ever as the true inheriter of his everlasting Kingdome unto the which thou wast undoubtedly predestinate and ordained by the Lords infallible purpose and decree before the foundation of the World was laid And that is most true that I have said I call the whole Trinity the Almighty and Eternal Majesty of God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to my Record at this present whom I humbly beseech to confirm and stablish in thee the true and lively feeling of the same Amen Selah Now with a merry heart and a joyfull spirit something mixed with lawful tears I take my farewel of you mine own dear Brother in the Lord who send us shortly a merry meeting in his Kingdome that we may both sing praises together unto him with his holy Angels and blessed Spirits for ever and ever Farewel thou blessed of the Lord farewel in Christ depart unto thy rest in the Lord and pray for me for Gods sake As I had made an end of this simple Letter I heard some comfort both of good Mr. Philpots Servant and yours but alas I do scarcely believe them Well I will hope in God and pray all night that God would send me some comfort to morrow and if the Lord give you sparing to morrow let me hear four words of comfort from you for Gods sake The Blessing of God be with you now and for ever Amen Yours for ever in the Lord Jesus John Careles living in Hope against Hope John Careles his Letter to his Wife AS by the great mercy of God at the time of his good will and providence appointed my dearly beloved Wife you and I were joyned together in the holy and Christian state of godly Matrimony as well to our great joy and comfort in Christ as also to the increase of his blessed Church and faithfull Congregation by having lawfull Children in and by the same with the which God of his mercy hath blessed us praised be his Name therefore Even so now by his mercifull will and Divine Ordinance the time is come so farre as I can perceive wherein he will for his glory and our eternall comfort dissolve the same and separate us asunder again for a time Wherefore I thought it good yea and my bounden duty by this simple Letter to provoke stir and admonish you to behave your self in all your doings sayings and thoughts most thankefully unto our good God for the same And therefore my dear Wife as you have heartily rejoyced in the Lord and oftentimes given God thanks for his goodness in bringing us together in his holy Ordinance Even so now I desire you when this time of our separation shall come to rejoyce with me in the Lord and to give him most hearty thanks that he hath to his glory and our endless commodity separated us again for a little time and hath mercifully taken me unto himself forth of this miserable world into his Celestiall Kingdome Here is a true mark of a faithful Christian forsaking wife children for Christs sake believing and hoping also assuredly that God of his goodness for his Son Christs sake will shortly bring you and your dear children thither to me that we may most joyfully together sing Praises unto his glorious Name for ever And yet once again I desire you for the love of God and as ever you loved me to rejoyce with me and to give God continuall thanks for doing his most mercifull will upon me I hear say that you do oftentimes use to repeat this godly saying The Lords will be fulfilled True obedience of a faithful woman Doubtless it rejoyceth my poor heart to hear that report of you and for the Lords sake use that godly prayer continually and teach your Children and Family to say the same day and night and not onely say it with your tongues but also with your heart and minde and joyfully to submit your will to Gods will in very deed knowing and believing assuredly that nothing shall come to you or any of yours otherwise then it shall be his Almighty and Fatherly good will and pleasure and for your eternall comfort and commodity Which thing to be most true and certain Christ testifieth in his holy Gospel saying Are not two little Sparrows sold for a farthing Matth. 10. and yet not one of them shall perish without the will of your heavenly Father And he concludeth saying Fear not ye therefore for ye are better then many Sparrows As though he should have said If God have such a respect and care for a poor Sparrow which is not worth one farthing that it shall not be taken in the Lime-twig Net or Pit-fall unsill it be his good will and pleasure you may be well assured that not one of you whom he so dearly loveth that he hath given his onely dear Son for yâ—u shall perish or depart forth of this miserable life without his Almighty good will and pleasure Therefore dear Wife put your trust and confidence wholly and onely in him and ever pray that his will be fulfilled and not yours except it be agreeing to his will the which I pray God it may ever be Amen And as for worldly things take you no care Good counsel given to his wife but be you well assured the Lord your dear God and Father will not see you nor yours lack if you continue in his love and childly fear and keep a clear Conscience from all kind of Idolatry â—uperstition and Wickedness as my trust is that you will do although it be with the loss and danger of this temporal life And good Margaret Fear not them that can but kill the body and yet can they not do that untill God give them leave but fear to dâ—splease him that can kill both body and Soul and cast them into hell fire Let not the remembrance of your Children keep you from God The Lord himself will be a Father and a Mother Care of children to be cast upon Lord. better then ever you or I could have been unto them He himself will do all things necessary for them yea as much as rock the Cradle if need be He hath given his holy Angels charge over them therefore commit them unto him But if you may live with a clear Conscience for else I would not have you to live and see the bringing up of your Children your self look that you nurture them in the fear of God and keep them farre from Idolatry Superstition The mothers duty in bringing up her children and all other kinde of Wickedness and for Gods sake help them to some Learning if it be possible that they may increase in virtue and godâ—y knowledge which shall be a better Dowry to marry them withall then any worldly substance and when they be come to age provide them such Husbands as fear God and love his holy Word I charge you take heed that you match them with no Papists and if you live and marry again
own strength or rather your own weakness you would have stood too much in your own Conceit or perchance have gloried in your self and have despised and condemned other weak persons that have committed the like offence Therefore now you may see what the best of us all can do if God leave us to our selves Which thing ought to move you to be diligent to call earnestly upon God for his grace and the strength of his Holy Spirit without the which we are not able to stand one hour and to be most thankful for the same when you have it and then to be more circumspect in time to come Therefore dear Sister seeing that you have done otherwise then the word of God and your own Conscience would allow yet dear heart do you not think that God therefore will cast you clean away but know that he hath mercy enough in store for all them that truly repent and believe in him although the sins of them were as many in number as the sands in the Sea and as great as the sins of the whole world It is a greater sin to mistrust the mercy promises of God then to commit the greatest offence in the World Therefore good Sister beware in any wise To trust to Gods Promises that you do not once mistrust the promises of Gods mercy towards you but know for a very surety that all your sins be utterly forgiven you for Christs sake be they never so many so griâ—vous or so great But now dear heart take â—eed and beware that you do not cloke that sin and increase the same daily in communicating with the wicked in their Idolatry and devilish doings at their den of Thieves Custome of sin a perilous matter Do not I say dear Sister come at any of their Antichristian service lest by little and little you utterly lose a good Conscience and at length esteem it for none offence as alas a great number doth at this day to the great peril of their Souls The Lord be merciful unto them and give them grace to repent in time and turn to the Lord and then they shall be sure to finde mercy at the Lords hand as doubtless you have done praised be his Name therefore Ah my dear Sister you may now see the words of Christ verified upon your self that a mans greatest foes shall be they of his own houshold A. G. entisâ—d by her husband to go to the Mass for your Husband hath gotten you to do that which all the tyrants in the World could never have made you to do Doubtless he may be sorry for it God give him grace to repent or else without doubt it will be laid to his charge one day when he would not by his will hear it for all the goods of the World Well I think my Brother Tyms will write him a letter shortly that shall touch his Conscience if he have any Conscience at all But now again to you dear Sister The thing that is done cannot be undone and you are not the first that have offended neither are you so good and so holy as hath at a time slipt forth of the way Therefore I would not have you to be so much discomforted as I hear say you be The raising up of a troubled Conscience after his fall as though God were not as able to forgive you your offence as he was to forgive his dear Saints that offended him in times past or as though God were not as merciful now as ever he was whereas in very deed there is with the Lord as the Prophet saith mercy and plentiful redemption and his mercy farre surmounteth all his works God turneth all things to the best to them that be hiâ— and he never faileth any that put their whole trust and confidence in him how great an offender or how wicked a trespasser soever he be No he maketh their falls and backslidings many times to turn to their profit and commodity and to the setting forth of his glory as doubtless dear Sister yours shall do if you put your whole Faith hope and trust onely in his infinite and eternal sweet mercies Oh what a subtile crafty lying Serpent is that Satan our old Enemy Satan when he cannot bring a man to his servâ—â—o he presseth him wâ—th distrust of Gods mercy that when he seeth that he cannot make us to continue in our wickedness to do him service would then bring us into a doubting and mistrusting of the mercy of God which is the greatest offence that can be yea infidelity is the root and original of all other sins Therefore my sweet Sister give no place to that cruel adversary of mankinde who hath been a lyer and a mutherer from the beginning but stedfastly believe the Lord who hath sent you word by me his most unworthy Servant that all your sins be pardoned forgiven and clean released for Jesus Christs sake our onely Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be all honour glory praise thanks power rule and dominion for ever and for ever Amen Farewel my dear Sister and be of good chear Believe in the Lord and you shall live for ever The Lord increase your Faith Amen Amen Your poor Brother and daily faithful Orator John Careles Prisoner of the Lord. Pray for me Another Letter of John Careles to A. B. a faithfull Minister of the Lord containing certain fruitfull Precepts of Matrimony I Beseech the same everlasting Lord my dear and faithful Brother that blessed young Tobias with his Wife Sarah and brought them together in due time with reverence and fear preserve and bless you both and your seed after you that they may increase the number of the faithful by thousands and thousands And as the Lord of his great mercy and fatherly Providence hath been alwayes careful for you and now hath for your comfort accomplished his good work in coupling you with a faithful Mate so see that you be thankful for his Providence towards you that it may every way in you be an increase of love and godliness yea of Christian joy and gladness in these sorrowful dayes but yet so that you mourn with the true mourners of Sion and be sorry yet in measure for the hurt of the same Pray also in faith for her prosperity that the Lord may build up the walls of Jerusalem again Psal 146. Oh that the Lord would turn Sions Captivity as the river into the South then should our hearts be made glad and our mouthes filled with laughter Then would the Heathen Hypocrites say The Lord hath done much for them Oh the Lord hath done great things for us already whereof let us heartily rejoyce and praise his Name therefore For though we now sow with tears yet shall we be sure to reap with gladness and as we now go forth weeping bearing forth good seed so shall we come again with joy The death of the Martyrs is
