dreggy Body and outward gross material Part And what must he be then but a Spirit himself 2. 'T is impossible he should be made up of Matter and material Parts when he is the Creatour of the whole World For how should a Body be able to stand and fix his Presence to a particular Place when he must be present at the making of every particular Piece and Member of the Creation and that in a short time if not in an Instant A Body we know must be circumscribed limited to a Space so far it may take up and no further here it may be and not there or there and not here at the same time But God at the make of the World must stretch his Presence to a wide if not immense Capacity â—â—e must be able to climb the Sun and fathom the Depths to walk about the Spheres and pierce the thicker Bodies he must search those Beings he makes within and without must see the outward shape and the inward form And what can this be but a Spirit 3. He searcheth the Hearts and knows the Thoughts afar off Those outward Cases we wear those thick Covers of our Bodies do not hide us from his Knowledge Jer. 17.10 His Eye walks to and fro upon the Earth scanning the Actions of Thoussands with a Glance in a Moment turning over the whole Book of the Creation which his own Hand wrote and folded up and reading any Page and Line with a single Cast of his Omniscience And what is this but a Spirit 4. He is invisible Exod. 33.20 He said Thou canst not see my Face Job 1.18 God may please sometimes to pourtray himself and shadow out his Excellency to us with a visible Form may appear in a Flame or mask his Glory with a Cloud but never come in his own proper and genuine Dress If he speaks to us 't is but a borrowed Lisping from our own Faculties if he be seen by us 't is but in a Coat borrowed from some of his Creatures Job 5.37 No God himself as he is in his own Nature pure and sparkling Essence is not obvious to our Senses never was caught by the Hand Eye of Ear of living Men and therefore is a Spirit and to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth According to our Apprehensions of God's Nature so are commonly our Devotions to him and indeed this is founded upon a sound Maxime sc That as God is in his own Nature so he requireth a suitable Worship a Worship correspondent to those Properties he hath he is good and therefore would have us do and be good And so in whatever Attributes are given to him if they are communicable to the Creature he is to be imitated by us Be ye Followers of God as dear Children like your heavenly Father And therefore as God is a Spirit so he requires such a Worship God's Motto in this respect is the same with Solomon's My Son give me thy Heart A pure Aim after God's Glory a sincere Compliance with our Duty an upright pursuance of Holiness and Piety are the Whole or the Mâ—rrow of our Religion We should not only bring our Lips our Hands our Knees our Ears or Our Bodies to our Devotions but as the Psalmist My Soul follows hard after thee And Psal 62.1 Truly my Soul waiteth upon God Reader 't is certain when we have to do with God a Spirit an immaterial Substance we have not to do with a Man like our selves but a Quick-eyed Being Omnisciency itself a God all Sight that seeth within as well as without us Methinks such a Thought should strike us with an awful Reverence of his Majesty Such a Meditation as the Psalmist takes up Psal 139.1 might seize us with a filial Dread and possess our Hearts with Trembling in our daily Comportment before him it might awaken our Affections to go hand in hand and move joyntly with our ordinary Duty Inward Religion is the only acceptable Devotion to the Father of Spirits and therefore no running now to Mount Guizem no matter now for travelling to the Old Jerusalem no matter for running to the Stalls for a Kid or Hetfer to the Altar with an Offering or Sacrifice No matter now for these Ceremonies Washings Cleansings c. used by the ancient Jews Touch not taste not handle not and all the pompous Trade of a Ceremonious Worship once enjoyn'd to the Old Church and now imposed by the Antichristian is now an illegitimate a base-born Service usurp'd by Sacrilegious People who make it no Crime to steal from Christ's Prerogative and put themselves instead of him Head of the Church 'T is true we may and must Worship yet with Hand and Knee we may yet attend upon a Font and wash in Water and wait upon a Sacramental Table we may eat Bread and drink Wine as Signs and Seals of spiritual and abstruse Mysteries But these are derived to us by a Divine Institution they come with a Mandamus from God himself and we have so few Ceremonies besides except those which are natural and serve lively to express the inward Motions of our Hearts and so much inward spiritual Devotion is required with them That our Religion may deservedly pass under the Title of Spirit and Truth Learn we then to put an evenness of proportion between our outward and inner Man To compose not only our Shape and Visage but our Heart and Soul to the Knowledge and Presence of an All-seeing God Learn we to call upon our Spirits and summon our Affections when we address our selves to the Father of Spirits Think what a thin pure subtile spacious Nature the Sun and Light are of how they pierce through the Air dart their Beams through the Clouds pierce the Windows and shine into our Houses Chambers the Corners of our Habitations and think God Almighty is a purer a finer a more spiritual Substance and therefore can see through us scan our Thoughts and try our Reins afar off Heb. 4.12 13. II. Meditations on the Works of Creation and Providence 'T IS the Prerogative of Human Nature that we have not only a lofty Figure and Visage but Intellectuals too far superiour to all the Bruitish kind And this Endowment bestowed upon us by him that made us for very wise and good Ends Not to be more ingenâ—ously wicked and dishonest to immerge our selves deeper in the Concerns and Pleasures of a Material and Sensual World but to live above it My Design then in these Meditations having already proved the Being of a God is to climb a Jacob's Ladder to satisfie a little the Curiosity of my Nature to inform myself first of all and then my Fellows so far as soberly and modestly I may with all the Phenomena of the Aetherial Region To acquaint myself and others with the outward Face of Heaven first of all and all the visible Furniture of the outward Court those glorious Spangles of Stars and Planets those fiery Meteors and other strange Exhalations and Vapours
