| | heaven, and God hath remembered her wickedness. Her plagues shall come in one day, yea, and that suddenly, death, and sorrow, and hunger; and she shall be brent with fire; for strong is the Lord God which shall judge her." Insomuch that with great joy and triumph the elect and chosen people of God shall cry out, and say, "Alleluia: Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, be ascribed to the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and he hath avenged the blood of his servants of her hand. Alleluia." | Rev. xix. | Therefore, my dear and sweet child, as thou hast begun to taste of the most wholesome, sweet, and comfortable waters of God thy Saviour, unto my great joy and unto the singular consolation of thine own soul, yea, and unto the wonderful hope of all thy dear friends and hearty well-willers; even so go forth unto the end, utterly rejecting and casting away those vile and stinking puddles, "which are able to hold no water," yea, which rather poison than refresh the thirsty soul. Stir up this grace that God hath given thee, and by no means seem to receive it in vain. Go thou oft unto the throne of God's majesty with most humble supplications, and entirely beseech him to increase thee in the fruits of his holy Spirit, to lighten thy senses, to teach thee the truth of his holy word, to conduct thee in all thy doings, and, in fine, to confirm and finish that same perfectly in thee, which he most graciously hath begun in thee; that whatsoever thou thinkest, breathest, speakest, or doest, may turn unto the glory of his most blessed name, and unto the profit of his holy con- gregation. | Jer. ii. 2 Cor. vi. | Son. I confess, most loving father, that of myself I have no good thing, neither am I able any thing to do that may be pleasant in the sight of God, which of myself am not able so much as to think a good thought (all "our ability is of God," which "worketh in us both to will well and to do well"): therefore, according to your good advertisement, I will to the uttermost of my power endeavour myself to have God my gracious Lord, both by prayer and godly life, that he may go forth daily more and more to bless me with his benefits, and to make me a vessel of mercy and an inheritor of his glorious kingdom, through Jesus Christ, his only-begotten and dearly- beloved Son, and mine alone Saviour. | John xv. Rom. vii. 2 Cor. iii. Phil. ii. | Father. I commend thy good and godly disposition. And I beseech God to confirm thee in his truth unto the end. Son. Amen. Father. Come, my dear child, let us go and see what thy mother doth. "The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit." And the gram of God be with us all, both now and ever. Son. Lord, let it so come to pass, for thy name's sake, that we never fall from thy truth, but stedfastly abide in the same unto the end. Father. Amen. | 2 Tim. iv. | Give the glory go God alone. -410- | |