so Q. 8. Can it be any good Sign if you can recreate your Selves with that which is so great a grief and burthen to your Ministers and many of your fellow Christians because they look upon it as sinful O! How tender should we be in this Point How fearful should we be of grieving or offending any of our Brethren for whom Christ died He is very tender of them and so much the more as he seeth them tender of his Honour and grieved and offended at Sin whether in themselves or others Q. 9. Tell me truly how doth your Card's relish with you when you are in the most serious Frame When you find the great things of another World impressed upon your Spirits in the most fresh and lively Manner I verily think if I should fall to Card's one serious Thought of Death and Judgment one sober Glance at my eternalState would spoile my Sport how is it with you in this Matter If you must needs play on will you make trial the next time Q. 10. To add no more whether will the remembrance of so many Hours spent at Card's be pleasing or tormenting to you when you come to die And whether will it be a comfortable or a sad hearing from your Judge when you come to give up your Accounts we must account as strictly for our Time as for any other Talent we are entrusted with and the Day which God hath prefixed for this solemn and weighty Affair is drawing nigh Death may be upon us before we are aware and when we shall see our selves ready to be arrested and summoned to appear without delay before God's great Tribunal Then if ever Conscience will be reflecting upon our State and Actions and when it shall find so much precious Time at best but lost and trifled away which should have been spent in glorifying God and working out our own Salvation what chideing Language may we expect to hear from it I am ready to tremble sometimes when I think what my own Conscience may have upon this Score then to charge me with Alass poor Creatures We make a shift to stop its Mouth now or to stop our Ears But if the Lord awake it then it will speak and so loudly as shall make us hear whether we will or no O Fool 's or somewhat worse that we are thus to lay in for our own tormenting Grief and Sorrow Now shall we not be wiser for the future and live more like to dying Men O that we could bring our Hearts to this before we venture upon any thing to think seriously with our Selves will this be comfortable to me at the reckoning Shall I like to hear of this another day from my own Conscience or from the supream Judge of quick and dead Now if there be any sense or weight in the Questions I have here Propounded I hope you will not think it an unreasonable Request if I again earnestly entreat for your serious Thoughts about them And that you would not proceed farther till you can answer them to God and your own Consciences one thing more with which I conclude You cannot deny but it is doubtful and disputable whether this Game be lawful or no Whereas I dare affirm and could if need was sufficiently prove on the other hand that without doubt it may lawfully be forborn and this is a good Rule for your Observation here In dubiis opportet sequi partem tatiorem In doubtful Cases we must take that way which is safest Since the writing of this I am satisfied that a Lot may be lawfully used in Games as well as in any other ordinary Affair and that your extraordinary Lot cannot be lawfully used in any Case how weighty soever except Persons have a divine Warrant for it But though I see and am ready to acknowledge my mistake in this Point yet am I of the same Mind I was before in reference to my own Practice here and I could heartily wish that all Professors especially would be very wary how they meddle with a Game so ordinarily abused and that is so full of Snares and Temptations that without extraordinary Caution they may as easily touch Pitch and not be defiled as make use of it and not be some way or other insnared by it PIOUS LETTERS LETTER I. To C. F. under her Sore Relative Exercise June 28. 1684. Dear Cozen I Have been much concerned for you in my Thoughts since I saw you last I would be one of those that weep with them that weep and remember those that are in Adversity as being my self also in the Body and God forbid that I should not tenderly Pity and earnestly Pray for you in this your afflicted Condition though I have cause sadly to bewail it that there is so much of wretched Self in me which goes so far with me that while I am at ease I am little affected with the Hardships others undergo which plainly shews how far I am from the Life of holy Love There is a saying of wise King Solomon Prov. 27.9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart so doth the sweetness of a Man's friend by hearty councel O that I was in a capacity and had ability according to my hearty Desire to write or speak any thing which might tend to your Direction Support and Comfort O what pains should I think too great keeping within the limits of my calling to be laid out any way to promote the good of any poor Soul which my Lord and Saviour did so esteem as to think it worth dying for And seeing you have been pleased in a great measure to open your Case to me whom you shall ever find very faithful I will humbly adventure though I am very conscious of my own Inability to do it effectually and verily I think I have more need