I am certain there is in this case You know August saying which is good divinity The sin is not forgiven except restitution be made of that which is taken away And now I have done only let me give you an account why I take on me this boldness to be thus plain with you Surely it is because I honour you as not only a Gentleman but a Christian one who have good things in you and a Conscience bearing witness to the truth and will not rebel against the light when it shines out but will yield an obedient ear as David speaks Psal 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me c. Prov. 28. 23. He that rebuketh c. Levit. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy Brother c. By warrant of these and other Scriptures I have adventured to deal plainly with you in this matter assuring you that my hearts desire and Prayer to God for you is that you may be saved And if it please God to open your eyes and touch your heart then it will never repent you that you hearkened to the counsel of a poor Minister but you will bless God for it as David did for Abigails advice 1 Sam. 25. 32. that you may make reparation for what is past and be kept for the future from work of this sort Let the Devils Servants do their Masters drudgery for such it is Rev. 2. 10. but keep you your self pure To conclude in the words of a wise Man but no Christian i. e. of Gamaliel Acts 5. 38 39. I say refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to nought But if it be of God you cannot overthrow it lest haply you be found even to fight against God Now craving pardon for this tediousness and prolixity and your candid interpretation I take leave and commend you to God resting Your Worships to be commanded John Hieron Losco Cozen IT is now a long time since I saw you But to me no little grief I hear an evil report of your lewd and ungodly course of life that you lead to the great dishonour of God the grief of your Friends the danger of your Immortal Soul and the ruine of your Family whom by wasting and your unthrifty courses you must needs bring to Poverty here and hazard their Eternal Salvation hereafter by your ill example and neglect of honouring and worshiping of God in your Family as every Christian is bound to do Now I pray you consider your wayes whether is Alehouse haunting keeping company with Drunkards casting off Prayer and all Family Duties the way to Heaven or Hell Is this to walk as the Gospel teacheth Soberly Righteously Godly in this present evil World Is this to follow the Example and Godly Education of your pious Friends who brought you up in the fear of God Is this to walk according to the Vow of your Baptism in which you were dedicated to the service of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and in which you promised to forsake the Devil and all his works the vanities of the World and the lusts of the Flesh Pray think how great a sin Perjury is to be forsworn by breaking a solemn Vow made to God in the face of a Congregation which God will require at your hands And how fearful a sin is Apostacy to fall away from your holy profession which sometime you made Read and tremble at those Scriptures Prov. 14. 14. 2 Pet. 2. 20. 21. Heb. 10. 29. Will the pleasure of sin for a season make you amends for the loss of Heaven and Eternal Happiness Can your good fellows and companions in wickedness save you from the wrath of God and the vengeance of eternal fire Will they or can they comfort you in Sickness at the hour of Death or day of Judgment Did the rich man Luk. 16. 28. think that his Brethrens company would be any solace to him in Hell Why then doth he request so earnestly that a Preacher might be sent to warn them that they might turn and escape the place of torment Lay these things to heart and remember your self in time before it be too late And as with the prodigal Son you have run away from your Fathers house and from your Duty so return with him to your Obedience Confess and bewail your sins to God as he did and forsake them and you shall find mercy as he did But do it betime without delay defer it not lest your heart be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin or least death come upon you unawares And if you dye in your sins Hell follows after Abandon the Alehouse and all wicked company set up Religion in your Family pray not only once on a Sabbath day I marvel where you learnt that but every day morning and night and break off all your sins by Repentance and pray for a new heart for why will ye dye Ezek. 18. 31. Despise not this Counsel but receive it as sent from God least it witness against you in the great day when every one must give an account of himself to God And it may very well be the last which you may ever receive from Your Vncle which pityeth your poor Soul and all yours Octob. 20. 1680. BEcause I pity your Conditions I thought good to give you some directions in Writing which you may read and consider and have them ready by you and your Son may ponder them as Mary kept the sayings of Christ and pondered them in her Heart because words of Advice only spoken in the Ear are soon forgotten and become as water spilt on the ground And what I write shall be words of Truth and Soberness taken out of the Scripture of Truth or agreeable thereunto And therefore you ought to give the more diligent heed to them In the first place I shall direct my words to you and your Wife and pray you to consider your waves and search and try your Hearts and see whether God hath not laid this affliction on your Child for the Parents sin◠for though it become not others to judge uncharitably of them who suffer such things according to our Saviours caution Suppose ye that those Galileans were greater sinners than all the Galileans I tell you Nay Luk. 13. 3 5. Yet it is our Duty to humble our selvés under the mighty hand of God to judge our selves to commune with our own hearts to see Gods name written upon his Rod Micah 6. 9. To hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Gods Rod hath a voice it calleth to us if we were wise enough to know the meaning of it to understand its errand Job 3◠31 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have born chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Imitate Rebekah Why am I thus And she went to enquire of the Lord. Gen. 25.
but not sordid she was a Restorer of his Life and nourisher of his Age So that two great and Singular things may be said of her that never Man had so great a loss in a Wife made up in a tender prudeut provident Daughter in Law she did the Duties of a Wife a Mother and yet lived and dyed a Virgin Oh this many a time warmed this good Mans heart and he would mention as a great and good Act of Providence Again all this she did for his Works sake for Gods sake for the Gospels sake in my apprehension what she did is a good gloss upon that Text Philip. 4. 3. Where Paul mentions Women that laboured with him in the Gospel not in preaching which is forbidden but in good Offices in ministrations and services proper for that Sex Such an one was Mrs. Anne Taylor a Phebe a Priscilla a Mary She out-lived her Father but I am apt to think a great part of her Life dyed with him because it was so much bound up in his Sect. 5. His next Tryal was his divorce from his beloved People Place and Work in publick August 24. 1662. Bartholomew-day was black by the destruction of the Temple by the Chaldeans about that time of the year It was black by the Massacre in Paris commencing that day called Clades Bartholomaea It is further black by the expulsion of Ministers stopping their Mouths stripping them of their Livelyhoods turning them into the wide world without any thirds or visible way of subsistance This day Mercy forsook the Earth sure when so many of liberal Education must be put to dig beg or Starve Hear O Heaven be astonisht O Earth Matth. 23. 37. CHAP. VIII Of his Behaviour when and while an outed Minister which he was to the day of his Death of his Removes of his Way and Work and of the various Providences that betided him in that part of his Life Sect. 1. HE supplicated Bishop Hacket whose visitation was not long after that he might have liberty to preach gratis at Dale Abby He pressed him to conforme he answered his place was disposed off and could I have been satisfied to conforme I should not have left my own People but the place I mention having no Maintenance is like to have no Minister unless some body be suffered whose Charity will send him out at his own Charge the care of that saith the Bishop must lye upon me which if it did he hath given account of it for of any Minister sent thither I can give none account Sect. 2. At Michaelmas after August 24th he removed to Little Eaton a Town contiguous to Breadsall Being loath to go far away he took up in a place where he conflicted with some difficulties but bare them and under some offers of greater Conveniencies pitched his Tent there and enjoying peace and quietness abode there three Years and an half doing good according to his opportunities till a new publick storm arose even a rough Wind in a day of the East-Wind wherein man did not imitate God who stayeth his rough Wind in the day of the East-wind Isa 27. 8. Sect. 3. And now comes the hurricane of the Oxford Act to scatter them whom the Vniformity Act had removed violently to toss and turn them like a ball to make them like Chaff before the Wind and as a rolling thing before the Whirlwind Thus did Revenge pursue without any new crime or provocation smiting with a rage that reached Heaven And thus they that were quiet in the Land must have no quiet in it but must be made as Vagabonds in the Earth and be like Dogs that have a twitch set upon their Tails that câ—n rest no where but must to their sorrow be put to find out the perpetual motion Under this Act Mr. Hieron fell was not like to swear what he could not durst not say So upon March 24. 166â— he withdrew leaving his desirable Neighbourhood and his beloved Family and sojourned at Ashby-de-la-Zouch and in other places amongst his Friends till Midsummer Then removed his Family and with them went to Newthorp in Nottinghamshire June 29. 1666. that House had inconveniencies but the opportunities of Service over-ballanced and there had some Souls it s hoped cause to bless God for his coming thither But the House not being Healthful he made another remove back again into Derbyshire taking an House at Losco after which remove he made none till carried to his long home Sect. 4. April 29. 1668. He came to Losco and there sat down and fell to his work He had some substantial sound good men in this Neighbourhood who did prize him and whom he prized Now upon this Section I must dwell a little and here 1 I find him at Little-Eaton Newthorp Losco c. preaching the Gospel as he had opportunity yet oft joyning in publick Worship He could be satisfied to be present at that Mode of Worship wherein he could not officiate He made his Moderation known his Sufferings did not exasperate him 2. When May 10. 1670. was come which made Conventicles a great crime and any number above Five besides the Family a Conventicle he Preached twice a day in the bigest Families and Four Persons with as many under Sixteen Years of Age as would come and then Repeated at home at night 3. In the Year 1671 2. the Declaration for the short lived Indulgence came out he was then set free and had full Meetings 4. When that Declaration was recall'd he held on doing but with the Caution which the Times forced him to and his Prudence directed in apparent danger forbearing but yet never desisting nor giving out and by this means he kept work on wheels and exposed not his Hearers 5. About those times he Printed his first Book or Sermons being urged to Print something And his latter Book he Printed because many Christians acquainted him with their troubles whom he always comforted and wrote that Book to chear the Hearts and lighten the Countenances of them that walked droopingly He himself would be chearful in Company to wipe off the slander cast upon Religion that it makes men sour morose and spoils good Company 6. Here he did many good Offices and was ready to do Civil and much more Spiritual Kindnesses though to his own trouble 7. He was Temperate in all things in Meat Drink Sleep Eat competently at Noon sparingly at Night Used not to Drink betwixt Meals nor after Supper A very close Student a great observer of what he read and a careful collector of most material passages which he could readily repair to and would upon occasion of Speech impart to his Friends He abridged Mr. Pools Criticks and added his own Excellent Collections and under his hand are there two Volumns upon the whole Scripture in which I doubt not but there are things that entred not into the heads of Criticks Rare things out of our best practical Divines Spiritual Glosses and most pertinent â—â—ferences for they
will not reject such And now what place is there left for your doubting If God do not shine upon you by the light of his Countenance yet is he your loving Father reconciled to you in his Son A Father is a Father still though he do not alwayes smile on his Son Go you on in your Christian course of Godliness serve the Lord with chearfulness and believe that your poor services shall and do find acceptance with Christ Observe that in Lev. 1. 7. So much as is said of the offering of the poor Mans Sacrifice which was but two young Pidgeons Another to the same Person IAm distressed for you What shall I do for you Oh thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted How shall a man comfort a Soul that refuseth to be comforted Your case is like Hagars in the Wilderness who was ready to perish through drought when there was a Well of Water by her but she saw it not till God opened her eyes Gen. 21. 9. like Mary Joh. 20. 15. who stood weeping for Christ who stood by her but she knew not that it was Jesus You have the Well of Water in you springing up to Eternal Life you have Christ in you the hope of Glory but your eyes are held that you perceive him not Like those two Disciples that went to Emanus Luk. 24. 16. You are in Christ there is no curse condemnation or wrath to come belonging to you you are washed you are sanctified you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God All things are yours Christ with all his benefits the Covenant of Grace with all its priviledges all the great and precious promises of the Gospel which are yea and Amen in Christ sealed in his Blood confirmed to you in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper God is your God your loving Father in Christ Heaven and Eternal Life is yours Fear not poor Soul it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom What shall I say more What can you desire more except you would have your name put into the Scripture promises You believe you shall dye because it is appointed for all men once to dye your Name is not there You believe the Resurrection of the Body because it is written There shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust yet your Name is not there The Scripture saith Whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ shall be saved i. e. Whosoever being truly humbled for sin disclaims all opinion of his own Righteousness and with Paul desireth to be found in his Righteousness only he truly believeth And so do you therefore you shall certainly be saved The Scripture saith Whosoever confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy Whoso loveth God the same is beloved of God Prov. 8. 