been at the yearly meeting of his friends; but by illness he was prevented; and therefore before he grew worse, he returned to Warwick, where he lived. Being come thither, his disease increased, and lying very sick in bed,

this great work of regeneration. Now to enforce people to come to this great work, and to set forward from earth to heaven, all being driven out of Paradise by the cherubim set with a flaming sword, there is no returning to that blessed life, but by the loss of that life that did grieve the Spirit of God, and which did cause man to be driven out; there is no other way of return again but by this new birth. As you are all driven and forced out of Paradise, and the flaming sword and the cherubims are set to keep the way of the tree of life, so you must return into the favour of God again, by the light of Christ; and you have line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little, to direct your minds to the light of Christ Jesus. As the first Adam was made a living soul, so the second Adam is a quickening spirit. This know for certain, no man or woman can be quickened, and raised up into the life of the second Adam, till the life of the first Adam be taken away from them.

'So now, let every one of you deal plainly with your own hearts, how you came to be a slain people to the life of the first Adam, in which life there was a working of the mystery of iniquity in every part of man. One cries, Lo here is Christ; another, Lo there is Christ; and every one is following his own imagination about the letter of the Scripture; this is still but the vain spirit of man, running and striving to recover himself; and this is the cause there is so much profession of God, and so little of his nature appearing among the sons and daughters of men. Now all of you that come to be regenerated, you must come to the light of Christ; there is no other way to it. He will search your hearts, and try your reins, and set your sins in order before you, and trace out the iniquities that compass you about; therefore you must see yourselves a lost people, a sinful people, and so come to feel the weight of your sins upon your consciences, there is no other way to come to life; you will never complain of sin till you are burdened with it, till you have a trumpet sounding in your ears, to awaken you, that you may arise from the dead, that Christ may give you light: there is no other way, dear people, you must bring your deeds to the light of Christ, and abide in the sentence of condemnation; if you save your lives, you lose them; if you will lose your lives for Christ's sake, there is no danger of your eternal life. John the Baptist, Christ's forerunner, declared, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather his wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." What is it the better for you to read the Scripture,

and being visited by some of his friends, he said to them in great weakness of body, as followeth :

My God hath yet put it in my heart to bear a testimony to his name and blessed truth, and I can never forget the

if you know not this fiery baptism, which all must know that are regenerated; deceive not yourselves, Christ will appear in flaming fire, and take vengeance on all them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I stand here as a witness of the Lord of life this day, there is no way for people to come to salvation, but they must know Christ revealed in all their hearts. What is he doing but rendering vengeance upon the carnal mind, self-pleasing, and all inordinate affections; he comes with vengeance to take away thy life; he will baptize thee with the Holy Ghost, and with fire. If thou knowest not this, thou art not a true Christian, thou wilt never look death in the face with joy, nor go down to the grave with triumph. If thou livest at home in the body, and flyest for thy life, and wilt not be willing to lose thy life for Christ if thou art called to it, and if thou wilt not have Christ to wash thee, (some for shyness and some for self-love will refuse this,) if Christ doth not wash thee, thou hast no part in him; you must come to Christ to purify you in the fiery furnace; the day of the Lord shall burn as an oven, (as the prophet speaks:) this is a dreadful day, a day of vengeance, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemeth his people from their sins. Sion is redeemed with judgment, and established with righteousness. Do not make the way to heaven easier on your minds and imaginations than indeed it is, and think it not sufficient to live in an outward observance of the ways of God. If your own wills be alive, and your corruptions remain unmortified, the judgment of God will be your portion, therefore in the Lord's name come along with me; I am come to declare what I have heard and seen of the Father. Come and examine thy conscience. Hast thou brought thy deeds to the light? Then thou hast received condemnation upon thyself, and thy haughtiness is bowed down, and laid low, and thou seest thyself a poor miserable wretch, before the eternal God. Whatsoever thou knowest of the mind of God, hast thou reformed thy ways? Come along with me, and tell me what is the ground of thy faith, and thy confidence. Is it thy obedience and qualifications? Because thy obedience is right, and thy qualifications right, what use dost thou make of them? Read the book of conscience; hast thou no ground for thy faith? Thou hast put on the reformed faith, and liveth an unreformed life: search and try thyself, man or woman. Dost thou watch over thyself, and keep in a sense of thy dissolution, notwithstanding all thy qualifications and partial reformation? Dost thou strive to enter in at the strait gate, and the narrow way? Here is the lost sheep thou seekest, the life of thy will, the life of the first Adam; the justice of God will not suffer thee to make a

