pluck up your Spirits and be of a lively heart getting what necessary insight into the World you can that you may the better get within the humours of all people to understand the better how to carry your self in what condition of life soever you shall be in to your own comfort and the shunning of unnecessary Reproach or Contempt but contrarily Credit and Esteem of all even of them that are without The Exercise of Worldly Wisdom Policy Skill and utmost Endeavour must be used albeit not depended on nor the Corruptions of the World practised Something I do the rather write this way as conceiving some other Course of Life will befall you ere long than at present you are in yet still keep close to Almighty God and whereas others in their Course on Earth and creditable Conversation here do sacrifice to their Wits Boldness Contrivance and the like do you endeavour and pray that you may sacrifice to the Will Wisdom and Assistance of God in Heaven made over to you in the Merits of Christ undoubtedly The Lord be with us and grant us unearthly Hearts and Conversations whatever may hereafter betide us There is no Rock like our Rock no God like our God to him I commit my self and you for an everlasting Support 1639. To D. B. N o 2. HAving such an opportunity I could not but write you a few Lines and all that I have to say is Cast your self upon God in Jesus Christ Eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud Be with him upon the Cross be with him ascended into Heaven by the one to be discharged from the Clamours of the Law and the Guiltiness of Conscience by the other to triumph in Assurance of Victory over Sin and Sorrow This Implanting into the Son is by Faith this Life of Faith is fed by Meditation of the Mystery with Prayer and attentive Reading and Hearing with good Conference with experienced Believers and Use of the Sacraments These things I believe your heart doth ponder but we are bound to put one another in mind And next seek and strive in your Service to be laborious faithful discreet separate not the Service of Christ from the Service of your Master serve one in the other strive mightily to temper them well one with the other and then what you put your hand unto do it with all your might c. 1646. To B. J. D N o 3. I Know you are under great Suffering and what word of Comfort or Counsel to write to you I know not only this that it is of the Lord as Jonah was not to be angry you are not to be tortured with Grief That one that two Gourds are withered together Morality and Reason do plead for Patience and Content but your interest in the Maker and Heir of all things may truly argue it much more He that gave you them at first has now called them away The Giver lives though the Gift be withdrawn The Comforter is the same and the substance though the Comfort be removed and the Leaves fallen Haply your thoughts are Where are they Whither gone At rest or not Consider whose eye saw them before they were formed in the Womb the everlasting Decree had disposed of them
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
continue at present in this place waiting the issue of things which the Lord direct and over-rule to the best In the midst of all these weighty Providences and rolling Waves 't is good to look well to our Anchor and to be securing the main Uncertain Peace uncertain created Comfort uncertain Life do require us to lean but gently upon such things and to grasp after an Inheritance a Life a Portion which fadeth not a Country where neither Sighs nor Groans nor Sins have any place If great Shakings cannot throughly awake 't is a sign the Drowziness is very great if not deadly 'T is good to be very busie when the Inch of Candle is near at an end The Lord teach us heartily to improve our present Minute and enter into the Ark before the Flood come c. 1660. To M. N. N o 51. I Having had some opportunity to discern the frame of your heart and the truth of your Thirst after Jesus Christ and Resignation up to him I thought fit while I was writing to other Friends at N. C. to present you also a Line or two 'T is but a little that one Friend can write to another but where there is a mutual Interest in the same Spirit there is a Freedom through that Communion to expatiate large and wide in one anothers joynt Concernments and to bear a sence of the various Travels of the inward Man and how it is exercised in you who are begotten of the same God and Father and nourished by the same Spirit in Jesus Christ And in this respect one Christian may in some measure read the Condition and Affairs of another in his own Experience though the manner of Trials may be different The most that I would say to you is this Labour to satisfie your heart against Guilt by the personal Righteousness and Worth of Christ which you are commanded to own and put on by believing as a Garment made and appointed of God for your wearing fixing your eye on his Appointment and not upon your Unsuitableness on his Grace and not at all on your own Worthiness unless it