inherit the earth And as Paul in his salutation said Grace be unto you and Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ Col. 1. 2. And In as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. Now first there is a personal or particular peace that is a peace with a man 's own self Mind Actions Waies and Conscience Secondly There is a domestick peace that is with Masters Servants Husbands Wife and Children And thirdly There is a Relative Neighbour or Parochial Peace that is one Neighbour Friend or Relation with another And Moses reproved the two Israelites for quarrelling saying They were Brethren Exod. 12 13. Oh! how good is it saith the Psalmist for natural or spiritual Brethren to live together in Amity Psal 133. 1. Fourthly There is a National and Ecclesiastical Peace which we are to pray for and desire also But this is rather to be desired than expected While some men know more and others less there will be disputes and some differences for all men have not the same fancies nor Physiognomies but do differ there and in mind too However for peace and quiet sake let the strong comply with the weak and the weak not to despise and judge the strong because they know more than themselves And this is to become all to all men as Paul did to gain some And for God Christ Peace and Angels sake do you do so which was the Song that millions of them sung at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Shepherds yea the universal world saying Glory be to God in the highest Luk. 2. 14. Peace and good will towards men on earth But for your worldly outward Peace take Paul and Christ's counsel in a word and so shall you preserve and keep it First Wrong no man saith he Act. 25. 10. Secondly Forgive your Enemies sayes Christ Matth. 5. 44. which two Scriptures well observed would make a great deal of peace in the world especially amongst the best of good Christians But I shall not mind nor trouble you further in any thing of this nature about Peace above mentioned only this A personal inward Peace which is a thing of great concern for Eternity namely your Soul-Peace and for that take this great Scripture Simile or Parable of our Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 5. 56. Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him lest at any time thy Adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison Verily I say unto thee Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing which is as much as to say never never And now pray will you mind this young Ladies and Gentlewomen for you for the most part are most ignorant of the holy Scriptures and their meaning This is a true and great Parable of Soul concern and therefore Christ's counsel is serously to be minded by us Our Adversary is God and God though he be the God of all Good Grace Glory Eternal Love and Infinite Endless Mercy yet he is an Adversary to every Man and every Man and Woman by nature too is an Adversary an enemy at distance to him till he be reconciled by Christ for the breach of his most righteous just and equal holy Law Psal 119. 19. Every branch of which as it contains a beam of his eternal will and image is more pure than the Sun or gold tryed in the Fire as the Psalmist hath it Psal 119. 72. Now whil'st sweet life and the holy blessed Gospel is continued and preach'd to us we are in the way in the right way that we may be reconciled to this good God who is yet an Enemy and will continue so if we do not agree and make peace in the blood of Christ But he namely God delivers us by death any kind of death that kills us Consumption Surfeit Cold Ague Feaver Small-Pox Age Gout or Dropsie c. so that we be put into the Judges hands namely the good Lord Jesus Christ's who is and shall be Judge of quick and dead he finds us guilty of debt sin unbelief and breach of God's holy Law sends us and delivers us over into the Jaylors hands the Devil and he presently casts and carries us to Hell where we never come out nor can till we pay the uttermost farthing that is till we satisfie to the uttermost for God's wrong and infinite strict Justice for the breach of his holy righteous just and good Law which can never never be though we lie millions millions and ten thousand millions of years as Francis Spira once said Oh Lords Ladies Gentlewomen and other poor People make Peace while you may make Peace yea whilst Christ and the holy Spirit of Christ sweetly knocks with an Olive branch of Peace pleading with you at the door of your hearts Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock that is by good motions and if any one hear and open the door that is hearken to my counsel I will come in and sup with him that is give him pardon and comfort Rev. 3. 20. And so again Cant. 5. 2. Open Open unto me my Love my Dove and come away And now if you have taken his advice and have made your Peace by hearkening unto Christ and taken his counsel who is an Advocate Friend and Counsellor to plead for you to the Father by shewing of his Blood Death and Merit in a way of Intercession to the Father for poor Sinners then will he be a Saviour to you and not a condemning Judge to turn you over by Death to Hell and the Jaylor but will convey you safely by the holy Angels who are now your Guardians to the Bosom of the Father And now if you have made your Peace as easily yet you may if you have not and do but look about you with a grain of Faith through the Blood Life Death and Merit of Jesus Christ as I said before then you have little else to do but to study all kind of Peace in your Families Parish-Church and every where where you can come or go That ye may be called the Children of the Living God Rom. 9. 26. The Sons and Daughters of the most High God 1 John 3. 1. And so Peace-makers indeed And this frame of spirit with the Spirit of God in you Rom. 8. 10. will be a great Witness and Comfort to you that you are now the Children of God and if Children then Heirs as the Apostle sayes verse 17. and so Joynt-heirs with Christ O unspeakable Love and Grace What! an Heir with Christ Ay sayes the Text a Joynt-heir with him of what nay that 's for Eternity to tell but this we may say they are Heirs of First of Eternal Life and Resurrection from the Dead Luk. 20 36. But they which shall be accounted worthy of that world namely Heaven and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry
as great and experienced a Saint and Servant of Christ as ever liv'd that is an in-dwelling in every part of our Body yea and Soul too saith Perkins and Bishop Vsher Indeed both and every part of both is miserably defiled through Adam's Fall and this in-dwelling of sin in us makes good men mourn and hinders them also that they cannot do what they would and makes them too too often do what they should not Rom. 7. 19. I hope you Ladies and Gentlewomen find it so And this is the true cause of their mourning and complaining But blessed are they that mourn upon this so good and gracious an account for they shall be comforted first here 2dly hereafter and a thousand promises are made to them in the Holy Writ Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably unto Zion her Warfare is accomplished her Victory is ended her Sins are pardoned Isa 40. 1 2. And blessed is the man whose sin is pardoned Psal 32. 1. This real blessedness is beyond the tongue of men or Angels to set out and oh that it might be yours and that you could mourn and secretly weep and now and then on the knee drop a tear in the Closet upon this account that you have lived to your selves your Lords Pleasure Sin and the World so much and Christ so little God would certainly comfort you with a thousand secret Soul-comforts in the pardon of Sin the sense of his love and assurance of Christ to your Souls and this assure your selves shall be your last and lasting comforts if you be Sin-mourners and Forsakers of it But Thirdly Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Mat. 5. 4. Yea and God too in the Earth For thus saith he that is High and Holy I will dwell with him that is of a meek and lowly Spirit Mat. 11. 29. May this high and holy One dwell and abide in all your Ladyships Hearts Souls and Families may he secretly be your Comfort Day and Night but you must be meek and I am meek and lowly says Christ Humility is a great Grace in a great Person and well becomes your most Noble Sex yea and Lords too but this Meekness is a quiet submissiveness of Grace in your wills to the Will of God in all his Providences to you and yours whereby you say as it were with holy David If he has pleasure in me he will bring me back again And with good old Ely It is the Lord 2 Sam. 3. 18. And with Paul and his Friends after weeping for him The Will of the Lord be done Acts 21. 