meat for those that are of full age profounder and more mysterious Doctrines The Stewards of the House appointed to dispense both to both as they are able to bear them As the head of the House taught them to do by his practice every part and particle of the Holy Scriptures Histories Precepts Prohibitions Promises threatnings are all of them choice Viands wherewith holy Souls are satisfied as with marrow and fatness Nor are they only meat but Medicinal also and therefore called wholsome words that have a healing property in them The Spirit of God accompanying his word is called by our Saviour the Water of Life Hadst thou asked of me said he to the Woman of Samaria that denyed to give him of her Water I would have given thee a better and far more excellent kind of Water than this is that I have desired of thee Whosoever drinketh of this Water shall thirst again but whoever shall drink of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst Of this living Water they that dwell in God do drink continually whereby the thirst of their Souls after earthly things the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life is quenched And their consciences are satisfied and quieted against the sense and apprehension of Gods wrath due for their fins And the sense of his love affected by this Water is better than Wine whose property is to comfort the heart beget new Spirits purge warm refine and waken them Yea this House is a House of Wine And the graces and fruits of the Spirit are delightful to them as Wine with which they being spiritually drunk have inward spiritual joy bred in them testified in the private and publick praises of God by Psalmes Hymns and spiritual Songs Their hearts being merry and chearful They make a rejoyce as if they were set on fire with Wine But here is another food which every one of this House have for commons every Day The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ His flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed Note well that spiritual things have their truth and reality as much and beyond comparison in their kind as corporal ones have theirs This meat and drink surpasseth all other upon a manifold account 1. Of the place from whence it comes This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven Not out of the middle Region of the Aire as Manna did but from the highest Heaven 2. The Variety of Viands in it for all things are in Christ who of God is made unto us Wisdome Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption Let our wants be what they will let our wills be what they can to feed on this or that dish Nothing can be imagin'd nourishing or cheering which is not to be found in Christ Manna which was but a type of this true bread is said to have had all sorts of good tasts in it 3. Of the sufficiency of it for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily The whole Mass and gathering together of all Divine and everlasting goods Whereof the parcels and streams do issue out upon the Church They are in him not in shaddows and figures as in the Old Testament but in reality and substance And of his fulness have we all received grace for grace Not a fulness of abundance only but a fulness of redundance also out of which a sufficient portion is distributed to every of his Members There can be no want in him where Riches are unsearchable As he is able to save them unto the uttermost that come unto God by him and so to satisfie them that feed upon him as it is said of those four thousand Men beside Women and Children They did all eat and were filled 4. Of the powerful efficacy that is in it I am the Bread of Life That is there remains in me received and applyed by a lively faith power to quicken the Soul that is dead in sin separated from God the true Spring of Life and to preserve it alive by a communicative and continual influence of Divine grace and to give it also the life of joy and comfort yea and to cure not only all the Maladies that molest the Life of Grace but of Nature also 5. Of the permanency of it this is not like other Food and Physick that perisheth it self and is not able to keep the body into which it is received from perishing Upon which account we are forbidden to labour for it Labour not for the Meat which perisheth but for that Meat which endureth to everlasting life which the Son of Man shall give unto you What is that The Bread that I will give is my Flesh If any Man eat of this Flesh he shall live for ever This Meat and Drink is every Day received by this whole Houshold not after a corporal and carnal manner as those Capernaites conceived Christs meaning How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat But by believing that it was given for them and is the Price of their sins to God He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst As Meat is received into the stomack by eating so is Christ into the Soul by believing He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him that is to say is inseparably united to me and I to him even as food is with him that eats it This and no other way is this meat and drink received in the Holy Supper wherein here is or ought to be a frequent communicating where and when every Communicant by eating and drinking the consecrated