Thoughts are pretious affections are more pretious the best that we are worth and when they flow in a wrong chanel all Goâ—s pretious dispensations towards us are lost all that God hath spent upon us is lost and spent in vanity I speak this out of a dear respect to your soul and Gods honour whom I am loth should be a loser by his kindnesses I know you have many objects upon which you may be too apt to let out your dear affections I say again my jealousie is lest there being so many chanels wherein they may run God lose his due I desire therefore in humility and tenderness that this may be as a hint to you from the spirit of God to look inwards to the frame and disposition of your soul and to make trial thereof by the natural out-goings of your affections and then expostulate the case with your own soul If Christ have my warmest love why is it thus with me If God have my heart why am I so thoughtful about the world If I indeed love him best How cometh it to pass that I find more strong delightful constant acting of my affections towards my Relations my self or any worldly thing than I do after him O the depth of the hearts deceitfulness Dear and Honoured Friend trust not a surmisal trust not to a slight view of your heart or the first apprehensions you may have of your self but go down into the secrets of your heart try and fear fear and try An Evidence is abundantly more worth than all the trouble that you can be at in the acquiring of it And the trouble that there is good ground for in an unevidenced state is far greater than that which may seem to be in searching for it Yea to an awakened soul what is the trouble in clearing its evidences but their sense or fear of their not being clear and of the deceitfulness of their hearts The reality of that evil which tender soules so dread doth lie in its full weight though not felt upon the drousie ungroundedly secure sinner I speak in love give me leave to remember you of some touches that you had formerly upon your spirit under the means of grace remember how much you were sometimes affected under Preaching Did you never say that these sermons upon hardness of heart softned yours Inquire I pray whether those convictions which were then upon your heart are not worn off by the incumbrances of the world If upon inquity you find that they are it 's high time for you to look about you and repent and not only to do your first works but to strive to outgo them I have vvith grief taken a review of the frame of my ovvn spirit vvhen I vvas at your house and I have no small sense of the distemper of my soul vvhereby I vvas betrayed to too great an indifference in the things of God and finding by sad experience that I vvas more apt amongst those carnal comforts and affairs to lose that rellish and savour of divine things that I vvas vvont to have and those delightful appearances of God vvhich I vvas through rich grace acquainted with while I was more sequestred from the world and earthly delights not but that I find my heart at the best under the highest advantages of closest communion too unwilling to endeavour after and maintain that gratious sense and acknowledgement of God which I would fain obtain unto I say observing mine own experiences and knowing that your heart was something akin to mine fearing lest multiplicity of business should expose you also to the same hazard Christian compassion could not but put me upon arming of you against those temptations to which your occasions make you subject The desire of my soul for you is that you may travel safely through a dangerous wilderness to a blessed Canaan that you may quit your self like a Christian in the opposing and conquering all your enemies and at last come triumphing out of the field and that you may behave your self like a Pilgrim and stranger in a far Country who are looking for a City that hath foundations and that we may meet together with joy at our Fathers house and sit down with him in eternal glory O that word glory is so weighty if we did believe it that it would make the greatest diligence we can use to secure it seem light O that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory O for more faith Lord increase our faith and then there would be no thing wanting to make us put forth the utmost strength of our soul and to improve every moment of time to catch hold of all advantages and to make use of all means possible for the attainment of such glorious ends But O these unbelieving hearts let us join our complaints and let us all break forth into bitter lamentations over them May not we with as good reason as that distressed Father over his possessed Child bring our hearts into the presence of our Saviour and cry out with tears and say that it is these unbelieving hearts which sometimes cast us into the fire and sometimes into the water yea worse every time we forsake God and prefer any thing before him we part with life for death with Heaven for Hell Give me leave to come yet a little nearer to you What an advantage would a full perswasion of the truth and excellency of Gospel discoveries bring to your soul if you would but seriously and with all your strength drive on true spiritual designs O how easily might you then go under all your burdens If your care for the things of this world were but rightly subordinate to the things of eternity how chearfully might you go on with your business If you sought first the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness thereof then all other things would be added so far as they are necessary or good for you Let me therefore at this time put you upon that duty of raising your mind from Earth to Heaven from the Creature to the Creator from the VVorld to God Indeed it is a matter of no small difficulty to discover that disorder that is in our souls when we are solicitous about temporary objects and imployments But there are but few surer discoveries of it than insensibility and not complaining of it For when the soul is indeed raised to spiritual objects and to understand clearly its eternal interest when it doth in good earnest take God for its portion and prefer him above all then it will quickly be sensible of the souls outgoings after other objects and even grudge that any time should be taken up in the pursuit of the creature and that any below God should be followed with earnest pleasure and constancy It would have God have the best and it would do nothing else but love serve and injoy God For my own part I cannot but wonder that God will give us leave to love him O blessed goodness O infinite
