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
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
nor they that are his much the most things of the world and the best things of the world leave us at the worlds end send us gawl'd and weary out a pack-horse has but beans and oats many care and carry for they know not who A rich man lately going with his son by water towards London Bridg Father said the young man there is a brave play to day at the Dukes Play-house let us go see it O villain said the Father wouldst thou go and have me too when there is a great vessel to look after Damn me chuse you said the Son I will go calling another boat and so stept away but they are both dead now and a vast estate gone and no body knows where almost Oh! how many do the like care and care as the old man did and have nothing many times but sin and the gawled conscience to carry them to the grave a sad reward and curse upon over covetous men but the world at best is but as a spoke in a wheel one is uppermost to day and another to morrow and though corn wine and oyl be the worlds happiness Psal 4. 7. yet this is at an end when he or the world is they ravish in expectation not in fruition but heavenly things are sweet in both and the worlds all is nothing at all at last many desie it and the Devil in their mouths and yet serve both in their hearts it is not the having the world in our hands or our hands in the business of the world but our making an Idol of it serving it more than the Creator God blessed for ever 'T is a great peice of wisdom to hide faults and ignorance sometimes yet learned Rome and Greece the two great schools of the world by all their learning did not define whether there were many Gods or one and were for many years the greatest Idolaters in the world notwithstanding all their wisemen but wisdom is good with an inheritance and true wisdom chooses God and Christ for a portion The Lord is my portion saith my soul and whom have I in heaven but thee saies David Psal 73. 25. Sir Edward Petto saith that if wee do ill the pleasures are but short and the pains remain for ever but if we do well the good does so too and 't is good to wait on God who waits to be gracious to such as call upon him Some men find want of comfort and others find comfort in want because God is with them when thou goest through the fire and through the water I will be with thee saith the Lord Isa 43. 2. And Tertullian sayes of young Ladies if they were cloathed with Silks and Piety Sattins and Sanctity Purple and Modesty God would be with them and love and like them better too A man may love morality civility and not Grace Rome would prove the truth by miracles when she should prove miracles by truth but her whole Golden Legion is a fiction of forged lyes and that he that wrote it had a brazen face and a leaden heart they willingly believe lyes and God in judgment suffers them so to do because they receive not the love of the truth 2 Thes 2. 10 11 12. And Vespasian was tired with a triumph and Ladies have been so with musick and a play-house all is but vanity of vanities at the long run besides Christ and the Knowledge of him Yea all else is but Golden Dreams and 't is better to fear and dream of Hell than to drop into it to think of Jollity and find misery is said or to dream of Heaven upon Earth and to wake by Death in Hell is sad indeed Time passes a pace and all post some where 'T is dangerous putting off that to day which thou must do or else it may be utterly undone to morrow Contemplation and Meditation are good things 'T is as the smell of the Rose and Jessemin sayes one Some men are ashamed to sin before a child but what we are afraid to do before men we should be to think before God And 't is better to spend our time in doing good than bare talking or getting Riches either If we should be thankful for little Mercies Riches and Honour what should we be for God himself and the pardon of sin The Tongue blessing God without the heart is but a tinkling Cymbal and the heart blessing God without the tongue is sweet but still musick but the heart and tongue together makes the sweetest harmony in the world And if the Larks and Birds sing so merrily to the morning Sun we should much more to our Creator and Redeemer Let all the world praise thee O God Let all the world praise thee saith the Psalmist Psal 67. 3. And you Noble Ladies who have best voices and least to do should be most engaged in that good work But Honour is a snare and visits many and needless too sometimes Better stay at home and think Lord what am I What do I Whither go I so fast a little time will put me in a Bason Every man is but a bag full of Dust at the best and Death turns us into Ashes and that Dust may be squeezed into a small place And 't is probable the Grave-man takes up some of that sometimes to sling upon another when he cryes Dust to Dust and Ashes to Ashes But this is certain after a little while every man will be no man A good Gentlewoman being sick was askt whether she were willing to Live or Dye What God pleased Ay but sayes one If God should put it to you but then said she I would refer it to him again And a brave Grace it is to be resigned so patiently to God's will in every thing And there are four Reasons for it The Holiness The Sovereignty Eternity and Goodness of his Will But he that sins and quarrels against this good and holy Sovereign and Eternal Will of God does but do what in him lyes to make him send him Soul and Body into Hell But cut me hack me kill me sayes Austin so thou savest my Soul And oh what an Emphasis does the Scripture frequently put upon the word Soul Hear and your Soul shall live Isa 55. 3. He that sins against me wrongs his own Soul Prov. 8. 36. Fear not them that can kill the Body but him that can throw the Body and Soul into Hell What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his Soul Matth. 16. 26. Thou Fool this night shall thy Soul be taken from thee Luke 12. 18. Matth. 12. 28. Soul mercies Soul-promises and Soul-salvation must needs be great And the Great God by his absolute Sovereignty claims and sayes All Souls are mine Ezek. 18. 4. But most are like the poor Woman Mr. Burroughs mentions who when her house was burning ran about to save some little trisles but forgot her Child in the Cradle But then supposing it to be burnt though indeed it was
thou goest from God Christ and Self-happiness 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
as great and experienced a Saint and Servant of Christ as ever liv'd that is an in-dwelling in every part of our Body yea and Soul too saith Perkins and Bishop Vsher Indeed both and every part of both is miserably defiled through Adam's Fall and this in-dwelling of sin in us makes good men mourn and hinders them also that they cannot do what they would and makes them too too often do what they should not Rom. 7. 19. I hope you Ladies and Gentlewomen find it so And this is the true cause of their mourning and complaining But blessed are they that mourn upon this so good and gracious an account for they shall be comforted first here 2dly hereafter and a thousand promises are made to them in the Holy Writ Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord. Speak ye comfortably unto Zion her Warfare is accomplished her Victory is ended her Sins are pardoned Isa 40. 1 2. And blessed is the man whose sin is pardoned Psal 32. 1. This real blessedness is beyond the tongue of men or Angels to set out and oh that it might be yours and that you could mourn and secretly weep and now and then on the knee drop a tear in the Closet upon this account that you have lived to your selves your Lords Pleasure Sin and the World so much and Christ so little God would certainly comfort you with a thousand secret Soul-comforts in the pardon of Sin the sense of his love and assurance of Christ to your Souls and this assure your selves shall be your last and lasting comforts if you be Sin-mourners and Forsakers of it But Thirdly Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth Mat. 5. 4. Yea and God too in the Earth For thus saith he that is High and Holy I will dwell with him that is of a meek and lowly Spirit Mat. 11. 29. May this high and holy One dwell and abide in all your Ladyships Hearts Souls and Families may he secretly be your Comfort Day and Night but you must be meek and I am meek and lowly says Christ Humility is a great Grace in a great Person and well becomes your most Noble Sex yea and Lords too but this Meekness is a quiet submissiveness of Grace in your wills to the Will of God in all his Providences to you and yours whereby you say as it were with holy David If he has pleasure in me he will bring me back again And with good old Ely It is the Lord 2 Sam. 3. 18. And with Paul and his Friends after weeping for him The Will of the Lord be done Acts 21. 14. And like our Lord Jesus Christ in his Agony about passing of the bitter Cup in his Bloody Agony Not my Will but thy Will be done This is a brave frame indeed for Ladies on the Knees to hold up the little Hands kiss the Rod quietly and patiently submit to all the Providences Losses and Afflictions because God as a Father sends them for good and holy ends to his Servants best known to himself and if you patiently take them as his Children without Murmuring then are you Meek Patient ones indeed 'T is the sturdy Oaks that resist the Winds and are split but the gentle Reed yields And stubborn Sinners quarrel at the Providence and Will of God but good Men and Women submit serve some divine design or other and this is the way to inherit the Earth That is to say All your outward Earthly Comforts namely Honour Riches and Prosperity yea Heavenly and Inward too Does God take one Child Be quiet lest he take another Does he take one part of your Estate or Comfort He can take another yea He can take all as he did Job's and restore it again Blessed be his holy Name Job 1. 21. Oh! labour to be Meek and lowly and he will lead and guide you through the Wilderness of this miserable wretched sinful and bewitching World in all your plentiful Enjoyments till you come to himself in Glory But Fourthly Blessed saith our Saviour are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness What Righteousness God's Christ's Abraham's Isaac's Jacob's Jews and Gentiles Faith's Righteousness and the fruit of this Righteousness is Sanctification By Righteousness here is meant that which God imputes to Men or Women and makes Sinners compleat and happy in which is indeed his Son's Righteousness or that which is often called his Son's Active and Passive Obedience as God and Man in our Nature to the whole Will and Law of God Christ you know did all the Will of God in a way of Obedience Submission and Observance to his holy Law and so fulfil every Branch of it to a tittle for had he failed in one he could never have Justified us who do still come short in all as we are in our selves But he suffered all the Will of God too in a way of satisfaction for our Breach and Breaches of this his holy Righteous Perfect Good and Heavenly Law given by God himself unto Moses in the Mount Exod. 19. 20. Yea as he fulfilled this and satisfied for the Breach of it so he did the Levitical or Ceremonial Law also for he was Circumcised and Baptized for us in both and all which he stood as a Man or God-Man and Surety for us or as one in our Room Stead Place or Company And as he fulfill'd the Law for us in the Active Obedience of his Life so he did all the Law required or God ever desired of him in his Will to do and in his Death he satisfied the Justice of God for all that we or Adam ever did against him or his most pure and holy Law Yea he did it to the full uttermost and over too whereby he has as it were an infinite Overflowing endless Merit in his Hand to shew the Justice of God in our behalf why he should deliver us from Hell and all the Curse and Curses of the Law which dreadful ones you may read in Deut. 27. 15 16 17 18. which implies Eternal Death to all out of Christ for it saith Cursed is every one that continueth not in all that is written and not only so but to give us everlasting Life and Glory Pray Ladies mind this seriously for it is this Obedience of Christ and his Righteousness and that and that alone which being imputed reckoned and conveyed or given unto us becomes before God in a way of strict Justice and equal Righteousness our Justification and so eternal Salvation and you nor none of you nor any living can be saved otherwise and therefore well may and well ought you for to mind it And how Isaiah and Paul says He was made Sin and died for us as well as Born for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. Now this Righteousness is called God's Righteousness Christ's Righteousness Abraham's Jews and Gentiles Faith's and the Saints Righteousness Rev. 19. 8. And first It is
called God's because God contrived and designed this Way of justifying Sinners from Eternity therefore says Paul God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Sins 2 Cor 5. 19. Secondly It is called God's Righteousness because Christ who was God as well as Man wrought and brought it about yea he alone brought it about And therefore it is said of the People There was none to help and mine own arm brought salvation Isa 63. 5. Then what an injury and dishonour do the Papists unto Christ in bringing so many He and She-Saints in to share with him now the work 's done Thirdly it is called God's Righteousness Rom. 10. 3. because it is imputed reckoned implied and discovered to us by the holy Spirit of God working Faith in our hearts But then secondly it is frequently called Christ's Righteousness because Christ as man in our nature stead room and place wrought it for us not Christ and Peter not Christ and Paul the Disciples all slept and Christ prayed and sweat alone bore all the wrath and hung upon the Tree for us bore our sins in his own body dead buried and rose again for us well may he be called as he is the Lord our Righteousness and the Justifier of the Vngodly Thirdly it is called Abraham's Righteousness he being the Father first and most ancient Saint of God and he to whom the promise next Adam or rather Eve was most eminently made and therefore saith God In thy Seed that is in Christ shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 22. 17. Not that it is indeed his any more than Isaac's Jacob's or any other Servant of God's that shall believe the promise as he or they eminently did Isa 51. 