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
to the best of our power and who can do too much for him who is all and will be all for ever He gives us all we have and though we can give nothing to him yet he accepts of what we give to any so it be for his Honour and the highest Honour on Earth is to be good and extensively doing good like the Air. 'T is but a little while at best that we can work and it may be you and the great good Ladies of that Family will never have such an opportunity to help erect a thing that may last perhaps to the last period of time and be so long for the Honour of your Noble Sex and Family also and therefore pray despise not the day of small things nor this good design Most Great and Right Honourable Countess AS your Noble Name and Title is beloved by all some for worth in that brave Warrier who yet lost his head in the daies of Queen Elizabeth and others for that brave Knight your Father who lost his in the late times for Loyalty to his Prince both which will hardly be forgotten and especially whilst your Lord continues as he does to do all good and good Offices for his King and Country may such Peers flourish and be as they are indeed Pillars of our Nation which do bear up Prince and Peoples Happiness and Honour And for this may Children love you yea Children yet unborn will when they come to know the worth of our Religion which if lost our Bodies would be all slaves and our Souls in danger to be damned for ever by Antichristian Errours O Madam who can love enough whilst he loves his Country so exceeding well and the Protestant Interest also May you yours and himself all long live live for us for our Prince and Nation once a Terrour unto others but especially for himself and true Happiness for to live to God is best of all We may live to our selves and Fortunes our King and Country forget Heaven and so be lost and miserable to Eternity which will be Heaven when all is done and no home is like that and he that made it for his favour is better than life it self and may that favour which he bears to his Chosen ones be to you and yours also yea may you all see the good of his Inheritage and be blessed in Soul and Body with all your Right Noble Issue here and hereafter pray every one of us Most Great and Right Noble Countess SAies the Lord I have set watchmen upon thy walls O Jerusalem that shall never hold their peace day nor night Your brave Lord most Noble Madam may be said to be the same if ever faithful warning was given to a Prince and Nation of dangers near and Counsels to prevent even at the brink your Lord hath certainly done it with strength of Wisdom Zeal and Boldness that never man spake better And now what shall we say of this our great Nations Seer that loves Scotland England Ireland and the Protestant Interest all the world over it being extensive like the Truth it self and the holy Gospel who can love more than every place where it is professed or preserve Liberty and Interest our only Jewels better than strongly to oppose all enemies for which may his Noble Name and Memory live and his Lordship sit as long as ever States-man served a Prince and for his Zeal to Prince and People let both love him and the Love of God dwell in him the blood of Christ be his Laver and when ever his great Soul shall leave this little lower sinful World let the holy Angels guard him and our Lord Jesus Christ personally present him to the Father to sing the high praises of God and the Lamb to all Eternity And when any of his near and Noble Family and Race have served their Generations and fallen asleep may they do the same and so successively to the World's end pray we Poor Hospital Boys Right Honourable and Noble Countess SOlomon tells us Wisdom is the principal thing and if it be as it is most deservedly accounted an excellent piece of Wisdom to know all the Laws and Statutes of a Nation What is it then to know the Laws and Statutes of Heaven the Will and Pleasure of the great and mighty Monarch Lord God of Heaven and Earth which your Lord yet doth Surely this must needs make him to be a great Figure and a great Statesman in this our Kingdom And may many many such States-men be to Rule and Govern the Great People of this Nation under our most excellent and good natur'd Prince And may their Wisdom be ever hearkened to and their hearts be zealous for his Greatness and all the Peoples Interest for he that serveth both shall never miscarry to his Honour and the wisest Ones Applause May your Lord steer in this Chanel miss all Rocks especially what may hurt his Soul live to his God and himself as well as his Prince and Country for Eternity is a long thing and may he you and all your Noble Issue be ever happy in it Pray one and all we Hospital-Boys Right Honourable Madam MAny and great have the Changes been which your Ladiship have known but this is certain there is a great and unchangeable good God who lives for ever and because he is so therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Madam 't is this God and his Love we must stick to for nothing else will do us long good all things fail and fade set that aside the fairest Beauty and the sweetest Rose the richest Garment with the greatest Wealth and Honour will be left on Earth to die like other things but the Living God and the Living Word Jesus Christ who lives with and by the Father shall abide for ever Joh. 6. v. 57. And whosoever believes in him shall never dye c. 11. v. 26. Oh Madam may you so live live for ever with the Son and his Saints in the Kingdom of the Father to drink of the new Wine namely his Love which he speaks of Oh! 't is that that must be our portion if we have any thing worth the speaking of What 's the fluttering up and down the world or the Enjoyment of the world with all Accommodations in and Applauses of it if we lose our Souls as Christ speaks what shall it profit us That 's a Jem or inestimable Jewel never to be Rated but in Eternity it comes next of all to God and Christ it 's immortal ever living and shall never die if sin does not hurt it nothing can God Almighty make Christ to be our Righteousness both in Life Death and Eternity and that we may know this his Righteousness which is nigh and this Salvation which he so often and affectionately calls upon us for to mind saying Hearken hearken unto me my People Give ear unto me oh my Nation This my is a sweet word Scripture myes and Scripture ours are all so Oh!
Papists The last and general Closing Letter that is thus presumed to be offered ANd now most Noble Great and Right Honourable Ladies Gentlewomen and others 'T is not many Weeks nay Days since your poor Orator Supplicant or Petitioner was in his own and others apprehension at the brink of Death and the Grave and so many Days together But God was pleased by Doctor Cox my alone Physician to raise me up again And though in my Sickness my Life seemed to be flying away like an Eagle in the Air and the World and the Things thereof to be passing away as if they had never been yet yet I did secretly resolve if God should raise me up to perform or finish this poor little scribled and yet serious short brief and harmless Pocket-Book with the Ladies Letters which yet I humbly entreat your Noble Ladyships to peruse and view over and over in some serious leisure Hour persuading my self that though your Breasts are full of Piety Virtue Wisdom and Virtuous Thoughts yet you may find some if not many brief hints of Truth Religion and Virtue well worth your pious Thoughts or Memory for as Eternity is a very serious thing so every Sickness that brings one near the Borders of it or from the Borders of it should make us very serious and to Speak and Act as those that have been near another World though not in it And truly if I were no more nor longer to be in this than just to finish these few Lines and humbly on the bended Knee to present them to your Lilly Hands and so to lie down and die at your Feet yet would I seriously do it in the way of Prayer to your Honours First That the short Hints might be weighed and weighed again and again in your most strict serious and retired Thoughts whether they be really so as they seem to be hinted to you and if you find them indeed so to be by the standard Golden Rule Reed or Touchstone of God's holy Word then not to slight and say Pish Fool or cry This simple Man will never a done for 't is of more concern than so Truth is Truth and serious Things must and will be serious whether we mind or count them so or no. And this I assure you if ever you come as come you must to a Fit and Bed of Sickness I mean a thorow Sickness that your life seems in your own others thoughts to be flying away you will be then thinking of your immortal ever-living and never-dying Souls And it may be in a dowsed manner not knowing well where you are or what Day it is whether Day or Night The Watch Candle being in the Room the Curtains drawn little or no Company to speak to you because of the high Feaver or other Distemper but yet in that hour it may be Fears Doubts Conscience will be working and secret Questions will be working in you whether you must and shall Die now or no go to the Grave leave your golden Hangings Rooms Honours and Relations going to the silent and be seen no more whilst it may be are just in the middle of some great Design or other as your Supplicant was in these Papers or setting up of your little Charity-School at High-Gate But be it what it will every Design must break off if Death really come with and at the end of your Sickness and then no remembrance of you or yours will be after a very little while Oh Madams for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake and your own Souls I beseech you mind a little the house of mourning Eccles 7. 2. which he says 't is so good to go to and the Bed of sickness before it comes and especially what to do before it comes that its coming may not be as a damp and death to your spirits when it comes It 's said the Cockatrice never kills but when it sees us before we see it Oh be before-hand with your Sickness and prepare in Life for Death and Health for Sickness and assure your selves you may as well persuade your selves that Michaelmas will never come because April is and May is at hand as that Sickness and Death will not come because Health Wealth Honour and all about you is now as you would have it and more comforts seem to promise to you also from a Son or Daughter 's great Match or Purchase which you are just a making But yet Michaelmas comes in course and Winter too when one Flower will not be left But now against the height and heart of that and all that is cold and killing unto Creature-comforts set a never-failing good God aside make him your portion and with the Prophet Habakkuk say Though the labour of the Olive should fail Flocks Herds and the Fruits of the Field yield no increase yet I will rejoyce greatly I will joy in the God of my salvation Habbak 3. 17 18. But this must nor can ever otherwise be but by true Faith in the Love Life Blood Death and Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ with holy walking in the sanctifying graces of his Spirit six or seven of which you may eminently find I shall hint at in the first Sermon our Lord Jesus Christ ever preach'd Mat. 5. 3 4 5 6 7 8. First blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven by purchase purpose promise and eternal preparation Mat. 25 34. Come ye blessed of my Father and receive a Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World Oh blessed Poverty that enriches men with the Kingdom of Heaven This poverty of Spirit is nothing else but a sensible want of Grace and Christ and every good thing in our selves through the discovery of original sin to us by the Fall of Adam whereby we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be lost by the purity and spirituality of God's most holy inward piercing Law the ten Commandments by which we go out of our selves as knowing our selves to be most miserable wretched creatures and lost in our selves seeing no hope nor help any ways but in Gods mercy thorough Christ and this brings us to be like the poor Prodigal or Publican Luke 18. 11. to cry Lord be merciful to me poor lost sinner and grant that I may find Christ and pardon for my Soul and by Prayer Reading Hearing Preaching Meditating make out after him in an humble persevering way And this is the Poverty to which the Kingdom of Heaven belongs that is the Gospel with all its Promises and everlasting Kingdom of Glory too which God grant you and yours may all find But secondly ver 4. Blessed are all they that mourn for they shall be comforted that is for sin in-dwelling of original and actual sin and upon that account cry out like great St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Rom. 7. 24. Mark Ladies Sin has a Body yea in Paul it had though he was
Madam THis is certain That the Sun Moon and Stars in some sense do not more adorn the Heavens than good Lives good Doctrine and good Works do Religion and if any Religion in the world be more inward spiritual and heavenly than others surely it is the Doctrine of our true reformed Protestant Religion which lies not in Shews and Ceremonies but in Love to God and all that bears his Image which we Poor Children cannot yet be said to do whilst Poor and altogether ignorant of our selves and Maker and such are We And all We which do humbly present our selves as Objects to your Honour's Charity And yet if We or some of Us by God's Blessing good Discipline Catechizing and Preaching shall be brought to know our selves and the Lord Jesus Christ as well as to get our Bread and be put forth into a hard World to live another day then our Advantage will be great and your Satisfaction also because your Bounty has contributed to this good Work and because 't is a good Work 't was very unfit your Honour should be left out in the least For your Good and Noble Lord has ever still been in as we hope he will when Religion Liberty or the Civil Interest of the Nation has been at stake in the least as a bold and brave Champion for his King and Country yea the three Kingdoms for which God Almighty bless all and every Branch of Ye And may your Names be in the Memory of our Nation your own Country as it is Yea the Lamb's Book of Life especially for all out of that will be everlastingly cast into the Lake that burns for ever Rev. 20. 15. God Almighty bless us all with the Power of Religion that we may yet have an abundant Entrance into his everlasting Kingdom To whom be Power Glory and Dominion world without end Amen Amen Right Honourable and Good Madam THE Great God and his Goodness having made you and your Lord not only Noble and Great in Quality but Good and Gracious in Disposition loving Humility and Religion which teaches the right way to Life and Happiness as it is most full and plainly revealed in the holy blessed Writ and Word of God the which may ever dwell in your hearts to shine in your Lives as it does Oh! when Lords and Ladies fear the Lord God Almighty that made Heaven Earth Sun and Seas they do abundantly add to their own Honour and praise their Creator too May you both so do love him and live to him who is all and will be all for ever And may he dwell in your hearts by faith establish root and fix you both in himself Giving you to know taste and comprehend with all Saints what is the heighth breadth length and depth of his grace and to know the Love which is unsearchable and passeth knowledge and be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3. 17 18 19. Yea may the young Lord your Son grow as a Lilly be as a Vine that runs over the wall and in time root as a Cedar to be tall in the Nation and may many Branches be his Portion yea all the Blessings of Joseph or everlasting Hills come upon his head to be as a fruitful Bough and Blessing to your Family Gen 49. 25 26 27. Yea may you both live to see all this and our poor divided Nation flourish yea our little School live and thrive which is a thing near where your Honours have been sometime past taking a little Air and will be for God's Honour if it flourish and be well disciplined which is sweet and good and Charity wholsom also and therefore pray Madam let us tast a little of your Bounteous Goodness for we have nothing else to live upon nor no such Noble Good Protestant person as your self to help us that is near and therefore pray good Madam do something for us and our School which stands so full or near in your Eye And we will never cease to beg the best of blessings in Heaven or Earth to be on you and yours Most Noble WE the great English Ladies Charity School-house of High-gate which are yet but in our Infancy as it were do with all humility adore you the virtuous Maiden-Ladies of that high or mighty State or Common-wealths Embassador being desirous that your and only your most Noble Names and Charity be Rolled and Registred with the Ladies of our Nation For as Queen Elizabeth of happy memory did love you more than any so We and the People of this Nation in general do wish to You above all the Common-wealths in the world great Prosperity and Peace and may never more unhappy breach be or drop of blood spilt by any enemy whatever but may your Ships and ours be as the mighty Ships of Tarshish to carry in and out the Treasures of the world to the Church of God or the people of the world which do favour them and all your Guns and ours be as Brazen walls to defend both and Truth from Falshood or at least our Habitations and Enjoyments and from this Union may the Children of men and the Christian world suck the Consolation of Peace and Quiet if they will be quiet and then we Poor Hospital-Boys will never bow nor beg of any Foreign Prince or States Embassador in the world set your most Honourable Ladiship 's Father aside but yours we naturally love and your great Figures and Names we would all fain beg to be visible in our Charity School for all Ages to come May it please your Honour most Good and Great Lady AS we have presumed to petition the She Princess of this world or the great Ladies of this Nation to be charitable unto us so we most humbly do your Honour also presuming a Figure of your making in the Ladies Roll must needs be like your self Great and therefore the good God and his Son from Heaven bless you and your Sir Henry make you still to love your King and Country as you really do and live for the Kingdom of Heaven To love your King is to love him in his Person Power and Just Prerogative to love him in all the good he doth his People your Country yea the whole Nation Prince and People's Happiness is much bound up in God both in living unto him and therefore Heaven must still be at the end of our living and the end of our dying for then Eternity comes to be a serious thing Sharp quick and great Wits have ever sooner or later found the Power of Religion Everlastingness makes time and action short here and in that we shall have time enough to look back read over past things Great Actions will be there greatly influenced by it and for little ones of this nature they cannot trouble either mind or thoughts in another world being so warrantable as they are and commendable too Lord what am I whence came I whither go I so fast away and yet the Nation lies at stake
and there is a time for every thing under the Sun Eccles 3. 1. excepting sin and for that you shall hardly sin in moderate mirth and pleasure But to make Recreation a toil and the Business of your Life is folly and madness What! nothing but hait hait up and down as some do and never to a Lecture or scarce on the Lord's Day in the forenoon I said of Laughter Thou wert mad saith Solomon Eccles 2. 2. It may be they sing too which had need to weep and pray But let not your high Fortunes make you too high-minded For they that think themselves better for Gold Pearl and Lace and are proud and disdain others which yet is very natural and we are all apt to fall this way which makes us worse than Gold Slaves and Servants to it sayes Anselmus But remember what you shall be in the Grave especially in Hell if you should go there And wanton thoughts and plumes will all fall but humble great ones are good ones indeed and God will exalt such and make them higher than they are and men will love them more Humble Great ones are double Great ones and twice as honourable as others of the same rank And therefore let not great Fortunes make you proud and unfortunate yet a grain must be allowed for Old Adam's sake whose Children we all are And 't is easier in a minister to preach down Adam in others than to beat it down in himself wife or children but sound men should love sound preaching the best wine is best and so is the best preaching and that that comes from the heart goes to it so say and so do is good in a good minister some speak more briefly than they live as Cato told his friends but do not say I will and don 't we read of two Brothers one said he would do his Fathers will but did it not the other said he would not but did it and that was better than the other When prayers and praise go together and the heart with both God is well pleased and the musick sweet when the tongue doth not go from the inward motions the Pharisee said I thank God and I do this and I do this but the poor Publican said The Lord be merciful to me a sinner Luk. 18. 13. and he was justified hand and tongue went together some forget to pray because they have too much of the world and some neglect because they want it and must work early and late but 't is a misery and a sin not to be excused in any pray if you be rich and pray if you be poor or else thou sayest in effect God I have nothing to do with thee don't say you forgot it for that is a soul-careless trick few forget their dinner but it is better to fast all day than not to pray in a day and a little meditation does well what ask of God and not think what to ask or why they who have most grace have something to ask and they that have least have something to ask but they that have none have all to ask for they want Christ pardon and every thing yet God will give them his holy Spirit if they do but indeed ask it Luk. 11. 13. Ask then and down upon your silken knees O ye great Lords Ladies and others that you might have his holy spirit and his heavenly will revealed in and to you so as to do it live it and love it it will be your glory heaven and happiness for ever if you do so indeed but if you slight him now you will need him miss him and want him hereafter and never find him 'T is a mercy to have many good things in this world but what a misery is it if you should have all and be said Son Remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things Luk. 16. v. 25. therefore he is comforted and thou art tormented A Scripture that made Gregory the great weep or tremble as himself said for fear to think lest he had received his good things Come Heaven 's a sweet Cake but who would eat it before-hand or take Earth for it Sweet-meats are the last dish but it will be sowr sauce if you lose all in conclusion Read to the end of the Chapter Come come a godly Life is best and best for you great Countesses and you Ladies more elderly and young ones too though you be not twelve or thirteen Let head and heart remember that and what Angelical things you would be if you would begin betimes as the best did Josiah Samuel Timothy John were all young Saints and the most eminent in the Book of God the last leaned in Christ's bosom dipt his Pen and his Quill in the Love of God and strows all his Epistles with it But how frail a thing is man and you are the same or more The Venice-glass is soonest broke that sings walks talks and yet is gone as a Tale Dream or Watch in the night And he is no man that does not need mending more than a Watch and oftner winding up to mind Heaven and heavenly things For this world is bad and too bad too mend one and make it better mend one and draw twenty great persons do alwaies so for many follow them and their Examples which way soever they go When Magistrates hearts are towards God the People's are so too And when Magistrates hearts are towards the People the Peoples hearts are towards them Love begets Love and they that do not love will not be beloved Love comes down good Parents Magistrates Masters and Landlords too if they be kind and love them beneath But the Love of God is the best Love of all therefore Magistrates Ministers and People should all love him and you Ladies which are uppermost in this world will be lowermost in Hell if ye forget him True Love seeks how to please him If you love your Lords much that is well and it is but your duty but if ye love Christ less that is ill but if God not at all he will never care for you nor what becomes of you when Honours have done with you and you with them 'T is better to love God now though you do not see him than not to love him and never see him Love God and he will love you with that Love which has no end nor never shall have Your Lord and your Husband will love you no longer after a little time but Christ will love you with an everlasting Love and draw you to himself if all things in the world are not good enough for you and your Souls If you love God he will give you himself the World to come and his Son for ever and your Soul shall live because he lives and that is most where it loves and shall be quite with him after a little while if it love him most But oh Love Love whither goest thou to love when
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
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
of God 1 Tim. 6. 11. fly these things and Covetousness Fight the good fight of Faith Lay hold of Eternal Life And witness a good Confession as Christ did v. 12 13. I have done it I have done it sayes Paul and there is laid up for me a Crown of Life and that is Life indeed 2 Tim. 4. 8. Temporal Life flies away but Eternal Life never ends and Charity leads to that under Christ Oh! let 's not want that which leads to him who is all and will be all for ever Gal 3. 11. Other things will fail but Christ will never fail if we be his and he ours Oh! get a never-failing Christ to be your God and Guide Lord and Master now If all the Princes Kings and Queens in the world had but one Lord and Master as they have not in a strict sense to whom Account at last must be given would they or should they not love him I am sure all the Ladies in the world have but one Lord at last to trust to Oh! love him now that he may love you in a dying hour and save you then when you and the world must part and part you must for ever but then to be for ever with the Lord of Lords the Lord of Life and Glory 1 Thes 4. 17. And where he is to be also there according to his last prayer Joh. 17. 24. Oh! how happy will that be and may this happiness be the portion of your Honour and all your Honour 's sweet and lovely Children too but that can never be unless you love and live to him embrace and chuse him as the Chiefest Good Be wise then O ye Honourable of the Earth Lords Ladies and others Psal 2. 10. If ye were a thousand times more Noble Rich and Bountiful than ye are yet yet you will all certainly perish if you do not stoop if you do not bend to him to whom every knee must bend Psal 2. 12. what will become of you Lords Ladies and others you have but one true friend in Heaven and Earth and that is the good God and our good Lord Jesus and if ye do whatsoever he has bid you he will love you to the end of Time and Eternity too if that could be supposed to have any but that is without end sayes a great Father and clasps in all times and things that ever were or shall be but this you may easily suppose none but he can Creatures dye and the love of Creatures but the Love of God abides for ever 1 Joh. 2. 17. 1 Cor. 7. 31. And the Blood of Christ sticks by us in a dying hour yea 't is the only thing that sticks by us as great Lord Strafford said and if you great Ladies would wash in that it would make you whiter than the Snow Wash me sayes David Psal 5. 1. v. 52. Oh! ye had all need wash and pray David's prayer Lords Ladies and others but especially to you great Ladies do we commend and beg these few lines may be accepted 'T is not for your Charity alone but good as well as Charity that we thus plead Gold and Silver is but little worth to us or our School in comparison of God and Christ Oh! look to him that ye be not undone at last when ye should be happy yea utterly undone once in Hell and never out once in Hell and utterly undone other losses may be gained but Heaven can never be gained if once lost Ye weep for Love and weep for Honours weep for Frowns and weep for Friends many times but how will ye weep sayes Christ if such a thing should happen which God forbid namely that some or many of you great Ladies should ever see great sinners and little we mean mean sinners in respect of you Noble Ones that shall come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South Luk. 17. v. 22. and from places where Preaching has never been and yet these sinners shall sit down with Abraham with Isaac and Jacob Luke 13. 28. and you great Ladies should be shut out as Christ speaks into utter darkness where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for evermore Weep to think that weeping avails not We suppose it a vain story that the Queen of Carthage wept for Aeneas but 't is true Divinity that the Lord of Glory wept for the Jews saying Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem how oft would I have gathered thee as a Hen would have gathered her Chickens Matth. 23. 37. But oh who can or will weep for you if you should once miscarry in the daies of Eternity Nay there will be no day if that night once overtake you John 9. 4. But you will long and long and lose your longing for a Gospel day can never come when 't is once finally lost Now as we would beg from you so we would beg for you that you would mind whilst you may and work whilst you may for the night cometh wherein no man can work John 9. 3. And if indeed you would work for your Souls God and another world first make Christ and his Love the ground of all your Joys and Sorrows for the future Christ is a true Foundation and others can no man lay 1 Cor. 3. 11. Honours Riches Smiles Favours with all the Mirth Musick and Embraces in the world are but Toyes to a soaring Soul Yea I have experienced it said a great Lady If you would soar aloft as the lofty Eagle flies then fly away in your Soul's Loves Joys and Pleasures to a heavenly Object and a heavenly Christ yea Christ in Heaven who sits there and ever lives to make continual Intercession for such sinners as come unto him Rom. 8. 34. Madam as we would beg heartily so we would deal plainly with your Honours and your Noble Sex do rather need more plain dealing than any others in the world for all things seem to smile and flatter you and will till you be in Hell if you have not a care the greatness of your Birth Beauty Train Fortune and Relations yea some of your own Chaplains deal not so faithfully with you as they should many times but wink at sin say little When Dives was in Hell he would fain have sent to his kindred then on Earth to forewarn them Luk. 16. 24. but who almost of a thousand gives you half that timely warning that you should have to look after Heaven and the God of Heaven which will be a lasting Good for ever and ever Oh Madam home is home as we use to say but there is no home like to Heaven and he that made that will ye mind whilst ye may and live whilst ye may for Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens I mean the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the God of all Glory as the Apostle calls him I repent of all the hours I ever spent in my life said Sir Thomas Mason save what I spent in communion with God And that man
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
that is angry for every thing will be angry for nothing as we say But it rests in the bosom of Fools sayes Solomon Proverbs Though Moses was sometimes angry with Israel yet he wished his name might be blotted out of the Book of Life rather than God should destroy them Exod. 32. 32. He granted part of the request and lov'd Moses the better for it And Paul had a brave strain of this nature for his Country-men the Jews Rom. 9. 3. Surely these were as great Saints as ever liv'd and lov'd God as much 'T is a sin not to think there is a Providence but what a sin is it to think there is no God nor Providence yet such Atheists there be on Earth if not in Coffee-houses Yet in Hell there is none but will feel there is a God to punish with everlasting destruction evil doers as well as to reward with everlasting salvation the well doers And if he did not both why should not men do what they please And sayes Joshua when he had pressed them to the Love of God Do what you will I and my house will serve the Lord Josh 24. 15. And 't is better to beg our bread here if it be his will than to beg Water in Hell as Dives did Luk. 16. 23. A thankful heart will bless God for a little when abundance abuse him for his many many mercies but happy are they to whom God is nearer than the nearest and dearer than all relations in the world For he that loves Wife and Children best shall never be saved See this Text Luk. 14. 26. But before Christ came into the world God was in Christ reconciling the world to him But when he died the work was finished said Christ bowed the head But God took Christ's word before that and saved millions of his Servants before Christ came into the world we find a hundred and forty thousand in the Text Rev. 7. 4. But now that Christ hath shed his blood and payed by suffering on the Cross for the debt and sin of his people he doth as it were take the Father's word now for all that shall be saved to the world's end Time was when this Gospel was thinn sown but thick come up and many thousands converted by hearing one sermon but now many sermons to one conversion Oh! Conversion Conversion of souls how have I aimed at thee when Melancthon was a young man he had so much Zeal Rhetorick and Elegancy that he thought no hearer should be able to withstand him but at last he sadly complains that old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon but all Apostates are the Devils prisoners brook loose and caught again sayes one and when strangers ride apace through a village little dogs bark And if good men be more ordinary zealous in the way to heaven wicked men do the like many times saith Burroughs but God will not ask men why they were no more rich nor fair nor learned but why they were no more zealous the word of God is a rich Jewel it should lie in our hearts as well as hang in our ears but as one broke her looking glass for shewing her wrinkles in her face so many are angry with the Minister and the word when the fault is in themselves One said a proud Rome but all other Cities were but villages to that but honest London is a Sion to that sink or Sodom in comparison of sin and David loved that and hated Mesech Psal 120. 5. We may love relations well and too much but we can never love God and his Church enough Oh! that men were as wise as those wise men who came from far to see Christ Matt. 2. 1. but men forsake him and damn themselves a little time and pains for this world is enough but much for heaven is too little because God Christ Holiness and Happiness is there and ever will be Some men trade along time for nothing but others get heaven Jacob served for one wife and then for another Gen. 29. 27. longer than some getting God and Christ for ever The first Adam found a place for his Children and lost it but the second Adam is gone to Heaven to prepare a place in heaven which shall never be taken from them Joh. 14. 2. Some like Rachel weep for their Sons Matt. 2. 18. when sick or dye but never for their sins a Printer prints and hath money for composing what he doth he doth not like sometimes and so have some men for preaching though they do not practise such water-men which look one way and row another may chance to bring others to heaven but they will never get in themselves though a Christian do not good works that he may be seen of men Matt. 15. 16. yet he may and ought that they be seen with men namely good works the Proud Italian Beggars many times use this phrase Do good for your own sakes they get most that do most good Pray good Ladies consider this and do not forget the Lady Vare and Warwicks good example they gain most that do most for God and Religion sake and the giver gets most Contentment turns all to gold but grace is better than that Oh beg of Christ this Eye-salve Rev. 3. 18. And that it may be like the house of David and sin like Saul s weaker and weaker God sayes sometimes to his Servants as a King said to a Courtier that desired to be gone to provide for himself No sayes the King do my work first and I will do thine So sayes God Seek ye first my Kingdom and the righteousness thereof and all things shall be added unto you Matt. 6. 33. Judas sold his master and salvation both cheap yet they that paid the money bought dear for they bought their own damnation as is much to be feared but some have an easie kind of way for sin A French King wore a Crucifix in his hat and when he swore he kist that as if all was well some swear drink and do worse and yet cry God forgive me it was but once or twice and a trick of youth but such tricks will trip you into hell without mercy and repentance the world was once destroyed with water for the heat of lust and other wickedness but shall at length be burnt with fire for bewitching men to sin 2 Pet. 3. 11. a foolish witty Gentlewoman being told the world and the glories of it was but vanity 't is true said she Solomon said it but he first tried it and so will I but Solomon was a double great Type first of wretched sinful miserable man who can do nothing but sin of himself secondly of holy happy Blessed Christ who is all righteous we should imitate him in his wisdom and holiness not in his sin and wickedness for that brings death here and hereafter Rom. 6. 23. but good men should not dote upon the world because the world loves its own Joh. 17. 14. it never loved Christ
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
