Section 8

Section 8

From hence observe then, That our Lord Jesus has given ns great encouragement to hope, that he will favourably accept our little children, when, in a right manner, we bring them to him for a blessing.

I shall endeavour to show, I. How we must now bring our little children to Christ II. What entertainment we may promise ourselves they shall find with him, according to this instance in the text. And then, III. Make application.

Those who are truly ambitious of this honour for their children, and covetous of this wealth for them, to have them blessed of Christ, cannot bat wish to know how they may bring their children to him, so that they may hope to obtain his favour. Say not in thine heart, ^ Who shaU ascend intoheaveni where Christ sits at God's right hand, and take my children with him thither to receive his blessing V No: ths word of God is nigh to thee; and Christ in the word, and his blessings, to be received by faith, applying the word to ourselves. The tabernacle of God is among as; the priests, the spiritual sacrifices, the Israel of God,—^where two or three of them ve gathered in his name, he vrill be in the midst of them,' both to receive their homage, and to gve out his favours. Where his ordinances are administered according to his institution, and those things which he has commanded, observed and taught, there will be be all the days, even to the end of the world ? there he records his name, and there will meet his people, ud Uess them ; nay, wherever a true Christian is, there is a living temple, in which God is served and honoured, and his blessings and favours com-monicated, by his Spirit dwelling in the heart.

V Pl cuxUL 3. V Rom. x. 6, 8. s Matt zviU. 20. T Ibli. nvUi. 19,90. * Jer. xiiL 11. • Blatt xxviU. 19.

3o 2

There is still a way of access to Christ, a new and living way, by which we may not only come to Christ ourselves, but bring others to him, bring ours to him, our children, who are pieces of ourselves.

Four ways we must bring our children to Christ:

1. By surrendering them to him. When by a deliberate and solemn act of onr souls, we resign and give up, with ourselves, the children also which God has graciously given us, to the Lord Jesus, to be to him for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory ;* to be Christians, devoted to his honour, and employed in his service; to be members of that body whereof he is the head, servants in that family whereof he is the Master, and subjects in that kingdom of his among men, which is incorporated by that great gospel charter. Disciple all nations into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghosts then we may bring our children to Christ: we present them to him,** (a poor present to him who has a world of angels at command, yet such as he requires and will accept of,) as living sacrifices, which we desire may be holy and acceptable; it is onr reasonable service.

Parents are invested by nature in a right to their children, and an authority over them for their good. A daughter in her father's house was accounted by the law not sui juris — her own right ; he could disannul her vows.' Now this right in our children we must not only acknowledge to be subordinate to that prior superior title God has to them; for we arc only the fathers of their flesh, he is the Father of their spirits;^ but we must also transfer to our Lord Jesus, whom the Father has constituted the great trustee, both of all the powers vrith which he intended mankind should be ruled, and of all the favours with which he intended mankind should be blessed*

Our children are God's children; (they are my sons and my daughters, saith God, which thou hast home unto me f) and therefore it is sacrilege to alienate them from him, and to devote them to the service of the world and the flesh ; it is profaning the holy things of the Lord our God. And it is our duty to dedicate them and dispose of them as he directs. Now he directs us to give them up to Christ; to enrol them among his disciples; to enter thetr names among his servants,' who being bom in his house, belong to his family, and are entitled to the protection and provisions of it, and taken under the order and discipline of it.

That is a great word, and speaks much of the dignity and power of our Lord Jesus; The Father lov-eth the Son, and hath given all things inta his hands,^ All the things that concern his honour and government, all his part of the matters in variance between himself and fallen man, he has put into the hands of the Mediator, as referee of Uie controversy, the bRom. xii. I. t Ezek. xvi. 90.

c Numb. zxs. 5. fp&czvi. 16.

d Heb. xii. 9. f John iil. d&.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

blessed Day's-man, who has laid his hand upon us both. Now that which he reqaires of us (and with good reason) is, that we love the Son, and give all things into his hand ; all our interests and concerns; and particularly our children, who were made and bom for immortality, who are entered into a state of probation and preparation for eternity, whom therefore we commit to him as to their Guardian: by whose gospel, life and immortality are brought to light,^ and brought to hand.

Hereby we do honour to the exalted Redeemer, and recognize his authority; as one to whom the Father has therefore given power oyer all flesh, especially over the spirits of all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many oi he had given him,^ as many of them. We own his dominion both in heaven and on earth, by owning his indisputable title to our children; both to their bodies, by which they are allied to the earth, and to their souls, by which they are allied to heaven and the world of spirits.

Hereby we confess, that as we ourselves, so our children, are more his than our own ; and therefore we desire that both we and ours may live to him. And in thus honouring the Son we honour the Father also; for Christ came to bring us to himself, that he might bring us to God.*^ Our children are therefore brought to Christ, the Mediator of the covenant, that through him they may be brought to God, as their God in covenant When Israel was taken into covenant with God, express notice is taken not only of their captains, and elders, and officers, but of their little ones, as parties to the covenant which the Lord their God made with them.i

Hereby we do toell for our children, the best we can do for them, for we gve them up to him who is able to do that for them which we cannot do, and which must be done for them, or they are undone. We know they derive through our loins sinful and corrupt natures; we know they are shapen in iniquity, they are called, and not miscalled, transgressors from the womb:^ what therefore can we do for them, but bring them to him who came to save sinners, to save them from their sins? They are bom polluted; and by presenting them to Christ, we bring them to the fountain that was opened for Judah and Jerasalem to wash in from sin, which is uncleanness." They are born distempered; and we jthus bring them to the geat Physician, to have their temperament corrects, to have their very constitution altered; to have not the mass of their blood, but of their minds, changed for the better, that as they have home the image of the earthly, they may also hear the image of the heavenly.^

Now this solemn surrender of our children to God b 2 Tim. L10. 1 John xvU. 2. iDeutxxix. 10-12. u Zcch. xiil. 1. k 1 Pet iii. 18. m Isa. xlviii. & e 1 Cor. XV. 49. as theirs in covenant, if we ourselves be in covenant with God, I think ought to be done by the ordinance of baptism; an ordin&uce peculiar to the Redeemer's kingdom, and a seal, as circumcision was, of the righteousness which is by faitfa,p and therefore, like it, belonging both to believers and to their infant seed. Our Saviour, when he instituted that ordinance, gave a double intimation concerning his gospel kingdom which was then to be set up. One was, that it must not be confined to the Jews but spread to the Gentiles; therefore go and mahe all nations disciples. The other was, that it should not be confined to that generation, and live and die with the apostles. It must not be (as the historian says of the Roman commonwealth) Res unius tttatis — a thing confined to one age ; no, it must continue, for Christ will continue at the bead of it, and in the midst of it, always, even to the end of the world. Now, as baptism did subserve the former design, and attended the progress of the gospel to the most distant regions of the earth; so we have reason to think it was instituted equally to subserve the latter design, and to attend the propagating of the gospel to the latest ages of time; that by taking early bold of the seed of the faithful, and giving their parents, and ministers, and consciences, early hold of them, provision might be made (as was by the altar, JSrd,) that nothing might make them cease from fearing the Lord :^ that thus a seed might serve the Lord Jesus, which should be accounted to him for a generation.' And by keeping up the entail, and as it were by a continual claim, the name of Christ might endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.*

But waving this dispute; I insist upon that, in which I am sure we are all agreed, that our children are to be given up to the Lord Jesus; (and of his own do we give him, for he ^as bought them with a price ;^J that they may glorify him in body and spirit, and he may be honoured even by their ho-sannas. We lend them to the Lord, as Hannah did Samuel," that they may be his all the days of their life; and if they be so, they shall be his to the endless ages of eternity.

2. We must bring them to Christ, by seeking to him for them, as those who are surrendered to him. They are to be hut once baptized, but they are to be daily prayed for, and the promise sealed to them in! their baptism put in suit and pleaded with God in their behalf. These brought their children to Christ*' when they begged his blessing on them, and thus' we must bring oars to him; bring their case to him* the case of their souls, their precious souls, which ought to be laid nearer our hearts than any thing else i that concerns them. i

P Rom. iv. II. q Josh. xxU. 85, 34. r Pa. xxii. 29,30i

• Ps. Ixxxix. 28. t 1 Cor. vl. 20. '

■ 1 Sam. i. 9B.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

933

Wheo Christ was here upon earth, we read of many who applied themselves to him for mercy for their children: Lard, have mercy upon my ton,^ saith one; Lord, have mercy upon my daughter,^ saith another : and the children fared the better for the faith and prayers of the parents. And we may, as easily, come to him now he is in heaven, and more easily; and with the same petition: Lord, have mercy on my son, on my daughter, who is foolish, and vain, and carnally minded, (which is death,*) and mach ander the power of Satan. Even our little children's souls are to be prayed for; for we believe they are bom in sin, and foolishness is bound in their hearts; and we see how soon Corrupt nature appears and works in them, and how the tares spring up with the wheat: let us therefore be earnest with God for the operation of his grace upon their hearts betimes; that Christ be formed in their souls when they are young, and they may be sanctified from their infancy. They are thine, save themJ Ishmael was very young when Abraham prayed so affectionately, O that Ith-mael might live before thee /'

Our children are capable of being prayed for, and of receiving benefit by prayer, before they are capable of being taught, and of receiving benefit by instruction : and as their being baptized lays us under an engagement to teach them, so it gives us an encouragement to pray for them; and we should begin early to do it. Look up to Christ, and beg of him to bless them with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things, which will be the best 'provision and the best portion for them.

Be constant in praying for your children ; pray for them as duly as for yourselves, as St. Paul for his friends, making mention of them always in every prayer. Be particular in praying for them; pray for each particular child, as holy Job offered burnt-offerings for his sons, according to the number of them all ;* that you may be able to say, as Hannah, For this child I prayed:^ pray for particular blessings for your children, according as you see their case requires, for that grace which you observe their natural temper (or distemper rather) calls for.

Let us take heed lest our prayers degenerate into formality, and we pray for them only from custom, and in no better manner than we can soon teach them to pray for themselves, and for us too, by rote: but let us pray for them, from a principle of concern for their precious souls; in the prosperity and welfare of which their happiness, and our comfort in them, is bound up. When a child is born, there is a candle lighted that must bum to eternity, either in heaven or hell; the consideration whereof should awaken us to pray with all possible earnestness for the salvation of their souls, next to that of our own.

When they are little, tbey cannot pray for them-

V Matt xviL 15.

Matt XT. 23. I OeiL xvli. 18.

s Rom. viit 6. • Job I 5.

selves ; and if you do not pray for them, ^ho should? When they are grown up, it may be they are careless, and will not pray for themselves to any purpose, and then their case is the more piteous; it may be they are wicked and profane, and hate prayer, yet continue to pray for them, for while there is life there is hope, and while there is hope, there is room for prayer; and who knows but he who waits to be gracious, may at length be gracious to you, and your child that is dead may be alive again.*^

Have an eye to Christ in all your prayers for your children; let the prayer be directed to him, as it was here. It was in his name particularly that they were baptized, and therefore in his name they must be prayed for, and into his hands all our petitions to God must be pot We may with him plead their baptism: '* Lord, they are given up to thee to be thine; make them thine own, then own them as thine.'' Plead his interest in them as the children of his family, the lambs of his flock, the pets of his school; plead your dedication of them to him, and his acceptance of them; and resolve to leave them with him.

It is by prayer that we cast our care upon God; cast it upon the Lord Jesus, to whom the Father has committed all judgment, and who is intrusted with the administration of the prondential kingdom, in subserviency to the mediatorial kingdom. Our children are a considerable part of our care ; what they will prove, and what will become of them: we must by prayer cast this care upon Christ; and believe that the children of the greatest are not above the need of his care, nor those of the meanest beneath the cognizance of it.

3. We must bring them to Christ, by submitting them to the disposal of his providence. When we have by prayer sought to him for them, we must by a cheerful acquiescence in his wisdom and goodness, make ourselves easy concerning them; believing, that Christ knows what is fit for them and us, better than we do. We bring them to Christ, when we bring our will, concerning them, into an entire submission to his will; believing that he will be sanctified, and resolving that then we will be satisfied.**

Let us make Christ guardian to our children, not only when we are dead, but while we live; trust them with him, and put them under his protection; as Jacob did his children when he was parting with them, God Almighty give you mercy !^ and when he was parting from them, The Angel that redeemed me from all evil (and that can be no other than the Lord Jesus, the angel of the covenant) bless the lads !

When we can refer it to the divine will, whether our children shall be healthful or sickly, high or low, rich or poor, prosperous or crossed, thriving or declining in the world; whether they shall live ta b I Sam i. 87.

> Qen. ilUU. H.

e 2 Sam. xii. 93. a Lev. x. 3.

f Geo. xlviii. 16.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

be old, or die young; provided it may but go well with their precious souls, and they may be happy to eternity ; then we bring them to Christ, as a skilful, faithful Physician, willing he should take what method he pleases with them, so he will but cure them, and save them. I have read of a good man, whose son being disposed of in the world, met with great affliction, which he once very feelingly complained of to his good father, who answered, (according to the principle I am now upon,) '' Any thing, child, to bring thee to heaven."

4. We must bring them to Christ, by subjecting them, as far as we can, to the government of his grace. Having laid their necks under the yoke of Christ in their baptism, we must teach them to draw in it, and use our interest in them, and authority over them, to keep them under that easy yoke, and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of oar Lord Jesus.'

Having got them enrolled among his servants, we must teach them, betimes, to know their Master, and to own his dominion over them, and their obligations to him; bring them into their Master's presence, bring them to see him, bring them to hear him, by bringing them to his word and ordinances. Feed your kids beside the shepherds' tents ;'* let them have family instruction, as soon as they are capable of receiving it, and be brought to sit under the public ministry, as soon as they are capable of not being a disturbance to it.

Bring them to Christ's feet, by taking pains to impress upon their minds the indispensable necessity of their being taught and ruled by Jesus Christ, of their believing his truths, and obeying his laws, in order to their present and eternal welfare. We brought them to Christ, by an instituted sign of their being his, in their baptism ; we bring them to Christ, by the instituted means of their being his, in their religious education; both those we second with prayer, that thoy may be his : thus far we must go, and farther we cannot.

II. You see how you may bring your little children to Christ. I come next to show you, for your encouragement, how you may hope he will receive those who are thus brought to him, and what entertainment they may expect; surely, something like the kind entertainment he here gave to these little ones: He took them up in his arms, put his hand upon them, and blessed them. Such visible, sensible signs of his favour we are not now to expect, but that which is more than equivalent in spiritual blessings.

Only let me premise, that we cannot be so confident of God's giving his grace to our children, if we in sincerity pray to him for it, and use the means, as we may be of his giving it to ourselves, if we do r Eph. vi. 4. h Cant. i.6. i John HI. 5. k Bfarlcix. 36. i Hos. xi. 1.

