is speckled with the blood of Christ is yet at some of your windowes hearts and souls with an Olive brance an Embleme of peace from the God of peace and our Lord Jesus Christ to some of your souls O tast and see that the Lord is gracious blessed is the man that puts his trust in him and if you will trust in him now and at all times yea trust you in the Lord Jehovah for ever for in his arms there is everlasting strength to save you and your souls for evermore Isa. 26. 4. but if you make as the manner of you Gallants is a push of God he will make a mock and a laugh at you when you come to die and be damned so saith this Scripture Prov. 1 26. Most men say O that God were mine O that Christ were mine when they are dying and O that I might live a little longer I would never do as I have done truly some of you have lived too long already and it were to be considered whether it had not been better for some of you to have been damned ten or twenty years-ago then to be heighting up and down in Coaches still for if you will to Hell the sooner the better the greatest surfet begets the greatest feaver and the longest sinner the greatest Hell for I am of this opinion that God is to most men as they apprehend him to be and a mans Hell shall lie most in his bowels and come most from his own sins so that the more light the more sin and the more sins against light the more Hell still sayes Christ if I had not come unto them my self they had not known sin that is they had not known or committed so much sin or been guilty so farre as now they are Iohn 8. 19. Some ranting sinners will swear so lustily when they are well and speak so whiningly when they are sick spent and even dead in a Consumption and likely to go to the Devil and some Saints look so chearfully through the sense of Gods love when they are even loaded with afflictions that it would do a man good to see them I saw an old beggar with a dish on his back and a Lord with a bunch on his and two great Saints with the world in their mouths one was talking of this estate and the other of that mans estate and both of them had too much and care enough with what they had there is none so merry as fools nor any so foolish as wise men that can never tell when they have enough nor how to do good with what they have my Lord Needy and my Lord Greedy will never be good nor satisfied though they have the Devil and all and it is a strange thing that a poor man and a Saint can hardly satisfie himself in the love of God so as to look a little chearful and walk very thankful in all changes let a man sneak through the world with a patcht arse or flutter thorough with a golden traine it is much a like provided they be both damn'd for to be hang'd in halters or to be hang'd in golden chains is much alike if he must be hang'd and if you will be damn'd and go to the Devil go how you will it is all one and to one purpose but I know how poor Saints should go to Heaven and that is by singing and dancing and ever having the high praises of God in their mouths and a two edged sword of zeal in their hands to cut down all ungodly lusts and Kings in their souls Psal. 149. 8. yea to hew them in pieces for the spirit of God and the word will spare none as Samuel said to Agag 1 Sam. 15. 33. nor be at peace with the least traytor when Iesabell look'd out of the window she cryed what peace 2 Kings 9. 30. and when you look out of your Coaches with your ugly faces I cannot tell what to make of you you are so patch'd and peec'd with old taffaty and taffaty patches yet some of you young Ladies would look like little Angels almost if it were not for these sins and some ugly things that you are guilty of But to be guilty of nothing is a gallant thing and if any of you will be guilty of no sin when you come to die look to Christ while you live and live to God till you die and you shall have a better husband than any Lord of them all Strange Lords and strange lusts have ruled you hitherto Isa. 26. 13. but Christ is alwaies young and lovely yea to look to to lean on to hope in and to follow after he is altogether so and he dyed for you when he was thirty three years of age and yet lives and ever lives to make intercession for you for God sake court or think on him a little here is old courting ill condition Mrs. such an one and Mrs. such an one and she hath so many servants and so many servants and all it may be for the money and nothing but the money but Christ hath few enough and yet he is as rich as ever and will give more than ever any of you yet enjoyed for a dram of his grace is more worth than thousands of your estates who have nothing but a little dirt and a little Gold with a little lace and a little thing called Honour but Christ hath the dew of his youth and the youth of his age Psal. 110. 3. yea eternities is in his hands as well as the keyes of death and Hell or the power over Hell sin death men and Devils Revel. 1. 18. and in his hand he holds a ring a golden ring or a reconciled God yea and God holds him to the worst of you all but you have no mind to marry and be the sons of God but to be the Children of the Devil still and his you are sure enough Iohn 8. 44. When God was on the earth Moses had a great mind to see his face Exod. 33. 