quaeries in a forraign land when it is more need to make enquiry into my owne sinfull and deceitfull heart to see what is done there in matter of reformation repentance and amendment of life And therefore now though we are far remoted in the body yet let us be present in spirit and prayer and although you are retyred to a place of more privacy and where your eyes I hope doe not see such abominations to vexe your heart with as ours doe yet pitty us and pray for us and on the other side be not oh be not so secure nor put your confidence in your select company nor in those remoted woods and solitary mountaines but remember what befell unto Lot that was righteous Lot whilest he lived in Sodome but when he would fly out of Zoar to a solitary cave in the mountaines with his two daughters he committed those abominable sinnes there that his soule would have abhorred once to have thought on in Sodome and therefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall our help is in the name of the Lord that hath made heaven and earth who is able to help us in all places and at all times and so beseeching the God of peace that brought againe from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the shepheard of his sheep through the bloud of the everlasting covenant make us perfect in all good works and to doe his will working in us that which is pleasant in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be prane for ever and ever Amen Even so I take my leave and rest Your loving and sinfull Cousin Iohn Spencer England Iuly 9. 1635. I pray remember my respective love to my gracious Cousin your loving wife who hath given such a testimony of her love unto you and the reverend opinion she hath of your honourable Calling and commend mee to the rest of my Cousins and to so many of our Christian friends as you think fit A charitable Consideration of new-Englands plantation We read in holy Writ and Law Leviticall That if a man dyeth having no child at all His neerest kinsman by the right of Aliance Shall take both the Widdow and the Inheritance To raise up seed to the dead and by doing well Continue still his Brothers name in Israel Fair England of the Northern World the great renowne Having late made Vnion with the Scottish Crowne Thereby involving her title with great Brittaine And so lyeth obscured in that golden chaine We to continue the name of our Brother In great America hath rais'd up another The Almighty God grant that ever may remain An ornament to England a terror to Spain FINIS JOHN SPENCER Mtr. Brightman a little he died translated the Canticles into verse whereupon I wrote these verses TH' heavenly song of that bright man Whereto he tun'd his latest breath Much like a silver shining-Swan Presag'd thereby his present death A goodlier song was never seene And few such singers left there been But you faire Signets which still remaines By pure streames of sacred Truth Washing your wings from sinfull staines With mournfull tears and dolefull ruth Lest you should him too much deplore For you this song he left in store Never therefore let the prophane With sinfull lips and hearts impure This sacred Song once dare to name Lest they damnation doe procure Let them with Toads their croaking make Till they doe their sins forsake But you deare Children of the light Whose lips are tun'd to sing this praise Oh labour still to shine more bright And therein spend your happiest dayes That when your dear Lord shall appeare He may you finde a Spouse most cleer FINIS Iohn Spencer A charitable Supposition Of Mtr. Brightmans sudden Dissolution No marvell though so bright a man His glorious life in Heaven so soone began For long his soule had languish'd in great griefe To see Gods chosen Flocke to want their best reliefe And cruell Wolves dumbe dogs and lordly Masters Set in the roome of Christ faithfull Pastors Therefore his deare Lord seeing his servant thus distrest Took him away unto his everlasting rest FINIS Iohn Spencer Here lyeth inter'd Sarah Spencer the vertuous Wife of Iohn Spencer and Sarah his Virgin Daughter Both so goodly faire and curteous As few such Sarahs will be found hereafter Blessed be the Lord God of Heaven and Earth That made them so renouned both in life and death A Coppie of a Letter sent to a great Lady MAdam my great care of your everlasting happinesse and my respective love to my reverend Cousin Mr. Lee who now is dead in the Lord and therefore must cease from his labour and from those holy endevours whereby he did labour to plant grace in your heart in your tender yeares and whereof you then gave such excellent hopes that in the Autumne of your age he should have seen a plentifull increase of that blessed fruit and many goodly sheaves of pietie and happinesse to his great comfort in the Harvest but it pleased God the great Lord of the Harvest to take him away as from other evils to come so likewise from those griefs that would have wounded his heart to see those flourishing hopes so nipt and withered in your spring-time it pleased God to make me partaker of his last prayer and to close his eyes Oh that it might be his blessed pleasure to make his Spirit to be redoubled on me that I might be the better able to admonish and exhort you to reform that which is amisse in you and disgracefull to your holy profession I meane in respect of your outward carriage and appearance with so many fond fashions and garish attires as to deale plainly with you were more meet for one of painted Iezabels profession than for a Lady of your worth and more fit to furnish a pedlers pack than to make open shew of them in the Church of God and in the Assembly of the Saints whereas things should be done with comelinesse and decencie and therefore he commandeth that no woman should be covered because of the Angels 1 Corinth 11.10 and that women should pray with their heads covered But if this be a comely covering to have a womans head covered with dogs haire or goats haire and cats dung and painted fethers judge you for my owne part the Word of God wherewith you shall be judged condemnes it as odious and abominable but it may be you will say it is the Gallants fashion and what if the Venetian Curtizans have brought up that fashion must the religious Ladies of England follow that fashion God forbid the Children of God must not fashion themselues after the world Rom. 11.2 But they must fashion themselvs according to the rule of Gods Word and then Madame marke what fashion you must be in 1 Timoth. 2.9 10. Likewise also the women that they array themselves with shamefastnesse and modestie not with broidered haire or gold or pearls or costly apparell but as becommeth the
