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
to the best of our power and who can do too much for him who is all and will be all for ever He gives us all we have and though we can give nothing to him yet he accepts of what we give to any so it be for his Honour and the highest Honour on Earth is to be good and extensively doing good like the Air. 'T is but a little while at best that we can work and it may be you and the great good Ladies of that Family will never have such an opportunity to help erect a thing that may last perhaps to the last period of time and be so long for the Honour of your Noble Sex and Family also and therefore pray despise not the day of small things nor this good design Most Great and Right Honourable Countess AS your Noble Name and Title is beloved by all some for worth in that brave Warrier who yet lost his head in the daies of Queen Elizabeth and others for that brave Knight your Father who lost his in the late times for Loyalty to his Prince both which will hardly be forgotten and especially whilst your Lord continues as he does to do all good and good Offices for his King and Country may such Peers flourish and be as they are indeed Pillars of our Nation which do bear up Prince and Peoples Happiness and Honour And for this may Children love you yea Children yet unborn will when they come to know the worth of our Religion which if lost our Bodies would be all slaves and our Souls in danger to be damned for ever by Antichristian Errours O Madam who can love enough whilst he loves his Country so exceeding well and the Protestant Interest also May you yours and himself all long live live for us for our Prince and Nation once a Terrour unto others but especially for himself and true Happiness for to live to God is best of all We may live to our selves and Fortunes our King and Country forget Heaven and so be lost and miserable to Eternity which will be Heaven when all is done and no home is like that and he that made it for his favour is better than life it self and may that favour which he bears to his Chosen ones be to you and yours also yea may you all see the good of his Inheritage and be blessed in Soul and Body with all your Right Noble Issue here and hereafter pray every one of us Most Great and Right Noble Countess SAies the Lord I have set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem that shall never hold their peace day nor night Your brave Lord most Noble Madam may be said to be the same if ever faithful warning was given to a Prince and Nation of dangers near and Counsels to prevent even at the brink your Lord hath certainly done it with strength of Wisdom Zeal and Boldness that never man spake better And now what shall we say of this our great Nations Seer that loves Scotland England Ireland and the Protestant Interest all the world over it being extensive like the Truth it self and the holy Gospel who can love more than every place where it is professed or preserve Liberty and Interest our only Jewels better than strongly to oppose all enemies for which may his Noble Name and Memory live and his Lordship sit as long as ever States-man served a Prince and for his Zeal to Prince and People let both love him and the Love of God dwell in him the blood of Christ be his Laver and when ever his great Soul shall leave this little lower sinful World let the holy Angels guard him and our Lord Jesus Christ personally present him to the Father to sing the high praises of God and the Lamb to all Eternity And when any of his near and Noble Family and Race have served their Generations and fallen asleep may they do the same and so successively to the World's end pray we Poor Hospital Boys Right Honourable and Noble Countess SOlomon tells us Wisdom is the principal thing and if it be as it is most deservedly accounted an excellent piece of Wisdom to know all the Laws and Statutes of a Nation What is it then to know the Laws and Statutes of Heaven the Will and Pleasure of the great and mighty Monarch Lord God of Heaven and Earth which your Lord yet doth Surely this must needs make him to be a great Figure and a great Statesman in this our Kingdom And may many many such States-men be to Rule and Govern the Great People of this Nation under our most excellent and good natur'd Prince And may their Wisdom be ever hearkened to and their hearts be zealous for his Greatness and all the Peoples Interest for he that serveth both shall never miscarry to his Honour and the wisest Ones Applause May your Lord steer in this Chanel miss all Rocks especially what may hurt his Soul live to his God and himself as well as his Prince and Country for Eternity is a long thing and may he you and all your Noble Issue be ever happy in it Pray one and all we Hospital-Boys Right Honourable Madam MAny and great have