thou goest from God Christ and Self-happiness self-Self-love and happiness is to love God and God above all Whom have I in Heaven but thee or whom do I desire in comparison of thee saith David Psal 73. 25. There was a time when you desired your Lord much but did you ever desire your Lord Christ a little if you did do it more and more his Name his Nature his Person and his Promise is altogether desirable and shall be remembred in all Generations and praised for ever and ever Psal 45. 17. Therefore his Love is better than Wine Cant. 1. 2. Yea the wine of Angels for this is that that they drink in the perpetual beholding of him and you shall see my face too sayes God if you be his Servants Rev. 22. 4. But do not think of Reigning with God in Heaven if you be not his Servants here and your present Heaven is nothing to that Lift up your Eyes and look upon them and he that made them all your Heavens are but Dreams and Smoak What art thou that forgetst the Lord thy Maker Isa 51. 13. that hath stretched forth the Heavens and laid the foundations of the Earth and art afraid of a man that shall dye and be as grass Look unto Abraham sayes God ver 2. And if Abraham's bosom be desirable his Faith and Obedience is so too Some have the art to make much of little but few to make God all as Abraham did when he told him I am thy sheild and exceeding great reward Gen. 15. 1. and it is not in the power of any but he who is all and filleth all in all to give to all abundantly what their Souls do want Herod would give half his Kingdom for nothing but St. John Baptist's head pleased the young Gib well enough Matt. 14. 8. He preached repentance and Christ forgiveness a Prophet may instruct us but Christ only makes us to profit by the ministry of the word Oh! pray pray that hearing you may hear Rev. 2. 11. Matt. 13. 14. and know him whom to know is life eternal John 17. 3. though knowledge may be without Grace yet true Grace is never without knowledge and I know my redeemer lives saies Job 19. 25. and that you have not the love of God in you saies Christ to the Jews Joh. 5. 42. and his satisfaction for us is more the ground of our justification before God than his sanctification in us and yet Christ in us too is the hope of glory Oh! let him live in your hearts by faith 't will breed joy and feed joy a true Christian tasts that here which will be unspeakable hereafter here his joys enter into us hereafter we shall enter into it and the sweetness of divine love passeth all knowledge men taste a little here but ravishment is for fruition be industrious till you come there for the industrious man is not at leisure to sin heavenly meditations keep the mind busie when the hand is at plough or play but play dayes said Bishop Latimer are the Devils working dayes and he has more sin in one of them than in a whole week besides Religion allows not much idleness for he that will not work must not eat by Paul's rule Admire God in your calling and out of thy calling and the fields will give you room and objects enough for meditations and contemplations if you be not vain and airy but you must take care and watch thoughts or else you 'l loose God in your mind which is the honey in the way Oh! what is the bough the bush and the green but a little thing he sends every spring a little Daisy has a fine head but all the world cannot make it nor one hair white or black Oh! admire God in his works which are past finding out saies David Psal 19. 1. if they were happy which stood before Solomon as the Queen of Sheba said Luk. 11. 31. what are they that shall stand before the Lamb to admire him to Eternity Rev. 7. 15. Come begin heaven on earth admire him here and you shall hereafter in a sinless state here we sin and serve him too not in sin that is the Devil's work as Christ said John 8. 44. there we shall be without sin and never fear nor offend but love him to all eternity and be beloved of him Saints and Angels too Oh! may you dwell among them for ever and that is best of all but the best of and whole of this world is not worth one half quarter of the world to come That that makes heaven full of Joy is that it is above all fears and that that makes hell so full of terrour is that it is below all hopes the certainty perpetuity and eternity of it never ends nor the worm dyes saies Christ Mark 9. 44. Isa 66. 24. sin breeds death and the worm feeds upon the Conscience in remembrance of it so that a man or womans own hell comes much from and lies most in themselves by the alwise providence of a just and wise God ordering of it so see and buy Mr. Strongs little book upon the Worm of conscience we grieve and take care that little ones be not sick and dye of the worms but seldom take good and sound repentance our selves through the blood of Christ to kill the worm to come Oh! that sin may dye and Christ live in all your hearts grace increase and that decrease grace is glory begun a bud beam and slower of it and a grain of it is more worth than all the hypocritical knowledge in the world and through justifying grace scarlet sins and sinners are made whiter than snow by the blood of Christ Psal 51. 2. and the true preaching of the holy Gospel is the breaking of one heart and the binding up of another the hard is to be broken and the bruised is to be bound up much of the Minister or good Physicians skill lies in this Oh how good is it to have such a good Physician or to look out if we have not and if it be good for us to draw near unto God by prayer is it not so for him to draw near unto us by Preaching Peace Pardon and Forgiveness to us in the Ministry Yea 't is this way that he speaks Peace to his People And every faithful Minister hath as much the Power and Key this way as another For 't is but in Preaching and Believing They tell us of the Love of God and we apply and believe through the Blood of Christ and this applying and believing becomes our Remission and Forgiveness Oh! believe God is a giving and a sin-forgiving God and has two places one above and another below in a broken heart and if he dwell with a penitent what may not that heart get by him And for old and past sins it is our Heaven to be rid of them for they would have run us to Hell if we had continued in them When God is in the heart
some little thing at present take no care for hereafter as our Saviour sayes of to morrow Mat. 6. 25. Luk. 12. 22. There are Ladies enough in England yea and good Citizens too for to carry it on when you have once set it up But I have heard that a poor Coach-maker's Wife gave almost as much as a great Countess at a Collection Will this pass Nay do you your selves think this will in the day of Account And our Lord Jesus Christ will take an Account of every Lady of the Land Wife or Widow as well as others And though he approved of the poor Widow's Mite cast into the Treasure yet he will never accept of your Charity except it be in some measure proportionable to the Talent he has put in your hands For do you think that God or Christ will accept of the improvement of one Talent from a Lady Lord or others that he has given ten to no he will ask you Where are the other nine and you will then be speechless For he does not allow you nor no man living to lay up up out and out for Self Covetousness Honour Pride Vain-Glory Children Grand-children Nephews Nieces and all manner of Relations this and that great purchase every year but still little or nothing for Religion and another World God or your Souls but for Silk Sattin Coaches Lace Tire-women and other French Toys and yet may be you good Ladies too all which we grudge you not in the least but in the mean time to see you all almost slight Charity the love and eminent practice of it this is uncomfortable and not Lady Vere like Or will she and you stand alike together in the day of Accounts Nay will not the Lady Drummond though a Papist condemn some of you She was not of the true Church and yet gave almost a thousand pound to the Poor but nothing for a Funeral Come come be convinced and do more good while you live for you have not done a quarter of that good you might have done and not have hurt your Lords Estates or run backwards in the least nor do we in the least desire that you should For Charity brings a great blessing as a good Divine said But you want a heart or a hand for Christ or a Death-watch at your Bed's head to put you in mind of another world But a sound sickness will do it and nothing else to purpose But then it may be you will talk talk talk in a high Feaver of a hundred things when the plaisters are on your feet blisters on the arms legs and neck instead of Christ and his Righteousness As a Merchant did about Wooll and would hear nothing but what price Wooll bore Bring my Manteau and my green Petticoat I will rise but the Watchers cry Pray good Madam be still and keep your Arms in the Bed Don't tell me I will rise and go see my Lady such a one call the Coach quickly And a hundred things run in the head when we are running to another world and its Eternity may be altogether unprepared Now if