again and again with weeping and supplications to God in him as my resting place and that he would cause this glorious word to ring as an Alarm in my ears Return unto me for I am married unto thee Jer. 3. 14. I will be and I am thy King Where is any other that can comfort thee or save thee in all thy wandrings Hos 13. 10. And that he would cause my bowels to be moved at the voice and to give answer It is the voice of my Beloved behold I come unto thee for thou art the Lord my God Jer. 3. 22. And that I may now sum up the The Soul enters into more ample and express Covenant with God matter of this my Covenant which God has called me to make and which in obedience to his Call I do heartily resolve in his strength to adhere unto guard my heart guard my pen guard my voice and words O thou who leadest the Blind to thy self by a way which Nature knows not but thou knowest thy own way and knowest how to lead the thoughts of my heart and words of my pen and my mouth that my lips may utter nothing rashly before thee Thou hast made a Covenant of Grace and often repeated the terms of the Covenant and hast said I shall say The Lord is my God Hos 2. 23. and has recorded the mutual avouching between thee and thy people Deut. 26. 17 18. in express words Yea Strangers are invited to serve thee to love thy Name to be thy Servants and to lay hold on thy Covenant Isa 56. 6. to joyn themselves to thee and to observe thy Sabbaths and Ordinances of Worship And when thy people did enter into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul and sware to thee with a loud voice and rejoyced at the Oath and sought thee with full desire thou wast found of them 2 Chron. 15. 12 15. And this way have thy Servants appropriated thee to themselves Psal 105. 7 8. and appropriated themselves to thee Psal 116. 16 18. Isa 63. 16 19. And thou hast said These things are written for my learning Rom. 15. 4. and that I am to imitate and follow them who through faith and patience did inherit the promises giving my self to thee 2 Cor. 8. 5. with full purpose of heart Act. 11. 23. Having this Warrant and Encouragement I do here bring my Body and Soul and all that I have and am to thee as a First-Fruit Offering and claiming Right to thy self through thy free Grace being invited thereto Jer. 3. 4 19. Hos 2. 23. I do declare in thy presence O The Soul makes Confession of its Faith most righteous holy and gracious God that as thou hast declared in thy Word I do acknowledge I am one of the Posterity of the first Adam and was in his Loins both when thou madest him pure bearing the Image of Righteousness and Holiness and when he transgressed thy righteous Command by eating the Fruit which thou hadst forbidden him to eat and that I stand before thee guilty of the sin which he then committed in all the extent circumstances and aggravations thereof and that I am thereby become rightful Heir to all that sinful pollution which by him entred in upon all Mankind and rightful Heir also to all that Curse and Punishment which thou denouncedst upon him when thou saidst In the day wherein thou eatest thereof thou shalt die and that I am by this my nature and descent liable to thy righteous Sentence of Death and Wrath eternally that I did in that day lose thy favour and incurred the accursed effects of that loss to my Body and Soul relating both to my temporal and eternal state I do acknowledge that of thy free Grace and that alone thou didst speedily make promise of a Redeemer which should arise of the Seed of the Woman and be manifested in the Flesh which accordingly thou didst perform by sending thy only Son into the World having a Body framed by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Womb of a Virgin and was born free from all that Hereditary Corruption which the first Parents of Mankind did derive to their Posterity by natural Propagation who by his voluntary Obedience fulfilled thy whole Law and by his death did bear the whole Curse and Punishment due to me and all elected Mankind in the Body of his Flesh And that being thy eternal Son the express Image of thy Person and God blessed for ever he did fully pay the Debt and remove the Curse and deserved Punishment from so many which thou hadst in thy eternal Purpose given him to be a Ransom for and superabundantly recovered thy Image and favour to them again And that being truly dead he raised himself by his own Divine Power and is ascended into the highest Heavens where he sitteth on the Right Hand of the Majesty on high appearing always in thy presence as Mediator consisting of the two Natures of God and Man in one Person continually interceding before thee on the behalf of them whom he redeemed and making the ends and vertue of his Mediatorship effectual for their good and on their behalf That he hath brought this state of Life and Salvation to light by the Gospel contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament and effectually dispensed the same under dark Types and Prophesies till his Incarnation since which time he hath mightily declared himself by his Word and Works the Father also from Heaven and the Holy Spirit testifying of him that he is the Saviour of the World and that believing in him they who believe shall have life through his Name That he has declared himself by chosen Witnesses who conversed with him and saw his Miracles that he is the eternal God and also true Humane Nature in one glorious Person and has appointed them to testifie that he is the Judge of Quick and Dead and that whosoever beliveth in him shall receive Remission of Sins and be justified from all Conscience of Guilt and interested in a more abundant Righteousness Life and Happiness than was lost before that he sendeth forth his Spirit to breath a new Life by Faith through the dispensation of this Gospel whereby he gathers all the Elect into a Mystical true spiritual Union with himself who is the Door of their Communion with God and his Communion with them and having in himself the terms and parts of the Covenant relating to each Party he has so united them together in a Covenant-Bond that the most righteous God reacheth to them his hand and proclaims himself theirs and they reach forth their hands by Faith and Resignation and declare they are wholly his By which Covenant-Union they are partakers of God and all communicable good things in him and are spirited to give up themselves and all that they have and are to his dispose in newness of life and have freedom to come to
married Estate and therein to favour me with the Society of one whom I account and believe to be precious in his sight and thereby called me to some further Exercise of Faith and a nearer Approach to himself for all Supply and Succour under the Wing of his Counsel Goodness Care and Faithfulness for Soul and Body and for his blessed Presence Good Will and Favour to my self and mine And withal in regard a very dark Cloud appears hovering over the Church of Christ I thought it my duty to betake my self to the surest Hold and to retire afresh into the Arms of God himself And therefore being under much sence of the loose earthly frame of my own heart I resolved to renew upon my Soul the Obligations of the fore-mentioned Covenant which through the favour of God I have this day done lying down at the Feet of a Gracious God I have again though with feeble hands been taking hold of Jehovah ' s Covenant humbly taking him to be my God and giving my self and mine to him I do I say with much struggling yet with some sincerity in my desire take God to be my Portion and exceeding great Reward and do render my self and all that concerns me to him and to his Will this present 23d of May 1666. and for ever And do subscribe the same with my own Hand Henry Dorney Moreover in a former Sickness and under Bodily Ailments being asked whether there were any thing burthensome upon his Spirit he replied I have no distrust in him whom I have believed I feel no sting at all There is no oppressing thing upon me no quelling thing in my Spirit Nothing troubles me from within nor without His Desires after Glory were His Desires after Glory in a peculiar manner exerted in his last and Dying Speeches and Prayers and at other times before in many and various Instances and chiefly upon this Ground that he should then be perfectly freed from Sin and serve God without distraction And it may be useful here to mention this following Passage that a dear Friend once making his moan to him about vain impertinent Thoughts wherewith he was greatly haunted and troubled in Attendance on God in Duty He said to him no more than this That that very thing should make us willing to be gone hence to be with Christ He had an entire Respect to His universal Obedience all God's Commands avoiding all Appearance of Evil and laying hold of all Opportunities for receiving and doing good and his very Soul was in it and it seemed as natural to him as for a person to eat when he is hungry Yea he was as a Creature out of his Element most uneasie and restless whilst he was not actually so exercised And his Submission to the Will of God's Providence as always so it was remarkably instanced in his last Sickness and also in a former Sickness when he was heard to say Lord if it may please thee make my Passage easie If thou wilt have me go meaning his departure by Death I am willing If thou wilt have me to stay a little longer I am willing but Oh! for Sufficiency of Divine Aid Likewise it was observed in these Petitions he offered up to God in Prayer That the Lord would manage every one of our Thoughts and spiritualize them for his whole Will and that his Spirit may have the Sovereignty in our hearts And seeing it is the property of his People so far as they are spiritualized to love and delight in all his Statutes and to love his commanding Will and Word as well as his promising Word That he would lead us into the Light and Life of Jesus Christ and cause us to yield up our selves universally to his Rule and Government and greedily take in all that Grace and Kindness he hath offered to us and get up into the Region of Christ's Teaching and Leading That we might be formed to his liking and as a People whom he delighteth to own and love and be fitted for the whole Will of God that he would have us to submit unto His Mortification was clearly His Mortification evinced by his Behaviour towards that which should be always the Objective Matter for that Grace to be exercised upon and by these directions he proposed as Means and Persuasives to it That we should always seek an occasion against the Flesh as 't is said of the King of Syria He seeketh a Quarrel against me and when we cannot pray it down or meditate it down then apply our selves to good Company and holy Conference with others and be ever engaged one way or other with one Weapon or other against the Flesh as Sampson against the Philistines who sought an occasion against them And that the way to receive any Temporal Mercy is to be dead to it And that as they that will be rich fall into Temptation and a Snare the like it may be said of those that will not be poor And he further added that we must be mortified as well to Saints as Sinners if we will have true Peace And that if all things were in a right frame the Soul would be dead to all carnal and earthly things and be ever under full Sail for Heaven and how then would the Breath of Grace appear in all the Actions of our Lives And for the promoting of this necessary Work he was observed earnestly to pray That mortifying renewing Grace might always appear active in us and that there might be a secret delight in us to take Vengeance of all that carnal Frame and corrupt Inclination that is within us and an eager desire to have this Body of Death crucified and taken away That a Sentence of Death might pass upon this Body of Sin and Death in us which Christ died to remove That this Body of Death might be battered down and wasted day by day And that he would cause us always to have a War against the Law of Sin within us And that we might long to have it subdued and the Soveraignty of God's Grace advanced in our Souls And that our Affections and Desires might decay more and more towards all things that are of a fading perishing Nature And that he would crucifie and destroy in us all the Attempts of the Body of Sin wherewith we are continually haunted And that he would help us to quit our selves as those that are engaged to God and favoured by him and know what it is to have our Natures changed and the natural Enmity slain And that we might be transplanted into Jesus Christ and made one with him That the things above might be the great things in our eye and have more Room in our hearts and the things here below accounted little and be of low Esteem with us The constant seriousness of his His constant Seriousness Spirit was seen not only in his Carriage but in his Cautions to others about it saying that there are many thousand Professors
Christ at his death gave it such a Wound that will never be cured till it has by the Faith and Prayer of every Believer bled it self to death When Guilt seems to live most and so sends a Believer afresh to Christ then does Guilt die apace and remains only to keep a Believer's faith in continual exercise and render Christ precious to the Soul as cold Weather makes a Fire the more comfortable and pleasant so that while my Soul holds close to this that Christ is upon his own terms Righteousness Pardon and Life to me by making me his and he being mine my own guilt becomes no longer my own because I am no longer my own but his who bought me with his blood and as guilt is removed so the fear of falling away is removed and relief against daily infirmities provided for If being an Enemy I was reconciled by his Death much more being reconciled shall I be daily saved by his Life Rom. 5. 10. But whence ariseth this that I Faith only a relief against daily infirmity find it harder to relie on him for power against daily infirmities than against the power of condemning Guilt Daily Infirmities are the lesser Enemies but yet they are present Enemies and seeming smaller in stature than the great bulk of universal Humane Guilt the Soul of a Christian is apt to step forth against them in his own strength and resolution and so returns many times with shame whereas the same Covenant which takes away the stony heart and state of Guilt is that only which gives a heart of flesh and cleanseth the Soul from all unrighteousness I cannot therefore mortifie one foolish filthy or distracted thought without the application of the whole power of the same Christ who has removed my great and condemning guilt and cast it into the Sea I am apt foolishly to think that my great guilt being removed I may in some sort take my ease which degenerates more and more into spiritual sloth and unthankfulness but my daily infirmities are like a pricking Bryar which continually afflicts me and lets me know that this is not my Rest neither will my own hands put away these Bryars but only the consuming fire of Christ's Spirit setting his Death and Resurrection in Battel Array against them So that I see if ever I expect a good hour in this World or to all Eternity it must be only and all over in Jesus Christ O cursed Nature O cursed Sloth that is ever dividing that which a blessed Covenant of Grace has joyned together Jesus Christ and my Soul All his drift towards me is that he might be all in all to me Oh that he would vent himself and spare not he that bids me fear not only believe is only able to make me believe I often draw near methinks to some Resignation to him with some universal scope but am quickly gravelled again yet so much delight remains in the very hope of my Soul towards him that makes me chuse rather to have my eyes towards him though with a long look than to say within my heart My Beloved will never come surely he will yet come and his Reward is with him This Resignation to God is so glorious in the Nature Ground Properties Resignation and encouraging Privileges of it that the very glimpse thereof makes my heart light and even faint for desire to be wholly swallowed up and translated in Spirit Soul and Body into the pure Rest and Crystal Life of God but the nature of it I can no more express than a Man's Pensil can draw the Portraicture of a Man's Life or represent the nature of a Taste albeit it may draw the Figure of a Humane Body or represent the visible Food in which lies that hidden quality of Life and Taste But if words may be used about it I would thus express it 'T is an allaying delightful willing The nature of Resignation open-hearted dissolving of all my desires cares and enjoyments of things present and to come relating to Soul and Body into the heart and unlimited disposure of God in Jesus Christ my Lord with an endless victorious Security of Confidence Consolation and Peace of heart and Conscience The ground of which glorious active and Soul-quickning Rest is The Ground of it Jesus Christ the Mediator who has received his Redeemed to the Glory of God Rom. 15. 7. He is called their Peace Mich. 5. 5. their Rest Isa 28. 12. their Sufficiency 2 Cor. 3. 5. Comfort 2 Cor. 1. 3. Joy Psal 43. 4. and All in all Col. 3. 11. In all these respects Jesus Christ becomes the ground and attractive cause of Resignation as he is God and Man bringing the Soul through Union with his Humanity to God with whom he is personally united 1 Pet. 3. 18. into which Union every Believer is received through the Mystery of his free Grace Joh. 17. 21. and the Application of this Union to the Soul by Faith breeds this blessed Resignation for Christ being thus qualified in his own Person and thus uniting the Soul to himself by his Spirit begets in the heart through believing an answerable Counterpane of Conformity and Quiet in the Inward Man which cannot be capable of loss because the unchangeable God is the Author and unalterable Cause thereof nor be obstructed while Faith holds up its exercise therein but runs out into an infiniteness of Satisfaction in all cases because it is got with the help and expiating boundless Interest of him who is infinite It enters in by the Door of his Manhood to the partaking of whatever he is Heir to and is made Heir with him of his Conquest Fulness Security Peace and Joy so that albeit the Flesh may fail God being the portion of a Believer faileth not but always unchangeably continueth in the Mystery of this Union to be the Foundation and effecting Cause of a Believer's Resignation to him as into the hands of a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. 19. Jesus Christ himself is the glorious Model of Resignation for God in Christ resigned up himself to the Nature of Man Heb. 2. 14. and being the Eternal Son resigned up himself to the Will of his Father to be made a Servant and he who is the Law-giver resigns himself subject to the Law God over all blessed for ever resigns himself to the Curse of the Law he resigns up the freedom of his own Will to a voluntary Covenant he undertakes as it were the encumbrance of a Family and accounts the cries of many Infants about him no disturbance but a delight he resigned up his Body to death and became of no Reputation that out of his Dust he might bring many Sons to Glory he resigned up his heart to bear their sins and sorrows he hath resigned up whatever he is to be theirs that they might be his and be saved both living and dying from all wants and fears through his Resignation of himself to stand or fall with
