peevish impatient and quarrelsom and both too guilty of censoriousness and devotedness to their own customs or opinions he shall hardly be grateful to either but only to the true Sons of Peace amongst all who are endued with the sweet and genuine temper of Christianity Oh unhappy England How long hast thou been tost to and fro by the hands of Violence and Contention How oft hast thou been bent this way and that into contrary extreams Oh when at length wilt thou be set strait and obtain a quiet rest Oh that this might be the happy effect of Gods heavy hand now upon us We and our Posterity then would have cause to say Oh happy Plague that befell us in 1665. which discovered to the Inhabitants of England this Plague of their own hearts their uncharitableness and animosities one against another and cur'd them hereof and reconciled them into a blessed lasting Peace To this Wish of mine Let every Reader say Amen even So beit Oh what is become of that humble patient self-denying loving Spirit which was once the Character of the Followers and Friends of our gracious tender-hearted and compassionate Lord Jesus Strange that ever the Gospel of Peace should furnish the Corruptions of men with matters for Strife When one great yea very great Design of it is to promote the truest and most solid and universal Peace amongst the Sons of men which is the natural Consequent of their being at peace with God through the great Reconciler And yet what would we have There 's scarce a man but speaks for Peace and vehemently declaims against Dissentions Few there are but wonder there should be any Differences in the World and that men are not all of one mind But what mind must that be Even their own And this this is our mischief the World is full of such Magisterial Spirits that they forsooth would be Dictatours in the Church And though themselves may be always wavering and crookned by a Devotion for a Party yet would they be the Centre where all various apprehensions should meet their Opinions and Wills must be the Rule and Standard of Truth and Duty Though men be never so much blinded by Prejudice or Self-conceit yet they take it ill if others will not see with their eyes blindfold themselves and take them for our Guides Now in our Nation One man wonders what is in the mind of some that they are faln so much in love with some inconsiderable things that they rigorously exact from all others an observance of them And these wonder there should be any found to scruple at them But it s well if either remember their own ignorance weakness and liableness to mistake which might move them both to a more charitable construction of their Brethrens actions The Overtures for agreement which come from the weaker are sometimes disgrac'd by those of their own way the Zealots of them as proceeding from Cowardice and temporizing and most frequently snufft at by the Party that hath got the upper hand as saucy and impertinent The condescensions of those that are in power are usually little more than to will and command yes it may be entreat all that dissent from them to a through-compliance and then they 'l account them humble and peaceable but scarce otherwise be their demands never so large and unreasonable And if any true Lover of Charity not of the name but thing shall propose a way for the reconciling of differences hee 's look't awry at especially by the higher side and becomes less capable of Preferment except as a means to corrupt him as being not thorowly Baptized into their Party Thus have we got one for Paul and another for Apollo nay worse distinguishing names than these and whil'st both sides are too guilty of inveighing against each other for not coming over wholly to them how little is done toward a Mid-way meeting Who formerly have been and who now especially are too blame in the Land for keeping open our breaches is not very difficult impartially to discover But still it so falls out that they who are most in fault may least safely be told so for this must needs be acknowledged That they who have opportunity and power of making a very fair and satisfactory Accomodation betwixt those that differ and yet do it not so far as this neglect comes to are the persons guilty of continuing our divisions They who had formerly this opportunity and neglected it were in their time guilty and by consequence they who now enjoy the same advantages and yet improve them not must needs fall under the same charge I think that man undertakes a very hard task whose confin'd affections and zeal for his particular Opinions shall engage him to defend all that is done by the Retainers to the way which he himself hath embrac't For my part I should think it a piece of difficulty to maintain that even our first Reformers from the Romish Superstitions were none of them acted by private Aims and Secular Interest or miscarried in no circumstance of managing Affairs though the main cause was most just and honourable Let who list then for me enter into a defence of this side or that not only for these Twenty but Hundred and twenty Years for so long a date do some of our unhappy differences bear And many will confidently aver That a Puritan is of as ancient standing as an English Protestant and was once thought best worthy