how were the Children put upon getting choice Scripture and their Catechisms and ingaged in secret prayer and meditation Father Mother Brethren Sisters Boarders were the better for his excellent example and holy exhortations He was a good Nurse if not a spiritual Father to his natural Father as you may read afterwards and some of his Brethren have cause to bless God for ever that ever they saw his face and heard his words and observed his conversation which had so much of loveliness and beauty in it that it could not but commend Religion to any that did take notice of it He could speak in St. Pauls words brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for you all is that you may be saved Read what his heart was in these following lines Distance of place cannot at all lessen that natural Bond whereby we are conjoyned in blood neither ought to lessen that of love Nay where true love is it cannot for love towards you I can only say this that I feel it better than I can express it as it is wont to be with all affections but love felt and not expressed is little worth I therefore desire to make my love manifest in the best way I can Let us look upon one another not as Brethren only but as Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head Happy day will that be wherein the Lord will discover that Union let us therefore breathe and hunger after this so that our closest knot may meet in Christ if we are in Christ and Christ in us then we shall be one with one another This I know you cannot complain for want of instruction God hath not been to us a dry Wilderness or a barren heath you have had Line upon Line and Precept upon Precept he hath planted you by the Rivers of Water it is the Lord alone indeed who maketh fruitful but yet we are not to stand still and do nothing There is a Crown worth seeking for seek therefore and that earnestly O seek by continual prayer keep your soul in a praying frame this is a great and necessary duty nay a high and precious priviledge If thou canst say nothing come and lay thy self in an humble manner before the Lord. You may believe me for I have through mercy experienced what I say There is more sweetness to be got in one glimpse of Gods love than in all that the world can afford O do but try O taste and see how good the Lord is Get into a corner and throw your self down before the Lord and beg of God to make you sensible of your lost undone state by nature and of the excellency and necessity of Christ Say Lord give me a broken heart soften melt me Any thing in the world so I may be but inabled to value Christ and be perswaded to accept of him as he is tendred in the Gospel O that I may be delivered from the wrath to come O a blessing for me even for me and resolve not to be content till the Lord have in some measure answered you O my bowels yern towards you my heart works O that you did but know with what affection I write now to you and what prayers and tears have been mingled with these lines The Lord set these things home and give you an heart to apply them to your self the Lord bless all the means that you enjoy for his blessing is all in all Give me leave to deal plainly and to come yet a little closer to you for I love your soul so well that I cannot bear the thoughts of the loss of it Know this that there is such a thing as the New birth and except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Gods favour is not to be recovered without it This New birth hath its Foundation laid in a sense of sin and a godly sorrow for it and a heart set against it without this there can be no Salvation Look well about you and see into your self and thou wilt see that thou art at Hells mouth without this first step and nothing but Free Grace and pure Mercy is between you and the state of the Devils The Lord deliver us from a secure careless heart Here you see a natural mans condition How darest thou then lye down in security O look about for your Souls sake What shall I say what shall I do to awaken your poor Soul I say again without repentance there is no remission and repentance it self may lose its labour if it be not in the right manner Then tears and groans and prayers will not do without Christ most when they are convinced of sin and are under fears of Hell run to duty and reform something and thus the wound is healed and by this thousands fall short of Heaven For if we be not brought off from our selves and our righteousness as well as our sins we are never like to be saved We must see an absolute need of a Christ and give our selves up to him and count all but dung and dross in comparison of Christs righteousness Look therefore for mercy only in Christ for his sake relye upon Gods mercy The terms of the Gospel are repent and believe gracious terms Mercy for fetching nay mercy for desiring nay for nothing but receiving Dost thou desire mercy and grace I know thou dost even this is the gift of God to desire hunger after Christ let desires put you upon endeavour the work it self is sweet yea repentance and mourning it self hath more sweetness in it than all the Worlds comforts Vpon repentance and believing comes Justification after this Sanctification by the Spirit dwelling in us By this we come to be the Children of God to be made partakers of the Divine Nature to lead new lives to have a suitableness to God It 's unworthy of a Christian to have such a narrow spirit as not to act for Christ with all ones heart and soul and strength and might Be not ashamed of Christ be not afraid of the frowns and jeers of the wicked Be sure to keep a Conscience void of offence and yield by no means to any known sin be much in prayer in secret prayer and in reading the Scriptures Therein are laid up the glorious Mysteries which are hid from many eyes My greatest desire is that God would work his own great work in you I desire to see you not as formerly but that the Lord would make me an instrument of your Souls good for which I greatly long CHAP. IV. His Particular Addresses to his Brethren for their Souls good and the success thereof HE wrote many Letters of this nature and desired oftentimes to be visiting his Brethren that he might particularly address himself to them and see what became of his Letters Prayers and Tears and he was very watchful over them ready to reprove and convince them of sin and ready to incourage any beginnings of a good work
