Hebr. 12. 10 11. And albeit as it is said there no chastening for the present time seemeth to be joyeous bot greivous neverthelesse afterwards it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse unto them who are exercised by it The Lord is now chastening me upon this sick-bed and I hope he will blesse it soe as to make it to yeeld unto me that same blessed fruit according to the riches of his mercy and compassions which faile not and then sighing to God with her eyes up to heaven she said be mercifull unto me o Father be mercifull unto me poore sinner according to thy word And looking upon her sorrowing parents who stood by her Father said she It is said in the 55. Psal vers 23. Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustaine thee for he will never suffer the righteous to be moved Therefore dear Father and Mother cast all your care and sorrow upon the Lord who shall make all things goe well that concerne you Oh said the Mother my deare child I have had noe small comfort from the Lord in thee and the fruits of his grace in thee wherby thow hast been so much exercised unto godlinesse in the word and prayer and religious and gracious discours unto thine owne and our comfort and edification The Lord himselfe who gave us thee make up our loss of thee If it be his pleasure that we must now parte one from another D. Mother said she albeit I leave yow yet God shall never forsake yow for it is said Isai 49. 15 16. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the fruit of her wombe yea she may forget yet I wil not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hand c. Oh comfortable words both for mothers and children Mark dear Mother how fast the Lord keepeth and holdeth his people that he hath them even graven on the palmes of his hand Therefore think with your self that albeit I must parte with yow or ye with mee yet the Lord shall never separat from you or me She being wearied through much speaking desired to rest a little and after a verie little tym she awaked Her Father asked how it was with her but she asked what day of the week it is now Her Father told her it was the Lords day Well said she have ye given up my name to be remembered in the publict prayers Her Father told her he had done soe I have learned said she that the effectuall fervent prayer of the Righteous doth availe much The two worthie Ministers who are aftermentioned she wold have much desired they should have been by her but from her love to them being much tender and carefull of their safetie she wold not have them desired to visite her but rather satisfied herselfe to be cast upon the Lords owne hand and to accept of and improve the visits of others whom the providence of God should send unto her or those who being judged by the Church sitt for the visiting of the sick in these caices of hazard arewont to come with more freedom Of whom their was one who used to come severall tymes to her and who was through the Lords blessing usefull to her to whom she gave heartie thanks for his visit And one tym after he was gone she began to weep bitterlie and her Father asked her the cause Have I not matter for weeping said she for what I have heard but just now by the visiter that Domine de Witte was to day taken sick in the pulpit and went home so unwell which is a sadd token for the people For when God is about to smyte a Land or a Citie often times he smyteth and removeth their Pastores and ought we not then to lay such a thing to heart altho for my part I know that I shall not long live to behold the evill which may come and which I have helped to procure al 's well as others And therefore I pray with David Psa 25. Remember not O Lord the sinnes of my youth nor my trespasses according to thy tender mercie remember thou me for thy goodnes sake O Lord. Oh how do I long even as the Hart panteth after the water brooks so panteth my thirstie soule after thee O God My soule thirsteth for God the living God Oh how doth my soule thirst all the day after thee O God Psa 42. And farther in the words of that 51. Psal Have mercy upon me O Lord according to thy loving kindnesse according to the multitud of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions And so forward to the 11. vers which she much insisted upon often repeating the same especially the 5. vers Behold I was shapen in iniquitie and in sinne did my mother conceive me Vpon which words she enlarged her meditation and speech according as she had learned from the Scriptures and the Catechisme and the books written thereupon for explication concerning that subject of originall sinne This is comed said she from the disobedience and fall of our first parents in paradise that our nature is soe corrupted that we are all altogider conceived and borne in sinne So we read also Gen. 5. 3. Thus Adam it is said begat a sonn after his owne liknesse Sinne is not of God for he hath formed man upright in the begining but he hath sought out many inventions Eccl. 7. 29. Therefore as by one man sinne entered into the world and death by sinne and soe death passed upon all men for that all have sinned but death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression Rom. 5. She spoke also many things verie judiciouslie of the old man and the putting off the same and of the new man and of the putting on thereof from Eph. 4. and then she fell again upon the 51. Psa and these words The sacrifices of God are a broken heart a broken and a contrite Spirit O Lord thow wilt not despise that brokennesse of heart said she which is built upon and floweth from faith and that faith which is built upon Christ who is the propper and alone true sacrifice for sinne And heerupon she spoke of the offerings and sacrifices of Abel and of Cain Hebr. 11. 4. Thereafter she desired to rest and haveing slumbered a little she said ah dear F. and M. How weake doe I find my selfe My dear child said her Father God shall in his tender mercy strengthen you in your weakenesse Yea Father said she that is my confidence for it is said Isai 42. The bruised reed he will not break and the smoaking flax he will not quench Should I not then believe read Hebr. 11. How Abraham being proved of God did by faith offer up Isaac in sacrifice Oh what a stedfast loyall faith was that of Abraham which made him willing and readie to offer that his owne one sonne Oh what is