of that Name and that a Non-conformist was found as soon as there appeared a Martyr for the Reformed Cause Nor yet am I willing to look so far back as to give any impertinent rehearsal of all the disorders that did precede or cause accompany or immediately follow upon the more open and violent contentions which have been amongst us which might tend rather to exasperate all than profit any for doubtless such miscarriages have been of all sides let particular Historians this way or that say what they will that hearty Repentance and mutual Forgiveness is more becoming all than Self-justification and spleenish Recriminations if there be any yet guilty of so much pride and uncharitableness I heartily pray that all who have so long surviv'd their Crimes may be deeply humbled for their setting our Nation on flame which all the blood that was spilt hath not yet quench't for the Scandal they have brought upon the Protestant Cause for all their breach of Oaths Vows and Covenants prostituting their Consciences and pretending Religion for carrying on their corrupt designs and wilful letting slip the opportunities they had for the promoting the cause of Christ and establishing a setled Peace in the Churches for the gaining of which some excellent Spirits did so earnestly though too unsuccessfully labour But oh is it not strange and sad that after we have so long seen and smarted under the deplorable effects of discord we should yet be as far from embracīng the necessary means of Reconciliation as ever That
flesh shall never trouble you more for ever Now shall your Prayers at length be all heard your Complainings ended your Expectations and Longings satisfied and accomplished Chear up chear up brave Souls but one step more and then you are at your Fathers house Methinks I see the Arms of Christ stretcht out to receive you and Angels waiting to conduct you to his Arms. Fear not nor be dismaid confidentlie resign your Souls to him who laid down his life for you The darknesse lasts but a little while and presentlie you will come into the open light oh the difference you will in a moment find betwixt your dark and silent room and the mansion that shall be assigned you in your Fathers house To which the stateliest Palace is a loathsom dungeon Oh what Acclamations and Hallelujahs what crying Holie Holie Holie what Glorious Praises and loud noises What Crowns and Scepters what Riches and Beauties will your ears and eyes be presentlie stricken with So that you will be amazed and wonder whether you are come and where you have been all this while that you never heard nor saw these things before So infinitelie will they exceed your highest thoughts when Faith helpt you to the clearest views But all your strangenesse and amazement will soon be over Surprisals of joy will dissipate and succeed them This is the Glorie the hopes whereof upheld you all your daies and the glimmerings and fore-tasts did so oft revive you Now you shall at length see the Lord who lov'd you and gave himself for you and whom your Souls have loved Oh is there not life in his smiles And if he smiles upon you all the Angels and Saints will bid you welcome For his beck and pleasure it is that rules all There you shall be entred into that throng of Blessed Spirits yours shall their Employments be their Priviledges shall be yours Then shall your understandings be enlightened your affections raised and all your capacities widened and all be fill'd with suitable truth and goodnesse the latent powers of your souls shall then be awakened into that high Celestial Life Then shall you be nearer to your Saviour than John when he leaned on his Bosome and shall taste the full fruits of his dear and costlie love Then then blessed Soul thou shalt know and see and feel and enjoy thy God and be brought as near to him as thy Soul can desire and receive as much from him as thy nature is capable The Lord thy Redeemer having by his Blood and Spirit accomplished his whole designe upon thee and fitted thee for will lead thee into the Fathers presence and so thou shalt enter upon the state of constant and full communion with him And shall be always spending an Eternitie in Contemplating and Admiring his Excellencies and Glories and singing his Praises in the warm-breathings and out-goings of thy heart after him and in the ravishments of highest mutual Love and dearest Complacency betwixt thy enlarged Soul and infinite essential goodnesse even the God of Loves This thou shalt have but what this is though I had leasure and skill to say ten thousand times more then I have done thou couldst not know the thousandth part till thou doest enjoy it Wherefore with an holy impatience and eager joy enter upon the possession of all the Treasures of Love which Death comes to Translate thee to Bid it heartily welcome open thy breast and let it strike 'T is but the prick of a Pin the smarts ceast assoon as its in the Pangs of it are gone in a trice See they are over already all pain was expired with that last groan and now thou art entered upon thy Joy Farewell Blessed Souls whom I hope shortly to follow and with you to celebrate an Everlasting Communion in the Presence Praise and Love of the Great Jehovah and his Son Christ Jesus to whom in the Vnity of the Spirit be rendred all Honour Power and Glory now and Eternally Amen FINIS
your works longer than this comes to if you cannot afford God that small space of time he affords you And you that were wont to be so weary of the Prayer and Sermon and shift postures first up and then down peeping at the Glasse or your Watch Is it not equal that you should be held with those pains which shall make you weary for somewhat when you shall turn from side to side but get no ease and count all the tedious hours of the night expecting every moment to sink into that woful state where are no more dayes or nights or hours where you shall never have a moments rest through a whole Eternity And then say whether the Service of God or the Sufferings you feel from God be the more tedious If wicked wretches thus loosely encroach upon the Lords own day may we not well fear lest God should depopulate our Land that so at length it may enjoy its Sabbaths And is it not just they should be seized with a disease which admits not of a Minister to visit them who in the time of life and health did so little care for their Minister How many who have been shut up from all converse with men were wont formerly to excommunicate themselves from the Publick Congregation And if they would not stir over their Threshold to the Church 't is just they should not stir out at all And may we not see many doors praying now whose owners were not before wont to pray either in Publick or with their Families on the Lords Day or any other time Nay perhaps might be deriders of all serious praying and only use to take Gods Name in vain with their Formalities Is it not just then that those who were utterly unacquainted with and it may be jeer'd at praying by the Spirit should be taught by the feeling of their flesh to groan out an hearty Lord have mercy upon us 9. Another very common sin somewhat related to the former is the contempt and abuse of the Ordinances of Christ especially the Lords Supper whilest so many partake of the Table of the Lord and in some sense of the Table of Devils which what is it but to provoke the Lord to jealousie as if we were stronger than he 1 Cor. 10. 21 22. Many there are indeed whose Hypocrisie and Treachery is only known to God and though the Minister cannot yet these he will find out To vow obedience to God whil'st we intend and perform nothing lesse this is such a wickednesse so solemnly to mock him as he will not bear at his creatures hands And how many Thousands are guilty of such falshood and perjury For the breach of these Oaths be sure the Land mourns When each member of the Church thus Covenants to Reform himself and yet still continues in wickednesse How is the receiving this Sacrament made a meer matter of course And if it be remembred for a day it 's well but the engagement then made is presently forgot But believe it God will not forget it so How many have we that are Celebrating the remembrance of Christs death to day who are Crucifying him again to morrow And such as these I chiefly intend who whil'st they customarily renew their obligations to live to the honour of their Lord do what in them lies to put him to an open shame And where is the place where difference is put betwixt the precious and the vile and any scruple made of casting Pearls before Swine Childrens bread to Dogs Whosoever's fault this is that it is a fault and a very heinous one too can hardly be denied by any that use to read what Qualifications Scripture requires of all that are admitted not only to some more solemn Ordinances but into Church-communion If covetous persons Drunkards Swearers Whoremongers and all disorderly Walkers are to be noted withdrawn from and not to be eaten with take the word in what sense you will then let the most impartial charitable person judge what a vast and sad difference there is betwixt the precept and our practice Si hoc sit Evangelium non sumus Evangelici Where are they that walk after this Rule And 't is not likely that this very sin which brought sicknesses and death upon the Corinthians should have lost its provoking nature by the tract of time or any difference of circumstances betwixt us and them It cannot surely be thought that the Commonnesse of this miscarriage nor yet the difficulty and seeming impossibility which some are apt to pretend of having it remedied should render it lesse displeasing to that Holy God who is so jealous about his Sanctuary If Vzzah was smitten for his too bold officiousnesse in staying the tottering Ark and 50070 men of the Bethshemites for their curiosity in prying into it how shall they be able to stand before the Lord in the day of his vengeance who have so profan'd his holy Ordinances Interest sometimes restrains men from punishing a crime that is universal but believe it this takes no place in God No to his mercy we owe it only that our punishment is not as extensive as our guilt But surely this his Besom of destruction with which he sweeps away multitudes clearly speaks it self sent to scourge a general sin and I know none more than this we are now upon And it is not mens Lazinesse or carnal interests their lothnesse to displease either the Vulgar or Great Ones by whom they live that shall here or in the day of their appearance before the great Law-giver and Judge excuse their disobedience to his so expresse and peremptory Injunctions To tell them then that his Commands were inconsistent with their ease or the favour of men which is the voyce of their present negligence will hardly excuse them who have so often told others That no man can be Christs Disciple much less then a Minister without very great measures of Self-denial If any of those whom they now please by their cowardice and compliance will then bear them out they are safe enough but if that is not to be expected they had best bethink themselves in time how to give a comfortable account of their Stewardship Though private members performing their duty may not justly pretend the Pastors negligence to justifie a Separation yet how far others assuming a power to themselves if they execute it not will excuse those who are deputed to dispense these mysteries when they shall deliver them to such whom they have good reason to think unworthy it behoves them who are concerned well to consider The unworthy receiver himself it may be hath some pretence or other to shift the blame from off him as that he was never admonished nor suspended but all these evasions will be too gross to pass for current with a just Judge I hope 't is no scandalous thing to bewail the want of and earnestly desire a Discipline amongst us as guilty as the word is grown By whom or with what
and make them their pattern whom they complain of and condemn And had it been as it was not those persons who injured them whom now they cause to suffer I wonder where Revenge is made their duty but this in a Church-man must sometimes pass for zeal for the Church It was easie to instance in more effects of this their Ejection which have been injurious to Religion and the Souls of men Hence it 's come to pass that their endeavours in a private way by personal discourses or writings to reclaim sinners are much frustrated for they are looked upon as a kind of distinct Party and so let them be never so careful to insist only on the most uncontroverted Truths of Religion yet will many through prejudice misunderstand all they say as if they were pleading their own cause and endeavouring to gain Proselytes to themselves whil'st they are only striving to win Souls to Christ When they are pressing men upon holiness and diligence for their Salvation some are prone to flatter themselves with a conceit That this only is their strict and singular Opinion and all that they say or do in Religion is put upon the score of a Party as if in these things they differed from others and therefore are they disregarded And thus it is also as to the People who are known to love and adhere to them for their exact walking is look't on but as the following a Sect and which need not therefore be imitated And it can hardly be thought how many Souls miscarry through these mistakes which might have been much prevented by that concord and mutual Love which might have made all have been esteemed as Brethren Moreover hence it is that these being now counted disaffected and discontented persons many who bore them a Spleen for their Love 't is not impossible meet with pretences to vent it for they narrowly watch them in all their wayes and a little Love to the Commonwealth with a Dose of Revenge and Malice how vigilant will it make men and are still ready to accuse them of something or other they know not what to bring them into trouble And if they do but with all peaceableness meet together with their Neighbours and Friends to quicken comfort and build up one another in their most holy Faith yea if they do but continue those Meetings they were wont to have in times of greatest Liberty presently they are liable to disturbance and punishment as men holding unlawful Assemblies whereas had no such terms been put upon them as necessarily put a difference betwixt them and others they might have been esteemed as Loyal Subjects as they indeed are and their actions had not been so obnoxious to groundless censures and accusations nor they ever hurried to Prison or forc't some other way to suffer for nothing but the meer Surmises of the malicious But I shall not give in more particulars And whether these things I have mentioned are well-pleasing to God or whether they may not rather have help't on his Indignation against us let all that are unbyas't determine As to the Truth of what I have spoke I think it cannot be gain-sayed and what can be answered I cannot devise except what I before hinted any should say That by their removal the Peace of Church and State is secured which otherwise had been hazarded To which I answer 1. Might not this Peace have been procured better by laying it upon those things whereon Christ hath laid the peace of his Church And not to make new Laws to which whil'st men in Conscience cannot give obedience they must be judged obstinate as the Courtiers served Daniel Surely this is hard measure when the things required are in the judgment of the Imposers not necessary till they have commanded them and so might have been left as indifferent as they are in their own natures and then how little contention had there been about them 2. Might these persons be excused from those kind of Subscriptions and Declarations