MADAM,
I have presumed upon your Ladyship, humbly to present you with these few Meditations. As it is a rich mercy to have a spiritual Jointure, so it cannot but be a comfort to know what it is. 'Tis a joy to the young heir to have a view of his estate; that is the work of this Treatise, to set before you the land of promise. While we are here in the combat, we had need look to the Crown to make us fight the more valiantly. Moses had an eye at the recompense of reward, and that did animate him against sufferings; indeed, our blessed Savior himself looked at the joy set before him. Madam, could we live in the thoughts of these great things to come, what sublime, what sweet lives should we lead! Surely, if there be any [reconstructed: sadness] gathers in our spirits, if any despondency, it comes in at this leak of unbelief. Unbelief is a bad neighbor, it is always raising either jealousies of God, as if he would not be as good as his Word; Unbelief with Sarah, laughs at the promise: or scruples in the heart, whether all these promises belong to us. The Devil shot three fiery darts into the virgin-castle of Eve's heart, whereof the first was the most deadly, Yea, has God said? He would induce this belief in her, that God had not spoken Truth: and when he had once wrought her to distrust, then she took of the tree, &c. All [reconstructed: the] train of temptation that Satan [reconstructed: lays], is to blow up the fort of our Faith. We had need maintain this grace, it is Faith must maintain us. While the Pilot keeps his ship, his ship keeps him. Right Honorable, blessed be the riches of God's grace, who has set this heavenly plant in your heart, and has kept you in the faith, insomuch that all the shakings of the times have but settled you the more; and I doubt not but he that has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. What an unparalleled mercy is it to be kept free in the time of infection? God has given your Ladyship a sound judgment, and a tender conscience, both which are jewels of great price. I may say of you, as it is said of Jehoshaphat, his heart was lifted up in the ways of the Lord (2 Chronicles 17:12). Yet I have observed, the more you have been lifted up in God, the more you have been cast down in yourself. It is excellent, when the higher we grow in knowledge, the lower we grow in humility. I speak it to the praise of free-grace, God has crowned your silver hairs with golden virtues, every one of which does shine as [reconstructed: those] precious stones, the Sardius, the Topaz, and the Diamond (Ezekiel 28:13). Holiness is a beautiful thing, it carries a majesty in the face of it; even those that oppose it, cannot but admire it. Grace differs little from glory; the one is the seed, the other the flower. Grace is glory militant, and glory is grace triumphant. Theodosius thought it a greater honor that he was a Christian, than the head of an empire. Your piety is a greater glory to you, than your parentage; it is more to be the daughter of faith than to descend from nobles, or to have the blood royal running in your veins. Madam, there is a time shortly coming, when neither birth, estate, or any worldly embellishments will do us good; you have laid in provision against that time, and gotten the new birth, when all other birth and nobility must lie in the dust. This is that which makes your name smell in God's Church, as the wine of Lebanon. Go on, Right Honorable, in those paths which have an immediate tendency to life and blessedness. We are like to meet with many rubs in the way before we get to Heaven: it is said of Israel, their soul was much discouraged because of the way. Had we more grace, we should have need enough to use it: expect we must fiery serpents; but, the righteous will hold on his way (Job 17:9). Is not every Christian an Ensign-bearer to carry Christ's colors? We must resolve to be good in good earnest. The almost Christian shall be almost saved. It is wise counsel our Savior gives, that we should count what religion will cost us (Luke 14:28). It will cost us reproach; this is a part of Christ's livery which we must wear. Think not that our innocency will privilege us from the reproaches and slanders of the world; Christ was the most innocent person upon earth, never did any unholy thought come into his mind, yet his innocency would not shield him from slander; he was called a friend of sinners. Let us not be discouraged; shall we cease from being Saints, because others will not cease from being Devils? Is it a wonder, when an army is in fight, to see the bullets fly abroad, and the fire-balls? When the seed of the serpent is fighting with the seed of the woman, is it strange to see the bullets of temptation fly, and the fire-balls of slander? But if our innocency will not keep us from being shot at, it will keep us from being hurt: for as no flattery can heal a bad conscience, so no slander can hurt a good. Again, religion will cost us persecution; this is a part of Christ's legacy which he has left us, in the world you shall have tribulation. Our ship would soon overturn, if it were not ballasted with some afflictions. A Christian is a compounded creature, he has some evil in him, therefore God afflicts; and he has some good in him, therefore the Devil afflicts: hence that of Cyprian, when a man begins to be religious, he must think of going into the winepress: and perhaps the blood of the grapes may be pressed out; but the meditation of things to come, should sweeten the trials present, and make us, that though we cannot live without them, yet to live above them. What if the times are worse, if they make us better? And if our burdens be heavy, seeing the way we are to go is but short! Madam, I will not hold you longer, I make bold to devote this Manual to your honor; I acknowledge how weak and unfeathered it is, therefore unfit to fly abroad into the world; but the importunity of some friends, and principally, the many favors received from your honor when I was in your noble Family, and which have been since continued, did press upon me (yet not without some reluctancy in my own thoughts) to commit it to the public. I hope the discourse may be seasonable, and doubt not but it will take some impression if it be as a nail fastened by the great Master of Assemblies. I have drawn but the [illegible], or dark lineaments of that blessed condition which the Saints shall arrive at: expect not to see it in its orient colors till God himself give you the Pattern, and you shall both see and enjoy it at once. The Lord preserve your Ladyship, and all those noble branches descended from you, which is the prayer of,
From my Study at Stephens Walbrook. Feb. 5. 1651. MADAM, your honor's most humble and faithful servant, THOMAS WATSON.