condescension Those that believingly seek him he is not ashamed to be called their God I am sensible in some measure of your burdens and indeed that must needs be a burden that keeps the soul from pursuing its chiefest good My prayers for you are that you may have such teachings from God as may make you understand how far heavenly things are more pretious than earthly and that you may with all your might seek mind and love that which hath most of true excellency in it which hath the only ground of real comfort here and of eternal happiness hereafter CHAP. XIII His Love and Compassion to Souls HE was full of pity and compassion to souls and yet greatly grieved and ashamed that he did no more to express his sense of the worth of souls and that his bowels did no more sensibly yern over them who he had just cause to fear were in a Christless state Though there were few of his Kindred and Relations nay of his neighbours and acquaintance but he did make a personal application to either by letters or conference Yet for all this who more ready to cry out of want of love to souls and unprofitableness to others in his generation that he was no more full of compassion and that he made no better improvement of all the visits that he made in which we should not make carnal pleasure and recreation our end but the imparting receiving of some spiritual gift This made him after a considerable absence from a dear friend to groan out these complaints God by his providence hath off brought us together but to how little purpose God and our Consciences know As for my part I may justly bewail my barreness Oh that I should be of so little use where I come Oh that my tongue and heart should be still so unfruitful I am ready to hope sometimes that if it should please God in his providence to bring us again together we may be more profitable one to another And this indeed makes me more desirous of coming to you again than any thing else That I may do some good among you Oh how few study to advance the interest of Christ and the benefit of one anothers souls in their visits as they should and might do I am not able at present to order my affairs so as to come comfortably over to you but I hope e're long the Lord will give me leave to see you and be refreshed by you I desire to supply my absence by this sure token of my remembrance of you and also that I might have an opportunity for that which we ought to eye most in the injoyment of one anothers society But I have found that partly because of the narrowness of my heart not being inlarged to bring forth into act what I have greatly desired partly because of the malice of the Enemy of our souls who indeavours all that possible he can to lay stumbling blocks in our way to real union and nearer acquaintance with God and Christian communion from these and other causes it is that I have been too little beneficial to you for mercy It may be I may write that with freedom which in presence I should not have spoken I shall take occasion from your desire of my presence with you to look higher to the desires of our souls to be in conjunction and communion with the highest good who fills up all relations to our souls who is our Father our Husband our Friend our God yea our all in all But when I say He is all in all I mean more than that which we count all For every one doth confess that it is God alone that doth bless all other things to us and that it is not out of the nature of those things that we injoy that they are blessings but it is God which makes them comforts to us And thus God is to be acknowledged All in all common injoyment But besides this God is something to the soul which he is by himself and not in the mediation of the creatures where God is as a portion and lived upon as our true happiness He is not only the complement of other things but He himself is the souls sufficiency I am a little obscure I desire to be plainer I mean that through the dispensation of the Gospel God is to be lived upon delighted in and chosen before all for for this very end hath Christ appeared that he might make God approachable by man and that we who are a far off may be mad nigh There is a nearness to God which we are not only allowed but called to in the loving dispensations of the Gospel so that now we are not to be strangers any longer but friends we are to have fellowship and communion with God Why do not our hearts even leap for joy why do not our souls triumph in these discoveries of love Even because we know not the greatness of our priviledges the highness of our calling the excellency of our advancement the blessedness of this life the sweetness of these imployments the satisfaction of these injoyments the comfort of this heavenly life the delights of this communion with God We know not the things which belong to our peace and thus when God calls us to that which he sent his Son for when Christ offers us that which cost him so dear we with the greatest unworthiness the vilest ingratitude refuse slight and contemn it What think we doth it not go even to the heart of Christ and to speak after the manner of men doth it not grieve him to the soul to behold his greatest love scorned the end of his agony to be more vilely accounted of than the basest of our lusts Let us therefore according to that high calling wherewith we are called enter into a more intimate acquaintance with God and as we find our souls acting naturally towards those things which are naturally dear to us so let us strive to highten our spiritual affections We are very apt to look upon duties as burdens rather than priviledges and seasons of injoying the greatest refreshments but these apprehensions are very low and earthly O that we could at length set our selves to live a spiritual life to walk with God and out of a new nature to savour and rellish those things which are above Could we but really intensely believingly desire that which is real happiness and the Heaven of Heaven union and communion with God these desires would bring in some comfort As for me you must give me allowance to get my affections more emptied into God though it be with a diminution of love to you and blessed will that day be when all love will be fully swallowed up into God But spiritual love doth not destroy natural affections or relative obligations but perfect and rectifie them and so I may giving up my self to God be still yours CHAP. XIV His trouble at the Barrenness of Christians HE was
