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-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
the pious Examples of the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and others of God's chosen Saints and Servants But above all of our blessed Saviour Jesus In the next place a great number of passionate and earnest Exhortations to incite us to fight manfully as valiant and good Souldiers under Christ's Banner all our Lives to which are annexed large Promises of spiritual Graces and Comforts to support us during our Pilgrimage in this Valley of Tears and after this painful Life ended Crowns of Glory and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens But on the other side to deter us from continuing in Sin and Disobedience we have in the last place not only Threats but also Examples of God's dreadful Judgments here in this Life upon wilful Offenders and the Vengeance of Eternal Fire denounced against all impenitent Sinners in the World to come with the Devil and his Angels Ejaculation and Prayer O blessed JESUS whose coming down from Heaven to take upon Thee our Nature for the Redemption of lost Sinners was the true foundation of the Holy Scriptures and of the Promises therein contained of Eternal Life and Happiness to all true Penitents and Believers Let therefore O Lord this holy Word of Thine be from henceforth a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Paths And O that my ways were so directed that I might keep thy Statutes and never more turn aside unto lying Vanities Honnēni elohim keckhasdēkah kerov Rahamēka pheseangāi kerov kabbesseni mengavoui ou meckhatāti taharēni Have mercy upon me O God according to to thy loving Kindness according to the Multitude of thy tender Mercies do away my Offences wash me throughly from mine Iniquities and cleanse me from my Sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Forsake me not O God in mine Old Age now that I am gray-headed and my Strength faileth me and the Light of mine Eyes is gone from me Now that I am as a Pelican in the Wilderness as an Owl in the Desert and as a Sparrow upon the House top Behold thou hast made my Days as an hand-breadth and mine Age is as nothing before Thee O spare me a little that I may recover my Strength before I go away from hence and be no more seen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In thee O Lord I have trusted let me never be confounded And here I crave leave before my Departure out of this World to leave behind me a friendly Caution to all young Gentlemen and Students to beware of a certain pernicious Treatise which does in effect make a Jest of the Holy Scriptures and turns Angels and Spirits into Phantasms and Heaven and Hell into meer Metaphors It is a Book that very well deserves a Noli me tangere or a Caveat Emptor to be stamped in Capital Letters upon its Cover I am very tender of naming the Author who now stands or falls to his own Master and hope that he made his Peace with Heaven by a sincere and hearty Repentance before he went from hence besides that Christian-Charity obliges me to make very soft and gentle steps over dead Men's Graves though at the same time Christian-piety prompts me to declare to all the World That had I the vanity to think my self equal to him both for Natural Parts and acquired Learning I would not have been the Writer and Publisher of such a Discourse to have gained the Wealth of both the Indies The Company of Stationers may do God and their Country very signal Service and possibly not at all impair thereby their private Fortunes if instead of applauding and vending that impious Treatise they would join together in buying up all the Copies and converting them to Ashes The Psalmist speaking of the vast and wide Ocean tells us of a Leviathan that God had made to play therein But sure I am that God could never be pleased that any Man should make a Leviathan here upon Earth to play with his Divine Attributes and Holy Scriptures This Treatise may not be improperly called the Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Sinner's Common-Hall where all Persons concerned may be furnished at very easy Rates with new invented Mattocks Spades and all other Instruments and Utensils of politick Pioneers to undermine Civil and Church-Governments I must needs acknowledge That the Method of this Treatise is very pleasant the Stile elegant and the Expressions very proper and significant and is interlaced with specious Touches of Learning and that of divers kinds politely extracted and wittily digested but let me tell thee mi figliolo mi Jovane and timely forewarn thee Guardati d' aceto di vin dolce It is only to beguile the Readers and ere they are aware to lead them into Labyrinths and make them swallow down most pernicious Principles Thus the skilful Angler covers the fatal hook with a pleasant Bait and the cunning Fowler carefully hides the Snare from the unwary Bird. Thus the appearance of a Sepulchre is oft times very glorious when the inside is full of Rottenness dead Men's Bones and