Greek under the care of Mr. Langly When he was about eleven years old he took a great fancy to Arithmetick and the Hebrew tongue About this time his Parents removing into a little Village called Aspoden had the opportunity of having this their Son instructed by a learned neighbour who was pleased to count it a pleasant diversion to read Mathematicks to him being then about twelve years old and he made such progress in those profound studies that he read Oughthred with understanding before he was thirteen years old A person of quality hearing of the admirable proficiency of this Boy sent for him up to London and kept him with him for some time to Read Mathematicks to him that which made him the more to be admired was that he did what he did with the greatest facility He had no small skill in Musick and other concomitants of Mathematicks In the year 1646. he was chosen by that Learned Gentleman Mr. Rous the Provost of Eton Colledge one of the foundation of that Shool being examined by provost and posiers in the Hebrew tongue which was thought was beyond president Where he gave no unsuitable returns to the high expectations that were conceived of him After a little continuance at Eton he obtained leave of his Master to go to Oxford to perfect himself in the study of Mathematicks where being owned by that great Scholar Dr. Ward one of the Professors of the University he attained to a strange exactness in that study nothing being within the reach of a man but he would undertake and grasp That great Doctor gave him great help and incouragement and looked upon him as one of the wonders of his age loved him dearly and could for some time after his death scarce mention his name without tears When he had spent about a quarter of a year with Dr. Ward at Oxford he was commanded to return again to Eton where he soon gave proof of his great improvement of his time while he was absent by making an Almanack and calculating of the Eclipses for many years before hand so that by this time he had many eyes upon him as the glory of the School That which put an accent upon his real worth was that he did not discover the least affectation or self-conceit neither did any discernable pride attend these excelencies So that every one took more notice of his parts than himself At about seventeen years old he was chosen to Kings Colledge in Camebridge at which time the Electioners did even contend for the patronage of this Scholar He was chosed first that year and an elder brother of his in the sixth place but he was very willing to change places with his elder brother letting him have the first and thankfully accepting of the sixth place Besides his great learning and many other ornaments of nature his deportment was so sweet and lovely his demeanour so courteous and obliging even when he seemed unconverted that he must be vile with a witness that did not love him Yea many of them which had little kindness for morality much less for grace could not but speak well of him His great wisdom and learning did even command respect where they did not find it he had an excellent power over his passions and was in a great measure free from the vices which usually attend such an age and place But all this while it is to be feared that he understood little of the worth of Christ and his own soul he studied indeed the heavens and knew the motion of the Sun Moon and Stars but that was his highest he thought yet but little of God which made all these things he pried but little into the motions of his own heart he did not as yet much busie himself in the serious observation of the wandring of his spirit the Creature had not yet led him to the Creator but he was still too ready to take up with meer speculation but God who from all eternity had chosen him to be one of those who should shine as the Sun in the Firmament for ever in glory did when he was about eighteen years old shine in upon his soul with power and did convince him what a poor thing it was to know so much of the heavens and never come there And that the greatest knowledge in the world without Christ was but an empty dry business He now thought Mr. Bolten had some reason on his side when he said Give me the most magnificent glorious worldling that ever trod upon earthly mould richly crowned with all the Ornaments and excellencies of nature art policy preferment or what heart can wish besides yet without the life of grace to animate and ennoble them he were to the eye of heavenly wisdom but as a rotten carcase stuck over with flowers magnified dung guilded rottenness golden damnation He began now to be of Anaxagoras's mind that his work upon earth it was to study Heaven and to get thither and that except a man might be admitted to greater preferment than this world can bestow upon her favorites it were scarce worth while to be born CHAP. II. Of his Conversion with visible proofs thereof THE great work of Conversion it was not carried on upon his soul in that dreadful manner that it is upon some that God intends to communicate much to and make great use of but the Lord was pleased sweetly to unlock his heart by the exemplary life and Heavenly and powerful discourse of a young man in the Colledge whose heart God had inflamed with love to his soul he quickly made an attempt upon this hopeful young man and the spirit of God did set home his counsels with such power that they proved effectual for his awakening being accompanied with the Preaching of these two famous worthies Dr. Hill and Dr. Arrowsmith together with the reading several parts of Mr. Baxters Saints Everlasting Rest Now a mighty alteration might easily be descerned in him he quickly looks quite like another man He is now so much taken up with things above the Moon and Stars that he had little leisure to think of these things only as they pointed higher He began now not to tast so much sweetness in those kind of studies which he did so greedily imploy himself in formerly He now began to pity them which were curious in their inquiries after every thing but that which is most needful to be known Christ and Themselves and that which sometimes was his gain he now counted loss for Christ yea doubtless he esteemed all things but as dung and dross in comparison of Christ and desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified Not that he looked upon humane learning as useless but when fixed below Christ and not improved for Christ he looked upon wisdom as folly and learning as madness and that which would make one more like the Devil more fit for his service and put a greater accent upon their misery in another world
in them To instance in a particular or two One time perceiving one of his Brothers asleep at Prayer in the Family he presently took occasion to show him what a high contempt it was of God what a little sense such a man must have of his own danger what dreadful hypocrisie what a Miracle of Patience that he was not awakened in flames After he had been a while affectionately pleading with him it pleased the Lord to strike in with some power and to melt and soften his Brothers heart when he was about eleven years old so that it was to be hoped that then the Lord began savingly to work upon the heart of that Child For from that time forward a considerable alteration might be discerned in him When he perceived it he was not a little pleased This put him upon carrying on the work that Conviction might not wear off till it ended in Conversion To this end he wrote to him to put him in mind of what God had done for his Soul begging of him not to rest satisfied till he knew what a thorow change and effectual calling meant I hope said he that God hath a good work to do in you for you and by you yea I hope he hath already begun it But O take not up with some beginnings faint desires lazy seekings O remember your former tears one may weep a little for sin and yet go to Hell for sin many that are under some such work shake of the sense of sin murder their Convictions and return again to folly O! take heed if any draw back the Lord will take no