these words Do not hearken to Satans suggestions to the contrary he is an Adversary If he cannot hinder your Salvation he will do what he can to damp your joy and peace in believing You ought not to give heed to him but to repel him as our Saviour did Get thee behind me Satan Your own unbelieving Heart for Faith is mixed with unbelief even in Gods Children also will raise Objections against you thus I have many Corruptions in me unruly Passions I am hasty to Anger Ignorant have little Knowledge considering the time and means I have enjoyed I am dull in Duty I Pray without any life or heat I am cold in love to God and Jesus Christ I grow not in Grace I am blockish and remember nothing I hear And many such things you have to say against your self To which I Answer Grant all this to be true These are Sins of Infirmity which may consist with true Grace Psal 40 12. David saith My sins are more then the hairs upon my head Psal 73. 22. So foolish was I and ignorant even as a beast before thee Read Heb. 5. 11 12. Ye are dull of hearing c. whom yet he highly commends Heb. 3. 1. and 6. 10. So long as sin reigneth not hath no dominion over you you need not question your interest in Christ and you may know that sin reigneth not when you are grieved for it confess and bewaâ—l it and pray for grace and help against it strive and watch against it and do what you can to keep your self from your iniquity Psal 18. 23. Consider that none are justified or saved because they are sinless pure and perfect but blessed are they whose sins are forgiven Psal 32. 1 2. And to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Rom. 4. 5. What was the end of Christs coming but to take away sin Mat. 1. 21. Joh. 1. 29. Also a chief branch of the Covenant of Grace in Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness And therefore be not faithless but believing as Christ said to Thomas John 20. 27 28 And let your heart make the same Answer that he did My Lord and my God It may be that your present condition is a grief to you that you cannot worship God as you desire or as in your Health you can do God no service Let not your heart be troubled at this for God requires no more than he gives And it may be no small comfort to you that you were diligent to attend upon God in your Health and when you had Legs you used them to Gods glory And now you are serving God in another way in the way of Passive Obedience in which if you submit to Gods will with Meekness and Patience you may do God as good service as they that preach or hear or travel far to the Word â— will conclude with those sweet words of Christ John 14. 1. Let not your heart be troubled Believe that God is yours Christ is yours the Covenant of Grace is yours your Sins are forgiven the Promises are yours even the great Promise 2 Cor. 6. 18. I will be a Father to you And that also Rom. 8. 28. We know that all things shall work together for good to them that love God Even all the exceeding great and precious promises in Christ 2 Pet. 1. 4. which are yea and Amen true and faithful O bless God that ever you were born Spiritually that you were born again Say and sing with David Psal 103. 1. 2 3. Bless the Lord O my Soul And Psal 32. at the latter end Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 48. 14. This God is our God for ever and ever he will be our guide unto death And with the Church Isa 25. 9. Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us This is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation But I may save further labour and indeed might have spared this pains for you have a Book by you which contains all that I now write and much more to the same purpose The scope and substance of it is to chear up and comfort poor Souls that walk sad and sorrowful when they have no other cause but to rejoyce and serve the Lord with gladness in which kind of service the Lord is well pleased I pray you peruse it and read it through till you have got your Heart into a joyful frame Now I pray and let it be your Dayly Prayer That the God of Love fill you with Joy and Peace in believing to whose Grace I commend you Yours Vnfeignedly IT grieves me much for your sake that the hand of the Lord is gone out against you in so dreadful a â—rovidence that it puts me hard to it how to minister a word of Consolation to you in this your sad condition A wise Son maketh a glad Father but a foolish Son is the heavyâ—ess of his Mother I have no greater joy than to hear that my Children walk in the Truth So I know no greater affliction that can befall Parents then to have Children walking contrary to the Truth and dying in their Sins Yet is not your Case in this respect singular No Temptation hath befallen you but what is common to men to good men witness Aaron Ely David with many others whom I could name known both to you and me You are to acquiess in Gods Providential Administrations and not to disquiet your Soul with the doubtfulness of his Eternal Estate But to ascribe Righteousness to your Maker and say with the Psalmist Righteous art thou O Lord and upright are thy judgments How unsearchable are his judgments and his â—aâ—es past finding out Take the Example of the Prophets and other Holy Men in Scripture for an example of suffering Affliction and of Patience Set before you the Patience of Job who besides the loss of so great an Estate lost all his Children seven in number cut off by untimely death yet how Religiously doth he demean himself how Patiently to admiration Two of Aarons Sons in the flower of their Age and in the beginning and very first entrance upon that Sacred Function perish by fire from Heaven a heavy stroke arguing great indignation yet mark the Fathers pious behaviour under such a mark of Gods displeasure Aaron held his Peaâ—e As for Davids lamentation over Absalom it is not to be drawn into imitation For the bottom of his grief was not purely nor chiefly as far as appears sorrow for his sin and the eternal condition of his Soul but rather proceeded from Natural Affection and over much fondness and indulgence because of his exquisite Beauty which the Scripture doth highly extol For he takes not one sigh at the death of Ammon who also dyed in his sin and also by a violent
