me by any of my fellow Christians begging of God to set you free as I my self also desire to be set free by you all for any thing whereby I may have offended you against the bent and inclination of my Soul and that Spark of Love which is in it which would not offend any one Pray bear with my Repetitions for it is from the abundance of the heart that my mouth speaketh and Love is Mat. 12. 34. never weary of shewing her good will to all Men. This Divine Love and Charity is the true Principle of on Evangelical Life without which no person can live so as becomes the Gospel of Christ Of how great value therefore is this love Of whom we may say as Solomon saith of Wisdom She is better than Rubies and all the things that may he desired are not to be compared to her Prov. 8. 11. Love is of such an Attractive and Assimilative Vertue that she changeth all things she toucheth into her own Nature she is the true Philosophers Stone that changeth all baser Mettals into Gold Mat. 13. 44 45. she is the Pearl of great Price and the Treasure hid in the Field in order to the purchasing of which the wise Merchant sells all Ephes 3. 19. 1 John 4. 16. Oh Love Love who can take thy dimensions who can comprehend thee For God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Where this Love is not found neither is God there tho a Man should shine never so glorious with all Parts Gifts and deep Cor. 13. 2 Pet. 1. 1. Gal. 5. 6. Learning all would signifie nothing without this Pretious Faith it self is of no account except it work by love Wherefore O Christians let us be led by this Spirit of Love and readily obey the Commandment of our Lord who saith Love your Enemies bless them that curse you c. Matth. 5. 44. And you that call your selves Protestants and profess the same Religion be entreated by the love of Christ who died for All to be Enemies to None especially of your own Brethren that would fain live in love and peace with you Why should you fall out by the way and be at variance Gen. 45. 24. with your Brethren that cannot comply with you in all things that you think lawful and they may be so to you tho not to them for whatsoever is not of Faith is sin Rom. 14. 2 3 4 10 11 12 13 23. One believeth that he may eat all things and another who is weak eateth Herbs Let none of you therefore judge his Brother but rather bear with one another in love They whose Hearts are sincere and truly love God will never be angry with their Brethren that are stronger and see further than they do or are more able to promote the Glory of God and the Good of their Neighbour than they are The holy Man Moses when his Servant told him that some of the People Prophesyed in the Camp Num. 11. 27 28 29. was so far from being jealous upon that account that he rejoyced and said Would to God that all the People of the Lord were Prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them And the Apostle St. Paul declares that tho there were some that preached Phil. 1. 15. 18. Christ even of Envy and Strife yet that therein he rejoyced and would rejoyce We see how far different these holy Saints were from the Spirit of those who are Envious at the Gifts of others not to say worse For I would rather heal all Breaches than make them wider and with the Mantle of Love hide the nakedness of my Fathers and Brethren and heap Coals of Divine Charity upon their heads to melt their hearts and to induce them to love the Lord and his People This is that which my Spirit groans for to have all set at liberty by the Spirit of Love and Peace that Brethren Psal 133. may dwell together in Unity Nay what is more my Spirit groans for the whole Creation that it may be delivered Rom. 8. 19. to 28. from the Bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God for through sin it is made subject to Bondage and Misery My Prayer is to Almighty God who at first made this Universe so glorious that he would be pleased to restore it to its first Beauty and Purity as it was before the Fall then 2 Pet. 3. 13. shall the New Heaven and the New Earth appear not only inwardly in Man but also in the outward Creation that we may once more see and enjoy the Divine Harmony between Heaven and Earth when the Morning Stars shall sing Job 38. 17. Isa 11. 9. together and all the sons of God shout for joy Then shall the Knowledge of the Lord cover the Earth as Waters cover the Isa 30. 36. Sea And the Light of the Moon shall be as the Light of the Sun and the Light of the Sun shall be seven fold as the Light of seven days But before this glorious Day appears the Lord will debate with his People and not with-hold his Rough Isa 27. 8. 9. Wind in the day of his East VVind that he may winnow them from their Chaff but all this will be only to make way for this Day by purging away the Iniquity of Jacob and taking away his sin For we are not fit to be made Partakers of this Great Redemption Act. 3. 