to amuse yea amaze us under the sense of Divine Goodness and to draw our Hearts with the silken cords of love It 's his favour that drops the inclinations of affection into the hearts and tempers the reciprocal tides in the breasts of such whom he ordains for conjugal relation His Eye guided out-cast Hagar to a shrub in Paran Gen. 24.39 40 58. 29.11 and rather then her son should perish for thirst an Angel must point out a Well to slake her sorrow Wonderful are the instances both in sacred and civil Story in discovery of means ordering of method guiding of accidents to the prevention of dangers and preservation of life and the sudden issuing of sudden distresses No less admirable are many quick and stupendious deliverances out of Dungeons and Prisons to great and famous Advancements and by providences to us occasional and accidental flow high and exalted manifestations of God to his Church and people Not to be curious in ranking under distinct heads give leave to mention a few mixt Examples in various kinds Pharaohs Daughter coming occasionally to the Rivers side Exo. 2.6 had compassion on little Moses weeping in his Cradle of Bulrushes Her heart wept over the tears of Moses she brought him up like a Prince in Egypt to be Prince of Israel Thus God makes his enemies to foster their own Supplanters and to build up their own destroyers After this the Humanity of Moses to the Daughters of Jethro in watering their Sheep advanced him to be Son in Law to the Prince of Midian A poor Captive Maiden in the Land of Syria by a few words was the occasion of the cure of Naamans Leprosie both in soul and body And another finding favour in the eyes of the great King of Persia was the occasion of delivering the Jews from destruction in 127 Provinces and the Reading of that Kingdoms Chronicles opened a door to Mordecai's Glory and Haman's Infamy Joseph and Daniel arrived to unexpected Preferment by exposition of Princes Dreams whereby the Church of God was strangely preserved and at length delivered from Exile Simeon and Anna coming into the Temple at an instant of Providence met with the Lords Anointed and saw his Salvation Many of the choicest Mercies fall under this head The first and primary Mercy to the World the Protevangelium the preaching of the Gospel to Adam by God himself transcended the thoughts and imaginations of our fallen Parents The sending of the Messiah's Sceptre out of Zion among the Gentile Idolaters who sought him not and the Conversion of whole Nations to the Obedience of his Spiritual Law was performed by preventing Grace to the whole world and the particular turnings of Rebellious Souls to God are often managed by secret instincts Austin would needs sail over Sea to Rome against the prayers and tears and fears of his holy Mother She dreaded his being corrupted by the debauchery of Rome but God sent him to Milan to be converted by Ambrose and as he speaks sweetly of Gods denial of her prayers as to his journey Confes 1. â— c. 8. Sed tu alte consulens exaudiens cardinem desiderii ejus non curasti quod tunc petebat ut in me faceres quod semper petebat But thou in wise counsel didst regard the hinge on which her desires turned didst reject her present prayer to give in the effect of her constant petitions Many times such who run from the means of their own Salvation fall into the happy snares of Divine Mercy and such who are naturally unwilling to be saved Austin praevenisti ut vellem the secret Wisdom of Providence allures to become a willing people in the day of his Power Should I enlarge upon the many rare cases of special preventing Mercies this Discourse would run over the banks of Volumes Famous is the Instance of that man whose Horse in a dark night wafted him over a Plank laid upon the breach of Rochester Bridge and the next day coming to see the place of his strange deliverance sunk into the deep waters of Amazement and died away Great Salvation did the Lord work also for a Friend of mine M. Charles Morton who riding in the night along the High Way at Menegizy Cliffs in Cornwall which was fallen down into the Sea at a vast depth might have perish'd inevitably had not a man suddenly stept out of his door at his passing by and prevented the mischief More admirable the safe fall of a Butcher upon his Sheep from the Cliff at Dover Castle as the Inhabitants report How did an impulse upon Mr. Dods Spirit to visit a Friend two miles off in the night prevent the Self-murder of that person by a Halter who was esteemed truly gracious but overwhelmed by direful tentations How did an unexpected Fog prevent a second Battel between the English and Dutch in the late Wars And the like happened in the days of King Edward the Confessor upon the Navies addressing to fight How admirably have many persons been cured preserved delivered by sudden accidents Memorable is that story in Tilingius of one who being cured of a Dropsie by the poison of a Toad designed for his destruction became the Publisher of that Specifick Some by Falls into Rivers have been cured of Madness others by sudden frights restored to the use of their Limbs and others by Shipwreck have escaped Piracy And which is distinct as to relief unexpected in deep poverty that of Accesilaus is remarkable who caused a Bag of Money to be conveyed under the pillow of a sick Friend modestly hiding his poverty that he might find it rather then receive it And others that have let fall Money into the laps of persons from a window as if it fell from Heaven As to preventing Mercy in reference to prayer â— 65.24 Sometime before we call God is pleased to answer When the Heart is but a tuning he discovers the Lesson and turns it into a Song of praise Ps 32.5 When David was under resolutions of Confession God actually forgave the iniquity of his sin Gen. 24.15 45. Before Eliezer had done speaking in the case of Isaac out comes Rebecca with the answer of prayer When Hezekiah was praying and weeping 2 Kings 20.5 Turn again says the Lord to Isaiah and tell the Captain of my people I will heal thee And Gabriel told beloved Daniel Dan. 9.20 21 23. that at the beginning of his Supplication he was commanded to fly more swiftly down to Daniel then his prayer could fly up to Heaven So ready is our gracious Father to smell a savour of rest when the Incense of prayer is but newly kindled CHAP. III. The Numerousness of Preventing Mercies THE glittering Stars of Heaven the drops of the briny Ocean and the Sands upon the winding Shores the Dusts of the Earth and the Atoms that swim in the Sun-beams are not so numerous as these excellent Mercies Archimedes could write a Treatise
be received with the more delightful sweetness and when entred what curious Organs are fashioned within the Drums of the Ear when the Hammer strikes words and articulates them upon the Anvile and sends its lively Mercurian Messengers to the common Sensory That the Oil of a Snake that quick-hearing Animal should cure the deafness and those useful new inventions of the brazen Otacoust and the Stentorian Trumpet should be presented to us by the hand of Providence the one to admit the other to convey voices at a great distance Neither shall I enter the delicious Field of Anatomy in opening the Sense of Smelling Smelling How the little spongious Bones being portions of the Ethmoides do drink up the moisture descending from the Head lest it should be continually dropping from the Nose and serve likewise to fence off dust and impure mixtures in the Air that when the mouth is shut it may be purely distributed both to the Brain and Lungs Nor shall I treat of the Sieve-like Tablet or the Mammillary Processes which being over-moist by defluxions or rainy Seasons impairs the quickness of Sent. Nor may dwell in this Tower of Lebanon Song 7.4 where that watchful Porter has his Lodge over the mouth to give warning by sent that no unwholsome rank or unsavoury Meat may pass within the door of our Lips nor intimate further how the quickness and acuteness of this Sent may be preserved and increased by the smelling of Fragrant Flowers Arnoldus de vill nova p. Should we descend into the mouth and pry into the Instruments of Taste Tasting we might relish much of secret Mercy in the frame of those Organs I shall mention but a few Bartholin p. 365. The Palate has a Coat common to the Gullet and Stomach whence arises a great content between them that so we may preconceive what 's delectable and useful or what 's offensive and inconvenient for nourishment Arnold de vill nov f. 86. b. quod bene sapit nutrit Id. f. 66. a. For it is well observed by Arnoldus Vtiliora sunt quaecunque delect abiliùs recipiuntur That Food is most beneficial which is most delectable if we spice his Aphorism with a grain of Salt it 's true and savory Again the Tongue another Organ of this Sense has a thin porous Coat that savours may descend into its fleshy part which drinks