18. would you had so to see his Son when the Lord General came from Worcester there went many thousands to see him and when Christ shall come to England I hope to see him and more done for him than yet there is but will you love him or will you not he is altogether lovely in his names in his natures in his person in his promises yea and in his Kingdom which I hope is nearer then some men imagine Mr. Tillinghurst told us strange things in his Book called the Key to misticall Numbers the man may be right in some things and I beleeve he is twenty Shops in London have these Books of his would as many of you had Christ in your hearts and in your lives but will you marry or will you not will you marry or will you burn will you burn in Hell an hundred thousand years or will you take Christ for better or worse nay t is worse to refuse Christ than to take all
and the fine linnen with the Lemmon sauce must have an end and the sweet singing but the howling that must be for evermore But take a touch of Heaven or ahout Heaven though you never intend to come there and I have done And for Heaven first it is a place for divine discoveries secondly of divine rest thirdly of divine joyes fourthly of divine glories and in it God discovers four things the secrets of his heart the fulness of his glory the nearness of relation and greatness of his love we shall know as we are known Gods decrees purposes and secrets his glory the fulness of his glory and nearness of relation yea we shall come from the East and from the West the North and the South and sit down with Abraham Isaack and Iacob in the Kingdome of our God and Father and know him to be our Father even from everlasting Isa. 63. 16. Luke 13. 29. God shall so abundantly discover his love unto us calling of us by his own name O Ephraim Ephraim my dear child thou art mine yea Lord God and Father I am and so is all that glory that thou hast given me as Christ speaks in another case God gives to Christ Christ gives to Saints and Saints gives to God all again and so God is all in all and ever shall be 1 Cor. 2. 9. But secondly Heaven is a place of divine rest from sorrow sin and labour tumults noyses feares and troubles in this world you shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace saith Christ Iohn 16. 33. internal external and eternal A mans enemies shall be at peace with him sometimes and yet his friends warre against him if his waies please God And so the soul is like the needle on the point the Ark or Dove upon the waters she wants footing for the sole of the foot and God is often wanting to the soul of a Saint thou didst hide thy face saith David and I was troubled and the greatest trouble in the world is Gods hiding of his face but time shall pass and time will come that Israels God will be no more a hiding God Isa. 45. I5 nor they a wandring people in the barren wilderness of this world for in their Country which is Heaven there is rest without weariness for the wavering Man and the wearied Saint and the bed and pillow is not half so sweet to the wearied man as is this rest And the Saints rest is God yea God is their sweetest true and lasting rest and home and so is Heaven yea this is the Land of Canaan indeed and that Canaan which every one would land in when they come to dye I knew one of you the other day that alwaies wore a feather in his cap but being sick he sent a Bill to beg that he might be pardoned and go thither yea there is none of you all but would fain lay your bones and lodge your sinning souls in Canaan when you come to dye Oh but you must live in Canaan or go the way to Canaan if ever you mean to come thither t is not an old fashion'd priests benediction or absolution with a little Common Prayer a sup of Wine with a bit of Bread will lodge you there this may seal your damnation but it will never bring you to salvation no no these low things shore none upon the Land of Canaan it is Gods love Christs merit and regeneration of the spirit a thing ye never knew what belongs to Iohn 3. 5. that sets the soul there But to go on Heaven is a place of divine joyes and they that live in Heaven live in joyes and yet the joyes of Heaven can never live in them they are so great Enter into thy Masters joy saith Christ Light may enter in the eye but not the body of light joy may enter into the heart but not the body of joy Men and Angels are but finite creatures but the joyes of Heaven are infinite unspeakable unconceivable earthly joyes are but shadowes of spiritual the joy of the Harvest is nothing to the joy of the Elect and the sweetest joyes of the spirit is nothing in comparison to the joyes of Heaven ye shall rejoyce saith Christ and no man shall take your joy from you Iohn 16. 22. and this is that joy which Christ speaks of some Fountains have their mouths or pipes by which they continually send their Christal streams into the artificial Wells with pleasant noyses God hath his continual joyes and glories which he alwaies sends forth by discoveries from himself into the souls of his which they being filled withal sends forth as it were from other golden pipes his continual praises and herein lies the joyes of Heaven and the Heaven above which you scarce beleeve Angels and communion with Angels are not the joyes of Heaven Saints and communion with Saints are not the joyes of Heaven these may sing and joy and play together yet are they not the joy of Heaven t is the musick rather than the string that is the melody of musick and it is God rather than the creature that is the joy of Heaven and hence it is that their joy is alwaies fresh and green musick dulls beauty fades yea the Sun appears sometimes darker than at other at leastwise unto apprehension but this joy is alwaies rising more and more delighting now where there is a continual rising of divine joyes glories there can be no ebbing of divine delights the eccho rises with the voice the musick with the string joyes by discoveries do the like yea they rise unanimously in all the Saints and being risen in them Heaven is made a double Heaven shout O ye Inhabitants of Jerusalem for great is the Holy One in the midst of thee Isa. 12. 6. But howle ye Ships of Tarshish and pleasant pictures yea let the ungodly and rich howle together Isa. 2. 16. Iam. 5. 1. But shout O Inhabitants of Jerusalem above the City of the great King this shouting denotes the highest pitch of joy that Saints shall be filled with when they shall come to sup with God and Christ by feeding on divine delights Rayes joyes and glories which are the dishes of that wedding Supper where every Saint shall feed his full Revell 19. 8. 3 26. his full of joy his full of praise and sing his part yea every Angell his and all shall try their skill and strain their voices to make one melodious song of praises unto God and the Lamb for evermore Revell. 7. 10. 15. 3. Some say that a Syrrian or the song thereof will so inchaunt a man that irresistibly it shall draw him to his fatall ruine confident I am were one Saint or Angell to sing from Heaven this day to you in Hide-Park but one quarter of an hour it would kill all other delights and make you mind the God of Heaven and the joyes of Heaven for evermore and all your former sinful sweetest pleasures would be but as the
you go your way and take your lot and at the end of your dayes you shall stand up again Dan. 12. last And to all under you I give this advice study to be quiet and at peace in your own spirits Gods waies are in the deep and his designes take place in all ages yea they never slack nor stay Children obey your Parents Servants your Masters not with eye service but in singleness of heart as serving the Lord To all good married men I give this first to love your wives as Christ loved his Church if it were possible and in loving love their souls as much above their bodies as you do their bodies above their cloathes it will do the wife the husband good to think the soul is in Heaven smiling when absent here on earth or present in a coffin t is the condition of friends that is more than any thing the true cause of joy or grief if a friend be in prosperity you onely mourn for his absence but if in adversity you mourn double and truly there is a vast difference between a wife gone to Hell and a husband gone to Heaven or a wife gone to Heaven and an husband gone to Hell and so for any other friends now when we do what we can to go our selves and draw others we have done our duty but for you great ungodly Gentry you draw all almost to Hell that come near you and yet I think it is a greater comfort to bury two good wives than one bad who would have a side of his house or body burnt yea his bed-fellow go to Hell and yet most of you and your Children will go thither by reason of your examples Whither do you think the Lord such an one is gone that dyed lately nay in your conscience speak as judging by the rule of Gods Word and Mr. such an one that kept his brave Coach and six Horses and never went without but to your Children I give this advice first to read over the families they came of what sins they have been guilty and what judgements have fallen upon Father Grandfather and great Grandfather one broke his neck another his heart a third lost his head a fourth made a miserable end in his bed yea dyed suddenly and never said Lord have mercy on me it is good to observe these things and it is easier to love repent or begin to live to God before twelve or twenty years of age be past than after and so again before thirty than forty but if a man mis forty years before he begins to look to Christ it is an hundred to one but he goes to the Devill yet hundreds turn civill and morally honest and so go civilly to the pit there is four or five turnings before a man turns into the right way for Heaven and yet some hit on it at the first and that is by throwing themselves upon Gods love in Christ in a way of reall beleeving and that barely upon the account of the promise which is yea and amen without any qualification Rom. 4. 13. but some turn from wildness to sobriety and so from bravery to plainness from Papistry to Protestantism and yet are little the better and so back again without being much the worse and some turn from the ordinary protestants to be Professors and yet are ten fold more the child of the Devil than before Every turn is a turn from God if the heart be unturn'd to God and the white Devil is the worst and will carry a man to Hell when he thinks he is going to Heaven persecute another only for a Gospel spirit and a Gospel light without a Gospel life will certainly rise in judgement against any man in the world and so will all your Ladyships sins if you do not take heed in time Mouls see and Swans sing a little before they dye and it may be then most of you will be wise and till then few are so do you think Christ made you so fine and so handsome so rich and so noble for nothing yea do you think he made you Christians as you say and brought you forth in England the Garden of the world and in some sense you the Flowers of this Garden for nothing but to sing and dance make a French Courchy complement for a husband and height about with a Servant truly Christ will have little reason to damn heathens and save you t is true you are called by his name but that should teach you good manners and good lives I beleeve some would be ashamed if we should tell of a Cromwell that would not fight or a Fayrfax whose name I hope will never be forgotten and truly Christ will be ashamed of you that will not live to him as well as be baptized and if you were not baptized there is no man living but would take some of you to be the Devils children you are so wicked But the end of all things is at hand and that is your funeral text with which I shall conclude 2 Pet. 4. 7. But you will ask me what end not the end of Gods Mercy for there is no end thereof that is from everlasting to everlasting to them that fear him Psal. 103. 17. Nor is there any end of his love or the promises of his love for they are numbeâ—less from one end of the Bible to the other and so is his providence to his Children even from the womb to the grave yea that never leaves them till they come to Abrahams bosome and then God is all in all to them 1 Cor. 15. 19. But there is an end of your sinning and Saints sorrowing of your living and the Kingdomes of the world raigning yea there is an end of this suns shining the rains fulling the winds blowing and the spirits breathing yea that breaths where when and as long as it listeth take heed of grieving and resisting that for if ever that finally leave you and come no more to your consciences beds and elbowes saying go to Pelham go to Pelham go to God go to Christ look to God look to Heaven Hell mind both for all these bewitching things and fooling up and down or else thon art undone for ever Soul hast thou ever another if thou loosest this have a care of loosing all for a moments lust but there is an end of all this kind of breathings and your singing yea there will be no more May dayes after a few dayes more I think you had best take your solemne leave and weep over one anothers backs necks shoulders and say farewell Ladies farewel Lords farewel Coaches farewel bravery and brave delights birds fields hedges bed Sun Moon Saints and sinners farewel all for ever and farewel all for evermore for I must now be damn'd for ever or I go I know not whither as that great man said to his soul when he cryed soul soul whither art thou now going and then the fine fare and the good chear
Asses braying to the most melodious musick in comparison of that But Heaven is a place of divine glories and glorious things are spoken of thee O Citie of God all manner of precious stones are fetch'd to set up thy glory O Jerusalem Jerusalem Revell 21. 19. and in the lies a Sun for every eye a Crown for every head yea a Crown that fadeth not away Crowns are the highest pitch of glory that the aspiring soul of man can work unto but the lowest shadow of divine glory Crowns and Kingdomes are but fading things yea they are now fading while the glory of Christ is rising in our Land yea in Ireland which the Devil and the Pope thought once to have had for their share but blessed shall they be who have been most instrumental to plant the Gospel there and some body here have been very much instrumental that way and many to pull down you and the Crowns of some of your families yea the Crown of these Nations all which lie in the dirt and yet you go on to sin as much as ever and never think how many was sent to the Devil in the late warre standing up for the Crown yea how many great ones were sent in a day in some great fights to wit Naseby York Newberry or Spinham land and yet these kind of Crownes are not worth contending for they are such light foolish fading things But Saints Crowns are exceeding weighty heavy and massy yea there is an eternal weight of glory that attends every Saint 2 Cor. 4. 