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
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
Musick-meetings publick Shows or other vain and sinful Pastimes I have been present at either to please my self or to gratify others On the contrary What would I now give or rather What would I not give to have spent the greatest part of those precious Hours in private Prayer and Meditation And the expence of all in casting my Bread upon the Waters and administring to the Necessities of the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless As for Stage-plays not to mention other vain and unnecessary Divertisements I am inclined to believe that the Original intent of them was to applaud Vertuous Actions and to discountenance Vitious Livers But I appeal to all sober Persons whether the Practice of this last Age has not produced contrary effects And I crave leave to ask one short Question of young Gentlemen and Ladies and their Inferiours of both Sexes What satisfaction they hope to have when they come to lie on their sick or Death-beds none of them knowing how soon they may receive the fatal Summons for having been the Auditors and Spectators of so many Prophane and and Obscene Plays Or to have read so many vain and idle Romances where they learn little else than to make or receive unlawful Courtships or to gain such a kind of Knowledge as their Mother Eve got by eating the Forbidden Fruit or to be instructed in those Intregues which otherwise its possible they had never known or thought of all their lives I would also demand of the Authors and Actors of some certain Plays with what face they can ask of God from day to day a Blessing upon their Labours and Endeavours Or what Account they will one day give at the Bar of his Tribunal for having been the unhappy Instruments of corrupting and debauching so many hopeful Persons of both Sexes who otherwise might have been eminent Examples of Piety and Godliness in their several Generations Prayer And I beseech God Almighty of His infinite Goodness and Mercy to incline the Hearts of all those Writers and Readers Authors and Actors Auditors and Spectators while they have Time and Opportunities to make suitable and seasonable Reflections I am going But O blessed Redeemer How shall I ever find the way or get to my Journeys end with safety unless Thou be pleased to send some Guardian Angel as well to lead and guide as to aid and assist me When I stumble in rugged and uneven Ways to hold me up in his Arms. When I turn aside into crooked and by-paths to pull me back by force When I am near a Pit or Precipice to give me a friendly Item and timely notice When I am dull and heavy and grow slothful in the performance of my Duty to stir up and awaken me When I am Hungry and Thirsty as Travellers are led by their Guides into their Oberges for a Viaticum and there refresh themselves to conduct me to thine House and holy Place there to sit down at thine own Table and be fed with the true Bread which came down from Heaven and to drink of the Fruit of the true Vine and the Water of Life of which whoever once drinks shall never thirst again Parlate Parlate i cadaveri sepolti When I am assaulted with Enemies from without or from within whether they be my own private Lusts and Passions or whether they be Principalities or Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and spiritual Wickednesses in high Places those invisible Enemies of mighty Power and perfect knowledge of wonderful Subtilty and long Experience then gracious Father let me be furnished with all sorts of spiritual Armour the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit That so as a valiant Souldier I may sight under thy Banner and be able to resist all the Wiles Assaults and fiery Darts of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits and to subdue and bring under my own unruly Lusts and Passions When I meet with Troubles and Afflictions Crosses and Disappointments Wrongs and Injuries let me be armed with such a measure of Humility Meekness Long-suffering Patience and Equanimity as may bear me up through all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and during my earthly Pilgrimage When I fall into Fainting-Fits through Age and Bodily Distempers let thy blessed Spirit administer to me such comfortable Cordials as may support my drooping Spirits Reflection Why then art thou cast down so often O my Soul And why for the Trifles of Mortality art thou so disquieted within me Trust still in God who will never leave nor forsake thee For sure I am that I shall yet praise Him for His loving Kindness and tender Mercies to me the least and meanest of all his Servants When I draw nigh to my last Agonies then blessed Lord O then be pleased of thy infinite Mercy and Goodness to chain up that great Enemy of Souls and Prince of Darkness with all his Infernal Legions who always make their most furious and fierce Assaults upon poor departing Souls that so neither Height nor Depth nor Things present nor Things to come may ever be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord or make me let go my hold or quit my hope of Eternal Life and Happiness In the last and critical Moment of my departure out of this troublesome World let my Soul be safely conveyed by some Guardian Angel to the place appointed for the Spirits of God's Elect there to rest with chearfulness and to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with this Body of mine at the Resurrection when it shall be raised out of the Dust with Immortality and Incorruption And then let both Soul and Body thus united be received into that Coelestial Paradise where being very far from imitating the rebuked Ambition of Zebedee's two Children to be the meanest and lowest of all the Redeemed and happy Individuals of Human Race is the height of my Ambition and the utmost of my Desires A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Ordinary Week-Days LET now the Words of our Mouths and the Meditations of our Hearts find Grace and Favour with Thee O LORD our Strength and our Redeemer Almighty GOD and most merciful FATHER who of thy wonted Goodness and Mercy hast protected and preserved us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which otherwise might have befallen us and safely brought us to the Light of another Day defend us we pray Thee in the same with thy mighty Power and so prevent us with thy gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our Works begun continued and ended in Thee we may ever seek thy HONOUR and GLORY and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through JESUS CHRIST our blessed LORD and SAVIOUR For whose SAKE We humbly pray Thee to blot out of thy Remembrance all our past Sins and Provocations and to work in our Hearts a godly Sorrow and a sincere
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 ministering-Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from
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
the help of either Weight or Springs for the space of Nine Hundred sixty and nine Years which time would certainly wear out the Wheels and Pinions of a great many Brass and Iron Clocks If there were but room enough in so small a Treatise there are yet behind many and great Wonders of the Almighty Maker's Mechany and Contrivance relating to Motion and Sense According to that small Skill I formerly had in Opticks it was my Opinion with submission to better Judgments that the Figure and Colour or Colours of a visible Object however situated or in what posture soever it be placed make the Base of an imaginary Cone composed of infinite visical Rays which is conveyed in an instant through a Lucid Medium to the Superficies of every Beholders Eye where a small section of the Apex of that Cone is refracted by the several Waters and Tunicks and then the Figure of the said Object being inverted by the Humor Chrystallinus is in the same posture lodged in the Tunica Retina from whence it is conveyed into the common Sensory Again by those Experiments I have heretofore made in Acousticks I then judged that different Percussions of the Air do beget infinite spherical Figures of Aereal Motions as a Stone thrown into the midst of a Pool of standing Water or which is much more curious a stroak with a Pin's head upon the supersicies of a long Vessel of Quick-silver begets in the first infinite numbers of Circles or in the last infinite Arches which spread themselves every way till they meet with some harder Body that makes resistance which let us suppose to be a Man's Ear in the Cavity of which the aforesaid Figures of Aereal Motions suffer several Reverberations and then make a Percussion upon the Tympanum or Drum which is a Nervous and almost pellucid Membrane and of most exquisite Sense and from thence are conveyed into the Brain And by the help of these and other Experiments I then made which were many Years since and the Blessing of God upon my Endeavours I found out the Tubastentero-phonica or Speaking-Trumpet and improved that Invention so far as to make humane Voice both audible and intelligible either in plain Words and Sentences or else in Cypher for conveighing Secrets into or out of besieged Places over the heads of their Enemies or for one Ship to speak to another at the distance of three English Miles or thereabouts and had I not received some Discouragement which then I did not think I deserved I did not doubt but to have improved it to the distance of eight nine or ten Miles I did likewise at the same time contrive and cause to be made by my Directions a very large Otocoustacon one end whereof being laid to my Ear in a still Evening in the middle of St. Jame's Park brought into it as I thought innumerable Sounds of Coach and Cart-wheels and humane Voices in and throughout all the Streets as well those of Westminster St. James's and Pickadilly as the others between White-hall and London-Bridge but those Sounds being often confused and those that were nearer drowning those which were more remote and sometimes offending the Ear by the sharpness of the noise not to mention the large Dimensions and great Weight of such Instruments I then desisted from my making any further Experiments However some years since having received several Visits in the behalf of several deaf Persons and believing that it might be an acceptable Service to all Mankind I determined to proceed not doubting to contrive such a Machine as would have taken a just Gage or Measure of the Degrees of any Persons deafness and likewise to invent another small Instrument to hang upon the Ear as an Ornament whereby those Degrees of Deafness should have been in a great measure or altogether restored had it not pleased Almighty GOD in the interim to visit me with Blindness But now in all the aforementioned Operations how the Soul of Man by the help of the Brain which is the general Organ of