14. And like our Lord Jesus Christ in his Agony about passing of the bitter Cup in his Bloody Agony Not my Will but thy Will be done This is a brave frame indeed for Ladies on the Knees to hold up the little Hands kiss the Rod quietly and patiently submit to all the Providences Losses and Afflictions because God as a Father sends them for good and holy ends to his Servants best known to himself and if you patiently take them as his Children without Murmuring then are you Meek Patient ones indeed 'T is the sturdy Oaks that resist the Winds and are split but the gentle Reed yields And stubborn Sinners quarrel at the Providence and Will of God but good Men and Women submit serve some divine design or other and this is the way to inherit the Earth That is to say All your outward Earthly Comforts namely Honour Riches and Prosperity yea Heavenly and Inward too Does God take one Child Be quiet lest he take another Does he take one part of your Estate or Comfort He can take another yea He can take all as he did Job's and restore it again Blessed be his holy Name Job 1. 21. Oh! labour to be Meek and lowly and he will lead and guide you through the Wilderness of this miserable wretched sinful and bewitching World in all your plentiful Enjoyments till you come to himself in Glory But Fourthly Blessed saith our Saviour are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness What Righteousness God's Christ's Abraham's Isaac's Jacob's Jews and Gentiles Faith's Righteousness and the fruit of this Righteousness is Sanctification By Righteousness here is meant that which God imputes to Men or Women and makes Sinners compleat and happy in which is indeed his Son's Righteousness or that which is often called his Son's Active and Passive Obedience as God and Man in our Nature to the whole Will and Law of God Christ you know did all the Will of God in a way of Obedience Submission and Observance to his holy Law and so fulfil every Branch of it to a tittle for had he failed in one he could never have Justified us who do still come short in all as we are in our selves But he suffered all the Will of God too in a way of satisfaction for our Breach and Breaches of this his holy Righteous Perfect Good and Heavenly Law given by God himself unto Moses in the Mount Exod. 19. 20. Yea as he fulfilled this and satisfied for the Breach of it so he did the Levitical or Ceremonial Law also for he was Circumcised and Baptized for us in both and all which he stood as a Man or God-Man and Surety for us or as one in our Room Stead Place or Company And as he fulfill'd the Law for us in the Active Obedience of his Life so he did all the Law required or God ever desired of him in his Will to do and in his Death he satisfied the Justice of God for all that we or Adam ever did against him or his most pure and holy Law Yea he did it to the full uttermost and over too whereby he has as it were an infinite Overflowing endless Merit in his Hand to shew the Justice of God in our behalf why he should deliver us from Hell and all the Curse and Curses of the Law which dreadful ones you may read in Deut. 27. 15 16 17 18. which implies Eternal Death to all out of Christ for it saith Cursed is every one that continueth not in all that is written and not only so but to give us everlasting Life and Glory Pray Ladies mind this seriously for it is this Obedience of Christ and his Righteousness and that and that alone which being imputed reckoned and conveyed or given unto us becomes before God in a way of strict Justice and equal Righteousness our Justification and so eternal Salvation and you nor none of you nor any living can be saved otherwise and therefore well may and well ought you for to mind it And how Isaiah and Paul says He was made Sin and died for us as well as Born for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Now this Righteousness is called God's Righteousness Christ's Righteousness Abraham's Jews and Gentiles Faith's and the Saints Righteousness Rev. 19. 8. And first It is
nor are given in Marriage neither can they dye any more Luk. 23. v. 36. for they are equal to Angels and are the Children of God being Children of the Resurrection Mark the Children of the Resurrection are the Children of God that is those and all those Christ rose as a Head for they and all they have a part in the first Resurrection Rev. 20. 6. Blessed and happy are they that have part in the first Resurrection for on such the second Death shall have no power that is Hell the Devil or Jaylors Prison above mentioned O Ladies Look to Christ who is the first Resurrection and the first begotten from the Dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth for he has loved you and washt you from your sins in his own Blood Heb. 1. 6. Yea look to him that he be your Resurrection and that you have a part by Faith in him who is the true Book of Life Revel 21. 27. And if by Faith in him you rise from the Grave and Death of sin here then may you assure your selves of a share and part in his Resurrection unto Eternal Life which was typified by the First Fruits and the Sheaf of Corn which the Priest held up and wav'd under the Ceremonial or Levitical Law And that you are indeed the Children of it And of God too and so shall never dye Oh! believest thou this as Christ said in another place about Lazarus I am the life and resurrection of the dead and he that believeth in me shall never dye Joh. 11. 25. Yea though he were dead yet shall he live again Believest thou this sayes Christ so say I to you noble Ladies Gentlewomen and others if you be the Children of God and the resurrection you shall dye no more dye once you must to this world and the things sleep a little in the grave and imitate Christ your Head and your Husband your Lord and your Saviour who was there before you three dayes and three nights and then destroyed and tore the grave open to assure you of the resurrection also but in that you shall never dye more Oh! happy resurrection when Christ shall say awake and sing O ye that sleep in the dust and with my dead body shall ye awake Isaiah Come with me my love from Bebon the Leopard and the Lions den Canticles All which promises and a thousand more are made to you if you be the children of God and peace-makers in the Church or World or where you are The Children of Israel were happy that they were the Children of Israel and the seed of Abraham though all were not the true seed but Oh! how happy are you that you are the Children of God and shall be like his Angels in the resurrection yet Israel died in the wilderness and never entered into the land of Canaan but you shall never dye be as Angels enter in and possess the true Canaan Heaven 's Kingdom and the Kingdom of God be among the Angels to sing with that Coelestial Quire the high prayses of God and the Lamb to all eternity Rev. 7. Oh happy day Oh happy hour that ever you were born or made to be the Children of God and peace-makers in the world and places where you come Hell is full of brawling the world is full of brawling but your Breasts and Lives are full with peace and the love of God and the wayes and things of God Oh! keep that Nightingale and sweet ever singing Bird of Paradise close to you and let it never fail you day nor night yea all you Children of God 't is a heaven to begin a heaven here and a double hell to lose it for a straw as one said or a bubble which Children blow from a walnut shell whilst 't is a little heaven or young heaven as a great Lady called it but old heaven and the heaven of heaven of heavens shall be your portion yea he that compasseth heaven and earth and is within the Starry Element where Sun Moon and Stars are Oh! how glorious is that this is but the Tileing we see Gods house is all invisible and the inside no mortal man nor eye can see nor him neither and live Exod. 33. v. 20. But time shall pass and time shall come when these things shall be no more and we for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. and see him as he is face to face and eye to eye and all tears shall be quite wiped away sorrow and mourning fly away for ever former things be forgotten and all your Lords unkindness and your own unworthiness of the Lamb and your Redeemer's love yea the want of Grace and comforts here the young Lord and little Ladies death will be forgotten in another world yea in resurrection glory all will be swallowed up in everlasting joy some Fountains have their mouths or pipes through which they send their Chrystal streams with pleasant noises Revel and in heaven shall the Children of the resurrection Saints and Angels continually send their Praises to God and the Lamb and that unweariedly for worthy is the Lamb to receive Power Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Revel 7. 10 11 12. And every creature in heaven and earth heard I say Amen Amen Amen Oh! ye Lords Ladies Princes Kings Queens Potentates and highest Mortal of the earth joyn ye for it becomes you well and all ye with that kingly Prophet David in his three last Psalmes 148 149 150. and with this I shall close this little little book of yours which was made a little before and just after a great sickness but the work is Praise the Lord from the heaven Praise him in the highest for the highest is too low for him Praise him all ye Angels an Angelical praise becomes him and them very well praise him all ye host be ye what he will praise him Sun and Moon for ye are man and wife to rule both day and night and he made you both praise him all ye Stars of light which are as Sun and Moons children and are of great influence to the children of men praise him O heavens air ye terrestrial coelestial heavens heaven of heavens praise him and him alone he only made you with the word of his power and ye waters that be above the heavens the airy heavens and clouds that we see and in the deep let the fountains of the deep praise him he hath commanded and you were created he establish a Decree and you cannot pass Praise him Dragons and deep fiery Mountains Hail Snow and Storms and fulfil his word Mountains Hills Trees and Cedars high Men and low Men little Beasts and Cattle Creeping things and Flying little Ants and mighty Eagles Kings Judges Princes and all People young Lords and mayden Ladies of nine ten eleven twelve and thirteen let them praise his name for his name alone is excellent and before him let all flesh be for ever silent His glory is above the Heavens