AN EDIFIEING WONDER OF Two children dyeing 100 yeares old OR A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LAST HOURES OF SUSANNA BICKES In the 14 yeare of her age before her death Septemb. 1. 1664. ALSO OF JACOB BICKES her Brother of 7. yeares old Aug. 6. 1664. ESAI 65. 20. The childe shall dye an hundred yeares old bot the sinner being an hundreth yeares old shal be accursed MATTH 21. 16. Have ye never read Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfyted praise LUK. 18. 16 17. And Jesus called the litle children to him and said Suffer little children to come unto me for of such is the Kingdome of God Verilie I say unto you who so receiveth not the Kingdome of God as a litle childe he shall in nowise enter therein Printed in the Year 1666. READER THis was done at first in another language And albeit I knowe that ther is soe much sobriety in the most able who put pen to paper in those dayes as maketh them to find some scarring upon their owne spirits when they suppose how many of those who look upon a new book may happen to welcome it into the world with a word of snuffing disdaine Tush the world is too full of books already Yet I am some what above the feare of the hardest censure for this small and indirect accession to the adding of one poor sheet more that I am rather confident that Read who will these few pages his conscience within him such as it is will extort so much from him like a testimony to the wayes of God that he shall at least say O that I may dye the death of the righteous and that my latter end might be as his And that the Reader who is taught the feare of the Lord wil be farther enlightened and refreshed and perswaded of the wayes of holines And more particularly of these few things following First that ther is a Holy Ghost which dwelleth in and shal be with the saints for ever And 2. that he is the comforter who alone can and should comfort the soule And 3. that his consolations are not small by which ther is singing for joy of heart and glorifieing God even in the fires and by which beleivers are enabled to laugh at destruction and famine and dearth and pestilence and to lift up their heads and be able to stand before the Sonne of God though they should live to see the greatest distresses of nations and the shakeings of heaven and earth which make the hearts of the stoute to stoope and faile 4. That the pure ordinances of Christ are noe vayn things but ought to be much followed and cleaved unto and that there Christ giveth his loves 5. That the word is that sword of the Spirit and ther is none like it against that Goliah that red Dragon that Leviathan and the King of Terrors How mighty was this young Damsell in the Scriptures and the young one wanted not his own number of Scripture places by which through grace they did quit themselves like men and overcame and at their death declared themselves by the faith and consolation of the Scripturs to have attained to the stature of perfect men Christians know what houre it is of your day and what is your work Be faithfull in the lesser or greater things of opportunity and means of working out your salvation You do not know what evill may be upon the earth albeit we know that the Cup of trembling go round as it will from Nation to Nation from Church to Church from Citie to Citie from Family to Family yea often it beginneth at the house of God and his own sanctuary Ezek. 9. 2 Pet. 3. But yet a little while and it shal be taken out of the hand of the Lords people and the dregs therof shal be wrung out by all the wicked of the earth and that most Signally by Antichrist apostates seducers persecuters and others also who have a forme of Godlinesse and deny the power therof THE LAST HOURES OF SUSANNA BICKES in the 14th yeare of her age SUSANNA BICKES borne in Leyden Ianuarij 24. 1650. was visited from the hand of the Lord with the Pestilence upon the 30. of August 1664. being Saturnday betuixt 7. of 8. at night And after the beginning of her sicknesse there were considerable presages of her death And very speedily she betooke herself to the great Physician of soule and body The first night she exercised herself to earnest prayer by herself alone without many words or speech to others that God would furnish her with strength in her soule to beare out that great conflict which she did apprehend to be approaching with the waves of death that she might by faith and patience as becometh a dyeing Christian pertake of the victorie which Christ hath purchased over death to all these for whom he himselfe had tasted of death And as God had blest the preaching of the word abundantly to her and the exercises privat and publict upon the Cathechisme So that she had acquired a mervellous measure of knowledge and daily increasing in the same from the very day that she was in any capacity to learne So what instruction she received in the grounds of Religion it did soe take hold upon her that not only she retayned the notions therof in her understanding Bot the impressions of the trueth wer engraven upon her heart of which she gave remarkable proofes at this tyme of her death And that the word of God had dwelt plentifully in her wherby she was enabled to speak unto herselfe and to sing with grace in her heart making sweet medoly to the Lord while surrounded with the billowes of the King of Terrors marching in battell array against her with the terrible slaughter weapon of the Pestilence As abundanly is evident by the ensueing words uttered by her and faithfully collected and by the advyce and help of some iudicious and Religious persons published for the use of others both old and young The accompt whereof might have been much larger then heer it is done but that severall things did escape the memories of the bystanders and of the Penman being partlie through grief and partlie through wonder diverted from the exact noteing of the things which she uttered At the beginning of her sickness she was heard with much feeling and power breaking foorth to God with these words of Psalm 119. If thy law wer not my delyt I should perish in my affliction Wherupon her Father said to her be of good comfort my child the Lord wil be neer unto thee and us under this heavie and sore tryel and will not forsake us although now he chasten us David by these words belike meant of the Lords hand which had been heavie both upon his house and upon his person severall wayes Wherof we read in the Scripture Yea Father said she Our heavenlie Father doth chasten us for our profit that we may partake of his holinesse As we read
