spiritual Warmth do attest those things are really true The more spiritually any thing is preached or spoken it gives the more relishable taste to their inward Man and though they are of divers Nations yet they accord in the same main Principles of the new Creature and the same substantial inward exercise of heart 3. Observe also with what Radical Uniformity the Opposers of Grace do resist the Convictions of his Spirit And besides 4. Doth not thy truest Rest lie in thy nearest Approaches to God in Christ as thy Centre towards which thou art restlesly rowling as the true and real bottom of all thy hope and comfort But wouldst thou indeed know that the matters contained in the Word of Christ are real things Then never read or hear for meer knowledge sake Look for some Beams of Christ's Glory and Power in every Verse Account nothing Knowledge but as it is seasoned with some Revelation of the glorious Presence of Christ and his quickning Spirit Use no Conference about spiritual Truths for Conference sake but still mind the promoting of something for real Edification Use not Duties for Custom and meer Service sake but for Approach and nearer Communion with God Make no person thy Pattern more nor less than as some warmth of the Presence of Christ appears in his Words Walk and Conversation Let thy Recreation be Prayer suffer not Guilt to wranckle wash often in the Blood of Christ do not slightly grieve the Spirit but pray for the fulfilling of the Promise that the Spirit shall teach you all things Let nothing bar up your way from craving pardon of sin and hope of relief And if you thus trade in spiritual things as real they will appear more and more to be real according to the Promise Joh. 7. 17. If any man do his will he shall know c. But alas while I would thus muse my heart into some spiritual Freedom and Activity I am again dismally invaded my filthy and vile heart rebels the Prince of Darkness hath violently broke in upon me my Conscience is defiled and my Peace wounded my Prayers are heartless I have turned my self round into a Giddiness I have lost my Station and am bleating up and down like a Lamb in a large place I got a glimpse of Relief but cannot fix my eye upon it But what gain I by solitary Complaint I have sinned in the sight of God Angels and Men in the sight of my Redeemer in the sight of my own Conscience and Oh that I could pour out my Soul as Water before the Lord It would be a rich Mercy to me to be admitted to tumble at the feet of my Judge and get so near as Mary did to wash his feet with Tears and wipe them with the Hairs of perpetual Resignation to himself and to his disposal of me to purge me in what method soever so I may be clean and the seven Abominations of my heart cast out I would fain say in faith I will yet look to thy holy Temple Blessed be the name of him who is strong merciful gracious and abundant in Pardon Blessed be that God that Redeemer the Lord although unworthy sinful Wretch that I am yet my Righteousness O that God would yet spirit me to enquire into and taste the Bread which came down from Heaven I am searching after the real Existence of Christ and the benefit which flows from Union with him And I perceive that my peculiar Happiness lies not in this that these things have real Existence in themselves but that I know them to exist and my self to exist in them and they in me The things themselves are spiritual I cannot know them naturally but by the Spirit of Faith for Flesh cannot see Spirit In the Mount will the Lord be seen As far as God shines upon my heart and Ordinances so far I behold a real worth and glorious power in them In his light only I see light Psal 36. 9. As far as Grace gets life in my Soul so far I see the real Excellency of it As the Life of God opens it self to my heart so far I live and know the ravishing comfort of spiritual Life for with him is the Fountain of Life when he withdraws his Breath I do as it were return to the Dust for in him I live and move I know no worth in any Christian but as I partake with him in the same Spirit and Life Divine Commands Reproofs and Comforts do so far affect my heart powerfully as my Soul doth live in him who speaketh them The demonstration of spiritual things doth so far appear convincing as my heart is really transformed by them into the Image of Jesus Christ my Lord and my Head Though I have a renewed Principle of Light and Sight yet I cannot exercise the Sense of spiritual Sight till the Son of Righteousness sends forth a Beam to me by which I may behold in the Reflection of his own Light And this binds over my Soul to a necessity of a mortified believing Resignation to the Author of all Light Sight and Strength who is an unchangeable Rock and his work is perfect although I am full of Changes yet this Covenant keeps me from utter falling my strength and sight is ever decaying but he renews his Loving-kindness every Morning O let the day hasten in which I may know as I am known and the shadows of darkness and infirmity slee away I might come to a more real view of Jesus Christ and appropriate him and his benefits nearer to my heart if I had practically learnt the Exercise of Faith God has allowed a venturing boldness to Believing that it may step forth and stand in the breach when all seems to be lost When Lot is taken and Ziglag burnt and all carried away Captive then can Faith turn the day and recover the Spoil Faith is a distinct Grace wrought Faith only brings the heart to Christ freely by the holy Spirit quickning the heart to assent to and rest upon the Word of God upon the account of the Truth of God who spoke it 'T is distinct as Seeing and Hearing is distinct from other Senses 'T is wrought freely by the Spirit and so no acquired Notion it quickens through conveying Life from Christ to the heart by Divine Appointment It assents to and rests upon the Word against the Contradiction of Flesh and Blood It eyes the Truth of God as the Fountain of its Satisfaction and Success And so it first unites the heart to Christ and gives actual Propriety in him and in the Covenant which God made with him before the World was and consequently to all the Blessings contained in the Covenant 2 Tim. 1. 9. Ephes 1. 3 4. As the Gospel offers Christ Pardon and Life so Faith takes it freely not measuring the Ground of accepting it from below but from above It sees the Word to be the breathing of God in Jesus Christ in which all his Attributes are
