retire a while into your private Closets and there make use of that reason and those Principles which were born with your Souls These would soon furnish you with sufficient Proofs and evincing Arguments Mark I beseech you in what significant Terms a heathen Philosopher rebukes you Mentiuntur qui dicunt non esse Deum etiamsi enim interdiu negant noctu tamen et sibi dubitant Which is hardly to be turn'd into English without losing a great part of its emphasis They lie who say there is no God! for though in the day time they deny him yet in the Night and being alone they doubt concerning Him How is it possible that it should ever enter into the thoughts of Men of Reason and common Understanding That those glorious Bodies of the Sun Moon and Planets together with that Numberless number of fixed Stars and those of such prodigious Magnitudes should all be produced by meer Fortune or Chance Vain man would fain be wise but which of your Leaders who darken their Counsels by words without knowledge can tell me how the great Bodies before-mentioned of the Sun Moon and the other Planets are suspended in the vast Expanse and by what extrinsick or intrinsick Powers they have performed their several and respective Motions and served for Signs and for Seasons and Measured time for so many thousand Years Is there any of you who knows the Ordinances of Heaven or can set the dominion thereof in the Earth Which of you can bind the sweet Influences of Pleiades or loose the Bands of Orion Or to come nearer to our own Terrestial Globe Who is he that gathers and holds the Wind in his fists Who is he that has bound the Waters in a Garment Who is that has established all the ends of the Earth What is his Name and what is his Son's Name if you can tell me Which of you can give a clear Account of those black and grisly Clouds when they seem to be rent and torn by the Thunder-Claps as if their substance were of molten Brass or the Lightning that shoots through the Hemisphere and in its passage tears and rends one sturdy Oak and leaves another untouch't Passes by one stately Edifice and takes away part of another and how it should pull out massy Barrs of Iron and again strike them into Stone walls to the Depth of many Inches with other prodigious Effects Of which I am sure you can give but very slender Reasons No more than of the Treasure of the Snow the Hail or Hoary Frost Or of Hurricanes Deluges or Earthquakes Alas poor dull Philosophers the wisest of you all know not how any grass pile or the least hair of your heads grows and yet are so presumptuous to dispute and question Divine Providence O foolish and perverse Atheists who hath bewitch't you to make mock of Moses and the Prophets to divide our blessed Saviour and his Apostles and to make the Holy Scriptures a meer Humane Artifice for Soveraign Princes to keep their Subjects in Obedience and to preserve to Ecclesiastick Prelates their vast Revenues and to Inferior Priests their Tythes and Maintenance In the first place we are as well assur'd that the Books of the New Testament were writ by the first Divulgers of Christianity which were soon afterwards Translated into Latin Syriac and other Languages and Copies thereof dispersed and publickly preach't in most parts of the habitable World and so transmitted to us without any notorious depravations as we are sure that in our Statute Books are faithfully Recorded the several Laws which have been Enacted in all the King 's and Queen's Reigns from William the Conqueror to this present Age and much more sure then you or any private Man can be of the Conveyances Hands or Seals of his Ancestors from time to time whereby he holds his Lands and Possessions We have no more reason to doubt that there was a Jesus born in Bethelem than that there was at that time a Herod at Jerusalem or an Augustus Caesar at Rome The wonderful Star that appear'd at Christ's birth is mentioned by Macrobius And a great Enemy to Christianity speaks of the coming of the Magi from the East to Jerusalem and Julian the Apostate Confesses the appearing of a New Star though he trifles about the manner of its appearing The Ecclipse at Christ's Passion was left upon Record among the Heathen As for the Writings of Moses and the Prophets and for their being most carefully preserved through-out all Ages till the coming of our Saviour Jesus at which time they were publickly read in all the Synagogues we need no better Evidence than the universal Consent of his Implacable Enemies the Jews We read in the 31st of Deuteronomy that when Moses had made an end of writing the Words of the Law in a Book untill they were finished That He commanded the Levites which bore the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD saying Take this Book of the Law and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God And we may reasonably judge that the rest of the Canonical Books when written were also here laid up Besides the King was to keep a Copy for his own use 17. Deut. 18. And the Priests that were to expound the Law must needs have Copies of it themselves So in an ordinary way it might be preserved by multitudes of Copies some of which might escape in the hands of good and pious Men in Idolatrous Times Whence it will follow That we have no reason to think that the Book of the Law which was lost for a great while and after the Captivity found by Hilkiah and by him given to Saphan the Scribe who carried it to King Josiah was the only Copy of the Law that was preserved 2 Kings 22. 8. During the Captivity those Books which were already written were undoubtedly in the hands of the Prophets and Priests some of whom as Jeremiah and Gedaliah staid in their own Land others as Daniel and his Companions were carried away Captives And we are sure that Daniel had these Books and out of them gathered the number of Years the Captivity was to last 9 Dan. 2. where it is thus written viz. In the first Year of Darius the Son of Ahasuerus of the Seed of the Medes c. I Daniel understood by Books the number of Years whereof the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the Prophet that he would accomplish Seventy Years in the Desolations of Jerusalem Josephus saith That Cyrus was moved to restore the Jews by reading the Prophesy of Isaiah where it is foretold 210 Years before his time that he should be raised up for that Work After the Captivity these Books were kept in a great number of Copies of which every Synagogue had one at least In this interval Ptolomy Philadelphus procured the Translation of the Seventy the authentick Edition of which was kept in the famous Alexandrian Library about the Year of
did immediately prove on both his and their Testimony to be Divine And consequently were an absolute Confirmation of our Saviour's being the true Messias and sent by God himself from Heaven for the Redemption of lost sinners and opening the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers This Argument of Miracles was urged by Christ himself who certainly knew best the force of it against the Scribes Pharisees and unbeliving Jewes And he did acknowledge that if he had not done those things which no other Man on Earth could do they might have had a fair excuse for their Unbelief In the time of Tiberius says Josephus a Jew by Nation and of a contrary Profession and wrote his History about 86 years after Christ There was one Jesus a wise Man if it be lawfull to call him a Man who was a Worker of great Miracles and a teacher of such as love the Truth and had many as well Jews as Gentiles who clove unto him This was Christ and when Pilate upon his being accused by the Men of our Nation bad sentenced him to be Crucified yet did not they who had first loved him forsake him for he appeared to them the Third Day alive again according to what the Prophets divinely inspired had foretold concerning him As they had done an innumerable number of very strange things besides and even to this day both the Names and sort of Persons called Christians so named from him do remain To which Attestation of Josephus were it necessary might be added great numbers of Testimonies from ancient Writers I must needs acknowledge That our blessed Saviour's Apostles though the greatest part of them were poor 〈◊〉 men of low Birth small Fortune and mean Education were by the Spirit of God endued with the wonderful Gift of speaking strange Languages and other miraculous Powers that so they might be better enabled to disperse the Gospel into many remote Countries as they afterwards did Namely St. Peter in Sicily Britain and Africa as likewise at Antioch and Rome St. Andrew in Galatia Bithinia and all along the Euxine Sea St. James in Spain Britain and Ireland St. John in Asia and other parts of the East St. Bartholomew in India St. Thomas among the Parthians Medes Persians Carmans Hircans Bachtrians the Asians Ethiopians and Indians Simon the Zelot in Egypt Syrene and Africk St. Jude in the Cities of Arabia St. Matthias in Cappadocia St. Mark in Alexandria And though St. James the Just did stay at Jerusalem yet probably he might have some Converts of almost all Nations who frequently resorted to that City Parthians Medes and Elamites Dwellers in Mesopotamia Cappadocia Pontus Asia and divers other places To all these may be very well added St. Paul who though he was none of the Twelve yet he was not the least