hear the Voice of others is a scarcely audible Whisper Some have but a Drop of the Oil of Joy others in comparison a very Sea of it However this is asserted of all Believers The Joy of Faith is the chief Joy of every sort of them Of them that want it none dare to slight it None can rest or be very easy till they have it The New Nature in them panteth for it as the Hart panteth after the Water-brooks And as oft as they get from under the foresaid Obstructions §. 1. Believers do truly rejoice in their Victory over Death Here Examples shall show THAT they do so and Reasons shall satisfy WHY they must so do The Time would fail to tell of Abraham foreseeing the Day and Work of his victorious Lord and rejoicing in it Of Jacob cheering himself under heaviest Pressures with the same comforting Prospect Of Job insulting over Death and glorying in his Assurance of a blessed Resurrection Of David proclaiming that his God would not leave him in Death And that he would fear no Evil when he walk'd through the Valley of its Shadow The Heart of the Saints of the Old Testament is to be seen in the Song of Solomon Hear it uttering it self to the Lord Jesus Christ We will be glad and rejoice in thee In thee that is by whose Stripes we are healed In thee on whom the Lord hath laid the Iniquities of us all and by the Faith of whom he justifieth us In thee to whom a Portion is divided with the Great and who dost divide the Spoil with the Strong as the Evangelical Prophet speaks We will remember thy redeeming Love more than Wine I sat down under his Shadow with great Delight and his Fruit was sweet to my Taste Consult with these Manifesto's the Psalms and Songs of his Father David It shall appear that the Church was dancing for Joy before the Day brake and the Shadows flew away and the Sun of Righteousness arose with the Light and Glory of the New Testament Under which who needs to be told what a Spirit of Joy was presently poured out Glad Tidings of great Joy the heavenly Heralds call'd the Gospel Where-ever it comes a Torrent of Joy follows it Gladly it is received at its first Publication though with the loss of all things adventured Philip preaches it at Samaria and there is great Joy in all the City We glory in Tribulations We rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory We are more than Conquerours We are always confident and willing rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. We are always rejoycing We rejoice in the Hope of the Glory of God Thus speak the Apostles as well of their Converts as of Themselves And what saith Ecclesiastical History of the Ages ever since The same Spirit of Joy and Gladness hath been in all times of the Church They that have loved the Lord Jesus have rejoiced in him And in his Name have wished for Death have welcomed it and have been unterrified with its most ghastly Shapes and Pomps Polycarp desires his Executioners to let him shew them that he could burn at a Stake without being tied to it Lucius thanketh a barbarous Judg for the Favour of sending him to his God and Father Cyprian thanks God for his Goal-delivery by Death Hilarion cries Out of this Body O my Soul What is there any thing for thee to fear For thee an old Servant of Christ But to come nigher our own days Cranmer thrusts his Right-hand into the Fire to be revenged on it for subscribing a Damned Scroll as he called it for fear of Death Think you that I have not learned to die said Adam Damlip Be at my burning you shall see and say There 's a Souldier of Christ said Kirby Ridley called his Death his Wedding And Latimer told the Bishop going before him to the Stake he would have after him as fast as he could And when Fire was put to him with a smiling Face he uttered these Words God is faithful who doth not suffer us to be tempted above our Strength Bainam in the Fire professed he felt no more Pain than on a Bed of Down Death in the most hideous Shapes hath been thus triumphed over Clouds of Instances are to be read even in English Books And do we not know Multitudes of surviving Friends and Neighbours whom we discern to be of the Mind of the Martyr Adam Wallack If Death be ready we are ready Blessed be God this Age is not so forsaken by him but that there are Multitudes to whom Christ's Word is verified Your Heart shall rejoice and your Joy shall no Man take from you Is it yet with any of you a hard Saying which holy Hildersam hath written He that doth not desire and strive to be willing to die he hath cause to suspect that there is no true saving Grace in him Or that harmonious Passage of great Calvin on Hebrews 2.14 He