ever was is and ever shall be he also exalteth the horn of his people Christ the horn of David and the horn and salvation of the Church as well as the praise of all his Saints Male and Female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus and so are Jews and Gentiles Greeks and Scythians all Nations having drunk of his Blood and Saints too even the Children of Israel a People near unto himself yea as the apple of his eye Praise ye the Lord sing a Song of Praise Psalm 149. and rejoyce in your King the Lord reigns the Lord is King for ever and ever let the Earth be glad let them praise his Name in Dances spiritual ones with Timbrel and Harp joy and comfort in their Souls for the Lord taketh pleasure in his People shall a Worm do it in his hole a Bird in the Sun a Saint in God and not God in his people Oh yes he taketh pleasure in his people and will beautifie the meek with salvation We told you the meek should inherit the earth a little before but here is heaven and salvation too Oh! Blessed are the meek and blessed are all these blessed ones whom he takes pleasure in Let the Saints be joyful in glory let them sing upon their beds go in all the divine and heavenly discoveries of Gods love to their souls and let a sword be in their hands the holy word of God which is as a two edged one to cut down all ungodly lusts and reigning sins in their souls yea let the law of God as a golden chain bind their unruly Kingly lusts and Lordly ones too from acting against God and their souls for ever and to execute on them the doom that is death and mortification as St. Paul saith Col. 3. 5. This honour all his Saints shall have that is his sanctified justified ones as I told you a little before yea in these no sin shall ever reign as Kings and Noble men for these are not under the Law but under Grace so saith the great Apostle and experienced Saint St. Paul Rom. 6. 14. Wherefore praise him in the sanctuary yea that that is of all most proper yea in the congregation of his people yea in the great congregation will I praise thee sayes David ay and in the little one too I will praise thee with my whole heart and my tongue shall be as the pen of a ready writer Psal 45. 1. I will extol thee O King I will bless thee for ever and ever Psal 145. 1 2. Every day will I bless thee great is the Lord most worthy to be praised his greatness none can reach Ladies Men and Angels may try their skill and strain their voices but can never reach it no the uttermost thoughts of men and Angels cannot do it for he is still as far beyond them as the heavens are beyond the earth yea he is more excellent than all creatures can conceive to eternity and Christ also fairer than the children of men the chiefest of ten thousands altogether lovely Psa 45. 2. 6. Cant. 5. 10. And saies God concerning Christ I will make thy name to be remembred in all generations And therefore shall the people love and praise thee for ever and ever Psal 45. 17. And to thee shall every knee bow Phil. 2. 10. that is submit and be disposed of by Christ as he pleases and how he pleases Oh! praise him for his acts he hath led Captivity Captive and is judge of quick and dead according to his excellency give him praise with Timbrel and Harp yea with ten stringed instruments all the veins in tongue and heart praise him praise him for musical instruments has Christ put down in his Gospel worship and therefore 't is the lip 't is the life 't is the heart 't is the soul that must now praise him O Lords Lords Ladies and other English Mortals won't you joyn to Praise him Then you are undone utterly undone For EVER Written by WILLIAM BLAKE House-keeper to the Ladies Charity-School FINIS
read often read this 51 of Isaiah 't is a sweet Chapter and tells you what shall become of Enemies to his Church and People and how the Moth or Worms shall eat them up like Wooll But that you nor your Noble Lord may never be we shall ever pray pray pray Right Honourable and Good Madam WE shall find in all sorts of Relations Spiritual and Natural that having done much for any that they love it engages them still to do more instance Paul Christ and Moses now God Christ Religion and Good Works have ever been the Beloved things of your heart so we yet presume that they still are and ever shall be to the last moment of your Life and beyond that none can love Your Right Noble Sister Warwick was in this most of all Noble for she loved much and gave more than any in the Nation of her great Rank yet now enjoys all things Oh Madam be not yet weary of well doing for you will certainly reap to Eternity what you sow from faith in Christ love to and union with him and may your union with him be more inseparable as it is than your Arm to your Shoulder o' your Soul to your Body yea these are not so inseparable as both are to Christ for though Time Sin or Death may separate them for a while yet Sin Death Grave nor Eternity shall ever separate either from Christ but because he lives both shall live and be where he is and what a little while is it that you have more to work for God Christ Heaven and Eternal Happiness Oh! when those Everlasting Mansions are really thought on it makes our Souls mount as the Lark our Thoughts and Desires like the wing and tongue of that nimble morning Bird to praise its Maker Madam we write not these things in the least to stir up kindness towards us you have enough and have done enough more than any for you really gave first of all and we doubt not in the least now our Year is up but many Noble well-disposed persons will follow your good Example and some of your great Relate us if you but give a little hint this way it being for so good a work as certainly it is and your Labour of Love to us poor Fatherless Sinners and others God's Saints and Servants he will never forget Most Honourable Madam 'T Is the Goodness of the Great God that he beholds things below and is good to the Children of Men yea all his Works may you from that kindness have your heart your lips and your life yea your soul fill'd with that Marrow which is from above no where to be tasted but in Religion or Communion with himself and when that is strongly moving in you how easie will it then be to prevail with you for a little kindness to an English Charity-School which is young and in its Infancy as yet but will soon become strong root grow and be a great thing if the Ladies be not wanting to promote their own praise for what 's more praise-worthy than to be good and do good to raise the Needy from the Dust Poor and Fatherless Children from Ignorance Idleness and Beggary to know themselves and God in Christ live another day in a hard world to this Good Work you and none but you and this great Dutchess in all your Kingdom are invited surely your Figures must needs be great among the English Ladies God Almighty bless both your Princely Families and make them and theirs to be blameless at the coming of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ pray one and all we Poor Hospital-Boys Most Great Lady IT is your Happiness that you have not a great Lord in his own Country only but a good one that lives well does well and is much beloved where he comes may you both long live have your Land and Country slow with Honey Gospel as it doth with Milk and Kine which is yet a great mercy fat Ground a good Climate holy Lives with heavenly Preaching is the best place to live in in the world and oh that this Nation were but stockt with more Prophets than it is and oh that those that be were but more countenanced than they are oh that the Pulpits were but more open than they are or like yet to be and Drones quite asleep dead we mean or out of the way that those that can Preach and would might yet be restored to the great Congregations A Preaching Minister is a Star or Finger pointing unto Christ a Golden Stick or Candle in the Socket a Silver Bell that gives a good molodious sound drops heavenly Dew and feeds with Manna Bread that comes from Heaven Christ Preacht and Christ broken in the Preaching of the Gospel is the Bread of Life and the Water too which he that drinks shall never thirst Give us this said the Jews Ay Christ's Flesh is meat and Christ's Blood is drink indeed We may all by faith think upon it and that is really eating in a Gospel sense May Ladies eat like Angels yea your Ladiship and live upon the holy Joys and Comforts of the Spirit have Fellowship true Communion with the Father and the Son be no strangers to the Love