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
him as long as I live The sorrows of death caught hold upon me I found trouble then called I on the Name of the Lord and he heard me The Lord hath dealt bountifully with me what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits I will take the Cup of Salvation and pay my vows in the midst of his people in the Courts of the Lord 's own House in the midst of thee O Jerusalem praise ye the Lord. And if ever there be a time for us to speak and you to give it is now Whilst your heart is full of his Goodness yet yours can never extend to him to us and our School it may and others need it not we mean your great City-Hospitals but our poor little In fant new-born thing needs really needs and that makes us speak others are Rich we are poor others are full we are empty others have all things we have nothing but what the good Lord Jesus shall encline some great Ladies and a few of you the choicest Citizens of London for to give and choice men it must be that we thus go to for we intend never to beg nor mingle but with the best of Protestants and some of them too have scarce faith enough to believe the success of this great or good design Nay your Brother Cornish himself who in other things is one of a hundred through the greatness of his diffidence would have once perswaded us to lay it down whose Charity yet we doubt not of in the least it being a well approved thing by good men and Ministers one of which constantly Preaches every Lord's day an Evening Lecture for all sorts of comers where Bread and other encouragement is given for any Poor or Needy people that please to be there and hear at that same hour In short the praise and good report of this House and your Charity will live grow and be a great thing and still redound to your Honour and the City's Praise And now the prayers of all our School with the Blessings of the great God of Heaven and Earth rest on the Heads Hearts and Souls of all your near Relations and Family May it please you most Worthy Madam THE Good and Noble Ladies have given liberty to Petition as now we do some few Honourable Citizens and great Merchants Wives of eminent Quality or Degree your Husband being one we well know to be both free bountiful and a Right English Gentlemen in all things We humbly beg and intreat your Ladyship that this our Charity School-house Stick or Roll may be accepted it being for a good work much of praise-worthy And we humbly promise this We will all beg many Blessings or wish Health Peace Wealth and Eternal Happiness to you for ever and ever Yea we will beg for the two young Ladies also that they may be Saints in Heaven good and virtuous Wives on Earth and may have as they really do and will ever well deserve the best of Husbands to enjoy them such as may never grieve nor offend day nor night such as may love them and their Souls both above their great Fortunes and next our Lord Jesus Christ Study what to do for both for to be ensnared with a bad man and unkind or churlish Husband will be a thousand thousand pities grieve us to the heart When sweet Nature's Blossoms Buds and Roses meet with churlish Nabals the yielding gentle Reed is bruised by the ugly Oak and the Honey suckle tangled in a knot which can never be untied till Death But a good man though he be not a Lord though he be not a very great Merchant yet if he be but good natur'd wise cheerful and careful for the world and minds the world to come prayes daily for a Blessing let the Ladies we all say accept of such a one or let one venture first and the other for Honour after or let either chuse as they will but still let both be happy we all pray from the bottom of our hearts Yet happy they can never be unless after all they go to Heaven for Heaven is Heaven when all is done and ever will be We should Buy Sell Trade Marry Live and Dye so as that we may not endanger our Souls in the least Other losses may be gaind Health Wealth and the World but Heaven lost will never be found in another O love God and Jesus Christ now above all love his Praise love his Promise love his Spirit which knocks now and then yea often at your hearts with sweet soft and still Motions in the night saying Open open unto me Hear hear and your Souls shall live I will make a Covenant with you if you will be mine love and live to me now I will own you here and hereafter save you when you come to dye and bless you at the present with Children more or less or that which is better good things Yea no good thing will he with-hold from them that fear him saith the Psalmist And therefore fear him day and night both you yea both you Young and Lovely Ladies that he may indeed bless you in Life Death and Eternity prayes all we at Highgate SILVER DROPS OR SERIOUS THINGS HEre follows the Substance of the fine Young Lady's Answer to that Objection in the Essay Are these Times for Charity and a new Design when we have so many Waies and Objects for it Ay said she And it is the better for us too we have many Joynts and Mercies Fingers Feet and Toes all should do something for him and another world who is alwaies doing of us good and all his Works So saith the Psalmist And all his Works do praise him Psal 145. 10. Now if this little Design of theirs at Highgate be for or look like any thing of serving him why should it dye Let the vanity and things of the world sin folly and emptiness dye but let Virtue Religion and the Love of Charity live in all our bosoms breasts and lives If Angels were to be visible and present with us how much would they be to be embraced and desired for their holiness When Great and Noble Persons Lords Ladies and others embrace true Piety they seem to imitate the holy Angels though cloathed with frailty and mortality immortality is for another world and in that world nothing but Divine Love shall live Joy and Glory cease here but that which is heavenly shall never cease yet Charity shall cease though it be greater than Faith and Love too So sayes Paul 1 Cor. 13. 13. Now abides Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of all is Charity Will you abound a little in this Work you have enough of this world yea enough to swallow and drown you to Eternity if a good God do not love and save you from the snares cares and flatteries of it For all its pleasures are bewitching things and the sweetest Musick fails tires often times But thou O Son Saint and Servant
nor are given in Marriage neither can they dye any more Luk. 23. v. 36. for they are equal to Angels and are the Children of God being Children of the Resurrection Mark the Children of the Resurrection are the Children of God that is those and all those Christ rose as a Head for they and all they have a part in the first Resurrection Rev. 20. 6. Blessed and happy are they that have part in the first Resurrection for on such the second Death shall have no power that is Hell the Devil or Jaylors Prison above mentioned O Ladies Look to Christ who is the first Resurrection and the first begotten from the Dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth for he has loved you and washt you from your sins in his own Blood Heb. 1. 6. Yea look to him that he be your Resurrection and that you have a part by Faith in him who is the true Book of Life Revel 21. 27. And if by Faith in him you rise from the Grave and Death of sin here then may you assure your selves of a share and part in his Resurrection unto Eternal Life which was typified by the First Fruits and the Sheaf of Corn which the Priest held up and wav'd under the Ceremonial or Levitical Law And that you are indeed the Children of it And of God too and so shall never dye Oh! believest thou this as Christ said in another place about Lazarus I am the life and resurrection of the dead and he that believeth in me shall never dye Joh. 11. 25. Yea though he were dead yet shall he live again Believest thou this sayes Christ so say I to you noble Ladies Gentlewomen and others if you be the Children of God and the resurrection you shall dye no more dye once you must to this world and the things sleep a little in the grave and imitate Christ your Head and your Husband your Lord and your Saviour who was there before you three dayes and three nights and then destroyed and tore the grave open to assure you of the resurrection also but in that you shall never dye more Oh! happy resurrection when Christ shall say awake and sing O ye that sleep in the dust and with my dead body shall ye awake Isaiah Come with me my love from Bebon the Leopard and the Lions den Canticles All which promises and a thousand more are made to you if you be the children of God and peace-makers in the Church or World or where you are The Children of Israel were happy that they were the Children of Israel and the seed of Abraham though all were not the true seed but Oh! how happy are you that you are the Children of God and shall be like his Angels in the resurrection yet Israel died in the wilderness and never entered into the land of Canaan but you shall never dye be as Angels enter in and possess the true Canaan Heaven 's Kingdom and the Kingdom of God be among the Angels to sing with that Coelestial Quire the high prayses of God and the Lamb to all eternity Rev. 7. Oh happy day Oh happy hour that ever you were born or made to be the Children of God and peace-makers in the world and places where you come Hell is full of brawling the world is full of brawling but your Breasts and Lives are full with peace and the love of God and the wayes and things of God Oh! keep that Nightingale and sweet ever singing Bird of Paradise close to you and let it never fail you day nor night yea all you Children of God 't is a heaven to begin a heaven here and a double hell to lose it for a straw as one said or a bubble which Children blow from a walnut shell whilst 't is a little heaven or young heaven as a great Lady called it but old heaven and the heaven of heaven of heavens shall be your portion yea he that compasseth heaven and earth and is within the Starry Element where Sun Moon and Stars are Oh! how glorious is that this is but the Tileing we see Gods house is all invisible and the inside no mortal man nor eye can see nor him neither and live Exod. 33. v. 20. But time shall pass and time