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
she was but too ready to lay these heavy to her heart as you have it spoken of one eminently pious Psal 69.20 Reproach hath broken my heart and I am full of heaviness Who is not so tender of a good Name as that the least blemish and aspersion cast upon it seemeth more wounding then the cutting of a Sword Slander and Calumny looks but too insufferable even to good and worthy natures The constant reproach and scoffs of disbelievers did very often add bitterness to her wormwood Divers sorts of Persons there were who employed themselves to vilifie her and cry her up for a Cheat round about the Country Though the best Arguments they enforced their unworthy Reports with were only Suspicion Conjecture or Malice what could they otherwise rise from seeing they spoke without tryal they did Audabatarum more pugnare wink and fight against the Truth in her concern Ignorance of the cause possibility or former experiences concerning things truly admirable is looked upon by some as reason good enough not only to question them but also to deny their reality How rational these were in Martha's case will be shown in third Part of this Treatise to which I refer you But as these were the cause of her inward Trouble so also were her Temptations The Devil the grand Tempter who constantly drives a great Trade this way took all advantages to disturb her peace to draw her over to his side or at leastwise to draw her from her God he shewed his malice in doing his utmost to hinder her from a way of grace he laid what Remoras his craft could invent to stop her in the way to JESVS CHRIST He would either have her rest satisfi'd in a State of Nature or contented in the bare external performances of Practical Duties or else bid farewell to Religion to all Hopes of Help from Christ and future Happinesse in Heaven or lastly run her self upon one of the two destructive Rocks of Presumption or Dispair With this Crafty and Unwearied Adversary Martha had about a year ago very sharp Contests and afterward the like with some of his Instruments Heretical Ones who did their utmost to Proselite her to their Whimsies and Conceits Camden in his Britannia tells us That the Peak had formerly in it noysome and hurtful Wolves whence he saith Worme-hill had its Name from Wolf-haunt though the care and industry of former times hath utterly destroyed those Brutes yet there abide others which deserve their Name and are of a more dangerous Nature With these Martha under her great distress was put to many a tough Disspute and large and troublesome Discourses 9. Her troubles of Body and Mind were often much aggravated by her being at a remove from many necessary helps External helps for the Body such as should allay or mitigate the pains of the afflicted Members and Parts Inward helps about Soul concernments by her solitariness her own inquisitive thoughtfulness about the urgent business of a dying state and appearance in another world her great distance from sound serious and pious Acquaintance But in all these she found some mitigation yea some considerable ease by casting Anchor upon Divine goodness and by seating down upon some or other Shelf of the Rock of Ages Though she was in her greatest weakness often at Ebbs and Tydes sometimes driven out by Storms upon the blustering Waves sometimes again shor'd upon a convenient Lee-harbour SECT IV. The frame of her Body all the time of this her being debarr'd Meat or Drink 1. HEr Upper Parts were the most fresh and flourishing As her Face excepting that it was a little fallen in about the ends of the Mouth was pretty plump or fleshy considerably free from decay and of a rudâ—y or lively colour This pure Complexion of her Face was the admiration of all intelligent Beholders to see a frail brittle Body under those great Afflictions and that continued Abstinence from outward Supplies look so lovely so beautiful not reduced to Skin and Bone not at all gastly or terrifying but rather a delightful Object worth the looking on and taking pleasure in Thus she continued for three Quarters of a Year or more together and for the following Month held the same quantity of Flesh though I think not altogether so fair in the Face Her Armes also all along this tract of time have been well covered over Her Pulse pretty smooth even and lively in its motions seldom diverted out of the usual course but when she was under some immediate sorrow of Body or Mind Her Eyes though often very weak were sometimes quick and durable in their beholding or dwelling upon objects so that she would know that she looked upon at the first glance and continue reading for an hour or more together Her Lungs commonly shew'd themselves undecay'd by the audibleness and continuation of her Discourse She would when freed from the troublesome Hiccough talk pretty loud and long together Now do but ly these Considerations in the Ballance with her great sorrows and no sustenance and you will see they are ponderous especially if you consider 2. That her lower Parts from top of the Ribs and downwards were a meer Sceleton a dry Carkass covered over with Skin You might have laid your Fingers betwixt the Ribs and feel the Belly thorow double Linnen fallen down from the Brest to the Back-bone where it lay as flat as if Nature had never enjoy'd any hollow place betwixt or any proper Inhabitants in that Dwelling When you had been satisfying your Curiosity by a strict search here you would have supposed your Hand to have been examining an half-consum'd Carkass within a Grave Here also modest Inquisition might have stood amazed to behold that colour and flesh on the Face and Armes and yet find that vast decay in the nether Parts The late sober and searching Observation of some well-skill'd in Anatomy hath told us that the Vertebrae or Joynts in the Back are easily felt through the Belly by the touch of the Finger And that her Body is devoid of Muscles or fleshly Membranes It may have been long thus with her but was not known before the close of the last year for want of some knowing Ones to make the Trial. 3. She hath since the beginning of the year 1668. avoided no Excrements by Stool or Urin neither hath she had any moisture in her Mouth or Nose She did I think at the first sometimes sweat a little and since had now and then some small Pimples or Out-breaks upon the Wrists of her Armes which some suppose to be the result of those few drops of weak Liquids which might sometimes passe down into her Stomack and that the abiding Power of Nature having no other way left doth use that strong one to Evacuate her Dregs Others again say That as long as there is my remaining blood which is in her like water in a standing Pool it will corrupt and that the corrupted part doth in that manner
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