most precious blood He undertook for you in your place stood And now hath made you Kings Priests by birth And one day you shall reign with him on earth Then shall that Princely Heav'nly song be sung On Harps of God most sweetly tun'd and strung The song of Moses who Gods servant was The holy Lambs song likewise this song is Which song methinks before I further go I must insert that you this song may know Most great and marvellous all thy works are Lord God Almighty who shall not thee fear And glorifie thy Name for thou art holy And just and true thy ways are righteous wholly All Nations shall now come and worship thee For now thy Judgements manifested be Thou King of Saints most true just are thy wayes This song then Saints shall sing him shal praise Such perfect heav'nly frames of heart they shall Be alwayes in their glory won't be small But such as always shall their souls so fill With joy they 'l sing praise to the Lamb and will Continually rejoice set forth the praise Of him who is the Ancient of all Dayes For then the glory of the Lord they 'l see The Lamb will always with them present be They then will God see face to face no blame Will he find in them but will write his Name Upon their foreheads he will dwell with them And they for evermore shall be with him They then shall be his people he will be Their God for ever to eternitie Then shall they hear no sighing nor no cries All tears he 'l wipe away from off their eyes No death nor mourning sorrow greif nor pain Shall ever overtake those souls again For such things then there will be left no room Because the Bride enjoys her dear Bridegroom If she rejoiceth now to hear his voice When she his face shall see she may rejoice When she beholds his person and doth see His Beauty Glory and his Majestie All former things with her will pass away Now she can sing and on Gods Harps can play Nothing can her to grief or sorrow move How can she mourn that hath her fill of Love What ere she did here in this mortal state She 'l now rejoice to mourn it is too late The Bride did mourn and weep while he was gone Who is her Bridegroom though she wan't alone Her heart was with him he with hers and still He with his Spirit did her always fill With full assurance that she was his Bride And that he from her went but to provide A City and a Mansion for each one And then he 'd come and leave no more his own And wel-beloved Spouse his chiefest Joy His Darling to the Lions to anoy Who can report the joy when she goes thither She there wil meet with when they meet together Thus have I hinted as I said I would In such a place so well as well I could The doubtless fall of that great Scarlet Whore Who in her loftiness and pride doth soar Above the Throne of Kings but she shall be Thrown down from thence into the deepest Sea From whence she nevermore shall rise again The healing of her breach will be in vain And as I promis'd so I 've now perform'd To hint that Christ shall one day be enthron'd Yet one or two words more by way of use I still have yet to say which may produce Some good effect to some though not to all But to the Whore I think 't will none at all But some there be which are of her that yet Adore her much if they 'l reade what is writ I mean her plagues here hinted in this book It may provoke them now about to look If they 'l consider well what Sorcery What Fornications and Idolatry What guiltiness there is upon her still Of th' Martyrs blood which she a Sea did spill Who knows but that it may a motive prove Some one or more from off their lees to move And who can tell but this may call forth some From out of her lest they share in her doom When they shall reade her sins her plagues withal Or else partake with her in her great fall And therefore let it be a use of terror Of great astonishment of fear and horror Unto the Pope and all his Cardinals His Moncks and Friers ev'n those Canibals Who eat the flesh of men trade with their souls And drink the blood of Saints as Wine in bowls Let pains and pangs and sorrows on them seize The time doth hasten now when God will ease Himself of such an evil Generation Who are such foes to Christ his Death and Passion Whom they would tear pluck out of his throne If they thereby could but keep up their own The next and last word I intend to speak At this time is unto the poor and meek Those filly harmless Lambs the lot and stock Of Jesus Christ our Lord that little flock Here 's comfort new for you and consolation That follow hard in the Regeneration That blessed Lamb of God which went before Whom follow after fully for the more You follow him the more your peace will be Here and hereafter your felicitie Though he lead thorow many rocky wayes To that sweet place of rest yet see you praise Your Prince it is the certain way that leads Unto God's Kingdom though it trouble breeds Unto the flesh to climb such rocks and hills He will go with you that with pleasure fills Your souls there can be then no cause of fear To go that way that Christ is with you there For he hath been and is strength to the poor Help to the needy in distress and more A refuge from the storm and from the heat A shadow is when grievous storms do beat The storm of furious ones whose blast doth fall As doth a mighty storm against a wall Know where you