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
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
for our Souls And though our care be great for the Body yet a man may be as happy in Russet as in Cloth of Tissue A golden Cap and a rending Head a Silken Stockin and a sore Foot or a great Estate and the torment of the Stone or Gout in the great Toe is a grievous misery And I see sayes the Emperor that sovereignty commands no diseases nor the seas having set himself and chair on the shore at the Tides coming in crying back back and I command you proud waves back but the Emperor was fain to move And Bardue Coesar cryed I begot him mortal when word was brought him his only Son was dead which was the reward of Trophimus after he had finished the famous Oracle of Apollo and beg'd that which was the best for him and 't was promised in three dayes he should have it in which time he died But 't is our duty said Seneca to dye often yet one complained against the long life of a Raven and his own short but the old Romans counted it Ominous to see one and not two in the morning as if it had betokened Wife or Husband's death yet though that be the most known 't is the most unknown thing in the world The Sexton Clerk and Coffin-maker are most apt to forget their own though they nail up and bury others and the best Men Citizens and their Neighbours too when they have got their rings and gloves but 't is ill preparing for death when t is a burden to live Sick repentance is seldom true and 't is certain 't is labour and trouble enough to be head and heart sick and then a man can hardly do any thing but mind his ease or pillow Oh! put not off your Will but especially your souls weal and happiness to a dying hour My care was when young to live well and 't is now to dye well said a Heathen Physicians Lawyers and Ministers cannot be heard at once and it may be friends are troublesom too Come to live well is best and that will prevent the worst Oh! then play not the Courtiers part who some say do all things late Rise late Dine late Sup late and Repent late many times never but it is never too late if true but it should be of the whole man but when death has folded up mens dayes opportunities are all gone Moles see and Swans sing a little before they dye but a true Saint and a Simeon sayes let me depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2. 29. But the fashion of this world is to put men in mind of dying when they see they cannot live above a day or two longer but as I have lived uncertain so I now dye doubting said a wise man and a great Scholar yet after a thousand thousand millions of years eternity will be as long as ever sadly and suddenly will all worldly pleasures be turned into walking dreams and great Alexander is less now than a little whiteish to thistle down which the least wind or air rouls about the world passes away 1 Cor. 7. 31. time is short sayes Burroughs and sayes he the word signifies folded up to the last end or fag of it like a peice of cloth but eternity is still as long as ever Oh! set your house in order 2 King 20. 4. as the Prophet said to the good King if every one has not an house yet every one has a soul as well as a body and there be great affairs that concern both and the greatest wits in the world have been concerned for them said the Right Honourable the Earl of Northampton and have ever found sooner or later the power of God or Religion in their consciences yea the Great and Godly ones Oh my soul my soul said the French Cardinal And Oh mine said the wretched Pope And thou must never be merry more To dye safe is a good thing and the best of men are best at last and have heaven in their Bosoms and Breasts and say Let me go let me go Oh Christ thou are mine said another The Jews said God kissed Moses's soul out of him And the Minister said so he did a great Ladyes in Essex But though some men dye not so comfortably yet they all dye safely who have the habits of true Grace in their souls and many very bad men seem to dye quietly and go to hell like a Lamb in dull diseases consumptions senslesness and hardness of their hearts in sins for Satan can let men alone well enough when he knows he has them sure enough but 't is a sad thing to have a mans eyes never opened till they are sing'd and burnt open in hell break from him and sin now by true and timely repentance and you make sure work for ever Go forth go forth said one to his soul thou hast served God and trusted Christ many years and now Heaven is just at hand and this dying Body of mine shall live again as Job speaks Job 26. 27. and my Soul return with the Joys of Heaven to fetch it to it self Some say There are veins or strings in a man's Tongue which reach to the Heart and when they break he dyes But when heart and tongue shall speak this oh what a comfort is it in a dying hour Plato though a Heathen said All men almost were out of the way because they did not seek after the mind of God and that those did dye most comfortably that lived by reason and adored the first Being Therefore sayes Lucicrema to his friends when he had called for the Glass and combed his head Now clap your hands if I have acted my part well And Seneca sayes Since Nature has stamped a God in the mind of every man and the belief of him arose not from custom nor was enacted by a Law it necessarily follows there must be a Deity the belief is so natural And Cato sayes Epicurus did dread Death more than any thing in the world upon this account Lord Chancellor Edgerton sayes The Atheist and Prophane layes a wager with the Pious but upon mighty odds for one ventures his Life and Soul or the Life of his Soul for ever and the other but his Lust and Sin which is yet his Interest to be without and yet if it were on equal ground the disproportion is vast and infinite and what a sad surprize will he be in when by death he shall be instantly seized by horrid Spirits And this truth of reward and punishments will be tryed in a little time And 't is but a little while and every man shall be no man And though every one should strive to mend one that the world may be better yet may we not think that the world is angry with some because they are no worse When good men are sorry in themselves they are no better but he that is angry with sin and repents of it shall not easily sin in his anger when he
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
and then die and go to Heaven or else lie three days in Purgatory and from thence go to Heaven willing him to take his choice He presently pitched on Purgatory and his Soul went strait thither where he had not been one hour but the Angel appeared to him there and asked him how he did and that he was the same Angel that brought him the Message from God about his two years or three days in Purgatory Ay but said he You are not a good Angel for I have been here three years and you told me but two days No said the Angel it is not one hour yet O pray for me said he that I may come out and go to my sick Bed again which the Angel did and the man was very glad he got into the world again St. Francis writes just such another Story and God sent an Angel to him to know whether he would lie one day in Purgatory or one year longer in his Bed but prayed hard here and the Angel came and let him out before he had lay'n one hour and yet he thought his two dayes had been out so great were those Torments and therefore what a cruel hard hearted thing is it for People that have money to let their Friends lie there in Torment when the Priest can so easily get them out if they will but pay for it Ay and what a devilish thing is that of the Pope to keep them there for money especially if they be poor Gregory the Great writes of Tarsellus's Sister being dead cast forth a most fragrant smell beyond Oyntment Jessamy or Roses and that St. Hillarion did the like for 10 moneths together A French Doctor in Paris wondering in his mind how God should make the Bodies of his Saints to shine in the Kingdom of Heaven had immediately his Feet so transparently shining and bright that he was not able to behold them with his eyes but to cover his head and them with the Bed cloaths St. Anthony in one day past from Padua to Portugal St. Ignatius transported himself from Rome to Cologne and to Rome again in less than two hours St. Francis and St. Martinus were seen lifted up in Prayer to a very great height namely above Trees or Towers or any Steeples and continued praying a great while very visible to be seen A Gentleman of Noble Parentage became a Monk and went on with that courage and zeal that at last he challenged the Devil and bade him do his worst The Devil appeared and fought in his own Cell and made his nose and mouth bleed but with the noise the rest of the Monks came in where he lay as in a trance but they carried him to his