banner we have vowed manfully to fight that is to learne of our Saviour Christ to be meeke and lowly love our Enemies and to pray for them that persecute us And you on the other side to lay aside the peevish froward disposition of corrupt Nature which makes us so prone to rebell against God and to reject his commandements and so likewise makes us so wilfully to oppose our Superiours to disdaine their good councell wilfully run in those courses that tend to everlasting destruction as like the men of Sodom who said unto that holy man Lot that had deserved so much of them yet when he perswaded them from that furious and beastly rage in pressing upon his house to offer violence upon his angelicall guests they cried out against that good man away with him they said he is come alone as a stranger and shall he rule judge we will now deale worse with him then with them But you know what became of them the Lord preserved his servant Lott and safely conveighed him out of the City and smote the outragious men with blindnesse and the next morning caused fire and brimstone to raine downe upon them utterly consume them their city this instance I bring to shew what we are when we are led by the unruly Passions of our sinfull nature but now I speak to men I hope of wisedome and such as God hath endewed with grace and that will teach us to deny ungodly lusts and to behave our selves charitably that if any man be fallen by occasion into any sinne yee which are Spirituall restore such a one with the Spirit of meekenesse considering thy selfe least thou also be tempted Gal. 6.1 And therefore I besech you if any heere have fallen by any such suddaine passion or caused others by their provocations O let them now acknowledge their errour unfeinedly desire to entertaine one another with all love and cheerefulnesse and assure your selves as it is the honour of a Souldier to be the first that entereth the breach and for the country-man that hath the first blow at the Ball so it will be the honour of a Christian man that shall now shew himselfe most forward to acknowledge his error and to seeke a holy reconciliation A PRAYER which Master Spencer doth use ordinarily in his familly Morning and Evening which he doth earnestly desire might be zealously and devoutly performed in every family in this Kingdome that are not provided of a better O Lord open our lipps and teach us to pray that wee may humble our soules and truely repent of all our sins for our Lord Iesus Christ his sake in whose holy name onely wee presume to come unto thee to bege and crave mercy in thy sight O Most Heavenly Father and gracious Lord God the Father of our Lord Iesus the God of mercy and salvation wee poore creatures doe humbly prostrate our selves before the throne of mercy confessing and acknowledging that we are miserable sinners conceived in sinne and brought forth in iniquity nay wee must acknowledge wee stand guilty of that originall sinne of our first parents for the transgressing thy holy holy Commandements and eating of the forbidding fruit plunged themselves and their posteritie unto shame and confusion their Soules and bodyes to be tormented in hell fire with the Devill and his Angels in utter darknesse and in that miserable estate thou might have left us all to perish in our sinnes but this is not that we have to answere for But we have made our selves seventy times the Children of the Devill more by our actuall transgressions in violating all thy holy lawes and Commandements both with vile thoughts wicked speeches and abominable actions which we have done in the sight of men to the great dishonour of thy holy name and the utter damnation of our own soules and the greatly endangering of others by our evill example and that not onely in the time of Ignorance and practise we have desperatly and Presumptiously gone on in those wicked courses which our Conscience have accused us and thy sacred word condemned us and therefore thou mightest have cast us off in thy heavy displeasure never more shewed pitty upon us but exposed us to the heaviest judgement this world could afford of plung pestilence utter madnesse and despaire and when we have passed all the miseries of this life then to cast us downe in utter darknesse with the Devill and his Angels to be tormented in everlasting darkenesse but good Lord good Lord pitty us and shew mercy upon us and teach us to bewaile our sinnes and truely to repent us of them before we goe hence and be no more seene and that we may finde mercy and favour in thy sight remember us oh remember us with that everlasting love of thine towards us in sending thy eternall sonne Christ Iesus our blessed Saviour and our everlasting Redeemer to take upon him our humane nature in all thinges sinne onely excepted to become the sonne of the blessed Virgin Mary and so both God and man in one person to accomplish the glorious worke of our redemption by leading a most pure and holy life by fulfilling all thy holy Commandements in one absolute and perfect manner that he might free us from that death and damnation that our sinnes have justly deserved and by his death and passion and those bitter torments and again which he suffred upon the crosse which neither the tongue of man and Angels is able to expresse and shedde his precious blood even unto death which is of that infinite value to make satisfaction for the sinnes of the whole world and of that infinite vertue to purifie our soules and consciences and make them as pure and undefiled as if we never comitted any sinne and rose againe the third day according to the Scriptures and is ascended into the highest heaven and there sits in all glory at the right hand of God and triumpheth over all the enemies of our salvation Hell Death damnation and shall come from thence to judge both the quicke and the dead and hath oppened the Kingdom of heaven to all beleivers we doe beleive Lord help our unbeleife and give us grace to use all holy meanes that we grow more in faith then ever we have done make us more zealous for thy glory more devout in prayer and zealous in good workes more carefull to keep holy the Sabboth and come more reverently unto thy holy ordinances and walke dilligently and faithfully in our calling and worke in our hearts an everlasting hatred against all sinnes and the sins especially that wee are most prone unto by nature and those whereunto the Devill doth so eagerly tempt us and allure us and those sinnes which wicked and ungodly men that run the headlong course to hell and damnation do inforce perswade us but Lord let them never prevaile with us and ours to give any liking and allowance thereunto but ever let us
may be furnisht with such a booke and every high Sheriffe of every countrey provide a Preacher to visit the prisoners once every week for it is pittifull to see how they are neglected A Copy of a Letter to M. Hutchinson to whose hands King Iames committed me after I delivered unto him the petition for the Sabbath MY very loving and kind Keeper although you have been long out of sight yet you have been oftentime in minde and often in my thoughts and prayers unto God for you as I had good cause when I remember the great care and love that you and M. Hutchinson did shew unto me when I was prisoner in your house Oh that it would please the Lord to make me as happy a prisoner unto you as Saint Paul was unto his Keeper at Philippi whereof you may read in the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles who at Saint Pauls first comming into the prison was in such a woefull estate of a persecuting Infidell yet that night being terrified with the earthquake and feare of the losse of his prisoners would desperately have murthered himselfe but Saint Paul having pitty and compassion upon him cryed out with a loud voice Doe thy selfe no harme for we are all here and then with feare and trembling he fell downe before them and brought them out of prison and said Sirs what must I doe to be saved and Saint Paul preached unto them to beleeve in the Lord Iesus and he and his houshold should be saved and so through the Lords great mercy they were converted and baptized and greatly reioyced that he and all his house beleeved in God Now though I have not seen you so desperately minded to kill your selfe with your sword for feare of my escape yet I must needs say I have seen you ready to wound your soule with fearefull swearing and excessive drinking and how greatly this may endanger your soule and body also you may consider of it You remember well that the Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vaine and Saint Paul doth testifie that drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Galat. 5.22 but of these sinnes I have admonished you of when I was with you and through the Lords great mercy found some reformation thereof in that I did see you refraine from such excessive drinking and sometimes abstaine an oath and reprove others for swearing I know that is a hard matter suddenly to cast off such growne sinnes and those whereunto you have been so long accustomed but on the other side also I know it is an easie thing unto our omnipotent God to set your feet into the way of peace Oh therefore unto that mercifull God to convert your soule and to set your feet into the way of peace Oh therefore pray unto that blessed Lord and importune him with earnest and zealous prayer day and night untill he hath wrought in you that blessed worke to give you grace not onely to see your sinnes but give you also true repentance and godly sorrow for them that you may now loath them more then ever you loved them and utterly detest and abhorre them though they be as deare unto you as your right eye and as profitable unto you as your right hand yet cast them off and cast them from you for it is better for us to enter into the kingdome of heaven so maimed and spoiled of our sinnes then to enjoy them here for a short time and then both soule and body to be cast into hell fire where there is weeping and wailing in everlasting darknesse And now that you may escape those everlasting torments and attaine to the kingdome of heaven and the righteousnesse thereof you must settle your selfe to the constant performing of those holy duties of prayer and hearing the word of God and you must take unto you that Christian resolution that no feare of mans displeasure nor the mockes and scoffes of wicked men should make you never to neglect the same I meane you must not be ashamed to goe to Sermons nor to keep holy the Sabbath-day nor to pray with your wife and servants though all the drunken companions in Kent should rayle or ieere at you for the same but remember that those that are ashamed of our Lord Iesus Christ and of his holy service on earth he will be ashamed to owne them in the day of judgement and leave them to their devillish masters and to those hellish torments which he hath prepared for such base slaves that doe preferre the service of the devill before the service of God And then will they cry unto the mountaines to cover them and to hils to fall upon them rather then they would heare the dreadfull sentence of Goe ye cursed into hell fire prepared for the devill and his angels and the wofull execution that followes thereupon to be closed up for ever in utter darkenesse and there to be tormented with those damned spirits where instead of their carousing and filthy speaking they shall have weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore and never shall behold the face of any man nor heare the voice of any creature to yeeld them comfort but as they delighted themselves in swearing and staring in cursing and raging so they shall have their fill thereof among those raging and furious damned spirits and yet shall not procure one drop of water to coole their tongues although they be tormented in those hellish flames as you may read in the example of Dives Saint Luke 16.29 and then my loving Keeper is it not much better with Moses to chuse rather to suffer afflictions with the children of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season and then to goe to everlasting torments And what if you be mocked and pointed at for a Puritane and be counted a mad man because you separate your selfe from the company of blasphemous wretches and abhominable drunkards and doe now resolve to serve the living God with an honest heart nay what if you should be persecuted and imprisoned for his name-sake Rejoice and be glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the Prophets and holy men of God in former times and so likewise did the Iews persecute our Lord Iesus Christ and said he was mad and had a devill And if they dealt thus with him our Lord and Master shall we looke for a greater priviledge nay let us with a holy resolution arme our selves to encounter with all their temptations and with the blessed Apostle rejoice that we are accounted worthy in such an honourable cause and to be made like unto our Saviour Christ in any sort for he entred into his kingdome of glory through many tribulations I am a little the more earnest upon this point because even while I was with you I feare there were some that did with scoffing and geering seeke to discourage you in those good courses whereunto you were so
a sottish humer put an armour upon him and beat a drum before him and let one attyre himselfe like a Captaine and put on his gorget and a plume of feathers in his hat a trunchion in his hand and make to march and exercise his armes or else set him upon a bounding horse and trot the ring and run a career and in these martiall exercises let the Captaine command him as his souldier and if he finds him peevish and froward give him a good knock upon his helmet and if he finde him willing and tractable then to commend and praise him Ninthly for matter of Physick you must advise with some learned Physician that doth well understand the nature of the disease and the constitution of his body for otherwise he may be prodigall of blood-letting and the want of blood may increase his melancholy he must likewise take heed of strong vomits that strain the head and distemper the brain in my opinion bathing and sweating and bleeding with horseleeches the safer way Lastly because these maladies and distempers are accompanied with a great deale of peevish crossenesse and wilfull obstinacie and a great part of the cure stands in the right crossing of them from those froward and furious humours which will require great patience and good observation for the generall use all faire meanes you can devise to gain them to the good and divert them from the ill but if that will not prevail you must have patience and passe it over as though you took no notice of it but if it comes once to this that they do perceive that you go about to crosse them and that you are in opposition and contesting with them then you must follow it with all importunity and resolvtion to subdue them and compell them to do it but be sure you take them with such advantages that you prevail otherwise the attempting of it will prove dangerous to your selfe and make them more outragious and insolent Postscript Master Dixie I pray be carefull to see these directions well performed and then I hope you will well deserve to have twenty pound a yeer for your paines otherwise I would be loath to perswade you to undertake such a dangerous imployment A Copie of a Letter to a vertuous Gentlewoman greatly afflicted in minde which it pleased God to give unto her great comfort BLessed be God even the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort which comforteth us in all our tribulations that we might be able to comfort them that are in any affliction by the comfort where with wee our selves are are comforted of God and humbly I beseech that gratious Lord that he will vouchsafe for his deare sonne Iesus Christ his sake to open your eyes that you may behold those unspeakeable mercies and comforts that he will in his appointed time give unto all those that do fear his holy name and call upon him faithfully Cosen I have lately receaved your letter wherein you doe acknowledge that when I was with you it pleased God you found some comfort praised be his holy name for it but since you have been very ill and so remaine some causes you shew for the same because you cannot be assured of the favour of God towards you the reasons that you alledge because you finde so small comfort in prayer and in hearing of the word Secondly because of your fearful temptations both past and still continuing these as I take it are your chief reasons being rightly understood they wil prove so many sound arguments to prove that you never had so good cause to rest assured of Gods favour towards you nor ever had so many testimonies of his everlasting mercyes towards you as you have now that afflictons chastisements and temptations are the signes of Gods favour and the markes of his children I pray consider what the holy Apostle faith Hebrews the 12. the 5. the 6. my son despise not the chastening of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and he scourgeth every son that he receiveth and mark how he concludes in the eight verse if therefore ye be without correction whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards and not sonnes is it not strange that you should vex and torment your self because the divell cannot prove you a bastard but it may be you may say it is not thus in your iudgement but then know that it is not fit for you to be a Judge in you own cause but submit your selfe unto the Judgement of Gods word which is the word of truth And beleeve his holy Apostles that knew how to iudge in those cases better then you and they will testifie that we have cause rather to reioyce then any wise to be discouraged with afflictions and temptations Saint Peter 1.2 My brethren count it exceeding ioy when ye fall into temptations and the blessed Apostle Saint Paul when he was tempted and grievously buffeted by Sathan for the which thing he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him but what was he presently released no but receaved this answere from the Lord and he said unto me my grace is sufficient for thee for my power is made perfect through weaknesse and what was the blessed man dismayed with this answer or concluded as you would do that he was out of the favour of God because his prayer was not granted no such matter but rather doth conclude greater comfort and assurance very gladly therefore saith he will I rejoyce in my infirmities that the power of Christ may dwell in me therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in anguish for Christ sake for when I am weake then am I strong thus you may see how the Apostle out of Daniel gathereth matter of comfort and out of his own weaknes encreaseth great strength of faith and thus must you do in these fearfull temptations not so much as cast your eyes upon your own weaknesse nor upon the strength and power of your malitious enemy but you must looke up with the eye of faith unto our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ who is in the highest heavens and whose grace is sufficient for us and he it is who hath triumphed over sin death and damnation and hath tramped underfoot all the enemyes of our salvation and therfore with the holy Prophet say The Lord is my light and my salvation whom then shall I fear the Lord is the strength of my life of whom then shall I be afraid Now concerning your discomfort in hearing the word because you take so small comfort in the promises and are so much terrified with the judgements This I take it proceeds partly from the errour of your judgment in misse-aplying the same and partly from the malice of Sathan who evermore labours to drive us into extremities either with Eve not to fear the iudgements of