and Life of God who is seen in all his works What 's the Rose a painted blossom of his Beauty the little Pink and Violet but a thing of his which all the world cannot make the Honey-comb and Hony-drops from Heaven the early Dew sweet Showers and fruitful Seasons all Preach a good God to a heavenly mind the morning Star and glorious Sun and Beams Preach Christ and there is but one Sun and one Christ for all the world Many Eyes cannot see but all might were they heavenly never hurt or hinder one another and Christ is similed in these glorious Beams of his Beauty for the Sun is no more to Christ than one Beam or Ray May these Rays Joys and Comforts be upon you and yours heads and hearts and souls May you all know and dwell in the Love of God which passeth knowledge May your Children be all taught of God according to his promise to avoid sin the sins of the times live as Pilgrims and Strangers to noisom lusts the sins and pleasures of this Age And may your Love and Piety abound to us and our Poor Hospital-School or little Charity-house and in so doing you will imitate the Divinity who is good to all his Works yea the Spring that refreshes every thing the blew veins or bosom flowers come from or are refresht by that yea the Sun and Beams of it for though this glorious creature be millions of miles distant from us yet his Influences come down to us every day O send send something to us then although you be in Cheshire though you be where you will and then we will all pray that you and the whole Family that love God may be blest with long Life here and Eternal Joys hereafter Right Honourable
may your most worthy Husband say Thousands thousands Soul-happiness lies at stake if Popery should come in and Property quite be lost then we are miserable and like to be unhappy for both worlds to live in fear in this dye in doubts and dangers as to the other is a great slavery as all out of the way must needs do God Almighty grant the Truth may never be lost nor any thing prevail against it or those either that contend and care for it day and night But the Church is founded on a Rock God's Love and Christ's Merit which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail over and much of the Nation 's Happiness is in the two Houses and the good Acts there to be made May your dear Relation sit who bears the whole name of that not forgotten proper brave beloved man his Father may he Vote may you both Live may you dye to God and Love your Country as you really do so shall your Names and Souls both live one on Earth for a while and the other in Heaven for ever with the Lamb and his Redeemed ones So prays all of us Right Honourable Madam WEre not your sharp quick and great parts naturally mixt with good and pious Principles we should not in the least presume or endeavour to engage your cheerful good and prudent Inclinations to accept of this your Family's Roll or Charity School-house Stick but presuming the work it self to be very good and the Noble Lady your Mother who is so eminently blest with good and many Children abounding in the world and they very Charitable also makes us complain of a peck of troubles for having raised near forty Poor and Fatherless Boys they prove very chargeable to be kept with Meat Drink and Cloaths as you know they have Now pray dear Madam speak or write to my Lady out of hand and tell her how it is with us and if she will subscribe a good gob and get the young Ladies to do something too and then put it all together with your Ladiship 's and Sir James's also for it is necessary he or you in his stead should do something now the great Ship is come safe in At the Rearing of the Tabernacle every one brought something Exod. 25. 22. And if in this you will to the Rearing of our School give something as the first fruits of your great Bay or new Plantation as it were to be sure the rest will be blessed the better and therefore pray give freely that we may say Received from you and your Family so much For we would not have them nor you out of the Noble List of Ladies nor want those prayers in the least which all our good Benefactors have May it please your Honourable Ladiship SIR Francis being a pious good charitable and most worthy person our only great Neighbour able to relieve support and help us we humbly pray this our Charity School-house Stick may be accepted by your Ladiship for we have nothing in the world to keep up us Poor Boys or put us out but the Benevolence of pious good and charitable Ladies therefore pray Madam be intreated to do a little for us who will never cease to pray the great God and his Son to bless you both in Soul and Body and your Olive-branches also ye may also be blessed with the blessing of Abraham sit down with Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Luk. 13. 29. and never know troubles on the Earth but such as God's nearest and dearest Children meet with for the good of their Souls and a Soul-mercy it is for to have his Love and Providence turning all things to our good yea the worst things that do befal us here he can make the Best Sickness Death and Sin And may all this be and Sin forever pardoned to both your Souls and blotted out as if they had never been Oh the blessedness of that man whose sins are pardoned in Life Death and Eternity May this blessing with all others your Souls can wish or desire be your portion for ever and ever prays one and all us now at Highgate May it please your Ladiship SIR Walter Rawleigh in the Tower said That true and eternal Happiness lieth in God and no where to be tasted but in Religion which is a certain thing going up and down the world too little minded by the greatest but of more concern than all things in it said the Lord of Marlborough that was lately slain And that man that doth not first or last live to God will certainly wish he had never been when he cometh to die saies another great one and yet we must bleed and bleed saith the Doctor to keep Life or prevent Consumptions Cough Dropsie Ptysick and Diseases which it tells and foretels certain Death to be at hand as gray hairs doth a youthful Life past And if we have got over one bout of Sickness or Disease yet still another hangs over or upon us and is nigh or ready for to shake force or tear poor frail man all to pieces yea and something or another still at hand to turn us where we cannot turn namely Coffin Grave Prison and the Winding-sheet or last shift which may be eaten but never shaken off by mortals No Skin Flesh Bones and the faggs of pale Beauty must all be Earth and turn to that from whence we first of all came and 't is but just and reasonable that as that did feed cloath and nourish us as it were our Mother for a while we should sink dye fall and lay down our heads again into that most natural Lap or Bosom as being its most proper place to take our last or longest sleep in But O Madam may you yours or Sir Richard never come go into one world and another without a great Errand And may the Great God direct us what it is he sent us hither for For this end was I born every one says namely to know God and live to him Christ was born to die for us as he told Pilate and we are bound to live to him and must or else we shall wish we had never been The world is nothing but the world a dream and shadow that must pass away Were the Sands Sea and Mountains beaten Gold Death stretcheth out the fingers and we let go again all that head hand will heart or thoughts could ever hold wish or eye see May you then know may you then love Christ and live to him whilst you may he is yet near and dear but you would both be lost for ever if you should neglect him till it be too late Christ once wept often bled and wept too but will dye no more nor do no more for us if we do not live to him O let 's live to him and die to sin before we die Sin dies and dips the Soul in black and bloody Scarlets of defiance Old long and great ones eat it quite up O let not Canker Death Hell's Worm
