the truth and sell it not whereupon the incumbent when he met any going to the Church as he was going from it would aske them in a jeering manner What! you are now going to buy the Truth His Father and friends had now provided a place for him viz. Bushy in Harfordshire he the more inclin'd to accept it because his continuance at Witny was precarious and the envy and opposisition of the Minister of the place not to be remov'd To Bushy therefore he goes where he hath a welcome reception from all the Inhabitants but especially from those that had any savour of Religion There he Preacht and Catechiz'd on the Lords Dayes and other days to the great benefit of his hearers who attended his Ministry not only those that dwelt in Bushy but those that liv'd at Watford and other adjacent places Hear the testimony of a Godly ancient Minister yet living under his own hand That little time saith he which E. S. spent in Bushy was not without good success many persons in my own hearing having acknowledged his Ministry to be the means of their conversion During his abode in Bushy which was about two years he repair'd or rather rebuilt at his own charge the dwelling house belonging to the Minister at this time also he marryed a Wife the daughter of one Mr. Scudamore of Watford a man of good account in those parts both for Estate and Godliness by her he had one daughter Being call'd upon to Preach a Visitation Sermon he perform'd it with great approbation only because he inveighed against non-residency and pluralities some that were concerned were greatly offended one of them saying he might the better speak against many livings having got so good a one himself And indeed it was so good that one Dr Seaton who was seated at Kingston upon Thames in Surry had a longing mind after it and either making or finding a flaw in his Title soon dispossest him of it But first there was a Tryal at Law about it the Attourney general Noy who was of Councel for Seaton likeing the ingenuity of Staunton mov'd for an Exchange and so brought it to pass that Seaton should have Bushy and Staunton should have Kingston both parties were agreed Staunton preferr'd work before wages and lik't Kingston the better because his opportunities of service would be there the greater Dr. Winter in vita ejus he was of his mind who was wont to say his opportunities were his greatest riches But whilst he thought of setling there he met with a disappointment Seaton having gotten Bushy would not part with Kingston but either Staunton must be his Curate there or he must be gone from thence hereupon Mr. Staunton repairs to Noy relates to him the disingenuous carriage of his Client Noy was of too generous a spirit to approve this baseness sending therefore for Seaton he tells him plainly unless he would resigne Kingstone he would soon pick a hole in his Title to Bushy Several also of the Inhabitants of Kingston who priz'd Mr. Staunton's Ministry and were willing to purchase it at any rate did so work with Dr. Seaton that in a short time he resign'd upon which Mr. Staunton had the presentation and soon after institution and induction In this Town he continued about twenty years endeavouring to fulfill the ministry he had received of the Lord there he Preach'd twice on the Lords day Col. 4.17 and Catechized the younger and ignorant sort of people and he did not satisfie himself in teaching them publikely but though the place was large and populous he taught them also from house to house Act. 20.20 There also he set up a weekly Lecture which was supply'd in their turnes by as eminent Preachers as that part of England did afford and within a little time partly by his powerful Preaching partly by his holy and exemplary life for as John the Baptist in the one he was a burning One saith of Mr. Perkins that as his preaching was a Comment on his text so his practice was a comment on his preaching in the other a shining light he wrought a general reformation throughout the Town both amongst Magistrates and people he was lov'd by all those that were Godly and fear'd by those that were wicked The good seed that he there sow'd doth spring up to this very day and many now living can hardly mention him with their mouths without tears in their Eyes Nor was there any love lost betwixt them he would to the last call the People of Kingston as Paul did the Philippians His joy and his crown Phil. 4.1 and would often say That were it not for some wrangling persons a Minister might live as comfortable a life amongst them as amongst any people in England And as by his Ministry a work of reformation was wrought upon the Town in general so also a work of saving conversion was wrought upon many soules in particular he relates in some memoires that he hath left behind him under his own hand that in 1648. when he left the place there were thirty persons which gave him a Paper subscribed by themselves wherein they own'd him for their spiritual Father and doubtless there were many thirties in and about the Town who could have made the like acknowledgment He marryed a second wife yet living Whilst he liv'd here begetting many Sons and Daughters unto God he had also many Sons and Daughters begotten of his own body Ten of which lie buried in one Grave in the Parish Church of Kingston on which he hath laid a faire Stone with this Epitaph fairly Engraven on it Here lye the Bodies Of Francis Richard Mary Mathew Mary Richard Edmund Edmund Sarah Richard Children which the Lord graciously gave to Edmund Staunton D. D. late Minister of Kingston upon Thames now President of C. C. C. in Oxford by Mary his Wife Daughter of Richard Balthrope Esq Servant to the late Queen Elizabeth Ten Children in one Grave a dreadful sight Seven Sons Daughters three Jobs number right Childhood and youth are vain death reigns o're all Even those that never sin'd like Adams fall But why o're all in the first man every one Sinned and fell not he himself alone Our hope 's in Christ the second Adam He Who saves the Elect from sin and misery What 's that to us poor children 't is our Creed God is a God to the faithful and their seed Sleep on dear Children never more to wake 'Till Christ doth raise you and to glory take He left only one Son living at his death and may he long live to inherit his Fathers Graces as he doth his Estate For three years and a halfe In the year 1635 it pleas'd the Authority of the Nation to permit sports and pastimes unto the people on the Lords Day and a Warrant was ordered to be read in all Churches to that purpose those Ministers who refused to read it were for some time suspended in which number was Mr Staunton he was of his mind that said Praestatar are quam saltare die sabbathi Aug. It was better to work them sport to plow then Dance on the Sabbath Day
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
continue and abound This is the old and the new Commandment There is no duty more prest in the Word of God and no duty less practis'd by the people of God Surely the end is at hand because of the flaming out of sin and of the freezing of love These last dayes have introduc't a great many love-killing principles that former Ages were ignorant of we want the Apostle John amongst us or some of his spirit to stir up Christians to love one another Remember wherein the duties of brotherly love consist in relieving instructing admonishing exhorting comforting and bearing with one another He that sayes he loves his brother and lives in the neglect of these is a lyar and the truth is not in him VII Let your Conversation in the world be with simplicity and godly sincerity this is the way to have favour with God he hath pleasure herein 2 Chron. 29.17 he desires truth in the inward parts and reckons sincerity for perfection yea this is the way to have rejoycing in your selves Sincerity affords comfort in every condition of life and in the hour of death A sincere person if he lives in trouble he ordinarily dyes in peace He 's sure to find acceptance for all his services and indulgence for all his offences Oh that it may be said of you as of another in Scripture-story that you are men and women without guile VIII Set the Lord alwayes before you Remember he sees you when you are most out of sight his eyes are never off from you let your eyes be ever towards him One thought it would awe the Romans and make them serious if they did alwayes apprehend that Cato was in company with them It would certainly have a good influence upon our hearts and lives if we did apprehend that God was alwayes at our elbows and that his eyes are upon all our wayes and doings It is an excellent preservative against sin and provocation to duty to carry a remembrance of God about with us into all places and companies IX Fill up all your particular relations with duties Relative duties are better known than practised nature it self teacheth them the very Heathen have excelled herein surely if our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees it must not fall short of that of Heathens and Infidels it sounds like a contradiction for one to be a good Christian and a bad husband or wife father or child master or servant c. X. Promote the power and practice of Religion in your several Families Remember who said he would walk in his house not only in Gods but in his own house with a perfect heart Psal 121.1 resolve with Joshua not only to engage your persons but your houses and families in the service of God Of old the Families of Christians were call'd Churches but now many of them are rather Synagogues of Satan than Churches of Christ not Bethel's but Bethaven's houses of vanity and sin It is commonly said That Governours of Families as well as Pastors of Churches have curam animarum the charge and care of Souls and if any perish through your neglect their blood will be required at your hands How many of your Children and Servants may say to you another day bloody Parents and bloody Masters you have been to us and may they not now say Fathers Masters care you not that we perish Oh let your Families be instructed do I require this or doth God require it Deut. 6.6 7 8 c. Eph. 6.4 who will one day require an account of your doing of it Let there be morning and evening sacrifices of praise and prayer offered up to God in your dwellings God forbid there should be one prayerless habitation in Kingston XI Walk humbly with God Micah 6.8 This is the main thing that he requires of you without this let your other excellencies be never so many they are of no account with him A proud persons graces and good works do him hurt whil'st an humble man is made better by his evil deeds a proud man is made worse by his good deeds Oh pray God that saith he will give grace to the humble to give you that excellent grace of humility You may be brought low and yet not be lowly many are humbled that are not humble Plectuntur sed non flectuntur Salvian XII Follow the good examples of others There are many patterns for imitation in Scripture there 's the example of our Lord Jesus Christ himself be as he was in the world The Word of God aboundeth also with many other excellent instances and presidents it shews you many evil examples which are as Sea-marks to forewarn you and many good examples which are as Land-marks to direct you you have other excellent patterns too besides those upon record in Scripture Take my Brethren your old Pastor whose Life I have here delineated and who hath spoken to you in the Name of the Lord for an example of patience and all other branches of piety Therefore is the story of his Life and Death dedicated to you that it may be imitated by you But of this I spake somewhat before Let us remember here That I am writing an Epistle and not a Treatise ergo manum de tabula Though it were easie to give you many dozens more of such directions as these I have been longer because though I have often Preach't to you yet I never wrote to you before As I have often suggested the counsels of God to yous ears so I would set some few of them before your eyes I have an ardent affection for you you have had Ministers that have Preach't and liv'd better than I have done but never any that lov'd you better than I do I love your Souls and their eternal welfare and would be loth to meet any of you at Christs Tribunal in an unregenerate and Christless condition I would not the many Sermons I have Preach't to you should be at that day as so many Bills of Indictment against you Finally Brethren farewell be of one mind live in peace and let me close this Epistle as Jude doth his build up your selves in your most holy faith pray in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Vnto his grace and favour I commend you all and subscribe my self Your unworthy Minister And Well-wisher Richard Mayo Nov. 29. 1672. THE LIFE and DEATH OF Edmund Staunton S. T. D. IT is usuall even in the Holy Scripture when mention is made of any persons of Note to record their Genealogy Parents do sometimes bring lustre unto their Children and Children do sometimes bring renowne unto their Parents This excellent person who is the subject of the ensuing narrative was borne Anno 1600 of the Ancient and worshipfull Family of the Stauntons in Bedfordshire his Father Sr Francis Staunton had several sons of whose Education he was
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man c. The Psalmist giveth the ungodly man a black brand saying God is not in all his thoughts Ps 10.4 and let it be for an humiliation and lamentation that God is no more in the hearts and Months of the best amongst us Secondly Having laid down a little and but a little of the Tongues Unruliness in reference to God it is sinful silence neither speaking much to Gods nor of God which is its greivous miscarriage by way of omission Let some enquiry be made after the Tongues positive guilt by way of Commission 2. Commission it 's speaking irreverently lightly or prophanely and that in reference to God and so speaking too much of God For instance First 1 Titles abused There is a frequent abuse of the Titles and Attributes of God in our common discourse saying O Lord O God O Christ O Jesu O dear God O sweet Saviour and the like and this upon very trifling occasion as when one meets an acquaintance unexpectedly out flye these words or the like and usher in no more but an how dost thou who thought to see thee here to day or a whence comest thou or whither art thou going Is not this to play with Sacred things and to take the name of the Lord our God in vain A question also may be whether when we hear onesneeze to cry God bless you or Christ help you be a bounden duty which upon this occasion God requires at our hands It s the judgment of a worthy Writer of this Nation who was no dishonour to the Nation that there is more cause with us to pray for a man Coughing than Sneezing for Coughing argueth the Cold taken to be too strong for Nature to eject it but sneezing sheweth Natures strength in mastering the Cold taken and casting of it out When I was young as I remember I read it in the French Academy that Sneezing was a good sign of a bad cause of natures strength though cold were taken Adde also this question Whether to apply the incommunicable Attributes of God as Allmighty Infinite and the like to persons or things here below as to say I love or hate such a person or thing infinitely might not such language well be spared Secondly 2 Scriptures abused The Tongue trips and falls foully when it makes bold with Scriptures using or abusing rather the phrase and language of it in jesting to provoke mirth in Company 1 In jesting or in wresting it to maintain erronious opinions as seducers do I grant that there is a facetiousness a witty cheariness in discourse which being well ordered may not onely be lawful but a duty yet to jest it in the words of Scripture as when asked why did not you come at such a time to such a place as you promised To answer merrily saying I have a Farm c. I pray you have me excused or I have a Wife and could not come and an hundred the like expressions which the Devil and prophane wits of men can forge and fancy surely this way of tossing the word of God to and fro falls within the Compass of that jesting which the Apostle saith Eph. 5.4 is not Convenient The Original word used which the Philosophers ranked among one of their vertues the Holy Apostle puts in the Catalogue of vices as fornication covetousness foolish talking Vers 3. and jesting Talking scurrilously and lasciviously is alwayes bad enough especially when cloathed with Scripture Language that is a breach of many commands together Jesting in Scripture phrases is inbeseeming the gravity and fanctity of Christianity Remember it is ill jesting with edged Tooles such surely is the word of God yea Heb. 4.12 it 's sharper than any two edged sword Againe the holy Word of God is miserably abused and prophaned 2 In wresting the Scripture in the wresting and misapplying it to the countenancing and patronizing of errors and heresies or of vicious words and practices 2 Pet. 3.16 This the Apostle Complains of saying That in Pauls Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Unlearned and unstable Ignorance is the Root of instability Againe ignorance and instability are the Mother and Nurse of most or all the corrupt opinions and wayes which are taken up and walked in by the mistaken children of men and one great Engine which Satan useth in his seductions is the wresting misconstruing and the misapplying the Holy Scriptures making men believe that the Spirit of God speaketh that in the word which indeed never was at all the meaning of the Holy Ghost The word in the Original significantly points at this alluding to tormentors who lay men on the Rack and make them to speak that which they never meant or thought so that this wresting is to torment and rack the Scriptures and which is dreadfull to think all this is to their own destruction As if a man sadly distempered walking in a pleasant Spring or Grove should cut up a young Twig and be twisting and twining of it till he had made a with of it and then go and hang himself therein Thus the Sabbath breakâ—… who profane the day by idleness The Sabbath breaker 〈◊〉 speaking their own words by finding their own pleasure upon Gods holy day if rebuked will plead saying Mar. 2.27 The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath Thus the greedy worldlings The worldling Amos. 2 7. Hab. 2.6 who pant after the dust of the Earth and all the day long are lading themselves with thick Clay mind nothing but Earth Earth Earth if questioned why do ye thus why spend ye your strength for that which is not Bread and labour for that which will not satisfie they have a ready answer 1 Tim. 5.8 If any provide not for his own and specially for those of his own house he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel The Glutton Phil. 3.19 Luk. 16.19 Thus the gluttons and voluptuous Epicures of our Age who make their bellies their gods faring deliciously every day who care for nothing but to eat the fat and drink the sweet if a reason of this their brutish sensuality be demanded They 'l presently tell you Eccl. 2.24 There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and that he should make his soulenjoy goâ—… his labour The worst of sinners Yea the worst of sinners 〈◊〉 on swearers drunkards adulterers lyers cheaters and such like will wrest and pervert Scriptures to their own delusion obduration and destruction 3 By swearing 3. The Tongues of men grow black and bloody with Oathes of several sorts and sizes 1. Blasphemous Oathes by the parts and