Funeral Sermons you may reade about it I say Life is sweet and Death terrible many in several distempers may call for it neither minding what it is nor whither it leads Job describes it in his Agony and Heathens could say The first good was not to be born and the next to dye quickly Paul above any desires it upon right grounds Yea the last words in the Canticles and the last in the Bible are for the Lord Jesus to come quickly yea to come to judgment as if it were the breathings of the spirits of the Just in the last times of which spirit if you be these will be your Reasons as theirs First That you may see Him of whom you have heard so much who hath done and suffered so much for you Secondly That you may have full draughts of what you now tast only Thirdly That your Beloved may come to you or you to Him for whose sake and love you may undergo here many frowns brow-beatings if not worse thus the absent Spouse waits for her Beloved Fourthly When the Sanctuary is troden upon Isa. 64.1 Fifthly That the double Vail of Corruption and Affliction may be taken off from you Thus to wish for Death is to wish for Life These things I pray study and to help you further remember Balaam would fain die the Death of the Righteous which you can never do unless you live the Life of the Godly to which I have written so much before Only let me adde That you must live in daily Expectation of this great Change for though there be but one way into the World there are many out I know nothing to sweeten it but the Death of Christ who suckt out the poison of it and saves to the uttermost Romans and Fools can dye bravely write their own Elegies I am sure a well-led life is the best Monument If one at your door should cry every morning You must dye it would not reach far but Christ dyed for you My Child 30. They say and truly Where Death leaves you there Judgment finds you Nothing flies so swiftly than as the soul out of the body and you know Eternity hangs upon a moment and such is our Life and especially such is the last groan and pang and thither it leads It is a vast Ocean hath neither bound nor bottom where you are to come before an impartial Judge with a naked and open breast it is unavoidable and the miscarriage there intolerable Many Books are written by many about these last things and Apothegmes not a few the World and the Flesh will not appear for you the former can lend you but a few Ceremonies and Complements the other dare go no further than the Judges door but a good Conscience sprinkled by the Blood of Christ will enter with boldness and plead and hear the voice of Come ye blessed Your wisdome will be to carry your Pardon in your bosome there Wit and Learning Parts and Wealth will get no hearing there the Eloquent Orator is dumb no Coin is currant but the Blood of a loving Saviour No man can appear there by any other Proxy there Greatness must give way to Goodness there Hypocrisie is unmask'd Truth naked there your fellow Saints shall sit Judges though dispised amongst men there the Son of man shall appear because despised as the Son of man there Preaching Miracles Casting out Devils will not profit but a Name written in the Book of the Lamb Oh that you would consider betimes what a nothing a thousand years are to Eternity yea where you shall be an hundred years hence if the Grave make no distance betwixt the Scepter and the Mattock what will Eternity do when that shall make the difference Wherfore I pray measure all your works by Eternity eat drink sleep work by Eternity the cry of a damned soule is I never minded Eternity how many are every day carrying faggots to burn them to Eternity Call that good that holds for ever Let but the Judge be your Husband and fear nothing The ever-living God love you and keep you to all Eternity My Child 31. And because I have brought you so far as the Great Day give me leave to awaken you with the condition of the place Heaven and to let you know it in the particulars which are the presence of all good and the absence of all evil the former commends it self unto you in these First in the universality of it whereas all things here below are but partial so in the suitableness of it they are there spiritual and suitable to the Spirit Secondly for their Continance the good things are not like Cherries drawn by the lips or Comforts tasted and gone but they stay and are good for ever Thirdly Evil knows no place there Sin cannot dwell with that Holiness Sorrow cannot mingle it self with that Joy no more fading Riches dying Friends changing Honors perishing Beauty no more aking heads nor languishing diseases no more hearing the chain of the Prisoner nor anger of the Oppressor no cry of what do you lack every Bottle is full and every Bed easie being of never-blasting Roses and Sweets where every Room is paved with Love where Wisdom Power Mercy and