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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
duty_n	day_n	good_a	lord_n	2,726	5	3.8026	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96877	A relgious treatise upon Simeons song or, instructions advertising how to live holily, and dye happily. / Composed at first for the use of the truly pious Sir Robert Harley, knight of the honourable order of the Bath but since published by Timothy Woodroffe, B.D. Pastor to the church at Kingsland, in Herefordshire.	Woodroffe, Timothy, 1593 or 4-1677.; Rowe, John, 1626-1677.	1658 (1658)	Wing W3472A; Thomason E2119_1; ESTC R210138	91,617	274

or see us die as one going to sleep O meditate on these things now while the glasse runs and hath at least some sands in it that it shall never repent thee to have soundly repented nor to have graciously lived and orthodoxly believed to have self-denyed for Christ taken up his Cross Ma● 16 2● Ma● 19. ●8 Phil. 1.21 followed him in the regeneration to have been the servant of Christ to have lived to Christ dyed in Christ But then will every tongue say not O that I had lived longer but O that I had lived better O that I had sinned lesse and believed more O that I had prayed more Mar. 9.24 been more in duty more in Christian communion conversed more with the Scriptures been more in the promises studied more the covenant of grace sanctified the Lord's day more taught and better educated my family c. So shalt thou never repent any good but rejoyce that ever thou hadst any gracious breathings and wilt say O welcom death and blessed bee my God and Father who now calls for his child and servant I come I come Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart c. farewel my body and you my friends take this body of mine which I so long governed so ill to your dispose and Lord take my soul into the arms of thy mercy since now thou callest me according to thy word So much of the third viz. our holy and solemn meditation of and conference with death 4. The fourth is to set all things in order for an happy death here comes in many things very considerable 1. The soul must be set in order as thy understanding by saving illumination to know the things that belong to thy peace Luk. 19.42 thy will in order to be a sanctified will in its desires dominions and endeavours thy affections in order to fix them upon their right holy objects thy faith in order patiently to wait for the due accomplishment of all the pretious promises which in Christ are made over to a sanctified soul no more of setting the soul in order having said so much already 2. The body must be set in order 3. The estate must be set in order 1. The body is a sinfull mortal decaied naturall body Rom. 6.6 subject to a thousand m●l●dies and miseries which must be mortified and crucified of its reigning domineering power and all the organicall parts must be subj cted unto Jesus Christ till when the body is not in order to dye he that will dye happily must keep a daily funerall of his transgressions errours and sinful miscarriages towards God self and men that albeit they may have a kind of slavish being in us yet they must have no dominion over us 2. The members of the body must becom the mēbers of Christ Rom. 6.12 as the eye to see the tongue to speak 1 Cor. 6.15 the hand to work the foot to walk for Christ and all the parts to suffer with Christ before we can be in order to dye 3 The body must be kept as a chast virgin for Christs use 1 Cor. 6.15.19 and the holy Ghosts use whose Temple it is wee must be sanctified bodies as well as sanctified souls but the dear servants of God have much ado with their bodies to subdue tame and bring under their untruly members of which Saint Paul did sorely complain and said to will is present but to perform that which was good hee found not Rom. 7.18 The reason was because his unregenerate pa●t took so great advantage from and by the inordinate pravity of the body which is become so prone to serve the mind and will in every sinfull motion within and like tinder so naturally proclive to catch at any temptations and allurements to sin from without 1 Thes 5.23 that the blessed Apostle Paul does pray that the Thessalonians bodies as well as their spirits and souls be sanctified throughout and preserved blamelesse unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 4. The body as well as the soul must be in covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost before it can be in order to die but then though death may kil yet death cannot hurt the body for God is the Saint God and father in death and when the body lies reposed in the grave Psal 116.15 Gen. 50.25 Exod. 13.19 Jos ult 32. precious in the Lords sight is the death of his Saints and God sets a great price even upon their bodies and bones though the Saints themselvs in their sufferings have a low estimate of their bodies which I think hath so steeled and resolved them to under-go and cheerfully to wade through the bloody persecutions of most cruell and butcherly Neroes knowing the Lord God his covenant-goodness even unto their bodies should they be burnt to ashes or torn with wild beasts as multitudes were served in the primitive times since Fox Martyrol Again the Lord Christ is their head even in the grave and they be his members upon which he also sets a great price so as when the soul departs to God who gave it even then the bodies of the Saints have