tryals Use 3. If from the Spirit that is in poor fallen man there be such ill fruits as those mentioned against the image people and heritage of the Lord let us not only prize that grace which hath delivered us from that power principle and interest to which all the former fierce Characters do naturally and necessarily agree But on the other hand be very conversant with the Lord for subduing in us the remains of that spirit that lusteth unto envy even in us and that towards them that persecute us there may be shewed forth our Dove-like innocency in pressing toward that Gospel-qualification of praying for them Mat. 5.44 45. Rom. 12.17 to the end 1 Pet. 3.9 and doing them good for all the evil they do to us that we may shew our selves to be the Children of another Father living in another principle and referring our selves in all the injuries done unto us to another judgment and if the Lord will bless it to that end we may hereby leave a powerful conviction that they hate and persecute us as they did our Lord before us without a cause I proceed to take some other Observations from the words Others were tortured Some were tryed otherwayes others this way some were tortured not all all are exercised some way or other every man's work must be tryed Whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution 2 Tim. 3.12 He chasteneth every son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.6 Whomsoever he loves he rebukes and chasteneth Rev. 3.19 But though every man must be tryed it is not appointed that they must all be this way tryed tryed by fire and water tryed by tortures Some were tortured where I note Doct. 2. That though the Lord hath provided tryals for all his Children yet he hath designed tortures but to some of them Thus Christ expresseth himself to his Disciples Some of you they shall put to death Luk. 21.16 The Devil shall cast some of you into prison Rev. 2.10 All Saints are some way tryed they be but some Saints are alwayes tryed All men are born to sorrows Job 5.7 yet but of some it is properly said they are men of sorrows Isa 53.3 Lam. 3.1 Psal 88.15 This is a plain case and obvious to frequent experience Yet because it may be seasonable and useful we may consider it by inquiring into these Two Things 1. Why some are Tortured 2. Why but some are Tortured For the former We now respect tortures as they are more immediately under the disposal and ordering of the Lord appointing more or less in point or measure to more or fewer subjects as it pleaseth him they being such bitter things as afore is described it is enquired Why the Father appoints it to any of his Children To this is answered 1. Negatively not from any love God hath to the Torments or from any lack or abatement of love to his Children he doth not take pleasure to see his precious believing People lie scattered up and down as they are described Psal 141.7 79.2 3. Lam. 4.1 2. as so many marks and monuments of the cruelty and butchery of the sons of men no saith the Psalmist Psal 116.15 Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints he esteems them precious in their lives and puts a value on them in their death It goes as we may speak with reverence near the heart of the Lord to see his Jewels thus dealt withal In all their Afflictions he is afflicted and the Angel of his Presence is with them Isa 63.9 He that toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zech. 2.8 He doth not afflict willingly or grieve the children of men Lam. 3.33 much less the Children of God but rather like as a father pitieth his children so the Lord pittieth them that fear him for he knoweth our frame and considereth that we are but dust Psal 103.13 14. nay he hath testified the greatest displeasure against such as have bin executioners of his rebukes when they have not performed them with pity Zech. 1.15 Isa 47.6 Psal 69.26 27. His Anointed Ones must be very tenderly handled and have no harm done against them Psal 105.14 15. wheresoever they wander Moab hath a charge to do so Isa 16.3 4. and in defect thereof his controversie is dreadful with the Nations Ezek. 25 throughout so chap. 26.2 3. c. 2. But positively and in general thus Though the Lord doth not assign these Tortures these fiery Tryals to his Children for want of love to his or from any delight he hath in such Tortures considered in themselves Yet many times the Lord hath higher and better ends to promote then their deliverance ends that have more of good in them than these Tortures can possibly have of evil and when it is so these dispensations are not only excusable but are to be justified Good is the Word of the Lord. As namely 1. Sometimes in giving his darlings thus to the power of the Dog he designs to bring to light the worth and excellency of some Truths of his which otherwayes would be much obscured if not quite excluded from among the children of men namely such Truths in the vindication of which his children are called and brought forth thus to suffer being wrought to a contentedness rather to endure torments than to let them go When a soul or people having obtained help from God continue witnessing to such Truths whatever it costs them There is reflected this honour upon Truth as was said of it of old Great is Truth and it shall prevail whereas if it should be as it is with the generality of Professors at this day when a Truth comes to be spoken for there is such a shrinking twisting shifting to evade the dint of the Tryal how would the World have too just cause to say What is there in your beloved Truth more than in our beloved Error What is your Profession more than ours your Religion more than ours If there were any excellent thing in it you would do and suffer somewhat excellent and extraordinary for it to take off this stumbling block and occasion therefore from them who seek or desire occasion the Lord is pleased to steel a people to this height We can do nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13.8 And then to shew a proof of Truth in them and the power and goodness thereof he puts them on a tryal proportioned to this design he hath some truth of the Gospel to shew in Paul and then must he be troubled on every side 2 Cor. 4.8 9 10. chap. 6.4 10 11. chap. 11.23 to 29. If the truth of Christ be in him no man shall stop him of his boasting none of these things move him or separate him from the love of God Truth shall be tryed in those vessels of earth though it be by fire seven times and the furnace seven times hotter than aforetime 2. Sometimes the Lord doth by these Tortures assert and
