is within the Body so the substance or vital parts of Religion which is to the saving of the Soul is inward and invisible also Where any one or any sort of People speak according to the Scriptures of Truth there Truth from whencesoever it spring up is to be received and embraced But if it speaks not according to the Word there it is to be rejected and not admitted according to that spiritual Wisdom and Divine method of separating the Precious from the Vile and gathering the good Fishes into Vessels and casting the bad away When we see our selves already acquitted and cleared out of that Word whereby we must be judged at the last Day this must be a mighty Comfort and Assurance And that same Word having promised and annexed a Crown of Life unto Faithfulness to the Death Rev. 2.10 Therefore my beloved Brethren Be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your Labour is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 From all this put together will appear the Necessity of Persevering and continuing in the work of the Lord in order to have a well grounded hope evidence and assurance Right and Title to have this Crown of Life and to have our Labour in the Lord recompenced According as himself hath promised For thy works shall be rewarded saith the Lord. Jer. 31.16 There is no Point in Divinity more clear and certain and of more undoubted Truth than the necessity of Perseverance in order unto Salvation As also nothing is more put in mind of repeated and inculcated over and over in common Preaching for the abundant care and safety of Souls The same is also understood by common People whether learned oâ— unlearned He that knows any thing of God and Religion knows this also That if we would be saved it is necessary in order thereto to continue unto our Lives end in the Worship and Service of God in doing his Will and finishing his Work For He and he only that endures unto the End shall be saved Whosoever once puts his hand to this Plow and looks back he is not worthy of the Kingdom of God In those Scriptures which are given to make wise unto Salvation there are abundance of Truths and Affirmations to this purpose so that there is no need to cite or rehearse any more But yet there are several people who are for serving God for a spurt and for a season and they come to the Place of Hearing his Word for once and away I have told ye often this will not do A fit of Holiness for a season will not bring any one to Heaven But God who cannot lye hath promised to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2.7 Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. But that is such holiness as is ingrafted fixed constant and universal The Souldiers of the antient Roman Empire according to the Laws and Constitutions thereof were disbanded and dismissed from any further Service in the Military Employment after the fiftieth Year But the Souldiers of Jesus Christ are never disbanded or dismissed from his Service and if any should desert dismiss or disband themselves from his Service they lose their Crown and they become liable unto punishment We read of Mnason an old Disciple and those that be planted in the House of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old Age they shall be fat and flourishing Psal 92.13 14. As long as any of us have the knowledge of Good and Evil remaining with us we are to do the Good and eschew the Evil. As long as any one hath all his senses left as there is none who lives out all his five senses to discern between Good and Evil he is to do the first and leave the last undone according as he hath Power of Action The Soul thinks as long as ever it is in the Body and as long as one thinks his thoughts are to be bent and lifted up towards God and Goodness and Truth and not to admit of but cast out all such Evil and Vanity which would lodge or lurk there And this it signified and required by that great and Indispensable command Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all thy mind Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me Bless his holy name Psal 103. â—… So by all that is within us and to our very utmost God is to be served and obeyed and also to the utmost Period and Duration of time As our Souls in their creation and making have a beginning in time but they are without end of days they being Properly Immortal Even such an obedience and service doth the Lord our Creator require of us which did and doth once begin and never end until our service here is crowned and consummated with Glory hereafter What remains But that ye who shall hear or read this be in the visions of God as Daniel and John was to see the dead small and great stand before God and seeing that they were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their Works therefore in every thing so think speak and do as ye that must give Account The word of Instruction which arises hence is this that each of us severally do order our Life and Conversation in this short Time and mean while as near as ever we can according to all the words which are Written in those Books which are the Books of Scripture and the Book of Conscience That is to live up and according to all those Thoughts of Good and Truth which Conscience doth suggest unto Man FINIS
