irritation and condemnation thereof for they that are in Christ have crucified the Flesh with the affections and lusts Yea this our victory and deliverance is assured to us in that it was a special end of that great and acceptable sacrifice offered to God by our Lord and great Captain Jesus Christ. Who as the Apostle witnesseth gave Himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil World Hast thou such encouragements O my Soul On then and assault the glittering front the foremost batallion of thy Enemy Let this Arrow taken out of the Apostles quiver give him the first encounter The love of Money is the root of all evil Let thy Saviours words be a trusty Scout to prevent ambushes beware of covetousness Yea let the victorious Sword of the Spirit give the deadly wound be not deceived not thieves nor covetous c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God Here be not discontented O my Soul nor stain the glory of thy Christian Victory by a worldly sadness as though an ignominious poverty must be the necessary consequent of forsaking the World and conculcating her trash No Christians have riches which the Men of this World know not of for they are infinite and unsearchable viz. The riches of faith James 2.5 Of good works 1 Tim. 6.18 Of liberality 2 Cor. 8.2 The true riches of grace of glory Luke 10.11 Rom. 9.23 These unvaluable treasures God who is rich in mercy and Christ Jesus the Conduit of his mercies gives unto us Rom. 10.12 2 Cor. 8.9 For his mercies sake Eph. 2.4 Sometimes immediatly by his Spirit most frequently mediatly by his Ministers Yet not without this Spirit Who as the Apostle speaks though poor in the esteem of Men yet make many rich Thanks be to God for these his incomparable gifts The next Troop of the Worlds Power that faith proceeds to encounter with is led by voluptuousness These its true as it were besiege the Christian Soul and encompass it And if at any time by her pious force she break thorow and discomfit their thickest rancks even then by asking quarter they oft-times obtain victory crying out unto the zealous and lust-destroying Warriour as once the Tribe of Judah to David thou art neer of Kin unto us and as David to Amasa thou art of my Bone and of my Flesh and with the Syrian King thy Brother Benhadad Therefore spare us let us live behold we are the delight of thine Eyes the Mistresses of thy Ear the darlings of thy Pallate the Paramours of thy touch the perfumes of thy Nostrils We are linckt in consanguinity with thy nature age complection and calling We are thy beloved thy life the life of thy life thy bosome companions Thus if they gain by these syrene Songs but a respit of execution they shortly presume to become Counsellors advising in the words of the Preacher Rejoyce O young Man in thy youth and let thy Heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine Heart and in the sight of thine Eyes Thus these wicked and subtile lusts get possession But doth the faithfull Champion here want courage strength or Weapons No animated with divine assistance the regal Power of Christ he advances the shield of faith and makes his Enemies feel the edge of that Sword which they even now wounded him with viz. But know thou for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment Yea he further adds inverting the words of the Prophet should I let go out of my hand you that God hath appointed to utter destruction my life should go for your life for that she or whosoever else lives in pleasure are dead whilst they live yea in their estates as well as in their Souls So witnesses the wise Man He that loveth pleasure shall be a Beggar and that spiritually as well as temporally the good Seed being choked therewith Further as Israel to Adonibezeâ—h so the Christian Victor as it were cuts off the Fingers and Toes the speed and power of his concupiscence by instancing the multitudes of Gods own People that were overthrown in the Wilderness which were for our example as the Apostle speaks to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted by calling to remembrance the recantation judgment and repentance of wise King Solomon Who having enjoyed not only a common but an experimental and moral use of all the delights of the Sons of Men yet condemns them all as vile and nothing worth vanity of vanities all is vanity and vexation of spirit Lastly by fore-seeing the evil and unseparable consequents and Copesmates of inordinate delights by the Apostle St. James his light viz. wantonness riotousness and cruelty To conclude every true Christian-Warriour is unconquerable as being intrenched and fortified within the promises of omnipotency it self Who thus assures us that they that walk in the Spirit shall not fulfill that is shall not be overcome by or yield to the lusts of the Flesh. Here some Laodicean some lack-warm Professor will perhaps sigh and with Lot's Wife be ready to look back towards their pleasures the Sodom of this World complaining that Christians by reason of so rigorous a prohibition are of all Men most miserable and as the World esteems them a sad stoical and melancholy generation of Men. Let such mount their Meditations with holy David and they shall enjoy with him a Heaven upon Earth Witness this his testimony and assurance applyable and proper to every faithfull Israelite Thou wilt shew me the way of life in thy presence is fulness of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore My Soul here closes up this second tryumph with a gratulatory Hymn of that blessed Psalmist How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! therefore the Children of Men put their trust in the shadow of thy Wings They shall be abundantly satisfyed with the fatness of thy House thou shalt make them drink of the Rivers of thy pleasures For with thee is the Fountain of life in thy light shall we see light The Worlds third Squadron viz. Mundane honours renews and continues the Fight with which the chief General Sathan lays ambushes on the right hand by glorious Visions and Dreams of Signiories with large promises of rule and dominion tempting us as once our Saviour All these things will I give thee and as he did Balaam in the mouth of Balack I will Promote thee unto very great honour On the left hand he assaults us by threatning as also actual divesting and degrading us of our hereditary or acquired titles and preferments So he did to Moses Who as the Apostle witnesses refused to be called the Son of Pharaohs Daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the Children of God So also to Daniel and the Three Children
O but sayest thou I am spiritually dead how then can I hear Know poor wretch that thy Saviours Ephata works as powerfully on the Soul as upon the Body Yea the Apostle reciting the prediction of Moses saith not him may you hear But him shall yee hear Even so be it Lord Jesus Christ that so loving me a Lazarus thou maist raise me though a Lazarus and be unto me a Jesus Notwithstanding these saving and comfortable promises me-thinks I feel my Soul still heavy and sorrowfull within me Objecting that these indeed are favourable and sweet expressions but they are too general considering her several defects grievous soars and Ulcers Requiring not only external and powerfull Baths and washings but particular application of Remedies and Medicines She confesseth that from these she is assured of the abilities and sufficiency of her spiritual Physician but she desires to have experience of his skill and to apply his several Medicaments unto her special infirmities Is this thy further request O my Soul Be strong and of a good courage Loe he calls thee Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Again I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance For The whole need not a Physitian but the sick Nay that thou mightest not have the least doubting or fear hearken to the voice of his Prophet seconded and expounded by himself and that in a full Auditory The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me there 's his calling to preach the Gospel to the Poor there 's his Office He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach deliverance unto the Captives and recovery of sight unto the blinde to set at liberty them that are bruised to wit thee O distressed Patient with all thy Diseases Well thou art now even by his own most gracious Call admitted into his presence Be not ashamed but with boldness approach unto his Throne of Grace unâ—bareing thy soares and discovering all thy spiritual wants That so the two estates in Adam fallen and in Christ risen being compared all may behold with thee a revival from death even that first resurrection spoken of in the Revelations As also the difference and disproportion that is betwixt a Man in grace and a Man in sin And lastly be ravisht in the apprehension of such infinite mercy which administers Plaisters to every soare and in the conclusion works a general cure effecting in a good measure though not in absolute perfection those two great works of mortification and vivication in us For the more accurate perception and meditation of which great works I presume in all humility of Soul to speak Dialogue-wise unto my Saviour and according to my weak ability to describe him answering in and according to his Word That so both my self and others may the better understand how excellently and powerfully a true faith begotten and strengthened by God's Spirit doth apprehend and apply the saving and spiritual promises Doth mortifie our corruptions silence all objections and overcome all kinde of temptations by degrees perfecting holiness in the love and fear of God O Gracious Saviour and skilfull Physician seeing thou calledst me I come although ashamed to come I have brought if not a dead yet a deadly sick Soul unto thee If illumination be the antecedent of faith and faith the eye of the Soul and seeing a symptome of life in how dangerous an estate am I who walk in the vanity of my minde having my understanding darkned being in my own apprehension alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in me because of the blindness of my heart Poor Soul faint not nor despair thou wast once dead but now thou art alive I finde no signes of death but of life in thee A Trunck or senceless Corps perceives not nor complains of its misery as thou dost Neither art thou hopelesly sick for in thee witness these strivings there is the strength of a renued nature to co-act with the work of Grace Take then these receipts out of my Book and apply them I am the true light that lighteth every Man that cometh into the World and am come for Judgment into this World that they which see not might see and they which see might be made blinde I am made unto thee wisdome and will enlighten thy darkness yea if thou criest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding thou shalt understand the fear of the Lord and finde the knowledge of God For I the Lord give wisdome and out of my Mouth cometh knowledge and understanding Again faith is the gift of God O then ask and thou shalt have seek and thou shalt finde knock and the treasury of all good and perfect gifts shall be opened and bestowed upon thee Even the holy Spirit whom thy Heavenly Father will give to them that aske Him The voice of my beloved Thy Mouth is most sweet yea thou art altogether lovely The roof of thy Mouth is like the best Wine that goeth down sweetly causing the Lips of those that are asleep to speak But alass Lord how can I be delighted in these thy gracious promises or take comfort in this cure as long as the tormenting worm of Conscience feeds upon my entrails inditeing bitter things against me and making me to possess the sins of my youth being both my Judge and Accuser O my Patient I confess this thy pain and grief is unsupportable for the Spirit of a Man may sustain his infirmity But a wounded Spirit who can bear Yet for thy comfort know that there is balme in Gilead for all wounds and a Physician there for all Diseases And I even I am he and there is no other God with me I kill and I make alive I wound and I heal yea I will restore health unto thee and will heal thee of thy wounds And as for this gnawing Worm which thou complainest of know that it as other infects are generated of a putred matter even thy sin and corruption Yea it is nourisht therewith If then this cause of thy torture be withdrawn the effect will undoubtedly cease For I will forgive thy iniquity and will remember thy sins no more making them though as red as Scarlet to be as white as Snow Through my blood thou hast redemption even the forgivenesses of Sins If the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heyfer sprinkling the unclean Sanctified to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall my Blood that through the eternal Spirit offered my self without spot to God purge thy Conscience from dead works O my spiritual healer as thy Word assures me of thy ableness to cure so it also informs me of my uncapableness of cure In the sickness of the Body so
The Saints peaceable Reign for a Thousand years Page 243 The Translation of the Saints to Heaven Page 246 U. Christs answer to the poor soul complaining of his Understanding Page 7â— A Contemplation upon our Victory by Christ over Honours Covetousness Voluptuousness persecution Page 129 Of the Understanding glorified Page 148 Of Christs Victorious Kingdom Page 242 W. The excellency of the Word Page 1â— The great dependance of the Will on other faculties Page 4â— Against free Will Page 45 The souls complaint against the Will answered by Christ Page 8â— Christs victory over the World Page 11â— The Worlds darts by which it wounds souls Page 11â— Of the Will glorified Page 14â— A Watch to be set upon the Lips Page 238 Twelve Wonderful Works of God to be fulfilled Page 239 Of the raising of the Witnesses Page 23â— X.  Y. The binding of the Devil for a thousand Years Page 241 The Saints peaceable reign for a thousand Years Page â—43 Z. Of Zeal glorified Page 15â— Zeal not a simple grace but the intense degree of every gracâ— Page 156 A soliloquium on glorified Zeal Page 159 An ejaculation and commendation of glorified Zeal Page 159 FINIS Place this before the Scripture-Catechisme at Folio 259 THE EPISTLE TO HIS Entirely beloved Wife and Twelve dear Children and to their Childrens Children until the second coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. MOst affectionately indeared Wife and Children one with me by Nature and by Grace who therefore may challenge and lay claim to my especial care love and respects besides the discharge of my duty to God who hath placed you under my circumspection and government and commands my constâ—â—t utmost and unwearied endeavours in order to your Eternal Salvation What my continued pains and frequent watching over you have been whilst I was present with you your selves and the rest of my Family will witness as to Weekly Catechizing Morning and Evening expounding the Holy Scriptures and praying with you besides my constant Repetition of Sermons preparation and particular examination of you on the Lord's Day and Monthly Sacraments and often remembrance of you 〈◊〉 to your Daily exercise of private Prayers reading of the Scriptures and the Works of God's faithful Ministers O let not my above Twenty Years labours be in vain to any one of you â—ay which is far worse be a great aggrevation both of your sin and punishment should ye offend and rebel against so much light and means and neglect so great salvation But most dearly beloved I believe and hope better things of you and things that accompany Salvation although I thus speak And therefore during my above Seven Tears Exile and separation from you I have not ceased to put you in remembrance of your duty to God and to stir you up by Letters to the continuance in well doing since you shall reap Glory and Eternal Life if you faint not but persevere and continue therein constant to the end Witness that large Epistle sent unto you dated from Antwerp January the first 1665. Wherein from the Mouth of our most blessed Saviour as being in a manner all his words you are exhorted to and instructed in what things you are to believe and to practise what you are to imbrace and what to eschew as to grace and vertue and as to vice and error which I earnestly desire you yea charge you as a Husband and a Father to read often over or at least once a Quarter Which were it not all Scripture and through the grace and mercy of God skimmed and digested for your edification I should not by this recommendation have presumed to put so high a value upon it Since which time having by God's gracious assistance finished this Treatise of Faith being destitute of Worldly gifts to bestow up on you That in discharge of my duty to God and to you I may still continue and express my conjugal and paternal affection respectively to the Souls of you all I have directed and dedicated it to you and yours desiring and requiring your frequent and serious perusal of it as being for the subject matter the most sublime and holding forth the glorious knowledge of the only Infinite and most high God and the wonderful and high Mysteries of Man's Salvation as they are manifested in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ who is here lively represented both to the eye and to the exercise of your faith begining with the promise to Adam and Man's fall and misery and proceeding to his Incarnation Life Death and Passion Resurrection and Assension and the exercise of his Three-fold Office as Priest and the Prophet and King with all benefits from them with his Kingdom considered in its several degrees and administrations first as it was legal and spiritual under the Law Secondly purely spiritual under the Gospel Thirdly as it shall be victorious over Sathan and Worldly enemies in this latter Age of the World Fourthly peaceable holy and righteous during the Sabbatisms the Saints Reign a thousand years upon Earth Fifthly glorious after the Resurrection of the Elect and their Reign with Christ personally a Thousand Years upon the renewed Earth Sixthly Judicial begining at Christ's second coming under which the Saints are rewarded and all the wicked raised judged condemned and cast into the Local Hell together with the evil Angels Seventhly Eternally glorious when Christ's Mediatory Kingdom being expired delivered up to the Father that God may be all in all the Saints shall be translated into the highest Heavens that they may there Reign live with God and Christ the Head of the Saints and Angels for ever and for ever As the subject matter hath a preheminence as being a discourse of things most excellent above others the knowledge beliefe and saving application thereof to your souls is of all exercises the most excellent profitable and delightful since without faith and the true knowledge of God in Christ there is no light joy peace rest happiness to your souls here nor in the life to come salvation And to have revealed to you the great misteries and secret counsel of God together with their wonderful products to the end of the World and Scripture-manifestation which are bid from the ungodly but discovered by the light of his Word in the Prophets in and by his spirit to those that fear him is of all speculative knowledge to Christians the most pleasant useful and encouraging as being through an assured hope that Helmet of Salvation which will carry you victoriously through all difficulties and opposition to triumph in endless glory together with what I have â—â—re sum'd up as the substance and body of this Treatise I have â—lso intermixt methodically many Soliloquies and Ejaculatory Peâ—â—tions as necessary to conclude several principal heads in these Meditations which I earnestly desire you to make a frequent and sinâ—â—re use and application of praying you to make them yours as well as mine and beseech the Lord that