Bed where he continued almost three days without any sign of life in which time by the company of an Angel who descended to a dark obscure place and saw a man sitting in a Chair and certain beautiful Women thrusting Torches in his mouth drawing them thorough his body again and many strange things which frighted the Monk and he prayed the Angel to tell him what it meant This miserable Wretch said the Angel was a Gentleman much given to Women and therefore the Devil torments him in the shapes of Women And he said the Angel that lay on the Gridiron rub'd with Salt was a cruel Lord to his Tenants Others had their Brains and Eyes beat out because that in their life-time they would not see These and such like Stories be in that Book which is big and large but has not a Primer-full of Divinity in it only a few moral rational things mixt with these kind of Lyes which they would teach men instead of the Scriptures and the Holy Word of God And if such kind of Divinity shall be Translated and Dedicated to agreat Princess what stuff is there in France Spain Italy and other Countries for which we may justly charge these two or three Scriptures against them and a hundred more were we minded who are Enemies to the Bible and the Souls of Men. The first Scripture is this They have forsaken me the Fountain of living Water and digged to themselves broken Cisterns which can hold no Water Jer. 2. 13. That is they have forsaken the Holy Scriptures which contain the waters of consolation and comfort for all thirsty and desiring Souls after God and Christ and the saving knowledge of God and Christ in their Souls and for the broken Cisterns that is the deceitful lying crackt unsound History Books of little Truth or Divinity in them And this is the very same which St. Paul speaks of in the 2d Chapter of the 2d of the Thessalonians ver 11 12. where he says For this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a Lye 'T is but one Lye all their whole Religion that is one great entire Lye congealed linked mass'd and coupled together by Time Policy Covetousness Deceit and Ignorance And a strange delusion is sent them by God ver 12. who can and doth most righteously and often punish sin with sin the Jews and Pharisees for malicious accusing and persecuting Christ and his Apostles with blindness to this day and the Papist too for abusing of the Word of God and concealing of it from the People to believe Lyes and Delusions God suffering it to be because of the Peoples ignorance and willingness to have it so not at all caring for his Word or receiving the love of and Truths contained in it about Jesus Christ and his pure Worship full and infinite satisfaction to the Father for our sins by his sufferings all which they are willingly ignorant of and for this cause or sin of theirs God has sent that is suffer'd Satan by false foolish Teachers Books and Lyes to deceive them that they might be justly damned for not loving regarding or forsaking the pure Fountain that is the plain wholsom Word and Truths of God but suffer their Priests to forbid Meats and Marriages which is the very Doctrine of Devils saith S. Paul 1 Tim. 4. 1 3. S. Peter whom they advance above all almost equal with Christ making him a Rock or that the Church of God stands upon him when as he is no more than another but says this against them that Christ is the Rock or precious Corner-stone on which all the Church of God and Believers are spiritually built 1 Pet. 2 4. and how his Word is a more sure Rule to us and that we ought to take more heed to it than if an Angel from heaven speak to us 2 Pet. 1. 18 19. Gal. 1. 8. And says St. John If any man add to that God shall add to him all the Plagues that are written in this Book Rev. 22. 18. Or if they shall take away any thing of this Prophesie God shall take his part out of the Book of Life ver 19. And yet you presume to alter or take quite away one of his Commandments Read this you poor well-meaning
Time drops Pearles from his golden Wings yea the Orient on 's wee for Butterflyes haz zard God Christ Heavens ioyes our Im̄ortall soules to Eternity all for nothing for nothing Call Time againe Call Time againe Cryed a great Lady when it was to late Prize it therefore as the greatest Iewell in the world THE LADIES Charity School-house Roll OF HIGHGATE OR A Subscription of many Noble well-disposed Ladies for the easie carrying of it on BEing well informed that there is a Pious Good Commendable Work for maintaining near forty Poor or Fatherless Children Born all at or near Highgate Hornsey or Hamsted We whose Names are subscribed do engage or promise That if the said Boys are decently Cloathed in Blew lined with Yellow constantly fed all alike with good and wholsom Diet taught to Read Write and Cast Accompts and so put out to Trades in order to Live another day Then we will give for one Year two or three if we well like the design and prudent management of it once a Year the sum below mentioned But if we be not fully satisfied that the said Boys are all of them true Objects of Charity or are in the least neglected to be taught the holy Scripture and Fear of God by good Discipline frequent Catechizing and orderly going to the Publick Church every Lord s Day Forenoon and After then we will not mind this our promise in the least or contribute any thing at all to it But hoping that the work may be good take Root find many friends last long be commendable in future Ages we be enclined to do as above mentioned not knowing but that a Kernel may become a Tree and a thing of small beginning prove popular and praise-worthy to the Honour of our Protestant Religion and in time find many Benefactors Also it standing so exceeding well and near this City's famous Hospitals which were not half so great as now However this little Infant being the first erected thing in our names and Dedicated to us as a Pious Work worthy of Encouragement we are not willing it should wholly die but to try the Expedient believing all good Works to be good and not to be repented of in Life Death or Eternity but the surest sign of true love to God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ And now 't is ten to one but some of your near Acquaintance as well as your great Relations may say Pray Madam let us trouble you with a small sum or a few Guynies to this good Work hoping it will be no sin to add a little Charity to your Ladiship And in such a case you may for the ease of your memory set it down in one of these Lines below and so you will be sure not to forget or wrong us Now a Lord or Gentleman's money will do almost as well for our School as your Ladiships only we will still ascribe all to your Honour For God's sake do not object any thing but read and see whether these Scriptures do not all seem to be for us The night comes when none can work that is at Death Joh. 9. 4. Be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful Lay up Treasure in Heaven Matth. 6. 20. He that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly 2 Cor. 9. 6. Make ye friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when ye fail that is when ye depart this world Christ may receive ye into his everlasting habitation Luk. 16. 9. He that observes the wind shall not sow or he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap that is he that makes excuses and objections Eccl. 11. 4. But cast your Bread upon the waters and after many days you shall find it Eccl. 11. 1. Give and it shall be given to you Luke 16 38. Charge them that are rich in this world that they do good and not trust in uncertain riches but be rich in good works 1 Tim. 6. 17. Blessed is he that considereth the Poor the Lord shall preserve him alive when he lay sick and not deliver him into his enemies hands but he shall be blessed in the Earth Psal 41. 