to the best of our power and who can do too much for him who is all and will be all for ever He gives us all we have and though we can give nothing to him yet he accepts of what we give to any so it be for his Honour and the highest Honour on Earth is to be good and extensively doing good like the Air. 'T is but a little while at best that we can work and it may be you and the great good Ladies of that Family will never have such an opportunity to help erect a thing that may last perhaps to the last period of time and be so long for the Honour of your Noble Sex and Family also and therefore pray despise not the day of small things nor this good design Most Great and Right Honourable Countess AS your Noble Name and Title is beloved by all some for worth in that brave Warrier who yet lost his head in the daies of Queen Elizabeth and others for that brave Knight your Father who lost his in the late times for Loyalty to his Prince both which will hardly be forgotten and especially whilst your Lord continues as he does to do all good and good Offices for his King and Country may such Peers flourish and be as they are indeed Pillars of our Nation which do bear up Prince and Peoples Happiness and Honour And for this may Children love you yea Children yet unborn will when they come to know the worth of our Religion which if lost our Bodies would be all slaves and our Souls in danger to be damned for ever by Antichristian Errours O Madam who can love enough whilst he loves his Country so exceeding well and the Protestant Interest also May you yours and himself all long live live for us for our Prince and Nation once a Terrour unto others but especially for himself and true Happiness for to live to God is best of all We may live to our selves and Fortunes our King and Country forget Heaven and so be lost and miserable to Eternity which will be Heaven when all is done and no home is like that and he that made it for his favour is better than life it self and may that favour which he bears to his Chosen ones be to you and yours also yea may you all see the good of his Inheritage and be blessed in Soul and Body with all your Right Noble Issue here and hereafter pray every one of us Most Great and Right Noble Countess SAies the Lord I have set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem that shall never hold their peace day nor night Your brave Lord most Noble Madam may be said to be the same if ever faithful warning was given to a Prince and Nation of dangers near and Counsels to prevent even at the brink your Lord hath certainly done it with strength of Wisdom Zeal and Boldness that never man spake better And now what shall we say of this our great Nations Seer that loves Scotland England Ireland and the Protestant Interest all the world over it being extensive like the Truth it self and the holy Gospel who can love more than every place where it is professed or preserve Liberty and Interest our only Jewels better than strongly to oppose all enemies for which may his Noble Name and Memory live and his Lordship sit as long as ever States-man served a Prince and for his Zeal to Prince and People let both love him and the Love of God dwell in him the blood of Christ be his Laver and when ever his great Soul shall leave this little lower sinful World let the holy Angels guard him and our Lord Jesus Christ personally present him to the Father to sing the high praises of God and the Lamb to all Eternity And when any of his near and Noble Family and Race have served their Generations and fallen asleep may they do the same and so successively to the World's end pray we Poor Hospital Boys Right Honourable and Noble Countess SOlomon tells us Wisdom is the principal thing and if it be as it is most deservedly accounted an excellent piece of Wisdom to know all the Laws and Statutes of a Nation What is it then to know the Laws and Statutes of Heaven the Will and Pleasure of the great and mighty Monarch Lord God of Heaven and Earth which your Lord yet doth Surely this must needs make him to be a great Figure and a great Statesman in this our Kingdom And may many many such States-men be to Rule and Govern the Great People of this Nation under our most excellent and good natur'd Prince And may their Wisdom be ever hearkened to and their hearts be zealous for his Greatness and all the Peoples Interest for he that serveth both shall never miscarry to his Honour and the wisest Ones Applause May your Lord steer in this Chanel miss all Rocks especially what may hurt his Soul live to his God and himself as well as his Prince and Country for Eternity is a long thing and may he you and all your Noble Issue be ever happy in it Pray one and all we Hospital-Boys Right Honourable Madam MAny and great have the Changes been which your Ladiship have known but this is certain there is a great and unchangeable good God who lives for ever and because he is so therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Madam 't is this God and his Love we must stick to for nothing else will do us long good all things fail and fade set that aside the fairest Beauty and the sweetest Rose the richest Garment with the greatest Wealth and Honour will be left on Earth to die like other things but the Living God and the Living Word Jesus Christ who lives with and by the Father shall abide for ever Joh. 6. v. 57. And whosoever believes in him shall never dye c. 11. v. 26. Oh Madam may you so live live for ever with the Son and his Saints in the Kingdom of the Father to drink of the new Wine namely his Love which he speaks of Oh! 't is that that must be our portion if we have any thing worth the speaking of What 's the fluttering up and down the world or the Enjoyment of the world with all Accommodations in and Applauses of it if we lose our Souls as Christ speaks what shall it profit us That 's a Jem or inestimable Jewel never to be Rated but in Eternity it comes next of all to God and Christ it 's immortal ever living and shall never die if sin does not hurt it nothing can God Almighty make Christ to be our Righteousness both in Life Death and Eternity and that we may know this his Righteousness which is nigh and this Salvation which he so often and affectionately calls upon us for to mind saying Hearken hearken unto me my People Give ear unto me oh my Nation This my is a sweet word Scripture myes and Scripture ours are all so Oh!
Madam THis is certain That the Sun Moon and Stars in some sense do not more adorn the Heavens than good Lives good Doctrine and good Works do Religion and if any Religion in the world be more inward spiritual and heavenly than others surely it is the Doctrine of our true reformed Protestant Religion which lies not in Shews and Ceremonies but in Love to God and all that bears his Image which we Poor Children cannot yet be said to do whilst Poor and altogether ignorant of our selves and Maker and such are We And all We which do humbly present our selves as Objects to your Honour's Charity And yet if We or some of Us by God's Blessing good Discipline Catechizing and Preaching shall be brought to know our selves and the Lord Jesus Christ as well as to get our Bread and be put forth into a hard World to live another day then our Advantage will be great and your Satisfaction also because your Bounty has contributed to this good Work and because 't is a good Work 't was very unfit your Honour should be left out in the least For your Good and Noble Lord has ever still been in as we hope he will when Religion Liberty or the Civil Interest of the Nation has been at stake in the least as a bold and brave Champion for his King and Country yea the three Kingdoms for which God Almighty bless all and every Branch of Ye And may your Names be in the Memory of our Nation your own Country as it is Yea the Lamb's Book of Life especially for all out of that will be everlastingly cast into the Lake that burns for ever Rev. 20. 15. God Almighty bless us all with the Power of Religion that we may yet have an abundant Entrance into his everlasting Kingdom To whom be Power Glory and Dominion world without end Amen Amen Right Honourable and Good Madam THE Great God and his Goodness having made you and your Lord not only Noble and Great in Quality but Good and Gracious in Disposition loving Humility and Religion which teaches the right way to Life and Happiness as it is most full and plainly revealed in the holy blessed Writ and Word of God the which may ever dwell in your hearts to shine in your Lives as it does Oh! when Lords and Ladies fear the Lord God Almighty that made Heaven Earth Sun and Seas they do abundantly add to their own Honour and praise their Creator too May you both so do love him and live to him who is all and will be all for ever And may he dwell in your hearts by faith establish root and fix you both in himself Giving you to know taste and comprehend with all Saints what is the heighth breadth length and depth of his grace and to know the Love which is unsearchable and passeth knowledge and be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3. 17 18 19. Yea may the young Lord your Son grow as a Lilly be as a Vine that runs over the wall and in time root as a Cedar to be tall in the Nation and may many Branches be his Portion yea all the Blessings of Joseph or everlasting Hills come upon his head to be as a fruitful Bough and Blessing to your Family Gen 49. 25 26 27. Yea may you both live to see all this and our poor divided Nation flourish yea our little School live and thrive which is a thing near where your Honours have been sometime past taking a little Air and will be for God's Honour if it flourish and be well disciplined which is sweet and good and Charity wholsom also and therefore pray Madam let us tast a little of your Bounteous Goodness for we have nothing else to live upon nor no such Noble Good Protestant person as your self to help us that is near and therefore pray good Madam do something for us and our School which stands so full or near in your Eye And we will never cease to beg the best of blessings in Heaven or Earth to be on you and yours Most Noble WE the great English Ladies Charity School-house of High-gate which are yet but in our Infancy as it were do with all humility adore you the virtuous Maiden-Ladies of that high or mighty State or Common-wealths Embassador being desirous that your and only your most Noble Names and Charity be Rolled and Registred with the Ladies of our Nation For as Queen Elizabeth of happy memory did love you more than any so We and the People of this Nation in general do wish to You above all the Common-wealths in the world great Prosperity and Peace and may never more unhappy breach be or drop of blood spilt by any enemy whatever but may your Ships and ours be as the mighty Ships of Tarshish to carry in and out the Treasures of the world to the Church of God or the people of the world which do favour them and all your Guns and ours be as Brazen walls to defend both and Truth from Falshood or at least our Habitations and Enjoyments and from this Union may the Children of men and the Christian world suck the Consolation of Peace and Quiet if they will be quiet and then we Poor Hospital-Boys will never bow nor beg of any Foreign Prince or States Embassador in the world set your most Honourable Ladiship 's Father aside but yours we naturally love and your great Figures and Names we would all fain beg to be visible in our Charity School for all Ages to come May it please your Honour most Good and Great Lady AS we have presumed to petition the She Princess of this world or the great Ladies of this Nation to be charitable unto us so we most humbly do your Honour also presuming a Figure of your making in the Ladies Roll must needs be like your self Great and therefore the good God and his Son from Heaven bless you and your Sir Henry make you still to love your King and Country as you really do and live for the Kingdom of Heaven To love your King is to love him in his Person Power and Just Prerogative to love him in all the good he doth his People your Country yea the whole Nation Prince and People's Happiness is much bound up in God both in living unto him and therefore Heaven must still be at the end of our living and the end of our dying for then Eternity comes to be a serious thing Sharp quick and great Wits have ever sooner or later found the Power of Religion Everlastingness makes time and action short here and in that we shall have time enough to look back read over past things Great Actions will be there greatly influenced by it and for little ones of this nature they cannot trouble either mind or thoughts in another world being so warrantable as they are and commendable too Lord what am I whence came I whither go I so fast away and yet the Nation lies at stake
would give for the fancy of the Roll and Charity-stick and that she never saw the like and did wonder how any body would speak against the design of it My Lady such a one said She would give to bind some out or send one or two to be Poor Scholars in Cambridge or else to a Sea Captain to learn Navigation and get her Lord if she could to give the Quit-Rent of one or two Houses yearly saying It was no more than the Hawks-man cost him or else she would spare one Point of Venice but the thing should go forward Another Lady Warwick And for the six or seven Citizens Ladies we intend to go to we do verily believe they will give pretty well because they are the chiefest in all London and eminently good My Lady such a one cryed By her Troth she would give nothing at all for she had waies enough for her money But the next said She would give so much for five or six stone of Beef every Week and which of these is most like to Repent when they come to die and go into another World Then my Lady such a one said She would give for Bread and Beer between this and January come Twelve-month and others promise for their Cloathing But we have abundance of waies and objects for our Charity Ay said a fine young Lady it is the better for us we have abundance of Masses many Joints Toes Feet Fingers some Excuses all should do something in order to another World where we must be for ever 't is good to send a little before-hand Faith laies out for Christ and up for self but builds not upon works in the least that is Hay Sand Straw Stubble but Christ a Rock for ever and we should be glad to do any thing for his Honour who Loved Lived and Died for us and still maketh Intercession for us to the Father And now good Ladies and Gentlewomen We humbly pray that all your Charity be ready about Whitsuntide or Midsummer next at the furthest or sent in to the Worshipful Mr. Henry Cornish of Blackwell-Hall Merchant next door to the Gate whom we have one and all Prayed and Petitioned to be our only Interceder Receiver and Chief Treasurer for Life to all you much Honourable Ladies and Gentlewomen of the famous mighty well-beloved City of London or other places round about or else to William Blake of Covent-Garden Woollen Draper at the end of Maiden-Lane in Bedford-Street at the Sign of the Golden-Boy who will likewise take the same care to see it fairly Registred for the Honour of your Families or wait upon your Honours with the Clerk to give you further satisfaction in any particular when you please to command it THE Noble Marquess Galliaces's Sufferings for the Truth was famous through the World your Lord 's embracing of it makes his Marquisdom more great and may that Truth which our true Protestant Religion teacheth be for ever in and among your Noble Family may all the Branches of it flourish as Palms and Cedars be all as green Bays in the Courts of God's own House may the young Lord and his Noble Lady and that great Mass of old Gold be dedicated to the Lord that made Heaven and Earth and all their Blessings be sprinkled with a Blessing from above which may be as the Dew and Rain to the new-mown Grass to make you all fruitful in the waies of God loving him for himself and his Son for ever and all Good works because they are so And this amongst many we humbly beg your most Great and Honourable Family to abound in And that as at the Dedicating of the Tabernacle Exod. 35. 22. every one brought something so at the Rearing of this our Charity School-house one half handful of these Broad-pieces may be slung in as a Free-will Offering to the Lord who will then sanctifie all that great Lump or Heap besides and bless you all as he did the Seed of his Beloved Israel of Old and that he may so do we shall in our station as Poor Hospital ones ever pray Most Honourable and Great Lady THE Bounty of your Noble Deceased Mother the Lady Marchioness and great Hospitality of the Marquess your Father to the Poor of this Town as well as other places which has been and still is and was before we or any of us were born to our Poor Parents now Widows and Widowers many of them of which Bounty we having largly tasted obliges us and all of us humbly to acknowledge your great Goodness and the Charity of your Family the only Noble one near our School wherefore Dear Madam we most humbly beg leave of your Goodness to present one of our Charity School-house Sticks or Letter to your Ladiship and do promise one and all never to forget nor cease to pray for long Life and Eternal Happiness through our Lord Jesus Christ to your most Noble Ladiship and the Marquess also May it please you most Great and Noble Lady YOur Gentleman says That your Honour fears the Yearly Charge of the Ladies Little Charity-School will in time bring Ruine to my Family if not look't into I return a thousand humble thanks for this most kind Caution but I cannot in the least believe those good and Noble Ladies whom I ever intended believed and have Dedicated this unto will ever suffer such an inferiour mean and little person to sink under the Burden of so good and great a Work tending to their own Honour and the Honour of Religion which will be a good Work if half the World should oppose it because 't is not only commended but commanded in holy Writ to do all the good we can whilst opportunity lasts for at Death no man repents of being or doing good nor never will whilst the World stands but thousands for their not doing have complained how they have lost their time and a very great one of this Nation said Man's only Happiness lies in being good and at leizure doing good imitating the glorious Sun and Air yea the best Saints and Angels and God himself who is good to all and all his Works Oh Madam how sweet and cheering are these Beams to every Creature and that Air too through which they spread and send themselves to us below who have yet holy Angels to guard us as well as the blessed Writ and those good examples in it for to guide us in our Charity which does every where commend the poor Widow and Fatherless Children to us as the truest objects of it these being really such and you a very Great Noble and Pious Countess abounding in all manner of Mercies Honour and Plenty enough a large considerable Off-spring as young and tall Plants and Cedars to stand on high ground flourish as Bays and Bay-Trees in the True Church of God as well as in this happy Nation the most happy yet in all the known World and a Lord and Husband of a Thousand to Crown all these many Mercies
of God 1 Tim. 6. 11. fly these things and Covetousness Fight the good fight of Faith Lay hold of Eternal Life And witness a good Confession as Christ did v. 12 13. I have done it I have done it sayes Paul and there is laid up for me a Crown of Life and that is Life indeed 2 Tim. 4. 8. Temporal Life flies away but Eternal Life never ends and Charity leads to that under Christ Oh! let 's not want that which leads to him who is all and will be all for ever Gal 3. 11. Other things will fail but Christ will never fail if we be his and he ours Oh! get a never-failing Christ to be your God and Guide Lord and Master now If all the Princes Kings and Queens in the world had but one Lord and Master as they have not in a strict sense to whom Account at last must be given would they or should they not love him I am sure all the Ladies in the world have but one Lord at last to trust to Oh! love him now that he may love you in a dying hour and save you then when you and the world must part and part you must for ever but then to be for ever with the Lord of Lords the Lord of Life and Glory 1 Thes 4. 17. And where he is to be also there according to his last prayer Joh. 17. 24. Oh! how happy will that be and may this happiness be the portion of your Honour and all your Honour 's sweet and lovely Children too but that can never be unless you love and live to him embrace and chuse him as the Chiefest Good Be wise then O ye Honourable of the Earth Lords Ladies and others Psal 2. 10. If ye were a thousand times more Noble Rich and Bountiful than ye are yet yet you will all certainly perish if you do not stoop if you do not bend to him to whom every knee must bend Psal 2. 12. what will become of you Lords Ladies and others you have but one true friend in Heaven and Earth and that is the good God and our good Lord Jesus and if ye do whatsoever he has bid you he will love you to the end of Time and Eternity too if that could be supposed to have any but that is without end sayes a great Father and clasps in all times and things that ever were or shall be but this you may easily suppose none but he can Creatures dye and the love of Creatures but the Love of God abides for ever 1 Joh. 2. 17. 1 Cor. 7. 31. And the Blood of Christ sticks by us in a dying hour yea 't is the only thing that sticks by us as great Lord Strafford said and if you great Ladies would wash in that it would make you whiter than the Snow Wash me sayes David Psal 5. 1. v. 52. Oh! ye had all need wash and pray David's prayer Lords Ladies and others but especially to you great Ladies do we commend and beg these few lines may be accepted 'T is not for your Charity alone but good as well as Charity that we thus plead Gold and Silver is but little worth to us or our School in comparison of God and Christ Oh! look to him that ye be not undone at last when ye should be happy yea utterly undone once in Hell and never out once in Hell and utterly undone other losses may be gained but Heaven can never be gained if once lost Ye weep for Love and weep for Honours weep for Frowns and weep for Friends many times but how will ye weep sayes Christ if such a thing should happen which God forbid namely that some or many of you great Ladies should ever see great sinners and little we mean mean sinners in respect of you Noble Ones that shall come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South Luk. 17. v. 22. and from places where Preaching has never been and yet these sinners shall sit down with Abraham with Isaac and Jacob Luke 13. 28. and you great Ladies should be shut out as Christ speaks into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for evermore Weep to think that weeping avails not We suppose it a vain story that the Queen of Carthage wept for Aeneas but 't is true Divinity that the Lord of Glory wept for the Jews saying Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen would have gathered her Chickens Matth. 23. 37. But oh who can or will weep for you if you should once miscarry in the daies of Eternity Nay there will be no day if that night once overtake you John 9. 4. But you will long and long and lose your longing for a Gospel day can never come when 't is once finally lost Now as we would beg from you so we would beg for you that you would mind whilst you may and work whilst you may for the night cometh wherein no man can work John 9. 3. And if indeed you would work for your Souls God and another world first make Christ and his Love the ground of all your Joys and Sorrows for the future Christ is a true Foundation and others can no man lay 1 Cor. 3. 11. Honours Riches Smiles Favours with all the Mirth Musick and Embraces in the world are but Toyes to a soaring Soul Yea I have experienced it said a great Lady If you would soar aloft as the lofty Eagle flies then fly away in your Soul's Loves Joys and Pleasures to a heavenly Object and a heavenly Christ yea Christ in Heaven who sits there and ever lives to make continual Intercession for such sinners as come unto him Rom. 8. 34. Madam as we would beg heartily so we would deal plainly with your Honours and your Noble Sex do rather need more plain dealing than any others in the world for all things seem to smile and flatter you and will till you be in Hell if you have not a care the greatness of your Birth Beauty Train Fortune and Relations yea some of your own Chaplains deal not so faithfully with you as they should many times but wink at sin say little When Dives was in Hell he would fain have sent to his kindred then on Earth to forewarn them Luk. 16. 24. but who almost of a thousand gives you half that timely warning that you should have to look after Heaven and the God of Heaven which will be a lasting Good for ever and ever Oh Madam home is home as we use to say but there is no home like to Heaven and he that made that will ye mind whilst ye may and live whilst ye may for Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens I mean the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the God of all Glory as the Apostle calls him I repent of all the hours I ever spent in my life said Sir Thomas Mason save what I spent in communion with God And that man
you be his servants you shall sing and others shall weep grieve and mourn Isa 65. 14. You shall drink and others shall be thirsty The Heavens declare his wondrous work saith the Psalmist and the Earth is full of his Goodness Psal 8. 1. And will you be full of Sin Enmity and Folly Oh! God forbid that such lovely Creatures as many of you young Lords and Ladies be should be full of sin Sin is an evil an evil Disease in the Soul and to the Soul it kills it worse than Leprosie to Eternity if Christ do not save it Oh! value him fly to him clasp about him that ye never miscarry in Time nor Eternity Compare both how short is one and long the other The pleasures of sin are but for a season Heb. 11. 25. Moses left Pharaoh's Court preferring afflictions before these pleasures which betrays into Gulphs Snares and Rocks Do not you make your selves unhappy in another world when you may do well in both A thousand years should be more valuable than fourscore However let not fourscore be more to you than three or fourscore thousand thousand thousand This is certain Riches Honours Estates and Courtships with all that is Terrene and Sublunary shall fly away Heaven and Earth shall pass away before one Jot or Tittle of God's Word Joh. 2 17. Luk. 21. 33. 'T is a very dangerous thing though you do not mind it to be irreligious Pleasure one day in God's Court is worth a thousand elsewhere Psal 114. 10. Oh! taste and see the sweet and honey of it Less pains will serve for Eternal Life than some take for Temporal yea to dress themselves What! three hours about that and not a quarter at prayers Some get great Fortune by Marriages others a little by Plough Cart and pains others by Play and that 's almost cheating but get the Lord Jesus Christ and you get all 1 Tim. 4 8. This world you see but do not you believe the other and the Resurrection-state if you do not you are Sadduces and irrational Do not you see all things spring again every year Dead Seeds and Corn bring the same Grain and shall not man spring again as well as Worms Flies and Spiders which seem to be dead all the Winter yet live again in the Summer Oh! believe the Resurrection-state and the Promises for Godliness hath one for both worlds But this lies in wickedness 1 Joh. 5. 19. Ephes 2. 2. Shall honours pleasures profits be your portion ever it cannot be Oh look ye after another world then Why choose you not then that that you would have when you come to dye let me dye the death of the Righteous and my latter end be like unto his Num. 23. 10. And every one will say and wish so Let go sin and sorrow take faith and you shall do it how much better is that than fancy heaven and earth than earth and not heaven God can give a thousand pleasures a river of pleasures Psal 36. 8. But vain sinful pleasures are certainly the way to hell 2 Tim. 3. 4 And I could never reconcile them and Religion together said a great one Lovers of pleasures that are sinful are really Lovers of Death yea the whores house goes down to death her feet take hold on hell Prov. 2. 16. 5. 5. He that cannot cease from sin and repent of it must needs be damned for it it is an ill bed-fellow and a worse grave fellow And a cutting saying it was to the Jews that they should dye in it Joh. 8. 21. If ye believe not that I am he you shall die in your sins sayes Christ Sinful lusts make men beasts and sinful wrath makes men Devils What! kill a man in anger Go into the field to seek honour but find Death and Hell live a Murtherer or dye by one If furious sparks did mind the sparkles of an eternal fire and how much the Devil is glad when he finds such fools they would never do as they do sight and damn one another for a thing of nought many times My Life is of more worth said the Philosopher to the rude Mariners who were swearing and careless in a storm than to be cast away And indeed Life is a thing to be valued at a high rate And upon a Life well spent depends Eternal happiness therefore 't is the wise and not fools that redeem time for Eternity The Aegyptians pictured time with three heads a Dog a Lion and a Wolf a Dog signifying Time to come flattering and a Lion to denote Time present strongly working and a Wolf denoting Time lost or past to be biting And Death on a dark Throne with a Rod in one hand and a Key in the other as if by one he drove us together and the other he lockt us up Oh Ladies every moment of time commands Regions of Blessedness when 't is improved but lost it becomes a Worm in conscience and eats to Eternity If men in health and Duellers did but mind this they would not send one another to Hell as they do Certainly such Duellers will be sad repenters as I said before in another world Do they believe a God or do they not If there be a God he is a Rewarder of Virtue and will certainly punish all unpardoned sins which lead us into Gulphs Snares and Rocks Say when temptations are upon you to any great sin Now are the Philistines come and the Cords of Death and Hell are upon me shall I be foolish base vile and unclean do this and wrong my own soul Prov. 8. 36. And all that hate me love death sayes Solomon Some vices have short pleasures long throws and after-pains if vice sin sinful sin and folly have spoiled youth Have a care of old Age one foot is in the grave What! sin all your life and have Heaven at last no it will be Hell And I had rather be in it sayes a Father without sin than in Heaven filled with it Oh! take a fair farewel of it betimes it never did will nor can do any one good no it cannot it brings all the losses crosses in the world on us here or hereafter And how can we think of going to Heaven if we do not live to it but leave a Hell of sin seeds and spawn by bad example behind us or if we should live for Heaven a little and lose it for want of living a little more would it not be sad A good bargain lost for want of a second or third bidding proves a great vexation many times one step more and all had been well and safe but to lose a Heaven for nothing for nothing for want of a little Religion and being serious in it bites to Eternity Oh! if you fall but a step or two short this will be your case and you will never come in Take heed and again take heed O ye great Ones of the times Lords Ladies and others that ye do not miscarry in the daies of Eternity
thou goest from God Christ and Self-happiness Self-love and happiness is to love God and God above all Whom have I in Heaven but thee or whom do I desire in comparison of thee saith David Psal 73. 25. There was a time when you desired your Lord much but did you ever desire your Lord Christ a little if you did do it more and more his Name his Nature his Person and his Promise is altogether desirable and shall be remembred in all Generations and praised for ever and ever Psal 45. 17. Therefore his Love is better than Wine Cant. 1. 2. Yea the wine of Angels for this is that that they drink in the perpetual beholding of him and you shall see my face too sayes God if you be his Servants Rev. 22. 4. But do not think of Reigning with God in Heaven if you be not his Servants here and your present Heaven is nothing to that Lift up your Eyes and look upon them and he that made them all your Heavens are but Dreams and Smoak What art thou that forgetst the Lord thy Maker Isa 51. 13. that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth and art afraid of a man that shall dye and be as grass Look unto Abraham sayes God ver 2. And if Abraham's bosom be desirable his Faith and Obedience is so too Some have the art to make much of little but few to make God all as Abraham did when he told him I am thy sheild and exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. and it is not in the power of any but he who is all and filleth all in all to give to all abundantly what their Souls do want Herod would give half his Kingdom for nothing but St. John Baptist's head pleased the young Gib well enough Matt. 14. 8. He preached repentance and Christ forgiveness a Prophet may instruct us but Christ only makes us to profit by the ministry of the word Oh! pray pray that hearing you may hear Rev. 2. 11. Matt. 13. 14. and know him whom to know is life eternal John 17. 3. though knowledge may be without Grace yet true Grace is never without knowledge and I know my redeemer lives saies Job 19. 25. and that you have not the love of God in you saies Christ to the Jews Joh. 5. 42. and his satisfaction for us is more the ground of our justification before God than his sanctification in us and yet Christ in us too is the hope of glory Oh! let him live in your hearts by faith 't will breed joy and feed joy a true Christian tasts that here which will be unspeakable hereafter here his joys enter into us hereafter we shall enter into it and the sweetness of divine love passeth all knowledge men taste a little here but ravishment is for fruition be industrious till you come there for the industrious man is not at leisure to sin heavenly meditations keep the mind busie when the hand is at plough or play but play dayes said Bishop Latimer are the Devils working dayes and he has more sin in one of them than in a whole week besides Religion allows not much idleness for he that will not work must not eat by Paul's rule Admire God in your calling and out of thy calling and the fields will give you room and objects enough for meditations and contemplations if you be not vain and airy but you must take care and watch thoughts or else you 'l loose God in your mind which is the honey in the way Oh! what is the bough the bush and the green but a little thing he sends every spring a little Daisy has a fine head but all the world cannot make it nor one hair white or black Oh! admire God in his works which are past finding out saies David Psal 19. 1. if they were happy which stood before Solomon as the Queen of Sheba said Luk. 11. 31. what are they that shall stand before the Lamb to admire him to Eternity Rev. 7. 15. Come begin heaven on earth admire him here and you shall hereafter in a sinless state here we sin and serve him too not in sin that is the Devil's work as Christ said John 8. 44. there we shall be without sin and never fear nor offend but love him to all eternity and be beloved of him Saints and Angels too Oh! may you dwell among them for ever and that is best of all but the best of and whole of this world is not worth one half quarter of the world to come That that makes heaven full of Joy is that it is above all fears and that that makes hell so full of terrour is that it is below all hopes the certainty perpetuity and eternity of it never ends nor the worm dyes saies Christ Mark 9. 44. Isa 66. 24. sin breeds death and the worm feeds upon the Conscience in remembrance of it so that a man or womans own hell comes much from and lies most in themselves by the alwise providence of a just and wise God ordering of it so see and buy Mr. Strongs little book upon the Worm of conscience we grieve and take care that little ones be not sick and dye of the worms but seldom take good and sound repentance our selves through the blood of Christ to kill the worm to come Oh! that sin may dye and Christ live in all your hearts grace increase and that decrease grace is glory begun a bud beam and slower of it and a grain of it is more worth than all the hypocritical knowledge in the world and through justifying grace scarlet sins and sinners are made whiter than snow by the blood of Christ Psal 51. 2. and the true preaching of the holy Gospel is the breaking of one heart and the binding up of another the hard is to be broken and the bruised is to be bound up much of the Minister or good Physicians skill lies in this Oh how good is it to have such a good Physician or to look out if we have not and if it be good for us to draw near unto God by prayer is it not so for him to draw near unto us by Preaching Peace Pardon and Forgiveness to us in the Ministry Yea 't is this way that he speaks Peace to his People And every faithful Minister hath as much the Power and Key this way as another For 't is but in Preaching and Believing They tell us of the Love of God and we apply and believe through the Blood of Christ and this applying and believing becomes our Remission and Forgiveness Oh! believe God is a giving and a sin-forgiving God and has two places one above and another below in a broken heart and if he dwell with a penitent what may not that heart get by him And for old and past sins it is our Heaven to be rid of them for they would have run us to Hell if we had continued in them When God is in the heart