be to urge you towards him with the more speed and resolution This is a Lesson I am every day learning and I know no shelter like it The Improvement of the Covenant of Grace in this manner was to the Prophet David all his Salvation and all his desire This is the Shelter that will keep dry when the Floods come This will make a Soul out-face Terror and give an Answer to turmoiling Accusations This will make the Lame to leap as a Hart and the Dumb to sing when Woes do over-spread the Earth I recommend you to this Sanctuary c. 1661. To D. H. N o 52. I Perceive my Aunt hath had her Weakness returned upon her such is the Constitution of this Clayey Lump But what a wonder is it that a Treasure of Grace and eternal Life should ever dwell through all the days of our Sin Trouble and Vanity in such a Tabernacle and that the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Grace Holiness and Glory should never cease striving in the midst of all that Opposition and course Entertainment on our part and never give over till our Sins be utterly and for ever extinguished and Mortality swallowed up of Life and so these vile Bodies and polluted Souls made conformable to our Redeemer and the eternal Companions of his Bosom Let us fix our eye there and we shall be always projecting for him and never discontented with our Travel though we rid but little Ground Let us prize him and love him and all his Rules and Orders himself in the first place and all the rest for his sake only And that makes our work our delight not our toil and vexation for there is no want of help either for Strength or Pardon or both He takes Sinners to himself that he may spend Intimacy of Good Will upon them and never lets them go quite out of his hands any more Oh how little do we know him How little do we remember that every Conviction we have had every Groan every desire of Soul after him was born first in his heart and given to us as the new Creatures Food to ripen it for Glory We breath towards him in the strength of his own Breath We may be yet much more winnowed but cannot be lost nor our Faith quite fail because he prays for us as never meer Man did His Prayers cannot but speed for the Will of the Father Son and Spirit is one Will for they are one God and that Will is nothing but good Will to us who hope in him and catch hold of his free Covenantgood-Will to Men. I have now lately News out of the North that my dear Brother D. is departed out of this World How should these things make us love to be trading for that Country where all our best Friends go and not think it much that this World yields so many sorrowful bits because God never appointed it for our abiding place but only that we may hear his Voice and be contracted to him while we are below in order to the consummating the Marriage above The Lord make us chearfully serious in the business of our day while it lasteth to prepare to lanch forth when our Lord shall call Blessed are they who watch c. 1661. To D. A. N o 53. WHat God speaks in his Word we may take for our comfort to carry us through the Myre till we land beyond Sin and Pain The Salvation of such poor Sinners as you and I was and is the delight of the blessed Trinity The Father did in his Grace and Love elect the Son delighted to come and do the Father's Will in Redeeming the Holy Spirit loves to apply it and therefore is called the Comforter the Angels rejoyce that good Will from God is come to Men. If God say you must go to the Top of the Mount and die set your face towards him who has died before you to bring you through Fly to the meer Grace and Love of the glorious God that has designed Pardon and Righteousness for poor Sinners for his own sake in the Person of his own Son If he say you must lanch forth roll upon the Rock of Ages alone The wearier you are of your Sins the more welcome to a Saviour The wearier you are of your pains and burthens the sweeter will be the Bosom of an indulgent Father when you arrive at your Father's House The whole Race of the Residue of the Redeemed are your Fellow-travellers The whole Trinity is on your side the Scriptures on your side the eternal Covenant of Grace on your side while you bow your head and lean only on your beloved Redeemer Look up to him and fear not your passage I leave you to the Arms of endless Care Counsel Comfort Strength and Pity c. 1661. To D. H. N o 54. OUr work in this World is only to follow