the Changes been which your Ladiship have known but this is certain there is a great and unchangeable good God who lives for ever and because he is so therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Madam 't is this God and his Love we must stick to for nothing else will do us long good all things fail and fade set that aside the fairest Beauty and the sweetest Rose the richest Garment with the greatest Wealth and Honour will be left on Earth to die like other things but the Living God and the Living Word Jesus Christ who lives with and by the Father shall abide for ever Joh. 6. v. 57. And whosoever believes in him shall never dye c. 11. v. 26. Oh Madam may you so live live for ever with the Son and his Saints in the Kingdom of the Father to drink of the new Wine namely his Love which he speaks of Oh! 't is that that must be our portion if we have any thing worth the speaking of What 's the fluttering up and down the world or the Enjoyment of the world with all Accommodations in and Applauses of it if we lose our Souls as Christ speaks what shall it profit us That 's a Jem or inestimable Jewel never to be Rated but in Eternity it comes next of all to God and Christ it 's immortal ever living and shall never die if sin does not hurt it nothing can God Almighty make Christ to be our Righteousness both in Life Death and Eternity and that we may know this his Righteousness which is nigh and this Salvation which he so often and affectionately calls upon us for to mind saying Hearken hearken unto me my People Give ear unto me oh my Nation This my is a sweet word Scripture myes and Scripture ours are all so Oh!
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
a heavenly holy zealous Preacher than a rich Drone a thousand times Some Shepherds have for little so much that the great Shepherd will owe them nothing at all Others have so little for their faithfulness that he will give them a Crown 'T is better for Ministers it should be said Why are not you and you provided for than Why have such and such so much As he nobly said I had rather it should be said Why does not Cato 's Image stand here than it should be said Why does it stand here But Preachers of Faith must live by Faith as well as other men and the world to come will make amends for all Come Thee and I shall be happy when King Jesus comes said one to his friend And they that fear the Lord speak often one to another Mal. 3. 16. And then shall the Righteous shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Matth. 13. 43. But many men make work for Repentance and many Ministers never put them seriously upon it as they should for want of Skill Love Faithfulness or Zeal The Lion sent for the Wolf and asked him if he had not a stinking breath Yea Sir said he and for that he tore him in pieces and sent for the Dog and asked him no said he 't is very sweet for that he tore him in pieces and sent for the Fox and asked him who cunningly told him He had a great Cold in his head and could not smell and so saved his Skin 'T is a brave thing when neither fear nor flattery moves men nor ministers from saying what they should few love Reproof fewer who reprove for love of souls and fewest of all who sincerely love the reprover Am I your enemy because I tell you the truth sayes Paul Gal. 4. 16. and we may say the greatest sin timely repented of is pardonable but the least never repented of is damnable in its own nature it being against a holy law and a holy God and Oh! how would Mr. Fowler that brave Redding and Thames-street preacher set out this 'T is for us to bring our will over to God in every thing and not his to us in any thing contrary to his Law and holy Writ whilst the world stands Religion is an inward thing takes off from self and creature but gives to God reverence in the heart and the heart and sum of religion is to love God and our Neighbours sincerely but Religion can do more for Learning than Learning can for Religion can bless and sanctifie that but that can do nothing but adorn dress and set it out with words which yet is a most excellent thing And oh that all the preachers in the world were practisers and learned too but more especially the former yet sayes God I will set thy Sons O Sion against thy Sons O Greece Zechariah 9. 