sure you do not neglect to read and pray by your self morning and evening and labour to mind what you are come into the world for Endeavour to get the Lord for thy God make him the chief of thy joy and delight When thou art to pray or read or hear the Word look upon those services as thy priviledg not as thy task as thy duty and yet as thy dignity that thou maist go to the great God of Heaven and Earth as to a gracious and loving Father in Christ When thou findest thy heart backward to any good duty go to God and beg of him to help thee and quicken thee c. Be cheerful and mind thy duty to God the good Lord bless thee and do thy poor soul good so shall it be well with thee for ever Good Child don't neglect to read and pray c. The Lord bless you and keep you bless your soul with spiritual blessings that you may be still doing something to further your souls good Another of her Daughters she thus bespake Redeem all the time that possible you can to secret prayer and often read the Scriptures which will make you wise to salvation and will afford you pleasure at the last when all things here will fail I shall pray for thee and thy dear Sisters that you may all grow in all the graces of the spirit and may be wrought and made meet for the heavenly glory c. 12. As concerning her care to prepare for the Sabbath and her great love to Gods Ministers Word Preached and Ordinances c. IN preparing for the Sabbath I have then been up when others in the Family where I have been have been in bed Of late by reason of my illness and weakness I have lain sometimes longer on Sabbath-day mornings than ordinary but it hath troubled me and the Reason was because sleeping little in the night I found when I rose earlier I was ready afterwards to be sleepy and more unfit for Gods service But if when I had more time and health and strength I had not been more abundant in the service of God and more earnest after Heaven and the things of Heaven than I can be now my spirit would even sink within me Gods Ministers I love dearly yea so dear are they to me that it does me good to see their faces and I could even fall down and kiss their feet and compel them to come into my house and methinks my house is the better when they have been in it Oh I dearly love them Being when I was in the Country invited on a Lecture-day by an honourable person to Dinner the best feast which I had that day was at the hearing of the Word for I had it made appear to me there that I had made entrance into Heaven and I was so comforted that I could have found in my heart to have fallen down at the Ministers feet and have thanked him It did me good at Dinner to hear him speak c. I have never been better satisfied nor pleas'd than when I have been hearing the Word Preached and meditating on it and conferring with the people of God and praying in secret and hearing counsel and direction for my soul and it has been my prayer as I have been going to hear that God would make out some counsel and instruction or reproof to me and the Lord hath heard me counselled me and comforted me I do so love the word of God it is so sweet to me when I meditate on it and I do so love Gods Ministers and it does so rejoice me to think of Mr. Merrills coming to my House A worthy Minister in the Country deoeased I hope he will come I must say as Lidia to Paul If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord come into my house c. And tell him if I dye I would not have him neglect any more to see such as do so much desire to see him as I do I long to see him c. He is an eminent Minister one who is firm to his principles fears neither mens frowns nor regards their smiles c. He hath been instrumen al of much good and comfort to my soul God was the efficient he the instrument c. I cannot see how the prizing of Gods Word and not to prize Gods Ministers can stand together I am sure I prize both and pray that God would incourage his Ministers Ordinances have been very sweet to me God in and by them hath come to me and met me that I could say with Peter It is good for me to be here And I have thought the time very short I have been hearing the word hath so comforted-me I have gone under trouble but have return'd refreshed Being one day very ill and desiring her to stay at home she answer'd that must be the last place I go to And in a sickness before she said it grieves me I went no longer though she went longer than well she could Oh! how much did she rejoyce and how glad was she to go into the House of the Lord How blessed did she count those who dwelt there Oh! I made account said she to be ready betimes and I shan't get in c. How ready and willing was the spirit when the body was weak I got cold says she by going at such a time to hear but I do not repent for I had a sweet refreshing there blessed be God Thus how lovely amiable and desirable to her were the Tabernacles of the Lord of hosts And how did her soul long yea even saint for his courts I How truly might she say with David Psal 26.8 Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house and the place where thine konour dwelleth and one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to bekold the beauty of the Lord c. And how truly might she call Sabbaths and Ordinances her delight she had there seen God and his face his power and glory his goings in his sanctuary yea Sabbaths were to her as the Subburbs of Heaven Ordinances are not in Heaven but Heaven she hath many a time met with in Ordinances and she drinks but that Wine new now in Heaven which she began to drink in Ordinances here Matt. 26 29. 13. As concerning some further evidences for Heaven I Have a great deal of comfort in this That I am as willing to take Christ for my Lord as for my Saviour and that I desire and endeavour to my utmost to obey him and have heart-risings against sin both in my self and in others and desire to hate and abhor all appearances of sin I have desired to walk before the Lord in uprightness and have walked with God sincerely though not perfectly and I would not offend God nor dishonour him but have desired to glorify him obâ—y him and to be ruled and
governed by him c. In hearing the Word I have been glad of rebukes as well as promises I love all the people of God even those I never saw I am sometimes much troubled for my lukewarmness that I do no more honour God c. but this upholds me I look upon it with grief I would more honour God and do him better service and I dislike it I do no more I have been ready to think sometimes I do not love God because I am no more in communion with God I love thee and delight in thy Company but thus I recover my self That I desire to have more communion with God and I am still lifting up my heart to him and I love those that are his and when nothing else yet love to the Saints stays me We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren c. 1 John 3.14 I shall not change my company though my place but those I delighted in here I shall go to when I dye Having little opportunity of communion with the Saints I was once ready to think if I had more communion with them it may be I should have less communion with God but going abroad God convinced me of the contrary for I found my self much quickned by that Christian communion I had and it made me to delight more in communion with God She was very desirous and sollicitous of Sions welfare the Church of God bore much upon her spirit she much rejoyced she lived to hear of the discovery of the late hellish Plot of the Papists She said she had earnestly prayed that God would discover the plots of his enemies and now he hath heard my prayers and if she said we had but more faith and could but more trust in God it would be better Our sins indeed are great but Gods mercies greater She had still a firm confidence God would bring down his enemies c. Let us pray earnestly and wait patiently and Stons deliverer will appear in due time c. 14. As concerning what it was which comforted her in all her afflictions and in and under all her pains sicknesses and weaknesses 1. Her interest in God THis is my comfort That I have an interest in God who is Allsufficient Unchangeable The God of all comfort and that comforteth those that are cast down He hath said to me I am thine and thou art mine and though I fail he hath made an everlasting Covenant with me and that fails not I am a poor changeable creature but he is unchangeable My flesh and my heart fails but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal 73.26 Creature-comforts fail but God never fails He is my strength and my stay and my all and the little interest I have in God is better than a Kingdom of ease and my God my God in Christ will comfort me I had so much comfort my Dear the other night that I could have found in my heart to have wakened thee to have told thee but that thou wast weary but I can't express it now Asking her what it was wherein she had so much comfort she replied not in any thing here but in God and in Jesus Christ and the things of God c. Thus that the Lord was her God this was to her a choice Cordial and soveraign ground of comfort in all her affliction as it hath been to others as to David Psal 31.14 But I trusted in thee O Lord I said thou art my God c. And Psal 63.1 O God thou art my God c. So Psal 42.5 c. And God himself so propounds it Isa 41.10 Be not dismayed for I am thy God c. And indeed what greater or more soveraign ground of comfort is or can there be than this To have the Lord who is so infinite and allsufficient a God to be our God and what can be wanting where Allsufficiency is He is the very sum and center of all our happiness and good and to have this God our God what ever he is or has ours to be for our comfort and benefit all his excellencies and perfections his Wisdom Power Goodness Mercy c. Surely no greater nor more soveraign ground of comfort can there be for God contains all and that God my God surely all that is truly good and comfortable must needs be wrapt up in this My God it is more than my Kingdom