13.4 Do you suffer long or rather how long are you suffered to admiration you rather herein teach the Magistrate a passive submission Truly the great indulgence I have observed in him towards you notwithstanding your very strange deportment towards him without any end or measure makes me often call to mind the like practise of those worthy Emperours Theodosius Willet on Exod. 22. Q. 51. Honorius and Arcadius whom Galesius upon Exod. 22.28 brings in thus saying of those that speak evil of them Si ex levitate contemnendum si ex insania miseratione dignum si ab injuria remittendum If it come from lightness of spirit it is to be contemned Compare Prov. 10.20 with Psal 64.8 Didicit ille maledicere ego contemnere saith he in Tacitus 2 Sam. 16.17.18 if from madness 't is worthy of pitty if from injury it is to be forgiven Tully confirms the same of one of these Caesars Nihil oblivisci solet nisi injurias That he forgot nothing but injuries Indeed Conscia mens recti famae mendacia ridet If all 's quiet within the noise without is little considerable Charity is kind 't is the same word that ye had in Ephes 4. Are you kind Is this your kindness to your friend to take part against him in your words and counsels Charity envieth not View your words and gestures against Authority do you not envy at their prosperity Charity vaunteth not it self the Greek word is here very significant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Nihil temere inconsiderate praecipitanter agit cum proximo We use to say a vaunting boasting man is the most rash and inconsiderate of any curiose scrutari res alienas saith Theoderet will undertake to judge and censure of any person or thing Non garrit non tumultuatur non agit perperam non est fucata non est procax c. saith Syrus Beza Clemens Erasmus c. loves to be prying into other mens concernments the most empty vessels sound loudest Vasa quo magis continent minus eo sonant Seneca so these puffed up things like a Drum are ever inciting to discord search your hearts herein Again Charity seeketh not her own Not her own preheminence honour or reputation but prefers anothers good before her own 1 Cor. 10.24 Examine your selves seriously whether you desire to do this or not nay do you not rather covet what is anothers say ingeniously do you not think your selves more fit to govern then he that now doth and is not all your endeavours to get him down that you may set up your selves at least one of your selves Charity is not easily provoked falls not into sharp fits of Choler as they Act. 15.39 so as to seem in a phrensie thereby thinketh no evil doth not suspitiously turn all into the worst sense rejoyceth not in iniquity is not glad to see another commit sin or hear he hath failed that he may disgrace him thereby but rejoyceth in or with the truth Therefore saith a grave man D. Sclater Nulla est inter malo◠charitas sed conjuratio potius It is not charity but conspiracy that is found in wicked men Beareth all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 metaphora a tignis saith Paraeus a Lapide and others And herein it may be said of our Governor Magistratus indicat virum Covereth faults with her large Mantle swalloweth down whole many Pills of discontent that would otherwise prove very bitter in the chewing Or thus Beareth all things that is supports a State notwithstanding all contrary and cross events by magnanimity of spirit as the Master beam of an house doth uphold the stress of the whole Fabrick believing all things hoping all things viz. the best enduring all things c. I am most unwilling the Lord Jesus knows to discover your nakedness the Lord help us to try our selves impartially by this straight and unerring Rule and yet truly I will declare my perswasion in this one word That such a spirit as shall be guilty of this uncharitableness shall never be honoured with a discovery of Truth and Righteousness above their Brethren let them pretend to what they will but when the Lord calls in the cool of the day Guilty Adam alluded to Gen. 3.8 9 10. shall rather hide themselves having not onely been guilty of betraying their liberty and Christian reputation to the world but lost their pure and innocent Robe of Love and lie naked to the scorn of all men Object 7 Holding up the Sword in the maintenance of the present wicked and oppressive Power is equally to be reproved and censured with the chief Actor therein Thus Jehosaphat was reproved and punished for helping Ahab 2 Chron. 19.2 and therefore such are not to be suffered in a Gospel Society because abettors and maintainers of the Evil Persecution and Oppressions and thereby sadning the hearts of the Saints whom the Lord would not have sadned and upon wilfull persisting to be withdrawn from c. Answ In regard this piece of Cannon is more directly levelled against my self then against the present Authority therefore to enter upon the defence were to make a palpable digression and to discourse in my own vindication instead of the Magistrate And forasmuch as I have good reason to esteem my self sufficiently secured from this shot if I be admitted to stand under the least tip of this Bulwark which the Lord hath made in defence of his Ordinance Anointed because indeed there is no part thereof that stands good for the defence of the one but consequently clears the other As if the Power be lawfull and the Impowered justified their defence is likewise justified I might desire my Opponents to take this whole discourse in answer or else crave their patience until we come to the