working and beholds it as it were the audible Voice of God and the very Mind of Christ It cannot be satisfied in the weakness of the Letter but passeth through the Letter immediately to the Person of Jesus Christ and converseth with God in him The whole Scriptures in the eye of Faith is as a pair of Spectacles through which Faith gets the sight and closeth with the Promise It magnifies the Scriptures Ordinances and Sabbaths as they are the Portal through which to enter into Communion and Converse with God himself It believes the Scriptures that makes Report of the Will and Pleasure of God and so passeth through them to the Will Mind and Name of God himself Faith visits as a faithful Guide in its Journey and useth it no farther than a means tending to bring the Soul and God together The Word reports that Christ is there his Life his Strength his Grace is there and requires the Soul to enter in and take it Faith enters in finds and receives it Faith having found its Object and espying the way how to come at it is quickned by the Spirit in pure Obedience to God's Command to attempt some holy Adventures upon the Word and passeth by all Considerations of Flesh and Blood as deaf and blind to all things but what the Word speaketh 't is resolved to take as it were a senceless Journey to Christ even upon the Sea for 't is contented to feel no Ground but the Promise It stays not to enquire whether it hath strength enough to walk or no but looks on the Word of Truth and considers its need and so ventures and by venturing engageth all the Attributes of Jehovah Father Son and Spirit for its relief If I perish I perish The faithful and true Witness hath said Fear not only believe Faith so far as it works doth Faith doth both possess the Vnderstanding Judgment and Will and puts them to exercise persuade the heart of the Truth Power Wisdom and Goodness of God that speaketh and of the true performance of the thing spoken and is singly of it self through the overshadowing of the holy Spirit a principle of appropriating to the heart the Truths spoken from the Mouth of an infinitely true holy and wise God in his Word and so fixeth a blessed Satisfaction in the heart through the real Existence of the things spoken and apprehended by the renewed Understanding so far at least as they are by an actual Exercise of Faith apprehended Luk. 1. 45. Blessed is she who believed for there shall be a performance of the things told her from the Lord. The Understanding being renewed The Vnderstanding exercised views over the Covenant as it was made with Christ before all time Tit. 1. 2. and considers what method God has used to manifest it in the World He created the habitable World and made Man at first righteous and then permitted him to fall into the Breach of the first Covenant viz. of Works whereby he gave entrance and footing to the second Covenant viz. of Grace Gen. 3. 15. and carried it along in a holy Line through the corrupt Race of Mankind before the Flood he then sweeps away the ungodly World and preserves the Covenant-line in Noah and from him carries it on to Abraham and kept it on in its course amidst much Prophaneness and Idolatry that was in the World He then renewed it more distinctly with Abraham and gave it a more visible Being than ever before that time and by reason thereof called Abraham the Father of the Faithful He confirmed it also to Isaac and Jacob who are oftentimes mentioned in the Scriptures as the three grand Witnesses of this Covenant-favour From thence it descended to the twelve Tribes representing the elect visible Church After which it was brought forth in a Typical Demonstration of Christ and his managing of all things needful to make that Covenant applicable which is carried on under the shadows of the Ceremonial Law The Prophets succeed asserting this Covenant of Grace and expounding it At last Christ comes in Flesh and seals it with his Blood and the Apostles are sent sorth to discover and preach this eternal Purpose of Grace to the wide World for calling in the Elect. So that the Covenant of Grace which was made of God in Christ before the Creation of the World appears as the main scope of the Scriptures and issues forth its vertue through all the Promises Fatherly Commands Reproofs Consolations and the Deliverances which are recorded in Scripture as the various Streams Operations Experiences and Effects of the Covenant of Grace in and towards the Heirs of Life It bears the Name of the Old Covenant during the time while the Passover was in use and after the Lord's Supper was instituted it was called the New Covenant both Old and New are one Covenant of Grace differing from the Covenant of Works as far as Grace and Works do differ The Understanding having perused The exercised Judgment the Scriptures and so made its view and deliberated the matter digesting it by Meditation and Prayer the Judgment resolves to make Covenant-refuge its Sanctuary and thereupon forbids the heart to admit the Contradiction of Flesh and Blood and the reasoning of Carnal Wisdom and Observation resolves to determine nothing according to the Flesh endeavours to shut up all passages by which Unbelief carnal Mis-construction and fear were wont to enter and labours to keep open every Port that may admit the naked recourse of the Spirit in the Word and opens the Windows of the Soul to take in the Testimony and Evidence of a faithful and merciful God only And when this mighty Discovery and Conquest is made the foundations of Bondage Terror and Tyranny which before tormented the Conscience and enslaved the heart doth now begin to totter The Understanding and Judgment The Will assents having gone thus far in the Conduct of the Spirit do attempt effectually the persuading of the Will to accept a new Lord viz. the Messenger and Prince of the Covenant him in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen Sanctified Conviction begins to sway the Will as Nathaniel was moved by Philip to come and see him of whom Moses and the Prophets did write and assuies the Conscience that God is ever mindful of his Covenant has sealed it with the Blood of his own Son and has sworn that it shall stand sure as the Ordinances of Heaven and that no particle of it shall ever fail to which the Will assents But alas how doth my Pen as it were gash my own Soul in writing what I cannot heartily and at full liberty put in practice Oh that my Understanding and Judgment had thus far in a powerful Gale of the Spirit led my Soul forth to the Gates of Freedom and thus far brought me within the Bond of the Covenant How soon would the same mighty Power conquer over my Will to a holy Security and Rest in believing I
am methinks like Jonah tumbling My Soul in a Tempest in the bottom of the Sea the Bars of an earthly and dark Mind are stopping my way and am as lifeless methinks as if I had no Interest in the Fountain of Saving Health The Weeds are wrapp'd about my head I am in the Deep but cannot cry unto the Lord as Jonah did And what the Lord is teaching me by this unexpected disappointment I cannot yet tell yet notwithstanding I have hope in him that I shall yet be rescued from this Captivity and see his Face again I have been searching after all my sins through the several Ages of my Life and endeavoured to view the Depravity of my Soul in all the sinful Circumstances of every sin but I cannot wind my self out my design was to get thereby to a more sincere Closure with Christ but e're I was aware I had challenged forth more Enemies than I could well suppress I thought by aggravating my sins to have gotten more hunger after Jesus Christ but like over-much cold Water it damped my Stomach and I found Sickness seizing upon me rather than Hunger a heartless Stupidity instead of Believing I concluded I was in some kind or other out of my way or else had not prepared my Stomach to keep out the Infection that exhaled from that Body of Death which is within me as I should have done whiles I was moving the Limbs thereof The thing I aimed at was quickning Then I remembred that word Luk. 24. 5. Why seek ye the living among the dead Come not amongst the Graves without his company who died for sins and is risen from the Dead I could not be satisfied about the sincerity of my Repentance and there I stuck till at length I remembred that Christ rose again as well to give Repentance as Remission of Sins Act. 5. 31. and 11. 18. so that I can bring no Repentance to him but I must first get it from him He is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance c. A Saviour to take away all the defects of my Repentance a Prince to overcome all the difficulties and to create in me a sound Mind against the Infirmites of my Repentance and my halting therein Take then O mighty Prince and Saviour this work into thy own hands and create a right Spirit within me So that now my gadding Spirit is My Soul returning to its Strong Hold. brought back again to see that Christ is the Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of whatever doth concern the new Creature And although he be so yet how hard is it to venture my Soul and Body my whole Hope and Care into his hands by faith in his Word I had need know such an one very well with whom I am to venture my Journey through a Warfaring Life here and shortly through Death and Judgment too and so into the Ocean of Eternity O dear Jesus who art my Lord and my God who canst renew my heart and none else can do it breath upon me and say Receive the Holy Ghost Cast thy Mantle upon me and let the Unction of thy Spirit be so shed abroad throughout my whole Soul that my heart may be entirely thine thine only that thy self only may be the Covering of my eyes instead of all other Objects And now what should hinder but The Soul first improves Baptism that at length I should solemnly in the presence of God the Father Son and Spirit and in the presence of all the elect Angels pursue the ends of that Covenant which was sealed by Christ's Appointment to me in Baptism through whose hands soever that Ordinance was appointed and permitted to pass upon me Was not that a Divine Prophesie which Balaam himself spake which passed through his Mouth Numb 24. 17. There shall come a Star out of Jacob c. and can the Ordinance of Christ be made void through whose hands soever it came and in what unworthy Robe soever it was drest Did the sacred Ark lose its vertue by being in the Philistines Custody Did he forsake it who dwelt between the Cherubims Was the Mercy-seat forsaken and become like common Metal Why then should this Ordinance be lost to me in the substance of it though it may be some humane Scurf was laid upon it And have I not more reason to hope through Covenant-Grace that the Faith and Prayers of my dear Parents then and since are in force for a Blessing upon it to me than the defects of others in the manner of Administration can have to hinder it especially seeing now I desire humbly to take hold of the Covenant and with my own consent to say I agree to the Condescension of thy Grace and Love my dear Lord I catch hold on thy free Love and into thy Name O most holy God the Father Son and Spirit I give my self up through him who confirmed the Covenant and came by Water and Blood to make it effectual I believe Lord help my Unbelief I reach out my hand through thy Grace let thy Grace and Power pull me over to thy self that in the Ark of thy unchangeable Covenant I may be carried above my self and above a miserably drowned World Be not absent O thou who in thy Mercy didst make and impose this Seal of the Covenant as the Badge of one of thy Family for me to wear who also speakest words of Truth and Life when thou saist I baptise thee in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost fulfil thy good Word unto me thy Servant in which I desire to hope that thou mayest be mine and I may be thine wholly for ever that I may serve thee and glory in thee with all thy people who are thine own Inheritance Do not hang back O my poor Struggles with Vnbelief heart whose weakness and inconstancy have so often bruised my inward Man O Anxious Unbelief thou tellest me 't is a bargain soon made but how shall it be performed Thou urgest me with difficulties that will arise from the World from my self from the Tryals that I may undergo in my Body my Soul my Estate unwonted Tryals Thou tellest me of the great fits of Darkness and shameful declining I have had after much Refreshment and strong Resolutions to the contrary Thou tellest me that my Falls will now cost me dearer than ever they did and the Holy Spirit will be sooner vexed and grieved than before Thou tellest me I shall soon be weary of my Yoke and then my Sins will be of a deeper and more heart-hardning Die than ever But remember O Soul-destroying Unbelief I rowl my self upon the Rock of Ages I deliver my self up to the Covenant of Grace not to bring strength to it but to fetch strength from it and from that word which saith Sin shall not have Dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6. 14. And because I am weak
