me no man can see the Father but by the Son and he to whom the Son doth reveal him And then he told me further that the father reveals the sonne and the sonne the father and both the spirit and the river by giving of it to the sonnes of men and so indeed he lead me up and down in a mis-maze for I had never in all my life before heard so much talk of revealing and I know not what of the father sonne and spirit and the river for so he called the spirit saying it was a pure clear and living river still talking of I know not how many lights and I never knew but of one here which rules the day So thought I what doth this man mean by his lights but he turned I know not how about to a light of God and a light and life of Christ or in Christ I think he called it saying it was the surest and safest and the sweetest the happiest best and blessedest life of all lives that the soul lived when it lived in God the fountaine of light and life endlesse light and endlesse life For indeed God is the life of our lives the root of our lives the fountain of our lives we live in our own element said he when we live in God and when we live out of him we pilgrime like wander up and down the world begging preservation of every poore creature which is a sad condition for a noble soul yea we bury our selves as in a grave of darknesse which few loves being nothing but wandering and rottennesse earth turning into earth but in one word I wind up all the river is the Spirit the eternall spirit of God by which he doth all in the world yea all his mighty works he binds Kings and looses Captives breaketh nations and binds them up again and as Kings and Nations private men and persons are bound and loosed comforted and wounded and all by this Spirit Oh then doth it concern all high low rich and poore to embrace this spirit for if ye slight him he can smite you wound you kill you and damne soul and body O then come and kisse this enlightning Sonne as David speaks of Christ in his second Psalm lest that he be angry it s said of this Sun that rules the day that it shall one day break forth in such flames of heat brightnesse that it shall scorch and burn up Mountains the spirit will do the same yea every man and woman in one way or other some in love most in dreadfull wrath and vengeance for neglecting and abusing the love grace and mercy which he once freely tendred them which they little minded being like the old world buying felling marrying all the time of Noahs arkes building yea untill the very flood came but then how did they run and tumble O me thinks I see the whole world shifting some to the hills others to the mountains some climbing trees and cedars and getting up to steeples whilst others wade to Noah yea beg and hang upon his Ark crying Noah Noah Noah for pitie take us in but he is secure and minds not all their skreeks and cryes nor their dolefull mourning for their drowned souls this he little minds for he is safe and his Ark arises by the mighty waters in the which he rides more and more steady the higher that they rise carying him at last over hils and mountaines and all kindes of dangers And now he sings this unto himselfe God hath safely housed me God hath safely kept me in a shelter from the raines which the black and melancholy heavens have weeped day and night for the sinnes of men till they were drowned with teares well Noah is yet safe the hangers on the Ark washt off screeks and cries over all swimme up and down the deluge Well the mighty waters doe beginne to beat and the heavens smile by clearing up againe Noah sends out his Dove shee soone returnes he againe doth the like she brings in an Olive branch an Emblem of peace to all in the Ark. Well this Ark is Christ and none there is but he that can safely shelter from all kinde of danger and yet this Ark is open and ready to receive all that will come in at the Spirits invitation but what if they doe not the Spirit will break forth in dreadfull flames of fire drying up the Seas and burning of the Mountaines none no not one escaping but those in the Ark. Well friend minde this Christ is the Ark the Spirit is the River God the Fountaine too of light life and glory shall all be neglected then thou art undone O unhuppy soul ill betide the time and cursed be the day that ever thou wast born Revel chap. 22.4 And they shall see his face and his name shall be written upon their foreheads O Christians from these words give mee leave to speake a little my thoughts for to you is this promise and if God give in the sweetnesse of it to you it will be as a little hony yea as a lick of that Manna which Christ will give to his Saints to feed on Revelations 2.17 And first these words they are a Promise of God to his people who are the persons to whom this Promise is made Secondly The Promise it selfe which is They shall see my face that is the thing O christian promised heare Thirdly For the time that is a comming they shall not yet but they shall from whence denote the certainty of it And truly friends if you did but consider this promise and the certainty of its accomplishment it would be like Moses little stick which did sweeten the bitter water which the Isralites could not drinke before he had throwne in his stick So I thinke it would sweeten any condition a Saint meets with in this world though never so bitter be