exulting Victors and Strength enough to hold them in its Dungeon till the Resurrection This Mouth of Infidelity is presently stopped Here follows A justifying Reason such as clears the Triumph from the Charge of Absurdity It is confessed if Death were but it self and not Pars minima sui it would be unworthy of the Honour of being insulted over it would be an Insect of an inconsiderable Sting if not a perfect Drone An Enemy too despicable to be triumphed over with Harp and Psaltery nor would Christians blow a Trumpet for the Overthrow of a Wasp But Death's Name is Legion and as it 's an Host of Enemies in one it is a formidable one The Sting of Death is Sin q. d. Sin is the whole Element of Evil it is all the Evil of Doing Nothing beside is Evil essentially or meritoriously This Hell of Sin being infused into Death makes it like it self even the whole Element of Misery and all the Evil of Suffering where then if not here shall be found a Trophy for Faith Here in Death envenomed by Sin By Sin whereof a Spark made Devils of the most blessed Creatures And no more than the imputed Guilt made the ever-living God to sweat Blood Seems this to be a Paradox Hear then The Strength of Sin is the Law q. d. No wonder that Sin is so pernicious a thing for the Curse of the Divine Law is on it And who can think what is God's Power or his Law 's Terror His Law must be like himself as in its Precepts and Promises so in its Threats The Punishments of so great a King must necessarily be great The Breach of his Law 's Duty can deserve no less than Extremity and Eternity of Misery and the Curse laid upon it is no less No marvel then that Sin 's Guilt maketh a Hell of Death being the Law 's Curse maketh Sin a worse thing than Death or Hell an Evil that Hell it self must have all Eternity to punish But over both Law and Sin God giveth us the Victory As fiery as this Law is Christ's Blood quencheth it As boiling a Furnace as it makes of Sin it cannot make Sin to be the Death of a Believer's Soul These the worst of Enemies are first slain For upon our first believing Christ's Righteousness is imputed and by that Imputation the Law 's Curse and Sin 's Condemnation are removed Over them we have Triumph sounded Rom. 7.4 Ye are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ And ver 24 25. Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death's Dominion is therefore at an end though its Power to kill the most holy Body and to detain the most sacred Dust for a time be not taken from it In short the Grace of Christ hath made Sin a broken Enemy the Law a kind Friend and Death a useful Servant Doth the Saints Triumph therefore precede or exceed Victory let the Wise judg When Israel was brought through the Red Sea what Songs of Praise were straitway sung though they had a howling Desart to be passed through and were not presently in Canaan Their Songs injected Terror to the Dukes of Edom and the mighty Men of Moab Yea the Greeks no sooner heard the Articles of Peace purchased for them by Titus Flaminius but they cried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour Plutarch in vit T. Flam. And with such Shouts of Joy as made the Air to ring and the Birds to drop down astonished A deep Lethargy it is that maketh Christians Joy to be less while their Reason for it is infinitely more That restrains them from such Triumph as would make the Infidel World to tremble But O where shall Offerings and whole Burnt-offerings be found For this Victory this Inchoate one Lebanon is not sufficient or the Cattel upon a thousand Hills But as Jehoshaphat in Berachah the Saints throughout the Earth do bless the Captain of their Salvation and Conquest The next Verse and Breath is An holy Gratulation A lovely Heaven of it in a little Globe of Words Thanks be to God! To the Father Son and Spirit our One God be all holy Obedience Whereof Gratitude is the principal Part that which contains and animates all Laws bind to Obedience and Benefits unto Thankfulness But God our Law-giver is in all things our Benefactor His very Laws all are Benefits To him be therefore all Obedient Thankfulness and all Thankful Obedience To him Who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Of his Saints Victory we publish the Truth We declare his Gift of Grace to be the Original We testify the Limitation of this Gift unto Believers only and the Extent of it unto all Believers As well to Babes in the Cradle of Christianity as the oldest Mnason's in God's Kingdom We proclaim the never to be forgotten Purchaser of it the Lord Jesus Christ Whose Death gave the Angel of Death his mortal Wound Whose Resurrection certified and exemplified Believers Whose Righteousness by Faith received instateth them in the Power of an endless Life Whose Sanctifying Spirit mortifieth sinful Lusts which be not the least Stings of Death Whose Comforting Spirit takes out the Pain and Anguish that Sin sticketh into our Souls And whose Glorious Appearing one day will fulfil his old Word to a tittle O Death I will be thy Plague O Grave I will be thy Destruction Waving all others the Argument I take hence is this Holy Believers on Christ do rejoice in their Victory over Death Truly Righteously and Holily they rejoice in their Salvation by Christ They sing O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory c. The Plural Number in which he speaks may assure us that the Apostle sung in Consort Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory And it shall be shown that this Text is all the Holy Catholick Church's Song Which while Militant is so far triumphant We may say of Death and of all Enemies in Combination with it as St. John saith of the World Whosoever is born of God overcometh them And this is the Victory that overcomes them even our Faith Consequently he that overcometh and shall not be hurt of the second Death must take it for his Duty and make it his Practice to joy in the Lord and rejoice in the God of his Salvation But lest with the Dogs I should shut Children out of the Church-Doors and wound any that have already the Arrows of the Almighty sticking in them I must premise two things Obstructions are allowed for It is not affirmed that all or any Believers do always rejoice Full oft they are hindred by Bodily Maladies by Mental Mistakes by Satan's Buffetings and by Divine Desertions Under which their Harp is turned to Mourning and their Organ into the Voice of them that weep And Secondly Degrees be wondrously different Of them that sing Triumph the Voice of some is as Thunder which all
