consider the great blessing and success that did attend his ministry He was through Gods blessing instrumental for the conversion of many souls he hath lâ—ft behind him many seals of his ministry Every faithful laborious preacher is not attended with such a blessing Many a Godly minister hath Isaiahs commision Chap. 6.10 To make the heart of his people fat and their ears heavy dreadful work and to shut their eies lest they see with their eies and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed It was the saying of a godly Minister in England after some years preaching to a people That he had preach'd his people dead I say not but that many might be the more fit for hell by the means of Mr. Sympson's ministry it might through the wickedness of the hearers be the savour of death unto death to many but this I say that God blest him above scores nay hundreds of Preachers in the great work of Conversion in turning souls from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God c. Now to lose a Minister whose ministry was attended with so great a blessing especially at such a time when it is rare to hear of one new Convert must needs be a great loss I shal here in the close of this Exhortation speak a word or two by way of Caution Caution and that 1. Though this stroke of God be a matter of sorrow and humiliation yet you must take heed of a murmuring spirit You have cause to bee displeased with your selves and your sins but not with God and that 1. Because God takes away nothing but what he first gave The person and gifts of this Saint were given unto you by the Lord he hath taken nothing but his own Learn therefore to say with Job Chap. 1.21 The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. 2. You have no cause to murmure and that because you had sorfeited this mercy long ago that God continued the Ministry of this his servant so long among you was a fruit of his superabounding love 2. Though you are to mourn under this stroke yet take heed of mourning as those without hope without hope I say 1. With respect to him his happiness is unquestionable your loss is his gain He is taken up into glory and hath there communion with God He is out of the reach of all his enemies they can now imprison him no more He is where hee 'l never have any thing imposed upon him contrary to Conscience hee 'l never suffer there for Non-conformity sake There God is served adored and glorified with one heart and with one consent 2. Mourn not without hope with respect to your selves as if God were not able to make up this loss I remember a relation of a Lady from whom it pleased God to take an onely Son that sometime after a friend coming to visit her and bemoaning this her sad loss she breaks forth into these expressions I profess saith she God can never make me amends for the taking away of that Son A dreadful speech it was take heed my friends of this spirit It 's true your loss is great but God is able to supply it and that either 1. By causing the spirit of Elijah to fall upon Elisha by anointing and raising up of some other to head and feed you in the room of this his servant Or 2ly he can feed you himself without a Minister God can fill up the room of Ministry and Ordinances Indeed let God be absent and there 's nothing can fill up his room It 's not husband wife children estate liberty Pastors Ordinances c. can supply the want of God but now let God be present and that is above and more then all And undoubtedly if God deny you a publick Gospel-Ministry it 's your duty to wait upon him for more secret and immediate feedings I am afraid that as formerly professors were greatly guilty of sleighting and despising the means and ministry of the Gospel so now they will be guilty of Idolizing the Ordinance of publick Preaching at such a rate as to think themselvs bound and obliged to hear men of any principles or practices rather then to neglect that Ordinance Arminians Socinians Jesuits c. any thing every thing rather then be out of publick worship Take heed of mourning in a spirit of unbelief saying Can God spread a table in the wilderness can God feed and teach without a Preacher To live without the true worship of God is bad but to be found in a way of false worship is worse It 's my duty to omit that Ordinance of Christ which I can't enjoy without sin Thus much for that part of the Exhortation which relates to Humiliation I shall give you two brief words further and so close First Is it so that the death of faithful instruments is a matter of great Humiliation Then let this stirr you up to be earnest with the Lord that he would continue and preserve those faithful ministers that do yet remain that he would double his spirit upon them hide them in the secret of his presence increase their number Not forgetting the prayer of Moses for the tribe of Levi Deut. 33.11 in these words Bless Lord his substance and except the work of his hands smite through the loins of them that rise against him and of them that hate him that they rise not again These words shall undoubtedly be made good with respect unto the ministry of the Gospel Christ will in his time smite through the loins of them that rise up against a Gospel ministry hateing and despitefully using his faithfull servants hee 'l so pierce through their loyns as that they shall fall and never rise more In the mean time take heed you that profess the name of Christ that you do not endanger the rest of the faithful labourers that are left amongst you and that neither 1. By slighting and despising the meanest of them 2 Chron 36.16 But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his words misused his prophets untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his people till there was no remedy Nor Secondly By idolizing those that are most eminent How many famous instruments to speak according to man's judgement hath the professors of this age sent to their graves before their time by idolizing their persons and gifts ascribing that honor and glory to them which was due to Christ alone This spirit and frame hath even forced the Lord in order to the convincing and humbling of his people either to take away the spirit of zeal and courage from such instruments thereby render them unfit for further service or else to remove them by death from earth to heaven out of the sight of all his people that dwell in tabernacles of corrupt clay Lastly Such strokes should teach us all to provide for death God takes away our leaders and we must follow them those that would not follow the counsel and advise of Mr. Sympson while living must follow him to the grave now dead to the grave wee must all go and the Lord knows how soon Of what import therefore is it that we all manage matters so while we live as that when we com to die we may dye in peace in ful assurance of our entrance into glory We should manage all our matters so in this world as those that must once dye and come to judgement performing every thing with this proviso That I may dye well I am so to buy sell and converse with creatures that I may dye well I am so to hear pray read receive the supper have communion with the saints as that I may dye well dye in peace all is to be done in order to dying well My beloved this life is the trimming chamber unto eternity by all the means and mercies that thou dost injoy thou art fitting either to bear the eternal weight of glory or the eternal weight of wrath thou art fitting either for heaven or hell thou wilt either be bound up in the bundle of life or else thou wilt be bound up for hell fire Now the Lord give us all hearts to provide for that everlasting state Amen and Amen FINIS ERRATA Page 1. line last for secret read severe and what literal mistakes or mis-pointings-hath escaped the Press you are desired to amend as you find them
God hath lately taken away many very famous instruments both Ministers and others so that we have cause to cry out with the Psalmist Ps 12.1 Help Lord for the godly man ceaseth for the faithful fail from among the children of men Now this dispensation of God calls for deep humiliation and it becomes us to bow before God and to meet him in the way of his judgments least his wrath break out further against us and there be no remedy But 2d and more particularly I would beg you of this Congregation to consider the present stroke of God upon you in taking away Mr. John Sympson And for the enforcing of this consideration I shall propose these few particulars First This to me is a very speaking providence I know all the providences of God speaks something to us but this speaks very much as first it speaks forth an immediate hand of God God hath taken him from you and not man Now for God to take away his Ministers at such a day as this is must needs be a speaking providence even at such a day wherein men slay them civilly slay them in their testimony and render them as naturally dead for God then to take them away by death is as much as if God should say Well if my servants trouble you if their testimony be a torment unto you I 'le take them from you and provide for them in another world You say they shal be as if they were naturally dead and because you say so they shall be dead indeed for God and man to be both at this work man to slay them civilly and God to slay them judicially is surely matter of great lamentation 2. This stroke may speak forth to many of you a non improvement of so great a mercy as the continuance of his Ministery was I judg many of you present lived years under the Ministry of this faithful servant of Christ and his Ministry hath been unto you As a very lovely song Ezek. 33.32 of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument you have heard his words but you would not do them There hath not been a suitable conversation to such a Ministry A Gospel spiritual heavenly Ministry calls for a Gospel spiritual and heavenly Conversation such was his Ministry but such I fear hath not been the conversation of many of his hearers And indeed all of us that did injoy more or less of his labours have cause to mourn before the Lord this day for our non-improvement that we were so vain and careless in our hearing that we took no more care about the hearing receiving and practising what God was pleased to reveal unto us by his servant This faithfull man might according to the judgement of reason have lived many years done much service Now for God to take away his faithfull labourers in the midst of their days to cause their son to set at noon is a providence that hath a dreadfull aspect upon unfaithfull and unfruitfull hearers And indeed such like strokes tells us all that Eternity draws on apace that 't wil not be long ere the Kingdom of Christs patience be over 't wil be but as a day and Christ shall cease to make proffers of grace and the spirit shal cease to strive with man and all faithful Ministers and Laborers shall cease to pray and preach for ever and those unalterable words shall be made good Rev. 22.11 Let him that is unjust be unjust still c. Oh! what would many a condemned wretch give at the great day to have Christ and mercy and pardon proffered to it then as they have been