1 2. And now he that gives in Life carries his Lanthorn before him makes his own hands and eyes Executors The Great Ladies do allow their House-keeper one bottle of Wine three of Ale half a dozen Rolls and two Dishes of Meat a day who is to see the Wilderness Orchard great Prospect Walks and Gardens all well kept and Rolled for their Honour's Families and to give them small Treats according to discretion when they please to take the Air which is undoubtedly the best round London Three or four short Reasons why you Noble Ladies should not let this little School-house die 1. It is but little yet you have done for Christ or the Honour of Religion being cumbred with many things like Martha you neglect the best 2. In this you imitate the best two Princes that ever Reigned in this Realm Queen Elizabeth and Edward the sixth who founded most of the great Hospitals As for Queen Elizabeth she hated Popery made Christ's Righteousness her Rock loved the Parliament City and Dutch a Cord hardly to be broken 3. It stands so well and is really dedicated to you who are the choicest Flowers in Nature What is beloved like you English Ladies no mortals more happy if sin do not hurt you Others have not the hand and purse Others have not the Climate Others have not such Husbands as your Right English Nobles are or were many of them heretofore No such Noble Seats as most of yours be You have every one a Canaan Milk Honey and the holy Gospel preacht and may that ever be and your lives exemplary whilst the Sun Moon and Stars endure But pray Madams why should Old Sutton's brave Hospital such and such Hospitals flourish but yours die yours who are certainly the best and greatest Ladies in the whole world May God Almighty bend your hearts to us Poor Boys who will ever pray for you and all yours An Essay or humble Guess how the Noble Ladies may be enclined to give to and Encourage their Charity-School at Highgate near London AND first my Lady such a one cryed Come we will make one Purse out of our Family and if we get so much we will buy a Close Mead or Field near the School and it shall be called by our names to the worlds end A Noble Motion My Lady such a one said She would give for one Year or two but settle nothing And my Lady such a one said She would give only to the Lecture which is every Lord's Day Winter and Summer about five or six in the Evening But my Lady such a one said She would first inform her self and then do as others did My Lady such a one said She would give at present because she liked the School-house Orders and its standing very well and was very much taken with the Wilderness and Walks And my Lady such a one said She
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
read often read this 51 of Isaiah 't is a sweet Chapter and tells you what shall become of Enemies to his Church and People and how the Moth or Worms shall eat them up like Wooll But that you nor your Noble Lord may never be we shall ever pray pray pray Right Honourable and Good Madam WE shall find in all sorts of Relations Spiritual and Natural that having done much for any that they love it engages them still to do more instance Paul Christ and Moses now God Christ Religion and Good Works have ever been the Beloved things of your heart so we yet presume that they still are and ever shall be to the last moment of your Life and beyond that none can love Your Right Noble Sister Warwick was in this most of all Noble for she loved much and gave more than any in the Nation of her great Rank yet now enjoys all things Oh Madam be not yet weary of well doing for you will certainly reap to Eternity what you sow from faith in Christ love to and union with him and may your union with him be more inseparable as it is than your Arm to your Shoulder o' your Soul to your Body yea these are not so inseparable as both are to Christ for though Time Sin or Death may separate them for a while yet Sin Death Grave nor Eternity shall ever separate either from Christ but because he lives both shall live and be where he is and what a little while is it that you have more to work for God Christ Heaven and Eternal Happiness Oh! when those Everlasting Mansions are really thought on it makes our Souls mount as the Lark our Thoughts and Desires like the wing and tongue of that nimble morning Bird to praise its Maker Madam we write not these things in the least to stir up kindness towards us you have enough and have done enough more than any for you really gave first of all and we doubt not in the least now our Year is up but many Noble well-disposed persons will follow your good Example and some of your great Relate us if you but give a little hint this way it being for so good a work as certainly it is and your Labour of Love to us poor Fatherless Sinners and others God's Saints and Servants he will never forget Most Honourable Madam 'T Is the Goodness of the Great God that he beholds things below and is good to the Children of Men yea all his Works may you from that kindness have your heart your lips and your life yea your soul fill'd with that Marrow which is from above no where to be tasted but in Religion or Communion with himself and when that is strongly moving in you how easie will it then be to prevail with you for a little kindness to an English Charity-School which is young and in its Infancy as yet but will soon become strong root grow and be a great thing if the Ladies be not wanting to promote their own praise for what 's more praise-worthy than to be good and do good to raise the Needy from the Dust Poor and Fatherless Children from Ignorance Idleness and Beggary to know themselves and God in Christ live another day in a hard world to this Good Work you and none but you and this great Dutchess in all your Kingdom are invited surely your Figures must needs be great among the English Ladies God Almighty bless both your Princely Families and make them and theirs to be blameless at the coming of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ pray one and all we Poor Hospital-Boys Most Great Lady IT is your Happiness that you have not a great Lord in his own Country only but a good one that lives well does well and is much beloved where he comes may you both long live have your Land and Country slow with Honey Gospel as it doth with Milk and Kine which is yet a great mercy fat Ground a good Climate holy Lives with heavenly Preaching is the best place to live in in the world and oh that this Nation were but stockt with more Prophets than it is and oh that those that be were but more countenanced than they are oh that the Pulpits were but more open than they are or like yet to be and Drones quite asleep dead we mean or out of the way that those that can Preach and would might yet be restored to the great Congregations A Preaching Minister is a Star or Finger pointing unto Christ a Golden Stick or Candle in the Socket a Silver Bell that gives a good molodious sound drops heavenly Dew and feeds with Manna Bread that comes from Heaven Christ Preacht and Christ broken in the Preaching of the Gospel is the Bread of Life and the Water too which he that drinks shall never thirst Give us this said the Jews Ay Christ's Flesh is meat and Christ's Blood is drink indeed We may all by faith think upon it and that is really eating in a Gospel sense May Ladies eat like Angels yea your Ladiship and live upon the holy Joys and Comforts of the Spirit have Fellowship true Communion with the Father and the Son be no strangers to the Love and Life of God who is seen in all his works What 's the Rose a painted blossom of his Beauty the little Pink and Violet but a thing of his which all the world cannot make the Honey-comb and Hony-drops from Heaven the early Dew sweet Showers and fruitful Seasons all Preach a good God to a heavenly mind the morning Star and glorious Sun and Beams Preach Christ and there is but one Sun and one Christ for all the world Many Eyes cannot see but all might were they heavenly never hurt or hinder one another and Christ is similed in these glorious Beams of his Beauty for the Sun is no more to Christ than one Beam or Ray May these Rays Joys and Comforts be upon you and yours heads and hearts and souls May you all know and dwell in the Love of God which passeth knowledge May your Children be all taught of God according to his promise to avoid sin the sins of the times live as Pilgrims and Strangers to noisom lusts the sins and pleasures of this Age And may your Love and Piety abound to us and our Poor Hospital-School or little Charity-house and in so doing you will imitate the Divinity who is good to all his Works yea the Spring that refreshes every thing the blew veins or bosom flowers come from or are refresht by that yea the Sun and Beams of it for though this glorious creature be millions of miles distant from us yet his Influences come down to us every day O send send something to us then although you be in Cheshire though you be where you will and then we will all pray that you and the whole Family that love God may be blest with long Life here and Eternal Joys hereafter Right Honourable