you be his servants you shall sing and others shall weep grieve and mourn Isa 65. 14. You shall drink and others shall be thirsty The Heavens declare his wondrous work saith the Psalmist and the Earth is full of his Goodness Psal 8. 1. And will you be full of Sin Enmity and Folly Oh! God forbid that such lovely Creatures as many of you young Lords and Ladies be should be full of sin Sin is an evil an evil Disease in the Soul and to the Soul it kills it worse than Leprosie to Eternity if Christ do not save it Oh! value him fly to him clasp about him that ye never miscarry in Time nor Eternity Compare both how short is one and long the other The pleasures of sin are but for a season Heb. 11. 25. Moses left Pharaoh's Court preferring afflictions before these pleasures which betrays into Gulphs Snares and Rocks Do not you make your selves unhappy in another world when you may do well in both A thousand years should be more valuable than fourscore However let not fourscore be more to you than three or fourscore thousand thousand thousand This is certain Riches Honours Estates and Courtships with all that is Terrene and Sublunary shall fly away Heaven and Earth shall pass away before one Jot or Tittle of God's Word Joh. 2 17. Luk. 21. 33. 'T is a very dangerous thing though you do not mind it to be irreligious Pleasure one day in God's Court is worth a thousand elsewhere Psal 114. 10. Oh! taste and see the sweet and honey of it Less pains will serve for Eternal Life than some take for Temporal yea to dress themselves What! three hours about that and not a quarter at prayers Some get great Fortune by Marriages others a little by Plough Cart and pains others by Play and that 's almost cheating but get the Lord Jesus Christ and you get all 1 Tim. 4 8. This world you see but do not you believe the other and the Resurrection-state if you do not you are Sadduces and irrational Do not you see all things spring again every year Dead Seeds and Corn bring the same Grain and shall not man spring again as well as Worms Flies and Spiders which seem to be dead all the Winter yet live again in the Summer Oh! believe the Resurrection-state and the Promises for Godliness hath one for both worlds But this lies in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19. Ephes 2. 2. Shall honours pleasures profits be your portion ever it cannot be Oh look ye after another world then Why choose you not then that that you would have when you come to dye let me dye the death of the Righteous and my latter end be like unto his Num. 23. 10. And every one will say and wish so Let go sin and sorrow take faith and you shall do it how much better is that than fancy heaven and earth than earth and not heaven God can give a thousand pleasures a river of pleasures Psal 36. 8. But vain sinful pleasures are certainly the way to hell 2 Tim. 3. 4 And I could never reconcile them and Religion together said a great one Lovers of pleasures that are sinful are really Lovers of Death yea the whores house goes down to death her feet take hold on hell Prov. 2. 16. 5. 5. He that cannot cease from sin and repent of it must needs be damned for it it is an ill bed-fellow and a worse grave fellow And a cutting saying it was to the Jews that they should dye in it Joh. 8. 21. If ye believe not that I am he you shall die in your sins sayes Christ Sinful lusts make men beasts and sinful wrath makes men Devils What! kill a man in anger Go into the field to seek honour but find Death and Hell live a Murtherer or dye by one If furious sparks did mind the sparkles of an eternal fire and how much the Devil is glad when he finds such fools they would never do as they do sight and damn one another for a thing of nought many times My Life is of more worth said the Philosopher to the rude Mariners who were swearing and careless in a storm than to be cast away And indeed Life is a thing to be valued at a high rate And upon a Life well spent depends Eternal happiness therefore 't is the wise and not fools that redeem time for Eternity The Aegyptians pictured time with three heads a Dog a Lion and a Wolf a Dog signifying Time to come flattering and a Lion to denote Time present strongly working and a Wolf denoting Time lost or past to be biting And Death on a dark Throne with a Rod in one hand and a Key in the other as if by one he drove us together and the other he lockt us up Oh Ladies every moment of time commands Regions of Blessedness when 't is improved but lost it becomes a Worm in conscience and eats to Eternity If men in health and Duellers did but mind this they would not send one another to Hell as they do Certainly such Duellers will be sad repenters as I said before in another world Do they believe a God or do they not If there be a God he is a Rewarder of Virtue and will certainly punish all unpardoned sins which lead us into Gulphs Snares and Rocks Say when temptations are upon you to any great sin Now are the Philistines come and the Cords of Death and Hell are upon me shall I be foolish base vile and unclean do this and wrong my own soul Prov. 8. 36. And all that hate me love death sayes Solomon Some vices have short pleasures long throws and after-pains if vice sin sinful sin and folly have spoiled youth Have a care of old Age one foot is in the grave What! sin all your life and have Heaven at last no it will be Hell And I had rather be in it sayes a Father without sin than in Heaven filled with it Oh! take a fair farewel of it betimes it never did will nor can do any one good no it cannot it brings all the losses crosses in the world on us here or hereafter And how can we think of going to Heaven if we do not live to it but leave a Hell of sin seeds and spawn by bad example behind us or if we should live for Heaven a little and lose it for want of living a little more would it not be sad A good bargain lost for want of a second or third bidding proves a great vexation many times one step more and all had been well and safe but to lose a Heaven for nothing for nothing for want of a little Religion and being serious in it bites to Eternity Oh! if you fall but a step or two short this will be your case and you will never come in Take heed and again take heed O ye great Ones of the times Lords Ladies and others that ye do not miscarry in the daies of Eternity
but give at length some diligence to make your Calling and Election sure Honours and Evidences are never sure enough can Heaven be too sure for you Come look after God and Christ more pray oftener throw your selves into the Arms of Jesus depend upon Free Grace and he will certainly save you and your Souls Like and love holiness Be in love and league with no sin and you shall have Joy Happiness and Holiness to Eternity And therefore as ever you would be Lodgers out of Hell live in the Church as a holy member of the Church love the best of Protestants persecution is a devilish sin And good preaching a great mercy And if ye love one another then are ye my disciples indeed sayes Christ Joh. 14. 21. And 't is reported of St. Chrysostom that they had rather want the shining of the Sun than his preaching and sayes he if I had a Mountain for my Pulpit and the whole world to hear me it should be upon that Text. O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanity Psal 4. 2. The delight of the soul is to know its maker and heavenly preaching is a soul-ravishing thing there being infinite sweetness in the love of God But he that does not lift his head and his heart above this world will perish with the world And he she that is for much ease new fashions and fine cloaths haiting up down in Coaches is oftentimes for little religion If you cannot live without excess of pleasures I say excessive ones you will be carried down the stream of Nilus to the deadly Sea called Mare Mortuum like the skipping fishes till they fall into it Come let brave Sparks and gallant Ladies mind better things the great God and his Son that came down from heaven and never knew pleasure here on earth but in doing his Fathers Will and if you will now do it when the Dore is once shut it is too late Some would be troubled if they should never go to the Park again or see another May-day But if you should never go to heaven you are utterly undone for there are but two places all go to one place saith Solomon but he means that of the grave Eccles 12. 7. But all besides believe two places if the principles of Religion were never so dubious yet it concerns us to be serious because they are of such mighty concernment to us Said the great Earl of Leicester Fools play with their souls and drawlers at Religion cut the thread of life and throat of them But sink not into this deadness and deadly wickedness as to make sin a sport of at any time especially such kind of sinning as throws a contempt upon God and his word and hardens others to despise and condemn that namely Religion which all ages and nations beside this have never done before But it were better to be drowned with a milstone about our necks than left to dye and be buried with a hard heart in the grave or live to draw others to hell Take heed which way you go the broad way is most easie but the narrow is most safe Luke 13. 24. Safe bind and safe find but sin loosened and the Reins let go carries us whither we should not and whither we would not If we did but consider but the want of due consideration if you will indeed do it too then you shall know it more than you do and taste it to be far better than all the sports and pleasures of the Court and Country too Oh! that I had never been King of Spain said that great Prince Charles the fifth and that I had lived a Hermite's life But a heavenly life will never be repented of Should not Ladies strive to be Angelical and holy in the eyes of God as well as lovely in the eyes of men why should you be all for Honour and not for Religion as some of you are It becomes great Sparks to seek great things and not to spend their time in Ladies Chambers tossing of a Play-Book or reading this or that little Jest crying Faith Madam here 's a good one Lord Bacon said Nothing concerns us so much in all the world as Religion and the Principles of it Come then and let us seek the world to come this passes away like May-day and May-flowers all but smoak or dew quickly gone but everlastingness is a mighty thing The world and times are bad let us make Christ all in all Col. 3. 