12. And we are now lately called Protestants from the seven Princes of Germany protesting against the Pope's Supremacy but are indeed the true real Catholicks because we hold the Universal truths which were from the Beginning are and shall be so to the Worlds end the main of which is the Worshipping of God in and through Christ and loving Him and his Son for ever But many beyond Sea are called Lutherans Calvinists and Hussites for following those great Lights and their Doctrine But now this Righteousness of God Christ Abraham Jews Gentiles and Believers is called the Saints for two or three Reasons First Because it is this that makes them so Christ's Righteousness is our Justification and Sanctification too before God and it is that and his holy Spirit sanctifying of us which makes us Saints in the Eyes of God and before Men in this World too take three distinctions and they will end 20 disputes about this Point ☜ for Christ justifies us before God by his Blood Life and Death Faith that is the object of Faith Christ justifies us in our own Consciences so that it is not so much Faith in a strict sense as Christ by Faith Justifies us and that too And indeed Faith being imperfect at the best needs a Christ for Justification as well as other Graces though it still shews us Christ as in a glass for our justification and good Works which are really so and the fruits of God's Spirit namely good Works these do justifie us before Men And therefore says Christ let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5. 16. And says St. James Shew me thy Faith by thy Works and do not tell me so much thou hast it but let me see it by thy Works So that to God we must plead the Blood of Christ and nothing else and to our Consciences shew the Blood of Christ and witness all to others by good Works and a Godly Conversation and this is the Saints visible and invisible Justification And now had I the Tongue of Men or Angels 1 Cor. 13. 1. I could never enough set out the Blessedness or Blessednesses of Men or Women that do Hunger and Thirst that is Long Love and secretly wish and pray for day by day this Righteousness and to be found in it namely this of God and Christ and the sanctifying graces of his Spirit for they shall be satisfied yea they shall certainly be satisfied in the discovery of it and present comfort also yea in the everlasting wearing and enjoyment of it in the highest Heavens For as Kings Cloath all their Yeomen in their Gold Embroidered Coats So Christ the King of Kings doth spiritually Cloath the Souls of all his and by vertue of this They shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of his Father for evermore Mat. 13 43. Yea all his Rich and all his Poor and all his Gifted and all his Ungifted that hunger after it Here one has his Silken Suit and another his Thred-bare Habit here one has their Holland Shifts and fine Laces others want course Linnen but Time shall pass and Time shall come when all wants shall be done away and small Gifts and no Gifts scarce shall be equally happy with the greatest for all shall everlastingly shine as the Sun in the Righteousness of Christ which is the Blessedness here hunger'd after which is the White Linnen and the Wedding Garment so often spoken of in the Revelations Rev. 19. 8. And that which Paul would so feign be found in Counting his own Righteousness but dung and dross in comparison of it Phil. 3. 8 9. But Fifthly Our Lord and Saviour goes still on with his Blessings saying Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain Mercy Mat. 5. 7. And the merciful Man will be merciful to his Beast saith Solomon And now Noble Ladies give me leave to plead with you a little from this good Text The Mercies of God are dear and tender Things the choicest chiefest things in Heaven and Earth We have nothing to hang upon Living or Dying but the tender Mercies of God in Christ which he proclaims and shews to us Exod 26. And he was with Joseph and shewed mercy in the Pit Isa 39. 21. Prov. 11. 17. And A merciful Man saith Solomon doth good to his own Soul And if you will shew a little to some 30 or near 40 poor and fatherless Boys now in your School at Highgate you will shine as lights before men and your candle shall be on a hill and not under a bushel which Christ bids you do and in doing of it do good to your own so saith Solomon Prov. 11. 17. and in this and doing something for it you will to yours But you will say You have ways enough and need not a new design for Charity Oh! but you can never have too many ways nor do too much good in the world and if it be new 't is the more pity that so many brave Noble English Ladies as there be that profess the true Religion and are Religious also that they have not done some publick thing for the honour of it as well as old Sutton when you see so many burnt to ashes for the Gospel and that Religion which you profess Oh then do a little eminent and something that may have a little notice taken of it for the honor of their Lord Master Religion and your own also all which this would do surely the great and famous Hospitals of London are famours praise-worthy things and honourable to Religion and should nor you most Great and Noble English Ladies which all the world must needs give place unto do something for the honour of it If they did well that did build and set up them as you will not say but they did you cannot do amiss in a little countenancing this Those were done by some one particular person at first which would swallow up a great and whole Estate this would hurt no more than a little Tradesmans Bill because there are so many of you to join in this good and pious Work surely God will incline some of your hearts yea many we yet hope to it The Wiseman saith You will do good to your own Souls And we are certain it can be no hurt to your children come and take Christ's counsel and lay up treasure in Heaven where no Rust nor Moth nor Thief can ever come and to the merciful God will shew himself merciful But if you do not love your Souls care for treasure in Heaven nor the tender mercies which is the Rise Spring-head and Fountain of all we hope for or can hope for from God in this world or t'other you need not mind these sayings in this blessed Book of his Oh! but you dare not say or think so in the least for God and his mercies are your last and lasting Refuges Oh! then dear good Ladies