many a time proffered in the Ministry of this glorified Saint But know O soul that if thou diest despising and rejecting Christ and spiritual blessings Christ will despise thee at that day and then 't wil not be all thy crying and roaring that will save thee from the wrath of the Lamb from everlasting plagues and judgements 3. This dispensation of God may possibly speak to many of you a dispising sleighting the person and gifts of this holy man In this generation of professors hath been found a haughty proud spirit a heart lifted up against God and his honest sincere hearted servants No sooner have persons gotten a few airy notions of religion but presently they have been apt to slight and trample upon not onely those that have been below them but upon those also who have infinitly to speak by way of comparison excelled them both in parts and grace Now for God to take away his eminently gifted servants doth very much condemn this proud and haughty spirit In such kind of providences God seemeth thus to speak Is it not enough O ye professors of England is it not enough that my faithfull ministers labourers should be reproached and scorned and trampled on by the prophane wicked people but you my professing people must despise and scorn them and delight to grieve their spirits When it may be a faithful servant of mine hath with prayers and tears secretly sought unto me for light in such a scripture or truth and I have answered his prayer and given him light therein and he hath preacht unto you in my spirit and fear then with a great deal of dis-respect to my servant you have brought forth your objections and cavils against the truth delivered and this not to satisfie your selves in the knowledge of truth It hath not been that you might know love and obey truth but to please your itching ears and your critical fancies and so have sent home my servant with a troubled and a perplexed spirit for your sakes Well saith God since it is so that my servants testimony is a torment to the prophane and their gifts and persons despised by you that profess my name I 'l take them out of the world out of all your way take them into mine own bosome and kingdom where neither a scornful malicious sinner nor a proud professor shall trouble or grieve them more This kind of spirit was in the Church of Corinth Paul that glorious preacher was sleighted by many of the gifted persons of that Church 2 Cor. 10.10 and it 's not to be questioned but that there were some in that Church that thought themselves as wise as Paul and as fit to preach as Paul and to advise and give counsell as Paul c. But I would have persons of this spirit to weigh that text Ezek. 33.30 saith God to Ezekiel Also thou son of man the children of thy people are still a talking against thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses and speak one to another every one to his brother saying Come I pray you and hear what is the word that cometh from the Lord. Here God taketh notice of their secret whisperings against his Prophets how they spoke against Ezekiel behind the door and the wall and said scoffingly come let us go hear
grace but natural affection and to be without natural affection is a very black character 2 Tim. 3.3 And then in Grace there is also a great sympathy If God smites one member of the Church the rest are affected with it If a Paul a Minister of Christ a Pastor a spiritual Father comes to take his farewell of his people and tell them that they shall never see his face more oh what weeping and mourning and lamenting is there at his departure 3dly Another reason is Because there is much of God's anger oft times to be seen in such strokes of God's anger I say not against the persons taken away but against those that remain As when God taketh away a Father a Husband a Wife c. the soul of that Relation may be carryed to Heaven and there possessed of glory and yet nevertheless the death of that Relation may be in judgement to the Family And so in a spiritual Relation God may take away a holy Minister a faithful Pastor and this in judgement to the Flock to those that sate under his Ministry And surely it is the great concernment of you of this Congregation to hear the voice of this Rod and of him that hath appointed it and to endeavour to know the mind of God in this great stroke 4thly The perishing of good men is a matter of great humiliation and that because they are a great blessing to the nations cities families c. where they are cast It fares either the better or the worse with such places for their sake When God destroyed the old world the family of Neah was saved for Noahs sake Gen. 7. And God hath promised to bless them that bless his people and curse them that curse his people Gen. 12 3 27 29 Numb 24.9 Wo then to the ranting damning crew of this generation who make it a matter of sport to curse the saints of the most high for as sure as God is in heaven without true repentance those curses will return upon there one heads The story likewise of Abimelech is remarkable Gen. 20. it 's said God fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah Abrahams wife ver 18th and ver 7 God himself saith to Abimelech restore the man meaning Abraham his wife for he is a prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live and if thou restore her not know you that thou shalt surely dye thou and all that are thine Moreover you read that God blessed the house of Potipher and all that he had for Josephs sake Gen. 39.1 5 verses And the house of Obed-Edom was blest for the ark sake 2 Sam 6.10 11. And the Citie of