will not believe upon such grounds and foundations as are laid in Reason and Religion from the Scriptures and Experiences of Faithful Men will never believe As for us that do believe if we be deceived as we are not God hath deceived us as he hath not nor cannot Therefore we hope we have taken the surest and safest side for God in the ways of Righteousness Because if we be delivered it is his Mercy if we be not delivered it is his Justice yet we dye in a good Cause and it is better to suffer for well doing than for evil doing We dye in a good Cause we dare venture our Faith is such For us to live is Christ and to dye is gain but whether we live or dye we are the Lords The Jews have a great Faith in their Messiah to come and they dye in it The Turks have a great Faith for their Mahomets coming and they dye in it The Millenaries have a great Faith for Christs Temporal Kingdom will the Saints alone for a Thousand years and they dye in it If these men have such hope upon such slender Grounds shall not we much more upon a surer word of Prophecy that hath hitherto come to pass and hath been fulfilled in every tittle This is our Comfort we will not let go our hold though Satan hath sifted us as the Wheat is sifted yet Christ hath prayed for us that our Faith shall not fail nor the Gates of Hell prevail against it and we will live and dye in this Faith by the Grace of God Obj. The Prophet is a Fool and the Spiritual man is Mad much Confidence as well as Learning hath made him Mad. What will this Babler say He seemeth to be a setter-forth of strange things and he speaketh of a Resurrection Sol. We preach Christ Crucified to the Jews a stumbling Block and to the Greeks Foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God Because the Foolishness of God is wiser than Men and the weakness of God is stronger than Men God hath chosen the Foolish things of the World to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the World and things which are despised God hath chosen yea and things which are not to bring to nought things which are that no flesh should glory in his Presence I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek Ob. Every Tub shall stand upon its own bottom Sol. Provided it have a good Foundation not else Ob. I must answer for my self take you no care Sol. Keep there but reject not a charitable care and see that your Cause be good SECT XIII I thank God I have such thoughts as these David had them in his low condition Apology when he was as the man that had been long dead lying in the Grave and out of the mind of others but full of hope in his own mind God's Rod and his Staff comforted him and so it does me and being thus filled with God's promises I find no room for the vain and empty things of this World And as David's hopes came to pass at last so shall mine and the hopes of all that fear God I have studied all I can to find Comfort in Sorrows but I can find none but in God and a good Conscience all the rest is vanity of vanities and vexation of Spirit The Sum of all is fear God and keep his Commandments for that is the whole Duty of Man and that will bring a man peace at the last What did all our Wit and Wealth and Power do us good in Twenty years War We ruined our selves at the last They that fought so long could never obtain their ends all ended in destruction but God bringeth all things to pass at the last When shall we be setled and how Never till we embrace and hold fast the true Religion Christians were persecuted but they conquered still by suffering Jews trusted to Egypt for Chariots and for Horses but all was a broken Reed Leave thy Fatherless Children to me I will preserve them alive and let thy Widdows trust in me We shall have the better of it at the last When you see it you will believe it but we believe it before we see it Ye have not so much Faith it seems as we have according to our Faith so shall it be unto us Lord we believe help thou our unbelief Lord increase our Faith What is contended for among us A Temporal Kingdom The Good Old Cause who shall be greatest who shall be uppermost This will not do but whosoever will be least among us he shall be greatest he shall be uppermost this will do I like the Praying People as they call themselves for their Prayer I should like them better if they would leave their fighting I dare not trust them in their long Prayers to devour Kings Houses and Priests Houses and Widdows Houses and Fatherless Houses and Strangers Houses Let them lay down the Arms of Flesh and take up the Arms of the Spirit and we will pray with them and if occasion be fight with them and for them in a good cause when lawfully called not against Lawful Powers but against unlawful Rebels and Invaders And for the other Party were it not for the palpable intollerable Errors of Papal Supremacy Infallibility Transubstantiation Truce breaking Assassination c. In other Truths we would gladly give them the right hand of fellowship But what essential Doctrine do we Protestants differ in if we can tell Let there be no strife between us for God's sake for we are Brethren What my Brother the Son of my Mother that sucked the same Paps together my Mothers Children were angry with me and wounded me in my Mothers House Quò non penetras livor improbe quidne scabrae malignitatum clausum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O this is hard Who can bear it What not all the Enoticows Interims Confessions Comprehensions Condescentions Will nothing do A wide Door is opened for all Christians to unite against the Common Enemy the Turks that are as Hanibal at our Gates but we do not stir a foot to agree among our selves because of Pride and Profit to put by the Plague and Shame of Christendom There wants not a great price in our hand if we had a heart to take it Now is the time now is the day of Salvation or never Thus I poor wretch strive to settle and comfort my self and you all I can but all is nothing without God When the Woman in the time of Famine cryed out to the King passing by upon the Wall saying Help my Lord O King He said if the Lord do not help thee whence shall I help thee Out of the Barn-store Or out of the Wine-press So we may cry our hearts out for help from
was too late But none of these was Jehoshaphats case nor will the letter of the Text bear it nor the Spiritual sense Nor is this the true Case of a Christian nor will I hook it into the Text by violent wresting thereof Sin may bring into Temporal streights and does but Grace and Love casteth out these legal fears The Spirit of Adoption speaks Liberty and the Blood of Christ speaks better things than the Blood of Abel and the Gospel than the Law God bids us to speak comfortably to his People And Christ saith Let not your hearts be troubled and leaves his Peace ever with his Church I will not therefore fright poor tender Consciences into despair I understand better things Listen not therefore to the sad complaints and outcries of the Flesh in passions and furies against all reason but give ear to the sweet melody of the Spirit in Religious fellowship with God above all carnal grievances whatsoever Say not only in the flesh We know not what to do for if you look no further you will not know what to do indeed But say in the Spirit Our eyes are upon God and then you will know what to do indeed for the Spirit will teach you what you should do and lead you into all Truth and Peace with joy unspeakable and full of glory In and in order to the work of Regeneration Men cry out to their Companions Men and Brethren what shall we do as being pricked in their hearts and being willing to do any things for God's glory and their own good desire to know what they should do that they might be saved and to God Lord what wouldst thou have me to do And the Answer is ready from God Repent and be baptized and wait till the times of refreshment shall come from the Lord. Forget those things that are behind and look to those things that are before pressing on to the mark and to the Price of the high Calling which is laid up for us in Christ Jesus There was a time of Legal fears it is now the time of the Gospel we are not to fear after that fashion but are bidden to rejoyce alway in the Lord and again to rejoyce to mortifie all Earthly fears and joys and to exult because our Names are written in the Book of life The Jews had Faith only for Temporal Deliverances but Christians have Faith for both We have not that Spirit of Bondage to fear as they did but we have received the Spirit of Adoption to hope as they did not Children in Minority as Women are fearful but the Adult quit themselves like men When I was a Child I thought as a Child spake as a Child I did as a Child but when I became a man I put away Childish things The Gospel is Tidings of great joy which shall be unto all People Therefore for Christians to be alwaies sighing and groaning and crying whipping and tearing themselves going in Pilgrimage bare-foot and bare-legd lying on boards in Sackcloth and Ashes I think savours not of a right Spirit So to fast this great Day is not to disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast or to hang down their heads like a Bull-rush for a day but to undo the heavy Burthens and to let the oppressed go free to do Righteousness and love Mercy and walk humbly with their God See God in all these The last Remedy is best Our Eyes are upon God because God's Eyes are upon us God's Care is upon us because our Trust is upon God So men look one upon another and cannot help one another So men look upon God and he helps them all As two Friends look one upon another to pity and help one another if they can And one Friend may be able to help himself and his Friend and all his Friends and the other Friend and Friends are helpless altogether either of themselves or their Friends One Friend may have no need of help but the other hath But all have need of help at one time of other from each other and at all times have need of help from God God is able and willing so are not Men not all Men nor at all times One Deep calleth upon another The depth of Sin and Misery on our part calleth upon the depth of Grace and Mercy on God's part SECT IV. This Doctrine easily falls into use and practice Application as followeth at large 1. Against sinful Hopes from the World the Flesh and the Devil they do us harm 2. Against sinful Fears from the World the Flesh and the Devil they do us harm as of Damnation here or hereafter The most Wicked are the most fearful fearing where no fear is at every shadow at every noise even to the shaking of a leaf because there is guilt within The most Righteous are most hopeful where most despair is for substance and Clamours over their heads 3. But Faith is above Hope and contrary to Hope and Faith is above Fear and contrary to Fear And Love advanceth Hope and casteth out Fear and Patience overcometh Fear keeping Love and Hope 4. In Sins who should we look unto but to God alone for who can forgive Sins but God alone 5. Miseries who should we look unto but to God alone for who can save from Miseries but God alone 6. Humiliation therefore is necessary under Sins and Humiliation is necessary under Miseries And this kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting SECT V. It will be no unreasonable Prodigies nor unseasonable Excursion I hope if I decry all sinful Fears or Hopes arising from Prodigies which do minister hugely to the Spirit of Bondage in Gospel Times To seal men with the Mark of Cain who feared that every Man that met him would kill him and that his Sins were greater than could be forgiven him Or with the Mark of a Hypocrite whose hope shall certainly perish and his expectation shall be utterly cut off as the Spider's Web before God perish and come to a fearful end The old Prophets by their Learning Holiness and Gifts did create Reverence to their Persons and Messages under the Law And doth Heaven now make use of Monsters Spectrums Comets or other Meteors as of Blazing-Stars c. or of Unclean Spirits as his Publick Heralds under the Gospel Signs Moral Signa Moralia I grant As the gradual lessening of the glory of the Jewish Polity and Paedagogy by the ceasing of Prophets the absence of Heavenly Fire unextinguished upon the Altar the want of the Ark of the Covenant the Schechinah the Vrim and Thummim The lapsing of Government from Kings to Dukes from Dukes to the Sanedrim from the Sanedrim to the Roman Yoke No Kings were Types of Christ after David and Solomon except Hezekiah may come in The splendour of Moses's Worship waxing dim might be a sign of the Sun of Righteouss's arising in a state of more Spiritual and Inward glory The Jews used Signs much