not less loving But O merciful Creator thy love met with hatred the very object of thy favour was thy Enemy whom thou didst not reconcile with a gift as fearing his power or ability to resist thee since he was thy Creature thy Prisoner thy just sentence of Condemnation waiting but the watch-word of thy will to execute him O unexhausted Fountain of wisdome there was no weakness or deficiency in thee which Man destroyed might any whit disable or diminish thy workmanship in a second Creation since all thy works keep time with thy Word What caused thee then O powerful Maker to give Life where Death was due Heaven where Hell was deserved Pleasure and Joy where Pain and Torment was incurred Why didst thou give mercy and forgiveness to Man and denyedst it to Angels honouring the Humanity with a Personal Union which in Adam was a Traytor by Rebellion Lastly Why gavest thou thy only begotten Son to Death that we might be thy Adopted Sons in Life Lord my Soul shall answer with St. Paul God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he loved Vs even when we were dead in Sin hath quickened Vs together in Christ by Grace we are saved O only begotten Son of the Father the Word by which all things were made O light of the World God equal with the Father in Majesty why from such a height of Glory didst thou descend to this Vale of Misery forsaking Heaven for Earth making thy Foot-stool thy Throne being included in the Virgins Womb though the vast Universe cannot comprehend thee Lord thy own Spirit can best express the reason of this thy wonderful humiliation Jesus Christ came into this World to save Sinners Behold here God made Man Lord how low is the Foundation of thy Mercy laid although the height reach above the Clouds gracious Saviour who doth not in this Mirrour of thy Love perceive the powerfulness of thy Divinity as being the first and self-mover in this work of compassion thy mercy having its first motion from thy self according to that thy own protestation made unto thy Children I will love them freely But O my Soul now thou hast viewed this beautiful Gate of the Temple with admiration reverence and affection proceed for the birth of thy Saviour is but the beginning of his mercies All Princes are but Vice-Royes God only is King of Kings and Lord of Lords Yet who amongst them is not welcomed into his Kingdome with joyful Acclamations and royal Solemnities But loe here not only the King of Israel but the great Emperor of Heaven and Earth born in Bethelem the least of the Cities of Judah a City and yet affords no place but a Stable to lodge and entertain the Worlds Monarch Heaven must point him out by a Star Angels must preach him before any of his own acknowledge him and then Shepheards are his Heralds to Proclaim him The sequel and after-story of his Life is no less reproachfully miserable than this Prologue of his birth Poverty clothes Him with obscurity and affliction 30. Years in which space his very Infancy is not free from Persecution by Herod witness those Innocents of Bethelem who suffered for him who came to dye for them he flying into Aegypt from the wrath of Man that he might undergo the anger of God preserving himself not from pain but for pain O Lord had thy Loves Foundation been laid in Earth the hatred and ungratefulness of Man might have ruined thy proceedings and induc'd thee to have retrograded from thy purposed design but behold the Root of thy Mercy was in thy Self which brought forth the fruits of thy sufferings thy love being natural therefore immutable none of thy grievous pressures were obscured from thy view for thy praescience beheld as present all fore-past actions and future events so that thou wert not ignorantly or contrary to thy will overtaken by them no necessity did enforce thee to undergo so difficult a Task since constraint is only prevalent in a finite nature but thou art infinite comprehending all things circumscribed by nothing Lord Jesus let me admire since I cannot express this thy love and make me to love thee again in some measure that thus hast loved me without measure Here whilest my Soul full of wonder desires to stay and meditate thy goodness leads me still forwards and as it were reproves my lingring thus O Man bound not thy thoughts progress with the first mercies of thy Saviour to wit that Light shined in Darkness The Word became Flesh yea that the life of all things received life and the Son of God became the Son of Man behold more misteries of love not regarded the Creator rejected of his Creature He came unto his own and his own received him not He who ordained Holes for the Foxes Nests for the Birds of the Aire he who measured the Earth as with a span and clothes the Heavens as with a Garment he who is a self-moving Sphear whose Centre is every where whose circumference is no where He even the Saviour and Creator of Man hath not amongst Men whereon to rest his Head O admirable and unconceivable humiliation of greater force because not enforced freely not reciprocally undertaken being therefore of infinite merit before God and worthy of Man's eternal acknowledgment what could Man suffer which the Son of Man did not undergo nay what anger torment punishment or affliction could an infinitely inraged Deity inflict which God made Man did not endure for behold no sooner doth this Son of Righteousness whose light is in himself arise to be a light unto the Gentiles dissipating the mists of Superstition and Ignorance the morning of the Gospel succeeding the Evening of Idolatry no sooner did he appear to the glory of his People Israel dispersing those Clouds of Ceremonies which Vail'd the mercy Seat but that present Generation prefering Darkness before Light interposed unbelief to Eclipse his splendour witness John 3.19 And this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men loved Darkness rather than Light Also they retorted the beames of his Priestly Office saying None but God hath Power to forgive Sins They shuned the Light of his Gospel-Prophesie and Teaching witness that loving Lamentation O Jerusalem Jerusalem which killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee how often would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen her Brood under her Wings but ye would not Lastly they denyed and rejected his Dominion with that abnegation We have no King but Caesar. Lord were the Children of Israel so severely punished for repining against Aaron though but a â—igure of Thee Was Heliodorus so suddenly and fearfully tormented for resisting the High Priest And doest thou who thus revengedst and defendest thy substitutes whilest thou wert in Heaven as being the summe of all Figures the substance of all shadows and an Eternal High-Priest according to the
Lord knowest the thoughts of man For what end therefore O Ananias tends the subtil compact with thy Wife The strength and ripeness of Sin hastens the harvest of Judgment wherefore then this bare notion of Religion This worst Sin hath Hells worst Punishment What serves for O Sapphira the impudent defence of this act which is as lightning before the thunder-clap of Justice since the spirit searches all things yea the secret things of God He knew thy untruth thy lie and therefore at once pronounced and executed the truth of thy Judgement Behold the feet of them that have buried thy Husband are at the dore and shall carry thee out Whereupon she fell down at the Apostles feet and yeilded up the Ghost Justice depriving those of life Gods gift which any way detain mans gift to God to wit their Offerings or whatsoever else is set apart for an Holy employment The indulgent Parent fears that the life story of that child will prove but a compendium whose Infant years are an Abridgment of Mans stature The like observation will be proved true if doubted in many preposterously forward Christians who are like to Childrens Bubbles which while they last are but Topographies to the Beholders Or like Lightning which though it invelop Heaven hath nought remaining yea scarcely time and place to bear witness of its glory So these hypocritical and temporary Professors seem a perfect Map of Christianity the splendor of Religion Yet at the appointed time they vanish becoming so much further off by how much nearer they seemed to Heaven View the experiment of this truth in the Scribes and Pharisees from the opinion of whose Righteousness the Jews drews this Maxim That if any two on Earth should be glorified in Heaven the one must be a Scribe the other a Pharisee That their Purity was but a Blaze this vulgar conceit a Falsehood Hear and believe the Word yea the Word of Truth concluding these Wise men Fools these Guides Misleaders these Patrons of the Common-wealth unnatural Vipers sealing them up with a seven fold Woe for manifest an hypocrisie to eternal Damnation Our Saviour was many times guarded with troops and multitudes of Disciples whose momentary affections proffered Him an Earthly Crown Yet he which knew all Hearts knew the unconstancy of theirs and therefore committed not himself to them For had they been as Powerful as Willing had their affections been as sincere and durable as they were fervent yet could not any earthly Monarchy allure him to Reign who lest his Heavenly Throne to Suffer exchanging a crown of Glory for a Crown of Thornes that his Humiliation might be be mans Exaltation O here behold the Unchangeableness of Gods Love the Vanity and Unsteadfastness of Mans best Resolution Those Disciples which even now would have Crowned him those which traced him through Sea and Land and having found him said What should we do that we might work the Works of God yea those who as it were filled with a passionate desire of possession prayed Lord evermore give us this Bread these now instead of honouring him with a Diadem deny his Regal descent saying Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph These whose appetites desired evermore to enjoy this Bread of Life think there is now no living with this Food as being too hard for their digestion their tongues testifying their distate saying This is an hard saying who can hear it To conclude they that so fast followed him now as fast depart from him Witness our Saviours question to his Chosen ones Will ye also go away O blessed Saviour Let my Soul be a follow respondent with Peter and say Lord to whom shall I go Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life My Meditations have spent much time in the discovery of this out-side of Faith I should now proceed did not the hateful example of Apostating Demas stand branded in Holy-Writ for my observation and conclusion of this Point Knowledge is the foundation of Faith but God only is the Master builder of it Christians are Priests imputatively and derivatively from our Saviour as offering up the Evangelical sacrifices of Prayer and Praise but the Ministers of the Gospel in a more especial manner Demas was a Priest because a Christian Learned as being without doubt a Teacher Pauls scholler and companion one whose eyes were daily witnesses of Signes and Miracles whose ears were frequent auditours of Gods Word yet this man wanted the witness of the Spirit in his Conscience Therefore no marvail if his actions were destitute of its power The Wisdom of this world is Foolishness with God and proves at length so to Man Demas's worldliness discovers his Folly and his second choice shews the Hypocrisie of the first That affection which towards Christ hath an end had never a beginning The Love of God is Lasting And though our weak understanding through the interposition of some great Afflictions may conceive it to be extinct yet that eclipse past this overture of falling out proves the renewing of Love He that perseveres to the end shall endlesly be Beloved But he that grants God the Major his youth and strength and of his full age the Minor the lesser part of that time and yet at last doth in fact deny the conclusion is as little a Christian as a Logician The Word of God as it is the great luminary of Divinity so likewise the Sun of our Souls which discovers unto us those glittering counterfeits which the false and weak lights of our depraved understandings would present as blameless This is that Star which guides all Wise men to Christ. A Pole Star directing only all Heavenly Observers being either unknown or else not useful to worldly Stargazers This Word as it makes us know our selves which is the principal of wisdom so it makes us discern in some sort others which is the Divinity of Knowledge Which of the Devout Jewes would have thought the Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites had not the Word of that All-creating Word Christ Jesus anatomised their shameful Corruption Who amongst us would have judged a Miraculous Faith less than a Saving had not the same Verity assured us That many which have Prophesied cast out Devils and done many wonderful Works in his Name should be excluded Heaven with a Nunquam novi vos Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity That a man may be a Conduit-pipe to convey Water of Life to others and yet prove a vessel of Dishonour the Religious care of Paul witnesseth who subjected his body lest when he had Preached to others be himself should become a Reprobate But that they whose Word aided by the power of Faith was mighty to cast Sathan out of others should be possessed themselves is both Lamentable and Wonderful These indeed have cropt the Leaves of Faith leaving the Fruit and Root behind seeking therewith like Adam presumptuously to hide their Nakedness and want both of
Application and Justification Thus these whilst they think to deceive others the Devil deceives them Charity the most fruitful lasting and most eminent Grace begins first at home The affection which we bear to our selves being the best pattern for direction of our loves towards others Witness the approbation of our Saviour Christ whose abridgement of the whole Law being Charity the Rule of it was To love our Neighbours as our Selves From this Expression or short Paraphrase who concludes not a primary and most natural Duty necessarily to be implyed and commanded a self-loving though not a self-love as being the manner quantity and just weight of all our external actions Of this want are those guilty reproved by our Saviour who too publickly officious offer to pull out their neighbours Mote not being sensible of the Beam in their own Eyes Also the unhappy Miracle-worker must here plead Guilty of whom that Jewish saying falsly applyed to our Lord may be truly verified He saved others himself he cannot save Gods Power is the chiefest agent in effecting Miracles an Attribute most necessary to beget Fear Admiration and Humiliation But alas the Knowledge of Gods Omnipotency shall rather affright than comfort us without the apprehension and self-application of His love towards us in Him for whose Name sake he wrought such Signes Yea our Fear will prove slavish and servile our Admiration frightful and terrible our Humiliation distracted and desperate without the sense and feeling promise and assurance of his merciful Love For God is Love and works by Love His Love being the only cause of ours to Him and to others The truth of this made Paul account all Faith though able to remove Mountains nothing without Charity further intimating that how glorious soever such outsides might seem they would prove empty shells void of the kernel the substance and true essence of Faith Charity being the left hand of Faith as Faith the right eye of Charity There needs no other witness of this Faiths insufficiency than Judas Iscariot Who was elected to be one of the Select Disciples and dignified with the Highest of Callings even to be the Apostle of Jesus Christ. One who both under the Law and Gospel had participated of those initiating Sacraments Circumcision and Baptisme as also of that which was for Confirmation the Passeover Further he was a Preacher of the Covenant of Grace by Word as well as by Name by Deed as well as by Word as appears by our Saviours large Commission He gave them Power viz. his Twelve Disciples against Vnclean Spirits to cast them out and to Heal all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases The Execution of this the joynt Confession of the Twelve and of the Seventy Disciples doth manifest saying Lord even the Devils are subject unto us through thy Name Loe here Judas miraculously casting out Devils Will it not be a wonder yea and seem an untruth that this Saint is become a Devil No. Such a Faith to have such an End is but natural a stinted Faith wants enlargement to continue Through Faith in His Name we may do Miracles but through Faith in His Blood we and Judas only can be Saved The light and fruit of Faith and all other good Works must shine not to me nor to others alone but to both Men may be instruments of Heat to others and yet Cold themselves Many are made Executioners of Gods Power which never enjoy his Grace Nebuchadonezzar was his Rod Cirus his Servant Neither his Son Yea Miracles and proofs are not wanting in our dayes there being those I fear whose words have powerfully cast Sathan out of others their own Souls being not delivered from his Tyranny Stories the monuments of Art preserve in black and white what once was done in Colours by a Grecian Painter whose Skill was so much an Ape to Nature that his lively Draughts deceived the double sences of Birds causing them to prefer the shaddows of Fruits before the fruitful Substance The Devil in his subject is not less void of Art although they both differ in their ends the one Deceiving but to shew his Skill the other being Skilful to deceive Birds who have not reason to correct their Sence nor to discover the Shaddow of Shaddows one is only a Laughfing-stock of that Artists innocent Craft But Man whose incorporeal parts parallel the others Essence yea now transcend it by how much a positive is better than a depravation is the stage which Sathans derision tramples on The least of Scornes is not the least of Injuries the height of it the greatest of Cruelties Such is his for it wounds the wounded seeking to deprive those of Heaven whom he hath already defrauded of an earthly Paradise O my Soul thou art one of this worlds Common-wealth to whom this busie Impostor variously disguised offers his service Each mind at first whiles unhabituated is in that respect an empty Tablet on which some portraiture must be drawn A good and a bad Artist strive for the Employment Divers excellent beginnings are there Blurd by the one Divers bad ones amended by the other The good Models having only this advantage that once dry and fixt they may suffer a Blot never an utter Defacing Death lastly brings to light the work which challenges the Master and the Master it Wouldst thou then know what is Drawn and whom thou hast Imployed Let thy following Meditations search out and observe the Original which the shaddowes withdrawn most opportunely and in order meets thy next Contemplation The pleasingness of Objects begets a Delight the delight an affection the affection courts an enjoying Eve the Mother of Sin and of Man-kind before â—he took that Forbidden and Sacramental Fruit or tasted the Bitter-sweet saw that the Tree was good for Food and that it was pleasant to the Eyes The Scripture thereby intimating that had not the Flesh afforded entertainment to the Temptation nor the Eyes been windows to let in the superficial beauty of that knowing Fruit nor the mind brought forth and nourisht desires so rebelliously ambitious no powerful assault nor subtile stratagem of Sathan could have prevailed or been sufficient to enter a Cittadel so perfectly fram'd and strongly fortified As the Body so the Soul hath its several Objects according to which diversity it may be capable of a threefold sight in all which the cause medium and instrument of seeing with its object is most considerable In the first the sight of sence there is the Light proceeding from the Sun occasioning the operation 2. The fleshly nerves which contein the optick faculties imployed about all objects and visible substances In the second the sight of Reason there is the light of Nature 2. The luminary oâ— instrumental receptacle the mind of Man 3. The things obvious which are chiefly moral Justice Virtue and earthly Wisdom In the third viz. the spiritual and supernatural sight There is first the Light of