spoil so great a Gem and Jewel or Immortal thing Christ will save us now Christ will save us ever if we be but willing yet he will never bleed more but he prays and mediates for us still for he makes continual Intercession Rom. 10. 4. and his blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel that cryed down vengeance upon Cain but Christ's blood crys up forgiveness unto us Oh Father let them come to me if they will be mine Joh. 17. 24. And may you both dwell with him for ever but oh live a little if you have not live to him a little if you cannot much time being now short lay up as much as can be Treasure in Heaven where no Rust nor Thieves can come Lands Debts Rents and Houses may be all lost but Treasure in Heaven can never miscarry and if ever we indeed mean to come there it must be by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Money will not buy Pardon Blood nor Tears cannot nor the Fruit of our Bodies go for the sin of our Souls Micah 6. 7. But Christ's Blood is Currant Coin Oh stick to that Rock which will not fail when the Silken Stockin and the Silver Shoe must off and never on more nor the Soul return to the same Body Vanity of Vanities how is all but froth and vanity besides Christ and therefore if he be not ours we are lost for nothing for nothing but a Dream a Bubble and a Fancy yea and our Souls to Eternity Madam WE have presumed to offer one of these to the Lady Player Mrs. Love and Madam Pilkinton with a few humble Lines as now we do to your most great Right Honourable Ladiship from all which we most humbly pray that this Good Work which in charity must be so accounted may be a little countenanced by you the four Beloved Ladies of this mighty City for if any names be deservedly great and famous more than others sure it is yours and those other three above mentioned And may your Names live from generation to generation whilst your Walls and Gates last and your Souls to Eternity after all May Hell never be known nor Heaven lost by you nor none of yours especially your dear Husbands But may they be all four for ever Citizens in the New Jerusalem walk hand in hand with the Lamb and his Redeemed ones to the Fountains of Living Water where God shall be all in all and they alwaies drinking from the River of his Pleasures Rev. 7. 17. Psal 36. 8. So prays one and all our Charity School-house Madam THE great God and his Providence has made Sir Thomas the Father as it were of all the famous Apprentices of London and onely sole Judge between the great Merchant and his Man and not so but an Eye for the Nation also piercing through and through the greatest Intrigues Policies Stratagems that Malice Hell or Rome can lay against our King Kingdom or Religion Liberty and Interest Gems and Jewels of greater value than the Gold of Ophir in a true sense But in your sphere Madam this little little Work is not to be despised in the least but a Scriptural Honour it is to be owned the Lady of Charity and a Mistress or great Benefactor to one of their little Schools Light is light truth truth a spark is fire and true Charity praise worthy to the world's end and so long may your Name Praise and Honour live and our House also Madam LOve is from the Fountain and Divine Being of all good May that ever flow in your Name and Nature and be as natural to you as the Rose and Buds are to the Summer and then when this Spring and your Charity shall flow up in and from you to the barren Hill of Highgate where your School-house stands it will then become a feeding filling Spring too for Charity will feed us and praise flow from us to the famous City-Ladies names which shall never be forgotten but be fairly Registred and read from one Age and one Generation to another And now may the Love of God Almighty the pure Joys and Comforts of his holy Spirit ever abide with you and yours whilst you abide in this Tabernacle of Clay and he constantly guide you through the Wilderness of this bewitching barren wicked World till you come to the last period of Life and wrap you up then in the Righteousness of God's dear and anointed only Christ to shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father for ever more praies thirty six of us and our Minister also Most Worthy Madam THere are four Gates in the City four Seasons in the Year four Ladies nigh together that will hardly be forgotten but shall be beloved for their Husbands sakes their own too for their praise is truly praise-worthy their virtues all eminently specious But now dear Madam would it not be a high and great Honour to see you our four Citizens Ladies with your four well-beloved Husbands our constant Parliament men for London chosen more by hearts than hands and a many brave judicious sober Citizens waiting on them all standing one by one as it were on the brow of our Hill saying one to the other There is the Tower and the Monument the Old Change Guild-Hall and Blackwell-Hall which some would fain burn again there is Bow-Steeple the Holy Bible the Silver Bells of Aaron the godly outed Ministers the melodious Musick of the Gospel Smithfield Martyrs yet alive and the Best Society the very Best in all the world for Civility Loyalty Men and Manners with the greatest cash bulk mass and stock of all sorts of Silks Cinnamon Spices Wine Gold Pearl Spanish-Wooll and Cloaths with the River Nilus and the stately Ships of Turshish to carry in and out the great Merchandizes of the world And may all this with the dew of Hermon her Silver Drops with your godly Ministers yet unrestored ever be to the World's end and to your Live's end May you and yours be beloved as you are And now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and all Consolations bless you both in Spirit Soul and Body Sickness Health Life and Death here and for evermore prayes all we your poor youngest Hospital-Boys of Highgate and to help them is most Charity ever The old fares well thanks be to a good City and their Benefactors in it for which God Almighty bless them and their Government to the world's end with Peace Health Wealth Honour and the Power of Religion Most Honourable Madam THE Best have not alwaies Love boiling in them yet at sometimes nothing works so strongly as Divine Goodness in their Souls and now we think we see in your heart hand and eye all lifting up unto the Hills from whence alone has your Salvation and Deliverance been we think we hear you still say God has been my Helper my Rock and my Salvation and I will bless him he hath inclined his Ear unto me therefore will I love
your hands if once slipt and gone Oh! how much lost time have I to repent of and how little time to do it in said Sir Henry Wotton in King James's Reign Man's greatest happiness is to be good and at leisure to do good Delays and procrastinations of being good and doing good are dangerous And To morrow to morrow couzens many a one sayes a Father Therefore the Wise man sayes What thou findest in thy heart to do do it with all thy might for there is no device nor work in the Grave whither thou art going Eccles 9. 10. But he that dyes to sin daily makes the best step to this Eternal step of Death as a great Philosopher calls it which puts us not into another room but another place and condition quite away from all we now converse withal Relations never meet together more in the way and manner that they now do but the Father puts away the Son and the Son the Father and this Relation is never more nor the Marriage one neither Matth. 22. 30. Death is a Divorce for ever and though these Relations meet in the Resurrection-state yet is there neither Marriage nor giving in Marriage as Christ speaks to the seventh Brother Let Husbands love their Wives whilest they may and Wives their Husbands this step and journey will part them both for ever as one said to his wife a dying who had been married fifty years or upwards Oh me said a young Lady This is very sad that I must leave thee my dear so soon we have not been married one year what is there no Remedy and must I needs dye Truly yes he that lives must dye whether he be sick or no. We dye because we liv'd said one Death is decreed and we dye naturally our Bed and Sleep resembles Death and the Grave What is sleep but the shadow of it And he that will dye well must live well and if there be any thing after this Life Why do not young men take care to live well I did both saith Socrates though a heathen Live and Dye well go together What God hath joyned let no man put asunder for as the tree leans so it falls Eccles 11. 3. Men do not live sin-ward and dye God ward no no you must live to God and lean to God live and dye to God if ever you mean to go to him The Tree falls as it leans and lies as it falls If you fall God ward you are happy But if sin-ward you are miserable and ever like to be For after death comes judgment that is the stating of the Soul saith Burrace in an unchangeable state Here a mans condition may be mended but after death its never to be altered Faith and Repentance may be wrought here though it be at the last cast This night shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 43. Yet late Repentance seldom true though true Repentance never too late But after death there is no amendment nor Repentance neither Solomon hew'd and squared his Building for the Temple before-hand so that at the rearing of it up there was no noise of the Ax or Hammer heard Whoever God intends as a stone in the heavenly Jerusalem he fits before hand May you all be fitted all you young and lovely Ladies And you more elderly too May you all stand before the Lamb see him have his name and praise in your forehead Palms in your hands Robes upon your backs to cry with that numberless number of all kindreds tongues and people Salvation Glory Honour to the Lamb and to him that sits on the Throne for ever Rev. 7. 