preparing that we may be ready to die Therefore oh my God I humbly pray receive my Soul by thy free Mercy in Jesus Christ my Saviour and Redeemer for Christ hath died for me and for all my Sins in this World committed My great God hath given me long Life and therefore I am now willing to die Oh Jesus Christ help my Soul and save my Soul I believe that my Sickness doth not arise out of the Dust nor cometh at peradventure but God sendeth it Job 5.6 7. By this Sickness God calleth me to repent of all my Sins and to believe in Christ now I confess my self a great Sinner Oh pardon me and help me for Christ his sake Lord thou callest me with a double Calling sometimes by Prosperity and Mercy sometimes by Affliction And now thou callest me by Sickness but let me not forget thee O my God For those that forget thy Name thou wilt forsake them As Psalm 9.17 All that forget God shall be cast into Hell therefore let me not forget thee Oh my God I give my Soul to thee Oh my Redeemer Jesus Christ pardon all my Sins and deliver me from Hell Oh do thoa help me against Death and then I am willing to die and when I die 〈◊〉 help me and receive me In so saying he died 39. Plaâ—bohon He was the second Man next Waban what received the Gospel he brought with him to the second Meeting at Wabay's House many when we formed them into Government he was chosen Ruler of Ten when the Church at Hassenamessit was gather'd he was called to be a Ruler then in that Church when that was scatter'd by the War they came back to Natick Church so many as survived and at Natick he died His Speech as followeth I rejoyce and am content and willing to take up my Sorrows and Sickness many are the Years of my Life long have I lived therefore now I look to die But I desire to prepare my self to die well I believe God's Promise that he will for ever save all that believe in Jesus Christ. Oh Lord Jesus help me deliver me and save my Soul from Hell by thine own Blood which thou hast shed for me when thou didest die for me and for all my Sins Now help me sincerely to confess all my Sins Oh pardon all my Sins I now beg in the Name of Jesus Christ a Pardon for all my Sins for thou O Christ art my Redeemer and Deliverer Now I hear God's Word and I do rejoyce in what I hear tho' I do not see yet I hear and rejoyce that God hath confirmed for us a Minister in this Church of Natick he is our VVatchman And all you People deal well with him both Men VVomen and Children hear him every Sabbath Day and make strong your praying to God and all you of Hassaunemesue restore your Church and Praying to God there Oh Lord help me to make ready to die and then receive my Soul I hope I shall die well by the help of Jesus Christ Oh Jesus Christ deliver and save my Soul in everlasting Life in Heaven for I do hope thou art my Saviour Oh Jesus Christ. So he died 40. Old Jacob He was among the first that pray'd to God he had so good a Memory that he could rehearse the whole Catechize both Questions and Answers when he gave thanks at Meat he would sometimes only pray the Lord's Prayer his Speech is as followeth My Brethren now hear me a few Words stand fast all you People in your praying to God according to that Word o God 1 Cor. 16.13 Watch ye stand fast in the Faith quit you like Men and be strong in the Lord. Especially you that are Rulers and Teachers Fear not the Face of Man when you Judge in a Court together help one another agree together Be not divided one against another remember the Parable of ten Brethren that held together they could not be broken nor overcome but when they divided one against another then they were easily overcome and all you that are Rulers judge right Judgment for you do not judge for Man but for God in your Courts 2 Chron. 19.6 7. Therefore judge in the fear of God Again You that are Judges see that ye have not only Humane Wisdom for Mans Wisdom is in many things contrary to the Wisdom of God counting it to be foolishness Do not judge that right which only seemeth to be right and consider Matth. 7.1 2. Judge right and God will be with you when you so do Again I say to you all the People make strong your Praying to God and be constant in it 1 Thess 5.17 Pray continually Again lastly I say to you Daniel our Minister be strong in your Work As Mat. 5.14 16. You must bring Light into the World and make it to shine that all may see your good Work and glorifie your Heavenly Father Every Preacher that maketh strong his Work doth bring precious Pearls As Matth. 13.52 And thou shalt have Everlasting Life in so doing I am near to Death I have lived long enough I am about 90 Years old I now desire to die in the presence of Christ Oh Lord I commit my Soul to thee 41. Antony He was among the first that prayed to God he was studious to read the Scriptures and the Catechism so that he learned to be a Teacher but after the Wars he became a Lover of strong Drink was often admonished and finally cast out from being a Teacher His Dying Speeches follow I am a Sinner I do now confess it I have long prayed to God but it hath been like an Hypocrite tho' I was a confessing Church-Member yet like an Hypocrite tho' I was a Teacher yet like a Backsliding Hypocrite I was often drunk Love of strong Drink is a lust I could not overcome tho' the Church did often admonish me and I confessed and they â—orgave me yet I fell again to the same Sin tho' Major Gookins and Mr. Eliot often admonished me I confessed they were willing to forgive me yet I fell again Now Death calls for me and I desire to prepare to die well I say to you Daniel beware that you love not strong Drink as I did and was thereby undone Strengthen your Teaching in and by the word of God take heed that you defile not your work as I did for I defiled my Teaching by Drunkenness Again I say to you my Children forsake not praying to God go not to strange places where they pray not to God but strongly pray to God as long as you live both you and your Children Now I desire to die well tho' I have been a Sinner I remember that word that saith That tho' your Sins be many and great yet God will pardon the Penitent by Jesus Christ our Redeemer Oh Lord save and deliver me by Jesus Christ in whom I believe send thy Angels when I die to bring my poor Soul to thee and save my poor sinful
he stood fair for the Pontifical Chair upon the death of Pope Paul III. and the Party for him had gain'd almost a sufficient number of Suffrages he seemed little concern'd at it and did rather decline than aspire to that Dignity Yea and when a full number had agreed and came to adore him according to the ordinary Ceremony he receiv'd it with his usual Coldness and that being done in the Night he said God loved Light and therefore advised them to delay it till Day came upon which the Italians among whom Ambition passes for the Character of a great Mind looked on this as an unsufferable piece of Dulness so the Cardinals shrunk from him before day and chose de Monte Pope who reigned by name of Julius the III. His first Promotion was very extraordinary for he gave his own Hat to a Servant that kept his Monkey and being ask'd the Reason of it He said He saw as much in his Servant to recommend him to be a Cardinal as the Conclave saw in him to chuse him to be Pope See Abridgment of the Hist. of the Reform l. 2. p. 121. And it is remarkable that notwithstanding he had such an humble Opinion of his own Parts yet he behaved himself so wisely at the Council of Trent that it raised his Esteem much and moved the Conclave of Rome to a Design of promoting him to the Popedom Ibid. See more in the Chapter of present Retribution to the Humble and Modest. CHAP. XXVI Persons strangely admonished of Sins or Dangers WE have to deal with so gracious a God and one so concern'd for our Welfare and Salvation that he seldom lets his Children run into Dangers without giving them a previous Notice and Admonition of it Thus the Persecution design'd by Herod against our Saviour was notified to Joseph in a Dream and withal a way directed for his Escape S. Peter was told plainly before-hand of Satan 's Defire to sift and winnow him Judas o his Temptation and all the rest of the Apostles of their stumbling and Offence And indeed all the Christian Disciples had fair warning of the Dangers that awaited them in the World after our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven and therefore they were to fore-arm themselves with Prudence and Innocency c. How S. Paul was admonished by Agabus of his being bound at Jerusalem See Act. 21.11 12. 1. We do elsewhere relate in this Book how a Gentleman in London whensoever he was drunk was continually molested with a Noise over his Head as he lay in his Bed c. 2. Some few Days before the Duke of Buckingham's going to Portsmouth where he was stabbed by Felton the Ghost of his Father Sir George Villiers appear'd to one Parker formerly his own Servant but then Servant to the Duke in his Morning-Chamber-Gown charged Parker to tell his Son that he should decline that Employment and Design he was going upon or else he would certainly be murder'd Parker promised the Apparition to do it but neglected it The Duke making Preparations for his Expedition the Apparition came again to Parker taxing him very severely for his Breach of Promise and required him not to delay the acquainting his Son of the Danger he went in Then Parker the next day told the Duke that his Father's Ghost had twice appear'd to him and had commanded him to give him that warning The Duke slighted it and told him he was an old doting Fool. That Night the Apparition came to Parker and said Thou hast done well in warning my Son of his Danger but tho' he will not yet believe thee go to him once more however and tell him from me by such a Token naming a private Token which no Body knows but only he and I that if he will not decline his Voyage such a Knife as this is pulling a Knife out from under his Gown will be his Death This Message Parker also delivered the next day to the Duke who when he heard the private Token believed that he had it from his Father's Ghost yet said that his Honour was now at Stake and he could not go back from what he had undertaken come Life come Death This Passage Parker after the Duke's Murder communicated to his Fellow-Servant Henry Ceely who told it to a Reverend Divine a Neighbour of mine from whose Mouth I have it saith Mr. Glaenvil in his Sadducism Triumph p. 410. 3. A Gentleman in Ireland near to the Earl of Orory's sending his Butler one Afternoon to buy Cards as be passed a Field he to his wonder espy'd a Company of People sitting round a Table with a deal of good Chear before them in the midst of the Field And he going up towards them they all arose and saluted him and desired him to sit down with them But one of them whispering these Words in his Ear Do nothing this Company invites you to do He thereupon refused to sit down and immediately the Table and all that belonged to it were gone and the Company are now playing and dancing And the Butler being desired to joyn himself with them but he refusing they fall all to work but he refusing to work with them they all disappeared The Man runs strait home and was no sooner entred his Master's House but down he falls and lay some time sensless but coming to himself again he related to his Master what had happened The Night following there comes one of this Company to his Bed-side and tells him that if he offer'd to stir out of Doors the next day he would be carried away Hereupon he kept within but towards the Evening having need to make Water he adventured to put one Foot over the Threshold several standing by Which he had no sooner done but the espy'd a Rope cast about his Middle and the poor Man was hurried away with great swiftness they following after him as fast as they could but could not overtake him At length they espy'd a Horseman coming towards them and made signs to him to stop the Man whom he saw coming near him and both ends of the Rope but no Body drawing When they met he laid hold on one end of the Rope and immediately had a smart Blow given him over his Arm with the other end But by this means the Man was stopt and the Horseman brought him back with him The Earl of Orory hearing of these strange Passages sent to the Master to desire him to send this Man to his House which he accordingly did And the Morning following or quickly after he told the Earl that his Spectre had been with him again and assured him that that day be should most certainly be carried away and that no Endeavours should avail to the saving of him Upon this he was kept in a large Room with a considerable number of Persons to guard him among whom was the famous Stroker Mr. Greatrix who was a Neighbour There were besides other Persons of Quality two Bishops in the House at the same
continued in London Teaching and Preaching the Gospel so long as the Strength of his Body would permit and at length being old and stricken in Years he died comfortably and peaceably in the Lord being about Eighty Years old January 20. A. C. 1568. See his Life CHAP. L. Remarkable Silence or Reservedness of Men c. As also of Retirement SOme People love to make a loud Noise in the World but they are rarely the most wise and solid for the deepest Waters are generally the calmest and the emptiest Barrels in a Sea the greatest Sound and a Dear Friend of mine now Deceased Mr. J. Tutte no impolitick or irreligious Man commended this as his last Farewel-Admonition to his Step-Son upon his Death-Bed That he should fear God and endeavour to pass through the World without making any great Noise as he went 1. St. Basil affected a solitary Life 2. St. Hierom was in love with a Monastick Life that he might have more freedom to attend his Studies with a good Library and Heliodorus for his Companion retired into Syria and afterwards Heliodorus leaving him he betook to a Wilderness between the Syrians and the Saracens where he continued Four Years in great Solitude Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 3. Bonosus Hierom's Fellow-Student having settled his Affairs forsaking his Country Parents Friends and onely accompanied with a few Books departed into a solitary Island to extricate himself from the Snares of the World and enjoy more Freedom in the Service of Christ Ibid. 4. Fulgentius a Year before his Death retired with some Brethren into the Island of Circina and there lived a most strict Life but the Necessities of his People requiring and their Importunity prevailing he returned to them and then fell into most grievous Sickness Ibid. p. 94. 5. Gregory the Great after his Father's Death having given his Estate to the Relief of the Poor betook himself to a Monastical Life first under Hilarion and afterwards under Maximianus both famous for Learning and Piety Ibid. p. 96. 6. John Picus of Mirandula Three Years before his Death retired himself from the Pleasures Profits and Honours of the World that he might live a more private Life and made over almost all his Estate in the Earldoms of Mirandula and Concordia to his Brother's Son and distributed a great part of his Money Plate and Jewels amongst the Poor Clark in his Life 7. Thomas Aquinas was called Bos or Ox by his School-fellows because he was also silent Textor 8. Mr. Samuel Daniel the English Poet being a Servant in Ordinary to Queen Anne and thereupon having a fair Salary allowed him kept a handsome Garden-House in Old-street near London where as a Tortoise burying himself in the Ground all Winter long he lay obscure some Months together that he might in Retirement enjoy the Felicity he aimed at and then afterwards he would appear in Publick to enjoy and converse with his Friends whereof the Two principal were Dr. Cowel and Mr. Cambden In his Old Age he turned Husbandman and Rented a Farm in Wiltshire nigh the Devises it is thought not so much for the hopes of Profit as to enjoy the Retiredness of a Country-life No question he pleased himself with Contentedness and Freedom from the Troubles of City and Court his Fancy being too fine and sublimated to be wrought down only for private Profit Select Lives of Worthies in England p. 338. 9. Mr. Michael Drayton another famed English Poet was very temperate in his Life and slow of Speech and inoffensive in Company Ibid. p. 341. 10. Mr. Abraham Cowley another excellent Man to make up the Triumovirate thô he took well at Court yet seems to resent the Inconveniences that attended it for he makes this his serious Wish To retire from the Buz and Noise of the City into some place of privacy where he might enjoy the pleasant Correspondence of many Books and a few Friends and one Wife and a pleasant Garden Thus he delivers himself in one of his Poems and in a Letter to Mr. Evelyn Author of the Kalendarium Hortense he declares it more at large professing that he had been then a pretty while aiming at it but was not yet arrived at that State of Mortal Happiness 11. One of the Cato's having attained to the Age of Eight and fifty Years gave over his Publick Charge and Travel in Affairs of the Roman Common-wealth and went to wear out the remainder of his Days near to Naples in a Country Village which then was called Picenum but now it is named Marca de Aâ—â—a where he maintained his Faculties and nourished himself with such Conveniences as his poor Lands and Living afforded him This Good and Vertuous Cato keeping a simple Cottage one while perusing his Books and other whiles looking to his Vines and Plants His Neighbours had written 〈◊〉 a Coal over his Door these words How happy a Man art thou O Cato because thou only knowest what it is to live in this World amongst other Men. Treasury of Anâ— and Modern Times p. 735. 12. Lucullus the Consul and Roman Captain continued at the Wars against the Parthians Sixteen Years together during which time he won much Honour to Rome many Provinces to the Common-wealth great Renown to himself and mighty Treasures for his Houses This Man after his Return from Asia to Rome found the State full of Partialities and Dissensions through the Quarrels between Marius and Sylla he resolved to leave Rome which forthwith he did put in effect causing certain places of sumptuyous Workmanship to be builded near Naples along by the Sea-side in a place now called Castello di Lupo There he made his Sojourning for the space of Eighteen Years in quite Repose and silent Pleasure free from all the Turmoils and Travails of State and in this Contentment he ended his Days Ibid. 13. Dioclesian after he had governed Rome 18 years and had attained to very old Age he gave over the Empire from whence he dismissed himself into Nicomedia with no other Intention but only to return home to his own House and there in Peace and Quiet to spend the rest of his Life and accordingly at Salon he dealt in Husbandry 12 years together After two years spent in this Retirement the Romans sent two worthy Ambassadors to entreat him to return to Rome again The Ambassadors found him in his Garden weeding his Beds of Lettis and other Herbs whom he answered thus My Friends do not you think it more honest and better that he who digged and planted these Lettis should eat them peaceably and quietly in his own House than to forsake such wholesome Fare and return to the Tumults and Rumors of Rome I have now made good proof both what it is to command and what Benefit ensueth by labouring and deliving in the Ground Leave me then to my self I entreat you in this private State of Life for I much rather affect to maintain my Life by the labour of my Hands than to be
best kill me too The Son replyed No Sir I have done enough I am sure it was too much The Father Sir George upon this said Why then you must look to be hang'd Which Doom was accordingly pass'd upon him at the next Assizes held at Maidstone Anno 1655. See the Narrative of his Life and Death by R. Boreman 2. Anno Christi 1641. There was in Juchi near Cambray an unnatural Son that in a fury threw his Mother out of Doors thrice in one Day telling her That he had rather see his House on fire and burned to Ashes than that she should remain in it one Day longer And accordingly the very same Day his House was fired and wholly burned down with all that was in it none knowing how or by what means the Fire came Enguer de Monast v. 2. 3. Manlius relateth a Story of an old Man crooked with Age and almost pined with Hunger who having a Rich and Wealthy Son went to him only for some Food for his Belly and Cloaths for his Back But this proud young Man thinking that it would be a Dishonour to him to be born of such Parents drove him away denying not only to give him sustenance but disclaiming him from being his Father giving him bitter and reproachful Speeches which made the poor old Man to go away with an heavy Heart and Tears flowing from his Eyes Which the Lord beholding struck his unnatural Son with Madness of which he could never be cured till his Death 4. The same Author relates another Story of another Man that kept his Father in his old Age but used him very churlishly as if he had been his Slave thinking every thing too good for him and on a time coming in found a good Dish set on the Table for his Father which he took away and set courser Meat in the room But a while after sending his Servant to fetch out that Dish for himself he found the Meat turned into Snakes and the Sauce into Serpents one of which leaping up caught this unnatural Son by the Lip from which it could never be pulled to his Dying-day so that he could never feed himself but he must feed the Serpent also 5. Adolf Son of Arnold Duke of Guelders repining at his Father's long Life one Night as he was going to Bed came upon him suddenly and took him Prisoner and bare-legged as he was made him go on foot in a cold Season five German Leagues and then shut him up a close Prisoner for six Months in a dark Dungeon But the Lord suffered not such Disobedience to go unpunished For shortly after the Son was apprehended and long imprisoned and after his Release was slain in a Fight against the French History of the Netherlands 6. Henry Jones of Monmouth in Wales for an unnatural Murder of his Mother a Widow Mrs. Grace Jones out of a greedy desire to enjoy her Estate was at the Assizes held at Monmouth condemn'd to be pressed to Death his Sister to be burnt as consenting with him and his Boy hanged A. C. 1671. See the Narrative 7. A Malster near Cocks-Hill in Essex having made over all his Estate to his Son was afterwards turn'd out of Doors without so much as a Bed to lie on But the Son soon after slighted by his Sweet-heart hang'd himself 1674. Sir P. Pett being on January the 24th 1695. in the Company of the Honourable Sir Edward Lutwyche who was formerly Recorder of Chester and afterward one of the Judges of the Court of Common-Pleas he related to him That while he was Recorder of Chester a Father there who had two Sons demising some Land to his elder Son by his Will and ordering in his Will That for want of Heirs to the elder Son the Land should come to the younger Son and further enjoyning it to the elder Son in the Will that he should not cut off the Entail it so happen'd that notwithstanding the Father's Injunction the elder Brother did in process of time cut off the Entail And the younger Brother fearing that the elder would so do while they both walked amicably together in a Field in Cheshire the younger Brother using several Expostulations with the elder did entreat him that he would observe the Injunction laid upon him in his deceas'd Father's Will and not cut off the Entail Whereupon the elder Brother thus replied to him Brother if ever I do it may that Bull or some other gore me to Death pointing to a Bull then grazing in the Field Yet this notwithstanding the elder Brother shortly after did cut off the Entail and afterwards walking in the same Field was there by a Bull gored to Death This Remarkable Providence as Sir Edward averrs happen'd within these Twenty Years This Account was sent me by Sir Peter Pett now living in London CHAP. CXXI Divine Judgments upon Careless Parents IT is a strange thing to me that Parents should look upon themselves as bound in Conscience to provide an Estate and temporal Livelihood for their Children and yet at Liberty in respect of their Good Manners and future Happiness as if they were obliged to do no more for them than for their Dogs and Horses Socrates might well stand and wonder to see Men take such pains to cut and carve Stones in the Likeness of Men and let their Children go rude and unpolish'd out of their Hands in the Likeness of Bruits Old Eli tho' a good Man yet because he was too soft a Parent destroyed his Sons and broke his own Neck 1. Sir George Sondes mentioned in the fore-going Chapter is strongly suspected for his too much Indulgence to his Son Freeman that committed that foul Murder as may be collected from Sir George's Answer in print upon occasion of a Charge made against him by some neighbouring Ministers See his own Words p. 15. Now saith he for the Education of my Children having buried many other and having now only two Sons remaining I confess I was more fond and indulgent and gave more way to them than otherwise I should have done And presently after speaking of them both he saith To that foolish Sports of Cocking they were addicted but the youngest most as also to Carding and he would play somewhat deep at those Games I often child him but could never break him of it He was in his Behaviour pleasing and courteous to none but cross-grain'd to all and as much to his Father as to any which I hoped that Years and Discretion might have made him leave in time Afterwards speaking concerning the Allowance which he made them he saith I ever gave them Money not only when but commonly before they asked and more than they desired Afterwards concerning his Son 's undutiful Carriage in his Letter to him in the Prison he writes thus Your Stubbornness appeared in the least trivial Things as in riding abroad to my Park and Town things you liked in themselves yet because I desired it of you you refused it saying
God and then commanded them to be taken away That Night the Ministers continuing with him a certain Friend coming to him Oecolampadins ask'd him What News The Answer being made None But saith he I 'll tell you some News I shall presently be with my Lord Christ Being ask'd if the Light offended him Putting his Hands to his Eyes he answered Here is abundance of Light and then praying earnestly with the Words of David Psal 51. to the end and saying O Christ save me he fell asleep Clark Ibid. 14. Queen Mary the Second of blessed Memory on her Death-bed when the Most Reverend Archbishop Tenison bespoke her Madam Settle your Affairs your Family and your Mind you have lived and finished the course which the Parent of Nature hath allâ—tted you replied with an undaunted Cheerfulness Father How good a Messenger are you to me who as it were commanded from Heaven bring the Tydings of my last Necessity of Dying Here I am ready to submit to whatever pleaseth God the Disposer of my Life and Death I am not now to learn that difficult Art of Well-dying I have made up my Account with God by the Assistance of my Surety Christ I have discharged my Conscience long since I have considered the Condition of my Mortality I have settled all my Affairs and surrendred into the Bosom of my dearest Husband all those Cares that concern the World And therefore he that calls finds me ready to lay down the Burden of this Life being no more than a load of Infirmities Sin and Labour Then turning to her Husband standing by her Bed-side she is said to have broke forth into Words to this Effect Farewel my William and live mindful of our undefiled Matrimony till thy Lot shall restore thee to me or moe to thee I shall not altogether die while you singly possess the sole Image of us both c. Spanheim in his Fun. Orat. of Queen Mary the Second This I suppose contains the summ of what that Excellent Queen delivered but I suspect the Author hath set it off with an Embellishment of Words which did not become a dying Person The most Reverend Archbishop delivers it more nakedly and briefly 15. Anthony Walleus on his Death-bed exhorted all his Family to Fear God and the Children to Reverence their Mother for so God would bless and provide for them That every one should take care of all the rest but especially that every one should take care of himself Then he bad his Son John to have a special Care of his Mother and so kissing them took his Leave of them all and then turning his Face from them he fell asleep out of which he never awaked only some time when his Pains came upon him he stirred a little and so on the Sabbath about Eleven of the Clock he quietly resign'd up his Spirit unto God A. C. 1639. Aetat 66. Clark's Exampl p. 490. 16. Henry Alting the Day before his Death sang the 130 Psalm with a sweet Voice and warm Zeal and spent the rest to his time in hearty Prayers and holy Meditations In the Evening he blessed his Children and then commanded his Son Dr. James Alting to pray with him and in his Prayers to remember the Church and University The next Day which was the Sabbath-Day being visited by Camerarius and Strasbergerus Agents for the Crown of Sweden and his old Friends he was refreshed a little with their Company but told them that he should depart before Sun-set and accordingly about Three of the Clock in the Afternoon with a constant Voice he bid them all Farewel and after the Prayer of Emmius Pastor of the Church without the least struggling he quietly slept in the Lord A. C. 1644. Ibid. p. 497. 17. Mr. John Bruen of Stapleford a little before his Death said I will have no black no proud or pompous Funeral neither is there any cause of Mourning but of Rejoycing rather in my particular And immediately before he expired lifting up his Hands he said The Lord is my Portion my Help and my Trust his blessed Son Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Redeemer Amen Even so saith the Spirit unto my Spirit Therefore come Lord Jesus and kiss me with the Kisses of thy Mouth and embrace me with the Arms of thy Love Into thy hands I commend my spirit O come now and take me to thine own self O come Lord Jesus come quickly O come O come O come Mr. Hinde in his Life 18. Berengarius is said to have breathed out these Words with his last gasp Now I am to go and appear before God either to be acquitted by him as I hope or condemned by him as I fear Mr. Fuller Abel Rediv. p. 7. out of Illyricus 19. Erasmus by his Last Will and Testament confirmed both by the Emperor and Pope declared Bonifacius Amerbachius his Heir Hieronymus Frobenius and Nicolaus Episcopius Overseers of his Will wherein to several Friends he bequeathed several Legacies as a Clock of Gold to Ludovicus Berus a Spoon and Fork of the same to Beatus Rhenanus to Petrus Vetereus 150 Crowns as much to Philippus Montanus to his Servant Lambert 200 Florins to Brischius a Silver Tankard to Paulus Volsius 100 Florins to Signismundus Tilenius 150 Duckats to Erasmus Frobenius his Godson two Rings to Hieronymus Frobenius his wearing Cloaths Bedding and Houshold-stuffs to his Wife a Ring wherein was set a precious Stone having therein engraven a Woman looking ove her Left Shoulder to Episcopius a fair Silver Bowl with a Cover to his Wife a Diamond Ring to Goâ—lenius a Silver Bowl his Library he sold upon his Death-bed to Johannes à Lasco his Medals ancient Coins ready Money and Debts with the remainder of his Watches Clocks Rings Plate Jewels and other Curiosities of no small value to his Heir Amerbachius not for his own use but to be sold and the Money by Advice of the fore-named Overseers to be distributed first to the poor infirm Persons whether through Age or Sickness secondly to portionless Virgins to procure them Husbands and thirdly to poor but hopeful young Scholars for Advancement of their Studies His Heir he restrained meerly to his Legacy which was none of the greatest He fell sick first of the Gout and then fell into an Hepatical Flux so that for a whole Month together he came seldom out of his Bed and but once over the Threshold of his Chamber yet whilst his Body lay tortured upon this double Rack he wrote a Treatise de Puritate Ecclesiae and made a hard shift to finish his Recognitions of Origen These were the two last Songs of this dying Swan whose Patience ever encreased with his Torments and in the end surmounted them He retained his Speech to the last gasp and breathed out his Soul in these Ejaculations Mercy sweet Jesus Lord loose these Bands How long Lord Jesus how long Jesus Fountain of Mercy have Mercy on me c. He died July 12. 1536. Aged 71 or