him as long as I live The sorrows of death caught hold upon me I found trouble then called I on the Name of the Lord and he heard me The Lord hath dealt bountifully with me what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits I will take the Cup of Salvation and pay my vows in the midst of his people in the Courts of the Lord 's own House in the midst of thee O Jerusalem praise ye the Lord. And if ever there be a time for us to speak and you to give it is now Whilst your heart is full of his Goodness yet yours can never extend to him to us and our School it may and others need it not we mean your great City-Hospitals but our poor little In fant new-born thing needs really needs and that makes us speak others are Rich we are poor others are full we are empty others have all things we have nothing but what the good Lord Jesus shall encline some great Ladies and a few of you the choicest Citizens of London for to give and choice men it must be that we thus go to for we intend never to beg nor mingle but with the best of Protestants and some of them too have scarce faith enough to believe the success of this great or good design Nay your Brother Cornish himself who in other things is one of a hundred through the greatness of his diffidence would have once perswaded us to lay it down whose Charity yet we doubt not of in the least it being a well approved thing by good men and Ministers one of which constantly Preaches every Lord's day an Evening Lecture for all sorts of comers where Bread and other encouragement is given for any Poor or Needy people that please to be there and hear at that same hour In short the praise and good report of this House and your Charity will live grow and be a great thing and still redound to your Honour and the City's Praise And now the prayers of all our School with the Blessings of the great God of Heaven and Earth rest on the Heads Hearts and Souls of all your near Relations and Family May it please you most Worthy Madam THE Good and Noble Ladies have given liberty to Petition as now we do some few Honourable Citizens and great Merchants Wives of eminent Quality or Degree your Husband being one we well know to be both free bountiful and a Right English Gentlemen in all things We humbly beg and intreat your Ladyship that this our Charity School-house Stick or Roll may be accepted it being for a good work much of praise-worthy And we humbly promise this We will all beg many Blessings or wish Health Peace Wealth and Eternal Happiness to you for ever and ever Yea we will beg for the two young Ladies also that they may be Saints in Heaven good and virtuous Wives on Earth and may have as they really do and will ever well deserve the best of Husbands to enjoy them such as may never grieve nor offend day nor night such as may love them and their Souls both above their great Fortunes and next our Lord Jesus Christ Study what to do for both for to be ensnared with a bad man and unkind or churlish Husband will be a thousand thousand pities grieve us to the heart When sweet Nature's Blossoms Buds and Roses meet with churlish Nabals the yielding gentle Reed is bruised by the ugly Oak and the Honey suckle tangled in a knot which can never be untied till Death But a good man though he be not a Lord though he be not a very great Merchant yet if he be but good natur'd wise cheerful and careful for the world and minds the world to come prayes daily for a Blessing let the Ladies we all say accept of such a one or let one venture first and the other for Honour after or let either chuse as they will but still let both be happy we all pray from the bottom of our hearts Yet happy they can never be unless after all they go to Heaven for Heaven is Heaven when all is done and ever will be We should Buy Sell Trade Marry Live and Dye so as that we may not endanger our Souls in the least Other losses may be gaind Health Wealth and the World but Heaven lost will never be found in another O love God and Jesus Christ now above all love his Praise love his Promise love his Spirit which knocks now and then yea often at your hearts with sweet soft and still Motions in the night saying Open open unto me Hear hear and your Souls shall live I will make a Covenant with you if you will be mine love and live to me now I will own you here and hereafter save you when you come to dye and bless you at the present with Children more or less or that which is better good things Yea no good thing will he with-hold from them that fear him saith the Psalmist And therefore fear him day and night both you yea both you Young and Lovely Ladies that he may indeed bless you in Life Death and Eternity prayes all we at Highgate SILVER DROPS OR SERIOUS THINGS HEre follows the Substance of the fine Young Lady's Answer to that Objection in the Essay Are these Times for Charity and a new Design when we have so many Waies and Objects for it Ay said she And it is the better for us too we have many Joynts and Mercies Fingers Feet and Toes all should do something for him and another world who is alwaies doing of us good and all his Works So saith the Psalmist And all his Works do praise him Psal 145. 10. Now if this little Design of theirs at Highgate be for or look like any thing of serving him why should it dye Let the vanity and things of the world sin folly and emptiness dye but let Virtue Religion and the Love of Charity live in all our bosoms breasts and lives If Angels were to be visible and present with us how much would they be to be embraced and desired for their holiness When Great and Noble Persons Lords Ladies and others embrace true Piety they seem to imitate the holy Angels though cloathed with frailty and mortality immortality is for another world and in that world nothing but Divine Love shall live Joy and Glory cease here but that which is heavenly shall never cease yet Charity shall cease though it be greater than Faith and Love too So sayes Paul 1 Cor. 13. 13. Now abides Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of all is Charity Will you abound a little in this Work you have enough of this world yea enough to swallow and drown you to Eternity if a good God do not love and save you from the snares cares and flatteries of it For all its pleasures are bewitching things and the sweetest Musick fails tires often times But thou O Son Saint and Servant
Papists The last and general Closing Letter that is thus presumed to be offered ANd now most Noble Great and Right Honourable Ladies Gentlewomen and others 'T is not many Weeks nay Days since your poor Orator Supplicant or Petitioner was in his own and others apprehension at the brink of Death and the Grave and so many Days together But God was pleased by Doctor Cox my alone Physician to raise me up again And though in my Sickness my Life seemed to be flying away like an Eagle in the Air and the World and the Things thereof to be passing away as if they had never been yet yet I did secretly resolve if God should raise me up to perform or finish this poor little scribled and yet serious short brief and harmless Pocket-Book with the Ladies Letters which yet I humbly entreat your Noble Ladyships to peruse and view over and over in some serious leisure Hour persuading my self that though your Breasts are full of Piety Virtue Wisdom and Virtuous Thoughts yet you may find some if not many brief hints of Truth Religion and Virtue well worth your pious Thoughts or Memory for as Eternity is a very serious thing so every Sickness that brings one near the Borders of it or from the Borders of it should make us very serious and to Speak and Act as those that have been near another World though not in it And truly if I were no more nor longer to be in this than just to finish these few Lines and humbly on the bended Knee to present them to your Lilly Hands and so to lie down and die at your Feet yet would I seriously do it in the way of Prayer to your Honours First That the short Hints might be weighed and weighed again and again in your most strict serious and retired