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body_n	dead_a	life_n	spirit_n	12,824	5	5.8944	4	false

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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

Kingdom of Satan may fall and the Kingdom of Christ be exalted that the Gospel may continue where it is and sent where it is not and received in the Love of it through the World Pray for all afflicted as their case requires and with thy Prayers and Praises give thanks to God for the prime Fountain of all his Mercies Christ Jesus In particular thou mayst mention at the Throne of Grace what Christ hath done and suffered for humble contrite Sinners Labour and beg for such a frame of Spirit such God not despise Express thy thankfulness for what Christ hath instituted and ordained in his Church for the Benefit and good of his People Thou mayst in particular express with Prayers and Praises That all may be applicatory to thy self These are short hints thou mayst enlarge God giving thee his Spirit of Grace and Supplication Let not vain Thoughts mingle with religious Duties beware of those wandring Vagrants do not take such Company with thee when thou drawest near to God in any Religious performance lest it be like offering strange fire provoke God rather to consume than bless thee but keep off those busie Flies they may not corrupt thy Sacrifice Say to all disturbing Thoughts as Abraham said to his Servants when he went to the Mount to Sacrifice Stay you here below till I go to Worship God Fervent Prayer is very prevalent with God of it may be said what is said of Faith which is a justifying Grace without which it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Good works are the Life of Faith being well performed for matter and manner without which Faith is Dead and God is not the God of the dead but of the living as the body without the spirit is dead so without works faith is dead also St. James 2. The great things a lively Faith hath done fervent Prayer hath done the same The little Book I sent thee was thy dear Mother's it is a good Discourse of Prayer Dear Johnny let thy Prayers and Praises with the sweet Incense of thy Love to God be offered to him on the golden Altar of an humble and sincere Heart in the mediation of Jesus Christ and put no religious Duty off with that foolish idle Excuse I have not time lest thou as the foolish Virgins were be unfurnish'd of Oil for the Lamp of thy Christian Profession and for thy neglect shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven If Time for Play Recreation Eating Sleeping or the like a due proportion of Time may be gained from them for thy best therefore thy most concern those indispensable Duties on which thy eternal welfare so much depends the neglect of them may be thy inevitable Ruine in this Life and that to come for Godliness hath the promise of both Therefore seek the Kingdom of Heaven in the first place and the things of this present Life shall be added to thee as may be good for thee The things of this World compared to God and Heaven are but Straws and Pibbles St. Paul calls them dross and Luther said The whole Turkish Empire is but a Crust God throws to the Dog God hath provided better things for those that love and seek him In this world is our preparatory Life for our future Estate I have oft said to thee That all Men are about this great Business but in a different way to a different end Good Men prepare for Heaven and Wicked Men prepare for Hell therefore avoid the broad-way of a sinfull Life which leads to Destruction chuse that way which comparatively few find the way of an holy Life the end of which is Peace which the World cannot give Dear Johnny Do not deferr thy great concern to serve God and save thy Soul more worth than Ten thousand Worlds Many much younger than thee have set about this great work Thou hast oft read Mr. Smythies's Book of the Benefit of early Piety also thou hast had a civil and religious Education and many more Prayers than thou art Days old Thy dear Grandfather's Care Counsel and Prayers mine have not been wanting as far as able to perform in my care and love of thee let them not condemn thee but labour to answer the end of them that thou mayst not disappoint God and us to thy own detriment and loss Dear Johnny where much is given the more will be required Time is precious use all lawfull Industry and Diligence for thy well being in this World and make all subservient for a better to come Thou knowest not how long God may continue thy Friends to thee She was not continued three Months nay thy own Life is uncertain all things in this World are so and there is no retrieving an Errour on the other side of Death Do not procrastinate take the wise Man's Counsel what thy hand findeth to doe doe it with all thy might which inferrs speed and diligence for the obtaining internal and external Blessings Deferring made St. Augusting cry out Too late too late Lord did I