12. 7. but still his eye of Fatherly care is on them Psal 34. 15. and all things shall work together for their good Now lay all these things together 1. Satan is a Conquered a Chained Enemy 2. By slavish fear you do him too much honour 3. You wrong God and Christ as if they were not able to save you 4. Call to mind Gods gracious Attributes Providence Promises 5. Your relatian to God and Christ to whom in Baptism you were devoted and so are a Member of Christ one of Gods Children whom he loves pityeth and careth for Say now as Nehemiah Should such a one as I flee should I fear the Devil No fear God fear to displease him by sin by this immoderate fear Resist the Devil by Faith and fervent Prayer Lay hold on Gods promises Apply them to your self by Faith as if they had been made to you by Name Hold no dispute with Satan he will be too hard for you But take the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God Answer his Cavils with that as our Saviour did Avoid solitariness as much as you may When you are alone yet remember you are not alone Believers have fellowship with the Father and the Son by the Holy Ghost And alwayes remember that the Holy Angels encamp round about them that fear God Turn to those Scriptures Psal 34. 7. and 91. 11. Get acquainted with Gods people hear their advice and beg their Prayers Wait on God be sure to keep in his way and the issue will be good Psal 40. 1. So the God of Peace grant you Peace by all means and the Peace of God which passeth understanding keep your hearts through Jesus Christ To his Blessing and Grace I commend you Yours Mar. 30. 1680. I Must desire to see you but it is thought not advisable for me to take such a journey at first not having been on horse back since my late sickness I am sorry to hear you are ill again being but lately recovered from an ill fit Man that is born of a woman is of few days and is full of trouble And because it is unknown to us which sickness is or may prove our last it is wisdom to improve the present as a warning to us So to number our dayes that we may apply our hearts to wisdom to consider our latter end and Eternity that follows after Set thy house in order for thou shalt dye and not live saith the Prophet from God to Hezekiah much more should we set our Souls in order and see that we be on good terms with God ere we appear before his judgment-seat Which we must do the first moment after the departing of the Soul out of the body Heb. 9. 27. This is a work so necessary to be done in time that it is not ought not to be put off till a sick bed yet it must then be revived and renewed and then done in the best manner as being the last time of doing it and what is then done is like to stand for ever In order thereunto reflect and look back into the former part of your life Begin at your birth sin and corruption of nature Bewail that and lament over it so go on to the sins of youth and be humbled for them and so come a long to the sins of age and riper years confess and bewail them with their agravating circumstances as being committed against light knowledge and checks of Conscience and done with deliberation By this means you will find ease and rest to your Soul according to that promise Mat. 11. 29. If you cast your weary burden upon the Lord Jesus Christ he will stand between you and his fathers wrath he will take all your debts upon him and say as Rebeckah to Jacob upon me be thy curse my Son Fresh sorrow for old sins Repentance renewed will make Christ sweet and sin bitter to you and affect you more in his love in dying for you This will be a good evidence to you that your sins are forgiven Namely if you confess them with a broken and penitent heart and forsake them with detestation And now is a fit time for you to look up your evidences for Heaven that so you may not be afraid to dye but may look Death in the face with comfort If you say how may I be assured that my sins are forgiven and that Christ is mine To the first I have answered already He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Prov. 28. 13. If we confess our sins by faith resting on Christ for pardon he is faithful and just to forgive us To the second How may I know that Christ is mine Thus Are you you his Are you willing Do you consent to have him on his own terms for your Lord and do you obey him as your Lord Do you take his yoak upon you have you respect to all his commandments Do you hate every evil way John 15. 