Sun and therefore poor Worms are never undone though never so low Could I more actually resign up to his Will and read that Golden Line of his Love that runs within every Providence of his and in every part of his Discipline and put my Seal to it how might I triumph and say O Sin where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Death He dasheth earthly Comforts that himself might comfort alone he suffers Corruption to swell and rage that he may appear to be the only mighty Redeemer he glorifies the Excellency of his Word by forcing the Soul thither for Refuge Brother let us be flying into this Ark his Word endures to a thousand Generations we have the same God and no other than what Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses David and Paul had He never left a poor Supplicant nor will do it for the Spirit of Supplication is his own Breath and himself deeply concerned in all the Concernments of his People they are his and their Concernments his also Let us muse this Privilege seriously and glorifie his good Will by Faith and Thankfulness and so rejoyce in believing above hope The Lord be a hiding place to you and me never yield to let him go but let us cling fast by Faith and Hope till he cause Salvation and Light to shine forth out of Obscurity and Comfort all that mourn Glorifie God by Faith Patience and Thankfulness lose not that and you will be no loser though the day be dark the Sun is not down The times of refreshing will come to us and we to them for our Redeemer lives for ever I leave you to that God and remain c. 1661. To S. D. N o 60. THat 's the happiest Man or Woman in the World that can truly hear the voice of God in his Rod. That happy profit I press and long for and that happiness I heartily wish to your self and my Brother that as God hath made you Partners in Affliction you would endeavour to the utmost to support each others Faith and holy Patience in a stormy day Afflictions be they what they will can never make you miserable Nothing makes the Rod tedious but unwarrantable vexations of Spirit and in days of trouble that is the usual Temptation and there is no such Cure as the naked sight of God's wise disposing hand If there have been any misgiving thoughts between you about future Concernments relating to your selves and your Children as under such Surges you have met withal our frailty is very apt unto spread that infirmity before the Lord who is abundant in Pardon Mercy and Truth who can spare the Lives of the rest if he please and will not suffer the Seed of his Servants to be desolate All the Scriptures be full of Counsel and infallible grounds of Consolation yet such is our Carnality Darkness and Unbelief many times that we think the Rock cannot yield Honey and so we gage things by fleshly and worldly Observation and are apt secretly to condemn the Wisdom Goodness and Faithfulness of God before we are aware whereas the only way to find the Pearl of real advantage in the blessed Word is to lay the heart to the Word by an exercise of Faith and then roll the Soul upon the Lord though it seems to be never so much against that Sense and Reason which Flesh and Blood is always dictating to us Dear Sister I must confess I travel under a treacherous heart of mine own which is ever betraying away my Peace my Strength my Faith and Hope and that is my daily burthen but I never come before the Lord with any openness and unfeigned Resignation to him for Pardon and Succour in vain I am somewhat a Partner with you in the Temptations and Waves of a present World but cannot call it dismal so long as God doth in some measure steer my Course in any sincerity after him Let us provoke one another to this and the Storm will be over the day will break and the darksome shadows will flee away or we shall flee through or flee beyond them for faithful is he that hath promised 1661. To J. L. N o 61. IT is good to mind our Interest in Christ seriously where-ever we are that when-ever we step out of this World we may step into a better in which dwells none but righteous Inhabitants and righteous things And were it not for this hope how miserable a life would Christianity be but one foretaste of Christ makes a dismal World pleasant That made Paul and Silas sing in their Bonds and John to be ravished in the Spirit in the Isle of Patmos and truly nothing else can do it 'T is our happiness that things which are seen are only temporal but things unseen are eternal I oft think of the comfortable society I had once with you but the Kernel of that which made Society then comfortable lies still safe so long as that Promise holds Loe I am with you alway even to the end of the World I recommend you into the hands of that precious Friend and remain c. 1661. To D. S. N o 62. LEt it be your and my study still to derive mortifying Power from the Grace and Cross of him who was dead and is alive I mean the Lamb who stands before the Throne in the vertue of his own Sacrifice Rev. 5. 