embrace it and will be led by it For it teacheth such as it did the Antient Christians to deny all ungodliness and the world's lusts and to live soberly and godlikely in this present evil world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and their Saviour Jesus Christ who hath given himself for them to deliver them from all sin and to redeem them from all iniquity You know that you are bought with a price now you feel it and in measure discern the preciousness of that Price which hath bought you namely the Life of the Dear Son of God Grieve not his Spirit that is ready to Seal you to the Day of your perfect Redemption But give up your Bodies Souls and Spirits to his service whose they are that they may be order'd by him to his Glory I write not to you as to the World for you are called out of the World by him that hath overcome the World that as he is not of this World so you may not be of this World Come then out of it more and more out of the Nature out of the Spirit out of the Fruits and out of the Fashions of the World They are all for the Fire Christ said the World loveth its own Search with the Light of the Lord Jesus what there is in you that the World owneth and loveth For that is its own And consider what it is that the World is offended with Not that that cometh from it self of its own making and inventing but that which crosseth its Inventions that is of another Nature and springeth from another Root O be not conformed to the Fashions of this World that please the Lust which grieveth the Spirit of God but be ye renew'd in your Minds and being so within you will be as a new People without They that have been truly with Christ are quickly discovered they cannot be hid So it was of old the Jews said of the Disciples these men have been with Jesus their Speech and Carriage bewray'd them their outsides were not like the outsides of other Men they were not currant with the Fashions and Customs of that time Nor can they that have been with Jesus conform to the vain Fashions and Customs of this World wherefore be not you in any sort of this World but give diligence to make your holy high Calling and Election sure For many are called and few are chosen and the reason is they are slothful Servants they hide their Talent in a Napkin neglect the Day of their Visitation and work not out their Salvation with fear and trembling And then the Night overtaketh them in which they can never work the works of Repentance and the things that belong to their peace are hid from their Eyes for ever But the Lord forbid that it should be so with any of you No no I hope yea I believe better things of you And I am assured that as you keep your Hearts chastly to the Light and Grace that with which you have been visited of the Lord you shall be kept to Eternal Salvation For they are saved that walk in the Light Into the Light the Enemy cannot come for the Light is Christ Jesus and the Enemy hath no part or place in him he is driven out from the holy place by transgression and he is now a fugitive from Heaven but he goeth up and down the Earth seeking whom he may devour whom he can catch and carry away with his baits and Snares Wherefore Wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth that is the earthly Inhabitants such as love and live in the earthly Nature for all such shall be a prey to him he shall have power over them and keep up his Kingdom in them But those that receive and abide in Christ Jesus the Light Life and Truth are out of his reach they are in the munition of Rocks under the pavilion of the Lord and in the safe Ark of the most High God However he is permitted to tempt try till the time shall come that he is not only trodden under Foot but also bound and cast into the Lake that burneth with Fire and Brimston And he is the greatest Enemy to those that turn their back upon him wherefore he watcheth to surprize them that he might take them at unawares and triumph over their failings And for that reason Christ Jesus preached the Watch earnestly and with repetition to his Disciples Now my dear Friends there be several things or the Enemy in several Appearances will attend you in this holy march you are making to the Eternal Land of rest of which I would caution you that you may none of you make Shipwrack of any of those holy beginnings you have experienced by the Light and Spirit of the Lord. Beware of vain thoughts for they oppress and extinguish the true sense These vain thoughts arise from the Enemy's presentations of objects to the mind and the Mind 's looking upon them till they have made their impressions upon the mind and influenced the mind into a love of them This is a false liberty a dangerous ye a destructive liberty to the holy Sense that God hath begotten in any For as that is not received but hindered by such thoughts so it is not improved but destroyed by them The divine Sense in the Soul is begotten by the Lord 'T is his Life and Spirit his holy Breath and Power that quickneth the Soul and maketh it sensible of its own state and of God's will and that raiseth fervent desires