though not particularly at this time rehearsed for every good thing for my Soul and Body here and hereafter as far as ever the purpose of thy Grace extended when thou saidst I will be thy God and that all that Goodness and Truth may follow me all my days and for ever Rom. 8. 32. And I willingly offer up my self to thy whole Will as thou shalt from time to time reveal it in the same word of thy Grace and do covenant Subjection thereto in thy strength through the Mediation of Jesus Christ and supply of thy Spirit And upon thy own Encouragement in thy Promise made to me in that same Covenant which thou madest with my Father Abraham and sealed it to him and his Seed that thou wouldst be his God and the God of his Seed and caused the Man-child of eight days old to receive the sign of that Covenant in his Flesh which Blessing thou hast now brought over to me a Gentile by Christ in whom thou saist Jew and Greek Male and Female are all one in Christ I do again offer up my Child who has been already baptized into thy Name relying on thee to make good thy Covenant in Christ to her together with my self in every Branch thereof which I have through thy favour and Grace entred into and spread before thee this day that she also may have a place in thy House and partake of all the Privileges and Inheritance of thy Chosen And now O Lord God what shall I say to thee Who am I And what is my House that thou hast brought me hitherto All Praise be to thy glorious Name ever-living Jehovah the Father Son and Spirit Glory be to thee O Father who hast begotten me again to a lively Hope who hast drawn me to Jesus Christ whom thou deliveredst up for me to be my Ransom and hast made me to recieve him and in him to call thee my reconciled Father Glory be to thee O Eternal Son of the Father who camest into Flesh and undertookest the great Office of Mediatorship between a righteous God and sinful Man and hast transacted a Covenant of Peace for me and perfected it in thy own Person by thy Death and Resurrection And Glory be to thee O Eternal Spirit of the Father and Son who hast awakened my ear to hear the joyful sound of Reconciliation to God through the Blood of the Lamb which was slain from the beginning of the World who hast been pursuing me and didst never give over till thou hadst convinced my heart and conquered my Will to a willing Surrender of my self up to and a laying hold upon the Covenant of Grace held forth to Sinners in the Volume of thy Book Now O Lord God let all the words of thy Grace be effectually applied and established to me thy Servant Pardon all my sins and my failings and all my unsuitableness of heart while I have been before thee musing and taking thy Name and Covenant in my mouth and writing it with my own hand in thy presence and as a Fruit of thy Covenant-Grace and Truth let my approach to thee be accepted and prosper for which end I have delivered up my self and all that is mine with full purpose of heart according to all that I have said before thee this day and with an holy Awe of thy Presence in this great Work in confidence and hope of thy pardoning succouring and assisting Grace I lie at the Foot-stool of thy Mercy and call Heaven and Earth to witness that I have chosen thee to be my God and thy Will in all things to be my Inheritance and my delight and the matter of my pursuance all my days upon the ground and promise which thou hast said Hos 2. 23. I will say to them which were not my people thou art my people and they shall say Thou art my God I have said it and do say it and do leave this Covenant in the hand of my Mediator to see it fulfilled to me and by me through all the days of my Infirmity and Warfare till I come to behold his face as he is and this vile Body of mine be made like to his glorious Body In reliance on which relief and blessed hope and help I cling upon this Covenant of Free Grace in which I do both take and give as I have said and do subscribe it irrevocably with my hand Henry Dorney Do not say O grumbling Unbelief The Soul chides Vnbelief that these are nothing but compiled words of Humane Invention I tell thee as far as they are only my invention I do loath them but the Spirit of God doth witness with my Spirit that amongst these words there hath been some hunger after God some awe of his Presence some love to be his devoted Servant some prizing of the excellency of a pure Life of Faith some holy Convictions of the importance and necessity at least of such an attempt as this to bring God and my Soul nearer together And therefore though there is much chaffiness of a dead heart yet I cannot gratifie my doubts and unbelief so far as to conclude there is no Wheat in the heap and I refer my self desirously and willingly to the heart-knowing Eye of him who has his Fan in his hand to blow away all the Chaff from my thoughts and words and to create in me a clean heart and pure language also and to gather what there is of secret panting after him into his own Garner and put my inward groanings after him how weak and faint soever into his Bottle and therefore I must and by his help will praise him for any Crumbs that fall from his Table and that I have any Stomach to eat them and any desire after larger Morsels My Redeemer is bountiful his Breasts are full and will not suffer a hungry Child to draw nothing but Wind. I remember well what he said to the Woman of Samaria If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee Give me to drink thou wouldst have asked of him and he would have given thee living water I have asked of him and have had his favour to wait on him now several days together and will he return my Bucket altogether empty This is not his custom The Kingdom of God is like Seed sown which springs up and grows with an insensible motion and yet a growing motion Mark 4. 