Sense perceives and judges Sensations of all sentient parts and out of it as out of a Fountain by the help of eight or ten pair of Nerves whose Origin is derived from the Medulla-substance of the Brain it communicateth the Animal Spirits being first elaborated to all the sentient parts of the Body and thereby endows them with the faculty of performing Animal Actions For example how and in what mysterious manner the Soul sends out the Animal Spirits so many several ways to receive in and judge of the Figures and Colours of so many hundred Objects in one Minutes space and so many different Sounds of Vocal and Instrumental Musick within the compass and measure of a Semibref and that without confounding visual Rays or Aereal Percussions which must of necessity very often interfere with each other or what manner of Creatures those Animal Spirits are which have never yet been discerned by the sharpest Eye or best Glasses Let the ablest Philosopher in the World tell me otherwise than by the empty Terms of Anatomy Et erit mihi magnus Apollo And this is all I have here room to treat of relating to Sense There is yet something that very well deserves to be taken notice of concerning The Motion of the Limbs and their great force in lifting up thrusting from them or pulling to them great weights with the nimble Motion of all the Parts some of those Operations agreeing with and others confounding our ordinary Doctrine of Staticks I know very well That a pound weight suspended at one end of an iron Rod placed horizontally at six foot distance from its Fulcrum or perpendicular Axis equiponderates a Weight of six pounds suspended at the other end of the said iron Rod at one foot distance from the said Fulcrum or Axis the length of one foot of that Rod on the one side of the Axis being first made equal in Weight to the aforesaid length of six foot of the same Rod on the other side of the Axis And if the aforesaid Weight of six pound be raised two Inches in perpendicular height by the force of the said one pound with some small addition that one pound weight must of necessity descend Twelve Inches or one Foot Likewise I am not ignorant that if a Globular weight of six pound be suspended at one end of an Iron Rod of six foot in length hanging perpendicularly upon a small Pin or Joint the force of two pound weight being fastned by a Pack-thread to the Center of Gravity of that Globular weight and conveniently placed so as to move up and down over a Pulley will heave up that Globular weight a proportional part of the said Rod being first equiponderated to the perpendicular height of two foot Again the weight of four pound applied in the same manner will heave up the said Globular weight to the perpendicular height of four foot and the force of six pound Weight will heave it up
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
did immediately prove on both his and their Testimony to be Divine And consequently were an absolute Confirmation of our Saviour's being the true Messias and sent by God himself from Heaven for the Redemption of lost sinners and opening the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers This Argument of Miracles was urged by Christ himself who certainly knew best the force of it against the Scribes Pharisees and unbeliving Jewes And he did acknowledge that if he had not done those things which no other Man on Earth could do they might have had a fair excuse for their Unbelief In the time of Tiberius says Josephus a Jew by Nation and of a contrary Profession and wrote his History about 86 years after Christ There was one Jesus a wise Man if it be lawfull to call him a Man who was a Worker of great Miracles and a teacher of such as love the Truth and had many as well Jews as Gentiles who clove unto him This was Christ and when Pilate upon his being accused by the Men of our Nation bad sentenced him to be Crucified yet did not they who had first loved him forsake him for he appeared to them the Third Day alive again according to what the Prophets divinely inspired had foretold concerning him As they had done an innumerable number of very strange things besides and even to this day both the Names and sort of Persons called Christians so named from him do remain To which Attestation of Josephus were it necessary might be added great numbers of Testimonies from ancient Writers I must needs acknowledge That our blessed Saviour's Apostles though the greatest part of them were poor 〈◊〉 men of low Birth small Fortune and mean Education were by the Spirit of God endued with the wonderful Gift of speaking strange Languages and other miraculous Powers that so they might be better enabled to disperse the Gospel into many remote Countries as they afterwards did Namely St. Peter in Sicily Britain and Africa as likewise at Antioch and Rome St. Andrew in Galatia Bithinia and all along the Euxine Sea St. James in Spain Britain and Ireland St. John in Asia and other parts of the East St. Bartholomew in India St. Thomas among the Parthians Medes Persians Carmans Hircans Bachtrians the Asians Ethiopians and Indians Simon the Zelot in Egypt Syrene and Africk St. Jude in the Cities of Arabia St. Matthias in Cappadocia St. Mark in Alexandria And though St. James the Just did stay at Jerusalem yet probably he might have some Converts of almost all Nations who frequently resorted to that City Parthians Medes and Elamites Dwellers in Mesopotamia Cappadocia Pontus Asia and divers other places To all these may be very well added St. Paul who though he was none of the Twelve yet he was not the least of the Apostles and having received his Commission from Christ himself in a Vision left Damascus and preached the Gospel at Antioch Seleusia Cyprus Pamphilia Iconium Lystra Pisidia Galatia Macedonia Samothracia Neapolis Thessalonica Beraea Athens Corinth Ephesus Jerusalem Illiricum Sclavonia Troas and Rome Yet notwithstanding all this it was impossible that these poor Men should at the same time carry on any private Design of their own being all of them sent forth as Lambs among Wolves and foretold by their own Master whom all but Judas had seen scourged Spit on and crucified between two Thieves that they should be persecuted and hated of all Nations for his Name sake and the Gospel which yet at their peril they were to preach and publish and after all sorts of Affronts and cruel Usage should suffer shameful and ignominious Deaths which they all did as ancient Historians assures us St. John Christ's beloved Disciple excepted neither had he escaped as one of them tells us had God permitted the Cauldron of burning Oil into which he was thrown by Domitian's Order to put an end to his life As for St. Peter he for baffling Simon Magus was by the Command of the Emperor Nero crucified at Rome with his Head downwards St. Andrew was at Patra a City of Achaia by the Proconsul's Order first scourged seven Lictors successively whipping his naked Body and then tied not nailed to the Cross to prolong his Torments and was two whole days before he expired St. James was beheaded in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa Son of Aristobulus and Grand-child to Herod the Great in whose Reign Christ was born St. Bartholomew was first flead alive and then crucified at Albanople in Armenia St. Matthew is said to be Martyred at Naddaba in Ethiopia St. Thomas suffered Martyrdom at Malipur in the Kingdon of Cormandel where by the Brachmans he was first loaded with stones and Darts and then run through with a Launce St. James the Less was thrown down from a Pinnacle of the Temple Simon the Zelot is said to have suffered great Cruelties in Britain and then to be crucified by the Infidels Jude suffered Martyrdom in Persia for rebuking the Superstitions of the Magi. St. Matthias as is conjectured was crucified by the barbarous people of Cappadocia St. Mark was seized on by the Alexandrians at the celebration of their God Serapis where they dragg'd him by the legs over rugged and uneven ways till his flesh was torn his blood wasted his Spirits decayed and his blessed Soul expired To these may be added the cruel Usage of St. Paul and St. Luke St. Luke was by the Infidels hang'd on an Olive Tree in Greece St. Paul was by Nero's cominand beheaded at Aquae Salvae about three Miles from Rome for having converted one of the Emperor's Concubines so that she utterly refused any further compliance with his wanton desires One man in an Age may throw away his Life on purpose to get himself a Name and be famous as Erostratus who set on fire the Temple of Ephesus or Ravillac who stabb'd a King of France But for all these Apostles and many thousands of their Disciples and Converts to throw away their Lives and thereby to purchase nothing but ignominy and disgrace for alas they were accounted as the Scum of the Earth and the Off-scouring of all things it can never so much as enter into the Thoughts of any Man of Reason or Sense Besides there were hardly ever committed in the World any kind of notorious Crimes or treacherous Designs contrived but at some time or other they were discovered by one or more of the Criminals But let the ablest Historian in the World if he can produce a real Instance of any of the Apostles or Martyrs among so many thousands possibly Millions whose cruel Sufferings for the Faith of Jesus made them openly recant or confess themselves guilty of any fraudulent Practises or setting up a false Worship to deceive all Nations After all this tell me ye foolish and perverse Atheists Who has bewitcht you to build your Tabernacles of Happiness upon such sandy Foundations or to sell your immortal souls to the Devil at so cheap and easy rates
thrown away their Lives and were accessary to their own Deaths Pag. 60. he says That Contempt is the Immobility of the Heart But this cannot be for when the Pulse ceases to beat the Man can no longer live and consequently this Author contemning all sorts of Laws Learning and Religion could never have lived to finish his Leviathan Our Saviour acknowledges that if he had not done such Miracles as no Man else could do the Scribes and Pharisees might have had for their Unbelief some just pretence But this Author avers pag. 148. That Miracles are not at all sufficient to give evidence But sure I am that this bold Assertion of his which is a Wonder though not a Miracle gives the whole World a sufficient Evidence of his great Arrogance and Impudence Our Saviour says That the Reprobates shall go into everlasting Punishment And St. Paul says That this Mortal must put on Immortality but this Author says p. 345. That the Reprobates Bodies shall not be immortal And pag 245. That no individual Person shall be punished with Torment Eternal Pag. 360. he says That to pray to the King for fair Weather is Idolatry But if the King command a Man to do so and he do it it is no Idolatry Pag. 360. he tells us That if a