6. perpetually to intercede for effectuating all the ends of his Mediation to them who come to God through him Our Prayers winged with faith in Christ and fellow-feeling one of another's troubles may fly faster than Letters can and there is no fear of their miscarriage if once placed by faith in the Mediator's hand The Lord who dwells in Houses not made with hands is the Habitation of his People Let the fulness of all manner of Contentment that is on the other side Jordan so warm our hope and faith that nothing on this side may discompose And Oh that I could dwell more in the view of him who is lifted up to draw all Men to him that so these earthly Affections might be transformed and fetch satiating delight from the place where Christ sits who is even now our life I commend you to him at his Throne let us meet and make merry in the Author of Consolation and our blessed Hope 1662. To D. H. N o 63. TRuly Sister I do sometimes wonder at the sottishness of my heart that can be so affected with the Christian tender Respects of a dear Friend and yet have no more flames of Affection to the Fountain of all Love and Loveliness Methinks nothing makes any Friend truly excellent in my thoughts but Grace and the Inhabitation of Christ there And if a Beam of his Grace creates a delightful Aspect where-ever it pitches how excellent for Perfection is Jesus Christ himself Sometimes our hearts are apt to fancy Christ as if he were humoursome revengeful as if he would make the worst of things and not the better sometimes
sweetly through all difficulties and procure a Blessing to your self and your Affairs and be the best Foundation of Hope and Comfort when and where-ever the Lord shall period your days which is my earnest desire and Prayer on your behalf 1672. To C. J. D. N o 112. I Must now acquaint you that I received News from the East-Indies that doth not a little affect me that God has been pleased to remove my Cousin your dear Husband out of this World who finished his days the fifth of September last and his death lamented by those that knew him I am sorry that this Letter must be the Messenger of those sad Tidings unto you but God is wise and we are to submit to his holy Will and Pleasure It was surprizing News to me The Lord support your heart under this Affliction and teach you his Will and provide for you and yours I cannot enlarge at this present for every word I write about it makes my heart to ake the Lord grant you patience to whose Care and Teaching I desire to commend you c. 1672. To B. J. D. N o 113. I Am glad to hear that you are in health which the Lord continue with the Addition of the highest Blessing That spiritual Endowment and that Interest in Christ that saving and powerful work of Grace and that activity for God in the ways and power of Godliness and that exemplary patern of Holiness in your Walk which can only render long Life a Blessing and truly make an hour of dissolution sweet and the consideration of that great day of our Appearance to be pleasant and upon safe Grounds desirable That famous and laborious Minister Mr. Joseph Carrill your ancient Friend and Companion is departed this Life aged about seventy one years his death greatly lamented by the People of God throughout this City About the beginning of his Sickness I was with him and he enquired concerning you as he was wont to do and perceiving him to be somewhat weak though he did not then keep his Chamber I desired him while he was yet alive to pray for you which motion he chearfully and readily embraced And coming to him again about three days before his death found him very weak and past hope of life he then told me as well as I could understand him for his Speech was low that he had remembred his Promise to me concerning you I think good to mention this particular passage to provoke you to all seriousness in reference to your own Soul whose eternal welfare lay so much upon the heart of this Servant of Christ His Labours were great his Studies incessant his Conversation unspotted his Sincerity Faith Zeal and Wisdom gave a fragrant smell among the Churches and Servants of Christ His Sickness though painful born with patience and joy in believing and so he parted from Time to Eternity under full Sail of desire and joy in the Holy Spirit He lived his own Sermons he did at last desire his Friends to forbear speaking to him that so he might retire himself which time they perceived he spent in Prayer oftentimes lifting up his hands a little and at length his Friends seeing not his hand to move drew near and perceived he was silently departed from them leaving many mournful hearts behind And now dear Brother Oh that this may be an exciting motive to you and I to redeem the time which the Catterpillers have eaten that we be not found unready And if ever you expect to be a Companion again with Mr. Carrill break off from all such Company which were not his delight Concern your self to make a fresh and through Surrender to God in your old Age. Beg I beseech you beg such a Convincing impartial heart-breaking sight of your sins in Youth and old Age that may force you to Christ for Refuge while he may be found and beg his Spirit that you may glorifie him on Earth the few days that yet remain as signally as ever you have dishonoured him What a joy will it be to this glorified Saint Mr. Carrill at the last day to see that his Prayers for you have prevailed Dear Brother I pray excuse my earnestness in what I have written It may be you and I may never see each other in this World you are much upon my heart I mean as to your eternal Estate and glad I should be to hear of some eminent Change as to Soul-Concernments before either