19. 1 Cor. 6. 14. which is the Time of Refreshment till this be done for Light and Darkness cannot agree together Holiness and Sin cannot be inmates of the same Soul Therefore let us pray that this New Year we may see the Destruction of Sin in us tho we may before this Work be accomplished pass through his Fire which is in Zion and endure his Furnace which is in Jerusalem Wherefore let none of Isa 31. 9. us flatter our selves ever to be delivered save only this way for the Lord will throughly purge his Floor There is Luk. 3. 17. a Purifying VVork must go before the Times of Refreshment Mat. 3. 2 1. And therefore let us all turn inwards judging our selves searching our own hearts before the Lord comes to judge and search us and let us not cry Peace Peace as long as we go on in a Course of sinning without Controle but let us rather resolve in the strength of the Lord to fight this Man of Sin resisting even unto Blood Let us this New Heb. 12. 4. Year engage in this holy Warfare more couragiously than ever let us fight against sin not only now and then but at all times and in all places and against all manner of sins whether Bodily or Spiritual which are more hid Let us remember that we are Christians who by their Baptism are engaged to fight against the world the flesh and the Devil This is
our Holy Calling and Employment to fight resolutely and and constantly against these three Potent Enemies Wherefore we have great need to be continually upon our Watch and to put on the whole Armour of God and never put it off Eph. 6. 11. For it is not with this Spiritual Warfare as it is with that of the world where Soldiers have their Winter-Quarters allow'd them to take their Rest for Christians from the first moment that they are listed under the Captain of their Salvation and have their eyes opened to see their Spiritual Enemies Eph. 6. 12. begin that fight which is never to cease till the laying down of the Body Isaiah 45. 24. but with his Armour and in his Strength for he is the Lord in whom is our strength MEDITATION THis is that O my Soul which thou must resolve upon this New Year together with all the Children of God even to fight the good Fight And having once put our hand to the Plough we must not look back The way is 1 Cor. 9. 24. Luke 9. 60. narrow and difficult but it is only so to sinful self which must be destroyed for to the Soul that is renewed by Grace All the ways of God are Pleasantness and all his Paths are Peace This is that Path O my Soul in Prov. 3. 17. which thou must walk this Year and all the rest of thy Life here in this mortal Body Faint not but be of good Courage be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might For he hath said Eph. 6. 10 Josh 1. 5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Be not dismayed neither be thou afraid O my Soul for the Lord thy God is with thee Heb. 13. 5. Josh 1. 9. Job 5. 19. And he will deliver thee in six troubles yea in seven there shall no evil touch thee Believe it O my Soul Psalm 56. 4 11. it is the Word of thy God In God have I put my trust I will not fear what flesh can do unto me No nor what the Devil and all the Powers of Hell can do against me I must expect that the nearer I come to my Journeys end the more violent and sharp the Combate will be Satan will be loath to quit his hold of me without making his last and most terrible Assault From my very Youth up the Lord hath made known something of the hatred of that Roaring Lion against my Soul But now I am in good earnest and strong desire to overcome all his Temptations and Wiles he will attack me with greater force and cunning than ever But my God I trust will fight the Battel for me and I shall be more than Conqueror through Christ that loved me and gave himself for me that I in his Conquest should triumph over the World the Flesh and the Devil Blessed be my God and Father in Christ Jesus that he hath opened my Spiritual Eye the beginning of this New Luke 11. 13. Year more than heretofore to see what is required of me and hath promised me his Holy Spirit who will enable me to perform it Christian People and Friends help and assist me in this my undertaking by your earnest Prayers for I am come to the last Quarter of my Life the Winter of my Age yea and if I mistake not I am come to the last hour of my day therefore great need have I to double my Diligence in working in the Vineyard of my Lord ploughing up the Fallow Ground of my heart and casting out the Stones of Unbelief and plucking up the Roots of Bitterness and Weeds of Corrupt Nature And to resolve with my self in the strength of my God to lay aside every weight and the sin Heb. 12. 