letter or by equivalency This I would say to you and my self on this occasion Let us doe our utmost endeavour that we may be and be found persons so spirited and qualified as the Psalmist expresses and let God doe with us what he will we need not be solicitous but possesse our soules in sweetest peace and security and if the Plagne should come and seize upon us the property of it shall be altered and as other sickness shal be usefull to bring us home to our own Country and to our Fathers house where we shall be as well as heart can wish where we shall never know sin nor sicknesse Plague nor Poverty nor Persecution and the time is at hand when death its self and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire Revel 20. It s a high expression I pray you mind it I would have added one word to the point I touched before in a Cautionary way Let them that hold the question Whether a godly man in the actual exercise of his Faith and Faith upon such promises as we spake of before may dye of the Plague yea or no In the Negative Look to it least intheir own persons their own dying that kind of death they prove not the affirmative For you and me Brethren let us be true to God and godlinesse and be bold to trust him with all your concernments Let our hearts be fixed trusting in the Lord and then fear nothing neither Plague nor Famine nor Sword nor wrath of men this wrath shall praise him and the remainder thereof shall he restrain It s a time wherein many are grown worse and worse according to Revel 22. Let him that is filthy be filthy still which is spoken Non optando imperando approbando sed prophetando judicialiter pronunciando Let us grow better and better the same Text requires That they that are holy be boly still and to be sure that is spoken imperando approbando Let us watch and keep our garments close to us and clean about us manifesting and making out that difference which our God by his calling hath made between us and others by a difference of disposition and conversation Let us look to it that Christ be in us the principle of spiritual life and be assured he will be in us the hope of eternal glory Let us not rest in a form of godlinesse but presse after the power of it You know the Scripture insists much upon Power there is the power of Christ the power of the Spirit the power of the Gospel the power of the Resurrection the power of the Kingdome the power of Godliness the power of an endlesse life the power of the world to come all this should make us minde Power On take heed of a powerlesse profession a powerlesse godliness rest not satisfied with a mere effigies a dead image such as many carnal professors set up to themselves and fall down to worship Statues which themselves becoms like unto having eyes but they see not eares but hear not c. Poor souls who seed upon ashes a deceived heart turns them aside they compasse God with lyes and run away with a lye in their right hand let us look to this that we have a Union with Christ our Mystical head and be carefull to hold that head Colossiansâ—â— â—â— 19. Study the Mystery of that expression and reduce it to daily practice think it not enough to be in a good way but be good in the way It is not Blessed are they that are in an undefiled way but blessed are the undefiled in the way Psal 119. â— 1. We may be in a true and Gospel Worship and not be right and true in that Worship What then when the way of the Lord shall be found strength to the upright destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity Prov. 10 v. 29. Yea though in the way yea the rather the sooner the very way will throw them out it will tire and founder them while the upright shall Mutare vires youths shall faint young men shall fall but they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength they shall run and not be weary walk and not faint Esaiah 40. Hosea 14. and the last verse speaks to the same purpose The ways of the Lord are right the just shall walk in them transgressors shall fallin them Be ye very studious of learning the truth as it is and lies in Jesus let it appear that you are good proficients in that learning by your putting off the Old man The Apostle Ephes 4. useth a metaphor taken from a Garment such is the Old Man a Rotten Ragged Motheaten Corrupt Musty Greasie Garment it s all filthiness and corruption nay let me tell you the Plague is in it verily it is Oh then off with it and throw it upon some hedge or into some ditch and put on the New Man that will make you comely and trim in the eyes of God Angels and men It s the new creature in Christ that is the availing thing Circumcision Uncircumcision outward Baptismes Knowledge Gifts Parts Priviledges all these and all other externals without the New Creature will avail nothing signifies nothing with God therefore be ye carefull of this and that you answer the New Creature with a New Carriage and suitableness of Conversation escaping the polutions of the world not onely by the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour as Hypocrites may do and afterwards come to be entangled again and overcome and so their latter end prove worse then their beginning as it s expressed in the second of Peter but let it be through the righteousness of God and by the means of the great and precious promises and by a participation of the Divine Nature that your escapes from the polutions of the world and the contammination thereof is brought about and then all will prove well at last But while I perswade you to put on the New Man and to be in a sanctified state I must needs mind you of putting on the Lord Jesus Christ in his Merrit and Righteousness by Faith for free Justification and then you will have the change of Rayment spoken of in the 3. of Zechariah and the 4. verse And so putting on Christ keeping him on never putting him off again walk up and down in him rise up and lie down in him and to vary the metaphor as the Scripture doth feed upon him daily for he is as cloathing so meat and drink to us Except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you if you do you have eternal life you have it already it s begun and so indeed it must be begun in this world for it is the same eternal life that the Saints live here and in heaven the same for nature and kind though there are differences in degrees they that begin not their eternal life here shall never go to heaven to begin it there
ye must have heaven come down from God out of heaven here in grace and holiness or else you shall never come into heaven after you go out of this World Wicked men and unbelievers begin their hell here in the sinfull part of it and hereafter they shall have their hell compleated in the suffering and tormenting part of it so on the other hand godly persons begins their heaven here in the gracious part of it and then the glorious part is superadded hereafter and it is but the parting with a little breath and the sending out that it s but the knocking down of a weak mud wall and the impenitent sinner oh miserable he will have his hell compleated The godly believer oh blessed he will have his heaven compleated and both one and other be in a standing condition such as shall never know nor admitt of changes to all eternity there is no such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 between heaven and earth but that there may be an entercourse and converse now but there is a vast gulf between heaven and hell Luke 16. and whereas I speak of eternal life begun here I say it is by the means of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which must be understood spiritually and spiritually performed not in the Letter but in the Mystery We must not here Terrenum concipere it s the spirit that quickens the flesh profits nothing I am of this belief and perswasion that if a man that was present at the Crucifying the Lord of Life had gotten a piece of his holy flesh and eaten it and catcht some of his blood and drunk it down it would have profited him nothing as to his Souls condition and the concernments thereof but that by the way I have been and am perswading to look to the main to minde and make after real and substantial godliness and to be cordial to it I presse it still deal not complementally with it and in the way of Courtship make it your main business and not as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a matter by the by and be sure that it be commander in chief and so it must and will be or it will be nothing it s of too noble and generous a nature to be an underling to any man or to any mans lusts in the world be he who he will and while I urge and press godliness I would have old godliness considered of and owned I mean Abels godliness and Enocks godliness and Abrahams godliness which was as good godliness as ever was in the world let us think it no scorn to be commanded by their examples to write after their coppy Let us not be sloathfull but followers of the holy Patriarchs that by Faith and Patience inherit the promises Concordet vita mea cum Patriarchis maneat in Eternum anima mea Compatriarchis only look diligently with all possible care to this that we be not mistaken about godliness for its a much mistaken thing in the world and the mistakes about it though very common yet are they of most dangerous consequence and will be found so to be ere it be long let you and I walk before God as Enock and Abraham did in the humility and integrity of our hearts and keep close to him while others study sinfull and unwarrantable latitudes and walke at a losse Be we carefull that whatever the times be we never be the worse for them nor they the worse for us that it may not be said of us as of Judah of old Hosea 11. verse 12. Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and the house of Israel with deceit but Judah yet ruleth with God and is faithfull with the Saints This is the way to bring a blessing upon us and let times and providences be what they will it shall go well with us if greater storms and tempests arise upon us then ever yet our eyes beheld in respect of mans actings we shall have a weather-shoare a shelter a hiding place a refuge a chamber of retirement let Gods appearances be never so formidable and dreadfull God will be the hope of his people and Godlinesse and a good conscience will befriend them to purpose and make them sing like birds of Paradice when others shall houle and lament for the misery that will come upon them being cast under a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devoure the adversary And to the honour of godliness be it spoken the beauty and benefit of it is never more seen and found then in times of publick Calamity and days of Vengeance Consider what our Saviour speaks in Luke 21. 25. And there shall be signes in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the earth distresse of Nations with perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring Mens hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth For the powers of heaven shall be shaken c. When these things begin to come to passe what then then even then look you up and lift up your heads for your Redemption draws nigh The acceptable year of the Lord and the day of Vengeance of our God are joyned together Esai 61. When Vengeance comes upon the Wicked then is God in suo bene placito then is he in his fullest complacency The Psalmist tells us Psalm 58 The Righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance Esa 66. 5. Your brethren that hated you that cast you out for my names sake said let the Lord be glorified but for what I marvel what for hating their Brethren and casting them out O bona causa But what follows he shall appear for your joy and they shall be ashamed my servants saith the Lord shall eat and ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall houle for vexation of spirit chap. 65. verse 13. When was it that those Caelicolae the much people in heaven voiced out their Hallelujahs and the sour and twenty Elders consorted with them and said Amen Hallelujah but when the smoak of Babylon and her Torments ascended for ever and ever and upon the beholding of which the Kings and Merchants of the earth Cry out alasse alasse that Great City Babylon that mighty City for in one hour is thy judgment come It is as I hinted to you before a day of Judgment and terrible appearance of God amongst us in the way of Pestilence and what would we have God to do would we have him always to be silent and sit still in heaven as one that takes no Cognisance of what is done on earth and not sensible in the least of all the provocations wherewith he hath been provoked to his face from day to day such apprehensions and athiestical conceits have possessed the