thou sick be thou weake be thou poore for these conditions are they subject too as well as any therefore hath God made a thousand of such kinde of promises to his Saints to support them here Sometimes he tels them They shall drinke of the River of his pleasure and be abundantly satisfyed with the fatnes of his house Psa 36.8 A second Promise to them is this They shall eat of the Manna that is hid A third They shall see my face I will speake no more of them pray remember these three in all your troubles by faith feed your soules on them they will not onely comfort your hearts but consolate your troubled soules O they will make you well in sicknesse they will also make you rich in poverty they will make you feast in hunger they will make you sing in prison live in death yea triumph over death yea all kindes of death Christians you know this I know yee know it in some measure but what is the reason you doe not make use of these and such like Scripture sweet promises in the times of troubles You will say you
and yet I dare say there are some sinners at whose doore Christ hath knocked twenty years by preachings teachings afflicting and admonishing by his word and his Spirit and by example too But what doe I speake of twenty yeares are there not some gray-headed sinners at whose doore Christ hath often knockt heretofore but now they are deaf and cannot heare and the things belonging to their peace are hid from their eyes as once from Ierusalems for whose misery Christ wept and so will ye over your own souls one day in flames of hell O me thinks I see poor souls sit looking on one another weeping bitterly for their folly in not minding Christs knocks when time was O saith the aprentise wringing of his hands with heart breaking sighs I was seven yeares in a godly family where my master prayed read and expounded every day by which Christ oft knockt at my heart and made me to resolve for to let him in but I was yong and thought it was too soon to hear him yet but I made account to do it when my time was out but Christ then did not knock or at least I minded him not for the world wife and children came upon mee that I did not once minde him And so another Bible-carrier doth much the like O saith he in these flames weeping I went twise every Sunday in the yeare to the Church with my wife and family heard-prayers took my booke turnd to text and proofes and had Christ knocking at my heart too but I know not how still I forgot all and Christ knocks too who at last left to knock at all but I went still to Church with my neighbours according to the custome with old father worldling who would alwayes talk of businesse going home and comming putting all good things quite out of my minde for which cursed be the time that ever I did see him for it may beels I might have minded something what I heard of there as well as many others whom wee counted puritanes because they would still be talking what good matter they had heard and how sweet it was talking of the uses but as we followed after wee laughing for to hear them goe conning over the sermon one to another all the way home not at all minding what he said to us but how he met with such a one and such a one and never minded once at all our selves like unhappy soules for which we must lie in the flames for ever to repent our folly and houle for our misery in not harkening unto Christ when the time was which never shall be more O saith wrinkled faced hypocrite in the flames at the bottome I deceived my self many an honest Christian too like a cursed wretch for I was a great professor seven years together in which time Christ gave me many a hard rap at the door of conscience for my hollow-heart sometimes telling me I was a masked sinner and had a rotten heart ayming at the world name fame credit all the while profession was in request going up and down with many honest Christians and would be talking with them in matters of religion for many by ends little minding Christs thundring knocks against such as I crying woe woe woe to the hypocrites Scribes and the Pharisees one that did love much to have preheminency though a great professor bearing sway and rule just like a Bishop over the Church of Christ lord and master-like saying he was chief and must be beleeved and obeyed in his forme minding this his owne selfe and interest more then the honour of his master or the good of poore Christians whom hee seldome went to visit without his doctors fee or the hope of a sermon if in case he died worth him five pound Woe woe to those that so neglect the Church of Christ and the poore Saints who sometimes lies in cottages and sellers where their worships will not come it is to mean a thing because they are masters and called Rabbi Rabbi which the true Disciple never aymed at But stay I had like to forget one sinner more where Christ hath long stood and usually doth yea longer then at any doore besides I mean the simple Christian or the ignorant Christian who knowes not right or left hand in religion more then his grandmother taught him bringing of him up according to the custome which their parents left them building their religion on the old race yet must still be called Christian for his baptisme sake which I speak not against but the mans ignorance which the Lord knowes I pitty for truely at these poore soules doore doth