to come to you to learn as multitudes of Years encrease Wisdom and Experience yet I shall give you my poor confused Thoughts what we should learn from and how we ought to carry under afflictive Providences and I hope you will accept of my sincere Desires though I fall very short in Performance in the day of Adversity consider A day of Affliction ought to be a day of great Thoughtfulness with us consider God doth not Afflict us willingly without there be great need for it and he hath wise and gracious End 's in what he doth His Rod when ever laid upon our backs hath a loud voice in it O that we had diligent and tractable Hearts in hearkening to and obeying it Learning some spiritual Lessons from every the least twig thereof O what abundance of spiritual Good might we thus extract out of our greatest Evils And what a multitude of Strokes might we thus prevent And that you and I may be so wise let us put the following Particulars into practice 1st See we more and more of the evil of Sin and hate and mortify it Sin is the greatest Evil and the procuring Cause of all those
the crown of Life and Glory Surely no let it then be so seen in my looks carriage and behaviour let it appear that I have other manner of Thoughts of future invisible eternal Things than the Men of the World have that I do indeed look upon them as the greatest Realities and am suitably affected towards them let it now be manifested to the World that I do practically believe the indubitable Certainty and unparalel'd Excellency of the Saint's happiness in the life to come I should live with as much seriousness to day as though I was to die to morrow And why then may I not be as cheary to day as though I was to go to Heaven to morrow not knowing but I may And what a pleasant Life might I thus lead let my outward Circumstances in the World be what they will I say could I but live from day to day in the believeing views of near approaching Glory what a comfortable Life might I lead Why is it not thus with me Where doth the hinderance lie Is there any defect in the Object No no it s in my sight it s a carnal unbelieving a sloathful and negligent Heart that hinders me away with such a Heart And farther let me think how great a part of my evil Day 's are certainly already spent now above twenty Years are gone and for ought I know a twentieth Part doth not remain Faith and Patience lengthen out a while I cannot have long to suffer here it may be not near so long as I think of a few day 's more and the Tables are turned the Scene quite alter'd let me lift up my Head and hold up my Heart under present Pressures for the time of my full and compleat Redemption draws nigh my Salvation is nearer then when I first believed and every day its drawing on yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry any longer it s but waiting a while and I am with him the loss of whom I am now lamenting in the new Jerusalem the City of our God where sorrow and sighing flee away where God is all and in all to his Saints To conclude the time is short therefore let me weep as though I wept not let me have Life with all its Troubles in quiet enduring Patience and Death with its blissful Consequents in lively Hope and earnest Desire The PREFACE to his CATALOGUE of some of his dear Christian Friends and Relations whose Souls are now with GOD. METHINKS the sensible decays I have found of late are a fair Item that Death is not only upon its way towards me but that it may be nearer in its approaches then possibly I am aware of and so a loud call to me in good earnest to be thinking of it and of that eternal State I must immediately thereupon be fixed in Sometimes I cannot but verily hope that the Lord hath cut me out for Heaven though there is not nor ever was there a wretch upon the Face of God's Earth that less deserved it nor can I think there is a Saint in Heaven that will have more reason amazingly to adore such rich free distinguishing Grace and Mercy then my self But yet though I have this Hope that when Death turns me out of this World I have a better Place to go to and though I can thereupon sometimes rejoyce and please my Self with the thoughts of its Approach while I look upon it at some distance yet when I come nearer to it I find my thoughts and apprehensions concerning it and concerning the separate State of my Soul thereupon to have much strangness and terrour in them which its like doth much arise from my Ignorance and Unbelief I should account it a blessed thing could I but get to converse with these things in my Thoughts with that familiarity and delight as I wish and there is one thing I have sometimes found a little to befriend me herein which is to think how many of my dear Christian Friends with whom I have here had delightful Converse and Communion to think I say how many of these are gone before me and so ready to bid me welcome to that our blessed home Indeed was they not with my dearest Lord this Argument would loose its Force Heaven was not Heaven was he not there O let me live with Christ let me ever behold the King in his Beauty O let me but have my fill of Christ and then I am content to spend my Eternity any where was it in a Desert in a Denn But yet there is methinks some additional sweetness in it to think of enjoying Christ in the Fellowship and Communion of the blessed ones above and under the present low and languishing Circumstances of Faith and other Graces in my Soul it hath methinks some particular sweetness in it to think of my old Acquaintance who are got to Heaven I intend therefore to have in my view a Catalogue of some of them as they come to my Thoughts that so I may now and then make them a Visit and take a few turns with them in my serious Thoughts and this in order to the End above mentioned CHAP. XI Ten QVERIES seriously Propounded to CARD-GAMESTERS By one who much Questioneth the Lawfulness of that GAME Introduction I Doubt not but some Recreation is lawful yea needful and therefore a Duty to some Men But among things that go under this Denomination there are some utterly unlawful in their own Nature and others which may be lawful in Themselves are by the abuse of them rendred sinful or at best very doubtful among many other Games and Sports in common Practice amongst us I fear upon serious Examination this of Card's will be found extream Faulty I shall give you some of my Thoughts by Propounding the following Queries to you hoping I may do it inoffensively and if I may prevail with you so far as to be at the Pains to Read and entertain a few sober Thoughts about them I shall leave it to your Selves to draw up a Conclusion and pass Sentence according to the Merit of the Cause Query 1. Is it not unlawful or highly to be suspected as such to use Lots in so vain and trivial a Matter as Gameing is You will readily grant me this that it is a Sin of no small Magnitude to take God's sacred Name in Vain I mean to do it needlesly or but upon weighty Occasions Exod. 20.7 You cannot deny but God's name is used in Lots Prov. 16. 33. The disposing of the Lot is of the Lord. Not of Man or of Fortune it is an appealing to God's Sentence and that this Game do much depend upon Lottery if Persons play honestly is a thing notoriously Evident I deny not but Lot's have been and may be lawfully used in some Cases we We read of Divine Lot's which have been used upon a special Command Josh 7.14 15. Acts 1.24 26. There are also civil and political Lot's used in
penal Evils which God inflicts upon us Righteousness and Judgment is ever to be ascribed to our God and all the blame to be charged home upon our own naughty Hearts it is Sin which imbitters all our Comforts here O hate Sin and take a holy revenge upon it Afflictions are but the effect Sin is the cause now remove the Cause and the Effects will cease O what bruitish and unreasonable Creatures are we who are so much in love with Sin a thing so odious and hateful in the sight of God and so mischievous to our Selves O unnatural we who are so in love with our own Miseries Now that you may follow this Direction effectually it would be a good way seriously to endeavour to find out what those Sins are that have had the greatest hand in bringing this Affliction upon you for in many of God's strokes his Hand his Rod points very visibly to the Offence I have verily thought so in several of the light Afflictions he hath laid upon me When God afflicts us in Relations we ought with shame and grief to reflect upon our relative Sins I dare not but humbly mind you of this thing having found out the Achans let us dispatch them without delay let us humble our Souls exceedingly for them and earnestly beg the Pardon of them and with all our might strive against them O let us shew Sin no mercy Let the Lord see that his quarrelling with us hath broached an irreconcilable quarrel between our Souls and Sin 2dly Let us be led to see more of the emptiness and vanity of the Creature since our fall from God to the Creature we are very prone to place and seek our Happiness in it whereas our Happiness consists and ought to be placed in God alone who is the chief Good and our Gracious God many times sees good to Afflict his Children most in those things which have got the greatest share of their Affections and so are likely to draw away most of their Hearts from him O remember dear Cozen our Head and Husband the Lord Jesus hath a very jealous Eye over our deceitful Hearts he cannot brook any adultrous Affections in his Spouse when he seeth we are following strangers and so growing strange with him it much offends him yet so constant is his Love to us that he takes various Methods to recover our Affections and if nothing else will do it rather then quite loose us he will hedge up our way with Thorns and seldom that our naughty Hearts will be reclaimed till it comes to that I remember an Expression of my Father in a Sermon of his to this Purpose I am verily perswaded saith he that most of the lashes laid upon God's Children here are to pay home and sharply to correct them for some overloving of the Creature As I said before hate Sin more so here love the World less 3dly When ever we find the Devil tempting us to hard Thoughts of God then let us stand up and plead mightily for God's goodness let not our base distrustful unbelieving Hearts be suffered to entertain any such vile Suggestions when God's providences are dark and afflictive towards his People then it is the Devils trick to do what he can to possess their Minds with black and unworthy Conceptions of him as if he had an evil Eye upon them and grudged them their outward Comforts or did willingly Afflict them or took pleasure in their Grief so it is sometimes with God's Church in general Sion's Language sometimes is The Lord hath forsaken my God hath forgotten me And so it is frequently with particular Souls under their particular Tryals and Troubles here How have poor I experienced this sad Truth And with what shame and sorrow may I acknowledge the too great readiness of my base Heart to close with such Temptations And if you do not meet with the same sometimes I can assure you from sad Experience your Case is singularly Happy and if you do meet with them with abhorrence reject and cast them out fear yet scorn to entertain them labour to recollect former Experiences you have had of the Lord's loving kindness He is unchangable in his Love to his Think often what an Expression it is of his Love and Care that he will be at the pains to Afflict you clearing your Adoption you may thence easily argue that all your Afflictions are but Fatherly Chastizements And O how would that sweet Promise of God's turning all to our spiritual Good and Advantage Rom. 8.28 if frequently seriously and believingly considered of make us think very well of all he doth 4thly Live by Faith upon the Attributes and Promises of God it is nothing below this that will be able to keep up your Heart and hold up your Head above these Waters and here I would advise you to seek out those Attributes of God that most suit your Case as it may be sometimes you are puzzeled even at your Wit 's end and know not what to do not what Course to take I believe it is so with you sometimes is it not Your way is made dark in this Wilderness why then have recourse by Faith to the infinite Wisdom of God it may be you meet with a great deal of treachery and deceitfulness in the Creature in this Case live upon the Truth and Faithfulness of God which never fails It may be you may meet with cruel and harsh Usage from such as you have no reason to expect most of the Contrary in this Case solace your Soul in the Consideration of those Bowels of Compassions that are in your heavenly Father and so improve all the Attributes of God for they are all yours and strongly engaged for you if you be his and so as to the Promises of God seek out those that come nearest to your Case promises of Support under your Affliction and of Deliverance when the Lord shall see that good for you at least of a blessed Sanctification of all to your Soul which is ten Thousand times better then present deliverance without it 5thly The exercise of Patience is another thing wherein a Christian Carriage under Affliction doth consist a quiet submitting unto and acquiessing in the good Will of God consider God's disposing Will in his Providence is as really his Will and doth as firmly constitute our Duty to Obey as his commanding Will in his Word And seeing it is his Will that it should be so with you as now it is endeavour chearfully to subscribe unto it let it appear that you are a Practitioner yea a good Proficient in the holy Apostles Art who had learnt in whatsoever State he was therewith to be Content what a poor Contentment is ours if it depends upon our Creature enjoyments yet what abundant reason we should be Content with what we have we deserve nothing so surely ought to be Content with any thing and if an ever Blessed God will not Content us surely we are very unreasonable and
be more seriously affected with your Case then I am with mine who have more cause O if ever poor Creature had need to make such complaints it s I Well but do we not hear Persons most eminently Pious making such complaints very frequently We should not be quite discouraged as though our case was singular How often doth warm hearted David pray for quickning which argues a sense of his want Sensible we should be but not discouraged O that we could confess and bewail our deadness more sensibly more lively But all our work lieth not in complaining but we must use the means God hath appointed for our quickning I verily believe our greatest work lieth in prevailing with our own Hearts to the diligent constant and believing use of the means certainly quickning enlivening Grace is purchased for us by the Lord Jesus and now he hath gone through the most painful part of his Work is he not willing to apply to our Souls what he hath purchased O let us not once question this O let us not wrong a dear Redeemer so much as to think otherwise of him O methinks was I but once made a meet recipient of these influences of his Spirit I should not doubt but I should have them Well it is Grace that must make us so and we have a gracious God to deal with who delights in Communicating of his grace and goodness to his Creatures let us call to mind what we heard of this Subject when we was last together let us ply our Hearts with the serious Consideration of the Sin and Evil of such a Frame together with the necessity reasonableness excellency and usefulness of the Contrary let us pray hard for it and use other means But pray S. take heed of that ungrateful Partiality as to judge and conclude from the remainders of Sin in you that you are in a state of Sin and Death the best on Earth complain of deadness and they do not Complement but have real Cause for it a perfect freedom from all Sin and its Effects remember that is reserved for Heaven Have you not a principle of Spiritual life Else whence comes the Sense you have of your deadness Methinks if I was with you and you would be faithful to your self I should not doubt but I could convince you think as ill of Sin as you will as you can but acknowledge and honour Grace joyfully and thankfully entertain any quickning Motions you have as you would have more what I say to you I would speak home to my own Soul the Lord help me that I may The Lord who is all perfect Spirit and Life make us more like unto himself I am your truly Affectionate Loving Brother I. B. LETTER VIII To S. E. December 15. 1684. Dear S. I Receiv'd both your's and owe you more then thanks for them I would bless the Lord that hath directed us to this way of Correspondence by Writing and that about the great Concernments of our Souls which I hope may prove profitable to each of us and very comfortable in the review I am sorry to hear of the bodily grievances you are under but stormy and pationate at the providential Dispensations of our wise and good God I dare not I would not be certainly if there be any true rest and satisfaction for the Creature it is in the will of its Creator who is goodness it self and I am glad to hear of the calmness of your Spirit my daily Prayers to God are for your spiritual and eternal Welfare and that you may not want any good thing here that the Lord would rebuke Distempers and lengthen out your Life but in that you are mindful of Death I rejoyce for to tell you true I love in my Heart to read and hear and think of Death my self indeed I have now out-lived my self my own expectation some Years But O the unaccountable folly that I am guilty of in that I am yet no more fit to die O strange almost incredible I Profess to believe a Future Judgment that there is a day wherein the great God by Jesus Christ will Judge me with all the World for all my Thoughts and Words and Actions whether they have been good or bad and so sentence me to my final State But O how unaffecting are my Apprehensions of this certain great and dreadful Truth and how inconsistent is my Practice to the belief hereof I am daily running on in my Errors heaping one Sin upon the back of another so laying my self under an unavoidable necessity either of bitter Repentance here or else exposing my self to the condemning Sentence of a most just and righteous Judge hereafter to a State of inconceivable and endless Misery which is enough to make any Heart except such a Flint as mine to tremble if seriously thought of Well shall I go on in this careless Frame and Course I fear I fear I shall but God forbid Well there are two things I would commend to my self and you in order to our Preparation for Death and Judgment 1st Let us make sure of a true and thorough work of Sanctification upon our Hearts O how shall we dare to look Death in the Face if found in an unsanctified Estate Sin is the sting of Death but then how may we with undanted Courage look it in the Face and as it were play with it when the Sting is taken out when we are passed from Death to Life if Sin be dead to be sure it s pardoned so otherwise how shall we think of Judgment to which Death immediately carries our Souls Will God clear the Guilty The turning point at that Day will be whether we be such as have come up to the Terms required of us in the remedying Law of Grace all are Sinners that is certain but all are not impenitent unbelieving Sinners O Sister penitent believing holy Souls and they alone shall be able to stand in Judgment shall obtain Mercy from the Lord in that Day and none but such have real ground of Comfort in the forethoughts of it 2dly Let us labour after clear and certain Evidences of our sincerity O how sweet a thing is Assurance of God's Love peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost How would these chear and revive our Souls in a dying Hour Sure I am a well grounded Assurance would then pay us our own with Interest though we should be at never so much pains to attain it but how sad to be sent to bed in the Dark it must needs be very uncomfortable to a gracious Soul to leave this World uncertain how it shall go with it in the next therefore let us study the Word more which is the Rule by which we must be judged and impartially compare our Hearts and Lives therewith by which means through God's help we may come to know how it will go with us then Blessed be God for that Revelation of his Will Well that our mortality and immortality may
to the Grave I question not but Death is triping up the Heels of some young Persons about you in D. as well as here let us take warning by them and learn to prize and improve our precious Time I could wish you knew what sad Reflections I have upon my self for the mispent of time that I should have lived so long to so little Purpose Now dear S. you have several of those years before your Face if the Lord lengthen out your Life which alass are got behind my back and cannot be recalled O lay hold on this advantage and cut off the occasion of such sad Reflections now in time My Second advice is That you would keep up a constant Course of religious Duties and labour in them for sweet and sensible Communion with God I have suffered much by my neglect of Duties and by trifling in them O the long and sad interruptions of my Communion with God! O the sad effects of this Methinks sloath idleness and formality hath even cloathed my poor