Are not you sensible of your your wants and of your beggarly condition Do not you not say with David I am poor and needy Psal 70 5. And with Paul Rom. 7. 18. in me dwells no good thing Is not your appetite and thirst after grace as strong as Sampsons was for water or Rachels for Children give me Children or else I dye Do you not thirst after more grace and covet earnestly farther degrees of holiness and wish you were the holiest rather than the richest or greatest Lady or Princess in the world If so then I question it not but you are one of the blessed ones in the judgment of Christ who is infallible and cannot mistake What have you to say against this I hope you rest satisfied about vile and vain thoughts which do not lodge in you but you repel them and reject them These may be your grief and affliction but are not your sin cannot prejudice your good estate nor ought your imperfections passions corruptions from which the best on earth are not free to cause you to question your justification or your being in Christ So long as you bewail them strive against them and are humbled for them your desire is to reach after perfection and further Measures of holiness These desires are of and from the Spirit of God And he accepts the will for the deed as was shewed in divers instances Nay this to me makes it clear if God account impious desires vicious ungodly inordinate lusts for the sin it self or deed done as Hatred with him is imputed Murder 1 Joh. 3. 15. Lusting after a woman though she remain chast is Adultery in Gods account in the man So much more longing and thirsting desires after grace are beginnings of grace and such desires God accepts and will fulfil them Psal 145. 19. provided they be gracious and holy desires humble desires springing from a broken heart from one that is poor in Spirit if they be constant unsatisfied vehement in the use of means and that a man so prize Christ and his grace that he be ready to sell all to buy the Pearl Now this being your condition what cause have you to leave your doubting and spend your dayes in rejoycing and praising God for his singular Mercy in conferring on you so excellent a gift as is saving grace which is so rare a gift like gold to be found with few persons but more excellent than millions of gold and silver Let your meditation of God be sweet and admire his wonderful love to you in Christ and how great things he hath done for you Yours I Am sorry that the Sun and Stars are darkened with you and that the Clouds return after the Rain But be not discouraged this is a case common to many good Christians and no other than befalls the best of Gods people Do not fear but the light will break forth again though you be under a cloud at present The Son of Righteousness will arise upon you with healing in his wings Be sure you regard no iniquity in your heart Keep you from every accursed thing Wash you make you clean cease to do evil learn to do well and mark what follows If your sins were as scarlet they shall be as white as snow if they be as crimson they shall be as wooll If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin Again If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World Now reach out the hand of Faith and lay hold on the promises and apply them for they are exceeding great and precious promises and they are all in Christ yea and Amen true and faithful And they are your promises yea directed to you in particular as if your name was put to them O be not faithless but believing And if you do believe with all your heart then are your sins forgiven according to the tenour of these promises Now are you justified and at peace with God through Jesus Christ O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt Doubts in Gods people may arise from one of these causes The heinonsness of Sin the imperfection of Duties or the weakness of Faith For the first of these know that the Lord thinks never the worse of any for what they have been for any sins they have lived in when once they have truly repented of them Ezek. 18. 21 22. You may observe in the Church that Christ never shewed greater kindness to any than to such as had been most notorious As the woman of Samaria Zacheus the Publican Mary Magdelen And whereas there is but four women mentioned in the Genealogy of Christ Mat. 1. not one of them but the Scripture sets a mark of infamy upon them for some notorious sins Ruth was a Heathen an Idolater Tamar Rahab Bathsheba you know what they were yet these only have the honour to be upon record when Sarah and women though more spotless are passed by in silence What may be the reason thereof Take it from Mr. Hildersam To teach us that penitent sinners shall have never the less honour with God shall be never the less esteemed for that they have done after they have once truly repented and turned to the Lord So you see there is no cause why you should be dismayed at the hainousness of your sins having repented of them For the next True it is that after Conversion we are but in part regenerate and so our best Duties are imperfect and stained with many corruptions Isa 64. 6. yet God doth not reject them nor us for these defects but accepts them 1 Pet. 2. 5. delighteth in them Cant. 2. 14. will reward them Col. 3. 24. Heb. 11. 5. and not so much as take notice of the blemishes that are in our best services Mic. 7. 18. Cant. 4. 7. Thon art all fair my love there is no spot in thee Let not the poorness of your Duties discourage you but remember Christ sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for you By whose merits Saints Prayers are perfumed as it were with incense and so are made a sweet savour to God Rev. 8. 3. And for the third know that it is not the strength but the truth of Faith that giveth us acceptance with God through Faiths acceptance of Christ Joh. 1. 12. As many as received him c Now a weak hand may receive a gift as truly as a strong A single penny may be as good and clear Silver as a bigger piece Among Believers Heb. 11 some whose sincerity we should have doubted of so weak was their Faith if the Holy Ghost had not put them in the Catalogue of the Faithful As Gideon Barak Sampson Jeptha Rahab Him that is weak in Faith we are bidden to receive Rom. 14. 1. Sure God