I hear of yours or you hear of my lanching forth into vast Eternity where there can be no more Changes and the hour is near in which the eye that hath seen you shall see you no more As the Tree falls so shall it lie the eternal Judgment follows Death at the Heels I can say no more it must be Divine Power and Grace that must set the Wheels a going if ever they move And therefore whilst I am in this World I hope I shall not cease to pray for you whilst you are in this World also for our Prayers cannot reach beyond the Grave Dear Brother farewel yea fare better and better till you fare best of all c. 1673. To F. H. N o 114. I And you are creeping towards our last Change the thoughts of which can be no farther comfortable to us than we have obtained some good hope through Grace that we are united to Christ our sins forgiven for his sake and that we are accepted and beloved of God in him and all this evidenced to our own hearts by the witness and the renewing vertue of his own Spirit all which requires a necessity of being convinced of our own vileness by sin and that we go out of our selves and humbly lay hold on Christ by Faith that when we die and remove from hence having lived on him and unto him here we may live in him and with him for ever Our Friends here are generally in health and none of them without their Cares in reference to the difficulties that do attend this present State and Pilgrimage some in one kind some in another Oh that God and Christ and the Riches of his Grace revealed by his Spirit in the Word may be the more sweet to the Soul I shall only say the Lord direct your feet in the Paths of Life and crown your old Age with a saving Knowledge of Christ with a through Conviction of your Sin of Nature and Life and guide you to him as your only Refuge to glorifie his Grace while you live and rest in his Peace when you shall be here no more c. 1673. To P. D. N o 115. I Am glad to understand by your Letter that your Family is in health and that the Lord is pleased to keep your eye directed to him in your outward Affairs with a savoury sense of all the spiritual Enjoyments you lie under longing after suitableness to them and an increased value of them Real Thankfulness for them doth much consist in such kind of
Grace and Favour and the Consolation of his Spirit I commit you and rest c. 1674. To E. D. N o 120. LEt your Consideration feed on the quickning Truths of the Gospel flying to and relying on Christ who is the Arm of the Lord rejoycing in him who requires you to cast every depressing burthen from your self upon him that is true Gospel-Method and you shall not be disappointed Faithful is God who hath called you into the Fellowship of his dear Son and thereby you have ground of Boldness to enter in within the Vail and he has promised you shall never be cast out for your Iniquities he will remember them no more and though the Cross be somewhat difficult to bear yet the Reserve at last will fully recompence all and therefore lift up your head for Redemption is coming We are troubled at the Troubles the Churches meet with in and elsewhere 'T is a sad day when the Word of Salvation comes to be suppressed by Souls that must perish without it Our business is chearfully and humbly to prepare for greater Shocks Nearness to God in Christ is the safest and sweetest Sanctuary 1675. To E. D. N o 121. I Have not received any Letter from you for divers Weeks which is not a little afflictive You are upon our hearts and we cease not the particular mention of you in our Prayers Sometimes I fear your Body lies under such extremity that you cannot write and sometimes I am willing to relieve my thoughts by supposing if it were so I might at least have a Letter from S. H. But though I know not your present Case yet I know my God and your God has you under his own Love and Care His great design for his own Glory and your and my Good is to instruct us and lead us into the Life of Resignation and Dependance singly and fully upon himself saving Light Faith and Truth is the very Lesson he is calling upon me and drawing me to own and Oh for some good Proficiency in this Learning nothing so sweet nothing so secure and nothing so compleatly advantagious I left the Lady J. this Afternoon very near in appearance to a Dissolution and A. P. breathing and waiting for her Change Happy Souls who chuse that part that shall never be taken away but abide through Death unto Life in Perfection c. I doubt not where you are but you will have the good Presence of God that is both a Sun and a Shield and withal he will with-hold no good thing from you seeing he has given you to his Son and his Son to you who will cause you to have an upright scope towards the Law of that blessed Relation which is the Condition of that Promise To the Shadow of whose Wing I commend both you and my Sister longing to hear of her Recovery if the Lord please but she is in a Fathers hand and under her Fathers care and love in Sickness and Health living and dying nothing can come amiss