pleasure in them but I hope better things of you He would also observe how his Brethren carried it after Duty whether they seemed to run presently to the World with greediness as if Duty were a task or whether there seemed to be an abiding impression of God and the things of God upon them His vehement love and compassion to Souls may be further judged of by these following expressions which he used to one of his Relations After he had been speaking how infinitely it was below a Christian to pursue with greediness the things which will be but as gravel in the teeth if we mind not the rich provision which is in our Fathers House O what folly is it to trifle in the things of God! but I hope better things of you did I not hope why should I not mourn in secret for you as one cast out among the dead O what should I do for you but pour out my Soul like water and give my God no rest till he should graciously visit you with his Salvation till he cast you down and raise you up till he wound you and heal you again Thus what with his holy example warm and wise exhortations prayers tears and secret groans somewhat of the beauty of Religion was to be seen in the Family where he lived CHAP. V. His great love to and frequency in the duty of Prayers with remarkable success HE was mighty in Prayer and his spirit was oftentimes so transported in it that he forgot the weakness of his own body and of others spirits Indeed the acquaintance that he had with God was so sweet and his converse with him so frequent that when he was ingaged in duty he scarce knew how to leave that which was so delightful and suited to his spirit His constant course for some years was this He prayed at least three times a day in secret sometimes seven times twice a day in the Family or Colledge And he found the sweetness of it beyond imagination and enjoyed wonderful Communion with God and tasted much of the pleasantness of a Heavenly Life And he could say by experience that the ways of wisdom were ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace He knew what it was to wrestle with God and was come to that pass that he could scarce come off his knees without his Fathers blessing He was used to converse with God with a holy familiarity as a Friend and would upon all occasions run to him for advice and had many strange and immediate Answers of Prayer One of which I think it not altogether impertinent to give the World an account of His Honoured Father Mr. William Janeway Minister of Kelshall in Hartfordshire being sick and being under somewhat dark apprehensions as to the state of his Soul he would often say to his Son John O Son this passing upon Eternity is a great thing this dying is a solemn business and enough to make any ones heart ake that hath not his Pardon sealed and his Evidences for Heaven clear And truly Son I am under no small fears as to my own estate for another world O that God would clear his love O that I could say chearfully I can die and upon good grounds be able to look Death in the face and venture upon Eternity with well-grounded peace and comfort His sweet and dutiful Son made a suitable reply at present but seeing his dear Father continuing under despondings of spirit though no Christians that knew him but had a high esteem of him for his uprightness he got by himself and spent some time in wrestling with God upon his Fathers account earnestly begging of God that he would fill him with joy unspeakable in believing and that he would speedily give him some token for good that he might joyfully and honourably leave this world to go to a better After he was risen from his knees he came down to his sick Father and asked him how he felt himself His Father made no answer for some time but wept exceedingly a passion that he was not subject to and continued for some considerable time in an extraordinary passion of weeping so that he was not able to speak But at last having recovered himself with unspeakable joy he burst out into such expressions as these O Son now it is come it is come it is come I bless God I can die The Spirit of God hath witnessed with my spirit that I am his Child Now I can look up to God as my dear Father and Christ as my Redeemer I can now say this is my Friend and this is my Beloved My heart is full it is brim full I can hold no more I know now what that sentence means the Peace of God which passeth understanding I know now what that white stone is wherein a new name is written which none know but they which have it And that fit of weeping which you saw me in was a fit of over-powring love and joy so great that I could not for my heart contain my self neither can I express what glorious discoveries God hath made of himself unto me And had that joy been greater I question whether I could have born it and whether it would not have separated soul and body Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name that hath pardoned all my sins
and sealed the pardon He hath healed my wounds and caused the bones which he had broken to rejoyce O help me to bless the Lord he hath put a new Song into my mouth O bless the Lord for his infinite goodness and rich mercy O now I can die it is nothing I bless God I can die I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ You may well think that his Sons heart was not a little refreshed to hear such words and see such a sight and to meet the Messenger that he had sent to Heaven returned back again so speedily He counted himself a sharer with his Father in this mercy and it was upon a double account welcome as it did so wonderfully satisfie his Father and as it was so immediate and clear an Answer of his own prayers as if God had from Heaven said unto him thy tears and prayers are heard for thy Father thou hast like a Prince prevailed with God thou hast got the blessing thy fervent prayers have been effectual go down and see else Upon this this precious young man broke forth into praises and even into another extasie of joy that God should deal so familiarly with him and the Father and Son together were so full of joy light life love and praise that there was a little Heaven in the place He could not then but express himself in this manner O blessed and for ever blessed be God for his infinite grace O who would not pray unto God! verily he is a God that heareth prayers and that my soul knows right well And then he told his joyful Father how much he was affected with his former despondings and what he had been praying for just before with all the earnestness he could for his soul and how the Lord had immediately answered him His Father hearing this and perceiving that his former comforts came in in a way of prayer and his own childs prayer too was the more refreshed and was the more confirmed that it was from the Spirit of God and no delusion And immediately his Son standing by he fell into another fit of triumphing joy his weak body being almost ready to sink under that great weight of Glory that did shine in so powerfully upon his Soul He could then say now let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation He could now walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil O how sweet a thing is it to have ones interest in Christ cleared how comfortable to have our calling and election made sure How lovely is the sight of a smiling Jesus when one is dying How refreshing is it when heart and flesh and all are failing to have God for the strength of our heart and our portion for ever O did the foolish unexperienced world but know what these things mean did they but understand what it is to be solaced with the believing views of Glory to have their senses spiritually exercised could they but taste and see how good the Lord is it would soon cause them to disrelish their low and bruitish pleasures and look upon all worldly joys as infinitely short of one glimpse of Gods love After this his Reverent Father had a sweet calm upon his spirits and went in the strength of that provision that rich Grace laid in till he came within the Gates of the New Jerusalem having all his Graces greatly improved and shewed so much humility love to and admiring of God contempt of the World such prizing of Christ such patienee as few Christians arrive to especially his Faith by which with extraordinary confidence he cast his Widow and eleven Fatherless Children upon the care of that God who had fed them with this Manna in his Wilderness state The benefit of which Faith all his Children none of which were in his life-time provided for have since to admiration experienced And it is scarce to be imagined how helpful this his precious Son John Janeway was to his Father by his heavenly discourse humble advice and prayers After a four moneths conflict with a gainful Consumption and Hectick Fever his Honoured Father sweetly slept in Jesus CHAP. VI. His care of Mother and other Relations after his Fathers death AFter the death of his Father he did what he could to supply his absence doing the part of Husband Son Brother so that he was no small comfort to his poor Mother in her disconsolate state and all the rest of his Relations that had any sense of God upon their spirits To one of which he thus addressed himself upon the death of a sweet Child Daily observations and every mans experience gives sufficient testimony to it that afflictions of what kind soever by how much the seldomer they are the more grievous they seem We have of a long time sailed in the Rivers of Blessings which God hath plentifully poured forth among us now if we come where the Waves of affliction do but a little more than ordinarily arise we begin to have our souls almost carried down with fears and griefs yea the natural man if not counter-powred by the Spirit of God will be ready to entertain murmuring and repining thoughts against God himself Whereas if all our life had been a Pilgrimage full of sorrows and afflictions as we deserved and had but rarely been intermingled with comforts we should have been more fitted to bear afflictions Thus it is naturally but we ought to counter-counter-work against the stream of nature by a new principle wrought in us and whatsoever Nature doth err in Grace is to rectifie And they upon whom Grace is bestowed ought to set Grace on work For wherefore is Grace bestowed unless that it should act in us It hath pleased the Lord to make a breach in your Family There where the knot is fast tyed when it is disunited the change becomes greater and the grief is the more inlarged So that herein you who are most moved are most to be excused and comforted The strength of a Mothers affections I believe none but Mothers know and greatest affections when they are disturbed breed the greatest grief But when afflictions come upon us what will be our duty Shall we then give our selves up to be carried away with the grieving passions Shall we because of one affliction cause our souls to walk in sadness all our days and drive away all the light of comfort from our eyes by causing our souls to be obscured under the shades of melancholy Shall we quarrel with our Maker and call the wise Righteous Judge to our Bar Doth he not punish us less than we deserve Is there not Mercy and Truth in all his Dispensations Shall we by continual sorrow add affliction to affliction and so become our own Tormentors Are we not rather under afflictions to see if any way we may find a glimpse of Gods love shining in towards us and so to raise up our souls nearer God Is there not
carry on the work that he had some hopes was well begun he laboured to build sure and build up that he might be rooted and grounded in the faith stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord. Wherefore he followed him not only with private warnings and frequent patheticall counsels and directions but with letters one of which spoke in this language Another of his Letters of Private warning and Pathetical Counsel YOU live in a place where strict and close walking with God hath few or no examples and most are apt to be 〈◊〉 their company and Gods own children are too apt to forget their first love our hearts are apt to be careless and to neglect our watch we are ready to grow formal in duty or less spiritual and then it may be less frequent and Conscience is put off with some poor excuse and thus Religion withers and one that seemed once a zealot may come to be Laodicean and some that looked once as if they were eminent saints may fall to just nothing It 's too common to have a name to be alive and yet to be dead Read this and tremble lest it should be your case When we are lazy and asleep our adversary is awake when we are sloathful and negligent then he is diligent I consider your age I know where you dwell I am not unacquainted with your temptations Wherefore I cannot but be afraid of you lest by both inward and outward fire the bush be singed Though if God be in it it cannot be burnt up Give me leave to be in some measure fearful of you and jealous over you and to mind you of what you know already Principles of civility will be but as broken reeds to stay our souls upon without those higher principles which are planted in the soul by the working of the spirit of God O remember what meltings sometimes you have had remember how solicitously you did inquire after Christ how earnestly you seemed to ask the way to Zion with your face thitherward Oh take heed of losing those impressions you once had take not up with a sleight work True conversion is a great thing and another kind of business than most of the world take it to be O therefore be not satisfied with some convictions taking them for conversion much less with resting in a formal lifeless profession There is such a thing as being almost a Christian nay as drawing back unto perdition and some that are not far from the kingdom of Heaven may never come there Beware lest you lose the reward the promise is made to him that holdeth fast and holdeth out unto the end and overcometh Labour to forget what is behind and to press forward towards things that are before He that is contented with just grace enough to get to Heaven and escape Hell and desires no more may be sure he hath none at all is far from being made partaker of the divine nature Labour to know what it is To converse with God strive to do every thing as in His presence design Him in all act as one that stands within sight of the Grave and Eternity I say again do what you do as if you were sure God stood by and looked upon you and exactly observed and recorded every thought word and action and you may very well suppose that which cannot be otherwise Let 's awake and fall to our work in good earnest Heaven or Hell are before us and death behind us What do we mean to sleep dulness in Gods service is very uncomfortable and at the best will cost us dear and to be contented with such a frame is a certain symptom of a hypocrite O How will such tremble when God shall call them to give an account of their stewardship and tell them They may no longer be stewards Should they fall sick and the Devil and Conscience fall upon them what inconceivable perplexity would they then be in O live more upon invisibles and let the thoughts of their excellency put life into your performances You must be contented to be laughed at for preciseness and singularity A Christians walking is not with men but with God and he hath great cause to suspect his love to God who doth not delight more in conversing with God and being conformed to Him than in conversing with the world and being conformed to it How can the love of God dwell in that man who liveth without God in the world without both continual vvalking vvith him in his whole conversation and those more peculiar visits of him in prayer meditation spiritual ejaculations and other duties of Religion and the workings of faith love holy desires delight joy and spiritual sorrow in them Think not that our vvalking vvith God cannot consist vvith vvorldly business yes but Religion makes us spiritual in common actions and there is not any action in a mans life in vvhich a man is not to labour to make it a religious act by a looking to the Rule in it and eying of Gods glory and thus he may be said to vvalk vvith God To this vve must indeavour to rise and never be content till vve reach to it and if this seem tedious as to degenerate nature it vvill vve must know that vve have so much of enmity against God still remaining and are under depravation and darkness know not our true happiness Such a soul is sick and it hath lost its taste vvhich doth not perceive an incomparable sweetness in vvalking vvith God without whom all things else under Heaven are gall and bitterness and to be little valued by very true Christian But We are all apt even at the worst to say that we prefer God above all things But we must know that we have very deceitful hearts And those who being inlightned know for vvhat high ends they should act and vvhat a fearful condition even a hazard in our case is these I say will not believe their own hearts without diligent search and good grounds Rest not in any condition in which your security is not founded upon that sure bottom the Lord Jesus Christ Labour to attain to this to love God for himself and to have your heart naturalized suited to spiritual things O for a heart to rejoyce and work righteousness O that we could do the will of God with more activity delight and constancy If we did know more of God we should love him more and then God would still reveal more of Himself to us and then we should see more and more cause to love him and wonder that we love him no more O this this is our happiness To have a fuller sight of God to be wrapped up and filled with the love of Christ O let my soul for ever be thus imployed Lord whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none in earth that I can desire in comparison of Thee You hear what kind of language he spake and you may easily
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
have its proper effect upon us to make us to desire earnestly to be like our beloved When shall we put on his beauty O how lovely should we then look Let us put off that deformity that is upon our Souls which makes us so unlike to Christ yea which makes us loathsome in his Eyes Pride Passions Worldliness are those Soul-deformities which keep Christ at such a distance from us and which hinder his more sweet frequent and intimate converse with us It is only that of Himself which Christ seeth in us which he delighteth in For in Him is the perfection of all Beauty and excellency and whatsoever loveliness is in any thing else comes from him is like him and leads to him Would we know how much we are beloved of him let us see how much we are like him for He cannot but love that which is like himself and if we would be like him we must put on love for God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and god in him 1 Joh. 4. 16. Thirdly If we ought to walk towards one another as members of the same body whereof Christ is the Head what can speak a closer union than commembership No man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it But we do not feel the power of this oneness as we ought to do We are many and where there is division there will be dissention that we may therefore be more one let us be more in putting off our self and going into Christ Here let us look into the loathsomness of our natures whilest off from God which is the cause of all this confusion and if we cannot see its deformity in its self let us see it in reflection in its bitter effects and when we see our own deformity we shall see less cause to love our selves and more cause to love others Let us look upon our oneness in Christ and see if we can thence become one in affections Christ saith I and the children which thou hast given me we have one spiritual Father we are brethren let us love as brethren The cause of this union is our being made partakers of Christs nature and baptized into the same spirit with him and if we have at any time experienced the more lively and full incomes of this spirit of Christ how did it set the heart on fire The soul is then too narrow to contain its own affections how dearly then could we look upon a Saint How did pride and wrath vanish and melt down into meekness humility and love Did we never experience what this meaneth Then let the remembrance of the sweetness of it renew it in us O a life of spiritual love is a life indeed a Heaven upon earth This is a good rule when vve find our selves in a spiritual temper let us examine our selves then and inquire how vve like such a frame Let us remember the Voice of the spirit in us and labour to have our judgment and affections always after so ballanced Fourthly Are vve members of Christ vve do not say vve do not love Christ If vve do indeed love Christ let us love him vvherever vve find Him Christ is in all those that are His. Let us fear offending Christ in his for vvhat is done to them He vvill take as done to himself It vvill be said in that great Day In as much as ye did it unto these ye did it unto me Let us think vvhat vve vvill of it at present the vvorld vvill find this true to their cost And if vve act as in Christ vve shall find our selves as much concerned for him as for our selves and more too Oh the vvrongs that are done to him vve shall reckon done to us If vve are Christs Christs interest vvill be ours and his injuries ours If vve are Christs vve vvill be as fearful of offending of any of his as of vvronging of our selves Christ himself is above the reach of our vvrongs to be touched by them in himself but in his Members he suffers to this very day If then Christ and vve are one and Christ and all his are one let us love Christ in his let us rejoice in Christ in his members let us indeavour to requite Christ in his members let us fear grieving the spirit of Christ in grieving the spirits of any of his dear ones Wound not Christ in vvounding the heart of his beloved O the pretiousness pleasure and profit of this love I beg of God to give you a full injoyment of that sweetness and the joyful fruits of it the Lord refresh you vvith a quick and constant sence and sight of his eternal love towards your soul to vvhich the assurance of true Christian love by the effectual vvork of the Comforter may bring you By this vve know that vve are passed from Death to Life because vve love the Brethren If it shall please the Lord to give me leave to see you again I shall come vvith strong expectations and earnest desires of seeing a sweet alteration for the better in you in your deportment and carriage towards one that did deserve better at your hands And vvhat an effect hopes of this nature frustrated vvill produce I beseech you to judge I pray God fill you vvith peace and joy My hand is vveary vvith vvriting but my mind still runs forth in desires and prayers for you I hope the Lord vvill take away all cause of vvriting any more of this subject unto you Your Letter gave me hopes of a good beginning I beseech the Lord to carry on vvhat he hath begun to the glory of his goodness that I may at every sight of you see more of the image of Christ in you and more of the power and beauty of this grace of love and that I may find you drawn nearer to Heaven and see you vvith Christ in Heaven vvhen time shall be no more I leave you in the Arms of Love John Janeway By all this you may easily perceive what spirit acted him and how much he was troubled for any divisions amongst the people of God Indeed he was of so loving and lovely a disposition that he even commanded the affections of most that knew him and so humble he was that he was ashamed to be loved for his own sake I can never forget a strang expression that I have heard from him concerning one that had a very ardent love for him I know this saith he that I love no love but what is purely for Christs sake would Christ might have all the love He alone deserves it for my part I am afraid and ashamed of the love and respects of Christians He saw so much pride peevishness and division amongst Professors that it did not a little vex his righteous Soul and made him think long to be in a sweeter Air where there should be nothing but union joy and love He could not indure to hear Christians speak reproachfully one of
O my soul vvhat vvilt thou canst thou thus unworthily sleight this admirable and astonishing condescention of God to thee Seems it a small matter that the great Jehovah should deal thus familiarly with his Worm and wilt thou pass this over as a common mercy What meanest thou O my soul that thou dost not constantly adore and praise this rare strong and unspeakable Love Is it true O my soul doth God deal familiarly with man and are his humble zealous and constant love praise and service too good for God Why art not thou O my soul swallowed up every moment with this free unparalell'd everlasting Love And then he breaks out again into another triumphant Extasie of praise and joy and expressed a little of that which was unexpressible in some such words as these Stand astonished ye Heavens and wonder O ye Angels at this infinite grace Was ever any under Heaven more beholding to free grace than I Doth God use to do thus with his creatures Admire him for over and ever O ye redeemed ones O those joys the tast of which I have Those everlasting joys which are at his right hand for evermore Eternity Eternity it self is too short to praise this God in O bless the Lord with me come let us shout for joy and boast in the God of our Salvation O help me to praise the Lord for his mercy indureth for ever One of his brethren that had formerly been wrought upon by his holy exhortations and example praying with him and seeing of him as he apprehended near his Dissolution desired that the Lord would be pleased to continue those astonishing and soul supporting comforts to the last moment of his breath and that he might go from one Heaven to another from grace and joy imperfect to perfect grace and glory and when his work was done here give him if it were his will the most easie and triumphant passage to rest and that he might have an abundant entrance administred into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ At the end of the Duty he burst out into a wonderful Passion of joy Sure that was joy unspeakable and full of glory O what an Amen did he speak Amen Amen Amen Hallelujah It would have made any Christians heart to leap to have seen and heard what some saw and heard at that time and I question not but that it will somewhat affect them to hear and read it though it be scarce possible to speak the half of what was admirable in him for it being so much beyond president it did even astonish and amaze those of us that were about him that our relation must fall hugely short of what was real I verily believe that it exceeds the highest Rhetorick to set out to the life what this heavenly creature did then deliver I say again I want words to speak and so did he for he saw things unutterable But yet so much he spake as justly drew the admiration of all that saw him and I heard an old experienced Christian and Minister say it again and again That He never saw nor read nor heard the like Neither could we ever expect to see the glories of Heaven more demonstrated to sense in this World He talked as if he had been in the third Heavens and broke out into such words as these O He is come He is come O how sweet How glorious is the blessed Jesus How shall I do to speak the thousandth part of his praises O for words to set out a little of that excellency But it is unexpressible O how excellent glorious and lovely is the precious Jesus He is sweet He is altogether lovely And now I am sick of Love he hath ravished my soul with his beauty I shall die sick of Love O my friends stand by and wonder come look upon a dying man and wonder I cannot my self but stand and wonder Was there ever a greater kindness was there ever sensibler manifestations of rich Grace O why me Lord why me Sure this is akin to Heaven and if I were never to enjoy any more than this it were well worth all the torments that men and Devils could invent to come thorow yea even a Hell to such transcendent joys as these If this be dying dying is sweet Let no true Christian ever be afraid of dying O Death is sweet to me This Bed is soft Christs Arms and Kisses his Smiles and Visits sure they would turn Hell into Heaven O that you did but see and feel what I do Come and behold a dying man more chearful than you ever saw any healthful man in the midst of his sweetest enjoyments O Sirs Worldly pleasures are pitiful poor sorry things compared with one glimps of this glory which shines in so strongly into my Soul O why should any of you be so sad when I am so glad This this is the hour that I have waited for About eight and forty hours before his Death his eyes were dim and his sight much failed his Jaws shook and trembled and his Feet were cold and all the symtoms of Death were upon him and his extream parts were already almost dead and senseless and yet even then his joys were if possible greater still He had so many fits of joy unspeakable that he seemed to be in one continued act of Seraphick Love and praise He spake like one that was just entring into the gates of the new Jerusalem the greatest part of him was now in Heaven not a word drop'd from his mouth but it breathed Christ and Heaven O what incouments did he give to them which did stand by to follow hard after God and to follow Christ in a humble believing zealous course of life and adding one degree of grace to another and using all diligence to make their Calling and Eleâ—â—ion sure and that then they also should find that they should have a glorious passage into a blessed Eternity But most of his work vvas Praise a hundred times admiring of the bottomless love of God to him O vvhy me Lord vvhy me And then he vvould give instructions to them that 〈◊〉 to see him He vvas scarce ever silent because the Love of Christ and Souls did constrain him There vvas so much work done for Christ in his last hours that I am ready to think he did as much in an hour as some do in a year Every particular person had a faithful affectionate vvarning And that good Minister that vvas so much vvith him used this as an argument to perswade him to be vvilling to live a little longer and to be patient to tarry Gods leisure sure God hath somthing for thee to do that is yet undone some vvord of exhortation to some poor soul that you have forgot The truth of it is he vvas so filled vvith the love of Christ that he could scarce bear absence from Him a moment He knew that he should be capable of bearing of greater Glory above than he
could hear It was the Judgment of some that were with him that his heart was not only habitual but actually set on God all the day long and nothing of humane frailty that could be thought a sin did appear for some time except it vvere his passionate desire to die and difficulty to bring himself to be vvilling to stay below Heaven He vvas wont every evening to take his leave of his friends hoping not to see them till the morning of the Resurrection and he desired that they would be sure to make sure of a comfortable meeting at our Fathers house in that other World I cannot relate the twentieth part of that vvhich deserved to be vvritten in letters of Gold And one that vvas one of the vveakest said that he did verily believe that if we had been exact in our taking his sentences and observing his daily experiences he could not imagine a Book could be published of greater use to the World next the Bible it self One rare passage I can't omit vvhich vvas this that vvhen Ministers or Christians came to him he would beg of them to spend all the time that they had vvith him in Praise O help me to praise God I have now nothing else to do from this time to Eternity but to praise and love God I have what my soul desires upon Earth I can't tell what to pray for but what I have gratiously given in The wants that are capable of supplying in this World are supplyed I want but one thing and that is Aspeedy life to Heaven I expect no more here I can't desire more I can't hear more O praise praise praise that infinite boundless love that hath to a wonder looked upon my soul and done more for me than thousands of his dear children O bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name O help me help me O my friends to praise and admire him that hath done such astonishing wonders for my soul he hath pardoned all my sins he hath filled me with his goodness he hath given me grace and glory and no good thing hath he withheld from me Come help me with praises all 's too little come help me O ye glorious and mighty Angels who are so well skilled in this heavenly work of praise Praise him all ye creatures upon the Earth let every thing that hath being help me to praise him Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Praise is now my work and I shall be engaged in this sweet imployment for ever Bring the Bible turn to Davids Psalms and let us sing a Psalm of praise Come let 's lift up our voice in the praise of the most high I will sing with you as long as my breath doth last and when I have none I shall do it better And then turning to some of his friends that were weeping he desired them rather to rejoyce than weep upon his account It may justly seem a wonder how he could speak so much as he did when he was so weak but the joy of the Lord did strengthen him In his sickness the scriptures that he took much delight in were the fourteenth fifteenth sixteenth and seventeenth of John The fifty fourth of Isay was very refreshing also to him he would repeat that word with everlasting mercies will I gather with abundance of joy He commended the study of the Promises to Believers and desired that they would be sure to make good their claim to them and then they might come to the Wells of Consolation and drink thereof their fill According to his desire most of the time that was spent with him was spent in Praise and he would still be calling out More Praise still O help me to praise him I have now nothing else to do I have done with Prayer and all other Ordinances I have almost done conversing with mortals I shall presently be beholding Christ hinself that dyed for me and loved me and washed me in his Blood I shall before a few hours are over be in Eternity singing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. I shall presently stand upon Mount Zion with an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of the just made perfect and Jesus the mediator of the New Covenant I shall hear the voice of much people and be one amongst them which shall say Hallelujah Salvation Glory Honour and power unto the Lord our God and again we shall say Hallelujah And yet a very little while and I shall sing unto the Lamb a Song of Praise saying Worthy art thou to receive Praise who wert slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign with thee for ever and ever Methinks I stand as it were with one foot in Heaven and the other upon Earth methinks I here the melody of Heaven and by Faith I see the Angels waiting to carry my Soul to the bosom of Jesus and I shall be for ever with the Lord in Glory And who can choose but rejoyce in all this In several times he spake in this Language and repeated many of these words often over and over again with far greater affection than can be well worded And I solemnly profess that what is here written is no Hyperbole and that the twentieth part of what was observable in him is not Recorded and though we can't word it exactly as he did yet you have the substance and many things in his own words with little or no variation The day before his Death he looked somewhat earnestly upon his Brother James who stood by him very sad of whom he Judged that he was putting up some Ejaculations to God upon his account I thank thee dear Brother for thy love said he thou art now praying for me and I know thou lovest me dearly but Christ loveth me ten thousand times more than thou dost Come and Kiss me dear Brother before I Die And so with his cold dying Lips he Kissed him and said I shall go before and I hope thou shalt follow after to Glory Though he was almost always praising God and exhorting them that were about him to mind their everlasting concerns and secure an interest in Christ and though he slept but very little for some nights yet he was not in the least impaired in his intellectuals but his actions were all decent and becoming a man and his Discourse to a spiritual understanding highly rational solid divine And so he continued to the last minute of his breath A few hours before his Death he called all his relations and Brethren together that he might give them one solemn Warning more and bless them and Pray for them as his Breath and Strength would give him leave Which he did with abundance of authority affection and spirituallity which take briefly as it follows First He thanked his dear Mother for her tender love to him
and desired that she might be in travail to see Christ formed in the souls of the rest of her Children and see of the travail of her soul and meet them with joy in that great day Then He charged all his Brethren and Sisters in general as they would answer it before God that they should carry it dutiful to their dear Mother As for his eldest Brother William at whose house he lay sick his prayer vvas that he might be swallowed up of Christ and Love to souls and be more and more exemplary in his life and successful in his Ministry and finish his course vvith joy His next Brothers name vvas Andrew a Citizen of London who was with him and saw him in this triumphing state but his necessary business calling him away he could not then be by yet he vvas not forgot but he was thus blessed The God of Heaven remember my poor Brother at London The Lord make him truly rich in giving him the Pearl of great price and make him a Fellow-Citizen with the Saints and of the House-hold of God the Lord deliver him from the sins of that City may the world be kept out of his heart and Christ dwell there O that he may be as his name is a strong man and that I may meet him with Joy Then he called his next Brother whose name was James whom he hoped God had made him a spiritual Father to to whom he thus addressed himself Brother James I hope the Lord hath given thee a goodly heritage the lines are fallen to thee in pleasant places the Lord is thy portion I hope the Lord hath shewed thee the worth of a Christ Hold on dear Brother Christ Heaven and Glory are worth striving for The Lord give thee more abundance of his grace Then His next Brother Abraham was called to whom he spake to this purpose The blessing of the God of Abraham rest upon thee the Lord make thee a Father of many spiritual Children His fifth Brother was Joseph whom he blessed in this manner Let him bless thee O Joseph that blessed him that was separated from his Brothren O that his everlasting Arms may take hold on thee It is enough if yet thou mayest live in his sight My heart hath been working towards thee poor Joseph and I am not without hopes that the Arms of the Almighty will mbrace thee The God of thy Father bless thee with the blessings of Heaven above The next was his Sister Mary to whom he spoke thus Poor Sister Mary thy body is weak and thy daies will be filled with bitterness thy name is Marah the Lord sweeten all with his Grace and Peace and give thee health in thy Soul Be patient and make sure of Christ and all is well Then His other Sister whose name was Sarah was called whom he thus blessed Sister Sarah thy body is strong and healthful O that thy Soul may be so too The Lord make thee first a wise Virgin and then a Mother in Israel a pattren of Modesty Humility and Holiness Then another Brother Jacob was called whom he blessed after this manner The Lord make thee an Israelite indeed in whom there in no guile O that thou maist learn to wrestle with God and like a Prince maist prevail and not go without the blessing Then he prayed for his youngest Brother Benjamin who was then but an Infant Poor little Benjamin O that the Father of the Fatherless would take care of thee poor Child that thou which never sawest thy Father upon Earth maiest see him with joy in Heaven the Lord be thy Father and Portion maist thou prove the Son of thy Mothers right Hand and the joy of her Age O that none of us all may be found amongst the unconverted in the day of Judgment O that every one of us may appear with our Honoured Father and dear Mother before Christ with joy that they may say Lord here are we and the Children which thou hast gratiously given us O that we may live to God here and live with him hereafter And now my dear Mother Brethren and Sisters Farewel I leave you for a while and I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified And now dear Lord my work is done I have finished my Course I have fought the good Fight and henceforth there remaineth for me a Crown of Righteousness Now come dear Lord Jesus come quickly Then that Godly Minister came to give him his last visit and to do the office of an inferiour Angel to help to convey this blessed soul to Glory who was now even upon Mount Pisga and had a full sight of that goodly Land at a little distance When this Minister spake to him his heart was in a mighty flame of Love and Joy which drew tears of Joy from that pretious Minister being almost amazed to hear a man just a dying talk as if he had been with Jesus and came from the immediate presence of God ` O the smiles that were then in his Face and the unspeakable Joy that was in his Heart one might have read Grace and Glory in such a mans Countenance O the praise the triumphant praises that he put up And every one must speak praise about him or else they did make some jar in his Harmony And indeed most did as well as they could help him in praise So that I never heard nor knew more praises given to God in one Room than in his Chamber A little before he died in the Prayer or rather Praises he was so wrapped up with admiration and joy that he could scarce forbear shouting for joy In the conclusion of the Duty with abundance of Faith and fervency he said aloud Amen Amen! And now his desires shall soon be satisfied He seeth Death coming apace to do his office his jaws are loosened more and more and quiver greatly his Hands and Feet are as cold as clay and a cold sweat is upon him but O how glad was he when he felt his Spirit just agoing Never was Death more welcom to any mortal I think Though the pangs of Death where strong yet that far-more-exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory made him indure those bitter paines with much patience and courage In the extremity of his pains he desired his eldest Brother to lay him a little lower and to take away one Pillow from him that he might die with the more ease His Brother replied that he durst not for a world do any thing that might hasten his Death a moment Then he was vvell satisfied and did sweetly resign himself up vvholly to Gods disposal and after a few minutes vvith a sudden motion gathering up all his strength he gave himself a little turne on one side and in the twinkling of an eye departed to the Lord sleeping in Jesus And now blessed soul thy longings are satisfied and thou