in fumes and vapours from the predominant humours in the body Riolanus an Index to the learned Physician by its roughness whiteness or blackness of vitious and peccant qualities in time of sickness And by the way let 's remember that under the Tongue and another member not to be named Nature hath fram'd a Bridle to mind us of a memorial restraint of walking feeding and other carnal inclinations Besides the many excellent uses of this Sense we may by savors in some measure discern the vertues of vegetables and many concretes both simple and compound to the great pleasure of the expert Herbarist and Student in the Mineral Kingdom And to conclude as this Sense is impaired and mortified by the Palsie and some other offensive Diseases in the Genus nervosum so it may be quickned by hunger Arnoldus p. 16. b. and cured often by Volatile Salts and Spirits Let 's touch a little upon the Sense of Feeling Feeling whose Instrument is the Flesh not the common Spigelius p. 303. so called but that which is soft and replenish'd with nervous Fibres This Sense by the several Conjugations of the Nerves and the fine Spirits gliding through them is dispersed over the whole Body and where ever 't is lost the use of that Member perishes So terrible are those Distempers when the Nerves are obstructed by Viscous and Tartarous matter in knobs wens gouts and the like or contracted by sharp and acid Juices as in Cramps and Convulsions and Side-pains or Stitches or their Tenor relaxed as in Palsies or the Spirits within astonish'd and brought to a sudden sistency without motion as in Frights and Apoplexies which often proceed also from the inordinate use of Tobacco Coffee Henbane seed Opium Mandrake and the like either in Medicine or by negligent Customes So that we have wonderful reason to break forth into the praises of a Gracious God that so often preserves from Thousands of Deaths by his wakeful providence Act. 17.27 that very Heathens might learn to feel after him and find out some portions of the power and wisdom of his Deity To let pass the Mercurian Medicines I mean not the ordinary in Shops but such as Arnoldus Paracelsus and Rhumelius magnifie in these cases to the learned in Physick I shall only take notice of a rare Experiment of the Honourable Boyle about a blind Dutch-man Boyle of Colours p. 44. named John Vermaasen not far from Maestricht who could discern seven several Colours by the touch of his Fingers if he were fasting according to the asperity or smoothness of the surface of the Ribbands But by what means to help those Distempers that impair and obstruct this so useful a Sense I dismiss to the Learned and Experienced in the Art of Physick To proceed a little further in the admiration of God in the curious secret Frame of Humane Bodies but particularly the stupendious operations of the Bowels and the other great Wheels that move continually for the fabrick of Chyle Bloud and Spirits Oh what wonderful Cookery and Housewifery is exercised by that noble Viscus of the Stomach Tiling de fermentatione p. 58. how the Reliques of the last Meal growing acid prepares a ferment or leaven for the next whereby the milky Chyle after the first digestion is concocted and from the bowels conveyed in numerous Veins filled with that white Liquor Perquet experim Anatom 6. and dispersed through the Mesentery into a Cystis or common receptacle and thence carried up along by the Vertebrae till it s poured down into the Heart the true and genuine officine of the bloud which a little above it and before its entrance in dissections of Dogs newly kill'd appears half tinctured as I may compare it to Cream dyed with bruis'd Strawberries Hence it 's communicated to the Lungs and Liver and other parts of the body and after by circulation in the Arteries is reduced into a finer crimson texture Here I might insist to shew how incommodious to the body of Man it is to admit of frequent Phlebotomy by the loss of Bloud Dropsies Consumptions and other formidable Diseases have their Original Helmont as the learned Helmont hath observed when upon much evacuation of bloud for the Cure of Plurisies such dangerous effects have ensued It is not here a season to gather up Arguments from Scripture Deut. 12. Lev. 3.17 10 11 13.14 Gen. 9.4 shewing that the Life of Animals runs in the bloud or to manifest that it is the very Balsam of mans body for the prolongation of life And therefore