Christ knock many times but the soule is so simple it doth not know Christ when he knocks but gapes and stares on the Parson in the pulpit when it is Christ that knocks at the heart with life light and knowledge which is more worth then jewels crownes and kingdomes yea the gold of Ophir and the rich ships of Tharshish but poore simple sotted and deluded soule thou knowest not the want of this knowledge Christ and thy souls misery for want of knowledge And here mistake me not for I doe not mean unlearned men more then learned men for truely many of them which are great Grecians know not the A.B.C. in the new creature but by heare say poore simple souls how many such be there in the world doe you not know thousands that are cryed up for wise able men though not such great Schollers yet cried up for able men fit for Jewry Judge or Justiceship which I doe not speak against but honour yet I say I will take a young stripling in the school of Christ without an haire on his face shall winde him like a childe in the worke of conviction for sin Christ knocking at thy heart and the Spirits working in the new man and old and sound experienced things I say in these things he will wind your old sollid blades many Churchwardens who should be knowing men as well as Furre-gowned where Christ hath often knockt before ever that came on him but now he thinks it is enough to sit by his white rod in a majestick way with a black soule by cheating of the poor to feast his own ungodly gut with capon sack and claret till his belly be so swelld that Christ cannot come at his heart or seldom doth hereafter for for the most they turne drunkards not that I mean right blading cursed or down right drunkards but I mean in a dry way without any roaring by clubbing pot after pot and then an half pint and another to that with a point at the last to set the reckoning right and a gell of strong water to close up their stomake I am sure I know some that will sit with a coughing and spauling discourse from four to six from six to eleven with aserious discourse in a cavilere way of a turn that shall be but I do not know when and so they drink healths saying
you know who I mean in a mysticall way from one to another till all be halfe drunk and then they depart with an equall proportion toward the shot but I will bid these good night and come closse to the matter in a spirituall way for I think it as vain to speak to them now as it is to expect a swallow in winter Well the next thing is the place where Christ knocks which is the door O that is without you know who is without why who is within that the King of glory is without why who is within that Christ stands without sinne Satan the world pleasure profits and they alwayes keep Christ without till he breakes in and whips these buyers and sellers out of his Temple which Christ sometimes doth as well as once those out of Solomons Temple but for present Christ is without Christ the Lord of life and glory who stands with pardons peace and mercy for their soules if he might once be admitted but what if he be not then they are undone for they must die without them and be damned too for the abuse of his patience therefore minde it carelesse sinner before Christ goes and takes his leave for knocking any more which Christ will one day doe when he cannot have admittance for the worlds pleasures profits But sure it is impossible Christ should be without whilst they are within nay it is true enough doe you not heare him knock I heare some body but I doe not think it is Christ you doe not thinke it is Christ sometimes you doe not heare at all for businesse and sometimes you doe not heare for carelesnesse when shall Christ have admittance when when I am for my selfe saith the servant and can tend to open and when I have this or that estate saith the worldling and for every childe a portion so saith the vaine christian or much to this purpose when I have my swing of pleasure I will tend Christ and till then he must wait and thus the servant puts off Christ for freedome and the worldling for estate and the luxurious for his pleasure all abusing Christ and his patience too But if these delayes Christ should take for full and flat denyals what will then become of their immortall soules worth more then crowns and kingdomes or ten thousand worlds because they are immortall and breathed once from God But now must die in their sinnes as Christ told the Jewes and perish too for him and now they had been happy if they had never heard of him nor his knocks neither which seeing they have slighted shall damne them with a vengeance But how doe you know it is Christ that knocks Poore simple soule doe you not know it that seemes thou art not much acquainted with Christ nor his knocks when thou dost not know that when the Servant knowes his Master and the Childe his Parent every thing knowes more then thee the Sheep the Shepherds whistle the Bee his own Hive and the Asse his Masters Crib but my People knowes not me saith the Lord by his Prophet Isaiah But I will helpe thee what I can to learne Christs knocks expecting thou wilt open when he comes againe 't is Christ knocks mark me First I know it is Christ that knocks he knocks thunderingly or loudly 2. I know it is Christ that knocks by his still and soft knocks 3. I know it is Christ by his slow and leisurely