that is not able to quiet his Heart in holy Contempt of Death let him know that he hath made but little progress in the Faith of Christ For as excessive Fear of Death ariseth from Ignorance of the Grace of Christ so it is a sure Sign of Vnbelief Or that of Dr. Hammond on 1 Tim. 1.15 If the Conversion of a Sinner be not accompanied with unwonted Joy and Sorrow a Godly Sense of past Distress and a Godly Triumph for his Delivery I counsel not to Distrust but to Fear to a solicitous though not a suspicious Trembling Let me add one more of Mr. Ward of Ipswich If we had but half the Strength of St. Paul 's Faith or Life of his Hope or Fore-imaginations which he had of his future Felicity we could not but have the same Desires and Longings for our Fruition of them I think few Truths to be more evident But it 's possible that these following Reasons may add to its Evidence These Reasons I give why Believers must needs rejoice in their Victory over Death First Believers are Men And it is the Nature of Man to rejoice in his most desired Good when he knows it to be obtained Victory over Death is certainly the most desired and the obtained Good of Believers And ordinarily they do know themselves to have obtained it through Christ their Lord. For the Law of Grace through Faith they do understand Their own Acts of Grace by Sense they do perceive And their State of Grace by Reason they do infer And the Spirit which is of God they do receive whereby they know the things which are freely given them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 What our Saviour in his days on Earth said to the Ears of some the Holy Ghost saith now to Believers Hearts Be of good chear your Sins are forgiven Witnessing with their Spirits that they are the Children of God Rom. 8.16 Not only enlightning their Minds to see the Truth of their Graces and thence to conclude themselves in a
on the Hole of that Asp and boldly put its Hand on that Cockatrice's Den what Shame does it thereto If it doth not joy in the Lord and rejoice in the God of its Salvation what Honour doth it pay him How makes it to be seen either that Death is disarmed or that it was Christ who did take away its two-edged Sword That of worst Loss it is made our great Gain or that Christ was he who so blessedly converted it Wherefore Believers must not be thought to put on Righteousness or to deserve the Name of just Men but to be most unlike to their righteous Lord who loveth Righteousness if they are taken for Men void of David's Resolution I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live I will sing Praise to my God while I have my Being Fourthly Believers are crowned Heads Men of Honour Kings and Priests to God and it is their Honour to rejoice and triumph over Death Fight is not honourable without Victory nor Victory without Triumph Believers fight the good Fight of Faith and overcome by the Blood of the Lamb but without the Joy and Triumph of Faith they appear but as Sampson when shaven like any other Man Joy is their sensible and visible Principality the conspicuous Crown of their Glory take away that and they are Kings deprived of their Crowns Priests unadorned with their holy Garments for Beauty and for Glory inglorious and unlike themselves Eye-sores and offensive to him that made them Kings and Priests and in the World's Eyes the vilest Abjects yea many an one becomes a Magor-missabib a Terror to himself and all about him The Israelites when their Ornaments were off were naked to their shame Believers are so when their Joy ceaseth If there come in among them those that are Unlearned or Unbelievers they cannot think God to be in them of a Truth or see what they are or do more than others Certain it is that God doth not willingly grieve them and the World and Devil cannot take away their Joy from them till they themselves do cast it away Divine Grace fails not to minister Comfort to them while they keep in the way of Comfort So that their Joy never dies but when they kill it their Honour is not laid in the Dust but by their own Hands Wherefore How unworthy a Judgment must we make of Believers if we take them for a Generation so careless of their Honour yea such Murderers of it for they are no less who cast away the joyful Confidence and Hope which keeps them from appearing of all Men the most miserable The Garment of Praise that can very much distinguish between God's Heirs and Satan's Slaves Fifthly Believers are Lovers of true Pleasures and it is their only Pleasure to joy and triumph in Christ Jesus and in God through him Pleasure is the Life of Life the End of Action