he wanted not opposition that time of his Youth being a gradation and introduction into a height of suffering and a private preparation to a publick Office and Ministry Which he no sooner enters but he is encountered by Temptations and those none of the least they being fortified with the greatest subtilty of Sathan which over-blown Man seconds the Devil heaping upon him whatsoever injuries humanity can possible be capable of beginning with his good Name which they seek to scandalize and make approbrious with their blasphemous tongues reporting him to be a Glutton a Wine bibber a friend of Publicans and Sinners Disparaging his birth and calling him the Carpenter's Son affirming his miraculous power to be the effects of a Satanical confederacy saying that he cast out Devils by Belzebub the Prince of Devils Poverty to all is a misery full of miseries yet not alike to all Circumstances alter much the state of things He is poor that is born so but he is truly poor that is made so since the one knows most of his misfortune is from and by reason of others When the others woful experience makes him more sensible of his woe A Man 's own censure more than the judgments of others makes him more or less unhappy Deprivation and loss is the extremity of poverty and most grievous to humanity But who can lose what he never had In nature want is as it were a part of Mans nature and therefore less wretched The first works most upon the body this last upon the Soul and therefore far more unsufferable by how much that purer substance hath a deeper apprehension of pain than the more gross and outward senses O my Soul is this outward indigency so full and overflowing with sorrow how infinite bound art thou unto him who being rich became poor that thou through his poverty might be made rich The greater the height the more miserable is the dejection The more eminent the state the more unsupportable the humiliation O behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto this sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce Wrath. Was he rich in beauty had he the dew of his youth from the Womb of the Morning Behold for our sakes he is become as a Root springing out of a dry ground he hath no form nor comeliness And could we now view him as he was then there would be no beauty that we should desire him What thing so without measure glorious and unexpressible as the simple and infinite essence of the Godhead what Element more vile and base than Earth the principal ingredient of our bodily substance O miracle of love behold God is made Man the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us Immortality putting on mortality that mortality might become immortal A King of Caesar payes tribute to Caesar and will be subject to his Subjects The Master of all as a Servant to all washes the Feet of all his Disciples Is there any comparison betwixt Heaven and Earth a Crown of glory and a Crown of Thorns yet how willingly doth this not to be equal'd love accept of this unequal change Such Lord were the honours which the World gave thee The story and contemplation of my Saviours sufferings leads my Soul into a Garden not fraught with joy pleasure and delight but with grief sorrow and perturbation O who can by a true faith look upon his humbled Saviour and not be humbled in Spirit Who can behold the clodded drops of blood falling from his blessed Body with a drye Eye not sorrowing for the sin that caus'd this sorrow not shedding plenty of tears in apprehension of his love who shed plenty of blood in the imputation of our sin If his external parts were thus prest and opprest with pain how painfull were the pressures of his Soul the internal cause of this outward Agony Surely as the Power was infinite which sustain'd him so the Passions were infinite which he endured and are as far above the height of Mans expression as above the height of Mans sin In a Garden Adam sinned and Christ suffered Sathan in the one deceiving our first Parents by a Serpent in the other betraying our blessed Saviour by a Judas The unsupportable wrath of God the immense weight of Mans transgression and the ebbe and flow of his humane will being all expressed in that significant and passionate Prayer of his O my Father if it be possible let thus Cup pass from me He had now thrice bowed his blessed Knees to Earth to whom all knees do bow in Heaven and Earth when a wicked trayterous crue under the conduct of a most ungrateful Leader enter the lists adding affliction to his affliction and becoming a party against him took their parts Thus merciless and unthankful is the disposition of ignorant Man thus free and undeserved is the mercy of God Lord Jesus shall my faith lose sight here forsaking thee with thy Disciples No Lord I will yet follow thee even to the high Priests Hall not denying thee with Peter but confessing thee Can any better or more lively express thy cruel usage there than thine own spirit doth in the mouth of the Evangelical Prophet Isa I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that pulled off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting Loe how this Heavenly Chronologer by Divine Inspiration even as an Eye-witness describes the several cruelties inflicted on our Saviour Although the judgments of the Lord are unsearchable and his wayes past finding out yet such is his goodness towards his People that he reveales these his secret decrees before they come that when they are come we might with a more firme assurance believe them A Christians Faith hath a double confirmation as from the uncontrol'd truth of History so from the Divine testimony and presage of prophesie Some hundred years before his passion our Saviour by the mouth of the Prophet told us what he would do Now behold in the fulness of time his own Person and Act makes good his own Word Witness the true Relation of his sufferings Then did they spit in his face and buffetted him and others smote him with the palmes of their hands Then Pilate took Jesus and scourged him thus by his stripes we are healed I am now in Spirit before the Judgment Seat of Pilate where I view the Judge of the World arraigned before a Judge of a Province and hear at once an unheard of injustice the most righteous of Men accused acquitted condemned If there be any power as well as form of godliness any lively and applying faith besides a bare Historical belief in you let the patient Perusers of these my thoughts unworthy this subject read no further before yee have called with me a private Sessions in your souls Where a diligent search and enquiry being made after sin and
That when there was no King in Israel every Man did that which was good in his own eyes In this last Scripture the truth of my former discourse is observable and confirmed as that a natural Mans will usually attends his judgment so that the minde and understanding being totally depraved and corrupted as before hath been declared it must consequently yea impulsively follow that the activity of the will keeps the same position In Adams Sons there is a continued Earth-quake The debauched faculties of the Soul being as so many pestilent and tumultuous Ayres within the Bowels of this wretched Microcosme which together with the impetuous violence of the will rends us belching forth continually Mans actual sins which are not only dead in themselves but also to others by example Doth a â—ountain send forth at the same place sweet Water and bitter Can the Fig-Tree bear Olive-berries or a Vine Figs They cannot Neither can an unsanctified minde be fâ—llowed with a will free and full of good resolutions Hence therefore O my Soul with all ability in thy self lessen not thy loss and poverty lest by such a proud and presumptuous bragging thou lose thy gain and forestall Gods charitable benevolence Lord I account my self to have no will because not a good one Therefore let thy own will anew beget me with the word of truth that I may be a kind of first fruits of thy Creatures Lord it is thou which workest in Men both to will and to do of thy good pleasure Therefore let me rather in an humble ignorance bury what proud Men say is Mans right for love it I cannot if mine Thy perfect justice giving to every one his due then for the nothing of my merit to lose the infiniteness of thy mercy To derogate from my own desert had I any is a plausible error a commendable humility But to detract or steal from thee horrible sacriledge and abominable heresie Let my humility strive to make proud natures something nothing rather than to suffer any vain boasting to arise from such imaginary abilities worth nothing So that though both shall as in themselves they are nothing end in nothing yet the company of a vertue shall in thy sight make the one to me something when the other shall be by thee adjudged as full of sin as it is wanting in worth Man in his first Creation was like to a strong and beautifull Cyttadell whose external and carnal part I may terme and that not unfitly a defencible Rampire or Earth-work his sences the Cinque-ports of this fortification his Soul an incorporeal part me-thinks resembles the habitable and innermost part of the Fort or to speak more plainly the Pallace of the Governour the Court of the Prince for so indeed it was even of the King of Kings before its unhappy and accursed defection Herein the principal faculties as so many expert Commanders did exercise their several offices The affections also the subject of my ensuing thoughts had their places of eminency and authority Love being the Leader of the Band or the Ensign-bearer and Fear the Sentinel to prevent sudden surprisals In this happy order freedome and condition was Man at first until the Apostate-Angel Sathan envying that felicity in others which himself had lost unlocked the sences by the beauty of the forbidden Fruit and after parly with the Guardians of the Soul tempted them with the fair promise of Dii eritis to be Traytours to their Soveraign that had made them little less than so For In his own Image created he them This beautiful structure being become the Cage of unclean Birds no wonder if the Holy one of Israel refuse to dwell there If the glory of Israel departed when the Ark was taken from amongst them sure I am the glory of Man vanishes when God forsakes him Histories and Politicians have observed the misery 〈◊〉 that Country I dare not call it a Government 〈◊〉 the Hydra-headed multitude give Laws unto themselves Experienced Souldiers can bear witness what Floods Tragedies and Disorder follows the unheading of 〈◊〉 Army and the Regiments Such Men for only he thâ—â— hath been delivered from such calamities can best judge of them will confess that both these are but weak deâ—scriptions of the wretchedness of the Soul deprived 〈◊〉 the life of God Nay the small remainders of those disâ—orders and corruptions which in comparison are but 〈◊〉 scars of those great wounds will inforce the best dayly with Holy Paul to cry out O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death This misery of Man this his civil War hath been briefly touched and discovered already in the former faculties of the Soul It now remains that I observe and that with brevity how the affections particularly stand affected O Love which weart once the Spirit the fervour the marrow of the Soul Its Embassadour to her Creator lying Ledger in the Court of Heaven as long as that happy and mutual amity remained unviolated How art thou now degenerated yea how wretchedly hast thou lost thy happiness by changing thy object There is no whit of life spirit or freedome in thee now For thou art dead and entombed in Earth nor neerness or relation to God no not in the least degree for the wicked saith the Apostle are haters of God Thou art now so far from being Mans Agent to God that if God in the infiniteness of his mercy would renew his peace with Man he must be his own Agent and thou his Patient witness St. John We love Him because he first loved us How comes it to pass that thou hast forsaken the living Fountain and hewen out unto thy self Cesterns that will hold no Water Is Earth to be compared with Heaven or the Creature with the Creator that thou hast forsaken the one to embrace and marry the other The Mole that of all other Creatures delights to undermine and root within the Earth wants the Organ of sight thereby illustrating this truth that where a carnal earthly or sensual love is there must needs be a blinde and ignorant understanding O Lord is this affection of love being rightly placed the Prince of all other our affections Is it the summe and compendium of thy whole Law Is it that which gives life to the actions of the Soul Is it the tryal of our Adoption That by which faith works Is it an old Commandement as being from the beginning a new Commandement as being renewed and straitly enforced in the Gospel Is it the mark of our perfection and of the truth O give me sighs give me words yea give me those unutterable groans of my Spirit raised by thy Spirit wherewith I may daily importune thy Majesty for the right fixing and direction of this affection of my Soul That so my love inflamed by thee may not henceforth be sub-lunary but like the Sun sending forth beams
upwards towards thee and rays down-wards amongst my Brethren Then shall thy will be done by me on Earth as it is done in Heaven The ground and occasion of all true joy is either assured hope or a present fruition of some extraordinary benefit Now no natural Man can be said to possess this affection aright as being deficient in the ground thereof Sin making him uncapable to receive any thing as a blessing or benefit either from God or Man 'T is true wicked Men spend their Days in Wealth heaping up silver as the dust and preparing Rayment as the Clay But observe their riches cannot be properly tearmed their goods These may possess treasures but shall never enjoy them For The innocent shall divide his Silver and the just shall put on his Rayment It 's as certain that the wicked walk on every side when the vilest Men are exalted That Servants ride on Horse-back and Princes walk as Servants upon Earth But note also that honour is to them as the Hebrew word signifies weight heaviness not rejoycing producing as the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports Fear which excludes joy God giving worldly Men preferments Non ut honoraret sed ut onoraret Have they not pleasures also Yes verily if we understand them according to their acception or Etymology that is things pleasing them Look upon the description of them in Job drawn to the life and we shall view them Taking the Tymbrell and Harp and rejoycing at the sound of the Organ This their pleasure to be bold with that word pleasure that it may be the more bold with them is a pleasure wherein things seem what they are not The word delight me-thinks is very significant teaching us that true pleasure only springs from that true light and only doth give light life and joy to the Soul That so empty are all voluptuaries of these ingredients that I may say of them as St. Paul of the wanton Widdows They that live in pleasure are dead whilst they live Now death excludes joy therefore it is impossible that Man so dead should rejoyce Lastly To silence all Objections and to conclude the Earthly minded Man is the only melancholy Man The very subject and object of Lamentation Take the height and learn the nature of those that blaze like meteors being placed in the highest region of carnal Men I mean those that are second Adams in the knowledge of the Metaphysicks and both Philosophers Machivels in Policy and Solomons in the generality of humane Learning and see what they are But least it should seem presumption in thee O my Soul to censure or detract from such shining Lamps of the World Let the King of Israel who excell'd in wisdome all the Children of the East Country and all the wisdome of Egypt for he was wiser then all Men give up his experimental judgment proving by an undeniable argument a Majore ad minus what I formerly layed as my ground That no natural Man can possess a genuine joy Hear his own words I gave my Heart to know wisdome and to know madness and folly I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit For in much wisdome is much grief and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow O gracious Creator with what a deluge of misery is wretched Man over-whelmed In how deep an abyss of sorrow is he plunged Cannot riches honours pleasures wisdome the content and compleatment of the whole Worlds felicity excite or beget one true smile of joy in the Soul Nay do they not with Man stray from the end of their Creation administring instead of sollace vexation and infelicity O who but Man hath ruin'd Man who but himself is the Thief and betrayer of himself what occasioned the parting of this good from the Creature but the departing of Man from thee his Creator O thou In whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for ever more Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation that in thy light I may see light Then shall those streams of gladness accompany thy many benefits and continually and plentifully flow into my Soul when to others they shall be dryed up as being separated from thee the Fountain Be thou my Sun and let thy blessings as so many beames proceeding from thee irradiate and rejoyce my Soul that so I may see thee in them and them in thee and by such a double aspect of thee be moved to give a double praise unto thee of Glory in thy self of mercy to my Soul Fear is now become a continual Palsey of the Soul an Earth-quake of the Body The object of it is commonly either some eminent danger or unresistable force in a Superiour particularly apprehended with such a fear as did the Creatures observe Man before his own hands cancelled his large Pattent of Dominion And with the same affection though much more enlarged and in a far greater measure as looking through the perspective of reason doth natural Man adore and tremble at the feet of his Creator armed with the thunder of Omnipotency and breast-plate of Righteousness crown'd with Majesty and arrayed with Glory Who can behold the Lord God thus and live Let Belshazar's thoughts Cain's words and Judas last action express the terrour of those Souls that thus apprehend God Look upon the preying Claws of the Lion the Stubble in the midst of the Furnace the Malefactor quaking at the Bar of Justice and in them my Soul view thy fearfull estate by nature If any Soul as a sinner was ever endowed with so perfect an Organ as it could look abroad upon God as a Judge or discover one smile in the face of anger or mercy in the midst of incensed justice surely the first and second Adam would have done it one of which had the strength of nature the other of grace But alass even the Son of God when in the place of sinfull Man he stood before the Justice of God feared Witness the Apostle witness his exclamation though his astonishment and fear were temporary the wickeds eternal His occasioned by a recess of the Divinity and paternal comforts beyond the reach of his present sence Theirs is a cursed effect of sin and utter privation of that infused love from God that begets a love to God which indeed is the very form of a filial fear If then the second Adam which came from Heaven having put on our transgressions conceived that God had forsaken him No marvail if the first Adam of the Earth Earthy together with his off-spring personally and by nature sinful forsake and hide themselves from God flying from him to whom only they should flie fearing him as a Judge whom they should reverence as a Father perfect love casting out fear O my God! is there a necessity of fear must all the Creatures tremble before thee