of the Apostles and having received his Commission from Christ himself in a Vision left Damascus and preached the Gospel at Antioch Seleusia Cyprus Pamphilia Iconium Lystra Pisidia Galatia Macedonia Samothracia Neapolis Thessalonica Beraea Athens Corinth Ephesus Jerusalem Illiricum Sclavonia Troas and Rome Yet notwithstanding all this it was impossible that these poor Men should at the same time carry on any private Design of their own being all of them sent forth as Lambs among Wolves and foretold by their own Master whom all but Judas had seen scourged Spit on and crucified between two Thieves that they should be persecuted and hated of all Nations for his Name sake and the Gospel which yet at their peril they were to preach and publish and after all sorts of Affronts and cruel Usage should suffer shameful and ignominious Deaths which they all did as ancient Historians assures us St. John Christ's beloved Disciple excepted neither had he escaped as one of them tells us had God permitted the Cauldron of burning Oil into which he was thrown by Domitian's Order to put an end to his life As for St. Peter he for baffling Simon Magus was by the Command of the Emperor Nero crucified at Rome with his Head downwards St. Andrew was at Patra a City of Achaia by the Proconsul's Order first scourged seven Lictors successively whipping his naked Body and then tied not nailed to the Cross to prolong his Torments and was two whole days before he expired St. James was beheaded in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa Son of Aristobulus and Grand-child to Herod the Great in whose Reign Christ was born St. Bartholomew was first flead alive and then crucified at Albanople in Armenia St. Matthew is said to be Martyred at Naddaba in Ethiopia St. Thomas suffered Martyrdom at Malipur in the Kingdon of Cormandel where by the Brachmans he was first loaded with stones and Darts and then run through with a Launce St. James the Less was thrown down from a Pinnacle of the Temple Simon the Zelot is said to have suffered great Cruelties in Britain and then to be crucified by the Infidels Jude suffered Martyrdom in Persia for rebuking the Superstitions of the Magi. St. Matthias as is conjectured was crucified by the barbarous people of Cappadocia St. Mark was seized on by the Alexandrians at the celebration of their God Serapis where they dragg'd him by the legs over rugged and uneven ways till his flesh was torn his blood wasted his Spirits decayed and his blessed Soul expired To these may be added the cruel Usage of St. Paul and St. Luke St. Luke was by the Infidels hang'd on an Olive Tree in Greece St. Paul was by Nero's cominand beheaded at Aquae Salvae about three Miles from Rome for having converted one of the Emperor's Concubines so that she utterly refused any further compliance with his wanton desires One man in an Age may throw away his Life on purpose to get himself a Name and be famous as Erostratus who set on fire the Temple of Ephesus or Ravillac who stabb'd a King of France But for all these Apostles and many thousands of their Disciples and Converts to throw away their Lives and thereby to purchase nothing but ignominy and disgrace for alas they were accounted as the Scum of the Earth and the Off-scouring of all things it can never so much as enter into the Thoughts of any Man of Reason or Sense Besides there were hardly ever committed in the World any kind of notorious Crimes or treacherous Designs contrived but at some time or other they were discovered by one or more of the Criminals But let the ablest Historian in the World if he can produce a real Instance of any of the Apostles or Martyrs among so many thousands possibly Millions whose cruel Sufferings for the Faith of Jesus made them openly recant or confess themselves guilty of any fraudulent Practises or setting up a false Worship to deceive all Nations After all this tell me ye foolish and perverse Atheists Who has bewitcht you to build your Tabernacles of Happiness upon such sandy Foundations or to sell your immortal souls to the Devil at so cheap and easy rates
Repentance with a stedfast and firm Resolution to reform and amend our Lives Bless us in our going out and our coming in when we are upon the Way when we lay us down and when we rise up When we are in our private Closets lend an Ear to our Prayers and answer the Desires of our Souls When we are employed about our Lawful Callings give success to our honest Labours and Endeavours When we are conversing with others let us behave our selves with all humility and meekness in all our Words and Actions esteeming others better than our selves and doing to others what we would be willing they should do unto us Being patient gentle and easy to be entreated slow to wrath and ready to forgive all those who have trespassed against us until seventy seven times Loving our Enemies doing good and shewing kindness as we have opportunities to those who hate persecute and despitefully use us Living in humble Obedience to and heartily praying for Him who hath the supreme Power over us together with all those who are related to Him or who are in Authority under Him Being no Busy-bodies in other Men's Matters no Whisperers Tale-bearers Slanderers or Back-biters No Deceivers or Covenant-breakers but sincere and upright in all our Dealings and Transactions No lovers of Earthly Treasure no Worshippers of Gold or Silver or greedy of filthy Lucre. With all chearfulness and alacrity dealing our Bread to the Hungry giving Drink to the Thirsty Clothing the Naked visiting the Sick relieving Prisoners redeeming Captives helping the Fatherless and Widows comforting and assisting the Desolate and Oppressed and never shutting up the Bowels of our Compassion from any who want our Help or Assistance And forasmuch as we are here but Strangers and Pilgrims let thy good Spirit guide and conduct us in our Way to our long Homes through the vast and wide Wilderness of this sinful World where there are so many Turnings and Windings Cross-ways and By-paths Thorns and Briars Pits and Precipices Traps and Snares laid for us by the Devil and his Emissaries to entice us to Sin and Wickedness and then to plunge us into endless Woe and Miseries Where there is no true content or Satisfaction to be found and where the most refined of Human Pleasures and Delights are allayed with the mixture of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Sicknesses and Diseases Crosses and Disappointments where Love and Kindness is often repaid with Hatred and Malice and the most bountiful Actions with ungrateful Returns Where the Poor are oppressed by Men of Power and innocent Lambs made a prey to ravenous Wolves where our Eyes are too often entertained with doleful Spectacles and our Ears filled with Sighs and Groans and bitter Lamentations And therefore Gracious FATHER be thou pleased to give us such a measure of Faith Hope and Patience as may bear us up in all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and enable us in whatever State or Condition we are therewith to be content as well to be abased as to be exalted to want as to abound to have nothing as to possess all things And though the Fig-tree should be withered and no Fruit be found on the Vine the labour of the Olive fail and the Field yield no increase though there should be no Sheep in the Fold or Herd in the Stall no Cattel in the pasture or Stores in the Garner no Water in the Bottle or Oil in the Cruce yet still to trust in that GOD who feeds the Ravens and the young Lions when they call upon him who can make Rivers to flow out of hard Rocks and furnish a Table in the Wilderness With whom the very Hairs of our heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded That so having finished our Course and run our Race and lived the Life of the Righteous our last END may be like unto his And whenever these Houses of Clay shall be dissolved our Souls may be safely conveyed by some blessed Guardian Angels to the place appointed for the Spirits of GOD's Elect there to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with their respective Bodies at the Resurrection and second coming of CHRIST in Glory with all his holy Angels in whose Name and Words we farther desire to call upon Thee Saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AN EVENING-PRAYER FOR Every Day in the Week MOST Glorious LORD GOD and merciful Father in Christ Jesus who inhabitest the highest Heavens and yet art pleased to dwell in the lowest Hearts and hast graciously promised That where-ever Two or Three are gathered together in thy Name and Fear Thou wilt be there in the midst of them Look down in mercy upon us who are now before Thee and dare not give sleep to our Eyes or slumber to our Eye-lids till we have renewed our Covenant with the GOD and FATHER of Mercies and have humbly offered unto Him our Selves our Souls and Bodies as a reasonable service Be therefore pleased O Lord to forgive all the Sins of our past Lives particularly the Omissions and Commissions of this Day for which alone shouldst Thou enter into Judgment with us Thou mightst justly condemn us to the lowest Hell and give ns our portion with Hypocrites in utter Darkness Blessed LORD we desire from the bottom of our Hearts to be sensible of our manifold Frailties and Infirmities and of that Law in our Members that is always Warring against the Law of our Minds so that whenever we would do Good Evil is present with us and intermingles with our very Prayers and disturbs our most religious Duties and Performances And therefore it is that utterly renouncing our own Righteousness as Dung â—nd Dross we fly to Him who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous to wash away our Sins with his own precious Blood and to present us unto Thee our GOD pure and spotless And for his sake we humbly beseech Thee O LORD to lighten our Darkness and by thy great mercy to defend us from all perils and dangers this Night giving us a moderate and refreshing Rest free from frightful Dreams and sinful Imaginations which are the evil Effects of our corrupt Natures When we awake let our Souls be filled with heavenly Thoughts and pious Meditations always remembring That we are in the presence of a God who knows our down-sitting and our up-rising who understands our Thoughts a farr off and is acquainted with all our ways If we should be so vain and foolish to believe that the Darkness would cover us the Night shall be light about us the Darkness hideth not from Thee but
