The Life Death OF EDMVND STAVNTON D. D. To which is added I. His TREATISE of Christian Conference II. His DIALOGUE BETWIXT A Minister and a Stranger Published by Richard Mayo of Kingston Minister of the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand Longum ita est per praecepta breve efficax per exempla Senec. Be followers of them who by faith and patience inherit the promises Hebr. vi 12. LONDON Printed for Th Parkhurst and are to be Sold at the Bible and three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chappel And at the Gilded Bible on London-bridge under the Gate 1673. To the Inhabitants of the Town of Kingston upon Thames and to such of them especially as love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity Dearly Beloved TO you of Right belongs the Dedication of the ensuing Narrative partly by reason of your quondam interest in him who is the subject of it and partly by reason of your present interest in him who is the Compiler and Publisher of it The Apostle tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 3.22 That Paul Apollo and Cephas were theirs and they that labour or have laboured amongst you in the Word and Doctrine may be said as truly to be yours When you read what is here written of the memorable and praise-worthy actions of your Reverend Pastor now deceased you will be ready to say as she did of Solomon That the one half is not told you for you have fully known as he tells Timothy his doctrine manner of life purpose 2 Tim. 3.10 faith long-suffering charity patience However enough is here said to set the world and you a Copy to write after And oh that you may not only know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Tu vero haâ—es exemplar ad quod te formes actiones omnes meus quibus praesens fuisu Grot. in lâ—cum but diligently follow as the Apostles words may be construed his doctrine and manner of living Be ye followers of him as he was of Christ Brethren my hearts desire and earnest prayer to God for you all is that you may be saved that he 2 Cor 11.2 3. and I who have endeavoured to espouse you to Christ may present you as a chaste virgin unto him but I fear least by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ I have somewhat against some of you but I wont reveal that upon the house-top This worthy servant of God to his dying day would make honourable mention of the people of Kingston and as he reported so I have for many years experienc't that they are very courteous and kind to their Minister He said it and I subscribe it That a Minister if it be not his own fault may live as comfortably in Kingston as in most Parishes of England And I do here make an open and grateful acknowledgment of your accumulated kindnesses to me and mine and do wish that I were in a capacity to serve you as I have serv'd you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ Yet still I shall not be wanting as my present circumstances will allow it to farther your Souls health and welfare and in this short Epistle give me leave to stir up may I say your pure minds by way of remembrance 2 Pet. 3.1 and to recommend to you some Rules of the new Creature and Covenant in the practice whereof you will find peace I. Make Christ the main end of your life let all your actions as the lines of a circumference meet in him as their centre Live to him that dyed for you and with whom you hope to live for ever Read 2 Cor. 5.15 Phil. 1.20 21. You meet in Scripture with several abstracts and abridgements of mans duty sometimes 't is said to consist in his fearing God and keeping his Commandments sometimes in his loving God with all his heart c. and his loving his neighbour as himself and may it not be sum'd up once again and affirm'd That it mainly consists in a mans believing in and living to the Lord Jesus Christ II. Live as those that must shortly dye Let your opinion of sin and of the world be the same now as it will be then and remember who sayes That if a man dye he shall not live again Job 14.14 and make the use of it that he doth Some have said That if the damned in Hell were suffer'd to come again upon the Stage of this world they would Act over the same Part they have formerly Acted but I am not bound to be of their belief but this I believe That it shall never be put to the tryal and that no man will be allow'd a second edition of his life to amend the errors of the first III. Keep your selves clean and unspotted from the evils of the times in which you live as fishes in salt water retain their freshness so do you in evil dayes hold fast your uprightness Be not corrupted by the ungodly practises of some nor leaven'd by the unsound opinions of others Beloved believe not every spirit but try the spirits whither they be of God because many false Prophets are gone abroad into the world You are in daily danger of being misled watch and pray least you fall into tentation and the snares of the Devil I am jealous of you with a godly jealousie The God of all grace who hath call'd you to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus make you perfect stablish strengthen and settle you IV. Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure Let this be past controversie whither you are converted and born again Don't satisfie your selves with a meer peradventure in this matter 't is not wisdom to put it to the hazard whither you shall be sav'd or damn'd to all eternity You may run a venture in other things but not in this Seeing assurance is attainable as undoubtedly it is never be at rest till you have obtained it You would be sure in other cases why not in this case the comforts and advantages of having it will pay you for all your pains in getting it V. Grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ Growth in grace is one of the best evidences of the truth of grace the true Christian is a thriving Christian If there be no growth there is no life Pictures and Images are alwayes the same You desire other things should thrive and prosper why not your Souls also You would not come behind others in Temporals why do you let others go so far before you in Spiritual things How many of later standing and lesser means have made great progress in the wayes of God 't is not enough for you to grow but you must grow apace The Vine in the Vineyard the Cedar in Lebanon the Calf in the Stall are all of them Scripture-emblems of a Believers growth and increase VI. Let brotherly love in particular
younger years chosen Scholar of Corpus Christi College in Oxford and not long after Probationer Fellow of the same viz. before he came to be Batchelor of Arts a thing seldom known in that house There Men finding him to be not only Ingenious Ingeniosus Ingenuus but Ingenuous also did shew him great respect bestowing one token thereof after another And there God not for any desert in him but out of his own mercy and grace did set his eye upon him there did the kindness and love of God which a great while before had run like water under ground break forth and appear Saving him by the washing of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 and renewing of the Holy Ghost In Corpus Christi College as he told me it â—â—leased the Lord first to open 〈◊〉 eyes causing him to see his wretched condition which did greatly and deeply humble him and made him put up strong cryes with tears to him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Hebr. 5.7 for at length he had his Conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ by whom he received the atonement and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus Rom 8.2 made him free from the law of sin and death And now he became a Member of the most ancient honourable and durable Society in the world being first chosen and then admitted Fellow of Sion College where an innumerable company of Saints and Angels were his Collegues Herb. 12.22 Having received this grace he found himself strongly inclined to make others partakers of the same Wherefore having taken his degree of Master of Arts after some few Years he left the College and addicted himself to the work of the Ministry He spent most of his time and labours at Kingston upon Thames where the pleasure of the Lord did prosper in his hands From thence he was called in the time of the late Troubles to take upon him the government of the College of which he had been before a Member As soon as he came upon the place he manifested an earnest desire after the welfare of the Society in every respect exciting and by his example leading such as were to assist him to endeavour the same His Government savoured more of lenity and mildness than of sharpness and severity yet he kept the College in very good Order and Discipline Though the House before his time had been much troubled with divisions he by his moderation and Christian prudence kept them all of a piece and in the enjoyment of great peace and concord He was indeed naturally of an exceeding good temper and disposition gentle affable and courteous to all which being embellished with grace made him exceeding amiable and very useful in all his conversation His great care was to promote Religion and Learning in the College which he did with both his hands earnestly Divine knowledge and Humane Learning are the right and left eye of the World as the Sun and Moon are to the Vniverse the eclipsing of either of them leaves the World in darkness One thing there was that made him the more desire to see Religion and Learning meet together in conjunction in all such as were to be chosen Scholars of the House or if that could not be obtained to have them joined together afterward It was the Founders Will expressed in one of his Statutes That all the Fellows and Scholars of the Foundation should about a year or two after they became Masters of Arts be ordained to the Holy Ministry one only excepted who ad arbitrium might be deputed to the study and practice of Physick Parts and Learning without grace make a man capable of doing very good service in the Commonwealth but both in conjunction are more requisite in one who is to make manifest the savour of the knowledge of Christ in every place Alludit ad Sacerdotum unctioneâ— Sacrificiorum suffitus Junius in locum 2 Cor. 2.14 Knowledge puffeth up but charity edifieth 1 Cor. 8.1 A man of Learning without grace is like a ship without ballast the least blast of applause is ready to drive him upon the Quick-sands of Pride or carry him on the Rocks of opposition to others and sometimes to the truth it self to his own great danger if not ruine and the prejudice of others If such a man see another not to sail altogether by his Compass but to be carried by a side-wind to some distance from his judgment he finds it a hard matter to forbear making up to him and can scarce hold his hands from letting flie at him Difficile est Satyras-non scribere Hence have flown those great heats Animosities and perverse Disputings which have so much troubled the Church of God Unsanctified Parts and Learning have been the sharpest Tools that the great Adversary of Mankind and of the Church especially could ever lay hold on to do mischief withall as the Histories of all Ages do abundantly testifie Upon such accounts as these this godly wise man was careful to prevent if it might be an error in the first concoction knowing how hard it might prove to amend it in the second Therefore when any Scholars place became void if there appeared many Candidates for it he appointed them some time before the Election to attend him at his Lodgings where he examined them privately and set down in a Paper the age standing and proficiency in learning of every one of them He noted also what Testimonials he had received from persons of Integrity concerning the good conversation of any of them and their hopefulness as to Godliness with his own apprehensions about them upon his examination as to that matter also And if such a number of the Electors as was requisite could not after publick examination agree upon one of them he upon whom the election was in that case devolved if there appeared to him an equality or near an equality in other respects would alwayes let Piety have the honour to turn the scale His next care was to have these Twins parts and Piety fostered and cherished and by all wayes and means improved and heightned to the utmost of his power To this purpose he came ordinarily to all College Exercises held every one to the duties of their several places and observed every ones growth and progress in Learning by which he was the better able to judge whom to prefer when any of them came to be Competitors for a Fellowship He was no less careful to see Religion thrive and prosper among them For first he made choice of the fittest persons he could find to perform the duty of Prayer Morning and Evening such as might with reverence seriousness and warm affection engage the hearts of others in the duty At this holy exercise he was present himself as constantly if not more constantly than the younger Scholars as to join in the duty to bring down a blessing from above upon them and