13. And the quarrel shall never be ended There is naturally so much Scorn Malice Enmity and Disclain in Learning against the Simplicity Purity and Holiness of the Gospel that the corrupt unsanctified mind of man cannot but disdain it as the Pharisees and Sadduces did the preaching of Christ the Greeks and other learned men Paul counting him a babler and the cross of Christ foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 23. and he a mad man and Christ a publican and sinner for being a Physician to them and a preacher frequently among them and therefore a sociable life is better than a solitary Monkish one in a cell Christ did eat and drink at great tables with publicans and sinners but he was still as a physician to heal and reprove sin and Dod the old Puritan minister of Northampton was so holy and good at this and had that reverence and presence with him that a young gentleman at Sir Anthony Cope's could not eat half his Dinner for fear of swearing before Dod but he is dead and gone to Heaven and so may the Gentleman too for ought that we know God calls at several hours but 't is better to go to Heaven alone than not at all or to Hell with half the world Let me be happy it matters not how many then be miserable yet Balak's Balaam wished that he might dye the death of the Righteous and thought of death another world and eternal Joys Numb 23. 10. And so some will send for good men at their death which they care not for in their life to come and pray and secretly desire that their last end might be like unto them Yet the world is apt to think of Religion clean contrary to what it is sayes Lord Bacon and to make it madness a thing that dulls spirits and is apt to make Ladies look wrinkled before their time depresses them of Joy and to be looked upon by Wits and Sparks as some of God Almighty's Shee-fools and must never see good or merry daies more Alas alas said he What a miserable mistake is this Can there be better and greater Joy than Joy in the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1. 6. unspeakable and full of Glory And can there be better Sorrow than such Sorrow which is accompanied with Joy and Works or Repentance unto Salvation never to be repented of 2 Cor. 2. 10. Can there be better chear than a good Conscience Ask Abraham Isaac and Jacob if the Waies of God be not good Ask all the Prophets Patriarchs and Apostles if the Waies of God be not Good Yea the Martyrs and the Prisoners I am in a Bed of Roses sayes one And I am in my Paradice and Palace with God and his Angels said the Noble Marquess Galliaces in the Dungeon And I have Christ who is was and ever will be all in all sayes another All in Health Life Death and Sickness and Eternity too to Men and Angels Yea ask your own Conscience when the Curtain 's drawn and the Candle out Which is best a house of Prayer a house of God or a Play-house or a days sinning or a days communion and waiting on God and his Worship Come fy pish you are mad if you prefer the pleasures of sin before Heaven or sinful pastime before Heaven's Joy Oh ye vain and foolish young Ladies do not think of being Religious when you have nothing else to do but lay aside the Lute and Citern now and dance a little in your thoughts to Death's Pipe and think you hear his Night-watch and where you shall be a hundred years hence and what when you have lain a month or two in the Grave and this will help you to be good betimes Young Ladies might be merry enough if they would be good and godly and begin betimes and have better Husbands too for good men will love good Ladies especially when they are young and good too And we hope some are left though but a few that look for Heaven and Religious Wives True Recreations are in another world All the pleasures of this are either sins or snares if we use them too much But moderation may be
thou goest from God Christ and Self-happiness Self-love and happiness is to love God and God above all Whom have I in Heaven but thee or whom do I desire in comparison of thee saith David Psal 73. 25. There was a time when you desired your Lord much but did you ever desire your Lord Christ a little if you did do it more and more his Name his Nature his Person and his Promise is altogether desirable and shall be remembred in all Generations and praised for ever and ever Psal 45. 17. Therefore his Love is better than Wine Cant. 1. 2. Yea the wine of Angels for this is that that they drink in the perpetual beholding of him and you shall see my face too sayes God if you be his Servants Rev. 22. 4. But do not think of Reigning with God in Heaven if you be not his Servants here and your present Heaven is nothing to that Lift up your Eyes and look upon them and he that made them all your Heavens are but Dreams and Smoak What art thou that forgetst the Lord thy Maker Isa 51. 13. that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth and art afraid of a man that shall dye and be as grass Look unto Abraham sayes God ver 2. And if Abraham's bosom be desirable his Faith and Obedience is so too Some have the art to make much of little but few to make God all as Abraham did when he told him I am thy sheild and exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. and it is not in the power of any but he who is all and filleth all in all to give to all abundantly what their Souls do want Herod would give half his Kingdom for nothing but St. John Baptist's head pleased the young Gib well enough Matt. 14. 