were rooted in your Hearts and your Souls thereby rooted in the Grace of God if it be to be wished That your Lusts were rooted out your sins dead and dried up your foot gotten out of the Snare your Souls brought into the Fold your Fruits of Righteousness and Holiness abounding and growing up unto Eternal Life If all this to be to be wished then give in your Votes with mine wish and pray pray and press on press on and wait for the accomplishment of this Grace in you all I tell you again I wish you well and not onely I but the Lord God that hath sent me to you The Lord Jesus wishes you well he wishes and wooes wooes and weeps weeps and dies that your Souls might live and be belssed for ever He hath once more sent me to you even to the worst amongst you to tell you from him that he 's unwilling you should perish that he hath a kindness for you in his heart if you will accept it He hath Bloud and Bowels for you Bloud to expiate your guilt to wash away your filth and Bowels to offer you the benefit of his Bloud with this Wish Oh that it were theirs Oh that they would hearken and accept Onely I must add That the Lord hath two sorts of Wishes concerning sinners The first is Oh that they would hearken Oh that they would come in be healed and be saved Deut. 5. 29. This Wish is an Olive Branch that brings good Tidings and gives great hopes of Peace and Mercy His last Wish is Oh that they had hearkned that they had accepted Psal 81. 13. Oh that my people had hearkned to me Luk. 19. 42. Oh that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that concern thy peace This Wish hath nothing but Dread and Death in it it is the Black Flagg hung out that proclaims Eternall Wars The sence is Israel had once a fair time of it a time of Love a time of Grace a time of Peace Oh that they had hearkned then that they had known the Things that concern their peace But woe woe to them 't is now too late the Door is shut the Season is over the Day is past But now they are hid from thine Eyes There are three deadly darts in this Wish oh that thou hadst it includes in it these three cutting words Thou hast not Thou mightest Thou shalt not for ever 1. There is this in it Thou hast not What have I not why thou hast not known the things that belong to thy peace Thou hast had the door of Glory the Gate of Heaven open to thee and hast been call'd for and invited in but thou hast lost the opportunity Thou knewest not when thou wert well offered nor would'st take notice what a day was before thee what a price was in thine hand thy peace the Gospel of peace the Prince of peace a Kingdom of peace was set open offered and brought home to thy doors but thou hadst so many other matters to look after that thou tookest no notice of it but hast let it slip There 's one Dart. Thou hast not known There 's a Gospel gone there 's a Christ gone there 's a Soul a Kingdom lost 2. There is this in it Thou mightest Oh that thou hadst why Might I yes thou might'st if thou wouldst thou mightst Thy God did not mock thee when he preach'd peace to thee he was willing and wish'd it thine if thou wouldst thou mightst have made it thine own but whilest he would thou wouldest not There 's another Dart I might have known I have none to thank but my self for the loss mine undoing was mine own doing There are no such torments as when the Soul flies upon it self and takes revenge on it self oh the gashes that such self-refluctions make Soul how camest thou in hither into all this misery oh 't is of my self my self that my destruction is The door was open and I was told of it and was bid come in but I would not That I am lost and undone was not my Fate which I could not avoid but my Fault and my folly It seems to give some ease of our torment when we can shift off the fault It was not I but the Woman said Adam It was not I but the Serpent said the Woman if that had been true it would have given ease as well as serv for an excuse This thought 'T was mine own doing tears the very caul of the heart Oh I have none to blame but my self mine own foolish and froward heart This is my ignorance this is my unbelief this is my wilfulness my lusts and my pleasures and my Idols that I was running after that have brought me under this dreadful loss 'T was my own doing 3. There is this in it Thou shalt not for ever Oh that thou hadst why may I not yet Is there no hope of recovering the opportunity not one word more not one hour more may not the Sun go one degree backward No no 't is too late too late thou hast had thy day from henceforth no more for ever There 's the last Dart Times past there 's the death the Hell the anguish the Worm that shall gnaw to eternity This one word Time 's past sets all Hell a roaring and when it s once spoken to a sinner on Earth there 's Hell begun Go thy way wretch fill up thy measure and fall into thy place The Gospel hath no more to say to thee but this one word Because I have called and thou refusedst I have stretched out my hand and thou regardedst not but hast set at nought all my Counsels and wouldest none of my reproofs I also will laugh at thy calamities and mock when thy fear cometh when thy fear cometh as desolation