this World Why Because I know and feel That 1. God is mine by his own Act and Deed not only of Creation as he is to all but of Redemption as he would be to all if they would take it and is to all that do embrace it to whom he therefore giveth power that they should be called the Sons of God And then God's Work is done 2. I am God's by my own Act and Deed not only by owning my self to be the Work of his Hands but covenanting with him to do and suffer his Will in and upon me and to trust to him that he will be my exceeding great Reward And so I may call God Father And then my work is done While a Soul is abstracted with mutual Enjoyments Studies and Raptures with God no worldly Grievances can affect such sublime Spirits as they do those that grovel upon the ground in the concerns chiefly of the Flesh and of the World 'T was said of Archimedes that his Mind being intent upon Demonstrations when the City was besieged and the Enemy broke in upon him he perceived not the Danger of his Death till it seized upon his Contemplations Death it self is not fear'd nor felt so much in the Flesh to a man that is mortified to the Flesh before-hand from the Corruptions and Lusts thereof waiting all the days of our appointed time till his change do come looking for after this earthly house of his Tabernacle is dissolved to have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens but groaning earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with his house which is from Heaven that being clothed he shall not be found naked not for that he would be unclothed but clothed upon so that mortality might be swallowed up of life desiring not in the Flesh but in the Spirit to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Other thoughts and cares are eating fretting and consuming but these are healing comforting and reviving caring for God how we may please him that cares for us By these the Soul is upheld from sinking into despair when the Flesh the World and the Devil are alltogether about our ears Thus we bear up against the Waves because our Stern is good or Keel is sound and our Pilot steers a right Course Do not therefore break my heart with worldly fears I have a mind to hope as well as fear I have crowded my Head already among the Stars I may be vex'd in my Body but that also being ioyn'd to the Head will follow after it by degrees and Christ which is my Head will draw my whole Body Soul and Spirit after him with whom I am already in Faith in Heavenly places My Tribulation worketh in me patience and patience experience and experience hope and I shall never be ashamed So I encourage all Sufferers Durate rebus vosmet servate secundis Dabit Deus his quoque finem Virg. Upbraid me not but pity me for I am resolved and therefore tempt me no more it is enough that I suffer I murmure not let me alone Oro miserere laborum tantorum miserere animi non digna ferentis They that sow in tears shall reap in joy and bring their Sheaves with them after a few days I shall find the comfort of it An humble Soul aims high God and my Right but all in Christ God be merciful to me a Sinner for his free Grace in Christ Jesus only Amen If in this Life only we have hope we are of all men the most miserable It is so short and miserable that in our Extremities we look one upon another and know not what to do What shall we do in Death That puts an end to all worldly Extremities eases the poor Captive in the Dungeon from his Bonds and the oppressed from all Tyranny and is too often wished for in the error of our Life but is a beginning of endless Extremities to them that have no hope We that could not tell what to do in Life what shall we do in Death When the naked Soul sits trembling upon the pale lip to be plunged into the bottomless Abyss of Eternity But if in this Life our hope be full of a Glorious and Blessed Immortality we know what to do there is hope in Death When the Body goes to the Dust the Soul returns to God that gave it to the God of Abraham and of Isaac and Jacob who is not the God of the Dead but of the Living for they are all alive in the Spirit with God and shall live with him in the Body when the times of Refreshment shall come from the Lord. My Son if thou come to serve the Lord prepare thy Soul for Temptation set thy Heart aright and constantly endure and make not hast in time of trouble Cleave unto him and depart not away that thou mayst be encreased in thy last end Whatsoever is brought unto thee take chearfully and be patient when thou art changed to a low estate For Gold is tried in the Fire and acceptable men in the Furnace of Adversity Believe in him and he will help thee order thy way aright and trust in him Ye that fear the Lord wait for his Mercy and go not aside lest ye fall Ye that fear the Lord believe him and your reward shall not fail Ye that fear the Lord hope for good and for everlasting Joy and Mercy Look at the Generations of old and see Did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded Or did any abide in his Fear and was forsaken Or whom did he ever despise that called upon him For the Lord is full of Compassion and Mercy long suffering and very pitisul and forgiveth sins and saveth in time of Affliction Wo be to fearful hearts and faint hands and the Sinner that goeth two ways Wo to him that is faint-hearted for he believeth not therefore shall he not be deseded Wo unto you that have lost patience and what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you They that fear the Lord will not disobey his Word and they that love him will keep his ways They that fear the Lord will seek that which is well-pleasing unto him and they that love him shall be filled with the Law They that fear the Lord will prepare their hearts and humble their Souls in his Sight saying we will fall into the hands of the Lord and not into the hands of Men for as his Majesty is so is his Mercy Blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Mercies and the God of Comfort who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selves are comforted of God For as the Sufferings of Christ abound in us so our Consolation also aboundeth by Christ and whither we be afflicted it is for our Consolation and Salvation which is effectual in the enduring of the