Gift so suted to a Creature 's Need as Believer's Victory is Herein being in themselves dead in Christ they are made alive Being blind they receive their sight Being weak they are made strong Being miserable they are made blessed Being mutable they are eternally established Joh. 6.57 As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me shall live by me They must therefore die for Joy who joy too much for their Victory And scarcely could that it self be called too much Fourthly So Sumptuous an One All the World rates high what is bought dear But was there ever such a Purchase as the Believer's Conquest It astonished the Angels Our Saviour mentions it not without Wonder Joh. 3.16 The Price was the very Blood of God And only the Mind of God can comprehend the Worth of the Blood of God Wherefore of the most triumphant Joy herein it is boldly to be asked Is there not a Cause Fifthly So Rare a Blessing Rarity doth extremely enhanse Value Diamonds would be no Idols if they were no Rarities Yea what would Crowns be if every Head wore one It is what few attain that all do admire Now of Believers Victory who knows not how little there is of Commonness to take away from the Comfort Alas of the Many called to it how Few are chosen how Few will come to Christ for it And of the lapsed Angels not so much as One recovered his Fall Believers highest Joy is then surely unblamable if Rarity makes good things delectable and adds Sweetness to Hony it self Sixthly So Present an One It is most true absent Good is the Object but of Desire it must be present before it can be embraced with Delight Infidels ask therefore of Believers Are they not mad Mad to pretend their Souls filled with the Marrow and Fatness of things far from them But they are to be told Believers are not drunken as they suppose It is in things present that they exult Present though to the World invisible And real though every where spoken against as very Chimera's The Glories of their Victory are present in the Eye of Faith seeing them in the Hand of Faith receiving them in the Mouth of Faith tasting them Or to speak more to the Capacities of Infidel Objectors it must be said that the Blessing wherein they rejoice is in their Minds in daily Contemplation is in their Hearts in constant Expectation is in their whole-Man in sweet Fruition And how are the things in which they themselves do triumph any more or otherways present to them Do natural things incur their natural Senses As truly do spiritual Ones incur the spiritual Senses of Believers Whose spiritual Sight and Taste do therefore make their Exultations as just No more Candles shall be lighted in this Sun I proceed to evince that the Souls so joyful and thankful are holy that §. 3. Believers do triumph Holily over Death Their Laughter is not Madness If it be asked of their Mirth what doth it it must be answered It doth on Earth what Saints and Angels Mirth doth in Heaven It gives Praise and Thanks to God and to the Lamb For O Death where is thy Sting never goes before but Thanks be to God follows fast after Thankful Repentance thankful Faith Hope and Love thankful New-Obedience Blind Seers are the Romanists and others who teach otherwise And would bear us in hand that Assurance of Victory over Death is a Wine too strong for the Head of any Viator any living Believer Such whose Mirth would be Madness and the Joy of it turn the Grace of God into Wantonness Dispose us to nothing but Sloth and Security Pride and Presumption But what do the Arguings of Men so sensual and void of the Spirit of Faith avail It is true there are Wretches of slight and frothy Spirits who will be boasting of a false Gift a Cloud without Water Proclaim their wondrous Joy and speak swelling words though their Cloven-feet do manifestly confute their flaming Tongues And not walking in the Fear of the Lord it is sure they do not walk in the Joy of the Holy Ghost No small stumbling Block this hath been to Men of Senses not exercised to discern But these following Particulars will convince or confound all Gain-sayers First The Efficient Worker of the Joy and Triumph we speak of is the Holy Ghost Expresly it is named his Whose Operations no doubt are holy and make for Holiness His comforting Work tending as much to sanctify as his sanctifying Work tendeth to comfort us A contrary Thought would be Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and plainly make him a Minister of Sin Secondly The Law of this Joy is the Holy Gospel Believers Joy is as surely by the Gospel's Warrant as by the Spirit 's Work For he never speaketh of his own never as a Judg speaks Life and Joy to any but those to whom the Gospel as the Law of Grace and Peace doth assign it There is a perfect Consent between Christ's Spirit and his Word The Joy given by one is given by both And to think that the Joy by them given