1. We are bid look unto Abraham do and go unto the same Pit as he did namely Christ for Righteousness for as God justified him so just so and no otherwise will he do by you and all us that do believe in him Fourthly it is called the Gentiles Righteousness that is the Heathens and Ungodly Sinners such as were without God in the World and did worship instead of the true God Moloch Bell and the Dragon Mars Venus Jupiter and Apollo and the Devil in an hundred Idols consecrated Trees and Four-footed Creatures Now to these miserable Gentiles was Christ promised and sent and he shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles Isa 51. namely Christ that is a right understanding to worship the true God that made Heaven and Earth which Papists yet so much continue in by worshiping Pictures Shrines Images and the consecrated Host a little Half-farthing Wafer and for which not doing they have burnt and murthered thousands A thing most cruel on one hand and irrational on the other yea more than the Persians worshiping of the Sun a thousand times for that 's a glorious creature though it be but a creature Now from these Gentiles we came and are of their Race yet by Christ and his Righteousness which is called the Gentiles we are made near though otherwise Strangers and Aliens But fifthly as it is called God's Christ's Abraham's and the Gentiles Righteousness so it is called Faith's Righteousness also Rom. 10. 6. That the Righteousness of Faith might come unto the Gentiles Rom. 9. 30. And it is called Faith's Righteousness first because by Faith we see it lay hold on and believe in it to the saving of our souls Faith is an eye that sees Christ and his Righteousness Faith is an hand and receives Christ and his Righteousness Faith is an ear that hears Christ and his Righteousness when 't is preached on And all my Sheep follow me says he and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Joh. 10. 28. For with the heart man believes saith St. Paul and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation What Confession namely this That God has raised Christ from the dead and made his life and death a Righteousness for poor sinners which alone is the ground of their justification and eternal salvation in the highest Heavens also And for this and this alone and denying Mass Purgatory and Works of Supererogation and for denying the Popes Infallibility and Supremacy have thousands and thousands been massacred and murdered in the Christian world but when did any Protestants put any Roman-Catholicks to death meerly upon the account of their Religion or how very few have they been Thomas of Becket Bishop of Canterbury was knock'd on the head by 3 or 4 Blades at Court for quarrelling with the King or interrupting of the Laws and some-body else by a just Law hang'd for a Gun intended against a better much greater King and for this one is Sainted and the other may be too in a little time But Faith and its Righteousness teaches us none of these but to submit to Kings and all lawful authority that we may live peaceably and quietly under them in all righteousness and honesty Rom. 13. 1. But sixthly this Righteousness is called the Saints Righteousness that is all sanctified men women and children and Righteousness in the world for a Saint is nothing else in a strict sense but a man or woman truly fearing God and a little of the true fear and grace of God in the heart makes any man or woman in the world so in the account of God and the holy Scriptures for 't is not Notion Gifts Parts great and humane Learning but saving truth that make a Saint And all the humane learning in the world says Hintius will not rectifie the crooked nature of man as instance Socrates and Aristotle the one being a covetous wretch as ever liv'd and the other keeping a common Strumpet for his Lust But a little saving grace will bridle men from all sin when bare humane knowledge cannot nor all the Brass Tin and Copper in the world make a dram of Gold nor all the common gifts parts and wit of men which I speak not in the least against no not in the least but reverence it and them that have it yet I say 't is grace and the sanctifying grace and Spirit of God in the heart that makes a Saint and whoever has any thing of that more or less for some have much more and some much less than others yet whoever has the least sanctifying measure of the Truth in his Heart is a Saint and Servant of God be he Noble or Ignoble High or Low Rich or Poor Learned or Unlearned and for this see these Texts or Scriptures at your leisure Phil. 1. 1. Col. 1. 2 12. Ephes 4. 12. Chap. 3. 8. Heb. 6. 10. And therefore if any fine young Lady Gentlewoman or others have but a little love to Christ the Word Ways Things or Servants of Christ she may be a Saint as well as the greatest they were called at the first Disciples Brethren 2 Joh. 1. 2. Jam. 1. 2. Christians Acts 11. 26. Saints and Believers Acts 5. 14. 1 Tim. 4.
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