assembly of the wicked have enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture Which did to me clear up something of what Jesus Christ underwent as he stood Surety for his Elect from Isa 9.6 For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his Shoulders and his Name shall be called wonderful Counsellor the mighty God Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace I learn'd something of the Humane Nature of Jesus Christ he also endeavoured from Gen. 1.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Spirit of GOD moved upon the Face of the the Waters to evince to me the being of the Holy Ghost the Notion of a Trinity I took in form Gen. 1.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us make Man And from Gen. 11. where God coming down to see the City and the Tower which the Children of Men had built saith in ver 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Go to let us go down and confound their Languages From Gen. 49.10 The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloh come c. I saw that Jesus Christ was the true Messiah in which I was satisfied and tho' as yet I had nothing more then the Notion of Things yet as the Eunnch said to Philip Acts 8.36 so said I What hinders me to be baptized and baptized I was in Berlijn in Brandenburg the Duke stood my Godfather I became not a Christian for Silver nor Gold but was constrained thereto by the mighty Power of Jesus Christ I was beholden to none but to the Almighty Power of God After this I was recommended to a Minister in the City Ryneburg on the Rhyne by whom I was further notionally confirmed in the Christian Faith and from that time had a mind to travel into England where under the Denomination of a Christian I lived a great while Revelling in all manner of Wickedness committing Iniquity with Greediness as I grew older I thought it was high time to reform knowing I must give an Account of Deeds done in the Body I then resolved to lead a new Life and venture on the Mercy of Christ which tho' I prayed for Night and Day yet could not find I made many Resolutions to live better and broke them as fast knowing nothing of the Person of Jesus Christ at length I was by continued Prayer very solicitous for Repentance yet thought I should I repent it will not avail me unless I could forsake my Sins to Prayer I went and in a Agony I was I flung up mine Eyes and Heart to Heaven Lord Jesus Christ said I tho' thou wilt not shew Mercy to me tho' I must perish yet will I trust thee still Terrors of Conscience still pursued me so that I often thought through want of Ease in my Conscience tho' I should trust in Jesus Christ yet I should be Damned I thought many times as I passed over the Fields that I saw the Lord Jesus Christ coming in the Clouds upon which when I began to consider my own Condition I passed Judgment on my self as one that deserved Hell and Damnation I found as I thought the Devil binding me in Chains which made me cry out as Rom. 7.23 24. I am carried into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in my Members O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death The Terrors of Hell took hold of me I thought I saw the Pit of Hell ready to receive me How to get Peace of Conscience I knew not nothing but Hell and Damnation sounded in my Ears I thought I must be damned if I turned not to Jesus Christ In these Agonies of Spirit I read once and again the Book of one Baxter which I thought would have been a great Means of my Salvation But alas that drove me more into Hell I thought I should by it have sunk into utter Despair I could find nothing in it for my Consolation what Course to take I knew not I desired the Lord Jesus Christ to do a Miracle upon me in breathing the Breath of Life into my Soul who was dead in Sin as he formerly raised those who were naturally dead from their Graves I pleaded his Power as he in Matth. 8.2 Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean and cleansing I stood in need of for I saw my Sin so black that I abhorred my self in dust I thought I was not worthy to roul my self on Jesus Christ yet to venture I resolved I knew I could but be rejected as 2 Kings 7.4 If we say we will enter into the City then the Famine is in the City and we shall dye there and if we sit still here we shall dye also Now therefore come and let us fall into the Host of the Syrians if they save us alive we shall live and if they kill us we shall but dye I always concluded Prayer after this manner Lord tho' thou wilt not hear me yet will I trust to thee I prayed as one sensible of my own Insufficiency that God would by his Spirit teach