man to make additions to Religious Worship Do you not find the contrary in those Scriptures Deut. 4. 2. Deut. 12. 32. Prov. 30. 6. Who gave Man power to adopt unnecessaries into Religion What bottom stands Magisterial Authority upon Ministerial Power is of God but for this Magisterial it wants Commission Matth. 23. 8 9 10. Quest 2. Is not the power of imposing as dark to thinking men as the power of inventing Whence did you learn to make burdens Whence to lay them on and bind them on We are tempted to think your Masters are Matth. 23. 4. Hath God given you power over the Consciences of men to ransack their Judgments and wrack their Consciences to ruin all that cannot agree to your Sentiments to undo all that cannot do what you will have them Do you not in this strike down the pin upon which the Law and the Prophets hang Would you that others should do so to you What stricture or beam of right Reason leads you to make your Judgment the publick standard Quest 3. What branch of Justice or Equity is there in so grievous Penalties for not conforming to such Impositions The fault is small if it be a fault Should mens brains be knocked out to kill a Fly on their forehead But the Dissenters judge it a Duty to witness against usurpations of Men. They think they are bound by Gods Law to preserve the purity of Christs Worship They think that a yielding in some things was as a stirrop by which Antichrist got into the saddle Are not these things judged by you indifferent And must men be punished as if they had denyed and razed the Fundamental Articles of Faith Should you make men spectacles the filth and off-scouring of all things upon these accounts Who can read either Christianity or Humanity in such severities Quest 4. What awe can be impressed or obligation fastened on a well informed Conscience from Humane Laws establishing backing and enforcing such Impositions Have not Magistrates supream and subordinate their Lines and Limits Provinces and Bounds set them by the God of Heaven Are they makers or only keepers of Gods Tables Did the People of England trust their Representatives to make snares for their Ministers and yokes for the People Were they impowered by them to prescribe and write the grievousness they had prescribed They were entrusted to be shields not swords healers not wounders they said to them Let our ruins be under your hands they never put themselves into their hands to ruine them Quest 5. What Spirit are you of when you make all Assemblies but your own Seditious Conventicles Schismatical Meetings Routs Riots Know you not that they which acknowledge God are bound to assemble to worship him Do you can you think it is better not to worship God at all then not to worship him in your way and mode Dare you undertake that this shall hold in the day of Judgment Are not you told by some great men of your own That he that gives the cause of the Schism is the Schismatick Do you think those you displaced took themselves to be disofficed Did their People desert them when you ejected them Was the Word of Truth utterly taken out of the mouths you stopped Was not Gods word in their hearts as a burning fire shut up in their bones so that they were weary of forbearing and could not stay Did their Breasts ake and must they not draw them out to the Babes that desire the sincere milk of the Word You have some of you called Conventicles the crying sin of England Oh! How crying a sin is it in you that have occasioned them yea necessitated them A Natural Mother turned out of her own House will suckle her Child in the Field or in the meanest coat or shed she can set her foot into Corners are not our choice but your force Quest 6. Have not you cause to fear that the blood of some of these dead Ministers will be upon you You judged them unworthy of the World and God hath thereby been provoked to judge the World not worthy of them You made their work much harder to them and by their journeyings and fastings and watchings in all likelyhood you did hurry and hasten them out of the World Oh that some of us might live to see a relenting Spirit in you It would be a joy to me and a token for good to you for otherwise I am greatly perswaded Judgment is towards you because Mercy is the promised portion of the Merciful and Judgment without Mercy hangs over the heads of them that shew no Mercy And so I have finished my Historical and Practical part of this Book And shall conclude it with only adding one Chapter more in communicating to you some Letters written by this Eminent Servant of God Mr. John Hieron which are as a Mirrour wherein you may see the Ability and Fidelity of the Holy Man of God CHAP. XI His Letters OF his Letters I promised to give some taste and make them the Coronis of this Work In publishing of which I conceal Names that I may not reflect upon the dead nor justly offend the living Again Let