the Mediator for Teaching Strength and Purging through the means appointed by him for that end as their daily necessity and weakness doth require for carrying on the true scope and to answer the true end of their Covenant-Relation to God while they live on Earth and through the Resurrection of Christ have an assured Pledge of safe Convoy through the Grave to an eternal and visible Fellowship with him and unutterable Enjoyment of Communion with the Father Son and Spirit being perfected for ever suitable to such a state both in Body and in Soul Now according to this Confession A solemn Covenant with God in the Name of Christ and Acknowledgment grounded upon thy own Word breathed by thy Spirit and experienced by all thy chosen people according to the measure of thy Revelation and spiritual Application thereof I throw my self down before thee O most holy righteous all-powerful and gracious God I cast my self before thee as a poor Syrian ready to perish without any strength at all to extricate my self from the guilt of sin and its deserved punishment I once lost thee quite and had been lost from thee for ever if thy naked Arm had not brought thy Salvation near and opened my ear to hear it And now I do here declare before thee and before thy holy Angels that I do accept of and give up my self and all that is mine to comply with the design of my Restoration which thy gracious Wisdom has found out I do accept of Jesus Christ thy Son to be my Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption I do accept of him only to be my Access to thy favourable Presence and to enable me to walk acceptable before thee I close with thy appointment for laying my sins and all my guiltiness upon him and do profess through thy Grace that I will not hazard thy displeasure by covering my guilt or bearing it my self by Unbelief cherished within me In him I do accept of thy glorious Self to be my God and all the Attributes of thy glorious Nature to be my Portion and all ready for my relief and advantage I do accept of the sanctifying Vertue of thy Spirit and am grieved that I have so often vexed and grieved him by Disobedience and Unbelief I do own to my self thy free and unchangeable Love in Christ I do take the whole Scriptures and acknowledge them to be thy express Will and all thy gracious Commands Threatnings and Promises to be in all things most right and to be the Issues of thy Wisdom Holiness Goodness and truth for my Instruction Purging Comfort and Establishment in all cases all days of my life which I engage in thy strength to adhere unto as the Rule of my Faith and Conversation I embrace the Covenant wherein thou hast promised and sworn to be mine and that blessing thou wilt bless me in Christ for thy own sake And I do here heartily willingly and joyfully with fear and trembling offer up my self to thee and the Belief of thy Word and do bind my self to thee this day with my whole heart and in express words to be thine and to yield my self mine and all that do concern me to the good pleasure of thy Will and that I will attend upon thee through thy Grace for Wisdom and Strength to love fear serve and obey thee that I will chuse the things that please thee and not repine at thy dealings towards me as if thou hadst forgotten at any time to be gracious I bind my self in the scope and vertue of this holy Covenant with God to have tender Affections to all thy people who are the joynt Object of thy Love and to attend upon the Manifestation of the Spirit and Power in thy Ordinances and through thy strength contentedly to bear the Cross thou shalt lay upon me in conformity to the death of Christ and that thy self and pure Will shall be the supream mark and object of my Affections And O my most glorious God who pitiest the Poor and such who have no strength accept this Offering from my hand and heart and succour thy Servant who under much reluctancy of Unbelief doth strive to yield himself to be wholly bound to thee When I look upon my own strength I loath it and am astonished at such work as this but I implore thee and do profess I do with full desire of heart cast my self upon the Wings of thy Power to be carried above all impediments that shall arise from Satan from this present evil World and from the Body of Sin and Death which is within me O thou who camest in Flesh to purchase me visit the Soul which thou hast allured to seek and follow thee and cause the North and South Wind of thy seasonable help to blow upon thy Garden my Soul which with delight doth long after thee in this day of thy Power to see and be possessed of and cloathed with thy Power and Glory And whensoever I shall walk unsuitably to any of these things for I am ready to halt and thou shalt as an offended Father be angry with me and turn away thy face then behold the Atonement which thou hast set forth for Sinners and melt my heart before thee and lead me to the Fountain that is opened for Sin and Uncleanness and graciously renew thy Covenant with me and let me know that thou dost graciously accept of this my Free-Will Offering by vouchsafing thy self to be ready to be found and by causing me to be established in a daily experience that this my labour and purpose of heart though in much infirmity yet in love to thy Name is not in vain Let no part of thy Yoke be a burthen to me at any time but a joy to my heart because 't is thy Yoke and thou hast said 't is easie and light make it so and now let an Interest be abundantly administred to me into the Kingdom of my Christ and my God I profess before thee that I do humbly expect these things from thee O faithful God who canst not lie as that which thou hast graciously covenanted to give Jer. 32. 38 39 40 41. and 31. 33 34. which Covenant I do this day in thy fear and in the faith of thy performance lay hold upon and in reference to all the difficulties of this present Life of all sorts and for needful supply of daily Bread I accept of thy Promises and roll my self upon thee in them through the Mediator for Faith Courage Patience Contentedness Deliverance and Supply according to thy Word Psal 27. 1 2 3 5. Mich. 7. 7 8 9. Heb. 13. 5 6. Matth. 6. 31 32. as my need from time to time shall require And also to be kept from polluting thy Name by sinful and scandalous Miscarriages and appearance of Evil in the sight of Men as thou hast promised Psal 91. 10 11 12. I accept of and relie upon thy infinite Goodness and Truth contained in every Clause of thy Word
Lord is with me and I have Ground of Faith and Hope that I have favour in his Eyes April 24. He expressed himself as followeth I am upon the Term of two great things viz. At the Term of all my great Subjugation to Sin and at the Term of all the Receipt of the Liberty Christ hath purchased at the Term of Sins Thraldom and at the Term of springing up through the Grace of God to eternal Life These are great things and I cannot manage my thoughts about it thorowly through the greatness of it I am going from the Yellings of Sin in this World and the woful effects of it and I am going to a Congregation the only Church of the First-born written in Heaven to visit the Streets of the eternal Grace and Love of God and meet the Company that walk there And methinks I am in a Wood and God hath held me in the Portal a pretty while and here I cannot be perfected for I never had any fittedness but through him that is compleat and is in Heaven And here I abide an Expectant as the poor Man that expected to be put into the Pool and that Angel hath not yet put forth his hand My Body parcheth my Mind parcheth a little Faith and Hope is left me My Tongue begins again to cleave I leave this World as a place where there is no satisfying It may content others a while but it seems rather to hunt me away Body faint Spirit faint in a strange Land my Mind is all in a scatter It will not be so it is so now O Lord help me graciously to wait Death was always spoken of as a dark Valley a place of Darkness and Trial not a place of Joy and shall I find it so Notwithstanding I have hope in the Faith and Love of God by Christ there is a secret Relief That he will turn Death into Life for his own sake and suffer never a clinging Soul to be lopt off and perish I desire no Food my very Nature loaths it my Body is off from all means of help in this World and here I stay through the good hand of God like a poor Stranger I am going to another World and the Fruits of that World will not satisfie the Wants I have here it will not quench my Thirst it will not allay my Drought So that if I have not some Relief to my Soul which is not of this World if I have it not from another World I am undone I cannot speak my thoughts have a large Theam I am up and down in and out and I see a great thing before me and sometimes it causeth a Word to drop I see ETERNAL LIFE before me That great thing that concerns me Sure it is a great thing to be at the very Brink to see all Promises fulfilled made good and all the Demonstrations of the Gospel made patent To see the Foundation of Eternal Life for ever laid and to come and cast ones eye upon it in the abundance of Faith And these are the things that lie just before me only there hath been an entrance about them I have believed c. and now I go to see the Promise and the Faith of the Promise accomplished To a Friend saying you have a strong hand to carry you Sure there is our Security in his holding of us more than in our holding of him He answered There it only lies The Lord continue to be with you The Lord make good his Covenant to you I and all the rest even that which is written in that good Book of his in which we desire to have our hope Let nothing hinder our Faith nor disorder our Practise He proceeded further to speak that day in the Afternoon thus God makes all these things here with respect to me at this time as it were to change their kind A Draught of Spring-Water fresh Beer or such a like thing how sweet have I sometimes found it But now nothing The rare vertues of Apples and other Fruits they are to me now as Dirt they do not answer my End My natural Thirst and Desire cannot be gratified with any thing here Though my Body lies parching away with Thirst my Soul loatheth dainty Meats and the best of Liquors that have been pleasing they are now a burthen to me I can taste nothing that will give reviving God is drawing forth my Nature in the way of a Dissolution that I must have no more Chear now but what comes in by New Covenant Mercy and that will be to Soul to Body for ever and thanks be to his Name he will not have me feed with dirty Company He hath shewed me the way of Life he hath caused me to chuse him I bless his Name Oh that wonderful thing that thou shouldst cause me to chuse thee Oh that thou mightest be chosen by all those that ever I had Acquaintance with in all my Life Oh that none of them may go without it Oh for a turned heart Oh for the eyes of Light and Life Oh for Salvation out of Damnation to a changed People Blessed be God that ANY that so MANY near to me were turned in at the right Gate of Election upon the Downfall that came by Sin as I hope as I hope O Lord find out thine thou wilt find them out Work Miracles work Miracles by converting Power in turning Souls that the Earth may see thy Glory Oh thou hast been my God many ways hast thou declared it Thou hast been the God of the Family from whence thou chusest me The Family is almost at an end Thou hast not left our poor Family two of us are yet remaining on the Earth O my God let it be for an eternal Renown to thy Name that thou hast hitherto reached out thy Grace to we two poor Remainers of that numerous Family Oh thou hast left us thy self to be our God to be our Portion O Lord thou hast given thy self to us and and thou hast given thy Spirit into us and we to the Glory of thy Grace can say Thou art OUR GOD hast been our God and wilt be our God and wilt number us amongst those whom thou hast delighted to take pleasure in unto Eternity O Lord be thou the God of our Seed or of our Seeds Seed O Lord that thou wouldst take them in with all those thou hast brought into Relation with thy self We have Relations in the World some that lie under the power of Satan and thou makest us to know it that it might be a constant Grief unto our hearts O Lord that none relating to us or to any or either of us might be found in those Bonds O Lord that thou wouldst imprint thine Image that thou wouldst come with a powerful hand and clear them out of Satan's Kingdom into the Kingdom of Christ Lord we are mingled in the World we have many Relations now up and down and what shall we say for the Children of our People
God as never to return to a Carnal Frame and Temper any more and yield our selves to be ordered by him as a Child that is ordered by its Nurse And that the want of a through Surrender of our selves to God makes one lame in all other Duties Therefore our Religion should not lie only in Notion but in a total Delivery over of our selves to God And until we come to that clear Resignation our Life will always be a burthen to us And this giving away of our selves to God should be with that perfect Surrender as not to grieve at the Cast Oh! said he could I embark my self in God being born up by the Wings of his Spirit and God guiding the Steerage with his own hand What need I then fear meeting with Storms Then no matter at all unto what Port soever I were carried Then every Cross every outward Affliction Trouble Danger Loss would be my Friend Did I make God my dwelling place all the World would be Privileges to me all things would be turned into Privileges and redound for my good Whence also he prayed That we might come to that clearness of Surrender unto God as to bear a stamp and likeness to the infinite kindness Christ manifested in giving himself for us and to us That as he did all things willingly to work out purchase and procure Salvation for us so we might accept of all the Gracious Offers of his Love and improve it accordingly That Renewing Work might be carried on daily And that we might lanch out of the Circuit of our own Wills into his Will in all things and be influenced by the Spirit of Christ to a Conformity to him and growing up in him as his living Members His Natural Courage was fully His Courage and Fortitude experienced by those that best knew him in his younger Years and so forward to have been without blemish or defect His Spiritual Courage and Fortitude was discerned throughout his Christian Walk and in these following Expressions In shaking Times get such a Courage as flows from Faith and not a meer Manly Prowess To be in a dead-hearted discouraged Frame under Crosses is bad and to be joccund out of a meer Manly Stoutness and so to bear up is sadder but a humble submissive Carriage and a Liveliness nourished by Believing in going out of our selves and casting all our Care upon God who careth for us is an excellent Frame And speaking to some who were even ruined by outward Losses he said We should have been dead to our Estates when we had them Let us therefore now be dead to our Discouragements in the want of them And if we would not be Cowed at every Cross let us be sure to make Death familiar and be in a posture to die every hour And that will fill the Soul with undaunted Valour and Courage that nothing shall move it for it is sence of Guilt that plucks down the heart and nothing else And if the Sting of Death which is Sin be removed how bold will the Soul be And that holy Valour rises as Difficulties and Dangers rise as the Ship upon the top of the Waves riseth with the Waves That 't is no natural Valour will hold out in a day of Sufferings but a mortified Frame of Spirit will then abide the Shock And 't is the Glory of a Christian not to be faint-hearted under Trials The excellent Moderation and Temperance of his Spirit was exerted His Moderation and Temperance in his own Conduct and Behaviour His Moderation was known unto all Men His Temperance also was interwoven in the Contexture of his whole Walk and Converse who being Master of his own Passions and Affections was temperate in all things So that his heart was neither over-charged with the Cares and Incumbrances of this present Life nor ensnared by its Blandishments Sensitive Delights and Pleasures or in any thing that might run into excess And with a sedate serene Mind he improved all Providential Occurrences to ripen his Grace and Experience so as to render him useful in his Station for the Good of others the Glory of God and his own Profit and Comfort He was a great Redeemer of His Redemption of Time Time That where-ever he came he endeavoured as Opportunity offered to be improving it on the best Account either in holy Conference or by Counsel and Advice or in Prayer c. especially where he knew he might be free And upon that account by way of Complaint he once said How useless and helpless are we one unto another in the matters of our Souls but in other Affairs there our hearts can easily mix and run one into another And his Carriage and Behaviour was with such a Graceful Authority tempered with Meekness and Humility and Respect to all according to their Rank and Degree that even in his Minority he was both loved and admired for his extraordinary Activity in all Religious Concerns And he won exceedingly upon the hearts of most that conversed with him in and about spiritual things leaving a sweet savour behind him where-ever he came And this was never perceived to abate or decay but continued in its Vigour and Fervour even to Old Age. In his Childhood and so forwards he was an Enemy to all vain and idle Pass-time but still striving to be receiving or doing good to his Power And until he was hindred and prevented by bodily Distempers and Infirmities of Old Age he would be both early and late industriously painful and unwearied in the Concerns of his own Soul allowing no more time for Sleep Food or any other necessary Refreshments than was absolutely needful That when all the Family besides were in Bed and fast asleep he made choice of that time as a sweet Repast to him for Reading Meditation and secret Prayer And it was his usual Custom which very rarely was omitted when he went to take his Rest to have a Light standing by his Bed-side and his Bible before him and as he lay in Bed to be looking into it musing on some Scripture or other for a considerable time ere he would compose himself to Rest Which occasionally a Friend in the same Room once observing asked him how he could possibly refrain all that time from Sleep Unto which he replied to this effect That the things he read and considered of were so serious that they would not suffer him to sleep whilst his Thoughts were therein exercised And he had such a Command of the Temper of his Mind and Body that there was not seen in him any Oppression of Drowsiness whenever he was actually concerned in the performance of any solemn spiritual Duty And to obviate and prevent such Indisposure his Care was to set apart the fittest Season for Religious Services That instead of the torn lame and corrupt thing spoken of in Mal. 1. 13 14. the best part of his Time and Strength was devoted and offered up to the Lord in Sacrifice His