of the heart in that which is not corruptible 1 Pet. 3.4 In this also it is significant that the external cost and detriment that such vigorous attempts may bring upon us ought not to be drawn into the reckoning as worthy to be named or counted dear to our selves so we may bring him Honour bear up his Name serve our Generation finish our Testimony and hereby raise him a sweet savour in the midst of an adulterous age where we are brought forth The debate and resolution between two generous spirits David and Araunah about offering up a sweet savour to the Lord is very teaching 2 Sam. 24.24 I will surely buy it of thee for a price neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing Such as profess a perswasion of the necessity toward this confection of a rich access of the precious things of Heaven such as precious Bloud 1 Pet. 1.19 of a precious Christ 1 Pet. 2.7 apprehended by precious Faith 2 Pet. 1.1 through precious Promises vers 4. in a precious Word 1 Sam. 3.1 answering to those precious things of Heaven c. Deut. 33.13 to 16. Such I say as acknowledge a necessity of these are much overseen to stick at and stand upon things of a lower value such as Father Mother Wife Children Brethren Sisters own Life Luke 14.26 to 33. Mat. 10.37 38 39. Mark 10.28 29 30. as though they were too costly or precious to be laid down upon this honourable account if the Lord have need of them 3dly The Oyntment she brought is in this respect teaching to us That the Application of it was very Manifest Liberal and Diffusive She did not only open pierce and give some vent to it sparingly and gradually but brake the Box pouring it out upon his head It bespeaks the business performed with such good will so throughly and effectually as intended neither secresie nor reservation as his head and all his other parts were filled with the Oyntment answering that Scripture Psal 133.2 so was the whole house intentionally filled with odour of it John 12.3 Christ is principally honoured with our affairs of this kind when we appear most openly and communicatively in sending forth the savour and shewing forth the vertues of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous Light 1 Pet. 2.9 The excellency of this composition is best discerned in its contest with and conquest over opposition then smelling most when censured crushed bruised most holding forth the Word of Life as Lights in the World Phil. 2.15 16. to make all men see what is the fellowship of the Mystery Eph. 3.9 We only then answer the ends and expectation of Christ now pressed after when though in censuring perilous dayes we do in our several places and capacities do what we can by a publick Testimony bear witness to every Truth and Vertue of his and such especially as are most eminently striven against by the wickedness of the dayes and places we live in We come now to speak to the special Ingredients of the Confection which is only competent to preserve a sweet savour to Christ's dying Interest about which for the encouragement and direction of the meanest Saint to do what they can this must be considered That all of them that are a sweet savour unto God they are the Spices and Powders of the Merchants Cant. 6.1 Mark 16.1 brought from far and to be bought at Gospel-prices Rev. 3.18 I counsel thee to buy of me c. That which is of our own growth Phil. 3.8 9. begged or borrowed Mat. 25.9 will not serve the turn This though very precious yet they that have a mind to trade in it may have great penyworths Isa 55.1 2 3. Nor is it the less acceptable to the Lord or thank-worthy that they bring it with this acknowledgement 1 Chron. 29.14 15 16. What am I and what is this people that we should be able to offer so willingly For all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee all this store that we have prepared cometh of thy hand and all is thine own Moreover this should be an encouragement to the poorest weakest Believer That though spiritual gifts of deep knowledge and utterance may do much towards the raising and repute to a dying cause Yet have the graces of the Spirit shining in the hearts and conversation of a poor Believer an estimation of a greater price in the sight of God and a real and direct tendency to glorifie the Name of God in a standing way when the high and renowned gifts of Prophesie may fail and Tongues cease and Knowledge vanish away 1 Cor. 13. to the end The truth of which we have verified in our dayes and may yet further That the great learned famed men who would be thought the only Bulwarks and Champions for the Truth and Cause have shrunk from it and their Names rot and stunk whilest a few poor despised Saints that own themselves nothing and have no might have yet been preserved to abide with Christ in his temptations and having obtained a little strength do not deny his Name Thus hath it been in all Ages Not many Wise c. But God hath chosen the foolish things c. And I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth saith Christ that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes even so Father c. But more particularly 1. In all such Confections there is indespensibly necessary A lively Faith of the operation of God without which it is impossible to please him Heb. 11.6 Rom. 14.23 This contributes strength savour and duration to all other ingredients as they say Ambergreese doth to all Perfumes is in the front of all others 2 Pet. 1.5 And though it be precious v. 1. yet must have vertue still diligently added to it By Faith Joseph when he died made mention of the departure of the Children of Israel gave commandment concerning his bones Heb. 11.22 Many are the excellent exploits recorded by Moses performed by Joseph's Faith yet the Spirit singles this one out doubtless for its exemplary eminency to abide upon this Gospel-File that his Faith at dying though the Light of Israel were for the time seemingly put out with him had such a singular regard to the assurance of the Promise of deliverance that on the single evidence thereof he gave commandment touching his bones What Commandment namely the same he had given touching his Fathers bones Gen. 50.2 That they should be embalmed the better to comport and be in fellowship with the design of the Promise in the truth of which he had so much confidence as he was contented his bones should be kept though imbalmed above ground and not reposed to their proper rest till his people also should be brought to rest in the Land of Promise his Faith preferred a Cave in Canaan before a Pyramid in Egypt