and Seasons which the Father hath kept in his own Power or rather that will be the Inhabitation of Eternity where is no such thing as the numbering or reckoning of Times and Seasons So that they had better let alone such kind of Imaginations as to what time it shall last But rather purifie our hearts by Faith by believing and always bearing in Mind that these things shall certainly be in the General although we know no more as to the exact Method of procedure How that God and Christ will make that Great Final and Everlasting decision between the Righteous and the Wicked between those who serve God and obey the Gospel and who did not As to the Particulars hereof nor to what exact method of Duration all this shall last for time will then be no longer than Brute Beasts do now know those Rules by which Kings reign and Princes decree Justice But we are to be as wise Stewards to cast up and prepare our Accounts beforehand and to do nothing but what our Lord will approve and like of Such as was in the way of Service and Management but not what will be found fault withal or blamed by him So much sin or evil as hath been committed This shall be a witness against them It is an heaping up Treasure together for the last days Jam. 5.3 It is a treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5 And though already the Pile thereof is fire and much wood Isa 30.33 which is ordained for the punishment of the Devil and his Angels and condemned Sinners Yet here again the more Sin and Transgression which they have committed is an adding more Fuel to that Fire which shall torment but not consume them So on the other and better hand the doing good works is a laying in a foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal Life these works follow them So that to do good works is a storing up to ones self true and solid Comfort in a Dying-day which reaches and extends it self throughout all Eternity Besides that it is sweet and sensible in the greatest time of need So that it will be certainly better for each Man or Woman the more Obedience and Duty Godliness and Good he hath done throughout his foregoing Life Here is a real Argument not to continue in Sin one moment longer for notwithstanding the present pleasure or conveniency hereby he misses of so much more Happiness and Advantage in the future Recompence Again we should not a minute longer neglect obedience and doing good for this would be to lose so much of a full Reward 2 Joh. 8. Thus much is signified from the righteous judgment of God who will render to every one according to his deeds Rom. 2.5 â— And so it is written For the Son of Man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his holy Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Mat. 16.27 Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you for great is your reward in Heaven Mat. 5.11 12. Every man shall receive his own Reward according to his own Labour 1 Cor. 3.8 Wo unto their Soul for they have rewarded evil unto themselves Say to the righteous it shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings Wo unto the Wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.9 10 11. According to their deeds accordingly he will repay Isa 59.18 The great God that formeth all things both rewardeth the Fool and rewardeth Transgressors Prov. 26.18 As thou hast done it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall return upon thine own head Obad. 1.15 Receiving in themselves that Recompence of their Error that was meet Rom. 1 27. Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us according to our wayes and according to our doings so hath he dealt with us Zech. 1.6 All the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the hearts and reins And I will give unto every one of you according to his works Rev. 2.23 And behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give every Man according as his work shall be Rev. 22.12 There are sundry other like places of Scripture which the more they are considered of and looked into they do the more shew how that the future Judgment and Retribution shall be proportioned and measured out Mat. 7.1 and exactly adjusted judgment will I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet according to the Deeds of Men. As it will be yet more clearly seen at the revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God It shall be openly disclosed and shewed unto every one though it hath been hitherto hidden from some because they would not search the Scriptures for there they might have found it so and accordingly have prepared to have given up their Accounts The Good may be hence Quickened to do more to lay hold of every opportunity to lay up for themselves a greater foundation against the time to come by Good works and seek and do the work of the Lord diligently and to improve every Talent to the utmost And the evil might have presently ceased to do wickedly they should have turned and have been yet more zealous in the other way Like unto Mary Magdalen who loved much because much had been forgiven unto her And Paul because he had been a Persecutor he laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles and yet not He but the Grace of God which was in him And so the same Instruction is to all whether in their foregoing Life they have been sinuers or religious yet to labour more abundanâ—ly for the the time to come than the rest of his Brethren and Fellow-creatures And see well to it that he exceed them in great Seriousness and Holiness Purity and strictness of Life In the time of my late Adversity and Trouble a fond Imagination and vain desire did arise in my mind I would fain have God do more for me than he usually doth for other peeple in like cases But this same kind of Imagination and vain Desire was beaten back answer'd and satisfied again by this inward Reasoning which at the very same time did spring up in my Heart Why should I expect that God should do more for me than for other People when I did not exceed my Brethren and come out from among them and get above them in the Godly and holy Life For though I have been sometimes in the heights all for God and Seriousness and in the Spirit for a little time whilst I was by my self and in Retirement and I resolved what I would do How that I would still keep unto that Strictness yet I was again like the Children of Ephraim who being harnessed and carrying Bows turned themselves back in the day of Battle So though I had Grace and Preparation beforehand to arm
