some circumstances in Worship which they like not 4. When you come home from the Publick be careful to spend your time in Religious Exercises Meditate on what you have heard and having like a diligent Bee gathered abroad in the Publick Assembly the sweet of heavenly Flowers work your Honey-comb within your own Hive Digest well by private Meditation that spiritual meat which was set before you in the Dishes of the Publick Ordinances Meditate also on the Attributes of God the Works of God and especially the Mercies of God that you may be stirred up to holy rejoycings praises and thanksgivings which are the most proper work of the day which is a day of thanksgiving and commemoration of the Mercies of God especially of the Resurrection of Christ and the great work of Redemption 5. Be careful that your Servants do not prophane or mis-spend this day as being tender of their Souls as well as your own Solomon's virtuous Woman gave a portion of holy Instructions as well as of Food to her Servants and Maidens Prov 31.15 26. CHAP. XXIV Of Holy Duties in general 1. BEfore you go to any Duty address your self to Jesus Christ for a supply of grace for the performance thereof If you be to go to a new act of praying or hearing or receiving the Sacraments you must eye Jesus Christ again put forth a new act of Faith towards him and labour for new Influences and a fresh supply of Spirit from him 2. Do not only number your Duties but weigh your Duties how many how many look only how oft they go to Duties but never seriously how or in what manner they perform them and so cheat themselves everlastingly concluding themselves to be in a state of Grace because of their constancy in Duties but miscarry everlastingly for want of a right manner of performing them as out of a right spring and principle and to a right end and with sincerity and fervency of affection Though the Tree bear many large and fair fruits yet it is not much valued unless they have a good rellish If the fruits that your Soul brings forth have not a good tast through the sincerity and right ends thereof or tast not of the Love of God they will not be acceptable unto God Let all your works be done in Love 1 Cor. 16.14 3. Do not only perform holy duties but love holy duties so they will be more acceptable to the God of Love An ungodly Man or Woman may often go to prayer but they love it not they may hear the Word but they receive not the Truth in the love of it But a good heart loves duties So long as you cannot find any rellish in Ordinances or private Duties but are in an indifferency whether you perform them or no or have your frequent intermissions of these meals so that sometimes you take them and sometimes you let them alone it is a sign you are not sound within or if you do constantly take them if it be without an appetite and perform holy duties only to stop the mouth of Conscience it s an argument your Soul is not in health Till you find sweetness in Ordinances the case is not well with you as it should be the Soul is out of frame If once you love duties they will be a delight and refreshment to you All the ways of Christ are Beds of Spices and Roses and can you walk on such and not be requited for it with sweet and fragrant smells Those that carry bundles of Spices from Arabia have their Spirits refresht with the sweet Odours that breathe from them A good Christian is refresht in duty the Soul can sing at her work Love turns all pains into pleasures Though the Mother take a great deal of pains in tending the Child yet she finds a sweet delight in it because of her love to it A good Christian can say with David O how I love thy Law Psal 119.97 And I delight to do thy Will O my God! Psal 40.8 CHAP. XXV Of Prayer 1. DO not rush on Prayer presently without some serious consideration before Read therefore some portion of Scripture before you pray This will afford you matter of meditation which will furnish you with matter for Prayer for so you may turn what you have read into Prayer A good Heart is by one Duty quickned and prepared for another as the Wild Bores by whetting their Tusks with their other Teeth make them sharp and so every Tooth mutually sets an edge on another If therefore you be to read Pray before by some short Address to God if to Pray read before Yea Pray also before Prayer that God would Assist you in Prayer and deliver you from the Evil Infirmities of your Prayer Holy David Prays for his own Prayers Psal 141.1 2. 2. Look not upon Prayer as a task but as a priviledge O! what a great and glorious priviledge is it that the poorest Saint may with boldness have access to God! Eph. 3.18 Rom. 5.1 2. Is it not a Royal Priviledge to have a Key in our keeping that opens Heaven Gates and lets into the Presence Chamber of the King of Glory To speak with him at any time If you would thus look upon it I should not need to perswade you to go to Prayer constantly Morning and Evening This would be in stead of a hundred Arguments that Prayer is so High and so Royal a Priviledge that you may thereby go boldly to the Throne of Grace draw near to God himself and lay your Petition in his Bosom and plead your Cause before him and fill your Mouth with Arguments and Reason out your great Concernments with him and receive his Answers 3. Pray Earnestly Lazy Devotion and Key-cold Prayers will never prevail You must wrestle with God in Prayer like Holy Jacob that you may prevail In wrestling one single Person strives