in it to be Eternally blessed This is that which Satan rageth at he feareth his Kingdom he findeth that he is come that will cast him out of his possessions He cryeth out Why art thou come to torment me before my time He is the Father of vain thoughts he begetteth them in the mind on purpose to draw off the mind from that Sense and to exercise it in variety of conceptions in a self-liberty of thinking and imagining concerning Persons and things Here he offereth his Baits and layeth his Snares and never faileth to Catch and defile the unwatchful Soul Now if you should say what are these vain thoughts I tell you my Friends All those thoughts and conceptions that either bring not Real Profit to the Soul or that Grieve Hurt or Oppress that holy Sense which is begotten of God in the Soul And that by which Thoughts are to be examined is the Light of Christ Jesus For as whatever may be known of God is manifested within man for there God hath shown it him as saith the Apostle Paul to the Romans So what ever is reproved is made manifest by the light for whatever maketh manifest is light saith he to the Ephesians By this Light of Christ Jesus examine your own Thoughts see whence they rise from whence they come and what they tend to O Friends here is a Mystery and the Evil One worketh here in a Mystery For where he cannot
prevail to draw out the Mind from its sensible Habitation to embrace his Representations of old Lusts and Pleasures that are wicked in themselves he will present you with lawful Objects your outward Enjoyments Business and Calling and steal in upon your Minds in the Croud of these Lawful things and there lay his Snares hid and covered and at unawares catch you My Dear Friends Blessed are they that see Jesus their Captain going before them and counselling and leading them in all their outward and lawful Concerns that they offend not For my Friends this know you may unlawfully think of lawful things either in thinking on them unseasonably mark that when your Souls should be wholly retired and exercised in the Lord's Light to feel his presence in which is Heavenly Life Or in thinking on lawful things carelesly not with regard to your Guide he that hath bought you throughout with his own precious Blood that he might have the Government of your Bodies Souls and Spirits that is of your Bodily concerns as well as of the things relating to your Souls and Spirits This prevents much harm and mischief in Business and Families and preserveth the Divine Sense that God hath begotten and the Creature in it So that its Fellowship and Peace with the Lord runneth as a River it is not stopt or hindred by the designs of the Enemy Or lastly in thinking on lawful things excessively too much more than is needful without limits thereby gratifying the fleshly Mind which is Enmity with God and that Sense which he begetteth in the Soul O the Mountains that are raised by such vain Thoughts betwixt God and the Soul How doth the Soul come under an Eclipse lose sight and at last all Sense of the Living God like Men drowned in great Waters And thus many have lost their Condition and grown unsensible and then questioned all former Experiences if they were not meer Imaginations till at last they arrived at Atheism denying and deriding God and his Work and those that kept their Integrity For whom is reserved the Blackness of Darkness for ever unless they timely and truly Repent But when this subtle Enemy of Man's Salvation seeth that he cannot make you bow to the Glory of this World that all his Snares that he layeth in the things that are seen which are Temporal are discover'd and broken and that your Eyes are directed to those things that are Eternal then will he turn Accuser He will aggravate your Sins and plead the impossibility of their Remission He will seem to act the Advocate for the Justice of God that he might cast you into Despondency that you may doubt of Deliverance and Salvation Many are the Thoughts with which he perplexeth the Sons and Daughters of Men But this know that he was a Liar from the beginning For the Lord doth not visit the Souls of any to destroy them but to save them For this end hath he sent his Son a Light into the World and they that bring their Deeds to it are not of the Devil who hateth the Light Neither doth the Lord cause People to Hunger and Thirst after him and not fill them with his good things Be assured my Friends where ever the Lord hath begotten Desires after him and where ever Sin is become exceeding sinful yea a burden to the Soul the Devil's Kingdom is shaken the Prince of this World is begun to be Judged and God is at Work for the Redemption of that Soul Hearken not to the Voice of the Serpent for that lost your first Parents their blessed Paradise And with the same Subtle and Lying Spirit he would hinder you from returning into Paradise But when he is herein disappointed he shifteth his temptation and presenteth another temptation viz. that though you have begun well yet ye will never be able to hold out to the end That the Temptations are so many and the Enemys so strong they are not to be overcome by you and that it were better never to profess such high things than to fall short of them this will but bring Reproach to the way and the People of it Again that 't is Curiosity and Spiritual Pride and Conceitedness for you to be thought better then others with the like Suggestions on purpose to stagger your Resolutions and weaken your Faith Ah! he is a Devil still a Liar and a Destroyer Look not to him but to Jesus who hath called you Keep but your Eye to him of whom the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness was a Figure and he shall Cure you of all Diseases of all Wounds and Stingings of Serpents and Scorpions c. that may attend you in the Wilderness-travail which is the hour of your Temptation God is exalting him in you a Saviour therefore is he manifested viz. to destroy Sin Yea stronger is he that is in you than he that is in the World He is able to bind the strong Man and cast him out do but believe truly in him and cleave to him Remember there were evil Spies of old those that brought false nitelegence that Canaan was a pleasant Land but the Way impassible but the Faithful Enter'd and Inherited Keep therefore in the righteous Life of Jesus and walk in his holy Light and you shall be preserved through all exercises and difficulties unto the Eternal Canaan the Land of rest Neither Wonder at these things that temptations attend you or that the Lord tryeth and proveth you it is the way of all that are gone to God For even Jesus was tempted and tryed and is therefore become our Captain because he overcame Neither be ye cast down because the Lord sometimes seemeth to hide his Face from you that you feel not allways that Joy and Refreshment that you sometimes enjoy I know what work the Enemy maketh of these withdrawings of the Lord. Perhaps he will insinuate that God hath deserted you in his displeasure that you must never expect to see him that he will never come again And by these and the like strategems he will endeavour to shake your Faith and Hope and distract you with Fear and to beget great jealousies and doubts in you and by impatience and infidelity Frustrate your good beginnings But though David said of Old in the distress of his Soul One day shall I fall by the Hand of Saul yet he overcame him and had the Crown Yea the Lord Jesus himself cryed out in the agony of the Cross my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Nevertheless he gloriously Triumph'd over all and lead Captivity Captive for the joy that was set before him Which joy is bebore you it is the mark of the price of your great and holy calling Wherefore faint not neither murmur if your Spiritual Moses seem to withdraw a while from you Do not you make Images in his absence neither wax Wanton but possess your Souls in holy fear and patience waiting with holy Reverence and Diligence for his appearance who is
Earth neither love nor live in the vain Lusts of the World Such shall abide in his holy Tabernacle such shall dwell in his holy Hill even they that walk uprightly that work righteousness and speak the truth in their hearts in whose sight a vile person is contemned but who honour them that fear the Lord. O my dear Friends I know experimentally that this is hard to Flesh and Blood that which is Born of the Corruptible Seed but that can never enter into the Kingdom of God That must be Crucified by Christ that hath Crucified Christ Blood requireth Blood Wherefore give that which is for the Famine to the Famine For the Fire to the Fire And for the Sword to the Sword Let all the sinful Lusts be famisht let the Stubble be burnt and the Corrupt yea and the Fruitless Tree that cumbereth the Ground be cut down and cast into the Fire Let the work of the Lord be done in you let him purge his Floor and that throughly that you may come out as pure as Gold Seven times tried fitted for his use that hath chosen you that you may bear his Mark and wear his Inscription Holiness to the Lord so you will be Vessels of Honour in his House Therefore I say let your Houses be swept by the Judgments of the Lord and the little Leaven of the Kingdom leaven you in Body Soul and Spirit that holy Temples you may be to his Glory This I know is your desire that are on your Travail to this Blessed Enjoyment Well you believe in God believe also in Christ the Light that hath visited you And if you truly believe you will not make haste You will not make haste out of the Hour of Judgment you will stay the Time of your Trial and Cleansing that you may be as I said as pure as Gold Seven times tried and so receive the Lord's Mark and Stamp his Image and Approbation that you may be his throughout in Body Soul and Spirit seal'd to him in an Eternal Covenant Dear Friends gird up the Loins of your Minds watch and hope to the end be not slothful neither strive despond not nor be presumptuous Be as little Children for of such is the Kingdom of God Dispute not neither consult with Flesh and Blood Let not the Prudence of this World draw you from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus Love and obey the Truth hide his Living Word in your Hearts though it be as an Hammer a Fire a Sword yet it reconcileth and bringeth you to God and will be sweeter to you that love it than is the Honey and the Honey-comb Fear not but bear the Cross yea without the Camp the Camp of this World's Lusts Glory and False VVorships But this know when the Enemy cannot prevail by none of these Stratagems if you resist him as the God of the World's Glory the Prince of the Air and the False Prophet then he turneth Dragon then he declareth open VVar then you are Hereticks Fanaticks Enthusiasts Seducers Blasphemers unworthy to live upon the Earth But in all these things rejoice and be exceeding glad for great shall be your reward in the Kingdom of the Father VVhat if your Parents rise up against you if your Brethren betray you if your Companions desert and deride you If you become the Song of the Drunkard and the Scorn and Merriment of the Vile Person Yea though the Powers of the Earth should combine to devour you let not your Hearts be troubled Shun not the Cross but despise the Shame and cast your Care upon the Lord who will be afflicted with you in all your Afflictions In the Fire he will be with you and in the Water he will not forsake you O let your Eye be to him whose Name is as a strong Tower the Sanctuary of the Righteous in all Ages that you may be able to say in your Hearts with David of old The Lord is my Light and my Salvation whom shall I fear The Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid Though an Host should encamp against me my Heart shall not fear though War should rise against me in this will I be confident One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my Life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his Pavilion he shall set me upon a Rock When my Father and my Mother forsake me then the Lord will take me up I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the Living Wait on the Lord be of good Courage and he shall strengthen thine Heart Wait I say on the Lord. O my dear Friends let it be your daily and hourly work to wait upon God How often does David speak of waiting upon God he felt the sweetness of it therefore retire into your holy Chamber Be still and the Lord will speak comfortably unto you Blessed are they that wait upon him whose Expectations are only from him For though the youth shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint I waited saith David patiently upon the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry And this was his Testimony Behold the Eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him to deliver their Soul from Death and to keep them alive in Famine For the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite Spirit David knew it therefore he could speak it O my dear Friends who are compassed about with many Tribulations the Lord God your Staff and Strength is near you to sustain you Have ye born the holy reproach of Jesus and despised the Shame of his Cross and did he ever desert you Be not cast down though to the Eye of Reason there seemeth none to help no not one to save Though Enemies within and Enemies without Encamp themselves about you though Pharaoh and his Host pursue you and great difficulties be on each hand of you and the dismal Red Sea be before you stand still make no Bargains for your selves let all Flesh be silent before the Lord and his Arm shall bring you Salvation Yea when you are ready to go down into the Pit that your Throat is dry with crying and your Eyes seem to fail with waiting his Salvation shall spring as the Morning because his Mercies are to all Generations and that the Seed of Jacob never sought his face in vain The poor Man cryeth saith David What poor Man was this He that is poor in his own Eyes that hath no Helper in the Earth but God This poor
your victorious Leader All these things are for your good that proud Flesh may be debased and that the Soul may be redeemed Wherefore bear the hand of the Lord whom he loveth he Chastneth his Anger lasteth not for ever but his Mercys endure for ever Shrink not from the pure operations of his holy word let it divide asunder betwen the Soul and Spirit the Joynts and Marrow in you suffer your right Hands to be Cut off and your right Eyes to be pluck'd out that do offend let not the pain scare you O bear the pure searchings of this Heavenly word Yea if your minds be stay'd in it you will find it to be a word of Patience which will keep you for all Virtue is in it Keep it and be still It is good said one of Old that a Man should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of God Yea it it is good for a Man that he bear the Yoak in his youth this is your youth and such an one sitteth alone and keepeth Silence because he hath born it upon him Ah blessed are they that bear this holy Yoak who are come to this Silence who Dye daily that not they but Christ may Live and Rule in them therefore hear him and take up his Cross and follow him Follow him keep him Company he hath beaten the Path and trode the Way start not aside at his Cup neither shun his Baptism Go with him to Caiaphas to Pilate and to the Cross dye with him to the World and you shall rise with him unto Life Eternal Honour Glory and Immortality are at the end of this Holy Race O that you may run it with Chearfulness and Perseverance But this is not the utmost Strategem of the Enemy he hath yet a more plausible and a more dangerous Device wherewith to destroy the holy Sense that God hath quickened where he seeth these Temptations resisted and that he cannot hinder a Religious Work in the Soul by any of his Baits taken from the things that are seen and that is his drawing you into Imaginations of God and Christ and Religion and into Religious Duties not in God's way or time nor with Christ's Spirit Here he is transformed into the Appearance of an Angel of Light and would seem Religious now a Saint yea a Leader into Religion so that he may but keep him out of his Office whose right it is to teach prepare enable and lead his Children with his holy Power and Spirit Yea if he can but keep the Creature 's Will alive he knoweth there is a ground for him to work upon a place that he can enter and in which his Seed will grow If this Will of Man standing he knoweth that the Will of God cannot be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven O this Will is God's Enemy yea the Soul's Enemy and all Will-worship ariseth hence Yea it is the Off-spring of the Serpent and of the Will of Man and it can never please God Let all beware of this God is a Spirit and he will be Worshipped in his own Spirit in his own Life The Worship of God standeth in the Will of God and is not brought forth of the Will of the Flesh or of the Will of Man Remember that the Word came not to Esau the First-birth the Hunter that stayed not at Home but to Jacob the plain Man he that dwelt in Tents to him came the Word of the Lord that dwelt in a still and quiet Habitation For in the true silence is God's Word heard into which the Hunting Nature of Esau the First-birth can never come It can never stand still and therefore it can never see the Salvation of God Against this Nature watch and know Jacob that inherits the Birth-right the Election of God though now a Worm to wrestle and prevail Then Worm Jacob is Israel a Prince to whom belongs the Statutes and the Ordinances The Word came to Jacob and the Statutes to Israel Here is Dominion Government Exaltation This is the Lot of Worm Jacob. Wait therefore till the Angel move upon the Waters before you step one step Are ye Followers of the Lamb that hath visited you the Captain of your Salvation Run not in your own Wills wait for his Word of Command do nothing of thy own Head and Contriving yet do all with diligence that he requireth Remember what became of them of Old that offered false Fire O stay till a Coal from his Holy Altar touch your Hearts and your Lips Jesus told his Mother at the Marriage in Cana in Galilee his time was not come He rejected the Will in her and staid till his time was come that is his Father's time in whose Hands are the Times and Seasons Whose Will he came to do and not his own Leaving us therein a Blessed Example that we should also follow his steps that is not to attempt to perform even things of God in our own Wills nor out of God's Season and Time which is the best For in his Seasons he is with us but in our own Seasons and Wills he withdraweth himself from us And this is the Cause that the Nations Worshippers have little sense of God in their Hearts and that their Priests cry out against inward Sense Lest the People should go alone and come to a more acceptible Worship My dear Friends as you would enjoy God's Presence Love and Life and be acceptable with him wait in his holy Light and Spirit that hath visited you against these strategems of Satan and Wake not your Beloved before his time Watch against the will that Instrument of Satan and Enemy of God's Glory and your own Comfort Let it be Bridled Subjected and kept under Christ's Yoak yea subdued that the will of God may be done in you and by you which bringeth glory to the Lord and Eternal peace to the Soul One Sigh rightly begotten out-weigheth a whole Volume of self-made Prayers For that which is born of Flesh is Flesh and reacheth not God's Kingdom he regardeth it not and all that is not born of the Spirit is Flesh But a Sigh or a Groan arising from a living Sense of God's work in the Heart it Pearceth the Clouds it entereth the Heavens yea the Living God heareth it his regard is to it and his Spirit helpeth the Infirmity He loveth that which is of himself and hath care over it though as Poor as worm Jacob. For the Crys of the Poor and the Sighings of the Needy will I arise saith the Lord The Poor in Spirit that hath parted with all that they may win Christ that need him only and Seek him above all Who have no helper in the Earth but have denied all earthly helps that he might bring and work their Salvation for them And as you are not to run in your own wills nor to offer up Sacrifices of your own preparing so have a care how you touch with those that do how you bow to their wills