commend You dear Child 18. And because sin will be creeping into all your conditions waies and works something I must advise you about it from Experience though many Books are written about it as Mr. Goodwyns Sinfulnesse of Sin c. Yet Two things take from me Be marvellous careful it break not in Secondly as diligent to drive it out speedily And for the former Gouge and Gurnal I commend about the putting on the whole Armour Ephes. 6. Sin is a breach of the Law and the strength of Sin is the Law from that breach the soul being as well left to Sin the Keeper as to Satan the Jaylor by the Fall and nothing but the Satisfaction of Christ put in to Divine Justice can remit the Authority of it yea though the power and filth in part be taken away by Sanctification yet it will break in again as an inmate and will at least get some out-room as pride in cloathes cozenage in dealings lust in the eye passion c. and bad work it makes where-ever it is Oh keep it at staves length Peter David Heman and others ever crack under it As you cannot build your Reformation upon unrepented sin So you should not make daily work for repentance by admitting sin which must be reformed Therefore to prevent this mischief you must exercise hatred against it as against an Enemy that cut the throat or would of your best Friends and yours also and pursue it with a deadly feud hate it in all the stock and linage of it my Child A little sin is sin down with it keep your guard and hate it in all the forrage that may maintain such an Enemy I mean in the occasions leading to it in which I might be large On with all your Armour speedily and when you find it hath bespotted you do as a good houswife with her linnen get a Washing-day I mean a Fasting-day out with it by hand laver bucking if it be a stain that gets through and through it will â—ut the next spring for bleaking I mean a sin premeditated as Davids a few common tears will not help there but extraordinary and the Blood of Christ above all Ask the Damned what they aile Sin sin they cry Ask the distressed Conscience Sin too Ask the Afflicted Sin For the Bulrush will not grow without mire That which crosseth the Law of God make thy greatest crosse that which divides you from the best Good call your worst Evil It made Christ to bleed to groan to die The Lord sprinkle thy Conscience with the Bloud of the Everlasting Covenant that you may not sin to death My dear Child 19. And next because bordering upon what went before I would add a case which so often even choice Christians are incumbred with and that is Their questioning all their works after manie years Experience and Profession and their Objections many against themselves as from sin before Conversion in Conversion after it repeated sins against Judgment Mercie Light Means yea even cutting Purses under the Gallows against all Examples and what not Nay it cannot stand with Gods honour to save c. though Isa. 55.8 answers all This therefore I would have you know that though it be not safe to dig at Foundations often lest we shake the Building so our great care is to have sound Foundations to build upon which in the general is Christ and other none can lay Make quick work and see you be in Christ and offer your Evidences to a discerning Friend or more and know that God hath limited his tenders of Grace to a day of this Life of the Gospel and of Conscience awakened therefore look out whilst it is To day Put by Spiritual sloth Cares of this World bosom Corruptions or what ever may hinder God is not bound to your limitings Were it not from his Mercy and and to leave every soul inexcusable why should the Lord give any time of Grace Remember this day ends suddenly How unworthy to put the Lord off till tomorrow and how retaliated See Prov. 1. 29 c. Your delayes rob your soul long of Comfort and you keep your self the longer out of Christ's service The nature of sin is poison do not stay till to morrow for an Antidote What got Lots Wife by lingring in Sodom the Lord must pull us out Nor can you plead any thing for hereafter which you may not now Oh to work to work and if you find it will not amount to Grace then cry mightily Ply the Lord with all the Promises of his Free-grace Isa. 55.1 Matth. 11. last Revel. 22.17 Isa. 53. the whole Chapter Jer. 3.1 and many more Tell the Lord none so vile as you none so good as Himself Tell him his Nature is Mercy he may be a gainer by his Grace However hang upon him living and dying in the use of all means Hos. 14.3 4 5. But if you have your share in Christ though hardly discerned make much of it you need walk very humbly very holily do not question continually as some do Psal. 18.1 Love the Lord who hath been your strength and will answer all thy hard questions dear Child 20. I add hereunto your Case under crosse Providences yea such as where Promises seem to speak one thing and Providence another Under which the best Saints have had great and strange sinkings of spirit For which you have Sibbs Burroughs and others to help My poor thoughts also are these for Case and Cure When Joh faints Joh 4.5 When David chides his soul Psal. 42. When Heman is even distracted Psal. 88.15 Jacob will not be comforted Gen. 37.35 and so divers This great Dissertion springs from either the overweening some Comforts we enjoy our overvaluing them breeds much trouble in the losse of them So David with his Absolom or from the surprizall being sudden and unexpected a prison at first uncouth in time easie and sweet where a mortified heart grows suited to it to this I could speak much or else it may spring from some secret weight God may put into this Change of Providence which we are not aware of and so the scale grows heavie with some Lead hanging at the bottom unseen a small thing troubles more than a greater the former we apply to our own strength in it but for the other to Gods Or lastly it may spring from the Dispensation it self As when the Crosse is heavie or multiplied or of long continuance or toucheth some noble part as wounds that touch the Liver Heart Brain c. Nay I must tell you when we make our Case worse than God doth as by our refusing the Lords Comforts which Jacob did Gen. 37. or where we let loose the Reins of Passion as David Oh my son my son c. Or when we drown all our present Enjoyments in that one crosse Providence which is too near the spirit of Haman who crost by Mordecai slights all his Favours at Court and dies upon the other Your Cure
be the Children of Wisdom Judge of all things by this Wisdom which will make you look upon them by Eternity To the only wise God I commend you dear Child 15. There are two very great Turns in mans Life the one is a lawful Calling the other is Marriage and miscarriages in either are almost irrecoverable For the former I must say the lesse because of your sex though your present condition may lead you to the service of others and then know Fidelity and Diligence are your duties your time and parts will then be anothers not your own Eye-service will not be acceptable to God or man much lesse comfortable to your self Many have written upon this subject as Dr. Gouge and others For Marriage though your present estate according to the world renders you many wayes hopeless yet your times are in Gods hands and daily Experience with my own will let you know that as it is the joyning together of one Man and one Woman lawfully in an indissolvable bond either for an help procreation of Children which were before the Fall or a remedy against Sin since that so it hath many Concernments in it where Goodness and Sutableness are the primary ingredients And as the Husbands duty is Love Teaching Providing Honouring c. So the Wifes must be Subjection suitable to that Love in all the parts of it And these dnties need mutual supports And this Conjugateness like a yoke must still be lin'd with more Love to make the draught easie Against this Love the Devil and Temptations will be striving People so engaged need a Standard even the Word to be set up to guide all by They need to observe each others spirits They need to pray out not quarrel out their first brablings They need at first to dwell much in their own duties before they step into each others When Repentance comes too late the best is to be made of the present condition Read Pro. 31. Oh the bitterness of unequal Matches Oh their ruine and misery I ever left you free and do only marry in and for the Lord The sensual part of that condition can never answer the incumbrances may attend it Let Christ be your Husband and he will provide you one to his own liking do nothing herein without Prayer Scripture and Counsel The Lord love you My dear Child 16. For the World I mean the People in it and that part of it the Lord hath set you in I have very much to say because my days in it are not a few as we account Believe our Saviour and the Word Joh. 16. last and you will find that in the World you shall have Tribulation and your passage out of it must be through many Tribulations and Persecutions too if you will live godly The World loves her own You must look upon it as your Enemy and use it so take what you may lawfully from it and imbrace not this present World It will kisse you and kill you like a Sea of Glasse it soon cracks though it glisters and when you have Iron shooes that tread upon it how soon may you drop in The World will give you no more credit than you have of the World to maintain it and therfore whilst you are in the World though you may know many yet be acquainted with few and even trust none Be sure you get nothing unlawfully it hath fire in it to destroy Sweat is our portion