VOTIVAE ANGLIAE ENGLANDS COMPLAINT TO THEIR KING OR The humble desires of all the zealous and true-hearted Protestants in this Kingdome for a speedy and happy Reformation of abuses in Church government being the onely meanes to remove these distractions and to avert the judgement of God from us As they were expressed in sundry Petitions Remonstrances and Letters lately presented from them to the KING upon sundry occasions Collected by a wel-wisher to Reformation LONDON Printed by H. Dudley 1643. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY MONARCH CHARLES by Divine providence King of Great Brittaine France and Ireland c. YOur Highnesse may iustly condemne this as a high presumption to present the most eminent King in the Christian World with a discourse of Petitions and Coppies of Letters but I have found favour in your sight when I presented them unto your highnesse upon more dangerous tearmes and therefore I trust that blessed Lord will move your heart still to accept of the hearty desires of your poore subject though they be not clothed with the glorious ornaments of Wisdome and Eloquence as was fit to dedicate to the view of so learned and judicious a Prince but my comfort is I speake to a mercifull King that knowes how to passe by infirmities and to pardon great offences and so beseeching the Lord God of heaven and earth to blesse your Highnesse with many happy dayes long to raigne over us to heare the Petitions of your faithfull Subjects and to redresse their wronges craving pardon for my boldnesse I humbly take my leave Devoted to your Highnesse Service IOHN SPENCER A DISCORSE OE DIVERS PETITIONS OF HIGH CONCERNment and great consequence This Petition was written upon the Booke for the recreation upon the Lords day and I delivered it to King Iames at Greenwitch hee tooke it with him in his Coach and committed mee to Mr. Hutchinson of the guard for a certaine time and was graciously pleased to have great care of mee for my dyet and lodging and after divers disputations with Bishop Neal and Bishop Buckridge set mee at libertie REad O King read O King and then consider well If ever any such decree was made in Israel Help O King help O King and let not the Sabbath Of our glorious God be thus prophained With grievous sins in open streets proclaimed Nor in Dooms dreadfull day this heavy hand-writing Bee iustly brought against great Britains Royall King The humble Petition of your sinfull Subiect JOHN SPENCER A Petition delivered to King Iames at Bletfoe Good King Iames reforme thy Court of cursed swearing Which otherwise will undoubtedly Gods heavy iudgements bring And to his faithfull Ministers gracious bee Whose ruine else we soone shall see This happy Boon an earnest suit to thee I make Oh Consider well and grant it for Christs sake The humble Petition of your sinfull Subiect Iohn Spencer A Petition delivered to our gracious King Charles at Finchingbrook at his going to his Army Royall Anno 1639 March 28. THe glorious Lord of Heaven and Earth the God of battel and Lord of Hosts for our Lord Jesus Christ his sake blesse our gracious King Charles and his brave Army and cover his Royall head in the day of battell and returne him with honour and victorie to his Royall Queen but I beseech your Highnesse give your poor Subiect leave to intreat you that you would not adventure your selfe in the day of battell but remember what the Souldiers said unto the valiant King David 2 Samuel 21. 17. Thou shalt go no more out with us to the battell lest thou quench the light of Israel and consider what counsell that kingly Prophet giveth Psalme 34. 17. Eschew evill and do good seek peace and ensue it And therefore that faire Englands happy peace may not be now endangered let the new Scottish Service Book and the book for the recreation upon the Lords Day be both throwne over the Scottish Bank and so I humbly take my leave and although by reason of my old age and some wounds that I received at the famous siege of Ostend I am disabled to doe your Highnesse service in the war yet as my bound duty is I will dayly pray unto the God of Peace to set your feet in the way of peace The humble petition of your loyall Subiect Iohn Spencer A Petition delivered unto our gracious King Charles upon this occasion The King was to go towards New-market upon Munday but the waggon and the hounds went thorow Cheapside upon the Lords day which was not lawfull O King I never heard that they removed since upon the Lords day so gracious was the Kings care herein Good King Charles Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day And let not Charles wain be seen to move on London way But in the high Sphear of heavenly Contemplation Let that day be spent in holy meditation Both King servants subiects all zealous for Gods glory To hate profanenesse and to abolish all idolatry That so when thy blest soul shall leave thy Royall breast Thou mayest in heaven for ever have a glorious rest The humble petition of your sinfull subiect Iohn Spencer A Petition unto our gracious King Charles upon the late setting forth of the Book for Recreations upon the Lords day Good King Charles to hear be graciously pleased That this Book in the dayes of your Father King of great renown Grew very ill and grievously diseased And to prevent the mischief that thereby might redowne Was with wisdoms holy care haply supprest And so good King Charles for evermore let it rest The humble petition of your poor sinfull fervant Iohn Spencer I sent my son with this Petition who made great haste and delivered it to the King it pleased his highnesse to commit him prisoner to the guard of his Royall person and set him at liberty the next day and commanded the Lords of Scotland to attend his highnesse in Parliament upon Munday and there concluded a happy peace A strange and strong transportation upon the Lords day April 27. 1639. THis day going to the Church of great Staughton and hearing the bels chime I fell into a strong apprehension that I saw King Charles in the field with his brave Army under his Standard Royall upon a hill with his owne Squadrons and the Scottish Army in the field also and the King gave directions unto his Colonels and Captaines to charge the Scottish Battalions here and there till the battell grew very bloody and mortall on both sides and almost all the Peers of England and all the Nobilitie of Scotland lay slaine in the field and then the valiant King Charles seeing it grew to such extremity descended the hill and with great fury and resolution charged the scattered body of the Scottish Army and made a great slaughter of them and so obtained the victory and forc'd them to leave the field and then returned to mourn over his noble Peers that there lay slain upon the ground which put me
remembrance what our Saviour Christ saith unto Simon Peter There was a certaine Lender which had two Creditors the one ought him an hundred pence the other fiftie when they had nothing to pay he forgave them both which of them therefore tell me will love hâ—m most Simon answâ—red and said I suppose him that he forgave most and he said unto him thou hast tâ—uly iudged And so I say unto Sir William Litton the more you shâ—ll forgive your impoverished prisoner the more you shall increase his love unto you and thereby you likewise you shall mâ—ke the splendor of your charitie and true nobilitie more clearly appear unto others consider what I say and the Lord give you an understanding heart to doe that which may be most for his glorie and your everlasting comfort and so I take my leave and pray for your happinesse on earth and everlasting happinesse in Heaven JOHN SPENCER A Coppy of a Letter to Mr. John Harvy My Lord St Iohns Steward GOod Mr. Harvy considering how dangerous the opposition of great men may bee both to Church and Common-wealth and scandalous amongst those that professe the Gospel of peace I have therefore made bold to use some endevours to qualifie and allay the heat of some unkindnesse which lately grew betwixt my Lord St. Iohn and my Lord Wentworth and to that end used many perswasions hard intreaties to them both and found my Lord St. Iohn so nobly disposed in it that he told me for the thing it selfe hee thought it not worth a matter of unkindnesse but that which troubled him was that he should bee so much mistaken in his judgement esteeming my Lord Wentworth so loving and faithfull a friend unto him To this effect I did much endevour to remove that conceit of mistaking and reduce his Lordship to his former good opinion of my Lord Wentworth and disired that hee should passe by that as an error of a young man and so ground his opinion upon the former and future carriage of my Lord Wentworth towards him then upon the fayling in one particular which hope gave some satisfaction unto his Lordship therefore I pray doe you second that with your best peâ—swasions as occasion shall give you opportunitie and let us not be discouraged to deale therein because they are great men for God hath ordained weake things of the world oft times to confound the mighty And we may observe in the overthrow of Benhadads mighty army at the siege of Samaria whereof he made such proud boasts the overthrow was given by a small number of 232 of the servants of the Princes of the Provinces 1 King 20. 10. 7. So likewise when Naaman that great Commander was so discontented with the message that the Prophet Elisha sent him to wash him seven times in the rivers of Iordan the good councell of his servants prevailed with him and stood him more in stead then if he had had the whole army of the King of Aram 2 King 5. 