Grace have combined to make all glorious and pleasant Then never be troubled about a dunghil-world when the Apostle to the Thessalonians sayes all in a few words We shall be with the Lord for ever and that includes all answers all hard Questions all hard Labours under the Sun Remember the Swaggerer that met the poor man ever mourning over his sins quoth he What still mourning c. But what if there be no Heaven Ah Sir quoth the other what if there be a Hell The Doctrine of Hell was never enough preach'd some thinks and there on the contrary is the presence of all evil and the absence of all good you may study it by the former where the Tormented never die and the Tormentor is never weary where thought and fear despair punishment extremity meet altogether in Eternity The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve you to his Heavenly Kingdom My poor Child Union with Christ and Knowledge sound The Scriptures reade in Pray'r be found A constant Watch and growth in Grace Good Conscience Time short Work apace Contentment in Condition Low No Trifling Spirit in you grow Nor Busie nor Pragmatical Truth still appearing in your All Wisdom directing soon and late In Calling and in Marriage-state The World describ'd in its bad wayes A Friend indeed beyond all praise And Sin the Mother of all Grief Grace often question'd for relief With Providences running crosse Fears sinfull causing Doubts and Losse Dayes of Adversity and Evil Errors that spring from Self and Devil Sabbath for Rest and Worshipping And Free-grace pitying pardoning With accurate and holy walking Hard to believe though easie talking Death ghastly looking and Sins daughter With Judgment that will follow after Heav'n in its great Magnificence Hell's punishment in
about God before they change about his Waies I could be very large in this accounting it my very great Mercie that temptation never led me from that Honest Old Godly Puritane Profession of the everlasting truths of the Gospel Secondly Inquire whether they have been carried more to God and Holiness since their change For that which comes from God will carry us to God but if onely to Pride Censuring Libertinisme c. you know what to make of it Beware of Leaven of the Pharises Christ saies for Leaven will sowre the Dough will swell it will harden it and these you meet with in mens spirits leavened with Error Where men once leave the Rule there will be no end of their running till they come to Atheism Therfore stand in awe of God and fear him alwaies Hold to the Word as to Life Question not Truths Look to your Company Value the meanest Ordinance You will need all Be very low and humble before the Lord and Grow in Grace 2 Pet. 3 18. My dear Child 24. And because the first Child that appears in view of this Jesabel the Mother of Mischief Errour so called by John Rev. 2.20 is about the Sabbath either wholly slighting it or counting it Jewish or our day not the right day not the Seventh yea that every day is a Sabbath with the like I mean besides all such as profanely look upon it as a day of Sport Pleasure and Vanity I think it my duty to Charge you as ever you mean or hope to enjoy that everlasting Rest hereafter that you would value the Sabbath Read Dod and others about it I do not remember that I have ever met with a truly Godly gracious soul that lived above or beyond this The first Commandment sets up the true God The second his Worship according to his own will The third his Reverence and Honour and The fourth Time the seventh part of Time for him is holy Time Works of Necessity and Charity not crossing that Holiness I say the seventh part of Time because it is Night in one place when Day in another which Time begins at the Evening as Time is distinguished into Daies Gen. 1. And though the Questions about the Sabbath and Baptism breed much Dispute in the World yet we must Study to know Gods Will in both I must say more to you Where the Sabbath is at an undervallue in any Country say it be France Holland Germany c. there you shall find Religion low and at best wasting it self into Disputes But know that England which is most famous for Religion got it from the Sabbaths upon which day the Lord is pleased as Princes by their Almoners to give out his Gifts and Craces to the sons of men I was a witness that Middleburgh in Zealand grew famous for Religion by Teeling their Preacher fetching the keeping of the Sabbath from England Certainly the Fourth Commandment is the Key to all the rest for how shall the rest be practised if not taught and how taught if not time allowed and what time more likely to carry a Blessing than Gods Appointment It were as good to take down Ministry and all Ordinances as to take down the Sabbath The wonders of God have born witness as Burton and others write against the Breakers of it Wherefore look well about you Isa. 58.13 