Zoar was saved for Le ts sake that he might have a refuge to flie unto Genesis 19. and Proverbs 11.10.11 saith thus When it goeth well with the righteous the city rejoyces and when the wicked perish there is shouting By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked Surely then if the city rejoyceth and is exalted by the blessing and prosperity of the righteous those rulers and great men of the earth that have endeavored or shall endeavour to establish themselves in their greatness power and glory by the imprisoning banishing of the saints are exceedingly blinded and infatuated for by this they discover themselves to be of the spirit of Haman who could not be contented with his name and honour so long as Mordecai sate at the Kings gate so they they have not been content with their greatness so long as the people of God have had any breathing among them but still have designed the building of themselves and their kingdomes upon the ruines of such of whom this world is not worthy It had been well for such if they had seriously considered the just judgement of God upon this proud Haman he sought his own advancement designed that and he was advanced with a witness for he was hanged upon a Gallows fifty cubits high Mind also these Scriptures wherein this particular is further proved Isa 19.24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the land Ezek. 34.25.26 And I will make with them a covenant of peace and will cause the evill beasts to cease out of the land and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing and I will cause the shower to come down in his season there shall be showers of blessing Micah 5.7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord as the showers upon the grasse that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sons of men In which scripture the great encrease the remnant of Jacob shall have in and the great blesing they shall be unto the nations of the world is prophecied of The people of God must needs be a blessing to the places where they dwell for First There is God especially present that land that is planted with righteous people may be rightly called Jehovah Shammah Ezek. 48. ult Psal 46.5 for the Lord is there God is in the midst of her c. But. 2 Righteous ones are the strength and safety of the nations where they are the pillars indeed upon which the world stand and to speak the truth the world is saved for their sakes Jer. 5. ver 1. God there saith That if one man could be found in Jerusalem that did execute judgment and sought the truth he would pardon it In these words two things are to be noted First that the people of God were at this time reduced to a very small number and those that were Jer. 5.25 to the end were hid could not be seen for Solomon saith Prov. 28.12 but when the wicked rise a man is hidden The rulers and magistrates at this time were as bad as hell Divels incarnate and when there are such magistrates then righteous persons must lye hid there is no appearing for them at such a time Proverbs 28. ult when the wicked rise men that is good men hid themselves but when they perish the righteous increase But. 2 and to the purpose by a man in this text we are to understand that a very few a small number of righteous ones should serve to save the city And answerable to this Gen. 18. you have God condescending to the prayer of Abraham concerning Sodom so low that if there were but 10 righteous persons to be found in it yet he would save the city for the sake of those ten righteous And although there was but one righteous person to be found in Sodom namely Lot and therefore called by the Sodomites This one fellow Gen. 19.9 yet Gods hands were so tyed and bound up by this one righteous man that he could not destroy
Sodom untill Lot was got safe to Zoar for saith the Angel to Lot verse 22. Hast thee escape thither for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither c. The people of God by their prayers tears preserve the places wherein they live from wrath and judgement as appears by these scriptures Gen. 19.20 Exo. 32.11.12.13.14 31.32 33.12.13 34 8 9 Deut. 9 18. to the end Ioshua 7 7 8 9 1 Sam. 23 Jer. 13.17 14 7 8 9 19 to the end Lamen 1.16 And although it's possible the sin of a nation or people may be so very great 2 Chion 36.16 of such a Scarlet die and cloathed with such circumstances as that God may not hear the prayers of his righteous ones for that nation or people as Jer. 15.1 Ezek. 14.14 but pour out his wrath upon them without remedie * yet nevertheless such is the prevalency of the saints with God in prayer as that we find when destruction and ruine hath been threatned and hath seemed to be entring in at the windows and at the door the prayers and intercessions of righteous ones they slinging themselves in the gap and pleading with God upon the account of his name honour and mercy hath diverted judgement and procured national mercy and pardon many a time And again such is the prevalency of saints in prayer as that if God be resolved to destroy a nation he first restrains the spirit of prayer he saith to his holy ones pray not for this people for their good Jer. chap. 7.16 11.14 14.11 and let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them Exod. 32.10 as much as to say Give me my hands at liberty and do not tye me up from destroying this people I can't destroy while Moses doth thus pray and therefore Moses hold thy peace cease praying that I may devour and destroy Yet once more such is the prevalency of Prayer that if there be a spirit of Faith and Prayer in the Saints on the