14. You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you Do you chuse the Lord for your portion Christ for your bliss and happiness Do you more highly prize him and desire to enjoy him more than all riches Do you account all things but loss and dung in comparison of him Had you rather be the most holy person upon Earth than the greatest or richest that ever was And do you use diligence in the means of grace to attain to more holiness If so you may without doubt be well assured your Estate is good and safe For you could not have chosen God and loved Christ unless he had chosen and loved you first Dwell therefore in the thoughts and tastes of Gods love to you Say how wonderful is Gods love to a poor worm and silly dust That the contrivance of infinite wisdom should be taken up about me That the eternall Deity should consult about my salvation ere the world began That God should pass by many wise men after the flesh many mighty and noble who if they had been converted might have done God better service an hundred times then I and make choise of me a dispicable sinner to be an Heir of salvation Lord what is man c. Thus raise up your heart in thankful admiration of Gods wonderful love to your Soul And Thirdly the assurance of Gods love will incourage your heart against the fear of death and give you confidence against the King of terrors I shall be glad to hear of your recovery though I thus write I commend you to God and if I never see you in this world I hope to meet you with other dear friends who are gone before in those mansions which Christ hath purchased and prepared for all those that love him to whose grace I refer you Yours J. H. May 31. 81. They are blessed that do hunger and thirst after Righteousness after Christ for justification and sanctification Do not you so Are not you empty naked barren of grace in your self a dry tree
disparagement was really his great honour that he was a man of so great Learning and worth and yet beholden to no University for it It is manifest to all that knew him that he was a Judicious Divine a good Casuist a workman in Preaching that needed not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of Truth he was pertinent methodical a man that was clear in opening his Text and spake very close to Conscience from it He knew well the inside of Religion Few that heard him but they did discern his understanding of the mystery of Godliness that he spake from his Heart and they felt his words come to theirs He was of few words and reserved not at all talkative but give him but occasion by starting Discourse get him but upon his Knees or put him upon Writing or Preaching work and then you would soon find he wanted neither Words nor Sense Oh he was a Man of Prayer some dear ones that are left behind and have had no small burdens of Affliction since they lost him do feel the want of his Prayers to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees He was of a very quiet Spirit a people amongst whom he laboured very ticcle very capricious very hard to be pleased in Ministers yet centered in him and I am sure his Name is precious amongst them And well he may for I am sure amongst them and some Neighbouring Meetings to them he spent himself and was spent by his great labours in dispencing Holy Mysteries Word and Sacraments amongst them This good Man had many removes after he was outed but God told his wanderings and he had Songs in the Houses of his Pilgrimage At length he pitched at Alfreton from whence he took many weary steps to serve his Master and was very useful in that Neighbourhood but at last was forced by his Infirmities to cease from his Labours and now rests from them and those works follow him He hath built himself a lasting Monument in his small piece about the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees the substance of some Lectures at Wicksworth And in his larger piece about Prayer Those things are discoveries of the Man Yea God hath built him a Monument in such a set of Children as God hath blessed few with Mr. John Oldfield lives in three Sons of the Fathers Principles actually in the Ministry whose parts are above the common rate of most of their years and their Piety Zeal and Industry answerable to their Parts He dyed June 5. 1682. in the 55th year of his Age. 4. Mr. John Billingsley Kentish Man born at Chatham educated in both Vniversities outed from Chesterfield an ingenuous Man strict to his own well understood Principles an accurate savoury Preacher an exemplary walker a Man elegant in every thing a diligent Reader and observer of what he Read ready with his Pen. Few men have left more excellent Collections behind them than he which are happily fallen into his Sons hand that knows well how to use them His outward Bodily appearance was small and mean but he had a great Soul rich in Grace and Gifts He left his place at Chesterfield because he could not keep his Place and his Peace but he kept his Affections and Care over them hazarded his Health and Liberty to serve them If Chesterfield People would reflect upon his Labours amongst them and his warm Letters written to some of them they must needs know that a Prophet was amongst them both able and faithful The Pin of the Uniformity Act driven by hands that were fit tools for such mischievous work pushed him out of his Pulpit and House and the hurricane of the Oxford Act drove him from his hired House and Town to Mansfield in which he passed the residue of his sojourning time in fear wrought for the Salvation of others and wrought out his own was ever serious and laborious But towards his latter end his Motion was very quick made actual preparation for Death desired his poor outed Brethren cast into Mansfield as he was to come together a little before his Death to put him into the hands of God by Prayer made a short Confession of his Faith in and sole dependance on the alone Righteousness of Christ and not long after went full sail into the Kingdom of God He dyed May 30. 