never see May out and for those mercies which you would wish and hope to find then And if you do as the Lord Jesus Christ grant you and your Children may 't will be more a comfort to you than if all your choicest creature-comforts in the world should surround you Alas alas what are Pearls Plate Cordials Jewels Wife Children Husbands Lands Livings Rich Bed and Hangings or the Honours of the world when the Soul is stepping upon the dark Mountains of Eternity or sitting on the Lip just taking wing with the last gasp to fly away for ever as an Eagle in the Air O mercy mercy then and in that day may mercy be your portion And as the poor people of Hadly wept and prayed for Dr. Taylor in the street as he was going to be burnt saying Oh! Lord Jesus Christ relieve thee our good Shepherd Mr. Taylor as you have relieved and comforted us many times with your Charity But there are two promises more which I shall hint at and I have done Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matt. 5. 8. To see God is the very heaven of heavens and to see him in heaven is the last and lasting highest happiness of all men angels and glorified creatures or whatsoever our soul or souls can or shall ever to all eternity desire and may you and all you so see him and personally enjoy him for ever and ever but there must be purity and heart purity for it is the pure in heart that shall see him in glory without holiness no man can see him Heb. 12. 14. And with the pure he will shew himself pure Psal 18. 26. but in a strict sense this word pure must not be taken as if in a strict sense we should not see him without perfect holiness in our selves which is to be without all sin and to be perfectly holy in his sight which otherwise than in Christ no man living can be saith Job The Stars are not pure in his sight Job 25. 5. and he hath beheld folly in his Angels Job 4. 17. much less men the best of men or the best of their actions yea so none can say I am pure Prov. 20. 9. but men may be said to be pure as they are washed justified sanctified persons and made pure by the blood of Christ and so every believer or justified sanctified person is pure Rev. 1. 5. Timothy speaks of a pure conscience that is washed 1 Tim. 3. 9. 2. Tim. 1. 3. serving God with a pure conscience And so again Paul bids us draw near to God with a true heart and full assurance of what faith in Christ for justification having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience with the blood of Christ and our bodies washt with pure water that is the water of sanctification by his spirit typified by that which came out of his blessed side when by the spear pierced for us upon the Cross And thus noble Ladies it is that you must be pure if ever you will be pure and see God in Glory you must be washed by the blood of Christ and sanctified by the spirit of Christ fine Words fine Cloaths Complements and Faces doe nothing in point of justification no nor many sermons hearing if rested upon nor other good deeds no 't is the blood of Christ witnessed by an honest humble godly conversation from the integrity of your hearts that must get you the denomination of being pure in heart and seeing God in glory and therefore dear Ladies Gentlewomen and others as ever you would see glory or see the face of God in glory be holy heavenly and mind things above Col. 3. 1. 2. where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Heb. 1. 13. and think not that a little little slight religion no religion any religion will bring you there when nothing will do it without Purity Strictness and Honess yea there must be a little of all this do you think to go in fine Sedans Down Beds and Coaches no no it must be in a way of mortification to sin and love to holiness if you will ever have happiness yea this unspeakable happiness of seeing God in glory which one saies He would for one glimps of it endure a great while in hell Oh! but you need not go to hell for heaven for if you go there you will never come out though the Papists fancy they may from Purgatory for a little money to the Priest And therefore one said Oh Money Money what wilt not thou do in the Court of Rome Ay said the Pope and you are fools to bring it here to an English man that was there upon trial for a Church Living Oh! but go to Christ and the promise go to God by Christ through the promise beg and plead that you may see him and you shall see him and his grace and hereafter you shall see his face also Rev. 22. 4. And his name shall be in your foreheads that is the blessed rayes of his glory shall be visible on you when you come to stand before God and the Lamb in glory with your Palmes in your hands Rev. 7. 9. But seventhly and lastly Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matt. 7. 9. Peace makers are Christ's imitators who is called the Peace-maker and the Lord of life and glory the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Isa 9. 