Man who is no Pastor worships an Idol and others follow him this is no Scandal given However I wonder he should not think this to be a very scandalous Doctrine If the Author were yet living I should take the boldness to give him this civil Item oportet mendacem esse memorem especially since he asserts pag. 60. That Imagination and Memory are the same thing For if so I greatly wonder how he could imagine so many Falsities and Contradictions and yet at the same time not remember them For my part I must confess I do not apprehend Imagination and Memory to be the same thing and if it were practicable I should thus reason the Case with him Sir Your Leviathan is a product of meer Imagination for never any such thing yet was But of that which never yet was you could have no Remembrance Egregie magister ergo falleris I cannot here omit his positive Assertion in the same page That all Men have equal Faculties of Body and Mind but God forbid it should be true for then every Man equal to him as to Education and acquired Learning would write and publish a Leviathan and by that means all Booksellers shops would soon be fill'd with impious and pernicious Books What other Men may judge of this his positive Assertion I know not For my part I am not of that Opinion That a Marius Dioclesian Julius Caesar or Tamberlane had not Gifts and Endowments of Nature far above a Plebeian or Common Souldier or that every Pesant or Country Thatcher had equal parts to compare with Jack Straw or Wat Tyler I must needs confess That if all other Men were like the Author of this Leviathan I should then conclude That all Men are indeed both by Nature and Art in a State of War It 's too plain That he was in War with the whole World and its great pitty the whole World was not in War with him when he first published his accursed Leviathan He was in War with Man's Creation and in War with his Redemption in War with the Law of Moses and in War with the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in War with the Subsistence of Departed Souls and in War with that of Angels and Spirits and yet I have heard it reported of him that he was afraid to be alone in a dark Room in War with the marvellous Act and Deeds of the Old Prophets and in War with our blessed Saviour's Miracles in War with those Heavenly Mansions which the holy Jesus is gone before to prepare for his blessed Saints and Martyrs and in War with the place of Eternal Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels or else if it be true what is commonly said of him when his Man was rubbing his Body in a Morning he would never have adventured to pronounce such Words in raillery as Rub you Rogue for Eternity in War with all civil Common Wealths and Established Laws and in War with all Church Governments and Gospel Ordinances in War with all Moral Honesty and Rules of Sobriety and in War with Religion and all its Fundamentals in War with the Works of Aristotle and the Heathen Philosophers and in War with Euclid's Elements and Mathematical Demonstrations in War with Schools and Universities and in War with all the Liberal Sciences in War with his own Definitions and in War with his own pernicious Principles between many of which there is a much greater Contrariety and Distance than he allows at the Resurrection between the Saints and Reprobates making all both Good and Bad to stand at the last Day upon the Earth's superficies pag. 242. And making the Punishment of the one to consist only in beholding for a short time the Glory and Happiness of the other How they must be placed I do not well understand some few of the Reprobates I confess might look over the shoulders of others but they being so exceeding numerous the Saints Antecii and Perecii must certainly have great difficulty to see them plainly But how to find Expedients or how to make Spectacles for the eyes of their Antipodes would have been past the Author 's little Skill in Geometry or Opticks As to the Design in general of this impious Discourse I am willing to believe that the Author 's Res Angusta Domi and personal Vain-glory might move him in such a juncture as that was to fish in troubled waters in hopes to advance his Fortune and get himself a Name But Satan who stood behind the Curtain and prompted him to this Undertaking had undoubtedly a further and deeper Design namely to encourage all Persons whatever to follow the Devices and Desires of their own hearts without the least fear or dread of burning Lakes or endless Torments by shamefully distorting and wresting the plain Texts of the holy Scriptures by searching for Errours in the Books of Moses by undervaluing and lessening our Saviour's Miracles and so endeavouring to overthrow the Fundamentals of Christian Faith by calling in question the Subsistence of blessed Angels Unclean Spirits and Departed Souls by turning heavenly Mansions and the place of Eternal Torments into meer Metaphors And lastly by setting up a New Common-Wealth and a Soveraign who by an incomprehensible Law of Nature must have the absolute Command not only of the Estates and Bodies but also of the Souls and Consciences of all his Subjects though it be to deny the Doctrine of Christ and his and to Worships Idols and Sacrifice to Devils This Arch Enemy of Souls is alas too well acquainted with Humane Frailties which are in truth the effects of his beguiling our First Parents and knows That Quicquid volumus facile credimus that very slender