hand against him or scarce to move their tongues against him to his hurt or prejudice One instance was remarkable A certain Ruffian being punished by 〈◊〉 for his misdemeanors vowed the next time he met him he would certainly stab him and being put into the Stocks for some offence he had committed against the Law his rage was such that not being able to have his will on Mr. Rowe he struck at the stones with his knife for very madness After this Mr. Rowe met the same person when he was at liberty and might have had opportunity to wreak his malice and revenge upon him but it pleased the Lord so to overpower him that he was as a man struck dumb and had not a word to say Many of his friends seeing his abilities and fitness would often sollicit and press him to take the office of a Justice of Peace His Modesty but such was his Humility and Modesty that he would by no means yeild to it saying that he had neither Ability nor Estate for it and that it was the way to make Authority contemptible when inferiour Persons were put into such Places His care to cut off occasions of offence He was very careful to cut off all occasion of offence from such as would be ready to take offence being wont in his younger days to use Shooting with Bow and Arrows for his Recreation sake after that meeting with an Offendor against the law he rebuked him for some misdemeanours that he was guilty of the man replyed why might not he do that as well as he Shoot with Bow and Arrows after this Mr. Rowe laid aside his Recreation and would never shoot with Bow and Arrows more He was a man of a very Peaceable temper His Peaceable and Peace-making Disposition he never loved to foment differences but sought all he could to compose them and if there were at any time any distance between him and others the fault was usually theirs because he could not bear or comply with some corruption of theirs but would seek their reformation And as he was of a very peaceable disposition himself so he was a great Peace-maker a great part of his time was spent this way in making up and composing of differences between others many a quarrel was taken up by him this way many Law Suits prevented many differences between near relations reconciled and the Lord was pleased to give him such a blessing and success in these undertakings that his hands were seldome empty of this work so that he was many times so much ingaged and taken up in the businesses and affairs of other men that he could hardly get liberty to mind or prosecute his own He said upon occasion given him to a relation of his that he might have increased his own estate much more if he had spent that time in following his own affairs which he spent in the businesses and affairs of other men but what he did in this kind he did it out of duty and Conscience Such indeed was his Charity and Compassion to others that none ever was known to be more Concerned for others or more Naturally to care for the good of others then he was He made their Conditions his own he had a deep Sympathy with their distresses and in his Prayers he would as affectionately pray for them as for himself and when he had undertaken any of the affairs and businesses of other men he would act as vigorously in their behalf as if it were his own concernment although he neither did nor expected to reap any advantage to himself by it He was forty years of age before he attained that great blessing of Assurance His Assurance which he kept ever after and never lost it after he had once attained it so that he enjoyed that singular priviledge viz. the assurance of the love of God for the space of Thirty years and more The means by which he maintained and preserved his assurance was as he himself said by a diligent and constant use of all the means of Grace both publick and private and taking an account of his heart once at least every day And as he had by these means a constant assurance of his estate so that he was never left to a total doubting of his estate after he had once received the assurance of it so he had at some times more special experience of the Witness and Testimony of the Spirit together with that of his own Spirit Concerning which particular because the children of God do naturally desire to have all the light that may be given in about it it being a secret and hidden thing and unknown to any but those that have it and the experience of the most holy men being in this case most considerable and that upon which the greatest weight may be laid I shall set down a little more at large the thoughts and experience of this holy man about it In one of his Letters he thus expressed himself Besides assurance in a way of reasoning His Judgment and experience concerning the Testimony of the Spirit God is pleased some time in conversing with him to make it out by secretly hinting in some one precious promise And in another Letter he expressed himself more fully In answer to your desire to receive a few of my thoughts and experiences concerning the witness or Testimony of the Spirit in assurance I do acknowledge to the glory of God that God hath given to me some experience of his love and at sometimes more then at other times in the Testimony of his Spirit bearing witness with my Spirit concerning mine adoption and so consequently of my justification sanctification and eternal life But this is better felt then expressed yet in some measure as the Lord shall inable me I will endeavour to answer your desire herein First that there is as appeareth Rom. 8.16 such a blessed Priviledge given to some of Gods elect on earth as to have the Spirit it self to bear witness with their Spirits that they are the Children of God Again that this Testimony is given to believers after that they are effectually called to grace as appeareth Eph. 1.13 and by the which they are as by a seal assured of the grace of God But that every one that is effectually called to grace hath this Testimony presently given I dare not affirm but do rather think that some may wait a longer time then others before they do receive it for mine own part I believe that I was effectually called divers years before the Lord gave me this assurance Again the truth of this Testimony of the holy Spirit in my own soul I have discerned from false flashes and unsound comforts by this that this testimony doth alwaies when it comes raise the soul to more desires after more intimate union and communion with God works more self-abborrency and more care to please God and fear to displease him and in a word drives me
this Holy man whose Lise and Death thou wilt find Characterised in the following story The memory of whom I trust will ever be as a living Sermon to me and such as had the priviledge of converse with him As for the Relation here given of him by my Dear Friend I must beg this favour of thee that thou wilt not pass thy judgment till thou hast read the whole and seriously considered the same and then I am apt to perswade my self thou wilt conclude with me that thou hast here offered to thy View a grand exemplar of Real Visible Godliness which deserves thy serious attention and Imitation Theophilus Gale THE Life and Death OF Mr. John Rowe JOhn Rowe His Birth and Infancy the Son of Lawrence Rowe was born in the Parish of Shobrook in the County of Devon in that famous year 1588. When he was an Infant he was set aside in his Cradle for dead but it pleased God to put it into the heart of one of his Sisters who had a little more spirit and resolution then the rest had to resolve with her self that she would go and look upon him once more hereupon coming to the place where he lay and putting her hand to his mouth she apprehended she felt a little breath being incouraged by this some means were immediately used so that he began to revive and the Lord was pleased to restore him to life who had been given up for dead intimating as it were by this so Early and Signal a Providence that he had reserv'd him for some more then ordinary use and this the Course of his life did abundantly shew After he was come to some years His Education he was sent by his Parents to the Grammar-Schoole in Crediton an antient Town in Devon-Shire where he attained to such Proficiency both in the Latine and Greek Tongues that he was well nigh ripe for the University and had accordingly been sent thither in order to the Ministry but that it pleased God to take away his Father a little before the intended time so that the intentions which his Parents had of training him up for the Ministry could never be accomplished Thus the Lord in his Wisdome was pleased to take him off from that which others by considering what his After-Life and Abilities were found to be would have judged him most meet for So that we may hence learn to use an expression of his own how that We do often erre in our judgements of things and that God sees not as men see Being frustrated in the hopes he had of going to the Vniversity he did not however loose that little Learning the School had afforded unto him only the Greek thorough dis-use was somewhat worn out with him but he still retained so exact a knowledge of the Latine Tongue that it was of great use to him unto his dying day For his Parts His Parts He was of a Sharp and Pregnant Wit of a great deep and Penetrating Judgement he himself was wont to complain of some deficiency in his Memory but that defect appeared more to himself then it did unto others for others judged him to excell in that as well as in other Abilities of the Mind As for his Natural Temper and Disposition His Natural Temper he was a man of great Ingenuity of much Candor and Sweetness those that knew him most intimately thought him to have as Noble and Generous a Soul and to be as far from any thing that savoured of a Base Ignoble and Sordid Spirit as ever any that they knew He was exceeding Affable and Courteous unto all and that without the least shew or suspition of seeking his own ends by it His temper led him to be most sweet and kind unto all and there was not the meanest person that could say he was neglected or despised by him He was very careful to give a due respect unto all and no one was ever more curious to pay a just Reverence to those that were above him in Rank and Quality In his Behaviour he was most Humble His Behaviour Sweet and Conversible as ready to hear others speak as to speak himself and he would for the most part give them leave to speak before he would be forward to speak himself His Natural Temper was so sweet and amiable as that there was scarce any that knew him but loved him and honoured him And this together with his Grace was elevated to such a pitch as that there was not the worst of men that had any thing to speak evil of him And yet that which is not common The mixture of Authority with his Natural Sweetness but is somewhat a rare conjunction although his Natural Candor and sweetness were such yet he was a man of a great Presence and of great Authority He was seldome known to speak in any serious Matter but his speech carried a wonderful and peculiar kind of Authority with it And there was so great a Majesty in his conversation as that some and those who were reputed both wise and godly beholding the Excellency of his spirit The Lustre of his Conversation the Lustre of his graces and how much his Conversation differed from the most of men have professed that when they were in his Company they have had an Awe left upon them could not be so free whilst they were in his Company as when they were amongst others But the main thing which this Narrative is intended for is to speak of his Grace and to shew what that Eminency in Holiness was which the Lord brought him unto And this if the unworthy Relator may have but the happiness to express and delineate as it was in him the Original Copy he doubts no tbut the Life of this Holy Man will prove a Pattern as worthy of our Imitation as any this Latter-Age hath produced And if any thing seem to be defective in the life of this Holy Man the Readers are to be intreated not to impute it so much to the defect of worth or merit in him for as much as all that knew him intimately do unanimously acknowledge that there was much more in him than could easily be expressed or declared by any but unto want of skill in that Hand which undertook to draw his Picture and to give the Character of him which is here represented Now that we may proceed in order we shall begin with the first Rise of the work of God in his Soul and afterward see what Progresse it made and to how great a measure and pitch of Holiness the Lord brought him in the conclusion When he was but young and of tender years his Parents did according to their measure The beginning of the Work of Grace in his heart instruct him in the Grounds of Religion and did also cause him carefully with themselves to frequent the Publick Ministry in the Congregation and by this means he came to have the first Tastes and
nearer to God whereas false flashes leave the soul loose Again for the continuance of this blessed testimony in the soul I do find that an holy humble constant waiting on God and Communion with him in his ordinances joyned with a constant care and endeavour to walk with him in uprightness in all the duties of my particular calling and relations are blessed means to keep up and increase this assurance but the neglect or remisse usage of these doth diminish the oyl of this blessed Lamp and unsanctified liberty so far grieves the holy Spirit as to suspend this Testimony for a time What the nature of this witness of the Spirit was he said as it is in the precedent letter that it was better felt then expressed only being once asked about it he answered It was a secret overpowering that I am his and he is mine I am my well-beloveds and my well-beloved is mine He was wont to observe that the most likely means to attain assurance was to propound spiritual ends to our selves in the desiring of it not to desire it meerly that we might be at quiet and free from trouble in our Consciences but principally to desire it for this end that by the knowledge and apprehension of Gods love to us we might be inabled to give the Lord the glory of his own grace and be carried out to higher pitches in obedience In his discourse with some friends he had such a passage There may be a great deal of selfishness in seeking Peace I find it best when I am come to the greatest heights of peace to study my duty what it is that God would have me do and to follow him there otherwise I meet with a Cloud His manner was as hath been partly hinted before to make up his accounts every day and the method that he used in his meditation was to consider what God had done for him in the day and what his carriage had been towards God and he would say when he considered what Gods carriage had been to him there he saw that God had been doing him good in a constant tenor but then when he reflected upon himself there he saw many failings and he said there was so action done by him that was ever no good but there was some cireumstance or other that he saw himself imperfect and defective in and it was a remarkable speech of his I have accounted it a greatpitch when the Lord hath shewed me some defects in my best actions that I may go clean out of self unto Christ By this daily and constant exercise of his in reviewing his life and actions every day he kept and maintained much Peace of Conscience and this was one of the great things that God did for him that usually at the close of every day after the casting up of his accounts humble and fervent prayer the Lord made it out to him as he himself expressed it that All was pardoned In this way was he carried on until at last he arrived to as great an habitual perswasion and as constant an apprehension of the love of God as any hath been known to have attained in this latter age so that he walked in the light of Gods countenance from day to day and his way was to study and contemplate the love of God towards him in every thing and much of his Prayers ran this way that his faith might be strengthned to see and behold the love of God in all the passages of his life that so he might as Abraham did give the Lord glory by believing Therefore he would often expres himself in Prayer after this sort Oh that we might behold thy infinite and eternal love constantly so far as finite creatures are capable that the apprehensions of thy love might draw us up again to love thee And he would say We are apt to take notice of some of the greater and more remarkable passages of the love of God as if the Lord gave us some great deliverance or gave us some signal answer of Prayer or bestowed upon us some special blessing which we had much desired but our Heavenly father did not only do us good in these great things but he was still doing us good in a constant tenor even in the least things And as the Lord did much for him in this kind His fear of loosing assurance so he was very jealous of loosing this blessed priviledge viz. the sense that he had of the love of God and the light of his countenance which he walked in There were two things he said that he mainly desired of God the one was that having been a Professor of Religion so long he might be kept from scandalous sins The other was that God would not hide his face from him for he said he was a man of a low Spirit and without Gods presence he could not subsist and therefore said he I saw it necessary to be kept under affliction that I might be humble for God would not reveal himself to proud souls Besides this habitual peace and assurance which he enjoyed His Comforts he had many particular comforts from the Lord at several times and upon several occasions He said there was great familiarity between God his people after they had walked much with him When he lay down to rest at night he had usually that promise spoken over to him Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great and rich reward When he had been desiring such pitches of holiness he had often such hints as these are I will satisfie thee When he was under any special afflictions he had some special comforts and supports from God When the Lord took away his first wise he was troubled in himself about the disposing of his children then the Lord comforted him thus They are thine but for a time but they are mine for ever and this he said satisfied him Another time having been exercised with a fit of the stone he wrote to a near Relation thus These are to let you know how fatherly God dealeth with us though afflicted yet not forsaken that which sweetens all my afflictions is that inward peace which the Lord is pleased to give me in all my outward pain Many more instances of this kind might be produced The Answers he had to prayer When he was in any special strait or difficulty and needed counsel and direction what course to take the Lord did always first or last after earnest seeking of him make out his way unto him He never sought God in any great affair or extraordinary concernment but he had some answer or other from him he was sure always to have this general answer that God would do him good and that he would order things in the best way The Discoveries he had from God conceruing future events of Providence Psal 25. Gen. 18.17 and often times he had more particular intimations of the mind of God The Lord did also