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the crown, is another kind of news, than Run, and you shall have riches, honour, and pleafures. Blefs him at all times, who hath difpofed your lot so, as these only great things have taken you by the heart. Be not weary in well doing; for in due time you fball reap, if you faint not; and we fhall fee one another fhortly, in the midst of.fuch joys, as the tongues of men and angels cannot in the leaft exprefs; therefore you have no caufe of fadnefs, but of rejoicing, that you have another friend gone before you, who will welcome you fhortly into your Lord's joy. Grace be with you. Account it all one, as if I had spoken all this to you face to face. Thefe are the words of,

Your dying brother,

A. Welwood

IV. A Letter to his Coufin THOMAS WELWOOD.

My Dear Coufin,

Though I be almost amidst death's pangs, I cannot forget you, because of the fweet friendship we have had together; and becaufe you are (I am perfuaded) one of the heirs of glory, and among those who wrestle through manifold temptations, unto the land of eternal confolations. O if I could tell you what my Lord hath done for me unto this very hour; and much more fince I came hither, than in many foregoing years. I think if I had time, I could fill a whole volume with wonderful experiences of his loving kindness, strange providences, and fweet chaftifements; fo that an halfyear may be better than an hundred. It is not the length of time we are to look to; we have a race to run to heaven, and when we have finished it we have done. Oh Coufin, even a faint may live long,

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and make very small progrefs to glory; yea, many go backward; and it were better for them, they died ere that be, before they dishonoured God by their backfliding carriages; therefore run faft, Eye the joy that is fet before you, and patiently endure all the temptations and troubles in time, for your Lord hath promifed, that he will never leave you, nor forsake you: and none fball be able to pluck you out of his hand. Indeed you may have fore trials, both outward and inward; but be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart; for you are not to bear your own burden, but to caft it fully over upon him. And I promife o you, in my Lord's name, you shall be fuftained: he is our ftrength, our wisdom, our righteousness, and our all; even all that we want, all that we can defire. Never notice long or fhort life; but live to die, and then you die to live eternally: 0 think much upon eternity, and you fall think fa nothing of time. Alas, alas! the things of time 8 fill our eyes fo, as we never regard eternity; yet time will be at a clofe ere ever we be aware. I have fomewhat the advantage of you in getting the fore,ftart: but we fhall be together perpetual- 8 ly even immediately, and we fhall have another manner of converfe, than poffibly we could have t had on earth. In heaven they are not confined to moments, days, and years; we fhall have eternity to rejoice and be glad in. O what a life fhall we have, when you and I fhall follow the Lamb whi therfoever he goes! 'when we shall have fin, tempt ations, and miferies done away! We know not the excellency of our invaluable inheritance; and therefore are we fo much taken up with earthly trifles, and fhadows, that are nothing; which bewitch all the worldlings out of their wits, and the

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faints too, in a great measure; it were more wifdom in us, to use the world, as not abusing it, as not fetting our hearts upon it. Beware of the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, wherewith you may be entangled, in the condition you are in; if you take not heed, your courfe to glory will be the more flow, and you will drive your chariot-wheels heavily up to the higher city; yea, the thick clay will make them come back upon you. O confider how great a bufinefs falvation is! we can never confider it enough. You will think so, when you come to death, which you ought to look upon as at the door.

1 fpeak not these things, as if you knew them not already; but I put you in remembrance defiring to communicate a little of my mind to you, now when I am at the brink of time; because Providence hath fo ordered, that we cannot speak face to face these things, which are the true and genuine thoughts of my heart. Beware of the pollutions of the times: it is comfortable to me that I had little or nothing to do, as to outward things, with this horrid, curfed defection. Hate the garments spotted with the flesh: clean garments are of great worth; and these few, in this woful time, that have kept their garments clean, Shall walk with our Lord in white; for they are worthy. To keep clean garments, that is, to be pious alone; pious in your family, in your worship; pious in your worldly employments; full of charity, defpifing the world; walking wifely towards these that are without, and towards these that are within. And as to the times, let your zeal be wife, and your wisdom zealous. You may believe a dying man, I am fully perfuaded that this Prelacy is abominable Antichriftianifm; and that the prelates and curates are the minifters, not

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of Chrift, but of Antichrift and Satan; and that it is utterly unlawful to hear them, or do any thing that may fhew you esteem them minifters,. or any way ftrengthen their hands. O the dreadful wrath that is harging over thefe lands like a cloud, which will fall down in a deluge of divine' vengeance: God will make this land to fwim in blood, even the blood of all forts, great and fmall, rich and poor, old and young, fhall be poured out, like duft; be fhall be a ftrange man, that fhall happily efcape fuch a confumption. I will not speak much of the matter, but I fee fearful things coming. But, O the glorious days fucceeding thefe! I cannot apprehend the glory that thall fhine in Britain, which fhall enlighten to the ends of the earth. fear not death; it is fin only we ought to fear; the fling of death is fin; that being taken away, it is most harmless. It is fweet to die in Christ! O what an exchange do I make! I fhall fee him, and that glorious company of faints and angels, following him whitherfoever he goes the first hour of glory fhall, in a manner, make me forget that ever I was upon earth. My afflictions have been greater than the fpectators could imagine; and ftill greater and greater, until I arrive at the ha ven of eternal reft. O it is fweet! O it is fweet! af ter a great toil and labour. My Lord is taking me in the fittest time; for both body and foul are very weary and fore toffed; but this hody fhall get a found fleep, and a ravishing wakening. O the great difference betwixt what it is now, and what it fhall be shortly! who can conceive what Christ hath done for the faints? O the depth of free, altogether free love and grace! it fhall take up eternity. to cry up the inconceivable love of JEHOVAH and the Lamb. O to think that bits of clay,

finful clay, like you and me, fhould be conformed unto the image of our only Lord Jefus ! that is a wonderful exaltation! wonderful in the eyes of all these that fee their own emptiness and vilenefs. O admire! O praife! O adore! let thefe things be ftill imprinted on your heart; all other things are but trifles. Look upon the world, as a number of mad bodies: they are beafts, whose conceptions are confined within an inch of time they are poor fpirits, who gape after time's riches, honours, and pleafures. If the world knew what they were doing, they would wonder at themfelves; at leaft, they would begin to question, whether their life on earth was real, or only empty, and a night dream. O fuch a fight as I have gotten of the world! O it is but vain, vanity of vanities: the flower and choice of it is curfed, and altogether vanity. O if I could tell you of the nothingness of the world, and of things temporal; and of the maffinefs of things eternal! compare them together, and you will wonder at the difference! The most part of profeffors (among whom I put myself) take an eafy way to heaven; and O where will you find the man or woman, that studies a clofe walk with God? It is recorded of Enoch, that he walked with God three hundred years but who can fay, he hath walked with God one day? We lofe God in the midst of our worldly employments, and cannot fay, We have fet the Lord always before us; therefore we cannot fay, We fball not be moved. We approach to him, in the morning, evening, and at other times; but we neglect our thoughts: whereas to live full of holy, divine thoughts, is to live à faint as the man is, so are his thoughts. Alas! I may say it by fad experience, unwatched over thoughts have

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