to those that love him and sell themselves perfectly away to him as I am persuaded she has done and can rejoyce in that blessed Bargain A Contract made by and through Christ the faithful Witness and watchful prevalent Advocate and however outward Dispensations and Providences do work they will work together for good because his Love Mercy and Truth endureth for ever where the Eye of his Favour once fixeth he never takes it off the tokens of which Favour you have through his free Grace had some taste of that thereby you may be led and helped to hope perfectly to the end and humbly rejoyce in the Hope of the Glory of God in what method soever he is pleased to act in the way of his fatherly Discipline He is omnipotently universally and continually good in himself and in the Communications of his Goodness to his People waiting in him and trusting in him To him I commend you daily and with him I leave you c. 1675. To B. D. N o 122. IN my last I acquainted you of the weakness of my Daughter Elizabeth at which time she continued with an intermixing of Revivings now and then and much refreshment as to the state of her Soul and things eternal and in the Doctor 's Opinion in some good hope of Recovery until the 5th Instant December being the Sabbath Day and then the Doctors saw that the Lord had determined otherwise and that Evening he called her to himself The loss of whose Company is not only a piercing Affliction to my self c. but lamented by divers others who had experience of that worth which God himself had graciously beautified her Soul with He is most wise Oh that he would cause me distinctly to hear his Voice herein and to improve it to the utmost use he intends it for It is your own Affliction that you are by the Providence of God held there so long at that distance from us under so many Trials of your Faith and Patience on every hand which as the Lord is pleased to help I am with my weak measure often presenting before him that he would bear up your heart and assist you as he hath hitherto done to go through the residue of your Exercise in this Pilgrimage And commending you to his Grace Strength Counsel and Blessing I remain c. 1675. To M. D. N o 123. I Know you are with loving Friends and in the hands and care of a gracious Father Endeavour to refresh your Soul in the thoughts of him and his dear Son and in the Promise that all shall work together for good to you for he is faithful that promised and his ways have been and will be Mercy and Truth towards you Love him believe him and be careful in nothing but how to please him and say Shall not I drink of the Cup my Father gives c. Hitherto the Lord hath kept me and I want nothing more than his sanctifying and gracicious Presence with me all along Travelling work doth greatly disorder my thoughts as to that savoury Composedness which I long for My poor Soul greatly suffers by the toilsomness of Travel yet still The Lord is good and his Mercy endureth for ever 1676. To J. L. N o 124. Some years have now passed without the Intercourse of any Letter between us I should be glad our old Acquaintance might not quite die while we live and continue here How 't is with you I know not but for my own part I have and do pass my Pilgrimage here thorow a Thorny Wilderness of Cares Difficulties and Temptations all along and do expect no other till I leave my sinful Nature and a dark defiled World behind me for I have abundant daily proof that this lower State is not my Rest but I wait and hope for that Rest which remaineth I am stricken in Years being now in the 64th Year of my Age and through the Riches of free Grace and that alone sailing towards the end
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
terrible to me nor to any of the Race thou hast redeemed from Death Let the Agonies of Death be pleasing to me in Christ Oh the Dolour the unspeakable Anger of God we have not drank of it O the intollerable Wrath of God born by that Man meaning Jesus Christ O the woful Travel of Christ we have took up but a little of it and that hath made Repentance slight and holy Care trivial And now O Lord thou reckonest with me for undervaluing of that bloody Agony Lord forgive me my Guilt in this thing I have not been a Christian in earnest as I ought Oh he that made himself the bottom of all sorrow he suffered infinitely Oh such a Redeemer Oh such a Redeemer alas how unsuitable have I been to him Lord pardon my unsuitableness I have been as a Beast before thee I have not come up to answer the Call of that unutterable Grace And now O Lord I cannot stand in the Battel I cannot now the Arrows of Death stick in my Flesh and I cannot bear it without great Concussions of Soul within me But O! O! O thou who art the God of all Grace who art got upon the Kingdom of Grace and art the Head of that Kingdom wilt thou now shew thy Glory Make Death sweet make the Tendencies to Death sweet make every step to Deliverance a pleasing step O my God Save thy Worm save thy Worm O my God according to thy Promises made to Jacob I hearken what the Lord will say he will speak Peace in the Blood of Jesus Sustain me O Lord sustain me Thou art my Friend as thou spakest to Abraham thou art my Friend Dost thou love me Dost thou at this time love me with thy whole heart and with thy whole Soul Dost thou love me more than my nearest and dearest Friends Than those intimate Relations here that continue with me in my Tribulation With a more inward intense Love with an Infiniteness beyond all these Lord let me know that thou lovest me in very Deed let me know that thou knowest me by Name let me know that thou hast an eye upon me more than Doctors and Friends let me know that every Act of thine towards me is the effect of thy Love Love me Oh now with thy whole heart Oh make me to believe it Help me to apprehend that thou dost take notice of me and art with me every Moment with me as to my present Case and Concernment 'T is dead Friendship when Friends cannot hear nor see one another but sure there is another Friendship between thee and thine and thou standest in Relations to them Art not thou my Father Hath not the Church said so Lord thou art our Father Thou art my Husband my Brother my Friend and art not ashamed to be called my Brother Oh wonderful Thou begattest me I am born of thee Lord what shall I do with the great things of the Gospel if thou dost not give forth the Spirit of Faith O Lord wilt thou who art Truth who art Life who art certain wilt thou take the great work of my practical Religion upon thee Thou canst make it to be in Power and Truth unto me as may answer the very design thou aimest at I have been praying through the days of thy drawing me after thee O Lord I would come to that kind of praying while I am here in the World as might be a lovely Copy of that praying of that Converse that will be with thee in Heaven Will Prayer altogether cease in Heaven No surely Lord glorifie thy self glorifie thy self glorified be God Oh Oh that the very Life and Soul of that state then may now be begun Oh that I might hasten to that state Thou detainest me here in thy Wisdom I would go unto thee and into that Life which will most glorifie thee eternally I would go where Life is and no Death I would go where the fullest expressions of the power of Grace overcoming Sinners may be patent and manifest in me even in me who am a poor Mortal There be many things that I have found here that are Likenesses to pure Likeness to thee and here I have lost wofully my way Lord open it The heart is deceitful above all things and it will have its working one way or other but Lord I would go where there is Purity I would go where there is Purity without Impurity I would be with thee Lord for then I can speak to thee in thine own Language better At about Two of the Clock that day in the Afternoon he further extended his Speech as followeth The old World will be the old World still it will remain to Eternity it will be only translated from hence where it received its Curse to Hell to be in Chains of Darkness for ever but all the redeemed number shall be instated in their Palaces of Glory I am in the very Period of Wonders I am in the very Period of viewing Death and Life I am under some Sufferings and they shall be sweet And speaking to himself said Thou shalt lie down in thy Bed And then speaking to God Thou wilt not throw me into the Grave in Anger thou wilt put me into the Grave Thou wilt not say Sleep there in Death thou wilt say Sleep there a little till the Indignation be over-past till that is inflicted on thee for Sin which was pronounced and that that passed away from Christ shall pass from me Lord thou wilt not be unfaithful to thy Word God cannot lie God cannot forget to be gracious he cannot forget his own Work This is that God I desire to believe in and resolve eternally to cling upon with the Truth of my whole heart I have sinned and thou hast pardoned me and saved me with a high hand Help me in this hour take away my fears The last stroak that will be given will be by the Devil himself because it is his last Battel and thou wilt permit him but thou wilt bind him and when thou hast unclinch'd his hands he shall never clinch again He is that last Enemy from Conversion to Salvation Lord wilt thou who hast been destroying this Enmity all along now cause his Enmity to appear to be destroyed and turned into Powder and Rottenness O Have at it have at it I pray thee The strength the might the power of the Life of Sin and Darkness Lord thou didst promise to plague Antichrist for all the Plagues that he hath plagued thine O Lord do thou pour out thy Plagues upon him whilst thou dost sustain him to be fighting his last Battel Let him fight his Battel but let him O God drink of the Rivers of thy Wrath along with it Let the Weak overcome the Strong let thy People be Lyons but let the Devil be an enfeebled Enemy Serve thy self of all thy Instruments whatever they are Lord let them do thee the utmost Service of their Capacity Thy proper Instruments Oh make them glorious make them