17. An eternal weight of glory can never be poys'd or fade away but a present earthly glory every age can discover to be light and vain yea within these few daies I have discovered much my self and many vain men as David sayes which now are not and where is Mr. such an one with his brave feather and Mr. such an one with his golden back alass alass t is a thousand piâ—tles their Heaven was so short And for your stately laying out the Carcass at the last that is much more I saw the fragments of a silly Bird which a ravenous Fowl had prayed upon and all that was left by the hedge was a legg and a wing and a few loose feathers may be the Surgeon brawns up the whole body bowels and all with a great deal of beating by his huge sledges after which nasty and noysome work the Harril dresses that and a room three or four some dark and some light one within another before you come where the Body lyes in a thick sheet with a many popish Candles Candlesticks great Standards Silk and Silver Scutchions half a dozen in the nature of weepers to see who comes to stayr and some are even ready to say their prayers but the spiritual man mourns others crying they never saw the like nor shall they ever see more what 's become of the wing and the legg the life and the soul whilst death and rottenness sleeps in the feathers and is this all you call the laying in state Solomon sales vanity of vanities all is vanity and would this text was ever sounding in your eares and written in your foreheads as well as in your lives but what All doth the wise man mean questionless this and all below the Sun and that is all indeed but what 's reserved for the Saints whom you now despise and count fools and their ends to be without honour Wisdome 5. 4. O read read this text though it be Apocripha We fools counted his life madness and yet his lot is among the Saints we wearied our selves in wickedness but what hath pride profitted us and what hath vaunting and riches profitted us all is passed away like a shadow pâ—st or ship that passeth over the waves ver. 10. But their portion is above the Sun and yours below theirs where no moaths theeves or rust can come Maâ— 6 9 but at all these things they can and do come yea they will come at all your glories and there is a secret worm at the rooâ— of every glory yea your sweetest pleasures have a thousand snares envy pride malice and covetousness are alwaies eating alwaies stealing and staining earthly glories this way Nation eats up Nation and Time them again but time death grave nor eternity it self can ever fade steal or eat away the least bit of a Saints glory no no death and time puts them in and locks them safely up for that glory which eternity is alwaies opening and unfolding but for all your earthly glories they are soon opened one man and one age opens anotheâ—s glory pride and envy â—olds up that again to shew it selt but death folds up all yea all the sorrow shame and sufferings of the Saints and glories of the world yea it will fold up all your Maying and your gaying and your present glories so that that which is the outlet is the inlet both to one and the other darkness hell sin shame and sorrow is the inlet of death to such as you yea this breaks in like mighty seas upon the stroaks of death and so doth rest peace joy and glory to the Saints but what is the glory of Heaven and the Sains in Heaven may some say alass it is a question out of question or a question for eternity but this may and hath been said already God is the glory of and the Heaven of Heavens both to Saints and Angells but how much of 〈◊〉 Heaven every single Saint shall have for his share is a question never to be answered this we know a Crown shall be on every head and a Sun on every face and the least Saint shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdome of his Father Mat. 13. 43. and Christ as a Sun to all yea Christ humane shall do so and if so what shall Christ divine and the Father in the Spirit do that is the question out of question and beyond all answer the eye that made the eye the ear that made the ear the Sun that made the Sun the Heaven that made that Heaven which is called Heaven cannot be spoken to Men may look into the beamâ—s but not into the Sun it is so glorious the rayes of glory on the backs of the glorified may be looked into and spoken of but not to one thousand part as once Queen Sheba said to Solomon eye hath not seen nor ear heard that which thou O God hast prepared for them that waite for thee Isa. 64. 4. Nay it never entred into the heart of any man to conceive saith St. Paul what God hath prepared for them that fear him 1 Cor. 2. 9. O how great is that Goodness saith David But something is revealed by the Spirit yea so much that many wiser than any of you have despised with disdain and detestation all yours and this worlds glory for it and others have desired to die that they might be at it when as all as you desire to live for is onely to sin
ever be builders in the Church of Christ But Mr. such an one and Mr. such an ones Letter must pass him especially if he comes with a little of the old Synods Catechisme in his mouth and some of them will so kon it upon the stairs when they are going to be tryed but there is a young Gentleman that makes a sweet trade in getting money for Passes and I know not what yea one told me of a Parson Solicitor that gets more than I can by my trade by rerommending helping and puting young Priests in a right way to obtain their business and ye know he must be a good man such a Tryer commends him and twenty more and you know he is a great Tryers friend Country man or Coosin and therefore he must pass and there was old passing when the great scuffle was as a door keeper told me but let them try and try and do what they will for my part I profess in the presence of God I had rather preach or be in the publick speaking a word to Christ for sinners or a word for sinners to Christ in a way of prayer than eat my