you would find mercy in that day which was the last Text that worthy Dr. Manton ever Preacht on will it not be very sweet welcom and seasonable when all things creature comforts and relations are just a going from you or you from them for ever to find a God embracing of you Oh! be good then do good and remember the Poor and this good Work too because it may live when you are gone flourish and be a mighty Tree as I said before but the promise is You shall rather live too and not dye For the Lord will keep him alive when he lies sick Mark that word and it may be when you are dangerously sick and in your senses you would not for half nay all your Estates but that you should recover because you have doubts and fears about your Soul 's Eternal state as the poor Apothecary had that cryed despairingly He should go to Hell and lye millions of years there But now to be kept alive and recover will be the sweetest and greatest mercy to you in the world Oh try trust and take God s promise before all the world's They often fail though the blood of Christ never as one said when his head was going off Yea this promise 't is but venture a little mony it may be 't is no more not so much as a French Page or one or two Liveries cost you or some lesser thing if you look well about May not this or that be saved and go to this good design which stands high upon a high Hill and has a great name The Ladies not what Ladies but the Ladies taking in all by that general universal endless name as it were though it be intended to pious good and great Religious Protestant Ladies and other virtuous Gentlewomen yet it has an universal name because no body knows what God may incline some or how many of that Noble Sex to do for it Some are apt to think it may be in time as big as most things why not and as worthy it bears so many Noble names as there be Ladies in the Land or shall be successively and who knows but some body may dye want an Heir and remember this when you have set it once a little up For it is still The Ladies Charity School-house and must be whilst one stone or stick remains upon another for no body can new christen it And therefore pray don't let this young God-Son of yours it is your first and will be your last Starve dye look poor or be spoiled for want of a little good keeping one two or three years The Boys are fine handsom and well cloathed now not too fine because they are the Ladies You cannot but like them and their place exceeding well and be taken with it if you would but send or see them these Holy-days or after But now if a year or two hence they should be grown which God sordid poor ragged half-starv'd and no cloaths Country folks would say who rule or go that way 〈◊〉 Were there not good Ladies enough in and about London to maintain a little School a Duce on their Pride Charity Close hand and Covetousness if it is be all And a hundred things of this nature will be said and some scoffing at Religion too which will be as bad as death And therefore pray good Ladies and Gentlewomen out of tenderness and conscience do not let the thing dye for want of a little countenance but set the wheel a going by giving something this Easter one Whitsuntide or two till you see the thing it self and the likely wheel of its prosperity which there is no doubt of if you come a little off However above all a hundred times that we can say do something for this great and serious promise and promises in case of Death or Sickness it may be in a week or months time and you shall
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
inherit the earth And as Paul in his salutation said Grace be unto you and Peace through our Lord Jesus Christ Col. 1. 2. And In as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men Rom. 12. 18. Now first there is a personal or particular peace that is a peace with a man 's own self Mind Actions Waies and Conscience Secondly There is a domestick peace that is with Masters Servants Husbands Wife and Children And thirdly There is a Relative Neighbour or Parochial Peace that is one Neighbour Friend or Relation with another And Moses reproved the two Israelites for quarrelling saying They were Brethren Exod. 12 13. Oh! how good is it saith the Psalmist for natural or spiritual Brethren to live together in Amity Psal 133. 1. Fourthly There is a National and Ecclesiastical Peace which we are to pray for and desire also But this is rather to be desired than expected While some men know more and others less there will be disputes and some differences for all men have not the same fancies nor Physiognomies but do differ there and in mind too However for peace and quiet sake let the strong comply with the weak and the weak not to despise and judge the strong because they know more than themselves And this is to become all to all men as Paul did to gain some And for God Christ Peace and Angels sake do you do so which was the Song that millions of them sung at the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ to the Shepherds yea the universal world saying Glory be to God in the highest Luk. 2. 14. Peace and good will towards men on earth But for your worldly outward Peace take Paul and Christ's counsel in a word and so shall you preserve and keep it First Wrong no man saith he Act. 25. 10. Secondly Forgive your Enemies sayes Christ Matth. 5. 44. which two Scriptures well observed would make a great deal of peace in the world especially amongst the best of good Christians But I shall not mind nor trouble you further in any thing of this nature about Peace above mentioned only this A personal inward Peace which is a thing of great concern for Eternity namely your Soul-Peace and for that take this great Scripture Simile or Parable of our Lord Jesus Christ Matth. 5. 56. Agree with thine Adversary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him lest at any time thy Adversary deliver thee to the Judge and the Judge deliver thee to the Officer and thou be cast into prison Verily I say unto thee Thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing which is as much as to say never never And now pray will you mind this young Ladies and Gentlewomen for you for the most part are most ignorant of the holy Scriptures and their meaning This is a true and great Parable of Soul concern and therefore Christ's counsel is serously to be minded by us Our Adversary is God and God though he be the God of all Good Grace Glory Eternal Love and Infinite Endless Mercy yet he is an Adversary to every Man and every Man and Woman by nature too is an Adversary an enemy at distance to him till he be reconciled by Christ for the breach of his most righteous just and equal holy Law Psal 119. 19. Every branch of which as it contains a beam of his eternal will and image is more pure than the Sun or gold tryed in the Fire as the Psalmist hath it Psal 119. 72. Now whil'st sweet life and the holy blessed Gospel is continued and preach'd to us we are in the way in the right way that we may be reconciled to this good God who is yet an Enemy and will continue so if we do not agree and make peace in the blood of Christ But he namely God delivers us by death any kind of death that kills us Consumption Surfeit Cold Ague Feaver Small-Pox Age Gout or Dropsie c. so that we be put into the Judges hands namely the good Lord Jesus Christ's who is and shall be Judge of quick and dead he finds us guilty of debt sin unbelief and breach of God's holy Law sends us and delivers us over into the Jaylors hands the Devil and he presently casts and carries us to Hell where we never come out nor can till we pay the uttermost farthing that is till we satisfie to the uttermost for God's wrong and infinite strict Justice for the breach of his holy righteous just and good Law which can never never be though we lie millions millions and ten thousand millions of years as Francis Spira once said Oh Lords Ladies Gentlewomen and other poor People make Peace while you may make Peace yea whilst Christ and the holy Spirit of Christ sweetly knocks with an Olive branch of Peace pleading with you at the door of your hearts Rev. 3. 20. Behold I stand at the door and knock that is by good motions and if any one hear and open the door that is hearken to my counsel I will come in and sup with him that is give him pardon and comfort Rev. 3. 20. And so again Cant. 5. 2. Open Open unto me my Love my Dove and come away And now if you have taken his advice and have made your Peace by hearkening unto Christ and taken his counsel who is an Advocate Friend and Counsellor to plead for you to the Father by shewing of his Blood Death and Merit in a way of Intercession to the Father for poor Sinners then will he be a Saviour to you and not a condemning Judge to turn you over by Death to Hell and the Jaylor but will convey you safely by the holy Angels who are now your Guardians to the Bosom of the Father And now if you have made your Peace as easily yet you may if you have not and do but look about you with a grain of Faith through the Blood Life Death and Merit of Jesus Christ as I said before then you have little else to do but to study all kind of Peace in your Families Parish-Church and every where where you can come or go That ye may be called the Children of the Living God Rom. 9. 26. The Sons and Daughters of the most High God 1 John 3. 1. And so Peace-makers indeed And this frame of spirit with the Spirit of God in you Rom. 8. 10. will be a great Witness and Comfort to you that you are now the Children of God and if Children then Heirs as the Apostle sayes verse 17. and so Joynt-heirs with Christ O unspeakable Love and Grace What! an Heir with Christ Ay sayes the Text a Joynt-heir with him of what nay that 's for Eternity to tell but this we may say they are Heirs of First of Eternal Life and Resurrection from the Dead Luk. 20 36. But they which shall be accounted worthy of that world namely Heaven and the Resurrection from the Dead neither marry
nor are given in Marriage neither can they dye any more Luk. 23. v. 36. for they are equal to Angels and are the Children of God being Children of the Resurrection Mark the Children of the Resurrection are the Children of God that is those and all those Christ rose as a Head for they and all they have a part in the first Resurrection Rev. 20. 6. Blessed and happy are they that have part in the first Resurrection for on such the second Death shall have no power that is Hell the Devil or Jaylors Prison above mentioned O Ladies Look to Christ who is the first Resurrection and the first begotten from the Dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth for he has loved you and washt you from your sins in his own Blood Heb. 1. 6. Yea look to him that he be your Resurrection and that you have a part by Faith in him who is the true Book of Life Revel 21. 27. And if by Faith in him you rise from the Grave and Death of sin here then may you assure your selves of a share and part in his Resurrection unto Eternal Life which was typified by the First Fruits and the Sheaf of Corn which the Priest held up and wav'd under the Ceremonial or Levitical Law And that you are indeed the Children of it And of God too and so shall never dye Oh! believest thou this as Christ said in another place about Lazarus I am the life and resurrection of the dead and he that believeth in me shall never dye Joh. 11. 25. Yea though he were dead yet shall he live again Believest thou this sayes Christ so say I to you noble Ladies Gentlewomen and others if you be the Children of God and the resurrection you shall dye no more dye once you must to this world and the things sleep a little in the grave and imitate Christ your Head and your Husband your Lord and your Saviour who was there before you three dayes and three nights and then destroyed and tore the grave open to assure you of the resurrection also but in that you shall never dye more Oh! happy resurrection when Christ shall say awake and sing O ye that sleep in the dust and with my dead body shall ye awake Isaiah Come with me my love from Bebon the Leopard and the Lions den Canticles All which promises and a thousand more are made to you if you be the children of God and peace-makers in the Church or World or where you are The Children of Israel were happy that they were the Children of Israel and the seed of Abraham though all were not the true seed but Oh! how happy are you that you are the Children of God and shall be like his Angels in the resurrection yet Israel died in the wilderness and never entered into the land of Canaan but you shall never dye be as Angels enter in and possess the true Canaan Heaven 's Kingdom and the Kingdom of God be among the Angels to sing with that Coelestial Quire the high prayses of God and the Lamb to all eternity Rev. 7. Oh happy day Oh happy hour that ever you were born or made to be the Children of God and peace-makers in the world and places where you come Hell is full of brawling the world is full of brawling but your Breasts and Lives are full with peace and the love of God and the wayes and things of God Oh! keep that Nightingale and sweet ever singing Bird of Paradise close to you and let it never fail you day nor night yea all you Children of God 't is a heaven to begin a heaven here and a double hell to lose it for a straw as one said or a bubble which Children blow from a walnut shell whilst 't is a little heaven or young heaven as a great Lady called it but old heaven and the heaven of heaven of heavens shall be your portion yea he that compasseth heaven and earth and is within the Starry Element where Sun Moon and Stars are Oh! how glorious is that this is but the Tileing we see Gods house is all invisible and the inside no mortal man nor eye can see nor him neither and live Exod. 33. v. 20. But time shall pass and time shall come when these things shall be no more and we for ever with the Lord 1 Thes 4. 17. and see him as he is face to face and eye to eye and all tears shall be quite wiped away sorrow and mourning fly away for ever former things be forgotten and all your Lords unkindness and your own unworthiness of the Lamb and your Redeemer's love yea the want of Grace and comforts here the young Lord and little Ladies death will be forgotten in another world yea in resurrection glory all will be swallowed up in everlasting joy some Fountains have their mouths or pipes through which they send their Chrystal streams with pleasant noises Revel and in heaven shall the Children of the resurrection Saints and Angels continually send their Praises to God and the Lamb and that unweariedly for worthy is the Lamb to receive Power Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Revel 7. 10 11 12. And every creature in heaven and earth heard I say Amen Amen Amen Oh! ye Lords Ladies Princes Kings Queens Potentates and highest Mortal of the earth joyn ye for it becomes you well and all ye with that kingly Prophet David in his three last Psalmes 148 149 150. and with this I shall close this little little book of yours which was made a little before and just after a great sickness but the work is Praise the Lord from the heaven Praise him in the highest for the highest is too low for him Praise him all ye Angels an Angelical praise becomes him and them very well praise him all ye host be ye what he will praise him Sun and Moon for ye are man and wife to rule both day and night and he made you both praise him all ye Stars of light which are as Sun and Moons children and are of great influence to the children of men praise him O heavens air ye terrestrial coelestial heavens heaven of heavens praise him and him alone he only made you with the word of his power and ye waters that be above the heavens the airy heavens and clouds that we see and in the deep let the fountains of the deep praise him he hath commanded and you were created he establish a Decree and you cannot pass Praise him Dragons and deep fiery Mountains Hail Snow and Storms and fulfil his word Mountains Hills Trees and Cedars high Men and low Men little Beasts and Cattle Creeping things and Flying little Ants and mighty Eagles Kings Judges Princes and all People young Lords and mayden Ladies of nine ten eleven twelve and thirteen let them praise his name for his name alone is excellent and before him let all flesh be for ever silent His glory is above the Heavens