10. Yea may you all fall down cry not with the cry of Lamentation but Acclamation Joy and triumph which Triumph to the Godly will certainly be after all actions of Mortality are come to an end In the mean time all affections have two sharp ends the first and the last the first meeting and the last parting of Friends and Lovers is alwayes so And as Christ wept for Jerusalem and the hardness of the Jews whom Paul wished almost to be accursed for that they might be saved so the Jews shal one day be converted and look upon him whom they have peirced and mourn as for their first born Rev. 1. 7. And Paul's Friends wept sore when he told them they should see his face no more Act. 21. 13. But the Mary's wept Mary Magdalen and the Mother of Jesus wept when he said in his sufferings Woman behold thy Son John 19. 26. And the other Loved much because much was forgiven Mark 8. 36. You who have all your sins forgiven let the memorial of his sufferings dwell in your hearts and 't will make you weep to sin against him Oh! the kindness and favours of a good God are obligations to a good Soul May you all remember what he has shewed unto you at any time Were you never sick in dangers nor partakers of some special mercies Oh! keep the Remembrance of his goodness to your Souls But oh how little do rich and poor think upon this God and his goodness to their Souls which must stand before the Lamb as I said but now or be banisht from him for ever and ever or how little do they think of the worth Nature or Immortality of them What 's a fine Silk a fine Skin a fine Shape a sweet Face to such a Spark or Beam of God as the Soul is that came out from him and was breathed into man by him Gen. 2. 7. Shall this immortal thing ever starve dye and be forgotten which one calls the Breath of Life or the Living Breath which gives us Life Some never look their Bibles others never mind their Souls the whole world will not make amends for such a loss much less a vain wretched life of sinful pleasures and a few honours What! Careful for shape and fashion and neglect that which is the Breath of life or the life which gives us Breath as I said before Good Books are good Companions and the Bible makes glorious Christians when they so read mind it as to live up to it Queen Elizabeth lov'd it well and hug'd it in the Prison But vain Books eat up time and spoil many young Ladies and Gentlewomen but 't is not lack of time but love and relish to it that you do not read hear and pray more But what kind of foolish Creatures are many of you young Ladies to think God Christ Heaven Souls may be put off for any slight occasions or a Looking-glass You were not made for Birds or Butterflies to sing in woods Play Court or Dance in Sun But you are made for Saints to sing with Angels and go to God or else to weep in Hell Nay 't is so we will assure you and no otherwise there is but two places Look to the heavens and think well what he deserves that made them and you Psal 8. 3. and you to live in them for ever If
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
saved she presently ran mad to think she should mind little trisles and forget that Many scramble for a little Dirt Dust Gold and Honour but when Death comes they will cry out Oh my Soul I would give for Heaven so much said a Knight at Brumpton But it was once said of a Lady That she and her two Children did thrive in the Truth John 2. 4. We wish you and yours the like For the soul is more worth than the body yea than all the green and glory in the world besides And I would saies Sterry if God should put it to my choice that all the vines greens and flowers in the world should everlastingly wither rather than one soul finally perish for whom Christ dyed but yet yet for all this Christ is more worth being God-man than all the fouls in the world put together how much better are soul-comforts than bodily ones and so for mercies Oh! let me have the Cream sayes one and let others take the scum'd milk sorrow for sin and contrition is good but it must not keep us from believing and hopeing in him carnal joys breed sorrow but spiritual sorrow breeds joy and is a repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7. 10. In wicked laughter the heart is sad or should be for sayes Christ woe be to you that laugh Luk. 6. 25. but in holy mourning the heart is secretly glad therefore blessed are all ye that mourn for ye shall be comforted Matth. 5. 4. but some mourn for the shame and not for sin sorrow lies heavier on the wicked than sin but sin is heavier than sorrow on the godly my sin is ever before me saith David Psal 51. 3. And against thee have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight 51. 4. Oh! that bad men would confess and go to God by Christ and repentance if they don't he will never come over to them whilst the world stands but send them into hell 't is the height of wickedness to do ill and think it well done and go on swearers swear again and swear for grace and think it a brave thing to be damn ye and so do poor Rascals Dray-men Footmen Coach men and Porters and all for grace the of imitating huffing Sparks but little do such Wretches Worms Atheistical Heathen Mortals think what sins they brought with them into the world and what hellish damning and despairing fears will tend them when they are going out unless they dye brutish or like one that has no sense of another world Dr. Manto Dr. Manto Fetch him quickly or some other good man said one A Horse a Horse a Kingdom for a Horse said crook-backt Richard and more would these give if they were able if they did but know how the Devil waited for their souls 'T was Saul's Case and a sad cry he made God has forsaken me and the Philistines are upon me and the Devils the Devils will be about such men if they do not repent Christ paid dear for their souls but those that buy sins with damnation set but little on them Let none of us fool our selves sin will prove a deadly downfal if we do not rise by faith and repentance in the mean time it never did any man good nor never will saies the Practice of Piety 'T is one thing to sin and another to be overcome or taken by sin but 't is sad if that which comes from God should daily cause us to sin against and forget him yet high fortunes lead some men to sad lives and fashions yea they think it strange to say their prayers or do as others do when they are newly come out of France and exceeding modish Oh! my Son my Son said old Fox when he was just come from beyond Sea sure this is not my Son Samuel in this habit But 't is a less sin or less danger to offend Christ or one of his servants than to be offended with Christ or his Church yet the least wrongs his own soul Prov. 8. 36. and private ones have publick shame many times yet 't is a lesser danger to commit a sin we are inclined to delight in than really to delight in the sin we commit Yet Fools will be Fools though they go to Hell for their folly But a wise man and a good will weep and sigh to see a foolish laugh and sin Come Gentlemen forsake it before it forsake you or you be forsaken of God 'T is a hard thing to lose him and all for nothing or to look up to Heaven with one Eye and down to the World and Vanity with another And 't is hard to commit one sin alone Sin hangs to sin as spawn to spawn and links to links in a Chain 'T is easie and hard to tell but a Lye something or other will tend or go along with it Come throw up the purpose and throw up the habit of all sin and you may do well enough The pleasures of it are but short If they say to you as Jael said to Sisera Turn in my Lord Turn in to me fear not I will give thee Milk or Honey But it proved a Nail in his head And I will leave one in your Conscience said that brave Bohemian Martyr John Husse and your sins will prove as a Nail there if they be not washed away And no man living can give a reason why he should commit the least against a good God Yet some that are very wise will give a reason for all other Actions But In good Troth and By Faith and Troth are great sins in Gown-men and Divines and Drinking Joking and Drolling will make them lose ground and not be reverenced 'T was pious holy Preaching strict and blameless living got their first Estimation in the world And nothing else will ever keep it up God's Servants are called his Sons and Daughters 2 Cor. 6. 18. And Ministers that Preach to them or the World either should be very holy Be holy for I am holy saith the Lord 1 Pet. 1. 16. Lev. 11. 44. They are called Suns Stars and Angels Rev. 1. 20. and Shepherds that must watch or give account for the blood of our Souls if they miscarry But I am free from the blood of all men sayes St. Paul Act. 20. 26. And I will seal with my blood what I have preacht said that brave Martyr John Philpot Latimer And he did so to the astonishment of all beholders for it abundantly gushed out at his heart after he had been a long time in the Fire Well good men and good Ministers have the Law Love and Grace of God in their hearts and do for love of Souls more than money Neither do they love chopping and changing But a great Benefice is a great temptation even to a good man but to many is certainly a great sin in Giver and Receiver But I will live and dye with my Flock as I should Joh. 10. v. 4. said a good man And 't is more honour to be