26 27. He proceeds in the method of his own Word in which Word he saith Seek and ye shall find for every one that seeketh findeth and shall I say my Seekings are lost My Way is not hid from God when his Path is hid from me he hath said They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength which I have obliged my self to do and therefore though he humble me to preserve a watchful Appetite and to prevent some unhealthy Surfeit which he can discern in my Constitution growing upon me better than I yet I know I shall
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
be able to speak to the hearing of the ends of the whole Heavens O the Melody of that great day when Saints and Angels innumerable shall be the Pronouncers Oh never such Melody Melody that may be heard Millions of Years Millions of Miles O Lord keep me in my present work till thou callest me to future work and prepare me for the glorifying of thee for ever Help me in this instant help me leave me not now help me through this Thicket graciously Lord graciously deal with me at my Dissolution that nothing but Actings of Love and Grace may be shining upon Me. I leave me with thee I desire to do it perfectly April 19. He spake to one that had watched with him the foregoing Night You see how it is with me You are young the Lord affect your heart with a true sense of your eternal State that you may not be befooled of your immortal Soul by a tempting Devil and a tempting World Some space after he took occasion to say It makes my Soul ashamed within me sometimes that I have had the whole Book of all God's Promises and Covenant before me and do believe that there is mine Inheritance and yet to be in such a posture as I am Alas to be made the Children of the Most High and to live like Fools it should make the Soul long to have the utmost of the Grace promised I expect every night and every day and every piece of a day to be gone that when-ever any Qualm comes upon me I am ready to think this is the time and yet I find in my self a natural Reluctancy against Death that I would and I would not but where-ever my Damp my Black my Disquiet is it ariseth from some Tardiness in my Soul to my God I have a great desire to be freed from my Burthens and to be in that State I greatly long for but yet I would willingly that God should pitch my Stakes and determine the matter God's Wisdom and his Goodness goes together for God's Attributes do not cross one another I ought to have a Manly Walk with God it is not a crouching crimbling childish foolish unexpert Walk By Manly I mean to weigh things as they are in the grave Discovery of Scripture Surely I long to be in the Fountain to see it and be for ever in it To one asking him how he did he said It is a great Mercy that my Mind abides in any Conjuncture and that the Wheels of the Clock do not fall all out of order I cannot now converse but I think the Trade meaning the Heavenly Trade goes on and the Lord make it a smart Trade Lord teach me how frail I am all things are best known by Experience as Learning is obtained by Observation Rules and Precepts April 20. Finding himself exceeding faint and weak said I could now lie down and say This is my last if the Lord saw it fit having much ado to retain Life To a Christian Friend that came to visit him he said Blessed be the Lord for the Covenant of Grace and the Surety of that Covenant where our stay is All Goodness all Mercy all Peace c. The way and method God takes he himself hath cut out but what his scope is in this my present Case I do not know Afterward it being told him of the death of an aged Relation who lived to above fourscore Years he spake to this effect Is he dead with whom I never had the opportunity seriously to converse with in the things of a spiritual World Surely this is the time to do any thing for God and to be helpful to others The Lord bless the Providence to that poor Woman his Wife To another Friend taking leave and saying The Lord be with you I hope he will carry you to your Journeys end he replied I hope he will I believe he will never leave me nor forsake me To another poor Christian he gave this Counsel Cling upon Christ and he will never leave you I cannot say much but be sure of that follow hard after Christ and he will never leave you That is all my Experience all that I have been a learning of the Truth and Faithfulness of God these scores of Years Only love him only obey him entirely seek him pray to him much for that is the only likeliest way and I never heard of any that did it faithfully and was lost Then he prayed O my God be near me suffer nothing to miscarry through the All-sufficiency of thy infinitely great Grace To a dear Friend that came to visit him telling him that he was very much upon the hearts of the People of God who prayed for him he replied these words That one heart of Christ sets other hearts awork He farther said I am glad to see you upon account of former Intimacy but I chiefly rejoyce that you have found the same God in Prayer that I have done and that you are hankering after the same Fountain and Spring and cannot live without it as God hath given me also an unwearied Reach after and upon these Grounds I am glad to see you My dear Friend fare you well the Lord be with you To a Relation he spake thus Spring to Heaven though for your springing you spring out of the Body and leave it behind you Let us look to it lest you and I fall short of our Hope Multitudes of Professors standing aloof off have lost their way they have lost their work they have lost their end Our opportunity is as clear in our hand now as ever it was in the hand of David or Paul or any of the Saints of God that lived before us Oh how do I love to see Grace grow in Friends in Relations c. The Lord be with you and carry you and make your Affliction to be a sanctified Affliction that in a little while you may not have any burthen but may see your Salvation and have it April 21. To another Visitant he spake thus I may not stand wondering meaning in reference to his long Sickness but yet I may wonder indeed that ever God made me a Man that ever he made me a rational Creature that ever he brought me forth into the World where the Gospel was and that he hath told me that he will save me for ever Oh that I could wonder admire and adore it You duggle up and down and so I have done heretofore and here we walk over but a little Ground and if we obtain little or much it is but a little got in a little Ground and we have therein trouble But Oh what is it to flee over the whole Heavens and to be every where in God and in Christ In all other good things relating only to this Life all the pleasure we have in seeking them is to think how pleasurable they will be to us when obtained But the delight and pleasure of spiritual things lie much in the very seeking of them
Lord is with me and I have Ground of Faith and Hope that I have favour in his Eyes April 24. He expressed himself as followeth I am upon the Term of two great things viz. At the Term of all my great Subjugation to Sin and at the Term of all the Receipt of the Liberty Christ hath purchased at the Term of Sins Thraldom and at the Term of springing up through the Grace of God to eternal Life These are great things and I cannot manage my thoughts about it thorowly through the greatness of it I am going from the Yellings of Sin in this World and the woful effects of it and I am going to a Congregation the only Church of the First-born written in Heaven to visit the Streets of the eternal Grace and Love of God and meet the Company that walk there And methinks I am in a Wood and God hath held me in the Portal a pretty while and here I cannot be perfected for I never had any fittedness but through him that is compleat and is in Heaven And here I abide an Expectant as the poor Man that expected to be put into the Pool and that Angel hath not yet put forth his hand My Body parcheth my Mind parcheth a little Faith and Hope is left me My Tongue begins again to cleave I leave this World as a place where there is no satisfying It may content others a while but it seems rather to hunt me away Body faint Spirit faint in a strange Land my Mind is all in a scatter It will not be so it is so now O Lord help me graciously to wait Death was always spoken of as a dark Valley a place of Darkness and Trial not a place of Joy and shall I find it so Notwithstanding I have hope in the Faith and Love of God by Christ there is a secret Relief That he will turn Death into Life for his own sake and suffer never a clinging Soul to be lopt off and perish I desire no Food my very Nature loaths it my Body is off from all means of help in this World and here I stay through the good hand of God like a poor Stranger I am going to another World and the Fruits of that World will not satisfie the Wants I have here it will not quench my Thirst it will not allay my Drought So that if I have not some Relief to my Soul which is not of this World if I have it not from another World I am undone I cannot speak my thoughts have a large Theam I am up and down in and out and I see a great thing before me and sometimes it causeth a Word to drop I see ETERNAL LIFE before me That great thing that concerns me Sure it is a great thing to be at the very Brink to see all Promises fulfilled made good and all the Demonstrations of the Gospel made patent To see the Foundation of Eternal Life for ever laid and to come and cast ones eye upon it in the abundance of Faith And these are the things that lie just before me only there hath been an entrance about them I have believed c. and now I go to see the Promise and the Faith of the Promise accomplished To a Friend saying you have a strong hand to carry you Sure there is our Security in his holding of us more than in our holding of him He answered There it only lies The Lord continue to be with you The Lord make good his Covenant to you I and all the rest even that which is written in that good Book of his in which we desire to have our hope Let nothing hinder our Faith nor disorder our Practise He proceeded further to speak that day in the Afternoon