cannot go he will you carry And he that shal come wil come and won't tarry Fear not then little Flock rejoyce and smile At this it 's but a very little while But he will come and wil you all imbrace Then shal you see his glorious shining face The way 's but short the labour 's smal you spend Faint not you 'l soon come to your journeys end Afflictions are but light the Glory 's pondrous But a moment eternal Glory 's wondrous There 's no comparison between these twain If for a light Affliction you can gain A weight of Glory for a moment you Receive eternal-Glory with Christ doo What loss can't be who would not walk a path That dirty is if it an ending hath In Rest and in unutterable Joys Rather than one that leads to nought but toys The best and all of them this great fault have They leave a man when he goes to his grave Nay more while he is but on toys a poring And is them like to petty gods adoring They steal away his heart if he intend To follow that way still 't wil in the end Lead him to death that death to never dy But live in torments to eternity Then wait with patience for your Prince and King When ha appears he then will with him bring Such great rewards will make up all your losses Your suffrings trials troubles and your crosses Content your selves be satisfi'd and rest In this that you have such an interest In Christ and in his Glory that no man Though nere so mighty or so great that can Deprive you of 't God greater is than they None can you harm if he but say them nay Admit they should do what with their will stands They can't you pluck out of your Father's hands Beware then that you don't his love disdain Take heed you don't his holy Name prophane By any sin or unbeseeming walking By any foolish jesting idle talking But I the Prisoner of the Lord beseech You all to study and consider which Way you may sanctifie that holy Name And bring forth praise and hounour to the same That sacred Name of God which now doth seem To be reproach'd which some do much blaspheme Walk worthy of that calling wherewith ye Are called and be sure you alwayes see Your conversation all times cloathed is With lowliness that Christ-like grace of his That unto all men you may make 't appear That as was Christ so you like-minded are And be not rash but meek enduring wrong If you be like to Christ he suffer'd long Forbear ye one another live in love And God will still be with you from above And keep your hearts minds through Christ our Lord If you like brethren do in love accord Then make it ev'ry one your great endeavour And do at all times in the same persever To keep the Spirits unity and peace That God may dwell with you and you increase In all the fruits and graces of the Spirit You may esteem'd be worthy to inherit A Crown of life a Kingdom and a Throne Which will enjoyed be by those and none But those that faithful are unto the death For so God's holy blessed Spirit saith I now conclude and end and take my leave Hoping these lines though rude you will receive And mend those faults in love you may there find If any benefit you reap then mind To give the praise to God the honour 's his Give none to me but all to him whose ' t is All Glory be to him that ever liveth I 'm yours in him to love and serve John Griffith FINIS
SOME Prison-Meditations AND EXPERIENCES WITH Some Hints touching the Fall of the Mother of Harlots and the exaltation of the SON of GOD upon the Throne of DAVID Written in Newgate by JOHN GRIFFITH a Prisoner there My heart is inditing a good matter I speak of the things which I have made touching the King Psal 45.1 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.24 25. And there followed another Angel saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Rev. 14.8 Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion Psal 2.7 Printed in the year 1663. The Epistle Dedicatory To all in every place that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and Truth and that wait for his glorious appearing more especially unto that Remnant to whom I stand more particularly related Grace be multiplied with encrease of Faith and Love from God the Father and his Son Jesus the Anointed through the Comforter Christian Salutation Well-beloved ITs matter of comfort to the Lords poor despised people in a dark day that he is pleased not to leave his nothing-ones that either have or do suffer any thing for the sake of blessed Jesus without some signal tokens of his comforting and strengthening-presence with them by which they are in a good measure kept from fainting and that he doth seal up instruction to their souls leading them to the Rivers of Pleasures causing them to drink deep of his Love and Free-Grace in his dear Son Oh what a choice Mercy it is that the Most High God should so far condescend as to have regard to such worthless Creatures who in the day of their fulness so much provoked the Eternal God by their unthankfulness and mis-improvement of such Choice Mercy as the Mercy of the Gospel is It is wonderful Grace that God should notwithstanding such provocations wherewith he hath been provoked by Congregations in general and by every Member in particular still continue the good savour of his Grace upon the hearts of any of them or that he should account any of his poor servants worthy to suffer Reproach and Bonds for his sake Which Mercy which I esteem very choice and sweet to my soul he hath been pleased for some time to let me enjoy which is wonderful in my sight that such a nothing empty Creature as I am should be employed by him in such a Noble Work and in such a Noble Cause as to suffer Bonds for the sake of blessed Jesus Yet notwithstanding the length of time I have been in durance I find my heart is not so cleansed and brought to the foot of Christ as I hope it may and wait it should And if it so please the Lord to sanctifie these Bonds that I may by the help of his holy Spirit so crucifie the remains of Corruption that I find still in my heart and subdue and bring in subjection every vain imagination that every high thing that exalts it self may be brought in obedience to the King then may I bless the Lord for the day that ever I lay in Newgate The which I may say I am engaged and not without cause already to do for asmuch as God hath let me see my self and the baseness of my own heart the unbelief and diffidence that lodgeth there in some measure which giveâ— occasion to me to magnifie the Grace of God the more in that he should be graciously pleased to accept such an unworthy Worm as I am in his dear Son A clear evidence of which through Grace I can say I am not without in my soul yet not so as wholly to be without ups and downs occasioned by temptation working upon my Frailties which my dear Lord Jesus is pleased to assist me in and cause them to work for good unto my soul Blessed be Jehovah I have in this Poem rudely scattered here and there some of those MEDITATIONS and EXPERIENCES that God hath been pleased to visit my Soul with the which I present to the view and commend to the serious thoughts of all the Faithful but more particularly to that Remnant and chosen ones to whom I stand more immediately and particularly related in the bonds of the Gospel Hoping all the Spiritual will take them in good part and judge of them in the Spirit of Love to whose Christian correction I readily subject my self and Labours hoping also thâ—â— they will put the fairest construction and interpretation both upon them and me that Brotherly Love and Duty binds them to I could not willingly pass to the Conclusion of this poor Work until I had first hinted something touching the Fall of Mysterie Babylon that old and great Whore and of the Exaltation of our dear Lord the thoughts of which now in my bonds makes me very merry and is as a cordial to comfort my poor heath for which I wait and to which time I trust he will keep that which I have committed to him My dear Brethren 'T is but a very little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry In this time of our Pilgrimage let us labour to exalt him in our hearts that he may be chief and rule as Lord and King there that when we come to lay down this house of clay we may be cloathed upon with our House from Heaven and be found of him without fault at his coming To which end wait diligently upon the Lord in his Word and Ordinances Be much with God in Prayer praying for all Saints and for me the most unworthy Servant of Christ that I may be kept faithful to death and let your walks be in Heaven So shall the King greatly desire thy Beauty for He is thy Lord and worship thou Him Farwell Grace be with you all Amen From my poor pitiful Study in Newgate Septem 22. 1663. Your Brother in the dear love of Jesus JOHN GRIFFITH COurteous Reader by reason of the Authors absence many faults have escaped the Press which thou art desired to mend with thy Pen. SOME Prison-Meditations AND EXPERIENCES c. AS I in Prison lie I sometimes muse What should the reason be they me so use That they contrary unto Law Reason Should keep me here in Jayle so long a season No crime or charge against me can they lay Yet I shall lye in Prison still they say I think their will 's their Law I cannot see But that the reason is they thus use me What should the reason be they nought will have But what 's their will to keep me as their slave Within stone walls and bars of iron strong As if I had done unto them such wrong
Earth and she shall be at length A desolation none in her shall dwell But Owls and Satyrs and those Fiends of Hell But now it may be some there are that will be asking When God will these things fulfil My answer is to such It will be then When God shall break the yoke of all those men Of Rome which season is of his appointing Which he will do because of the Anointing For when he sends the Spirit from on high Then will the time begin undoubtedly When all those plagues shall hasten and will come Upon the Scarlet Whore and Pope of Rome But yet before this time may come or be The Lord will make his people all to see How much they have by their unholiness Uncomely walking and unthankfulness Their mis-improvement of rich mercy when God gave them plenty to enjoy and then Their carnal worldly-mindedness that life When they so liv'd in want of love and strife Contention and debates their pride and pleasure They walked in for many days together Their want of love to Christ and zeal that they Have for some time let very much decay Their great indifferency to Heav'nly things Which coldness to Apostasie some brings All which if timely they are not prevented