Fourth Argument ensuing and so proceed to that which more relates to our present undertaking But yet lest this may seem to them an evasion 1. I answer That I must until I see further cause to the contrary as confidently deny the imputation upon the present Governour as so aspersed and therefore no such cause of offence justly given by submitting to him or serving under him as is pretended whereby the spirits of any sober minded Christians that walk in the fear and truth of the Lord should be grieved 2. But neither the instance propounded nor any the like will reach the case in hand For Jehosaphat was not under Ahabs subjection or jurisdiction and therefore his assisting of him was a meer voluntary act of his will without any such obligation engaging him as the Liberty of Gods people Civil Right in our Estates general Peace of the Nation c. did call us forth unto under this present Authority and still doth through the blessing of God upon whose Conduct we now enjoy the same and therefore far otherwise engaged to assist and serve the present Authority then Jehosaphat was to Ahab who was warned by
Micaiah the Prophet to the contrary 1 Kin. 22.19 Object 8 The truth is there are but few faithfull-ones to be found at this day such as will not bow the knee to Baal nor to that Golden Image which Nebuchadnezzar hath set up the stream of self-ends popular applause and worldly advancements carrying back most treacherously from the interest of the Lord Jesus multitudes of pretending Christians of this Age. Answ The truth rather is there are too many self-conceited peevish scandalous Professors at this day who make Religion but a meer stalking-horse for the carrying on of their own wills of whom it were much better there were fewer then that God should be so much dishonoured by them and the Gospel and Religion so much suffer Or at least if it were so the will of God that the un-Christian fury and disdain were abated or some Christian way prevented of such as while they are beating their fellow-servants with the false accusations and contumelies of self-ends worldly byasses and turning the back upon the interest of Christ for no other cause but that they dare not but yield obedience to the Magistrate and live quietly and peaceably under him for conscience sake because the Lord expresly commands it are more really guilty themselves of those imputations 2. You say there are few that bow not the knee to Baal viz. that are not corrupted by the Court as I suppose you mean Surely obedience to Authority doth not lessen the number but rather increase them demonstrates more Courtiers rather to the King of Kings whom we do chiefly eye in our obedience to his Substitutes on Earth and whose orderly walking herein putting a greater lustre upon Religion Tit. 2.6 7 8. will attract more eyes in love to embrace it Indeed if the word be considered in a strict sense A double diminutive in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Luke 12.32 Gods flock is but a little very little flock and doubtless as much of you to be laid to heart as of us all how few shall enter with the Lord into his Joys not onely of such as shall fall by connivance and flattery at Court in your sense but of such as have Lamps yea once burning shining Lamps for it is said Mat. 25.8 their Lamps were gone out which implies they were once in and are called Virgins viz. such as judged themselves undefiled of the world free enough from Court taints for they defie to come near it and that wait for Christs coming and do prophesie in his name eat and drink in his presence viz. partake of the Ordinance of the Lords Supper in the most Gospel societies and manner and pretend to be altogether devoted unto the service of Christ and for the exaltation of his Kingdome nevertheless at his coming Christ knew them not Read I pray once again seriously however you think you are so well acquainted with those sad words Amos 5.13 14 18 c. compared with Luke 13.24 25 26 27. Mat. 18 c. And the Lord help us all in this our day to know the things that belong unto our peace as Christ with tears said unto Jerusalem Luke 19.42 43. which he did foresee by their intolerable pride envy and divisions would be miserably ruined which after came to pass as ye may sadly read in Josephus De bello Judaico lib. 6 7. 3. There is but a few in your opinion that will not bow the knee to Baal nor to the golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar hath set up so thought Elijah 1 Kin. 19.10 I onely am left alone but he was deceived v. 18. it may be so are you we have not found you so infallible hitherto as to believe your bare say so There was a Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and it may be there was many more that would not bow the knee to the unjust Edicts of that Caldean Monarch but rather Christian-like bow their bodies to the fire for Daniel the man greatly beloved of the Lord is not mentioned who no doubt did not bow neither and why not many more faithfull ones with him also whom the Holy Ghost with other immaterial things doth not think fit to mention among the Truths more necessary as it is said of Christs doings Joh. 21.25 all which to insert would be too voluminous for the continent of the whole world There be hundreds in these Nations that are the precious ones of the Lord Heavens secretly imploring Saints though not allowed of in the Kalender of many Judgements and yet notwithstanding England really fares the better for See 1 Chro. 12.32 But admit there were no more then the few your selves it will yet be a task too hard for you to prove blessed be God that the present Governour is a Nebuchadnezzar as you allude to and therefore to yield you that he sets up any Golden Image to try the Consciences of his tender hearted Servants by or tempt them with the Gold thereof from the sincere following of Christ is so eminently contrary to his Gospel Principles and practice that it would be to bow rather to the Idol of your uncharitable imaginations The not ready belief of which is the very ground of your displeasure towards us and nothing else The most carried away by the stream of worldly advancements Riches c. 4. I will not go about to justifie the ends of all that have stood by this Power It may be as Alexander said of his two Courtiers professing so much love to him That the one loved the King and the other Alexander so there may be some that are more for his Highness then the righteous Cause he manageth they are better able knowing their own Consciences to vindicate themselves yet I can say for some of them that are rich and honourable that without doubt they do enjoy it with honest hearts having by Gods blessing upon their just aims and endeavours attained to what they now are and have And no question many more can with clear Consciences out-face their detractors in a full defence whose rise and actions have not lain within my notice But this I do verily believe that the Person in Authority never was a means to prefer any in these troubles that went about to manage their own personal advantages abstractively from the publick good as near as he could discern them But I may say herein Non persuadebis etiam si persuaseris I am sure I can speak for one that having faithfully adhered to the Authority from the beginning with utmost hazard of life and fortune hath been so far from possessing great things that he hath rather declined And although his Estate impaired by so many years losses and sufferings hath called aloud by all lawfull ways and means for the better provision of himself and family 1 Tim. 5.8 yet he hath refused to be more or greater then what he now meanly is as is eminently well known partly to take away any occasion of such aspersion from
demeanours in the presence of it as that we should rather hide our selves in self-abasement until we come forth in the wisdome purity and spirit of the Lord with meekness righteousness and patience shining in the very face of gain-sayers as Stephen Act. 7.55 and 6.15 with the reflection of Christs beholded splendor Otherwise whatever we may perswade our selves others will fear that when this glorious Kingdome shall come forth in truth and power we shall not be able to stand before it And truly this I do verily believe That had we all had hearts to have â—ightly tendered Isa 59.12.3 4 5 8.10 and Christian-like made use of as became a people of such mercies the Lords gracious beginnings towards us we had not stuck in the birth as we do at this day of far more glorious Receptions Jer. 5.25 I beseech you friends suffer me out of the abundant trouble of my heart to tell you that which the world are ready upon all occasions in a triumphing manner to throw into your faces Instead of a greater measure of Gods Spirit poured out upon you and a more full and clear Revelation of Divine purposes seasoning the heart with abundant holiness and integrity for such manner of persons the Scriptures say 2 Pet. 3.11 shall they be that truly wait and expect the coming of the Lord Jesus Alas what pride envy covetousness * gluttony censoriousness reigns among us Amos 5.18 comp with 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Naz. While we would have Charity we study hatred while we seek to set up the corner-stone which unites the sides together we are loosened our selves we are for Peace we say and yet we prepare for War Naz. Orat. 12. that highly condemn it in others What neglect of Duty to God and to our Neighbour yea to our Brother for whom Christ died insomuch that if they are but thorowly enough engaged if but bitter enough against the present Powers and can but declaim high enough against them no matter how scandalous in conversation those matters will be passed over well enough I speak not without too evident proof but I forbear the mention By this means instead of searching again the good old way of faith and repentance mortification of corruptions and the means thereto conferring experiences in communions of Saints fasting prayer c. whereby the deceipts of our own hearts and the redoubled and * Among the which I am perswaded this is none of the least To put the people of God a quarrelling about that which least concerns them thereby to prevent them from doing greater and more glorious works for God refined wiles of Satan in this his last season Rev. 12.12 might by the Lords blessing be discovered and suppressed Now what have we but views and reviews of State-miscarriages Anti-Magistratical Lectures designs and contrivances against the Civil Peace of the Nation inviting men to leave their Trades and Callings and take part with them c. that your Societies which use to be more Evangelical are turned into meer Cabals But blessed be God! the Churches of Christ do at this day with heart and hand abhor these practises while they can faithfully love your persons By which means ah how many disponded and bewildred souls are there who when they repair at any time to your Assemblies cannot meet with one word in a whole days exercise that may tend to binding up or suppling such wounded spirits nay do they