honest Mr. Perkins that old Puritan Minister did calling upon God for the pardon of all his Sins both as to Commission and Omission Policarpus being pierced with a Sword issued so much Blood that it almost quenched the Fire and amazed the Beholders as it were At his Apprehending they hurried him so fast along that they broke his Leg crying This is the Father of the Christians and the despiser of our God said the Heathens And says Ignatius the first Martyr as we read of When the Beasts have ground me and my Bones with their Teeth I shall be as God's White Bread and I will worship none none but the God of Heaven Said another And none but Christ none but Christ said that brave English meek and humble Martyr John Lambert when half burnt by Henry the 8th for denying the real Presence in the Sacrament The Soul is in the Body but not the Body So Believers are in the World but not the World said another Doctor Hall said The English Clergie were the Worlds wonder He means the Painful Pious Preaching ones and would some were in again that were long ago put out Tertullian wrote Day and Night and made an Apology for the Christians and complained That too many Lawyers did almost as much hurt as Souldiers But Pliny told the Heathen Emperor The Christians did none but pray'd in the Night and sung Hymns to one Jesus but they would not Lye Steal nor commit Adultery but did visibly eat together But the Souldiers wearing all Crowns of Lawrel upon their Heads for a great Victory which the Emperour had obtained A private Christian wore his upon his Arm saying It did not become him nor his Fellows to be Crowned with it Head Heart Feet Milt and Liver are all failing said a great Divine Arise make ready mount my Soul and go away I saw not you my Children when you were in the Womb God that fed you then will be a Father to you when I am gone and you shall not want I am weary of Sin and willing to Die God's Mercy is unspeakable One Saterday Morning especially I found the power of Religion and the certainty of the other World and Divine Eternal Love Glory glory to the Deliverer of my Soul out of all doubts about it Origen was fastened by the Neck with an Iron Chain his Feet in a pair of Stocks till he died Paul and Barnabas differed a little Act. 15. 39. But in Heaven Luther and Zyngulus will agree together said a Father though here in some things they could not Come Oh sweet Jesus Christ thou bright Morning-Star come I desire to be with thee said Holland Zepheron was said to be the Blind Man's Eyes and the Lame Man's Feet And the Lady Warwick gave both Books Clothes and Money for the Schooling both in England and Wales And a great Countess that lives in or near the Strand being lately in the Country was informed of a very poor Family which she went in Person for to see and finding the poor Woman Sick and Weak having two or three Children in the Bed and no other Boulster but an old Straw Cushion she presently caused a good Caudle and saw it made for the Woman gave her a very considerable sum of Money and ordered Boulster Bed or Blanckets for the Children and all this is good Charity and Humility too And to breed up poor ignorant Countrey Boyes to know God and themselves is the same which shall be endeavoured in your School-House yea 't is as much as to feed the Blind and Lame and in some sence rather more for the Soul is better than the Body To teach a young Bird to sing or young Boys to fear God is the best thing in the World The Light of Europe is the Gospel and the life of Preaching is for holy Living but Persecution brings Death and Life too Says a Father Death in one hand and Life in the other it kills the Body and crowns the Soul I have Lived long and Sinned long saith Beza but now I am willing and would fain Die to be rid of it giving God thanks for six things And some signal Mercies every good Man may find besides his daily ones Basil being profer'd Honours to Apostarize cryed They were changeable being threatned with Confiscation and Banishment he cried he need not fear he had little to loose and for Banishment Heaven was his Home or Country as for his Death they might do it with one blow You are mad said they Ay and ever will be for Divine Love is to me a never failing Treasure Francis Junus was converted with that Text In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God John 1. 1. And by this through the tender Mercies of God was I brought Home and when a Prodigal and a great Sinner comes Home there is great joy in Heaven Perkins converted a poor Thief that was going to be Hanged thus he wringing of his Hands upon the Ladder Perkins asked him why he was afraid to die Oh said he 't is t'other t'other Death I am afraid of Ah man come down a little and see what God's good Grace can do for thee and by Prayer so opened the nature of Sin and then of God's free Grace and Mercy by Jesus Christ for the Pardoning of it that he made the man both chearful and willing to Die He wrote many Books and frightned Sinners with that word Damn and yet would open the Blood Death and Merits of Jesus Christ in the Preaching of the holy Gospel Most wise Men desire the Lawyer and Phisician to deal plainly with them and Lords and Ladies should not love a Flatterer in the Pulpit nor a Chaplain that is not Holy Harmless or Exemplary in the Family Ambrose boldly reproved Theodotius the Emperor and used to say Men embrace Gold but refuse Salvation put off that on any account and catch at good Bargains The World is a Bird in Hand Heaven is one in the Bush like the Frenchman that would not leave his part in Paris for Paradise Theodoret said The delight of the Soul is to know its Maker And the great learned Earl of Leicester said Man differ'd in nothing more from a Beast than in his Reason especially Heavenly Reason Wisdom and Vnderstanding Hierom would not live in Rome because it savoured so much of Paganism and sinful Pleasures hardly of any true Christianity which is an inward Mystical and outward mortifying Thing and indeed it has not been long free from one Wickedness or another Ignorance Uncleanness Persecution Idolatry Sodomy and therefore well may she be called the Mother of Harlots who takes Money and Rent for so many Stew-Houses yearly and it is as good Money to him as the best which comes into his Cosser But if my Father or Mother Brothers Sisters and Children were all before me weeping and hanging on me to keep me in a sinful Life I would despise them all and fling them to the Ground saith
Chrisostom And when the Empress threatned to Banish him for preaching against her Covetousness he told her I fear nothing but Sin As for Banishment the Earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof If she cast me into the Sea or saw me asunder I will remember Jonas and Isaiah if she Stone me or cut off my Head I have Stephen and John the Baptist for my Companions Plato praised God for three things First That he was a Man 2. That he was born in Greece 3. That he had seen Socrates You may thank God that you are Lords and Ladies as well as Men and Women but you may thank God that you are Christians and such as have the holy Gospel and may hear it preached every day if you will But especially that you have the holy Bible in your own Tongue which doth reveal the Will and Mind of God concerning Man and his Salvation A Mercy which the poor Italians and Spaniards and other whole Countrys are debarr'd of or if they have the Bible it is so very very scarce and corrupted that the poor People are more Blind and Ignorant than Bats and Beetles all running after lyes whil'st we enjoy a Goshen of light through the blessed Bibles in our own English Tongue which cost so many mens lives May be you never minded scarce what the Bible cost for having it bound Translated and brought into the English Tongue 't is probable the Papist brought Lord Cromwel to the Block upon this account and the Monks fat houses more than any thing who cried going to the Scaffold Though our Breakfast be sharp yet our Dinner will be very sweet And how many have been burnt for Translating of it into English Sure we are bound in conscience to love the names of these men especially such as love the Word of God and live to it yea and almost the very ground of Smithfield where they were burnt If Papists give KETCH money for a Bit of Rope why should not we love the Name of Smithfield where those brave ones suffer'd but especially above all the Cross of Christ that is to say the Sufferings that Christ endured on the Cross for us or any Sufferings that he brings upon us for his own Glory and our Good Now his Suffering is called the Blood of the New Testament Matth. 