my self withal Yet for all that I have not stood but faln in the Time of Trial and Temptation for after all those Thoughts and Purposes aforementioned when I have come into Company and amongst a mixt People I have put on again the same vain and worldly Conversation I have talked and had that which savours of Men and the Grace and Spirit of the Lord hath sensibly departed from me for a time and I have been weak and all one as another Man I wish I could here tell it weeping but it is a real grief of Soul when I throughly consider of it I my self have a great deal to answer and account for before God in that I have not at all times and in all places and in all Companies lived according to that Grace and Knowledge which God hath given me that at the very same time when I did know and approve of the things more excellent yet I did not follow them but rather I did the worse How many precious and seasonable Truths have I concealed and kept within when in Duty I ought to have spoken them out I speak all this to my shame and to my fault which should be amended But as I am declaring this unto ye remember that your Hearts be also upon the search and examination whether it hath not been so with ye likewise And I do therefore bring forth these Things unto ye because that it is good to know our Faults in order to amend them As also to put you in mind stir up and exhort ye And let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and good works Heb. 10.24 As it is commonly advised Be sure to keep be best Company which in the meaning of the World is the Richest But this is a false way of speaking for they are not the best as may be understood from the word of Truth and will be seen at the Judgment of the Great Day so I would recommend to ye to set before ye the very best Examples of all the very best Saints and Servants of God that are in the Town or Neighbourhood wherein ye inhabit and there try your best skill and use your utmost endeavour that as the other Disciple did out-run Peter So do thou use diligence and put forth all thy strength if thou canst out-run such an one in the Christian-race for if thou wouldst not upon a false Imagination or vain Hopes which are like the Dream of one that eateth and he awaketh and his Soul is empty but upon rational and assured grounds have God do more for thee in this World and in the World to come as to have a Benjamin's Mess or a double Portion of his Spirit or to be brought out of Trouble for so is the Promise to the Righteous when the Wicked are left therein then thou must exceed them also in Godliness which hath the promise of this Life and of that which is to come and in righteousness and holiness It is very well worth our while to strive to be utmost herein because that the future recompence of God will be proportioned out and it will be infinitely so much beyond all the Pain Uncouthness Labour Backwardness which was ever in any Act or Instance of well-doing Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account Heb. 13.17 These last words As they that must give account do not belong only to Magistrates Ministers and Preachers for it extends to all the People also for it should be a constant Rule which they should always bear in mind and have recourse unto in whatever they take in hand or in whatever their hands finds them to do To do it as ye that must give account And because this Judgment of God will reach to Thoughts and Words also therefore the same Rule should be exprest yet a little more comprehensively on this wise So think speak and do as ye that must give accovnt according to what is written and commanded by the Spirit So speak ye and so do as they that must be judged by the Law of Liebrty Jam. 2.12 As one saith Remember the End that is the last end of Things and thou shalt never do amiss So in thy Walking keep the Judgment of God always in thine eye and thou shalt never go much astray We know and are assured of it beforehand That when the Great Day of his Judgment is come we may have no Excuse or Plea that of this and of every day of our Life after we are come to the years of Discretion and to the Knowledge of Good and Evil we are not only in danger but we shall certainly be called to an account There is hardly any thing which is a greater Awe and Check to sin than a lively Faith of this future Judgment to have it continually before our eyes and to have our Thoughts and Apprehensions always upon it Jerom an antient Servant of the Lord did say of himself Whither I sleep or wake or whatever I do Methinks I hear that voice always sounding in my Ears Arise ye dead and come forth to judgment And truly if we did with the eye of Faith and with the eyes of our understanding being enlighmed Behold till the Thrones were cast down and the antient of days did sit whose Garment was white as Snow and the Hair of his Head like the pure Wooll his Throne was like the fiery stream and his wheels as burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The judgment was set and the Books were opened Dan. 7.9 10. Such a vision the Prophet then had and also John when he saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of Life and the Dead were judged out of those things which are written in the Books according to their works And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it and Death and Hell delivered up the Dead which were in them and they were judged every Man according to their works Rev. 20.12 13. Did we in the midst of Life see those things which we shall see when we are let forth into the Chambers of Death but yet more especially as we shall see when the Great day of his Judgment is come this would influence our whole Life and Conversation into the greatest Awe and Seriousness fear and trembling and watchfulness that can be If even a Sinner and an ungodly Man were to rise from the Dead and live over his past Life again he would be another kind of Man and even he would be perswaded unto God and good Things Nothing can be a more forcible consideration to make us to please God this little mean while and to endeavour to the utmost to be reconciled unto him then the knowledge how that we must