1683. He writ something against Quakers and Printed a Sermon with it which gives the World a taste of his Abilities He lives in his Son who bears his Fathers Name and hath his Fathers Spirit the true Son of such a Father filling up the vacancy by his Fathers death in Ministerial Labours in which in my Judgment he gives no just occasion to any to despise his Youth 5. Mr. Luke Cranwell born at Loughborough in the County of Leicester Educated in Christs Colledge outed from Peters Parish in Derby a knowing a couragious zealous and a very upright Man Some now alive knew how deeply he engaged to restore Monarchy but when restored it engaged not for him He fell by the Decree of Uniformity that spared not Age nor Parts nor considered any Service done but levelled all that lay in its way and spake no other Language than bow or break He was not very ready in Elocution but very Scriptural solid and substantial in all his Discourses his Sermons when looked over by Writers or thought over by understanding Hearers were found to be full of Divinity weighty and rational good matter filled them He had some competent Skill in Physick before he was outed and when he perceived he must no longer trade his Ministerial Talents publickly he resolved to try what he could do in his other faculty Since he was cut off from the publick service of Souls he betook himself to serve Bodies though not deserting his Ministry neither in his Affection nor as to its Exercise In this Imployment he grew presently very Judicious Skilful Useful and by Gods Blessing very Successful By this he maintained himself and his Family very comfortably kept good Hospitality did as readily help his Brethren and the poor among his Neighbours without any desire or expectation of Fees as he did the rich and greatest He had a working head He understood well what he read and did find out some Magistrals of his own many happy and effectual Medicines He was a chearful Man and to appearance very strong but after he began to decline he run down speedily His loss was and is much lamented He was indeed a beloved Physitian That he might be out of the reach of the Oxford Act he went to Kegworth in Leicestershire and there lived and dyed Nov. 11. 1683. on the Lords day 6. Mr. Joseph Moore Nottingham born Educated in St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge in the best dayes of that Colledge when the truly Reverend singularly Learned and eminently Holy Dr. Tuckney presided there a Man fitted for wise and holy Government He was sober minded from his Youth He entred young
themselves under Judgments and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil wayes I will hear from Heaven I will forgive their sin I will heal their Land Job 33. 27. If any say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profiteth me not he will deliver his Soul from going into the pit And this is the use you and every one in your circumstances should make of Gods Correction to humble your self under his mighty hand To say as Job 34. 31. I have born chastisement I will not offend any more Ver. 32. That which I see not teach me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Commune with your own heart Psal 4. 4. Ask your Soul how it doth Am I in Christ Am I born again Is there a work of Grace wrought upon my heart That will appear by your walking Do you walk as becometh the Gospel Phil. 1. 27. Do you live soberly righteously godly Is this your constant walking Do you pray continually in your Family In your Closet Do you sanctifie the Lords day duely Do you teach your Children the knowledge and fear of God Do you Catechise them Do you set them a good Example Do you fill up every Relation with Duty Have you not sat with vain persons Psal 26. 4. Are you a companion to all that fear God Psal 119. 63. Do you honour such above others Psal 15. 4. Do you delight in their company Psal 16. 3. This is that we are commanded to do to bethink our selves 2 Chron. 6. 37. To consider our wayes Hag. 5. 7. To judge our selves 1 Cor. 11. 31. To examine our selves whether we be in the Faith or no. 2 Cor. 13 5. Now let Conscience speak deal faithfully and truly with your self and where you find Duty neglected Sin committed confess your faults to God freely bewail them with a broken and contrite heart pray earnestly for Grace and a new heart for power over your corruptions resolve on a new course of life to become a new man by the assistance of Gods Grace Abandon ill Company and all occasions of sin for the time to come run not into temptation but watch and pray and keep your self from your own iniquity Psal 18. 23. If I regard iniquity in my heart i. e. allow my self in any one sin God will not hear my prayer Psal 66. 18. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and offend in one point i. e. wittingly knowingly he is guilty of all is obnoxious to condemnation as if he had broken the whole Law Jam. 2. 