Bread and Wine being Sacramentally Christ's body and blood Signes to represent it Seals to confirm aud Instruments really to exhibit them doth acknowledge and preach the benefits of the Lord's Death and protesteth to take part thereof by a lively faith which is as the Eye and Hand to the Mouth and Stomack of the Soul taking Christ into and uniting him to them even as corporal Food is by eating and digesting united to the Body 6. This is that Feast of fat things of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined which the Lord of Hosts promised to all Nations gathered together in his Church to some of all veiling Heavenly things under Earthly condescending so low as to enter into the inward Man by the outward our apprehensions being so weak and narrow that we cannot otherwise be acquainted with them while our Souls are in our Bodies They are much guided by our fancy and then spiritual things are conveyed to them this way only we must remember that there is a far greater excellency in the things themselves than in their representations For what is
use of lawful things 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. 1 Thes 5. 5 6. Luke 21. 34. 2. Filial fear of God Pro. 14. 16. Rom. 14. 16. 16. 6. Psal 4. 4. 130. 4. Gen. 20. 11. Psal 36. 1. Jer. 32. 42. 3. Remembrance of God's Judgments Mat. 24. 37 38 42. Es 47. 8 9. Rev. 3. 3. Luke 21. 34 35 c. 1 Cor. 10. 15. 12. especially of the last Judgment 2. Cor. 5. 10. There are other notable helps Viz. Growing in knowledge a blind Man is unfit to make a Watch-man A spirit of mistrust-fulness a Master that mistrusts a Servant will watch to catch him Living under a powerful Ministry a Trumpet continually sounding is a good meanes to keep a Man from sleeping Desiring Friends to admonish you when ever you nod They that are inclined to sleep mortally are desirous that others should pinch them to keep them waking Sobriety and temperance in eating and drinking A Drunkard will make an ill Watch-man If you will know what are the signs of a truly watchful Christian they are such as these He discovers the secret windings and turnings of his own heart the least stirring there and much more if the Fire of any Lust begin to kindle there If there be any Fray there he presently stifles it And if need be he calls for help If any good news comes he takes present notice of it and makes it known Psal 66. 16. No blessing of God towards himself or the Church that he does not take thankful notice of If there be Lightning or Thunder or any dreadful Apparition of God's judgment he trembles at it loves and delights in the Morning light And for that reason feares not Death the immediate antecedent of it Qu. Are all of God's holy houshold alway thus waking and watching Ans The Holy Spouse of Christ acknowledgeth that there was a time when she slept having eaten and drank largely of her heavenly Husbands blessings She began to remit her Zeal and neglect the works of Faith and Love Wanting the pretence of her Husband and being pressed with the remnants of the Flesh she gave Eare to carnal ease and security occasioned further hereunto by the time of the Night and by the weather which was Rainy that is by ignorance and errour prevailing and by the opposition and persecution of Enemies Her sleep was neither that dead sleep that all Men are in by nature nor that judicial sleep the spirit of slumber a farther degree of that natural sleep to which God gives up some as a Seal of their desperate condition but it was a sleep arising from the reliques of natural corruption unsubdued prevailing over the regenerate part yet was her heart all this while awake I sleep but my heart waketh Though she had a little laid aside her divine thoughts and meditations yet she still kept the eye of Faith open and the eare of her Heart attentive When the Lord had returned Thus the wise Virgins slumbered and slept but they had their Lamps burning by them which the foolish had not Their hearts waked Mat. 25. 5. They were provided in them with instructions in faith and piety and with the gift of the spirit which is the Oyl that alway burneth in all good hearts howsoever not alwayes in actual exercise But O! the dreadful danger that good Christians are in when it is not so through the letting down of their spiritual watch and giving way to sluggishness there being no sin no temptation no judgment but a secure drowsie Christian is open for Which is the reason of so often inforcing watchfulness by the spirit of God in the Scriptures And therefore I beseech you suffer a word of exhortation to the next special duty incumbent upon all whose habitation the Lord is Namely to be always working God will not have one idle or sloathful Person in his House Every one must have a particular honest Calling The Light of Nature taught the Heathens this as appeares by Pharaoh's question to Joseph's Brethren What is your occupation Gen. 47. 