certainly come unto and appear before him It is the very same as to the compreheusiveness and extensiveness of the future Judgment For then God is Judge himself Selah Psal 50.6 And he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given Assnrance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the Dead Acts 17.31 When the Apostle Paul professes his Belief of the Resurrection of both the just and unjust He thereupon immediately adds Herein do I exercise my self to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man As Attorneys and Solicitors are now very diligent and industrious to get their Business Witnesses and Evidence all ready against the day of Assize or Nisi prius So we should prepare and make all things ready against that Day we shall be judged knowing by whom it must be And so to learn to behave and comport our selves that we may not be condemned when we shall be judged Psal 37.33 Others we read of who will be condemned when th y shall be judged Psal 109.7 It may be we have no Business at those Assizes which are holden twice a year but at this general Grave delivery which is kept once for all our dead Bodies shall arise and every one of us shall give account of himself to God Rom. 14.12 What a comfort will it then be as the same should be our care now to see well to it that our selves be acquitted out of that word whereby we shall be judged at the last Day And where we see our selves acquitted and cleared out of that same World there to endeavour to keep so keeping your selves in the love of God It is best not to defile our Garments at first which I gather from what is written Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their Garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy Rev. 3.4 But if they have been defiled by additional Sin and Transgression then what Pâ—ul writes unto the Christians of his Time is here proper and applicable And such were some of ye but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. â—1 That is ye are to get your Garments washed in the Blood of Jesus and in the sprinkling of the Spirit and when they are washed and made clean Isa 1.16 by the Word which proceeds forth through them there be sure to keep them clean We should copy out and follow the Example of Jesus Christ as near as ever we can Who went about doing good and suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this World 1 John 4.17 And so when as to all those Characters which we find recorded of him we can find somewhat thereof in our selves even of him that was holy harmless undefiled separated from sinners And so we read of the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ See well to it that all these and the like Qualities and Dispositions be wrought inlaid and formed within thee And so those fruits of the Spirit reckoned up in Gal. 5.22.23 Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance And besides this giving all diligence add to your Faith virtue and to Virtue knowledge and to Knowledge temperance and to Temperance patience and to Patience godliness and to Godliness Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Peâ— 1.5 6 7. For these also are Graces Gifts and Fruits of the Spinte and if we have these this is the earnest of the Spirit that we are indeed sealed unto the day of Redemption If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his So it follows likewise by the same consequence that if a Man have the Spirit of Chrish then he is Christ's and belongs to him and is one of his Members So that not only where he is there shall his Servant be But where the Head is there of necessity must be the Members because it is not whole and compleat without the Members The Scripture doth often make use of this Comparison How the people of God are one Body and Christ is their Head The Prophet Ezekiel speaks of a Roll of a Book And he spread it before me and it was written within and without and there was written therein Lamentation and Mourning and Wo. Ezek. 2.9 So should this same Bible the Book of the Lord both as it comprehends the old and New Testament be to each of us written within and without Written within that isi written in our hearts and engraven in our inward Parts when we can turn inwards and see how it is written there as well as look what is written without in Ink and Paper And whereas Ezekiel goes on to add Therein was written lamentation and mourning and wo. This is too true as to all the Children of Disobedience Unbelievers Hypocrites Sinners Wicked Ungodly and such like But to the willing and obedient to those who have begun or are perfecting the good work the same word speaks comfort and rejoycing and blessedness Some have called it Quakerism to speak of the Light within the Spirit within the Word within But in this thing those that are called Quakers have certainly spoken the thing that is right for as it is noted of the false Prophets They have not what should confirm the Word but as an evidence that they are true and right in this Thing I would to God they were so in all others we have the Scriptures expresly speaking the same After those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts Jer. 31.33 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you But this that follows is to our present purpose A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them Ezek. 30.25 26 27. That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Joh. 1.4 which it doth in his inward parts or within him Neither shall they say Lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you Luke 17.21 The Word is very nigh unto thee even in thy month and in thy heart Deat 30.14 Rom. 10.8 Indeed all true Religion is an inward Thing and an inward Work for outward Acts of Worship or Bodily Exercise are but the Husk or Shell for as the Soul