not rather tend to the further distracting and confusing the weak heads and hearts of such And how many others have we of those Auditories that can give a better account of Court-failings and Councils then distinctly I fear of the Fundamentals of Religion or much less of the present state of their own hearts Thus God is in the mean time wonderfully dishonoured enquiring hearts after the ways of God obstructed and prejudiced wicked men in their ways of sin and malignity encouraged and hardened and all some way or other damnified Alas are we fit to bear rule with Christ that cannot rule our selves Jam. 3. Do we indeed look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord Tit. 2.13 when we are thus unruly in our speeches v. 8. and deport our selves so disorderly unrighteously and unholily Isa 33.15 Psal 15. v. 12. Let me tell you my Brethren It is those that walk uprightly that backbite not with their tongue nor take up a reproach against their neighbour Mat. 10. v. 16. That are Doves and Sheep meek harmless inoffensive without rancour Luk. 6.28 That bless them that persecute and do good to them that despightfully use them That do not behave themselves unseemly 1 Cor. 13. Rev. 14. v. 3 4. seek not their own That are Virgins not defiled with the World or the lusts thereof following the Lamb in truth and holiness Mat. 5.14 v. 16. Mat. 25. v. 4 10. It is these that do glitter with the lustre of the Spirit amidst the dark world with whom my soul covets to joyn her glimmering Lamp in the waiting for our Lords coming as being assured they shall enter with him into his Joy To conclude in a word Brethren the Scriptures were written for our Rule also Rom. 15.4 and there is no different Priviledges to the Saints of our Age more then before onely in this a breaking forth of more light for which God expects we should be more humble and more thankfully holy Argument 4 Say that were truth that is so passionately asserted That the person in Authority is as you would make folks believe he is an Usurper Oppressor c. Yet that hinders not but that the Godly called to places under him may lawfully serve him and their Generation without infringement of Conscience or blemish to Religion My Reasons are briefly these 1. First Because the people of God in places of power and trust the Lord strengthening them and giving them a heart to improve it rightly may shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation as a Beacon set upon a hill that others seeing their good works may glorifie God directing and provoking others to the same laudable practise 2. They may hereby have a more eminent occasion not onely to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men according to 1 Pet. 2.5 but also be as a bridle and awe upon their spirits to deter and restrain them from that excess of riot into which they would otherwise with more freedome run 3. It is a good means to keep good men more closely and heedfully in the ways of God so David Psal 39.1 and Nehemiah cap. 5..9 lest by them occasion be given for the ways of God to be evil spoken of 4. They thereby keep out worse that by wicked Magistrates would surely be preferred and possibly by mis-information and confident insinuations may supply their rooms even under the best and most carefull Prince 5. They are hereby more
behaviours which the cunning adversary sows among us to our great ignominy if not ruine have their preservation and nourishment here Tale-bearing and shedding of bloud are alike forbidden by the Lord the former as the cause of the latter Levit. 19.16 Thou shalt not go up and down as a Tale-bearer among thy people neither shalt thou stand against the bloud of thy neighbour I am the Lord. They do not onely cool the affection of him to whom the tale is told but murther the very life of him of whom it is told Aynswort Therefore saith the Lord Thou shalt not walk as a Tale-bearer or calumniator or not walk with tale-bearing Rokel and crimination The word signifies a Merchant or Traffiquer that carries his wares up and down to vend Rakil From whence it may be our English word Rake-hell comes 1 Kin 10.15 one that maketh merchandize of words going from place to place to hear to spread abroad criminations of other men His property is described to be a revealer of secrets Prov. 11.13 his end to shed bloud Ezek. 22.9 conspiring with the wicked to that purpose provoking others to it as Doeg did 1 Sam. 22.9 18. Psal 52. yet pretending friendship and pity Jer. 9.4 5. wherefore the 70. render it Thou shalt not walk with guile Eng. Ann. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 double tongued Prov. 11.13 and 20.19 as a false accuser or make-bate so in Dan. 6.24 So the Hebrew Rakil the Greek Diabolos and the English Calumniator are all one Aynswor in locum Daniel's accusers are rendred as having a bloudy intention under a plausible pretence Thou shalt not divulge accusations or criminations among thy people and it follows v. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother c. From whence I conclude That strife and contention will never cease nor true brotherly love be practised and much less a conscionable submission to Authority out of a principle of love until the Tale-bearer be removed and discountenanced Prov. 26.20 The pride of whisperings and private censures in which persons without control can take their swinge like a pair of bellows blow up the coals the Tale-bearer hath kindled till it break forth into a raging fire which will not be quenched by all the means the wisdome of a State can invent without the ruine of many if God in mercy preserve the whole for the simple will believe every word although the prudent unum millibus e multis will look well to their doing Prov. 14 15. It is a true saying Reports lose nothing but truth in the divulging 4. The last Evil that is usually brought forth by the aforesaid Liberty we take to our selves in contempt of Authority is Revenge The thoughts of which although they are nothing else but the consequence of the sence of evils which we have suffered as they take hold on our affections and therein centre in a passion which can have no rest but in requital unto those that have wronged us of evils equal unto those we have suffered or imagine to suffer yet in this respect they are something more then a bare result of the sense of former injuries or sufferings for they contain and ah how unperceived a secret resolution of acting either by word or deed or both as occasion is offered and that to the utmost extremity though with Sampson to the ruine of themselves in the downfall of others Judg. 15.6 7. 16.30 Brethren if our consciences accuse us herein God is greater then our consciences and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 3.20 And now to gather in all to our present purpose having taken this pains to shew you our calamities in general both from Gods Word and right Reason the sure Rules both as we are Christians and Men with short applications onely here and there interweaved that by the continuance of the discourse so universal we might not forget to whom it is spoken I come now more particularly to manage the present Plea as it is more especially intended And First that I may exactly discover these exorbitances in their causes as well as in their effects I shall and I hope without much offence rank the offenders into two sorts of men to whom all others may be reduced as partaking more or less of their ways and principles The one sort relying onely upon themselves are full of self-conceit enamoured with a high confidence of their infallibility The other look more to a consent of combination in the declaration of their joynt opinions The first think themselves strong because they pretend wholly to the direction of the Spirit in their way the second although they contradict not the truth of the Spirits direction promised to the children of God yet they put their strength rather in a humane then spiritual way of acting But the truth indeed is that neither the one nor the other in matters of debate hold forth to any or follow themselves any approved Rules by which they govern themselves to edification about these controversies either to the spiritual or rational part in question therein And although this may be said of both yet it cannot be denied but that the second sort of them for the most part are more capable of entertaining Rules when offered then the first because many of the former incircling all within the narrow Idea of their own imagined perfections transported with a like conceit of acquaintance with the aenigma's of Scripture yea and with the very punctum's of circumstance time persons and matter of every Prophecy therein and therefrom giving the free reins to a strange kind of liberty which they call spiritual take up the principles of such disorders both as to themselves and others equally as insensibly as irrationally insomuch as it becomes a thing almost impossible to fix them to any thing especially if it never so little run cross to their espoused resolutions whereas the latter are rather too enclined to fix upon insufficient Rules and humane reasonings but yet in both this is evident that whensoever either of them set themselves to promote any belief of their own or maintain any supposed truth it is ushered forth for the most part not so much with the warrant and countenance of Gods unerring Word the right understanding of which if any place by them be alledged they will not easily be drawn to as with unmeet passions tergiversations c. or else evasive incongruities rather to uphold and that professedly the outward interest of a party to vindicate it from aspersion or to gain some advantage to its proceedings by the disgrace of others then to make truly I may with charity enough suspect a discovery of naked truth in relation to the honour of Christ or his Kingdome that the necessity of the former and the evidence of the latter may become indifferently recommendable to the consciences of his people or that the conscience of those who have not so duly tendered the same as they ought may
this World may be set up and the Kingdome of Christ too Herod indeed upon this account persecuted Christ because he heard a King of the Jews was born but it was without cause Jesus Christ did not come to take the Kingdome of Herod away from him and therefore it was the great wickedness of the Kings of the Earth Psal 2. to conspire against Christ who did not envy them or their Kingdome but they may live and be the Kings of the Earth still and yet the Kingdome of Jesus Christ may prosper It doth not intrench upon any Civil Liberty of men Therefore I say again It is a very great mistake of such as imagine when the one rises the other needs must fall or that the one must swallow up the other or at least that the Saints having the one must needs therefore possess the other It doth not any way take away subjection to Civil Power on Earth but rather make its Subjects more conformable thereto And therefore this Opinion is of evil tendency and I fear much the cause from