with another so the Devout Soul with God they go to it singly as it were Hand to Hand and have as it were a single Combat in private The Devout Saint loves to wrestle with God in the Closet when no Body is present the Door being shut he loves not to have Spectators of it he then comes up close to God and gets within him takes hold of his Everlasting Arms. Thus the Woman of Canaan Wrestled with Christ she stands to it though she had many Repulses from him The Soul thus Wrestles with God as a Child with the Father who is much delighted and pleased to let it get the better on him to encourage it and after takes it up from its Knees into his Arms when you go to Prayer you must set all your faculties on work you must open and spread the Sails open and spread forth your Affections as wide as you can that they may gather wind enough to waft you over to the Land of Promise 4. See that your Prayers be followed with Diligent and Serious Endeavours for effecting of that which you have Prayed for
ADVICE To an Only CHILD OR Excellent Council TO ALL Young Persons Containing The Summ and Substance of Experimental and Practical Divinity WRITTEN By an Eminent and Judicious Divine for the Private Use of an only Child now made Publick for the Benefit of all LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1693. THE Epistle to the Reader Christian Reader THIS precious Pearl of seasonable Advice providentially put first into my Hand and now into thine is of great worth and the rate thereof is inhanced both from the worthiness of the Authour and the necessity of the subject matter the manner of handling it and the great End and Design of it The Authour was a Master in Israel a Star of the first Magnitude first placed in an high elevation to influence Candidates for the Ministry in the Academical Orb thence translated by the Ministerial Function into an Ecclesiastical Station where he was a burning and shining light till Eclipsed with the rest of his ejected Brethren but moved very regularly and profitably in a narrower and obscurer Sphear till at last he disappeared to us but shines bright in the Firmament of Glory his exquisite pains of the Stone with his invincible Patience and Magnanimity would make a volume his personal excellencies as a Schollar as a Minister as a Christian were beyond the vulgar rate and 't is pity the World is blessed with no more of his learned labours polished with his own hand and squared by this Master Builder for adorning the House of God but his Modesty concealed something of what our zeal for publick good hath here presented to the Reader in its naked dress as writ by his own Hand As for the Matter it is those Magnalia Dei the Doctrine according to Godliness the weighty things of Law and Gospel Covenanting with God the Life of Faith of Holiness as in Gods presence acting of love to God Christ Vniversal Obedience circumspect walking dying daily Repentance delighting in God and his Ways thankfulness Prayer c. you may find in this Treatise an excellent Encyclopoedia or Vniversal Scheme of Practical Divinity coucht in a few words in a plain method laid before the Eyes of the intelligent Reader The manner of managing this useful tractate is pleasant and taking and adds a peculiar Accent and Emphasis to it such a smooth stile such pat and proper similitudes and delightful allusions that it will chain the Readers Eye to proceed in reading and may perhaps charm his affections to embrace the contents thereof Prov. 25 11. It is as Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver i. e. Golden Apples appearing through Net-work of Silver or Pourtrayed on Silver Tables very delightful and grateful to the Eye so may these words * Heb. on the Wheel v. 12. fitly spoken be to Youth and as in the next verse as an Earing of Gold and Ornament of fine Gold so may this wise Reprover be upon an obedient Ear happy is the Teacher that mixeth pleasant and profitable The Design I am sure is high and noble to plant Grace in young Persons and to breed and feed a nursery of Plants of Renown to stock the Church and World with a springing up generation in the room of old trees transplanted into a better soil that may fill up vacancies and do God service in after-times Amongst the rest of Solomons sumptuous preparations of costly Ornaments for his pleasures that was not the least which he mentions Eccles 2.6 I made me pools of Water to water therewith the Wood that bringeth forth Trees this was an Artificial mean of nourishing Fruit-trees in want of natural distillings of Rain from the Clouds which sometimes was rare and scant and 't is worth observing that the word rendered Pools is the same with Blessing in Hebrew either because in those hot Countreys they were esteemed great blessings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piscina à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 benedicit or because they were filled with Rain which is the great Blessing of God Such Pools as this small Treatise are signal Blessings in themselves may they be also seconded with the Heavenly Dew of Divine Benediction what a Wood or Forrest of Fruit-bearing Trees may we see flourishing in the Orchard of Gods Church It 's true Men may do something yet not all The best humane cultivating bows the Trees but to an outward compliance Divine Grace only plants them in Christ and plants Grace in their Hearts 2 Kin. 12.2 2 Chron. 24 1â— 22. The Pupil Joash was hopeful whilest his Reverend Tutour Jehojada instructed or besprinkled him but after his Death discovered the rottenness of his hypocritical Heart God will demonstrate a vast difference betwixt the Efficient cause and subordinate means therefore some miscarry under Religious Education but some prove well to incourage Parents and Masters in their duty Divine Benediction with paternal instruction hath done great things Let Abraham command his Children God undertakes they shall keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18 19. The Rain also filleth the Pools saith the Psalmist Psal 84 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benedictionibus amicietur Doctor or Benedictionem dabit Legislator the Eternal Majesty will make their Pools of Water great Blessings to Men. Did Parents Conscientiously in struâ—… Children they would in Gods time discern the Blessed effects thereof Reverend Mr. Baxter thinks Religious Education would be so Blessed by God for Conversion that publick Ministry would be chiefly useful for Edification T is true Grace comes not by Succession yet oft in Succession the Covenant is with the Godly and their Seed and surely it 's not an insignificant Cypher As God delights to run along the line of Gospel Covenant so he usually blesseth his own Institutions with Gospel Grace Let Parents do Duty and leave their issue to God Our Children have Souls as well as Bodies both must be cared for nature obligeth unto nurture Grace regulates it God alone makes it efficacious Job 11 12. Corrupt Nature leaves Children not a whit better than a wild Asses Colt an habit of Sinning makes them a wild Ass used to the Wilderness that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure Jer. 2.24 in her occasion who can turn her away Education must be as guide and bridle to teach and tame these frolick Youths But alas most Parents cast the Reins in Childrens Necks and leave them to their wanton ways till at last they get the Bits between the Teeth and kick off the Rider and ramble in forbidden paths till they are impounded in a Prison or an Halter here and in the Dungeon of Hell hereafter Solomon saith The Rod and Reproof give Wisdom Prov 29.15 but a Child left to himself bringeth his Mother to shame Is not Crying here better than Roaring in Eternal Torments Even Heathen Seneca could say Disciplina severa firmat ingenia apta reddit magnis conatibus
Cannon-shot that damps the fiercest anger CHAP. XIV Of Living in Love and Charity to all 1. LIve in Love and Charity to your Neighbour Be careful to get this grace engraven on your breast and as it were moulded into your very Nature Live in this Element of Love let the acting thereof be so natural and familiar to you that he that runs may read this New Commandment which Christ left of loving one another written in you as it were in Letters of Gold Oh how main a part of Religion and Holiness lies in this duty of Love I do not know through all the New Testament any one duty so much inculcated and prest on as this of Love no string so much beat upon as if it made the best Musick and sweetest Harmony in Christian Religion 2. You must love all even the most wicked in the World as having the natural Image of God or the marks of his Perfection in the Rational Soul David indeed profest his hatred of God's Enemies but it was according to the ordinary gloss of their sins not of their persons That effect of Lightning in breaking the Sword and not bruising the Scabbard is accounted as one of Natures great Mysteries But this heavenly flame of Love and Charity seems much more mysterious and admirable in its operations whilst it would by all means keep safe and preserve the person of our vicious Neighbour and Enemy when it hath a deadly hatred unto and a desire to destroy his Vices 3. Though you love all yet your best and choicest Love must be to the Saints in whom the Moral Image of God which consists in righteousness and true hollness and is the special Loadstone of Love doth shine and sparkle forth In the parallel Lines which are drawn from the Circumference to the Center they all draw to it and the nearer the Center the nearer they are to one another God is the Center of Love and the nearer we come to him the nearer are we to one another in spiritual Affection There 's a Consanguinity of Graces among the Saints and therefore the greatest Love as there is among persons of the same blood and kindred They are all the Children of God by Faith 4. Let this Love put you upon being ready to do all the good you can as you have opportunity but especially to those that are of the houshold of Faith Let the Errand on which Jesse sent David be your great business in the World Look how thy Brethren fare Consider the Poor so as to relieve them Deny your self Superfluities that you may supply the Poor with Necessaries The Poor are God's Wardrobe you cannot hang up your Riament in a better place CHAP. XV. How to manage your Converse in Company 1. LET that grace of Love and Charity commended to you in the former Chapter steer and influence you in your Civil Converse in all Companies Let it be as a bridle to your tongue to restrain your speaking evil of others and to curb all censuring Take him saith holy Mr. Baxter that speaks evil of another to you to be Satan's Messenger intreating you to hate your Brother or to abate your Love Let me then warn and caution you not to run upon Satans Errand or to do his Message And consider that this speaking evil of others is the great Make-bate the grand Incendiary that raiseth up flames kindles hatred and malice and damps all Love and Affection It 's the Sluce of dissention and discord the great Inlet of jarrs and animosities of quarrels and contentions in all Companies And as for censuring of others how familiar is it with those of your Sex when they come together to run division in the Censures of other persons either for their entertainments their garb and dressing their outward behaviour and gestures or some such trifles alway finding fault and often making as Coneys do holes in the Rocks where they cannot find therefore do you mind your self only look within your self within your own heart in this respect keep at home like a good Huswife be much within doors within your own bosom to spy what fault there is and go not abroad in uncharitable Censures of others In the Twilight we can see to read without doors when we cannot within We cannot see the swellings in our own hearts when we can easily spy small Pimples in another we can see the Moâ—e in anothers Eye when we cannot the Beam in our own 2. Be watchful when you are in Company that you contract no harm thereby The Bee in the midst of the Hive full of clinging stuff yet keeps her wings untoucht with it Indeed vain Company hath usually a very strong force to make us imitate their gestures words and actions we usually learn our Pronunciation our Shibâ—â—â—â—th and our Gestures and Gate by our Company You can scarce come any where but there is some white Wall or some black Hood so that you shall carry something away with you But the greatest danger is from carnal Friends and Relations these indeed are the great Impediments in the way to Heaven Many in all probability had been holy and gracious persons if they had had better Kindred and lived where Godliness had been encouraged and good Examples given thereunto O it is a very sad thing to be near to them whose nearness will remove you further from God! Be therefore exceeding careful to keep your spiritual Watch in your Company and labour so to live in the World as not to partake of the corrupt and sinful humours of it As Mother Pearls live in the Sea not taking in one drop of Salt Water into their Shells 3. But yet as much as possible may be avoid joyning your self with any Acquaintance except such by whom you may be made better The Royal Psalmist begins his first Psalm with the blessedness of that person who hath not walkt in the company of the ungodly Diamonds will not cement with Rubbish 4. In all Converse in any Company let some good words fall from you that may tend to make them better Let your Lips like the Spouses in the Canticles drop as the Honey-comb distil some sweetness some savoury and wholsom words A word spoken in season may thro' God's blessing tend to the eternal welfare of a Soul A good Woman riding with her Husband in a great Thunder which much affrighted him and being askt by him what the reason was why she was not at all afraid returned this sweet and holy Answer Because it is my Fathers Voice And this one seasonable word proved the occasion of his Conversion to God 5. Be sure to avoid all vain discourse and idle chatt which is the feminine malady and let your words be few and well considered before you speak Remember that astonishing speech Mat. 12.36 That of every idle word that you shall speak you shall give an account thereof at the day of Judgment CHAP. XVI How to manage Solitariness 1. VVHen you are solitary and alone
meekness The Apostle Peter having said Ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd of your Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 He immediately adds in the next words Ye Wives be in subjection to your own Husbands Wives are Christs Sheep and must not be the Devils Shrews 4. Is God calling you to be a Mother having formed a work in you unseen to any other Eye but his take great care that you give up and seriously devote and dedicate the fruit of your womb to God to be his Servants so that all the Children that God shall give you may be as Bathsheba called Solomon Children of your Vows And in the educating of them see that you be continually instilling and dropping into them the Milk of wholsom Instructions that so it may be said of you as of Solomon's virtuous Woman her Children rise up and call her blessed Prov. 31.28 How careful have holy Women been in these cases While Monica the Mother of Saint Austin was with Child with him she did often devote him to the Christian Religion and the Service of the great God and afterwards in his Education she so affectionately tendred the good of his Soul that he was called the Child of her Prayers and Tears It was Timothy's happiness that he had a good Mother and a good Grand-mother for so he learned the Scriptures from a Child And the Mother of holy Bernard as soon as her Children were born gave them up to the Lord Jesus to be his Servants And no less careful was she of of their Instructions as soon as they came to be capable thereof and the success was happy in that all of them became holy Children of God Children while young are most with the Mother and in her company and usually have the most love to her and therefore are the most likely to take her Instructions therefore be you careful to improve that advantage And begin betimes with them so soon as you see the first buddings of reason Gardiners begin to graft at the first rising of the Sap in the Spring and when the Bud of the Stock first begins to swell and enlarge The Wax while it is soft and tender will easily take Impression Labour by all means to imprint upon the Children that God shall give you a stamp of Holiness Philip King of Macedon gave to one a piece of Metal without any stamp who after returned it again to the King with his Son Alexander's Picture engraven on it which very much pleased the King You will receive your Children from God unpolisht without any form see that you return them back to him with his Son Christs Image on them which is the Image of Holiness 5. How sadly accented an account have those Mothers to give to God who neglect giving of good Instructions to their Children betimes What a terrible speech was that of a dying Lady to her ungodly Mother It 's too late now to speak of God to me I am going to Hell before and you will certainly follow after CHAP. XX. How to manage all Natural and Civil actions religiously 1. MAnage all your Natural and Civil actions by the Rules of Religion making the very drift and scope of them all to be the pleasing and glorifying of God Let the Needle in the Compass of your Soul stand directly and steddily to this Pole God's Glory and then you will steer your course aright Mind this end not only in acts of Devotion and the direct duties of Religion but in the course of your civil conversation 2. And do not satisfie your self with making God your end in the general course of your life but mind this end actually and expresly in every solemn action of every day If you eat or drink do it not to gratifie your carnal sense or appetite but to preserve your health that by your health and strength you may be better enabled to do God service And so in all your domestick affairs level your Arrow at the same mark aim at this White chiefly and ultimately the Glory of God Thus you will make both your Natural and Civil actions to slide into Religion and become parts of God's service Thus you will serve God in your lying down and in your rising up in your eating drinking sleeping visiting journeying and all other your lawful actions 3. But I do not here bid you to mind this end actually in every ordinary action throughout the whole day or in every bit of Bread that you put in your mouth this cannot be done but yet you may do it in every solemn action of the day you may at every meal when you sit down actually and observedly mind this end though not in every bit you eat Or in a morning when you rise you may have a resolved intention to do all that day in the Name of God and for his Glory and you may by a ready unobserved act of a strong habit order all particulars that day to the same end which you did actually propound to your self at first rising in the morning and still all the day do propound to your self in the general habitual disposition frame and purpose of the heart Thus then though the Glory of God and good of the Soul cannot be distinctly and actually intended in every single action of the day yet a sincere habitual intention of God's Glory well fixed and rivetted within will be sufficient to steer and influence all the particulars of that day into that end As a man that sets forward in a Journey with a full intention to go to London though he do not actually think of London in every step that he takes yet by virtue of the first settled intention every particular step is ordered to that end CHAP. XXI Of spending of Time 1. NEver do any thing meerly to pass the time away Neither make any Visits nor set upon any thing called Recreation barely on that account Time is too precious a Jewel too valuable a Treasure to study how to get rid of it as some do of an old Commodity that lies on their hands that they cannot tell what to do with God never gave us the least pittance or moment of good to trifle away but that we might do some time therein What can you have any time to pass away when many would give all they are worth but to draw out their breath one hour longer As a great Lady that cryed out on her Death-bed All too late a world of wealth for an inch of time 2. Avoid all such occasions whatsoever as are expensive of much time to no good purpose as vain trickings and trimmings tirings and dressings too long needless visits perusal of idle Books or Treatises of vanity and folly vain thoughts fruitless discourse unnecessary sleep useless Recreations and idle Games But it may be askt Are not these things lawful This one Question sends many to Hell May I not do this For we are most of all in danger by the use of
the Heart that those affections that were warmed and heated there be not cooled again Let not those sweet gales of Devotion that did blow within you at the Lords Table be presently driven away with a counterblast from Satan or the World Satan will now be most ready to Way-lay you for to rob you of your Jewels these pretious Love-tokens of Peace and Joy and holy Vigour which you received from your blessed Lord at his Table and therefore you have more need after you have been there to look well about you and to walk more circumspectly and to live more orderly A disorderly Diet after Physick received will do more hurt than before Live ever after as one that hath been at the Table of the Lord then shall you at the end of your life be welcomed to the Supper of the Lamb in the kingdom of Glory and the Cloath never drawn to all Eternity The Conclusion I Have now drawn out to you the