Love the Lord in his Sabbaths as you would have rest hereafter Look to this Rest here and remember the Sabbath that is Prepare for it all the week long especially the Evening before The Jewes had two Preparations to the Sabbath at Three and Six Do you keep on and gather home all Affections to wait upon the Work and let the day be dear to you The God of Sabbath be yours dear Child 25. The Premises considered I should a little open what I mean by Free Grace to which I send you so often for succour in Cases and truly it hath been much spoken of and as much abused as if men from thence might take leave for any evil and on the other hand also filth cast upon men that have labour'd to hold it forth for which Dr. Crisp suffered also and some of that mind who meant faithfully to the Church of Christ and have written much for the abasement of the Creature and lifting up Grace I wish we may judge right judgement of all men and things But a little Practically to cast in something to profit you The Grace so spoken of should mainly be minded as the Root and Fruits of the New Covenant Jer. 31. and that in Hos. 2. 19 20 c. Which you will find lie upon two-Parties Christ and the poor Believer and Christ to be considered in a double Act of his First In his loving or rather manifesting his love in time to the soul And Secondly In passing over that Right he hath in himself to the believing soul Answerable whereunto the soul first from Christs love is warm'd to love again and from his bounty in his second Act turns over all the soul hath to the Lord Jesus Christ whether Name Estate Wit Parts yea all its Interests Now Christ thus loving the soul and giving himself upon no Meritorious or procuring Cause on the souls side is called Free Grace indeed when the Father shall freely give his Son and the Son freely his Heart-blood and the Spirit freely all its operations and make a free Covenant of grace and mercy to pardon all sin to receive a sinner into his bosom without money or price nay not to offer any thing of his own either Duty or Righteousness Isa. 55.1 this call Free Grace though when Christ comes to manifest this he by the Law gets Parly with the sinner he means to save by some uncouth waies and often very cross to flesh and blood which makes the work hard to judge of at first yet be assured that the whole work will be Free in the Whole Frame of it But because this point is of such singular concernment and that I have formerly delighted to speak to others touching the same and would have the comfort of it my self I shall let you know what I know about the order of the working hereof that you mistake not 26. And in the letting you in this Light to give you the summe of true practical Divinity and therefore observe with diligence That when a discovery is made of this Love to the sinner the Lord Jesus makes a double approach to the soul the first is by the Law where he takes three steps And first by the Law he stops the sinner in his course and makes him to see sin in the very nature of it not in the Hell onely and consequence but in that it separates the soul from the greatest good Romans 7.7 And Secondly makes the soul bear the burden and weight of it which makes David himself cry out often and so others It pincheth hard where sin hath got time and strength c. Thirdly it lets
this you must know that all labour tends not to growth no more than Ants grow in bulk though very much in labour Every great Hearer is not a great Grower Nay a tree may grow in parts though not in all Grow soundly in the Root Jesus Christ and the Freeness of his Grace and then you wil not grow as Weeds do but as good Grain To which purpose I advise you observe what you gain against Corruption and so much you may hope you may thrive in Grace as the House of David and the House of Saul Do not therefore keep the Devils counsel but let some able Friend watch you to whom communicate your Decays or Growth When a Ship is observed by a Land-mark her way is easily observed Therfore mind much this one thing in all make much of a Rule and keep to it as few under the warm Gospel but know whether they be hypocrites or otherwise Even so you shall feel your Growth An old stock will not serve turn which hath been the delusion of many when every day needs new Incomes of the Spirit and so advancement to Heaven Long to grow strive to grow bewail decayes grow in both the Tables Duties The Apostle tells us of growth from Vertue yea at last to patience by affliction if we hear the Rod c. Christ's method is He hath all Grace He giveth out what he pleaseth He maintains what he gives He perfects what he maintains He crowns what he perfects And thus Christ loves you more than ever you could hate him without whose watering by his Blood you can never grow The best Evidence of Growth is to grow more humble more holy attend that well and see how it is from Meal to Meal from one Sabbath to another one Sermon to another are you fed or surfeited A very very little Grace if true is saving a little Growth if right is comforting Believe and live Believe and grow all decays comes through want of Faith to fetch blood from the life vein the Lord Christ The South North blow upon thee for Growth my Child 7. In all things as you will have use so you need to study Conscience well for it eats drinks walks sleeps buyes sells accompanies you to every duty service work doing or suffering for which you have Ames his Cases and some others It is a judging your self according to the judgment of God I write none of these Heads to you as intending any common place which this and others would make but only to leave with you a few practical thoughts upon each Our Saviour made the Jews to buy a Knife to cut their own throats when he told them the Parable of the Servants and Son sent and killed and so the Spirit by the Jews Isa. 5. when he made them impannel a Jury among themselves and by Conscience their Judge So Nathan by David it is a witness with a witness and Judge Paramount therefore I wish you to observe it narrowly if you suffer it to be defiled with the least sin whilst it hath life you may hear of it and therefore Samuel and Paul in all kept all clear there the least filth must be washt out by the Blood of Christ David paid dear for it Cains Building and Sauls Harping will do but little to cure it it may be quiet and good unquiet and good and so on the other hand but this I have noted that false Lights or dim ones have helpt much to the violation of it present things and the out-sides of things have also broke in upon it and in sinning whether the wound be in the Head or Conscience first is a question but not hardly resolved Your wisdom will be to live upon a directing word and then Conscience will make a soft bed for you in your greatest sorrow A wounded Conscience who can bear Go to our first Parent and he will tell you so who might have gathered fruit to eat rather than leaves to cover himself Do not grieve Conscience twice it must be your best friend yea when friends and world and all leave you to sollitariness If it whimper a little do not make it roar out and yet do not stifle it but attend it and carry it up to Mount Calvary for peace Remember good Conscience and Sin cannot live together Let but this Bird sing sweetly within and let Heaven and Earth come together thou shalt be safe my poor Child 8. Next I am to remember you that you have much work to do in a little time which calls you up to labour as the Day the Lark and the Lark the Husbandman Eccles. 12. the whole Chapter I hope you have it About Redemption of time you have many Treatises The greatest of your work in your short time is to get Christ and live upon him and to him And this is the life of Faith which you can never live unless Faith have to live upon it self which will digest nothing but word and promises Therefore now you are young lay in a good Stock for Faith to live on but you must do it seasonably you are young I say and may have a little time before you which certainly hath Eternity hanging upon it called a Race a Day or Hour the old World had their Day Jerusalem a Day the Gospel is called the Day of Grace Therefore lay in seasonably and not only so but abundantly for your market may be at the highest foolish Virgins had Oyl in their Lamps none in their Vessels Store is no Sore for you know not what Promises you may need for Want for Reproach for Sickness and Death The Kingdom of Heaven must suffer Violence Violent Faith Love Prayer must storm it The time will come when wishes will not help your own Works and Righteousness will fail Lastly Lay up your stock for Faith conveniently that you may reach a word when you need it most Ah that you would be wise Ask your heart at night what you have done that day in this point because every night may be your last Therefore secure your Principles walk up to the compass of every duty clear your Evidences keep close Communion with God Look out to growing Evils and fit for them And these is the work of your Generation I say it is your work you may easier make barrs to the Sea and order the Influences of Heaven than call back yesterday Therefore work and pray repent believe get assurances of Heaven to day I say to day and be happy for ever Dear Child 9. I must also invite you to Content in a Low Condition for which you have great furtherance as Mr. Burroughs for Contentment whose Writings are all savory But for my own thoughts they are these That though many write and speak of the Contempt of the World some cloyster up themselves from it yet very few are Masters of this Art which the Apostle himself had been long learning Constitution Age Experience Parts Afflictions Fulness Honor Glory will