They will not by the Lord be well resented For if they be'nt repented of in truth The Lord all such will spew out of his mouth Besides all these the Lord will have them see Their unbelief and their great lenitie Their diffidence appears now in the sight Of him with whom they have to do whose bright And piercing eye can see and look within Discern and sype out ev'ry secret sin By which things they the lord did much provoke And have as 't were against him done and spoke And yet these things there 's few do lay to heart And fewer do as yet from them depart Few faithfully perform the work of searching And fewer do perform the work of purging There 's few that are in bitterness of soul For their high provocations which so foul So great and many were with which they God Have much provok'd to bring on them a Rod For 't must confessed be that by their sin The Name of God hath much reproached bin Gods people have undoubtedly been such Who have the wicked caused very much Him to blaspheme and his most holy Name Hath by their evils suffer'd much defame These things I say the Lord would have us see That so for them our souls might humbled be And in the sence of them we might abhor And loath our selves and mourn in secret for Those Evils that we ev'ry day commit Against the Lord who notwithstanding yet His Remnant he hath not forsaken so But their oppressors may for certain know When he shall turn his hand on them again And purely purge their dross and take their tin Away and then when he shall wash the filth Of Zions daughter and restore to health Jerusalem by purging of her blood And cleanse her from her filth which like a flood Runs in the midst of her which by chastisement The Lord will do by burning and by judgement For such a spirit will he send I deem By Judgement God will Zion then redeem And when this is accomplished will he Restore their Judges and they then shall be As at the first their Counsellors shall stand As at the first beginning in their Land And then despised Zion shall be nam'd Which lieth in the dust so much defam'd The City of Righteousness Zion she The faithful City then will called be And then Jehovah will create upon The dwelling-place that is in Mount Zion A cloud and smoak on her Assemblies all The shining of a flaming fire which shall Be there by day and likewise so by night Which never shall depart out of her sight Jehovah then will ne'r depart from thence On all the glory shall be a defence But some it's like will yet be asking me Within what year or month this time will be Because they would precisely this time know They would that I to them that time should show Or else prefix the time in which God will Arise against the Whore and her so fill With all those plagues she may for ever be A by-word unto all posteritie To them I answer that the seasons stand In no mans power the times are in the hand of God alone there 's none but he can tell The day nor month no nor the year nor well That is his great prerogative to show The times or seasons day or hour to know But yet before these things accomplish'd be There wil be signs in Heav'n which some my see And likewise on the earth which will fore-run Those plagues wil make Rome quake ere they have don Besides signs of the times which signs the wise Can well discern and do as highly prise But Babylon must fall that 's out of doubt And then there will be such a dreadful rout As never was in any time before Such howling and lamenting of the Whore For all her sorrows shall come in one day Just like a flood that will not stop nor stay Both death and mourning famine also will Pursue her hard and all her borders fill And she shall utterly be burnt with fire Which now she little dreads doth less desire For strong 's the Lord that God which judgeth her Who now will plague her for her sins and for Her cruel usage of his Saints as she Rewarded them she shall rewarded be Then now those Kings that with her have committed Such fornications and that her permitted To reign and rule o're them who with her have Liv'd so deliciously so fine and brave Shall now bewail her and lament her sore When they shall see her burning smoke before Their eyes as they from her afar off stand For fear the torments of her should command Them also they cry oh alas alas See what a mighty great City this was Yet in one hour is her judgement come Her woful fall her dreadful dismal doom The Merchants of the earth shall also weep And mourn for her for they their goods may keep For though they have of Merchandize great store Now none will buy their Merchandize no more Though rich and gallant Merchandize they be As Gold and Silver precious stones as the So Cordial Pearl and Linnen fine and good With Purple Silk and Scarlet and Sweet-Wood Their Ivory Vessels of all sorts and manner With other things wherewith they did adorn her As Vessels of most precious Wood and Brass Of Iron Marble with these things alas As Cinnamon and Odours Oyntments too Sure here 's enough this old Whore to undo But more as Frankinsence and Wine and Oyle See what a great and utter total spoile Will come upon her and her Merchandise And on them all that how believe her lyes Nay yet here 's more her Flower and her Wheat Which she had got her stollen Bread was sweet Her Beasts her Sheep her Chariots her