1 2. that doth so easily beset us c. that I may be simple and naked in the sight of my God that neither my corrupt Nature nor any Creature may draw my Soul any more from him but that he may work in it how and whatsoever he pleaseth till he have purged and purified it to be a meet 2 Cor. 6. 16. Habitation for his holy Majesty that I may now more than ever experimentally know what it is to have God walk in me and dwell in me that so the latter end of my life may be better than the beginning O that this Desire and Longing may not only be wrought in me and those that are as low in grace as I am but also in those that are Men in Christ and old Disciples for a greater manifestation of Christ in them by an exemplary Holiness in all manner of Conversation and that they may be enabled to bring much Glory to God by improving their Talents to a double encrease and by doing all their works from the Motive of Divine Love and Charity The more we love the more we work and the less we love the John 14. 23 24. less we work If you love me saith our Blessed Lord keep my Commandments And the Beloved Disciple assures us That this is the love of God if we keep his Commandments And the 1 John 5. 3. farther we advance in this love the more we shall find that his Commands are not grievous This Love is All O my Soul and whosoever hath it cannot want any thing it is the want of this that makes Obedience to the Will of God difficult to us and makes us apt to complain of the want of outward things For if we had Love 1 John 4. 16. 1 Cor. 3. 21 22. we should have God and having God should have all things O that this New Year we might be made Possessors of all things in this one thing love For in it we shall have true Repentance deep Humility strong Faith total Resignation continual Self-denial with all long Suffering and Charity towards all Men and all other Graces that are comprehended in this word Love which restores the Image of God in the Soul And seeing God hath spared us another Year we are now to double our Endeavours with earnest Prayer to obtain all these Graces and the rather because his Judgments abroad and his long Suffering with us at home seem to call for it But what need I to say any more since you all know this and perform it also I hope better than I do only it was strongly imprest upon my mind to burst forth into these broken words to my Betters and Equals for Inferiours I know none as being the least of those that have received any Spark of true Grace yet am forced to cast in my Mite into the Treasury The Lord knows for what end he makes use of such a poor Instrument Yet if the least Glory may thereby accrue to God and his Children may get any good by it it is enough I have obtained my end and my desire of so many Years standing I have satisfyed my Mind and eas'd my Heart and now shall die in Peace hoping that
no not so much as think a good thought but all my sufficiency is of thee who hast said by 2 Cor. 3. 5. Ezek. 36. 27. thy Prophet I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my Judgments and do them Lord increase my Faith that I may ask without doubting the fulfilling of this Promise and all other thou hast given to thy Church to uphold her in her Wilderness Condition where the World the Flesh and the Devil fight against her Sweetest Jesu thou who hast said Ask and it shall be Mat. 7. 7. given you seek and ye shall find give me to ask by fervent Prayer and seek by diligent Endeavour thy Holy Spirit who may enable me to answer thy love towards me that I may begin this New Year to live more to the glory of thy Name and the Edification of my Neighbour than ever heretofore Comfort me with thy strong Perfumes thou Rose of Sharon Mat. 11. 29. refresh me with the sweet sent of thy Meekness and Humility thou Lilly of the Valley Adorn me with the Power of thy Love and the sweetness of thy Innocence that my Life and Conversation may be so lovely in the sight of others that they may be led to thee by thy Grace and Gifts to me Amen Beloved ye that follow on to know the Lord this is the Nosegay the Spirit hath caused me to gather for you and which I present to you the beginning of this New Year Which if you shall wear in your Lives and Conversations the sweetness Rom. 13. 14. thereof will make you truly happy both in this life and that which is to come There is such transcendent sweetness in it that not only you that wear it shall be sweetned and perfumed thereby 〈◊〉 likewise all that come near you will be in love with this Rose of Sharon and Lilly of the Valley and shall know that your Beloved is more than another Beloved seeing he is so incomparably lovely we also ought to love him above the rate of other Lovers and be more careful and circumspect in all our Thoughts 1 Pet. 4. 7 8. Mat. 12. 36. Ephes 5. 5. Words and Actions than others that it may appear to all that we always carry this Nosegay about with us which is composed of all the sweet and fair Flowers of Paradise viz. the Graces of God's Spirit which are the Virgins constantly attending the King's Daughter who is all glorious Psalm 45. 13. within The Letter of the Scripture pointing us to these Divine Mat. 26. 7. Mark 14. 3. Graces is like the Alabaster Box fill'd with pretious Ointment whose very outside doth not want its Beauty and Fragrancy But when the Box is broken and the Spiknard poured out than it is quite another thing for the whole House is filled with Perfume of the Ointment So when the Spirit opens the Letter in us then the ineffable Sweetness of the Name of God which is as Ointment Cant. 1. 3. poured forth diffuseth it self every where and fills the whole House of the Soul and Spirit yea and of the Body too But before we can attain to this Spiritual Knowledge our Old Man must be crucified with Christ that the Body of Sin Rom. 6. 6. may be destroyed and we no longer serve sin And when we are thus made one with him in his Death we shall also be made one with him in his Resurrection And if we make it our business this New Year and all the rest of our Life to enter into the Death and Resurrection of our Lord then the sweet Odour of this Divine Nosegay and the pretious Perfume of the Ointment will make the Virgins in love with our Beloved and make them seek him together with Cant. 6. 1. us Be it so O Lord. Amen Hallelujah The Conclusion of this New-Years-Gift by PRAYER O Most holy God whose Thoughts are not as our Thoughts nor thy Ways like our Ways for as the Heavens are Isaiah 55. 5. higher than the Earth so are thy Ways above our Ways and thy Thoughts above our Thoughts c. Thou dost manifest this Truth in me this Day For who wou'd think that the Lord should humble himself to visit a poor sinful Worm and to speak in and through it to the Glory of his great Name Thou shewest thy self O Lord to be no Respecter of Persons and that thou canst work by the most weak and despicable Means and that the Vessel is nothing and has nothing that is Good but what it receives from above I Jam. 1. 17. humbly entreat thee O Heavenly Father in the Name and Merits of my pretious Redeemer to own what is of Thee in this Writing to bless it and make it prosper O thou who searchest the Hearts and the Reins thou knowst I have no other aim in the publishing of it but only thy Glory Yet since the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer. 17. 9. if there should be any sinister end lurking in my Heart Lord discover it unto me and nail it to the Cross of thy Son for through thy Grace I utterly detest and abhor it Wherefore I am bold most glorious God Father Son and Spirit to implore thy Blessing upon this New-Born Babe O Lord thou knowest that from my Youth thou hast made me conceive a longing desire to send forth a few Lines were it possible throughout all the World to incite all Mankind to love thee and this longing Desire hath still grown in me till at last thy rich Mercy and free Grace hath made me to bring it forth in my Old Age. Wherefore gracious Lord be pleased to take this New Birth into thy Protection against the many Oppositions it shall meet with from those that reject every thing that hath not the Ornament of Learning and Eloquence and do thou cover this simple Naked Child with the Garment of thy Blessing that it may be received into the hearts of Men of Good Will of what Persuasion soever O Lord my God thou didst command the Children of Israel to Offer to thee their First-born accordingly I here offer unto thee 〈◊〉 First Born The Conception Exod. 22. 29. is thine the Birth is thine Let not the Deâ—â—â—â—…nt it hath contracted in the Womb of my Soul hinder thy Blessing upoâ— it nor any of my Sins and Transgressions but let them all be washed away in that Fountain Zech. 13. 2. which is opened to the House of David c. for Sir and for Uncleanness Let all these Egyptians he drowned in the Red Sâ—a of my Saviours Blood and let me hear the same comfortable Promise thou madest to the Children of Israel by the mouth of Mosâ—â— The Egyptians whom ye have seen to day ye shall see them again no â—ore forever The Sins that have pursued you all your Life time you shall never see them any more having the Dominion over you and if I leave any Canaanites in the Land it is only to keep you humble and that you may know that the Land is mine and that it is I that fight for you against your Enemies and will do so till your last Breath Amen Lord so be it Hallelujuh FINIS LONDON Printed for Thomas Whitledge over against the Hatt and Feather on Addle-hill near Doctors-Commons 1693.