8. He preached repentance and Christ forgiveness a Prophet may instruct us but Christ only makes us to profit by the ministry of the word Oh! pray pray that hearing you may hear Rev. 2. 11. Matt. 13. 14. and know him whom to know is life eternal John 17. 3. though knowledge may be without Grace yet true Grace is never without knowledge and I know my redeemer lives saies Job 19. 25. and that you have not the love of God in you saies Christ to the Jews Joh. 5. 42. and his satisfaction for us is more the ground of our justification before God than his sanctification in us and yet Christ in us too is the hope of glory Oh! let him live in your hearts by faith 't will breed joy and feed joy a true Christian tasts that here which will be unspeakable hereafter here his joys enter into us hereafter we shall enter into it and the sweetness of divine love passeth all knowledge men taste a little here but ravishment is for fruition be industrious till you come there for the industrious man is not at leisure to sin heavenly meditations keep the mind busie when the hand is at plough or play but play dayes said Bishop Latimer are the Devils working dayes and he has more sin in one of them than in a whole week besides Religion allows not much idleness for he that will not work must not eat by Paul's rule Admire God in your calling and out of thy calling and the fields will give you room and objects enough for meditations and contemplations if you be not vain and airy but you must take care and watch thoughts or else you 'l loose God in your mind which is the honey in the way Oh! what is the bough the bush and the green but a little thing he sends every spring a little Daisy has a fine head but all the world cannot make it nor one hair white or black Oh! admire God in his works which are past finding out saies David Psal 19. 1. if they were happy which stood before Solomon as the Queen of Sheba said Luk. 11. 31. what are they that shall stand before the Lamb to admire him to Eternity Rev. 7. 15. Come begin heaven on earth admire him here and you shall hereafter in a sinless state here we sin and serve him too not in sin that is the Devil's work as Christ said John 8. 44. there we shall be without sin and never fear nor offend but love him to all eternity and be beloved of him Saints and Angels too Oh! may you dwell among them for ever and that is best of all but the best of and whole of this world is not worth one half quarter of the world to come That that makes heaven full of Joy is that it is above all fears and that that makes hell so full of terrour is that it is below all hopes the certainty perpetuity and eternity of it never ends nor the worm dyes saies Christ Mark 9. 44. Isa 66. 24. sin breeds death and the worm feeds upon the Conscience in remembrance of it so that a man or womans own hell comes much from and lies most in themselves by the alwise providence of a just and wise God ordering of it so see and buy Mr. Strongs little book upon the Worm of conscience we grieve and take care that little ones be not sick and dye of the worms but seldom take good and sound repentance our selves through the blood of Christ to kill the worm to come Oh! that sin may dye and Christ live in all your hearts grace increase and that decrease grace is glory begun a bud beam and slower of it and a grain of it is more worth than all the hypocritical knowledge in the world and through justifying grace scarlet sins and sinners are made whiter than snow by the blood of Christ Psal 51. 2. and the true preaching of the holy Gospel is the breaking of one heart and the binding up of another the hard is to be broken and the bruised is to be bound up much of the Minister or good Physicians skill lies in this Oh how good is it to have such a good Physician or to look out if we have not and if it be good for us to draw near unto God by prayer is it not so for him to draw near unto us by Preaching Peace Pardon and Forgiveness to us in the Ministry Yea 't is this way that he speaks Peace to his People And every faithful Minister hath as much the Power and Key this way as another For 't is but in Preaching and Believing They tell us of the Love of God and we apply and believe through the Blood of Christ and this applying and believing becomes our Remission and Forgiveness Oh! believe God is a giving and a sin-forgiving God and has two places one above and another below in a broken heart and if he dwell with a penitent what may not that heart get by him And for old and past sins it is our Heaven to be rid of them for they would have run us to Hell if we had continued in them When God is in the heart
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
Time drops Pearles from his golden Wings yea the Orient on 's wee for Butterflyes haz zard God Christ Heavens ioyes our Im̄ortall soules to Eternity all for nothing for nothing Call Time againe Call Time againe Cryed a great Lady when it was to late Prize it therefore as the greatest Iewell in the world THE LADIES Charity School-house Roll OF HIGHGATE OR A Subscription of many Noble well-disposed Ladies for the easie carrying of it on BEing well informed that there is a Pious Good Commendable Work for maintaining near forty Poor or Fatherless Children Born all at or near Highgate Hornsey or Hamsted We whose Names are subscribed do engage or promise That if the said Boys are decently Cloathed in Blew lined with Yellow constantly fed all alike with good and wholsom Diet taught to Read Write and Cast Accompts and so put out to Trades in order to Live another day Then we will give for one Year two or three if we well like the design and prudent management of it once a Year the sum below mentioned But if we be not fully satisfied that the said Boys are all of them true Objects of Charity or are in the least neglected to be taught the holy Scripture and Fear of God by good Discipline frequent Catechizing and orderly going to the Publick Church every Lord s Day Forenoon and After then we will not mind this our promise in the least or contribute any thing at all to it But hoping that the work may be good take Root find many friends last long be commendable in future Ages we be enclined to do as above mentioned not knowing but that a Kernel may become a Tree and a thing of small beginning prove popular and praise-worthy to the Honour of our Protestant Religion and in time find many Benefactors Also it standing so exceeding well and near this City's famous Hospitals which were not half so great as now However this little Infant being the first erected thing in our names and Dedicated to us as a Pious Work worthy of Encouragement we are not willing it should wholly die but to try the Expedient believing all good Works to be good and not to be repented of in Life Death or Eternity but the surest sign of true love to God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ And now 't is ten to one but some of your near Acquaintance as well as your great Relations may say Pray Madam let us trouble you with a small sum or a few Guynies to this good Work hoping it will be no sin to add a little Charity to your Ladiship And in such a case you may for the ease of your memory set it down in one of these Lines below and so you will be sure not to forget or wrong us Now a Lord or Gentleman's money will do almost as well for our School as your Ladiships only we will still ascribe all to your Honour For God's sake do not object any thing but read and see whether these Scriptures do not all seem to be for us The night comes when none can work that is at Death Joh. 9. 4. Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful Lay up Treasure in Heaven Matth. 6. 20. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly 2 Cor. 9. 6. Make ye friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when ye fail that is when ye depart this world Christ may receive ye into his everlasting habitation Luk. 16. 9. He that observes the wind shall not sow or he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap that is he that makes excuses and objections Eccl. 11. 4. But cast your Bread upon the waters and after many days you shall find it Eccl. 11. 1. Give and it shall be given to you Luke 16 38. Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good and not trust in uncertain riches but be rich in good works 1 Tim. 6. 17. Blessed is he that considereth the Poor the Lord shall preserve him alive when he lay sick and not deliver him into his enemies hands but he shall be blessed in the Earth Psal 41. 1 2. And now he that gives in Life carries his Lanthorn before him makes his own hands and eyes Executors The Great Ladies do allow their House-keeper one bottle of Wine three of Ale half a dozen Rolls and two Dishes of Meat a day who is to see the Wilderness Orchard great Prospect Walks and Gardens all well kept and Rolled for their Honour's Families and to give them small Treats according to discretion when they please to take the Air which is undoubtedly the best round London Three or four short Reasons why you Noble Ladies should not let this little School-house die 1. It is but little yet you have done for Christ or the Honour of Religion being cumbred with many things like Martha you neglect the best 2. In this you imitate the best two Princes that ever Reigned in this Realm Queen Elizabeth and Edward the sixth who founded most of the great Hospitals As for Queen Elizabeth she hated Popery made Christ's Righteousness her Rock loved the Parliament City and Dutch a Cord hardly to be broken 3. It stands so well and is really dedicated to you who are the choicest Flowers in Nature What is beloved like you English Ladies no mortals more happy if sin do not hurt you Others have not the hand and purse Others have not the Climate Others have not such Husbands as your Right English Nobles are or were many of them heretofore No such Noble Seats as most of yours be You have every one a Canaan Milk Honey and the holy Gospel preacht and may that ever be and your lives exemplary whilst the Sun Moon and Stars endure But pray Madams why should Old Sutton's brave Hospital such and such Hospitals flourish but yours die yours who are certainly the best and greatest Ladies in the whole world May God Almighty bend your hearts to us Poor Boys who will ever pray for you and all yours An Essay or humble Guess how the Noble Ladies may be enclined to give to and Encourage their Charity-School at Highgate near London AND first my Lady such a one cryed Come we will make one Purse out of our Family and if we get so much we will buy a Close Mead or Field near the School and it shall be called by our names to the worlds end A Noble Motion My Lady such a one said She would give for one Year or two but settle nothing And my Lady such a one said She would give only to the Lecture which is every Lord's Day Winter and Summer about five or six in the Evening But my Lady such a one said She would first inform her self and then do as others did My Lady such a one said She would give at present because she liked the School-house Orders and its standing very well and was very much taken with the Wilderness and Walks And my Lady such a one said She
your hands if once slipt and gone Oh! how much lost time have I to repent of and how little time to do it in said Sir Henry Wotton in King James's Reign Man's greatest happiness is to be good and at leisure to do good Delays and procrastinations of being good and doing good are dangerous And To morrow to morrow couzens many a one sayes a Father Therefore the Wise man sayes What thou findest in thy heart to do do it with all thy might for there is no device nor work in the Grave whither thou art going Eccles 9. 10. But he that dyes to sin daily makes the best step to this Eternal step of Death as a great Philosopher calls it which puts us not into another room but another place and condition quite away from all we now converse withal Relations never meet together more in the way and manner that they now do but the Father puts away the Son and the Son the Father and this Relation is never more nor the Marriage one neither Matth. 22. 30. Death is a Divorce for ever and though these Relations meet in the Resurrection-state yet is there neither Marriage nor giving in Marriage as Christ speaks to the seventh Brother Let Husbands love their Wives whilest they may and Wives their Husbands this step and journey will part them both for ever as one said to his wife a dying who had been married fifty years or upwards Oh me said a young Lady This is very sad that I must leave thee my dear so soon we have not been married one year what is there no Remedy and must I needs dye Truly yes he that lives must dye whether he be sick or no. We dye because we liv'd said one Death is decreed and we dye naturally our Bed and Sleep resembles Death and the Grave What is sleep but the shadow of it And he that will dye well must live well and if there be any thing after this Life Why do not young men take care to live well I did both saith Socrates though a heathen Live and Dye well go together What God hath joyned let no man put asunder for as the tree leans so it falls Eccles 11. 3. Men do not live sin-ward and dye God ward no no you must live to God and lean to God live and dye to God if ever you mean to go to him The Tree falls as it leans and lies as it falls If you fall God ward you are happy But if sin-ward you are miserable and ever like to be For after death comes judgment that is the stating of the Soul saith Burrace in an unchangeable state Here a mans condition may be mended but after death its never to be altered Faith and Repentance may be wrought here though it be at the last cast This night shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. Yet late Repentance seldom true though true Repentance never too late But after death there is no amendment nor Repentance neither Solomon hew'd and squared his Building for the Temple before-hand so that at the rearing of it up there was no noise of the Ax or Hammer heard Whoever God intends as a stone in the heavenly Jerusalem he fits before hand May you all be fitted all you young and lovely Ladies And you more elderly too May you all stand before the Lamb see him have his name and praise in your forehead Palms in your hands Robes upon your backs to cry with that numberless number of all kindreds tongues and people Salvation Glory Honour to the Lamb and to him that sits on the Throne for ever Rev. 7. 10. Yea may you all fall down cry not with the cry of Lamentation but Acclamation Joy and triumph which Triumph to the Godly will certainly be after all actions of Mortality are come to an end In the mean time all affections have two sharp ends the first and the last the first meeting and the last parting of Friends and Lovers is alwayes so And as Christ wept for Jerusalem and the hardness of the Jews whom Paul wished almost to be accursed for that they might be saved so the Jews shal one day be converted and look upon him whom they have peirced and mourn as for their first born Rev. 1. 7. And Paul's Friends wept sore when he told them they should see his face no more Act. 21. 13. But the Mary's wept Mary Magdalen and the Mother of Jesus wept when he said in his sufferings Woman behold thy Son John 19. 26. And the other Loved much because much was forgiven Mark 8. 36. You who have all your sins forgiven let the memorial of his sufferings dwell in your hearts and 't will make you weep to sin against him Oh! the kindness and favours of a good God are obligations to a good Soul May you all remember what he has shewed unto you at any time Were you never sick in dangers nor partakers of some special mercies Oh! keep the Remembrance of his goodness to your Souls But oh how little do rich and poor think upon this God and his goodness to their Souls which must stand before the Lamb as I said but now or be banisht from him for ever and ever or how little do they think of the worth Nature or Immortality of them What 's a fine Silk a fine Skin a fine Shape a sweet Face to such a Spark or Beam of God as the Soul is that came out from him and was breathed into man by him Gen. 2. 7. Shall this immortal thing ever starve dye and be forgotten which one calls the Breath of Life or the Living Breath which gives us Life Some never look their Bibles others never mind their Souls the whole world will not make amends for such a loss much less a vain wretched life of sinful pleasures and a few honours What! Careful for shape and fashion and neglect that which is the Breath of life or the life which gives us Breath as I said before Good Books are good Companions and the Bible makes glorious Christians when they so read mind it as to live up to it Queen Elizabeth lov'd it well and hug'd it in the Prison But vain Books eat up time and spoil many young Ladies and Gentlewomen but 't is not lack of time but love and relish to it that you do not read hear and pray more But what kind of foolish Creatures are many of you young Ladies to think God Christ Heaven Souls may be put off for any slight occasions or a Looking-glass You were not made for Birds or Butterflies to sing in woods Play Court or Dance in Sun But you are made for Saints to sing with Angels and go to God or else to weep in Hell Nay 't is so we will assure you and no otherwise there is but two places Look to the heavens and think well what he deserves that made them and you Psal 8. 3. and you to live in them for ever If
for we cannot will good much less do it of our selves Yet you must live for Heaven and by Christ get Faith or you can never be saved Short Hints but Sound Truths In great Humility THe Heathen Oracle of mortal man used to say We are born crying live laughing and dye sighing But Job and Solomon seem to hint there is little laughter for man is born to sorrow as the sparks fly up Job 5. 7. and All is vanity saith Solomon Eccles 12. 8. That is all besides Christ and the knowledge of him in a strict sense And sayes Hintius Vpon this account I could even obscure my self to think how much short all knowledge is and how much envy the most curious parts sustain and undergo especially when they are in great and high places where they have too too little time to converse with themselves mind their maker or rectifie their crooked nature Infancy is full of ignorance Youth of sins and Old Age of sorrows and the whole life of dangers so that it is a great misery for poor man who is but a Pile or Bag full of dust to come into the world were it not for the hope of heaven or a better world But this is never lost without great grief when possest with much love A certain rich man that loved riches well and too too well too being sick to death caused all his Plate and Gold to be brought before him and thus said to his soul like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 1â— 18. My soul if thou wilt now tarry with me and not leave my body all this will I promise thee and thou shalt enjoy it with Riches fine Buildings Gardens and sumptuous Houses But finding his infirmity increasing and no hopes of life in a great rage and fury he broke out into this most desperate speech Since thou wilt not abide nor be intreated nor tarry longer with me I recommend thee to the Devil and so soon departed Oh! let such men fear to laugh who are in danger to go where it will never avail or profit any thing to weep And he that looks on a picture and sees on it a rich man and a beggar never envies one nor pities th' other all men are but pictures and shadows quickly pass away and the poor have an advantage of the rich many times in dying having but little to leave behind but many are dull in want and wanton in fruition and most mens lives are miserable seeing those that seek for good hardly find it When evil comes of it self and enters our gates unsought Yet the brain will be working whilst the pulse is beating let a man live few years or let a man live many one does not make him happy nor another unhappy but his living well or ill does it Anselmus sayes In heaven joys shall be within and without above and beneath in all parts and round about and everlasting too saith the Prophet Isaiah 65. The lovers of this world eat drink and are merry but for want of the love of God go down to hell Psal 9. 17. in a little while and nothing remains of them but a short name dust and worms Seneca sayes evil actions are whipt by the conscience of themselves and torments them sore and that wickedness drinketh up the greatest part of its own poison and is a punishment to it self But Christians say there is a hell besides and most of all nations believe future rewards and punishments Oh! let us prevent weeping by weeping sayes One and all of hells sorrows by heavenly repentance Aristotle sayes It were better to dye than to do any thing against the good of virtue And I sayes Seneca was better born than to be a slave to lust what they count virtue Christians do not so well know but this is certain it is better not to be than not to know a good God in Jesus Christ and live to him in some measure who is all and will be all for ever Though Zenon said through his Atheism he feared nothing but Old Age yet Socrates tells ye When Death approaches bad men will be willing to turn Divines And if I have lived well sayes Lucicrema why do not you clap your hands But Divine Love is a never ending Treasure and the Orient Pearl is gathered from the Early Dew And in the 110th Psalm it is said of Christ That from the womb of the morning he had the dew of his youth that is as I humbly conceive from the first peeping out of God's Love to mankind as it was through a promise in Jesus Christ so all these promises and blessings obtained in Time or Eternity are gathered from the head heart Love and Merit of Christ as the morning dew is from Grass Corn or Herbs But to be careless of him or our selves and to live without fear is to Dye Living and is in great danger to fall into the Sea of God's everlasting wrath Awake awake O miserable Soul and lift up thine Eyes lest the night of nights overtake thee Rom. 13. 12. Joh. 9. 4. And assure your selves Death will almost daunt good Livers what wilt thou do But he whom happiness affects cares not how long he lives But Job was safer on the Dunghill than Adam in Paradise And Christ the true Son of the Living God when begging water at the Well of Jacob Joh. 4. 7. from the woman with the Pitcher Yet many think a middle condition is best for this world and for our Souls too but we need every day the blood of Christ to wash us all as well as Water for our faces And the Soul is washed by secret thinking and applying of the Love Life Death and Merit of Christ to it self He gave himself for me sayes Paul Gal. 2. 20. And our Souls are like Camaeleons live upon the Gospel-Air Promises in Christ and God's Love through Christ but the world trusted on is apt to thrust all out of our minds And sayes Tully No man could ever make me believe the Soul should live in this mortal Body and be dead when absent Oh! live then to live for ever Bear well and prepare well for that which can never be avoided namely Death To labour not to dye once is to labour in vain But to live to Christ is a certain way to prevent a second Death And a man whose Soul is truly conversing with God shall find more pleasure in secret walks closets groves and hedges than in the Palace of a Prince And Sir Walter Rawleigh sayes He that is resolved to be a great Favourite and Servant there must abandon strict Piety The love of Fame Name and Pleasure is inconsistent with the Love of God True a weak man may give strict Rules and the holiest Minister in the world hardly lives up to his own Preaching And you cannot look to Heaven with one Eye and look down to the Earth with the other at the same time But however the best counsel is best and most wholsom
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
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