their Silver Trumpets Glory be to God in the Highest peace upon Earth and good will to Man whose grand imployment should be to study discern and applaud the Infinite Love of God in all his Mercies which in a few words shall close this Period 1. When we taste some sweetness and relish the goodness of God in every Mercy which is that Divine Symploce on David's Harp or an elegant Complication of two figures the Anaphora and Epistrophe together O give thanks to the Lord Ps 136.1 for he is good his Mercy endureth for ever That as the Name of God in our native Tongue is from good so our Souls should spell the nature of his goodness and every passage of his Providence 2. When Mercies return down to us upon the wings of Ejaculations sent up to Heaven when enlargements of heart follow straits in prayer What Divine Benefits shine out suddenly like Stars in a dark night 3. Then mercies come in love when they flow in by sucking at the Breast of a Promise for hence we know that God is in covenant with us For then the Spirit seals our interest when he who penn'd the Promise writes it in our Heart when he that breaths them warms us by them 4. When we feel supporting strength in a dark night when ready to faint feel sudden Cordials when trouble is nigh and God is nigher When the Heart fails and God enlivens Ps 73.26 A Saint may perceive it by the suddenness sweetness soul-calming quietness of a word within consonant to the word without and encourages a Saint to carry every new Emergency upon the memory of former experience in a Chariot of Love to Heaven That no sudden accident knocks at the Door of our Hearts or Houses but we as suddenly knock at the Gate of Heaven If any tentation new motion or weighty affair surprize us at unawares we instantly carry it through the Roof of our Closets into Heaven then our Spirits are in a holy calm as gracious Rebekah found it Gen. 25.22 Prov. 15.24 knowing that the sudden desires as well as the set Prayers of the Righteous shall be granted And now it 's high time to conclude this Chapter with God its whole Scope being to recount some portions of his manifold mercies and to adore him for all his bounteous beneficence to us who is the only first Spring and principal Mover and Conducter of all the Kindnesses we receive from Men being his Instruments Servants and Ordinances CHAP. IX The Anatomy of Mercies FOR the Higher Advancement of Divine Goodness in all our Enjoyments and to learn that excellent Lesson of Godly Contentment in all Estates it were expedient to peruse consider and unbowel every mercy that comes down from Heaven We have little reason to expect any when we remember our inability to merit unskilfulness to improve our ingratitude in slender returns of the least Benefits wherewith we are laden every day It 's meer free grace that showers down Kindnesses upon our barren murmuring and repining Spirits Did we but refresh our memories with the many thousands better than us who are yet below us Ps 37.1 we should never fret at the prosperity of the wicked that are above us In what a pleasant Paradise might our thoughts expatiate did we beautifie our Meditation with the prospect of the Flowry Medows interwoven with Chrystal streams and the gentle rising Hills crowned with lovely Groves more delicious than those of Woodstock when we contemplate the various numbers curious methods amazing circumstances the unexpected ends and surprizing designs in the Lawnes and close Walks of Mercy When we pore upon sins pry too curiously into afflictions grieve too smartly for imbitterments by Relations and toyle our Spirits with the losses and crosses of this Life we disquiet our selves in vaine and are too subject to mutter at every little disappointment and inconvenience We augment our troubles prolong our miseries and run upon the brink of danger to charge a Gracious God foolishly Let us then turn our eyes into the Anatomy-School of Mercies and cut open the Inwards and spend a diligent view on the curious Situations and various turnings and smaller Arteries of every Divine Favour and holding up hands with Holy Jacob Gen. 32.10 proclaim our unworthiness of the least of mercies and while we are musing what might comparatively be esteem'd the least as that we have a Being and Life and draw one Breath of Air the Original conducts us into his Courts with praise and gratefulness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Katonti I am lessened in mine own eyes before every mercy the least