again and again with weeping and supplications to God in him as my resting place and that he would cause this glorious word to ring as an Alarm in my ears Return unto me for I am married unto thee Jer. 3. 14. I will be and I am thy King Where is any other that can comfort thee or save thee in all thy wandrings Hos 13. 10. And that he would cause my bowels to be moved at the voice and to give answer It is the voice of my Beloved behold I come unto thee for thou art the Lord my God Jer. 3. 22. And that I may now sum up the The Soul enters into more ample and express Covenant with God matter of this my Covenant which God has called me to make and which in obedience to his Call I do heartily resolve in his strength to adhere unto guard my heart guard my pen guard my voice and words O thou who leadest the Blind to thy self by a way which Nature knows not but thou knowest thy own way and knowest how to lead the thoughts of my heart and words of my pen and my mouth that my lips may utter nothing rashly before thee Thou hast made a Covenant of Grace and often repeated the terms of the Covenant and hast said I shall say The Lord is my God Hos 2. 23. and has recorded the mutual avouching between thee and thy people Deut. 26. 17 18. in express words Yea Strangers are invited to serve thee to love thy Name to be thy Servants and to lay hold on thy Covenant Isa 56. 6. to joyn themselves to thee and to observe thy Sabbaths and Ordinances of Worship And when thy people did enter into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their Fathers with all their heart and with all their soul and sware to thee with a loud voice and rejoyced at the Oath and sought thee with full desire thou wast found of them 2 Chron. 15. 12 15. And this way have thy Servants appropriated thee to themselves Psal 105. 7 8. and appropriated themselves to thee Psal 116. 16 18. Isa 63. 16 19. And thou hast said These things are written for my learning Rom. 15. 4. and that I am to imitate and follow them who through faith and patience did inherit the promises giving my self to thee 2 Cor. 8. 5. with full purpose of heart Act. 11. 23. Having this Warrant and Encouragement I do here bring my Body and Soul and all that I have and am to thee as a First-Fruit Offering and claiming Right to thy self through thy free Grace being invited thereto Jer. 3. 4 19. Hos 2. 23. I do declare in thy presence O The Soul makes Confession of its Faith most righteous holy and gracious God that as thou hast declared in thy Word I do acknowledge I am one of the Posterity of the first Adam and was in his Loins both when thou madest him pure bearing the Image of Righteousness and Holiness and when he transgressed thy righteous Command by eating the Fruit which thou hadst forbidden him to eat and that I stand before thee guilty of the sin which he then committed in all the extent circumstances and aggravations thereof and that I am thereby become rightful Heir to all that sinful pollution which by him entred in upon all Mankind and rightful Heir also to all that Curse and Punishment which thou denouncedst upon him when thou saidst In the day wherein thou eatest thereof thou shalt die and that I am by this my nature and descent liable to thy righteous Sentence of Death and Wrath eternally that I did in that day lose thy favour and incurred the accursed effects of that loss to my Body and Soul relating both to my temporal and eternal state I do acknowledge that of thy free Grace and that alone thou didst speedily make promise of a Redeemer which should arise of the Seed of the Woman and be manifested in the Flesh which accordingly thou didst perform by sending thy only Son into the World having a Body framed by the power of the Holy Spirit in the Womb of a Virgin and was born free from all that Hereditary Corruption which the first Parents of Mankind did derive to their Posterity by natural Propagation who by his voluntary Obedience fulfilled thy whole Law and by his death did bear the whole Curse and Punishment due to me and all elected Mankind in the Body of his Flesh And that being thy eternal Son the express Image of thy Person and God blessed for ever he did fully pay the Debt and remove the Curse and deserved Punishment from so many which thou hadst in thy eternal Purpose given him to be a Ransom for and superabundantly recovered thy Image and favour to them again And that being truly dead he raised himself by his own Divine Power and is ascended into the highest Heavens where he sitteth on the Right Hand of the Majesty on high appearing always in thy presence as Mediator consisting of the two Natures of God and Man in one Person continually interceding before thee on the behalf of them whom he redeemed and making the ends and vertue of his Mediatorship effectual for their good and on their behalf That he hath brought this state of Life and Salvation to light by the Gospel contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament and effectually dispensed the same under dark Types and Prophesies till his Incarnation since which time he hath mightily declared himself by his Word and Works the Father also from Heaven and the Holy Spirit testifying of him that he is the Saviour of the World and that believing in him they who believe shall have life through his Name That he has declared himself by chosen Witnesses who conversed with him and saw his Miracles that he is the eternal God and also true Humane Nature in one glorious Person and has appointed them to testifie that he is the Judge of Quick and Dead and that whosoever beliveth in him shall receive Remission of Sins and be justified from all Conscience of Guilt and interested in a more abundant Righteousness Life and Happiness than was lost before that he sendeth forth his Spirit to breath a new Life by Faith through the dispensation of this Gospel whereby he gathers all the Elect into a Mystical true spiritual Union with himself who is the Door of their Communion with God and his Communion with them and having in himself the terms and parts of the Covenant relating to each Party he has so united them together in a Covenant-Bond that the most righteous God reacheth to them his hand and proclaims himself theirs and they reach forth their hands by Faith and Resignation and declare they are wholly his By which Covenant-Union they are partakers of God and all communicable good things in him and are spirited to give up themselves and all that they have and are to his dispose in newness of life and have freedom to come to