shall come when these things shall be no more and we for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. and see him as he is face to face and eye to eye and all tears shall be quite wiped away sorrow and mourning fly away for ever former things be forgotten and all your Lords unkindness and your own unworthiness of the Lamb and your Redeemer's love yea the want of Grace and comforts here the young Lord and little Ladies death will be forgotten in another world yea in resurrection glory all will be swallowed up in everlasting joy some Fountains have their mouths or pipes through which they send their Chrystal streams with pleasant noises Revel and in heaven shall the Children of the resurrection Saints and Angels continually send their Praises to God and the Lamb and that unweariedly for worthy is the Lamb to receive Power Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Revel 7. 10 11 12. And every creature in heaven and earth heard I say Amen Amen Amen Oh! ye Lords Ladies Princes Kings Queens Potentates and highest Mortal of the earth joyn ye for it becomes you well and all ye with that kingly Prophet David in his three last Psalmes 148 149 150. and with this I shall close this little little book of yours which was made a little before and just after a great sickness but the work is Praise the Lord from the heaven Praise him in the highest for the highest is too low for him Praise him all ye Angels an Angelical praise becomes him and them very well praise him all ye host be ye what he will praise him Sun and Moon for ye are man and wife to rule both day and night and he made you both praise him all ye Stars of light which are as Sun and Moons children and are of great influence to the children of men praise him O heavens air ye terrestrial coelestial heavens heaven of heavens praise him and him alone he only made you with the word of his power and ye waters that be above the heavens the airy heavens and clouds that we see and in the deep let the fountains of the deep praise him he hath commanded and you were created he establish a Decree and you cannot pass Praise him Dragons and deep fiery Mountains Hail Snow and Storms and fulfil his word Mountains Hills Trees and Cedars high Men and low Men little Beasts and Cattle Creeping things and Flying little Ants and mighty Eagles Kings Judges Princes and all People young Lords and mayden Ladies of nine ten eleven twelve and thirteen let them praise his name for his name alone is excellent and before him let all flesh be for ever silent His glory is above the Heavens
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
Papists The last and general Closing Letter that is thus presumed to be offered ANd now most Noble Great and Right Honourable Ladies Gentlewomen and others 'T is not many Weeks nay Days since your poor Orator Supplicant or Petitioner was in his own and others apprehension at the brink of Death and the Grave and so many Days together But God was pleased by Doctor Cox my alone Physician to raise me up again And though in my Sickness my Life seemed to be flying away like an Eagle in the Air and the World and the Things thereof to be passing away as if they had never been yet yet I did secretly resolve if God should raise me up to perform or finish this poor little scribled and yet serious short brief and harmless Pocket-Book with the Ladies Letters which yet I humbly entreat your Noble Ladyships to peruse and view over and over in some serious leisure Hour persuading my self that though your Breasts are full of Piety Virtue Wisdom and Virtuous Thoughts yet you may find some if not many brief hints of Truth Religion and Virtue well worth your pious Thoughts or Memory for as Eternity is a very serious thing so every Sickness that brings one near the Borders of it or from the Borders of it should make us very serious and to Speak and Act as those that have been near another World though not in it And truly if I were no more nor longer to be in this than just to finish these few Lines and humbly on the bended Knee to present them to your Lilly Hands and so to lie down and die at your Feet yet would I seriously do it in the way of Prayer to your Honours First That the short Hints might be weighed and weighed again and again in your most strict serious and retired Thoughts whether they be really so as they seem to be hinted to you and if you find them indeed so to be by the standard Golden Rule Reed or Touchstone of God's holy Word then not to slight and say Pish Fool or cry This simple Man will never a done for 't is of more concern than so Truth is Truth and serious Things must and will be serious whether we mind or count them so or no. And this I assure you if ever you come as come you must to a Fit and Bed of Sickness I mean a thorow Sickness that your life seems in your own others thoughts to be flying away you will be then thinking of your immortal ever-living and never-dying Souls And it may be in a dowsed manner not knowing well where you are or what Day it is whether Day or Night The Watch Candle being in the Room the Curtains drawn little or no Company to speak to you because