Parents connive not at your Children in evil words and perverse and foolish actions whereby they offend others lest they grow head strong also against your selves but in love and with a holy awe bear down such things in them retaining a sence of your love in their hearts and especially exalting the Name of the Lord and his fear in them that they may receive a good savour of the truth and things pertaining unto God betimes in their youth and acquaint them with the Scriptures of truth from their Child-hood as Timothy was acquainted and lay not on Youth more than it is able to bear neither bring them up in Idleness and Sloathfulness nor feed them with ability to follow bad courses Set before them an example worthy to be followed for they mind your example more than your words and let not your Prayers and Supplications to the Lord in behalf of your Children be wanting for the ordering of their hearts is from the Lord. And you Children be not stubborn and stiff-necked against your Parents for that 's dishonour to them and disobedience to God being directly contrary to his Will who hath commanded you to honour them and to obey them Be submissive therefore and obedient to them honouring them by your submission that as the Apostle of our Lord mindeth you Thy days may be long in the Land which the Lord thy God giveth thee And you that are Servants be faithful in your place and so adorn the Truth which you profess And consider this well That you cannot honour what you profess if your humble submissive obedient faithful Service to your Masters according to the flesh be awanting for therein chiefly are you eyed by all persons And the enquiry of every ones mind after prosessing Persons who profess more than themselves is this What is such a one in his life If you be Self-willed and Stiff trifling away your time and neglecting your Masters business or be careless and wastful of things under your hand and custody and give provoking words to your Masters when they reprove you you are out of the path of Truth what Zeal soever you pretend for the Truth It is not your running or busie talking for what you profess that will answer the Light in the Conscience of another so as to justifie you if they know that you are negligent or unfaithful and careless in the meantime in your Service to your Master Therefore let this always remain in your minds That your Service ought to be such as if you were doing Service to the Lord Christ whatsoever your Masters be and whether present or absent And indeed it is him you serve you that are faithful in your Service And therefore let that bear up your hearts who are found faithful and yet meet with difficulties and discouragements from your Masters And though they be perverse and froward yet be you patient and submissive and that may in time reach their Consciences and make them confess their evil carriage and justifie you and so honour the Truth which you profess And be not troubled that you are Servants thinking that if you were free you would run more speedily in the race set before you for you may bring as much honour to the Lord in your faithfulness and submissive service as if you were free Diligence and Providence in business and mindfulness that nothing go to wast and ruine under ones hand if they be free it 's look't upon as for ones self but in Service to another it 's more look't upon as from the fear of the Lord ruling your hearts and more convincing to others that the Lord is with you Set before you the example of Jacob who served Laban thrice seven years faithfully though Laban dealt deceitfully with him and changed his Wages ten times Gen. 31.7 J. cob for all that being faithful the Lord blessed his Labours and increased Labans Flock abundantly for Jacobs sake and made Laban sensible thereof and confess it Gen. 30.27 I find by experience saith he that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake Oh strive to be such Servants as may have the blessing of the Lord to go along with your Service to the convinceing of those you serve as you see it was with Jacob. And as it was with Jacob so also with Joseph his Son when he was Servant in Egypt to Potipher The Lord made all that was under his hand to prosper as you may read Gen. 39. Whereby his Master saw that the Lord was with him And do not think these Examples to be too high to be look't at by you that are Servants as if it were beyond expectation to attain to the like For there is a like blessing promised to every one and attends every one that are found faithful delighting in the Law of the Lord and Meditating therein Day and Night Psal 1.3 And if you say you have not that Wisdom which they had If any man want Wisdom let him ask it of God and he will give Wisdom where there is endeavour to please him And seeing the Lord hath disposed the whole Earth which is as a great House that he takes care of into Families therefore Servants are as needful in their places as Masters in theirs And as to your spiritual Estate and Son-ship and your Eternal happiness there is no respect of persons with God Therefore may Servants go on as cheerfully in their work of submissive Obedience as Masters in theirs of Commanding and Ruling Be not therefore troubled that thou art a Servant but be contented in that Condition untill thou seest Providence leading thee forth as Jacob was And Masters be not Cruel and Tyrannical or Unjust to your Servants or like Pharoahs Task masters to them but consider them as of the same flesh and blood with your selves and also that they are or may be Heirs of the Kingdom of God as well as you And therefore use them as you would be used if you were in their place And let every one that professes the Name of the Lord mind the blameless life that becomes Christianity This therefore I say That the Life of a Christian is a Plain Humble Meek Innocent Just Merciful Faithful Sober Temperate Gentle Loving Kind Chast Contented Wise Peaceable Holy Diligent Vpright Harmless Inoffensive Life and Conversation Chast also to God as well as to Man For the right Christian doth Worship God in Spirit and in Truth and will not prostitute his Soul to the known Superstitious Worships of Mans Wisdom and ordering which was always counted spiritual Whoredom with God In such a Life or in pursuance thereof doth the true Christian live The Ground of this Christian life is from the Spirit of the Lord working in man and changing the heart though some know it not and inclining it to these things which the Obedient and Faithful do walk in And the Lord knoweth his own who are of an upright heart though they as yet know not him but may doubt
actions And as thou approvest thy self to their Consciences so thou begers in them the like esteem of others If thou art of a haughty lofty spirit and despifest others as the Pharisees did they think all are so until they find it otherwise by experience and tryal of some But if thou be humble meek lowly-minded down-right honest and faithful to be trusted and thy Word as a Rock to be built upon as it ought to be then thou honours what thou professes and them that professe the same truth with thee If thou art a Busie-body going about tatling of others and descanting upon them and their actions and so sowing Enmity and Disaffection in the minds of people towards one another and so serving the accusing back-biting Spirit where then is the bridle to thy Tongue what 's thy Religion worth The Apostle tells thee its Vain Jam. 1.26 Thou that art such a one learn this lesson to be swift to hear slow to speak as the same Apostle teaches ver 19. And know that thou answer not the Light in the Consciences of others but they see thee in the Light that 's in them and can read thee what thou art when thou art gone And if thou art a Servant and pretendest to have found the truth of Religion and to be acquainted with the way of the Lord more perfectly yet art less mindsul of thy business and carrys more stoutly and faucily towards the Masters art more stiff to be commanded in thy Service using Religion as a Cloak to withstand them and when thou art reproved retortest biting words which may lash them thou dost not answer the Light in their Consciences which raises an expectation in them of more faithful and well-pleasing Service thou transgresses the Counsel of the Lord by his Holy Apostles which they delivered to his Servants in the Churches and thou stops their way to the Kingdom of Christ who look for better things to spring from the true Spirit and so thou art an offence in the world And wo to the world because of these and such like offences Therefore who-ever thou art Bond or Free Master or Servant see to it that thy life be upright and single as before the Lord who searches and sees all thy Actions and the Intentions of thy heart in them all and by thy Actions in thy Conversation will discover thee to the world for he that is the Light giveth them Light to discern by And think it not sufficient that thou art gathered into such a Society and perhaps maist have esteem among them But consider that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net cast into the Sea which gathers of every sort good and bad And many things are gathered in the Net that are to be cast away again the good only are to be gathered into Vessels the bad to be cast away If therefore thy life be bad what will thy being gathered into an outward Profession advantage thee Therefore be not high-minded because thou art gathered by the Net but fear lest after thou art gathered the Profession become a snare to thee through disobedience for it may become a snare to the Rebellious and Stout-hearted and Disobedient to the Worldly-minded to the Hard-hearted and Unmerciful to the Haughty and Disdainful yea to such as are lifted up and exalted in their own thoughts and in their own Righteousness or in any thing else for whatsoever it is that the heart is exalted in whereby to be lifted up to behave it self proudly above others it s not right before the Lord. To such I say whose Religion lyes in any forme or formal part of any Profession whatsoever without an approved Life and Conversation to such their Table may become a snare and a trap to hold fast such spirits in while the Lord finds our a purer path for his beloved Seed to travel on in If thou question this consider was not the ministration of the Law of Moses given to the Jews to feed at and to be refreshed at was it not as a Table spread in the Wilderness as well as the providing of outward food for them was Did not this become a snare and a trap to all the Stout-hearted and Hypocritical Professors of it And so they stuck fast in the formal profession of that ministration as in a snare when the true humble Seed had joyful tydings brought them and were transplanted into a more spiritual and approved way which the Lord directed them to walk in And doth not the Apostle Paul that chosen Vessel mind the Corinthians and in them us That though the Israelites were Baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea into that glorious ministration for it was glorious in its time Yet for all that how did their Carkasses fall in the Wilderness and never arrived at thâ— Promised Land the Land of Canaan Now these things saith he happened unto them for ensamples and were written for our Admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10. Again do but cast back thine eye and look upon fore going ministrations of latter years and consider thy own esteem of them Dost not thou thy self look upon them as a snare to many holding their feet fast that they cannot get on in the pursuit of truth in following the Lamb whither-soever he goes Now as thou judges of them it shall be judged of thee except thou walk humbly with thy God and mindest the weighty matters that he chiefly takes delight in For the Seed is to go forward and to grow up in those things and will leave them behind who are found failing therein although they be strict asserters of the outward form of their profession This is spoken to thee that art high lofty in thy heart and lifted up above others in thy mind because of thy prosession while as yet thou comes behind some of them in thy Life and Conversation and in actions of Equity and Mercy and such weighty things But to you that are despised and overlooked by such to you I say you humble Shrubs you Under-growth you Meek and lowly-minded ones whose hearts are kept in the fear of God and thereby made careful that you offend not in your Life and Conversation nor also with the Tongue and so do not make it an instrument of sowing Discord or Enmity among Brethren by whispering and back-biting you are as well able to rule the whole body Do you keep humble where you are in the lowliness of your mind And if others exalt themselves over you and magnifie themselves in abasing you or others and so would bear up themselves by vilifying others as if they themselves were some body and others of light account Yet be not you like them neither be troubled that you are hidden and overlooked but rest in the Lord waiting on his Will and keeping out of those evils and recording things in your hearts as you