26. 28. Mark 14. 24. And he himself is called the Testator Hebr. 9. 16. And the Holy Bible is the Will and Testament of this Testator wherein he gives us the love of God pardon of Sin Eternal Life and Glory O it were better better a thousand times the Pope should take all your Lands again than the Holy Bible or last Will and Testament of Christ in the Four Evangelists more especially contained but it may be his Conscience would be content to swallow both Yet Bellarmine loved Whitaker's Picture Because he was a brave Scholar and a learned Heretick as he said But the charity of their Church is for burning them alive yea sometimes after they are dead John Whitcliffe 41 Years after because he denied the Popes-Pence And Mrs. Marter was digged up at Oxford and buried in a Dunghil because her Husband had been a great Preacher in Queen Maries time But I am neither ashamed to live nor afraid to dye said Austin And Holy Marriage is better than proud Virginity a thousand times and how can we merit when we can neither will good nor do good says he My heart is in Heaven and I would fain be there also For thy Sabbath O Lord shall be my Eternal One into thy Hands I commend my Spirit And so he died O Christ said another I depend upon thee and resign up to thee Farewell Riches farewell Honour said the great Earl of Somerset unhappy in his good nature I would rather suffer and lose all than speak a wicked word against God I suffer now for sins past said he in his penitent frame in the Tower I have a great many and but a little time to repent of them said a Knight and he that succors the Poor lays up safely for himself As Clouds darken the Heaven so Intemperance does the Mind as Winds and Waves sink a Ship so Uncleanness Gluttony Drunkenness do our Souls Yet we should never hate the Man for his Vice nor love the Vice for the Man but with pity do what we can to save a Sinner A good Mariner would be loth to have any of his Passengers miscarry or a good Shepherd who takes care of all his flock John 10. 2. The Papist don 't love the Name of John Fox because he wrote the Book of Martyrs And their Priests do so scoff and jeer at Martin Luther because he wanted a Wife forsooth as they say as if it had been a great sin to follow God's Word and holy Ordinance instituted in Paradise and honour'd by the first Miracle that Christ ever wrought O filthy Fools to despise that when God has ordained a Mate for every Creature Fish Fowls Birds and Beasts Worms and creeping things put an instinct in Nature to love chuse and mate with one another 1 Tim. 4. 6. Doctrine of Devils If an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. If any man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book Rev. 22. 18. And yet you thrust out one of his Commandements so that if the Priests be Men they must needs desire Natures enjoyment and priviledge as well as all creatures but they themselves need never want one who have so many Wanton Women and Confessions to be whisper'd in their ear every day with money to boot But Bugentius says of Martin Luther I did once think him the most pestilent Fellow that ever lived upon the earth but now what shall I say of him all the World is in a seminarian darkness and he has found the light and I am more instructed in one little Page of his than in all Thomas Aquinas 's great Library And he and Luther Translated the Bible into the German Tongue and when they had finish'd it kept a day of Thanksgiving every Year to their lives end But John Jewel was a brave Man too almost as ever writ but the Queen said I doubt I shall spoil him when I have made him a Bishop for a Preacher Yet he continued saying It well becomed a Bishop to die in his Pulpit But when John Fox was poor he had a Purse of Gold and Money sent him he knew not from whence would some Body would do the like for Highgate to help up our new School-House which is just a Building and will have a brave Green by it but the Duke of Richmond was Fox's great Friend and Patron yet he would say he forgot some Lords and Ladies to remember poor People that truly fear God and yet great Saints are little and poor in their own Eyes I am less than the least of all Saints and the
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
never see May out and for those mercies which you would wish and hope to find then And if you do as the Lord Jesus Christ grant you and your Children may 't will be more a comfort to you than if all your choicest creature-comforts in the world should surround you Alas alas what are Pearls Plate Cordials Jewels Wife Children Husbands Lands Livings Rich Bed and Hangings or the Honours of the world when the Soul is stepping upon the dark Mountains of Eternity or sitting on the Lip just taking wing with the last gasp to fly away for ever as an Eagle in the Air O mercy mercy then and in that day may mercy be your portion And as the poor people of Hadly wept and prayed for Dr. Taylor in the street as he was going to be burnt saying Oh! Lord Jesus Christ relieve thee our good Shepherd Mr. Taylor as you have relieved and comforted us many times with your Charity But there are two promises more which I shall hint at and I have done Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Matt. 5. 8. To see God is the very heaven of heavens and to see him in heaven is the last and lasting highest happiness of all men angels and glorified creatures or whatsoever our soul or souls can or shall ever to all eternity desire and may you and all you so see him and personally enjoy him for ever and ever but there must be purity and heart purity for it is the pure in heart that shall see him in glory without holiness no man can see him Heb. 12. 14. And with the pure he will shew himself pure Psal 18. 26. but in a strict sense this word pure must not be taken as if in a strict sense we should not see him without perfect holiness in our selves which is to be without all sin and to be perfectly holy in his sight which otherwise than in Christ no man living can be saith Job The Stars are not pure in his sight Job 25. 5. and he hath beheld folly in his Angels Job 4. 17. much less men the best of men or the best of their actions yea so none can say I am pure Prov. 20. 9. but men may be said to be pure as they are washed justified sanctified persons and made pure by the blood of Christ and so every believer or justified sanctified person is pure Rev. 1. 5. Timothy speaks of a pure conscience that is washed 1 Tim. 3. 9. 2. Tim. 1. 3. serving God with a pure conscience And so again Paul bids us draw near to God with a true heart and full assurance of what faith in Christ for justification having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience with the blood of Christ and our bodies washt with pure water that is the water of sanctification by his spirit typified by that which came out of his blessed side when by the spear pierced for us upon the Cross And thus noble Ladies it is that you must be pure if ever you will be pure and see God in Glory you must be washed by the blood of Christ and sanctified by the spirit of Christ fine Words fine Cloaths Complements and Faces doe nothing in point of justification no nor many sermons hearing if rested upon nor other good deeds no 't is the blood of Christ witnessed by an honest humble godly conversation from the integrity of your hearts that must get you the denomination of being pure in heart and seeing God in glory and therefore dear Ladies Gentlewomen and others as ever you would see glory or see the face of God in glory be holy heavenly and mind things above Col. 3. 1. 2. where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Heb. 1. 13. and think not that a little little slight religion no religion any religion will bring you there when nothing will do it without Purity Strictness and Honess yea there must be a little of all this do you think to go in fine Sedans Down Beds and Coaches no no it must be in a way of mortification to sin and love to holiness if you will ever have happiness yea this unspeakable happiness of seeing God in glory which one saies He would for one glimps of it endure a great while in hell Oh! but you need not go to hell for heaven for if you go there you will never come out though the Papists fancy they may from Purgatory for a little money to the Priest And therefore one said Oh Money Money what wilt not thou do in the Court of Rome Ay said the Pope and you are fools to bring it here to an English man that was there upon trial for a Church Living Oh! but go to Christ and the promise go to God by Christ through the promise beg and plead that you may see him and you shall see him and his grace and hereafter you shall see his face also Rev. 22. 4. And his name shall be in your foreheads that is the blessed rayes of his glory shall be visible on you when you come to stand before God and the Lamb in glory with your Palmes in your hands Rev. 7. 9. But seventhly and lastly Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Matt. 7. 9. Peace makers are Christ's imitators who is called the Peace-maker and the Lord of life and glory the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Isa 9. 6. by whose commission alone it is that all his Messengers and Ministers do preach Peace and Pardon to poor sinners such as are far off and such as are near in their own apprehensions Yea to all that believe be they far or near Jews or Gentiles the blood of Christ speaks peace and better things to them than the blood of Abel that cryed for vengeance and all innocent blood will do so And therefore 't is not good to pardon any that kill men in quarrels duels but this cryes for peace pardon and forgiveness Oh! Father forgive them they know not what they do Luk. 23. 34. now to be a peace-maker is to be a sin-reconciler I do not mean to God for that none can do but Christ who is our propitation 1 Joh. 2. 2. 4. 10. and he hath done it for all that do believe but to reconcile men to men is to do all the offices of love and good will yea all the offices of good we can for the Church and people of God especially in our own place way and calling wishing prosperity peace and weal and to say with the Psalmist Peace be with thee and let them prosper that love thee Psalm 22. 6 7. Peace be within thy walls and prosperity within thy Palaces Psal 26. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem saith the Prophet Isaiah and in the Churches peace shall you have peace saith the same Prophet and the people of God are said to delight themselves in abundance of peace Psal 37. 11. Where the meek are said again to
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
Saviour's sake receive my Soul And so departed A Popish Doctor told Tindal disputing about Religion That it were better to be without God's Law than the Popes Tindal replied I defie the Pope and all his Laws He translated the Testament into English but the Popish party exceedingly raged saying There were a thousand Errors in it And for his good Works he was Imprisoned Condemned and Burnt but at his Death he cried Lord open the King of England 's Eyes John Hooper who Died 1555 being writ to by one out of England to send him some News he said He had no News to send him but that the last News that you will hear of me will be That where I have taken most pains to preach the holy Gospel there I shall be burnt to Ashes But one persuading him to Fly No says he I will live and die with my Sheep But being sent for to London he was Committed to the Fleet where he was miserably used and even poysoned with the common Ditch but being Sick he cried and called for help but the Warden said Let him alone if he die it will be a good riddance But a Knight coming to him told him Life was sweet and Death bitter To which he replied Death to come is more bitter and Life to come more sweet But being profered his Pardon going to the Execution he cryed If you love my Soul if you love my Soul away with it He prayed at the Stake Jesus thou Son of David have mercy upon me and receive my Soul And wiping his Face with his Hand cried For God's sake let me have more Fire And a third Fire being kindled he was yet alive but the last words he spoke were Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Lawrence Saunders meeting with one Pembleton another Minister said I have many fears if I should come to Suffer or Die for Religions sake What need you fear said Pembleton you have but a lean Body but I have a fat one yet you shall see the last gobbet and Grease of mine melt or fry away rather than deny Christ or the least of his Truth which I have professed Mr. Saunders being called a while after Imprisoned Tried and Condemned cried Welcome Christ welcome Christ welcome Eternal Life and the Fire being kindled sweetly slept in God sealing the Truth with his Blood But faint-hearted Pembleton for all his Self-boasting played Apostate in a small time John Rogers might have escaped and had many Motives a Wife and ten Children and had Friends in Germany if he would have gone he helped to Translate the Bible into English but Bonner sent him to Newgate amongst Thieves and Murderers And being Condemned he desired to have his Wife admitted to see him but that would not be granted him by any means but being told in the Morning he must Die that Day O said he if it be so I need not tie my Points being Dressing of himself But a Pardon being proffered him if he would Recant he utterly refused it His Wife then with nine Children and the tenth sucking at her Breast were brought to him but this sorrowful sight nothing moved him but in the Flames he took his Death with wonderful Patience The Sabbath before his Death he drank to Mr. Hooper who lay in a Chamber beneath him bidding the Messenger tell him That by God's Grace never little Fellow stuck closer to a man than he would to him supposing they should be both Burnt together Thomas Blinney in the Year 1531 had been in Prison and was drawn to Abjure and Submit himself after which he fell into terrors of Conscience for almost a Year being through God's Mercy restored to Comfort he resolved to lay down his Life for that Truth which he before had Renounced he Preached openly and complained of himself for his Fact bidding them beware they did not trust in Flesh nor Friends in matters of Religion but was seized by the Bishop and Imprisoned Being told of the Fires heat O said he God's Spirit will cool those Flames and I am sailing through a boisterous Sea but shall shortly be in Heaven help me with your Prayers and was Burnt calling upon Jesus with his Eyes and Hands lifted up John Frith was Prisoner in the Tower and had many Conflicts with the Bishops and at last condemned to be Burnt and delivered over to the Mayor and Sheriffs and in Smithfield patiently endured the same the Wind blowing away the Fire made his Death very long but by God's Grace he bore it as though he felt no Pain he much helped Tindal in Translating the New Testament And thus have I given you most Great and Noble Ladies a little short brief hint of a few brave and famous worthy English Martyrs there are Hundreds more in Fox's Book which you may find yea Thousands more English and others surely we should love the Truth and our English true Protestant Religion for the Truths sake yea and a little for these holy Martyrs sake And the God of Heaven grant our merciful King may long Live and such a Spirit never come again For this is the sum and substance of that Stuff we shall have if we lose the Bible of which the Gold Legion has a Cart-load which I here give you in a score or two of Lines as I found it written in a great Book Translated out of Spanish and Dedicated to a mighty Princess by an English Knight A great Person quitting all his fair Possession and giving them to the Church as 't was likely turned Colliers Man which labour brought Sickness and Death at which very instant all the Bells in Rome rang out on their own accord to the astonishment of the Pope himself A certain holy Monk retiring into a Wilderness house 70 miles distant from any 14 Years together had a certain Leopard which came to him every day for his Meat a long time together Gregory the Great in a great Sickness-year relates that he saw many visible Arrows come down from Heaven and struck Men dead yea another saw it Rain perfect Arrows and pieces of Stars A holy Priest that went into a very Rich Man's Kitchin where was a great Dinner of Chickens Capons and Feasants in Dishes which when the Priest saw he bade the Cook uncover the Dishes and they presently became Toads and Serpents A certain Monk saw a little Bird in a Cloyster singing very pleasantly and hopping out he follow'd it to a certain Wood where the Bird continued singing for the space of two or three hours as he thought but returning to the Cloyster again thinking he had been only a few hours or half a day at most but being unknown and searching of the Records he had been absent from the Covent 300 Years when he thought he had not been half a day St. Antonius tells you of an ill Liver that he knew was afflicted with tedious Sickness earnestly begged of God to deliver him who sent an Angel to tell him he must lie so two Years