11. and therefore let us use our weake meanes and leave the successe unto the powerfull God of heaven and earth who is able to make the lyon and the lambe and the faulcon and the dove to live peace able together unto whose gracious protection I doe commend you and so rest Your loving Friend Iohn Spencer IN the raigne of King Iames of famous memory passing through the Pallace yard I saw two men very much urging one another to goe over into Saint Georges field to fight one waâ— M. Phillips the Queenes so or man the other was M Newman my Lord Chamberlaines footman the English man a Protestant the Irish a Papist I used many perswasions to pacifie the busines betwixt them but M. Phillips said it was impossible to satisfie him till they had fought but I would by no means suffer them to fight but I would be M Phillips his second and my Lord of Hollands footman should have been M. Newmans second they should have fought with single swords and I had a single sword also When they saw that I would not leave them the Irish man asked what religion I was of I said I did beleeve to have salvation onely by the infinite merits of the death and passion of my Saviour Iesus Christ and so I hoped he did likewise then I demanded what religion he was of that could warrant him to fight in such a quarrell he answered happy man be his dole In the end they were contented that I should have the hearing of the businesse betwixt them so we went to a Taverne in Kings street where they fell out at Tables and drew their swords but the servants parted them and upon the examination of the servants that did appeare that the Irish man did the wrong to the English man and called him boy and that was the word of disgrace that M. Phillips would never be satisfied till he fought with him therefore I did order that M. Newman should acknowledge that he had done M. Phillips wrong and that he was sorry for it and then M. Newman cryed mercy and then they embraced one another and with such expressions of love that they would live die together in defending one anothers quarrels to this effect and as it pleased God I parted this dangerous quarrell without drawing my sword the Irish man was a proper tallman but M. Phillips was young but a brave spirit ANd now that I am upon the point of peace-making give me leave to give some few directions for the better effecting of this charitable worke 1. Humbly pray unto the God of peace and lover of concord to give you wisedome and direction and frame the hearts of the contending parties to unity and concord then get them into bond to stand to the arbiterment 2. Conferre with the parties alone by themselves and then use all the strongest arguments you can to weaken the party you speake unto by telling him what advantage his adversary hath of him his great friends his able parts and resolute minde and use the like arguments to the other 3. Try if a wife a childe or friend may not be a fit agent to perswade in these differences 4. Consider what a happy and pleasing thing it is in the sight of God and good men to see neighbours to live together in love and unity But in my long trading in these charitable businesses I will declare unto you two very rare and unusuall means which I have made use of A gentleman of great worth and Knight of the Parliament house and his Minister of great worth and of great parts also having spent much money in suites of Law in the high Commission Court I humbly intreated my Lord Mandevill that noble peace-maker to take into his consideration they being his neare neighbours who tooke great paines to order the businesse and end the suites and gat them into bands but they were both so resolute they brake their bands and refused the order and procured Commissâ—ions
thoughts and prayers unto God for you as I had good cause when I remember the great care and love that you and M. Hutchinson did shew unto me when I was prisoner in your house Oh that it would please the Lord to make me as happy a prisoner unto you as Saint Paul was unto his Keeper at Philippi whereof you may read in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles who at Saint Pauls first comming into the prison was in such a woefull estate of a persecuting Infidell yet that night being terrified with the earthquake and feare of the losse of his prisoners would desperately have murthered himselfe but Saint Paul having pitty and compassion upon him cryed out with a loud voice Doe thy selfe no harme for we are all here and then with feare and trembling he fell downe before them and brought them out of prison and said Sirs what must I doe to be saved and Saint Paul preached unto them to beleeve in the Lord Iesus and he and his houshold should be saved and so through the Lords great mercy they were converted and baptized and greatly reioyced that he and all his house beleeved in God Now though I have not seen you so desperately minded to kill your selfe with your sword for feare of my escape yet I must needs say I have seen you ready to wound your soule with fearefull swearing and excessive drinking and how greatly this may endanger your soule and body also you may consider of it You remember well that the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vaine and Saint Paul doth testifie that drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Galat. 5. 22. but of these sinnes I have admonished you of when I was with you and through the Lords great mercy found some reformation thereof in that I did see you refraine from such excessive drinking and sometimes abstaine an oath and reprove others for swearing I know that is a hard matter suddenly to cast off such growne sinnes and those whereunto you have been so long accustomed but on the other side also I know it is an easie thing unto our omnipotent God to set your feet into the way of peace Oh therefore unto that mercifull God to convert your soule and to set your feet into the way of peace Oh therefore pray unto that blessed Lord and importune him with earnest and zealous prayer day and night untill he hath wrought in you that blessed worke to give you grace not onely to see your sinnes but give you also true repentance and godly sorrow for them that you may now loath them more then ever you loved them and utterly detest and abhorre them though they be as deare unto you as your right eye and as profitable unto you as your right hand yet cast them off and cast them from you for it is better for us to enter into the kingdome of heaven so maimed and spoiled of our sinnes then to enjoy them here for a short time and then both soule and body to be cast into hell fire where there is weeping and wailing in everlasting darknesse And now that you may escape those everlasting torments and attaine to the kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof you must settle your selfe to the constant performing of those holy duties of prayer and hearing the word of God and you must take unto you that Christian resolution that no feare of mans displeasure nor the mockes and scoffes of wicked men should make you never to neglect the same I meane you must not be ashamed to goe to Sermons nor to keep holy the Sabbath-day nor to pray with your wife and servants though all the drunken companions in Kent should rayle or ieere at you for the same but remember that those that are ashamed of our Lord Iesus Christ and of his holy service on earth he will be ashamed to owne them in the day of judgement and leave them to their devillish masters and to those hellish torments which he hath prepared for such base slaves that doe preferre the service of the devill before the service of God And then will they cry unto the mountaines to cover them and to hils to fall upon them rather then they would heare the dreadfull sentence of Goe ye cursed into hell fire prepared for the devill and his angels and the wofull execution that followes thereupon to be closed up for ever in utter darkenesse and there to be tormented with those damned spirits where in stead of their carousing and filthy speaking they shall have weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore and never shall behold the face of any man nor heare the voice of any creature to yeeld them comfort but as they delighted themselves in swearing and staring in cursing and raging so they shall have their fill thereof among those raging and furious damned spirits and yet shall not procure one drop of water to coole their tongues although they be tormented in those hellish flames as you may read in the example of Dives Saint Luke 16. 29. and then my loving Keeper is it not much better with Moses to chuse rather to suffer afflictions with the children of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season and then to goe to everlasting torments And what if you be mocked and pointed at for a Puritane and be counted a mad man because you separate your selfe from the company of blasphemous wretches and abhominable drunkards and doe now resolve to serve the living God with an honest heart nay what if you should be persecuted and imprisoned for his name-sake Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets and holy men of God in former times and so likewise did the Iews persecute our Lord Iesus Christ and said he was mad and had a devill And if they dealt thus with him our Lord and Master shall we looke for a greater priviledge nay let us with a holy resolution arme our selves to encounter with all their temptations and with the blessed Apostle rejoice that we are accounted worthy in such an honourable cause and to be made like unto our Saviour Christ in any sort for he entred into his kingdome of glory through many tribulations I am a little the more earnest upon this point because even while I was with you I feare there were some that did with scoffing and geering seeke to discourage you in those good courses whereunto you were so tractable But I beseech the Lord of mercy strengthen your faith that you may not onely come secretly unto Christ as Nicodemus did but boldly speake to his glory as Nicodemus did afterwards And then I trust you shall finde great comfort unto your owne soule and cause the Angels in heaven to rejoice for as our Saviour Christ saith Luke 15. I say unto you likewise ioy shall be in heaven for one sinner that converteth more then for
to thrust in a reason among others why Almighty God sometimes forbad the eating hereof as also to speak of the circular motion how it resembles the fountains running to the sea and the sea supplying the fountains Of Phlegm Phlegm so called by contrariety because of its crudity and that not in respect of the first concoction but of the second is an humour cold and moist white and without tast or somewhat sweet It may be called imperfect blood for by further concoction it becometh reall blood therefore nature hath appointed no vessell to receive it intending it for alteration not evacuation this is the Alimentary phlegm that is the Phlegmatick blood That which is preternatnrall as are all the following kindes is avacuated with other excrements having no peculiar receptacle here note that the filth of the nose is not phlegm properly but the private excrement of the braine yet I deny not but that if the body be full of phlegmatick humours part of them may passe this way of this preternaturall phlegm be four kindes the first is called Nisipid not absolutely as the Alimentary but in respect of the other three kindes which follow This onely is properly termed a crude humour t is true every concoction may have its crudity but this concoction which attaines not its full perfection in the stomack by way of eminence is called crude and that body which aboundeth herewith is of the colour of lead such an humour also appears 1 in the sediment of some urines 2. Acid tasting like vineger which remaine thus for want of naturall heat and is caused by cold and moist diet especially if liberall large and out of due time as also by the constitutions which is colder in old men and women then others by a cold liver cold aire to much sleep and the want of the ordinary evacuation thereof thirdly Salt Avian thinks phegm becomes salt by adustion of bitter humours as we finde after combustion the fixed salt of any plant as wormwood c. Galen sayes t is either from putrefaction or from the mixture of a salt whaylike humour neither do oppose other if rightly understood for doubtlesse the true cause is a salt whaylike moysture which is nothing but the superfluous salt of those things which we eat and drink do we not finde tartar in wine casks and is not such a substance found in the earth wherewith plants are nourished do we not use salt with many meates that then hereof which nature cannot convert to nourishment is the matter of this preternaturall humour which is therefore hot because salt Fourthly glasse this bifference is not taken from the taste as the other but from the colour and consistence it represents melted or liquid glasse this is the coldest of these kindes yet not exactly cold for then it should be like ice nor exactly moist but thick and viscous pertaking of the two other qualities Of Choler Choler Alimentary is the hot and dry part of the blood and fit to nourish called colerik blood because blood thus qualified will easily degenerate unto choler Secondly Naturall this an excrement of the second concoction hot dry bitter and yellow separated from the blood in the liver conveighed to the gall hence it distills upon the first gut adhearing to the stomack and by its acrimony excits the slow expulsive faculty of the guts to excretion this is that which we meane when we say choler viz. Yellow not black choler this in cold bodyes is somewhat pale in hot bodies somewhat red Thirdly preternaturall which is not made after the law of nature of this be foure kinds first is in consistence and colour like the yolk of a raw egge this is hotter and thicker made of choler adust so Galen Second resembles the juce of leeks such are infants stools for milk in them is soon corrupted garlick and onions cause it in others third is of colour like verdigrease here the heate is more vehement fourth resembles the colour which the herb Woad maketh and is made by a further adustion The materiall cause is hot and dry diet sweet and fat meats The efficient cause hot and dry constitution of the body aire and age which is youth watching hunger anger vehement exercise and lastly the suppressiou of naturall evacuation Of Melancholy Melancholy 1. Alimentary is the fourth part of the blood cold and dry 2. Naturall this is a humour cold and dry thick black bitter and sowre made of the thick druggy part of nourishment and according to the vulgar opinion drawne from the liver to the spleen and transmitted from thence to the stomack to further the actions thereof Thirdly preternaturall which differs much from the former kind for that is a cold and dry iuce made naturally in a healthfull man this hot and dry tasting like the sharpest vineger this of the four humours is the worst this kinde of the foregoing kinds is the worst it wasts the body melts the flesh it works upon the earth like Ceaver upon meat and no beast will tast thereof But I cease to write more hereof under this head because it shall be the subject of the ensuing discourse unto which this which I have already penned is but an apparatus But having so much tired out my selfe with this sad Subject I will here give some ease to my pen and leave this to be supplyed by some learned Phisitian beseeching the great God of heaven and earth the great Phisition of soul and body to give this good blessing upon this weak means and if any poor afflicted soules receive any comfort by it to give the glorie and praise unto God unto whom it doth of all right belong Amen Lord Jesus Amen At my lodging in Black Fryers Aprill 19. 1641. MAny times it fals out that a loving husband parting with his deare wife behaves himselfe like the child of some great man Whose Father hath given him a fine Toppe to play withall but afterwards perceiving his sonne to much carried away with that pleasure or too lusty in justling the Topp or else to try the boyes disposition takes up the topp and puts it up into his owne pocket whereat the boy puts finger in the eye pouts and cryes notwithstanding his father perswades him to be content tels him what fine Coates he hath given him what dainty things he hath for him and what goodly land and houses he will bestow on him but for all that the sulling boy sits pouting and lowring and will not so much as thanke his Father for all these because he hath taken away his top and yet when he had it the best use he made of it was to play with it In like manner the Lord of heaven and earth gives a man a deare wife adelightfull companion wherein a man takes great pleasure sometimes to make her goe sometimes to see her sleepe and some unkind wretches delight to scourg them with bitter words and to justle them by cursed usage the Lord of
tell you though you did provide you such excellent singers such rare conceits and curious Actors and numbred the people to behold it yet all is but vanitie and vexation of Spirit and the more vanitie and vexation of spirit because it was on the Lords day which should have been taken up with better meditations and the contemplation of Heaven and heavenly things and therefore that God might not be heareafter so dishonored nor your everlasting happinesse thereby endangered I beseech you in the tender mercie of our Saviour Christ give ear to the Counsell of your servant and be you pleased to submit your self to the censure of your own Court that so it may appeare to the world that you will not stand out in any thing that is ill but will give glorie to God and yeeld obedience to all good Lawes and so ye may stoppe the mouths and stay the fury of many prophane people which proclaime such libertie from this example to follow their vaine delights upon the Sabbath day But I hope when they shall heare that such is the justice of the Court and faithfulnesse of your Officers they will execute justice without respect of persons and therefore in this case will spare neither Lord Bishop nor Knights nor Ladies I trust I say when they shall heare of this it will be a great danting and discouragement to them and also through the Lords mercie a means to repair again the breach whereat otherwise whole troops of prophane wretches will enter to lay violent hands upon the Lords Day and so beseeching the Lord God of Sabbath that my counsell might be as wholsome and as acceptable unto you as the Counsell of Abigal was to David that you might with that holy man say Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that hath sent thee to meet me and blessed bee thou that hast kept mee from giving any countenance or encouragement to any man that dares presume to prophane the Sabbath of the great God of heaven Amen Lord Jesus Amen Haughton More November 4. 1631. From him that hath so great cause and is so much bound to your Lordship Iohn Spencer YOu may bee pleased that my Lord Bishop had lately made me Comissarie Generall upon this occasion the Earle of Cleaveland had built a sumptuous Chappell and intreated the Bishop to consecrate the same and it pleased their Lordships to give me notice of the day so I did attend the Bishop and the next day he did it with great state and solemnitie accompanied with the Earle and Knights and Ladies and a multitude of his Clergie there was a learned Sermon and the holy Sacrament administred and other rites and Ceremonies performed so that it was three a clock before they came out of the Chappell and then my Lord Bishop was pleased to question me before the Earle of Cleveland in this manner Master Spencer what will they say to you now that have been at the consecration of a Chappell received the Sacrament at the hands of a Bishop in his Babylonish garment I answered If they have nothing else to say to me this may very well be answered But he said unto me Master Spencer what shall I do for you now I know if I should make you my Vicar-Generall you will dislike of that because it is a Popish title but I le tell you what I will do for you I will make you my Commissarie-Generall and that he thought would please me better for I had prosecuted his Comissarie Smith and charged him with suspition of Treason against the Kings royall person well I thanked his LOâ—P shortly after made more use of my Office then he would have had me for one Mr. wilson a cunning Musition having contrived a curious Comodie and plotted it so that he must needs have it acted upon the Sunday night for he was to go the next day toward the Court the Bishop put it off till nine of the clock at night a whiâ—e after the Commissarie Doctor Morrison kept a Court at Huntington and I came thither and went into the seat with the Commissarie and put on my hat the Doctors and Divines stood with hats off and gave their attendance then some offered their presentment but I told Master Commissarie that I had a presentment and that must be the first and so he took it and read it the tennour was thus We do here present Iohn Lord Bishop of Lincolne for having a Comedie acted in his house upon the Sunday it began about nine of the clock at night and continued till two or three of the clock the next morning We do present also Sir Sidney Mountacute and his Lady for leaving their Parish Church to come to hear this Comedie We here present Sir Thomas Headly and his Lady for the like We do present Master Wilson and other Acters of the same So when Master Commissarie had read it he was somewhat amazed at it and asked of me who was the Commissarie Generall I bad him ask my Lord of Lincolne who was Commissary Generall And this presentment we do make Ex officio Commissarie Generall Iohn Spencer So when this was registered I took my leave of Master Commissarie and came away for feare I should hear something else And afterwards because the Bishop did not appear I censured him for his fault to build a Schole-house at Eaton and to endue it with twenty pounds a yeer for the maintenance of the Schole-Master Sir Sidney Mountacute to give five pounds and five coats to five poor women and his Lady five gowns and five pounds for five poor widdows and this censure stands still unrepealed A Letter to Sir William Litton Knight concerning Master Spencer that famous learned man committed to prison for the refusing to stand to the hard award of Mr. Noades but was upon this letter speedly released and Sir William Litton tooke him againe into his favour and was a noble friend unto him during his life GOod Sir William Litten I have visited Mr. Spencer your famous prisoner whom it pleaseth you to call my Rabbi I finde him so willing to referre himselfe unto you and Sir Oliver Luke to mitigate his hard award that Mr. Noades hath made that I need not any further perswasions to effect the same onely give me leave to make this request unto you that as humility is an excellent vertue in any man much more in a man of eminent parts that you would vouchsafe to be such a Patron thereof in this case that you will not suffer it to bee abused and disgraced by the reproachfull taunts of any insulting Skinner man that knowes better how to scrape ten groats out of a translated sheep-skin than how to repair the losse of unvaluable Learning so long captivated in a loath some prison I dare not say as St Paul said to Philemon in the behalfe of his prisoner siâ—â—â—… if he hath hurt thee or oweth thee ought put it on my account but I will rather put you in
pray for us and on the other side be not oh be not so secure nor put your confidence in your select company nor in those remoted woods and solitary mountaines but remember what befell unto Lot that was righteous Lot whilest he lived in Sodome but when he would fly out of Zoar to a solitary cave in the mountaines with his two daughters he committed those abominable sinnes there that his soule would have abhorred once to have thought on in Sodome and therefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall our help is in the name of the Lord that hath made heaven and earth who is able to help us in all places and at all times and so beseeching the God of peace that brought againe from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the shepheard of his sheep through the bloud of the everlasting covenant make us perfect in all good works and to doe his will working in us that which is pleasant in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be praise for ever and ever Amen Even so I take my leave and rest Your loving and sinfull Cousin Iohn Spencer I pray remember my respective love to my gracious Cousin your loving wife who hath given such a testimony of her love unto you and the reverend opinion she hath of your honourable Calling and commend mee to the rest of my Cousins and to so many of our Christian friends as you think fit England Iuly 9. 1635. A charitable Consideration of new Englands plantation We read in holy Writ and Law Leviticall That if a man dyeth having no child at all His neerest kinsman by the right of Aliance Shall take both the Widdow and the Inheritance To raise up seed to the dead and by doing well Continue still his Brothers name in Israel Fair England of the Northern World the great renowne Having late made Vnion with the Scottish Crowne Thereby involving her title with great Brittaine And so lyeth obscured in that golden chaine We to continue the name of our Brother In great America hath rais'd up another The Almighty God grant that ever may remain An ornament to England a terror to Spain FINIS JOHN SPENCER Mtr. Brightman a little before he died translated the Canticles into verse whereupon I wrote these verses TH' heavenly song of that bright man Whereto he tun'd his latest breath Much like asilver shining-Swan Presag'd thereby his present death A goodlier song was never seene And few such singers left there been But you faire Signets which still remaines By pure streames of sacred Truth Washing your wings from sinfull staines With mournfull tears and dolefull ruth Lest you should him too much deplore For you this song he left in store Never therefore let the prophane With sinfull lips and hearts impure This sacred Song once dare to name Lest they damnation doe procure Let them with Toads their croaking make Till they doe their sins forsake But you deare Children of the light Whose lips are tun'd to sing this praise Oh labour still to shine more bright And therein spend your happiest dayes That when your dear Lord shall appeare He may you finde a Spouse most cleer FINIS Iohn Spencer A charitable Supposition of Mtr. Brightmans sudden Dissolution No marvell though so bright a man His glorious life in Heaven so soone began For long his soule had languish'd in great griefe To see Gods chosen Flocke to want their best reliefe And cruell Wolves dumbe dogs and lordly Masters Set in the roome of Christs faithfull Pastors Therefore his deare Lord seeing his servant thus distrest Took him away unto his everlasting rest FINIS Iohn Spencer Here lyeth inter'd Sarah Spencer the vertuous Wife of Iohn Spencer and Sarah his Virgin-Daughter Both so goodly faire and curteous As few such Sarahs will be found hereafter Blessed be the Lord God of Heaven and Earth That made them so renouned both in life and death A Coppie of a Letter sent to a great Lady MAdam my great care of your everlasting happinesse and my respective love to my reverend Cousin Mr. Lee who now is dead in the Lord and therefore must cease from his labour and from those holy endevours whereby he did labour to plant grace in your heart in your tender yeares and whereof you then gave such excellent hopes that in the Autumne of your age he should have seen a plentifull increase of that blessed fruit and many goodly sheaves of pietie and happinesse to his great comfort in the Harvest but it pleased God the great Lord of the Harvest to take him away as from other evils to come so likewise from those griefs that would have wounded his heart to see those flourishing hopes so nipt and withered in your spring-time it pleased God to make me partaker of his last prayer and to close his eyes Oh that it might be his blessed pleasure to make his Spirit to be redoubled on me that I might be the better able to admonish and exhort you to reform that which is amisse in you and disgracefull to your holy profession I meane in respect of your outward carriage and appearance with so many fond fashions and garish attires as to deale plainly with you were more meet for one of painted Iezabels profession than for a Lady of your worth and more fit to furnish a pedlers pack than to make open shew of them in the Church of God and in the Assembly of the Saints whereas things should be done with comelinesse and decencie and therefore he commandeth that no woman should be covered because of the Angels 1 Corinth 11. 10. and that women should pray with their heads covered But if this be a comely covering to have a womans head covered with dogs haire or goats haire and cats dung and painted fethers judge you for my owne part the Word of God wherewith you shall be judged condemnes it as odious and abominable but it may be you will say it is the Gallants fashion and what if the Venetian Curtizans have brought up that fashion must the religious Ladies of England follow that fashion God forbid the Children of God must not fashion themselues after the world Rom. 11. 2. But they must fashion themselvs according to the rule of Gods Word and then Madame marke what fashion you must be in 1 Timoth. 2. 9 10. Likewise also the women that they array themselves with shamefastnesse and modestie not with broidered haire or gold or pearls or costly apparell but as becommeth the feare of God with good works I beseech you in the feare of God deck your selfe with these rich jewels of faith and repentance humilitie patience fasting and prayer and good works that so you may be like the Kings Daughter glorious within and this will make you amiable in the sight of God and glorious in the eies of his Saints and remember you are the Daughter of a religious Ladie and the Wife of an ancient Knight and the Mother of two
ninety and nine iust men which need no amendment of life and so humbly praying to that blessed Lord that you and yours and I and mine may be found in the number of those true repentant sinnners I rest Your loving friend Iohn Spencer Braughton Moore October 2. 1618. I pray remember my respective love and thankfulnesse unto your wife and desire her that whatsoever I have written unto you she will account that as writ to her selfe for you two must be but as one Commend me to M. Iohn Davies and to M. Knevett and to M. Preston and M. Parsons the great Porter M. Commissary I heare that you are greatly offended because many well disposed people came to Cople-Church upon Friday the nine and twentieth of August to pray and to heare the word of God preached for which hainous fact as you would make it you and your Officials have so terrified both Preachers and people as though it were in your power to bring them under the Spanish Inquisition For my own part therefore to save you some labour in your inquirie after me I doe acknowledge my selfe to be one of them that was there and one also that did much desire to further that meeting and that it was my meaning and I hope the meaning of many others to humble our soules that day in fasting and prayer and to pray to the God of heaven for our gracious King for we heard the weeke before that he was sicke and likewise that the Lord would blesse his great designes then in hand and protect his army and navy that was then to set forth to sea And now Master Commissary if your heart be so malitious that you cannot endure to have us performe this service to God and duty to our King but you and your Officials will persecute and restraine us Assure your selfe if there be any Law in the land will hang you up for it at Bedford gallowes I will as eagerly pursue you to that place of execution as if you had cut the throat of my father and hewed my eldest sou in pieces And if you and your Officials will maintaine your Decrees to be the Lawes of the Medes and Persians that may not be broken though the King and his subjects suffer never so much prejudice by the same and therefore if upon these extraordinary occasions we make our prayers and supplications unto our God in this manner We shall be cast into the Commissaries denne I trust that mighty God that did deliver his servant Daniell from the rage of such cruell beasts will likewise deliver us from the fury of your roring Cannon and being thus overcharged make it recoyle-upon your selves and teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver you read Psal. 50. ver. 20. Are you so squint-eyed that you can see to trouble an honest man in Bedford for going to heare a Sermon upon the Sabbath-day in the afternoone in the same Towne and when there was none at his own Church and for more expedition and for double Fees to cite him and suspend him altogether but you cannot or will not see to punish some notorious drunkards and swearers and Tobackonists and Tossepots and whoremongers and blasphemers c. Pocklington or Pockie-tongue who in a publicke Sermon used this blasphemous speech enveighing against those that stood for preaching that he sung a Hopkins jig and so whipt up into the Pulpit But I trust when our gracious King is humbly petitioned unto and his Highnes and his Parliament truly informed how his poore subiects are dealt with I hope his Highnesse will see it redressed and will not suffer us to be thus vexed and terrified for performing the duty of faithfull subiects in this holy course of fasting and prayer which his Highnesse hath to his everlasting fame so often publiquely commanded and in his Royall person so reverently performed and therefore having such a royall president we will follow it and doe you and your Officials the worst you can and know this is the resolution of Iohn Spencer THis letter I sent to Master Commissary by an understanding man and wished him if the Commissary gave him a shilling for his paines he should not refuse it and appointed him to run to Bedford that I might know the Commissaries answer The Commissary was a very stout and cholericke man and when he had read the letter he stampt and fumed as if he had been wilde and returned me this answer That he would iustifie that he did and if I had any thing to say to him I must meet him to morrow at his Court at Ampthill and so I did and when he was going to his Court in his pompe I met him in the street and asked him if he was the Commissary and he said yes then I told him I doe charge you with suspition of treason against the Kings Royall person and so then commanded the Constables to doe their office and then there was a great hurrye to fro as if we had been driving an Oxe to the butchers stall He made great offers to put in bayle and that he might goe to the Church to take order for the dismissing the Court but I would give no consent but told him I knew not whether hee might sit there being thus attached upon treason yet he prevailed with the Constables and they went with him to the Church and I rode to the Church gate and sent in the Constable to bring him away he intreated to have a little longer time to dissolve the Court and there was such a Jubile and going away without paying Fees as I thinke was never seen in all his time before I hastened him away to goe to Sir Edmund Conquests to take order for the sending of him up to the Councell and told him that I had charged him with suspition of treason against the Kings Royall person and desired his care to send him up safely by the Sheriffe or else to send him to Bedford Goale that he might be forth-comming So Sir Edmund said he must do one of them and would have knowne of me what were the words which hee should say but I answered him that was not so fit for me to tell thâ—t I must make that knowne to the Councell and so made hast towards London and then I saw Master Commissary and the Constable and three or foure more with him a foot as though they had been going to hunt the Foxe they called unto me and would have me stayed to see if they could have taken up the businesse betwixt Master Commissary and I but I would not come at them but hastened to my Lord President and related unto him the businesse betwixt Master Commissary and I So his Lordship said that was somewhat irregular yet he should not disturbe me in my devotion Master Commissary came up and some friends laboured to take up the matter betwixt us Sir Beaucham St. Iohn and other gentlemen we met in Westminster hall and after some conference about
so wilfully to oppose our Superiours to disdaine their good councell wilfully run in those courses that tend to everlasting destruction as like the men of Sodom who said unto that holy man Lot that had deserved so much of them yet when he perswaded them from that furious and beastly rage in pressing upon his house to offer violence upon his angelicall guests they cried out against that good man away with him they said he is come alone as a stranger and shall he rule judge we will now deale worse with him then with them But you know what became of them the Lord preserved his servant Lott and safely conveighed him out of the City and smote the outragious men with blindnesse and the next morning caused fire and brimstone to raine downe upon them utterly consume them their city this instance I bring to shew what we are when we are led by the unruly Passions of our sinfull nature but now I speak to men I hope of wisedome and such as God hath endewed with grace and that will teach us to deny ungodly lusts and to behave our selves charitably that if any man be fallen by occasion into any sinne yee which are Spirituall restore such a one with the Spirit of meekenesse considering thy selfe least thou also be tempted Gal. 6. 1. And therefore I besech you if any heere have fallen by any such suddaine passion or caused others by their provocations O let them now acknowledge their errour unfeinedly desire to entertaine one another with all love and cheerefulnesse and assure your selves as it is the honour of a Souldier to be the first that entereth the breach and for the country-man that hath the first blow at the Ball so it will be the honour of a Christian man that shall now shew himselfe most forward to acknowledge his error and to seeke a holy reconciliation A PRAYER which Master Spencer doth use ordinarily in his familly Morning and Evening which he doth earnestly desire might be zealously and devoutly performed in every family in this Kingdome that are not provided of a better O Lord open our lipps and teach us to pray that wee may humble our soules and truely repent of all our sins for our Lord Iesus Christ his sake in whose holy name onely wee presume to come unto thee to bege and crave mercy in thy sight O Most Heavenly Father and gracious Lord God the Father of our Lord Iesus the God of mercy and salvation wee poore creatures doe humbly prostrate our selves before the throne of mercy confessing and acknowledging that we are miserable sinners conceived in sinne and brought forth in iniquity nay wee must acknowledge wee stand guilty of that originall sinne of our first parents for the transgressing thy holy holy Commandements and eating of the forbidding fruit plunged themselves and their posteritie unto shame and confusion their Soules and bodyes to be tormented in hell fire with the Devill and his Angels in utter darknesse and in that miserable estate thou might have left us all to perish in our sinnes but this is not that we have to answere for But we have made our selves seventy times the Children of the Devill more by our actuall transgressions in violating all thy holy lawes and