so cold and frigid in defending the Pope as Eccius and some like him are who seem to me to defend the Papacy rather for their bellies sake then in good earnest Yea like Epicures they seem to me to deride the Pope whereas I was serious in his cause as one that trembled at the Thoughts of the day of Judgment and from my very heart desired to be saved Ibid. p. 146. vid. Sleid. Comment c. 8. Lambertus disputing with Zuinglius about the Intercession of Saints and the Sacrifice of the Masse and being non-plus'd left his Error and gave Praise to God Ibid. p. 149. 9. Mr. Rastal Sir Thomas Moor's Son in Law was converted likewise by the clear and strenuous Arguments of John Frith which he used in some Disputations that were managed by way of Letter between Sir Thomas and Him Ibid. p. 157. 10. In Mr. Baxters Narrative of his Life p. 3. He gives this Remarkable Account of his Conversion Being says he under some more Conviction for my Sin a poor Day-Labourer in the Town had an old torn Book which he lent my Father which was called Bunny's Resolution I had before heard some Sermons and read a Book or two which made me more Love and Honour Godliness in the General He further adds in the reading of this Book when I was about Fifteen Years of Age it pleas'd God to awaken my Soul and shew me the Folly of Sinning and the misery of the Wicked and the unexpressible weight of things Eternal and the necessity of resolving on a Holy Life more than I was ever acquainted with before The same things which I knew before came now in another manner with light and sence and seriousness to my heart About that time it pleased God that a poor Pedlar came to the Door that had Ballads and some good Books And my Father bought of him Dr. Sibbs bruised Reed This also I read and found it suited to my State and seasonably sent me which opened more the Love of God to me and gave me a Livelier apprehension of the Mystery of Redemption and how much I was beholden to Jesus Christ After this we had a Servant that had a little peice of Mr. Perkins's Works of Repentance and the right Art of Living and Dying well and the Government of the Tongue and the reading of that did further inform me and confirm me And thus without any means but Books was God pleased to resolve me for himself Thus far Mr. Baxter 11. Mr. Thomas Bilney Martyr was thus converted Having heard the Speech of Jesus saith he even then when the New Testament was Translated by Erasmus understanding it to be eloquently done I bought it being allured thereto rather by the Elegancy of the Latin then the Word of God for at that time I knew not what it meant and looking into it by God's special Providence I met with those words of the Apostle S. Paul This is a True saying and worthy of all Acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief Oh! most sweet and comfortable sentence to my Soul This one sentence through Gods instruction and inward working did so exhilerate my heart which before was wounded through the guilt of my Sins and being almost in despair that immediately I sound Marvellous comfort and quietness in my Soul so that my bruised Bones did leap for Joy After this the Scripture began to be more sweet unto me then Honey and the Honey-comb c. Ibid. p. 162. 12. John Picus Mirandula being of a ductile Nature and an aimable Countenance and Disposition was for some time so inveigled with the Blandishments of an Effeminate Society that he gave himself over to unlawful pleasures with them but it pleased God by the Malice of his Adversaries and the troubles which he met with by their means to awaken him from his sensual delights and to stir him up to shake off and avoid all these Provocations and Incentives to Wickedness and to chuse Celestial instead of fleshy Pleasures And laying aside his hunting after vain Glory to devote himself wholly to the Glory of God and the good of the Church Idem in ejus vitâ 13. George Prince of Anhalt when the Controversies about Religions waxed hot and Luther's Books came abroad fell to reading of them and suspecting his own Injudiciousness would often pray with Tears to God to encline his heart to the Truth saying Deal with thy Servant according to thy Mercy and Instruct me in thy Righteousness He was frequent in reading the Scriptures Ecclesiastical Histories Augustine Hierom and Lombard studied also Greek and Hebrew and discoursed with Learned Men about the Controversies And after all upon mature deliberation embraced the reformed Religion and reformed the Churches with the counsel of his Brethren within his own Jurisdiction Fuller Abel Rediv. p. 165. 14. Vergerius having been the Popes Legate in Germany after his return to Rome the Pope intended to bestow a Cardinals Cap upon him but some about him suggested that he had been so long in Germany that he smelled of a Lutheran This made the Pope to alter his purpose which when Vergerius heard was wonderfully Astonished and that he might purge himself from that Imputation he retired into his own Countrey purposing to Write a Book under this Title Against the Apostate Germans But it pleased God that whilst he read over his Adversaries Books to confute them himself was converted by them Hereupon casting off all desires of a Cardinalship he went to his Brother John Baptista Bishop of Pola and Communicated his thoughts unto him and asked his advice His Brother at first was much perplexed and bewailed his condition But after a while was perswaded by Vergerius to read and study the Scriptures especially in the point of Justification by Faith whereby it pleased God that he also saw the Popish Doctrines to be false and so they both became Zealous Preachers of the Truth to the People Clark's Exampl Vol. 2. p. 117. Sleidan Commentar p. 475. 15. Whilst Francis Junius was a Student in Lions there came a Man to him using the words of the Epicure Nihil curare Deum nec sui nec alieni That God cares for nothing And he Corroborated this with such subtile Arguments that Junius sucked in that damnable Principle and thereupon gave up himself to vile Pleasures for somewhat more than a year But the Lord suffered him not to continue longer in so dangerous a condition For first in a tumult at Lions the Lord wonderfully delivered him from imminent Death which Signal Deliverance compelled him to acknowledge a Divine Providence And his Father hearing of the dangerous courses that he took sent for him home requiring him to read over the New Testament Concerning which himself thus Writes Novum Testamentum aperis exhibet se mihi ad spectu primo Augustissimum illud Caput in Principio erat Verbum c. When I had opened the New Testament the
Affairs 9. My Heart doth truly rejoyce and bleS God when I see or hear of the Courage of his faithful Ministers or other private Christians in opposing or withstanding the Storm of these wicked Times and upon serious deliberate Consideration I had abundantly rather suffer with them then enjoy Peace and Prosperity upon the sinful Terms of these wicked Times 10. I most of all desire and delight to hear such Preaching as is most searching and that gives most plain and practical Directions for the leading of a holy Life 11. I have the highest Esteem of and most affection are Love to those in whom I see the most hopeful Signs and Fruits of a Work of Grace in their Hearts 12. I endeavour to shun and avoid all loose and vain Company and Associate my self with those that are more solid and prositable in their Conversation for Religious Advantages 13. I humbly and heartily desire the gracious Assistance of God's most holy Spirit to discover unto me the true and real worth of my own Soul and that of all other Evils I may be preserved from Errors and Mistakes in this Business of such Weighty and infinite Concernment 14. I have often heard in many Sermons divers distinguishing Characters of true saving Grace and upon serious Reflection upon my own Soul I find that my Heart doth not totally condemn me in any of them but that God hath wrought some real tho' weak Impressions of them in me for which I humbly desire more and more Strength and Ability to Praise him in Heart and Life 15. Notwithstanding all