Thoughts whether they be really so as they seem to be hinted to you and if you find them indeed so to be by the standard Golden Rule Reed or Touchstone of God's holy Word then not to slight and say Pish Fool or cry This simple Man will never a done for 't is of more concern than so Truth is Truth and serious Things must and will be serious whether we mind or count them so or no. And this I assure you if ever you come as come you must to a Fit and Bed of Sickness I mean a thorow Sickness that your life seems in your own others thoughts to be flying away you will be then thinking of your immortal ever-living and never-dying Souls And it may be in a dowsed manner not knowing well where you are or what Day it is whether Day or Night The Watch Candle being in the Room the Curtains drawn little or no Company to speak to you because of the high Feaver or other Distemper but yet in that hour it may be Fears Doubts Conscience will be working and secret Questions will be working in you whether you must and shall Die now or no go to the Grave leave your golden Hangings Rooms Honours and Relations going to the silent and be seen no more whilst it may be are just in the middle of some great Design or other as your Supplicant was in these Papers or setting up of your little Charity-School at High-Gate But be it what it will every Design must break off if Death really come with and at the end of your Sickness and then no remembrance of you or yours will be after a very little while Oh Madams for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake and your own Souls I beseech you mind a little the house of mourning Eccles 7. 2. which he says 't is so good to go to and the Bed of sickness before it comes and especially what to do before it comes that its coming may not be as a damp and death to your spirits when it comes It 's said the Cockatrice never kills but when it sees us before we see it Oh be before-hand with your Sickness and prepare in Life for Death and Health for Sickness and assure your selves you may as well persuade your selves that Michaelmas will never come because April is and May is at hand as that Sickness and Death will not come because Health Wealth Honour and all about you is now as you would have it and more comforts seem to promise to you also from a Son or Daughter 's great Match or Purchase which you are just a making But yet Michaelmas comes in course and Winter too when one Flower will not be left But now against the height and heart of that and all that is cold and killing unto Creature-comforts set a never-failing good God aside make him your portion and with the Prophet Habakkuk say Though the labour of the Olive should fail Flocks Herds and the Fruits of the Field yield no increase yet I will rejoyce greatly I will joy in the God of my salvation Habbak 3. 17 18. But this must nor can ever otherwise be but by true Faith in the Love Life Blood Death and Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ with holy walking in the sanctifying graces of his Spirit six or seven of which you may eminently find I shall hint at in the first Sermon our Lord Jesus Christ ever preach'd Mat. 5. 3 4 5 6 7 8. First blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven by purchase purpose promise and eternal preparation Mat. 25 34. Come ye blessed of my Father and receive a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World Oh blessed Poverty that enriches men with the Kingdom of Heaven This poverty of Spirit is nothing else but a sensible want of Grace and Christ and every good thing in our selves through the discovery of original sin to us by the Fall of Adam whereby we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be lost by the purity and spirituality of God's most holy inward piercing Law the ten Commandments by which we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be most miserable wretched creatures and lost in our selves seeing no hope nor help any ways but in Gods mercy thorough Christ and this brings us to be like the poor Prodigal or Publican Luke 18. 11. to cry Lord be merciful to me poor lost sinner and grant that I may find Christ and pardon for my Soul and by Prayer Reading Hearing Preaching Meditating make out after him in an humble persevering way And this is the Poverty to which the Kingdom of Heaven belongs that is the Gospel with all its Promises and everlasting Kingdom of Glory too which God grant you and yours may all find But secondly ver 4. Blessed are all they that mourn for they shall be comforted that is for sin in-dwelling of original and actual sin and upon that account cry out like great St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Rom. 7. 24. Mark Ladies Sin has a Body yea in Paul it had though he was
for all which we heartily and most humbly beg as on our Knee that we may have your Noble step in this Good Work as a Leading Card to other Pious Ladies and a little small Acknowledgment which you cannot better make to the Great and Good God of the deep sense you have of all his many mercies To whom be Glory Honour and Dominion world without End Pray all we Poor Boys May it please you most Great and Noble Countess AS your Title bears the greatest sound so your Name and Memory will be more beloved than all that shall succeed the Protestants loved and they all bewailed it in the Nation when it fell but while Sion-House shall last Old Northumberland's Name will live and may you live also for ever Live when Sun Moon and Stars shall be no more Live in the heavenly Jerusalem when earthly Sion and earthly things shall be no more And that you may so do let the Love of God now dwell in you the Blood of Christ and his Spirit wash and sanctifie you Soul and Body to make both blameless at his coming and to wait for his Son from Heaven which though it may not be in your daies yet will it be a pleasure all your life long to think indeed upon it and that when he comes the second time it will be without sin unto salvation without sin that is a good word indeed At his first coming he was loaded with sins for us Isa 53. O read often this Chapter but he is now without and shall appear without sin for us Christ is got rid of our sins by his sufferings he gave satisfaction for us to the Father no Pens nor Tongues can sufficiently set out this Madam feed your thoughts upon it frequently the worlds all vanity from top to bottom and must pass away 1 Joh. 2. 17. But the Love of God and Blood of Christ abides for ever O happy man that maketh that his portion All things fail but my God and my Duty said a great one Oh! keep close to Christ then that he may clasp you when you and this world must part Trust not in worldly Princes saith the Psalms Their breath is in their nostrils and will soon fall to earth Happy is the man who hath the God of Jacob for his portion which made Heaven and Earth and that Heaven and Earth may both be yours One you have already and the other may you ever have also That shall be the prayers of us poor School-Boys yea we shall all pray that you may for ever sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob Luke 13. v. 28. be in the Kingdom of God to sing the everlasting praises of the Lamb and his Joys to Eternity Revel 7. 