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A49852
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Judgment brought forth unto victory, and mercy kissing j[udgm]ent being t[he] work and mercy of God (upon my soul) which conduceth to his praise : also a tender invitation of love unto the professors and to the prophane, to come unto Christ that they may have life / written in the fear of the Lord, and as moved by his Holy Spirit through his servant, Francis Lea.
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Lea, Francis.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing L764; ESTC R41437
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8,877
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31
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Judgment Brought forth unto VICTORY AND Mercy kissing Judgment BEING THE VVORK and MERCY of God upon my Soul which conduceth to his Praise Also a Tender Invitation of Love unto the Professors and to the Prophane to come unto Christ that they may have Life Written in the Fear of the Lord and as moved by his holy Spirit through his Servant Francis Lea. For we have not followed cunning devised Fables when we made known unto you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye-witnesses of his Majesty That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have Fellowship with us and truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Christ Jesus Printed in the year 1671. To the Reader HEre all Priests Professors and Prophane may see as in a Glass their own Spirit which he lived in while he remain'd amongst them whom now the Lord hath of his free Love pluckt out of the Fire as a Brand. And so read this Book over with a serious mind in the Fear of the Lord and with the same seriousness Consider your conditions wherein he hath left you for you are in the self-same condition and state as he sometime was in that so you may Repent come out of it least you sin out your time and there be no more Space for Repentance when time shall be no more J. H. JUDGMENT Brought forth unto VICTORY c. I Could willingly have forborn writing did not the Love of God constrain me thereunto and because I have formerly walked as one of the Vilest among the Sons of men therefore is it laid upon me to declare something concerning the same as also to demonstrate and declare unto others the Work and Mercy of the Lord towards me by visiting me with his Everlasting Lovingkindness and the Tender drawings of his unspeakable Love In dayes by past when I knew not the Lord but walked in disobedience unto him who in my Infancy many times caused Tenderness to arise in me insomuch that I often with teares besought the Lord to Lead and Guide me in his Way and if at any time he did see me erring therefrom that he would send his affictions to be as a wall to stop me in my evil walking Yet notwithstanding such desires did often arise in me I lived and walked in disobedience and Rebellion against the Lord who sent his Afflictions gradually upon me sometimes stripping me of one thing and sometimes of another which makes me to say as David once did before I was afflicted I went astray but now Lord have I kept thy word As words are to short to set forth and declare the Lovingkindnes of the Lord towards me so must I with shame and confusion of face say that they are also to short to demonstraâ—e unto others the horrid Transgressions and great Iniquities which I have committed against the Lord whose Patience and Long suffering hath been great towards me even in that day and time when I was walking about the Brinks of Hell Yea when my feet took hold on Hell and my foot-steps on the Chambers of Death so that there was but a small moment between me and Eternal Flames and had not the Lord who is rich in Mercy spared me at that time but cut me off as justly he might have done Eternal Flames would have been my Lot and Endless Torments my Portion and my habitation must have been with the Damned and Tormented for ever But I cannot Omit but must particularly mention this one evil and ever to be abhorr'd passage of mine When I had long lived after the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye the Pride of Life and had been wallowing in the Pleasures and Vanities of this evil World and the Lord therefore having stripâ— me of my outward estate which I knew not then how to use but was spending it in Riotous Living Now after this evil manner and course of Life I continued until I had nor where-withall to live as I had formerly done and not being willing to Condescend to live after a mean and low condition and having heard that some by Contracting with and Selling their Souls to the Devil was supplied from him with such things as they desired then I often pondered these things in my mind and the Enemy taking all advantages as possibly he could I oftentimes was in much solitariness and sadness to think how I had formerly lived and now to be stript of all whereupon I made a Resolution in my heart to Contract with and Sell my Immortal Soul unto the Devil upon this Condition that I should be furnished with what things soever I desired whilst I lived and oftentimes when I was alone by my self did I call unto and upon the Devil for the very end and purpose aforesaid and did use all wayes and Meanes that I could think on to obtain my wicked desire but the Lord was pleas'd to prevent this evil design of mine though I must say to my own shame but to the Honour and Glory of God who prevented me therein that none evermore Desired and Endeavoured to Sell their Immortal Souls for the Transitory and Fading Pleasures and Vanitie's of this evil World then I once did not Considering that saying What would it profit a man to gain the whole World and to lose his own Pretious and immortal Soul Now when I had thus wickedly spent my time and lived as the Prodigal who spent his portion with riotous living then I sought to joyn my self sometimes to this Profession and sometimes to that and would fain have sate down under this Form and the other Profession thinking thereby to have Obtained Satisfaction unto my Hungry Soul but alas I found that their Husky Doctrines could not satisfie nor their Sin-Soothing Principles give Rest to the Weary Soul For oftentimes this cry unto the Lord rise in me O give me Christ or else I dye and with tears did I often seek the Lord and besought him to manifest the Way of Truth unto me and the Lord who is rich in Mercy and full of goodness and Truth heard the Cry of his own and reached forth his Arm of Power which he made bare for my Salvation in a needful day and acceptable time The manner of my Convincement AS I was reading an Answer which was written by that faithful Servant of the Lord George Whitehead unto a perverse False and Scandalous Pamphlet written by one William Burnet against the Principles of Truth held by the People of the Lord reproachfully called Quakers as I was reading the said Answer I heard the Voice of the Eternal Son of God to speak on this wise This is the Truth confer not with Flesh and Blood but when he uttered his Voice the Earth trembled and the Foundations thereof were so terribly shaken that Praised be the Name of the Lord they never came together any more and Gods Pretious and Everlasting Truth which was
after this manner made known unto me I immediately received in the love of it without Conferring or Consulting with Flesh and Blood Now no sooner had the Lord opened my dark understanding and in some measure revealed his Righteous Judgments against the Man of Sin and poured forth his fierce Wrath and Indignation upon the Worker of Iniquity But this old Enemy of Mankind sought by all Wayes and Means Imaginable to draw me from that pure manifestation of truth which the Lord in measure had made known unto me and so many and great were his Snares and and Wiles that I often Cryed unto the Lord that he would Preserve me Faith-full and give me Strength to withstand the Adversary of my Soul And earnestly did I beseech the Lord to pour forth his Righteous Judgments upon all that which was contrary to his Holy Mind and Will and the Lord who had Regard unto the Cry of the Just in me which had Long been oppressed as a Cart with sheaves and even Groaned and Travelled to be delivered from under the Cruel Yoaks of Bondage poured forth his Fury upon the Oppressor which Burned as fire against him at the appearance whereof the Just rejoyced and the Righteous was exceeding glad And no sooner was the Innocent and Just in me deliver'd from under the hands of Pharaoh but he persued vehemently after him then I Cryed unto the Lord and said O Lord how shall I be able to stand How shall I be able to escape O! Better had it been for me O Lord never to have known thy Truth and thy Way then after the knowledge thereof to fall from them and sin against thee O Lord I beseech thee let not the Enemy Prevail against me O! let me not fall Thus was I pouring forth my Supplications to the Lord and spreading my Sorrowful Complaints before the Most High not knowing how I should be able to withstand and escape the fierce Persuit of Pharaoh and his Strong Host For I saw no Way of Deliverance But as it were Mountaines of each side and the red Sea before and the Enemy even at my heels as if he were ready to overtake me Yet the Lord in that day of never to be forgotten Calamity and time of sore Distress wonderfully wrought Deliverance by his Mighty hand and Out-stretched Arm of Power So that I can indeed say the Right hand of the Lord hath Done Valiantly Pharaoh and all his Host hath he Overthrown in the red Sea of his fierce Wrath Glory and Everlasting Praises be given unto the Lord for Ever And though the Lord had wrought so Great Deliverance for me by his Mighty Hand and Out-stretched Arm Yet the Evil One strove to raise and beget murmurings in me against the Lord tempting me to Look back again unto Egypt and many a time was I ready to Look back and thinking to Return again And had not the Dealings of the Lord been towards me even as a Tender Father towards his Child I had not Remained in Truth unto this Day For many times was it with me like Jonas who said I do well to be angry unto death and the Enemy taking all advantages who was many times stirring me up to write against the Truth so that I have sometimes thought in my heart to forsake it and my Hand hath been neer setting pen to paper to write against the Truth Yea the Enemy had once so far Drawn out my Eye to look at the actions and behaviour of some that were in Truth before me that it had like to have been my Fall and utter Ruin For such struglings were within me concerning the same as if Life and Death had been striving for the mastery Yet the Lord was pleased to let me see the Enemy who had thus strove to Work in me an Enmity against the Truth and in some measure brought him under and gave me Victory over him and then I desired of the Lord that he would judge out the Evil one in all his appearances and Preserve and establish me in his blessed Truth though afterwards by reason of Many and great Exercises I have often said in my heart surely I shall one day fall by the hand of the Enemy O Whose Tryals Whose Exercises Whose Sorrows and whose Afflictions are like unto mine Was ever any ones Condition like unto my Condition Surely nay And when the Lord hath at any time withdrawn his Refreshing Presence from me then have I sate Mourning as one Desolate and Forsaken often wishing that I were in some Solitary Place where no Eye might behold me there to mourn continually before the Lord to pour out my complaints before the Most High So that I have often said in my heart Hath the Lord forgotten to be Gratious Will he be favourable no more Hath he in Anger shut up his Tender Mercies Thus was it with me many a time for many were the Inward and also the Outward Exercises and Tryals which did attend me But through the Tender Mercies of the Lord whose tender Care towards me words cannot express have I been hitherto Preserved and the more I consider the Tender Dealings of his unspeakable love towards me the greater Admiration arises in me Concerning the same insomuch that I have often said O Lord what manner of love is this wherewith thou hast Visited me For truely O Lord among all the sinful sons of Men I have the most deserved to be made a Monument of thy fierce Wrath and sore Displeasure but thy Mercy hath been such towards me that thou hast Spared me to become a living Monument of thy Tender Mercies and to Publish and Declare the same unto the Sons and Daughters of men And though I have been oftentimes like a ship Tossed to and fro and many times ready to make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience and the Blessed and Everlasting Truth of God Yet the Lord hath been pleased to speak Comfortable things unto my Soul O thou tossed with tempests Afflicted and not Comforted behold I will lay thy stones with Pretious Colours and thou shalt no more be called Desolate and Forsaken for thy Maker is thy Husband and though for a Moment I have hid my face from thee yet with everlasting loving kindness have I Visited thee which shall never Depart from thee And though in days by-past thou hast walked in Rebellion against me yet now shalt thou walk before me and I will Take Delight in thee to Do thee Good for I have Removed thine Iniquities from thee as far as the East is from the West And thou shalt be an instrument in my hand to turn Transgressours from their Evil Wayes for my power will I manifest in thy weaknes that no Flesh should Glory in my Presence Then said I O Lord if thou wilt Destroy and subdue the Enemy of my Soul and bring me into Everlasting Peace with thee Then will I teach Trangressours thy Way and sinners shall be Converted unto thee Now many times when