not the living be disturbed for though the Letters be published their Names are not exposed It will do them no hurt to read those Letters in Print which they have in Writing It may do others good to read Letters that were written to others possibly they may reach teach meet with others Hearts being much alike and the same Corruptions Temptations in one and another First Letter Christian Friend YOU desire that I would write to you about your Spiritual Estate which I take to be safe and comfortable so far as one is able to pass Judgment of another But no man knoweth certainly the things of another save the spirit of a man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. You are then to commune with your own heart to search and try your wayes whether you walk after the Spirit be led by the Spirit Rom 8. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God If you ask How shall I know whether I am led by the Spirit I Answer If you bring forth the fruits of the Spirit if you follow after Holiness sincere Obedience to all Gods Commandments patience in Affliction love to God Christ all Saints love to the Word fear to offend God a care to please God and keep Conscience pure and void of offence toward God and Man Godly sorrow for sin forsaking every evil way and above all believe in the Lord Jesus Christ rest upon him trust in his all-sufficient satisfaction for pardon of Sin and Eternal Life And all this I doubt not but you do in some measure so that you may conclude as the Apostle doth Rom 8. 1. There is therefore no condemuation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit May you not comfort your self with
well read in Books and good Authors a very studious man He was well seen in History and very frequently in converse made an excellent use thereof He had a sharp judgment he was a great Master of Method had digested his Tutors Method of preaching thoroughly He had a very strong memory which continued to the last so that if there were any doubt about the quantity of any Syllable he had a Verse ready to shew what it was He had searched into Chronology of Scripture knew much about it and was ready in it But he was almost a Non-such in his Bible you could not name a difficulty but he was ready to give the unfolding of it or what was said to it He was most ready in the references of one Scripture to another and could readily turn to them He had an excellent faculty in expounding Scripture in opening a Chapter he opened his Text with great clearness He had a gravity in Countenance and Carriage and in his Delivery He was a Mall of unsound Opinions though he did not delight in preaching Controversies yet when it fell in his way his matter naturally leading to it he would so distinctly state Controverted points and leave them so clear that there would scarce seem to be any thing of controversie in them He was a close and wise reprover He was a powerful presser to duty he was excellent in Instruction skilful to direct to means very compassionate in dealing with tender troubled Souls able to give strong Cordials and very discerning to know to whom to give them In a word he was a Scribe instructed to the Kingdom of God had Treasures and could bring forth things new and old He was a good and faithful Steward of the Mysteries of God he was able and apt to teach furnished both with an Heart well headed and an Head well hearted he was skilful and faithful a sound Believer of what he preached zealous for God no body that heard him could suspect him of being in jest all must conclude he was in earnest and that his words were in his heart and that they came out thence His breath was warm which testified Life within and heartiness for God Sect. 2. As to the discharge of his Ministry I must be a little more particular He did shew his qualifications his sincere ends in entring into the Ministry by his conscionable fulfilling his Ministry received of the Lord doing the work of a Minister making full proof of his Ministry he was a Workman and a working man a dextrous labourer in Gods Vineyard a painful and skilful Husbandman whom God had instructed to discretion and had taught him He dispensed Holy Mysteries the Word and Sacrament as a Minister of Christ and a faithful Steward of the Mysteries of God 1. He was well satisfied about the Doctrine of the Lords day as a Christian Sabbath and accordingly he did earnestly contend with the Profaners of the Lords day zealously prest its sanctification and in his own practice was a practical Sabbatarian This would appear both from what he did at Ashborne and also after at Breadsall But take for proof what follows Some time after his setling at Ashborne the Book for Sports on the Lords day came forth and presently was the fear of Gods Commandment cast off the applications of the Sabbath to the ends of it's institution being one of those bands and cords that corrupt nature would fain break and is glad of any pretence to cast away Unbridled youth presently took the liberty granted and Tidings being brought to Mr. Hieron he got to Mr. Pegge a Man of Authority in Ashborne to accompany him and coming to them they found Boys and Youths shooting at the Butts and only one man with them and being demanded why they did so The man answered that the Bishop gave them leave How doth that appear said Mr. Hieron The man answered on such a Sabbath day I came through Eccleshall where then the Bishops seat was and saw there a Bear baiting Mr. Hieron rejoyns that 's no proof for the Castle is at some distance from the Town and the Bishop might be said If it offended them he would forbear and so the Company parted But a while after he went to another Company got together on the like occasion where he met with a man who argued the King allowed it and those would not part Mr. Taylor in his Life having preached about the Observation of the Lords-day and therein reproved that bad Custom which the Butchers of that Town used of selling Meat on the Lords-days in the Morning When Bishop Wright afterwards came to visit there some who were loath to for go that bad Custom dealt with him in private about it and so far gained on him that in his Charge or Speech he mentioned it and used this instance Suppose a Labouring Man receives his Wages so late on the Saturday night that before he can get home the Shops are shut up and no Meat then to be bought shall not the poor Man therefore have a chop of Meat to his Dinner the next day with great noise the Bishop added God forbid Mr. Hieron well understood this reflection and others took so much notice of it as to take encouragement from it Yet notwithstanding Mr. Hieron preaching upon the Commandments when he came in course to the Fourth Commandment returned upon the reproof of this sin and raising an Objection but some may say my Lord Bishop gives us leave He answered Suppose that were so Whether is it reasnable to regard what one Bishop might say in a private place more than what that Bishop and all the Bishops in England had said in Parliament And having the Statute of 3. Caroli with him in the Pulpit he read it to them and told them there were but so many years passed since this was enacted by Kings Lords and Commons and that this Bishop on whose Authority they so much relied was one of the Number being then Bishop of Bristol This put them a little to a stand yet one of them said he would notwithstanding hear what such a Gentleman not far distant would say to it Whether they reformed or not I cannot well say but Mr. Hieron did his duty with Zeal and Courage These instances may suffice to illustrate and prove this head 2. He was a Man that filled the Sabbath with its proper Exercises It was a painful day to him yet not grievous because the day was his delight and holy employment was his refreshment He prayed he read the Scripture and expounded it he sung Psalms he catechised and expounded the Catechism he preached twice a day and this he did with that holy zeal and earnestness that sometimes especially in the spring of the year he hath been so sore upon the Mondays that he could not endure to sit but was forced to walk about in his Room whilst he was able and then to try if he could find out any other postures which might
Many thinking men judge a plurality of Minister's needful in most places and know not how any Minister of Conscience can accept plurality of places but it seems you thought there is such plenty of Ministers as to disband so many good Souldiers was no loss When in Queen Elizabeths time she was instigated by some ill affected to the Ministry very probably the disguised Papists that the Reverend Dr Burnet suggests to abridge the number of Preachers E. G. then Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was much troubled at it and wrote a serious zealous learned strenuous sinewy Letter to her urgeth the many hands used about Solomons Temple and many very pertinent Scriptures to prove that the Gospel should be very plentifully preached and that plenty of Labourers should be sent into Gods Harvest so great and large as that it requires not few but many Labourers Oh cast your eyes upon that Letter it may make you mourn for what you have done and melt you into great tenderness Furthermore perceive you not how unprosperous your method hath been see you not how you prevail nothing If you thought to rip up the womb of Puritanism you have but made it more fruitful There is ten of the Puritan perswasion for one formerly I wish though that one of the ten were the true old Puritan See you not since this Liberty what flocking there are to the Ministry And if People were freely and fully at liberty to act according to their Judgments and Inclinations you would soon see a very great encrease of these numbers See you not how many young men God hath raised How he hath blessed their private Education And what gifts they are enriched with See you not that Providence hath been instead of Livings to those whom you cast out of Livings drove from Corporations from their kind Neighbours entred Cautions against them in all wayes of Livelyhood that they were capable off left many no way unless they could dig in the Town-ditch Ye dealt worse with us then Josiah did with the Priests of high places 2 Kings 23. 