continue not in such a state and carry such corruption about you as will render you utterly incapable of doing any other than raising a stench on the things of Christ. Whatever you have to do about them the purity of this Confection is such as the least evil owned and allowed will diffuse its malignity through it to the vitiating the whole and rendring it of none effect A little such leaven will sowre the whole lump Dead Flyes cause the Oyntment of the Apothecary to stink so doth a little folly c. This is notably illustrated in the case put Hagg. 2.11 14. where is shewed that there is much more force and malignity in a little evil to corrupt much good then there is in much Religious Service of such a People to leave an impression of goodness on things otherwise void of it Look to it that you be very clean who bear the vessels of the Lord in this Service lest you defile this undertaking for the Lord clean hands and a pure heart are indispensibly requisites in this affair Caution 2. Take heed according to what Rules Instructions or Dispensatory you compound this Imbalm I hinted before how exactly careful God was in the Composition both of the Oyl and Pouder that were to perfume his Tabernacle Exod. 30.23 c. No less is he jealous of the present things under consideration Take we heed therefore of false Rules and Principles as namely 1. Take heed how you admit of humane Wisdom and Prudence the consultings of flesh and blood to dictate and give rules in these matters It is very fruitful in multiplying inventions evasions expedients distinctions which indeed have a shew of Wisdom but its frequent that the Serpents subtilty is foisted in in the place of the simplicity of Christ to call any man Master in this matter is very dangerous 2. Take heed you mistake not by seeking the Cheapest instead of the Chiefest way of this Perfuming It 's indeed our wisdom and understanding to set down afore-hand and cast the cost Luke 14.28 31 c. lest having begun you be not able to finish but then it must be brought to this issue vers 33. Whosoever he be that forsaketh not all that ever he hath he cannot be my Disciple Nothing less than all one hath even his whole Living every thing on this side Heaven must be made up in the account if the Lord hath need of it to be laid out on it Caution 3. Admit not Custome common Fame nor common Fear to be your Counsellours These and the like Cautions must be persued But I had rather Conclude with a few Counsels 1. If you do any thing excellent for Christ do it early So did this good Woman both in the Text and at the Sepulchre Many stay their hands from works of this kind till they see what others who are accounted more eminent will do they think it imprudent and to savour of rashness and singularity to be presidential and exemplary but this will one day be found the excellency of Christian activity in works of this nature That they tarry not for men nor wait for the sons of men Micha 5.7 We may in this case allude to that passage 2 Sam. 19.12 Ye are my Brethren ye are my Bone and my Flesh wherefore are ye then the last to bring back the King Many are so late and lingring in works that concern Christ's Glory of this kind putting it off from one time to another till their spirits sink to the work and the things themselves as was said of Lazarus stink in their nostrils 2dly Consider the Royal Extract Descent and Original of this Cause and Interest the Imbalming of which with these sweet Odours you are exhorted to It 's the off-spring of a King of a great King The Wise men were liberal in presenting him with Frankincense and Myrrhe whom they understood to be King of the Jewes though laid in a manger Mat. 2.11 And Jehu had so much generosity when he had done the judgements of God upon Jezebel as to give order 2 Kings 9.34 Go see now this cursed Woman and bury her for she is a Kings Daughter Shall a cursed Woman have a becoming burial because she is a Kings Daughter and shall not the blessed Cause of the King of Kings be better respected though it be thrown to dogs and be meat for them it deserves better for his sake to whom it stands related in Royal Progeny He that as was said was judged by the Wise men of the East worthy of a present of Frankincense Gold and Myrrhe at his birth being born King of the Jewes and of a costly bed of Spices by honourable counsel at his funeral being Crucified as King of the Jewes deserves upon the same account an honourable treatment when any of his things come under clouds and suspition by the men of the times Some Kings indeed were so evil as debarred them from Royal Funerals Jer. 22.18 19. 2 Chron. 