the Holy Spirit doth and shall assist you do and you ever will commit you to his Saving-Mercy and submit you to his ruling Authority in Christ Multiply Direct Acts if you would have the Comfort of Reflex say all our Divines This is the only way wherein a trembling Faith may be expected to be made a triumphing one Fifthly When you act holy Faith attend upon God in all holy Ordinances It is at Wisdom's Gates that the Hearts of the Poor and Sorrowful are made to sing for Joy Be you constantly found at every one of them for you know not whether your waiting at this or that shall best prosper But you may be certain your Neglect of any one will provoke God to send you away empty from all the other Sometimes it is in Reading and Hearing that Joy is infused Sometimes it is in Prayer that as Peter's Bonds ours be loosed Sometimes it is with Sacramental Wine that Hearts are cheered Sometimes it is the Conference of holy Friends that sharpneth a Man as Iron sharpneth Iron Many times singing of Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs doth together make glad the Heart of God and Man Try all and continue in them and fear not but you shall have Beauty given you for Ashes and the Oil of Joy for Mourning Sixthly When you attend on holy Ordinances cast away all your Transgressions As soon shall heavenly Joy enter Hell as a presumptuous Sinner's Heart It is only the Conqueror that is capable of Triumph the Conqueror of all wilful Sin he that being made free from all such hath now his Fruit unto Holiness We lie saith St. John if we say we have Fellowship with him and do not the Truth They who like Devils are ever in the Fire and be never refined be ever using holy things but are not made holy by them they are as certainly as Devils held in Chains of Darkness Old and New Testament say There is no Peace to the Wicked Allow then no Sin if you would attain any Peace Seventhly When you cast away all your Sins be ye Doers of all Christ's Word Negative Goodness is a very Chimera Christ loves and manifests himself to them only who have his Commands and keep them Though Duties be not the Merits they are the Means and commonly the Measures of Peace and Joy and of all Duties those arduous ones that do most cross the Grain of corrupt Nature and most thwart our secular Interest Would you have your Light to rise in Obscurity and your Darkness be made as Noon-day Draw out your Soul to the Hungry satisfy the Afflicted Would you be made appear to be the Children of God and Coheirs of Christ Love your Enemies bless them that curse you Would you have your Consciences and all the World be made to know that God is not ashamed to be called your God Be not you ashamed then of the Gospel of Christ at any time but couragiously own and confess Him and It in the midst of Gainsayers Would you be most certain you are not Reprobates Keep under your Bodies and bring them into Subjection By rare Duties you may rise up to as rare Joys Eightly When you are Doers of the Word give not way to such Scruples as have no bottom on the Word Unreasonable Fears are the Sins of our Hearts as truly as they be Thorns in our Sides they grieve the Holy Spirit and they together deny and impair and tend to destroy his Work in us Thieves they are that do waste the Candle of the Lord and Worms that eat up the hidden Manna As many as are liable to these Distempers would do well to take to heart these and like Antidotes God accepteth Mites though his Due be ten thousand Talents Else what would become of the richest in Faith and Works Holiness is less than Sinlesness The Field which hath Millions of Weeds in it is a Corn-field for all that There were none upon this Earth else Damning Sins be somewhat more than terrifying Falls Yea we receive the least Hurt by the Sins that put us into the greatest Fright He that exclaims I am dead expresseth a Conceit which he confuteth David's Fall and Peter's were terrible but were not mortal It is keeping under Water drowns a Man it is not his falling into it that kills him Smoaking Flax hath more Fire in it than is thought of No doubt but Heman was stored with God's Graces while he was distracted with his Terrors Travellers be not out of their way as oft as they be out of sight of the City they would be at No but they are as truly moving towards it when they are in the Vale and do but think of it as when they are on the top of a Hill and do pleasantly behold it The Way to Heaven is through great Changes and many Vicissitudes up-hill and down-hill But in the Deep as truly as on the Mount in Temptation as truly as out of it a Saint makes way toward Heaven The Will and Work of his God he very profitably suffers when he knows not what he does And on he goes toward Heaven as Sinners do toward Hell not knowing whither they go Trees do grow downward when they have scarce Sap enough to show that they be alive upward Wondrously gainful are many spiritual Losses themselves Good Words and Works are a Christian's Leaves and Fruits Self-denial and Faith in Christ are his Root By the Winter-Season which doth deaden him to those former he is enlivened and strengthned in these lattter And the Temptations and temporary Desertions which take from him his Activity do make him amends by notable Additions unto his Humility even all Days of his Life Most true are judicious Hooker's Words Happier a great deal is he whose Soul by inward Desolation is humbled than he whose Heart through abundance of spiritual Delight is lifted up above-measure Remember troubled Soul remember it well bitterly humbling Winters do make sweet and fruitful Summers And know thou If the Corn upon the Ground be good it matters not how little deep the Plough went Do not torment thy self as the manner of some is with Fears that thou art not of the good Ground upon a Surmise that God hath not broken thee up with Convictions and Humiliations sufficiently deep Examine more thy Corn and be less concerned about the Plough If thy Reliance on Christ's Righteousness be entire and thy Imitation of his Holiness be constant and cordial the Plough hath done its Part upon thee Consider on the other Hand too that There are valuable things kept in Brine as well as in Sugar Dream not that because thy Life is made sorrowful God intends not ever to advance thee to his Fulness of Joy The Fruits which are preserved in Sweetness that exceedeth Honey be not more intended for the Table of the Lord than the Meats that are buried in Salt and Bitterness All the Fruits of Christ's Garden be not of a size not equally Ratheripe Conclude
not that thou art none of his Plants because others do vastly excel thee in all Christian Vertues and out-do thee in all the Works of Righteousness One Rose upon a Bush though but a little one and though not yet blown proveth that which bears it to be a true rose-Rose-tree Look well to thy Sincerity and to thy sincere Labour for Proficiency Then know that neither God or Men do cut down good Trees because small or despise unripe Flowers and Fruits if they be ripening A sorry Speaker may be a most excellent Wrestler Milo had not the Tongue of Cicero Moses that greater Prevailer with God was a Man of a very slow Utterance Do not say you cannot pray because you cannot speak much or well or long Praying is Wrestling with God The Heart is the Wrestler Holy Faith is the Strength of it If by Means of this Strength thy Heart be a good Wrestler though thou art ever so Tongue-tied thou wilt be a Prevailer Rhetorick goes for little in the heavenly Court but sincere Groans have a kind of Omnipotence A Mine of Gold may be a long time unknown The Heat of the Sun may make it many a Year before the Light of the Sun doth discover it It is long before the Spirit doth witness to some what he works in them A King is not the less a King for dreaming himself a Beggar Suppositio nil ponit in esse Victorious Believers are most truly so when they are not sensibly so The most bruised Reed maketh no little Melody to the Lord. Our compassionate Saviour tells his affrighted Dove when driven into the Clefts of the Rock that her Voice was sweet Cant. 2.14 The little Specks in the milky way be as real Stars as the Sun We must not argue that we are Darkness it self because we are not the most burning and shining Lights The crying Child is alive as sure as the laughing one If whatever stole away our Joy did steal away our Faith also where would Faith be found upon Earth The World and Church will be soon at an end when all shall kill that maketh to cry It doth often rain and shine together in the Heart of a Believer His Soul hath the Joy that is his Duty and shines with Grace acted in Desires and Endeavours to triumph When as yet it hath not the Joy that is the Largess of God's Bounty by which its Clouds must be chased away no but is lamenting after the Lord for it Dolet de dolore gaudet Joyfully it laments after him for it singing our renowned Gataker's most delectable Lamentations I thirst for Thirstiness I weep for Tears Well pleas'd I am to be displeased thus The only thing I fear is want of Fears Suspecting I am not Suspicious I cannot chuse but live because I die And when I am not dead how glad am I Yet when I am thus glad for sense of Pain And careful am lest careless I should be Then do I grieve for being glad again And fear lest Carelessness take care from me Amidst these restless Thoughts this Rest I find For those that rest not here there 's Rest behind And as for sinful Sorrow it self be it observed A Believer may gloriously conquer even when he is miserably conquered And he doth so when tho Sin strikes him down it cannot make him yield Positive Nolition is Conquest of Sin Of the unconsenting and out-crying Virgin over-powred by the Strength of a Ruffian God did pronounce that there was no Sin in her worthy of Death By resisting she made the Destroyer flee even then when she could not make the Defiler flee The Believer that resists is not struck down under the Wrath of God when he is struck down into the Mire of Sin Glory be to God in the highest Fight against Sin though it be upon our Knees is Conquest And therefore Lastly Rahab is in Heaven as sure as Abraham St. James saith that Dwarf in Faith was justified by it as well as this Giant And it 's sure if justified is glorified Now Whoso is wise and will observe these things they shall to their Joy understand the Loving Kindness of the Lord. My next Exhortation is §. 2. To those that have formerly sung Triumph over Death but have lost that Voice of Joy and Gladness All such are to be thus exhorted First Despise not your Loss For it 's a Loss of more than all the World is worth It 's a Loss of Heaven upon Earth A Loss that was to David as a Sword in his Bones And cannot but be grievous to a Heart that is not perfectly senseless Unto any other to joy in Christ's Love is sweeter than Life and to have that Joy taken away must be more bitter than Death Yet Secondly Despair not under this Loss You are not the first that have faln under it David lost his Joy and cried O spare me Jeremy was afraid to die Jer. 37.20 Hezekiah turned to the Wall and wept at the Tidings of Death Holy Latimer told his Ridley that sometimes he could run into a Hole for Fear A Balm in Gilead there was for them and a Physician that restored them Nor is there any reason why your Wound should be presumed to be incurable It is surely your Duty to pray for the Cure And it were a fond Conceit that you might not look for the things you are bound to pray for Thirdly Enquire how you came by your Loss Whether Pride were not swelling in you and made needful this Loss to keep you from being exalted above measure Or whether Earthly-Mindedness got not into you for as in Nature it cannot be Night till the Earth interpose between the Sun and us so I question whether ever a very dark Night fall on the Face of a Soul but by some earthly things interposing between Christ and it The Achan that is the Troubler must be stoned e're you are like to be quiet To which purpose you are to make diligent search after it Fourthly Blame not God for your Loss Justify God as David did and to your selves take all the Blame and Shame To be sure your own Sin was all the culpable Cause And this know till a Job let 's go his hard Thoughts of God and abhors himself in Dust and Ashes his Captivity is not to be turned But then it is presently turned and his Comforts be forthwith multiplied Fifthly Conceal not your Loss Hide it not from those to whom God saith Comfort ye comfort ye my People Peace and Joy are created by God but they are ministred by his Servants Whom not to consult in your Troubles is to despise And whom to despise is to despise Christ and him that sent him Sixthly Consent to God's Terms for the Repair of your Loss With a thousand Thanks go and enter a-new the Covenant of his Grace He cannot in honour make the Terms thereof any lower But if you humble you as low as the Gospel demands you will be seasonably
The Church's Triumph over Death A Funeral-Sermon PREACHED Upon the Decease of Blessed Mr. Robert Fleming Late Pastor of a Church in Rotterdam By DANIEL BVRGESS Miseri Infideles appellant Mortem Fideles vero quid nisi Pascham Bern. de Divin Amor. Mors Christianis Ludus est Vinc. Lirinens London Printed by J. D. for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and Andr. Bell and J. Luntley at the Pestle and Mortar in Chancery-lane 1694. To the Right Worshipful Sir Henry Ashhurst Baronet SIR THERE is a Frenzy abroad of which Men do together Adore the Pipes and Neglect the Fountain Make great court to his Ministers and slight the King the King eternal Worshipping the Stars that do lead to Christ and crucifying to themselves afresh the Christ that they lead unto yea by Unbelief and Disobedience putting him to open Shame But I must Hope better things of You. And believe it to be your Love of Christ that constrains you to receive a Paul and an Apollos as an Angel of God yea as Christ himself Wherefore as your extraordinary Kindness to another renowned Saint hath been told to the World by incomparable Pens By Mr. Baxter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Dr. Bates in Dedicat. Epistles I do resolve that wheresoever this Sermon shall be read your like Affection to our heavenly FLEMING shall have its Memorial Very deeply I am impressed with your Favours done unto both For their Love was eminent and much exceeded the Fame of it to a Man Born to Reproach And not pretending to be Richer than his Brethren in any other Treasure A Love to be wondered at had it not been so known that God is Love And that therefore Love is Godliness And where Godliness abounds Loving-kindness overflows As we see in Angels that do flagrantly Love the least of Abraham's Children And highly honour the meanest of sanctified Worms As for the Former Jonathan must needs have known his David and the World will by and by have his Life in Folio to read And as concerning the Latter as little as any Man do you need to be told with what a Fulness of God he was filled Sir Your wondring Eyes were your Witnesses The great Love he bare you gave you more than common Knowledg of him whose Humility and Modesty hid him so that he was not much known unto those who knew him most As Ezekiel speaks of other Angels his Wings so covered his Feet However so much you saw that as very well you might you singularly loved him And esteemed his Love unto you to be of that Kind which is most valuable next unto God's own Love For the Information of others somewhat is said of this Man of God in the following Pages Whereto I can add this which was said of the famous Antonine He hath this Praise crowning all the rest that he hath no Gain-sayer of his Praises I hear not of any Dust to be blown off from this Diamond Honoured Sir Two or three of your Letters to me bewailed the World's Loss the Church's and Your own in the Departure of holy FLEMING Nor do I doubt but the best of the Church and World do lay it to heart Even generally all that hear how much Light and Salt and Balm is taken from a needy Age. For your Relief and others this is all in this Place to be said It is elsewhere shewn how we may hold Departed Saints in our Sight and in our Service Commemoration of Saints departed on Heb. 13.7 If the Course there prescribed be duly followed I am certain that this Saint's Death shall not be only his own Gain But his Ascension to Heaven shall be made to further our Conversation therein And notably contribute unto the Victory Joy and Triumph of Faith which this Sermon describes Thereto I dismiss you without any Sallies of Flattery the common Sin and Scandal of Dedications It must be confessed that if all Praise of Sir Henry Ashhurst be Flattery Old England and New are overrun with that Leprosy And the Israelites are much more sick of its Plague than the Egyptians be The Name of ASHHURST was left richly perfumed by your excellent Father And I hear not but it is so kept by your Self and your Right Honourable Brother Sir William A. Lord-Mayor Otherwise you had before this time loudly heard of it For they do sink deepest who fall from Pinacles highest they who were at first the best Angels are now the worst Devils saith Du Moulin And by the Old Law you had been condemned to be burnt for the Profanation of such a Father's Name Comprehenditur cum filiâ filius c. Calv. Lev. 21.9 Surely the Sun must have looked Pale and the Spheres have cast out their Stars if such as You and my Lord had forsaken your God and the God of your Fathers And had left no better to be said of you than Philostratus says of Perinthius Barely that he was the Son of Rufus But Sir as you very well know my Office is to bring low all Mountains and Hills not the contrary And as my own Heart sweetly knows my Ambition is to Edify not Magnify you to serve your Faith not your Fame which as it less needs it doth less deserve it Much rather would I provoke you to one good Work than make known all that ever you did And be the meanest Instrument to make you a better Man than a Trumpet to proclaim you a good one Plain dealing is a Jewel and will appear so one day though now there be much more of it at the Mill than about the Throne And I do account that Earthly-Gods themselves are seldom so richly treated as my Friends that be entertained with these Complements Sc. That BARONETS must perish without the New-Birth That A Repenting Lazarus is of better Estate than a Jovial Dives That A Grain of holy Faith is worth more than a Mountain of pure Gold That In the Day of Judgment Christ will be Ashamed of the Greatest that are now Ashamed of Christianity That Royal Heads Honourable and Worshipful Ones must worship God's Majesty or bear his Fury That There is no Safety for the Highest on Earth without Trust in the most High in Heaven That They shall suffer eternal Death who Love not Christ Jesus above the richest Life That No Greatness can save them from Vengeance who deny Christ Reverence That Whatever their Rank is in this World their Portion shall be everlasting Shame who do not all that they do to God's Glory That The most Prosperous who will not submit to God's Afflicting-hand shall not escape his Revenging-hand That If they Love not their Enemies and Bless them that Curse them and Do good to them that Hate them and Pray for them that Despitefully use them and Persecute them they shall not be the Children of God Finally that Whosoever of them shall Live without Dying Thoughts he shall Die without Living Comforts SIR My
Prayers cease not to Ascend for You your Pious Consort and eminently Hopeful Branches May You ever be more and more Honours to them and They be more and more Joys unto You. May neither of You now sleep in the Afternoon for to that Time of Day it is come in your Lives And may both of Them have their Noon and Evening answerable to their fair Morning May Self-denial be Your and their Business without which all Religion is but your Play May your Prosperity neither slay or so much as wound you in your Eye may the Paradises which have no Tree of Life in them be contemned though they are possessed May great Roots under Ground make you great Trees above it rich Truth in the inner-parts make you rich in good Works May you prefer Heaven above Earth as manifestly as others prefer it above Hell Not accounting your selves to have much profited in Christianity till you count that you have nothing else to profit much in And always remembring that if you take not the Kingdom of Heaven by force the Kingdom of Hell will take you by it May the Mercy of the Lord rest upon the Family of the Ashhursts and his Righteousness be to their Childrens Children Under many Obligations and in sweet Hopes thus prayeth SIR Your Honourer and Humble Servant DANIEL BURGESS BOOKS published by Mr. Robert Fleming 1. THe Fulfilling of the Scripture In three Parts 2. The Confirming Work of Religion 3. The Treatise of Earthquakes 4. The Epistolary Discourse Dedicated to the Queen's Majesty 5. The One thing Necessary 6. The Survey of Quakerism 7. The Present Aspect of the Times 8. The Healing Work written twelve Years ago upon the account of Divisions among Professors in Scotland A SERMON on the Death of Mr. Robert Fleming 1 COR. XV. 55 56 57. O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory The Sting of Death is Sin and the Strength of Sin is the Law But Thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ubi est Aculeus tuus O Mors Ubi est Victoria tua Inferne Syriac Ubi suprema Vis tua O Mors Arabic Ubi igitur Mortis Victoria Ubi igitur Mortis Stimulus Aethiopic UPON this mournful Occasion I present this Text as a Pearl-Cordial and the most Restorative that I could find in the Divine Dispensatory Wonderful Words it consists of such as seem too high to be uttered below Heaven and too soon-spoken before the Resurrection But what Heavenly Scribe wrote them you do all know and with how like a Boldness and Bravery of Faith our holy FLEMING did use to sing them all of you are not ignorant They are made the Theme of this Discourse for this end that they may also become our Song in the House of our Pilgrimage There are obvious in them A triumphant Song v. 55. A justifying Reason v. 56. A holy Gratulation v. 57. A triumphant Song wherein Rhetorick hath even exhausted it self such is the Melody of its Prosopopaeia speaking to Death and the Grave as Persons and not Things Such is the Pungency of its Interrogation which doth not here doubt but upbraid and insult Such the Elegancy of the Meiosis covering the biggest part of its meaning asking no more than what is become of their Power to hurt though meaning that both are made to work for Good Such is the Glory of the Celeusma and Shout wherein Victory Faith and Joy as above Expression are published in Form of Admiration O Death where is thy Sting O Grave where is thy Victory O Death O Grave our one Enemy bearing these two Names once so strong as to conquer all and so cruel as to spare none once a Dragon that swallowed up the World an Abaddon and Apolluon of Jewish World and Gentile Christian Faith now dares look thee in the Face and ask in Zebul's Words to Gaal Where is now thy Mouth It proclaims thee to be as the Beast in the Revelation which was and is not yea as a corrected Viper of an horrid Poison to be made a sovereign Medicine of a King of Terrors to be made a gracious Prince of Peace the loathsom Prison of thy Grave to be turned to a quiet Bed-chamber and thy Sepulchers to be no more Hell's Gates Camero in Myrothec in Mat. 16.18 but Heaven's Porches It is true thou retainest Power to kill the Bodies of Saints but having so done thou canst do no more and what is it that thou dost therein Thou killest but makest not an end of them Thou curest them of Sin their loathsom Disease and art a real Saviour and but a seeming Destroyer Power indeed thou hast sometimes to affrighten Souls Abraham our Father was affrighted by thee Gen. 12. David the valiant was also scared 1 Sam. 21. Miserably thou didst terrify upright Hezekiah Isa 38. And Peter's Magnanimity vanished at a Shadow of thee Mat. 26. But egregiam laudem spolia ampla Is this thy Praise To affrighten is no more than every Shadow can do and what is more inglorious than a Bugbear that is harmless Thy affrightning Believers speaks much Weakness in them but not any Strength in thee It is confessed as for thy Appearance it is as of a Curse and not a Blessing Thou comest with a Warrant in thy Hand from the supreme King and irresistably turnest all Flesh into Destruction Upon thy devouring Sword Christians do read Sin 's terrible Mark though Socinian Eyes see nothing but mere Nature's Puncturâ peccati morimur is the Saints Motto They believe thee sent from their God to execute Wrath on their Sins and full often do fear thee sent to inflict it on their Souls so much do thy cruel Hands look like God's vindictive ones but simillimum non est idem And what art thou O Death but as the End of Plants and Brutes and the Ruine of Sinners so the Gain of Believers such a Gain as passeth Understanding and maketh their holy Faith to proclaim thee more than a spoiled Spoiler even a good and faithful Servant become unto them a Servant unto thy old Servants who were all their days subject to Bondage through fear of thee all the days of their Christless Estate subject to Bondage But now that they are Christ's thou O Death art theirs Thy Name hath a Place in the Inventory of their Goods 1 Cor. 3. Feed on then upon thy Egyptians Psal 49.14 But know O Pharaoh and thy Princes O Death and thy Harbingers the Heads of Leviathan are broken in pieces they are given to be Meat to Israelites inhabiting the Wilderness Psal 74.14 If it be insolently said that this Triumph is too loud that Death is the great Fear of none but little Souls and deserves not so lofty a Song or that it is not yet so dead but that it has Sting enough left to pinch and pain and poison its most
swayed the Scepter of these Kingdoms affirmed it to be the purest of all the Reformed Churches And the Divine to whom the Prelacy the Dissenters and the Foreign Churches do rise up with greatest Veneration as to a Theological Prince doth now name that Church the Morning-Star of the Reformation Of his PARENTAGE suffice it to be said He was the Seed of God's Friends His Family was Honourable in its Relations and most eminent for Religion His EDUCATION was first in the College of Edinburgh Wherein he ran through the Course of Philosophy with great Applause And made laudable progress in the Learned Languages Then translated to the University of St. Andrew's he travelled through Theology under the Conduct of the Learned and Holy Mr. Rutherford His NATURAL PARTS were excellent His Vnderstanding quick and penetrative His Judgment clear and profound His Fancy rich and fluent His Memory strong His Expression masculine and of a Grace that did take with those who were not unacquainted with his Idiotisms and Accents By which it was indeed clouded to us of England His ACQUIRED LEARNING was great Answerable to his happy Parts and their Culture Through the Divine Blessing on his pious Diligence it was Rathe-Ripe History the Eye of Learning he singularly affected Especially Sacred History the Right Eye But unto him all History was sacred for he considered God's Actions more than Man 's in all of it Nor valued he Man's but for the Knowledg of God's With whose holy Counsels and Ways he was so well acquainted that before he was 23 Years old he was called to a Pastoral Charge And was settled therein at Campuslang in the Shire of Cliddsdale Where he served his God till the Year 1661. In which the Storm rose that drave out thousands whereof the Age was not worthy He had taken in Marriage Christina Hamilton justly famed for her Person Gifts and Graces which were all eximious By her he had seven Children and with them and himself sweetly committed unto his God's Provision he humbly received the Honour of his Ejection Of the Children the Lord received to himself three of them before their Mother and two of them since Blessed be his Name two do still survive As for WORLDLY SUBSTANCE his Share seems according to Agur's Desire He hath told me that as Luther he never to his knowledg desired much of it or was very careful about it During the most tragical days his Table was spread and Cup filled and Head anointed with fresh Oil. Liberally his Children were educated and in good Works he was profusely rich Of his own Laying up I have good warrant to say he had no Treasure but in Heaven His own Testimony of his Life was this It was one made up of seeming Contraries Great outward Trouble and great inward Comfort And I never found said he more Comfort than when I was under most Affliction Touching his NAME and NOTE in the World this only shall be said Against all his Projects and Pains to restrain it his Fame hath flown thrô the Christian World His Conferences Sermons and Writings made it too big and too bright to be covered A Name more sweet and precious and more generally so to Christians of all Minds and Gusts I Hear not of nor Read I any one To the Praise of our English Court I write it the Sun and Moon as well as other rare Stars thereof admired holy Fleming and shone propitiously on him May the everlasting Love of his God be the Reward of their Love unto his faithful Servant But I am yet in the lower Hemisphere More high and honourable things remain to be said of this Man of God! His CONVERSION to his God was early and illustrious It was but a little while that he had dwelt in this World before God dwelt in him and he in God And that so evidently by the Exilience of all Christian Vertues that little more doubt was made of his being Born of God than of his being Born of a Woman His WALK with God was admirable And to the many of this Age will seem incredible It is certain not one Enoch of many doth walk so exactly So universally in all holy Ways and so humbly with Self-denial to Extremity It was extraordinarily that his Spirit was composed for Adoration and accordingly his Life was a Life of Worship extraordinary His Solemn Dedications of himself to his God were frequent His Soliloquies with him almost perpetual He was ever with Him And his always-serene Countenance spake it enlightned always by the Divine One. His always-gracious Speech shewed from what Altar the Coal touched his Tongue Not without cause it hath been a Fear that should his Diary come abroad most Readers would be too weak Vessels for his strong Wine His ACTIVITY for God in his Ministry was such as was to be expected from a Mr. Fleming From a large Soul comprehensive of the Interests of God and his Church and the World the present Age and future And from a Soul most enflamed with Love and thereby constrained to spend it self and be spent for no petty Faction or Party but for Certain and Catholick Christianity What a Writer he was needeth not here to be written In Preaching he was Boanerges and Barnabas also Nor knew any Man better how to use Law and Gospel without either opposing or confounding them For Converse and for all things useful what might Campuslang testify of him What might Edinburgh and adjacent Places wherein after his Ejection he lived and laboured What might Rotterdam say where from the Year 1678 to this present Year he burned and shined The Sun I think stood still all the time wherein he had no Design for God going on It is well known the Sun of his Life did set upon an excellent Design Which was of sending forth a Treatise concerning the Way of the Holy Ghost's working on the Souls of Men especially after Conversion in Communion between God and them His SUCCESS from God given in his Work was not ordinary He had a numerous spiritual Progeny And they are very many who have thankfully commemorated in my hearing their Benefit from his Writings The Holy Spirit that bloweth in whose Books he listeth hath singularly honoured his And I well know doth still continue to honour them Of both his surviving Sons it must be said though it be here a very high word they do Patrizare And do make it manifest that the holy Saint's Prayers were heard and his Pains richly prospered unto them His PEACEFULNESS in God's House is by no means to be omitted Controversies he declined not because of Insufficiency but of Dislike Seeing better than others do or will see that many Errors will be sooner struck to death by a Just Contempt than by a Full Confutation And will be less apt to revive after they have been generously disdained than after that they have been operously exploded Well he knew and oft he would say what a Servant the Bond of Love is