10. Let your future practice and reformation speak the truth of your Repentance And if you thus turn to God with your whole heart make application to Christ by Faith and his Bloud shall cleanse you from all sin So God will receive you to Mercy as the Father received the Prodigal Son with all expression of Love He that covereth his sin shall not prosper but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy Prov. 22. 13. If you dare not set up a Judgment-seat in your own Heart and keep a privy Sessions in your own Conscience how will you appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and give an account of all your Thoughts Words and Actions at the great day For then must every one of us give account of himself to God Then blessed are they whose sins are forgiven They may lift up their faces at that day with boldness when impenitent sinners shall be confounded and call to the Rocks and Mountains to fall on them They who live in sin are in danger to dye in sin and to be damned eternally for sin Sin will be sure to find them out to punishment who will not now search and find and cast it out by Repentance and amendment of Life Repent and turn your selves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruine Ezek. 18. 31. Thus I have shewed you the good and right way to improve this present cross and to prevent worse things Joh. 5. 14. Sin no more lest a worse thing come to you If God give you an heart to imbrace and hearken to this advice you will have cause to say with David Psal 119. 67 71. Before I was afflicted I went astray but now I have kept thy word And it is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes And I beseech you do not reject the Counsel of God against your own Soul Put it in practice without delay Break off your sins by Righteousness forthwith to day while it is called to day lest your heart â—e hardened by the deceitfulness of sin Heb. 3. 13. All flesh is grass And no man knoweth the day of his death But it may be said to any of us This night shall thy Soul be required of thee You seem to have a crazy Body You have had divers warnings of late to mind you of your frailty And it is an high point of wisdom to consider of a Mans latter end Deut. 32. 29. What if Death should come like a Thief suddenly and give no warning Then happy are all they who with the wise Virgins have got Oyl in their Lamps saving Grace and Sincerity If a Flood come happy are they who with Noah have prepared an Ark for the saving of their Souls Make sure of Christ keep Conscience pure so it will be peaceable keep integrity and uprightness so you may look Death in the face without fear I will conclude with the words of Solomon Prov. 19. 20. Hear counsel receive instruction that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end Tender Love and Compassion to your Soul was the only motive which set my Pen on writing these Lines Take them in good part and pass a favourable construction on them peruse them ponder them for they are of weight of worth the very Word of God useful and necessary to be followed nearly conducing to the Salvation of your Immortal Soul Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2. 7. To his Grace I commend you being Your Servant for the salvation of your Soul BEcause my former Letter found so good acceptance with you I am incouraged once again to write to you to let you know how welcome and joyful a thing it is to your Friends to understand that you are become a new man that you have put off your former Conversation and abandoned all vain Company that you keep much at home and take delight in your Wife and Children as you have just cause for they are sweet Children Dutiful and Obedient also that you pray constantly with them and frequent the most lively and powerful and Soul-saving Preaching of Gods Word on the Lords dayes Oh how good and how pleasant a thing it is to all that love you that love your Soul to hear these things of you Now I pray you suffer a word of further Exhortation and give me leave to beseech you as
a Conscience sprinkled with Christs Blood a Life full of good Works and Almsdeeds will be more comfortable in the review than Lands and Lordships and bags full of Money â—et us be wise in time Let us make to our selves friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when these things fail we may be received into everlasting habitations There be dead at London within twelve Moneths twelve worthy Ministers of the Gospel and Judge Hales that upright Judge that scorned to take a bribe the Honour and oracle of the law is dead also pray that these deaths of righteous men â—resage not evil to come Thus with due respects to you both I commend you to God resting Yours J. H. Losco February 15. 