21.19 20. But Christ deserves better usuage If you would have your hearts ingaged to this honourable work lay to heart the merit of it at your hands 'T is both nearly related to you and hath done unspeakable worthy things for you while it was in its flourishing capacity and condition It 's very near and natural to you that are Saints as David said Ye are my Brethren ye are my bones and my flesh It is the very Womb wherein we were warmed and broughâ— forth in that state of Saint-ship under the profession whereof we stand Of Sion it shall be said This and that man was born in her Reciprocations of love to such Relations and of endeavours if it were possible to requite them 1 Tim. 5.4 would engage to do our utmost at their Funeral as Joseph imbalmed his Father who tendered him dearly and lamented his supposed death exceedingly Gen. 37.34 35. So would a Mothers Grave because a Mothers be extraordinarily bewayled Psal 35.14 Many that bury an only Child or first-born will spare no cost about it This say they is all the Portion I have to pay it What was said of the men of Jabesh might here be repeated they thought they could do no less to the remembrance of a Father in Israel who had done so well for them or the Exhortations to the Daughters of Israel to weep over him who clothed them in Scarlet with other delights who put on Ornaments of Gold â—pon theiâ— Apparel 1 Sam. 1.24 much more in a â—piriâ—ual sense hath this Interest of Christ deserved at your hands Oh! be not ungrateful at suâ—â— an opportunity as this you may never have the like â—o express yoâ—r ingenuity if you elapse this 4thly Press afâ—er larger participations of a Royal Spirit if you would do any excellent thing at this Funeral Where there are any sparks of true Nobility they will vent themselves this way whereas spirits of a base and sordid complexion will shrink in such a time of cost and hazard as this
Eye and Ear witness and the God that hath hitherto kept us alive to this day cause all those clouds to flee away and bring out your soul yet more fully not only to find pitty from him to escape the snares that others are catcht in to their hurt but grant also that you may come forth as one of those Palm-bearers cloathed in white Rev. 7.9 as having gotten the victory over all Enemies and made to sing with grace in your heart as they vers 10. Salvation to our God which sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb. And the love extended by you to me unworthy and in me to my Lord and Captain of my Salvation Oh! that streams of Salvation may come forth if it be his blessed will from him to you so also make you a blessed pattern of Piety Purity and Stability for him whom I desire to serve in the Gospel His Sister asked Will you have some Cordial He said Oh! when shall I drink of that good new Wine in my Father's Kingdom In a morning his Friend asked him What of the Night He said It hath been a long Night But saith his Friend The Morning comes Yea said he as a snare on it comes stealing upon the world but the Children of the Day and of the Light that have on the Armour of Light shall have no cause to fear He Exhorted a good Woman that watched with him with all earnestness to close walking with the Lord. His Sister said to him I hope Brother as your Tribulations abound your Consolations abound He said It was a hard question Consolations being very inward deep things She then asked how he felt his Heart He replied I feel the fleshly parts declining apace but I trust the spiritual renewing But saying further to his Sister Come are you wiling to part with me yet She answered Yes in some measure she hoped she was considering his pains on the one hand and the glory that should follow Then said he Be careful I charge you to walk close with God in your generation and take heed of departing from his wayes but walk as becomes a Christian that would be found to his praise After this through extremity of pains the exercise of his Understanding was at seasons interrupted but very sensible and spiritual in his Intervals One asked him How it was with him He said Vnder great rebukes from the Land by reason of sin Saying I have been a wretched sinner have perverted my way and my walks with God have been short and formal But Oh! that it may go well with Israel in the latter dayes though I be as reprobate silver because the Lord hath rejected me It was told him If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous who is the Propitiation for our sins Yea saith he through Faith in his Blood he is so and thither doth my soul flee He was also cautioned to take heed of casting away any his Confidence that hath great recompence of reward and of making a judgement of things in an hour of temptation and tribulation contrary to another judgement made and confirmed by the Lord again and again to him heretofore minding him how the Tempter waited such seasons to disturbe him and drive him from the strength he had laid up for him in Grace that is in Christ Jesus when Grace in us may be but at a low ebb Yea replyed he I would leave this Exhortation with you that when God bruises breaks treads down a poor soul and it lyes before him as ashamed and confounded and not able to open its mouth Oh! then to look up to the Lord for then will the Tempter be busie at such seasons for we are not ignorant of his devises but if God give another day and more strength I hope to speak more convincingly of these things The next day being asked How it was with him Whether all were clear within He said It was very tempestuous round about but yet the Lord is instructing and answering such a poor worm from the secret place of thunder And afterward sayes It will be better and there is hope in the end for all this And then broke out with admiration saying He is ever mindful of his Covenant Holy and Reverent is his Name he is a God near to those that fear him in the needful season Sometimes after one saying to him I hope you can yet say God is good and a strong hold in the day of trouble and knows them that trust in him Yes I can say so blessed be my God but not alike at all times can I say so but I remember the counsel and advise yesterday to wait on the Lord and keep his way and my place appointed me by God which I desire to do all the dayes of my appointed time till my change come though flesh and blood suggest this is hard work and would make haste out of it In the morning following being asked How is it now He said God had been at work closely with his Spirit in the three dayes past before this though this was left him for support That the foundation of God remains sure to all his sealed ones but sayes he I have been ready to say Why should I speak of sealed ones being such a one as might for mine iniquities be sealed up