6. by whose commission alone it is that all his Messengers and Ministers do preach Peace and Pardon to poor sinners such as are far off and such as are near in their own apprehensions Yea to all that believe be they far or near Jews or Gentiles the blood of Christ speaks peace and better things to them than the blood of Abel that cryed for vengeance and all innocent blood will do so And therefore 't is not good to pardon any that kill men in quarrels duels but this cryes for peace pardon and forgiveness Oh! Father forgive them they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. now to be a peace-maker is to be a sin-reconciler I do not mean to God for that none can do but Christ who is our propitation 1 Joh. 2. 2. 4. 10. and he hath done it for all that do believe but to reconcile men to men is to do all the offices of love and good will yea all the offices of good we can for the Church and people of God especially in our own place way and calling wishing prosperity peace and weal and to say with the Psalmist Peace be with thee and let them prosper that love thee Psalm 22. 6 7. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy Palaces Psal 26. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem saith the Prophet Isaiah and in the Churches peace shall you have peace saith the same Prophet and the people of God are said to delight themselves in abundance of peace Psal 37. 11. Where the meek are said again to
Saviour's sake receive my Soul And so departed A Popish Doctor told Tindal disputing about Religion That it were better to be without God's Law than the Popes Tindal replied I defie the Pope and all his Laws He translated the Testament into English but the Popish party exceedingly raged saying There were a thousand Errors in it And for his good Works he was Imprisoned Condemned and Burnt but at his Death he cried Lord open the King of England 's Eyes John Hooper who Died 1555 being writ to by one out of England to send him some News he said He had no News to send him but that the last News that you will hear of me will be That where I have taken most pains to preach the holy Gospel there I shall be burnt to Ashes But one persuading him to Fly No says he I will live and die with my Sheep But being sent for to London he was Committed to the Fleet where he was miserably used and even poysoned with the common Ditch but being Sick he cried and called for help but the Warden said Let him alone if he die it will be a good riddance But a Knight coming to him told him Life was sweet and Death bitter To which he replied Death to come is more bitter and Life to come more sweet But being profered his Pardon going to the Execution he cryed If you love my Soul if you love my Soul away with it He prayed at the Stake Jesus thou Son of David have mercy upon me and receive my Soul And wiping his Face with his Hand cried For God's sake let me have more Fire And a third Fire being kindled he was yet alive but the last words he spoke were Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Lawrence Saunders meeting with one Pembleton another Minister said I have many fears if I should come to Suffer or Die for Religions sake What need you fear said Pembleton you have but a lean Body but I have a fat one yet you shall see the last gobbet and Grease of mine melt or fry away rather than deny Christ or the least of his Truth which I have professed Mr. Saunders being called a while after Imprisoned Tried and Condemned cried Welcome Christ welcome Christ welcome Eternal Life and the Fire being kindled sweetly slept in God sealing the Truth with his Blood But faint-hearted Pembleton for all his Self-boasting played Apostate in a small time John Rogers might have escaped and had many Motives a Wife and ten Children and had Friends in Germany if he would have gone he helped to Translate the Bible into English but Bonner sent him to Newgate amongst Thieves and Murderers And being Condemned he desired to have his Wife admitted to see him but that would not be granted him by any means but being told in the Morning he must Die that Day O said he if it be so I need not tie my Points being Dressing of himself But a Pardon being proffered him if he would Recant he utterly refused it His Wife then with nine Children and the tenth sucking at her Breast were brought to him but this sorrowful sight nothing moved him but in the Flames he took his Death with wonderful Patience The Sabbath before his Death he drank to Mr. Hooper who lay in a Chamber beneath him bidding the Messenger tell him That by God's Grace never little Fellow stuck closer to a man than he would to him supposing they should be both Burnt together Thomas Blinney in the Year 1531 had been in Prison and was drawn to Abjure and Submit himself after which he fell into terrors of Conscience for almost a Year being through God's Mercy restored to Comfort he resolved to lay down his Life for that Truth which he before had Renounced he Preached openly and complained of himself for his Fact bidding them beware they did not trust in Flesh nor Friends in matters of Religion but was seized by the Bishop and Imprisoned Being told of the Fires heat O said he God's Spirit will cool those Flames and I am sailing through a boisterous Sea but shall shortly be in Heaven help me with your Prayers and was Burnt calling upon Jesus with his Eyes and