receive their food at the Hand of God the beauty and lustre of the painted Lillies is from a Divine Art the poor silly Sparrow stands or falls according to the order of the increated Essence our ordinary Meat and Drink are from God whose glorious Arithmetick hath taken observation and an exact account of every hair long or short which grows upon the Believers Head Mat. 6.24 to 33. and 10.29 30. Though many of these meaner things may seem never so fortuâ—tous or contingent yet the disposal of them is from the Lord Prov. 16.33 God is every where present and all things are done by the influence of his Power so that the most minute things are by his steerage nothing runs at randome nor is the product of chance The Poet and many others thought that Providence was only engaged in the Magnalia of the world Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Jovis But we know that the meaâ—est creatures in all their actions drive on the ends of an Infinite Majesty who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in Working 8. The sound Believer by intuition and contemplation sees God in all things he 's the only man who does practically and to his comfort understand that old Verse Praesentem monstrat quaelibet verba Deum Something of God is writ on every grass Which careless walkers tread down as they pass He 's ready to give God the Title to every thing exceptâ—ng Sin for he knows that he who is the summum Bonum cannot be guilâ—y of that which is the summum malum He permits orders and determines the action as it is an action but he cannot possibly have any thing to do with the evil of sin or the depravity of the Action Now there is few that act lâ—ke the Believer to see the Hand of Providence in its common and smaller productions Though I am sure some among the Heathen Moralists did collect excellent Divinity from this ordinary Manuscript This was their Scripture their Theology The ordinary effects of Nature wrought more Admiration in them then the most of Christ's Miracles did among the Jews Many of them knew better how to conjoyn the Mystical Letters of the Creation then the heedlesse Professors of this Age who trample under foot the most obvious and most significant Hieroglyphicks without drawing one conclusion from them for Soul-advantage or the honour of God But 9. There are the more special and signal actings of this Providence when it does display it self in some or other singular things and this has the greatest observation bestow'd upon it The most illustrious Lamp of Heaven is as really in being when it is obscured by the darkest Cloud as it when it sendeth forth its radiant and cleaâ—est Beams yet only then the beholders eye gives it the most enlarg'd observance So it is in the matter of Actual Providence when it improves the meanest helps to great advantage when it makes second causes in their lowest Ebbe bear up and carry forward very weighty actions when it doth in a more hidden method draw streight Lines by crooked Rules and in a Cryptick way give sufficient support to humane Bodies under great distempers by very small suppâ—ies then its most taken notice of Hitherto we may refer the most if not all the seeming Miracles of these lattes Ages of the World Which have been â—ctions not done altogether beyond the power of Nature or in a total contradiction to natural causes but Nature mightily improved supported or success't by the holy skill and Art of sacred Providence and so they may deservedly be called wonders though they have not been advanced so high as to be undoubted Miracles Thus we are come to Martha Taylors case which was beyond controversie a more then ordinary discovery of the Care and Providence of God whence you may read the ground of my first thoughts That the Care and Providence of God hath not done with the world All that have seen her or heard her story have presently set the Crown upon the Head of Providence 10. I shall here close up this with a word of Apology for the length of this Consectary and an engagement to greater brevity in those that follow Some father every thing upon Providence others nothing or the next to nothing Some are ready to refuge themselves in it as if it were a proper Asylum for their Enormities others steal all away from it and offer it up at the Shrine of Fate the starry Influence or any thing before they will come to the Door of God As there is no need for us to look over or deny second causes especially in natural actions for this would be presumption and a tempting of God So there is no need of tying God to give always attendance to second causes in the ordinary method degree or way of managing them He is a most free wise and powerful Agent whatsoever he useth as was said before is not upon the account of his own weakness but upon the acount of his own will which is sacred and not to be disputed That I might something open these things was the aim of the antecedaneous Particulars as also to lay a fair foundation for several of the following ones and in the