love thee Dear Johnny Do not put God off with a decrepid Love and the chill Spirits of old age and bodily Infirmity by which the operative Faculties of thy Soul through the organical Powers of the Body may be obstructed with defect and impeded with the ill Habits and Customs of Sin Avoid this Danger give to God the vigour and strength of thy Life let it be without blemish By God's appointment the young was brought to him in Sacrifice Do thou as Righteous Abel give to God thy firstlings thy first Love and suffer no Rival or Competitour with it it was the Test Christ put to his Disciples If ye love me keep my Commandments Dear Johnny I used to mind thee St. John thy own name let him be thy Example in thy Love to God he was the youngest Disciple most eminent in Christ's Love He was called the Disciple whom Jesus loved Dear Johnny Be not taken with the Gauds and Vanities of this World in any of the profers of it they will bite like an Adder and sting like a Serpent if they draw thy Heart from God Be not deceived by them they will put a lye in thy right-hand promising more than they can give Be not affected with vain Glory it is but a Puff of breath soon exhaled and will vanish from thee Yea so are all the things of this World for the duration of them Remember thy Baptismal Covenant with God thou didst promise to forsake the Pomps and Vanities of this World the Devil and all his Works and sinfull Appetites to them I was a Witness to this Engagement and one of thy Sureties Dear Johnny let thy Baptismal Vow through Grace preserve thy Morals untainted Let none be corrupted by thy ill Example and be not thou infected by the evil manners of others Speak no obscene or scurrilous Language

reading the Life of holy Mr. Robert Bolton more than forty years ago and oh that these Papers might be blest to induce any to follow an Example set to me and them by so famous and so good a Man To conclude and shut up this I will transcribe and allusively apply the words wherewith devout Bishop Hall concludes his Art of Divine Meditation Give me leave to complain with just Sorrow and Shame that if there be any Christian Duty whose omission is notoriously shameful and prejudicial to the Souls of Professors it is this of Meditation This is the end God hath given us our Souls for we mispend them if we use them not thus How lamentable is it that we so imploy them as if our faculty of discourse served for nothing but our Earthly Provision as if our reasonable and Christian Minds were appointed for the slaves and drudges of this Body only to be the Caterers and Cooks of our Appetite The World filleth us yea cloyeth us we find our selves work enough to think What have I got What may I get more What must I lay out What must I leave for Posterity How may I prevent the wrong of my Adversary How may I return it What answers shall I make to such Allegations What entertainment shall I give to such Friends What courses shall I take in such Suits In what Pastime shall I sp●nd this Day In what the next What advantage shall I reap by this Practice what loss What was said answered replied done followed Goodly thoughts and fit for spiritual Minds Say there were no other World how could we spend our Cares otherwise Unto this only Neglect let me ascribe the commonness of that Laodicean temper of Men or if that be worse of the dead coldness which hath stricken the hearts of many having left them nothing but the Bodies of Men and Visors of Christians to this only they have not Meditated It is not more impossible to live without an Heart than to be devout without Meditation Would God therefore my words could be in this as the wise Man saith the words of the wise are like unto Goads in the sides of every Reader to quicken him up out of this dull and lazy Security to a chearful practice of this Divine Meditation Let him curse me upon his Death-bed if looking back to the bestowing of his former times he acknowledg not these Hours placed the most happily in his whole Life if he then wish not he had worn out more days in so profitable a Work Let me have leave without offence to draw a Parallel and make a short Application of this Passage though 't is hard not to write a Satyr and inlarge on such an occasion What is the reason why the Married state which a Gracious God appointed that Man and Wife might be meet helps to one another not only in Sickness and in Health and the joint concerns of this present life but also yea chiefly to help each other to Heaven by building up each other in their most holy Faith as Heirs together of the Grace of Life as St. Peter speaks and training their Children up in the nurture and fear of God as both the Scripture and our Liturgy direct we should What I say is the reason that this holy State so oft falls short of attaining this designed Blessing and rather proves a Cross yea a Curse Is it not from the neglect of the fore intimated Practice and Duty Whence comes uneasiness in mutual Society Discontents Jealousies Brawlings Weariness of one another to name no worse Come they not hence from the neglect of God and each others Souls and Spiritual Good And because Men enterprize and take in hand that honourable State unadvisedly wantonly and lightly to satisfie their carnal Lusts and Appetites as brute Beasts that have no understanding not soberly advisedly and in the Fear of God against which our Liturgy so gravely and Piously gives warning and continue in it as bad or worse than they entred upon it or at most respecting their secular concerns void of any serious Care of promoting God's Glory in the Eternal Salvation of each others Souls If hundreds censure me for this I am content to bear it if but one couple in every Hundred will vouchsafe to imitate our Custom intimated above And if upon performing it with Sincerity and Seriousness themselves repent it or God impute it to them as mispending time let it be charged against me for seducing them from using it better at the Day of Judgment She always allowed her Maids time to Pray alone and would mind them of it till they were accustomed to it But to proceed to the finishing the Day She would then eat a small piece of white Bread with a draught of houshold Beer and because we had long dis-used set Suppers when we were alone she would always herself bring me up some small matter and would not be intreated to send it by a Servant because she would not lose the Pleasure and Satisfaction of expressing her tender and endear'd Affection the kind and thankful remembrance of which is the only cause of my mentioning so small a matter Then for an hour before Family Duty she would Catechize the ignorant Servants and teach them to read which could not for often hiring Servants out of places where there wanted opportunity to teach the poor Children and Catechize them 't is scarce to be believed how Ignorant many came and yet I remember not any who stayed any time with us who could not read competently well and say both a Catechism which I find amongst her Papers with this Title A short and easie Catechism which I used to teach my Children when they were very Young suited to their Capacity And also the Church Catechism which she taught them when they had learnt the former and she used to hire them to their own good giving them Sixpence to accomplish the first Task then a Shilling and so on promising them a Bible when they could use it of which she gave many and always new and good ones of double the Price she might have bought for After Family Prayers when she went up into her Chamber whilst she undrest herself one of her Maids and if one read not so well as the other she that needed most to be perfected read a Chapter after which committing her self to God she went to Bed and after short Ejaculatory Prayers for the Mercies of the Day and Petitions for Protection from the Sins Temptations and Dangers of the Night she betook herself to rest And this is the shortest Epitome of her Life which at the lowest size was a constant revolution of days thus spent with the fewest idle vacant spaces that humane frailty can keep free from not to say none at all SECT VII How she spent a Week THE next abbreviation of her Life is to give an account how she improved a Week for though every Week contained seven so well managed Days

Jesus in Sincerity she loved the Lord her God with all her Heart and all her Soul with all her Might and all her Strength and her Neighbour as herself She would speak evil of no Man do evil to no Man but did all the good she could as she had opportunity especially to the Houshold of Faith And though she loved the whole World with a love of Benevolence she loved those chosen out of the World with a Love of Complacency She had a peculiar Esteem of and Affection for God's People Her choice delight was in the Saints and those who excelled in Vertue She was not ashamed to be accounted their Sister whom Christ was not ashamed to call his Brethren the Profession but much more the power of Godliness was so far from being terminus Diminuens an abatement of her value and kindness that it much endeared those to her in whom she found it and fastened those Bonds more strongly which had been tyed by Nature Neighbourhood or Friendly Conversation I excuse not the length of this Section it being not easy to write too much of that of which she never thought she practised enough though she had as it were habituated it into her Constitution it being as the Element in which she lived SECT XXIV Of her Care to advance God's Glory and the Salvation of Souls I have so far prevented my self in both those in what I have already written of her that scarce any thing remains to be farther added anew concerning them and I confess it seems to my self somewhat improper to make a distinct Section of what is the Subject of the whole The Care to promote those was as the Spinal Marrow in the Body yea as the Soul which animated the whole as the Pith