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A55489
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The life of Mr. John Hieron with the characters and memorials of ten other worthy ministers of Jesus Christ / written by Mr. Robert Porter ...
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Porter, Robert, d. 1690.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing P2987; ESTC R33944
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94,309
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99
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is a sore affliction to your Wise family and relations it impoverisheth your Estate causeth a neglect of your business and calling it unfits you for holy duties though you do not altogether lay them aside If you regard iniquity in your hearts God will not hear your prayer he heareth not sinners that is not such as live in sin for in prayer we are commanded to lift up holy hands 1 Tim 2. 8. Lay all these together in the ballance of the Sanctuary Weigh your Actions Do I well to turn from my Righteousness and commit Iniquity Do I well to forsake God the fountain of living water and to dig to my self broken Cisterns that can hold no water Do I well to grieve the holy spirit to bring an evil report on the holy ways of God Do I well to run the hazard of damning my Soul To encourage sinners in sin to harden the wicked and offend the godly to undo Wife and Children and make sad the hearts of my friends will it not be bitterness in the end I conceive you to be under a sore temptation The hand of Joaâ— of Satan is in all this you are discontented and pressed with heavie burdens of debt and some outward concerments and the Devil draws you to the Ale-house as a diversion and to drive away sorrow But this a sinister course a remedy worse then the disease as to be sure all remedies are of that enemyes prescribing Will any wise man hearken to the counsel of an enemy consult but your own reason Is spending your money and wasting your time laying aside care of business the way to lesson or encrease your debts If there were no sin in it it might divert your mind a little for the present Just like impenitent sinners who are convinc'd of the necessity of Repentance but because Repentance and Godly Sorrow is bitter to the Flesh they defer and delay from time to time and singer as Lot did in Sodom till a shower of Fire and Brimstone overtook them to their eternal undoing Be not so unwise as to make light of Eternal Happiness by giving way to Alehouse mirth and merryment which is a poor remedy and to be sorrowed for with bitter tears Prov. 14. 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness Now if you will hearken I will give you advice and the Lord shall be with you Repent and be converted and return to God from whom you are deeply revolted bewail your backsliding forsake your evil courses Enter not into the path of the wicked Prov. 4. 14 15. Pray lie at the Throne of Grace beseech God with importunity beg pardon for what is past and Grace to keep you from the path of the destroyer for the time to come Break off from all ill company Say as Psal 119. 15. Depart from me ye wicked I will keep the Commandments of my God It may be said he that hath drawn you into the snare will discourage you from recovering your self by Repentance by telling you it is too late your sins are too many and too heinous to be forgiven but believe him not he is a lyar he is a murderer of Souls Believe the Word of God the God of Truth which assures to repenting sinners that there is hope in Israel If we confess and forsake our sins we shall find mercy Prov. 28. 13. Isa 1. 16 18. 1 Joh. 1. 7. Psal 130. 4 6. I will heal their backsliding Hos 14. 4. Jer. 12. This course if you will follow to set about it without delay then shall you obtain forgiveness through the rich mercy of God in Christ Read and consider well the parable of the prodigal Son Luke 15. and doubt not of Gods favour and reconciliation and so the worst and most dangerous of your debts are discharged And for your Money-debts you may find a better way of cure for them than the company of good fellows in an Alehouse You have secret Prayer a sweet solace for a Soul in trouble Psal 119. 4. you have good Books to read you have Godly Ministers of the Word you have Christian Neighbours whose Society and Counsel you may make use of you have Wife and Children to delight and recreate your self in their company you have Friends and Relations not far distant who are able to give you advice if you will make known your case unto them and not smother your grief by reserving and locking it up in your own breast which is not a good way This is to keep the Devils Counsel till you sink under your burden with despair Take need of it I know your Brother loveth you dearly and is not so far off but you may have his help at hand and assistance to manage your Estate so as to clear all your Debts in a 〈◊〉 time make him of your Counsel and take his Advice I am no Counsellor in Worldly affairs I pray you regard what I say from God concerning your Soul and let your Brother be of your Counsel touching your outward Estate And so I commend you to God praying that you may duely weigh what I have said that my Counsels and Reproofs be not as Water spilt on the ground but rather as good seed falling on good ground that by Gods Blessing it may bring forth good fruit even true Repentance in you and amendment of Life c. Your Loving Friend for the Salvation of your Soul J. H. BEcause I have no Worldly good thing to present you with I now and then let a word of Spiritual Counsel drop from my Pen. I desire to commend to you one Scripture which I pray you to meditate on frequently Deut. 4. 9. Only take heed to thy self and keep thy Soul diligently Is there any thing in this World of equal concernment If the Soul be safe all is safe It shall go well with the Body if the Soul be saved If the â—oul miscarry we are undone for ever Shall we be careful of the Health of the Body and careless of the Immortal Soul Shall we keep our Money safe our Lands and Evidences of Estates and not keep our Hearts diligently Prov. 4. 23. Let us preserve our Money our Estates as charily as we can Death will strip us of all we must carry nothing away with us no more than we brought with us into the World Naked we came and naked we must return as to the Body But Spiritual treasure Soul riches will accompany us beyond the Grave to Eternity Our works shall follow us i. e. The reward of them O let us labour to be found in Christ to be made new creatures to be rich in good works for as we sow so shall we reap I was hungry and ye fea me or I was hungry and ye fed me not c. According to one of these will the doom pass at the great day Blessed is the servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing At that day an upright heart
that knew him did know that he had an excellency this way I have sometimes mentioned my own thoughts about some Scriptures and he would read me out of his Books what his sense was to very good purpose 8. He was Gray by that time he was Forty or before but though the Almond-Tree flourished they that looked out of the Windows were not darkened His Sight was something short but it held long exceeding good to the last he never used Spectacles could read a little Print without difficulty wrote by an indifferent Light readily and well 9. He was swift to hear his Brethren took heed how he heard He would tell his very friends that never any could take any thing ill from him where they missed it in any passages in a Sermon and some that now live acknowledge themselves much beholden to him for they knew he was accurate though not nice truly critical tho' not censorious exactly methodical though not limiting others but left them to their own method and way In one of his new Books he sets down thus Graces eminent in Mr. Martin Topham mentioned by Mr. John Oldfield in his Sermon at his Funeral November 3. 1658. which I desire to imitate the particulars follow in the close Go thou and do likewise Subscribing J. H. A like extract there is out of Mr. Ashes Funeral Sermon 10. He was zealous for God and his motion like natural motion was quickest in its end In many of his Books where he writ his Name he adds to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be zealous which considering the man and his course shewed the temper of his heart 11. At Losco he saw his Son disposed to a Branch of a Religious Family and she her self truly so the Daughter of an old Puritan the Sister of the very searching Mr. Joseph Truman A Woman of Vertue considerably endowed as to Worldly things and very happy they were in each other God hath made her fruitful Her Father in Law had great content in her and was very sensible of this good Providence He saw a Child Born that bears his Name 12. This Losco remove was a very happy one to Mr. Hieron and was a matter of Song to him in the house of his Pilgrimage Here was a great gathering to him from many quarters To the Carkass the Eagles gathered He was next to a publick place here had great numbers and preached as in his former dayes Here in a little time he had a choice Society of serious Souls amongst whom he administred the Sacrament in its stated times with its wonted preparations amongst these he had constant dayes of Prayer which upon emergent occasions were multiplyed and very frequent Here God gave him much success the Gospel got much ground some brought in and others brought on many that were bad made good and the good much better some were planted and others watered some got root and others better rooted He was as Joseph fruitful in a strange Land and because of this forgot his sorrow he saw God had directed his removes for the furtherance of the Gospel led him not amongst heaps of stones as it 's said Beda's Lad led him but was sent into several places to help them God led him into places where were well affected people willing to hear and were glad at heart of him They flocked in as Doves to the windows and many were the Children of this desolate Man he laboured not in vain he sacrilegiously deserted not his Ministry and the Lord forsook not him It may be said of him in a proportion as was Prophetically said of John Baptist Luk. 1. 15 16 17. and actually of Barnabas Acts 11. 24. he turned many to the Lord much people was added to the Lord by him Acts 11. 21. The hand of the Lord was with this scattered Servant of God and some numbers believed and turned to the Lord. 13. From hence he wrote many Letters upon divers occasions to several persons to very good purpose they are of the same make with his Sermons as he Printed so his constant Preaching was he went abroad in the same Cloaths he wore at home As he Preached so he Wrote such as his Sermons such his Letters proving himself as was said of Ezra a ready scribe Ezra 7. 6. in the word which the Lord had given A great wisdom he had in bringing down general Rules to particular Cases he manifested in them great concern for Souls and faithfulness to them Some of those shall be inserted in the last Chapter of this Treatise 14. Here God much appeared to him in many shines upon his Heart The inward movements of his Soul I have shewed in the outward Indications of them but there are some short hints of Gods dealings with him left under his own hand which spake him to be a Man of Communion with God that there were exchanges of Love betwixt God and him Some of them were before his coming hither but most of them at Losco Some of them the actings of Grace in his own Heart and some of them Gods gracious dealings with him in wayes of quickenings and comforts A Catalogue of Deliverances since 1642. 1. From my Imprisonment by Sir Francis Wortley from Plundering my House by Sir Rich. Fitz-Herbert when his men Plundered some in Ashborn 2. From being taken at Chillington it being taken when I was with Captain Jackson on our way thither 3. From Wingfield Mannor which stood nine Moneths after my coming to Breadsall from Ashby Tutbury and all Enemies I being setled at Breadsall a Year and a half before those Garrisons were taken yet all the time never affrighted Laus Deo i. e. Thanks to God 4. From Mr. H. who oft pushed at me yet the Lord upheld me 5. My Hay was preserved when others had theirs carried away 1648. 6. My Sheep narrowly escaped in a Flood 7. The Hovel fell my Carts under and Corn above all saved 8. The Outhouses fell May 1. 1655. many Cattle and some Horses in them yet none killed nor had any considerable hurt a small matter keeping the fallen Timber off them 9. My House and Goods preserved from Thieves all along for several years 10. Rachel i. e. his Daughter in eminent danger of Death rescued by Prayer 11. My Wife filled with Joy at her departure Laus Deo 12. My Mares feet shot from under her upon an Ice suddenly she fell one way I another No harm Laus Deo 13. Mare fell with me coming from Wicksworth No harm Laus Deo 14. Feb. last 1670. as I went to Nottingham Mare fell on me lay on my Leg long it swelled no Bone broken Laus Deo Thus much of Deliverances Noted and Recorded And then come Mercies which he ranks thus Mercies Publick Peace the Gospel Domestical What Parents Education Wife Children Servants God hath blessed me with Personal Privative Dangers Sickness delivered from Positive Health External Wealth Repute Of Mind Commonly my Eye-sight is good Laus Deo Saving Conversion