a sottish humer put an armour upon him and beat a drum before him and let one attyre himselfe like a Captaine and put on his gorget and a plume of feathers in his hat a trunchion in his hand and make to march and exercise his armes or else set him upon a bounding horse and trot the ring and run a career and in these martiall exercises let the Captaine command him as his souldier and if he finds him peevish and froward give him a good knock upon his helmet and if he finde him willing and tractable then to commend and praise him Ninthly for matter of Physick you must advise with some learned Physician that doth well understand the nature of the disease and the constitution of his body for otherwise he may be prodigall of blood-letting and the want of blood may increase his melancholy he must likewise take heed of strong vomits that strain the head and distemper the brain in my opinion bathing and sweating and bleeding with horseleeches the safer way Lastly because these maladies and distempers are accompanied with a great deale of peevish crossenesse and wilfull obstinacie and a great part of the cure stands in the right crossing of them from those froward and furious humours which will require great patience and good observation for the generall use all faire meanes you can devise to gain them to the good and divert them from the ill but if that will not prevail you must have patience and passe it over as though you took no notice of it but if it comes once to this that they do perceive that you go about to crosse them and that you are in opposition and contesting with them then you must follow it with all importunity and resolvtion to subdue them and compell them to do it but be sure you take them with such advantages that you prevail otherwise the attempting of it will prove dangerous to your selfe and make them more outragious and insolent Postscript Master Dixie I pray be carefull to see these directions well performed and then I hope you will well deserve to have twenty pound a yeer for your paines otherwise I would be loath to perswade you to undertake such a dangerous imployment A Copie of a Letter to a vertuous Gentlewoman greatly afflicted in minde which it pleased God to give unto her great comfort BLessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort which comforteth us in all our tribulations that we might be able to comfort them that are in any affliction by the comfort where with wee our selves are are comforted of God and humbly I beseech that gratious Lord that he will vouchsafe for his deare sonne Iesus Christ his sake to open your eyes that you may behold those unspeakeable mercies and comforts that he will in his appointed time give unto all those that do fear his holy name and call upon him faithfully Cosen I have lately receaved your letter wherein you doe acknowledge that when I was with you it pleased God you found some comfort praised be his holy name for it but since you have been very ill and so remaine some causes you shew for the same because you cannot be assured of the favour of God towards you the reasons that you alledge because you finde so small comfort in prayer and in hearing of the word Secondly because of your fearful temptations both past and still continuing these as I take it are your chief reasons being rightly understood they wil prove so many sound arguments to prove that you never had so good cause to rest assured of Gods favour towards you nor ever had so many testimonies of his everlasting mercyes towards you as you have now that afflictons chastisements and temptations are the signes of Gods favour and the markes of his children I pray consider what the holy Apostle faith Hebrews the 12. the 5. the 6. my son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth every son that he receiveth and mark how he concludes in the eight verse if therefore ye be without correction whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sonnes is it not strange that you should vex and torment your self because the divell cannot prove you a bastard but it may be you may say it is not thus in your iudgement but then know that it is not fit for you to be a Judge in you own cause but submit your selfe unto the Judgement of Gods word which is the word of truth And beleeve his holy Apostles that knew how to iudge in those cases better then you and they will testifie that we have cause rather to reioyce then any wise to be discouraged with afflictions and temptations Saint Peter 1.2 My brethren count it exceeding ioy when ye fall into temptations and the blessed Apostle Saint Paul when he was tempted and grievously buffeted by Sathan for the which thing he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him but what was he presently released no but receaved this answere from the Lord and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect through weaknesse and what was the blessed man dismayed with this answer or concluded as you would do that he was out of the favour of God because his prayer was not granted no such matter but rather doth conclude greater comfort and assurance very gladly therefore saith he will I rejoyce in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in anguish for Christ sake for when I am weake then am I strong thus you may see how the Apostle out of Daniel gathereth matter of comfort and out of his own weaknes encreaseth great strength of faith and thus must you do in these fearfull temptations not so much as cast your eyes upon your own weaknesse nor upon the strength and power of your malitious enemy but you must looke up with the eye of faith unto our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ who is in the highest heavens and whose grace is sufficient for us and he it is who hath triumphed over sin death and damnation and hath tramped underfoot all the enemyes of our salvation and therfore with the holy Prophet say The Lord is my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom then shall I be afraid Now concerning your discomfort in hearing the word because you take so small comfort in the promises and are so much terrified with the judgements This I take it proceeds partly from the errour of your judgment in misse-aplying the same and partly from the malice of Sathan who evermore labours to drive us into extremities either with Eve not to fear the iudgements of