Commandements both with vile thoughts wicked speeches and abominable actions which we have done in the sight of men to the great dishonour of thy holy name and the utter damnation of our own soules and the greatly endangering of others by our evill example and that not onely in the time of Ignorance and practise we have desperatly and Presumptiously gone on in those wicked courses which our Conscience have accused us and thy sacred word condemned us and therefore thou mightest have cast us off in thy heavy displeasure never more shewed pitty upon us but exposed us to the heaviest judgement this world could afford of plung pestilence utter madnesse and despaire and when we have passed all the miseries of this life then to cast us downe in utter darknesse with the Devill and his Angels to be tormented in everlasting darkenesse but good Lord good Lord pitty us and shew mercy upon us and teach us to bewaile our sinnes and truely to repent us of them before we goe hence and be no more seene and that we may finde mercy and favour in thy sight remember us oh remember us with that everlasting love of thine towards us in sending thy eternall sonne Christ Iesus our blessed Saviour and our everlasting Redeemer to take upon him our humane nature in all thinges sinne onely excepted to become the sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary and so both God and man in one person to accomplish the glorious worke of our redemption by leading a most pure and holy life by fulfilling all thy holy Commandements in one absolute and perfect manner that he might free us from that death and damnation that our sinnes have justly deserved and by his death and passion and those bitter torments and again which he suffred upon the crosse which neither the tongue of man and Angels is able to expresse and shedde his precious blood even unto death which is of that iufinite value to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world and of that infinite vertue to purifie our soules and consciences and make them as pure and undefiled as if we never comitted any sinne and rose againe the third day according to the Scriptures and is ascended into the highest heaven and there sits in all glory at the right hand of God and triumpheth over all the enemies of our salvation Hell Death damnation and shall come from thence to judge both the quicke and the dead and hath oppened the Kingdom of heaven to all beleivers we doe beleive Lord help our unbeleife and give us grace to use all holy meanes that we grow more in faith then ever we have done make us more zealous for thy glory more devout in prayer and zealous in good workes more carefull to keep holy the Sabboth and come more reverently unto thy holy ordinances and walke dilligently and faithfully in our calling and worke in our hearts an everlasting hatred against all sinnes and the sins especially that wee are most prone unto by nature and those whereunto the Devill doth so eagerly tempt us and allure us and those sinnes which wicked and ungodly men that run the headlong course to hell and damnation do inforce perswade us but Lord let them never prevaile with us and ours to give any liking and allowance thereunto but ever let us hate and abhorce them as cursed workes of darkenesse and have nothing to doe with them and grant us grace to serve thee in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life and labour to keep our soules and bodies pure and undefiled as the temples of the holy Ghost and walk honestly and religiously in our calling and deale justly and charitably all the dayes
Sons and therefore you must give them good example of wisdome and sobrietie for godlinesse is great gaine if we can be contented with that we have and God hath blessed you with a rich portion of outward beauty and comelinesse and therefore do not deface that incomparable worke of God with such base trash and trumperie for you shall never enter into the Kingdome of Heaven into the companie of glorious Saints with that trumperie on your back and gaudes on your head Consider what I say and the Lord give you grace to repent of your sins before you go hence and be no more seen Amen Amen From him that doth desire your endlesse happinesse Iohn Spencer Good Brother I Am desirous to heare if my Father Winne have paid the fifty pounds unto Sir Milss Fleetwood and also to admonish you as I take it of your unseasonable payment of one hundred pounds upon the Sabbath day morning before Harborough Faire alas was that a fit time to tell money and to make your Accompts with men when you should accompt with God was that a fit time to rumble in your Chest for your money-bags when you should have ransackt your heart for your sius must not the Lord of Sabboths needs be highly offended to see the service of men preferred before his divine Service and more care had for the buying of Oxen than for the keeping of his holy Sabbath must not the Lord needs visit for such sins nay hath he not already visited although in great mercy for was not your dear and onely son within a few dayes after closed up in a Chest and there found by his mother speechlesse and near his last breathing had not the Lord in judgement remembred mercy and restored life when we deserved death and if you did not already make use of it I beseech you in the feare of God assure your selfe that in that judgement the Lord would have you take notice of that particular sinne for if you remember when I was with you at Arlsen I told you before I heard of this that you must thinke that there was something amisse that the Lord would have reformed when he threatened such fearefull judgement to this effect And therefore I beseech you bewaile that grievous sinne and as Iob made a Covenant with his eyes so doe you make a Covenant with your hands never to abuse them so againe with telling money upon the Sabbath day And remember it was Balaams ever to be lamented error still to pursue the wages of iniquity although the Angell threatened him with a drawing sword but let his fearefull end teach us with wisedome to returne in time and repent of our sinnes and make our peace with our God before we goe hence and be no more seene and to say truth these dayes and dangerous times requires a continuall preparation for our last departure when so many wise and strong are taken away and their honour laid in the dust and we must looke also for our changing we know not how soone and therefore good brother let us walke circumspectly as the children of the light and such as are risen with Christ setting our affections on things that are above and not on things that are on the earth for our life is hid with Christ in God When Christ which is our life shall appeare then shall we appeare with him in glory In the meane time let us be diligent to exhort and admonish one another and to edefie one another in our holy faith that so we may grow from grace to grace and strength to strength till we become perfect men in Christ Amen Lord Jesus Amen Your loving Brother and the Lords unworthy Creature John Spencer Staughton More Novemb. 7. 1616. A Copy of a Letter to the prisoners at Bedford with a Booke of common Prayer and M. Dods exposition upon the Commandements bound up together with bosses and claspes BRethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for you poore prisoners is that your soules might be saved For I beare you record that in these places you endure many times hunger cold and much misery together with the fearefull expectation of the Judges comming and the sentence of death yet if God doth not worke in your hearts true repentance and sanctifie these afflictions unto you it will be but as a forerunner of the appearing before that dreadfull Iudge that will pronounce that fearefull sentence of damnation against the wicked of Goe ye cursed into hell fire and these yron chaines a shadow of those everlasting chaines of darknesse wherein the wicked shall be for ever tormented and therefore that I might be a meanes through Gods mercy to further you in that holy worke of true repentance I have procured these two bookes to be bound up together for your better use in this place of restraint the one commended and commanded by the publique authority for the publique service of God the other the worke of a reverend Preacher an excellent exposition of the Commandements both being undertaken in the feare of God and diligently used may be a blessed meanes to further you in the way of repentance and to set your feet into the way of peace First therefore pray earnestly to God to give you understanding hearts and then read and then pray and read againe and the Lord of heaven so blesse you in reading and praying that you may truly repent you of all your sinnes before you goe hence and be no more seene Amen Stoughton Moore 1624. From him that wisheth your everlasting happinesse LEt me intreat you in the feare of God that one of you that is best affected and best inabled to read Prayers and the Psalmes for Morning and Evening Prayer according to the order that is appointed in the booke of common Prayer and then in stead of the Chapters which you should read in the Bible if you had it read every morning and evening a portion of the Commandements as is appointed for the day of the month that so the booke of the Psalmes and the exposition of the Commandements may be read over once every moneth and upon every Sabbath day I would have you besides the ordinary portion appointed for that day of the month read the exposition of the fourth Commandement halfe at morning prayer and halfe at evening prayer Let one read distinctly and reverently and let the rest heare diligently and devoutly I doe humbly desire the honourable Court of Parliament to take that to their consideration that every prison may be furnisht with such a booke and every high Sheriffe of every countrey provide a Preacher to visit the prisoners once every week for it is pittifull to see how they are neglected A Copy of a Letter to M. Hutchinson to whose hands King Iames committed me after I delivered unto him the petition for the Sabbath MY very loving and kind Keeper although you have been long out of sight yet you have been oftentime in minde and often in my