knocks 4. I know it is Christ by his sweet and pleasant knocks 5. I know it is Christ by the place he knocks at the doore where he usally comes in and not at a window or a by way But why doth Christ knock so loud and thunderingly He thinkes you are asleepe or dead sure as every man and woman too is by nature and therefore saith Christ The dead shall he are my voyce and live as in John 5.25 This Christ doth not meane of the day of Judgement though that be true that by Christs voyce and power the dead shall one day heare and every man be started from his grave some for glory most for wrath and vengeance or execution like malefactors with chaines of guilt about their necks and consciences binding up their feares about them which heavier laies then milstones O how dreadfull will this resurrection be when millions of ungodly soules shall come to joyne with cursed bodies It is said Iephthah wept and tore his haire when he saw his daughter and the Virgins of Israel come to meet him but surely this meeting of damned soules and cursed bodies will bee much more bitter to thy body who laid in dust silent free from paine happy were it for thy body if it might still live with wormes and mouldring rottennesse and silent darknesse but it cannot be Christ must have thee out and judge thee too for thy ungodly deeds and acts as well as reward his Saints for all their works wrought by his Spirit in their soules But I shall forget my selfe The thing was that I was speaking too Sure Christ knew the sinner was asleep or dead that he did not open and truly a sinner may be well said to be dead till Christ comes to live in him because Christ is the Fountaine of life and therefore if Christ be not in the soule it must needs then be dead at least in a spirituall sence for want of Christ for as the soule is the life of the body so Christ is the life of the soule and therefore when thou keepst Christ out thou keepst thy soule from thy soule O death and sleepy sinner But why doth he knock so softly because he would not fright you Christ would come in a milde and gentle way and not in a furions way which he often doth to many soules who hath long kept him out by delayes and sinnes but Chrisst doth not alwayes doe so You know he discoursed and reasoned himselfe at the Well of Iacob unto the Woman of Samaria and invited himselfe to Zacheus house bringing salvation with him and so did not at all fright the little man though a great sinner the Ethiopian found Christ in his chariot by reading of Isaiah and many a soule doth the like by a good booke reading in a private way where Christ comes breathing life and peace to their soules as once to the Disciples when the doores was all shut and they met in a roome where Christ comes and breathes the holy Ghost on them But Thirdly Why doth Christ knock so slowly that you might consider who it is that knocks and opens to him the Turtle hath a sweet and penetrating voyce but the most slow of any creature you seldome heare her often at one time but she cals her mate once and then is silent for a while and then she sweetly cals againe in a mournfull way even to the peircing of a mans heart as it were with her sweet and serious yet dolourous call but with a pretty distance of time between every call
and something never should be though hee preached it never so oft and prest it on thee too with arguments from heaven and arguments from hell with all likewise under the sun which thou refusedst and mindedst it not but frownd and quarreld and raild and jeard with wicked men and saidst thou wouldst never heare him more but such a one should be thy Pastor he smoothd thee up and pleased thee well but now thou seest what is come on it But I feare I shall offend in running wide from the words though it be in a way of profit and therefore come to another question Fourthly why doth Christ knock so sweetly to tempt and allure you to open to him for his many sweet knocks and many a soule Christ winnes by this kind of knocking which opens as it were all the vaines and powers in the soule wide unto Christ and as freely entertaine him as ever did Zacheus Fifthly why doth Christ knock at the doore because he will come in there or no where deceivers climbs the walles but Christ will at the doore or no where if he comes he can come in if he please any where at the window or top of the house but you know Christ loves to come in at the doore of consent which is the common way of Christs comming to every soul But the doore what is that the heart the heart of man what would it bee but why doe ye call that a door first because it is the inlet to the house Secondly it is the outlet to the house so is the heart to the soule as Christ comes in at the heart so the world sin and Satan goes out at the heart Solomon saith my son give me thy heart well knowing if he hath this doore he may lay what he will with in But you said I may know it was Christ by his thundring knocks but what do you call Christs thundring knocks I mean his thundring judgements to the world the nations and kingdomes of the world round about in all which Christ is now a thundring rouzing them from their dens of pomp glory and greatnesse to exalt himself and Saints in the roome of sinners which must be done in every kingdome before that all be husht and Christ all in all and the kingdomes his according