be more seriously affected with your Case then I am with mine who have more cause O if ever poor Creature had need to make such complaints it s I Well but do we not hear Persons most eminently Pious making such complaints very frequently We should not be quite discouraged as though our case was singular How often doth warm hearted David pray for quickning which argues a sense of his want Sensible we should be but not discouraged O that we could confess and bewail our deadness more sensibly more lively But all our work lieth not in complaining but we must use the means God hath appointed for our quickning I verily believe our greatest work lieth in prevailing with our own Hearts to the diligent constant and believing use of the means certainly quickning enlivening Grace is purchased for us by the Lord Jesus and now he hath gone through the most painful part of his Work is he not willing to apply to our Souls what he hath purchased O let us not once question this O let us not wrong a dear Redeemer so much as to think otherwise of him O methinks was I but once made a meet recipient of these influences of his Spirit I should not doubt but I should have them Well it is Grace that must make us so and we have a gracious God to deal with who delights in Communicating of his grace and goodness to his Creatures let us call to mind what we heard of this Subject when we was last together let us ply our Hearts with the serious Consideration of the Sin and Evil of such a Frame together with the necessity reasonableness excellency and usefulness of the Contrary let us pray hard for it and use other means But pray S. take heed of that ungrateful Partiality as to judge and conclude from the remainders of Sin in you that you are in a state of Sin and Death the best on Earth complain of deadness and they do not Complement but have real Cause for it a perfect freedom from all Sin and its Effects remember that is reserved for Heaven Have you not a principle of Spiritual life Else whence comes the Sense you have of your deadness Methinks if I was with you and you would be faithful to your self I should not doubt but I could convince you think as ill of Sin as you will as you can but acknowledge and honour Grace joyfully and thankfully entertain any quickning Motions you have as you would have more what I say to you I would speak home to my own Soul the Lord help me that I may The Lord who is all perfect Spirit and Life make us more like unto himself I am your truly Affectionate Loving Brother I. B. LETTER VIII To S. E. December 15. 1684. Dear S. I Receiv'd both your's and owe you more then thanks for them I would bless the Lord that hath directed us to this way of Correspondence by Writing and that about the great Concernments of our Souls which I hope may prove profitable to each of us and very comfortable in the review I am sorry to hear of the bodily grievances you are under but stormy and pationate at the providential Dispensations of our wise and good God I dare not I would not be certainly if there be any true rest and satisfaction for the Creature it is in the will of its Creator who is goodness it self and I am glad to hear of the calmness of your Spirit my daily Prayers to God are for your spiritual and eternal Welfare and that you may not want any good thing here that the Lord would rebuke Distempers and lengthen out your Life but in that you are mindful of Death I rejoyce for to tell you true I love in my Heart to read and hear and think of Death my self indeed I have now out-lived my self my own expectation some Years But O the unaccountable folly that I am guilty of in that I am yet no more fit to die O strange almost incredible I Profess to believe a Future Judgment that there is a day wherein the great God by Jesus Christ will Judge me with all the World for all my Thoughts and Words and Actions whether they have been good or bad and so sentence me to my final State But O how unaffecting are my Apprehensions of this certain great and dreadful Truth and how inconsistent is my Practice to the belief hereof I am daily running on in my Errors heaping one Sin upon the back of another so laying my self under an unavoidable necessity either of bitter Repentance here or else exposing my self to the condemning Sentence of a most just and righteous Judge hereafter to a State of inconceivable and endless Misery which is enough to make any Heart except such a Flint as mine to tremble if seriously thought of Well shall I go on in this careless Frame and Course I fear I fear I shall but God forbid Well there are two things I would commend to my self and you in order to our Preparation for Death and Judgment 1st Let us make sure of a true and thorough work of Sanctification upon our Hearts O how shall we dare to look Death in the Face if found in an unsanctified Estate Sin is the sting of Death but then how may we with undanted Courage look it in the Face and as it were play with it when the Sting is taken out when we are passed from Death to Life if Sin be dead to be sure it s pardoned so otherwise how shall we think of Judgment to which Death immediately carries our Souls Will God clear the Guilty The turning point at that Day will be whether we be such as have come up to the Terms required of us in the remedying Law of Grace all are Sinners that is certain but all are not impenitent unbelieving Sinners O Sister penitent believing holy Souls and they alone shall be able to stand in Judgment shall obtain Mercy from the Lord in that Day and none but such have real ground of Comfort in the forethoughts of it 2dly Let us labour after clear and certain Evidences of our sincerity O how sweet a thing is Assurance of God's Love peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost How would these chear and revive our Souls in a dying Hour Sure I am a well grounded Assurance would then pay us our own with Interest though we should be at never so much pains to attain it but how sad to be sent to bed in the Dark it must needs be very uncomfortable to a gracious Soul to leave this World uncertain how it shall go with it in the next therefore let us study the Word more which is the Rule by which we must be judged and impartially compare our Hearts and Lives therewith by which means through God's help we may come to know how it will go with us then Blessed be God for that Revelation of his Will Well that our mortality and immortality may
to be lead by the Spirit By Nature we are all Men and Women of another Spirit lead and acted by that contrary Spirit which works in the Children of Disobedience Eph. 2.2 Rom. 8.14 For as many as are lead by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God Gal. 5.25 If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit There must be Spiritual Life before there can be any Spiritual Motion 2. That they Regenerate themselves tho' they are renewed in every part yet they are renewed but in part They have in them while they are in this Life Flesh as well as Spirit and while we have Sin in us it will be acting its Part the flesh will be lusting against the Spirit Rom. 7.21 I find then a Law that when I would do good evil is present with me Gal. 5.17 For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the stesh and these are contrary the one unto the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would 3. That as men easily may so they are very prone to mistake in this Point 1. Bad Men Saul when in his persecuting Course before his Conversion he verily thought that he was in the way of his duty and so following the Motions of Gods Spirit Act. 26.9 But we see how his Mind was changed afterwards that which before he took for Holy Zeal a Fruit of the Spirit he then saw to be no better than exceeding madness 2. Good Men when they seriously consider what depends upon this Point Rom. 8.9 Now if any Man hath not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his v. 13. For if ye live after the Flesh ye shall dye And when they think of the deceitfulness of their own hearts Jer. 17.9 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it And when they further consider how prevalent the remaining fleshly interest is in their hearts and lives this makes many a gracious Soul tremble when it comes to decide the Point and sometimes to bring in a false Judgment against it self unless that blessed Spirit shine upon it 4. That mistakes here are very dangerous and mischievous That Man who thinks he hath and is lead by the Spirit and is not woe to him for he is a lost Man if he find not out his mistake before Death and Judgment undeceive him And then a mistake on the other hand will cause the poor Soul to drive on but heavily and uncomfortably in the way of its duty tho' its Estate in the main may be safe Have none of us cause to know the Heart of such in this matter Now to the Case propounded I would answer in general thus I think that Man and he alone is lead by the Spirit the habitual and prevailing bent of whose Heart the main Scope and drift of whose Life is Spiritual As for particular marks I shall content my self with a very few which I take to be safe and scriptural so 1. Such as are lead by the Spirit of God they are by him free from the ruling Power of the Flesh Rom. 8.1 2. There is therefore now no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death Gal. 5.16 This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh Walking after the Spirit and walking after the Flesh are directly opposed in Scripture such they sin still alas that is a sad truth which cannot be denied for there is not a just man upon earth that doth good and sinneth not Ecl. 7.20 yet he that is born of God he doth not he cannot commit Sin Joh. 1.3 9. He lives not in the ruling Love and practice of Sin He can in some Measure say what the Apostle For that which I do I allow not for that which I would that do I not but what I hate that do I Rom. 7.15 2. They are such as have solemnly taken the holy Spirit for their Guide and given up themselves to his Conduct They were baptized into his Name Mat. 28.19 And every time they do renew the Covenant they do sincerely and afresh renew their Obligations to obey and follow him Before Conversion they rejected him his Counsels and Ways and were only for following the Inclinations of their own evil Hearts and the Course of this World But now they have made a better choice They desire he would teach lead and guide them such Expressions are very frequent And they have an Ear to hear and an Heart to follow him Joh. 10.3 4. And the Sheep hear his Voice and he calleth his own Sheep by Name and he leadeth them out and when he putteth forth his own Sheep he goeth before them and the Sheep follow him for they know his Voice By the Spirit it is that great Shep-heard teacheth his Sheep to know his Voice by him he calleth them both to and after him 3. They are such as have chosen the Word of God for their Rule In the Word it is that the Spirit Speaketh to the Churches Rev. 2.7 In the Word he hath chalked out the Paths of Holiness wherein he leadeth such as he hath made willing to follow him And they pray with David Lord teach me thy Statutes Psal 119.12 Let me not wander from thy Commandments Indeed the Flesh will be resisting and rebelling endeavouring to stop them in or to turn them out of the way which will cause them to take many a false Step But yet as Rom. 7.22 They delight in the Law of God after the inward Man In the bent of their renewed Mind and will they delight in it and desire to obey it perfectly and allow not themselves in the breach of any part thereof 4. Such as are lead by the Spirit their Motion is free and voluntary not by force and constraint They are lead not haled or driven Joh. 10.3 4. He calleth them by Name and leads them out and goeth before them and they follow him They are a willing People Psal 110.3 1 Cor. 4. Draw me and we will run after thee Indeed a Partical Unwillingness will be found in the best while here while we have Flesh in us it will be drawing another way But yet Holiness is this Mans choice And when he is in a holy Frame and Course he is as in his Element The habitual prevailing bent of his Heart is for a Course of Holiness and this appears in the main Scope and drift of his Life and this I think doth denominate us what we are and that therefore by it we may safely judge of our selves QUESTION II. How may we come to find out and know what are our special sins and what means are to be used for the Mortification of them The question before us Consists of two Parts 1. How may we
so Q. 8. Can it be any good Sign if you can recreate your Selves with that which is so great a grief and burthen to your Ministers and many of your fellow Christians because they look upon it as sinful O! How tender should we be in this Point How fearful should we be of grieving or offending any of our Brethren for whom Christ died He is very tender of them and so much the more as he seeth them tender of his Honour and grieved and offended at Sin whether in themselves or others Q. 9. Tell me truly how doth your Card's relish with you when you are in the most serious Frame When you find the great things of another World impressed upon your Spirits in the most fresh and lively Manner I verily think if I should fall to Card's one serious Thought of Death and Judgment one sober Glance at my eternalState would spoile my Sport how is it with you in this Matter If you must needs play on will you make trial the next time Q. 10. To add no more whether will the remembrance of so many Hours spent at Card's be pleasing or tormenting to you when you come to die And whether will it be a comfortable or a sad hearing from your Judge when you come to give up your Accounts we must account as strictly for our Time as for any other Talent we are entrusted with and the Day which God hath prefixed for this solemn and weighty Affair is drawing nigh Death may be upon us before we are aware and when we shall see our selves ready to be arrested and summoned to appear without delay before God's great Tribunal Then if ever Conscience will be reflecting upon our State and Actions and when it shall find so much precious Time at best but lost and trifled away which should have been spent in glorifying God and working out our own Salvation what chideing Language may we expect to hear from it I am ready to tremble sometimes when I think what my own Conscience may have upon this Score then to charge me with Alass poor Creatures We make a shift to stop its Mouth now or to stop our Ears But if the Lord awake it then it will speak and so loudly as shall make us hear whether we will or no O Fool 's or somewhat worse that we are thus to lay in for our own tormenting Grief and Sorrow Now shall we not be wiser for the future and live more like to dying Men O that we could bring our Hearts to this before we venture upon any thing to think seriously with our Selves will this be comfortable to me at the reckoning Shall I like to hear of this another day from my own Conscience or from the supream Judge of quick and dead Now if there be any sense or weight in the Questions I have here Propounded