3. And the Marriners to Jonas What is thy occupation Forty Years was Moses a Courtier and Forty Yeares more a Shepheard that great Men may not be ashamed of honest Vocations the greatest that ever have been content to take up with mean Trades The contempt of honest Callings in those that are well born argues pride without wit How constantly did Moses stick to his Shepherds Hook and yet a Man of great learning excellent spirit good education I presume all you that dwell in God are in lawful Callings wherein you may be serviceable to the Church or Common-wealth or private Families In these the Apostle forbids you to be sloathful Not sloathful in business To be sloathful is to be loath to work willing and desirous to shift it off Pro. 21. 25. 24. 23. To be negligent in working taking up more time than needs or not to endeavour to do it well Not to be sloathful is to be ready and forward to be employed Esay 6. 8. and to be diligent and expeditious and industrious to do business in the best manner Gen. 31. 6. That every Christian Man and Womans duty is to be thus employed continually appears because God prohibits sloathfulness and commands diligence Heb. 6. 12. Pro. 6. 9. Gen. 3. 19. Mark 13. 34. 1 Thes 4. 11. Curseth sloathfulness and blessed diligence Pro. 10. 47. 23. 21. 24. 30. to the end Jer. 48. 10. Pro. 13. 11. 28. 19. Eccl. 5. 12. Mat. 25. 16 17 21 23. O that every one would look upon idleness and sloth as a great sin as theft 2 Thes 3. 10 11 12. Prodigality Pro. 18. 9. Sodomy a sin that disposeth a Man to all manner of sin and which shall be punished with the vengeance of Eternal Fire Mat. 25. 26 30. And Heathens and Bruits shall rise up in Judgment against idle sloathful Christians You therefore that are sure you dwell in God take heed of damping your assurance and blurring your evidence by giving the least way to idleness or sloathfulness in your Callings Are you Magistrates be continually imploying and applying your power and authority to the uttermost for the ends for which God hath given it to you Rom. 13. 4. 1 Tim. 2. 2. 2 Chr. 19. 6. to the end Consider God's wrath declared against you if you be slothful to execute Judgment even upon your dearest Relations that deserve it In the example of Eli 1 Sam. 3. 13 14. On the other side the pleasure he will take in you and delight to do you good if you be faithful and severe Jer. 22. 15 16. Numb 25. 11 12 13. 2 King 10. 30. If you be Ministers let the weightiness of the work and glorious reward promised to laboriousness therein and the Plagues threatned against loyterers move you 1 Cor. 4. 2. 2 Tim. 2. 15. 4. 1 2. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Es 58. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 16. Dan. 12. 3. Jer. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 9. 16. If you
quite cut off from the spiritual communion with Christ the true foundation of life and grace Or if they have brought forth any fruit at any time materially good the root and manner and end have been all naught stark naught worse than naught They never did any thing for God in obedience and out of love to him or with an intent to honour and please him thereby Take them at the best and it may be said of them what was said of Israel Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit unto himself They have been self-seekers and selfdependers and self-ascribers in all that ever they have seemed to do for God Answ To this Objection I have these two things to say 1. That it is possible for a Man to be in God and yet to see no goodness at all in himself nothing but evil nothing at all to commend him to God nothing but what may make him odious in his sight The Centurion saw nothing of worth in himself why Christ should come to him or he to Christ Though others thought him to be a worthy Man and so reported him to be to Christ And Christ himself gives testimony not only he had true faith but a great measure of it I have not found so great faith no not in Israel No more did the Woman of Canaan see any goodness in her self she confesseth her self to be an unclean Person but Christ both graceth and gratifieth her gives a very high commendation of her Heroical Faith And what goodness saw Paul in himself when he said I am a carnal Man sold under sin Hear the Confession of our Holy Mother and all her Genuine Children We are all an unclean thing all our righteousness is as filthy rags We acknowledge that our Persons and all our actions even the most praise worthy of them namely those wherewith we did thy service are all contaminated with abominable filth 2. That it is an Argument of true goodness to see little goodness much evil in thy self If thou canst and dost bewail the absence of that the presence of this findest a disallowance and deep detestation of it in thy heart and makest continual resistance against it Mourning for the want and absence of a friend argues truth of affection and love to him Thou wouldst not couldst not grieve because thou art not good if there were not in thee a love of goodness And the sight of so much sin in thy Soul proves thee to have light in it For whatsoever doth make manifest is Light And thy sensibleness of the burden of thy sins tells thee that thou livest much more thy stirring and strugling to be rid of them and the War thou makest against them A dead man can neither feel nor stir nor strive there is therefore spirit in thee as well as flesh For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Every new Man is two Men. The two Armies in the Shulamite maintain civil broyles within her as the two Babes did in Rebecca's Womb. This Combate with