last place that I might demonstrate I had no design to derogate the glory of Heaven or to eclipse the Beauty of Providence for I am one that dare not disown my God and bow the Head to the Name of Nature which I had so often occasion to use in the first and second Parts I dare not put Nature up into the Throne with God as the smooth Poet seems to do speaking concerning the rude and formeless Chaos where the seeds of things seemed to the eye of sense to be jumbled up together in an undigested Lump or Embrio where he saith Metamorph. lib. 1. fab 1. Hanc Deus Melior litem Natura diremit For I know nature to be Gods servant and that it carries on his designs and is actuated by his Providence this is it which directeth the operations of all individuals and single Essences There are many Relations in Sacred History not carried beyond the bounds of Providence in the use of means that are so full of Labyrinths and various turnings that they were able to convert a Stoick If you would have an instance you may read over the stories of Joseph and Moses where you may find many doublings and redoublings vast thwartings and improbabilities which were not the effects of Chance neither were they loose and stragling as they seem'd to be but all of them had a real tendency to their own and Israel's advancement Let this suffice to demonstrate the exercise of the Care and Providence of God which will be further opened by what ensues CONSECT II. That humane unlikelihoods or supposed Improbabilities in the course of Nature cannot hedge up the way against Omnipotency 1. I Shall not speak to this glorious Attribute of God as it is considered Absolutely and
in an Extraordinary way for thus every act of it is a Miracle thus it works without means contrary to means and above all means This is altogether Independent and Unlimited and therefore it is Infinite and can do every thing which doth not imply a Contradiction or imperfection for these are the result of Weakness not of Power nay therefore it is Omnipotency because it cannot if I may use the word cannot do these things which argue Impotency But 2. That which I design in this Consectary is the ordinary or actual power of God and that as it doth sometimes manifest it self in the accomplishment of very great Actions by weak and low Meâ—ns As in the combate between young David and that mighty man of war Gâ—liah to see the unarmed David in his blooming day over-come and throw-down at his feet that moving Rock the mighty Champion of the Philistines hedged round about with brass or steel This is the reason why five may chase an hundred and the â—â—tter number put a thousand unto flight why the weak things of the world confound them that are mighty and things which are not bring to nought things that are 3. It is the same mighty Hand of God by which this lower and soâ—â—d Globe is so firmly fixed in the middâ—e of the moving yeilding air Is it not a very unlikely thing that such a vast heavy body as the Earth is round by nature and so fitted for motion should keep its Center so many thousands of years without tumbling out of its place Terra pilae similis nulâ—o fulciminie nixa Aâ—re sublimitam grave pendent onus The World hath no other prop but the invisible hand of Heaven Job 26.7 38.6 4. But to keep close to the thing in hand this Almighty Power doth step over all the Improbabilities that stand in the way of it when it doth uphold the human body without the external Use of Creature-help What a wonderful thing is it to see a poor tattering Clay-house keep its foundation and remain not beaten down when strong and violent Storms drive against it to see poor worm-eaten Clay-Walls stand out against the stern Encounters of the strongest Winds without any visible supports nay to see these abide unbattered down when they have no foundation but the Dust not the firm Earth nor the Rock but the loose and moving Dust which every little Puff of Air blows away before it Job 4.19 This must of necessity be ascrib'd to the curious and adored Art of the Great Master-Builder of the World 5. There lay many Improbabilities in the way of Martha Taylor 's Life whole Troops of Distempers for several of the beginning Months did almost constantly scale the Walls of the Souls crazy Habitation and then she did altogether abstain from Meat Drink or Cordials so that all that were round about her expected her dying every day How can we then but say That underneath were everlasting Arms 6. What a strange thing it is that the Body should live only upon Nature's cost and charges and have no provision to subsist upon but what it makes within its own Doors How unlikely is it that a little Flegm Rheum moist Humours and such like things should be the real supply of Life as far as it is upheld by second causes for the Bodies of the most healthful and strong Men which are best able to make a sufficient use of Meat and Drink are not preserved alive only by these second causes for it is in God we live move and have our beings and by him all things consist and he upholds all things by the word of his power 7. As Infinite Wisdom is the Eye so this truly admirable Power of God is the Hand of that most vigilant Providence which conducts us safe through a thousand Dangers and Miseries which we are continually subject to between our Cradle and our Graves Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards Job 5.7 What a wonderful story is that of Paul concerning himself 2 Cor. 11 I was in prisons more frequent in stripes above measure in deaths oft once I was stoned thrice I suffered shipwrack a night and a day I have been in the deep In perils of robbers in perils by my own Country mâ—n in perils by the Heathen in perils in the City in perils in the Wilderness in perils in the Waters in perils among false brethren in weariness and painfulness in watchings often in hunger and thirst in fastings often in cold and zakedness And yet Paul lived through all these Who but an Atheist would not stand here and admire and adore the wonderful Power and Providence of God! Scultetus speaking concerning himself saith Totum vitae meae curriculum plenum est mirandarum divinarum liberationum ex magnis 〈◊〉 periculis calamitatibus nullum elementum est à quonon infestatus sum Praesat ad curric vitae 8. This Power of God is the Hindg upon which the whole course of Nature turneth nay it is the Hand that moves it It 's the saying of one very pertinent in this case That it is not with the work of God as with the Artificers Clock which put into a Frame and hang'd with weights will go though the Artificer be off from it but though God set all the Creatures in frame yet the motion of every wheel depends on God There is not a drop of rain falls till God utter his voice and cause the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth Jer. 10.13 The groaning Creation which travels in birth to be delivered of sin Rom. 8.22 hid been long since up in Armes against the great Rebel Man who was the cause of all its Miseries had not the interposition of an Infinite Arm caused it lie down with quietness The angry and churlish Ocean had many an Age ago broke over its weak and sandy Bounds and had for certain entomb'd the Earth and all Inhabitants within its own bosom had not the Omnipotent confin'd it to the Womb of his Decree wrapt it up within the swadling-bands of darkness and still'd â— by rocking it in the Cradle of his Providence as you may see Job 38.8 9 10 11. SECT III. Infinite Wisdom now and then chuseth forth some of the meanest things to do its mighty Works upon 1. I Have read of very many who have been brought under a total Abstinence and continually lived for many Moneths or Years together without either Meat or Drink and all of these have been of ordinary if not poor and low Original Some of the most curious Artists of them who have been most profoundly learned who have shone in their differing Spheres as Starrs of the first Magnitude have taken their rise from the lowest ground and have been only of vulgar Extraction This Wisdom at the Creation of the World made choice of the meanest Dust as a convenient Material out of which to make the most ennobled sublunary Creature So that the most Rational and
in several credited Authors concerning Lamps now and then found in Italy and other places in ancient Vaults or Urns which have lasted for many years that I say not Ages without extinction till put forth by the purer and stronger Air. I know one great cause of the duration of these Lights is from the firm make and lasting constitution of the Burning Materials It is a thing also commonly known that a few small pieces of Flaming-wood buried under their own Ashes will continue fired for a great number of hours and yet not much consume away Some say there is sound Outlandish-wood that will thus endure for many Months Now 4. Thus it is in these great Abstinents that Natural heat seems as it were to be raked up under Embers that it might spend it self and its proper Pabulum or food with the greater Paâ—cimony Nature doth greatly lavish or thrust forth its own supports by Excrements as by Stool Urin Sweat Salivation and the like but in these admirable Fasters all these Passages are for the most part closely stopped up And then the Native Fervour as was said is brought to such a small Degree that it may not over-fast consume its Aliment Thus many whose years are greatly numerous can live upon a very small because they have but little Heat slender Evacuation and â—old and dense Bodies and so consequently spend the Radical Humours very sparingly 5. When the Cause ceaseth then the Effects must needs fall Now in these Abstenious Ones its usually so that the deâ—â—re and necessity of Meat and Drink is taken away as the Stomack especially at the beginning is distemper'd stupâ—fi'd and altogether mastered and overcome by the abundant Influx of Pituitous Crude and Naughty Humours so that 〈◊〉 can neither retain what it had nor give entertainment to any fresh Sustenence and all the Excrementitious Passages being stopped up the Body cannot that way Eâ— it or Evaporate any of its inbred Supplâ—es And it hath been the rational Conjecture of Delrius quoted by Gast Schottus That the ' foresaid Flegmatick abounding Humours which first took away the Stomack are afterward made a good use of by the Naturaâ—-heat in order to the underpropping Life The Stomack upon a small recruit may be enabled to turn these to a sort of Chyle and then the Liver falls to work and draws them into it self and presently transformeth them into Blood which it sendeth by the Vena Porta into the Body and all its Members The knowing Ciâ—â—sius speaking as I think concerning the Chyle saâ—th Attract us ab hâ—â—â—tâ— qui vâ—ntriculi fuit excrementum 〈…〉 limentum Abst Cons p. 89. For any thing â— know the worst of humours may be turned by Natures skill and aid to outrimeâ—t not noxious but useful 'T is a known Report that the grand Alithâ—idates did gradatâ—m obtain such an Art in eating Poison that his Body became invincible to its greatest power as was afterward experienc'd when he should that way have lost his life Of which Martial the neat Epigrâ—mmatist gives you an account in one of his Disticks thus Profecit poto Mithridates saepe veneno Toxica ne possent saeva nocere sibi This humour which at first might be putrid doth in a little time become so tenacious and compact that it 's made very durable to the gentle heat which lives upon it This the applauded Sennertus thinks very probable in his first and second thoughts upon the thing in hand as may be seen both in his Institutions and Practick Physick And when it is once reduced to this solidity and the Volatile Spirits or Vapoâ—rs confined to a fixation and made to tarry and to do their office then it is that these Meatless Câ—eatures have their Lamps pretty well supply'd with Oyl then they do with a greater composure subsist under their total Abstinence without destruction though not without decay 6. Usually the Bodies of these Foodlesse ones are inwardly in a dissolving melting case which dissolution or consumption may produce adapted nourishment for Natural heat to live upon The obstruction of all external vents together with the coldness of their out-sides and the many humours that do naturally attend their very Sex they being usually Women doth befriend the indwelling Fire with proper Materials for it to live upon I think it is indubitable that some such like heat by a like supply of humid Matter is the cause why Herbs and Plants live and thrive As our Reason lifts us up above all other Animals so our Sensation gives us what they have and Vegetation or the way of the nourishing the humane frame communicated to us all the advantages which Plants enjoy to these our Earthy Bodies do carry a great and real correspondence in the manner and matter of their growth maintainance and preservation Doctor Harvet who was learned Jouberts Antagonist about the possibility in point of Nature being reduced to a strait concerning the Lucomori forementioned whose brumal Fasting he supposed was unquestionable he granted They did live but it was onely a Life of Vegetation Cites ubi sup 151. 7. The most excellent Zaculus Lucitanus hath affirm'd that though there may be many causes why these are sustain'd alive yet the in-being or in-undation of flegmatick humour was the main cause His own words are Etsi non negem a multis causis citra cibum diutissime homines posse vitam transigere tamen frequention magis communis est causa quae ex aâ—undantia humoris piluitosi elicitur De Med. Prinâ— Hâ—st p. 914. The Foetus in the Mothers Womb doth live and thrive after a very strange mâ—nner without either eating or drinking and for any thing I know without emitting any Excrements at all They live upon a Sanguinal Humour transmitted to them though the Umbellick Veins 8. The continual inlet of the humid Air into the Bodies of these by the Mouth and Nostrils conveyed by certain secret Conduit-pipes into the Heart and other parts of the Microcosme may afford some supplement to the Animal Spirits and remaining Humours The constant now undeny'd Motion of the Blood and Heart doth very much contribute to the being and life the act and exercise of this innate Heat and so doth conduce exceedingly to fermentation and this ferment helps in the continuation of life 9. Thus I have given you a compendious Account of an appearing Possibility in Nature it self Theâ—e things its true are but barren fare for strong activâ— and full Bodies to live upon but you know these which have been the subject of our Discourse are of weak languish'd and macerated out-sides poor meager almost-dying Carkasses for if them who are of robust chearful and active Bodies could thus live I should no more question that Miracles were now in being then I do that they were so in the Prophets and Apostles days SECT IV. HEre I shall close up this part of the Discourse by giving you some Arguments to prove the vast improbability of a Cheat in our Martha's case