the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from
all Things that may be hurtful either to our Spuls or Bodies From all Evil and Mischief from Sin from the Grafts and Assaults of the Devil from thy Wrath and everlasting Damnation Good LORD deliver us From saying in our Hearts that there is no God or openly denying the Divine Essence and glorious Attributes of which either the highest Presumption or utmost Desperation are the usual and woful Effects Let the visible things of the Creation and the Restections of our own Consciences in our Solitudes and private Retirements be sufficient to disswade and restrain us Against Idolatry and having other Gods besides Thee and from bowing down to and Worshipping either Idols made with hands or those of our beloved Lusts Lord strengthen us by thy Grace To keep us from taking the NAME of the LORD our GOD in vain in our ordinary Discourses or prophaning it with wicked Oaths on bitter Curses Let us remember that the same LORD hath assured all such Offenders that he will in no wise hold them guiltless To observe religiously the Lord's Day and all other Times solemnly set a part for Divine Worship and Service not following our own Ways nor speaking our own Words nor thinking our own Thoughts Let thy good Spirit dispose and encline our hearts Let us never attempt to sow Discord and Divisions in the Church or to offend our blessed Saviour's Little Ones or any way to disturb the Communion of Saints as knowing who hath told us That it would be much better for us to be thrown into the midst of the Sea with Mill-stones hung about our Necks than to be guilty of such Offences Let us always be conscientiously careful to Honour and Obey our Parents and all others under whose Rule and Government thou hast placed us behaving ourselves with all humility and singleness of heart not as Eye-servants or Men-pleasers And whenever Pride and Vain-glory would puff us up and make us become wise in our own Eyes let the remembrance that we are but Dust and Ashes and born like the wild Asses Colt pull down our haughty Looks and abate our swelling Thoughts From sinful Anger and unbridled Passion from provoking Language and reviling Speeches from Envy Hatred and Malice and all the mischievous and fatal consequences that may thereby happen either to our selves or others LORD ever keep us by thy restraining Grace From Rioting and Drunkenness from Chambering and Wantonness from Adultery Fornication and Uncleanness or living in any known Sin Let the fear of thy Wrath and the Vengeance of Eternal Fire deterr us To wrong our Neighbours by open Violence or by Secret and fraudulent Practises Let it never enter into our Thoughts That we may never Slander speak Evil of or rashly censure others or bear false Witness against them Let us set a watch before our Mouths and strictly guard the Doors of our Lips Let us be afraid of oppressing the Poor and Needy in the Gate or ploughing in the field of the Fatherless because their Redeemer is mighty or of devouring Widow's Houses lest the Stones out of the Walls should one Day be our Accusers and the Beams out of the Timber make Answer and testifie against us To covet our Neighbour's House to covet our Neighbour's Wife his Man-servant his Maid-servant his Ox his Ass or any thing that is his Let no worldly Advantage or carnal Delight be ever able to tempt or allure us From Thieves and Robbers from the Hands of bloody Men and Murderers from Invasion of foreign Foes from the Conspiracies of Domestick Enemies and Treachery of false Friends do Thou O LORD to whom alone all Hearts are open all Designs known and from whom no Secrets are hid defend us by thy good Providence confounding their Counsels and bringing to nought their Devices From Plague Pestilence and Famine from bodily Torments Tempests and Earth-quakes and all the sad Accidents of Fire and Water for thy Mercies sake save and protect us Neither do we pray for our selves alone but for the whole Race of Mankind now living upon or working within the Bowels of the habitable Earth or else floating upon the face of the deep Waters and particularly for the Church Militant where-ever scattered or dispersed that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against it Look down with the Eye of pitty upon all who in this transitory Life are in Trouble Sorrow Need Sickness or any other Adversity more especially upon those thy Servants on whom thou hast laid thine afflicting Hand either for a Tryal of their Patience or a Punishment of their Disobedience Make them sensible that Affliction comes not forth of the Dust neither doth Trouble spring out of the Ground but that the Hand of the LORD hath done it to whom alone belong the Issues of Life and Death and who doth whatever pleaseth him in Heaven and in Earth but never willingly asslicts or grieves the Children of Men and then Why should we receive Good Things at the hands of the LORD and not Evil things And Why should a living Man complain for the punishment of his Sins In the mean time be thou graciously pleased who art the great Physician of Soul and Body to mitigate their Pains and to asswage their Griefs and to lay no more upon Dust and Ashes than thou enablest them to bear with Christian patience and a lively Faith in the Merits and Mediation of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous for the Remission of their Sins and the Salvation of their Souls That so thy Fatherly Chastisements may have their blessed Effects and those thy Children may come out of the Furnace of Affliction like Gold and Silver that hath been tried in the fire and purified seven times Be merciful to these Kingdoms and avert those heavy Judgments which we have done as much as in us lay by our crying Sins and Provocations to pull down upon our Heads Let the choicest of thy Blessings descend upon the Head and Heart of Him whom by thy especial Providence thou hast placed in supream Authority over us together with all His Royal Relations Give Grace and Wisdom to all the Senators and great Counsellors in all their Debates and Consultations Clean Hands and clear Consciences to the Judges and chief Magistrates that so they may help the Fatherless and hear the Cause of the Widow and upon all occasions act in their several Places without the least partiality or respect of Persons Spiritual Gifts and Graces to the Ministers of thy Word and Sacraments however Dignified or Distinguished that they may truly and faithfully feed the Flocks committed to their Charge Sobriety and Godliness to the Governors and Inhabitants of foreign Plantations that by their good Conversations and Examples they may convert Pagans and Insidels to the Faith of JESUS and turn many Souls to Righteousness The Dew and Blessing of Heaven to Schools and Universities that out of those Seminaries and Nurseries may grow up Plants that may be useful both to Church and State in their several Capacities and Generations Health and Happiness here and the Joys of Heaven hereafter to our Parents Brethren Sisters Kindred or Christian Acquaintance and to all our Friends and Benefactors who have at any time generously and readily shewed us Kindness in our Distress and when we truly stood in need of their Aid and Assistance A Spirit of Reformation to the whole Commonalty within these Realms and Dominions that so they may live in the true Faith and Fear of Thee our GOD in humble Obedience to their Superiors and in Brotherly Love and Charity one towards another Finally we beseech Thee to be present with us and all those who shall this day meet in any of the publick Assemblies to assist at thy Divine Worship and Service Let our Prayers come up before thee as Incense and the lifting up of our hands as an acceptable Sacrifice Touch with a Cole from thine Altar the Tongues of those who are to speak that they may not spare but cry aloud and lift up their Voices like Trumpets and shew the People of England their Transgressions and tell every Congregation their Sins And let us and all their Hearers receive the Word with meekness and pure Affections laying it up in our Hearts and bringing forth the fruit thereof in our future Lives and Conversations All which with what ever else thou knowest to be needful for us we humbly beg in the Name and for the Sake of JESUS CHRIST the Righteous concluding these our imperfect Prayers with that absolute Form which he himself while he was yet upon Earth taught his Disciples saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS and
