Love Honour and Obey this Lord that has Redeem'd you with his Precious Blood shed upon the Cross his Meritorious Righteousness learn to hear and know his Voice he speaks to you in your Bibles by Faithful Ministers by your own Consciences by his Spirit by Sound Christians if you seek to get into their Company their Houses yea their Hearts by enquiring of them concerning his Will Nay sure he calls you by your Dying Parent now to come to him that you may have Life to prefer him before this World before childish Sports and Vanity Oh my Aking Heart for you my Yearning Bowels towards you what a World of Snares and Wickedness have you to pass thro' What a Life probably of Labour Contempt and Poverty to undergo and of Persecution too if you will live Godly in Christ Jesus What a Subtle Devil to resist Cunning and Malicious to cheat and destroy you To whom shall I leave you to whose Care and Conduct You have been sometime without a Father on Earth shortly you 'll be without a Mother too Will you not seek a Father in Heaven Oh chuse Christ Jesus he 'll be a Friend a Portion a Guard a Guide Honours Pleasures all things yea more and better than all things to you in him God will be your Father Oh Blessed Trinity in Unity wilt thou accept my I hope now unfeigned Dedication of these my poor Children to thee Oh Son of God wilt thou be their Saviour from Sin and from Eternal Death Oh Blessed Spirit wilt thou early Enlighten strongly Incline and powerfully Enable them to chuse God for their Portion Jesus for their Prince and Saviour thy Word for the Rule of their Life Shall my Unworthy Prayer be heard on the Account of my Saviour for these my Distressed Children Oh then I 'll no longer call them forsaken no nor think them so the Lord is their Shepherd they shall not want Well had I my Life again my Tender Hearts would I not again Travel in Birth with you till Christ were formed on you were you not Happy think you if you were in such a case will you not be happy Children if your God be the Lord Well then as you love your Souls Pray dayly Early Earnestly that you may be Renewed in the Spirit of your Minds Pray till you find a Return of your Prayers Pray till you can understandingly and truly say you need no more Grace no more Aids against Corruption no more Help in Religious Duties no more Wisdom and Resolution to contest against the Devil who will be always Tempting you then I 'm sure you 'll from this time to your latest Breath on Earth and in all likelyhood till you breath Praises in Heaven If you pray aright pray earnestly believe those Honest Christians that tell you there are Joys in Religion above the Joys of Harvest not to the Formal Sluggish Inconstant Trifling Christian I believ but to the Diligent Must you not work in this World to maintain you will you not work for Eternity much more with what words shall I Excite you will not my Death my Doubts my Danger of Everlasting Death excite you Oh I exceedingly Fear and Tremble lest your hard Heart should barr out or despise my wholsome Councel how oft has Heaven Thundred in my Ears and yet I dead in Trespasses and Sins arose not to call upon my God I started indeed once in my dead Sleep but the World Flesh and Devil soon Lull'd me asleep again faster than I was before on the Pillow of Carelessness and Security Now by waking Pains I pay for that Lethargick Sleep Come cast a Look with me into Eternity see if that will move you Oh that I could leave you the Eyes wherewith I now see but use your own I mean the Eyes of your Mind to look into Eternity Such Thoughts will Instruct and make you Wise Thoughts of your Temporal Death may stir you up to lay hold on Everlasting Life Keep Death always in view of your Minds so whenever it seizes it shall not surprize you If you shall fear at any time henceforward when you are reading this Paper that I 'm gone to the Blackness of Darkness for ever where God is only known by the Vengeance which he Executeth where the Damned drink Eternally of Rivers of Flaming Brimstone and keep Company with Spiteful Fiends in endless Despair Will you not be afraid to follow tho' it were a Mother to that Eternal Prison Or how can I bear the Thought that you should come to share yet not alleviate but sharpen Torments before Intolerable To Curse my former Negligence towards you and your own Neglects of my present Advice in so doleful a Place in such dreadful Company for ever Oh take Heed better Ten Thousand times better a Millstone were hang'd about your Necks and you cast into the Depths of the Sea But if you can believe from this Copy of my Mind that I 'm gone to Heaven the place of Everlasting Joys will you not take my foregoing Advice wherein I have mark'd you out the Strait and Narrow Way thither Oh if you do who can tell the Joys shall attend our Meeting in those chearful Regions that never know a Storm nor so much as fear a Cloud Blest with the most Healthful Refreshing Airs of Gods Countenance Water'd with the Rivers of Pleasures that flow at his Right Hand Oh how shall we there Rejoyce Eternally together Oh that I could prevail with you to Meditate some time every day upon Eternity Your Mother in a few Hours will be swallow'd up therein will not that draw your Thoughts a little thither Oh that you might be Haunted as it were whereever you go with the Thoughts of Death and Eternity I see Death marching towards me every Hour and Moment and is it not thus marching towards you and all the World whether they Eat Drink Sleep or Play I see my Judge seated on his Throne will he not be yours likewise having Eyes as a Flame of Fire which will pierce into all the Secrets both of mine and your Hearts and Actions I see methinks my own Conscience unfolded and as it were compar'd with Gods Omniscience where all I have done in the Body is Recorded and is there not in Heaven a Register kept of your Actions too I hear the Devil as it were charging all my Sins against me at Gods Barr Asserting my Services to his Interest and puting in an High Challenge to me as his own Will he not serve you so think you if you serve him I would think I hear on the other side the Blood of Jesus pleading for my Ransom from Eternal Death and Hell as being made a Penitent Believer This is all the Life I have in Death Will you not want it at your Deaths may you not have it in your Lives In short I see as it were Hell naked before me and Destruction without a Covering I see Heaven fill'd with Crowned Martyrs Triumphing Saints and Shining Angels all swallow'd up in the Light and Love of the Glorious Jehovah And now what Hope and Fear fills my Head and Heart I can't certainly determine which is my Place and what my Portion I liv'd neglecting to determine this great Point 't is just if Heaven suffer me to dye doubting of it And will you dare to do so can you like to dye so Oh now a World for such a Repentance as I could be assur'd I should never repent of were I to live in this World again as that I should hate Sin in my very Soul and burn it up with Jealousie and Indignation Oh for such a Love to God and Holiness as I could be assur'd if I were to live on Earth again would carry me thro' the Force of contrary Examples thro' the Fires of raging Persecution thro' the deepest Waters of Affliction thro' the strongest Contradictions of my own Corruption to Love Serve Honour Fear Obey Trust Reverence Desire Delight in the Living God Then would I welcome Death in its closest Attack and most dismal Shape yea I would leave this World with a more chearful Heart than ever I bore in it thro' my whole Life My Dear Children that I have any Hopes now of Pardon of my Sin Peace with God and Everlasting Life is owing to the abundant Riches of the Glory of Gods Grace Oh take you heed of Sinning that Grace may abound if you do you may come to rue it for ever But go I must hence whether I hop'd or no Time draws to a Close and calls me to bid you a long Farewel Farewel my Dear Children May your Souls be bound up in the Bundle of Life I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace May the very God of Peace Sanctify you wholly and preserve you Blameless in Body Soul and Spirit to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Amen Amen Sign'd with my own Hand Mary Goodenough POSTSCRIPT I am in this Paper a Witness to you my poor Orphans of your Duty and Danger Oh force me not in as a Witness against you by your Carelessness and Obstinacy at the Great Tribunal whither I am now called and where you must shortly appear Read this Paper or get it Read to you by my Neighbour Thomas Bolt or Mrs. Mary Rose or such others as will teach you to Understand and Improve not to Contemn and Neglect it Read it over or a good Part of it every Lords Day be not asham'd of my Dying Confessions or Advice for they are the best Remains of your Dying Mother the only Legacy she has to leave you and if well Improv'd they will indeed yield you a Goodly Heritage FINIS
but Unhappiness But as to this I 'm less concern'd if you shall but make a good use of it endeavouring to humble your selves under that mighty Hand of the Just God which falls so heavy even upon you thro' me Consider this your Affliction is righteous with God since you also were born in Sin and that it may by your due Improvement be a means of greatest good to your Souls That which is my greatest Trouble with reference to you is that I have not only conceiv'd and brought you forth in Sin but have neglected the means I should have us'd for the changing of you from Darkness to Light and bringing you from under the Power of Satan unto God And tho' I have indeed brought you to Baptism therein professing to give you up to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit to be his true and faithful Servants and to engage you by that Solemn Vow against the World the Flesh and the Devil Yet I have not instructed you about that Ingagement nor call'd upon you to perform it Had I consider'd how much I my self stood oblig'd to God in my Baptism and by my farther Resolutions upon sometime hearing of my Duty from Mr. Birch I had never fallen into those Depths of Sin which have brought me into the Depths of Misery that at present cover me 'T is now my last time to call and your last time of hearing me call in the Land of the Living this Call is accented to you with Groans and Sighs from the deepest Bowels of a Dying Parent 'T is a Call to which God and all good Men witness to be your Duty yea to which your own Consciences will witness to be so If you diligently listen to them and do not stifle and harden them by sinning against them 't is a Call to the performance of what I have laid you under the most Solemn Vow and Oath to Almighty God to perform in your Baptism 'T is a Call of both of you so soon as ever you come to understand your selves to sign or take upon you your parts of that Baptismal Covenant which you are brought under according to the Direction given you in Page 155 of the Reverend Mr. Allein's Sure Guide to Heaven Which I herewith send you that you may have all the Blessings of that Covenant for your Heritage in this Life and the alsufficient God for your everlasting Portion If you take not upon you this Covenant so soon as you ripen in Understanding but shou'd go on to neglect it to your Lives end I testify to you both that your Baptism will prove no other than a strong Band to tye you faster to everlasting and aggravated Misery And take notice this Call to you to this your Duty is from one who feels every Sin cut deeper into her Soul by its having been acted against such a Vow so early laid upon me so reasonable so beneficial a Vow A Vow which had I kept would have kept me from those Sins which now as Spears pierce my Heart and are the poysoned Arrows that drink up my Spiritis A Vow which if kept by you will sweeten the bitterest Miseries of your Life yea the most harsh and terrifying Embraces of the most painful and linguering Death A Vow which ought to curb all your sinful Inclinations and to constrain you to all vertuous and religious Conversation in the World A Vow which greatens all the Sins that the World count little tho' they will not so account them I 'm sure when they come either to repent of or suffer for them eternally In short it is the Vow upon you in force of which I conjure you both deeply to consider and diligently to observe this my Dying Charge that you may live eternally Let not the Devil cheat you of your Youthful days with the Promise of a long Life to come wherein you shall serve God and save your Souls Let him not cheat you with the fair out-side of Profit Pleasure Ease or Esteem in Sin no nor with the hopes of Secresie Impunity or the hopes of an after and late Repentance This last believe me is most difficult to attain most dangerous to trust to And as to Secresie and Impunity in Sin both which were promis'd me by the Father of Lyes behold how I enjoy them whose Crimes are brought forth and punish'd in the sight of the Sun and then depend on them if you can or dare 'T is a Mercy I bless the God of Grace for that I enjoy'd them not Believe Gods Word which tells you a Companion of Fools shall be destroy'd Be you so wise for your selves as to be Companions of those that fear the Lord whilst you shun all idle Company or loose or profane with more care because more dangerous than Persons infected with the Plague The former will corrupt your Souls the latter do but threaten the corrupting of your Bodies I charge you as you will answer it at the Tribunal of the great God that you get and labour to understand the Catechisms I herewith send you Two Questions at least every Week out of them that the Elder of you teach it to the Younger whilst you are together Hence shall you learn what God would have you be believe and do the Ten Commandments Lords Prayer and Creed being there Thus shall you not be destroy'd for lack of Knowledge which want highly greatens my present Misery I farther charge you that you read some part of Gods Word daily diligently and reverently in your Bibles since according to that Word you must finally be Judg'd I charge you to keep the Lords Day holy to the Lord spending it in publickly hearing Gods Word where most soundly and affectionately Preached And in privately reading and meditating on that Word and in Prayer because God has promis'd great Blessings to those who keep that day from polluting it And because your religious Conversation all the Week depends much that I say not altogether upon this I charge you that you pray to God devoutly and fervently on the Morning and Evening of every day at least confessing the Sins of your Natures and the Sins of your Thoughts Words and Deeds begging Gods Pardon and his Renewing Grace that you may amend and grow fitter every day you live for Heaven when you dye Beg also in your Prayers Gods Protection Provision Guidance and Blessing as those who are sensible that on him you depend for Life and Breath and all things Renounce particularly in your Prayers the Black Siâ—s for which I dye and pray to God that he will not farther visit them upon you yea Watch and Pray that you enter not into Temptation to them Be content with what Condition God shall assign you in this World Besure you Love your Neighbours as your selves do no body the least Injury in Thought Word or Deed yea Love your Enemies even those I charge you who you may think had the first hand in your poor Mothers Death whom with all
the World I do now heartily forgive Set a Watch before the Door of your Lips against all Swearing Lying Idle Talking or Foolish Jesting Slandering or Censuring any that you offend not with your Tongues See that you be diligent in whatsoever Imployment God shall assign to you for the gaining a Livelyhood in this World obey those that shall have Rule over you as Masters Mistresses c. in all things Lawful for the Lords Sake And beg time from them yea Redeem time by your Diligence from their Business wherein you may serve God every day Shun all unjust ways of getting tho' for the Supply of mere Necessity In a word get Gods Commands into your Heads and hide them in your Hearts that you may not sin against him Remembring always you are not of your selves sufficient so much as to think any good thing as of your selves but believe it upon my sad Experience who fail'd and fell by trusting to my own strength for performing the good Resolutions I took up Without Christ you can