nor are given in Marriage neither can they dye any more Luk. 23. v. 36. for they are equal to Angels and are the Children of God being Children of the Resurrection Mark the Children of the Resurrection are the Children of God that is those and all those Christ rose as a Head for they and all they have a part in the first Resurrection Rev. 20. 6. Blessed and happy are they that have part in the first Resurrection for on such the second Death shall have no power that is Hell the Devil or Jaylors Prison above mentioned O Ladies Look to Christ who is the first Resurrection and the first begotten from the Dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth for he has loved you and washt you from your sins in his own Blood Heb. 1. 6. Yea look to him that he be your Resurrection and that you have a part by Faith in him who is the true Book of Life Revel 21. 27. And if by Faith in him you rise from the Grave and Death of sin here then may you assure your selves of a share and part in his Resurrection unto Eternal Life which was typified by the First Fruits and the Sheaf of Corn which the Priest held up and wav'd under the Ceremonial or Levitical Law And that you are indeed the Children of it And of God too and so shall never dye Oh! believest thou this as Christ said in another place about Lazarus I am the life and resurrection of the dead and he that believeth in me shall never dye Joh. 11. 25. Yea though he were dead yet shall he live again Believest thou this sayes Christ so say I to you noble Ladies Gentlewomen and others if you be the Children of God and the resurrection you shall dye no more dye once you must to this world and the things sleep a little in the grave and imitate Christ your Head and your Husband your Lord and your Saviour who was there before you three dayes and three nights and then destroyed and tore the grave open to assure you of the resurrection also but in that you shall never dye more Oh! happy resurrection when Christ shall say awake and sing O ye that sleep in the dust and with my dead body shall ye awake Isaiah Come with me my love from Bebon the Leopard and the Lions den Canticles All which promises and a thousand more are made to you if you be the children of God and peace-makers in the Church or World or where you are The Children of Israel were happy that they were the Children of Israel and the seed of Abraham though all were not the true seed but Oh! how happy are you that you are the Children of God and shall be like his Angels in the resurrection yet Israel died in the wilderness and never entered into the land of Canaan but you shall never dye be as Angels enter in and possess the true Canaan Heaven 's Kingdom and the Kingdom of God be among the Angels to sing with that Coelestial Quire the high prayses of God and the Lamb to all eternity Rev. 7. Oh happy day Oh happy hour that ever you were born or made to be the Children of God and peace-makers in the world and places where you come Hell is full of brawling the world is full of brawling but your Breasts and Lives are full with peace and the love of God and the wayes and things of God Oh! keep that Nightingale and sweet ever singing Bird of Paradise close to you and let it never fail you day nor night yea all you Children of God 't is a heaven to begin a heaven here and a double hell to lose it for a straw as one said or a bubble which Children blow from a walnut shell whilst 't is a little heaven or young heaven as a great Lady called it but old heaven and the heaven of heaven of heavens shall be your portion yea he that compasseth heaven and earth and is within the Starry Element where Sun Moon and Stars are Oh! how glorious is that this is but the Tileing we see Gods house is all invisible and the inside no mortal man nor eye can see nor him neither and live Exod. 33. v. 20. But time shall pass and time shall come when these things shall be no more and we for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. and see him as he is face to face and eye to eye and all tears shall be quite wiped away sorrow and mourning fly away for ever former things be forgotten and all your Lords unkindness and your own unworthiness of the Lamb and your Redeemer's love yea the want of Grace and comforts here the young Lord and little Ladies death will be forgotten in another world yea in resurrection glory all will be swallowed up in everlasting joy some Fountains have their mouths or pipes through which they send their Chrystal streams with pleasant noises Revel and in heaven shall the Children of the resurrection Saints and Angels continually send their Praises to God and the Lamb and that unweariedly for worthy is the Lamb to receive Power Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Revel 7. 10 11 12. And every creature in heaven and earth heard I say Amen Amen Amen Oh! ye Lords Ladies Princes Kings Queens Potentates and highest Mortal of the earth joyn ye for it becomes you well and all ye with that kingly Prophet David in his three last Psalmes 148 149 150. and with this I shall close this little little book of yours which was made a little before and just after a great sickness but the work is Praise the Lord from the heaven Praise him in the highest for the highest is too low for him Praise him all ye Angels an Angelical praise becomes him and them very well praise him all ye host be ye what he will praise him Sun and Moon for ye are man and wife to rule both day and night and he made you both praise him all ye Stars of light which are as Sun and Moons children and are of great influence to the children of men praise him O heavens air ye terrestrial coelestial heavens heaven of heavens praise him and him alone he only made you with the word of his power and ye waters that be above the heavens the airy heavens and clouds that we see and in the deep let the fountains of the deep praise him he hath commanded and you were created he establish a Decree and you cannot pass Praise him Dragons and deep fiery Mountains Hail Snow and Storms and fulfil his word Mountains Hills Trees and Cedars high Men and low Men little Beasts and Cattle Creeping things and Flying little Ants and mighty Eagles Kings Judges Princes and all People young Lords and mayden Ladies of nine ten eleven twelve and thirteen let them praise his name for his name alone is excellent and before him let all flesh be for ever silent His glory is above the Heavens
ever was is and ever shall be he also exalteth the horn of his people Christ the horn of David and the horn and salvation of the Church as well as the praise of all his Saints Male and Female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus and so are Jews and Gentiles Greeks and Scythians all Nations having drunk of his Blood and Saints too even the Children of Israel a People near unto himself yea as the apple of his eye Praise ye the Lord sing a Song of Praise Psalm 149. and rejoyce in your King the Lord reigns the Lord is King for ever and ever let the Earth be glad let them praise his Name in Dances spiritual ones with Timbrel and Harp joy and comfort in their Souls for the Lord taketh pleasure in his People shall a Worm do it in his hole a Bird in the Sun a Saint in God and not God in his people Oh yes he taketh pleasure in his people and will beautifie the meek with salvation We told you the meek should inherit the earth a little before but here is heaven and salvation too Oh! Blessed are the meek and blessed are all these blessed ones whom he takes pleasure in Let the Saints be joyful in glory let them sing upon their beds go in all the divine and heavenly discoveries of Gods love to their souls and let a sword be in their hands the holy word of God which is as a two edged one to cut down all ungodly lusts and reigning sins in their souls yea let the law of God as a golden chain bind their unruly Kingly lusts and Lordly ones too from acting against God and their souls for ever and to execute on them the doom that is death and mortification as St. Paul saith Col. 3. 5. This honour all his Saints shall have that is his sanctified justified ones as I told you a little before yea in these no sin shall ever reign as Kings and Noble men for these are not under the Law but under Grace so saith the great Apostle and experienced Saint St. Paul Rom. 6. 14. Wherefore praise him in the sanctuary yea that that is of all most proper yea in the congregation of his people yea in the great congregation will I praise thee sayes David ay and in the little one too I will praise thee with my whole heart and my tongue shall be as the pen of a ready writer Psal 45. 1. I will extol thee O King I will bless thee for ever and ever Psal 145. 1 2. Every day will I bless thee great is the Lord most worthy to be praised his greatness none can reach Ladies Men and Angels may try their skill and strain their voices but can never reach it no the uttermost thoughts of men and Angels cannot do it for he is still as far beyond them as the heavens are beyond the earth yea he is more excellent than all creatures can conceive to eternity and Christ also fairer than the children of men the chiefest of ten thousands altogether lovely Psa 45. 2. 6. Cant. 5. 10. And saies God concerning Christ I will make thy name to be remembred in all generations And therefore shall the people love and praise thee for ever and ever Psal 45. 17. And to thee shall every knee bow Phil. 2. 10. that is submit and be disposed of by Christ as he pleases and how he pleases Oh! praise him for his acts he hath led Captivity Captive and is judge of quick and dead according to his excellency give him praise with Timbrel and Harp yea with ten stringed instruments all the veins in tongue and heart praise him praise him for musical instruments has Christ put down in his Gospel worship and therefore 't is the lip 't is the life 't is the heart 't is the soul that must now praise him O Lords Lords Ladies and other English Mortals won't you joyn to Praise him Then you are undone utterly undone For EVER Written by WILLIAM BLAKE House-keeper to the Ladies Charity-School FINIS
for all which we heartily and most humbly beg as on our Knee that we may have your Noble step in this Good Work as a Leading Card to other Pious Ladies and a little small Acknowledgment which you cannot better make to the Great and Good God of the deep sense you have of all his many mercies To whom be Glory Honour and Dominion world without End Pray all we Poor Boys May it please you most Great and Noble Countess AS your Title bears the greatest sound so your Name and Memory will be more beloved than all that shall succeed the Protestants loved and they all bewailed it in the Nation when it fell but while Sion-House shall last Old Northumberland's Name will live and may you live also for ever Live when Sun Moon and Stars shall be no more Live in the heavenly Jerusalem when earthly Sion and earthly things shall be no more And that you may so do let the Love of God now dwell in you the Blood of Christ and his Spirit wash and sanctifie you Soul and Body to make both blameless at his coming and to wait for his Son from Heaven which though it may not be in your daies yet will it be a pleasure all your life long to think indeed upon it and that when he comes the second time it will be without sin unto salvation without sin that is a good word indeed At his first coming he was loaded with sins for us Isa 53. O read often this Chapter but he is now without and shall appear without sin for us Christ is got rid of our sins by his sufferings he gave satisfaction for us to the Father no Pens nor Tongues can sufficiently set out this Madam feed your thoughts upon it frequently the worlds all vanity from top to bottom and must pass away 1 Joh. 2. 17. But the Love of God and Blood of Christ abides for ever O happy man that maketh that his portion All things fail but my God and my Duty said a great one Oh! keep close to Christ then that he may clasp you when you and this world must part Trust not in worldly Princes saith the Psalms Their breath is in their nostrils and will soon fall to earth Happy is the man who hath the God of Jacob for his portion which made Heaven and Earth and that Heaven and Earth may both be yours One you have already and the other may you ever have also That shall be the prayers of us poor School-Boys yea we shall all pray that you may for ever sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob Luke 13. v. 28. be in the Kingdom of God to sing the everlasting praises of the Lamb and his Joys to Eternity Revel 7. 16. May it please your most Great and Noble Ladiship WE the Ladies Hospital-Boys of Highgate have humbly presumed to pray and dedicate one of these little Charity School house-Sticks to your Right Honourable Family which is Illustrious as a Star of great Magnitude and has shin'd if not out-shin'd most in this our Horison for great Wisdom in the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom which made the Nation so happy in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when your Lord 's Noble Ancestor governed all as only Minister of State and may your present Lord be as great and as good a Patriot to his Country the Laws and Priviledges of it yea and Patron to the best of Preaching-Ministers as his Noble Family or Grandfather has been heretofore and so whilst he really loves both his Prince and Kingdom with the Preaching-Ministers also he must needs be a good and great friend to both and our Protestant Religion so much struck at at this time which is far beyond all the earthly things in the world for true value and esteem may your Ladiship and Lord therefore both long live together and may your mutual Love be blessed by the Great God with many Children as it is and may they all live and stand round your great Table as Olive-branches flourish in the Courts of God's own House be good and pious here holy and happy to all Eternity for that is a long thing and must be and our Immortal Souls too when the Sun the Sea and World shall be no more Most Honourable Madam WE are come again though the Year be hardly out since our setting up But for the future we will never trouble your Right Noble Ladiship more than once if so often but now necessity puts us upon it for getting something out of Great Families to carry on this next Years Charge And we remember how your Honour gave a Caution when you sent your Guineys not to be too troublesom for that you had very many objects in the Country which did need my Lord's help and the truth is the whole World is full of wants so that Good and Great Persons can never lack Objects but this is a thing not common that bears your Noble Name and is Dedicated to the Honour of your Sex and in feeding it two or three Years you will make it live it self and stand upon its own Legs and would your Honour but be pleased to send to see how well it stands in the mean time we well know you to be a good and prudent Lady and therefore will not believe in the least you will yet stick out to help us till the thing be a little stronger and have taken better Root which it will soon and certainly do and then you nor no other Noble Ladies will ever repent in the least of what has been done for us who will ever pray for you my Lord his Sons and all your Noble Family that your Souls may be truly happy when the World shall fly away like a mighty Eagle and be seen no more for ever the Sun Moon or Stars be darkened the Silver Cord loosed or the Golden Bowl broken and the Spirit return to God that gave it Eccles 12. v. 2 6. Right Honourable Madam THough all Good Works may be said to speak for themselves yet a powerful Intercessor does do well and for your house or most Noble Family a greater than your self cannot be for as our Lord Jesus Christ his greatness with the Father makes every thing to be easie and readily granted that he moves the Father for so your Power and Influences must needs be very successful because you move the nearest of Relations and them too that are all eminently Religious and such as have been so for many years the Grandmother being yet living in the Children Grandchildrens graces Madam assure your self 't is for a Good Work we are now a begging and it must be none but good and great Families and a few Citizens that are very eminent indeed that we intend thus to go unto and in so doing how can we miss especially when it is fully resolved by God's grace that the Discipline of this little Charity-School shall be as near as may be for the Honour of God and Religion
may your most worthy Husband say Thousands thousands Soul-happiness lies at stake if Popery should come in and Property quite be lost then we are miserable and like to be unhappy for both worlds to live in fear in this dye in doubts and dangers as to the other is a great slavery as all out of the way must needs do God Almighty grant the Truth may never be lost nor any thing prevail against it or those either that contend and care for it day and night But the Church is founded on a Rock God's Love and Christ's Merit which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail over and much of the Nation 's Happiness is in the two Houses and the good Acts there to be made May your dear Relation sit who bears the whole name of that not forgotten proper brave beloved man his Father may he Vote may you both Live may you dye to God and Love your Country as you really do so shall your Names and Souls both live one on Earth for a while and the other in Heaven for ever with the Lamb and his Redeemed ones So prays all of us Right Honourable Madam WEre not your sharp quick and great parts naturally mixt with good and pious Principles we should not in the least presume or endeavour to engage your cheerful good and prudent Inclinations to accept of this your Family's Roll or Charity School-house Stick but presuming the work it self to be very good and the Noble Lady your Mother who is so eminently blest with good and many Children abounding in the world and they very Charitable also makes us complain of a peck of troubles for having raised near forty Poor and Fatherless Boys they prove very chargeable to be kept with Meat Drink and Cloaths as you know they have Now pray dear Madam speak or write to my Lady out of hand and tell her how it is with us and if she will subscribe a good gob and get the young Ladies to do something too and then put it all together with your Ladiship 's and Sir James's also for it is necessary he or you in his stead should do something now the great Ship is come safe in At the Rearing of the Tabernacle every one brought something Exod. 25. 22. And if in this you will to the Rearing of our School give something as the first fruits of your great Bay or new Plantation as it were to be sure the rest will be blessed the better and therefore pray give freely that we may say Received from you and your Family so much For we would not have them nor you out of the Noble List of Ladies nor want those prayers in the least which all our good Benefactors have May it please your Honourable Ladiship SIR Francis being a pious good charitable and most worthy person our only great Neighbour able to relieve support and help us we humbly pray this our Charity School-house Stick may be accepted by your Ladiship for we have nothing in the world to keep up us Poor Boys or put us out but the Benevolence of pious good and charitable Ladies therefore pray Madam be intreated to do a little for us who will never cease to pray the great God and his Son to bless you both in Soul and Body and your Olive-branches also ye may also be blessed with the blessing of Abraham sit down with Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven Luk. 13. 29. and never know troubles on the Earth but such as God's nearest and dearest Children meet with for the good of their Souls and a Soul-mercy it is for to have his Love and Providence turning all things to our good yea the worst things that do befal us here he can make the Best Sickness Death and Sin And may all this be and Sin forever pardoned to both your Souls and blotted out as if they had never been Oh the blessedness of that man whose sins are pardoned in Life Death and Eternity May this blessing with all others your Souls can wish or desire be your portion for ever and ever prays one and all us now at Highgate May it please your Ladiship SIR Walter Rawleigh in the Tower said That true and eternal Happiness lieth in God and no where to be tasted but in Religion which is a certain thing going up and down the world too little minded by the greatest but of more concern than all things in it said the Lord of Marlborough that was lately slain And that man that doth not first or last live to God will certainly wish he had never been when he cometh to die saies another great one and yet we must bleed and bleed saith the Doctor to keep Life or prevent Consumptions Cough Dropsie Ptysick and Diseases which it tells and foretels certain Death to be at hand as gray hairs doth a youthful Life past And if we have got over one bout of Sickness or Disease yet still another hangs over or upon us and is nigh or ready for to shake force or tear poor frail man all to pieces yea and something or another still at hand to turn us where we cannot turn namely Coffin Grave Prison and the Winding-sheet or last shift which may be eaten but never shaken off by mortals No Skin Flesh Bones and the faggs of pale Beauty must all be Earth and turn to that from whence we first of all came and 't is but just and reasonable that as that did feed cloath and nourish us as it were our Mother for a while we should sink dye fall and lay down our heads again into that most natural Lap or Bosom as being its most proper place to take our last or longest sleep in But O Madam may you yours or Sir Richard never come go into one world and another without a great Errand And may the Great God direct us what it is he sent us hither for For this end was I born every one says namely to know God and live to him Christ was born to die for us as he told Pilate and we are bound to live to him and must or else we shall wish we had never been The world is nothing but the world a dream and shadow that must pass away Were the Sands Sea and Mountains beaten Gold Death stretcheth out the fingers and we let go again all that head hand will heart or thoughts could ever hold wish or eye see May you then know may you then love Christ and live to him whilst you may he is yet near and dear but you would both be lost for ever if you should neglect him till it be too late Christ once wept often bled and wept too but will dye no more nor do no more for us if we do not live to him O let 's live to him and die to sin before we die Sin dies and dips the Soul in black and bloody Scarlets of defiance Old long and great ones eat it quite up O let not Canker Death Hell's Worm
him as long as I live The sorrows of death caught hold upon me I found trouble then called I on the Name of the Lord and he heard me The Lord hath dealt bountifully with me what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits I will take the Cup of Salvation and pay my vows in the midst of his people in the Courts of the Lord 's own House in the midst of thee O Jerusalem praise ye the Lord. And if ever there be a time for us to speak and you to give it is now Whilst your heart is full of his Goodness yet yours can never extend to him to us and our School it may and others need it not we mean your great City-Hospitals but our poor little In fant new-born thing needs really needs and that makes us speak others are Rich we are poor others are full we are empty others have all things we have nothing but what the good Lord Jesus shall encline some great Ladies and a few of you the choicest Citizens of London for to give and choice men it must be that we thus go to for we intend never to beg nor mingle but with the best of Protestants and some of them too have scarce faith enough to believe the success of this great or good design Nay your Brother Cornish himself who in other things is one of a hundred through the greatness of his diffidence would have once perswaded us to lay it down whose Charity yet we doubt not of in the least it being a well approved thing by good men and Ministers one of which constantly Preaches every Lord's day an Evening Lecture for all sorts of comers where Bread and other encouragement is given for any Poor or Needy people that please to be there and hear at that same hour In short the praise and good report of this House and your Charity will live grow and be a great thing and still redound to your Honour and the City's Praise And now the prayers of all our School with the Blessings of the great God of Heaven and Earth rest on the Heads Hearts and Souls of all your near Relations and Family May it please you most Worthy Madam THE Good and Noble Ladies have given liberty to Petition as now we do some few Honourable Citizens and great Merchants Wives of eminent Quality or Degree your Husband being one we well know to be both free bountiful and a Right English Gentlemen in all things We humbly beg and intreat your Ladyship that this our Charity School-house Stick or Roll may be accepted it being for a good work much of praise-worthy And we humbly promise this We will all beg many Blessings or wish Health Peace Wealth and Eternal Happiness to you for ever and ever Yea we will beg for the two young Ladies also that they may be Saints in Heaven good and virtuous Wives on Earth and may have as they really do and will ever well deserve the best of Husbands to enjoy them such as may never grieve nor offend day nor night such as may love them and their Souls both above their great Fortunes and next our Lord Jesus Christ Study what to do for both for to be ensnared with a bad man and unkind or churlish Husband will be a thousand thousand pities grieve us to the heart When sweet Nature's Blossoms Buds and Roses meet with churlish Nabals the yielding gentle Reed is bruised by the ugly Oak and the Honey suckle tangled in a knot which can never be untied till Death But a good man though he be not a Lord though he be not a very great Merchant yet if he be but good natur'd wise cheerful and careful for the world and minds the world to come prayes daily for a Blessing let the Ladies we all say accept of such a one or let one venture first and the other for Honour after or let either chuse as they will but still let both be happy we all pray from the bottom of our hearts Yet happy they can never be unless after all they go to Heaven for Heaven is Heaven when all is done and ever will be We should Buy Sell Trade Marry Live and Dye so as that we may not endanger our Souls in the least Other losses may be gaind Health Wealth and the World but Heaven lost will never be found in another O love God and Jesus Christ now above all love his Praise love his Promise love his Spirit which knocks now and then yea often at your hearts with sweet soft and still Motions in the night saying Open open unto me Hear hear and your Souls shall live I will make a Covenant with you if you will be mine love and live to me now I will own you here and hereafter save you when you come to dye and bless you at the present with Children more or less or that which is better good things Yea no good thing will he with-hold from them that fear him saith the Psalmist And therefore fear him day and night both you yea both you Young and Lovely Ladies that he may indeed bless you in Life Death and Eternity prayes all we at Highgate SILVER DROPS OR SERIOUS THINGS HEre follows the Substance of the fine Young Lady's Answer to that Objection in the Essay Are these Times for Charity and a new Design when we have so many Waies and Objects for it Ay said she And it is the better for us too we have many Joynts and Mercies Fingers Feet and Toes all should do something for him and another world who is alwaies doing of us good and all his Works So saith the Psalmist And all his Works do praise him Psal 145. 10. Now if this little Design of theirs at Highgate be for or look like any thing of serving him why should it dye Let the vanity and things of the world sin folly and emptiness dye but let Virtue Religion and the Love of Charity live in all our bosoms breasts and lives If Angels were to be visible and present with us how much would they be to be embraced and desired for their holiness When Great and Noble Persons Lords Ladies and others embrace true Piety they seem to imitate the holy Angels though cloathed with frailty and mortality immortality is for another world and in that world nothing but Divine Love shall live Joy and Glory cease here but that which is heavenly shall never cease yet Charity shall cease though it be greater than Faith and Love too So sayes Paul 1 Cor. 13. 13. Now abides Faith Hope and Charity but the greatest of all is Charity Will you abound a little in this Work you have enough of this world yea enough to swallow and drown you to Eternity if a good God do not love and save you from the snares cares and flatteries of it For all its pleasures are bewitching things and the sweetest Musick fails tires often times But thou O Son Saint and Servant
will certainly wish he had never been in a dying hour who lives not unto him All things fail me now but my God my duty and my prayers Mason So then faith never fails said he who had been five times Embassador for King James But from all chiefly learn this the world to be vanity that God in Christ Faith and holy Duties well performed were never failing things that is to say holy Duties done by Divine assistance and the sense of his Love in Christ But all things else fail us and Cordials cease when breath and life slies away But God is my portion for ever saith the Psalmist 16. 5. Money will not nor money cannot buy one moment from the grave for what would not some give could the Physician help but Faith and Holiness will help practise then the Art of well living for the comfort of well dying Great peace have they that love thy Law saith David Psal 119. 165. Many shall be the sorrows of those that sin much here or hereafter And I suffer these pains for my sins past saith a great Lord. And I shall never sleep more saith a Carding Gentlewoman the word Eternity doth so run in mine Ear. And indeed it is hard when people spend their time in Carding as she had done and come to dying to find comfort Oh! but a good conscience sings sweet Remember O Lord I walk before thee says good King Hezekiah 2 King 20 3. I have finished my work sayes Christ Joh. 17. 4. I have fought a good fight sayes Paul 2 Tim. 4. 7. And I have loved Preached and lived to thee sayes Luther Oh Christ from my Soul And so have I says Beza and I am weary of sin and willing to dye But what have you great Ladies done that you should expect to live with Angels and sing with that Coelestial Quire the praises of the Lamb to all Eternity Rev. 7. 9. Come and begin Heaven here on Earth that ye be never made the tayl at last you are now uppermost in all places rooms and companies would you be lowermost in the next world Lords lead you by the hand up and down stairs where your steps go pit pat with your silver Clappers But oh if ye do not live to Christ what will become of you when the Silken Stockin and the Silver Shoe the Holland Shift and all must off and as ye come into the world so must ye go only your Mother's blood will be washt away Princes Kings and Queens must all lye down to Death and Parliament Lords must pull off their Robes but Death can never strip a Saint nor any true believing penitent of Christ and his Righteousness no no Worms may eat his skin through and through and the Grave consume his flesh and bones to dust as Job speaks Job 19. 26. Yet shall I see my Redeemer But will he own you then if you do not own him now My Sheep hear my voice and I give to them Eternal Life sayes Christ But you would none of me Joh. 10. 27. I have piped sayes Christ but you would not dance I have mourned but ye would not lament Mat. 11. 17. Christ Preached Repentance by John to the Jews but they would not mourn Christ Preached Forgiveness by himself but they would not believe nor have any of his Salvation Oh! take heed and again take heed that ye Great and Noble Gentile Ladies do not the same The Gadarens once preferred their Swine before the Lord of Life and Glory and intreated him to be gone out of their Coasts or Country Luk. 8. 37. And take ye heed that ye refuse not the waters of Shiloah that run softly Isa 8. 6. and slight him that speaks from Heaven Heb. 12. 25. prefer your Lusts Toys Honours and every little thing before your Lord and Master Why should the braying of an Ass be more acceptable to you than the most melodious Musick of the Gospel I mean base and mean things before the high and heavenly ones of God Oh! tast and see that the Lord is gracious and Religion sweet Psal 34. 8. I will assure you 't is said a great Countess to the Lord Bartlet And Cursed be the man said the Noble Marquess Galliaces that thinks all the pleasure in the world worth one hours communion with God And if you would have communion with God sit down and sink down in your spirits and converse with your selves a little before ye go hence and be no more but the Devil visits and twenty needless things will not let you sit down walk alone or be in the dark one hour to mind Death Heaven Hell and Eternity Indeed it is hard for a man of much business or a Lady of much Honour and Courtship to mind the main or to live to him at all who lives much for others Wise men and Great men and States-men too are great strangers to themselves many times Oh! let 's live to our selves We have lived to our Fortune our King and our Country let 's live to our selves before we go hence All the world will not make amends if we neglect it said Sir Francis Walsingham to Lord Burlington who were great States-men in Queen Elizabeth's time and if you neglect it too to breed up two or three young Lords or Ladies to stand in your room and stead meerly to maintain your Honour and the Honour of your Families and not mind the Honour of Christ and his Exemplary Life or Laws which should be copyed out in your Lives and Children's Conversations What do ye more than others as Christ speaks nay do ye not worse than others many times Matth. 5. 47. As if Greatness were necessitated to abandon Piety and Goodness This is a bad conclusion Great men should imitate the great Planets and the great Deity by being good and doing good but you do hurt many times by bad Examples sinning leading others into sin send away your Children for a little breeding to the hazard of their Souls match them to the worst of men for a little Honour many times weep for them when they are sick and laugh when they sin But Cato advises He that will buy a Farm should look well what Neighbours he has but the qualifications of the person had need more be minded of the Young Lady's Servant because 't is for Life For Honour is but a shadow without Piety and will prove a bubble a bubble as one cryed out of all the world upon the thoughts of Eternity indeed that swallows all things as mighty Whales does the little Fishes how quick and soon this comes God knows Man walks sings laughs and talks and Ladies do the same play upon the Lute and Citern one day and to Death's Pipe the next And now if Death and Night puts an end to Life and Day what should remain but to work whilst day and time last because though another day comes and that past yet the same Day and Life nor may that opportunity be which in
