: are the fource of vain words, and unprofitable actions; the mind is the fpring of all. Beware of the fins of the time, as you would fhun the terrible judgments that threaten an apoftate genera tion: the paftors are become brutish, they are fons of Belial, and know not the Lord; therefore they who hear them, are partakers of their abominations. I need fay no more. You never have rightly fought God, until it be your chief delight to seek him; therefore never reft till you can say, I will go to God, my chiefeft joy. O then you are as happy as God can make you, (to speak fo, with reverence to that high and lofty One, who inhabits eternity) and can you be more happy? I take to witness against you, your own confcience, and the great Judge of the quick and the dead, That, if you continue in any vain imagination, living without God in the world, neglecting fo great a falvation, you are a trampler under foot of the blood of the covenant, and a despiser of all admonitions: but all this will do little, until he, who made heaven and earth, regenerate you. It may be he will hedge up your way on every fide by affliction, that you may be conftrained to flee unto him, who is a prefent help in time of trouble. This, if you follow it, is the beft legacy I could have left you; for if you knew the danger of the pelf of this world, little of it would fuffice. I would not for a world I had been born to be rich: the lighter burdened with thick clay, the better; it is hard to get up the mount, though ye had but a very fmall weight upon your back: for our corruptions are weighty enough without any addition. If you neglect that, which not I, but Chrift commands you, fareEwell for ever. If you obey, farewell for a few days; and then you and I fhall meet in the only paradife paradife, the flower of the whole creation: we fhall fit down upon the flowery banks of the river of life, and ravish ourselves for ever and ever, with everlasting and unspeakable joys. This is from, Your dying brother, A. Welwood. I III. A Letter to his Sifter HELEN. Dear Sifter, Am forry I did not write fooner, before my ftrength and speech did fail; but I would be glad to spend my last breath upon you, if I could do you any good. I cannot forget you, even when I have forgotten the vanities of the world; you are precious unto me, fince I knew you in fome measure a seeker of God. O what advantages there are in feeking of him! I defy men and angels to number and comprehend them: endless eternity shall be short enough to lay open the inconceivable gains of godlinefs. If you feek him diligently, fincerely, and conftantly, you shall have all things and O is not that a vaft word, all things? All fhall be yours, whether the world, life, or death, things prefent, or things to come; all thefe fhall be yours, even the great All, and whatfoever is his. O but the faints have a long, large, and full charter! if you had a charter for many lands, it were but a narrow thing: but now every place where you tread on is yours; and what can you defire more? Behold the heaven, and confider even the heaven of heavens, for these are yours: is it poffible, that a faint, the heir of all things, and joint-heir with the Son of the Eternal; is it poffible, :: peffible, I fay, that he can want any thing? Nay, the great Eternal, the Maker of all things, he is yours; and what can you defire more? Is it poffible, that a faint can want any thing, whether spiritual or temporal? I mean any thing that is good for him and he alone knows what is best for us. When I look through the paffages of my life, I fee my Lord and guide hath led me the best way; and thefe have been the fweeteft difpenfations, which croffed moft my natural difpofition; and which feemed moft judgment like to carnal eyes. We are like ignorant children, that have no judgment to make choice of things; but would fwallow down sweet poifon, and give away a rich inheritance for painted trifles. No wonder then, the world be fools and mad-men in their choice. My life hath been but a track of afflictions, and I would not for a thousand worlds it had been otherwife: though my old man defired ftill to be fwimming in the ease and vanities of the world; yet I fee my Lord hath been kindeft, when I esteemed him most cruel. The laft part of my life might feem judg ment-like but O you would wonder, if you knew what I know, and what my Lord hath done for me, in this laft half year of my life, both as. to things temporal and fpiritual: I cannot underftand them now, but I fhall very shortly; and they fhall be to me matter of eternal praife. Though I had abounded with all the eafe, delights, pomp, and glory, and riches of time; yet would I be glad to die, and leave the puddle of fwinifh pleafures, and drink of the pure river of everlasting joys, that floweth from beneath the throne of God. This world quite miftakes death: O who would not willingly leave fuch a vain perishing world! wherein we are fill difhonouring our B b God! 1 God! a world wherein the faints get bad entertainment; a world wherein the Lord of glory was, and is daily, crucified. What is here? All the glory and excellency of the creation is up above; a few imperfect faints are only here. But it is above, I fhall fee and embrace all thefe worthies, the courtiers of the King of glory. You need not be fad for my death; and will not, if you post hard after me, and follow on to know the Lord; for time is juft nothing. We shall be glad and rejoice, with joy unfpeakable and full of glory, throughout all eternity, in that land of glory, and inconceivable joys. O if you knew but a little of the excellency of that land of blessed nefs! you would in a manner envy those who go before you; though you fhould pafs never fo many fweet days, ere you can get thither, you would weary. For yourself, you are yet in an hell of forrow and fin, while out of heaven, and while they are in an heaven of joy and pleasure, O! beware of worldlymindedness, and carking cares; commit all to your Father: Seek firft the kingdom of heaven, and the righteoufnefs thereof; and then all other things fball be added unto you. Fear not, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom: and he that gives heaven, will give as much earth, as will fuffice you; and more than is fufficient, is a heavy weight, that will pull you down the mount. O mark this! He that gave his only begotten Son, out of his bosom, to be tormented unto death for you; will he not also with him freely give you all things? even every thing that pertains to life and godliness. As for things temporal, the lefs of the world, the better: all the faints will teftify it, at least when they are leaving it: I can put my feal to it now, when I am entering into eternity, that : that it is moft dangerous to be intangled either with riches, honours, or pleasures; and that it is the fweeteft difpenfation to be afflicted, and cut short of them for profperity is the neck-break of the life of godliness; as the experience of many a deceived profeffor may teftify; who seemed fomething when afflicted, but when once they got the bag, betrayed Chrift. It is hard for a camel to go through a needle's eye the more we are inveigled with this deceitful world, the lefs do we value heaven: now nothing more glews a man's heart to the earth, = than riches, which have weighed many a man down to the pit; where he is weeping and gnashing his teeth, curfing riches, and tormenting himfelf, that ever he defired them: whereas, if he had been poor, he should have been now (as men may conjecture) rejoicing amongst these glorified ones. Remember, that it is utterly impoffible to ferve God and mammon. And if your treasure be not in heaven, neither will your heart be there. I blefs my Lord for mine afflictions, .(which have been till greater and greater, till now I am leaving them all), as much as for any mercy I ever received, for now I reap the peaceable fruits of righteousness. And though now I be weeping, while I fow ; yet fhortly I fhall have as much as I can bear of the maffy fheaves of unconceivable glory. Weep and howl, ye rich men, for your misery that ball come upon you; for you now receive your good things, and the faints their evil things; therefore immediately fhall ye be afflicted and tormented, and they fhall be comforted. Bleffed are they that mourn now, for they fball be comforted. For the faints weep, while the world rejoiceth; but our forrow hall be turned into joy, and their mad mirth into unfpeakable and eternal horror. O if men did confider this, B b 2 they |