To His Loving Friends, the Aldermen, the Esquires, and the Rest of the Inhabitants of the Parish of Stephens Walbrook in the City of London

Honoured, and Beloved,

My heart's desire for you is, that you may be saved. It has been a long time in my thoughts after the many signal demonstrations of your love to me, to show my gratefulness in a way of retaliation; Such as I have, give I you I do here Dedicate this Manual to you, as a standing Testimonial of that real respect, and zealous affection which I bear towards you. The subject of it you will find to be a Christian's delight and meditation in God's Law. I have purposely for your sakes laid down several heads, or particulars for your meditations to dilate and run upon, as the attributes, the promises, the love of Christ, etcetera. If he who by often looking on a Ring with a death's head, at last grew sober, who knows but by often meditating on these things your hearts may be brought into a more serious and heavenly frame? Meditation is a holy kind of usury, it is putting out Sermons to use, which brings in no small profit at the year's end. Meditation is a duty which carries meat in the mouth of it; My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, while I meditate on Thee, Psalm 63:4, 5. There is little written (so far as I know) upon this subject. Most Discourses of this nature digress into ejaculations. I have with the help of God cut out my way through the rock, not finding any path that others had gone in before me; so that I have not offered that to you which cost me nothing; for the style of it, it is plain; but truth, when it is in the plainest dress, is most comely. The star shines brightest in its native lustre. Divinity has so much intrinsical beauty, that it needs no art of wit or fancy to set it off. Who goes to embroider a pearl? or paint over gold? this would but debase and eclipse it; It is a sign of a wanton Christian to look most at the fringing and garnishing of a Truth. I wish it be not the sin of many in this City, they like the dressing, but loath the food. The blue flowers which grow among the corn, make a fine show, and are pleasing to the eye, yet are prejudicial to the Harvest. Rhetorical flourishes may please the fancies of men, but I much question whether they will not lessen Christ's spiritual harvest at the end of the world. When men preach rather words than matter; they catch people's ears, not their souls; they do but court, not convert. If the patient's wound bleeds, nay rankles, it is better for him to have a deep incision made in the flesh, than to bind it about with silk, or dress it with aromatic ointments. True it is, Ministers ought to clothe the truths they preach in decent expressions to preserve them from contempt; (though they must come in plainness of speech, not in rudeness of speech.) But, let them take heed, lest with their affected new-coined phrases, (unsuitable to that gravity the Apostle speaks of) they adulterate and corrupt the simplicity of the Word, like some kind of sauces and compounds which take away the natural taste, and savor of the meat. As for you (my friends) I hope the Lord has given, (at least some of you) a spiritual palate to relish and thirst after, [illegible], the sincere milk of the Word, 1 Peter 2:2. A savory heart is for wholesome doctrine: How glad should I be (dear friends) if I might either by preaching, or writing become savingly instrumental for your good, and before I die, might help to make up a happy match between Christ and you: I bless God that I see some of you walking in the truth; when so many in the world are marching apace towards hell. But O that I might see an increase of holiness among you, that more converts might be brought in, and as so many jewels make the Crown of Christ shine the brighter; do not hearken to the Siren songs of the world; the sins you commit in haste, you will repent at leisure; sugared poisons go down pleasantly, but afterwards they wring and torment the bowels. Let me earnestly beseech you to put a bill of divorce into the hand of your sins; let not Error gangrene, lust burn, malice boil, pride swell, intemperance overflow, covetousness root in any of your souls. Purge out the old leaven; and as ever you expect to go to the new Jerusalem, when you die, become new creatures while you live; Rest not in baptismal privileges: all are not Israel which are of Israel; what is a man the better to have Christ's Name upon him, and Satan's image? What is he advantaged to have the Oracles of God, and want the Spirit of God? Think not that an empty profession will save; millions will be sent to hell in Christ's livery, Matthew 8:12. Oh labor to know the grace of God in truth. The Lord has been at much cost and charges with you to bring you near to himself; let not God be a loser by you. Pindar says, it was an opinion of the people in ancient times, that Jupiter rained down gold upon the City of Rhodes: Give me leave to apply it to you, God has rained down golden showers upon you. What mercies has he enriched you with? what talents has he entrusted you with? your estate is a talent, your health (in these sickly times especially) is a talent, your Sanctuary-blessings are talents, every motion of the Spirit, every opportunity for heaven is a talent, and nothing more sure than that you will be called to an account shortly; now if you have let your talents lie rusting, and done no good with them, the hiding your talents will not hide your sin, expect a heavy doom. Think not these things impertinencies. Be not so evil, as to be too good to be advised. I confess myself with Ignatius, the least of all that labor in God's vineyard, but though I am with you in weakness, yet as the Apostle says, in much trembling. I tremble to think how sad it will be, if any of you shall perish in these days of the Gospel, though you have been placed under a trumpet, less shrill and powerful. It shall be my prayer for you all, that you may be fruit-bearing trees, that when the great Vinedresser shall remove you hence by death, he may transplant you into the celestial Paradise.

Be pleased to accept of these few notes which (some years since) you did seem to hear with much affection: I shall only desire two things of you, that you would thoroughly peruse them, and then copy them out in your daily practice. Get up into your Tower of Meditation, and look often with Moses upon him, who is invisible. But I will not hold you any longer; I remember Saint Paul in the close of his Epistle, craves the Thessalonians prayers, and so shall I end my Epistle begging a contribution of your prayers for me, that the Lord would give me the strength of heaven to do the work of heaven; that he would help me to take heed to myself and my doctrine, that he would make me, not only faithful, but successful in my Ministry among you: that so, when the chief Shepherd shall appear, I may receive a Crown of glory which fades not away: I shall not further enlarge, unless in my affections towards you.

Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, which shall be the earnest prayer of him who is,

Your friend, and servant for Jesus' sake THOMAS WATSON.