adversaries an Angel pointing out a living Fountain to all thirsty Hagars even that Spring of grace his Prophetical Office Thirsty I say for none but such taste present and perfect comfort and refreshâ—ing from hence Encouragement indeed all others may have from this Office which are not yet called to enâ—deavour and exercise themselves in the means which beget faith and repentance notwithstanding the resisting impossibility of their nature as beholding the free promise and enabling gift of God in Christ. But the Covenant and the blessing belongs and is effectual to those sensibly and chiefly That hunger and thirst after righteousness For they shall be filled To proceed then let all Men observe with me two spiritual streams or works flowing from this Office The first is the Divine Revelation of the will of God so far as it was necessary for his Church by the Mouths and Pens of the Prophets and Apostles and that through the immediate inspiration and instinct of the third Person in Trinity his most Holy Spirit All which issuing from the living Fountain the Lord Jesus who is in the midst of his Garden the Church as so many Rivolets do make glad the City and water the Paradise of God This is that work that is wâ—ought without us yet with an end to work within us and upon us all being according to St. Paul that Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles upon which the Church is built Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone O Eternal Beeing who art as mercifull as great a Father God to me thy unworthy Creature should I in this prospect of my weak faith carelesly oâ— silently pass by so high a favour so gracious a work of thine as this towards my Soul Thou mightest justly take my object or my sight or both from me for such unthankfulness Is the revelation of secrets the greatest expression of friendship And to be of the Kings Council the chiefest honours And shall not I as a Christian apprehend apply and be gratefull for such â—avours as these confer'd by a far greater Person in a far greater manner and measure upon a far unworthier object than ever they can sample If the Letters and mandates of Princes are received with so much reverence preserved with so much care esteemed honoured and obeyed How much more the Words and Scriptures of God the Prince of Princes Are Books but the Soul in Print the Beams of Mans wisdome what is this but the life of the Soul the Book of Wisdome and the Book of Books Here is the height of Metaphysicks as revealing what so ever can be known either of God or Angels The use and summe of both Phylosophies in the Creation and Decalogue The knowledge of Astronomy in Job The exactest Geography and truest Chronology in Genesis and Chronicles The mystery of Numbers in the Levitical Ceremonies Daniel and the Revelations The exercise of Rhetorick throughout the Prophets especially in Esay The marrow and art of Logick in Saint Paul's Epistles and in all which is above all as the Sun amongst the Planets the whole Body of Divinity Here are Politicks for the Statist in Ecclesiastes Oeconomicks for the House-keeper in Proverbs Instruction for the Woman from Solomon's Mother And David's Poesie for the Poets Lastly here 's wisdome for the ancient for it maketh wise unto Salvation Here 's a beautifull Spouse and love Canticles for the youthfull and religious Amorist And here is Milk from the Sacramental Teaâ—s for the new-born Babe Yea what can my heart seek Lord which thou hast not placed in this Book of Life in this library of my Soul It remains nâ—w only that I beseech from thee the true use thereof viz. the knowledge and worship of thee So shall I be not only a hearer and Reader but a doer of thy Word not deceiving my own Soul From this work of Gods Spirit iâ— the Word without us I proceed to that second work of the Spirit wrought within us viz. Sanctification being a conformation of our willâ— unto his O my Soul here is that thou seekest for The knowledge of the greatest happiness without possibility of fruition is not the least of torments And to behold the Crown Robes and Priviledges of a Christian without either visible means to obtain or a true propriety of weaâ—ing them makes but our misery more miserable Thou weart even now lifted up and cast down exalted with joy and humbled with sorrow For looking upward thou beholdest with holy Stephen Heaven open and the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God But alass whilst thou weart ravisht with this Vision a multitude of thine Enemies not much unlike nor less cruel than his Persecutors thy original Corruptions have blind-folded thy eyes and manacled thy hands separating for the present both it from thee and thee from it But now be of good comfort though thou liest dead in sin and intranc'd in astonishment the Lord of life is come down unto thee Who manger all these Hell-hounds that watch over thee will give thee part in the first Resurrection He is thy spiritual Elisha and the Prince of the Prophets who will lay his Mouth to thy Mouth that so thou maist praise and confess him his Eyes to thy Eyes that thorough faith thou maist behold him his Hands upon thy Hands that in deeds thou mayest obey him yea his whole and living Body upon thy dead Body that so thou maist revive and live in him Behold there Him of whom his own saying concerning John the Baptist is evidently verified A Prophet yea and more than a Prophet even the God of the Spirits of all Prophets Who least thy weak and sinfull nature should fear to approach unto or lend an Eare unto his Word hath vailed his glorious Deity with humanity therein being typified by Moses when he covered his shining Face as well as prophesied of him saying A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you amongst your Brethren like unto me Like unto Moses indeed as being a Man an Israelite a Prophet full of Miracles meekness of the Spirit yet with this difference of degrees the one was comparatively the other perfectly full the one a Vessel the other a Fountain the one the Servant the other the Son according to that of the Apostle This Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as he who hath builded the House hath more honour than the House Moses being faithful as a Servant but Christ as a Son Next whereas O my Soul thou objectest the deadness of thy nature thy sleeping in sin I confess indeed thou art so But hearken unto thy Saviours Tryumph which doth not only pierce but give thee Eares Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light The hour being come and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live
speak of our last and general Enemy Death but that even in the chaws thereof the World hath laid a fourth ambush of blood-thirsty and persecuting Hamans and unbrotherly Amalekites to assault every true Christian in his peregrination to our Heavenly Canaan Of these therefore next in our Meditation Were the Soul of a Christian corporeal or could force bend her knees and elevate her hands with their Bodies to Idolatry could it determine and have an end by the Sword Gibbet Fire or chawes of wilde Beasts or be blasted and defaced by the scandalous reproaches of slanderous tongues surely the Israel of God had been as Sodom and Gomorrah a by-word a nothing without succession upon the Earth And as once the old World so it these Waters had overwhelmed it these streames had gone over our Souls They even the wicked of the World had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Then the proud Waters had gone over our Souls But blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their Teeth The Snare is broken and we are escaped escaped did I say yet the Lord knows many not without a fall without loss sometimes of their stuble-works sometimes of some gems ornaments and degrees of grace and spiritual comforts sometimes of their good name precious time and glorious professions Blessed Peter as thou wert the first of the Apostles so the first of Professors that denyed thy Master Glorious was thy confession thou art the Christ the Son of the living God Ignominious thy denyal I know not the Man Oh that the apprehension of Death should make thee deny thy life that thou shouldst more fear a Cross than value a Crown Yea the most Orient of Diadems that of Martyrdome But when the Lords back was towards thee and thy self-love had maskt his beautifull Image in thy heart I wonder not at thy tergiversation and counter motion As these spiritual desertions obscure Christ so they discover Man The same back-friend that would have counselled the Master perswades and obtains in Peter to save himself From what an incarnate Devil from Death No for who so will save his life shall lose it and thus to dye is to live for ever What then causeth this excentrical motion Surely self-love which declines that Centre of all things God and his glory This Daughter of the Philistims our flesh rather choosing to betray her Spouse her Sampson than she and her Fathers House this Cottage of Clay should be destroyed with the Fire of Persecution Sathan that Prince of this World is an exact Tyrant and therefore hath not only seeming rewards to inveigle some but racks and tortures to compell others to subject to his thraldome Such are those several sorts of Persecutions which for a time have made many of the Lords Worthies to seek quarter Peter fell not alone though as most eminent most eminently Blessed Saviour was not this the fury the Wolf that scattered the Sheep from thee the true Shepward of our Souls Where were the other ten Apostles when thou wast condemned and crucified I finde none but John present at thy Passion and he there rather as a Brother and Kinsman than as a Disciple For surely had he profest thee thou hadst not suffered alone innocently as it is written of thee Where were the seventy Disciples to whose faith and preaching thou gavest testimony with so many Miracles Where those many thousands which are said to believe which they themselves also testified by their acclamations confessions and frequent attendance Were they not all reduc'd to a few and as it were metamorphosed into the weakest Sex a few Women yea and those thine at distance too they stood afar off Sweet Jesus did the faith fail of these ocular witnesses these Champions of thy truth Yea after thy glorious ascension in the Apostles age do we finde a Demas In the Primitive and in succeeding times many holy Professors yea in this our age a devout Cranmer and others Who for a time shrunk from thee or rather from the chawes of this Devourer this opposite to nature this highest Pin of Sathans wracks this last and worst Enemy Death Disgraces slanders loss of goods yea all other bodily tortures included being but the attendants and degrees to this The Devil often in the Church makes his observation good that skin for skin yea all that a Man hath will he give for his life What need then have we O Lion of the Tribe of Judah which have not seen yet believe being therefore destitute of the sences testimony and want that Christian magnanimity that measure of grace and faith which those first Combatants enjoyed to fly unto thy Standard and to invoke thy assistance and strength against these worldly Enemies Which though invincible by nature and the flesh yet shall lye headless and vanquisht under the Sword of thy Word and Spirit Witness these holy Darts drawn out of that sacred Quiver thy most Holy Word already thrust through the sides and heart of this Absalom this Rebell and Traytor to our Souls so St. Peter most sweetly God hath given us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust Our Enemy the World marching against us in four battalions as hath been formerly shewed three of which also the Apostle St. John as God's sentinel for our safety hath faithfully given us warning of by this his discovery that all that is in the World the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the World It is time for us now not only to prepare for but to begin the fight and that with courage and chearfulness the Alarum and on-set being given by Gods own Spirit animating and stirring up the affection of our godly zeal and anger thus Love not the World neither the things that are in the World If any Man love the World the love of the Father is not in him Know yee not that the friendship with this World is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is an enemy of God Behold also a Banner even that which we have vowed to fight under in our Baptisme even the victorious Cross of Christ triumphantly displayed by that great Christian Champion St. Paul who thus encourages us by this his pious exclamation and example God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the World is crucified unto me and I unto the World See also our Leader the Spirit of God which if our faith second will make us trample upon the flesh and all the volptuous and carnal desires thereof For if we be led of the Spirit we are not under the Law viz. under the curse
to make all good in few words hear thy King by the Prophet Isaiah The Lord of Hosts will be for a Crown of glory and for a Diadem of beauty unto his People and for a Spirit of Judgment to him that sits in Judgment and for strength to them that turn the Battel to the Gate But this World is a Bed of Vipers a bundle of snares a stage of dangers True yet if thou trust in him he shall deliver thee from the snare of the Fowler from the noysome Pestilence Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet O read yee faithfully and digest this whole Psalme which I may truly stile the City of David for strength and beauty the fortress yea Paradise of every true Christian. But the godly have but a few friends I answer Comparatively they have but a few Enemies the whole Creation except Sathan and sinners being at peace with a reconciled Soul such as Job speaks of being in League with the very Stones and Beasts of the Field And the malice of the malignant turns all to their good Yea more if a Mans wayes please the Lord he will make even his Enemies to be at peace with him But to conclude a good Wife and good Children are amongst the chief blessings upon Earth They are so and have not the Saints strong and comfortable evidences for them if the Lord see them good witness those twine-like Psalmes the 117. and the 118. which for their excellency and comfort sake deserve the Readers more full and perfect Observation I will not be further tedious for the Lord God is a Sun and a Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he with-hold from them that walk uprightly O Lord of Hosts blessed is the Man that trusteth in thee Having given my Soul by faith a taste of some few of those many temporal promises treasured up in the Scripture being they are to be but as Sallets to provoke my spiritual appetite I will return to feed upon Eternity O my Soul what surer Antidote against the apprehension of the last Judgment whose sting is Eternal Death than the Meditation and assured hope of Eternity of life which is Glory in grain and the deifying of Humanity Surely if there be any Spiritual weight that depresseth the Soul it is Judgment If there be any Heavenly Magnes that attracts and quickens it 't is Immortality For toucht with this though encircled with corruption thou shalt continue moving with the Needle until fixed upon the lines of life thou constantly adhearing to the true Flower-de-luce Christ Jesus Amongst Moses unfeigned Metamorphoses we finde the Rod chang'd to a Serpent a devourer of the Magitian delusions So this hope a branch of the Tree of Life springing from the Root of Jesse swallows up Death in victory in Eternity What seems yea is a fearfull truth to all unbelieving Egyptians becometh a Chimera a Phantasme to every true Israelite If any word is expressive or an Epitome of God of Heaven of Glory and consequently of all felicity it is this of Life I am the way the truth and the life I am the Resurrection and the Life saith our Saviour and he that hath the Son that is believes in him hath life saith St. John Since then God is life he that hath life hath God and he that hath God hath all things even the conflux of simple and unmixt happiness And therefore most wisely and succinctly those holy Men Penners of the Creed called the Apostles have coucht and exprest the excessive treasures and immense pleasures of the Heavenly Paradise under that one word life everlasting Herein O my Soul is included and assured unto thee the sublimest of Heavenly fruitions called by the School-men the beatifical Vision Which so far as I am able to express it is the Souls full repletion and apprehension of the excellencies of the Divine Essence not by the back-parts only and mediately as Moses but primarily and immediately in himself Yea also the Body being in the very moment of its resurrection spiritualiz'd as witnesseth the Apostle shall there with open face see and look upon the word of life receiving fulness of pleasure and satisfaction by those sences which now are unprofitable and uncapable of such glorious manifestations Here since this last act of our faith and last Article of our Creed is so full of comfort and unspeakable animation after the hearty and humble acknowledgment of my ignorance and fervent supplicating the assistance of the only illuminating Spirit I will more largely and particularly eye this Crown this unvaluable price even so far as my faith hath visual beames from Scripture or consequent demonstration If the Soul of Man in this state of her nakedness and deformity hath been by some Christians though therein Heretical deifyed and by most of the Heathen Magi magnifyed even to the heighth of created excellencies surely in her renovation and perfect reassumption of that her first Image and those first created Ornaments she must needs be more splendid and more to be admired But is this beauty of the first Adam in his innocency the heighth of a Christians hope No. As our second Adam in his divine descent and generation infinitely transcends our first Parent in Nature so he hath prepared a far more excellent weight of glory for his Children by Adoption his Members by Spiritual mystical and supernatural union Witness his own Oracle and declarative rather than necessary Petition The glory which thou gavest me I have given them Blessed Lord what a word is this What a communication my minde is entraunced and my weak Meditations swell even to an Impossibility of expression Can I not now know my Soul in her humiliation in the weakness of a Creature How can I then describe and conceive of her in her exaltation in the glory of her Creator Let this be sufficient for me to believe hence that that glory with which she shall be filled according to her Spiritual Nature is for quality infinitely excellent because Gods yet allayed and fitted to be received for quantity finite and limited as in her Not as divided from the Divine Fountain but by vertue of Inhabitation in a gracious real and inseparable union communicated to and made hers according to our Saviours Prayer That we all may be one as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father that we may be one in them as also that the love wherewith the Father hath loved the Son may be in us and he in us Thus then the Souls of the Saints before the Resurrection and both Souls and Bodies after the Resurrection according to their several measures of grace here shall then have their divine plenitudes of Glory every Vessel being filled that is thrown into that Ocean of Life and Glory Further as a Wedge of
zealous flaming Grace of holy anger add light to light and glory to the glory of a Saint O my Soul is holy anger a saving and gracious affection a part of the glorious Image of God in a Saint Do the holy and blessed Angels as the Scriptures witness in their zeal to Gods glory and hatred of Sin express it in their constant oppositions and inflictions of Gods Judgments upon wicked Men and Devils Yea is it an Apostolical Precept and Duty to be angry and sin not Shall this grace have even in Heaven continual objects and occasions to exercise it self to Gods glory and thy own O write after this Copy and endeavour that this grace may not be seldome and casually but habitually in thee here upon Earth Let it be one of the Mortifiers and Crucifiers of thy lusts as they were the Murderers of thy Saviour Let it dash out the brains of all these Babell Beasts against the Stones of holy reproofs even the accursed issue of thy sinfull thought words and actions Let this God-like passion resist the Devil in all his subtle and powerfull temptations and he shall undoubtedly flye from thee Yea let this grace imitate and second the holy Spirit in reproving and convincing the ungodly World of Sin So shalt thou be preserved from the Commission of all evil triumph over all thy worldly and spiritual Enemies and be prepared by thy more full extent and acting of this grace here to be of an higher form in the blessed exercise thereof in Glory O All-mighty Creator who hast made my heart the seat of my affections and plac'd it in the Centre of my Body that it might affect and influence every part alike Let it not I humbly beseech thee be any longer like the middle Region of the Aire the coldest part of this Micro-cosme and void of this Heavenly heat of holy anger But let this sanctified affection flash forth like thunder and lightning and burn up and destroy every crude and evil thought word and action as soon as they appear and purge this Element of my Heart and Soul from all the infectious noxious and sinfull vapours of vain and sinfull thoughts that arise from this Earth this Body of Death and Sin that incompasses me about that they may never come to the maturity of wicked actions or if they do they may be as it were Thunder strucken and torne up by the Roots and not able to stand before this flaming grace so shall I be like thee who art as a flaming Fire consuming all Iniquity That so being renewed and fashioned according to thy Image in this World by such holy affections I may be assured of theirs and my greater perfection in the World to come when I shall be made like thee iâ— thy Image of Glory Amen As the light of the Sun to the World so is the affection of joy to the Soul when it arises there is day when it sets an uncomfortable night Man in his innocency enjoyed a polar day a continued presence thereof but having lost God its cause and object the effect ceased not that the Soul is disrob'd of the affection but of the true use of it hence the distinction of a spiritual and carnal joy The first is the true only found and beginning afresh to bud in the renewed Saints and favourites of God for a stranger shall not intermeddle with their joy but the other is momentary and illegitimate as being begotten in the Soul by false objects and is as it were the Moon-light of the wicked The object then of true joy is God and that in this consideration as he is inclusively and exclusively the compleat happiness of the Creature Whereby it comes to pass that the godly and reprobate may both rejoyce in the same things as Wifes Children Honours Estates c. And yet the joy of the one be holy and spiritual of the other carnal and wicked Leaving then the sensual mirth which is deceivable sinfull and temporary my thoughts pitch upon the Solace of the Elect which the Scripture stiles the joy of the Holy Ghost unspeakable and glorious the first-fruits and earnest of their future happiness By these glimpse O ye Saints of God's may yee judge of that full light you shall there enjoy Which if unspeakable here shall surely be there unconceivable Alas what can I then think and meditate of it chiefly negatively thus that there shall be no cloudings nor intermissions there no measure of our joy for we shall continually behold God and in him see all the grounds of rejoycing If here excesses have proved mortal their exceedings shall make us more immortal this being an increasing and reviving not a surfeiting fulness The capacity of the affection being gradually and continually augmented according to the plentifull infusion our joyes multiplying there even to Eternity The growth of our graces here although God be seen of us through the cleft of the Rock as to Moses teaching discovering and evincing a continued and far greater augmentation in glory hereafter O blessed and happy estate which is not diminished by Eternity but is as unlimitable as lasting O happy place wherein all joyes meet their objects in one Centre There shall we possess and enjoy not guttatim but according to the fulness of each Vessel God our gracious Father Christ our mercifull Saviour the Holy Spirit our everlasting Comforter the glorious Angels and Arch-Angels our fellow-Servants the Holy Patriarchs and Prophets our Tryumphant Leaders the pious Apostles and valiant Martyrs our victorious Champions together with the many millions successively of religious Professors There shall we meet and rejoyce in the like felicity of all our vertuous Parents Brothers Sisters Wifes Children Kindred and Friends There shall we inherit unvaluable and incorruptible riches Be install'd in Thrones of unchangeable and incorruptible honours and be filled with all unspeakable and Soul-ravishing delights To conclude whatsoever things either in conception or possibility can affect or rejoice the glorified Soul are there not interchangeably but contemporarily and continuedly obvious and present And on the contrary all things whatsoever that may lessen or offend in the least degree this divine extasie have an impossibility of subsistence in this Eternal Paradise And that not only in regard of the presence but of the decree of God himself Therefore needs must this joy be ineffably compleat to which all things concur for its perfection O Divine condition which shall thus sweetly impe and restore these mouldring and broken Wings of my Soul O blissfull Paradise and Chrystaline Sea upon which these now maimed Feet of my affections shall walk or rather evenly slide free from all rubs thorns and sinfull interruptions O how melodious will the harmony of these Strings be when mounted to the highest Key not to Ela but to Eli Methinks the very Contemplation of this life should so ravish my Soul and actuate these Wings these Feet that
me My Sheep hear my voice and I give unto them Eternal Life To these let us for further testimony add the expressions of the Apostle Paul The life which I now live in the Flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Our life is hid with Christ in God When Christ which is our life shall appear then shall we appear with him in Glory The first Man was made a living Soul the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit That was not first which is spirituall but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual By one Spirit we are Baptized into one Body whether we be Jew or Gentile whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit He that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit By these bright Scripture-lights is evidently discovered and manifested to us that as the head in the natural body contains the animal spirit and conveyeth and gives animation to all the Members of the Body so the Lord Christ God-Man in one Person is the head of his Spiritual and mystical Body the Universal Church and that from him alone not only that spiritual life consisting in holiness and righteousness but also that eternal and immortal life in which both in Soul and Body we shall live in him and with him at the Resurrection for ever and for ever is given and communicated into every Member of his body the Church united to him in this life by a true faith and by the animation and in-dwelling of the Holy Ghost who is the life and spirit of God the Father and of God the Son Therefore in these and other Scriptures God the Father is sometimes called our life other-times Christ and the Holy Ghost is said to be our life thereby evidencing that this eternal life of the Saints hath its immediate rise and Original from the Trinity in Unity God blessed for ever Not by participation of the Essence of the God-head but by the real and spiritual union of their Persons as Members of Christs mystical Body unto the Person of Christ through faith and the inhabitation and vivification of the Holy Ghost The first of which viz. Faith shall cease and be swallowed up after death in fruition But the other shall continue to Eternity From what I have here offered although in great weakness for who is sufficient for these things I hope it is abundantly cleared that the eternal life of the Saints and the glorious incorruptability and immortality of their Bodies flowes from a far higher Principle or cause than from only meer nature made new refined and incorruptable And that though the Elements through their incorruptability are become Eviternal like the Superior Orbes and are in a natural possibility if God please so to continue without change or alteration Everlastingly yet in all this they fall far short of the Eternal duration of the glorified Souls and bodies of the Saints which have not only a perpetuity arising from the refined and incorruptible nature but an Eternity flowing from the spiritual real and inseparable union of their Persons through faith and the Holy Ghost to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ God-man as Members united to their Head In which respect besides the declared positive and unchangeable decree and promises of God who cannot lye as these Scriptures witness amongst many others formerly mentioned viz. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Who so eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last Day The Saints I say are placed and fixed in such a blessed and certain state and condition as living spiritually in God and God in them as hath been proved that it is as possible for God who is Eternal Life to perish and dye as for any of his Saints to dye or perish that live by and in his life according to that unanswerable Argument of our Lord and Saviour As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Because I live yee shall live also To conclude I humbly conceive that this Eternal Life of the Saints as to the reason and nature thereof far transcends the Eternal Life of the glorious Angels in that as far as is revealed in Scripture their life was given them by an act of Gods goodness will and power in their first Creation and is preserved continued and confirmed to the Elect Angels by an act of his grace And therefore those of them that kept not their first state are forever separated from God who is life and swallowed up into Eternal Death whereas the life even to the Saints proceeding from Gods spiritual inhabitation and communion with them is undeterminable unchangeable inseparable and is therefore Eternal O my Soul shall this thy impure mortal body immediately after the making of a new Heaven and a new Earth the refining of the four Elements of which it was formed and out of which it shall again be raised and reassumed appear at the Resurrection of the just as having its substance purified and made incorruptible Therefore according to the Scripture-phrase immortal and everlasting like as are the bright and superior Orbs Yea which is much more wonderfull shall this incorruptability everlastingness and immortality of thy soul and body be unchangeable and eternal because thy Person is spiritually and really united by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost unto the Person of Christ thy Head and unto God in Christ who is Eternal Life yea lastly doth this life excell and transcend as in respect of the cause and nature of it the life and being of all other Creatures even of the ever blessed Angels as being built not only as theirs is upon the Basis of Gods creating power and goodness which gives a beeing to all things but is establisht upon his declared promise and eternal truth and hath its unalterable duration from our dwelling and living in God and he in us and from that inseparable fellowship we have with the Father and the Son in the communion of the Holy Ghost O my Soul are these things true Have they been evidenst to thee out of the Scripture of truth O how oughtest thou in all humility and enlarged thankfulness to prostrate thy self at the foot-stool of thy infinite good gracious and mercifull God and Father in the Lord Jesus Christ admiring and adoring him First for the Revelation and manifestation by his Word and holy Spirit of so high ravishing and stupendious a mystery the wonder and praise of glorified Saints and Angels and the miracle of divine love Next let as the Prophet speaks one deep call unto another and from the sight of the
comfort declaring to them to the praise and glory of God thy experiences thy consolations and Divine manifestations And for as much as thou art zealous of spiritual gifts seek that thou maist excell to the edifying of the Church that spiritual Body of Christ whereof thou art a living Member And since God as the Apostle excellently observes hath set some in the Church First Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then gifts of healing helps Governments diversities of Tongues Covet thou earnestly the best gifts For there are diversity of gifts but the same spirit But the manifestation of the Spirit is 〈◊〉 to every Man to profit withall To one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdome to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by 〈◊〉 same Spirit to another the gift of Healing by the same Spirit to another working of Miracles to another Prophesie to another discerning of Spirits to another diâ—vers kinds of Tongues to another the interpretation of Tongues but all worketh that one and the self same Spiâ—rit dividing to every Man severally as he will For 〈◊〉 the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body 〈◊〉 also is Christ. If they were all one Member where weâ—â— the Body The Eye cannot say to the Hand I have 〈◊〉 need of thee again the Head unto the Feet I have 〈◊〉 need of you Now we are the Body of Christ and Memâ—bers in particular Therefore O my Soul since 〈◊〉 Tongue as to all divine and spiritual gifts is now thâ— principal Agent and Expressor And shall be then 〈◊〉 as a Member of Christ mystical Body in this his glorious Kingdome thou shalt be plac'd in thy Function and respective administration be not spiritually idle but â—it and exercise thy Tongue continually in declaring to others according as it shall be revealed to thee by the Holy Spirit the Magnalia Dei the wonderfull ways and works of God Freely thou hast received freely give O my Soul shalt thou then be as one of Christs Viceroyes over all inferiour Creatures shall thy Dictates Orders and Commands be received and obeyed by them as the voice of God O let not then thy speech now to them be mixt with oaths and cursings according to the woâ—t and fashion of the wicked of the Earth whose behaviours towards the poor Brutes are more like to Devils than Men or Christians Yea let thy employment of them and rule over them be gentle milde and moderate not cruel or oppressive since the good Man with the Scripture is mercifull towards his Beast And 〈◊〉 tenderness of thy God towards them exprest as 〈◊〉 of the reasons of his commanding a seventh Days 〈◊〉 That thy Beast may rest as well as thee teaches what respect and considerate pitty and compassion he expects from thee towards them as being fellowâ—Creatures suffering what servitude they undergo for thy sin and from which they shall be freed and delivered in thy glorious liberty But instead of speaking evil of or to the inferiour Creatures do thou now as thou shalt do in the World to come with thy Heart and Tongue praise and glorifie thy God after the Example of holy David Psal. 148. throughout in and for them admiring his love and goodness to thee to them as also 〈◊〉 unexpressible yea unconceivable power and wisdome declared in their various formes wonderfull strength 〈◊〉 qualities excellent virtues and uses as being 〈◊〉 great end of theirs and thy Creation as the Lord â—â—clares to Job when he bids him behold Behemoth and â—â—â—iathan and leaves upon Record for our Instruction and Imitation so large a description of them and of others of his Creatures This holy exercise both of mind and voice in the contemplation of the Creatures was without doubt a chief employment of Adam in his innocency Let it be thine then in thy return and travailing to this second Paradise that what is begun by thee here in grace may be perfected there in Glory O glorious God and mercifull Father O infinite loâ—ing and gracious Saviour and Redeemer O holy and Eternal Spirit my Sanctifier three infinitely glorious Persons One Omnipotent onely wise and Eternal God Blessed blessed blessed from everlasting to everlasting who hath so highly honoured and dignified me a 〈◊〉 Worm and no Man As to love me freely in thy Eterâ—nally begotten and only beloved Son the Lord Jesus God-Man and in him from before all beginnings to elect me unto Eternal Life and Salvation Creating 〈◊〉 unto immortality and glory by giving me an immortaâ— Soul and a Body that shall assuredly be raised to life and glory by thy Almighty Power and by the virtue of the Resurrection of my Head and Saviour who hast miraculously raised me from a sinfull death unto a spiritual life in my effectual Calling through Adoption the Sanctification and Inhabitation of thy holy Spirit as 〈◊〉 freely justified me in thy Son the Lord my righteousâ—ness and by this blessed and inseparable union to 〈◊〉 in thy Son by the Holy Ghost given me assurance 〈…〉 Life and Glory which shall indubitably begâ—◠〈◊〉 my Soul at my dissolution and be compleat at the â—â—â—union of Soul and Body aâ— the Resurrection of the 〈◊〉 What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise 〈◊〉 with my glory Awake my Heart awake my Tongue 〈◊〉 self will awake early and joyn with the Arch-Angels and Angels and the Church Tryumphant in Heaven and with the Holy Catholick Church upon Earth in 〈◊〉 Heavenly exercise of praise and thanksgiving O Lord whose only prerogative it is to search the heart knowest that these are the desires and petitions of 〈◊〉 Soul yet with holy Paul I cry out that to will is present with me through thy grace but how to perform know not Blessed Saviour give me of thy fulness so soâ—â— to receive grace for grace Yea be pleased to add 〈◊〉 to grace since thou alone workest in us both the will and the deed and the Heaven aspiring piercing 〈◊〉 of praise ariseth only from thy Divine Fire of Knowledge and holy affections Eternal Father let not this noble Instrument of thy Glory my Tongue be tuned to the vain and wanton Layes of the World and Sin lest thereby being crackt unstrung and made untunable for thy service here it and my whole Body with voluptuous Diveâ— be cast 〈◊〉 useless into the Fire of Hell where a drop of cold Water will not be 〈◊〉 to cool a flaming lascivious Tongue But let me O Lord be continually chaâ—â—ing the Magnâ—lia Dei and be singing those Evangelicalâ— and prophetical Songs of the four Beasts and four and twenty Elders the figure and representative of thy holy Church saying and singing
Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honour and Power for 〈…〉 Created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were Created Thou O blessed Saviour art worthy to take the Book of the Providential Decrees and actings of the Father as concerning thy Chuâ—ch and to open the Sealâ— and to discover the meaning thereof for thâ—â— wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation And hast made 〈◊〉 unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall 〈…〉 the Earth Worthy 〈…〉 O Lamb â—hat was 〈◊〉 to receive power and riches and wisdome and strength and honour and glory and blessing Blessing â—â—nour glory and power be unto thee O Father That 〈◊〉 upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for eâ—er and ever Great and marvailous are thy works Lord God Allmighty just and 〈◊〉 are thy ways O King of Saints who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorify thy Name for thou only 〈◊〉 holy For all Nations shall come and worship before thee for thy Judgments are made manifest and thy 〈◊〉 in the raising thy Witnesses thy Magistracy and Ministry and pouring forth thy wrath upon the Beast the Man of Sin that Western Anti-christ the Pope and upon that Mystery of Iniquity Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth which is also spiritually called 〈◊〉 and Egypt and literally Rome the Throne and Seat of the Beast and two-horned Beast the false Prophet which is come now into remembrance before thee O God to give unto her the Cup of the Wine of the fierceness of thy wrath she saith now in her heart I sit iâ— Queen and am no Widdow and shall see no sorrow therefore shall her Plagues 〈◊〉 in owâ— Diâ—â—y Death and Mourning and Famine and she shall be utterly 〈◊〉 with Fire for strong are thou 〈◊〉 God that Judgeth her And the Beaâ—â— the Pope that was and is not that is the Eight Head and is of the Seventh shall go into Perdition and be taken and with him the false Prophet the Roman Church and Hierarchy that wrought Miracles before him with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the Beast and them that worshipped his Image These both shall be cast alive into a Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone First in this life by a direfull excommunicaâ—tion by all the Churches of Christ and after this life 〈◊〉 the Fiery Lake of Hell O Almighty Saviour who 〈◊〉 King of Kings and Lord of Lords shall my Tongue 〈◊〉 my glorified condition as hath been shewed sing thy praises declare and perpetuate the memory of these thy wonderfull actings after thou hast done them O 〈◊〉 me now before thou doest them as beholding 〈◊〉 very neer through the Perspective of thy Word by the Eye of my Faith Sing that new Song of praises before thy Throne concerning thy great and marvellous proâ—idences with the hundred forty and four thousand thy Virgins and redeemed ones that stand with thee oâ— Mount Sion the Figure of thy Church and tryumphingly declare with the Angel that the Hour of thy Judgment is come and that Babylon is fallen is fallen that great City because she made all Nations drink of the Wine of the wrath of her Fornication Let me also as by the same prospect of Faith beholding the Call and Conversion of thy antient People Israel and scattered Jewes to be at hand and the total destruction of Gog and Magog the blasphemous Mahumetan Turk by their Sword and in their Land and bless and praise thy Name for it is wonderfull fearfull and glorious O my Lord hast thou also declared and promised by thy Holy Apostle John that thou wilt shortly Lay hold on the Dragon that old Serpent which is the Devil and Sathan and bind him for a thousand years Casting him into the bottomless Pit and shutting him up and setting a Seal upon him that he should deceive the Nations no more untill the thousand years shall be fulfilled And that then all the ends of the World shall remember and turn unto thee O Lord and all the Kindreds of the Nations shall worship before thee And the Kingdomes of this World shall become the Kingdomes of Thee our Lord and of thy Christ and He shall raign for ever Lord shall I we see such a blessed and happy age as this when as a natural and rational effect of Sathans binding and thy casting him and all his Legions of Devils into the local Hell and of thy plentuous pouring forth of the gifts and graces of thy Spirit according to the Prophets the whole World shall be converted to Christianity all Wars and Contentions shall cease Swords shall be turned into Plow-shares and Speares into Pruning-hooks and the Nations shall learn Warre no more And long life and peace and plenty shall Crown this Orbe when all Idolatry Ignorance open profaneness and wickedness shall be laid aside and purity light and unity in life and doctrine worship and discipline shall shine forth throughout the Earth even above the Primitive times when saving knowledge and a Salomonial wisdome shall cover the Earth even as the Waters cover the Seas Shall I I say behold all this by faith through the gracious illumination of thy blessed Spirit in thy Word of Truth And shall I not cry out with holy David Lord open thou my Lips and my Mouth shall shew forth thy praise yea often glorify thee in singing the 96. Psalme which being a clear Prophesie of this time thy Spirit indited to that purpose as also the 97. the 98. the 99. and the 100. Psalmes O Lord hast thou foretold and promised by thy Prophet Daniel That Judgment shall be given unto the Saints of the most High and that the Saints shall possess the Kingdome That then Righteousness shall be the Girdle of thy Loynes and faithfulness the Girdle of thy Reines That thou wilt give us Judges as at the first and Counsellers as at the beginning and that thou wilt make our Exactors righteousness That the Judgment shall fit and the Kingdome and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdome under the whole Heaven shall be given to the People of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdome is an everlasting Kingdome and all Dominions shall serve Him Yea is this that fift and universal Monarchie and victorious Kingdome which is by thy Almighty Power and Spirit to be acted and carryed on by thy Saints when as it is witnessed by the Prophets and thy Servant David Thou shalt break thy Enemies with a Rod of Iron and shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel when the Lord at thy right hand shall strike through Kings in the Day
of his wrath and shalt Judge amongst the Heathen and shall fill the places with the dead Bodies and wound the Heads over many Countries When thou shalt put a two-edged Sword into the Hand of thy Saints to execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishment upon the People to bind their Kings with Chains and their Nobles with Fetters of Iron to execute the Judgment written this honour have all the Saints Yea is this thy victorious Kingdome and Government wherein righteousness peace holiness and purity shall be so greatly exercised and exalted by and under thy Saints upon Earth confirmed by thee in a Vision to thy Apostle John who declares that after Sathan was bound by thee a thousand years He saw Thrones and they to wit thy Saints sate upon them and Judgment was given unto them The Prodromus to which Sessions he saw Revelations the 19. from Verse the 11. unto the end of that Chapter And shall not both my Tongue and Heart in the certain belief that these wonderfull prophetical promises shall yea are now at the point to be made good unto thy Church and to be fulfilled praise and glorifie thee in the joyfull expectation thereof in those words which thy own Spirit Indicted on this subject and for this purpose O clap your Hands all yee People shout unto God with the voice of Tryumph for the Lord most High is terrible he is a great King over all the Earth He shall subdue the People under us and the Nations under our Feet he shall choose our Inheritance for us the excellency of Jacob whom he loved For God is the King of all the Earth sing yee praises with understanding God raigneth over the Heathen God sitteth upon the Throne of his Holiness The Princes of the People are gathered together even the People of the God of Abraham for the Shields of the Earth belongeth unto God he is greatly exalted O blessed Saviour who art that great Prophet promised by Moses yea the Lord God of the Prophets Hast thou foretold to us by them that after the binding and sealing up Sathan and all the Powers of Darkness in Hell the bottomless Pit thy Saints thy Church shall enjoy a Sabatisme a thousand years of rest and peace upon this Earth which I humbly expect when their six thousand years of trouble labour and persecution shall be expired typified and prefigured as I in all humility conceive in the Arks resting the 17. Day of the 7. Month as a Type of this rest in the six Days Creation and thy seventh Days rest and in thy appointing us a laborious Week and six Days of Work and every seventh Day to be a Sabbath a Day of rest to us and the Creatures And in the seventh Years rest to the Field and release to Servants the righteousness and holiness peace plenty and happiness of which their raign and Kingdome I but lately mentioned and evidenced by a few Scriptures of many that clearly hold it forth to us O let my Heart and Tongue in the assured faith of thy accomplishing this great work sing with joy the seventy-second Psalme The lively Prophesie of this thy peaceable Kingdome under thy Saints upon Earth under the Type of Solomon concluding with the Holy Psalmist Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wonderous works And blessed be his glorious Name for ever And let the whole Earth be filled with his Glory Amen O Lord the Judge of all the Earth hast thou promised to come unto us the second time without Sin unto Salvation but in flaming Fire to take vengeance of all that know thee not Hereby destroying them and Hypocrites together with the Apostatizing Nations called Gog and Magog as Sprung from a Scythian Root seduced from the true Faith by the deceits of Sathan at his loosing for a season The number of whom is as the Sand of the Sea and by him gathered together to incompass the Camp of thy Saints and the holy City thy true Church made up of Gentiles and Israelites Hast thou then promised a Resurrection of the Just even of all thine Elect ones and Martyrs and that They shall be Priests of God and of thee O Christ and that they shall raign with thee a thousand years For thou hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall raign upon Earth Even in that new Heaven and new Earth which thou wilt create shall our Salvation be then perfected and compleated in that first Resurrection the Redemption of our Bodies now sowen in Corruption but then raised in Incorruption sowen in dishonour but raised in Glory sowen in weakness but raised in Power sowen a natural Body but raised a spiritual Body and glorious like unto thee O Lord. For ever blessed Redeemer shall I according to Scripture-Chronology probably about twelve hundred and thirteen years hence with holy Daniel stand in the Lot at the end of the Days and in my glorified Body with the many myriades of Angels and glorious Saints upon the renewed Earth behold and enjoy thee personally a thousand years shall my Tongue then declare thy Acts and the wonders of thy love mercy and truth and praise thee with them for this thy great salvation as being in a sure possession of Glory O let my Heart and Tongue now praise thee in faith and assurance thereof Since Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Yea let me with thy Prophet and Apostle Tryumph over that last Enemy Death and singing say O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Death is swallowed up in Victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through thee our Lord Jesus Christ. O thou whose Name is called the Word of God who art the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the only Potentate to whom all Judgment is committed by the Father and who art ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and of the dead we must therefore all appear before thy Judgment Seat when thy righteousness shall shine forth as the Light and thy Judgment as the Noon-Day in giving to every one according to their works And to all thine Elect called thy Sheep at thy right hand who are freely justified by thy righteousness according to the goodness of their thoughts words and deeds which and not any of their sins as being fully satisfied for and blotted out by thy Death and Merits shall then be remembred as being the fruits of thy own Grace That so thy Saints may be gradually rewarded according to their works not for their works both in the new Earth and highest Heavens with Eternal Life and Glory And inherit the Kingdome prepared for them before the Foundation of
a Glass darkly and imperfectly taken a view of the Land of Promise the Inheritance of the Saints in light and presented to the Lord and to his Spouse the Church what discoveries he hath in great mercy given me as concerning Eternal Life that last and great Article of the Christian faith begun visibly in the Saints glorified condition in the new Heaven and new Earth and continued unto Eternity in the Heaven of Heavens Wherein concluding with the glorification and blessed use and exercise of our Tongues in that happy state I thought it proper both as to the general subject I have been upon as being the Vision exercise and Tryumph of Faith and as to the subject matter both lauditory to God and declarative to one another about which our Tongues shall in our renewed life be imployed to declare in this life with all humility and thankfulness of Heart and Tongue to both which my Pen is but the Secretary in the Ejaculatory part of that Meditation what by faith I behold and am assured from the Word of Truth shall come to pass here and be injoyed by me and all Gods Elect in the life to come and shall be there a blessed Subject of our praises to all Eternity In which Song of 12. parts or Jacobs Laddar of 12. Staves whose foot stands upon Earth and top reaches to Heaven we may by faith ascend beginning here upon Earth in this present Year of our Lord 1666. by twelve successive Steps wonderfull and most signal periods noted afore in the Margint to the last and highest ascent the Glorification of the Saints in the Heavens Being now come to Hercules Pillars the Ne-plus ultra of Faith beyond which all sacred Scripture the light of Faith is silent I can proceed nor walk any further in these Contemplations lest walking without a Light I fall into the Darkness of Error It being alike sinfull curiosity and presumption to inquire what God will do after this silence When time shall be no longer as to ask what he did before time was and before this World was Created Wherefore I shall here conclude these my imperfect Meditations and with all humility and reverence return all Honour Glory and Praise to thee O glorious Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost one God blessed for ever for thy most gracious assistance by the light of thy Word and Spirit in this great Work a subject too weighty for Angels how much more for me a simple sinfull and weak Worm Lord I acknowledge that whatsoever is good right and true in this Treatise is of and from thee who art Goodness Light and Truth and to thee alone belongs the praise and that whatsoever therein is Hay or Stuble is mine who humbly takes shame therefore and Petitions for thy free pardon in my Lord Christ Jesus beseeching thee that in the assurance of thy love and mercy in him and in the faith light and assurance of thy glorious Truths herein declared out of thy Word I may with Holy Job all the Days of my appointed time wait until my Change come And with zealous Paul desire to depart and to be with Christ that so my faith and hope may be swallowed up in the possession of thee and Vision may be changed into fruition Thy Spirit and thy Bride say come And let him that heareth say come Thou O Lord that testifieth these things sayest Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come Lord Jesus The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all Amen Soli Deo Gloria An Advertisement by the Author to the Reader FOr the more cleer and fuller proof of the Twelve great things mentioned in the Conclusion of this Work I refer the Reader to my Treatise almost ready to be published Entitled An humble Exposition of most of the Scripture-Prophesies concerning Twelve great Periods to be fulfilled to the Church beginning to be manifested in the Year 1666. and concluding with the end of our Lords Mediatory Kingdome and the Translation of the Saints to the highest Heavens FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL TABLE Of the Things contained in the TREATISE Intitulated MEDITATIONS ON FAITH A. THe Affections lose their appetite if ye do but change the object viz. Spiritual for Temporal Page 4 Christs Agony as described should much act upon our spirits Page 27 The use and abuse of the Affections Page 45 46 All Arts and Sciences are in the Scripture as Metaphysick Phylosophie Astronomy Chronologie Rhetorick c. Page 71 Christs answer to the soul complaining of her Affections Page 81 The Antiquity of the Scriptures Page 102 Of the Affections glorified Page 151 Of holy Anger glorified Page 160 A Soliloquium upon it Page 161 An Ejaculation upon it Page 161 A caution against blotting Assurance Page 185 B. The Body of man like the pool of Bethesda with its five Porches Page 22 The curse and judgement of the Body Page 52 The Souls complaint against the Body with Christs answer Page 88 89. c. Of the Body glorified Page 164 Of the spirituality and swiftness of our Bodies at the Resurrection Page 169 A soliloquium and ejaculation on those two qualities of the Body Page 170 The glorious shining of the Body at the Resurrection Page 171 A soliloquium on that shining of the Body Page 173 Item an ejaculation upon it Page 174 Of the Immortality of the Body glorified Page 175 C. The Certain condition of man is to be uncertain Page 8 A man may be a Conduit-pipe to others and be a Vessel of dishonour himself Page 15 17 Of Christs Death and Burial Page 33 34 His victory over Hell Page 35 His Resurrection Page 36 His Ascension Page 38 Man in respect of Conscience is as one possessed Page 42 A Contemplation on love Page 47 A Contemplation on the insatisfaction in Riches Honours Pleasures Wisdom Page 49 A Contemplation on fear Page 51 A Contemplation on the sinfulness of the Eyes Ears Nostrils Taste and Touch Page 56 Of Christs Priestly Office Page 57 The occasion of Christs Priest-hood Page 58 A Contemplation upon Christs Priest-hood Page 60 Of Christs satisfaction Page 61 Christs answer to the poor soul complaining of his Conscience Page 75 The souls general Complaint answered by Christ Page 85 86 The souls Complaint against her Senses Tongue and Members of her body and Christs answer to it Page 88 89 A meditation on the excellency of Christs person Page 99 Against Coveteousness Page 123 An Ejaculation upon the glorious Change of the body at the Resurrection Page 185 D. Demas described Page 14 A Dialogue between Christ and the poor complaining soul in many particulars which Christ answers and satisfies Page 74 Our victory by Christ over Death Page 130 Our victory over the fear of Death Page 132 Our victory over the pain and separation by Death Page 133 All things fall short of the Duration of glorified Bodies and Souls and the high