all say We have it not Crowns have it not and Beggars want it I was about to say it is only in Heaven This Herb grows in very few Gardens But Oh that you might be truly content You will find a But upon all your Comforts and therefore you cannot be contented You may find a fulness in Christ Col. 1.19 and therefore you should be contented Mind the Disease and the Cure in this Case First All your under-moon Refreshings or Comforts are too short and too narrow beds for Content to lye in And secondly They are but partial in their help and cannot answer all Cases Thirdly They are short-live'd Riches have Eagles wings and Beauty but skin-deep Honour in anothers keeping Friends and all are but waking dreams Content must have something to answer all the defects of the Creature and it onely dwells where all Questions are fully answered springing from thence A Naked Soul meeting with a Naked Christ can only be quieted in spirituals and the same Christ improved also for temporals Sin is pardoned Iniquities and Corruption done away the Favour of God gained the Spirit bearing witness to Adoption answers all for to this you must roul at length Though I know as others so we our selves adde to our Discontents and often quarrel for a Feather in our Cap. Paul sayes nothing befalls us but what is common to man and upon that would stay us but when Eternity will pay for all And Christ hath satisfied for all sin and cut the score and will make all work to the Great End The Saints make their Challenge against all Rom. 8. last The good Lord grant you may groundedly say Thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and that is Content My Child 10. I commend unto you meekness of spirit Zep 2.3 be loving to all envy none though they thrive by evil are evil Psal. 37.1 You know what a Promise the Meek have Matth. 5.5 As inordinate Passion bears the name of all sin in Scripture So Meekness carries many good things with it as Love Pity Patience c. Nor do I oppose Meekness to Zeal but would have you allow both their perfect work Meekness wil make smooth all your wayes disappoint Enemies of the advantage they may take against you And your love will not only cover many sins but help many out of them Indeed these will be a strong guard unto you and Grief will hardly get footing long where Meeknesse and her Concommitants dwel When you lose a poor Father or a rich Friend you will be able to say you knew them mortal and will be quiet though not sensless It will fit you for Meditation a duty even out of doors and very hardly practised I know the sad experience of Passion how it barrs the door against Prayer and other duties Oh! how can we lift up wrathful hands to Heaven They say Anger is the boyling of the Blood about the Heart I am sure it cools the Heart in Spiritutuals God took this to himself when he discovered his Name to Moses a pitiful pardoning long-suffering God Oh that you might be God-like Christ-like Moses-like Michael contestng with the Dragon maintained his meekness and Paul sayes it is the womans Ornament To get to his Meekness Gentleness Long-suffering Patience and Love Lonely advise to get all when they may be had as James for Wisdom Ja. 1.5 Study Examples for with the froward you shall learn Frowardness Prize it as a Jewel And because all the good or evil we have we act through our Complexions and Skins and great are the advantages sometimes that way Know there are tears of constitution as well as of contrition and joyes also so Meekness and other graces will be hardly discern'd by some from Naturals and Morrals The Lord make you Meek from the true Root my dear Child 11. Beware of a trifling loose heart which hath been the guise the bane of many in these last daies of Liberty and the decay of that old solemn serious spirit and sober that was among and upon the ancient Professors of Religion was very visible and broke out to the common vanity of the World in Dyet Clothes Recreations condemn'd and threatned Isa. 3. But so loose in holy things that who almost did not make Religion an indifferent thing and all duties concerning it accordingly though the like Reformation was never known in any age But new temptations drew forth old corruptions made good by the changes the Israelites were under and their trifling with God under all his bounty to them till they scorn Manna and ease and would have Garlick and oppression It much appear'd in this that it grew common to dispute Principles even the highest and most consented to as also in slighting Promises Vows Ingagements Oaths Incoustancy in duty undervaluing Authority shaken men were with every wind like to every company Ministers many words and frothy Shells and Out-sides most men playing fast and loose with God Do but minde in your reading what a sober plain unaffected holy strain is in Dod Sibs Preston Hooker Burrows and many