16. May it please your most Great and Noble Ladiship WE the Ladies Hospital-Boys of Highgate have humbly presumed to pray and dedicate one of these little Charity School house-Sticks to your Right Honourable Family which is Illustrious as a Star of great Magnitude and has shin'd if not out-shin'd most in this our Horison for great Wisdom in the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom which made the Nation so happy in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when your Lord 's Noble Ancestor governed all as only Minister of State and may your present Lord be as great and as good a Patriot to his Country the Laws and Priviledges of it yea and Patron to the best of Preaching-Ministers as his Noble Family or Grandfather has been heretofore and so whilst he really loves both his Prince and Kingdom with the Preaching-Ministers also he must needs be a good and great friend to both and our Protestant Religion so much struck at at this time which is far beyond all the earthly things in the world for true value and esteem may your Ladiship and Lord therefore both long live together and may your mutual Love be blessed by the Great God with many Children as it is and may they all live and stand round your great Table as Olive-branches flourish in the Courts of God's own House be good and pious here holy and happy to all Eternity for that is a long thing and must be and our Immortal Souls too when the Sun the Sea and World shall be no more Most Honourable Madam WE are come again though the Year be hardly out since our setting up But for the future we will never trouble your Right Noble Ladiship more than once if so often but now necessity puts us upon it for getting something out of Great Families to carry on this next Years Charge And we remember how your Honour gave a Caution when you sent your Guineys not to be too troublesom for that you had very many objects in the Country which did need my Lord's help and the truth is the whole World is full of wants so that Good and Great Persons can never lack Objects but this is a thing not common that bears your Noble Name and is Dedicated to the Honour of your Sex and in feeding it two or three Years you will make it live it self and stand upon its own Legs and would your Honour but be pleased to send to see how well it stands in the mean time we well know you to be a good and prudent Lady and therefore will not believe in the least you will yet stick out to help us till the thing be a little stronger and have taken better Root which it will soon and certainly do and then you nor no other Noble Ladies will ever repent in the least of what has been done for us who will ever pray for you my Lord his Sons and all your Noble Family that your Souls may be truly happy when the World shall fly away like a mighty Eagle and be seen no more for ever the Sun Moon or Stars be darkened the Silver Cord loosed or the Golden Bowl broken and the Spirit return to God that gave it Eccles 12. v. 2 6. Right Honourable Madam THough all Good Works may be said to speak for themselves yet a powerful Intercessor does do well and for your house or most Noble Family a greater than your self cannot be for as our Lord Jesus Christ his greatness with the Father makes every thing to be easie and readily granted that he moves the Father for so your Power and Influences must needs be very successful because you move the nearest of Relations and them too that are all eminently Religious and such as have been so for many years the Grandmother being yet living in the Children Grandchildrens graces Madam assure your self 't is for a Good Work we are now a begging and it must be none but good and great Families and a few Citizens that are very eminent indeed that we intend thus to go unto and in so doing how can we miss especially when it is fully resolved by God's grace that the Discipline of this little Charity-School shall be as near as may be for the Honour of God and Religion
spoil so great a Gem and Jewel or Immortal thing Christ will save us now Christ will save us ever if we be but willing yet he will never bleed more but he prays and mediates for us still for he makes continual Intercession Rom. 10. 4. and his blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel that cryed down vengeance upon Cain but Christ's blood crys up forgiveness unto us Oh Father let them come to me if they will be mine Joh. 17. 24. And may you both dwell with him for ever but oh live a little if you have not live to him a little if you cannot much time being now short lay up as much as can be Treasure in Heaven where no Rust nor Thieves can come Lands Debts Rents and Houses may be all lost but Treasure in Heaven can never miscarry and if ever we indeed mean to come there it must be by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Money will not buy Pardon Blood nor Tears cannot nor the Fruit of our Bodies go for the sin of our Souls Micah 6. 7. But Christ's Blood is Currant Coin Oh stick to that Rock which will not fail when the Silken Stockin and the Silver Shoe must off and never on more nor the Soul return to the same Body Vanity of Vanities how is all but froth and vanity besides Christ and therefore if he be not ours we are lost for nothing for nothing but a Dream a Bubble and a Fancy yea and our Souls to Eternity Madam WE have presumed to offer one of these to the Lady Player Mrs. Love and Madam Pilkinton with a few humble Lines as now we do to your most great Right Honourable Ladiship from all which we most humbly pray that this Good Work which in charity must be so accounted may be a little countenanced by you the four Beloved Ladies of this mighty City for if any names be deservedly great and famous more than others sure it is yours and those other three above mentioned And may your Names live from generation to generation whilst your Walls and Gates last and your Souls to Eternity after all May Hell never be known nor Heaven lost by you nor none of yours especially your dear Husbands But may they be all four for ever Citizens in the New Jerusalem walk hand in hand with the Lamb and his Redeemed ones to the Fountains of Living Water where God shall be all in all and they alwaies drinking from the River of his Pleasures Rev. 7. 17. Psal 36. 