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
For if all I say use this who is it must pacifie Gods wrath by their Reformation But if thou for thy part wilt practise what I have here cursorily directed thou knowest not but others may do so also and so if every one would set to this Work thy Cavil would be wholly silenc'd and answer'd But again thou wouldest grant it to some purpose for the whole body of the people to joyn in hearty humiliation and amendment of their wayes and know that as to the greatest benefit that would accrue to a Nation by such a general repentance thou shalt procure it to thy self by this personal performance of thy Duty that is either the Affliction it self shall be kept or taken off thee or laid on in so much mercy that thou thy self shalt either here or in another World bless God for the the same And I hope this advantage is not inconsiderable when on the other hand thou remembrest how certainly thy impenitence will cause thy everlasting as well as temporal ruine And take notice from the Text That God will render to every particular man according to his wayes but this I have before said something to Oh that now there were in us all such resolutions unfeignedly to search our hearts and reform our lives and with our whole souls turn to the Lord our God from whom we have revolted What blessed Effects should we find of this wise and dutiful demeanour Oh that I knew how to perswade poor souls to this course before their deadly enemy who now doth all he can to harden and stupifie them shall be fully seiz'd of them past all possibility of a delivery then scorning at all our endeavours and challenging us to do our best for the rescue of such undone souls who must be tormented by him by whom they would be ruled But if thou art so far perswaded of the reasonablenesse of this duty I have been pressing upon thee that thou art desirous to know thy Self and Sins wouldest gladly find out that thou mightest expel the plague of thy own heart that I may do something farther to help thee in thy Self-examination I shall briefly endeavour to discover what those sins in our Nation are for which especially we are now plagued by the visible hand of God And the Lord awaken us all seriously to lay to heart and remove them far from us that so God having accomplish't his own designs upon us may lay by his Rod and shew us his wonted favour And let me beseech thee Reader to accompany me with thy Conscience and let thy eye still be turned off from the Book upon thy self and if thou seest thy own actions described cry out Guilty guilty I am the man and so proceed in thy duty as I have before directed and shall not again repeat except on the By. In the prosecution of this design I shall say something 1. Of those notorious crying sins which are to be found amongst us of which I shall need to say the lesse because they are so visible upon us and so readily acknowledged to be what they are and because so many Books are written to shame and suppress them 2. I shall proceed to lay open some such abuses and corruptions amongst us which are not only sinful in themselves but also in part secret causes of the former which yet perhaps may not be apparent to nor acknowledged as such by all And once again let me desire every Reader to place himself as at the Bar of God and so to passe a true judgment upon himself and not to quarrel with the Physitian instead of falling out with the disease nor be more averse from hearing the discoveries of the plague of his own heart than he would be to hear his Physitian tell the Symptoms of the Plague to convince him he was struck with it whil'st all this was but in order to his recovery Whoever thou art that are guilty 't is thou hast wounded thy self I would willingly shew thee thy Sores that they might in time be healed if thy resolution not to have search't into them make them uncurable though I may never have thy thanks for the offer of my help yet I know whom thou wilt accuse as the cause of thy destruction which I would fain have prevented and shall do what I may in order thereto 1. In the Front of those Abominations under the Effects whereof we groan we may well place Adultery Fornication and Lasciviousness whether we consider the provoking Nature or the Commonness hereof amongst us This is a sin we often find attended with exemplary punishments in Scripture for this together with their Idolatry we read of a Plague inflicted upon the Israelites Numb 25. whereof dyed 24000. For Davids commission of this but once it was threatned to him That the Sword should never depart from his house 2 Sam. 12. 10. And in the New Testament especially how frequent are the prohibitions and how severe the threatnings denounc'd against it Whoremongers and Adulterers in a peculiar manner God will judge And for these things sake especially we are told comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience How strict is our Saviours Exposition of the Seventh Commandment making a lustful glance the breach of it And upon the mention of that immediately follows the threatning of the whole body being cast into Hell without the cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye the subduing the dearest lusts and renouncing the sweetest sins Matth. 5. 28 29 30. With what repetitions of the same do we find it mentioned where it 's spoken against inculcated again and again to take the deeper impression And when the lusts of the flesh are named usually this is reckoned for the greater part of them in various expressions signifying much what the same thing Coloss 3. 5. Mortifie therefore c. Fornication Uncleanness Inordinate Affection Evil Concupiscence Eph. 5. 3 4. Gal. 5. 19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness This sin we find much aggravated by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 13 14. to the end as that which in a particular manner defiles a man and renders him indisposed for the in-dwellings of the Holy Spirit This loathsom wickedness doth especially soften and brutifie men and sinks them from God into the sensitive life and stupifies the higher parts of the Soul and renders them unqualified for a converse with that God who commands all that will approach him To be Holy as he is Holy And this is a sinne which upon many accounts breeds as much confusion and disorder in the world as it does in particular mens Souls It must needs therefore incense the most High God to see his creatures endued with reason for the governance of themselves to whom he hath prescribed Rules for their walking to degenerate into such effeminate impotence as to be hurried away by their own lusts to such bestial uncleanness But alas