here below and whatsoever is gained by your own labour will be sweetest dearest and of longest continuance with you And do not borrow You may wonder why the World is generally imbittered to God's Children and why the way to Canaan was paved with so many difficulties Oh know it is to keep us humble to draw forth the exercise of his Attributes viz. Power Wisdom Mercy and the exercise of our gifts graces Prayer Faith Patience c. he will have the use of what he hath given yea hereby Heaven is made dear and sweet to us the storm commends the haven prison liberty sickness health and sin and sorrow Heaven where the double vail of Corruption and Affliction shall be taken off and we shall be with the Lord for ever Many dying men speak much about the Vanity of the World But truly as I would not die in a pet so I would not quarrel with or leave the World because I could be no greater in it but because I not do nor be better in it and that God is pleased I should leave it for a better I wish I had never been vain in a vain World but I appeal to and plead with Christ for my peace So use the World as if you used it not for the World hath a principle of decay in all the glory of it Dote not on it my poor Child 17. And whilest I am in the World and advising about it there is a great Raritie in the World if you could reach it and that is a Friend which is a Commoditie so very scarce that it will be your wisdom so to look upon a Friend this day as likely to be an Enemy to morrow How manie sad Experiences can I witness to of this kind yea in these times and changes Fair Dove-coats have most Pigeons Lost Estates know no Friends Joh and all the Saints complain David sadly Paul had none to stand by him You see most men now are either upon their own securitie or preferments one cries My Friend betrayed me another My Friend failed me and some cry All flesh is false and much I could say but that other causes are to be attended above instrumental They say Two may keep counsel if one be away So hard it is to get a Friend and if you have many you have hardly any The Friend I commend is a Soul-friend which you will never find among Children Fools or Prophane An Experienced Christian Friend I intend who must have three qualifications he or she must have the art and skill of a Friend few know it must have the bowels and mercie of a Friend which most want and lastly must have Faithfulness the great ingredient if such an one you can find you shall enjoy their Experiences freely you shall constantly be carried to God in their Prayers you shall have sympathie and help in your troubles The Spirit of Christ is a healing saving Spirit and such is theirs To such open your heart clearly who will never upbraid you for Confessions and know when Foundations shake you will need a Master-builder or Workman such is a good Friend and wise To get such an one must be your care and to keep must be your diligence Walk not unworthy of the mercy if you gain it Kinsman will not make it no nor a Brother though born for adversitie Your hopes may be these if the Lord promise When your wayes please him your Enemies shall be at peace with you He can raise a Friend and Himself be your best Friend To whom I
about God before they change about his Waies I could be very large in this accounting it my very great Mercie that temptation never led me from that Honest Old Godly Puritane Profession of the everlasting truths of the Gospel Secondly Inquire whether they have been carried more to God and Holiness since their change For that which comes from God will carry us to God but if onely to Pride Censuring Libertinisme c. you know what to make of it Beware of Leaven of the Pharises Christ saies for Leaven will sowre the Dough will swell it will harden it and these you meet with in mens spirits leavened with Error Where men once leave the Rule there will be no end of their running till they come to Atheism Therfore stand in awe of God and fear him alwaies Hold to the Word as to Life Question not Truths Look to your Company Value the meanest Ordinance You will need all Be very low and humble before the Lord and Grow in Grace 2 Pet. 3 18. My dear Child 24. And because the first Child that appears in view of this Jesabel the Mother of Mischief Errour so called by John Rev. 2.20 is about the Sabbath either wholly slighting it or counting it Jewish or our day not the right day not the Seventh yea that every day is a Sabbath with the like I mean besides all such as profanely look upon it as a day of Sport Pleasure and Vanity I think it my duty to Charge you as ever you mean or hope to enjoy that everlasting Rest hereafter that you would value the Sabbath Read Dod and others about it I do not remember that I have ever met with a truly Godly gracious soul that lived above or beyond this The first