of the things of God and of the great concernments of your Soul and of Eternity Let me give you some good counsel before we part it may be you and I shall never meet again and as we never saw the faces one of another for ought we know before this day so possibly we never may see each other again till the day of Judgments that great and terrible day of the Lord. Let me advise you and the Lord persuade your heart 1. To make Conscience of secret Prayer begging of God for Christ his sake that he would make you sensible of the ignorance of the blindness of the mind of the hardness and impenitency of the heart of the carelesness and mindlesness of the spirit in the great things of grace and salvation be earnest with God to give you knowledge and consider that the soul be without knowledge is not good Prov. 19.2 As also for repentance from dead Works and a true saving faith in Jesus Christ Beg of God an heart to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and that you may be of those who strive to enter in at the strait gate and of those violent ones who take the Kingdome of Heaven by force c. 2. Be careful to hear good Ministers preach remembring what most concerneth you in what you hear 3. Be much in searching the Scriptures and reading of good Books Catechisms and such like 4. Make choice of good Company of such as fear God and walk precisely holily righteously and soberly in this present evil world and improve such acquaintance by good conference with them putting such questions to them as may make for your edification and they let me tell you will be as glad of your society as you of theirs 5. Be sure if you have a Family to set up the worship of God in your Family reading the Scriptures and praying morning and evening with the houshold Catechizing and instructing your Children and Servants if you have aâ—y 6. And lastly be strict in sanctifying the Sabbath spend that day well though the rest of the Neighbours be loose and careless therein and though men ungodly men hate you mock and persecute you it matters not so long as God loveth you Remember that 2 Tim. 3.12 All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution And that of Christ Matth. 5.10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of God And ver 11 12. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you c. And now Friend fare you well and the Lord bless you Stranger And you also good Sir I hope I shall remember you and some of your words to me as long as I live onely let me desire one favour of you that I may know your name and where you live Minister That you shall Friend my name is so and so and I live at such a place and if your occasions call you thither I shall be glad to see you and let me know your name and where you live and possibly if I come that way I may see you Once more Farewell FINIS TREATISE OF Christian Conference MY design being to bear up the honour the necessity and usefulness of Christian Conference too much neglected even by the best of men it will not be wholly impertinent to bear down some of that unruliness and irregularity The Tongues Vnruliness which the Tongues of too many are too much guitly of The Apostle James as it were bores the black tongues of men with a red hot Iron of sharp but just rebuke vers 6. The Tongue is a Fire a world of iniquitie setteth on fire the course of Nature and it is set on fire of Hell For every kind of beasts and of birds and of Serpents and things in the Sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind But the Tongue can no man Tame it is an unruly evil full of deadly poyson It s untamedness and unruliness appears in its great miscarriage and that both in reference to God and man 1 In reference to God in speaking In reference to God we are too tongue tied in speaking both to God in Prayer Praises and Confessions and of God with others To God He was a great man 1 To God and you will say as good as great who being a man of few words and of much prayer was thought to speak more to God than men Possibly that man after Gods own heart was such a one who saith very truly though of himself Ps 119.164 109.4 Seven times a day do I praise thee and again I give my self unto prayer Possibly some Popish Votaries in a superstitious way possibly also a man may be found in our dayes who is very slow to speak but of a musing medirabundous spirit in holy ejaculations Colloquies and Soliloquies betwixt God and himself much also in prayer by himself and with others but such a man where-ever he dwells I believe he dwells alone by himself is a very great rarity one of many thousands who speaks more to God than to men Again 2 Of God and for God We are all born and live too much tongue-tied as to our Speech of God to and with others 1 Omission though we have a large and spacious field very pleasant Fragrant flowery and Odoriferous for our Discourse to walke up and down and expatiate it self in to wit God in his essence and subsistencies the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost God in his Decrees in his works of Creation and Providence God in his Covenants made with man that of Works and that of Grace God in his Word Law and Gospel in his commands promises and threatnings Againe touching Christ his person natures and offices his humiliation and Exaltation As also touching the Holy Ghost his beginning and carrying on the work of God in the Elect from the first to the last Adde hereunto the many and great priviledges and benefits which the effectually called ones are and shall be made partakers of by Christ in life at death at the Resurrection and to Eternity I might inlarge but one would think in what is said there were room enough and enough for all the nimble â—â—ngued in the world to busy tire and weary themselves in O how sad then is it to have so little of God in our Mouths to observe how people who have their faces Zion-ward can spend hour after hour together it may be day after day and yet scarce have a word concerning God Christ the Spirit or the great affairs of their soules and of Eternity from one end of the prattle to the other This fruit indeed is bad and bitter but yet the root is worse The true and onely reason The reason God is little in our hearts Mat. 12.34 35. I know of is this God is not much in our hearts and therefore but little in our Mouths for out of the
that of the Apostle drawn from a body natural in which each member hath its proper gift not for it self onely but for the whole and every other member in particular thus the Eye sees the ear heares the Tongue speaks the hands work the feet walk not each for it self onely but for each other member and the whole body so in the Church of Christ which is one body mystical Can. 6.9 My dove my undefiled is but one one body Can. 6.9 Eph. 4.4 Yet in that one body there are variety of members and God by his Spirit distributeth gifts and graces variously dividing to every one severaily as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 But to what end He answers it vers 7. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall So in a body politick Perkins Reformed Catholick Of Tradit a Kingdome or Commonwealth all are not Peeres but some Peasants all are not rich but some poore the Peer and the Rich have as much need of the poore Peasant in some cases as they of them in other cases So in the world several Countries have their several commodities and all to maintain mutual Trade Commerce and converse among men but all for the good of the whole What another Apostle speaks in another case in regard of hospitality is here by way of illustration fairely applicable 1 Pet. 4.9 10. As every man hath received the gift so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God There 's much very much of the wisdome and goodness of God in laying up rich treasures of knowledge and gracious experiences in the heads and hearts of some not onely for their own use but for the guiding and leading of others also No member in the body natural or mystical but is designed to be and ought to be usefull and serviceable to the whole The way to compasse our end with God which is to be everlastingly glorified by him and with him in the full enjoyment of him is to give him his ends here on us 1 Cor. 10.31 which is that we should glorify him and that in laying out all our talents to the best advantage of our Master and the use of his family which is his Church and people here below and this end is abundantly advanced by the wise and frequent exercise of Christian Conference The 5th Argument in reference to God 5 Argument propagation of the Gospel which pleads hard for Christian Conference is that it is powerfully efficacious by the blessing of God for the propagation of the Gospel and for the bearing up of the Name Worship and glory of God in the World from generation to generation How was the worship of God transmitted from Adam to Moses but by Oral Tradition and that in Conference Fathers declaring to their Children and so from Children to Children age after age God at first revealed his will to Adam by word of mouth and renewed the the same to the Patriarks not by writings but by speech by dreams and other inspirations and thus the word of God went from man to man for the space of two thousand and four hundred years unto the time of Moses who was the first penman of the Holy Scriptures and all this while men worshipped God and held the Articles of their Faith by tradition not from men but immediately from God himself And the History of the new Testament probably for the space of twenty years at least went from hand to hand by tradition 'till penned by the Apostles or being penned by others it was approved by them And now the Canon of Scriptures being compleated and by the infinite wisdome power and goodness of God kept pure and entire we must to the law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 Eph. 2.20 2 Tim. 3.16 to the Scripture the written word of God for our guidance and direction in matters of Faith and practice But as for the way and manner of Conveyance and propagation of the heavenly and blessed truths contained in the Scriptures that is authoratively by Ministers and by Preaching hearing reading and holy Conference which is common to all who having Tongues to speak should delight to be speaking of God and for God that so religion the knowledge and fear of God might run down all along through the whole race of mankind even from Adam to the end of the world The Psalmist is warme in this argument Psal 78.3 4 5 6 7. That saith he which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us we will not hide it from their Children shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done For he established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children That the generation to come might know them even the Children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their Children That they might set their hope in God and not forget the work of God but keep his Commandments We pray Thy kingdome come and that 's our duty but we must work also and labour to our uttermost by good Conference by doing or suffering that the kingdome of grace may be advanced more and more in the world that God in Christ may be more known believed in and be loved obeyed owned and honoured by our selves and all others from the rising of the Sun to the setting of the same and this in a perpetual succession from time to time 'till time runs up into Eternity It s reported to be one of the Olympick games that they have a set company of Racers if I mistake not the story each whereof had his stage or Race-post as it were the first takes a great burning torch or blazing link in his hand and away he runs with it with all possible speed to the end of the race then another takes it of him and away way he posts with it might and maine and so a third and a fourth and so one Racer after another 'till the link or light went out I allude onely to it So one generation runneth with the light of the Gospel to another generation and so from generation to generation I cannot say till the light goeth out for it 's an everlasting Gospel and never goeth out but 'till the light of grace be heightned unto or swallowed up in the light of glory The necessity and usefulness of Christian Conference in order to the preservation of the Gospel amongst us and the propagation of it to posterity may sufficiently be evinced if we go a little to School to Priests and Jesuites to all Arch hereticks and seducers do not they spread their opinions and practices even among ignorant ones and illiterate meerly or mainly by discourse and conference do not common swearers adulterers scoffers and the like rabble òf men by their evil