and thy destruction cometh as a Whirle-wind when distress and anguish cometh upon thee then shalt thou call but I will not answer thou shalt seek me early but shalt not find me Beloved my hopes are and I am not able to say but that you are yet under the first wish Oh that they would Christ is yet preaching you to faith and sends his Wish along with his Word Oh that they would believe Christ is yet preaching Repentance and Conversion to you and wishes O that they would repent that they would be converted and to this wish of my Lord my Soul and all that is within me sayes Amen Brethren will you yet again say your Lord nay shall Christ have his wish shall your Servant for Jesus sake shall I have my wish will you now at last consent to be sanctified and to be saved let me have this wish and I dare promise you from the Lord you shall have yours even whatever your Soul can desire Bâ—ethren this once hear this once be prevailed upon be content that your lusts be rooted out and your Lord planted into your Souls Be content to be pardoned content to be converted content to be saved This
once hear lest if ye now refuse ye no â—ore be perswaded with oh that they would but be 〈◊〉 ever confounded with oh that they had Lest all our wishes and wooings of you be turned into weepings and mournings over you this once hear oh that you would I heartily thank you for your good wishes and good will towards me for your willing and chearful entertainment of my person and attendance on my Ministry And particularly for your passionate desire of my longer stay among you Which desire if God had not my Soul could not have denyed you Though the Almighty to whose pleasure it 's meet that we all submit hath said Nay to that wish of yours yet let your Souls say Amen to this last of mine that the Lord God would dwell among you and in you both now and for ever And having thus finished my Labours among you I shall now close up with this double account 1. Of my discharge of my Ministry in this place 2. Of my deprivall And shall so commit you to God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance amongst all them that are sanctified 1. Of my discharge of my Ministry what my Doctrine and manner of life hath been is known to you and what my aim and intent hath been is known to God The searcher of hearts knowes that 't is the salvation of Souls that hath been the mark at which I have levelled My way hath been to use all plainness that I might be made manifest in your Consciences Weaknesses and infirmities both natural and sinful the Lord pardon it I have had many I am sensible that much more might have been done both in publick and in private had it not been for a weakly body and a sloathful heart I repent that I have had no more zeal for God no more compassion to Souls I repent that I have been no more constant and importunate with you about the matters of Eternity Oh Eternity Eternity that thou wert no more in the heart and Lips of the Preacher in the hearts and eares of the hearers But while I thus judge my self for my failings Blessed be God for any sincerity to his name and good will to your Souls that he hath seen in me Blessed be God I have a witness in my Conscience and I hope in yours also that I have not shunned to declare to you the whole Counsel of God Brethren I call Heaven and Earth to witness this day that I have set before you life and death good and evil and have not ceased from day to day to warn you to choose life and that good way that leads to it and to escape for your lives from the way of sin and death Oh remember the many instructions I have given you the many Arguments whereby I have striven with you the many Prayers that have been offered up for the guiding and gaining your Souls into the path of life and the turning your feet out of the way of destruction Oh might I be able to give this Testimony concerning you all at my departure they have troden in the right path they have chosen the good part that shall not be taken from them Brethren Beloved with whom I have travelled in birth that Christ might be formed in you I must shortly give up my account in a more solemn Assembly will you help me to give it up with joy by shewing your Souls before the Lord as the Seal of my Ministrie Every sincere Convert among you will be a Crown of rejoycing to me in that day So let me rejoyce and let my joy be the joy of you all What shall I say more If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love any bowels and mercies if the Glorie of the Eternal God the Honour of the everlasting Gospel the safety of your immortal Souls the incorruptible Crown the exceeding eternal weight of glory weigh any thing with you then once more let me beâ—eech you by all this to hearken to that word of the Gospel which God hath spoken to you by me 2. Of my deprivall The most glorious morning hath its Evening the hour is come wherein the Sun is setting upon not a few of the Prophets the shadows of the Evening are stretched forth upon us our day drawes our work seems to be at an end Our Pulpits and our places must know us no more This is the Lords doing let all the Earth keep silence before him It is not a light thing