never be taken from you I know no business of greater weight than this is therefore I beseech you do not slight it but lay it to heart Thus with due respects to you I rest Yours truly John Hieron Losco June 14. 77. THE only intent of this Paper is to give you a word of Spiritual Advice and Direction to carry your self so in this World that you may be happy for ever in the World to come You know every one hath a Soul an Immortal Soul which must live â—ternally either in bliss or misery And every one of us must be careful to save his own Soul Deut. 4. 9. Only take heed to thy self and keep thy Soul diligently The more precious any thing is the more careful we are to preserve it and more fearful to lose it In this respect the Soul deserves more care than all the things in the World besides for it is infinitely more worth What will it profit a man to gain the whole world and loose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Saith our blessed Saviour Matth. 16. 26. Wherefore let my Counsel be acceptable to you and I will shew you the right way how you may save your Soul and be for ever happy which I shall do in two words First Be careful to shun and avoid whatsoever is destructive and dangerous to the Soul and that is sin and sinful lusts 1 Pet. 2. 11. Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul Dent. 23. 9. Keep thee from every wicked thing Jer. 44. 4. Oh do not this aâ—ominabâ—â— thing that my soul hates faith the Lord God For the soul that sinneth shall dye Ezek. 18. 4 And as you must watch against all sin so must you flee all occasions and temptations to sin Beware of ill example Follow not a multitude to do evil Exod. 23. 2. for the way to Hell is broad the gate that leadeth to destruction is wide and many there be that go in thereat Take heed of bad company which are infectioâ—s Shun them as you would shun the Plague For a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump He that walketh with the wife that is the Godly shall be wise But a companion of fools that is of wicked men shall be destroyed Prov. 13. 20. Be not among wine-bibbers Prov. 23. 20. Come not near the door of an Harlot or Harlots house Prov. 5. 8. Blessed is the man c. Psal 1. 1. This is the first part of my Advice which is the same you are engaged to by the Vow of your Baptism wherein you renounced the World the Flesh and the Devil and are under a solemn obligation to maintain a continual War against them as being enemies to your Soul And if you shall neglect to do it you would be a forsworn creature This is a consideration well worthy your laying to heart In the next place you must carefully use those means that God hath appointed to work grace and holiness in your heart for by this we are saved And without holiness no man shall see the Lord or be happy Heb. 12. 14. Let sin be the grief and burden of your heart yea sin original chiefly as well as actual sins for we are all born in sin and Children of wrath by Nature and must be born again that so Natural Corruption the plague of our heart may be healed in us by a new birth from Heaven If any man be in Christ he is a new creature For this you must pray to God earnestly and with importunity that he will create in you a new heart Psal 51. 10. and work in you a lively Faith that you may kiss the Son believe in Jesus Christ for pardon of Sin and Salvation For this end you must diligently and constantly attend on the Word which is the ordinary means which God hath appointed to beget and increase Faith Rom. 10. 17. Faith cometh by hearing Have a care to keep holy the Sabbath day constantly and no day neglect reading the Scripture And let fervent Prayer be your Morning and Evening Sacrifice continually and pray God to put his fear in your heart that you may never depart from him Blessed is the man tâ—aâ— feâ—reth alwayeâ— Prov. 28. 14. Daily be faithful and diligent in your Calling he courteous to all men do evil to none speak evil of no man live soberly be temperate in all things Let the chief care of your heart and endeavour of your life be to serve and please God that he may bless you here and save you hereafter So God shall have Honour your Friends Comfort in you and your Soul be eternally â—â—ved which is the desire of Your true Friend and Lover John Hieron Losco June 19. 1680. Thus this Holy Man was taking and making opportunities of doing good to Souls The conversion quickning and saving of Souls was the desire of his Heart what he earnestly prayed for and the design of his Sermons and of his Letters and of his private Discourse too and that to the last As a Kiâ—swoman coming to visit him not long before he dyed and staying all night when she came into his Chamber to take her leave after much good Counsel given her sayes he Are you going But who came along with you She answered Her Man And Payes he where is he I have something to say to him Then he was told that the Man was on Horse-back waiting for his Mistress He replyed Call him up Shall any one come and lodge a might in my House and I say nothing to him concerning his Soul Bid him alight and come to me for I must speak to him Thus he shewed his Care for the Soul of a Servant as well as of the Mistress his Love to the Soul of a Stranger as well as to any of his own Kindred FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chapel A Second Volume of lives of sundry eminent persons in this latter agae in two parts I. of Divines II. of Nobilicy and Gentry of both Sexes By Samuel Clark M. A. sometime Pastor of Bennetsink in London The life and Death of Edmond Staunton D. D. to which is added I. his Treatise of Christain conference II. His Dialogue between a Minister and a stranger Octavo The true Dignity of St. Paul's elder exemplefied in the life of that Reverend Holy zealous and faithful Servant and Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. Owen Stockton M. A. sometimes follower of Gonvile and Câ—jâ—s Colledge in Cambridge and afterward Preacher of Gods Word â—t Colchester in Essex With a Collection of his observations Experiences and Evidences recorded by his own hand to which is added his Funeral Sermon by John Fâ—â—rfax M. A. sometime Fellow of C. Colledge in Cambridge and afterward Rector of â—â—rking in Sâ—ffolk Invisible Realities demonstrated in the Holy Life and Triumphant Death of Mr. John Janeway Fellow of Kings Colledge in Cambridge By James Janeway Minister of the Gospel A Narraitive of the Holy Life and happy death of that Reverend faithful and zealous man of God Minster of the Gospel of JesusChrist Mr. John Angier many years Pastor of the Church of Christ at Dunton near Manchester in Lancashire Wherein are related many Passaged that concern his Birth Education his entrance into the Ministry discharge of his trust therein and his Death Octavo A Believers Triumph over Death exemplified in a relation of the last hours of Dr. Andrews River and an account of divers other remarkable Instances being an History of the Comfortable end and dying words of several eminent Men. With other occasionall Passages attending to comfort Christians to the fear of Death and prepare them for a like happy Change The Life and death of Mr. Tâ—o Wilson Minister of Maidstone in the County of Kent M. A. A True History of the Capâ—ivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson a Ministers Wife in New England wherein is set forth the cruel and Inhumane usage she under went amongst the Heathens for cleven Weeks time and her delieverance from them Written by her own hand for her private use and now made publick at the earnest desire of some friends for the benefit of the Afflicted whereunto is anexed a Sermon of the possibility of Gods forsaking a People that have been near and dear to him preached by Mr. Josph Rowlandson Husband to the said Mrs. Rowlandson so it being his last Sermon Carracters of a Godly Man both as more and less grown in grace By Daniel Burgess Minister of the Gospel Octavo Of National Churches their description Institution use preservation danger Malides and cure partly applyed to England quarto Again the Revolt to a Forrain Iurisdiction which would be to England its Perjury Church R â—un and slavery in two parts I. the History of Mans endeavours to Introduce it II. the Confutation of all pretences for it Church Concord containing I. A Diswasive from unnecessary Division and Separation and the real concord of the moderate Independants with the Presbyterians instanced in ten seeming Differences II. the Terms necessary for concord among all true Churches and Christians These three By Richard Baxter Minister of the Gospel FINIS
THE LIFE OF Mr. John Hieron WITH THE Characters and Memorials Of Ten other Worthy Ministers OF JESUS CHRIST Written by Mr. Robert Porter late Minister of the Gospel in Nottinghamshire Published by D. BURGESS Exempla movent LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in 〈◊〉 near Mercers-Chappel MDCXCI To the READER IN complyance with the desire of Reverend Mr. John Barret of Nottinghamshire I send abroad this Treatise and prefix my Thoughts quales quales thereof I conceive it well worthy of its very Eminent Aâ—thor Mr. Robert Porter who also now sleeps in Christ The Matter Language and Method are worthy of him Who hath herein like himself joyned brevity with sweetness given the Memoirs of many worthy Men in a narrow room And laudably performed the Historians part in Relations and the Divines part in Reflections To me it seemeth no small Duty as I hope faâ—ther to express in due time to publish the Lives and Praises of Holy Men. It is the Will of Him whose Will ought to be ours that the Memory of the Just should be blessed And the praise of such is more Gods praise then theirs As for themselves Saints need no Monuments And no one of them desires a richer Encomium than Lazarus had The poor man dyed and was carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosom But the Church and World do need their Memorials For exemplifieâ— Sanctity is the most Noble Beautiful and Perswasive The Holiness that is in Gods Children is of 〈◊〉 more excellent kind than that which is in his Holy Biblâ— It is a liviâ—â— image of God and that which is the transcendent End of which the Scripture it self is but a Means Such Narratives as this do shame and wipe away the Calumnies which Ignorant Men drivel and Malicious ones do foam out against the Excellent of the Earth They do convincingly prove what many will not think That there are really very Illustrious Gifts and Graces where no such things are seen as Copes and Miters And that it is not among such as the Protestant United-Brethren that a godly painful Minister is a rare thing Whatever be suggested to the contrary by those that still judge us fitter for Prisons than Pulpits Great Hugo Grotius when Dying would have given all that ever he had to be plain godly John Urick They whose hearts are cleansed by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost do surely expect the day wherein the most Dignified Drones will wish they had been what they do now malignantly name Drudging Divines The Lord make us all more Pure and Holy and followers of them who are now inheriting the Promises That our Burning Bush may not be consumed but our Jerusalem be yet made the Praise of the whole Earth So Prayeth Daniel Burgess THE LIFE OF Mr. Hieron c. CHAP. I. Of Mr. Hieron's Parentage Birth and Childhood MR. John Hieron was a Prophet and the Son of a Prophet His Father was Minister at Stapenhil near Burton upon Trent a Vicaridge it was and in that Vicaridge-House he was born in August 1608 and baptized the 28th day of that Moneth His Father being puritanically inclined had no great things in the World but he was a good Man I have heard his Son John say of him that he was well esteemed of by Mr. Hildersam and his Hearers And that he did believe that he was found in the way of Righteousness It hath been the sin and the shame of this Nation Oh when shall we be cleansed that the least scandalous Ministers have been forced to take up with most scandalous maintenance They then made sure to make Old Nonconformists poor and to keep them so But through frugality and Gods Blessing they lived and brought up their Children well Since the Year 1662 they have used a Method quite to starve Nonconformists Not a poor Vicaridge not a blind Chappel not a School nor any visible way of maintenance for them and yet they have lived Providence is kind and tender handfuls of Meal are growing and we almost think we may some of us live to see Puritanism better thought of and provided for in England I know many Nonconformists pinched but none starved Though neither Purse nor Scrip yet no insupportable tempting wants When Bladders are pricked yet they can't sink whom God will hold up by the chin and teach the hand of Faith the true swimming stroak In his minority he went over Trent both going to and coming from School and was once or twice endangered thereby In a Note found under his own hand it is thus said Deliverances to me vouchsafed à teneris annis 1. From a Cow in his Fathers yard that took him on her horns and threw him a great way yet without any harm 2. Falling out of a Chamber into a dry Fat in the lower room yet no harm 3. Fell out of a Boat into Trent yet not hurt 4. Once ventring into the Trent-boat himself and not being able to manage it and the wind high he was carried down the River towards some deep place and at least one whirlepit where he had been in danger to have been lost But one seeing it took a private Boat and stopped him and his drowning was prevented These he recounts and adds a good note The Lord expects we keep a chronology of remarkable things done by him for us Greenhil on Ezek. 24. 2. In these things we may note That these preservations were presages of something more than ordinary that God had for him to do Where such notable things occur they signifie some eminent Evil the Persons are reserved for or some eminent good preserved for Moses drawn out of the Water was a deliverer There is a passage in the minority of Ambrose That there was a swarm of Bees setled on his Face in his Cradle and flew away without any hurt to him Whereupon his Father utter'd this saying Si vixerit infantulus iste aliquid magni erit If this Child live he will be some great Man Again since you see he laid these in his Records kept them as the Pot of Manna let us rehearse and record Gods goodness It 's a real wonder any Child lives to be a Man or if they do they are not all Mephibosheths through folly It must be ascribed to God and his Providence without which all our Watchers and Keepers would be in vain There are many places that give us occasion to call them as Hagar Gen. 16. 13 14. did the Well Beer-la-hai-roi places where we have found God seeing for us and looking after us where we have not looked at him nor for him CHAP. II. Of his Country Education MR. Hierons father removing to Chelaston he was with several Masters but at length he placed him at Repton-School after Mr. Whitehead was come thither with whom he continued Five years Mr. Whitehead's Abilities and Method of Teaching and Diligence were so great and his Conversation so good that the School obtained a great Name and bred
man to make additions to Religious Worship Do you not find the contrary in those Scriptures Deut. 4. 2. Deut. 12. 32. Prov. 30. 6. Who gave Man power to adopt unnecessaries into Religion What bottom stands Magisterial Authority upon Ministerial Power is of God but for this Magisterial it wants Commission Matth. 23. 8 9 10. Quest 2. Is not the power of imposing as dark to thinking men as the power of inventing Whence did you learn to make burdens Whence to lay them on and bind them on We are tempted to think your Masters are Matth. 23. 4. Hath God given you power over the Consciences of men to ransack their Judgments and wrack their Consciences to ruin all that cannot agree to your Sentiments to undo all that cannot do what you will have them Do you not in this strike down the pin upon which the Law and the Prophets hang Would you that others should do so to you What stricture or beam of right Reason leads you to make your Judgment the publick standard Quest 3. What branch of Justice or Equity is there in so grievous Penalties for not conforming to such Impositions The fault is small if it be a fault Should mens brains be knocked out to kill a Fly on their forehead But the Dissenters judge it a Duty to witness against usurpations of Men. They think they are bound by Gods Law to preserve the purity of Christs Worship They think that a yielding in some things was as a stirrop by which Antichrist got into the saddle Are not these things judged by you indifferent And must men be punished as if they had denyed and razed the Fundamental Articles of Faith Should you make men spectacles the filth and off-scouring of all things upon these accounts Who can read either Christianity or Humanity in such severities Quest 4. What awe can be impressed or obligation fastened on a well informed Conscience from Humane Laws establishing backing and enforcing such Impositions Have not Magistrates supream and subordinate their Lines and Limits Provinces and Bounds set them by the God of Heaven Are they makers or only keepers of Gods Tables Did the People of England trust their Representatives to make snares for their Ministers and yokes for the People Were they impowered by them to prescribe and write the grievousness they had prescribed They were entrusted to be shields not swords healers not wounders they said to them Let our ruins be under your hands they never put themselves into their hands to ruine them Quest 5. What Spirit are you of when you make all Assemblies but your own Seditious Conventicles Schismatical Meetings Routs Riots Know you not that they which acknowledge God are bound to assemble to worship him Do you can you think it is better not to worship God at all then not to worship him in your way and mode Dare you undertake that this shall hold in the day of Judgment Are not you told by some great men of your own That he that gives the cause of the Schism is the Schismatick Do you think those you displaced took themselves to be disofficed Did their People desert them when you ejected them Was the Word of Truth utterly taken out of the mouths you stopped Was not Gods word in their hearts as a burning fire shut up in their bones so that they were weary of forbearing and could not stay Did their Breasts ake and must they not draw them out to the Babes that desire the sincere milk of the Word You have some of you called Conventicles the crying sin of England Oh! How crying a sin is it in you that have occasioned them yea necessitated them A Natural Mother turned out of her own House will suckle her Child in the Field or in the meanest coat or shed she can set her foot into Corners are not our choice but your force Quest 6. Have not you cause to fear that the blood of some of these dead Ministers will be upon you You judged them unworthy of the World and God hath thereby been provoked to judge the World not worthy of them You made their work much harder to them and by their journeyings and fastings and watchings in all likelyhood you did hurry and hasten them out of the World Oh that some of us might live to see a relenting Spirit in you It would be a joy to me and a token for good to you for otherwise I am greatly perswaded Judgment is towards you because Mercy is the promised portion of the Merciful and Judgment without Mercy hangs over the heads of them that shew no Mercy And so I have finished my Historical and Practical part of this Book And shall conclude it with only adding one Chapter more in communicating to you some Letters written by this Eminent Servant of God Mr. John Hieron which are as a Mirrour wherein you may see the Ability and Fidelity of the Holy Man of God CHAP. XI His Letters OF his Letters I promised to give some taste and make them the Coronis of this Work In publishing of which I conceal Names that I may not reflect upon the dead nor justly offend the living Again Let not the living be disturbed for though the Letters be published their Names are not exposed It will do them no hurt to read those Letters in Print which they have in Writing It may do others good to read Letters that were written to others possibly they may reach teach meet with others Hearts being much alike and the same Corruptions Temptations in one and another First Letter Christian Friend YOU desire that I would write to you about your Spiritual Estate which I take to be safe and comfortable so far as one is able to pass Judgment of another But no man knoweth certainly the things of another save the spirit of a man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. You are then to commune with your own heart to search and try your wayes whether you walk after the Spirit be led by the Spirit Rom 8. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God If you ask How shall I know whether I am led by the Spirit I Answer If you bring forth the fruits of the Spirit if you follow after Holiness sincere Obedience to all Gods Commandments patience in Affliction love to God Christ all Saints love to the Word fear to offend God a care to please God and keep Conscience pure and void of offence toward God and Man Godly sorrow for sin forsaking every evil way and above all believe in the Lord Jesus Christ rest upon him trust in his all-sufficient satisfaction for pardon of Sin and Eternal Life And all this I doubt not but you do in some measure so that you may conclude as the Apostle doth Rom 8. 1. There is therefore no condemuation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit May you not comfort your self with