of which should humble and lay us low in the sight of God What am I and what is my Fathers House that the great God should cause to great faithfulness and truth to shine before us and lighten our Path to Glory The School of Salerne writes of the Body of Man Ex tricentenis decies sex quinquéque venis That it consists of 365 Veins one for each day of the Year To be sure there is not one particular Mercy but yields matter of Contemplation all the days of our Life We should cut open the Root climb the Branches smell the Flowers and taste the Fruit of Divine Love in every Mercy O rare Imployment when we ride or walk or sit or lye waking in the Night Ps 77.5 to ruminate in the days of Ancient times run over the state of the Church from Genesis to the Revelations and compare our case with any of the Saints of old and work our hearts into praises as David often begins his Psalms with mournful Elegies and concludes with joyful Extasies As the Ancient Church sprang in Aegypt past through Paran to Sinai and at length sat under their Vines in Canaan So every Saint enters his life with a Tragedy but ends in Heaven The first curiosity of each mercy lies hid in the Texture of a minute seed which though exceeding small yet by the influence of Heaven ferments and swells into a mighty Cedar Who would think that the spreading Oaks of Bashan should sleep under the shadow of a small Acorn and the sweet-sented Trees of Lebanon in a petty Berry What vast Crocodiles of Nile break Shell from a small Egg What Rivers of Fire the first little sparks of Sulfur do kindle from the bowels of Aetna What little distaste at first overthrow mighty Empires at last and what great Estates and Dominions start out of little casualties The grand Ottoman Empire arose first out of the Flight of Mahomet and Darius by the neighing of a Horse rode into the Throne of Persia One glance upon a poor captive Maid brought Esther to a Kingdom Haman to the Gallows and Israel to deliverance David brought Cheeses to the Army perhaps in the same Bag wherein he carried stones to fling into the Fore-Head of Goliah and in the same brought back his Head to Saul Nay Saul himself when seeking of Asses
We may justly wonder at the ravishing delight of those Holy Spirits wherewith they are nourished to ever-springing and soul-fustaining Extasies in their Ministration before him and studying the beautiful Volumes of his Essence Saints shall see him as distinct from all Creatures and unvailed of all Relation and yet take superlative pleasure in that all the Excellencies in their God are in him as an Everlasting Father and he that sitteth on he Throne shall dwell among them Rev. 7.15 17. and the Lamb in the midst of the Throne shall feed them in the Pastures of Glory and lead them to Living Fountains of Water In that day it 's likely they may understand more of his Eternal Counsels of Election Creation Redemption and Salvation then now and dive into the Ocean of his inscrutable Providences and walk among those Coral Rocks and Mines of Pearl that now lye hid in the great Deeps It 's no small advantage to this withering old Age of the World to reflect upon the Passages of all successive Generations both before and since the Floud both before and since the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour 'T is a Cordial to refresh our drooping Spirits in this sink and sullage of times to recal the state of the three Worlds in Peter 2 Pet 3.6 7. and to gather Maxims for direction in difficult and stormy Deluges To revolve the Prophesies and their fulfillings as to the rise growth decrease and fall of the 4 mighty Monarchies in Daniel and to observe that when they touch'd upon the Church the Apple of his Eye how then they began to totter and decline to ruine and thereby to encourage us as to the fatal Destruction of all the Adversaries that shall arise till the Glory of the New Jerusalem That all the Toes of Daniels Image shall as certainly be broken in pieces as the Head and Shoulders Dan. 2.35 the Legs as the Breast and Belly and the Statue shall become like the Chaff of the Somer thresning flowers which the Wind shall carry away and no place be found for them and the Stone that smites that Image shall become a great Mountain a Glorious Kingdom filling the whole Earth But these though such Illustrious Fruits of the Eternal Counsels of God are small things in comparison of what the Saints shall see perfectly in the Mount of Glory Then the reasons of all the motions of the Wheels in Ezekiel conveying the Chariot of Cherubims shall shine as bright as the Wheels themselves Then they shall admire at Heavens Reasons of state for all the Intricacies Perplexities and afflictions of the Church in all Ages and Nations the Foundation of the glory which then shall follow Then shall the saints behold an object which shall transform the Subject of the Spectator into the same refulgent Glory to be like him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 Ps 34.5 As they in the Psalmist were enlightned by vision and the longer they behold the optick Nerve of the Soul will advance stronger into the depth of Intellectual beauties 2 Cor. 3.18 and be changed from Glory to Glory Yea when their countenances shine beyond the Sun in his strength they shall sit down in the Kingdom of their Father at a Glorious Supper where blessed Angels shall attend the great Lord and Bridegroom of his Church They shall drink abundantly Songs 5.1 Hebr. Mat. 26.29 Rev. 2.9 be inebriated with new Wine and eat of the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God alluding to that of Eden in the State of Innocence While the Learned dispute about that Trees real existence in nature Danaei mund antiq p. 31. Ep. Augustin de civ l. 13. c. 21. Junius c. though hid from mortals in the Regions of Mesopotamia while others fancy it to be the Imputrible Cedar and that a first Ens or Balsamick Oil may be extracted from it for prolongation of Life Helmont Grembs while they argue let us determine that Saints shall then seed upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Tree of Life Is 65.22 the Lord Jesus himself when the union of our nature in and by him to the Divine shall communicate to all his Mystical Members Eternal Life not only by donation but influence The Jews affirm Joh. 10.28 that Manna tasted to the Palate of their Fathers according to every ones wish and sancy However that story stands we are certain that in this Bread of Life the very desires and wishes of Saints shall be transcended It hath not entred into the Heart of Man to conceive what is prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2.9 That Heavenly Feast will be soul-satisfying to the utmost When I awake says David i. e. in the Resurrection Morning I shall be satisfied with thy Likeness For in the Presence or Face of God will be fulness of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word used for the Exhilaration of the Spirits by Wine Ps 17.15.16.11 Judg. 9 1◠Eccl. 10.19 For infinite Grace and Glory will shine from the Light of his Countenance Rivers of Eden or pleasure flow at his Right Hand for evermore Ezek. 47.7.12 Rev. 22.1 to nourish the delicious Trees of Paradise for Food and Medicine whereby to preserve a Glorious Immortalily in the Life to come In that Triumphal Coronation and Nuptial Feast there will be satiety without cloying satisfaction connex'd with longing a continual enjoyment of the same delights without fear or sense of deprivation For its Duration shall be everlasting It shall never be sung Tibi deserit hesper Olympum No evening shadows shall darken these Olympian Mountains Saints shall never rise from that Festival Table Is 35.10 Rev. 7.17 but everlasting Joy shall set upon their heads and hearts and the everlasting Father shall wipe away all Tears yea the spring of Tears out of their Eyes There King Solomon will sit down with all his Glory in that day in the gladness of his Heart Song 3.11 There will be present the everlasting Comforter abiding with the Saints for ever Joh. 14.16 Rev. 22.17 Heb. 12.22 The Spirit faith Come as well as the Bride There will be an innumerable company of Angels Luk. 24.4 in their Gorgeous Attire of white and shining Raiment and Crowns of Gold upon their Heads Rev. 4.4 Oh what a glittering shew will stand round about the Celestial Saphire Throne Whenas one Angel in his magnificent pomp and splendour were enough to extinguish the Sun and all the bright Lamps of the inferiour Heavens Rev. 21.23 There will be the whole Congregation of the First born from Abel to Enoch from Noah to Abraham from Moses to Samuel under the waving Standards of the Tribes of Israel solacing in each others communion Lazarus talking in the Arms of Abraham and beloved John once again asking questions in the Bosom of Christ The persecuted Thessalonian Brethren shall be the Joy and Crown of Rejoycing to Holy Paul