Commandment sets up the true God The second his Worship according to his own will The third his Reverence and Honour and The fourth Time the seventh part of Time for him is holy Time Works of Necessity and Charity not crossing that Holiness I say the seventh part of Time because it is Night in one place when Day in another which Time begins at the Evening as Time is distinguished into Daies Gen. 1. And though the Questions about the Sabbath and Baptism breed much Dispute in the World yet we must Study to know Gods Will in both I must say more to you Where the Sabbath is at an undervallue in any Country say it be France Holland Germany c. there you shall find Religion low and at best wasting it self into Disputes But know that England which is most famous for Religion got it from the Sabbaths upon which day the Lord is pleased as Princes by their Almoners to give out his Gifts and Craces to the sons of men I was a witness that Middleburgh in Zealand grew famous for Religion by Teeling their Preacher fetching the keeping of the Sabbath from England Certainly the Fourth Commandment is the Key to all the rest for how shall the rest be practised if not taught and how taught if not time allowed and what time more likely to carry a Blessing than Gods Appointment It were as good to take down Ministry and all Ordinances as to take down the Sabbath The wonders of God have born witness as Burton and others write against the Breakers of it Wherefore look well about you Isa. 58.13 Love the Lord in his Sabbaths as you would have rest hereafter Look to this Rest here and remember the Sabbath that is Prepare for it all the week long especially the Evening before The Jewes had two Preparations to the Sabbath at Three and Six Do you keep on and gather home all Affections to wait upon the Work and let the day be dear to you The God of Sabbath be yours dear Child 25. The Premises considered I should a little open what I mean by Free Grace to which I send you so often for succour in Cases and truly it hath been much spoken of and as much abused as if men from thence might take leave for any evil and on the other hand also filth cast upon men that have labour'd to hold it forth for which Dr. Crisp suffered also and some of that mind who meant faithfully to the Church of Christ and have written much for the abasement of the Creature and lifting up Grace I wish we may judge right judgement of all men and things But a little Practically to cast in something to profit you The Grace so spoken of should mainly be minded as the Root and Fruits of the New Covenant Jer. 31. and that in Hos. 2. 19 20 c. Which you will find lie upon two-Parties Christ and the poor Believer and Christ to be considered in a double Act of his First In his loving or rather manifesting his love in time to the soul And Secondly In passing over that Right he hath in himself to the believing soul Answerable whereunto the soul first from Christs love is warm'd to love again and from his bounty in his second Act turns over all the soul hath to the Lord Jesus Christ whether Name Estate Wit Parts yea all its Interests Now Christ thus loving the soul and giving himself upon no Meritorious or procuring Cause on the souls side is called Free Grace indeed when the Father shall freely give his Son and the Son freely his Heart-blood and the Spirit freely all its operations and make a free Covenant of grace and mercy to pardon all sin to receive a sinner into his bosom without money or price nay not to offer any thing of his own either Duty or Righteousness Isa. 55.1 this call Free Grace though when Christ comes to manifest this he by the Law gets Parly with the sinner he means to save by some uncouth waies and often very cross to flesh and blood which makes the work hard to judge of at first yet be assured that the whole work will be Free in the Whole Frame of it But because this point is of such singular concernment and that I have formerly delighted to speak to others touching the same and would have the comfort of it my self I shall let you know what I know about the order of the working hereof that you mistake not 26. And in the letting you in this Light to give you the summe of true practical Divinity and therefore observe with diligence That when a discovery is made of this Love to the sinner the Lord Jesus makes a double approach to the soul the first is by the Law where he takes three steps And first by the Law he stops the sinner in his course and makes him to see sin in the very nature of it not in the Hell onely and consequence but in that it separates the soul from the greatest good Romans 7.7 And Secondly makes the soul bear the burden and weight of it which makes David himself cry out often and so others It pincheth hard where sin hath got time and strength c. Thirdly it lets