shifting of Scenes the Devil and his Agents are always at hand to disturb and hinder the Actor in his performances both of Religious and Moral Duties and at last to carry him off the Stage with Eternal Dishonour and Disgrace It will not be difficult to trace his Cloven-Footsteps from the first Creation to this present Time Having beguiled our first Parents he resolved to mischief their two Sons First by polluting Cain's Offering and laying Sin at his door then by urging him to be wroth and angry with his Maker for not accepting it And lastly by provoking him to break all the Bonds of Nature and to become his own Brother's Murtherer This done he proceeds to tempt the Old World to the Commission of gross and enormous Impieties till God destroyed them with a Deluge After the Flood when Noah's Posterity was multiplied the Devil turned Architect and drew a Design for the Children of Men to build a Tower in the Plain of Shinaar whose top was to reach to Heaven from which he himself had so lately fallen When God had dispersed those Builders by the Confusion of Languages he took upon him the Office of an Infernal Prophet Priest and King instructing his Disciples and Followers to forsake the Worship of the True God to yield Obedience to all his Commands and to erect Altars plant Groves and to offer Sacrifice to Devils under various Forms of Beasts Birds and Creeping Things And so great was his Malice that he would not spare that Grove of Oaks at or near the Plains of Mamre which the good old Patriarch Abraham had planted and made use of as an Oratory orselect place of Divine Worship for himself and his numerous Family but caused it to be converted to Idolatrous Uses till such time as Constantine the Great took care to have the Heathen Altars and Images demolished by the Bishop of Jerusalem and those of Palestine and a Christian Church erected in their stead It would be endless to make enquiry into all the Actions and various Forms of Worship among the Men of the Old Gentile World and Heathen Idolaters Or to make an Enumeration of the Names of their respective Idols I shall only entertain the Reader with a brief Narrative of what I have collected out of a late Traveller of no small Credit amongst us which may give him some light into the Practices of former Ages There is saith my Author a Kingdom in the East Indies called Tunquin where some of the Inhabitants worship four Gods whose Names are Rauma Betols Ramonu and Brama and a Goddess called Satisbana Others of them hold Transmigration of Souls and have a great Veneration for a certain Hermit called Chacabout one of the greatest Impostors that ever was in Asia A third Sort have great esteem for one Lanthu one of the greatest Magicians of the East That Impostor's Disciples having given it out that his Mother carried him in her Womb without losing her Virginity for the space of Seventy years which I am apt to believe is a Mock the Devil puts upon our blessed Saviour's being carried Ten Months in the Womb of a Virgin It is the Custom of the Tunquineses to Adore three things The first is the Hearth of their Chimney made of Three Stones The second is an Idol which they call Tiensa the Patroness of Handy-Crafts The Third is the Idol Buabin which they implore before they build their Houses They likewise present Offerings to Trees Elephants Horses Cows and almost all kinds of Animals Besides all this they have great Veneration for two Magicians and one Magicianess The first Magician foretells future Events To the second they have recourse in all their Sicknesses And sometimes after several Apish-tricks he himself together with the sick Party and those who brought him do Homage and the Devil and the sick Party's friends present him and the Devil with an Entertainment of their choisest Meats But if the sick Person after all their Offerings do not recover his Friends and Relations with as many Soldiers as they can get together discharge their Guns and Musquets three times to drive away his Devilship from those parts Sometimes the chief Magician Thaybou being consulted and finding that the Distemper arises from the Souls of the Dead he or his Brother Thay-phouthouy finds ways to draw to him that Soul that is the Author of the Disease and then shuts it up in a bottle of water well stopt till the Party be cured afterwhich he breaks the Bottle and lets that Soul loose to go about its business The Magicianess Bacoti keeps constant Correspondence with the Devil to whom if she has a Daughter she offers her as soon as she is born and if any Mother happen to lose a Child she makes her Address to this Magicianess who by the beat of a Drum pretends to Summon the Soul of that Child and tell the Mother whether its Condition in the other World be Good or otherwise When the Moon is in an Eâ—clipse they believe it is assaulted by a Dragon and therefore they make a hideous noise with Drums Trumpets Bells and Musquets till the Ecclipse be over and then make great Rejoycings for having conquered that monstrous Creature It is very wonderful to consider what cruel Tyranny the Devil exercises over many of the poor Idolatrous Indians Some he makes to carry their Arms over their Heads during their Lives which causes certain Carnosities to breed in their Joints that they can never bring them down again Others he makes to stand upon one Foot holding a Chaffing-dish in one hand and with the other pouring out Incense as an Offering to their God fixing their Eyes all that while upon the Sun When the Inhabitants of the City Malde in Bengala on a certain Day go out of that City great Numbers of them hang themselves by the flesh of their Bodies upon iron Hooks fastned to Trees for that purpose till the weight of their Bodies tearing away the Flesh they fall off themselves to the ground and which is almost incredible not a Drop of Blood issues out of the Wounds nor the least bit of Flesh is left upon the Hooks and within the space of two Days they are cured by the Bramans Ejaculation I bless and praise Thee with my whole heart O Lord of Heaven and Earth for thy distinguishing Goodness and Mercy to me the meanest and most unworthy of all Adam's Posterity in permitting me to be Born within the Pale of the True Church where the Gospel of Thy Son is openly preacht and profest in the publick Assemblies And not among Pagans Turks or other Infidels It is very remarkable that the Devil notwithstanding his great Power and Dominion over the Heathen World for so many Thousand Years has never yet been able utterly to deface those Principles of Right Justice and Conscience which the Almighty Maker has stampt upon Men's Souls though at the same time in most places he has extreamly sullied them with hellish Impostures
and Delusions and Idolatrous Worship of divers kinds so as to make sure of them in the main and always hold them fast within his Clutches Thus in the foregoing Instance of the Tunquineses the Hermite Chacabout left behind him Ten Commandements which he enjoined his Followers to observe with all manner of strictness viz. First Not to Kill Secondly Not to Steal Thirdly Not to defile their Bodies Fourthly Not to Lye Fifthly Not to falsify their Words Sixthly To restrain their inordinate Desires Seventhly Not to do Injury to any Man Eighthly Not to be great Talkers Ninthly Not to give way to their Anger Tenthly To labour to their utmost to get Knowledge Besides all this They who designed to lead a Religious Life must renounce the Delights of this Life be Charitable to the Poor overcome their Passions and give themselves up to Meditation He taught moreover That after this Life there were Ten distinct Places of Joy and Torment and that the Contemners of these Laws should feel Torment proportionable to their Offences without any End of their Torments That they who endeavoured to fulfil his Law and had failed in any point should wander in divers Bodies holding Transmigration of Souls for the space of Three Thousand Years before they entred into Happiness But that those who had perfectly Obeyed his Laws should be rewarded without suffering any Change of their Bodies And that he himself had been Born ten times before he enjoyed the Bliss that he possessed not having in his first Youth been illuminated with that Knowledge which he afterwards attained Reflection As for his Ten Commands and his other Instructions immediately following one would think at first sight that this Impostor had collected them out of the Holy Scriptures save only that there is not a Word therein that has the least regard to a Saviour or Messias But alass that subtil old Serpent and Prince of Darkness who is so perfect a Hater of the Saviour of the World and of Humane Race makes it his principal Care and Caution to keep all his Subjects and Vassals from the least Knowledge of those divine Mysteries which relate to the holy JESUS For my part I am apt to believe altho' so many Ages have past since the Martyrdom of the blessed Apostles among the Pagans and Barbarians who undoubtedly converted very great numbers of them while they lived amongst them that some