11. He is so and will be so Let him be to us in point of Justification Sanctification and Redemption Imitate him and lean upon him in Life Death and Eternity Wisdom waits at his Gate to keep you from sin which a Play-house leads unto But I will go to the house of God sayes David and pay my Vows in thee O Jerusalem Psal 116. 19. And I mine in thee O Smithfield said that brave Hampshire Martyr John Philpot but if you care not for God's Honour he will not care for yours nor what becomes of you when you dye But he that honours me will my Father love said Christ Joh. 14. 21. But no man can love serve or honour him enough who has loved us so much as to wash us in his own blood Rev. 1. 5. And Philpot shed his free and boldly and disputed as bravely as ever man did for Christ and his Truth in the Convocation-house And the world is not worthy of those men which have been burnt upon this account in all or divers Countreys by the Man of Sin But take heed you be not foolish Virgins and foolish Ladies and such as have not Oil in your Lamps nor saving Grace in your hearts at midnight when the Cry of the Bridegroom shall come For if the door be then shut and Repentance too late Christ will never hear though you knock beg and cry upon your knees and were more beautiful than Angels saying Lord open open with ten thousand tears in your eyes The day is past and the night will never have an end But 't is non-consideration is the cause of men and women's damnation said a good Divine Therefore said God O that my people did but consider But the Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but my people doth not consider Isa 1. 3. The length of Time the certainty of Eternity the impossibility of more than a long Life and how vain it is to labour not to dye once Methusalem dyed Gen. 5. 7. Piety strength or policy keeps none from the grave Consider saith Solomon do not all go one way to the dust Eccles 12. 5. But Christ shall say Come ye Blessed Go ye Cursed I was an hungry and you fed me naked and you cloathed me or you did it not Nay what you did to one of these little ones you did to me Matth. 25. 41 42. O Do something for the School if you have not yet though works do not merit 'T is impossible saith St. Austin
for our Souls And though our care be great for the Body yet a man may be as happy in Russet as in Cloth of Tissue A golden Cap and a rending Head a Silken Stockin and a sore Foot or a great Estate and the torment of the Stone or Gout in the great Toe is a grievous misery And I see sayes the Emperor that sovereignty commands no diseases nor the seas having set himself and chair on the shore at the Tides coming in crying back back and I command you proud waves back but the Emperor was fain to move And Bardue Coesar cryed I begot him mortal when word was brought him his only Son was dead which was the reward of Trophimus after he had finished the famous Oracle of Apollo and beg'd that which was the best for him and 't was promised in three dayes he should have it in which time he died But 't is our duty said Seneca to dye often yet one complained against the long life of a Raven and his own short but the old Romans counted it Ominous to see one and not two in the morning as if it had betokened Wife or Husband's death yet though that be the most known 't is the most unknown thing in the world The Sexton Clerk and Coffin-maker are most apt to forget their own though they nail up and bury others and the best Men Citizens and their Neighbours too when they have got their rings and gloves but 't is ill preparing for death when t is a burden to live Sick repentance is seldom true and 't is certain 't is labour and trouble enough to be head and heart sick and then a man can hardly do any thing but mind his ease or pillow Oh! put not off your Will but especially your souls weal and happiness to a dying hour My care was when young to live well and 't is now to dye well said a Heathen Physicians Lawyers and Ministers cannot be heard at once and it may be friends are troublesom too Come to live well is best and that will prevent the worst Oh! then play not the Courtiers part who some say do all things late Rise late Dine late Sup late and Repent late many times never but it is never too late if true but it should be of the whole man but when death has folded up mens dayes opportunities are all gone Moles see and Swans sing a little before they dye but a true Saint and a Simeon sayes let me depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2. 29. But the fashion of this world is to put men in mind of dying when they see they cannot live above a day or two longer but as I have lived uncertain so I now dye doubting said a wise man and a great Scholar yet after a thousand thousand millions of years eternity will be as long as ever sadly and suddenly will all worldly pleasures be turned into walking dreams and great Alexander is less now than a little whiteish to thistle down which the least wind or air rouls about the world passes away 1 Cor. 7. 31. time is short sayes Burroughs and sayes he the word signifies folded up to the last end or fag of it like a peice of cloth but eternity is still as long as ever Oh! set your house in order 2 King 20. 4. as the Prophet said to the good King if every one has not an house yet every one has a soul as well as a body and there be great affairs that concern both and the greatest wits in the world have been concerned for them said the Right Honourable the Earl of Northampton and have ever found sooner or later the power of God or Religion in their consciences yea the Great and Godly ones Oh my soul my soul said the French Cardinal And Oh mine said the wretched Pope And thou must never be merry more To dye safe is a good thing and the best of men are best at last and have heaven in their Bosoms and Breasts and say Let me go let me go Oh Christ thou are mine said another The Jews said God kissed Moses's soul out of him And the Minister said so he did a great Ladyes in Essex But though some men dye not so comfortably yet they all dye safely who have the habits of true Grace in their souls and many very bad men seem to dye quietly and go to hell like a Lamb in dull diseases consumptions senslesness and hardness of their hearts in sins for Satan can let men alone well enough when he knows he has them sure enough but 't is a sad thing to have a mans eyes never opened till they are sing'd and burnt open in hell break from him and sin now by true and timely repentance and you make sure work for ever Go forth go forth said one to his soul thou hast served God and trusted Christ many years and now Heaven is just at hand and this dying Body of mine shall live again as Job speaks Job 26. 27. and my Soul return with the Joys of Heaven to fetch it to it self Some say There are veins or strings in a man's Tongue which reach to the Heart and when they break he dyes But when heart and tongue shall speak this oh what a comfort is it in a dying hour Plato though a Heathen said All men almost were out of the way because they did not seek after the mind of God and that those did dye most comfortably that lived by reason and adored the first Being Therefore sayes Lucicrema to his friends when he had called for the Glass and combed his head Now clap your hands if I have acted my part well And Seneca sayes Since Nature has stamped a God in the mind of every man and the belief of him arose not from custom nor was enacted by a Law it necessarily follows there must be a Deity the belief is so natural And Cato sayes Epicurus did dread Death more than any thing in the world upon this account Lord Chancellor Edgerton sayes The Atheist and Prophane layes a wager with the Pious but upon mighty odds for one ventures his Life and Soul or the Life of his Soul for ever and the other but his Lust and Sin which is yet his Interest to be without and yet if it were on equal ground the disproportion is vast and infinite and what a sad surprize will he be in when by death he shall be instantly seized by horrid Spirits And this truth of reward and punishments will be tryed in a little time And 't is but a little while and every man shall be no man And though every one should strive to mend one that the world may be better yet may we not think that the world is angry with some because they are no worse When good men are sorry in themselves they are no better but he that is angry with sin and repents of it shall not easily sin in his anger when he