thus God makes all these things here with respect to me at this time as it were to change their kind A Draught of Spring-Water fresh Beer or such a like thing how sweet have I sometimes found it But now nothing The rare vertues of Apples and other Fruits they are to me now as Dirt they do not answer my End My natural Thirst and Desire cannot be gratified with any thing here Though my Body lies parching away with Thirst my Soul loatheth dainty Meats and the best of Liquors that have been pleasing they are now a burthen to me I can taste nothing that will give reviving God is drawing forth my Nature in the way of a Dissolution that I must have no more Chear now but what comes in by New Covenant Mercy and that will be to Soul to Body for ever and thanks be to his Name he will not have me feed with dirty Company He hath shewed me the way of Life he hath caused me to chuse him I bless his Name Oh that wonderful thing that thou shouldst cause me to chuse thee Oh that thou mightest be chosen by all those that ever I had Acquaintance with in all my Life Oh that none of them may go without it Oh for a turned heart Oh for the eyes of Light and Life Oh for Salvation out of Damnation to a changed People Blessed be God that ANY that so MANY near to me were turned in at the right Gate of Election upon the Downfall that came by Sin as I hope as I hope O Lord find out thine thou wilt find them out Work Miracles work Miracles by converting Power in turning Souls that the Earth may see thy Glory Oh thou hast been my God many ways hast thou declared it Thou hast been the God of the Family from whence thou chusest me The Family is almost at an end Thou hast not left our poor Family two of us are yet remaining on the Earth O my God let it be for an eternal Renown to thy Name that thou hast hitherto reached out thy Grace to we two poor Remainers of that numerous Family Oh thou hast left us thy self to be our God to be our Portion O Lord thou hast given thy self to us and and thou hast given thy Spirit into us and we to the Glory of thy Grace can say Thou art OUR GOD hast been our God and wilt be our God and wilt number us amongst those whom thou hast delighted to take pleasure in unto Eternity O Lord be thou the God of our Seed or of our Seeds Seed O Lord that thou wouldst take them in with all those thou hast brought into Relation with thy self We have Relations in the World some that lie under the power of Satan and thou makest us to know it that it might be a constant Grief unto our hearts O Lord that none relating to us or to any or either of us might be found in those Bonds O Lord that thou wouldst imprint thine Image that thou wouldst come with a powerful hand and clear them out of Satan's Kingdom into the Kingdom of Christ Lord we are mingled in the World we have many Relations now up and down and what shall we say for the Children of our People
when he joyned with others in Prayer he seldom was seen or heard to stir as accounting it would be matter of disturbance And he would be sure as to his own particular to use no higher Voice in Prayer than was meerly necessary for those that were present and joyned with him in the same Duty often signifying his dislike of such a raised Voice in Prayer as might be distinctly heard any further than that Room or place where those that joyned in Prayer were assembled Also except the Case was extraordinary he did not approve of making long Prayers but rather more frequent especially in and with a Family lest some other necessary Duties might be omitted or the time that ought to be spent about them abridged and more particularly at Nights that Family-Duties should be more concise lest through weariness Servants and others should be overtaken with Sleep And he said that The reason why many make long Prayers and multiplied words was that they doubted God did not hear them and therefore they would pray the more thinking that by much speaking something might take with God And he further said that As Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices of old were not regarded any further than they typified Christ so God delights not in the outward Carnal Performance of Religious Duties nor in any thing performed only by the Abilities of the Outward Man And that Prayer should be the holding of the Promise in the one hand and the Petition in the other That our words should be few with a still inward Composure of Mind and Spirit in the Duty And that We often come before the Lord furnished with words when the power of Faith and of the Spirit is wanting And that we never pray with delight until we believe that our Prayers are heard and will be answered which we put up to God in the Name of Christ according to his Will And that without a personal Interest in Christ there is no Approach unto God If our persons be not in him it would be in vain to seek him for we could never come at him were not our persons united to him And as to his own experience he said Sometimes I find I am exceeding heartless in Duty that I go unto it as one altogether dead yet being convinced it is my duty I speak the words in Prayer and doubtless such words where there is a striving of the Spirit against the Flesh to overcome that Indisposedness they are prevalent with God though we may not account them so He was so often and frequent His secret Devotions both Day and Night in his Converse with God that his Life was no other but a constant Walking with him In his Family he so wisely behaved His Family-Government himself in his Discipline and by his grave sweet and pious Carriage that all under his Roof did both reverence and love him And his endeavour and care was if it were possible to receive and retain none in his House but such as truly feared God And if it happened at any time that any Servants proved bad he would turn them off so soon as he could but yet always at their parting by his Prayers for them his Counsel Advice and Liberality to them none such went from him but at their departure did or might have carried with them a self-condemning Conviction of his Goodness and their own Folly He also used to Catechise his Servants on certain days of the Week so far as other important Affairs and his natural Constitution of Body would permit His daily Family-Duties were His Family-Duties in this method performed First he prayed before the reading of God's Word which was observed to be to this effect That God would favour us with his Presence in our Approaches to him and make us sensible we have to do with him who is the living God and with his Word as a living Word That it might not be as a dry Well as a dead Letter nor our hearts dead in the perusal of it but that it might come as Water on a thirsty Ground and we made fat with the fatness of it our Souls being capacitated to suck in its sweetness that we might have some sweet sense of his Holiness and our Relation to him and that put forwards in the use of the Word and Prayer That God would cloath his Word with Almightiness causing his Arm to be unbared and his Truths to be revealed that they might be a bright Lamp to our Feet and a Light to our Paths That all his Divine Dictates be taken in with all greediness that thence Vertue might flow out and enter into our hearts and be the very Operation of God upon our Souls and his Power unto our Salvation That God would consult his own Grace that we might have his Presence both in the Word and in our hearts in an efficacious way causing it kindly to operate That some spiritual Grace might drop down unto us and that the Word being every whit of it spiritual might spiritualize our hearts and influence them to an Obediential Compliance with his whole Will therein revealed That he would cause it to take hold of our hearts that they might be bowed down broken and healed by its powerful vertue and efficacy making us to delight therein and that through Christ we might be a delight unto himself That God would quicken and enlighten us and cause his Word to come with Power and Life That we might behold his Glory and Majesty shining in every part of his Word And as God had put an Almightiness in it so he would command the Majesty and Authority of it to bear in with an exceeding weight upon our hearts and make it Almighty in all its efficacious Actings And that the Vital Power of his Spirit might cleanse lead and teach us in the way everlasting And that the Word might be as an Instrument and Means in the hand of his Spirit to do all this for us and in us c. And in the reading of the Word he would usually spend a little time in speaking to the most remarkable Heads therein contained improving it for the Instruction and Edification of himself and Family And after that he closed the Morning Exercise with solemn Prayer And his Evening Exercise was first Prayer for a Blessing on the Word to be read after which he read a Chapter and then concluded with Prayer For the right understanding His Directions for understanding the Word and profiting by it of Scripture-Truths his Counsel was that we should compare spiritual things with spiritual which is discerningly to suit the way and method of Utterance in such a spiritual Simplicity as may best agree with the nature of the spiritual Mystery of the Gospel and not to speak spiritual things carnally in the Wisdom of the Flesh And that we can never profit by the Word heard or read until we receive it and take it up as a Message from the Lord to our Souls
as the Word of the over-living God saying I would so read the Scriptures or other good Books that in reading I would drink in the matter or things therein presented and have my heart to feed thereon all the while And that we should judge of every part of holy Scripture according to the proportion of Faith and body of Truth And more particularly touching the THREATNINGS we meet with in Scripture we must note they are always to be understood with a secret implied Condition that notwithstanding if we return to God they shall not be inflicted on us But when God swears to his Threatnings there he makes it good as in the Case of the unbelieving Israelites And for Scripture-PROMISES we must not look on any Promise but in and through Christ in whom alone they are Yea and Amen And that we should labour after the believing sight of a Promise which is more worth than all the Gold and Silver in the World And therefore we should catch at the Promises having a Right to them in Christ as a Man swimming lays hold on a thing when he sees himself in danger and bear our selves nakedly on them as a Swimmer upon his Bladders And for this get a through Belief that there is but one God that this God