and the Strength of Agents unto it Carnal Men do in all things pursue carnal Pleasures and spiritual Men spiritual ones Pleasure is the Spring of Action in both and in both Joy is Strength and Sorrow lays amort Heaviness in the Heart of a Man boweth it down Like a Moth in a Garment it bites asunder its Strings and its Strength insomuch that the Counsels and Determinations of disconsolate Souls are faint and tottering like the Motions of wounded Bodies But merry Hearts do good like Medicines they prevent and remove Indispositions they are also continual Feasts and preserve Spirits Salt and Sawce they are to sweeten all things in Peace and as Drums and Trumpets they inspire Courage in War Wherefore the Love of Action draws with it the Love of Joy And inseparable are the Desires of holy Life and holy Mirth Mirth and Joy as the Water of Aesculapius his Well was feigned to be uncapable of Putrefaction But what Joy is so save Joy in the Salvation of the Lord All others corporal and intellectual are vanishing in themselves and without this are delusive and corruptive A Nature they have that is clogging and such as makes Variety needful to keep out Loathing Believers do see this and therefore despise the Cucumbers and Melons which they did eat freely in their dark Egyptian State Manna they must have now or they die a Bread and a Joy that the World knows not of one in a higher Object and perfect without defect perpetual without Decay wherein all Desires may be satisfied and all Wants be supplied Now What Charity which thinketh no Evil can think Believers to be a Number of bewitched Creatures which they must be above any heard of upon this Earth if having a Desire of Joy as of Life and having no other Joy or at least none that they can exercise without this of their Victory by Christ they do not constantly rejoice herein Is it credible that the New Creature is one that is averse from his sole Pleasure negligent of what is dear to it as its Life Sixthly Believers are the Lights of the World and Salt of the Earth and it is their capital Service to the Church and World to triumph over Death The Work of converting confirming and comforting Souls is the whole Business of a Minister but it is the true Business of every Believer Doing Good unto all Men is the Duty of all and the Practice of all that be truly good It is sure that all such do desire and endeavour in their places to make others good and accordingly have the honourable Names given them in the Word which speak them to be very useful in the World Touching the Means of their Usefulness it is known even to a Proverb that Precepts do far less avail than Examples and of Examples of holy Life it needs not to be said how incomparably most beneficial those are which are most resplendent with Divine Consolation How much more than others these do attract and win the Tractable shame and silence the Incorrigible quicken the supine and slothful Christian strengthen the weak and wavering and solace all These it is confessed do singularly lift up the Hands that hang down and the feeble Knees and keep what is lame from being turned out of the way and heal it But it is to be awfully thought on what I add Unspeakable are the sad Effects and Consequences of holy Mens sad and utterly comfortless Walk Weak Christians see it and call in question the Truth of Christianity Scorners do open wide their Mouth Ignorant Wanderers from the way of Truth are hardened against it The Lovers of God are grieved And till such time as good Mens Sackcloth is put off and they become girded with Gladness their Light hardly sends forth any convincing or converting Beams Their Salt emits little piercing and purifying Savour If therefore the Love of God or Love of Men moveth them Believers must watch and pray for the Voice of Joy and Gladness without which as their own Souls be disquieted others are dismayed and the Ways of their God are
of these great Confirmations that I hope with assured Confidence was the Voice of my beloved God and Master yea as indeed it had been with an audible Voice said I will do for thee even exceeding abundantly c. I will surely give thee a Deliverance that shall make thee glad above all thy Sorrows past I do remember thy Prayers and Groans oft in this Walk and though I was only a Witness of them then yet now as I have seen in secret so will I reward thee openly The time is now come and it shall linger no more rejoice and be glad O my Prisoner of Hope for the Time of thy Release is come I remember thy Kindness and know thy Love be still and know that I am God I know thy Distress and that thy