may be furnisht with such a booke and every high Sheriffe of every countrey provide a Preacher to visit the prisoners once every week for it is pittifull to see how they are neglected A Copy of a Letter to M. Hutchinson to whose hands King Iames committed me after I delivered unto him the petition for the Sabbath MY very loving and kind Keeper although you have been long out of sight yet you have been oftentime in minde and often in my thoughts and prayers unto God for you as I had good cause when I remember the great care and love that you and M. Hutchinson did shew unto me when I was prisoner in your house Oh that it would please the Lord to make me as happy a prisoner unto you as Saint Paul was unto his Keeper at Philippi whereof you may read in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles who at Saint Pauls first comming into the prison was in such a woefull estate of a persecuting Infidell yet that night being terrified with the earthquake and feare of the losse of his prisoners would desperately have murthered himselfe but Saint Paul having pitty and compassion upon him cryed out with a loud voice Doe thy selfe no harme for we are all here and then with feare and trembling he fell downe before them and brought them out of prison and said Sirs what must I doe to be saved and Saint Paul preached unto them to beleeve in the Lord Iesus and he and his houshold should be saved and so through the Lords great mercy they were converted and baptized and greatly reioyced that he and all his house beleeved in God Now though I have not seen you so desperately minded to kill your selfe with your sword for feare of my escape yet I must needs say I have seen you ready to wound your soule with fearefull swearing and excessive drinking and how greatly this may endanger your soule and body also you may consider of it You remember well that the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vaine and Saint Paul doth testifie that drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Galat. 5.22 but of these sinnes I have admonished you of when I was with you and through the Lords great mercy found some reformation thereof in that I did see you refraine from such excessive drinking and sometimes abstaine an oath and reprove others for swearing I know that is a hard matter suddenly to cast off such growne sinnes and those whereunto you have been so long accustomed but on the other side also I know it is an easie thing unto our omnipotent God to set your feet into the way of peace Oh therefore unto that mercifull God to convert your soule and to set your feet into the way of peace Oh therefore pray unto that blessed Lord and importune him with earnest and zealous prayer day and night untill he hath wrought in you that blessed worke to give you grace not onely to see your sinnes but give you also true repentance and godly sorrow for them that you may now loath them more then ever you loved them and utterly detest and abhorre them though they be as deare unto you as your right eye and as profitable unto you as your right hand yet cast them off and cast them from you for it is better for us to enter into the kingdome of heaven so maimed and spoiled of our sinnes then to enjoy them here for a short time and then both soule and body to be cast into hell fire where there is weeping and wailing in everlasting darknesse And now that you may escape those everlasting torments and attaine to the kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof you must settle your selfe to the constant performing of those holy duties of prayer and hearing the word of God and you must take unto you that Christian resolution that no feare of mans displeasure nor the mockes and scoffes of wicked men should make you never to neglect the same I meane you must not be ashamed to goe to Sermons nor to keep holy the Sabbath-day nor to pray with your wife and servants though all the drunken companions in Kent should rayle or ieere at you for the same but remember that those that are ashamed of our Lord Iesus Christ and of his holy service on earth he will be ashamed to owne them in the day of judgement and leave them to their devillish masters and to those hellish torments which he hath prepared for such base slaves that doe preferre the service of the devill before the service of God And then will they cry unto the mountaines to cover them and to hils to fall upon them rather then they would heare the dreadfull sentence of Goe ye cursed into hell fire prepared for the devill and his angels and the wofull execution that followes thereupon to be closed up for ever in utter darkenesse and there to be tormented with those damned spirits where instead of their carousing and filthy speaking they shall have weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore and never shall behold the face of any man nor heare the voice of any creature to yeeld them comfort but as they delighted themselves in swearing and staring in cursing and raging so they shall have their fill thereof among those raging and furious damned spirits and yet shall not procure one drop of water to coole their tongues although they be tormented in those hellish flames as you may read in the example of Dives Saint Luke 16.29 and then my loving Keeper is it not much better with Moses to chuse rather to suffer afflictions with the children of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season and then to goe to everlasting torments And what if you be mocked and pointed at for a Puritane and be counted a mad man because you separate your selfe from the company of blasphemous wretches and