my World my Heaven and Earth yea many Heavens and Earths were they extant This comprehends at once all good and all 's concenter'd here more cannot be said and truly less will not serve our turn In God as in a Crystal fountain is and resides for ever all the refined goodness and sweetness of all the creatures in Heaven and Earth here 's all we want would have or reasonably can desire and therefore this must needs be the very foundation of all true comfort and consolation and this was that which was in a special manner the comfort and support of this preciâ—ous soul She often would say My God my God And except he be our God the greater good he is the greater is our misery Tolle meum tolle Deum Take away my and take away God as to comsort And surely therefore if there be any thing under Heaven truly worthy our labouring after and laying out our utmost endeavours for it is this the getting upon good grounds sound evidence to our souls that God is ours 2. The Love of God in Christ his loving-kindness and the assurance thereof Oh! the meditation and contemplation of the love of God in Christ it is the sweetest Cordial and hath amidst all my pains been my Cordial day and night And she told a friend that came to see her That was it not that she had a comfortable assurance of Gods love to her in Christ she could not tell how to bear up under one of those pains which indeed were very sharp but the contemplation of that made her bear up under all Oh there are heights and depths and lengths and breadths in the love of God in Christ It passes knowledg Ephes 3.18 19. And eternity will be little enough to praise God and that which exceedingly comforts me is the everlastingness of that love that he will never take away his loving-kindness from me Once formerly after long trouble God gave me a glimpse of his love and though I was very sick and weak and could neither stand nor go yet then methoughts I was not sick I did not feel it c. Being asked if she would have some Cordial she replied Oh! the favour of God is the best Cordial Better than Life Psal 63 3. Oh! pray I may be more and more reconciled to God and have clearer evidences he is my God Another time being very faint and asked what she would have she replied more of Gods favour and to do his will I have so rejoyced in Gods goodness that I
do that thou maist hold out the longer The loss and hindrance I have been to my family she meant by reason of her long sickness the Lord will make it up to thee and thy Children do but trust in him c. The Lord will direct thee what to do do not trouble thy self beforehand he will make thy way plain before thee She spake to those about her as followeth Make Religion your business walk with God get a Covenant-interest in Christ do not neglect secret prayer I have found much comfort in it prize the Word by which you may be saved hear it as often as possibly you can and hear it and do it Live comfortably and contentedly together It is good to store up Cordials and make provision against times of affliction To give all diligence to make our calling and election sure and we had need in times of health to provide for sickness and death and all little enough It is one thing to talk of death and another thing to be willing to dye c. I would have you all bless God when I am gone that I shall sin no more sorrow no more c. She said to one of her Grandchildren about four years old poor Child the Lord give thee a Covenant-interest in himself If I live I purpose to do my endeavour to teach thee to know God and love God and Jesus Christ but if I dye Sirs do you take care and let him not play on Sabbath-days let all his play-things behind c. To her Daughters Maid she said be instructing these poor Children learn them good things c. the Lord has a blessing in store for my Children and the little ones One of her Daughters being out of the Town and supposing she should see her no more Tell her says she I hope God will carry on the work he has begun and give her grace to fear him c. I would have her labour to get that good work finished and to eye God in all his dealings and to do his will to ask counsel of God for body and soul for temporal and spiritual affairs and let her trust in God Take heed c. God expects we should follow some employment here and not to fall upon business causes to grow melancholly and discontented there are many snares in living out of a calling An idle life is pleasing to the flesh to take no care nor pains but it will be sad afterward c. my dear Husband my dear Children but I can't speak now c. She prayed earnestly for her Husband Children little ones and for Gods Ministers c. I pray all the blessings of Heaven may be upon thee upon soul and body and that he would make up the want of all Relations by himself The Lord bless thee the Lord bless thee out of Sion and recompence all thy love to me a thousand-fold with his tender compassions The Lord prosper thee in the work of thy Ministry that thou maist win many souls to him The Lord make my Children truly gracious and comforts to thee The Lord give them grace and the shinings of his face and that will be better than the life of a Mother The Lord carry my Daughter Shayter who was then near her time through her great work and bless thee my Son and make my Daughter a blessing to thee and the Lord bless the little one and make it an Heir of Heaven one of Christs Lambs I leave my blessing and prayers for the little ones and you all One of her Grandchildren coming to her she said to him Farwell my Lamb my dear Lamb farwell farwell the Lord make thee a comfort to thy Mother And one of her Daughters being near her she prayed the Lord bless thee out of Sion and give thee an everlasting Covenant-interest in himself c. She prayed for Gods Ministers That he would spare their lives incourage them and bless their labours c. More particularly for Dr. Jacomb That God would bless him and his ministry and recompence all the good he had done her she much desired to see him once again who coming to her and praying with her his praiers and presence were very refreshing to her Towards her end she grew somewhat light-headed but still had excellent expressions and spake sensibly of God and the things of God she often cryed O my God O my God pity me O my God help me for thy mercies and compassious sake Remember me O my God how long yet O my God have mercy on me c. The day of my redemption draws nigh and I am now near home my God help me help faith c. The fear of death is taken away blessed be God and the Lord does comfort me and I am comforted within and am glad I am going home c. She spake a great deal more but we could not now well understand what she said Now the doors began to be shut in the streets as Solomon speaks how good is it to open them to purpose whiles we may and the daughters of musick to be brought low and those that look out of the windows to be darkned because she was near to her long home but blessed be God not an everlasting home December 13. she was under great pains and groan'd much and spake little neither could what she spake be understood but she often fixed her eyes stedfastly towards Heaven for some time together Afterward going to prayer by her and begging of God if he saw it good to release her c. she lift up her eyes and one of her hands toward Heaven and the other hand being in one of her Daughters hands she pluck'd it out and lift up that also both eyes and hands with great earnestness and intenseness unto Heaven where her soul was now near entring I was with her that night till about twelve or one of the Clock and not knowing how to bear it to stay with her any longer I then went with a sad heart away from her not expecting to see her here any more alive but blessed be God I enjoyed her so long so truly pious prudent loving tender careful saithful and dearly affectionate Wife but though I departed from her I left her with him whose Angels were now waiting ready to transport her soul into the bosom of her blessed Redeemer But one of her Daughters remained still with her to the last which was not long after I was gone away her Daughter could not get her spirit willing at first to promise to bless God if he would take her to himself But when God had once brought her to be willing she soon after about two a Clock in the morning December 14 1678 expired and went triumphingly to Heaven an entrance being ministred to her abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of her dear Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ And thus she is now entred into peace and is taken away and secured from the evil to come she is passed from
greater blessing to my Relations and to get clearer evidences for Heaven c. So tender was she of the honour of God that when says she carnal people come to see me though I am ill and weak yet I strive all I can then to bear up and to be cheerful for why should they think the God of Israel is not a good God c I am willing to live if I may honour my God more and do him better service and receive more good then I desire he would spare me c. but if he please not to prolong my life I desire to submit to his Will I am afraid lest I should dishonour him by thinking my time long c. Where she lived before there being an Ale-house at next door where God was much dishonoured and his Name blasphemed it was a very great trouble and affliction to her and when she was removed though by reason of her great weakness and illness it was not without much danger and difficulty she very much rejoyced that now she should not dye among swearers and blasphemers O says she that we could more and more depend upon our good God and honour him more in a way of believing who hath manifested himself a God so ready to help and deliver his poor Servants in the time of their streights O that I could more and more honour him and it is the grief of my soul when any distrustful thoughts do arise and my great fear is lest I should dishonour God either by distrust or impatiency When thou art absent I want thy company but yet am contented may it be for Gods Glory and then it will be for our mutual good c. 6. As concerning her thankfulness and her being much in blessing and praising God ALways when I awake the first word I say is Blessed be God if I be at ease I bless him and if in pain I bless him it is no worse and I find much comfort in blessing of God and trusting in him And if God sees it good I should yet live I would live to praise him and speak good of his name I bless God he helps me to bear what he lays upon me I bless God my pains are not so great to day as they have been now my strength is less Dost not thou see God is making my passage ea sie I bless God Blessed be the Lord for ever that he will take such pains with such a poor worm to fit me for Heaven He is a God at hand and not a far off neither hath been as a stranger he hath given me much patience and quiet submission to his Will all along to him be the glory thereof When I am in great extremity and never a part free yet blessed be God he lays no more on me then he inables me to bear I bless God I find much comfort in my soul which does much support me Fearing she might too much waste her spirits with speaking I desired her to forbear but I cannot said she but speak good of my God whiles I can speak When I am gone though God should bring further affliction upon thee and thy family yet be thankful whatever you do be thankful Being one night under grievous pains she quietly resign'd her self up to God saying if he please to give me rest I will thank him if not I will submit to him That night prov'd a comfortable night to her c. She would often have that expression I desire to bless our good God and to be very thankful to our good God that word good God she often had and what do I do complaining when I have enjoyed so much health c. But it was not much she ever injoyed but a little is much to a truly thankful heart who looks upon it self as never deserving the good it receives but more than deserving the evil it suffers and he also turning that unto good Thus that which is her whole work now in Heaven was much her work here on Earth to be blessing and praising and giving thanks to God and that in every thing even when God was sharply afflicting her She had her Psalms of praise in the wilderness her songs in the night What then has she now in that inheritance of the Saints in light She glorified God in the fires Isa 25.15 That is in and under great afflictions What does she now in that place of refreshings Those Angels and heavenly Heroes about the Throne whom she is now praising and singing Hallelujah's with in Heaven she much conformed to even here on Earth here below and now she is wholly taken up with that blessed delightful work above where it is Hallelujah and again Hallelujah Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever Amen Rev. 5.13 7. As concerning her weanedness from the World I am leaving this pitiful poor world this low valley the Lord hath weaned me from the things here below I could not say what it was I delighted in here but my delight was in God and in his sweet Word c. When I lived in the Countrey the Casement being one day open I was â—ooking into the Garden and I thought thus with my self Many they much delight in Gardens and Flowers c. but methinks I have no delight in these nor in any outward thing though the most I have had in any outward thing hath been in Gardens and to walk in the Fields Trouble me no more with these things I am now leaving all here below let me only mind now how to get to that heavenly Sion above c. I am seeking a City to come an habitation with God in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right band are pleasures for evermore Psal 16.11 Thus her way was above and she was still looking not at the things which are seen which are temporal but at the things which are not seen which are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 By faith she overcame the world and was carried after higher and better things even those things hoped for and not seen which Faith is the substance and evidence of Heb. 11.1 These things were poor mean low vile things to her better being discovered even spiritual heavenly and eternal the things within the vail She was cloth'd with the Sun had true faith in Christ the Sun of righteousness with which she was adorn'd and now the Moon the World and all the mutable things thereof are under her feet and she treads on the worlds trash c. 8. As concerning her Humility Meekness Lowly-mindedness Charity c. I Am a dry stick a worm a poor worm a poor worthless worm I have nothing but in Christ I have all And his yoke she had taken upon her Matt. 11.29 and learn'd of him the lesson of meekness and lowly-mindedness There is says she a little Gold and a great deal of Dross Hearing how ill another was what am
earth to Heaven and is departed out of this world to the father She has left these bottoms of death and this low valley of misery and tears and is now gotten to those regions of joy and triumph to those mountains of myrrhe and hills of frankincense those mountains of spices or sweetnesses which are cloathed with everlasting joys and delights and on whose wealthy brows nothing ever springs but life and glory and where never any clouds or storms do once ever arise interpose or interrupt where like a thirsty Roe or Hart she was still aspiring and panting to be and where now she is got and where we leave her even there where is nothing but rest and light and love and delights and fulness of joys and crowns of life and glory perfect peace and pleasures for evermore incense praises and hallelujahs to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Amen And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me Write blessed are the dead which dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14.13 Favour is deceitful and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised Prov. 31.30 Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates Prov. 31.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pro Rosis deciduis coronam immarescibilem Death puf'd this light and its earths banish'd flame Flew up to Heaven and as a Sun became Soli Deo gloria in eternum Some Breathings upon the Decease of Mrs. Luce Perrot December 14 1678. O What a change hath this bless'd morning made To thee bless'd soul who now hast past deaths shade Now no more sorrows pains nor doleful cries But all tears quite are wiped from thine eyes How much afflicted in this vale of Tears But how refreshed now above the Sphears Thy way unto thy Fathers House was rough But now thou hast got thither 't is enough Thy stormy passage now thou art arriv'd At Heavens bless'd Haven makes but more reviv'd Thy pains and ails with which thou wast so prest Do now but so much more sweeten thy rest And though some months yea years they did extend One moment now in Heaven doth make amends And now that thou hast gotten to thy Lot Of bliss assign'd thee they are all forgot Thy pains thy conflicts combats here were many But now thou know'st not what belongs to any But of thy sorrows all thou hast release And now thy Soul is fill'd with blissful peace In bottoms here of death thou did'st reside But now the Spicy Mountains thee abide Thus every way thy change is for the best For Grace 't is Glory and for Labour Rest Thy sins now past and all thy sorrows gone And nevermore thou shalt experience one Thy faith and patience now are at an end Which though long exercis'd did still exten Faith now is turn'd into fruition Into possession expectation Thy Cabinet's dissolv'd thy Jewel 's gone To Heaven and there made up a glorious one Thy earthly house is fall'n that down doth lye But thy Soul 's mounted far above the Sky To th' highest Heaven where true felicity And Glory do it cloath eternally Thou long since weaned wast from all things here And now th' hast got where thy delights still were Thy earnest pantings longings for to be With Christ now fully satisfied hath he Sabbaths below how greatly did'st thou love And one eternal now thou keep'st above Thou feard'st not Death that Messenger so grim But saidst I can I bless God smile on him Yea though so grim sweet Messenger didst call And saidst if come thou 'dst welcome him withal And being so far onward in thy way How troubled wast to hear of further stay Is this saidst thou the night I must depart Oh! with what joy would such news fill my heart Lord Jesus come come Lord come speedily Make hast make hast How oft was this thy cry And when wilt come my God oh hasten thee And Charets of Aminidab like be Of Death I am no more afraid at all Than for to take the choicest Cordial Which is to do me good and Death doth so For through it and beyond it look I do And of my Burial-cloaths more joyfully Than of my Wedding-cloaths discourse can I. My Burial-cloaths My Wedding-cloaths they are And now my blessed Bridegroom is not far Farwel vain world for so I judg'd of thee And never other found thee for to be And that which others so much doted on As poor and pitiful I look'd upon My joys delights were higher fix'd above On God on Christ on 's Word and on his Love His Ways his Ordinances where to be One day than Thousands better was to me Oh! how dejected have I thither gone But how refreshed have returned home Bless'd Soul to thee Christ was to live the main And Death it self is now become thy gain Here he upheld thee in integrity Now sets before his face eternally Here with his counsels guided thou would'st be And thee to Glory now receiv'd hath he And though thy body left behind is here T is but to sow and when Christ shall appear Glorious shall rise and joyn'd unto again Thy Soul thou ever with him shalt remain And in thy flesh then for thy self shallt see God and thine eyes behold eternally THE EPITAPH THE Body here of her interr'd doth lye Who was a pattern of true piety Submissive humble meek and patient Grace and sweet nature in her eminent A loving faithful careful Wise also A Mother such her Children dear unto FINIS