The Weavers Pocket-Book, Title page – Dedication
THE Weavers POCKET-BOOK: OR, Weaving Spiritualized.
In a Diſcourſe, wherein Men employed in that Occupation, are inſtructed how to raiſe Heavenly Meditations, from the ſeveral parts of their Work.
To which alſo are added ſome few Moral and Spiritual Obſervations, relating both to that and other Trades.
By J. C. D. D.
Promiſſio Sanctificat omnia, et reddit pretioſa in conſpectu Dei; neque quicquam tam minutum fieri poteſt, in vocatione Divinitas ordinata, quin Deo placeat. Luther. T. 4. in Gen. in c. 46.
Job. 7.6. My days are ſwifter than a Weavers Shuttle.
Iſa. 38.12. I have cut off like a Weaver my Life.
Printed in the Year, 1695.
To his Honoured Friends, Bernard Church Eſq; and John Richars Gentleman, Aldermen of the City of Norwich.
Worthy and much Honoured Friends,
THE deſign of the following ſheets will be ſo obvious to every Eye upon the reading of them, that many words to expound it to you will be perfectly ſuperflous; it will eaſily be its own interpreter both to you & others beſides: what is needful upon that Subject I ſhall more fully diſcourſe in my Epiſtle unto the Reader. My buſineſs to you is, but to give you an account of my Entituling you unto it. For which it were enough to ſay. That God hath ſo bleſſed you both in that occupation which I make the Theme of the following diſcourſes, as that it hath brought you in not only a Livelihood, but ſuch an Overplus as hath capacitated you not only to ſerve your Generation, in the Offices relating to and the principal Conduct of that Trade, but in other great Employments: The one of you hath not only ſerved the City, wherein you are, in the Offices of Sheriff and Alderman (that you both have done) but alſo in the Office of Mayor (and that the other too hath not don… the ſame is only from his own Reluctancy) and alſo repreſented this famous City in the Highest Court of parliament. But alſo, becauſe you are great Examples of that Piety, Sobriety, and Goodneſs of Temper, to which (as you will find I have in the following ſheets obſerved) this courſe of Life in mens youth doth much tutour, and dispoſe them, and in being, or having been the heads and conductors of all that are buſied in that Occupation, you have Entitutled your ſelves to all thoſe Diſcourſes which may tend to the Moral or Spiriual Improvements of it. You will by the following diſcourſes ſee, you have no reaſon to reflect with any bluſhing, upon the way in which you were in your youth trained up; you have eminently ſerved your Generation before you fall aſleep. The employment of your Lives hath not been a making Silverſhrines for Diana; it hath not been a ſervice to the Luxury, Pride and Wantoneſs of the Generation in which you lived; it hath not been an Apocryphal' Employment, it hath been the Employment of a good Dorcas, only you made the Stuffe which poſſibly other pious and devout Souls made up. It hath been an Employment that hath had a good end and deſign, upon which in the morning you could warantably go, and pray to God for a Bleſſing and in the evening ſay, Proſper thou the work of our hand upon us, Lord Proſper thou our handy-work. An Employment which hath kept you at home watching over your Families, and which hath brought you in a Livelihood, and given you a Station in the world, if beneath Envy, yet above Pity. What hath enabled you to Employ the poor, to give portions to ſix and alſo to ſeven? you may look back without a regret and rejoyce in the fruit of your Labours; ſeeing many a ſober Tradesman that you have bred, many a poor perſon that you have clothed. Your days (my worthy and honoured Friends) are in a great meaſure paſt, and when you look back upon them you will ſay they are paſt Swifter than your Shuttles; your week is almoſt at an end, & and you who have had many a piece of Stuff at the end of the week brought home to you, muſt in a few weeks, or months, or years; be gathered to your Fathers & be no more. Your works will follow you and your ſelves muſt carry home to the great Lord of Heaven & earth the Web which you have Weaved. May it pleaſe the Lord to bleſs theſe Diſcourſes to you both, that they may but any way conduce either to augment your comfort in a reflection upon the work which you have already done: or help you to throw your Shuttles well as to the remnant which you have yet to do; that when you cary all home you may hear that bleſſed voice, Well done good and faithful ſervant, thou haſt been faithful in a little, I will make thee a ruler over much; enter thou into thy maſters joy: which is and ſhall be the prayer of him, who is,
Your moſt faithful and affectionat Friend and Servant in the Work of the Goſpel, J. C.