me to pray there was yet a secret Hope in me that God would call me however I resolved to lean on the Lord Jesus praying that he would give me the Spirit of him that raised Jesus Christ from the Dead to raise me from the Death of Sin such was my Affection to Jesus Christ that I often wished my self in a Cave so that I might enjoy him tho' I endured the greatest Hardship In these Conflicts of Spirit the Devil set in upon me told me It was impossible for me to be saved For said he your Parents have wished a Curse upon you and insinuated as if I was by that Curse bound over to eternal Damnation How said he can you believe that the Son of God should be born of the Virgin Mary or that he that was born of her should be the Saviour of your Soul Know you not what a Fellow which word went through my Soul God knows he was It is impossible said he that he should ever save you To whom I answered and said Satan get thee behind me God said I and the Lord Jesus Christ are all One God at first created the World out of Nothing created Man out of the Dust and of a Rib taken out of Adam made he a Woman yea Christ himself was overshadowed by the Holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Mary And now O Devil what is too hard for such an Almighty Power which has done all this Thou hast no Power over him nor canst thou Disannul what he hath done After this my Inclination stood bent to frequent the Assembly of God's People tho' whether to go I was at a lost I heard there was many Churches One cry'd Here is Christ another cry'd Here is Christ I
The Jaylor whom we find Inhumane in his Treatment of Paul and Silas Act. 16.24 not long after washing their Wounds as a genuine Effect of his Believing the Word they spake to him he who about Midnight designed to be his own Executioner before Day-break was a joyful Believer And how many of the obstinate Jews who had embrewed their wicked hands in the Blood of Christ fled for refuge to the hope set before them in the Gospel and in one days time became Church-Members whose continuance in the Apostle's Doctrine was as stedfast as their Conversion was sudden Acts 2.23 41. Objection 2. It may be said these were extraordinary Instances and therefore nothing to the Purpose in hand Answer I grant that the Work of Regeneration is not ordinary but special if compar'd with the more usual Dispensations of Divine Bounty in his common Providence as to the things of this life and tho' there are not many Converts in this day who parallel the foregoing Instances yet they who have the Spirit witnessing with theirs that they are the Sons of God cannot but set to their Seal from their own Experience that the Lord's Arm is not shortned Doctrina adversariorum qui legem cum Christo decebant ut justificationis causum concurrere i. e. The Doctrine of our Adversaries who hold That the Law is a Co Adjutor with Christ in the Justification of a Sinner Beza in La. tho' the Doctrine of his Grace is so clouded by some Self-Justiciaries The Apostle affirms That the Spirit cannot be received by the Works of the Law but by the Hearing of Faith And how far the generality of Preachers deviate from this Doctrine is too conspicuous who not allowing the Grace of God to be so powerful and effectual now as when the Gospel was first promulgated send us for Life to that Law which hath already condemned us Object 3. Why did not this Convert give some Reasons why he turned from Judaism Answ He gave the most perswasive Argument that could be viz. His believing Jesus Christ to be the true Messiah upon the naked Testimony and Record of God concerning him expressed in several Texts of Scripture Which will be a sufficient Reason to those poor blind Jews who are still walking after the Imagination of their own Hearts to relinquish their Errors when God in his infinite Wisdom shall think fit to call them by his Grace 2. Consider the Things he spake were delivered to a Church of Christ not to an Auditory at Lions to satisfie them of a Work of Grace in his Soul And therefore tho' his Speech was rude yet it is not doubted from the Certainty of his Conversion but he had those Divine Impulses on his Soul whereby he could not but desert Judaism and lay hold of the true Messiah for Life and Salvation It only remains Reader to inform you That what Shalome Ben Shalomoh spake publickly has not passed under any material Alteration since but as far as it consists with Plainness and Perspicuity his own Expressions are retained tho' through his Deficiency in our English Dialect it was judged proper to alter some of his Words yet retaining his Sence Which with some Additions forgotten by him when