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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	know_v	8,213	5	4.2899	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96727	The vertuous wife: or, the holy life of Mrs. Elizabth Walker, late wife of A. Walker, D.D. sometime Rector of Fyfield in Essex Giving a modest and short account of her exemplary piety and charity. Published for the glory of God, and provoking others to the like graces and vertues. With some useful papers and letters writ by her on several occasions.	Walker, Anthony, d. 1692.; Walker, Elizabeth, 1623-1690.	1694 (1694)	Wing W311A; ESTC R229717	136,489	315

the Saying be true a good Textuary is a good Divine she might have some pretence to that Character for though I will not say what is said of Apollos she was mighty in the Scriptures yet I may say truly the word of Christ dwelt richly in her and if David's delight in the Law of God made him Wiser than the Ancient yea than his Teachers she might be near as Wise as some of them considering that her Knowledge was not meerly Notional and Swimming in her Brain but Experimental and Practical She felt and tasted yea liv'd the Truths she knew and teaching her Children the grounds of Religion grounded herself more deeply in them Her Faith was strong by which she gave Glory to God not an Airy Fancy but a firm Perswasion built upon the Rock of Ages She knew whom she had Believed it may appear what Mettle that Shield was made of by the many Fiery Darts of the Devil so impetuously thrown at her and so incessantly for many Years and so successfully and so triumphantly quenched by it Her Charity that greatest of Graces the very Bond of Perfection the Crown of all the other and which covers a Multitude of Sins that Bud or Blossom of Glory which shall be full Blown and arrive at maturity in Heaven where it shall never fade or fail it was so fervent and fruitfull as may appear by what I have so truly written of it in a distinct Section that I dare appeal even to the most uncharitable and prejudiced Ill-will if it were not Eminent to Superlative Degree and Measure For her Patience which met with so many and so smarty Tryals both from God and Men yet had its perfect Work and by it she possessed her Soul in submiss and silent Acquiescence charging herself Humbly and Wisely but never charging God frowardly and foolishly meekly complaining to him never peevishly complaining of him Her Sympathy with others in their sufferings and sorrows was as signal as her Patience in her own And as she had very tender and strong Affections her usual saying was great Affection great Affliction And that they who had many Friends must needs have many Sorrows because they must share with them all in their Troubles and Crosses She had well learnt that Apostolical Lesson to Mourn with them that Mourn and bear others burthens and so fulfill the Law of Christ as I find her more than once express her self in Consolatory Letters many of which she wrote to her distressed Friends under calamitous Providences and would tell them she would willingly put under her Shoulder to ease the pressure of their loads they groaned under And would often from her own Experience declare That she judged the Griefs of others to be the biggest part of our uneasie disquietings in this Life But no Afflictions were so pungent and entered so deep into her pious tender heart as those of the Church of God and the tyranous Persecutions on those who suffered for the Gospel of Christ and for his sake were killed all the day long and counted as Sheep for the slaughter As the Hungarian French and Peidmount Protestants Her Pity to the Poor was very great not only in the cases touch'd before but in her care to rescue from present and eternal Ruine those who were desperately running into both To this end she ventured to take up several Beggar-boys and Girls at the Door and after cleansing them from their nastiness receiving them into the House of which some proved well and she obtain'd the end she aimed at but more untractable and deceived her Expectation and Desires yet this did not discourage her I shall give one Instance which will hardly meet with its paralell And as in many more like cases she exceeded most others so in this she out-did her self About three or four Years since there came a forlorn Creature begging to the Door a Girl of about Thirteen Years old in such a loathsome pickle as may stain my Ink to write and turn the stomachs of the Nice to read it almost eat up with Scabs and Vermine and as ignorant of God and Christ as if she had been born and bred in Lapland or Japan and scarce Rags to cover her yet this blunted neither the point nor edge of her Compassion but rather whetted and sharpned both When she had ask'd her many Questions both of her miserable Condition and Religion of the latter of which she knew not one syllable but that her Christian Name was Mary her Sir-name was Bun. The case seemed so desparate it almost posed and put her Pity to a Plunge what to do to rescue her from the very Brink and Precipice of Temporal and Eternal Ruine but while she was Eating what she sent her warm being well nigh starved she considered what might be done she feared if she dismissed her so her Ruine was next to inevitable and not to prevent that to her Power she judged inconsistent with the Love of God dwelling in her Heart She then resolved not on the shortest but the safest Course having engaged her to promise to be honest humble thankfull and a good Girl if she could be recovered She ordered clean Straw to be laid in an Out-House where she lodged and fed her until she procured a Charitable Neighbour to strip her cut off her Hair and wash her for it was not possible to cleanse her otherwise she also provided old Cloths to keep her sweet and warm then she used means to cure her Itch and when some Months had perfectly recruited her and made her like another Creature she cloathed her new took her into the House taught her the Catechism to read and do somewhat in the Family which might fit her for a Service and prevailed with a Rich Farmer who had Married one of our Maids to take her Apprentice promising to cloath her well She wrote a large and excellent Letter to perswade him besides discoursing with him He consented received her upon Trial but when she was to be legally bound that the latter Years of her Apprenticeship might compensate the unprofitableness of the first a new difficulty arose none could bind her validly but her Father or the Parish from whence she came many Messages and one or two special Messengers were sent but all in vain What should she do more she resolves to go herself orders the Coach to be ready to carry her the next Day intreated me to go with her as far as North-Hall twenty Miles distant a troublesome Journey cross the County We came to Sir William Lemmon's because the Girl told us her Father work'd constantly with him it was our unhappiness that Worthy Person was from Home and though we found the Girls Father no words could make the least Impression on him or extort other answer from him but That she was a naughty Girl He would neither meddle or make with her We might do what we would not so much as once I thank you for all your Cost and

Head There is also a Treatise of the Grace of Humility which was so much in her Heart and Practice She describes it hath many Sentences about it and there are Scriptures collected concerning it in loose Papers but this was rather desir'd than finished abundance more there are besides Copies of very good Letters which I forbear to mention because I intend to publish some of them in an Appendix SECT XV. Discreet Management of her Family SHE oft and very well considered of what Consequence it is to discharge the Duties incumbent upon us in the several Relations and Stations in which God's Providence is pleased to place us and that not only the credit of Religion in the Eyes of the World but also the Power and Comfort of it in the Sight of God and sense of our own Consciences hath great dependance on it and that he or she cannot be a good Christian who is not a good Husband or Wife Parent Master or Governess of a Family and therefore much studied to know her Relative Duties and to approve herself in the well discharging of them Therefore she oftener Read and oftner thought of the thirty first Chapter of the Proverbs and her Practice was as good a Comment as can be made upon the oeconomick Rules there given She was as I touch'd before Martha and Mary both unto Perfection yet always acted Martha's Part with Mary's Spirit though Martha also was a good Woman she spiritualized her Worldly Businesses behaved herself in her Family as became one who was of the Family of the first-Born made all her Imployments a Sacrifice by performing them in obedience to God whose Providence imposed them on her in setting her in a Station in which they were required of her not only submitted to them as Mortifications as is said of Marquess Renti in the two years Drudgery and Diversion he was content to undergo in rebuilding the Seat of his Ancestors because he esteemed himself called to it when he was the Head of his Family but with a willing Mind chearfully engaged in them accounting all as done to God which his Appointment made her Duty For if the Maid-Servant may sweep the House to God as Mr. R. Bolton expresses himself by considering it as a Duty in the condition to which he calls her how much more may the Mater-familias the Mistress govern it for him while she hath an Eye to him who is the God of Order and hath designed every one their Work as well in the less as in the larger Societies of Men. But I have already insisted on so many things justly reducible to this Head that I have prevented my self especially considering the more weighty part of Family-Discipline relates to Persons and the lighter only to Things having said so much of her Care of her Children and Servants the other Branch may be quickly dispatched with slighter Touches What the Apostle saith of the Vessels in an House some are to Honour some to Dishonour I may allusively say of Affairs some are more Honourable and Becoming some more Mean and Base to this latter sort she put not her Hand