all Uncleanness Thus a lewd Strumpet being adorned with gay Cloths and set off with rich Jewels false Teeth Hair and Eye-brows and a painted Face seems beautiful to the beholders who if she did but once lay aside those Ornaments and Disguises would soon affright her most voluptuous Lovers and become a Soveraign Remedy for their incontinence Leviathan It is the Devil 's Alcoran Beware ingenious young Men There 's Death in the Pot There 's Poison in the Cup There 's a Snake in the Grass You are near the Hole of an Asp And the Den of a Cockatrice Leviathan It s the Author's imaginary Golden Image set up in the Year 52 in a place which he then lookt upon as the English Babylon whose height of Impudence was much more than thirty Cubits to which he did then really believe that both the Leaders and the Populace of those Times being wonderfully charm'd with his witty Fancies and pleasing Novelties would as readily fall down and do Obeisance as Nebuchadnezzar's Subjects did of old to his real Golden Image at the sound of the Sackbut Psaltery Dulcimer and other Musical Instruments Reflection How apt are frail Mortals on whom God has at any time bestowed some extraordinary Gifts of Nature to be transported with their own wild Fancies and to be drunk with the New Wine 't is what the Author calls his own Treatise of their vain and foolish Imaginations and then How ready is Satan at hand who too well knows their Nature and Constitutions their Tempers and Dispositions with their Inclinations and Infirmities to improve those humane Frailties and to push and drive them to all manner of extravagant Actions and presumptuous Undertakings Ejaculation King of Kings and Lord of Lords Who pullest down the Mighty from their Seats and exaltest the Humble and Meek whenever Pride and Vain-glory puffs us up and makes us become wise in our own Eyes Let the remembrance that we
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 URIM OF CONSCIENCE To which the Author has had recourse for plain Answers in his own particular Case as every Man living ought to do in his to FOUR QUESTIONS of great weight and importance viz. 1. Who And what art thou 2. Where hast thou been 3. What art thou now doing 4. Whither art thou going Together with Three Select Prayers for Private Families By Sir Samuel Morland Kn t. Bar t. During his Blindness and Retirement LONDON Printed by J. M. and B. B. for A. Roper E. Wilkinson and R. Clavel over against St. Dunston's Church Fleet-street 1695. THE PREFACE TO THE READER IT having pleased Almighty God to deprive me of the Sight of both my Eyes for above Three Years already past and being thereby disabled to do my King or Country any further Service I thought it might not be amiss to employ some part of my Time during this Solitude and Retirement in Recollecting some Observations and Reflections which I have heretofore made from what I have seen or heard either at Home or Abroad as believing they might at present be profitable to my self and hereafter useful to others And therefore I have at last digested them into a small Treatise containing four Questions and Answers which do in truth concern every one who has the true use of that Reason with which he was born But more especially profest Christians who ought every Day of their Lives seriously to propose to themselves such Interrogatories and require at the same time sincere and direct Answers from their own Consciences Now if the Method of the following Discourse be lookt upon as Particular and Unusual I hope it may be the more grateful forasmuch as new things though of little consequence do usually find a tolerable acceptance If it be thought too Short and Concise for a Subject of such Weight and Importance there will be this Convenience that it will give less trouble to the Readers If it should be censured for Sharp and Satyrical Reflections I desire it may be considered That those Reflections are either directed against profest Atheists Libertines and vitious Livers who make a Mock of Religion and the Holy Scriptures or else that they are made use of to lessen the Credit and Reputation of a certain Treatise called Leviathan which has corrupted the Minds and Manners of so many hopeful Youths of this last Age who by reason of the tenderness of their Years and want of Solidity and Experience could not easily discern the Fallacies and Inconsistences of those dangerous Doctrines that are so subtilly couched in that impious Discourse And lastly if in this small Treatise there shall be found Errours Mistakes or useless Passages proceeding from the Author's Blindness Old Age or Weakness and his being forc'd to make use of other Men's Hands and Eyes he begs the courteous and candid Perusers to put them all into a Parenthesis and to consider that since humanum est errare he had in the following Discourse a two fold end and Purpose the One to gratify his Readers the other to benefit Himself For while They either do or may go away with what is of real Use and Practise in their Lives and Conversations He comes after