I hope you will not think it an unreasonable Request if I again earnestly entreat for your serious Thoughts about them And that you would not proceed farther till you can answer them to God and your own Consciences one thing more with which I conclude You cannot deny but it is doubtful and disputable whether this Game be lawful or no Whereas I dare affirm and could if need was sufficiently prove on the other hand that without doubt it may lawfully be forborn and this is a good Rule for your Observation here In dubiis opportet sequi partem tatiorem In doubtful Cases we must take that way which is safest Since the writing of this I am satisfied that a Lot may be lawfully used in Games as well as in any other ordinary Affair and that your extraordinary Lot cannot be lawfully used in any Case how weighty soever except Persons have a divine Warrant for it But though I see and am ready to acknowledge my mistake in this Point yet am I of the same Mind I was before in reference to my own Practice here and I could heartily wish that all Professors especially would be very wary how they meddle with a Game so ordinarily abused and that is so full of Snares and Temptations that without extraordinary Caution they may as easily touch Pitch and not be defiled as make use of it and not be some way or other insnared by it PIOUS LETTERS LETTER I. To C. F. under her Sore Relative Exercise June 28. 1684. Dear Cozen I Have been much concerned for you in my Thoughts since I saw you last I would be one of those that weep with them that weep and remember those that are in Adversity as being my self also in the Body and God forbid that I should not tenderly Pity and earnestly Pray for you in this your afflicted Condition though I have cause sadly to bewail it that there is so much of wretched Self in me which goes so far with me that while I am at ease I am little affected with the Hardships others undergo which plainly shews how far I am from the Life of holy Love There is a saying of wise King Solomon Prov. 27.9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart so doth the sweetness of a Man's friend by hearty councel O that I was in a capacity and had ability according to my hearty Desire to write or speak any thing which might tend to your Direction Support and Comfort O what pains should I think too great keeping within the limits of my calling to be laid out any way to promote the good of any poor Soul which my Lord and Saviour did so esteem as to think it worth dying for And seeing you have been pleased in a great measure to open your Case to me whom you shall ever find very faithful I will humbly adventure though I am very conscious of my own Inability to do it effectually and verily I think I have more need to come to you to learn as multitudes of Years encrease Wisdom and Experience yet I shall give you my poor confused Thoughts what we should learn from and how we ought to carry under afflictive Providences and I hope you will accept of my sincere Desires though I fall very short in Performance in the day of Adversity consider A day of Affliction ought to be a day of great Thoughtfulness with us consider God doth not Afflict us willingly without there be great need for it and he hath wise and gracious End 's in what he doth His Rod when ever laid upon our backs hath a loud voice in it O that we had diligent and tractable Hearts in hearkening to and obeying it Learning some spiritual Lessons from every the least twig thereof O what abundance of spiritual Good might we thus extract out of our greatest Evils And what a multitude of Strokes might we thus prevent And that you and I may be so wise let us put the following Particulars into practice 1st See we more and more of the evil of Sin and hate and mortify it Sin is the greatest Evil and the procuring Cause of all those
seem light I will endeavour to pray for you as hard as I can do you endeavour to pray down more of the Spirit of Prayer into my Heart and then my poor Prayers may stand you in more stead I desire a plainer Account of your Circumstances as soon as you can who am your Loving Brother I. B. LETTER XIII To S. E. May 6. 1685. Dear S. I Receiv'd your's and cannot but sympathize with you in your Troubles I have been under those inward Troubles lately that have taken off my Thoughts from other things otherwise I have been and am under Circumstances much like your own I have more and more experience of the vanity and deceitfulness of the Creature O how vain a thing is Man But I must tell you Sister as I tell my own Heart I am afraid we expect too much from the Creature we meet with disappointments in and from the Creature who bid us look for better Not our Bibles The Lord will sooner or later make us know the Creature as the Creature if we belong to him that we place not too much of our Happiness in it and we have cause to bless God for the crossest Providences that are blessed by him to that End O let us learn to live more upon God! And let us learn not to be too much concerned at such things they are without