8. So prays one and all our Charity School-house Madam THE great God and his Providence has made Sir Thomas the Father as it were of all the famous Apprentices of London and onely sole Judge between the great Merchant and his Man and not so but an Eye for the Nation also piercing through and through the greatest Intrigues Policies Stratagems that Malice Hell or Rome can lay against our King Kingdom or Religion Liberty and Interest Gems and Jewels of greater value than the Gold of Ophir in a true sense But in your sphere Madam this little little Work is not to be despised in the least but a Scriptural Honour it is to be owned the Lady of Charity and a Mistress or great Benefactor to one of their little Schools Light is light truth truth a spark is fire and true Charity praise worthy to the world's end and so long may your Name Praise and Honour live and our House also Madam LOve is from the Fountain and Divine Being of all good May that ever flow in your Name and Nature and be as natural to you as the Rose and Buds are to the Summer and then when this Spring and your Charity shall flow up in and from you to the barren Hill of Highgate where your School-house stands it will then become a feeding filling Spring too for Charity will feed us and praise flow from us to the famous City-Ladies names which shall never be forgotten but be fairly Registred and read from one Age and one Generation to another And now may the Love of God Almighty the pure Joys and Comforts of his holy Spirit ever abide with you and yours whilst you abide in this Tabernacle of Clay and he constantly guide you through the Wilderness of this bewitching barren wicked World till you come to the last period of Life and wrap you up then in the Righteousness of God's dear and anointed only Christ to shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father for ever more praies thirty six of us and our Minister also Most Worthy Madam THere are four Gates in the City four Seasons in the Year four Ladies nigh together that will hardly be forgotten but shall be beloved for their Husbands sakes their own too for their praise is truly praise-worthy their virtues all eminently specious But now dear Madam would it not be a high and great Honour to see you our four Citizens Ladies with your four well-beloved Husbands our constant Parliament men for London chosen more by hearts than hands and a many brave judicious sober Citizens waiting on them all standing one by one as it were on the brow of our Hill saying one to the other There is the Tower and the Monument the Old Change Guild-Hall and Blackwell-Hall which some would fain burn again there is Bow-Steeple the Holy Bible the Silver Bells of Aaron the godly outed Ministers the melodious Musick of the Gospel Smithfield Martyrs yet alive and the Best Society the very Best in all the world for Civility Loyalty Men and Manners with the greatest cash bulk mass and stock of all sorts of Silks Cinnamon Spices Wine Gold Pearl Spanish-Wooll and Cloaths with the River Nilus and the stately Ships of Turshish to carry in and out the great Merchandizes of the world And may all this with the dew of Hermon her Silver Drops with your godly Ministers yet unrestored ever be to the World's end and to your Live's end May you and yours be beloved as you are And now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and all Consolations bless you both in Spirit Soul and Body Sickness Health Life and Death here and for evermore prayes all we your poor youngest Hospital-Boys of Highgate and to help them is most Charity ever The old fares well thanks be to a good City and their Benefactors in it for which God Almighty bless them and their Government to the world's end with Peace Health Wealth Honour and the Power of Religion Most Honourable Madam THE Best have not alwaies Love boiling in them yet at sometimes nothing works so strongly as Divine Goodness in their Souls and now we think we see in your heart hand and eye all lifting up unto the Hills from whence alone has your Salvation and Deliverance been we think we hear you still say God has been my Helper my Rock and my Salvation and I will bless him he hath inclined his Ear unto me therefore will I love
and there is a time for every thing under the Sun Eccles 3. 1. excepting sin and for that you shall hardly sin in moderate mirth and pleasure But to make Recreation a toil and the Business of your Life is folly and madness What! nothing but hait hait up and down as some do and never to a Lecture or scarce on the Lord's Day in the forenoon I said of Laughter Thou wert mad saith Solomon Eccles 2. 2. It may be they sing too which had need to weep and pray But let not your high Fortunes make you too high-minded For they that think themselves better for Gold Pearl and Lace and are proud and disdain others which yet is very natural and we are all apt to fall this way which makes us worse than Gold Slaves and Servants to it sayes Anselmus But remember what you shall be in the Grave especially in Hell if you should go there And wanton thoughts and plumes will all fall but humble great ones are good ones indeed and God will exalt such and make them higher than they are and men will love them more Humble Great ones are double Great ones and twice as honourable as others of the same rank And therefore let not great Fortunes make you proud and unfortunate yet a grain must be allowed for Old Adam's sake whose Children we all are And 't is easier in a minister to preach down Adam in others than to beat it down in himself wife or children but sound men should love sound preaching the best wine is best and so is the best preaching and that that comes from the heart goes to it so say and so do is good in a good minister some speak more briefly than they live as Cato told his friends but do not say I will and don 't we read of two Brothers one said he would do his Fathers will but did it not the other said he would not but did it and that was better than the other When prayers and praise go together and the heart with both God is well pleased and the musick sweet when the tongue doth not go from the inward motions the Pharisee said I thank God and I do this and I do this but the poor Publican said The Lord be merciful to me a sinner Luk. 18. 13. and he was justified hand and tongue went together some forget to pray because they have too much of the world and some neglect because they want it and must work early and late but 't is a misery and a sin not to be excused in any pray if you be rich and pray if you be poor or else thou sayest in effect God I have nothing to do with thee don't say you forgot it for that is a soul-careless trick few forget their dinner but it is better to fast all day than not to pray in a day and a little meditation does well what ask of God and not think what to ask or why they who have most grace have something to ask and they that have least have something to ask but they that have none have all to ask for they want Christ pardon and every thing yet God will give them his holy Spirit if they do but indeed ask it Luk. 11. 13. Ask then and down upon your silken knees O ye great Lords Ladies and others that you might have his holy spirit and his heavenly will revealed in and to you so as to do it live it and love it it will be your glory heaven and happiness for ever if you do so indeed but if you slight him now you will need him miss him and want him hereafter and never find him 'T is a mercy to have many good things in this world but what a misery is it if you should have all and be said Son Remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things Luk. 16. v. 25. therefore he is comforted and thou art tormented A Scripture that made Gregory the great weep or tremble as himself said for fear to think lest he had received his good things Come Heaven 's a sweet Cake but who would eat it before-hand or take Earth for it Sweet-meats are the last dish but it will be sowr sauce if you lose all in conclusion Read to the end of the Chapter Come come a godly Life is best and best for you great Countesses and you Ladies more elderly and young ones too though you be not twelve or thirteen Let head and heart remember that and what Angelical things you would be if you would begin betimes as the best did Josiah Samuel Timothy John were all young Saints and the most eminent in the Book of God the last leaned in Christ's bosom dipt his Pen and his Quill in the Love of God and strows all his Epistles with it But how frail a thing is man and you are the same or more The Venice-glass is soonest broke that sings walks talks and yet is gone as a Tale Dream or Watch in the night And he is no man that does not need mending more than a Watch and oftner winding up to mind Heaven and heavenly things For this world is bad and too bad too mend one and make it better mend one and draw twenty great persons do alwaies so for many follow them and their Examples which way soever they go When Magistrates hearts are towards God the People's are so too And when Magistrates hearts are towards the People the Peoples hearts are towards them Love begets Love and they that do not love will not be beloved Love comes down good Parents Magistrates Masters and Landlords too if they be kind and love them beneath But the Love of God is the best Love of all therefore Magistrates Ministers and People should all love him and you Ladies which are uppermost in this world will be lowermost in Hell if ye forget him True Love seeks how to please him If you love your Lords much that is well and it is but your duty but if ye love Christ less that is ill but if God not at all he will never care for you nor what becomes of you when Honours have done with you and you with them 'T is better to love God now though you do not see him than not to love him and never see him Love God and he will love you with that Love which has no end nor never shall have Your Lord and your Husband will love you no longer after a little time but Christ will love you with an everlasting Love and draw you to himself if all things in the world are not good enough for you and your Souls If you love God he will give you himself the World to come and his Son for ever and your Soul shall live because he lives and that is most where it loves and shall be quite with him after a little while if it love him most But oh Love Love whither goest thou to love when
his sake And now said they We do commit thy Soul to the Devil We believe it was in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for usually such wickednesses are so pronounced But I said John Huss do commit it to my dear Redeemer Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ As he lifted up his head the Crown of Paper fell off but they put it on again saying Let him be burnt with his Masters the Devils And as they tied his Neck with the Chain he smiling said This I suffer for Preaching of the Holy Gospel singing three times with a loud voice Lord Jesus Christ thou Son of the Living God have mercy on me He told them at his Death God would raise up out of the Ashes of the Goose for so Huss's Name signified in the Bohemian Language in 100 Years a Swan in Germany whose Singing would affright all the Vultures which was exactly fulfilled in Luther But for Jerom of Prague he was so bold and zealous that he wrote certain Letters which he sent to Constantine to be set up upon the Gates of Noblemen and Cardinals shewing the purity and clearness of his Faith and Doctrine for which he was accused and that he was ready to come and make good all he had Preached His great Crime was he had thundered against the ill Lives of the Monks and Fryers but being taken into custody he was sadly used fed with Bread and Water and tyed almost Neck and Heels together so that he sell sick After a long time they required him to subscribe That John Huss was justly put to Death which he did partly for fear of Death and hoping to escape their hands But he soon repented saying before the Council All the Sins he ever committed in his Life did not half so much gnaw and trouble his Conscience as that pestiferous Sin When they had condemned him he said I Cite you all to answer it within 100 Years before the most High Judge of Heaven and Earth in the mean time I leave a remorse and nail in your Consciences He was bound to the Image of John Huss and had a Paper-Crown of red Devils painted on his head When the Executioner went to kindle the Fire behind him he bade him do it before his Face saying If I had been afraid of Death I had not come to this place for I had opportunities to escape but this Soul of mine in burning flames Oh Christ I will offer thee And for his Oration that he made before the Council it is said That no Tongue is able to express that learned Elegancy and Braveness of his Speech shewing what the Best of Men had still suffered in all Ages Latimer was a zealous Papist till Mr. Blinny converted him and then he was made Bishop of Worcester he preached twice a day and in Queen Maries days he was laid up in the Tower As he rode through Smithfield he said that had groaned for him many Years He used to pray for three things First That as God had made him a Preacher of his holy Word that he might seal it with his Blood if called thereunto Secondly That God of his Mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again once again Shall we not prize it Thirdly That the Lord would preserve Queen Elizabeth and make her a Comfort to the Comfortless Realm At his Burning the Blood run out of his Heart so abundantly as if all the Blood in his Body had gathered there according to his Prayer which struck the beholders with Astonishment In the Fire he stroakt his Face with his Hand crying out Oh! Father of Heaven receive my Soul and so died 1555. Ridley in the same Year writing to Latimer he said Good Father assist me with your Prayers for unless God stand by me I shall play but the part of a white liver'd Knight At his hearing he stood bare till the Cardinal named the Pope and then he put on his Cap. A Woman weeping for him a day before his Suffering he cried Ah! Mistress I see you love me not it appears you will not be at my Marriage to Morrow meaning his Burning nor will be therewith contented A Friend offering to watch with him he cried I intend to go to Bed and sleep as quietly as ever I did in my Life At the Stake he cryed Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Lord Jesus receive my Soul But the Fire being prest down by much Wood he desired for Christ's sake to let the Fire come up to him his lower part and Legs were quite burnt before his upper part so that he fell into the Fire He going one day by Water the Thames being very rough and the Watermen being a little fearful he cried Fear not you carry one that must be Burnt and not Drowned John Bradford was persuaded by Booker to enter upon the Ministry and he modestly complained of his want of Parts and Learning Oh! says Booker be not discouraged if you have not fine Manchet give them Barley Bread But being in Prison Condemned one comes running to him Oh! Mr. Bradford I bring you heavy News you must be burnt to Morrow I saw your Chain a buying At which he plucked off his Cap saying I thank God for it the Lord make me worthy lifting up his Eyes to Heaven saying Life with God's displeasure is worse than Death and Death