that it was but to Sow in the Morning and Reap at Night That the same Angel taught Adam to plant and sow and all other necessary Sciences Moreover That the same Angel made the Seven lower Spheres the least whereof reaches to the Center of the World in the same manner as the Heavens do all continued one within another and that all these Spheres are of different Mettals That next the Center of Iron the Second of Lead the Third of Brass the Fourth of Laten the Fifth of Silver the Sixth of Gold and the Seventh of Earth which contains all the rest They believe that over every Heaven there is Water and that the Sun swims in a Ship upon that Water and that the Mast of that Ship is a Cross and that there are a great number of Boys and Girls to guide the Ships of both Sun and Moon Besides they have the picture of a Bark which they say belonged to the Angel Bachan whom God sends to visit the Sun and Moon to see whether they move exactly and keep close to their Duty In reference to the other World and Life to come They believe there is no other World but where Angels and Divels together with the Souls of Good and Bad reside That in that World there are Cities Houses and Churches and likewise that the Evil Spirits have their Churches where they pray singing and rejoycing upon Instruments and feasting as in this World That when any one lies at the point of Death three hundred and sixty Demons come and carry his Soul to a place full of Serpents Dogs Lions Tigers and Devils who if it be the Soul of a wicked Man tear it in pieces but if it be the Soul of a just Man it creeps under the Bellies of those Creatures into the presence of God who sits in his Seat of Majesty to judge the World That there are also Angels who weigh the Souls of Men in a Ballance and those who are thought worthy are immediately admitted into Glory That Angels and Devils are Male and Female and beget Children and that the Angel Gabriel has a Daughter called Sâ—â—ret who has two Sons That the Angel Gabriel has several Legions of Demons under him who are instead of Souldiers and others that are his Officers of Justice whom he sends from Town to Town and from City to City to punish the wicked They hold that Christ left 12 Apostles to preach to the Nations That the Virgin Mary is not dead but lives somewhere in the World though no body knows where and that next to her St. John is to be the chiefest Saint in Heaven and next to them Zacharias and Elizabeth of whom they recount several Miracles and Apocryphal Tales That when St. John came to be of Age his Father and Mother married him and also that he had four Sons which he begat upon the Waters of Jordan and not upon the Body of his Wife That he died a natural Death but commanded his Disciples to Crucify him after his death that he might be like Christ and lastly that he died in the City of Fuster and was buried in a chrystal Tomb brought to that City by a Miracle and that this Sepulchre was in a certain House near the River Jordan They highly adore the Cross because say they we have a Book wherein it is written That every Day early in the Morning the Angels take the Cross and put it in the middle of the Sun which receives its Light from it as the Moon does also hers And that without these Crosses neither Sunnor Moon would give any Light and the Ships they were in would suffer Shipwrack Their Festivals are Three the one is in Winter that lasts three Days in memory of our First Parent and the Creation of the World The Second in August and called the Feast of St John The Third lasts five Days in June during which time they are all Re-baptized On Sunday they do no work They neither Fast nor do any Penance They have no Canonical Books but a great number of others that treat of nothing but Witchcraft in which they believe their Priests to be very crafty and that the Devils are at their beck They suffer no Women to go to Church nor any of the Laity to kill a Hen or any Fowl They eat of nothing drest by the Turks and after a Turk has drunk in one of their Cups they break it to pieces and picture Mahomet and four of his Parents as shut up in Hell and say That all Turks are carried to the same place to be devoured by wild Beasts They all pretend to Salvation by a Promise made by God to Gabriel on their behalf when he framed the World They have a great Antipathy against the blew Colour called Indigo which they will not so much as touch For say they certain Jews dreaming that their Laws should be abolished by St. John told it their Country-men which they understanding and seeing that St. John prepared to baptize Christ in a great rage fetch a vast quantity of Indigo in their Language Nill and flung it into Jordan which continued unclean for some time and had hindred the Baptism of Christ had not God sent his Angels with a large Vessel of Water which he caused them to fill out of Jordan before the Jews had defiled it with Indigo and that for the foresaid bold Attempt to defile the River God particularly cursed that Colour Ejaculation How long O Lord Holy and True wilt thou cease to be avenged of that Prince of Darkness for tyrannizing and triumphing over the poor Heathens and beguiling them with his Sorceries Witchcrafts and Enchantments for so many thousand Years How long wilt thou suffer that Enemy of Souls secretly to divert and please himself by seeing such vast numbers of his Slaves and Vassals to take more pains undergo more hardships and to endure more exquisite bodily Torments in travelling along the Broad way and passing through the wide Gate that leads to endless Woes and Miseries than thou sufferest a great number of thine own Elect and chosen Servants to meet with in the Narrow Way and in their passage through the straight Gate that leads to Eternal Life But to return to my Observations of the Devil's practices When God had covenanted with Abraham that his Seed should be multiplied as the Stars of Heaven and inherit the Promised Land What Stone did Satan leave unturn'd Or what Opportunities did he ever lose of attempting to frustrate God's gracious Designs His first Atchievement was to exasperate Esaâ— to murder his Brother Jacob upon whose individual Person his aged Father had so lately fixt a Blessing and out of whose Loyns were to come forth 12 Tribes whose Posterity were to be as innumerable as the Sands of the Sea hoping that he being once removed the blessed Effects of all God's promises would be utterly vacated and disappointed When Jacob's Family were kindly received by K. Pharaoh and the Egyptians How
Degrees let no Wind of false Doctrine blast those fragrant Flowers in their blooms nor any Composers of Leviathans or other Impostors beguile them of Eternal Life and Happiness Let them remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth before the Evil Days come and the Years when they shall say We have no pleasure in them Ere ever the silver Chord be loosed or the golden Bowl be broken make them truly sensible that there is a Maker of all things and Judge of all Men at the Bar of whose Tribunal all Men must one Day appear that there is verily a Reward for the Righteous of Eternal Joys and as verily a Punishment for Reprobates of endless Miseries That the Sentence being once past be it for Good or Evil must stand for ever fixt and be irrevocable That all the Riches and Honours which this World affords can never counterballance the least or meanest of Rational Souls that ten Thousand times ten Thousand Years either in Happiness or Misery neither make nor measure the least imaginable part of Eternity That no Person of any Sex or Age in the ordinary way of Providence has any Assurance of Life for so much as one Hour or Minutes space That whoever harbours in his or her bosom any one known or habitual Sin is for every Moment of that time liable to Eternal Damnation That to trust either to a Death-bed Repentance or to be encouraged by the Example of the Thief upon the Cross is very unsafe and dangerous The first of which may be obstructed by Lethargies Megrims Bodily-pains and anguish and many other Accidents and the last can afford no hopes forasmuch as before Christ's Passion it never was and afterwards it neither could nor ever can be any other Man's case And lastly That as the Tree falls so it lies and after Death Judgment follows and there can be no place for Repentance or Believing in the Grave whither sooner or later some are hastening and all the rest are going Be pleased therefore Gracious Father to guard and protect them from all the malicious practises of that invisible Enemy of Souls and to plant thy true Fear in their hearts now in their youthful Days and tender Years that so they may hereafter become burning and shining Lights in their Generations And having finished their Course and run their Race and been faithful to Death they may wear the Crown of Life and their Souls be safely conveyed by their Tutelar and Guardian Angels to the place of everlasting Rest and Happiness And all for the sake of thy dearly beloved Son and our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ THE Fourth Question Q. Whither art thou going Answer To the Land of Darkness and the Shadow of Death The Truth is this is a Question in one sense very easy to be answered by a Man who is already past the Seventieth Year of his Age since the Age of a Man in the ordinary Course of Nature is but Threescore Years and Ten and though there should be Ten or Ten times Ten more added to it yet would his Life be but Labour and Sorrow so soon passeth it away and he is gone to his long home Che noi siamo cenere e polve Che breve è questa vita Ch'al girer di poc hore il Ci'el risolve la vanita Alas Man that is born of a Woman has but a short time to live he is but of very few days and those full of Disquiet and Troubles He cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down he fleeth also like a Shadow and continueth not his Days are but a Span long and swifter than a Weaver's Shuttle or a Post that hasteth by and at his best Estate is altogether Vanity Who is he that can deliver himself from the hand of the Grave One dieth in his full strength being wholly at ease and quiet his Breasts are full of Milk and his Bones are moistned with marrow And another dieth in the bitterness of his Soul and never eateth with pleasure This made the Son of Sirach Oratorically reflect O Death How bitter is the Remembrance of Thee to a Man that liveth at rest in his Possessions unto the Man that hath nothing to vex him and that bath prosperity in all things yea unto him that is able yet to receive Meat And again O Death how acceptable is thy Sentence unto the Needy and unto him whose strength faileth that is now in the last Age and is vexed with all things 41 Ecclesiasticus 1 2. This made eloquent Job cry out in the height of his Affliction Let the Day perish wherein I was born let Darkness and the shadow of Death stain it and a Cloud dwell upon it Let also that Night be solitary wherein I was conceived and no joyful Voice come therein Let the Stars of the Twilight thereof be darkned let it look for Light but have none neither let it see the Dawning of the Day because it shut not up the door of my Mother's Womb nor hid Sorrow from mine eyes Wherefore is Light given to him that is in Misery and Life unto the bitter in Soul Who long for Death but it cometh not and dig for it more than for hidden Treasures Who rejoice exceedingly when they can find the Grave 3 Job 3. 5. c. O that I might have my Request and that God would grant me the thing that I long for even that it would please God to destroy me that He would let loose his hand and cut me off 6 Job 8 9. Thus is Death to some the King of Terrors and to others a kind Friend and a welcome Guest However be it Welcome or not welcome it is the Sentence of God upon all Living For all Flesh is as Grass and all the Goodliness thereof as the Flower of the field Dust we are and to Dust we must return Reflection How weak are then the Projects and how vain the Imaginations of poor Mortal Wights To day there 's nothing but Feasting Musick and Dancing in their stately Halls and Banqueting-Rooms To morrow they are languishing upon their sick Beds given over by their Physicians the Curtains drawn upon them by their Friends and Acquaintance and in their last Agonies To day they purchase Lands of Inheritance and call their Mansion-Houses by their own Names To morrow all that parcel of Ground or Earth of which they can be truly called Masters does not exceed four Cubick yards To day they are sitting at their Toilets consulting with their Glasses and admiring their own Shapes and Features and cannot with any patience endure the least speck or spot upon their shining and costly Garments To morrow they are drest from Head to Foot in grave Cloaths and their loathsom Carkasses are given for food to the nauseous and greedy Worms To day they are Lords of Mannors and by their Deputies and Stewards appoint their respective Courts To morrow they themselves are no more than meer stewards and must in the
the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from
all Things that may be hurtful either to our Spuls or Bodies From all Evil and Mischief from Sin from the Grafts and Assaults of the Devil from thy Wrath and everlasting Damnation Good LORD deliver us From saying in our Hearts that there is no God or openly denying the Divine Essence and glorious Attributes of which either the highest Presumption or utmost Desperation are the usual and woful Effects Let the visible things of the Creation and the Restections of our own Consciences in our Solitudes and private Retirements be sufficient to disswade and restrain us Against Idolatry and having other Gods besides Thee and from bowing down to and Worshipping either Idols made with hands or those of our beloved Lusts Lord strengthen us by thy Grace To keep us from taking the NAME of the LORD our GOD in vain in our ordinary Discourses or prophaning it with wicked Oaths on bitter Curses Let us remember that the same LORD hath assured all such Offenders that he will in no wise hold them guiltless To observe religiously the Lord's Day and all other Times solemnly set a part for Divine Worship and Service not following our own Ways nor speaking our own Words nor thinking our own Thoughts Let thy good Spirit dispose and encline our hearts Let us never attempt to sow Discord and Divisions in the Church or to offend our blessed Saviour's Little Ones or any way to disturb the Communion of Saints as knowing who hath told us That it would be much better for us to be thrown into the midst of the Sea with Mill-stones hung about our Necks than to be guilty of such Offences Let us always be conscientiously careful to Honour and Obey our Parents and all others under whose Rule and Government thou hast placed us behaving ourselves with all humility and singleness of heart not as Eye-servants or Men-pleasers And whenever Pride and Vain-glory would puff us up and make us become wise in our own Eyes let the remembrance that we are but Dust and Ashes and born like the wild Asses Colt pull down our haughty Looks and abate our swelling Thoughts From sinful Anger and unbridled Passion from provoking Language and reviling Speeches from Envy Hatred and Malice and all the mischievous and fatal consequences that may thereby happen either to our selves or others LORD ever keep us by thy restraining Grace From Rioting and Drunkenness from Chambering and Wantonness from Adultery Fornication and Uncleanness or living in any known Sin Let the fear of thy Wrath and the Vengeance of Eternal Fire deterr us To wrong our Neighbours by open Violence or by Secret and fraudulent Practises Let it never enter into our Thoughts That we may never Slander speak Evil of or rashly censure others or bear false Witness against them Let us set a watch before our Mouths and strictly guard the Doors of our Lips Let us be afraid of oppressing the Poor and Needy in the Gate or ploughing in the field of the Fatherless because their Redeemer is mighty or of devouring Widow's Houses lest the Stones out of the Walls should one Day be our Accusers and the Beams out of the Timber make Answer and testifie against us To covet our Neighbour's House to covet our Neighbour's Wife his Man-servant his Maid-servant his Ox his Ass or any thing that is his Let no worldly Advantage or carnal Delight be ever able to tempt or allure us From Thieves and Robbers from the Hands of bloody Men and Murderers from Invasion of foreign Foes from the Conspiracies of Domestick Enemies and Treachery of false Friends do Thou O LORD to whom alone all Hearts are open all Designs known and from whom no Secrets are hid defend us by thy good Providence confounding their Counsels and bringing to nought their Devices From Plague Pestilence and Famine from bodily Torments Tempests and Earth-quakes and all the sad Accidents of Fire and Water for thy Mercies sake save and protect us Neither do we pray for our selves alone but for the whole Race of Mankind now living upon or working within the Bowels of the habitable Earth or else floating upon the face of the deep Waters and particularly for the Church Militant where-ever scattered or dispersed that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against it Look down with the Eye of pitty upon all who in this transitory Life are in Trouble Sorrow Need Sickness or any other Adversity more especially upon those thy Servants on whom thou hast laid thine afflicting Hand either for a Tryal of their Patience or a Punishment of their Disobedience Make them sensible that Affliction comes not forth of the Dust neither doth Trouble spring out of the Ground but that the Hand of the LORD hath done it to whom alone belong the Issues of Life and Death and who doth whatever pleaseth him in Heaven and in Earth but never willingly asslicts or grieves the Children of Men and then Why should we receive Good Things at the hands of the LORD and not Evil things And Why should a living Man complain for the punishment of his Sins In the mean time be thou graciously pleased who art the great Physician of Soul and Body to mitigate their Pains and to asswage their Griefs and to lay no more upon Dust and Ashes than thou enablest them to bear with Christian patience and a lively Faith in the Merits and Mediation of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous for the Remission of their Sins and the Salvation of their Souls That so thy Fatherly Chastisements may have their blessed Effects and those thy Children may come out of the Furnace of Affliction like Gold and Silver that hath been tried in the fire and purified seven times Be merciful to these Kingdoms and avert those heavy Judgments which we have done as much as in us lay by our crying Sins and Provocations to pull down upon our Heads Let the choicest of thy Blessings descend upon the Head and Heart of Him whom by thy especial Providence thou hast placed in supream Authority over us together with all His Royal Relations Give Grace and Wisdom to all the Senators and great Counsellors in all their Debates and Consultations Clean Hands and clear Consciences to the Judges and chief Magistrates that so they may help the Fatherless and hear the Cause of the Widow and upon all occasions act in their several Places without the least partiality or respect of Persons Spiritual Gifts and Graces to the Ministers of thy Word and Sacraments however Dignified or Distinguished that they may truly and faithfully feed the Flocks committed to their Charge Sobriety and Godliness to the Governors and Inhabitants of foreign Plantations that by their good Conversations and Examples they may convert Pagans and Insidels to the Faith of JESUS and turn many Souls to Righteousness The Dew and Blessing of Heaven to Schools and Universities that out of those Seminaries and Nurseries may grow up Plants that may be useful both to Church and State in their several Capacities and Generations Health and Happiness here and the Joys of Heaven hereafter to our Parents Brethren Sisters Kindred or Christian Acquaintance and to all our Friends and Benefactors who have at any time generously and readily shewed us Kindness in our Distress and when we truly stood in need of their Aid and Assistance A Spirit of Reformation to the whole Commonalty within these Realms and Dominions that so they may live in the true Faith and Fear of Thee our GOD in humble Obedience to their Superiors and in Brotherly Love and Charity one towards another Finally we beseech Thee to be present with us and all those who shall this day meet in any of the publick Assemblies to assist at thy Divine Worship and Service Let our Prayers come up before thee as Incense and the lifting up of our hands as an acceptable Sacrifice Touch with a Cole from thine Altar the Tongues of those who are to speak that they may not spare but cry aloud and lift up their Voices like Trumpets and shew the People of England their Transgressions and tell every Congregation their Sins And let us and all their Hearers receive the Word with meekness and pure Affections laying it up in our Hearts and bringing forth the fruit thereof in our future Lives and Conversations All which with what ever else thou knowest to be needful for us we humbly beg in the Name and for the Sake of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous concluding these our imperfect Prayers with that absolute Form which he himself while he was yet upon Earth taught his Disciples saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS and