the shame in the world with Christ and what a shame is this that you should be too fine for poor Christ when poor Christ makes you rich and gives the best of riches to you yea durable riches See page 11. of the yellow Book or the last May dayes Letter But take my word if you do not take Christ the Devil will take you and tear you worse than poor Cocks are torn or Bears bated yea you shall tear your selves in a thousand pieces if it were possible and yet not destroy your selves great Malefactors are hang'd alive in Hell and their misery is they cannot die nor get the fire out Mat. 25. 41. This shall be done to the man whom God will honour he shall live with God and reigne as it were with Christ in the eternity of God but all you that hate the Lord shall be consumed as the fat of Lambs Psal. 37. 20. yea let them all be consumed and confounded together that will not marry Christ or ever hear of being the servants of Christ there is such a deal of service among you but pray what have you done for Christ any of you genteel heathenish sinners yea or any of you professing Saints truly you that have done most have done nothing to any purpose and you that have done nothing have done enough to have damn'd you in your best action that ever you did if you were to be tryed by the Law or the purity of Gods Justice out of Christ but the business is who almost doth any thing or doth not at all mind every thing and no man minds the things of Christ Phil. 2. 21. Truly Christ hath a great many enemies and a great many friends and a great many lookers on some men look which way the tide runs and some which way the gain comes but godliness with content is great gain 1 Tim. 6. 6. and still I say the great stain of godliness is they are so greedy after it but greedy lovers of profits and greedy lovers of pleasures are little better than greedy doggs both and will be shut out of the new Jerusalem that cometh down from God or is above with God Revel. 21. 2. And now if some of you Ladies after all this brave dressing of your selves should be shut out of Hide-Park and made to stand in the ditch whil'st all the Nobles and rest of the Gallants were admitted in to take their fill of pleasures and the pleasures of the day it would be a great vexation but if thousands of you should be shut out of Heaven and the Kingdome of Heaven as Christ speaks Luke 13. 27. for minding nothing but pleasure the pleasures of the day and the pastimes of the night how will you then weep when you your selves shall see Abraham Isaack and Iacob with thousands more sitting down there but you your selves shut out ver. 28. Christ wept bitterly for Jerusalem Luke 13. 34. and if he were on earth I think he would weep for you for you are the most to be pittied for all your laughing and your singing one unto another of any people yea of any creatures in the world yea I in my conscience do verily think so for a man to sing to a bird and catch him in a net or hearken to a Syrryan as they say and be catched by a song is a misery and a cheaty misery none gets so much by gaming as the Devill does by playing his cards in some of your laps and truly you frequently commit adultery when you look so lustfully as you do Mat. 5. 25. on one anothers faces yea you make your selves Whores and Harlots by your talk many times Christian talk and Christian name with Christian life and conversation would do well together and if Christ be your Master let him be your Copy for I will not give a farthing for that Christian that is little better than an old common Protestant an old Protestant and an old Papish will agree better than either can with an honest Roundhead and yet the old Religion is the true ask for the good old way and follow that saies the Prophet Ier. 6. 16. and not these new lights and fangles and now I am resolved to be half a Quaker to a hair but not a whole one for a thousand worlds I resolve to be less complementall less a flatterer more an inward and an outward Christian yea a circumspect Christian in all things but to deny Jerusalems Christ Gods exalted dear and onely Son who is God over all blessed for evermore Rom. 9. 5. that hath washed me in his own blood Revel. 1. 5. saved my soul from Hell and reconciled me unto God for a whimsey I never will nor shall they ever pick my comforts by a many new words forced humility or reformation that ariseth out of self and leads man to rest on self a broken Reed a muddy Cestern and all that do so will lie down in sorrow yea this is all you shall have at my hands saith the Lord yea all you that compass your selves about by your own sparks Isa. 50. 11. for other foundations can no man lay than what is laid Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 3. 11. O foundation foundation time and age outlasting foundation Heaven Earth Saint and Angell burying foundation how art thou neglected by Generations of self righteous men on the one side doggs careless sinners loose Christians and despisers on the other and yet thou art all in all in life death and eternity Col. 3. 11. yea thou art Gods all in all and our all in all who have all our hopes helps and mercies in and from thee yea in thee and in thee alone is all our justification sanctification and hopes of glorification and yet how little do we live unto thee do or speak for thee our dearest dear before the Sons of men but O Christs time will come and certainly come that we shall wish a thousand times that the best of us all had said more and done more a thousand times for thee than the best of us all have done And therefore to you the powers of this Nation I humbly give this advice knowing good men in prosperity may easily forget the vowes in adversity that you remember as long as you live the cause for which so many tuns of blood were spilt and millions of souls sent to Hell sooner than ordinary yea the cause of our ever blessed dear and glorious Redeemer and what ever men say he certainly once had and still has a cause and controversie to plead with the Natitions however he will erre long certainly come and call all men to account and then you the dry skuls heads and bones of the Caviliers shall rise together yea with their dead bodies shall you arise or they with yours as the Prophet speaks in another case Isa. 26. 19. In the mean time know the night is at hand wherein no man can work Iohn 9. 3. And as Owner said of Ireton so I say to all