depraved heart lies upon me as a lump of Lead I get nothing by talking with it as Solomon saith of the Fool Answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou be like him Prov. 26. 4. for this talking with Guilt and Weakness draweth my Soul which is made free indeed by the Son of God to the likeness of that Guilt and Weakness and my justified Conscience begins again to lick up the old Vomit of Fear and Bondage but my work is then to cast my self by naked Reliance on Jesus Christ who justifieth the Ungodly Rom. 4. 5. as being compassed about with the Guard of God's free everlasting Justification in the Person of Jesus Christ and having the shelter of this Guard then I may return and plead with Guilt and hear the complaints of my heart and the accusations of my Conscience and give them Answers from the fulness of Christ's Atonement and thus again the Fool if such a term may be used in this comparison is answered lest he should be wise in his own conceit Prov. 26. 5. I mean that the Spirit of Bondage which by the advantage of my own sin pleads rationally against my Peace till Faith comes with the Tongue of the Learned and pleads the Mystery of Free Grace against the Plea of Reason and the Righteousness of Christ and his Holiness against Sin and Guilt Nothing prevailed against Sampson till he betrayed the Vow of God that was upon him so nothing can prevail against the Peace of Justification till Guilt divide between the Soul and naked Reliance upon the personal Perfection of Christs Sacrifice and Mediatorship The Soul that lays his Foundation thus will not boast in himself Rom. 3. 27. nor wrong the Visits of God's favourable Countenance by Pride and Wantonness nor yet despair when Storms arise because his foundation is upon a Rock and his safety is not at all any of his own Handy-work As far as he beholds this All-sufficiency of Christ's Mediatorship the eye affects the heart to security and strength and crumbles all Self-sufficiency to powder and blows away the Egyptian Locusts of Guilt and Fears into the Red Sea and restores Pacification and Quiet to the Conscience and from this glorious Sanctuary the Soul comes forth to do the Actions of a new Life by the vertue of another Spirit the Spirit of Love and a sound Mind and worketh the Works of God in the World and takes pleasure in obeying the Truth and if it were possible it would actually keep the whole Law in as much as being now eternally knit to Christ's Person by Faith the Law by the Spirit of Christ is written in the heart This naked Reliance on Christ's Person was the great endeavour and left to us as the experience of the Apostles A Faith of which nature was exercised eminently by the holy Men of old Abraham Rom. 4. 20. David Psal 71. 16. Paul 1 Cor. 2. 2. and Phil. 3. 8 9. There were two foundational Reasons mentioned why the Soul is wholly to cast it self on the naked personal Merit of Jesus Christ viz. because he began our Righteousness and he only perfected the same for ever and those reasons well weighed have great strength and motive-vertue in them to beget Faith and besides 't is commanded as the absolute Condition of Salvation Act. 16. 31. Believe and thou shalt be saved in opposition to which Unbelief is made in the dispensation of the Gospel the reason of dying under the guilt of sin Joh. 8. 24. For the Gospel doth so perfectly hold out Jesus Christ to be the Propitiation for all the sins of the World through the value of his Death and open freeness of the Tender thereof that the very Hinge of Salvation and Damnation is turned upon the Faith of the heart therein or Unbelief thereof as being the most necessary and suitable Requisites for the stating of the Soul into an actual condition of Life or Death eternally Yea Christ pronounceth forgiveness of sins to the Palsie-man Luk. 5. 20. upon the meer Account of Believing And the Apostle Paul declares the Righteousness of God to be upon all that believe without making any difference upon any other respect Rom. 3. 22. This one thing saved the Thief upon the Cross when he had not opportunity to make Satisfaction for all the Wrongs and Robberies he had done This makes the Apostle Paul so laborious to preserve this Mystery from the least mixture of Legal Righteousness Gal. 5. 2. Because a Believer's State and Life is wholly by Grace 1 Cor. 15. 10. which entirely treats with the Faith of a Believer and not with his Works of Righteousness or Sin the one cannot help nor the other hinder because they are as the Elements of another World as they are called Gal. 4. 3. and can neither mend nor hurt that Justification by Jesus Christ revealed from Heaven to a Believer no more than Earthly Food can feed a Spirit or a material Sword wound an Angel And reason is because the Person of Christ is the Ark where Righteousness and Pardon is kept and conveyed singly by the Spirit of Grace to Faith which is the Acceptance of the same and so it is sure from any personal qualifications on Man's part to hinder it where 't is by the Spirit of Believing accepted Rom. 4. 16. This Justification of a sinner by Faith in the Personal Satisfaction and Righteousness of Jesus Christ is that which lays a firm ground for Assurance of Perseverance because the guilt of sin is done away and pardoned at the first believing on Jesus Christ and if they be then done away their guilt cannot really return for the pardon of sins and remembring them no more are joyned together Heb. 8. 12. Neither can sins committed after the Souls Conversion to God by Faith in Jesus Christ hazard the final state of such an one because his person was made accepted at the first closing with Christ by Faith and Pardon of sins is but the Consequent of the Acceptation of his Person Ephes 1. 6. Rev. 1. 5. So that Christ having espoused a sinner to himself by Faith doth wash him from his filth and presents him to himself at length without Spot Ephes 5. 25 26 27. and the person being recieved upon the account of meer Grace sin has no equal Plea against such an one because the strength of his Plea must be by the Law and Grace having supplanted the Accusation of the Law Joh. 1. 17. the Trial depends in another Court where sin is cast out Rom. 6. 17. And if sin could not at first hinder the Acceptation of the person much less can it procure a Dis-acceptation afterwards Rom. 5. 10. And besides the person of every Convert is considered in his true Interest through Grace in the Person of Jesus Christ in whom all Accusations are fully answered Faith having got this Foundation Encouragment and Rightful Interest in the Remission of Sins Righteousness Life and Peace sets it self by
the way who is a Guide also and therefore great is the loss of that man who walks alone and compasseth himself about with his own sparks if he fall as Solomon speaks he has none to raise him up again Eccles 4. 10. and thus Christ is held forth as a comfortable Leader and Companion Isa 57. 18. Jer. 3. 14. And the Church improves this Privilege by leaning on her Beloved as she comes forth out of the Wilderness This blessed Companion makes way for his peoples safety in the Fire and in the Water of Affliction Dan. 3. 25. Isa 43. 2. 8. And by this means also Faith has got a true and faithful Witness on the Believers side to clear off Accusations and from hence are those expressions used in the Psalms Plead my cause Be surety for me c. and the often Appeals made to God who trieth the Heart and Reins and who standeth up on the side of his people and on their behalf These and infinitely more Privileges do arise to every Believer from the Interest that he hath in Christ's entire and incommunicable Person by the Union of Free Govenant and Mystical Ingrafture and the Communion of Vertue derived from the Person of this Mediator in which Mystery of Grace he enjoys Christ as the Hand enjoys the Head yet both of them are distinctly considered in the Body or as the Eye enjoys the influence and vertue of that very light and heat which is in the very body of the Sun although the body of the Sun be many thousand Miles distant from that Eye which doth actually enjoy that Sun in the light and heat of its influence and doth as truly enjoy it as if it lay in the material Body of the Sun and in a way of greater advantage fitted for its capacity and use So is the Person of Christ enjoyed really and truly with all Privileges relating to Believers whiles he retains his Personality uncommunicated and undivided to any other as the very Water of the Fountain is enjoyed in the Streams and the Sap of the Root enjoyed in the Branches and yet the Stream is not the Fountain nor yet the Branches any part of the Root The way of the Souls enjoyment Christ's Entrance upon the heart works Renewing there of Christ in all the Privileges of his Person and Offices of his Mediatorship and in all the Influences of Spiritual Unction and Transformation of the heart into the power and likeness of Jesus Christ is wrought by the Spirit of Regeneration through Faith which causeth the Soul to pass over from its self from all its strength from all its own carnal hope fear and selfish care into the Death Life Righteousness and Perfection of the Person of Jesus Christ and so is enabled to say in truth I am not mine own I live yet no longer I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God viz. by the very Life and in the very Life of Christ apprehended received enjoyed and working effectually in me by Faith in him who loved me and washed me from my sins in his own blood Gal. 2. 20. Rev. 1. 5. This is that translating renewing changing and quickning work which the Scripture doth so often mention as the design of the Gospel And 't is with reference unto this that Christ is called a Stone of Stumbling and Rock of Offence sinful and selfish Nature strives to preserve its life against the killing vertue of the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel preached to the World This is the reason of so much Carnal Profession and Barrenness in Christianity when the hearts of Men turn the nature of the Gospel which is a Law of Grace and obeyed only by Faith into the similitude of the Law of Moses and make it a matter of Man's working and subject it to the poor and lame endeavours of unrenewed Man not remembring or at least not understanding that the Tree must first be made good before the Fruits can be good This was meant by the Apostle when he bewails the Jews who though they followed after Righteousness attained it not because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law Rom. 9. 31 32. Ever since the Fall of Man Righteousness forsook the created Nature of Man which is largely shewed Rom. 3. 10. and is only now in Christ revealed from Heaven in receiving of whom by being baptised spiritually into his Death and Life his Righteousness is enjoyed Every Command of the Gospel doth first require Faith which is the great Commandment and in the vertue and power thereof requires and works Holiness in all the Fruits of a new Life by the vertue of Jesus Christ working in every Precept and Command of God in the whole Scriptures being Gospellized by his Spirit And here my heart begins again to groan while I find so little of this killing renewing power accomplishing its work upon me How far am I from this renewed State I am weary of the lifeless Notion of the thing I faint in my sighing and find no rest I long for the breath of the Lord and lament out my Complaint before him When will the Lord come into his Temple My flesh trembleth 'twixt hope fear and desire I am as a Bottle dried in the Smoak my heart is pained and in Travel O preserver of Men make no tarrying lest I be like them who go down to the pit Oh let Death feed upon me till the Foundation of Life Power and Peace be laid in my Soul and Deliverance come from another place Droopings are deadly O my Soul do not say thy Wound is incurable the Creator of the ends of the Earth doth undertake for thee he will yet reveal abundance of Truth and Peace Come then O Fountain of Help and do thine own Will upon me How easie is it to say the word Renewing in comparison of the thing really executed and done All that can be spoken about it is but words the Change it self is the thing I long for my eyes fail with hoping for the very Salvation of God in this work Oh that the Heavens might drop down their Dew Why are the Influences of the Clouds with-held Oh for the sounding of his Bowels who is gone into a far Country and has promised to return My musing heart cannot fetch him but my groaning is before him and the tears and cries of my Soul is in his sight O Earth cover thou not my blood let the cry of my distress be heard Anguish is upon my heart and Oh let the Season of my Redemption come According to the measure of the power of Christ given to me I would yet struggle against this Gyant unmortified self I would rather take a Sling and a Stone in the power of Christ than all the Weapons of a Carnal Arm and Understanding Christ well knew the length of that Petition Thy Will be done
All Commands also and Duties bear with them an equal Engagement to every person alike related within the state of Covenant-Interest because those Commands and Duties relate to the same Interest in which all the people of God are one Joh. 17. 20. Matth. 28. 20. So that this Interest in God which is helpful in one case is applicable to all alike cases wherein the Saints who enjoy that Interest are concerned which makes every Promise to have a kind of Infiniteness as God is infinite From this Ground the same Promise that armed Joshua against fear through the presence and faithfulness of God Josh 1. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee is used likewise to every Saint to arm him against Covetousness and fear of Want Heb. 13. 5. And thus the Experience of one Saint becomes advantagious to another through their mutual Interest in the same Root of Spiritual Life in Christ by which they are one with him and Co-partners each with other of the same Grace From this Ground there is no Member of Christ that can say he has not need of anothers help because the Spirit of God by which they are united into one Body conveys its operation through one to another as it pleaseth him 1 Cor. 12. 11. which Spirit of God is the new Life of the Weak as well as of the Strong as he pleaseth to manifest his Power and Vertue in the one or the other more or less by which they are strong or weak that so they might love pity and sympathize each with other being all interested in the same Life and whereby they are all one Body and Members one of another Rom. 12. 5. Hence it is that all things spoken in the Scriptures are of true and proper use to every Child of God as far as their condition agrees with or stands in need of that Help Comfort Counsel or Reproof mentioned there which is the scope of the Spirit of God in all those Promises Instructions or Reproofs recorded in the Scriptures as if they and their particular Cases had been first or only in the eye of God when that word was spoken or that instance given be it what it will What I say to you saith Christ Matth. 13. 37. I say to all watch for whatsoever things were written afore time to others were written for our learning as the Apostle tells the Church of the Romans Rom. 15. 4 5. That we through patience and comfort of the same scriptures might have the same enjoyment and ground of hope as they had being equally interested in the same God who by his Spirit breaths Grounds and Influence of the same Grace of Patience and Consolation as it did to them to whom the Spirit through the Scripture had formerly spoken And thus the same Word being the Inspiration of the Spirit bloweth where it listeth and the sound thereof is gone forth into all the World and the spirit drift scope and use of the words of Life to the end of the Earth as far as the Spirit which breathed it begets any Soul into the Life of Union with God in Jesus Christ who is the Eternal Word and Mind of the Eternal Father from whom all the Children of Adoption receive their Being and Birth through the Gospel of that only begotten Son of God spiritually shed abroad into their hearts So that every one who is Christ's may say the History of the Scriptures is for me the Prophets are mine the Apostles are mine and all their Prophesies and Preachings all Promises Reproofs and Comforts Counsels Warnings and Examples the Gospel under Moses his Vail and as it shines in the Teachings and Miracles of Christ and his Apostles all things all persons Paul Apollos Cephas Life and Death are the Inventory of my Happiness things past present and to come are mine and for my use and advantage because the Spirit which worketh in and by all these is mine and Christ to whom I come and whom I serve is mine and Christ is God's and his God and Father is mine because I am his Heir and Co-heir with him Let such a privilege cause the Soul to cry out Breath O Spirit open your selves O blessed Scriptures and water me with all manner of Teaching Let mysterious Grace possess my Understanding powerful Wisdom from God in the Scriptures make me wise to Salvation Let Strength and Vertue from on high renew both Spirit Soul and Body to all power of a spiritual mind that I may comprehend with all Saints what is the heighth length depth and breadth of the love of God in Christ and be built amongst them upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ himself being my Corner-stone and his Power enlivening me to every good word and work through that common Salvation wrought by him for every Member of his Body among whom I also am allowed to claim my share in the Inheritance of Light through the faith and patience of the Scriptures and Testimony of Jesus my Lord. Abraham's Faith was exercised upon the Covenant which God made with him saying I will be thy God and the God of thy seed which Faith was further confirmed by the Sign of Circumcision that was added to that Covenant and tried yet further by offering up his Son in all which he had the faithfulness of God and his free Grace and Power in his eye and saw Christ's day a far off therein although 't is like he saw not distinctly the very manner of Christ's coming in the Flesh and the manner of his Death and Resurrection yet his faith in the substance of the Covenant of God's free Grace and in his wisdom and power to accomplish the same in his own way and time led him to embrace that Covenant so dispensed and to that measure discovered deriving Interest in God to his Soul and the Righteousness of Justification thereby which the Spirit doth record in the Scriptures to be the same justifying Exercise of Faith which in the fulness of time should and so did more distinctly put forth its self upon Christ dead and risen and upon the power and truth of God therein to confirm and actually execute in the Person of Christ the Branches and Method of that Covenant relating to the taking away Sin applying Righteousness and uniting Man to God in the Mystery of Grace and Salvation and therefore 't is said the same Righteousness is now imputed to Believers as was to him because the nature of their Faith and the substance of the Object of that Faith is one and the same In the exercise of which they walk in his steps Rom. 4. 12. and so are justified with believing Abraham and inherit his Blessing Gal. 3. 9. And thus the Scriptures in the spiritual use thereof do run through all visibly different Dispensations Administrations Instances and Cases of the Saints with one and the same invisible scope and secret tendency agreeable to the state of Godliness and relating to all persons within
puts them in a Bottle of Remembrance he createth Jewels for himself Jer. 31. 18. out of the Dunghill and rakes them together into his Cabinet When thou faintest he fainteth not Lie down upon him view the Travel that he has made in the Person of Christ and in the Word of his Grace throughout the Scriptures and say How unsearchable is his Understanding and Condescention How wonderfully and fearfully am I made How undeservedly how almightily how compleatly freely and throughly am I called by his Grace and led along this present Wilderness by the Right Hand of infinite care power and condescending compassionate faithfulness Oh the depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God in the Riches thereof How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Rom. 11. 33 and 36. Albeit God has laid the Foundation of Faith never so sure in the God in Jesus Christ the only life and breath of his people and the advantages thereof Person of Christ and so in himself as it stands revealed in the Scriptures and albeit the Principle of believing be planted in the heart at the first converting Work and Covenant-closure with Jesus Christ yet every acting of Faith is still kept in the power of his own Will and lies lock'd up from any exercise till he open his hand and fills the Soul with good things And this God doth for singular ends viz. 1. That God might be truly all in all and all in every part that his people might both be rich and yet not able to say My Goods are increased that he may appear to be not only the Author of their life but of the Breathing of their breath also and that the whole life of the new Creature might not be at the least distance from the heart of Christ as the Flame of the Candle cannot live without the Wick so is it impossible that the Faith or refreshment of heart can live one moment without supply of radical Moisture descending from the Head Jesus Christ Which doth not at all shew the uncertainty of a Believer's state but rather tends to assure the same by a frequent sending the Soul to God in Christ by whom it is established 2. It gives check to all allowed sin and turning the Grace of God into wantonness because he will not suffer the refreshment of his Grace to be any where but where he is himself 3. And as breathings are tokens of life so do renewed influences witness the reality of life arising from the Union of the Soul with Christ 4. It also tends to make the Soul watchful against distance from Christ lest the Breath of Life withdraw and the Soul faint insensibly and fall into the Myre of a defiled Mind and so into sinful Actions and a wounded Conscience 5. It leaves no room for sloth or sleepiness of heart lest the Locks of Communion with God's influential Presence should be cut and Strength be gone for no comfort or strength lives any longer than by faith it derives vigour from the heart and mind of Christ 6. It represents Mercy purely in that it sheweth that the standing of a Believer is meerly at the good pleasure of God and doth necessitate the Soul to be a resigned Attendant upon the meer Will of God and so allures the Soul by a necessary Conquest of Love not to live to it self but to the pure Will of him who died and rose again and quickens all things By which Resignment unto Mercy it rests on the heart of Christ and all the Fulness of God that is there 7. It gives ground of hope in sad hours for as the Clouds come so they go There is hope of a tree saith Job Job 14. 7. though it be cut down that it will spring again through the reviving moisture at the root And why art thou troubled saith David to his Soul I shall yet praise him Psal 43. 5. And besides 8. This coming and going of the Spirits influence is as a Fan which blows and brings forth the lustre of all Graces Hereby Patience Waiting and Hope are exercised Faith and Love are exercised and every Grace gets as it were a frequent new Birth in the Soul and the spiritual fondness of the Love is revived and not suffered to die Every new Breath of the Spirit is a new Application of the Soul's Ingrafture into Christ and Demonstration of his Power and is arrayed afresh as in the day of its first Espousals 9. And lastly It gives assurance of the Resurrection of the Body of which every Resurrection by Faith and Hope freely visiting the heart and bringing it again to God is the fore-runner Whiles my Meditations are musing and expatiating after the invisible God and would fain comprehend his way methinks I receive a check from Zophar Job 11. 7. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou by searching find out the Almighty to perfection It is high as heaven What canst thou do Deeper than hell What canst thou know Keep within the revealed Word and in the patience and comfort of the Scriptures live by hope No flesh can see God and live Poor Man would be wise and see the upshot of all things but the Vessel of his Understanding cannot hold it Salvation by Christ has one kind of Rayment here another kind hereafter here it is a Kingdom of Patience and Hope but there a Kingdom of Glorious Enjoyment here is the Earnest there is the Fulness When I would look over and see some glimpses of Canaan a Jordan of difficulty stands in the way What an Adventure is it to go down into the depth of Death and the last concluding Change This is the last and great tryal of Faith to venture all my hope in Eternity at one Cast to expect to find the same God and Christ beyond the great Gulph who appears on this side by the Spirit of his Grace to enjoy the same God to Perfection whose Name I now call upon by Prayer O that victorious Faith which claspeth about that Love from which neither Life nor Death things present nor to come could divide Rom. 8. 38 39. I may not presumptuously go up into the Mount but be content a while with Wilderness-work there remaineth a Rest Return again O my Soul to thy labouring waiting state be upon thy Watch the Morning cometh by and by be not afraid to have thy Night changed into Day and all thy Weakness into Perfection only labour out thy Task and work out thy Salvation with fear and trembling in this day of Faith and Hope Am I called to work and travel How shall I undergo this Task Contemplation only is not the work of my twelve hours and Oh for freedom of heart and understanding that I may accomplish my work my Hirelings day Alas dear Christ I am willing to work thy works but would never be out of thy sight May I
am methinks like Jonah tumbling My Soul in a Tempest in the bottom of the Sea the Bars of an earthly and dark Mind are stopping my way and am as lifeless methinks as if I had no Interest in the Fountain of Saving Health The Weeds are wrapp'd about my head I am in the Deep but cannot cry unto the Lord as Jonah did And what the Lord is teaching me by this unexpected disappointment I cannot yet tell yet notwithstanding I have hope in him that I shall yet be rescued from this Captivity and see his Face again I have been searching after all my sins through the several Ages of my Life and endeavoured to view the Depravity of my Soul in all the sinful Circumstances of every sin but I cannot wind my self out my design was to get thereby to a more sincere Closure with Christ but e're I was aware I had challenged forth more Enemies than I could well suppress I thought by aggravating my sins to have gotten more hunger after Jesus Christ but like over-much cold Water it damped my Stomach and I found Sickness seizing upon me rather than Hunger a heartless Stupidity instead of Believing I concluded I was in some kind or other out of my way or else had not prepared my Stomach to keep out the Infection that exhaled from that Body of Death which is within me as I should have done whiles I was moving the Limbs thereof The thing I aimed at was quickning Then I remembred that word Luk. 24. 5. Why seek ye the living among the dead Come not amongst the Graves without his company who died for sins and is risen from the Dead I could not be satisfied about the sincerity of my Repentance and there I stuck till at length I remembred that Christ rose again as well to give Repentance as Remission of Sins Act. 5. 31. and 11. 18. so that I can bring no Repentance to him but I must first get it from him He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance c. A Saviour to take away all the defects of my Repentance a Prince to overcome all the difficulties and to create in me a sound Mind against the Infirmites of my Repentance and my halting therein Take then O mighty Prince and Saviour this work into thy own hands and create a right Spirit within me So that now my gadding Spirit is My Soul returning to its Strong Hold. brought back again to see that Christ is the Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of whatever doth concern the new Creature And although he be so yet how hard is it to venture my Soul and Body my whole Hope and Care into his hands by faith in his Word I had need know such an one very well with whom I am to venture my Journey through a Warfaring Life here and shortly through Death and Judgment too and so into the Ocean of Eternity O dear Jesus who art my Lord and my God who canst renew my heart and none else can do it breath upon me and say Receive the Holy Ghost Cast thy Mantle upon me and let the Unction of thy Spirit be so shed abroad throughout my whole Soul that my heart may be entirely thine thine only that thy self only may be the Covering of my eyes instead of all other Objects And now what should hinder but The Soul first improves Baptism that at length I should solemnly in the presence of God the Father Son and Spirit and in the presence of all the elect Angels pursue the ends of that Covenant which was sealed by Christ's Appointment to me in Baptism through whose hands soever that Ordinance was appointed and permitted to pass upon me Was not that a Divine Prophesie which Balaam himself spake which passed through his Mouth Numb 24. 17. There shall come a Star out of Jacob c. and can the Ordinance of Christ be made void through whose hands soever it came and in what unworthy Robe soever it was drest Did the sacred Ark lose its vertue by being in the Philistines Custody Did he forsake it who dwelt between the Cherubims Was the Mercy-seat forsaken and become like common Metal Why then should this Ordinance be lost to me in the substance of it though it may be some humane Scurf was laid upon it And have I not more reason to hope through Covenant-Grace that the Faith and Prayers of my dear Parents then and since are in force for a Blessing upon it to me than the defects of others in the manner of Administration can have to hinder it especially seeing now I desire humbly to take hold of the Covenant and with my own consent to say I agree to the Condescension of thy Grace and Love my dear Lord I catch hold on thy free Love and into thy Name O most holy God the Father Son and Spirit I give my self up through him who confirmed the Covenant and came by Water and Blood to make it effectual I believe Lord help my Unbelief I reach out my hand through thy Grace let thy Grace and Power pull me over to thy self that in the Ark of thy unchangeable Covenant I may be carried above my self and above a miserably drowned World Be not absent O thou who in thy Mercy didst make and impose this Seal of the Covenant as the Badge of one of thy Family for me to wear who also speakest words of Truth and Life when thou saist I baptise thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost fulfil thy good Word unto me thy Servant in which I desire to hope that thou mayest be mine and I may be thine wholly for ever that I may serve thee and glory in thee with all thy people who are thine own Inheritance Do not hang back O my poor Struggles with Vnbelief heart whose weakness and inconstancy have so often bruised my inward Man O Anxious Unbelief thou tellest me 't is a bargain soon made but how shall it be performed Thou urgest me with difficulties that will arise from the World from my self from the Tryals that I may undergo in my Body my Soul my Estate unwonted Tryals Thou tellest me of the great fits of Darkness and shameful declining I have had after much Refreshment and strong Resolutions to the contrary Thou tellest me that my Falls will now cost me dearer than ever they did and the Holy Spirit will be sooner vexed and grieved than before Thou tellest me I shall soon be weary of my Yoke and then my Sins will be of a deeper and more heart-hardning Die than ever But remember O Soul-destroying Unbelief I rowl my self upon the Rock of Ages I deliver my self up to the Covenant of Grace not to bring strength to it but to fetch strength from it and from that word which saith Sin shall not have Dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6. 14. And because I am weak
Redeemer the Fountain of Acceptation Pardon Life and Health In his hands I desire to leave you and remain c. 1658. To S. D. H. N o 33. I Thought good to send you a Line or two I am my self through the goodness of God in health and in hope of greater things to the Inner Man than I can yet attain My Life is a Warfare in all Respects O blessed be the Lord that is never weary of such a defiled Lump but holds my Soul in some life to this day with expectation that he will never leave till the Wilderness be made a fruitful Field and the Old Man be utterly destroyed for strong is he who hath promised and there shall be a performance to the patient attending on his Word God doth so order the bringing about of our eternal Rest that when he has lifted us over all the Mountains and Valleys of this present Pilgrimage he may at length be admired in them that believe and give matter of eternal Praise when we shall look back and see how we have escaped the devouring Floods and by his hand behold all the present spiritual Enemies lie dead for ever The Weary shall be refreshed the longing Soul satisfied the Captive delivered and the Scattered be yet gathered and return to Zion The Zeal of a faithful and gracious God and our Redeemer will accomplish this Be things how they will yet we are not allowed to say Our Wound is incurable but rather say Salvation is of God and he will be surpassingly wonderful to them that wait on him What though the Fig-Tree do not blossom yet God cannot alter the Word that is gone out of his Mouth Fear not for I have redeemed thee Isa 43. 1 c. Thou art mine to revive the spirit of the humble Isa 57. 15. He delights to dwell among broken Bones as his dwelling place that the Mourners may sing away their grief in God their Saviour There I leave you and commending you to the Lord I rest c. 1658. To D. H. N o 34. SUch is our bodily condition that we cannot make up these distances without the intervening of Letters or Friends but that Communion which I trust we have mutually though under much darkness with the Father and the Son by the Spirit of Grace needs no such helps I trust our Prayers meet at a shorter Cut and that we strive together in the same Faith of the Gospel It may be you find you have much to do to keep your head above water I find the same I bear about the same Body of Death and find the same Contradiction in my corrupt and confused Nature One Christian seems to out-run another till God reveal the mischievous Hell that dwells in our Flesh Then Paul himself will cry out O wretched man that I am and Isaiah that Evangelical Prophet be forced to say All our Righteousness is as filthy Rags What are our poor glimmerings to the brightness of the Sun of Righteousness Were there not an equal Relief in the Mediator for the youngest and weakest of the Flock as well as for them who have long travelled in the Profession of Godliness the Accoutrements of the most experienced Christians would shrivle up and wither away and leave nothing behind in the Soul but such an Out-cry as those Who shall dwell with everlasting Burnings but he that dwells in the burning Bush keeps it from consuming 'T was only the Likeness of the Son of Man that made the three Children in Daniel walk up and down in the Fire and yet safe from burning I will be with you saith God in the Fire and Water his Name is Emanuel God with us His Covenant is free the Purpose of Grace wonderful his good Will ariseth only from himself and will not cannot change and therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed We little think oft-times in our fear and discouragement how far our weak Prayers reach they are like an Arrow gone out of our sight and we many times think them lost and forgot and consider not that every dry Groan and watery Tear is put into the Bottle and winds up through the ascending vertue of the Mediation of him who is one with the Father to the Throne of Acceptation Let us comfort one another in this hope that we may labour and travel hard but not faint by the way I remain yours in the highest Bond c. 1658. To S. H. N o 35. I Am much refreshed that the Lord doth so favourably deal with your heart 'T is the best News you can write me of your particular to hear that you are toyling with a bad heart and hurried to and again by one Wave after another This may not be accounted bad News because the straitness of the way to Life consists in such a Warfare 'T is good News to hear that a poor Creature that is not able of her self to think one good thought should earnestly desire to be rid of all sin and that she might own the Holiness of God's Nature against all Pollution The Thirsty shall be filled that 's good News Matth. 5. 6. Always keep these two Supports ready viz. God is both able and willing to perfect his work in you to the end Whatever your Fight be let your Weapons be Prayer and Faith and you shall get the day I leave you to the Lord and rest c. 1658. To B. D. N o 36. I received the sad News of my deceased Sister blessed be the Name of him who was dead and is alive and will shortly cause the Dead to come forth that will be a blessed day for all the Redeemed to visit their precious Kindred And blessed be him who has in any gracious measure watered your heart let him favourably add this also viz. That upon all the Glory there be a Defence This is by my precious Friend whom God hath mightily rescued by his Grace I want nothing but more Communion with that God which you pant after more Faith more Truth and Resting upon him more Satisfaction in him that I may say and believe and sing God is my Portion Will he not rend the Heavens Will he not rend these hearts and appear That the Mountains of every fear and disquiet may skip like Lambs before the presence of our God When shall the Promises be Substance and a faithful compassionate God be an abundant Salvation Can the lowring face of an uncertain World and the things thereof make the Promise and unchangeable good Will of God of no effect doth not he whisper through every dark Cloud and say Come up hither The Lord open our ears to Instruction and let us rejoyce to take our leave of that which will not profit Every Prayer we make saith We have chosen an invisible Inheritance Oh what a glorious thing is Faith at a desperate pinch Then is his Throne high and lifted up when Christ is in profit and loss in life and death the hearts advantage above these