is a Servant of Sin were fearfully to blaspheme both belying them with a Brow of Brass Thirdly The End of this Joy is holy Conversation Whereby is our heavenly Father glorified but by our bringing forth much Good Fruit Or what doth he either constitute in his Word or dispense by his Spirit but for the End that he may thereby be glorified If we imagine that this Joy of Believers so constituted and so dispensed for this End is no apt Means for it but for the contrary how foolishly must we charge him who is only wise Fourthly The Means whereby this Joy is wrought are holy Ordinances and vigorous Exercise of Grace therein The holy Spirit useth not to lift Souls out of the Hell of their Fears much less to lift them up to the Heaven of triumphant Joys but in this Way And is it likely that the Effect should be an Enemy to its Causes That the Believer's Joy like a Viper should be Death to its Parents That Communion with God should beget such a Delight in him as should make us by and by weary of him Fifthly The Subjects of this Joy are holy Souls others are uncapable of it nor need we say what Use they would make of it who make the worst use of all the Grace objective and subjective that they do receive Most sure it is the holy Spirit first worketh Grace then witnesseth it to be in a Man and so comforteth him and causeth him to triumph in his State of Grace Christ is formed in the Soul before the Soul rejoiceth in Christ and it is then a prepared Subject for Joy is it not And who can believe that then like a Dunghil it will be made the fuller of Stench and noisom Fumes by the Shines of Heaven on it and not like a Garden have its Spices flow forth the more
hear the Voice of others is a scarcely audible Whisper Some have but a Drop of the Oil of Joy others in comparison a very Sea of it However this is asserted of all Believers The Joy of Faith is the chief Joy of every sort of them Of them that want it none dare to slight it None can rest or be very easy till they have it The New Nature in them panteth for it as the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks And as oft as they get from under the foresaid Obstructions §. 1. Believers do truly rejoice in their Victory over Death Here Examples shall show THAT they do so and Reasons shall satisfy WHY they must so do The Time would fail to tell of Abraham foreseeing the Day and Work of his victorious Lord and rejoicing in it Of Jacob cheering himself under heaviest Pressures with the same comforting Prospect Of Job insulting over Death and glorying in his Assurance of a blessed Resurrection Of David proclaiming that his God would not leave him in Death And that he would fear no Evil when he walk'd through the Valley of its Shadow The Heart of the Saints of the Old Testament is to be seen in the Song of Solomon Hear it uttering it self to the Lord Jesus Christ We will be glad and rejoice in thee In thee that is by whose Stripes we are healed In thee on whom the Lord hath laid the Iniquities of us all and by the Faith of whom he justifieth us In thee to whom a Portion is divided with the Great and who dost divide the Spoil with the Strong as the Evangelical Prophet speaks We will remember thy redeeming Love more than Wine I sat down under his Shadow with great Delight and his Fruit was sweet to my Taste Consult with these Manifesto's the Psalms and Songs of his Father David It shall appear that the Church was dancing for Joy before the Day brake and the Shadows flew away and the Sun of Righteousness arose with the Light and Glory of the New Testament Under which who needs to be told what a Spirit of Joy was presently poured out Glad Tidings of great Joy the heavenly Heralds call'd the Gospel Where-ever it comes a Torrent of Joy follows it Gladly it is received at its first Publication though with the loss of all things adventured Philip preaches it at Samaria and there is great Joy in all the City We glory in Tribulations We rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory We are more than Conquerours We are always confident and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. We are always rejoycing We rejoice in the Hope of the Glory of God Thus speak the Apostles as well of their Converts as of Themselves And what saith Ecclesiastical History of the Ages ever since The same Spirit of Joy and Gladness hath been in all times of the Church They that have loved the Lord Jesus have rejoiced in him And in his Name have wished for Death have welcomed it and have been unterrified with its most ghastly Shapes and Pomps Polycarp desires his Executioners to let him shew them that he could burn at a Stake without being tied to it Lucius thanketh a barbarous Judg for the Favour of sending him to his God and Father Cyprian thanks God for his Goal-delivery by Death Hilarion cries Out of this Body O my Soul What is there any thing for thee to fear For thee an old Servant of Christ But to come nigher our own days Cranmer thrusts his Right-hand into the Fire to be revenged on it for subscribing a Damned Scroll as he called it for fear of Death Think you that I have not learned to die said Adam Damlip Be at my burning you shall see and say There 's a Souldier of Christ said Kirby Ridley called his Death his Wedding And Latimer told the Bishop going before him to the Stake he would have after him as fast as he could And when Fire was put to him with a smiling Face he uttered these Words God is faithful who doth not suffer us to be tempted above our Strength Bainam in the Fire professed he felt no more Pain than on a Bed of Down Death in the most hideous Shapes hath been thus triumphed over Clouds of Instances are to be read even in English Books And