17. He that loveth the Brethren is translated from death to life If you say these are general Promises How shall I gather assurance from them concerning my personal estate I Answer By looking into your own heart where if you find you are so qualified and have these Graces of the Spirit wrought in you viz. Faith Repentance Love to God and all Saints you may be assured of your Salvation as certainly as if Christ had said to you by name as he did to the Man that had the Palsie Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven or to Mary Magdalen her sins which are many are forgiven Mar. 7. 47. As to your vain Thoughts I can say no more but what I have said that neither they nor any other sin of infirmity which is your burden and trouble shall hurt or indanger your Salvation It 's the common lot of all Christians to suffer Afflictions outward or inward and sometimes both 2 Cor. 7. 5. We were troubled on every side without were fightings within were fears God is only wise knoweth how to order all for the good of his people Wait on him with patience until he shine on your Soul with the light of his Countenance and fill you with Joy and Comfort according to the promise Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Beware of unbelief which maketh God a lyar 1 Joh 5. 10. Believe his Promises believe his Prophets so shall ye be established 2 Chron. 20. 20. Beware of entertaining hard thoughts of God dark misgiving thoughts as you seem to do when you fear lest God swear in his wrath against you he did so against murmuring rebellious Israel who despised the pleasant Land and would appoint a Captain to lead them back into Egypt What is this to your case God is good and doth good is Love Light Life Grace to all that trust in him Read Dr. Mantons first Sermon on Psal 119. 68. where he gives a check to such as yours Page 473. You say true I have not prayed for you of late more carnestly because I hoped you had been more settled and at peace hearing nothing from you to the contrary Now I shall tender your condition I cannot as yet promise you a solemn day I have been very ill since I wrote to you and am yet far from well I pray you have patience and when God makes me able I hope to see you I am hasting apace to the Grave my Legs swell which together with old Age tell me the Grave is ready for me God grant I may be ready for it I pray read these Lines peruse them and ponder them in your heart and pray that the Holy Spirit may let you know the things that are freely given you of God Yours J. H. Mar. 9. 81. IAm not without hope to fall to work again shortly I pray therefore in your next let me understand whether you continue in the same mind to have a day kept on your account or whether you have found him whom your Soul loveth whether the Son of Righteousness be risen in your heart with healing in his wings or the Day-Star from on high hath visited your Soul I pray you let me ask you one Question Have you not received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and that worthily i. e. In a due manner becoming that Holy Ordinance with Gospel preparation and communing with your own heart in secret I know you have many times Now what is a Sacrament a Seal of the Covenant of Grace is it not Well then there must be mutual Sealing on both parts You put to your Seal that you will receive Christ with his yoke of Obedience with his Cross Persecution Did you not mean thus sincerely with a good and honest heart This is your Covenanting for your part which you will indeavour to perform faithfully all the dayes of your life though in many things you fail as in vain thoughts and divers other things And God Sealeth to you for his part that he will be to you a God allsufficient will give you his Son with forgiveness of Sins and all things pertaining to Life and Godliness
Are not you sensible of your your wants and of your beggarly condition Do not you not say with David I am poor and needy Psal 70 5. And with Paul Rom. 7. 18. in me dwells no good thing Is not your appetite and thirst after grace as strong as Sampsons was for water or Rachels for Children give me Children or else I dye Do you not thirst after more grace and covet earnestly farther degrees of holiness and wish you were the holiest rather than the richest or greatest Lady or Princess in the world If so then I question it not but you are one of the blessed ones in the judgment of Christ who is infallible and cannot mistake What have you to say against this I hope you rest satisfied about vile and vain thoughts which do not lodge in you but you repel them and reject them These may be your grief and affliction but are not your sin cannot prejudice your good estate nor ought your imperfections passions corruptions from which the best on earth are not free to cause you to question your justification or your being in Christ So long as you bewail them strive against them and are humbled for them your desire is to reach after perfection and further Measures of holiness These desires are of and from the Spirit of God And he accepts the will for the deed as was shewed in divers instances Nay this to me makes it clear if God account impious desires vicious ungodly inordinate lusts for the sin it self or deed done as Hatred with him is imputed Murder 1 Joh. 3. 15. Lusting after a woman though she remain chast is Adultery in Gods account in the man So much more longing and thirsting desires after grace are beginnings of grace and such desires God accepts and will fulfil them Psal 145. 19. provided they be gracious and holy desires humble desires springing from a broken heart from one that is poor in Spirit if they be constant unsatisfied vehement in the use of means and that a man so prize Christ and his grace that he be ready to sell all to buy the Pearl Now this being your condition what cause have you to leave your doubting and spend your dayes in rejoycing and praising God for his singular Mercy in conferring on you so excellent a gift as is saving grace which is so rare a gift like gold to be found with few persons but more excellent than millions of gold and silver Let your meditation of God be sweet and admire his wonderful love to you in Christ and how great things he hath done for you Yours I Am sorry that the Sun and Stars are darkened with you and that the Clouds return after the Rain But be not discouraged this is a case common to many good Christians and no other than befalls the best of Gods people Do not fear but the light will break forth again though you be under a cloud at present The Son of Righteousness will arise upon you with healing in his wings Be sure you regard no iniquity in your heart Keep you from every accursed thing Wash you make you clean cease to do evil learn to do well and mark what follows If your sins were as scarlet they shall be as white as snow if they be as crimson they shall be as wooll If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin Again If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World Now reach out the hand of Faith and lay hold on the promises and apply them for they are exceeding great and precious promises and they are all in Christ yea and Amen true and faithful And they are your promises yea directed to you in particular as if your name was put to them O be not faithless but believing And if you do believe with all your heart then are your sins forgiven according to the tenour of these promises Now are you justified and at peace with God through Jesus Christ O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt Doubts in Gods people may arise from one of these causes The heinonsness of Sin the imperfection of Duties or the weakness of Faith For the first of these know that the Lord thinks never the worse of any for what they have been for any sins they have lived in when once they have truly repented of them Ezek. 18. 21 22. You may observe in the Church that Christ never shewed greater kindness to any than to such as had been most notorious As the woman of Samaria Zacheus the Publican Mary Magdelen And whereas there is but four women mentioned in the Genealogy of Christ Mat. 1. not one of them but the Scripture sets a mark of infamy upon them for some notorious sins Ruth was a Heathen an Idolater Tamar Rahab Bathsheba you know what they were yet these only have the honour to be upon record when Sarah and women though more spotless are passed by in silence What may be the reason thereof Take it from Mr. Hildersam To teach us that penitent sinners shall have never the less honour with God shall be never the less esteemed for that they have done after they have once truly repented and turned to the Lord So you see there is no cause why you should be dismayed at the hainousness of your sins having repented of them For the next True it is that after Conversion we are but in part regenerate and so our best Duties are imperfect and stained with many corruptions Isa 64. 6. yet God doth not reject them nor us for these defects but accepts them 1 Pet. 2. 5. delighteth in them Cant. 2. 14. will reward them Col. 3. 24. Heb. 11. 5. and not so much as take notice of the blemishes that are in our best services Mic. 7. 18. Cant. 4. 7. Thon art all fair my love there is no spot in thee Let not the poorness of your Duties discourage you but remember Christ sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for you By whose merits Saints Prayers are perfumed as it were with incense and so are made a sweet savour to God Rev. 8. 3. And for the third know that it is not the strength but the truth of Faith that giveth us acceptance with God through Faiths acceptance of Christ Joh. 1. 12. As many as received him c Now a weak hand may receive a gift as truly as a strong A single penny may be as good and clear Silver as a bigger piece Among Believers Heb. 11 some whose sincerity we should have doubted of so weak was their Faith if the Holy Ghost had not put them in the Catalogue of the Faithful As Gideon Barak Sampson Jeptha Rahab Him that is weak in Faith we are bidden to receive Rom. 14. 1. Sure God