hate and abhorce them as cursed workes of darkenesse and have nothing to doe with them and grant us grace to serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life and labour to keep our soules and bodies pure and undefiled as the temples of the holy Ghost and walk honestly and religiously in our calling and deale justly and charitably all the dayes of our life that so it may be well with us at our last breathing and in the dreadfull day of judgement and in this confidence we do not only pray for our selves but also for all our christian brethren upon the face of the Earth those especially that are wounded in their soules and consciences and those that sufferd for the truth sake and those that are visited with mortall disstresse and tormenting crosses and weare new the point of death and prepare them for thy glorious Kingdome good Lord blesse our gracious King Charles and his great Court of Parliament worke graciously in the heart of the King and all his Subjects and in the heart of the Prince and all his people godly sorrow for all our sinnes and give us grace to weepe and mourne night and day for the sinnes and abominations of these sinfull times and cry mightily unto the Lord to turne away those heavie judgements we have justly deserved and continue his great mercy towards us and inflame their hearts with all holy zeale and devotion to advance the glory of God and doe good unto thy faithfull ones and on the other side to raise up their hearts with an everlasting hatred of all sinnes and utterly to abolish that and to roote that out and make them zealous to execute justice upon the malefactors that have so dishonoured God and labour to bring in Idolatry Popery and shed innocent blood and persecute thy faithtull ones that there may be that due execution of justice upon them as may most tend to thy glory the peace of the Church and comfort of thy faithfull ones and to the terrour of all wicked and prophane men blesse our Royall Queen convert her heart more more glorious to the love of the Gospell that shee may renounce all popery and Idolatry and wholly rest upon our Lord Iesus Christ to be her onely Saviour and her everlasting Redeemer that so the Angels in Heaven might rejoyce to see her true conversion unto Thee and blesse all good meanes that may effect the same in thy due and appointed time and make all faithfull Bishops and ministers of thy sacred word take all opportunities to effect the same as they will answere that in the dreadfull day of judgement good Lord blesse the Prince and the Princesse and all those of the Royall posterity and the Prince of Orringe and his Royall Consort sanctifie their hearts now in their tender yeares with the truth of thy holy religion and work in their hearts an everlasting hatred against all Popery Idolatry and prophanesse Good Lord blesse the Prince Elector worke graciously in his Royall heart godly sorrow for all his sinnes and let oh let wee humbly beseech thee the precious blood of our Saviour Christ cleanse him from all his sinnes and make him as pure both in soule and body as if he never had sinned but continued in the first state of innocency and cloath him with the holynesse and righteousnesse of our Lord Iesus Christ that hee may stand ever acceptable in thy fight and enabled to performe that great service unto thee to burne the Whore of Babylon with sire and revenge the blood of thy Saints to that end put it into the hearts of all the Kinges and Princes of the Earth to fulfill thy will to hate the Whore make her desolate and naked and burne her with fire Good Lord for the Lord Iesus sake blesse the Queene of Bohemiah and the Queene of Swedon those of that Royall issue that hath pleased the a long time to humble them with a dejected state and to suffer the enemies of thy truth greatly to insult over them to spoile their goodly Cities to burne downe their houses with fire and carry so many of our Christian brethren and sisters into a miserable captivitie and to shed so much innocent blood but thou doest all things with infinite wisedome thou knowest the fittest meanes to humble thy children and thou knowest the fittest time to make them glorious in their deliverance good Lord in thy blessed time revenge their cause and setle them againe in the inheritance of their Fathers and set them up to sit with the Princes of thy people in the meane time give unto thy servants faith and patience a godly sorrow for all their sinnes and holy zeale and wisedome to make their inheritance sure in heaven and lay up their treasure where that is not subject to these alterations and changes and confound the power of Ante-Christ that man of sinne and his adherentes that they may not to much insult over thy Children nor to much disturbe the peace of thy faithfull ones but in thy blessed time make it appeare how precious the blood of thy Saints is in thy sight and what a fearefull accompt they shall make for the same at the day of judgement before the great God of Heaven and Earth that art no respector of persons Blesse the good Bishops and faithfull Ministers of thy sacred word especially those that thou hast placed over us give them wisedome and grace to preach thy heavenly word powerfully and profitablely to our soule and consciences and blesse them in their lives and conversations that ye may be pure and peaceable that so they may be a a blessed meanes to convert many soules unto thee Root out those that are to scandolous and ignominious and labour to bring in Idolatry and prophanes and make them evermore to finde by experience that thou that fittest in the heavens will laugh them to scorne and have them in dirision Be mercifull unto our Christian brethren in the Palatinate in Germany other places of Christendom which suffer for the truth and the profession of the glorious Gospell and deliver them from blood thirstie men and gratiously supply all their wants both soule and body in thy appointed time Blesse our Christian bretheren in Virgenia and new England those remoted places of the world keepe them from secret schismes herisies and set their feete into the way of peace and deliver them from their enemies Blesse our Nobles Peares Iudges of the land and Councellers of state blesse them and their councell that tend to thy glory the peace of the Church and the good of the commonwealth that their councels may evermore bee happely established to the confusion of the wicked devises of ungodly men and women that labour to bring in Idollatry popery and prophannesse oh blesse we beseech thee our afflicted brethren sisters that are humbled with the sight of their sinnes and the terror of thy judgements due unto them for the