for me Brethren to be laid aside from the work and cast out of the Vineyard of the Lord and it must be something of weight that must support under so severe a doom I know there are not a few that will add to the affliction of the afflicted by telling the World 't is their own fault they might prevent it if they would whether this be so or no God knoweth and let the Lord be Judge Blessed be God whatever be this is not laid to our charge as the reason of our seclusion either insufficiency or scandall You are not ignorant what things there are imposed on us as the condition of our continuing our Ministration which how lawful and expedient soever they seem in the Judgment of many yet have the most specious Arguments that plead for them left me utterly dissatisfied in my Conscience about them I must profess before God Angels and men that my non-submission is not from any disloyalty to Authority nor from pride humour or any factious disposition or design but because I dare not contradict my light nor do any thing concerning which my heart tells me the Lord sayes do it not After all my most impartial Enquiries after all my seeking counsel from the Lord after all my considering and consulting with men of all perswasions about these Matters I find my self so far short of satisfaction that I am plainly put to this choice to part with my Ministry or my Conscience I dare not lie before God and the World nor come and tell you I approve I allow I heartily consent to what I neither do nor can but must choose rather that my Ministry be seal'd up by my Sufferings than lengthned out by a Lie Through the Grace of God though men do yet my heart shall not reproach me while I live If our heart condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things But however though I must now no longer act as a Minister I shall through the Grace of God endeavour peaceably and patiently to suffer as a Christian I should to testifie my Obedience to Authority have become all Things to all Men to the uttermost that I could with any clearness of heart But since Matters stand so that I must lose my place or my peace I chearfully suffer my self to be thrust off the Stage And now welcome the Cross of Christ welcome Reproach welcome Poverty Scorn and Contempt or whatever else may befall me on this account This Morning I had a Flock and you had a Pastour but now behold a Pastour without a Flock a Flock without a Shepheard This Morning I had an House but now I have none Thiâ— morning I had an Living but now I have none The Lord hath given and the Lord hath takes away Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Beloved I am sensible of many Weaknesses and Disadvantages I am under which may rendeâ— a suffering state the harder to be born help me by your Prayers and not me onely but all my Brethren also with whom my Lot must fall Pray for us for we trust that we have a good Conscience in all things willing to live honestly Pray 1. That God would make our Silence speak and preach the same Holy Doctrine that we have preached with our Lips 2. That he would give Supports answerable to our Sufferings that he who comforteth those that are cast down will also comfort his Servants that are cast out 3. That according to our earnest expectation and our hope as always so now also Christ may be magnified in us whether it be by Life or by Death And thus Brethren I bid you all farewel in the words of the Apostle 2 Cor. 13. 11. Finally Brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Peace and Love shall be with you And that God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the Bloud of the Everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ To whom be Glory for ever and ever AMEN FINIS
this plague and few understand or are sensible what they herein suffer to be an instrument in this hellish work is an office for a Devill and the suffering of such a plague to them that understand it is an hell above ground This darkness is the very same for kind with the darkness of Hell as the light of the Gospel is the same in kind with the everlasting lighâ— as glory under age so is this thick darkness in specie and in semine the darkness of the pit Oh what an hell of wickedness doth this World then become the Devil is then in his Region is let loose rules the World at pleasure deceives devours destroyes Souls without contradiction takes them captive at his will carries them down by whole shoals to destruction Those that observe what a World there is where the Gospel is not what oaths curses blasphemies belluine lusts then abound what Lions Tygers wild Bulls wild Boars Men then become one to another need not be to seek for an Argument to prove there is an Hell they see an Hell above-ground These dark and dismal seasons are the Devill 's Marts where he may vent his Hellish Wares his snares and temptations his deceits and delusionâ— and every abominable thing by whole sale there 's nothing so false so vile and abominable but he can put it off at pleasure Adultery Drunkenness Witchcraft Sodomy Buggery Blasphemy Idolatry Atheism any thing that Sathan hath offer hee 'l find Customers enough to receive and the truth is the Devil