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
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
the beginning of the world Behold now I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh is by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and hath given him selfe for me I am saved and that of grace through faith and that not of my self it is the gift of God Not of workes to the end that no man should boast Eph. 2 8 9 My dear Parents now we must shortlie parte my speech faileth me pray the Lod for a quiet close to my combat All our dear childe how sad is that to us that we must parte Yea said she I goe to heaven and there shall we find one another I goe to Iesus Christ and to my Brother Iacob who did so much crie to God and call upon him to the very last breathing and to my litle sister which was but three years of age when it dyed and when we asked it if it would dye yea said it if it be Gods will I will goe to my litle brother if the Lord will Or I will also stay with my Mother if it be his wil but I know that I shall dye and goe to heaven to God Oh see how so small a babe to which so much grace was given as to have it self every way and in all things so subjected and submitted to the will of God as if it had no will of it's own it said alwise If it be the will of God if it pleas God Nothing for it but as it was the will of God the pleasure of God c. And therefore dear F. and M. give the Lord thanks for this his free and rich grace and then I shall the more gladlie be gone Be gratious then O Lord unto me also be gracious to me wash me throughlie from my unrighteoushes cleanse me from my sinne It is said Isa 1. 18. Although your sinnes were as skarlet they shal be white as snow Although they were red as crimson yet they shal be as wooll Behold God hath washen away my sinn Oh how doe I long for in this body said the Apostle we earnestlie sigh and groan longing for our house which is in heaven that we may be therewith cloathed 2. Cor. 5. 2. Now I also ly heer sighing and longing for that dwelling which is above In the same sermon which I heard or shall ever heare on earth I heard of this in the new Kirk which is matter of great comfort now unto me Then she brought foorth severall notable scriptures which were quoted in that sermon especially Revel 22. And then she called for prayer Pray with me said she that my sins may be forgiven me and that I may have the more abundant faith and assureance of it and the comfort of that assureance and the strength of that comfort according to my necessity She prayed herself and continued a pretty space After prayer in which she insisted principally for pardon of sinne she said my 〈◊〉 parents have I angered or grieved you at any time or done what became me not forgive it me O poor childe say they if all children caryed so to their parents as thou hast done there should be less grief and sorrow upon all hands And if any such thing had escaped thee we would forgive it with our wholl heart you have done 〈…〉 a good childe The heart of her being quieted by her peace with God her Father in the heavens and her peace with her parents on Earth then she began to dispone her books and other litle things and as the grace of God had made her so wise unto salvation so she did showe some proportion of christian prudence almost in every thing smaller and greater My dear mother said she ye shall keep my Catechise book in remembrance of me Ye shall keep Dom. de Witts Catechisation so long as ye live and let my litle sister have the other book as my remembrance In the mean while she told that she found her heart exceedingly pained and overwhelmed and that she knew that her life should quicklie passe away Her Father speaking a word as he was able hoping the Lord would be neer with his strength in this sad hour of her necessity Yea said she The Lord is my shepherd Although I pass through the shadow of the valley of death I will not feare for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me Psa 23. And it is said Rom. 8. the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shal be revealed in us Shall I not suffer and endure seing my glorious Redeemer behoved to suffer so much Oh how was he mocked and spitted on and crowned with thornes that he might parchase a crowne of righteousness for us And that is the crowne of which Paul said 2. Thes 4. 7 8. I have foughten the good fight I have finished my race and keeped the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give unto me in that day and not only to me but to all who love his appearing 1. Cor. 6. 20. Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your soules and bodyes which are his Must I not then exalt and bless him while I have being who hath bought yea bought me with his blood Isai 53. Surely he hath borne our griefes took our infirmities we esteemed him smitten and stricken of God But he was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our sin the chastisement of our peace was upon him and through his stripes are we healed And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all Joh. 1. Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sinn of the world Behold that Lamb is Iesus Christ also for my sinnes he hath satisfied So said Paul 1. Cor. 6. 11. Ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and through the Spirit of our God My end is now very neer Now shall I put on white raiment and be cloathed before the Lamb that spotlesse Lamb with his spotlesse righteousnesse Now are the Angels making ready to carrie my soule before the throne of God Those are they who are come out of great tribulation who have washed their robs and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revel 7. She spoke this with a dying voice but full of the Spirit and of the power of faith And this her lively assureance and persuasion of her salvation she further uttered with the words of Paul 2. Cor. 5. 1 2. For we know that if this earthlie house of our tabernacle be dissolved we have one which is built of God a house not made with hands but eternall in the heaven For in this we sigh for our house which is in heaven that we may be cloathed therewith There Father ye see that my body is this tabernacle which now shall be broken downe