to a day of Wrath and be kept in chains of Darkness to the great day I have been so foolish to think my attainments were such as if I were got to the top and needed little more but the Lord hath laid Judgement to the Line and Righteousness to the Plummet and hath not only thrown down the high raised Structure but razed the very foundations of all fleshly glory and excellency and the Lord hath delivered his glory into Captivity and his strength into the Enemies hand yet hath not left me without hope I trust good hope in mercy that all notwithstanding shall issue well in the end But Oh! the reproach that I have brought on the Name of God! might that be done away by all I feel and suffer inward and outward I shall rejoyce In the After-noon the same day it was said to him I have observed by some hints from you That you have in these few dayes past had some exercises on your Spirit I would be glad to know whence and what they were and the way of God with you in them He replyed He had indeed some such exercise occasioned by close searches made in his soul about the clear and certain right and title it had to a substantial well-founded Interest in Christ which though sayes he I have mentioned heretofore to you and others what it was and how it was the Lord had begot and carried on in me and thought it had been above questions yet had I some doubts and fears renewed of a very ancient date about if not above thirty years ago with many miscarriages since to promote the same matter and this
and execute Laws which have direct threatnings and a present tendency that way toward such as you who stand in a profession of Christ's which testifieth that their works are evil This rage hath already invaded and uncovered some Families among you and multitudes in other places and all such as will live godly in Christ Jesus must expect the like not as if some strange thing hapned to them and therefore should be in daily preparation to make and leave their own such as are instructed and have learned to trust in God and to own and improve a Relation for themselves in him according to their capacity which may make an abundant supply to this lack or loss of your company and society which will turn to their great blessing and help to your confident and comfortable surrendring them up to the Lord in a way of folâ—owing him whithersoever he goeth and may call â—r dispose of you 2. These are times in which a more than ordinary disadvantage and danger is designed to spoyl and destroy both Infants and Youth not only in respect of their Schooling which must be carried on by such Tutors and under such Rules as tend to tempt and subject them to suck-in the Principles of that Apostasie and misery that the former years have been delivered from or else can hardly make any procedure in Learning requisite to accomplish them But principally are they exceeding liable to danger and destruction if the Lord wonderfully prevent not by means of their unavoidable company and converse with other youths of their growth and degree the which generally is become everywhere so wanton wicked debauched through the looseness of the times and the countenance that all filthiness finds where it ought to be punished and restrained that unless your Children and Servants be through a blessing on your Prayers and Endeavours in-laid with good Principles in awakened Conscience followed with constant Instruction and an exemplary Conversation with a wise moderated steady discipline it will be a marvellous thing if thâ—y be not utterly spoiled become a scourge and torment to you and at length repent that ever they saw you and perish in the gain-sayings of this wicked and adulterous generation 3. The dayes that have passed over you havâ— been dayes of the Lord 's wonderful Salvations and the stretching forth of his Arm in these Nations to dâ— marvellous things toward the getting himself a glorious Name The putting away the remembrance oâ— which from under Heaven and razing out of all thâ— marks and monuments thereof is the manifest design of the wicked men of this generation The memory whereof as it alwayes ought to be dear to you who have been blessed in those Salvations and have sung his praise So should it be your great care to preserve the same by teaching and instructing those committed to your charge therein and that not only in the History and Letter of them the very memory whereof will be famous in the ages to come but especially in the inward Principles Springs and Spirit of them as well as the issues whereunto they were by the Lord intended that yours may be able to tell the generations to come and the people uncreated may praise the Lord. Which things your off-spring will only be capable to understand and sutably to comply with the Lords motions and designs therein when they shall be spiritually instructed in and experimentally acquainted with the way and operations of the Lord on the Spirits of his People to which your utmost diligence is indispensibly required as ever you would glorifie God in your generation 4. Moreover you generally profess your selves to be such as expect glorious dayes to succeed the deep tryals that are or are coming on upon the heritage of the Lord and do you not wish so well to your own as to do what in you lies that they should have a share in that Salvation which your selves have professed longed prayed laboured suffered for And how think you will they be capable of bearing that glory or suppose there be yet a reserve of tryals for them that are to usher it in which will be very full of power and purity unless they be indeed brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord instructed in Christ as the Truth is in him and from a fellowship in his Spirit brought within the compass of the rich and glorious Promises which shall manifest and convey the blessed things unto the Ages to come that instead of the Fathers may be the Children 5. Add hereunto that the force and violence of this evil time is such as doth drive you frequently and may yet be expected to drive you more from your stated seasons on the first dayes of the Week and other times of following the Lord in those solemn publick Appointments and Institutions of the Gospel unto your Family retirements at least a great part of your time in those dayes the which affords you more enlarged opportunities than you had formerly to teach and instruct your own houshoulds great and small according to their capacity in the things of the Kingdom to the which you are concerned to give all heed diligence and indeavour not in any neglect of opportunities in the Assemblies of the Saints while they do continue or may be had but when there is an interval the solemn exercises in the Church being ended or when through force and fury they shall if the Lord shall permit them to be so utterly broken as you should be reduced again to that ancient way of the Saints being governed as in Abrahams and the Patriarchs time in Family-Worship You are I say so much the more concerned to set your selves vigorously to this work of endeavouring that your houses may become as so many Churches of Christ in respect of that Instruction reading the Scriptures Praying gracious Conference Discipline exemplary Walking in all holy Conversation and Godliness which ought to be professed and maintained in beauty set in majesty among them and in this sense to be setting your houses in order for you know not how soon these very staves of beauty and bands may be violently invaded disturbed and broken by the same spirit of hatred which now offers force to your more solemn Assemblings While therefore you have this price in your hand this undisturbed opportunity you should be doing this good I hope I need not largely follow these with other Arguments which might be drawn out at length from the inestimable value of their immortal souls the redemption whereof is precious which now are committed to your care and over-sight and will be strictly required at your hands in the day of Accompts that draweth nigh and that the rather for that now is their making or marring time which effects you may expect will and frequently do follow according as you either are found in the due and diligent discharge of your duty among them or are negligent and remiss therein Little it is considered and laid
to heart how much of the interest of your present peace and the comfort of your lives is laid up in your wise constant gracious endeavour of this kind and the Lord's blessing thereupon Whereas on the contrary it were well if the common reproach upon the Name of the Lord were altogether groundless and that it were not too evidently to be seen in many Families of Professors that their Children and Servants are as rude untaught incorrigible wanton wicked unruly as any others as if the only care upon those entrusted with the Headship of Families were and that hardly performed as it ought to be to have them brought forth and brought up to Adam or to Earth rather to learn their Books Complements Manners and Trades but to understand themselves to learn Christ to know the Lord God of their Fathers to be instructed in the Holy Scriptures from their youth up to know themselves miserable without a Saviour and to be led as by the hand unto him Oh! how rare are these attainments and that because endeavours are so slack in order thereunto I pray you examine your selves your prayers your practices your conversations where are the bowels of Christ towards your own Do you travel in birth again for them till he be formed in them Should it not be much more your care to see them Saints than to see them men and women Alas if you Families who would bear the World in hand that there is some excellent thing among you more than others be not taught the fear of the Lord where do you think a Seed should be reared up to serve him that in the stead of the Fathers should be the Children accounted with God for a generation Among worldly men it may not be expected whose Children are ordinarily the off-spring of their lust the painted Idols of the rich and pinching burdens of the Poor and their Servants the meer drudges to promote the Interest of their ease gain and covetousness few enquiring or caring what becomes of their immortal precious souls The manifest ruines upon whom unless the Lord work extraordinarily upon them should provoke us to pitty them and be the more jealous over our own concernments herein in order hereunto suffer this further word of Exhortation Make it I beseech you your main business to set before them the pattern of a standing even serious holy conversation Fâ—milies do usually receive faster and deeper the impression of the similitude of their dispositions and behaviour who have the over-sight and government of them than of their meer precepts and exhortations The Majesty and Authority which God hath entrusted and invested you with among them is only held up in its enamouring beauty and convincing power while you improve it much in the fear of God neither debasing it on the one hand by a vain fond frothy lightness in your spirits and carriage toward or before them or exercising it by a proud furious imperious domineering over them on the other hand Much spiritual wisdom lyes in your tempering and mixing a sweet affable behaviour without vanity with a grave reproving demeanour without fierceness and this not in an affected appearance but in truth nor only at uncertain fits and flashes but in a constant fixed frame within doors and without Consider also you have in their sight taken up an high and holy Profession of the Cause and Institutions of Christ and those about you are likely to be someway interested in the sufferings you are threatned to sustain for your adhering faithfully thereunto in respect whereof it will be their happiness that you hold fast in their eye and as their example these truths in a pure Conscience to which you have begun to witness not only for the Truths sake themselves which deserve that you should deliver them to the next generation unmixed and unbetrayed by you but for your own dear Relations sake also before whom it would be sad should you lay such a stumbling-block in the beginning of their way as doth bespeak so loud as you can proclaim