do we not know Multitudes of surviving Friends and Neighbours whom we discern to be of the Mind of the Martyr Adam Wallack If Death be ready we are ready Blessed be God this Age is not so forsaken by him but that there are Multitudes to whom Christ's Word is verified Your Heart shall rejoice and your Joy shall no Man take from you Is it yet with any of you a hard Saying which holy Hildersam hath written He that doth not desire and strive to be willing to die he hath cause to suspect that there is no true saving Grace in him Or that harmonious Passage of great Calvin on Hebrews 2.14 He that is not able to quiet his Heart in holy Contempt of Death let him know that he hath made but little progress in the Faith of Christ For as excessive Fear of Death ariseth from Ignorance of the Grace of Christ so it is a sure Sign of Vnbelief Or that of Dr. Hammond on 1 Tim. 1.15 If the Conversion of a Sinner be not accompanied with unwonted Joy and Sorrow a Godly Sense of past Distress and a Godly Triumph for his Delivery I counsel not to Distrust but to Fear to a solicitous though not a suspicious Trembling Let me add one more of Mr. Ward of Ipswich If we had but half the Strength of St. Paul 's Faith or Life of his Hope or Fore-imaginations which he had of his future Felicity we could not but have the same Desires and Longings for our Fruition of them I think few Truths to be more evident But it 's possible that these following Reasons may add to its Evidence These Reasons I give why Believers must needs rejoice in their Victory over Death First Believers are Men And it is the Nature of Man to rejoice in his most desired Good when he knows it to be obtained Victory over Death is certainly the most desired and the obtained Good of Believers And ordinarily they do know themselves to have obtained it through Christ their Lord. For the Law of Grace through Faith they do understand Their own Acts of Grace by Sense they do perceive And their State of Grace by Reason they do infer And the Spirit which is of God they do receive whereby they know the things which are freely given them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 What our Saviour in his days on Earth said to the Ears of some the Holy Ghost saith now to Believers Hearts Be of good chear your Sins are forgiven Witnessing with their Spirits that they are the Children of God Rom. 8.16 Not only enlightning their Minds to see the Truth of their Graces and thence to conclude themselves in a
State of Grace but verbis mentalibus by secret spiritual Words by internal mysterious Whispers testifying unto them that they are in that blessed State For the Matter of Witnessing is more than Enabling a Person to read his Evidence In Westminster-hall he would not be taken for a Witness who should do no more than hold a Candle to one reading his Evidence But the Holy Ghost the Comforter is expresly named a Witness to Believers of their being taken into the Number and being bless'd with all the Privileges of the Sons of God Ordinarily therefore I say that Believers do know the Cause of Joy that they have Though as hath been foresaid Times of Desertion there are in which they know it not And it is most certain the heavenly Comforter doth not at all times comfort Nor is joyful Assurance of the very Essence of justifying saving Faith But by reason of fore-named Obstructions Children of Light may sit all their days in the Dark and in the Deeps And ascend to Heaven at last in a thick Cloud Otherwise we do all generally believe and teach that the Spirit of Adoption being given unto Sons as Sons of God he is given unto every Child of God And commonly they do know themselves Conquerors who are in Christ and are not reprobate unsound Christians This being admitted they must be dead and not lively Stones as St. Peter calls them if they Rejoice not They must cease to be Men if they become not joyful Ones They must be stupified as soon as Justified and Adopted For the Humane Nature hath an inseparable Instinct and Power which on good Tidings heard doth transport Minds and Bodies into Expressions of Gladness Diffusing Spirits and by them sending forth the News trying as it were by communicating to multiply it Gaudio cogendi vis inest The Roman Orator says and all Men feel it Joy enters with a Violence and with a grateful Violence that we are not able to resist breaks forth from us Who thinks that David was able to forbear his Dance before the Ark Or that the healed Cripple could contain himself from Running Leaping and Praising God We have read of them who have died of Joy and it is true which one saith Should Believers have the Degrees of Assurance which imprudently they do sometimes desire they must presently Die for Joy or be kept Alive by Miracle In short then Believers must put off Nature if they rejoice not in Christ's Grace They must be without natural Affection if they be without any spiritual Consolation if ordinarily they be so Secondly Believers are wise Men And it is Wisdom to rejoice in such Felicity as Victory over Death In the Day of Prosperity Nature necessitates Joy and Reason enforces it For Happiness is a Feast made for Mirth and how monstrous a Folly must it be to frustrate so kind a Design upon us Wisdom is a true Gust and right Relish of things Sapit cui res sapiunt ita ut sunt But how far be they from it who taste no Sweetness in the Milk and Honey that flow in this Victory Hearts delighting not themselves in Substances do most certainly delight themselves in Shadows And what a Delusion is that what a gathering together of all Folly and a very Sea of it The Laughter of Wretches laden with Irons or standing on the Ladder ready for Execution seems not