with his true Favour is better than Life Oh England repent of thy Sins repent beware of Idolatry and false Preachers and take heed they don't deceive you A good Prayer And to another he said Be of good comfort my Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord. He was so Charitable that in a hard Time he sold his Jewels and Rings to relieve them that were in Want He was so humble that he often subscribed some of his Letters The most miserable hard Hearted unthankful Sinner John Bradford a painted Hypocrite Rowland Taylor was a great Preacher and would often visit the Poor and Sick and relieve them too when Bedridden but being threatned by the Bishop's Pursurvant he said I know my Cause to be so good and just that I will appear before them and to their Beards resist their false Doings I fear not their Lordly looks nor the Proudest of them all Going to the Fire he told the Sheriff I shall deceive a great many being a fat Man for said he I thought the Worms in Hadley Church-yard must have had me but now I see I must be Burnt Giving one or two Leaps and said God be praised I am almost at Home But the People cryed Oh dear Father and good Shepherd God help and succour thee as thou hast done us many times and our poor Children and so they went weeping all along the Streets for him To whom he said I have preached to you God's Truth and Word and now am going to seal it with my Blood In the Flames he cried Merciful Father of Heaven for Jesus Christ my
as great and experienced a Saint and Servant of Christ as ever liv'd that is an in-dwelling in every part of our Body yea and Soul too saith Perkins and Bishop Vsher Indeed both and every part of both is miserably defiled through Adam's Fall and this in-dwelling of sin in us makes good men mourn and hinders them also that they cannot do what they would and makes them too too often do what they should not Rom. 7. 19. I hope you Ladies and Gentlewomen find it so And this is the true cause of their mourning and complaining But blessed are they that mourn upon this so good and gracious an account for they shall be comforted first here 2dly hereafter and a thousand promises are made to them in the Holy Writ Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably unto Zion her Warfare is accomplished her Victory is ended her Sins are pardoned Isa 40. 1 2. And blessed is the man whose sin is pardoned Psal 32. 1. This real blessedness is beyond the tongue of men or Angels to set out and oh that it might be yours and that you could mourn and secretly weep and now and then on the knee drop a tear in the Closet upon this account that you have lived to your selves your Lords Pleasure Sin and the World so much and Christ so little God would certainly comfort you with a thousand secret Soul-comforts in the pardon of Sin the sense of his love and assurance of Christ to your Souls and this assure your selves shall be your last and lasting comforts if you be Sin-mourners and Forsakers of it But Thirdly Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Mat. 5. 4. Yea and God too in the Earth For thus saith he that is High and Holy I will dwell with him that is of a meek and lowly Spirit Mat. 11. 29. May this high and holy One dwell and abide in all your Ladyships Hearts Souls and Families may he secretly be your Comfort Day and Night but you must be meek and I am meek and lowly says Christ Humility is a great Grace in a great Person and well becomes your most Noble Sex yea and Lords too but this Meekness is a quiet submissiveness of Grace in your wills to the Will of God in all his Providences to you and yours whereby you say as it were with holy David If he has pleasure in me he will bring me back again And with good old Ely It is the Lord 2 Sam. 3. 18. And with Paul and his Friends after weeping for him The Will of the Lord be done Acts 21. 14. And like our Lord Jesus Christ in his Agony about passing of the bitter Cup in his Bloody Agony Not my Will but thy Will be done This is a brave frame indeed for Ladies on the Knees to hold up the little Hands kiss the Rod quietly and patiently submit to all the Providences Losses and Afflictions because God as a Father sends them for good and holy ends to his Servants best known to himself and if you patiently take them as his Children without Murmuring then are you Meek Patient ones indeed 'T is the sturdy Oaks that resist the Winds and are split but the gentle Reed yields And stubborn Sinners quarrel at the Providence and Will of God but good Men and Women submit serve some divine design or other and this is the way to inherit the Earth That is to say All your outward Earthly Comforts namely Honour Riches and Prosperity yea Heavenly and Inward too Does God take one Child Be quiet lest he take another Does he take one part of your Estate or Comfort He can take another yea He can take all as he did Job's and restore it again Blessed be his holy Name Job 1. 21. Oh! labour to be Meek and lowly and he will lead and guide you through the Wilderness of this miserable wretched sinful and bewitching World in all your plentiful Enjoyments till you come to himself in Glory But Fourthly Blessed saith our Saviour are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness What Righteousness God's Christ's Abraham's Isaac's Jacob's Jews and Gentiles Faith's Righteousness and the fruit of this Righteousness is Sanctification By Righteousness here is meant that which God imputes to Men or Women and makes Sinners compleat and happy in which is indeed his Son's Righteousness or that which is often called his Son's Active and Passive Obedience as God and Man in our Nature to the whole Will and Law of God Christ you know did all the Will of God in a way of Obedience Submission and Observance to his holy Law and so fulfil every Branch of it to a tittle for had he failed in one he could never have Justified us who do still come short in all as we are in our selves But he suffered all the Will of God too in a way of satisfaction for our Breach and Breaches of this his holy Righteous Perfect Good and Heavenly Law given by God himself unto Moses in the Mount Exod. 19. 20. Yea as he fulfilled this and satisfied for the Breach of it so he did the Levitical or Ceremonial Law also for he was Circumcised and Baptized for us in both and all which he stood as a Man or God-Man and Surety for us or as one in our Room Stead Place or Company And as he fulfill'd the Law for us in the Active Obedience of his Life so he did all the Law required or God ever desired of him in his Will to do and in his Death he satisfied the Justice of God for all that we or Adam ever did against him or his most pure and holy Law Yea he did it to the full uttermost and over too whereby he has as it were an infinite Overflowing endless Merit in his Hand to shew the Justice of God in our behalf why he should deliver us from Hell and all the Curse and Curses of the Law which dreadful ones you may read in Deut. 27. 15 16 17 18. which implies Eternal Death to all out of Christ for it saith Cursed is every one that continueth not in all that is written and not only so but to give us everlasting Life and Glory Pray Ladies mind this seriously for it is this Obedience of Christ and his Righteousness and that and that alone which being imputed reckoned and conveyed or given unto us becomes before God in a way of strict Justice and equal Righteousness our Justification and so eternal Salvation and you nor none of you nor any living can be saved otherwise and therefore well may and well ought you for to mind it And how Isaiah and Paul says He was made Sin and died for us as well as Born for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Now this Righteousness is called God's Righteousness Christ's Righteousness Abraham's Jews and Gentiles Faith's and the Saints Righteousness Rev. 19. 8. And first It is