Soul with raggs Take heed S. take heed It can never be well with us when we are strange with God and live at a distance from him To live without God in the World is an Hell upon Earth O keep your Heart close to God in a course of Holy Duties be oft in God's walks and be not contented unless you meet with him there but alass while I am writing this methinks Conscience is whispering thou dost not follow this advice thy self as thou shouldst I must confess this is a Truth and a sad one but I think it is good Advice and I would fain have it better with me then it hath been in these respects or then it may at present be with me and besides I would have you better much better then my self therefore take and follow it my daily Prayers are for you the Lord be your God and Guide and everlasting Portion I am affectionately Your's I. B. LETTER XXV To T. W. My dear Friend METHINKS its long since I saw you and I cannot be quiet till I have imparted some of my Thoughts to you I doubt not but you have been wrestling with God for us in reference to our late Exercise methinks I feel that you and other dear Friends have been praying for us the Lord return your kindness and your prayers into your bosom double and may these lines farther engage them and also put a note of praise into your lips O love the Lord O praise the Lord for his goodness We can do little help us help us add your instrument say his goodness endureth for ever surely he hath not contended with his great Power nor withdrawn his supporting Arm we have been afflicted but he hath been with us in six Troubles and in seven he hath not forsaken us surely all his Paths are Mercy and Truth are not all things our's if we be Christ's Shall not nay is not this already working for our good Faith should and Heaven will make us see and say that God hath done all things well even just as we would have them trust his God let your dependance be upon him we have tried him and have found him very Faithful yea very Gracious and Merciful Blessed be the God of Patience the God of Meekness the God of all Grace and the God of all Comforts for what of these he hath given in at this needful time help us to make his praise Glorious and continue instant in Prayer for us that we may reap some special Benefit and that our Fruit may remain My dear Father besides his wonderful inward Supports and Joys hath had a greater freedom from his bodily Distempers at this time then he hath had for some years past bless God for that too I cannot tell you all his Mercies have been manifold have we not been full of his Goodness O may our hearts our lips our lives be full of his Praise Now what shall we render What projects for Jesus Christ now I will tell you of one when I see you which I would have your Assistance in think on me as to that great Affair of mine you know of I do not see but that Providence still smiles upon it and am apt to think it may not be long before it be put to an issue I am oft full of discouraging Fears about it pray for me and if providence do not yet cross it help me to call our great Friend to the Marriage him that turned their Water into Wine O a good guest would he be A guest did I say nay let him be an inhabitant pray him entreat him beseech him tell him I do not Complement with him But I forgot my self the Lord fill your Soul full of his Goodness and bless you in all your Ways I am your real affectionate Friend I. B. LETTER XXVI To my M. Dear M. I Have been deeply concerned for you for some time of late upon the account of that excessive trouble and sadness of Spirit which hath so sorely born you down of late and as it is my Duty so it would be greatly delightful to me could I but do any thing to help you against that which as it cannot but be displeasing unto God so also very Afflictive to your self and to all that love and tender you I was last week casting in my Thoughts for some Cordial for you and I hope the good Providence of God hath directed me to that which I have here sent you enclosed the God of all comfort bless and make it Effectual it is that which I have sometimes found a wonderful Virtue in my self and therefore I can the better recommend it to you will you promise me to read it over and not only now when you first receive it but whenever you find a fainting fit of Sorrow coming upon you Will you promise me to read it seriously and believingly Why then I dare give you leave to be sad and disconsolate if you can O that I knew but what argument to use with you or with God for you for you are never out of my praying Thoughts I dare not be unfaithful to you I must tell you plainly there is more Sin in it then you are aware of and it is the cause of much Sin I know it by too sad experience my self when I have sometimes been in your Case though then I could not see it alass things were hidden from me Again your Sorrow makes the Devil Merry O it pleaseth him he knows he cannot hurt you hereafter it will be out of his Hands therefore he takes delight in your disquiet here and I tell you mark it for its that I have experienced every time you indulge your self in it will he get the stronger hank upon you which you will be less able to shake off Herein you are very ingenious to your self you know not what inward Peace it deprives you of it quenches the Spirit then it greatly injures you as to your outward