commission such a paper to say Peace be unto this House and be sure if the Son or Daughter of Peace be there the Peace shall rest upon it notwithstanding the Plague be in it and whether it come as a tryal or as a punishment I would advise them to bid it welcome accept it kisse the Rod and the hand that holds it drink the cup which though it may be bitter yet may prove wholsome and not poisonous in the least hear the Rod and who hath appointed it quarrel not with it but fall under it study you to please God in what you do or suffer and that God may please you in what he orders out and all will be well I would aske you concerning your Souls and Spiritual Conditions have you not minded God hitherto nor acquainted yourselves with him and the Mysteries of his Will things that concern your Eternal Peace have you not yet believed repented set to it now and make it your businesse you may have but a little time to spend in the world improve it to as good purpose as you can let not a minute run out to waste the nearer you are to your journeys end make the more haste that your work may not be to do when you have no time left to do it in knowing that there is no Believing Repenting self-Humbling and making peace with God No such Work in the Grave whither you are going be deeply humbled for your neglect of Hearing Reading Praying and other Duties of Godlinesse and now cry mightily urge God with his Attributes and plead thus Lord thou art stiled a Father of Lights and wilt thou not send light into my dark soul thou art the God of all Grace and shall I dye in a gracelesse condition thou gavest Christ and that of thine own free accord when there was no moveing of thee in the least to such a purpose and he hath shed his blood pacified thy wrath satisfied thy justice brought in everlasting righteousness and is now at the right hand to make Intercession for poor sinners and shall I that now cry for him fly to him be never the better for him not one drop of his blood to purge my conscience onely by the way let me Animadvert upon that which is the common apprehension and expression of men that one drop of Christs Blood was sufficient to save a world for my part I am not clear in that it must be heart blood life blood that must be shed by him to make an Attonment but to direct your proceed in the way of your Plea Lord thou hast given me a natural life and breath and wilt thou not give me spiritual life and breath I have the natural senses of hearing seeing tasting feeling and so forth and Lord shall I be wholy a stranger to spiritual senses these things am not I able to perform in my own behalf by my own power Oh put forth thine make me such as thou wouldst have me to be and I shall be such it is said of Abraham thou foundst him faithfull and of David thou foundst him a man after thine own heart thou wouldst never have found them so if thou hadst not made them so make me such and thou shalt find me such thy grace is as sufficient to pardon and sanctifie and renew me as ever it was for any poor sinner in the World If I dye and damne and perish there is no profit in my blood the dead praise thee not the damned will not nor can If I perish I shall never love thee and honour thee If thou wilt save me I shall be a lasting Monument of freest love and richest Grace and Mercy Oh then Magnifie thy Mercy upon me and let me not be Fuel for the burning but Timber for the building yet let me further drive and deal with you and use my uttermost to fasten my nails in you you are humane creatures oh see that you be new creatures you are a part of the first Creation that is wofully degenerated and defaced see that you be a part of the second Creation which is performed in Christ Jesus in whom all Gods acts of Grace are performed you have natural understandings pray that God would give you spiritual understandings David fetched an argument from this consideration that Gods hand had made him fashioned him and urged in the strength thereof Oh give me understanding that I may keep thy Testimonies Psal 119. You have bodies but do you not consider that you have souls that are infinitely more to be valued then your bodyes the losse whereof the whole world will not countervail you live a natural life but do not you know that there is a spiritual life which is infinitely better look to live that life you eat and drink daily for the body there is a spiritual meat and drink provided which your souls have as much need of as your bodyes have of the Perishing food oh make out after that You are carefull to cloath your bodies and shall your fouls be naked You prize and study to keep and maintain your outward liberty spiritual liberty is far better and will you please your selves in spiritual bondage to sin and the Devil oh make out after this spiritual liberty knowing that if the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed You are carefull to maintain your bodily health and is it good that you should have sick souls let me aske you will you love darknesse rather then light sicknesse rather then health bondage rather then liberty death rather then life your disease better then your Cure your Plague better then your plaister will you chose rather to be in the hand of a wounding killing Devil then in the hand of a healing recovering curing Christ will you choose rather to be damned and go to Hell then to be eternally saved and put into the possession of eternal Mansion above you are subject to a bodily Plague which may seize you and it may be hath know you not there is a worse Plague the Plague of the heart you must dye how soon you know not oh look after an interest in Christ which is the best interest look for Faith and free Justification Repentance and Renovation seconded with Real and Universal Reformation get the blood of Christ which is the blood of sprinkling upon your Consciences which will purge away your Guilt bring in Peace and kill the Worm which if not killed will killingly gnaw on you to all Eternity I say again you must dye once take heed of dying twice there is a second death and that is the most formidable you must dy but look to this that death do not kill you do you kill sin and you will kill death too you must dye but let it be your seeing of death as it is said of Simeon Luke 2. Let not death see you with a Mortifferous killing sight you must dye let it be but a tasting of death as the Scripture phraseth it let it