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-him, fecretly upholding his bleeding Spirit, that if courfe with him concerning his Condition, he will usually utter thefe, or fuch-like Words:

I know God is able to pass by all my Rebellions against him, but I fear he will not: Or he will fay, Do you think that if God did purpose to fhew Mercy unto me, or had ever any Thoughts of Love unto my poor Soul, that he would fuffer me to do those deteftable Evils against Nature itself, befide my inward, dreadful Temptations against himself? Again they will fay: I cannot believe that ever any of the beloved of the Lord were ever under any fuch ftrange Temptations, or defperate Thoughts against the Lord, or against myself, my Wife, my Children, or Relations, as I am. Again they will fay: When I find any Motion of deep Sorrow in me for all my Rebellions, and a full Refolution by the Power of the Lord to forfake them, and a Defire to love the Lord in Hope of his Mercy, or to praise him for his preserving me under all paft Dangers, then immediately I am fubject to the most firiest Temptations of all; therefore what Hopes can there be for fuch a one as I am? I fear Hopes or Defires concerning me is but vain; fure my Condition is as bad, if not worse, than Cain, Balaam, Judas, or any fuch like.

4. Notwithstanding thefe and fuch like hopeless Expreffions, yet if they find a Man that experimentally understands the Sadness of their Condition, they are apt to defire that Man to intreat the Lord for them.

5. Again, whatever befalls them, they have this Property abiding in them, that if you fpeak of the Creator, you shall never hear them fpeak evil of his most glorious Perfon, nor endure to hear any one blafpheme his holy Name; but on the contrary, in the very Depth of their Defpairings, they will fpeak honourably of the Holy One of Ifrael, and juftify hin in all his Proceedings towards them or any other of his Creatures.

6. The Truth is, this is that Repentance or godly Sorrow in them, proceeding from the Holy Spirit, and that most acceptable fpiritual Sacrifice that can be offered up unto him, if the wounded Spirit did but know it.

7. An elect Veffel under Fear of the Wrath to come, hath this Property in it alfo, that it is both ready and willing, if it

be perfwaded that the Lord will fpeak Peace through the Mouth of any Man or Woman unto its poor Soul, even to walk unto the Ends of the Earth, to hear the Voice of the Lord in that Creature.

8. Another true Teftimony in a chofen Veffel is this, notwithstanding his prefent Hopeleffiefs of Mercy in Reference to his former Rebellions, yet his Soul, through the fecret Love of God by his own Light in him, is not only fearful of further Temptation unto Evil; but it doth alfo abhor all Kind of Iniquity whatsoever, upon the Account of its Contrariety against the divine Majefty, and is full of longing after Perfection, whether it be through Life or Death.

9. Again, another infallible Teftimony of an experimental wounded Spirit is this, if out of Bitterness of Spirit they open their Sorrows unto their fuppofed or real Friends, they will oftentimes say these, or such like Words:

O wretched Creature that I am, fure never any one rebelled against fuch Light as I have done: I have been so ravished fometimes with the Prefence of the divine Glory fhining into my poor Soul, that I thought I had been unmoveable for ever; and yet in a little Seafon, through Remembrance of former Iniquities committed against fo glorious a Majefty, or new Temptations against fo gracious a Father, 1 am so full of burning Horror, of confufed Darkness, as if never any true Light of Life had appeared in me.

10. Again, through a ftrong Defire of knowing of the fecret Purpose of the Creator towards them, they will fay :

O that I had never been born, or that I had been a Toad, or any other created Being, but a Man; or that, that God which gave me a Being, would finish my intolerable Sorrows through my everlasting Diffolution: Or if I must perish, O that I were in-it, that I might know what I must trust unto, for I think I should find more Eafe than now I do: Or if it be thy Pleafure neither to let me know it, nor know it not; O give me Strength to bear it, and leave me under the bottet Wrath that thy Fury can adminifter unto me.

11. Thefe and fuch like bitter Lamentations, are the Elect beloved of the most high God fubject unto, which are left under a despairing Condition upon what Account foever. A

Man

Man may bear any natural Sufferings whatsoever, because he knoweth they will have an End; but a wounded Spirit who can bear, not knowing any End thereof?

12. It is thou, O Lord Jefus Chrift, which wounds the Souls of thy redeemed Ones, through thy fpiritual Abfence; and it is thou alone muft heal them with thy glorious Prefence.

13. It is not in the Power of Men or Angels, if they could weep Rivers of Blood, or could fubmit for a Seafon to bear the fame Wrath in their own Spirits, that can move thee in the leaft to release that wounded Soul whom thou loveft as thine ownself, until the fixed Time thereof, which is only known to thyself, that thou alone mayeft have the Glory of. all thy Love Trials.

14. Again, in the next Place, I fhall write of the Language of a defpairing Reprobate,, which after great literal or notional Light, is not only fallen under the Guilt of many natural and unnatural Evils, but is alfo guilty of defpifing the Holy Spirit of all Divine Purity, either because it did not prevent him from his Uncleannefs, or because it will not: justify him in his Filthiness.

15. Again, if a Friend fhall vifit him, and enquire him of his Condition, inftead of receiving any Hopes concerning Deliverance from his prefent unfpeakable Mifery, you shall hear him utter thefe or fuch like Words: My Sins are greater than can be forgiven: What are God, Men, or Angels, unto me, feeing I am eternally damned. Or elfe he will fay, I did not care if they were all eternally cut off, or in my Condition, fo that I were delivered:

16. Again, he doth not only abhor all Expreflions of Hope concerning a spiritual. Deliverance, but he also hateth to hear the very Name of God, Mercy, Salvation; or the like.

17. Again, instead of a spiritual Yielding unto the divine Pleasure of the Creator, through a Longing after his glorious Prefence, his dark Spirit is full of all fecret Envy and blaf-phemous Curfings against his Holy Spirits, yea, it is become fo natural unto him, through the abfenting of Motions of the Holy Spirit, that Nothing is fo fuitable unto him, as the Language of Fiery Wrath, or burning Death, or Blackness of

utter:

iter Darkness, or curfed Devil, Hell, and Damnation; and 'fuch like doleful Expreffions as these are:

18. So that instead of having any Defire of having Hopes of Mercy from its Creator, it rather is pleased with a Language of condemning its God of Unjuftice or merciless Cruelty.

19. Again, all the Love or Mercy remaining in fuch an outcast Condition as this, is but by Hypocritical Hellishness at the best.

20. For in the Midst of his unfpeakable Torment, if he feemeth unwilling that his familiar Friends fhould poffefs the like Mifery, it is because he thinks it will encrease his own Torments.

21. Again, a Man in this defperate Condition is full of Torment at the vifible Sight of any Living Creature whatfoever, with bloody Thoughts or Defires to it; efpecially if he thinks that that Creature poffeffeth any Kind of Joy or Peace in itself in the least.

22. Again, a despairing Reprobate is very ready to hear an experimental Man, that can fpeak of a more dreadful Damination anfwerable to his prefent Condition; but if any Man fpeaks unto him that is ignorant of his Condition, it doth fo enrage him that he would tear him to Pieces if he could.

23. Again, you shall feldom or never hear a despairing Caftaway complain of Cold; truly he hath fmall Caufe for it: Why? Because his Spirit being close Prifoner in the Flesh, it burneth oftentimes more terrible through the whole Man than natural Fire, through Want not only of cooling divine Motions from above, but alfo for Want of motioning forth, upon natural Comforts beneath, as formerly.

24. O empty vain Men, who ever you are, which meafure the unfearchable Wisdom to the holy One of Ifrael, by your own lying Imaginations, and by your blind Reason think to perfuade the unchangeable God with goodly Words to walk out of his own Way.

25. And because your vain Spirits are upon any Occafion fubject to change, you think the unchangeable God is like unto yourselves, and may change alfo; and fo either for Silver, or Honour, or both, you combine together as one Man

to

to publick or private Meeting, to cheat one another with flattering Speeches, and call it the pure Worship of God, being ready to condemn all that come not to it, as ungodly Men of Hereticks, though in their Dealings between Man and Man, they are seven Times more righteous than yourselves; and in Obedience unto the Lord Jesus Christ, are subject to all civil Authority for Confcience Sake, by fuffering under them, leaving all Vengeance unto the Lord, who hath faid, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it.

CHAP. XIV.

1. A moderate Difcourfe concerning Civil Wars in a Kingdom. 2. The Peoples Subjection to the Laws. 3. Wherein feveral Objections are answered. 4. Many Things of very great Confequence feasonably declared.

I

N the next Place, give me Leave to reafon a little in a divine Ballance between the prefent Civil Magistrates, and all Men whatsoever which have engaged with them, or against them, in the late unnatural Wars: But before I begin to take Notice of this, that I do not count thofe Men truly rational, which say there is no God but Nature only.

2. Or which fay, that God is only an incomprehenfible Formlefs Spirit:

3. Neither do I account them fpiritual or rational, which confess an infinite Being of Beings, and yet deny the Creature to be a Creature, and the Creator to be a Creator. My Meaning is this, which make no Difference between the glorious Creator, and the poor empty Creature, but affirm the divine Majefty of glorious Purities to have his Abode in all impure Spirits.

4. Though God is the Life of all fenfible or infenfible living Beings by the Virtue of Creation, yet I politively affirm against Men or Angels, that neither Heaven, Earth,

Angels,