profane scoffers of this age to a more serious study and improvement of those invisible Realities the clear evidence and powerful influence whereof our good friend did so abundantly experience The truth is the Transcriber though best accomplished and most inwardly acquainted with what might conduce thereto doth and could not but fall short of declaring the transcendent excelencies of this sublime soul and precious Saint which till toward his end when his heart was too full to hold in what could be uttered were much concealed even to those who knew him best by reason of his great humility and modesty These disposed him rather to receive than communicate except where he had no expectations of the former and either familiar intercourse ingaged or the apprehended exigency of those his heart was drawn out to in Christian love and compassion constrained to the latter Yet many of those precious streams that did flow from him we must lament the loss of through default of careful rececivers or faithful retainers He was of clear intellectuals and a large heart both for craving and comprehending what was worthy his persuit which being happily improved by his education and timely seasoned with a spiritual savour of Gospel mysteries for obtaining of which he had then with others choise advantages was a great help to his proficiency in acquaintance with the vital exercises and soul satisfying enjoyment of the divine life above not only his equals but seniors and instructors He was much dissatisfied with himself under any decays or abatements till he could if not alone by imploring the assistance of Christian friends recover what he sometime had had such sweet experience of And not content with any attainments was still pressing on to what his prospect in the promises encouraged by his happy praelibations assured him was attainable He was to this end a chearful embracer and diligent improver of spiritual opportunities exact in his Christian watch much wrestling and very prevalent with God in prayer and with himself in his solitudes striving to disentangle his heart from what might diveri his holy ambition and to raise it to the highest activity and capacity for glorifying and enjoying God in Christ for the excellency of the knowledge of whom he accounted all inferiour attainments but loss What he had tasted and seen he was grieved to see others neglect desirous to bring others to experience by earnest commending them to God designing with himself and contriving with his spiritual confidence what might conduce thereto He had a true sympathy with those that were bound with him Heaven-ward Their pressures and conflicts were his burdens His prayers and counsels their ready assistants their refreshments his revivings and their spiritual proficiency his joy He was a secret and compassionate mourner as in general for the worlds degeneracy pretended Christians unthankfulness for the Gospel the hazards run by innumerable precious souls so especially for the dreadful apostacies of some the then threatning decay amd growing formality of others sometime seemingly forward which brought him nigher to God and more inflamed his holy zeal But this chiefly was carried out to advance the power of Religion in the family and persons he was peculiarly related to apprehending there to lie his best opportunities as well as strongest obligations And his success was very encouraging This is part of what I knew of him in Cambridge who refer you for farther reviewing your remembrance to the narrative But both his spiritual receipts and expences were much increased the two last years of his life when I had not opportunity of personal converse with him And by reason of our distance and at that time ignorance of his weak condition I was not so happy as to share in the priviledge of those who had the conveniencie of receiving his last and sweetest breath Though I soon after had the account while things were fresh in their memories and warm on their hearts from the eye and ear witnesses that some of them have now been induced to make more publick But next and chiefly 2. I intreat you to recommend the truth of this narrative by your faithful adhering to and diligent promoting of what some of you learned from him and others professed with him That by imitating his good example and improving his experiences with your longer opportunities you may be such proficients in Christianity as shining like lights your selves to hold forth the word of life for convincing the incredulous That the mysteries of regeneration a life of faith in Christ the fruitful emprovement of union and communion with him to a prospicuous conformity to him crucifixion to the world by his cross and a conversation with him in Heaven while on earth therein proposed herein exemplified be no figments but great realities no slight matters but of greatest consequence not such singularities but that others according to their measure taking the like course may be experimentally acquainted with the surpassing sweetness of an interest therein And the rather am I bold to intreat this of you because I was privy to his souls concern for the concernments of your souls How passionatly he desired to see Christ formed in you and rejoyced at any evidence thereof How earnestly he would pray for you all and especially for those he had more occasion to deal with or cause to be jealous of How affected he was with your dangers and snares And what a desire he had you might out-strip himself who could not take up his rest on this side Heaven The good Lord help every one of us to shew the same diligence to the full assureance of hope to the end that we may not be slothful but followers of them who by faith and patience inherit the promises I have one farther request that you would pursue by your most earnest supplications the design of publishing this narrative that God would make it prosperous to the pious ends therein proposed and for which I hope in his providence it is reserved now for publick view Especially that it may provoke to holy emulation not only those who were more peculiarly endeared to our pretious Friend by natural or spiritual bonds And that if any of these be fallen from their first love they may be excited to repent do their first works and strengthen the things that remain lest having begun in the spirit they wretchedly end in the flesh and draw back to perdition but also some at least of them that sueceed in the Chambers and Studies which sometime were sanctified with the word and prayer by those that singly and joyntly as Bhamber fellows and Colleagues earnestly implored the divine benediction on those two royal foundations he was member of That the God of the spirits of all flesh would make them fruitful nurseries of such as might be eminent instruments of Gods glory here and turning many to righteousness might shine as the stars for ever and ever Wherein you may expect the hearty concurrence of Your real Friend