greater Madness than the Disconsolateness of them when they are both pardoned and advanced Should the Saints and Angels in Heaven cease rejoicing it were to be asked What Wisdom is in them They would be to be charged with extreme Folly Unreasonable it would be for them to give over Rejoicing as it would be for Devils and damned Ghosts to begin And yet it is most certain that Justified and Adopted Believers have as true Cause of Joy as Angels and glorified Spirits are in a State only in Degree less blessed consequently have as true Reason to sing Hosannah's here below as they to sing Hallelujah's above and cannot but hold on Songs of Joy in the House of their Pilgrimage without first becoming sensless of their Conquest Joyful Praise is comely for them Nor is Triumph on the way to Hell more unreasonable than on the way to Heaven it is discreet In a word To think that Saints did ordinarily incur and indulge the Guilt of its Neglect would be to think them what the World stiles them Men besides themselves This Guilt would be a dead Fly in their Ointment and make it to send forth so stinking a Savour of the most loathsom Folly Thirdly Believers are Righteous Men and it is their Justice to be glad and triumph in their Victory over Death Justice witholds not what is due when it is in the Power of its Hand to repay To repay Vengeance to Evil-doers and Praise to them that do well Death and its Complices the Law Sin Satan and Hell are Enemies that have tragically used Believers made them to bear God knows what shamed them and tempted them to curse the Day of their Birth held them subject to Bondage through Fear all the time that they laid under their Power A holy Revenge is now owing to Sin and to Satan and now that through Christ they are taken out of those cruel Hands they are able to pay it able to expose them and put them to open Shame to shew abroad how they themselves have been used by one mightier than they how the Law as damning is abolished Sin is condemned Satan's Head is bruised Death is plagued the Grave is destroyed and Hell hath its Mouth stopp'd On the contrary there is no finding out to Perfection the Breadth and Length the Depth and Height of God's Grace The Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord passeth all Vnderstanding His Grace and his Gift by Grace unto Believers are ineffable infinitely free without Merit in us or any Motive Astonishingly rich while we were Enemies most defiled and deformed ones and equally without Power to resist damning Justice and without the Prudence to ask Saving-Mercy Angels our Elders and Betters were not pitied but irreversably doomed to Destruction More than Angels and all the Creation was worth was given to redeem us even as much more than they are worth as God by Essence exceedeth the mere Creature Christ is God by eternal Essence and yet God spared not that his Son but gave him up to redeem Rebels whereat Hell envies and Heaven wonders A vast Tribute of Praise must hence rise due so due that if Believers be silent the Stones must needs cry out Believers that now are no longer Mutes have the dumb Devil expell'd and their Mouths opened for Praise their Tongues touched with a Coal from the holy Altar and qualified to lift up the Name of their Redeemer But what save Triumph in their Victory through him can render to Death the things that are Death's or to Christ the things that are Christ's If Faith doth not now play
of his Door as one that would not go free from that blessed Yoke and Service and lays in Hope the whole Assistance hereof on his Grace and Help And how in so extraordinary a Case as is alone to my Lord I desire to witness and renew the same here with my humble and intire Reliance on him who is my Trust from my Youth to this day my Shield and exceeding great Reward To him I commit my Self my Ways my Work and Service which with my Soul's Desire I offer to my Lord In whose Hand I desire to secure my Credit for the Gospel's sake my Comfort and Enlargement in this Day of deep Trouble and Anguish together with my poor Children and the whole Interest of my Family and Concerns desiring to put my self with humble Confidence and all that is dear to me under his Care and Conduct O my Soul bless thou the Lord This I write the 1st of Jan. 1692. R. Fleming My Lord and my God 1694. It is in the first Day and Monday of this new Year 1694. that as I have formerly through most of my Life past so now do desire to renew my Dedication and Engagements to the Lord my God and to join in the same Witness with what herein hath been formerly with my whole Heart and Desire and to offer unto my dearest Lord Praise in remembrance of what he hath been through the Year past and in the whole of my Life whose gracious tender Conduct hath been so wonderful and well hast thou my Lord dealt with thy Servant according to thy Word in all hath befallen me And as my Soul does now move and betake my self alone to him as my own God my Father my Redeemer and blessed Comforter and my only All so do I hereby witness the settling of my Trust my Hope and Reliances alone upon him for this new Year or what Time of my Life may yet remain with earnest Desire to enter yet again and continue in his Service even in that delightful Service of my dearest Lord and Master And now I do again by a new Surrender witness my entire Commitment of my self my poor Children my Credit for the Gospel my Conduct and Comfort in so extraordinary a Juncture to my dearest Lord to his gracious and compassionate Care and Providence together with my Works and any small Design to serve him and my Generation And I do intreat new Supplies of his Grace and Strength to secure and make his poor Servant if it were his blessed Will yet more abundantly forth-coming to him And with hope of Acceptance I write this Jan. 1 1694. R. Fleming Post tenebras spero Lucem At another time thus floweth his sacred Pen O my Soul never forget this solemn Wednesday Night nor the last Monday Night what solemn Visits I had from my Lord after so serious a Work of Trial about the Warrant of my Hope and Petition for the heightning of my Faith and sealing Testimony of his Spirit In how marvellous a Way did my dearest Lord I hope bear Evidence to the great Assurance he had formerly given me c. O let my Soul bless and adore the Lord for this sweet and marvellous Visit this Monday Night which my dearest Lord I hope hath given his poor Servant when so near sinking and I hope said to my Soul Fear not I forget you not for I have graven you on the Palms of my Hands c. I look on thee with Delight and the Time is come when I will give thee an Account of thy Prayers and Tears of thy many Groans and long On-waiting Have I spoken and will I not do it c. O thou afflicted tossed with Tempests in an acceptable Time have I heard thee Trust thou in the Lord for I will make thee a Sign to this Generation c. I am leading thee right and thy Strength is to sit still Is the Lord's Hand shortned that it cannot save c. O how shall I entertain this marvellous Day and Appearance of my dearest Lord to his poor Servant O wonderful Condescension this Morning after so sweet an Evening before that he should please to give so near an Approach of himself O I hope it was his Voice I am come I am surely come my Servant in the fourth Watch of the Night to bring forth my Prisoner and set him at liberty who hath stay'd so long for me c. I embrace you as an Over-comer rejoice for great is your Reward in Heaven I am now entering thee on a Day of rejoycing Be not doubtful it is I who comforts thee c. And when I said O how shall I manage such a wonderful Enlargement how discernably was it returned I hope from himself I will manage it for thee Thou hast stayed for me but thou hast got the Victory and the Day shall be thine and thou shalt know what I have been doing with thee and for thee O let me never forget the 25th of Decemb. at Night when after 60 Years under the Lord 's special Conduct he gave me so sweet and remarkable a Visit never to be forgotten O what a Night was it when I went home pressed to sing the 103d Psalm c. But it were endless to name Passages of this nature since almost every Day was a Communion-day between God and him And how remarkably God hath answered his Prayers may easily be inferred from hence One Instance to this Purpose we may see in his Epistolary Discourse Page 68. of a Minister who had a violent Collick immediately taken off upon his praying to God for that End It is known to be himself he speaks of there though he expresses it Modestly in the Third Person I shall now present a few Things which he sets down in Writing by themselves under this Title A short Index of some of the great Appearances of the Lord in the Dispensations of his Providence to his poor Servant c. And although the Brevity and Obscurity of the Hints must needs leave us in the dark as to the full Meaning of most of them as being written only for his own Memory as the Title shews yet they will serve to shew us the particular Care of his Great Master over this his faithful and eminent Servant They are the Remarks which he calls the Appearances of the Lord towards him in his own Words 1. How near I was brought to Death in my Infancy given over yea and esteem'd a Burden to my Friends so as my Death was made desirable to them I being as the Refuse of my Father's Children yet even then I was God's Choice and in a most singular way restored 2. That remarkable Deliverance on receiving a Blow by a Club when a Child which was so near my Eye as endangered both my Sight and Life 3. That strange and extraordinary Impression I had of an audible Voice in the Church at Night when being a Child I had got up to the Pulpit calling to me to make haste
swayed the Scepter of these Kingdoms affirmed it to be the purest of all the Reformed Churches And the Divine to whom the Prelacy the Dissenters and the Foreign Churches do rise up with greatest Veneration as to a Theological Prince doth now name that Church the Morning-Star of the Reformation Of his PARENTAGE suffice it to be said He was the Seed of God's Friends His Family was Honourable in its Relations and most eminent for Religion His EDUCATION was first in the College of Edinburgh Wherein he ran through the Course of Philosophy with great Applause And made laudable progress in the Learned Languages Then translated to the University of St. Andrew's he travelled through Theology under the Conduct of the Learned and Holy Mr. Rutherford His NATURAL PARTS were excellent His Vnderstanding quick and penetrative His Judgment clear and profound His Fancy rich and fluent His Memory strong His Expression masculine and of a Grace that did take with those who were not unacquainted with his Idiotisms and Accents By which it was indeed clouded to us of England His ACQUIRED LEARNING was great Answerable to his happy Parts and their Culture Through the Divine Blessing on his pious Diligence it was Rathe-Ripe History the Eye of Learning he singularly affected Especially Sacred History the Right Eye But unto him all History was sacred for he considered God's Actions more than Man 's in all of it Nor valued he Man's but for the Knowledg of God's With whose holy Counsels and Ways he was so well acquainted that before he was 23 Years old he was called to a Pastoral Charge And was settled therein at Campuslang in the Shire of Cliddsdale Where he served his God till the Year 1661. In which the Storm rose that drave out thousands whereof the Age was not worthy He had taken in Marriage Christina Hamilton justly famed for her Person Gifts and Graces which were all eximious By her he had seven Children and with them and himself sweetly committed unto his God's Provision he humbly received the Honour of his Ejection Of the Children the Lord received to himself three of them before their Mother and two of them since Blessed be his Name two do still survive As for WORLDLY SUBSTANCE his Share seems according to Agur's Desire He hath told me that as Luther he never to his knowledg desired much of it or was very careful about it During the most tragical days his Table was spread and Cup filled and Head anointed with fresh Oil. Liberally his Children were educated and in good Works he was profusely rich Of his own Laying up I have good warrant to say he had no Treasure but in Heaven His own Testimony of his Life was this It was one made up of seeming Contraries Great outward Trouble and great inward Comfort And I never found said he more Comfort than when I was under most Affliction Touching his NAME and NOTE in the World this only shall be said Against all his Projects and Pains to restrain it his Fame hath flown thrô the Christian World His Conferences Sermons and Writings made it too big and too bright to be covered A Name more sweet and precious and more generally so to Christians of all Minds and Gusts I Hear not of nor Read I any one To the Praise of our English Court I write it the Sun and Moon as well as other rare Stars thereof admired holy Fleming and shone propitiously on him May the everlasting Love of his God be the Reward of their Love unto his faithful Servant But I am yet in the lower Hemisphere More high and honourable things remain to be said of this Man of God! His CONVERSION to his God was early and illustrious It was but a little while that he had dwelt in this World before God dwelt in him and he in God And that so evidently by the Exilience of all Christian Vertues that little more doubt was made of his being Born of God than of his being Born of a Woman His WALK with God was admirable And to the many of this Age will seem incredible It is certain not one Enoch of many doth walk so exactly So universally in all holy Ways and so humbly with Self-denial to Extremity It was extraordinarily that his Spirit was composed for Adoration and accordingly his Life was a Life of Worship extraordinary His Solemn Dedications of himself to his God were frequent His Soliloquies with him almost perpetual He was ever with Him And his always-serene Countenance spake it enlightned always by the Divine One. His always-gracious Speech shewed from what Altar the Coal touched his Tongue Not without cause it hath been a Fear that should his Diary come abroad most Readers would be too weak Vessels for his strong Wine His ACTIVITY for God in his Ministry was such as was to be expected from a Mr. Fleming From a large Soul comprehensive of the Interests of God and his Church and the World the present Age and future And from a Soul most enflamed with Love and thereby constrained to spend it self and be spent for no petty Faction or Party but for Certain and Catholick Christianity What a Writer he was needeth not here to be written In Preaching he was Boanerges and Barnabas also Nor knew any Man better how to use Law and Gospel without either opposing or confounding them For Converse and for all things useful what might Campuslang testify of him What might Edinburgh and adjacent Places wherein after his Ejection he lived and laboured What might Rotterdam say where from the Year 1678 to this present Year he burned and shined The Sun I think stood still all the time wherein he had no Design for God going on It is well known the Sun of his Life did set upon an excellent Design Which was of sending forth a Treatise concerning the Way of the Holy Ghost's working on the Souls of Men especially after Conversion in Communion between God and them His SUCCESS from God given in his Work was not ordinary He had a numerous spiritual Progeny And they are very many who have thankfully commemorated in my hearing their Benefit from his Writings The Holy Spirit that bloweth in whose Books he listeth hath singularly honoured his And I well know doth still continue to honour them Of both his surviving Sons it must be said though it be here a very high word they do Patrizare And do make it manifest that the holy Saint's Prayers were heard and his Pains richly prospered unto them His PEACEFULNESS in God's House is by no means to be omitted Controversies he declined not because of Insufficiency but of Dislike Seeing better than others do or will see that many Errors will be sooner struck to death by a Just Contempt than by a Full Confutation And will be less apt to revive after they have been generously disdained than after that they have been operously exploded Well he knew and oft he would say what a Servant the Bond of Love is
to the Vnity and Purity of Faith Speaking of the Differences of Brethren in this City he thus expressed himself I am amaz'd to see good Men thus tear one another in the dark Nor can I understand how they should have Grace in due Exercise who value their particular Designs above the Interest of the Catholick Church and who confine Religion to their own Notions and Models To another complaining of Reproaches from pretended Friends his Answer was To me to be judged of Man and of Man's Judgment is a small thing I bless God I value not my own Name but God's only I do confess when Men wound the Credit of the Gospel through me it is hard then to bear up Nor may it be forgotten what he hath said to his dear and excellent Friend and spiritual Son of this City Dr. D. H. I bless God in fifteen Years time I have not ever given any Man's Credit a Thrust behind his Back But when I had ground to speak well of any Man I did so with Faithfulness and when I wanted a Subject that way I kept Silence O in what Concord might Prelatists and Dissenters walk much more the Dissenters themselves had they more of this Balsamick Spirit What agree in Principles of Faith in all substantial Parts of Worship and assert all of us the same Necessity of Holiness and yet bite and devour one another Blessed Saviour send down thy Spirit to us with the Wisdom that is pure and peaceable But to return Of the Man so pure and peaceable it must be added His TRIUMPHS in the Favour of God were transcendent Triumphs over Law Sin Death Grave and Hell Too few do I discern to aspire to such as he had long attained O how dwelt he on the Mount How oft was he as in the third Heaven What a Jacob what an Israel was holy Fleming Such a Wrestler and Prevailer with God such a Moses to whom God spake as it were Face to Face such a Nazarite with a Soul with a Life and with a Name darkned with no Cloud except but that of his own Humility which doth together darken a Man to himself and beautify him in the Eyes of God and Saints A Man so highly favoured of God and blessed with so much of Heaven upon this Earth is not oft found I suppose in any one Age. There is no end of Instances every Day seeming to have been a holy Sabbath and Communion-day and Day of spiritual Jubilee unto him In his last Sickness he had more than one wondrous Manifestation of God's Love to his Soul and one which he declared he had not Strength enough to have born much longer But now Of his DEATH in the Lord what shall my trembling Heart utter It was but July the 17th that his Sickness seized him and the 25th he who had so much seen the Salvation of God departed in Peace On his first Arrest O Friends said he to such as were about him Sickness and Death are serious things But till the Sparks of his Fever had risen to a Flame he was not aware that that Sickness was to be unto Death for he told a Relation of his that if it should so be it was strange being the Lord did not use to hide from him the things that he did with him and his His heavenly Father knew his thorow Preparedness for Glory and pleased not to give the Premonition which he saw him not to want Sudden Death is sudden Glory to such Saints Yet before his Expiration he was apprehensive of its Approach Calling to him a Friend he asked What Freedom do you find in Prayer for me Seems God to becken to your Petitions or does he bind you up and leave dark Impressions on your Mind This way said he I have often known the Mind of the Lord. His Friend telling him he was under Darkness in the case he said Well I know your Mind Trouble not your self for me I think I may say that I have been long above the Fear of Death His Groans and Struglings argued his Flesh to be under no small Pains But his Answers to enquiring Friends certified that the Irons did not enter his Soul Always he would say I am very Well or I was never Better or I feel no Sickness Thus would he say while he was seen to be very sensible of every thing beside Pain The malignant Distemper wasting his Natural Spirits he could speak but little But what he spake was all of it like himself Having felt himself indisposed for his wonted Meditation and Prayer he thus said to some near him I have not been able in a manner to form one serious Thought since I was sick Or to apply my self unto God as I ought But though I have not been able to apply my self unto God he has applied himself unto me And one of his Manifestations was such as I could have born no more Opening his Eyes after a long Sleep one of his Sons asked him how he did he replied Never better Do you know me said the Son unto which with a sweet Smile he answered Yes yes dear Son I know you This was about two Hours before his Ascension About an Hour after it he cried earnestly Help help for the Lord's Sake And then breathing weaker and weaker he soon gave up his precious Ghost The renewed Eagle took flight to the Mountain of Spices As his Life his Death also speaketh And whosoever hath Ears to hear let him hear what the Spirit speaketh by both of them unto the Churches His Diary the rich Treasure of his Experiences is not at hand And therefore cannot as yet be brought into publick Light But from the few Manuscripts which are here found I shall add some Hints that I judg to be very directive and incentive I mean unto the Faith of Reliance and of Assurance in which he was so eminent Unto the Love of God and Men wherein he was so vigorous Unto Meditation and Prayer and Heavenly Mindedness wherein he was so grand an Exemplar They are indeed but Hints And if any Difference be they are the most ordinary of his Memorials The more sublime and extraordinary ones are kept back of a Suspicion that the Generality of good and honest Readers might be more amused than edified by things so stupendious And so very much out of the common Road of Christian Experience But to proceed Aug. 16 1685. Thus he wrote I found some sweet Access to the Lord in the Morning in the lively Actings of Grace and after I had this Day set down some Remarks of the Day before I had some clear Impress of this Since thou art careful to improve thy Talent of Observation more shall be given and the Oil shall not fail whilst there are Vessels to receive And now O the sweet Evening of this same Day when in the outer-Walk where I had found a sore Damp for some time the Door was as it were cast open with such a clear imparting