day of his great power and blessed appearance, when he first sent me to preach the everlasting gospel, and proclaim the day of the Lord to all people. Therefore, friends, be faithful, and trust to the Lord your God; for this I can

saviour of thy duties and qualifications; and to take God's jewels, and to deck thyself with them, thou canst not be saved without the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. What saith thy conscience, art thou brought to this change of thy mind, and of thy conversation? Are you all willing to part with your sins, with your pride and haughtiness? Are you willing to part with your vile affections? This is the work of God's grace upon you. Dost thou place thy confidence in thy duties and qualifications, and takest God's jewels and ornaments, and deckest thyself with them? Thou tookest my jewels, saith the Lord, and didst play the harlot; if thou return to the Lord, and humble thyself, and get through this difficulty, thou wilt be happy for ever. This judgment of God, this flaming sword that turns every way, will keep thee from returning to sin, and bring thee to Christ, and cut thee off from all hope of salvation but by him, and make thee to see the absolute need of a Saviour, and that thy life is hid with Christ in God.

'It is God's infinite goodness to men that he will hide pride from them, and humble them under his mighty hand. This is the condition of poor creatures that are slain by the hands of the Most High. How may I know when I am slain and baptized, and come to have sincerity? They that have this baptism enter into the heavenly life, if you love the light of Christ Jesus, it will be thus with you; God will make short work in the earth. He will set thy sins in order before thee, and make thee watchful unto prayer, and lead thee to holiness of life and conversation, and make thee abhor thyself, and despise all the pomps and pleasures and vanities of this world. When he hath adorned thee with his graces, then watch for the light, and in the light of Christ thou shalt see light, and that all thou hast done, and canst do, is but thy duty. All this thou oughtest to do; thou art God's creature, and all this will not justify thee.in order to thy eternal salvation, for these services thou owest unto God. If thou diligently wait, thou shalt see more light; then the sword that proceeds out of the mouth of Christ, who is called the Word of God, will cut thee off from all thy hopes of salvation from any thing thou hast done, from any of thy qualifications, from any thing that thou canst do; so that thou wilt be a hopeless soul, nothing in thine own sense and apprehension; the power of the first Adam must die before him, and thou wilt cry out, "I am a dead, lost and undone creature; but there is a life hid with Christ in God for me, but I can never have it till I be slain into the will of God, and become as a little child, and be stripped of all my own excellency that I have attained; I must come to a sense of my own misery, and fall down at the foot of God; when I am become as a little child, humbled and slain as to my own will, and confidence in my own righteousness; I

say, I never since played the coward, but as joyfully entered prisons as palaces, and in the prison-house I sang praises to my God, and esteemed the bolts and locks upon me as jewels. And, friends, this I must once again testify to you,

will not then question but I shall live a holy life, but I will give all that life I had, for that life which is hid with Christ in God.' O! there is none come so far that ever miss of eternal life. All shuffling people that would have salvation by Christ, and will not let him exercise his heavenly power, his princely glorious power to baptize them into his death, it is they that come short of salvation; but all those that yield themselves up to Christ to be redeemed through judgment, and are be come as little children, these are in a happy state. You know that our Lord Jesus Christ took a little child in his arms, and said, "Whosoever becomes not as a little child, cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven :" you must all of you become as little children, and depend upon the mercy and free grace of God; you must all come to a holy resignation of your wills to God's disposal; if you come to Christ as little children, and depend upon him, you cannot miss of salvation; it is entailed upon such souls as hear the voice of Christ, they that hear the voice of the Son of God shall live.