to Gods promise I will give thee the uttermost part of the earth for thy possession saith God by his prophet David Turke Pope and Antichristian Princes have kept the nations of the world and made poore Saints squelke and hide themselves in new plantations to keep their consciences free from their idolatrous worship But Christ is now a measuring out lands and livings for them yea cities towns and kingdomes by his prospering armies which measure by cutting every one some which makes the mighty grumble as if they were losing all and so they are in danger too if Christ be justled by them in his way of providence by his thundring knocks Secondly I meane by Christs thundring knocks those righteous judgements which thou seest befall private wicked men Christ braines on by his thunder bolts that twenty more might feare sometimes strikes the drunkard with a deadly surfet and sometimes the worldling with a deadly heat and cold and here and there a sinner that thousands more might be warned Thirdly I meane by Christs thundring knocks when Christ knocks like a Bell-man at midnight in thy dead sleep crying fire fire fire and is not this a thundring knock I truely it would make a man start out of his bed naked to save his house to save his goods truely thus Christ knocks at a sinners heart or door First by judgements to the world as I said before Secondly by judgements on ungodly men whom first or last Christ will meet withall when they have fild their measure which thousands doe apace some by ungodly deeds some by ungodly speeches which Christ will reckon with them for as it is said in Jude Thirdly by Christ crying out at mid-night fire fire which frights a poore man that his sin sin death hell hell and how doth this like a fire at midnight fright a man out of his sleep And truely many sinners doth Christ awake at mid-night that is an unexpected time Secondly at midnight in his deep sleep of drunkennesse uncleannesse or such like sinnes so you see what I meane by Christs thundring knocks I saith one I have experience of this he awaked mee from my Dalilah the sinne wherein I lay I too saith another that walked in his sinnes for twenty yeares together Christ falls upon a sinner by this kind of knocking like three or foure enraged enemies upon a man crying downe with him downe with him and so beats him down leaving him even dead and so goes away but the Spirit comes and visites him and raises him up againe by telling him his sinnes are not past the cure of faith and repentance which Christ both gives to the man whom he wounds thus with the sence of his sinnes Secondly what doe you meane by Christs soft knocks by Christs soft knocks I mean his mild and gentle way of comming to a sinner craving of his due from him and not like that cruell servant who finding out his debter caught him by the throat presently saying pay me straight and would have no compassion on him But Christ by his soft knocks comes to a poor indebted sinner sayes unto him Friend friend doest thou remember what thou owest mee yes yes saith the sinner little minding how much it is and so is straight a going nay but stay stay friend saith Christ let mee reckon with thee before thou goest which the sinner lesse loves then the broken Bankerout to look into or cast up his books and therefore prayes Christ to come to morrow he is now busie buying of a Farm or setting up his shop O but Christ tels him he will neither stay nor come againe but arrest him straight by death which startles so the sinner that hee now saith I will stay and heare all I owe thee and then Christ tels him Sinner first thou owest mee thy soule I bought it Secondly thy body I redeemed it by my blood Thirdly thy estate and gifts I gave it thee O Christ thou demands all why do not I deserve all and thou owe me all yea O Christ but I would fain keep my estate to serve my wife and children and my gifts and parts because they are of great esteem with men now a dayes Friend do not talk of wife children I must have thy estate thy gifts and parts too let men esteeme them how they will I must have them all O Christ this is hard pay but I will pay thee some and some as I am able do not tell me of that I must have them all now and it is not so hard as due or as thou thinkst for either for I learn this lesson to all my poor indebted schollers yea every one and I tell thee man for
Spirit inviting thirsty sinners crying come come to me ye weary sinners ye thirsty sinners and so forth and then he was speaking of that of Mat. 5. v. 3 4. Blessed are they that thirst for Christ and mourne for sinne which my soul then did and truely this proved a great deal of comfort to mee But I remember many a time besides this I have had much comfort by the word when ministers have clearly opened the Gospel-promises but sometimes yea many times I hear such sweet Gospel-texts and precious things held from them which hath filled me even as with marrow and fatnesse and I haue even thought with my selfe all these comforts held forth by them belong to mee But as soone as hee had held forth his comforts now saith he I will give you some markes and signes how a poore soule may know this belongs to him I remember I gave great attention to him but before he had done with his marks and signes I had lost my comfort againe by thinking none of it belongs to me for I had