as it was not fit or decent that she should yet would she not disdain to inspect and order those to whom they did belong And therefore though she was neither her own Cook or Dairy-Maid yet was she always Clerk of her little Kitchin if I may so speak But whatever required more Art and Curiosity for the Closet or the Parlour as Preserving drawing Spirits in an Alembick or cold Still Pastry Angelots and other Cream-Cheeses of which she made many both for home Expence and to present to Friends and have been begged and sent at some hundred Miles distance they always past through her own neat and Skilfull Hands especially since the Death of one and Marriage of our other Daughter on whom she imposed those Matters to perfect them by Practice in what she had so accurately taught them So for all sorts of English Wines and Sider which when Friends have commended it may be too highly saying I had constantly the best they ever drank she would betwixt Jest and Earnest sometimes reply His Sider 't is my Sider I have all the Pains and Care and he hath all the Praise who never meddles with it To gratifie those whom such an Account may please I will venture to set down her last Years Experiment Having a good Plantation both of Redstreaks which are the Herefordshire Sider-Apple and Gennet-moils which are the Worcestershire and make a Sider of a very different Body Colour Gust and Flavour I desired they might be put into sundry Vessels after they were ground and prest severally but she came to me and said My Dear thou knowest not the trouble of drawing off so many Vessels I 'll make an Hogshead of them putting both together I left her to her Liberty and it succeeded so well all that taste it say they never drank so good But I have staid too long in the outward Court of her Secular Accomplishments and Care I will hasten out of it by a few Paces more She was Careful without sollicitous Anxiety Frugal without sordid Parsimony Liberal without squandring Profuseness Laborious without servile Drudgery Decent without vain Ostentation Circumspect without disquieting Diffidence Neat without Niceness would not sound ill if my haste would allow me to study Cadencies and Truth would permit it but I want a without to follow that Epithet Neat for if in any thing she knew no Bounds or Limits it was in this and she would often say she envied Great Persons for nothing but the neatness of their Living which a plain Country Family would not admit of I shall conclude this Section with some few of her oeconomick Axioms such as these among many Want nothing but waste nothing I hate a base fordid Spirit but I reckon it not such to spare well what would be spent ill what is spoil'd doth no body any good When she laid by what was not at present beneficial she would say What is not useful now may at another time be needed and though she would not use the Proverb Thrift is the fuel of Magnificence that lofty Word sounding too big for her humble Mouth and Mind yet a Note or two lower she liked well Honest Frugality is the Nurse of Decent Hospitality and if we had not the most her Prudence took care that what we had was usually of the best at least made so by her well ordering it She was exceeding watchful to prevent danger by Fire and to that end would see all raked up safe before she went to Bed a small Negligence often losing what the greatest Diligence cannot recover But no Circumspection could be greater than what she constantly Exercised to prevent both Extreams of Quarrels betwixt Fellow-Servants or too great Familiarity betwixt Men and Maids which might turn to worse Inconveniences and if she spied any uncivil or wanton Gestures she would severely reprehend them and

which unavoidably attend the increased numbers in an House yet was chearfully content when Charity opened the Door made the Fire and the Bed As in the Case of Dr. Tongue whom we entertained so many Months and Monsieur Barnaby Gennays who was sent to me but for four Weeks and left to my sole Charge five Pounds only allowed towards his admitting into St. John's Colledge in Cambridge for six whole Years two in my Family to be Cloathed Fed and Taught till fitted for the University and four there till he had his Degree of Batchellor and yet she never repined or grudged the Cost yea took daily Pains to hear him read English and teach him to pronounce it right I 'll touch no more Instances lest I be suspected to borrow my own Praise under the disguise of paying hers only adding the last which is not liable to that suspition because it rather tends as much to my own Reproach as to her Honour My Curate dying in my Family of a Consumption and other Infirmities September last which had occasioned to us both much Charge and Trouble and who had been attended with as kind Diligence and Care as if he had been our own Child After some little time I told her that I would forbear taking a young Man at least for the present into the Family because the publick Charges were so great and I thanked God I was able to perform my Work my self to whch she presently replied Nay My Dear whatever thou sparest in spare it not in that