to glean and gather up those Mistakes and Trivial Passages for the Exercise of Self-mortification and for the begetting and continuing a mean Opinion and low Thoughts of his own Abilities And therefore flatters himself with hopes to find a favourable Interpretation of his hearty and sincere though weak Endeavours being already past the Seventieth Year of his Age to leave that behind him which may at least help to turn some Souls to Righteousness when he himself shall be turned to Dust and Ashes THE First Question Q. Who And what art thou Answer One who deserves no Name A poor and despicable Individual of the unhappy Species of Human Race which in its Original was Excellent and Admirable but is now become Wretched and Miserable Sometimes in the Silence and Shades of Night my roving Fancy gives me a transient view of Adam in his Innocency as he was LORD and KING of this lower World and sitting in State with his Royal Consort in the Garden of EDEN whither all the Creatures resorted to do him Homage with all Respect and Submission as to their Liege and rightful Soveraign Again sometimes it represents the doleful Scene of his terrible Fall by his fond Compliance with his new Bride's desires to disobey his Maker's Command and thereby to expose himself and her and his whole Posterity to Death and endless Misery That Angels were created before Man and that one of their chief Order for his Pride and Ambition was cast out of Heaven we need no better proof than the sad Rehearsal of Adam's Fall for certainly no other Created Being would ever have attempted to deface God's own Image and Likeness but the chief of Apostate Angels and Prince of Devils Methinks I hear the Father of Lies in the shape of a Serpent which was probably at that time the most Lovely and Beautiful as well as the most Crafty and Subtil of all the inferior Creatures thus accosting the Mother of all Living Fair Queen of this Lower World What great pitty it is that such excellent Creatures as your Self and your Royal Associate should here feed on Herbs and courser Meats whereas there is so noble a Plant in this your own Garden the Fruit whereof is not only incomparably fair to the Eye and extreamly pleasant to the Tast but has also a secret Vertue to inspire the Eaters with Heavenly Wisdom and Knowledge If your Maker has forbidden it you it is only to raise and heighten the Desires of your Divine Souls after their proper Adcquate and Coelestial Objects How should the LORD GOD take Offence at your doing that which will most certainly make you so like to himself and his own Divine Essence How far Eve might be surprized to hear a Serpent speak in her own Language Or whether the Gift of Speaking might in those Days be sometimes given by God to some of the chief of Inferior Creatures upon some special occasion as it was in after-times given to Balaam's Ass And whether the Devil spoke to her through the mouth of a real Serpent or in an assumed shape I shall not go about to determine Some learned Men believe that this Serpent was a Dragon because say they the Naturalists in their Writings describe the Dragon to be a Creature of wonderful Beauty and doubtless it was a much more beautiful Creature before its Curse in case that were the very Animal that was made use off by the Devil with a long golden Beard bright and sparkling Eyes Scales shining with glorious Colours and the like insomuch that the Egyptians worshipped a Dragon as a Diety and the Greeks borrowed 〈◊〉 that Beautifull Creatures Image to represent their God AEsculapius But in how beautiful a shape soever the Devil appeared it is evident that his Design was
to all intents and purposes most spiteful and malicious O cruel Satan Was there not room enough for thee and all thy Infernal Crew to range up and down in the vast and wide Expanse without intruding so rudely and abruptly into Paradise O spiteful old Dragon What Wrong or Injury did our first Parents do to thee while they were dressing the Garden which their MAKER had so lately placed them in that thou shouldest invent so hellish a Stratagem and in Masquerade make so fatal an Address at once to rob them of their Innocence disturb their present Peace and disappoint them of their future Happiness Be therefore for ever accursed O Beelzebub Thou Prince of Devils and true Original of all Sin and Wickedness for thy malicious Practises to deceive all the Nations of the World for so many Thousand Years whenas thou canst not be ignorant but that the Sins of every Soul that thou has tempted be it Saved or be it Damned shall one Day be set to thy Accompt and add Degrees to thy Eternal Torment From all Evil and Mischief and from all the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits Good Lord deliver us Now here I doubt not but that the ingenious Reader will expect I should insert some short Discourse concerning Blessed and Apostate Spirits and I could heartily wish I had a sufficient Knowledge of and Insight into those Mysteries to answer fully his desires But I am afraid on the one side