at each Stroke of the Clock Moreover there be the Statues of the Spring Summer Autumn and Winter and many Observations of the Moon In the upper part of the Clock are four old Men's Statues which strike the quarters of the Hour the Statue of Death coming out at each Quarter to strike but being driven back by the Statue of Christ with a Spear in his Hand for three Quarters but in the fourth Quarter that of Christ goeth back and that of Death striketh the Hour with a Bone in his Hand and then the Chimes sound On the top of the Clock is the Image of a Cock which twice in the Day croweth aloud and clappeth his Wings Besides this Clock is deck'd with many fine Pictures and being on the inside of the Church carrieth another Frame to the outside of the Wall wherein the Hours of the Sun the Courses fo the Moon the Length of the Day and such other things are set out with great Art Morrison's Itenerary Part 1. Cap. 1. Pag. 31. 8. At Dresden a Cockoo sings by Clock-work a Horseman rides a Ship sails an old Woman walks a Centaur runs and shoots and a Crab creeps upon a Table so well as to amaze and delight Dr. Ed. Brown's Trav. p. 167. CHAP. VI. Improvements in Navigation NONE of the Elements have escaped the Inquisition of Humane Study Men have adventured not only to Travel upon the Surface of the Waters and cut thro the Surging Waves but to dive to the bottom and examine all the Secrets of the vast Ocean and to that end have made considerable Improvements in the Art of Navigation But being my self a Land-Animal I am not able to say much upon the Point only for a Spur to the Industry and Emulation of others take these few subsequent Remarks 1. The Chard and Compass is well known to be a late but ingerrious and useful Invention far beyond the old wild way of Sailing by the Coasts of the Land and much conducive to the mutual Traffick and Commerce of divers Nations I wish I could say it had been more so to the Propagation of Learning and True Religion 2. The Longitude upon the Sea complain'd of lately by Seamen and Pilots who having lost sight of the Land and knowing by Observation of the Compass and Altitude at what Distance they were from North and Sourth but not able to discern the Longitude viz. the Distance from East to West hath been lately put into a fair way of Discovery by Mr. Huggens by the help of the Pendulum whose Exactness is such that it fails not one Moment And the Certainty of this Experiment is recommended by Captain Holms in a Letter written from London January 1665. c. 3. Sir William Petti invented a Vessel or Ship of a new Form called the Experiment like two little Ships joyned together by a Platform so that between the two there might be a space almost as large as the two Ships together thro' which the Water had an entire Liberty to pass the Keel of each being 80 Foot long the bigness with the Platform only 32 Foot the height from the Keel to the Platform 14. In War it would carry 50 pieces of Canon 200 Men with three Months Provision if used for Merchandize it would carry 300 Tuns The Advantages expected from it were that it would be swifter than other Ships as being capable of carrying twice or thrice as many Sails as others and having no Ballast it would be higher and surer because the figure of its sides with the Water which runs between the two Ships would keep it from running aground and having no Ballast it would not sink what Breaches soever it might meet with especially if assisted by some pieces of Canon besides its Keel would defend it being supported by many straight Planks if it should touch the Ground with all its weight and lastly it would turn more speedily than those Ships whose Rudder receives only the broken Water by the round Sides of them and ross less in a Tempest and in calm Weather would to with Oars betwixt the two little ones beneath the Platform c. but what the Event of this Experiment is I am not able to say This Description that I have given is taken out of a Letter written from London about it The Young Students Library p. 208. 4. A Doublet of Buoyant Matter lately invented which being put over or under a Man's Cloaths will bear his Head above Water for 24 Hours tho he cannot swim was tried this Month of June A. 1696. below London-Bridge and proved effectual as we are informed by the Flying-Post Numb 167. CHAP. VII Improvements in Law THAT Law might be reduced into the Method of an Art or Science hath been the wish of many Learned Men I dare not undertake any such Work my self yet for the Curiosity of my Reader I will present him here with something of a Scheme which I had lying by me Extracted out of Sir Mat. Hales Pleas of the Corwn Sir H. Finch 's Common Pleas c. 1. Pleas of the Crown have a Respect either to 1. Capital Offences 1. Against God as 1. Heresie 2. Witchcraft 2. Against Man 1. Capital 1. Treason 1. High as Compassing the Death of the King Queen Prince Levying War against him Violation of the Queen Princess killing of the Chancellor Treasurer Justice of one Bench or other Justice in Eire of Assizes of Oyer and Terminer in their place Counterfeiting and Clipping of the King's Coin Refusing the Oath of Supremacy on the Second Tender Extolling the Bishop of Rome Priests coming into the Realm 2. Petit A Servant killing of the Master a Wife her Husband Ecclesiastick his Superiour Son his Father c. 2. Felony against Life as Felo de se Chance medley doing a lawful Act without Intent of Hurt and Death following Death per infortunium without procurement of another the Cause is Deodand ex necessitate viz. Murder proceeding from Malice precognitated Manslaughter on a sudden Falling out Against Goods Larceny simple and grand of the value of 12 Pence feloniously taken Complicated Larceny or mixed with Robbery viz. Taking from the Person and putting him in fear or from the House Piracy Burglary viz. or Breaking by Night and entering into a House with a Felonious Intent Arson maliciously and voluntarily burning the House of another Hindrances of Amesning a Felon to publick Justice by breaking of Prison Rumper Prison Escape Rescure in a Person that 's a Stranger Felonies by Statute Conspiring to kill the King Witchcraft Buggery Penetratio emissio cum carnali cognitione Rape taking a Woman against her Will. Malicious cutting out Tongues or pulling out Eyes Stealing or avoiding Records Multiplication of Gold or Silver Hunting unlawfully in Forests Chases Wartens Embezilling of the King's Armour Subjects passing Sea to serve Foreign Princes c. Purveyors and wandering Soldiers in certain Cases Marrying a Second Husband or Wife the First living except the Man be under
Arguments relating also to the Witch as that when the maid had not for many days and nights together taken any rest and being then under most grievous hurryings and tortures of the Body the Witch being brought into the Room where she lay the Design unknown to her and the time of her entring yet so soon as the Witch had set one Foot into the Room she gave a most hideous glance with her Eyes and shut them presently after falling asleep in a moment and slept about Three Hours so fast that when they would have wakened her they could not by any art or violence whatever as by stopping her Breath putting things up her Nostrils holding her upright striking of her and the like The Witch also declared her unwillingness that she should be wakened crying out O pray you by no means awake the maid for if she should awake I should be torn in pieces and the Devil would fetch me away bodily And a further Evidence that this sleep of the maid did some way depend upon the Witch is that so soon as the Witch had gone from under the Roof where she was the maid wakened of her self and so soon as the maid awakened and was at ease the Devil as she said having gone out of her Stomach but doing her no violence only making her body tremble a little the Witch began to roar and cry out The Devil will tear me in pieces These things you may read more fully and particularly in the Narration of Edmond Bower who was an Eye-witness of them Fourthly and Lastly her Behaviour at the Assizes when she gave Evidence against the Witch was so earnest and serious with that strength of mind and free and confident Appeals to the Witch her self that as I was informed of those that were Spectators of that Transaction it had been Argument enough to the unprejudiced that she swore nothing but what she was assured was true And those Floods of Tears and her bitter Weepings after Sentence was passed on the Witch and her bewailing of her own wickedness and madness and professing her willingness notwithstanding if it might be done without sin that the VVitch might be reprieved may further wash away all suspicion of either fraud or malice Nor can the Witches denying even to her Dying Day what the maid swore to enâ—â—vate her Testimony For the maid tells the whole truth as it was even to the hazard of her own Life which the Witch indeed denies but for the saving of hers And it is no wonder that one that would bid a Pox on the Hangman when he desired her to forgive him at her Death should lye and impudently deny any thing to save her own Life I think it might be evidently evinced that she was a Witch from what she undoubtedly both did and spake As for Example from her shewing of the Maid in a Glass the shapes of sundry Persons and their Actions and Postures in several Rooms in her Master's House whither when she had returned from the Witch she told them punctually what they had been doing in her Absence which made Elizabeth Rosewell one of the Family profess that she thought Mrs. Bodenham was either a Witch or a woman of God Besides what happened to her in reference to the Fits of the Maid which has been already insisted upon are shrewd Suspicions of her being a VVitch As also what she boasted of to Mr. Tucker's Clark concerning a Purse that hung about her Neck in a green String that she could do many Feats with it and that if he would give her half a Dozen of Ale she would make a Toad spring out of it Her Confession to Mr. Langely of Sarum that she lived with Dr. Lamb and learnt the art of raising Spirits from him which she confessed also to Edmond Bower to whom also she acknowledged her skill of curing Diseases by Charms and Spells that she could discover stoâ—en Goods and shew any one the Thief in a Glass and being asked by him for the Red Book half wrote over with Blood being a Catalogue of those that had sealed to the Devil she denied not the knowledge of the Book but said it was with one in Hampshire She also professed that she used many good Prayers and said the Creed backwards and forwards and that she prayed to the Planet Jupiter for the curing of Diseases She also acknowledged she had a Book whereby she raised Spirits calling it a Book of Charms and said it was worth Thousands of other Books and that there was a particular Charm in it for the finding of a Treasure hid by the old Earl of Pembroke in the North part of Wilton Garden To another Party she being ask'd by him whether there were any Spirits she made this Reply that she was sure there were and confirmed it to him by several Passages of late and particularly by that of one forced to walk about all Night with a bundle of Pales on his Back in a Pond of Water which is mentioned at the end of the Fourth Conjuration above recited She did also highly magnifie her own Art to him venturing at Astrological Terms and Phrases and did much scorn and blame the ignorance of the People averring to him with all earnestness and confidence that there was no hurt in these Spirits but that they would do a man all good Offices attending upon him and guarding him from evil all his Life long But certainly her ragged Boys were no such who discharged the maid from keeping the Commandments of God and told her they would teach her a better way as she also confessed to the same Party Add unto all this that this Ann Bodenham was searched both at the Goal and before the Judges at the Assizes and there was found on her Shoulder a certain Mark or Teat about the length and bigness of the Nipple of a VVoman's Breast and hollow and soft as a Nipple with an hole on the top of it Dr. Moor's Antid against Atheism l. 3. c. 7. 3. In 1645 there was a notable Discovery of several VVitches in Essex and among others one Elizabeth Clark was one of whom because we have occasion to speak elsewhere we shall therefore pass her over here in silence Anne Leach of Misley in Essex was another concerning whom see the Story in short in the Chapter of Satan's Permission to hurt the Good in their Estates Also Hellen the VVife of Thomas Clark was another and Daughter to Ann Leach This Hellen was accused at the same time Richard Glascock's VVife of Mannintree deposed that there happening some difference between Edward Parsley's VVife and this Hellen she heard Hellen say as she passed by their Door that Mary their eldest Daughter should rue for it whereupon the maid instantly fell sick and died six VVeeks after Edward Parsley her Father confirmed the same and said he did verily believe Hellen Clark was the cause of her Death who being her self examined confest that about Six Weeks before the
Devil appeared to her in her House in the likeness of a white Dog and that she called this Imp or Familiar Spirit Elimanzer and that she often fed it and that the Spirit spoke to her very audibly and bid her deny Jesus Christ which she did then assent to but denied that she killed the young maid She was Executed at Mannintree Apr. 15. 1645. 4. Anne West and Rebecca her Daughter were likewise of this black Society against whom Prudence the VVife of Thomas Hart of Lawford in Essex deposed upon Oath that about Eight weeks before going on Sunday to the Parish-Church about half a mile from her House being about Twenty weeks gone with Child and to her thinking very well and healthy upon a sudden she was taken with great Pains and miscarried before she came Home And about Two months after one Night when she was in Bed something fell down upon her Right Side but being dark she could not discover its shapes and that she was presently taken lame on that side with extraordinary Pains and burning and was certainly perswaded that Anne and Rebecca West were the cause of her Pains having expressed much Malice toward her and counted her their greatest Enemy Mr. John Edes a Minister deposed That Rebecca West confessed to him that about Seven Years before she began to have familiarity with the Devil by the instigation of her Mother Anne West and that he appeared in several Shapes As once like a proper young man who desired to have familiarity with her promising that he would then do what she desired and avenge her on her Enemies requiring her also to deny God and put her faith and trust in him which being agreed to she order'd him to avenge her on one Thomas Hart of Lawford by killing his Son who was soon after taken sick and died VVhereupon Rebecca told the Minister she thought the Devil could do like God in destroying whom he pleased After which she gave him Entertainment and he lay with her as a man She likewise confest to him that when she lived at Riverhall in Essex her Mother came and told her The Barley Corn was picked up meaning that the Son of one George Francis a chief Inhabitant of that Town was Dead and his Father very much suspected he was bewitched to Death and her Mother hearing of it said Be it unto him according to his Faith Mr. Matthew Hopkins deposed upon Oath that going to the Prison where Rebecca West and five others were he asked her how she first came to be a Witch who told him that her Mother and she going one Evening after Sunset toward Mannintree her Mother charged her to keep secret whatever she saw which she promising to do they went both to the House of Elizabeth Clark where they found her together with Ana Leach Elizabeth Gooding and Hellen Clark and that Instantly the devil appeared in the shape of a Dog then came two Kitlins and after them two Dogs more who all seemed to reverence Elizabeth Clark skipping into her lap and kissing her and then Kist all in the Room except her self Whereupon one of the Witches askt her Mother if her Daughter were Acquainted with the Business who assuring them of her secrecy Ann Leach pulled out a Book and Swore her not to reveal any thing she saw or heard and if she did she should endure more torments than there could be in Hell Whereupon she again ingaged to be silent They told her she must never confess any thing tho the Rope were about her Neck and she ready to be Hanged To which after she had given her absolute Ingagement the Devil leapt up into her Lap and Kissed her promising to perform whatever she would desire About halt a year after the Devil appeared as she was going to Bed and said he would marry her which she could not refuse whereupon he Kissed her but was as cold as Clay and then took her by the Hand Leading her about the room and promised to be her Loving Husband till Death and to avenge her of all her enemies She likewise obliging her self to be his Obedient Wife till Death and to deny God and Christ Jesus She confest that after this she sent him to kill the Son of Thomas Hart who died within a Fortnight and thereupon she took the Devil for her God and thought he could as God Rebecca West being likewise Examined before the Justices at Mannintree confessed that all was true concerning their Meeting at Elizabeth Clarks where they spent some time in Praying to their Familiar Spirits and then every one made their desires known to them Elizabeth Clark requested her Spirit that Mr. Edwards might be met withal at a Bridge near her House and that his Horse might be frighted and he thrown down and never rise again Mr. Edwards deposed that at the same place his Horse started and greatly indangered him and he heard something about the House Cry Ah Ah much like a Polecat and that with great difficulty he saved himself from being thrown off his Horse Elizabeth Gooding desired her Imp to kill Robert Jaylors Horse for suspecting her to be a Witch which was done accordingly Hellen Clark required to kill some Hogs of a Neighbours Ann Leach that a Cow might be Lamed and Ann West her Mother desired her Spirit to free her from all her enemies and to have no trouble And she her self desired that Thomas Harts Wife might be taken Lame of her right side after which they departed appointing the next Meeting at Elizabeth Goodings House for these and several other Notorious Crimes Ann West was Sentenced and Executed at Mannintree Elizabeth Gooding at Chelmsford and the Bill found against Rebecca West by the Grand Jury but was acquitted by the Jury of Life and Death Ibid p. 14. 5. Rose Hallybread was another of this black Regiment against whom Robert Turner of St. Osyth in Essex deposed that about eight days before his Servant was taken Sick shaking shrieking and crying out of Rose Hallybread that she had bewitched him and that he sometimes Crowed like a Cock sometimes barked like a Dog and sometimes Groaned violently beyond the ordinary course of Nature and tho but a youth struggl'd with so much strength that four or five lusty Men were not able to hold him down in his Bed and sometimes he would Sing several strange Songs and Tunes his Mouth not being opened nor his Lips so much as stirring all the time of his Singing She being examined confest That about sixteen years before one Goody Hagtree brought an Imp to her House which she entertained and fed it with Oat-Meal and Suckled it on her Body a Year and a half and then lost it She confessed likewise that about half a year before one Joyce Boanes brought to her another Imp in the likeness of a small gray Bird which she received and carried to the House of one Thomas Toakly of St. Osyths and put it under his Door after which
after comes to her and tells her she had sent the Devil to him and bids her take the Land and so gave it up and her Son is now possest of it His Name is Mat. he lived in the Service of Mr. Reading's Brother for some Years but he has forgot his Sir-name though he knows him very well Related in a Letter of Dr. Ezekias Burton to Dr. H. More Mr. Glanvil's Saducism Triumph p. 417. 3. Dr. Bretton late Rector of Ludgate and Deptford lived-formerly in Herefordshire and married the Daughter of Dr. S. This Gentlewoman was a Person of extraordinary Piety which she expressed as in her Life so at her Death She had a Maid that she had a great kindness for who was Married to a near Neighbour whose Name as I remember was Alice Not long after her death as Alice was rocking her Infant in the Night she was called from the Cradle by a knocking at the Door which opening she was surprised at the sight of a Gentlewoman not to be distinguished from her late Mistress neither in Person nor Habit. She was in a Morning Gown the same in appearance with that she had often seen her Mistress wear At first sight she expressed very great Amazement and said Were not my Mistress dead I should not question but that you are she She replied I am the same that was your Mistress and sook her by the Hand Which Alice affirmed was as cold as a Clod. She added That she had Business of great Importance to imploy her in and that she must immediately go a little way with her Alice trembled and beseecht her to excuse her and intreated her very importunately to go to her Master who must needs be more fit to be employed â—he answered That he who was her Husband was not at all concerned but yet she had a desire rather to make use of him and in order thereunto had several times been in his Chamber but he was still asleep nor had she power to do more than once uncover his Feet towards the awakning of him And the Dr. said That he had heard a walking in his Chamber in the Night which till now he could give no account of Alice next objected That her Husband was gone a Journey and she had no one to look to her Child that it was very apt to cry vehemently and she feared if it awaked before her return it would cry it self to death or do it self mischief The Spectre replyed The Child shall sleep till you return Alice seeing there was no avoiding it sorely against her will followed her over a Stile into a large Field who then said to her Observe how much of this Field I measure with my Feet And when she had taken a good large and leasurely compass she said All this brlongs to the Poor it being gotten from them by wrongful means And charged her to go and tell her Brother whose it was at that time that he should give it up to the Poor again forthwith as he loved her and his deceased Mother This Brother was not the Person who did this unjust Act but his Father She added That she was the more concerned because her Name was made use of in some Writing that related to this Land Alice ask'd her How she should satisfie her Brother that this was no Cheat or delusion of her Fancy She replyed Tell him this Secret which he knows that only himself and I are privy to and he will believe you Alice having promised her to go on this Errand she proceeded to give her good Advice and entertained her all the rest of the Night with most heavenly and divine Discourse When the Twi-light appeared they heard the Whistling of Carters and the noise of House-Bells whereupon the Spectre said Alice I must be seen by none but your self and so she disappeared Immediately Alice makes all haste home being thoughtful for her Child but found it as the Spectre had said asleep as she left it When she had dressed it and committed it to the care of a Neighbour away she went to her Master the Doctor who amazed at the account she gave him sent her to his Brother-in-Law He at first hearing Alice's Story and Message laughed at it heartily but she had no sooner told him the secret but he changed his Countenance told her he would give the Poor their own and accordingly he did it and they now enjoy it This with more Circumstances hath several times been related by Dr. Bretton himself who was well known to be a Person of great Goodness and Sincerity He gave a large Narrative of this Apparition of his Wife to two of my Friends First to one Mrs. Needham and afterwards a little before his Death to Dr. Whichcot Some Years after I received the fore-going Narrative viz. near four Years since I light into the company of three sober Persons of good Rank who all lived in the City of Hereford and I travelled in a Stage Coach three days with them To them I happened to tell this Story but told it was done at Deptford for so I presumed it was because I knew that Dr. Bretton lived there They told me as soon as I had concluded it that the Story was very true in the main only I was out as to the place for it was not Deptford but as I remember they told me Pembridge near Hereford where the Dr. was Minister before the Return of the King And they assured me upon their own knowledge that to that Day the Poor enjoyed the piece of Ground They added That Mrs. Bretton's Father could never endure to hear any thing mentioned of his Daughters appearing after her death but would still reply in great anger That it was not his Daughter but it was the Devil So that he acknowledged that something appeared in the likeness of his Daughter This is Attested by me this 16th of Febr. 1681. Edward Fowler This Narrative was sent to Dr. H. More from Mr. Edward Fowler Prebendary of Gloucester Glanv Sad. Triumph p. 419. 4. These Relations seem strange indeed but was it now as strange that Constantine the Great praying earnestly to God should see the sign of the Cross figured in the Air with an Inscription in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hoc vince by this overcome And yet Eusebius Reports it in these words While the Emperour was thus earnestly praying unto God and besought him that he would reveal himself to him and that he would assist him in his purposes and resolutions while he was thus earnestly at his Prayers a divine and wonderful Vision appeared unto him which was scarce credible if himself had not related it But seeing this victorious Emperour did with an Oath confirm it to be true when he related it to me who intended to write his History long after when taking notice of me he admitted me to familiar Conference with him who can doubt of the Truth of his Relation which even then was seen and admired
by his whole Army and afterward in process of time was confirmed in a miraculous manner He said moreover that in his sleep Christ appeared unto him with the former sign of the Cross And bid him make the like Figure to wear in his Banner Euseb in Vit. Constant l. 1. c. 22 23. See the next Chap. I dare not insist upon the Truth of that Relation that when this Emperour gave the Tithes to the Church a Voice was heard in the Air saying Nunc venenum infaesum est Ecclesia now Poison is poured into the Church though Hermannus Gigas Reports it for true Melleolus Relates it thus When Constantine gave to Pope Sylvester the Palace of the Laterane the City of Rome and Provinces of Italy a Hand was seen writing upon a Wall of the Laterane Hodie vacuum Ecclesia infusurus Centur. Magdeb cant 4. c. 13. 5. Voices Extracted from the Miscellanies of John Aubery Esq In the Life of King Henry IV. of France writ by the Arch-bishop of Paris it is recorded That Charles IX who caused the Massacre was wont to hear Screaches like those of the Persons Massacred 6. St. Augustine heard a Voice saying Tolle lege He took up his Bible and dipt on Rom. 13.13 Not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness c. and Reformed his Manners upon it 7. One Mr. Smith a Practitioner of Physiek at Tamworth in Warwick-shire an understanding sober Person reading Hollinshead's Chronicle found a relation of a great Fight between Vortigern and Hengest about those Parts at a place call'd Colemore A little time after as he lay awake in his Bed he heard a Voice that said unto him You shall shortly see some of the Bones of those Men and Horses slain that you read of He was surprized at the Voice and ask'd in the Name of God who it was that spoke to him The Voice made answer That he should not trouble himself about that but what he told him should come to pass Shortly after as he went to see Colonel Archer whose Servants were digging for Marle he saw a great many Bones of Men and Horses and also Pot-sherds and upon a view it appeared to be according to the description in Hollingshead's Chronicle and it was the place where the Fight was but it is now called Blackmore This was about the Year 1685. and I had the account from my worthy Friend and old Acquaintance Tho. Mariett of Warwickshire Esq who is very well acquainted with Mr. Smith aforesaid 8. It was since the Restauration of King Charles II. that Martin Luther's Table Talk was Translated into English by but about half a Year before as he lay in his Bed awake he heard a Voice which did bid him Translate that Book but by reason of some Business he neglected it The Voice demanded Why he had not done it he replyed he had not leisure Said the Voice You shall have leisure enough shortly And shortly after he was Arrested and put in the Gate-house at Westminster where he remained many Months and there was the Translation finished See the Preface before the Book Thus far I 'm beholden to Mr. Aubrey's Collections 9. Philip Vp-John the Son of a Reverend Divine being about 11 Years of Age whilst he lived with Dr. Annesley in Spittle-yard in the Year 1686. being alone reading the Bible he thought he heard a Voice Bidding him prepare for Death for he should die in a short time Upon which this Boy being surprized he came down Stairs and acquainted the Family with it Two or three days after he heard this Voice he went to one Mr. Mallerye a Joyner who work'd to the Family and seeing him making a Coffin he told Mr. Mallerye he should die shortly and desired he would make for him such a Coffin as that was which passage Mr. Mallerye acquainted the Family with the same Day and though then in perfect health in a few days after fell sick of which sickness he died This remarkable Passage I received from a Person who was at Dr. Annesley's House when this hapned 10. Mrs. Elizabeth Dunton as she was walking through Moor-Fields to see her Reverend Father Dr. Annesley who then lay dangerously ill she fancied she heard a Voice saying to her You need not be so much concerned for your Father for as near as he is to death you shall go before him This made a great Impression upon her Mind and in a few Days after she fell Sick and her Recovery is much doubted This happened about the latter end of October 1696. CHAP. VI. The Discovery of things Secret or Future by Signs common Sounds and Voices THis Title is near a-kin to the fore-going and differs only in this that there an Articulate Voice and Express words were heard here only some Inarticulate sound of no natural signification or particular sence is requisite or some noise in General which can be supposed to import nothing move then the Presence and Agency of some Invisible being Of which it will not be necessary to give many Instances because of the Affinity this hath to several other Heads or Titles in this Book 1. A. D. 1630. A very Miraculous thing happened at Geismar in Hassia two Souldiers lying for safety in that Town one of them complained to the other who was in Bed with him that he was very cold the other Answer'd he could not believe it in regard that his own Body was very hot and wet intreating him to touch and feel his side which when he had done finding his hands exceeding wet and as it were glued and congealed together he suspected something extraordinary and looking on his hands by the light of the Moon he Judged them to be Bloody and endeavouring to wash off the Blood from his side presently more Blood issued out at length after the space of an hour it ceased of it self About three handfuls of Blond were taken out of the Sheets this with the Relation of other Circumstances they presented in the Morning to the Commander who enquired of him how he had felt himself that Night the Souldier Answered That he had been extream ill for some time but was afterwards restored to his former Health The two next years after this Prodigy this goodly Countrey of Hassia was miserably harassed by several Armies and the Inhabitants were Barbarously and Inhumanely treated by the Emperours Army and if the Prince or his Poor Subjects did at any time complain and Petition for Justice or Redress they were only scorned and rejected for their labours so that they were forced to endure Quarterings Taxations Burnings Robberies and Sacking of their Towns and Villages yea the Slaughter of Innumerable innocent Subjects of all sorts without being able to obtain any Pity or Compassion from their Enemies The same Year 1630 in May the Noremberg Carrier and several Passengers in their Journey towards Hamborough passing by the Town of Coburg at Night they observed with great Admiration a Prodigious fire going in
and out of the Town and heard a mighty noise like the Discharging of Canons Two years after which General Wallestein Assaulted this Town with Souldiers and great Guns but was so stoutly entertained by those within that after the loss of a great many of the Imperialists he was forced tho he had besieged it above Twenty Months to break up his siege and depart Surprizing Mirac of Nature p. 108. 2. In King Henry the VIII's Days there was one Mr. Gresham a Merchant of London setting Sail homewards from Palermo where dwelt at that time one Antonio called the Rich who had at one time two Kingdoms Mortgaged to him by the King of Spain and being Crossed by contrary Winds Mr. Gresham was constrained to Anchor under the Lee of the Island off from Bulo where was a Burning Mountain Now about the Midday when for a certain space the Mountain forbore to send forth Flames Mr. Gresham with eight of the Sailors ascended the Mountain approaching as near the Vent as they durst where amengst other Noises they heard a Voice cry aloud Dispatch dispatch the Rich Autonio is a coming Terrified herewith they hasted their return and the Mountain presently broke out in a Flame But from so dismal a place they made all the haste they could and desiring to know more of this matter the Winds still thwarting their course they returned to Palermo and forthwith enquiring for Antonio they found that he was Dead about the very Instant so near as they could guess when that Voice was heard by them Mr. Gresham at his return to London reported this to the King and the Mariners being called before him confirmed the same upon Mr. Gresham this wrought so deep an Impression that he gave over all his Merchandizing distributed his Estate partly to his Kinsfolk and partly to good uses retaining only a Competency for himself and so spent the rest of his days in Solitary Devotion Sands Relat. 248. 3. Knocking 's Extracted from the Miscellanies of John Aubrey Esq Mr. Baxter's Certainty of the Worlds of Spirits A Gentleman formerly seeming Pious of late Years hath fallen into the Sin of Drunkenness and when he has been Drunk and slept himself Sober something Knocks at his Beds-head as if one knock'd on a Wainscot when they remove the Bed it follows him besides loud Noises on other parts where he is that all the House heareth It poseth me to think what Kind of Spirit this is that hath such a care of this Man's Soul which makes me hope he will recover Do good Spirits dwell so near us Or are they sent on such Messages Or is it his Guardian Angel Or is it the Soul of some Dead Friend that suffereth and yet retaining Love to him as Dives did to his Brethren would have him Saved God keepeth yet such things from us in the Dark Three or four Days before my Father died as I was in my Bed about Nine a Clock in the Morning perfectly awake I did hear three distinct Knocks on the Beds-head as if it had been with a Ruler or Ferula Mr. Hierome Banks as he lay on his Death Bed in Bell-yard said Three Days before he died that Mr. Jennings of the Inner-Temple his great Acquaintance Dead a Year or two before gave Three Knocks looked in and said Come away He was as far from believing such things as any man 4. Mr. Brograve near Puckridge in Hertford-shire when he was a young man riding in a Lane in that Contrey had a Blow given him on his Cheek or Head He look'd back and saw that no body was near behind him anon he had such another Blow I have forgot if a Third He turn'd back and fell to the Study of the Law and was afterwards a Judge This Account I had from Sir John Penrudock of Compton-Chamberlain our Neighbour whose Lady was Judge Brograve's Neice 5. Newark has Knocking 's before Death And there is a House near Covent-Garden that has Warnings 6. At Berlin when one shall Die out of the Electoral House of Brandenburgh a Woman Drest in white Linnen appears always to several without speaking or doing any harm for several Weeks before This from Jasper Belshazer Cranmer a Saxon Gentleman Thus far I am beholding to Mr. Aubrey's Collect. CHAP. VII Discovery of Things Secret or Future by Prodigies Comets Lights Stars c. HERE I propound only to shew how God Almighty when he is doing or going to do any thing extraordinary in the World to put Nature out of its usual Course and make some greater and more remarkable Steps in his Providence He often hangs out some Flag makes some Flame of Fire his messenger or so Ruffles the Elements of the Visible World in such an unusual manner as is enough to startle Men not out of but into their Wits and make them serious and inquisitive into the Counsels of Heaven and their own Merits and Behaviour towards God and so to Humble them into Sorrow and Penitence when they see the Hand of God thus lifted up or concern'd for them 1. Before the Destruction of Jerusalem there was often seen in the Air Armies of men in Battle-array seeming to be ready to charge each other the Brazen Gate open'd of it self without being touched by any Body Joseph de Bell. Jud. l. 7. Gaffarella Part 2. c. 3. 2. A little before the time that Xerxes cover'd the Earth with his million of men there appear'd horrible and dreadful Meteors as Presages of the Evils that afterwards happened as there did likewise in the time of Attila who was call'd Flagellum Dei God's Scourge Gaffarrel unheard of Curios Part 2. Ch 3. 3. When Ambrose was a Child a Swarm of Bees settled on his Face in the Cradle and flew away without hurting of him whereupon his Father said Si vixerit infantulus ille aliquid magni erit viz. If this Child live he will be some great man Clark's Mart. of Eccl. Hist 4. In the time of Gregory the Great A. C. 600 c. The River Tsber swell'd to such an unmeasurable height that it ran over the Walls of Rome and drowned a great part of the City and brake into many great Houses overthrew divers antient monuments and Gravaries belonging to the Church carrying away many thousand measures of Wheat Presently after which Innundation came down the River an innumerable Company of Serpents with one monstrous great one as big as a Beam which when they had swam into the Sea were there choaked and their Carcasses being all cast upon the Shoar there rotted which caused such an Infection of the Air that presently a great Plague followed at Rome so that many thousands died of it Yea Arrows were visibly seen to be shot from Heaven and whosoever was stricken with them presently died amongst whom Pelagius was one then Bishop of Rome Ibid. p. 97. What the consequences of those Prodigies were I leave to the Consideration of the ingenious Reader who may easily find in Church-History
against Heresies saith That some in his time had the spirit of Prophecy to foreknow things to come they saw Divine Dreams and Visions Ibid. 3. Cyprian in his 4th Epistle sets down this Vision with a Respect to the Persecution then raised by Aemilianus President of Egypt Paternus c. There was saith he an aged Father sitting at whose Right Hand was a young Man very Pensive and Sorrowful with his Hand on his Breast on the other Hand another Person with a Net in his Hand as threatning to catch those Men that were about him Whilst Cyprian was wondring hereat he seem'd to hear a Voice saying unto him The young man is sorrowful because his Precepts are not observed he on the Left Hand danceth and is merry for that hereby occasion is given him from the Antient Father to afflict Men. This was long before the Persecution happened Ibid. Cyprian faith he was by another Vision admonished to use a Spare Diet and he sparing in his Drink Ibid. 4. Valens the Emperor fully purposing to drive Basil out of Cesarea was warn'd by his Wife to desist for that she had been troubled with dreadful Dreams about him and their only Son Gallates was desperately ill at that time in the Judgment of the Physitians and this she imputed to the ill Design of the Emperor against Basil Valens hereupon sent for Basil saying thus to him If thy Faith be true pray that my Son die not of this Disease To whom Basil answer'd If you will believe as I do and bring the Church into Vnity and Concord your Child shall doubtless live The Emperor not agreeing to this Basil departed and the Child presently died Ibid. 5. Antonius Physitian to Augustus was admonished in a Dream by a Daemon that appeared to him in the form of the Goddess Pallas that altho' Augustus was sick yet he should not fail to be present in the Battle which was next day to he given by Brutus and Cassius and that he should there abide in his Tent which he would have done but by the Physicians deep Perswasions to the contrary For it came to pass that the Enemy's Soldiers won the Tents where questionless they had slain Augustus if he had been present there So upon this Dream he prevented his Death won the Day and remain'd sole Monarch of the Roman Empire and under his Reign was born the Saviour of the World Mexico's Treasury of Antient and Modern Times Book 5. C. 25. 6. Quintus Curtius declares in the Life of Alexander That when he laid Siege to the City of Tyre he being intreated for Succour of the Carthaginians who said they were descended of the Tyrians concluded to raise his Siege as despairing of ever surprizing it But in a Dream a Satyr appear'd to him after whom he follow'd as he fled before him into a Chamber his Interpreters told him that it was a sure Sign he should take the City if he pursued and continued the Siege which fell out to be true Idem ex Qu. Curtio 7. Katherine de Medicis Queen of France and Wife to King Henry the II. dream'd the day before the said King was wounded to Death That she saw him very sickly holding down his Head as he walked along the Streets of Paris being followed by an infinite number of his People that lamented for him Hereupon she most earnestly intreated him with wringing Hands and bended Knees not to adventure in the Rank of Tilters on that Day But he giving no Credit to her words the last Day of Feasting for the Marriage of Madam Margaret his Sister to Emanuel Philibert Duke of Savoy entred the Lists of Honour and running to break the Lance against a bold and worthy Knight the Count of Montgomery happened to be wounded of which wound the King died soon after Aged about 40. leaving his Kingdom sadly mourning for him Ibid. l. 5. c. 25. 8. His Son King Henry the third three days before he was murdered at St. Clou beheld in a Dream all his Royal Ornaments viz. his Linnen Vesture Sandals Dalmatian Robe Mantle of Azure Sattin Crowns Scepter and Hand of Justice Sword and gilt Spurs all bloody and soil'd with the Feet of Religious Men and others and that he was very angry with the Sexton of St. Dennis And though good Advice was given him to stand upon his Guard yet so it fell out that he could not avoid the fatal Chance Ibid. 9. Calphurnia Wife to the Adopted Father of Caesar having dreamed That she beheld Caesar slain and massacred gave him notice thereof but he in despite of the Dream went jocundly to the Senate next day where he found the sad Effect and Consequence of this Dream Ibid. Mr. Chetwind in his Hist Collections gives us the Account more at large thus viz. Caesar in the fifty sixth year of his Age was slain in the Senate Seventy of the chief Senators conspiring his Death he having the Night before when a Question was asked What Death was best answered The suddain and not propensed His Wife dreamt that Night That he lay dead in her lap and Spurina warned him to have heed to the Ides of March and a Note was given to him going to the Senate discovering the Conspiracy which he began to read but was interrupted and died with it in his hands 10. Bradwarain in his Preface to his Learned Book de Causa Dei tells us of a Dream he had in the Night when he was about his Book in Confutation of Pelagius he thought he was caught up into the Air and Pelagius came and took hold of him to cast him down head-long upon the Earth but he prevailed against him after much strugling and cast down Pelagius so that he brake his Neck and he lay dead upon the Earth Whereby he faith he was much comforted and strengthened Mr. Barkers Flores 11. Thomas Wotton Esq of Bocton Malherb in Kent Father to the Famous Sir H. Wotton a little before his death dreamed That the Vniversity-Treasury was Robbed by Townsmen and poor Scholars in number Five and wrote this Dream the next day by way of Postscript in a Letter to his Son Henry then of Queens Colledge The Letter dated 3 days before out of Kent came to his Son's hands the very Morning after the Robbery was committed The Letter being Communicated by Mr. Wotton gave such Light to this Work of Darkness that the Five guilty Persons were presently discovered and apprehended Dr. Plat's Nat. Hist of Oxfordsh c. 8. p. 47. 12. Astyages last King of the Medes saw in his Dream a Vine springing forth from the Womb of his only Daughter and at last so Flourish and Spread out it self that it seemed to overspread all Asia The Sooth-sayers being Consulted about it answered him That of his Daughter should be born a Son that should seize on the Empire of Asia and divest him of his Tertified with this Prediction he bestowed his Daughter on Cambyses an obscure Person and a Foreigner When his
was with Child of him she dreamed that she had a little white and barking Dog in her Womb which a Religious Person Interpreted thus An excellent Dog indeed for he shall be a Keeper of God's House and shall incessantly bark against the Adversâ—â—ies of it and as a famous Preacher shall cure many with his Medicinal Tongue Idem ex Heidfeld in Sphing c. 37. 25. Francis Petrarch had a Friend so desperately ill that he despaired of his Life wearied with Grief and Tears he fell into a slumber and seemed to see his sick Friend stand before him and tell him that he could not now stay any longer with him for there was one at the Door would interrupt their Discourse to whom he desired that he would recommend his weak Estate and that it he should undertake him he should be restored Presently a Physician enters Petrarch's Chamber who came from the sick as having given him over for a dead Man to comfort him Petrarch recounts his Dream to him with Tears and prevails with him to undertake his Friend who thereupon in a short time recovered Idem ex Fulg. l. 1. c. 5. 26. Arlotte Mother of William the Conqueror when great with Child of him dreamed that her Bowels were extended over all Normandy and England Bakers Chron. p. 28. 27. Whilst I lived at Prague saith an English Gentleman and one Night had sate up very late a drinking at a Feast early in the Morning the Sun-beams glancing on my Face as I lay in my Bed I dreamed that a shadow passing by told me That my Father was dead At which awaking I rose and wrote the Day and Hour and all Circumstances thereof in a Paper-Book which Book with many other things I put into a Barrel and sent it from Prague to Stode thence to be carried into England And now being at Nuremberg a Merchant of a Noble Family well Acquainted with me and my Relations arrived there who told me that my Father was dead about two Months ago I list not to write any Lies but that which I write is as true as strange When I returned into England some Four Years after I would not open the Barrel I sent from Prague till I had called my Sisters and some other Friends to be Witnesses where my self and they were astonished to see my written Dream answer the very day of my Father's Death Morison's Itin. p. 1. c. 1. A.B. Annot. on Relig. Med. p. 294. Wanley's Wonders of the Little World l. 6. c. 1. 28. The same Gentleman saith thus also I may lawfully swear that which my Kinsmen have heard witnessed by my Brother Henry whilst he liv'd that in my Youth at Cambridge I had the like Dream of my Mother's death where my Brother Henry lying by me early in the Morning I dreamed that my Mother passed by with a sad Countenance and told me That she could not come to my Commencement I being within 5 Months to proceed Master of Arts and she having promised at that time to come to Cambridge when I related this Dream to my Brother both of us awaking together in a Sweat he professed to me That he had dreamed the very same and when we had not the least knowledge of our Mother's sickness neither in our youthful Affections were any whit affected with the strangeness of this dream yet the next Carrier brought us word of our Mother's death Iâ—id 29. I cannot omit the Dream and Revelation of Joan d' Arke a Virgin who dreamed that she her self should be the only means to put Charles the 7th in possession of his Kingdom After she had acquainted her Father and Mother with her Dream she is brought to the Lord Baudricate and habited like a Man is presented to the King The Matter seemed ridiculous to the King he takes upon himself the Habit of a Country-man this Maid being brought into the Chamber goeth to the King and salutes him with a modest Countenance and delivered to him the Charge which she had received of the God of Heaven and told him That she should be the means to place the Crown upon his head and relieve Orleance that was Besieged by the English The King was persuaded to give her a Troop of 100 and a good Horse She puts her self into a Man's Habit and like a valourous Captain goeth towards Orleance and relieveth the Town with Victuals without resistance After she was in Orleance she sends a Letter to the King of England and his Troops and wisheth them to depart without shedding any more innocent Blood Joan d' Arke a second time relieveth Orleance and brings in fresh Provision she makes choice of 1500 Men and enters the Fort of Saint Loope the Virgin in the foremost of the Ranks crying Saint Denis the next Day they took two other Forts on the third Day the English made the French recoil but the Virgin incouraging her Men and marching couragiously was shot in the Arm Tush saith she this is a favour nothing amazed she takes the Arrow in one hand and her Sword in the other and enters the Fort. In these three Days the English lost 8000 Men and the French not one hundred and as a remembrance of their Victories the Statues of Charles the Seventh and Joan d' Arke are placed upon the Bridge of Orleance kneeling before a Crucifix Charles the Seventh is Crowned at Rheins all Champaigns yield unto him and the King that was in great danger of losing his Kingdom is now an absolute King The Divine Dreamer p. 15. 30. Cicero among other Dreams relates this A certain Man dreamed that there was an Egg hid under his Bed The Sooth-sayer to whom he applied himself for the Interpretation of the Dream told him That in the same place where he imagined to see the Egg there was Trensure hid Whereupon he caused the place to be digged up and there accordingly he found Silver and in the midst of it a good quantity of Gold and to give the Interpreter some testimony of his acknowledgment he brought him some pieces of the Silver which he had found but the Sooth-sayer hoping also to have some of the Gold said And will you not give me some of the Yolk too Amyrald Dis of Div. Dreams p. 22. 31. Monsieur Pâ—irese Councellor of the Parliament of Provence going from Mohrpellier to Nismes lay all Night in an Inn which is the mid-way betwixt these two places he had in his Company one James Rainier Citizen of Aix who in that Journey lodged in the same Chamber with him As that great Man slept Rainier observ'd that he talk'd and mutter'd something in his Sleep otherwise than was usual with him whereupon he wakened him and ask'd what was the matter Oh! said he you have made me lose a most excellent and pleasant Dream for I was dreaming That I was at Nismes and that a Goldsmith shew'd me a Golden Medal of Julius Caesar which he would sell me for four Crowns and as I was ready to
Bulwarks Trenches and well mann'd and on the side of it was an Arm of the Sea but in regard he could not give the word he was not admitted As he passed by he perceived one that was looking under a Tree to take the true heighth of a Star The Astronomer to show the full Proportion of the Man drew forth a small glass out of a Box took a small Ribbond of a skin Colour the glass was of an oval form set round with Diamonds and Rubies the middle thereof was made of Topaz and so exactly cut as it sufficiently expressed the skill of the Lapidary On one side of the Glass he could perceive this Tall Man habited like a Prince on the other side like a Mourner and by him an Executioner with this Inscription over his head in great Letters worser ruled not Traytors head must off Now Sir said the Astronomer cast up each Letter of this Inscription and you shall find out his Name and Title the which he presently and readily undertook by Transplacing the Letters and found it to be Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord Strafford It was no small wonder to him to see that his Lordships Name and Title should so truely Divine his Nature and Fortune no sooner had this Astronomer shewed this Glass but he Vanished and making a horrible noise at his Departue the Gentleman awaked and fell again into a sweet slumber and soon after gave this Revelation to Divers The Divine Dreamer p. 18. 36. I may self remember saith Sir Francis Bacon that being in Paris and my Father dying in London two or three days before my Father's Death I had a Dream which I told to Divers English Gentlemen that my Father's House in the Countrey was Plaistered all over with black Mortar Bacon's Nat. Hist cent 10. p. 211. 37. Bradford the Night before he was going to Newgate Dreamed that the Chain for his burning was brought to the Compter Gate and how the next day he should be had to Newgate and on the Monday after burnt in Smithfield which came to pass accordingly Fox Martyrol 38. Mr. Rough Minister of the private Congregation in London in Queen Mary's Reign dreamed that himself was carried forcibly to the Bishop and that the Bishop pluckt off his Beard Which accordingly came to pass Ibid. 39. Mr. Philpot in Prison thus reports to a Friend by Letter In the midst of my sweet Rest I seem'd to see a great Beautiful City all of the Colour of Azure and white four-square in a Marvellous composition in the midst of the Sky the sight whereof so inwardly comforted me that I am not able to express the inward consolation thereof yea the Remembrance thereof causeth as yet my heart to leap for Joy c. For which reason I think it came not from the illusion of the senses Ibid. 40. Bishop Jewel being in Germany Dream'd one night that two of his Teeth dropt out of his Mouth told this Dream next Morning to Peter Martyr who interpreted it to signify the loss of some Dear Friends Jewel put the time of it in his Note-Book and not long after had News by Letter of the Burning of Bishop Ridley and Bishop Hooper This was related to me by a Friend out of his Life Writ at large But having only the short Account of his Life in English by me and not finding it there I insist no further upon it 41. Dreams Extracted from the Miscellanies of John Aubrey Esq He that has a mind to read of Dreams may peruse Cicero de Divinatione Hier. Cardani Somniorum Synesiorum Lib. IV. and Moldinarius de Insomniis c. I shall here mention but little out of them my purpose being chiefly to set down some remarkable and Divine Dreams of some that I have had the honour to be intimately acquainted with Persons worthy of belief 42. In Queen Mary's time there was only one Congregation of Protestants in London to the number of about three Hundred One was the Deacon to them and kept the List of their Names One of that Congregation did Dream that a Messenger Queens Officer had feized on this Deacon and taken his List the Fright of the Dream awaked him He fell asleep and dreamt the same perfect Dream again In the Morning before he went out of his Chamber the Deacon came to him and told him his Dream and said it was a warning from God the Deacon slighted his advice and savouring of Superstition but was so urgent with him that he prevail'd with him to deposite the List in some other Hand which he did that Day The next day the Queens Officer attacqued him and search'd in vain for the List which had it been found would have brought them all to the Flame Fox's Martyrology 43. When Doctor Harvey one of the Physicians Colledge in London being a young Man went to Travel towards Padua he went to Dover with several others and shewed his Pass as the rest did to the Governour there The Governour told him That he must not go but he must keep him Prisoner The Doctor desired to know for what reason how he had transgrest Well it was his Will to have it so The Pacquet-Boat hoised Sail in the Evening which was very clear and the Doctor 's Companions in it There ensued a terrible Storm and the Pacquet-Boat and all the Passengers were drown'd The next day the said News was brought to Dover The Doctor was unknown to the Governour but by Name and Face but the Night before the Governour had a perfect Vision in a Dream of Doctor Harvey who came to pass over to Calais and that he had a warning to stop him This the Governour told to the Doctor the next Day The Doctor was a pious good Man and has several times directed this Story to some of my Acquaintance 44. My Lady Seymer dreamr That she found a Nest with nine Finches in it And so many Children she had by the Earl of Winchelsey whose Name is Finch 45. The Countess of Cork now Burlington being at Dublin dreamt that her Father the Earl of Cumberland who was then at York was dead He died at that time 46. 'T is certain that several had monitory Dreams of the Conflagration of London 47. When Sir Christopher Wren was at Paris about 1671 he was ill and Feverish made but little Water had a pain in his Reins He sent for a Physician who advis'd him to be let Blood thinking he had a Pleurisie But Bleeding much disagreeing with his Constitution he would defer it a Day longer That Night he dreamt That he was in a place where Palm-Trees grew suppose Egypt and that a Woman in a Romantick Habit reach'd him Dates The next Day he sent for Dates which cured him of the pain in his Reins 48. Sir Roger L'Estrange was wont to divertise himself with Cocking in his Father's Sir Hammond L'Estrange's Park he dreamt That there came to him in such a place of the Park a Servant who brought him News
Who upon the Eighth day of July 1657. went from this to a better World about four of the Clock the day before he Died a Matron who Died a little before and whilst living was Dear to Mr. Vsher appeared to him in his sleep and invited him to Sup with her the next Night He at first denyed her but she more vehemently pressing her request on him at last he consented and that very Night he Died. Dr. Stern's Dissertatio de morte p. 163. 14. I have also the fullest assurance that can be of the Truth of this following Narrative A Person yet living was greatly concerned about the welfare of his Dear Father and Mother who were both shut up in London in the time of the great Contagion in 1665. Many Letters he sent to them and many hearty Prayers to Heaven for them But about a fortnight before they were infected he fell about break of day into this Dream that he was in a great Inn which was full of company and being very desirous to find a private Room where he might seek God for his Parents Life he went from Room to Room but found company in them all at last casting his Eye into a little Chamber which was empty he went into it lockt the Door kneeled down by the outside of the Bed and whilst he was vehemently begging of God the Life of his Friends fixing his Eyes upon the Plaister'd Wall within side the Bed there appeared upon the Plaister of the Wall before him the Sun and Moon shining in their full strength The sight at first amazed and discomposed him so far that he could not continue his Prayer but kept his Eye fixed upon the Body of the Sun at last a small line or ring of black no bigger than that of a Text Pen circled the Sun which increasing sensibly eclipsed in a little time the whole body of it and turned it into a blackish colour which done the Figure of the Sun was immediately changed into a perfect Death's head and after a little while Vanished quite away The Moon still continued shining as before but whilst he intently beheld it it also darkned in like manner and turned also into another Death's head and Vanished This made so great an Impression upon the beholder's mind that he immediately awaked in confusion and perplexity of thoughts about his Dream and awakning his Wife related the particulars to her with much emotion and concernment but how to apply it he could not presently tell only he was satisfied that the Dream was of an extraordinary Nature At last Joseph's Dream came into his thoughts with the like Emblems and their Interpretation which fully satisfied him that God had warned and prepared him thereby for a sudden parting with his Dear Relations which answerably fell out in the same order his Father dying that day fortnight following and his Mother just a Month afterwards These Eight Relations the Transcribed out of Mr. Flavel's Treatise of the Soul 15. The Lady Rich gives this Relation of Mr. Tyro Minister from his own Mouth About seven weeks before his Death when there was hope of recovery he told me he had something to tell me that he had not imparted to any body and expressed it thus When I was one Evening returning to my Lodging then at Vngar from this House being then in a good Degree of Health and in a serious frame meditating by the way I heard a Voice say You shall dye and not pass your five and thirtieth year of Age. Which Voice Astonished me greatly and looking round about me seeing no body put me into great Consternation and Sweat all over me such as I never felt tho I dare not compare it to drops of Blood yet I cannot express how dreadful it was You know Madam my Principles and that I am no Enthusiast and how cautious I am as to Revelations But I am sure this was no Melancholy Fancy But an Articulate Voice After I had a little recovered my self I begged of God to discover to me if this were from him or a Delusion from Satan but still the Impression remained t ho I sought God by Prayer most part of that Night and you may remember in my next Visit I told you I should dye shortly but I did not tell you of the Voice I heard And then he added This is my Five and Thirtieth year of my Age in July next I shall be so old And many other Expressions he added which is too much for a Letter but he Died in January 1630. Hist Disc Appar Witches p. 199. 16. The Lady Ware 's Chaplain dreamt that such a day he should dye but having forgot it almost till the Evening before Supper there being thirteen at Table according to a fond conceit that one of these must soon dye One of the young Ladies pointed to him as the person He remembring the Dream fell into some disorder but being reproved for his superstition he said he was confident he was to dye before Morning It was Saturday Night and he was to Preach next day he went to his Chamber in perfect health sate up late prepared his Notes for his Sermon and the next Morning was found Dead See Mr. Parson's Sermon at the Earl of Rochester's Funeral 17. Sir Matthew Hale had some secreet presage of his Death saying that if he did not dye such a day he should live a Month longer and he died that very day Month. Nov. 25. See his Life by Dr. Burnet 18. It was observed that several Omens preceeded the Death of Arch-bishop Laud as the falling down of his Picture in his Parlour the Arms of his See the sinking of the Lambeth Ferry-Boat with the Arch-Bishop's Coach-Horses and Coach-Men to the bottom of the Thames Dr. Heylin in his Life and the Author of the Breviate of the Life of Arch-Bishop Laud p. 35. 19. One James Oxenham of Sale-Monachroum in the County of Devon a Gentleman of good worth and quality who had many Children one whereof was called John Oxenham a young Man in the Vigour Beauty and Flower of his Age about twenty two six Foot and a half high pious and well qualified this young Man falling Sick two days before his departure there appeared the likeness of a Bird with a white Breast hovering over him Attested by Robert Woodley and Humphrey King who justified it to the Minister of the Parish being examined by him at the appointment of Joseph Laud Bishop of Exeter this Person died Sep. 5. 1635. He was no sooner Dead in this Manner but the same Apparition did again shew it self to Thomazine the Wife of James Oxenham the younger a Woman of unspotted Life about eleven a Clock at Night And she died to the comfort of all about her Sep. 7. 1635. Attested by Elizabeth Frost and Joan Tooker who were examined by the same Minister Not long after Rebeccah Sister of the aforesaid Thomazine Aged about eight years about eleven a Clock at Night was presented with
and Strictness in Religion and told them that in a clear Moonshine Night the Devil in the shape of a great uggly Man stood by his Bed-side opening the Curtains and looking him in the Face and at last took up the Blanket and sometimes smiled on him then was more uggly and after a while in which he lay in great Terror the Apparition vanished and he was affrighted into the aforesaid Change of Life Attested by most credible and Religious Persons near Wolverhampton in Staffordshire who dwelling in the same-House with Mr. Baxter oft told the same to him Hist Disc of Apparitions and Witches p. 59. 30. Serj. Glanvil's Father had a fair Estate which he intended to settle on his elder Brother but he being a vicious young Man and there appear'd no Hopes of his Recovery he settled it on him that was his second Son Upon his death his eldest Son finding that what he had before looked on as the threatnings of an angry Father was now but too certain became Melancholy and that by Degrees wrought so great a Change on him that what his Father could not prevail in while he liv'd was now effected by the Severity of his last Will so that it was now too late for him to change in hopes of any Estate that was gone from him But his Brother observing the reality of the Change resolv'd within himself what to do so he call'd him with many of his Friends together to a Feast and after other Dishes had been serv'd up to the Dinner he order'd one that was cover'd to be set before his Brother and desired him to uncover it which he doing the Company was surpriz'd to find it full of Writings so he told them that he was now to do what he was sute his Father would have done if he had liv'd to see that happy Change which they now all saw in his Brother and therefore he freely restored to him the whole Estate Dr. Burnet in his Life of Sir Matthew Hale y. 8. 31. Bruno born in Collogne and Professor of Philosophy in Paris about the year of Christ 1080. being present at the singing of the Office for his Fellow-Professor now dead highly reputed for his Holy Life the dead Corps sits up in the Bier and crys out I am in God's just Judgments condemn'd These words he utter'd three several Days at which Bruno was so affrighted that a Man held so Pious was Damn'd began to think what would become of himself and many more Therefore concluding there was an Hell took himself with six of his Schollars to a hideous place for dark Woods high Hills Rocks and wild Beasts in the Province of Dauphin near Grenoble and there built a Monastery having obtain'd the Ground of Hugo Bishop of Grenoble the place call'd Carthusia whence his Monks took their Name See my Book of all Religions 32. Luther tells us of two Cardinals riding in great Pomp to the Council of Constance and by the way they heard a Man bitterly weeping and wailing When they came to him they found him intently viewing an uggly Toad and ask'd him why he wept so bitterly he told them his Heart was melted with this consideration that God had not made him such a loathsome and deformed Creature hoc est quod amarè fleo said he Whereupon one of them crys out Well said the Father Surgunt indocti rapient Coelum The Unlearned will arise and take Heaven and we with all our Learning shall be cast into Hell Luther in tertium praecept See more in this Book A Relation of the wonderful Conversion of a Kentish Gentleman Mr. Studly related to me by Mr. Knight Minister intimately acquainted with him 33. His Father was a Lawyer in Kent of about 400 l. per annum who had built a very fair Mansion-House upon the Estate He was a great Enemy to the Power of Religion and an Hater of those that were then call'd Puritans His Son in his youth seem'd to follow in the same Steps till the Lord that had separated him from the Womb call'd him home which was as followeth The young Man was at London and being drunk in some Company and going in the Night towards his Lodging fell into a Cellar and in the Fall was seiz'd with Horror and thought he fell into Hell at that time It pleased God he took little Harm by the Fall but lay there some Hours in a drunken Drowse his Body being heated with what he drank and his Soul awakned he thought he was actually in Hell After that he was come to himself and was gotten home into Kent he fell into Melancholy betook himself to read and study the Scriptures and to much Prayer Which at length his Father perceiv'd and fearing he would turn Puritan was troubled and dealt roughly with him made him dress his Horses which he humbly and willing submitted to And when at that time his Father perceived he sate up late at Night reading in his Bible he denied him Candle-light But being allowed a fire in his Chamber he told Mr. Knight he was wont to lye along and read by the fire light and said that while he was dressing his Fathers Horses in his Frock and in that time of reading by the fire he had those Comforts from the Lord and Joys that he had scarce experienced since His Father seeing this means ineffectual resolved to send him into France that by the Airiness of that Countrey his Melancholly temper might be cured He went and being at his own dispose by the Lords guiding him he placed himself in the House of a Godly Protestant Minister and between them after they were acquainted and such is the Cognation of saving grace in Divers Subjects that a little time will serve for Christians to be acquainted there grew great endearment Great progress he made in speaking the Language and his Father expecting an Account from the Gentleman with whom he sojourn'd of him of his proficiency in speaking French he sent it to him but soon after had Orders to return home And the Father directing it or he intreating it the Landlord with whom he had sojourned came into England with him and both made very welcome at his Father's House He not knowing that he was a Minister At last the Father took the French Gentleman and his Son at Prayers together and was angry paid him what was due to him and sent him away Then his Father having an interest in 〈◊〉 Person of Honour a great Lady at White-Hall whose Courts he as a Lawyer kept and his Son by his now past Education accomplisht for such an employ prevailed with that Lady to take his Son for her Gentleman to wait upon her in her Coach He thought by a Court Life to drive away his Melancholy as he call'd his Sons seriousness in Religion The Lady had many Servants some given to Swearing and Rudeness whom this Young Gentleman would take upon him to reprove with that Prudence and Gravity that Sin fell down
Discourses upon these Subjects and after all told me Sir the Lord hath given me Repentance for this Sin yea and for every other Sin I see the evil of Sin now so as I never saw it before Oh I loath my self I am a very vile Creature in my own Eyes I do also believe Lord help my unbelief I am heartily willing to take Christ upon his own Terms One thing troubles me I doubt this bloody Sin will not be pardoned Will Jesus Christ said he apply his Blood to me that have shed my own I told him Christ shed his Blood even for them that with wicked Hands had shed the Blood of Christ and that was a Sin of deeper Guilt than this Well said he I will cast my self upon Christ let him do by me what he pleases And so I parted with him that Night Next Morning the Wounds were to be open'd and then the Opinion of the Chyrurgeon were he would immediately expire Accordingly at his Desire I came that Morning and found him in a most serious frame I prayed with him and then the Wound in his Stomach was opened but by this time the Ventricle it self was swoln out of the Orifice of the Wound and lay like a live discolour'd Tripe upon his Body and was also cut through so that all concluded it was impossible for him to live however they stitch'd the Wound in the Stomach enlarged the Orifice and fomented it and wrought it again into his Body and so stitching the Skin left him to the Dispose of Providence But so it was that both the deep VVound in his Throat and this in his Stomach healed and the more dangerous VVound Sin had made upon his Soul was I trust effectually healed also I spent many Hours with him in that Sickness and after his return home received this Account from Mr. Samuel Hardy a Minister in that Town Part whereof I shall Transcribe Dear Sir I was much troubled at the sad Providence in your Town but did much rejoyce that he fell into such Hands for his Body and Soul You have taken much Pains with him and I hope to good purpose I think if ever a great and thorough VVork were done such a way it is now and if never the like I am perswaded now it is Never grow weary of such good VVorks One such Instance is methinks enough to make you to abound in the work of the Lord all your days Flavel's Divine Conduct CHAP. XXI Wants strangely supplied JOseph was sold into Egypt by the Envy of his Brethren to make Provision for them and their Father in a time of Famine Elijah is fed by an Angel when he was ready to starve with Hunger under the Juniper-Tree and found to his great Surprizal a Cake baked on the Coals and a Cruise of Water at his Head another time by a Raven who brought him Bread and Flesh Morning and Evening and a third time by the Wisdom of Zarepheth's Barrel of Meal and Cruise of Oyl which failed not so long as there was necessity of it What should I tell of Daniel and the three Children's Pulse and Water our Saviour's Loaves and Fishes of the Money found in the Belly of a Fish of the great Draught of Fishes that astonished St. Peter into Amazement God feedeth the young Ravens c. 1. Origen with his poor Mother and six Children after the Father's Death and the Confiscation of all his Goods to the Emperor procured a Sustenance for himself and them by teaching a Grammar-School and after being weary of that Profession he betook himself to the stndy of Sacred Scripture and Divinity and thus throwing himself upon Divine Providence it pleased God he was entertain'd by a Religious and Rich Matron together with his Mother and Brethren Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 2. Mr. Samuel Clark in the Life of that painful and humble Servant Mr. John Fox records a memorable Instance or Providence and it is thus That towards the end of King Henry the Eighth his Reign he went to London where he quickly spent that little his Friends had given him or he had acquired by his own Diligence and began to be in great want As one day he sat in St. Paul's Church spent with long Fasting his Countenance thin and his Eyes hollow after the ghastful manner of dying Men every one shunning a Spectacle of so much horror There came one to him whom he had never seen before and thrust an untold Sum of Money into his Hand bidding him be of good Cheer and accept that small Gift in good part from his Country-man and that he should make much of himself for that within a few Days new Hopes were at Hand and a more certain Condition of Livelihood Three Days after the Dutchess of Richmond sent for him to live in her House and be Tutor to the Earl of Surrey's Children then under her Care 3. Mr. Isaac Ambrose a worthy Divine whose Labours have made him acceptable to his Generation in his Epistle to the Earl of Bedford prefixed to his last things gives a pregnant Instance in his own Case his Words are these For my own part saith he however the Lord hath seen cause to give me but a poor pittance of outward things for which I bless his Name yet in the Income thereof I have many times observ'd so much of his peculiar Providence that thereby they have been very much sweetned and my Heart hath been raised to admire his Grace When of late under an hard Dispensation which I iudge not mete to mention wherein I suffer'd conscientiously all Streams of wonted Supplys being stopt the VVaters of Relief for my self and Family did run low I went to Bed with some Staggerings and Doubtings of the Fountains letting out it self for our refreshing but e're I did awake in the Morning a Letter was brought to my Bed-side which was signed by a choice Friend Mr. Anthony Ash which reported some unexpected breakings out of God's Goodness for my Comfort These are some of his Lines Your God who hath given you an Heart thankful to record your Experiences of his Goodness doth renew Experiences for your Encouragement Now shall I report one which will raise your Spirit towards-the God of your Mercies VVhereupon he sweetly concludes One Morsel of God's Provision especially when it comes in unexpected and upon Prayer when wants are most will be more sweet to a Spiritual Relish than all former Enjoyments were Flavel's Divine Conduct p. 93. 4. Rochell was strangely relieved by a Shoal of Fish that came into the Harbour when they were ready to perish with Famine such as they never observed before nor after that time Ibid. p. 31. 5. Mr. William Garaway a Gentleman sufficiently known for his excellent Parts and Activeness and Fidelity to both King and Country in several Parliaments during these three last Reigns told me lately of another such a Special and Remarkable Providence as this was which happened to a certain Sea-Port Town in England
and thereupon putting off his Apparel he gave it to his Deacons wishing them to give to his Executioner 25 pieces of Gold in testimony of his Love to him and so kneeling down cover'd his Eyes and submitted willingly to the stroke of the Sword A. C. 259. Ibid. 2. Cyril Bishop of Alexandria when in a great Famine many poor People came to him for Relief gave them all he had and sold the Vessels and Church-Ornaments to relieve their Wants Ibid. 3. Ephrem Syrus upon a Famine happening at Edessa assembling the Rich Men together complained that the Poor were almost starved whilst they covetously kept their Riches by them to their future Hazard and Torment of their Souls and perswading them to a charitable Contribution they chose him for their Almoner who thereupon took their Money provided 300 Beds for the Sick and Strangers and relieved them all the time of the Famine Ibid. 4. Basil the Great in a great Famine sold his Lands and all his other Goods to relieve the Poor and stil'd up other rich Merchants to contribute and caused publick Places to be erected for their Maintenance and would often not only visit them but administer to their Necessities Ibid. 5. Epiphanius spent all his Estate in relieving the Poor Ibid. 6. Theoderet was wonderfully charitable visiting and refreshing the Bowels of the Poor Ibid. 7. Chrysotom when banished to Cucusus in Armenia had much Money sent him by his Friends which he wholly employed for the Redemption of Captives and the Relief of poor Prisoners Ibid. 8. S. Augustine was very careful for the Poor and in case of great want would sell the Ornaments of the Church for their Relief and when the Church-Stock was spent he used to declare to the People that he had nothing left wherewith to relieve the Poor that thereby he might stir up their Charity to contribute to so good a work ibid. He always kept Scholars in his House whom he Fed and Cloathed ibid. At his Death he made no Will as having nothing to bestow ibid. 9. Cyril Bishop of Alexandria used to say 't is the best way for a Rich Man to make the Bellies of the Poor his Barns and thereby to lay up Treasure in Heaven Ibid. 10. Prosper Bishop of Rhegium in France distributed his Goods freely to the Poor and was a Father to all Ages and Sexes in the City Ibid. p. 89. 11. Fulgentius just before his Death called for a Sum of Money which as a Faithful Steward he daily used to distribute a mongst the Poor willing it all to be presently divided and recited by name the Widows Orphans and Poor he allotted to every one his Portion Ibid. p. 95. 12. Gregory the Great after his Fathers Death having more Liberty to dispose of himself and his Estate gave all his Estate towards the Relief of the Poor Ibid. p. 96. 13. S. Bernard What Money he had given him whilst Young he privately gave away to the Poor Ibid. p. 95. 14. Our late most Excellent Queen Mary distributed Annually to the distressed French Protestants 40000 Pounds English Spanhemius in his Funeral Oration She sent some Thousands of Pounds into this Land to be distributed among the Relicks of those that were killed Perizonius 15. Luther was very liberal to the Poor a poor Student asking him some Money he bid his Wife give him some but she pleading Penury he look't up a Silver Cup and gave that to him Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist. p. 144. 16. John Picus of Mirandula Relieved the Poor every Day gave much Money to poor Maids to prefer them in Marriage and employed an intimate Friend to enquire out the Wants and Necessities of poor House-keepers whom he bountifully Relieved Clark in his Life 17. Edward VIth King of England in a Sermon Preached by Dr. Ridley about Charity ordered Gray-Fryars-Church to be a House for Orphans St. Bartholomews to be an Hospital and his own House at Bridewel to be a place of Correction Hist of the Reform 18. Arch-Bishop Cranmer laid out all his Wealth on the Poor and pious Uses Ibid. 19. Queen Ann Bullen ever used to carry a little Purse about her for the Poor thinking no Day well spent wherein some had not fared the better at her Hand She kept her Maids and such as were about her so employed in Working and sewing Garments for the Poor that neither was there seen any idleness amongst them or any Leisure to follow foolish Pastimes Acts and Mon. 20. King Henry IId of England Sirnamed Beauclerk was very Charitable and Merciful to the Poor and Anno Christi 1176. in a great Dearth in his Countries of Anjou and Maine he fed every Day with sufficient Sustenance Ten Thousand Persons from the beginning of April till the time that new Corn was inned And whatsoever was laid up in his Granaries and Store-houses he employed the same for Relief of religious and poor People Pet. Blesensis 21. Francis Russel Second Earl of Bedford of that Sirname was so bountiful to the Poor that Queen Elizabeth would merrily complain of him that he made all the Beggars And sure it 's more Honourable for Noblemen to make Beggars by their Liberality then by their Oppression Holy State p. 297. 22. Holy Master Bradford in a hard time sold his Chains Rings and Jewels to Relieve those that were in Want Acts and Mon. 23. George Wiseheart a Scottish Martyr forbore one Meal in three or one Day in four that he might have wherewithal to Relieve the Poor He lay also hard upon Straw with new coarse Canvas Sheets which whenever he changed he gave away to the Poor See his Life in Clark's General Martyrology 24. Mr. John Eliot went much beyond the Proportions of his little Estate in the World bestowing freely upon the poor many hundreds of Pounds and he would with a very forcible Importunity press his Neighbours to join with him in such Beneficences Cott. Mather in his Life p. 39. Roxbury the Town where he lived could not live quietly without a Free School in the Town and the Issue of it hath been one thing which hath made me almost put the Title of Schola Illustris upon that little Nursery that is that Roxbury hath afforded more Scholars first for the Colledge and then for the Publick then any Town of its bigness or if I mistake not of twice its bigness in New England Ibid. p. 66. 25. Mr. Eliot learned the Indian Tongue with some Pains and Charge Translated the whole Bible into it and several English Treatises gathered a Church of Converted Indians about Natick and another about Mashippang and above these Five Assemblies more and set Pastors over them who meet together twice every Lord's Day and sometimes solemnly set a part whole Days either for Thanksgiving or Humiliation c. Ibid. p. 97 98. 26. Giles of Bruxels Martyr gave to the Poor all that he had that necessity could spare and lived by his Trade which was of a Cutler Some he
him truly from the Lord with a kindness that notably represented the Compassion which he hereby taught his Church to expect from the Lord Jesus Christ and after he had lived with her more than half a Hundred Years he followed her to the Grave with Lamentations beyond those which the Jews from the Figure of a Letter in the Text affirm that Abraham deplored his Aged Sarah with her departure made a deeper Impression upon him than what any common Affliction could His whole Conversation with her had that Sweetness and that Gravity and Modesty beautifying of it that every one called them Zachary and Elizabeth Cott. Mather in his Life p. 57. 5. C. Plautius Numida a Senator having heard of the Death of his Wife and not able to bear the Weight of so great a Grief thrust his Sword into his Breast but by the sudden coming in of his Servants he was prevented from finishing his Design and his Wound was bound up by them nevertheless as soon as he found opportunity according to his desire he tore off his Plaisters opened the Lips of his Wound with his own Hand and let forth a Soul that was unwilling to stay in the Body after that his Wife had forsaken hers Val. Max. L. 4. C. 6. p. 114. 6. Philip sir-named the Good the First Author of that Greatness whereunto the House of Burgundy did arrive was about Twenty three Years of Age when his Father John Duke of Burgundy was slain by the Villany and Perfidiousness of Charles the Dauphin being informed of that unwelcome News full of Grief and Anger as he was he hasts into the Chamber of his Wife she was the Dauphin's Sister O said he my Michalea thy Brother hath murthered my Father Upon this his Wife that loved him dearly burst forth into Tears and Lamentations fearing least this Act of her Brother's would make a Breach betwixt her Husband and her which her Husband taking Notice of comforted her saying Be of good cheer tho' it was thy Brother's yet it is not thy fault neither will I esteem or love thee less for it c. Which accordingly he made good so long as they lived together Lips Monit L. 2. C. 17. p. 388. Pol. p. 200. Clark's Marr. c. 65. p. 291. Wanley's Wonders of the Little World p. 143. 7. Mr. Samuel Fairclough his Wife dying in Child-bed was blamed for his great Sorrow for such a pious Relation See his Life CHAP. LIII Good Children Remarkable THat old celebrated Proverb in our Church Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it hath so much truth in it that a Good Education will either improve and meliorate the Nature of Persons or haunt them with continual Checks and Vneasiness of Thought all their Life after either they shall be made better by the Impression of early Notions upon their Hearts or smart for their Disobedience and Obstinacy For certainly a crooked Child seldom grows streight with Age and if a Plant is not flexible when young it will grow stiffer and more obdurate with time We use to Imprint the Seal when the Wax is warm and soft and Sow our Seed at Seed-time not in the Drought of Summer or the Coldness of Winter Every Body that hath Eyes takes Notice of the Rising Sun and the first opening of the Day every Gardiner and Farmer loves to see his Seeds and Grain and Plants promise well at the first And who is there so improvident among Christians as not to take notice and rejoyce in the early Product of their Instructions and Endeavours but especially to see them grateful and good in their particular Relations 1. Ant. Wallaeus attended upon his Parents so carefully in the time of their Sickness and so comforted them with Divine Consolations that at the Hour of Death they both blessed him and gave this Testimony of him that he had never offended them in all his Life Clark's Eccles History p. 471. 2. Q. cicero Brother of Marcus being proscribed and sought after to be slain by the Triumvirate was hid by his Son who for that cause was hurried to Torments but by no Punishments or Tortures could he forced to betray his Father The Father moved with the Piety and Constancy of the Son of his own accord offered himself to Death least for his sake they should determine with utmost severity against his Son Zonar Annual Tom. 2. p. 86. Xiphil in Augusto p. 60. 3. There happened in Sicily as it hath often an Irruption of Aetna now called Mount Gibel it murmurs burns belches up Flames and throws out its fiery Entrails making all the World to fly from it It happened then that in this violent and horrible breach of Fire every one flying and carring away what they had most precious with them Two Sons the one called Anapias the other Amphinomus careful of the Wealth and Goods of their Houses reflected on their Father and Mother both very old who could not save themselves from the Fire by slight And where shall we said they find a more precious Treasure than those who begat us The one took up his Father on his Shoulders the other his Mother and so made passage through the Flames It is an admirable thing that God in the Consideration of this Piety though Pagans did a Miracle for the Monuments of all Antiquity witness that the devouring Flames staid at this Spectacle and the Fire wasting and broiling all about them the Way only which these two good Sons passed was Tapestry'd with fresh Verdure and called afterwards by Posterity The Field of the Pious in Memory of this Accident Causs Hic Tom. 1. L 3. p. 113. Lon. Theatr. p. 272. Solin C. 11. p. 225. Camerar Oper. Subciscent 1. C. 86. p. 401. 4. Sir Thomas Moore being Lord Chancellor of England at the same time that his Father was a Judge of the King's-Bench he would always at his going to Westminster go first to the King's-Bench and ask his Father Blessing before he went to sit in the Chancery Baker's Chron. p. 406. Fuller H. S. L. 1. C. 6. p. 13. 5. The Carriage of Mr. Herbert Palmer towards his Parents was very dutiful and obsequious not only during his Minority but even afterwards which was very evident in that Honour and Respect which he continued to express to his Aged Mother to the Day of her Death Clark's Exampl Vol. 1. C. 23. 6. Our King Edward the First returning from the Wars in Palestine rested himself in Sicily where the Death of his Son and Heir coming first to his Ear and afterwards the Death of the King his Father he sorrowed much more for the loss of his Father than of his Son whereat King Charles of Sicily greatly wondred and asking the Reason of it had this Answer return'd him The loss of Sons is but light because it may be easily repaired but the Death of Parents is irremediable because they can never be bad again Idem
ex Speed Chron. 7. Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston enjoyed his Father a less time than his Grand-Father his Father being removed by Death long before his Grand-Father but yet we may easily gather what his Carriage to him was from the high and extensive Value he set upon his Memory as he used to please himself to Discourse of his Father affirming That he was a very Godly Man and that it was a great Disadvantage for him to part with him so young These things and others he would often declare to his Children and Friends dropping many Tears to shew his great and strong Affection and when he made his Will he there exprest an importunate Desire to his Executors that the Bones of his Father might be digged out of the Earth where they were buried and laid by his own Body in a new vault he order'd his Executors to erect for the same purpose Thus though he could not live with his Father as long as he would have desired yet he designed that their Bodies or Relicks should lie together 'till the happy Resurrection-Day which certainly did denote a Noble Veneration and a most raised Filial Affection See his Life CHAP. LIV. Remarkable Instances of an Early Piety or Children Good betimes TO see young Trees newly planted hopeful and promising is a very lovely and inviting sight A Jeremiah sanctified from his Mother's Womb a Joshua pious in his young years a Timothy well instructed in the Scriptures from a Child are very pleasant in sacred Records And when we see the Seeds of Piety spring up so soon we are ready to impute it to the Influence of Heaven and the Efficacy of Divine Grace And though sometimes these Blossoms die before any Fruit appears and a good Beginning hath not always a good Ending yet certainly and Lot Solomon or our Senses be Witnesses in the case 't is the likeliest way to end well when we begin well 1. Mr. Samuel Crook to shew that his Heart even in his Youth was drawn up towards the Pole of Heaven translated divers of David's Psalms and composed several Hymns of his own Some of which he sung with Tears of Joy and Desire in his last Sickness See his Life p. 4. 2. Origen when a Child was mightily inquisitive into the Meaning of the Scriptures even tiring his Parents with asking Religious Questions comforting his Father in Prison with Letters and hardly forbearing to offer himself to Martyrdom Dr. Cave 's Prim. Christian 3. K. Edward VI. took Notes of such things he heard in Sermons which more nearly related to himself Hist of the Reform 4. Queen Elizabeth wrote a good hand before she was Four years old and understood Italian Ibid. 5. Sir Thomas Moore never offended his Father nor was ever offended by him 6. Arch-bishop Vsher at 10 years old found himself wrought upon by a Sermon on Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God c. Dr. Bernard in his Life 7. Dr. W. Gouge when at School was continually studious even at play-hours conscionable in secret Prayer and sanctifying the Sabbath Clark 's Lives 8. Mr. Tho. Gataker was often chid by his Father from his Book Ibid. 9. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker when a School-Boy would frequently go in company 8 or 10 miles to hear a warming Sermon and took Notes and was helpful to others in repeating them and though his Father often and earnestly endeavoured to divert him yet when a Boy he was unmoveable in his Desires to be a Minister Ibid. 10. Mr. Herbert Palmer was esteemed sanctified even from the Womb at the Age of 4 or 5 years he would cry to go to his Lady Mothers Sir Tho. Palmer being his Father that he might hear somewhat of God When a Child little more than Five years old he wept in reading the Story of Joseph and took much pleasure in learning Chapters by heart he learned the French Tongue almost so soon as he could speak he often affirmed that he never remembred the learning of it by his Discourse he could hardly be distinguished from a Native French-man When at the Latin-School at vacant hours others were at play he was constantly observed to be reading studiously by himself Ibid. 11. Mr. Tho. Cartwright in his younger years rose many times in the night to seek out places to pray in Ibid. 12. Mr. Rich. Sedgwick when he was a School-boy and living with his Uncle and the rest of the Family were at their Games and Dancing he would be in a Corner mourning Ibid. 13. Mr. Julius Herring when a Boy was noted for his Diligence in Reading the Scriptures On Play-days he with 2 or 3 more School-fellows would pray together repeat the Heads of the Catechism with the Sermons which they heard last Lord's-day Ibid. 14. Mrs. Margaret Corbet Daughter of Sir Nathaniel Brent Warden of Merton-Colledge whom about 14 years of Age wrote Sermons with Dexterity and left many Volumes of such Notes writ with her own Hand Ibid. 15. Mrs. Elizabeth Wilkinson was from her Childhood very Docile took much pains in writing Sermons and collecting special Notes out of Practical Divines When I was saith she in a Narrative written with her own Hand about Twelve years old upon reading in the Practice of Piety concerning the happy State of the Godly and the miserable Condition of the Wicked in their Death and so on to all Eternity it pleased the Lord so to affect my Heart as from that time I was wrought over to a desire to walk in the Ways of God Ibid. 16. Mr. Caleb Vernon could read the Bible distinctly at Four years old and by six became very apt in places of Scripture the Theory thereof and moral Regard thereto exactly observant of his Parents with ambition to serve and please them in love To begin a Correspondency with a good Friend of his Mr. R. D. then in London he wrote this his first Letter at Ten years of age Dear Sir I Received your kind Letter for which I thank you and desire the Book which you sent me may be made of good effect to my Soul and that my Soul may be filled with the Love of God ' being ready for the Day of his coming to judge the World in Righteousness when the Kings of the Earth shall tremble and the Rulers shall be astonished at the Brightness of his coming when he shall come with his Holy Angels in Power and Glory to judge the Earth in the Valley of Jehoshaphat O! that my Soul was fit for his Coming that I may be like a flourishing Flower in the Garden of Eden prepared for the Lord Christ This is a Trying-day the Lord is searching Jerusalem with Candles to find out out-side Professors who do make clean the out-side of the Cup and Platter when their Hearts are full of Deceit Oh! that we might be comforting one another with his coming putting on the Breast-plate of Faith and laying aside the Traditions of Men. O! how near is his coming even at the
thy sight be justified After a little Rest and Slumber she spake to her Father with much Joy and Gladness 1 Cor. 15.54 c. Death is swallowed up of Victory c. She commanded afterwards Psal 84. to her Mother saying Read that Psalm Dear Mother and therewith ye may comfort one another As for me I am more and more spent and draw near unto my last Hour Pray with me pray that the Lord would vouchsafe me a soft Death And when they had prayed with her she turned to her Mother and with much Affection said Ah my Dear Loving Mother that which comes from the Heart doth ordinarily go to the Heart Once come and kiss me before I leave you and also my Dear Father and my Sister and Father let my Sister be trained up in the Ways of God as I have been I bewailed and wept for my Sister thinking she would die and now she weeps for me Also she took her young little Sister in her Ams a Child of Six Months old and kissed it with much Affection as if her Bowels had been moved speaking with many Heart-breaking Words both to her Parents and the Children 'till her Father said to one standing by Take away that young poor Lambkin from the hazard of that fiery Sickness Give her away for ye have too much already to bear Well Father said she did not God preserve the Three Children in the fiery Furnace Citing also Isa 43.3 After a little Rest awaking again she rehersed 1 Cor. 15.42 43. Isa 57.1 2. Job 19.25 26 27. John 5.28 c. Eph. 2.8 9. and descanted pathetically upon them adding My Dear Parents now we must shortly part my Speech faileth me pray the Lord for a quiet Close to my Combat I go to Heaven and there we shall find one another I go to Jesus Christ and to my Brother Jacob who did cry so much to God and call upon him to the very last Breath and to my little Sister which was but Three Years of Age when it died c. At last after she had prayed a pretty space by herself she asked her Parents If she had angred or grieved them at any time or done any thing that became her not Craving Forgiveness of them Then she began to dispose her Books and other little things with some proportion of Prudence and after a short Discant on the following Scriptures Psal 23. Rom. 8. 2 Tim. 4.7 8. 1 Cor. 6.20 Isa 53 Joh. 1. 1. Cor. 6.11 Rev. 7. 2 Cor. 5.1 2. she concluded with these Words My Soul shall now part from this Body and shall be taken up into the Heavenly Paradise there shall I dwell and go no more out but sit and sing Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts c. O Lord God into thy Hands I commend my Spirit O Lord be gracious be merciful to me a poor Sinner And hereupon she fell a sleep Sept. 1. between Seven and Eight in the Evening having obtained according to her Prayers a quiet and soft Departure 26. Jacob Bickes above-mentioned Brother to the aforesaid Susanna was visited Three or Four Weeks before his Sister and slept most of his time 'till near his Death but so often as he awaked he gave himself to pray Upon motion made to send for the Physician he said Dear Father and Mother I will not have the Doctor any more The Lord shall help me I know he shall take me to himself and then he shall help all After Prayer Come now Dear Father and Mother said he and kiss me I know now that I shall die Adieu Dear Father and Mother Adieu my Dear Sister Adieu all Now shall I go to Heaven unto God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Angels Father know ye not what is said by Jer. 17. Blessed is he who trusteth in the Lord. Now I shall trust in him and he shall bless me And 1 John 2. Little children love not the world for the world passeth away Away then all that is in the World away with all my pleasant Things in the World Away with my Dagger which a Student had given him for where I go there 's nothing to do with Dagger and Sword Men shall not fight there but praise God Away with all my Books for where I go there 's nothing to be done with Books there I shall know and be learned sufficiently all things of true Wisdom and Learning without Books The Father telling him God would be near to him and help him Yea Father the Apostle Peter saith God resisteth the proud but gives grace to the humble I shall humble myself under the mighty Hand of God and he shall help and lift me up God hath given me so strong a Faith upon himself through Jesus Christ that the Devil himself shall flee from me for it is said John 3. He who believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and hath overcome the wicked one 1 John 2. Now I believe in Jesus Christ my Redeemer and he will not leave nor forsake me but shall give unto me Eternal Life then shall I sing Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Sabath And with this short Word of Prayer Lord be merciful to me a poor Sinner he quietly breathed out his Soul and slept in the Lord aged Seven Years August 8. 1664. Extracted out of a Pamphlet called An Edifying Wonder of Two Children Printed at London for Richard Tomlins 1667. 27. The Reverend Mr. Clark in his Works quotes a Child of Two Years old that looked towards Heaven And credible History acquaints us with a Martyr of Seven Years old that was whipped almost to Death and never shed one Tear nor complained and at last had his Head struck off 28. Of Mary Warren born in May 1651 aged Ten Years in May 1661. When this Child was about Five or Six Years old she had a new plain Tammy Coat and when she was made ready was to be carried with other Children into Morefields but having looked upon her Coat how fine she was she presently went to her Chair sate down her Tears running down her Eyes she wept seriously by herself her Mother seeing it said to her How now Are you not well What 's the matter that you weep The Child answered Yes I am well but I would I had not been made ready for I am afraid my fine Cloaths will cast me down to Hell Her Mother said It 's not our Cloaths but wicked Hearts that hurt us She answered Aye Mother fine Cloaths make our Hearts proud What next follows was written by her Father on Friday Night Octob. 4. 1661. Her Mother asked her If she were willing to die she answered ' Aye very willing for then I shall sin no more for I know Christ's Blood hath made Satisfaction for my Sins October the Fifth her Mother going softly to the Chamber-door she heard her speaking alone and she listned and heard her say thus Come Lord Jesus come quickly and receive thy poor Creature out of all my Pains
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
in Hell long ago if it had not been for thy Mercy O Lord I pray thee to keep my Parents in thy Truth and save them from this Infection if it be thy Will that they may live to bring me up in thy Truth O Lord I pray thee stay this Infection that rageth in this City and pardon their Sins and try them once more and see if they will turn unto thee Save me O Lord from this Infection that I may live to praise and glorifie thy Name but O Lord if thou hast appointed me to die of it fit me for Death that I may die with Comfort and O Lord I pray thee to help me to bear up under all Afflictions for Christ his sake Amen These are some of his dying Expressions The Lord shall be my Physician for he will cure both Soul and Body Heaven is the best Hospital It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his Eyes Again It is the Lord that taketh away my Health but I will say as Job did Blessed be the Name of the Lord. If I should live longer I should but sin against God Looking upon his Father he said If the Lord would but lend me the least Finger of his Hand to lead me through the dark Entry of Death I will rejoyce in him An hour and an half before his Death a Minister came to Visit him and asked him John Art thou afraid to die He answered No if the Lord will but comfort me in that hour But said the Minister How canst thou expect Comfort seeing we deserve none He answered No if I had my Deserts I had been in Hell long ago But replied the Minister which way dost thou expect Comfort and Salvation seeing thou art a Sinner He answered in Christ alone In whom about an hour and half after he fell asleep saying He would take a long sleep charging them that were about him not to wake him He died when he was twelve years three weeks and a day old 15. Anne Lane was born of honest Parents in Colebrook in the County of Bucks who was no sooner able to speak plain and express any thing considerable of Reason but she began to act as if she was sanctified from the very Womb. She was very solicitous about her Soul what would become of it when she should die and where she should live for ever and what she should do to be saved when she was about five years old I having occasion to lie at Colebrook sent for her Father an old Disciple an Israelite indeed and desired him to give me some account of his Experiences and how the Lord first wrought upon him He gave me this answer That he was of a Child somewhat civil honest and as to Man harmless but was little acquainted with the power of Religion till this sweet Child put him upon a thorow Inquiry into the state of his Soul and would still be begging of him and pleading with him to redeem his time and to act with life and vigor in the things of God which was no small Demonstration to him of the reality of Invisibles that a very Babe and Suckling should speak so feelingly about the things of God and be so greatly concerned not only about her own Soul but about her Father 's too which was the occasion of his Conversion It was the greatest Recreation to her to hear any good People talking about God Christ their Souls the Scriptures or any thing that concerned another Life She continued thus to walk as a Stranger in the World and one that was making haste to a better place And after she had done a great deal of work for God and her own Soul and others too she was called home to rest and received into the Arms of Jesus before she was ten years old she departed about 1640. 16. Talitha Alder was the Daughter of a Holy and Reverend Minister in Kent who lived near Gravesend She was much instructed in the Holy Scriptures and her Catechism by her Father and Mother but there appeared nothing extraordinary in her till she was between seven and eight years old About which time when she was sick one asked her what she thought would become of her if she should die She answered that she was greatly afraid that she should go to Hell Upon this seeing her in such a desponding Condition a dear Friend of her's spent the next day in Fasting and Prayer for her After this she had a Discovery of her approaching Dissolution which was no small comfort to her Anon said she with a holy Triumph I shall be with Jesus I am married to him he is my Husband I am his Bride I have given my self to him and he hath given himself to me and I shall live with him for ever I am going to Glory O that all of you were to go with me to that Glory With which words her Soul took wing and went to the Possession of that Glory which she had some believing sight of before She died when she was between eight and nine years old about 1644. 17. Susanna Bicks was born at Leyden in Holland Jan. 24. 1650. of very Religious Parents whose great care was to instruct and Catechise this their Child and to present her to the Minister of the Place to be publickly instructed and Catechised It pleased the Lord to bless Holy Education the good Example of her Parents and Catechising to the good of her Soul so that she soon had a true Savour and Relish of what she was taught and made an admirable use of it in a time of need as you shall hear afterwards That which was not the least observable in her was the ardenâ— Affection she had for the Holy Scriptures and her Catechism in which she was thorowly instructed by the Godly Divines of the place where she lived which she could not but own as one of the greatest Mercies next the Lord Christ O how did she bless God for her Catechism and beg of her Father to go particularly to those Ministers that had taken so much pains with her to instruct her in her Catechism and to thank them from her a dying Child for their good Instructions and to let them understand for their Encouragement to go on in that Work of Catechising how Refreshing those Truths were now to her in the hour of her distress O that sweet Catechising said she unto which I did always resort with Gladness and attended without Weariness She laid a great charge upon her Parents not to be over-grieved for her after her Death urging that of David upon them while the Child was sick he fasted and wept but when it died he washed his Face and sat up and ear and said Can I bring him back again from Death I shall go to him but he shall not return to me So ought you to say after my Death Our Child is well for we know it shall be well with them that trust in the Lord. She had
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
seeking to direct your Life after it you shall be an Inheritour of such Riches as neither the Covetous shall take from you neither shall Thieves steal nor Moth corrupt Desire with David dear Sister to understand the Law of the Lord God live still to die that by Death you may purchase Eternal Life and trust not that the tenderness of your Age shall lengthen your Life for as soon if God calls goes the Young as the Old Labour therefore always to learn to die Defie the World deny the Devil despise the Flesh and delight your self wholly in the Lord be penitent for your Sins and yet despair not be strong in Faith and yet presume not and desire with St. Paul to be dissolved and to be with Christ with whom even in Death there is Life Be like the good Servant and even at Midnight he waking lest when Death comes and steals upon you you be with the evil Servant found sleeping and lest for lack of Oyl you be found like the foolish Virgins and like him that had not on the Wedding-Garment and so you be shut out from the Marriage Rejoyce in Christ as I do follow the Steps of your Master Christ and take up his Cross lay your Sins upon him and always embrace him And as touching my Death rejoyce as I do Good Sister that I shall be delivered of this Corruption and put on Incorruption for I am assured that I shall for losing a Mortal Life win an Immortal Life the which I pray God to grant you and send you of his Grace to live in his Fear and die in the True Faith of Christ from which in the Name of God I exhort you that you never swerve neither for Hope of Life nor Fear of Death for if you deny his Truth to lengthen your Life God will deny you and shorten your Days and if you cleave unto him he will prolong your Days to his Glory and your Comfort To which Glory God bring me now and you hereafter when it shall please him to call you Fare you well Good Sister and put your only Trust in God who only must help you The next Morning with a Book in her Hand she made a pathetical Speech upon the Scaffold kneeled down to Prayers repeated over the 51st Psalm prayed for the Executioner laid her Head upon the Block and ended her Life with these words Lord into thy Hands I commend my Spirit Aged Sixteen Fox Martyrol Concerning the Respect of the Jews to the Law the Mahometans to their Alchoran c. see my History of all Religions 37. I had almost forgot to make mention of the Practice of my dear Friend and Correspondent Mr. Henry spoken of in the last Chapter which I am very unwilling to omit because I would provoke myself and others to some degree of Emulation in the Case besides his Exercise on the Lord's Days mentioned before every Day of the week his Custom was every Morning and Night to Read a Chapter to his Family and Expound it distinctly and clearly and after Singing a Psalm and Prayers to appoint his Children to retire by themselves and write over a Copy of his Exposition by which means as himself once told me every one of his Children Five in Number One Son and Four Daughters had the Exposition of the whole Bible by them written with their own Hands This Custom he kept up constantly in his own House for above Twenty if not above Thirty Years together without any intermission except in Cases of Absence from Home which happened but seldom 38. Dr. Harris in all his Wills always renewed this Legacy Item I bequeath to all my Children and to my Childrens Children to each of them a Bible with this Inscription None but Christ See his Life 39. Philip Melancthon always used to carry his Bible along with him wherein he read often Clark's Exampl Vol. II. p. 336. 40. Mr. William Garaway hath told me of a certain English Gentleman a Member of the House of Commons that never came into the Parliament-House without a Bible in his Pocket which he used to consult upon occasions 41. Mrs. Catherine Stubbs was seldom seen without a Bible or a good Book in her Hands See her Life 42. John Prince of Saxony had Six Pages attending on him in his Chambers that every day read to him Six Hours out of the Bible Luther Coll. Mens p. 462. 43. Mr. Fox tells a Story of one Crow a Sea-man who being Shipwreck'd lost all his Money and Goods but put his Bible about his Neck and swam with it to Shoar Mr. Barker's Flores 44. After Ptolomy had furnish'd his Library with so many Thousand Books Aristaeus told him It was but a poor Library being without the Sacred Volume of God the Book of Books the Holy Scripture So is all Knowledge but poor Knowledge without the Right Knowledge of God revealed in his Word Mr. Barker's Flores 45. I have read of one Cramerus a School-Master who had a Scholar who had in a Writing in his own Blood promised to give his Soul on certain Conditions to the Devil which Writing Cramerus got from him and the Devil in the Night knock'd at his Chamber-door and demanded the Paper of him but he answered I have laid the Paper in my Bible and in that Page where it is written The Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Head of the Serpent and take it thence Satan if thou canst And thereupon the Devil departed and left the Paper behind him and came no more Mr. Barker's Flores 46. Mr. Cotton Mather tell us in the Life of Mr. Nathaniel Mather That this young Man had a principle regard unto the Scriptures for the Subjects of his Meditations and he was very expensive of his Thoughts on the Book of God He was daily digging in the sacred Mines and with deligh he fetched thence Riches better then those of both the India's and he could say O how I love thy Law it is my Meditation every day Even in the time of his mortal Sickness he was very angry at himself if he had not heard a Portion of the Bible read unto him from day to day Once when he was near his End a good part of a day having pass'd before he had enjoyed his Meal of Scripture be said unto his Sister with some impatience Alas What an ungodly Life do I lead pray come and read my Bible to me and read me the forty ninth Psalm Indeed he read the Scripture not cursorily but very deliberately and considerately and as an effect of his doing so he could give such an account of the Difficulties in it as the most not only of Christians but of Divines too would judge an Attainment extraordinary Not long before he died he had read over all the large and great Annotations on the Bible lately published by Mr. Pool and some other Non-conformist Ministers but having dispatched those two noble Folio's he said unto one that was intimate with him Thus
undutiful and irregular in his Conversation and therefore his Father being grieved at it left with one Mrs. Wilson a Sails-man in London 40 l. per Annum upon this Condition That if his Son did forsake his evil Courses and become an honest Man he should then give him the Estate if not he should never let him have it After the Father's Decease Mr. Baines reformed mightily and became eminently pious and devout Mr. Wilson falling sick sends for him and desires him to pray with him which Mr. Baines did every savourily upon which the good Gentleman told him of the 40 l. per Annum which his Father had left with him and so faithfully delivered up those Writings of the Agreement which had passed betwixt his Father and him And being like to leave behind him a Wife and two Children he intreated Mr. Baines to be a Friend to them And accordingly after Mr. Wilson's Death to Discharge his Trust and approve himself grateful he married his Widow Mr. Clark in his Life Here was a Son that indeed was not dutiful to his Father in his first Years that would not go when his Father bid him go but afterwards repented and went and accordingly he fared for tho' the Estate came not to him presently yet afterwards it came CHAP. LXXVI Present Retribution to the Peaceable and Quiet BLessed saith our Saviour are the meek for they shall inherit the Earth and again Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God And 't is certain a Meekness and Quietness of Spirit doth mightily contribute to the Health of our Bodies the Comfort of our Minds and a peaceable and sweet Enjoyment of the good things of this Life The Christian Religion says a learned Man Dr. Stillingfleet now Bishop of Worcester in his Sermon upon Phil. 3. v. 16. doth lay the greatest Obligations on Mankind to Peace and Unity by the strictest Commands the highest Examples and the most prevailing Arguments yet so much have the Passions and Interests of Men overlay'd the Sense of their Duty that as nothing ought to be more in our Wishes so nothing seems more remote from our Hopes then the universal Peace of the Christian World Not that there is any impossibility in the thing or any considerable difficulty if all Men were such Christians as they ought to be but as long as Men pursue their several Factions and Designs under the colour and pretence of Zeal for Religion if they did not find Names and Parties ready framed that were suitable to their Ends the difference of their Designs would make them So that 'till mens Corruptions are mortified and their Passions subdued to a greater degree then the World hath yet found them it is vain to expect a state of Peace and Tranquility in the Church We need not go far from home for a sufficient Evidence of this for although our differences are such as the wiser Protestants abroad not only condemn but wonder at them yet it hath hitherto puzzled the wisest Persons among us to find out ways to compose them not so much from the distance of mens Opinions and Practices as the strength of their Prejudices and Inclinations Thus far Dr. Stillingfleet I now proceed to Instances of Present Retribution to the Peaceable and Quiet 1. Bazil the Great after a difference had happened between him and Eusebius Bishop of Caesaria upon danger of a Persecution from Valens the Arrian Emperour went to him and was reconciled and afterwards upon Eusebius's Death was chosen Bishop in his room Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 2. Ambrose Lieutenant and Consul of Millain upon the Death of Auxentius Bishop of that See going to appease an Uproar that was then risen about the Election of another Bishop with his excellent Arguments so appeased the Rage of the heady Multitude they with one Voice cried up Ambrose for their Bishop upon which without any further deliberation he was by the Bishops there present installed into the Office tho' at that time he was but a Catechumenist and unbaptized Ibid. Another time Justina the Empress going about to banish Ambrose the People bore such a singular love to him that they withstood her Act and hindred it and besides just at the same time a Rebellion was raised in Britain by Maximus which cooled her Spleen and broke her Purpose concerning it Ibid. 3. There is among the Advertisements of the late News-Letters a Book mentioned with this Title The happiness of a quiet Mind both in Youth and Old Age with the way to attain it In a Discourse occasioned by the Death of Mrs. Martha Hasselborn who died March 13. 1695 in the Ninety fifth Year of her Age. By Tim. Rogers M. A. c. I suppose by the Title for I have not yet seen the Book that the Author doth ascribe the healthful Crasis of the Gentlewoman's Body and the Longevity of her Life in great measure to the quietness of her Mind but for further satisfaction I leave my Reader to consult the Book it self 4. John of Times who lived a Nestors Age and more till he was three Hundred Sixty one Years old was a Man of a contented Spirit in all Conditions of Life Wanley's Wonders l. 1. c. 31. 5. Mr. Phil. Henry of whom I have made mention before was a Man of a very sedate even Temper a calm Spirit a great Peace-maker in his Neighbourhood and accordingly he lived loved and died with the universal Lamentation of People of all sorts And which perhaps ought not to be omited in the consideration after the enjoyment of a kind and loving Wife who brought him a good and plentiful Estate and seeing his Children all disposed of with his consent and to content of all Persons concerned and they walking in the Truth and mutual Love one with another and his Chhildrens Children to his great Joy and Comfort I say after all these Blessings poured plentifully upon his Head with great assurance and satisfaction about his spiritual and eternal Estate he quietly with a short Sickness of about twelve Hours continuance or not much more resign'd up his Spirit into the Hands of the God of Peace 6. Mrs. Katherine Stubs obeyed the Commandment of the Apostle who biddeth Women to be silent and learn of their Husbands at home she would never suffer any Disorder or Abuse in her House to be unreproved or unreformed and so gentle was she and courteous of Nature that she was never heard to give the Lie to any in all her Life nor so much as Thou to any in Anger She was never heard to fall out with any of her Neighbours nor with the least Child that lived much less to scold or brawl And for true Love and Loyalty to her Husband and his Friends was she the rearest Paragon in the World she lived very contentedly there was never any Man or Woman that ever opened their Mouths against her And accordingly as she lived so she died peaceably and comfortable out-braving
so pleased the King that he perswaded him to enter into sacred Orders and afterwards made him his Chaplain and attending His Majesty in his Progress to Cambridge was there made Doctor of Divinity next Lecturer at Lincoln's-Inn and at last Dean of St. Paul's Ibid. p. 380 381 382 c. 4. Arch-bishop Vsher was designed for the Law his Father intending to send him over to the Inns of Court but God who intended him for a Labourer in his own Vineyard prevented his Intentions by Death Ibid. p. 561. 5. Mr. Herbert the Divine Poet aimed a long time at Court-preferment but over-ruled by Divine Providence and the Advice of Friends at last exchanged his Silks and Lay-Sword for a Gown and Cassock and became a very serious and worthy Minister See his Life 6. Dr. Preston had no inclination to the Ministry 'till he was disappointed and baffled in his purpose of going into France in order to fit himself for the Court. See his Life 7. George Sohnius intended the Study of the Law but by a strange Providence was taken off from it as himself writes in a Letter to his Father thus WHat hath so soon altered my Resolution I shall briefly declare unto you that you may know and approve the Reasons thereof and give Thanks to God for his Mercies to us When upon the 21st Day of July I was hearing Tubertus 's Lecture of the Law and was writing what he spake before half an Hour was past I fell into very serious Thoughts for on a sudden the Excellence and Majesty of Divinity came into my Mind and did exceedingly delight me and began to stir up in my Mind such a Love to it that I could not but resolve to give over the Study of the Law and wholly apply myself to the Study of Divinity And this thought sunk deeper and deeper into my Mind and was so extreamly pressing upon me that I could no longer attend to the Lecture of the Law nor finish the Writing that I had begun so that I knew not what to do yea these Thoughts did so haunt me that I was not only averse from Reading any more Law but I abhorred the very Thoughts thereof And thus not knowing what to do I betook myself with Sighs and Tears unto God intreating him to restore to me my former love to and delight in the Law but if not that I was ready to follow his Call in any thing But yet after this whenever I returned to read any Law-Book my Heart trembled and my Eyes abhorred the Letters neither was my Mind or Will delighted in that Study Hereupon consulting with two of my Godly Friends and acquainting them with my Case they judged that I was called by God to the Study of Divinity And therefore giving Thanks unto God I have wholly applied myself thereunto Clark's Exampl p. 610. 8. Athanasius as if design'd by Divine Providence for the Bishoprick of Alexandria was first exercised when a Child in Catechising his Fellow at Play and so sitting them for Baptism upon which occasion Alexander the then Bishop set him to School afterwards made him Deacon took him for a Companion or Attendant to the Coouncil of Nice and at last wished him to the Succession which he afterwards enjoyed in the same See and did great Good to the Church in opposing stoutly the Arrian Heresie Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 9. St. Augustine having been sometimes inclined to the Manichaean Heresie and from the Sin of Concubinage in a strange manner converted to the Orthodox Faith was afterwards better accomplished for a Confutation of the Manichees in which he was very successful as in the Case of Firmus a rich Manichaean Merchant and Felix who coming to Hippo on purpose to spread his Heresie were both Converted by him and for the answering of contradictious Sinners who reproached him for his former vicious Life in which Case he told them That the worse he had been the better was his Physician who had cured him Ibid. CHAP. LXXXII Miraculous Cures of Diseases c. THE Cure of Naaman 's Leprosie by washing in the River Jordan and the Healing of them that were Sick Lame Blind and possessed with Daemons mentioned in Sacred Scripture seem strange especially to Men that look and believe no further than the common Operation of meer Nature but we would here raise Men to a higher and clearer prospect of the Divinity and try to convince the World if it be possible that the God who rules over all is not always tied to ordinary means but doth sometimes shew his Power as well as his Goodness in giving a plain Demonstration of his Mastery over all Secondary and Visible Causes 1. Irenaeus tells us in his Second Book against Heresies That in his time some by Fasting and Prayer had brought to pass that the Spirits of the Dead had return'd into their Bodies again Others cured the Sick and Diseased and by laying on of their Hands restored them to Health Clark's Mar. of Eccl. Hist 2. Dr. Joseph Hall then Bishop of Exeter since of Norwich speaking of the good Offices which Angels do to God's Servants of this kind saith he was that no less than marvellous Cure which at St. Mardene's in Cornwal was wrought upon a poor Cripple whereof besides the Attestation of many Hundreds of the Neighbours I took a strict and impartial Examination in my last Visitation This Man for Sixteen Years together was fain to walk upon his Hands by reason the Sinews of his Legs were so contracted and upon Monitions in his Dream to wash in that Well was suddenly so restored to his Limbs that I saw him able both to Walk and get his Maintenance I found here was neither Art nor Collusion The Name of this Cripple was John Trelillie Bishop Hall 's Mystery of Godliness L. 1. § 8. 3. Concerning Samuel Wallas of Stamford cured in a miraculous manner of a deep Consumption see the Chapter of the Appearance of Good Angels § 7. 4. Mariane Maillard born at Coignac in Xaintonge was lame from the First Year of her Age having a hollowness in that place where we usually perceive the Bone of the Left Thigh fall into the Hip as she grew in Years her Lameness increased insomuch that there arose a great Tumor above the Cavity of the Ischium and her Leg became above Four Inches shorter her Knee turning inwards and her Foot so distorted that the inward Ancle-hone almost supplied the place of the Sole of her Foot she lived in France 'till the Persecution drove her thence and flying first to Lauzanne and then to Germany at last she came over into England where she being a Servant to Madamoiselle de Laulan in St. James's Alley nâ—â—r the Church in St. Germain-street whereon Sunday Nov. 26. 1693 she was bespattered with Dirt by little Children as she came from the French-Church behind Leicester-Fields and followed with ill Names 'till at last she wept and complained to her Mistress of it The same Night
〈◊〉 King James 3. A certain Drunkard whom I knew very well saith mine Author a Godly Minister when he was in Drink quarrelled with his Fellow-Servant and after a few words knock d him down with his Flail and killed him at one blow Yet when he came to his Tryal by the help of Friends he made a shift to escape the Halter and came home again and there he used to Swear and Curse and Drink at as high a rate as ever But at last when he was in the same Yard where he committed the aforesaid Murther he fell down dead in a moment And I was saith he one of the first that saw him 4. In the Year 940. Hatto Archbishop of Mentz assembled certain poor Beggars together into a great Barn not to relieve their wants as he might and ought but to rid them of their Lives as he ought not but did For he set on Fire the Barn wherein they were and consumed them all alive comparing them to Rats and Mice that devoured good Corn but served to no other good Use But God that had regard and respect unto those poor wretches took their Cause into his Hand to quit this proud Prelate with just Revenge for his Outrage committed against them sending towards him an Army of Rats and Mice to lay Siege against him with the Engines of their Teeth on all sides which when this cursed Wretch perceived he removed into a Tower that standeth in the midst of the Rhine not far from Bing whither he presumed this Host of Rats could not pursue him but he was deceived For they swam over the Rhine thick and three-fold and got into his Tower with such strange Fury that in a very short space they had consumed him to nothing in Memorial whereof this Tower was ever after called The Tower of Rats And this was the Tragedy of that Bloody Arch-Butcher that compared poor Christian Souls to brutish and base Creatures and therefore became himself a Prey unto them as Popiel King of Poland did after him in whose strange Examples the Beams of God's Justice shine forth after an extraordinary and wonderful manner to the Terror and Fear of all Men when by the means of small Creatures they made room for his Vengeance to make entrance upon these execrable Creature-Murtherers notwithstanding all Man's Devices and Impediments of Nature For the Native Operation of the Elements was restrained from hindring the passage of them armed and inspired with an invincible and supernatural Courage to fear neither Fire Water nor Weapon till they had finished his Command that sent them And thus in old time did Frogs Flies Grashoppers and Lice make War with Pharaoh at the Command of him that hath all the World at his beck Beard 's Theater p. 196. Munster's Cosmogr c. 5. Anno 1346. Popiel King of Poland amongst many of his particular kinds of Cursings and Swearings whereof he was no niggard used ordinarily this Oath If it be not true would Rats might devour me Prophesying thereby his own Destruction for he was devoured by the same means which he often wished for as the Sequal of his History will declare The Father of this Popiel feeling himself near Death resigned the Government of his Kingdom to two of his Brethren Men exceedingly reverenced of all Men for the Valour and Vertue which appeared in them He being deceased and Popiel being grown up to Ripe and Lawful Years when he saw himself at full Liberty without all Bridle of Government to do what he listed he began to give the full swinge to his lawless and unruly desires in such sort that within few days he became so shameless that there was no Vice which appeared not in his Behaviour even to the working of the Death of his own Uncles for all their Faithful dealing towards him which he by Poison brought to pass Which being done he caused himself forthwith to be crowned with Garlands of Flowers and to be perfumed with Precious Oyntments And to the end the better to Solemnize his Entry to the Crown commanded a Sumptuous and Pompous Banquet to be prepared whereunto all the Princes and Lords of his Kingdom were invited Now as they were about to give the Onset upon the delicate Chear behold an Army of Rats sallying out of the dead and putrefied Bodies of his Uncles set upon him his Wife and Children amidst their Dainties to gnaw them with their sharp Teeth insomuch that his Guard with all their Weapons and Strength were not able to chase them away but being weary with Resisting their daily and mighty Assaults gave over the Battle Wherefore Counsel was given to make great Coal Fires about them that the Rats by that means might be kept off not knowing that no Policy or Power of Man was able to withstand the unchangeable Decree of God for for all their huge Fires they ceased not to run through the midst of them and to Assault with their Teeth this cruel Murtherer Then they gave him Counsel to put himself his Wife and Children into a Boat and thrust it into the midst of a Lake thinking that by reason of the Waters the Rats would not approach unto them But alas in vain for they swam thropugh the Water a main and gnawing the Boat made such chinks in the sides thereof that the Water began to run in which being perceived of the Boat-men amazed them sore and made them make Post-hast to Shoar where he was no sooner arrived but a fresh Muster of Rats uniting their Forces with the former encountred him so sore that they did him more mischief than all the rest Whereupon all his Guard and others that were there present for his Defence perceiving it to be a Judgment of God's Vengeance upon him abandoned and forsook him at once Who seeing himself destitute of Succour and forsaken on all sides flew into a high Tower in Chouzitze whither also they pursued him and climbing even up to the highest Room where he was first eat up his Wife and Children she being guilty of his Uncles Death and lastly gnawed and devoured him to the very Bones Ibid. 6. Anno 1056. a certain Nobleman abounding with Wealth not far from Augusta of the Vindilicians brought up in his HOuse a Young Black-a-more which Villain when his Master was from home rose up in the Night and slew not only his Lady but the whole Family excepting one little Daughter of the Nobleman's The Nobleman returning home after two days and finding his Gate shut rode nearer to the Walls of the House wondring Where the Black-a-more upon the top of the House with a fearful Countenance spake unto him these words O thou cruel Man thou rememberest how unworthily thou beat'st me not long since for no fault the memory whereof I still retain in my mind and have revenged this wrong upon thine behold here part of the Carcass of thy Wife whom I have slain with thy whole Family except this little Child which I have reserved
That if your Father had not asked you to go you would have done it and this you did the Thursday and Saturday before the foul Fact Hundreds more you know there are as your perpetual running to Lingsted against my Mind and staying out till Ten or Twelve at Night and this you would do three or four times every Week making me wait those late Hours for you both for Supper and Bed And when I told you of the Danger of riding so late the Amends that followed was that the next Day you would do the same again or worse c. And again For Money to spend you had always equal with your Brother and as much as I thought you could any ways need or desire you never asked any Summ that ever was denied you you knew where my Spunding-Money was and went to it and took what you pleased and I never checked you for it Ten Pounds I offered you at a time and that lately and you would have none of it you had Money enough you said And so you had to your great Hurt c. Oh Freeman thou knowest thy Father loved thee but too well and that he could deny thee nothing From thy Cradle to his Day I know not that I ever struck thee saving that once when through thy unsufferable Sauciness I pulled off thy Hat and gave thee a little pat on the Head But what good did it You presently took it up and put it on again cocking it and in scorn sate in your Chair by me in a discontented posture and so continued for four or five Hours not speaking one Word c. See the Printed Narrative by it self or Mr. Clark 's Abbreviation of it 2. A certain Woman in Flanders contrary to the Will of her Husband used to supply her two Sons with Money to maintain their Riot yea to furnish them she would rob her Husband But presently after her Husband's Death God plagued her for this her foolish Indulgence for from Rioting these Youngsters fell to Robbing for the which one of them was execured by the Sword and the other by the Halter the Mother looking on as a Witness of their Destruction Lud. Vives 3. A Young Man in our own Nation as he was going to the Gallows desired to speak with his Mother in her Ear but when she came instead of whispering he bit off her Ear with his Teeth exclaiming upon her as the cause of his Death because she did not chastise him in his Youth for his faults but by her fondness so emboldened him in his Vices as brought him to this woful end Lucretius the Roman was served by his Son in the same manner who having been often redeemed from the Cross by his Father at last at the Cross bit off his Father's Nose 4. Austine upon a terrible and dreadful Accident called his People together to a Sermon wherein he relates this doleful Story Our Noble Citizen saith he Cyrillus a Man mighty amongst us both in work and word and much beloved had as you know one only Son and because but one he loved him immeasurably and above God And so being drunk with immoderate doting he neglected to Correct him and gave him Liberty to do whatsoever he lift Now this very day says he this same Fellow thus long suffered in his dissolute and riotous courses hath in his drunken Humour wickedly offered Violence to his Mother great with Child would have violated his Sister hath killed his Father and wounded two of his Sisters to Death Ad frat in Eremo Ser. 33. if he was the Author of that Treatise CHAP. CXXII Divine Judgments upon Gluttony SOlomon requires us to put a Knife to our Throat when we are at such Tables where Dainties are set before us if we be Persons given to Appetite And our Saviour hath forbid us the surfeiting of our selves And 't is certain Gluttony is a fault that not only hath a Natural tendency to the desTruction of our Health the obating of our Estates and the enfeebling of our Spirits but provokes the Indignation of Heaven As we may see in the sin of Sodom which was Pride and fulness of Bread and Idleness in the case of Job 's Sons and the Feast of Belshazzar and the Examples following 1. One Albidinus a Young Man of a most debauch'd course of Life when he had consumed all his Lands Goods and Jewels and exhausted all his Estate even to one House he with his own hands set that on fire and despairing of any future Fortune left the City and betaking himself to the Solitude of the Woods and Groves he in a short space after hanged himself Dr. Thomas Taylor C. 7. N. 100. 2. Lucullus a Noble Roman in his Praetorship governed Africk two several times he moreover overthrew and defeated the whole Forces of King Mithridates and rescued his Colleague Cotta who was besieged in Chalcedon and was very Fortunate in all his Expeditions but after his Greatness growing an Eye-sore to the Common-weal he retired himself from all Publick Offices or Employments to his own Private Fields where he builded Sumptuously sparing for no Charge to compass any variety that could be heard of and had in his House he made a very rich Library and plentifully furnished with Books of all sorts And when he had in all things accommodated his House suiting with his own wishes and desires forgetting all Martial Discipline before exercised he wholly betook himself to Riotous Comessations and Gluttonous Feasts having gotten so much Spoil and Treasure in the Wars that it was the greatest part of his study how profusely to spend it in Peace Pompey and Cicero one Night stealing upon him with a self-invitation to Supper he caused on the sudden a Feast to be made ready the cost whereof amounted to Fifty Thousand Pieces of Silver the state of the Place the plenty of Meat and change and variety of Dishes the costly Sauces the fineness and neatness of the Services driving the Guests into extraordinary Admiration Briefly having given himself wholly to a Sensual Life his high feeding and deep quaffing brought him to such a Weakness that he grew Apoplectick in all his Senses and as one insufficient to govern either himself or his Estate he was committed to the keeping of M. Lucullus his near Kinsman dying soon after Ibid. 3. Caesar the Son of Pope Alexander was one of those who much doted on his Belly and wholly devoted himelf to all kind of Intemperance who in daily Breakfasts Dinners Afternoon-sittings Suppers and new Banquets spent Five Hundred Crowns not reckoning Feasts and Extraordinary Inventions For Parasites Buffoons and Jesters he allowed Yearly Two Thousand Suits of Cloaths from his Wardrobe He maintained also a continual Army of Eight Thousand Soldiers about him and all this he exhausted from his Father's Coffers Ibid. 4. Demadas now being old and always a Glutton is like a spent Sacrifice nothing is left but his Belly and his Tongue all the Man besides is
former Tenets And so after his Death upon a solemn Citation and Process against him Sentence was given viz. That he was unworthy of the Favour of the Holy Apostolick See that he should be deprived of all his Honour Benefit or Dignity his Goods Confiscate and himself given over to the Secular Powers which was de facto done He and his Picture and Books which he had written to be burned Which was done accordingly in Campo di Fiori See the Relation of the Process sent from Rome Published at London 1624. 4. The pretended Possession of the London Nuns and the possessed Woman at Antwerp is detected and discovered by the Duke of Lauderdale in Letter to Mr. Baxter Hist Disc of Appar and Witches c. c. 4. of the Staffordshire Body discovered by Bishop Moreton who pissed through an Ink-horn 5. The lying Wonders and false Miracles wrought all over the World and laugh'd at by all wise People in the World would fill a Volume to Discourse of them in particular 6. The Supposititious Heirs Perkin Warbeck and Great Bellies made out with little Pillows c. would be tedious to insist upon 7. Hither may be referred those two Arch-Female Cheats Marcy Clay alias Jinny Fox and the German Princess famed lately for their Art of Lifting alias Cheating who at last were deservedly preferred to Tyburn CHAP. CXXXVII Divine Judgments upon Oppression Tyranny 'T IS said of Tyrants and Oppressive Persons That they shall not live out half their days Psal 55.25 and common Experience gives attestation to the Truth of it Ad Generum Cereris sine caede sanguine pauci Descendunt Reges siccà morte Tyranni Juv. Satyr 1. Adonizedeck pharaoh Abimelech Athaliah Jezabel Herod Pilate c. may go for Scripture-Examples Others follow 1. Alexander the Great after his Victories over Persia Asia India Hircania Babylon Scythia Syria Phoenicia Judaea Egypt c. grew Pound and Tyrannical witness his Murdering of Philotas one of his brave Captains who had assisted him in all his Conquests and his Father his Rewarding a Mariner that had leaped into a Lake near Babylon and swam to fetch off his Hat with his Crown fastened to it whither a Tempest had carried it off his Head as he was Rowing over it in his Galley with a Talent but causing his Head to be cut off for putting the Crown upon it to keep it dry In the midst of his Career and the very height of his Vigour and Jollity was cut off himself by Death in the Thirty Second Year of his Age and but the Twelfth of his Reign Qu. Curt. in vità Plutarch Alsted Eucyclop p. 2977. 2. Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant who would not suffer a Barber to trim him nor Lodge with his Wives without first searching the Chambers nor speak to his People but out of a High Tower who giving his Cloak and Sword to a Boy that waited on him caused a Man to be slain for saying Sir now you have put your Life into his hands and the Boy for only smiling at it That set Damocles to a Feast with a Company of Beautiful Boys to wait on him together with Crowns and Musick c. and a sharp glittering Sword hanging over his Head tied with a Horse-hair only for saying Dionysius was a Happy Man lived with so little Security that himself took little pleasure in Life and his Subjects generally desired his Death except the Old Woman that went daily to the Temple to Pray for him lest the Devil himself should come in his room in short he was so tortured with his own Suspicions that he would not suffer any Man no come into his Chamber with a Gown on his back no not his own Son or Brother nay put a Soldier to Death for only giving his Brother a Halbert to describe a Plot of Ground to him with the Situation of it and slew Marsyas because he dreamed one Night that he had killed him Plut. in vit Dionys Invidiâ Siculi non invenere Tyranni Tormentum majus 3. Nero. that Monster of Mankind that used to go by Night about the Streets of Rome beating and abusing and sometimes throwing into Privies People that stood in his way and resisted him breaking open Shops and robbing them caused the Genitals of a Boy that he loved called Sporus to be cut off in order to the making of him a Woman killed his Wife Poppea Sabina when great with Child murder'd his Wife Octavia and his Mother Agrippina after he had committed Incest with her causing her Womb to be ript up to see where he had lain poison'd Claudius from whom he received the Empire murdered his Aunt Domitia and Antonia Claudius his Daughter because she refused to Marry him hired Conjurers to lay the Ghost of his Mother Agrippina with whom he was haunted caused Crispinus his Son-in-law by Poppea to be drowned as he was Fishing with many others of his Relations murdered Aulus Plancus after he had committed Sodomy with him Enforced his Master Seneca to Murder himself sent Poison to his other Master Burrhus Poison'd several Rich Free-men and Old Men who had been formerly helpful to him caused the City of Rome to set on Fire whilst himself goes up to the top of Moecenas his Tower tuning his Harp and singing to feed his Eyes with the Pleasantness of the Sight and afterwards put it on the Christians to give an occasion of Persecuting them causing some of them to be cloathed in the Skins of Wild Beasts and torn in pieces by Dogs others to be crucified others to be made Bonefires of to light him in his Night-sports Wishing the World might be destroyed whilst he lived that he might be a Spectator of it At last the Senate judging him to be an Enemy to Mankind condemned him to be whipt to Death through the streets of Rome upon which he ran and hid himself among Briars and Thorns and crying out I have neither a Friend nor an Enemy miserable Man that I am threw himself into a Pit four Foot deep and there desperately slew himself Sueton. in vit 4. Caligula another Roman Emperor who disinherited and slew Tiberius who was Co-heir with him compelled his Father-in-Law to Murder himself caused his Grandmother to kill her self for Reproving of him banished his two Sisters after he had committed Incest with them used all sorts of Magistrates scornfully murdered privately several of the Senators stigmatized many Persons of Quality or dismembred them and then condemned them either to the Mines or to mend High-ways or to Wild Beasts or to be sawn asunder compelled Parents to be present at the Torment of their Sons and one excusing himself he sent his Litter for him another Father he caused to be slain because he desired to shut his Eyes while his Children were tormented a third he brought home with him from seeing his Son 's miserable Death and would force him to laugh jest and be merry cast a Roman Knight to the Beasts and because he
the Chapel of Lambeth House where he received his Archiepiscopal Consecration His chief Motto painted on the Walls of his House and in his Windows was that of St. John The World passeth away and the lust thereof Ibid. p. 529. 60. Archbishop Abbot preached upon this his last Text John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever Upon the first Proposal whereof as many of his Hearers presaged his departure from them so it proved his last Farewel-Sermon For soon after he came out of the Pulpit he fell into grievous Fits of the Stone which first stopped the Passages of Nature and within a few days shut up all the Offices of his Senses To those that came to visit him who were not a few and among others the Judges being then at Sarum in their Circuit he comunicated most Christian and grave Advice insisting very much upon the Benefit of a good Conscience the Comfort whereof he felt now in his Extremity admonishing all that heard him so to carry themselves in their most private and secret Actions as well as publick that they might obtain that at the last which would stand them in more stead than what all the World could afford them besides At last with Hands and Eyes lift up to Heaven he gave up the Ghost with these Words Come Lord Jesus come quickly finish in me the Work that thou hast begun Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me Save me for thy Mercy 's sake for I put my whole trust in thee Let thy mercy be shewed upon me for my sure trust is in thee O let me not be confounded for ever Ibid. p. 550. 61. William Cooper born at Edinburgh used these amongst other Meditations in his last Sickness Now my Soul be glad for of all parts of this Prison the Lord hath set to his Pioneers to loose thee Head Feet Milt and Liver are fast failing yea the middle Strength of the whole Body the Stomach is weaken'd long agoe Arise make ready shake off thy Fetters mount up from the Body and go thy way I saw not my Children when they were in the Womb yet there the Lord fed them without my knowledge I shall not see them when I go out of the Body yet shall they not want a Father Death is somewhat dreary and the Streams of that Jordan between us and our Canaan run furiously but they stand still when the Ark comes Let your Anchor be cast within the Veil and fastened on the Rock Jesus Let the end of the three-fold Cord be buckled to the Heart so shall ye go through He expressed a great Willingness to Exchange this Life for a better which he did Anno 1619. Ibid. p. 563. 62. Andrew Willet in a Journey from London homewards had his Leg broken by a Fall from a Horse and was God's Prisoner for 9 Days together being so long confined to his Bed where his Time he spent in meditating upon the Song of Ezekiel Isa 38. his Contemplations being taken down in Writing by his Son who then attended upon him Two Sabbath-Days which happen'd in that time he spent in Conscionatory Exhortations to those who waited upon him Upon the tenth Day on occasion of a Bell tolling for one near Death he discoursed with his Wife touching the Joys of Heaven and then they both sang an Hymn composed by himself which they usually every Morning praised God with Their Spirits being thus raised they continued their Melody and sang the 146 Psalm sometimes stopping a little and glossing upon the Words by way of Self-application till on a sudden fetching a deep Sigh or Groan he sunk down in his Bed but being raised up a little he said Let me alone I shall do well Lord Jesus And with that Word gave up the Ghost ibid. p. 575. 63. Mr. Bolton falling sick of a Quartan-Ague and finding his Distemper get strength revised his Will and having preached upon Death Judgment and Hell he promised next to preach upon Heaven the only fourth and last Thing that remained but never preached more He often breathed forth these Speeches O when will this good Hour come When shall I be dissolved When shall I be with Christ Tho' Life be a great Blessing yet I infinitely more desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ He thanked God for his wonderful Mercy in pulling him out of Hell in sealing his Ministry by the Conversion of Souls which he wholly ascribed to his Glory He called for his Wife and desired her to bear his Dissolution with a Christian Fortitude and turning to his Children told them they should not now expect from him in his Weakness to say any thing to them he had told them enough formerly and hoped they would remember it and verily believed that none of them durst think to meet him at the great Tribunal in an unregenerate State Some of his Neighbours moved to him that he would tell them what he felt in his Soul Alas said he do ye look for that now from me who want Breath and Power to speak I have told ye enough in my Ministry Yet to satisfie you I am by the wonderful Mercies of God as full of Comfort as my Heart can hold and feel nothing in my Soul but Christ with whom I heartily desire to be And seeing some weeping he said Oh what a deal of Doe there is before one can die The very Pags of Death being upon him after a few gapings for Breath he said I am now drawing on apace to my Dissolution Hold out Faith and Patience your Work will quickly be at an end Then shaking them by the Hand he desired them to make sure of Heaven and remember what he had formerly taught them protesting that it was the Truth of God as he should answer it at the Tribunal of Christ before whom he should shortly appear And a dear Friend taking him by the Hand ask'd him if he did not feel much pain Truly no said he the greatest that I feel is your cold Hand And then being laid down again not long after he yielded up his Spirit unto God Anno 1631. Aged 60. Ibid. p. 591. 64. Mr. Will Whately in his Sickness gave heavenly and wholsome Counsel to his People exhorting them to Redemption of Time Reading Hearing and Meditating on the Word of God to be much in Prayer Brotherly Love and Communion of Saints c. A Minister praying with him That if his time were not expired God would restore him or put an end to his Pains c. he lifting up his Eyes stedfastly towards Heavne and one of his Hands in the close of that Prayer gave up the Ghost shutting his Eyes himself as if he were fallen into a Sleep Anno 1639. Aged 56. a little before the Civil Wars began and before the sad Desolations that befel the Town of Banbury in particular Ibid. p. 599. 65. Dr. Robert Harris when
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
ready to make a short-sighted Man exclaim with Hercules in the Tragoedian That Vertue is but an empty Name or at least could only serve to make its Owners more sensibly unhappy But altho' such Examples might a little work on a weaker Vertue that which is more confirmed and solid can more easily resist it 'T is not impatient nor uneasie but still believes that Heaven is awake that the Iron Hands of Justice will at length overtake the Offenders and by their Destruction vindicate the Honour and Innocence of those whom they have ruin'd It considers any Riddles in Providence as a curious piece of Opticks which if judged of either before 't is finished or by piece meal here an Eye and there another distorted Feature appears not only unpleasing but really dreadful which yet if viewed when 't is compleat and taking all the Features together makes a Figure sufficiently regular and lovely Who almost could have imagined without some such Reflections as these that those brave Men we have seen for some Years past pick'd out and out off one after another with as much Scandal and Obloquy as cou'd be thrown upon 'em by the ungenerous Malice of thier Enemies when the very Attempt to clear their Reputation has been made almost Capital and involved those who had Courage enough to attempt it in little less Mischief than what they themselves endured That ever these Phoenixes should rise again and flourish in their Ashes That so many great Pens should already have done some of 'em Justice and the World as much to all the rest And with how much more Joy if 't were possible would those Heroes have received their Crowns could they have foreseen their Deaths wou'd have tended so far to work up the Nation to such a just Resentment as wou'd at last have so great an Influence as we find it had on our late glorious deliverance We shall therefore here under this Chapter add the Last Words and what 's Remarkable in the Deaths of those Eminent Persons who fell in Defence of the Protestant Religion and the English Liberties both in London and the West of England from the Year 1678. to this Time 1. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey declared some Days before his Death That he believed in his Conscience he should be the first Martyr Two Anagrams there were made on this brave Gentleman which for the peculiar luckiness of 'em it may not be ungrateful to the Reader to have 'em inserted Sir EDMVNDBVRY GODFREY Anagram I FIND MURDER'D BY ROGUES Another BY ROME'S RUDE FINGER DIE He was the first Martyr for our holy Protestant Religion We shall address what has been written on this Subject not only to Posterity but to all the sober unprejudic'd Men of the present Age and so dismiss it and go on to the rest for whom he only made way after we have presented you with one of the best pieces of Wit tht the Age has yielded on Sir Edmund's Death 'T is a part of that ingenious Poem call'd Bacchanalia Well Primrose my our Godfrey's Name on thee Like Hyacinth inscribed be On thee his Memory flourish still Sweet as thy Flower and lasting as thy Hill Whilst blushing Somerset to her Eternal Shame shall this Inscription wear The Devil's an Ass for Jesuits on this spot Broke both the Neck of Godfrey and the Plot. 2. Mr. COLLEDGE NO body can doubt but that 't was now very much the Interest of the Papists to get off if possible that foul Imputation of a Plot which stuck so deep upon 'em which had been confirm'd by Sir Edmund's Murther Coleman's never-to-be-forgotten Letters Arnold's Assassination and a great deal of Collateral Evidence which fell in unexpectedly many of those who gave it being utterly unacquainted with the first Discoverers After several unfortunate Attempts they had made to this purpose after the Living had perjur'd themselves and the Dying done worse to support their desperate Cause after Attempts to blast and ruine some of the Evidence and buy off others of 'em in both which publick Justice took notice of and punish'd 'em being of a Religion that sticks no Villany to serve an Interest and certainly the most indefatigable and firm People in the World when they set about any Design especially where Diana is concern'd not being yet discouraged they resolv'd to venture upon one Project more which prov'd but too successful to the Loss of the bravest and best Blood in the Kingdom and that was to Brand all those who were the steddiest Patriots and so their greatest Enemies of what Rank soever they were with the odious Character of Persons disaffected to the Government or in the old Language Enemies to Caesar They pretended to perswade the World that after all this great noise of a Popish Plot 't was only a Presbyterian one lay at the bottom Things being thus what can any Man of Modesty say to Mr. Colledge's Protestations over and over both in Prison and at his Death that he was perfectly innocent of what he dy'd for I did deny in them say he that is before the Council and do deny it upon my Death I never was in any manner of Plot in my days nor ever had any such Design as these Men have sworn against me I take God to witness as I am a dying Man and on the Terms of my Salvation I know not one Man upon the face of the Earth which would have stood by me And lower I knew not of any part of what they swore against me till I heard it sworn at the Bar. Again All the Arms we had was for our Defence in case the Papists should have made any Attempt by way of Massacre c. God is my Witness this is all I know And in his solemn Prayer and some of his almost very last Words 'T is thee O God I trust in I disown all Dispensations and will not go out of the World with a Lye in my Mouth And just after to the People From the sincerity of my Heart I declare again That these are the very Sentiments of my Soul as God shall have Mercy upon me Thus dy'd Mr. Colledge whose Blood as he himself desir'd it might sufficiently spoke the Justice of his Cause who seem'd in his Speech to have some Prophetick Intimations that his Blood would not be the last as indeed it was not but rather a Praelude to that which follow'd the Edge of the Law being now turn'd against all those who dar'd defend it He has one Daughter yet living whose Gratitude and Generosity to those who were kind to her under the Misfortunes of her Family is at present the Wonder and Entertainment of the Court of England and whose brave Soul speaks her the true Child of such a Father His CHARACTER How great and undaunted his Courage was both his Tryal and Death testifie He was very vigorous and earnest almost to a Fault in his Undertakings But certainly there are so few who err on that hand that
now about One or Two and twenty He and several young Gentlemen rode down from London a little before the Duke landed and were taken on Suspicion and laid up in Ilchester Gaol till the Duke himself came and relieved them He continued in his Army till the Rout when if I mistake not he got to Sea and was forc'd back again with the Hewlings or some others He was condemned at the bloody Assizes in Dorchester A Friend discoursing to him at Dorchester about his Pardon and telling him the doubtfulness of obtaining it he replied Well Death is the worst they can do and I bless God that will not surprize me for I hope my great Work is done At Taunton being advised to govern the Airyness of his Temper telling him it made People apt to censure him as inconsiderate of his Condition to which he answered Truly this is so much my natural Temper that I cannot tell how to alter it but I bless God I have and do think seriously of my eternal Concerns I do not allow my self to be vain but I find cause to be chearful for my Peace is made with God through Jesus Christ my Lord. This is my only ground of Comfort and Cheerfulness the Security of my Interest in Christ for I expect nothing but Death and without this I am sure Death would be most dreadful but having the good Hope of this I cannot be melancholy When he heard of the triumphant Death of those that suffered at Lyme he said This is a good Encouragement to depend upon God Then speaking about the mangling of their Bodies he said Well the Resurrection will restore all with great Advantage the 15th Chapter of the First of Corinthians is Comfort enough for all Believers Discoursing much of the Certainty and Felicity of the Resurrection at another time he said I will as I think I ought use all lawful Means for the saving of my Life and then if God please to forgive me my Sins I hope I shall as chearfully embrace Death Upon the Design of Attempting an Escape he said We use this means for the preserving our Lives but if God is not with us it will not effect it It 〈◊〉 Business first to seek to him for Direction and Success if he sees good with resigning our Lives to him and then his Will be done After the Disappointments when there was no prospect of any other Opportunity he spake much of the Admirableness of God's Providence in those things that seem most against us bringing the greatest Good out of them For said he we can see but a little way God is only wise in all his Disposals of us If we were left to chuse for our selves we should chuse our own Misery Afterwards discoursing of the Vanity and unsatisfyingness of all things in this World he said It is so in the enjoying we never 〈◊〉 our Expectations answer'd by any thing in it and when Death comes it puts an end to all things we have been pursuing here Learning and Knowledge which are the best Things in this World will then avail nothing nothing but an Interest in Christ is then of any worth One reading to some of his Fellow-Prisoners Jer. 42.12 I will shew mercy unto you that he may have mercy upon you and cause you to return to your own Land he said Yes we shall but not in this World I am perswaded September the 29th at Night after he heard he must die the next Morning he was exceedingly composed and chearful expressing his Satisfaction in the Will of God The next Morning he was still more spiritual and chearful discovering a very sweet Serenity of Mind in all that he said and did Whilst he was waiting for the Sheriff reading the Scriptures Meditating and conversing with those about him of Divine Things amongst other things said be I have heard much of the Glory of Heaven but I am now going to behold it and understand what it is Being desir'd to disguise himself to attempt an Escape he said No I cannot tell how to disturb my self about it and methinks it is not my Business now I have other things take up my Thoughts If God saw good to deliver me he would open some other Door but seeing he has not it is more for the Honour of his Name we should die And so be it One saying to him that most of the Apostles died a violent Death he replied Nay a greater than the Apostles our Lord himself died not only a shameful but a painful Death He further said This manner of Death hath been the most terrible thing in the World to my Thoughts but I bless God now am I neither afraid nor ashamed to die He said The parting with my Friends and their Grief for me is my greatest Difficulty but it will be but for a very short time and we shall meet again in endless Joys where my dear Father is already enter'd him shall I presently joyfully meet Then musing with himself a while he with an extraordinary seriousness sung these two Verses of one of Herbert's Poems Death is still working like a Mole Digging my Grave at each remove Let Grace work so on my Soul Drop from above Oh come for thou dost know the way Or if to me thou wilt not move Remove me where I need not say Drop from above He then read the 53d of Isaiah and said He had heard many blessed Sermons from that Chapter especially from the 16th Verse All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way but the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquities of us all Seeming to intimate some Impress made on his Soul from them but was interrupted Then he said Christ is all When the Sheriff came he had the same chearfulness and serenity of Mind in taking Leave of his Friends and in the Sledge which seemed to encrease to the last as those present have affirmed joyning in Prayer and in singing a Psalm with great appearance of Comfort and Joy in his Countenance insomuch that some of his Enemies that had before censured his Chearfulness for unthoughtfulness of his Danger and therefore expected to see him much surprized now professed they were greatly astonished to see such a young Man leave the World and go through Death as he did His CHARACTER He was a very promising and ingenious young Gentleman He had a great deal of ready Wit and an extraordinary Briskness and Gaity He was a very good Scholar had run through a course of Philosophy but his particular Inclination was to the Mechanical part of it wherein he had a very happy Genius and performed many pretty things He wrote very good clean Latin He was indifferent tall pretty thin a fair Complexion his Nose a little inclining to one side being hurt in his Infancy He led a sober vertuous Life and dy'd a happy Death at Taunton September the 30th 1685. 4. Lady LISLE HAD those Persons who suffer'd about Monmouth's Business
in the performance of that Duty which like Jacob's Ladder tho' it stand upon the Earth yet it reaches up to Heaven Here 's the Love of God made manifest to a poor Sinner at the last hour like the Thief upon the Cross he that never new before what the Love of God was to his Soul finds it now filled with it and running over Now bless the Lord O my Soul yea all that is within me Bless his holy Name for this Dispensation Now Light appears out of Darkness in the Face of Jesus now all Worldly Joy and Comforts seem to me as they are things not hard to part with Father Mother Brothers Sister Wife Children House and Lands are as my dear Saviour saith to be parted with for him or we are not worthy of him I bless his Name I find no reluctancy to do it he hath brought me to his Foot-stool and I can say heartily the Will of the Lord be done in this matter I never before but saw a Beauty in Worldly Comforts but now those seem so faded by the greater Lustre and Beauty that I see in God in Christ Jesus that I am astonished where I have been wandring all my days spending my Time and my Money for that which is not Bread O strive to get a taste of this Love of God in Christ Jesus and it will perfectly wean you from this deceitful foolish World What is worldly Honour and Riches O set not your hearts upon them but get a Treasure in Heaven that your hearts may be there also O lose no time for if you ever knew the sweetness of it you would never be at rest till you found him whom your Soul loved it will be more yea infinitely more than all worldly Enjoyments can afford you tho' in their greatest Perfection it will make your Life sweet and your Death most comfortable It is the Bread which this World knoweth not of and therefore maketh little or no Enquiry after it Dearest Relations whilst you and my other dear Friends are like Aaron and Hur holding up the Hands of Moses I am through Grace getting Victory over the Amalekites I â—n embrace my dear and beloved Brother and Companion with more Joy in the Field of Suffering than ever I could have done had I met him crowned with the Lawrels of Victory Oh the Mercy to die with such a Friend and such a valiant Soldier of Jesus who hath kept his Garments clean I now begin to pity you that stay behind who have many Temptations to conflict with for a little yea a very little time and my Warfare will be accomplished and if God continue his Love and Influence upon my Soul it will be both short and sweet I have little of this World about me I leave you all the Legacy of what was ever dearest to me the best of Wives and five poor Children who must pass through an evil and sinful World but I have committed them to God who hath commanded to cast our Fatherless Children and Widows upon him Dear Parents Brothers Sister all adieu my time draws on my Paper is finished and your dying Child and Brother recommends you all to him who is All-sufficient to the God of Peace that brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant who will make you Perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen RICHARD NELTHROP From the Palace of Newgate Octob. 30. 1685. Two of the Clock in the Morning Mr. Nelthrop's Last Speech THE great and inexpressible trouble and distraction I have been under since I came into Trouble especially since my close Confinement in Newgate hath so broken my Reason that for many Weeks last past till the day my Sentence was passed I have not had any composure of Mind and have been under the greatest trouble imaginable Since my dearest Wife hath had the Favour granted her of coming to me I am at present under great composedness of Mind through the Infinite Goodness of the Lord. As to what I stand Outlawed for and am now sentenced to die I can with comfort Appeal to the great God before whose Tribunal I am to appear that what I did was in the simplicity of my heart without seeking any private Advantage to my self but thinking it my Duty to hazard my Life for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and English Liberties which I thought invaded and both in great danger of being lost As to the Design of Assassinating the late King or his present Majesty it always was a thing highly against my Judgment and which I always detested and I was never in the least concerned in it neither in Purse nor Person nor ever knew of any Arms bought for that intent nor did I believe there was any such Design or ever heard of any disappointment in such an Affair or Arms or Time or Place save what after the Discovery of the General Design Mr. West spoke of as to Arms bought by him And as to my self I was in the North when the late King was at New-Market and the first News I had of the Fire was at Beverly in York-shire As to my coming over with the late Duke of Monmouth it was in prosecution of the same ends but the Lord in his Holy and Wise Providence hath been pleased to blast all our Undertakings tho' there seemed to be a very unanimous and zealous Spirit in all those that came from beyond the Seas And as to the Duke of Monmouth's being declared King I was wholly Passive in it I never having been present at any publick Debate of that Affair and should never have advised it but complained of it to Col. Holmes and Captain Patchet I believe the Lord Gray and Mr. F the chief Promoters of it As to the Temptation of being an Evidence and bringing either into trouble or danger of his Life the meanest Person upon the Account for which I suffer I always abhorred and detested the thoughts of it both when in and out of danger and advised some very strongly against it except when under my Distraction in Prison that amongst other Temptations did violently assault me but through the goodness of my dearest God and Father I was preserved from it and indeed was wholly incapable and could never receive the least shadow of comfort from it but thought Death more eligible and was some time afore out of my distracted and disquieted condition wholly free from it though not without other Temptations far more Criminal in the sight of Men. I bless the Father of all Mercies and God of all Consolations that I find a great Resignedness of my Will to his finding infinitely more comfort in Death than ever I could place in Life tho' in a condition that might seem honourable every hour seeing the Will of God in ordering
this Affair more and more cleared up to me God hath given God hath taken blessed be his holy Name that hath enabled me to be willing to suffer rather than to put forth my hand to Iniquity or to say a Confederacy with those that do so I am heartily and sincerely troubled for what hath happened many mans Lives being lost and many poor distressed Families ruin'd the Lord Pardon what of sin he hath seen in it He in his wonderful Providence hath made me and others concerned Instruments not only for what is already fallen out but I believe for hastening some other great Work he hath to do in these Kingdoms whereby he will try and purge his People and winnow the Chaff from the Wheat the Lord keep those that are his Faithful unto the end I die in Charity with all the World and can readily and heartily forgive my greatest Enemies even those that have been Evidences against me and I most humbly beg the Pardon of all that I have in the least any way injured and in a special manner humbly ask Pardon of the Lady Lisle's Family and Relations for that my being succoured there one Night with Mr. Hicks brought that worthy Lady to suffer Death I was wholly a Stranger to her Ladiship and came with Mr. Hicks neither did she as I verily believe know who I was or my Name till I was taken And if any other have come to any loss or trouble I humbly beg their Pardon and were I in a condition I would as far as I was able make them a requital As to my Faith I neither look nor hope for Mercy but only in the Free-Grace of God by the Application of the Blood of Jesus my dearest and only Saviour to my poor sinful Soul My distresses have been exceeding great as to my Eternal State but through the infinite goodness of God tho' I have many sins to answer for yet I hope and trust as to my particular that Christ came for this very end and purpose to relieve the Oppressed and to be a Physician to the Sick I come unto thee O blessed Jesus refuse me not but wash me in thine own Blood and then present me to thy Father as Righteous What though my Sins be as Crimson and of a Scarlet Dye Yet thou canst make them as white as Snow I see nothing in my self but what must utterly ruine and condemn me I cannot answer for one Action of my whole Life but I cast my self wholly upon thee who art the Fountain of Mercy in whom God is reconciling himself to the World the greatest of Sins and Sinners may find an All-sufficiency in thy Blood to cleanse them from all sin O dearest Father of Mercy look upon me as Righteous in and through the imputed Righteousness of thy Son he hath payed the Debt by his own Offering up himself for sin and in that thy Justice is satisfied and thy Mercy is magnified Grant me thy Love O dearest Father assist me and stand by me in the needful hour of Death give thy Angels charge over my poor Soul that the Evil One may not touch nor hurt it Defend me from his Power deliver me from his Rage and receive me into thine Eternal Kingdom in and through the alone Merits of my dearest Redeemer for whom I praise thee To whom with thy self and holy Spirit be ascribed all Glory Honour Power Might and Dominion for ever and for ever Amen Dear Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen R. NELTHROP Newgate Octob. 29. 1685. 6. Mrs. GAVNT ONE of the great Reasons why Mrs. Gaunt was burnt was 't is very possible because she lived at Wapping the honest Seamen and hearty Protestants thereabouts being such known Enemies to Popery and Arbitrary Government that the Friends of both gave all who oppose it the Name of Wappingers as an odious Brand and Title She was a good honest charitable Woman who made it her business to relieve and help whoever suffered for the forementioned Cause sparing no Pains refusing no Office to get them Assistance in which she was the most Industrious and Indefatigable Woman living Among others whom she had thus relieved who were obnoxious Persons was one Burton whom with his Wife and Family she had kept from starving for which may the very Name of them be register'd with Eternal Infamy they swore against her and took away her Life Tho' she says in her Speech there was but one Witness against her as to any Money she was charg'd to give him and that he himself an Outlawed Person his Outlawry not yet revers'd he not being Outlawed when she was with him and hid him away That which she writ in the Nature of a Speech has a great deal of Sense and Spirit Were my Pen qualified to represent the due Character of this Excellent Woman it would be readily granted That she stood most deservedly entituled to an Eternal Monument of Honour in the hearts of all sincere Lovers of the Reformed Religion All true Christians tho' in some things differing in Persuasion with her found in her an Universal Charity and sincere Friendship as is well known to many here and also to a multitude of the Scotch Nation Ministers and others who for Conscience-sake were formerly thrust into Exile These found her a most refreshing Refuge She dedicated her self with unwearied Industry to provide for their Supply and Support and therein I do incline to think she out-stripped every individual Person if not the whole Body of Protestants in this great City Hereby she became exposed to the implacable Fury of Bloody Papists and those blind Tools who co-operated to promote their accursed Designs And so there appeared little difficulty to procure a Jury as there were well-prepared Judges to make her a Sacrifice as a Traytor to the State Her Judges the King's Counsel the Solicitor-General the Common Serjeant c. rackt their Inventions to draw Burton and his Wife to charge Mrs. Gaunt with the knowledge of his being in a Plot or in the Proclamation but nothing of that could be made out nor is here any sort of Proof that Mrs. Gaunt harboured this ungrateful Wretch or that she gave him either Meat or Drink as the Indictment charges her but notwithstanding that her Jury brought her in Guilty The Sentence was executed upon this Excellent Woman upon Friday then following being the 23d of October 1685. when she left her Murderers the following Memorial Newgate 22d of October 1685. Mrs. Gaunt's Speech written the Day before her Sufferings NOT knowing whether I should be suffered or able because of weaknesses that are upon me through my hard and close Imprisonment to speak at the Place of Execution I writ these few Lines to signifie That I am well reconciled to the way of my God towards me though it be in ways I looked not for and by terrible things yet in Righteousness having given me Life he ought to have the disposing of it when and how he pleases
aloud how much I love thee not that I like the Fune al State of Great Men neither do I approve the Embalming of the Egyptians and I as little fancy your odd Whim of being wrapp'd in a Leaden Coffin and flung into the midst of the Sea as if you desired to protract the Corruption of your Flesh out of which you shall be generated anew or dream'd of rising whole as you lay down and carrying Flesh and Blood into the Kingdom of Heaven without a change But tho' I like not these costly Burials yet I think no Tomb gay enough to enclose thy Ashes tho common Graves deserve no Inscription yet thy Relicks shall have a Monument may tell thy Vertues to the end of Time But what Epitaph can reach thy Worth 'T is a Note above Ela and can't be reach'd by a Cowley's scarce by a S r's Verse Neither can this Love to thy Ashes be call'd profuse but a Debt due to thy Memory and is what 's justified by the Example of former Ages St. Jerome tells us That in his Time Husbands were wont to spread Lilies Violets and Roses upon the Graves of their deceas'd Wives by which uxorious Office they did lessen the Grief of their Hearts conceiv'd by the Loss of their loving Bed-fellows and the like Expressions of mutual Love Wives shewed to their bury'd Husbands Now above all Flowers in these Ceremonious Observances the Rose was in greatest Request for tho' dead and dry it preserves a pleasing Sweetness and was for that Reason by the Ancients strewed upon their Kindreds Graves 'T is incredible says a late (n) (n) Dr. Horneck's Lives of the Primitive Christians Writer to consider what Cost the Primitive Christians bestow'd upon the Burials of their deceas'd Friends they look'd upon 't as sinful to neglect those Bodies when dead which in their Life-time had been Temples of the Holy Ghost The Care they took to embalm them was such that the Arabs professed they got more Money for their Perfumes of the poor Christians than of the richer Pagans who yet never were without Incense in their Idol-Temples Tho' they had little in the World yet what they had they were very free off on such Occasions for they look'd upon Good Mens Funerals as Prologues to Eternal Rest All this is supposing you die first which if you shou'd my Corpse shall follow just as Lodowick Cortusius a Lawyer of Padua follow'd his Wife He 'd have no Mourning at his Funeral but order'd Pipers Harpers and Twelve Virgins clad in Green to sing all the way to his Grave that so which is what I intend he might turn his Funeral Rites into a Marriage Ceremony But if I happen to die before you prepare me thus for the Grave Let me be said out in the Chamber next the Dining-Room from thence on the * * Not sooner least I come to Life again at my Mother did after seeming Death Seventh Day after my Death let me be nail'd down in an Elm-Coffin when kiss and salute my Hand and Cheek as a Token of thy Affection to me The Chinese always before they bury their Dead if he was a married Man bring him to his Wife that so she might first kiss him and bid him farewel After this is done let my Body be carried to the New-burying Place there to lie in the same Grave with Thee and our (o) (o) A Gentlewoman descended of honourable Parents with whom they had contracted an extraordinary Friendship dear O where we 'll both wait thy coming to us and instead of the fashionable Custom of staying at Home I 'd have thee follow my Corpse to the Ground 't is the last Office of Love to a Friend see me put into it and be one of the last that shall come thence In performing this Request you in part imitate the generous Hota who thus followed her Husband to the Grave laid him in a stately Tomb and then for Nine Days together she wou'd neither eat nor drink whereof she died and was buried as she had ordered in her Last Will by the side of her beloved Husband He first deceas'd she for a few Days try'd To live without him lik'd it not and dy'd I mention not this Instance as if I thought I deserv'd your Tears or liked Extravagant Mourning No as St. Bernard says let them bewail their Dead to excess who deny their Resurrection yet I must say that to follow our Friends to the Grave and to mourn for their Interrment is a manifest Token of True Love Our Blessed Saviour himself wept over the Grave of dead Lazarus whom he revived whereupon the standers by said among themselves Behold how he loved him The Ancient Romans before they were Christians mourned Nine Months but being Christians they used Mourning a whole Year cloathed in Black for the most part for Women were cloathed partly in White and partly in Black according to the Diversity of Nations But in our Times Husbands can bury their Wives and Wives their Husbands with a few counterfeit Tears and a sowre Visage masked and painted over with Dissimulation contracting like the Ephesian Matron Second Marriages before they have worn out their Mourning Garments But the Tears I have shed for your long Sickness have clear'd me of this Levity and shew even while you are living how much I shall grieve when you die in earnest and how impatient I 'll be till I bed with you in the Dust that as our Souls shall know each other when they leave the Bodies so our Bodies also may rise together after the long Night of Death and I hope I shall find thee of this Opinion Dr Brown applauds those ingenious Tempers that desire to sleep in the Urns of their Fathers and strive to go the nearest way to Corruption 'T was the late Request of a Great Divine to lie by his Wife in Shore-ditch and for that Reason he was bury'd there And Sir Nathanael Barnardiston in his Last Will desires his Executors that the Bones of his Father might be digged out of the Earth where they were bury'd and laid by his own Body in a new Vault he ordered 'em to erect for the same purpose that tho' he cou'd not live with his Father as long as he wou'd have desired yet he designed that their Bodies should lie together till the Resurrection As it is good to enjoy the Company of the Godly while they are living so it is not amiss if it will stand with convenience to be buried with them after Death The old Prophets Bones escap'd a burning by being buried with the other Prophets and the Man who was tumbled into the Grave of Elisha was revived by the virtue of his Bones and we read in the Acts and Monuments that the Body of Peter Martyr's Wife was buried in a Dunghil but afterwards being taken up in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth it was honourably buried in Oxford in the Grave of one Frideswick a Popish She-Saint to this
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
her Death With some Remarkable Passages relating both to her Person and Government I Shall conclude this History of Providence with a Collection of the memorable Speeches and Sayings of our never-enough lamented Sovereign the late Queen MARY and shall here and there add some remarkable Passages relating to her Person and Government as a Noble Testimony to Religion from one whose Parts and Endowments were as high as her Dignity as if Providence would not leave the prophane Age room to say that Religion was only pretended to by the Mean and Ignorant but convince them by the Vertuous Life and Dying Breath of a Princess every way so Glorious and Great So extraordinary strict says Bishop Fowler in his Preface relating to the Queen was Her Majesty's Life even from her Youth that for the Seventeen Years of her Married State the King as he hath professed could never see any thing in her which he could call a Fault and no Man continues this Learned Author can keep a stricter Guard upon his Words than His Majesty is always observed to do Then certainly a Collection of the Memorable Speeches of such a Princess must needs be very useful and so much the more so as there are several remarkable Sayings of this Royal Person scattered in so many Books which its hardly possible for any private Person to have all of them by him and therefore a View of them all at once in a Collection from the best Authors that have writ upon this Subject may perhaps be very acceptable to the serious Reader 1. That we may begin from her Cradle The most August Queen MARY II. was born in the Sixty second Year of this Age upon the Tenth of May James then Duke of York and the Lord Chancellor's Daughter being her Parents Many and conspicuous were the Prognosticks of a true and far from counterfeited Piety that glitter'd in her and shin'd forth in the early Dawn of her Infancy For when in her tender Years she had lost an excellent Mother and under the Tuition of Persons less concern'd was deliciously bred up in a Court full of all manner of Pleasure and Voluptuousness such was always her Constancy such her Temperance and Modesty that no Example of others no Allurement of Vice no Contagion of Neighbouring-Courts could force her to go astray from the right Path. She was instructed in the Fundamentals of the true Reform'd Religion by the Bishop of London which he so happily laid and she so cordially imbib'd that she could never be shaken by any treacherous Insinuations any Promises or Threats any Punishments or Rewards choosing rather to die than never so little to recede from the Truth wherein she had been grounded After she had spent the rest of her Childhood in those Studies by which generous and illustrious Souls are rais'd to the Expectations of great Fortune and had abundantly furnish'd herself as well with Christian as with Royal Vertues in the Fifteenth Year of her Age she was auspiciously Married to William the Third of that Name Prince of Orange William marries Mary a Kinsman a Kinswoman and thus by a double Tye and a firmer Knot than hitherto the most Noble Families of all Europe are joyn'd together She for her Ancestors claims the Family of the Stuarts He the Nassavian Race She the Monarchs of Great Britain He the Governours of Germany and the Caesars themselves The Nuptial Solemnities being over the Royal Bride cross'd over out of England into these Parts together with her Husband and chose for her Seat and Residence the Hague the most pleasant and delightful place not only of Holland but almost of all Europe Where belov'd of all Men and fix'd in the Good-will of all the People propensly devoted to her for the space of some Years she so charmingly and affectionately liv'd with her Husband the best of Men and no less cordially affectionate to her not only without the least Contention or Quarrel but without the least suspicion of Lukewarmness that she might well be said to be a conspicuous Example of Conjugal Affection not only to Kings and Princes and Men in high Degree but also to private Persons After some Interval of Time when they who bare ill will to our Princes and us to Liberty and Religion and more especially to this Republick stirr'd up new Troubles in England and the Nobility of the Kingdom call'd to their Aid our Prince While he strove one way and the Winds drove another at length wafted over with favourable Gales and Wishes safely arriv'd in England and without Resistance but rather with the general Applause of the Nation and as it were born upon the Shoulders of the People came to the Royal City When afterwards he invited his dearest Consort then the Companion of his Bed now of his Kingdom to partake of the Honour offer'd him and the Dignity soon after to be conferr'd upon him and the equal share of his Fortune in the Eighty ninth Year of this Age luckily and auspiciously both Husband and Wife were declar'd King and Queen with equal Power and Authority by the common Vote and Suffrage and unanimous Consent of both Houses In the Morning she rose with the Sun and worship'd the Lord of Heaven and Earth But when she was sometimes forc'd to rise at Midnight by reason of the urgent Affairs of the State and could not afterwards sleep she commanded either the Holy Scripture or some other pious Book to be brought her If any Persons came to visit her in a Morning before she had pour'd forth her Prayers she sent them back with this Expression That she was first to serve the King of Kings If any persons were said to seek her life by Treachery and Conspiracy her Answer was That she submitted to the Will of Heaven Francius 's Oration upon the Death of the Queen 2. Such was the Sanctity of Mary's Life that King William after her Decease calling to mind her Piety towards God the Integrity of her Life and her Extraordinary Knowledge of Sacred Things brake forth into this expression That if he could believe that ever any mortal Man could be born without the contamination of Sin he would believe it of the Queen And she preserv'd herself so chast and spotless that while she resided upon Earth she liv'd the Life of the Saints even in the Hurry of the Court where there are so many Incitements to evil Grevius 's Oration on the Death of the Queen 3. We had very admirable Accounts of the late Queen from her Court at the Hague during her Abode there from most unquestionable Testimonies which made us envy our Neighbours Happiness in such a Princess who knew their Happiness as 't was impossible they should not and had an extraordinary Value and Veneration for her And since her Return to her Native Country and her Advancement to the Throne here we never knew a more eminent Exception than she was to that common Observation Minuit praesentia Famam The Fame
Agaric for Phlegm The Lote-Tree follows the Motion of the Sun Philos Confer of the Virtuosi of France p. 122. 2. There is observed a Sympathy between the Feet and the Head the one taking cold the other is affected between the Mouth and the Stomach between the Heart and the Hands or Wrists So that Medicines are often applied to the one for the Cure of the other There is a Sympathy between the Light and the Spirits of Men the Green Colour and the Eyes All Cordials have a Sympathy with the Heatt as Pearls and precious Stones Male-Peony with the Brain the Blood-stone with the Blood The Dog knows the Dog-killer I Query here What is to be thought of the Lions in the Tower dying at the Smell of a Handkerchief dipt in the Blood of King Charles the First 3. I would have it throughly enquired saith Sir Francis Bacon whether there be not some secret Passages of Sympathy between Persons of near Blood as Parents Children Brothers Sisters Nurse-Children Husbands Wives c. There be many Reports in History that upon the Death of Persons of such Nearness Men have and an inward Feeling of it I my self remember that being at Paris and my Father dying in London two or three days before my Father's Death I had a Dream which I told to divers English Gentlemen that my Father's House in the Country was plaister'd all over with Black Mortar There is an Opinion that loving and kind Husbands have a Sense of their Wives Breeding-Child by some Accident in their own Body Bacon's Natural Hist Cent. 10. p. 211. 4. Hither also may be referred the Effects of Imagination of which Authors have said so much A Sister of mine saith Gaffarella had the Figure of a Fish upon her left Leg caused by the Desire my Mother had to eat Fish when she was great and it is represented with so much Perfection and Rarity that you would take it to be drawn by some excellent Master Now that wherein the Wonder lies is this That when ever the Girl eat any Fish that upon her Leg put her to a sensible Pain And I had a Friend that had a Mulberry growing upon his Forehead caused likewise by his Mother's longing after them and he never eat Mulberries but that on his Forehead put him to Pain by its extraordinary Beating This other Story which I shall now relate saith he is very well known to all in Paris that are curious Inquirers into these Things The Hostess of the Inn in the Suburbs of St. Michael at Bois de Vincenne who died about two Years since had likewise a Mulberry growing upon a Lower Lip which was smooth and plain all the Year long till the time that Mulberries begin to ripen at which time hers also began to be red and to swell more and more observing exactly the Season and Nature of other Mulberries Gaffar unheard-of Curios par 2. ch 6. 5. Oysters taken out of Water will open against the Flood-time and close upon the Ebb Britan. Bacon p. 18. 6. All Concords of Musick are Sympathies And 't is observed that if a Lute or Viol be laid upon the Back with a small Straw upon one side of the Strings and another Lute or Viol be laid by it the Unison of one being struck will make the String move and the Straw fall off Bacon's Nat. Hist cent 4. 7. There is a Sympathy between the Ear and Sounds between the Spirit and the Ear insomuch that according to the Variety of Notes and Tones and Tunes the Mind is diversly affected wild Creatures are tamed Soldiers are provoked to Courage some moved to Fear and Sadness by this means The Voice of an Orator or Preacher hath a great Influence upon the Hearers according to the Sweetness Harshness Lowness Loudness Mournsulness c. of it 8. The Sympathetic Powder and Weapon-Salve magnified by Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Kenelm Digby c. is laugh'd at by Mr. Hales of Eaton and look'd upon as a fond Conceit 9. The Sympathy of Affections and Strength of Imagination is admirable when the Mind is able to presage the Death or Dangers of a Friend tho a great way off This also I found in my self For once I suddenly fell into a Passion of Weeping upon the Apprehension I took that my dear Friend was dead whom I exceedingly loved for his Virtues and it fell out accordingly as I presaged for he died about that same Hour that I fell into that Weeping Fit and we were at that time 60 Miles asunder nor could I tell certainly that he was dead till two Days after Thus to some the Death of Friends is presaged by bleeding at the Nose and sudden Sadness by Dreams and divers other ways which the Learned Poet was not ignorant of when he saith Agnovit longe gemitum praesagia mali mens Aen. 1.10 So by the Greek Poet the Soul is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Southsayer of Evil The Cause of this the Gentiles ascribed to the Sun which they held to be the Soul and our Souls Sparks of that great Lamp A Platonical Conceit which he thought Men's Souls to be material we were better to ascribe this to the Information of that Angel which attends us Rosse Arcan Microcosin 10. One Faber of Buxovil in Alsatia constantly acted the Part of his pregnant Wife being taken with Vomitings and suffered those inordinate Longings that usually attend Women in that Condition his Wife all the while suffering no such Inconveniencies Miscelan Curios Med. Phys Germ. An. 2. Observ 215. 11. That this hath happen'd to some Persons in Oxford is very certain and that to knowing Ones too very unlikely to be deceived and of unquestionable Veracity whereof one of them told me That they came upon him when he little thought of his Wife and that the Pangs were very odd ones such as he never felt in his Life not like any Griping in the Guts but lying in the Muscles of the abdomen which yet he should never have thought to have had relation to his Wife had they not suddenly and beyond expectation ceased as soon as his Wife began to be in Labour Thus far Dr. Plot in his Nat. Hist of Oxfordshire p. 193. CHAP. II. Instances of Antipathy THIS is the Opposite of Sympathy arising from the Contrariety of innate and undiscoverable Qualities a secret Vnsuitableness in the Nature of one Thing to that of another where the Properties clash together and bid Battle upon a near approach of one to the other As of the Horse and Camel Elephant and Swine Lion and Cock Bull and Fig-Tree Naked Man and Adder Ape and Tortoise Ape and Eel Cantharides and the Bladder Plague and Quick-silver Plague and Arsnic Birds and Scare-Crows Things alive and Things dead and corrupted as Man and Man's Carcass Beast and Beast's Blood c. But I shall especially Instance in the Antipathies of Mankind against some particular Things 1. Cardinal Don Henrique de Cardona would fall into a
Lord Bacon casts up her Age to be 140 at least adding withal that she recovered her Teeth after casting them 3 several times Rawleigh Hist World l. 1. c. 5. p. 166. Fuller p. 310 13. Garsius Aretinus lived to 194 years in good state of Health and deceased without being seized with any apparent Disease only perceiving this Strength somewhat weakned Thus writes Petranch of him to whom Garsias was great Grandfather by the Fathers side Fulgos. l. 8. c. 14. p. 1096. 14. Thomas Parre Son of John Parre born at Alderbury in the Parish of Winninton in Shropshire he was born in the Reign of King Edward IV. Anno 1483. at 80 years he marryed his first Wife Jane and in the space of 32 years had but two Children by her both of them short lived the one lived but a Month the other but a few years being Aged 120 he fell in Love with Katherine Milton and got her with Child He lived to above 150 years two Months before his Death he was brought up by thomas Earl of Arundel to Westminster he slept away most of his time and is thus Characterised by an Eye Witness of him From Head to Heel his body had all over A Quick set Thick set Natural Hairy Cover change of Air and Dyet are conceived to Accelerate his Death which happened November 15 Anno 1634 and was buried in the Abby Church at Westminster Fullers Worthies p. 11. Shropshire 15. John of Times was Armour-bearer to Charles the Great by whom he was also made Knight being a Man of great Temperance Sobriety and Contentment of Mind in his Condition of Life lived unto the 9th year of the Emperor Conrade and died at the Age of 361 years Anno 1128. 1146 saith Fulgosus Bakers Chron. p. 73. 16. Guido Bonatus a Man of great Learning saith he saw a Man whose name was Richard Anno 1223 who told him that he was a Soldier under Charlemain and that he had now lived to the 400th year of his Age. Fulgos. l. 8. c. 14. p. 1098. CHAP. XXXIII Examples of a Vegete and Healthful Old Age. I have often look'd upon Old Age as the very Dregs of Life the Sediment of our Natural Humour 's a Complex of Infirmities but the following Instances would tempt one to love Temperance for Lifes sake and Life for it self for no doubt but the Sweetness of Life consists much in the Healthful and Vegete Temper of our Bodies and a Virtuous course of Life and due Abstinence Conduceth much thereto when the Debauch'd Sensualist lies down under the Burden of his Carelesness and the Sins of his Youth never able to retrieve the Damages of his former Lusts 1. Sir Walter Rawleigh in his Discovery of Guiana reports of the King of Aromaia being 110 years Old came in a Morning on foot to him from his House which was 14 English Miles and returned on foot the same day Hakew. Apolog. l. 3. c. 1. p. 166. 2. Buchanan in his Scottish History speaks of one Lawrence who dwelling in one of the Orcades marryed a Wife after he was 100 years of Age and more and that when he was 140 years old he doubted not to go a Fishing alone in his little Boat though in a rough and Tempestuous Sea Camor Hor Subs. c. 2. cap. 68. p. 277. 3. Sigismemd Polcastrus a Physician and Philosopher of Padua Read there 50 years in his Old Age he buried 4 Sons in a short time at 70 years of Age he married again and by his second Wife he had 3 Sons the eldest of which called Anronius he saw dignified with a Degree in both Laws Jerome another of his Sons had his Cap set upon his Head by his Aged Father who Trembled and Wept for Joy not long after which the Old Man died Aged 94 years Schenck p. 539. 4. Platerus tells of Thomas Platerus His Father upon the Death of his first Wife Anno 1572. and the 73 year of his Age married a second time within the compass of 10 years he had 6 Children by her 2 Sons and 4 Daughters the youngest of his Daughters was born in the 81 year of his Age two years before he died J Foelix was born Anno 1536 and my Brother Thomas 1574 the distance between us being 38 years and yet my Brother is all Gray and seems Elder then my self possibly because he was gotten when my Father was stricken in years Pl. Obs. p. 275. 5. M. Valerllus Corvinus attained to the fulfilling of 100 years betwixt whose first and sixth Consulship there was the distance of 47 years yet was he sufficient in respect of the entireness of his bodily Strength not only for the most important Matters of the Common-wealth but also for the exactest Culture of his Fields a Memorable Example Val. Max. l. 8. c. 13. p. 236. 6. Metellus equalled the length of his Life and in extream Age was created Pontiffe for 22 years he had the ordering of the Ceremonies in all which time his Tongue never faultred in Solemn Prayers nor did his Hand tremble in the Offering of the Sacrifices Val. Max. ibid. p. 238. 7. Nicholaut Leonicenus was in the 96 year of his Age when Langius heard him at Ferrara where he had Taught more then 70 years he used to say that he enjoyed a Green and Vegete Age because he had delivered up his Youth chast unto Man's Estate Melch. Adam in Vit. Germ. Med. p. 141. 8. Massanissa was the King of Numidia for 60 years together and excelled all other Men in respect of Strength and of an admirable Old Age that for no Rein or Cold he would be induced to cover his Head they say of him that when he was on Horseback he would lead his Army for the most part both a compleat day and the whole Night also nor would he in extream Age omit any thing of that which he had accustomed to do when young and after the 86th year of his Age he begat a Son and whereas his Land was was waste and desert he left it fruitful by his continual Endeavours in the Cultivation of it he lived till he was above 90 years of Age. Val. M. p. 236. 9. Cornarus the Venetian was in his Youth of a Sickly body began to eat and drink first by measure to a certain weight thereby to recover his Health this Cure turned by use into a Diet that Diet into an extraordinary long Life even of 100 years and better without any decay of his Senses and with a constant enjoyment of Health Verulam's Hist of Life and Death p. 134. 10. Appius Claudius Coecus was blind for the space of very many years yet notwithstanding he was burden'd with this mischance he govern'd 4 Sons and five Daughters very many Dependants upon him yea and the Common-wealth it self with abundance of Prudence and Magnanimity when he had lived so long that he was even tired with living caused himself to be carried to the Senate for no other purpose then to perswade them
the Skin was married to the Bones with so close a conjunction that their Bodies seemed all Boney and tied together only with Nerves truly saith he you would have taken them for the very Images of Death The Younger of them walked well enough for he seemed not much unlike an Ape yet in walking the Bones cracket together very like the dry shells of Nuts Their Father continually attended the Furnace Symph Campej l. 4. c. 13. c Narat Histor Galeni 40. Worms have been found sometimes breed in the Heart which hath caused Palpitation and the Lunatick Passion and consquently Death 41. Arculanus relates that he saw a sharp Bone that stuck in the Throat of one at two months end come out through the Skin Forest l. 15. c. 42. A certain Student in the Colledge of Preleum who had swallowed down a branch of Grass voided it afterwards whole through the intercostal space Parcus l. 24. c. 19. 43. A certain Shepherd being forced to swallow a Knife with a Horn handle half a Foot long after a fortnights space and much pain upon an Aposthume breaking out of his Groins voided it there Idem Dr. Brown tells us That either this Knife or another is to be seen in the Emperor of Germany's Library I say this or another for there is the like Story of a Boy in Prussia that swallowed his Knife and had it taken out again by a Chirurgion Several Persons have swallowed Pins most of which they have voided again by Urine One Mrs. Skâ—ymsher of Aqualat in Shropshire near Newport as it was related to my Lord Paget in my hearing after she had swallowed down a Pin took it out of her Arm many years 44. Sudor Anglicus or the Sweating-sickness was a Pestilent kind of Fever which either killed or delivered the Patient in a day or two mostly peculiar to England but by its Contagion communicating it self sometimes to Holland it ended commonly in Sweating and there was hopes of Recovery by no other Medicines but Sudorificks This arose first of all Anno 1486. in the Summer time and in one day with an excessive Flux of Sweat would carry away many thousands They that were seized with it would be Sowed presently up in the Sheets and Blankets and earnestly intreat their Friends not to leave them till their 24 hours were out which Friends perhaps being seized presently after and thrust into the same Bed to them where being mightly covered with heaps of Cloaths they cried out wretchedly earnestly imploring the Favour of God and Man Gemma Cosmo l. 1. c. 8. 45. Lues Pannoniae or the Hungarian Fever Theriodes vulgarly the worm of the Brain began in the Expedition of the Emperor Maximilian II. against Soliman the Turkish Emperor Anno 1566. in Hungary and carried away a vast number of People insomuch that you might see dead Bodies lie in the Streets of Vienna whither the Army hastned daily First they were taken with a light rigour and coldness within less than an hour with extream heat and pain of the Head and Breast and unsatiable Thirst so that you might see them out of their Tents at Pitchers and Bowls of cold Water drinking till they had Breathed their last The 2d or at most the 3d day they grew Delirious sometimes there was attending a Disentary or Flux of the Liver sometimes the Colick and pain of their sides Matter thrown out by Stool or out of the Head into either Ear causing Deafness gave hopes of Recovery They all had spots like Flea-bitings upon their Body especially their Breast and Back Arms and Shoulders Jordanus de Pestis Phaenomini c. 19. Tract 1. 46. Febris Stigmatica otherwise called Lenticula or Punticula appeared first Anno 1505. and 1528. in Italy especially Cyprus and the Neighbouring Islands it was contagious upon contact at first it was easie and pleasant enough but afterwards was attended with uneasiness and weariness of Body heaviness of the Head or dulness of the Senses Delirium redness of Eyes Talkativeness red Spots about the seventh day in the Arms Back and Breast little or no Thirst c. few Women were taken with this Fever very sew old Men almost no Jews c. Tracaster l. 2 3. c. 6 7. de Contag Morb. 47. Morbus Gallicus was brought first by the Spaniards out of the Indies and shewed it self first in the Camp of Charles V. at Naples it spared none of what degree so ever Kings Lords or Ladies infected the Head Eyes Nose Pallat of the Mouch Skin Flesh Bones Ligaments and inward parts of the Body produced a lumpish heaviness in the Members wandring Pains faint Complexions Sadness Tumours Pustules Ulcers Buboes c. Barrow's method of Physick l. 6. c. 1 2 3. 48. Brunnae Lues of Lues Nova Moraviae not very mortal yet of an unusual form and strange Symptoms and very Contagious it began about Anno 1577. upon occasion of going into the Baths near Brunna The hurt did not appear until a formight or a month after Afterwards these Symptoms followed sluggishness and torture of Body a dejected Mind a sad Countenance pale Face a brown Circle about the Eyes a frowning Forehead an extraordinary heat in such places where they had used Cupping glasses in the day it produced Ulcers and much Corruption sometimes a kind of Scab all over the Body like the Small-Pox Callouses in the Head which broke and run pricking Pains all over the Body no rest perpetual crying out roaring tears avoiding all Conversation and sight of Men c. Jordanus de Lue Nova Moraviae CHAP. XXXVII Strange Birds I Do not intend to present my Reader here with a Complete Aviary or to tell him only what he knows already though perhaps the Book may fall into the hands of some who know more than I can tell them but only to speak of some of those Inhabitants of the Airy Region these Winged People of the Sky that common Eyes are least acquainted with and which we do not see every day whereof there is so great a variety and wherein there is such a pleasant sight of the Creator's Infinite Wisdom and Workmanship as is enough to allure our Eyes to a further Prospect and Disquisition of what there is above these 1. The Eagle is justly esteemed King of Birds The right Foot is reported greater than the left the Brain is so hot that mingled with Hemlock Juice and drank in Powder it will make one Mad. It drinks not because the Blood of what it Preys upon sufficeth it But in old Age when the Beak is crooked with dryness it preserves it self by drinking Aelian They have been seen a Cubit in largeness and some young ones whose Wings stretched out would reach 7 Ells the Claws were bigger than a great Man's Fingers and the Thighs greater than a Lions When the young ones are hatcht she holds them in her Talons against the Sun and having proved them to be Legitimate she takes them on her Wings and carries them
by Heart and as it were made them his own He testifies likewise of Paula that she had most of the Bible by Heart and of Nepotian that with daily reading and meditating he had made his Heart Bibliothecani Christi The Library of Christ Clark's Examp. 16. Constantine the Great used to shew so much Reverence and Attention to the Word of God preached that many times he would stand up all the Sermon-time and when some of his Courtiers told him That it would tend to his Disparagement he answered That it was in the Service of the Great God who is no Respecter of Persons Clark in his Life 17. Charles the Great used to set his Crown upon the Bible as our Canutus sometime put his Crown upon the Rood both of them to intimate their Reverence c. Clark's Exam. Vol. 1. C. 119. 18. King Edward the Sixth was a diligent Attender upon Sermons heard them with great Reverence and penned them with his own Hand and studied them diligently afterwards Ibid. 19. The greatest delight of Queen Elizabeth was often to read the Bible and hear Sermons Ibid. 20. The young Lord Harrington was mighty attentive in hearing the Word of God preach'd or read Ibid. 21. Bugenhagius a Dutch Divine was so joyful when Luther and he and some others had finished the Translation of the Bible into Dutch that on that Day whereon they finished their Work he ever after invited his Friends to a Feast which he called A Feast of the Translation of the Bible Ibid. 22. Chrysostome preaching to his People used this Expression Get you Bibles by all means whatever they cost you you may better want Bread Light than the Knowledge of the Scriptures Ibid. ex Trapp 23. I can speak it by Experience saith Erasmus that there is little good to be got by the Scripture if a Man read it cursorily and carelesly but if he exercise himself therein constantly and conscionably he shall find such an efficacy in it as is not to be found in any other Book whatsoever Ibid. 24. Robert King of Sicily was so wonderfully affected with the Scriptures that speaking to Franc. Petrarcha he thus said of them I swear to you Petrarch that my Learning is more dear to me than my Kingdom and if I must want the one or the other I had much rather want my Diadem than my Learning Idem ex Cornel. de Lapide 25. I know saith Peter Martyr there are many that will never believe what we say of the Power of God's Word hidden in the Heart and not a few that will jeer us and think that we are mad for saying so But oh that they would be pleased but to make Trial Malè mihi sit ita enim in tantâ causâ juvare ausim nisi tandem capiantur Let it never go well with me for I am bold to swear in so weighty a Business if they find not themselves strangely taken and transformed into the same Image if they pass not into the Likeness of this Heavenly Pattern So Ephes 1.13 1 Thes 1.5 8. Ibid. 26. In all the Bible says the Reverend Mr. Burgesse in his Sermon in the Coll. Morn Exercise though it be an History of more than 4000 Years we read of but of One that was converted just before his Death And we do believe that he also did convert at his first Convincing Call Rarely do any savingly convert who do not upon their first Convictions convert St. Austin's stifled Convictions cost him dear You that will make so bold with Conscience as Spira did should expect to roar for it here as he did or hereafter to fare worse than many hope him to do They are considerable Divines who are not hopeless of his Salvation Thus far Mr. Burgesse 27. John an Egyptian Confessor whom Eusebius saw and heard tho' his Eyes were out and his Body mangled could repeat any passages out of the Old or New Testament whom I supposed saith he to be reading in a Book 'till coming near I was struck with great admiration Dr. Cave ' s Primitive Christian 28. Nazianzen professeth that he had willingly relinquished all other things for the sake of this Book Ibid. 29. Luther said He would not live in Paradise without the Word but with it he could live well enough in Hell Mr. Calamy 's Godly Man's Ark. 30. Gildas hath scarce one Paragraph in his Epistle unstored with Scripture and one of his chief Lamentations in Dioclesian's Persecution is for their Bibles being burnt in the Publick Markets Tho. Jones Sovereign of the Heart 31. Mr. Bradford to Willerton Bishop Bonner's Chaplain when he told him The People must learn all at the Priests not meddling with the Scriptures answered Then I see you would bring the People to hang up Christ and let Barabbas go as the Priests perswaded the People to do At which words Willerton was so offended that he had no lust to talk with him any more Fox Martyr 32. The Christians at the beginning of the Reformation were so in love with the Bible and studied it so diligently and used it in their Discourses and Disputations so frequently and boldly that Darbyshire Principal of Broadgates told Mr. Hawkes in Bishop Bonner's House You will have nothing but your little pretty God's Book Ibid. 33. Blesilla a devout Widow weak and sickly was never found without a Bible in her Hands S. Hierom. 34. Olympia Fulvia Morata born at Ferrara in a Letter to the young Princess of that place after getting out of the Idolatry of that Country saith It may seem incredible to you what a change the Lord then made upon my Spirit that former aversion I had to read the Scripture was then turned to have it as the greatest delight and pleasure in the World Anonym 35. One Captain Knox being a Prisoner in Ceilon in the East-Indies for near Twenty Years was extreamly pleased when he found there an English Bible which he purchased at a Rate and professeth That he never found Prayer so sweet to him as it was then See his Description of Ceilon 36. The Lady Jane Grey the Night before her Execution sent her Sister the Lady Catherine the Greek Testament in the end of which she wrote thus I Have here sent you Good Sister Catherine a Book which altho' it be not outwardly Printed with Gold yet inwardly it is more worth than precious Stones It is the Book dear Sister of the Law of the Lord it is his Testament and Last Will which he bequeathed to us Wretches which shall lead you to the Path of Eternal Joy and if you with a good Mind read it and with an earnest Heart purpose to follow it it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting Life it shall teach you to live and learn you to die it shall win you more than you would have gained by the possession of your woful Father's Lands which if God had prospered you you should have inherited so that if you apply diligently this Book