is within the Body so the substance or vital parts of Religion which is to the saving of the Soul is inward and invisible also Where any one or any sort of People speak according to the Scriptures of Truth there Truth from whencesoever it spring up is to be received and embraced But if it speaks not according to the Word there it is to be rejected and not admitted according to that spiritual Wisdom and Divine method of separating the Precious from the Vile and gathering the good Fishes into Vessels and casting the bad away When we see our selves already acquitted and cleared out of that Word whereby we must be judged at the last Day this must be a mighty Comfort and Assurance And that same Word having promised and annexed a Crown of Life unto Faithfulness to the Death Rev. 2.10 Therefore my beloved Brethren Be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 From all this put together will appear the Necessity of Persevering and continuing in the work of the Lord in order to have a well grounded hope evidence and assurance Right and Title to have this Crown of Life and to have our Labour in the Lord recompenced According as himself hath promised For thy works shall be rewarded saith the Lord. Jer. 31.16 There is no Point in Divinity more clear and certain and of more undoubted Truth than the necessity of Perseverance in order unto Salvation As also nothing is more put in mind of repeated and inculcated over and over in common Preaching for the abundant care and safety of Souls The same is also understood by common People whether learned oâ— unlearned He that knows any thing of God and Religion knows this also That if we would be saved it is necessary in order thereto to continue unto our Lives end in the Worship and Service of God in doing his Will and finishing his Work For He and he only that endures unto the End shall be saved Whosoever once puts his hand to this Plow and looks back he is not worthy of the Kingdom of God In those Scriptures which are given to make wise unto Salvation there are abundance of Truths and Affirmations to this purpose so that there is no need to cite or rehearse any more But yet there are several people who are for serving God for a spurt and for a season and they come to the Place of Hearing his Word for once and away I have told ye often this will not do A fit of Holiness for a season will not bring any one to Heaven But God who cannot lye hath promised to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2.7 Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. But that is such holiness as is ingrafted fixed constant and universal The Souldiers of the antient Roman Empire according to the Laws and Constitutions thereof were disbanded and dismissed from any further Service in the Military Employment after the fiftieth Year But the Souldiers of Jesus Christ are never disbanded or dismissed from his Service and if any should desert dismiss or disband themselves from his Service they lose their Crown and they become liable unto punishment We read of Mnason an old Disciple and those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old Age they shall be fat and flourishing Psal 92.13 14. As long as any of us have the knowledge of Good and Evil remaining with us we are to do the Good and eschew the Evil. As long as any one hath all his senses left as there is none who lives out all his five senses to discern between Good and Evil he is to do the first and leave the last undone according as he hath Power of Action The Soul thinks as long as ever it is in the Body and as long as one thinks his thoughts are to be bent and lifted up towards God and Goodness and Truth and not to admit of but cast out all such Evil and Vanity which would lodge or lurk there And this it signified and required by that great and Indispensable command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his holy name Psal 103. â—… So by all that is within us and to our very utmost God is to be served and obeyed and also to the utmost Period and Duration of time As our Souls in their creation and making have a beginning in time but they are without end of days they being Properly Immortal Even such an obedience and service doth the Lord our Creator require of us which did and doth once begin and never end until our service here is crowned and consummated with Glory hereafter What remains But that ye who shall hear or read this be in the visions of God as Daniel and John was to see the dead small and great stand before God and seeing that they were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their Works therefore in every thing so think speak and do as ye that must give Account The word of Instruction which arises hence is this that each of us severally do order our Life and Conversation in this short Time and mean while as near as ever we can according to all the words which are Written in those Books which are the Books of Scripture and the Book of Conscience That is to live up and according to all those Thoughts of Good and Truth which Conscience doth suggest unto Man FINIS