that he would be very little satisfied with my Endeavours in case I should in imitation of a late learned Author try to squeeze a plausible Description of LOST PARADISE out of St. John's Vision in the Isle of Patmos and fancy to my self a formal and pitcht Battle upon a vast and wide Plain in the North part of Heaven fought between two mighty Hosts of Blessed and Revolted Spirits conducted and led up by mighty arch-Arch-Angels for their Generals riding in Brazen Chariots drawn by foaming Steeds and clad with Adamantine Coats one of which was by a massy Sword cut down to the wast and stain'd with Angelick blood Where the one of these Armies dug up the Terrain of Heaven and with the Materials they there found made Powder Bullets and great Guns it is pity that Bombs were not in use when he wrote that Treatise and with them did great Execution upon their Enemies who in Revenge tore up great Mountains by the Roots and hurl'd them at their Heads with a great number of other Romantick Stories which is Ludere cum Sacris and much fitter for Poets and Painters who when they are got to the top of their Pâ—rnassus frame to themselves Idea's of what Chimera's or Goblins they please And on the other side I judge it altogether needless to make use of the Dark-Lanterns of Homer Ovid Virgil or any of the old Heathen Poets or to borrow the dim Tapers and blinking Lights of Plato Aristotle Seneca or any of those Half-Divine Philosophers or to be beholding to the School-men for their vain Distinctions and splitting of Hairs with their lame Definitions and Explanations of Obscurum per Obscurius Neither am I willing to tire my Reader with endless Quotations out of the Ancient Pious and Learned Fathers who were for the most part somewhat tender in delivering their Opinions about the Doctrin of Spirits but wisely waved the positive Determination of Questions relating to the Invisible World and those deep Mysteries of Incorporeal Beings as not to be fathom'd by the Line and Plummet of Human Understanding And therefore I shall content my self with what Light I can get from the Holy Scriptures and where those are either obscure or silent to be very cautious sober and modest 1. That there were are and ever shall be true and real Subsistencies of Good and Evil Angels the following Passages of Sacred Writ do plainly inform us viz. Before the Angels of God 12 Luke 8. He shall come with all his holy Angels 25 Matth. 31. If God spared not the Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. The Angels that kept not their first Estate Jud. 6. The Angels came 4 Matth. 11. Out of whom went 7 Devils 8 Luke 2. Everlasting Fire Prepared for the Devil and his Angels 25 Matth. 41. But are as the Angels in Heaven 22 Matth. 30. 2. As concerning the Time when the Angels were Created it may be conjectured by comparing several Texts of Scripture and making the following Inference viz. The Sons of God and the Morning-Stars are put together and the Morning-Stars were made before the Earth Job 38. And the Earth was made three Days before the Stars in the Firmament Gen. 1. And consequently Morning Stars cannot be meant Stars of the Firmament Again by Stars are meant Angels 12 Rev. 4. And by the Heavenly Host are meant Angels 2 Luke 13. and 1 Kings 19. 21. And the Heavens and Heavenly Hosts are joined together 2 Gen. And the Heavens said to be Created the First Day Therefore it seems probable that the Sons of God otherwise the Morning-Stars or which is the same thing Angels or the Host of Heaven were created on the first of the Six Days in the Morning 3. That there were great Numbers of both Blessed and Apostate Angels we are assured from several Passages in the Old and New Testament More than 12 Legions or as some compute it 79992 Angels 26 Matth. 23. Thousand Thousands ministred unto him and Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand stood before him 7 Dan. 10. and 5 Rev. 11. An innumerable Company of Angels 12. Heb. 22. A multitude of the Heavenly Host 2 Luke 13. His Tail drew a Third part of the Stars of Heaven 12 Rev. 4. My Name is Legion for we are many 5 Mark 9. Now if Solomon who was LORD but of a very small Spot of the Terrestrial Globe which Globe is by us thought to be little more than a Point if compared with the Starry Firmament had so many Attendants What Number should we think a fit Retinue for the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS Myriades Myriadum will be too small a Summ And so will our ordinary Terms of Arithmetick and we must be forced to borrow some of the learned Commentator upon Archimedes his Arenarius and say Billions Trillions Quadrillions c. of blessed Angels to attend his Throne and to make up the Court of Heaven 4. That there were different Orders and Degrees of Good and Evil Spirits we have reason to believe from the following Texts viz. The great Prince Michael 12 Dan. 1. Beelzebub the Prince of Devils 11 Luke 15. The Prince of the Power of the Air 2 Ephes 2. The Voice of the Arch-Angel 2 Thess 4. 16. Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers 1 Coloss 16. Michael and his Angels and the Devil and his Angels 12 Rev. 3. 9. 5. That all the blessed Angels which attend God's Throne are Ministring Spirits and sometimes appeared in Humane shapes we find in the following Texts
viz. Three Men stood by him 18 Gen. 2. Behold two Men stood by them in shining Garments 24 Luke 4. And there came two Angels to Sodom and Lot went out to meet them 19 Gen. 1. And the Angel of the Lord found her by a Fountain of water 16 Gen. 7. And the Angel of the Lord called unto him viz. Abraham 22 Gen. 11. And Jacob went on his way and the Angel of the Lord met him 32 Gen. 1. The Angel of the Lord went out c. and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians 185 Thousand 2 Kings 19. 31. And there died c. 70 Thousand And when the Angel of the Lord stretched forth his hand upon Jerusalem the Lord said to the Angel Hold now thine hand 2 Sam. 24. 15 16. You shall see the Heavens opened and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man 1 John 51. I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God and am sent to speak to thee 1 Luke 19. And the Angel ministred unto him 1 Luke 13. And the Angel of the Lord came down from Heaven and rolled away the Stone c. 28 Matth. 2. He knew of a surety that God had sent his Angel Acts 12 11. Who received the Law by the Disposition of Angels 7 Acts 53. Are they not ministring Spirits for the good of c. 11 Hebrews Ejaculation King of Kings and Lord of Lords about whose Throne are always attending Thousands of Thousands and ten Thousand times ten Thousand blessed Angels be graciously pleased to give Charge to some of those ministring Spirits to guide and conduct me throughout my whole Pilgrimage in this Valâ—y of Tears and at last to convey my departing Soul to the place of Everlasting Rest and Happiness What were and are the fatal Consequences of the Disobedience of our First Parents we too well know and find by woful Experience And had not their heavy Sentence been allayed with a happy Promise of a Messias both their and our Condition had been altogether hopeless But what had been the Consequences in case they had remain'd in that purity in which they were created As namely to what Numbers they had increased and multiplied in what parts of the World they had inhabited And if in colder Climates their Bodies had required Covering and Vestments Whether Flesh had been allowed them for Food as well as Fruits and Herbs And the Earth brought forth its Encrease without any Labour or Tillage And lastly if they had never died but after a certain Term of Years had been Translated from Earth to Heaven as Righteous Enoch was and afterwards Elias Are all Questions more curious than necessary as the Case now stands with us And such as I believe the wisest Man living had he all imaginable Helps of Humane Learning and acquired Knowledge would never be able with any certainty to determine Thus much we may reasonably believe and safely conclude That as they were at first created by the wonderful Contrivance and Mechany of the blessed Trinity and made after G O D's own Image and Likeness they were truly Noble and Excellent Creatures Of their Bodies we have a Specimen by the Dissection of one of our own they being undoubtedly the same with ours as to the Figure Number and Uses as well of their Exterior as their Interior parts though extreamly different in Perfection and Durahoâ— those lasting more than twice as many Hundreds as ours do now Scores of Years even after they were mortified by their Fall and were Condemned by G O D himself the one to daily Labour and Tillage and to eat his Bread by the sweat of his Brows and the other to be subject to the Laws and Will of a Husband to struggle with the sharp Pains and Throws of Child-bed and to have her Griefs and Sorrows greatly multiplied In the Dissection of Humane Bodies what thinking Men can take a serious view of the Skin the Membranes the Flesh the Fibers the Veins the Arteries the Nerves the Ligaments the Cartilages and the Bones as likewise of the three Cavities or Venters of the Trunk namely the Abdomen the Chest and the Head with all things therein contained as also the Arms Thighs and Legs with their different Positions Compositions and admirable Use without being struck with great Wonder and Astonishment and crying out with good King David Behold I am fearfully and wonderfully made When he considers how closely the Stomach with the help of its Fibers embraces the Meat that is chewed in the Mouth and the Drink that is received in and swallowed down and mixeth therewith specifick fermentatious Juices bred in its inner Coat and impregnated by the Saliva till the finer parts by a convenient heat become a white milky Cream after which together with the thicker Mass with which they are as yet involved by the Constriction of the Stomach they pass down to the Guts where by the mixture of the Bile and the pancreatick Juice they are by another manner of Fermentation quite separated from the thicker Mass and so received