ΤΟ

MY DEARLY BELOVED FRIENDS,

THE INHABITANTS OF THE

BOROUGH AND FOREIGN OF KIDDERMINSTER,

BOTH MAGISTRATES AND PEOPLE.

MY DEAR FRIENDS,

If either I or my labours have any thing of public use or worth, it is wholly, though not only, yours; and I am convinced, by Providence, that it is the will of God it should be so. This I clearly discerned in my first coming to you, in my former abode with you, and in the time of my forced absence from you. When I was separated by the miseries of the late unhappy war, I durst not fix in any other congregation; but lived in a military, unpleasing state, lest I should forestall my return to you, for whom I took myself reserved. The offers of greater worldly accommodations, with five times the means which I receive with you, was no temptation to me once to question whether I should leave you: your free invitation of my return, your obedience to my doctrine, the strong affection which I have yet towards you above all people, and the general, hearty return of love which I find from you, do all persuade me that I was sent into this world especially for the service of your souls. And that even when I am dead I might yet be a help to your salvation, the Lord hath forced me, quite beside my own resolution, to write this treatise, and leave it in your hands. It was far from my thoughts ever to have become thus public, and burthened the world with any writings of mine; therefore have I oft resisted the requests of my reverend brethren, and some superiors, who might else have commanded much more at my hands: but see how God overruleth and crosseth our resolutions.

Being in my quarters, far from home, cast into extreme languishing by the sudden loss of about a gallon of blood, after many years' foregoing weaknesses, and having no acquaintance

about me, nor any books but my bible, and living in continual expectation of death, I bent my thoughts on my 'Everlasting Rest;' and because my memory, through extreme weakness, was imperfect, I took my pen and began to draw up my own funeral sermon, or some helps for my own meditations of heaven, to sweeten both the rest of my life and my death. In this condition God was pleased to continue me about five months, from home; where, being able for nothing else, I went on with this work, which so lengthened to this which here you see. It is no wonder, therefore, if I be too abrupt in the beginning, seeing I then intended but the length of a sermon or two; much less may you wonder if the whole be very imperfect, seeing it was written, as it were, with one foot in the grave, by a man that was betwixt living and dead, that wanted strength of nature to quicken invention or affection, and had no book but his bible while the chief part was finished, nor had any mind of human ornaments if he had been furnished. But O how sweet is this Providence now to my review, which so happily forced me to that work of meditation which I had formerly found so profitable to my soul, and showed me more mercy in depriving me of other helps than I was aware of, and hath caused my thoughts to feed on this heavenly subject, which hath more benefited me than all the studies of my life!

And now, dear friends, such as it is I here offer it you; and upon the bended knees of my soul I offer up my thanks to the merciful God who hath fetched up both me and it, as from the grave, for your service; who reversed the sentence of present death, which, by the ablest physicians, was passed upon me; who interrupted my public labours for a time, that he might force me to do you a more lasting service, which, else, I had never been like to have attempted: that God do I heartily bless and magnify, who hath rescued me from the many dangers of four years' war, and after so many tedious nights and days, and so many doleful sights and tidings, hath returned me, and many of yourselves, and reprieved us till now to serve him in peace ; and though men be ungrateful, and my body ruined beyond hope of recovery, yet he hath made up all in the comforts I have in you. To the God of mercy do I here offer my most hearty thanks, and pay the vows of acknowledgment which I oft made in my distress, who hath not rejected my prayers, which in my dolor I put up, but hath, by a wonder, delivered me in the

a Arriba Concil, de Gratia et Liber Arbit. 1. i. c. 10.

midst of my duties; and hath supported me this fourteen years in a languishing state, wherein I have scarcely had a waking hour free from pain; who hath, above twenty several times, delivered me when I was near to death: and though he hath made me spend my days in groans and tears, and in a constant expectation of my change, yet hath he not wholly disabled me to his service; and hereby hath more effectually subdued my pride, and made this world contemptible to me, and forced my dull heart to more importunate requests, and occasioned more rare discoveries of his mercy than ever I could have expected in a prosperous state. For ever blessed be the Lord, that hath not only honoured me to be a minister of his Gospel, but hath also set me over a people so willing to obey, and given me that success of my labours which he hath denied to many more able and faithful; who hath kept you in the zealous practice of godliness when so many grow negligent, or despise the ordinances of God; who hath kept you stable in his truth, and saved you from the spirit of giddiness, levity, and apostasy, of this age; who hath preserved you from those scandals, whereby others have so heinously wounded their profession, and hath given you to see the mischief of separation and divisions, and made you eminent for unity and peace when almost all the land is in a flame of contention, and so many that we thought godly are busily demolishing the church, and striving in a zealous ignorance against the Lord. Beloved, though few of you are rich or great in the world, yet for this riches of mercy towards you, I must say, ye are my glory, my crown, and my joy; and for all these rare favours to myself and you, as I have oft promised to pub'lish the praises of our Lord, so do I here set up this stone of remembrance, and write upon it, 'Glory to God in the highest:

b Nam cum gaudere in hoc omnes fratres oportet, tum in gaudio communi major est episcopi portio. Ecclesiæ enim gloria præpositi gloria est. Quantum dolemus ex illis quos tempestas inimica prostravit ; tantum lætamur ex vobis, quos diabolus superare non potuit. Hortamur tamen per communem fidem, per pectoris nostri veram circa vos et simplicem charitatem ut adversarium prima hac congressione vicistis, gloriam vestram forti et perseveranti virtute teneatis. Adhuc in seculo sumus ; adhuc in acie constituti, de vita nostra quotidie dimicamus. Danda opera est, ut post hæc initia, ad incrementa quoque veniatur, et consummetur in vobis, quod jam rudimentis fœlicibus esse cœpistis. Parum adipisci aliquid potuisse: plus est quod adeptus es posse servare; sicut et fides ipsa et nativitas salutaris, non accepta, sed custodita vivificat. Nec statim consecutio, sed consummatio hominem Deo servat, ut John v. 14. -Cyprian. Epist. vii. ad Rogat., &c. p. (mihi) 19.

hitherto hath the Lord helped us: my flesh and my heart failed, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.'

But have all these deliverances brought us to our rest? No; we are as far yet from it as we are from heaven. You are yet under oppression and troubles, and I am yet under consuming sickness; and feeling that I am likely to be among you but a little while, and that my pained body is hastening to the dust, I shall here leave you my best advice for your immortal souls, and bequeath you this counsel as the legacy of a dying man, that you may here read it and practise it when I am taken from you; and, I beseech you, receive it as from one that you know doth unfeignedly love you, and that regardeth no honours or happiness in this world in comparison with the welfare and salvation of your souls; yea, receive it from me as if I offered it you upon my knees, beseeching you, for your souls' sake, that you would not reject it, and beseeching the Lord to bless it to you; yea, as one that hath received authority from Christ to command you, I charge you in his name, as ever you will answer it, when we shall meet at judgment, and as you would not have me there be a witness against you, nor all my labours be charged against you to your condemnation, and the Lord Jesus, your Judge, to sentence you as rebellious, that you faithfully and constantly practise these ten directions:

1 Labour to be men of knowledge and sound understandings. A sound judgment is a most precious mercy, and much conduceth to the soundness of heart and life. A weak judgment is easily corrupted; and if it be once corrupt, the will and conversation will quickly follow. Your understandings are the inlet or entrance to the whole soul; and if you be weak there, your souls are like a garrison that hath open or ill-guarded gates; and if the enemy be once let in there, the whole city will quickly be his own. Ignorance is virtually every error, therefore let the bible be much in your hands and hearts: remember what I taught you on Deut. vi. 6, 7. Read much the writings of our old, solid divines, such as Perkins, Bolton, Dodd, Sibbs, especially Doctor Preston. You may read an able divine when you cannot hear one: especially, be sure you learn well the principles of religion. Begin with the Assemblies' Lesser Catechism,' and then read the greater; and, next, Master Balls', with the

c Male autem vivitur, si de Deo non bene creditur.-August. de Civit. 1. v. c. 10.

'Exposition,' and then Doctor Ames' 'Marrow of Divinity,' now Englished, or Usher's. If you see men fall on controversies before they understand these, never wonder if they are drowned in errors. I know your poverty and labours will not give you leave to read so much as others may do; but yet a willing mind will find some time, if it be when they should sleep, and, especially, it will spend the Lord's day wholly in these things. O be not ignorant of God in the midst of such light! as if the matters of your salvation were less worth your study than your trading in the world.

1

2. Do the utmost you can to get a faithful minister when I am taken from you, and be sure you acknowledge him your teacher, overseer, and ruler; (1 Thess. v. 12, 13; Acts xx. 28; Heb. xiii. 7, 17;) and learn of him, obey him, and submit to his doctrine, except he teach you any singular points, and then take the advice of other ministers in trying it. Expect not that he should humour you, and please your fancies, and say and do as you would have him; that is not the way of God, for the people to rule themselves and their rulers. If he be unable to teach and guide you, do not choose him at first; if he be able, be ruled by him, even in things that to you are doubtful, except it be clear that he would turn you from the truth; if you know more than he, become preachers yourselves; if you do not, then quarrel not when you should learn: especially, submit to his private over-sight, as well as public teaching. It is but the least part of a minister's work which is done in the pulpit: Paul taught them, also, from house to house, day and night, with tears. (Acts xx. 20, 31.) To go daily from one house to another, and see how you live, and examine how you profit, and direct you in the duties of your families, and in your preparations for death, is the great work. Had not weakness confined me, and public labours forbidden me, I should judge myself heinously guilty in neglecting this. In the primitive times, every church of so many souls as this parish had many ministers, whereof the ablest speakers did preach most in public, and the rest did the more of the less public work, which some mistake for mere ruling elders. But now, sacrilege and covetousness will scarcely leave

d Which since I have dealt in with comfortable success. See my 'Reformed Pastor.'

e Clemens Alexand. saith, "In all bodies there are two ranks; those that better them by superiority and governing, and those that serve, as parents and children, magistrates and subjects, &c. And so in the church, that part which bet tereth it belongeth to the presbyters, and that which serveth to the deacons." Here is no mention of any other office.-Stromat. lib. vii. initio.