that Distemper of Rhume which fell from her Head into her Face of which she dyed And he hath been worse and worse ever since she dyed And I having had great Expences and a great Charge of dear Relations and owing some considerable debts I was necessitated to teach School again in my old Age That I might pay my Debts succour my dear Relations and not be too great a burden to the Church of God And this I have willingly and chearfully undertaken that if Persecution do come upon me again which I expect and prepare for and I shall be haled to prison or forced to flye It may be my Mercy and Comfort as at all other times of my many removals in the days of my Pilgrlmage and Persecutions That no person shall have any occasion to come to me and say Pay me what you owe me before you go for I desire to owe no man any thing but Love and honestly to pay every man his own And if Death seize on my body that I may leave enough of my own behind me to pay all my Debts and a little for the Relief of Gods Poor and some of my poorest natural Relations I had a Summoning in June last to prepare my self for the Grave by a sudden and sore Fit of the Wind-Cholick and Vomiting And on the 3d of October last 1671. I had another Summons to be ready to depart this life by another sudden more violent tormenting Fit of the Wind-Cholick and Vomiting And I am alarmed by these awakening Visitations of the Lord to prepare and be ready That when my Lord and Master comes or calls for me to come to him I may be found so doing that he may say Well done thou good and faithful Servant enter thou also into the Joys of thy Master The next Tryal my heavenly Father saw needful for me to be exercised under was the Sickness and Death of my then only living Son my Isaac my most loving and beloved Son who was translated the 15th day of November 1671. which great Tryal and Loss God made gain to him and easie to me by a manifest and powerful Work of Conversion Repentance and Faith upon his Soul in the time of his Sickness which administred much Comfort to me so that I sorrowed not for him as one without hope who exercised very great patience under his very great pain soreness and burning Feaver whilst his flesh marrow and moisture consumed and acted Faith and Hope very lively and constantly upon Christ in that Word John 6.37 And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast off Very often expressing his former bondage and slavery to Sin and Sathan which he bewailed and acknowledged often Gods free and rich Grace in giving him Christ and Pardon and Salvation now at last which he had neglected the Offers and Tenders of so often Some Combats he had but after a manifestation of Christ to his Soul he dyed in Faith and Peace And albeit my natural Affections caused me to weep often and the sense of Gods Hand Rod upon me caused me to mourn very much in secret yet the Almighty by his Rod and Staff did so comfort me that I walked through this Valley also of the shadow of Death without fear of Evil and was assisted and enabled to perform the Work of my Ministry in the Congregation without any omission or interruption And that very Night my only Son dyed the Lord brought to my mind that Scripture Mic. 7.14 Feed thy people with thy Rod which was made a seasonable suitable and powerful Word by the Teachings of the holy Spirit unto my Soul in my solitary Condition Who thus administred Food yea and a Feast also to my Soul For by this Rod of God I had served into my Soul a Dish of sour or bitter Herbs I mean sorrow for my sins but I fed also on the Paschal Lamb in whole blood I saw all my sins washed away And the Spirit of God witnessed with my Spirit that I was the Child of God and one of those Children with whom God will keep Covenant and not take away his Love from me though he visited my Transgressions with the Rod and mine iniquities with stripes Psal 89.28 34. which Scripture was then brought again with power upon my Heart The next Dish of spiritual Food under this Rod which God brought me or sent me by his Spirit in his Word to feed upon was full of Love Then that holy Scripture came to me not in word only Rev. 3.19 20. but in Power and in the Spirit and in much Assurance wherein in he shewed me his Face and I saw my Fathers Face in that Glass of the Gospel Heb. 12.6 7. which the holy Spirit held forth to me by this Rod and shed abroad in my heart the Love of the Father in his Son Jesus Christ After this the next day God gave me a Dish of spiritual Fruits by this Rod to feed upon served up in that holy Scripture No affliction at the present is joyous but grievous but the fruit thereof shall be peace and righteousness to them that have been exercised therein And after God had thus fed me feasted me several days and nights together with this his Rod he very graciously pronounced his Blessing upon me by his Rod in these words Blessed is the man whom thou correctest and teachest out of thy Law or Word unto which I was helped heartily to say Amen It 's good for me to be and that I have been afflicted c. And after God had communed with me from his Mercy-seat and had instructed me I experienced such Divine Loves shinings and spiritual sweetness as Jonathan did when he tasted a little Honey-dew on the End of the Rod in his hand and was enlightned and refreshed So that I was enlivened or revived fed and feasted by the Rod and Word even the Bond of Gods everlasting Covenant of free Grace and Love About 4 or 5 months after the Death of my Son his Wife married a Gentleman of 300 l. per annum and left me engaged to receive and pay all my Sons Debts and to preserve his Credit and his Wife 's I borrowed 200 l. to help to pay his Debts and suffered the loss thereof which necessitated me still to keep School to pay my Debts And I having a Grand-daughter with me three years before she being nineteen years old did take the Charge of my Houshold-affairs and of my Boarders who managed all things with so much discretion that my life was very comfortable and I had great Content In Septemb. 1672. my only Daughters Husband went by her consent into the Country and left her Thus far was written with his own hand and there we must be forced to break off tho' abruptly the remaining part of his Life written by himself as this was being as Mr. Kiffin mentions in his Preface unhappily lost which because 't is â—mpossible to be supplied by any Hand so particularly
as his own must be done in general by letting the Christian Reader know That this holy Man's Life was all of a piece and that he maintained his Zeal Fidelity and Integrity in the latter part of it as well as in the former even to the end of it He was not very long sick not keeping his Chamber above five weeks nor his Bed above ten days All the time of his Sickness he behaved himself with extraordinary Patience and Resignation to the Divine Will longing to be dissolved and to be with Christ not so much to be freed from Pain and Trouble as from Sinning which he expressed to one with him with a more than ordinary Transport of Joy A little before his Death he wrote the following Epistle which he left as his last Legacy to the Church Mr. Knollys's last Legacy to the Church written a little before his Death To the Church whereof I am Pastor Grace Love and Peace by Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour Amen HOly Brethren Partakers of the Heavenly Calling I not being able to Preach any more unto you do take liberty by writing to give you this as my last Counsel and I hope the whole Church will seriously consider what I have written as the last words of your very aged Pastor whose departure as I hope is at hand First of all I do humbly beseech my Reverend and Beloved Brother Steed for Christs sake that the fervent Love to the Church and the watchful Care over the particular Members of it Expressed and Published in his little Epistle touching Singing may be revived and also that the Brotherly Love of the Ministring Brethren and likewise of all my beloved Brethren who are helps in Government may be stirred up to Help to Assist to provoke the rest unto good Works Gal. 4.18 Now I do unfeignedly and without vain boasting commend many of you my beloved Brethren and Sisters for continuing in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship in breaking of Bread and in Prayer but as for the rest who forsake the assembling of themselves with rhe Church on the Lords Day I commend them not especially not only in this time of Liberty but when it was a time of violent Persecution when I was shut up a Year and four Months blessed be God for Prison Mercies in New-Prison And having mentioned that time of Persecution can I pass it by without commending the constant Assembling of our Brethren and Sisters all that time every Lords day to worship God And may I not with great Comfort commend the Labour of Love of our Ministring Brethren in the Work and Doctrine of the Gospel without ceasing as you well know and among whom they still labour and faint not And now some of our younger Brethren begin to improve their Gifts and Talents for the Glory of God and the Edification of the Church whom I desire may be encouraged Another thing very commendable in this Church is the Charity which they have added to their Brotherly kindness 2 Pet. 1.7 It was great Brotherly kindness which was manifested to the Church by those Brethren who lookt out our Meeting-House and prepared it for us as it now is And unto this many of our Brethren and Sisters have added their Charity in a free and very liberal Collection and Contribution given into the Trustees of the Fund And I hope they will be ready to do the like again when the like Necessities call for it Read I pray you the 8th and 9th Chapters of the second Epistle unto the Church of Corinth All this and much more are the Riches of Grace which God hath freely given by our Lord Jesus Christ unto this Church for his own Glory Nevertheless I must in Love and Faithfulness to your precious and gracious Souls holy and beloved tell you of some things not to shame you for I my self am found guilty as well as you and more than some of you but to warn you and to counsel you as a Father doth his Children and they are these First That several of us are fallen in some degree from our first Love cooled in our Spiritual Affections to Jesus Christ and to the Saints Must not you and I confess that it is not with us now as it was in the day of our first Espousals God the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit remembers it Jer. 2.1 2. And we should remember from whence we are fallen and should say I will go and return unto my first Husband for then was it better with me than now Hos 2.7 Rev. 2.4 5. Now the first part of my Counsel which I desire to take and receive from Christ and to give unto you my dearly beloved Brethren and Sisters who are convinced and have confessed it before the Lord on several days of Fasting and Prayer First I do Counsel you to Repent Rev. 2.5 And I must tell you Beloved that our assembling once in four Weeks and spending four hours from Eleven to Three in Praying and Preaching as we have often done is not such a Fast as will make our Voice be heard on High Isa 58.3 4. Several things are essentially necessary to Evangelical Repentance that it may be acceptable unto God by Jesus Christ Namely Godly Sorrow which worketh Repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.9 10. A broken Contrite Spirit Psal 51.17 James 4.9 10. Isa 66.2 3. Isa 57.15 Read these Scriptures Zech. 12.10 11. Alas where are our Tears of Godly Sorrow our broken Hearts and our afflicted Souls Reformation after Humiliation Repent and do thy first Works Rev. 2.5 O Holy Brethren let us do so let you and I beg Grace that we may both Mourn and turn from all our Sins to the Lord with all our Hearts We have cause to repent of our Formality and Laodicean Lukewarmness especially for want of zeal for the House of God Psal 69.9 Rev. 3.19 Col. 4.12 13. Joh. 2.17 Secondly I Counsel you to be zealous Zeal is a fervent and constant affection of a gracious Soul in a good thing managed with Discretion Gal. 4.18 If our zeal be not fixed upon a right Object and good Matter it may be hot and great but it cannot be good Compare the zeal of Paul Phil. 3.6 with the zeal of Epaphras Col. 4.12 13. To guide our zeal aright two things especially ought to accompany it First The light of Knowledge Rom. 10.1 2 3. Read the words again and again and as often as you read this Paper Many professours of the Law then were very zealous of Establishing their own Legal Righteousness and many professors of the Gospel now are as zealous to establish their own Legal Righteousness and not Christs O! say some If I could pray so mourn so as others do if I were so Holy and so Humble c. then I would believe O! say others if I could get power over my Corruptions and strength against Satans Temptations and Victory over the allurements of this present evil World then I
would believe But I have a Heart full of vile affections vain thoughts and doubts that I cannot believe Consider Are Praying Mourning Humbling our Souls Gospel Duties even so is believing a Gospel Duty which God Commands 1 Joh. 3.23 And he threatens to Damn them that hear the Gospel preached and will not believe Acts 13.41 Secondly The Aim and End of our Zeal must always be the Glory of God and guided as I said by Discretion Wise as well as Warm Greatest zeal in greatest Matters and lesser zeal in lesser matters Compare Gal. 5.11 13. with 1 Cor. 11.13 14 15 16. 1 Cor. 10.3 and Prov. 19.11 My Counsel also is and I humbly beseech our honoured and beloved Elder and entreat our Ministring Brethren who are Helps in Government to joyn together to set in Order these things I mean no other things than those holy Administrations which Christ his Apostles and Disciples practised in the beginning Search these Scriptures 1 Pet. 2.21 Philip. 3.17 Luk. 14.16 17 18 19 20 21 22. Acts 28.23 24 28 29 30 31. and 1 Cor. 14.13 23 24 25 29. 1 Tim. 4.13 Col. 4.16 1 Thes 5.27 Rev. 1.3 Consider holy Brethren that as Reading and Expounding are two different Administrations so are Prophecying and Preaching yet both Gospel Ordinances Rom. 12.6 7. Fourthly and Lastly My Counsel to the Church is that you will look out a Minister of Jesus Christ whom he hath in some competent measure qualified with such Ministerial Gifts and Graces as may make him worthy of so great honour as is due to a Pastor and Elder of the Church of God yea of double honour 1 Tim. 5.17 Both of Maintenance and Obedience Heb. 13.17 And now my dearly beloved Brethren and Sisters I commit you all to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among them which are Sanctified So I remain while in this Tabernacle Your Brother in the Lord Hanserd Knollys FINIS Books Printed for John Harris at the Harrow against the Church in the Poultrey A Confession of Faith put forth by the Elers and Brethren of many Congregations of Christians Baptized upon Profession of their Faith in London and the Country With an Appendix concerning Baptism Price bound 1 s. A Solemn Call unto all that would be owned as Christ's Faithful Witnesses speedily and seriously to attend unto the Primitive Purity of the Gospel Doctrine and Worship Or a Discourse concerning Baptism Wherein that of Infants is Disproved as having no Footing nor Foundation at all in the Word of God By way of Answer to the Arguments made use of by Mr. William Allen Mr. Sidenham Mr. Baxter Dr. Burthogge and others for the Support of that Practice Wherein the Covenant made with Isarel at Mount Sinai Exod. 20. That in the Land of Moab Deut. 29. As also the Covenant of Circumcision made with Abraham Gen. 17.7 8 9. Whereon so much stress is laid for the Support of Infants Baptism are plainly proved to be no other than three several Editions of the Covenant of Works and consequently that no just Argument can thence be deduced for the Justification of that practice Together with a Description of that truly Evagelical Covenant God was pleased to make with believing Abraham containing the Sum of the Everlasting Gospel then Preached unto him since Proclaimed by the Apostles and which now remains to be yet further Published unto every Nation Kindred Tongue and People for the Obedience of Faith By Philip Cary a Lover of Truth and Peace The Conviction of Worldly Vanity Or the Wandring Prodigal and his Return In two parts PART I. Containing his debate with him self about his setting forward in search of the Palace of Worldly Felicity his hearkning to the advice of Folly and submitting himself to her Conduct the manner of her furnishing him out of the Progress he made and the various Adventures he met with by the way As also the Entertainment he found at his Arrival and his Riotous Living there with his Description of the Vices Reigning therein PART II. Giving a full Account of his miraculous Escape from rhe Palace of Worldly Felicity Or the glorious prospect he had of rhe Coelestical City and of the progress he made towards it under the Conduct of Divine Grace With the manner of his proceeding and the several Occurrences he met with by the way His Arrival at the Palace of Vertue and True Felicity and his Joyful Reception there His Excellent Description thereof and of the Divine and Moral Virtues which he found therein Both pleasant and profitable Deliver'd under the Similitude of A Wandring Youth Illustrated with proper Cuts Price bound One Shilling Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ Or a plain and profitable Discourse on John 6. Verse 37. 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