9. They did eat of the unleavened bread with their brethren but for us we must neither have Altar nor Bread The Priests of the high places had broken a positive Law of God yet Josiah moderated their punishment though he shut them out from Spiritual Services yet he allowed them Natural and Necessary Provisions I do not know that our crime was so great but our punishment was greater We found no such moderation yet we have found Mercy from God we have turned no stones into bread View our faces we are fair liking Mr. Hieron had an Estate and God gave him an heart to live on it and no need nor mind to be burdensome and for others in meaner circumstances yet God hath abundantly blessed their provision and hath satisfied his poor with Bread Nay let me close this Corollary with that which may most convince and melt you and make you smite upon your thigh hath not God been near them Hath not God met with them whom you have cast out of the Synagogues Have not their parts been increased Have not their Graces flourished hath not God spoken peace and lift up the light of his countenance upon them See you not in Mr. Hierons Life an intercourse betwixt God and him How did his beloved Jesus show himself yea flourish thro' the lattess COROLLARY 4. Sect. 5. O you that are the Ministers of God let me call your eyes to behold Mr. John Hieron Mr. Bowles hath written an excellent Book for Ministers called Pastor Evangelicus lo here I present you with a Ministers Life that wrote after that Copy and his Life is a praxis upon the Book His Preaching was the praxis upon Bishops Chappels Methodus concionandi an accurate Ramist Mr. Hieron was and his management of his Ministry was a Transcript of Reverend Mr. Bowles his Pastor Evangelicus and those few hints that we have of his converse with his heart and God give us some resemblances of great and good Mr. Corbets Self-imployment Brethren I do not ostentare virum sed ostendere I do not make a proud ostentation of Mr. Hieron but I do shew him as a good pattern to Ministers I presume not to teach you but I may be allowed to be your Remembrancer I may stir up your minds and I do beseech you mind his Qualifications for the Ministry and labour you to be so qualified this will make your inward call clear and without that your outward call will afford your minds little satisfaction nor can you with that confidence expect a Blessing You have the same Father of Lights to go to All his Gifts and Graces were borrowed Where he borrowed his you must borrow yours If good men much more a good God is ever merciful and lendeth he gives Wisdom liberally and upbraids not You may light your candle fetch fire to warm your heart from him whose fire is in Zion and furnace in Jerusalem Isa 31. 9. The better qualified the more hopes of success Qualifications beget us a Reverence in People The Sanctuary Weights and Measures were bigger Ministers should out-part their People else they are disdained Qualifications approve the Minister a workman in his Services God ordinarily works according to the aptness of means good men full of the Spirit of God have the presence of God ordinarily most with them I further exhort you to have an outward Call the People have a right to choice the Ministry a right to examine judge and separate The Magistrate may claim confirming And oh that the Spirit of this Worthy Man was in us that though he doubted not of his own Episcopal Ordination so he questioned not Presbyterial Ordination I wish moderation in this point The Younger Clergy are very intemperate But I pray you if you do read what I write consider that they that are much Elder than you are convinced by their Bibles that a Bishop and a Presbyter are the same Office And let me add they that have searched into true Antiquity and have perhaps read more Books then either you or I have ever heard of dare assert that they find no evidence of Diocesan Episcopacy I should much question Episcopal Ordination if Bishops were not Presbyters But above all I desire all Ministers to mind and follow his Exercise of his Ministry I have laid before you his Diligence his Faithfulness his Laboriousness I have shewed you how instant he was at home and abroad Preaching in season and out of season When he was fixt he setled to his work when tossed he was fixed for his work throw him as men would he fell upon his square he run all hazards endured hardship as a good Souldier of Jesus Christ O follow him You find in his Life that when he heard of Grace eminent in a Minister or read of their Graces he bespoke himself to go and do likewise So let Ministers that read his Life charge themselves to Preach as he
