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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39910	A discourse concerning God's judgements resolving many weighty questions and cases relating to them. Preached (for the substance of it) at Old Swinford in Worcester-shire: and now publish'd to accompany the annexed narrative, concerning the man whose hands and legs lately rotted off: in the neighbouring parish of Kings-Swinford, in Staffordshire; penned by another author. / by Simon Ford ...	Ford, Simon, 1619?-1699.; Illingworth, James, d. 1693. A just narrative or account of the man whose hands and legs rotted off.	1678 (1678)	Wing F1484; ESTC R28411	53,261	98

this alone is not a sufficient character to warrant us to pronounce such a stroke to be a Divine Judgment how severe soever it be except there appear as evident and notorious a crime in conjunction with it For the judging by the former mark singly misled Jobs friends in his Case and the men of Melita in the censure they passed upon St. Paul Acts 28.4 when they saw the Viper hanging on his hand And it may mislead us in like cases For if we interpret all such great and remarkable severities on whomsoever they fall to be Divine Judgments we shall be often endangered unjustly to condemn the Generation of Gods best Children Psal 73.15 But where both these in the same persons meet with equal Evidence we can hardly be mistaken except all Mankind be supposed to be so too who commonly argue in such cases from this character in calling such Providences Judgments of God or if we be mistaken it is in a sort a safe errour as that which if we make a religious use of our apprehensions about it will mislead us only into such affections and actions as tend to Gods glory and our own benefit and advantage 3. And a far greater evidence is given in this Case many times to make Divine Judgments manifest by the fair and legible Impression and Image of the very offence it self upon the punishment inflicted Exod. 14. The drowning of Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the Red Sea was a punishment so like their sin in drowning all the male Children of the Israelites in the River Exod. 1.20 Levi● 10.1 ● the burning Nadab and Abihu with a strange fire from Heaven was a Divine stroke so aptly suted to their offence in offering Incense with strange fire to Heaven the incestuous defilement of Davids Concubines by Absalom 2 Sam. 12.11 had so express a signature of the defilement of Vriahs wife by David and to mention no more Examples at present the cutting off the Thumbs and great Toes of Adonibezek himself Judges 1.7 was so signal a requital of the like cruelty shewed by him to 70 Kings before that no man needs to doubt the lawfulness of calling them by the Name they have always born that of remarkable Divine Judgments And it can rationally be no matter of scruple to any one to give Providences of the like stamp the same name still 4. And it makes much to the strengthning the Evidence in such matters when such remarkable Divine strokes tread close upon the heels of some notorious offence as oftentimes they do yea so close as to surprise the offender in the very Act. Gen. 19.11 The striking the Sodomites blind in the very attempt of a foul sin not to be named and the firing of the whole City the next morning with a storm of flaming Brimstone Num. 16.32 the cleaving of the Earth to swallow Korah and his company even whilst they stood daringly in the face of God and the Congregation to avouch a foul Rebellion against Moses and a sacrilegious usurpation of Aarons Priesthood the running through of Zimri and Cosbi Num. 25.8 in the very act of bold and audacious uncleanness the slaying of Belshazzar the very night following his profane debauch acted by the abuse of Gods Consecrated Vessels to drunkenness Dan. 5.30 at an Idols feast the turning of his Grandfather Nebuchadnezzar a-grazing among oxen when that vaunting brag was scarce out of his mouth Dan. 4.31 32 33. Is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power Acts 5.5 10.12.22 23. the smiting Ananias and Saphira dead with a lye in their mouths to cover their sacrilege the eating up Herod by worms so closely attending upon his owning the blasphemous flattery of the people and many more like Instances to these none ever gave a softer Title to than that of Divine Judgments And wherefore the drunkards breaking his neck in his drunkenness and the hectoring challengers being slain in a Duel and the perjured persons being smitten dumb or dead in his perjury and the like penal events befalling other sinners in the very act of other sins of as hainous a nature may not still by a parity of Reason pass for Providences of the same denomination I cannot imagine 5. When such penal Providences are the evident and notorious consequents of provoking and daring Appeals Applications or Addresses to God of any kind or of contests with him there is all the Reason in the world why we should take them for Divine Judgments extorted by an impious importunity or provoking Insolence 1. In case of Appeals to God implicit or explicit When the bitter water under the Law envenomed by the imprecation of the disloyal wife against her self in case she was guilty of the fact she was suspected of caused her belly to swell and her thigh to rot Num. 5.22 the implicit Appeal to Gods Decision in this case made the event evidently to be a Divine Judgment When Korah and his Complices dare put it to a Divine determination Num. 16.5 whether they had not as much right to offer Incense as Aaron and his Sons The Event in this Case declared that God judged the cause in which he was thus appealed to against them And when the wicked Jews by tumultuous out-cries call on Pilate to crucifie Jesus for a Malefactor and encourage him when his Conscience boggles at so foul an act of Injustice with this fearful imprecation in the nature of such an Appeal that if he were not guilty God would lay his blood on them and their children and the Event of so many Ages hath declared the said guilt not to be yet washed off from their whole Posterity None but an hardened Jew will ever doubt whether there be a Divine Judgment in this case or no. Lastly When holy Job against the unjust charges of his censorious friends who among other crimes taxed him with breaking the arms of the fatherless Job 22.9 i. e. That by his power he had so crushed them that they were disabled to maintain their right against him had appealed to God for his vindication and imprecated against himself that if he were guilty of this Crime his Arm might fall from his Shoulder-blade Job 31.21 22. and be broken from the bone i. e. That the flesh might rot from the bone till his Arm fell from his Shoulder if a little after that Arm had dropped off according to ☜ his Execration and some concurring evidence withal had appeared to prove him guilty of the fact which he so disclaimed I say if it had so faln out which it did not because he was innocent had not his friends been justified if they had cryed out in the words of the Psalmist Behold the Lord is known by the Judgment that he executeth 2. In case of Address or Application to him in matters of another nature As in promissory Oaths

countenance more than formerly I laboured to convince him more fully of his condition and to persuade him to look up to the great Physician in whose hands are the issues of life and death c. He seemed to give diligent attention and earnestly desired me to pray with him after prayers when I was about to leave him for that time he desired I would not forget him in my prayers making it also his earnest request that I would come again when ever he should send for me which I promised I would at any hour day or night This was June 16. and on the 19. as his Keeper acknowledgeth he was in great anguish and trouble of mind crying out What shall I do to save my poor soul with many other expressions to the same purpose being very sick and fearing his approaching death But upon what account his Keeper would not send for me in whose hearing he so earnestly desired me to come to him he knows best and must answer it if it was his fault for private respects as is conjectured On June 21. in the morning I went again to visit him unsent for but found him unsensible and past any further advice I staid by him until almost noon He lay still with his eyes fixed as a dying man moved not at any thing we said to him but upon pouring into him a little drink with a spoon at several times he coughed a little and groaned and then lay as before When I saw there was no probability he would understand any thing I said I left him after prayer made for him with the company there present in the house and had notice brought me that he died about two hours after my departure from him Before I sum up the whole of this Narrative and account of his condition I judge it may be acceptable to the Reader to insert some short Observations communicated to me by an ingenious Gentleman our Neighbour who several times visited him in his affliction Take them therefore in his own words When I first saw this young man which was quickly after he was brought into Kings-Swinford he appeared to me to be of a vigorous state of body and of an healthy constitution saving the strange defect under which he laboured his hands and legs being then deprived of sense and motion I observed them and handled him They were from both wrists and knees blackish and dying and I took notice that about each wrist and knee there was as it were a Circle at the joynt that divided the sound from the dying parts and seemed like a ligature prohibiting any nourishment to pass those bounds so that the blood and spirits being wonderfully stopped in their circulation it must necessarily follow that the parts thus deprived of their wonted supply must wither and die as a leaf in Autumn which sad progress they made till both hands and legs from the wrists and knees became dead and dried black and hard like Mummy before they fell off at the joynts which they afterward did I also observed that at the first above each of the forementioned circles there brake out a sore at which the nourishing juyce designed by nature to have fed those parts emptied it self now