and therefore hold fast that word of truth and follow the holy directions thereof which is able to make you wise unto salvation and both in these and all other your affaires first prove what that good acceptable and perfect will of God is and doe that with all diligence and then assure your selfe if you should fail of this fading honour that they so eagerly hunt after yet you shall have everlasting honour in the sight of God and of his glorious angells in the Kingdome of heaven Amen Lord Iesus Amen Staughton More Anno. 1617. From him that would be glad if either his penne or his person might doe you that good service he desires Iohn Spencer A Copy of a letter to his brother Nicholas Spencer to disswade him from his inordinate delight he took in Cock-fighting which soon after he happily and absolutely gave over IT is said of the churlish Inne-keeper of Bethlehem Luke 2. 7. who entertained so many guests in the Inne that the virgin Mary and our blessed Saviour were thrust out into the stable because there was no roome for them in the Inne but let us in in the fear of God take heed of such Jewish tricks lest in the end we force our Saviour Christ to leave us in the fight of our sins and ingratitute and then it will cost us many a grievous sigh many mournfull teares before we finde him againe read Cant. 5. 6. Nay so wofull shall our estate be that it shall be never out of our minde and now out of my brotherly love unto you I must admonish you of that bewitching and vain pleasure of Cockfighting wherein you are so strangely transported that both my selfe and many of your faithfull friends with grief of heart discern a great alteration in your affections to those courses of religion wherein heretofore you have shewed your selfe more forward and zealous I beseech ye in the fear of God consider to be a stunling in religion is a fearfull thing but to go ten degrees backward with Ezekiahs diall is most intollerable alas shall we begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh shall we be snch greedy Elues in our pleasure sell those heavenly ioyes and blessed hope of our heavenly inheritance for a messe of vaine delights Oh consider how farre we are from the holy zeale of those blessed Saints in Queen Maries dayes that forsook both their goods wives and children for the glory of God and the safety of their soules What vaine wretches shall we approve our selves to be if we will not forsake our vaine pleasures It is not your faire house nor your children nor loving wife I perswade you to forsake it is the vaine and unprofitable sport of Cock-fighting which brings ruine to your state and the endangering of your everlasting happinesse and therefore if either a desire to preserve your estate or to preserve your everlasting inheritance might prevaile my suit were soone granted But it may be you will say if I can prove this you will give over Cock-fighting Well upon that condition I will take some paines to make it manifest First to the matter of the ruine of your state I referre you to the examination of your particular exspences of those occasions and I pray let Sir William Dyers ruinate estate be a meanes to make you take heed by other mens harms for the matter of discontentment I appeal to no other judge then your loving wife which can tell you what discomforts she often times findes in your long absence the dangers that doth fright her when she considers that you are in the company of such swaggering companions for the latter which is the maine point I purpose to insist upon being a matter of such high concernment first because you make that a cause of your jollity and merriment which should be a cause of your griefe and godly sorrow for you take delight in the enmitie and cruelty of the creatures which was laid upon them for the sinne of man for the earth was accursed with thorns and briers for our sins and therefore the blood-shedding of the creatures should rather teach us to shed teares for our sins thus did Saint Peter when he heard the Cock crow he went out and wept bitterly I would to God you Cock-masters would make that use of these Cocks Secondly it is dangerous unto your soul in regard of the time that you mispend for if ye must give an account of every idle word that we speak Matth. 12. 36. How much more of idle houres and dayes and if you did keep as strickt an account as you do of your houshold expences you should at the weekes end see what a heavy reckoning you should make when you shall see before your eyes thus many houres of such a day and so many daies of such a week I have spent in my vain delights and thus few houres in the service of my God well howsoever we are loath to come to this account now yet we shall be one day brought to it whether we will or no Thirdly it is dangerous to your soul in regard of the company with whom you do converse who for the most part are either swearers drunkards or licencious people now if it be most true that the prophet saith Psal. 18. 25. With the holy thou shalt be holy and with a perfect man thou shalt be perfect Then on the contrary it must needs be that with the wicked we shall learn wickednesse and with the prophane we shall learn prophanes for it is a hard matter to handle pitch and not to be defield with it or to lie among thornes and not be pricked with them as the Prophet saith 2. Sam. 23. 6 7. But the wicked shall be every one as thornes thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that shall touch them must be defenced with iron or with the shaft of a speare and they shall be burnt with fire in the same place Therefor dear brother if you did rightly consider of the hatefull and infectious qualitie of the wicked it will make you stand upon thorns while you are in their company and to bewaile the hardnesse of your heart which hath not felt them such pricking thornes all this while Lastly it is dangerous to your soule in making your soul guilty of many other mens sinnes by drawing away many a poore man from his honest labour whereby he should maintaine his wife and children to spend his time and money in such an idle manner but also you are guilty of many great mens sins whilest you see and hear the glorious Name of God dishonoured and dare not or will not reprove for the same consider what the Psalmist saith 50. 16. But unto the wicked said God what hast thou to do to declare mine ordinances that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behinde thee For when thou seest a thiefe thou runnest with
him and thou art partakers with the adulterers vers. 22. O consider ye that forget God least I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Now therefore I beseech you observe that those that run with the wicked and are partakers with the ungodly in their wicked delights are those whom the Lord shall tear in pieces thus you see that not onely the wicked themselves but also their associates and partakers shall be torne in pieces in the day of Gods fearfull wrath O consider this sweet meat must have sower sawce and then I trust through the Lords great mercy you will utterly refuse it upon those tearmes for what were it to gaine the whole world and to loose our soules But to conclude if neither perswasions nor exhortations may prevaile with you to break the neck of your Cock-fighting pleasures consider wel with your self that the Lord hath put you as it were into the Cock-pit of the round world to fight his battel against the flesh the world and the divel the strongest striking the sorest hitting and the cunningest fighting Cock in the world who is onely to be wounded with the spurres of faith and piety and that all those that wil overcome in this battell must be thorowly fed with the word of God and dayly breath with prayer and meditation whereby they strengthen their faith and sharpen the spurres of their holy zeale and those that neglect this meanes let them brag never so much upon their own dunghill yet when it comes to a sound tryall they will prove themselves to be brand fallen Cravens and likewise consider that every houre idely spent and every vaine word that proceeds out of your mouth is as it were vain to your soule and all unlawfull pleasures like hovells upon the spurres of your devotion and then with wisdom consider what an unlikely or rather impossible a thing it is for a poor famisht Cock pitifully vained and thus hung and hovelled to overcome a Cock of that wonderfull strength and devilish spirit that you are matched withall Again suppose that those that sit in the lower ring of the Cock-pit are the Divells and wicked Spirits and those that sit in the upper ring of the Cock-pit are the glorious Angels and blessed Saints both behoulding this doubtfull battell though with contrary affections the angels reioycing when they see you fight this spirituall battell like a good souldier of Jesus Christ the wicked Spirits wohping and hallowing when they see you strike faint fight like a Craven and fall beastly and hear dear brother that we make our selves a laughing stock to this wicked spirits let us pray unto our Lord Jesus Christ to strengthen our faith and to assist us with his grace that we may resist the devill and make him flie from us and in the end tread Sathan underfoot and give us a crown of immortall glorie Amen Lord Jesus From your truly loving brother though he deals thus plainly with you Iohn Spencer GOod Sir Robert Carr I have receaved your letter and do acknowledge my thankfullnes unto you that you are pleased to have so good opinion of me and my endeavoures to commit your brother unto my care and ordering and