Straits now draw near but fear not I will take care of thee and the greater the Extremity be the greater Testimony thou givest to me c. This Thursday Evening the 17th of Aug. when I came in with some Challenges I got first great Access to my dear God in Confession and the sense of his Peace which was so lively and sweet as is unexpressible After I found some sweet renewing of former Confirmations with Power impressed on me thus 1. As your latter Works have exceeded your former so shall your latter Days also 2. As you have not made haste until my time so this is the time I have watched for when you are now so low to make my Power known 3. And do you fear to trust me Are the Consolations of God small or have they ever failed you 4. You know not my Child what I am to do for you and how near it is c. After I went down this last Night what Confirmation had I from God further And now this Morning Aug. 18. I had some lively Exercise of the same nature as before c. And now this Saturday Aug. 19. how clear an Evidence did God himself give me of the Evidence of the Work of Grace in my Soul in some most lively Actings thereof so as to rejoice in him as my alone Portion so as to say He only is my Salvation and my Defence my All in whom I desire to triumph and boast And therewith what a sweet Inbreaking followed from himself when he said thus to my Soul I will deliver you in a Way you know not and when all Means fail then is the Time I chuse I know thou hast none to look to but me It is not yours to see now But blessed are they that believe for there shall be a Performance of things promised Dost thou see the Pledges I have given you and the Conveyance of them with such Sealings and Embracements of my Love Remember the Text that Hope makes not ashamed because the Love of God is shed abroad in thy Heart Thou hast been long trading with the Talent of the Cross for some Fruit unto me But now I will also give thee a Talent of Comfort and put it in trust under thy Hand c. And O how remarkable hath this Evening been and Close of this Week which I may call a most solemn Confirming Week And now in its close had I most near and sweet Access to my dear God in Prayer And I hope I may own these immediate Confirmations from himself As 1. What shall be done to the Man whom the King delighteth to honour to whom my Honour and Service hath been dear 2. Have I said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee and can I leave thee now when thou hast most need of me and when all Refuge faileth 3. I know thou art at the hardest Part of that Lesson to believe in Hope against Hope but fear not I am with thee which in an extraordinary Way was then spoken and though thou see not what thy Outgate shall be leave that to me 4. And what a marvellous and sweet Confirmation did the Lord give to his poor Servant as I came down Return unto thy Rest and be still Which did so deeply surprise and astonish as answering so directly to what that Day had been my Exercise what he would do with my Hope which seemed to be against Hope This was the giving me a new Text to answer what I had long been upon c. He spent his Days and Years after this Manner And in order to have the Year rightly carried on it was we find his Custom from the 15th or 16th Year of his Age to his last to set a-part the first Day of every Year in renewing his Covenant with God in a new Self-surrender and Dedication of himself to him or if interrupted the first Day then to take the first convenient Day following We cannot give any Account of the Manner of his doing this for the first Years of his Life but we may guess what they have been by the few Instances following 1691. It is in the Entry of this new Year as I have done now for many Years past most solemnly that I desire to renew again my personal Engaging of my self to the Lord my God and for him and with my whole Heart and Desire to enter my self into his Service and take on his blessed Yoke and humbly to lay claim embrace and take him O Him to be my God alone my All my Light and my Salvation my Shield and exceeding great Reward Whom have I in Heaven but thee O Lord or in the Earth whom do I desire besides thee And now under thy blessed Hand my Soul desires and does here testify my Trusting my self and securing my whole Interest my Credit my Conduct my Comfort my Assistance my Thorow-bearing and my poor Children and to leave my self herein on the gracious Hand of my dearest Lord whilst I am within time As I write this the 2d Day of Jan. 1691. R. Fleming 1692. It is in the Entry and first Day of this new Year that I desire here as formerly to enter in this hidden Record a new Surrender and Offering of my self to my dearest Lord and Master who hath been wonderfully tender and gracious to me and hath brought me by his immediate Conduct through the Days and Years of my Pilgrimage past hath still cared for his poor Thing and given more singular Mercies and Evidences of Respect than to many else and now as still formerly hath taken me through this last Year with singular Evidences of his Presence and Assistance And as I trusted my self to my Lord so hath he graciously answered for which and his special Grace hitherto I desire to insert this Witness of my Soul's blessing the Lord my God And now I do here with my full and joyful Consent testify my giving up my self again to the Lord and to his Work and Service here and where-ever he shall call me with desire to consecrate my old Age to my God and the Guide of my Youth I love my Master and his Service and let my Ears be nailed to the Posts
of his Door as one that would not go free from that blessed Yoke and Service and lays in Hope the whole Assistance hereof on his Grace and Help And how in so extraordinary a Case as is alone to my Lord I desire to witness and renew the same here with my humble and intire Reliance on him who is my Trust from my Youth to this day my Shield and exceeding great Reward To him I commit my Self my Ways my Work and Service which with my Soul's Desire I offer to my Lord In whose Hand I desire to secure my Credit for the Gospel's sake my Comfort and Enlargement in this Day of deep Trouble and Anguish together with my poor Children and the whole Interest of my Family and Concerns desiring to put my self with humble Confidence and all that is dear to me under his Care and Conduct O my Soul bless thou the Lord This I write the 1st of Jan. 1692. R. Fleming My Lord and my God 1694. It is in the first Day and Monday of this new Year 1694. that as I have formerly through most of my Life past so now do desire to renew my Dedication and Engagements to the Lord my God and to join in the same Witness with what herein hath been formerly with my whole Heart and Desire and to offer unto my dearest Lord Praise in remembrance of what he hath been through the Year past and in the whole of my Life whose gracious tender Conduct hath been so wonderful and well hast thou my Lord dealt with thy Servant according to thy Word in all hath befallen me And as my Soul does now move and betake my self alone to him as my own God my Father my Redeemer and blessed Comforter and my only All so do I hereby witness the settling of my Trust my Hope and Reliances alone upon him for this new Year or what Time of my Life may yet remain with earnest Desire to enter yet again and continue in his Service even in that delightful Service of my dearest Lord and Master And now I do again by a new Surrender witness my entire Commitment of my self my poor Children my Credit for the Gospel my Conduct and Comfort in so extraordinary a Juncture to my dearest Lord to his gracious and compassionate Care and Providence together with my Works and any small Design to serve him and my Generation And I do intreat new Supplies of his Grace and Strength to secure and make his poor Servant if it were his blessed Will yet more abundantly forth-coming to him And with hope of Acceptance I write this Jan. 1 1694. R. Fleming Post tenebras spero Lucem At another time thus floweth his sacred Pen O my Soul never forget this solemn Wednesday Night nor the last Monday Night what solemn Visits I had from my Lord after so serious a Work of Trial about the Warrant of my Hope and Petition for the heightning of my Faith and sealing Testimony of his Spirit In how marvellous a Way did my dearest Lord I hope bear Evidence to the great Assurance he had formerly given me c. O let my Soul bless and adore the Lord for this sweet and marvellous Visit this Monday Night which my dearest Lord I hope hath given his poor Servant when so near sinking and I hope said to my Soul Fear not I forget you not for I have graven you on the Palms of my Hands c. I look on thee with Delight and the Time is come when I will give thee an Account of thy Prayers and Tears of thy many Groans and long On-waiting Have I spoken and will I not do it c. O thou afflicted tossed with Tempests in an acceptable Time have I heard thee Trust thou in the Lord for I will make thee a Sign to this Generation c. I am leading thee right and thy Strength is to sit still Is the Lord's Hand shortned that it cannot save c. O how shall I entertain this marvellous Day and Appearance of my dearest Lord to his poor