whence your present bustles take their rise and gives the Powers too much cause at this day which was carefully prevented by Christ and his Disciples Orig. tract 21. in Mat. also as the Scriptures clearly shew to be jealous of you upon this account imagining your principles to be concentrick with a Of the like see Joseph Antiq. l. 20. c. 2. l. 18. c. 1. l. 17. c. 12. Theudas and his gang Act. 5 36. among the Jews b Sleidans Com. lib. 10. Knipperdoling c. among the Germans and c Stows Chron. of Rich. 2. Wat Tylar John a Straw c. among us No Christ nor the Subjects of his Kingdome do not intermeddle with the least Right of the Civil Authority As when God converts a Wife to be under the Kingdome of Christ he doth not take her off from subjection to her Husband but rather teacheth her more her Duty and Loyalty so doubtless those persons as are brought to obey Christ as their Spiritual Lord and King are so much the more faithfull and obedient Subjects to the Civil Jurisdiction and Authority placed over them And let the Powers be assured of this however some may carnally mistake their obedience To enter upon the particular Kingdomes and Dominions shall be given to the Saints and they shall reign with Christ for ever Ye have it promised Dan. 7.18 22 27. and cap. 2.44 c. They are called the * Cap. 7.27 Saints of the most High that is of the most high things because God hath chosen them out of this world that they should look up to the Heavens where all their hopes are The meaning of the words The Father giveth unto Christ Dominion and Power as Mediatour v. 14. in regard of both his natures and distinct from the essential power of the Divine nature Which argues not the constant visibility and outward flourishing estate of the Church on Earth but the duration of Christs Dominion in his Church in this world even in the midst of his Enemies Mat. 16.18 by the onely Power of God without force and humane Art The occasion of the words These promises are principally to the Jews that then were under hard Captivity dispersed under other Jurisdictions to comfort them that their misery should have an end at length by the restauration of Christ which the Prophet very prudently insinuates under the term Saints considering as well foes as friends were to have the viewing of his works but where he cometh to write in the Hebrew Tongue Huit in locum The ornament and pleasure of all Lands Zach. 14.3 4. 1 Cor. 15.24 he is then more plain calling them Tzebi cap. 8.9 and the holy people v. 24. This he doth that the comfort of the holy Jews be not concealed in their affliction nor yet the Pearls of such Divine Mysteries might be cast before the Chaldean Swine and also that his Church might be assured of rest and quietness which though they did not fully enjoy here as I can find no place in so many words to warrant viz. The Dominions of the Earth shall be given to the Saints The nearest to it is in Revel 11.15 which as to time and manner hath been generally mistaken See Dutch Annot. c. And we will not rake up the * Well resolved by Paraus in Apocal. cap. 28. f. 515. Opinion of the Chiliasts from Revel 20.4 to establish it yet they might have it in hope from the promise of truth and by the clear manifestations of Gods Spirit working in their hearts more eminent gifts and graces meant as I conceive v. 27. by these words Under the Heaven they might find the comfortable beginnings thereof here which shall be a sure pledge of the consummation of their Joys with Christ hereafter Remember the Saints must reign with Christ and that for ever which denotes a spiritual and eternal Kingdome But Brethren I would have you think that the blessed and glorious Prophecies and Promises in Scripture made to Gods people are as truly upon some other though more silent hearts as on yours and as much heighten their expectations with assured hopes of spiritual enlargements as to righteousness love peace truth in the inward man soul-sanctifying knowledge a clearer yet humble insight into the excellent mysteries treasures fountains of our Lord now sealed up in his sacred Writ or very darkly understood and more strength and grace to walk in conformity thereto These and many the like mercies are with faith and patience looked for in Gods own time to be graciously given in and that by such as you judge to be Sanballats and Tobiahs rather because out of faith Nehem. 6. Note Rom. 9.33 according to Isa 28.16 they take no unlawfull course for the accomplishment of their desires But as to the full extent of these and the like blessed Promises you seem to hint at upon your account or the time exactly of their fulfilling c. I doubt the best of us are much in the dark in And however we may with great confidence prosecute our designs in the imagination of their sounding agreeable to our sense yet in the mean time this others conclude from daily observation of our disorderly practises that we produce no fruits of Christs Kingdome Now therefore as to the coming of our blessed Lord give me leave freely as in his sight presence to impart my thoughts to you that seem to have it so much upon your hearts by your frequent mentions Ah! friends I confess you talk much of it but alas who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings and who shall stand when he appeareth I am verily perswaded did we know what dross and stubble we are composed of had we a true sense of our conditions of our vileness and uncleanness and of its Majesty and purity we should be so far from flying out into those exorbitant passions and