not so repented me of my sins as he shewed me True repentance there to be which he said was a turning from all sinne to Christ and a forsaking of all my sinne for Christ and a sorrow for all my sinnes by which I had dishonoured Christ This one mark he did so abundantly branch out that before hee had done with this one mark and signe of that sinner to whom this comfort belongs I had lost my comfort I am sure but he went to twenty more marks and signes I think and at last said if these marks and fignes be in you then these comforts belong unto you but if they be not then you deceive your selves but in the conclusion he said indeed if wee would repent and wash away our sinnes by that like David forsake all our sinnes and bring our whole hearts to Christ and denie the world the pleasures and profits of the world and abundance more which I cannot now stand to name but all this I am sure he bad me and others to do before we did presume to lay hold of any comfort so that whereas I was in hopes of being comforted I was not but rather cast down but at some other time Christ served me freely with comfort from his word for which I blesse his name and thus I have told you what comfort Christ hath given me ere now But yet I will tell you of one or two wayes more by which Christ uses to come and serve mee with comfort giving the water of life to mee One way in Christian meetings commonly called conventicles heretofore but I have in these meetings found much of Christ and comfort to my poore soule at our last meeting I think there was some twenty of us all met in a friends house purposely to discourse of Christ and wait on Christ expecting all comfort from Christ and whilst we were speaking and discoursing of Christ in that place I think verily we were every one refreshed onely by telling how Christ useth to serve us sometimes presently and sometimes not at all but seemed to be angry with us for asking some carnall things so at last wee found many things Christ would never grant to any of us but rather seemed to frown upon us for asking some things which we had all been a craving of him so at that time we considered what might be got by begging and parted but this I do remember a scoffing Ishmael called it a tub preaching And one time which I shall never forget I was walking all alone by Christs doore in a way of meditation of his bounty love and franknesse to such poore fellowes as I and while I was walking thinking nothing God knows Christ stept out and puld me in set me down and himself by me and supt with me we had whole flagons of wine then of which I drank very freely and I dare say I shall never forget this bout So the next day I told half a dozen Christians waiting at Christs door in a sermon how I had sped the day before they bade me thank God saying they had never such good fortune nor such discoveries of Christs love Friend friend I rejoyce to heare these sweet relations of your experience but let me tell you I am ashamed and so may you well be but however I am to think how you complaind nay murmured but now and said Christ had never served you of the water of life but you had waited so long and so long and I cannot tell how long you made me beleeve how Christ had served thousands and not you Friend I am ashamed to thinke how you have abused Christ by your false complaints of Christ surely it is a great sinne in you I pray doe so no more But now mee thinks I heare one say but I am a poore thirsty soule I doe not know when in prayer sermon christian conference either I was so refreshed and therefore what would you have me doe who am even scorcht with heat and thirst I thirst for Christ and would rather have him then the world a thousand times if I know my own heart What would you have me doe dost thou say Let me tell thee first how well I like this complaint of thine Surely by this complaint of thine and the high prising of this river it doth argue his streames strongly running in thy soule Yea let me tell thee my thoughts This I doe beleeve t is from the presence of Christ and the Spirit in the soule that any soule living is drawne forth to desire Christ or the Spirit you know the naturall man desires not the things of God but is dead to every good worke or desire and sure cannot indeed desire any thing in a spirituall way before God workes it in his soule Now friend if God or Christ hath wrought a strong desire after the well of life the river of life the spirit let me tell thee I verily beleeve he hath given it thee already for this desire in thy soule is to me a strong evidence of it I for my part doe firmly conclude when I heare any soule complaine for want of Christ and the Spirit saying of Christ and the Spirit his soule had rather have Christ and the Spirit then all the pleasures profits of the world I say I doe conclude this to be the work of God in the soule This is true a naturall man may have a heart quame and a heart wish to die the death of the righteous as wicked Balaam once said O that I might die the death of the righteous and that my last end may be like theirs I say A wicked man may desire to bee ownd of Christ nay more to give all the world for Christ at the last hower when they come to see a necessity and their souls damn'd for want of Christ O how will a carnall man dying mourn and beg and cry for Christ and howl for Christ too