which are commanded them They are ready to give in all that Security that can in reason he demanded That they will be careful to preserve and promote the Publick Peace If their Oaths and Promises may not be thought sufficient to oblige them to this what hold could be taken of those other Subscriptions and Professions But if these were intended as a distinguishing Shibboleth that they might know whom to fall upon as a partition wall to keep off those that may in some punctilio's differ from them as a Test of a Party which serves to rank men under several divisions If any in their Impositions had such like designs as these it is not all their Power and Policy combin'd that can make such actings pass for current with that God who is a Lover of Peace And all at length shall be convinc't That they who break the Peace of the Church to promote the peace of a Party are not those Peace-makers upon whom a blessing is pronounced 3. I would fain know what disturbance of the Peace there was whil'st the Liberty granted by His MAJESTIES Declaration was enjoyed and upon what account it was likely to have been more violated had that Liberty been secured and perpetuated 4. I am yet to learn how this Restraint that is laid upon them doth any whit the more incapacitate them for interruption of the Peace if a sense of their duty laid not a stronger obligation on them It 's evident enough that many of them have that influence upon their people that it was no way difficult for them to lead them into Sects and Separations if they had a mind to 't and to lay such provoking pressures upon them was not the way to prevent such miscarriages But blessed be God! their patience and moderation hath prevail'd over the smarting sense of those Sufferings which might have vex't them into extreams If any have discovered too much impatience and bitterness of spirit as I excuse it not so neither are those proceedings which caus'd it any more justifiable But for many it hath been their care according to their capacities to heal the distempers of their peoples spirits to remove the too great prejudices many have conceived and to reduce all whom they perceived inclined to a Party So that I dare confidently say They have done more to preserve the Peace of the Church than those who Censure them and cast them out of the Ministry as Factious and Vnpeaceable And as for raising any Seditions or Commotions in the State not their most quick-sighted Adversaries have that I can hear or know discovered them in the least guilty And did His MAJESTY but over-hear or know their daily privat'st prayers to God on His behalf I am confident He would easily be convinc't That His Kingdom holds not more Loyal Faithful Subjects than they however they may be misrepresented as deserving all that Severity with which they are Treated By this time I hope I may on good grounds
room of a Submission to them accept of any the most Solemn Engagements from those who will enter into them that they will not disturb the Peace either of Church or State And if you find any acting contrarily proceed against them as you please Let the World judge what reasonable offers we make Is it our obedience to Authority you would have us manifest Why let our Submission in all other things speak for us Or lay on us what commands you will in Civil things or in any thing that may be no snare to our Consciences and by them prove whether we be obstinate or not In a word Will you accept our Promises Bonds Oaths or what assurance can be desired That we will labour in all things to act most agreeably to the Gospel of our Lord which we all own as a sufficient Rule And that we will not allow our selves in any prejudice humour or perversness but in all things though we would not be made one a Rule to another in matters that will well allow diversity will comply with you so far as possibly we can without danger of displeasing God and damning of our own Souls And surely you have more tenderness than to desire us to do such things I am bold thus to speak in others names though not one be privy to my Work because I am perswaded there are few but will do thus much and what can in reason be required more of any Let none usurp the Prerogative of searching hearts and knowing mens meanings better than themselves and say These are fine words and specious pretences but the design of all is but to get more Liberty to strengthen a Party For I solemnly profess and Thou God who standest over me whil'st I am writing these words know'st it I abhor such a design If to raise men to the knowledge and love of God through the Spirit of his Son if to bring them to a careful observance of the precepts of our Lord that they may be obedient to their Governours Ecclesiastical and Civil just and charitable to their Brethren that they may be holy humble heavenly patient meek pure chaste and temperate abounding in all the graces and fruits of the Spirit If this be to make men a Party then let me be interpreted as earnestly desirous to promote it otherwise not And shall those who have no other aims than these be kept out of the Ministry as turbulent factious and schismatical Yea some that were not Born so soon as our Civil Confusions and therefore Sided with none Offended none If you indeed