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
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
are true lovers of Piety and Peace See that you have no other aims but Gods glory and hee 'l own and Crown you for your labour of love Say not now this is a difficult work but tell me whether it be not needful If the Devil and his Instruments sit still then do you so to Remember what a Covenant you made in Baptisme beside all other Engagements since Think what you live for and where you expect to stand shortly and tell me whether a life thus laid out for God will not then be your comfort Oh for the Lords sake then all you his Servants up and be doing and fear not For God will be with you what are you afraid of enemies Do you think this will procure you more hatred and sufferings And awaken Powers to greater jealousies and cause them to abridge you of the liberty yet reserved Never fear it Sirs why don't you know what I am pressing you to Is it to propagate Christianity and this is a work that must and shall be done for God hath said it and hee 'l see to it and for this the World is yet kept up Oh Sirs pure simple and uncorrupted Christianity deserves all our time and study and pains to advance it And it hath such Comforts and Crowns for its resolved Friends and Persecuted followers that would make a man even long to be suffering for it and the more he suffers the more he will still love the firmlier adhere to it Christianity It is a Religion of that force and excellency that it defies oppositions and scorns all banks and bounds It awes its greatest Adversaries and a Prisoner at the bar with it may make his Judge upon the Bench to tremble and the sturdy Jaylour that even now whipt him come quaking to beg a Pardon Fear not Prisons for the Gospel can never be bound Let this alone be your rule and value not what Law or will of man shall contradict it Kings and Emperours with all their Officers and Armies Edicts and Authorities are but Trophee's to its Power like dams they 'l make it rise the higher and overbear all before it experience confirms what I say This cake of barley bread will tumble down all the Tents of a Midianitish Host The noise of its Trumpets the light of the Lamps though the Pitchers that bear them these earthen vessels our bodies be broken and crying out The Word of the Lord and his Son Christ Jesus will discomfit Innumerable Armies and make them run and cry and flee This is the Gospel and let all that read these lines say Let it go on and Prosper let it run and be Glorified and strike its healing Sword to the hearts of its Adversaries Now this is it and this alone which I would beseech all to spend themselves for and fear not but it will bear your charges Let your work be purely Gods and if he can bear you out he will and I hope you don't doubt that But let me once again beg you to see that you make the cause you work for the same that Christ and his Apostles drove on in the world and then how joyfully may you suffer for it whatever men call your actions and designs 'T is nothing strange to suffer for Christ from nominal Christians nor for Peace and Truth from men that call themselves Orthodox and Catholick this hath been often in the world Let then the weighty but much neglected Doctrines and Commands of the Gospel be urged with all earnestnesse but lesser things lesse regarded Talk lesse of the Times but more of Eternity Stand not discoursing who should have Power in the Church to men that are yet under the Power of the Devil nor of a Ceremony or Form of Prayer to those that know not God nor their own souls What strange things would these be to Catechize an Heathen in and are they much fitter for Carnal ones But oh labour to work men into the true temper and Spirit of Religion which consists so much in love to God and our Brethren and then the new nature that is in them the inward relish of their Souls and renewed principles of light will enable them to judge of things that differ and all matters of moment God will reveal to them Again I have need to request that I be not judged immodest if the confused haste I now write in have carried me out to a more than seemly earnestnesse nor yet count me Pragmatical for venturing thus to advise since I desire no more regard then what the reasonablenesse and weight of the things proposed shall be found to deserve And thus at length through Gods assistance I am even com'n to the end of my task I have endeavoured to shew wherein it is we have from the highest to the lowest done amiss and provoked God against us I have also mingled Directions so far as my intended brevity would permit for the performance of those duties that may appease his wrath and make us happy in his favour And oh that these weak endevaours might have an issue answerable to their Design then how confidently durst I say we should be an happy People by becoming holy which is all I have aimed at But what talk I of my endeavours What shall be now the issue of Gods Judgments that have been upon us Shall we be bettered by them or not Oh one would think there should scarce an obstinate Sinner be left in the Nation after this But that we should all with one consent return to the God who hath smitten us from whom we have back-slidden One would think we should now imitate the Children of Israel whom after Eminent Judgments we find entring into a Covenant to seek and serve the Lord their God to which their Kings were wont to call them And oh that God would put it into the heart of his Majesty to engage all his People even from one end of the Land to the other to enter into such a solemn vow that we will in all things be careful to walk in those ways God hath enjoyned us and not in any thing voluntarily break his holy Laws Oh that some such an engagement was made the bond of our Union our entrance into and observance of it the condition of our Church-Communion Of what a blessed consequence would even this be But this and all other such great wishes let us reserve for our prayers and give me leave with some jealousie to demand Whether all that God hath done shall be lost upon us What shall our Nation still be drowned in sin So soon as ever the Rod's from off us shall we to our old courses again Shall Profaneness abound and Religion be despised again Shall Taverns and Brothel-houses and Play-houses be frequented and Gods Worship slighted and neglected again Will the abominable and filthy be so still Shall Blasphemy and Swearing and Cursing be as loud as ever Will men again to the World and their Pleasures as busily as ever