us and unless we open them the door they cannot get into our Hearts to sink them God is a true and faithful Friend remember that indeed we live far below our selves as I trust we are Heirs according to the hope of eternal Life if we suffer such little things to distract and deject us I had written sooner but that I hoped before this to have seen you I shall be contriving for an opportunity as soon as I can who am your Loving Brother I. B. LETTER XIV To C. H. Dear Cozen METHINKS our ill husbanding the means of Grace hath brought us to this that we must either beg or starve the Lord hath formerly afforded us rich means to live upon How have we been feasted in his publick Ordinances Many a poor hungry Soul would have got a good meal out of our livings but now alass we have almost run out of all now we have but hungry Sabbath's God knows what will become of our poor Souls now Well but here is a way whereby you and I may get a good living still by the right improvement of this Duty we may be thriving Christians still shew me a praying Soul I dare say that is a happy Soul that Soul hath many a sweet morsel from Heaven that others taste not of that Soul is growing rich but then we must acquaint our selves with the divine Art and Mystery that there is in this Duty alass our Souls cannot live upon the Wind words in Prayer are but wind but in the lively exercise of Grace and in Communion with God there is nourishment for our poor Souls for your help him accept of this small Sheet which about two Years since I receiv'd from one that is as well skilled in this spiritual Mystery as any Christian that I know and when you are with God in this Duty then remember me a poor wretch that after so many years Practice of it to my Sorrow still find many roving wandring Thoughts much deadness of Spirit and inactivity of Grace I am confident you are many times in my praying Thoughts when you think not of it may I not beg the like from you for a requital Your's I. B. LETTER XV. To C. W. Dear Friend YOUR Soul is very precious in my sight my hearty desire and prayer for you is that you may be saved and O that I could do any thing to promote it it pleases me much to think in how hopeful a way you are for Heaven and O how I should rejoyce to see you crowned there but alass we are yet but in the Fight with our Enemies yet faint not hold on and the day is our own conquer and we are crowned yet be we jealous of our selves I am ready to tremble when I think of our danger by our Enemy the World it is a very Cheat and how ready we are to be imposed upon by it For my own part I never thought there had been so much Carnality in my Heart as I lately discovered and O I am afraid there is much more abominable wickedness that I have not yet discovered O methinks I would have something besides God for my Portion I am loath to cast all my worldly hopes over board O my Folly Well my love to you inclines me to impart some of my Thoughts to you in this Matter God and the World are presented to our Choice and this is our choosing time now that you and I may make a wise Choice 1st Let us seriously consider the excellency of God O happy Souls indeed whose Portion the Lord is O wonderful wonderful That the ever blessed God should be wiling to become the Creatures portion a portion for such Wretches as we are Let all the Angels and Saints of God admire and adore him for this his matchlefs Condescention and God-like Bounty Now think what God is and can we not be content with him for a Portion What not with God Why what is there that our Souls can reasonably desire that is not eminently in him O there is enough in God to make us compleatly and eternally Happy and what would we have more 2dly Think we seriously of the Vanity of the Creature O what trifles are these that Men make such a hurry about Such as are projecting most throngly for the World alass what have they when they have got it but a little Vanity for which they many time loose an eternal Crown O woful Choice When such come to die they will put another estimate upon the World I dare appeal to your own Experience when you have any serious thoughts of Death and Judgment and the Life to come then O how little you regard the World I find it thus with me now let us learn this project to set one Enemy against another to set Death against the World as one saith frequentiy lie down in our own Graves and thence take a prospect of the World let us take our Coffin into the Field with us when we go to fight the World And farther to make us serious let us consider it is for everlasting that we choose here choose God in Christ for our portion and he is our own for ever choose Sin and the World and we loose him and Hell must be our portion and our loss herein will be everlastingly imparable the Lord help us to act like reasonable Creatures but I must take leave if I have any interest in you I would entitle a dear Redeemer to it Will you choose him I hope you have but will you renew and confirm your choice and never rest till you can my beloved is mine and I am his I