thought there were any thus innocent and whose intentions were so upright would you have no regard to them but reject all their Petitions even such as I have made Surely you would not Why be assured if there may any faith be given to men and if it be possible for men to know their own hearts there are some yea I am confident many Such Well however after all we may be censured and slandered yet whilest we can daily betake our selves to the All-knowing God and profess before him that it is the grief of our souls that we are deprived of those opportunities of serving him which we once had or hoped for which we beg may be restor'd and vouchsaf't rather than any outward advantages whatever and that we had rather serve him in the Ministry than for any interest of our own be made Monarchs of the World onely we dare not pretend his Glory to justifie our lie we dare not for to him we may speak plainly say we consent to those things we cannot find warrant for from his Word nor that those who have vowed to reform his Church are not oblig'd by those Vows when corruptions are so many and great but we beseech him to lead us into all Truth and discover to us our duty for that he knows we would do any thing but Sin against him to purchase a liberty publickly to Serve him and therefore to his righteous judgment we wholly commit our Cause whilst I say in our daily prayers to God we can make such Professions as these and that some can we may possess our souls in patience and be comforted with the Conscience of our Integrity whatever clamours there are without us and whatever calumnies men may labour to fasten upon us And I beseech you who by your harshness send such daily to God with tears and groans under the heavy pressures yea and Thousands more of the best Christians in the Land on their behalf and on the behalf of their own souls in so great a measure deprived of the precious quickning means they once enjoyed bethink your selves how grateful those your proceedings are to God which thus occasion the just sorrows and complaints of his Ministers and dearest People And let me further put it to your Conscience whether in your private Addresses to God you can say that you are griev'd in heart for your Brethren deprived of their Liberties and that you have condescended to them as far as possibly you could without sinning and that you would do all that in you lies for their restauration that might not provoke him and be a burthen to your own Consciences and that it is the interest of Christ and the Edification and Salvation of Souls which you aimed at in your proceedings against them Can you make such Professions as these to God Or to men as you will answer it at the great and dreadful day of accounts I leave it to your calm and sober Considerations I shall no longer stand to importune you but as hoping I have not been speaking all this while to the wind entreat you to take into your serious review the Petition for Peace presented to you by the Divines appointed by His Majesty to treat with you about Church-affairs There may you see what their Requests are and the pressing Reasons with which they enforce them Requests so reasonable That nothing but Experience could have convinced me they were deniable Reasons so evident that I am perswaded they are unanswerable And in this perswasion I am more confirm'd from their being railed at and scribled against which was all the answer I ever heard of by a Gentleman from whom if my present Paper can escape a suppressing it fears not an Answer for his violence is much more to be dreaded than his Reason Now sleight not I beg you these entreaties because you can easily deny them for the cause I plead is just and equal and of weighty moment which I refer to your impartial debates and leave the event to the disposure of that God for whose Honour it was if I know my self that I undertook this plea. And him I shall humbly follow with my Prayers That this Supplication which I am writing August 24. may through his good Providence and the favour of Authority do something to the reversing of the Act whose being in force took date from This day three years since This fatal
their distractions and they 'l no longer take Heaven and Hell for jesâ—ing matters This is not a time Sirs to be ashamed of Religion now if ever Holiness will be in request and boldlie shew it self Afford your Neighbours then all the helps you can for their precious souls Go to their Houses and lend them good Books and discourse of those matters that you may easily perceive do most concern Dying men And let that be your direction for the future in this work which I would never have you cease whil'st your selves and those about you are mortal men whose Eternity either of happiness or woe depends upon their well or ill improvement of this uncertain moment And Lastlie All you Holie Souls be encouraged chearfullie and confidentlie to receive the Sentence of Death within your selves Let your spirits revive within you when you shall see the Waggons that come to fetch you to your Joseph even your Lord who is gone before to prepare a place for you Let those that have lived estranged from God careless of his Service mad of the World and running after their pleasures let them be dejected at the News ef