chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my Name he may give it you If ye were of the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen ye out of the World therefore the World hateth you v. 11 12. 13 14 15 16 19. So here 's the Election as I have said Christ the Seed which God hath blessed but the seed of evil doers shall never be renowned and as every man is found in him as he is accepted of the Lord in that which witnesses to God which shews which makes manifest which judges which reproves in man Every man as he is found in him in this is accepted of the Lord This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased saith the Lord Who hath accepted us in the beloved saith the Apostle This is he by whom we have accesse unto the Throne of Grace Who is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world The Mediator if any man would know who he is and what that is that witnesses that searches the heart that tries the Reines the Candle of the Lord that searches all the inwards parts of the belly that reproves that makes manifest that shews a man what he should do between God and man that comes between to stop his wrath that it break not forth as a floud then who can quench it and wooes man to turn unto the Lord whilst his wrath is not broke forth and the fire of his wrath is not kindled which will burn to the lowest Hell It s ever and anone between the Enemy and man shewing man his enemy and what man should do near with his power to help man and deliver him It s always between the Fathers wrath and man for the movings of this is the Visitation of the Lord and his long-suffering for he waits whilst this is whilst this strives with man whilst this tries if I may so say and I speak after the manner of men what it can do So this stops all whilst its time of working is whilst its a Trying a seeing whether man will be reconciled to God This will not let God alone let me alone that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under Heaven as the Lord said to Moses Deut. 9. 14. Whilst its day of working is to spare his people but steps between and shews and makes manifest and tries and judges and speaks to the Lord and saith Lord let it alone this year also till I shall dig about it and dung it and if it bear fruit well and if not then after thou shalt cut it down when the Lord saith behold these three years I come seeking fruit on this Fig tree and find none cut it down why cumbreth it the ground As the Parable of the Man and his Vinyard and his Vinedresser hath it which was spoken by the Lord by him who is it That which digs about and dungs that waites that speaks that calls that 's ready to remove iniquity to open the heart to God-wards to visit the Plant of the Lord that lies in death that it may spring and bring forth fruit that man may not be cut down in whom it is and made to cease to cumber the ground That is ready with every good Motion with every good Thought with every good Opportunity to incline man to the Lord to bring him to rest to bring him to God that watches all approaches of evil that shews the appearance of it encounters with it is ready to assist man against it and to overcome it which hath turned man from God and the Lord from man if man would let God arise that his enemies might be scattered and thus follows after man from year to year and interceeds and mediates and comes between whilest as I have said the day of long-suffering is of mans visitation which is the day of mans visitation Therefore to day whilst it is called to day harden not your hearts as in the Provocation in the day of Temptation in the Wilderness as the Apostle expresseth it Heb. 3. 7 8. Me thinks every man should hear what I have I said in himself and turning his eye within should see this and inclining his ear should hear all this and all the wooing and entreatings and the seekings of him to turn man unto the Lord and waitings and bearings and sufferings for that purpose every man that doth but this must needs hear it and see it and be sensible of it and this as he lets it work will affect his heart and break him to pieces that ever he hath resisted it that he hath been an enemy to his own peace Me thinks I hear such bemoaning themselves I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoak turn thou me and I shall be turned for thou art the Lord my God Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I smote upon my thigh I was ashamed yea even confunded because I did bear the reproach of my youth and see what follows hereupon and how the bowels of the Lord turn to that which thus turns to him and see how ready the Lord is to receive such and his tenderness unto such and bow as it were if I may so speak after the manner of men I have too the Scripture for it which will bear me out in what I say the Lord is in an Agony for such and in a distress of love Is Ephraim my dear Son what can be more breaking and near Is he a pleasant Child for since I spake against him I do earnestly remember him still therefore my bowels are troubled for him I will surely have mercy on him saith the Lord Jer. 31. 20. See the Heart of the Father to the Prodigal that returns whom he goes forth to meet and runs and even while he is yet a great way off sees and hath compassion on him and falls upon his neck kisseth him and puteth on him the best robe the covering of his Son and a Ring on his Hand the band of Love and Shoes on his Feet the preparation of the Gospel of Peace for this is the way to it coming to that which witnesseth in him that gives him to see his state and where he is that brings to himself and when he came to himself see what it is that brings a man to himself that which shews him his state that gives him a sence of his condition that is it and how a man is from himself in an extasie as it were out of his wits in a sown from the sence of his understanding as a man from that which should guide him as one in another world as they use
Apostle as aforesaid and were it not that the Lord first touched man that of him in him which lies in death and by reason of the fall is buried in the Grave so that it cannot move to God man never would look after God nor know the state in the which he is for the enemy having him and holding him and compassing him about would never suffer him so to see nor so to understand Now herein is the love of God manifest and his great loving kindness that when man whom he made upright and in his Image and breathed into him the Breath of Life and he became a living Soul turned away from the Lord and from that in which he was made which kept and would have preserved him had he kept to it and let in the enemy and so death came over him in the Transgression over that in which he was made that it moved not but lay as dead Free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave whom thou remembrest no more and they are cut off from thy hand Psal 88. 6. I say that the Lord should then visit man and reach to that of himself in man which lay in the grave free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave and so give man to see the state in the which he is and his enemy and to cause a moving after God a Will to God this is the Lords great loving kindness and his free mercy and this the Apostle reckoned when he cast up the sum and minded the great love of God to man in this state In this saith he as hath been said was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is the love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our sins 1 John 4. 9 10. And when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. So then man cannot move to God unless God reach him that of him in him that lies in death by reason of Transgression and quicken him then it moves to God again not that we loved God see in what state the will of man is in the fall where all men are found when God comes to them when God visits them when he speaks to them when his voice reacheth them that shaketh the Wilderness when that moves in them which shews them sin and evil and judges it not that we loved God saith he before whilst we were in this state the state in the fall we loved not God before God reached to that of himself in us that lay in death Free among the dead like the slain that lie in the grave whom thou remembrest no more saith he also as aforesaid but he loved us and sent his Son that of himself in us to be a propitiation an atonement for our sin and herein is love and in this was manifested the love of God towards us that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him We who were dead in trespasses and sins who were without sence or feeling of God over whom death was gotten who had no mind nor will to God nor moving to him who could never have moved to him nor minded nor willed him in the state in which we were in the fall in the Transgression when we were from that of him which gives the sence and feeling of him and willing to and moving after him because of death which was got between us and that of him in which we were made from which we fell which came under by reason of Death by reason of the fall and so were at that time without Christ Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World that we who were in this state might live through him through that which speaks in us which in us moves to God So that it is not in the will of man in the fall for so man as to this particular is to be considered for that which restores him brings him to God is another thing being brought to God is another state of which I speak not now but of the state in which man is before he is brought thither I say it is not in the Will of man considered in the fall to will to God or to move to him that which moves him to God and makes him will to God is another thing as I have shewed and there being no will in man as to God in this state wherein every man is found when God comes to him as hath been instanced where then is free will or the freedom of his will to God for where there is no such thing as a thing there cannot be said to be the freedom of such a thing because there is a non entity as I may so speak if so be it be proper so to speak and yet how shall I otherwise speak to give a demonstration of the thing of which I speak there is no such thing in being of which the freedom or the freedom of which is pretended there is no such thing in being therefore there cannot be said to be the freedom of such a thing For again of his own will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures saith the Apostle Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will then it is not of man's will that man is begotten to God that he is delivered for two wills cannot consist in this Particular no more can it consist then two Fathers in the Generation of man or for a man to beget himself which is incongruous to Nature to say as it is to reason to think it and it being not of man's wil then man hath no freedom of will to be begotten to beget himself to God And this is manifest for it is by the Word or with the Word of Truth too that he is begotten to God So man hath nothing to do in the matter of his own will With the Word of Truth hath he begotten us the Word of Truth the Word nigh in the mouth and in the heart the Word of Faith which we preach said the Apostle The Word of the Lord which endures for ever and this is the Word which by the Gospel is Preached unto you saith Peter 1 Epist 1. 25. The Word which is quick and powerful and sharper then any two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing assunder of Soul and Spirit and of the Joynts and Marrow and is a discerner of the Thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4. 12 13. So it is by this Word the Word of Truth the
not alwayes strive with you nor will he alwayes have mercy for if he still call and you refuse and the day of your visitation pass over you will also be concluded with the God whom you serve Then shall I be a good savour unto the Lord and my reward shall be with him when he shall render unto you according to your deeds And so I shall proceed to what I have further to say in this weighty matter as I am moved of the Lord. I say as before God made not man to destroy him neither hath he concluded any man from all eternity to destruction neither hath he so made man as that it is impossible for him to fall from the state in the which he was made neither hath he so chosen man since the fall as that he can never be removed from the state unto which he was chosen Neither doth he so will the Salvation of all as that all are saved neither hath he redeemed all since the fall neither is it so in the will of man that if he will he shall be saved and if he will he shall be damned that were to do as hath been said and proved at large as to the Particular of each in their Place and Order but this the Lord hath done He made man upright as hath been said after the Image of God made he man in Righteousness and true Holiness but man hath found out many Inventions and hath let in the enemy and is wrought into his Image who hath sought to destroy him and is gone astray from him who made him who made him not to destroy him as hath been again and again said and hath not been guided by his Counsel and would have none of his reproof who found him out after he had sinned and shewed him what he had done neither would he turn and live but turned to his own way and followed the direction of his own Path's and his way turned unto Hell and his Path's unto destruction so that there is none in this state that doth good no not one They all are gone aside they are altogether become filthy their foolish heart was darkned destruction and misery is in their wayes and the Way of Peace they have not known and according to the Prince of this world have they walked after the course of this World according to the power of the Prince of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedince which is the Spirit of Reprobation which hath no sence or feeling of God which God hath shut out or Reprobated from his Presence to all eternity which hath neither seen him nor known him nor shall ever come to feel his Life nor shall any that are joyned to him whilst they are in that state and witness not Redemption from the Lord. For whilst men are upon this Root which God hath cursed and are found in him whom he hath reprobated who is without any true sence of God or his life those who are so found and do so stand are as he is and as it is said of the other Seed the Seed of God they that are in it and are born of it viz. As he is so are we in this world that is in the true Sence of God and his life as the Seed is which God hath blessed so is it with them and so may it be said of them that are found on this Root which God hath cursed As he is so are they in this world that is to say without any true sence of God whilst they grow on that Root or of his life And therefore is it said That at that time ye speaking to the Saints who once were in but were then delivered from that state and this was the state which at that time of which he speaketh they were in out of which they then were delivered viz. the state of Reprobation at that time saith the Apostle ye were without Christ being Aliens from the Common Wealth of Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World without the true sence and feeling of God which quickens and refreshes them that feel him and are in him and he in them and are made partakers of his life which quickens and refreshes and makes alive to God and delivers from trespâ—sses and sins where is death and the alienation and the estrangement and the being without God in the World without the sence and quickening presence God for he otheâ—â—ise 〈◊〉 all things Whether shall I go from thy Presence c. and so may be said to be in them He that descended is the same also that ascâ—nded up far above all Heavens that he might fill all things Ephes 4. 10. And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all far above all Principallities Powers and Might and Dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come Ephes 1. 21 22 23. And saith the same Apostle of them whose day is over and who are found in this state of Reprobation in that day Who shall be punished saith he with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his Power when he shall be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 2 Thes 1. 9 10. And Reprobate silver saith the Prophet silver that is without a true touch the vertue is gone shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them Jer. 6. 30. And to every good work Reprobate Tit. 1. 16. And Reprobate concerning the Faith 2 Tim. 3. 8. And even as they liked not to retain God in their knowledge God gave them over to a Reprobate mind Rom. 1. 28. A mind without a proof as the Latine word Reprobate compounded of re and probo is to prove backwards or to be without a proof without a sence a feeling of God of that which witnesses which gives the feeling of God signifies And saith the Apostle Examine your selves whether ye be in the Faith this he spake to the Corinthians the Church that was in God which were washed which were sanctified which were justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God Who had a Proof a Sence a Feeling of him in them Examine your selves saith he to them whether ye be in the Faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. But I trust saith he in the next vers that we are not Reprobates And saith he further Now I pray to God that ye do no evil not that we should appear approved but that ye should do that which is honest though we be as Reprobates vers 7. And he that believeth on the Son on him who witnesses the faithful and true