behalf of a Nation or people it 's almost an infallible sign that God will not destroy but have mercy upon that people The prayers of the Saints with holy reverence be it spoken do overcome the Almighty so that God cannot withstand the faith and prayer of his people and the reason lieth here Because they wrestle with God in his own strength they engage the Almighty in almighty strength and so must needs be prevailers Well then might Elisha say of Elijah that mighty man of prayer when he was taken up to heaven the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof and also King Joash say the same of Elisha when he lay sick of his deadly sickness For that indeed the strength of a Nation lyeth not in chariots and horsemen in towers and castles c. but in the prayers of the Faithful of the land It 's not the Common-prayers of the common swearers and drunkards that will secure and insafe a people but the fervent prayers of righteous ones Wicked swearers Drunkards Adulterers Idolaters and truce-breakers are the plague and curse of a Nation but holy believing and praying ones they are the blessing of a Nation A Nation is more beholding to the meanest Kitchin-maid in it that hath in her a spirit of prayer then to a thousand of her profane swaggering Gentry such Gentry that are better at whoring swearing and drinking then they are at praying When they are drunk they 'l curse and ban the people of God to the pit of hell but alas the people of God in a holy sense doth laugh them to scorn they 'l put the prayers and tears and sighs of one righteous person against ten thousand of these poor self-destroyers and will be confident that the prayers and teaâ—s of that one person be he a Cobler or a Tinker or be she a Kitchin maid as abovesaid shal do them more good then ten thousand of them shall do hurt by all their oaths and curses These profane wretches are ready to wish the people of God all out of the world but alas what would then these wretches do they are beholding to the saints for their very beings and for the continuance of all their mercies When God hath but once gathered in his elect and done his work in Zion he will soon pull the world about these mens ears If the righteous be taken away he is taken away from the evill to come Isa 57 1 Wo to Sodom if Lot depart and so I may say Wo to England if the righteous should be taken away Wo to London whenever thou ceasest to be a refuge to the saints whenever thy gates shall be shut against the ministers and people of the Lord Jesus Ten thousand woes to that man family citie or nation that engageth against the prayers of the Saints that seeks to defend and maintain that interest which the Saints do by Scripture-rule pray against and believe must go down If I know my heart I would not be in the condition of such for the whole world Blind fools do they think to stand against the faith and praiers of the Saints which in a holy sense overcometh God himself If they do they may find themselvs mistaken when it is too late The children of Israel though they slighted and despised the Prophets would in time of destress come to them for prayer 1 Sam. 7.8.9 12.19 Yea Pharoah as proud and as high as he was yet when the plague was upon him Moses he must be sent for and be entreated to pray for him and his people The time may come when the proudest persecutor on earth may see cause to beg the prayers of such whom he now persecutes And thus much for the reasons of the doctrine shewing why the people of God must needs be affected with and mourn over the death of praying and believing ones Wee shall now proceed to application Use 1 And first it affords matter of information as First if it be a Christ like frame to mourn over the death of such as are truly gracious it informs us how unlike to Christ such are who though they plead for Christian buriall yet do attend funerall solemnities with a vain wicked ungodly spirit and carriage making the house of mourning a house of laughter and filling themselves with wine wherein is excess until they become more like beasts then men which is a practice that may be found not onely among the poor ignorant country people but too often in this great city You may soon judge how fit such persons are to attend upon a funerall Sermon but indeed I am apt to think funerall Sermons have generally been rather for ostentation and vain glory then for profit Hereby is likewise condemned that heathenish practice of ringing of bells so soon as ever funeral solemnites are performed How unsuitable is it that so soon as ever the husband or wife or a godly friend is laid in the earth to
set the bells a ringing which imports matter of joy rather then of sorrow I am preaching now to a people who have by a profession separated themselves from the world and the traditions thereof you 'l do well to keep your ground in these evil dayes and so to educate and bring up your children as that they also may be delivered from these snares But 2 If it be a Christ like frame of spirit to bewail the perishing of good men it informs us how unlike to Christ that spirit is whereby men do censure and reproach good men when taken away by death And I do the rather mention this because some have taken the boldness to judge and censure this pretious servant of Christ now in glory and to speak very unworthily concerning him since his death Oh dreadfull how unlike to Christ is this spirit thou that shouldst be judging condemning thy self for non improvement of so great a mercy artjudging this eminent servant of Christ now dead The Liturgy of the Church of England wil teach theebetter for let personsbe never so vile in their lives yet when they come to be laid in the grave then they are dear brethren sisters Consider you that are of this spirit how sad it will be if this servant of Christ shall appear as a witness against you at the great day of account if the sermons that he preach'd the profers of grace that God made by him shal witness against thee and thou then be judged condemned and sent to hell for not receiving entertaining and improving the precious sermons of this glorified saint It 's possible now you that judge and condemn him and speak more then you know or more then is truth of him and that possibly to carnall and wicked persons you may have your tale heard it may be pleasing to wicked prophane people that he should be so judged by his own followers but at the great day of Christ there wil be none to hear a tale against him at that day God will clear his innocency before men and Angels and it shall appear to all the world that he was a true and a faithful servant of Christ when it may be some of those that do now judge him shall then be condemned for notorious hypocrits and it shall appear that notwithstanding all their profession and pretended Zeal for the name and glory of God they were workers of iniquity and such who did live in the love of some accursed sin or other O therefore away with this spirit to hell with it for from thence it came Let it suffice that this glorified saint suffered much in this kind while he was living I am apt to think the heats and passions and rash censures of professors hath made him oft go home with a sad heart and cost him many a tear in private let this his suffering suffice let not his name suffer now he is dead suffer him to be quiet in his grave Leave his judgement to the Lord and let it be your work to improve those many pretious sermons that he hath in the fear of his God preach'd unto you As to the matter of his taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy upon his releasment out of Prison About Mr. Sympson's taking the Oaths which hath occasioned so much talk I shall onely say these two things First that in Queen Elizabeths and King James time these Oaths were taken and pleaded for and that not onely by the faith and troth Christians but even by the Non-conformists of those times who were eminent for God in their day and whose names are yet pretious among the Lords people who are known by their works to be men greatly inlightned in the mysteries of the Gospel Now although I do not look upon their example to be binding to the saints in after-ages or a sufficient rule for our practice yet I judge the consideration not onely of the great holyness but also of the clear light that many of those who did them take the Oaths with great satis faction had in the word of God may a little take off the edge of that bitter spirit that is in many professors against their brethren for these things for that it cannot be judged otherwise but that many who did take these Oaths with great satisfaction are now in glory But 2. Who made thee Lord over thy Brother's Conscience Must all professors be condemned by thee because they cannot see with thy eyes and tread in thy steps By what authority doest thou impose thy particular light and perswasion upon thy brother that so as almost to un-saint him without conformity This imposing spirit is an Antichristian spirit evermore How unlike thy self dost thou act when notwithstanding thou pleadest for Liberty of Conscience and against impositions yet thou shalt impose thine own perswasions upon thy brother after this rare Such imposing spirits let their protessions be what they will are not to be confided in for it may well be feared that those that can so readily take away the good name of a godly man because he cannot conform to their Light would take away his estate and liberty also upon the very same account were it in their power Note Indeed those men are greatly to be lamented that shall sin against Light against avowed principles against solemn covenants and engagements shall do that which is clean contrary to their own doctrines and assertions I mean when those avowed principles folemn covenants doctrines and assertions have been according to the Word of God But thus did not this faithful man he did nothing in this matter but what was according to his Light and that is evident for that several months before his imprisonment he did publickly declare his judgment to be for and not against the taking of these Oaths and did plead it while in prison with several friends and when he came before the Court the matter lying so that either he must take the Oaths or else return to prison he did judge that he should have sinned against God and against those over whom the Holy Ghost had made him overseer and against his family and against himself if he should have returned to prison for refusing that which he had light to do The case being thus as it is known to hundreds to be I should hardly trust my life estate or liberty in that mans hand that should trample upon the name of Mr. John Simpson for so doing Use 2 The next use may be of Exhortation Is it so that it is a Christ-like frame of spirit to be deeply affected with to mourn over the death of such as are truly gracious Then it concerns us seriously to consider the providences of God this way and that more generally and more particularly First more generally God hath lately made sad breaches upon many of the families of his precious servants many a flourishing samily hath mouldred away in a little time And