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
or less though with some Abatement to her dying Day by which her Life was many times a very Burden to her Her Doubts as to her Eternal State were sometimes very grievous but yet through the Goodness of God she still kept up this Resolution to venture her Soul in the Hands of her Redeemer Having one time ask'd very earnestly Will not Christ receive me if I come to him receiving some encouragement in this Matter she replied with Chearfulness Then will I come to him She took great Delight in reading her Father's Sermons especially those of the Life of Faith under our Affliction and very comfortable was the insuing Passage of one of them to her under her Doubts and Fears viz. The Question being propounded by poor doubting Souls thus How shall we know whether God be our God Answ. Why do you love him as your chiefest Good Do you seek his Glory as your utmost End Do you obey him as your highest Lord and Law-giver and do you depend on him as your Paymaster and Benefactor But if all this will not help you to judg your Hearts there are but two things will give you Comfort and those are your Choice and your Resignation Do you chuse God for your Portion Though you cannot say God has chosen you and that he is yours yet you will chuse him Do you by an Holy importunate Faith thus fasten your selves upon God and say Lord if thou wilt not honour me love me bless me as thine for I am resolved to be thine and if I perish one must perish that desires to be thine And this she would often repeat The Night before she died her Husband earnestly and humbly besought the Lord that he would graciously be pleased to give her some comfortable Manifestations of his Love to her poor Soul O let it never be forgotten the gracious Condescension of God to his unworthy Creature The next Morning her faithful and loving Servant who attended her in all her Ilness brought him Word that now the Case was altered with her Mistress she was now reconciled to the Thoughts of Death and was refreshed with the Sense of God's Love and desired to have no more Cordials given her she had better Comforts to refresh her Soul This was on the Lord's Day in the Morning She spake not much after but lay in a quiet composed Frame of Spirit softly groaning under the Pains of Death that made his nearer Approach to her every Hour but even then when she heard her Husband speak to her she would answer with a very pleasing and chearful Voice A dear Friend lay on the Bed by her a very little space of time before she expired and heard her utter distinctly though softly full of Comfort Soon after she ended her Life with the Sabbath and went to Rest on the 16th of March 1689. THE Person that succeeded her in this Relation was also the Daughter of that Reverend and worthy Divine Mr. Thomas Burroughs Minister at Cotsbrook in Northampton-shire till the Year 1662 when he with some hundreds more were turn'd out for Non-conformity After a convenient and decent Space of time of her continuing a Widow she chang'd her Condition into a married State though much against her own Inclination and Temper but purely out of her Respect and Kindness to Mr. Terry whom she knew intirely lov'd her But when once the Nuptial Knot was tied her Carriage as a Wife was with all imaginable Respect accompanied with most indearing Tenderness often expressing how much her Love was increased to her Husband much more than she thought it could have been though before as a Friend she equally preferr'd him to all others of that Rank Her Domestick Affairs she managed with great Prudence and in that Station she gain'd Love and Respect from all She had a most tender and compassionate Regard for the Souls of her dear Children She took great Care to instruct them in the Principles of Religion and incouraging them to read and learn the Holy Scriptures This her Care also did extend to her Servants whom she would on all occasions be ready either by her Advice or by reading some good Book to them her self when their Business would permit and endeavour to beget in them a true Sense of their Sin and Misery and the Worth of their precious Souls God who is the God of Nature as well as of Grace was pleased to endow her with a great Proportion both of Natural and Spiritual Excellencies She was a very beautiful and lovely Person in her younger Years few exceeding her and of most excellent Parts and of great Understanding yet of a very humble Spirit and very mean in her own Eyes though deservedly valued by those that knew her Such was the Sweetness of her Temper accompanied with true Godliness that she was an Ornament to her Profession To speak of her as a Christian would exceed the Limits of these Papers God had greatly adorn'd and beautified her Soul with the Graces of his Holy Spirit and agreable thereunto she lived in some Holy Proportion answerable to the Vows of her Consecration and to the Godly Education she received from her pious Relations She intirely devoted her self to God to be wholly his and at his Disposal She had a singular Value for the Holy Scriptures which she constantly made conscience of reading and would sometimes write them out with profitable Remarks on them for her own spiritual Use. Other good Books also had their due Esteem and Use but she would often say none of that kind yielded her more Comfort and Satisfaction than Dr. Manton's It was very usual in her own Bible and Books to give some little Mark at those Passages that were of particular Concern to her self under the Variety of the Dispensation that she passed through She had a most high Esteem for the Publick Worship and Service of God which she never or rarely omitted to frequent unless hindred by some unavoidable Occasion The Sabbath was a Day of Delight to her she made conscience as of seeing Religious Duties performed in the Family so also of redeeming Time for her private Converse with God and this was resolved and subscribed to under her own Hand many Years ago that she would spend some Time in Prayer and Meditation and herein followed the Method she received from the Directions of Worthy Mr. Daniel Burgess to help her in that Work viz. to go over the Creed the Lord's Prayer and Commandments all which she did perform with many other Portions of Scripture as appears from the many Papers left under her own Hand She was much pleased with what she heard a worthy Divine relate in pressing his Hearers to Private Prayer of a Holy Man that would never omit this Duty but when like to be hindred by any Company would make this honest Excuse I must take my leave of you for a while there 's a Friend above stays to speak with me meaning God that has commanded this
cast into the Fire God will dash the Potter's Vessel Gen. 19. 22. Haste thee scape to Zoar for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither I cannot mark that Exod. 32. 10. Let me alone and I will make of thee a great People God offereth Moses Composition Acts 27. 24. The Lord hath given thee all them that sail with thee These are the Staff and the Stay therefore we have Reason to be sensible of their Removal from us Use 2. We have Reason also to be comforted 1st For the Glory that cometh to God by her sweet Departure Those that have envied her Life may wish for her Death even such Solace as she felt in the most bitter Agonie Numb 23. 10. Let me die the Death of the Righteous and let my latter End be like his It is a great Comfort that wicked Men have not wherewithal to blast Religion when they see how the Love of God can compose our Spirits in the greatest Extremities that befal us either in Life or Death 2dly That she hath left us for Glory It was indeed through many Throws and Pains and Sorrows but Death played the Midwife to help her into Glory It is the Apostle's Exhortation to the Thessalonians 1 Epist. chap. 4. ver 13. That they should not sorrow even as others which have no Hope concerning them which are asleep in Jesus but admonish them to comfort one another with these Words That at Christ's Coming they which survive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air And so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these Words FINIS PAPER I. I Hope I have avouched the Lord to be my God and resolve to walk in his Ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgments and to hearken unto his Voice And I humbly implore that the Lord would avouch me to be one of his peculiar People and that he would enable me to keep all his Commandments I often question whether I have any Interest in the Eternal God or whether he will own me as one of his but Lord I humbly say I have and do avouch thee to be my only God and Saviour O cast me not off and I earnestly beg Grace to walk in thy Ways Help me to keep thy Statutes continually Let me not dare to offend thee O that I might never provoke thee my good God to be angry or displeased with me but let me O Lord be a Doer of thy Commandments that so I may have Right to the Tree of Life Lord I have no Right I can plead no Right I fall infinitely short of my Duty but have not I a blessed Saviour to plead for me who died for the Chief of Sinners and he hath promised that none that come to him he will in any wise cast out I know he is able to save to the utttermost all those that come to God through him in his prevailing Name and for his sake I implore Divine Assistance to enable me to persevere and hold out to the end that at the last I may enter in through the Gates into the City into the Heavenly Ierusalem where the Saints and Angels and Cherubims and Seraphims are continually singing Hallelujahs to their King Holy Holy Holy Lord. I acknowledg my Unfitness my Unworthiness for this great inexpressible inconceivable Privilege but though I am unworthy if thou my God wilt count me worthy through the Merits of my dear Saviour I shall have Cause for ever to bless thy Name in the highest Heavens World without End Though I have no Right if thou wilt give me Right to those Treasures and Pleasures which are at thy right Hand for evermore this will be Matter of Thankfulness to Eternity Give me some Hopes that I have an Interest in these invisible things by my Care to please thee and my Fear to offend thee by my unfeigned Respect to all thy Holy Righteous and Just Commandments and by my harkning to thy Voice the Voice of thy Word and the Voice of thy Rod. Thy Dealings are variously dispensed towards me I met with many contrary Winds O let them all blow me nearer to thy blessed Self Lord I humbly say I have avouched thee to be my only God my Salvation my Portion my Rock my Fortress O be thou my reconciled Father to whom I may continually resort and when my Flesh and Heart here fail me as frequently they do be thou the Strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever O God my God do not forsake me nor cast me utterly out of thy Sight The Things of this World they do not they cannot they will not content me O give me some comfortable Hopes that I am thine that thou hast adopted me and that thou wilt sanctify me and make me meet for thy blessed Self I would be every Day sitting and preparing my self for my last Day for my accounting Day when I must be summoned before thy Tribunal Seat to give a strict severe Account for all my Thoughts Words and Actions whereby I have offended thee my gracious and good God but I find my self unfit for any spiritual Duty Lord help me to mind the Work of Time while Time lasts furnish me with Divine Assistance to enable me to do my Duty without which I am utterly uncapable of serving or pleasing thy blessed Majesty Death is hastning Eternity approaching the particular Day of Judgment near and yet for all this how inconsiderate art thou O my Soul to neglect the things that belong to thy everlasting Peace I am often thoughtful what will become of me here and how Matters will go with me here in this Life Ah but when is the time to provide for Eternity to get my Title to Heaven cleared to get an undeniable Interest in Christ Jesus which will yield me Comfort in the greatest worldly Distresses Lord give me some Hopes that thou hast avouched me to be thine and that I have sincerely without Reservation or Power of Revocation avouched thee to be my God PAPER II. DO thou by a patient Continuance in Well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality and Eternal Life Be not weary of Well-doing for in due time thou shalt reap if thou faint not Is there Glory Honour Immortality and Eternal Life set before me and yet shall I tire and wax weary Dare I be impatient and fret at any of the Lord's Dealings towards me If Heaven were oftner in my Eye and View I should be more calm and composed in the midst of all Trials Troubles and Afflictions that do or may overtake me during my Abode in this distracting and Sin-defiling World Is there Glory to be had hereafter and shall not I endeavour to be a Sharer therein Is there Honour to be conferr'd upon those that are true Worshippers of the Lamb and shall I be dull and dead and sluggish and unmindful of the Honour that