Romances and filthy Books which will corrupt your Fancies and make you unfit for the Service of God I say to you as David to his Son And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Fathers and serve him with a perfect Heart and with a willing Mind for the Lord searcheth all Hearts and understandeth all the Imaginations of the Thoughts If thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever Children as soon as you are capable of knowing any thing I would have you labour to know God own him love him obey him and serve him and that with a willing Mind knowing that he searcheth your Hearts you cannot deceive him for he knows the Imagination of all your Thoughts better than you know them your selves If you seek him he will be found of you You may seek earthly Friends and at last be disappointed you may seek Riches and lose your Labour but if you do rightly seek God he will be found of you and then happy are you for ever You see that if you forsake him he will cast you off for ever O miserable and wretched are they that are cast off by God where shall they go for Comfort that have lost his Friendship and Favour Children if you lose all you have in the World it is nothing to the Loss of God's Favour If you lose Father and Mother yet if God will take you up you are happy If all Friends fail you if God do not fail nor forsake you nor cast you off still you may be happy your true Felicity lieth not in the things of this Life but in your Portion in the everlasting God My Children if you honour God he will honour you but if you despise him he will lightly esteem you He will be with you while you are with him but if you forsake him wonder not if he will forsake you Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you Children honour God by chusing his word for your Rule and Guide by chusing him for your alone Portion prefer him before all the World so that if the Devil should come to you as once to your blessed Saviour and tell you of giving you great Matters if you will but serve him yet resolve to serve and please God Though he see fit to afflict you yet love him and cleave to him trust in him and rely upon him Honour God by keeping his Commandments by believing his Promises by walking in his Ways rather choose to die at a Stake for your Religion than to deny God or his Cause Hath God said he will be with you while you are with him O then keep close to God beg him to keep you from falling to preserve you blameless and unreproveable unto his Heavenly Kingdom Implore him to keep you by his mighty Power through Faith unto Salvation Draw nigh to God in a way of Duty and he will draw nigh to you in a way of Mercy My dear Children I charge and command you to love God and keep his Commandments his Commandments are not grievous but his Laws are all holy just and good Let it be your Aim and End living and dying to approve your selves to God Let his Word direct and guide counsel and comfort you in all Conditions and State of Life whether high or low rich or poor in Health or Sickness whatever your Conditions be in the World if you belong to God he can and will order it for your Good therefore let that be your first Care that you are his you are his by Creation you are his by Redemption and Purchase therefore give up your selves intirely to him to be ruled and guided and disposed of as your Heavenly Father thinketh meet Say Lord here we are do with us as seemeth best to thy Godly Wisdom Do but love us and delight in us and own us and approve us and take us for thine own and then take what Method thou pleasest to bring us to Glory Dear Children you were both dedicated to God in your Infancy remember to renew and keep your Baptismal Covenant wherein you did promise before God Men and Angels to Renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and to be intirely the Lord's and his only to keep his Laws and Commandments and Statutes all the Days of your Life Dare not to live in the Breach of any of them Watch and pray that you enter not into Temptation Take heed of taking God's Name in vain of playing on the Lord's Day of Lying Swearing and Idleness I repeat these again as being very common and little taken notice of in the World My dear Children remember this Counsel of your dear deceased Mother as one that had a great Concern for your precious and immortal Souls PAPER V. WHen my Spirit is overwhelmed lead me O Lord to the Rock that is higher than my self If I had no Supports now to fly to more than this vain World affords I were a miserable Creature but God hath been pleased in some measure to bless me with the Knowledg of himself whom to know to love and to injoy is Life Eternal I cannot express the Comfort that the Word of God doth yield me even now in my Distress so that I can say with the Psalmist that thy Word is better to me than thousands of Gold and Silver What though the Fig-tree should not blossom neither should there be any Fruit in the Vine If the Labour of the Olive shall fail if the Fields shall yield no Meat if the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold if there be no Herd in the Stalls if dear Relations and Friends die if Husband and Children are taken away yet if thou canst rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of thy Salvation if thou canst but say that the Lord God is thy Strength thy Portion thy Refuge and thy Deliverer thou mayst be happy whatever thy Condition be in this World If thy good God will but say as unto Israel of old in Isa. 43. 