Barnabas did those newly converted Christians Acts 11. 23. That with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Resolve by the help of Grace that you will never cast off your hopeful beginnings nor turn aside to crooked wayes but continue stedfast in the good way you have taken up unto the end The end is that which crowneth all good actions and to perseverance in well-doing are all the promises made Rom. 2. 7. Mat. 10. 22. Rev. 21. 7. And our Baptismal Vow bindeth us to keep Gods Holy Will and Commandments all the dayes of our lives Now that you have begun to forsake the broad way that leadeth to destruction and to enter into the strait way that leadeth unto life O think what a Mercy it is that God hath awakened you with Mary to chuse the good part that shall not be taken from you you see the thing is feizable and Godliness is not a thing impossible if there be but a willing mind If you should now or at any time hereafter fall away it would not be a sin of infirmity because you cannot help it but of perverseness because you will not be at the pains which a Godly life requireth For use and acquaintance with a Christian life makes it much more easie to you afterwards then at the beginning For the greatest difficulty that is in a Godly life is from custom to the contrary so that if after some acquaintance with it when you have overcome much of the hardness of it you should give it over that would be utterly destructive But I hope better things of you and things that accompany Salvation though I thus speak By all means be careful to set such a watch over your self and so to avoid all occasions and temptations as may preserve you from all wilful breaches and danger of Apostasie And because by our own strength we are not able to stand see that you be much in secret Prayer Mat. 6. 6. Beg of God a new heart a clean heart an upright heart Psal 51. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 1. Grace is of absolute necessity to Salvation if we believe our Saviour John 3. 3. 5. and 7. A work of Grace renewing the heart will make Christs yoke of Obedience easie and his burden light so his Commandments will not be grievous 1 Joh. 5. 3. It is by the help of the Spirit changing and sanctifying the heart that we mortifie the deeds of the flesh Rom. 8. 13. There may be an outward Reformation where there is no inward work of Regeneration So a man may be in the condition of the Scribes Mark 12. 34. not far from the Kingdom of Heaven yet never enter into it O wrestle with God in Prayer as for Mercy to pardon sin past so for Grace and the Spirit of Sanctification to renew your heart and to reform your life that so you may walk before God to all well-pleasing If you would do so continue instant in Prayer Col. 4. 2. God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask it Luke 11. 13. Christ assures us That whatsoever we ask in his name the Father will grant Thus you shall become a good Tree bringing forth the good Fruits of Righteousness Holiness and Sobriety to the Praise and Glory of God the Credit of the Gospel good Example of others to the rejoycing of all good Christians and the overlasting Salvation of your own Soul Yea there will be joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Luk. 15. 10. So whether you live or dye you shall be the Lords And this is considerable at such a time as this when Sickness is so Epidemical and many dye every where and you your self seem to be of no strong Constitution as it appears by your often Infirmities I say it again Regeneration is the one thing necessary without which outside Reformation is but like painting a rotten Post or making clean the outside of the Cup and Platter when the inside is full of excess and extortion Mat. 23. Though you know these things yet I thought it not unuseful to put you in remembrance of them that you may be settled and established in the present Truth and so may continue to the end Which is the earnest desire and shall be the Prayer of Your very Friend for the Salvation of your Soul SIR I Fully purposed to have given you a Visit but hearing your Wife was so near her Travail I forbore till a fitter opportunity And since I understand to my grief that she is delivered of two Children both dead and for which I am informed you are much troubled for which I cannot blame you for the Providence is sad And a Christian should be a Man of Wisdom to see Gods Name written upon the Rod. So was the Name of Aaron for the Tribe of Levi written upon his Numb 17. 3. And as his brought forth Buds and Blossoms and ripe Fruits so should Gods Rod of Correction yield good Fruit in them that are exercised therewith even the peaceable Fruits of Righteousness and Repentance Hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6. 9. The Rod hath a voice It cometh upon some Errand or other if we were wise enough to understand its meaning Which that we may do the best way is to Commune with your own hearts Psal 4. 4. To search and try our wayes and turn to the Lord. Lam. 3. 40. And be earnest with God in Prayer that he would open our ears to discipline Job 10. 2. Shew me why thou contendest with me Job 34. 31 32. Surely it is meet to be said to God I have born chastisement And I would not have you or your Wife give way to excessive sorrow in this case but follow the Counsel of the Word which ought to be the Rule of our Passions as well as our Actions Let your moderation be known to all men Phil. 4. 6. And they that weep for outward Crosses be as though they wept not 1 Cor. 7. 30. Learn we must to exercise the grace of Self-denyal which our Saviour hath taught us by his own Example John 18. 11. The cup which my Heavenly Father hath given me shall I not drink it And it was a very bitter one Again Now what I will but what thou wilt God is wiser than Man he is God only wise We see but a little way Gods understanding is infinite Times are ill at present they may be worse yea so bad that people may have cause to say Luke 23. 29. Blessed are the barren and the Womb that never bear and the Paps which never gave suck Yet if Children be a Blessing as I grant they be in themselves and desirable there is no time over-passed but you may have your Quiver full of such Arrows if God see it good for you And if not I hope you are more a Christian than to desire them Beware I beseech you both of the least impatience in this case and if any such
will not reject such And now what place is there left for your doubting If God do not shine upon you by the light of his Countenance yet is he your loving Father reconciled to you in his Son A Father is a Father still though he do not alwayes smile on his Son Go you on in your Christian course of Godliness serve the Lord with chearfulness and believe that your poor services shall and do find acceptance with Christ Observe that in Lev. 1. 7. So much as is said of the offering of the poor Mans Sacrifice which was but two young Pidgeons Another to the same Person IAm distressed for you What shall I do for you Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted How shall a man comfort a Soul that refuseth to be comforted Your case is like Hagars in the Wilderness who was ready to perish through drought when there was a Well of Water by her but she saw it not till God opened her eyes Gen. 21. 9. like Mary Joh. 20. 15. who stood weeping for Christ who stood by her but she knew not that it was Jesus You have the Well of Water in you springing up to Eternal Life you have Christ in you the hope of Glory but your eyes are held that you perceive him not Like those two Disciples that went to Emanus Luk. 24. 16. You are in Christ there is no curse condemnation or wrath to come belonging to you you are washed you are sanctified you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God All things are yours Christ with all his benefits the Covenant of Grace with all its priviledges all the great and precious promises of the Gospel which are yea and Amen in Christ sealed in his Blood confirmed to you in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper God is your God your loving Father in Christ Heaven and Eternal Life is yours Fear not poor Soul it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom What shall I say more What can you desire more except you would have your name put into the Scripture promises You believe you shall dye because it is appointed for all men once to dye your Name is not there You believe the Resurrection of the Body because it is written There shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust yet your Name is not there The Scripture saith Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ shall be saved i. e. Whosoever being truly humbled for sin disclaims all opinion of his own Righteousness and with Paul desireth to be found in his Righteousness only he truly believeth And so do you therefore you shall certainly be saved The Scripture saith Whosoever confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Whoso loveth God the same is beloved of God Prov. 8. 17. He that loveth the Brethren is translated from death to life If you say these are general Promises How shall I gather assurance from them concerning my personal estate I Answer By looking into your own heart where if you find you are so qualified and have these Graces of the Spirit wrought in you viz. Faith Repentance Love to God and all Saints you may be assured of your Salvation as certainly as if Christ had said to you by name as he did to the Man that had the Palsie Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven or to Mary Magdalen her sins which are many are forgiven Mar. 7. 