meat though never so hungry and yet I would work for my living yea thousands in this Nation thirst after this liberty who are holy humble knowing godly blameless self denying gifted Christians yea equally gifted with most Ministers things might be done in decency and order and yet the Minister never the worse Christian liberty well used doth not abuse or justle out the Ministerial calling in the least t is strange there cannot be a medium found out by those that hold the helme but for my part I am resolved not willingly to pay one penny untill I have liberty to pray or some body else who is godly in the room of most Clarks and Readers that are stark nought a good Minister and a good Christian two or three would do more good in a Parish than he and an old sleepy Reader can or will do in many years We have a good Benefice and a Minister will come there whether we will or no I think and yet he is beloved where he is and we had pitched upon another that is godly and blameless But I fear I shall do little here this day the Lords and Ladies are resolved to go home and so will I yea I resolve to go home and mind home death grave and eternity more than ever I have done and yet I have vowed much writ vowes but a thousand vowes will do no good unless God give a man strength to live to him and for you great persons you can as well come out of you skins as out of your sins and snares yea if God Almighty do not pluck you out of your present conditions all the Men on earth cannot help you no nor all the Saints on earth O pray pray yea at night go home and say Lord Jesus help me Lord Jesus look upon me and make me now to apply my heart to wisdome after all my former folly A man may easily pull a man down hill or down to Hell but he can hardly pluck him up to Heaven or Heaven-ward yea I find it very hard to come to the certainty of Heaven and to be looking off from working for Heaven notwithstanding the promise is not to him that worketh but to him that beleeves in him that justifies the ungodly a golden text O read read Rom. 4. 5. and upon this account the ungodliest man in England may be justified and to be justified you know is to have all a mans sins pordoned hid and done away O the blessedness of that man whose sins are so done away Psal. 32. 1. And now if one of you Gentiles or genteel sinners would go home at night and really beleeve them pardoned they would be so t is but beleeving or not beleeving that makes a man to be saved or damned yea really it is no more Iohn 3. 36. yea tis beleeving and beleeving more than any thing that makes a man live to God and love God I will warrant if one of you Gallants could now but really beleeve God would love you and save you notwithstanding all your former sinfulness you would be gallant Christians indeed and God loving Christians instead of the Devils slave well there is a new way to Heaven or a nearer way I am sure than most men have hinted at and that is by beleeving before repenting yea by fetching repentance and reformation from beleeving Gods love in Christ to poor sinners as sinners that is while yet they are in their sins when a Leapors Leaprosie is washed off he is as lovely as another man when a sinner is reformed he is as lovely as a Saint in his conversation but before God reformes he loves yea I have loved thee with an everlasting love saith God He is nothing but Love saith Iohn 1. 4. 10. yea he is ever living loving and giving good things to you the worst of sinners else why are you out of Hell and here this day out of sickness out of misery out of want though all these things come in love to his Children O for Gods sake love God if indeed you do but mind him a little in his Son you cannot but love him He is the Fountain of Love and a loving Fountain that hath a thousand Seas of sweetness and divine delights for all those that come unto him with the is the well of life saith David Psal. 36. 9. and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore but t is Christ that is this pleasure and that right hand that God stretcheth out to you the worst of sinners and if you will take hold of his strength upon his word you shall make peace with him Isa. 27. 5. and he will make peace with you and your souls yea Christ will make peace between you both yea to them that are afarre off he maketh peace and preacheth peace by the blood of his Crosse Rom. 5. 1. Peace be unto you in this room saith Christ Iohn 20. 19. And peace be to you in Hide-Park say I and if you will hearken to it there is peace in the blood of Christ for you all for that speaketh better things than the blood of Abell and I beseech you to mind this night what it speaketh I know what your ranting and vaunting in a thing of nought speaks namely Hell all t is to be feared but the blood of Christ speaks yet peace to the worst of you all take heed again and again take heed ye refuse not him that speaks from Heaven that which few of the Princes of this World which come to nought do know or have known for many hundred of yeers 1 Cor. 1. 18. But to you is it spoken not in a voyce of thunder like God in Mount Synai where no man durst come near for fear of death Exod. 19. 15. but in a love and dovelike spirit the spirit of love and the Dove that