Curse by mens unjust Censures 2. But the throne of God and the lamb shall be in it this is the Beatifical Vision that looks Souls out of sin and suffering and who dare presume to arrest the King's Favourites in his presence 3. And his servants shall serve him whether Devils or Men will or no these blessed Attendants on the King of Glory shall never be interrupted in their chearful Service 4. And 1 Cor. 13. 12. 1 John 3. 2. they shall see his face i. e. they shall not behold him in a glass darkly as now they see God in Ordinances but then face to face yea they shall see him as he is which is a riddle to us here below immediately though not comprehensively 5. And his name shall be in their fore-heads i. e. They shall openly profess whose they are and to whom they belong as distinguisht palpably from wicked men and Hypocrites They shall no more sculk in Corners or be thrust out of publick Places but shall openly avouch their Master 6 And there shall be no night there i. e. no works of darkness to lament or contest with no Beasts of prey to creep forth and worry the Saints no secret Plots against them no ignorance amongst Christian Societies to create Differences Jealousies and Animosities 7. They need no candle neither light of the sun no need of Ordinances as here below they are used and useful Preachers shall study or preach no more People need not hear Sermons neither Preachers or People shall stand in need of Seals the Substance is present Shadows flee away 8. The Lord God giveth them light their injoyment of God is immediate uninterrupted and satisfying in his light they see light as the Object will be clearer to be seen so their Eyes will be perfectly irradiated to behold him 9. And they shall reign for ever and ever though his Servants shall serve him yet it shall be no troublesome bondage or slavery but a liberty and dominion they shall sit with Christ in his Throne as Assessors judge the World and it Rev. 3. 2. may be judge their Judges approving the righteous Sentence of 1 Cor. 6. 2. their Royal Master the Blessed Jesus King of kings and Lord of lords And if all this be meant of some glorious state of the Church on Earth as some will needs have it yet that 's but a faint resemblance of this more happy State in Heaven And further for the duration of it 't is added 10. And they shall reign for ever and ever Earthly Monarchs are but short-liv'd Kingdoms have their periods but Kings are of less continuance of Christ's Kingdom there is no end and his Subjects reign runs paralel with the Life of God and Line of Eternity Oh blessed Souls oh happy Saints that shall for ever be with the Lord And here we leave the Soul of our dear Brother singing triumphantly the Song of Moses and of the Lamb in the height of Zion whilst we poor Mortals are glad if we can sing but the Song of degrees As for the solemn interment of that Case and Cabinet once the Receptacle now the Relict of that precious Pearl it was judged meet that Solemnity should be put off till Wednesday Dec. 19. 1677. that distant Friends might have seasonable notice and that day Mr. Starky a Non-conformist Minister preached an excellent Sermon in the Parish-Church at Ormes-kirk no man forbidding him nay all that were any way concerned consenting upon Col. 3. 4. When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory There was a vast confluence of all sorts of people at his Funeral great lamentation and many signal demonstrations of universal love and respect which he had from all the Country his Body was laid in the Chancel and Burying-place which belongs to the Ancient Family of Stanlies of Bickerstaff Knights and Baronets it was with their free consent and desire The Reverend Minister that preached after he had acutely learnedly and profitably handled his Text gave a short but full Account of him in his several Capacities as Minister Husband Father Friend and especially God-wards as a Christian And as the Eccho's of the Hearers gave testimony to the truth of what was spoken so to their sad resentment of their irreparable loss All the Town in their several Capacities doing him honour in their peculiar way Mr. Constable the chiefest Officer in the Town of considerable Authority carried the Staff like a Mace before the Corps and the rest walked in their due and decent order Now although this was insignificant to the Dead and not edifying much to the Living yet decent Burials have always amongst civilized Nations been accounted the duty of the Living and an honour to the Dead And there is a special remembrance of this in Scripture for it 's said of Hezekiah that all Judah and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honour at his death On the contrary it is recorded 2 Chron. 32. 33. as a perpetual Infamy of Jehoram the bad Son of good Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 21. 20. that he departed without being desir'd and of another bad Son of a good King Jehoiakin the Son of Josiah that they shall not lament for him saying Ah my brother but he shall be buried with Jer. 22. 