but give at length some diligence to make your Calling and Election sure Honours and Evidences are never sure enough can Heaven be too sure for you Come look after God and Christ more pray oftener throw your selves into the Arms of Jesus depend upon Free Grace and he will certainly save you and your Souls Like and love holiness Be in love and league with no sin and you shall have Joy Happiness and Holiness to Eternity And therefore as ever you would be Lodgers out of Hell live in the Church as a holy member of the Church love the best of Protestants persecution is a devilish sin And good preaching a great mercy And if ye love one another then are ye my disciples indeed sayes Christ Joh. 14. 21. And 't is reported of St. Chrysostom that they had rather want the shining of the Sun than his preaching and sayes he if I had a Mountain for my Pulpit and the whole world to hear me it should be upon that Text. O ye sons of men how long will ye love vanity Psal 4. 2. The delight of the soul is to know its maker and heavenly preaching is a soul-ravishing thing there being infinite sweetness in the love of God But he that does not lift his head and his heart above this world will perish with the world And he she that is for much ease new fashions and fine cloaths haiting up down in Coaches is oftentimes for little religion If you cannot live without excess of pleasures I say excessive ones you will be carried down the stream of Nilus to the deadly Sea called Mare Mortuum like the skipping fishes till they fall into it Come let brave Sparks and gallant Ladies mind better things the great God and his Son that came down from heaven and never knew pleasure here on earth but in doing his Fathers Will and if you will now do it when the Dore is once shut it is too late Some would be troubled if they should never go to the Park again or see another May-day But if you should never go to heaven you are utterly undone for there are but two places all go to one place saith Solomon but he means that of the grave Eccles 12. 7. But all besides believe two places if the principles of Religion were never so dubious yet it concerns us to be serious because they are of such mighty concernment to us Said the great Earl of Leicester Fools play with their souls and drawlers at Religion cut the thread of life and throat of them But sink not into this deadness and deadly wickedness as to make sin a sport of at any time especially such kind of sinning as throws a contempt upon God and his word and hardens others to despise and condemn that namely Religion which all ages and nations beside this have never done before But it were better to be drowned with a milstone about our necks than left to dye and be buried with a hard heart in the grave or live to draw others to hell Take heed which way you go the broad way is most easie but the narrow is most safe Luke 13. 24. Safe bind and safe find but sin loosened and the Reins let go carries us whither we should not and whither we would not If we did but consider but the want of due consideration if you will indeed do it too then you shall know it more than you do and taste it to be far better than all the sports and pleasures of the Court and Country too Oh! that I had never been King of Spain said that great Prince Charles the fifth and that I had lived a Hermite's life But a heavenly life will never be repented of Should not Ladies strive to be Angelical and holy in the eyes of God as well as lovely in the eyes of men why should you be all for Honour and not for Religion as some of you are It becomes great Sparks to seek great things and not to spend their time in Ladies Chambers tossing of a Play-Book or reading this or that little Jest crying Faith Madam here 's a good one Lord Bacon said Nothing concerns us so much in all the world as Religion and the Principles of it Come then and let us seek the world to come this passes away like May-day and May-flowers all but smoak or dew quickly gone but everlastingness is a mighty thing The world and times are bad let us make Christ all in all Col. 3. 11. He is so and will be so Let him be to us in point of Justification Sanctification and Redemption Imitate him and lean upon him in Life Death and Eternity Wisdom waits at his Gate to keep you from sin which a Play-house leads unto But I will go to the house of God sayes David and pay my Vows in thee O Jerusalem Psal 116. 19. And I mine in thee O Smithfield said that brave Hampshire Martyr John Philpot but if you care not for God's Honour he will not care for yours nor what becomes of you when you dye But he that honours me will my Father love said Christ Joh. 14. 21. But no man can love serve or honour him enough who has loved us so much as to wash us in his own blood Rev. 1. 5. And Philpot shed his free and boldly and disputed as bravely as ever man did for Christ and his Truth in the Convocation-house And the world is not worthy of those men which have been burnt upon this account in all or divers Countreys by the Man of Sin But take heed you be not foolish Virgins and foolish Ladies and such as have not Oil in your Lamps nor saving Grace in your hearts at midnight when the Cry of the Bridegroom shall come For if the door be then shut and Repentance too late Christ will never hear though you knock beg and cry upon your knees and were more beautiful than Angels saying Lord open open with ten thousand tears in your eyes The day is past and the night will never have an end But 't is non-consideration is the cause of men and women's damnation said a good Divine Therefore said God O that my people did but consider But the Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but my people doth not consider Isa 1. 3. The length of Time the certainty of Eternity the impossibility of more than a long Life and how vain it is to labour not to dye once Methusalem dyed Gen. 5. 7. Piety strength or policy keeps none from the grave Consider saith Solomon do not all go one way to the dust Eccles 12. 5. But Christ shall say Come ye Blessed Go ye Cursed I was an hungry and you fed me naked and you cloathed me or you did it not Nay what you did to one of these little ones you did to me Matth. 25. 41 42. O Do something for the School if you have not yet though works do not merit 'T is impossible saith St. Austin
for we cannot will good much less do it of our selves Yet you must live for Heaven and by Christ get Faith or you can never be saved Short Hints but Sound Truths In great Humility THe Heathen Oracle of mortal man used to say We are born crying live laughing and dye sighing But Job and Solomon seem to hint there is little laughter for man is born to sorrow as the sparks fly up Job 5. 7. and All is vanity saith Solomon Eccles 12. 8. That is all besides Christ and the knowledge of him in a strict sense And sayes Hintius Vpon this account I could even obscure my self to think how much short all knowledge is and how much envy the most curious parts sustain and undergo especially when they are in great and high places where they have too too little time to converse with themselves mind their maker or rectifie their crooked nature Infancy is full of ignorance Youth of sins and Old Age of sorrows and the whole life of dangers so that it is a great misery for poor man who is but a Pile or Bag full of dust to come into the world were it not for the hope of heaven or a better world But this is never lost without great grief when possest with much love A certain rich man that loved riches well and too too well too being sick to death caused all his Plate and Gold to be brought before him and thus said to his soul like the fool in the Gospel Luk. 1â— 18. My soul if thou wilt now tarry with me and not leave my body all this will I promise thee and thou shalt enjoy it with Riches fine Buildings Gardens and sumptuous Houses But finding his infirmity increasing and no hopes of life in a great rage and fury he broke out into this most desperate speech Since thou wilt not abide nor be intreated nor tarry longer with me I recommend thee to the Devil and so soon departed Oh! let such men fear to laugh who are in danger to go where it will never avail or profit any thing to weep And he that looks on a picture and sees on it a rich man and a beggar never envies one nor pities th' other all men are but pictures and shadows quickly pass away and the poor have an advantage of the rich many times in dying having but little to leave behind but many are dull in want and wanton in fruition and most mens lives are miserable seeing those that seek for good hardly find it When evil comes of it self and enters our gates unsought Yet the brain will be working whilst the pulse is beating let a man live few years or let a man live many one does not make him happy nor another unhappy but his living well or ill does it Anselmus sayes In heaven joys shall be within and without above and beneath in all parts and round about and everlasting too saith the Prophet Isaiah 65. The lovers of this world eat drink and are merry but for want of the love of God go down to hell Psal 9. 17. in a little while and nothing remains of them but a short name dust and worms Seneca sayes evil actions are whipt by the conscience of themselves and torments them sore and that wickedness drinketh up the greatest part of its own poison and is a punishment to it self But Christians say there is a hell besides and most of all nations believe future rewards and punishments Oh! let us prevent weeping by weeping sayes One and all of hells sorrows by heavenly repentance Aristotle sayes It were better to dye than to do any thing against the good of virtue And I sayes Seneca was better born than to be a slave to lust what they count virtue Christians do not so well know but this is certain it is better not to be than not to know a good God in Jesus Christ and live to him in some measure who is all and will be all for ever Though Zenon said through his Atheism he feared nothing but Old Age yet Socrates tells ye When Death approaches bad men will be willing to turn Divines And if I have lived well sayes Lucicrema why do not you clap your hands But Divine Love is a never ending Treasure and the Orient Pearl is gathered from the Early Dew And in the 110th Psalm it is said of Christ That from the womb of the morning he had the dew of his youth that is as I humbly conceive from the first peeping out of God's Love to mankind as it was through a promise in Jesus Christ so all these promises and blessings obtained in Time or Eternity are gathered from the head heart Love and Merit of Christ as the morning dew is from Grass Corn or Herbs But to be careless of him or our selves and to live without fear is to Dye Living and is in great danger to fall into the Sea of God's everlasting wrath Awake awake O miserable Soul and lift up thine Eyes lest the night of nights overtake thee Rom. 13. 12. Joh. 9. 4. And assure your selves Death will almost daunt good Livers what wilt thou do But he whom happiness affects cares not how long he lives But Job was safer on the Dunghill than Adam in Paradise And Christ the true Son of the Living God when begging water at the Well of Jacob Joh. 4. 7. from the woman with the Pitcher Yet many think a middle condition is best for this world and for our Souls too but we need every day the blood of Christ to wash us all as well as Water for our faces And the Soul is washed by secret thinking and applying of the Love Life Death and Merit of Christ to it self He gave himself for me sayes Paul Gal. 2. 20. And our Souls are like Camaeleons live upon the Gospel-Air Promises in Christ and God's Love through Christ but the world trusted on is apt to thrust all out of our minds And sayes Tully No man could ever make me believe the Soul should live in this mortal Body and be dead when absent Oh! live then to live for ever Bear well and prepare well for that which can never be avoided namely Death To labour not to dye once is to labour in vain But to live to Christ is a certain way to prevent a second Death And a man whose Soul is truly conversing with God shall find more pleasure in secret walks closets groves and hedges than in the Palace of a Prince And Sir Walter Rawleigh sayes He that is resolved to be a great Favourite and Servant there must abandon strict Piety The love of Fame Name and Pleasure is inconsistent with the Love of God True a weak man may give strict Rules and the holiest Minister in the world hardly lives up to his own Preaching And you cannot look to Heaven with one Eye and look down to the Earth with the other at the same time But however the best counsel is best and most wholsom
nor they that are his much the most things of the world and the best things of the world leave us at the worlds end send us gawl'd and weary out a pack-horse has but beans and oats many care and carry for they know not who A rich man lately going with his son by water towards London Bridg Father said the young man there is a brave play to day at the Dukes Play-house let us go see it O villain said the Father wouldst thou go and have me too when there is a great vessel to look after Damn me chuse you said the Son I will go calling another boat and so stept away but they are both dead now and a vast estate gone and no body knows where almost Oh! how many do the like care and care as the old man did and have nothing many times but sin and the gawled conscience to carry them to the grave a sad reward and curse upon over covetous men but the world at best is but as a spoke in a wheel one is uppermost to day and another to morrow and though corn wine and oyl be the worlds happiness Psal 4. 7. yet this is at an end when he or the world is they ravish in expectation not in fruition but heavenly things are sweet in both and the worlds all is nothing at all at last many desie it and the Devil in their mouths and yet serve both in their hearts it is not the having the world in our hands or our hands in the business of the world but our making an Idol of it serving it more than the Creator God blessed for ever 'T is a great peice of wisdom to hide faults and ignorance sometimes yet learned Rome and Greece the two great schools of the world by all their learning did not define whether there were many Gods or one and were for many years the greatest Idolaters in the world notwithstanding all their wisemen but wisdom is good with an inheritance and true wisdom chooses God and Christ for a portion The Lord is my portion saith my soul and whom have I in heaven but thee saies David Psal 73. 25. Sir Edward Petto saith that if wee do ill the pleasures are but short and the pains remain for ever but if we do well the good does so too and 't is good to wait on God who waits to be gracious to such as call upon him Some men find want of comfort and others find comfort in want because God is with them when thou goest through the fire and through the water I will be with thee saith the Lord Isa 43. 2. And Tertullian sayes of young Ladies if they were cloathed with Silks and Piety Sattins and Sanctity Purple and Modesty God would be with them and love and like them better too A man may love morality civility and not Grace Rome would prove the truth by miracles when she should prove miracles by truth but her whole Golden Legion is a fiction of forged lyes and that he that wrote it had a brazen face and a leaden heart they willingly believe lyes and God in judgment suffers them so to do because they receive not the love of the truth 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. And Vespasian was tired with a triumph and Ladies have been so with musick and a play-house all is but vanity of vanities at the long run besides Christ and the Knowledge of him Yea all else is but Golden Dreams and 't is better to fear and dream of Hell than to drop into it to think of Jollity and find misery is said or to dream of Heaven upon Earth and to wake by Death in Hell is sad indeed Time passes a pace and all post some where 'T is dangerous putting off that to day which thou must do or else it may be utterly undone to morrow Contemplation and Meditation are good things 'T is as the smell of the Rose and Jessemin sayes one Some men are ashamed to sin before a child but what we are afraid to do before men we should be to think before God And 't is better to spend our time in doing good than bare talking or getting Riches either If we should be thankful for little Mercies Riches and Honour what should we be for God himself and the pardon of sin The Tongue blessing God without the heart is but a tinkling Cymbal and the heart blessing God without the tongue is sweet but still musick but the heart and tongue together makes the sweetest harmony in the world And if the Larks and Birds sing so merrily to the morning Sun we should much more to our Creator and Redeemer Let all the world praise thee O God Let all the world praise thee saith the Psalmist Psal 67. 3. And you Noble Ladies who have best voices and least to do should be most engaged in that good work But Honour is a snare and visits many and needless too sometimes Better stay at home and think Lord what am I What do I Whither go I so fast a little time will put me in a Bason Every man is but a bag full of Dust at the best and Death turns us into Ashes and that Dust may be squeezed into a small place And 't is probable the Grave-man takes up some of that sometimes to sling upon another when he cryes Dust to Dust and Ashes to Ashes But this is certain after a little while every man will be no man A good Gentlewoman being sick was askt whether she were willing to Live or Dye What God pleased Ay but sayes one If God should put it to you but then said she I would refer it to him again And a brave Grace it is to be resigned so patiently to God's will in every thing And there are four Reasons for it The Holiness The Sovereignty Eternity and Goodness of his Will But he that sins and quarrels against this good and holy Sovereign and Eternal Will of God does but do what in him lyes to make him send him Soul and Body into Hell But cut me hack me kill me sayes Austin so thou savest my Soul And oh what an Emphasis does the Scripture frequently put upon the word Soul Hear and your Soul shall live Isa 55. 3. He that sins against me wrongs his own Soul Prov. 8. 36. Fear not them that can kill the Body but him that can throw the Body and Soul into Hell What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his Soul Matth. 16. 26. Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee Luke 12. 18. Matth. 12. 28. Soul mercies Soul-promises and Soul-salvation must needs be great And the Great God by his absolute Sovereignty claims and sayes All Souls are mine Ezek. 18. 4. But most are like the poor Woman Mr. Burroughs mentions who when her house was burning ran about to save some little trisles but forgot her Child in the Cradle But then supposing it to be burnt though indeed it was
and there is a time for every thing under the Sun Eccles 3. 1. excepting sin and for that you shall hardly sin in moderate mirth and pleasure But to make Recreation a toil and the Business of your Life is folly and madness What! nothing but hait hait up and down as some do and never to a Lecture or scarce on the Lord's Day in the forenoon I said of Laughter Thou wert mad saith Solomon Eccles 2. 2. It may be they sing too which had need to weep and pray But let not your high Fortunes make you too high-minded For they that think themselves better for Gold Pearl and Lace and are proud and disdain others which yet is very natural and we are all apt to fall this way which makes us worse than Gold Slaves and Servants to it sayes Anselmus But remember what you shall be in the Grave especially in Hell if you should go there And wanton thoughts and plumes will all fall but humble great ones are good ones indeed and God will exalt such and make them higher than they are and men will love them more Humble Great ones are double Great ones and twice as honourable as others of the same rank And therefore let not great Fortunes make you proud and unfortunate yet a grain must be allowed for Old Adam's sake whose Children we all are And 't is easier in a minister to preach down Adam in others than to beat it down in himself wife or children but sound men should love sound preaching the best wine is best and so is the best preaching and that that comes from the heart goes to it so say and so do is good in a good minister some speak more briefly than they live as Cato told his friends but do not say I will and don 't we read of two Brothers one said he would do his Fathers will but did it not the other said he would not but did it and that was better than the other When prayers and praise go together and the heart with both God is well pleased and the musick sweet when the tongue doth not go from the inward motions the Pharisee said I thank God and I do this and I do this but the poor Publican said The Lord be merciful to me a sinner Luk. 18. 13. and he was justified hand and tongue went together some forget to pray because they have too much of the world and some neglect because they want it and must work early and late but 't is a misery and a sin not to be excused in any pray if you be rich and pray if you be poor or else thou sayest in effect God I have nothing to do with thee don't say you forgot it for that is a soul-careless trick few forget their dinner but it is better to fast all day than not to pray in a day and a little meditation does well what ask of God and not think what to ask or why they who have most grace have something to ask and they that have least have something to ask but they that have none have all to ask for they want Christ pardon and every thing yet God will give them his holy Spirit if they do but indeed ask it Luk. 11. 13. Ask then and down upon your silken knees O ye great Lords Ladies and others that you might have his holy spirit and his heavenly will revealed in and to you so as to do it live it and love it it will be your glory heaven and happiness for ever if you do so indeed but if you slight him now you will need him miss him and want him hereafter and never find him 'T is a mercy to have many good things in this world but what a misery is it if you should have all and be said Son Remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things Luk. 16. v. 25. therefore he is comforted and thou art tormented A Scripture that made Gregory the great weep or tremble as himself said for fear to think lest he had received his good things Come Heaven 's a sweet Cake but who would eat it before-hand or take Earth for it Sweet-meats are the last dish but it will be sowr sauce if you lose all in conclusion Read to the end of the Chapter Come come a godly Life is best and best for you great Countesses and you Ladies more elderly and young ones too though you be not twelve or thirteen Let head and heart remember that and what Angelical things you would be if you would begin betimes as the best did Josiah Samuel Timothy John were all young Saints and the most eminent in the Book of God the last leaned in Christ's bosom dipt his Pen and his Quill in the Love of God and strows all his Epistles with it But how frail a thing is man and you are the same or more The Venice-glass is soonest broke that sings walks talks and yet is gone as a Tale Dream or Watch in the night And he is no man that does not need mending more than a Watch and oftner winding up to mind Heaven and heavenly things For this world is bad and too bad too mend one and make it better mend one and draw twenty great persons do alwaies so for many follow them and their Examples which way soever they go When Magistrates hearts are towards God the People's are so too And when Magistrates hearts are towards the People the Peoples hearts are towards them Love begets Love and they that do not love will not be beloved Love comes down good Parents Magistrates Masters and Landlords too if they be kind and love them beneath But the Love of God is the best Love of all therefore Magistrates Ministers and People should all love him and you Ladies which are uppermost in this world will be lowermost in Hell if ye forget him True Love seeks how to please him If you love your Lords much that is well and it is but your duty but if ye love Christ less that is ill but if God not at all he will never care for you nor what becomes of you when Honours have done with you and you with them 'T is better to love God now though you do not see him than not to love him and never see him Love God and he will love you with that Love which has no end nor never shall have Your Lord and your Husband will love you no longer after a little time but Christ will love you with an everlasting Love and draw you to himself if all things in the world are not good enough for you and your Souls If you love God he will give you himself the World to come and his Son for ever and your Soul shall live because he lives and that is most where it loves and shall be quite with him after a little while if it love him most But oh Love Love whither goest thou to love when
and sin out we might well say The worst is gone and the best is come praise be to him that maketh the change and is unchangeable in himself Mal. 3. 6. and in all his Attributes And he is a Fool that saith There is no God or That the Love of God hath not wonderfully appeared to Mankind by Jesus Christ Titus 3. 4. Oh! be rich in Faith and you shall never be poor in the world to come And they that are most full of that have most comfort and experience too of his Faithfulness Faith is the Life of the Soul and Christ is the Life of our Faith Oh! live upon him and you shall live with him and never dye Joh. 17. 24. Do not be offended with him nor they that are his Great and many waves have beat upon the Rock but the Church remains still and the Gates of Hell Sin Death and Despair nor Enemies neither shall ever prevail against it Matth. 16. 18. Some set their hearts upon God others against the Church but those that maliciously persecute good men will find ill Rewards Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Act. 9. 4. 'T is a mad thing to be furiously mad against good people If ever we expect to be happy we must be holy and hate no man for it for without it no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. But the Devil tempts men to sin and then to despair and good men are full of doubts after sinning Oh! begin to live to God before you dye and a man may live sin dye and be utterly lost in a little time some thieves rob a long time others are quickly taken and executed but Gods patience is great towards most men yet some have but little sport for their souls airy Sparks ride post and quickly sin away their time but fair and soft is too fast to hell and the Devils and death would not be half so troublesom were it not for sin but he that leads a good life takes a great deal of comfort with him to his end and that death of his frees his soul for ever nothing can trouble in heaven unless it be want of living or more living unto God on earth and nothing can be more terrible in hell than to think there was a time they might but 't is past 't is past Simeon and Paul desired to dye Luk. 2. 29. David and Hezekiah desired to live 2 Kin. 20. 3. and it was well enough for them and his servants any way For whether we live or whether we dye we are the Lords Rom. 14. 8. for if indeed we be so we can never dye amiss A wise man never looses his wisdom though he be a sleep nor a good man his grace though he be catcht away before he is aware yet it is best to do as Job sayes Wait for our Change Job 14. 14. Death is never the nearer nor farther off for minding or not minding and young men have it at their backs as well as old men in their faces yet the familiar rising of it in our thoughts will make it less strange and more welcom when it comes if it be from trouble to comfort and not from light to darkness and the dungeon of darkness where light shall never be Oh that sinners would prevent weeping by weeping and their own misery by becoming God's Servants as a good Lady said If he be not a better Master than any do not serve him but if he be a better Master than all as certainly he is oh serve him serve him day and night O ye Lords Ladies Gentlewomen and others and ye would quickly be content so to do if ye did but taste how gracious he is and how much better to you than you deserve Sin and Sinners desert is Hell Oh! 'T is mercy to us all to have any thing on this side that and all misery to be there Though we came into the world alike and must go out yet let 's not live alike but say you as Joshua did I and my house will serve the Lord Joshuah 24. 15. Oh! hazard your credit if it be counted discredit to fear him for 't is not unlovely or not commendable to love what is most lovely Christ and his wayes Great peace have they that keep his laws Psal 119. but ill company will commit evil for company and two or three men were lately stabbed by their companions who haunted ill houses but good company never hurts and the house of mourning is better than the house of feasting many times And Bishop Cranmer was troubled for but drinking at Queen Mary's court because she would not hearken to the Gospel nor his Counsel in King Edward s dayes and good men should every where savour of the fear of God be much in self-tryal and in self-denial too and to take up his cross when Christ layes it before him as that good man did at the stake for his counsel or sticking to the word of God but the worst of Christ or suffering for him is better than the best of all the world Paul and Silas sung in the Stocks Act. 16. 25. so did Hampshire Philpot in Bonner's Cole-house He learns Christ well that learns to follow him through thick and thin He left his life to save us we find ours in following him Christ dyed to give Life and Repentance Act. 3. 26. And no man ever repented for serving him in a just Call A wise man provides for his Family and saves his Soul by his Skin or Sufferings many times Some have bewailed the day of their Birth as Job did through the greatness of his grief chap. 6. 2. None the day of Conversion or Marrying unto Christ or Tryals for him when he stood by them And this is a sweet Promise I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Isa 49. 14 16. Isa 43. 1 2 3. But the Forsakers of God shall be forsaken Short Sayings of the Wise or Q. Mary 's Martyrs WIll you now most Noble Ladies take a few short and serious Sayings from the Wise pore and ponder on them but a little which are as Goads and Nails fastened by the Master of the Assemblies that is Christ saith Solomon Eccles 12. 11. for it is meant of him And this was a good one of Sir Francis Compton Oh! keep close to Religion for that brings Peace at the last Hold out Faith and Patience saith Boulton It 's but one Stile more and we shall be at our Father's House said a brave Martyr When shall I be dissolved and be with Christ saith another Lo here I am let them do with me what they please but don't you meet me at the last Day in an unconverted state Said a good Man to his Children in a dying Hour and they weeping for him he cried What a deal of do is here to let a Man die and go Home And so with Heavenly Counsel fell a sleep Perkins converted Northampton Boulton And Brave Learned Famous Bishop Vsher desired to Die as
greatest of all Sinners said St. Paul And if I were equal says Deering in holiness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob and had the purity of Angels yet I would confess my self a Sinner and expect no Salvation but in Christ and from his Righteousness And if I had the excellency of all Creatures in Heaven and Earth I would still rely upon that for as there is but one Sun for all the World so there is but one Communion and Saviour for all Saints Oh! that I might live more to him or die to go to Heaven says a Father He is my Life he is my All said another And whenever thou art tempted to Uncleanness Lust or Pride consider what thou art already by Sin in respect of its desert and punishment and what thou shalt be in the Grave when thou hast lain a Month or two there and thy thoughtful Lusts and Plumes will quickly fall as the Soul is the Life of the Body so God is the Light and Life of the Soul When the Soul departs the Body dies and so the Soul dies too when God leaves it for when he forsakes us he utterly overthrows us and gives us a deadly Wound But Anselmus says That Christ died for Elect Men and Angels For Men that they might rise out of Sin and for Angels that they might not fall into it And if they should go to Hell that do not feed the Hungry and cloath the Naked Mat. 25. 42. what will become of them that oppress the Poor and take from them Prov. 14. 31. Ezek. 12. If want of Charity shall be Tormented what will become of Covetous Oppressors One said of Gregory the Great That he was the worst and the best Bishop worse than all that went before him and better than all those that have succeeded who used to be troubled when he read these words Son remember in thy Life-time thou receivedst thy good Things Luke 16. 25. A great Preacher said in his Life-time he was often tempted to despair but God gave him strength to overcome it But the same subtile Serpent in my Sickness would have persuaded me That my Labours and Fidelity in the Ministery had even merited Heaven but blessed be God that gave me strength to overcome him by bringing these two Scriptures especially What hast thou that thou hast not receiv'd 1 Cor. 4. 7. yet not I but the grace of God which was with me 1 Cor. 15. 10. These Texts made the Enemy get away ashamed Fools go laughing to Destruction as well as to the Correction But do any thing with me says another so thou save my Soul I had rather be in Hell without Sin than in Heaven with it Sayes Anselmus Ambition is a gilded Misery a secret Poyson and an hidden Plague the Parent of Envy the Original of Vice and Moth of Holiness Oh the unhappiness of great Men said a great Earl in the Tower that know no other end of their Greatness than to abuse Inferiours Young men middle-aged and old are oft surprized by Death and Ladies too while the Gown is making But this is life eternal to know thee the eternal true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17. 3. And said a great Scholar and English Gentleman now in being I have studied almost all the Learning in the World and find more mystery in that short saying of Paul to Timothy This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. But when we consider what was done to John Huss of Bohemia and Thomas Cranmer Bishop of Canterbury in Queen Maries days we have just reason in this Land to fear the worst Dr. Cranmer was discourst about the lawfulness of King Henry's Divorce from Queen Catharine his Brothers Wife and his judgment was The King would do well to consult the Word of God and take able Divines counsel This advice was hearkned to and he sent for by the King and so dispatch'd away to Rome to dispute it with the Pope and the Earl of Wiltshire Ambassador along with him And it is said when they both came before the Pope the Pope put his Foot out for them to kiss the Earl's Spaniel being young fond and foolish and it may be train'd up catcht him by the Toe but however Cranmer and the Earl both scorn'd to kiss after him and presently after his return he was made Archbishop of Canterbury and soon after the Proverb grew Do him but a shrewd turn and he will be your Friend as long as you live And some say by Nature he Was a very Charitable Man I wish you Ladies for your own sakes were so too But we have no reason to complain nor I hope never shall against your most Noble Sex He was the freest from Passion of any man in the World But when they had set him upon a high Scaffold in Queen Maries dayes to make his Recantation for owning the Protestant Principles Dr. Cole having made a sad Popish Sermon to him to take his Death patiently and to rejoice in his Conversion as he called it After Sermon Cranmer said Pray you good People pray for me who have contrary to Truth and my Conscience for fear of Death Signed a Writing of Recantation for which this Hand of mine shall be first burnt holding it up with many tears running down his cheeks and at the fire he held it out that all might see it first burnt never stirring of it but once to wipe his Face to the grief of many Beholders in the Year 1556. But for John Huss he was burnt in the Year 1415. There being a Council about three Popes the Cardinals being divided after Alexander the fifths Death to which Council the Emperor commanded John Huss to go giving him his safe conduct to pass and return in which journey he preacht and set up letters of his judgment in every City At Constantine he was sent for by the Cardinals imprisoned and tyed up to a Rack against a Wall many Nobles and Lords of Bohemia petitioned for him but that would do no good But a good thing it is for great Lords to appear on the behalf of poor Ministers when imprisoned and persecuted for the Truth yea there were fifty of them in Bohemia that stood up and petitioned for him and Jerom of Prague A brave pattern for all Ages when the Truth is suffering but yet all signifi'd nothing For when the Council had degraded and condemned him he kneeled down saying Lord Jesus forgive them they know not what they do In degrading of him they pared off the hair so close that they even cut the skin off his Crown the Council having made an Order That Faith was not to be kept with Hereticks Going to be burnt they put upon him a Triple Crown of Paper all painted over with ugly Devils which when he saw he said My Lord Jesus did wear a Crown of Thorns for me and I will this for
his sake And now said they We do commit thy Soul to the Devil We believe it was in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost for usually such wickednesses are so pronounced But I said John Huss do commit it to my dear Redeemer Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ As he lifted up his head the Crown of Paper fell off but they put it on again saying Let him be burnt with his Masters the Devils And as they tied his Neck with the Chain he smiling said This I suffer for Preaching of the Holy Gospel singing three times with a loud voice Lord Jesus Christ thou Son of the Living God have mercy on me He told them at his Death God would raise up out of the Ashes of the Goose for so Huss's Name signified in the Bohemian Language in 100 Years a Swan in Germany whose Singing would affright all the Vultures which was exactly fulfilled in Luther But for Jerom of Prague he was so bold and zealous that he wrote certain Letters which he sent to Constantine to be set up upon the Gates of Noblemen and Cardinals shewing the purity and clearness of his Faith and Doctrine for which he was accused and that he was ready to come and make good all he had Preached His great Crime was he had thundered against the ill Lives of the Monks and Fryers but being taken into custody he was sadly used fed with Bread and Water and tyed almost Neck and Heels together so that he sell sick After a long time they required him to subscribe That John Huss was justly put to Death which he did partly for fear of Death and hoping to escape their hands But he soon repented saying before the Council All the Sins he ever committed in his Life did not half so much gnaw and trouble his Conscience as that pestiferous Sin When they had condemned him he said I Cite you all to answer it within 100 Years before the most High Judge of Heaven and Earth in the mean time I leave a remorse and nail in your Consciences He was bound to the Image of John Huss and had a Paper-Crown of red Devils painted on his head When the Executioner went to kindle the Fire behind him he bade him do it before his Face saying If I had been afraid of Death I had not come to this place for I had opportunities to escape but this Soul of mine in burning flames Oh Christ I will offer thee And for his Oration that he made before the Council it is said That no Tongue is able to express that learned Elegancy and Braveness of his Speech shewing what the Best of Men had still suffered in all Ages Latimer was a zealous Papist till Mr. Blinny converted him and then he was made Bishop of Worcester he preached twice a day and in Queen Maries days he was laid up in the Tower As he rode through Smithfield he said that had groaned for him many Years He used to pray for three things First That as God had made him a Preacher of his holy Word that he might seal it with his Blood if called thereunto Secondly That God of his Mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again once again Shall we not prize it Thirdly That the Lord would preserve Queen Elizabeth and make her a Comfort to the Comfortless Realm At his Burning the Blood run out of his Heart so abundantly as if all the Blood in his Body had gathered there according to his Prayer which struck the beholders with Astonishment In the Fire he stroakt his Face with his Hand crying out Oh! Father of Heaven receive my Soul and so died 1555. Ridley in the same Year writing to Latimer he said Good Father assist me with your Prayers for unless God stand by me I shall play but the part of a white liver'd Knight At his hearing he stood bare till the Cardinal named the Pope and then he put on his Cap. A Woman weeping for him a day before his Suffering he cried Ah! Mistress I see you love me not it appears you will not be at my Marriage to Morrow meaning his Burning nor will be therewith contented A Friend offering to watch with him he cried I intend to go to Bed and sleep as quietly as ever I did in my Life At the Stake he cryed Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Lord Jesus receive my Soul But the Fire being prest down by much Wood he desired for Christ's sake to let the Fire come up to him his lower part and Legs were quite burnt before his upper part so that he fell into the Fire He going one day by Water the Thames being very rough and the Watermen being a little fearful he cried Fear not you carry one that must be Burnt and not Drowned John Bradford was persuaded by Booker to enter upon the Ministry and he modestly complained of his want of Parts and Learning Oh! says Booker be not discouraged if you have not fine Manchet give them Barley Bread But being in Prison Condemned one comes running to him Oh! Mr. Bradford I bring you heavy News you must be burnt to Morrow I saw your Chain a buying At which he plucked off his Cap saying I thank God for it the Lord make me worthy lifting up his Eyes to Heaven saying Life with God's displeasure is worse than Death and Death with his true Favour is better than Life Oh England repent of thy Sins repent beware of Idolatry and false Preachers and take heed they don't deceive you A good Prayer And to another he said Be of good comfort my Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord. He was so Charitable that in a hard Time he sold his Jewels and Rings to relieve them that were in Want He was so humble that he often subscribed some of his Letters The most miserable hard Hearted unthankful Sinner John Bradford a painted Hypocrite Rowland Taylor was a great Preacher and would often visit the Poor and Sick and relieve them too when Bedridden but being threatned by the Bishop's Pursurvant he said I know my Cause to be so good and just that I will appear before them and to their Beards resist their false Doings I fear not their Lordly looks nor the Proudest of them all Going to the Fire he told the Sheriff I shall deceive a great many being a fat Man for said he I thought the Worms in Hadley Church-yard must have had me but now I see I must be Burnt Giving one or two Leaps and said God be praised I am almost at Home But the People cryed Oh dear Father and good Shepherd God help and succour thee as thou hast done us many times and our poor Children and so they went weeping all along the Streets for him To whom he said I have preached to you God's Truth and Word and now am going to seal it with my Blood In the Flames he cried Merciful Father of Heaven for Jesus Christ my
called God's because God contrived and designed this Way of justifying Sinners from Eternity therefore says Paul God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Sins 2 Cor 5. 19. Secondly It is called God's Righteousness because Christ who was God as well as Man wrought and brought it about yea he alone brought it about And therefore it is said of the People There was none to help and mine own arm brought salvation Isa 63. 5. Then what an injury and dishonour do the Papists unto Christ in bringing so many He and She-Saints in to share with him now the work 's done Thirdly it is called God's Righteousness Rom. 10. 3. because it is imputed reckoned implied and discovered to us by the holy Spirit of God working Faith in our hearts But then secondly it is frequently called Christ's Righteousness because Christ as man in our nature stead room and place wrought it for us not Christ and Peter not Christ and Paul the Disciples all slept and Christ prayed and sweat alone bore all the wrath and hung upon the Tree for us bore our sins in his own body dead buried and rose again for us well may he be called as he is the Lord our Righteousness and the Justifier of the Vngodly Thirdly it is called Abraham's Righteousness he being the Father first and most ancient Saint of God and he to whom the promise next Adam or rather Eve was most eminently made and therefore saith God In thy Seed that is in Christ shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 22. 17. Not that it is indeed his any more than Isaac's Jacob's or any other Servant of God's that shall believe the promise as he or they eminently did Isa 51. 1. We are bid look unto Abraham do and go unto the same Pit as he did namely Christ for Righteousness for as God justified him so just so and no otherwise will he do by you and all us that do believe in him Fourthly it is called the Gentiles Righteousness that is the Heathens and Ungodly Sinners such as were without God in the World and did worship instead of the true God Moloch Bell and the Dragon Mars Venus Jupiter and Apollo and the Devil in an hundred Idols consecrated Trees and Four-footed Creatures Now to these miserable Gentiles was Christ promised and sent and he shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles Isa 51. namely Christ that is a right understanding to worship the true God that made Heaven and Earth which Papists yet so much continue in by worshiping Pictures Shrines Images and the consecrated Host a little Half-farthing Wafer and for which not doing they have burnt and murthered thousands A thing most cruel on one hand and irrational on the other yea more than the Persians worshiping of the Sun a thousand times for that 's a glorious creature though it be but a creature Now from these Gentiles we came and are of their Race yet by Christ and his Righteousness which is called the Gentiles we are made near though otherwise Strangers and Aliens But fifthly as it is called God's Christ's Abraham's and the Gentiles Righteousness so it is called Faith's Righteousness also Rom. 10. 6. That the Righteousness of Faith might come unto the Gentiles Rom. 9. 30. And it is called Faith's Righteousness first because by Faith we see it lay hold on and believe in it to the saving of our souls Faith is an eye that sees Christ and his Righteousness Faith is an hand and receives Christ and his Righteousness Faith is an ear that hears Christ and his Righteousness when 't is preached on And all my Sheep follow me says he and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Joh. 10. 28. For with the heart man believes saith St. Paul and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation What Confession namely this That God has raised Christ from the dead and made his life and death a Righteousness for poor sinners which alone is the ground of their justification and eternal salvation in the highest Heavens also And for this and this alone and denying Mass Purgatory and Works of Supererogation and for denying the Popes Infallibility and Supremacy have thousands and thousands been massacred and murdered in the Christian world but when did any Protestants put any Roman-Catholicks to death meerly upon the account of their Religion or how very few have they been Thomas of Becket Bishop of Canterbury was knock'd on the head by 3 or 4 Blades at Court for quarrelling with the King or interrupting of the Laws and some-body else by a just Law hang'd for a Gun intended against a better much greater King and for this one is Sainted and the other may be too in a little time But Faith and its Righteousness teaches us none of these but to submit to Kings and all lawful authority that we may live peaceably and quietly under them in all righteousness and honesty Rom. 13. 1. But sixthly this Righteousness is called the Saints Righteousness that is all sanctified men women and children and Righteousness in the world for a Saint is nothing else in a strict sense but a man or woman truly fearing God and a little of the true fear and grace of God in the heart makes any man or woman in the world so in the account of God and the holy Scriptures for 't is not Notion Gifts Parts great and humane Learning but saving truth that make a Saint And all the humane learning in the world says Hintius will not rectifie the crooked nature of man as instance Socrates and Aristotle the one being a covetous wretch as ever liv'd and the other keeping a common Strumpet for his Lust But a little saving grace will bridle men from all sin when bare humane knowledge cannot nor all the Brass Tin and Copper in the world make a dram of Gold nor all the common gifts parts and wit of men which I speak not in the least against no not in the least but reverence it and them that have it yet I say 't is grace and the sanctifying grace and Spirit of God in the heart that makes a Saint and whoever has any thing of that more or less for some have much more and some much less than others yet whoever has the least sanctifying measure of the Truth in his Heart is a Saint and Servant of God be he Noble or Ignoble High or Low Rich or Poor Learned or Unlearned and for this see these Texts or Scriptures at your leisure Phil. 1. 1. Col. 1. 2 12. Ephes 4. 12. Chap. 3. 8. Heb. 6. 10. And therefore if any fine young Lady Gentlewoman or others have but a little love to Christ the Word Ways Things or Servants of Christ she may be a Saint as well as the greatest they were called at the first Disciples Brethren 2 Joh. 1. 2. Jam. 1. 2. Christians Acts 11. 26. Saints and Believers Acts 5. 14. 1 Tim. 4.