will not reject such And now what place is there left for your doubting If God do not shine upon you by the light of his Countenance yet is he your loving Father reconciled to you in his Son A Father is a Father still though he do not alwayes smile on his Son Go you on in your Christian course of Godliness serve the Lord with chearfulness and believe that your poor services shall and do find acceptance with Christ Observe that in Lev. 1. 7. So much as is said of the offering of the poor Mans Sacrifice which was but two young Pidgeons Another to the same Person IAm distressed for you What shall I do for you Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted How shall a man comfort a Soul that refuseth to be comforted Your case is like Hagars in the Wilderness who was ready to perish through drought when there was a Well of Water by her but she saw it not till God opened her eyes Gen. 21. 9. like Mary Joh. 20. 15. who stood weeping for Christ who stood by her but she knew not that it was Jesus You have the Well of Water in you springing up to Eternal Life you have Christ in you the hope of Glory but your eyes are held that you perceive him not Like those two Disciples that went to Emanus Luk. 24. 16. You are in Christ there is no curse condemnation or wrath to come belonging to you you are washed you are sanctified you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God All things are yours Christ with all his benefits the Covenant of Grace with all its priviledges all the great and precious promises of the Gospel which are yea and Amen in Christ sealed in his Blood confirmed to you in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper God is your God your loving Father in Christ Heaven and Eternal Life is yours Fear not poor Soul it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom What shall I say more What can you desire more except you would have your name put into the Scripture promises You believe you shall dye because it is appointed for all men once to dye your Name is not there You believe the Resurrection of the Body because it is written There shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust yet your Name is not there The Scripture saith Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ shall be saved i. e. Whosoever being truly humbled for sin disclaims all opinion of his own Righteousness and with Paul desireth to be found in his Righteousness only he truly believeth And so do you therefore you shall certainly be saved The Scripture saith Whosoever confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Whoso loveth God the same is beloved of God Prov. 8. 17. He that loveth the Brethren is translated from death to life If you say these are general Promises How shall I gather assurance from them concerning my personal estate I Answer By looking into your own heart where if you find you are so qualified and have these Graces of the Spirit wrought in you viz. Faith Repentance Love to God and all Saints you may be assured of your Salvation as certainly as if Christ had said to you by name as he did to the Man that had the Palsie Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven or to Mary Magdalen her sins which are many are forgiven Mar. 7. 47. As to your vain Thoughts I can say no more but what I have said that neither they nor any other sin of infirmity which is your burden and trouble shall hurt or indanger your Salvation It 's the common lot of all Christians to suffer Afflictions outward or inward and sometimes both 2 Cor. 7. 5. We were troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears God is only wise knoweth how to order all for the good of his people Wait on him with patience until he shine on your Soul with the light of his Countenance and fill you with Joy and Comfort according to the promise Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Beware of unbelief which maketh God a lyar 1 Joh 5. 10. Believe his Promises believe his Prophets so shall ye be established 2 Chron. 20. 20. Beware of entertaining hard thoughts of God dark misgiving thoughts as you seem to do when you fear lest God swear in his wrath against you he did so against murmuring rebellious Israel who despised the pleasant Land and would appoint a Captain to lead them back into Egypt What is this to your case God is good and doth good is Love Light Life Grace to all that trust in him Read Dr. Mantons first Sermon on Psal 119. 68. where he gives a check to such as yours Page 473. You say true I have not prayed for you of late more carnestly because I hoped you had been more settled and at peace hearing nothing from you to the contrary Now I shall tender your condition I cannot as yet promise you a solemn day I have been very ill since I wrote to you and am yet far from well I pray you have patience and when God makes me able I hope to see you I am hasting apace to the Grave my Legs swell which together with old Age tell me the Grave is ready for me God grant I may be ready for it I pray read these Lines peruse them and ponder them in your heart and pray that the Holy Spirit may let you know the things that are freely given you of God Yours J. H. Mar. 9. 81. IAm not without hope to fall to work again shortly I pray therefore in your next let me understand whether you continue in the same mind to have a day kept on your account or whether you have found him whom your Soul loveth whether the Son of Righteousness be risen in your heart with healing in his wings or the Day-Star from on high hath visited your Soul I pray you let me ask you one Question Have you not received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that worthily i. e. In a due manner becoming that Holy Ordinance with Gospel preparation and communing with your own heart in secret I know you have many times Now what is a Sacrament a Seal of the Covenant of Grace is it not Well then there must be mutual Sealing on both parts You put to your Seal that you will receive Christ with his yoke of Obedience with his Cross Persecution Did you not mean thus sincerely with a good and honest heart This is your Covenanting for your part which you will indeavour to perform faithfully all the dayes of your life though in many things you fail as in vain thoughts and divers other things And God Sealeth to you for his part that he will be to you a God allsufficient will give you his Son with forgiveness of Sins and all things pertaining to Life and Godliness
is a sore affliction to your Wise family and relations it impoverisheth your Estate causeth a neglect of your business and calling it unfits you for holy duties though you do not altogether lay them aside If you regard iniquity in your hearts God will not hear your prayer he heareth not sinners that is not such as live in sin for in prayer we are commanded to lift up holy hands 1 Tim 2. 8. Lay all these together in the ballance of the Sanctuary Weigh your Actions Do I well to turn from my Righteousness and commit Iniquity Do I well to forsake God the fountain of living water and to dig to my self broken Cisterns that can hold no water Do I well to grieve the holy spirit to bring an evil report on the holy ways of God Do I well to run the hazard of damning my Soul To encourage sinners in sin to harden the wicked and offend the godly to undo Wife and Children and make sad the hearts of my friends will it not be bitterness in the end I conceive you to be under a sore temptation The hand of Joaâ— of Satan is in all this you are discontented and pressed with heavie burdens of debt and some outward concerments and the Devil draws you to the Ale-house as a diversion and to drive away sorrow But this a sinister course a remedy worse then the disease as to be sure all remedies are of that enemyes prescribing Will any wise man hearken to the counsel of an enemy consult but your own reason Is spending your money and wasting your time laying aside care of business the way to lesson or encrease your debts If there were no sin in it it might divert your mind a little for the present Just like impenitent sinners who are convinc'd of the necessity of Repentance but because Repentance and Godly Sorrow is bitter to the Flesh they defer and delay from time to time and singer as Lot did in Sodom till a shower of Fire and Brimstone overtook them to their eternal undoing Be not so unwise as to make light of Eternal Happiness by giving way to Alehouse mirth and merryment which is a poor remedy and to be sorrowed for with bitter tears Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness Now if you will hearken I will give you advice and the Lord shall be with you Repent and be converted and return to God from whom you are deeply revolted bewail your backsliding forsake your evil courses Enter not into the path of the wicked Prov. 4. 14 15. Pray lie at the Throne of Grace beseech God with importunity beg pardon for what is past and Grace to keep you from the path of the destroyer for the time to come Break off from all ill company Say as Psal 119. 15. Depart from me ye wicked I will keep the Commandments of my God It may be said he that hath drawn you into the snare will discourage you from recovering your self by Repentance by telling you it is too late your sins are too many and too heinous to be forgiven but believe him not he is a lyar he is a murderer of Souls Believe the Word of God the God of Truth which assures to repenting sinners that there is hope in Israel If we confess and forsake our sins we shall find mercy Prov. 28. 13. Isa 1. 16 18. 1 Joh. 1. 7. Psal 130. 4 6. I will heal their backsliding Hos 14. 4. Jer. 12. This course if you will follow to set about it without delay then shall you obtain forgiveness through the rich mercy of God in Christ Read and consider well the parable of the prodigal Son Luke 15. and doubt not of Gods favour and reconciliation and so the worst and most dangerous of your debts are discharged And for your Money-debts you may find a better way of cure for them than the company of good fellows in an Alehouse You have secret Prayer a sweet solace for a Soul in trouble Psal 119. 4. you have good Books to read you have Godly Ministers of the Word you have Christian Neighbours whose Society and Counsel you may make use of you have Wife and Children to delight and recreate your self in their company you have Friends and Relations not far distant who are able to give you advice if you will make known your case unto them and not smother your grief by reserving and locking it up in your own breast which is not a good way This is to keep the Devils Counsel till you sink under your burden with despair Take need of it I know your Brother loveth you dearly and is not so far off but you may have his help at hand and assistance to manage your Estate so as to clear all your Debts in a 〈◊〉 time make him of your Counsel and take his Advice I am no Counsellor in Worldly affairs I pray you regard what I say from God concerning your Soul and let your Brother be of your Counsel touching your outward Estate And so I commend you to God praying that you may duely weigh what I have said that my Counsels and Reproofs be not as Water spilt on the ground but rather as good seed falling on good ground that by Gods Blessing it may bring forth good fruit even true Repentance in you and amendment of Life c. Your Loving Friend for the Salvation of your Soul J. H. BEcause I have no Worldly good thing to present you with I now and then let a word of Spiritual Counsel drop from my Pen. I desire to commend to you one Scripture which I pray you to meditate on frequently Deut. 4. 9. Only take heed to thy self and keep thy Soul diligently Is there any thing in this World of equal concernment If the Soul be safe all is safe It shall go well with the Body if the Soul be saved If the â—oul miscarry we are undone for ever Shall we be careful of the Health of the Body and careless of the Immortal Soul Shall we keep our Money safe our Lands and Evidences of Estates and not keep our Hearts diligently Prov. 4. 23. Let us preserve our Money our Estates as charily as we can Death will strip us of all we must carry nothing away with us no more than we brought with us into the World Naked we came and naked we must return as to the Body But Spiritual treasure Soul riches will accompany us beyond the Grave to Eternity Our works shall follow us i. e. The reward of them O let us labour to be found in Christ to be made new creatures to be rich in good works for as we sow so shall we reap I was hungry and ye fea me or I was hungry and ye fed me not c. According to one of these will the doom pass at the great day Blessed is the servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing At that day an upright heart
Now is not here strong Consolation for a Believer an Heir of the Promises one of Gods Covenant people Away then with all doubtiug and unbelief God is a faithful God he keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments Can you desire better assurance that God is your God Christ is your Saviour that your Sins are forgiven That is one branch of the Covenant Heb. 8. 12. This Covenant is an everlasting Covenant ratified and confirmed by the Bloud of Christ and the Seal of the Sacrament Think you that vain thoughts for which you are grieved and count them your great burden that they can disannul or make void the Covenant so established Come Come take hold of Gods Covenant which God that cannot lye hath made with you in Christ who though you be never so unworthy in your own apprehension in all your slips and failings have recourse to the Covenant in all your wants and defects of Grace apply your self to this Covenant and it will afford you relief Be not faithless but believe consider and meditate well on this I say though you know it already yea ruminate on it again it is of great concernment Now the God of Peace and Consolation grant you Peace and Joy in believing to whose Grace I commend you J. H. MY hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved And that is the very end of these lines to contribute my best endeavour to the salvation of your immortal Soul And if you will but joyn with me to lend an eâ—r and the Lord please to open your heart as he did â—ydia's to attend to wholsome advice I hope by Gods blessing the issue may be comfortable So as I shall have no cause to repent of my labour in writing nor you in reading according to words of truth and soberness You have been known to me these many years at least thirty years last past You have requested a share in my Prayers that was your own expression in a letter from you above twenty years ago You have been a great promoter of Religion by your pains and purse and constant endeavour to get a good Minister setled at the place where you live You have been reputed a sober man and a godly Christian by all that knew you Thus you did run well You were in a right course you were fair for the Kingdom of Heaven But how is it with you now It is no good report that I hear of you you are I hear become an Ale house hanter a company keeper Can sit and tipple with drunkards Seem to take delight in bad fellowship Else you would not visit the Ale-house several times in a day and neglect your business at home you decline in goodness and decay in your outward estate If this witness be true as I am credibly informed then are you to be sharply rebuked that you may be sound in the faith O foolish man who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth you did run well who did hinder you having begun in the spirit are you now made perfect in the flesh Have you done and suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain Thus you lose the things you have wrought and fall short of the reward of godliness for want of perseverance and holding out to the end Remember I pray you whence you are fallen and repent and do the first works You had better not to have known the way of righteouss then after you have known it to turn aside from the holy Commandment delivered to you better not to have been washed then return to the wallowing in the mire and lick up your vomit again Apostacy is so fearful a sin that I tremble to think of the heinousness of it how many woes and threatnings are upon record in scripture Read and tremble Prov 14. 14 Psal 101. 3. 125. 5. Ezek. 16. 24 33. 13. Heb. 6. 6. 10. 26. 39. 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. Mat. 2. 45. What iniquity have you found in the ways of God that you have forsaken the good path the holy Brethren for the pleasures of sin which are but for a season for you cannot serve two Masters You cannot keep integrity and take pleasure in sinful courses which are as contrary as light and darkness fire and water By your present practise you proclame to world that you upon long experience and having made tryal of Religious courses find no profit no comfort in them And so renounce your part in God and Christ heaven and happiness and resolve to take your lot and portion with drunkards and ungodly siners both in this world and that which is to come Do you tremble at such a thought This is the language of your Ale-house hanting O what dishonour is this to God that one that hath been his Servant so many years should now at last revolt from him and turn on the Devils side and to professe to like the Devil better then God his work better then Gods his wages better then God hell better then heaven the company of Drunkards better then the society of Saints For a Christian to turn Drunkard is the worst turn that can be If you conceive this charge be to heavie consider that God makes no difference between drunkards and the companions of drunkards Compare Mat. 24. 44. and Luke 12. 41. To sit to eat and drink with the drunkard is all one with to eat and drink and to be drunken And the punishment of both is alike The Lord of that Servant will come in an hour when he looketh not for him and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth So in Prov. 23. 20. 21. Be not among wine bibbers c. for the drunkard shall come to poverty By which it is plain that it is all one to be among wine bibbers and to be a drunkard keeping company with wicked men is forbiden as well as wickedness it self Psal 1. 1. A godly man who is the only blessed man is one that hath no fellowship with the ungodly Psal 26. 4. 5. I have not sat with vain persons neither will I go in with desemblers I have hated the Congregation of evil doers and will not sit with the wicked Prov. 13. 20. He that walketh with the wise shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed Psal 119. 63. I am a compainon to them that fear thee I need not multiply texts in so plain a case And do I need to add how offensive Ale-house hanting is to others It brings reproach upon profession it verifies the prophane proverb a young Saint an old devil it gives occasion to the adversary to blaspheme it rejoyceth the ungodly and hardeneth their hearts and strengtheneth their hands that they should not return from their lewd ways It grieveth the good spirit of God it makes sad the hearts of those that fear God it