Samuel Borfet The Testimony of Mr. Marmaduke Tennant sometimes Minister of Tharfield in Hartfordshire an intimate acquaintance of Mr. John Janeways and one that was a constant visitor of him in his sickness and an eye and ear witness of the most substantial things in this insuing Narrative Christian Reader I Can assure thee from my own knowledge that this Mr. John Janeway was an excellent person in respect of his natural parts acquired gifts and divine graces wherewith his heavenly Father adorned him considering his age even far above the ordinary rate of the best sort of Scholars and Christians All which he exceedingly improved for the good of others especially in his neer Relations both in health and sickness even to the last hour of his life And when the immediate forerunners of death was upon him he so acted faith and composedly without the least shew of humane frailty as if with bodily eyes he saw the holy Angels standing before him ready to receive and carry his pretious soul into his Fathers glory Verily he was most lovely in his life and yet more lovely at his death the like I never beheld neither before nor since And I doubt not but the serious consideration of this narrative of his life and death will through Gods blessing beget a zealous imitation of this Saint indeed in every good Christian which reads the same which that it may do is the hearty prayer of thy friend in the Lord Jesus Marmaduke Tennant Minister of the Gospel Christian Reader WHen I seriously consider how much Atheism and impiety abounds and see how sensual delights are pursued and Religion in its power is rejected as a dull sad aud unpleasant thing when I see zeal decried as unnecessary and few acting in the things of God as if they were indeed matters of the highest consequence reality and substance the greatest profit and sweetest pleasure I could not but do what in me lies to rectifie these dismal mistakes and justifie wisdom from the imputation of folly and demonstrate even to sense the transcendent excellency and reality of Invisibles The prosecution of which design I could not more effectnally manage than by the presenting this insuing narrative to the world As for the truth of it if the solemn testimony of several Ministers which were eye and ear witnesses of the most substantial things here presented may be credited here thou hast three of them As for my self I think I had as great an advantage to acquaint my self with the secret practices of this pretious Saint as any one could well have besides my dearest intimacy and special observation and perusal of his papers I had a long account from his own mouth upon his death-bed of his secret and constant practice and his experiences And let me tell you the half is not told you For the treachery of my memory hath not a little injured thee and him Had this work been done exactly I am perswaded it might have been so singular use to the world In some places I could not justly word it in his phrase but I assure thee thou hast the matter and substance The weakness of the Relator is no small disadvantage to the subject but I might a little excuse this by telling thee that I think that none living had the same opportunity in all things to do this work as I had I might also tell you that some Reverend Learned and Holy men whose authority and request I could not deny put me upon it And I was not altogether without some hopes of drawing some to the love and liking of Religion that had not only been strangers to the life and power of it but it may be had entertained deep prejudices against it And of quickning of others that had lost their former vigour and encouraging some that were too ready to go on heavily and disponding If I may succeed in this I shall adore the goodness of God and praise him with the strength of my soul That I may be snbservient to the Lord in promoting the true intrest of Religion I beg thy fervant and constant prayers and that every one that readeth may imitate and experience all and so be filled with grace and peace is the prayer of yours in his dearest Lord James Janeway The CONTENTS Chap. 1. AN account of him from his Childhood to the seventeenth year of his Age. pag. 1. Chap. 2. Of his Conversion with visible proofs thereof p. 6. Chap. 3. His Carriage when Fellow of the Colledge at twenty years of Age. p. 16. Chap. 4. His particular addresses to his brethren for their souls good and the success thereof p. 21. Chap. 5. His great love to and frequency in the duty of prayers with rmarkable success p. 24. Chap. 6. His care of his Mother and other Relations after his Fathers death p. 29. Chap. 7. His return to Kings Colledge after his Fathers death His holy projects for Christ and Souls p. 37. Chap. 8. His departure from the Colledge to live in Dr. Cox's Family p. 38. Chap. 9. His retire into the Country and his first sickness p. 39. Chap. 10. His Exhortations to some of his friends p. 43. Chap. 11. His Temptations from Satan p. 45. Chap. 12. Ministers not to carry on low designs p. 60. Chap. 13. His Love and Compassion to Souls p. 67. Chap. 14. His trouble at the barrenness of Christians p. 71. Chap. 15. Two Letters to Cement Differences and cause Love among Christians p. 74. Chap. 16. An account of the latter part of his Life p. 91. Chap. 17. His last Sickness and Death p. 98. IF the Chapters appear not to be well divided nor their contents well collected let the Reader know that a friend of Mr. Janeway's not himself made the division of them T. P. Invisible Realities demonstrated in the Holy Life and Triumphant Death of Master John Janeway sometimes Fellow of Kings-Colledge Cambridge CHAP. I. An Account of him from his Childhood to the seventeenth year of his Age. MR. John Janeway was born Anno 1633. Octob. 27. of Religious Parents in Lylly in the County of Hertford He soon gave his Parents the hope of much comfort and the symptoms of something more than ordinary quickly appeared in him fo that some which saw this Child much feared that his life would be but short others hoped that God had some rare piece of work to do by or for this Child before he died he shewed that neither of them were much mistaken in their conjecture concerning him He soon out-ran his superiours for age in learning And it was thought by no incompetent Judges that for pregnacy of wit solidity of judgment the vastness of his intellectuals and the greatness of his memory that he had no superiours few equals considering his age and education He was initiated in the Latine tongue by his own Father afterward he was brought up for some time at Pauls School in London where he made a considerable proficiencie in Latine and