after a sort a principle of life within them do but sleep when they bee dead do belong to Christ by covenant whom he wil raise up Eccl 12.7 Isa 26.19 Mar. 9.21 1 Cor 11.30 chap. 15.20 Eph. 1.19 by that very exceeding greatness of power whereby his own mortall body was raised up and not onely awaken them but introduce their own souls and receive them up to himself to be for ever with him in glory Col. 3.4 Nor is it possible that any one member of Christ Ps 34.20 can loose one muscle nerve artery bone or sinew one eye one limb or one hair of the head but shall arise a compleat beautifull and well-featured body however his or her body was mangled and deformed here before or at the time of death and buriall and since for the bodies in covenāt to be united to Christ a perfect body according to the Apostle a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.13 Nor will Christ suffer one part never so little to be wanting for Christ must account for our bodies to his Father who of terrestiall must make them celestiall of corruptible 1 Cor 15.41 42 43 44. incorruptible of dishonorable glorious of weak powerfull and of natural must make them spirituall bodies 3. The holy Ghost is in Covenāt w th our bodies whose work it is and will be to fil those old mansions with such a plenitude of the spirit as those glorified bodies shall be capable of Ps 16.9.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hope Prov. 7.27 and at present do live in hope of though they groan a while with the rest of the creature so then the body must be in Covenant with God before it is well ordered to lye down in

dejected Disciples Lu. 24.17 What manner of communications are these while you walk and are sad Joh. 17. What are you so sad are you not advised that I must depart and glorifie my Father Joh. 14.3 and that when you go hence I must and will prepare mansions of glory for you do not you consider what I am to you and what you are to me whom I have so and so honoured already and am in you the hope of glory Col. 1.27 and that you shall shortly in three days expect my Resurrection from the dead Mat. 16.21 1 Cor. 15.20 Joh. 14.1 an assured evidence of your Resurrection you my beloved Disciples be not troubled at my death and departure Judg. 8.2 nor at your own but praise and give thanks for certainly the gleanings of the grapes of Ephraim which you enjoy are infinitely better then all the vintage of Abiezer the earnest and first fruits which even now you live spiritually upon Eccle. 1.2 chap. 12.8 do excell and transcend all the glory and vanity of things sublunar or below 1 Cor. 1.26 27 28. and before in Deut. 7.7 And indeed my beloved Disciples consider what moved me and my Father to own you rather then others so undeservedly when wee passed by so many of the great men and nobles of the world to make you vessels of honour and to give you an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you Rom. 9.21 2 Tim. 2.21 1 Pet. 1.4 What am I said David and my Fathers house that I should be son in law to a King 1 Sam. 18.18 whence was it that the mother of my Lord should com unto me Luk. 1.43 sayd Elisabeth to the Virgin Mary Great was the joy in the hearts of the four lepers of the great and besieged city of Samari● 2 Kings 7.3 to the 12. whom the Lord so wonderfully relieved and enlarged Alas all these were but as nut-shells and oyster-shells compared with the mercies of blessed Simeon whose mercies as they be reall celestial and lasting for ever so they do call for reall and angelicall prayses Heavens candidates bee glad at deaths approach thou art next apparent to glory and indeed be thankful for it may bee thou maist bee one of the next souls who may be gloriously ushered in thither nay in a sense thou art in heaven already thy faith is there thy hope is there thy conversation is there while thy eye is fixed on thy Christ there and thou art daily translated from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord Eph. 1.3 and all this is sealed to thee by the Spirit of promise of which more fully afterwards mean while do but open thy eyes and thou canst not but be really thankfull fiducially to see all the prophesies and all the promises to thee accomplished although thou see it but a far off And now that thou maist be thus thankful let me be assistant to thee in four or five directions Direction Luk. 2 14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Study thou poor mortall to praise and magnifie thy God and thy Christ in the highest as the Angells did at the nativity of Christ high mercies do cal for high praises thankfulness may be in carnal earthly men for good turns done them yea and gladness in the beast that receiveth fodder But O thou saved by the Lord thou must act higher even from a principle of Covenant-grace reached out to a lost and dead sinner by the hand of unconceivable mercy procured by the Lord Jesus saving thee so mightily and wonderfully not out of the common store-house of divine providence but out of the Ark of the Covenant or bosom-love of thy Lord Jesus Christ Therefore O blessed soul thy thankfulness must be super-abounding and thy whole soul be poured out in this duty with holy vows and fixed resolutions as that sweet singer of Israel Psal 116. I will love thee I will serve thee Psal 116 I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgivings and I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people in the Courts of the Lords house in the midst of thee O Jerusalem praise ye the Lord Lo what a pattern of high and reall thankfulness is here presented unto gracious Simeons 2. To be more real in our thankfulness for such salvation-mercies as Simeons here was we must look farther then the superficies and out-side of a mercy for as God in his workings of good providence hath a wheel within a wheel so he hath oftimes a mercy within a mercy and when wee are called to such a piece of thankfulness as is here required wee must brighten the souls eye of faith and by the prospective of divine promises covenant-goodness we must dive deep and look far to see if it were possible not onely the hand of mercy stretched forth to us but the very heart of Gods mercy opened to us Genesis 6. compared with 1 Pet. 3.19 nay through that mercy the soul must look on the Lord himself for else we do but see the Ark of preservation as the old world did not the covenant-goodness of God in that Ark nor his Church in that Ark nor his Christ there nor all the saved of the Lord even thy self there spiritually in the heart of God and Jesus Christ you must look into the inside of your mercies else you will but see the bush on fire and it preserved but not the good will of him that dwelt in the bush Exod. 3.2 Deut. 33.16 for one may observe the Lords faithfulness in keeping covenant and promise and not look on Jesus Christ the promoter of the covenant by and with whom the Lord made such a covenant therefore wee must throughly look as well on the in-side of the mercy whence a mercy comes originally on Gods mind aim end as on the mercy it self reached out to us we must look on Gods mind towards us in the mercy how to walk act before him in fom sutableness expectatiō to the mercy we do enjoy to live more holily to worship more devoutly to act faith in Gods al-sufficiency to trust in him more to recumb depend more to be the Lords more entirely thē ever before For as in many mercies there is a good out-side but a better in-side so in the carriages of the people of God there is not only a more out-side-carriage before the Lord but a more intern spiritual cordial acting of a thankful soul to serve the Lord more sincerely more absolutely more graciously and more holily as David not onely throughout the 116 Psalm but also Psalm 42.5 after more experience of the Lord and a farther inspection into his gracious dealing with him hee sayes O my soul trust thou in God for I shal yet give him thanks and praise him for the help of his countenance so vers 11

think that we do give or bee bountifull and good benefactors when we do but our duty and therfore that word which we call alms the word in the Syriack tongue is called Justice Mat. 6.2 When thou doest thy justice which wee read alms because alms is a fruit of justice Vide Alex. Alens de generali Restitutione speciali Satisfactione Parte Quarte Quest 24. membrum per totum but things to bee restored bee a due debt comminicatio ista non est gratuita sed ex justitia debetur Quest What if there be not enough to pay all Answ If the creditors bee equall then pro toto if not then the poor must bee paid the first If there bee not any thing left then bee of a willing mind and leave it upon Gods account beseeching him to bee thy restorer whose is all the earth and the fullness thereof The next thing respects the persons related to a family and so parents and other relations must take care of persons whom they leave behind on whom they are to bestow 1 holy admonition and 2 good counsell 3 with faithfull prayer 1. For admonition so they are to advise and instruct them the best they can how to walk prudently and graciously towards God and men as did Isaac and Jacob Isaac called Jacob unto him and blessed him Gen. 49.1 to 19. when he sent him to Padan Aran to Bethnell So Jacob the father of the twelve Tribes called them all one by one and blessing he blessed them as some of the Rabbins say was the custome of the holy Patriarchs to call their children before them some considerable time before their death to acquaint them with their covenant-interests with the knowledg of pretious and speciall promises to be expected to instruct them in holy aphorismes and good documents of faith and manners so did Moses almost throughout the 33 of Deut. naming the Tribes one by one from the sixth verse to the end so did dying Joshua a little before his end Jos 23.2 call all the tribes of Israell and spake more especially to their elders heads Judges and officers and said unto them v. 3 I am old and stricken in age you have seen all that the Lord hath done unto these nations because of you be ye couragious v. 6. keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses v. 8. 1 Kin. 2.1 and cleave unto the Lord your God and so David called and instructed Solomon his son 2 3 4. charging him to be strong to shew himself a man and to keep the charge of the Lord his God to walk in his ways and to keep his statutes that he may prosper and that the Lord may continue his promising word that he had made to David concerning his son Solomon Let Magistrates Ministers Parents and other relations lay this to heart that good men wise and godly men have made their death-beds to be their pulpits and oratories to prophesie to preach in and to give sweet and wholesome instructions to their relations Quest But why at such a time of pain and sickness and sorrow Answ Not because the work is to be left alone till then though then especially it may not be left undone Not because as some philosophers say the soul upon deaths approach Xenoph. lib. 8. Plat. in apolog is more divine and supernaturally inspired but because at that time the words and wholsome admonitions of a dying Magistrate Minister Father or friend do probably make a deeper impression upon affectionate and religious minds And to let such relations understand the religious care of Godly ancestors that their posterity might do well with such golden legacies and live upon the covenant-goodness of the Lord God of their Fathers Great is the difference between the carnall worldling and the gracious believer the one looks no farther then the temporall good of his relations the other to their spiritual and eternall welfare Like wicked Achitophell peradventure he will put his house in order but without any due regard 2 Sam. 17.23 to his own or their souls such persons may and do oft call their friends children and relations about them as Ishai did in calling forth his sons first coms Eliab then Aminadab then Shammah but David the anointed of the Lord 1 Sam. 16. was called last of all so when death comes near first the Phisition is called for and he comes but his Art cannot deliver from the unsatiable grave next like Ahaziah he is remembred of some God of Ekron some good witch wizard or white devill to enquire of but if he help not in the third place a wise and cunning Lawer is sent for to entail and perpetuate his lands to his lawfull heirs and to help him make his will and to bequeath his moveables to children and friends mean while how sad and comfortless is this dying creature Oh how much is he cumbred about his many things Luk. 10.41 wishing heartily longer life not to grow better but to grow richer lastly when all hope is past then he sends for a Minister one it may be of his own carnal and earthly mind and before him confesseth his sins in the grosse to have been great and many then a●ks God and all the world forgivenesse repeats his good works tells of his keeping his Church of receiving at Easter of his care to pay every one his own of his just and honest dealing with all men he sayes the Lords prayer the Creed and the Ten commandements and if the Minister be one of those daubing flatteres Ezech. 13.10 he magnifies his goodness and happy estate making the poor wretch vainly confident of a very good posture in which to dye praying to God for him to have mercy on his soul and to receive him into his Kingdom and so leaves the deceived soul presuming that Christ saies to him Luk. 23.43 to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise And if he preach his funerall sermon he extolls him for an eminent Saint and well he may for he is well paid for his pains And thus do many wretched sinners leave the world they know not how having it may be feared put nothing in order for an happy death But as for holy admonition sweet and pious counsell how to be prepared to dye happily themselves and to leave their relations under a gracious frame of heart is the least of such mens care who should bee advised first to serve the Lord God and to walk before him with an upright and perfect heart and in their particular callings to serve his providence and glory wirh all integrity in holiness and righteousness all their day Luk. 1.75 The second thing is holy and faithfull prayer of persons neer their end for and in behalf of their relations I shall onely instance in Parents prayers for their children who are to bless them in the name of the Lord as resigning up their

dye I must O my celestiall soul tho halt also great cause to curse thy wretched body for being so ill a servant to thee so pretious a piece of Gods creation in that thou art now affraid to depart at thy great Lords command As the parting of soul body is violent and very sad so more sable shall be their meeting at the resurrection when the sin-accusing conscience shal deliver up soul and body to the righteous judge of quick and dead Act. 10.42 when that judg shal deliver the guilty sinner and the law shall judge and bind him over to death eternall and to hell where the worm dyet not Esa 66.24 Mark 9.43.44 and the fire never goes out but must abide an eternity of weeping howling and gnashing of teeth Pretious Saint far otherwise and ●ull of blisse is the state of every blessed Simeons soul and body in the approach and very article of death when he shall sweetly sing or use this Prosopopoeia or words to the same effect Thou body of mine the God Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be with thee in thy departure in thy death and in thy grave for hee hath shut thine eyes and bound thy jaws and bid thee abide a while in peace bee thou content to sleep in death and to rest in hope on such a bed of roses for er'e long thy dust and clay shall live and thou shalt arise with Christ's blessed body Isa 26.19 thou that dwellest in the dust shalt awake sing for thy dew is as the dew of herbs the earth shal cast out the dead in her And thou my happy soul shalt return a glorified soul to be united for ever to thy incorruptible immortall and glorified body to be joined to the great Congregation in heaven where God Christ and the Spirit and all Angelicall natures shal for ever honour thee and all other glorified ones with that very glory which Christ Jesus had with the Father John 17. before the world was Suffer this exhortation then I beseech you to take hold on your hearts sweetly to submit to your all-wise God and Father even in every state and condition of life and death which I shal amplifie under these three heads 1. Of health 2. Of sickness 3. Of death 1. In our health and prime of our life whil'st green and flourishing like a bay tree must be an holy resignation of our selves into the hands of so good a God Eccl. 12.1 1 Chron. 28. betimes wee must remember our Creator in the days of our youth then we must learn to know the Lord God of our fathers as good David gives in counsell to his young son Solomon and this submission must bee a totall resigning of soul and body to the Lord a lesson not taught in any school below heaven none of the Moralists none of the Philosophers could attain it being onely found in the school of grace which among other things doth teach Psal 34.9 10. Mat. 28. 20. 2 Cor. 12.9 Isai 41.10 Isai 33.16 that no good thing shall be wanting unto such and that bee our condition never so strait yet God and Christ are with us and his grace shall be sufficient for us he will uphold us and help us with the right hand of his righteousness and our amunition is made of rocks in pregnable round about us Isai 27.9 and lastly God will so order all his good providences for us that they shall all work together for our good as Israel's pressures in Egypt Joseph's casting into the pit and twice selling to bee a slave as the rod of Ashur and the furnace of Babylon Now in thy submission to the good pleasure of thy heavenly Father thou must not be over hasty after fruition but with an holy patience must possesse thy soul during thy stay in this world for as thou so those fore-named promises have their set determinations by an unchangeable decree as Noah's time in the Ark Gen. 8. Job 14.14 and Job waits his appointed time all his days and so did Simeon here in the text 2. In sickness wee must submit to the Lord's visitation and say Lord it is thy hand and thy holy wil be done in me upon me I wil use the Physitian a good ordinance of thine but I will recumb in thee alone I will honour the Physitian for my necessity but I do commend my self to thy all-wise dispose who if thou shalt please to add to my days and to piece out my frail life a little longer I will by the assistance of thy grace indeavour to live and to be an instrument of thy praise but shalt thou see it good to end my pilgrimage and to take me home Oh that 's best I will sing Hallelujahs to thee for ever But by the way consider the poor and the Lord will strengthen thee upon the bed of languishing Psal 41.1.3 10. and will make all thy bed in thy sickness and bee mercifull to thee and raise thee and requite thee men may visit thee deceitfully flatteringly speaking good words unto thee and whispering evill in their own bosom and say when shal he dye v. 5. v. 8. and his name perish an evil disease say they cleaveth fast to him and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more but the Lord shall visit thee upon the bed of sickness with a visit speaking pardon of sin peace of conscience thy reconciliation to himself with joy in the holy Ghost even joy unspeakable and full of glory Giving to the poor though it be thy duty Pro. 19.17 yet it is called a lending to the Lord who will repay it with more consideration then the principal it self Thou puttest thine almes into the poor mans hand and the Lord makes thee payment ten thousand-fold into thy heart and soul But least I be thought to digresse this sick man or woman must submit patiently readily unto the gracious hand of the all-wise Lord God and that in the name and worthinesse of his sweet saviour Jesus Christ devoutly praying as David did in the words of faith Psal 71.1 In thee O Lord have I put my trust let me never be put to confusion Deliver me in thy righteousness Correct me not in thine anger O Lord nor rebuke me not in thine indignatiō Jer. 10.24 Psal 6.2 heal me O Lord for my bones are vexed Psal 22.11 Bee not far from me for trouble is nigh at hand lay no more on me then thou shalt give me strength to bear 1 Cor. 10.13 Cast me not away when my strengh faileth mee and so will the Lord answer Because he hath set his love upon me Psal 71.9 therefore will I deliver him I will be with him in trouble Psal 91.14.15.16 I will deliver him and honour him With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation And for thy comfort know who hast a mansion with God that thy God

nevertheless upon his own errand to glut and satiate his pride and ambition verse 7. therefore saith the text he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is in his heart to destroy and out off nations not a few For hee faith are not my Princes altogether Kings Is not Calno as Carchemish is not Hamath as Arpad is not Samaria as Damascus shall I not as I have done into Samaria and her Idols so do to Jerusalem and her Idols c. The like I might say of rayling Rabshakeh and cursing Shimei they intending one thing and God intending another according to the counsell of his own will thus he gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers Isa 42.24 Now as in the days of our life so when we come to dye we must look over our estates and review all our outward things and search narrowly into our receits and in come that whatsoever unrighteousness hath brought in whatever oppression wrong and injustice hath accumulated to our wealth we must charge upon our selves and not only repent before God but make restitution to the parties injured if we know them or else in generall to the Church and poor who are Gods receivers in such cases as did Zacheus Luk. 19.8 behold Lord said that good man in the day of his repentance The half of my goods I give unto the poor and if I have taken any thing from any man by fals accusation I restore him four fold It would bee too long to consider what restitution is who must restore and when yet a word or two very briefly 1. What restitution is Restitution is an act of Justice not arbitrary but necessary as the law provided and as the casuists and civillians do agree 2. Who must restore The deteiner so justice both divine and humane doth require and Gods law stands stil in force upon that soul that doth not his best by repentance and restitution to prevent the Justice of it Many rich men do fill their houses with the spoils of the poor Isa 3.14.15 and prey upon the needy making their advantages out of the poors necessities as many buyers and sellers biting usurers oppressing land-lords who live by an unlawfull calling or unlawfully in their calling Poor wretch how canst thou be ready to dye and put thy house in order Mic 6.10 who hast as Micah speaks the treasures of wickedness in thy house some it may be hundreds some thousands wrapped up in their estates of which if every bird had his feather every other man had his own little or nothing would be thine Oh! this will pinch close one day and gnaw hard upon the consciences of gripulous fists and great gainers who have made too much hast to be rich when in obedience unto divine command they must make restitution before they can truly repent or dye preparedly This is Durus sermo to all sacrilegious Cormorants who devoure the Churches patrimony and do take God's Deo-datum's to themselves Such devourers must make restitution else it will be a snare to devoure holy things 3. When we must restore Answ Speedily as when Abimelech rose early to restore Sara to Abraham Say not come again to morrow Gen. 20.8 Deut. 24.13 when we do repent till when we cannot say we have truly repented the Scripture saith to day before to morrow that is with all due conveniency when thou art setting thy house in order with Z●cheus then set penitentially upon the work Oh! tarry not till death compell thee to part with all because thou couldst not detain them longer The godly wise and holy ancients say no restitution no remission and then no promise of pardon no hope of mercy nor good acceptance of any duty else Who is in a capacity to restore and doth not is out of heavens way If the wicked give again that that hee hath robbed the Prophet saith he shall surely live Ezech. 33.15 and not dot dye therefore in setting thy house in order make restitution least it's want shall make void Jam. 5.1.2 shal curse and blast all the rest God shall cross thy will and deny to bless those goods and lands which thou bequeathest to thy heirs and legators Judas seemed very conscious of this sin Mat. 27.4.5 therefore he quickly brought again the thirty pieces of silver which he had so wickedly gotten but yet Judas could not find pardon then what wil such do who come short of Judas Possibly thou talkest of setling thy estate by gift deed will or otherwise and so committest thy soul to God and thy ill gotten goods into the hands of heirs and executors but be not deceived God will not be mocked such heirs shall not bee the better but the worse and such goods have a curse in them Deut. 28. and shall prove so to the generation that shall come after thee who may truly say 16 17 18. God hath cursed our friends bounty and blessings Mal. 2.2 Object But to salve all somewhat is given to the poor somewhat to the Ministers some boons at the funerall and somewhat to pious uses for ever But all this will not deceive the all-knowing God to steal a pound and give a penny therefore said the Father Dare te put as tollere noli thou think-thou givest when thou first robbest and takest away give saith Austin but be sure thou give of thine own else thou canst not set thy house in good order to dye I have been somewhat longer in this because so many millions of men in our age do in all probability dye desperately in this particular The Lord open the eyes of the living seriously to lay these things to heart 4. To whom restitution is to be made 5. Vpon what account it must be Ans To the persons to whom the wrong is done if he be dead or cannot be heard of then to him or them to whom it shall be due by law Thus Naomi did perform the office of a kinsman unto Ruth she being the next of the posterity of the dead Ruth 3. ver 2. Upon what account must restitution be made Ans Not as alms benevolence or charity but as an act of just restitution Not as a free gift but as a due debt and as that which God calls for which law and conscience calls for to have done as that which is the right of theirs to whom wee make restitution In many cases injuries are so done by the cunning sleight of deceivers by fraud and policy and so would up with deceitfull hearts and sleight of hand and witty contrivances that the laws of nations and common wealths cannot find out means to give every one his own but the all-seeing God knows what is unjustly done though it be in the dark and he looks that in the day of our repentance and preparation to dye blessedly that we make just restitution what possibly wee may And in the day thereof we must not