little purpose we must never think to be any body for Christians while we suffer these to Lord it over us The Devil knows this well enough and so he will give us leave to do almost any thing else while we will but keep far enough from these but touch these and we touch the Apple of his Eye he cannot endure it knowing that if we do it in good earnest his Interest in us is then like to go down apace as ever we desire to be thriving Christians we must endeavour to get rid of these 5. These Sins of ours slew our Lord Jesus Christ and then surely if we let these go if we let these live we are not Jesus his Friends this should be a very moving Consideration to us the pardon of any one of our Sins could not have been obtained but at the expence of that precious Blood of his and if we may suppose that some of our Sins gave him our dearest Lord a deeper Wound a Sore or Bruise then others of them they were these and do they not deserve a Wound from us Should we not endeavour to give them a deadly crush for this Yea it was one special End of his Death to destroy these And shall he die for us and as to us loose his labour when he hath done 6. We should be quicken'd to our Work here especially at such a time as this is for England's sake and for the Ark of God amongst us Matters seem to be at a very tickle trembling Point what the Lord intends to do we know not but really many things looks very threatning and God's faithful Ministers who are like to know most of his Mind are often droping such hints as would make a sensible Heart tremble Now this is the best way that we can take to prevent England's Ruine nay if God save us not by his Prerogative Royal it is the only way and it is unquestionably the duty of each of us to be fighting for our Country at home and thus we may do it and England hath not a worse Enemy then Sin nor better Friends at this pinch then such as do heartily and vigorously ply their work here and now shall England's Ruine ly at our doors Or shall deliverance come and we do nothing to set it forward on its way 7. This work though it be hard and difficult yet it is not impossible nay if we do sincerely apply our selves to it in God's way and strength the Victory is certain it is very true our Enemies are many and mighty but it s also as true that they are all such as have been baffled and conquered it must be confessed that we are poor weak things But withal it must be granted that our Captain is strong we may venture to set one Lord Jesus against them all this is a mighty encouragement to our work but no argument for sloth for he requires we should be active in it though in a manner he doth the work to our hands He hath overcome all the Enemies of our Souls and hath purchased that Grace for us whereby we also shall be enabled to overcome and how many Saints are there now triumphing in Heaven with Palms in their Hands who were once as deeply engaged in the Conflict and it may be under as discouraging Circumstances as we can be we have the same Captain that they had and what he hath done in and for them he is ready to do yea and will certainly and shortly do for and in us if we belong to him abide in him and continue with him so that difficulties should not be pleaded by us as discouragements in a Matter of this nature and necessity For 8. And lastly There is no other way for us here but we must either kill or die Sin as some of us lately heard is such a tyrant all whose Laws are written in the Blood of Souls It is Sin that brought Death into this World and that hath digged Hell in the next nothing so deadly as Sin and suppose but one Sin allowed and spared that one would as infallably undo us for ever as a thousand And farther suppose our Hearts be sincere and so prevailingly for God and therefore safe in the main yet if we neglect our Duty here those Sins of ours will not only keep us short both as to Grace and Peace here as was hinted before but which is a necessary consequent they will also cause us to fall short of those Degrees of glory which otherwise we might hereafter have attained unto the least degree of which should be of more account with us then all our worldly Interests laid together yea then all this whole World and will be so to us if we are indeed such as have laid up our Treasure in Heaven where we are truly our selves QUESTION III. How is the Duty of giving and receiving reproof to be managed THAT it is the Duty not only of Ministers to reprove Sin in others though to do it Ministerially is peculiar to them by Vertue of their Office and their Commission and Charge thereupon But yet that it is also the Duty of private Christians is plain Lev. 19.17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer Sin upon him Now in answer to the Question how this Duty is to be managed I shall give my thoughts 1. By laying down some things which I take to be necessary Qualifications in the Person that would be a right successful Reprover 2. Some needful Cautions 3. Some general Rules and Directions The Qualifications are as follows 1. Wisdom and Prudence these are necessary because the right management of this Duty is a work of no small difficulty and for want of these some well meaning Persons marr the Work and instead of doing good do harm this way light and heat should go together otherwise the Motion will be irregular we need these to direct us in suiting our Reproofs 1. To the Persons we Reprove And that 1. With respect to their different Estates For though we must be Faithful to all yet we may not use the like freedom of Expression with all Job 34.18 Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked Or to Princes ye are ungodly 1 Tim. 5.1 Rebuke not an Elder but entreat him as a Father 2. With respect to their Disposition and Temper For some are naturally more stubborn and hard to work on others more soft and tender Jude 22 23. And of some have compassion making a difference And others save with fear pulling them out of the fire I know it there are some of that temper and especially where any of them are also under that distemper which renders them more capable of impressions of this sort take such ordinarily I say and one shall wound them deeper with the softest Word nay with a silent Reproof in a look then some others with the most sharp and cutting Reproof 2. We need
be more seriously affected with your Case then I am with mine who have more cause O if ever poor Creature had need to make such complaints it s I Well but do we not hear Persons most eminently Pious making such complaints very frequently We should not be quite discouraged as though our case was singular How often doth warm hearted David pray for quickning which argues a sense of his want Sensible we should be but not discouraged O that we could confess and bewail our deadness more sensibly more lively But all our work lieth not in complaining but we must use the means God hath appointed for our quickning I verily believe our greatest work lieth in prevailing with our own Hearts to the diligent constant and believing use of the means certainly quickning enlivening Grace is purchased for us by the Lord Jesus and now he hath gone through the most painful part of his Work is he not willing to apply to our Souls what he hath purchased O let us not once question this O let us not wrong a dear Redeemer so much as to think otherwise of him O methinks was I but once made a meet recipient of these influences of his Spirit I should not doubt but I should have them Well it is Grace that must make us so and we have a gracious God to deal with who delights in Communicating of his grace and goodness to his Creatures let us call to mind what we heard of this Subject when we was last together let us ply our Hearts with the serious Consideration of the Sin and Evil of such a Frame together with the necessity reasonableness excellency and usefulness of the Contrary let us pray hard for it and use other means But pray S. take heed of that ungrateful Partiality as to judge and conclude from the remainders of Sin in you that you are in a state of Sin and Death the best on Earth complain of deadness and they do not Complement but have real Cause for it a perfect freedom from all Sin and its Effects remember that is reserved for Heaven Have you not a principle of Spiritual life Else whence comes the Sense you have of your deadness Methinks if I was with you and you would be faithful to your self I should not doubt but I could convince you think as ill of Sin as you will as you can but acknowledge and honour Grace joyfully and thankfully entertain any quickning Motions you have as you would have more what I say to you I would speak home to my own Soul the Lord help me that I may The Lord who is all perfect Spirit and Life make us more like unto himself I am your truly Affectionate Loving Brother I. B. LETTER VIII To S. E. December 15. 1684. Dear S. I Receiv'd both your's and owe you more then thanks for them I would bless the Lord that hath directed us to this way of Correspondence by Writing and that about the great Concernments of our Souls which I hope may prove profitable to each of us and very comfortable in the review I am sorry to hear of the bodily grievances you are under but stormy and pationate at the providential Dispensations of our wise and good God I dare not I would not be certainly if there be any true rest and satisfaction for the Creature it is in the will of its Creator who is goodness it self and I am glad to hear of the calmness of your Spirit my daily Prayers to God are for your spiritual and eternal Welfare and that you may not want any good thing here that the Lord would rebuke Distempers and lengthen out your Life but in that you are mindful of Death I rejoyce for to tell you true I love in my Heart to read and hear and think of Death my self indeed I have now out-lived my self my own expectation some Years But O the unaccountable folly that I am guilty of in that I am yet no more fit to die O strange almost incredible I Profess to believe a Future Judgment that there is a day wherein the great God by Jesus Christ will Judge me with all the World for all my Thoughts and Words and Actions whether they have been good or bad and so sentence me to my final State But O how unaffecting are my Apprehensions of this certain great and dreadful Truth and how inconsistent is my Practice to the belief hereof I am daily running on in my Errors heaping one Sin upon the back of another so laying my self under an unavoidable necessity either of bitter Repentance here or else exposing my self to the condemning Sentence of a most just and righteous Judge hereafter to a State of inconceivable and endless Misery which is enough to make any Heart except such a Flint as mine to tremble if seriously thought of Well shall I go on in this careless Frame and Course I fear I fear I shall but God forbid Well there are two things I would commend to my self and you in order to our Preparation for Death and Judgment 1st Let us make sure of a true and thorough work of Sanctification upon our Hearts O how shall we dare to look Death in the Face if found in an unsanctified Estate Sin is the sting of Death but then how may we with undanted Courage look it in the Face and as it were play with it when the Sting is taken out when we are passed from Death to Life if Sin be dead to be sure it s pardoned so otherwise how shall we think of Judgment to which Death immediately carries our Souls Will God clear the Guilty The turning point at that Day will be whether we be such as have come up to the Terms required of us in the remedying Law of Grace all are Sinners that is certain but all are not impenitent unbelieving Sinners O Sister penitent believing holy Souls and they alone shall be able to stand in Judgment shall obtain Mercy from the Lord in that Day and none but such have real ground of Comfort in the forethoughts of it 2dly Let us labour after clear and certain Evidences of our sincerity O how sweet a thing is Assurance of God's Love peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost How would these chear and revive our Souls in a dying Hour Sure I am a well grounded Assurance would then pay us our own with Interest though we should be at never so much pains to attain it but how sad to be sent to bed in the Dark it must needs be very uncomfortable to a gracious Soul to leave this World uncertain how it shall go with it in the next therefore let us study the Word more which is the Rule by which we must be judged and impartially compare our Hearts and Lives therewith by which means through God's help we may come to know how it will go with us then Blessed be God for that Revelation of his Will Well that our mortality and immortality may
a sad complaint of the disaffection of our Souls towards God he is breathing out nothing but love and joy and praise now he had perfected Affections and a perfect sight of his Aimableness and continually enjoyeth the sweet embraces of his Love it s a thing impossible for him either not to love him or to love him with such remisness coldness and inconstancy as poor unworthy we do and perfectly to love God and to be beloved of him this perfect mutual and joyful Love I think is the highest happiness the Creature is capable of O blessed Soul How pure and perfect are his Joy's What shall I say to these things O that I could feel more He hath changed his quarters indeed Glorious Angels and Saints are now his Familiar's his continual Associates which when he beareth a part in those heavenly Songs of Praise to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever O blessed Place blessed Work and blessed Company In a few words as he defined it to us while here he is now perfectly freed from all Sin and Misery in the fruition of all good being perfectly restor'd to God's Image and admitted to the beatifical Vision and Fruition of him in the most glorious Fellowship with Christ the head of our recovery and all the holy Angels and blessed Saints in Heaven O famous Description And yet the one half is not told us now shall I be so unkind as once to wish him back again with me Should I not rather long to be with him and in the mean time think well of the Rod which is a blessed means to drive me forward in Heavens way Should I not with humble Submission entertain this and all other afflictive Providences which may exceedingly befriend me in my Preparation for that blessed Place and State 8thly Death and the Grave are quite vanquished and overcome by Jesus Christ and surely this is a very staying quieting Consideration I am ready to think sadly of it that his precious Soul and Body that loving couple should be separated their Union dissolved that he in whom I have so delighted whose company hath so oft refreshed me that he should be laid in the dust and have worms for his Companions while I may see his Face no more in the land of the living that he should consume and rot in the Grave this goeth hardly down But is there not somewhat of childish pity here I am to consider that its only the Flesh that is the looser here and that but for a time which loss shall be made up with unspeakable advantage at the great Day of the Lord which draws on Death to his Soul was his present inservicable Gain as before And why should I be so immoderately concerned for what the body suffers Alass What was it but a lump of Corruption Indeed while that gracious Soul of his did animate it it was very lovely of much value But now the Jewel is gone what is the Cabinet worth Good reason why I should take delight in that House though but of Clay while the heavenly Inhabitant was there But now it s gone and House is fallen in why should I so value it And farther what was it to him what an Enemy How much care and labour grief and sorrow it hath cost him A log a prison to his Soul I may be sure he doth not grieve or grudge that God hath now by Death thus disburdened unfettered and released him But farther I am to consider that Jesus Christ the Lord of Life hath vanquished and overcome Death if Death had swallowed him up had made an end of him this had been sad indeed but God be thanked it is otherwise He had a firm Belief of this great Truth and the Comfort of it too for in his late Sickness when he called me to Pray by him he bid me bless God for a Mediator through whom he could say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead a main part of the glad tidings which the Gospel brings which is good assurance of the blessed Resurrection of all those that belong to him let me think oft of those sweet Words of his because I live ye shall live also To be sure the Lord Jesus Christ the head of his Church will not have a dead Body no nor one dead Member while it is in his Power to give it Life as sure as he is risen from the Dead and lives for ever more which is as sure as that God is True who hath declared it in his Word so sure it is that whosoever believing his shall be raised by him at the last day and live for ever with him Now think I have many a time chearfully bid him Good-night when he hath been going to take his Natural rest and why Because I hoped to see him again in the Morning and that more refreshed And why should I grieve immoderately now His grave is but a bed wherein to rest his weary Bones for a while and I may not only hope but have a confident well grounded Assurance that the Morning of the Resurrection will come when the earth shall disclose him and the dust cover him no more this shall not be an everlasting Night an endless Sleep No his Body shall be raised and that a glorious spiritual Body That blessed Day will e're long dawn and how sweet will be the Salutation between that lovely couple his glorified Soul and Body perfectly delighting in each other without jarring in the least for ever more And how happy a meeting it will be for me when I shall so meet with him as never to be parted from him more O! I shall have enough of his company in Heaven and it will be better to me there then it was here if it hath been so comfortable to spend Sabbath's and Solemn-day's of Humiliation and Thanksgiving with him here What will it then be to spend an everlasting Sabbath with him in Heaven in singing forth the high Praises of God and of the Lamb Sure I should not be so dejected with the sad thoughts of parting here as comforted with the joyful hopes of that blessed meeting Well the time is coming on a pace the Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead the first Fruits of them that sleep and by and by the Trumphet sounds and that quickning Voice which will make dead and dry Bones live Arise ye dead will be heard all the World over Then shall all the Faithful arise out of their Graves with Bodies made like unto Christ's Glorious Body Now what say I to these things Believe I this I have cause to be extream jealous of this naughty Heart of mine which I have so often found tardy and I may be sure of this that my own immoderate fear of Death and dejectedness at the death of Friends if it prove not the absence of Faith yet sadly bewrayeth the weakness of
seem light I will endeavour to pray for you as hard as I can do you endeavour to pray down more of the Spirit of Prayer into my Heart and then my poor Prayers may stand you in more stead I desire a plainer Account of your Circumstances as soon as you can who am your Loving Brother I. B. LETTER XIII To S. E. May 6. 1685. Dear S. I Receiv'd your's and cannot but sympathize with you in your Troubles I have been under those inward Troubles lately that have taken off my Thoughts from other things otherwise I have been and am under Circumstances much like your own I have more and more experience of the vanity and deceitfulness of the Creature O how vain a thing is Man But I must tell you Sister as I tell my own Heart I am afraid we expect too much from the Creature we meet with disappointments in and from the Creature who bid us look for better Not our Bibles The Lord will sooner or later make us know the Creature as the Creature if we belong to him that we place not too much of our Happiness in it and we have cause to bless God for the crossest Providences that are blessed by him to that End O let us learn to live more upon God! And let us learn not to be too much concerned at such things they are without us and unless we open them the door they cannot get into our Hearts to sink them God is a true and faithful Friend remember that indeed we live far below our selves as I trust we are Heirs according to the hope of eternal Life if we suffer such little things to distract and deject us I had written sooner but that I hoped before this to have seen you I shall be contriving for an opportunity as soon as I can who am your Loving Brother I. B. LETTER XIV To C. H. Dear Cozen METHINKS our ill husbanding the means of Grace hath brought us to this that we must either beg or starve the Lord hath formerly afforded us rich means to live upon How have we been feasted in his publick Ordinances Many a poor hungry Soul would have got a good meal out of our livings but now alass we have almost run out of all now we have but hungry Sabbath's God knows what will become of our poor Souls now Well but here is a way whereby you and I may get a good living still by the right improvement of this Duty we may be thriving Christians still shew me a praying Soul I dare say that is a happy Soul that Soul hath many a sweet morsel from Heaven that others taste not of that Soul is growing rich but then we must acquaint our selves with the divine Art and Mystery that there is in this Duty alass our Souls cannot live upon the Wind words in Prayer are but wind but in the lively exercise of Grace and in Communion with God there is nourishment for our poor Souls for your help him accept of this small Sheet which about two Years since I receiv'd from one that is as well skilled in this spiritual Mystery as any Christian that I know and when you are with God in this Duty then remember me a poor wretch that after so many years Practice of it to my Sorrow still find many roving wandring Thoughts much deadness of Spirit and inactivity of Grace I am confident you are many times in my praying Thoughts when you think not of it may I not beg the like from you for a requital Your's I. B. LETTER XV. To C. W. Dear Friend YOUR Soul is very precious in my sight my hearty desire and prayer for you is that you may be saved and O that I could do any thing to promote it it pleases me much to think in how hopeful a way you are for Heaven and O how I should rejoyce to see you crowned there but alass we are yet but in the Fight with our Enemies yet faint not hold on and the day is our own conquer and we are crowned yet be we jealous of our selves I am ready to tremble when I think of our danger by our Enemy the World it is a very Cheat and how ready we are to be imposed upon by it For my own part I never thought there had been so much Carnality in my Heart as I lately discovered and O I am afraid there is much more abominable wickedness that I have not yet discovered O methinks I would have something besides God for my Portion I am loath to cast all my worldly hopes over board O my Folly Well my love to you inclines me to impart some of my Thoughts to you in this Matter God and the World are presented to our Choice and this is our choosing time now that you and I may make a wise Choice 1st Let us seriously consider the excellency of God O happy Souls indeed whose Portion the Lord is O wonderful wonderful That the ever blessed God should be wiling to become the Creatures portion a portion for such Wretches as we are Let all the Angels and Saints of God admire and adore him for this his matchlefs Condescention and God-like Bounty Now think what God is and can we not be content with him for a Portion What not with God Why what is there that our Souls can reasonably desire that is not eminently in him O there is enough in God to make us compleatly and eternally Happy and what would we have more 2dly Think we seriously of the Vanity of the Creature O what trifles are these that Men make such a hurry about Such as are projecting most throngly for the World alass what have they when they have got it but a little Vanity for which they many time loose an eternal Crown O woful Choice When such come to die they will put another estimate upon the World I dare appeal to your own Experience when you have any serious thoughts of Death and Judgment and the Life to come then O how little you regard the World I find it thus with me now let us learn this project to set one Enemy against another to set Death against the World as one saith frequentiy lie down in our own Graves and thence take a prospect of the World let us take our Coffin into the Field with us when we go to fight the World And farther to make us serious let us consider it is for everlasting that we choose here choose God in Christ for our portion and he is our own for ever choose Sin and the World and we loose him and Hell must be our portion and our loss herein will be everlastingly imparable the Lord help us to act like reasonable Creatures but I must take leave if I have any interest in you I would entitle a dear Redeemer to it Will you choose him I hope you have but will you renew and confirm your choice and never rest till you can my beloved is mine and I am his I