that is God with us Iâ— God be with us who can be against us Rom. 8. The Lord is with you your Father cannot forget you your Spouse loveth you If the waves and surges arise cry with Peter Lord I perish Matth. 8. and he will put out his hand and help you Cast out your Anchor of Hope and it will not cease for all the stormy surges till it take hold on the Rock of Gods Truth and Mercy Think not that he which hath given you so many things corporally as inductions of spiritual and heavenly Mercies Philip. 1. Desire of spiritual comfort though it be lacking is a great gift of God and that without your deserts or desire can deny you any spiritual comfort desiring it For if he give to desire he will give you to have and enjoy the thing desired To desire to have and the going about to ask ought to certifie your Conscience that they be his earnest of the thing which you asking he will give you yea before you ask and whilest you are about to ask he will grant the same as Esay saith to his glory and your eternal consolation He that spared not his own Son for you will not nor cannot think any thing too good for you my heartily beloved If he had not chosen you as most certainly he hath he would not have so called you he would never have justified you Rom. 8. he would never have so glorified you with his gracious gifts which I know praised be his Name therefore he would never have so exercised your Faith with temptations as he hath done and doth if I say he had not chosen you Exercise of tentations a great token of election I have chosen you as doubtless dear heart he hath done in Christ for in you I have seen his earnest and before me and to me you could not deny it I know both where and when if I say he hath chosen you then neither can you nor ever shall you perish For if you fall he putteth under his hand you shall not lie still so careful is Christ your keeper over you Never was Mother so mindful over her childe as he is over you And hath not he alwayes been so Speak woman when did he finally forget you And will he now trow you in your most need do otherwise you calling upon him and desiring to please him Ah my Joyce think you God to be mutable Rom. 11. Is he a changeling Doth not he love to the end them whom he loveth Are not his gifts and calling such that he cannot repent him of them for else were he no God If you should perish then wanted he power for I am certain his will towards you is not to be doubted of Hath not the Spirit which is the Spirit of truth Every lying spirit not to be hearkned unto Satan seeketh to bring tender consciences to doubting but Gods promise in Christ standeth sure for ever told you so And will you now hearken with Eve to the lying spirit which would have you not to despair no he goeth more craftily to work howbeit to that end if you should give ear unto it which God forbid but to doubt and stand in a mammering and so should you never truly love God but serve him of a servile fear lest he should cast you off for your unworthiness and unthankfulness as though your thankfulness or worthiness were any causes with God why he hath chosen you or will finally keep you Ah mine own dear heart Christ onely Christ onely and his mercy and truth All our election is in and for Christ only In him is the cause of your election This Christ this Mercy this Truth of God remaineth for ever is certain for ever and so is your Election certain for ever for ever for ever I say for ever If an Angel of heaven should tell you contrary accursed be he accursed be he Your thankfulness and worthiness are fruits and effects of your election they are no causes These fruits and effects shall be so much more fruitful and effectual by how much you waver not Therefore my dearly beloved arise and remember from whence you are fallen Psâ—l 120. You have a Shepherd which neither slumbereth nor sleepeth No man nor devil can pull you out of his hands Night and day he commandeth his Angels to keep you Have you forgotten what I read to you out of the Psalm The Lord is my Shepherd Psal 25. I can want nothing Do you not know that God sparred Noah in the Ark on the outside so that he could not get out So hath he done to you my good Sister so hath he done to you Ten thousand shall fall on your right hand Psal 90. and twenty thousand on your left hand yet no evil shall touch you Say boldly therefore Psal 125. Many a time from my youth up they have fought against me but they have not prevailed no nor never shall prevail for the Lord is round about his people And who are the people of God but such as hope in him Happy are they that hope in the Lord and you are one of those my dear heart for I am assured you have hoped in the Lord I have your words to shew most manifestly and I know they were written unfeignedly I need not to say that even before God you have simply confessed to me and that oftentimes no less And once if you had this hope Though feeling fail yet let hope hold fast as you doubtless had it though now you feel it not yet shall you feel it again for the anger of the Lord lasteth but a moment but his mercy lasteth for ever Tell me my dear heart who hath so weakned you Surely not a perswasion which came from him that called you For why should you waver Why should you waver The eye of faith must look upon nothing else but onely Christ crucified and be so heavy hearted Whom look you on On your self on your worthiness on your thankfulness on that which God requireth of you as faith hope love fear joy c. Then can you not but waver indeed for what have you as God requireth Believe you hope you love you c. as much as you should do No no nor never can in this life Ah my dearly beloved have you so soon forgotten that which ever should be had in memory namely that when you would and should be certain and quiet in Conscience then should your Faith burst throughout all things not onely that you have in you or else are in heaven earth or hell untill it come to Christ crucified and the eternal sweet mercies and goodness of God in Christ Here here is the resting place here is your Spouses bed creep into it and in your arms of Faith embrace him bewail your weakness your unworthiness your diffidence c. and you shall see he will turn to you What said I You shall