which ascends from the Root of a Tree through the Trunk to every Branch and Twig She set the Lord continually before her had respect to him in all her Thoughts and Words and Actions and reveered his Presence in all her Natural Moral Civil and Religious Performances Seeing him that was Invisible that nothing might escape from her which would provoke or dishonour him who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity she yielded the Throne of her Heart to God and whether she spake or wrote to others or Prayed for them she exhorted or entreated that the Interest of God's Glory might be uppermost obtain the Supremacy and nothing be its Rival or stand in competition with it Such Expressions frequently occurring in many of the Passages above related and transcribed from her Papers and for the promoting the Salvation of others she remembred and practised our Saviour's Counsel to St. Peter Thou when thou art Converted strengthen thy Brethren I have given account above of her indefatigable Care and zealous Diligence in instructing Children Servants Neighbours and it is unreasonable to conclude I have little to say on this Head because I will not say over again what I had so fully said before Her Converse was generally very Serious Savory Edifying few have come to see me since she dyed who have not told me how frequently and faithfully she used to give them good Advice and Exhortations to be sincerely Religious and indeed she was endowed with an extraordinary measure of Courage Prudence Faithfulness to give necessary free kind and seasonable Reproofs Admonition and Instructions and would not suffer Sin to be upon their Souls whom she had any opportunity to rescue from it at least would use her best Endeavours to effect so good a Work and would speak so home and plainly to them who needed it that I confess I have sometimes thought she rather exceeded and have between our selves intimated so much to her to which she would wisely and with just Apology reply My Dear we must deal freely and speak home in such Cases not mince the Matter and speak slightly it will not be minded if we do and as good never a whit as never the better it is well if all we can say will effect what it is said for and if they be not convinced both of their own Errour and our Good-will and made to feel what we speak by our plain and faithfull Earnestness all the rest is lost to them and us they 'll be no better for it and we shall not have the comfort of discharging the part and duty of true Christian Friendship And she had often good success but once above other times so eminent and signal I can hardly forbear to relate it and I have heard her more than once or twice make mention of it with Thankfulness and Comfort and as a good encouragement to do the like She had a very awakened Sense and deep impressions on her Mind of that Estate which is on the other side of Death and was full fraught with Love and Pity to Immortal Souls and would do all she could to the saving of her own and others and therefore accounted all kindest offices not worth the name of true Friendship which stopped short and reached not to at least had not a fair tendency towards the Eternal Salvation of her Friends SECT XXV Several Graces in which she was most Eminent I Have cause to repent those hasty Thoughts set down before page the 50th as Heads to be touched more fully by which I have made my self Debtor to the Reader 's Expectation to write somewhat of the Title of this Section for when I set my Thoughts to single out in the Prospect of them all which shined with the greatest Lustre all were so fair and bright I am at a loss on which to fix the Preference For I may say of her with Modesty and Truth what St. Gregory Nazianzen saith of his Sister Gorgonia with wonder That she excelled in all Vertues and St. Jerome of Nepotian that he was so Eminent in all Graces as if he had excelled but in some one alone She was compleat in Christ had taken to herself the whole Armour of God not an almost-Christian but throughly furnished to every good Word and Work And as God had preserved her that though she was assaulted by many Buffetting Temptations she was not overcome by them and that no Iniquity had Dominion over her to Reign in her Mortal Body or Immortal Soul to blot her Name or Profession with any Scandalous Offence so every Grace of the Spirit with all which she was very plenteously adorned exerted its self with Vigour was not raked up in faint and lazy Habits Her Knowledge in which the New Man is renewed and without which the Wise Man tells us the Heart cannot be good was clear solid and indeed Masculine beyond the Proportion of her Sex and Degree as may appear by all she wrote and she would discourse and argue very knowingly and with sound Judgment upon any Point of Divinity as occasion offered The Oil which fed this Lamp was her much Reading good Books but especially the Holy Scriptures in which she meditated Day and Night and if