certainly come unto and appear before him It is the very same as to the compreheusiveness and extensiveness of the future Judgment For then God is Judge himself Selah Psal 50.6 And he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given Assnrance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the Dead Acts 17.31 When the Apostle Paul professes his Belief of the Resurrection of both the just and unjust He thereupon immediately adds Herein do I exercise my self to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Man As Attorneys and Solicitors are now very diligent and industrious to get their Business Witnesses and Evidence all ready against the day of Assize or Nisi prius So we should prepare and make all things ready against that Day we shall be judged knowing by whom it must be And so to learn to behave and comport our selves that we may not be condemned when we shall be judged Psal 37.33 Others we read of who will be condemned when th y shall be judged Psal 109.7 It may be we have no Business at those Assizes which are holden twice a year but at this general Grave delivery which is kept once for all our dead Bodies shall arise and every one of us shall give account of himself to God Rom. 14.12 What a comfort will it then be as the same should be our care now to see well to it that our selves be acquitted out of that word whereby we shall be judged at the last Day And where we see our selves acquitted and cleared out of that same World there to endeavour to keep so keeping your selves in the love of God It is best not to defile our Garments at first which I gather from what is written Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their Garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy Rev. 3.4 But if they have been defiled by additional Sin and Transgression then what Pâ—ul writes unto the Christians of his Time is here proper and applicable And such were some of ye but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. â—1 That is ye are to get your Garments washed in the Blood of Jesus and in the sprinkling of the Spirit and when they are washed and made clean Isa 1.16 by the Word which proceeds forth through them there be sure to keep them clean We should copy out and follow the Example of Jesus Christ as near as ever we can Who went about doing good and suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of Judgment because as he is so are we in this World 1 John 4.17 And so when as to all those Characters which we find recorded of him we can find somewhat thereof in our selves even of him that was holy harmless undefiled separated from sinners And so we read of the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ See well to it that all these and the like Qualities and Dispositions be wrought inlaid and formed within thee And so those fruits of the Spirit reckoned up in Gal. 5.22.23 Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance And besides this giving all diligence add to your Faith virtue and to Virtue knowledge and to Knowledge temperance and to Temperance patience and to Patience godliness and to Godliness Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Peâ— 1.5 6 7. For these also are Graces Gifts and Fruits of the Spinte and if we have these this is the earnest of the Spirit that we are indeed sealed unto the day of Redemption If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his So it follows likewise by the same consequence that if a Man have the Spirit of Chrish then he is Christ's and belongs to him and is one of his Members So that not only where he is there shall his Servant be But where the Head is there of necessity must be the Members because it is not whole and compleat without the Members The Scripture doth often make use of this Comparison How the people of God are one Body and Christ is their Head The Prophet Ezekiel speaks of a Roll of a Book And he spread it before me and it was written within and without and there was written therein Lamentation and Mourning and Wo. Ezek. 2.9 So should this same Bible the Book of the Lord both as it comprehends the old and New Testament be to each of us written within and without Written within that isi written in our hearts and engraven in our inward Parts when we can turn inwards and see how it is written there as well as look what is written without in Ink and Paper And whereas Ezekiel goes on to add Therein was written lamentation and mourning and wo. This is too true as to all the Children of Disobedience Unbelievers Hypocrites Sinners Wicked Ungodly and such like But to the willing and obedient to those who have begun or are perfecting the good work the same word speaks comfort and rejoycing and blessedness Some have called it Quakerism to speak of the Light within the Spirit within the Word within But in this thing those that are called Quakers have certainly spoken the thing that is right for as it is noted of the false Prophets They have not what should confirm the Word but as an evidence that they are true and right in this Thing I would to God they were so in all others we have the Scriptures expresly speaking the same After those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their Hearts Jer. 31.33 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your Idols will I cleanse you But this that follows is to our present purpose A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them Ezek. 30.25 26 27. That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Joh. 1.4 which it doth in his inward parts or within him Neither shall they say Lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdom of God is within you Luke 17.21 The Word is very nigh unto thee even in thy month and in thy heart Deat 30.14 Rom. 10.8 Indeed all true Religion is an inward Thing and an inward Work for outward Acts of Worship or Bodily Exercise are but the Husk or Shell for as the Soul