of his own Country but Lot followed him therefore in the case of strife Lot should in reason have given way to Abraham and in their separating should have given the choyce to Abraham which way he would go But behold Abraham denys himself for Peace-sake and gives Lot the choyce of the Country Gen. 13.8 9. Let there be no strife I pray thee saith he to Lot between me and thee and between my Herd-men and thy Herd-men for we are Bre hren Is not the whole Land before thee Separate thy self I pray thee from me If thou wilt take the left-hand then I will go to the right or if thou wilt take the right hand then I will go to the left Thus Self-denying Abraham would stand to Lot's leavings Now observe a difference in their temper or spirit Lot though he was a just man yet did not so yeeld to Abraham as A raham yeelded to him He suffered Lot to please himself in the choyce of the Country and Lot did please himself and chose the best of the Country to his understanding Even the Plains of Jordan where it was well watered every where even as the Garden of the Lord and so most commodious for his Flocks Gen. 13.10 11. But what was the Consequence of Lots pleasing of himself and of Abrahams Self-denyal Observe which was the Gainer which was the Looser Lots choyce drew him down towards Sodom and at last into Sodom where he was once taken Captive together with the Sodomites and all he had led away and where his Righteous Soul was vexed from day to day to behold their unlawful deeds and where at last he was in danger to have been burnt with them Abraham on the other hand standing to Lots leavings was sufficiently recon-penced by the Lord. For the Lord appeared to him after that Lot was separated from him and bid him lift up his eyes and look North-ward and South-ward and East-ward and West-ward and promises to give him all the Land as far as he could see and to his Seed for a perpetual Inheritance Besides this Lots pleasing of himself set him in a place of great danger Abrahams Self-denyal kept him in safety And the Lord made Abraham Lots Deliverer first from the Captivity of those Kings which took him and all his away with the Spoils of Sodom and afterwards from the burning in which Sodom was consumed For it s said Gen. 19.29 that when God destroyed the Cities of the plain He remembred Abraham and sent out Lot out of the mid'st of the over-throw when he over-threw the Cities in which Lot dwelt Though Lot was a just man yet the Lord had more respect to Abraham in Lots deliverance than to Lot himself Such delight had the Lord in Self-denying Abraham And these words have been often sounded in my Spirit I love just Lots but my delight is with the Self-denying Abrahams Therefore I lay these things before you as a mark for you to press forward unto And they that walk accordingly though they be counted weak for so doing by others who please their Earthly part in using more cunning for the world yet they shall reap the blessing from the Lord. I know there is no need of speaking these things to some who are taught of the Lord to walk in the same steps as Abraham walked but nevertheless there be those to whom these things may belong who stand in need to be put in mind of them After the same steps of Abraham did his Son Isaac walk when there arose strife between his Servants and the Philistims about the Wells he digged Gen. 26. He still left those that they strove about to the Philistims until he possessed one without strife and he called it Rehoboth for now said he the Lord hath made room for us Thus were they taught by the Lord even to let go that which they had a right to for Peace-sake and to avoyd strife And thus the true Love teaches where it is risen in the heart in power It seeks not its own It 's so far from encroaching upon anothers right that it rather gives way to encroachments Therefore you in whom this Spirit is found be not grieved or troubled when you have to deal with Spirits that are too hard for you in the affairs of this World because they dare make use of more Earthly subtilty to compass their own ends than you dare do The Lord that recompenced Abraham will not forget you Let them that are of a more Earthly Spirit lay fast hold of the Earthly things which they love and prefer before simplicity of Spirit but do ye lay hold on the better things and the Lord will make up your wrongs in due time For want of this Self-denyal in these things and by giving way to the Earthly mind and to Covetousness which is a root of all evil how many have withered in their several Professions before us turning back to the things which once their faces were turned from And as you stand related in Families be faithful in your several Relations wherein you stand For if you carry disorderly therein that will be as a Worm at the root of whatsoever you can profess and will cause all to wither again in whatsoever you may flourish Walk in Love and in Wisdom in your places to wards them that are without not as Fools opening the mouths of the World against you for your folly and then glorying in that as if it were suffering Reproach for the Truth when it is only for your own headiness and disorder But mind things of good report as the Apostle of our Lord exhorts that so your lives may be of a good savour before all and you may be of good repute among them that are without and they may glorifie God for you in the day of their Visitation But if you be Reproached for the keeping of your Consciences clear in answering the requirings of the Lord that will turn to your honour and their shame that therefore do Reproach you Art thou a Master or Mistress in a Family and art mild and gentle abroad be so at home also not austere and fierce but ruling thy Family in the fear of the Lord and in Love and meekness instructing and directing those under thee so wilt thou be an incouragement to those that serve thee If any be stubborn I do not bid thee lay aside thy Authority which God hath given thee but see thou use it aright as for the Lord. Art thou a Husband take heed how thou suffers thy love to be alienated from thy Wife or gives just occasion to alienate hers from thee If thou art a Wife take heed how thou quenches thy Husbands love by thy want of love to him and be in subjection to him as thou art commanded 1 Pet. 3.1 And let your mutual love to one another represent the Love of Christ and his Church lest the truth you profess above the World be evil spoken of through you You that are