Lineaments of practical Religion the chief Lines and Features of Godliness which consists mainly in believing in and devoting your self to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in living by Faith in holiness of Heart and Life in Love to God in walking before God and in universal obedience to him strictly and circumspectly as also in Mortification Repentance praising of God and delighting in him Humility Meekness Love and Charity exercising Grace in all Conditions and Relations well spending of your time especially on the Lords day and waiting upon God in the Holy Ordinances of Prayer Word and Sacraments It 's now your duty not only to view these lines but to draw out the same in your practice and to mould your self into the like form I have endeavoured to anoint your right ear with wholesome advice see that it be your care to get your right foot anointed with the Oil of Grace that you may smoothly and chearfully walk in the way here Chaulkt out before you till you come to the Land of Glory FINIS Books Printed for and are to be sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel A Body of practical Divinity consisting of above 176 Sermons on the lesser Catechism composed by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster with a Supplement of some Sermons on several Texts of Scripture by Tho. Watson formerly Minister of St. Stephens Walbrook Printed from his own hand writing recommended by several Ministers to Masters of Families and others Synodicon in Gallia Reformata or the Acts Decrees Decisions Canons of the Reformed Churches in France Being 1. A most faithful and impartial History of the rise growth perfection and decay of the Reformation in that Kingdom with its fatal Catastrophe upon the revocation of the Edict at Nants in the year 1685. 2. The Confession of Faith Discipline of those Churches 3. A Collection of Speeches Letters Sacred Politicks Cases of Conscience and Controversies in Divinity determined and resolved by those Grave Assemblies 4. Many excellent expedients for preventing and healing Schisms in the Churches and for re-uniting the dismembred body of divided Protestants 5. The Laws Government and Maintenance of the Colledges Universities and Ministers together with their Exercise of Discipline upon delinquent Ministers and Church Members 6 A Record of very many illustrious Events of Divine Providence relating to those Churches The whole collected and composed out of the Original Manuscript Acts of those renowned Synods a work never before extant in any Language in two Vol. by John Quick c. Fol. The Sure Mercies of David Or a Second Part of Heart-treasure Wherein is contained the sum and substance of Gospel-mercies purchased by Christ and Promised in the Covenant of Grace together with the several ways how they are made sure to all the Heirs of Promise and how they are to be improved for the Saints Fort and Defence Settlement and Incouragement in shaking and back-sliding times By O. Heywood Closet-prayer a Christian Duty or a Treatise upon Mat. 6.6 By O. Heywood Baptismal Bonds renewed Being some Meditations upon Psal 50.5 By O. H. M. A. Meetness for Heaven promoted in some brief Meditations upon Colos 1.12 Discovering the nature and necessity of habitual and actual Meetness for Heaven here in all that hope for Heaven hereafter By O. H. An Epistolary Discourse on the great assistances to a Christians Faith and for a more Intire Rest and Assurance in the highest Trials and Adventures thereof With a Second Part upon the Present Times and these rare Vicissitudes of Providence in the Publick State of Britain in this Age. To which an Appendix is added in the Close By R. Fleming A Discourse of Earthquakes as they are Supernatural and Premonitory Signs to a Nation with a respect to what hath occurred in this Year 1692. And some special Reflections thereon As also on that Security and Assurance of Mind which is attainable in the Light and Power of Religion under the greatest Surprizals and Terrors of Sense With some Enquiry upon the Grounds both of our Fears and Hopes as to the publick State of the Church of Christ in this Day By the Author of the Fulfilling of the Scriptures The Confirming Work of Religion Or its Great Things made plain by their Primary Evidences and Demonstrations Whereby the meanest in the Church may soon be made able to render a Rational account of their Faith Written by R. Fleming Author of the Fulfilling of the Scriptures A Defence of Mr. M. H's Brief Enquiry into the Nature of Schism and the vindication of it With Reflections upon a Pamphlet called the Review c. And a Brief Historical Account of Nonconformity from the Reformation to this Present Time England's Alarum Being an account of God's most Considerable Dispensations of Mercy and Judgment towards these Kingdoms for Fourteen Years last past And also of the several sorts of Sins and Sinners therein Especially the Murmurers against the Present Government With an Earnest Call to speedy Humiliation Supplication and Reformation as the Chief Means of Prospering their Majesties Counsels and Preparations Dedicated to the King and Queen A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Reverend Mr. Thomas Shewell Master of Arts and Minister of the Gospel in Coventry Who went up well into the Pulpit Jan. 15. and having Prayed and Named the Text Rom. 5.12 was seized by an Apoplexy and dyed within a few Hours By William Tongue Minister of the Gospel