Hands lifted up John Frith was Prisoner in the Tower and had many Conflicts with the Bishops and at last condemned to be Burnt and delivered over to the Mayor and Sheriffs and in Smithfield patiently endured the same the Wind blowing away the Fire made his Death very long but by God's Grace he bore it as though he felt no Pain he much helped Tindal in Translating the New Testament And thus have I given you most Great and Noble Ladies a little short brief hint of a few brave and famous worthy English Martyrs there are Hundreds more in Fox's Book which you may find yea Thousands more English and others surely we should love the Truth and our English true Protestant Religion for the Truths sake yea and a little for these holy Martyrs sake And the God of Heaven grant our merciful King may long Live and such a Spirit never come again For this is the sum and substance of that Stuff we shall have if we lose the Bible of which the Gold Legion has a Cart-load which I here give you in a score or two of Lines as I found it written in a great Book Translated out of Spanish and Dedicated to a mighty Princess by an English Knight A great Person quitting all his fair Possession and giving them to the Church as 't was likely turned Colliers Man which labour brought Sickness and Death at which very instant all the Bells in Rome rang out on their own accord to the astonishment of the Pope himself A certain holy Monk retiring into a Wilderness house 70 miles distant from any 14 Years together had a certain Leopard which came to him every day for his Meat a long time together Gregory the Great in a great Sickness-year relates that he saw many visible Arrows come down from Heaven and struck Men dead yea another saw it Rain perfect Arrows and pieces of Stars A holy Priest that went into a very Rich Man's Kitchin where was a great Dinner of Chickens Capons and Feasants in Dishes which when the Priest saw he bade the Cook uncover the Dishes and they presently became Toads and Serpents A certain Monk saw a little Bird in a Cloyster singing very pleasantly and hopping out he follow'd it to a certain Wood where the Bird continued singing for the space of two or three hours as he thought but returning to the Cloyster again thinking he had been only a few hours or half a day at most but being unknown and searching of the Records he had been absent from the Covent 300 Years when he thought he had not been half a day St. Antonius tells you of an ill Liver that he knew was afflicted with tedious Sickness earnestly begged of God to deliver him who sent an Angel to tell him he must lie so two Years
Papists The last and general Closing Letter that is thus presumed to be offered ANd now most Noble Great and Right Honourable Ladies Gentlewomen and others 'T is not many Weeks nay Days since your poor Orator Supplicant or Petitioner was in his own and others apprehension at the brink of Death and the Grave and so many Days together But God was pleased by Doctor Cox my alone Physician to raise me up again And though in my Sickness my Life seemed to be flying away like an Eagle in the Air and the World and the Things thereof to be passing away as if they had never been yet yet I did secretly resolve if God should raise me up to perform or finish this poor little scribled and yet serious short brief and harmless Pocket-Book with the Ladies Letters which yet I humbly entreat your Noble Ladyships to peruse and view over and over in some serious leisure Hour persuading my self that though your Breasts are full of Piety Virtue Wisdom and Virtuous Thoughts yet you may find some if not many brief hints of Truth Religion and Virtue well worth your pious Thoughts or Memory for as Eternity is a very serious thing so every Sickness that brings one near the Borders of it or from the Borders of it should make us very serious and to Speak and Act as those that have been near another World though not in it And truly if I were no more nor longer to be in this than just to finish these few Lines and humbly on the bended Knee to present them to your Lilly Hands and so to lie down and die at your Feet yet would I seriously do it in the way of Prayer to your Honours First That the short Hints might be weighed and weighed again and again in your most strict serious and retired Thoughts whether they be really so as they seem to be hinted to you and if you find them indeed so to be by the standard Golden Rule Reed or Touchstone of God's holy Word then not to slight and say Pish Fool or cry This simple Man will never a done for 't is of more concern than so Truth is Truth and serious Things must and will be serious whether we mind or count them so or no. And this I assure you if ever you come as come you must to a Fit and Bed of Sickness I mean a thorow Sickness that your life seems in your own others thoughts to be flying away you will be then thinking of your immortal ever-living and never-dying Souls And it may be in a dowsed manner not knowing well where you are or what Day it is whether Day or Night The Watch Candle being in the Room the Curtains drawn little or no Company to speak to you because of the high Feaver or other Distemper but yet in that hour it may be Fears Doubts Conscience will be working and secret Questions will be working in you whether you must and shall Die now or no go to the Grave leave your golden Hangings Rooms Honours and Relations going to the silent and be seen no more whilst it may be are just in the middle of some great Design or other as your Supplicant was in these Papers or setting up of your little Charity-School at High-Gate But be it what it will every Design must break off if Death really come with and at the end of your Sickness and then no remembrance of you or yours will be after a very little while Oh Madams for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake and your own Souls I beseech you mind a little the house of mourning Eccles 7. 2. which he says 't is so good to go to and the Bed of sickness before it comes and especially what to do before it comes that its coming may not be as a damp and death to your spirits when it comes It 's said the Cockatrice never kills but when it sees us before we see it Oh be before-hand with your Sickness and prepare in Life for Death and Health for Sickness and assure your selves you may as well persuade your selves that Michaelmas will never come because April is and May is at hand as that Sickness and Death will not come because Health Wealth Honour and all about you is now as you would have it and more comforts seem to promise to you also from a Son or Daughter 's great Match or Purchase which you are just a making But yet Michaelmas comes in course and Winter too when one Flower will not be left But now against the height and heart of that and all that is cold and killing unto Creature-comforts set a never-failing good God aside make him your portion and with the Prophet Habakkuk say Though the labour of the Olive should fail Flocks Herds and the Fruits of the Field yield no increase yet I will rejoyce greatly I will joy in the God of my salvation Habbak 3. 17 18. But this must nor can ever otherwise be but by true Faith in the Love Life Blood Death and Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ with holy walking in the sanctifying graces of his Spirit six or seven of which you may eminently find I shall hint at in the first Sermon our Lord Jesus Christ ever preach'd Mat. 5. 3 4 5 6 7 8. First blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven by purchase purpose promise and eternal preparation Mat. 25 34. Come ye blessed of my Father and receive a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World Oh blessed Poverty that enriches men with the Kingdom of Heaven This poverty of Spirit is nothing else but a sensible want of Grace and Christ and every good thing in our selves through the discovery of original sin to us by the Fall of Adam whereby we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be lost by the purity and spirituality of God's most holy inward piercing Law the ten Commandments by which we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be most miserable wretched creatures and lost in our selves seeing no hope nor help any ways but in Gods mercy thorough Christ and this brings us to be like the poor Prodigal or Publican Luke 18. 11. to cry Lord be merciful to me poor lost sinner and grant that I may find Christ and pardon for my Soul and by Prayer Reading Hearing Preaching Meditating make out after him in an humble persevering way And this is the Poverty to which the Kingdom of Heaven belongs that is the Gospel with all its Promises and everlasting Kingdom of Glory too which God grant you and yours may all find But secondly ver 4. Blessed are all they that mourn for they shall be comforted that is for sin in-dwelling of original and actual sin and upon that account cry out like great St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Rom. 7. 24. Mark Ladies Sin has a Body yea in Paul it had though he was
Gentlewomen and others as the Italian Beggars proudly beg saying frequently Do it for your own good Let us humbly beg as on our knee in the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ do yea and do without your lame Objections That you have so many ways when it is nothing else but a will and heart that you want for you have Purse enough and 20 ways to save a little and therefore do something worthy of this good Design And you may be sure 't is a good one because it is to feed cloath and teach poor ignorant Children to know themselves fear God and live in a hard world what can be better ask your Lords I am sure the Lord Christ all the Prophets and Apostles commend it I have cloathed the hungry saith Job And Dorcas or Lydia made cloaths saith Paul Acts 9. 39. And Cornelius was a man full of good Works Alms-deeds and Charity Acts 10. 4. And Primitive Christians sold their Lands to give to necessitated Brethren Acts 4. 32 3 4. so that 't was all along and is still a good work because it suits so well with our Religion and the Church of England which saith with St. James Faith without Works is dead Jam. 2. 26. But this and such as the nature of this is amongst many others will declare it living Thirdly it is a good work because it will in some measure stop the mouths of Papists who are prone to say Where are your Works and how few are your Hospitals and how small is your Charity notwithstanding great Preaching Yet we have more than they know but do not boast as they do Our Catholick Doctrine teaches us to do good private and publick too And this is a Catholick grace because it is more or less in every Member of Christ and ought so to be for he bids us be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful who maketh the Sun to shine and the Rain to rain upon the just and the unjust Mat. 5. 45. I shall give you one blessed Scripture more and I hope I may without any boasting truly say I have even this present February or March experienced something of it and God Almighty grant that you many or all of you might do so too for it will be your case or cases as sure as God lives to lie upon the Bed of Sickness as I have done many days together Now says the Holy Writ Blessed is the man that considereth the poor and needy Psal 41. 1. All these Children of Hampstead Hornsey or Highgate are really so the Lord preserveth and keepeth him delivereth him not into the hands of his Enemy and keepeth him alive the Lord shall comfort him when he is sick upon his Bed and shall make his Bed in his sickness that is comforts for his Soul yea and Body too if this great full plain eminent well-known Scripture be not considered none will Now 't will be of the latest may be another day and you will certainly come to be sick and it may be in your Sickness be dozed scarce know where it be day or night as I said before and it may be in your Sickness have many fears and doubts concerning your eternal weal. The Enemy will tempt you by reason of sin and guilt secretly to despair or throw away your Soul and Souls nay he will do it because you have liv'd no more to God and his Honour but have minded your own Honour Ease Pleasure and Interest in the World done no Good been a Christian in Name only having a form of Godliness but no Power 2 Tim. 3. 5. And a thousand things of this Nature he will bring it may be he will bring some particular Sins committed so and so to your Minds whilst the Room is close or two or three in it with a watch Light the Curtains drawn but the Evil One is very busie in the Bed or Conscience with you Now now if you wish as God Almighty grant you may never be delivered over into your Enemies or the Enemy of Mankinds salvations Hands Mind this Promise I do not bid you build upon it that is dangerous But build upon Christ and mind this for the Promises must be minded and the Conditions performed too in some measure And therefore be Merciful that the Lord may be Pitiful and not by Death deliver you to your Enemies Hands 'T is a dreadful terrible thing for a poor Partridge to lie trembling in the Talons of the Faulcon says the Practice of Piety but a thousand thousand times more dreadful to be delivered into the hands of Satan in a dying Hour but the Promise is God will not deliver the merciful Man into the Enemies hands Psal 41. 2. but keep him alive Nay he will certainly do it that is He will keep him alive in Christ unto Eternal Life or else alive in this World for more Work and Comfort which latter Promise is rather meant here So that a long Life seems to be promised to a merciful Man or Woman And now Ladies would you also live long on the Earth as I believe you would and enjoy all your Comforts Riches Honors and Relations be merciful to the Poor not idle vagabons sturdy Rogues and Beggars that make a Trade but poor industrious House-keepers old people and children that are past their Labour or too young poor Outed Ministers Widows and others All these you must consider And as the Apostle sayes Do good unto all men as ye have opportunity especially the houshold of Faith and in so doing you might expect the promise or promises But some may object it may be you would have us give all away no nor above the tenth part neither scarce that Yet many many good men and Ministers think we are bound to that especially Dr. Gouge And in his Book called The Best Way of Thriving gives you forty Arguments of Scripture for it And tells you an excellent story of a Bishop that lost a hundred pound for not giving five c. But Divine discretion must be used for this and the other world too We all commend good Husbandry and good Houswifery But what think you of the Lady Warwick she would say Save the money of one Rich Lac'd Gown a year and that would serve to cloath a great many poor Children especially if it should be a May-Gown Here was good Houswifery and great Charity I had rather starve a Lust said she than not feed a good Christian And she found the comfort of it in her sickness for she had scarce any God toll'd her Soul away as it were without groans But you it may be let a thousand pound Necklace it may be more lie dead in a little penny Bran Box and many thousands more in Jewels Plate Gold or Silver by you and yet yet think it a great matter to do a little any thing that is for a Noble Good and Brave Charitable Design which may flourish to the world's end for ought you know If you would do