is the same his Covenant the same and ever the same that his words are the same as ever they were in Noah Abraham and David's time putting our selves in their Case As put case I were Noah Abraham Moses c. And we must come up to this Persuasion that God ever abideth faithful and that the Kernel of the Promise both then and now is God's Will in Christ And touching the COMMANDS of the Word we must note That 't is heavy work to eye God's Command only in our Obedience without looking to him for strength for to us under the Gospel God never intended the Commandment any otherwise than as a Rule not as our Strength for Power belongeth unto God he gives Power and Strength to fulfil his own Commands He was a strict Observer of His Observation of the Sabbath the Lord's Day and could not endure either to speak himself or hear spoken by others any thing that tended to withdraw the heart from the Sanctification of that sacred Season and would allow of nothing else to be then said or done but what was of Mercy and meer necessity according to that word in Isa 58. 13. and Lev. 19. 30. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary beside the express Injunction in the fourth Commandment He exceedingly loved the Habitation of God's House and the place where his Honour dwelleth He valued the Gospel-Ministry at a mighty rate He esteemed not of Men for Learning and Parts where he saw the Grace of God wanting and that they preached themselves and not Jesus Christ but where both concurred he had always the greatest Reverence and Veneration for them And to prepare himself and Family for the due Celebration of the Sabbath and for the Ordinances of that day he was heard to offer up in Prayer such Petitions as these That God would draw nigh to us in the powerful Working and Operation of his Grace and cause the Dew of Heaven to fall upon us that our Fleece might not be dry that our Witheredness might pass from us That we might have a Verdure a Greenness on our Spirits and be anointed as with fresh Oyl That as he hath presented us to another Sabbath so he would make it a good day to us giving us throughout the day that Thirsting and Hungering to which the Promise is intitled and cause his Omnipotent Arm to bring Salvation and establish it in our hearts granting us the Light of Life and making us so to hear that our Souls might live be made fat with the Fatness of his House and be made to drink of the River of his Pleasures That no Guilt might abide on us but be taken wholly away and our Souls freed from the Captivity of a Fleshly Mind and Will That he would cut those Fetters asunder and work some Renewing upon our hearts some spiritual Strength Warmth and Refreshing That we might have a free Intercourse with him throughout the day praying in Prayer and hear in Hearing and see the Face of God in his Ordinances and they made powerful and transforming That Jesus Christ might come in his Kingly Power in the Ministry of his Word and destroy all the Bonds of the Prince of Darkness That he would not suffer the evil Angels to disquiet and disturb his People in their waiting on him but that they might attend upon the Lord without distraction That in what we do we might honour him who is the Lord of the Sabbath That he in Jesus Christ might be well pleased with us and see and behold his own Working in us and upon us and say It is very good Taht he would grant us a solid Consideration of things spiritual and a higher prospect thereof so as to affect our hearts and that our Scope and Aym in all things might be to please him and profit our own Souls That he would grant us his Presence and Teaching and the Operations of his Spirit in the use of his Word which is spiritual and that our time and life be spent in his fear That our Hopes be upward our Considerations inward and our Converse with spiritual things as those that are above in the Mount with God c. And his manner was in the Evening of the Sabbath after the publick Solemnity was over to repeat himself or by some other in his Family both the Sermons preached on that day with Prayer both before and after the same accompanied with the singing of a Psalm after which he supped and then concluding the day again with solemn Prayer he retired himself to his private Devotion and so went to Rest He had a great Insight into the His Insight into Spiritual and Divine things Mystery of the Gospel and Divine things And this is evident in the several following Discourses in his Letters c. and in such Expressions as these That there is a Tang and Touch of the Gospel which only the Called of God knows And that none can know Christ savingly but those that are united unto him CONCERNING GOD'S UNCHANGEABLENESS That though Man be Changeable yet God stands to his Purpose and Promise appearing Righteous in his Works either in conquering a Sinner by his Justice or overcoming and removing of his Sin through Grace by Faith and so saving the Sinner ordering the very Sin of the Elect to exalt his Mercy Though Sin is not in its own nature but by Accident the cause of glorifying God's Grace And so most justly he punisheth the sinful World for their own Sins and the Sins of the Elect in their Mediator OF GOD'S LOVE AND TENDERNESS to his People That God never comes into any Soul but he leaves a Blessing behind him he pays well for