abhominable drunkards and doe now resolve to serve the living God with an honest heart nay what if you should be persecuted and imprisoned for his name-sake Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets and holy men of God in former times and so likewise did the Iews persecute our Lord Iesus Christ and said he was mad and had a devill And if they dealt thus with him our Lord and Master shall we looke for a greater priviledge nay let us with a holy resolution arme our selves to encounter with all their temptations and with the blessed Apostle rejoice that we are accounted worthy in such an honourable cause and to be made like unto our Saviour Christ in any sort for he entred into his kingdome of glory through many tribulations I am a little the more earnest upon this point because even while I was with you I feare there were some that did with scoffing and geering seeke to discourage you in those good courses whereunto you were so
unto me for the wisest and greatest in this world have their frailties and infirmities David a man after Gods owne heart yet erred in numbring the people and confessed he had done very foolishly And Salomon his son the wisest and the greatest statesman that ever was upon the earth yet erred greatly and although he provided men-singers and women-singers and the delights of the sons of men yet he doth acknowledge all was but vanitie and vexation of spiritâ— And so I trust your noble and religious heart will tell you though you did provide you such excellent singers such rare conceits and curious Actors and numbred the people to behold it yet all is but vanitie and vexation of Spirit and the more vanitie and vexation of spirit because it was on the Lords day which should have been taken up with better meditations and the contemplation of Heaven and heavenly things and therefore that God might not be heareafter so dishonored nor your everlasting happinesse thereby endangered I beseech you in the tender mercie of our Saviour Christ give ear to the Counsell of your servant and be you pleased to submit your self to the censure of your own Court that so it may appeare to the world that you will not stand out in any thing that is ill but will give glorie to God and yeeld obedience to all good Lawes and so ye may stoppe the mouths and stay the fury of many prophane people which proclaime such libertie from this example to follow their vaine delights upon the Sabbath day But I hope when they shall heare that such is the justice of the Court and faithfulnesse of your Officers they will execute justice without respect of persons and therefore in this case will spare neither Lord Bishop nor Knights nor Ladies I trust I say when they shall heare of this it will be a great dancing and discouragement to them and also through the Lords mercie a means to repair again the breach whereat otherwise whole troops of prophane wretches will enter to lay violent hands upon the Lords Day and so beseeching the Lord God of Sabbath that my counsell might be as wholsome and as acceptable unto you as the Counsell of Abigal was to David that you might with that holy man say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that hath sent thee to meet me and blessed bee thou that hast kept mee from giving any countenance or encouragement to any man that dares presume to prophane the Sabbath of the great God of heaven Amen Lord Jesus Amen Haughton More November 4. 1631. From him that hath so great cause and is so much bound to your Lordship Iohn Spencer YOu may bee pleased that my Lord Bishop had lately made me Comissarie Generall upon this occasion the Earle of Cleaveland had built a sumptuous Chappell and intreated the Bishop to consecrate the same and it pleased their Lordships to give me notice of the day so I did attend the Bishop and the next day he did it with great state and solemnitie accompanied with the Earle and Knights and Ladies and a multitude of his Clergie there was a learned Sermon and the holy Sacrament administred and other rites and Ceremonies performed so that it was three a clock before they came out of the Chappell and then my Lord Bishop was pleased to question me before the Earle of Cleveland in this manner Master Spencer what will they say to you now that have been at the consecration of a Chappell received the Sacrament at the hands of a Bishop in his Babylonish garment I answered If they have nothing else to say to me this may very well be answered But he said unto me Master Spencer what shall I do for you now I know if I should make you my Vicar-Generall you will dislike of that because it is a Popish title but I le tell you what I will do for you I will make you my Commissarie-Generall and that he thought would please me better for I had prosecuted his Comissarie Smith and charged him with suspition of Treason against the Kings royall person well I thanked his Lord shortly after made more use of my Office then he would have had me for one Mr. wilson a cunning Musition having contrived a curious Comodie and plotted it so that he must needs have it acted upon the Sunday night for he was to go the next day toward the Court the Bishop put it off till nine of the clock at night a while after the Commissarie Doctor Morrison kept a Court at Huntington and I came thither and went into the seat with the Commissarie and put on my hat the Doctors and Divines stood with hats off and gave their attendance then some offered their presentment but I told Master Commissarie that I had a presentment and that must be the first and so he took it and read it the tennour was thus We do here present Iohn Lord Bishop of Lincolne for having a Comedie acted in his house upon the Sunday it began about nine of the clock at night and continued till two or three of the clock the next morning We do present also Sir Sidney Mountacute and his Lady for leaving their Parish Church to come to hear this Comedie We here present Sir Thomas Headly and his Lady for the like We do present Master Wilson and other Acters of the same So when Master Commissarie had read it he was somewhat amazed at it and asked of me who was the Commissarie Generall I bad him ask my Lord of Lincolne who was Commissary Generall And this presentment we do make Ex officio Commissarie Generall Iohn Spencer So when this was registered I took my leave of Master Commissarie and came away for feare I should hear something else And afterwards because the Bishop did not appear I censured him for his fault to build a Schole-house at Eaton and to endue it with twenty pounds a yeer for the maintenance of the Schole-Master Sir Sidney Mountacute to give five pounds and five coats to five poor women and his Lady five gowns and five pounds for five poor widdows and this censure stands still unrepealed A Letter to Sir William Litton Knight concerning Master Spencer that famous learned man committed to prison for the refusing to stand to the hard-award of Mr. Noades but was upon this letter speedily released and Sir William Litton tooke him againe into his favour and was a noble friend unto him during his life GOod Sir William Litton I have visited Mr. Spencer your famous prisoner whom it pleaseth you to call my Rabbi I finde him so willing to referre himselfe unto you and Sir Oliver Luke to mitigate his hard-award that Mr. Noades hath made that I need not any further perswasions to effect the same onely give me leave to make this request unto you that as humility is an excellent vertue in any man much more in a man of eminent parts that you would vouchsafe to be such a Patron
betwixt Master Commissary and I but I would not come at them but hastened to my Lord President and related unto him the businesse betwixt Master Commissary and I So his Lordship said that was somewhat irregular yet he should not disturbe me in my devotion Master Commissary came up and some friends laboured to take up the matter betwixt us Sir Beaucham St. Iohn and other gentlemen we met in Westminster hall and after some conference about the businesse M. Commissary did solemnly protest that he did not prosecute us because we kept a fast and prayed for the King but heard that it was so well performed that if it had been with authority he would have been at it himselfe and then I did acknowledge that I was sorry that I did not apprehend it so To this effect then we did consult what might be done for the repayring of Master Commissaries reputation so we resolved that Master Commissary should put in a bill against me and I should not plead against it and so a writ of enquiry should go out to enquire what damage this was to Master Commissary and he promised me if they gave him two hundred pound he would not take a penny of it so he put in two bils of complaint what great damage he was put unto and whereas before he was well esteemed of noblemen and gentlemen now they eschew his company whereunto I made this short answer When M. Cōmissary shal clear himself of the suspition of treason against the Kings Royall person and cleare his bill of untruths I hoped I should be at more leasure to make a longer answer in the meane time desired to be dismissed of the honourable court so they gave him a hundred pound damage which I tendred unto him and he told it and put it up againe every penny I gave him a piece of plate with two hearts joyned together and this inscription Amantium ira amoris redintigratio est and so we continued very loving friends to his death and he told a gentlewoman of great worth his loving neighbour that never any affliction did him so much good to commiserate this trouble and vexation that he had done to others and so grew one of the best Commissaries and died lamented A Copy of a Letter to Sir Oliver Luke Knight when he was high Sheriffe SIr the blessed Apostle having used that vehement intreaty unto the Romanes to dedicate themselves to the service of God chapter the 12. In the next verse he doth second that intreaty with this excellent exhortation And fashion not your selves like unto this world but be ye changed by the renewing of your minds that you may prove what that good and acceptable and perfect will of God is Whereupon I beseech you give me leave to make this profitable application to you in particular whom it hath pleased God to call now unto an office of great dignity in the common wealth And humbly I beseech him likewise to give you a wise heart to mannage it to his glory and the good of his Church and the comfort of your owne soule and that you may so doe take heed you doe not fashion your self like unto this world not like to a worldly Sheriffe especially in these two thinges neither in your Officers nor in your Attendancy for it is oft the custome of carnall minded Sheriffes to receave there under officers by tradition whatsoever their condition be but I pray be not you in that fashion but follow that grave and holy directon that Iethro gave to Moses Exod. the 18. the 21. Moreover provide thou amongst all thy people men of courage fearing God men dealing truely hating covetousnesse and therefore I pray make a diligent inquisition amongst your officers and if you finde one lewd Bayliffe in all your pack let him be discarded and an honest man put in his place againe it is the fashion of many vain glorious Sheriffs to exceed so in the number of their attendants and in their excessive entertainments that they are forc't either to end their house keeping with their office or else to lay such heavy burthens and wracking rents upon their tennant as gives them just cause to lament the prodigallity of their landlords Sherivalty seaven yeares after but I beseech you take heed you be not in any sort drawne to like of this fashion neither by the instigation of others nor by the volentary offers of your honourable friends which at this time it may be will be too forward to adde fewell to the flame of your one ambition but I pray consider your own revenue is very cōpetent both for your own ranck and for the support of that office which is imposed upon you and thanks be unto God for it Master Oliver Luke is well known and well esteemed of in the country without the liveries of great mens favoures and therefore I pray stand firme upon your owne bottome and let your own vertues make you still to be honoured and not your excesse lamented and in my poor conceit it is more for your reputation to shew your selfe in the habite of true judgement and moderation and attended with your own servants then to encrease your number with borrowed companies and decke your troopes with the gay feathers of other birds Again consider you are to entertaine Judges of the land men of wisdome and gravity and such as should punish excesse and prodigallity as well as theft and usury besides these times are so peaceable that they need not such troopes of horse or Squandrons of foote to guard their persons nor such pompe nor bravery to divert their minde from the better consideration of these great and serious imployments that they are to goe about Lastly in the feare of God lay this consideration well to your heart how unseasonable unseemly a thing it is to make that a time of feasting and outward jollity which should be a time rather of fasting and mourning wherein both Magistrate and people should bewaile their own sins and the sins of the land which at such times are so apparant and for the which many of their Christian brethren do suffer such heavy Iudgements and therefore if we were in the right fashion we should weep with those that weep and remember those that are in bonds as though we were bound with them and those that are in affliction as if you were also afflicted with them Heb. 13.3 Thus did that noble Magistrate Ezra fast and mourne for the sins of the people and thus did David Samuel the 1. the 3. the 35. and therefore what great cause is there for our Magistrates to fast and mourn when they hear of so many thefts and murthers and abhominable sins committed in our streets and for the which the Lord might iustly bring his fearfull Iudgements upon the whole land And thus good Sir Oliver through the Lords mercy you may see that they are very proposterous in their house shew great want of true iudgement and
battell grew very bloody and mortall on both sides and almost all the Peers of England and all the Nobilitie of Scotland lay slaine in the field and then the valiant King Charles seeing it grew to such extremity descended the hill and with great fury and resolution charged the scattered body of the Scottish Army and made a great slaughter of them and so obtained the victory and forc'd them to leave the field and then returned to mourn over his noble Peers that there lay slain upon the ground which put me into such a passion of weeping that meeting with Mr. Saul our Preacher and Mr. Bauldin and they seeing of me in such a passion of mourning and desirous to know the cause thereof I could not declare to them the cause of my great sorrow but went into the Church and prayed with a troubled spirit The Lord grant if it be thy blessed will that it may prove but a melancholy Conceit but oh that your Highnesse would be be graciously pleased to call a Parliament 〈◊〉 the faces of these brave Armies towards the Palatinate to settle your Royall Sister in her inheritance and set at liberty your capitive Nephew Prince Robert and soe you shall make all the Princes of Christendome stand amaz'd at your high prudence and great magnanimitie Consider what I say and doe it and the Lord will bring it to passe and then make you the most renouned King of the Christian world amen amen good King Charles send for Colonell Fleetwood hee is a valiant man and of great abilities and will doe you faithfull service in your war I heare he is lately married to a great mans daughter in those parts but if it please your Highnesse to command him he will leave his young Lady to doe you service And now seeing things through Gods gracious providence doe thus happily concur I beseech your highnesse give me leave to renue my former suit unto you and your honourable Court of Parliament for the happy and honourable uniting of these brave Armies make your Nephew the Prince Elector who was now so happily in your Court make him Generall to lead these brave Armies into the Palatinate to settle your Royall Sister in her inheritance and to set at liberty his brother Prince Robert for that is a shame to all the Princes of Christendome to see a distressed lady so long insulted over by such a bloody Tyrant and for the support and transporting of these Armies I would willingly give ten Subsedies besides those are already given and I hope every able and faithfull Subiect in the Land will doe the same that so this Royall Prince may beat out the proud Enemie out of the Palatinate and then settle the Emperiall Crowne of Germany upon his Royall head and lead his victoriors Army unto Romes gates sack the Citie and burn the Whore of Babylon with fire and so fulfill the Prophecie Revel. 17.16.17 verses And the ten hornes which thou sawest upon the Beast are they that shall hate the Whore and shall make her desolate and naked and burne her with fire for God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will Amen Lord Jesus amen The humble Petition of your loyall sinfull Subiect Iohn Spencer A Coppie of a Letter to a great Peer of this Land upon a strange discontentment betwixt him and his beautifull Lady about the passing of two Manners unto his onely Sonne as brave and as noble a gentleman as this Kingdome afforded the Letter I delivered unto his owne hand he read it and retired himselfe into an inward Chamber wept much and came out againe unto me gave me thanks and said never man desired more to gaine a woman than he did to gaine her to this effect never did I in al my time know such great dislike about such a slight occasion betwixt two so vertuous so noble so beautifull and amiable and so long reioycing in happy enioying one another as will appeare in this dolorous discovrse IT may seem strange unto your Lordship that a stranger should write unto you in this strange fashion but then I beseech you in the feare of God consider the strange course that you have taken that forceth me thereunto for is it not strange yet most strange that so noble grave and religious a man should forsake his wife being a vertuous beautifull and religious Lady make it not your owne case and would you thinke it possible a wise man should be so transported but beleeve it my Lord such a thing may be such a thing is and as the Prophet Nathan said unto King David Thou art the man that have behaved your selfe so undiscreely and forwardly for have not you forsaken the wife of your youth that vertuous and beautifull Lady with whom you have lived with great happinesse these twenty yeares who hath approved her faithfull love and constancie unto you in so many strange and forraigne Countries and adventured her selfe in so many dangerous passages both by sea and land to yeeld you comfort and contentment now to forsake her when you are gray headed and stand more in need of your mutuall societie and comfort but now to forsake her to grieve your friends and make your enemies reioice to forsake her to vex your selves and to ruinate your estate and to endanger the losse of your soules and everlasting happinesse what greater want of wisdome can be shewed you carry your selfe exceeding forwardly herein that neither the perswasions of friends nor the intreating of those that love you nor so many pitifull teares from the faire eies of your Lady can move a reconciliation but you fly from a distressed Ladie as if you were pursued by an armed enemie was your noble blood ever stained with such cowardlinesse how may those renouned Princes of the united Provinces who held and approved you so noble and valarous in Heroick Atchivements both in Germany and when you were Lord Deputie of Ireland be grieved to heare of this strange alteration in you but this is not the worst disgrace for herein you have dealt very unwisely for you have reiected the counsel of the Prophets of the Apostles and of our Saviour Christ himself and have followed the course of your violent passions or else the shallow device of some giddie heads as Rehoboam did to his owne confusion for Solomon the Mirrour of wisdome advises you thus Reioyce with the wife of thy youth let her be as the loving Hinde and the pleasant Roe let her brests satisfie thee at all times and delight in her love continually Prov. 5.18 19. but you are so far from reioicing with her and yeelding those comforts unto her that you seek to reioice your selfe in hanking and hunting and in the meane time to vex her with your tedious absence and froward messages call you this wisdome nay my Lord account it no better than Machavilian policie Againe St. Peter adviseth you thus Husbands dwell with your Wives as men of knowledge Pet. 37. but
a sottish humer put an armour upon him and beat a drum before him and let one attyre himselfe like a Captaine and put on his gorget and a plume of feathers in his hat a trunchion in his hand and make to march and exercise his armes or else set him upon a bounding horse and trot the ring and run a career and in these martiall exercises let the Captaine command him as his souldier and if he finds him peevish and froward give him a good knock upon his helmet and if he finde him willing and tractable then to commend and praise him Ninthly for matter of Physick you must advise with some learned Physician that doth well understand the nature of the disease and the constitution of his body for otherwise he may be prodigall of blood-letting and the want of blood may increase his melancholy he must likewise take heed of strong vomits that strain the head and distemper the brain in my opinion bathing and sweating and bleeding with horseleeches the safer way Lastly because these maladies and distempers are accompanied with a great deale of peevish crossenesse and wilfull obstinacie and a great part of the cure stands in the right crossing of them from those froward and furious humours which will require great patience and good observation for the generall use all faire meanes you can devise to gain them to the good and divert them from the ill but if that will not prevail you must have patience and passe it over as though you took no notice of it but if it comes once to this that they do perceive that you go about to crosse them and that you are in opposition and contesting with them then you must follow it with all importunity and resolvtion to subdue them and compell them to do it but be sure you take them with such advantages that you prevail otherwise the attempting of it will prove dangerous to your selfe and make them more outragious and insolent Postscript Master Dixie I pray be carefull to see these directions well performed and then I hope you will well deserve to have twenty pound a yeer for your paines otherwise I would be loath to perswade you to undertake such a dangerous imployment A Copie of a Letter to a vertuous Gentlewoman greatly afflicted in minde which it pleased God to give unto her great comfort BLessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort which comforteth us in all our tribulations that we might be able to comfort them that are in any affliction by the comfort where with wee our selves are are comforted of God and humbly I beseech that gratious Lord that he will vouchsafe for his deare sonne Iesus Christ his sake to open your eyes that you may behold those unspeakeable mercies and comforts that he will in his appointed time give unto all those that do fear his holy name and call upon him faithfully Cosen I have lately receaved your letter wherein you doe acknowledge that when I was with you it pleased God you found some comfort praised be his holy name for it but since you have been very ill and so remaine some causes you shew for the same because you cannot be assured of the favour of God towards you the reasons that you alledge because you finde so small comfort in prayer and in hearing of the word Secondly because of your fearful temptations both past and still continuing these as I take it are your chief reasons being rightly understood they wil prove so many sound arguments to prove that you never had so good cause to rest assured of Gods favour towards you nor ever had so many testimonies of his everlasting mercyes towards you as you have now that afflictons chastisements and temptations are the signes of Gods favour and the markes of his children I pray consider what the holy Apostle faith Hebrews the 12. the 5. the 6. my son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth every son that he receiveth and mark how he concludes in the eight verse if therefore ye be without correction whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sonnes is it not strange that you should vex and torment your self because the divell cannot prove you a bastard but it may be you may say it is not thus in your iudgement but then know that it is not fit for you to be a Judge in you own cause but submit your selfe unto the Judgement of Gods word which is the word of truth And beleeve his holy Apostles that knew how to iudge in those cases better then you and they will testifie that we have cause rather to reioyce then any wise to be discouraged with afflictions and temptations Saint Peter 1.2 My brethren count it exceeding ioy when ye fall into temptations and the blessed Apostle Saint Paul when he was tempted and grievously buffeted by Sathan for the which thing he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him but what was he presently released no but receaved this answere from the Lord and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect through weaknesse and what was the blessed man dismayed with this answer or concluded as you would do that he was out of the favour of God because his prayer was not granted no such matter but rather doth conclude greater comfort and assurance very gladly therefore saith he will I rejoyce in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in anguish for Christ sake for when I am weake then am I strong thus you may see how the Apostle out of Daniel gathereth matter of comfort and out of his own weaknes encreaseth great strength of faith and thus must you do in these fearfull temptations not so much as cast your eyes upon your own weaknesse nor upon the strength and power of your malitious enemy but you must looke up with the eye of faith unto our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ who is in the highest heavens and whose grace is sufficient for us and he it is who hath triumphed over sin death and damnation and hath tramped underfoot all the enemyes of our salvation and therfore with the holy Prophet say The Lord is my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom then shall I be afraid Now concerning your discomfort in hearing the word because you take so small comfort in the promises and are so much terrified with the judgements This I take it proceeds partly from the errour of your judgment in misse-aplying the same and partly from the malice of Sathan who evermore labours to drive us into extremities either with Eve not to fear the iudgements of
Christian like affection that thinke these fit times for feastings pompe and outward bravery And therefore I beseech you take heed unto your own heart and let neither the vaine examples nor the violent perswasions of vain glorious men drawe you into their vaine errours but evermore remember that most holy saying and righteous censure of our Saviour Christ Saint Luke 16.15 That which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God and therefore hold fast that word of truth and follow the holy directions thereof which is able to make you wise unto salvation and both in these and all other your affaires first prove what that good acceptable and perfect will of God is and doe that with all diligence and then assure your selfe if you should fail of this fading honour that they so eagerly hunt after yet you shall have everlasting honour in the sight of God and of his glorious angells in the Kingdome of heaven Amen