lower Ebbings and Flowings The Lord be with you c. 1659. To B. D. N o 37. IT were a miserable thing for a gracious heart to suffer Crosses if the Curse were in them but seeing their Nature is changed our misery doth not lie in such Dispensations but our Instructions are therein though it is hard to say and believe it and when the Clouds seem to gather thick over ones head then to claim sheltering teaching and purging Power under the Wings of God and to sing as Luther was wont Psal 46. God is a Refuge for us Selah that is a posture some way becoming an Heir of Life and Glory whose Estate is truly secured beyond Thief or Moth. I am sometimes even amazed to think how short I come of what I seem to be and of real acknowledging that God and living in that absolute blessed Covenant which I profess my self a sharer in And doth not these things require rough Dispensations inward or outward to awaken and send a poor Sinner home to that Advocate who is King Prophet and Priest to help But alas dry words my leanness my leanness yet strong is he who hath in some part already and will yet further one day totally remove all things that offend Let us bless him love him and honour all his ways The Lord help you and I to live above the Changes of this lower World There is a Magnanimity in Faith which overcometh the World if we could but attain that pitch The Lord establish our hearts and hopes upon himself he changes not and blessed be his Name I leave you with him and rest c. 1659. To D. D. N o 38. I Know no Refuge but in God and blessed be his Name his Name is a strong Tower this World is but a withering Portion a bad Prop to lean upon the Covenant of Grace will make amends for all I may not complain unless it be against my Unbelief God must have the Glory of all his works and therefore blessed again and again be his Name he hath not left his people whatever the World expect or think and therefore let us charge our hearts to resist sinful Melancholy his ways are still Mercy and Truth and the Children of Zion must shall and will rejoyce in their King a mighty King their and our Saviour The Lord is the Pilot of his Church and People the Vessel may be tost but cannot miscarry such honour and privilege have all believing Penitents The Clouds are thick below but the Lord rules above and hath said It shall be well with the Righteous And though I am unrighteous yet he who I desire to make the Object of my Faith is perfect and in his Righteousness I trust mine there I would cling and rejoyce in the hope of the Glory of God yet to be revealed c. 1659. To D. H. N o 39. SEeing our time here is a Warfare 't is a comfort to perceive the Lord's presence with any poor Soul so as to make it stand out in hope and prayer while Temptations and Corruptions like fiery Darts are flying thick on every side It never goes desperately ill with those that travel towards Zion and are acquainted with Assaults from Satan and hearttreachery from themselves till they begin secretly to whisper Rebellion against the Covenant and Law of God's Grace and say There is no help for me in God David's Excellency lay not so much that he was freer from Sin and sinful Miscarriages than others but in this that he could not endure to say or hear others say of him There is no help for him in God Psal 71. 11. c. 3. 2. and c. 42. 10. That was the Anchor that made him ride out Storms and the Rope that drew him up out of many a deep Pit Let us use the same means with reverence and yet with freedom God is a jealous God and cannot endure to be accounted changeable Jer. 33. 24 25. he keeps both ends of the Covenant and will not give the Glory of any part of that Trust out of his own hands Every Desire every Thirst and Exercise of Resolution or Hope heavenwards and every Soul and Body-deliverance to such ariseth from this viz. that God is faithful 2 Thes 3. 3. though our Labour and Prayer ought therein also to be employed viz. as the means which God has commanded on our part for a Closing with the efficatious vertue of his Spirit by believing whereby the force of Christ's Death and Resurrection becomes singly applicable to remove Guilt and confer a gracious Conformity to his Nature and the Law of Righteousness in the Soul I see you level at the right Mark and own your Relief from the right place and why may I not say You shall yet see greater things than these c. 1659. To D. H. N o 40. THe Lord be praised that you are within such a Covenant that nothing can befall us for evil while our eye is truly rolling heaven-ward yea within such a Covenant as is confirmed in the Blood of him who is able to turn the heart and eye heaven-ward That God hath dealt so favourably with your heart as to tie it to a hungry pursuit after him is much comfort to my Soul and matter of praise to his Name And I account it no small Mercy that my Child is under your care and both of you under God's gracious Wing When we acquaint one another that every day we live is a day of Battel and that the Enemy within us doth rage this is no reason of discouragement because the Battel is the Lords I am put every day to fly to the City of Refuge and I bless the Lord I never found the Gate quite shut against me yet I am forced sometimes methinks to squeeze in Which difficulty ariseth from my Unbelief and want of retaining a frame of tender Resignation not from any straitening in his Bowels but in my own but these days of distance are hastening away I perceive your eye grows dim the Lord bless the Means for Recovery however be not dismayed you shall want never an eye when your Body shall be raised incorruptibly 't is not long thither the Redeemer will be seen eye to eye and then farewel all Imperfections c. 1659. To D. H. N o 41. I Perceieve B. Cr. hath much trouble through Indisposition of Body and it is good it should be so though disquieting to the Flesh and you have a gracious share I perceive also In such Cases it will be some help to turn our thoughts from poring upon the Affliction it self and endeavour by all means to find out the Lesson which God is teaching thereby for that is properly and truly our work in that Christ hath born the Curse for us he hath taken away the wrathful Penalty and left only an awakening and instructory Nature in all the Afflictions that his People meet with Isa 27. 7 8 9. and 63. 9. Psal 89. 30 31 32 c. Oh that
after God under all the Changes and Trials that do accompany an earthly Life and we have this Encouragement I will never leave you nor forsake you Grace and the Exercise of it also comes from God None can cleanse a foul heart nor quicken a dead one but he who raised your and my Redeemer from the dead And therefore if my heart be as hard as a Stone as foul as a Dung-hill as weak as Water and as deceitful treacherous and vile as may be I have no Refuge but to fly to my most pure holy Redeemer to my unchangeable God in Jesus Christ who is both my Judge and Saviour He hears the inward panting of his own Spirit when we can scarce hear the voice of our own Prayers or scarce know what to make of them He who creates Light out of Darkness knows how to work up an Acceptation of us to himself in Christ when our Persons and Services as they come from us are as filthy Rags in our own eyes We never go down the Wind till we say in our hearts by Unbelief The Covenant cannot stand in Heaven because I have sinned against it on Earth I am God I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Truly Sister I find very often I have as much need of pardoning Grace as ever I needed at first Conversion And I scarce know any thing that states the difference betwixt me and the vilest of Hypocrites but only this That God makes my Distempers my Burthen and in the Riches of his Love inclines my heart to hanker towards him for help And for ever blessed be his Name that doth not suffer us to die away utterly from his Relief How great is his Goodness How wealthy and endless is that Store-house of Perfection that is laid up in Christ for his ransomed and new-born Seed Get Christ in your eye and that will affect your heart c. 1661. To D. H. N o 55. TOuching what you write that you have an Interest in the Mercies I receive it accords well with that word 1 Cor. 12. 27. Ye are the body of Christ and members in particular thereof And what a mutual Interest is that First Christ's and then one anothers in him Something of this Affinity appears in the Contentment of that mutual Society of Christians but more in the mutual Faith in which they communicate with one another Rom. 1. 12. The Streams are obvious to our sence but the Streams would dry up if the Fountain did not feed them The more we put on Jesus Christ the more doth the Morning-Star of Perfection in that and all other Contentment twinkle upon us Still honor God so as to lean upon him and love him and all the method he takes Nothing doth so much bring disquiet as disappointment and nothing doth so much bring disappointment as the fixing ones expectation upon Uncertainties Be ever therefore trimming up your Expectations on things above where Christ is and abides for ever Dissolve into his good Will and he will never disappoint your Hope nor suffer you to be at an utter loss What think you is the very meaning of that place Hab. 3. 17 18. Although the Fig-tree shall not blessom c. Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord c. Doth it not speak out this viz. That God is the same his Word the same when all things fail besides If I have disquiet or fears let me enquire what it is that I fear and on what Ground whether about my present or future State of Body or Soul And let me not make Questions nor Answers but what Scripture doth countenance I may make use of former Experiences of my own or others as they bear witness to Divine Writ in the Scriptures and so be thankful but I may not make the Experiences of any sort my Rule nor Guide of my Faith My meaning is We are apt to oppose something or other that we find by Observation or Experience against the Word of the living God or expound the great and faithful Promises by those Experiences or Observations As where it is said Sin shall not have Dominion over you I will send you the Comforter and he shall teach you all things I will satisfie the longing Soul I will give a new heart I will circumcise your hearts to love me The Righteous shall not want any good thing Their Soul shall not be desolate No Evil shall come near them Your Sins and your Iniquities I will remember no more and such like which abounds throughout the Scriptures We are apt to cast cold Water out of our Experiences and Observations upon those Promises rather than kindle our Faith at them and so live by Faith on them We are apt to say yea but I do not find it so I find Sin prevails against me my Graces wither my Conscience clamours my heart is hard I pray and have no Answer my Condition is distressed and I fear it will be worse He that said No Evil shall come near doth yet suffer his people to be greatly distressed even so far sometimes as to die under it and therefore it is not directed to me or there is not that soveraign Good in it as the Gospel seems to proclaim But I would say as Solomon did Eccles 7. 10. Consider wisely concerning this 'T is impossible the Oath and Promise of God should fail the mistake is on our part considering not the Work of the Lord and the Operation of his hands He trieth rooteth and teacheth Faith by ways of Opposition for Christ is always labouring in this Vineyard The Father worketh hitherto and I work saith he His great design is to reveal himself and baptize his People into the Spirit of his Death and Resurrection He slays Sin by suffering his People sometimes to be in a sence slain by it that they more fully die from their own Power into his Life Gal. 2. 19. He brings the Soul to an utter stress to make it look out and venture upon him as the three Leppers who to flee from Famine ventured to flee to an Enemies Army When he would bring his People from sensible Refuges and from a Man's personal Worth and inherent Strength which usually gets in like Rust upon the Soul he dasheth all that to teach us that our Life and every Act of it is the meer Operation of his Grace who lives moves and breaths in his People How is it possible we should know Patience but by Sufferings and the infinite Power and Truth of God in great Deliverances if the Sun did always shine upon us This made David say In very faithfulness thou hast afflicted me and Paul I will rejoyce in mine infirmities or weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me Growth of Grace lies chiefly in more and more expertness in owning of and living nakedly on the Good that is in Christ as being really mine own and deriving Good from him by perpetual Motion Man's Life lies not so much
feeble but Millions of Sins Cares Fears and Disquiets fly before one hearty Closure with Christ his Power and Grace by Faith If Christ in the Soul saith I AM HE whole Troops of Adversaries fall backwards Difficulties vanish and desponding Consultations of Unbelief in our Flesh fly as Dust before the Wind and that because our Redeemer is strong though we are weak Methinks sometimes 't is pity that we should hear so much read so much spoke or writ to each other so ordinarily of this certain real Refuge and yet account it not more real What a thing is this that Christ hath engaged that not one of his shall be able to lose what he purchased and bequeathed for them Such a good Will and free Grace that our Sins shall never be able to sin away no more than they can be able to sin away Christ from the Right Hand of his Father for were it otherwise we were undone every moment Who is it that maintains any Thirst after him that enables poor Dust and Ashes to conflict against all the powers of Darkness and of weak sometimes becomes strong Who is it that maintains any indignation against the Law of our Flesh that is in our Members but he who hath overcome in his own Person and will shortly tread down Satan under our feet also and is hastning the day when the last Enemy shall be destroyed and every Sigh and Tear removed Let us comfort our hearts in this and pray for each other that we may as good Soldiers of Jesus Christ fight this good Fight of Faith laying hold on Eternal Life and so surmount the Miseries of a present evil World c. Pray present my hearty Respects to your Daughter whose Soul I know is labouring in this Work c. 1661. To B. D. N o 57. THe Lord direct our Course the Waves will allay the Calm is coming our Pilot is skilful our God unchangeably gracious he is infinitely pure and will never leave till our filth be done away that we may be like him and bear Likeness to him to all Eternity Plunge through as well as you can never say your hope is lost and your Judgment is passed over by your God Our Bottom is good our Redeemer is strong and there I leave you c. 1661. To S. D. N o 58. THe Lord is yours if you are willing to be his and I doubt not but that is your desire and aim Stand up in the midst of all your Dumps and Trials and venture one Halelujah to him that rides upon the Heavens for your help yea in the thickest of your doubts about Soul or Body do but cast a wishly eye to him who hath swallowed up all manner of Deaths in Victory and you shall overcome and rise above the Waves because he is risen It may be you may little think how it chears the heart of Christ to see you sit down and sing a Psalm of Praise for all his Loving-kindnesses in the midst of Worldly Darkness Measure not spiritual and eternal things by those that are for a moment Do not wrong the Wisdom of God your Father by repining against the Instruments and the Events of his Providence Let your design be how to fortifie each others Faith and Joy and never ask Counsel of Flesh and Blood in the business Read over the 46th Psalm and make it yours by Meditation and Prayer Dear Sister fare you well in the Lord hasten Heavenwards and count all things else but trifles that you may finish your Course with joy Let the same Mind be in you as was in Christ who emptied himself to do the Will of his Father for saving such poor Sinners as you and I when he might have enjoyed all the Glory of the World he refused it and wandred up and down despised of Men. Love the Foot-steps of the Captain of your Salvation and whenever your heart boils up any sinful disquiets carry your heart and your disquiets to the Lord and beg of him to judge them and give you the new heart he promised in Ezek. 36. 26. The good Will the heart-refreshing Peace and Comfort of a dear Father a dear Redeemer and the dear and blessed Spirit be with you Blessed he blessed she that overcomes and blessed be the Son of God that hath undertaken we shall overcome in his Victory Once more farewel fear not only believe 1661. To B. D. N o 59. I Perceive your Family is still visited The God of the Spirits of all Flesh knows what Scourges are most suitable for them whom he designs for Glory Honour and Eternal Life among whom I trust you and your Yoak-fellow are enrolled There is hope that good lies in the bottom when the heart is drawn the more to seek resign up to and wait patiently for the Salvation of God to a delightful thought of the Appearance of Christ and your gathering to him the whole World cannot purchase one quarter of an hours free Access to God If he draws and drives the heart to himself let us bless and love him whatever means he useth to bring it about I desire to bless the Lord that you are striving to trace the steps of that Faith that believed under hope above hope such Faith such Hope will never return ashamed I am strugling with the same difficulties and none can help me but the faithful Promiser who is able to quicken his Word to me and soaken my heart to mix it with Faith As you write he has not been a barren Wilderness to you which is unspeakable Grace so I have often found and therefore I have hope that at length he will perfect the design of favour and pity upon such a poor Worm Lord help you and me to find Fountains in the Valley of Baca till the last Sourge be over and every Tear removed We have no other way now to communicate with each other but in Prayers and Faith Affections and Letters Letters indeed may miscarry but no earthly Obstruction can hinder the three former Faith and Prayer flies invisibly and Christian Affections also As for my self the Lord is every day forcing my Soul to look out more after the mysterious privilege of his most absolute free Grace in Christ There the wearied find Rest the polluted finds purity and the dejected find there an Anchor of Hope Sometimes I am confounded in mine own thoughts and my Prayers rather shame me than comfort me then I stand still and look for the Salvation of God only He sends his naked Arm out of the thick Cloud and creates some Beam of Light and Refuge which makes a Pilgrim sing in a Land of darkness He seems to be gone sometimes but returns again He withdraws but never bids farewell utterly He suffers me sometimes to tumble in mine own filth but brings me to the Laver again to the Fountain opened to the House of David c. for Sin and Uncleanness His unchangeable Purpose and Grace holds its Course as the