it that there is no such thing as Truth worth your adhering to in a day of tryal and consequently worth their enquiring after imbracing or engaging themselves in in times of such persecution I hope better things of you and such as accompany Salvation though thus I write trusting that you either do or will do the things which I desire or rather the Lord requires of you to whom I leave you and rest Yours many wayes obliged to love and serve you for Christ's sake To a Friend in a time of Great uncertainties as to publick Transactions A spiritual understanding of the times and what Israel ought to do be granted largely to you Holy and Beloved I Think yours of the 9th and 16th instant are both of date later than my last to you by which you may easily perceive my aptness to tire in prosecuting divine advantages At present I was willing to have followed you closer but that my frequent little Journeys have of late prevented me How faithful is that Word and verified to a thousand generations Whoso is wise and shall observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. And that none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand If ever there was a time to have the eye of Saints kept very intent upon the Lord to trace out his footsteps it seems now to be such a time when his Pavilion is darkness and fire enfolding it self to be then divinely enabled to read not ony particular loving kindness sealed up to the observer in special but to see the Salvation of Israel carried on in a strait path and that he that buildeth Sion worketh still by line and plummet is a grace bestowed not in common in the House of God but is methinks one of the special love-tokens by which he will shew among all his Disciples who is the Beloved One that leans on his bosom and that have the favour to ride in the Chariot the midst whereof is paved with Love for the Daughters of Jerusalem I may take up a just mournful Lamentation of my own short-sightedness and incapacity I had almost said impossibility to discern with any distinction of apprehension the Temple of God open in Heaven and in it the Ark of the Testament while there proceedeth out of the Throne and by means of the Censor cast into the Earth such lightnings and thundrings and voices and earth-quakes and great hail Only I durst not say short of this the Lord giveth me now and than a glimps of the King in his Glory and the Land that is very far off And ah then how good is a Pisgah-sight of Canaan It 's even as the Chariots that Joseph sent that revived fainting Jacob what life and signification it manifests to lie hid in such a word as this Yet God is good to Israel Yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God
had not trod with our feet in dayes past Yet hitherto hath his bountiful Provision and tender Care over us exalted it self in a distinguishing manner and many times to our admiration so as hitherto our Bread hath not failed but hath been given to us in due season and our Waters have been sure so that knowing how little we are yet fitted to bear as a Father pittieth his Children in their low estate he hath not proved us with hunger or with straights nor called us up to approve our selves his Witnesses in necessities in distresses c. but our lot hath rather been to partake of the fat and sweet and soft insomuch as if he put that Question to us to be resolved according to that express literal sense of it When I sent you forth on the Services and Sufferings that attend your Testimony and you knew not whither you went Lacked you anything We must answer Nothing Lord but in that respect have in hand or we trust in some degree of sweet satisfaction we have all and abound and are full by the favour of him who giveth us all things richly to enjoy and is we would humbly hope teaching us in whatsoever state we are therewith to be content So that at many of the strange preventions of loving-kindness even in things of this sort we are often made with admiration to cry out What is this to us Lord Is this after the manner of men O God! Is this a Prison If we should have sought a Prison in a Prison these six or seven years Have we yet found it Whatever others in the same fellowship of bonds with us have found we must say for our parts That as we have escaped the Sword and we hope the Polutions of the Adversary so we have found great Grace in the Wilderness for his People his Chosen The which we mention not only that we may praise the Lord together while ye observe that we receive not nor accept not so thankfully your Present in respect of need through that unspeakable gift and care of his who hath hitherto continued the Bread of the day in its day but that herewithal we might take hold of an apt occasion to take you by the hand and lead you with a little the more encouragement up and down in those wayes of the Lord wherein we must sing Great hath been the goodness of our God even in the experiences that we have passed practically through in the Doctrine and Profession whereof we had been trained up in our years of plenty and prosperity so that we must say The Land that we have been sent to spy out even in the straitest passages of it as far as our Father assigned us to follow him in is a very good Land and if we rebel not against the Lord but abide with him those very circumstances that at a distance seem like sons of Anak and walls reaching up to Heaven apt to eat up the Inhabitants are well able to be overcome and will be found Bread for us while we stand and feed in the strength of the Lord and in the majesty of the Name of the Lord our God so that these Serpents at a distance from which we are apt to flee are found to believing but a rod and that a rod of God too when taken in the hand And could we come forth to you in Truth and Evidence as wise and right improvers of the sensible experiments we have actually found tasted seen and handled hitherto of this sort and that the savour of these excellent things had not been diminished in these souls of ours through too much an in observent careless earthly disposition bringing us down from our advantages of excellency we might speak more loudly to you than now we can Oh! taste and see that the Lord is good blessed are they that put their trust in him The Lions among whom we dwell do want and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord lack nothing that is good In the midst of their sufficiency they are in straits while in the straits designed to wear out the people of the Saints of the most high there is a provision made of sufficiency be ye therefore strong and very strong and very couragious and God shall strengthen your hearts And now for a thankful acknowledgement though it may not be interpreted as any requital of your holy liberality What shall we farther say than that we do as we are able bring the matter in our requests and thanksgivings unto him who is able to make all Grace abound toward you All-sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness which causeth in us thanksgivings unto God And this we beg on your behalf not as if we desired a gift or that it should be so again done to us knowing that there are many watery faces everywhere requiring Bread to be cast upon them as under far greater necessity than our selves But as hâ—ving perswasion and some small experience what a great recompence it is in such case to have the mouth and hand opened from the hearts being enlarged with those expatiating Graces and Vertues of the Spirit of the New Testament that constitute a true largeness of heart like the Sand on the Sea-shore and to encrease that greatness that is proportionate to the large discoveries of believing doing suffering-Grace and Preparations for expected Glory In order to it we desire for you all and intreat you to press and pursue after 1 Greater advances toward newness of heart the old heart will be as old bottles and an old garment that will not comport with the new Wine which is yet in the Cluster and a blessing in it though men attempt to destroy it And this is not only a newness of state but a newness also of frame by means whereof the inner-man may pass under experimental renewings day by day even the renewings in the Spirit of your minds by which the Truths Wayes and Works of the Lord the King may have an intimate access and abundant enterance into your own souls and you into them in their vertue dominion and power 2 Greater approaches in a way of heavenliness and nearness to the Lord at distance from the spirit of this evil World where the World is set in the heart the God of this World will be quickly filling it narrowing and enclosing it for earthly service and this not only in men of Earth who have their portion in this life but also in those that are by the Blood of Christ delivered from the gross pollutions of this prâ—sent evil World through lust but yet much concerned in the business cares and intricating-affairs of its many things which though lawful in themselves to be diligently prosecuted yet as lying under the influence and advantages of the Prince of it having a notable tendency to bring souls down from their excellency and to eat out insensibly the liveliness and sweetness of our spirits longer and further than the Victory that overcomes it in the vertue of the Cross of Christ by which we are crucified to it and it to us be kept up on fresh exercise 3 Right waitings for and waitings on the Spirit of Promise who is of power to quicken dry bones raise dead Witnesses and do great things in and for us which shall not be resisted nor need not be assisted with might and power though for a time the work about it may be made to cease with force and power We shall say no more at present but with the representation of our oblieged respects to every one of you as if known by Name leaving you in the blessed arms of our Beloved we remain 22th of the 9th mon. 67. Your Brethren waiting for the Consolation of Israel POST-SCRIPT IF any inquire what might occasion so much severity as to detain the Author so many years and until death a Prisoner It may suffice to insert here for the Readers satisfaction That in the state of his case left under his hand setting forth the illegality and unrighteousness of proceedings against him He concludes it thus If it should be suggested Perhaps he is a Ring-leader This true Character of the Person may alleviate jealousies of that kind He was born at Plymouth of mean yet honest Parentage is not by Kindred or any Alliance related to any Person or Family of any Note at all was not bred up to Learning at any University or sent any where to Travel for Education or Experience but contrariwise brought up and kept diligently by his Parents to Work in the poor yet honest Trade of a FVLLER never lived out of that Town a Month together all his life except in a Journey some Weeks on occasion about sixteen years since to London besides what he under-went by constraint in Prison Never in the former Wars was enlisted in any Troop or Company under Pay and in the Trained-Bands of the Town where he served never was accounted worthy of Promotion to so much as a Corporal nor in the Corporation whereof he was a Member ever advanced so high as a Constable never bettered his Estate one farthing by all the propitious advantages that might have given him opportunity for so doing nor is conscious to himself of the least desire of adding to what he hath by any present or future advantages that any favourable overtures of the times may tempt him with never was advanced to or improved in any Place or Office of Trust or Profit Civil Military or Ecclesiastical save only for some few weeks unknown to him and against his will he was Mustered a Chaplain to the Fort but quickly got himself discharged of that again Never was concerned in nor truly charged with any Plot Mutiny or Tumult giving the least disturbance or occasion of Fear or Jealousie This one thing then only can remain to give colour to such proceedings That about eighteen years since he being convinced of his Duty to the Lord by evidence of Scriptural Light joyned himself in an holy Covenant to walk in all the Ordinances of the Lord blameless to the best of his Light and Power in fellowship with a poor and despised People FINIS