may spare his pains men then need not a Devil to damn them they 'l do it fast enough of their own accords Oh 't were happy if Saints were so busie in improving their Light to hasten them Heaven-wards as Sinners do their Darkness to hurry them to Hell Oh the sad proofs that the World affords of this Dreadful Truth Look into all the dark Corners of the Earth especially there where there hath been Light and see if you find not all this fully proved to your hand Can he then be accounted a Christian whose heart doth not tremble at the Thoughts and the Fears of such a sore Judgment He is both dark and dead indeed to whom such a Mist is not as the first-born of Death or the King of Terrours Christians if ever this should be your case make not light of it and take heed how sad soever it may seem in its first approâ—ch that no Tract of Time do wear off the sence of it Those that are weary of the Gospel that cry out of too much Preaching that are sick of the Light that shines unto them you may know by what hath been said what Judgment to have of them But is it not strange that there should be any such That those that have lived in the Light and seen somthing what difference there is between Light and Darkness should yet love Darkness rather than Light Is it not yet more strange that any that pretend to be set up for Lights should be for Daâ—kness That the Prophets should be against Prophecying That the Pulpits should ring against Preaching Some there are that are not ashamed to tell us that hence come all our mischiefs and miseries to tell us and to stand to it that there 's now in such a Land as this little need of Preaching that it had its use in the first publishing and planting of the Gospel but now that the Gospel is receiv'd and embraced and competenâ—ly understood there 's now little more need of Preaching Praying and Reading may now serve turn I would put in a word or two to such No need of Preaching Why Is the end of Preaching accomplish'd Till the end be attained there 's still need that the means he continued And what was the end of Preaching Was it men's Instruction onely to bring them to the knowledg of Christ to turn them from Darkness to Light Was it not for their Conversion also to turn them from the power of Sathan unto God Yea and their Edification and Building up in Holiness to Salvation Let these following Scriptures be consulted Act. 26. 18. Eph. 4. 11 12 13. the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 1. 12 13. told those Christians to whom he wrote that he would and he thought it meet so to do to put them in remembrance as long as he lived and to stir them up to their Duty though says he You know and be established in the present Truth You say you need no more Preaching the Preacher can tell you no more than you know already and might not these have better said it when the Apostle acknowledgeth of them that they did know and more than that were establish'd in those very Truths he meant to continue Preaching to them And yet he tells them it 's meet they be still put in remembrance of them Sure Peter's Authority weighs not so much with these men as his that pretends to sit in Peter's Chair But hath the Gospel indeed done its Work and reached its End Witness the Objectors own cases Let not onely their Lewdness and Impenitency but their Ignorance and Unbelief come in and testifie whether it hath or no. They that have most need themselves are they that say There 's no more need of Preaching There needs no more Argument to stop such Mouthes but the shewing them themselves Or if it should have done its work upon you yet hath it done its work upon all Are there no Unbelievers left Have all men Faith Faith comes by Hearing and how shall they hear without a Preacher If you say they have Bibles to instruct them and their own Consciences to preach to them I answer First for their Bibles two Things 1. Those that are no Friends to the Pulpit are none of the best Friends to the Bible Those that would not that the people should hear care not how little they read the Scriptures And be sure when ever Preaching is let fall the Bible will in a little while be laid aside 2. Understandest thou what thou readest How canst thou without a Guide He knows but little of the Scriptures that doth not understand that they are hard to be understood There are the Apostle tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Scriptures Things hard to be understood As there are many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to all that read so to many that read all are so The Vulgar can as well read the Scriptures without their own Eyes as understand them without the Preacher'â— Lips Till we come to hold that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion or that Images are Lay-mens Gospell till then let it be granted as necessary that the Preacher's Lips preserve Knowledg 2. For Conscience let the Word at least be pâ—eached so long till it be made manifest in the Consciences of the Hearers That Conscience that hath not been sufficiently preached to will prove an insufficient Preacher Let preaching be conâ—inued till the Word be manifested in the Consciences of all the