1676. Because I have nothing to write to you about worldly matters I would give you a word of spiritual advice which as it is not to me any trouble so I would hope it is neither unprofitable nor unaceptable to you That which I have thought fit at this time to impart to you is the sinfulness of sin the danger and damnation that accompanieth every sin every disobedience which without true and sincere repentance and amendment of life will be the eternal ruin of the Soul One actual sin is enough to destroy a man as is apparent in Adam Lots Wife Ananias and Saphir a And many others in scripture and how much more then will a course of sin a way of wickedness as the love of the world a form of godliness hypocrisie an unregenerate estate if continued in undo a man everlastingly Yet how little is this laid to heart What favourable thoughts do most people entertain of sin As if it were at light matter not to be so much dreaded since Christ died for sin what need we so much fear to live in it Seeing God is merciful why may not we take liberty to live as we list As if the Son of God came down from Heaven not destroy the works of the Devil but to establish the Empire of sin as if God were not as just as merciful whose most pure and holy nature can never be reconciled to sin Sin is the transgression of law And the great Lawgiver who is able to save or destroy will never suffer sinners to trample on his authority and cast his Commandments at their heels and hold them guiltless Sin provoketh God the God of patience to anger And the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against sin in all ages What strange confusion and horrid destruction hath sin introduced into the world it cast thousands of lapsed Angels out of Heaven into the dreadful Tophet where they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness to the judgment of the great day This viper stung our sirst Parents outed them of Paradise brought in sorrow sickness a thousand diseases and death into the world drowned all the Earth with a flood turned Sodom to ashes brought on Jerusalem such calamities as were not inflicted on any Nation under heaven And which is more what is it but sin that kindles the flames of Hell fire and which yet further declareth the hatefulness of sin it crucified the Lord Jesus Christ without shedding whose blood no remission How much then is every one concerned to get out of a state of sin to commune with our hearts and trye if we be converted And to see that no iniquity have Dominion over us Let us Judge our selves that we be not â—udged Make sure our eternal estate live we not in sin lest we dye in sin and be damned for sin let 's follow holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. We are all in good health blessed be God to whom I commit you and with all due repescts to you both rest Yours c. J. H. Losco July 24. 1677. WE are all well praised be God I have nothing of outward matters to present you with which makes me fill my paper with better things The going out of the old year should minde us of puting off the old man and the coming in of the new year that we put on the new man that we purge out the old leaven of corruption that we may be renewed in sincerity and true holiness We are one year nearer to our grave and eternity then we are the fast year at this time have we got one years growth in grace What progress have we made in sanctification in mortification this year What corruptions have we subdued Have we put off our worldly mindness lukewarmness formality in worship Are we become more holy humble heavenly have we added one Cubit to our spiritual stature It is not unlikely but we can tell whether we decline and go backward or whether we go forward and increase in riches and our outward estate And the Soul is more excellent then the body and grace then gold Let us take a view of the state of our Souls and observe what mercies we have received this year from how many evils and calamities we have been preserved and sad breaches which have been made upon other families which we and ours have been freed from that so we may be thankful and give to God his praise Let us review our sins of the year past how many ways we have miscarried and offended God that so we may be humbled and renew our repentance How oft have we received the sacrament of the Lords supper So many obligations we lye under the vowes of God are upon us and tyes to better obedience Thus oft reflecting on our selves is a good way to know our spiritual estates A Christian should be no stranger to his own heart and state in reference to eternity self-judging discovers our selves to our selves encreaseth grace inlargeth comfort weakeneth corruption keepeth peace with God and our own consciences casteth out sin prevents mistakes which are dangerous in soul-affairs prepareth to every good work If we were as the Apostle saith Gal. 6. 14. Crucified 〈…〉 of the earth would affect and afflict us less and our hearts would be more above where our treasure is or should be So wishing you a good new year especially that your souls may prosper I commit you to God and with all due respects to you both remembered I am Yours Truely J. Hieron Decem. 28. 1676. My very good friend I Understand that you and your whole family are in great sorrow and heaviness through your Wises miscarriage of a child and truly I and our family do grieve with you for so we are commanded to weep with them that weep and be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love But I pray be wise and take heed lest you over-grieve and so offend God by immoderate sorrow which you may easily do and so provoke his wrath against you and bring a heavier cross upon you Let them that weep be as if they wept not 1 Cor. 7. 30. If it should please God to make a greater breach among us by taking from any of us a dear friend we