my words Faith without works is dead therefore follow peace with all Men and holiness without which no Man shall see God And be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves Ye know the Commandments I am the Lord thy God thou shalt have no other Gods before me 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the Earth beneath or that is in the Water under the Earth thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them c. 3. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain c. 4. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy six Days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh Day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God 5. Honour thy Father and thy Mother c. 6. Thou shalt not kill 7. Thou shalt not commit Adultery 8. Thou shalt not steal 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour 10. Thou shall not covet thy Neighbours House c. This is the great Commandment That you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength and your Neighbour as your self Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Verily verily I say unto you except you be born again of Water and the Spirit you cannot enter into the Kingdome of God For that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me I am the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven not as the Fathers did eat and are dead He that eateth this Bread shall live for ever What though I am ascended where I was before It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and they are life I the Lord Jesus took Bread and blessed it and gave it to my Disciples and said Take eat this is my body And I took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it For this is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins This do in remembrance of me For as often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup you shew my Death till I come Lay up my word in your heart and in your soul And you shall teach them your Children speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way when you lye down and when you rise up And you shall write them upon the Door-posts of your houses and upon your Gates That your days may be prolonged and the days of your Children in the Land as the dayes of Heaven upon Earth Blessed are ye that read and hear my words my Sheep hear my voice Yea blessed are they that hear my word and keep it Let every one of you be swift to hear slow to wrath If any of you hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me Wherefore he that hath Eares to hear let him hear My Mother and Brethren are ye that hear the Word of God and do it Be ye that good ground who with honest and good hearts having heard my word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience Let not the Book of my Law my Word depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate therein day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein for then shall you make your way prosperous then shall you have good success Meditate also of all my works Pray without ceasing And when you pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Also after this manner pray ye Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall finde Knock and it shall be opened unto you Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my Name according to his will he will give it unto you Therefore be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and Supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God But ask in faith nothing wavering And when you pray enter into your Closet and when you have shut your Door pray to the Father which is in secret and your Father who seeth in secret shall reward you openly Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Moreover if your Brother shall trespass against any of you go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established And if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever my Church shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven I gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of my Body Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of your double honour especially they that labour in word and doctrine Also they that have used the Office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in me Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Be afflicted and mourn and weep humble your selves in my sight and I will lift you up Can Man
that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep For your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted and your Garments are Moth-eaten your Gold and Silver is cankered and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were Fire ye have lived in pleasure on the Earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a Day of slaughter Behold the Judge standeth before the Door and my coming draweth nigh when all such shall receive the reward of unrighteousness As they that count it pleasuâ—e to riot in the Day time and living in pleasure are dead whilst they are alive Spots they are and blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you feeding themselves without fear Clouds they are without Water Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by thee roots Raging Waves of the Sea foaming our their own shame wandring Stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Beloved remember the words which were spoken before of my Apostle who told you there should be mockers in these last times who should walk after their own ungodly lusts These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God These are those scoffers in these last days walking after their own lust and saying Where is the promise of his coming For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die For as in the Days that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage and knew not until the Flood came and took them all away so shall also my coming be Watch therefore and pray lest ye fall into temptation For you know not what hour your Lord doth come Therefore be you ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh But if with that evil Servant you shall say in your hearts my Lord deferreth his coming and shall smite your fellow-Servants and eat and drink with the drunken I will come in an hour which you are not aware of and cut you asunder and appoint you your portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Solomon the Preacher the Son of David King of Israel was great and increased more than all that were before him in Jerusalem who kept not from his Eyes whatsoever they desired and with-held not his Heart from any joy For his Heart rejoyced in all his Labours whose wisdome also remained with him when he looked on all the works that his Hands had wrought and the Labour he had laboured to do as is before at large enumerated by him makes this acknowledgment Behold All is Vanity and Vanity of Vanities and Vexation of Spirit and there was no profit under the Sun Therefore love not the World nor the things of the World For all that is in the World the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eyes and the Pride of Life is not of the Father but iâ— of the World And the World passeth away and the Lusts therefore but he that doth the will of God abideth for ever Be ye not weary of well-doing for in due season you shall reap if ye faint not He that soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reaâ— Corruption But he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Are there any so foolish as to begin in the Spirit and to think to be made perfect in the Flesh If any Man have run well let none hinder you that you should nor obey the truth Remember Lot's Wife No Man having put his Hand to the Plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdome of God If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But ye are not of them that draw back unto Perdition but of them that believe unto the saving of the Soul The back-slider shall be filled with his own ways but a good Man shall be satisfied from himself Let back-sliding Children return and I will heal their back-slidings and will love them freely When the unclean Spirit is gone out of a Man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none Then he faith I will return unto my House from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there And the last state of that Man is worse than the first For if after Men have escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of Me the Lord and Saviour they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandements delivered unto them But it is happened unto them according to the true Proverb The Dog is turned to his own Vomit again And the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire I am the Vine ye are the Brances he that abideth in Me and I in him bringeth forth much fruit for without me ye can do nothing If a Man abide not in me he is cast out as a Branch and is withered and Men gather them and they are cast into the Fire and they are burned As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue you in my love If ye continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples indeed And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continueth therein he being not a forgetful Hearer but a doer of the work this Man shall be blessed in his deed I am the Lord the hope of Israel all that forsake Me shall be ashamed and they that depart from Me shall be written in the Earth because they have forsaken me the Lord the Fountain of living Waters But he that endureth unto the end shall be saved If any Man see his Brother sin a sin which is not unto Death he shall ask and I will give him life for them that sin not unto Death There is a sin unto Death I do not say that he shall pray for it For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the
me you shall also Raign with Me. Lift up therefore the Hands that hang down and feeble Knees and make streight Paths for your Feet Ye have not resisted unto blood striving against Sin Wherefore consider me the Captain of your Salvation that was made perfect by sufferings and that endured such contradiction of sinners against my self lest you be weary and faint in your minds For the Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. Stand fast therefore in that liberty in which I have made you free only use not your liberty for an occasion to the Flesh nor to the offence of your weak Brother but by love serve one another All things are lawful to you but all things are not convenient Continue not in sin that Grace may abound Nor do evil that good may come whose damnation is just neither turn my Grace into Lasciviousness Watch unto Prayer Deny your selves and take up your Cross and follow Me. He that endureth unto the end shall be saved Give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure Add to your Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly kindness and to Brotherly kindness Charity For if you do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into my everlasting Kingdom Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the World And my Spirit speaketh expresly that in these latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils Speaking lies in hypocrisie having their Consciences seared with an hot Iron Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from Meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth For every Creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving Let no Man therefore deceive you by any means neither by Spirit nor by Word nor by Letter For that wicked one is now revealed whom I the Lord have bgan to consume with the Spirit of my Mouth and will destroy with the brightness of my coming Even him whose coming hath been after the working of Sathan with all Power and Signs and lying Wonders And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved And for this cause God hath sent them strong Delusions that they should believe a lie That they all might be Damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness This is that Spirit of Anti-Christ whereof you have heard that it should come and even now already it is in the World That Son of Perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped So that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God the Christian Church shewing himself that he is God The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise Authority upon them are called Benefactors But ye shall not be so But he that is greatest among you let him be as the Younger and he that is Chief as he that doth serve Be not ye therefore called â—abbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren And call no man your Father upon Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Nor be ye called Masters nor be ye as Lords over Gods Heritage For one is your Master even Christ But he that is greatest amongst you shall be your Servant And he that Exalteth himself shall be Abased and he that shall humble himself shall be Exalted None is Good save one that is God There is not a Just man upon Earth that doth Good and sinneth not Therefore if ye say that ye have not sinned you make God a Lyar and his Word is not in you Be not therefore many Masters knowing ye shall receive the greater Condemnation For in many things ye offend all The Contention was sharp betwixt Paul and Barnabas that they parted asunder And John fell down to Worship before the Feet of the Angel Ye know in part and Porphesie in part Even Fâ—â—er who was first and whom I called Cephâ—â— by Interpretation a Stone and who seemed to be a Pillar walked not Uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel And before the Cock mowed twice denied Me thrice How much more Fallible is his pretended Successor Why also doth this Man of sin both speak and act Blasphemies Who can forgive sins but God only It is I the Lord the Lord God forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin that have Power on Earth to forgive sins And in Me ye have Redemption through my Blood even Forgiveness of sins Again ye have heard that it hath been said to them of Old time Thou shalt not Forswear thy self thou shalt performe unto the Lord thine Oathes And that if a man Vow a Vow unto the Lord or Swear an Oath to bind his Soul with a Bond He shall not break his Word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth But in these last dayes the Beast that ascendeth out of the Bottomeless Pit is a Truce-breaker and with perfidious Zedikiah a Dispiser of Oaths and a Breaker of Covenants Whosoever therefore shall break one of the least of these my Commandments and shall teach men so He shall be called the least in the Kingdome of Heaven Every Word of God is pure and the Law of the Lord is perfect that the Man of God may be perfect throughly Furnished unto all good Works Add thou not unto his Words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a Lyar. For neither Peter nor Paul much less the Pope nor the False Prophet the Roman Church that other Beast coming out of the Earth that hath Two Hornes like a Lambe but speaks like the Dragon the Devil hath any Dominion over your Faith But are Helpers of your Joy For by Faith you stand For though they or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel than that which my Apostles have preached unto you let him be accursed Whatsoever things I command observe to do them you shall not add nor diminish from them For if any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book And if any man shall take away from the Words of the Book of this Prophesie God shall