that all things accomodate unto my desire at Steeford but I must entreat you that I may be spared for my coming to undertake care of him so farre remoted from my family I have my hands full of such dangerous employments again I hear there are suits in law betwixt you his mother my Ladie Carr who should I think have the custodie of him and therefore matters standing upon those litigious termes I should be loath to meddle with him but if you would bring him into this country I should be glad to do you the best service I can and the rather because his mother is very willing to commit him to my care but if my directions may do you or him any pleasure I have sent them unto you and desire you to employ Master Dixie that hath lived with me and is acquainted with his courses and so I beseech the Lord to blesse these or any other good meanes to yeild him comfort I take my leave and rest Desirous to do you service JOHN SPENCER The direction for Master Rochester Carr. OVr help is in the Name of the Lord that made heaven and earth First therefore let that blessed Lord be humbly fought unto by fasting and prayer Secondly let the distressed gentleman be removed from his own house unto some other convenient place well situate for aire and spacious fields to walk in and to do other exercises Thirdly settle with him a religious discreet Divine that may constantly pray with him and read unto him evening and morning and upon all good occasions to keep him company Fourthly place about him six honest servants men of good discretion and resolution that may be ready upon all occasions to aid and assist in the well ordering of him according to the dirrections of him that shall undertake the government of him to watch with him to ride with him and to exercise with him in shooting or bowling or any other exercise that shall be thought fit for him Fiftly let them be very carefull and take heed that there be no knives nor swords nor any wounding instruments left in the roomes wherein he comes nor worn by others that he may suddenly snatch at them for their temptations are many times very violent and their resolution sudden and disperate Sixtly let his apparell be decent and comely of cloth or plaine stuffe without lace or any such curious trimming and let his attendants give him no titles of honour but in civillity call him Master Rotchester or Master Carr and when he doth any thing wel then to shew the more respect unto him but other wise to slight him as those that are set over him to command him and not to be commanded by him Seventhly let his diet be sparing and moderate rather to support nature then to pomper the flesh veale lambe pheasant larkes smelts troutes pike pearch also let him fast often and pray much let him refraine from all kinde of wines and strong drink if you can by any meanes let him sleep six or seven houres in the foure and twenty and not above Eightly let him be held constantly to prayer and reading an houre in the morning and an hour in the evening and if the weather be fitting and his strength answerable let him walke a mile out right in the morning and evening and if you finde him inclining to a sottish humer put an armour upon him and beat a drum before him and let one attyre himselfe like a Captaine and put on his gorget and a plume of feathers in his hat a trunchion in his hand and make to march and exercise his armes or else set him upon a bounding horse and trot the ring and run a career and in these martiall exercises let the Captaine command him as
his souldier and if he finds him peevish and froward give him a good knock upon his helmet and if he finde him willing and tractable then to commend and praise him Ninthly for matter of Physick you must advise with some learned Physician that doth well understand the nature of the disease and the constitution of his body for otherwise he may be prodigall of blood-letting and the want of blood may increase his melancholy he must likewise take heed of strong vomits that strain the head and distemper the brain in my opinion bathing and sweating and bleeding with horseleeches the safer way Lastly because these maladies and distempers are accompanied with a great deale of peevish crossenesse and wilfull obstinacie and a great part of the cure stands in the right crossing of them from those froward and furious humours which will require great patience and good observation for the generall use all faire meanes you can devise to gain them to the good and divert them from the ill but if that will not prevail you must have patience and passe it over as though you took no notice of it but if it comes once to this that they do perceive that you go about to crosse them and that you are in opposition and contesting with them then you must follow it with all importunity and resolvtion to subdue them and compell them to do it but be sure you take them with such advantages that you prevail otherwise the attempting of it will prove dangerous to your selfe and make them more outragious and insolent Postscript Master Dixie I pray be carefull to see these directions well performed and then I hope you will well deserve to have twenty pound a yeer for your paines otherwise I would be loath to perswade you to undertake such a dangerous imployment A Copie of a Letter to a vertuous Gentlewoman greatly afflicted in minde which it pleased God to give unto her great comfort BLessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort which comforteth us in all our tribulations that we might be able to comfort them that are in any affliction by the comfort where with wee our selves are are comforted of God and humbly I beseech that gratious Lord that he will vouchsafe for his deare sonne Iesus Christ his sake to open your eyes that you may behold those unspeakeable mercies and comforts that he will in his appointed time give unto all those that do fear his holy name and call upon him faithfully Cosen I have lately receaved your letter wherein you doe acknowledge that when I was with you it pleased God you found some comfort praised be his holy name for it but since you have been very ill and so remaine some causes you shew for the same because you cannot be assured of the favour of God towards you the reasons that you alledge because you finde so small comfort in prayer and in hearing of the word Secondly because of your fearful temptations both past and still continuing these as I take it are your chief reasons being rightly understood they wil prove so many sound arguments to prove that you never had so good cause to rest assured of Gods favour towards you nor ever had so many testimonies of his everlasting mercyes towards you as you have now that afflictions chastisements and temptations are the signes of Gods favour and the markes of his children I pray consider what the holy Apostle saith Hebrews the 12. the 5. the 6. my son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth every son that he receiveth and mark how he concludes in the eight verse if therefore ye be without correction whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sonnes is it not strange that you should vex and torment your self because the divell cannot prove you a bastard but it may be you may say it is not thus in your iudgement but then know that it is not fit for you to be a Judge in you own cause but submit your selfe unto the Judgement of Gods word which is the word of truth And beleeve his holy Apostles that knew how to iudge in those cases better then you and they will testifie that we have cause rather to reioyce then any wise to be discouraged with afflictions and temptations Saint Peter 1. 2 My brethren count it exceeding ioy when ye fall into temptations and the blessed Apostle Saint Paul when he was tempted and grievously buffeted by Sathan for the which thing he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him but what was he presently released no but receaved this answere from the Lord and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect through weaknesse and what was the blessed man dismayed with this answer or concluded as you would do that he was out of the favour of God because his prayer was not granted no such matter but rather doth conclude greater comfort and assurance very gladly therefore saith he will I rejoyce in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in anguish for Christ sake for when I am weake then am I strong thus you may see how the Apostle out of Daniel gathereth matter of comfort and out of his own weaknes encreaseth great strength of faith and thus must you do in these fearfull temptations not so much as cast your eyes upon your own weaknesse nor upon the strength and power of your malitious enemy but you must looke up with the eye of faith unto our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ who is in the highest heavens and whose grace is sufficient for us and he it is who hath triumphed over sin death and damnation and hath tramped underfoot all the enemyes of our salvation and therfore with the holy Prophet say The Lord is my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom then shall I be afraid Now concerning your discomfort in hearing the word because you take so small comfort in the promises and are so much terrified with the judgements This I take it proceeds partly from the errour of your judgment in misse-aplying the same and partly from the malice of Sathan who evermore labours to drive us into extremities either with Eve not to fear the iudgements of God at all or else with Cain to thinke our punishment greater then we can beare but even from your weaknesse and from Sathans malice doth the Lord draw out that which may tend to his glory and to your great comfort and hereby I trust he hath broken up the fallow grounds of your heart and brought you to godly sorrow for your sins so that I do assure my selfe within this short time