WHEN I consider the matchless and inexpres­sible Love of God, in sending his Son to save Sinners; when I am helped to contem­plate on the gracious Tenor of the glo­rious Gospel, clearly and affectingly set forth in the Parables of the lost Sheep, the prodigal Son ^*, and the good Samari­tan ^†: When I behold the Father run­ning to meet his returning Son; when I observe the Kiss with which he welcom­ed [Page 4] him home, and how he commanded the best Robe to be brought forth and put on him, and the Ring to be put on his Hand; together with Shoes for his Feet, weary with his long Vagaries in the far Country: When I remem­ber our Saviour's heart-affecting Saying, The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost; Together with the express Charge he gave to his twelve Apo­stles, when he sent them forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves, to publish the glad Tidings of the Gospel; Go not, saith he, into the Way of the Gentiles, and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go ye rather to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel, and as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the Sick, cleanse the Lepers, raise the Dead, cast out Devils ^*. My Heart within me is deep­ly affected, yea, even my very Bowels are moved towards you poor, dear Souls, who may have so far miss'd your Way, as that you have set yourselves at a Dis­tance from your Brethren; and hereby, in the sweet Sense and Feeling of the unparallel'd Love and Mercy of the ever­lasting Gospel of Peace and Reconcilia­tion, [Page 5] I salute you, and most cordially invite you in the Name of the great and good Shepherd of the Sheep, who hath laid down his Life for you, to look homeward, make the best of your Way to your Father's House again, return to God by true Repentance without Delay, which is the Way to the Fold of true Rest. The Spirit and the Bride say, come; and let him that is athirst come: And who­ever will, let him take the Water of Life free­ly, Rev. xxii. 17. Please to take Notice, that the Sick, the Lepers, the Dead, the possessed with Devils, were to be the pe­culiar Objects of Regard, to whom those early Ambassadors of Christ were first to administer special and suitable Re­lief, according to the Directions of Him the blessed MESSIAS, the effectual Re­pairer of Breaches, and the merciful Re­storer of right Paths to dwell in, from which Mankind in the Fall hath misera­bly strayed.

O therefore, let the Exhortation of the Prophet Hosea universally obtain and prevail with all that are out of the Way! Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for [Page 6] he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two Days will he revive us, in the third Day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his Sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: His going forth is pre­par'd as the Morning: and he shall come un­to us as the Rain; as the latter and former Rain unto the Earth. Hosea vi. 1, 2, 3.

O dear Souls! may this be your steady Resolution, and you may yet do well; the merciful Arms of our most gracious Saviour are ever open to receive penitent Sinners. O remember and practise the Apostle's encouraging Advice, Submit yourselves to God; resist the Devil and he will fly from you; draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh unto you: Cleanse your Hands, ye Sinners, and purify your Hearts, ye Double-minded; be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; humble yourselves in the Sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up, James iv. 7, 8, 9, 10. There is a blessed and open Door, even Faith in Christ, Re­pentance and Amendment of Life, where­by all poor Souls, who have miss'd their Way in any Respect (the Sin against the [Page 7] Holy Ghost excepted) may re-enter into the precious Favour of a merciful God, and be reconciled to him through Jesus Christ. Please to read the royal Psalm­ist's penitential Prayer, Psalm li. also Deut. xxx.

O dear Souls, return unto the Lord▪ be mindful of his repeated Calls, and gra­cious Promises to the Penitent, which runs thus; Go, and proclaim these Words to­wards the North, and say, Return thou back­sliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine Anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep Anger forever. Only acknowledge thine Ini­quity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, &c. Turn, O backsliding Children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you: Return ye backsliding Children, and I will heal your Backslidings.—We lie down in our Shame, and our Confusion cover­eth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God.—Repent, and turn yourselves from all your Transgressions; so Iniquity shall not be your Ruin: Cast away from you all your Transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed, and make you a new Heart, and a new [Page 8] Spirit; for why will ye die, O House of Is­rael! For I have no Pleasure in him that di­eth, saith the Lord God; wherefore turn yourselves and live ye. Jer. iii. 12, 13, 14, 22, 25. Ezek. xviii. 30, 31, 32. And in Isaiah he saith to the degenerate Jews, Wash ye, make you clean, put away the Evil of your Doings from before mine Eyes, cease to do Evil, learn to do well, seek Judgment, relieve the Oppressed, judge the Fatherless, plead for the Widow. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your Sins be as Scarlet, they shall be as white as Snow; though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as Wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the Good of the Land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the Sword. For the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, Isaiah i. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

Moreover, King Solomon, at the De­dication of the Temple, in his most cor­dial Intercession to the Lord on Behalf of the People (whereby he gloriously re­presents and typifies the sacred Medi­ation of our blessed Advocate Jesus [Page 9] Christ) pours out his most fervent Pray­ers on this wise,

To which humble Address, the Ma­jesty of Heaven, the King of Kings, [Page 12] and Lord of Lords, return'd the fol­lowing most gracious Answer, as his Royal Assent thereto, viz. If I shut up Heaven that there be no Rain, or if I com­mand the Locusts to devour the Land, or if I send Pestilence among my People; if my People, which are called by my Name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my Face, and turn from their wicked Ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their Sin, and will heal their Laud, &c. 2 Chron. xxxvii. 13, 14.

Finally, dear Souls, in the Reach­ings forth of well-wishing Love, I ear­nestly intreat you all, that you don't entertain any Hardness or Resentment against any Friend, or Friends, surmis­ing, That such and such have borne hard upon you in the Administration of Church-Discipline; for, by so doing, you may soon still more hurt your Con­ditions, block up your own Way, and still set yourselves at a farther Di­stance.

Some who have given just Occasion, by their undue Liberties, for the Cen­sure [Page 13] of the Church, have nevertheless been so far from that Humility that al­ways attends true Repentance, that their refractory Deportment to their offend­ed Friends hath height'ned their Offence, yea, even shut close that Door against themselves, whereby they might in due Time probably have been re-admitted into Unity with the Society. It will, I assure you, dear Souls, be much more pleasing, and acceptable to all the true in Heart, to receive you again, in at the Door aforesaid, than it was to ex­clude you; for, as Christ saith, More is the Joy over one lost Sheep (over one Sinner that repenteth) than over Ninety and Nine just Persons which need no Repentance, yea, even in the Presence of the Angels of God, Luke xv. 7, 10. Let no poor droop­ing Souls therefore despair, or despond, for by the Door aforesaid all may be reconciled, reinstated, and re-united, though far gone astray, as to the Ends of the Earth.

But yet, if it should ever so fall out, where any Person or Persons, in any Place, should have given their Friends [Page 14] just Occasion to exclude them from the Unity of the Society, and such Person or Persons should be brought to a Sense of, and godly Sorrow for their Misconduct, and shew forth the same by an orderly and religious Conversation, and keeping close to Meetings for a considerable Space of Time, yet notwithstanding all this, if upón their Application to Friends of the Meeting to which he, she or they did belong, to be received into Unity with Friends, they may find some Parti­cular or Particulars strongly to oppose and weigh against them in the Obtaining their Desire; let such, I earnestly intreat them, keep close to their Exercise, and humble Walking before the Lord, spreading and committing their Cause unto Him, patiently waiting for Him to open their Way, and, I verily be­lieve, in His Time, Way will be made for them: In the mean while, as above, I beg such may take an especial Care that they let in no Hardness against any Friend or Friends, nor yet against the honorable and necessary Discipline of the Church, which we have good Ground to believe, was at first settled [Page 15] and established in the Wisdom of TRUTH, and is of great Service, where 'tis ma­naged and administred in the sweet Spi­rit of the Gospel, which always breathes out Glory to God in the highest, Peace on Earth, Good-will towards Men; hath Charity to the Souls of all Men, but to the Sins of none; loves the immortal Soul of every Man, but the immoral Actions of none.

It has been, and is observed, that sometimes Persons that have given real Occasion for the Line of Judgment to be stretched over them, have taken such a Disgust at the just Censure, when past upon them, that they have forsak­en religious Assemblies; who by so doing do evidently demonstrate great Weakness, and that they give way to the Spirit of the Enemy, who is always seeking Advantage against us frail Mor­tals, in order to draw us farther and farther from the Truth, and nearer and nearer to his own dark Kingdom; Wherefore, I again most earnestly in­treat you, in much Love and Good­will, that ye who have taken Offence of [Page 16] this kind, would forthwith endeavour to lay aside all Resentment, and Dislike, that you may have unwarily let in, and wait to feel the peaceable Spirit of meek Jesus, our blessed Redeemer, and therein attend religious Meetings; that in this manner humbling yourselves before the Lord, he may please, in his tender Mercy, to grant unto you Faith, Repentance, and Remission of Sins; also, by these Means, your Friends may have a true Sense of your Conditions, and of the Frame of your Minds. Please to consider, that neither civil nor religious Society (morally speaking) can subsist, or be preserved from utterly relapsing and falling away into Confusion, without proper Rules and Government: And what signify Rules if not observed? And proper Measures taken with those that knowingly transgress the same? And farther, may it be calmly and seriously consider'd, that when those Persons, who owning our Principles, and professing themselves to be Mem­bers of our Society, and were look'd upon as such, while they walk'd or­derly, [Page 17] have wilfully volated the whole­some Rules agreed upon and esta­blished amongst us, have by their own very Actions, and not submitting to the Means used by the Church for their Restoration, disunited themselves from Membership with the Body of which they had been Members; and that the Papers of Deniel, given forth against them are but Declarations, that such Persons having committed such Things which are disallowed by the Church, and not truly repent­ing, and giving Satisfaction, are thereupon disown'd.

So, dear Friends, with the Words of the Prophet I shall draw to a Conclu­sion, Seek the Lord while he is to be found; call upon him while he is near: Let the Wicked forsake his Way, and the unrighteous Man his Thoughts: And let him return to the Lord, and he will have Mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly par­don, Isa. lv. 6, 7.

Having now honestly thus paid the Debt of Love I have long ow'd you, [Page 18] I bid you farewel, and subscribe myself, in much Sincerity, your real Friend and Well-wisher, who can do no less than still pray for you, that you may be recon­ciled unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.