’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 be slain, and that your cursed self take not the jewels of God, and his bracelets and ornaments, and bestow them upon self, and paint and deck cursed self: and take not the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot; if you be dead to your own wills, you are risen with Christ, and shall receive a resurrection to eternal life: crucify self, and set the world at nought, and trample upon it, and all things of it, and count them as dross and dung in comparison of Christ; that the Father hath revealed to be our life, in the days of our sorrow and mourning, in the day of our calamity, in the day when we cried our hope is lost.
‘Thus it hath been with the holiest people on earth; it is not by works of righteousness of thy own that thou canst be saved; Christ comes to cut all these down, that thou mayest be ingrafted into him, and justified by his grace. Do not make this matter of talk, and say, I have heard this and that; but look into your own hearts, and see what heavenly workings are there; what there is of the power of the Lord Jesus, that hath made you to loathe this world, and the inordinate love of the creature, that you may enjoy all these things, as if you enjoyed them not. We cannot when we are slain and crucified to this world, but say, my life is in Christ, when we come to ascribe nothing to ourselves, and all to Christ: here is a blessed harmony, broken hearts, melted spirits, and yet joyful souls; poor creatures that were mourning and sighing, and crying before the Lord in retired places, and yet rejoicing in Christ Jesus, I am risen with Christ, I said, my hope is cut off, I will lie down in thy will, O God; do what thou wilt with me, it is in thy sovereign pleasure and free gift, whether thou give me life or deny it to me: there must be a resignation of ourselves to the will of God; it was so with the Lord Jesus, and it is so with every true saint of God; you must be humbled as little children before the judgment be taken away, and the loving kindness of God sealed up to your souls; if you seek this work of God, you will find it; if you seek it upon your beds, in all your labours and concernments, in all your stations and relations; if you press after the new birth, you must use this world as if you used it not, and live a married life, as if you were unmarried, for the fashion of this world passeth away. This is not rantism.
‘But let me tell you, a new world comes by regeneration; a man is not lifted up in his own mind, but laid low in his own eyes, he waits for the wisdom of God to govern him, and he is as a steward of the grace of God, to give to them that stands in need. When a man is regenerated and born again, he is as contented with bread and water, as with all the enjoyments of this world; what is the matter? His own will is gone, and put down under his feet, and whatsoever it is that gives life to all his vain desires and affections, there is a harmony of all within, a man praising of God, and blessing his holy name; there are no entanglements shall draw away the heart from serving of God, and seeking his glory; and if God shall call the husband from the wife, or the wife from the husband, for the glory of his name, there is no whining and complaining, and crying out, but giving them up, and a praising and blessing God, when they are called to such an exercise; and if they are not called to that, then they set their hearts to glorify God in their several places and stations; then they have a full content in a blessed resignation. Here their wills are slain, but they praise God they have no desire, but Lord thy will be done, always praising God, always having the fear and the glory of God before their eyes. All the mischief is hatched in pleasing men’s own wills: that is, the counsel of every heart that Christ doth not govern. Will you live as the Quakers? Then you must live contemptibly, the mistress and the maid are hail fellows well met. No, every one must walk in humility, and live in acquaintance with the God of heaven; she that is wrought upon by the same spirit, must with all diligence behave herself as becomes a servant of the Lord. Here is now a new world, and the fashions of the old world are gone; all pride, haughtiness, crossness, and trampling upon one another are all gone, all slain through the operation of Christ.
‘What remains now, Christ is in me, and we are all one in him; Christ laid down his life for thee and me; now he reigns in me, and he hath prepared my body to die for the truth, as his prepared body was laid down for my sin. It is a kind of foolish profession, to make profession of Christ, and live in covetousness, profaneness, sensuality, and the like; they that are come to this heavenly birth, seek the things that are above, thou canst do no other; make the tree good, and the fruit will be good. You must be ingrafted into the vine of God’s righteousness; O! slight not the day of your visitation. What was it to me to read of any being born again, till I was slain, and knew the heavenly baptism of Christ Jesus? Till I saw the flaming sword ready to slay me in every way, in every turning. The light of Christ convinced me of sin, and his righteousness justified me, and those works were abominable to me, that hindered my soul’s passage to Christ; Christ Jesus in marrying my soul to himself seized upon me, and did work effectually in me: there is the testimony of Christ in me, he hath sealed up my soul to the day of my redemption. Here is a certain passage, and a certain way which never any miss of, that lose their lives for Christ: if you be not ready and willing to lose your lives for Christ, you shall never come here; the gate is straight, and the way is narrow, none come hither but those that die into an heavenly oneness with Christ. O, friends, let us empty ourselves, that Christ may fill us; let us be nothing in our own eyes, that we may be all in him, and receive of his fulness.