Lord Iesus Amen Staughton More Anno. 1617. From him that would be glad if either his penne or his person might doe you that good service he desires Iohn Spencer A Copy of a letter to his brother Nicholas Spencer to disswade him from his inordinate delight he took in Cock-fighting which soon after he happily and absolutely gave over IT is said of the churlish Inne-keeper of Bethlehem Luke 2.7 who entertained so many guests in the Inne that the virgin Mary and our blessed Saviour were thrust out into the stable because there was no roome for them in the Inne but let us in in the fear of God take heed of such Jewish tricks lest in the end we force our Saviour Christ to leave us in the sight of our sins and ingratitute and then it will cost us many a grievous sigh many mournfull teares before we finde him againe read Cant. 5.6 Nay so wofull shall our estate be that it shall be never out of our minde and now out of my brotherly love unto you I must admonish you of that bewitching and vain pleasure of Cock fighting wherein you are so strangely transported that both my selfe and many of your faithfull friends with grief of heart discern a great alteration in your affections to those courses of religion wherein heretofore you have shewed your selfe more forward and zealous I beseech ye in the fear of God consider to be a stunling in religion is a fearfull thing but to go ten degrees backward with Ezekiahs diall is most intollerable alas shall we begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh shall we be such greedy Elues in our pleasure sell those heavenly ioyes and blessed hope of our heavenly inheritance for a messe of vaine delights Oh consider how farre we are from the holy zeale of those blessed Saints in Queen Maries dayes that forsook both their goods wives and children for the glory of God and the safety of their soules What vaine wretches shall we approve our selves to be if we will not forsake our vaine pleasures It is not your faire house nor your children nor loving wife I perswade you to forsake it is the vaine and unprofitable sport of Cock-fighting which brings ruine to your state and the endangering of your everlasting happinesse and therefore if either a desire to preserve your estate or to preserve your everlasting inheritance might prevaile my suit were soone granted But it may be you will say if I can prove this you will give over Cock-fighting Well upon that condition I will take some paines to make it manifest First to the matter of the ruine of your state I referre you to the examination of your particular exspences of those occasions and I pray let Sir William Dyers ruinate estate be a meanes to make you take heed by other mens harms for the matter of discontentment I appeal to no other judge then your loving wife which can tell you what discomforts she oftentimes findes in your long absence the dangers that doth fright her when she considers that you are in the company of such swaggering companions for the latter which is the maine point I purpose to insist upon being a matter of such hign concernment first because you make that a cause of your jollity and merriment which should be a cause of your griefe and godly sorrow for you take delight in the enmitie and cruelty of the creatures which was laid upon them for the sinne of man for the earth was accursed with thorns and briers for our sins and therefore the blood-shedding of the creatures should rather teach us to shed teares for our sins thus did Saint Peter when he heard the Cock crow he went out and wept bitterly I would to God you Cock-masters would make that use of these Cocks Secondly it is dangerous unto your soul in regard of the time that you mispend for if ye must give an account of every idle word that we speak Matth. 12.36 How much more of idle houres and dayes and if you did keep as strickt an account as you do of your houshold expences you should at the weekes end see what a heavy reckoning you should make when you shall see before your eyes thus many houres of such a day and so many daies of such a week I have spent in my vain delights and thus few houres in the service of my God well howsoever we are loath to come to this account now yet we shall be one day brought to it whether we will or no Thirdly it is dangerous to your soul in regard of the company with whom you do converse who for the most part are either swearers drunkards or licencious people now if it be most true that the prophet saith Psal. 18.25 With the holy thou shalt be holy and with a perfect man thou shalt be perfect Then on the contrary it must needs be that with the wicked we shall learn wickednesse and with the prophane we shall learn prophanes for it is a hard matter to handle pitch and not to be defield with it or to lie among thornes and not be pricked with them as the Prophet saith 2. Sam. 23.6 7. But the wicked shall be every one as thornes thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that shall touch them must be defenced with iron or with the shaft of a speare and they shall be burnt with fire in the same place Therefor dear brother if you did rightly consider of the hatefull and infectious qualitie of the wicked it will make you stand upon thorns while you are in their company and to bewaile the hardnesse of your heart which hath not felt them such pricking thornes all this while Lastly it is dangerous to your soule in making your soul guilty of many other mens sinnes by drawing away many a poore man from his honest labour whereby he should maintaine his wife and children to spend his time and money in such an idle manner but also you are guilty of many