store Clouds cool by heat and Baths by cooling boil Who hath that vertue to express the rare And curious vertues both of Herbs and Stones Is there an herb for that O that thy care Would show a Root that gives expressions And if an Herb hath Power what have the Stars A Rose besides his Beauty is a cure Doubtless our Plagues and Plenty Peace and Wars Are there much surer then our Art is sure Thou hast hid Metals Man may take them thence But at his Peril When he digs the place He makes a Grave as if the thing had sense And threatned Man that he should fill the space Even Poysons Praise thee Should a thing be lost Should Creatures want for want of heed their due Since where are Poysons Antidotes are most Thy help stands close and keeps the fear in view The Sea which seems to stop the Traveller Is by a Ship the speedier passage made The Winds who think they rule the Marriner Are rul'd by him and taught to serve his Trade And as thy house is full so I adore Thy curious Art in Marshalling thy Goods The Hills with health abound the Vales with store The South with Marble Norths with Furs and Woods Hard things are Glorious easie things good Cheap The common all Men have That which is rare Men therefore seek to have and care to keep The healthy Frost with Summer Fruits compare Light without wind is Glass Warm without weight Is Wool and Furs Cool without closeness shade Speed without pains a Horse Tall without height A Servile Hawk Low without loss a spade All Countries have enough to serve their need If they seek fine things thou dost make them run For their offence and then dost turn their speed To be Commerce and Trade from Sun to Sun Nothing wears Cloaths but Man nothing doth need But he to wear them Nothing useth fire But Man alone to shew his Heav'nly breed And only he hath fewel in desire When th' Earth was dry thou mad'st a Sea of wet When that lay gathered thou didst broach the Mountains When yet some places could no moisture get The Winds grew Gard'ners and the Clouds good Fountains Rain doth not hurt my Flowers but gently spend Your Honey drops Press not to smell them here When they are ripe their odour will ascend And at your Lodging with their thanks appear How harsh are Thorns to Pears And yet they make A better Hedge and need less Reparation How smooth are Silks compared with a stake Or with a Stone Yet make no good Foundation Sometimes thou dost divide thy Gifts to man Sometimes unite The Indian Nut alone Is Cloathing Meat and Trencher Drink and Kan Boat Cable Sail and Needle all in one Most herbs that grow in Brooks are hot and dry Cold Fruit's warm Kernels help against the Wind The Limon's Juice and Rinde cure mutually The Whey of Milk doth loose the Milk doth bind Thy Creatures leap not but express a Feast Where all the Guests sit close and nothing wants Frogs marry Fish and Flesh Bats Bird and Beast Sponges Nonsense and Sense Mines th' Earth and Plants To shew thou art not bound as if thy Lot Were worse than ours sometimes thou shiftest hands Most things move th' Vnder-Jaw the Crocodile not Most things sleep lying th' Elephant leans or stands But who hath Praise enough Nay who hath any None can express thy Works but he that knows them And none can know thy Works which are so many And so compleat but onely he that owes them All things that are though they have sev'ral ways Yet in their Being joyn with one advice To honour thee and so I give thee Praise In all my other Hymns but in this Twice Each thing that is although in Vse and Name It go for one hath many ways in store To honour thee And so each Hymn thy Fame Extolleth many ways yet this one more A Compleat History OF THE MOST Remarkable Providences BOTH OF Judgment and Mercy Which have happened in this Present Age. c. CHAP. I. Concerning the Appearance and Manifestation of God Himself in the World DEsigning to Treat in this Book of that most Noble Exercise of the Divinity The Government of the World and of that only so far as it is Remarkably the Operation and Effect of the Infinite Supream Being it will not be Improper in the first place to enquire If ever this God hath made any Visible Manifestation of himself in Form or Figure to the World If ever any Man saw him in any Material adequate shape and lived Or if he hath not what should be the Reason that He never strikes our senses with his Essential presence that he hides from us in the Retirements of an Invisible and Spiritual Majesty leaving us to search out his Footsteps and read the marks of his Boundless Properties in the Works of Creation and Providence We are told indeed in sacred Scripture of his frequent Appearance to Abraham Gen. 12.7 to Isaac Gen. 26.2 24. to Jacob Gen. 28.10 c. to Moses Exod. 3.2 c. But all these Apparitions come to no more then this that these persons were struck either with the outward sight or inward sense of the signs of the presence of something Extraordinary that they could resolve the cause to be nothing less then the great God And besides the Conviction was intended no further primarily then themselves and so far it was effectual and there it rested They were convinced and believed and obeyed And tho their Faith and Obedience was design'd for a strong Argument to draw their Posterity after them yet when the Freshness of these Stories were worn off the following Generation called for fresh Evidences and repeated Miracles and the Marks of a singular Providence or else they were in danger of lapsing backward into down-right Infidelity and Disobedience again And therefore though it hath pleased Almighty God at sundry times and in divers manners to make himself known to the world yet we may safely conclude upon these Two Points as certainly True 1. That no meer Man in this world did ever see God as he is in himself and live John 1.18 1 John 4.12 Not Abraham not Isaac nor Jacob nor Moses they but saw his back-parts the Signs of his Presence the Effects of some particular Attributes and no more 2. That it is impossible for Man in a state of Mortality to see him Exod. 33.20 Thou canst not see my Face that is my Essence for there shall no Man see me and live And the Reason is plain and easie if we consider The Glory of that Infinite Majesty is enough to crack our weak corruptible Bodies and astonish our senses and strike us into a Dissolution or Confusion 2. The present Weakness and Sinfulness of Humane Nature 1 Tim. 6.16 God only is said there to have Immortality which no Man can approach unto whom no Man can see And besides all this the Intuition or Vision of God is
Devil appeared to her in her House in the likeness of a white Dog and that she called this Imp or Familiar Spirit Elimanzer and that she often fed it and that the Spirit spoke to her very audibly and bid her deny Jesus Christ which she did then assent to but denied that she killed the young maid She was Executed at Mannintree Apr. 15. 1645. 4. Anne West and Rebecca her Daughter were likewise of this black Society against whom Prudence the VVife of Thomas Hart of Lawford in Essex deposed upon Oath that about Eight weeks before going on Sunday to the Parish-Church about half a mile from her House being about Twenty weeks gone with Child and to her thinking very well and healthy upon a sudden she was taken with great Pains and miscarried before she came Home And about Two months after one Night when she was in Bed something fell down upon her Right Side but being dark she could not discover its shapes and that she was presently taken lame on that side with extraordinary Pains and burning and was certainly perswaded that Anne and Rebecca West were the cause of her Pains having expressed much Malice toward her and counted her their greatest Enemy Mr. John Edes a Minister deposed That Rebecca West confessed to him that about Seven Years before she began to have familiarity with the Devil by the instigation of her Mother Anne West and that he appeared in several Shapes As once like a proper young man who desired to have familiarity with her promising that he would then do what she desired and avenge her on her Enemies requiring her also to deny God and put her faith and trust in him which being agreed to she order'd him to avenge her on one Thomas Hart of Lawford by killing his Son who was soon after taken sick and died VVhereupon Rebecca told the Minister she thought the Devil could do like God in destroying whom he pleased After which she gave him Entertainment and he lay with her as a man She likewise confest to him that when she lived at Riverhall in Essex her Mother came and told her The Barley Corn was picked up meaning that the Son of one George Francis a chief Inhabitant of that Town was Dead and his Father very much suspected he was bewitched to Death and her Mother hearing of it said Be it unto him according to his Faith Mr. Matthew Hopkins deposed upon Oath that going to the Prison where Rebecca West and five others were he asked her how she first came to be a Witch who told him that her Mother and she going one Evening after Sunset toward Mannintree her Mother charged her to keep secret whatever she saw which she promising to do they went both to the House of Elizabeth Clark where they found her together with Ana Leach Elizabeth Gooding and Hellen Clark and that Instantly the devil appeared in the shape of a Dog then came two Kitlins and after them two Dogs more who all seemed to reverence Elizabeth Clark skipping into her lap and kissing her and then Kist all in the Room except her self Whereupon one of the Witches askt her Mother if her Daughter were Acquainted with the Business who assuring them of her secrecy Ann Leach pulled out a Book and Swore her not to reveal any thing she saw or heard and if she did she should endure more torments than there could be in Hell Whereupon she again ingaged to be silent They told her she must never confess any thing tho the Rope were about her Neck and she ready to be Hanged To which after she had given her absolute Ingagement the Devil leapt up into her Lap and Kissed her promising to perform whatever she would desire About halt a year after the Devil appeared as she was going to Bed and said he would marry her which she could not refuse whereupon he Kissed her but was as cold as Clay and then took her by the Hand Leading her about the room and promised to be her Loving Husband till Death and to avenge her of all her enemies She likewise obliging her self to be his Obedient Wife till Death and to deny God and Christ Jesus She confest that after this she sent him to kill the Son of Thomas Hart who died within a Fortnight and thereupon she took the Devil for her God and thought he could as God Rebecca West being likewise Examined before the Justices at Mannintree confessed that all was true concerning their Meeting at Elizabeth Clarks where they spent some time in Praying to their Familiar Spirits and then every one made their desires known to them Elizabeth Clark requested her Spirit that Mr. Edwards might be met withal at a Bridge near her House and that his Horse might be frighted and he thrown down and never rise again Mr. Edwards deposed that at the same place his Horse started and greatly indangered him and he heard something about the House Cry Ah Ah much like a Polecat and that with great difficulty he saved himself from being thrown off his Horse Elizabeth Gooding desired her Imp to kill Robert Jaylors Horse for suspecting her to be a Witch which was done accordingly Hellen Clark required to kill some Hogs of a Neighbours Ann Leach that a Cow might be Lamed and Ann West her Mother desired her Spirit to free her from all her enemies and to have no trouble And she her self desired that Thomas Harts Wife might be taken Lame of her right side after which they departed appointing the next Meeting at Elizabeth Goodings House for these and several other Notorious Crimes Ann West was Sentenced and Executed at Mannintree Elizabeth Gooding at Chelmsford and the Bill found against Rebecca West by the Grand Jury but was acquitted by the Jury of Life and Death Ibid p. 14. 5. Rose Hallybread was another of this black Regiment against whom Robert Turner of St. Osyth in Essex deposed that about eight days before his Servant was taken Sick shaking shrieking and crying out of Rose Hallybread that she had bewitched him and that he sometimes Crowed like a Cock sometimes barked like a Dog and sometimes Groaned violently beyond the ordinary course of Nature and tho but a youth struggl'd with so much strength that four or five lusty Men were not able to hold him down in his Bed and sometimes he would Sing several strange Songs and Tunes his Mouth not being opened nor his Lips so much as stirring all the time of his Singing She being examined confest That about sixteen years before one Goody Hagtree brought an Imp to her House which she entertained and fed it with Oat-Meal and Suckled it on her Body a Year and a half and then lost it She confessed likewise that about half a year before one Joyce Boanes brought to her another Imp in the likeness of a small gray Bird which she received and carried to the House of one Thomas Toakly of St. Osyths and put it under his Door after which
God! Oh! how am I filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh Lord I solemnly resolve against all my Sins These are the Murtherers that would not have thee to Reign over me Original Sin the pollution of my own Nature the Sins that I have committed before I knew what Sin was have rendred me obnoxious to thy Displeasure I beg of thee that thou wouldest give them their Death's Wound I shall now meditate on the wonderful Love of God in electing some to Salvation and passing by others and wonder that I shou'd be an Object of Electing Love sure Lord thou cou'dst not have chosen one more vile than I am and one that wou'd have carried it to thee as I have done I may well wonder at thy infinite Love I considered of the Love of God in parting with the Son of his Love to die for Sinners that God shou'd contrive such a way of Salvation for fallen Man and not for fallen Angels What an astonishing amazing Love was that that Christ shou'd become Man that he shou'd be so poor as not to have where to lay his Head when he came to enrich the World Oh that sweet Expression of Christ's Love when he says I was with him when he laid the Foundations of the World yet then my Thoughts were in the habitable part of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. That I shou'd be one of them that Christ shou'd have in his Thoughts of Love I cou'd not but cry out And why me Lord why me Oh infinite Free Grace that I shou'd be freely chosen whereas if God had but required Satisfaction for one Sin tho' but a sinful thought I must have perish'd for ever I told Christ Dearest Jesus I cannot at this Sacrament take a denial of thy gracious Presence I come to meet with God and I cannot be contented without him I bless thy Name I have often enjoyed great Delight in this Ordinance but now I would enjoy more of God than ever I would have all my Graces grow and flourish I would have my Sins utterly destroyed and rooted out O Blessed Jesus I come to thee here are my Lusts my Pride my Vnbelief my want of Love to thee the base Sins of my Nature my disingenuous Carriage towards thee here Lord slay them before thee They are unwilling that thou shouldest rule in my Soul I did in these or the like Expressions make over my self to be more entirely God's and I dare own upon review that I did enjoy Christ This did in some measure set my Soul a longing for Heaven Lord said I if a Smile of thy Love is so sweet what are the full and ravishing Views of thy Love If a Glimps of my dearest Jesus is so sweet and refreshing what will the full Visions of God be for ever But my base Heart was several times trying to draw me from God O surely a Freedom from Sin will be unconceivably sweet to me that am so continually harassed with these Corruptions She writ abundance of such MEDITATIONS and EJACVLATIONS as these but here 's all that her Husband could ever get transcribed By these her MEMOIRS and RVLES for holy Living we not only see what an extraordinary Wife she was for her Husband says she fully practis'd 'em but also the happy Effects of a regular Course of Piety for certainly never was there on a Sick-bed a greater Instance of a willing Resignation to the Will of God as to either Life or Death She would often say to her Husband O my dear 't is a solemn thing to die but I can freely leave all the World but you and at saying so she would still burst out into Tears she said at another time Sickness is no time to prepare for Death were my Work now to do I were undone for ever But I shall stop here for she needs not borrowed Shades to set her off I need do no more than refer you to these Memoirs which are all the curious Contexture of her own Brain I shall only add She was MISTRESS IN THE ART OF OBLIGING in which she attain'd that Sovereign Perfection that she reigned over all Hearts with whom she did converse In a word She did consecrate her self entirely to God and was more afraid of Sin than of Hell it self In such a loose Age as this such an extraordinary Instance may perhaps be doubted as to the Truth of it but I do assure the Reader there 's nothing inserted in this Relation of Mrs. L but what is real Matter of Fact CHAP. LII Good Husbands Remarkable HVsbands have as much cause to be good as Wives and more clearness of Reason and strength of Judgment ordinarily to govern their Passions and direct their Actions and therefore they should excel the Women not only in Prudence but in Goodness and particularly Patience And so they do sometimes as for Instance 1. Sir Nathanael Barnardiston seemed here to imitate the Practice of the Lord Jesus towards his Church in his Conjugal Love Protection and full Contentation and Delight until he became a Pattern and Mirrour of Matrimonial Sweetness and Faithfulness and as it is said by one of the Rabbins concerning Methuselah's Wife That she had Nine Husbands in One for Age and Years so I may say of this Gentleman's Lady that she had Nine Husbands in him alone for his aimable Carriage and Graces These were it is true acted while he was living but he left a Testimonial in his Will of his living Affection after his own Death over and above the Marriage-Covenants to shew his endearedness of her by his Affectionate Remembrance when he himself was gone See his Life 2. Dominicus Catalusius was the Prince of Lesbos and is worthy of eternal Memory for the entire Love which he bare to his Wife she fell into a grievous Leprosie which made her appear more like unto a rotten Carcase than a living Body Her Husband not fearing in the least to be infected with the Contagion nor frighted with her horrible Aspects nor distasted with the loathsome Smells sent forth by her filthy Ulcers never forbid her either his Board or Bed but the true Love he had towards her turned all those things to him into Security and Pleasure Lond. Theatr. p. 462. Fulgos L. 4. C. 6. p. 526. 3. Ant. Wallaeus lived most lovingly with his Wife they never brake forth into Anger or mutual Brawling their mutual Care was to please each other and by Deeds to prevent each others's Desires neither did Wallaeus fear any thing more than that his Dear Wife should die before him-for he used her not only for the Government of his Family but for his constant Companion What soever befel him in the Common-wealth Church or Civil Converse he acquainted her with it ask'd and often followed her Advice for she was a modest and prudent Woman Clark's Eccles Hist p. 488. 4. Mr. Eliot of New-England loved prized and cherished that one Wife which was given to
the like Nature she told me CHAP. XVI Great Sleepers THE Essence of Sleep according to Dr. Willis consists in this That the Corporeal Soul withdrawing it self a little and contracting its Irradiation into a narrower Sphere leaveâ— the Cortex of the Brain for some time destitute and in the mean while the Nervous Liquor distilled from the Blood rushes in for new Supplies In Natural Sleep he saith these two Causes conspire together by some mutual Compact of Nature viz. at the same time the Spirits recede and the Nervous Humour enters In Non-natural or Extraordinary Sleep sometimes this Cause sometimes that is first But in Praeternatural or Insatiable Sleep there is a greater Energy of the same Causes so that the Brain is flooded with the Influx of Nervous Serous and other Vicious Humours 1. Timon's Nurse used Yearly after the manner of some wild Beasts to lie hid for two Months together without any other evidence of Life all that while save only that she breathed Plut. Symp. l. 8. qu. 9. p. 780. 2. Epimenides of Creet when he was a Boy being wearied with Heat and Travel laid him down in a certain Cave and there slept 57 Years being awaked he returned home wondring at the Changes he found in the World and was at last difficultly known by his younger Brother growing old It is said that he lived in all 175 Years And from him it was that the Sleep of Epimenides became a Proverb Plin. Nat. Hist l. 7. c. 52. p. 184. But this Story I offer rather for the sake of its Antiquity than Credibility 3. Platerus tells of one that slept three Days and three Nights together upon foregoing weariness without the occasion of precedent Drunkenness or the taking of any Soporiferous Medicine Plat. Obs l. 1. p. 6. 4. William Foxly Potmaker for the Mint in the Tower of London fell asleep on Tuesday in Easter Week and could not be waked with pinching or burning till the First Day of the next Term which was full 14 Days and when he was then awaked he was found in all points as if he had slept but one Night He lived 40 Years after This Matter fell out in the 37th Year of King Henry the Eighth's Reign Baker's Chron. 5. Crantzius tells of a young Scholar of Lubeck who that he might sleep without Disturbance betook himself to a Chest There passed 7 Years from the time of his lying down there till that one determined to see what was in the Chest where he found this young Man asleep there whom he shook with such Violence that he awaked him His Face was without change he was easily known to his Acquaintance who were amazed at what had passed he supposing that he had slept but one Night and some part of a Day Cran. Vâ—ndal l. 8. c. 39. Donat. Hist. Mir. l. 4. c. 12. p. 214. 6. M. Damascen speaks of one that slept a whole Autumn and Winter under a Rick of Hay and then arose as a Man half dead and distracted Zuing. Theat Vol. 2. l. 5. p. 415. 7. The Lucomorians in the further part of Samaria are reported to die as it were in the manner of Swallows and Frogs from the 27th of November to the 24th of April following and then again awake and arise This was witnessed to Henry the Third when in Poland by several Princes worthy of Credit divers Nobles of France many Physicians of the Court particularly the famous Pidâ—xius being present 'T is related also by Alex. Guagninas of Verona Colonel of Foot in the Castle of Vitelaska in the Frontiers of Muscovy in his Description of Muscovy Mers Qu. Com. in Gen Qu. 30. p. 1222. Joh. Licat l. 1. c. 6. Hen. Kornman de Mirac Mort. par 2. c. 41. Delr Disq Mag. c. Zacch Qu. Mad. Leg. l. 4. tit 1. qu 11. p. 241. Treas l. 6. c. 10. p. 565. Schot Phys Curios l. 1. c. 36. p. 176. 8. The Story of the Seven Sleepers who to avoid Martyrdom fled into a Cave and slept from the Reign of Decius till the 30th Year of Theodosius the Younger i. e. 196 Years will seem incredible and yet 't is mentioned by Nicephorus Eccl. Hist. l. 14. c. 45. By Lonicer Theatr. p. 230. Schot Phys Curros l. 3. c. As also by Mahomet in his worshipful Alcoran tho with some Addition and Variation for he saith they slept 300 Years CHAP. XVII Instances of such as have used to walk and perform strange things in their Sleep 'T Was the Opinion of some of the Ancient Philosophers that our Natural Life was but a Sleep and all our Actions are perform'd in a Dream and that we did not awake till Death came and pluck'd our Souls out of the Cradle and sent us rubbing up our Intellectuals and shaking our Spirits into the other World And surely such instances as follow here seem to make a fit Emblem for such an Hypothesis where Men Sleep by halves and employ at the same time some of the Animal Spirits as Cursitors of the Brain to move and act and discharge their Functions whilst â—hers of them sleep and rest and refresh themselves 1. A young Man arose from his sleep took a Sword opened the Doors and muttering to himself went into the Street where he quarreled alone and fancying that he was in Fight with his Enemy he made divers passes till he fell down and through an unhappy slip of his Sword gave himself such a Wound on his Breast that was like to be his Death Hereupon being awaked and affrighted and dreading greater dangers he sent for me to be his Physician and was cured saith Zacutus Lusitan in his Prax. admirand l. 1. Obs. 43. p. 33 c. 2. John Poultney would in his sleep usually rise out of his Bed dress him open the Doors walk about the Fields and return to his Bed not awaked he would rise in his sleep take a Staff Fork or other Weapon and therewith lay about him now striking now defending himself as if charged with an Enemy ot knowing when awaked what had passed He was of Leicestershire Fullers Work p. 133. Leicestershire 3. Henricus ab Heere 's saith he knew a young Student who having certain Verses to finish while awake rising in the Night hath opened his Desk he hath writ and often read over what he hath written which done he hath applauded himself with Laughter called to his Chamber-fellow to praise him also then putting off his Shooes and Cloaths shutting his Desk and laying up his Papers he returned to his Bed and slept till called up utterly Ignorant what he had done in the Night In the Morning returning to his Studies not having yet seen his Papers and being careful how to fill up the Gap in his Verses taking his Papers when he found them supplied to his desire and that with his own hand he hath been strangely amazed and would not believe his Companions who waking had seen what he did The Night after his Companions
Children nearer to him and not to suffer them to live out of full Communion with his Church or else he would in his Anger leave them to such Abominations as shall cut them off from his Church And since this time many young People have by the Grace of the Lord been prepared for full Communion and have taken hold of the Covenant confessing that they have felt the impression of the Word upon that abashing Occasion spoken And thus the fall of one hath been the rising of many Where Sin abounds the Lord can make Grace to superabound Concerning some Personal Deliverances 1. There was a Young man endeavouring to subdue a Young Horse and a Rope at one end of it was fastened about the Horses Neck but the Horse running with great speed the other end of the Rope caught the Foot of this Young Man as in a snare and was so entangled therein that he was drawn Ten Rods upon his back in a very rough and uneven place of Land he being utterly unable to free himself and none at hand that could help him and thus it being come to this Extremity the Horse of himself stood still so long and no longer time than that the Young Man did clear his Foot out of the Rope and thus was delivered out of the danger and suffered not a broken Bone nor any considerable bruise or harm 2. There was another Young Man who sate upon a Plough-Beam and suddenly his Cattle moving his Plough turned and one of his Legs was Entangled within the Plough and the Plough-Irons pressing hard against some part of his Body but could not free himself and the more he called to the Cattle the more speedily they moved and thus was in danger of being torn in pieces but in this extremity it was not long before the Cattle of themselves stood still 3. There was another Young Man who did fall about Ten Foot from some part of the Mill Timber into deep Waters and a place of many Rocks a Stream very violent and he was carried about eleven Rods down the Stream where there was a great piece of Ice and while he was in this confounded and amazed Posture his hand was guided to take hold of that Ice and there to hold until one who saw him fall did adventure upon that Ice and drew him out of the Waters and thus they were both delivered Thus far Mr. Mather 4. Martin Bucer upon a Sermon Preached against the Impieties and Superstitions of the Church of Rome whilst he attended upon the Prince Elector Palatine in Belgium did so incur the ill will of the Monks and Friars that they said Snares for him but he having notice thereof fled secretly away and went unto Franciscus Sickingem by whom he was kindly entertained promising him safety till the times were better quieted in reference to Religion Ibid. p. 155. 5. I will here set down a Remarkable story of my Own Father William Turner a Private Man and disengaged from Parties who yet in the time of our late Civil Wars being requested by a Neighbour to assist him in the seecuing of a Gelding which he had in a Pasture not far from my Father's House upon the Expectation of an Army that was coming in that Road My Father readily without any excuse went along with him took the Horse out of the Pasture went along the Road so long till the Neighbour fearing danger diverted into the Feilds My Father being not far from his own House and trusting partly to the innocence of his cause kept the Road and bid Farewel to his Companion but by and by meeting with some Souldiers he passed by them and after them others till at last finding the lane narrow and the Souldiers come in greater multitudes to avoid the trouble of giving way to so many having a confidence in the swiftness of his Horse and the Knowledge of by-paths he turned back again but had not gone far till he was shot at once and again and at last shot through his Body between the Bowels and Bastard-Ribs and at last seized His Horse Boots Sword and Cloaths all taken from him and a tattered suit of Apparel from a common Souldier put upon him And at last brought to the General who passed this Sentence upon him that he should be hang'd the next Rendezvour Accordly he was driven before them to the next Market-Town Drayton in Shropshire put under the Table whilst the General and his Officers went to breakfast in order to be hanged by and by But upon a false report the General caused the Trumpeter to sound a March and so left my Father bleeding inwardly in the Inn. Three Chirurgeons that were sent for successively one after the other gave him over for desperate but at last a Gentlewoman related to the Earl of Shrewsbury looking upon his wound did believe it curable and accordingly undertook the Cure and in six Months at least effected it but so that my Father upon the least Surcharge of new Ale or Beer or any windy Liquor was obnoxious to Fainting-Fits till it pleased God after 20 Years or thereabouts to order it so that the Escharre broke out in way of an Issue which continued with him I think to almost the time of his Death which was in the 77th Year of his Age A. D. 1689 90. This I thought my self bound in point of Gratitude to the Divine Providence to Record 6. Beza being in France in the first Civil War and there tossed up and down for two and twenty Months Recorded six hundred Deliverances from Dangers in that space for which he solemnly gave God thanks in his last Testament Flavel's Divine Conduct p. 104. 7. Extracted from Mr. Aubery 's Miscellanies Anno 1670. A poor Widow's Daughter in Herefordshire went to Service she was Aged about 20 fell very ill even to the point of Death her Mother besought God to spare her Daughter's life and take her to him At this very time the Daughter fell into a Trance which continued about an Hour they thought she had been Dead When she recovered out of it she declared the Vision she had in this Fit viz. That one in black Habit came to her whose Face was so bright and glorious she could not behold it and also he had such brightness upon his Breast and if I forget not upon his Arms and told her That her Mother's Prayers were heard and that her Mother should shortly die and she should suddenly recover And she did so and her Mother died She hath the Character of a modest humble vertuous Maid Had this been in some Catholick Country it would have made a great Noise 8. T is certain there was one in the Strand who lay in a Trance a few Hours before he departed And in his Trance had a Vision of the Death of King Charles the II. It was at the very Day of his Apoplectick Fit 9. There is a Sheet of Paper Printed 16 concerning Ecstasies that James Vsher late Lord Primate
scent to her Nose and thereby receive it into her Brain which if she had done it had been her Death Never any Treason against her came so near to Execution as this For the Traytor Squire observed his Direction did the Deed and that immediately before the Queen rode abroad but the Divine Providence kept her from touching the Pummel with her Hand yet was the Treason discovered and the Traytor received his reward 17. A. C. 1599. The Earl of Tyr-Owen an Irish-man having been some while in Spain returned from thence with a Rebellious Mind and by the Assistance of Spain and the Popish Faction raised a Rebellion whereby more damage accrued to the Queen and State than by any other Rebellion all her Days yet by the good hand of God this Rebellion also was subdued and that Land secured and quieted 18. A. C. 1600. There was a Plot for the removing some of the Queens chief Officers and Councellors from about her which had it been effected might have proved dangerous to her Person and State the rather because many Papists had a great hand in that Conspiracy But the Lord prevented the mischief intended 19. A. C. 1602. Henry Garnet Superiour of the Jesuits in England Robert Tresmand Jesuit Robert Catesby Francis Tresham and others in the Name of all the Romish Catholicks in England imployed Thomas Winter into Spain to obtain an Army from thence to joyn with a Popish Army that should be raised here to change the Government and Religion setled among us Spain and England being then at Wars the motion was readily embraced by the Spaniards and an hundâ—ed thousand Crowns promised to help forward the business but before any thing could be effected it pleased God to take away that Peerless Princess full of Years in peace on her Bed having Reigned Gloriously 44 Ysars four Months and seven Days being sixty nine Years six Months and seventeen Days old II. In the Reign of King James 1. In the first Year of his Reign before he was solemnly Anointed and Crowned Watson and Clark two Romish Priests drew into their Conspiracy some Noble Men some Knights and some Gentlemen to surprise the King and his Son Prince Henry presuming on Foreign Forces for Aid and Assistance intending to alter Religion and to set up such Officers of State as they ohought best but their Plot before it came to execution was discovered the Traytors Condemned some of them Executed and others through the Kings Clemency spared Garnet and Tresmond Jesuits with Catesby and Tresham notwithstanding the Death of Queen Elizabeth when they saw that King James Defended the same Faith continued to solicit the King of Spain to send an Army into England to joyn with the Forces of the Papists here for Extirpation of Religion But the King of Spain being in Treaty with the King of England about Peace refused to hearken to any such motion whereupon they together with other Unnatural and Trayterous Subjects Plotted the matchless merciless devilish and damnable Gun-powder Treason as is now to be shewed The Plot was to under-mine the Parliament-House and with Powder to blow up the King Prince Clergy Nobles Knights and Burgesses the very Confluence of all the flower of Glory Piety Learning Prudence and Authority in the Land Fathers Sons Brothers Allies Friends Foes Papists and Protestants all at one blast Their intent when that Irreligious Atchievement had been performed was to surprize the remainder of the King's Issue to alter Religion and Government and to bring in a Forreign Power Sir Edmond Baynam an attainted Person who stiled himself Prince of the Damned Crew was sent unto the Pope as he was the Temporal Prince to acquaint him with the Gun-powder Plot and now to the Plot it self The Sessions of Parliament being dissolved July 7th A. C. 1605. and Prorogued to the 7th of February following Catesby being at Lambeth sent for Thomas Winter who before had been imployed into Spain and acquainted him with the design of blowing up the Parliament-House who readily apprehending it said This indeed strikes at the Root only these helps were wanting a House for Residence and a skilfull Man to carry the Mine but the first Catesby assured him was easie to be got and for the Man he commended Guy Fawkes a sufficient Souldier and a forward Catholick Thus Robert Catesby John Wright Thomas Winter and Guy Fawkes had many Meetings and Conferences about the business till at last Thomas Piercy came puffing into Catesby's Lodging at Lambeth saying What Gentlemen shall we always be thinking and never do any thing You cannot be ignorant how things proceed To whom Catesby answered that something was resolved on but first an Oath for Secrecy was to be Administred for which purpose they appointed to meet some three Days after behind St. Clements Church beyond Temple-Bar where being met Peircy professed that for the Catholick cause himself would be the Man to advance it were it with the slaughter of the King which he was ready to undertake and do No Tom. said Catesby thou shalt not adventure thy self to so small purpose if thou wilt be a Traytor there is a Plot to greater Advantage and such a one as can never be discovered Hereupon all of them took the Oath of Secresie heard a Mass and received the Sacrament after which Catesby told them his devilish Devise by Mine and Gun-powder to blow up the Parliament-House and so by one stroke with the Destruction of many effect that at once which had been many Years attempting And for case of Conscience to kill the Innocent with the nocent he told that it was Warrantable by the Authority of Garnet himself the Superiour of the English Jesuits and of Garrard and Tresmond Jesuitical Priests likewise who by the Apostolical Power did commend the Fact and Absolve the Actors The Oath was given them by the said Garrard in these words You shall swear by the blessed Trinity and by the Sacrament you now purpose to receive never to disclose directly nor indirectly by Word or Circumstance the Matter that shall be proposed to you to keep secret nor desist from the Execution thereof until the rest shall give you leave The Project being thus far carried on in the next place the first thing they sought after was a House wherein they might begin the Work for which purpose no place was held fitter than a certain Edifice adjoyning to the Wall of the Parliament-House which served for a With-Drawing Room to the Assembled Lords and out of Parliament was at the disposal of the Keeper of the place and Wardrobe thereto belonging These did Piercy hire for his Lodgings entertained Fawkes as his Man who changed his Name into Johnson had the Keys and keeping of the Rooms Besides this they hired another House to lay in Provision of Powder and to frame and to fit Wood in for the carrying on the Mine which Catesby provided at Lambeth and Swore Robert Keyes into their Conspiracy whom he made the
with shame See his Life by Mr. Clark p. 296. And another Lady Wife to the Lord Mordant confirmed by occasion of the Jesuit's absenting from the Disputation and sending his excuse that he had forgot all his Arguments tho' he had them before as ready as his Pater Nâ—ster as he believed through the just Judgment of God because he had undertaken to Dispute with so worthy a Man without License of his Superiour Ibid. p. 278. 4. One Mr. Charles Langford in a Book Published by him called God's wonderful Mercy in the Mount of woful Extremity A. C. 1672. Tells us that for near Forty Years he had been Buffeted severely by Satan who had left no Stone unturn'd to do him all the mischief that he could For the space of Forty Years saith he or thereabouts hath it pleased the Hand that took me out of my Mother's Womb to train me up and lead me along in this uncomfortable Wilderness of Temptation tho' I cannot say that in all these Years he hath left me to the violence of Spiritual Conflicts for then the Burthen had been too heavy for Flesh to stand under so long Yet must I needs say my clearest Day all that time was but clark and however I seemed to others in point of Comfort outwardly sure I am my Soul enjoyed not her rest nor could I ever say I was all that while more than a Prisoner of hope still subject unto Bondage and not discharged of the Debt nor delivered from my Fears It was but a hard shift that I made to hold up my head when I was at best my worst cannot be expressed until now at last that God for whom I waited in the way of his Judgments and from whom were my Expectations in the use of appointed means all this while came and was found of me when I look'd not for him and delivered me from my strong Enemy set my Feet upon a Rock and Established my goings I can say by experience Now I know there is a God and now I know there is a Devil Such have been the Delusions cursed Injections of Blasphemous Thoughts and dreadful Temptations wherewith he hath endeavoured to â—ll my Soul till the day the Lord by his great power delivered me out of his Hands That I have cause to know him and to make him known as I am able to the World In short tho' he had been tempted to Murder his Wife and made Provision for it and she knew it yet she still performed the duty of a faithful Yoke-fellow and upon April 16. 1669. a day for ever to be Solemnized as Glorious and Honourable by me his poor Creature They are his own words she going on in her constant course of Prayer after she had given the Lord his Holy and Reverend Titles using Moses's Arguments brake forth into these words My Father my Father What wilt thou do with my Husband He hath been speaking and acting still in thy cause Oh! Destroy him not for thine own Glory Oh! What dishonour will come to thy great Name if thou do it Oh! Rather do with me what thou wilt On Rather Do what thou wilt But spare my Husband c. He that is pleased to stile himself a God hearing Prayer and in most of his great works delights to advance his own power by using small and unlikely means after long tarrying and in a time when I looked not for him came now and owned his own Ordinance crowned the Cries and Faith and Patience of a poor Woman with such success that my praise shall be continually of him The proud may scorn but the humble shall hear thereof and be glad That roaring Lion mine Adversary the Devil that old Serpent that red Dragon that unclean Spirit that Liar that false Accuser Murderer Appollyon Abaddon even now when he thought himself almost settled in the Possession of his long sought Dominion and that there was no casting him out of my Soul which he had abused making it his Dung-hill whereon he laid all the fifth of Hellish Thoughts and Abominations that he could now was sent to his own place by my dear Lord Christ who broke the Doors of Brass and rescued me from the Rape of Hellish Furies c. See the Book writ by his own Hand p. 53 54. c. 5. When I was Minister of Shipley in Sussex a certain Man of another Parish on a Lord's Day after Evening Service came to me and desired to speak with me about some particular Case of Conscience I think it was concerning the Sin against the Holy Ghost after some discourse upon the point he told me that he had for many Years been haunted with doubts and great fears about his Salvation and could enjoy no comfort but at last unexpectedly as he was at his Loom for he was a Weaver by Trade a certain Text of Scripture was suggested to his mind by he knew not what secret Impulse and thereupon all the thick Fog which he had so long laboured under was scattered and the Room was filled with Light and he enjoyed a great Serenity and Peace and Comfort afterwards 6. Mrs. Polsted of Bednel Green for a great while was in great Darkness and Deserted It prevailed even to the uttering of words dreadful to her Friends But drawing near to her end she desired my Sister Dunn to stay with her that Night she died and to close her Eyes She lay by her upon the Bed when she spake to her thus O Mrs. Dunn it is a dreadful thing to be separated from Christ for ever for ever Yes so 't is says her Friend but I am perswaded it shall never be your Portion She fell into a kind of a Slumber and a little after spake Mrs. Dunn Christ is come let us haste to meet him let us haste to meet him She ask'd her if she had now closed with Christ yes said she I stick to my first choice I stick to my first choice What shall I render to the Lord What shall I render to the Lord And so died praising the Lord. 7. Mrs Charlton once told me That after a Desertion of about Eight Years she had such a Floud of Spiritual Joy that when she walk'd in the Streets they seem'd to her Pav'd with Gold for a Fortnights time and she was fain to beg of God to stay his Hand Her Body being not able to bear it 8. Mr. Nutkin of Okingham told me That once after near Fifty Years Profession upon a Day of Thanksgiving observed by himself upon a recovery from Sickness and to beg a Sanctified use of Health restored on a sudden a dark Cloud fell on him that all his Profession had been Hypocrisie That Day and the Night after which he passed without Sleep it continued and he was so held down by the Temptation he had not power to look into his Bible The next Day he thought thus Have I been so long acquainted with the Lord and shall not I dare to look into his
the Press and very curious and attentive in Reading and Marking them In all my Conversation I have not met with such a Walking-Library except the late Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Barlow 33. Dr. Rich Blackmore my Contemporary and Colleague at Oxon now living and one of the College in London was in his first Years the most eager and diligent Student that I ever knew sitting up at his Book 'till Twelve One Two and sometimes Three a Clock in the Morning and then lying down only upon his Chairs 'till Prayer-time 'till his Health broke and he was constrained by necessity to retire into the Country to repair himself by Physick CHAP. XLIX Remarkable Instances of Contempt of Wealth JAcob 's Vow That if God would be his God and allow him Bread and Water c. Our Saviour's Poverty St. Paul 's Contentedness and the Community of the Primitive Christions are well known and in truth the very Intention of the Doctrine of the Gospel is to draw us off from a Love of the World to the Love of God and a fond Affection of Secular Riches to a diligent Enquiry after the Kingdom of Heaven so that it is no wonder if we find sometimes the Spiritual and Heavenly Temper of Christians so great and strong and vigorous as quite to conquer and triumph over all their little Cares and Concernments about the present Life 1. Origen was a great Contemner of worldly Wealth inuring himself to Cold and Nakedness never wearing two Coats nor Shooes nor taking care for the time to come with any convetous desire sold his Books especially of Humanity for Two-pence a Day to be allowed him for his Maintenance with which he was content Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist Dr. Cave's Prim. Christ 2. Lactantius was so far from seeking after Riches that he died poor 3. St. Augustine would neither buy either House or Land but any thing that was given to the Church he would not refuse except Inheritances offered by those who had poor Children Parents or Kindred judging it unfit to alienate them in such Cases for he would often say That it were much better to bestow Legacies than Inheritances on the Church Clark Ibid. 4. Gregory the Great could never read those words Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things c. without horrour and astonishment least having such Dignities and Honours as he had he should be excluded from his Portion in Heaven Ibid. p. 99. 5. Luther when he reflected upon the Favours and Presents bestowed upon him by Princes and Gret Personages fearing least they might be a Bait to draw him to an inordinate Love of the World broke out into these pathetick Expressions Valde protestatus sum me nolle ita satiari That is I protested stoutly that I would not be satisfied with worldly Welfare for my Portion Ibid. p. 144. 6. St. Bernard going to entr himself into a Monastery of the Cistertians perswaded Four of his Brethren to leave the World and all their worldly Preferments and to joyn with him in this Retirement which they did and accordingly taking leave of their Father seeing their youngest Brother Nivard a playing with other Boys and Guido the elder bidding him Farewel Brother Nivard behold said he we leave to you all our Earthly Possessions He presently answered You will take Heaven and leave me Earth this is no equal Division Afterwards he himself took leave of his Father and followed them Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist p. 104. 7. Thomas Aquinas was so great a Contemner of worldly Honours and Wealth that when Promotions were offered him his usual Answer was Chrysostomi Commentarium in Mattheum vellem I had rather have Chrysostom 's Commentary on Matthew Idem in Vit. ejus 8. Constantine the Great was so averse from all Superfluities that upon Festival Days and when he entertained Strangers he was fain to borrow Plate of his Friends to furnish his Cupboard Idem in Vitâ ejus p. 2. 9. Arch-bishop Vsher's Father having left him a good Estate in Land finding that he must have involved himself in many Suits of Law before he could attain to the quiet Enjoyment of it to the interrupting of his other Studies he gave up the Benefit of it to his Brothers and Sisters suffering his Uncle to take Letters of Administration for that end resolving to cast himself upon the good Providence of God to whose Service in the Work of the Ministry he had wholly devoted himself not doubting but he would provide for him yet that he might not be judged weak or inconsiderate in that Act he drew up a Note under his Hand of the State of all things that concerned it and Directions what to do about it 10. Sir Matthew Hale had a Soul enlarged and raised above that mean Appetite of loving Money which is generally the Root of all Evil. He did not take the Profits that he might have had by his Practice for in common Cases when those who came to ask his Counsel gave him a Piece he used to give back the half and so made Ten Shillings his Fee in ordinary Matters that did not require much time or study If he saw a Cause was unjust he for a great while would not meddle further in it but to give his Advice that it was so if the Parties after that would go on they were to seek another Counsellor for he would assist none in Act of Injustice if he found the Cause doubtful or weak in Point of Law he always advised his Clients to agree their Business 11. Mr. John Janeway upon his Death-bed had these words The World hath quite lost his Excellency in my Judgment O! how poor and contemptible a thing it is in all its Glory compared with the Glory of that invisible World which I now live in the sight of And as for Life Christ is my Life Health and Strength and I know that I shall have another kind of Life when I leave this I tell you it would more incomparably please me if you should say to me You are no Man for this World you cannot possibly hold oput long before to Morrow you will be in Eternity I tell you I do so long to be with Christ that I could be content to be cut in pieces and to be put to the most exquisite Torments so I might but die and be with Christ. Oh how sweet is Jesus Come Lord Jesus come quickly Death do thy worst Death hath lost its terribleness Death it is nothing I say Death is nothing through Grace to me I can as easily die as shut mine Eyes or turn my Head and sleep I long to be with Christ I long to die See his Life 12. Miles Coverdale Bishop of Exeter flying beyond Sea in Queen Mary's Reign his Bishoprick was reserved for him till his Return and then sundry times proffered him but he would by no means accept thereof but chose rather to live a more private Life yet not of Action for he
is at best fickle and subject to change We are short sighted and cannot see at first what the Effects of such Love will be And therefore what more ordinary than for Lovers to grow cold and indifferent If the Person be loved for Beauty the Small-Pox or Feaver may put an end to that Love If for good Humour Age and Sickness often alters it if for Money Riches may make themselves Wings and fly away or else any Vnkindness or unsuitable Carriage from the Person loved often alters the Affections Yet with what delight can they talk of these they love 't is hard to put them off with other Discourse Lovers think not the time long they are together Yet O my Soul I am infinitely obliged to God his Love is beyond all Expression I have ever since I was born offended him and brought Sin enough into the World with me to set me at an eternal Distance from him Yet God's great Love was such that he thought nothing too much for fallen Man He knew before ever he fixt his Love on me what I should prove how I should carry it towards him yet that could not hinder his Thoughts of Love O my Soul thou canst never do enough to testify thy Love to God There 's no fear of the Decay of his Love to thee if thou dost but carry it ingenuously towards him There can be no Defect in God all that is is on my part I have cause to bewail my former Miscarriages and now to resolve to walk more holily and humbly before God Christ he is altogether lovely there is nothing in him but what if considered may inflame my Heart with Love to him I may wonder at my self that I do no more love to talk of this lovely Jesus that I do so seldom think of him Well now let me learn something from this Reflection to fill my Soul with Love to him and to set me a longing after Communion with him O that I may for ever have him in my Thoughts whose Thoughts I was never out of from Eternity if I am not mistaken but am truly his REFLECTION III. On her Brother H 's telling her Mother that she lay at Mrs. B 's and her Mother discoursing what her Landlord said of her Febr. 2. 1679. Her Reflections on this were these viz. OH my Soul What use should I make of all this I may see how vain it is to expect Satisfaction in the Creatures when they do in so small a matter disappoint me and prove false Sure the use God would have me to make of all the Disappointments I have ever yet met with is to expect more from God and less from the Creature I see and find by Experience this I may soon expect more from them than is to be had But I never yet expected that from God that is to be had in him I find I may soon loose my good Name and Credit in the World I should from hence learn to make it my business to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man that so whatever the World says or thinks of me I may still be able to approve my Heart to God and to carry it so towards all I converse with as not willingly to give them any just cause to speak Evil of me I see 't is a vain thing nay I shall be the most inexcusable of any one in the World if ever I should expect Satisfaction in the Creature For my Experience tells me it is not there to be had I no sooner promise my self Comfort in any Earthly Enjoyment but some way or other it is imbittered to me I promised my self a great deal of Comfort in Mrs. B 's Acquaintance and now I cannot go to see her without hazarding my good name Well I will now retreat back again to my former SOLITVDE and converse more with God and my own Soul I have found enough of the Vanity of Acquaintance But I never yet had cause to complain of my God The more I acquaint my self with him the better it is I should be so ingenuous in all cases to make a Spiritual Improvement of an Earthly Disappointment that so I may reap real Benefit by outward Vexations REFLECTION IV. Upon her being taken ill in the Night and thinking she was struck with Death OH my Soul thou seest what need I have to be always prepared for Death How soon can God take away Health and Life I am but Tenant at Will to my Maker and therefore I need to be ready I then began to call my self to account to see with what Comfort I could appear before God I find upon Examination and some sight of Eternity here is abundance of Sin to be repented of I dare not think of appearing before God without an Assurance of an Interest in Christ Well O my Soul what use should I make of this Providence I know not how soon I may die Death is a serious thing it is a solemn thing to appear before the Heart-searching God there to be accountable for all I have done in the body and for ever to be doomed to endless Happiness or Misery What a mad Body and Fool am I then to be so negligent in working â—â—t of my Salvation when I am sure I cannot live long The Pain I felt was great but nothing to what the Damned feel I did then bless God that it was not eternal I thought if my Pain was so sad what is it to be tormented in Body and Soul and that for ever I then considered what Sin it was that most disturbed my Peace and find it is trifling with God Well O my Soul it is time for thee now to resolve to be more serious and always prepared because in such an hour as I think not the Son of Man comes REFLECTION V. Upon her Mother's and Sister T 's saying to her She would neither make a fond Wife nor Mother OH my Soul What use should I make of all the Opinions People have of me and of their thinking I shall never be fond of any Relation Sure God hath some end in it that notwithstanding my Willingness to please all manner of Persons I cannot yet have their good word Let me now more than ever endeavour to please God I have great cause to love my Parents for under God I am beholding to them for my Being But I am not only beholden to God for my Creation but I hope for Redemption and a whole Life of Mercies that be hath continually followed me with I have great cause to love Relations but that is nothing if compared with what cause I have to love God Their greatest Love is Hatred when compared with God's Love Well then the use I should make of all this is to consider my Obligations to God I would not willingly displease an Earthly friend sure then had not Sin basely besotted me I should abhor the Thoughts of doing any thing that might displease God I should endeavour
would take a Walk to the Mill which was but a Quarter of a Mile from our House to hasten the Miller to bring home the Meal that so her Maids as soon as they came from the Fields might make and bake the Bread but in the mean time how to dispose of her Maid Anne was her great care for she did not dare trust her in the House alone for fear she might do herself some mischief by Fire or set the House on fire for at that time she was so weak that she could hardly help herself and very silly withal At last by much Perswasions my Mother prevail'd with her to walk in the Gardens and Orchards 'till she came from the Mill to which she unwillingly consented Then my Mother lock'd the Doors of the House and walk'd to the Mill but as she was coming home in a very plain way she flipt and hurt her Leg so that as she could not rise there she lay a considerable time in great pain 'till a Neighbour coming by on Horseback seeing my Mother in this Condition lifted her up on his Horse and carried her home As soon as she was brought within the Doors of the House word of it was sent into the Fields to the Reapers who thereupon immediately left their Harvest-work and came home the House being presently full of People a Man-servant was ordered to take a Horse and ride for Mr. Lob an eminent Chyrurgeon that then liv'd at a Market-Town called Bodmyn which was Eight Miles from my Father's House but whilst the Man was getting the Horse ready in comes our Maid Anne and tells my Mother she was heartily sorry for the Mischance she had got in hurting of her Leg and that she did it at such a place naming the place and further she desir'd she might see her Leg my Mother at first refused to shew her her Leg saying to her What should she shew her Leg to so poor and silly a Creature as she was for she could do her no good but Anne being very importunate with my Mother to see her Leg and my Mother being unwilling to vex her by denying her for fear of her falling into her Fits for at all times we dealt gently lovingly and kindly with her taking great care by no means to cross or fret her did yield to her Request and did shew her her Leg. Upon which Anne took my Mother's Leg on her Lap and strok'd it with her Hand and then ask'd my Mother If she did not find Ease by her stroking of it My Mother confess'd to her she did Upon this she desired my Mother to forbear sending for the Chyrurgeon for she would by the Blessing of God cure her Leg and to satisfie my Mother of the Truth of it she again appeal'd to my Mother Whether she did not find farther Ease upon her continued stroking of the part affected which my Mother again acknowledged she did Upon this my Mother countermanded the Messenger for the Chyrurgeon On this my Mother demanded of her how she came to the Knowledge of her Fall She made answer That half a Dozen Persons told her of it That reply'd my Mother could not be for there was none came by at that time but my Neighbour that brought me home Anne answers again That that was Truth and it was also true that half a Dozen Persons told her so for said she you know I went out of the House into the Gardens and Orchards very unwillingly And now I will tell you the Truth of all Matters and Things that have befallen me You know that this my Sickness and Fits came very suddenly upon me which brought me very low and weak and have made me very simple Now the Cause of my Sickness was this I was one Day knitting of Stockings in the Arbour in the Garden and there came over the Garden-hedge of a sudden Six small People all in Green Cloaths which put me into such a Fright that was the Cause of this my great Sickness and they continue their Appearance to me never less than Two at a time nor never more than Eight they always appear in even Numbers Two Four Six Eight When I said often in my Sickness They were just gone out of the Window it was really so altho' you thought me light-headed At this time when I came out into the Garden they came to me and ask'd me If you had put me out of the House against my Will I told them I was unwilling to come out of the House upon this they said You should not fare the better for it and thereupon in that Place and at that Time in a fair Path-way you fell and hurt your Leg. I would not have you send for a Chyrurgeon nortrouble your self for I will cure your Leg. The which she did in a little time This Cuâ—â— of my Mother's Leg and the Stories she told of these Fairies made such a Noise over all the County of Cornwall as that it had the same Effect St. Paul's healing of Publius's Father of a Fever and a Bloody-flux at Malta after his Shipwreck there as related Acts 28.8 9. And it came to pass that the Father of Publius lay sick of a Fever and of a Bloody-flux to whom Paul entred in and prayed and laid his Hands on him and healed him So when this was done others also which had Diseases in the Island came and were healed That People of all Distempers Sicknesses Sores and Ages came not only so far off as the Lands-end but also from London and were cured by her She took no Moneys of them nor any Reward that ever I knew or heard of yet had she Moneys at all times sufficient to supply her Wants She neither made nor bought any Medicines or Salves that ever I saw or heard of yet wanted them not as she had occasion She forsook eating our Victuals and was fed by these Fairies from that Harvest-time to the next Christmas-Day upon which Day she came to our Table and said Because it was that Day she would eat some Roast-beef with us the which she did I myself being then at Table One time I remember it perfectly well I had a mind to speak with her and not knowing better where to find her than in her Chamber I went thither and fell a knocking very earnestly at her Chamber-door with my Foot and calling to her earnestly Anne Anne open the Door and let me in She answered me Have a little Patience and I will let you in immediately Upon which I look'd through the Key-hole of the Door and I saw her Eating and when she had done Eating she stood still by her Bed-side as long as Thanks to God might be given and then she made a Coursey or Bow and opened the Chamber-door and gave me a Piece of her Bread which I did eat and I think it was the most delicious Bread that ever I did eat either before or since Another odd Passage which I must relate was this
of destroying herself and have had oftentimes a Knife put into her Hand to do it so that she durst not be left by herself alone and when she had considered what the Cause of it might be her Conscience did hint most her neglecting of Duties to have performed they being the Ordinances of God Thus she continued 'till two Years ago she buried her Child the which was a very great trouble to her to part with and then was she more convinced of Sin which caused her Burthen to be the greater so that she could seldom have any other Thoughts but of Desperation but the Lord keeping her by his great Mercy so that sometimes she could pray with Devotion and discerning the Lord to remove this great Trouble from her she did plainly find that those great Temptations were very much lessened the which is a great Comfort unto her Spirit Believers Experiences p. 25. CHAP. XCI Satan Hurting by Dreams That God hath made use of Dreams and Visions of the Night to awaken Men to their Duty and a Sence of the Dangers they were in is demonstrated already and it is not unreasonable to believe that the Devil can in this Case too transform himself into an Angel of Light and impose upon the Imaginations of Men by strange deluding Fancies and Idea's formed on purpose to trick their Minds into a Snare and to allure them into some Trap of either Sin or Misery that he hath laid for them 1. King James the Fifth of Scotland was a great Enemy to the Light of the Gospel which in his Days broke forth in that Kingdom viz. about the Year 1541 and out of a blind and bloody Zeal was heard to say That none of that Sort should expect any Favour at his Hands no not his own Sons if they proved guilty But not long after Sir James Hamilton being suspected to incline that way was falsly accused of a Practice against the King's Life and being Condemned was Executed Shortly after the King being at Linlithgow on a Night as he slept it seemed to him That Thomas Scot Justice-Clerk came unto him with a Company of Devils crying Wo-worth the Day that ever I knew thee or thy Service for serving thee against God and against his Servants I am now adjudged to Hell torments Hereupon the King awaking called for Lights and causing his Servants to arise told them what he had heard and seen The next Morning by Day-light Advertisement was brought him of this Scot's Death which fell out just at the time when the King found himself so troubled and almost in the same manner for he died in great extremity often uttering these words Justo Dei Judicio comdemnatus sum by the righteous Judgment of God I am condemned Which being related to the King made the Dream more terrible 2. Another Vision he had in the same place not many Nights after which did more affright him Whilst he lay sleeping he thought He saw Sir James Hamilton whom he had caused to be Executed come with a Sword drawn in his Hand wherewith he cut off both his Arms threatning also to return within a short time and deprive him of his Life With this he awaked and as he lay musing what this might import News was brought him of the Death of his two Sons James and Arthur who died at St. Andrews and Strinling at one and the same Hour The next Year viz. 1542 being overcome with Grief and Passion himself died at Faulkland in the Thirty second Year of his Age. Arch-bishop Spoteswood 's History of the Church of Scotland Clark's Mirrour Ch. 7. p. 34 35. I am not sure that these particular Instances are properly placed under this Head I leave it to my wise and judicious Reader to consider whether or no these were Divine Admonitions or Satanical Illusions Mr. Clark hath accounted them as Satanical But 't is certain the Vulgar sort of People are so fond of observing their Dreams and some pretended wise Men and Women of a superstitious Kidney do promote this Fancy extreamly and undertake to prescribe Rules for the making a Judgment upon them and by that means do no small hurt to some weak hypochondriacal and melancholick Spirits How often shall we hear them whining out their Complaints upon the Account of some late Dream in expectation of some sad Disaster or Malady that they believe with much Confidence will befall them And sometimes fretting and pining to that extremity that no Comfort will down with them 'till the Date of their Dream be fully expired And I doubt not but Comfort will down with in promoting these silly and troublesome Conceits CHAP. XCII Satan Hurting by Witchcraft ATheism and Sadducism have got such Ground in the World of late Ages that 't is no vain Vndertaking to write of Devils and the Mischief done by them to Mankind by the Mediation of a sort of People that have Familiar Communion with them To transcribe all has been writ upon this Subject by Dr. More Mr. Glanvil Mr. Baxter Scheggius Remigius Delrio Mather c. would make up a large Volume enough to confute any whose Faces are not harder than Brass and their Hearts than Iron it shall be enough to say so much as shall suffice to convince those who are industrious enough to read patient enough to deliberate and have humility and honesty enough to be serious and impartial And as for the rest Qui vult Decipi decipiatur 1. In Pinola there were some who were much given to Witchcraft and by the Power of the Devil did act strange Things Amongst the rest there was one Old Woman named Martha de Carillo who had been by some of the Town formerly accused for Bewitching many but the Spanish Justices quitted her finding no sure Evidence against her with this grew worse and worse and did much harm when I was there two or three died withering away declaring at their Death That this Carillo had killed them and that they saw her often about their Beds threatning them with a frowning and angry Look the Indians for fear of her durst not complain against her nor meddle with her Whereupon I sent saith my Author unto Don Juan de Guzman the Lord of that Town that if he took not Order with her she would destroy the Town He hearing of it got for me a Commission from the Bishop and another Officer of the inquisition to make diligent and private Enquiry after her Life and Actions Which I did and found among the Indians many and grievous Complaints against her most of the Town affirming that she was certainly a most notorious Witch and that before her former Accusation she was wont to go as she had occasion about the Town with a Duck following her which when she came to the Church would stay at the Door 'till she came out again and then would return with her which Duck they imagined was her beloved Devil and Familiar Spirit for that they had often set Dogs at
Bolton at first with an Ugly Intanglement sometime in the form of a great Snake sometime of many little ones full of Nastiness Vermin and noisome Smell and that which is most to be admired and never Age saw before pricked with a Needle they yielded bloody Drops This first began in Poland afterwards entred into Germany and all that then cut off this horrible snaky Hair either lost their Eyes or the Humour falling down upon other Parts tortured them extreamly Methinks saith our Author Our monstrous Fashionists Maies and Females the one for nourishing their horrid Bushes of Vaity the other for cutting their Hair should fear and tremble c. Bolton's Preparation to Death 8. Mr. John Mackerness born at Brickstock-Park in Northamptonshire in a Narrative published by his own Hand A. D. 1676. confesses That God had â—orely handled him by Melancholy and Fretfulness and such Fluctuation of Thoughts and Temptations that he was not far from being mad or possessed which he especially imputed to his Pride and Discontent as the Cause and begs the Prayers of others for himself CHAP. CXXVII Divine Judgments upon Boasting AS thâ—se Sticks that send forth most Smoak offerd the least Heat so the greatest Boasters are the least Doers saith Mr. Spencer according to our English Proverb Great Boast and small Roast Erasmus in his Adagies tells us of a young Man and Traveller that being returned home began to praise himself in all Company and amongst other excellent Feats boasted that in the Isle of Rhodes he out-jump'd all the Men that were there as all the Rhodians could hear him Witness Whereupon a stander-by said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suppose this to be Rhodes and jump here and then he could do just nothing Alas What are Words without Deeds but Vanity and a Lye 1. When Alcibiades then but young was boasting himself of his Riches and Lands Socrates took him into a Room and shewed him the Map of the World Now said he where is the County of Attica When Alcibiades had pointed to it Lay me then said he your Finger upon your own Lands there When the other told him they were not there described And what said Socrates do you boast your self of that which is not a part of the Earth He that hath most hath nothing to boast of and great Boasts for the most part as they betray great Folly so they end in as great Derision Wanley's Wonders of the little World p. 433. 2. Oromazes had an inchanted Egg in which this Impostor boasted that he had enclosed all the Happiness in the World but when it was broken there was found nothing in it but Wind. Causin's Holy Court Tom. 2. p. 465. 3. Mr. John Carter Vicar of Bramford in Suffolk an excellent Scholar and a modest Person being at Dinner at Ipswich in one of the Magistrates Houses where divers other Ministers were also at the Table one amongst the rest who was old enough and had learned enough to have taught him more Humility was very full of Talk bragged much of his Parts and Skill c. and made a Challenge saying Here are many Learned Men if any of you will propound any Question in Divinity or Philosophy I will dispute with him resolve his Doubts and satisfie him fully All at the Table except himself were silent for a while Then Mr. Carter when he saw that no other would speak to him calling him by his Name I will said he go no further than my Trencher to puzzle you here is a Soal Now tell me the Reason why this Fish that hath always lived in the salt Water should come out fresh To this the forward Gentleman could say nothing and so was laughed at and shamed out of his Vanity Clark's Lives of Ten Eminent Divines p. 12. 4. Eunomius the Heretick boasted That he knew the Nature of God at which time notwithstanding St. Basil puzzled him in 21 Questions about the Body of an Ant. Ful. Hol. Stat. l. 2. c. 4. p. 57. Wanley's Wonders of the little World p. 433. 5. Paracelsus boasted that he could make a Man immortal and yet himself died at 47 Years of Age. Ful. Hol. Stat. l. 2. c. 3. p. 54. 6. Pompey the Great at such times as the News of Caesar's passing Rubicon came to Rome boasting That if he should but once stamp with is Foot upon the Earth of Italy forthwith armed Troops of Horse and Foot would leap out thence yet was he put to a shameful Flight by that Enemy he so much despised Clark's Mirr c. 102. 471. 7. See the Story of Sigismund King of Hungary in the preceding Chapter on Pride Ambition c. 8. Abel by Bribes bestowed in the Court of Rome from the Archdeacon of St. Andrews got himself to be preferred Bishop there and was Consecrated by Pope Innocent the IV. At his Return he carried himself with great Insolence They write of him That in a vain-glorious Humour one day he did with a little Chalk draw this Line upon the Gate of the Church Haec mihi sunt tria Lex Canon Philosophia Bragging of his Knowledge and Skill in those Professions and that going to Church the next day he found another Line drawn under the former which said To levant absque tria Fraus Favour Vanasophia This did so gall him that taking his Bed he died within a few Days having sate Bishop only ten Months and two Days This was about Anno 1238. Bish Spots Hist of the Churck of Scotland l. 2. p. 44. CHAP. CXXVIII Divine Judgments upon Curiosity TO be wise unto Sobriety is an excellent Rule prescribed us by the Apostle and the Reason is obvious enough to any Man of competent Sense and Brains For Adam by an affectation of knowing more than was necessary came to know more than was comfortable and an insatiate Desire of Wisdom is certainly a Symptom of the Hereditary Disease derived to us from him God hath set us Bounds to all our Disquisitions and if we do not keep within compass we forfeit our Faculties and expose our selves to all the Dangers that are out of ken Whatever we do let us do prudently and have a regard to some good End For whatsoever is more than this is more than is needful or safe or honourable 1. There is saith Mr. Baxter now in London a Youth the Son of a very Godly Conforming Minister who reading a Book of that called Conjuration coming to the Word and Actions which that Book said would cause the Devil to appear was presently very desirous to try and desirous that the Apparition might be accordingly He came saith he to me in terrour having before opened his Case to a Parish-Minister and affirmed to me That the Devil had appeared to him and sollicited him with a Knife to cut his Throat and told him he must do it suddenly for he would stay no longer I told him how safe he was if he truly repented and begged Pardon through Christ and
would resolvedly renew his Baptismal Covenant and renounce the Devil and live as truly devoted to God and our Redeemer I have heard from him no more but must not name him Historical Discourse of Apparitions and Witches p. 62. 2. Dr. John Dee an excellent Scholar and Mathematician of the University of Oxford who published many Treatises for the Benefit of his Country at least Eight in number being afterwards earnestly desirous of more Knowledge and making it his serious Prayer to God to make him wiser than the rest of Mankind was by the Divine Judgment given over to strong Delusions and sadly imposed upon by the Apparition of Evil Spirits under the Disguise of Good Angelâ— who promised to help him to the Philosopher's Stone who never left him till they had dreined him of what Wealth he had so that at last he died very poor and every way miserable at Mortlack near London All Men may take warning by this Example how they put themselves out of the Protection of Almighty God either by presumptuous unlawful Wishes and Desires or by seeking not unto Devils only directly which Dr. d ee certainly never did but abhorred the very Thought of it in his Heart but unto them that have next relation unto Devils as Witches Wizzards Conjurers Astrologers that take upon them to foretel humane Events Fortune-tellers and the like yea and all Books of that subject which I doubt were a great Occasion of Dr. Dee's Delusion I might have added amongst the Miseries that befel this Doctor That he was Banished out of England out of the Emperor or Germany's Territories by the Interposition of the Pope Robbed of his Houshold-Plate by his own Sons c. Dr. Mer. Casaubon 's Relat. of Dr. Dee 's Actions with Spirits Preface 3. Edward Kelly Dr. Dee's Skryer a Necromancer of Lancashire by clambering over a Wall in his own House in Prague which bears his Name to this day and sometimes was an old Sanctuary he fell down from the Battlements broke his Legs and bruised his Body of which hurts within a while after he departed this World Ibid. 4. There was within the Memory of our Fathers saith Camerarius John Faustus of Cundligen a German who had learned the Black Art at Cracovia in Poland This wicked Wretch is reported to have led about with him an Evil Spirit in the likeness of a Dog and being at Wittenburg an Order was sent from the Emperor to seize him but by his Magical Delusions he made his escape and afterwards being at a Dinner at Norimberg he was secretly sensible by an extraordinary Sweat which came upon him that he was beset whereupon he suddenly paid his Reckoning and went away but was hardly out of the City Walls ere the Sergeants and other Officers came to Apprehend him Yet Divine Vengeance followed him for coming into an Inn in a Village of the Dukedom of Wittenburg he sat very sad and when his Host demanding the cause thereof he answered that he would not have him affrighted if he heard great noise and shaking of the House that Night which happened according to his own Prediction for in the Morning he was found dead by his Bed-side with his Neck wrung behind him and the House wherein he lay was beaten down to the Ground Wanly Hist Man 5. An Officer who was a Papist belonging to a Court of Justice came out of Curiosity to Mr. Perreaud's House and hearing that the Devil fore-told future things there and some Secrets he would needs Question him about many matters but Mr. Perreaud desired him to forbear representing to him both the sin and danger of it The Lawyer rejected his Counsel with scorn bidding him Teach his own Flock and let him have the Government of himself and so proceeded to propound several Questions to the Devil as about absent Friends private Business News and State-Affairs unto all which the Devil answered him and then added Now Sir I have told you all that you have desired of me I must tell you next what you demanded not That at this very time you are propounding these Questions to the Devil such a Man whom he named is doing your Business with your Wife And then he further discovered many secret and foul Practices of the Lawyer which shewed his dishonesty Neither was this all for in conclusion the Devil told him Now Sir let me Correct you for being so bold as to Question with the Devil you should have taken the Ministers safe Counsel Then upon a sudden the whole Company saw the Lawyer drawn by the Arm into the midst of the Room where the Devil whirled him about and gave him many turns with great swiftness touching the Ground only with his Toe and then threw him down upon the Floor with great violence and being taken up and carried to his House he lay sick and distracted a long time after See the Narrative of the Devil of Mascon CHAP. CXXIX Divine Judgments upon Gaming SPorting and Gaming is not simply and absolutely unlawful but rather a whet to cut Studies and Lawful Employments as eating drinking and sleeping moderately and seasonably rather refresheth our Spirits and makes us more fit and brisk for Care and Business But the immoderate use or abuse of them is of evil Report and tends to the dissipation of the Powers of the Soul the effeminating of the Mind the loss of Time and all the ill Effects and Consequences of an Idle and Licentious Life And therefore no wonder if God Almighty do often Punish those Persons with some visible Tokens of his Displeasure who give up themselves immoderately and without any check to such Courses In short where Games are not used with these Cautions soberly seasonably ingenuously inoffensively prudently and religiously they are naught and daugerous and there are but very few People that are careful thus to govern themselves when they are engaged in Play Voluptates ut mel summo digito degustandae non plena manu sumendae Dionys Soph. apud Philostr 1. In a Town of Campania a certain Jew playing at Dice with a Christian lost a great Sum of Money unto him with which great Loss being enraged and almost beside himself as commonly Men in that case are affected he belched out most bitter Curses against Christ Jesus and his Mother the Blessed Virgin in the midst whereof the Lord deprived him of his Life and Sense and struck him dead in the place As for his Companion the Christian indeed he escaped sudden Death howbeit he was robbed of his Wits and Understanding and survived not very long after Discip de tempor Ser. 12. 2. Anno 1533. Near to Belissana a City in Helvetia there were three Profane Wretches that played at Dice upon the Lord's-day without the Walls of the City one of which called Vlrich Schraeterus having lost much Money offended God with many cursed speeches At last presaging to himself Good Luck he burst forth into these terms If Fortune deceive me now I will thrust
rise up in Judgment against you My Lord I profess my self a True and Obedient Son to the Church of England to that Church wherein I was born and wherein I was bred Prosperity and Happiness be ever to it And wherein it hath been said That I have been enclined to Popery If it be an Objection worth answering let me say truly That from the Time I was One and twenty Years of Age till this Hour going up Nine and forty I never had thought in my Heart to doubt of the Truth of my Religion in England and never any had the boldness to suggest to me the contrary to the best of my Remembrance and so being reconciled to the Mercies of Christ Jesus my Saviour into whose Bosom I hope shortly to be gathered to enjoy those Eternal Happinesses that shall never have end I desire heartily the Forgiveness of every Man both for any rash or unadvised Word or Deed and desire your Prayers And so my Lords Farewel Farewel all the Things of this World Lord strengthen my Faith give me Confidence and Assurance in the Merits of Christ Jesus I desire that you would be silent and joyn in Prayers with me and I trust in God we shall all meet and live eternally in Heaven there to receive the Accomplishment of all Happiness where every Tear shall be wiped from our Eyes and every sad Thought from our Hearts and so God bless this Kingdom and Jesus have Mercy upon my Soul After this he prayed twice and with a low Obeysance took his Leave submitting to the Block The Relat. of his Execut. 113. Archbishop Laud made this his last Speech on the Scaffold Jan. 10. 1644. GOod People this is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Hebr. 12.2 Let us run with patience the race c. I have been long in my Race and how I have look'd to Jesus the Author and Finisher of my Faith he best knows I am now come to the end of my Race and here I find a Cross a Death of Shame but the Shame must be despised or no coming to the Right of God Jesus despised the Shame for me and God forbid but I should despise the Shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my Feet are now upon the very brink of it an Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his Prophets but before they came to it he instituted a Passover for them a Lamb it was but to be eaten with sour Herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the sour Herbs as well as the Lamb and I shall remember it is the Lord 's Passover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the Hand that gathers them but look only to Him who instituted that and governs these for Men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this Passage through the Red Sea for I have the Weaknesses and Infirmities of Flesh and Blood plentifully in me and I have prayed with my Saviour that this Cup of Red Wine might pass from me but if not God's Will not mine be done And I shall most willingly drink of this Cup as deep as he pleaseth and enter into this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People that when God's Servants were in this boisterous Sea and Aaron among them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know the God whom I serve is able to deliver me from this Sea of Blood as the Three Children from the Furnace And I most humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then they would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the Truth of God to follow the Bleating of Jeroboam's Calf in Dan and in Bethel And as for this People they are at this Day miserably misled God of his Mercy open their Eyes that they may see the right way for at this Day the Blind lead the Blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the Ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all Humility a most grievous Sinner many ways by Thought Word and Deed and I cannot doubt but that God hath Mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other Sinners I have now upon this sad Occasion ransacked every corner of my Heart and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any one Sin which deserves Death by any known Law of this Kingdom And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Judges for if they proceed upon Proof by valuable Witnesses I or any other Innocent may be justly condemned and I thank God tho' the weight of this Sentence lie heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my Life and tho' I am not only the first Archbishop but the first Man that ever died by an Ordinance in Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way tho' not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his Life by the Danes 3. and Simon Suabury in the Fury of Wat. Tyler and his Fellows before these St. John Baptist had his Head danced off by a lewd Woman and St. Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his Head to a persecuting Sword Many Examples great and good and they teach me Patience for I hope my Cause in Heaven will look of another dye than the Colour that is put upon it here and some Comfort it is to me that I go the way of these Great Men in their several Generations and also that my Charge as foul as it is made looks like that of the Jews against St. Paul Act. 25.3 for he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion and like that of St. Stephen Act. 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the Holy Place and the Temple v. 13. But you will say Do I then compare my self with the Integrity of St. Paul and St. Stephen No! far be that from me I only raise a Comfort to my self that these Great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now and 't is memorable that he who helped on this Accusation against St. Stephen did after all fall under the very same himself Yea but here 's a great Clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him venient Romani
to the uttermost I humbly beseech thee give me now in this great Instant full Patience proportionable Comfort and a Heart ready to die for thy Honour the King's Happiness and this Church's Preservation and my Zeal to these far from Arrogancy be it spoken is all the Sin Humane Frailty excepted and all Incidents thereto which is yet known to me in this Particular for which I now come to suffer I say in this particular of Treason but otherwise my Sins are very many and great Lord pardon them all and those especially whatever they are which have drawn down this special Judgment upon me And when thou hast given me Strength to bear it do with me as seems best in thine own Eyes and carry me through Death that I may look upon it in what Visage soever it appear unto me Amen And that there may be a Stop of this Issue of Blood in this more than miserable Kingdom I shall desire That I may pray for the People too as well as for my self O Lord I beseech thee give Grace of Repentance to all Blood-thirsty People but if they will not Repent O Lord confound all their Devices defeat and frustrate all their Designs and Endeavours upon them which shall be contrary to the Glory of thy Great Name the Truth and Sincerity of Religion the Establishment of the King and his Posterity after him in their just Rights and Privileges the Honour and Conservation of Parliaments in their just Power the Preservation of this poor Church in her Truth Peace and Patrimony and the Settlement of this distracted and distressed People under their ancient Laws and in their native Liberties And when thou hast done all this in Mercy for them O Lord fill their Hearts with Thankfulness and with Religious Dutiful Obedience to thee and thy Commandments all their Days So Amen Lord Jesus Amen And receive my Soul into thy Bosom Amen Our Father c. Again kneeling by the Block he prayed thus Lord I am coming as fast as I can I know I must pass through the Shadow of Death before I can come to see thee But it is but umbra mortis a meer Shadow of Death a little Darkness upon Nature but thou thro' thy Merits and Passion hast broke through the Jaws of Death So Lord receive my Soul and have Mercy upon me and bless this Kingdom with Peace and Plenty and with Brotherly Love and Charity that there may not be this Effusion of Christian Blood amongst them for Jesus Christ's sake if it be thy Will Then laying his Head upon the Block and praying silently to himself he said aloud Lord receive my Soul Which was the Signal given to the Executioner Thus he died Aged 71. Jan. 10. 1644. A brief Relat. of his Death and Sufferings printed at Oxon c. 1644. 114. King Charles the First made this his last Speech upon the Scaffold I Shall be very little heard by any body here I shall therefore speak a Word unto you here Indeed I could hold my Peace very well if I did not think that holding my Peace would make some Men think that I did submit to the Guilt as well as to the Punishment but I think it is my Duty to God first and to my Country for to clear my self both as an honest Man and a good Christian I shall begin first with my Innocency In troth I think it not very needful for me to insist long upon this for all the World knows I never did begin a War with the two Houses of Parliament and I call God to witness to whom I must shortly make an Account that I never did intend to encroach upon their Privileges They began upon me it was the Militia they began upon They confess'd that the Militia was mine but they thought it fit to have it from me And to be short if any Body will look to the Dates of Commissions both theirs and mine and likewise to the Declarations will see clearly that they began these unhappy Troubles not I So that for the Guilt of these enormous Crimes that are laid against me I hope in God that God will clear me of it I will not I am in Charity God forbid that I should lay it upon the two Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this Guilt For I do believe that ill Instruments between them and me have been the Cause of all this Bloodshed so that by way of speaking I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may be so too Yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say That God's Judgments are just upon me Many times he doth pay Justice by an unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will only say this That an unjust Sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished now by an unjust Sentence upon me That is so far I have said to shew you that I am an innocent Man Now for to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good Man pointing to Dr. Juxon that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the World and those in particular that have been the chief Causers of my Death who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish that they may repent for indeed they have committed a great Sin in that Particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their Charge nay not only so but that they may take the right way to the Peace of the Kingdom So Sirs I do wish with all my Soul and I hope there is some here will carry it further that they may endeavour the Peace of the Kingdom Now Sirs I must shew you how you are out of the way and will put you in a way First You are out of the way for certainly all the way you ever had yet as I could find by any thing is in the way of Conquest Certainly this is an ill way for Conquest Sirs in my Opinion is never Just except there be a good just Cause either for Matter of Wrong or a just Title and then if you go beyond it that makes it Unjust in the end that was Just at first But if it be only Matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a Pirate said to Alexander That he was the great Robber he was but a petty Robber And so Sirs I do think the way you are in is much out of the way Now Sirs for to put you in the way believe it you will never do right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his due the King his due that is my Successors and the People their due I am as much for them as any of you You must give God his due by regulating rightly his Church according to his Scriptures which is now out
of order For to set you in a way particularly now I cannot but only this A National Synod freely called freely debating among themselves must settle this when that every Opinion is freely and clearly heard For the King indeed I will not the Laws of the Land will clearly instruct you for that Therefore because it concerns my own particular I only give you a touch of it For the People and truly I desire their Liberty and Freedom as much as any body whomsoever but I must tell you That their Liberty and Freedom consist in having 〈◊〉 Government those Laws by which their Lives and Goods may be most their own It is not for having a share in Government Sirs that is nothing pertaining to them a Subject and a Soveraign are clean different things and therefore until they do that I mean until you do put the People in that Liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs it was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an Arbitrary way for to have all Laws chang'd according to the Power of the Sword I needed not to have come here and therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to their Charge That I am the Martyr of the People In troth Sirs I shall not trouble you much longer for I will only say this to you That in truth I could have desired some little time longer because that I would have put this that I have said in a little more order and a little better digested than I have done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my Conscience I pray God that you may take those Courses that are best for the Good of the Kingdom and your own Salvation The Bishop of London minding him to say something concerning his Religion he answered I thank you very heartily my Lord for that I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs my Conscience in Religion I think is very well known to all the World and therefore I declare before you all That I die a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as I found it left by my Father and this honest Man I think can witness it Then turning to the Officers he said Sirs Excuse me for this same I have a good Cause and a Gracious God I will say no more Then turning to Colonel Hacker he said Take heed that they do not put me to pain and Sir this and it please you But then a Gentleman coming near the Ax the King said Take heed of the Ax Pray take heed of the Ax. Then to the Executioner I shall have but very short Prayers and when I thrust out my Hand Then the King called to Dr. Juxon for his Night-cap and having put it on he said to the Executioner Doth my Hair trouble you Who desired him to put it all under his Cap which he did accordingly Then to Dr. Juxon I have a good Cause and a Gracious God on my side Dr. Juxon There is but one Stage more This Stage is turbulent and troublesome it is a short one but you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way from Earth to Heaven and there you shall find a great deal of Cordial Joy and Comfort King I go from a Corruptible to an Incorruptible Crown where no Disturbance can be Doctor You are exchanged from a Temporal to an Eternal Crown a good Exchange Then the King took off his Cloak and his George giving his George to Dr. Juxon saying Remember And so humbly submitted to the Block Jan. 30. 1648. through the Indignity and unjust Dealing of ill Men. A brief Review of the most material Parl. Transact began Nov. 3. 1640. 115. Duke Hamilton Earl of Cambridge made this his last Speech on the Scaffold in the Palace-yard march 9. 1649. I Think it is truly not very necessary for me to speak much there are many Gentlemen and Soldiers there that see me but my Voice truly is so weak so low that they cannot hear me neither truly was I ever at any time so much in love with speaking or with any thing that I had to express that I took delight in it yet this being the last time that I am to do so by a Divine Providence of Almighty God who hath brought me to this End justly for my Sins I shall to you Sir Mr. Sheriff declare thus much as to the Matter I am now to suffer for which is as being a Traytor to the Kingdom of England Truly Sir it was a Country I equally loved with my own I made no difference I never intended either the Generality of its Prejudice or any particular Man 's in it what I did was by the Command of the Parliament of the Country where I was born whose Command I could not disobey without running into the same hazard there of that condition that I am now in It pleased God so to dispose that Army under my Command as it was ruined and I as their General cloathed with a Commission stand here now ready to die I shall not trouble you with repeating of my Plea what I said in my own Defence at the Court of Justice my self being well satisfied with the Command laid upon me and they satisfied with the Justice of their proceedure according to the Laws of this Land God is Just howsoever I shall not say any thing as to the matter of the Sentence but that I do willingly submit to his Divine Providence and acknowledge that very many ways I deserve even a Worldly Punishment as well as hereafter For we are all sinners Sir I am a great one yet for my Comfort I know there is a God in Heaven that is exceeding merciful I know my Redeemer sits at his Right-hand and am confident clapping his hand on his Breast is Mediating for me at this instant I am hopeful through his Free Grace and All-sufficient Merits to be pardoned of my sins and to be received into his Mercy upon that I rely trusting to nothing but the Free Grace of God through Jesus Christ I have not been tainted in my Religion I thank God for it since my Infancy it hath been such as hath been profess'd in the Land and established and now it is not this Religion or that Religion nor this or that Fancy of Men that is to be built upon it is but one that 's right one that 's sure and that comes from God Sir and in the Free Grace of our Saviour Sir there is truly somewhat that he then observing the Writers had I thought my Speech would have been thus takeâ—â—â— would have digested it into some better Method than now I can and shall desire these Gentlemen that do write it that they will not wrong me in it and that it may not in this manner be published to my disadvantage for truly I did not intend to have spoken thus when I came here c.
we may without Flattery account this his warm Zeal for his Country if it did a little exceed a happy as well as a very pardonable Error He was extraordinary ingenious in his own Trade and imployed amongst great Persons for his dexterity therein He had an entire Love for the City of London and stood up for its Honour and Privileges as highly as any Man living He had a Soul so very great and generous that many who knew him well have said considering his Education they wondred how he came by it He was a Man of very good sound Sense considerably more than those of his Rank generally have which he had much improved in his latter time by Conversation with Persons of Honour and Quality In fine he liv'd sufficiently belov'd by those who knew and did not fear him and dy'd lamented by his Friends and admired and esteemed by his very Enemies Some time after his Death his Picture was sold about Town Under it were these Lines engraven By Irish Oaths and wrested Laws I fell A Prey to Rome a Sacrifice to Hell My guilty Blood for speedy Vengeance cries Hear hear and help for Earth my Suit denies 3. ARTHVR Earl of Essex THat Party and those Persons who were engag'd to manage the Designs before-mention'd were now entred on the most compendious way of introducing what they desir'd as well as avoiding what their own Consciences and all the World knew they deserv'd My Lord of Essex was a Person whom 't was no doubt the highest Interest of the Popish Faction to have gotten out of the way even tho' there had been no such extraordinary Reason as has been mentioned He had large Interest a plentiful Estate a great deal of Courage understood the World and the Principles and Practices of the Papists as well as any Man having been of several Secret Committees in the Examination of the Plot on which very reason there was as much necessity for his dying as Sir E. B. Godfrey's He was besides all this they very well knew of Inflexible Honesty and so true a greatness of Mind they could no more expect to gain him than Heaven it self to be on their side As for the immediate Subject of his Death the manner and circumstances thereof It must first be granted and a very reasonable demand it is that for the present only supposing he was murder'd by the Papists they would we may be sure make it their business to render the manner of it as dark as the Hell in which 't was contriv'd But whatever this couragious honest Gentleman suffer'd from their Spite and Malice he bore all with handsom and truly English Resolution As he before his Imprisonment and since was indefatigably diligent in getting up the bottom of this foul Business all English-men must own he has deserv'd the Love and Honour of his Country who was not discourag'd from acting even in the worst of times against a whole enraged Faction His CHARACTER It must be confessed 't is a bold and dangerous thing to attempt the Character of one of the greatest Men which our Age has produced especially for one who had not the Honour of any Personal intimacy with him All that 's to be done is from what has been already said and what other Memoirs are left of him to endeavour at something so like him that any one who sees it may say 't was meant for the Picture of the Great Essex how infinitely soever it must of necessity be short of its Original The first thing then Remarkable in him and which alone would sufficiently distinguish him is That he was a Person of strict Morals and severe Piety and that in the midst of a Court and Age not very Famous for either Nor did this degenerate into Superstition or Weakness He was a refin'd Politician without what some will say 't is impossible to be so and that 's Dissimulation When Affronts were offer'd him he did not as others dissemble 'em but like himself only scorn and conquer 'em even tho' of the highest Nature and which generally pierce deepest into Persons of his Figure and Character He was as all the rest here commemorated a firm Lover of his Country and Religion the true Character of a true English-man and engaged on their sides against the then Duke of York and other Ministers not from any mean Pique or little discontented Humour which he was very much above but meerly from the true Respect he had for them and a sense of that imminent Danger they were in which his piercing Judgment and long Experience made him more sensible of and his Courage and Vertue more concern'd at than others not only those who fat unconcern'd Spectators or shared in their Ruins but even then most of them who were engaged with him in the same Common Cause of their Defence and Preservation Nothing of such an impatience or eagerness or black Melancholy could be discern'd in his Temper or Conversation as is always the Symptom or Cause of such Tragical Ends as his Enemies would perswade us he came to Lastly What may be said of most of the rest does in a more especial and eminent manner agree to the Illustrious Essex and than which nothing greater can be said of Mortality He liv'd an Hero and dy'd a Martyr Upon the Execrable Murther of the Right Honourable Arthur Earl of Essex MOrtality wou'd be too frail to hear How ESSEX fell and not dissolve with fear Did not more generous Rage take off the blow And by his Blood the steps to Vengeance show The Tow'r was for the Tragedy design'd And to be slaughter'd he is first confin'd As fetter'd Victims to the Altar go But why must Noble ESSEX perish so Why with such fury drag'd into his Tomb Murther'd by slaves and sacrific'd to Rome By stealth they kill and with a secret stroke Silence that Voice which charm'd when e'er it spoke The bleeding Orifice o'er flow'd the Ground More like some mighty Deluge than a Wound Through the large space his Blood and Vitals glide And his whole Body might have past beside The reeking Crimson swell'd into a Flood And stream'd a second time in Capel's Blood He 's in his Son again to Death pursu'd An instance of the high'st Ingratitude Then they malicious Stratagems employ With Life his dearer Honour to destroy And make his Fame extinguish with his Breath An Act beyond the Cruelties of Death Here Murther is in all its shapes compleat As Lines united in their Centre meet Form'd by the blackest Politicks of Hell Was Cain so dev'lish when his Brother fell He that contrives or his own Fate desires Wants Courage and for fear of Death expires But mighty ESSEX was in all things brave Neither to Hope nor to Despair a Slave He had a Soul to Innocent and Great To fear or to anticipate his Fate Yet their exalted Impudence and Guilt Charge on himself the precious Blood they spilt So were the Protestants some Years ago Destroy'd
Interest than most of his Station He was sworn against by Rouse's Lee and Richard Goodenough upon the old Stories of seizing the Tower City and Savoy 'T was urged That there was Three Years between the Fact pretended and Lee's Prosecution of him which tho' they had but one Witness could have brought him to Punishment which would have been judged sufficient by any but those who would be content with nothing but Blood For Goodenough he was but one Witness and pardon'd only so far as to qualifie him to do Mischief However he was found Guilty and died as much like a Christian and with as great a Presence of Mind as most of the others The Last Words of those which suffered in the West of England and other Places chiefly under Jeffrey's insulting Cruelty ONE thing there is very observable in most if not all of those who laid down their Lives in Defence of the Protestant Religion both in England and Scotland that besides that extraordinary Divine Courage and Chearfulness with which they dy'd they had Expressions plainly boading that great Deliverance which Providence has since that miraculously accomplished for these Kingdom 'T would be endless to give almost all the innumerable Instances of it Mr. Nelthrop says God had in his wonderful Providence made him and others Instruments not only in what was already fallen out but he believed for hast'ning some other great Work he had yet to do in these Kingdoms Mrs. Gaunt says God 's Cause shall revive and he 'd plead it at another rate than yet he had done against all its malicious Opposers And speaks yet more strangely of those then uppermost and likely to be so That tho' they were seemingly fix'd and using their Power and Violence against those they had now got under 'em yet unless they could secure Jesus Christ and all his Holy Angels they should never do their Business but Vengeance would be upon 'em ' e're they were aware Capt. Ansley whose Speech is as pretty a meat thing as close and Christian and couragious as perhaps any that ever was made by Man in his Condition after he had said He did not repent what he had done but if he had a thousand Lives would have engag'd 'em all in the same Cause adds just after Though it has pleased the wise God for Reasons best known to himself now to blast our Designs yet he will deliver his People by ways we know not nor think of Rumbold said just the same Mr. Hewling says I question not but in his own time God will raise up other Instruments to carry on the same Cause they dy'd for for his own Glory Mr. Lark That he was confident God would Revenge their Bloods Now it will be very harsh to say all these and several more to the same purpose were nothing but Enthusiasm since spoken by Persons of all Sexes and Ages in twenty different Places in the most calm and serene Tempers and the Persons not wild or fanciful and their Words miraculously made good by the Event which shews God honour'd 'em with being Prophets as well as Martyrs To proceed to the Persons who suffer'd in this Cause here and in the West and other Places chiefly under Jeffrey's Insulting Cruelty His dealing with 'em is not to be parallel'd by any thing but the new French Dragoons or the old Cut-throats and Lords Chief-Justices of the poor Albigenses or Waldenses at Merindol and Cutrices Had the Great Turk sent his Janisaries or the Tartar his Armies among 'em they 'd scaped better Humanity could not offend so far to deserve such Punishment as he inflicted A certain Barbarous Joy and Pleasure grinn'd from his Brutal Soul through his Bloody Eyes when ever he was Sentencing any of the poor Souls to Death and Torment so much worse than Nero as when that Monster wish'd he had never learnt to Write because forc'd to set his Name to Warrants for Execution of Malefactors Jeffreys would have been glad if every Letter he writ had been such a Warrant and every Word a Sentence of Death He observ'd neither Humanity to the Dead nor Civility to the Living He made all the West an Aceldama some Places quite depopulated and nothing to be seen in 'em but forsaken Walls unlucky Gibbets and Ghostly Carcasses The Trees were loaden almost as thick with Quarters as Leaves the Houses and Steeples covered as closed with Heads as at other times frequently in that Country with Crows or Ravens Nothing could be liker Hell than all those Parts nothing so like the Devil as be Caldrons hizzing Carkesses boiling Pitch and Tar sparkling and glowing Blood and Limbs boiling and tearing and mangling and he the great Director of all and in a word discharging his Place who sent him the best deserving to be the late King 's Chief Justice there and Chancellor after of any Man that breath'd since Cain or Judas Some of the more Principal Persons who fell under his Barbarcus Sentence 't is thought worth the while to treat distinctly and particularly of throning the rest together after ' em And the first whom we shall make special Remarks on are 1. The HEWLINGS IF any one would see true Pure Popish Mercy let 'em look on these two Gentlemen the only Sons of their vertuous and sorrowful surviving Parents the Comforts Props and Hopes of their Name and Family carefully educated vertuously disposed both of them after all repeated Applications if but for one of their Lives barbarously Executed A particular Care was taken by their Father in their Education forming their Minds by his own Example and constant Instructions and Prayers as well as other Pains of Ingenuous Masters to the strictest Rules of Piety and Vertue Nor was their Pious and very tender Mother less careful in that particular The Elder Mr. Benjamin Hewling had Tutors in the Mathematicks and other parts of Philosophy a course of which he went through successfully enough and so as to render him as compleat in his Mind as Nature had form'd his Body After which he went to Holland as his Brother Mr. William Hewling from whence this last returned with the Duke Both of 'em had Commands in the Army the Elder had a Troop of Horse the Younger was a Lieutenant of Foot and discharged their Places with much more Conduct and Bravery than could be expected from such young Soldiers being entirely satisfied in the Cause they fought for since 't was no less than the Interest of all that was dear to 'em in this World or t'other The Eldest had particularly signaliz'd himself in several Skirmishes and was sent with a Detachment of his own Troop and two more to Myn-head in Somersetshire to bring Cannon to the Army at the very instant the Duke engaged the King's Forces at fatal Sedgmore and came not up till after the Field was entirely lost to whose Absence with so considerable a Party of the Duke's Horse and the Most resolved Men of all he had the Loss of
the Day was principally owing Finding all things in Disorder and the Rout beyond recovering he was forc'd to disperse his Troops every one shifting as they could for themselves He and his Brother kept together where what befel 'em after their Friends have given an exact Account which is here following inserted An Account of the Behaviour of Mr. William and Benjamin Hewlings before and at their Execution with several Letters to divers of their Relations THe gracious dealings of God manifested to some in dying Hours have been of great Advantage to those living that heard the same giving them an occasion thereby to reflect on their own State and to look after the things of their Peace before they be hid from their Eyes as also a great Encouragement to strengthen the Faith of those that have experienced the Grace of God to them To that end it is thought necessary by Parents especially to preserve to their Children t hat remain those blessed Experiences that such have had which God hath taken to himself Here therefore is presented a true Account of the admirable appearances of God towards two young Men Mr. Benjamin Hewling who died when he was about 22 Years of Age and Mr. William Hewling who died before he arrived to 20 Years They engaged with the Duke of Monmouth as their own Words were for the English Liberties and the Protestant Religion and for which Mr. William Hewling was Executed at Lyme the 12th of September 1685. and Mr. Ben. Hewling at Taunton the 30th of the same Month and however severe Men were to them yet the blessed Dispensation of God towards them was such as hath made good his Word That out of the Mouths of Babes he hath ordained Strength that he may still the Enemy and the Avenger Then Reader would you see Earthly Angels Men that are a little too low for Heaven and much too high for Earth would you see poor frail Creatures trampling this World under their Feet and with an holy serene Smiling at the Threats of Tyrants who are the Terrors of the Mighty in the Land of the Living Would you see shackled Prisoners behave themselves like Judges and Judges stand like Prisoners before them Would you see some of the rare Exploits of Faith in its highest Elevation immediately before it be swallowed up in the Beatifical Vision To conclude would you see the Heavenly Jerusalem pourtrayed on Earth Would you hear the melodious Voices of ascending Saints in a ravishing Consort ready to joyn with the Heavenly Chorus in their delightful Hallelujahs Then draw near come and see If thou be a Man of an Heavenly Spirit here is pleasant and suitable Entertainment for thee and after thou hast conversed a while these excellent Spirits it may be thou wilt Judge as I do That dead Saints are sweeter Companions in some respects for thee to converse with than those that are living And when thou shalt see the magnificent Acts of their Faith their Invincible Patience their flaming Love to Christ their strange contempt and undervaluings of the World their plainness and simplicity in the Profession of the Gospel their fervent and brotherly Love to each other their ravishing Prospects as it were on the top of Mount Pisgah of the Heavenly Canaan their Swan-like Songs and Dying Speeches And Reader You know the first Lisping of little Children and last Farewels of Dying Saints are always most sweet and Charming Those Fore tasts of the Rivers ' of Pleasure the transporting Glimpses they had of the Crown of Glory I say when you see and read these Exemplary Truths wonder not that the Pious Hewlings long'd so vehemently to be in a better World though they were to pass through a Thousand Deaths or the Fiery Tryal to it But to come to our intended matter After the dispersing of the Duke's Army they fled and put to Sea but were driven back again and with the hazard of their Lives got on shore over dangerous Rocks where they saw the Country filled with Soldiers and they being unwilling to fall into the hands of the Rabble and no way of defence or escape remaining to them they surrendred themselves Prisoners to a Gentleman whose House was near the place they landed at and were from thence sent to Exeter Gaol the 12th of July where remaining some time their Behaviour was such that being visited by many caused great Respect towards them even of those that were Enemies to the Cause they engaged in and being on the 27th of July put on Board the Swan Frigate in order to their bringing up to London their Carriage was such as obtained great Kindness from the Commander and all other Officers in the Ship and being brought into the River Captain Richardson came and took them into his Custody and carried them to Newgate putting great Irons upon them and put them apart from each other without giving Liberty for the nearest Relation to see them notwithstanding all Endeavours and Entreaties used to obtain it tho' in the Presence of a Keeper which though it did greatly increase the Grief of Relations God who wisely orders all things for good to those he intends Grace and Mercy to made this very Restraint and hard Usage a blessed Advantage to their Souls as may appear by their own Words when after great Importunity and Charge some of their near Relations had leave to speak a few words to them before the Keeper To which they replied They were contented with the Will of God whatever it should be Having been in Newgate three Weeks there was Order given to carry them down into the West in order to their Tryal which being told them they answered They were glad of it and that Morning they went out of Newgate several that beheld them seeing them so chearful said Surely they had received their Pardon else they could never carry it with that Courage and Chearfulness Although this must be observed that from first to last whatever hopes they received from Friends they still thought the contrary never being much affected with the hopes of it nor cast down nor the least discouraged at the worst that Man could do In their Journey to Dorchester the Keepers that went with them have given this Account of them That their Carriage was so Grave Serious and Christian that made them admire to see and hear what they did from such Young Men. A near Relation that went into the West to see the issue of things and to perform whatever should be necessary for them gives the following Account At Salisbury the 30th of August I had the first Opportunity of Converse with them I found them in a very excellent Composure of Mind declaring their Experience of the Grace and Goodness of God to them in all their Sufferings in supporting and strengthening and poviding for them turning the hearts of all in whose hands they had been both at Exon and on Ship-board to shew pity and favour to them although since they came to Newgate
he said Pray remember my dear Love to my Brother and Sister and tell them I desire they would comfort themselves that I am gone to Christ and we shall quickly meet in the Glorious Mount Sion above Afterwards he prayed for about three quarters of an hour with the greatest fervency exceedingly blessing God for Jesus Christ adoring the Riches of his Grace in him in all the Glorious Fruits of it towards him Praying for the Peace of the Church of God and of these Nations in particular all with such eminent Assistance of the Spirit of God as convinced astonished and melted into Pity the Hearts of all present even the most malicious Adversaries forcing Tears and Expressions from them some saying They knew not what would become of them after Death but it was evident he was going to great Happiness When he was just going out of the World with a joyful Countenance he said Oh! now my Joy and Comfort is that I have a Christ to go to and so sweetly resign'd his Spirit to Christ the 12th of September 1685. An Officer who had shewed so malicious a Spirit as to call the Prisoners Devils when he was Guarding them down was now so convinced that he after told a Person of Quality That he was never so affected as by his chearful Carriage and fervent Prayer such as he believed was never heard especially from one so young and said I believe had the Lord Chief Justice been there he could not have let him die The Sheriff having given his Body to be buried although it was brought from the Place of Execution without any notice given yet very many of the Town to the Number of about 200 came to accompany him and several Young Women of the best of the Town laid him in his Grave in Lyme Church-yard the 13th of September 1685. After which his Sister writ this following Letter to her Mother ALthough I have nothing to acquaint my Dear Mother withal but what is most afflictive to Sense both as to the Determination of God's Will and as to my present Apprehension concerning my Brother Benjamin yet remaining yet there is such abundant Consolation mixt in both that I only wanted an Opportunity to pay this Duty God having wrought so Glorious a Work on both their Souls revealing Christ in them that Death is become their Friend My Brother William having already with the greatest Joy declared to those that were with him to the last That he would not change Conditions with any that were to remain in this World and he desired that his Relations would comfort themselves that he is gone to Christ My Brother Benjamin expects not long to continue in this World and is exceeding willing to leave it when God shall call being fully satisfied that God will choose that which is best for him and us all by these things God doth greatly support me and I hope you also my dear Mother which was and is my Brothers great desire there is still room for Prayer for one and God having so answered though not in kind we have Encouragement still to wait on him Honoured Mother Your Dutiful Daughter Hannah Hewling When I came to Taunton to Mr. Benjamin Hewling he had received the News of his Brother's being gone to die with so much comfort and joy and afterwards of the continued goodness of God increasing it to the end He expressed to this effect We have no cause to fear Death if the Presence of God be with us there is no evil in it the sting being taken away it 's nothing but our Ignorance of the Glory that the Saints pass into by Death which makes it appear dark for our selves or Relations if in Christ What is this World that we should desire an abode in it It 's all vain and unsatisfying full of sin and misery Intimating also his own chearful expectations soon to follow discovering then and all along great seriousness and sense of Spiritual and Eternal things complaining of nothing in his present Circumstances but want of place of Retirement to converse more uninterruptedly with God and his own Soul saying That this lonely time in Newgate was the sweetest in his whole Life He said God having some time before struck his Heart when he thought of the hazard of his Life to some serious Sense of his past Life and the great consequences of Death and Eternity shewing him that they were the only happy Persons that had secured their Eternal states The folly and madness of the ways of sin and his own Thraldom therein with his utter inability to deliver himself also the necessity of Christ for Salvation He said it was not without Terror and Amazement for some time the sight of unpardon'd sin with Eternity before him But God wonderfully opened to him the Riches of his Free-Grace in Christ Jesus for poor Sinners to flee to enabling to look alone to a crucified Christ for Salvation He said this blessed Work was in some measure carried on upon his Soul under all his business and hurries in the Army but never sprung forth so fully and sweetly till his close Confinement in Newgate There he saw Christ and all Spiritual Objects more clearly and embraced them more strongly there he experienced the blessedness of a reconciled State the Excellency of the ways of Holiness the delightfulness of Communion with God which remained with very deep and apparent impressions on his Soul which he frequently express'd with Admiration of the Grace of God towards him He said Perhaps my Friends may think this Summer the saddest time of my Life but I bless God it hath been the sweetest and most happy of it all nay there is nothing else worth the name of happiness I have in vain sought satisfaction from the things of this World but I never found it but now I have found Rest for my Soul in God alone O how great is our Blindness by Nature till God open our Eyes that we can see no Excellency in Spiritual things but spend our Precious Time in pursuing Shadows and are deaf to all the Invitations of Grace and Glorious Offers of the Gospel How just is God in depriving us of that we so much slighted and abused Oh! his Infinite Patience and Goodness that after all he should yet sanctifie any Methods to bring a poor sinner to himself Oh! Electing Love distinguishing Grace what great cause have I to admire and adore it He said What an amazing Consideration is the Suffering of Christ for sin to bring us to God his Suffering from wicked Men was exceeding great but alas what was that to the Dolours of his Soul under the infinite Wrath of God This Mystery of Grace and Love is enough to swallow up our thoughts to all Eternity As to his own Death he would often say He saw no reason to expect any other I know God is infinitely able to deliver and I am sure will do it if it be for his Glory and my Good in
Duke 〈…〉 in Scotland with what Forces he could make to which were added some others who 〈…〉 which after several Marches and Counter-Marches were at length led into a Boggy sort of a place on pretence or with intention to bring him off from the other Army then upon the Heels of 'em where they all lost one another dispers'd and shifted for themselves the Earl being taken by a Country-man and brought to Edinburgh where he suffer'd for his former unpardonable Crime requiring Care shou'd be taken of the Protestant Religion and explaining his taking the Test conformable thereto for the Legality of which he had the Hands of most of the eminent Lawyers about the City He suffer'd at Edinburgh the 30th of June 1685. His Speech has a great deal of Piety and Religion nor will it be any Disgrace to say 't was more like a Sermon 'T is as follows The Earl of Aâ—gyle's Last Speech June 30. 1685. JOB tells us Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of trouble and I am a clear Instance of it I shall not now say any thing of my Sentence or Escape about three Years and a half ago nor of my Return lest I may thereby give Offence or be tedious Only being to end my Days in your presence I shall as some of my last Words assert the Truth of the Matter of Fact and the Sincerity of my Intentions and Professions that are published That which I intend mainly now to say is To express my humble and I thank God chearful Submission to his Divine Will and my Willingness to forgive all Men even my Enemies and I am heartily well satisfied there is no more Blood spilt and I shall wish the Stream thereof may stop at me And that if it please God to say as to Zerubbabel Zech. 4.6 Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts I know Afflictions spring not out of the Dust God did wonderfully deliver and provide for me and has now by his special Providence brought me to this Place and I hope none will either Insult or stumble at it seeing they ought not for God Almighty does all things well for good and holy Ends tho' we do not always understand it Love and Hatred is not known by what is before us Eccles 9.1 and 8.11 12 13. Afflictions are not only foretold but promised to Christians and are not only tolerable but desirable We ought to have a deep Reverence and Fear of God's Displeasure but withal a firm Hope and Dependance on him for a blessed Issue in compliance with his Will for God chastens his own to refine them and not to ruine them whatever the World may think Heb. 12.3 to 12. Prov. 3.11 12. 2 Tim. 1.8 2 Tim. 2.11 12. Matth. 10.18 to 40. Matth. 16.24 to 28. We are to imitate our Saviour in his Sufferings as 1 Pet. 2.23 and 1 Pet. 4.16 to 20. We are neither to despise our Afflictions nor to faint under them both are extreams We are not to suffer our Spirits to be exasperated against the Instruments of our Trouble for the same Affliction may be an effect of their Passion and yet sent by God to punish us for Sin Tho' 't is a Comfort when we may say to them with David Psal 59.3 Not for my transgression nor for my sin O Lord. Nor are we by fraudulent pusillanimous Compliances in wicked Courses to bring Sin upon our selves Faint Hearts are ordinary false Hearts choosing Sin rather than Sufferings and a short Life with eternal Death before temporal Death and a Crown of Glory Such seeking to save a little loses all and God readily hardens them to proceed to their own Destruction How many like Hazael 2 Kings 8.13 run to Excesses they never thought they were capable of Let Rulers and others read seriously and weigh Prov. 1.10 to 20. 2 Chr. 28.6 to 17. Prov. 24.11 12. and 28.10 And avoid what is Bad and follow what is Good For me I hope by God's strength to joyn with Job chap. 13. 15. and the Psalmist Psal 22.4 and 167. and shall pray as Psal 74.19 to 24. and Psal 122.6 to 9. and Luke 1.74 75. and shall hope as Psal 94.14 15. I do freely forgive all that directly or indirectly have been the Cause of my being brought to this Place first or last and I pray God forgive them I pray God send Truth and Peace in these Three Kingdoms and continue and encrease the glorious Light of the Gospel and restrain the Spirit of Profanity Atheism Superstition Propery and Persecution and restore all that have back-slidden from the Purity of their Life or Principles and bless his whole People with all Blessings spiritual and temporal and put an end to their present Trials And I entreat all People to forgive me wherein I have offended and concurr with me to pray That the Great Good and Merciful God would sanctifie my present Lot and for Jesus Christ his sake Pardon all my Sins and receive me to his Eternal Glory It is suggested to me That I have said nothing of the Royal Family and it remembers me that before the Justices at my Trial about the Test I said That at my Death I would pray That there should never want one of the Royal Family to be a Defender of the True Ancient Apostolick Catholick Protestant Faith which I do now And that GOD would enlighten and forgive all of them that are either luke-warm or have shrunk from the Profession of it And in all Events I pray God may provide for the Security of his Church that Antichrist nor the Gates of Hell may never prevail against it 8. Colonel RVMBOLD AT the same Place died Colonel Richard Rumbold June 26. 1685. Two or three Passages there are worth Remarks in his Speech and Tryal as Arguments of his Sense and Courage For this Cause he says were every Hair of his Head and Beard a Life he 'd joyfully sacrifice 'em all That he was never Antimonarchical in his Principles but for a King and Free Parliament the King having Power enough to make him Great and the People to make 'em happy That he died in the Defence of the just Laws and Liberties of the Nations That none was mark'd by God above another for no Man came into the World with a Saddle on their Backs nor others Booted and Spurr'd to ride upon 't And being ask'd if he thought not his Sentence dreadful answer'd He wish'd he had a Limb for every Town in Christendome The Last Speech of Colonel Richard Rumbold at the Market-Cross of Edinburgh with several Things that passed at his Tryal June 26. 1685. ABout Eleven of the Clock he was brought from the Castle of Edinburgh to the Justices Court in a great Chair on Mens shoulders where at first he was asked some Questions most of which he answer'd with silence at last said He humbly conceived it was not necessary for him to add to his
she Go learn of her Humility An odd Epitaph upon Thomas Saffin Here Thomas Saffin lies Interr'd ah why Born in New-England did in London die Was the third Son of eight begot upon His Mother Martha by his Father John Much favour'd by his Prince he 'gan to be But nipt by Death at the Age of 23. Fatal to him was that we Small-Pox name By which his Mother and two Brethren came Also to breathe their last nine Years before And now have left their Father to deplore The loss of all his Children with that Wife Who was the Joy and Comfort of his Life June 18. 1687. Here lie Interr'd the Bodies of Captain Thomas Chevers who departed this Life the 18th of Nov. 1675. Aged 44 Years And of Anne Chevers his Wife who departed this Life the 14th of Nov. 1675. Aged 34 Years And of John Chevers their Son who departed this Life the 13th of Nov. 1675. Aged 5 Days Reader consider well how poor a Span And how uncertain is the Life of Man Here lie the Husband Wife and Child by Death All three in five days space depriv'd of Breath The Child dies first the Mother next the Morrow Follows and then the Father dies with Sorrow A Caesar falls by many Wounds well may Two stabs at Heart the stoutest Captain slay On Another Tomb-stone is writ Here lies two loving Brothers side by side In one day buried and in one day died Here lies the Body of Mrs. Bridget Radley the most deservedly beloved Wife of Charles Radley Esq Gentleman-Usher Daily-Waiter to His Majesty which Place he parted withal not being able to do the Duty of it by reason of his great Indisposition both of Body and Mind occasioned by his just Sorrow for the loss of her She changed this Life for a better the 20th of November 1679. Sacred to the Immortal Memory of Sir Palmes Fairbone Kt. Governour of Tangier in Execution of which Command he was Mortally wounded by a Shot from the Moors then Besieging the Town in the 46th Year of his Age Octob. 24. 1680. Ye Sacred Reliques which that Marble keep Here undisturb'd by Wars in quiet sleep Discharge the Trust which when it was below Fairbone's undaunted Soul did undergo And be the Town 's Pallà dium from the Foe Alive and dead these Walls he will defend Great Actions great Examples must attend The Candian Siege his early Valour knew Where Turkish Blood did his young Hands imbrew From thence returning with deserv'd applause Against the Moors his well-flesh'd Sword he draws The same the courage and the same the cause His Youth and Age his Life and Death combine As in some great and regular Design All of a piece throughout and all Divine Still nearer Heaven his Vertue shoâ—e more bright Like rising Flames expanding in their height The Martyr's Glory crown'd the Soldier 's fight More bravely British General never fell Nor General 's Death was e'er reveng'd so well Which his pleas'd Eyes beheld before their close Follow'd by thousand Victims of his Foe * To this lamented Loss for Times to come His Pious Widow Consecrates this Tomb. Here lies expecting the Second Coming of our Saviour the Body of Edmund Spencer the Prince of Poets in his Time whose Divine Spirit needs no other Witness than the Works which he left behind him He was Born in London in the Year 1510. and died in the Year 1596. Abrahamus Couleius Anglorum Pindarus Flaccus Maro Delicìae Decus Desiderium Aevi sui Hic juxta situs est Aurea dum volitant latè tua scripta per orbem Et fama aeternùm vivis Divina Poeta Hîc placidâ jaceas requie custodiat urnam Cana fides vigilentque perenni lampade musae Sit sacer iste locus Nec quis temperarius ausit Sacrilegà turbare manu venerabile bustum Intacti maneant maneant per saecula dulcis Coulei cineres servetque immobile saxum Six vovet Votumque suum apud posteros sacratum esse voluit Qui vivo Incomparabili posuit sepulchrale marmor Georgius Dux Buckinghamiae Excessit è vita Anno Aetatis suae 49. honorifica pompa elatus ex Aedibus Buckinghamianis vitis Illustribus omnium ordinum exsequias celebrantibus sepultus est Die 3. M. Augusti Anno Domini 1667. On the Royal Tombs adjoyning to Cowley 's a Modern Poet writes thus Whole Troops of mighty Nothings lie beside Of whom 't is only said they liv'd and dy'd Here lies Henry Purcel Esq who left this Life and is gone to that Blessed Place where only his Harmony can be exceeded Obiit 21. die Novembris Anno Aetatis suae 37. Annoque Domini 1695. CHAP. CXLVIII Miracles giving Testimony to Christianity Orthodoxy Innocency c. I Can never believe that Miracles ascended up to Heaven with our Saviour so as never to be seen upon Earth more after the first Age of the Church 'T is true they have run in a narrower Stream And when the Gospel was sufficiently established and confirmed by the Testimony of them they were not quite so necessary But some Necessity still occurs and some Miracles have been in all Ages wrought Take these amongst many others and compare them with some other Chapters of this Book 1. Irenaeus in his Second Book against Heresies saith Some of the Brethren and sometimes the whole Church of some certain Place by reason of some urgent Cause by Fasting and Prayer had procured that the Spirits of the Dead had been raised again to Life and had lived with them many Years Some by the like means had expelled Devils so that they which had been delivered from Evil Spirits had embraced the Faith and were received into the Church Others had the Spirit of Prophecy to foretel things to come they see Divine Dreams and Prophetical Visions Others Cure the Sick and Diseased and by laying on of Hands restore them to Health Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 2. S. Augustine tells us that when the Bodies of Gervasius and Protasius the Martyrs were taken up and brought to S. Ambrose's Church at Milan several Persons that were vexed with unclean Spirits were healed and one a noted Citizen that had been blind many Years upon touching the Bier with his Handkerchief was restored to his sight Aug. Confess l. 9. c. 7. 3. In the Reign of Constantine the Great the Gospel was propagated into Iberia in the uttermost part of the Euxine Sea by the means of a Captive Christian Woman by whose Prayers a Child that was Mortally Sick recovered health and the Lady of Iberia her self was delivered from a Mortal Disease Whereupon the King her Husband sent Embassadors to Constantine entreating him to send him some Preachers into Iberia to Instruct them in the True Faith of Christ which Constantine performed with a glad heart Clark in Vit. Constantin p. 11. 4. That Luther a poor Friar saith one should be able to stand against the Pope was a great Miracle that he should prevail against the Pope was a greater
of Exalting the Majesty of God and your own Reward amongst Men. The Regal Power allotted to us makes us common Servants to our Creator then of those People whom we Govern So that observing the Duties we owe to God we deliver Blessings to the World in providing for the Publick Good of our States we Magnifie the Honour of God like the Coelestial Bodies which though they have much Veneration yet serve only to the Benefit of the World It is the Excellency of our Office to be Instruments whereby Happiness is delivered into the Nations Pardon me Sir This is not to Instruct for I know I speak to one of more clear and quick sight than my self but I speak this because God hath pleased to grant me a happy Victory over some part of those rebellious Pirates that have so long molested the Peaceful Trade of Europe and hath presented further occasion to Root out the Generation of those who have been so pernicious to the Good of Our Nations I mean since it hath pleased God to be so auspicious to Our beginnings in the Conquest of Salla that We might joyn and proceed in hope of like Success in the War against Tunis Algier and other Places Dens and Receptacles for the Inhumane Villanies of those who abhor Rule and Government Herein whilst We interrupt the Corruption of Malignant Spirits of the World We shall glorifie the great God and perform a Duty that will shine as glorious as the Sun and Moon which all the Earth may see and Reverence A Work that shall ascend as sweet as the Perfume of the most Precious Odours in the Nostrils of the Lord A Work grateful and happy to Men. A Work whose Memory shall be reverenced so long as there shall be any that delight to hear the Actions of Heroick and Magnanimous Spirits that shall last as long as there be any remaining amongst Men that Love and Honour the Piety and Vertue of Noble Minds This Action I here willingly present to you whose Piety and Vertues equal the Greatness of your Power That we who are Servants to the Great and Mighty God may Hand in Hand Triumph in the Glory which this Action presents unto us Now because the Islands which you Govern have been ever Famous for the unconquered Strength of their Shipping I have sent this my Trusty Servant and Embassador to know whether in your Princely Wisdom you shall think fit to assist me with such Forces by Sea as shall be answerable to those I provide by Land which if you please to grant I doubt not but the Lord of Hosts will Protect and Assist those that Fight in so Glorious a Cause Nor ought you to think this strange that I who much reverence the Peace and Accord of Nations should exhort to a War Your great Prophet Christ Jesus was of the Line of the Tribe of Judah as well as the Lord of Peace which may signifie unto you that he which is a lover and maintainer of Peace must always appear with the Terror of his Sword and wading through a Sea of Blood must arrive to Tranquility This made James your Father of Glorious Memory so happily renowned amongst all Nations It was the Noble Fame of your Princely Vertues which resounds to the utmost corners of the Earth that perswaded me to invite you to partake of that Blessing wherein I boast my self most Happy I wish God may heap the Riches of his Blessings on you increase your Happiness with your Days and hereafter perpetuate the Greatness of your Name in all Ages Heylin Cosmogr p. 961 962. It were not difficult to add many more such Attestations as these from Heathens Indians Jews c. For indeed all the Converts brought over to Christianity contribute a particular strength to this kind of Evidence But these I think are enough to satisfie any reasonable Reader and the unreasonable will not be convinc'd though Witnesses should arise from the Dead CHAP. CL. The Sufferings of the Reformed in the Kingdom of France THE Sufferings of the Reformed in the Kingdom of France within the Revolution of a few Years have been so great and attended with so many Remarkable Providences that tho' we cannot pretend to give our Reader a full Idea of them here that being reserved ' till the Publication of the Two last Volumes of the Edict of Nants it self yet we cannot but take notice of a few Particulars which were Transacted within the Bounds of Lower Languedoc and that may in the mean time serve for a Specimen of the same 1. When the Parliament of Toulouse and other Parliaments in France laboured to destroy the Protestant Churches God was pleased to raise up a Lawyer named Claude Brousson who with much Zeal and holy Boldness sollicited the Parliament of Toulouse on their behalf but being at last through the Violence of the Persecution forced to go out of France in the Year 1683. after he had run through many Dangers there he did yet from thence forward labour according to his Ability for the Defence Edification and Consolation of his distressed Brethren Lausanne in Switzerland was the principal place of his Residence and though he had not been bred in the Study of Divinity yet by assiduous Application and the blessing of God upon his Labours he Composed and caused to be Printed several small Pieces adapted for the Use of the afflicted Churches c. and which he took care to have dispersed up and down France and elsewhere continually As the extraordinary Ministers of God's Word were pleased to come often to confer with him concerning what both the one and the other of them had done for advancing the Lord's Work and that on the other hand he found he had not now as also for some time past the same liberty as formerly to disperse his Writings in France by the Post he was sollicited by his Conscience to return thither also in order to do what he could for the Promotion of God's Glory and had always these Words upon his Spirit Ezek. 13.4 5. O Israel thy Prophets are like the Foxes in the Desares Ye have not gone up into the Gaps neither made up the Hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the Battel in the day of the Lord. And that other Text in Judges 5.23 Curse ye Meroz said the Angel of the Lord c. Wherefore he at length determined to go thither and in order thereunto made up several Bales of those Writings he had got Printed and which he judged most proper for the advancement of the Kingdom of Heaven he did suppose he might be able to find out a way to convey those Bales into Languedoc and that when he found himself in the Heart of the Kingdom he might disperse the said Writings with more Facility then he could have done during his abode in Switzerland but the Ways of God are not like nor Ways nor his Thoughts like our Thoughts But whatever be proposed hereby the Danger
Agaric for Phlegm The Lote-Tree follows the Motion of the Sun Philos Confer of the Virtuosi of France p. 122. 2. There is observed a Sympathy between the Feet and the Head the one taking cold the other is affected between the Mouth and the Stomach between the Heart and the Hands or Wrists So that Medicines are often applied to the one for the Cure of the other There is a Sympathy between the Light and the Spirits of Men the Green Colour and the Eyes All Cordials have a Sympathy with the Heatt as Pearls and precious Stones Male-Peony with the Brain the Blood-stone with the Blood The Dog knows the Dog-killer I Query here What is to be thought of the Lions in the Tower dying at the Smell of a Handkerchief dipt in the Blood of King Charles the First 3. I would have it throughly enquired saith Sir Francis Bacon whether there be not some secret Passages of Sympathy between Persons of near Blood as Parents Children Brothers Sisters Nurse-Children Husbands Wives c. There be many Reports in History that upon the Death of Persons of such Nearness Men have and an inward Feeling of it I my self remember that being at Paris and my Father dying in London two or three days before my Father's Death I had a Dream which I told to divers English Gentlemen that my Father's House in the Country was plaister'd all over with Black Mortar There is an Opinion that loving and kind Husbands have a Sense of their Wives Breeding-Child by some Accident in their own Body Bacon's Natural Hist Cent. 10. p. 211. 4. Hither also may be referred the Effects of Imagination of which Authors have said so much A Sister of mine saith Gaffarella had the Figure of a Fish upon her left Leg caused by the Desire my Mother had to eat Fish when she was great and it is represented with so much Perfection and Rarity that you would take it to be drawn by some excellent Master Now that wherein the Wonder lies is this That when ever the Girl eat any Fish that upon her Leg put her to a sensible Pain And I had a Friend that had a Mulberry growing upon his Forehead caused likewise by his Mother's longing after them and he never eat Mulberries but that on his Forehead put him to Pain by its extraordinary Beating This other Story which I shall now relate saith he is very well known to all in Paris that are curious Inquirers into these Things The Hostess of the Inn in the Suburbs of St. Michael at Bois de Vincenne who died about two Years since had likewise a Mulberry growing upon a Lower Lip which was smooth and plain all the Year long till the time that Mulberries begin to ripen at which time hers also began to be red and to swell more and more observing exactly the Season and Nature of other Mulberries Gaffar unheard-of Curios par 2. ch 6. 5. Oysters taken out of Water will open against the Flood-time and close upon the Ebb Britan. Bacon p. 18. 6. All Concords of Musick are Sympathies And 't is observed that if a Lute or Viol be laid upon the Back with a small Straw upon one side of the Strings and another Lute or Viol be laid by it the Unison of one being struck will make the String move and the Straw fall off Bacon's Nat. Hist cent 4. 7. There is a Sympathy between the Ear and Sounds between the Spirit and the Ear insomuch that according to the Variety of Notes and Tones and Tunes the Mind is diversly affected wild Creatures are tamed Soldiers are provoked to Courage some moved to Fear and Sadness by this means The Voice of an Orator or Preacher hath a great Influence upon the Hearers according to the Sweetness Harshness Lowness Loudness Mournsulness c. of it 8. The Sympathetic Powder and Weapon-Salve magnified by Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Kenelm Digby c. is laugh'd at by Mr. Hales of Eaton and look'd upon as a fond Conceit 9. The Sympathy of Affections and Strength of Imagination is admirable when the Mind is able to presage the Death or Dangers of a Friend tho a great way off This also I found in my self For once I suddenly fell into a Passion of Weeping upon the Apprehension I took that my dear Friend was dead whom I exceedingly loved for his Virtues and it fell out accordingly as I presaged for he died about that same Hour that I fell into that Weeping Fit and we were at that time 60 Miles asunder nor could I tell certainly that he was dead till two Days after Thus to some the Death of Friends is presaged by bleeding at the Nose and sudden Sadness by Dreams and divers other ways which the Learned Poet was not ignorant of when he saith Agnovit longe gemitum praesagia mali mens Aen. 1.10 So by the Greek Poet the Soul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Southsayer of Evil The Cause of this the Gentiles ascribed to the Sun which they held to be the Soul and our Souls Sparks of that great Lamp A Platonical Conceit which he thought Men's Souls to be material we were better to ascribe this to the Information of that Angel which attends us Rosse Arcan Microcosin 10. One Faber of Buxovil in Alsatia constantly acted the Part of his pregnant Wife being taken with Vomitings and suffered those inordinate Longings that usually attend Women in that Condition his Wife all the while suffering no such Inconveniencies Miscelan Curios Med. Phys Germ. An. 2. Observ 215. 11. That this hath happen'd to some Persons in Oxford is very certain and that to knowing Ones too very unlikely to be deceived and of unquestionable Veracity whereof one of them told me That they came upon him when he little thought of his Wife and that the Pangs were very odd ones such as he never felt in his Life not like any Griping in the Guts but lying in the Muscles of the abdomen which yet he should never have thought to have had relation to his Wife had they not suddenly and beyond expectation ceased as soon as his Wife began to be in Labour Thus far Dr. Plot in his Nat. Hist of Oxfordshire p. 193. CHAP. II. Instances of Antipathy THIS is the Opposite of Sympathy arising from the Contrariety of innate and undiscoverable Qualities a secret Vnsuitableness in the Nature of one Thing to that of another where the Properties clash together and bid Battle upon a near approach of one to the other As of the Horse and Camel Elephant and Swine Lion and Cock Bull and Fig-Tree Naked Man and Adder Ape and Tortoise Ape and Eel Cantharides and the Bladder Plague and Quick-silver Plague and Arsnic Birds and Scare-Crows Things alive and Things dead and corrupted as Man and Man's Carcass Beast and Beast's Blood c. But I shall especially Instance in the Antipathies of Mankind against some particular Things 1. Cardinal Don Henrique de Cardona would fall into a
what I write proceeds not from any fantastick Terror of Mind but from a sober Resolution of what concerns my self and earnest Desire to do you more Good after my Death than mine Example God of his Mercy pardon the badness of it in My Life-time may have done you harm I will not speak ought of the Vanity of this World your own Age and Experience will save the Labour But there is a certain Thing that goes up and down in the World called Religion dress'd and presented fantastically and to purpose bad enough which yet by such evil dealing loseth not its Being The great and good God hath not loft it without a Witness more or less sooner or later in every Man's Bosome to direct us in the pursuit of it and for the avoiding of those inextricable Difficulties and Intanglements our own frail Reason would perplex us withal God in his infinite Mercy has given us his Holy Word in which as there are many things hard to be understood to quiet our Minds and direct us concerning our future Being I confess to God and you I have been a great Neglecter and I fear Despiser of it God of his infinite Mercy pardon me that dreadful Fault but when I retired my self from the Noise and deceitful Vanities of the World I found no true Comfort in any other Resolution than what I had from thence I commend the same from the bottom of my Heart to your I hope happy use Dear Sir Hugh let us be more generous than to believe we die like Beasts that perish but with a Christian manly brave Ambition let us look to what is Eternal I will not trouble you farther The Only Great and Holy God Father Son and Holy Ghost direct you to an happy End of your Life and send us a joyful Resurrection So prays Your Dear Friend MARLBOROUGH Old James near the Coast of Holland the 24th of April 1665. I beseech you commend my Love to all my Acquaintance particularly I pray you that my Cousin Glascock may have a sight of this Letter and as many of my friends besides as you will or any else that desire it I pray grant this my Request To William Glascock Esq Dear Cousin May 23. 1665. IN case I be called away by God in this present Employment I have recommended these few Lines to you first earnestly begging God Almighty his most merciful Pardon and yours for the very bad Example and many Provocations to Sin I have given Next I do most heartily desire you to make use of your remaining Time in bestowing it upon his Service who only can be your Comfort at your Latter End when all the former Pleasures of your Life shall only leave Anguish and Remorse If God had spared me Life instead of this Paper I would through his Grace have endeavoured to have been as Assistful to you in minding you of true Piety as the care of mine own Life could have enabled me Do not think that melancholy Vapours cause this It is God's great Mercy that by this Employment hath made me know my self for which his Name be for ever praised Lastly I pray shew these few Lines to my Lord of Portland by which I in like manner and for the sarne cause crave his Pardon wishing you both the blessed Peace and Content of a good Conscience towards God and a happy End of your Lives Your truly Loving Cousin MARLBOROUGH The Gentleman who hath communicated to us these Letters sent by the Earl of Marlborough to Sir Hugh Pollard and Mr. Glascock is a Person of Quality now living in London and if any one hath the Curiosity to be satisfied from his own Mouth about the perfect certainty of the Matters therein related if he repairs to Mr. Darker in Bull-head Court near Cripplegate he will be always ready to bring any Gentleman to speak with him for further Confirmation 3. Mr. Hobbs who was so much noted in the World for his Atheistical Writings insomuch that his Book intituled The Leviathan was condemned by the Parliament in their Bill against Atheism and Profaneness Octob. 1666. and both that and his Book de Cive by the Convocation July 21. 1683. Yet the Earl of Devon's Chaplain hath left it on Record concerning him That he received the Communion from his Hands with much seeming Devotion about two Years before his Death than which there cannot be a more express Acknowledgment of the Truth of Christianity And this methinks should daunt the Confidence of his Followers the HObbists who because he was born on Good-friday are not ashamed blasphemously to say That as our Saviour Christ went out of the World on that Day to save Men of the World so another Saviour came into the World on that Day to save them Ath. Oxon. Part II. P. 483. 4. But the next Instance of the Earl of Rochester is still more convincing who as it appears by his Funeral Sermon did with very much abhorrence exclaim against that absurd and foolish Philosophy which the World so much admired and was propagated by the late Mr. Hobbs and others which had undone him and many more of the best Parts of the Nation My Lord Rochester being awak'd from his Spiritual Slumber by a pungent Sickness as appears by his Funeral Sermon preached by Mr. Parsons August 9. 1680. Upon the Preacher's first Visit to him May 26. my Lord thank'd God who had in Mercy and good Providence sent him to him who so much needed his Prayers and Counsels acknowledging how unworthily heretofore he had treated that Order of Men reproaching them that they were Proud and Prophesied only for Rewards but now he had learn'd how to value them that he esteem'd them the Servants of the most High God who were to shew to him the way to everlasting Life At the same time continues our Author I found him labouring under strange Trouble and Conflicts of Mind his Spirit wounded and his Conscience full of Terrours Upon his Journey he told me that he had been arguing with greater vigour against God and Religion than ever he had done in his Life-time before and that he was resolv'd to run them down with all the Arguments and Spite in the World but like the great Convert St. Paul he found it hard to â—ick against the Pricks for God at that time had so struck his Heart by his immediate Hand that presently he argued as strongly for God and Vertue as before he had done against it that God strangely opened his Heart creating in his Mind most awful and tremendous Thoughts and Idea's of the Divine Majesty with a delightful Contemplation of the Divine Nature and Attributes and of the Loveliness of Religion and Vertue I never said he was advanc'd thus far towards Happiness in my Life before tho' upon the commissions of some Sins extraordinary I have had some Checks and Warnings considerable from within but still struggl'd with them and so wore them off again The most observable that I remember
was this One Day at an Atheistical Meeting at a Person of Quality's I undertook to manage the Cause and was the principal Disputant against God and Piety and for my Performances receiv'd the Applause of the whole Company upon which my Mind was terribly struck and I immediately replied thus to my self Good God! That a Man that walks upright that sees the wonderful Works of God and has the uses of his Sence and Reason should use them to the defying of his Creator But tho' this was a good beginning to my Conversion to find my Conscience touch'd for my Sins yet it went off again Nay all my Life long I had a secret Value and Reverence for an honest Man and lov'd Morality in others But I had form'd an odd Scheme of Religion to my self which would solve all that God or Conscience might force upon me yet I was not over-well reconcil'd to the Business of Christianity nor had that Reverence for the Gospel of Christ as I ought to have which estate of Mind continu'd till the 53d Chapter of Isaiah was read to him and some other Portions of Scripture by the Power and Efficacy of which Word assisted by his Holy Spirit God so wrought upon his Heart that he declar'd that the Mysteries of the Passion appear'd so clear and plain to him as ever any thing did that was represented in a Glass so that that joy and Admiration which possessed his Soul upon the reading God's Word to him was remarkable to all about him and he had so much delight in his Testimonies that in my absence he begg'd his Mother and Lady to read the same to him frequently and was unsatisfied notwithstanding his great Pains and Weakness till he had learn'd the 53d of Isaiah without Book At the same time discoursing of his Manner of Life from his Youth up which all Men knew was too much devoted to the Service of Sin and that the Lusts of the Flesh the Eye and the Pride of Life had captivated him he was very large and particular in his Acknowledgments about it more ready to accuse himself than any one else could be publickly crying out O blessed God! Can such an horrid Creature as I am be accepted by thee who has denied thy Being and contemn'd thy Power asking often Can there be Mercy and Pardon for me Will God own such a Wretch as I And in the middle of his Sickness said Shall the unspeakable Joys of Heaven be conferr'd on me O mighty Saviour never but through thine infinite Love and Satisfaction O never but by the purchase of thy Blood adding that with all abhorrency he did reflect upon his former Life that sincerely and from his Heart he did repent of all that folly and Madness which he had committed He had a true and lively sense of God's great Mercy to him in striking his hard Heart saying If that God who died for great as well as lesser Sinners did not spâ—edily apply his infinite Merits to his poor Soul his Wound was such as no Man could conceive or bear crying out That he was the vilest Wretch and Dog that the Sun shined upon or the Earth bore That now he saw his Error in not living up to that Reason which God endued him with and which he unworthily vilified and contemned wish'd he had been a starving Leper crawling in a Ditch that he had been a Link-Boy or a Beggar or for his whole Life-time confin'd to a Dungeon rather than thus to have sinend against God How remarkable was his Faith in a hearty embracing an devout Confession of all the Articles of the Christian Religion and all the Divine Mysteries of the Gospel saying that that absurd and foolish Philosophy which the world so much admir'd propagated by the late Mr. Hobbs and others had undone him and many more of the best Parts of the Nation He cast himself entirely upon the Mercies of Jesus Christ and the Free Grace of God declared to repenting Sinners through him with a thankful Remembrance of his Life Death and Resurrection begging God to strengthen his Faith and often crying out Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief His mighty Love and Esteem of the Holy Scriptures his Resolutions to read them frequently and meditate upon them if God should spare him having already tasted the good Word for having spoken to his Heart he acknowledged all the seeming Absurdities and Contradictions thereof fancied by Men of corrupt and reprobate Judgments were vanished and the Excellency and Beauty appeared being come to receive the Truth in the Love of it How terribly did the Tempter assault him by casting upon him wicked and lewd Imaginations But I thank God said he I abhor them all and by the Power of his Grace which I am sure is sufficient for me I have overcome them 'T is the Malice of the Devil because I am rescued from him and the Goodness of God that frees me from all my Spiritual Enemies He was greatly rejoiced at his Lady's Conversion from Popery which he called a Faction supported only by Fraud and Cruelty He was heartily concerned for the Pious Education of his Children wishing that his Son might never be a Wit that is as he explain'd it One of those wretched Creatures who pride themselves in abusing God and Religion denying his Being or his Providence but that he might become an Honest and a Religious Man which could only be the Support and Blessing of his Family He gave a strict Charge to those Persons in whose Custody his Papers were to burn all his profane and lewd Writings as being only fit to promote Vice and Immorality by which he had so highly offended God and shamed and blasphemed that holy Religion into which he had been baptized and all his obscene and filthy Pictures which were so notoriously Scandalous I must not pass by his pious and most passionate Exclamation to a Gentleman of some Character who came to visit him upon his Death-Bed O remember that you contemn God no more he is an avenging God and will visit you for your Sins will in Mercy I hope touch your Conscience sooner or later as he has done mine You and I have been Friends and Sinners together a great while therefore I am the more free with you We have been all mistaken in our Conceits and Opinions Our Perswasions have been false and groundless therefore God grant you Repentance And seeing him again next Day said to him Perhaps you were disobliged by my Plainness to you Yesterday I spake the Words of Truth and Soberness to you and striking his Hand upon his Breast said I hope God will touch your Heart He commanded me continues our Author to preach abroad and let all Men know if they knew it not already how severely God had disciplin'd him for his Sins by his afflicting Hand that his Sufferings were most just tho' he had laid Ten thousand times more upon him how he had laid one Stripe upon another
was of the Female Sex The Father and Mother of it were great Familists Clark's Mir. c. 63. p. 249. CHAP. VIII Persons of a wonderful Strength STrength of Body is such an Endowment that we ought not indeed to be proud of â— if it were owing to our own Wit and Care for the procuring of it but we ought certainly to admire the Wisdom of God and his Goodness to us in making such a slender Structure of Dust moulded into Flesh and Blood and Bones and ty'd together with small Ligaments able to do such great matters and excellent Feats 1. Julius Valens a Centurion of the Guard of Soldiers about the body of Augustus Caesar was wont to bear up a Waggon laden with Hogs-heads or a Butt of Wine until it was discharged thereof and the Wine drawn out of it he would take up a Mule upon his back and carry it away also he used to stay a Chariot against all the force of the Horses striving or straining to the contrary and other wonderful Mysteries which are to be seen Engraven upon his Tomb-stone says Pliny lib. 7. cap. 20. p. 166. 2. Fusius Salvius having an Hundred Pounds weight at his Feet as many in his Hands and twice as much on his Shoulders went with all this up a pair of Stairs or Ladder ibid. p. 166. 3. My self have seen says Pliny one athanatus do wonderful strange matters in the open view and face of the World he would walk upon the Stage with a Cuirace of Lead weighing Five hundred Pounds and booted besides with a pair of Greaves upon his Legs of the same weight 4. Milo the great Wrestler of Crotona was of that strength that he-carried a whole Ox the length of a Furlong when he stood firm on his Feet no Man could thrust him off from his standing or if he grasped a Pomegranate in his Hand no Man was able to stretch a Finger of his and force it out at length Pliny ibid. p. 166. 5. Venetianello was of that strength and firmness that he broke the thick Shank-bones of Oxen upon his Knee three Pins of Iron as thick as a Man's Finger wraping them about with a Napkin he would twist and writh as if they were softened by Fire A Beam of 20 Foot long and a Foot thick laid upon his Shoulders sometimes set on end there he would carry without use of his Hands and shift from one Shoulder to another my Son was an Eye witness Wierâ—de praestig daem lib. 1. c. 18. p. 57. 6. There lived in Messina in Thuring Nicholas Klumber Provost of the great Church who was so strong as without Cable or Pulley or any other help he fetched up out of a Cellar a Pipe of Wine carried it out of Doors and laid it upon a Cart. Hakewell Ap. l. 3. c. 5. s 4. p. 214. 7. Mayolus an Italian Bishop speaks of a Man who in the Presence of the Marquiss of Pescara handed a Pillar of Marble three Foot long and one foot in Diameter the which he cast high in the Air then received it again in his Arms then lasht it up again sometimes after on Fashion sometimes after another as easily as if he had been playing with a Ball or such like thing Hakewell ibid. 8. The same Author speaks of one at Mantua called Rodomas so strong that he brake a Cable as big as a Man's Arm. Mounted upon a Horse and leading another by the Bridle he would run a full Career and stop in the midst of his Course or when it liked him ibid. 9. He says that Frogsard reports of Ornando Burg a Spaniard who was Companion to the Earl of Foix who lift up an Ass laden with Wood upon his Shoulder and carried him into a Room Ascended by 24 Steps and cast both the Ass and Wood into the Fire together ibid. 10. George of Fransberg Baron of Mindleheim was able with the middle Finger of his Right Hand to remove a very strong Man out of his place sate he never so sure he stopp'd a Horse suddenly that ran in a full Career by only touching the Bridle and with his Shoulder would he easily shove a Canon whither he Listed His Joynts seemed to be made of Horn and he wrested twisted Ropes and Horse-shoes in sunder by his bare Hands Camer Cent. c. 82. p. 380. 11. Cardan writes that himself saw one dancing with two in his Arms two upon his Shoulders and one hanging about his Neck Fullers Worth p. 215. 12. Mr. Carew of Cornwal assures us that one John Bray his Tenant carried upon his back at one time a good space six Bushels of Wheaten Meal reckoning fifteen Gallons to the Bushel and the Miller a Lubber of 24 years of Age. Upon the whole he addeth that John Roman of the same Shire a short Clownish Grub would bear the whole Carcass of an Ox. Fullers Worth p. 205 Cornwal 13. Scanderbeg is said to have slain 2 or 3000 Men with his own Hand never giving but one blow cleaving asunder whom he met with or cutting them in two by the Waste cleaving Steel Helmets c. Jovius c. CHAP. IX Wonderful Eaters THE faculty of Eating or taking in much Food and turning it to Chyle and Nutriment so as quite to alter the whole Mass and Assimulate part of it to the body by such little curious Veins and Vessels and Humours as are within us and this by several distinct Offices and Operations is very strange and astonishing and enough to make us look up with Praise and Wonder at him that made us 1. There was a Woman Athenaeus speaks of who eat 12 pound of Flesh about 12 pounds of Bread and drank above a Gallon of Wine at a Meal Maximinus the Emperor would drink often in one day 9 Gallons of Wine and eat 40 pound of Flesh 2. One Phagon in Vopiscus devoured in one day a whloe Bore a Hundred Loaves a Wether and a young Hog and drank more then 9 Gallons of Wine Capitolin writes that Claudius Albinus the Emperor devoured 500 dried Figs and 100 Peaches and 10 Melons and 20 pound of Grapes and 100 Gnatsappers and 400 Oysters for a Breakfast Johnston p. 311. 3. Vguccio Fagiol an old Man told Scaliger that when he was young he eat 4 fat Capons and so many Patridges and the roasted hinder part of a Kid and a breast of Veal stuft besides salt Fish at one Supper Caesar Maximilian tells of one that eat a raw Calf and a Sheep at one Meal Suidrigellus Duke of Lithuania sate 6 hours at Supper and fed on 130 Dishes Sylv. l. 2. Com. in Panormit ibid. 4. Gemma Frisius tells of a Woman that could not live one moment without eating he gives for Cause the greatness and peculiar Temperament of her Liver for her Fat being increased unmeasurably and her heat choaked her belly was opened and about 20 pounds of Fat were taken out her Liver was found to be sound swelling with blood and spirits but extream red and
huge great ibid. 5. King Hardiknute his Tables were spread every day four times and furnish'd with all kinds of curious Dishes as delighting in nothing else but gormandizing and swilling but in a solemn Banquet Reveling and Carousing he suddenly fell down without Speech or Breath Bakers Chron. p. 25. 6. Schenckius tells of a Man of 50 years of Age who from his Youth with a strange kind of greediness was wont to eat all sorts of Food and as speedily to eject them but his strong Appetite lasted not above 20 days and for so many days after he had a loathing of all things and for the rest of the year eat sparingly p. 304. 7. Nicholas Wood of Harrison in the County of Kent Yeoman did with ease eat a whole Sheep of 16 s. Price and that raw at one meal another time he eat 30 dozen of Pidgeons At Sir William Sidleys he eat as much as would have sufficed 30 Men at the Lord Wottons in Kent he eat at one meal Fourscore and four Rabbets which number would have sufficed 168 Men allowing to each half a Rabbet he suddenly devoured 18 yards of black-pudding and when at once he had 60. pound weight of Cherries he said they were but wash-meat he made an end of a whole Hog at once and after it for Fruit swallowed three Pecks of Damsons After he had broken his Fast having as he said eaten one Pottle of Milk one Pottle of Pottage with Bread Butter and Cheese he eat in my presence saith Taylor 6 penny wheaten Loaves 3 six penny Veal Pies one Pound of sweet Butter one good Dish of Thornback and a shiver off a Peck Houshold Loaf of an Inch thick and all this in the space of an Hour the House yielding no more he departed unsatisfied One John Dale was too hard for him he laid a Wager he would fill Woods belly with wholsom Victuals for two Shillings another Wagered that when he had eaten Dales two shillings he should forthwith eat up a good Sir-loin of Beef Dale bought six Pots of mighty Ale and twelve new penny white Loaves which he sop'd in the Ale the powerful Fume whereof Conquer'd this Conqueror and laid him in a Sleep to the preservation of the Roast-beef and un-expected winning of the Wager He spent all his Estate to provide for his Belly and though a Landed Man and true Labourer died Poor about 1630. Wanleys Wonders Book 4. p. 390. 8. Not long ago there was here in England a private Soldier very famous for digesting of Stones and a very inquisitive Man assures me that he knew him familiarly and had the curiosity to keep in his Company for 24 hours together to watch him and not only observed that he eat nothing but Stones in that time but also that his grosser excrement consisted chiefly of a Sandy substance as if the devoured Stones had been in his body dissolved and crumbled into Sand. Mr. Boyles Exp. philo par 2. Essay 3. p. 86. 9. Dr. Bulwer saith he saw the Man and that he was an Italian Francis Battalia by name at that time about 30 years of Age and that he was born with two stones in one hand and one in the other which the Child took for his first Nourishment upon the Physicians Advice and afterwards nothing else but 3 or 4 pebbles in a spoon once in 24 hours and a draught of Beer after them and in the interim now and then a pipe of Tobacco for he had been a Souldier in Ireland and particularly at the Siege of Limerick and upon his return to London was confined for some time upon suspicion of imposture and falseness of pretence Bulwer's Anthropometamorphosis p. 307. He eat about half a peck of Stones daily CHAP. X. Persons of Wonderful Shapes Figures Members Entrails c. IF we consider our Bodies according to their ordinary Form and Temper we must acknowledge with the Psalmist that they are curiously wrought in the Womb and Fearfully and Wonderfully made but the commonness of our Natural Composition looseth much its Remarkableness and Wonder upon that very score because 't is common and therefore the God of Nature doth sometimes remove his Footsteps and vary his Methods and go out of his ordinary way as if on purpose to awaken Men into a more attentive and thinking Posture that they may be astonish'd into a serious Meditation of his Wisdom and Power and Goodness who is able when he pleaseth to shuffle his Counsels at this rate and do even what he pleaseth in the Structure of his Creatures I. The BRAIN HEAD and SCVLL 1. Nicolaus Ricardius an Italian had an Head unreasonably big his Scull so hard that he would often break Nuts or Peach-stones with one blow of it Jan. Nicii Pinacoth 1. p. 43. 2. Some time after the Battel of Plataea when the Bones were freed of the Flesh the Plataeans found a Scull without any Suture Herod l. 9. p. 544. 3. Bartholinus speaks of another whose Scull was so firm it was able to endure Coach-wheels to pass over it Hist Anat. Cen. 5. Hist 44. 4. Albertus Marquis of Brandenburg and Cardinal Ximenes had no Sutures Korman de Mir. Mort. l. 4. c. 78. p. 32. 5. The Head of a Giant amongst the rarities of Pope Paul the Fourth had the lower Jaw conjoined to the Head so fast that it could never move Columb Anar l. 15. p. 484. 6. Zacutus tells of a Man with a straight Horn in his Forehead a span broad at the Root Prax. Adm. Hildauus of one with a Horn like that of a Ram. Prax. Adm. l. 3. Obs. 93. 7. Pfeil the Physician found in a Patients Brain a Stone as big as a Mulbetry the eating of which Fruit brought his Disease Melch. Adm. in Vit. Germ. Medic. p. 41. II. The HAIR 1. Cardan speaks of one that when he Comb'd his Head sparks of Fire flew out of his Hair Scaliger tells of a Lady whose Hair did the same thing St. Augustine speaks of some that would move all the Hair of their Heads forwards and backwards without moving of their Heads Schot Phis. curios l. 3. c. 34. p. 573. This is common 2. Tamberlane wore his Hair long and Curl'd contrary to the Tartars who shave their Hair they believing that in those long Hairs there was some fatal Destiny known Among the Indians the King causeth the Hair of the greatest Malefactors to be cut the Persian and Canarian Women cut their Hair at the Funeral of their Friends The People of Brasil when they are Angry let their Hair grow long and when they mourn they Cut it The Maxies wear their Hair long on the right side of the Head and save the left side The Sasquesahanoughs a Giant-like People of Virginia wear the Hair on the one side long on the other short and close with a Ridge over their Crowns like a Cock's-comb Man Transform'd p. 54. III. The BEARD 1. Thirty Miles from Madrid the King of Spains Court was a Woman aged 60
intelligo non opâ—â— esr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. Mrs. Walker of Geneva was a very extraordinary Person her Father is of Shaff-house she lost her Sight when she was but a Year old by being too near a Stove that was very hot There rests in the upper part of the Eye so much Sight that she distinguishes Day from Night and when any Person stands between her and the Light she will distinguish by the Head and its Dress a Man from a Woman but when she turns down her Eyes she sees nothing She hath a vast Memory besides the French that is her natural Language she speaks both High-Dutch Italian and Latin She hath all the Psalms by Heart in French and many of them in Dutch and Italian She understands the Old Philosophy well and is now studying the New She hath studied the Body of Divinity well and hath the Text of the Scriptures very ready on all which matters I had long Conversation with her She not only Sings well but she plays rarely on the Organ and I was told she played on the Violin but her Violin was out of order But that which is most of all is she writes legibly In order to her Learning to write her Father who is a worthy Man and hath such tenderness for her that he furnisheth her with Masters of all sorts Ordered Letters to be Carved in Wood and she by feeling the Letters formed such an Idea of them that she writes with a Crayon so distinctly that her Writing can be well Read of which I have several Essays I saw her write she doth it more nimbly than can be imagined She hath a Machine that holds the Paper and keeps her always in Line But that which is above all the rest she is a Person of extraordinary Devotion great Resignation to the Will of God and a profound Humility Dr. Burnet's Letters p. 121. 7. The Lady Donna Olivia Sabuco being abundantly furnished with more of the Masculine Wit and Understanding couragiously imployed both her Brains and Mind in the Investigation of the Natural things and advancing in her Studies she set her Wits upon things of great use and to the end Spain and the whole World might receive some benefit thereby she wonderfully gave beginning to a new and most ingenious way of Curing And Writing a Letter to Philip II. she thus displays her Wit It is as plain as the Light of the Sun That the Antient Physick was in an Errour according as it is Read and Practised in its principal Fundamentals for that the Antient Philosophers and Physicians neither understood nor reach'd the true Nature upon which Physick is founded and from whence it draws its Original of which not only the understanding Christian Physicians may be Judges but also those that have any prospect into other Faculties being Persons of Wit and Judgment And a little after He that cannot comprehend or understand it let him leave it to others that are to come or let him believe Experience and not the Antient Physick Therefore my Petition is just that these my Followers may be approved for one year since they have tried the Rules of Galen and Hippoorates for these 2000 Years and have found the effect so inconsiderable and the ends so uncertain as it is to be seen every day and was lately observed in the past Epidemic Catarrhs Spotted Fevers Small-Pox and Pestilences c. in the Cure of which that sort of Physick is so ineffectual c. Leonardo di Capoa's Vncertainy of the Art of Physick p. 97. 8. A Woman of Kenly in Shropshire known generally by the Name of Nurse Corfield was so famed about twenty years ago for her Skill in Chirurgery and Physick that it gave occasion for a great Confluence of Persons and Patients to the Town where she lived Many People not only of the meaner sort but of the Gentry likewise for thirty or forty miles distance made their application to her insomuch that the Inns were filled with Guests and the Town turned into a Hospital and her Fame exceeded that of any other Physicians in those parts that I know of yet there were many eminently skillful and learned in that Profession I know not whether she may not be yet living in those parts 9. I say nothing of those famous Prophetesses Mary the Sister of Moses Deborah Anna Elizabeth the four Daughters of Philip St. Bridget Hildegardis Cassandra the Sybils c. Nor of those famous She-Philosophers Theano the Wife of Pythagoras and his Daughter Dama skillful in the Exposition of her Fathers dark Sentences Aspasia and Diotima the Scholars of Socrates Mantinca and Philesia-Axiochia both Scholars of Plato Nor of Gemina and Amphiclea extoll'd by Plotinus Themistis by Lactantius The Church of Rome rejoices in her Catherine which Maid alone did far excel all the Learning of Wife Men in that Age. Zenobia the Queen and Scholar of Longinus the Philosopher for her abundant and excellent skill in Literature obtained the Name of Ephinissa whose Holy Works Nicomachus hath turned into the Greek Tongue In Oratory and Poetry Armesia sirnamed Androgenia was famed so were Sappho Hortensio Lucria Valeria Capiola Corinna Cornificia Romana and Erimna Telia which were accounted Epigrammatists And in Salust Sempronia and Calphurnia among the Lawyers c. Nor do I stay to insist upon that late learned Countess of our own Nation who hath left a Specimen of her Learning and Ingenuity behind her in a whole Volume of Poems and Comedies Nor of that other famous Countess of Warwick whose Ingenious Meditations upon sundry subjects composed in Solitude for the the help of her own Devotion have been since Printed Nor the Lady Morton's Devotions published in a Volume by themselves Nor Mrs. Josceline's Mother's Blessing Nor Mrs. Vrsula Quarles who hath in short but handsomely pen'd her Husband's Life Nor would it be proper to say much of one Dorothy Lillingstone who hath left behind her a short account of her own wicked Life and Penitential Death being Executed April 7 1679. at Kennington for Murdering her Bastard Child and published at earnest Request CHAP. XXXVI Wonderful Distempers THat wild computation of the Poet Mille modi mortis c. doth not reach the number of Diseases tho' it seems to be a great Hyperbole Common Diseases are many and some of them strange enough but there are others which admit at their first appearance of no Diagnosis the Symptoms are so new or strange or complicated that they put all the Art of Physick to a stand and the Physicians to ashonishment and the Patients to surprising fears and apprehensions of Danger If Men had once got the knowledge of all Distempers they would be in hopes of baffling in time all the menaces of Mortality 1. Anno. 1577. July the 5th and 6th an Assizes was held at Oxford where was Condemned one Rowland Jenkins Bookbinder of Oxford for Seditious Words who being there Arraigned many came to bear his Cause tried and as soon
as Judgment proceeded against him there arose among the People such a Damp or Mist that so filled their Heads that the greatest part of them seemed to be smother'd The Jurors died and presently the Lord Baron Sir Roger Bell Mr. Wrinemen Sir William Babington a Justice of the County Mr. Serjeant Barbam Justice of the Assize Mr. Dolley High-Shcriff Mr. Hart Under-Sheriff with divers others sickned there Three of the Persons died at Oxford and in several other places about 200 many of them Bleeding to death Batman's Doom p. 405. 2. Schenckius tells us of several Persons who thorow sudden fear have turned perfectly Grey doth Vives Hildanus and many other Physicians 3. One Jacob Heitzman contracted a Hoariness of his Beard from his Mothers Womb she being affrighted by occasion of a Neighbours House being on Fire Schenck Obs Med. l. 1. p. 3. 4. We have known two Brothers bald by Nature the one a Toll-gatherer the other a Husbandman dwelling in Vngnrscheim Johan Stadlerus de Obs 5. We have already spoken of a Distemper that began in Poland and afterwards spread it self in Germany and other parts wherein the Hairs of the Head were turn'd into a kind of Snakes and living Vermin 6. Haly Rhodâ—han saw one that was Born with a Beard and Hair Com. ad Tex 177. Tech. Galeni Wolfius observed an Infant with as much Hair on his Breast as one of 30 years of Age. Wolf Lect. Memorab Tom. 2. p. 540. And another Bristled like a Swine 7. Many Women have been seen with great Beards Albertus Duke of Bavaria kept one in his House and I my self when a young man saw one at Oxford that was carried about for a show 8. Tincelius tells us of an Infant afflicted with a Hydrocephalon or a Watrish Tumour of the Head insomuch that when 14 days old the circumsluous Flesh had quite covered his Eyes Fincel l. de Miraculis 9. Albucacis tells of another whose Head was grown so big that the Boy neither standing nor sitting could bear it upon his Shoulders so that in few days he died Albuc l. 2. c. 1. Chirurg 10. Vesalius tells of a Girl of two years of Age at Ausburg our of whose Head was taken almost nine pounds of Water Vesal l. 1. c. 5. de hum corp fabrica 11. Many have been Born with Horns upon their Head which I pass over as not very pertinent in this place 12. Johan Baptista Modoctiensix used to be seized with a Pain of his Head every morning at Sun-rising which continued increasing till mid-day and then abated by degrees Carl. l. 8. c. 44. de Varietat Gesner and Wolfius report a Story of another of the like Nature With some the like Pain hath increased so that by Noon the Persons have been Mad. 13. A certain Hungarian Merchant who had been troubled many years with a heavy Pain in the forepart of his Head and at length with a strong blowing of his Nose drew out a Stone as big as a Bean. and so hard that no Knife could cut it Schenck Obs Med. l. 1. p. 49. 14. In the Hungarian Fever call'd Theriodes it hath been observed often that Worms have crept out of the Brains of those Persons who have died Corad c. 10. Febr. Miscellan Hungar. Thercod 15. A certain rich Nobleman aged 22 who died of an Epidemical Distemper Anno 1571. in the Town of Albourg St. Sepulchre in the Marches of Ancona being opened by the Physicians whereof the famous Nicholas St. Michael was one and Schenckius himself another there was found in his Brain a red Worm as long as ones Finger with a sharp mouth a long black and hairy Neck rolling it self divers ways touching the very Basis of his Head Schenck Obs Med. l. 1. p. 50. 16. One of Galen's School-fellows was taken at his Study with a Catochus or Catalepsis lying like a Log of Wood stiff and unflexible looking upon those that came near him with open Eyes not so much as winking being neither able to speak or move any part yet hearing and remembring some things that were spoken Galen Comment 2. in 1. pro Rhet. Hipp. c. 56. 17. Fernclius tells us of one who was suddenly struck with this Distemper at his Studies so stiff that keeping his Seat and holding his Pen in his Hand with his Eyes cast down upon his Book he seemed still intent upon his Study till being called and pull'd he was found to want all Sense and Motion Fernel l. 5. c. 2. Patholog 18. Jacotius speaks of another that he saw an old man very thin and juiceless sitting at Table with open Eyes and erect Body and his Hand reaching to the Dish as if you had seen a dead man feeding but so stiff that I could scarce move his Neck saith he Jacotius Comment ad Aplor 7. l. 2. Coaz Hipp. 19. I saw saith my Author a certain Epileptical Man who first of all was whitled about several times as it were in a Circle and then fell into his Fits Oâ—thaeus l. Obs preper 20. A certain man aged 30. from his Childhood was wont when he had gone 2 or 3 paces to turn himself about as it were in a Circle and he could not forbear doing so continually from the time that he heard the Bell ring first in the morning till he heard the Bell ring the second time at night in that time wholly alâ—â—aining from all Meat and Drink At last he was seized with Epileptical Fits in a most violent manner from which Vertiginous Motion and the other direct Fit of the Falling Sickness he was after some time delivered Schenck Obs Med. l. 1. p. 103. ex Moccio 21. A Schoolmaster 's son of Drogheda not very far from Dublin as often as Epileptical Fits assailed him was so hurried with a direct motion that he went strait forward till he met with some insuperable Obstacle that stopt him otherwise neither Fire nor Water nor the steepest Precipice would hinder his course Arnoldi Boot c. 6. 22. A certain Nun of St. Vincents of Mantua by Name Monica Grignana for several years was afflicted with these Convulsive Motions She was forced to lie in Bed sitting day and night with her Head Neck and Arms tossed about forward and backward and to move them continually as she was Eating and Drinking and if any stander by endeavoured to hold them still she fell into a Swoon Schenck Obs Med. l. 1. p. 120. 23. Platerus speaks of some particularly an Abbor who without any hurt of his Mind was forced involuntarily to Laugh and toss himself about even to the utter spending of his strength Plater de Observ propr Which puts me in mind of a Story related by Henry Stephens in his World of Wonders of a Man who being at church and seeing a Woman fall down off her Seat while she was sleeping before him fell into so great a Fit of Laughter that he continued 3 days and 3 nights without giving over 24. The Dance of St. Vitas is