‘Now I commend you to God’s witness, that you may remember what hath been spoken among you; but consider, if you do not hearken to it, it will follow you, and be a plague to you to all eternity; if you will not yield up ourselves to Christ this day that burns like an oven, this fire you must dwell with when out of the body, there will be no quenching of this fire for ever; but if you be so wise for your souls, as to resign yourselves up to Christ, and come to him as little children, this will not hinder your earthly concerns, though the world may account thee a fool, yet thou hast that part of heavenly wisdom to do what thou dost as unto God: thou carriest to thy wife, as in the sight of God, that she may be sanctified to thee, and thou to her; and thou carriest becomingly to thy children and servants, and thou wilt abound in grace, and in every good work, which will be for thine eternal welfare.
‘O, I beseech you people, for the Lord’s sake, wait for the light of Christ to guide you; learn of him to be meek and lowly, then happy are you; for he dwelleth with the humble, but he beholdeth the proud afar off. This new birth, which is a true work, a sincere and heavenly work, it will make you for ever. O make room for Christ in your hearts, or else he is never like to dwell with you; he loveth to dwell with the poor and humble and contrite spirit, he abhors the proud, he will empty your souls, that he may fill them.
‘And so I commend you to God. I have been long held in durance under great weakness; and I was restless, till I could come up to this great city of London, to preach the everlasting gospel among you, and you see I am among you here; pray every one of you turn inward; let not these words, passing through a mean vessel, be as a bare empty discourse of truth to you, which you only hear, and take no further care of your salvation. Take heed of despising the light that shines in the midst of you, and be pressing forward to the heavenly work that is laid in the power of Christ Jesus, even through judgment into death, and then he will give eternal life; the Lord confirm this, that it may rest upon your hearts, that you may be dead to the things of the world: we are not come to Mount Sinai, that genders to bondage, but we are come to Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly, and church of the first-born which are written in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. This is the inheritance of the redeemed of the Most High, blessed be the name of the Lord; let us rest in hope, till he bring us to humility and lowness of mind, that he may clothe us with heavenly glory, according to his promise, I will beautify my house with glory, saith the Lord. This is the portion of a poor people, that cast down themselves before the Lord, that he may lift them up, and be all in all to them, in whose blessed presence they shall have joy, and rivers of pleasures at his right hand for evermore.’
‘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 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 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, 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 put on strength in the name of the Lord, and wait to feel his eternal power, to preserve you through the tribulations of those days that approach very near. This I have further to signify, that my departure draws nigh. Blessed be my God, I am prepared, and I have nothing to do but die, and put off this corruptible and mortal tabernacle, this flesh that hath so many infirmities; but the life that dwells in it, ascends out of the reach of death, hell, and the grave; and immortality and eternal life is my crown for ever. Therefore you that are left behind, fear not, nor be discouraged, but go on in the name and power of the Lord, and bear a faithful and living testimony for him in your day. And the Lord will prosper his work in your hand, and cause his truth to flourish and spread abroad. For it shall have the victory, and no weapon formed against it shall prosper.’
Thus fervent in spirit was W. Dewsbury in his latter end, and he prayed to God very earnestly for all his friends, especially those that were met at the annual assembly at London. And so he very piously departed this life at his house, in a good old age, in the month called June, in this current year. He was indeed a man of a remarkable zeal and perception. He spoke sometimes to young lads as to men, telling them that the blessing of the Lord would rest upon them if they lived a godly life: some of which being since come to man’s estate, have experienced the truth of his saying.
Two days before the decease of William Dewsbury, Rebecca Travers departed this life at about the age of seventy-nine years. She was a woman exceedingly well gifted; and spoke not only sometimes in public for edification of the church, but wrote also several books for the advancement of piety; in one of which she signified, that though she had been a reader of the Scriptures from a child of six years old; yet when by the power of the eternal gospel she was turned from darkness to light, the Scriptures then became much more plain to her, as not wanting interpretation. She was an excellent open-hearted woman, and took great care of the poor: she had several times been imprisoned for religion, but persevered constantly in the faith, and so piously entered into eternal rest.