Monster yet often viewing will make it familiar and free it from distaste Walk every day with Joseph a turn or two in thy Garden with Death and thou shalt be well acquainted with the Face of Death but shalt never feel the Sting of Death Death is black but comely Philostrates lived Seven Years in his Tomb that he might be acquainted with it against his Bones came to lie in it Some Philosophers have been so wrapp'd in this Contemplation of Death and Immortality that they discourse so familiarly and pleasingly of it as if a fair Death were to be preferâ—◠〈◊〉 a pleasant Life 1. King Xerxes standing on a Mountain and having many Hundred thousand of his Soldiers standing in the Plain fell a weeping to think upon it how in a few Years he and all those gallant valiant Men must die Adam he lived 930 Years and he died Enoch he lived 965 Years and he died Methusalem lived 967 Years and he died Oh the longest Day hath its Night and in the end Man must die Maximilian the Emperor made his Coffin always to be carried along with him to this end that his high Dignity might not make him forget his Mortality Joseph the Jew in his best Health made his Stone Coffin be cut out in his Garden to put him in mind of his Ego abeo I go hence The Persians they buried their dead in their Houses to put the whole Houshold in mind of the same Lot Semel mori once to die Simonides when commanded to give the most wholsome Rule to live well willed the Lacedoemonian Prince ever to bear in mind Se tempore brevi moriturum E're long he must die I have read of a sort of People that used dead Mens Bones for Money and the more they have they are counted the more Rich Herein consists my richest Treasure to bear that about me that will make me all my Life remember my End Great Sultan Saladin Lord of many Nations and Languages commanded upon his Death-bed that one should carry upon a Spear's point through all his Camp the Flag of Death and to proclaim for all his Wealth Saladin hath nought left but this Winding-sheet An assured Ensign of Death triumphing over all the Sons of Adam I uncloath my self every Night I put off all but what may put me in mind of my Winding-sheet Anaxagoras having Word brought him his only Son was dead his Answer was Scio me genuisse mortalem I know he was born to die Philip of Macedon gave a Boy a Pension every Morning to say to him Philippe memento te hominem esse Philip remember thou art a Man and therefore must die When I was a young Man saith Seneca my care was to live well I then practised the Art of Well-living When Age came upon me I then studied the Art of Dying well Platonius in Stobelas 'T is not enough saith he to spend the present Day well unless thou spendest it so as if it were to be thy last Caesar Borgias being sick to Death said When I lived I provided for every thing but Death now I must die and am unprovided to die A Man saith Luther lives Forty Years before he knows himself to be a Fool and by that time he sees his Folly his Life is finished So Men die before they begin to live When dying then sin if you can said Picus Mirandula In Sardis there grew an Herb called Appium Sardis that would make a Man lie laughing when he was deadly sick Such is the Operation of Sin Beware therefore of this Risus Sardonicus Laughter of Sardis Commonly good Men are best at last even when they are dying It was a Speech worthy the Commendation and frequent Remembrance of so divine a Bishop as Augustine which is reported of an aged Father in his time who when his Friends comforted him on his Sick Bed and told him they hoped he should recover answered If I shall not die at all well but if ever why not now Surely it is Folly what we must do to do unwillingly I will never think my Soul in a good case so long as I am loath to think of dying There is no Spectacle in the World so profitable or more terrible than to behold a dying Man to stand by and see a Man dismanned Curiously didst thou make me in the lowest part of the earth saith David But to see those Elements which compounded made the Body to see them divided and the Man dissolved is a rueful sight Every dying Man carries Heaven and Earth wrapped up in his Bosom and at this time each part returns homeward Certainly Death hath great dependency on the course of Man's Life and Life it self is as frail as the Body which it animates Augustus Caesar accounted that to be the best Death which is quick and unexpected and which beats not at our doors by any painful Sickness So often as he heard of a Man that had a quick passage with little sense of pain he wished for himself that Euthanesie While he lived he used to set himself between his two Friends Groans and Tears When he died he called for his Looking-glass commanded to have his Hair and Beard kembed his rivelled Cheeks smoothed up then asking his Friends if he acted his part well when they answered Yes Why then says he do you not all clap your hands for me Happy is he who always and in every place so lives as to spend his every last moment of Light as if Day were never to return Epictetus most wisely teaching this Death saith he and Banishment and all that we look upon as Evils let them be daily set before thy Eyes but of all most chiefly Death So shalt thou think upon nothing that is too low nor too ardently covet any thing The Day-Lily is a Flower whose Beauty perishes in a Day There is also a Bird haunts the River Hypanis called Haemorobios or the Bird of one Day ending its Life the same Day that it begins dying with the dying Sun and travelling thro' the Ages of Childhood Youth and Old Age in one Day In the Morning it is hatch'd at Noon it flourishes in the Evening it grows old and dies But this is more to be wonder'd at in that winged Creature that it makes no less Provision for one little Day than if it were to live the Age of a Crow or a Raven To this little Animal the Life of Man is most fitly to be compar'd It inhabits by the River of Gliding Time but more fleet than either Bird or Arrow And often only one Day determines all its Pomp oft-times an Hour and as often a Moment We ambitiously desire great Names and without any prejudice to our Ears we hear the Titles of Magnificent most Illustrious Happy Pious Most Potent Most August Most Invincible the Best the Greatest What can we do more unless we should imitate Sapor King of the Persians in an Epistle which he thus began to Constantine the Emperor Sapor King
Bohemian Language signifies an Hundred Years after God would raise up a Swan in Germany whose Singing would affright all those Vultures Which was exactly fulfilled in Luther just an hundred Years after Clarks Marrow of Ecclesiast History p. 119. Fuller Abel Rediv. p. 30. 2. Luther speaks thus of the Covetousness of Germany and the Dearth there We fear Famine and we shall suffer it and find no Remedy for it And whereas we are without Necessity we are sollicitous to prevent Famine like Wicked and Incredulous Heathens and neglect the Word of God and his Work He will permit shortly a dismal Day to come upon us which will bring with it whole Wain-loads of Cares which we shall neither have Power or Means to escape And likewise he foretold the combustion which arose in Germany saying I am very much afraid that if the Princes give ear to Duke George's ill Counsel there will arise some Tumult which will destroy all the Princes and Magistrates in all Germany and engage in it all the Clergy Fuller Abel Rediv. p. 49. 3. In May 1631. at Hull in Saxony the Water was turn'd into Blood and about the middle of this Month this Town was taken by Tilly and afterwards retaken from him by their natural Lord and presently again repossessed by Tilly's Forces and he himself after the Battle of Leipsick made his Escape thither that Night and had his Wounds dress'd by the Town-Barber whilst Tilly's Army lay in the Twon one of his chief Officers saw Blood prodigiously dropping from the House wherein he lay whereupon he said What Must we bleed Will the King of Sweden bleat us That is impossible But it happen'd otherwise for Hull was not above Seven Dutch Miles distant from the place of Battle wherein the Imperial Army was utterly routed and miserably destroyed in the Chase and if the King had had but three Hours more of Daylight it was judged that hardly a Thousand of the Enemy had escaped one of their own Relations affirming that there were Fifteen Thousand of the Imperialists slain upon the place in the Pursuit that Night and the next day following it 's said Tilly's couragious Heart could not refrain from Tears when he perceiv'd such woful Destructions among his brave old Soldiers his Army consisting of Forty-four Thousand stout Men being usually termed Invincible The next day the King besieged Hull which was yielded to him and soon after the Castle But a while after Papenheim and the Imperialists again retook this City exercising all manner of Barbarism upon the Inhabitants This Year likewise in the time of the Siege of Magdeburgs a City Captain's Wife dying in Child-bed desired to be ript open which being done they found a Boy almost as big as one of 3 Years old who had an Head-piece and an Iron Breast-Plate on his Body great Boots of the French Fashion and a Bag on his Side with two things therein like Musquet Bullets This horrible Prodigy no doubt portended the deplorable Desruction of the City which happen'd May 10. 1631. when a general Assault was made upon the Town by the Imperialists the Walls were mounted in an instant the Town entred and the Soldiers fell to killing At the same instant a Fire none knew how broke out and it being a windy day on a sudden all became one mighty Flame the whole Town being in Twelve Hours time turn'd to Cinders except some few Fisher-Houses Six goodly Churches were burnt the Cathedral by the Diligence of the Monks and Soldiers being preserved There were at least Twenty Thousand People killed besides Six Thousand drowned in the River Elbe Two days after Tilly came into the Town and finding some Hundreds of Women and Children in the great Church he gives them their Lives and some Bread to maintain them Surprizing Mirac of Nature p. 109. 4. About the Year 1679 or 1680 there was a noise like the shooting off or the bursting Crack of a Gun heard I believe all over England I heard it my self as I lay in Bed near the Town of Shrewsbury about Seven or Eight a Clock in the Morning it was all over that Country and several other adjacent Counties at London in Sussex and the North of England and did strangely amuse People where-ever it was heard but this I wonder at that in some places it was heard in the Afternoon about One say some others about Three a Clock c. Surely it was significative the rather because the great Comet succeeded it and the Mutations in England But I leave it to the Consideration and Judgment of the Ingenious Reader 5. Octob. 5. 1682. There was born at Exeter a Monster having two perfect Heads one standing right as it should the other being in the Right Shoulder it liv'd not long but was buried and taken up again the tenth Instant many hundreds resorting to see it I propound it here for an Aenigma to exercise my Reader 's Judgment 6 Days Lucky and Vnlucky Extracted from the Miscellanies of John Aubrey Esq Is this thy Day Luk. 19.42 That there be Good and Evil Times not only the Sacred Scriptures but Prophane Authors mention See 1 Sam. 25.8 Esth. 8.17 and 2.19 22. Ecclus 14.14 The Fourteenth day of the First Month was a Memorable and Blessed Day amongst the Children of Israel See Exod. 12.18 40 41 42 51. As to Evil Days and Times see Amos 5.13 and 6.3 Eccles 9.12 Psal 37.19 Obad. 12. Jer. 46.21 And Job hints it in cursing his Birth-day Cap. 3. v. 1 10 11. 7. The Romans counted Feb. 13. an Unlucky Day and therefore then never attempted any Business of Importance 8. The Jews accounted August 10. an unfortunate day for on that day the Temple was destroyed by Titus the Son of Vespasian 9. And not only among the Romans and Jews but also amongst Christians a like Custom of observing such Days is used especially Childermas-day or Innocents-day Cominus tells us that Lewis XI used not to debate any Matter but accounted it a sign of Misfortune towards him if any Man communed with him of his Affairs and would be very angry with those about him if they troubled him with any Matter whatsoever upon that day But I will descend to more particular Instances upon Lucky and Unlucky Days 10. Upon the Sixth of April Alexander the Great was born Upon the same Day he conquer'd Darius won a great Victory at Sea and died the same day 11. Upon the Thirtieth of September Pompey the Great was born Upon that day he Triumph'd for his Asian Conquest and on that day he died If Solomon counts The day of ones Death better than the day of ones Birth there can be no Objection why that also may not be reckon'd amongst ones Remarkable and Happy Days 12. Sir Kenelm Digby that Renowned Knight great Linguist and Magazeen of Arts was Born and Died on the Eleventh of June and also fought fortunately at Scanderoon the same day Hear his Epitaph composed by Mr. Farrar and recited in
the aforesaid Memoirs Vnder this Stone the Matchless Digby lies Digby the Great the Valiant and the Wise This Age's Wonder for his Noble Parts Skill'd in six Tongues and Learn'd in all the Arts. Born on the day he died th' Eleventh of June On which he bravely fought at Scanderoon 'T is rare that one and self-same Day should be His Day of Birth of Death of Victory 13. I had a Maternal Uncle that died the Third of March last 1678. which was the Anniversary day of his Birth and which is a Truth exceeding strange many Years ago he foretold the day of his death to be that of his Birth and he also averr'd the same but about the Week before his departure 14. Of the Family of the Trevours six successive principal Branches have been born the Sixth of July Same Memoirs 15. Meekren in his Medico Chirurgical Observations gives an Account of a Man that had a Septenary-Fever and Pliny if we may believe him tells us of one Antipater a Sidonian that also had a Fever or as some call it an Ague every Year upon his Birth-day As for the Nature of such Fevers or Agues they are as unaccountable as the Revolution of Sevens a Year in which it 's observ'd a great part of the World that get out of Childhood die in and we read of one Family that never escapes it Whether an Anniversary Ague is curable I dare not pretend since we want Examples perhaps from the Fewness of ' em 16. In the Family of the Hastings Earls of Pembrooke it is memorable that for many Generations together no Son ever saw the Father The Father being always dead before the Son was born Chetwind's Historical Collections I shall take particular Notice here of the Third of November both because 't is my own Birth-day and also for that I have observ'd some remarkable Accidents to have happen'd thereupon I had an Estate left me in Kent of which between thirty and forty Acres was Marsh-Land very conveniently flanking its Up-land and in those Days this Marsh Land was usually lot for Four Nobles an Acre My Father died 1643. Within a Year and half after his Decease such Charges and Water-scots came upon this Marsh-land by the Influence of the Sea that it was never worth one Farthing to me but very often eat into the Rents of the Up-land So that I often think this Day being my Birth-day hath the same evil Influence upon me that it had 580 Years since upon Earl Godwin and others concern'd in Low Lands 18. The Parliament so fatal to Rome's Concerns here in Henry VIII's time began the Third of November 26th of his Reign in which the Pope with his Authority was clean banish'd the Realm See Stow's Annals and Weaver p. 80. 19. The Third of November 1640. began that Parliament so direfully fatal to England in its Peace its Wealth its Religion its Gentry Nobility nay it s King 20. The Third of September was a remarkable Day to the English Attila Oliver 1650. He obtain'd a memorable Victory at Dunbar another at Worcester 1651. And that day he died 1658. 21. The Third of September was Dismal and Unhappy to the City of London and consequently to the whole Kingdom I come now to the Days of the Week 22. I. Tuesday Dies Martis was a most remarkable Day with Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury as Weaver 201 observes from Mat. Paris Upon a Tuesday he suffer'd upon a Tuesday he was Translated upon Tuesday the Peers of the Land sate against him at Northampton upon Tuesday he was Banished upon Tuesday the Lord appear'd to him at Pontiniac saying Thomas Thomas my Church shall be glorified in thy Blood Upon Tuesday he return'd from Exile upon Tuesday he got the Palm or Reward of Martyrdom upon Tuesday 1220. his Venerable Body receiv'd the Glory and Renown of Translation fifty Years after his Passion Thus my Author 22. II. Wednesday is said to have been the fortunate day of Sixtus Quintus that Pope of Renowned Merit that did so great and excellent Things in the time of his Government See The just Weight of the Scarlet Robe p. 101. his desired Praises On a Wednesday he was born on that Day he was made Monk on the same he was made General of his Order on that also was he successively created Cardinal elected Pope and also Inaugurated See Heylin speaking of the Temple of Jerusalem 23. III. Thursday was a fatal Day to Henry VIII as Stow 812. and so also to his Posterity He died on Thursday Jan. 28. King Edward VI. on Thursday July 6. Queen Mary on Thursday November 17. Queen Elizabeth on Thursday March 24. 24. IV. Friday was observ'd to be very fortunate to the Great Renowned Capt. Gonsalvo he having on that day given the French many Memorable Defeats 25. V. Saturday was a Lucky Day to Henry VII Upon that Day he atchiev'd the Victory upon Richard III. being August 22. 1485. On that day he entred the City being August 29. Correct Stow who mistakes the Day and he himself always acknowledged he had experienced it fortunate See Bacon in his Life 26. At Feltwell in Norfolk which lies East and West a Fire happen'd to break out at the West end which the West Wind blew and burn'd all the Street On that Day Twenty Years another Fire happened there which began at the East end and burn'd it to the Ground again This I had from a Reverend Divine 27. Collonel Hugh Grove of Wiltshire was beheaded at Exeter together with Coll John Penrudock on the Ninth day of May 1655. On that very day Three Years his Son and Heir died at London of a Malignant Fever and about the same Hour of the Day 28. A very good Friend of mine and old Acquaintance was born on the 15th of November his eldest Son was born on the 15th of November and his Second Son's First Son on the 15th of November Thus far I 'm beholding to Mr. Aubrey's Collections CHAP. XVI Premonitions of particular Changes or Accidents of Life FOR God to take notice of and concern himself with Particulars was an Article of Religion which Epicurus could not allow of because it seemed Inconsistent with the Majesty of the Supream Being to interrupt his own Peace and Quiet with so many little Punctilioes But for us Christians to doubt of it were very unreasonable since we find in Sacred Scripture that He was concerned about the Sin of Adam the Murder of Abel the Punishment of Cain the preservation of Noah the Production of Isaac the Correction of David the safety of Daniel and the Three Children and to pass over many more Instances the Death of his Son and St. Peter his Apostle 1. Sir Henry Wooton speaking of the Duke of Buckingham's Death takes notice of these Ominous Presagements before his end being to take his Leave of my Lord's Grace of Canterbury the only Bishop of London whom he knew well planted in the King 's unchangeable Affection by
On the Lord's Day Octob. 6. she said thus Here is nothing here but sin I am willing to die but either to live or to die which the Lord pleaseth his Will be done and so it will whether I will or no On Tuesday at Night Octob. 8. seeing her Mother weeping she said Mother do not weep for me but leave me to the Lord and let him do with me what he pleaseth And then clasping her Arms about her Mother's Neck her Mother said Thou embracest me but I trust thou art going to the Embracings of the Lord Jesus She answered Mother I know it that when I go from hence I shall go into Health and Happiness or else I should not undergo all my Pains with so much patience More Expressions of Mary Warren Pray you Mother take off these Plaisters for I would not have them I would have no Doctors or Apothecaries for God shall be my Physician and he will heal me I do not value the Things of this World no more than Dirt. Her Mother had told one That she thought her Daughter had Assaults of Satan she once looked very ghastly and now her Daughter said thus Once I think I looked ghastly and turned my Head on one side and on the other Satan stood upon my left side and God was upon my right side and opened the Gates of Heaven for me and he told me Satan should not hurt me though he sought to devour me like a roaring Lyon I am very sore from the Crown of my Head to the Sole of my Foot but I am so full of Comfort and Joy that I do feel but little of my Pain I do not know whether I shall live or die but whether I live or die it will be well for me I am not in trouble for my sins God is satisfied with his Son Jesus Christ for he hath wash'd them away with his Blood Then her Sister standing by she said Sister Betty and Sister Anne be sure your first Work be in the Morning to seek the Lord by Prayer and likewise in the Evening and give Thanks for your Food for you cannot pray too ofen to the Lord and though you cannot speak such Words as others have yet the Lord will accept of the Heart for you do not know how soon your Speech may be taken away as mine was She desired her Mother thus Do not let too much Company be here late at Night lest it should hinder them from seeking the Lord in Duty at home I know not whether I shall live or die but if I die and if you will have a Sermon I desire this may be the Text the Place I do not know but the Words may be comfortable to you That David when his Child was sick he cloathed himself in Sackcloth and wept but when his Child was dead he washed and eat Bread For you have wept much while I have been sick and if I die you have cause to rejoyce My Comfort is in the Lord there is Comfort indeed Though we may seek Comfort here and the Glory of this World yet what is all that All will be nothing when we come to lie upon a Death-bed then we would fain have the Love of God and cannot get it I am full of Comfort and Joy Though my Pains are very great yet I am full of Joy and Comfort I was very full of Comfort before but I am fuller of Joy this Hour than I have been yet It is better to live Lazarus's Life and to die Lazarus's Death than to live Dives's Life he had his Delicates and afterwards would have been glad to have had Lazarus dip his Finger in Water and cool his Tongue The last Night I could not stir my Head Hand nor Foot but by and by the Lord did help me to move my Head a little and at length my Body O what a good God have I that can cast down and raise up in a moment 29. Of the Expressions of an hopeful Child the Daughter of Mr. Edward Scarfield that was but Eleven Years of Age in March 1661 Gathered from a Letter written by one fearing God that lived in the House with the Child In August last this Child was sick of a Fever in which time she said to her Father who is a holy humble precious Man I am afraid I am not prepared to die and fell under much trouble of Spirit being sensible not only of actual Sins but of her lost Estate without Christ in Unbelief as Ephes 2.12 John 16.8 9. and she wept bitterly crying out thus My sins are greater than I can bear I doubt God will not forgive them telling her Father I am in unbelief and I cannot believe Yet she was drawn out to pray many times in those words of Psal 25. For thy Name 's sake O Lord pardon my sin for it is great Thus she lay oft mourning for sin and said I had rather have Christ than Health She would repeat many Promises of God's Mercy and Grace but said she could not believe But whilst her Father was praying the Lord raised her Soul up to believe as she told her Father when Prayer was ended Now I believe in Christ and I am not afraid of Death After this she said I had rather die than sin against God Since that time she hath continued quiet in mind as one that hath Peace with God Her Father saith that since she was Five Years old he remembred not that either a Lye or an Oath hath ever come out of her Mouth neither would she have wronged any to the value of a Pin. For these two last Relations I 'm beholding to Mr. Henry Jessey Next follows a Narrative of the Conversions and happy Deaths of several young Children extracted from Mr. White 's and Mr. Janeway's Treatises upon that Subject to which the Reader is refer'd for a much larger Account 1. THere was a Child of whom many things which I here relate I was an Ear-witness of and other things which I shall speak of him I am fully satisfied of This little Child when he died was in Coats somewhat above eight years old of singular Knowledge Affections and Duties for his Age of whom that I may give a more full Account For his Knowledge 1. He asked how the Angels could sin since there were none to tempt them and they were with God 2. It being told him that all Sins and Duties were commanded in the Ten Commandments and forbid I asked him what Commandment forbad Drunkenness He said Thou shalt not kill for they quartelled and killed one another His Father asked him who bid you learn your Book and there is no Commandment saith Thou shalt learn thy Book The Child answered in these words or to this purpose It is said Thou shalt honour thy Father and thy Mother you bid me learn my Book He asked his Father when he was at Dinner what became of Children that died before Baptism he made a little stop that he might answer him
the Faith that we may have this Testimony in our own Consciences that all our Ways and Paths are well-pleasing to the Lord our great Soveraign that we may so even so run as to obtain an immortal Crown at last though the Righteous shall scarcely be saved and that we might be found upon Mount Sion with the Lamb among the Sealed ones of God is the earnest and daily Prayer of Your loving Sister Lydia Carter Mrs. Lydia Carter's Letter to her Brother Jeremiah Carter Loving Brother Jeremiah YOU are a young Man and you read of the young Man in the Gospel concerning whom it is said Christ looking upon him loved him I think that was but a common Love because of some hopefulness of more good or of less discovery of more evil in him than in many others The Lord knows that I do most tenderly love you as a Brother in the Flesh but oh how much more should I love you as a Brother in Christ Now that you may have a share in the Soul-saving Love of Christ that you may be more intimately acquainted with the deep Mystery of the Gospel that you may consecrate the Flower of your Youth to God that you may fly all Sins incident to your present State that you may be sensible of continued Mercies that you may improve all Opportunities and Abilities which you have received from God for God that you may earnestly contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints that you may follow the Lord fully in your Generation and that you and I with all our Relations may one Day sit down in heavenly places together with Jesus Christ is the uncessant Prayer of Your very Loving Sister Lydia Carter August 10. 1655. Mrs. Lydia Carter's Letter to her Sister Child Loving Sister Child YOU are a Mother 't is a Blessing yet but an earthly Blessing Children are certain Cares uncertain Comforts Now that you may bear Christ in your Spirit as you have born Children in your Body that you may have further Experience of the preserving Love of God which passeth the Tenderness of Maternal Affection Isai 49.14 15. that you may always enjoy the Light of God's Countenance that you may be strengthned with all Might according to the glorious Power of God in your inward Man unto all Patience and Long-suffering with Joyfulness that you may by your heavenly Conversation adorn the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you may be counselled and comforted by the sweet Influences of the Spirit of Grace and that you may be one of those who shall be caught up in the Clouds together with all the Saints to meet the Lord in the Air and befor ever with him is the fervent Prayer of Your very Loving Sister Lydia Carter Mrs. Lydia Carter's Letter to her Aunt Child Most endeared Aunt WHom I love in the Truth and not I only but also all they that have known the Truth Grace be with you Mercy and Peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in Health even as your Soul prospereth I have no greater Joy than to hear that all the Lord's People walk in the Power of Godliness shewing forth the Praises of him who hath called us out of Darkness into his marvelous Light It is true I have need to be more fully instructed of those who have attained unto a full Age and by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both Good and Evil yet as one who hath obtained this Grace of the Lord as to be faithful in a few things I shall not be negligent to put you in remembrance of these things tho' you know them and are established in the present Truth That which the Lord expects at our Hands is that we should walk worthy of him who hath called us unto a Kingdom that we should live unto the praise of his rich Grace who hath so freely poured out his Soul unto Death for us Dying Love justly merits an humble holy thankful and fruitful Conversation Truly we live in a crooked and perverse Generation Satan hath his Seat in every place great is the subtilty of Sin the deceitfulness of our own Hearts the power and malice of our Spiritual Adversary it nearly concerns us therefore to give all diligence to make our calling and election sure before we go away from hence and be no more Aunt My continual and fervent Desire is That we may be every Day more and more enlightned into the Depths of Special and Distinguishing Love and that I may be helped forward in my Faith and Joy in the Holy Ghost by your Experiences is the Prayer of Your Affectionate Cousin Lydia Carter My Love unto all my Cousins praying that they may be blessed with all Spiritual Blessings in the common Saviour Mrs. Lydia Carter's Letter to her Sister Desborrow Loving Sister Desborrow THat we should exhort one another daily consider one another and provoke one another unto Love and Good Works is the Exhortation of the Scripture and such Counsel as I desire might be written upon your Heart and mine Sister You are now entred into the World with me but that an abundant entrance may be administred into the Kingdom of God unto us both that we may with Mary choose the better part which shall never be taken from us that we may grow in Grace and in the Knowledge of Jesus Christ that we may not be weary of Well-doing that we may approve our Hearts unto God in all manner of Holiness that we may be filled with Spiritual Graces suitable to our Relations and Conditions that we may persevere unto the End that we may have the Sence of God's Love kept alive and warm upon our Hearts that we may bring forth much Fruit proportionable to the precious Enjoyments of Divine Mercy that we may make it our Business to praise exalt and glorifie him who hath abundantly loved us in his Son that we may have a continual Eye upon him who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith that we may earnestly strive to attain unto the Resurrection of the Dead and that we may learn Christ love Christ and live Christ is the restless Desire of Your very Loving Sister Lydia Carter Your Husband and you shall not be forgotten by me in my Pleadings at the Throne of Grace Farewel These Letters were all sent me by her own Son who received 'em from his Father a little before his Death He also sent him the following Letter and Directions for the Management of his whole Life which being full of pious Instructions may properly come under this Head His Letter was this following My dear Child THY Master's Letter to me last Week gives me great Encouragement to think that if please God I live I shall receive a great deal of Comfort from thee he writes so fully that I profess I never read more written concerning any one in my Life of thy
sometime seen the Courage and Constancy of the Laird of Grang. See this Passage under the Head of Discovery of Things secret or future by Impulses The next Day Knox gave Order for the making of his Coffin continuing all the Day in fervent Prayer crying Come Lord Jesus sweet Jesus into thy hands I commend my Spirit Being ask'd whether his Pains were great he answered That he did not esteem that a Pain which would be to him the end of all Troubles and the beginning of Eternal Joys Oft after some deep Meditation he used to say Oh! serve the Lord in Fear and Death shall not be troublesome to you Blessed is the Death of those that have part in the Death of Jesus The Night before his Death he slept some Hours with great unquietness often sighing and groaning And being ask'd why he mourned so heavily he answered In my Life-time I have been assaulted with Temptations from Satan and he hath oft cast my Sins into my Teeth to drive me to Despair yet God gave me Strength to overcome all his Temptations But now the subtil Serpent takes another course seeking to perswade me that all my Labours in the Ministry and the Fidelity that I have shewed in that Service hath not merited Heaven and Immortality But blessed be God that brought to my Mind these Scriptures What hast thou that thou hast not received And Not I but the Grace of God in me With which he is gone away ashamed and shall no more return And now I am sure that my Battle is at an end and that without pain of Body or trouble of Spirit I shall shortly change this Mortal and miserable Life with that Happy and Immortal Life that shall never have end After which one Praying by his Bed asked him after he had done If he heard the Prayer Yea said he and would to God all present had heard it with such an Ear and Heart as I. Adding Lord Jesus receive my Spirit With which words without any motion of Hands or Feet he fell asleep aged 62. A. C. 1572. The Earl of Murray when the Corpse was put into the Ground saying Here lies the Body of him who in his Life-time never feared the face of any Man Fuller Abel Rediv. p. 323 324. 41. Henry Bullinger in his last Sickness endured the sharpest Pains for four Months with an admirable Patience caused the Pastors and Professors of the City to come to him unto whom he delivered a large Oration wherein he thanked them for their Love opened to them his Faith freely forgave all his Enemies exhorted them to Constancy and Unity commended the Care of the Church and Publick School in Writing to the Senate desired that Rodolphus Gualterus might be his Successor c. And so in the midst of his Extremities sometimes repeating the 16 sometimes the 42 and sometimes the 51 Psalms sometimes the Lord's Prayer sometimes other Prayers at the last as one going to sleep he quietly yielded his Soul into the hands of God Sept. 18. 1575. aged 71. Ibid. p. 339. 42. Mr. Edw. Deering to his Friends on his Death-bed upon occasion of the Sun shining said There is but one Sun in the World nor but one Righteousness one Communion of Saints if I were the most Excellent of all Creatures in the World equal in Righteousness to Abraham Isaac and Jacob yet had I reason to confess my self to be a sinner and to expect Salvation only in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ for we all stand in need of the Grace of God As for my Death I bless God I feel so much inward Joy and Comfort that if put 〈◊〉 my choice whether to die or live I would a Thousand times rather chuse Death if it so stand with the Holy Will of God Ibid. p. 342. 43. Boquine in the Year 1582. on a Lord's-day preached twice and in the Evening heard another Sermon then supped chearfully and after Supper refreshed himself by walking abroad then went to visit a sick Friend and whilst he was comforting of him he found his own Spirits begin to sink and running to his Servant he said unto him Pray adding Lord receive my Soul and so departed in the Lord. Fuller Abel Rediv. p. 349. 44. Mr. Gilpin finding Death to approach him commanded the Poor to be called together unto whom he made a Speech and took his leave of them he did so likewise by others made many Exhortations to the Scholars and to divers others and so at last fell asleep in the Lord Anno 1583. aged 66. Ibid. p. 360. 45. Olevian in his Sickness made his Will and by Pious Meditations prepared for Death declared that he had learned by that Sickness to know the greatness of Sin and the greatness of God's Majesty more than ever he had done before To John Piscator coming to visit him he said that the day before for four hours together he had been filled with ineffable Joy for said he I thought I was in a most pleasant Meadow in which as I walked up and down I was besprinkled with a Heavenly Dew and that not sparingly but plentifully where both my Body and Soul were filled with unspeakable Joy To whom Piscator made answer That good Shepherd Jesus Christ lead thee into fresh Pastures yea said Olevian to the Springs of Living Waters Afterwards having repeated some Sentences full of Comfort out of Psal 42. Isa 9. and Mat. 11. he often said I would not have my Journey to God any longer deferred I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ And so bidding Farewel to his Colleagues and Friends in the Agony of Death Alsted asking if he were sure of his Salvation in Christ He answered Most sure and so gave up the Ghost Anno 1587. aged 51. Ibid. p. 376. 47. George Sohnius of Fribourg in Wetteraw bore his last Sickness with much Patience and with fervent Prayer often repeating O Christ thou art my Redeemer and I know that thou hast redeemed me I wholly depend upon thy Providence and Mercy from the very bottom of my Heart I commend my Spirit into thy Hands And so he slept in the Lord Anno Christi 1589. aged 38 Ibid. p. 385. 48. James Andreas born in Waibling at Wittenberg falling sick sent for James Herbrand saying I expect that after my Death many Adversaries will rise up to asperse me and therefore I sent for thee to hear the Confession of my Faith that so thou mayest witness for me when I am dead and gone that I died in the True Faith The same Confession he made also before the Pastors and Deacons of Tubing The Night before his Death he slept partly upon his Bed and partly in his Chair When the Clock struck Six in the Morning he said My â—our draws near He gave Thanks to God for bestowing Christ for revealing his Will in his Word for giving him Faith and the like Benefits And when ready to depart he said Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit
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
my Soul I cannot find my small Concern with the Duke of Monmouth doth deserve this heavy Judgment on me but I know as I said before it is for Sins long unrepented of I die in Charity with all Men I desire all of you to bear me witness I die a true Professor of the Church of England beseeching the Lord still to stand up in the Defence of it God forgive my passionate Judges and cruel and hasty Jury God forgive them they know not what they have done God bless the King and though his Judges had no Mercy on me I wish he may find Mercy when he standeth most in need of it Make him O Lord a nursing Father to the Church let Mercy flow abundantly from him if it be thy Will to those poor Prisoners to be hereafter tried and Lord if it be thy holy Will stop this issue of Christian Bood and let my guiltless Blood be the last spilt on this account Gentlemen all Farewel Farewel all the Things of the World Then singing some few Verses of a Psalm and putting up some private Ejaculations to himself said O Lord into thy hands I commend my Spirit and so submitted to the Executioner September the 7th 1685. 3. The Behaviour and Dying Speech of Mr. Joseph Speed of Culliton AT the same time and place as he came near the Place of his Execution he spying his Country-man and Friend called him and said I am glad to see you here now because I am not known in these Parts being answered by his Friend I am sorry to see you in this Condition He replies It is the best Day I ever saw I thank God I have not led my Life as Unchristian-like as many have done having since the Years of Sixteen always had the Checks of Conscience on me which made me to avoid many gross and grievous Sins my course of Life hath been well known to you yet I cannot justifie my self All Men Err. I have not been the least of Sinners therefore cannot excuse my self but since my Confinement I have received so great Comfort in some Assurance of the Pardon of my Sins that I can now say I am willing to die to be dissolved and to be with Christ and say to Death Where is thy Sting and to Grave Where is thy Victory Being ask'd by some rude Soldiers Whether he was not sorty for the Rebellion he was found Guilty of He courageously reply'd If you call it a Rebellion I assure you I had no sinister Ends in being concerned for my whole Design in taking up Arms under the Duke of Monmouth was to fight for the Protestant Religion which my own Conscience dictated to me and which the said Duke declared for and had I think a lawful Call and Warrant for so doing and do not question that if I have committed any Sin in it but that it is pardoned Pray Mr. Sheriff let me be troubled no farther in answering of Questions but give me leave to prepare my self those few Minutes I have left for another World and go to my Jesus who is ready to receive me Then calling to his Friend who stood very near him said My dear Friend you know I have a dear Wife and Children who will find me wanting being somewhat incumbred in the World let me desire you as a Dying Man to see that she be not abused and as for my poor Children I hope the father of Heaven will take care of them and give thern Grace to be Dutiful to their distressed Mother And so with my dying Love to all my Friends when you see them I take leave of you and them and all the World desiring your Christian Prayers for me to the last moment Then repeating some Sentences of Scripture as Colossians chap. 3. v. 1 2. If you then c. and praying very fervently said I thank God I have Satisfaction I am ready and willing to suffer Shame for his Name And so pouring forth some private Ejaculations to himself and lifting up his Hands the Executioner did his Office The Soldiers then present said They never before were so taken with a Dying Man's Speech his Courage and Christian-like Resolution caused many violent Men against the Prisoners to repent of their Tyranny towards them some of whom in a short time died full of Horror And thus fell this Good Man a true Protestant and one that held out to the end An Account of those that suffered at Bridport and Lyme 1. AT Bridport one John Sparke who was a very Good Man and behaved himself with a great deal of Christian-like Courage to the end Being asked how he could endure those Hardships he had undergone since his being taken Says he If this be all 't is not so much but my Friend if you were to take a Journey in those ways you were not acquainted with you would I hope desire Advice from those that had formerly used those ways or lived near by them Yes says he Then said he The ways of Affliction which I have lately travelled in I had Advice many a time from a Minister who hath often told his Congregation of the troublesomeness of the Road and of the difficulty of getting through and has given me and Hundreds of others to understand the Pits and Stones in the way and how to avoid them He has been a Man used to those Roads many Years I have taken his Advice I am got thus far on comfortably and I trust shall do so to the end I am not afraid to fight a Duel with Death if so it must be Now I thank God I can truly say Oh Death where is thy Sting and Oh Grave where is thy Victory Two or three Days after his Sentence he was drawn to Execution but was very rudely and opprobriously dealt with to the Shame of those that then had the Charge over him their Rigour to him was more more like Turks than Christians Being come to the Place of Execution he prayed very devoutly but by the Rudeness of the Guards there could be no Copy taken to be said to be true He died very Couragiously and spake to them in these Words looking on the Soldiers saying Little do you think that this very Body of mine which you are now come to see cut in pieces will one Day rise up in Judgment against you and be your Accuser for your delight in spilling of Christian Blood The Heathens have far more Mercy Oh 't is sad when England must out-strip Infidels and Pagans But pray take notice Don't think that I am not in Charity with you I am so far that I forgive you and all the World and do desire the God of Mercies to forgive you and open your Hearts and turn you from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to the Lord Jesus Christ And so Farewel I am going out of the Power of you all I have no dependance but upon my blessed Redeemer to whom I commit my dear Wife and Children
Nunnery of Pict Royal des Champs whither it was carried after it was dead and put up in an Urn with this inscription Juveni Postum spes fortuna valete The two following Letters between Mrs. E and her Husband may properly be inserted here as they contain the Last Will and Dying Request of two Persons very Remarkable for their conjugal Affection as was mentioned before under the Chapter of Good Wives The HUSBAND's Letter My Dearest Heart I Rejoyce in the entireness of thy Affection which many (a) (a) I suppose he means his late Voyage to America and the Low-Countries c. at which time he presented her with a Ring with this Inscription Many Waters cannot quench Love Cant. 8.6 Waters could not quench nor thy two Years Sickness abate so that were there Hopes of thy being well I shou'd think my self still in Paradise or had met with this Life but as an Earnest of the Happier to come But the dearest Friends must part and thy languishing State makes it necessary for me to impart a few things relating to my own and thy Decease which I must say is the greatest Affliction that can befall me not only as thou wert the Wife of my Youth but as I ever thought my truest Friend Thy Sympathy with me in all the Distresses of my Life both at Sea and Land will make thy Vertues shine with the greater Lustre as Stars in the darkest Night and assure the World you love me not for my Fortunes Thy love to me in this very Respect has exceeded the Generosity of that Dutch Lady who having the Choice of all she cau'd carry at once out of a besieged Castle instead of taking her Rings and Jewels as was expected she locks her Husband up in a Chest and carries him thence on her Back as her chiefest Treasure and by that Stratagem saved his Life Mrs. Katharine Clark was another singular Instance of Respect to her Husband both in Words and Deeds She never rose from the Table even when they were alone but she made a Courtesie she never drank to him without bowing his Word was a Law to her and she made it her Business to please him The Lady Eleanor Wife to King Edward I. saved his Life by sucking Poison out of his Wounds which had otherwise been incurable Queen Mary II. was also a Royal Pattern of Conjugal Affection being both Hands Ears and Eyes to the King in his Absence Neither was William less obliging in all the Instances of a tender Husband Fair course of Passions where two Lovers start And run together Heart thus yok'd in Heart But tho' these are mighty Instances of a pure Love yet all inferior to thy Garden Walks and something else I forbear to mention Nothing can love like the generous Daphne or be so constant as Mutius who strives to become Not (b) (b) This was the Motto in a Ring he gave her before Marriage thine alone but even the same with thee There is such a Union between us that we seem as two Souls in the same Body or rather two Souls transformed into one This makes such an even Thread of Endearment run through all we think or do that as you ever command me in any equal Matter by your constant obeying of me so I as readily scruple every thing that is not agreeable to your Will But nothing happens that is not so for like Spanheimius's Wife thou art willing to be govern'd by me in all things If any Quarrel is 't is who of the two shall live the most Content so that 'Tween you and me now the Accounts are even A Chain of Hearts and the first Link is Heaven I enjoy both Worlds in such a Spouse and were I to wed again and this I speak after (c) (c) They had now been Marry'd about Ten Tears long Tryal I 'd preferr thy self to the Richest Nymph (d) (d) This was the Posie of their Wedding-Ring God saw thee most fit for me and I cou'd not find such another had I a thousand Advisers and as many Worlds to range in to please my Eye and Fancy Then never think thy long Sickness can tire me for (e) (e) Cant. 8.7 True Love is stronger than Death And I could be content to be Tost Weather beaten and even Ship-wrack'd that you might get safe to Harbour which shou'd you miss at last yet you may take this Comfort even in Death it self that you can die but half whilst I am preserved neither need you fear the Consequence of Death who have liv'd so good a Life 'T is true Conscience makes Cowards of us all Lewis II. King of France when he was Sick forbad any Man to speak of Death in his Court But there 's nothing in Death it self that can affright us 'T is only Fancy gives Death those hideous Shapes we think him in 'T is the Saying of one I fear not to be Dead yet am afraid to Die There is no Ponyards in Death it self like those in the way or prologue to it And who wou'd not be content to be a kind of Nothing for a moment to be within one instant of a Spirit and soaring through Regions he never saw and yet is curious to behold My Dear Thou hast nothing to fear in thy Passage to the other World for thy Interest in Christ secures thee against the Devil and as to Death which sets thee ashore 't is no more than a soft and easie Nothing Seneca says 'T is no more to die than to be born We felt no Pain coming into the World nor shall we in the act of leaving it Death is but a ceasing to be what we were before we were We are kindled and put out to cease to be and not to begin to be is the same thing But you 'll say perhaps what do I mean by the same thing and that you are still as much in the Dark as ever Why truly Daphne so am I 't is true Bradshaw tells us There have been Men that have tried even in Death it self to relish and tast it and who have bent their utmost Faculties of Mind to discover what this Passage is but there are none of them come back to tell us the News No one was ever known to ' wake Who once in Death's cold Arms a Nap did take Lucret. Lib. 3. Canius Julius being condemn'd by that Beast Caligula as he was going to receive the Stroke of the Executioner was ask'd by a Philosopher Well Canius said he Where about is your Soul now What is she doing What are you thinking off I was thinking replied Canius to keep my self ready and the Faculties of my Mind settled and fix'd to try if in this short and quick Instant of Death I cou'd perceive the Motion of the Soul when she starts from the Body and whether she has any Resentment of the Separation that I may afterwards come again to acquaint my Friends with it So that I fansie there
and died Chetwind 's Hist Collections In the Year 1559. Henry the Second King of France was slain in the midst of his Pastimes and Triumphs and in publick Joy of the People For while he Celebrated the Nuptials of his Daughter at Paris in a Tilting the Splinter of a broken Lance flew with such violence and pierced his Eye that he died immediately In the Year 1491. Alphonsus the Son of John the Second King of Portugal being about Sixteen Years of Age a Prince of great Hopes and Wit took to Wife Isabella the Daughter of Ferdinand King of Spain whose Dowry was the ample Inheritance of her Father's Kingdoms The Nuptials were celebrated with the preparations of Six Hundred Triumphs Plays Running Racing Tilting Banquets So much Plenty so much Luxury that the Horse-boys and Slaves glistered in Tissue But oh immense Grief hardly the Seventh Month had passed when the young Prince sporting a Horse-back upon the Banks of Tagus was thrown from his Horse to the Ground so that his Scull was broken and he wounded to Death He was carried to a Fisher's House scarce big enough to contain him and two of his Followers there he lay down upon a Bed of Straw and expired The King flies thither with the Queen his Mother There they behold the miserable Spectacle their Pomp turn'd into Lamentation The growing Youth of their Son his Vertues Wealth like Flowers on a sudden disrobed by the North-winds blast and all to be buried in a miserable Grave O the sudden Whirlwinds of Human Affairs O most precipitate Falls of the most constant Things What shall I remember any more Basilius the Emperor was gored to death by a Hart while he was entangled in a troublesome Bough The ancient Monument in the Camp of Ambrosius near Aenipontus witnesses That a Noble Youth though under Age set Spurs to his Horse to make him leap a Ditch twenty foot broad The Horse took it but the Rider and the Horse fell by a sudden and almost the same kind of death That the Spoils of the Horse and the Garments of the Youth speak to this Day But this sudden Fate is common as well to the Good as to the Bad neither does it argue an unhappy Condition of the Soul unless any Person in the Act of burning Impiety feel himself struck with the Dart of Divine Vengeance Such was the Exit of Dathan and Abiram whom the gaping Earth miserably swallowed up obstinate in their Rebellion against Moses Such was the End of those Soldiers whom for their Irreverence to Elijah Heaven consumed with Balls of Fire Such was the End of the Hebrew whom the Revengers Sword pass'd thorough finding him in the Embraces of the Midianitess turning his Genial into his Funeral Bed So many Pores of the Body so many little Doors for Death Death does not shew himself always near yet is he always at hand What is more stupid than to wonder that that should fall out at any time which may happen every Day Our Limits are determined where the inexorable necessity of Fate has fix'd them But none of us knows how near they are prefixed So therefore let us form our Minds as if we were at the utmost extremity Let us make no Delay Death has infinite accesses So it is indeed and to what I have said I add It is reported that a certain Person dream'd that he was torn by the Jaws of a Lion He rises careless of his Dream and goes to Church with his Friends In the way he sees a Lyon of Stone gaping that upheld a Pillar Then declaring his Dream to his Companions not without Laughter Behold said he this is the Lyon that tore me in the Night So saying he thrust his Hand into the Lyon's Jaws crying to the Statue Thou hast thy Enemy now shut thy Jaws and if thou canst bite my Hand He had no sooner said the Word but he received a deadly Wound in that place where he thought he could have no harm for at the bottom of the Lyon's Mouth lay a Scorpion which no sooner felt his Hand but he put forth his Sting and stung the young Man to death Are Stones thus endued with Anger Where then is not Death if Lyons of Stone can kill In the same manner died the young Hylas who was kill'd by a Viper that lay hid in the Mouth of a Bear 's resemblance in Stone What shall I mention the Child kill'd by an Isicle dropping upon his Head from the Penthouse whom Martial laments in the following Verses Where next the Vipsan Pillars stands the Gate From whence the falling Rain wets Cloak and Hat A Child was passing by when strange to tell Vpon his Throat a frozen drop there fell Where while the Boy his cruel Fate bemoan'd The tender point straight melted in the Wound Would Chance have us adore her lawless Will Or tell where Death is not if Drops can kill 'T is the Saying of Annaeus Uncertain it is saith he in what place Death may expect thee therefore do thou expect Death in every place We trifle and at distance think the Ill While in our Bowels Death lies lurking still For in the moment of our Birth-day Morn That moment Life and Death conjoin'd were born And of that Thread with which our Lives we measure Our Thievish Hours still make a rapid â—â—â—zure Insensibly we die so Lamps expire When wanting Oil to feed the greedy Fire Though living still yet Death is then so nigh That oft-times as we speak we speaking die Senccio Cornelius a Roman Knight a Man of extream Frugality no less careful of his Patrimony than of his Body when he had sate all Day till Night by his Friend sick a Bed beyond all Hopes of Recovery when he had Supp'd well and cheary was taken with a violent Distemper the Quinsey scarcely retained his Breath within his contracted Jaws till Morning so that he deceas'd within a few Hours after he had performed all the Duties of a sound and healthy Man What follows is extracted from Mr. Increase Mather's Book of Remarkable Providences I Shall only add says he at present That there have been many sudden Deaths in this Countrey which should not pass without some Remark For when such Strokes are multiplied there is undoubtedly a speaking Voice of Providence therein And so it hath been with us in New-England this last Year and most of all the last Summer To my Observation in August last within the space of three or four Weeks there were twelve sudden Deaths and it may be others have observed more than I did some of them being in respect of sundry Cirrumstances exceeding awful Let me only add here that sudden Death is not always a Judgment unto those who are taken out of an evil World It may be a Mercy to them and a Warning unto others as the sudden Death of the Prophet Ezekiel's Wife was Many of whom the World was not worthy have been so removed out of it Moses died suddenly and
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
then the Bravery of the Vniverse in one entire Eternal Scene Infinite Glory display'd in Paraphrase You shall see then what a God is and what he can do And when ye have seen the Beauty Order and Excellence of it you shall believe and wonder and say as the Queen of Sheba of Solomon's House the Reports you heard of Heaven in the lower World were far short of the Truth Chrysostom says It were worth the while 't would quit Costs to suffer daily Torments yea to endure Hell itself for some time to see Christ come in his Glory and joyn himself to the Number of his Saints For my part I am very sensible that the outward Court of this World is strew'd with variety of Comforts very pleasant to Flesh and Blood to the Sensitive part of Man but I do firmly believe that if we had but a sight of the inner part of Heaven were the Curtains drawn and could we look within the Veil 't would be a Sight worth all this World and more The Cherubims over the Mercy-Seat were enough to put a Sinner into Rapture and Extasie Glorious Things are spoken of thee thou City of GOD. Thus having told you the Joys of Heaven are great now I am to tell you they are certain And all the Arguments I have used already to prove the Joys great are of some validity and tendency to prove them certain If the Preparation for it hath been so long a making from Eternity to the present Time by Decree Creation Providence Redemption Sanctification variety of Dispensations c. If the wisest and best of Men have taken such Pains for it if it be the Purpose of Almighty God whose Power nothing is able to resist then to shew forth the Greatness and Excellency of his Glory we may safely conclude that God will certainly accomplish his whole Will and will not be frustrate in any of his Decrees and that the wisest and best of Men in the World cannot be all mistaken in a Point of so great moment and if they should be so yet it were the safest way to err in such Company But be it how it will with some I am very confident some will be as willing to have it certain as I to prove it so and for the sake of those I go on 1. God hath promised it Dan. 12.2 3. Mat. 5.8 Luke 12.32 Fear not little Flock for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom c. 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this Life only we have hope in Christ we are of all Men most miserable 2. But if ye dare not take his Word he hath sworn by his Life and Being that if the Future Glory be not ours it shall not be by his default he will not be wanting to do his part As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked Ezek. 33.11 3. He hath entred into a very solemn Covenant with us by Baptism and hath confirmed it too in the Lord's Supper and therein hath avowed to us before Witness that he will be our God and do what is fit for a God to do in order to the saving of us Thus have I briefly proved that the Joys of Heaven are very great and very certain with such Arguments as I cannot answer myself and I suppose nor you neither such as are enough to make a lame Man run a Coward fight a Sinner repent and the heaviest Sluggard rouze up shake himself and be Religious in earnest Enough to make the Sinner leave his wicked Courses the Miser his Bags and the Martyr his Body Oh that Joy O my God when shall I be with thee The Saying of the young Lord Harrington To sit on Thrones with Robes of White and Crowns of Glory To live like Angels to see God Face to Face To sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven To shine as the Sun in the Firmament To feel no Hunger Thirst Pain Sickness Death more To have our Bodies glorified and our Natures refined and all our Faculties perfected and we safe in the full Enjoyment of God to all Eternity To be made free to Rivers of Pleasure and Joys unspeakable for evermore What Soul not clogg'd with Flesh and Blood and bewitched with Sin would not leap at these Tidings and scorn to truckle any longer to the Moon and Clouds and little Vanities of this World Those soft effeminate Souls that sleep out their Life in a Golden Dream of Happiness and awake anon in Everlasting Burnings shall sadly find too late that Heaven was worth more than a cold Wish I would fain Reader Is it not possible to awaken myself and you into a posture of Work and Resolution When you find yourself declining into a Slumber look up and remember what lies beyond the Stars and then gird your Loyns put on Courage and scorn to keep pace with an ill-natur'd sluggish drowsie World put on with Courage and fear no Colours Heaven is before you i. e. Joy so great as you cannot conceive enough to make amends for all the Travel foul Way and Charges of your Journey A Compleat HISTORY Of the Most Remarkable Providences Both of Judgment and Mercy which have happened in this Present Age. Extracted from the best Writers the Author 's own Observations and the Numerous Relations sent him from divers Parts of the Three Kingdoms To which is added Whatever is Curious in the Works of Nature and Art The Whole digested into one Volume under proper Heads being a Work set on Foot Thirty Years ago by the Reverend Mr. Pool Author of the Synopsis Criticorum and since Undertaken and Finish'd by William Turner M. A. Vicar of Walberton in Sussex Recommended as useful to Ministers in Furnishing Topicks of Reproof and Exhortation and to Private Christians for their Closets and Families Together with the Names of those Modern Authors and persons of Note from whose Printed Works or Manuscripts the aforesaid Author has received great Assistance in the Compiling of this Book The CONTENTS PART I. COntaining The History of Divine Providences to which is Prefixt A Practical Introduction to this Work being the Author's Meditations On The Being of a God On The Works of Creation and Providence On The Existence of a separate Soul On The Ministry of Angels and On The Future State c. Chap. 1. Of the Appearance and Manifestation of God Himself in the World p. 5 Chap. 2. Of the Appearance of good Angels p. 7 Chap. 3. Of the Appearance of bad Angels or Daemons p. 16 Chap. 4. Of the Appearance of separate Souls with several late Instances of that nature p. 34 Chap. 5. Revelation of secret or future Things by express Voice p. 40 Chap. 6. The discovery of things secret or future by signs common sounds and voices p. 43. Chap. 7. Discovery of things secret or future by Prodigies Comets Lights c. p. 44. Chap. 8. Discovery of things secret or future by Dreams
that time as he told his Son a very wicked Boy 21. John Evelyn shewed us at the Royal Society a Note under Mr. Smyth's Hand the Curate of Deptford that in November 1679 as he was in Bed sick of an Ague came to him the vision of a Master of Arts with a white Wand in his Hand and told him That if he did lie on his back three Hours viz. from ten to one that he should be rid of his Ague He lay a good while on his Back but at last being weary he turned and immediately the Ague attacked him afterwards he strictly followed the Direction and was perfectly cured He was awake and it was in the Day-time 22. A Dutch Prisoner at Woodbridge in Suffolk in the Reign of Charles II. could discern Spirits but others that stood by could not The Bell tolled for a Man newly deceased The Prisoner saw his Phantome and did describe him to the Parson of the Parish who was with him exactly agreeing with the Man for whom the Bell tolled Says the Prisoner now he is coming near to you and now he is between you and the Wall the Parson was resolved to try it and went to take the Wall of him and was thrown down but could see nothing This Story is credibly told by several Persons of Belief Dr. Hooke the Parson of the Parish has often told this Story of which I know many more particulars 23. Vavasor Powell saw several Apparitions See page 8. of his Life As concerning Apparitions of a Man 's own self there are sundry Instances some whereof I shall here set down 24. The Beautiful Lady Diana Rich Daughter of the Earl of Holland as she was walking in her Father's Garden at Kensington to take the fresh Air before Dinner about Eleven a Clock being then very well met with her own Apparition Habit and every thing as in a Looking-Glass About a Month after she died of the Small-pox And 't is said that her Sister the Lady Isabelta Thinne saw the like of her self also before she died This Account I had from a Person of Honour 25. Mrs. E. W. Daughter of Sir W. W. affirms that Mrs. J. her Father's Sister saw her self i. e. her Phantome half a Year before she died or a quarter of an Hour together She said further that her Aunt was sickly Fourteen Years before she died and that she walked Living i. e. her Apparition and that she was seen by several at the same time The like is reported of others 26. Mr. Trehern B. D. Chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgman Lord Keeper a Learned and sober Person was the Son of a Shoe-maker in Hereford One Night as he lay in Bed the Moon shining very bright he saw the Phantome of one of the Apprentices sitting in a Chair in his red Wastcoat and Head-band about his head and Strap upon his Knee which Apprentice was really a Bed and asleep with another Fellow-Apprentice in the same Chamber and saw him 27. When Sir Richard Nepier M. D. of London was upon the Road coming from Bedfordshire the Chamberlain of the Inn shewed him his Chamber the Doctor saw a dead Man lying upon the Bed He look'd more wistly and saw it was himself He was then well enough in Health He goes forward in his Journey to Mr. Steward's in Berkshire and there died This Account I have in a Letter from Elias Ashmole Esquire They were intimate Friends Thus far Mr. Aubery CHAP. V. Revelation of secret or future Things by express Voice BY this Title I do not mean any Declarations Discoveries Confessions or Predictions made by any Person living but only such as are uttered either with only an audible Voice alone or with a Voice proceeding from some Phantasm or Apparition either in the likeness of some deceased Person Friend or Relation or of some Ghost dressed up in the Figure of some Animal that we are generally acquainted with as the Serpent to Eve the Ass to Balaan c. Histories are full of Testimonies and Instances of this kind to enquire after all would be a wild Chase and nauseous to the Reader as well as laborious to the Writer We will call a few out of many for a Specimen which will give such a lustre to the Theme we are upon that will certainly run us up in our Meditations and Searches to Digitus Dei the Finger of God as having a signal stroke in all such Voices and Occurrences as cannot with any shew of Reason be imputed or ascribed to any Inarticulate Inorganical Irrational Being which yet appears to be the only Immediate Instrument they proceed fro◠1. In Jerusalem before the Destruction of it by Titus Vespasian at the Feast of Pentecost the High-Priest entering into the Temple to offer the usual Sacrifices which at that time God regarded no more there was a sudden Noise heard and a Voice immediately following it which said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us depart hence Gaffarella's unheard of Curios Part 2. Ch. 3. out of Josephus Besides we know that our blessed Saviour had by express Words Predicted the same dismal Calamity to that place and People with a particulat notation of the Time when it should happen viz. before the then present Generation should be passed away 2. An Inhabitant of the Town of Guilford in Surrey who was possest of some Copy-hold Land which was to descend to his Children or in default of such Issue to his Brother dies having no Child born And his Wife apprehending her self not to be with Child which her Husbands Brother asked her immediately after his Brother's death she told him she believed she was not but afterward proved to be Which when she knew she went by the instigation of Neighbours to her Brother and told him how it was with her He railed at her called her Whore and told her That she had procured some Body to g et her with Child knowing that such a Field must be Inherited by the Posterity of her Husband but her whoring should not fool him out of the Estate The poor Woman went home troubled that not only her Child should lose the Land but which was worse that she should be thought a Whore However she quieted her self and resolved to sit down with the loss When her times came she was delivered of a Son he grew up and one Summer's Night as she was undressing him in her Yard her Husband appeared and bid her go to his Brother and demand the Field which she did but was treated very ill by him He told her That neither she nor her Devil for she had told him her Husband appeared and bid her speak to him should make him forego his Land Whereupon she went home again But some time after as her Brother was going out of this Field home-ward the dead Man appears to him at the Stile and bids him give up the Land to the Child for it was his Right The Brother being greatly frighted at this runs away and not long
Daughter drew near her time he sent for her to himself with design to destroy what should be born of her The Infant was delivered to Harpagus to be slain a Man of known Fidelity and with whom he had Communicated his greatest Secrets But he fearing that upon Astyages his death Maudane his Daughter would succeed in the Empire the King having no Issue Male and that then he should be paid home for his Obedience doth not kill the Royal Babe but delivers it to the King 's chief Herdsman to be exposed to the wide World It fell out that the Wife of this Man was newly brought to Bed and having heard of the whole Affair earnestly requests her Husband to bring her the Child that she might see him He is overcome goes to the Wood where he had left him finds there a Bitch that had kept the Birds and Beasts off from the Babe and suckled it her self Affected with this Miracle he takes up the Child carries it to his Wife who saw it loved it bred it up till it grew up first to be a Man and then a King He overcomes Astyages his Grandfather and Translates the Scepter from the Medes to the Persians Just Hist l. 1. p 16. Val. Max. l. 1. c. 7. Wanley l. 6. c. 1. 13. When Alexander after the long and difficult Siege of Tyre lead his Army with great Indignation against the Jews devoting all to Slaughter and the Spoil Jaddas the then High-Priest admonished by God in a Dream in his Priestly Attire and with his Mitre on his Head and upon that the Name of God with a Number of Priefts and People goes to meet him Alexander with great Submission approaches him Salutes and Adoves him telling Parmeno who was displeased with it That he worshipped not the Man but GOD in him who as he said had appeared to him in that Form in Dio a City of Macedonia in his Dream encouraging him to a speedy Expedition against Asia promising his Divine Power for Assistance in the Conquest of it Upon this he pardon'd the Jews honoured and enriched the City and Nation Jos l. 1. c. 8. Wanley l. 6. c. 1 c. 14. Julius Caesar dreamed that he had carnal Knowledge of his Mother which the Soothsayers Interpreted That the Earth the common Mother of Mankind should be subjected to him Sueton. in Jnl. p. 8. Wanley's Wonders of the little World l. 6. c. 1. 15. The Night before Polycrates King of Samos went thence to go to Oretes the Lieutenant of Cyru in Sardis his Daughter dreamed that she saw her Father lifted up in the Air where Jupiter washed him and the Sun anointed him which came to paâ—s For as soon as he was in his Power Oretes caused him to be hang'd upon a Gibbet where his Body was washed with the Rain and his Fat melted with the Sun Camerar Oper. Subcisiv Cent. 2. c. 57. ex Herodot l. 3. 16 Antigonus dreamed that he Sowed a spacious Field with Gold which sprang up flourish'd and ripen'd was reaped presently and nothing left but Stubble and then he seemed to hear a Voice That Mithridates was fled into the Euxine Sea carrying along with him all the Golden Harvest This Mithridates was then in the Retinue of Antigonus King of Macedonia his own Countrey of Persia being ruin'd and therein his own Fortunes The King awakes and terrified with this Dream he resolves to cut off Mithridates but being informed by Demetrius Antigonuâ—'s Son of the danger he was in he flies privately into Cappadocia where he Founded the Famous Kingdom of Pontus Wanley's Wond l. 6. c. 1. Ex Lips Plutarch 17. Qu. Catalus in his Dream saw Jupiter delivering into the hand of a Child the Roman Ensign The next Night the same Child hugg'd in Jove's Bosom and when Catalus offered to pluck him thence Jupiter forbade him telling him He was born jor the welfare of the Romans The next Morning seeing Oâ—tavianus afterwards Angustus in the Street he ran to him and cryed out This is He whom the last Night I saw Jupiter hâ—g in his Bosome Idem en Xiphil August Fulgos. l. 1. 18. Two Accadians of intimate Acquaintance lodging at Megara the one with a Friend the other at an Inn he at his Friend's House saw in his sleep his Companion begging of him to assist him for he was circumvented by his Host The other awakening leaps out of his Bed with intention to go to the Inn but suspecting his Dream to have nothing in it returned to his Bed and Sleep The same Person appears to him a second time all bloody requesting him earnestly to revenge his Death affirming That he was killed by his Hoâ— and that at his very time he was carried out in a Cart towards the Gate all covered with Dung The Man at last overcome with these Entreaties of his Friend immediately runs to the Gate finds the Cart seizeth and searcheth it where he found the Body of his Friend and thereupon dragg'd the Inn-keeper to his deserved punishment Idem ex Val. Max. i. 1. c. 7. Dr. More Immort 〈◊〉 Soul l. 2. c. 16 c. 19. Alexander the Philosopher the same Hour that his Mother died saw in his sleep the Solemnities of his Mother though she was at that time a Day 's Journey distant from him Wanley's Wonders of the little World l. 6. c. 1. 20. Sionia â— 1523. dreamed that falling into a River he was in great danger of drowning and calling to one for Succour was neglected This Dream he told to his Wife and Servants the next Day going to help a Child that was fallen into the River near the Castle of Pâ—sâ—aâ—â— he leap'd in and perished in the Mud. Idem ex Heywood Hierarch l. 4. Jovio 21. Galen being troubled with an Inflammation about the Diaphragma dreamed that upon opening of a Vein between his Thumb and Fore-ringer he should recover his Health which he did and was restored Idem ex Schot Phys Curios l. 3. c. 25. Col. Rhod. c. 22. Celitts Rhodiginses saith When he was 22 Years of Age being perplexed with Ectrapali a Greek Word in the Annotations upon Pliny signifying those who grow beyond the common Proportions of Nature assign'd to their kind in his perplexity he lay'd him doâ—n to sleep and in his Dream recalled to mind the very Book page and place of the page of another Author where he had formerly read it Col. Rhod. Am. lact l. 27. c. 9. 23. A Citizen of Millain was demanded a Debt as owing from his dead Father and when he was in some trouble about it the Image of his dead Father appears to him in his sleep tells him the Debt was paid and in such a place he should find the Writing with the Hand of his Creditor to it Awaking from his Dream and Sleep he finds the Acquittance Which Saint Austin saith himself saw with his own Eyes Wanley ex Fulgos. l. 1. c. 5. p. 130. 24. When S. Bernard's Mother
forsaken and hardned Another time to Mrs. N. How deplorable a thing is this that I who have preached so much of the Glory of another World should now be deprived of it all You will as surely see me damned as you now see e stand here And again being prest to publish his Repentance for his Book that had caused him so much Trouble he answered I have thought sometimes so to do but I am so confused and confounded in my Mind that I know not what to do I can do nothing to purpose Again with a deep Sign said The black Tokens of Reprobation are upon me I cannot stoop to the Sovereignty of God I would be above him In short he drew three Papers of Recantation written with his own Hand The first of which begins thus That it is a Dishonour to the Church and Clergy of England to have such an one that hath no more Wit so little Justice Reason and Conscience plead for them that the Author of this Libel is worthily so represented appears by divers base false devillish and most scandalous Passages therein contained They are represented as a People weak and phantastical and not rendring a tolerable Reason for their differing from others which is a devillish stroke made by a black blow to assert the Nonconformists have no kind of Order in sending forth their Ministers that Preachers run on their own Head upon a phansiful Supposition that they are able to Preach or at the most have but the Consent and Connivance of a few weak Persons is a Devillish Lie as thousands can witness to say it is a true State or the Case being truly thus as we are able to make it good is a Lie if possible more than damnable c. After which he miserable destroyed himself Octob. 13. 1684. See the Narrative attested by Tho Blunt and Ben. Dennis and printed May the 7. 1688. CHAP. XLVI Good People extreamly Afflicted and mightily Comforted THE sharpest Afflictions often befal the best of Men not only Outward and Temporal but Inward and Spiritual insomuch that they are ready sometimes to cry out with our Blessed Saviour Eli Eli Lama-Sabachtheni God withdraws his glorious Countenance and Satan shews his ugly Visage and all this on purpose to rouse and startle a secure World and convince us that it is no very easy matter to get to Heaven and that 't is the safest way to work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling Besides it serves to shew the Sincerity of the poor deserted Christian for in such cases the Man is mightily humbled and confesseth all his Sins and strips himself stark naked of any Merit or Conceit of his own inherent Righteousness and freely acknowledges that he hath none else to fly to for Succour and Consolation but God only 1. Mr. Tho. Peacock Batchelor of Divinity and Fellow of Brazen-Nose Colledge in Oxford in his Illness was strangely Afflicted and as strangely comforted as may be collected by these Despairing and Comfortable Expressions of his in the time of his Visitation compared together 1st His Despairing Expressions were such as these ' I thought I had been in a good Estate but I see it now sat otherwise for these things my Conscience lays against me First I brought up my Scholars in Gluttony while I was talking they did undo themselves And further I did unadvisedly expound many places of Scripture many times at the Table and for these I now feel a Hell in my Conscience Again I have procured my own Death by often eating like a Beast when I came jostling up and down to my Friends in the Country and now I see before my Face those Dishes of Meat wherewith I clogged my Stomach Sin Sin Sin I am uncapable of Prayers A damnable wretched c. O! how woful and miserable is my Estate that thus must converse with Hell-hounds The Lord hath cursed me I have no Grace I was a foolish glorious Hypocrite it is against the Course of God's Proceeding to save me he hath otherwise decreed he cannot I can put my Trust in God no more than a Horse I desire to believe no more than a Post than a Horse-shooe I have no more Sense of Grace than these Curtains than a Goose than that Block O! O miserable and woful the burden of my Sin lieth heavy upon me I doubt it will break my Heart Comforts They are nothing to me hold your Peace do not trouble your selves idly you vex me your words are as Daggers to my Heart To one saying Good Sir endeavour to settle your Mind he answered Yes to play with Hell-hounds I cannot desire Grace I can as well leap over the Church I fear to be damned for my Sins I cannot so much as name Jesus I had rather be in the Fire than here Cursed be the day when I took Scholars c. 2d His Gracious and Comfortable Expressions As O if God! O God give me a Spark of Grace c. O if God would give me a drop O if I had O if it would please God! I had rather than any thing in this or other three thousand Worlds I thank God he hath began to ease me O I love your Company to Dr. Aiery and Mr. Dod c. for the Graces in you O God reconcile me unto thee that I may taste one dram of thy Grace Being put in mind of that place Isaiah 45.8 11 c. he lift up his Eyes saying Take heed be not too bold look to the Foundation Lord grantme the Comfort of the Deliverance c. Blessed be God! blessed be God! blessed c. I am a thousand times happy to have such Felicity thrown upon me a poor wretched Miscreant Lord Jesus unto thy hands Lord receive my Soul Lord lift thou up the Light of thy Countenance upon me and be merciful unto me Then very weak he repeated the Lord's-Prayer twice his Belief once with a strong Voice and so slept in the Lord. The last Conflicts and Death of Mr. Tho. Peacock Published by E. B. 1646. 2. See the Story of Mrs. Joan Drake and her great Afflictions together with her subsequent Comforts in the foregoing Chapter Of Earnests of a Future Retribution of Mr. Honywood and others in the Chap. of Doubts strangely Resolved 3. Mr. Paul Baynes on his Death-Bed had many Doubts and Fears upon him so that he went out of the World with her less Comfort than many weaker Christians saith my Author Mrs. Harris Dr. Harris's last Wife though a pious Woman yet was much afflicted and delivered up to the Buffetings of Satan and such hellish Temptations that the ablest Divines were at their Wits-end to answer them and her poor self was put even beyond herself But as her Husband would often say The Difference is not great whether Comfort come a little before Death or an hour after Death See Dr. Harris 's Life 4. Mr. Richard Rothwell that bold Divine that often encountred the Devil with a Courage extraordinary yet was
in a strange Sickness that he had shrewdly buffeted and handled by him and not far from a Possession His Sickness was a Vertigo 40 Fits at least in an hour and every one of them accompanied with sore Temptations but by Prayer and Fasting they were removed and he recovered Strength and Courage and Comfort though the Devil had tempted him strongly to blaspheme threaten to make him the Scorn of Religion to torment and hinder him if he offered to fast or pray or preach Clark in his Life p. 71. 5. Mr. Tho. Tregosse for five Weeks was kept under by the Spirit of Bondage and Afflicting Tortures till at last he took up a Resolution of discovering some Sins which most burdened his Conscience and meeting with a comfortable Passage concerning God's Love to Mankind in some of our English Divines he was somewhat quieted and refrashed See his Life 6. Mrs. Elizabeth Wilkinson was much troubled with Temptations Doubts Fears and Sickness but imparting her Condition to some Christian Friends hearing Sermons and reading proper Books after many years she was much strengthned and comforted and on her Death Bed even ravished with Joy See her Life by Mr. Clark 7. Mrs. Katherine Bretterge was upon her Death-Bed assaulted with most greivous Temptations which made her cry out That a Roaring Wilderness of Woe was within her her Sins had made her a Prey to Satan wishing she had either never been born or made any other Creature than a Woman crying Wo wo wo c. a weak wretched woful forsaken Woman c. But at last through the Mercies of God recovered extraordinary Comfort See more in the Chap. of Earnests of a Future Retribution 8. Mr. Robert Glover for five years was so worn and consumed with Cares and Fears about his Soul and Reflections upon his Backsliding that he had no pleasure of Meat Drink Sleep nor Life itself but seemed as if he had been almost in the Pit of Hell yet before he died recovered his Comforts so that he lived as if already possessed of Heaven Clark 's Examp. vol. 1. c. 3. 9. I have already or shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the Afflictions and subsequent Comforts of Mr. Mackarnesse Mr. Rob Smith of Ludshelft Mr. Charles Langford all which have published a Narrative of their own particular Cases and following Cures to the World for the Caution and Encouragement of others 10. Mr. Timothy Rogers who is a very ingenious Gentleman of great Learning Candor and Moderation upon his Recovery after two years very heavy Sickness thought himself obliged to commemorate the Mercy of God to him in delivering him in a manner Miraculously from his Malady after the Fruitless Attempts of many Physicians of great Note to restore him in the Assemblies of his People on these words Psal 30.3 4. O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave c. Sing unto the Lord O ye Saints of his and give Thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness They are of great use not only for Persons in his Case but for all in general since they not only contain grateful Remembrances of God's Mercies for Deliverance out of Trouble but necessary Directions for all Christians how to behave themselves which Precautions to acquit themselves so as to provide for the worst of Afflictions After Pathetical Acknowledgments of the great Mercies he received from God in his Affliction both for giving him Patience under it and Deliverance from it and to the People for their Kindness to him in his Distress he raises these two Observations from the Words 1. That God alone is the Soveraign-Disposer of Life and Death 2. That to be brought up from the Grave is a Mercy greatly to be acknowledged and for which we ought to be very thankful He afterwards proceeds to give a plain Relation of some part of his sore distress and I shall give it you in his own words I would desire says he to praise God my self for his great Mercy in my Recovery and also beg of you to praise him in my behalf I will give you a short Account of the Deplorablness of my Condition before I was delivered It will not be a very delightful Account but yet as Solomon says Eccl. 7.2 It is better to go to the House of Mourning than to the House of Feasting It is better some times to hear sad than always pleasant Things And in as much as Grief and Mourning is in it self a very grave and homely thing that requires not Ornament or artificial setting off I shall without affecting to be thought eloquent give You A plain Relation of some part of my sore Distress AFter an ill habit of Body that had for some years attended me together with some little Ilnesses now and then which were but as drops to the greater Storm that was to come upon me and which I could not foresee it pleased God at length in his just and righteous Judgments to suffer my growing Distemper to arrive to a most formidable height So that before I desisted from coming to this place my Sleepdeparted quiâ—e away and for several Nights in a Week I slept no more than I do at this time upon which there immediately followed a general Weakness and Decay of Spirits a general Listlessness and a total Indisposition and by feeling of this I had a strong Impression in my Mind that I shouldvery speedily die as strongly fix'd in my Apprehensions as if it had been said to me as to Hezekiah Thou shalt surely die I thought I was immediately to go to the Tribunal of God and the Thoughts of immediate appearance before him continued with me for about a year there was not a Day past wherein I did not think that I should be dead before Night and at Night I should be dead before the Morning I thought my self just at the entrance into the Grave And what a strange prospect that is and what a mighty Change it causes in a Man's Thought none know but those that have apprehended themselves so near it nor do they fully know it unless they have been near it for many Months together He adds in another place If at any time I rested a little that little Rest was all the while disturb'd with terrible and amazing Dreams and when I awaked I always sound my self in strange and unexpressible Pain in Anguish and Bitterness such as nothing in this World is able to represent even as to its lowest degrees And judge you into what Confusions and Disorders this alone would throw a Man if it were single My Disease and my Fears and sad Apprehensions came upon me as a Whirlwind like the rushing of many mighty Waters strange and horrible Pains and great Fears so that it was as an universal Storm from which there was no retreat Sometimes by the Greatness of my Trouble I was even stifled with Grief that I could not for a great while speak a Word and when I spoke it was in a mournful
Thought of God and of Christ overwhelms it The Terrors of the Lord we may feel indeed but we cannot express them they are so very terrible that they wound our most sensible and tender part they cause our very Souls to pine and languish away they fix our Minds to the Contemplation of every thing that is sad and doleful they fill us with Confusion and Heman says Ps 88.15 They are Terrors that compass us round about they seize upon every Faculty and distress us in every part to have God against us his Holiness to dazle us his Power to overthrow us his Law to condemn us our Consciences to accuse us is the Sum of Terrors 6. Fear is another occasion of Sorrow We are frighted with the view of our innumerable Sins and with the Dangers that attend them the Thoughts of Heaven fright us because we think we have lost that blessed Place and the Thoughts of Hell are no less frightful because we think we shall soon be there the Thoughts of Life are frightful because 't is with Anguish and Horror that we live nor can we bear the Thoughts of Death because we dare not die 7. 'T is a Night of Weeping to deserted Souls because they find no heart to pray and no life to pray they fall upon their Knees and cover the Altar of the Lord with Tears but he seems not to regard them The Thoughts of such poor People are in a continual hurry and so are very full of Wandrings in the Performance of their Duty Sorrows damp our Faith our Love and our Hope and so spoil our Duties for without these they are without Life and without Acceptance and sometimes our Grief is so violent that it finds no vent it strangles us and we are overcome I am so troubled that I cannot speak Ps 77.4 8. Such have no Patience wherewith to bear their Evils Who is he that can bear the Wrath of God The sight of Heaven inspires our Hearts with vital heat and makes us quiet and submissive under every Dispensation but the daily Sight and Fear of Hell fills us with Tumult and Disorder 9. They usually see no prospect of Relief or Deliverance and that encreases the Sorrows of their doleful Night They have indeed now and then some Intermissions but they are like the small Breathings and Refreshments of a Person that is newly taken off the Rack to be carried to the Rack again 10. This Night of Weeping is the more sorrowful because it is the time of Satan's Cruelty When God is departed then the Devil comes insults and says Where is now your God What think you now of Sin What is now become of all your Hearing your Reading and your many Prayers You thought to have escaped my Power and now I have you within my reach Now remember that at such a time or such a time you sinned and therefore God has forsaken you you weep and your Tears are just for you are miserable and are like to be with me for ever 11. Sometimes this Sorrow is mixed with deep Despair It is a tempestuous and stormy Night and as St. Paul said in another case All hope of their being saved is taken away I shall surely perish saith the Mourning Soul I am damned I am lost for ever I am already as in Hell the Lord will be favourable no more he is gone he is gone from me and he is for ever gone No more shall I behold his shining Face he is my Judge and my Enemity and I am afraid he will be so for ever I am never like to see that Heaven where I once hoped to go and these unbelieving Conclusions produce hard and strange Thoughts of God and an Enemy to him in our Minds 12. Looking upon their present Troubles as an Introduction to more and that these are but the beginning of Sorrows How often do we hear such Saying O! if I cannot bear these Pains and this Wrath what shall I do to bear an eternal Hell If I tremble so now what shall I do when the blow is given and the final Sentence past God knows I dare neither live nor die O what shall I do whether shall I go The Shadows of the Evening are stretched out and what shall I do if it prove an eternal Night For as it is the Glory of Faith to shew us future things as if actually present and to give us JOY from them so considered so it is the TORMENT of Despair to make poor distressed Souls believe they are even as in Hell whilst they are on Earth and that they are actually scorched with that Wrath that is to come in greater measures 13. From all these flow strange Discourses and Expressions of Sorrow they scarce care what they say of God or of themselves My Soul is meary of my Life I will leave my Complaint upon my self I will speak in the Bitterness of my Soul Job 10. c. 3. They frequently proceed to wish they had never been born nay they may proceed so far as to wish even to be destroyed that they may know the worst And there are two things that make their Sorrows more sorrowful 1. As comparing their State with that of others 2. As with their own former State 1. It makes them more sad when they consider the Case of others with that Peace and Joy they have With what Hope and Comfort whilst they are drown'd in Sorrows others says that deserted Soul can sing the Praises of God with Delight whilst I am overwhelmed and my Harp is hung upon the Willows Others can go into the solemn Assemblies and hear his Word but I am confined in my thick Darkness and dare not go thither 2. When the deserted Soul compares its present with its former State To a Person in Misery 't is a great encrease of Misery to have been once happy It was to David an occasion of new Tears when he remembred his former Joys Psal 42.3 4. Time was says the poor Soul when I cou'd read the Bible and treasure up the Promises and Survey of the Land of Canaan as my own Inheritance but now I dare not look into the Word least I read my own Condemnation there The Sabbath was formerly to me as one of the days of Heaven but now it is as well as the rest a sad and mournful day How fair was I once for Heaven and now am like to come short of it These are some of the Sorrows that deserted Souls often meet withal and indeed but a small part of what they feel in this dark and stormy Night Thus far I have given you some of Mr. Rogers 's own Words and have been the larger as thinking his an EXTRAORDINARY CASE and well-deserves the Consideration of every serious Christian but for a more particular Account of it I refer the Reader to his Book intituled A Discourse concerning Trouble of Mind CHAP. XLVII Remarkable Gratitude THankful Returns for Kindnesses and Favours received are but the just
no ways related to him but a constant Eye and Ear-witness of his Godly Life and Honourable and Cheerful Death from whom I received this Information 12. Of a notorious wicked Child who was taken up from begging and admirably converted with an Account of his holy Life and joyful Death when he was Nine Years old A very poor Child of the Parish of Newington-Butts came begging to the Door of a Dear Christian Friend of mine in a very lamentable Case so filthy and nasty that he would even have turned ones Stomach to have looked on him but it pleased God to raise in the Heart of my Friend a great pity and tenderness towards this poor Child so that in Charity he took him out of the Streets whose Parents were unknown who had nothing at all in him to commend him to any ones Charity but his Misery A Noble Piece of Charity And that which did make the kindness far the greater was that there seemed to be very little hopes of doing any good upon this Child for he was a very Monster of Wickedness and a thousand times more miserable and vile by his Sin than by his Poverty But this Sin and Misery was but a stronger Motive to that gracious Man to pity him and to do all that possibly he could to plack this Firebrand out of the Fire The Lord soon struck in with his godly Instructions so that an amazing Change was seen in the Child in a few Weeks space he was soon convinced of the Evil of his Ways no more News now of his calling of Names Swearing or Cursing no more taking of the Lord's Name in vain now he is Civil and Respective and such a strange alteration was wrought in the Child that all the Parish that rung of his Villany before was now ready to talk of his Reformation his Company his Talk his Employment is now changed and he is like another Creature so that the Glory of God's Free Grace began already to shine in him He was made to cry out of himself not only for his Swearing and Lying and other outwardly notorious Sins but he was in great horrour for the Sin of his Nature for the Vileness of his Heart and Original Corruption under it he was in so great anguish that the Trouble of his Spirit made him in a great measure to forget the Pains of his Body Being informed how willing and ready the Lord Christ was to accept of poor Sinners upon their Repentance and Turning and being counselled to venture himself upon Christ for Mercy and Salvation he said He would fain cast himself upon Christ but he could not but wonder how Christ should be willing to die for such a vile Wretch as he was and he found it one of the hardest things in the World to believe But at last it pleased the Lord to give him some shall hopes that there might be Mercy for him The Wednesday before he died the Child lay 〈…〉 for about half an Hour in which time be thought he saw a Vision of Angels 〈◊〉 he was out of his Trance he was in a little Pett and asked his Nurse Why she did not let him go Go whither Child said she Why along with those brave Gentlemen said he but they told me they would come and fetch me away for all you upon Friday next And he doubled his Words many times upon Friday next those brave Gentlemen will come for me And upon Friday Morning he sweetly went to rest using that very Expression Into thy Hands Lord I commit my Spirit He died punctually at that time which he had spoken of and in which he expected those Angels to come to him He was not much above Nine Years Old when he died This Narrative I had from a Judicious Holy Man unrelated to him who was an Eye and Ear-witness to all these things 13. Of a Child that was very serious at Four Years old John Sudlow was born of Religious Parents in the County of Middlesex whose great Care was to instil Spiritual Principles into him as soon as he was capable of understanding of them whose Endeavours the Lord was pleased to Crown with the desired Success so that to use the Expression of a Holy Man concerning him scarce more could be expected or desired from so little a one The first thing that did most affect him and made him endeavour to escape from the Wrath to come and to enquire what he should do to be saved was the Death of a little Brother when he saw him without Breath and not able to speak or stir and then carried out of Doors and put into a Pit-hole he was greatly concerned and asked notable Questions about him but that which was most affecting of himself and others was Whether he must die too which being answer'd it made such a deep Impression upon him that from that time forward he was exceeding serious and this was when he was about Four Years old When any Christian Friends have been Discoursing with his Father if they began to talk any thing about Religion to be sure they should have his Company and of his own accord he would leave all to hear any thing of Christ and creep as close to them as he could and listen as affectionately though it were an hour or two When he was Reading by himself in Draiton's Poems about Noah's Flood and the Ark he ask'd Who built the Ark It being answered That it was likely that Noah hired Men to help him to build it And would they said he build an Ark to save another and not go into it themselves Another Question he put was this Whether had the greater Glory Saints or Angels It being answered That Angels were the most excellent of Creatures and it 's to be thought their Nature is made capable of greater Glory than Man's He said He was of another Mind and his Reason was Because Angels were Servants and Saints are Children and that Christ never took upon him the Nature of Angels but he took upon him the Nature of Saints and by his being Man he hath advanced Human Nature above the Nature of Angels In the time of the Plague he was exceedingly concerned about his Soul and Everlasting State very much by himself upon his Knees This Prayer was found written in Short-hand after his Death O Lord God and merciful Father take pity upon me a miserable Sinner and strengthen me O Lord in thy Faith and make me one of thy Glorious Saints in Heaven O Lord keep me from this poisonous Infection however not my Will but thy Will be done O Lord on Earth as it is in Heaven but O Lord if thou hast appointed me to die by it O Lord fit me for Death and give me a good Heart to bear up under my Afflictions O Lord God and merciful Father take pity on me thy Child teach me O Lord thy Word make me strong in Faith O Lord I have sinned against thee Lord pardon my Sins I had been
to himself by the frequent Noises and Disturbances which he makes in Peoples Houses When I first began this Work I heard a rapping at my Hall-door as with a Horse-whip twice and my Maid heard it likewise at the same time tho' she was in the Kitchen and I in the Parlour at that very Juncture My Wife suspected it to be a Token of some Funeral out of the Family within such a set time as a Year or so c. Many People have had the like and yet no Harm followed And I quere Whether by the Appearance of the Ghosts of Persons departed he doth not design to promote the Doctrine of Purgatory or some other superstitious Fancies I am sure many of the wild and fantastical Notions and Practices that have been adopted into Religion by Jews Greeks Papists and Pagans have been fathered upon such Causes viz. Visions and Revelations Ominous Signs and Apparitions 10. Joan Williford a Witch confessed before the Mayor and other Jurats of Feversham 1645. That the Devil promised her that she should not lack But never brought her more than Eight Pence or one Shilling at a time See the Examination and Confession of the said Joan and others 1645. CHAP. XCIX Divine Judgments by way of Retaliation THERE is no juster Law saith the old Poet than that those who are the Authors of Contriving a Mischief for others fall into it themselves and the Sacred Scripture agrees thereto and we have many Instances of such Judgments And certainly if any Evils in the World carry in them the Signature and Indication of the Cause these do 1. Haman was hanged upon the same Gallows that he prepared for Mordecai 2. David for his Adultery with Bathsheba was threatened with a Punishment of the like kind which was accordingly inflicted on him 2 Sam. 16.22 when Absalom spread a Tent upon the top of the House and went in unto his Father's Concubines 3. Those that accused Daniel to Darius and procured the throwing of him into the Lyons Den were afterwards thrown there themselves Dan. 6.24 4. The Story of Phalaris's Bull invented for the Torment of others and serving afterwards for himself is notorious in Heathen Story 5. The Lord Cromwel in Henry the VIII's Reign is remarked for suffering capital Punishment without ever coming to a Tryal by a Law which they say himself out of a servile Flattery to his Prince procured for others Of which Michael Drayton thus writes Those Laws I made alone my self to please To give a Power more freely to my Will Even to my Equals hurtful several ways Forced to things that most do say were Ill Upon me now as violently seize By which I lastly perish'd by my Skill On mine own Neck returning as my due That heavy Yoke wherein by me they drew Winstanly's Worth p. 216. 6. The Duke of Somerset in the Fifth Year of Edward VI. died by a Law which but a year before was Passed by himself Spelman 7. The Papists pitch'd upon the Fifth of November for their Gunpowder-Plot but that was by Divine Providence seasonably Discovered and some of the Traitors flying into Worcestershire c. with two pounds of Powder which they had Rifled out of the Lord Windsor's House and laid to dry at the Fire by occasion of a Spark flying upon it Catesby Rookwood and Grant were much scorched both in their Bodies and Faces and at the same time the Roof of the House was blown up with the violence of the Powder And upon the same day viz. November 5. 1623. according to the Popish Account by the fall of a House in Black-fryars London at a Popish Conventicle where one Drurie Preach'd at least Ninety Persons were killed Again upon the same day Novemb. 5. to the best of my Remembrance King William III. by Divine Favour and a special Conduct of Providence entered England in order to the Delivering of us from Popery and Arbitrary or Tyrannical Government 8. It was a voluntary Judgment which Archbishop Cranmer inflicted on himself when he first thrust that very hand into the Fire and burnt it with which he had Signed to the Popish Articles crying out Oh! my Vnworthy Right Hand but who will deny that the Hand of the Almighty was also concerned in it 9. The Spaniards who exercised so much Cruelty in the West-Indies telling the poor Natives that they had a Disease upon them which Gold was a Sovereign Remedy for were many of them Taken and Slain by the Indians and Gold poured down their Throats in a Reproachful way as if it were their God 10. The Bishop of Mentz who Burned the Poor of his Neighbourhood in a Barn and called them Rats mentioned elsewhere in this Book was afterwards punished to death with Rats 11. I have read of a Man that was haled out of doors in a violent manner by his own Son who cried out to him Oh! pray no further for just so far I dragg'd my Father 12. Often the very instrument of our Sin is the Instrument of our Punishment as a Child that we Cocker too much a Persons we Love inordinately any thing we doat upon 13. Sisera annoys God's People with Iron Chariots and is Slain with a Nail of iron Jezabel's Brains that devised Mischief against the Innocent were strewed upon Stones By a Letter to Jezreel she shed the Blood of Naboth and by a Letter from Jezreel the Blood of her Sons was shed Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon's Temple that seven years work of so many Thousands therefore let him be turned a Grazing and seven Seasons pass over him Dan. 4.16 14. Frederick Barbarossa Emperor of Germany had often punished the City of Milan for siding with the Pope against him Yet on a time when Beatrix the Empress came to the Town the uncivil Citizens first Imprisoned her and then in a Scornful manner set her on a Mule with her Face towards the Tail which they caused her to hold in her hand instead of a Bridle And having thus Disgracefully carried her through all the Town they brought her to a Gate and kick'd her out The Emperor to Revenge this Wrong Besieged the City and at last took it adjudging all the People to Death but such as would redeem their Lives in this opprobrious manner He caused a Bunch of Figs to be fastned between the Buttocks of a skittish Mule and such as would live must with their hands bound behind them run after the Mule till with their teeth they had snatched out one or more of the Figs which condition with the hazard of many a sound kick was accepted and performed by many of them Heyl. Geog. p. 214. 15. The Donatists that cast the Holy Elements in the Lord's Supper to Dogs were themselves afterwards devoured by Dogs Zonaras 16. The Archbishop of Tours made sute for the Erection of a Court called Cambre Ardent wherein to condemn the Protestants to the Fire and was himself stricken with a Disease called the Fire of God which began at his Feet and
shall deliver into their Hands take heed of them and cleave fast to Christ For they will leave no corner of his Conscience unsearched but will attempt by all guileful and subtle means to corrupt him and to cause him to fall from God and his Truth The Night after he had Subscribed he was greatly troubled and through Affliction of Conscience could not Sleep neither could his Mind be eased till he had procured his Subscription and tore out his Name Being Condemned to be Burned he thus said My Mind and Conscience I Praise God is now quiet in Christ and I by his Grace am very willing and content to give over my Body to the Death for a Testimony of his Truth and pure Religion against Antichrist and all his false Religion and Doctrine Ibid. p. 28. 7. In Suffolk among others there was one Peter Moon and his Wife who were Charged for not coming to Church and for neglecting other Popish Ceremonies Moon was first Examined Whether the Pope was not the Supreme Head of the Church Whether the Queen were not the right Inheritrix of the Crown Whether Christ's Body was not Really Present in the Sacrament c and being of a timorous Disposition he so answered as his Adversaries were satisfied His Wife also by his Example was drawn into the same Dissimulation and so they were dismissed But when they came home and began to bethink themselves what they had done they fell into such Trouble and Horror of Conscience that they were ready wholly to Despair And Moon seeing a Sword hanging in his Parlor was tempted to have slain himself with it which yet the Lord was pleased to prevent and afterwards upon their unfeigned Repentance to restore and comfort them Ibid. 8. Sir John Check who had been Tutor to King Edward VI. in the Reign of Queen Mary was cast into the Tower and kept close Prisoner and put to this miserable choice either to forego his Life or that which was more precious his Liberty of Conscience Neither could his Liberty be procured by his great Friends at any lower Rate than to Recant his Religion This he was very unwilling to accept of till his hard Imprisonment joyned with threats of much worse in case of his refusal and the many large promises made upon his Submission with what other means humane Policy could invent wrought so upon him whilst he consulted with Flesh and Blood as drew from him an Abrenuntiation of that Truth which he had so long Professed and still Believed upon this he was Restored to his Liberty but never to his Comfort for the Sense of and Sorrow for his own Apostacy and the daily sight of the cruel Butcheries exercised on others for their constant adherence to the Truth made such deep Impressions upon his broken Spirit as brought him to a speedy yet through God's Mercy and Goodness to a comfortable end of his Miserable Life A. C. 1557. ibid. p. 28. 9. There was one Ralph Allerton who coming into his Parish Church of Bently in Essex and finding the People idle or ill imployed he exhorted them to go to Prayers and after he had read to them a Chapter out of the New Testament for which being Apprehended he was carried before Bishop Bonner who by his subtle perswasions and flatteries so prevailed with this poor Man that he drew him to Recant his former Profession and so dismissed him But this base Cowardice of his brought him into such Bondage and Terrors of Conscience and so cast him down that if the Lord had not been exceeding gracious unto him he had Perished for ever But the Lord looking upon him with the Eyes of Mercy after he had Chastned raised him up again giving him not only hearty and unfeigned Repentance of his Back-sliding but also a constant boldness to profess his Name and Gospel even unto Death ibid. 10. In the City of Bristol there was one Richard Sharp a Weaver who being Apprehended for Religion was carried before Doctor Dalby the Chancellor who after he had Examined him about the Sacraments of the Altar so wrought upon him by Perswasions that he drew from him a promise to make a publick Recantation and the time and place were appointed for it But after this Promise Sharp felt such an Hell in his Conscience that he was not able to follow any Business and he decayed in his bodily Health and wholly lost his Colour Whereupon on a Sabbath going to his Parish-Church he pressed to the Quire-door and with a loud Voice said Neighbours bear me Record that yonder Idol pointing to the Altar is the greatest and most abominable Idol that ever was and I am sorry that ever I denied my Lord God For this he was carried to Prison and Sealed the Truth with his Blood Ibid. p. 29. 11. When Jerome of Prague came to the Council at Constance they sent him to a Town where they tied him fast to a great Block and set his Legs in the Stocks his Hands also being made fast unto them the Block being so high that he could not possibly sit thereon but his Head must hang downward where also they allowed him nothing but Bread and Water But within eleven days hanging thus by the Heels he fell very sick Yet thus they kept him in Prison almost Twelve Months and then sent to him requiring him to Recant and to Subscribe that John Huss was justly put to Death which he did partly out of fear of Death and hoping to escape their hands Yet they sent to Examine him again but he refused to Answer except he were brought in Publick before the Council and they presuming that he would openly confirm his former Recantation sent for him May 25. 1416. subborning False Witnesses to Accuse him But he so learnedly cleared himself and refuted his Adversaries that they were astonished at his Oration which he concluded with this That all such Articles which Wickliff and Huss had written against the Enormities Pomps and Disorders of the Prelates he would firmly Hold and Defend even unto Death And that all the Sins he had committed did not so much gnaw and trouble his Conscience as did that most Pestiferous Act of his in Recanting what he had justly spoken and to the consenting to the wicked Condemnation of Huss and that he repented with his whole Heart that ever he did it For this he was Condemned and Burned Ibid. p. 30. 12. Some of the Friends of Galcacius Garacciolus Marquess of Vico having promised to accompany him in his voluntary Exile but afterwards looking back and turning again to their Vomit they were Apprehended and cast into the Inquisition were they were forced publickly to Recant and to Abjure their Religion and so they became the Subject of Misery and Infamy and were equally Odious to both Parties Ibid. p. 30. 13. Tho. Bilney A. C. 1531. of Cambridge Professor of both Laws Converted Thomas Arthur and Mr. Hugh Latimer but after recanting his Principles for the space of two
stretching out her Fingers to the full length used to swear by these Ten Bloody Bones This Woman had a Son called Stephen Maurice who was born with two Thumbs upon a Hand and he likewise marrying had several Children born in like manner with two Thumbs a-piece upon each Hand all which supernumerary Thumbs she in a bloody manner with her own Hand cut off This Woman assisted my Mother as Midwife when she brought me into the World W. T. 6. Sir Roger Mosson of Mosson in Flint-shire had a Coal-pit sunk pretty deep by some Workmen who discovered a good Mine of Coal but meeting with a Fire-damp were so affrighted that they deserted the Work At last a bold Fellow that was a notorious Swearer came and undertook to go on with it He with two or three more Men goes down into the Pit leaving the other Men near the Eye thereof whilst himself with a Candle lighted goes forward but presently was so attacked with the Fire-damp that the other Men were struck down with it in great amazement and had much adoe to recover themselves and an Engine of a vast bulk and weight that stood near the Eye of the Pit was carried up into the Air as high as the tops of some Trees that grew upon a Hill near adjoyning and the Man himself that went foremost with the Candle miserably and irrecoverably perished This I had out of the Philosophical Transactions printed some Years ago but in what Year particularly I remember not having not the Pamphlet by me at present 7. Anno Christi 1649. about the end of June there was a Soldier at Ware going with some others to wash himself in the River but finding the Water shallow he asked if there was no deeper a Place for him to swim in Some told him that there was not far off a deep Pit but that it was very dangerous and therefore advised him to take heed how he went into it To whom he answered God damn me if it be as deep as Hell I will go into it which accordingly he did but immediately sunk to the bottom never rising again but was there drowned Attested by good Witnesses Clark's Mirr c. 129. 8. One Mr. Barrington a great Swearer going forth a Hunting or Hawking on a Lord's-Day or a Festival and not speeding to his Mind came to an Ale-house at Puckrych Five Miles from Ware in the way to Cambridge and called for Drink beginning to swear after his unhappy Custom saying By God's Blood this is an unlucky Day and presently after he bled at the Nose which so vexed him that he began to rail and blaspheme the Name of God swearing Passion Wounds Flesh Nails Blood and Body c. till at last he proceeded farther to bleed at the Ears Eyes Wrists joynts of his Hands and of all his Body at the Navil and Fundament in a wonderful great Quantity and Streams of Blood blaring out his Tongue in a fearful manner as black as Pitch so that no Person durst come near him This continued faith my Author till the Devil and Death made an end of him Next day the Body was laid on a Cart carried to Stondâ—n and buried in the High-way Mr. Batman in his Doom warning to the Judgment p. 418. Who saith he had it from Mr. Barrington's wife afterward married to Mr. Carington in Cambridge CHAP. CVII Divine Judgments upon Sabbath-breakers AS God requires us to Remember the Sabbath-Day so as to keep it Holy so himself Remembers them that dare to Profane it The Child that gathered Sticks on that Day among the Israelites in the early Times of the Mosaick Oeconomy was by the Order of God himself stoned to Death And as he began to shew his Severity betimes in the Punishing of this Sin so he hath continued to the present Age to shew his great Displeasure against it insomuch that I think King James was much in the right when he caused his Declaration for Sports upon that Day to be torn out of his printed Volume of Writings where it is not now to be seen 1. A certain Nobleman profaning the Sabbath usually in Hunting had a Child by his Wife with a Head like a Dog and with Ears and Chaps crying like a Hound 2. Stratford upon Avon was twice on the same Day Twelve month being the Lord's-Day almost consumed with Fire chiefly for Profaning the Lord's-Day and Contemning his Word in the Mouth of his Faithful Minister 3. Feverton in Devonshire whose Remembrance makes my Heart bleed was oftentimes admonished by her Godly Preachers that God would bring some heavy Judgment on the Town for their horrible Profanation of the Lord's-Day occasioned chiefly by the Market on the Day following Not long after his Death on the 3d. of April Anno Dom. 1598. God in less than half an Hour consumed with a sudden and fearful Fire the whole Town except only the Church the Court-House and the Alms-Houses or a few poor Peoples Dwellings where a Man might have seen Four Hundred Dwelling-Houses all at once on fire and above Fifty Persons consumed by the Flame Not many Years after this a Misfortune of the like nature befell the Town again for on the Fifth Day of August 1612. Fourteen Years since the former Fire it was again fired and all consumed except some Thirty Houses of poor People with the School-House and Alms-Houses They are blind which see not in this the Finger of God God grant them Grace when it is next built to change their Market-Day and to remove all Occasions of Profaning the Lord s-Day Let other Towns remember the Tower of Siloe Luke 13.4 and take Warning by their Neighbours Chastisements Fear God's Threatnings Jerem. 17.27 And believe God's Prophets if they will prosper 1 Chron. 20.20 Thus far Dr. Bread in his Theatre of God s Judgments p. 419 420. 4. Mr. Smythyes Curate of St. Giles's Cripplegate in the Confession and Discovery of a Condemned Prisoner executed May the 25th 1687 for Theft saith that it was his Earnest Desire That all young Men especially should take care not to mispend the Lord's-day And I do now know saith he that ever I observed any Repentance in a Condemned Malefactor who did not bitterly lament his Neglect of his Duty to God on that Day 5. Edmund Kirk Vintner executed at Tyburn July 11. 1684. for murdering his Wife in his Confession acknowledged himself frequently guilty of Profaning the Lord's-Day Vpon which Holy Day saith he I committed the hainous Sin of murdering my poor Wife Thus Sin was punished with Sin a Less with a Greater and the Greater with the Gallows and that Greater committed near the same Gallows And himself confessed That he had to his Wife asking whilst she passed by what Place that was told it was Tyburn where John Gower was lately hanged for killing his Wife O Lord how dear to me thy Counsels are but how just and terrible are thy Judgments 6. Famous and memorable also is that Example which happened at
taking what she had intends for Dover and so for France but the Child who had been playing up and down in the Copice crying after him he returned and cut his Throat and leaves him by his Mother and now goes forward on his Journey thinking all safe But mark the Providence of God Quickly after comes a Boy from Chatham to gather Sticks and a Dog with him the Boy being busie a gathering Sticks the Dog was busie a hunting up and down and having found out these two dead Corpses never leaves howling till the Boy came to him who no sooner saw this dreadful Spectacle but runs like one mad to the Town and acquainted his Neighbours who hasting to the Place and finding it as the Boy had related it unto them by her Cloaths and by her Son knew the Persons and now they want to find out the Murderer They knowing that Writtle was a Suiter to her a Hue-and-Cry was sent after him and he was taken at Dover and sent to Gaol See the Narrative 22. Ann Cocketon of the Parish of Stepney was Indicted in the Old-Baily for the Murder of her Male Bastard Child on the 9th of May 1696. by throwing it into a House of Office The Evidence deposed That she did think that the Prisoner was troubled with the Gripes and did desire her to give her some Water And about Four in the Morning the Prisoner did go down to the Vault with the Close-stool-pan and a while after came up again very weak but did not think of any thing that had happened but going down the next Morning with a China-Bowl by accident she let it fall in and looking after it she espied the Child there and she took it and washed it and laid it in a Cellar The Midwife declared that searching her she found that she had lately been delivered of a Child CHAP. CXIV Divine Judgments upon Theft Robbery c. HE that hath taken so much care for the Security of our Estates and Possessions as to make a Prohibition of Stealth one of the Commandments bath taken care likewise to annex a Penalty to the same Law and hath allowed us to kill a Night-Thief without imputing it to us at the Sin of Murder Exod. 22.2 And hath himself likewise appeared an Avenger of the Crime as in the case of Achan Ahab c. And besides it may appear plain enough to any one that makes any careful Remarks upon Divine Providence that Ill-got Goods seldom prosper 1. Draco the Law-giver of Athens appointed Death to be the Punishment of Theft Solon mitigated that Rigour and punished it with double Restitution The Locrians put out his Eyes that had stolen ought from his Neighbour The Hetrurians stoned them to Death The Scythians abhorred them more than all Creatures because they had a Community of all Things except their Cups The Vaccians used such Severity towards this kind of Men that if one had but taken a Handful of Corn he was sure to die for it Beard 's Theatr. p. 294. 2. Marcus Fabius being Censor condemn'd his own Son Buteo to Death being apprehended for Theft Tiberius the Emperor punished a Soldier after the same manner for stealing a Peacock In sum there was no Commonwealth wherein this Sin was not highly detested and sharply punished except the Lacedoemonians where it was permitted and tolerated for their Exercise of Warlike Discipline Ibid. 3. It was a rash and severe yet as it proved a just Deed of Tamberlain that mighty Tyrant and Conqueror of Asia when a poor Woman complained to him of one of his Soldiers that had taken from her a little Milk and a piece of Cheese without payment He caused the Soldier 's Belly to be ripped to see whether she had falsly accused him or no and finding the Milk in his Stomach adjudged him worthy of that Punishment for stealing from so poor a Woman Ibid. 4. Ibicus the Poet being set upon by Thieves when he saw that they would not only rob him of his Money but of his Life also he cryed for Help and Revenge to the Cranes that flew over his Head A while after as these murdering Thieves sate together in the Market-place the same Cranes appearing unto them in the Air they whispered one another in the Ear and said Yonder fly Ibicus 's Revengers Which tho' secretly spoken yet was over-heard So that they being Examined and found Guilty were put to Death for their Pains The like Story Martin Luther reporteth touching a Traveller only differing in this That as Cranes detected the former so Crows laid open the latter 5. In Georgia a Thief is acquitted paying Sevenfold what he hath stole two Parts to the Party robbed one to the Judges and four to the King If he hath not wherewith to satisfie he is sold if the Product do not yet equal the Summ his Wife is sold and if that will not do his Children Tavernier l. 3. c. 9. 6. The great Mogul will himself sit as Judge in Matters of Consequence that happen near him They proceed in Tryals Secundum allegata probata They punish Theft and Murder with Death and what kind of Death the Judge pleaseth to appoint Some are hanged beheaded empailed and put on Stakes torn in pieces by wild Beasts killed by Elephants stung with Snakes No Malefactors lie above one Night in Prison sometimes not at all but are speedily brought upon Tryal and so to Execution See my Book of all Religions 7. The Chinese punish Murder and Theft with Death Sir Tho. Herb. Their Justice is severe their Prisons strong and Executions quick 8. The Japonese punish all manner of Theft with Death Tavernier's Collect. p. 4. 9. A. C. 1659. At Brightling in Sussex there was a stupendious and amazing piece of Providence November the 7th in the Evening a Fire kindled in a Man's Milk-house the 9th Dust was thrown upon the Man and his Wife as they lay in Bed together next Morning things were thrown about and the Fire kindled again in the same Place but put out by the Woman then in the Eeves of the House and put out by a Neighbour a Pot broken on the Table with a piece of Brick and as they were going to fill a Tub with Water to set by them all Night the Fire was kindled again in the Milk-house and suddenly the whole House was on fire but most of the Goods saved The Fire was very white and did not singe their Hands when they pulled things out of it The Houshold-stuff was carried next Day to a Neighbour's House and put in one end the Family being in the other end there Dust was thrown upon the Man and his Wife in Bed At last up riseth the Man and with another accompanying him with a Candle and Lanthorn in his Hand went to Mr. Bennet the Minister of the Town and entreated him to go down with him Accordingly He and his Brother went prayed with them and at first Dust was thrown at them but all quiet
Love or Good-will towards him Though he stayed long at Brundusium she never went to see him and when his Daughter took that long Journey from Rome to Brundusium to visit him she neither provided Company to conduct her nor gave her Money or other Necessaries for the way yea she so handled the matter that when Cicero came to Rome he found nothing in his House but bare Walls and yet was greatly in Debt by her Plut. in Vita ejus 2. Alboynus King of the Lombards having overcome in War Cunemundus King of the Jepidi and having slain him made a Drinking-Cup of his Skull yet took his Daughter Rosamund to Wife Now it fell out that Alboynus being one day drunk forced his Wife to drink out of her Father's Skull which she so much stomached that she promised one Helmichilâ—â— her self to Wife and Lombardy for a Dowry if he would kill her Husband the King which he assented to and performed But they were afterwards so hated for it that they were forced to fly to the Court of the Exarch of Ravenna who seeing Rosamund's Beauty and the Mass of Money and Jewels which they brought with them perswaded her to kill Helmichilde and to take him for her Husband which accordingly she promised to do And when her Husband Helmichilde coming out of the Bath called for Beer she gave him a strong Poyson but when he had drunk half of it suspecting the Matter he forced her to drink off the rest and so both died together Heil Geog. p. 150. 3. Joan Queen of Naples was insatiable for her Lust which cause her to hang her first Husband which was Andrew Second Son to the King of Hungry at her Window for Insufficiency Her second Husband was Lewis of Tarentum who did with over-straining himself to satisfie her Appetite Her third Husband James of Tarracon a gallant Gentleman she beheaded for lying with another Woman Her fourth Husband was Otho Duke of Brunswick in whose time the King of Hungary drave her out of her Kingdom and having taken her hung her out of the same Window where she had hang'd her first Husband Ibid p. 162. 4. An ancient Gentleman of good Account marrying a beautiful young Gentlewoman but having no Issue he took into his House a young Gentleman a Neighbour's Son and compleatly qualified purposing to make him a Sharer in his Estate This Gentleman grows familiar with his Wife which gave so much occasion of Suspicion and caus'd such a Rumour in the Country that his Father requires him to return home again He doth so but at parting promiseth Marriage to the Gentlewoman in case of her old Husband's Decease and she to him both with Oaths The old Gentleman's Maid meeting with this young Gallant over a Glass of Wine tells him in private how much his Company was missed at her Master's House and his Return desired But withal tho' she knew the Familiarities between him and her Mistress yet it was all feigned for another enjoyed both her Heart and Body naming the Person The Gentleman is startled but Incredulous After some time the old Gentleman sends for him again He goes in the Night but very privily having before by Letter desired that the Garden Door might be left open for him and tells the old Gentleman the Reason of his Absence But before he went back he goes softly to the Gentlewoman's Bed-Chamber Door who often lay by her self and hears the Whispers of two distinct Voices Upon which in a sudden Passion he resolves to break in upon them and run them through with a Sword but relenting with Tenderness he departs softly to his own home grows Melancholy and Distemper'd but recovering he resolved to Travel The old Man sends for him to take an unwilling Farewel At the Importunity of his Father he goes After Dinner the Wife singles him for a Farewel weeping in his Bosom and beseeching him to have a care of his Safety but especially of his Vow and Promise Instead of Reply he gave her a Letter which he desired her to peruse in his Absence She opens the Letter and reads there all the Story of her Lust laid open particularly and pathetically This struck her to the Heart she fell presently into Frensie and Despairing soon after died Which News came to the Gentleman before he reach'd Gravesend The old Man afterwards inriched him with a great part of his Land which he enjoys saith my Author to this Day Wonders of the Female World p. 125. out of Heywood CHAP. CXX Divine Judgments upon Undutiful Children A Wife Son maketh a glad Father but a foolish Son is the heaviness of his Mother saith Solomon Prov. 10.1 And in another Place the disobedient Child is threatned with a Punishment to be inflicted on him by the Ravens of the Valley and the young Eagles Prov. 30.17 as it were to signifie that such a one is in a fair way to an untimely and disgraceful Death like to perish and lie unburied in the open Air for Birds of Prey to feed upon and 't is certain many such Instances there are of Children who forsake the Counsels of their Parents and never return to the Paths of Vertue but go on till their Sin brings them to some miserable End 1. Freeman Sondes Esq Son of Sir George Sondes of Lees-Court in Shelwich in Kent being commanded by his Father to comply with the Will of his elder Brother in a small Matter relating to their Cloaths and in an obstinate manner disobeying so that his Father was provoked to use some threatning Expressions as that he should for the future depend much upon his Brother Freeman hereupon in great discontent when his elder Brother was fast asleep gave him a deadly Blow on the right side of his Head with the back of a Cleaver taken out of the Kitchen the Sunday Night before he did the Fact He after the Blow said he would have given all the World to recall it and made a stop of the rest to see how deep he had wounded him and finding it to be a mortal Wound having broken the Skull his Brother stretching himself on his Bed and struggling for Life and he gathering from thence that he was in great torment discovered then even in that Storm of Temptation so much of a relenting Spirit that to put him out of his pain he did reiterate his Blows with a Dagger which he had about him When he had thus imbrued his Hands in his Brother's Blood he threw the Cleaver out of a Window into the Garden and came with great confusion and disturbance in his Face into his Father's Bed-Chamber adjoyning to his Brother's with the Dagger in his Pocket and undrawing the Curtains shook his Father by the Shoulder who being thus awaken'd out of his Sleep received from his Mouth this Heart-breaking Message Father I have killed my Brother He being asTonished at it made this Reply with much horror What sayest thou Hast thou Wretch killed thy Brother Then you had
gone said Antipater of him Dr. Jer. Tailor 5. Hugucchio a Captain lost two Towns because he would not break his Meal Mr. Hales of Eaton out of Paulus Jovius 6. When Philoxenus the Epicure had fallen desperately sick upon glutting himself on a delicate and costly Fish perceiving he was to die calls for the remainder of his Fish and eats it up and dies a true Martyr to his Belly Mr. Hales 7. A certain Rich Citizen's Son to please all his five Senses at once allowed to the delight of every several Sense 100 l. For which end he bespake a curious fair Room richly hanged and furnished with the most exquisite Pictures to please his Eye Secondly the choicest Musick to content his Ear All the Aromaticks and sweet Perfumes for his Smelling all the Candies Preserves and Junkets for his Taste a Beautiful Strumpet to Lodge with him in a soft Bed and the finest Linen that could be bought to accommodate his Touch all which he enjoyed at one time He spent 30000 l. in three Years and swore after all that if he had three times more than ever he had he would spend it all to live one Week like a God though he were sure to be damned in Hell the next day after But by the Just Hand of God he was punished with extream Poverty and was cast off by all his former Acquaintance so that he died in misery Theat of Judgm Clark 's Examp. Vol. I. c. 61. 8. Apicius that Luxurious roman the Expences of whose Kitchen amounted to more than 2000000 of Sesterces of Gold having eaten up his Estate and fearing Poverty Poison'd himself Idem ex Senecâ Yet at the same time he had 10000000 of Sesterces left 9. Augustinus Chiessius a Banker at Rome at the Christening of his Son entertained Pope Leo X. upon the River Tibris and all the Foreign Embassadors and City-Nobles with Curious Fare dish'd out in costly Plate and on the change of every Service all the Meats Plate and all were cast into the River and new brought in for supply And all the fruits of this was that he was admired by none but Fools and his Name had hardly been mentioned at this day but to tell the World that he was the Author of this ridiculous Action Mr. Hales of Eaton CHAP. CXXIII Divine Judgments upon Drunkenness DRunkenness is a Sin that is prohibited by the Laws of God and Man and upon good reason because it tends to the ruine of a Man's Health the diminution of his Estate the mispending of his precious hours the Powerty of his Family the hindrance of his Piety and Charity the obstruction of Business the acceleration of Old Age and in fine the dishonour of God and the destruction of the Soul And therefore no wonder if we often find the Divine Vengeance follow close upon the heels of this sin as may be seen in the subsequent Stories 1. John Manlius in his Common Places p. 244. tells us of three abominable Drunkards who drank so long till one of them fell down stark dead and yet the other two nothing terrified with such a dreadful Example of Divine Vengeance went on to drink and poured the dead Man's part into him as he lay by them 2. Marcus Antonius wrote or rather spewed out a Book concerning his own abilities to bear strong Drink 3. Darius boasted of the same Faculty in his very Epitaph 4. Alexander the Great drank himself to Death and killed One and Forty more with excessive Drinking to get that Crown of One Hundred and Eighty Pounds weight which he had provided for him that drank most 5. Eccius called by Erasmus Jeccius for his Tipling being Non-pluss'd at Ratisbone by Melancthon in a Publick Disputation and over-drinking himself that Night at the Bishop of Mundina's Lodgings who had store of the best Italian Wines fell into a Fever whereof he died Jo. Man loc com p. 89. 6. Anno Christi 1556. In the Town of St. Gallus in Switzerland there was one Peter Besler who was Born at Rotmund but was now Servant to a Citizen whose Habitation was near unto St. Gallus This dissolute Young Man was much given to the Beastly sin of Drunkenness and upon Trinity Sunday which was May 21st he together with some of his Companions went to the Town of Sangall there to be merry And when they had drank freely this Young Man began to rail at and to quarrel with his Companions and using many Blasphemies against God he added this Execration also If I serve my Master any longer I give my Body and Soul to the Devil When he had staid there all Night in the Morning awaking he began to think what words he had uttered the Night before yet having no other means of Subsistance he resolved to return to his Master's Service But going out of the City when he was now not far from his Master's House a Man met him clad in black and fearful to behold who said to him Go to Good Fellow I am now ready to take that which is my Right and which thou gavest me yesterday Which when he had said taking the Fellow by the Hand who was amazed with Horror and altogether astonished he threw him to the Ground and so vanished Not long after this miserable Young Man being found by some of the Neighbours had his Hands and Feet drawn together and being brought to a Lodging he had the use of all his Limbs taken from him and so continued till he died miserably Stephen Bateman Professor of Divinity Ibid. 7. Anno Christi 1578. February 10th in the Country of Scwaben about Eight Persons that were Citizens and Citizens Sons whose Names my Author setteth down met together at a Tavern whereof the Master's Name was Anthony Huge on a Sabbath-day Morning where they drank themselves Drunk and then began to Blaspheme God and scoff at the Host who advised them to leave Drinking and to go to Church to hear the Word Preached at which they not only continued to mock but went on in their Drinking when suddenly the Devil came in among them in the Habit of a Cavalier who drinking to them set their Mouths on such a fire that these Drunkards not only became amazed thereat but also after a miserable manner were all strangled to Death Ibid. 8. At Kesgrave near Ipswich three Serving-men having been Drinking hard when they wee about to go away the Hostess by her Importunity would needs perswade them to drink the three Ou ts first viz. Wit out of the Head Money out of the Purse and Ale out of the Barrel but as she came to them with the Pot in her hand God suddenly struck her sick and speechless her Tongue also swelling in her Head so that in great extremity she died three days after Beard 's Theat 9. Two Servants of a Brewer in Ipswich drank themselves Drunk for the Rump of a Turkey and afterwards as they were strugling for it they fell backwards into a Cauldron of scalding
again and again that they would not fail to remember him in their Publick Assemblies and Private Duties At last he tells us that before this Desertion he had prayed very earnestly and vehemently that God would deliver him from the World being froward and dissatisfied with his Condition troubled in his Thoughts and weary of the World whereas he should have prayed for Submission and Patience See the Narrative Printed by himself at London 1676. 2. Mary Cook executed for the Murder of her own only Child 1670. declared that the occasion was a great Discontent which she had conceived in her Mind grounded upon an apprehension of exceeding unkindnesses of Relations to her tho' she had never been undutiful to them alledging her Relations slighted her she was weary of Life and afraid the Child should come to want when she was gone See the Narrative 3. One Tho. Holt of Coventry a Musician having Nineteen Children and a Competent Estate but not a contented Mind fearing Poverty made a Contract with the Devil and on Feb. 16th 1641. after a very Tempestuous day and mighty Wind which blew down several Houses and Reeks of Corn and Hay was himself by one in Humane shape at Night after he had called to his Wife for Pen Ink and Paper to make his last Will killed in his Bed whilst his Wife almost at her Wits end was calling her Neighbours and there found by them in a wretched manner with his Neck broken to their great astonishment after his Death they opened a Chest which he would never suffer his Wife or any Child to look in whilst living wherein they found Gold up to the top as they thought but upon touching of it it fell at to dust This was attested and published by one Lawrence Southern of Coventry Anno 1642. And tho' it may seem incredible to a Reader of ordinary size yet compared with many other Relations as that of Young Sandie mentioned before who received Money from the Devil and lost it again before Morning c. it is not so very strange CHAP. CXXXI Divine Judgments upon Idleness and Evil Company I Put Idleness and ill Society together because they are near a-kin one to the other and both of them give an occasion to vitiousness The one betrays us more immediately to the Snare of the Devil and the other by the Mediation of his Agents exposeth us with a greater violence and a stronger Torrent than the Corruption of our own single Natures In Idleness our own Hearts are in danger of being too hard for us but in ill Company they meet with their Seconds to abet them And when several vitiated Natures meet together like so many dry sticks they are easily enkindled with a little Fire and blown up into a great Flame and therefore seldom do any good Effects or Consequences follow upon such precedent Causes 1. The Egytians made a Law that he that could not shew by what means he maintained himself should be put to Death Plut. Laert. in vita Periandri 2. St. Augustine tells us of Alipius his dear Friend who went to Rome to study the Law where there were usually those Gladiatory Pastimes wherein Men kill'd one another in sport Alipius could not be perswaded by his Companions to see those Sports They oft desired him but by no means would he go At last saith St. Augustine by a famillar Violence they drew him to go Well saith he I will go but I will be absent whilst I am there I will not look on it He went but when he came there amongst others he shut his Eyes and would not see any of those Sports till at length there was a Man wounded at which the People shouted He heard the shout and would see what was the matter he looked about and seeing the wounded Man he desired to see a little more Thus saith St. Augustine he grew at last not to be the same Man as he was when he came thither For after that time he desired to see it a second and third time and at last he came to be not only a Companion of those that went thither but would be a Guide to them and one of the forwardest till it pleased God by a mighty hand to deliver him from this Vanity Let those amongst us that adventure to go to the Meetings of Hereticks out of Curiosity to see and hear learn Wisdom by these Examples Vid. August Confess and Clark's Examples c. 3. Mat. Hunniades King of Hungary when one brought him a Wooden Coat of Mail wherein was not one Ring wanting a Work of Fifteen Years commanded him to Prison for Fifteen Years more to expiate for so much Time and Parts mispent Author of Education of Young Gentlemen 4. Few or no Beggars are found in China for a young Beggar hath the Whip The whole Country is well Husbanded and though the People are generally great spenders yet they first get it by their hard Labour Idle Persons are much abhorred in this Country and such as will not Labour must not eat amongst them for there are none that will give Alms to the Poor If any be Blind they are put to Grind in Horse-Mills If Lame Impotent Bed-rid c. the next of their Kin is forced to maintain them if they be not able the King hath Hospitals in every City wherein they are sufficiently provided for Sir Tho. Herb. Travels P. Pil. 15.3 5. The Lacedaemonians brought up their Children in Labour from their Infancy whereby it grew into a Proverb That only the Lacedaemonian Women brought forth Men. Alex. 6. The Cretans brought up also their Sons from their Childhood in daily and difficult Labours lest when they grew Old they should think it was not unseemly to waste themselves in Idleness Idem 7. The Gymnosophists to reclaim their Scholars from Idleness Enacted a Law that Young Men should neither eat nor drink any day before they had given an Account to the Elder what Work they had done that Morning Idem 8. Amasis made a Law that the Egyptian Youth should no day eat and Food till they had run One Hundred and Eighty Furlongs Judging them unfit either to eat or drink till by honest Labour they had deserved it Diod. Sic. 9. The Aethiopians anciently accustomed their Youth daily to fling great Stones or Darts that thereby they might understand that Man was born to Labour not to Idleness Alex. ab Alex. 10. In the City of Casan in Parthia an Idle Person is not suffered to live amongst them 11. Sir Philip Sidney as one writes in the extream Agony of his Wounds so terrible the sense of Death is adds my Author requested the dearest Friend he had living to burn his Arcadia Will. Winstanley's Worthies p. 219. 12. I have read formerly that Mr. Abraham Cowley on his Death-bed made it his Request that this Poems called The Mistress might undergo the same Fate be burnt Mr. Herbert on his Death-bed commended his Poems to the Press 13. And I
shall see your Face no more in this Life Ibid. 4. S. Augustine whose usual wish was that Christ when he came might find him either Praying or Preaching was accordingly answered for in the Siege of Hippo by the Goths after he had for some Months together continually exercised himself in Prayers in the third Month of the Siege he fell sick of a Fever in his Sickness breathing forth most Pious Ejâ—culations as Vivere renuo ut Christo vivam viz. I refuse to live that I may live to Christ c. and so died making no Will having nothing to bestow but only Books which he left to several Libraries Aged 76. Anno Christi 430. having been a Minister 40 Years Ibid. 5. Prosper upon his Death-bed speaking to many of his People that wept sore said the Life which I have enjoyed was but given me upon condition to render it up again not grudgingly but gladly For me to stay longer here might seem better for you but for me t is better to be dissolved Ibid. p. 89. And so praying and lifting up his Hands before them all be departed Anno Christi 466. 6. Bede in his Sickness comforted himself with Heb. 12.6 Whom the Lord loveth be chasteneth c. When his Scholars were weeping about him he said in the words of S. Ambrose Non sic vixi ut pudeat me inter vos vivere sed nec mori timeo quia bonum Dominum habemus The time is come if my Creator pleaseth that being freed from the Flesh I shall go to him who made me when I was not out of nothing I have lived long and the time of my Dissolution is approaching proaching and my Soul desires to see my Saviour Christ in his Glory Ibid. p. 101. His Epitaph was Hac sunt in fossa Bedae Venerabilis put in as Tradition saith by an Angel Ossa 7. S. Bernard in his Sickness wrote this Letter to Arnold Abbot of Boneval We received your Love in Love and not in Pleasure for what Pleasure can there be where Pain and Bitterness challengeth all to it self Only 't is a little delightful to me to eat nothing Sleep is departed from me that Sorrow and Pain may never depart by the benefit of my Senses lulled asleep The want of a Stomach is all that I suffer only it lacks to be continually refreshed with some comfortable Liquor But if I admit more than is meet 't is very grievous to me My Feet and Thighs are swollen as in a Dropsie And in all these things that I may conceal nothing from my Friend who defires to know the state of his Friend the Spirit is willing but the Flesh weak Pray unto my Saviour who desires not the Death of a Sinner not that he will defer but guard my Departure hence with his Angels Take you care that my Heel which is naked of Merits he strengthened and defended by your Prayers that he which lies in wait may not find where to fasten his Tooth and inflict a Wound Farewel To his Monks he said I am in a Streight not knowing which to chuse Life or Death but leave all to the will of God Ibid. p. 105. 8. John Husse used these words by way of Prayer at his suffering Martyrdom Lond Jesus Christ assist and help me that with a constant and patient Mind by thy most gracious help I may bear and suffer this most Cruel and Ignominious Death burning with a tripe Crown of Paper painted with ugly Devils on his Head whereunto I am condemned for Preaching thy most Holy Gospel And when the Fire was kindled he sung three times with a loud Voice Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God have Mercy upon me And so the Wind drove the Flame into his Face and choaked him Ibid. p. 119. 9. Cardinal Woolsey being arrested by the King's Order breathed out his Soul in words to this purpose If I had served the God of Heaven as faithfully as I did my Master upon Earth he had not forsaken me in my Old Age as the other hath done Lloy's State-worthies p. 19. 10. Luther dying in his Clymacterical Year made this his last Prayer O Heavenly Father my Gracious God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ thou God of all Consolation I give thee hearty Thanks that thou hast revealed unto me thy Son Jesus Christ whom I believe whom I profess whom I love whom I glorifie whom the Pope and the wicked Rout do persecute and dishonour I beseech thee Lord Jesus Christ receive my Soul O my Heavenly Father tho' I be taken out of this Life and must lay down this frail Body yet I certainly know that I shall live with thee eternally and that I cannot be taken out of thy hands God so loved the World c. Lord I render up my Spirit into thy Hands and come to thee And again Lord into thy hands I commend my Spirit Thou O God of Truth hast redeemed me And so as one falling asleep and without any bodily Pain as could be discerned he departed this Life Feb. 18. Anno Christi 1548. Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist p. 143. 11. Calvin makes this his Last Will In the Name of God Amen Anno Christi 1564. April 25. I Peter Chenalat Citizen and Notary of Geneva do Witness and Profess that being sent for by that Reverend Man John Calvin Minister of the Word of God in the Church of Geneva and a Free Denizen of the same City who then truly was sick in Body but sound in Mind told me that his purpose was to make his Testament and declare his Last Will c. which was this In the Name of the Lord Amen I John Calvin Minister of the Word of God in the Church of Geneva oppressed and afflicted with divers Diseases so that I easily think the Lord hath appointed shortly to lead me out of this World I therefore have determined to make my Testament and to commit to Writing my Last Will in this form following First I give Thanks to God that taking pity of me whom he created and placed in this World hath delivered me out of the deep Darkness of Idolatry into which I was plunged and that he brought me into the Light of his Gospel and made me a partaker of the Doctrine of Salvation whereof I was most unworthy Neither hath he only gently and graciously born with my faults for which yet I deserved to be rejected by him and driven out but hath used towards me so great meekness and mildness that he hath vouchsafed to use my Labours in Preaching the Truth of his Gospel And I Witness and Profess that I intend to pass the remainder of my Life and Religion which he hath delivered to me by his Gospel and not to seek any other Aid or Resuge for Salvation than his free Adoption in which alone Salvation resteth And with all my Heart I embrace the Mercy which he hath used towards me for Jesus Christ's sake recompensing my Faults with the Merit
of his Death and Passion that Satisfaction may be made by this means for all my Sins and Crimes and the remembrance of them may be blotted out I witness also and profess that I humbly beg of him that being washed and cleansed in the Blood of that most high Redeemer shed for the sins of Mankind I may stand at the Judgment-Seat under the Image of my Redeemer Also I profess that I have diligently done my Endeavour according to the measure of Grace received and Bounty which God hath used towards me that I might Preach his Word holily and purely both in Sermons Writings and Commentaries and interpret his Holy Scriptures faithfully I also witness and profess That I have used no Jugglings no Evil and Sophistical Arts in my Controversies and Disputations which I have held with the Enemies of the Gospel but have exercised my self candidly and sincerely in maintaining the Truth But out alas that Study and Zeal of mine if it be worthy to be so called hath been so remiss and languishing that I confess innumerable things have been wanting in me to the well-performing of my Duty and unless the unmeasurable Bounty of God had been present my Studies had been vain and languid Moreover I acknowledge that unless the same Bounty had been present to me the Goods of the Mind which God hath given me would have made me guilty of the greater sin and Slothfulness before his Judgment-seat For which causes I witness and profess that I hope for no other help for Salvation but this only that seeing God is a Father of Mercy he shewed himself a Father unto me who acknowledge my self a Miserable Sinner As for Other Things after my Departure out of this Life I would have my Body committed to the Earth in that order and manner which is usual in this Church and City till the blessed Day of Resurrection cometh As for that Slender Patrimony which God hath given me I determine thus to dispose of it Let Anthony Calvin my most dear Brother be my Heir but only for Honour-sake let him take before hand and have to himself the Silver Charger given me by Varannius wherewith I desire him to be contented For whatsoever things remain in my Inheritance I request and commit them to his Faith that he return them to his Children when he dies I bequeath Ten Golden Scutes to the School of Boys from the same my Brother and Heir Also so much to Poor Strangers So much to Joan the Daughter of Charles Costan and of my Kinswoman But to Samuel and John the Sons of my said Brother I desire 40 Golden Scutes may be given to them by mine Heir when he dies To Ann Susan and Dorothy his Daughters 30 Scutes of Gold but to David their Brother because of his lightness and miscarriages but 25. This is the whole Sum of the whole Patrimony and Goods which God hath given me so near as I can estimate it setting a Price upon my Library my Moveables and all my Houshold Goods with all other my Faculties If there be found any thing above I would have it to be distributed to all these Children the Sons and Daughters of my Brother Neither do I exclude that David if he prove a good Husband If there shall be any surplusage above that Sum I believe there will be no great matter especially when my Debts are paid the care thereof I have committed to my said Brother upon whose Love and Fidelity I rely For which cause I will and appoint him to be the Executor of my Testament and together with him the Worshipful Lawrence Normandy giving them power to takean Inventory of my Goods without any more accurate Diligence of the Court I also permit them to sell my Moveables that out of the Money made thereof they may execute my Will above-written Dated this 25th of Apr. A. C. 1564. After this Will signed he made a Speech to the Senators and another to the Ministers both very grave and pathetical wrote a Letter to Mr. Viret an old Friend of his 80 Years of Age to prevent his Visiting of him concluding thus I would not have you to weary your self for my sake I hardly draw my Breath and I expect daily when it will fail me wholly It is enough that I live and die to Christ who is gain to his both in Life and Death Again Farewell May 11th 1564. On May 27th after much short breathing and sighing and those Words frequently uttered How long Lord how long about Sun setting he fell asleep Ibid. p. 312. 12. Cardinal Bellarmine made this his Last Will and Testament In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ I Robert Bellarmine Cardinal of the Title of our Blessed Lady's Church called in Via This was a Year before his Death changed to the Name of St. Praxedes being promoted thereunto out of the Society of Jesus desired leave of Clement VIII of Sacred Memory to make my Will That my Goods might be applied to pious Uses that I might be sure that such Temporal Things as should remain after my Death and such as whilst I lived could neither be bestowed on the Poor or on Churches as being necessary for my own Maintenance might return unto the said Poor and Churches The Pope gave me a more general Grant than I desired which I did not accept but only for bestowing them on good Uses as I had desired This Indult or Grant is amongst other Bulls granted me in a great Leaf of Parchment sealed with Lead dated A. C. 1603. Apr. 8. in the 12th Year of the Pontificate of the said Pope Clement This Grant presupposed I made my Will at Capua whilst I was Archbishop of that City afterwards that Will being annulled I made another in Rome but the Circumstances of things being altered and that Second also abrogated I determined now again to make my Will being of the Age of Sixty Nine and very near as I imagine to my last Day but yet by the Grace of God in perfect Health of Body and Mind First therefore I desire with all my Heart to have my Soul commended into the hands of God whom from my Youth I have desired to serve and I beseech him not as a Valuer of Merit but as a Giver of Pardon to admit me amongst his Saints and Elect. I will have my Body not being opened to be carried without any Pomp to the Church of the Society either of the Roman College or of the professed Fathers and let the Exequies be made by the Fathers and Brothers alone of the Society without Concourse of the Holy College to wit of the Cardinals without any Bed made aloft without Arms or Scutcheons with the same plainness as is usual for others of the Society And this I do as earnestly as I can humbly entreat His Holiness that he will satisfie my Desire in it As for the Place of my Burial I would gladly have had my Body at the Feet of blessed Aloysius Gonzaga once my
they were hardly used and now in their Journey loaded with heavy Irons and more inhumanely dealt with They with great chearfulness profess'd That they were better in a more happy Condition than ever in their Lives from the sense they had of the Pardoning Love of God in Jesus Christ to their Souls wholly referring themselves to their wise and gracious God to chuse for them Life or Death Expressing themselves thus Any thing what pleases God what he sees best so be it We know he is able to deliver but if not blessed be his Name Death is not terrible now but desirable Mr. Benjamin Hewling particularly added As for the World there is nothing in it to make it worth while to live except we may be serviceable to God therein And afterwards said ' Oh! God is a strong Refuge I have found him so indeed The next Opportunity I had was at Dorchester where they both were carried there remaining together four days By reason of their strait Confinement our Converse was much interrupted but this appeared that they had still the same Presence and Support from God no way discourag'd at the approach of their Tryal nor of the event of it whatever it should be The 6th of September Mr. Benjamin Hewling was ordered to Taunton to be tryed there Taking my leave of him he said Oh! Blessed be God for Afflictions I have found such happy Effects that I would not have been without them for all this World I remained still at Dorchester to wait the Issue of Mr. William Hewling to whom after Tryal I had free Access whose Discourse was much filled with Admiring of the Grace of God in Christ that had been manifested towards him in calling him out of his Natural State he said God by his Holy Spirit did suddenly seize upon his Heart when he thought not of it in his retired Abode in Holland as it were secretly whispering in his Heart See ye my Face enabling him to answer his gracious Call and to reflect upon his own Soul shewing him the Evil of Sin and Necessity of Christ from that time carrying him on to a sensible adherence to Christ for Justification and Eternal Life He said Hence he found a Spring of Joy and Sweetness beyond the Comforts of the whole Earth He further said He could not but admire the wonderful Goodness of God in so Preparing him for what he was bringing him to which then he thought not of giving him hope of Eternal Life before he called him to look Death in the face so that he did chearfully resign his Life to God before he came having sought his Guidance in it and that both then and now the Cause did appear to him very Glorious notwithstanding all he had suffered in it or what he further might Although for our Sins God hath with-held these good things from us But he said God had carryed on his blessed Work in his soul in and by all his Sufferings and whatever the Will of God were Life or Death he knew it would be best for him After he had received his Sentence when he returned to Prison he said Methinks I find my Spiritual Comforts increasing ever since my Sentence There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus it 's God that justifies who shall condemn When I came to him the next Morning when he had received News that he must die the next day and in order to it was to be carried to Lyme that day I found him in a more excellent raised Spiritual Frame than before He said he was satisfied God had chosen best for him he knows what the Temptations of Life might have been I might have lived and forgotten God but now I am going where I shall sin no more Oh! it 's a blessed thing to be free from sin and to be with Christ Oh! the Riches of the Love of God in Christ to Sinners Oh! how great were the Sufferings of Christ for me beyond all I can undergo How great is that Glory to which I am going It will soon swallow up all our Sorrow here When he was at Dinner just before his going to Lyme he dropt many abrupt Expressions of his inward Joy such as these Oh! the Grace of God the Love of Christ Oh that blessed Supper of the Lamb to be for ever with the Lord He further said When I went to Holland you knew not what Snares Sins and Miseries I might fall into or whether ever we should meet again But now you know whither I am going and that we shall certainly have a most joyful meeting He said Pray give my particular Recommendations to all my Friends with acknowledgments for all their Kindness I advise them all to make sure of an Interest in Christ for he is the only Comfort when we come to die One of the Prisoners seemed to be troubled at the manner of the Death they were to die to whom he replied I bless God I am reconciled to it all Just as he was going to Lyme he writ these few Lines to a Friend being hardly suffered to stay so long I AM going to Launch into Eternity I hope and trust in the Arm of my Blessed Redeemer to whom I commit you and all my dear Relations my Duty to my dear Mother and Love to all my Sisters and the rest of my Friends William Hewling As they passed through the Town of Dorchester to Lyme multitudes of People beheld them with great Lamentations admiring at his Deportment at his parting with his Sister As they passed upon the Road between Lyme and Dorchester his Discourse was exceeding Spiritual as those declared who were present taking occasion from every thing to speak of the Glory they were going to Looking out on the Country as he passed he said This is a Glorious Creation but what then is the Paradise of God to which we are going 'T is but a few hours and we shall be there and for ever with the Lord. At Lyme just before they went to die reading John 14.18 He said to one of his fellow-Sufferers Here is a sweet Promise for us I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you Christ will be with us to the last One taking leaving of him he said Farewel till we meet in Heaven Presently I shall be with Christ Oh! I would not change conditions with any in this World I would not stay behind for Ten Thousand Worlds To another that ask'd him how he did now He said Very well he bless'd God And farther asking him if he could look Death in the face with Comfort now it approach'd so near He said Yes I bless God I can with great Comfort God hath made this a good Night to me my Comforts are much increased since I left Dorchester Then taking leave of him said Farewel I shall see you no more To which he replied How see me no more Yes I hope to meet you in Glory To another that was by him to the last
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
as Mr. Battiscomb and made him such frequent Visits in the Prison till the Place it self was so far from being Scandalous that there was generally all the Conversation and where you might be sure to meet the best Company in the Town of both Sexes Mr. Battiscomb had the Happiness not to be displeasing to the fair Sex who had as much Pity and Friendship for him as consisted with the Rules of Decency and Vertue and perhaps their Respect for him did not always stop at Friendship tho' it still preserved the other Bounds inviolable Pity is generally but a little way from Love especially when the Object of it is any thing extraordinary But after he had been there some time and nothing could be prov'd against him which could any ways affect him he was at length almost unwillingly deliver'd from this sort of happy Slavery And when the Duke landed appear'd with him and serv'd him with equal Faith and Valour till the Rout at Sedgmoor when he fled with the rest and got up as far as Devonshire where he was seiz'd in a Disguise and brought to his old Palace the Prison at Dorchester He behav'd himself there the second time in the same courteous obliging manner as he did at the first tho' now he seem'd more thoughtful and in earnest than before as knowing nothing was to be expected but speedy Death tho' his Courage never droopt but was still the same if it did not encrease with his Danger At his Tryal Jeffreys rail'd at him with so much eagerness and barbarity that he was observ'd almost to foam upon the Bench. He was very angry with him because he was a Lawyer and could have been contented all such as he should be hang'd up without any Trial and truly 't was no great Matter whether he or the rest had had that Formality or no. Mr. Battiscomb was as undaunted at the Bar as in the Field or at Execution How he demeaned himself in Prison before his Death take this following Account verbatim as 't was written by his Friends The Account given of him by his Relations HE was observed to be always serious and chearful ready to entertain Spiritual Discourse manifesting Affection to God's People and his Ordinances he seem'd to be in a very calm Indifference to Life or Death referring himself to God to determine it expressing his great Satisfaction as to some Opportunities of Escape that were slipt saying That truly he sometimes thought the Cause was too good to flee from suffering in it tho' he would use all lawful Means for his Life but the Providence of God having prevented this he was sure it was best for him for he said he bless'd God he could look into Eternity with Comfort He said with respect to his Relations and Friends to whom his Death would be afflictive That he was willing to live if God saw good but for his own part he thought Death much more desirable He said I have enjoyed enough of this World but I never found any thing but Vanity in it no Rest or Satisfaction God who is an Infinite Spiritual Being is the only suitable Object for the Soul of Man which is spiritual in its Nature and too large to be made happy by all that this World can afford which is all but sensual Therefore methinks I see no reason why I should be unwilling to leave it by Death since our Happiness can never be perfected till then till we leave this Body where we are so continually clogg'd with Sin and Vanity frivolous and foolish Trifles Death in it self is indeed terrible and natural Courage is too low to encounter it nothing but an Interest in Christ can be our Comfort in it he said which Comfort I hope I have intimating much advantage to his Soul by his former Imprisonment The Day he went from Dorchester to Lyme after he had received the News of his Death the next Day he was in the same serious Cheerfulness declaring still the same Apprehension of the Desirableness of Death and the great Supports of his Mind under the Thoughts of so sudden passing through it alone from the Hope of the Security of his Interest in Christ taking leave of his Friends with this Farewel Tho' we part here we shall meet in Heaven Passing by 〈◊〉 Estate going to Lyme he said Farewel Temporal Inheritance I am now going to my Heavenly Eternal One. At Lyme the Morning that he died it appeared that he had the same Supports from God meeting Death with the same cheerfulness When he was mounting the Ladder he smiled and said I am not afraid of this I am going to a better Place from a poor and miserable World to a Celestial Paradise a Heavenly Jerusalem I might have chosen whether I would have undergone this Death if I had hearkened to the L. C. J. but it was upon such unworthy Terms that shou'd I have accepted of my Pardon it wou'd have been troublesome to me I die a true Protestant I am in Charity with all Men. God preserve this Nation from Popery The Lord bless you all So taking his leave of them he knew after Prayer he lanched into Eternity His CHARACTER All that knew or saw him must own Mr. Battiscomb was very much a Gentleman not that thin sort of Animal that flutters from Tavern to Play-house and back again all his Life made up of Wig and Crevat without one dram of Thought in his Composition but one who ha◠solid Worth well drest and set out to the World His Body made a very handsome and creditable Tenement for his Mind and it had been pity it shou'd have liv'd in any other He wa◠pretty tall well made I think inclining to Black not altogether unlike Mr. Benjamin Hewling as He has been thought to resemble the Duke of Monmouth He was Witty Brave exactly Honourable Pious and Vertuous and if ever that Character belong'd to any Man it did eminently to Mr. Battiscomb That he liv'd universally belov'd and dy'd as generally lamented 3. Mr. WILLIAM JENKYNS HIS Father was sufficiently known and his Circumstances hard enough being seized only for his Opinion and clapt up close in Newgate where the Inconvenience of the Place and want of the Exercise he formerly enjoy'd quickly kill'd him as he used to say before his Confinement 't would certainly do if ever it happen'd Thus was he requited by that very Person for whom with Mr. Love he ventured his Life so deeply and so hardly escaped with it 'T was his inhumane Treatment which edg'd and animated his Son and the Revenge of his Father's Blood may be presum'd to have gone very far in pushing him on to engage his Life and Fortune in this Undertaking he having given Funeral Rings for his Father with this Poesie William Jenkyns murder'd in Newgate He was his Father's only Son who had taken care to have him educated suitable to his ingenuous Birth and Inclinations He improved sufficiently in all useful Learning and was
and all the World 2. Colonel HOLMES THe next Place was Lime where many of Note died particularly Colonel Holmes who was the first of those there executed near the same Place where they landed when they came ashore with the Duke of Monmouth Being brought to the Place after some difficulty for the Horses that were first put into the Sledge would not stir which obliged those concerned to get others which they did from the Coachman who had that Morning brought them to Town When they were put into the Sledge they broke it in pieces which caused the Prisoners to go on foot to the Place of Execution Where being come as I told you before the Colonel began thus at the foot of the Ladder He sate down with an Aspect altogether void of Fear but on the contrary with a kind of smiling Countenance so began to speak to the Spectators to this purpoe That he would give them an Account of his first Undertaking in the Design which was long before in London for there he agreed to stand by and assist the Duke of Monmouth when Opportunity offer'd in order to which he went to Holland with him and there continued until this Expedition in which God had thought fit to frustrate his and other Good Mens Expectations He believed the Protestant Religion was bleeding and in a step towards Extirpation and therefore he with these his Brethren that were to suffer with him and Thousands more had adventured their Lives and their All to save it but God Almighty had not appointed 'em to be the Instruments in so glorious a Work Yet notwithstanding he did verily believe and doubted not but that God would make use of others that should meet with better success tho the way or means was not yet visible but of this he did not doubt He also was satisfied of the Duke's Title so that matter did not afflict him on account of his engaging on his Score And going on further with a Discourse of this nature he was asked by a Person why he did not pray for the King He with a smiling Countenance answered I am sorry you do not yet understand the Difference between Speaking and Praying And having ended his Discourse he then prepared himself by Prayer for his Dissolution which was very devout and pious for half an Hour which was as follows Colonel Holme's Last Prayer MOst Glorious most Great and most Merciful God! there is none in Heaven or in Earth that is like unto Thee Heaven is thy Throne and the Earth is thy Footstool Who shall say unto thee What doest thou Here we are poor deplorable Creatures come to offer up our last Prayers and Services unto thee We beseech thy favourable Ear to our Prayers and the Comfort of thy Holy Spirit at this time We praise and magnifie thy Name for all the Dispensations of thy Providence towards us especially for this thy Providence in bringing us to this Place and at this time to suffer Shame for thy Name Help and assist all of us to submit to thy Will patiently Pardon all our Sins remove them out of thy Presence as far as the East is from the West and accept of us in the Merits of thy Son Jesus Christ Thou who art the Searcher of Hearts and Tryer of Reins let there not at the moment of Death be the least spark of Sin in-dwelling in us nor the Strivings of Flesh and Blood that may hinder us from a joyful Passage unto thee Give us Patience also under these Sufferings and a Deliverance to all others from undergoing them and in thy good time work a Deliverance for poor England let thy Gospel yet flourish among them Hasten the Downfall of antichrist we trust the time is come Prevent O Lord this Effusion of Christian Blood and if it be thy Will let this be the last Lord bless this Town let them from the highest to the lowest set the Fear of God before their Eyes Bless all sorts and conditions of Men in all Ranks and Qualities pardon all their Sins give them all true Repentance and the Grace of thy Holy Spirit Fit and prepare us for the chearful fulfilling of thy Holy Will Let the Comforter be still with us Be Merciful to all our Friends and Relations and Acquaintance Forgive our Enemies Accept of our Thankfulness for all the Mercies and Favours afforded us and hear and graciously answer us in these our Requests and what else thou knowest needful and expedient for us and all for our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ his sake who died for us that we might reign with him for ever and ever To whom with Thee and thy Blessed Spirit of Grace be ascribed as is most due all Honour Glory and Praise both now and for ever After having ended his Prayer he took occasion to speak to his suffering Brethren taking a solemn Leave of them encouraging them to hold out to the end and not to waver observing that this being a glorious Sun-shining Day I doubt not though our Breakfast be sharp and bitter it will prepare us and make us meet for a comfortable Supper with our God and Saviour where all Sin and Sorrow shall be wiped away So embracing each of 'em and kissing of them told the Sheriff You see I am imperfect only one arm I shall want assistance to help me upon this Tragical Stage Which was presently done and Execution suddenly followed 3. The Execution of Mr. SAMPSON LARKE MR. Sampson Larke who was a very Eminent Pious Minister and had lived in that Town but a little before Many Years he was there well acquainted and all People that knew him had a Value for him behaving himself with that Humility and Circumspection as no body could have any other Occasion but to value him He design'd to have spoken somewhat on a Portion of Scripture and was beginning having mentioned the Place he intended to speak upon but was interrupted and told the Work of the Day being great they should want time So then he stopp'd and reply'd He could make Application where he should not meet with Interruption and so apply'd himself to Prayer which he performed with great Devotion and Zeal for a quarter of an Hour to the great Satisfaction of the Auditors And so taking leave of his suffering Brethren he mounted the Stage which was to be the last Act he made in this World Being on the Ladder he saw some of his Friends and Neighbours weeping and mourning for him to whom he spake Pray weep not for me I am going to a Place of Bliss and Happiness Wherefore pray repair to your Houses and e're you get thither I doubt not but I shall be happy with my God and Saviour where all Tears shall be wiped away and nothing shall remain but Hallelujahs to all Eternity Leaving this Place we proceed to other Parts of the Country where with the like Butchery were only five Executed amongst whom was one 4. Mr. TYLER MR. Tyler of Bristol
late As to the Meetings I bless God I ever was at any of them and that I was any way Instrumental to the upholding of them and am troubled that I have I fear sinfully deprived my self of them and do believe if ever the Ordinances of God were rightly administred and the Gospel effectually preached it was in those Meetings that were held in Taunton the Lord bless the Seed that was there sown As to Elections of Members for Parliament I judge it my Birth-right and therefore was Industrious in it but I hope never did I am sure never intended troublesomness to any in it but especially to my Superiors I had ever a venerable and due esteem of Magistrates as the Ministers of God and they administring an Ordinance of God I also lie under a Reproach of being unfaithful to an Interest that I owned which I utterly deny and disown I pray God bless and forgive my violent Enemies that have industriously sought the taking away my Life It 's the hearty Prayer of JOHN HVCKER From Taunton-Castle a little before he suffered Sept. 30th 1685. 7. Captain MADDERS CAptain Madders at the time of the Duke's Landing was a Constable at Crewkern in the County of Somerset and so diligent and active for the King in his Office that when two Gentlemen of Lyme came there and brought the News of the Duke's Landing and desired Horses to Ride Post to acquaiut His Majesty therewith he immediately secured Horses for them the Town being generally otherways bent and assisted them so far as any called Loyal in those Times could do which was represented to the Lord Chief Justice in expectation thereby to save his Life But an Enquiry being made about his Religion and returned by a very worthy Gentleman of those Parts That he was a good Protestant an honest Man had a very good Character amongst his Neighbours O then says he I 'll hold a wager with you he is a Presbyterian I can smell them Forty Miles then surely he must die Being brought to the Place of Execution he was the last Man except one executed and he behaved himself whilst the rest were executing with great Zeal and lifting up his Hands and Eyes would often say Lord make me so willing and ready to the last And God did hear his Prayers for though he seemed to the Spectators to be somewhat unwilling to die yet at the last he died with as much Assurance and Christian Resolution as any for after his Publick Prayer he came once down the Ladder and prayed again privately then mounted the Ladder again The Sheriff saying Mr. Madders if you please you may have more Liberty He answered No I thank you Mr. Sheriff now I am ready I am willing and desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Oh! you cannot imagine what Comfort and Refreshment I have received in a few minutes my Comforts are so great that I cannot contain my self So blessing and praising of God he was translated as I hope we have no grounds to imagine the contrary from Earth to Heaven repeating Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no Power 8. The Dying Words of Captain Kidd Executed at the same Time and Place THis Gentleman was the last executed at that time as soon as Captain Madders was turned off he began to prepare to follow and called to the Guards and those present Do you see this pointing up to Eleven that were dead before him do you think this is not dreadful to me that Eleven of Twelve of us that but a few hours since came down together are dead and in Eternity And I just going to follow them and shall immediately be in the same condition Says one to him It must be dreadful to Flesh and Blood Says he Well Gentlemen I will assure you I am so far concerned that methinks I bethink their Happiness that they should be so long before me in Bliss and Happiness But I 'll make haste to follow I am satisfied this is the best day that ever I saw The day of a Man's Death is said to be better than the day of his Birth And truly so I find it as to my Flesh for I shall be presently free from sin and sorrow I am satisfied God hath done his best for me I might have live and forgotten God but now I am going where I shall sin no more 'T is a blessed thing to be free from sin and to be with Christ O how great were the Sufferings of Christ for us beyond all that I can undergo how great is that Glory to which I am going Then taking his leave of the People then present he prayed some small time very devoutly and with seeming great Joy and Comfort the Executioner did his Office 9. The Last Speech of Dr. Temple of Nottingham at the Place of Execution DOctor Temple was one of them that Landed with the Duke and was his Chief Physician and Chirurgeon he lived in Nottingham but minding to see other Parts of the World as I have heard goes for Holland where he came acquainted with the Duke of Monmouth concerning which he thus spoke just as he was going off the Ladder Christian Friends and dear Countrymen I Have somewhat to say and not very much before I depart from you and shall be seen no more And First As to my Engagement with the Duke of Monmouth Secondly How far I was concerned And Thirdly I shall leave all of you to be Judges in Matter of Fact And so for the First As a Dying Man I now declare That when I entred my self with the Duke of Monmouth to be his Chirurgeon it was on no other Account but to serve him in the West-Indies where I knew no other Design whatsoever but to possess himself of some of those Islands until I had been at Sea two days wherein one privately told me We are absolutely bound for England and I should take it from him it was true It much surprized me but knowing no way to avoid it or to get on shore though it was at that time contrary to my Inclinations if I could have avoided it I would not let others see that I had that dissatisfaction within me After our Landing at Lyme I knew it was never the nearer to attempt my Escape the Country being so beset on the other hand if the Duke of Monmouth did win the Day I might have raised my Fortunes as high as I could expect These were the Arguments that Flesh and Blood did create in my Breast for Self-prefervation While I was with the said Duke I did him as much Service as I could and faithfully After it pleased God to disperse that Army under his Command I endeavoured to secure my self but by Providence was taken at Honiton from thence committed to Exon and after removed to Dorchester where I received my Sentence and am now as you see just going to Execution The Lord
of Christ It is not all I can do that will or can save me Were I to live my Days over again and spend them in nothing but Prayers and Tears that could not Save me no it is nothing but the Mercy of God in Christ that must save me and upon this will I trust I am resolved that at the last I will lay my self wholly at the Feet of God's Mercy in Jesus Christ and there I will die This he uttered with raised and enlarged Affections They have brought my Coffin and I am not afraid to see it proceeded he I thank God I can freely lie down in it These Shackles about my Legs are as if they were not I do not regard them My Heart is so cheared with the consideration of the Precious Promises God hath made to poor perishing Sinners and why not to me And why not to thee indeed said I She loved much to whom much was forgiven Ah reply'd he it is much must be forgiven me Much indeed More to this purpose passed between us Several other Ministers were with him that Day and prayed with him as he told me what Discourse they had with him I know not A little before Execution enquiring of him what Confession he thought to make he said he was not inclined to speak much publickly in that respect for this reason That he judged it useless and at most would only gratifie some who came for nothing else but to hear him tell a long Story of a Vicious Life which was more likely to discompose his own Minds than tend to their Edification Moreover he said I cannot affect the Guilty and for others some may believe me some may not The Guilty know themselves I will therefore leave them to God and their own Consciences wishing them true Repentance that they may never come to this miserable End He did not think fit to go out of the World accusing others whom he could no more than accuse and neither bring them to deserved Punishment for what they had done hor prevent thereby their proceeding in the same course of Wickedness No for said he God must convince them and change their hearts which he did and would Pray earnestly for to his last He was desirous to employ all his little space in seeking God and giving up himself to Jesus Christ in humble Prayer now and then saying Oh! my Time is short within a few hours yea moments I shall be in Eternity O vain World Requesting me oft not to leave him till Death separated us I accompanied him to the Place of Execution where I prayed with him committing his Soul to God he joyned with me with great Ardency Then was sung the latter part of the 39th Psalm by his Appointment in singing whereof he seemed elevated in Heart and Voice above most present At last turning about and looking round on the Multitude he took his Farewel in these words or words to the like effect Gentle Spectators You are come to see a sinful miserable Wretch suffer this Ignominious Death I thank God it is not terrible to me for I trust that I shall find Mercy with God for my poor Soul through the precious Blood of my sweet Jesus You may see here what Sin will bring you to Oh take warning by me take heed of Sin shun Temptationsâ— flee Ezsil Company beware of Sabbath-breaking for by this Sin the Devil begins with many to draw them to all manner of Wickedness so he did with me Oh forsake all your Evil Wars turn to the Lord he is a gracious God Oh vile Wretch that I have so sinned against a holy just and merciful God I have been a Prodigal indeed but I hope now a Returning one Oh that they that have been my Companions in Mischief may Repent before it be too late I beg of them to fear God and mind their Souls There may be some of them that hear me at this time the Lord touch their hearts Oh do not still go on you are known to God who will call you to Account for all one day Think of it I beseech you the Lord give you true Repentance and Pardon your Sins that you may not come to this miserable End you see me come to With more to the like purpose Then Resigning himself to God and begging Acceptance with him for the Merits of a Dear and All-sufficient Redeemer he ended this Temporal and Miserable Life Thus far Mr. Burroughs CHAP. CXLV The Last Wills of Persons Remarkable for their Oddness and Singularity HAving had occasion to mention before several Wills with a particular Respect to Charities bestowed and some which were Remarkably Serious and Devout here I shall present the Reader with a few that I thought not very suitable to either of those Heads having something of Oddness or Levity or Brevity in them extraordinary 1. I have already spoken of Endamidas the Corinthian who dying Poor left his Aged Mother to Aretaeus and his Young Daughter to Charixenus two Rich Friends of his the one to be maintained till she died and the other till she married She the Chapter of Remarkable Friendship 2. Hilarion is reported at Eighty Years Old to have made this Will All my Wealth that is the Gospel and one Hair Vest my Coat and little Cloak I leave to my most loving Friend Hesychius Mourning Ring 3. Antonius the Great this As for the Place of my Burial let none know but your own Love my Felt and old Cloak give it to Athanasius which he gave me when it was new Let Serapion take the other which is somewhat better Do you take my Hair Garment And so Farewel my Bowels for Antony is going Ibid. 4. I Acathius Victor have been running to Eternity from A.C. 1581. and have Eternity in my Mind Now I commend my Spirit to God my Body to the Earth and Worms But as for Estate nothing now is mine but Good-Will which I carry with me to the Tribunal of God Ibid. 5. S. Hierom Martyr left his Estate to his Mother and Sister but to Rusticius the Chief Magistrate of Ancyra his Right-hand already cut off Ibid. 6. Zisca bequeath'd his Skin to make a Drum and his Flesh to the Fowls of the Air and Wild Beasts Ibid. 7. A Woman left her Cat 500 Crowns to maintain her with Food so long as she lived 8. I have mentioned already an Old Witch that on her Death-bed bequeathed her Imp the Devil to her Daughter 9. Luther was more serious and wise when he in his Last Will bequeath'd his Wife to God who gave her 10. Cardinal Bellarmine as I have noted before makes a long sputter in his Last Will about his Disposal of a few Cloaths and fine Pictures c. 11. I have been credibly informed that a certain School-Master in Shropshire making his Will his Wife who had always the Whip-hand over him standing by took occasion frequently to Advise the Clerk that wrote for him or rather to Correct and altar what
would discover it by the Smell at a distance Sch. l. 7. p. 890. Who tells in the same Page of Jac. Foro-â—viensis that if at any time he eat Garlick he was no less tormented than if he had drank Poison 24. A certain Spaniard who had never tasted any sort of Fish when a Friend of his had invited him to a Supper and had on purpose given him Fish wrapt in Eggs he immediately fell into fainting Pressures of the Heart and Vomitings c. so that little wanted but that he had died upon it Schenck l. 7. p. 890. 25. Germanicus could not endure the Voice or Sight of a Cock and the Persian Magi were possessed with an extream Hatred to Mice Sch. l. 7. p. 889. 26. Another was not able to bear that an old Woman should look upon him and being forced to look upon one intended for Merriment as to him ended in his Death Ibid. 27. Another at the sight of a Dog is not only affrighted but seized with Convulsions Bart. Hist Anat. Cent. 3 Hist 28. p. 65. 28. A young Lady of Namur as often as she heard the sound of a Bell or any loud Voice so often was she cast into a Swound so as that she differed not from one dead Hen. ab H. 61. Obs. 29. p. 253. 29. A Nun in the Monastery of St. Clare would be strangely affrighted at the sight of a Beetle it fell out that some young Girls cast a Beetle into her Bosom betwixt her Breasts which when perceived she presently fell into a Swound to the Earth deprived of all Sense and remained four hours in Cold Sweats when she came to her self yet she recovered not her former strength in many days after Zach. Quest Med. l. 2. tit 2. p. 61. 30. A Noble Man of Mantua would fall in a Syncope and Cold Sweats at the sight of an Hedge-hog Donat. Hist Med. Mir. l. 6. c. 3. p. 306. 30. A German coming in Winter time into an Inn to Sup the Woman of the House knowing his Temper hid her young Cat in a Chest in the same Room where he was to Sup but though he had neither seen nor heard it yet after some time that he had suckt in the Air infected by the Cats breath he Sweat and a sudden paleness came on his Face he cry'd out that in some corner or other of the Room there lay a Cat hid Sch. l. 7. p. 889. 32. A Lady as oft as she tasted any Raisons or Sugar or any other sweet thing was afflicted with intolerable pain in her Teeth nor was she freed from it till she had Eaten something bitter or sharp Henric. ab Heer 's Obs. Med. l. 1. Obs 29. p. 254. 33. Mr. Baker an ancient Minister in London was not able to indure the sight of a Cat. CHAP. III. Examples of Superfoetation THere are some Mysteries in the Anomalies of Nature which we cannot solve and this is one which for the Difficulty of it I do not care to play the Philosopher upon the Recesses of the Operation are so Secret and the Acts themselves so Sublime that 't is impossible for material Eyes to find out by the most accurate Disquisition or meer Reason to give a perfect Rational upon I must manum de Tabulâ and leave it to the Studies of the Schools 1. .... Palmer Esq of West-Angmering in Sussex It happened that his Wife were a full Fortnight inclusively in Labour and was on Whitsunday delivered of ..... her Eldest Son on Sunday following of .... her Second Son and the Sunday next after of .... her Third Son These Three were Knighted for their Valour and Success as in their Nativities by King Henry the Eighth 2. Anno 1584. Died the Noble Lord Philip Lewis of Hirshorn at his Mansion-house in the Palatinate three miles from Heydelberg he left no Heir but his Lady was with Child his Kindred forthwith enters upon the Rents and Royalties and to gain the more full and perfect knowledge of them soon after the death of her Lord they pluckt from her Waste the Keys of all private Places and that not without Violence the better to inable them for the search they intended This Outrage redoubled the Grief of the Lady so that within few days after she fell in Travel and brought forth a Son but dead and wanting the Scull Now were the next Heirs of the Deceased Noble Man exceeding Jocund as having attained to their utmost hopes and therefore now used the Estate as their own but it pleased God to raise up a Son to that desolate and disconsolate Widow for though she was not speedily delivered of him after the first yet she remain'd somewhat Big after her delivery suspecting nothing but that it was some praeternatural Humour or some Disease that was remaining in her Body she therefore consulted the Physicians who all thought any thing rather to be the cause of the Disease then that in the least they suspected a second Birth so long after the first They therefore advised her to go to the Baths by the Rhine she accordingly did as a sad and comfortless Widow attended only with one Maid came thither July 1584 where â—t so fell out she found Augustus the Elector of Saxony together with the Princess his Wife as also many other Princes and their Ladies by which means all Lodgings were so taken up that she could not find Entertainment in any Inn especially being not known of what Quality she was coming thither with so private a Retinue as a Maid At last discovering to the Governor of the place who she was and her last Misfortunes she procured Lodging in his House for that Night when it was the tenth Week from her former delivery it pleased God to send her in her Affliction and amongst Strangers a lovely Boy the Fame of which came to the Ears of the Illustrious Princes who were then in Town The Elector of Mentz made her a Noble Provision for her lying in The Elector of Saxony also sent her by way of present 1000 Dollars also all the Rents and Royalties before seized upon were restored to this Lawful Heir of her Husbands and Child of hers who was then alive saith Caspar Bauhinus Schenck Obs. Med. Obs. 1. p. 542. A Dutch Woman in Southwark having invited divers of her Neighbours to her upsitting found her self not well on a sudden and rising from the Table was forthwith brought to Bed of another This falling on a time into Discourse one then present reported that the like befell a Sister of his who three Months after the Birth of her first Son was delivered of a second Sandys on Ovid Metam l. 11. p. 215. 4. Doctor Plot tells of a Cow of Mrs. Dunches of Newington near Dorchester that whil'st a Calf before she was 11 Months old produced another which Animals carrying their burthen no less then 9 Months we must either admit that she took Bull at about 10 or 11 Months old or that the Cow her self was
vigour and energy to it beyond common Sense 1. Marinus Barlâ—tins reports of Scanderberg That he brought with him into the World a notable mark of Warlike Glory for he had upon his Right Arm a Sword so well set on as if it had been drawn with the Pencil of the most curious and skillful Painter in the World Camer Hor. Subscis l. 1. c. 60. p. 308. 2. Camerarius saith that he always heard it reported That the Counts of Habsburg have each of them from the Womb a Golden Cross upon his Back viz. certain Hairs after a wonderful manner formed into the Figure of a Cross Ibid. l. 3. c. 42. p. 145. 3. M. Venetus in his 45 years Itinerary in Asia reports That the Kings of Corzani boast of a Nobility beyond that of all other Kings of the Earth upon this account that they are Born into the World with the Impress of a Black Eagle upon their Shoulder which continues with them to their Deaths Ibid. 4. Camerarius saith that it was related That King James I. brought with him from his Mother's Womb certain Royal Signatures for at his Birth there was beheld imprinted on his Body a Lion and Crown and some also add a Sword Ibid. 5. Abraham Buckoltzerus saith That John Frederick Elector of Saxony who was Born June 30. Anno 1503. brought with him from his Mother's Womb an Omen of his future State For he was Born with a Cross of a splendid and golden Colour on his Back upon the sight of which a pious and ancient Priest was sent for by the Ladies of the Court who thereupon said This Child shall carry a Cross conspicuous to all the World the Emblem of which is thus apparent in his Birth The Event did declare and confirm the Truth of the Presage Camerur Ibid. p. 146. 6. Gaffarel tells of his Sister born with a Fish on her Leg caused by the desire of his Mother when Pregnant that it was drawn with so much perfection and rarity as if drawn by some excellent Master and the wonder was that when the Girl eat Fish that on her Leg put her to sensible pain Gaff Curiosities c. 5. p. 143. 7. The Hostess of the Inn in the Suburbs of St. Mich. at Bois de Vicenne had a Mulberry growing upon her Nether Lip which was smooth till the time that Mulberries began to ripen at which time hers began to be red and to swell observin the Season and Nature of other Mulberries till it came to their just bigness and redness Ibid. p. 144. 8. A Woman in the seventh Month of her Pregnancy longed to Eat Rosebuds which being difficult to be procured at last a Bough of them was found she greedily devoured the green Buds of two Roses and kept the rest in her Bosom In the ninth Month being delivered of a Boy upon his Ribs there appeared the likeness of three Roses very red upon his Forehead and either Cheek he had also he resemblances of a red Rose He was therefore commonly called the Rose-Boy Zasut Lusit adm l. 2. Obs 133. CHAP. XXV Childen abiding in the Womb beyond their time THere is not one of the Actions of Nature that I can think of which is not subject to Anomaly and Disorder Sometimes our Tongue stammers our Eyes fail us our Memory is deficient our Feet stumble Sometimes there is a fault in Conception sometimes in Parturition One while the Infant comes too soon before its Natural time into the World another while it is detain'd a prisoner too long and cannot be set at liberty for many years and it may be the Soul go into another World before the Body can be admitted into this and sometimes the Womb that bore it must be the Grave to bury it a miserable case and unhappy for Mother and infant both 1. Catherine the Wife of Michael de Menne a poor Conntryman for 12 years together carried a dead Child or rather the Skeleton of one in her Womb. It was manifest to the touch saith Aegidius de Hertoge who with many other both Men and illustrious Women are witnesses hereof Henricus Cornelius Mathisius Domestick Physician to the Emperor Charle V. who having handled the Woman both standing and lying by touch easily distinguished all the Bones of the Dead Infant in a great Amazement cried out nothing is impossible to God and Nature She Conceived of this Child Anno 1549. Schenck Obs l. 4. p. 575. 2. In the Town of Sindelfingen a Woman of 30 years or thereabouts being with Child 6 or 7 weeks before her expected Delivery upon occasion of a fall on the Ice never afterwards felt her Child to stir After which she Conceived twice or thrice and hath been as often Delivered yet still the usual bigness of her Belly continued and the Dead Child was supposed to continue in her Womb. Ibid. p. 577. 3. Anno 1545. Margarita Carlinia Wife of Geo. Volzerus of Vienna in her Travel perceiving somewhat to Crack within her and never after feeling her Child to stir for four years afterwards she lived with much pain till at length Anno 1549. an Ulcer appearing about her Navel and the Bone of the Child's Elbow at the Orifice she was by Incision Delivered of a Male Child half Putrid which was drawn out thence piece-meal and afterwards happily Cured Zuing. Theat vol. 2. l. 4. p. 357. Donat. Hist Med. Mir. l. 2. c. 22. p. 239. 4. Zacutus Lusitanus hath set down the History of a Woman of mean Fortune and 16 years of Age who being with Child and the time of her Travail come could not be delivered by reason of the narrowness of her Womb the Chirurgions advised Section which they said was ordinary in such Cases but she refused it the Dead Child therefore Putrified in her Womb After three years the smaller Bones of it came from her and so by little and little for ten years together there came forth pieces of corrupted Flesh and Fragments of the Skull At last in the twelfth year there issued forth piecemeal the greater Bones and then her Belly fell and after some years she Conceived again and was happily delivered of a living Boy Zacut. Lusit praxis Med. Admir lib. 2. Obs 357. p. 276. 5. Donatus tells of one Paula the Wife of Mr. Naso an Innkeeper in the Street of Pont Merlian in Mantua who voided by way of Siege a Dead Child with a great deal of Pain the Bones coming forth by piecemeal for several months and years together Donat. Hist Med. Mir. l. 2. c. 22. p. 241. For this the Author cites the Testimony of Hippolitus Genifortus a Chirurgeon and Joseph Arancus a Physician CHAP. XXVI Children Born Preternaturally THAT the Births of Children are sometimes attended with strange either precedent or concomitant or consequent Symptoms or Accidents may be attributed to variety of infetiour and natural Causes as in the following Examples But surely there is a Finger of Omnipotence that over-rules Nature in these and all other
Nature and Art the World is furnish'd with and we set as the principal Spectators of them in order to be High-Priests to offer the Sacrifices of Praise for the Rest of the visible Creation methinks I am ready to complain that our Lives are contracted to so short a Span that we can hardly have time to look about us and admire and give due Praise but we must be gone off the Stage Oh! think I if we might but live now to a Mathusalem's Age or at least a Nestor's or John of the Times or but so long as my Country-man Part what brave Schemes might we draw of Architecture What high Scaffolds might we raise What wonderful Projects might we contrive What ingenious and subtle Ideas might we form The Quadrature of the Circle the perpetual Motion the scaling of the Skies and a perfect Discovery of the Lunar World the Philosopher's Stone Flying Diving Any thing Every thing would be but mean and ordinary to imploy our Wits upon But God hath wisely prevented our Projection of these Babels by reducing our Time to a short Scantling of but a Span long and confounding our Thoughts with a Thousand Cares and Abbreviating our Necessities to a little Compendium of Fearing God and heeping his Commandments as the whole of Man Notwithstanding we have all of us almost some spare Minutes left from our necessary Offices which we might if we would spend in a more noble way upon more generous Exercises either of Veiwing or Doing of Speculation or Action or which were much better both I am not so fond as to conceit that I have given here a due Account of all or most of the Wonders and strange Improvements of Art 't is enough to my purpose if tanquam canis ad Nilum I have exhibited a short Specimen enough to beget Admiration and Emulation Let my Reader read and wonder and fall into an honest Indignation with himself that he hath suffer'd his Sands of Time to run so fast in his Glass and his Blood stagnate in his Veins and his Brains gather Flegm and Water whilst himself doth nothing or nothing to purpose or next door to nothing in comparison with those brave Intellectuals he is endowed with I am not for Domitian's pricking Flies with a Pin nor the Hungarian 's wooden Coat of Mail the work of fifteen Years nor Myrmerides 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coach with four Horses so little you might hide them under a Flie's Wing nor Collicrates 's Elegies writ so small that a Cherry-stone might hold them nor Mark Scaliot 's Lock spoken of hereafter c. These are all certainly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a laborious Loss of Time an Ingenious Profusion of one of the best Talents we are intrusted with and more than that perhaps of Two viz. Our Time and Wit Let People know their Strength what they can do and consider the Price of Time they have allowed to act in and act accordingly with a due Aim and direct Tendancy to the Divine Honour their Neighbour's Benefit and their own Happiness and I do not doubt but Men will find better Work and at last receive a Better a more Comfortable and Satisfactory Reward Curiosities of Art PART III. CHAP. I. The English Tongue Improved THE Art of Speaking is none of the least Extellencies of Humane Nature the Confusion of Tongues introduced a great Obscurity in delivering the Sense of our Minds and Men were many Ages blundering and unskilful in expressing themselves properly Where Learning prevailed the Languages were sooner ripen'd to a Perfection and Purity The English Tongue by occasion of frequent Intermixtures with other People lay a long time corrupted with a variety of Dialects How it hath been improved of late Ages we may guess by comparing the Old Dialect with the New Of the old take these few Parcels out of Richard a Religious Hermit in the Earl of Exeter 's Library for a Specimen 1. His Te Deum begins thus We heryen ye God we knowlecnen ye Lord Alle ye erie worschips ye everlasting Fader Alle Aungels in Hevens and alle ye poures in yis VVarld Cherebin and Seraphin cryen by be voice to ye unstinting 2. His Benedictus thus Blessyd be ye Louerd God of Israel for he has visityd maad buying of his puple 3. The Magnificat thus My Soul worschips ye Louerd and my gost ioyed in God my hele for he lokyd ye mekeness of hys honde mayden So for i â—en of yat blissefulle Schal sey me all generaciouns For he has don to me grete yingis yat myrty is and his Nome hely 4. Nunc dimittis Louerd you leuest nowe yi Servaunt in pees astir yi word yat you hast seyde byfore for now I am ripe to die for mine eghen hau seen yin owen Son Christ yat is yin owen he le to Men. 5. Mat. Cap. 1. The Bok of ye Generacoun of Jhu Crist Sone of Dauid Sone of Abraham Abraham gendryde Isaac Isaac forsoye gendride Jacob Jacob forsoye gendride Judas and hys breyren 6. Acts 1. Ye dedis of ye Apostlis Theofile fyrst I maad a Sermon of all yingis yat ittu began to do and to teche into the day of his assencioun in whych he commandide in ye hoolst to his Apostlis whyche he hadde chosen to whyche he schewide hymselfe alyve aftyr his passioun by many Argumentys appering to hem fourti dais 7. Rem 1. Paul ye Servaunt of Jhu Crist clepid an Apostle depromptyd into the Gospel of God whyche he hadde behote tofore by hise Profetis in hooli Scriptur of his Sone Apoc. 1. Apocalipis of Jhu Crist whyche God 3 as to him to maak open to hys Servauntis whyche yingis hit behouey to be maad soone c. 8. Pater Noster thus Ure Fadir in Hevene riche Thy nome be haliid everliche Thou bring us to thy michilblisse Thi wil to wirche thu us wisse Al 's it is in Hevene ido Euer in Erth ben hit also That heli bred yat lastyth ay Thou send hious yis ilke day Forgive ous all yat we haueth don Al 's we forgive ych oder mon He let ous falle in no founding Alt scilde ous fro ye foul thing Amen 9. The Creed thus I beleive in God Fadir Almighty Shipper of Heven and Erth and in Jhesus Crist his onle thi Son ure Louerd that is iuange church the hooli gost bore of Mary maiden tholedepine undyr Pounce Pilat picht on rode tre dead and yburiid licht into helle the thrid day fro death arose steich into Heuene sit on his Fadir richt honde God Almichty then is comminde to deme the quikke and the dede I beleue in the hooli Gost alle hooli Chirche mone of Allehallwen forgiuenis of sine fleiss uprising lif withuten end Amen Wevers Fun. Men. p. 152. Of the New or Modern Dialect there is no necessity of giving any Specimen at all CHAP. II. Blind Persons Improved by Art and Industry WHere Nature is defective there the Assistance of Art
be deceived but of Perseverance itself we are uncertain Discourses of God c. in the Appendix containing his Judgment in divers controverted Points p. 88. But by the leave of this learned and worthy Man how is this consistent with the Profession of St. Paul I have fought the good Fight henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown c. How with the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Articles and Homilies How with the Letters of Accord between Bishop Sanderson and Dr. Hammond which I have not leisure now to cite at large And how with the Experiences and Assurances of many Christians 1. The Apprehensions that Death drew near were very comfortable to Mr. Wilson A Gentle-woman of his Society coming to take her leave of him being about to remove out of Maidstone he pleasantly said to her What will you say good Mrs. Crisp if I get the start if you and get to Heaven before you get to Dover When another came to visit him he ask'd her What she thought of him she answered Truly Sir I think you are not far from your Father's House To which he replied That 's good News indeed and is enough to make one laugh for Joy See his Life 2. Mr. John Janeway when he lay upon his Death-bed his Mother and Brethren standing by he said Dear Mother I beseech you as earnestly as ever I desired any thing of you in my Life that you would chearfully give me up to Christ I beseech you do not hinder me now I am going to Rest and Glory I am afraid of your Prayers least they will pull one way and mine another Then turning to his Brethren he thus spake unto them I charge you all do not pray for my Life any more you do me wrong if you do O the Glory the unspeakable Glory that I behold my Heart is full my Heart is full Christ smiles and I cannot choose but smile Can you find in your Heart to stop me who am now going to the compleat and Eternal Enjoyment of Christ Would you keep me from my Crown The Arms of my blessed Saviour are open to embrace me the Angels stand ready to carry my Soul into his Bosom O! did you but see you would all cry out with me How long dear Lord come Lord Jesus come quickly O why are his Chariot-wheels so long a coming See his Life 3. Dr. Samuel Winter lying upon his Death-bed about Six of the Clock on the Lord's-Day Morning he raised himself up in his Bed and with a chearful and loud Voice called to his Wife who lay in a Bed by him saying ' Sweet-heart I have been this Night conversing with Spirits And as in a Rapture he cried out O the Glories that are prepared for the Saints of God! The Lord hath been pleased to shew me this Night the exceeding Weight of Glory which in Heaven is laid up for his Chosen Ones Saying further That he had studied and thought that he knew as much what the Glory which in Heaven was as another Man but the now saw that all the Divines on Earth were but Children in the Knowledge of the Great Mystery of Heavenly Glory which the Lord that Night had given him a clearer sight of than ever formerly he had That it was such a Mystery as could not be comprehended by the Wit of Man With many other such-like Expressions and he had his Soul so wonderfully elevated that he could not declare what he found and felt therein See his Life 4. Mr. Samuel Fairclough kept his Bed but one whole Day before his departure which he had longed and waited for and the very Day before his last Day on Earth some Company being with him he expressed how much Comfort he did then take to consider how that his Saviour had tasted Death for him and that Christ by his Resurrection had given him an assurance that he was the First-fruits of those that sleep in him telling some that stood by him That it was very much the Duty of Believers to rejoyce that Death had lost its Sting and was now disarmed and that the Power of the Grave was quite vanquished and overcome See his Life 5. James Bainham a Martyr in Queen Mary's Reign being at the Stake in the midst of the burning Fire his Legs and Arms half consumed spake thus to the Standers-by O ye Papists behold ye look for Miracles and here now ye may see one for in this Fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a Bed of Down and it is to me as a Bed of Roses Fox Martyrol 6. Robert Smith Martyr being at the Stake ready to be burned exhorted the People to think well of his Cause telling them That God would shew some Token thereof and accordingly when he was half burnt all black with Fire and clustered together on a Lump like a black Coal so that all thought him to be dead on a sudden he rose upright lifted up the Stumps of his Arms and clapt them together Ibid. Clark's Examp. Vol. 1. C. 39. 7. Mr. Robert Glover Martyr was so suddenly replenished with Divine Comfort a little before his Death that clapping his Hands together he called to his Man saying He is come he is come and so died chearfully Ibid. 8. Mr. John Holland a faithful Minister the Day before his Death calling for a Bible continued his Meditation and Exposition on Rom. 8. for the space of Two Hours but on a sudden he said Oh stay your Reading What Brightness is this I see Have you light up any Candles A Stander-by said No it is the Sun-shine for it was about Five a Clock in a clear Summer's Evening Sun-shine saith he nay it is my Saviour's-shine now Farewel World welcome Heaven the Day-star from on high hath visited my Heart O speak it when I am gone and preach it at my Funeral God deals familiarly with Man I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the Body or out of the Body God be knoweth but I see thhings that are unutterable And being ravished in his Spirit he roamed towards Heaven with a chearful Look and a soft sweet Voice but what he said was not understood With the Sun in the Morning following raising himself as Jacob upon his Staff he shut up his blessed Life with these blessed words O what an happy Change shall I make from Night to Day from Darkness to Light from Death to Life from Sorow to Solace from a factious World to a heavenly Being Oh! my dear Brethren Sisters and Friends it pitieth me to leave you behind yet remember my death when I am gone and what I now feel I hope you shall feel e're you die that God doth and will deal familiarly with Men. And now thou fiery Chariot that camest down to fetch up Elijah carry me to my happy Hold. And all ye blessed Angels that attended the Soul of Lazarus to bring it to Heaven bear me O bear me into the Besom of my
best Beloved Amen Amen Come Lord Jesus come quickly And so he fell asleep Clark's Exampl Vol. 1. C. 39. out of Leigh c. 9. Mrs. Catherine Breterg a little before her Death said Now I perceive and feel that the Countenance of Christ my Redeemer is turned towards me and the bright shining Beams of his Mercy are spread over me O happy am I that ever I was born to see this blessed Day Praise praise O praise the Lord for his Mercies c. Oh how wonderful how wonderful is thy Love Oh! thy Love is unspeakable Oh! I feel thy Mercies And oh that my Tongue and Heart were able to sound forth thy Praises as I ought and willingly would Oh! help me to praise the God of all Consolations O My Lord God blessed be thy Name for evermore for thou hast shewed me the Path of Life Thou didst O Lord for a little Season hide thy Face from me but with everlasting Mercy thou hast had Compassion on me Thou art come with fulness of Joy and abundance of Consolations c. Help me O help me to praise the Lord O praise the Lord for he hath filled me with Joy and Gladness of Heart My Line is fallen unto me in a pleasant Place I have a goodly Heritage for the Lord is the Portion of my Inheritance Oh! how pleasant is the Perfume of the Place where I lie It 's sweeter than Aaron's Perfume composed of the most precious Spices How comfortable is the Sweetness I feel It 's like the Odour that proceeded from the Golden Censer that delights the Soul The Taste is precious Do ye not feel it sweeter it is than Myrrh than the Honey or the Honey-comb Oh the Joys the Joys the Joys that I feel in my Soul O they be wonderful wonderful wonderful O come kiss me with the Kiss of thy Mouth for thy Love is better than Wine Oh! how sweet the Kisses of my Saviour be mine Eyes are opened blessed be God I do feel and see the everlasting Mercies of my Christ O how marvellous gracious and merciful art thou unto me I feel thy Mercy I am assured of thy Love And so certain am I thereof as that thou art the God of Truth even so sure do I know myself to be thine O Lord my God And this my Soul knows right well I am sure that my Redeemer lives and that I shall see him at the last Day c. My Soul was compassed about with the Terrours of Death a roaring Wilderness of Woe was within me but blessed blessed blessed be the Lord my God who hath not left me comfortless but like a good Shepherd hath brought me into a place of Rest even to the sweet running Waters of Life O blessed blessed be the Lord that hath thus comforted me and brought me to a place sweeter than the Garden of Eden O the Joy the Joy the delightsome Joy that I feel O how wonderful how wonderful how wonderful is this Joy O praise the Lord for his Mercies and for this Joy that my Soul feels right well c. And thus she continued for the space of Five Hours praising the Lord with a chearful and heavenly Countenance 10. Mrs. John Drake Wife of Francis Drake of Esher in Surrey Esq naturally of a sanguine and cheerful Disposition but being by her Parents matched against her own Mind fell into Melancholly which Satan getting advantage of assaulted her with many and unparallell'd Temptations for the space of Ten Years together After Marriage being brought to Bed of a Daughter and wrong'd in her Travail by the Midwife she never recovered her Health as before Whilst she lay in her Mother Mrs. Tottle lying with her after her first Sleep she awaked with terrible Shrieks and Outcries saying That she was undone undone she was damned and a Cast-away and so of necessity must needs go to Hell And therewith she shook dropped with Sweat and wept exceedingly Her Mother comforted her and prayed with her upon which she seemed pretty well pacified and after a-while fell asleep again and awaked full of extraordinary Joys telling her Mother what a wonderful comfortable Dream she had been in and how by an Angel she had been assured of her Salvation that now she discerned all her former Fears had been false and therefore would no more doubt of her going to Heaven After she fell asleep again and waking was in a more dreadful Case than before trembling sweating shaking exceedingly the Bed and the very Chamber seeming to reel under her crying out That now she was a forlorn Creature sure to be damned without Hope of Mercy without all Remedy confident that she must needs go to Hell Together with this Distemper she had some Fits of Frenzy abstained almost wholly from Meat used strange desperate Speeches and was unruly in her Behaviour would slight and laugh sometimes at all that was said to her sought Opportunities to destroy herself search Places of Scripture that might make against her swallowed down many great Pins would sometimes slip a Knife into her Napkin or Sleeve for Two Years together she begg'd of every one not to pray for her would disturb them at Prayers threaten them with a Bedstaff yet was afraid of Hell and ask others If they did not pity her who must go to live in Hell-torments for ever Was merciful to others but with pretence of the contrary visited by many Ministers and among the rest Bishop Vsher Dr. Preston Mr. Dod c. At last after Divine Discourses about Death Heaven and Eternal Glory and Prayer she broke out with a strange Outcry into these Expressions or to this purpose Oh! oh oh What 's this What 's this What 's this I am undone undone undone I cannot endure it I cannot endure it I cannot endure it I cannot endure it Oh! oh oh Let me be gone let me be gone let me be gone Oh! I must be gone I cannot tarry I cannot tarry O what shall I do what shall I do O Father O Mother O Husband Come kiss me kiss me and let me be gone Come All. Farewel All. Let me take you by the Hand and be gone Lo Lo the Angelâ— are come they wait they stay for me O dear Mother why do you hold me I must be gone Oh! he is come he is come he is come Now you have it you have it you have it Why hold you me Let me be gone My Work is done Oh! Call call call Where 's my Crown Fetch me my Crown Bring bring bring me my white Robes Quickly quickly quickly Why run you not The Angels stay Now you have it you have it you have it Oh! it overcomes overcomes overcomes me I am undone undone undone What shall I do What shall I do What shall I do Oh! you will nto let me be gone c. With many other Expressions delivered with an incredible swiftness and with such elevation of Body and Eyes as if she were making towards the House-top and would have
the promised Land Methinks I hear God saying to me as to Moses Go up to Mount Nebo and die there so Go thou up to Tower-Hill and die there Isaac said of himself That he was Old and yet did not know the day of his Death But I cannot say thus I am Young and yet I know the Day the Kind and the Place of my Death also It is such a kind of Death as two Famous Preachers of the Gospel John the Baptist and Paul the Apostle were put to before me we have mention of the one in Scripture-Story of the other in Ecclesiastical History And Rev. 20.4 The Saints were Beheaded for the Word of God and for the Testimony of Jesus But herein is the disadvantage which I am in in the thoughts of many who judge that I Suffer not for the Word or Conscience but for meddling with State-matters To this I shall briefly say that it is an old Guise of the Devil to impute the cause of God's Peoples Sufferings to be Contrivements against the State The Rulers of Israel would put Jeremiah to death upon a civil Account tho' it was the Truth of his Prophecy made them angry because he fell away to the Chaldeans So Paul must die as a Mover of Sedition The same thing is laid to my Charge whereas indeed it is because I pursue my Covenant and will not prostitute my Principles to the Lusts of Men. Beloved I am this Day to make a double Exchange I am exchanging a Pulpit for a Scaffold and a Scaffold for a Throne and I might add a third I am changing this numerous Multitude upon Tower-hill for the innumerable Company of Angels in the Holy Hill of Sion and I am changing a Guard of Soldiers for a Guard of Angels which will receive and carry me into Abraham's Bosom This Scaffold is the best Pulpit I ever preached in God through his Grace made me an Instrument to bring others to Heaven but in this he will bring me to Heaven and it may be this Speech upon a Scaffold may bring God more Glory than many Sermons in a Pulpit Before I lay down my Neck upon the Block I shall lay open my Case and that without Animosity or Revenge God is my Record whom I serve in the Spirit I speak the Truth I Lye not I do not bring a Revengeful Heart unto the Scaffold this Day Before I came here I did upon my bended Knees beg Mercy for them that denied Mercy to me I have forgiven from my Heart the worst Enemy I have in the World and this is the worst I wish to my Accusers and Prosecutors who have pursued my Blood that I might meet their Souls in Heaven I have no more to say but to desire the Help of all your Prayers that God would give me the Continuance and Supply of Divine Grace to carry me through this great Work I am now to do that I who am to do a Work I never did may I have a Strength that I never had that I may put off this Body with as much Quietness and Comfort of Mind as ever I put off my Cloaths to go to Bed And now I am to commend my Soul to God and to receive my fatal Blow I am comforted in this Tho' Men kill me they cannot damn me and tho' they thrust me out of the World yet they cannot shut me out of Heaven I am now going to my Long Home to my Father's House to the Heavenly Jerusalem to the innumerable Company of Angels to Jesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect to God the Judge of all in whose Presence there is Fulness of Joy and at whose Right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore Then he kneeled down and made a short Prayer privately Then after rising up he said Blessed be God I am full of Joy and Peace in believing I lie down with a world of Comfort And then saying The Lord bless you he lay down with his Head over the Block and when he stretched out his Hands the Executioner did his Office 118. The Last Speech of Sir Walter Rawleigh MY Honourable Lords and the rest of my good Friends that are come to see me die know That I much rejoyce that it hath pleased God to bring me from Darkness to Light and in freeing me from the Tower wherein I might have died in Disgrace by letting me live to come to this Place where tho' I lose my Life yet shall I clear some false Accusations unjustly laid to my Charge and leave behind me a Testimony of a true Heart both to my King and Country Two things there are which have exceedingly possess'd and provoked His Majesty's Indignation against me viz. A Confederacy or Combination with France and disloyal and disobedient Words of my Prince For the first His Majesty had some Cause though grounded upon a weak Foundation to suspect mine Inclination to the French Faction for not long before my Departure from England the French Agent took occasion passing by my House to visit me We had some Conference during the time of his abode only concerning my Voyage and nothing else I take God to witness Another Suspicion is had of me because I did labour to make an Escape from Plimouth to France I cannot deny but that willingly when I heard a Rumour that there was no hope of my Life upon my Return to London I would have escaped for the Safeguard of my Life and not for any ill Intent or Conspiracy against the State The like Reason of Suspicion arose in that I perswaded Sir Lewis Steukly my Guardian to flee with me from London to France but my Answer to this is as to the other that only for my Safegard and nough else was my Intent as I shall answer before the Almighty It is alledged That I feigned my self Sick and by Art made my Body full of Blisters when I was at Salisbury True it is I did so the Reason was because I hoped thereby to deferr my cooming before the King and Council and so by delaying might have gained time to have got my Pardon I have an Example out of Scripture for my Warrant that in case of Necessity and for the Safeguard of his Life David feigned himself Foolish and Mad yet it was not imputed to him for Sin Concerning the second Imputation laid to my Charge That I should speak Scandalous and Reproachful Words of my Prince there is no Witness against me but only one and he a Chymical Frenchman whom I entertained rather for his Jests than Judgment This Man to incroach himself into the Favour of the Lords and gaping after some great Reward hath falsly accused me of Seditious Speeches against His Majesty against whom if I did either speak or think a Thought hurtful or prejudicial Lord blot me out of the Book of Life It is not a time to Flatter or Fear Princes for I am a Subject to none but Death
Therefore have charitable Conceit of me That I know to swear is an Offence to swear falsly at any time is a great Sin but to swear falsly before the Presence of Almighty God before whom I am forthwith to appear were an Offence unpardonable Therefore think me not now rashly or untruly to confirm or protest any thing As for other Objections as That I was brought perforce into England That I carried Sixteen Thousand Pounds in Money out of England with me more than I made known That I should receive Letters from the French King and such like with many Protestations he utterly denied England's Worthies by Will. Winstanley p. 303. 119. The Death of Henry Bullinger Mr. Bullinger falling Sick and his Disease encreasing many Godly Ministers came to visit him but some Months after he recovered and preached as formerly but soon Relapsed when finding his vital Spirits wasted and Nature much decayed in him he concluded his Death was at hand and thereupon said as followeth If the Lord will make any farther use of me and my Ministry in his Church I will willingly obey him but if he pleases as I much desire to take me out of this miserable Life I shall exceedingly rejoyce that he will be so pleased to take me out of this miserable and corrupt Age to go to my Saviour Christ Socrates said he was glad when his Death approached because he thought he shou'd go to Hesiod Homer and other Learned Men deceased and whom he expected to meet in the other World then how much more do I joy who am sure that I shall see my Saviour Christ the Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and all Holy Men which have lived from the beginning of the World These I say I am sure to see and to partake with them in Joy Why then should I not be willing to die to enjoy their perpetual Society in Glory And then with Tears told them That he was not unwilling to leave them for his own sake but for the sake of the Church Then having written his Farewel to the Senate and therein admonished them to take care of the Churches and Schools and by their permission chose one Ralph Gualter his Successor he patiently resigned up his Spirit into the Hands of his Redeemer dying Anno Christi 1575. and or his Age 71. 120. Mr. Haines Minister of Westminister was acquainted with a Gentleman of a very Holy Life and Conversation Which said Gentleman as he lay in his Bed one Morning a Boy of about twelve Years of Age appeared to him in a radiant Light and bid him prepare to Die in twelve Days He being surprized at it sent for Mr. Haines and told him of it who perswaded him from believing of it telling him 't was only a Fancy But within six Days he was siez'd with a violent Fever and four or five Hours before his Death the same Boy came and sate upon his Pillow and as the Gentleman grew paler he changed colour too and just as the Breath went out of the Body he disappeared This is attested by the Gentleman's Family for they all saw it and Mr. Haines related it to a Person of good Reputation from whom I received it 121. The Last Will of Mr. Henry Stubbs Deceased July â— 1678. Published at the Desire of his Widow Mrs. D. S. KNowing that I must shortly put off this my Earthly Tabernacle I make my Last Will and Testament Imprimis I commend my Soul into the Hands of God wholly trusting in Jesus Christ my dear Lord and Saviour through his All-sufficient Satisfaction and powerful Mediation to be accepted Eph. 1.6 Item I commit my Body to the Earth from whence 't was taken in sure and certain Hope of a Resurrection to Life Eternal building upon that sure Word John 6.40 Item I leave my Fatherless Children to the Lord who hath promised to be a Father to the Fatherless Ps 68.5 And to preserve them alive Jer. 49.11 Commanding them to keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18.19 Item I â—xhort my Widow to trust in the Lord of whose care she hath had no little Experience and therefore should trust in him Psal 9.10 And I desire her to read often Jer. 49.11 Psal 68.5 Heb. 13.5 Item The Congregations to which I have been formerly a Preacher and that with which I now am by a special Hand of Providence I commend to God and the Word of his Grace which is able to build them up and to give them an Inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified Acts 20.32 beseeching them by the Lord Jesus That as they ahve received of me how they ought to walk and please God so they would abound more and more 1 Thes 4.1 Item And for my Kindred according to the Flesh my Hearts Desire and Prayer to God for them is That they may be saved Rom. 10.1 Item And for all those yet living and who have seriously and earnestly desired my Prayers my earnest Request to God for them is That it would please him to do for them all as the Marter shall require 1 Kings 8.59 Item And for my Brethren in the Ministry my Prayer is That they may take heed to themselves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood Acts 20.28 Item And for the People my Prayer is That they may obey them that have the Rule over them Heb. 13.17 Item And for Professors of Religion my Prayer is That they may walk worthy of God unto all well-pleasing being fruitful in every Good Work Col. 1.10 11. Item And for the King my Prayer is That Mercy and Truth may preserve him Prov. 26.28 And for Him and all that are in Authority my Prayer is That they may so lead their own Lives that the People under them may lead quiet and peaceable Lives in all Godliness and Honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 Item And for the whole Land of my Nativity my humble Prayer to the Lord of all Grace and Mercy is That the Power and Purity of the Gospel together with a Learned and Faithful Ministry to dispence the same may be continued and preserved therein The Last Words of those Eminent Persons who fell in the Defence of the Protestant Religion and the English Liberties both in London and the West of England from the Year 1678. to this time IN the two last Reigns many of the Flower of our Nobility and Gentry either lost their Lives or Estates or Liberties or Country whilst a Crew of Parasites triumphed and fluttered in their Ruins To see a Russel die meanly and ignobly in the Flower of his Age an Essex or a Godfry sacrificed to the insatiable Ambition and Revenge of their Enemies who yet not content with their Lives would like the Italian stab on after Death and tho' they could not reach their Souls endeavour to damn their Memories These and too many other such melancholy Instances would be
Cruelties to sweep the Country before him and Young and Old were hang'd by Clusters as if the Lord Chief Justice had designed to raise the Price of Halters After Ages will read with Astonishment the Barbarous Usage of those poor People of which among many Instances this one may seem sufficient whereby to take the Dimensions of all the rest That when the Sister of the two Hewlings hung upon the Chief Justice's Coach imploring Mercy on the behalf of her Brothers the merciless Judge to make her let go caused his Coachman to cut her hands and fingers with the Lash of his Whip Nor would he allow the Respite of the Execution but for two days tho' the Sister with Tears in her Eyes offered a Hundred Pounds for so small a Favour And whoever shelter'd any of those forlorn Creatures were hurried to the Slaughter-House with the same inexecrable Outrage without any consideration either of Age or Sex witness the Execution of the Lady Lisle at Winchester As for Argile and the Duke tho' they might die pitied yet in regard they had declared open Hostility it was no more than they were to expect upon ill Success The Christian Behaviour and Dying Speeches of some that were Condemned and Executed in the West I Shall next proceed to give an Account of the Christian Behaviour and Dying Speeches of some that were Condemned and Executed in the West And I shall begin with 1. The Dying Speech and Behaviour of Mr. Matth. Bragg MR. Matthew Bragg was a Gentleman descended from an Ancient and good Family he was bred an Attorney in which he practised the Law His Case being this He happened to be upon the Road Riding home to his House being come from a Gentleman's House for whom he kept Courts He as before being met with by a Party of Horse belonging to the Duke of Monmouth who were going to search the House of a Roman Catholick for Arms who lived two or three Miles from the Place they met him they required him to go with them and shew them the way he knowing the Country better than they did he desired to be excused telling them It was none of his Business and besides had no Arms. But his Excuses signified nothing they forced him amongst them where they went Being Arraigned and Pleading Not Guilty he put himself on the Tryal of God and his Country which found him and 28 more of 30 Guilty the Lord Chief Justice often saying If any Lawyer or Parson came under his Inspection they should not escape The Evidence against him was a Roman Catholick and a Woman of ill Fame to whom the Lord Chief Justice was wonderfully kind But his Evidence which were more than Twenty to prove his Innocence signified nothing the Jury being well instructed by my Lord Chief Justice Being thus found Guilty Sentence as presently pronounced and Execution awarded notwithstanding all the Interest that was made for him Thus being Condemned on Saturday and ordered to be Executed on Monday he spent the residue of his little time very devoutly and much becoming a good Christian and a true Protestant of the Church of England all which availed nothing with this Protestant Judge He was frequently visited by a worthy Divine of the Church of England who spent much time with him and received great Satisfaction from him The said Divine â—old me That his Deportment Behaviour and Converse was so much like an extraordinary Christian that he could not in the least doubt but this violent Passage would put him into the fruition of Happiness He wish'd and desir'd a little longer time out of no other Design but throughly to repent him of his Sins and make himself more sensible of and fit for to receive the Inheritance that is prepared for those that continue in Well-doing to the end When he came to the Place of Execution with great Courage and Resolution being as he said prepared for Death he behaved himself very gravely and devoutly Being asked when he was on the Ladder whether he was not sorry for his being concerned in the Rebellion He replied That he knew of none that he was Guilty of and prayed them not to trouble him adding He was not the first that was martyr'd He was so much a Christian as to forgive his Enemies And after some private Devotions he suddenly was Translated as we have all Hopes to believe from Earth to Heaven The only Favour of this Protestant Judge was to give his Body to his Friends in order to its Interment amongst his Ancestors 2. The Behaviour of Mr. Smith Constable of Chardstock ANother eminent Person that suffered with him at the same time and place was one Mr. Smith who was Constable of Chardstock who having some Monies in his Hands that belonged to the Militia which came to the knowledge of some of the Duke's Friends they obliged him to deliver it to them which he was forced to deliver and for this was Indicted for High Treason in assisting the Duke of Monmouth To which he pleaded Not Guilty The Evidence against him were the same with those that had been against Mr. Bragg The said Mr. Smith informed the Court and the Jury what little Credit ought to be given to the Evidence The Lord Chief Justice thundred at him saying Thou Villain methinks I see thee already with a Halter about thy Neck thou impudent Rebel to challenge these Evidences that are for the King To which the Prisoner reply'd very boldly My Lord I now see which way I am going and right or wrong I must die but this I comfort my self with That your Lordship can only destroy my Body it is out of your power to touch my Soul God forgive your Rashness Pray my Lord know it is not a small matter you are about the Blood of a Man is more precious than the whole World And then was stopped from saying any more The Evidences being heard a strict Charge was given the Jury about him To be short the Jury brought him in Guilty so that he with the rest received the Sentence of Death all together and were Executed on Monday but by particular Order from my Lord he was ordered to be first Executed The Day being come for Execution being Monday he with a Courage undaunted was brought to the Place where with Christian Exhortations to his Brethren that suffered with him he was ordered to prepare being the first to be Executed where he spake as followeth CHristian Friends I am now as you see launching into Eternity so that it may be expected I should speak something before I leave this miserable World and pass through those Sufferings which are dreadful to Flesh and Blood which indeed shall be but little because I long to be before a just Judge where I must give an Account not only for the Occasion of my Sufferings now but for Sins long unrepented of which indeed hath brought me to this dismal Place and shameful Death And truly dear Country-men having ransacked