80. Many a godly parent no doubt has brought his children to Christ, as before directed, who, yet, have proved wicked and vile, and strangers to Christ, and come short of his blessing, but it has been through their own default. Many are sacra-mentally regenerated, and born again of water, by which they have been partakers of the Christian name, who, yet, are never really regenerated, and bom again of the Spirit, but live and die destitute of the nature of Christians. All we can say is, that if we thus bring our children to Christ, they stand much fairer for, and nearer to, his blessing, than if they be not brought to hinL There are promises and precedents which we may take encouragements from, and upon which we are caused to hope, that Christ will give them his gce, will work his good work in them, both as a token of, and as a qualification for, his good will towards them ; and if he do, it will be an addition to our comfort, that it is an answer to our prayers, and the fruit of our labours ; if he do not, it will be a support to us under our grief, to have the testimony of our conscience that, by the grace of God, we have in some measure done our duty, and then left the event with God, whose grace is his own.

Let us now observe the instance of Christ's favour to these children ; and inquire what we may expect that has some resemblance of it.

1. He took them up m his arms. See how Christ does more for humble believing supplicants than they can ask or think! it was only desired he would touch them, but he did more, he embraced them ; and it speaks not only his wonderful condescension, but his compassion and affection. A little while previously, when he had occasion to set a little child before his disciples as a pattern of humility, he not only set the child in the midst of them, which was sufficient to answer his intention ; but he took bim in his arms,*' to show his tender love to those who are as little children. (When Israel was a child then I loved Atm.' ) This spake the kindness our Saviour» had for the human nature and race; his ^(XavOpwwta ^^hisjoy in the habitable part of the earth, and his delight in the sons of men,^

Christ took up these children in his arms as one well pleased with them, and concerned for them; that the Scripture might be fulfilled which said concerning him, He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather his lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom.^ Time was, when he himself was taken up in old Simeon's arms.i* And he did himself pass throagh the age of infancy, to make it honourable and comfortable to the children of his people; and the expressions of his favour afterwards to little children, make it much more so : when their mothers and nurses carry them in their arms, and m Tit iii. 3. o Isa. xl. 11.

Prov. viii. 31. P hv Sne ii. 9S.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

935 are almost tired with the load, let them refresh themselYCS with this thought, that the Holy Child Jesus was carried in arms, and did himself take ap little children in his arms. When Moses was charged thus to bear Israel, he found himself aggrieved, Have J ctmeeived all this people ?^ Have I begotten ikem, thai thou shouldst say unto me. Carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father bears the suehing child? Bat what Moses complained of, Christ had complacency in; he took them up in his arms: it is bat one word in the original, kvajtciktoaiuvo — he inarmed them, he tooh them into his embraces ; as he did his spouse, who said with satisfaction, His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace meJ

Bat how may we hope he will take our children in his arms, when we bring them to him ? Surely we may promise ourselves no less than what David promised himself. When my father and my mother forsahe me, then the Lord will take me up.* We may hope, (I.) That he will take them up in the arms of his power and providence; that he will hold their souls in life, and protect them from, or carry them through, the weaknesses and perils of the infant age: that he will ^ve kis angelsy*^ the little ones'^ angels, a charge concerning them, to bear them in their arms ;' and their arms are his arms, the arms of his power. The name of the Lord is a strong tower,^ into which the righteous are not only welcome to run themselves, but to bring their children; and where they and theirs may hope to be safe, so safe, as that no real evil, no only evil, shall befall them. The arm of the Lord is revealed in favour of the little ones, even of a sinful race; witness those of unbelieving murmuring Israel: Bat your little ones, though living in a barren wilderness, and likely to be made a prey, them will I bring into that land which I have promised, and you have despised.* Much more shall it be stretched out for the relief and preservation of the faithful seed, whose refuge the eternal God' is, and will be, and andemeath them are the everlasting arms; such are the arms of the Lord Jesus, which cannot faint or be weary, and by which all things are upheld, else they would sink.

That Divine Providence which supports children in their childhood, and carries them through that helpless age; which puts it into the hearts of parents to provide for them; which preserves to them their limbs and senses, of which they might, by a thousand accidents, be deprived in a moment; by which they ^ow in strength and stature; is to be mentioned to the honour of the Redeemer, to whom it is owing that the race of mankind continues in being Qpon the face of the earth, though guilty and obnoxious. It is in the Redeemer's arms, by whom q Nbmb. x\. 12. y Cant ii. & • Ps. xxvii. 10. t Matt XTiif. 10. n Pa. zci. 13. v Pror. xviU. 10. w Numb. xiv. 31. x Deut. xxxiii. S7. all things consist,^ that children are borne up, and carried on to foil age; for to him are owing all the reprieves of God's patience,' and all the gifts of his common providence. This we have all experienced ourselves, and must acknowledge it with thankfulness to the Redeemer's praise, as the royal Psalmist does: Thou art he that tooh me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope, and heepest me in safety when I was upon my mother's breast: I was cast upon thee from the womb; thou art my God from my mother's belly,*^ By thee have I been holden up, and therefore my praise shall be continually of thee.^ And what we have experienced ourselves, we may humbly expect for our children, if we bring them to Christ, to whom we have brought ourselves.

(2.) That he will take them up in the arms of his pity and grace; that he will in compassion to their precious souls, the case of which by nature is very piteous, undertake to cleanse and cure them, to sanctify and save them; that, as in his love and pity he has shed his blood to wash from sin, and so prepared the laver, he will, in love to them, and pity to them, sprinkle that purifying, healing blood upon them, that they may by it be washed from their sin, and sanctified for God, as their God.

The loveliest, sweetest babe we ever saw, though like Moses in the ark of bulrushes, exceeding fair, to admiration, yet, like him, it is born in a land of Egypt, in a house of bondage; like him, marked for the sword as soon as born; nay, it is like the infant in Ezekiel's parable, polluted in its own blood, and cast out to the loathing of its person ;9 it is shapen in iniquity, it is bom in sin, and its precious soul is defiled and deformed, and an object of pity. This is a melancholy thought, and a damp to the pleasure we take in our children. But this is a comfort: that Christ has compassion on them, has arms to gather them up in, and has given us hopes that he will say unto them. Live, yea, he will say unto them. Live ^ will wash them from their filth, will clothe them with his grace: (and the time will be a time of love indeed, both to them and us :) that he will embrace them, as the father of the prodigal did his returning son, when he fell on his neck and kissed him;" will receive them into the arms of a covenant of grace, out of which they shall never bo plucked, and in which they shall be for ever easy and happy.

2. He put his hands upon them:' they desired he would touch them, one touch from Christ has done wonders ; but he did more, he put kis hands on them, as he did on John when he said. Fear not; and as he did on many whom he cured; to intimate that virtue went out of him for the purpose to which ho intended it. r Col. 1. 16. 12 Pet m. 15. b Ps. Ixxi. A, & e Ezek. xvi. 5, 9. • Luke XV. 20.

• Ps. xxit. 0, 10. d Ezek. xvl. 9,10. f Rev. 1. 17.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

But how may we hope that Jesas Christ will now put his hands upon us and ours ?

(I.) If he set us and ours apart for himself,^ as his own peculiar people, we may say he puts his hand upon us and ours: as the buyer lays his hand on the goods he has agreed for, they are now his own; as Jacob put his hand on the head of Joseph's sons, to signify not only his blessing them, but his adopting them, and taking them for his own, Let my name he named upon them.*^ This we hope Christ docs for our children, when we bring them to him ; he owns them for his ; and we may say they do in some degree belong to Christ, are retainers to his family.

It is an honour and comfort to have our little children called Christians, called by Christ's name; to have them numbered among his peculiar ones, among the servants born in his house, distinguished from the children of heathens, who have not the knowledge of God and Christ; to have them added to the church, which is God's treasure in the world ; planted in his vineyard, sown in his field, to be a holy seed, a seed for God; especially if we have some good hopes, through grace, that they are not only admitted to a place in the courts of God's house now, but are designed for his holy place above, for the congregation of the righteous there. If Christ will but put his hand upon them, and say. They shall be mine iu that day when I make up my jewels,' we have enough, we have all we wished for in bringing them to him.

(2.) If he give his Holy Spirit to us and ours, it may truly be said, he puts his hand upon us and them. The Spirit is sometimes called the finger of God and sometimes the hand of God ;^ so that Christ's putting his hand upon us,' not only puts us into a relation to him, but works a real change in us; lays hold on the soul for him, and puts his imagey as well as supencription, upon it. The laying on of hands was a ceremony used in conferring the Holy Ghost; and this we pray for, and hope for, from Christ, for our children, when we bring them to him.

And there are words upon which he has encouraged us to hope for this. We find it possible that children may be sanctified from their birth,*" that they may be filled with the Holy Ghost from their mother's womb;" nay, we find it promised. That God will pour his Spirit upon our seed, and his blessing, that blessing, that blessing of blessings, upon our offspring:° that hii Spirit upon thee shall not depart from thy seed:^ that his Spirit shall be poured out upon our sons and daughters :i that our children shall all be taught of the Lord, and great shall be their peace: ^ the New-Testament promise f Pa. iv. 3. h Gen. zlviii. 16. i Mai. iit. 17. k Luke xi. 20.

1 Ezek. iii. 14. n Jer. i. 5. n Luke i. 1&. o Isa. xliv. 3. p Isa. lix. 21. q Joel li. 38. is to us and to oar children; not only that of the forgiveness of sins, but that of tlie gift of the Holj Ghost.* These are the true sayings of God; and we may put them in suit, and expect the performance of the'm for our children, when we bring them to Christ. And O that he would thus ptu his hand upon them,

3. He blessed them. He was desired to pray for a blessing for them, but he did more, he commanded * the blessing, blessed with authority; he pronounced them blessed, and thereby made them so; for those whom he blesseth are blessed indeed. Christ is the geat High Priest, whose office it is to bless the people of God, and all theirs. When he parted from his disciples at his ascension, he blessed them;" he left blessings behind him for his church on earthy and all the members of it the little ones not excepted.

When God took Abraham into covenant, be promised to bless him ; and the blessing wherewith he blessed him was, / will he a God to thee and to thy seed:^ but that was not all, he promised that in the Messiah, who should descend from his loins, all the nations of the earth should be blessed;" not only blessed hy him, but blessed in him, in that righteousness and salvation which should be wrought ont and brought in by him. The transferring of this blessing was the great care and business of the patriarchs ; Jacob and Esau strove for it, and Jacb got it; the Jews sinned it away, for themselves, but not for the world ; and therefore, by the gospel, this blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles,^ that comprehensive blessing, that God will be a God to them who believe, and to their seed: this blessing Christ has the conferring of, for he is the Mediator of the covenant, and Trustee of the blessings of it. Now if we, in faith, bring our children to him, as Mediator, we may hope he will bestow this blessing upon them with other the children of the church ; for St. Peter gves the Jews this reason why God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless them, because they were the children of the prophets, and of the covenant.^ Now if we and ours be children of the prophets, and of the covenant, of the prophets by our assent to gospel truths; and of the covenant, by our consent to gospel terms, we may hope to inherit (and our seed after us) that blessing which Christ was sent to bestow.

The prayers made by the Israel of God, for all its members, from the least to the greatest, are encouraging to our hopes that they shall share in the blessing: our children are not only prayed for by us, as parts of our family, but they are prayed for by all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ,' their Lord and ours, as belonging to Christ's family. r Isa. liv. 13. a Luke xxiv. 50. X Gal. iii. 14.

Acts ii. 38, 39. V Gen xvii. 7. 7 Acts iii. S&, 26. t Ps. cixxiii.

CHRISrS FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

937 to the nursery in that family; the welfare and prosperity of whichy all who are concerned for the perpetuating of Christ's name and throne, cannot hot have a particular and tender concern for. In bringing them to Christ, we hring them within the prayers of all good Christians; which we hope may obtain a blessing for them.

The promises made to the Israel of God are yet more encouraging; especially since Christ came to confirm ike pramises made to the fathers,* that in him they might be Yea and Amen. Now it is promised, that the generation of the upright shall he kUssed;^ that the seed of God's servants shall be established before him ;^ that they shall be so remarkably pious and prosperous, that all who see ikem shall acknowledge them,^ that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed. Lord, be it unto thy servants according to the word which thou hast spoken.

III. The Application.

1. Let me hence address myself to children, to little children to the lambs of the flock, to the youngest who can hear with understanding :* will not you be glad to hear this, that the Lord Jesus Chrijit has a tender concern and affection for you ; and that he has blessings in store for you, if you apply yourse Wes to him, according to your capacity ? Shall I speak to you in the words of David ? Come ye ehildreuy kearken to me, and I wiU teach ffov/ as young as you are, tke fear of the Lord; nay, I would teach yon not only the fear of God, but the faith of Christ; and therefore address myself to you, in the ▼ords of St. Paul, Mg little children, of whom Itra-teil in birth again until Christ be formed in you,^ till his image be renewed upon you, and he live in you.''

You hear, dear little ones, what Christ has done for you, what favour he has showed to those of your ege: and will not you put in for an interest in his favour, and the provisions he has made for the entertainment of children? Has he thus loved you, and will not you love him? Has he such kind thoughts toward yon, and will not you have dutiful thoughts toward him ? Does he invite you to him, and will not you accept of his invitation ? He says here: Suffer little children not only to be brought to me, but to come to me; to come as they can themselves, to make it their own act and deed; and do not forbid them, for it is possible, that of those of their age may be the kingdom of God, that they may get to heaven.

You love those who take notice of you, and play with you, and give you toys; and will you not love those who pray for you, and instruct you, and would brin you to be acquainted with the best things ? ^ ill you not reckon them your friends indeed, who ^ek the welfare of your souls, your eternal welfare ?

Be sensible betimes of the corruption of your na-

* Rom. zv. 8. e P& cii. 28.

Pa. exit. 9. d In. vl. 0. ture, that foolishness is bound in your heart; and give all diligence to get a change wrought in yon. Begin betimes to put a difference between God's name and other names, God's book and other books, God's day and other days. Be dutiful to your pa-rentsj and labour to be a comfort to them. Love prayer, learn to pray, and be much in it. Mortify your passions, keep them under, and do not indulge them. Hate and abhor lying, and make conscience of speaking truth.

There are little books, both of counsels and examples, suited to your age: ** The Token for Children,'' by Mr. Janeway, and Mr. White's Little Book for Little Children; which you should not be strangers to. Love your catechism, and hold fast the form of sound words, which you have heard; but above all, see to it that from your childhood you know the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise to salvation.

Lay yourselves at Christ's feet, and he will take you up in his arms. Give yourselves to him, and he will gve himself in his graces and comforts to you. Lie in his way, by a diligent attendance on his ordinances, and he will not pass by without putting his hand on you. And if you value his blessings aright, and be earnest with him for his blessings, he will bless you with the best of blessings, such as will make you eternally blessed.

2. This passage affords both direction and encouragement to Christian parents: I write unto you fathers, and unto you mothers, who have a tender concern for your children, and desire they may do well, and would fain do well for them. Observe the entertainment Christ gave to the children who were brought to him, and see it written/or your learning.