humility of spirit is no way inconsistent with this peace of God A second cause of your heaviness may be a sense of the state of the people which God hath committed to you and indeed who can but mourn over people in such a condition objects of pity they are and the more because they pity not themselves I have often wrestled with God that he would direct you in what is your duty concerning them which I perswade my self is your earnest request Now if after your serious examining of your self what your Conscience doth conclude to be your duty you do it and see you do it you are then to rest upon God for his effectual working Let not any think to be nore merciful than God for wherein he doth he goes beyond his bounds and this is no more cause of heaviness to you than the opposition that the Apostles found at any time was who notwithstanding rejoyced in tribulation Another cause of heaviness may be what divisions are between your self and some of your Relations O that a spirit of meekness and wisdom might remove all cause of sorrow for that But were the power of Godliness more in hearts and Families all the causes of such trouble would soon be removed there would be less that would deserve reprehension and there would be a fittedness of spirit to give and bear reproof to give in meekness and tenderness and to bear in humility patience and thankfulness Some cares and thoughts you may have concerning your Family when you are gone But let Faith and former experience teach you to drive away all such thoughts Your constitution and solitaryness may also be some cause of melancholy but there is a duty which if it were exercised would dispel all which is heavenly meditation and contemplation of the things which true Christian Religion tends to If we did but walk closely with God one hour in a day in this duty O what influence would it have into the whole day besides and duly performed into the whole life This duty with the usefulness manner and direction c. I knew in seme measure before but had it more pressed upon me by Mr. Baxters Saints Everlasting Rest that can scarce be overvalued for which I have cause for ever to bless God As for your dear Wife I fear the cares and troubles of the world take off her mind too much from walking with God so closely as she ought to do and from that earnest indeavour after higher degrees of grace I commend therefore to her all this excellent Duty of Meditation It is a bitter sweet Duty bitter to corrupt nature but sweet to the Regenerate part if performed I intreat her and your self yea I charge it upon you with humility and tenderness that God have at least half an hour allowed him in a day for this exercise O this most precious Soul-raising Soul-ravishing Soul-perfecting duty Take this from your dear Friend as spoke with reverence and real love and faithfulness My fear and jealousie left I should speak in vain maketh me say again I or God by me doth charge this upon you One more direction let me give that none in your family satisfie themselves in family prayer But let every one twice a day if it may be possible draw near to God in secret duty Here secret wants may be laid open here great mercies may be begged with great earnestness here what wandrings and coldness was in family-duty may be repented of and mended This is the way to get seriousness reality sincerity chearfulness in Religion and thus the joy of the Lord may be your strength Let those which know their duty do it if any think it not a necessary duty let them fear lest they lose the most excellent help for a holy useful joyful life under the assistance of Gods Spirit whilst they neglect that which they think unnecessary Take some of these directions from sincere affection some from my own experience and all from a real and compassionate desire of your joy and comfort The Lord teach you in this and in the rest I intreat you never to rest labouring till you have attained to true spiritual joy and peace in the Lord. The God of Peace give you his direction and the foretasts of his comforts in this life and perfection in eternal life in the enjoying of infinite holiness purity and excellencie through Christ Thus praying I rest In another Letter to a Reverend Friend that had the care of many Children he thus adviseth Sir YOVR Charge is great upon a Temporal Account but greater upon a Spiritual many Souls being committed to your charge Out of an earnest desire of the good of Souls and your own joy and peace I importunately request that you would have a great care of your children and be often dropping in some wholesome admonitions and this I humbly with submission to your judgment in it commend to you not to admonish them always altogether but likewise privately one by one not letting the rest know of it Wherein you may please to press upon them their natural corruption their necessity of Regeneration the Excellency of Christ and how unspeakably lovely it is to see young ones setting out for Heaven This way I think may do most good having had experience of it my self in some small measure God grant that all may work for the edifying of those which are committed to you I leave you under the protection of him that hath loved us and given himself for us Thus you see how he seemed swallowed up with the affairs of another world CHAP. III. His Carriage when Fellow of the Colledge at twenty years of Age. WHen he was about twenty years old he was made Fellow of the Colledge which did not a little advance those noble projects which he had in his head for the promoting of the interest of the Lord Christ Then how sweetly would he insinuate into the young ones desiring to carry as many of them as possibly he could along with him to Heaven Many attempts he made upon some of the same house that he might season them with Grace and animate and incourage those which were looking towards Heaven And as for his own Relations never was there a more compassionate and tender-hearted Brother How many pathetical Letters did he send to them and how did he follow them with prayers and tears that they might prove successful how frequently would he address himself to them in private and how ready to improve providences and visits that he might set them home upon them How excellent would he set forth the beauty of Christ He earnestly would perswade them to inquire into the state of their souls How would he indeavour to bring them off from sandy foundations and resting upon their own righteousness In a word he was scarce content to go to Heaven without and through mercy he was very successful among his own Relations and the whole family soon savoured of his spirit
the evening when he usually walked into the field if the weather would permit if not he retired into the Church or any empty solitary room Where observing his constant practice that if possible I might be acquainted with the reason of his retiredness I once hid my self that I might take the more exact notice of the intercourse that I judged was kept up between him God But O what a spectacle did I see Surely a man walking with God conversing intimately with his Maker and maintaining a holy familiarity with the great Jehovah Me-thought I saw one talking with God me-thoughts I saw a spiritual Merchant in an heavenly Exchange driving a rich trade for the treasures of the other world O what a glorious sight it was Me-thinks I see him still how sweetly did his face shine O with what a lovely countenance did he walk up and down his lips going his body oft reaching up as if he would have taken his flight into Heaven His looks smiles and every motion spake him to be upon the very Confines of Glory O had one but known what he was then feeding on Sure he had meat to eat which the world knew not of Did we but know how welcome God made him when he brought him into his banqueting-house That which one might easily perceive his heart to be most fixed upon was The infinite love of God in Christ to the poor lost Sons and Daughters of Adam What else meant his high expressions What else did his own words to a dear friend signifie but an extraordinary sense of the freeness fulness and duration of that love To use his own words God saith he holds mine eyes most upon his Goodness his unmeasurable-Goodness and the Promises which are most sure and firm in Christ His love to us is greater surer fuller than ours to our selves For when we loved our selves so as to destroy our selves he loved us so as to save us CHAP. X. His Exhortations to some of his friends ANd that he might ingage others in more ardent affections to God he put words into their mouths Let us then saith he behold Him till our hearts desire till our very souls are drawn out after him till we are brought to acquaintance intimacy delight in him O that he would love me O that I might love him O blessed are they that know him and are known of him It is good for me to draw near to God A day in his Court is better than a thousand elsewhere My soul longeth yea fainteth for the Courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God Oh that I were received into converse with him that I might hear his voice and see his countenance For His voice is sweet and his countenance is comly Oh that I might communicate my self to God and that he would give himself to me O that I might love him That I were sick of love that I might die in love That I might lose my self in his love as a small drop in the unfathomable depth of his love That I might dwell in his eternal love O saith he to a dear friend under some fears as to his state stand still and wonder behold his love and admire now if never yet consider what thou canst discover in this precious Jesus Canst thou not see so much till thou canst see no more not because of its shortness but because of thy darkness Here 's a Sea fling thy self into it and thou shalt be compassed with the height and depth and breadth and length of love and be filled with all the fulness of God Is not this enough VVhat wouldst thou have more Fling away all besides God God is Portion enough and the only proper portion of the Soul Hast thou not tasted hast thou not known that his love is better than wine Hast thou not smelt the savour of his precious ointments for which the virgins love him This this is he who is altogether lovely And while I write my heart doth burn my soul is on fire I am sick of love Dear soul come near and look upon his face and see whether thou canst choose but love him Fall upon him imbrace him give him thy dearest choicest love all 's too little for him let saith and love kiss him You shall be no more bold than welcome Fix thine eyes again and again upon Him look upon His lovely sweet and royal face till thou art taken with this beautiful person who hath not his fellow upon the earth his equal among the Angels Come near still contemplate his excellency review each part and thou wilt find him to be made up of love winde thy affections about him bind thy soul to him with the cords of love Thus shalt thou find a new life to animate thy soul thou shall then feel a new warmth to melt thy heart a divine fire to burn up corruption and to break forth into a flame of heavenly love Dwell in this love and thou shalt dwell in God and God in thee But now me-thinks I see you almost all in tears because thou feelest not such workings of love towards God Weep on still for Love hath tears as well as grief and tears of love shall be kept in his bottle as well as they yea they shall be as pretious jewels and as an excellent ornament Hast thou felt such meltings of loving-grief Know that they are no other than the streams of Christs love flowing to you and through you and from you to Him again And thus is Christ delighted in beholding of his own beauties in his Spouses eye I have prayed for a blessing for you and on these related to you and if they prove of any power by the spirit of God to you it will be matter of joy and praise by your dear friend John Janeway CHAP. XI His Temptations from Satan THus you have a tast of his Spirit and may perceive what it was that he had his heart most set upon and what kept his graces in such vigor and activity and how desirous he was that others should be sharers with him in this mercy Yet for all this he had his gloomy days and the Sun was sometimes overcast his sweets were sometimes imbittered with dreadful and horrid temptations The Devil shot his poisonous arrows at him yet through the Captain of his salvation he came more than a conqueror out of the field He was with Paul many times lifted up into the third Heavens and saw and heard things unutterable but lest he should be exalted above measure there was a Messenger of Satan sent to buffet him It would make a Christians heart even ake to hear and read what strange temptations this gratious soul was exercised with But he was well armed for such a conflict having on the shield of faith whereby he quenched the fiery darts of that Wicked-One yet this fight cost him the sweating of his very body for agonies of spirit and tears
Hell it self in as much as the cause doth eminently contain all and more evil than the effect This is the spiritual death whereby we are dead in sin the fruit of the first curse Thou shalt die the death The souls life in this world is its being in God and living to God and injoyment of God and the souls eternal life will be so to know God as to be formed into his likeness and to be received into a full participation of and communion with God The souls death here is its being fallen off from God and its being carried into its self and its eternal death will be an utter separation from him Now mankind being thus fallen from God Christ is sent for this very end to bring man back again to God and then man is brought unto God when he is brought out of that state of self-love into that state whereby he gives up himself wholly to God Thus the soul being quickened by the spirit of God leaveth off living to its self which was its death and lives to God which is its life Here comes in the great duty of denying of our selves for Christs sake which indeed were no duty if there were nothing in us contrary to God This then is our duty not to seek our own things before the things of God to lay Gods glory as the foundation of all our actions and if there be any thing in us contrary to that to give it no leave to stand in competition with God Now were this deeply rooted in our hearts how would contention anger wrath and heart-burning and all things of this nature cease Such influence would the taking Gods part against self have into the quiet and peace of men that it cannot be without it We see how wisely God hath ordered things that the very act of mans being off from God should be the cause of confusion war and misery and what can be more just and equal than this that God who is the author of our being should be the end of our being O then that once our minds were again reduced to this frame To live wholly to God! O that we were wrought into a through prejudice against self which stands between us and true peace I beg of you to spare some time from the world and retire into privacie where you may apply this to your own soul My prayer to God for you out of the strong yearnings of my soul towards you is that he would make this effectual to its intended end for the inward peace of your soul for your comfortable walking with God in this life and that condition wherein the wisdom of God hath placed you I writ these lines with the strength of affection I feel fear grief compassion working strongly O pity me in the midst of all these whilest I cannot call to remembrance the cause of these without a flood of tears Fulfill therefore my joy in being of one mind yea if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort in love if any-fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercy fulfill ye my joy and be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Phil. 2. 1 2. I leave you to the love and mercy of God and to the working of his spirit which alone is able to put life and power into these words Which that he would do is the earnest request and servent prayer of yours John Janeway Now upon a faithful perusal of this Letter it pleased the Lord to give a meek and more complying spirit and in a great measure it wrought its intended effect The noble design of this sweet peace-maker took so far as to produce an ingenious acknowledgement and sorrowful bewailing of the want of that self-denial humility meekness and love which doth so much become our sacred profession Upon the hearing of this good news how strangely was this good man transported Upon the receipt of a letter from the former friend which gave no small satisfaction hopes that his former indeavours were not in vain And that he might drive the nail to the head he speedily backs his for former Letter with a second which speaks these words Dear Friend MY soul is inlarged towards you and my affections work within me and yet give me leave now to lay aside those weak flames of natural affection and to kindle my soul with divine love Here there is no fear of running out too far while all is in Christ and for Christ O that now I could let out the strength of my soul not as to your self but as to God! O that my heart were more inlarged that it may be comprehensive of a more full true Christian love God is altogether lovely and to be loved for himself and we are so far dark ignorant and blind as we do not see and account him most amiable O let me have such discoveries of his excellency that my heart may pant thirst and break for its earnest longings after the richest participations of him that I may for ever be swallowed up of his love O that I may love him a thousand times more than I do That I may rejoyce in him and take the sweetest complacencie delight in him alone that I could let out my affections most where I see any thing of himself any beams of the image of his holiness and that beareth the impression of his spirit Had you visited me from the dead could my affections have moved more strongly or my rejoycings have been greater than they were at the receipt of those lines which I had from you wherein so much of Christ in you and the goodness of Christ to me did appear Fulfil my joy in the Lord refresh my bowels and let not my rejoycing be in vain If it hath pleased the Lord to make the imperfect weak indeavours of his unworthy servant any way subservient to his own glory in you it is that which I account my self unworthy of desire to receive it from him as a manifestation of the riches of his free goodness to my self knowing my self to be unworthy to be his instrument in the meanest service much more in so great a one as this is Hoping and perswading my self of the effectual vvork of my former letter I am incouraged to write again both because of my promise and your expectation and the vveighty nature of the subject that I vvas then upon vvhich vvas Love True Christian love which is a thing so comly so beautiful and sweet and of such vveighty power in all actions to make them divine excellent that there is no labour lost in indeavouring to get more of it even in those in vvhom it most aboundeth The Apostle 1 Thes 4. 9 10. Though he knew that they vvere taught of God to love one another and that they did it towards all the Brethren yet even them he beseeched to abound more and more in that grace of love The former principal
out of which this love doth arise as I informed you in my former Letter was the putting off our own interests and putting on Gods Now I shall proceed in minding you of another Christian duty which is effectual to the knitting us together in a firm operative love and that is this That a Christian is to walk as one that is a member of Christ Jesus Into what near and close Union are those that are given him by the Father received How hath the Holy-Ghost chosen out all the nearest natural relations to express and shadow out the closeness of that spiritual relation that is between Christ and his Christ is our King and we his People he is our Master and we are his Servants he is our Shepherd and we the Sheep of his Pasture he is our friend and we his he is our Husband and we are his Spouse he is the Vine we the Branches he our Head and we are his Members he is in us and we in him he is our Life This duty will have influence upon our affections these ways First As Christ is our Head and we are his Members so he hath an absolute command over us And where this relation is real obedience to the commands of Christ is sweet and without constraint and force now this is Christs command that we should love one another by this saith he shall all men know you are my Disciples if you love one another Those relations into which Christ receiveth his speak and hold forth a willing cheerful full submission to the commands of Christ and what duty is there in all the Gospel which is more frequently and earnestly pressed than this A new commandment give I unto you that you love one another as I have loved you so love one another So full is the whole Scripture of obligations both upon Conscience and Ingenuity to this duty that the whole stream of it seems to run into this chanel of Love But Christs command is such an obligation as one that hath any spiritual sense to feel the strength of it cannot break It is Christ hath commanded and shall not we obey Shall not the love of Christ constrain us Shall we be so unkind to him who hath been so kind to us as to stand it out with him in so equal a command Shall not the sweetness of Christ overcome us that seeing his love was so great as not to spare his life for us yea and suffer more for us I believe than we think he did nay I may say than we can conceive he did and that which commends his love to us is that he should do and suffer so much for us that of his creatures we were become his Enemies Why should we not then cheerfully submit to him in this one command love one another Doth not the very word Love carry in it at the first hearing abundance of alluring violence This is Christs yoak and here we may well say his yoak is easie and his burthen is light What is there in a life of divine love that we need be afraid of What is there is this command that is grievous How can this yoak be uneasLy What reason to be loath to take it on But such is the base degeneracy and unreasonableness of corrupted nature that when any thing comes in competition with self-love then all bonds must be broken all yoaks must be cast off and nothing will then keep us in but we must and will take our own part though never so bad And our own part in the heart of passion must seem best though it be contrary to infinite Righteousness which is God himself O that we could once learn to lay aside this natural prejudice which we have against vvhatsoever doth thwart our humours though it be never so just holy and rational O that we could look more narrowly and search more exactly into our selves vvith a spiritual Eye and then vve could not but see that vvhich would make us loath our selves and to become abominable in our own Eyes and rather take any part than our own vve should see so much deceitfulness in our selves as that vve should think our case bad though it seem never so good to our natural self till we apply it to the rule Rule nature vvould have none but it self and though in our better composure of mind vve may receive some other rule yet in our passions vve cannot spare time to go to any other rule but we take that vvhich is next to hand and self vvill be sure to be that But we must if vve vvill be true Christians learn to deny self and vvholly to submit our selves to the Command of Christ as our only Rule O let the power of Christs love and command make us obedient to this command of love Secondly If vve are to walk as Members of Christ vvho is our Head this hath influence upon our affections to oblige us to love one another as from the command vvhich the Head hath over the Members so from the conformity that is to be in the Members to the Head The Head and the Members are not of two several Natures But the same nature passeth from the Head through all the Members Now if vve be ingrafted into Christ vve must become of the same nature vvith him let us be followers of Christ as dear Children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us Paul bids us to be followers of himself as he vvas follower of Christ Christ then is to be our great pattern He commands us to learn of him for he was meek For us to think to attain unto a perfect conformity to him is in vain but as much as our natures are capable of vve are to strive for it Christs love to us hath breadth and length and depth and heighth vvhich passeth knowledge Greater love hath no man than this that a man should lay down his life for his friend but herein Christ commended his love to us in that vvhile vve vvere enemies Christ died for us Behold what manner of love is this that Christ hath bestowed on us Hereby perceive vve the love of God that is Christ because he laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3. 16. His inference is there the same with mine and that in a higher degree we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren If Life then sin then passion and vvrath then a base proud self-pleasing and contradicting humour Do vve see any Loveliness or Beauty in Christ Jesus Is there no excellency in his sweetness pity and patience Is not his loving-kindness amiable And would not somthing like this in us be desirable Had he more reason to love us than we have to love one another O let our souls be overcome with the thoughts of this love of Christ Let our hearts be kindled and blown up into a flame of Love by it O when shall this dear precious pure eternal love of His over-power our souls When shall it