and sin out we might well say The worst is gone and the best is come praise be to him that maketh the change and is unchangeable in himself Mal. 3. 6. and in all his Attributes And he is a Fool that saith There is no God or That the Love of God hath not wonderfully appeared to Mankind by Jesus Christ Titus 3. 4. Oh! be rich in Faith and you shall never be poor in the world to come And they that are most full of that have most comfort and experience too of his Faithfulness Faith is the Life of the Soul and Christ is the Life of our Faith Oh! live upon him and you shall live with him and never dye Joh. 17. 24. Do not be offended with him nor they that are his Great and many waves have beat upon the Rock but the Church remains still and the Gates of Hell Sin Death and Despair nor Enemies neither shall ever prevail against it Matth. 16. 18. Some set their hearts upon God others against the Church but those that maliciously persecute good men will find ill Rewards Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9. 4. 'T is a mad thing to be furiously mad against good people If ever we expect to be happy we must be holy and hate no man for it for without it no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. But the Devil tempts men to sin and then to despair and good men are full of doubts after sinning Oh! begin to live to God before you dye and a man may live sin dye and be utterly lost in a little time some thieves rob a long time others are quickly taken and executed but Gods patience is great towards most men yet some have but little sport for their souls airy Sparks ride post and quickly sin away their time but fair and soft is too fast to hell and the Devils and death would not be half so troublesom were it not for sin but he that leads a good life takes a great deal of comfort with him to his end and that death of his frees his soul for ever nothing can trouble in heaven unless it be want of living or more living unto God on earth and nothing can be more terrible in hell than to think there was a time they might but 't is past 't is past Simeon and Paul desired to dye Luk. 2. 29. David and Hezekiah desired to live 2 Kin. 20. 3. and it was well enough for them and his servants any way For whether we live or whether we dye we are the Lords Rom. 14. 8. for if indeed we be so we can never dye amiss A wise man never looses his wisdom though he be a sleep nor a good man his grace though he be catcht away before he is aware yet it is best to do as Job sayes Wait for our Change Job 14. 14. Death is never the nearer nor farther off for minding or not minding and young men have it at their backs as well as old men in their faces yet the familiar rising of it in our thoughts will make it less strange and more welcom when it comes if it be from trouble to comfort and not from light to darkness and the dungeon of darkness where light shall never be Oh that sinners would prevent weeping by weeping and their own misery by becoming God's Servants as a good Lady said If he be not a better Master than any do not serve him but if he be a better Master than all as certainly he is oh serve him serve him day and night O ye Lords Ladies Gentlewomen and others and ye would quickly be content so to do if ye did but taste how gracious he is and how much better to you than you deserve Sin and Sinners desert is Hell Oh! 'T is mercy to us all to have any thing on this side that and all misery to be there Though we came into the world alike and must go out yet let 's not live alike but say you as Joshua did I and my house will serve the Lord Joshuah 24. 15. Oh! hazard your credit if it be counted discredit to fear him for 't is not unlovely or not commendable to love what is most lovely Christ and his wayes Great peace have they that keep his laws Psal 119. but ill company will commit evil for company and two or three men were lately stabbed by their companions who haunted ill houses but good company never hurts and the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting many times And Bishop Cranmer was troubled for but drinking at Queen Mary's court because she would not hearken to the Gospel nor his Counsel in King Edward s dayes and good men should every where savour of the fear of God be much in self-tryal and in self-denial too and to take up his cross when Christ layes it before him as that good man did at the stake for his counsel or sticking to the word of God but the worst of Christ or suffering for him is better than the best of all the world Paul and Silas sung in the Stocks Act. 16. 25. so did Hampshire Philpot in Bonner's Cole-house He learns Christ well that learns to follow him through thick and thin He left his life to save us we find ours in following him Christ dyed to give Life and Repentance Act. 3. 26. And no man ever repented for serving him in a just Call A wise man provides for his Family and saves his Soul by his Skin or Sufferings many times Some have bewailed the day of their Birth as Job did through the greatness of his grief chap. 6. 2. None the day of Conversion or Marrying unto Christ or Tryals for him when he stood by them And this is a sweet Promise I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Isa 49. 14 16. Isa 43. 1 2 3. But the Forsakers of God shall be forsaken Short Sayings of the Wise or Q. Mary 's Martyrs WIll you now most Noble Ladies take a few short and serious Sayings from the Wise pore and ponder on them but a little which are as Goads and Nails fastened by the Master of the Assemblies that is Christ saith Solomon Eccles 12. 11. for it is meant of him And this was a good one of Sir Francis Compton Oh! keep close to Religion for that brings Peace at the last Hold out Faith and Patience saith Boulton It 's but one Stile more and we shall be at our Father's House said a brave Martyr When shall I be dissolved and be with Christ saith another Lo here I am let them do with me what they please but don't you meet me at the last Day in an unconverted state Said a good Man to his Children in a dying Hour and they weeping for him he cried What a deal of do is here to let a Man die and go Home And so with Heavenly Counsel fell a sleep Perkins converted Northampton Boulton And Brave Learned Famous Bishop Vsher desired to Die as
honest Mr. Perkins that old Puritan Minister did calling upon God for the pardon of all his Sins both as to Commission and Omission Policarpus being pierced with a Sword issued so much Blood that it almost quenched the Fire and amazed the Beholders as it were At his Apprehending they hurried him so fast along that they broke his Leg crying This is the Father of the Christians and the despiser of our God said the Heathens And says Ignatius the first Martyr as we read of When the Beasts have ground me and my Bones with their Teeth I shall be as God's White Bread and I will worship none none but the God of Heaven Said another And none but Christ none but Christ said that brave English meek and humble Martyr John Lambert when half burnt by Henry the 8th for denying the real Presence in the Sacrament The Soul is in the Body but not the Body So Believers are in the World but not the World said another Doctor Hall said The English Clergie were the Worlds wonder He means the Painful Pious Preaching ones and would some were in again that were long ago put out Tertullian wrote Day and Night and made an Apology for the Christians and complained That too many Lawyers did almost as much hurt as Souldiers But Pliny told the Heathen Emperor The Christians did none but pray'd in the Night and sung Hymns to one Jesus but they would not Lye Steal nor commit Adultery but did visibly eat together But the Souldiers wearing all Crowns of Lawrel upon their Heads for a great Victory which the Emperour had obtained A private Christian wore his upon his Arm saying It did not become him nor his Fellows to be Crowned with it Head Heart Feet Milt and Liver are all failing said a great Divine Arise make ready mount my Soul and go away I saw not you my Children when you were in the Womb God that fed you then will be a Father to you when I am gone and you shall not want I am weary of Sin and willing to Die God's Mercy is unspeakable One Saterday Morning especially I found the power of Religion and the certainty of the other World and Divine Eternal Love Glory glory to the Deliverer of my Soul out of all doubts about it Origen was fastened by the Neck with an Iron Chain his Feet in a pair of Stocks till he died Paul and Barnabas differed a little Act. 15. 39. But in Heaven Luther and Zyngulus will agree together said a Father though here in some things they could not Come Oh sweet Jesus Christ thou bright Morning-Star come I desire to be with thee said Holland Zepheron was said to be the Blind Man's Eyes and the Lame Man's Feet And the Lady Warwick gave both Books Clothes and Money for the Schooling both in England and Wales And a great Countess that lives in or near the Strand being lately in the Country was informed of a very poor Family which she went in Person for to see and finding the poor Woman Sick and Weak having two or three Children in the Bed and no other Boulster but an old Straw Cushion she presently caused a good Caudle and saw it made for the Woman gave her a very considerable sum of Money and ordered Boulster Bed or Blanckets for the Children and all this is good Charity and Humility too And to breed up poor ignorant Countrey Boyes to know God and themselves is the same which shall be endeavoured in your School-House yea 't is as much as to feed the Blind and Lame and in some sence rather more for the Soul is better than the Body To teach a young Bird to sing or young Boys to fear God is the best thing in the World The Light of Europe is the Gospel and the life of Preaching is for holy Living but Persecution brings Death and Life too Says a Father Death in one hand and Life in the other it kills the Body and crowns the Soul I have Lived long and Sinned long saith Beza but now I am willing and would fain Die to be rid of it giving God thanks for six things And some signal Mercies every good Man may find besides his daily ones Basil being profer'd Honours to Apostarize cryed They were changeable being threatned with Confiscation and Banishment he cried he need not fear he had little to loose and for Banishment Heaven was his Home or Country as for his Death they might do it with one blow You are mad said they Ay and ever will be for Divine Love is to me a never failing Treasure Francis Junus was converted with that Text In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God John 1. 