Sun and therefore poor Worms are never undone though never so low Could I more actually resign up to his Will and read that Golden Line of his Love that runs within every Providence of his and in every part of his Discipline and put my Seal to it how might I triumph and say O Sin where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Death He dasheth earthly Comforts that himself might comfort alone he suffers Corruption to swell and rage that he may appear to be the only mighty Redeemer he glorifies the Excellency of his Word by forcing the Soul thither for Refuge Brother let us be flying into this Ark his Word endures to a thousand Generations we have the same God and no other than what Abraham Isaac and Jacob Moses David and Paul had He never left a poor Supplicant nor will do it for the Spirit of Supplication is his own Breath and himself deeply concerned in all the Concernments of his People they are his and their Concernments his also Let us muse this Privilege seriously and glorifie his good Will by Faith and Thankfulness and so rejoyce in believing above hope The Lord be a hiding place to you and me never yield to let him go but let us cling fast by Faith and Hope till he cause Salvation and Light to shine forth out of Obscurity and Comfort all that mourn Glorifie God by Faith Patience and Thankfulness lose not that and you will be no loser though the day be dark the Sun is not down The times of refreshing will come to us and we to them for our Redeemer lives for ever I leave you to that God and remain c. 1661. To S. D. N o 60. THat 's the happiest Man or Woman in the World that can truly hear the voice of God in his Rod. That happy profit I press and long for and that happiness I heartily wish to your self and my Brother that as God hath made you Partners in Affliction you would endeavour to the utmost to support each others Faith and holy Patience in a stormy day Afflictions be they what they will can never make you miserable Nothing makes the Rod tedious but unwarrantable vexations of Spirit and in days of trouble that is the usual Temptation and there is no such Cure as the naked sight of God's wise disposing hand If there have been any misgiving thoughts between you about future Concernments relating to your selves and your Children as under such Surges you have met withal our frailty is very apt unto spread that infirmity before the Lord who is abundant in Pardon Mercy and Truth who can spare the Lives of the rest if he please and will not suffer the Seed of his Servants to be desolate All the Scriptures be full of Counsel and infallible grounds of Consolation yet such is our Carnality Darkness and Unbelief many times that we think the Rock cannot yield Honey and so we gage things by fleshly and worldly Observation and are apt secretly to condemn the Wisdom Goodness and Faithfulness of God before we are aware whereas the only way to find the Pearl of real advantage in the blessed Word is to lay the heart to the Word by an exercise of Faith and then roll the Soul upon the Lord though it seems to be never so much against that Sense and Reason which Flesh and Blood is always dictating to us Dear Sister I must confess I travel under a treacherous heart of mine own which is ever betraying away my Peace my Strength my Faith and Hope and that is my daily burthen but I never come before the Lord with any openness and unfeigned Resignation to him for Pardon and Succour in vain I am somewhat a Partner with you in the Temptations and Waves of a present World but cannot call it dismal so long as God doth in some measure steer my Course in any sincerity after him Let us provoke one another to this and the Storm will be over the day will break and the darksome shadows will flee away or we shall flee through or flee beyond them for faithful is he that hath promised 1661. To J. L. N o 61. IT is good to mind our Interest in Christ seriously where-ever we are that when-ever we step out of this World we may step into a better in which dwells none but righteous Inhabitants and righteous things And were it not for this hope how miserable a life would Christianity be but one foretaste of Christ makes a dismal World pleasant That made Paul and Silas sing in their Bonds and John to be ravished in the Spirit in the Isle of Patmos and truly nothing else can do it 'T is our happiness that things which are seen are only temporal but things unseen are eternal I oft think of the comfortable society I had once with you but the Kernel of that which made Society then comfortable lies still safe so long as that Promise holds Loe I am with you alway even to the end of the World I recommend you into the hands of that precious Friend and remain c. 1661. To D. S. N o 62. LEt it be your and my study still to derive mortifying Power from the Grace and Cross of him who was dead and is alive I mean the Lamb who stands before the Throne in the vertue of his own Sacrifice Rev. 5. 6. perpetually to intercede for effectuating all the ends of his Mediation to them who come to God through him Our Prayers winged with faith in Christ and fellow-feeling one of another's troubles may fly faster than Letters can and there is no fear of their miscarriage if once placed by faith in the Mediator's hand The Lord who dwells in Houses not made with hands is the Habitation of his People Let the fulness of all manner of Contentment that is on the other side Jordan so warm our hope and faith that nothing on this side may discompose And Oh that I could dwell more in the view of him who is lifted up to draw all Men to him that so these earthly Affections might be transformed and fetch satiating delight from the place where Christ sits who is even now our life I commend you to him at his Throne let us meet and make merry in the Author of Consolation and our blessed Hope 1662. To D. H. N o 63. TRuly Sister I do sometimes wonder at the sottishness of my heart that can be so affected with the Christian tender Respects of a dear Friend and yet have no more flames of Affection to the Fountain of all Love and Loveliness Methinks nothing makes any Friend truly excellent in my thoughts but Grace and the Inhabitation of Christ there And if a Beam of his Grace creates a delightful Aspect where-ever it pitches how excellent for Perfection is Jesus Christ himself Sometimes our hearts are apt to fancy Christ as if he were humoursome revengeful as if he would make the worst of things and not the better sometimes
be so When he says Sin shall not have Dominion over you I will circumcise your hearts to love me I will redeem Jacob out of all his trouble I will be with you and deliver you his words are all true but our little exercise of Faith is either like a weak handed Gripe or a leaky Vessel yet our Faith it self is in his keeping and his Intercession is incessant and therefore it cannot utterly fail Dear Sister wait on him pluck up your Soul to the business your labour will not be in vain nor any unfaigned desire after him return disappointed and ashamed Throw Husband Child and self upon him into his Bosom and there lodge together by Faith in the Joy of the Holy Ghost and so take your rest I mean a laborious and yet a sweet Rest for He gives his Beloved Sleep His own Concernments are mixt in ours though his own are chief in his eye yet he can look upon them without beholding ours for the Covenant is made and the Blood that concerns it is already shed and fully accepted the Redemption compleat and the Lord's portion and delight is his People So that he as it were if I may say as it were in so true and real a business raiseth in himself an endless delight by loving his ransomed Seed and in dressing them according to his own heart and shedding out a measure of that Love into their hearts also for carrying on a Spirit of Conjugal Affection in the Souls of his People towards him now till the shadows slee away and we come to know him as we are known of him and so love him without interruption as we are loved of him Is the day near when a thousand fold more of this will really appear than words can utter For who can speak how much there lies in God's Purpose yea in his very heart to do for them for whom he died bought so dear and rescued with so high a hand Deut. 10. 15. How then should we look out to awaken our faith and lift up our heads because our Redeemer is alive and risen and our safety is in him Oh that my own heart and yours were more warmed in such a view I have no more but to recommend you to the Bosom of him who is the God of all Grace Pity Power and Consolation Yours in the hope of this saving Health and Relief c. 1663. To E. D. N o 70. I Received your Letter though not so well spelled as that I received before but as bad as it was a Father can pick out the meaning of his Child for Love is quick-sighted and the best Interpreter of words in the World God is so to me and teacheth me the same to you You wrote you would fain have a tender heart such as the Prophet calls a heart of Flesh but not a fleshly carnal heart What then must become of the hard heart Your earthly Father cannot take that away nor give you the other but beg of him who made the Promise and he can and will both give you the one and do the other also Be not a stranger to him I would part with some of your Affection towards me as far as he allows me that you might spend it on him You cannot speak to me but by a Letter at this distance but you may to God all hours of the day and night Read the Scriptures as the Word of him who deserves all your love and desire I am contented to have it only at the second hand Muse over as oft as you can by what you read and hear how sinful your Nature is and loathsome in God's eye and how wondrous his Goodness is to tell you he lays that loathsomness of yours on Christ and he has by his death brought in eternal Redemption for you Consider his exceeding love and the great travel of his Soul and bitter Agony that you in prizing and flying to him may be freed from the dreadful state of a hard and polluted heart you cannot ask any thing of him to this end only do it reverently and with reliance on him but he is as willing to give it You may open all your heat to him yea you must do it for he loves to have you do it that so your whole heart may be cured and my Child be found at last among the number of them who sing for ever Blessing and Honour Glory and Thanks to him who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood I leave you to his care c. 1663. To D. H. N o 71. I Have not yet found out a way of Employment but am looking out and do desire to be looking up for my advice and help comes from the Hills as David speaks Disappointments as a wise and faithful God orders them are as useful many times as Success God has not cast me out of his gracious Covenant nor my Soul into murmuring discouragement but tells me the Trial of my Faith is better much better than Gold However 't is with my outward Man yet my chiefest Want is not there and although my sinful and corrupt heart wars strongly against the Spirit and the new Creature yet I believe the Spirit in the Operations of his Grace in the new Creature will carry the day when all is done for our Redeemer is strong I am laden with Darkness Weakness corrupt Lusts Vanity Distrust unsteady and uneven Walking deadness and hardness of heart but I find the Fountain of Mercy for cleansing still open and the Grace Mercy and Truth of God in the Covenant unchangeable and in this stands all my Salvation all my chiefest desire 1 Sam. 23. 5. I want nothing but more Faith more spiritual Light and Furniture more of Christ's Image more renewing in the Spirit of my Mind to have less carnal Carefulness Luk. 12. 22. and more of the just Man's Life Hab. 2. 4. Sin makes a Man poor weak and fearful the Grace of God which brings Salvation makes a Soul rich strong and confident for the Covenant of Grace and the Promises are more than words The Treasure is full and if I could bring my empty Sack in earnest it would be filled in earnest I give you a short hint of my Convictions my Conditions Travels and desires that in the like you may see you are not alone and that we may strive in Spirit together towards the glorious Prize of our high Calling I commend you to your and my strong Rock the blessed and ever-living God c. 1663. To D. H. N o 72. I Am attending what the Providence of God will direct further to Now and then some Doors of Providence seem to open themselves a little but as yet nothing effectually but the God of Providence who is the God of all Grace also rules them and every thing is and will be most beautiful in its season He has glorious Lessons to teach me and others in such a method and Discipline as this is and
things for good well enough Pray much as I believe you do he will be your Sanctuary in a strange Land I must take my leave and do leave you to our good God who has been the God of our Parents and has had wondrous love to their Seed blessed be his Name He is our God and will be our Guide to the death and after that also HALELUJAH The War ripens apace as 't is feared but through fair Weather or foul our Pilot has engaged we shall have a good Landing at last Our Redeemer is most wise and strong and therefore we may still lift up our heads in Faith Hope and Comfort I recommend you to the Lord whose I am persuaded you are whom you serve and who will never leave you 1664. To B. D. N o 79. I Do not doubt but the same God who has made Communion with himself sweet to you will gather you under his Wings and perfect in you the good pleasure of his Will What a Majestick Privilege is this that the omnipent God should voluntarily be in the nearest Covenant with a poor Sinner That Christ God-man should be our Priest our Advocate and every hour of the day and night alive to make Intercession for all those who come to God through him What though great and new Temptations come and sore Tempests arise he did doth and can still say to the Storms Be ye allayed and they all must obey him Strong is our Redeemer and therefore the Floods cannot drown a weather-beaten Vessel yea he is both Ship and Pilot and therefore the Venture cannot miscarry Who is it that keeps the small Grain the little spark of Faith alive but he who made Jonah in the Deep to say Yet I will look again towards thy holy Temple Our whole care and burthen lies upon his hands who bears up the Pillars of the Earth he lives to give and nourish Faith and in believing to give Peace Therefore Sin shall not have utter Dominion nor Condemnation find room to enter He is bringing us through many Waters to a safe Shoar The Victory determined and promised will break forth because our Head is exalted above all Authority and Power We may look all manner of Deaths and Damps all manner of Disappointments Discountenances and Difficulties here below in the face without an apaled heart and amazing terror because the Prince of Life and Deliverance has engaged his Life his Crown and Dignity to be the Hope and Strength of his poor Servants Happy is that Soul that makes him his only and continual Refuge as I perceive you do and blessed be his Name for it Mr. Th. Tr. is dead c. and thus rolls away the World and the things and Lusts thereof c. The days of an anxious Pilgrimage are running out The Lord direct our eyes to that serene and unchangeable state where sins fears and Temptations turmoils and difficulties will cease for ever to the comfort and Communion of whose gracious Spirit I commend you c. 1665. To D. H. N o 80. AS for your Complaints turn them into Prayer and make the same Moan to Christ as you do to me he has not only fellow-feeling but can succour also All other Friends can but administer words but he is not only willing but able also to succour them that come to him All that we can do is but to hand over his Relief to one another therefore tell him all your mind when you are weary sit down at the Fountain and drink never expect Medicine elsewhere The more you expect from him the more you get The more you talk with him the better you will be acquainted and he loves such Society He is not harsh and strange but as a prudent Father and Husband full of Bowels and takes nothing so ill as your standing aloof off He loves Holiness and a composed Walk with him but to the end that he may teach a Soul how to come by it he leaves that Soul sometimes to darkness discomposedness and deadness that it might be forced to know him and to be exercised in going to himself as all the Store-house we have and to believe our Acceptation our Growth and Fruitfulness to be only in Union and Communion with him by his Spirit But these things he can teach you best c. 1665. To B. J. D. N o 81. I Do by one or other sometimes hear of your health which is welcome News to me Although the years of my life have not reached the number that yours are now at yet methinks the Lord hath given me a fair Respuit to seek that Pearl which doth surmount the value of the whole World and the Lusts thereof which pass away but the deceit pollution and negligence of my own heart is such under a too short improvement of time in a day of Grace under the means thereof that I may cry out Where have I been What have I done all this while How little have I answered the Gospel-Call How little have I pried applyingly into the Mystery of Christ And what miserable Returns have I made to all the bounteous offers of the Gospel that I have read and heard But yet the Lord hath in some part hinted to my Soul that he has made with me in Christ an everlasting Covenant There I desire humbly to cling and there to place all my Expectation my hope of Acceptation and Salvation and all my desire And you that have seen more days than I have done I intreat you also to give them a serious review Let neither of us leave our choicest Concernments at uncertainties Oh for a rouzing visit from the God of all Grace upon each of our hearts that may alarm us out of our selves into the City of Refuge before we are benighted Let each of us be as much afraid to have any wholsome Conviction die upon us now as we would be afraid hereafter to be found without our Wedding-Garment I have little News but that the Plague is greatly increased and seems to import that Wrath is gone forth The Lord help us to put our house our hearts in order with the utmost zeal and diligence The Alarm from Heaven sounds lowder and lowder and seems to give more than an uncertain sound It speaks out divine Wrath most apparently happy would this City and Land be if it heard and submitted to the voice of the Rod. Let us look out and be fitted to meet our Lord. 'T is pity to let an eternal state be at uncertainties with us when a temporal life is thus tottering Such a flying to Christ as is accompanied with a clear Resignation of our Wills wholly to his Will is the best Preparative for our Change 1665. To B. J. D. N o 82. THough there is not often intercourse betwixt us by Letters yet I can truly say you are many times upon my heart The affairs of your precious and never-dying Soul is as to you the principal Theam of my anxious and affectionate
Throw your self upon him for nothing shall separate you from his love in Christ Christ himself was once sick for your sake to the very death and in great darkness yet always beloved of his Father and his God and Father is your God and Father and therefore he will not forsake your Soul in Adversity but make your Bed in your Sickness for his tender Mercy towards you can never dry up Resign up your self to him and be comforted in him for he who is your own God and Saviour is Lord both of Life and Death My heart is melting over you and yet I am but an earthly Father all Affection is derived from him but his Affections his Love and Pity are infinite I do remember you and my poor Wife also both of us have and do spread your Case before the Lord and I have abundant satisfaction in the Lord that it is and will be well with you living or dying but we earnestly desire if it be his Will that you may yet live to shew forth the praises of him upon the Earth who has done great things for you For what greater favour can he give a poor Creature than to make you seek his Face and to number you amongst his Followers which he has given Evidence of blessed be his Name already Be not dejected but lift up your head and heart to your God and Saviour Throw all your sins and cares and fears upon him and spare not for so you honour him and can never please him better He sees you through a Cloud and delights to do you good and will never cease till he open before you the endless Volume of his eternal Love and so love you into his eternal Rest Therefore bear up and be revived for God himself is with you for a Refuge To him I leave you waiting his good pleasure c. 1668. To E. D. N o 95. I received yours of the 10th Instant October desiring to own the gracious hand of God in this speedy Recovery of yours When Hezekiah was reprieved from death for a season t is said he returned not according to the Benefit Take heed of that whatever Awakning you have had endeavour to retain it and that 's the best kind of thankfulness and this the Lord will give if you do often let him know 't is the real desire of your heart He satisfieth the longing Soul Present the same things to him by Faith and Prayer which you mention to me in your Letter and then you may expect to speed He can compose and direct your thoughts for Heart-work is his only to manage When you put Faith and Prayer to the Word you make it another thing than it was before in the meer Letter that 's the way to draw Water out of the Wells of Salvation And thus humbly seriously and chearfully expect whatever good there lies bequeathed to you in the New Testament which is your Legacy c. 1668. To M. D. N o 96. BE not discouraged in your Christian Warfare every one of Christ's Disciples Male and Female must be all Souldiers and we have the Lord of Life for the Captain of our Salvation who will teach our hands to war and fingers to fight He never slumbers If he seem to slumber one of your Groans will wake him for his Bowels are more tender than yours can be to the little Babe He has taken the work upon him and though we are weak he is strong and will be sure to manage the Trust which the Father hath given him and will never leave till he has perfected that which concerns every Lamb of his Flock Be glad in the Lord love him and rest in his Bosom his Love can never wither There I leave you and remain c. 1669. To D. H. N o 97. I Am refreshed in that experience you have had of the good hand of God towards you and though God has caused you to walk in many rough Paths as to your outward Condition yet he still appears a God of all Grace and doth in these things plainly tell you that this World is not your Rest and therefore you meet with Thorns and Briars here that you may have the fresher desires maintained in your heart aspiring upwards The greatest of earthly Contentments will be of no worth nor use in Heaven neither can they of themselves any way add to the Comfort or thriving of a spiritual Life here on Earth The only Life we are allowed to live in this World is the Life of Faith which grows better under difficulties than in a smooth state of Affairs in this World I know no sweeter Entertainment that God can give in this World to his poor Children than that he give often Convincement that the best of this World is too lean Diet for them to feed upon and so make them take the truer taste of that Marrow and Fatness which in Christ they are always to live upon that is no less than God himself the Fountain of Blessedness Safety Peace Sufficiency and solid Joy What can come amiss to that Soul which Christ undertakes by all things and through all things to bring to himself For this end he died and this is the great end of every Trial you meet with and upon this Ground the Spirit saith Rejoyce when you fall into divers Temptations All the Glory Fulness and Ease of this World is but horrour and distress to a convinced Soul that looks on God as an Enemy but nothing can be dismayingly sad when God saith I am thine when Infinite saith I am thine I who am the Maker of all things am thy Husband thy Trials shall not quite overwhelm thee thy sins shall not ruine thee Death it self shall not destroy thee O Death where is thy Destruction when God shall say I will be with thee in the Fire and in the Water Thy Person is accepted thy Prayers though in thy own eyes without any form or comeliness are sweet and accepted in Christ who hath chosen thee and thou hast chosen him What shall I say The freeness of God's Grace in Christ his powerful and most voluntary Love is such where-ever it darts that neither Sin nor Devil can stand before it to hinder a jot of all that good which such a God has promised and undertook to perform and that meerly upon the Account of his own Name streaming forth through Christ in the Gospel to such poor impenitent Creatures as you and I are I shall add no more at present but committing you to this God whose you are whom you serve and who will never leave nor forsake but guide you by his Counsel and support you by his Spirit till he has brought you to Glory the perfection and fulness of what you pray and long for c. 1669. To M. D. N o 98. I Have hitherto had some favourable presence of the Lord with me which I bless him for Whether the Fig-tree doth blossom or no yet he is good and can
of Time under the Hope of Eternal Life and through the Goodness of the Lord do yet enjoy the Company of my dear and suitable Yoak-fellow as a Helper and sweet Companion with me in my Voyage I had also a gracious Child my Daughter Elizabeth whom the Lord eminently prepared for himself and then translated her hence and God has left us one little Branch the Lord grant she may love to tread in the good steps of her Sister and enter at last into the same Rest I heartily desire it may every way go well with you and that though distance of place hinder our Converse here yet we may at last see the Face of Christ and one another in the perfection of Purity and fulness of Joy in a better Country 1676. To C. S. D. N o 125. I Understand by Mr. F. that you are all in health long may it continue and well may your Time and Health be improved And as to any Counsel that I am able to give you 't is far short of what you do or may receive not only from the solemn Ministration of the Gospel by the faithful Dispencers of the Word but also by those excellent Books fit for Meditation Use and Application of which I suppose you have many lying by you Only I would say this The chiefest part of Religion that which in Scripture is called the Kingdom of God lies chiefly in heart-renewing Power whereby the Throne and Dominion of Sin is broken with daily Warrings against it and daily labouring to be free from its Captivity and to that end there is a necessity of the Conviction of our sinful yea damnable Condition by Nature and that not only in our own Opinion and Judgment but in real view sense feeling and inward Operation and Exercise that so the knowledge of and Interest in Christ may appear indispensibly necessary and perfectly desirable as a Propitiation for Sin and to translate the Soul into the pure Image of himself in this World as the Fore-runner of an eternal Fruition of all that Blessedness he died to purchase And upon manifold Considerations it doth eminently concern you to dig for this Wisdom as for hid Treasure You have and may further see what a lean satisfaction it is that this lower World doth afford what a Sandy Foundation it is to build our hope delight or dependance upon and how soon every Flower withers Therefore daily beg of God Light Truth in the inward part and saving Wisdom to be your Principle and Guide through the residue of Time Unto his Grace I commend you and rest c. 1677. To C. H. D. N o 126. I Received your Letter and delivered that you sent my Brother both he and I are sensible of the loss of your only Brother It doth concern you to consider the Voice of God in these Afflictions one after another and to improve them so as to make God himself in Christ your only standing Refuge And certainly if these things do cause you to turn your eyes directly upon him and to centre in him alone you will find him the Husband of the Widow and Father of the Fatherless In every trouble our wisest course is to endeavour to learn what God is pleased to say to our Souls therein which is to get the hearts of his People more united unto himself by Faith and clear Resignation for though the things and Persons of this World do wither and fade yet God himself is the Rock of Ages and hath promised The Righteous shall not be utterly desolate for in the Fire and in the Water he will be with them and never leave or forsake them And therefore I would desire you to endeavour rather to improve your Affliction by Faith for spiritual use than to waste away your thoughts unprofitably through Unbelief in pondering and dejecting your heart under these outward Trials though they be great Therefore read and meditate the Word where provision of Support is made to answer all Cases of distress Spread your Soul often before the Lord open the bottom of your heart to him Fly to the Blood of Christ for daily Atonement and give your self up to him who has said Cast your burthen on the Lord and he will sustain you and then you will see reason at length to say It was good for me that I was afflicted and that He or she is blessed whom God afflicts and teacheth his Law Unto him I commend you praying for you that you and yours may have the gracious Shelter of his Love and Kindness in every Condition 1678. To M. R. N o 127. I Received yours of the 14th Instant and have been refreshed in reading those savoury Lines which you were pleased to send me I read them as if you your self had been conversing with me and my self present with you and do acknowledge the kindness of God in dropping down a Blessing upon your Soul in the midst of all the former and latter Exercises wherewith he has been pleased to try you This is the privilege of the Afflictions which come from the God of all Grace viz. That they produce the savoury Fruits of a more indeared hankering after him Dependance on him Resignation to him and a holy Longing that his own most wise and good Will may be accomplished Mr. T. G. has had a little Impression made upon him by his Journey and got Cold which hath not yet left him but we have enjoyed him amongst us this day in our praying work in which your self and other absent Friends were reremembred So commending you to the Lord and his gracious Support and Conduct I remain c. 1678. To C. E. D. N o 128. I Often think upon you and look upon it as a gracious dealing of God towards you not only to prolong your Life to this Age but also and chiefly that he hath crowned your old Age with an unwearied Tendency towards a better Life than you or I have ever yet seen with that Sight which we cannot here be capacious of I do hear sometimes by one or other both of your being in the Land of the Living and that you walk as becomes an aged Disciple of Christ adorning the Gospel you profess with a Conversation suitable thereunto The last time I heard from you was by our good Friend Mrs. Stubs who was here but a few days before her Husband that holy and laborious Minister of Christ took his leave of her breathing forth his last farewel to this present World and that Body of Clay in which he had served Christ for gaining of Souls into his Flock through a long Tract of years flourishing I hope prospering in the great Embassage which the great Shepherd employed him in His death was much bewailed by many especially by them that best knew his Worth as a great loss to the Interest and Cause of Christ both in City and Country The Lord in Mercy raise up more Supplies of like Sincerity Diligence and Faithfulness in the
Lord's Vineyard Dear Cousin the Lord is pleased to use many ways and means to cause us to make the utmost improvement of Seasons and Opportunities of Grace and gives many Motives thereto amongst which this is one that the Prophets do not live for ever and therefore he requires us to make speed while the day of Grace and while the time of Life continues that we may not be found naked and unready when our Summons from hence by Death shall be sent us I have not arrived to the length of your days but the effects of old Age are much upon me and the shadows of the Evening have begun to appear therefore as it is always so especially it is needful for you and I that are almost at the utmost bounds of our time to look into and much to strive after the real and essential parts of Godliness which lies much in this viz. To ponder the Corruption of our own Nature and the Contradiction that it stands in against the pure Nature of God and his revealed Will till we arrive at such a Self-Abhorrence and Dispondence of any Relief which we can derive from whatever we are or whatever we can do as of our selves that we may betake our selves entirely and perfectly to the Grace revealed in Christ casting our Anchor of Hope there and there only flying to the Merits of Christ and his single Righteousness in the vertue and under the Covering whereof to appear before him when all Flesh shall stand and receive their unalterable Sentence that then we may have the comfortable Happiness of that good Word There is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ I cannot at present add more only this Let none of your past or present Troubles of what kind soever hinder your rejoycing in your gracious God and Saviour who hath fed you all your Life long and will be your God and your Guide and as I am abundantly persuaded you will find him according to all that he hath promised your exceeding great Reward when the days of Rest and endless Refreshing shall come I commit you to the gracious Guidance of God and the comfortable Fellowship and Communion of his Holy Spirit I pray for you and desire to be remembred also by you in your Prayers unto the God of all Grace even our own God and Father Under whose Wing I desire to leave you and remain c. 1681. To C. E. D. N o 129. GOd has been pleased to continue your Life unto a great length of days and though your outward Man hath been withering yet blessed be God I perceive your inward Man hath been assisted by his good Spirit hitherto to make a happy Voyage to the Haven of true Rest The Lord in Mercy accompany you through the remaining part of your Voyage till you enter safely into the Harbour and be setled in the Mansions which Christ is gone before to prepare for you I have my self much Infirmity of Body and am in daily Combat with the Corruption and Vileness of my own heart from which I hope through the Riches of free Grace to be ere long delivered and I have an abundant hope as to the same concerning your self Cast your eye upon the great Mediator roll your self upon him for he will never leave you nor forsake you One days Communion with God without all Sin in that Heavenly Country will make you full amends for all the difficulties you have passed through in your earthly Pilgrimage And though I am not like to see you in this World I hope through the Grace of the everlasting Covenant to see you where there will be neither Sin nor old Age c. to molest either you or me any more Dear Cousin the Arms of Divine Love Grace and Mercy be continually embracing you I can now add no more but do commend you into the hands of that God whose I am persuaded you are and whom you serve My affectionate Respects to your self and all your Relations and that Seed of God which he hath been pleased to plant in your Neighborhood I remain your affectionate Kinsman and Brother in Christ c. 1682. To B. D. N o 130. I Received yours from Tunbridge Wells c. and I think those who advise you to be as little thoughtful as you can while you drink the Waters do give you friendly Advice It may much concur to your health to be rather chearful than to be serious in the use of them for I know you have that matter within you through the Riches of Grace to render you chearful in the Lord. We must remember our Bodies as well as our Souls are redeemed and the very Body of a Believer is Christ's more than his own and what you do for the support of the meer Body is acceptable to God and especially under that Infirmity which you chiefly went thither for The Lord bless the Means which his Providence hath directed you to and be always with your Spirit c. Speeches and Prayers of Mr. Henry Dorney in his last Sickness from the 11th of March 1682 3. to the 25th of April following when he died being the Seventieth Year of his Age. I Am passing and I long to pass meaning through Death O Faith Faith that would bring down Heaven to Earth and carry the Soul up to Heaven I would willingly go out of Self and place the Soul wholly in God he calls me to come away saying Come up hither To a Friend asking whether Satan troubled him he answered No not at all Christ doth not suffer him so much as to peep in To the same saying What Counsel would you give us His Answer was Give up your selves to God perfectly Walk in the purest strictest closest Converse with him Be in the Life and Power of Holiness and that will Steel the Soul against all Temptations and Difficulties And let things be transacted throughly betwixt God and the Soul as if you were to appear presently at the Bar of Christ And let this be done incessantly To the same again asking Sir God seems to deny his Blessing upon the Means for your Recovery and you are not like to continue long with us He replied Blessed be the Lord Blessed be the Lord It is some Refreshment to me to think that the comfortable Minute of my sliding off is so near at hand The Saints and People of God that ever lived besides Enoch and Elijah pass'd through Death and it is needful it should be so for then all Dirt and Filth will be carried off And to one speaking to him of a good Conscience he said Ah how many are there that are now laying in Matter that will be one day wringing of hands and distress of heart unto them O my unchangeable God blessed be his Name that ever he treated with me and that he gave me time and Grace to transact things betwixt him and me and though now I can do little I am persuaded he loves me because he hath made
terrible to me nor to any of the Race thou hast redeemed from Death Let the Agonies of Death be pleasing to me in Christ Oh the Dolour the unspeakable Anger of God we have not drank of it O the intollerable Wrath of God born by that Man meaning Jesus Christ O the woful Travel of Christ we have took up but a little of it and that hath made Repentance slight and holy Care trivial And now O Lord thou reckonest with me for undervaluing of that bloody Agony Lord forgive me my Guilt in this thing I have not been a Christian in earnest as I ought Oh he that made himself the bottom of all sorrow he suffered infinitely Oh such a Redeemer Oh such a Redeemer alas how unsuitable have I been to him Lord pardon my unsuitableness I have been as a Beast before thee I have not come up to answer the Call of that unutterable Grace And now O Lord I cannot stand in the Battel I cannot now the Arrows of Death stick in my Flesh and I cannot bear it without great Concussions of Soul within me But O! O! O thou who art the God of all Grace who art got upon the Kingdom of Grace and art the Head of that Kingdom wilt thou now shew thy Glory Make Death sweet make the Tendencies to Death sweet make every step to Deliverance a pleasing step O my God Save thy Worm save thy Worm O my God according to thy Promises made to Jacob I hearken what the Lord will say he will speak Peace in the Blood of Jesus Sustain me O Lord sustain me Thou art my Friend as thou spakest to Abraham thou art my Friend Dost thou love me Dost thou at this time love me with thy whole heart and with thy whole Soul Dost thou love me more than my nearest and dearest Friends Than those intimate Relations here that continue with me in my Tribulation With a more inward intense Love with an Infiniteness beyond all these Lord let me know that thou lovest me in very Deed let me know that thou knowest me by Name let me know that thou hast an eye upon me more than Doctors and Friends let me know that every Act of thine towards me is the effect of thy Love Love me Oh now with thy whole heart Oh make me to believe it Help me to apprehend that thou dost take notice of me and art with me every Moment with me as to my present Case and Concernment 'T is dead Friendship when Friends cannot hear nor see one another but sure there is another Friendship between thee and thine and thou standest in Relations to them Art not thou my Father Hath not the Church said so Lord thou art our Father Thou art my Husband my Brother my Friend and art not ashamed to be called my Brother Oh wonderful Thou begattest me I am born of thee Lord what shall I do with the great things of the Gospel if thou dost not give forth the Spirit of Faith O Lord wilt thou who art Truth who art Life who art certain wilt thou take the great work of my practical Religion upon thee Thou canst make it to be in Power and Truth unto me as may answer the very design thou aimest at I have been praying through the days of thy drawing me after thee O Lord I would come to that kind of praying while I am here in the World as might be a lovely Copy of that praying of that Converse that will be with thee in Heaven Will Prayer altogether cease in Heaven No surely Lord glorifie thy self glorifie thy self glorified be God Oh Oh that the very Life and Soul of that state then may now be begun Oh that I might hasten to that state Thou detainest me here in thy Wisdom I would go unto thee and into that Life which will most glorifie thee eternally I would go where Life is and no Death I would go where the fullest expressions of the power of Grace overcoming Sinners may be patent and manifest in me even in me who am a poor Mortal There be many things that I have found here that are Likenesses to pure Likeness to thee and here I have lost wofully my way Lord open it The heart is deceitful above all things and it will have its working one way or other but Lord I would go where there is Purity I would go where there is Purity without Impurity I would be with thee Lord for then I can speak to thee in thine own Language better At about Two of the Clock that day in the Afternoon he further extended his Speech as followeth The old World will be the old World still it will remain to Eternity it will be only translated from hence where it received its Curse to Hell to be in Chains of Darkness for ever but all the redeemed number shall be instated in their Palaces of Glory I am in the very Period of Wonders I am in the very Period of viewing Death and Life I am under some Sufferings and they shall be sweet And speaking to himself said Thou shalt lie down in thy Bed And then speaking to God Thou wilt not throw me into the Grave in Anger thou wilt put me into the Grave Thou wilt not say Sleep there in Death thou wilt say Sleep there a little till the Indignation be over-past till that is inflicted on thee for Sin which was pronounced and that that passed away from Christ shall pass from me Lord thou wilt not be unfaithful to thy Word God cannot lie God cannot forget to be gracious he cannot forget his own Work This is that God I desire to believe in and resolve eternally to cling upon with the Truth of my whole heart I have sinned and thou hast pardoned me and saved me with a high hand Help me in this hour take away my fears The last stroak that will be given will be by the Devil himself because it is his last Battel and thou wilt permit him but thou wilt bind him and when thou hast unclinch'd his hands he shall never clinch again He is that last Enemy from Conversion to Salvation Lord wilt thou who hast been destroying this Enmity all along now cause his Enmity to appear to be destroyed and turned into Powder and Rottenness O Have at it have at it I pray thee The strength the might the power of the Life of Sin and Darkness Lord thou didst promise to plague Antichrist for all the Plagues that he hath plagued thine O Lord do thou pour out thy Plagues upon him whilst thou dost sustain him to be fighting his last Battel Let him fight his Battel but let him O God drink of the Rivers of thy Wrath along with it Let the Weak overcome the Strong let thy People be Lyons but let the Devil be an enfeebled Enemy Serve thy self of all thy Instruments whatever they are Lord let them do thee the utmost Service of their Capacity Thy proper Instruments Oh make them glorious make them
be able to speak to the hearing of the ends of the whole Heavens O the Melody of that great day when Saints and Angels innumerable shall be the Pronouncers Oh never such Melody Melody that may be heard Millions of Years Millions of Miles O Lord keep me in my present work till thou callest me to future work and prepare me for the glorifying of thee for ever Help me in this instant help me leave me not now help me through this Thicket graciously Lord graciously deal with me at my Dissolution that nothing but Actings of Love and Grace may be shining upon Me. I leave me with thee I desire to do it perfectly April 19. He spake to one that had watched with him the foregoing Night You see how it is with me You are young the Lord affect your heart with a true sense of your eternal State that you may not be befooled of your immortal Soul by a tempting Devil and a tempting World Some space after he took occasion to say It makes my Soul ashamed within me sometimes that I have had the whole Book of all God's Promises and Covenant before me and do believe that there is mine Inheritance and yet to be in such a posture as I am Alas to be made the Children of the Most High and to live like Fools it should make the Soul long to have the utmost of the Grace promised I expect every night and every day and every piece of a day to be gone that when-ever any Qualm comes upon me I am ready to think this is the time and yet I find in my self a natural Reluctancy against Death that I would and I would not but where-ever my Damp my Black my Disquiet is it ariseth from some Tardiness in my Soul to my God I have a great desire to be freed from my Burthens and to be in that State I greatly long for but yet I would willingly that God should pitch my Stakes and determine the matter God's Wisdom and his Goodness goes together for God's Attributes do not cross one another I ought to have a Manly Walk with God it is not a crouching crimbling childish foolish unexpert Walk By Manly I mean to weigh things as they are in the grave Discovery of Scripture Surely I long to be in the Fountain to see it and be for ever in it To one asking him how he did he said It is a great Mercy that my Mind abides in any Conjuncture and that the Wheels of the Clock do not fall all out of order I cannot now converse but I think the Trade meaning the Heavenly Trade goes on and the Lord make it a smart Trade Lord teach me how frail I am all things are best known by Experience as Learning is obtained by Observation Rules and Precepts April 20. Finding himself exceeding faint and weak said I could now lie down and say This is my last if the Lord saw it fit having much ado to retain Life To a Christian Friend that came to visit him he said Blessed be the Lord for the Covenant of Grace and the Surety of that Covenant where our stay is All Goodness all Mercy all Peace c. The way and method God takes he himself hath cut out but what his scope is in this my present Case I do not know Afterward it being told him of the death of an aged Relation who lived to above fourscore Years he spake to this effect Is he dead with whom I never had the opportunity seriously to converse with in the things of a spiritual World Surely this is the time to do any thing for God and to be helpful to others The Lord bless the Providence to that poor Woman his Wife To another Friend taking leave and saying The Lord be with you I hope he will carry you to your Journeys end he replied I hope he will I believe he will never leave me nor forsake me To another poor Christian he gave this Counsel Cling upon Christ and he will never leave you I cannot say much but be sure of that follow hard after Christ and he will never leave you That is all my Experience all that I have been a learning of the Truth and Faithfulness of God these scores of Years Only love him only obey him entirely seek him pray to him much for that is the only likeliest way and I never heard of any that did it faithfully and was lost Then he prayed O my God be near me suffer nothing to miscarry through the All-sufficiency of thy infinitely great Grace To a dear Friend that came to visit him telling him that he was very much upon the hearts of the People of God who prayed for him he replied these words That one heart of Christ sets other hearts awork He farther said I am glad to see you upon account of former Intimacy but I chiefly rejoyce that you have found the same God in Prayer that I have done and that you are hankering after the same Fountain and Spring and cannot live without it as God hath given me also an unwearied Reach after and upon these Grounds I am glad to see you My dear Friend fare you well the Lord be with you To a Relation he spake thus Spring to Heaven though for your springing you spring out of the Body and leave it behind you Let us look to it lest you and I fall short of our Hope Multitudes of Professors standing aloof off have lost their way they have lost their work they have lost their end Our opportunity is as clear in our hand now as ever it was in the hand of David or Paul or any of the Saints of God that lived before us Oh how do I love to see Grace grow in Friends in Relations c. The Lord be with you and carry you and make your Affliction to be a sanctified Affliction that in a little while you may not have any burthen but may see your Salvation and have it April 21. To another Visitant he spake thus I may not stand wondering meaning in reference to his long Sickness but yet I may wonder indeed that ever God made me a Man that ever he made me a rational Creature that ever he brought me forth into the World where the Gospel was and that he hath told me that he will save me for ever Oh that I could wonder admire and adore it You duggle up and down and so I have done heretofore and here we walk over but a little Ground and if we obtain little or much it is but a little got in a little Ground and we have therein trouble But Oh what is it to flee over the whole Heavens and to be every where in God and in Christ In all other good things relating only to this Life all the pleasure we have in seeking them is to think how pleasurable they will be to us when obtained But the delight and pleasure of spiritual things lie much in the very seeking of them
thousands of years after The Lord save us from the Pollution of the Times Oh that we may not discover our Nakedness in such a day as this The Lord hath called his People Soldiers The Battel is when there is no way to escape then is the very time to enter the Shock with our spiritual Adversaries and then is the day to honour God above all things if we should be tempted to any thing sinful to any thing wherein God is displeased and the Souls Communion with him wounded O venturous Attempts purely for God are huge Increasers of Grace and to be cheary in it and not as Persons undone but there must be Faith Patience Hope Belief of the Scriptures intimate Communion with God that carries it thus out If I believe that God is infinite and is he infinite Then he can do any thing for me and will do it If I believe he is good he will do good to me for he hath said he will do it with his whole heart and with his whole Soul The Lord make you more fruitful Plants in his House bearing Fruit. Oh Oh that you and I while in this World may not think too slightly of our high Calling Oh Strength doth fail me to speak of it but surely it will be the great shame if any sensible shame can be hereafter or at least there will be something of an Equivolence to it that ever we should be called with a holy Calling to Eternal Life and yet that there should be no greater difference between us and the Uncalled of the World The difference is as much as if a Man should be sent to ransom one out of Slavery and another left in perpetual Bondage but this Slavery of Hell to be redeemed from it is unconceivable and unutterable and yet to walk so like others in any thing O O should the noblest Creatures on Earth walk up and down in the World like a Toad and the highest Rank of Men that have Parts and Abilities walk up and down like pitiful Creatures that scarce know how to walk in a posture as Men. Oh for a trim neat watchful prudent Christian Every Dram of Purity Neatness Fruitfulness springs from God and therefore when the Soul answers its High Calling it takes no less than God it takes it receives him It is not to gaze upon him in a way of Profession only but to get in him who is the Fountain of Holiness and this is the Communion of Saints Communion with God there is the bottom of all Communion and having that then we grow up in God into him in all things who is the Head There is an ugly thing ever coming in as if we may have all the Privileges of the Gospel and yet walk at a Loose as an unbended Bow and from this thing doubtless many with abundance of hopes have tipt over and never saw the Land of Jordan and so have died and perished We may guess with our selves there is something in it when the Spirit of God saith to us watch watch and that we should exhort one another and bids us often to beware which is given us as a Causionary Word and indeed whilst I am in the World let it stick with me and whilst you are in the World let it stick with you We have gone on in a formal way and there hath been a strange kind of Benummedness upon the Souls of Christians What is a Church for but for the carrying on of Ordinances more inwardly and spiritually as a Church of Christ We have had mighty Sermons of these things and have them still blessed be God but I would have my Soul while I am in the World and every other Soul also greatly to be a questioning whether or no my naked YEA AND NAY doth come up to the Holiness of Christ or no for we should be like him he doth not say a little like him but like him and the Soul should aim at that which to be without is a sign that the heart is rotten or invaded with Rottenness to a great Declension As he that is an Apprentice to a rich Man he aims to come up to his Master's Estate there is such a thing in the nature of the desire of such a one and if it were so in our Spiritual Trade Christians Converse would be more with respect to their glorious Country and that would keep Religion so warm between them that if there were any thing unbecoming in any they would not spare to speak of it to them that so the heart of a dear Friend may be delivered from the Guilt of Sin and be nourished in the way of Life April 23. He spake as followeth No Refreshment here makes me to think of what spoken in the Revelation He shall lead them to the living Springs Rev. 7. 17. He will open Rivers in the Tops of the Mountains Isa 30 25. and 41. 18. near at hand but not yet actually possessed near at hand but a little temporary Life stands in the way Oh to the Hungry every bitter thing is sweet I am this day suffering the punishment of the pleasure that Adam and Eve took in eating the forbidden Fruit. I am this day suffering under that and might have suffered it eternally in all the horrour and fury of it but that a Saviour hath appeared with an everlasting Gospel in the midst of Heaven on whom he bids me relie and on him I relie Whereupon a Minister standing by said to him The second Adam is a better Head than the first Adam was To which he replied Oh Blessed be Divine Grace there is a great difference indeed for always Christ and his Grace is rendred with a much more and it is from Heaven All that are taken into that dear Christ they are as clearly stated in Life as by the first Adam in Death these are the words of a God that cannot lie Here is ground of Faith grond of Confidence where the Soul hath fled for Refuge and made it his business to flee thither and no where else There is a Passage and it is an incumbring Passage and all must pass it and that Passage I am in there is no expectation of Life to revert back and a longing desire I have to pass through it and here I am waiting for that delivering word and to see the Glory of God I cannot deliver my self from mine own Spittle Thus I wear off and shall be seen here no more To another Visitant he said You see me at a parting view the Lord be good to you and your Husband And she answered Oh that my parting meaning out of this Life might be with the like Comfort and with the like presence of God And he again spake saying The Lord make your Religion thorow-pace and your Labours in that Family successful and enable you to overcome when Powers without and Temptations within assault you To another at his taking leave saying The Lord be with you he said I hope the
kept up a rare thirst through his goodness after him and a delight in the ways of his communications But I would not it is not for me to speak these things you should be vain in your own conceit But go on I see the Foundation laid he will never leave you be at rest And now study the great mystery of the Gospel of which you have a large notion but I would have you turn every notion into a practical work a practical acting into a practical use I would have you turn it all and labour to do it every day that what you believe may be so to you as substance and not Air and the Lord will visit you and help you Your Nature is timorous and fearful but God coming in to fill your Soul with Faith and fill Faith with powerful workings you will have a great Friend at every turn to be for you to be with you for you will be able to trust God when you see not why nor wherefore to trust to his promise c. His Speech and Charge to his only Child was as followeth MARY I and you must part I and you must part I leave you behind me in the World and my Prayer to God is to keep my child to teach my child to keep you and to make your heart to be full of love to spiritual things that you may not be befooled of your Soul that you may not be befooled of Heaven that you may not perish like a Fool. And I charge you I charge you I charge you in the name of God who is your Judge that you hearken attentively to all the Counsel of your Dear Mother and do not play it away bable and trifle it away see you do it for your everlasting good and concernment and be obedient to her and do not only be fondling but hearken seriously to her Counsel and take it in MARY come to me that I may give you one Kiss I am about to kiss you and this Kiss must be a witness of my true desire of your good I Kiss you in love and my very Kiss will be a witness against my Child if you do not tread in the steps of your PARENTS such as you have observed to be good O my dear Child be not careless therein I leave you now to the conduct of him who is my conducter To a Christian Friend who said we must be willing to part with you you have a Pisga-sight of Canaan he replied I think I am at the very end and yet I do not go out all the day long I am thirsting O blessed be my God I am perswaded he will perform all that concerneth me To another Christian Friend at his taking leave of him he said thus I expect again to see you and an innumerable company more of Saints c. He further spake with respect to his languishing Body If I could have something or other to refresh my Body if the Lord saw it fit but the whole Earth I think is insufficient for it April 25. This day being Wednesday which proved the day of his Death in the Morning he spake to a dear Friend a Minister saying The blessing of the everlasting Gospel be upon you the Lord be with you And about Eleven of the Clock he began to Change having several Agonies and between them he desired to be prayed for saying Lift up a Prayer for me and speak that I may hear you For whatsoever ye shall ask on Earth shall be granted in Heaven let then the Earth be full of Prayer And coming out of another fit said Hitherto hath the Lord helped me I am in the hand of God I am in his hand and under his promise the end of this affliction is in the hand of my God the Lord enable me to abide his Will And the 5th Fit or Agony which was ' twixt four and five of the Clock in the Afternoon he in that Breathed out his Soul into the Arms and Embraces of his dear Lord and Redeemer retaining his senses to the last for even a little before his Decease his Wife asking him how he did he answered with great composure I am almost Dead and desired to be lifted up a little higher which were the last words he spake and a few moments preceding his Departure he opened wide his Eyes and immediately closed them again and so Expired FINIS ERRATA PAge 7. line 16. read see for let p. 10. l. 26. dele and p. 29. l. 32. r. person for perso p. 35. l. 8. del word of the p. 61. l. 8. r. Vail for Vale p. 62. l. 9. r. therein for thereon p. 63. l. 15. r. very for ve p. 70. l. 3. r. converse for dally p. 100. l. 5. r. expatiating for expiating p. 104. l. 34. del he p. 124. l. 28. add him p. 143. l. 15. r. hast for has p. 160. l. 18. add he p. 188. l. 1. r. means for mens p. 203. l. 19. r. floweth for followeth p. 213. l. 14. r. clouds for glouds p. 306. l. 11. r. heart for heat p. 313. l. 5. r. omnipotent for omnipent p. 328. l. 23. r. the for lhe p. 327. l. 3. add not And for any other literal Errors or false Pointings which are very few and inconsiderable the Reader is desired to Correct