continue at present in this place waiting the issue of things which the Lord direct and over-rule to the best In the midst of all these weighty Providences and rolling Waves 't is good to look well to our Anchor and to be securing the main Uncertain Peace uncertain created Comfort uncertain Life do require us to lean but gently upon such things and to grasp after an Inheritance a Life a Portion which fadeth not a Country where neither Sighs nor Groans nor Sins have any place If great Shakings cannot throughly awake 't is a sign the Drowziness is very great if not deadly 'T is good to be very busie when the Inch of Candle is near at an end The Lord teach us heartily to improve our present Minute and enter into the Ark before the Flood come c. 1660. To M. N. N o 51. I Having had some opportunity to discern the frame of your heart and the truth of your Thirst after Jesus Christ and Resignation up to him I thought fit while I was writing to other Friends at N. C. to present you also a Line or two 'T is but a little that one Friend can write to another but where there is a mutual Interest in the same Spirit there is a Freedom through that Communion to expatiate large and wide in one anothers joynt Concernments and to bear a sence of the various Travels of the inward Man and how it is exercised in you who are begotten of the same God and Father and nourished by the same Spirit in Jesus Christ And in this respect one Christian may in some measure read the Condition and Affairs of another in his own Experience though the manner of Trials may be different The most that I would say to you is this Labour to satisfie your heart against Guilt by the personal Righteousness and Worth of Christ which you are commanded to own and put on by believing as a Garment made and appointed of God for your wearing fixing your eye on his Appointment and not upon your Unsuitableness on his Grace and not at all on your own Worthiness unless it be to urge you towards him with the more speed and resolution This is a Lesson I am every day learning and I know no shelter like it The Improvement of the Covenant of Grace in this manner was to the Prophet David all his Salvation and all his desire This is the Shelter that will keep dry when the Floods come This will make a Soul out-face Terror and give an Answer to turmoiling Accusations This will make the Lame to leap as a Hart and the Dumb to sing when Woes do over-spread the Earth I recommend you to this Sanctuary c. 1661. To D. H. N o 52. I Perceive my Aunt hath had her Weakness returned upon her such is the Constitution of this Clayey Lump But what a wonder is it that a Treasure of Grace and eternal Life should ever dwell through all the days of our Sin Trouble and Vanity in such a Tabernacle and that the Spirit of Christ the Spirit of Grace Holiness and Glory should never cease striving in the midst of all that Opposition and course Entertainment on our part and never give over till our Sins be utterly and for ever extinguished and Mortality swallowed up of Life and so these vile Bodies and polluted Souls made conformable to our Redeemer and the eternal Companions of his Bosom Let us fix our eye there and we shall be always projecting for him and never discontented with our Travel though we rid but little Ground Let us prize him and love him and all his Rules and Orders himself in the first place and all the rest for his sake only And that makes our work our delight not our toil and vexation for there is no want of help either for Strength or Pardon or both He takes Sinners to himself that he may spend Intimacy of Good Will upon them and never lets them go quite out of his hands any more Oh how little do we know him How little do we remember that every Conviction we have had every Groan every desire of Soul after him was born first in his heart and given to us as the new Creatures Food to ripen it for Glory We breath towards him in the strength of his own Breath We may be yet much more winnowed but cannot be lost nor our Faith quite fail because he prays for us as never meer Man did His Prayers cannot but speed for the Will of the Father Son and Spirit is one Will for they are one God and that Will is nothing but good Will to us who hope in him and catch hold of his free Covenantgood-Will to Men. I have now lately News out of the North that my dear Brother D. is departed out of this World How should these things make us love to be trading for that Country where all our best Friends go and not think it much that this World yields so many sorrowful bits because God never appointed it for our abiding place but only that we may hear his Voice and be contracted to him while we are below in order to the consummating the Marriage above The Lord make us chearfully serious in the business of our day while it lasteth to prepare to lanch forth when our Lord shall call Blessed are they who watch c. 1661. To D. A. N o 53. WHat God speaks in his Word we may take for our comfort to carry us through the Myre till we land beyond Sin and Pain The Salvation of such poor Sinners as you and I was and is the delight of the blessed Trinity The Father did in his Grace and Love elect the Son delighted to come and do the Father's Will in Redeeming the Holy Spirit loves to apply it and therefore is called the Comforter the Angels rejoyce that good Will from God is come to Men. If God say you must go to the Top of the Mount and die set your face towards him who has died before you to bring you through Fly to the meer Grace and Love of the glorious God that has designed Pardon and Righteousness for poor Sinners for his own sake in the Person of his own Son If he say you must lanch forth roll upon the Rock of Ages alone The wearier you are of your Sins the more welcome to a Saviour The wearier you are of your pains and burthens the sweeter will be the Bosom of an indulgent Father when you arrive at your Father's House The whole Race of the Residue of the Redeemed are your Fellow-travellers The whole Trinity is on your side the Scriptures on your side the eternal Covenant of Grace on your side while you bow your head and lean only on your beloved Redeemer Look up to him and fear not your passage I leave you to the Arms of endless Care Counsel Comfort Strength and Pity c. 1661. To D. H. N o 54. OUr work in this World is only to follow
sweetly through all difficulties and procure a Blessing to your self and your Affairs and be the best Foundation of Hope and Comfort when and where-ever the Lord shall period your days which is my earnest desire and Prayer on your behalf 1672. To C. J. D. N o 112. I Must now acquaint you that I received News from the East-Indies that doth not a little affect me that God has been pleased to remove my Cousin your dear Husband out of this World who finished his days the fifth of September last and his death lamented by those that knew him I am sorry that this Letter must be the Messenger of those sad Tidings unto you but God is wise and we are to submit to his holy Will and Pleasure It was surprizing News to me The Lord support your heart under this Affliction and teach you his Will and provide for you and yours I cannot enlarge at this present for every word I write about it makes my heart to ake the Lord grant you patience to whose Care and Teaching I desire to commend you c. 1672. To B. J. D. N o 113. I Am glad to hear that you are in health which the Lord continue with the Addition of the highest Blessing That spiritual Endowment and that Interest in Christ that saving and powerful work of Grace and that activity for God in the ways and power of Godliness and that exemplary patern of Holiness in your Walk which can only render long Life a Blessing and truly make an hour of dissolution sweet and the consideration of that great day of our Appearance to be pleasant and upon safe Grounds desirable That famous and laborious Minister Mr. Joseph Carrill your ancient Friend and Companion is departed this Life aged about seventy one years his death greatly lamented by the People of God throughout this City About the beginning of his Sickness I was with him and he enquired concerning you as he was wont to do and perceiving him to be somewhat weak though he did not then keep his Chamber I desired him while he was yet alive to pray for you which motion he chearfully and readily embraced And coming to him again about three days before his death found him very weak and past hope of life he then told me as well as I could understand him for his Speech was low that he had remembred his Promise to me concerning you I think good to mention this particular passage to provoke you to all seriousness in reference to your own Soul whose eternal welfare lay so much upon the heart of this Servant of Christ His Labours were great his Studies incessant his Conversation unspotted his Sincerity Faith Zeal and Wisdom gave a fragrant smell among the Churches and Servants of Christ His Sickness though painful born with patience and joy in believing and so he parted from Time to Eternity under full Sail of desire and joy in the Holy Spirit He lived his own Sermons he did at last desire his Friends to forbear speaking to him that so he might retire himself which time they perceived he spent in Prayer oftentimes lifting up his hands a little and at length his Friends seeing not his hand to move drew near and perceived he was silently departed from them leaving many mournful hearts behind And now dear Brother Oh that this may be an exciting motive to you and I to redeem the time which the Catterpillers have eaten that we be not found unready And if ever you expect to be a Companion again with Mr. Carrill break off from all such Company which were not his delight Concern your self to make a fresh and through Surrender to God in your old Age. Beg I beseech you beg such a Convincing impartial heart-breaking sight of your sins in Youth and old Age that may force you to Christ for Refuge while he may be found and beg his Spirit that you may glorifie him on Earth the few days that yet remain as signally as ever you have dishonoured him What a joy will it be to this glorified Saint Mr. Carrill at the last day to see that his Prayers for you have prevailed Dear Brother I pray excuse my earnestness in what I have written It may be you and I may never see each other in this World you are much upon my heart I mean as to your eternal Estate and glad I should be to hear of some eminent Change as to Soul-Concernments before either I hear of yours or you hear of my lanching forth into vast Eternity where there can be no more Changes and the hour is near in which the eye that hath seen you shall see you no more As the Tree falls so shall it lie the eternal Judgment follows Death at the Heels I can say no more it must be Divine Power and Grace that must set the Wheels a going if ever they move And therefore whilst I am in this World I hope I shall not cease to pray for you whilst you are in this World also for our Prayers cannot reach beyond the Grave Dear Brother farewel yea fare better and better till you fare best of all c. 1673. To F. H. N o 114. I And you are creeping towards our last Change the thoughts of which can be no farther comfortable to us than we have obtained some good hope through Grace that we are united to Christ our sins forgiven for his sake and that we are accepted and beloved of God in him and all this evidenced to our own hearts by the witness and the renewing vertue of his own Spirit all which requires a necessity of being convinced of our own vileness by sin and that we go out of our selves and humbly lay hold on Christ by Faith that when we die and remove from hence having lived on him and unto him here we may live in him and with him for ever Our Friends here are generally in health and none of them without their Cares in reference to the difficulties that do attend this present State and Pilgrimage some in one kind some in another Oh that God and Christ and the Riches of his Grace revealed by his Spirit in the Word may be the more sweet to the Soul I shall only say the Lord direct your feet in the Paths of Life and crown your old Age with a saving Knowledge of Christ with a through Conviction of your Sin of Nature and Life and guide you to him as your only Refuge to glorifie his Grace while you live and rest in his Peace when you shall be here no more c. 1673. To P. D. N o 115. I Am glad to understand by your Letter that your Family is in health and that the Lord is pleased to keep your eye directed to him in your outward Affairs with a savoury sense of all the spiritual Enjoyments you lie under longing after suitableness to them and an increased value of them Real Thankfulness for them doth much consist in such kind of
glorious both in Qualification and Action and those that are improper Instruments that are not Instruments of thy delight cause them to do thy Will for all that work that is proper for them and proper to be used upon thy People for the intents of thy Glory towards them so that the Work of God may thrive in the World and thy Glory be mightily exalted O thy Majesty thy Kingdom thy Greatness and Excellency Oh that thou wouldst be wonderfully glorious in thy Actings Thy Nature is so and thy Actings do proceed from infinite Excellency and Glory Oh let God be glorified Oh let God be glorified And now thou hast brought me and others forth at the Close of the World we lay asleep in silence we were not formed in the Womb till of late and much of the great Volume of the World thou hadst past away before we saw it and now we come at the Close into the World a while that we may stand in our Lots and appear to be the Tokens of thy Remembrance of us before the Volumes of many Generations Now thou hast me upon the Stage and hast had me long and now thou seemest to be taking me hence O Lord thousands of Kindnesses I have had from thee and thou hast not had from me any suitable Thanks O Lord take me out of this Body send me into the Land of Truth where there is nothing but Purity Holiness and Righteousness Sometimes I begin a little to be amazed at my unsuitable Actings towards thee in the day of Grace But Lord thou wouldst carry things so that I might know my Case saved indeed The best of all good things thou hast given me and thou hast preserved me whole but alas I must travel all the way with a dead Carcase and be within the scent the stench of it Ah woful Savour And this hath made grievous Spoil Thou savest me and yet I carry that along with me that is my constant Destruction as a continual Combatant till I see thy Salvation Thou lovest me all over and hatest the least Sin that is in me all over And now Lord thou comest to shew me what the Issue of these things are Little thou shewest me yet that little is glorious Oh for the Son of God to come into the World to be joyned to me in the nearest Conjunction to assume the same Nature and to unite me to himself that he might display the insuperable Power of his own Righteousness for my Righteousness for my Justification We have reason to think the Heavens will declare it even this to an Eternity and this is past upon me I can hardly endure a little at a Dissolution But O the power the strength the greatness of this great Glory things out of my sight and but a little before me Oh what are they and where are they that have the whole Shine of the Grace of the Gospel upon them Where they are thou knowest and every one of thy number shall know they are not lost they are treasured up Lord help me throughout this little Period of Suffering Here I am seeming to me to be just taking leave of this poor Body that hath been wandring up and down some Years Dear God wilt thou be pleased to help me Thou helpedst me all along now help me that I may have such thoughts as becomes an Heir of Life that my Faith may not fail that my Soul may not be desolate that my Mind may not be dark Lord save me from the wonted Assaults of Satan now I know not for how many days or how many nights thou hast designed me Dear Lord let me have thy special Presence with me and a heart formed to thy Contrivance and let me not contrive for my self I know not the effects of this night If I shall period my days this night let it be in Divine Rest I have no other Period but to be in God to be in Christ There is no Issue of this Conflict but to overcome by the Blood of the Lamb. Now I leave my self with thee be with me and be with all thy dear Zion Be with that beloved Spouze whom thou hast redeemed from the Earth and this by means of the Contrivance of thy Grace in Christ who lives and will live and is the beginning of the Creation of God and was ever so There is a Promise of Truth fulfil it O true God My People shall be all holy verifie it O God verifie thine own Truth thy Word hath said it My People shall be all holy Lord thou hast a People thou hast sure a People and thy People thou hast said shall be known or else there would be no discovery of thy Truth in Promises of thy Truth in Threatnings And O Lord this thou hast said that there is the greatest difference between thy People and their Concerns and others that ever was Thou wilt be known in Jacob Now Lord be thou pleased to make it known that we are thine and let it be made known to all We were tricked and beguiled away from thee at first but now we are grafted into Life by that that was not a Slight but a Reallity the mightiest Reality that ever Sun Moon and Stars saw that ever Angels saw that is the thing I yearn towards I rest me in God here a little while I am in the Spirit waiting minutely momently when he will say Come and retire to be with me eternally Oh that I should see the Door a little aslope a little ajar he hath promised it no where as I know but in a way of opening yea wide open to give Deliverance because his very heart is in it With him are no half-opened Doors nor half-hearted Entertainment Yet a little while and we shall say that Fulness is come and the Compleatment of all All Israel shall be saved and that will come on creeping apace now now it is coming to me Oh now let there be no blind Child of God Oh now no lazy Child of God Oh now for winged Saints Oh for those that mount and soar that may answer what hath been promised in the Book of the Revelation The Spirit will have a time to do it when Sloth shall be by the Spirit of Life turned into Industry when the Love of God shall be seven times more when the Glory of Christ's Image shall be as when the Sun shineth seven times brighter Will God always be scarcely known in the Earth Will the God of all that Grace that shines in Men be himself obscured No no. How kind is he to poor Sinners in this dim state He longs to be glorified and to glorifie himself and his Children shall be like their high Calling And Oh that this might make my Soul insatiably longing for this Purity in its fulness I adore him for any little Thirst O the good time when the Heavens shall shrill with the Voices of all the Redeemed Hearts and Tongues O the Melody when every redeemed Tongue shall
O Lord wilt thou look down O let not our Seed our Kindred our Relations be a means to fill the Kingdom of Satan further and further We look upon some of our Relations sometimes and there we cannot see the Likeness of Christ the powerful working of their turning unto God we cannot see any thing to give us any assurance or to give us good hope through Grace that there is a happy Eternity abiding them Oh that thou wouldst lessen the Devil's Kingdom and enlarge Christ's Kingdom Why should not the Word in the power of it be received O Lord fall in privately in Retirement upon the hearts of such poor Creatures whom we love but cannot save but thou canst And thou art our God and we love thee and we beg it of thee that thou mayst have a mighty increased Host to sing thy praise for ever and that our Relations may be part thereof considerably We have prayed little for one another in the Spirit for we have done but little work for thee Oh that an Afternoon Prayer may come up before thee and be heard Oh! oh oh while we can let our hearts bleed over sinners that live in their sins Christ had nothing to do but to save Souls in all his Travelling in the World Oh that Salvation may be unto us the great desirable thing the salvation of our own Souls and the Salvation of others It is a great thing to be going just into eternal Fetters and to be going just into eternal Freedom It is a great thing to be going just into the eternal Pound and to be going just into eternal Liberation and every one of us is going and shall go and cannot avoid it into one of these We must in among the damned for ever or in among the saved for ever there is no medium no manner of medium between one and the other Oh for Wisdom Oh for Wisdom we talk freely one to another we are Friends we have delight one in another we visit one another in our well-being in our ill-being we sympathize one with another but all of us one as well as another must pass through this great Trial and these great things there will be no stop no hindrance We have and do approve of one another with some respect but Oh nothing but Truth in the inward parts nothing but coming up to the very mind of the Spirit of God Let the Grace of Christ now be pursued hugely infinitely lets know one another but in the Lord love one another regard one another respect one another only in the Lord and through him and for him and to him O Lord the faculties of Humane Nature will not be disabled when the perfect state comes which are now disabled by sin and disabled by Infirmities Thus now you see my Soul having objects before mine Eye of a great nature and finding my self greatly incompetent for them I grope about them for I know it is my dear and only concern I would not dye like a fool and I would have all my loving Friends partake of that goodness which I have had perswasion and have perswasion doth lye in a sincere closure with those Spiritual things I do insist on it and say my full Faith is in this That whosoever doth reject this Salvation shall have no place in it and whosoever doth not with a whole heart set out for it shall not know it and whosoever shall indeed give a turn over to the Lord for it and commit it self unto God to be tryed to be taught and to be lead such a Soul shall not at all lose the good of it nor any part of the good of it and having this confidence I desire to set me to cling to him who hath called me some years ago and in some measure by his Grace I have heard the Call and accepted it He then directed his Speech to some of his near Relations then present more particularly by way of Counsel c. in such words as these Dear Sister Remember me to your Son and pray tell him from me that I long for his Salvation and let it not be unpleasing news to him that the SCRIPTURE must be his Rule and Delight otherwise he will perish eternally Every thought I have of him doth come with a great weight upon me and my very Bowels do even bleed towards him and it would be glorious News to me to hear that the Almighty had got a compleat victory over his Heart O Lord come in upon his Soul that there may be no dismal perishing Ah ah we have had our days of Friendliness together Lord grant that none of us may be separated each from other with a doleful separation Oh! Oh! that Divine Grace may come with power and do that which our hearts could not be aware of He is the object of our pity oh that he may be the object of God's pity he is able to bound him he can give a broken Leg some stroak upon the outward Man some sickness some providence that may have a Mighty Teaching voice I have often thought God may cause his Conversion work to ring to the Glory of God Oh that you and others may pray greatly And that that poor young Woman may not be as a nullity neither but as one filled with the fruits of the Spirit that Grace may revive in that Family Oh Grace Grace Grace nothing maules down vanity and vileness but the Majesty of Grace Dear Sister now do you set on work we are yet upon pardoning ground Pray much Give away your self to God in length and breadth The Lord make you the brokenedst hearted one and the wisest woman about this Town Rummidge over your Religion again and see whether it come up kindly to the MARK I may say my Soul doth dearly love you and whenever I see you my heart doth in some degree spring a little For my poor sake look out for a TRUE LODGING Well I leave it with you I shall see you shortly again at the Judgment-seat of God I leave this with him my purposes my designs my aymes with him who is holy and sin pardoning His Counsel to his Wife was in these words God hath given you his precious Grace walk humbly labour in all things to come to the very life of it in Religion And I have much perswasion that God will bring this Child meaning his only Daughter in within the Covenant Your great danger is your unbelief there lyes your great danger you have in my observation true Faith strong Faith and yet not ready to put forth in all Cases 't is of a right Grain and it hath the concomitant to it singleness of heart Be Practical be Practical that you be putting of it out every minute for I do think there is a very dear indulgence between Christ and your Soul you have been born down with many cares with many scatterings of heart and Christ hath pittied you under it and owned you under it He hath