which wherein I have truly so far as I am able exprest the Truth yet fear and tremble least my own Heart should deceive me herein and tho' I daily beg of God a renewing of an Addition to Spiritual Strength yet desire to rely only upon the free and rich Mercy of God through the All-sufficient Merits of Jesus Christ for the Pardon of my Sins and Salvation of my Soul desiring to receive him upon his own Terms as my King Priest and Prophet Mr. Albyn sent these his Evidences for Heaven to Mr. Calamy with this Letter Mr. Calamy I Humbly entreat you to Peruse and Consider the Particulars afore-written and to afford me your Judgment in Writing under your own and some other godly Ministers Hands subscribed thereunto Yours in all Christian Obligations B. A. London July 4th 1650. To which Mr. Calamy returned his Answer I Am verily perswaded from infallible Grounds out of God's Word that whosoever can own these fifteen Particulars above-mentioned in Truth and in Sincerity is a true Child of God and shall certainly inherit everlasting Life Edm. Calamy Minister of God's Word in Aldermanbury We whose Names are under Written are of the same Perswasion with our Reverend Brother Mr. Calamy above Written John Fuller Matth. Newcomen These Evidences for Heaven were delivered to me by the very Person who Transcribed them from Mr. Albyn 's own Writing which he kept by him to his Death 19. The Heavenly Instructions senthy Mrs. Lydia Carter in several Letters to her Relations which being Writ whilst she was very Young deserve a place under our present Head of Extraordinary Zeal and Devotion The Letters were Five in Number and were Directed to Benjamin Carter Jeremiah Carter her Sister Child her Aunt Child and to her Sister Desborrow all of Chesham in Buckingham-shire Mrs. Lydia Carter's Letter to her Brother Benjamin Carter Loving Brother WHen you consider how Priscilla expounded the Way of God more perfectly unto Apollos I hope you will take in good part the sincere and cordial Wishes of a weaker Vessel Providence hath set our Bodies at a great Distance yet how near and dear you are unto my Soul the Lord knows whose eternal Welfare I as vehemently desire as my own and should be unspeakably glad if as we have lain in one Mothers Belly and Bosom together we might also lie down in the same Divine Embraces of infinite Love Brother I know not whether I shall ever see your Face any more not that I speak in respect of present Sickness but in regard of the uncertain brevity of Life Man giveth up the Ghost and where is he Oh that same Expression And where is he hath often put my Soul into a wondering Frame because the Scripture saith after Death cometh Judgment Brother I humbly and ingeniously confess that I am less then the least of all those who look Heaven-ward yet that I am a bruised Reed or as smoaking Flax I cannot deny But oh Brother I would have you a tall Cedar in Religion a Pillar in the Church of God a valiant Champion for the Truth one that may attain unto the full Stature of a perfect Man in Christ. Brother believe me I blush at these Scriblings of mine yet how fain would I write unto you seeing I cannot speak with you that I might put you in mind of Eternity of Eternity that little Word of the greatest Concernment But when this thought first entred into my Heart I bewailed oh I bewailed mine own Ignorance Unbelief Inconsideration and want of Zeal and I thought you might justly smile at my forwardness in exhorting you who am so unable myself and might say Who is this that darkneth Counsel with Words without Knowledge Yet because the Widow's Mite was kindly accepted of by Christ Brother do you vouchsafe a benign Aspect upon this weak Attempt otherwise you will discourage a young Writer quite Indeed I want skill to write my Words and Words to express my Mind What shall I say Oh would to God the grave and gracious Counsels of that holy Man now in Heaven might always sound in both our Ears Shall I wish he were alive again that we might be blessed with his Fatherly Admonitions and Instructions concerning that one thing necessary Or may not we be known to be the Spiritual Children of our Father Abraham if we walk in the Steps of his Faith though he knows us not being Dead Alas alas I am sure I may speak it of my self tho one should arise from the Dead it would be nothing available unless God did bring my unsensible and unteachable Heart under the powerful Convincements of his Word which is a more sure Word of Prophecy then a ghostly Relation unto which we are all bound to take good heed Brother search the Scriptures for in them you shall find eternal Life and they testified of Christ I profess unto you I know nothing in all this World worth the knowing but a Crucified Christ and to be fully perswaded upon unquestionable Grounds of a saving Interest in him Undoubtedly the pale Horse is prancing up and down in the World upon which Death Rides and we know not how soon he may have us under his Feet But that we may escape out of the Hands of that Horsemans Page Rev. 6. ver 8. that we may so live in Christ that Death may be an Advantage to us that we may so walk in
and made savoury with Grace to the edification of others and 't is certain that out Tongues are but the Signs and Indications of our Thoughts and therefore as the Heart thinketh the Tongue speaketh commonly A pure Fountain doth not send out dirty Streams nor a good Tree bring forth evil Fruit. Besides our Language doth not only expose our selves but hath a great Influence in disposing of others either to Good or Evil to Truth or Error and therefore we had need be cautious and use a sober Prudence and Piety in the Government of that little Member And wise and good People are so sparing and discreet in their Words 1. Bembo a Primitive Christian coming to a Friend to learn a Psalm he began to him the 39th I said I will take heed to my ways that I offend not in my tongue Upon hearing of which Words he stop his Tutor saying This is enough if I learn it as I ought And being after Six Months rebuked for not coming again replied That he had not learnt his first Lesson Nay after Fifteen Years he professed That in that time he had scarce learned to fulfil that one Line Anonym 2. Dr. Potter when Fellow of Queen's College Oxon observing the Fellows after Dinner according to their usual manner talking together of many trivial things said nothing but carefully remarked what they said and when they had done talking he thus bespake them Now my Masters will you hear all your extravagant Discourses for I have strictly observed and marked what you said and thereupon gave them a perfect Rehersal of all their Discourses which they admired and wondred at See his Life by Mr. Clark p. 155. Much the like Story is reported of Mr. J. Janeway in his Life 3. The Essaeans are towards God very Religious for before the Sun rise they speak of nothing but Holy Things and then they make certain Prayers and Vows after the manner of their Country c. Joseph de Bell. Jud. l. 2. c. 7. 