do nothing That all your Sufficiency is of God whose Spirit and Grace you must therefore beg as you would do Bread when you are ready to starve of your Parents Since Christ hath told you if Parents tho' evil give good Gifts to their Children how much more will not your Heavenly Father give the Spirit to them that ask it and continue asking it Oh Children would you live happily and dye so take the Advice of your Dying Mother Would you not have it to say at last How have we hated Instruction and despised Reproof Wou'd you not have God laugh at your Calamity and mock when your Fear cometh Oh then take my Advice as here given you Would you be Blessings to your Generation the Love of Good Men the Delight and Care of Heaven Read then over and over Ponder and Practise my Advice Bind these my Precepts on your Heads Hands and Hearts an Ornament of Grace they will be unto you even as Chains about your Neck and Bracelets on your Arms. Oh what a Peaceful Happy and Joyful Life had I lead if I had ever chosen these ways of Wisdom these ways of Pleasantness which I mark you out Oh what an Honourable Death should I have dyed what a Sweet Flourishing and Blessed Memory should I have left behind me whereas now Woe is me my Life is going out like the Snuff of a Candle cut off in the midst of my Years the Proud Waters are come in unto my Soul Oh what would I now give Ten Thousand Worlds surely if I had them that I had lead my Life as I am persuading you the Dear Fruit of my Womb to lead yours Oh had I my past Life again would I barter it away for Toyes for Vanity or sinful Pleasures Should the World or the Devil again impose upon me as I find they have done No surely No Yet alas had I kept the Precepts I have recommended to you from my Youth upward as exactly as I would beg of you to keep them or as you would wish you had kept them did you stand in my present Circumstances yea allowing these Precepts to contain a perfect Rule of Life yet would there be one thing lacking and chargeable upon me even a Satisfaction for the Guilt of my Sin in and from Adam Nor can my present Prayers Tears Penitent Confessions Promises of future Obedience c. expiate that Guilt much less attone for all the Violations of Gods Laws thro' my past Life Oh no I must have the Righteousness of the Lord Jesus to cover my naked Soul withal before the Barr of God in order to my Acceptance and Salvation Where 's any room then my Children for that vain Conceit think you that Persons may be too diligent exact or abounding in the Way and Works of God When you have done all must you not own your selves unprofitable Servants But oh how much short of the whole will you fall when you do all you can of whatever I have counselled you Believe me then for 't is undoubted Truth never any repented of too much Diligence in Gods Service whilst they liv'd much less when they came to dye Oh that I could draw forth the present earnest Pantings of my Soul before you Sure they would put your Souls into the like or better motion Hear Children the Prayers of your Dying Parent for her own Soul which she puts up with infinitely more Earnestness if it were possible than she could pray for her Release from the present Chains she wears the Dungeon she lyes in the Shame and approaching Death she is to undergo Yea hear the Prayers and pray them whilst you live which your Dying Mother makes for you not for Riches Preferment Esteem Ease or Plenty in this World No let the World enjoy the Gods they dote on May you my Children who are born with Souls naked before God and so ought to be asham'd have the Cloathing of Christs Righteousness to cover your sinful Nakedness May you who have Souls expos'd to the Wrath of God for the Sin of your Natures and the Sins of your but as it were newly begun Lives have Christs Righteousness as Armour against the second Death Armour of Proof to keep off all furious Discharges of Gods Law upon you May you who have Souls miserably poor by Nature void of all saving Knowledge and Grace which are the true Riches have your Souls made Rich by Christ Jesus with his Gold try'd in the Fire Rich in Faith Rich with all the Graces of his Holy Spirit dwelling richly in you Rich in the Love of God manifested to your Souls and Rich thro' Christs Purchase in your being united to him having a sure Reversion of Eternal Glory These mighty Blessings may you seek after may God give you them early Had I look'd after them as I advise you now to do I might once more easily have attained and secured them I might have had the Use and Comforts of them thro' my Life Oh that I may not now fail of these Blessings at Death Alas that I have driven it to this doubtful Point God and Christ waited on me with these Offers ever since and are ready always to bestow them upon you if you are but ready to receive them Well shall I shew you the way wherein you are to seek these Blessings wherein seeking ye shall find yea wherein only seeking I hope my self to find them why truly 't is in the way of Repentance and Faith on the Lord Jesus Christ The World think they can as easily Repent and Believe almost as I can write the Words but alas they 'l find themselves desperately mistaken if they don't alter their Minds mistaken to their endless Ruin Oh how hard is it for me to believe my Heart which was but some Weeks ago in deep Love and League with Sin and with this World to be now absolutely unalterably irreconcilably set against all Sin and set fixedly to mortify