(1.) Let this direct us, who are parents, concerning our children. We have seen how we are to bring them to Christ; and have we thus brought them to him ? We brought them to baptism; but did we thereupon bring them to Christ? Was it done as unto the Lord ? If it was, let us now make it to appear. Have we brought our children to Christ, with hopes that they have been accepted of him ?

[I.] Let us then still bring them to him, by faith and prayer, according as their case requires; be daily laying them at his feet, by resigning them to his conduct, and referring all events concerning them to his wise and gracious disposal; be daily putting them in his arnu, by entreating his favour towards them, as that which is the life of their souls, and better than the life of the body.

You see here what to desire and pray for, for your children: that the Mediator's blessing may be their portion; for that is a portion for the soul and eternity, a good part that shall never be taken away from those who have it. Covet not great things in e Neb. vm.2. ff Gal. Iv. 19.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

the world for them, a little will senre to bear their charges through it; bat be earnest with God for blessings for them in heavenly things by Christ Jesus ; let them have these, and they have enongh.

When you bless your children, (and it is good sometimes to do it solemnly,) let your eye be to Christ, in whom alone it is that blessings are entailed on us and ours, and through whose hand they are derived. The patriarchs in blessing their sons had an eye to a Christ to come; and to him, now he is come, much more ought toe to have an eye.

Pray daily with your children, and servants; that they may hear you pray for them, and may thereby be taught and quickened to pray for themselves. I hope none of you dare live in the neglect of family prayer, dare omit it, either morning or evening, when you know that, instead of the blessing of Christ, the wrath and curse of God is poured out on the families that call not on his name* While you and your families live without prayer, you live without God; you make no joint acknowledgment of him, and can expect no joint receiving from him. It may justly be feared that those who throw aside so necessary, so comfortable, so advantageous a duty as family prayer is, do not make conscience of secret prayer neither, but frequently omit it, or at least do not make a business of it, but suffer it to degenerate into a formality. And how can you expect daily blessings upon your children, if you do not daily ask for them ? or to have an interest in the intercession which Jesus Christ is continually making for us in heaven, if you do not pray continually morning and evening, in the virtue of that intercession. Have you settled a correspondence between Christ and your families, by devoting your children to him in their baptism ? and will you not keep up tliat correspondence ? How can you expect the benefit of it, if you do not on your part keep it up ?

You who have the charge of families, remember that you are Christians, and ought in that capacity to confess Christ, and to own and honour him before your families. There is such a general disuse of Christian conference, that most are ashamed by that to acknowledge Christ before their neighbours ; but they cannot have that pretence to decline it before their own children and servants. If therefore with the heart you believe unto righteousness,'^ think how necessary it is, that thus with the mouth you make confession unto salvation. Remember that your family is a family of Christians, not a herd ofnegroest I should say a herd of brute beasts; (for those who have charge of negroes ought to pray for them, and to have them prayed with ;) and you look upon them as no better than brute beasts, if you do not pray with them; nay, and worse, for the i Jer. X. 86.

k Rom. s. 10,

1 lAL i. 3.

ox knows his owner, and the ass his masters crib,' but you go not before them in acknowledging their great Owner, nor lead them to the footstool of their Master's throne of grace. But I hope better things of you.

Use the baptism of your children, as an argument with yourselves to pray with them; and then you may use it as a plea with God, for the mercies you ask of him for them. *' Lord Jesus, I have presented my children to thee* and thou hast accepted them. I still present them to thee, and wilt not thou still accept them? Thou hast blessed tbeai: wilt thou not say they shall be blessed ? and then they are blessed indeed.''

[2.] Let us then bring them up for him. Have we any good hope, through grace, that Christ has owned our dedication of ours to him, has taken them up ia his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them ? let us then receive each of them from him again, as given to us with the same charge that Pharaoh's daughter gave to Moses's mother, Tahe this child tmd nurse it for me. You are to look upon your children as given up to Christ, and to manage them accordingly.

Has Christ showed such a tender affectioD to your little children? be not yon then hardened against them, do not rule tliem with rigour; provoke them not to wrath,*° lest they be discouraged. Be gentle among them, for so the nurse cherishes her children." Study to make your children love jon; and then every thing you enjoin them will be easy. When you are angry at them, let it be for that only, for which you know Christ would be angry at them; and that is for their sins, which must be restrained by tlie rod and reproof, not for their weaknesses and childish infirmities, which time will wear off". Has Christ blessed your children, and put honour upon them ? Do not you curse them, and give them such scurrilous language as Saul gve to his son Jona-than,<> lest you teach them to give the like to their inferiors. Bless; and curse not.

Have you given your children up to Christ? bring them up then in his nurture and admonition. It is not enough that you pray with them and for them daily, but you must daily instruct them in the things of God, and in all those things that will be profitable to them. It is observable, that immediately after the laying down of that great truth. That the Lord our God is one Lord, and of that great law. Thou shah love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, it follows, as an indispensable duty, and a means of keeping up religion in the world. Thou shali teach theni diligently to thy children: and look upon it to be one of the most needful pieces of work thou hast to do; more needful to get the knowledge of God for them, than to get estates for them, nay, than to m Epta. vi. 4.

a 1 Theas. ii. 7.

o ] Sam. zz. 30i

CHRISrS FAVOUR TO CHILDR£N.

839 get bread for them. Thon shalt therefore not only hear them their catechism once a week, bat thoa shalt talk freely and familiarly of the truths and laws of God among them, with all gravity and serioasness, when thou sitteit with them in thy boase, and when ihou walhett with them by the way.P At night when thou Hest down, read a portion of Scripture to them, and oblige them to take notice of it; and again in the morning when thou risest up ; that thus the word of Christ might dwell in them richly. Yoa know they cannot learn Latin, but they must go to school every day; nor learn a trade, bat must go to shop every day; and ought tlicy not to have daily instructions out of the word of God, in order to their getting the knowledge of Christ, which is infinitely more excellent ?

Take particular care to bring your children acquainted with Jesus Christ, the true treasure hid in the field of the Scriptures; Christ and him crucified, Christ and him glorified. You call the baptizing of jour children, the chrutening of them. I wish you would consider it; and think, how little it will avail them to have been christened, if they do not learn Christ, if they be not taught the truth as it is in Jesus.** Let not your children rest in a mere natural religion; that is good, it is necessary, but it is not enough. You must make them sensible of their need of Christ, of their lost and undone condition without him; must endeavour to lead them into the mysteries of our reconciliation to God, and our redemption from sin and wrath, by a Mediator; and 0 that they may experimentally know him, and the power of his resurrection !

In teaching children the knowledge of God, both the parents are concerned to do their part. Solomon speaks both of the instruction of the father, and the law of the mother;' but when they are little, the mother has a greater opportunity of instilling into them that which is good, and ought to improve it. Timothy got to know the Holy Scriptures from his childhood, by being brought up under a good mother and grandmother ;* and king Lemuel, when he is come to the throne, forgets not the prophecy that his mother taught him.*

And as in other accomplishments of your children, M> in the business of religion, which is their best and true accomplishment, you must, as they come to be capable, pat them on to advance. When they have gone through their learning, you put them into business; when they have served their apprenticeship, you set them up for themselves; and thus when you have brought them to some competent knowledge of Christ, and have some reason to hope that the Spirit of grace has begun a good work in their souls, persuade them to take the covenant of baptism upon themselves, in the use of the other f Deut. yi. 4—7. > 3 Thn. i 5. q Eph. iv. 90,91. r Prov. L 8. « prov. xxxi. 1. seal, that of the Lord's supper, and so by their own act and deed to join themselves to the Lord. TeL them,'' You brought them to Christ when they were infants, you have been ever since showing them the way to him, and now they must come themselves to him. Though they be weak, if they be willing,'' you may assure them, ** they shall be welcome ; 'for those who come unto him he will not, no, he will not cast them out" If they sit down at his feet to hear his words, he will take them up in his arms, and bless them."

And there is one thing more, in which I must be a monitor, particularly; else I should not be a faithful monitor to parents, who have brought their children to Christ, and who hope that he has blessed them, and that is, that they be careful how they dispose of them in the world when they are grown up, lest by an error here, they undo all that they have been doing for them. In putting them apprentices, placing them in callings, and in marrying them, let Christ be consulted about it; let the interests of the better part be consulted in it. That is best for them which is best for their souls, against which yon should not be swayed by any worldly interests or regards whatsoever. If you have laid a good foundation, let it be your care and endeavour that it may be built upon.

(2.) Let this encourage us, who are parents, con* cerning our children ; and enable us to think of them with comfort and hope, in the midst of our cares about them. They are dear to us, we look with pleasure upon these olive plants round about our tables, yet not without a mixture of pain, because children are (as we commonly say) " certain cares, but uncertain comforts ;" these arrows in the hand, may prove arrows in the heart ;^ Absalom, whose name signifies The peace of his father, lived to be his greatest trouble. But when we consider that we have brought them to Christ, and he has received them, we cannot but thank God and take courage. When we wish well to them, we would willingly hope well; and this is ground of hope, that our Lord Jesus has expressed so much favour to little children, [1.] litis may comfort and encourage the tender careful mothers in nursing them, that they are carry-ing those in their arms whom Christ has tahen up in his. Not only their natural affection to them, as pieces of themselves, may sweeten and ease the pains they take about them; that makes even the sea monsters draw out their breasts and give such to their young ;^ but their gracious affection to them as members of Christ, as beloved of him, and partakers of benefit' by him, may much more do it. You are careful for them with all this care; they require a constant attendance, and many a time, it may be, a John vi. 37. ov Mfft a double negative. ▼ Ps cxxvii. 4. w Lam. iv. 3. X 1 Tim. vi. l.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN. break yoar sleep; but if yoa do it as unto the Lord, if yoa have an eye to Christ in it, <* This I do for a child that is adopted into his family, as well as bom into mine \*' you may depend upon him to pay you your wages,^ though it be your own child. Your care about your little ones keeps you from church, it may be, many a ^me ; and keeps you, that you cannot spend so much time in your closets as you used to do; but if thus it be sanctified by an eye to our Lord Jesus, and by your prayers to God for them as his, more than as your own, you are therein truly serving the Lord Christ yourselves, and not only so, but are breeding up servants for him, that you hope will be vessels of grace and glory.

[2.] This may comfort and encourage us if our children labour under any bodily weaknesses and infirmities, if they be unhealthful and often ailing, which is an allay to our comfort in them ; let this serve to balance that, If they belong to Christ, and he blessed of him, they are blessed indeed; and nothing amiss of that kind shall be any prejudice to their blessedness, or diminution of it, but may, being sanctified, become rather a friend and furtherance to it. Many have been the wiser and better, the more humble and heavenly, for their having borne the yoke of affliction in their youth.* You see what an affection Christ discovered for these children; and may conclude, by reflecting upon yourselves, that he has a particular tenderness for children in affliction; those are commonly most indulged by their parents that are sichly; and like as a father pities those children,* so does the Lord Jesus much more, as he often evidenced when he was upon earth. As the abiding illnesses of the children are the parents' continual affliction, it is a cross they are to take up daily; so the abiding compassions of Christ toward them, ought to be their continual consolation, and a cordial they may have recourse to daily.

[3.] This may comfort and encourage us in teaching and catechising our children, in giving them a pious education, and in praying with them and for them, that we are doing it for Christ, that we are workers together with him. And we may hope he will work together with us, and then our labour shall not be in vain. If we have given them to Christ, they shall be taught by his Spirit, and are within the reach of that precious promise, that all shall know God, from the least even to tlie greatest.'' It may be they are dull and slow, and not so apt to learn as we could wish : Christ's own disciples were so, yet be bore with them, and brought them at last to a full assurance of understanding; and therefore despair not concerning your children who are but of a small capacity. It may be your children are hopeful and forward, and very promising; and it is your joy to sec it, in hopes they will be ornaments to 7 £xo<l. ii. 0. • P& ciii. 13. s Lam. iii. 27. b Heb. viii. U. your families, but it ought to be much more so, io hopes they will be, in their day, faithful servants to the interest of God's kingdom among men. And what prospect can be more pleasing next to that of our own everlasting bliss, than to have good hope, through grace, that our children shall be praising God on earth, when we are praising him in heaven; and that we and they shall be, together, for ever praising him. I have no greater joy, says the apostle, than to hear that my children walk in the truth, [4.] This may comfort and encourage us in all our cares concerning our children when they grow up, in providing for them, and disposing of them. If we have in sincerity gven them up to Christ, and he has accepted of them, we may hope, he will dispose of every thing that concerns them for the best, and they shall in this world reap the benefit of the promises made to the faithful and their seed,' and the prayers made by the faithful/or their seed. If they be not feasted, yet verily they shall be fed; if we have but little to gve them, yet the blessing of Christ upon that little, will make it every way better to them than the riches of many wicked.^ Many, no doubt, have had reason to acknowledge, that their comfortable passage through this world has been very much owing to the blessing of Christ, upon their early dedication to him, and education for him. If Christ has taken up our little ones into his arms, provided they do not by their wickedness throw themselves out of his arms, we may be sure, he is able to keep what we have committed' to him, through all the attempts of an insnaring world; that be will never drop them, neither shall any pluck them out of his hands.

[5.] This may comfort and encourage us, if our children be removed from us by death in their childhood ; (this is a common case; that which came forth like a flower, is soon cut down, and the gourd which came up one night, and which we were exceeding glad of, withers the next night, and leaves us in tears. Now it is enough to silence us in such a case, that it is the Lord that gave, and the Lord that takcth away, and if he takes away who can hinder him? May he not do what he will with his own 1 Let Aaron therefore hold his peace,' for God is glorified. But this goes further, and may satisfy us;) that if Christ has owned them in the kingdom of his grace, he will receive them into the kingdom of his glory» We are indeed kept in the dark concerning the state of those that die in infancy, they are left to the mercy of God; but the children who are given up to Christ by their believing parents, are not left to uncovenanted mercy. The Lord knows them that are his, though we do not; but we may hope that it shall go well with those whom Christ has taken up in his arms.

e Pa. xxxvii. 35, 36. • John X. 38.

d Ps. xxxvli.3. 16. f Lev. X. a.

CHRIST'S FAVOUR TO CHILDREN.

041 and blessed ; and, that he was so well pleased with the cbildren's Hosannas, even in the Old Jerasalem, will reckon himself glorified by their Hallelujahs in tbc New Jemsalem.^

[6.] This may comfort and encourage ns if we sboald be taken away from oar children by death, while they are little: (this also is a common case, and a moumfal one; we know not how soon we may fall under the arrests of death, and may see the day, that awful day, approaching, which will cut off the number of our months in the midst. In such a case, as to our own souls, we may perhaps be able to say, as our Master did, with an air of triumph, " Now we are no more in this world.'"' O that we may be able, at such a time, with this cheerfulness, to say so! But, though we should, yet, like him concerning his disciples, we must say concerning oar children, Sut these are in the world:) How shall we leave them ? Where and with whom shall we leave them ? With whom, but with him who has said, Leave thy fatherleti children with me, I will preserve them alive, and let thy widows trust in me ;* who has taken it among the titles of his honour, to be a Father of the fatherless and a Judge of the widows If we hare made Christ guardian to our children, let us make it appear we are entirely well satisfied in his wisdom and faithfulness.

But, [7, jr m//.] What may we have to comfort and encourage us, if our children should prove wicked and vile; if they should forsake their God, and the God of their fathers, and walk in the paths of the destroyer, notwithstanding our utmost endeavours to engage them for Christ ? It is very often a case in fact; we cannot deny it; it is possible the best parents may have the worst children; yet if we SHOULD SUPPOSE a falling from yraee and holiness adherent, which, through the divine condescension and compassion, might have availed to the salvation of such as die in infancy, that will not iNFERa falling from grace and holiness inherent: what Christ does herein, we know not now, but we shall know hereafter.^ But disputes in this case are cold comf Matt. xxi. 15,16. k Pb. Uviii. 5. h John zvii. 11. i Jer zlix. ii. iJohnsdII. 17. forts to the poor parents; whose hearts bleed and break to see the destructive courses which their children take, whom they thought they had lodged safe in the hands of the Mediator, for whom they have prayed many a prayer, and shed many a tear. They thought Christ had taken them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them, but it does not prove so. What shall we say to comfort such ?

It may be some satisfaction to them, that however it goes with tlieir children, Christ will be glorified ; if they do not give honour to him, he will get him honour upon them. And if God be sanctified wo ought to be satisfied, and with reverence to behold both the goodness and severity of God; on them which fall, severity; but towards them who stand, goodness, if they continue in his goodness.™

But it will be yet more satisfaction to them, if they have the testimony of their consciences for them that they have done their duty; which they did, with a resolution to leave the event with God. They knew they could not give grace to their children; but their hearts can witness for them, that to the best of their power, they digged about these barren trees, and dunged them,^ as the dresser of the vineyard did ; and if they bring forth fruit well, they shall .have the comfort, and God the glory; but if not, they must be content to see them cut down, and though they cannot have comfort in that, yet God will have glory, and they acquiesce.

But the greatest comfort of all in such a case is, that the unbelief and disobedience of their children shall not make void God's promise to them, and therefore ought not to make void their comfort in God. Though Israel he not gathered, yet shall I he gloriousJ* Abraham is happy in heaven, though there be those in hell who can call Abraham father. It was the comfort of holy David, though he saw a great deal of sin and trouble in his family. Although my house be not so with God as I could wish it, yet I am sure of this, he has made with me an everlasting covenant, which is well ordered in all things and sure, and that is all my salvation, and therefore shall be all my desire,^ m Rom. si. ss. • laa. xliz.5.

B Luke xiii. 8,9.

P a Sam. xxlii. 5.

MEMOIRS OF MRS. RADFORD.

(FROM A COPY IN MRS. SAVAGE'S HAND-WRITING.)

Eleanor, the third daughter of Mr. Philip Henty, was bom at Broad Oak, July 2dd, 1G07, being Tuesday. Her father writes in his memorandum of it, '* Blessed be God, who was present in the time of need."

She was baptized privately, July 27th, by Mr. Jonathan Edwards, of Jesus College, in Oxford.

Her natural temper, from a child, was timorous.

She had her name Eleanor appointed her by the last will of her grandfather, who died half a year before she was born.

While she was a child, she had frequent illness, which the Lord graciously brought her through. She was of a very tender, loving, and toward ly disposition, and became acquainted betimes with the things of God, of which, through her great modesty and self-difl Sdence, she was not very forward to express herself, but very sincere and industrious in her converse with them.

She began early to write-sermons, and the daily family expositions of the Scripture, and what she wrote she made use of; for while she lived, in her daily reading of the Scriptures in her closet, she read along with them the expositions she had written. She gathered, in writing, what she thought observable in the books she read, or in the papers communicated to her, and kept it together.

She was married to Mr. Samuel Radford, a tradesman in Chester, January 1st, 1688-9; and as, by the grace of God, she was enabled to do the duty of, so she bad abundance of comfort in, that relation.

What account we can find among her papers since her death, concerning her spiritual state, and her communion with God, is only a constant register which she kept of all her approaches to the Lord's Supper. She made her first approach in the seventeenth year of her age, and then vnites thus: " I was advised by my father to put these three questions to myself, for my help in preparation, and to examine myself upon them: What am I ? What have I done ? and, What do I want? And by these three questions I did search and try myself, according to my weak ability, and what was amiss therein I humbly beg of God to pardon. .

'' Question 1st. What ah I ? Am I ia a state of sin, or in a state of grace; a child of God, or a child of the devil ? Have I renounced ail for Christ!

" Answer. I hope I can say, in the truth and uprightness of my soul, that I have renounced all my sins, and taken Jesus Christ to be mine, and given up myself to him to be his.

" Question 2nd. What have I done?

Answer. God knows, and my own conscience knows, how greatly I have sinned against, and provoked, the pure eyes of his glory.

1. The sin of my nature testifies against me, and I desire to testify against it* Lord, forgive the sinfulness of my nature.

" 2. The numberless number of actual transgressions which I have been guilty of.

In thought: Which of the commandments have I not broken ? Who can understand my heart sins ?

In word: Telling untruths—^some, since I have known to do better. I am convinced that my vain and idle words must come into judgment, and my idle unprofitable letters too.

In deed: Omitting known duties. I have not been so frequent and constant as I should have been, in the duty of secret prayer; in reading God's word, and singing his praises alone. Committing known sins. 1 have not carried it aright towards my relations, superiors, inferiors, and equals. I have not been diligent to use my uttermost endeavours, as I should have done, for the salvation of the souls of those with whom I have conversed. I have always had too good an opinion of myself. Lord, humble me for my pride. I have enjoyed great means of knowledge, and yet am very ignorant of what I might and should have known. I have often quenched the motions of the Spirit, and not hearkened to the voice of my own conscience. Lord, who can tmderstand his errors ? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. My sins have been more aggravated than the sins of others, having been committed against

MEMOIRS OF MRS. RADFORD.

943 light and conviction. Having drawn up this bill of indictment against myself, next comes in, *'Qwition3d, What do I ^ant?

1. I want pardon for these and all my sins.

" 2. An interest in Christ, as my Redeemer and Savioar.

3.1 want to ha ve my strong cormptions weakened; " 4. And my weak graces strengthened.

These, and many more, I expect, and desire, to bare supplied at the Lord's table.

The Lord will supply all my wants out of his falness. Amen. I was admitted to the Lord's table this February 17th, 1683-4, where I felt unspeakable sweetness; then and there the knot was tied, and the bargain made, which I would not release for a thousand worlds. I desire from the bottom of my soul, to bless God that ever I knew the meaning of a sacrament I have this day felt that in my soul, which did much warm and refresh me, namely, a full persuasion of the love of God to me; and I desire to love him better than ever. I have heartily closed with him to-day: my soul hath said, N&ne hut Chriit, none but Christ. The Lord make my heart more and more sound herein. The exhortation was that of Christ's, Go and sin no more"

On the next opportunity she writes; '' I came away greatly comforted, and more sensible of the love of Christ to me, and I hope I shall have cause to bless God for this day as long as I have a day to life. The exhortation was. Psalm Ivi. 13. Thou hast delivered my soul from tleathy wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling ? He that hath done the greater will do the lesser.'^

On another: *' This was a price put into my hand to get wisdom. Blessed be God. The duty pressed was, to continue with Christ in his temptation: the Lord help me so to do."

" Another precious day of grace. I was a guest at the blessed table, and must say, as Mephibosheth, Who am /, that thou shouldest looh upon such a dead dog as I am f" " Another sweet opportunity, wherein I have, as veil as poor I could, given myself to God wholly, only, and for ever. Amen.'^

On another: ^' I have to-day, by the unspeakable goodness of my God to me, come away from his table with abundant consolations and satisfaction, because I hope I am in Christ Jesus. I am grieved that I walk no more closely with God. O that the sweetness I have found to-day may engage me to more watchfulness. I have thisay, with an eye of faith, seen the great love of Christ to me; I tasted it, and was refreshed. Blessed be God, I had a comfortable day of it; I endeavoured to set faith on work, and came away comforted."

At another time: '' A sweet opportunity; the duty pressed was. Arm yourselves, lihewise, with the same mind:*

At another: '* A wonder of mercy, that I, who am not worthy of a crumb from the table, should be admitted to sit at it, and feast, not only with but upon the Lord. How is it ? I have renewed my covenant afresh with him, and deliberately chosen him for my treasure; and now, I bless God, I count the world, and all things on this side him, but trash."

'' Another precious opportunity. The duty pressed was. To worh out my own salvation with fear and trembling. The Lord help me in it, and worh in me both to wUl and to do,*'

At another: '* From Phil. iv. 1. So stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved."

At another: ''The exhortation was from Ps. cxvi. 16, Truly I am thy servant"

At another: '' From 1 Samuel xii. 24. Only fear the Lord."

At another: ** From Romans xii. 1. Present your bodies a living sacrifice"

At another: '' This was an avouching day: I did afresh take God to be mine. The Scripture closed with was Deut xxvi. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord."

At another: " Job x. 15. If 1 be wiched, woe to me. Woe, and a thousand woes to me, if / be wicked. I that have known more and professed more, and been more convinced than others. I that have had so many mercies from God, and so oft renewed my covenants with him. If / be wicked and must go to hell at last, (as all that are wicked most,) it will be hell indeed to me."

At another time: " I was minded of that great daty, in all my ways to achnowledge God, from Prov. iii. 6."

I was exhorted, from Hebrews xii. 1. to lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth most easily beset me.

" From 1 John i. 12. Not to sin.

'' From Psalm xxxi. 23. To love the Lord.

" From Rom. viii. 1. To walh after the Spirit.

From 1 Cor. xv. 58. To abound in the worh of the Lord.

" From 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. To live to Christ.

From 1 Thess. iv. 1. To walh so as to please God.

From Colos. iii. 1—3. To seek the things above.

" From 2 Peter iii. 18. To grow in grace.

" From Ephes. v. 15, 16. To walh circumspectly, <' From Ephes. iv. 22, 23. To put off the old man, and to put on tlte new man, I hope I have done that to-day, which I shall have cause to bless God for to eternity.

'' From 1 Cor. x. 12. Let him thatthinhethhestand-eth tahe heed lest he fall.

A sealing day; the Lord did accept, and pardon. I did endeavour to give myself to Christ, deliberately, sincerely, freely, and, it shall be, for ever. The Lord keep it always in the imagination of the thoughts of my heart, and establish my way before him."

MEMOIRS OF MRS. RADFORD.

At another: '< The exhortation was, from 1 Peter i. 13. Gird up the loins of your mind. It was a sweet opportanity. What I have in hand is nothing to what I have in hope. Not unto me, O Lord, hut to thy name be the praise, I had the comfort; God shall have the glory."

At another: *< 1 Peter i. 22. Love one another. I was dead and cold at the ordinance, I would endeavour to make up what was amiss by after-diligence, The Lord set in with me.''

" 2 Samuel xxiii. 5. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant. I did afresh take God the Father to be my chiefest good and highest end; God the Son to be my Prince and Saviour; God the Holy Ghost to be my Sanctifier, Teacher, Guide, and Comforter; God's word to be my rule in all my actions, and his people to be my people in all conditions. The exhortation was, to join in the angels' song, Luke ii. 14. Glory to God in the highest,"

Thus far before she was married.

At another time: << The exhortation was, Ps. Ixxxv. 8. Not to return again to folly. All sin is folly, but sin, after God hath spoken peace, is folly with a witness.'^

At another time : ** From Hosea xiv. 8. To have no more to do with idols. From Psalm xxiii. 6. To dwell in the house of the Lord. From Colos. ii. 6, 7. To walk in Christ with thanksgiving. From Isa. ii. 5, 6. Walk in the light of the Lord; that is, 1st. To walk closely in my family, in my shop. 2d. To walk comfortably; for God would have his people a comfortable people. From John viii. 10. To go and sin no more."

At another: ** I was very dull and drowsy some part of the time, but came away rejoicing that I had what I came for. The Lord help me to be the more busy after. The Scripture closed with was Romans vi, 12."

At another; ** The exhortation was from 1 Peter ii. 9. To show forth the praises of him who hath called if us.

'' From Joshua xxiv. 21—^23. Ye are loitnesses." ** From Dent. xxix. 9. Keep the words of this covenant."

From Gen. xxix. 1. Then Jacob went on his way. Margin Then Jacob lift up his feet. When he had that view of God, chap, xxviii. 12. and made that vow to God, chap, xxviii. 20. then he lift up his feet " From Jer. xiii. 11. To be unto kirn for a nam and for a praise, and, therefore, to abstain from those things which make a dishonour and disgrace to God, and to abound in those things which are for his honour."

" From Eccl. viii. 11. Keep the hing*s commandment, because of the oath of God."

'' From 2 Timothy ii. 3. To endure hardness " From 2 Chron. xv. 14, 16. To seek with my whole heart. The Lord grant that the impressions of this ordinance may not wear off."

From 1 Cor. v. 11. To purge out the old leaven,** " From Daniel xii. 13. Go thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest."

The last she received was July 4th, 1697. '' The exhortation was from the practice of the eunuch, Acts viii. 39. He went on his way rejoicing."

These are some of the memorandums she kept of these opportunities.

In her letters to her sisters there are many very savoury, pious expressions, that speak what her heart was full of.

This is the world of troubles and disappointments. I never saw so much of it as now. I desire your prayers for me, that I may be weaned from it more and more.

" I desire to be content in the place where God hath set me. O that I had wisdom to do the duty of it. I see we must not have every thing that we would have in this world."

She was seized with a fever, as it proved, though little suspected of several days, August 1st, 1697.

In the beginning of her illness she often expressed an entire submission to the will of God, however he should please to dispose of her.

It was the ninth or tenth day of her illness before it appeared perilous, and then it grew violent, and seized her head.

She breathed out her soul into the embraces of the Lord Jesus, August 13th, being Friday, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon.

She was buried in St Michael's Church, Chester, August 16th, being Monday.

Mr. James Owen preached her funeral sermon that evening, at her brother's meeting-place, on Rev. ii. 7. To him that overcometh will I give to tat of the tree of life.

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON.

Ann, the youngest daughter of Mr. Philip Henry, was bom at Brt>ad Oak, November 25th, 1668; she was baptized by her father privately. When she was about a year old, she was sick aod nigh unto death of an ague, on which he notes, '* that she was freely given up to the will of God. Lord, do thy pleasure with me and mine, but contend not with a dry leaf."

He hath noted another ill fit she had when about a year and a half old, and adds, ** No sooner doth any thing ail my children but I am presently thinking it is for death. My own guilt, and sense of my unwortfainess, causes such misgivings, 1 Kings xvii. 18. but God is good."

She gave very early indications of a sweet and towardly disposition, and an aptness to learn above most of her sex and age, which induced her father, after she had learned to read English well, before she began to sew, to initiate her in the Latin tongue, «hich she took Tcry easily, but made no great progress in.

From a child she knew the Holy Scriptures, and read them with delight; spoke intelligently of Scrip-tore stories, and was betimes, as soon as she grew to any capacity, very well affected and-inclined to the exercises of piety and devotion.

Yet in her own reflections upon her childhood, (written in the year 16B8,) though she blesses God for the advantages of a good education, she bewails that the cursed fountain of original sin soon bubbled up. *< My childhood and youth" (saith she)'' were sinning vanity. I can remember nothing that I did in the world for many years, much less my sins: but when I now see what follies other children are gnilty of, I have no reason to think that I came behind them therein." She accuses herself of loving play, and being froward; though few of her age were more mild and tractable, and loved work and a book better than she did.

She soon made her Catechism very familiar to her, and loved to hear and ask qaestions concerning the things of God. Before seven years old, she learnt to bear her part in the repetitions of the heads of sermons in the family, having the happiness of a very quick understanding, and a good memory.

When she was about eleven years old, she began to write sermons, and continued it all her days. What she wrote was good sense, well spelled, and the substance of a discourse. She kept her sermon-books very carefully, and in good order; she very frequently looked over and conversed with what she had written long before. Read under her own hand the account of the days of her youth. *' I soon learned " (saith she) " a course of external duties, and was pleased with the bare performance of the duty without looking at the manner how it was done; but at length it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, to call me by his gpce, and reveal his Son in me. I cannot be punctual as to the time, but rather desire to make sure the thing. The merciful circumstances of this good work were, that it was done early in my days, and not attended with such pangs and terrors as some others endure. The Spirit of God convinced me and wrought on me by degrees. Many a time hath God spoken to me in a still small voice, and therein he considered my frame, but the less fine was paid at first, the greater rent I must expect to sit upon afterwards; perhaps, the least terror the more doubts afterwards. I might tell (saith she) long stories of the goodness of God in discovering to me the infinite evil of sin, giving me to mourn over it, quickening me to doty, especially to make sure work about my foundation, enabling me to close sincerely with Jesus Christ, which I think I have done as well as I coo Id, though never so well as I would. When God gave me some enlargements in holy duties, I rested much in them, and counted upon comfort and assurance; when, alas! I was not at all ready for it. But oftentimes my secret duties were more long than fervent; more external than internal." She complained to one of her sisters long after, that she found it was possible to lose much time even in the closet. Those that were intimate with her, could not, however, but observe, not only how constant she was to secret worship, and how she abounded in it, but what a discernible pleasure and delight she took in it.

In the sixteenth year of her age, she was admitted to the Lord's supper, February, 16d4, and with a great deal of satisfaction both to herself and her MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON. father, joined herself to the Lord in an everlastinc covenant never to be forgotten. After the second time of her approach to that ordinance, she made this remark of her spiritual state: ''I now fell into a very dall and lifeless frame. Drowsiness prevailed much: it was very grievous to me, and after many foils by it, I resolved, with tears, never to yield to it. How I got out of this frame I cannot tell, but this I know, that it was the work of the grace of God. It was a great hinderance to my progress in religion, that I did not open the case of my soul to those that were able to advise me; which proceeded from my reservedness, and has cost me dear. But this I did seriously promise to one that will be a witness against me if I lie, that whereas there are those who make excuses for non-attendance at the gospel-feast, I will not be excused/' Afterwards she thus writes —'* I was very full of complaints, and empty of praises. I had great supports, but few suavities; some sweet sabbaths and sacraments, but very many damps to my joys. Sin was exceedingly odious to roe, and I remembered, with shame, how I had «tiflcd convictions, and how careless and indifferent I had been in matters of religion; how pride and passion had most easily beset me; and how often God had called by his word and I would not hear. The place where I was planted was a vineyard, but It grieved me to think how I bad cumbered the ground by my barrenness; yea, brought forth wild grapes by relative miscarriages, and other sins, both of omission and commission. Blessed be God, that which I did I allowed not; with my mind I served the law of God, and delighted in it after the inner man. I esteemed holiness above any thing in the world, and had chosen God for my portion. I smarted greatly for some tongue-sins; some untrue words, though not devised, yet spoken in haste through inadvertency, were as a sharp sword in my bowels, and ray bones were broken through my own carelessness. The spirit of bondage long prevailed sadly; it cannot be expressed what straitness of spirit I found; how the wings of faith were dipt, and how the tempter conquered me. But when the sorrow of my spirit even tied my tongue, yet I loved to be alone before God, to be looked on by him ; and many a time hath he had pity. I cannot say that ever he was wanting to me, but made all grace to abound towards me. His word has been a means of conviction, of quickening, of comfort to me many a time, and I have found it sweeter than honey or the honey-comb. He restored my soul, he led me in the paths of holiness for his name's sake. It pleased God, some time after this, to make me more than ever sensible of the insufficiency of my own righteousness to justify me, and to show me my need of Christ, and his fulness; so that I counted all things bat loss that I might win Christ and be found in him. Thus did the Lord, many a time, wait to be gracious to me, when I was like him who said, Why should I vffii for tAe Lord any longer ? At length the Holy Spirit, who came to convince the world, was pleased, (as at a certain time I was verily persuaded) to convince me of these ten things: viz.

'' 1. That God is my chiefest good, and that to know, love, and serve him, is my honour and happiness ; the greatest I am capable of.

'' 2. That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners; that he is able and willing to save me, and there is salvation in no other.

3. That religion is the most amiable, pleasant, and beneficial thing in the world.

4. That much of the power of godliness consists in the great duties of self-denial and mortification.

5. That I have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and am undone without Christ.

G. That the favour of God is better than life.

7. That sin is the worst of evils, exceeding sinful ; an evil and an only evil.

8. That there will be no getting to heaven without much pains and difficulty.

9. That I shall never be a loser by doing my duty.

That I am infinitely obliged to God, who hath wrought these things in me*"

Now," saith she in her papers, '* I fear I did every day act contrary to these convictions, not keeping up a continual watch over myself; bat commonly my daily failings passed not without sad reflections. I was solicitous to make sure my being joined to the Lord in an everlasting covenant, and thereupon I did vocally do it in Mr. Alleine's form of words; and did also subscribe with my hand to the Lord, which remains as a witness against me if I be false to it. Renouncing the world and the flesh, I did cleave to God in Christ alone as my sovereign Lord and Ruler, my chiefest good and highest end; and I never repented it, only that I did it no better. God was pleased sometimes gently to correct me by distempers of body, but in much mercy; for I had been as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, knowing neither how to want, nor how to abound; yet now I see he works all for yood, and do purpose, by his grace, to be well pleased with every thing that happens to me, because it is the will of God."

In a paper written in the year 1688, she thus mentions the advantages of her education:—" I was bom of one who had the honour to be of that office who are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ; (2 Cor. iii. 13.) a labourer in the vineyard, though thrust out by men, yet at work in season and out of season ; and being it was so, my education was accordingly, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

As I grew up I havti strained at gnats and swallowed camels, often falling into sin. I did not prefer the word of God's mouth to my necessary food.

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON.

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My own iniquity prevailed, that is, flesh-pleasing in food and apparel, and sinful bashfalness in profitable qaestions/' '^ Yet," she adds, ** one evidence of my love to God is love to the sabbath day. It is the best day of the week to me. I am glad when it draws near; I feel the want of it before it comes. Another evidence is, mean thoughts of the world: my age exposes me to the contrary temptations: but whom have I in ketnen but thee ? and I would get above it. The promise-performing God has begun to perform that promise to me, (Romans vi. 14.) Sin ikail not have ttominion. Pride, that tympany of the sonl, by the applications of the heavenly Physician, is begun to be cured, though but begun. Psalm ciii. 2. Who healetk all thf diseases. Vain thoughts compass me aboui Uko bees. I am stung with them. My pride appears in my thoughts, pleasing myself with my own sayings and doings. O that I could say as David, Ps. cxxxi. 1. Lord, my heart is not haughty" She observes once after a sacrament, '< I thought that the apostle's method was taken. Let a man txemiM himself and so eat ; yet dull, lifeless, and unbelieving.*' '* March 28» 1689. I was very proud, given to pleasure, with the neglect of God; and it does find me out; for they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies.*'

She mentions her father's particular advice to her to look to secret duty. Keep up that whatever you do, nothing will prosper without it; all gace grows, as love to the word of God grows.

This collection of her experiences she drew up when she was about nineteen years old, but, I believe, never any one beside herself saw it, or knew a tittle of it till after her death. For the top of her ambition was to be accepted of that God who sees io secret Any one that hath read these lines, which were the easy and natural product of her'pen, and of a piece with her discourses, will say there is something more in them than is usually found in such tender years, and will wish she had been more large and copious in the account.

She wrote also her father's exposition of the Scrip-tores in the family very judiciously, and made use of them in her private reading of the Bible. She gaTe befself much to the reading of good books, yet not neglecting the useful employment of her sex and place. Mr. Clarke's last volume of lives she read again and again with much pleasure, and was well versed in it: and ready, upon all occasions, to produce pertinent and profitable passages out of that and other good books for the edification of others: she was able, with the good householder, to bring out of her treasury things new and old. She made a large collection, in writing, of what she met with most remarkable in her reading.

How amiable and exemplary her deportment was in all relations, as a daughter, as a sister, as a 3 p 2 friend, they who knew her can easily bear record: and, though it never appeared to the discouragement of the rest, yet it could not but be discerned that Mr. Henry had a special dear love for his little Nancy, and sometimes said she was the diamond in his ring.

In the twentieth year of her age she was married to Mr. John Hulton, a tradesman in Chester, April 26th, 1688; and she was equally yoked. Take the account of that turn of her life in her own words, in the continuation of the afore-mentioned papers:— ** After nineteen years' barrenness in the place where I first sprung up, God was pleased, by his providence, to put me into the married state, and transplant me into a new soil. It was an affair I thought of great weight, and I was much afraid of seeking great things for myself in this world therein. When I press it upon my conscience, I cannot bat acknowledge that I did therein commit my way unto the Lord, and did lay myself before him as white paper, for him to write his will upon me; and ac-coidingly, his providence brought it to a comfortable issue, after much distraction of mind about it."

April 21,1688, (a few days before her marriage,) she thus writes:—<' I did set myself before the Lord to repent of all the sins of my single state; and if sin were never bitter before, I think it was exceedingly bitter then, and, throagh grace, I did then renew my bold of God as mine."

Soon after this, she removed to Chester. '' That morning," she writes, " reading alone, in course, (Exodus iii.) of Moses's objections against going on God's errand, I was much comforted by God's answer, V. 12. Certainly I will be with thee. Applying that word to myself was very refreshing. Some time before this, reading Genesis xxviii. concerning Jacob's vow, it affected me, and I then, with some seriousness, entered into a solemn promise, that if God would be with me, in that present way, and provide for me, and make the issue comfortable, that then he should be my God; creatures should not have the throne in my soul. I would be more watchful against sin, and be more diligent and careful in his service."

Some weeks after her settiement at Chester she thus writes, under the foregoing record of her solemn vow:—*' Because deceit lies in generals, and because after particular foils by temptation my conscience reproaches me that it was for want of resolution, I now, in God's name, go forth resolving, not only in general to serve the Lord in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of my life, but particularly, in the strength of Jesus Christ, I resolve against the following sins:—fiesh-pleasing and inordinate appetites; passion and frowardness; drowsiness and weariness in the worship of God ; despising others; thinking or speaking ill of any; self-

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON. conceit and pride ; a lying tongue; all injustice in the calling wherein God hath put me; discontent in the condition allotted for me.

" I do likewise, in the same strength, resolve upon the following duties:—self-denial; meekness; liveliness in duty; reproving when there is opportunity; humility, and low thoughts of myself; truth, equity, justice, and charity: in general, making conscience of all God's commands.

Thus she set out in her new condition, and how strictly she adhered to the rules she laid down was very evident, as far as could fall under the observation of others. Some time after, she thus writes:— *' Because, through the necessity of my outward affairs, my secret duties are commonly limited and contracted more than formerly, I have been ready to fear that I have declined in grace, and left my first love. I am sensible of the prevalency of unbelief, and of God's withdrawings; but, though he slay me yet will I trust in him. I have this day promised seriously, to spend some time every day in converse with God. I see in a trade the shop must bo constantly attended, though, perhaps, for some time no profits come in; so the trade of religion must still be followed, though there be not, for the present, any sensible comfort and benefit. In this place where God hath set me, he doth require of me, '' 1. That I get much knowledge and grace, because I have means for getting them.

2. That I be very humble, because my gifts are small, and my attainments pdor, graces weak, and failings many.

3. That I be ready for death, because I see many funerals. And because death at a distance did not affect ine, it pleased God to bring it nigh me in the death of a near, and that a very dear, relation, viz. sister Henry, February 14, 1688-9. The quarrel God seemed to have with me therein was upon the account of relative sins, and the omission of relative duties ; whereupon I endeavoured to repent of them, and renew my covenant in that matter. And because that providence did not do the work for which it was sent, shortly after, another dear friend whom I loved as my own soul, was suddenly taken away (Mrs. Bradbury); the circumstances of her death being such as I was near falling into myself, viz. child-bearing; it did much affect me with cares and thoughts about another world, which had been too little minded by me. After this providence, I was threatened by the illness of my dear mother; upon her recovery, my sense of the mercy obliged me to promise to be more freely willing to resign to the will of God another time; and surely there is all the reason in the world, when the great God condescends to grant my request, that I should say. His will be done. Sin hath much prevailed. Omissions witness against me, and a constant remissness in my walking. I cannot answer for one of a thousand ; bnthelp is laid upon one that is mighty."

She became a mother, July 99, 1689, (but the child died in the birth,) on which providence she thus writes:—'* A day never to be forgotten; wherein I felt the bitter fruits of the sin of my grandmother Eve; that part of her sentence being fully fulfilled, / will greatly multiply iky sorrow. In sorrow iiau shalt briny forth. The peril and danger was much greater than ordinary; so that, as the Lord llvcth, there was but a step between me and death. My flesh and heart were ready to fail, and friends ready to despair; but God became the strength of my heart and my portion; and I trust he will be so /or ever. But, behold, what have these sheep done? The innocent I cannot say, but the less guilty, must die. O Adam, Adam! what hast thou done ? My comforts are taken away before 1 had well received them. Was it all lost labour? Surely no; 1 have good hope that heaven is something fuller for my babe. I shall go to her, but she shall not return to me. My God is instead of all to me; and were he not mine, sure it were impossible to bear up without sinking under those pains I endured, but the mercy swallowed up the affliction, and rejoicsed against judgment. I often promised to love him, and to live to him; and I do it once more."

From the consideration of this event, co Dceming her first child, she hath sometimes said, ^' What need mothers have to pray for their children before they are born!"

Her next remark is, April 36, 1690. " I sickened of the small-pox, and though in perilous circumstances, yet was wonderfully brought through them: when I had received the sentence of death within myself, surely the Lord was ready to save me; and the mereies, the sweet meroies which I experienced in the affliction, I shall never forget.

I may truly say, with David» Unless thy law kmd been my delighty I should then have perished in mine affliction. But God doth seem by his providence to call me to be heavenly minded ; to be more humble; to take up with him as my happiness; to be less afraid of death; to abound always in the work of the Lord. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of destruction, for thou hast cast all my sins behind my back." Isa. xxxriit. 17.

In this illness, when she was asked how she did, her usual answer was," I shall be well."

June 29, 1091. " I received,'' she writes, *^ special merey from God, in answer to prayer. He was to me a present help, and did not only spare, but multiply, and gave me a living son, or rather, lent him to me for a while: and I have resigned him and myself to the will and disposal of our heavenly Father. How great is his goodness, and how great \s his beauty! Zech. ix. 17. I look upon every sin, after such a mercy as this, to be more deeply aggra-

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON.

949

Yated than before. My gpreat unprofitableness under the means of grace, is that at the serious consideration of which my heart doth even melt, and my spirits sink; finding comfort in that Psahn, (ciiL 12.) At far M the tmst t* from the wtst so far haih he removed my iramgressiont from me; I thought, with joy, if it were so good for me to have my transgressions removed as far as the east is from the west, how much better would it be when they shall be removed as far from me as hell is from heaven."

On a sacrament day, May 6, 1094, in which it seems she had more communion with God than ordinary, she thus writes: ** Forget not ever, O my soul, the sight that thou hast had this day from Pisgah's mount of Canaans land. What shall I render to the Lord ? I have, at the Lord's table, seen my Redeemer as he was in his blood and sufferings; but shortly I hope to see him as he ii, though not aa I am. See to it then, O my soul, that thou purify thyself, even as he is pure/'

May 5, 1G95» she writes thus: '* This last month past I have received great mercy from God in the recovery of both the children from the small-pox; the one brought into great peril, the other brought through imminent danger, by a fever which seized him about three weeks after the beginning of the small-pox. What shall I render to the Lord for his great benefits? Hehath been trying me whether I coald freely give up my children, which. I hope, I having done, he turned the scale and restored them to mc. God having corrected me by the child's relapse, my own heart condemneth me for my own backslidings. Oh that now I might remember whence I am fallen, and repent and do my first works! I have been this day showing forth the Lord's death, and renewing my covenant with him: surely it is meet to be said unto God, < I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more.' Amen, Amen."

November 19, 1695. In her confinement, after the birth of a child that died when nine days old, she thus writes: " God hath of late been proving and trying me, to do me good in my latter end. I looked for peace, but beheld trouble. My house hot made to grow; but the Lord who gave, quickly took away again; adored be the name of the Lord. And now, what doth the Lord my God require ? My greatest concern is to improve this providence. God hath (and so have I) been calling my sin to remembrance, that I may be humbled under his mighty hand, and cleave closer to him in love, dependence, and reso-lation; for even this is performed for me: and what have I to show now for my interest in him and relation to him! Is not my hope a groundless hope ? I do not ground it upon myself and my own right-eoasness, but Jesus Christ is he, concerning whom I say. Whom have I in heaven but thee ?**

March 1, 1096. '' Dare not, my soul, to deny that thoQ hast this day met with thy God at his tabic.

Silence, thou loud and clamorous unbelief. Never open thy mouth any more. God is willing to be mine, and who can say against it ? For, if be will work, who can let it? Only remember, that having received Christ Jesus the Lord, I must walk in him.'' Thus far goes her paper of experience, in which she seems to have given vent to her thoughts when they were more than usually enlarged. And if such as this was her converse with God, it will be of use to inquire what was her conversation in the world. No to mention the common characters of all the saints, which appeared eminently in her, nor the careful discharge of the duties of her particular relation, there are some things which have been observed concerning her, which were peculiarly exemplary and instructive.

1. That though she was so constant in her secret worship, and took so much deljght in her closet work, yet she ordered it with so much discretion, that it did not interfere with nor hinder her from any needful attendance upon her worldly affairs, in the house or shop. Every thing is beautiful in its season; and there is a way of abiding with God, and serving the Lord Christ in the particular calling wherein we are called, as well as in his immediate worship. The virtuous woman will look well to the ways of her household, and yet not neglect the ways of her heart.

2. That she was very industrious to promote the family worship in all the parts of it; contriving for it in its season, that nothing might put it out of time; calling to it; being ready to attend on it; and careful to prevent ail disturbance in it. If inferior relations would thus do their part, it would be a great help to the master of the family in the discharge of his duty. In her husband's absence she carefully and constantly performed all the parts of family worship herself. It being their custom to pray together morning and evening, she frequently prayed with him. She prayed much for their children, and carefully instructed them in the things of God as they grew capable. Her tender care of two orphans, the relations of her husband, which the providenee of God brought into their family, was very remarkable, especially her great concern for their spiritual welfare.

3. That she was very few of her words, not only in making of bargainn, but in her converse, iwift to hear and slow to speah; but when she did speak it was with wisdom, and to the purpose. She was like the still waters, which run deep but make no noise. One might observe in all her discourse, that she thought twice before she spoke once; and so prevented a deal of that guilt and grief which attend the multitude of words. Her speech was always with grace. She breathed forth a religious air in her common converse; and usually expressed herself in her converse with her friends in Scripture

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTOK. language. The word of God dwelt richly in her, and, by the divine blessing on her great diligence in reading the Scriptures and other good books, (which was her daily practice,) she acquired a good stock of Scripture knowledge; out of which treasury she readily brought forth things new and old, which rendered her conversation both pleasing and profitable.

4. That she preserved an evenness and composure of spirit under all events; one should seldom or never see her ruffled or disturbed by any provocation, lifted up with any joy or cast down with any sorrow; but, whatever happened to weigh down one scale, her wisdom and grace suggested something to put in the other scale to keep the balance even. Upon the death of her father, an affliction that went so near her heart, how calmly did she apply those words of Thomas to his fellow-disciples when Lazarus was dead. Let vs go and die with him.

5. That she was very cheerful iiher converse, and was far from that sourness and melancholy which some good people indulge themselves in, to the reproach of their profession; she made it to appear that she found the ways of wisdom pleasantness.

6. She was very charitable to the poor, and stretched forth her hand to the needy. She was always very careful not to make' the poor at her door stay long for their alms, for in that time, she would say, they might get another alms elsewhere. She loved to visit tlie godly poor, when they were sick, and discourse with them, and relieve them. She was one that devised liberal things, and sought opportunities of doing good.

7. On the Lord's day she commonly had her heart much enlarged in rejoicing and thanksgiving, and she used to refresh herself much on that day with singing of psalms alone at the time of vacancy from other duties.

8. She was very forward to promote works of piety and charity, and to stir up others thereto. Her zeal herein provoked many. She delighted in opportunities of showing kindness to others, and was very courteous in her behaviour towards all.

9. She was very frugal of her time, and was observed by those about her to be continually employed.

SOME SAVOURY USEFUL PASSAGES, GLEANED UP OUT OF SOME OF HER LETTERS TO HER RELATIONS AND FRIENDS.

To a gentlewoman, under some doubts about her interest in Christ, she thus writes:—'* I know not what is better for a man when he is out of the way, and is convinced of it, than to turn back and get as fast as he can into the right way: if thou art persuaded thou art not yet in Christ, give up thyself to him quickly in a marriage covenant The word 15 nigh thee to direct thee; the throne of grace is nigh thee, and to it thou mayst draw near for assistance. I believe there is nothing God is more willing to gve than his Spirif

Upon the occasion of a marriage in her father's house, she hath this observation in another letter: *' She that is married careth for the things of the world. Indeed, her opportunities of doing good will be more than they were, but of getting good less. It is more blessed to give than to receive. I find, as to myself, that a Httle thing abates my seal and flattens my spirit in duties, which makes me fear the snares of the world. It is an enemy to our souls and our gpraces, to our duties and to our comforts, to our holy living and to our comfortable dying.''

She had a tender sense of sin, as appears by this passage in a letter to the same person: " Indeed, it is difficult to be sensible of sins we think small; they are like knots in a fine thread, or hair, hard to untie: greater sins, like knots in a rope. I am greatly afraid of open presumptuous sins, sach as may break my peace as long as I live. I may fitly compare myself to a body full of ill humours: though a sore in one place is seemingly healed, yet it breaks out in another; so when I am better in one respect I am worse in another."

Her mean opinion of herself she expresses in another letter to the same person: '* Should I go about to tell you how bad I am, it were more than I could do; surely I am ready to go out of love with myself every day: there is some shift to be made to flee from other things that molest, but not from one's self. Really, Madam, religion is the most amiable thing in the world. If I could be very good, and yet think myself bad, how well were it."

In another, she thus writes about meditation: " I confess I am too little acquainted with it, especially the practical part, which is the sweetest. As to what I have tasted, I cannot tell the one half of the sweetness of it, and many times I have found more of God therein than in prayer; before I can fix there is some preparation necessary, and many a chain of vain thoughts to grapple with, which do often prevail and rob me of all my meditating time. As to my helps in it, my God is he that worketh both to will and to do. What more unruly than the thoughts? it is very hard to govern them! 1. I find a fixed heart a great help; the contrary I find a great hin-derance; now where shall we find this, but whence every good and perfect gift comes? 2. An heart like the treasury of the good householder, wherein are things laid up both new and old. There must be knowledge to furnish us with matter. It is easier to know what helps there are than to find ourselves holpen by them. Most of my meditations are con-

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON. a5i fused and torn; sometimes some attribute of God is the subject of them, as his wisdom, power, holiness ; sometimes some sin, some scripture," fcc.

To her eldest sister,* who was married, she thus wrote:— ** I am so well acquainted with myself as to know I am very unfit for the condition thou art in, and hast so much comfort in; the conditions are as the persons arc. I sadly fear displeasing God, or doing any thing which will wound conscience. I am ready to think there cannot but be more hinder-ances in our preat tusiiuss in that condition than in my present condition. Dost thou not find it so ? If it be not foie glory of God, I hope something will be thrown in the way to hinder it: for, however it is, God is good. It is no small comfort to hayc infinite wisdom and power engaged for one's good."

To another dear friend:—" I fear thou hast too good an opinion of me, which makes my work more dil Ticalt to beat down myself. Be not guilty of blowing up that bladder which is so apt to fill of itself. I shall take it as a part of friendship if thou wilt chide, instruct, and counsel me. Pot thyself in my case. Thus far I am determined, and no farther, namely, to be guided by infinite wisdom. I heard something suitable to-day from Psalm xxv. He will teach sinnert: within that number I come, if not within the latter. The meeh will he guide. Be thou a ferrent intercessor for me at a throne of grace; and pray meet me there at six o'clock oh Saturday night, if thou canst conveniently. This morning I met with a suitable promise, Isa. Iviii. \\, And the Lord shall guide thee continually and iatisfjf thg soul in drought, and make fat thy bones ; ertd thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fpring of water whose waters fail not: for the fulfilling of which to me I have no desert to plead, but divine mercy, goodness, and faithfulness; and is not that sufficient ? Who but a fool will be in want of any thing, when he may have it for asking? I cannot but reckon it one of the greatest of my earthly blessings, that I am the child of such a family, a branch of this vine: and have often acknowledged it as a great mercy, that as I was the youngest, so I thought the most likely to stay longest here; and who knows but I may ? I desire to trust God, how-eTer it be: the seed of the upright shall be blessed. Though myself I think unworthy, yet I am come of pareuts that are in covenant; but this will not save me, unless there be a principle within; it is encouragement to think that the smoking flax shall not be quenched. Mr. Vines f observes, *That Christ would not have them drowned whom he calls, O ye of little faith/ Matt, viii." To the same bosom-friend she writes, " I have not taken the world for my portion, and I think I have been made willing to take up with little of it for my * Mrs. Savage. * A learned and excellent divine, who died a. d. 1655. See passage. In my father's house the lines are fallen unto me in a pleasant place, and though I never absolutely resolved against a removal from it, yet I cannot but have dreadful apprehensions concerning it; the proposal of it hath occasioned mc many a troublesome thought, and is like to do more. I am passive: delay in some cases is dangerous, but here desirable. Rebekah's relations. Gen. xxiv. 55. said. Let the damsel abide with us a few days, at least ten. But I was pleased to find it in the margin, a full year, or ten months. Sure that is a quiet and desirable world, where there is neither marrying nor giving in marriage: of what little avail will it be there whether we were here single or married! My desire is to depart, and be with Christ, which I am sure is best of all. Dost thou see the providence of God going before me ? A standcr-by may see more than a person concerned. It is very comfortable to have that to plead which Jacob had when in trouble, Gen. xxxii. 9. The Lord which saidst unto me. Return. The Urim and Thummim is now abolished, we must expect direction in an ordinary way: who hath known the mind of the Lord ? Certainly this is his mind, that we should live to his glory; this is his will, even our sanctification, and it should be ours." To the same gentlewoman, her dear bosom-friend, she thus expresses herself before she was married:— *' Thou art writ upon my heart in capitals easy to be read, as those that converse with me may see; thou hast given me the right hand of fellowship in holy ordinances, but hadst thou seen through me, surely thou wouldst not have suffered me to sit so nigh thee; was there ever such a mispender of time, such a triflcr away of opportunities, as I am ? When thou tliinkest well of me, thou seest me not in my own clothes. I am much afraid of getting hurt by the good opinion thou hast of me. Thou seest in my book the fulfilment of the Scriptures, Isaiah xliv. 5. O that thou couldst see in my life the fulfilling of my own engagements! It is easier to vow than to pay, but it is great encouragement to think that God is a covenant friend. He is not so to every one. Who are we that God should take us into covenant with himself ? It is not because he hath need of us, but because we have need of him. And must covenant people walk'as other Gentiles? Surely no!'' Soon after her marriage she wrote thus:— ** I scarce know yet where I am, but this I know, that I am under the care of my heavehly Father. It is now come to the trial, more than ever, whether I make conscience of duty or no, I mean my secret duty. When I had larger opportunities for it, I could not for shame but, at least, seem to improve them, though, alas, what lost time was there in the closet which others thought not so! It cannot but be bitter now. Yet I would not for something have Clarke's Lives, Tol. p. 4a and Brook's Lives of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 330.

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON. all andone that hath beea done there; bat I wish it had been done yiter. Blessed be God for the Redeemer that is come to Sion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob; as it is quoted, Romans ii. 26. though it is otherwise, Isaiah Hi. 9. My thoughts are very much of dear parents, and brothers and sisters; but there is danger lest, if I think too much, I should be discontent with my present condition, which is best for me. I have seen a little more of the world than I had seen a little while ago, and, truly, there is nothing in it which affords solid comfort and satisfaction to the soul. One sight, by faith, of the lowliness of Jesus Christ, is enough to make one out of love with every thing else in comparison of him."

Upon the death of Mrs. Bradbume,*she thus wrote to a dear friend:—*' As was her way, such was her end, even peace, submission to the will of God, rejoicing in Christ Jesus ; expressed in such language as this,—' None but Christ, none but Christ, he is my all in all.' Thus did she go triumphantly to heaven. I shall never forget her whom I so dearly loved; her death made some impression upon this rocky heart of mine. If this be done to the green tree, what shall be done to the dry? Sure it should make me think more of heaven. We used to fancy to ourselves how our friends and acguaintance, that are at a distance from us in the world, do live; though we never saw how, yet, from what we have heard, we imagine what they do; what company they have, what privileges, &c. And what a happy state do I imagine the soul of my dear friend to be in, whose face always shone, and yet was covered with a veil of humility. It is some comfort to me, that as I loved and delighted in her company here, so I shall enjoy it refined for ever. Though friends fail, yet God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. As to myself, I might be useful in the world if I had a heart according to the price in my hand. Indeed I have lived at ease in Sion, as it speaks mercy ; I wish it might not be said so of me, as it speaks a sinful frame. I have been ready to say, My mountain stands strong, I shall never be moved: when it is but God's hiding of his face, and I shall be troubled. When friends are gone, the sting of affliction lies in the reflection upon my mis-improvement of them whilst with them. Let us therefore redeem the time, because the days are evil. The world is certainly nothing, and nothingness is all that is in it. Continue to pray for me for all things that may be suitable: spiritual mercies cannot be unsuitable. I pray, forget not in all your enjoyments to enjoy God as the gladness of your joy; for what is all without him but vanity and vexation? Even ordinances themselves are dry and sapless unless he fills them, though there is

Memoirs of Mrs. Savage, p. 31, the likeliest place to find him: more cf God, but not more than God, we should seek for. It is very comfortable, methinks, when with new acquaintance we meet with those that are travelling in the same road with us, and aiming at the same ultimate end.

It is sure God hath his remnant every where, and heaven will not want inhabitants, though such unworthy wretches as I come short through unbelief. You are singing of mercy and judgment, we are mixed; therefore providences are so towards as in this world, a gleam of peace to fit us for a brant of trouble, that we may not settle upon our kes. Where you are you learned to know what David complained of, when he sojourned in Meshech, and dwelt in the tents of Kedar. In such a place there is good to be done where there is none to be gotten: and there is this advantage to it, that by doing good we get good; by kindling others our own hearts will bum within us, and who knows whether you may be cast there for such an occasion as this V*

To another of her sisters, upon the death of ber sister Henry, in the year 1689, she wrote thus:— *' There were few families so little acquainted with the scourges of divine Providence as ours was; but now the days of visitation are come, and coming more and more. These are teaching providences; should we not learn obedience by them, passive obedience, lest the next furnace we are cast into be seven times hotter? It would, I think, be a greater affliction to have such relations as are with us our grief and burthen, whilst with us, than it is to have those that were our comfort taken from ns. We must consider that God hath a greater interest in all our creature comforts than we have; they are but lent us, and he may call them when he hath occasion for them; and who are we that we should contend with him ?"

To her sister in the country:—" I rejoice to hear of the continuance of your welfare; the same that is good is still doing us good, and loading us with his benefits; we must not expect that our health and prosperity should always last Shall we receive good and not evil also, forasmuch as we do evil and not good ? If we could learn this good lesson in the enjoyment of our creature comforts, to enjoy God in all, and in the want of them, to enjoy all in God, it would thereby appear that we lived by faith. It is difficult to learn how to want, and it is no less so to learn how to abound.*' In a time of affliction she thus writes:— ^' 'Tis pity that prosperity should do us hurt, for no afl Uction for the present seems joyous, but grievous; and if the heart had been duly humbled by constant mortification, ai\(d inured to the cross, these outward afflictions would not have been so hard to boar/'

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON.

Upon her recovevy from tbe small-pox she writes. -*•" I write to let yoo know that I am going from strength to strength through the divine goodness; yet reprieved, because not ready for heaven. Help me to praise Crod for sustaining and delivering mercy, aad also to pray that I might greatly profit by this Tisitation, that my God may not complain that yet I baTe not returned unto him. I cannot but acknowledge with thankfulness the interests I have in the love and prayers of good people here, though unworthy of it,"

At a time of public trouble, she writes:—'* It is a mercy there are not fears within, as well as fightings without; though, truly considered, public calamities were worse than personal, yet, commonly, personal do more affect;—^when the sword doth not depart from the house, as in David's case. It is an excellent thing to have a God to trust to, especially an interest in Him in whose hands our times are; not only events themselves, but the seasons of them. I find nothing more prejudicial to me than distrust, both in reference to the concerns of the sool, and of the body also. I hope to see you shortly, bat wives mast be hovsewwes, and sometimes shop-mvts, as I know who. I find it hard to turn into a closet Let not thy farm, nor my merchandize, be binderances to us in the way to heaven. The visiting of several sick and afflicted friends takes up a great part of our evening time now: we must not expect to be ourselves exempted from chastisement; the best we can expect is to have them from a Father— in measure and in mercy. There is no greater or better ground of hope than the truth and faithfulness of God, for that cannot fail; all the question is. Whether we can lay claim to the promises ? He is in a sad case that must be miserable if the word of God be true, and he is as happy that must be so if the God of truth be true. Who shall separate us from the love of God? The children of Israel, in their march towards Canaan, removed out of tlie wilderness of Paran: in the world we go out of one wilderness into another, but the Cmiaan is before us. I am now at Elim, where there are twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm-trees; led into green pastures and fed beside the still waters. The onlj trouble is my unprofitableness, barrenness, leanness, non-proficiency. It is easier to complain than to amend. I know you rejoice with us when we rejoice: that you may do soryou must know how it is with us;—^as yet, health and peace are continued; the nursery prospers, and the little ones; angels watch over us continually ; the tediousness of nursing we owe to sin; that which sweetens it is the hope that some of our children may glorify God in the world.''

And in another:—" The nurseries continue to prosper, thanks be to Him who comforteth us as one whom his mother comforteth. I am glad to hear jou have this breathing-time. Our heavenly Father is, we see, slow to afflict, but swift to show mercy; long in forbearing, not long in contending. If it be that he is preparing to strike, we should prepare to be stricken: what! shall we receive good, and not evil ? Faith and patience are the two great bearing graces which are necessary in a time of peril. Base distrust is a sin that doth most easily beset me, either of God's power or will; neither of which can easily be questioned; for is any thing too hard for God ?— or is his meroy clean gne? No, no; O pray for more faith I I cannot but pity your frequent sabbaths spent at home, while we have the manna at our tent-door; but remember that the careful Father, if there be no school near, will teach his child at home, rather than he should not learn; so will the blessed Spirit, the great Instructor, do the work himself, teaching his people to profit; and, if he doth it, it will be well done; for assuredly, if he be not filling the ordinances, they are but empty breasts; if he pass by and do not speak, thero is no meeting. O that we had more of God! not moro than God, but more of him. Those same things you beg for yourself, beg for me, especially for faith. I have reason to believe (as Mr. Baxter said to his friends) that God will sooner hear your prayers than mine. In his funeral sermon, with the account of his death, his humility and self-denial appear admirable, and make me think of that Scripture, If ike righteous scarcely he saved where shall the «n-yodly and sinner appear ? If he did nothing to boast of, sure I have a great deal to mourn over."

To her sister in the country, with common tidings and business, she intermixeth very pertinently such lines as these:—" We need sometimes to be in heaviness, we must look for it: herein is the heart deceitful,—^that we think we trust in God; but when creatures fail, we find by our failing, that we trusted in them: you will not want spiritual supplies while God is all-sufficient."

To render good for good is no more than the publicans do; yet, alas! how much evil do we render for good to him that is good, and doth good! " " Pray, pray that we may be found of God in peace, without spot, and blameless. The time is short, and therefore every opportunity ought to be taken hold of for improving relations, both near and far off, that that great talent of society may not be buried in a napkin."

I have less thinking time here than you have in the country. A solitary life I mightily prized for merly, but the great and wise God did not see it good for me: my temper inclined me to it, but now I can envy the outward condition of none."

" You would not envy my bare enjoyment of gospel privileges if you knew how unprofitable I am under them; it is easier to spend a deal of time in the external performance of holy duties in the old road, than to improve a little time seriously and profitably

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON. therein. If yon knew my sad declinings, especially my great remissness in keeping my heart, you would pity me rather than flatter me. Pride is a weed that, in the soil of my heart, needs no watering."

Poor sister Henry, upon the death of the child, is sitting alone and keeping silence. The consideration of her giving it up to God in baptism, when she was asked by my father whether she could freely do it, hath had influence upon her submission. Let us in a day of prosperity be joyful, and think of a day of adversity."

'< Is it any woader that dying creatures die?"

In this vale of tears we are full of complaints. It is a bad sign that former afflictions have not done their work, in that he is further testifying against me by the sickness of the children; when the staiT and the rod will not do, the cart-wheel and the thrashing instrument are used by him, who is won-derfulin counsel and excellent in working ^ Isa. xxviii. 27—^29. I need not request your prayers, mostly for divine teachings, that they may accompany divine chastenings. They are bitter things when an interest in covenant love is not clear, but He knows the way that I take: when he hath tried me I shall come forth as gold. Let not the Almighty put me in the furnace and leave me there."

At another time:—'' It is a mercy to have such comfortable homes as we have; such relations, so much health. O, how short do we come of the law of thankfulness; every one of God's mercies, even the least, calls for more praise and thanks than we return for them in general: to reflect upon my own unthankfulness may make me humble. I desire your prayers, as you have mine, for mercy and grace. This is a vain world we live in; time slips while I hold my hand; how busy, how diligent should we be; all will be little enough when we come to die! I heartily sympathize with jou in the tediousness of your nursery, but take heed of complaining as Re-bekah;—* If it be so, why am I thus V —why is this child of promise so troublesome ? It comforts me as to nursing inconveniences, that bringing up of children, lodging strangers, and washing the saints' feet, are put together as good works, 1 Tim. v. 10. Let not evil tidings remove your fixed heart; though when we looked for peace, behold trouble, did not we agree for this—if need be, for a season to be willing to be in heaviness? Our sympathizing with each other is a little help, but, alas! miserable comforters are we. I have sometimes been dejected in remembrance of former zeal, forwardness, and fervency in the good way, from which I fear I have declined; upon which, once calling to mind that Scripture did comfert, (Eccl. vii. 10.) Sag not thou that the former dags were better than these, O, that blessed book of God hath all in it I want! let us study it more. What calamities hath sin brought upon us, and yet itself we should count a thousand times worse. It is easy to reckon up afflictions, bat my sins and God's mercies are numberless, one of which is the interest we have in the pity and prayers of our dear friends. I may hope that all these things are performed for me, and may gather hence, that seeing the threatening part of the covenant is feelingly made good in afflictions, the promising part (Ps. Ixxxix. 30, &c.) will also: the same troth is engaged for both, I rejoice to hear of your children's recovery: are we like the one leper, who returned to give thanks, or like the nine ? Times of trial are times of gaining experience, for patience works experience. We usually pray often for the preventing the evils we fear, but seldom thanking serves; sure the mercy, the God of the merer, deserves as many praises as prayers. I find worldly cares rightly compared to thorns, but one thing is needful. My little girl is learning to walk, and represents the weakness of the heart after it falls into sin. It fears, faints, and flags. The heart's deceitfulness is desperate: when in prosperity, I have thought if I were in affliction I should be very humble and contrite under God's hand; when in affliction,—O, if I wgre delivered I should and would be very thankful and obedient! but it is neither so nor so; never may it be trusted in again."

Upon the death of her little one, at nine days old, November, 1095, she thus writes:— '* It is easier to answer you to your satisfaction, than to answer the call of divine Providence, which sounds louder and louder; it requires more time than I now have to tell you my need of chastisements, and God's wisdom and goodness in choosing this rod to do it with. My fruit towards him hath been untimely; the breasts of the promises have run waste; I have not drawn from them and been satisfied. It brings to my remembrance, as my own sin, so your affliction ;—from the same hand, of the same kind, with the same design of good to us. O, that I could improve my present retirement in considering what the Lord my God requires of me! We should learn this by all our disappointments, not to boast of to-morrow, for we know not what a day may bring forth. It is no hard usage that I should be diminished whilst others arc increased; for do not all things come alike to all 7 Nay, as many as our heavenly Father ioveth he rebukes and chastens, and though it be a mighty hand, and therefore good reason why I .should humble myself under it, yet it is the hand of a Father, which, whilst it is on to afflict, is under to support; and death itself shall not separate us from the love which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever. When I have been a few days from home, I begin to think myself a wanderer from my place, as a bird that wanders from her nest. I wish I do not settle on the lees, being so much a stranger to that sojourning state which Abraham was

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON:

965 in in the land of promise. We arc changing oar servants; all changes are troablcsomc; this world, therefore, is a troublesome world, because so full of changes: safiicicnt to every day is the evil thereof." A letter which she wrote to one of whom she heard something scandalous, taking care it should not be known from whom it came,may be inserted here.

It

Mr.

To ease myself, and, if it might be, to do Tou good, is my design in writing this. I having joined with you in gospel ordinances, cannot hear of jour fall without fear and trembling. Very loth I was to belieye it; speak of it I may not, * tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon;' bat first to yourself, whom I cannot expect to inform of that which you know not, but remind you of that yoa do know, that the prevailing love of God in the heart will no way consist with the love and liking of any sin. Whoever they be that name the name of Christ and do not depart from iniquity, I am sure their profession will carry them but a little way, at farthest but to heaven's gates: dissembled piety is double iniquity, and shall receive greater damna-ttoD. I do wonder how, and with what face, any one can appear before God, among his people, in solemn ordinances, that is yet resolved to go on in sin. Consider, yon may deceive us that join with joQ, but not him that searcheth the heart, and knows what is in man. Is your spot the spot of God's children ? It is true David fell foully, and I fear some have encouraged themselves in sin by his example; but let them consider it was once, in an hour of temptation, and it cost him dear. He came home by weeping cross, and I believe he would not for his kingdom have repeated the sin : after which he had scarce a good day. Wherefore is his sad fall recorded, but that all people may take heed of entering into temptation, and watch and pray that they may not ? Is it a light matter that religion is so much reflected on ? By your means the blessed name of Jesus Christ suffers. People say. Yea, they are all alike; whereas, God knows, as you have opened the mouth of the wicked, you have saddened the hearts of the godly, who mourn in secret for your miscarriages. May I advise you, Bay, doth not the word of God command you, to remember whence you are fallen, and to repent; and let your repentance be phblic, as your fall bath been. There is yet hope if you return, but none if you goon: there is a fountain opened for poor sinners, to wash from sin and from uocleanness, but then you must look up to him whom you have pierced, and mourn, I know not what frame you are in, but God knows. This comes from the true love I bear to your soul, and the interest of religion. which greatly suffers: of Tences do come, and will come, but woe to them by whom they come! Can there be baser ingratitude than to make him suffer 6jf us who suffered so much for us ? Do you thus requite the Lord ? Dare any come to the table of the Lord for a cloak to vile practices ? O profound madness! Is the holy Jesus a pattern of sin ? Is Christianity a bare name ? No, I will never believe it! What shall I say ? Return unto the Lord, for you have fallen into iniquity: take with you these words, and say, Take away all iniquity Hosea xiv. 2. I shall cease speaking to you, but not praying for you, who am " Your soul's friend."

When sickness had long been in the family (and breach upon breach made) of a near neighbour and rolation, she thus writes:—** The hand of God is going out against us; his providence shows his controversy to be great and long, and something more than ordinary. Judgments begin with us, the distemper spreads, and where it may end we know not; the dregs of the cup may yet be reserved for ourselves : I cannot say but I have had fair warning, and yet I have not gdt above the fears of death, that king of terrors. It is a great attainment: I can think of nothing future with so much certainty as dying; that great work, once to die/'

When her children had the small-pox she writes: —'* They and we are in good hands; it is a great merey we are not singled out for some uncommon and extraordinary judgement, but visited with the same that many are tried with. I hope that you will entreat for us that this affliction may not be lost''

Writing the news of one who died suddenly, she added,—'* What need have we to be ready to die at very short warning! Desire sister Radford, though she be abroad from her family, yet being there where she is turful, not to be too thoughtful of home, as I myself have sometimes been, when I found afterwards that I was not so much missed, as through my pride, and minding my own things, I thought I was."

After the death of her sister Radford she thus wrote to her sister Savage:—" The good tidings we have had of your safe delivery, (which was the next day after her sister Radford's death,) and that God was to you a present help, and both root and branch are spared, mixeth our song of judgment with mercy, and God hath set the one over against the other. We have been continued together many years, and after the crown fell from our head,* God let us alone another year also, but now the knot is broken. O for a sense of divine displeasure in this dispensation, and wisdom to spell out the meaning thereof! for all this his anger is not turned away, hut

• An allusion to her father's death.

MEMOIBS OF MRS. HULTON. his hand i$ stretched out still. Dear sister Tylston* is very weak. We want our Aaron, the priest of the family, who would have stood between the living and the dead, that the plagae might be stayed. God is angry, and yet I am not humbled as I should be under the mighty hand of God ; and a mighty hand indeed it is. O, pray for me that I may be more so! I find there is no putting off the great work of closing with Christ till sickness and death come, for that is a very unfit time. And when it is done I see it is not easy then to have the comfort of it."

And in another:— ** This is a loud-speaking controversy, and where it will end God only knows; but he is no less wise and good than ever he was, however it is. This shall afterwards jrield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Pray, pray hold up the hands and the heart, and you may do more than I."

And a little after:—*' That you may know the better how to direct your prayers and praises, this eomes to acquaint you that we are not consumed, and it is of the Lord's mercies it is so. The Lord will perfect that which concerns us; and what is that but our eternal happiness mostly ? if that be sure, all is well. We have our infirmities, and is this our rest? If concerning this life only we had had hope, it had not been much worth.''

When she had not occasion given her by providences to write such lines as these to her friends and relations, then she would fill her letters (and abundance of them are so filled) with the heads of sermons she had heard last, giving a concise account of the substance of them, and especially what in them did most affect her, and do her good. This practice would never leave us unfurnished with matter for pious and profitable letters, and might help very much to spread the savour of the knowledge of Christ

A CATALOGUE OF SINS FOR HELP IN THE CONFESSION OF SIN.

Who can andentand his erroiBr

Original corruption; actual transgressions; sins of ignorance ; sins against knowledge; sins in infancy, childhood, youth, and riper age; sins in the single state; sins in the married state; sins in un-regeneracy; backslidings; sins against God, my neighbour, my own soul.. More particularly, Ignorance of God, aggravated by the enjoyment of the means of knowledge; atheism, questioning his being or providence; hard thoughts of God, forgetful ness of him ; sins against the first commandment, which requires to know, love, and believe in God, to fear him, and trust in him; giving that glory to any other which is due to him alone, in re-

Catharine, the wife of John TyUton, M. D. ference to God's worship, natural or revealed; ncg* lect of prayer and praise; negligences in them; lothness to be beholden to God for any thing; ascribing the glory of deliverances to somewhat else, not to God.

Drowsiness; vain thoughts in prayer; sins in reference to God's Word; not hearing or readiof itvrith attention, reverence, seriousness, but slightly and cursorily. Sabbath sins; want of preparat Son for it; slothfulness on that day; omission of sabbath duties; doing my own works; vain thoughts: weariness of the sabbath. Sacrament sins; baptismal covenant oft renewed, but forgotten, not improved. Covenants against particular sins, to particular duties broken, especially as to the spending of some time daily in converse with God« by meditation ; neglect of that great duty, both solemn and occasional, and of daily self-examination; backslidings as to this from wonted care. Slovenly performance of closet work; taking the name of God in vain ; spiritual pride and ostentation in religious duties; pride in apparel, in words, in thoughts, self-conceit, self-love; flesh-pleasing, gratifying inordinate appetites, the body fed, the soul starred; excess in food, sleep, recreations; Crod is not in all my thoughts, lying down and rising up; my aims every morning not actually set right at God's gloiy: the great gospel laws of repentance and faith broken; time, precious time, mlspent; time of youth not improved ; love of ease and pleasure; disobedience to governors; despising others better than myself; doing that which was good to be seen of men; do relation filled up with doty; many that I mit have done good to dead and gone; others that I might have got good by; the opportunity past, sermons lost; reproofs lost and forgotten; anger and bitterness; unchaste thoughts or affections; abase of lawful things; loving, and overloving; doing any wrong to any person, whether knowingly or ig-norantly; unoharitableness; giving grudgingly; not devising liberal things; lying through heedlessness; impatience of reproof; slandering, or reporting of slanders ; speaking evil of others; heariog evil spoken with delight; discontent; covetousness; love of this present world, appearing in worldly thoughts; many, constant, welcome; envying, and inordinate affections; neglect of reproving and watching overothers; sinful bash fulness; little grief for others' sins; sin sits light; love of Christ little thought of; signal mercies ill-requited for; afflictions not improved ; brought low, raised up ag:aiD, yet not amended; no attainments made in grace answerable to the means I enjoy; great carnality; oppositions to the Spirit's motions of late and heretofore ; prevailing dejections and despondencies of spirit. God be merciful to me a sinner.

MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON:

967

HEADS OF MERCIES FOR HELP IN THANKS

GIVING.

Common Mercies.

A BEING, and that rational; mercies of my conception, birth, nursing, infancy, rational faculties, natural understanding, limbs and senses, preser-yation in the cradle, at the breast, sustenance, clothes, food, not only for necessity, but for delight; parents continued; other relations provided to take up before they forsook; mercies at school; a capacity to learn, a memory able to retain truths; continuance almost twenty-one years in the world; divine patience exercised ; scarce a day's sickness in all this time, as I remember; daily bread; yarieties; dridk hath oot been tears. Much comfort in the single estate, in the married estate; suitableness in relations; extraordinary deliverance when in the valley of the shadow of death, July 28, 1689.

Less common Mercies,

Godly education ; daily instructions; special means for getting of knowledge; wise and seasonable reproofs; holy ordinances duly administered ; adihitted to the Lord's supper about fifteen years old; the example of godly parents; line upon line; Sabbath; some measure of knowledge.

Special Mercies,

Election from eternity; free, effectual calling betimes in youth; strivings of the Spirit; checks of conscience; admonitions; quickenings from the Word; streng vouchsafed to perform duties; victory over temptations; comfort in sorrow; preventing mercies; taught to pray; answers to prayers for relations in working good for them.

Family Mercies.

The house preserved from fire when begun very near, June, 1090; the family begun to be built up; children preserved from the perils of infancy. Two of my near relations' children taken off quickly by ^th; mine, of the same age, spared. March 27, 16^.^0ne child of a dear friend burnt to death; another neighbour's child drowned lately, yet mine preserved; one of the children preserved from a dangerous fall down a pair of stairs into the street; the recovery of both of them from the small-pox. May, 1695. January, 169&-6.~Both recovered from a malignant fever when they had been given up; at the same time two servants brought low by it, yet iised up. Ourselves preserved from the same distemper when two dear relations, mother and daughter, fell by it: wonder of mercy not to be forgotten.

National mercies.

Great plenty; no famine; deliverance from the French fleet at sea, 1692, and victory over them, the wind turning for us; London delivered from the earthquake the same year when some kingdons have been overturned and ruined by them.

SOME ACCOUNT OF HER LAST SICKNESS.

She was at public ordinances both morning and evening on the Lord's day, August 29: she had been with her relations, who were ill the day before, and that day also. Though the distemper had seized her a day before, yet she kept it to herself, as loth to be taken off by it from her work and duty. But that night it appeared that she was under the violent assault of a high fever, the alarm of which she received with her usual evenness and composure of spirit; and though she seemed from her first arrest to have received the sentence of death within herself, yet she was not at all disturbed at it, but spake of her circumstances with much cheerfulness. She was exceedingly afflicted with pain in her head, which quite deprived her of rest, and sleep departed from her eyes.

On Monday she sat up most of the day, spoke of her spiritual state with great humility and self-diffidence, repenting of sin, yet rejoicing in Christ Jesus: she said she was afraid of saying too much of her hope and comfort, because the heart is deceitful.

AP that week she continued worse, (notwithstanding all means used,) but kept in a very patient, submissive, heavenly frame. When asked how she did, she answered, *' Better than I deserve." Often said, ** I know whom I have trusted." She desired to have the beginning of Isaiah xliii. read and opened to her; that Scripture which Mr. Bilney the martyr supported himself with,— When thou passest through the waters I will he with thee. She desired pardon for her omissions in the duty of her relations. The following sentences she uttered: ** I am not weary of living, but I am weary of sinning : I would live as Christ lives, and where Christ lives, and that I am sure will be heaven,"

There are many passages in the Psalms not so proper for us but at such a time as this; as that, iXfy flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever,"

Let none think the worse of religion, nor of our family worship, for the afflictions that are in our families, nor have a hard thought of God, for however it be, yet God is good,"

When her pain and extremity were great, she said, " I know the great God can do me no wrong: who would desire to go so many steps back which MEMOIRS OF MRS. HULTON. must some time or other be gone over ngain, when now I have but one stile more and I shall be at home ?"

'' I have hope in my death, for Christ hath said. Because I live, ye shall live also.'*

*' I have distrusted God, and am ashamed of it, for God is truth."

" Now for a promise."

'* I hope this is no surprise."

" Tou are miserable comforters, but Jesus Christ is my abiding portion."

I shall now be gathered to my people, and I have loved those that are godly, both poor and rich.".

'' Blessed be God for the Scriptures now."

Towards Saturday night she grew delirious; yet even then it was evident her heart was upon nothing 80 much as God, and the things of her soul; speaking often with a smiling cheerful countenance of psalms of praise and hymns of joy.

While she was under this disturbance she often recollected herself with this word,—" Here is nothing but Tabu and Bohu, (referring to Genesis i. 2.) confusion and emptiness, but it will not be so long."

After eight days' conflict with her distemper, on Monday, September 6,1697, between the hours of seven and eight in the morning, she fell asleep in the Lord.

She was buried September 8, in St. Bridget's church, attended to the grave with abundance of true mourners, with whom her memory is and will be very precious.

Mr. Samuel Lawrence* preached her funeral sermon that evening at her brother's meeting-place, on Job vii. 16. / would not live always*

See an account of this excellent divine in this volume.

A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF

DOCTOR JOHN TYLSTON.

He was bom at Whitchurch in Shropshire, March 15th, 1663-4. His father was Mr. John Tylston, of Fair Oak in Staffordshire, a very pious man, and of exemplary conyersation, especially for a holy contempt of the world, and the things of it, which he dealt in with a manifest indifferency. I would not mention so trifling a thing as the coat of arms of his family, but that the Doctor sometimes observed with pleasure, that it was the same with that which archbishop Tiliotson gave, for whom he had so great a veneration. His mother was Mrs. Hannah Weld, of Rash ton in Cheshire, who was likewise a very serious, humble Christian. Under his religious parents he was carefully brought up in the fear of God, and disco Yered early inclinations both to piety and learning. His father died, March 13th, 1683-4» liis mother, April, 1688. He often blessed God for his religious parents, and spoke of them with much respect. His father did not design him for a scholar, being bis eldest son; nor did he encourage bis inclinations to learning, till he saw him so strongly addicted to it, that to divert him to any thing else, would have been to put a force and hardship upon him, too great for such a kind father to put upon so sood a child. He entered upon learning at Whit-charch school, afterward made considerable pro-pess in it at Newcastle, and for some time at Salop; bat Mr. Edwards, master at Newport school, put the last hand to his school learning, and gave it some very happy strokes. To speak of his industry at school, and great application, is needless, since that is supposed in such as afterwards become eminent, for the time lost at school is seldom recovered; nor are those likely to make a good day's journey that let slip the morning.

After he left Newport school, he spent some time with two or three young men in the family, and under the tnitioDy of the Rev. Mr. Maiden, at Alkington near Whitchurch, till it pleased God to take their master from their head, by death. May 21st, 1681. Here he attained to such perfection in the Greek and Hebrew, as made both those languages very familiar to him; and the half year he spent in them with Mr. Maiden (for he had gone in them as far as boys ordinarily do in schools) he often reflected upon with satisfaction. The Hebrew language, though not serviceable to him in his profession, yet he carefully retained, by using his Hebrew Bible in his attendance on the public reading and expounding of the Scriptures.

In his earnest pursuit after learning, his affections and attendances to the exercises of piety were not less vigorous. He learnt betimes to write the sermons he heard in short-hand, and many of them he took pains to write at large, for the benefit of his friends. Soon after the death of Mr. Maiden, by the advice of his near kinsman, and very dear friend, Mr. John Benion, Vicar of Malmsbury, he went to Oxford, and was admitted in Trinity College: his tutor was the learned Mr. Thomas Sykcs, now Dr. Sykes, the Rev. Margaret's Professor of Divinity in that University. He was soon taken notice of and countenanced by the Rev. Dr. Bathurst, President of that college, who directed him in his studies. Here he so well approved himself for diligence and sobriety, that his worthy tutor, many years after, thus expresseth himself concerning him; '* that ho never had more reason to be pleased with the share he had in any man's education, than in his.'' When he was about Bachelor's standing, though he had very much applied himself to the study of divinity and the Scriptures, yet his inclinations led him to the study of physic, which he had laid a good foundation for, by his improvements in Natural Philosophy, nam vln definit phyneus iH incipit nudieust Pursuant to this resolve, after he had for some time

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