18 19. the burial of an Ass drawn and cast forth beyond the Gates of Jerusalem But this Good man honoured God whilst living and God honoured him at his death and advanced his Soul to better and Eternal Honour Mr. Heywood went to his Grave in peace after all his tumultuous Tossings upon the tempestuous Sea of this World he dyed in the 44th year of his Age and about two Months above having lived long in a little time and I find several choice men taken out of the world about that Age. So among the German Divines Strigelius dyed Vid. vit in Metch Ad. 44 years of Age and 6 months Flinschpach 44. Simlerus dyed in the 45th year so we find Erpenius dyed at 40 years of age Mr. Robert Rollock dyed in the 43d year of his age the Famous Dr. Whitaker in his 47th But to mention no more our Famous Mr. William Perkins lived but 44 years being cut off by a violent Fit of the Stone And indeed we have frequently observed that laborious Ministers are short-liv'd some are of weak Constitutions and spend their Lungs with speaking or by a sedentary life contract Diseases or are fretted with the untowardness of their people or God in judgment takes them away as a punishment to a wicked world However like a Candle they spend themselves to give light to others Many gracious young men are very zealous and make hast with their Work and get it quickly dispatcht off their hands and go to bed betimes And God is not willing to be without their company too long Oh how many brave promising Plants have been pluckt up of late years that were heavy laden with
Augmentation added of 50 l. a year by Queen Elizabeth upon an Itinerant Preacher which had been long fixed upon the Minister of that place There were four of them in Lancashire this was one and 200 l. per An. was paid out of the Revenues to those four this was paid by several Trustees at the Audit At the return of King Charles II. one Mr. Stanninghaugh Parson of Augham worth 140 l. a year about two Miles from Ormskirk rode up to London and by the help of Friends surreptitiously obtained this 50 l. a year to be setled upon himself which gave occasion to some persons to reflect upon a Sermon Mr. Heywood preached at Ormskirk upon a day of Thanksgiving for the King's Restoration upon 2 Sam. 19. 30. And Mephibosheth said unto the king Yea let him take all forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house Which was indeed an excellent Discourse greatly approved and highly applauded by all especially the Gentry who earnestly sollicited him to print it but he refused not out of disloyalty but modesty not because he durst not own his Sovereign but he was not willing to be much taken notice of in the world Mr. Heywood digested this disingenuous carriage of his Neighbour and pretended Friend with great aequanimity and calmness and it proved a Worm to the one and at Blessing to the other for though this Mr. Stanninghaugh's Parsonage was 148 l. a year and his Tenement was 30 l. a year and this 50 l. yearly and he had no Child yet he left nothing at his death but Debt and his Wife in a poor condition But it pleased God from that time to bless Mr. Heywood's small Incomes incredibly and 't is next to a Miracle to consider what great things he did when shortly after he was turn'd out of all he paid some Debts and maintained his numerous Family in a good decorum for he had nine Children whereof six are yet living took a Lease for Three Lives of an House and Land paid 60 l. built a good part of it paid 30 l. for buying but a Lease elsewhere maintained his two Sons at School at Holland which cost him 14 l. a year sent one to Mr. Frankland to be educated in University-learning besides many sore Sicknesses in his Family Yet such was the blessing of God that he waded through all without contracting any Debt but rather increasing his Estate out of his small Incomes This Holy Man was very sensible of this strange Providence and often expressed it with admiring thankfulness In the year 1662 Aug. 24. that fatal day struck him civilly dead with the rest of his Brethren how beit he continu'd his publick Preaching in the Church after that day without disturbance till the place was filled up with a new Vicar on Mr. Ashworth a Schoolmaster who lived six or eight Miles from thence taught his School rode thither or Saturday and back on Monday morning was absent all the week for several years so that Mr. Heywood still seemed to have the sole charge of that Town and Parish visiting the Sick instructing them praying with them preaching privately to them as occasion was offered He was abundant in the work of the Lord not only in his own Parish but at Wigan Warrington Leverpool Preston Eccleston and upon a call in more remote places But in his own Parish and amongst his old Hearers he was in Labours more abundant he usually preach'd twice on a Lords day sometimes several times in Week-days ordering his Labours