of the high Feaver or other Distemper but yet in that hour it may be Fears Doubts Conscience will be working and secret Questions will be working in you whether you must and shall Die now or no go to the Grave leave your golden Hangings Rooms Honours and Relations going to the silent and be seen no more whilst it may be are just in the middle of some great Design or other as your Supplicant was in these Papers or setting up of your little Charity-School at High-Gate But be it what it will every Design must break off if Death really come with and at the end of your Sickness and then no remembrance of you or yours will be after a very little while Oh Madams for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake and your own Souls I beseech you mind a little the house of mourning Eccles 7. 2. which he says 't is so good to go to and the Bed of sickness before it comes and especially what to do before it comes that its coming may not be as a damp and death to your spirits when it comes It 's said the Cockatrice never kills but when it sees us before we see it Oh be before-hand with your Sickness and prepare in Life for Death and Health for Sickness and assure your selves you may as well persuade your selves that Michaelmas will never come because April is and May is at hand as that Sickness and Death will not come because Health Wealth Honour and all about you is now as you would have it and more comforts seem to promise to you also from a Son or Daughter 's great Match or Purchase which you are just a making But yet Michaelmas comes in course and Winter too when one Flower will not be left But now against the height and heart of that and all that is cold and killing unto Creature-comforts set a never-failing good God aside make him your portion and with the Prophet Habakkuk say Though the labour of the Olive should fail Flocks Herds and the Fruits of the Field yield no increase yet I will rejoyce greatly I will joy in the God of my salvation Habbak 3. 17 18. But this must nor can ever otherwise be but by true Faith in the Love Life Blood Death and Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ with holy walking in the sanctifying graces of his Spirit six or seven of which you may eminently find I shall hint at in the first Sermon our Lord Jesus Christ ever preach'd Mat. 5. 3 4 5 6 7 8. First blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven by purchase purpose promise and eternal preparation Mat. 25 34. Come ye blessed of my Father and receive a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World Oh blessed Poverty that enriches men with the Kingdom of Heaven This poverty of Spirit is nothing else but a sensible want of Grace and Christ and every good thing in our selves through the discovery of original sin to us by the Fall of Adam whereby we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be lost by the purity and spirituality of God's most holy inward piercing Law the ten Commandments by which we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be most miserable wretched creatures and lost in our selves seeing no hope nor help any ways but in Gods mercy thorough Christ and this brings us to be like the poor Prodigal or Publican Luke 18. 11. to cry Lord be merciful to me poor lost sinner and grant that I may find Christ and pardon for my Soul and by Prayer Reading Hearing Preaching Meditating make out after him in an humble persevering way And this is the Poverty to which the Kingdom of Heaven belongs that is the Gospel with all its Promises and everlasting Kingdom of Glory too which God grant you and yours may all find But secondly ver 4. Blessed are all they that mourn for they shall be comforted that is for sin in-dwelling of original and actual sin and upon that account cry out like great St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Rom. 7. 24. Mark Ladies Sin has a Body yea in Paul it had though he was
inherit the earth And as Paul in his salutation said Grace be unto you and Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ Col. 1. 2. And In as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. Now first there is a personal or particular peace that is a peace with a man 's own self Mind Actions Waies and Conscience Secondly There is a domestick peace that is with Masters Servants Husbands Wife and Children And thirdly There is a Relative Neighbour or Parochial Peace that is one Neighbour Friend or Relation with another And Moses reproved the two Israelites for quarrelling saying They were Brethren Exod. 12 13. Oh! how good is it saith the Psalmist for natural or spiritual Brethren to live together in Amity Psal 133. 1. Fourthly There is a National and Ecclesiastical Peace which we are to pray for and desire also But this is rather to be desired than expected While some men know more and others less there will be disputes and some differences for all men have not the same fancies nor Physiognomies but do differ there and in mind too However for peace and quiet sake let the strong comply with the weak and the weak not to despise and judge the strong because they know more than themselves And this is to become all to all men as Paul did to gain some And for God Christ Peace and Angels sake do you do so which was the Song that millions of them sung at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Shepherds yea the universal world saying Glory be to God in the highest Luk. 2. 