Servant O wonderful Condescension this Morning after so sweet an Evening before that he should please to give so near an Approach of himself O I hope it was his Voice I am come I am surely come my Servant in the fourth Watch of the Night to bring forth my Prisoner and set him at liberty who hath stay'd so long for me c. I embrace you as an Over-comer rejoice for great is your Reward in Heaven I am now entering thee on a Day of rejoycing Be not doubtful it is I who comforts thee c. And when I said O how shall I manage such a wonderful Enlargement how discernably was it returned I hope from himself I will manage it for thee Thou hast stayed for me but thou hast got the Victory and the Day shall be thine and thou shalt know what I have been doing with thee and for thee O let me never forget the 25th of Decemb. at Night when after 60 Years under the Lord 's special Conduct he gave me so sweet and remarkable a Visit never to be forgotten O what a Night was it when I went home pressed to sing the 103d Psalm c. But it were endless to name Passages of this nature since almost every Day was a Communion-day between God and him And how remarkably God hath answered his Prayers may easily be inferred from hence One Instance to this Purpose we may see in his Epistolary Discourse Page 68. of a Minister who had a violent Collick immediately taken off upon his praying to God for that End It is known to be himself he speaks of there though he expresses it Modestly in the Third Person I shall now present a few Things which he sets down in Writing by themselves under this Title A short Index of some of the great Appearances of the Lord in the Dispensations of his Providence to his poor Servant c. And although the Brevity and Obscurity of the Hints must needs leave us in the dark as to the full Meaning of most of them as being written only for his own Memory as the Title shews yet they will serve to shew us the particular Care of his Great Master over this his faithful and eminent Servant They are the Remarks which he calls the Appearances of the Lord towards him in his own Words 1. How near I was brought to Death in my Infancy given over yea and esteem'd a Burden to my Friends so as my Death was made desirable to them I being as the Refuse of my Father's Children yet even then I was God's Choice and in a most singular way restored 2. That remarkable Deliverance on receiving a Blow by a Club when a Child which was so near my Eye as endangered both my Sight and Life 3. That strange and extraordinary Impression I had of an audible Voice in the Church at Night when being a Child I had got up to the Pulpit calling to me to make haste
c. 4. That I of all my Father's Sons being four should be spared when the other three were so promising and desireable above me and should thus come to be the only Male-heir surviving of such a Stock 5. That solemn and memorable Day of the Communion at the Gray-Friars in the Entry of the Year 1648. where I had so extraordinary a Sense of the Lord's Presence yea whence I can date the first sealing Evidence of my Conversion now 40 Years past 6. The Lord 's gracious and signal Preservation and Deliverance given me at Dunbar-Fight 7. Those solemn Times and near Approaches of the Lord to my Soul the first at the Elve when I went there and the other a little after my Eather's Death in the High-study 8. That Scripture Acts 12. was by an observable Providence given to be my first Text and how I was unexpectedly and by a surprizal engaged therein 9. Those two great Deliverances at Sea in going to Dundee the first time in Company with the Duke of Lauderdale the other time in Company with Mr. Andrew Grey of Glasgow 10. That extraordinary Dream and marvellous Vision I had twice repeated with the unexpressible Joy after the same 11. Those memorable Impressions and Presages about my Health when it seemed hopeless at my first Entry upon the Ministry and the strange Expression of Mr. Simpson to that purpose at New-mills 12. The Lord 's immediate and wonderful Appearance for me in my first Entry upon the Ministry with that extraordinary Storm on the Day of my Ordination and the amazing Assault which followed the same in what befel wherein Satan's immediate Appearance against me was so visible 13. The great and conspicuous Seal given to my Ministry from the Lord in the Conversion of several Persons with that marvellous Power which then accompanied the Word on the Hearts of the People 14. That signal Appearance of the Lord and his marvellous Condescendence in my Marriage-lot and in the whole Conduct of the same 15. My Deliverance from so eminent Hazard of my Life in my Fall from my Horse at Kilmarnock 16. The Lord 's marvellous Assistance and Countenance at the two Communions of Cathcart and Dillop with that great Enlargement I had at the last of these Places at the last Table 17. That as my Entry to my Charge was with so bright a Sun-shine so no less did the Lord appear at my parting from that Place wherein all things did meet in a remarkable Juncture to make the same both honourable and comforting 18. The Lord 's special Providence as to my outward Lot after my Removal thence in many Instances that way 19. His gracious sparing my dear Wife so long when her Life was in such Hazard in the Years 65 and 72. 20. The Preservation I had in going over to Fife in the Year 72 with the solemn Times I got there 21. That Dream at Bonssy wherein I got such express Warning as to my Wife's Removal with the Lord 's marvellous Appearance and Presence with me the Thursday after at St. Johnstown 22. That extraordinary Warning I got again of my dear Wife's Death and of the Manner of it at London in the Year 1674. 23. Those two remarkable Scripture-places given me at Westnisbet in my return from London 1674 viz. that in Rom. 4. in the Forenoon and that in 115 Psalm in the Afternoon 24. Those great and signal Confirmations given me at my Wife's Death And that extraordinary Voice so distinct and clear which I had a few Nights after her Death 25. Those special Confirmations given me at my first leaving my Country at Westnisbet Ridsdale Stanton and the first at Sea from the Sheils 26. Those solemn Passages to confirm my Faith from Heb. 11. and Exod. 33. and at other times at London and the last Night there before I went away 27. Those extraordinary and signal Times I had at my first entry at Rotterdam 28. Those two observeable Providences which did occur to me at Woerden and about the Business of William Mader 29. The marvellous Sign given me of the State of my Family in what happened as to sudden withering of the Tree and its extraordinary reviving again at my first entry into my first House in Rotterdam 30. The great Deliverance from Fire in the High-street 31. The special Providence in preserving my Son from perishing in the Water 32. The good Providence in returning my Diary after it had been long lost 33. That surprising Relief when cited by the Council of Scotland to appear with that sweet Resignation to the Lord which I had then under so pungent a Trial. 34. The remarkable Event of a Warning I was forced to give that some present should be called away by Death before the next Lord's-day 35. The Lord 's immediate supporting under a long Series of pungent Trials in this Place by a Series of Wonders I may truly say for which I am obliged in a singular Way to set up my Ebenezer that hitherto hath the Lord helped 36. The remarkable Appearance of the Lord with me which I omitted in its place in that strange Providence relating to Mr. Moneyenny's Death at Preston-pans 37. That most solemn Providence and Wonder of my Life my Fall under the York Coach in Aug. 1674. when the great Wheel went over my Leg so as I could feel it pressing me without hurting far less breaking my Leg as if it had been carried thus over in a just Poize to let me see how Providence watched over me c. 38. The Comfort God gave me in my Children and those extraordinary Confirmations I got from God upon the Death of those sweet Children whom God removed from me to himself Now go Reader go and do thou likewise For Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Mat. 24.26 〈…〉 to the Memory 〈…〉 Reverend and Worthy Mr … E RT FLEMING who de … sed July 25 1694. By a Friend My Pen must be like to an Angel's Quill And my weak Parts must equalize my Will Should I presume him fully to set forth Though in rude Characters or draw his Worth Extol him as you please yet still you shall Remaining find behind This is not All. Renowned Men and righteous are this Day O sad Prognostick quickly pluckt away Rehold how fast he 's gone as if he griev'd Enjoying of his Life whilst here he liv'd Rare Fruit's soon pluckt and Souls to Ripeness grown Too good for Earth are snatcht up to the Throne Free and unbiass'd for the Truth he stood Liv'd all he knew knew all that 's understood Each Vertue in him did so equal dwell Men hardly could perceive which did excel In endless Bliss he 's now whilst mournful I Nothing can think but how he pierc'd the Sky G'ot into Heaven and seem'd amaz'd to cry Reviewing O Behold Eternity's Rich Throne From Living Earthly Mounted I'm Now Gone Vivacem nolo Dolorem Sed memor aeterno tempore vivat Amor FINIS