12. And we are now lately called Protestants from the seven Princes of Germany protesting against the Pope's Supremacy but are indeed the true real Catholicks because we hold the Universal truths which were from the Beginning are and shall be so to the Worlds end the main of which is the Worshipping of God in and through Christ and loving Him and his Son for ever But many beyond Sea are called Lutherans Calvinists and Hussites for following those great Lights and their Doctrine But now this Righteousness of God Christ Abraham Jews Gentiles and Believers is called the Saints for two or three Reasons First Because it is this that makes them so Christ's Righteousness is our Justification and Sanctification too before God and it is that and his holy Spirit sanctifying of us which makes us Saints in the Eyes of God and before Men in this World too take three distinctions and they will end 20 disputes about this Point ☜ for Christ justifies us before God by his Blood Life and Death Faith that is the object of Faith Christ justifies us in our own Consciences so that it is not so much Faith in a strict sense as Christ by Faith Justifies us and that too And indeed Faith being imperfect at the best needs a Christ for Justification as well as other Graces though it still shews us Christ as in a glass for our justification and good Works which are really so and the fruits of God's Spirit namely good Works these do justifie us before Men And therefore says Christ let your light so shine before Men that they may see your good Works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven Mat. 5. 16. And says St. James Shew me thy Faith by thy Works and do not tell me so much thou hast it but let me see it by thy Works So that to God we must plead the Blood of Christ and nothing else and to our Consciences shew the Blood of Christ and witness all to others by good Works and a Godly Conversation and this is the Saints visible and invisible Justification And now had I the Tongue of Men or Angels 1 Cor. 13. 1. I could never enough set out the Blessedness or Blessednesses of Men or Women that do Hunger and Thirst that is Long Love and secretly wish and pray for day by day this Righteousness and to be found in it namely this of God and Christ and the sanctifying graces of his Spirit for they shall be satisfied yea they shall certainly be satisfied in the discovery of it and present comfort also yea in the everlasting wearing and enjoyment of it in the highest Heavens For as Kings Cloath all their Yeomen in their Gold Embroidered Coats So Christ the King of Kings doth spiritually Cloath the Souls of all his and by vertue of this They shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of his Father for evermore Mat. 13 43. Yea all his Rich and all his Poor and all his Gifted and all his Ungifted that hunger after it Here one has his Silken Suit and another his Thred-bare Habit here one has their Holland Shifts and fine Laces others want course Linnen but Time shall pass and Time shall come when all wants shall be done away and small Gifts and no Gifts scarce shall be equally happy with the greatest for all shall everlastingly shine as the Sun in the Righteousness of Christ which is the Blessedness here hunger'd after which is the White Linnen and the Wedding Garment so often spoken of in the Revelations Rev. 19. 8. And that which Paul would so feign be found in Counting his own Righteousness but dung and dross in comparison of it Phil. 3. 8 9. But Fifthly Our Lord and Saviour goes still on with his Blessings saying Blessed are the Merciful for they shall obtain Mercy Mat. 5. 7. And the merciful Man will be merciful to his Beast saith Solomon And now Noble Ladies give me leave to plead with you a little from this good Text The Mercies of God are dear and tender Things the choicest chiefest things in Heaven and Earth We have nothing to hang upon Living or Dying but the tender Mercies of God in Christ which he proclaims and shews to us Exod 26. And he was with Joseph and shewed mercy in the Pit Isa 39. 21. Prov. 11. 17. And A merciful Man saith Solomon doth good to his own Soul And if you will shew a little to some 30 or near 40 poor and fatherless Boys now in your School at Highgate you will shine as lights before men and your candle shall be on a hill and not under a bushel which Christ bids you do and in doing of it do good to your own so saith Solomon Prov. 11. 17. and in this and doing something for it you will to yours But you will say You have ways enough and need not a new design for Charity Oh! but you can never have too many ways nor do too much good in the world and if it be new 't is the more pity that so many brave Noble English Ladies as there be that profess the true Religion and are Religious also that they have not done some publick thing for the honour of it as well as old Sutton when you see so many burnt to ashes for the Gospel and that Religion which you profess Oh then do a little eminent and something that may have a little notice taken of it for the honor of their Lord Master Religion and your own also all which this would do surely the great and famous Hospitals of London are famours praise-worthy things and honourable to Religion and should nor you most Great and Noble English Ladies which all the world must needs give place unto do something for the honour of it If they did well that did build and set up them as you will not say but they did you cannot do amiss in a little countenancing this Those were done by some one particular person at first which would swallow up a great and whole Estate this would hurt no more than a little Tradesmans Bill because there are so many of you to join in this good and pious Work surely God will incline some of your hearts yea many we yet hope to it The Wiseman saith You will do good to your own Souls And we are certain it can be no hurt to your children come and take Christ's counsel and lay up treasure in Heaven where no Rust nor Moth nor Thief can ever come and to the merciful God will shew himself merciful But if you do not love your Souls care for treasure in Heaven nor the tender mercies which is the Rise Spring-head and Fountain of all we hope for or can hope for from God in this world or t'other you need not mind these sayings in this blessed Book of his Oh! but you dare not say or think so in the least for God and his mercies are your last and lasting Refuges Oh! then dear good Ladies
inherit the earth And as Paul in his salutation said Grace be unto you and Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ Col. 1. 2. And In as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. Now first there is a personal or particular peace that is a peace with a man 's own self Mind Actions Waies and Conscience Secondly There is a domestick peace that is with Masters Servants Husbands Wife and Children And thirdly There is a Relative Neighbour or Parochial Peace that is one Neighbour Friend or Relation with another And Moses reproved the two Israelites for quarrelling saying They were Brethren Exod. 12 13. Oh! how good is it saith the Psalmist for natural or spiritual Brethren to live together in Amity Psal 133. 1. Fourthly There is a National and Ecclesiastical Peace which we are to pray for and desire also But this is rather to be desired than expected While some men know more and others less there will be disputes and some differences for all men have not the same fancies nor Physiognomies but do differ there and in mind too However for peace and quiet sake let the strong comply with the weak and the weak not to despise and judge the strong because they know more than themselves And this is to become all to all men as Paul did to gain some And for God Christ Peace and Angels sake do you do so which was the Song that millions of them sung at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Shepherds yea the universal world saying Glory be to God in the highest Luk. 2. 14. Peace and good will towards men on earth But for your worldly outward Peace take Paul and Christ's counsel in a word and so shall you preserve and keep it First Wrong no man saith he Act. 25. 10. Secondly Forgive your Enemies sayes Christ Matth. 5. 44. which two Scriptures well observed would make a great deal of peace in the world especially amongst the best of good Christians But I shall not mind nor trouble you further in any thing of this nature about Peace above mentioned only this A personal inward Peace which is a thing of great concern for Eternity namely your Soul-Peace and for that take this great Scripture Simile or Parable of our Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 5. 56. Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him lest at any time thy Adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison Verily I say unto thee Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing which is as much as to say never never And now pray will you mind this young Ladies and Gentlewomen for you for the most part are most ignorant of the holy Scriptures and their meaning This is a true and great Parable of Soul concern and therefore Christ's counsel is serously to be minded by us Our Adversary is God and God though he be the God of all Good Grace Glory Eternal Love and Infinite Endless Mercy yet he is an Adversary to every Man and every Man and Woman by nature too is an Adversary an enemy at distance to him till he be reconciled by Christ for the breach of his most righteous just and equal holy Law Psal 119. 19. Every branch of which as it contains a beam of his eternal will and image is more pure than the Sun or gold tryed in the Fire as the Psalmist hath it Psal 119. 72. Now whil'st sweet life and the holy blessed Gospel is continued and preach'd to us we are in the way in the right way that we may be reconciled to this good God who is yet an Enemy and will continue so if we do not agree and make peace in the blood of Christ But he namely God delivers us by death any kind of death that kills us Consumption Surfeit Cold Ague Feaver Small-Pox Age Gout or Dropsie c. so that we be put into the Judges hands namely the good Lord Jesus Christ's who is and shall be Judge of quick and dead he finds us guilty of debt sin unbelief and breach of God's holy Law sends us and delivers us over into the Jaylors hands the Devil and he presently casts and carries us to Hell where we never come out nor can till we pay the uttermost farthing that is till we satisfie to the uttermost for God's wrong and infinite strict Justice for the breach of his holy righteous just and good Law which can never never be though we lie millions millions and ten thousand millions of years as Francis Spira once said Oh Lords Ladies Gentlewomen and other poor People make Peace while you may make Peace yea whilst Christ and the holy Spirit of Christ sweetly knocks with an Olive branch of Peace pleading with you at the door of your hearts Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock that is by good motions and if any one hear and open the door that is hearken to my counsel I will come in and sup with him that is give him pardon and comfort Rev. 3. 20. And so again Cant. 5. 2. Open Open unto me my Love my Dove and come away And now if you have taken his advice and have made your Peace by hearkening unto Christ and taken his counsel who is an Advocate Friend and Counsellor to plead for you to the Father by shewing of his Blood Death and Merit in a way of Intercession to the Father for poor Sinners then will he be a Saviour to you and not a condemning Judge to turn you over by Death to Hell and the Jaylor but will convey you safely by the holy Angels who are now your Guardians to the Bosom of the Father And now if you have made your Peace as easily yet you may if you have not and do but look about you with a grain of Faith through the Blood Life Death and Merit of Jesus Christ as I said before then you have little else to do but to study all kind of Peace in your Families Parish-Church and every where where you can come or go That ye may be called the Children of the Living God Rom. 9. 26. The Sons and Daughters of the most High God 1 John 3. 1. And so Peace-makers indeed And this frame of spirit with the Spirit of God in you Rom. 8. 10. will be a great Witness and Comfort to you that you are now the Children of God and if Children then Heirs as the Apostle sayes verse 17. and so Joynt-heirs with Christ O unspeakable Love and Grace What! an Heir with Christ Ay sayes the Text a Joynt-heir with him of what nay that 's for Eternity to tell but this we may say they are Heirs of First of Eternal Life and Resurrection from the Dead Luk. 20 36. But they which shall be accounted worthy of that world namely Heaven and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry