General leaves a field there is so many at his heeles and something left behind the slain or the dead the trampling of the grasse and the carcasse of the beasts but when the Lord leaves his house there is triming up again for the new commer the old mourning and the old master being laid a side nothing remains but the name the lusts and the sins of the family yea they run from Father to Son and Son to Son and the curse of God after them all some men leave great possessions for all their Children and great houses in good order but if they go to the Devill and leave a thousand houses to every Child and a name to that which may last to Dooms day yet for all this I would be loath to go along with them some men take Gold in their boots when they go to France and others money in their pockets when they go along journey but I had rather take Christ with me for eternity than all the Lords and Ladies in the world to my grave If you stir an old Horse head sometimes you shall see many flyes and if you stir an old Swearer in his sick bed you shall hear many oaths An old gouty and ungodly sinner makes a great noyse when he is punished for his sins and a pocky Surgeon tells a great lye when he sayes he will cure that in a fortnights time with his cursed Pills but some would do well to hang them that put forth such Bills they encourage many men to sin where the grace of God is wanting if a man want a member it is a sad thing but if a man be noysome or unwholesome it is worse but Lord bring me to any shame or misery rather than to perpetual condemnation When Ladies dye of the Cancer or Ulcer in the belly the best side is put outwards but when Lords dye of the Pox it is an ugly business the consumption of the Purse is the want of take heed and the consumption of the Lungs is the want of good dyet but the consumption of the blood and bones is brutish and immoderate love too and foolish fondness of the wife many times bnt if a man kill himself this way or his wife with too many Children he is near kin to a murderer blood will be required if a man shed blood but if the soul be lost this way who shall make amends t is not impossible that he may repent when he is old and they that kill themselves this way when they are young shorten the dayes of grace and of nature when as he that never truly repents nor beleeves shall be eternally damned as sure as the Lord lives When Mr. Kill-devil was called to his Tryal he was taxed for Swearing Lying and Whoring some men are guilty of these sins and almost three thousand more and yet all may be pardoned but Lord have mercy upon me if a man shall answer for every idle word as Christ speaks in the day of Judgement Mat. 12. 26. yea and what shall then become of most of our Mayers and others too whose words and conversations are altogether so But most men are wise when t is too late O that God were mine O that Christ were mine O that Heaven were mine O that I might live a little longer I would never do as I have done yea I would give for Heaven so much when they are going to be damned but if the Sun be going down or setting it is in vain to cry hold Sun hold good Sun hold yet mercy mercy may be found at the last minute but to cry then Lord Jesus Lord Jesus and not to think of God before is a very sad thing what a Gentleman and never think on God and yet a Christian for shame consider what you do and say sometimes in the open Sun t is good to display your bounty but to display your lusts and sins night and day as Sodom crying come come come Sir let us go again again and again to the Maske to the Ball to the Tavern to the Park to the Fields and delights of the World never minding going out of the World or how vain these bewitching things of the World are untill it be too late is to imitate a fool all men know they must dye and most men say they must be called to an account but pray Mr. Graceless what can you say for your self to begin with one O Sir you were at Church once and it may be but once in a month and yet scarce in many months did you mind what was said unto you but to hear once of a Christ and of Gods love giving Christ for the worst of sinners is enough to stop thy mouth for an hundred thousand millions of years take him Devill cries St. Paul if you receive the Grace of God in vain Hard-heart cried he could not repent but Peter asked him why so because he sought it when it was too late but whose fault was that when God gives repentance never to be repented of and mercies that should never be fotgotten do not you remember Sir when you were sick do not you remember when you were like to dye and what you promised then when the Doctors gave you off and the Lord took you up from the grave again when the next newes was O Sir it was in my sickness that I said so and so but if sinners Lords or Ladies will promise unto God when they are sick and forget him when they are well they may be damned when they die and that is time enough If a man hath been twice or thrice at the Barre and is once burnt in the hand t is ten to one but he hangs when he comes there again yet a man may go many times to the throne of Grace for one and the same corruption some go to Cheapside to fetch Flowers and others hard by to get stuff but few go to God when they are young for grace to serve him in their generation yea I think in my conscience some fine fools even think God is beholding to them if they should say their prayers go to Church as other ordinary people do And because we cry to some you are too fine forsooth to do this or that they even think so too in relation unto God when as I tell you God and Christ is more worthy of your service an hundred thousand times than the best of you all or the best of all the Princes of the world are worthy of this honour namely to be an unworthy servant of God what do you condescend to serve a God a God that can damne you and yet a God that will not damne you if you serve him in sincerity Amongst many things there are three great cares that lies on every wise married man first to serve God in his generation secondly to provide for his family thirdly to get his wife well down without sinning when she is on the top of the house t is not good