1. And by this through the tender Mercies of God was I brought Home and when a Prodigal and a great Sinner comes Home there is great joy in Heaven Perkins converted a poor Thief that was going to be Hanged thus he wringing of his Hands upon the Ladder Perkins asked him why he was afraid to die Oh said he 't is t'other t'other Death I am afraid of Ah man come down a little and see what God's good Grace can do for thee and by Prayer so opened the nature of Sin and then of God's free Grace and Mercy by Jesus Christ for the Pardoning of it that he made the man both chearful and willing to Die He wrote many Books and frightned Sinners with that word Damn and yet would open the Blood Death and Merits of Jesus Christ in the Preaching of the holy Gospel Most wise Men desire the Lawyer and Phisician to deal plainly with them and Lords and Ladies should not love a Flatterer in the Pulpit nor a Chaplain that is not Holy Harmless or Exemplary in the Family Ambrose boldly reproved Theodotius the Emperor and used to say Men embrace Gold but refuse Salvation put off that on any account and catch at good Bargains The World is a Bird in Hand Heaven is one in the Bush like the Frenchman that would not leave his part in Paris for Paradise Theodoret said The delight of the Soul is to know its Maker And the great learned Earl of Leicester said Man differ'd in nothing more from a Beast than in his Reason especially Heavenly Reason Wisdom and Vnderstanding Hierom would not live in Rome because it savoured so much of Paganism and sinful Pleasures hardly of any true Christianity which is an inward Mystical and outward mortifying Thing and indeed it has not been long free from one Wickedness or another Ignorance Uncleanness Persecution Idolatry Sodomy and therefore well may she be called the Mother of Harlots who takes Money and Rent for so many Stew-Houses yearly and it is as good Money to him as the best which comes into his Cosser But if my Father or Mother Brothers Sisters and Children were all before me weeping and hanging on me to keep me in a sinful Life I would despise them all and fling them to the Ground saith
his sake And now said they We do commit thy Soul to the Devil We believe it was in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for usually such wickednesses are so pronounced But I said John Huss do commit it to my dear Redeemer Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ As he lifted up his head the Crown of Paper fell off but they put it on again saying Let him be burnt with his Masters the Devils And as they tied his Neck with the Chain he smiling said This I suffer for Preaching of the Holy Gospel singing three times with a loud voice Lord Jesus Christ thou Son of the Living God have mercy on me He told them at his Death God would raise up out of the Ashes of the Goose for so Huss's Name signified in the Bohemian Language in 100 Years a Swan in Germany whose Singing would affright all the Vultures which was exactly fulfilled in Luther But for Jerom of Prague he was so bold and zealous that he wrote certain Letters which he sent to Constantine to be set up upon the Gates of Noblemen and Cardinals shewing the purity and clearness of his Faith and Doctrine for which he was accused and that he was ready to come and make good all he had Preached His great Crime was he had thundered against the ill Lives of the Monks and Fryers but being taken into custody he was sadly used fed with Bread and Water and tyed almost Neck and Heels together so that he sell sick After a long time they required him to subscribe That John Huss was justly put to Death which he did partly for fear of Death and hoping to escape their hands But he soon repented saying before the Council All the Sins he ever committed in his Life did not half so much gnaw and trouble his Conscience as that pestiferous Sin When they had condemned him he said I Cite you all to answer it within 100 Years before the most High Judge of Heaven and Earth in the mean time I leave a remorse and nail in your Consciences He was bound to the Image of John Huss and had a Paper-Crown of red Devils painted on his head When the Executioner went to kindle the Fire behind him he bade him do it before his Face saying If I had been afraid of Death I had not come to this place for I had opportunities to escape but this Soul of mine in burning flames Oh Christ I will offer thee And for his Oration that he made before the Council it is said That no Tongue is able to express that learned Elegancy and Braveness of his Speech shewing what the Best of Men had still suffered in all Ages Latimer was a zealous Papist till Mr. Blinny converted him and then he was made Bishop of Worcester he preached twice a day and in Queen Maries days he was laid up in the Tower As he rode through Smithfield he said that had groaned for him many Years He used to pray for three things First That as God had made him a Preacher of his holy Word that he might seal it with his Blood if called thereunto Secondly That God of his Mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again once again Shall we not prize it Thirdly That the Lord would preserve Queen Elizabeth and make her a Comfort to the Comfortless Realm At his Burning the Blood run out of his Heart so abundantly as if all the Blood in his Body had gathered there according to his Prayer which struck the beholders with Astonishment In the Fire he stroakt his Face with his Hand crying out Oh! Father of Heaven receive my Soul and so died 1555. Ridley in the same Year writing to Latimer he said Good Father assist me with your Prayers for unless God stand by me I shall play but the part of a white liver'd Knight At his hearing he stood bare till the Cardinal named the Pope and then he put on his Cap. A Woman weeping for him a day before his Suffering he cried Ah! Mistress I see you love me not it appears you will not be at my Marriage to Morrow meaning his Burning nor will be therewith contented A Friend offering to watch with him he cried I intend to go to Bed and sleep as quietly as ever I did in my Life At the Stake he cryed Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Lord Jesus receive my Soul But the Fire being prest down by much Wood he desired for Christ's sake to let the Fire come up to him his lower part and Legs were quite burnt before his upper part so that he fell into the Fire He going one day by Water the Thames being very rough and the Watermen being a little fearful he cried Fear not you carry one that must be Burnt and not Drowned John Bradford was persuaded by Booker to enter upon the Ministry and he modestly complained of his want of Parts and Learning Oh! says Booker be not discouraged if you have not fine Manchet give them Barley Bread But being in Prison Condemned one comes running to him Oh! Mr. Bradford I bring you heavy News you must be burnt to Morrow I saw your Chain a buying At which he plucked off his Cap saying I thank God for it the Lord make me worthy lifting up his Eyes to Heaven saying Life with God's displeasure is worse than Death and Death with his true Favour is better than Life Oh England repent of thy Sins repent beware of Idolatry and false Preachers and take heed they don't deceive you A good Prayer And to another he said Be of good comfort my Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord. He was so Charitable that in a hard Time he sold his Jewels and Rings to relieve them that were in Want He was so humble that he often subscribed some of his Letters The most miserable hard Hearted unthankful Sinner John Bradford a painted Hypocrite Rowland Taylor was a great Preacher and would often visit the Poor and Sick and relieve them too when Bedridden but being threatned by the Bishop's Pursurvant he said I know my Cause to be so good and just that I will appear before them and to their Beards resist their false Doings I fear not their Lordly looks nor the Proudest of them all Going to the Fire he told the Sheriff I shall deceive a great many being a fat Man for said he I thought the Worms in Hadley Church-yard must have had me but now I see I must be Burnt Giving one or two Leaps and said God be praised I am almost at Home But the People cryed Oh dear Father and good Shepherd God help and succour thee as thou hast done us many times and our poor Children and so they went weeping all along the Streets for him To whom he said I have preached to you God's Truth and Word and now am going to seal it with my Blood In the Flames he cried Merciful Father of Heaven for Jesus Christ my
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