Dying the sad News that they must leave all their Treasures and their Joyes and be carried into a state they thought not of nor prepared for there to be reckoned with for their worldlie loose and jollie Life and to bear the effects of their follie for ever But all you to whom Sin hath been a burden and Religion your work and pleasure whose hearts have been taken up with Gods dealings with mankind and deeplie affected with his mysterious Love in Christ who have taken it for the business of your Lives to work out your salvation In a word who have chosen God for your portion and lov'd him more than all things here below and closed with Christ as your onlie Saviour to deliver you both from Sin and Hell and have taken the Holie Spirit for your Sanctifier and Guide not allowing your selves in known sin but labouring in all things to approve your selves to God Now lift up your heads and comfort your hearts when you see the day of Death approach Let not Carnal ones see you dismay'd for this will make them suspect Religion to be a fancie so much doth it contradict your Profession and disgrace both it and you 〈…〉 kind of Death by which you may be sent for hence be 〈…〉 ground of your trouble and fear Why should not God 〈…〉 Death for you as well as all other things And let it be of 〈…〉 it will you have very great reason quietly to submit to it Let 〈…〉 welcome and there is nothing in a Plague that can hurt you 〈…〉 daunt you Be very sensible of Gods hand now stretcht out 〈◊〉 us and so far manifest a reverence and awe and with a reliance â—n him use all due means for self-preservation But for your selves dread not a Plague nor any thing it can do upon you it can but kill your Bodies and help your Souls out of their prisons and is there any hurt in that Let the Spots when you see them be regarded by you as no other then Tokens of your Fathers love which he hath sent to shew he is mindful of you and hath now sent to fetch you nearer to himself What though it be a rough Messenger as Jaylours use to be yet the Message may well make you entertain him with smiles If it came to lead you forth to Execution indeed you might well tremble though not so much for its self as the errand it came on Oh the stark madnesse of those blind and miserable ones that are afraid of a Plague and not of Hell that run away from the Sicknesse and run on in Sin But talk not you of loathsome Sores Why Sirs do they go any deeper than your flesh Let those that have made their Carcasses their care be troubled for this Why what have you any thing more for your bodies to do Any service for which you shall need them And need you care how the old clothes are rent and torn so long as you shall never wear nor need them more Part willingly with your rags you have clothes a making which shall soon silence your complaints Swell and break and stink flesh if thou wilt I shall not be troubled with thee long When thou prosperest most then I was at the worst thou hast been so much my enemy that I cannot but rejoyce in thy ruines If my tongue must needs complain and my sight and smell be offended with my self all this shall not reach my heart What care I for thy Sores and Pains so long as my Souls in health Go make hast and get thee to thy Grave and there turn to Rottenness and Filth I pity thee not nor will ever sympathize with thee more Nor yet complain of the Suddennesse of this Death Leave this to them that would serve God when they had nothing else to do that put off all to a Lord have Mercie upon me and a few good Prayers at their last gasp But what Death can be sudden to you who are not unprepared for Death but have made it the businesse of your lives to fit your selves for it Nor let this be your trouble that your Friends forsake you and are all afraid to come nigh you Why what would you have them do they cannot rebuke your Disease or delay your Death or doing any thing for you in the world you are going to nor do you need they should Councel I hope you have given them in time of Health and therefore it may the lesse trouble you that you cannot speak to them now To take a solemn leave of them is a poor formality to trouble the thoughts of a dying man Whatever help they could afford you 'l quicklie be past all need of it or them Bear the want of their companie or assistance a day or two and you will never desire or want it more Wherefore chear up your Spirits and be not cast down but to the Rock of Ages betake your selves who never fail'd you nor anie that placed their confidence in him hee 's a present help in time of trouble hee 'l come in to you when your doors are shut up hee 'l stand by your beds-side when no other friend dare Now Sirs what 's your God your Saviour worth A God to support you when the world fails you A Saviour to relieve you when you leave the world Now is not an holy life comfortable to your review Do you now repent of the cost and pains you have been at or the sufferings you have under-gone for God Was it not worth while to be laught and wondered at for your holie diligence which laid in store for such a day as this and brings you support when the hearts of others sink for fear Now Sirs you are come to the end of your Pilgrimage the long-long-lookt for day is come Sin and Satan the world and the