in those sores corrupted in a quitture or sanies so horribly stinking that few of his Visitants could well endure the room without some strong smelling defensative But visiting him after those dead limbs were fallen from the body all but one hand which was almost severed I saw the joynts with the flesh look well and healthy They seemed to me free and untouch'd by the former mortification being quick and sensible that now the fellow complained upon the least touch thereof yet seeming to promise an easie cure for that ichorous stinking humor was gone the flesh was raw but sweet and here and there besmeared with a thick corrupt pus an encouraging sign say Artists that sores incline to healing But this poor creature wanting all help from Art or Medicine save what the application of the leaves of Mullein afforded which by his Keeper were used to defend the raw parts in some weeks there issued the like thin and stinking humor as before which soon put a period to his life So far my Friend As to the young man himself he was as he told me a few days before he died about twenty two years of age It was easie to observe he had been a strong young man naturally of a stubborn temper much hardened by evil courses yet he seemed sometimes to be affected with his condition the discourses made to him and prayers with him and I wish I might have had from him as clear an evidence of a comfortable change wrought in him as I would gladly have told the world I must in charity leave his final condition to God who thus afflicted and chastized him for the space of near about four months that he might be a signal spectacle to thousands of Gods displeasure against impiety The sum of all is this That a strong lusty young man as most in the County where he was born being unfaithful to God and his Master and giving himself to licentiousness and wickedness was brought to a morsel of bread and by doing evil and denying it with execrations had a sting and secret remorse in his conscience by which and want the fruit of his idleness and intemperance he grew faint and weak and his hands waxed feeble not being able to work designed to betake himself to his Friends but was stopped by the way forced to lie down under the hand of God that the Curse wherewith he had cursed himself might come upon him and so by the stupendious providence of God he was made a spectacle to the world of Divine severity many weeks that others might see and hear and fear and do no more wickedly And I wish God may have no reason to say to any as by the Apostle in another case * Acts 13.41 Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish for I work a work in your days which you shall in no wise believe though a man declare it unto you FINIS SIR Being requested by Mr. Illingworth to give you an account of what I am able to say concerning John Duncalf I apprehend the best way is by a bare and brief Narrative of that discourse that passed between us whilst I was with him if there is any thing worth your cognizance you may make use of it as you please Our Discourse was as followeth May 1st 1677. Quest SPeaking to him of the deplorableness of his Condition and that sure there was a more than ordinary hand of Gods Providence in it arising from some evil actor actions of his Answ Answered yes 't was for his sins Quest When I told him that sin was generally the procuring Cause of every mans sufferings but under such remarkable and dreadful sufferings as these were there is usually one or more special sins to be inquired after as the

to purchase their good will And 3. that this Law to the Jews themselves was for the most part like a book sealed in that the greatest encouragements to obedience the great Promises of the Gospel were obscured under dark expressions and typical shadows 2 Cor. 3.14 till the vail on Moses his face was taken away by Christ and life and immortality by him were brought to light 2 Tim. 1.10 and therefore even they had still much need to be quickned to their duty by sensible Motives And 4. lastly that they were by the very constitution and temper of the Nation a very stiff-necked and unmanageable People and so not easily to be kept in obedience by bare written Rules without a Rod of severe Temporal Judgments frequently laid on the backs of some amongst themselves to keep the rest in awe And if we also consider these Particulars as God probably did and some others that might be suggested of the like nature we may very well I think be satisfied that if we do not now hear of such frequent notorious Executions of Divine Justice as then were the state of the Church since Christ and that Church spread over all the world the clearness and perspicuity of his Doctrine in the main inducements to a good life and the more plentiful effusions of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh to produce a more filial obedience thereunto render it less necessary that we should do so Especially seeing we have all those great Instances of Divine severity which were exhibited in those ancient Ages delivered down even to us upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10.11 by holy Pen-men in writing for our admonition 3. That the certain Interpretation of such rare Judicial Providences when they now adays fall out is to us in these latter Times more difficult that it was to the men of those days in which they were more frequent The Reason whereof is because God since the Scriptures were compleated and generally received hath put a stop to that Spirit of Prophesie which in former Times raised up Prophetical Men to predict and threaten Judgments before they came and interpret them infallibly when they came So that the most perfect Judgment we can now make of them though we use all the means left us to that purpose with the greatest and most conscientious exactness will fall very short of Infallibility and amount at most only to a great Moral certainty in most cases of that nature 4. That it is therefore very easie to mistake in this affair and be deceived by the making such Interpretations of Divine Providences of this nature as Phancy and Passion continually ready herein to interpose may be apt to suggest to us and the most of men and too many good men too are very prone to be misled by them themselves and to mislead others 5. That such errours and mistakes are not more easie and frequent than as they are commonly made use of sinful and dangerous Because by our aptness to avouch them and in a sort impose them on the belief of others we too often render our selves guilty of prophaning Gods Name of which his great works are a considerable part by stamping our own fond conceits with his Image and Superscription which is no less a crime in this case against God than the minting and vending adulterate Coin in worldly dealings and payments is to the temporal Prince under whom we live 6. And yet lastly notwithstanding all that hath been said to beget a new caution in us in a matter of so great an import I must avouch that I do not believe God hath altogether tyed up his hands from executing signal Judgments even in these days or in those Regions where the Gospel is preached with greatest clearness and most powerful Evidence Especially in case the substantial corruptions of so pure a Religion be at any time so gross or the general debauchery of mens lives under such excellent Instructions be so foul and scandalous to the holy Doctrine of our Saviour as to call for them and when any new Impieties of the largest dimensions and prodigious Immoralities become bold and audacious beyond the examples of the former Ages of Christianity with impunity if not countenance and encouragement from those that ought to suppress them among those that are the noted Professors of it Nor do I think that we are in such cases so destitute of direction partly from parallel Instances of Scripture and partly from the general motions of Mankind in all Ages concerning such Providences and partly from the concurring Evidence of the circumstances of them when they so fall out c. but that we may even in these days by the ordinary assistance of Gods Spirit even without a Revelation discern sufficient marks and tokens of Divine Judgments upon many of them to lay a foundation for the improvement of them to the ends which God generally designs by them both to our selves and others For a moral certainty in such matters wherein a Duty is to be inferred from the various accidents of this life hath to us the force of a Divine Command A Principle which if it be not owned we must necessarily be endangered to be governed in most of the ordinary actions of our present callings and imployments by that wild and extravagant Rule of exspecting special Scripture-determinations in all the particularities of our worldly conditions which no sober man will own as the measure to govern his Actions by 2. And such in the second place as I have described I hope will the characters of remarkable Divine Judgments be that follow 1. The greatness and publickness of a Divine stroke beyond what is common to men especially if so great as in common repute to be above the power of man to inflict as I have before intimated gives the first glimpse of light in this Case Which puts us as it lawfully may nay more in duty ought where the concern is some way our own upon enquiry into the Nature of it For we are wonted to do so in Humane Societies If a stranger come by a Gallows or a Whipping-post and see a man hanged and drawn and quartered at the one and another severely whipped at the other he will presently be enquiring wherefore such persons are handled with such severity in so notorious a manner And when severities it may be far greater from God befall any with as publick circumstances it is equally rational for the spectators and much more the sufferers to enquire what he means by them and even to suspect the worst that they may be Judicial Executions till he be informed otherwise Yea God himself intimates his approbation of mens inquisitiveness in such cases when he tells the Jews that he would inflict such sore plagues on them as should move all Nations to ask Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this Land Deut. 29.24 What meaneth the heat of this great Anger 2. But