take away his part out of the Book of Life In Vain therefore do they worship Me who teach for Doctrines the Commandments of men drawing neer unto Me with their mouths and Honouring Me with their Lips but their Hearts is Farr from Me Ful-well they reject the Commandments of God that they may keep their own Traditions Let no man therefore Judge you in meat or drink or in respect of an Holy-day for you are dead with Me from the Rudiments of the World Neither be you subject to Ordinances such as these Touch not Taste not Handle not which things indeed have a shew of Wisdome in Will-worship and Humility and neglecting of the body not in any Honour to the satisfying of the Flesh For the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And ye are built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles I my self being the Cheif corner Stone No man can come unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day All that the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out My Father which gave them Me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand VVoe then to the Idol Shepheards that leaveth the Flock and hath the Instruments of a Foolish Shepheard in whom now is fulfilled what I foretold by my Prophet For I will raise up a Shepheard in the Land which shall not visit those that be cut off neither shall seek the young One nor heal that which is broken nor Feed that that standeth still but he shall eat the flesh of the Fat and tear their Claws in pieces The Sword shall be upon his Arme and upon his right Eye his Arme shall be dried up and his right Eye shall be utterly darkened VVherefore rejoyce because your Names are written in Heaven And fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the Soul But rather fear Mee who am able to destroy both Soul and Body in Hell The Foundation of God standeth sure having this Seal the Lord knoweth who are his It is I only that giveth to him that overcometh to eate of the hidden Manna and a white Stone and in the Stone a new Name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it But this Diotrepsiâ— who loveth to have the Preheminence amongst them receiveth Me not neither doeth he receive the Brethren and forbideth them that would and casteth them by his own power out of the Church But he shall proceed no further for his folly shall be manifest to all Men. A Bishop then must be blameless not given to Wine no striker not greedy of filthy lucre but patient not a Brawler not covetous Even when Peter drew his Sword in a far better quarrel then his pretended Successor fights for I said unto him put up again thy Sword into his place for all they that thus without Commission from Me take the Sword shall perish with the Sword He that leadeth into Captivity must go into Captivity and he that thus killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword For I am righteous who have judged thus That they that have shed the blood of the Saints and Prophets shall have given them blood to drink for they are worthy This is that evil Servant which hath said in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming and doth begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken I the Lord of this Servant will come in a Day when he looketh not for me and in an Hour that he is not aware of and will cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with Hypocrites there shall be wailing and gnashing of Teeth I am he that died unto sin once And by my own blood entred in once into the holy place having obtained Eternal Redemption for you who need not Daily as those High Priests to offer up Sacrifice for my own sins and then for the Peoples For this I did once when I offered up my self Woe to the bloody City that is filthy and polluted Mistery Babylon the great the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the Earth That saith to the wood of my Cross awake to the dumb Stone and wafer Cake it shall teach Behold it is laid over with Gold and Silver and there is no breath at all in the midst of it For although I took Bread saying This is my Body and the Cup and said This is my Blood Do this in remembrance of me And my Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed I explained my self and added Doth this offend you What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascended up where he was before It is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you are spirit and they are life Every Priest therefore of that Apostate Church which daily minister and offer up often-times the same Sacrifices which can never take away sins But after I had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever I sat down at the right hand of God I am the Propitiation for your sins I by my self have purged your sins and by one Offering have perfected for ever those that are sanctified Yea this is the Covenant that I have made with you your sins and iniquities will I remember no more Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin Much-less is there need of a Purgatory-Fire to purge the Souls of any redeemed ones Enoch was translated that he should not see Death Elijah went up by a Whirl-wind into Heaven Lazarus the Beggar died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosome The Thief dying was that Day with Me in Paradice And blessed are they that dye in the Lord that they may rest from their Labours and their works follow them But the wicked shall be turned into Hell Where is then to be found in God's Word this third place for the tormenting and purifying of the Saints I am he that heareth Prayer unto me shall all flesh come unto me shall the Vow be performed Wait you therefore only upon God for your Expectation is from him You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve Then not Saints and Angels as doth the Romane Whore The Woman arrayed in Purple and Scarlet colour and decked with Gold and precious Stones and Pearl having a Golden Cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her Fornication Further consider
unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a forme of Godliness but denying the Power thereof from such turn away For of this sort are they which creep into Houses and lead Captive silly Women laden with sins led away with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth Now as Jannes and Jambres with-stood Moses so do these also resist the truth Men of corrupt mindes reprobate as concerning the faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest to all Men as theirs was The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable works there is none that doth good Therefore the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men who hold the truth in unrighteousness Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them For God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are cleerly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and God-head so that they are without excuse O righteous Father the World hath not known Thee but I have known Thee No Man cometh to the Father but by Me. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father For I and the Father am one Believe also my works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in him For in the beginning was I the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God All things were made by Me and without Me was not any thing made that was made In me was life and the life was the light of Men. I the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst you and ye beheld my glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth I am the image of the invisible God By me were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers All things were created by Me and for Me I am before all things and by me all things consist There are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one I spake unto my Apostles and true Ministers saying Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost What high blasphemers then are they that deny the Holy Ghost to be God The Spirit of God moved upon the Waters And by the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the Spirit of his Mouth The Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testifie of Me. For he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak He shall glorifie Me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Peter said unto Ananias In that thou hast lied to the Holy Ghost thou hast not lied unto Men but unto God Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto Men But the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto Men. The Grace of me the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost the Comforter Preserver and Sanctifier be with you all This is the will of God even your Sanctification that you should abstain from Fornication and that every one of you should know how to possess his Vessel in Sanctification and Honour Not in the lust of Concupiscence as the Gentiles that know not God Wherefore to avoid Fornication let every Man have his own Wife and every Woman her own Husband Have you not read that he that made Man in the beginning made them Male and Female I the Lord will bear witness against them that deal treacherously with the Wife of their Youth Is she not thy Companion and the Wife of thy Covenant And did not I make one yet had I the residue of the Spirit And wherefore one that I might seek a godly Seed Therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the Wife of his Youth For I the Lord God of Israel hate putting away Therefore I say unto you whosoever shall put away his Wife except it be for Fornication and shall marry another committeth Adultery and whosoever marrieth her that is put away committeth Adultery The Husband is the Head of the Wife not of Wives as I am the Head of the Church Let every one therefore in particular so love his Wife even as himself And the Wife not the Wives see that she reverence her Husband Despise not Prophesyings quench not the Spirit He that heareth you that are my true Ministers heareth Me and he that despiseth you despiseth Me and he that despiseth Me despiseth him that sent Me. He that is of God heareth God's words My Sheep hear my voice He that knoweth God heareth my Ministers but he that is not of God heareth them not And as oft as you eat the Bread and Drink of the Cup in my Sacraments ye do it in remembrance of Me and shew my Death until I come Pray without ceasing The workers of iniquity call not upon the Lord. Think not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill For verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least Commandements and shall teach Men so he shall be called the least in the Kingdome of Heaven But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the Kingdome of Heaven Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and unto God the things that are Gods Let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers For there is no Power but of God The Powers that be are ordained of God Whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God And they that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation For Rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil Wilt thou then not be afraid of the Power Do that which is good and
continue you in the things that ye have learned and have been assured of knowing of whom ye have learned them For evil Men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived Consider one another to provoke to love and to good works not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is But exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the Day approaching Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace For there is one Body and one Spirit even as you are called in one hope of your Calling One Lord one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Since then you are the Body of Christ and Members in particular let there be no Schisme in the Body Now I hear that there be divisions amongst those that call themselves Christians For there must be Heresies also among you that those that are approved may be manifest among you which were spoken before of my Apostles that there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts These be they who separate themselves sensual having not the spirit Now by my Name I desire you that you all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions amongst you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment If you say then I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ Are ye not carnal Is Christ divided Who then is Paul And who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed Even as the Lord gave to every Man If then such an one as was Paul plants or as Apollo was watereth It is God that giveth the increase Therefore let no Man glory in Men But do you mark them which cause Divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not Me but their own Belly and by good words and fair Speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Finally whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any Virtue and if there be any praise think on these things And those things which ye have both known and received and heard and seen in me do And the Father himself that loveth you the God of Peace shall be with you Holy Father who hearest me always This is Life Eternal to know Thee the only true God and Me whom thou hast sent Keep through thy own Name those that thou hast given Me that they may be one as we are one That they all may be one as thou Father art in Me and I in Thee that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And that the World may know that thou hast sent Me and hast loved them as thou hast loved Me. Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which Thou hast given me I have given to them the words which Thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from Thee and they have believed that Thou didst send me I pray for them I pray not for the World but for those that thou hast given me For they are Thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them I pray that thou wouldest keep them from the evil of the World and that my joy may be fulfilled in them Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth Finally Beloved Wife of my Youth and dear Children Farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of peace and love shall be with you For this cause I bow my Knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named That he would give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man That Christ may live in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with the fulness of God The God of Peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is most pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. Now to him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us to him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Amen A Post-script of the Father to his Wife and Children concerning the foregoing Epistle with some further Exhortations to the practice thereof MY dearest heart and intirely affected Children the good and salvation of whose Souls I pray for and labour for as for my own I have I trust by the direction of the holy Spirit chosen in this manner to write unto you as hoping that what is delivered to you in the Person and words of our Lord and beloved Saviour For such is every word in the Epistle except some words not substantial necessary for connexion explanation and application requisit in a subject of such various matter You will with the more reverence and affection delight and obedience attend to and receive For although all the words therein were not uttered by his own mouth upon Earth yet were they all indited by his holy Spirit who spake by the Prophets and Apostles and is the Lord God of the holy Prophets So that if ye will not hear and obey him herein speaking to you by himself and by them Neither will you be perswaded though one arose and spake to you from Hell and from the dead Ye know after what manner I have been with you at all seasons And how I have kept nothing back that was profitable unto you but have shewed you and have taught you both in private and more publiquely Testifying unto you and
exhorting you to repentance towards God and faith to our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold I am as one bound a Prisoner and a banished man separated from you not knowing what things shall further befall me But none of these things move or grieve me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy For I am perswaded and assured that neither Tribulation or Distress Persecution or Famine nakedness or peril or Sword Death or Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord or cause to cease my love to him As therefore loving him because he hath loved me first Yea I am further assured that when I have finished my course a Crown of righteousness is laid up for me which my Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that Day and not to me only but unto all those that love his appearing And now my dearly beloved ones I know not God he only knows whether we shall see the Face of one another any more Wherefore that living or dead I may discharge my duty as a Husband and as a Father I take you to record this Day that I am pure from the blood of you all For I have not shunned to declare unto you the counsel of God Take heed therefore to your Souls which God hath purchased with his own blood for I know that after my departure grievous Wolves and Enemies such as the mighty Powers of Darkness the numerous tempting and malicious men of the World and that out of your own selves which therefore are the most dangerous of adversaries will arise strong innumerable and impetuous Lusts all endeavouring to draw you from the Faith and to destroy your most precious Souls Therefore watch and remember that by the space of these many years I have not ceased to warn every one of you Night and Day with tears Therefore my dearly beloved and longed for my Joy and Crown stand fast in the Lord my dearly beloved And I intreat thee also true Yoke-fellow help counsel and encourage our Children in the way of godliness and righteousness which is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come Hide not thy talent nor neglect the gifts that are in thee until I come again unto you Give attendance to reading to exhortation meditate upon these things that I have written and give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all Be an example to our Children in Word in Conversation in Chastity in Spirit in Faith in Purity For in doing this thou shalt both save thy Self and Family now solely under thy charge and as to the care of whose Soulâ— thou must shortly be accountable at God's Tribunal O ye that are my precious Jewels my chief and only riches upon Earth my mouth is open to you my heart is enlarged ye are not straitned in me be ye not therefore straitned in your own bowels Now for a recompence in the same I speak unto you as unto my Children be ye also enlarged And now dear and beloved Christians for this is the highest and shall be my concluding Title and sweetest compellation as therein not knowing you after the Flesh I commend you unto God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build up and to give you an Inheritance among all them that are sanctified Ceasing not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my Prayers That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of him The Eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling And what the riches of the glory of his Inheritance in the Saints And what is the exceeding greatness of his Power to us-ward that believe Your most affectionate Husband and Father J. H. From Antwerpe the First of January 1665. A Directory Letter Mutatis Mutandis sent by the Author to every one of his Twelve Children prefixt to the Manuscript of the following Epistle now Printed for the use and benefit of other Christian Families Dear Daughter Mary I Commend unto your serious and often Reading and Meditation this following Epistle a Work which cost me much labour study and time in the Collection yet performed with much delight and chearfulness as moved to write it to all my Relations by the good Spirit of the Lord as the best means I could use to counsel stir up and advise them with Mary to choose the better part which shall never be taken from them Wherefore loving Daughter let me lay this Paternal Charge upon you as I shall do upon the rest of your Brothers and Sisters for whom I am preparing Transcripts out of the Original written by my own hand That you read it over at least once a Quarter as long as you live as being not mine but the Epistle of our most dear Lord and Saviour presented to you only by my hands his most unworthy Instrument The subject matter thereof being his most sacred Word who is the Lord God of all the holy Prophets the Pen-men hereof And the great Prophet of his Church whose Word whosoever will not hear and obey are threatned to be destroyed My design herein I hope through the grace and mighty power of the most holy Spirit of Christ will be prosperous and effectual as being not only a Letter of advice and counsel from an earthly Father whom I am confident you love and will obey in the Lord But the Epistle and most powerful Exhortations of your heavenly Father yea the love-letter of your Head and Spouse the Lord Jesus Christ who hath married you unto himself in holiness and everlasting righteousness Dear Daughter the holy Scriptures being the Foundation of all saving knowledge and true Religion I have by the direction and assistance of the Lord skim'd off for you the Cream thereof and given you a few proofs of many holding forth as from his own mouth First The excellency of his Person Secondly The Fundamental Articles of the Christian faith and belief in the words of the holy Scripture only Thirdly what things are to be practised by you held forth in God's holy Law Fourthly what evil things are to be eschewed either respecting Doctrine or manners wherein you have the Lord Jesus Christ's encouragement and exhortation to the attaining of all saving graces and virtues and his Dehortation from all errors in Doctrine especially those that are sowen and profest in these worst of times and from all sins and vices in practice Fifthly You have herein many of his Holy Counsels directing