'I stand here as a witness for the God of heaven, I never heard the voice of Christ, (as his follower,) till I was slain and baptized, and lay as a little child under his heavenly chastisements; as soon as ever my soul was brought to this in my humiliation, O then the dreadful judgment was taken away, and the book of life was opened unto me, and the Lord spake comfortably to me, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; and I was made a Christian through a day of vengeance, and of burning as an oven, and the haughtiness and pride of man in me was brought low. Now in this conformity to Christ's death people may die into life, and blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them. Away with all your own wills, and your pride, and haughtiness, and your hypocrisy and deceit, and all dependency upon any qualifications of your own you must come to have your life separated from you, else you will all perish. Those that will die with Christ, and be willing to die for him. he is revealed as a Saviour to them. He was before us in the days of his flesh, and complied with his father's will: he was nailed to the cross. The Son of God, when he was come to the depth of his sufferings, what was his cry, 66 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This was for thy sake, and my sake, and every man and woman's sake that do believe in him: he drank the cup which his Father gave him to drink. If it was done thus to the green tree, what shall be done unto the dry? He went before us, and when he cometh again he will take us to himself, and take us from the filth of sin, that we may be made

new creatures.

in the name of the Lord God, that what I saw above thirty years ago, still rests as a testimony to leave behind me, that a dreadful terrible day is at hand, and will certainly come to pass; but the time when, I cannot say; but all

Now, except we be born again, we cannot enter into the kingdom of God, and there is no becoming new creatures, till we be slain to the old man. Thou must be slain to thy pride and haughtiness, and the corruption of thine own will, and all selfishness thou must have God to burn it up in thee: the Holy Ghost will destroy, and burn up nothing in thee, but that which will bring an eternal fire upon thy soul. Show me thou whom my soul loveth; where is the path of life, the footsteps of the flock of thy companions? Why should I be as one that goes aside? Now every one that lives at home in the bosom of self, take this with you, though you profess the truth, and live in an outward conformity thereunto, yet if you secretly indulge your corrupt wills, and live a flesh-pleasing life, and consult with flesh and blood, and are not rent off from your lusts, you cannot enjoy the Lord of life; while I am at home in the body, I am absent from the Lord.

The body of sin is a loadstone to draw you from the life of God, and from glorying in the cross of Christ: this is flesh and blood, and flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. For the Lord's sake, for your soul's sake, and for the sake of your eternal happiness, put not off this work, but pursue it, and it will be perfected. See how Christ is revealed in you by the Holy Ghost, and with fire. God will redeem you by the spirit of judgment and burning; it is not ranging abroad in your minds, but you must know Christ is in you except ye be reprobates; if he hath set your eyes and hearts upon himself, and made you to water your couch with your tears; if he hath broken your sleep, so as you have cried out, I shall be damned, and never come to salvation;' (this will be your cry, it was once my cry,) O let not your eyes slumber, nor your eye-lids take any rest, till you be sure the Lord is your God; if you find these qualifications, you are on your way, otherwise you will be like a deceitful bow, and never abide in judgment; if you reject the counsel of God against yourselves, and refuse to be crucified with Christ, and to be baptized with his baptism, you will never have life; but by his baptism, and through the heavenly operation of his Spirit, if thou hast faith in Christ's name, thou shalt be married to him in everlasting righteousness; salvation shall be brought to us, and eternal life be bestowed upon us; even that life which is hid with Christ in God, he will give to every poor mournful soul that submits to his blessed will, and believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ: this is not a faith of our own making, nor a garment of our own embroidery, but that which the Lord hath given to us. O happy man or woman, that obtainest this gift of God! O, who will not lose their lives for this everlasting life? Who will not die for this eternal life? Now the matter lies in the death of your own wills: when you have done the will of God, then watch that your own wills