he delivered himself to the Church and others whereinto God hath since instructed him are now offered to your serious Consideration the Glory of God and your Good having been primarily consulted herein by Your Servant in our Lord Jesus Christ T. H. WE whose Names are hereto annexed Pastor and Members of the Church of Christ into which Mr. Shalome was admitted do hereby certifie That the following Account is what he delivered Viva Voce to the Church and that such Additions as are made were taken from his own Mouth by Thomas Humfrey Nathaniel Shepard Samuel Stratton THE NARRATIVE of the CONVERSION OF Shalome Ben Shalomoh the JEW DELIVER'D Unto the CHURCH of CHRIST to which Mr. Thomas Humfrey is Pastor Mr. Humfrey BRethren I suppose you well remember that Mr. Shalome was proposed to this Church in order to Communion therewith he is now come to give an Account of the Dealings of God with his Soul I hope you will attend as those who are sensible of the Grace of God towards you Sir If you please to speak Shalome I hope Men and Brethren that what I am about to say may prove as effectual as the Sermon which Peter preached to the Men of Judea and Jerusalem at the hearing of which there was an Universal crying out Men and Brethren What shall we do Acts 2.37 If that be your Enquiry take Peter's Answer You must believe and be baptized that the Holy Ghost may come upon you v. 38. I Shalome Ben Shalomoh was born of Jewish Parents my Father's Name Shalomoh my Mother 's Leah was circumcised the eighth Day in Pusnonny in Poland where I lived till I was twelve Years of Age at which time it pleased God who works all things for the good of his Elect that all our Family my self alone excepted died in a great Plague which had universally spread its self through that Land Being left thus destitute I had an Inclination to travel and in my Travels a Boy who was in the Duke of Brandenburg's Army came and said to me Why do you not turn a Christian A Christian said I why think you I will worship Images for such was my Ignorance that I thought all Christians were Papists there being none but Papists who were called Christians and Jews in the Country where I was born do you said I believe the Bible the Old Testament the five Books of Moses the Psalms of David and the Song of Solomon Yes said he we have all these Do you said I worship Images There are said he two sorts of Christians Protestants and Papists we believe no other Saviour but Jesus Christ alone Well said I carry me to a Minister who accordingly brought me to the Duke of Brandenburg's Minister who opend to me something concerning Jesus Christ from the five Books of Moses As 1st that in Gen. 3.15 And I will put enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel which appeared to me when God opened my Eyes for I could not see it before a lively Representation of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ as also from that in Numb 21.9 when God commanded Moses to lift up a brazen Serpent on a Pole that every bitten Israelite looking thereto might be healed did I learn that Jesus Christ was the true brazen Serpent by believing on whom alone it was that I could obtain Salvation and eternal Life He also endeavoured to shew me how that many of the Psalms were prophetical of Jesus Christ particularly Psalm 2.7 Thou art my Son this Day have I begotteu thee And Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right Hand c. And Psal 22.16 17 18. The
Son this day have I begotten thee And again I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son    Heb. 5.6 John 1.14 John 3.16 And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only Begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth Isaiah 9.6 For unto us a Child is born unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his Name shall be called Wonderful Consellour the Mighty God the Everlaststing Father the Prince of Peace The eternal and true God John 10.36 I and the Father are one Micah 5.2 Out of thee shall come forth unto me to be Ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting Coeternal and Coequal with the Father 1 John 1 2 3. The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made Prov. 8.22.32 I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the Earth was Col. 1.13.16 Heb. 1.3 By him were all things created in Heaven and in Earth visible and invisible Psalm 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his Name Immanual That he should take our humane Nature and be born of a Virgin Mat. 1.23 John 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 Luke 1.31.34 And the Word was made Flesh God was manifest in the Flesh Gen. 22.18 Gen. 18.18 Gen. 12.3 Isai 11.1 Jer. 23.5 In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed That he shall be of the stock of Abraham Isaac Jacob Judah and David Rom. 1.3 Rev. 5.5 Mat. 1.16 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the Seed of David according to the flesh Hosea 11.1 Out of Aegypt have I called my Son That he should flee into Aegypt Mat. 2.5  Isa 40.3 Mat. 3.1 The Voice of him that crieth in the wilderness Prepare ye the Way of the Lord make strait in the Desert an high Way for our God That one in the Spirit and Power of Elias should prepare his Way Mat. 3.4 Luke 3.4 Mark 1.3 John 1.23 Mat. 17.10.12 Mark 9.11 12.  Psal 9.1 2. The People that walked in Darkness have seen a great Light c. That he should begin to preach in Galilee Mat 4 15 16.  Isal 35.4 5 6. The Eyes of the Blind shall be opened and the Ears of the Deaf shall be unstopped That he should confirm his Doctrine by many Miracles John 19.29 Matth. 27.48 The Blind receive their sight and the Lame walk and the Lepers are cleansed and the Deaf hear the Dead are raised up the Poor have the Gospel preached to them Zech. 9.9 Behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly and riding on an Ass and on a Colt the Foal of an Ass That he should enter Jerusalem triumphantly on an Ass Matth. 21.5 Mark 11.2 John 12.15.12  Psalm 41.9 Yea mine own familiar Friend in whom I trusted which did eat of my Bread hath lift up his Heel against me That he should be betrayed by one of his Disciples for thirty pieces of Silver  Then one of the twelve Judas Iscariot went unto the Chief Priests and said What will ye give me and I will betray him unto you And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of Silver Zech. 11.12 And the Lord said to me Cast it unto the Potter a goodly price that I was prized at of them and I took the 30 pieces of Silver and cast them unto the Potter in the House of the Lord.  Matth. 27.7 And they took Councel and bought with them the Potters Field to bury Strangers in Zech. 12.7 Awake O Sword against my Shepherd against the Man that is my Fellow saith the Lord of Hosts smite the Shepherd and the Sheep shall be scattered That the Apostles should be scattered when he was taken Matth. 26.31 Mark 14.27 John 16.32 Matth. 26.56 Then said Jesus to them all Ye shall be offended because of me this night for it is writen as Zeck 13.7 Isaiah 50.6 I gave my Back to the Smiters and my Cheeks to them who plucked of the Hair I hid not my Face from Shame and Spitting That he should be mocked and spit on Matth. 26.67 John 18.22 Then did they spit in his Face and buffeted him Isaiah 52.12 And he was numbred with the Transgressors That he should suffer between two Malefactors Matth. 27.28 Then were two Thieves crucified with him one on the right Hand the other on the left Isaiah 53.4 Surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows That he should suffer for our Sins Matth. 8 17. Himself took our Infirmities and bear our Sicknesses 1 Peter 2.24 Who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree Psalm 22.1 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me c. That he should suffer extream Agonies in his Soul Matth. 27.46 Mark 15.24  Psalm 22.16 Numb 21.8 9. The Wicked have enclosed me they pierced my Hands and my Feet That he should die an accursed Death and be crucifyed as he was tipifyed by the brazen Serpent John 19.34 John 3.14 But one of the Soldiers with a Spear pierced his side Psalm 69.21 And they gave me also Galls for Meat and in my Thirst they gave me Vinegar to drink That Vinegar and Gall should be offered him to drink John 19.23 Matth. 27.48 They filled a Spunge with Vinegar and put it to his Mouth Psalm 22.18 They part my Garments among them and cast Lots upon my Vesture That Lots should be cast for his Garments Luke 23.24 And they parted his Garments and cast Lots Exodus 12.46 Numb 9.12 Neither shall ye break a Bone thereof That not a Bone of him should be broken as was typifyed by the Paschal Lamb. John 19.33 36. When they came to Jesus and saw he was dead already they break not his Legs Zech. 12.10 They shall look on me whom they have pierced That he should be pierced John 19.34 37. One of the Soldiers with a Spear pierced his Side Psalm 16.10 Thou wilt not suffer thine holy One to see corruption That he should not see Corruption but rise the third Day Luke 24 from 13 to the end  Joel 2.28 29. I will pour out my Spirit on all Flesh  John 16.7 But if I depart I will send him i. e. the Comforter to you Acts 2.3 4. There appeared to them cloven Tongues and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost FINIS