in several parts of the Parish both in the day and night Yea in times of great danger he hath preach'd at one house the beginning of the night and then gone two Miles a-foot over Mosses and preach'd toward morning to another Company at another house Nor was he scant and short in his Sermons but usually very long two hours at least often three yea sometimes he would have continued four or five hours praying and preaching his heart was so fully set upon his Master's work that he forgot his own strength and his Hearers patience Nor did he tediously dream over his work but was full of zeal vigour tenderness and affection often straining his voice beyond what his natural strength could well bear which occasioned torturing and mortal Diseases like a Candle he spent himself to give others light Neither was he vox praeterea nihil a meer voice and no more like some Preachers that like Thunder give a loud crack without a distinct sound or significancy no his Sermons were stuffed with solid Divinity Scripture Arguments alluring Similies heart melting Passages He was an excellent Text man producing solid Interpretations An experienc'd Casuist resolving Cases of Conscience with great satisfaction A clear Disputant stating Controversies solidly and substantially answering Objections learnedly and distinctly and proving the Truth demonstratively He was a pathetical Preacher driving the Nail home in close Convictions of Conscience warm Exhortations to Conversion or to particular Duties plain and undeniable Directions still laying open and obviating Satan's wiles the deceits of a bad heart and insnaring insinuations of a wicked world rifling the Conscience by a thorough Examination comforting God's Children with sweet Gospel-Promises This this indeed was his Master-piece and main Scope in his Preaching to lay open the Beauties and Excellencies of the Blessed Jesus and Sinners great necessity of him displaying in lively colours the love of God in sending his Son the love of Christ in the unparallel'd work of Redemption the Offices Purchases and Undertakings of the Son of God unfolding the Covenant of Grace the Operations of the Spirit in applying the Merits of Christ c. The truth of this appears in two excellent Discourses printed since his Death transcribed out of his own Notes as he preached them the same year he died The one called Christ the Best Gift which was grounded on John 4. 10. The other entituled Christ the Best Master grounded upon John 13. 13. Two excelent Treatises bound up together Printed after his death for he would never be persuaded to publish any thing though doubtless they would have been more Acurate if he had imagined they should have seen the light But such as they are they have proved very acceptable and profitable to the Church of God Many have read them with pleasure and some good Divines have quoted passages out of them His labours in the Ministry were so exceedingly welcome that the loss of him in publick work was greatly bewailed by the whole Town and Parish he was beloved of all good and bad A poor ignorant man came to him when he was turned out saying Ah! Mr Heywood we would gladly have you Preach again in the Church Yes said he I would as gladly Preach as you desire it if I could do it with a safe Conscience in Conforming The man replied Oh Sir many a man now-a-days makes a great gash in his Conscience cannot you make a little
nick in yours That was a remarkable passage which fell out at Ormskirk on July 30 1662. which Mr. Heywood thus describes in a Letter to a Friend About four a Clock that day in the Afternoon was a dreadful Thunder and Lightning for a long time together and in the Town of Ormskirk and about it fell a great shower of Hail in a terrible Tempest Hailstones were as big as ordinary Apples some say Nine Inches compass one Stone that I took up was above Four Inches after it had thawed in my hand the Hail broke all our Glass Windows Westward we have not one quarril whole on our backside so it is with most of the houses in and about the Town it hath cut off all the Ears of our standing Corn so that most Fields that were full of excellent Barley and other Grain are not worth Reaping It hath shaken the Apple-trees and in some places bruised the Apples in pieces the Hail cut Boughs from Trees and some say there are strange Apparitions in the Air of which I shall give you a further account All especially the ignorant were much terrified thinking it had been the day of Judgment certainly it was a sad sign and effect of God's heavy displeasure with us and I wish it be not a presage of more abiding Judgments They tell me that my small share of loss will amount to 10 l. at least in half an hour all this hurt was done The Lord sanctify this sudden stroke to me and my poor people Mr. Clark in his Examples hath this Story and mentions Mr. Heywood his attestation of it which yet I thought fit to relate here partly because this is fuller than he relates it partly to shew how observant this holy man was of the remarkable Providences of God It was his observation That this natural storm was a sad presage of a moral storm on Ministers and Churches which fell the very month after that rooted up so many useful fruit-bearing trees marred so much good fruit and shattered the glass by which the light of saving-truth is conveyed into the house of God This good man was so endeared to this People that he was resolved never to part from them till death made the divorce of whom thus he writes I have a loving though poor docible though ignorant People they flock in very great numbers to the Ordinances and I have hopes of doing some good it may be already begun amongst them I had some motion to Conform but I will not change upon any account whatsoever let me have your prayers help me for this poor people which I love as my own Child and long after in the bowels of Christ He had frequent distempers upon his body which much promoted God's work upon his heart In the year 1667. he had a violent distemper which in a fortnights time brought his body very low and by that time he was recovered his dear Wife fell into a sad languishing disease which threatned death besides grievous afflictions in her Spirit and sad apprehensions of death for above a month together a Swelling in her Throat which increased to a hard Tumour in the hollow of her Throat which inevitably in the eye of Reason threatned Death but beyond all expectation God did graciously remove that and raised her up again in mercy to the Family In the year 1670. his Son Nathanael was strangely taken with Convulsion Fits which tortured and distorted his Face Limbs every part of his Body in a prodigious manner but God also at last raised him up upon the Prayers of his People But these Providences found him work for and quickned his Spirit in Prayer In October 1671. Mr. Heywood fell into a malignant Feaver which as his two Doctors Dr. Fife and Dr. Grundy said had seized the Nerves and Spirits and Brain he was not in extremity of pain because as the Physitians said the disease lay not so much in the Blood Upon the 13th day after he begun he was judged to be a gone man Dr. Fife a boysterous man and Justice of the Peace in the Fild-countrey near Garstand called for a Candle and bade him open his mouth which when he had looked into he swore a great Oath and said his Tongue is as black as a Thrash call the Mistress of the house said he let him set all things in order and make his Will for he 's a gone man these words astonished his Family but his own and only surviving Sister being present and hearing these confident Expressions gathered encouragement and thought within herself This is but a man and may be deceived God is God and can confute him Thus Dr. Fife left him as hopeless and said it was in vain to give him any thing But before he came to his own house at Houghton Tower a Feaver seized violently upon the Doctor himself and in a few days made an end of him so he never returned home alive But from that very day Mr. Heywood began to amend the Feaver abateing It is likely that was a Crisis when the disease was at its height for it was a dreadful day and night he had all the symptoms of death upon him but God had mercy upon him as upon sick Epaphroditus Phil. 2. 27. God had much work for him to do But he continued under weakness and some disorder in his Head for he could not be persuaded that he was at home confidently affirming he was at Bickerstaff where indeed he was immediately before he begun his distemper to visit Sir Edward Stanly who was begun in a Feaver and died shortly after Mr. Heywood would needs be helped to the Window to see the Funeral pass by to the Church This sore sickness was in the year 1671. and the King 's Licenses came out in the year following 1672. and indeed hitherto he had very little or no disturbance in his preaching-work God was preparing him both for service and suffering This sickness preceded service God laid the foundation low designing to build high and often God thinks fit to lay the fairest colours upon a sable bottom so God passed the sentence of death upon him immediately before this petty resurrection for in the Spring following came out the Liberty to Preach Mr. Heywood cordially embraced it and had two Chappels Licensed viz. Bickerstaff adjoining to Lady Stanly's house two Miles South from Ormskirk the other was Scaresbrick two Miles North from the Parish-Church both in Ormskirk Parish these he supplied constantly preaching at the one Chappel one day at the other the next Lord's day of which he thus writes I bless God my Congregation is numerous and attentive Oh! that they were as fruitful my Family is healthful Oh! that they were more holy He continued two years in these two Chappels but about April 9 1674. he thus writes I have had more trouble and opposition in my Ministerial employment these four Months last past than ever I had in all my life yet am not taken off