other good men to what you find in some others though it may be good men too Ah my Childe a frothy wit and a vitious life carry directly to Athisme which is the Mastermischief of this Age yea in professing England This trifling springs either from a heart and head never kindly wrought upon or never wel way'd where sin hath been or is an easie burden there men trifle with their spirits and where men are not guided by a Rule they will prove the children of Changes it grows as other evils gradually and soon conspicuous in some Constitutions like Davids Waters from the Ancle soon over the Head I must tell you Thoughts are not free nor words wind they will judge us one day and from thence this Trifling comes The best cure I know by experience I say by woful experience of this evil will be to look within the Vail to the Mercy-seat made of pure Gold for free grace to help against so great a mischief and then to be much in Prayer communion of Saints fasting and holy duties to lay some more weight upon this spirit and often to mingle the sense of sin to take away this Froth and Lightness Every Morning down to Golgotha and from thence go up to Mount Calvary Believe me If sin made our Saviour cry My God my God c. What is the weight of sin Look to a day of Reckoning Christs Spirit was ever serious never known to laugh Be Sober and Watch dear Child 12. In like manner against that spreading evil of being a Busie-body and Pragmatical which is the Plague of Man-kind 1 Thess. 4.11 The words are very full and plain Study to be quiet Do your own Business Work with your own Hands The last two will cure the former danger Read and know That whilest you look too much into others Gardens you will neglect your own Be not
be the Children of Wisdom Judge of all things by this Wisdom which will make you look upon them by Eternity To the only wise God I commend you dear Child 15. There are two very great Turns in mans Life the one is a lawful Calling the other is Marriage and miscarriages in either are almost irrecoverable For the former I must say the lesse because of your sex though your present condition may lead you to the service of others and then know Fidelity and Diligence are your duties your time and parts will then be anothers not your own Eye-service will not be acceptable to God or man much lesse comfortable to your self Many have written upon this subject as Dr. Gouge and others For Marriage though your present estate according to the world renders you many wayes hopeless yet your times are in Gods hands and daily Experience with my own will let you know that as it is the joyning together of one Man and one Woman lawfully in an indissolvable bond either for an help procreation of Children which were before the Fall or a remedy against Sin since that so it hath many Concernments in it where Goodness and Sutableness are the primary ingredients And as the Husbands duty is Love Teaching Providing Honouring c. So the Wifes must be Subjection suitable to that Love in all the parts of it And these dnties need mutual supports And this Conjugateness like a yoke must still be lin'd with more Love to make the draught easie Against this Love the Devil and Temptations will be striving People so engaged need a Standard even the Word to be set up to guide all by They need to observe each others spirits They need to pray out not quarrel out their first brablings They need at first to dwell much in their own duties before they step into each others When Repentance comes too late the best is to be made of the present condition Read Pro. 31. Oh the bitterness of unequal Matches Oh their ruine and misery I ever left you free and do only marry in and for the Lord The sensual part of that condition can never answer the incumbrances may attend it Let Christ be your Husband and he will provide you one to his own liking do nothing herein without Prayer Scripture and Counsel The Lord love you My dear Child 16. For the World I mean the People in it and that part of it the Lord hath set you in I have very much to say because my days in it are not a few as we account Believe our Saviour and the Word Joh. 16. last and you will find that in the World you shall have Tribulation and your passage out of it must be through many Tribulations and Persecutions too if you will live godly The World loves her own You must look upon it as your Enemy and use it so take what you may lawfully from it and imbrace not this present World It will kisse you and kill you like a Sea of Glasse it soon cracks though it glisters and when you have Iron shooes that tread upon it how soon may you drop in The World will give you no more credit than you have of the World to maintain it and therfore whilst you are in the World though you may know many yet be acquainted with few and even trust none Be sure you get nothing unlawfully it hath fire in it to destroy Sweat is our portion here below and whatsoever is gained by your own labour will be sweetest dearest and of longest continuance with you And do not borrow You may wonder why the World is generally imbittered to God's Children and why the way to Canaan was paved with so many difficulties Oh know it is to keep us humble to draw forth the exercise of his Attributes viz. Power Wisdom Mercy and the exercise of our gifts graces Prayer Faith Patience c. he will have the use of what he hath given yea hereby Heaven is made dear and sweet to us the storm commends the haven prison liberty sickness health and sin and sorrow Heaven where the double vail of Corruption and Affliction shall be taken off and we shall be with the Lord for ever Many dying men speak much about the Vanity of the World But truly as I would not die in a pet so I would not quarrel with or leave the World because I could be no greater in it but because I not do nor be better in it and that God is pleased I should leave it for a better I wish I had never been vain in a vain World but I appeal to and plead with Christ for my peace So use the World as if you used it not for the World hath a principle of decay in all the glory of it Dote not on it my poor Child 17. And whilest I am in the World and advising about it there is a great Raritie in the World if you could reach it and that is a Friend which is a Commoditie so very scarce that it will be your wisdom so to look upon a Friend this day as likely to be an Enemy to morrow How manie sad Experiences can I witness to of this kind yea in these times and changes Fair Dove-coats have most Pigeons Lost Estates know no Friends Joh and all the Saints complain David sadly Paul had none to stand by him You see most men now are either upon their own securitie or preferments one cries My Friend betrayed me another My Friend failed me and some cry All flesh is false and much I could say but that other causes are to be attended above instrumental They say Two may keep counsel if one be away So hard it is to get a Friend and if you have many you have hardly any The Friend I commend is a Soul-friend which you will never find among Children Fools or Prophane An Experienced Christian Friend I intend who must have three qualifications he or she must have the art and skill of a Friend few know it must have the bowels and mercie of a Friend which most want and lastly must have Faithfulness the great ingredient if such an one you can find you shall enjoy their Experiences freely you shall constantly be carried to God in their Prayers you shall have sympathie and help in your troubles The Spirit of Christ is a healing saving Spirit and such is theirs To such open your heart clearly who will never upbraid you for Confessions and know when Foundations shake you will need a Master-builder or Workman such is a good Friend and wise To get such an one must be your care and to keep must be your diligence Walk not unworthy of the mercy if you gain it Kinsman will not make it no nor a Brother though born for adversitie Your hopes may be these if the Lord promise When your wayes please him your Enemies shall be at peace with you He can raise a Friend and Himself be your best Friend To whom I
commend You dear Child 18. And because sin will be creeping into all your conditions waies and works something I must advise you about it from Experience though many Books are written about it as Mr. Goodwyns Sinfulnesse of Sin c. Yet Two things take from me Be marvellous careful it break not in Secondly as diligent to drive it out speedily And for the former Gouge and Gurnal I commend about the putting on the whole Armour Ephes. 6. Sin is a breach of the Law and the strength of Sin is the Law from that breach the soul being as well left to Sin the Keeper as to Satan the Jaylor by the Fall and nothing but the Satisfaction of Christ put in to Divine Justice can remit the Authority of it yea though the power and filth in part be taken away by Sanctification yet it will break in again as an inmate and will at least get some out-room as pride in cloathes cozenage in dealings lust in the eye passion c. and bad work it makes where-ever it is Oh keep it at staves length Peter David Heman and others ever crack under it As you cannot build your Reformation upon unrepented sin So you should not make daily work for repentance by admitting sin which must be reformed Therefore to prevent this mischief you must exercise hatred against it as against an Enemy that cut the throat or would of your best Friends and yours also and pursue it with a deadly feud hate it in all the stock and linage of it my Child A little sin is sin down with it keep your guard and hate it in all the forrage that may maintain such an Enemy I mean in the occasions leading to it in which I might be large On with all your Armour speedily and when you find it hath bespotted you do as a good houswife with her linnen get a Washing-day I mean a Fasting-day out with it by hand laver bucking if it be a stain that gets through and through it will â—ut the next spring for bleaking I mean a sin premeditated as Davids a few common tears will not help there but extraordinary and the Blood of Christ above all Ask the Damned what they aile Sin sin they cry Ask the distressed Conscience Sin too Ask the Afflicted Sin For the Bulrush will not grow without mire That which crosseth the Law of God make thy greatest crosse that which divides you from the best Good call your worst Evil It made Christ to bleed to groan to die The Lord sprinkle thy Conscience with the Bloud of the Everlasting Covenant that you may not sin to death My dear Child 19. And next because bordering upon what went before I would add a case which so often even choice Christians are incumbred with and that is Their questioning all their works after manie years Experience and Profession and their Objections many against themselves as from sin before Conversion in Conversion after it repeated sins against Judgment Mercie Light Means yea even cutting Purses under the Gallows against all Examples and what not Nay it cannot stand with Gods honour to save c. though Isa. 55.8 answers all This therefore I would have you know that though it be not safe to dig at Foundations often lest we shake the Building so our great care is to have sound Foundations to build upon which in the general is Christ and other none can lay Make quick work and see you be in Christ and offer your Evidences to a discerning Friend or more and know that God hath limited his tenders of Grace to a day of this Life of the Gospel and of Conscience awakened therefore look out whilst it is To day Put by Spiritual sloth Cares of this World bosom Corruptions or what ever may hinder God is not bound to your limitings Were it not from his Mercy and and to leave every soul inexcusable why should the Lord give any time of Grace Remember this day ends suddenly How unworthy to put the Lord off till tomorrow and how retaliated See Prov. 1. 29 c. Your delayes rob your soul long of Comfort and you keep your self the longer out of Christ's service The nature of sin is poison do not stay till to morrow for an Antidote What got Lots Wife by lingring in Sodom the Lord must pull us out Nor can you plead any thing for hereafter which you may not now Oh to work to work and if you find it will not amount to Grace then cry mightily Ply the Lord with all the Promises of his Free-grace Isa. 55.1 Matth. 11. last Revel. 22.17 Isa. 53. the whole Chapter Jer. 3.1 and many more Tell the Lord none so vile as you none so good as Himself Tell him his Nature is Mercy he may be a gainer by his Grace However hang upon him living and dying in the use of all means Hos. 14.3 4 5. But if you have your share in Christ though hardly discerned make much of it you need walk very humbly very holily do not question continually as some do Psal. 18.1 Love the Lord who hath been your strength and will answer all thy hard questions dear Child 20. I add hereunto your Case under crosse Providences yea such as where Promises seem to speak one thing and Providence another Under which the best Saints have had great and strange sinkings of spirit For which you have Sibbs Burroughs and others to help My poor thoughts also are these for Case and Cure When Joh faints Joh 4.5 When David chides his soul Psal. 42. When Heman is even distracted Psal. 88.15 Jacob will not be comforted Gen. 37.35 and so divers This great Dissertion springs from either the overweening some Comforts we enjoy our overvaluing them breeds much trouble in the losse of them So David with his Absolom or from the surprizall being sudden and unexpected a prison at first uncouth in time easie and sweet where a mortified heart grows suited to it to this I could speak much or else it may spring from some secret weight God may put into this Change of Providence which we are not aware of and so the scale grows heavie with some Lead hanging at the bottom unseen a small thing troubles more than a greater the former we apply to our own strength in it but for the other to Gods Or lastly it may spring from the Dispensation it self As when the Crosse is heavie or multiplied or of long continuance or toucheth some noble part as wounds that touch the Liver Heart Brain c. Nay I must tell you when we make our Case worse than God doth as by our refusing the Lords Comforts which Jacob did Gen. 37. or where we let loose the Reins of Passion as David Oh my son my son c. Or when we drown all our present Enjoyments in that one crosse Providence which is too near the spirit of Haman who crost by Mordecai slights all his Favours at Court and dies upon the other Your Cure