1. But now thus saith the Lord that created thee and he that formed thee Fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy Name thou art mine Lord I know I am thine by Creation it was thou alone that formed me I beg that I may be thine by Redemption let me be effectually called O blessed Lord assure me that I am thine and let me know that thou lovest me though thou afflictest me that thou art not angry with me though thou chastisest me sorely There is much Bitterness let there be no Wrath in this Cup Give me some Hopes thou wilt be with me when I pass through the Water and through the Fire Lord if thou wilt be but with me I will fear no Evil Lift thou up the Light of thy Countenance upon me and then it will put more Gladness into my Heart than if I were possessed of all the good things in the World
ADVICE TO MOURNERS Under the Loss of Dear RELATIONS In a FUNERAL-SERMON long since preach'd by the late Reverend Dr. Thomas Manton D. D. And now occasionally published on the much lamented Death of Mrs. Ann Terry who died the 9th of November 1693. With a short Account of some Passages of her Life and Papers left under her own Hand LONDON Printed by I. D. for Ionathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard 1694. THE PREFACE READER THAT which occasioned this Discourse and Preface is a late Stroke of Providence in translating a Daughter of Abraham from hence to Abraham's Bosom where she now rests in the delightful Expectations of her full Resurrection unto Life Eternal She was a Person whom I well knew and greatly valued and that I did discern by free and frequent Conversation with her Treasures of Knowledg and Grace richly abiding in her and with great Iudgment and Savour pertinently brought forth by her in order to her fuller Satisfaction and Edification in what concern'd her Soul as to its Duty whilst embodied and its full Bliss when it was to be removed hence She ever was concern'd to know her Duty and the true Matter Grounds and Usefulness of her Christian Hope in order to the effectual influencing of her concerned Spirit in her determined Services and Station She ever was solicitous to know her VVork and to discharge her Trust as a Christian and answerably to her Relations and Family wherein she behaved her self not as without Law to God but as under Law to Christ and so deported her self with true and commendable Exemplariness as a VVife a Mother and a Mistress and as one full of Thoughts and Care therein to abide with God and to approve her self to him in his own solemn Day of Iudgment She was a Person of great Exercises through the tedious Urgencies of her long and many bodily Infirmities which she bore with Patience and providently improved unto the great Advantage of her better Part. She would not suffer Sense to sit in Iudgment upon Providence but fetch'd her Measures of God's dealing with her from that Faith and from those Thoughts which took their Directory from God's own Sacred Oracles She concealed her Resentments of her Troubles so far as I could see from all save only such as she judged able judiciously to minister to her Satisfaction Her Objections were not trivial but such as did require considerable Resolutions of which she was very apprehensive observant and I think tenacious of Her Troubles hindered not her Converse with God in Solitudes nor the fit Indearments and Improvements of both relative and friendly Converse She is now gone to the Felicity and Imployments for which she was through Grace and holy Industry considerably prepared And what her Spirit breath'd for and after may be discerned in part by these few Instances of her Closet-work which her sorrowful Husband hath thought fit to communicate to the World 'T is such a Wife as he has lost as that the Sense and unavoidable Remembrances of that Loss may well urge sorrowful Nature to its Tears and Groans And of these considerable Measures are needful and allowable but Provocations to excessive Grief through such a Stroak render it needful that Christian Bounds and Limits to such Sorrows be seasonably proposed and well considered And therefore this Funeral Text is fitly offered to the Mourners Thoughts by the Apostle that recorded it and by the Reverend Author who has fitly insisted upon that Clause The serious Perusal whereof and of these few Memoirs of the Deceased so devoutly contemplative for her own Good and for the Benefit of others is really judged worthy of due Consideration both by the Publisher and by thy true Friend in and for the great Disposer of Times and Lives whilst I am thine in all Christian Services Matthew Silvester It being thought necessary to make some particular though short mention of the Party on the account of whose Death this Sermon and Papers are published it naturally follows from a Principle of Gratitude Honour and Iustice that 's due to the dear and precious Memory of Mr. Terry's first VVife to take notice also of some of those indearing Qualifications that were very conspicuous in her The less indeed will be said of either because what is related of the one is so applicable in all respects to the other IT is no small part of the Honour that 's due to her Memory that she was a Daughter of that excellent Divine Dr. Thomas Manton and bestowed in Marriage to Mr. Terry by his peculiar Choice out of that most kind and cordial Respect that he had for him She was as to her Person very lovely of most curious and excellent Parts of a ready and quick Wit and good Understanding and such a transcendent Sweetness of Temper joined with true Religiousness that she was highly valued and esteemed by all that knew her In all relations she answered her pious Education as a Child a Mother and Wife never any went beyond her It hath been often said that she was made up of Love which Character she fully answered She had Love sufficient for ten good Wives it 's impossible for any in that Relation to express more than she did to her dear Husband who was as to her the Life of all her other Comforts and this express'd not with childish Fondness but with Prudence and Discretion To the Day of her Death she would say that her Love was still increasing and she found that every Day she lov'd him more and more She carried her self with all imaginable Duty and Respects to her Relations to whom she was very dear Great was her Prudence and Conduct in the Management of her Houshold-Affairs She had the Bowels of a tender Mother to the Souls as well as the Bodies of her dear Children and did endeavour by Counsel and Instruction to instil in them the Principles of true Godliness She had that true Piety towards God and Publickness of Spirit to do Good that she was beloved of all that knew her she was of that free and generous Temper that she thought no Pains too much to serve her Friends to the utmost of her Power as many can witness in the late publick Troubles She had a most indeared Respect to all the Ordinances of the Gospel which she frequently attended on and that many times when she was more sit to be confin'd to her Chamber She had many Mercies to bless God for for many Years together but not without her sore Troubles which did not apear to every one both outward and inward but under them all there was no Abatement or Decay in respect of her Duty either to God or Man The Death of several of her Children was the Beginning of her Sorrows and afterwards that of her dear Father whom she loved with a most passionate Love This bore hard on her tender Spirit and brought her into a great Melancholy Her Troubles continued more
that should light upon her Children by the Stomachfulness that was in Rachel Jer. 31. 15. Weeping for her Children she would not be comforted Men have no Ear to hearken to what may be said for God and therefore are resolved to hold the Bitterness of their own Thoughts This stubborn Pettishness and wilful Grief may be sometimes in God's own Chosen it was in Iacob Gen. 37. 35. He refused to be comforted for he said I will go down into the Grave unto my Son mourning I will it was a stomached wilful Grief Christians by a perverse peevish justifying of their Passions they say of their Sorrows as Ionah did of his Anger Ionah 4. 9. I do well to be angry When Men take it for granted they do well in it they resolve then to shut their Ears against whatever might appease and quiet their Thoughts 3. Such as are impatient and discontented as if God had not dealt wisely or worthily with them When a full Vessel is shaken the Water will plash over And when there is such a Tumult in the Heart unseemly Expressions will drop from us as if God should not have dealt thus with us as to take away these Comforts in which were all our Solace the Staff and the Stay of the Family We that are Neighbours are apt very often in Discontent to say What a serviceable and useful Person hath God taken away and so many bad ones left as if God had not made a right choice Foolish Man would be accounted wiser than God But if a Man were well skilled in God's Attributes he would never murmur especially if he did but consider this cometh from a Wise God The Cause of all the Disorder in the Heart is the want of fearing God's Name we are not skilled in his Attributes Alphonsus blasphemously said Si in principio mundi ipse Deo adfuisset multa melius ornatiusque condenda essent things should have been ordered better if he had been of God's Council Many of you do not utter such Expressions but yet too often conceive such Thoughts in your Hearts you will not think so ay but what mean the bleating of the Sheep and the lowing of the Oxen such Expressions as these O! would to God I had died first as David 2 Sam. 18. 33. O Absalom my Son my Son would to God that I had died for thee And again would to God I had been dead a long time ago rather than to survive my Happiness all my Estate gone in an instant as Brethren in these empty trying Times it is many a Man's Case but remember foolish Man the All-wise God thought it fittest for thee Yet thus doth the Prophet Elijah when he was driven into the Wilderness by Jezebel 1 Kings 19. 4. in a Discontent requests for himself that he might die It is enough now O Lord take away my Life 4. Such as unfit for Duty Affections are no further lawful than they fit for Duty When Grief taketh off our Hearts from the Duties of our general or particular Calling it is an evil Grief See Gen. 35. 19 21. Rachel died and was buried and Israel journied and spread his Tent. Having lost so dear a Wife he doth not stand puling by the Tomb but Israel journied he went on about his Business We ought so far to be sensible of Providence as may serve to quicken us to Duty not to hinder us There is a great Question now whether we ought to fear or hope in our Misery some of one side cry down Fear some on the other side cry down Hope Why Brethren there is not much Matter in the Exercise of either of these Affections but according as they do more or less quicken you to Duty If you be the more earnest in Prayer because you hope Success is near truly that is a good Disposition of Heart if because Fear that is the most unchristian I confess Fear is good when it ends in Duty Iehosaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord 2 Chron. 20. 3. And Noah moved with Fear prepared an Ark Heb. 11. 7. Brethren the bare Exercise of Affections is but a natural and an indifferent thing the great Trial of them is when they fit you the more for the Service that God requires of you Therefore when Persons grieve so for the Loss of an Husband Wife Children or Estate that they have no mind to pray no mind to go about their Callings with any Comfort that is an evil Grief It is true that God winketh at some Omissions of Duties for a small while in such cases till we are able to manage our Thoughts and digest our Sorrow and the Letter of the Law giveth place to such great Necessities as Aaron's Excuse is but reasonable Levit. 10. 19. Such things have befallen me this Day that if I had eaten the Sin-offering should it be accepted with the Lord The Death of his two Sons though he held his Peace he could not tell how for the present to frame his Heart to a joyful Duty As if a Minister cannot tell how to bring his Heart to preach if God hath entered upon his Family taken away a Wife or Children thence I confess this cometh from Corruption but in such Cases God winketh at it for a short time The Reasons are 1. Because otherwise our Carriage would be very dishonourable and derogatory to Jesus Christ as if he were not better to us than all the Comforts that we lose 1 Sam. 1. 8. as Elkana said to Hannah Why weepest thou am not I better to thee than ten Sons So why weepest thou Is not Christ better to thee than ten Wives ten Children ten Parents a thousand times as much as thou hast lost If we had but Faith to see it Christ is to a Believer whatever he wanteth The People of God in the Wilderness wanted Houses Psal. 90. 1. Lord thou art our Habitation A Christian hath never more Comfort than when he seeth that particular thing made up in Christ which was taken from him by the Providence of God If a Believer has lost her Husband she seeth Christ her Husband So for any other Relation if a Parent seeth Christ his Parent if a Brother Christ's a Brother We are to Christ instead of all these Relations and therefore why should not Christ be so to us See Matth. 12. 50. Whosoever doth the Will of my Father the same is my Brother and Sister and Mother Mark we are so to him and therefore why should we not account Christ to be so to us Certainly it is a great Dishonour and Disparagement to him if we do not see all our Losses abundantly made up in him 2. It would be a Dishonour to our Profession It is a Credit to Christianity that the Professors of it can be joyful in all Conditions Heb. 10. 34. Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your Goods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though all they had were snatch'd from them by rude Hands yet they were joyful Let guilty
to sweeten all and carry me patiently through the remaining part of my Days and Trials Be with me when I pass through the Fire and through the Water for my Eyes are unto thee O Lord my God in thee is my Trust leave not my Soul destitute PAPER III. YE will not come unto me that ye may have Life O the Stupidity of poor careless and secure Sinners What will you not come to Christ who alone can give you Life Natural Life and Spiritual Life and Life Eternal We spare no Pains nor Cost to save the Life of the Body but O what Fools what sensless and sottish Creatures are we not to provide for Eternal Life What is this momentary Life given us for but to provide for our Departure hence to labour to get an Interest in God and Christ Our Time was given us that we might have an Opportunity of working out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling and that we may make our Calling and Election sure that we may get some comfortable Hopes that we do belong to the Election of Grace O get your Title to Heaven cleared that you are born again that your Sins are pardoned that your Person is justified and that you are truly sanctified and cleansed from all wilful Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit Don't indulge your self in any known Sin not in omitting any known Duty nor in the Commission of any known Sin The least Sin without Repentance is damnable but the greatest Sin upon true Repentance is pardonable for the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sins even those that are of a Crimson Die If our Sins be as Scarlet God can make them as white as Snow if we do but truly repent of them and forsake them Let not that Complaint of the Prophet Hos. 5. 4. be verified in you that you will not frame your Doings to turn unto the Lord. What will you not do what in you lies to frame your Doing to please the Lord What will you not avoid some petty Sins that do highly offend your good God and may cause him to hide his Face from you Thus saith the Lord Seek ye me and ye shall live But may not our Conscience condemn us and tell us that that precious Time that our good God hath given us to seek him and to be reconciled to him and to make our Peace with him even that Time hath been spent in Sin and very Vanity in adding Iniquity to Iniquity We are commanded to keep our selves in the Love of God looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life It is to no purpose to expect Mercy from Christ or to hope for Eternal Life if we do not what we can to keep our selves in the Love of God O then let it be your Study Day and Night to approve your selves to the Lord chearfully obey his Commands patiently submit to Afflictions thankfully receive Mercies and make a holy Improvement of them look to your selves that you lose not those things which ye have wrought but that ye receive a full Reward Allow not your selves in any Sin though never so small in your own Eyes lest God should say as unto the Church of Ephesus Though thou hast made a Profession of my Name and hast made conscience of some gross Sins nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first Love Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of his Place except thou repent If our Love to God and his Ordinances be not as fervent as formerly if our Hatred of Sin or sinful Courses be lessened if our Care to please God and our Fear to offend him be less than heretofore we have just Reason to fear that God will deprive us of our forfeited Gospel or harden our Hearts that we shall not profit by it which dreadful Judgment O Lord in Mercy prevent If our outward Carriage before Men should seem never so well nay if we can approve our selves to our own Consciences in many respects yet the All-searching God may truly say not only that he hath a few things against us but many things against us therefore it is our Wisdom to search and try our selves and turn again to the Lord from whom we have too deeply revolted PAPER IV. GOD hath been pleased to deprive me of my dear Husband so that my Care ought to be doubled in the Education of my poor Children when I must discharge his part and my own Duty too I know not how soon God may call me out of this World I have frequent Warnings of my Mortality by the Death of others and my own often Indisposition My Children are now young and therefore what I say may not make due Impressions on them by reason of their tender Age and when I come to die I know not whether I shall have Time Opportunity or my Senses then to speak to them of the things that belong to their everlasting Peace for ought I know I then may be seized as often I have been with Convulsion-fits which may soon carry my Soul out of this into an endless Life so that I may not have any leisure to counsel instruct or charge them to take care of their dear precious and immortal Souls therefore I shall leave my Charge and Commands in Writing that they may often take a View of them as being the Commands of their dying Mother Dear Children I charge you as you hope to meet me with Comfort at the Day of Judgment that you avoid all Sins as Lying Swearing taking God's Holy Name in vain which I particularly mention as incident to your Age I charge you make Conscience of keeping the Sabbath-Day holy Do not think your own Thoughts nor speak your own Words nor do your own Actions remember it is God's Day and must be spent in his Service Before you go to Church bless God for the Mercies of the Night past for giving you leave to see the Light of another Day especially another Sabbath-Day wherein you may have an Opportunity of waiting upon God and getting good to your poor Souls When you are in the solemn Assemblies of God's People let your Carriage be grave serious and awful as remembring God sees you and let your Minds be attentive to what the Minister saith Hear so that your Souls may live Be not forgetful Hearers but be ye Doers of the Word and so shall ye be blessed in all that you do Do not spend any time in idle Recreation or walking in the Fields upon the Lord's Day for the Profanation of that Day is an Inlet to many other Sins My dear Children spend some time every Day in reading God's Word and in Prayer you know not what a Blessing it is to have the Bible therefore do not slight it but make a good Use of it Do not squander away your Time in reading Plays and