Corruption may comfort thee Though still I must grant that as there is natural life and conscience in the wicked so common Grace may strive uneffectually in them And the Spirit in the Godly does conquer their reigning sin as well as strive but not all their infirmities Saint Paul doth comfort himself with this raising up his Soul even to an holy insultation and triumphing For after he had described the two contrary principles the Combatants within him the unregenerate and regenerate part and the combate or conflict it self between them That hindering from the evil which he would do and putting him upon the evil he would not do This disapproving and hating the evil which he did and approving the good which he did not he comforts himself in this that he consented to the Law of God delighted in it that to will to keep it perfectly was present with him and although he found a foyl given to the new man captivated which makes him make a miserable out-cry Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death that is tyed to me and which I am compelled to carry about with me tired with the luggage and poysoned with the stench Yet through the Grace of God in Jesus Christ I am filled with comfort rejoyce and triumph as more than a Conqueror I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin I bless God for his Grace in Christ who doth not impute this corruption unto me to condemnation But still that it is only sins of infirmity and not such as are inconsistent with spiritual life which were in Paul and are in all the Godly So though thou seest nothing but Flesh in thy self if a Man may believe thee yet thou walkest not after it for though thou walkest in the Flesh yet thou dost not fulfill the lusts of the flesh followest not with consent the motions of thy own natural corruption Thou sowest not to the Flesh taking no other care but to please thy carnal appetite but on the contrary thou sowest to thy Spirit imploying thy care and labour in obedience to the motions of the Holy Spirit that thy will is to do so thou canst say in sincerity and this may be thy rejoycing as it was Paul's Obj. But I am full of hypocrisie which Paul was free from all the signes of hypocrisie that I finde in the Bible I finde in my self not one sign of sincerity Answ What the Apostle saith of Sin in general If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves may be said of this sin of hypocrisie if we say we have no hypocrisie the truth of Grace is not in us Obj. But it 's said of Israelites indeed that there is no guile in them And they only are blessed in whose Spirit there is no guile therefore I have cause to conclude my self cursed Answ These places must be understood as those where it is said Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin and his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God They also do no iniquity The meaning is they give not themselves over to sin they sin not with full consent they fall not into the purpose though sometimes into the act of Sin Sin reigns not in their mortal Bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof It hath not Dominion over them Obj. But this Sin of Hypocrisie Reignes in me Answ But that it doth not is evident by this because thou discernest it and art so troubled with it complainest to God and Men of it and judgest thy self for it and hatest it
to draw them from Perdition without any vain respects or considerations as Men draw things out of the Fire in any fashion or what way they can First Them that you finde grosly ignorant instruct in Fundamental Truths without the distinct knowledge whereof no Man can have any entrance into this House Especially you that have Children and Servants take pains in Catechising them till they be as able and ready to render a reason of their Faith as to answer to their Names These words which I command thee this Day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy Children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy House and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up and ye Fathers bring up your Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But you must not neglect to instruct strangers also even Beggars that come to your Doors they have precious immortal Souls which you should be as willing to relieve as your Bodies You that are godly Women as well as Men must perform this duty We finde Women not only teaching their Husbands Manoah's Wife said unto her husband concluding the Death of himself and her If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would at this time have told us such things as these and their Children and Servants What my Son and what the Son of my Womb and what the Son of my vow give not thy strength unto Women nor thy wayes unto that which destroyeth Kings She openeth her Mouth in wisdome among her Maidens and in her Tongue is the Law of Kindness sweet and gracious speeches sounding to edification in knowledge and holinesse but expounding the way of God to others also Aquila and Priscilla took Apollos to them and expounded to him the way of God more perfectly Seeing godly Women may and should be private patterns and may have a gift of expounding Scripture and much more private Men and use that gift in the presence of Ministers for the edification of others yea of Ministers themselves 2. Those you finde led away with the Errour of the wicked holding any points in Religion contrary to sound Doctrine denying directly or by consequence any Fundamental Verity Such was that of Hymoeneus and Philetus and that false Doctrine which the Galatians held namely that to be justified before God it was necessary together with faith in Christ strictly to observe the Mosaical Ceremonies as a part of Man's righteousness and holiness appointed by the Law and that of the Nicolaitans who permitted the community of Women held it a thing indifferent to commit Adultry and eating Meats sacrificed to Idols and Popish and Pelagian Errours when ever you have occasion to converse with any such as these or that hold any point not consonant to Scripture though having less filth and danger do your endeavour to recover them by soft words and hard Arguments So you are taught by the Apostle James's Practice who calls a damnable blasphemy by the gentle name of errour and useth a loving compellation Do not erre my beloved brethren But observe what powerful Arguments he useth both before and after his dehortation and by the Apostle Paul's precept In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil Two things especially should move you to endeavour to convert souls from errour especially if Fundamental The one from the nature of such an errour it is like a Canker or Gangreen a Malady so contagious that it presently spreads it self into the next Members and so by degrees destroyes the whole Body being once admitted into the soul it will glide into it to the total extinguishing of the spiritual life thereof And having possessed it self in one of the Members of the Church will spread over all the Body of it if it be not withstood in time Another is the great reward promised to this endeavour if it prove successful if not the will as it is accepted so it shall be equally rewarded 3. Such as are prophane Persons the shew of whose Countenance doth witness against them and declare their sin as Sodom and hide it not that draw iniquity with Cords of Vanity and sin as it were with a Cart-rope and that live in the neglect and contempt of divine Ordinances and religious exercises publick domestick or secret professing by their practice that they are the Children of Belial and rank Atheists If you finde that any of these have not as yet commenced Dogs and Swine but are as yet Undergraduates and in the Devil's Academy and that you shall not provoke them to Blasphemie nor aggravate their rage against you thereby allure them to go with you into Divine Herbert's Church Porch and then sprinkle them with his Holy Water-stick Beware of Lust it doth pollute and fowle Whom God in Baptisme washt with his own blood Drink not the third Glass which thou canst not tame When once it is within thee Take not his name who made thy mouth in vain It gets thee nothing and hath no excuse Lye not but let thy heart be true to God Thy Mouth to it thy actions to them both Flie idleness which yet thou canst not flie By dressing Mistrissing and Complement Look at thy Mouth Diseases enter there Slight those who say among thy sickly health Thou livest by rule Be thrifty but not covetous Play not for gain but sport Be sweet to all Catch not at Quarrels Laugh not too much Pick out of mirth Prophaneness filthiness abusiveness Be useful where thou livest Restore to God his due in tith and time Resort to Sermons Sum up at Night what thou hast done by Day And in the Morning what thou hast to do Take heed lest through fear or too much respect towards any whom you hear speaking or see acting prophanely you become by your connivance or silence guilty of want of Zeal towards God's glory and of Charity towards your Neighbours Souls and Salvation Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy Neighbour and not suffer sin upon him Not but regard must be had to Person time and place and the manner of reproving which sometimes may be by discountenancing as well as by discourse and alway so that the party reproved may see it proceeds from love 4. Them that are civil have a care to keep their good word deal justly with all that are meek merciful ready to help such as stand in need of them when you meet and converse with such commend these and all other good things in them as being such as God loves and will reward but labour to convince them that
and redress how high soever their rage doth rise and how low soever they lay the Saints of the most High If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of Judgment in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they Shall any teach God knowledge seeing he judgeth those that are high He is the Soveraign Lord and Judge of the World above all Power and Greatness Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right He worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will And his will is the absolute Rule of all Righteousness Thy righteousness also O God is very high Who hast done great things â—ear not O Land be glad and rejoyce for the Lord will do great things Though the Lord be high yet hath he respect unto the lowly them that are of a poor and abject condition and trodden upon by the Foot of imperious contempt But the proud he knoweth afar off and they shall know when they have spent all their strength spit out all their malice and done their worst That thou whose Name alone is Jehovah are the most high over all the Earth From the Second property of this your Habitation Viz. Strength learn in your Prayers which you Daily make to God for your selves and fellow-servants in the House who are all weakness to say Stir up thy strength and come for Salvation to us Shew it make use of it stand in the front of thy feeble Army as a Leader to defend them from their Potent Enemies And let it appear that thy Prayer is not idle Give thy strength unto thy Servants Awake awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord awake as in the ancient Days in the Generations of old Art thou it that hath cut off Rahab and wounded the Dragon Art not thou it which hath dryed the Sea the Waters of the great Deep which hath made the depth of the Seas and way for the ransomed to pass over Display thy Soveraign Power for the deliverance of thy Children as thou formerly didst in Egypt and at the Red-Sea Look down from Heaven and behold from the Habitation of thy Holiness and of thy Glory Where is thy zeal and thy strength the sounding of thy bowels When you have thus prayed cast off all slavish fear of what the might or malice of Men or Devils can do Who art thou O my poor weak faint-hearted Church that thou shouldst be afraid of a Man that shall dye and be made as Grass Take now good courage setting before thee thine Enemies approaching and certain destruction Fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God I will strengthen thee with the right hand of my righteousness That is with mine Omnipotence I have and will put forth in righting thee of thine Enemies The Lord is my Light and my Salvation Whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my life and of whom shall I be afraid He it is that will dissolve all my inward darkness of trouble and confusion and external ones of dangers and calamities In this will I be confident namely in this that the Lord is my Light Salvation and Strength My God shall be my strength thou hast girded me with strength The Lord will give strength unto his People He delivered me from my strong Enemy And from them that hated me for they were too strong for me Thou hast guided thy People in thy strength to thy holy Habitation Thou wilt do so still and not forsake them when their strength faileth My Flesh and my Heart faileth but God is the strength of my Heart and my portion for ever Be not discouraged at all for the weakness or absence of outward meanes Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts When Men and meanes and hopes and helps and Hearts and all fail Trust ye in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he encreaseth strength They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength They go from strength to strength The righteous shall hold on his way and be stronger and stronger I will go in the strength of the Lord God I shall never faint but always even every step I take gather new strength and courage Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine Heart Despair not like her that said My strength and hope is perished If thou chance to do so recover quickly as she did This I recall to my mind and therefore have I hope Be fully perswaded that what God hath promised he is able also to perform Acknowledge as your Father Abraham did as his Soveraign truth so his infinite power above all inferiour order or contrary difficulty Yea he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think Neither do you despair of any Man's Salvation for whom you pray No not of the Jewes whom you are bound every Day to remember in your Prayers For God is able to graft them in again When you are tempted to any sin think thus with your selves Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he that we should not fear to provoke him Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong in the Days that I shall deal with Thee Wilt thou have courage or strength enough to endure or withstand my Judgments I say unto you my Friends be not afraid of them that can kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do But I will fore-warm you whom you shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into Hell If Men should be in danger of present Death by any Mens unjust Decrees in case they refuse actively to obey them They must say if it be so Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us but if not we will not serve any false Gods Nor the true otherwise than he hath appointed in his Word And in the midst of the most desperate dangers serve the Lord with sweet security knowing that your good Shepheard Jesus Christ is alway doing his Office standing still on Foot and watching for the safeguard of his employing for their safety his Fathers Divine Power whereby they shall rest secure having the King of the Universe for their Protection He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord in the Majesty of the Name of the Lord his God and they shall abide When you shall be cast upon your sick Beds doubt not but he will both turn and stir and make them easie but strengthen you upon them His everlasting Armes shall be