called God's because God contrived and designed this Way of justifying Sinners from Eternity therefore says Paul God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Sins 2 Cor 5. 19. Secondly It is called God's Righteousness because Christ who was God as well as Man wrought and brought it about yea he alone brought it about And therefore it is said of the People There was none to help and mine own arm brought salvation Isa 63. 5. Then what an injury and dishonour do the Papists unto Christ in bringing so many He and She-Saints in to share with him now the work 's done Thirdly it is called God's Righteousness Rom. 10. 3. because it is imputed reckoned implied and discovered to us by the holy Spirit of God working Faith in our hearts But then secondly it is frequently called Christ's Righteousness because Christ as man in our nature stead room and place wrought it for us not Christ and Peter not Christ and Paul the Disciples all slept and Christ prayed and sweat alone bore all the wrath and hung upon the Tree for us bore our sins in his own body dead buried and rose again for us well may he be called as he is the Lord our Righteousness and the Justifier of the Vngodly Thirdly it is called Abraham's Righteousness he being the Father first and most ancient Saint of God and he to whom the promise next Adam or rather Eve was most eminently made and therefore saith God In thy Seed that is in Christ shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 22. 17. Not that it is indeed his any more than Isaac's Jacob's or any other Servant of God's that shall believe the promise as he or they eminently did Isa 51. 1. We are bid look unto Abraham do and go unto the same Pit as he did namely Christ for Righteousness for as God justified him so just so and no otherwise will he do by you and all us that do believe in him Fourthly it is called the Gentiles Righteousness that is the Heathens and Ungodly Sinners such as were without God in the World and did worship instead of the true God Moloch Bell and the Dragon Mars Venus Jupiter and Apollo and the Devil in an hundred Idols consecrated Trees and Four-footed Creatures Now to these miserable Gentiles was Christ promised and sent and he shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles Isa 51. namely Christ that is a right understanding to worship the true God that made Heaven and Earth which Papists yet so much continue in by worshiping Pictures Shrines Images and the consecrated Host a little Half-farthing Wafer and for which not doing they have burnt and murthered thousands A thing most cruel on one hand and irrational on the other yea more than the Persians worshiping of the Sun a thousand times for that 's a glorious creature though it be but a creature Now from these Gentiles we came and are of their Race yet by Christ and his Righteousness which is called the Gentiles we are made near though otherwise Strangers and Aliens But fifthly as it is called God's Christ's Abraham's and the Gentiles Righteousness so it is called Faith's Righteousness also Rom. 10. 6. That the Righteousness of Faith might come unto the Gentiles Rom. 9. 30. And it is called Faith's Righteousness first because by Faith we see it lay hold on and believe in it to the saving of our souls Faith is an eye that sees Christ and his Righteousness Faith is an hand and receives Christ and his Righteousness Faith is an ear that hears Christ and his Righteousness when 't is preached on And all my Sheep follow me says he and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Joh. 10. 28. For with the heart man believes saith St. Paul and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation What Confession namely this That God has raised Christ from the dead and made his life and death a Righteousness for poor sinners which alone is the ground of their justification and eternal salvation in the highest Heavens also And for this and this alone and denying Mass Purgatory and Works of Supererogation and for denying the Popes Infallibility and Supremacy have thousands and thousands been massacred and murdered in the Christian world but when did any Protestants put any Roman-Catholicks to death meerly upon the account of their Religion or how very few have they been Thomas of Becket Bishop of Canterbury was knock'd on the head by 3 or 4 Blades at Court for quarrelling with the King or interrupting of the Laws and some-body else by a just Law hang'd for a Gun intended against a better much greater King and for this one is Sainted and the other may be too in a little time But Faith and its Righteousness teaches us none of these but to submit to Kings and all lawful authority that we may live peaceably and quietly under them in all righteousness and honesty Rom. 13. 1. But sixthly this Righteousness is called the Saints Righteousness that is all sanctified men women and children and Righteousness in the world for a Saint is nothing else in a strict sense but a man or woman truly fearing God and a little of the true fear and grace of God in the heart makes any man or woman in the world so in the account of God and the holy Scriptures for 't is not Notion Gifts Parts great and humane Learning but saving truth that make a Saint And all the humane learning in the world says Hintius will not rectifie the crooked nature of man as instance Socrates and Aristotle the one being a covetous wretch as ever liv'd and the other keeping a common Strumpet for his Lust But a little saving grace will bridle men from all sin when bare humane knowledge cannot nor all the Brass Tin and Copper in the world make a dram of Gold nor all the common gifts parts and wit of men which I speak not in the least against no not in the least but reverence it and them that have it yet I say 't is grace and the sanctifying grace and Spirit of God in the heart that makes a Saint and whoever has any thing of that more or less for some have much more and some much less than others yet whoever has the least sanctifying measure of the Truth in his Heart is a Saint and Servant of God be he Noble or Ignoble High or Low Rich or Poor Learned or Unlearned and for this see these Texts or Scriptures at your leisure Phil. 1. 1. Col. 1. 2 12. Ephes 4. 12. Chap. 3. 8. Heb. 6. 10. And therefore if any fine young Lady Gentlewoman or others have but a little love to Christ the Word Ways Things or Servants of Christ she may be a Saint as well as the greatest they were called at the first Disciples Brethren 2 Joh. 1. 2. Jam. 1. 2. Christians Acts 11. 26. Saints and Believers Acts 5. 14. 1 Tim. 4.