faith Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. Also 2. Tim. 2. 19. the fundation of God standeth sure haveing this seale The Lord knoweth those who are his owne Bot now dear F. and M. why weep ye soe over me knoweing soe well I hope that if the Lord shal be pleased to take me out of this lamentable wofull world it shal be well with me and that therwith ye ought to be content It is said Psal 115. Our God is in the heavens and doth all what soever he pleaseth Yea we pray every day that his will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven Now Father this is Gods will that I ly upon this sick-bed of this diseas Therefore we must be content that it be to us according to our prayer Otherwis we then should murmure against God without whose good pleasure nothing comes to pas Although I be thus stricken with so heavy and sadd a diseas yet it is the will of God and ther is my silence Therfore I will pray that his will be done and not mijne Therfore Father never doubt of Gods providence for it is said Matth. 10. are not two sparrowes sold for a ferthing and that not one of them falleth to the earth without your Father yea the haires of your head are also numbred Therefore fear not ye are better then many sparrowes And Lam. 3. 38. There goeth not out of the mouth of the almightie good and evill Adversity and prosperitie are both good Some things may seem evill in our eyes but the Lord turneth all to good Amos 3. 6 Shall ther be evill in the city which the Lord doth not Cometh not the Pestilence from God What mean those people who say that it cometh by the air and is not the Lord the Creator and the Ruler of the air and all the Elements Or if it come out of the earth yet is it of the Lord. What talke they that it came which a ship which was come from Africa We have long agoe read together out of Lev. 26. 25. I shall bring a sword upon you to avenge the quarrel of my covenant where you are assembled in your cities then shall I bring the pestilence in the midst of you After this she sought some rest again and having slumbred a little she said O now my dear Fat. and Mot. now is this day for the opening of the first quest of the catechisme and if we were there with others we should heare that whether in death or life we are the Lord I. Christs our faithfull Saviour who hath by his owne precious blood redeemed us from the power of the divel And the following words Rom. 14. 8. for none of us liveth to himself none of us dyeth to himself for whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we dye we dye unto the Lord whether then we live or dye we are the Lords Then be comforted for whether I dye I shall dye to the Lord or if I live I shall live to the Lord. The life which God at first gave me I have as yet and so long as the soule is in the body there is hope wherfore then doe ye so much afflict yourselves But what shall I say with weeping I came into ye world and with weeping must I goe out of it Oh my deare parents better is the day of death then the day of ones birth Eccles 7. 1. Ther is a time to be borne and a time to dye If my time to dye be not comed I shall then not dye So then ye must comfort yourselves and thinke that God shall make all well Ah my d. F. and M. let us pray together and pray the Lord with me that he would vouchsafe upon me a quiet and peaceable passage through death Her Father after he had prayed being full of fatherlie sympathie and care of such a childe both in what concerned her soul and bodie asked her if he should once more bring the physician to her Nay said she the Doctor shall doe me nothing nor can he help me but I hope abundantly that my heavenly Father shall help me Well said her Father my child we shall use the ordinary meanes and let the Lord blesse as he sees good Yea said she deare Father the heavenly Physican is the true helper he shall help he can help both soul and body It is said Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me all ye who are weary heavie loaden and I will give you rest See there Father there is the helper even as Psa 50. call upon me in the day of distress I shall delyver and thou shalt glorifie me All who are in trouble must call upon God alone for when humain helpe is done then beginneth Gods helpe for them who call upon him in trueth and in faith Therfore let us once more pray After her Father had prayed the friend above-mentioned came to visit her and as the Lord had so opened and enlarged her heart that every word spoken to her from the Scriptur tooke hold upon her with refreshing impression so was the visiter also much refreshed by her wondering at the grace of God in her and that she spake so pertinently and aftectionatly to her parents for comforting them And so after she had bid him thanks for his visit he took his leave with tears which were tears al 's much of joy as sorrow When he was gone she asked what day is it now they told her it was Monday Then said she to morrow is the catechising day in our quarter Ther is one thing I will earnestly beg of you Father and that ye will promise it to me and that is that ye shall goe to Dom. de Witte and Ardinois and thanke them for the learning and instruction which I reaped by their catechising and tell them that these excellent and brave places of Scripture which they taught me upon the catechisme at the meetings in the Kirk have been and are blessed of God for my comfort now upon my death bed yea are usefull unto me for my salvation Oh that sweet catechising unto which I did alwis resort with gladnes and waited upon it without wearieing untill it was ended I have seen and understood that there is so little comfort and good so much vanity in the Kermis holy idle dayes of play that I have grieved and been ashamed both for young and old people to see them so glad and mad upon vanity Also dear Father ye shall give thanks to my Schoolmaster and Mistresse who taught me the first beginnings of my reading I intreat and hope that ye will doe so and not forget my thanks to the Ministers as ye have already promised Yea said her Father I promise you I shall if the Lord preserve my life and health which accordingly he did at convenient occasion on her behalfe which was refreshing acceptable to these worthie men as if it had