to be both in a passion at once yea when either be you are not fit especially to pray or to do any thing else if a Parent correct a Child in his anger t is ten to one but he will do it foolishly or sinfully half an hour after is best and then with good words and good counsell in a friendly way but if any of you Gallants though never so vain and prophane will yet serve God he will save you and yours too that so do with an eternal Salvation but for any mortals to think it is a little below themselves to walk humbly with God stooping down to the lowest things and Ordinances of Christ yea to kisse the feet of Christ is an honour too great for the greatest Potentate in the World Mary washed them with her teares and wiped them with her hair but what was Maries love to Christ who loved her first and washed her soul in his blood Some say washing in a Hart or Dears blood will make the white hands whiter I am sure washing in the dearest blood of all bloods will make the fowlest soul of any sinner in the World whiter than the driven snow yea there is none of you fair Ladies that have commonly the worst souls but it will do so About a fortnight since I was going into the fields to meditate about seven or eight of the clock and that is the best hour and the best time in the day is the dusk of the even but as I was going by yonder great house I was thinking much upon the Lord that lives in it and whether he or no must answer for all the sins in the Family and though there be not half so many sinners there as there us'd to be in the late Kings daies yet I did conclude there were too many of one poor creature to answer for who hath too many of his own when as his whole estate will not make an amends for one Lord thought I then it is better a thousand times to be a poor Nit Gnat Worm Nothing than a great ungodly man or woman but as I was thinking so I heard the passing Bell cry tong tong three times yet some do not mind it once in twenty times when they hear it if you hear a man swear if you hear a man lye if you hear a man rant too much or a Lady complement crying Sir your humble servant and your very humble servant sweet Madam fetching curches upon curches down to the ground t is no great hurt but when they cry faith and troth and as they live and as they hope to live as they are vertuous and as they are vicious Lord Christ God take me and as I hope to be saved nay God damne me as I heard once a Lady should say who was a great Lords Daughter which was a word from the Devil and the Devils tale was in her mough when she said so but the curse of God hangs over swearers heads and families read this text Zak. 5. 3. In the mean time some pay to the poor two or three pounds at a clap upon this account yea I know a she Rant that lately paid more but t is well for some body and the Devils Kingdome that such Sparks be for one of these do him more grace than a thousand poor sneaks t is the Lords and Ladies and the brave Sparks that brings up all the fashions and the new oaths but new Devils new Lusts new oaths and new fashions come all almost from one and the same place and the Devils Children are as much in fashion almost as ever I saw I heard three men swear and I saw three men sit in Covent Garden Church more like Puppits than Saints or civil men I wonder how they dare come so near White-hall or that any should venture to read there or elsewhere a whole Sermon at a clap as they do near St Giles and Covent Garden I would go a hundred mile barefoot that the Lord Protector would make one strict Act against this lazy kind of pocket preaching there is no business in the World troubles me like this that some should so much set by these Doctors Parsons Deanes Tryers and others and so little by gifted Saints and Christians when I think in my conscience some of them do more hurt than good in the Church of Christ they are such bitter enemies to the spiritual appearances of Christ especially the spirit of Prophesie in the poor servants of Christ I know a rich man in the new Exchange that might do more good than twenty of your Parsons that have nothing in them but civility morallity and a few legall moral exhortations but the man wants an heart though his gifts and parts be great and a clear intellect withall but t is a poor business to be a poor Preacher until the thing be more set by and yet 't was once more set by among the Souldiers than now it is by farre it may be they cannot so well tend it some think there is too much light and yet there is too little and too little practice but more light more love and more living up to what we know would do well together If a man should be a professor or Saint as you call him ten or twenty years together and make it all his business to get money money money the curse of money light upon him I cry and all such professors that never have enough I knew a Welch woman that was a very good and godly woman worth a thousand pounds at least and never a Child in all the World and she cryed what should she do with a thousand pound if she were a Widdow truly a thousand pound will go a great way well husbanded and a thousand Saints may do more than they do a thousand times for Christ and the World than they do they that do nothing are but Ciphers at the best they that do little are but Droans they that do much are most their own friends he that sins least wrongs his owâ— soul but they that sin much are the Devils slaves if a man drudge in the durt for a little Cheese or if a man plead much for a little Gold or sin much for a little while what will it avayle if he must lye in Hell an hundred thousand years if a man go fine all the day long and want a bed at night or if a man go poor and have a bed at night which is best if a man play at Cards all Christmas and loose all by Candlemas he may chance to go beg all the year after if a man play with a strange Ladies bosome or a Lords locks it is a ready way to go down to Hell saith Solomon Prov. 2. 16. and 6. 26. And the onely way to want in the Winter is to play in the Summer but if a man play away sleep away or sin away one sermon one Sabbath and one season after another as a man may do until it be
too late to get grace Matt. 23. 38. Luke 13. 26. he may go like a wretch to Hell and in Hell say would to God I were out I see the Embleme of a surety a fool leaping with his head into the great end of an Horn but being got to the little end he could not get it back how many such foolish ones are there now at Hide Park that leap into the Devils lap of sinful pleasure then into the pan of sufferings sometimes in their bodies and sometimes in their consciences and lastly into the fire of Hell I saw a brave Coach go up Ludgate-hill with a golden Arse and I saw them stand still at Saint Peters Pauls Wharfe but Saint Peter and Saint Paul were never troubled with such kind of hearers as go thereabouts Three things spoyle young Ladies marrying too soon ill edication and such kind of Parsons that preach little or nothing to any purpose let a heart be broken betimes for sin and it will be saved in time from sin death hell and eternal burnings yea Christ will love that Lady with an everlasting love that will love him when she is young and he poor and poor Christ is as poor now as ever and it is as poor a business to be a servant unto Christ as ever I knew it if a man should pluck a Bible from his pocket among some they would be ready to laugh but if a man should look into a Bible and seriously consider what will become of them it would make one weep why weeps my Lord cryed Hazael to Elisha 2 Kings 8 12. to think what evill thou shalt do And to think what some shall suffer for an hundred thousand millions of years for a moments pleasure and all your lives are no more yea the longest life of you all is but a moments time in comparison of eternity O Eternity Eternity when I think on thee how is time ages worlds swallowed up like tittle fishes by the Whales here one Generation comes whilst another goes but all moulters into Eternity like flesh to dust I truly saies my Lady but all this we never think on why then you think your selves to Hell or you go for want of thinking unto Hell but can you think your selves back a man or woman never act so beneath themselves as when they cry they did not think of it or consider of it non-consideration is the cause of most mens damnation what should the Devil mind you of Hell as he does you of your lusts sins and pleasures it were the way to loose you and spoyl his own Kinkdome I am sure God minds you Christ loves you and hath washed or would have washed you in his own blood Revel. 1. 6. and yet you mind not the faithful Ministers tell you this and every line in the Scripture tells you that unless you do beleeve unless you do repent unless you be regenerate and become new creatures in some measure you shall be damned with all the Devils in Hell as sure as God lives in Heaven Iohn 3. 3. 36. and before next May day some of you may yea it may be before next Christmas and when men are serious be not you light and vain I am upon damnation and preaching damnation to the Gallants yea and to all you careless Gallants in general that are now in Hide-Park in the midst of all your Gold and Glory bravery and brave delights of the day that ye remember the night wherein no manocan work as Christ speaks Iohn 9. 3. And therefore for all this great boasting and vyeing for the honour and glory of the day I say for all this you must come to die and to Iudgement and upon pain of damnation I tell you this yea the Lord tells you that if you still goe on to neglect so great Salvation as is freely tendered to you despising his Grace his Love and his Son and the delight of his soul our onely most and ever glorious dear and blessed Redeemer God blessed for evermore Rom. 9. 5. who hath a thousand Crowns to give unto you and a thousand pardons more than you need or ten thousand sinners greater than you were they in the world yet I say Christ stands with these Crowns and Pardons for you if a man should stand with a Rainbow round about you yea if a God should stand with a Rainbow round about you yea if a thousand Gods although there be but one should stand with a thousand Rainbows round about you all it were not half so much as a God and Christ and a God with Christ in his arms a bleeding dying living longing loving Christ for some of your Souls and although Christ would as fain have you as any in the world and as much embrace you and reward you as any in the world yet I say that notwithstanding all this if you shall despise him and think to do below as Angels once did above namely to be above God he will fling you down to Hell and the darksome holes and dens in Hell do not deceive your selves you may seek pleasures here and find ease in Hell but never find sinners may find sinners and old companions may find each other yea some of you may do so but the Devils will find you all torments while God finds wrath and you guilt yea the Devil will find power though you cannot death yea an exquisite torture to torment sinners for evermore if an ugly Collier should but breath upon you it would make you sick but if the Devil come to sit and blow upon you this will make great change for some of you young Gentlewomen that the Sun must now scarce shine on and what a Hell will this be to go from golden Coaches and beds of Downe to fiery Litters and beds in Hell to fry and roare with ugly Devils in burning flames for evermore O for Gods sake consider this all ye that neglect God or despise God and Heaven for a moments lust And if there be not a Heaven and an Hell a reall place where Angels sing and Saints rejoyce Devils roare and sinners fly yea something that is equivolent unto this in the other world burn your Bibles for a cheating Book for they have deceived me and many thousand more but if the Scriptures be a Truth and the very words of God as certainly they be they are so searching into the consciences of every man that seriously looks into them that he must needs confess this truth Heb. 4. 12. then I say I know nothing of the Scriptures if you are not much more likely to be with them that fry and cry and houle at the grates of Hell than any sinners in the world yea you and all you that do nothing but court sin and complement your time and daies away For of all sinners in the world English sinners are the worst and the least to be excused because they enjoy the most mercies means and light of any under Heaven and of all sinners
THE TRIAL OF THE LADIES HIDE PARK MAY DAY OR The yellow Books Partner LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Mr. Butler in Lincolns field near the three Tun Tavern by the new Market place May the first 1657. THE TRIALL OF THE LADIES MADAM MAY it please your Honour you may well remember I was last May to wait upon you in the Park there were many Gallants and many lookers on and many will be there again but some of our old friends will scarce come by reason of the late Act and the County Generals but however if you please we will take the ayre and the observation of the day once more there will be old vyeing for the honour of it but in my mind the silver Coach carried it the last year however we will be as plain as may be and as private too but do you hear the news about the late Triall and the Lords and Ladies that are likely to be damned with other great Sinners the Trial was at Hell all it is to be feared there was at the Trial twelve Apostles four Patriarchs four Prophets and Evangelists in all twenty and four these were of the Jury Mercy and Justice sate that day and it is well for some that Mercy sits every day he waits and pleads too for the worst of Sinners however take heed of abusing it the Persons called to the Barre were Mr. Wilfull and Mr. Careless Monsieur Aulymoade de France and Mr. New-come-over Mr. Kill-devil that sweares the new oaths there was the Lady Hoyden and Mrs. Looseness Mrs. Tittle-tattle and Mrs. Never-give-over the Lord Never-be-good and his Lady were both damned Mr. Duell the Lord Heathen and the Lady Christless are in great danger Money-bag the Usurer Hard-heart the Sinner and Shine-shooes the Citizen are all turn'd over Mr. Inside and Mr. Counter and many rich Roundheads whose God is their Gain their Shop and their Belly Alderman Chinck and Deputy Tell-money old Mr. Hugster and old Mr. Starve-many Mr. Swear and Lye and Mr. Cheat-many Parson Flatter and Parson Bitter Doctor Nothing the Orthodox Divine and many Common Prayer Men are all upon their Triall Captain Cut-throat and Collonel Get-all late Mr. Wagstick and Now-we-will-be-quiet These and many Gallants are upon their Trial and if they miss damning they will be at Park the next May day Mrs. Never-repent will go as long as she lives Mrs. Silver-stuff Mrs. Jewell will be there Mrs. Rant-about sweares stares and spends all and the poor Man sells all for a Whore the Lord Belly-god the Lord Lye-a-bed Mr. Sack-pot and Mrs. Lemmon and Mr. Butterfly Mr. Camester and Mr. Gallop will be there to the delight of many Ladies but the Lord abhorres them all in their present courses but the Jury being called and the Malefactors at the Barre Solomon made a great speech the sum and substance was Vanity of vanities all is vanity old Father Abraham that was called out of Ur Gen. 11. 31. pleaded much for some of these saying they might be his Seed notwithstanding all their wickedness and that the promise was not to him as a single person but even to as many as the Lord our God should call and said he I have called my son out of Egypt and my servants from among the Heathens Hosea 11. 1. But Elias cryed out Fire Fire Fire Luke 10. 54. Stay stay said Abraham I waited long for the Promise and God waits longer for the Sinner Forty years he was grieved with one Generation Psalms 95. 10. and many years he waits still and if any of these will yet repent they may enter into his rest Heb. 3. 19. True his works were finished from the foundation of the World but our Salvation is but then begun when we once begin to look unto him who cries Look untome O all ye ends of the Earth and be saved for I God and not man Isa. 45. 22. I cryed out of the belly of Hell sayes David I sayes Ionas out of the belly of the Whale Io. 1. 17. 2. 2. and the Lord heard me and peradventure Neneveth may be spared and there may be a seed among this Generation of Vipers yea who knowes but some of these at the Bar God will have mercy upon and give them repentance never to be repented of who are yet far from any thing of that nature A Lord or Lady may as well be saved as another Man it is true the poor receive the Gospell and not many rich not many mighty not many noble 1 Cor. 1. 26. but who will say that none do that are mighty rich and noble and if so let us hope the best O but sayes Saint Timothy they that live in pleasure are dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. yea said St. Iohn but the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and live Iohn 5. 25. There were other speeches Isaiah made a long one saying God had laid on Christ the iniquity of us all and received from Christ satisfaction for us all but that will never do you any good sayes Peter unless with me you do repent that ever ye crucified or with me denied the Lord of life and glory Acts 3. 19. Paul cryed refreshing comes from repenting and repenting from beleeving and if you do not beleeve in the Son of God and the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world Ioh. 1. 29. ye shall be all damned saith Iohn 3. 36. And said David I made hast to turn my feet unto thy Statutes in some things there is more hast than good speed but in beleeving and repenting there is great danger to delay a day I delayed said Lot and I had like to have been burnt it happens in an hour what it doth not in seven years again yea the Floud came and Christ will come in an hour when they look not for him Matt. 25. 50. If Christ should come on a May day there would be a brave show indeed and a great scuffle for all his holy Angels comes when he comes and some Saints Iude saith thousands and I beleeve thousands of thousands yea ten thousand times ten thousand vers. 14. What do you talk of that day saith the old Worldling and the young Gallant God take me this is not a time to preach when we are in our sports said a Spark the last year and swore a great oath be gone with your godly Book but it is good preaching every day and to be looking for his coming long looked for will come long lookt for comes at last and is nearer now than ever Behold the Iudge stands at the door Iames 5. 9. yea he comes as a thief in the night blessed is he that watcheth Revel. 16. 15. The Lords Son hath been long in France and the Lord Christ comes as a man from a far Country so he saith himself Luke 19. 12. But these Princes of the world that hath power in their hands and these Gallants that have pleasure in their eyes
ever be builders in the Church of Christ But Mr. such an one and Mr. such an ones Letter must pass him especially if he comes with a little of the old Synods Catechisme in his mouth and some of them will so kon it upon the stairs when they are going to be tryed but there is a young Gentleman that makes a sweet trade in getting money for Passes and I know not what yea one told me of a Parson Solicitor that gets more than I can by my trade by rerommending helping and puting young Priests in a right way to obtain their business and ye know he must be a good man such a Tryer commends him and twenty more and you know he is a great Tryers friend Country man or Coosin and therefore he must pass and there was old passing when the great scuffle was as a door keeper told me but let them try and try and do what they will for my part I profess in the presence of God I had rather preach or be in the publick speaking a word to Christ for sinners or a word for sinners to Christ in a way of prayer than eat my meat though never so hungry and yet I would work for my living yea thousands in this Nation thirst after this liberty who are holy humble knowing godly blameless self denying gifted Christians yea equally gifted with most Ministers things might be done in decency and order and yet the Minister never the worse Christian liberty well used doth not abuse or justle out the Ministerial calling in the least t is strange there cannot be a medium found out by those that hold the helme but for my part I am resolved not willingly to pay one penny untill I have liberty to pray or some body else who is godly in the room of most Clarks and Readers that are stark nought a good Minister and a good Christian two or three would do more good in a Parish than he and an old sleepy Reader can or will do in many years We have a good Benefice and a Minister will come there whether we will or no I think and yet he is beloved where he is and we had pitched upon another that is godly and blameless But I fear I shall do little here this day the Lords and Ladies are resolved to go home and so will I yea I resolve to go home and mind home death grave and eternity more than ever I have done and yet I have vowed much writ vowes but a thousand vowes will do no good unless God give a man strength to live to him and for you great persons you can as well come out of you skins as out of your sins and snares yea if God Almighty do not pluck you out of your present conditions all the Men on earth cannot help you no nor all the Saints on earth O pray pray yea at night go home and say Lord Jesus help me Lord Jesus look upon me and make me now to apply my heart to wisdome after all my former folly A man may easily pull a man down hill or down to Hell but he can hardly pluck him up to Heaven or Heaven-ward yea I find it very hard to come to the certainty of Heaven and to be looking off from working for Heaven notwithstanding the promise is not to him that worketh but to him that beleeves in him that justifies the ungodly a golden text O read read Rom. 4. 5. and upon this account the ungodliest man in England may be justified and to be justified you know is to have all a mans sins pordoned hid and done away O the blessedness of that man whose sins are so done away Psal. 32. 1. And now if one of you Gentiles or genteel sinners would go home at night and really beleeve them pardoned they would be so t is but beleeving or not beleeving that makes a man to be saved or damned yea really it is no more Iohn 3. 36. yea tis beleeving and beleeving more than any thing that makes a man live to God and love God I will warrant if one of you Gallants could now but really beleeve God would love you and save you notwithstanding all your former sinfulness you would be gallant Christians indeed and God loving Christians instead of the Devils slave well there is a new way to Heaven or a nearer way I am sure than most men have hinted at and that is by beleeving before repenting yea by fetching repentance and reformation from beleeving Gods love in Christ to poor sinners as sinners that is while yet they are in their sins when a Leapors Leaprosie is washed off he is as lovely as another man when a sinner is reformed he is as lovely as a Saint in his conversation but before God reformes he loves yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love saith God He is nothing but Love saith Iohn 1. 4. 10. yea he is ever living loving and giving good things to you the worst of sinners else why are you out of Hell and here this day out of sickness out of misery out of want though all these things come in love to his Children O for Gods sake love God if indeed you do but mind him a little in his Son you cannot but love him He is the Fountain of Love and a loving Fountain that hath a thousand Seas of sweetness and divine delights for all those that come unto him with the is the well of life saith David Psal. 36. 9. and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore but t is Christ that is this pleasure and that right hand that God stretcheth out to you the worst of sinners and if you will take hold of his strength upon his word you shall make peace with him Isa. 27. 5. and he will make peace with you and your souls yea Christ will make peace between you both yea to them that are afarre off he maketh peace and preacheth peace by the blood of his Crosse Rom. 5. 1. Peace be unto you in this room saith Christ Iohn 20. 19. And peace be to you in Hide-Park say I and if you will hearken to it there is peace in the blood of Christ for you all for that speaketh better things than the blood of Abell and I beseech you to mind this night what it speaketh I know what your ranting and vaunting in a thing of nought speaks namely Hell all t is to be feared but the blood of Christ speaks yet peace to the worst of you all take heed again and again take heed ye refuse not him that speaks from Heaven that which few of the Princes of this World which come to nought do know or have known for many hundred of yeers 1 Cor. 1. 18. But to you is it spoken not in a voyce of thunder like God in Mount Synai where no man durst come near for fear of death Exod. 19. 15. but in a love and dovelike spirit the spirit of love and the Dove that
is speckled with the blood of Christ is yet at some of your windowes hearts and souls with an Olive brance an Embleme of peace from the God of peace and our Lord Jesus Christ to some of your souls O tast and see that the Lord is gracious blessed is the man that puts his trust in him and if you will trust in him now and at all times yea trust you in the Lord Jehovah for ever for in his arms there is everlasting strength to save you and your souls for evermore Isa. 26. 4. but if you make as the manner of you Gallants is a push of God he will make a mock and a laugh at you when you come to die and be damned so saith this Scripture Prov. 1 26. Most men say O that God were mine O that Christ were mine when they are dying and O that I might live a little longer I would never do as I have done truly some of you have lived too long already and it were to be considered whether it had not been better for some of you to have been damned ten or twenty years-ago then to be heighting up and down in Coaches still for if you will to Hell the sooner the better the greatest surfet begets the greatest feaver and the longest sinner the greatest Hell for I am of this opinion that God is to most men as they apprehend him to be and a mans Hell shall lie most in his bowels and come most from his own sins so that the more light the more sin and the more sins against light the more Hell still sayes Christ if I had not come unto them my self they had not known sin that is they had not known or committed so much sin or been guilty so farre as now they are Iohn 8. 19. Some ranting sinners will swear so lustily when they are well and speak so whiningly when they are sick spent and even dead in a Consumption and likely to go to the Devil and some Saints look so chearfully through the sense of Gods love when they are even loaded with afflictions that it would do a man good to see them I saw an old beggar with a dish on his back and a Lord with a bunch on his and two great Saints with the world in their mouths one was talking of this estate and the other of that mans estate and both of them had too much and care enough with what they had there is none so merry as fools nor any so foolish as wise men that can never tell when they have enough nor how to do good with what they have my Lord Needy and my Lord Greedy will never be good nor satisfied though they have the Devil and all and it is a strange thing that a poor man and a Saint can hardly satisfie himself in the love of God so as to look a little chearful and walk very thankful in all changes let a man sneak through the world with a patcht arse or flutter thorough with a golden traine it is much a like provided they be both damn'd for to be hang'd in halters or to be hang'd in golden chains is much alike if he must be hang'd and if you will be damn'd and go to the Devil go how you will it is all one and to one purpose but I know how poor Saints should go to Heaven and that is by singing and dancing and ever having the high praises of God in their mouths and a two edged sword of zeal in their hands to cut down all ungodly lusts and Kings in their souls Psal. 149. 8. yea to hew them in pieces for the spirit of God and the word will spare none as Samuel said to Agag 1 Sam. 15. 33. nor be at peace with the least traytor when Iesabell look'd out of the window she cryed what peace 2 Kings 9. 30. and when you look out of your Coaches with your ugly faces I cannot tell what to make of you you are so patch'd and peec'd with old taffaty and taffaty patches yet some of you young Ladies would look like little Angels almost if it were not for these sins and some ugly things that you are guilty of But to be guilty of nothing is a gallant thing and if any of you will be guilty of no sin when you come to die look to Christ while you live and live to God till you die and you shall have a better husband than any Lord of them all Strange Lords and strange lusts have ruled you hitherto Isa. 26. 13. but Christ is alwaies young and lovely yea to look to to lean on to hope in and to follow after he is altogether so and he dyed for you when he was thirty three years of age and yet lives and ever lives to make intercession for you for God sake court or think on him a little here is old courting ill condition Mrs. such an one and Mrs. such an one and she hath so many servants and so many servants and all it may be for the money and nothing but the money but Christ hath few enough and yet he is as rich as ever and will give more than ever any of you yet enjoyed for a dram of his grace is more worth than thousands of your estates who have nothing but a little dirt and a little Gold with a little lace and a little thing called Honour but Christ hath the dew of his youth and the youth of his age Psal. 110. 3. yea eternities is in his hands as well as the keyes of death and Hell or the power over Hell sin death men and Devils Revel. 1. 18. and in his hand he holds a ring a golden ring or a reconciled God yea and God holds him to the worst of you all but you have no mind to marry and be the sons of God but to be the Children of the Devil still and his you are sure enough Iohn 8. 44. When God was on the earth Moses had a great mind to see his face Exod. 33. 18. would you had so to see his Son when the Lord General came from Worcester there went many thousands to see him and when Christ shall come to England I hope to see him and more done for him than yet there is but will you love him or will you not he is altogether lovely in his names in his natures in his person in his promises yea and in his Kingdom which I hope is nearer then some men imagine Mr. Tillinghurst told us strange things in his Book called the Key to misticall Numbers the man may be right in some things and I beleeve he is twenty Shops in London have these Books of his would as many of you had Christ in your hearts and in your lives but will you marry or will you not will you marry or will you burn will you burn in Hell an hundred thousand years or will you take Christ for better or worse nay t is worse to refuse Christ than to take all
you go your way and take your lot and at the end of your dayes you shall stand up again Dan. 12. last And to all under you I give this advice study to be quiet and at peace in your own spirits Gods waies are in the deep and his designes take place in all ages yea they never slack nor stay Children obey your Parents Servants your Masters not with eye service but in singleness of heart as serving the Lord To all good married men I give this first to love your wives as Christ loved his Church if it were possible and in loving love their souls as much above their bodies as you do their bodies above their cloathes it will do the wife the husband good to think the soul is in Heaven smiling when absent here on earth or present in a coffin t is the condition of friends that is more than any thing the true cause of joy or grief if a friend be in prosperity you onely mourn for his absence but if in adversity you mourn double and truly there is a vast difference between a wife gone to Hell and a husband gone to Heaven or a wife gone to Heaven and an husband gone to Hell and so for any other friends now when we do what we can to go our selves and draw others we have done our duty but for you great ungodly Gentry you draw all almost to Hell that come near you and yet I think it is a greater comfort to bury two good wives than one bad who would have a side of his house or body burnt yea his bed-fellow go to Hell and yet most of you and your Children will go thither by reason of your examples Whither do you think the Lord such an one is gone that dyed lately nay in your conscience speak as judging by the rule of Gods Word and Mr. such an one that kept his brave Coach and six Horses and never went without but to your Children I give this advice first to read over the families they came of what sins they have been guilty and what judgements have fallen upon Father Grandfather and great Grandfather one broke his neck another his heart a third lost his head a fourth made a miserable end in his bed yea dyed suddenly and never said Lord have mercy on me it is good to observe these things and it is easier to love repent or begin to live to God before twelve or twenty years of age be past than after and so again before thirty than forty but if a man mis forty years before he begins to look to Christ it is an hundred to one but he goes to the Devill yet hundreds turn civill and morally honest and so go civilly to the pit there is four or five turnings before a man turns into the right way for Heaven and yet some hit on it at the first and that is by throwing themselves upon Gods love in Christ in a way of reall beleeving and that barely upon the account of the promise which is yea and amen without any qualification Rom. 4. 13. but some turn from wildness to sobriety and so from bravery to plainness from Papistry to Protestantism and yet are little the better and so back again without being much the worse and some turn from the ordinary protestants to be Professors and yet are ten fold more the child of the Devil than before Every turn is a turn from God if the heart be unturn'd to God and the white Devil is the worst and will carry a man to Hell when he thinks he is going to Heaven persecute another only for a Gospel spirit and a Gospel light without a Gospel life will certainly rise in judgement against any man in the world and so will all your Ladyships sins if you do not take heed in time Mouls see and Swans sing a little before they dye and it may be then most of you will be wise and till then few are so do you think Christ made you so fine and so handsome so rich and so noble for nothing yea do you think he made you Christians as you say and brought you forth in England the Garden of the world and in some sense you the Flowers of this Garden for nothing but to sing and dance make a French Courchy complement for a husband and height about with a Servant truly Christ will have little reason to damn heathens and save you t is true you are called by his name but that should teach you good manners and good lives I beleeve some would be ashamed if we should tell of a Cromwell that would not fight or a Fayrfax whose name I hope will never be forgotten and truly Christ will be ashamed of you that will not live to him as well as be baptized and if you were not baptized there is no man living but would take some of you to be the Devils children you are so wicked But the end of all things is at hand and that is your funeral text with which I shall conclude 2 Pet. 4. 7. But you will ask me what end not the end of Gods Mercy for there is no end thereof that is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him Psal. 103. 17. Nor is there any end of his love or the promises of his love for they are numbeâ—less from one end of the Bible to the other and so is his providence to his Children even from the womb to the grave yea that never leaves them till they come to Abrahams bosome and then God is all in all to them 1 Cor. 15. 19. But there is an end of your sinning and Saints sorrowing of your living and the Kingdomes of the world raigning yea there is an end of this suns shining the rains fulling the winds blowing and the spirits breathing yea that breaths where when and as long as it listeth take heed of grieving and resisting that for if ever that finally leave you and come no more to your consciences beds and elbowes saying go to Pelham go to Pelham go to God go to Christ look to God look to Heaven Hell mind both for all these bewitching things and fooling up and down or else thon art undone for ever Soul hast thou ever another if thou loosest this have a care of loosing all for a moments lust but there is an end of all this kind of breathings and your singing yea there will be no more May dayes after a few dayes more I think you had best take your solemne leave and weep over one anothers backs necks shoulders and say farewell Ladies farewel Lords farewel Coaches farewel bravery and brave delights birds fields hedges bed Sun Moon Saints and sinners farewel all for ever and farewel all for evermore for I must now be damn'd for ever or I go I know not whither as that great man said to his soul when he cryed soul soul whither art thou now going and then the fine fare and the good chear
or be a little longer out of Hell but I beleeve many of you are Sadduces which scarce beleeve there is a Heaven a Hell or Resurrection but fain would Paul die upon this account and who would not do so and be uncloathed that he might be cloathed upon with this house from Heaven and glory of Heaven yea crowd thorough and thorough the gates of death for the Crown of Crowns this wreath of life and glory O â—ut where is the Christian that can say so now and unstrip his dublet and affections to the creature freely laying down all that is near and dear at the feet of Christ for love to Christ the joyes of Christ and glories of Heaven the Saints cannot see now as in Stevens time the glory of God and Christ at the right hand nor the immortall things that Paul speaks of â— Cor. 2. 9. And hence it is they cannot desire to unstrip and be dissolved O but were the least glimpses of immortal Crowns and glory clearly in their eyes they would leap into the grave and call for death as a man for a friend in a great distress we have heard of some that have thrown themselves into the Ocean for to catch the shadow I am sure the God of Heaven and the joyes of Heaven are the substance which all men should catch at but the shadow most do yea the Saints themselves are lâ—w and dungy sishing for the creature rather than immortal glories But were they minded as in former times I make no question but the Saints of this age would Imperious like as much scorn the dungy chaff stubble straw and vanity of this world as the lofty Eagle doth the poorest prey when she is flying towards Heaven yea were our thoughts upon our Fathers house our Fathers home our Fathers glory yea and our glory which is laid up for us where all our faithfull friends are gone and longs for our communion me thinks the pavement and curtains of Heaven the place where Sun Moon and Staries are pitched tells us t is a glorious place yea if the outside of this Ark above the water be so speckled and spangled what is the inside where God and all the saved creatures are Sun Moon and Starres are but the 〈◊〉 of Heaven the 〈◊〉 beaten garmenâ— which must passe away and be folded up as an old thing Psal. 102. 26. And when this old thing shall be done away God and the Lamb become a new Heaven to the Saints yea when God and the Lamb shall compass them and be their Temple and they his Pillars in this Temple bearing up his everlasting praises Revell. 3. 12. Then shall the glory of the Lord and the Lamb be for Sun and Moon Revell. 21. 23. Here Gospel Spirit Ordinances are in the Church and Temple the Sun Moon and glory of it and would it were so in all and not form and formality but God shall immediately one day himself become their Sun and glory Isa. 60. 20 And the Lamb shall personally lead them to the fountains of living waters not to sup a little as now but to bath and tumble in those everlasting streames and Oceans of divine glory yea when every Saint shall have a Temple Sun and Sea of glory to himself walk hand in hand as it were with the Lamb Revell. 7. 17. thorough and thorough the glorious high discoveries of God which are the Seas of glory and the glorified Seas wherein their souls shall alwayes tumble never sounding any bottome in those boundless glorious bancks carrying them by gales of divine joyes further and further from all bounds and bottoms rocks and dangers And now I conclude with this advice if you indeed think there is a Heaven look for that or if indeed this be a fancy And all that you call Divinity be a meer piece of knavish Policy to make fools and asses of honest men then take your pleasure stil and let the daies of darkness never come near you nor your thoughts or families which do but spoil your pleasures for if you affright a child with a Bugbeare you may make hm fearful all his life and if you your selves will fancy that which is not It will be great losse and trouble to the minds of such as you who yet want more pleasures or time to pursue after more nay do you not O but if after all there should be a God O but if there should be a Heaven and a God better than Heaven a thousand times or a thousand Heavens which should at last be lost for want of thinking or beleeving what a sad case will you then be in yea I say what a sad case will you then all be in when God is lost Christ Heaven Soul Body and all is lost for a moments lust O Madam consider this in time yea this night least the night of nights overtake you which that it may not it is and ever shall be the hearts desire and prayer of him who with St. Paul wisherâ— from his soul that you and your Children with the whole Israel of God may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 10. 1. And so I rest Your humble Servant W. B. FINIS
in England you Lords and Ladies and you great Gentry have the most reason to be eternally damned you go best fare best lie best and have least to do of any in the world you need not care for your honours it will be honour enough for to serve Christ and they that honour me them saith Christ will my Father love and honour Iohn 12. 26. but Lords and Ladies look for shadows and neglect the substance the substance of honours is to honour Christ and to be a servant to Christ yea this is honour indeed a Crown to your honour and that little thing you call your honour And therefore David cryed thy servant Lord thy servant Lord making that and that alone his joy and glory but for a man to be the Son of such a Swearer Lyar Belly-god Heathen or Idolater yea to be the Son of such or such a Flatterer moneyed rich or landed man in comparison of being the Son the Saint and the Servant of God a faithful Covenant keeper and a man 〈◊〉 of God in his Generation But as for those that have God in their mouths power in their hands onely honour and profit in their eyes let them and their names rot yea let the next Generation utterly forgâ—â— those that love not our Lord Jesus but seek themselues and have no heart to do to the uttermost for God Christ Saints Souls and Nations but of all Nations I still say this is the sinfullest if you consider the love light means and mercies which still we sin against and of all sinners in this Nation great men and great professors that are nought are the greatest sinners and of all professors the richest are the greatest and yet of all rich and great professors gifted professors in some sense are the greatest that do nothing in the Church of Christ but bury their talents and their souls also in the World the love lusts and pleasures of the World nevertheless many of these may and shall be saved because his mercy endureth for ever and his Covenant he will and shall keep with all the seeed of Abraham and David Psal. 88. 3. 4. But O ye seed of Abraham Isack and Iacob mind this text and what your duty is to such a living loving giving faithful Covenant keeping God But when Money-bag the Usurer was called to the Bar it was asked him what he thought of Money and what was the best improvement of it he cryed eight eight or six in the hundred now as things stand t is better than to buy Land for that is never paid for so long as the world lasts if the the Tax so long continue a penny well got and a penny well spent is better than a pound of another mans he that gets a little by birth right moderate industry faith and prayer gets well but he that gets much by right or wrong or continual setting his heart upon the world is but a fool or worldling at the best I knew a man that got a great estate and he goâ— it from a small and low begining but he got nothing but money for few loved him and as few missed him and when he dyed he gave but one grunt and cryed I am sick and by and by dyed with the Curtains drawn to him and he that 〈◊〉 as is likely besides what the Devil had gave two or three mourning Suits and so buried him handsomely but if a man bury himself or soul with these self soul deceaving cares and pleasures of this cursed and bewitching World which lies altogether in wickedness and under condemnation yea the whole World doth so upon the matter 1 Iohn 5. 19. he may be raised again though not to glory that which every man sowes be shall reap here or hereafter When Dives was in Hell he thought upon his brethren but when a Citizens Heir comes to be a Spark he seldome thinks upon the old fool that goes there for the money which he so profusely spends or the portion of his daughter yea few of these upstarts think upon the old folks that go to the Devil if a man should be hang'd for anothers mans stealing it would be sad but if a man be damn'd for another mans vain glory pride gaming carding ranting or whoring it is much more truly some make no better use of that estate than this or to piss again the wall that for which many are damn'd I will not say how many but I beleeve above an hundred every year within the walls of London If a man steal for another suffer and be hang'd it is sad as I said before but to be eternally damn'd is much more and it may be onely to make him a fine Gentleman a fine Fool a swearing Gentleman and a brave Spark but the old fool hath no carriage in him and the old mother must scarce be known where she lives by the fine daughter if the Ministers of London could preach themselves and many of their hearers out of this cursed damning sin of Covetousness it were a gallant thing some talk was of the Jewes and the coming in of the Jewes but if the Devil be more covetous than many Gentiles Priests and Citizens I am mistaken for a Belly god to mind his gut and a filthy swearer his ungodly lust is a common thing but no Swearers Drunkards Whores or Harlots in the World have their hearts so much going after any sin in the World than some noted Ministers and professors that are called Saints have after this cursed sin of Covetousness they talk of Faith and preach you must live by Faith others write Sermons all the year about frequent meetings and enter into fellowships many of them but Money Money is their God and for Money they will chop and change cheat and lye and make any man a Saint I knew two great men that were about last year near St. Martins canonized for Saints one was worth forty thousand Pounds and the other an hundred but the Devil is Money and in Money if that will make a Saint I will never beleeve he goes to Heaven that does no good gets a great estate and makes no profession at all of Christ the waies Saints and servants of Christ say you what you will to please fools friends and kindred yet a little money and it may be mourning If a man should look into the sepulchre of a man newly buryed it would be a loathsome business but if a man look into the lives of many rich men which Ministers make Saints in their funeral Orations it might be said the man was more a fool a beast a muck worme or at best a civil Gentleman or an ignorant Christian rather than a Saint truly I know nothing so much as three things that make a Saint faith in the blood of Christ union with the person of Christ and receaved measure of sanctification from the Spirit of Christ and these three things with chearfulness thankfulness fruitfulness or holiness make a brave Saint