47. As to your vain Thoughts I can say no more but what I have said that neither they nor any other sin of infirmity which is your burden and trouble shall hurt or indanger your Salvation It 's the common lot of all Christians to suffer Afflictions outward or inward and sometimes both 2 Cor. 7. 5. We were troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears God is only wise knoweth how to order all for the good of his people Wait on him with patience until he shine on your Soul with the light of his Countenance and fill you with Joy and Comfort according to the promise Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Beware of unbelief which maketh God a lyar 1 Joh 5. 10. Believe his Promises believe his Prophets so shall ye be established 2 Chron. 20. 20. Beware of entertaining hard thoughts of God dark misgiving thoughts as you seem to do when you fear lest God swear in his wrath against you he did so against murmuring rebellious Israel who despised the pleasant Land and would appoint a Captain to lead them back into Egypt What is this to your case God is good and doth good is Love Light Life Grace to all that trust in him Read Dr. Mantons first Sermon on Psal 119. 68. where he gives a check to such as yours Page 473. You say true I have not prayed for you of late more carnestly because I hoped you had been more settled and at peace hearing nothing from you to the contrary Now I shall tender your condition I cannot as yet promise you a solemn day I have been very ill since I wrote to you and am yet far from well I pray you have patience and when God makes me able I hope to see you I am hasting apace to the Grave my Legs swell which together with old Age tell me the Grave is ready for me God grant I may be ready for it I pray read these Lines peruse them and ponder them in your heart and pray that the Holy Spirit may let you know the things that are freely given you of God Yours J. H. Mar. 9. 81. IAm not without hope to fall to work again shortly I pray therefore in your next let me understand whether you continue in the same mind to have a day kept on your account or whether you have found him whom your Soul loveth whether the Son of Righteousness be risen in your heart with healing in his wings or the Day-Star from on high hath visited your Soul I pray you let me ask you one Question Have you not received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that worthily i. e. In a due manner becoming that Holy Ordinance with Gospel preparation and communing with your own heart in secret I know you have many times Now what is a Sacrament a Seal of the Covenant of Grace is it not Well then there must be mutual Sealing on both parts You put to your Seal that you will receive Christ with his yoke of Obedience with his Cross Persecution Did you not mean thus sincerely with a good and honest heart This is your Covenanting for your part which you will indeavour to perform faithfully all the dayes of your life though in many things you fail as in vain thoughts and divers other things And God Sealeth to you for his part that he will be to you a God allsufficient will give you his Son with forgiveness of Sins and all things pertaining to Life and Godliness
ought to submit to Gods will with patience and silence As we see in Job who beside the loss of all his cattle had all his Children at mans estate taken from him by a violent stroak yet how religiously he behaved himself under the hand of God you may read in his story So let us humble our selves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt us in due time 1 Pet. 5. 6. What said the prophet to the King of Judah asking how shall we do for the hundred Talents The Lord is able to give the much more then this 2 Chron. 2. 25. 9. Gods hand is not shortened He can abundantly recompence a greater loss then this But I would not have you too earnestly set your hearts upon any outward blessing nor too eagerly desire issue but with submission to Gods will so far as may be for his glory and your good and comfort For though Children are an heritage from the Lord as it is Psal 127. 3. that is when God giveth them in love and blesseth them not when he giveth them in anger as he gave Israel quails Psal 78. 30 31 and gave to Ephraim Children Hos 9 13. for the murtherer Better it is to be barren then fruitful in Children that may be crosses to fathers and heart breakings to Mothers by their wickedness Prov. 17. 25. or by the evil of the times If Popery should come in or the sword of war should rage in the land we know not what evil may be in the earth But such times have been and we know not what may be when it shall be said Blessed are the barren that never bare and the paps which never gave suck Luk. 23. 29. Let me give you wholsome counsel which if God give you hearts to embrace it will be to your comfort And it is that which you find Lam 3. â—9â— 40. Wherefore doth a living man complaint a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our wayes and turn again to the Lord. Leave off grieving for the affliction and inquire into the cause of it as Rebekah did being with child she inquired of the Lord why am I thus Gen. 25. 22. Go you and do likewise pray to God as Job 10. 2. Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me Search your hearts and ways Have you wrastled with God in prayer for the fruit of the womb and for a blessing on it Have you set up prayer in your family or neglected it If not then have you robbed God of his due and no marvel if he deceive you of your expected comfort You know or may know that family prayer is a duty commanded of God and put in practise by all Gods people And those are no Christian families that do not call upon God nay the wrath of God hangs over them Jer. 10. 25. pray turn to all these scriptures and weigh them well Eph. 6. 18. Luk. 18. 1. Jos. 24. 15. Job 1. 5. Act. 10. 2. Gen. 18. 19. And mark this one Instance Jsaac had a promise that his seed should be as the Stars of Heaven for multitude yet his wife was barren and without issue Twenty years until he prayed more earnestly and then Rebekah conceived and bare twins Gen. 25. 22 As blessings are obtained by prayer so are they sanctified to become blessings indeed by prayer 1 Tim. 4. 5. It is sanctified by the word and prayer Every creature is so our meat our labours our enjoyments our relations are sanctified to us by prayer Otherwise the curse abides on them Prov. 3. 33. The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked Tit. 1. 15. To the pure all things are pure but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure These things I pray lay to heart and resolve to reform and amend whatsoever is amiss as you would have Gods blessing and favour both here and hereafter And consider whether this neglect of family-prayer he not the thing which troubles M. and the grief of it be not the cause of her miscarriage For I really believe she hath in all other things as much content as her heart can wish a loving Husband a loving relation and fulness of all things that the earth affords but she cannot be satisfied to live in a family where God is not worshiped she with Mary in the gospel having chosen the good part which shall not be taken from her Therefore I earnestly desire she may be gratified in this one request if you think I speak reason resolve to put this advise in practise and begin presently and continue to the end They that call on the name of the Lord shall be saved pray let this Letter be read to or by your whole family So praying God to open your ears and heaâ—ts to hearken to the counsel of the word I leave it and you all to the blessing of God and with my love to you all I rest Your faithful friend I. Hieron Losco Feb. 21. 1679. THis is to let you know that your Aunt W. dyed yesterday after about ten dayes lying sick Thus we part with our loving Neighbours and Friends one after another till Death at length knocketh at our door And what better use can we make of every such occasion than to consider our selves and seriously to mind our own latter end Let us put this question to our Souls Soul art thou ready to depart Art thou in such a posture as thou wouldst be to appear befoâ—e the Tribunal of the great Judge Hast thou on the Wedding garment Take heed thou be not found naked to thy shame O put on the Lord Jesus Christ his Righteousness by Faith to Justification his Holiness to Sanctification Every one would have comfort and hope in Death but then we must lay up a good foundation of it in Life No man is like to find that treasure at or after Death which he never laid up in his Life time For what a man soweth that shall he certainly reap He that soweth to the flesh or to the world shall reap corruption damnation eternal O that we were wise O that we would consider the end of our wayes Whither are we going Heaven or Hell is before us To which of these doth my present way lead Resolve this Question ere you sleep because Time tarries for no Man Life is uncertain and upon this moment depends Eternity Time is irrevocable When once it is past it cannot be recalled not if you would give thousands of Gold and Silver for one day or hour longer Let every passing peal you hear ring every Grave you see opened preach to you this Doctrine Be ye also ready Those to whom those Skulls and Bones you see turned up belong were in their time as good Men as you perhaps What we see them to be now others will see us to be shortly The fashion of this World passeth away but Godliness Grace Holiness endureth for ever Choose with Mary that good part which shall