of the Lacteal Vessels as the thicker is ejected by the Stool When he rightly considers the Figure and Motion of that admirable Machine the Heart and how it is suspended in the Body by the Vessels that go in and out of it and that as an ordinary Forcing-Engine being placed in the middle of a City or Town draws the Water of an adjoining Source or Fountain into its own Bowels by one Motion or stroak of the hand and the help of a Valve to keep it from returning back again and then thrusts or forces out the same Water by another stroke of that hand and the help of another Valve into another Pipe which is afterwards distributed into smaller Branches to supply the Uses of the several and respective Houses So the Heart receives the Blood out of the Vena Cava into its Ventricles by a Djastole or Dilatation and then thrusts or forces it out again by a Systole or Contraction into the Arteries and out of these into the parts that are to be nourished from whence it is to be resolved by the Capillary Veins which conduct it back through the larger Veins into the Vena Cava again and this by the help of divers Semi-lunar or Semi-circular Valves curiously and conveniently placed in the aforementioned Vessels and Passages and thus is made the admirable Circulation of the Blood But how or by what secret Power the Heart receives its Motion and makes its constant pulses is known to God alone the Maker and Searcher of all Hearts We are apt to admire the Skill of an Artist who can make us a Pendulum-Clock of the choicest Brass and Iron to vibrate with a just and equal Motion for the space but of one Year and that with the help of a suspended Weight What shall we then think of a Movement composed of fleshy Muscles and Fibers suspended in Methusalem's body and continuing its Pulses without
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
dies where the Fire that burns is never to be quenched nor the Body that is burning never consumed THE Third Question Q. What art thou now doing Answer I hope through God's great Goodness and Mercy That one Thing necessary For having wandred up and down and made many weary steps in the wide Wilderness of a vain and sinfull World I was at last very desirous to return home to my self but must freely confess some Truths which to my Readers at first sight may seem Paradoxes or Riddles viz. I could never truly get into my self before I was got out of and had wholly left my self My wavering Mind was never rightly composed till it was extreamly disturbed I had no ease till I was in pain nor Peace and quietness till I was in trouble and distress I could enjoy nothing till I was dispossest of all things I was unable to stand up till I was fallen down to make the least progress till I was struck with Lameness or to see my Way till I had lost both my Eyes Ejaculation and Prayer Father of Mercies I do sincerely and with all my Soul bless and praise Thee for all the Changes and Chances the Disgrace and Misfortunes the Crosses and Disappointments and the bodily pains and Torments that have followed one another like Job's messengers and so closely attended this last Scene of my Life and Evening of my Days As really believing that they were all Marks and Tokens of thy favour and loving Kindness and that the great Physician of Soul and Body never does administer those bitter Pills to his Sick Patients but for blessed Ends and Purposes Lord I believe all this help my unbelief and graciously grant that thy poor distressed Servant may at last come out of the Furnace of Affliction and Troubles like Gold and Silver that has been tried in the fire and purified seven times Let others imbarque and hazard their immortal Souls in what false Bottoms they please Let the Ambitious-Man glory in his Honors and Preferments Let the Covetous Man's trust and confidence be his worldly Wealth and Mammon of Unrighteousness Let the Voluptuous Man's Paradise be his Dalilahs and sensual Pleasures But Christian Reader let you and I in this our Day and while we have Time and Opportunity make Provision for Eternity In order to this there are some things which we either do or may know by the Light of Nature and those Principles which we brought into the World with us the visible things of the Creation naturally leading us to the knowledge of one God Almighty Maker and Governor of all things and the Law of Nature that is written in our hearts prompting us to worship that God to be just in our Dealings to honour our Parents and the like And when on the one hand we faithfully perform or on the other hand do any thing contrary to what the Light of Nature dictates to us we have Consciences within us that do either accuse or else excuse our Actions and Behaviours and thus far go the Heathens But now there are other things which more nearly concern us Christians and these are revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures which Scriptures we are to esteem and reverence as undoubted and unquestionable Truths both as to the historical part of them and also the Precepts Promises and Threats contained in them and that for the Reasons alledged in a foregoing part of this Treatise 1. In these Scriptures we are taught and commanded to acknowledge the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity Three Persons and one God who is an infinitely glorious Spirit that was from Everlasting without Beginning and shall be to Everlasting without End That he is no bodily Substance such as our Eyes behold but Spiritual and Invisible whom no Man hath seen or can see who comprehends all things and is only Immense not to be comprehended by any who can never be defined by any Words nor conceived by the Mind That He is infinitely Great and Excellent beyond all that we can possibly imagine That He has received his Being from none and gives Being to all things 2. To acknowledge His Divine excellencies and glorious Attributes as namely His All-sufficiency and admirable Providence in Disposing Governing and preserving all things his Omnipotence Omniscience and Omnipresence his Eternal Truth and Justice his transcendent Purity and Holiness and his infinite Mercy and Goodness 3. To love this God with all our Hearts and Souls as He is the Fountain of all Goodness and Excellency in himself and as He is infinitely kind and merciful towards us both in respect of our Souls and Bodies in giving us a Being in the World in forming and framing us wonderfully in our Mother's wombs in breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after his own Image and Likeness in giving us our Birth within the Pale of the Church and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels in leaving us so many pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true way to Life and Happiness But above all that unparallell'd Pattern of Piety and Goodness in the Life of the Holy Jesus who so freely gave up himself as an Offering to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers in giving us Food and Rayment and all the good Things of this Life and preserving us from sudden Deaths and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's breasts To answer all which Love and Kindness of God to us we must express our Love to him by our hearty and honest Endeavours to please him in all things which we can never do without a sincere Repentance and a firm Resolution to amend our Lives and never to harbour in our Bosoms any secret Lust or live in any known Sin or Sins as likewise by taking all Opportunities of conversing with him as well in our private Closets as in the publick Assemblies by Prayer Fasting and Meditation by reading and hearing his Word and receiving the blessed Sacrament and lastly by our earnest and longing Desire whenever we shall put off these fleshly Tabernacles to enjoy him by Beatifick Vision amongst blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens 4. To fear him not only with an awful fear from the consideration of his Power and Justice he being a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity and also when provoked by our Impieties able to cast both Body and Soul into everlasting Flames which is infinitely more than either Men or Devils can do against us but also with a Filial fear as an obedient and dutiful Child truly fears to offend or displease a loving and tender Father 5. To trust in Him and to depend upon Him at all times and in all Conditions as well in regard of our Spiritual as our Temporal Concerns If we are assaulted by Temptations we are to rely upon him either
are but Dust and Ashes pull down our haughty Looks and abate our swelling Thoughts Leviathan It s a monstrous Goblin that much better deserves to be exposed to publick view in Fairs and Markets than an Elephant or Rhinoceros these being the wonderful Works of the great Creator the other the Mechanisme and meer Invention of a grand Impostor Leviathan It is a Juggler's box to cheat his Readers with meer Tricks and Legerdemains It is and It is not There is a Law of Nature and yet There is no such thing All Men are in a state of War and Enmity and yet remain in Love and Unity There are Angels and Spirits and yet they are but Phantasms Apparitions and Delusions There 's a Kingdom of Heaven and yet there 's none There is an Enfer and yet Hell is but a Metaphor Leviathan It s the Trojan Horse whose Belly and inner Cavities are fill'd with Men of War and all sorts of Weapons to kill and destroy their hospitable Friends and Receivers Leviathan Had learned Milton wav'd his Subject of Lost Paradise and exercised his poetick Talent upon this Treatise he might have found here his God Chaos and a much more convenient Pandaimonion for Beelzebub and his Infernal Crew to sit in consultation how to make a second War with Heaven Leviathan Sure it was something akin to that formidable Beast with seven Heads and ten Horns in the Revelationâ— to whom was given a Mouth to speak Great Things and to Blaspheme against God his Tabernacle and them that dwell in Heaven This Author in pag. 63 64. 87. 