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!
spoil so great a Gem and Jewel or Immortal thing Christ will save us now Christ will save us ever if we be but willing yet he will never bleed more but he prays and mediates for us still for he makes continual Intercession Rom. 10. 4. and his blood speaks better things than the blood of Abel that cryed down vengeance upon Cain but Christ's blood crys up forgiveness unto us Oh Father let them come to me if they will be mine Joh. 17. 24. And may you both dwell with him for ever but oh live a little if you have not live to him a little if you cannot much time being now short lay up as much as can be Treasure in Heaven where no Rust nor Thieves can come Lands Debts Rents and Houses may be all lost but Treasure in Heaven can never miscarry and if ever we indeed mean to come there it must be by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ Money will not buy Pardon Blood nor Tears cannot nor the Fruit of our Bodies go for the sin of our Souls Micah 6. 7. But Christ's Blood is Currant Coin Oh stick to that Rock which will not fail when the Silken Stockin and the Silver Shoe must off and never on more nor the Soul return to the same Body Vanity of Vanities how is all but froth and vanity besides Christ and therefore if he be not ours we are lost for nothing for nothing but a Dream a Bubble and a Fancy yea and our Souls to Eternity Madam WE have presumed to offer one of these to the Lady Player Mrs. Love and Madam Pilkinton with a few humble Lines as now we do to your most great Right Honourable Ladiship from all which we most humbly pray that this Good Work which in charity must be so accounted may be a little countenanced by you the four Beloved Ladies of this mighty City for if any names be deservedly great and famous more than others sure it is yours and those other three above mentioned And may your Names live from generation to generation whilst your Walls and Gates last and your Souls to Eternity after all May Hell never be known nor Heaven lost by you nor none of yours especially your dear Husbands But may they be all four for ever Citizens in the New Jerusalem walk hand in hand with the Lamb and his Redeemed ones to the Fountains of Living Water where God shall be all in all and they alwaies drinking from the River of his Pleasures Rev. 7. 17. Psal 36. 8. So prays one and all our Charity School-house Madam THE great God and his Providence has made Sir Thomas the Father as it were of all the famous Apprentices of London and onely sole Judge between the great Merchant and his Man and not so but an Eye for the Nation also piercing through and through the greatest Intrigues Policies Stratagems that Malice Hell or Rome can lay against our King Kingdom or Religion Liberty and Interest Gems and Jewels of greater value than the Gold of Ophir in a true sense But in your sphere Madam this little little Work is not to be despised in the least but a Scriptural Honour it is to be owned the Lady of Charity and a Mistress or great Benefactor to one of their little Schools Light is light truth truth a spark is fire and true Charity praise worthy to the world's end and so long may your Name Praise and Honour live and our House also Madam LOve is from the Fountain and Divine Being of all good May that ever flow in your Name and Nature and be as natural to you as the Rose and Buds are to the Summer and then when this Spring and your Charity shall flow up in and from you to the barren Hill of Highgate where your School-house stands it will then become a feeding filling Spring too for Charity will feed us and praise flow from us to the famous City-Ladies names which shall never be forgotten but be fairly Registred and read from one Age and one Generation to another And now may the Love of God Almighty the pure Joys and Comforts of his holy Spirit ever abide with you and yours whilst you abide in this Tabernacle of Clay and he constantly guide you through the Wilderness of this bewitching barren wicked World till you come to the last period of Life and wrap you up then in the Righteousness of God's dear and anointed only Christ to shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father for ever more praies thirty six of us and our Minister also Most Worthy Madam THere are four Gates in the City four Seasons in the Year four Ladies nigh together that will hardly be forgotten but shall be beloved for their Husbands sakes their own too for their praise is truly praise-worthy their virtues all eminently specious But now dear Madam would it not be a high and great Honour to see you our four Citizens Ladies with your four well-beloved Husbands our constant Parliament men for London chosen more by hearts than hands and a many brave judicious sober Citizens waiting on them all standing one by one as it were on the brow of our Hill saying one to the other There is the Tower and the Monument the Old Change Guild-Hall and Blackwell-Hall which some would fain burn again there is Bow-Steeple the Holy Bible the Silver Bells of Aaron the godly outed Ministers the melodious Musick of the Gospel Smithfield Martyrs yet alive and the Best Society the very Best in all the world for Civility Loyalty Men and Manners with the greatest cash bulk mass and stock of all sorts of Silks Cinnamon Spices Wine Gold Pearl Spanish-Wooll and Cloaths with the River Nilus and the stately Ships of Turshish to carry in and out the great Merchandizes of the world And may all this with the dew of Hermon her Silver Drops with your godly Ministers yet unrestored ever be to the World's end and to your Live's end May you and yours be beloved as you are And now the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and all Consolations bless you both in Spirit Soul and Body Sickness Health Life and Death here and for evermore prayes all we your poor youngest Hospital-Boys of Highgate and to help them is most Charity ever The old fares well thanks be to a good City and their Benefactors in it for which God Almighty bless them and their Government to the world's end with Peace Health Wealth Honour and the Power of Religion Most Honourable Madam THE Best have not alwaies Love boiling in them yet at sometimes nothing works so strongly as Divine Goodness in their Souls and now we think we see in your heart hand and eye all lifting up unto the Hills from whence alone has your Salvation and Deliverance been we think we hear you still say God has been my Helper my Rock and my Salvation and I will bless him he hath inclined his Ear unto me therefore will I love