Thou never keptest them for thy own Ease but for their Benefit to train them up to be fit for God's Service and usefull in the Church and seeing they have all proved so well and been so well preferred and provided for and so approved of in their Ministry continue to do as thou hast done so successfully so many Years there is as much need still as ever of so assisting Young-Men and let not that Practice cease the reason of which is not ceased I yielded took her wise and honest Advice and wrote immediately to a worthy Friend in Cambridge who provided me one whose Character answered my Desires But his Mind altered since my Wife's Death by prospect of Preferment in the Colledge and I wish he may never have cause to repent it by being worse disposed of And if so mean and so obscure a Person as my self may have leave to speak out and declare my Sentiments in this Affair without imputation of Vanity or Offence to my Betters if every Minister of my Ability not to say of double to mine would please to take a poor Schollar into his House as soon as they have commenced Batchellors in Arts and then are forced to leave the Colledge very raw because they can no longer have subsistence as Sizers and would lend or give them Books direct them in the reading them and assist and inspect their Studies to say no more there would not so many young Students be at loss for Maintenance and be forced so Callow and Pin-feather'd I borrow that Expression from my Dear which she was often heard by others as well as by my self to use and like young Partridges to run with the Shell upon their Heads and to get Bread be constrained to undertake the teaching others what themselves have so imperfectly learned But to return to what was properly and purely her own the acts of her Charity were more than the kinds and both as many as she met with Objects that wanted it both in giving and forgiving and both proportioned to the Necessities of those who needed that before her Rent-day came she was often near or quite exhausted and would pleasantly tell me Thou must expect no hoard of Money when I am Dead for I am almost Bankrupt Then I would tell her I would supply or if she would advance some part before-hand which I never remember she accepted more than once three Pounds She used as soon as she had taken her Allowance to separate nine Shillings six pence out of it into her poor Man's Box to be ready for smaller common Charities But though this was her first Quota this was far from being all for I find twenty six Pound three Shillings Four-pence set down in two Years given away besides what she might forget or omit though some small part I confess was rather Courtesie than strictly Charity as given to Friends Servants or the like And she would give liberal Summs I find twice five Pounds ten Shillings given to the French Protestants for whom she had a great Compassion one year after another and I have been informed by an Honourable Lady that she left five Guineys at a time with her for their Relief but it may be these might be the same and I would not make it more than it was in Truth She also gave twenty Shillings a time to the Briefs for both French and Irish Sufferers and other Guineys at a time I find set down in her Paper and know of by other means Also ten Shillings five Shillings and very oft Half-Crowns I find also twenty Shillings in a Year given at Tunbridge-Wells which she distributed to the Poor in smaller Pieces Shillings Six-pences and Farthings besides the Books she gave But besides what she gave in Money she both bought good Cloth to cloath poor Women and Children the day but one before she sickned she enquired of the Taylor what poor Children he had made the last Cloaths for that she might order the rest which then remained in the House to some other And a little before she bought that whole Piece of Cloth from London she caused Wool to be spun and strong Linsy-Woolsy to be made to supply many poor Childrens wants and she was as carefull of their Bellies as their Backs to feed the one as warm the other as wants no Proof nor Instance She used also to buy Primmers Psalters Testaments Bibles to give away and other good Books Crook's Guide especially to give to poor Children and Families She much delighted and abounded in that kind of Charity giving usefull Books and before she was prevented by settling a School to teach all the Poor that not a Boy or Girl in all the Parish but may be taught to read perfectly unless it be their own or Parents fault she used to pay for the Schooling of poor Children And being put together it amounted to a pretty considerable Summ what she yearly gave to poor Women when with-Child not only old Linnen but a good new Blanket every Lying-in which was so customary and constant that it was almost claimable as a due Debt and not only the Parish poor Women but some Borderers have been Partakers of it And I have been told already by one in that condition Now her Mistress is dead she must come to me so unwilling they are to let so known a Custom dye with her with which freedom as I was not offended so I discourage not others from making