Asses braying to the most melodious musick in comparison of that But Heaven is a place of divine glories and glorious things are spoken of thee O Citie of God all manner of precious stones are fetch'd to set up thy glory O Jerusalem Jerusalem Revell 21. 19. and in the lies a Sun for every eye a Crown for every head yea a Crown that fadeth not away Crowns are the highest pitch of glory that the aspiring soul of man can work unto but the lowest shadow of divine glory Crowns and Kingdomes are but fading things yea they are now fading while the glory of Christ is rising in our Land yea in Ireland which the Devil and the Pope thought once to have had for their share but blessed shall they be who have been most instrumental to plant the Gospel there and some body here have been very much instrumental that way and many to pull down you and the Crowns of some of your families yea the Crown of these Nations all which lie in the dirt and yet you go on to sin as much as ever and never think how many was sent to the Devil in the late warre standing up for the Crown yea how many great ones were sent in a day in some great fights to wit Naseby York Newberry or Spinham land and yet these kind of Crownes are not worth contending for they are such light foolish fading things But Saints Crowns are exceeding weighty heavy and massy yea there is an eternal weight of glory that attends every Saint 2 Cor. 4. 17. An eternal weight of glory can never be poys'd or fade away but a present earthly glory every age can discover to be light and vain yea within these few daies I have discovered much my self and many vain men as David sayes which now are not and where is Mr. such an one with his brave feather and Mr. such an one with his golden back alass alass t is a thousand piâ—tles their Heaven was so short And for your stately laying out the Carcass at the last that is much more I saw the fragments of a silly Bird which a ravenous Fowl had prayed upon and all that was left by the hedge was a legg and a wing and a few loose feathers may be the Surgeon brawns up the whole body bowels and all with a great deal of beating by his huge sledges after which nasty and noysome work the Harril dresses that and a room three or four some dark and some light one within another before you come where the Body lyes in a thick sheet with a many popish Candles Candlesticks great Standards Silk and Silver Scutchions half a dozen in the nature of weepers to see who comes to stayr and some are even ready to say their prayers but the spiritual man mourns others crying they never saw the like nor shall they ever see more what 's become of the wing and the legg the life and the soul whilst death and rottenness sleeps in the feathers and is this all you call the laying in state Solomon sales vanity of vanities all is vanity and would this text was ever sounding in your eares and written in your foreheads as well as in your lives but what All doth the wise man mean questionless this and all below the Sun and that is all indeed but what 's reserved for the Saints whom you now despise and count fools and their ends to be without honour Wisdome 5. 4. O read read this text though it be Apocripha We fools counted his life madness and yet his lot is among the Saints we wearied our selves in wickedness but what hath pride profitted us and what hath vaunting and riches profitted us all is passed away like a shadow pâ—st or ship that passeth over the waves ver. 10. But their portion is above the Sun and yours below theirs where no moaths theeves or rust can come Maâ— 6 9 but at all these things they can and do come yea they will come at all your glories and there is a secret worm at the rooâ— of every glory yea your sweetest pleasures have a thousand snares envy pride malice and covetousness are alwaies eating alwaies stealing and staining earthly glories this way Nation eats up Nation and Time them again but time death grave nor eternity it self can ever fade steal or eat away the least bit of a Saints glory no no death and time puts them in and locks them safely up for that glory which eternity is alwaies opening and unfolding but for all your earthly glories they are soon opened one man and one age opens anotheâ—s glory pride and envy â—olds up that again to shew it selt but death folds up all yea all the sorrow shame and sufferings of the Saints and glories of the world yea it will fold up all your Maying and your gaying and your present glories so that that which is the outlet is the inlet both to one and the other darkness hell sin shame and sorrow is the inlet of death to such as you yea this breaks in like mighty seas upon the stroaks of death and so doth rest peace joy and glory to the Saints but what is the glory of Heaven and the Sains in Heaven may some say alass it is a question out of question or a question for eternity but this may and hath been said already God is the glory of and the Heaven of Heavens both to Saints and Angells but how much of 〈◊〉 Heaven every single Saint shall have for his share is a question never to be answered this we know a Crown shall be on every head and a Sun on every face and the least Saint shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdome of his Father Mat. 13. 43. and Christ as a Sun to all yea Christ humane shall do so and if so what shall Christ divine and the Father in the Spirit do that is the question out of question and beyond all answer the eye that made the eye the ear that made the ear the Sun that made the Sun the Heaven that made that Heaven which is called Heaven cannot be spoken to Men may look into the beamâ—s but not into the Sun it is so glorious the rayes of glory on the backs of the glorified may be looked into and spoken of but not to one thousand part as once Queen Sheba said to Solomon eye hath not seen nor ear heard that which thou O God hast prepared for them that waite for thee Isa. 64. 4. Nay it never entred into the heart of any man to conceive saith St. Paul what God hath prepared for them that fear him 1 Cor. 2. 9. O how great is that Goodness saith David But something is revealed by the Spirit yea so much that many wiser than any of you have despised with disdain and detestation all yours and this worlds glory for it and others have desired to die that they might be at it when as all as you desire to live for is onely to sin
or be a little longer out of Hell but I beleeve many of you are Sadduces which scarce beleeve there is a Heaven a Hell or Resurrection but fain would Paul die upon this account and who would not do so and be uncloathed that he might be cloathed upon with this house from Heaven and glory of Heaven yea crowd thorough and thorough the gates of death for the Crown of Crowns this wreath of life and glory O â—ut where is the Christian that can say so now and unstrip his dublet and affections to the creature freely laying down all that is near and dear at the feet of Christ for love to Christ the joyes of Christ and glories of Heaven the Saints cannot see now as in Stevens time the glory of God and Christ at the right hand nor the immortall things that Paul speaks of â— Cor. 2. 9. And hence it is they cannot desire to unstrip and be dissolved O but were the least glimpses of immortal Crowns and glory clearly in their eyes they would leap into the grave and call for death as a man for a friend in a great distress we have heard of some that have thrown themselves into the Ocean for to catch the shadow I am sure the God of Heaven and the joyes of Heaven are the substance which all men should catch at but the shadow most do yea the Saints themselves are lâ—w and dungy sishing for the creature rather than immortal glories But were they minded as in former times I make no question but the Saints of this age would Imperious like as much scorn the dungy chaff stubble straw and vanity of this world as the lofty Eagle doth the poorest prey when she is flying towards Heaven yea were our thoughts upon our Fathers house our Fathers home our Fathers glory yea and our glory which is laid up for us where all our faithfull friends are gone and longs for our communion me thinks the pavement and curtains of Heaven the place where Sun Moon and Staries are pitched tells us t is a glorious place yea if the outside of this Ark above the water be so speckled and spangled what is the inside where God and all the saved creatures are Sun Moon and Starres are but the 〈◊〉 of Heaven the 〈◊〉 beaten garmenâ— which must passe away and be folded up as an old thing Psal. 102. 26. And when this old thing shall be done away God and the Lamb become a new Heaven to the Saints yea when God and the Lamb shall compass them and be their Temple and they his Pillars in this Temple bearing up his everlasting praises Revell. 3. 12. Then shall the glory of the Lord and the Lamb be for Sun and Moon Revell. 21. 23. Here Gospel Spirit Ordinances are in the Church and Temple the Sun Moon and glory of it and would it were so in all and not form and formality but God shall immediately one day himself become their Sun and glory Isa. 60. 20 And the Lamb shall personally lead them to the fountains of living waters not to sup a little as now but to bath and tumble in those everlasting streames and Oceans of divine glory yea when every Saint shall have a Temple Sun and Sea of glory to himself walk hand in hand as it were with the Lamb Revell. 7. 17. thorough and thorough the glorious high discoveries of God which are the Seas of glory and the glorified Seas wherein their souls shall alwayes tumble never sounding any bottome in those boundless glorious bancks carrying them by gales of divine joyes further and further from all bounds and bottoms rocks and dangers And now I conclude with this advice if you indeed think there is a Heaven look for that or if indeed this be a fancy And all that you call Divinity be a meer piece of knavish Policy to make fools and asses of honest men then take your pleasure stil and let the daies of darkness never come near you nor your thoughts or families which do but spoil your pleasures for if you affright a child with a Bugbeare you may make hm fearful all his life and if you your selves will fancy that which is not It will be great losse and trouble to the minds of such as you who yet want more pleasures or time to pursue after more nay do you not O but if after all there should be a God O but if there should be a Heaven and a God better than Heaven a thousand times or a thousand Heavens which should at last be lost for want of thinking or beleeving what a sad case will you then be in yea I say what a sad case will you then all be in when God is lost Christ Heaven Soul Body and all is lost for a moments lust O Madam consider this in time yea this night least the night of nights overtake you which that it may not it is and ever shall be the hearts desire and prayer of him who with St. Paul wisherâ— from his soul that you and your Children with the whole Israel of God may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 10. 1. And so I rest Your humble Servant W. B. FINIS