169. and in many other places boldly asserts That all Men by Nature are in a Condition of War every Man against every Man That every Man hath right to every thing even to the Goods and Body of his Neighbour that is to say in plain English every Man by Nature is a Rascal Villain Thief Robber and Murderer till by a Pact or Agreement they chose out of their Company a Soveraign who is absolute and nothing that he can do is any Injury or Injustice to any of his Subjects and is perfectly Master of their Estates and Lives Insomuch that David's killing Uriah was no injury to Uriah because the Right to do whatever he pleased was given to David by Uriah himself In the first place if every Man be by Nature such a Rascal and Villain How great a Rascal and Villain doth this Author even in print acknowledge himself to be for one 2. If all Men be such Rascals and Villains till they agree and chose to themselves a Soveraign this Soveraign must be as great a Rascal and Villain as any of them as well after as before his Coronation being no more able to shake of his Savage Qualities than a Leopard his Spots or a Blackmoor to change his Skin And by making him their Soveraign they enable him to be ten times a greater Rascal and Villain than ever before he was and then let the ingenuous Reader but imagine what a Hydra of a Common-Wealth this would be And what a Centaur their supreme Governour Nero Domitian and the rest of the persecuting Emperors would not deserve to be mentioned in any Histories In such a gygantick Prince's Court as this so pittiful a Tyrant as Herod would not have merit enough to be one of his Majesty's Gentlemen-Ushers nor Pontius Pilate to be a Page of his Back-stairs 3. What an high Affront and Indignity does he here cast upon God Almighty who created Adam in his own Image and Likeness and made him an absolute Lord and Soveraign of this lower World and endued him with sufficient Wisdom and Understanding to govern it And though Adam by his first Transgression exposed himself and his Posterity to the Wrath and Displeasure of his Maker yet we no where find that his Maker took from him that Soveraignty and Dominion or the use of his Reason to manage it which he had before given him or that he left his Subjects in a state of War to Rob Spoil and Murder one another But on the other side have good Reason to believe that Adam enjoyed his Soveraignty while he lived and consequently that all that came forth of his Loins were his Natural Subjects and yielded him due Obedience And though there might be many wicked Men amongst them yet that there was not so much as one that durst publish a Leviathan neither were they in the general so far degenerated and become worse than any of the brute Creatures as the Author pretends having quite lost all those Principles of Honour and Justice which were originally stamped in their Souls We have likewise reason to believe that the Patriarchs Noah and Abraham and others were Soveraigns in their respective Families till such time as Families being multiplied there arose Quarrels and Dissentions and the stronger subduing the weaker enlarged their Dominions but without those senseless Pacts and Agreements as this Author would fain perswade us for no such thing was ever yet in practise but is a product of his own waking Thoughts of which he makes mention page 60. in the following words viz. That waking he thought of his absurd Dreams but never dreamt of the Absurdity of his waking Thoughts And the plain truth is I think in my Conscience no other Man in the whole World ever dreamt of them till he himself so absurdly publisht them Again how confidently soever this Author asserts That David did Uriah no injury We read 2 Sam. 12. That the Lord sent Nathan to David to complain of Two of the greatest Injuries and Acts of Oppression and Injustice that could possibly be offered by a Prince to his Subjects or indeed by one private Person to another The first was killing of Uriah wrongfully The 2d was defiling his Wife The words of Nathan are these Thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee King over Israel and I delivered Thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy Master's house and thy Master's Wives into thy bosom wherefore hast thou killed Uriah the Hittite by the hands of the Children of Ammon and taken his Wife to be thy Wife Now one of these Injuries being represented darkly by Nathan to David in a Parable of two Men living in one City the one Rich and the other Poor and the rich Man taking wrongfully the poor Man's Lamb out of his bosom the faid King waxed wroth and so highly resented it that he swore to Nathan that this cruel Deed should cost the Offender his life And why Because he had no pitty So then it is manifest that to assert that David neither did nor could do any wrong to Uriah is not only to give Nathan and David but also God himself the Lye which is no less than Blasphemy In page 152. He instructs his Disciples That in case a Man shall come from the Indies hither and perswade Men here to receive a new Religion though he be never so well perswaded of the truth