of these Converts left behind them many pious Instructions to their Children who also left the same to their Children and so from Generation to Generation which in process of time were corrupted by Satan's Artifices being confounded and intermingled with a great number of foolish and extravagant Traditions Of this I shall here take the freedom to mention one famous Instance There were about fifteen Years since as a Traveller assures me who was himself in those parts and probably are to this day living above Twenty thousand Families of a certain People who call themselves Christians or Disciples of St. John from whom they pretend to have received their Faith their Books and Traditions These people inhabit at present at Balsara about ten days Voyage from that place where the River Tigris divides it self into two Arms the one running through the ancient Chaldaea and the other towards Mesopotamia in view of which stands an old Wall of about a League in compass which the Chronicles of that Country say was the Ruins of the ancient Babylon upon which Wall six Coaches may go abreast being made of burnt Brick each Brick ten Foot square and three Foot thick These Christians of St. John anciently lived by the River of Jordan where St. John baptized and so from him they took their Name But since the time that Mahomet conquered Palestine although he had given them his Hand and Letter of Privilege not to be molested his Successors resolved to extirpate them ruining their Churches burning their Books and exercising all manner of Cruelties upon their Persons which obliged them to retire into Mesopotamia and Chaldaea and for some time they were under the Patriarch of Babylon from whom they separated about 175 Years since and then removed into Persia and Arabia and the Towns round about Balsara Their Creed is full of Fables and soul Errors They never Baptize but in Rivers and only upon Sundays But before they go to the River they carry the Infant to Church where there is a Bishop who reads certain prayers over the head of the Child from thence they carry it to the River with a train of Men and Women who together with the Bishop go up to the knees in Water then the Bishop reads again certain prayers out of a Book which he holds in his hand which done he sprinkles the Infant three times saying Beesme brad Er-rabi Kaddemin Akreri Menhal el Gennet Alli Koulli Kralek which is in English In the Name of the LORD first and last of the WORLD and of PARADISE the high Creator of all Things After that the Bishop reads something again out of his Book while the Godfather plunges the Child all over in the water after which they all go to the Parents house to feast If any tax their Baptism for insufficient in regard the Three Persons of the Trinity are not mentioned therein they give no reasonable Answer nor have they any knowledge of that Mystery only they say that Christ is the Spirit and Word of the Eternal Father They believe the Angel Gabriel to be the Son of God begotten upon Light yet will not believe the Eternal Generation of Christ as God although they confess he became Man to free us from the punishment of Sin and that he was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without the knowledge of Man by means of the Water of a certain Fountain which she drank of They believe he was Crucisied by the Jews That he rose the Third Day and that his Soul ascended up to Heaven his Body remaining upon Earth but withal That Christ vanished when the Jews came to take him and that he deluded their Cruelty with his shadow In the Eueharist they make use of Meal kneaded up with Wine and Oil the Wine they make with Grapes dried in the Sun and casting water upon them let them steep a long time and with that they Consecrate the Cup The Arabians under whose Government they live not permitting them the use of ordinary Wine The Words of their Consecration are no other then long Prayers but make no mention of Christ's Body or Blood which they say is not necessary because God knows their intention After the Ceremonies are ended the Priest eats some of the Bread and distributes the rest to the people All their Bishops wear their Hair long with a little Cross wrought with a needle These People believe and say That the Angel Gabriel undertaking to create the World according to God's Command took along with him Three hundred thirty six Thousand Demons and made the Earth so fertile
that it was but to Sow in the Morning and Reap at Night That the same Angel taught Adam to plant and sow and all other necessary Sciences Moreover That the same Angel made the Seven lower Spheres the least whereof reaches to the Center of the World in the same manner as the Heavens do all continued one within another and that all these Spheres are of different Mettals That next the Center of Iron the Second of Lead the Third of Brass the Fourth of Laten the Fifth of Silver the Sixth of Gold and the Seventh of Earth which contains all the rest They believe that over every Heaven there is Water and that the Sun swims in a Ship upon that Water and that the Mast of that Ship is a Cross and that there are a great number of Boys and Girls to guide the Ships of both Sun and Moon Besides they have the picture of a Bark which they say belonged to the Angel Bachan whom God sends to visit the Sun and Moon to see whether they move exactly and keep close to their Duty In reference to the other World and Life to come They believe there is no other World but where Angels and Divels together with the Souls of Good and Bad reside That in that World there are Cities Houses and Churches and likewise that the Evil Spirits have their Churches where they pray singing and rejoycing upon Instruments and feasting as in this World That when any one lies at the point of Death three hundred and sixty Demons come and carry his Soul to a place full of Serpents Dogs Lions Tigers and Devils who if it be the Soul of a wicked Man tear it in pieces but if it be the Soul of a just Man it creeps under the Bellies of those Creatures into the presence of God who sits in his Seat of Majesty to judge the World That there are also Angels who weigh the Souls of Men in a Ballance and those who are thought worthy are immediately admitted into Glory That Angels and Devils are Male and Female and beget Children and that the Angel Gabriel has a Daughter called Sâ—â—ret who has two Sons That the Angel Gabriel has several Legions of Demons under him who are instead of Souldiers and others that are his Officers of Justice whom he sends from Town to Town and from City to City to punish the wicked They hold that Christ left 12 Apostles to preach to the Nations That the Virgin Mary is not dead but lives somewhere in the World though no body knows where and that next to her St. John is to be the chiefest Saint in Heaven and next to them Zacharias and Elizabeth of whom they recount several Miracles and Apocryphal Tales That when St. John came to be of Age his Father and Mother married him and also that he had four Sons which he begat upon the Waters of Jordan and not upon the Body of his Wife That he died a natural Death but commanded his Disciples to Crucify him after his death that he might be like Christ and lastly that he died in the City of Fuster and was buried in a chrystal Tomb brought to that City by a Miracle and that this Sepulchre was in a certain House near the River Jordan They highly adore the Cross because say they we have a Book wherein it is written That every Day early in the Morning the Angels take the Cross and put it in the middle of the Sun which receives its Light from it as the Moon does also hers And that without these Crosses neither Sunnor Moon would give any Light and the Ships they were in would suffer Shipwrack Their Festivals are Three the one is in Winter that lasts three Days in memory of our First Parent and the Creation of the World The Second in August and called the Feast of St John The Third lasts five Days in June during which time they are all Re-baptized On Sunday they do no work They neither Fast nor do any Penance They have no Canonical Books but a great number of others that treat of nothing but Witchcraft in which they believe their Priests to be very crafty and that the Devils are at their beck They suffer no Women to go to Church nor any of the Laity to kill a Hen or any Fowl They eat of nothing drest by the Turks and after a Turk has drunk in one of their Cups they break it to pieces and picture Mahomet and four of his Parents as shut up in Hell and say That all Turks are carried to the same place to be devoured by wild Beasts They all pretend to Salvation by a Promise made by God to Gabriel on their behalf when he framed the World They have a great Antipathy against the blew Colour called Indigo which they will not so much as touch For say they certain Jews dreaming that their Laws should be abolished by St. John told it their Country-men which they understanding and seeing that St. John prepared to baptize Christ in a great rage fetch a vast quantity of Indigo in their Language Nill and flung it into Jordan which continued unclean for some time and had hindred the Baptism of Christ had not God sent his Angels with a large Vessel of Water which he caused them to fill out of Jordan before the Jews had defiled it with Indigo and that for the foresaid bold Attempt to defile the River God particularly cursed that Colour Ejaculation How long O Lord Holy and True wilt thou cease to be avenged of that Prince of Darkness for tyrannizing and triumphing over the poor Heathens and beguiling them with his Sorceries Witchcrafts and Enchantments for so many thousand Years How long wilt thou suffer that Enemy of Souls secretly to divert and please himself by seeing such vast numbers of his Slaves and Vassals to take more pains undergo more hardships and to endure more exquisite bodily Torments in travelling along the Broad way and passing through the wide Gate that leads to endless Woes and Miseries than thou sufferest a great number of thine own Elect and chosen Servants to meet with in the Narrow Way and in their passage through the straight Gate that leads to Eternal Life But to return to my Observations of the Devil's practices When God had covenanted with Abraham that his Seed should be multiplied as the Stars of Heaven and inherit the Promised Land What Stone did Satan leave unturn'd Or what Opportunities did he ever lose of attempting to frustrate God's gracious Designs His first Atchievement was to exasperate Esaâ— to murder his Brother Jacob upon whose individual Person his aged Father had so lately fixt a Blessing and out of whose Loyns were to come forth 12 Tribes whose Posterity were to be as innumerable as the Sands of the Sea hoping that he being once removed the blessed Effects of all God's promises would be utterly vacated and disappointed When Jacob's Family were kindly received by K. Pharaoh and the Egyptians How
Projector 's doom and then he sits down in great sadness and melancholly to lament his Ignorance and Folly I have in former days been visited by several of those Mathematical Enthusiasts some of whom were near Neighbours others came as I remember 60 or 80 Miles from their Habitations with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their mouths desiring me to join with them in Praise and Thanksgiving to Almighty God for hiding those Mysteries from the learned Philosophers of the World and revealing them to such ignorant and unskilful Persons as they acknowledged themselves to be and of so mean Capacities As likewise to enter into Indentures with them for their Assigning over to me a large proportion of their endless and unknown Gains and Profits and this usually happened at such times when the Sun was got up to the Summer solstice and the Worm of vain Imagination wrought within the Dura and Pia Mater of those poor Engineers till such time as having revealed to me their Secret of Secrets I had prevailed with them by evincing Arguments and Ocular Demonstrations having had my self sufficient Experience of such vain Attempts to quit their Pretensions of doing Wonders and to repair to their own Homes and follow their several respective Occupations Another Caution concerning the Philosopher's STONE THE Well-wisher to Chimistry has no sooner pawn'd the best part of his small Substance to purchase his Glasses Melting-pots and other Utensils and built up his Chymical Furnace but he boldly undertakes without fear or wit the Transmutation of Mettals and hopes by safe and regular steps and degrees to come in due time to proâ—ection But after a tedious progress the poor Philosopher finds he has been rolling Sysiphus his Stone and instead of turning his brass Pots and copper Saucepans into Golden Vessels he has only made an unlucky Transmutation of his silver Tankard and gilt Cup into a wooden Can and earthen Pipkin and out of a new Suit of Cloths extracted an old thread-bare Coat and Breeches pieced and patcht and torn all to rags The Religious and Moral Hypocrite with the temporizing Turn-coat propose to themselves great Content and Happiness and value themselves extreamly by their skillful Addresses in winnowing with every Wind and sailing with every point of the Compass and which is yet more they very much please themselves in deceiving and abusing Persons of all Qualities Ages and Sexes as well the Great and Wise as the Ignorant and Foolish looking upon this as a noble practice and worthy of Men of Learning and Parts And thus they appear a long time in Masquerade and Disguise till by some Accident they are discovered and then they become to all Parties more hateful and odious than Toads or Serpents The Rich Glutton whose God is his Belly and thinks there 's no other Heaven than his Pantry and Kitchin does very seldom leave off to gorge his Paunch with dainty Dishes and costly Meats the Expence whereof would satisfy many hungry Souls till by his Intemperance a Surfeit ends his Days and his loathsom Carkass becomes a Feast for the greedy Worms The Drunkard no sooner sits down in a Tavern or Ale-house with his boon Companions but thinks himself in Paradise O how he hugs and blesses himself to see his beloved Nectar poured out and sparkle in the Glass And thus he goes on from Morning till Midnight till the Wine enflame him but in the end he often finds that it bites him like an Adder and stings him like a Scorpion The Voluptuous Man makes bold Adventures fights desperate Duels and compasses Sea and Land to gain a few Prostitutes which for a time he esteems as Birds of Paradise and every fresh Beauty a Phoenix till he learns by woful experience that they are indeed much worse than fading Flowers And yet notwithstanding all hazards being once infected with the Plague and Leprosy of Fornication and Adultery unless it pleases God to open his Eyes and convince him of his folly and madness he seldom forbears hunting after his accursed pleasure till rottenness enter into his Bones and a dart strike him through the Liver The Theif and Robber is not without his Designs to repair his broken Fortune or at least to better his Condition and at last to live with great content and happiness with his wicked Associates and lewd Strumpets This Person upon his first admittance into the Brother-hood no sooner meets with a few lucky Hits and rich Prizes but thinks himself a great Prince and all the Inhabitants of the neighbouring Counties his Subjects and Vassals and bound by their Allegiance to supply him with what Gold Silver and Jewels he pleases to call for in his progress But alass how often do we see this bright Sun suffer a total Eâ—clipse at high Noon and the miserable Wretch hous'd in a loathsom Prison fast bound with Fetters massy Chains and manicles of Iron and having received his just Sentence of Condemnation from the mouth of the Judge see him to be dragg'd from his subterraneous Dungeon to the dreadful place of Execution The Extortioner that Antropophagus swallows like a Cormorant and digests like an Ostritch the Pawns and Pledges which he so greedily snatches out of the hands and sometimes pull'd from off the Backs of Necessitous and indigent Persons This is he who drives away the Widows Ox and the Ass of the Fatherless And being attended with his respective Officers puts in execution his fatal Judgments and at one Morcel devours Cottages and Enclosures together with the Bodies of the Owners Farms Fields and Pastures with all their Stocks and Effects Tenements and Lordships with Gardens Orchards Coach-Houses Stables Barns Out-houses and all their Appurtenances always watching for the Windfalls of prodigal Heirs and decayed Fortunes as Eagles do after the dead Carkasses of broken Armies never considering That unless God have mercy upon his Soul he does but heap up Treasures against the Day of Wrath and Vengeance There is yet behind another Generation of Men who promise themselves above all others to please their sensual Appetites with the true Gusto of Worldly Pleasures having hardned each other in their Opinions and Belief That there is no God Angels or Spirits or any Real Subsistences of Departed Souls No Heaven to reward the Righteous nor a Hell to punish Sinners The Fools of old Times said only in their Hearts There is no God and so kept their Opinion to themselves but the Fools of this last Age are more bold and pronounce it openly with their Mouths O foolish Atheists Who has bewitch't you to outdo the Pagans Turks and Infidels Yea and the very Devils themselves who believe and tremble while you make merry and turn all to Ridicule by denying the Divine Existence of which the Heaven above and the Earth beneath with the Sea and all that therein is to the least Mite or Grain of Sand that can possibly be discerned by the best of Microscopes do bear evident testimony Would you but
I have yet one question to ask of certain Persons who are rightly stiled Modern Sadduces and that is For what Reason they deny the Resurrection Or why they should at all doubt God's Omnipotence Or once imagine That He who made all things out of nothing should not be able when ever he pleases out of something to make any thing How many Emblems of the Resurrection have we frequently before our Eyes The Night lies down and the Day arises again The Day departs and the Night comes on The Year that dies in Autumn has a Resurrection in the Spring The seed of Herbs Corn and Fruit-Trees first suffer a Dissolution in the Earth some for a few Days others for a few Weeks and then by the Power of the Almighty Maker of all things have a new Body given them of the same Kind or Species If that be true which some have related of the Phoenix a thing I would rather believe than undertake to disprove since there are so many strange things to be found among the Works of the Creation It is a wonderful Type of the Resurrection In Arabia say they there is a certain Bird called a Phoenix of which there is but one at a time and that one lives 500 Years and when the time draws near that it must die it makes it self a Nest of Frankincense and Myrrh and other Spices into which when its time is fulfilled it enters and dies but its Flesh putrifying breeds a certain Worm which being nourished by the Juice of the dead Carcass brings forth a new Phoenix and when it is grown to a perfect Age it takes up the Nest in which the Bones of its Parent lie and carries it from Arabia into Egypt to a City called Heliopolis and flying in open Day in the sight of all Men lays it on the Altar of the Sun and so returns into the Country from whence it came This done the Priests make search into the Records of Time and find that it returneth at the end of 500 Years Whether this Report be true or no sure I am that nothing can be too hard for the Almighty Let us suppose in two or three Instances things that are within the reach of our apprehensions viz. First a Mariner in a Sea-fight to be shot to death and thrown over-board and afterwards the Flesh of his Body to be eaten up by a great number of small Fishes and these Fishes to be taken in Nets and eaten by hundreds of Men Women and Children of different places and abodes and some of them to be drowned in the Sea and devoured by other Fishes and some to be cast into the Earth and eaten up by Worms In the next place Let us suppose a Man to die in a wide Forest or Wilderness and part of his Carcass to be devoured by wild Beasts part by the Fowls of the Air and part by Flies and creeping Things and again those Beasts and Fowls and creeping things to die and part of them to be eaten up by other Creatures Lastly Let us suppose a Man-Child born into the World and as 't is believed the Flesh of that Infant in a few Years to be evaporated and new Flesh grown up in the room of the other and let us suppose this Body to live and change for the space of threescore or fourscore years and then be buried in the Sands as is practised in some very hot Countries and there remain a Thousand or fifteen Hundred Years till such time as it is grown perfectly dry and fit to be made use of for Mummie and this Mummie to be distributed into the hands of several hundreds of Apothecaries and each of these Apothecaries to make use of it in their physical Doses Potions or otherwise and to administer it to as many hundreds of their Patients and each of those Patients to void the same or any part of it by stool and those stools to be carried away by the Scavengers into some common place and there mingled with the Ordours of ten Thousand other Persons and from that place taken up by the Salt-Peter Men and converted into Gun-powder and that Powder shot away into the Air. Give me leave to tell those unbelieving Sadduces my life for theirs that the Almighty God and Maker of Heaven and Earth is able to recall every Particle Dust or Atom of a Human Body in any of the aforesaid Instances to its Original and proper Mass and to form that Mass into its first Original and infant Body As also to give that infant Body its full stature and perfect Dimensions and this done from a Natural and Corruptible to change it into a Spiritual and incorruptible Substance And lastly to reunite it to its own proper and immortal soul and all this in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump and the Voice of the Arch-angel calling for the Dead to arise and come to Judgment I must needs acknowledge That the Disbelief of a future Resurrection is no small encouragement to either Atheist or Libertine to go on in his sin with great presumption For if the Dead rise not our Faith is altogether vain And if this Corruptible shall never put on Incorruption nor this Mortal Immortality then go to Let us Eat Drink and be Merry for to Morrow we die There are some who satisfie themselves that God is so merciful and so just in his Judgments that he will never punish finite Sins with everlasting Punishments but such Men little think how miserably they deceive themselves while they ascribe less Power to the Almighty Maker over his Creatures than an ordinary Potter has over his Clay and earthen Vessels Besides that in the Gospel Dispensation there are propos'd to Fallen Man two things which very well counterballance one the other both as to Time and Measure namely on the one side Eternal and inexpreslible Happiness and on the other endless and unspeakable Miseries Now if the Sinner do voluntarily and with deliberation choose the last of these Volent non fit Injuria he has his choise and desire and has no reason in the World to complain of any hardship much less of any Injury done to him it being a greater Mercy to grant Eternal Life upon a bare Repentance and Believing during our earthly pilgrimage than it is a Severity to inflict eternal Torment for continuing in actual Sin for the very same term of time The Author of Leviathan will by no means admit of a Local Hell or indeed of a Local Heaven For the first of which he has no better Reason than this trusting to his own skill in Geometry and Staticks that it cannot be either in the Cavity of the Earth or any other body of the like magnitude hanging in the expanse forasmuch as in any circumscribed Bodies there cannot be included a Bottomless-Pit which in sacred Stile is sometimes called Hell Whereas if he had considered that our Antipodes tread as heavy on the superficies of the
Earth and carry their Bodies as upright towards Heaven as any of us and that showres of Hail and Rain in calm Weather fall upon any part of this Terrestial Globe directly towards the Center in a straight line He might very easily have judged that this Globe of Earth hanging in the expanse by nothing but the Almighties Word and Power has its own proper Center as all other Bodies of the same or greater Magnitude have and consequently that if underneath there were a great Cavity and that Cavity filled with a fluid body of Fire and Brimstone the convex Superficies of that globular fiery Lake would in every part of it be the uppermost and the parts adjoining to its Center would be the lowest and probably the Bodies of damned Reprobates being thrown into this Lake would sometimes float upon it and sometimes plunge to and fro in it But forasmuch as the Center of this globular Lake would be but an imaginary point those Bodies would plunge and move to and fro within it in Saecula Saeculorum without finding any solid Fulcrum or firm Bottom neither could the most learned Philosophers or skilful Geometricians in the whole World be ever able by contemplating all their Lives the Dimensions of that fiery Lake and its Center of Gravity to make any other thing of it then truly and properly a Bottomless-pit And if those learned Men should allow in that case the shell of this Terrestial Globe to be no more then 17 or 18 hundred Yards in thickness and then compute how many cubick Yards and Feet would be contained within its concave Superficies they would perhaps find room enough and to spare for all the Bodies of Human Reprobates from the first Creation to this present time and for some Thousands of Years to come As for the Devil and his Angels if above six Thousand of them were crowded into the body of one Gadarene a few thousands of cubick yards might very probably contain all his Infernal Legions And as for the Bodies of Human Reprobates they being once Spiritualiz'd may for ought any Man knows be pressed into a much less compass than ours that are of a grosser substance Besides all this who knows whether the Confinement of both Devils and Reprobates within a small compass and narrow space may not rather augment and encrease than any way lessen or diminish their everlasting Torments Ejaculation From being shut up with the Devil and his Angels in that dreadfull and bottomless pit and from so near a conjunction with those infernal Finds and Furies in the Blackness of Darkness Good Lord deliver us And methinks our Saviour's making so often mention of a Lake of Fire and Brimstone should strike all Atheists and Libertines with as great a dread and fear as the Hand-writing on the Wall did of old Belshazzar When they do but consider what vast quantities of sulphureous Matters have been cast out of the gaping Orifices of Mount Aetna and Vesuvius in Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples and what horrid Noises as Travellers report have been sometimes heard out of those burning fiery Furnaces like the howlings and skreeches of some miserable living Creatures Especially that prodigious Lake of burning Brimstone which a few Years since if we may believe Gazettes was vomited out of one of those Mountains and like a mighty Torrent run along upon the ground and so into the Sea a whole League in length before it was extinguished For my own particular if it were lawfull to make Conjectures in matters of that consequence I should be apt to believe that the Sun were a Body much more convenient for that purpose forasmuch as First It is a Body greater than the Body of the Earth by many Degrees as is plainly demonstrable by Ecclipses Secondly We have reason to believe from Sacred Writ that at the End of the World there will be no further use of the Sun 's light Thirdly According to the Opinion of the best and most accurate Astronomers of latter Ages the Sun is placed in the very Center of the World however in the Holy Scriptures that are written as is supposed ad captum vulgi it is expressed otherwise And therefore must be of all other Bodies the most infernal and then one would think that place is most likely to be Hell which is furthest off from Heaven Fourthly If the Rays of the Sun which are sent out from its lucid body at a vast distance being contracted here below and with the help of parabolical and eliptical Figures become in their Focus much hotter and sooner melt down Gold and Silver than any Culinar or indeed any chymical Fire How great must we then imagine the heat of that fiery Globe to be in its own proper body especially if the Sun were darkned and its glowing Rays turned inwards and those few Spots which we discern on its supersicies were multiplied till they should become an entire Cover and be made the Blackness of Darkness for ever and the body of the Sun made a fluid and eternal Fire by God's Almighty Power And now if all these things should be so the History of Abraham Dives and Lazarus would not be extream difficult to be explained by Interpreters If Telescopes help us to discover unknown Stars of different Lights If speaking-Trumpets or close Pipes may be so made as to conveigh Words several Leagues And if Stephen's mortal Eyes could look from Earth into Heaven and there see Jesus standing at the distance of no Man knows how many mvriads of Miles how easy had it been for the Maker of all things by his Almighty Power first to translate the Bodies of Dives and Lazarus after they were dead and buried as well as those of Enoch and Elias before they were interr'd the one to Heaven and the other to Hell And afterwards so to clear up all the Mediums between Heaven and the Center of the World as that the immortaliz'd Eyes of Abraham and Dives might plainly see one another's Persons and Postures and their Ears might hear each other's Voices at as great a distance as the length of the Semidiameter of the whole Universe But here I must put the Reader in mind that in truth all these things are meer Conjectures And far be it from such a poor Worm as I am to be the Broacher of new Opinions in Matters so far above the reach of my own Understanding and Conception For I must ingenuously confess once more That I am lost in a Labyrinth of Thoughts and should I go on further but a few steps I should lose both my Reason and Senses and never be able to finish this small Treatise And therefore all I shall here add is to beseech all Libertines to take heed and beware how they turn plain Scriptures into meer Metaphors or make a derision of the true Tophet or Vally of Hinnon least one day they hear the dreadful Voice Go ye Cursed into the place of Torments where the Worm of Conscience never
of what he teaches he commits a Crime and may be justly punished for the same now this Lobster-like-argument of his being artificially thrown forward does again naturally crawl backwards His meaning is as he has too plainly exprest in many places That if a Man go from hence and preach a New Doctrine in Africa he commits a Crime and consequently St. Jude did very ill after Christ's Resurrection to take a Journey from Jerusalem into Persia and there to take upon him to rebuke the Superstition of the Magi and to preach a New Doctrine and so was put to death deservedly The like may be said of St. Paul for his making a Mutiny and Uproar at Athens and disturbing the Worship of the great Goddess Diana of the Ephesians And in fine both he and all the Apostles committed great Crimes in presuming to preach New Doctrine amongst all Nations where Idolatry was Established and owned by publick Authority for says the same Author page 152. To maintain a Doctrine contrary to the Religion Established is a greater Fault in an authorized Preacher than in a private Person And therefore they all suffered condign Punishments and were accessary to their own cruel Deaths But now this reflects more severely upon our blessed Saviour who gave his Disciples their Commissions Matth. 28. 19. Go yee and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And which is yet more it reflects upon God the Father who sent his Son into the World for that end and purpose and also the Holy Spirit which was sent down from Heaven after our Saviour's Resurrection to inspire those Apostles with diversity of Tongues and such other miraculous Gifts as might rightly qualify them for the preaching the Gospel throughout all the Nations of the World So that this last Assertion is in effect Blasphemy against the Three Persons of the sacred Trinity Our blessed Saviour 10 Matth. 33. Says Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven And in another place By your Words you shall be justified and by your Words condemned So that to deny Christ before Men is our Saviour's sense in a Crime that excludes and shuts a Man out of Heaven But this Author affirms positively page 271. That the denying of Christ before an Infidel Prince is not a Christian's Act but his Soveraign's Act and consequently no Sin And so he plainly gives the Son of God the Lye Our blessed Saviour when he sent out his Disciples 10 Matth. 15. Tells them That into whatsoever City they entred and were not received it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that City That is to say the refusing to receive and hear the Doctrine of Christ's Disciples was a greater Sin then that of Sodom But this Author tells us page 286. That those who refused so to hear and receive them did not Sin in so doing And here we see again the Arrogance and Impudence of the same Author in giving the Lye to the Lord Jesus Our Hebrew Masters do indeed teach us to read the Words and Sentences of part of the Scriptures but this politick Pedagogue would instruct us to read not only the Words and Sentences but the true Sense and Meaning of them backwards Our Saviour Christ in divers places owns his casting out Devils and unclean Spirits and sometimes these unclean Spirits owned him to be the Son of the most high God as did the Legion of Devils with which the Man was possessed in the Country of the Gadarenes 5 Mark 7. and divers others And the Pharisees the worst and most malicious of his Enemies acknowledged his casting out Devils Yet notwithstanding the composer of this Treatise had the Confidence to affirm page 354. That no Man was ever possessed with any other Spirit than that by which his Body was naturally moved And so gives the Lye not only to our Saviour but to all the Four Evangelists who have left upon Record most remarkable Instances of those Miracles In page 62 63 and 64. this Author tells us That Man by Nature is in a State of War every Man against every Man and every Man has a right to every thing over the Goods and Body of his Neighbour And yet in his next Chapter which is not above eight pages further he sets down Ten Laws of Nature which Laws of Nature are immutable and eternal and stamped upon Men's Souls and every of them tends to Peace and Quietness Love and Kindness Gratitude and doing to others as we would be willing they should do to us and these two Assertions are as contrary one to the other as Light is to Darkness however it is much more modest to give himself the Lye then to give it so often as he has done to the Saviour of the World and the second Person of the Trinity In page 88. he acquaints us That by the People assembled are transferr'd all their Right on him whom they chose their Soveraign which Soveraign can do no Injustice though at his pleasure he take away any of their Lives And yet page 152. he asserts That no Man in the institution of their Soveraign can be supposed to give away the Right of preserving his own Body And page 112. If an Assembly meet and agree together they may rebel and make War against their Soveraign And I affirm that no Man of Sense or Reason can be supposed to defend the Authors reputation in so notorious a Contradiction In page 285. and divers other places he affirms That Christ's Kingdom not being of this World he left the Jews to the Law of Moses and other Nations to their respective Soveraigns and yet page 106. he plainly affirms That Christ acted in this World as King of the Jews and by his Soveraign Power and Authority sent two of his Disciples to untie and bring away the She-ass and her Colt on which he was to ride into Jerusalem Page 62. He affirms That the Desires and Passions of Man are no Sin though it be an absolute Breach of the Tenth Commandment Our Saviour forbids swearing by Heaven Earth Jerusalem or a Man 's own head 5 Matth. 34 35 36. but this Author asserts page 71. That such kind of Oaths is no swearing and so makes our Saviour guilty of Lying Page 152. he says That every man is supposed to know the Law of Nature it being so plain and yet pag. 141. he avers That the Law of Nature is of all Laws the most obscure Pag. 261. he says Christ s death did not satisfy God 's justice and yet pag. 356. he acknowledges That the Passion of Christ is a full Ransom for all manner of Sins Pag. 272. he affirms That there were no true Martyrs but those who conversed with our Saviour while he was here upon Earth and that he who is no Minister can be no Martyr Now if so all other Martyrs have