14. Peace and good will towards men on earth But for your worldly outward Peace take Paul and Christ's counsel in a word and so shall you preserve and keep it First Wrong no man saith he Act. 25. 10. Secondly Forgive your Enemies sayes Christ Matth. 5. 44. which two Scriptures well observed would make a great deal of peace in the world especially amongst the best of good Christians But I shall not mind nor trouble you further in any thing of this nature about Peace above mentioned only this A personal inward Peace which is a thing of great concern for Eternity namely your Soul-Peace and for that take this great Scripture Simile or Parable of our Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 5. 56. Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him lest at any time thy Adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison Verily I say unto thee Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing which is as much as to say never never And now pray will you mind this young Ladies and Gentlewomen for you for the most part are most ignorant of the holy Scriptures and their meaning This is a true and great Parable of Soul concern and therefore Christ's counsel is serously to be minded by us Our Adversary is God and God though he be the God of all Good Grace Glory Eternal Love and Infinite Endless Mercy yet he is an Adversary to every Man and every Man and Woman by nature too is an Adversary an enemy at distance to him till he be reconciled by Christ for the breach of his most righteous just and equal holy Law Psal 119. 19. Every branch of which as it contains a beam of his eternal will and image is more pure than the Sun or gold tryed in the Fire as the Psalmist hath it Psal 119. 72. Now whil'st sweet life and the holy blessed Gospel is continued and preach'd to us we are in the way in the right way that we may be reconciled to this good God who is yet an Enemy and will continue so if we do not agree and make peace in the blood of Christ But he namely God delivers us by death any kind of death that kills us Consumption Surfeit Cold Ague Feaver Small-Pox Age Gout or Dropsie c. so that we be put into the Judges hands namely the good Lord Jesus Christ's who is and shall be Judge of quick and dead he finds us guilty of debt sin unbelief and breach of God's holy Law sends us and delivers us over into the Jaylors hands the Devil and he presently casts and carries us to Hell where we never come out nor can till we pay the uttermost farthing that is till we satisfie to the uttermost for God's wrong and infinite strict Justice for the breach of his holy righteous just and good Law which can never never be though we lie millions millions and ten thousand millions of years as Francis Spira once said Oh Lords Ladies Gentlewomen and other poor People make Peace while you may make Peace yea whilst Christ and the holy Spirit of Christ sweetly knocks with an Olive branch of Peace pleading with you at the door of your hearts Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock that is by good motions and if any one hear and open the door that is hearken to my counsel I will come in and sup with him that is give him pardon and comfort Rev. 3. 20. And so again Cant. 5. 2. Open Open unto me my Love my Dove and come away And now if you have taken his advice and have made your Peace by hearkening unto Christ and taken his counsel who is an Advocate Friend and Counsellor to plead for you to the Father by shewing of his Blood Death and Merit in a way of Intercession to the Father for poor Sinners then will he be a Saviour to you and not a condemning Judge to turn you over by Death to Hell and the Jaylor but will convey you safely by the holy Angels who are now your Guardians to the Bosom of the Father And now if you have made your Peace as easily yet you may if you have not and do but look about you with a grain of Faith through the Blood Life Death and Merit of Jesus Christ as I said before then you have little else to do but to study all kind of Peace in your Families Parish-Church and every where where you can come or go That ye may be called the Children of the Living God Rom. 9. 26. The Sons and Daughters of the most High God 1 John 3. 1. And so Peace-makers indeed And this frame of spirit with the Spirit of God in you Rom. 8. 10. will be a great Witness and Comfort to you that you are now the Children of God and if Children then Heirs as the Apostle sayes verse 17. and so Joynt-heirs with Christ O unspeakable Love and Grace What! an Heir with Christ Ay sayes the Text a Joynt-heir with him of what nay that 's for Eternity to tell but this we may say they are Heirs of First of Eternal Life and Resurrection from the Dead Luk. 20 36. But they which shall be accounted worthy of that world namely Heaven and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry