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A32778
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Words in season useful for those whose hearts are engaged to serve the will of God in this generation / from Abraham Cheare.
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Cheare, Abraham, d. 1668.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing C3763; ESTC R24264
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172,885
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317
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not despise or neglect it but look on it as the Call of God to you and obey it accordingly To which that Friend replyed My weakness is sufficiently known to you my self and others for such a weighty service making me dread the thoughts of such an undertaking as at present furnisht yet I hope I shall carefully mind what the Lord may speak to me in future as also what hint you have now given about it to do therein as God shall direct After this discourse ended he further said He had been a poor staggering vain creature and since the time he came to this place and the Lord gave a little recovery he had not so improved it as became him he earnestly wisht he could write a little that he might leave a witness against it Saying also Ah! I have many things in Short-hand that none can read but my self by which means they will be lost Then added I have a poor Sister an honest affectionate soul who I desire you will do what you can to comfort support and strengthen according to that counsel 1 Thess 5.14 Now we exhort you Brethren warn them that are unruly comfort the feeble-minded support the weak be patient towards all men And desired we would sometimes speak a word in season to her And further said as to the Church in Plymouth wherein he had laboured he designed to serve the Lord in it and to gather souls to Christ and had now the witness of a good Conscience in that matter that he had not wilfully omitted or dealt negligently in that Work in the main of it as opportunity presented and blest the Lord that since his Imprisonment he had heard of six or seven of that Church that had gone triumphing to Heaven before him Then speaking of Christians Sufferings he minded that word 1 Pet. 4.16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian c. He minded what a blessed thing it was to suffer as a Christian viz. To begin hold on hold out and at last come off as a Christian It was a great Word and Work and speaking of his pains he had on his outward-man yet blessed God There was no sorrow added nor no sting in them that was stuck in the sides of Christ blessed be his Name A Friend asking how he did Never better in my life said he blessed be God One asked him whether he would have any Cordial He said Yes may it be an instrument on Gods behalf to recover a little strength before I go hence and be seen no more to speak yet a word for God else tel me of no more Cordials for I drink full draughts One giving him a little he drank and said I am made to drink of the best spiced Wine the Wine of the Pomegranate his Love is better than Wine I am drinking of a Vineyard not a drop of red Wine blessed be God the Day I think is come I shall be led to the Fountain of Living Water and shall hunger nor thirst no more And added The Wine that is red might have been my Portion even fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest might have been the portion of my Cup. Oh! if Jacob's heart revived to see the Chariots to carry him to Joseph in Egypt How should my Soul revive in me to see my God's Chariots of Salvation to carry me to see him not in Egypt nor Earthly but Heavenly Canaan Then he fetch'd a sigh saying I sigh but am not sad Then applying himself to speak to Friends about him he said And to you that are troubled rest with me there is prepared for you shortly One telling him he spent himself he said He would gladly spend and be spent for Christ yet would not make undue haste to Heaven till his Beloved pleased yet I would bid my Friends Farewel remembring Elijah threw his Mantle on Elisha at parting and though I cannot yet say whether it be finally farewel Paul bid the Romans farewel often but I can bid you heartily farewel blessedly farewel Then added I have one word for Sion I have been oft refresht in thoughts of old Jacob as I mentioned but now how he revived and said Joseph is yet alive I will go down and see him before I die But yet before he comes out of Canaan he is at a stand and God must be sought to know his mind Gen. 46.4 God assures him he would go with him into Egypt and would surely bring him up thence and yet Jacob must die there I have thought how can this word be true and have been answered it was true to Jacob collectively though not personally considered his seed and with them him also dead or alive must be brought up with them in the time appointed and though Jacob's life indeed is took off in somewhat an unexpected time and way yet his Faith is kept up so as he gives charge in that matter ere he dies that his bones should be carried up with them and so gives testimony to the Truth of God in that case and the like doth Joseph Oh Friend God hath brought us down unto Egypt it may be where we would not have gone he hath indeed let us go in the beginning of our way where we would and we then went under full gales like to them Exod. 15.14 to 18. saying We shall come up out of Egypt it may be pitching it too personally as to us for whether we in our persons shall be brought from Bashan and the depths of the Sea may yet be a question but if we be indeed the seed of Jacob that seek him and his face we shall then most certainly be brought up dead or alive out of Egypt let 's endeavour to keep up Faith in that There is a Cause God hath stretched out his hand to own amongst us though men may be divided about it what it is some say it consists in Stating and Asserting our Rights against Oppressours but I take it to be such a Testimony to Christ's Kingdom that few will espouse but such as love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Though as to out-works they must be owned as works of wonder but the inward-part is the main thing even to bring forth Judgement and Truth into Power and Practice so as all the upright in heart shall follow it this even this shall be so brought out and lifted up over the heads of all oppositions and oppressors but God hath much of this kind yet to bring forth in the hearts of his own Children But Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee One asked him Will you have some refreshing I have refreshing saies he the world knows not of and Strangers cannot intermeddle with His Sister desired he would take rest He answered Christ's Disciples said of Lazarus Joh. 11. If he sleep he shall do well speaking it of natural sleep but to sleep in Jesus as those that God will bring again with him is much better Adding It was a sweet resolve of Hezekiah's broken
words Isa 38. when he had spoken hard words of God not becoming a man of his acquaintance with divine dispensations when he sayes What shall I say he hath spoken and himself hath done it I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul vers 15. Yet recollects himself vers 16. O Lord by these things men live and in all these things is the life of my spirit so wilt thou recover me and make me to live So I have a word or hint sometimes as if the Lord would say Eat a little and drink a little as if he might have some little further work for me but then old pains and not old clearness again at other seasons making me see and say Oh! how hard a thing is it to keep an even hand with God in his various dispensations So foolish was I and ignorant as that good man once said Psal 37. Sometimes as a man then as a Beast c. but 't is good for me to draw near unto God and to say though he kill me yet I will trust in him But it pleased the Lord though by very undiscernable degrees after keeping his Chamber three quarters of a year to give him a Recovery for some season after which being seized with Sickness which continued to the finishing of his dayes the following being but few of many worthy occasional sayings of his were by the same Friend carefully treasured up Being asked by a Friend Is all well within He answered All 's well there blessed be God my God the high rock of my salvation my soul hath trusted in him and shall not be ashamed His Sister discovering something of impatience at the stroak upon him threatning his dissolution he earnestly reproved her saying Oh! be more a Woman be more a Christian Is this what you told me yesterday Being then asked by a Friend Have you ought to say to us before you leave us He replied O love the Lord all ye his Saints when and wheresoever he calls to follow go after him yea though he kill you yet love him still trust him still One saying to him Yea worthy is the Lamb to receive Glory Honour Obedience and Service from all his Saints He replied He is worthy indeed for he hath redeemed me by his blood blessed be God he is my God he is my God And then said The Lord hath strangely raised me and called me to put on a very high Profession and carried me more strangely through it to this hour though it may seem to be but a poor thing in its self considered yet the Lord hath had a care of such a poor worm and hath not left me shamefully to forsake him nor hath hitherto forsaken me and blessed be my God that hath brought me into bonds for his Names sake in this day this honour have not all his Saints though they be a People near unto him but Oh! the crowning Mercy is this that I can behold my Father's face with joy and can say in some measure I have finished the work thou gavest me to do and now holy Father I come to thee I have heretofore given some account of my self to you as you may remember as to those remarkable Passages of my Life both as a Christian a Minister a Sufferer This last I am now come to put a Seal to as they have been Sufferings for Christ's Cause an◠Kingdom as God hath given him to be Head over al things to the Church which is his Body and indeed 〈◊〉 he hath appointed me sufferings for his Names sake so I must say to his praise he hath so far restraine◠mens wrath as he hath made Enemies to be at peac◠with me and friendly to me this I would comment to you my dear Friends as an Argument for ever to trust in God There is also some thing I have been under from his own hand that hath been with great pain upon me as you have been Witnesses and my sorrows here have been oft-times greater than my groanings and this last hath been well nigh oversetting at some seasons insomuch as I thought it was impossible to have born the torments laid on my poor flesh but now I see nothing is too hard for God sometimes to lay on his own Children or for his Power to bear them up under His Sister tells him You spend your self in speaking He answers Let me speak that I may be refreshed It is refreshing to me to speak of what God hath made sweet to me Then he calls for a little Julip to drink a Friend sayes to him It will be hut a little while and you will thirst no more He replyes Ah blessed are they that eat Bread in the Kingdom of our Lord and drink Wines there he will lead them by Rivers and Fountains of Living waters where they shall thirst no more and he will wipe away all tears from their eyes His Sister desired to know how he was satisfied as to his coming hither she having been the occasion as she judged of his coming from Exon to Plymouth and consequently of his coming hither He answered Very well satisfied all have been steps of divine ordering I would not have come from Exon might I have had my own will I would not have stayed in Plymouth after I had Preached once but God would have me stay I would not have come to this place after my time of suffering was out in the Town-Hall at Plymouth if I might have had my own will but God would bring me hither and blessed be the Lord that let me not have my own will blessed be God that brought me here and blest me here with desirable Company and Mercies concerning which we have had occasions and seasons to speak well of God together yea since I have been brought here and sick here yet the steps of God have been in great wisdom with me and the bottom of them all paved with Love in the main of his goings in these dark and heavy stroakes I say in the main of them they have been attended with peace to my soul I have had Old Wine or New afforded still sometimes he hath said the Old is better and hath made ancient experiences of his Love sweet to me yet not alwayes alike clear sometimes he hath seen good to cut short within and without and this last tryal to deal plainly came on in somewhat a cloud at its entrance I was somewhat stupid thinking no more in it than ordinary but I was at last awakened by the Lord to think that this might be a long and close tryal and though he let me see the Anchor dropt within the Vail yet had I not that freshness of Evidence till within a few dayes last past when he called up my Spirit to a close search in a Night or two though I said but little of it but he graciously issued that matter in a token for good that whether I live or die I hope I shall wear to