4. The Council of Trent because Bishops must be blameless exhorts that to prevent idle Discourses which might arise at the Table of Bishop's themselves the Holy Scriptures be read Conc. Trid. Decret 1. Sess 5. John Picus Earl of Mirandula usually discoursed amongst his Friends of the Vanity and Uncertainty of all Earthly Things and of the Stability of Heavenly Things and therefore he would often call upon them to love the Lord above all c. Clark in his Life 6. One of Bishop Latimer's Injunctions to the Prior and Convent of St. Mary's House in Worcester 1537 was thus Item That the Prior have at his Dinner or Supper every Day a Chapter read and to have edifying Communication of the same History of the Reformation by Dr. Burnet 7. Cardinal Pool in the Platform of his Reformation requires Bishops to have at their Table the Scriptures or other good Books read mixt with pious Discourses Ibid. 8. The Conferences of Mr. John Eliot were like those which Tertullian affirms to have been common among the Saints in his Days Vt qui sciret Dominum audire as knowing that the Ear of God was open to them all and he managed his Rudder so as to manifest that he was bound Heaven-ward in his whole Communication He had a particular Art at Spiritualizing of Earthly Objects and raising of high Thoughts from very mean Things As once going with some feebleness up the Hill to Church he said unto the Person that led him This is very like the way to Heaven 't is up Hill the Lord by his Grace fetch us up And instantly spying a Bush near him he as nimbly added And truly there are Briars and Thorns in the way too As a Friend of the famous Vrsin could say That he never went unto him without coming away Aut doctior aut melior either the wiser or better from him So 't is an Animadversion which more than One Friend of our Eliot's hath made concerning him I was never with him but I got or might have got some good from him Cott. Mather in the Life of Mr. J. Eliot p. 19. 9. Oh! saith Dr. Bolton that worthless Subjects should so often take up our Tongues and Thoughts And Christ so full so sweet so delightful and so profitable a Subject which shall be Matter for our Soul's Discourse to all Eternity shall be thrown aside as not worth taking up In Vit. ejus 10. Mr. Giles Firmin speaking of Mr. Daniel Rogers saith He was a Man of great Parts great Grace and great Infirmities My Father Ward would often say of him My Brother Roger hath Grace enough for Two Men and not half enough for himself a most woful Temper or rather Distemper in his Constitution which hindred much the Lustre of that Grace which was in him By one passage we may judge of his Grace he Dined One Day at a Knight's Table what Company was there I know not but he had not that liberty to be a seasoning his Meat with Savoury and Spiritual Discourse as he was wont to do to sit at Meals and not one Word for God was to him strange the next Day he comes to my House the Man was sadly dejected in such a manner that those who fall into gross Sins scarce know so much Sorrow What is the matter said I. This was the Reason that he was a Man of such a base dastardly Spirit that he could not speak for God I told him Your Father would say in such Companies If you cannot sowe any Good you do well if you can keep out evil Much ado I had to get up his Spirit Firmin's Real Christian Preface to the Reader 11. The late Countess of Warwick would perfume the Company with good Discourse to prevent idle or worse Communication not abruptly upbraidingly or importunely which is very nauseous and fulsome and spoils a good Game by bad Playing but she was like Spiritual Stove you should feel the Heat and not see the Fire and find yourself in other Company among the same Persons and rather wonder than perceive how you came there for she would drop a wise Sentence or moral holy Apothegm with which she was admirably furnish'd that suited with at least not far remote from what was talk'd of and commending or improving it that she 'd wind about the whole Discourse without offence yea with pleasure Dr. Walker in her Life 12. The Discourses which daily fell from Bishop Vsher at his Table in clearing Difficulties in the Scripture and other Subjects especially when learned Men came to visit him tended exceedingly to the Edification of the Heaters so that it might well be said of him as the Queen of Sheba said to Solomon Happy are these thy Servants that stand continually about thee and hear thy Wisdom See his Life 13. Mr. Samuel Fairclough made such a Reform in his Parish that divers Persons who had lived many Years in the place said That in the whole time they never heard an Oath sworn nor
any other Hand I was resolved to go on with it as being fully satisfied that a Work of this kind must needs be of Great Use especially to such pious Minds as delight to observe the Manifestations which God doth give of himself both in his Works of Creation and Providence the former are sufficient to render those who have no other Instructers inexcusable as we are taught by the Apostle Rom. 1.20 And the Excellency of the latter consists in this That they are the real Accomplishments of his written Word So that to Record Providences seems to be one of the best Methods that can be pursued against the abounding Atheism of this Age For by Works of Providence the Confession of a God and the Truth of his Word have been extorted from those very Persons who have boldly denied it Memorable is that Passage of Aeschyles the Persian in Traged who relating his Country-mens Discomfiture by the Greeks gives us this Observation That when the Grecians pursued them furiously over the great River Strymon which was then frozen but began to thaw he did with his own Eyes see many of those Gallants whom he had heard before maintain so boldly that there was no God every one upon their Knees with Eyes and Hands lifted up begging for Mercy and that the Ice might not break 'till they got over The Scepticks of this Age may possibly call such a Passage in Question but what can the most obdurate Atheist say to those Providences about the Jews which were so clearly foretold in the Scriptures and part of 'em are visible to their own Eyes Is not this sufficient to convince them of the Being of an Omniscient God that the Sacred Scriptures are his Revealed Will and that Christianity is the only true Religion We doubt not but those Men who are able to hold out against such a convincing Demonstration will flout at this Undertaking and expose it all they can but they may remember the Conquest which Truth made over their great Champions my Lord Rochester Sir Alan Broderick and Sir Duncomb Colchester all mentioned in the following Work Providences which merit their Thoughts and may serve to stop their Mouths To Name all my Authors would be tedious in the Front of the Book and the more unnecessary because the Reader will find most of them cited in the Work itself Which I believe will not be either unprofitable or unpleasant to any one that reads with Judgment nor unsatisfactory to any that reads without Prejudice I pray my Reader 's Candour if any particular Relation be not reduced to its proper Head or if there be any Repetition of the same Story without necessity or any other Error of the Press that is venial I crave that I may have but due Grains of Allowance made to me as are commonly made in such Cases For I am at least Forty Miles distant from the Press and cannot with any Conveniency to my other Concerns attend the Ingress of it into the World I grant the Work is not Omninibus numeris absolutum in every respect answerable to the first Proposals but so are almost all the Undertakings of finite Reason upon some Account or other short of the first Intentions To be perfectly Wise is the Property of God Almighty For my part I am very sensible of the Depths I have here taken upon me to fathom and do declare openly to the World That the Ways of God are unsearchable and his Footsteps cannot perfectly be traced He doth so tread upon the deep Waters and sometimes flies upon the Wings of the Wind and hides himself in Clouds from common view employing Spirits for his Angels and Flames of Fire at other times for his Messengers For so I think we may justly invert the Order of our common Translation that I declare freely my Comment is infinite short of my Text and my Paraphrase doth not and cannot reach my Subject And indeed who can by searching find out the Almighty to Perfection If some studious and skilful Reader would cause this Book to be Interleaved and add some New Heads of his own and make a Supply for the Defects of the Old Ones it might in process of time be made exceeding useful for Common Places In the mean time I desire my Reader only to look over all these Secondary Causes and little Instruments that are moved here below and look up to and fix his Eye upon the Spring and Original Wheel that gives Motion to all the rest And if there be any thing within the Cope of our Horizon that will give Satisfaction to the Brain on Man this will certainly do it And if it do not the next Step is a sinful Curiosity and dangerous and whatsoever is more than that comes of Evil. From which Evil the God of Heaven deliver us all Amen WILLIAM TURNER A Practical Introduction TO THE History of Divine Providence Being the Author's MEDITATIONS On On The Being of a GOD. On The Works of Creation and Providence On The Existence of a Separate Soul On The Ministry of Angels And On The Future State c. I. The Being of a GOD. NOtwithstanding the Being of a GOD is laid down as the First Principle of our Faith and Religion own'd acknowledged and believed by all yet because in this debauched Age there want not some Monsters that question this Article and are ready if not with their Tongues yet with their Hearts to deny the Lord that made them I shall by way of Introduction to the following History of Divine Providence 1. Prove That there is a God I confess I konw not any that I suspect guilty of profess'd yet since there want not Arguments to implead too many at least accessary to Pratical Atheism I go thô sadly to my ABC to lay down the First Rudiments of Christianity 1. Then I may prove it from the Book of Nature Come thy ways unbelieving Atheist and turn over this Great Volume of the Divine Creation see what a Bible Nature herself presents thee with unclasp'd and open'd the Letters for the most part capital and legible that he who runs may read a God in every Leaf in every Line in every Creature Go gaze a-while at the next little Fly or Flower or but Spire of Grass thou meetest with see the curious Workmanship Artifice Wisdom and Power there is discernable in the make of it and resolve me what Man with all his Wit and Skill is able to make the like to exceed or equallize it Job 12.7 8 9. Or if that will not do take but one of thy Fellow-Beings Man into a studious Disquisition dissect him in all his several Parts tell his Bones his Nerves Veins Ligaments with all the Branches Postures and Vses of them Trace his Nourishment from his Hands to his Teeth to his Palate to his Stomach to his Guts and Milkey Veins to his Liver to his Vena Cava to the right Ventricle of his Heart thence into the Vena Arteriosa and so
the Devil Nay he used to stop his Ears at the ill Speeches of Hereticks and shunn'd the Places where they were uttered Clark's Marr. of Eccl. History 2. Origen was sometimes necessitated to frequent the Lectures of one Paulus a famous Heretick at Antioch being both kindly entertained by the same Gentlewoman in the same House yet would he never be perswaded to join with him in Prayer detesting his Heretical Doctrine ibid. 3. Athanasius was so great a Lover of Truth and Orthodoxy that he alone resisted stoutly all the Devices and malicious Contrivances and Opposition of the Arians insomuch that it was said of him One Athanasius stood firm against all the World He was often falsly Accused often forced to Fly often Deposed and as often Escaped The Magicians and Soothsayers in Alexandria in Julian's time acknowledged that they could do nothing in their Art except Athanasius were removed out of the City ibid. 4. Basil being attacked by fair Speeches and Promises of Preferment from Valens the Emperous to turn Arian answered the Messenger Alas Sir These Speeches are fit to catch little Children that look after such things we are otherwise taught by Sacred Scripture and are ready to suffer a thousand Deaths rather than suffer one Syllable or Tittle of Scripture to be altered when Modestus the Prefect ask'd Know ye not who we are that command it No Body said Basil so long as you require such things to which he answered Know ye not that we have Honours to bestow upon you whereunto he replied They are but Changeable like your selves Upon this the Prefect in a Rage threatned to Confiscate his Goods to Torment Banish or Kill him Basil answered As for Consiscation he had nothing to lose for Banishment Heaven only was his Country and for Torments one Blow would dash his Body in pieces and for Death that was the only way to set him at Liberty The Prefect told him He was Mad I wish said he that I may be ever so Mad. The Emperour being acquainted with this Carriage of Basil went to Church next Morning with Design to disturb him but seeing his Reverend Carriage he was so convinced that he made a large Offering which yet Basil refused as coming from an Heretick ibid. 5. Epiphanius was semper acerrimus Hereticorum oppugnator i.e. always a very brisk Opposer of Hereticks ibid. 6. St. Augustine was called Hereticorum Malleus i.e. the Hammer of Hereticks Disputing often with the Manichees Donatists Arians and Pelagians and commonly in his Disputations making use of Notaries to write down the Arguments and Answers on both sides to prevent mis-reports and herein was very successful So many things were dictated and published by him so many Disputations held in the Church so many things written against Hereticks and so many Books of Sacred Scripture Expounded by him that a Studious Man all his life long can scarely know and read over ibid. In his latter Days he looked over all his Books and wrote two Volumes of Retractations and complained that some Ministers had gotten and divulged some of his Books before he had perfected them ibid. 7. Theodosius senior having called a Council upon occasion of the Arian Heresy the Emperour retired into his Closet fell down upon his Knees before God humbly beseeching him to reveal the Truth unto him and to assist him in finding it out then perusing every ones Opinion and seriously weighing it in the Ballance of the Sanctuary he condemned and tore in pieces all those Creeds that derogated from the Unity that is in the Blessed Trinity allowing and highly commending the other Clark in vitâ Theodosii 8. Pomponius Atticus neither would tell a Lye nor could endure one Text. Officinum 1138. 9. Bericus the Abbot that dwelt in the Wilderness of Thebais was never heard to swear an Oath never to tell a lye never to be angry never to speak an idle word ibid. 10. Hor the Abbot is said never to have told a lye never to have spoken evil to any Man ibid. 11. The late Countess Dowager of Warwick was exact in Word and Deed she never forfeited her Title to the Privilege of Peerage to be believed upon the honour of her Word which was as Sacred as any Oath and as good Security as many Bonds No inconvenience to her self would make her Recoil or Flinch from the Obligations she had brought her self under by her own Mouth Yea she had such an abhorrence of a dishonourable Recess from express or but intimated promises that it would render her esteem of such Persons exceeding cheap and mean who by little Arts and Shifts would lose and free themselves from their Engagements and disappoint the Expectations they had raised in others to save the Charges accounting their Money spared a very poor and base redemption of their Reputation She abhorr'd a Lye and used modesty to give this Testimony to her self You know I dare not I will not Lye And her Lord knew this so well that though he were positive enough yet would never persist if there happened any contest against whatever she affirmed peremptorily And a Lye was the foulest blemish any could stain themselves with in Converting with her and the most unpardonable fault a Servant could contract to whom she used to say Tell me the Truth and I can forgive you any thing Yea she feared the very shadow of a Lye Dr. Walker in her Life p. 90. 12. Sir William Fitz-Williams was a Man of so great Veracity that that grand Word On mine Honour was Security enough for a Kingdom and the only Asseveration he used It was his privilege that he need not swear for a Testimony and his renown that he would not for his Honour Lloyd's Worthies p. 549. CHAP. XXXVII Remarkable Friendship A Young Gentleman with whose Father I had held an uninterrupted Correspondence for near thirty Years but was lately Deceased wrote yesterday a Letter to me challenging as heir to his Father the Inheritance of his Correspondence tho' at a great distance building upon that Text Thy own Friend and thy Father's Friend forsake not And in Truth a solid Friendship founded upon Virtue and sincere Religion is one of the greatest sweetnesses of this Life and rarely to be found in the World A David and Jonathan a Gregory and Nazianzen a Cranmer and Cromwel a pair of true Friends among Men are seldomer to be found then a Club of Knaves or a herd of Bruits agreeing together 1. Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea for his great Love to Pamphilus was Sirnamed Pamphilus 2. Basil the Great at Athens fell into acquaintance with Gregory Nazianzen and joining Studies together they continued in firm amity all their Life after Clark's Marr. of Ecclesiastical Hist. 3. Theodoret and Cyril after a breach healed between them were mighty loving each to other ever after Ibid. 4. S. Bernard seeing a want of Ministers in his Country and burning with a Zeal to Save Souls resolved to set on the Work and seeking one by
c. by Mr. Boreman 24. Henry Hilton of Hilton in the County Palatine of Durham Esq gave by his Will for the Term of Fourscore and nineteen years to the Vicar of Warmouth 20 l. per Annum to the Lord-Mayor and four senior Aldermen of the City of London 100 l. per Annum for their Pains in distributing his Legacies to a Clark for keeping the Accounts 10 l. per Annum Item For binding five Children of his Kindred Apprentices yearly Item The Interest of 4000 l. for binding poor Fatherless Children Apprenties yearly It. To his Servant Nicholas Sturt his Lease of Clapham-Farm but 6 l. 13 s. 4 d. to the paid yearly out of it to his Servant John Cartret and all his Horses c. Apparel Books and Plate and 30 l. in Money It. to all the rest of his Servants 20 l. apiece To his Friend Mr. Thomas Bradford of London 100 l. To Richard Williams of Chichester Gen. 30 l. For Erecting Tombs in St. Paul's Church London near the Tomb of Dr. Donn 1000 l. in a Codicil to Robert Doily Minister of Goring 30. Item He gave to poor Labourers in all the Parishes hereafter named Four and twenty pounds a year during the said Term of Fourscore and nineteen years In the County Palatine of Durham Hibton 24 l. Fulwell 24 l. Warmouth 24 l. Ousworth Magna 24 l. Hartlepoole 24 l. Lumley 24 l. Gateside 24 l. Chester in the Street 24 l. Herrington 24 l. Ferryhill 24 l. Darlton 24 l. Sunderland 24 l. Houghton 24 l. Reuton 24 l. Bramspech 24 l. Lanchester 24 l. Brakley 24 l. Southstreet 24 l. Newcastle 24 l. Durham 48 l. In the County of Sussex Clapham 24 l. Patching 24 l. Subdeanery in Chichester 24 l. Findon 24 l. Terring 24 l. Poling 24 l. Arundel 24 l. Angmering 24 l. Selsey 24 l. Stenning 24 l. Bramber 24 l. Bright Helmston 24 l. Lewis 24 l. New Shoreham 24 l. In Surrey Waltham upon Thames 24 l. Richmond 24 l. Lambeth 24 l. Camberwell 24 l. Barking 24 l. In Middlesex Clement Deans 24 l. The Total Sum amonting to One thousand two hundred sixty two pounds Six shillings and eight pence CHAP. XLII Remarkable Chastity CHastity is a Grace which sets bounds to all the Pleasures of the Flesh and teacheth us how to possess our Vessels in Sanctification and Honour according to the Rules of a single Life or a Married State and this certainly is the Will of God even our Sanctification which was intimated by the old Judaical Circumcision And 't is a Vertue that requires Self-denial in some more in some less according to the Constitution of the Body and the Strength of Accidental Temptations and to inforce this Duty we are to remember our near Relation to the Holy Jesus and the Holy Ghost whose Members and whose Temples we are which are the Two new Arguments of the New Testament 1. Origen to preserve himself Chast lay upon the bare ground a-nights abstained from Wine and castrated himself and when he was put to that hard Dilemma whether he would rather expose his Body to a Black-a-moor or offer Incense to an Idol-God he chose the last 2. Cyprian chiefly studied to keep his Body continent and clean from fleshy Lusts saying That then his Heart would be truly fit to reach the full Capacity and Vnderstanding of the Truth if once he could crample under Concupiscence Clark 's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 3. Ephrem Syruâ— shunn'd the Sight of a Woman insomuch that when one of an ill Life and impudent Face by Subbornation as is supposed met and stared him in the Face he rebuked her sharply for it and had her look upon the ground but the Woman answered How can I do that who am not made of the Earth but of thee c. Ephrem went his way wrote a Book of of these Passages between them which the Learned in the Syrian Tongue must esteem Ibid. 4. S. Augustine never admitted Women into his House though of his own Kindred no not his own Sister when she was a Widow and had wholly devoted herself to the Service of God nor his Uncle's Daughter nor his Brother's Daughter saying That though they might dwell in his House without Suspicion yet they could not dwell without Maids or other Women coming to visit them which would be offensive and scandasous And when any Women sent to him desiring to speak with him he would always have some of his Ministers present and would never do it alone Ibid. 5. S. Bernard looking upon a fair Woman so long till he found the fire of Lust begin to burn within him recollected his Thoughts presently and blushing for Shame ran straight-way into a Pool the Weather being then cold up to the Neck where he stayed till he was almost starved and the Flame of his Lust extinguished and thereupon resolved afterwards to enter into a Monastery of the Cistertians the then strictest Order of Friars to retire from the World and enjoy a more free Communion with God Ibid. p. 104. 6. The Chastity of the Primitive Christians appeared in these Particulars 1. They would not marry Justin Martyr saith There were many Christians in his time who for sixty or seventy years kept themselves uncorruptâ— 'T is very easy to find many amongst us both Men and Women who remain unmarried even in old Age. Athenag leg pro Christian yet this without the Obligation of an Oath of Perpetual Virginity 2. When they did Marry it is for no other end but the bringing forth and bringing up of Children as Husbandmen Till the Ground with respect to the Crop at Harvest Just Mart. 3. They seldom married twice Chrysostom's Mother at 40 years old had lived 20 years a Widow Tertullian Cyprian Herom Athenagoras c. did inveigh bitterly against second Marriages as little better than Aduitery 4. They shunned all Occasions c. Going to Feasts Dancing and Musick See more in my Flist of all Religions 7. Beringarius is reported not to have suffered any Women to come in his sight not because he was a Hater of the Sex but because he was to deal with dangerous Adversaries he would warily cut off all Occasions of Suspicion Fuller Abel Rediv. p. 3. 8. St. Hierom relates a Story of a certain young Man named Nicetas under one of the Primitive Persecutors who was of such an invincible Courage and Constancy that the Adversaries of the Truth had no hope of prevailing by Tortures and Torments against him and therefore they took another Course with him They brought him into a most fragrant Garden flowing with all manner of sensual Pleasures and Delights and there they laid him upon a Bed of Down safely inwrapped in a Net of Silk amongst the Lillies and Roses with the delicious Murmur of the Streams and the sweet Whistling of the Leaves and then all departed Presently in comes a beautiful Strumpet and useth all the Abominable Tricks of her impure Art and whorish Villanies to draw him to her Desire
God! Oh! how am I filled with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh Lord I solemnly resolve against all my Sins These are the Murtherers that would not have thee to Reign over me Original Sin the pollution of my own Nature the Sins that I have committed before I knew what Sin was have rendred me obnoxious to thy Displeasure I beg of thee that thou wouldest give them their Death's Wound I shall now meditate on the wonderful Love of God in electing some to Salvation and passing by others and wonder that I shou'd be an Object of Electing Love sure Lord thou cou'dst not have chosen one more vile than I am and one that wou'd have carried it to thee as I have done I may well wonder at thy infinite Love I considered of the Love of God in parting with the Son of his Love to die for Sinners that God shou'd contrive such a way of Salvation for fallen Man and not for fallen Angels What an astonishing amazing Love was that that Christ shou'd become Man that he shou'd be so poor as not to have where to lay his Head when he came to enrich the World Oh that sweet Expression of Christ's Love when he says I was with him when he laid the Foundations of the World yet then my Thoughts were in the habitable part of the Earth and my Delights were with the Sons of Men. That I shou'd be one of them that Christ shou'd have in his Thoughts of Love I cou'd not but cry out And why me Lord why me Oh infinite Free Grace that I shou'd be freely chosen whereas if God had but required Satisfaction for one Sin tho' but a sinful thought I must have perish'd for ever I told Christ Dearest Jesus I cannot at this Sacrament take a denial of thy gracious Presence I come to meet with God and I cannot be contented without him I bless thy Name I have often enjoyed great Delight in this Ordinance but now I would enjoy more of God than ever I would have all my Graces grow and flourish I would have my Sins utterly destroyed and rooted out O Blessed Jesus I come to thee here are my Lusts my Pride my Vnbelief my want of Love to thee the base Sins of my Nature my disingenuous Carriage towards thee here Lord slay them before thee They are unwilling that thou shouldest rule in my Soul I did in these or the like Expressions make over my self to be more entirely God's and I dare own upon review that I did enjoy Christ This did in some measure set my Soul a longing for Heaven Lord said I if a Smile of thy Love is so sweet what are the full and ravishing Views of thy Love If a Glimps of my dearest Jesus is so sweet and refreshing what will the full Visions of God be for ever But my base Heart was several times trying to draw me from God O surely a Freedom from Sin will be unconceivably sweet to me that am so continually harassed with these Corruptions She writ abundance of such MEDITATIONS and EJACVLATIONS as these but here 's all that her Husband could ever get transcribed By these her MEMOIRS and RVLES for holy Living we not only see what an extraordinary Wife she was for her Husband says she fully practis'd 'em but also the happy Effects of a regular Course of Piety for certainly never was there on a Sick-bed a greater Instance of a willing Resignation to the Will of God as to either Life or Death She would often say to her Husband O my dear 't is a solemn thing to die but I can freely leave all the World but you and at saying so she would still burst out into Tears she said at another time Sickness is no time to prepare for Death were my Work now to do I were undone for ever But I shall stop here for she needs not borrowed Shades to set her off I need do no more than refer you to these Memoirs which are all the curious Contexture of her own Brain I shall only add She was MISTRESS IN THE ART OF OBLIGING in which she attain'd that Sovereign Perfection that she reigned over all Hearts with whom she did converse In a word She did consecrate her self entirely to God and was more afraid of Sin than of Hell it self In such a loose Age as this such an extraordinary Instance may perhaps be doubted as to the Truth of it but I do assure the Reader there 's nothing inserted in this Relation of Mrs. L but what is real Matter of Fact CHAP. LII Good Husbands Remarkable HVsbands have as much cause to be good as Wives and more clearness of Reason and strength of Judgment ordinarily to govern their Passions and direct their Actions and therefore they should excel the Women not only in Prudence but in Goodness and particularly Patience And so they do sometimes as for Instance 1. Sir Nathanael Barnardiston seemed here to imitate the Practice of the Lord Jesus towards his Church in his Conjugal Love Protection and full Contentation and Delight until he became a Pattern and Mirrour of Matrimonial Sweetness and Faithfulness and as it is said by one of the Rabbins concerning Methuselah's Wife That she had Nine Husbands in One for Age and Years so I may say of this Gentleman's Lady that she had Nine Husbands in him alone for his aimable Carriage and Graces These were it is true acted while he was living but he left a Testimonial in his Will of his living Affection after his own Death over and above the Marriage-Covenants to shew his endearedness of her by his Affectionate Remembrance when he himself was gone See his Life 2. Dominicus Catalusius was the Prince of Lesbos and is worthy of eternal Memory for the entire Love which he bare to his Wife she fell into a grievous Leprosie which made her appear more like unto a rotten Carcase than a living Body Her Husband not fearing in the least to be infected with the Contagion nor frighted with her horrible Aspects nor distasted with the loathsome Smells sent forth by her filthy Ulcers never forbid her either his Board or Bed but the true Love he had towards her turned all those things to him into Security and Pleasure Lond. Theatr. p. 462. Fulgos L. 4. C. 6. p. 526. 3. Ant. Wallaeus lived most lovingly with his Wife they never brake forth into Anger or mutual Brawling their mutual Care was to please each other and by Deeds to prevent each others's Desires neither did Wallaeus fear any thing more than that his Dear Wife should die before him-for he used her not only for the Government of his Family but for his constant Companion What soever befel him in the Common-wealth Church or Civil Converse he acquainted her with it ask'd and often followed her Advice for she was a modest and prudent Woman Clark's Eccles Hist p. 488. 4. Mr. Eliot of New-England loved prized and cherished that one Wife which was given to
History of Britain tells us That Richard the First besieged a Castle with his Army they offered to surrender if he would save their Lives he refused and threatens to hang them all Upon this an Arbalaster charged his Bow with a square Arrow making first his Prayer to God that he would direct the Shot and deliver the Innocent from Oppression it struck the King himself whereof he Died and they were Delivered Concerning success of Prayer Mr. Baxter gives us these following Relations 1. When at Milborn in Derby-shire I was given up for dead by bleeding an Hundred and Twenty Ounces at the Nose after other Weakness and Bleedings many Years my Father and Mother-in-law dwelling in Shrewsbury the Report came to them there that I was Dead My Mother-in-law was by the Governour and other Friends exhorted to bear it patiently She presently retired to secret Prayer where she professeth that a Trembling and Concussion of her Body surprising her she felt that which constrained her to say what she did when she came forth to her Friends viz. He is not dead but shall live for farther Service And hereupon they sent a Messenger from Shrewsbury to see who found me alive and brought them the Tidings This was in February 1646. My Mother-in-law is yet living about Ninety two Years of Age the Daughter of Sir Thomas Hunkes two of her Brothers Sir Foulk Hunkes and Sir Henry Hunkes were known Soldiers for the King the one Governour of Shrewsbury and the other of Banbury Castle a while She is one that hath spent a great part of her Life in secret Prayer with great neglect of the Flesh and World and longing to die and be with Christ which she hath not yet obtained but will ere long Since the writing of this dead at 96 in full Understanding and great Holiness 2. After long Pain and Weakness reading a Latin Book of one Grehard a foreign Physician I found in him that his own Father had been cured of some of my Distempers as I then thought by daily swallowing a Bullet of purest Gold I got one of the Weight of a twenty Shilling price and swallowed it but it remained in me And hearing of a Gentleman within twelve Miles of me that lately did the like and it never passed from him but he died quickly made me take Clysters and Purges but none of them stirred it My poor praying Neighbours not then fearing the Canon which strictly forbiddeth it set apart a Day to Fast and Pray for my Deliverance and that Morning it came away after many Weeks abode three or four and they spent the rest of the day in Thanksgiving 3. In my Weakness being under Physick with Dr. Wright then living in Shrewsbury there suddenly rose upon one of the Tonsils of my Throat a round Tumor seeming to me as hard as a Bone and about as big as a great Pea or small Button half out of the Flesh and half in I feared lest it would prove a Cancer but the Doctor told me he did not think so but what it was he knew not but perwaded having first tried dissolving and dissipating means in vain to quiet it only with Gargarisms of hot Milk It increased but little but no means altered it till as I remember about a quarter of a Year after my Conscience reproved me that having had so many great Mercies upon Prayer I never gave God the Honour or Thanks of publick Mentioning them for fear of seeming to seek some Glory to my self being the next morning to preach my Lecture I obeyed my Conscience and mentioned them in the Words since Printed and Published in the second part of Saints Everlasting Rest being then upon the Proof of the Truth of the Scriptures I had before constantly felt it and too oft looked at in Galss As soon as I had Preached and spoken those Words I felt no more of it As I came out of the Pulpit I put my Finger in my Mouth to feel it but could feel nothing I hasted home to the Glass and saw that there was neither Vola vel Vestigium vel Cicatrix no Cavity Tumor Discolouring nor any sign where ever it way and I am sure I neither spit it out nor swallowed it and to the last Hour it seemed as hard as a Bone 4. Richard Cooke a Mercer in Kniver was long a Man of a pious unblameable Life and on of the chief of good old Mr. John Gross since Minister here in Friday-street his Congregation When I came to Kederminster he removed thither and took a House the next Door to me which proved Old Dangerous and so ill a Bargain as cast him into melancholy Doubts that he did not well to leave his Habitation His Father before him had long lived and at last died in Distraction taking too much hot Waters to comfort him in Sadness Nature Trouble and those together prevailed to his utter Distraction He so continued from 1642 to 1646. The best means by such as were most noted for Curing that Disease were used and all in vain My Neighbours of Kederminster resolved not easily to give over Fasting and Praying with and for him till he was recovered divers Days all seemed in vain but at last he amended and hath been recovered without any other Remedy now from the Year 1646 to this present time 1678 though not altogether of so perfect strength of Brain as before yet of competent Understanding About a Year or two ago I saw him in London and I hear he is yet alive and well 1678. 5. Thomas Giles the Son of Mr. Giles of Astley was sent to be an Apprentice in Worcester where after a Feaver he had a violent Epilepsie after much Physick in Worcester and opening his Head and all in vain hs Mother took him home with her into Kederminster his Fits were sometimes twice a day we were fain to put a Key into his Mouth lest he should bite off his Tongue At last the aforesaid praying Persons resolved to try the old Remedy of Fasting and Praying till he was recovered the first day they found no success as I can remember it was the second day while they were together Praying he was suddenly cured Hist of Appar Witches p. 187. CHAP. LXXVI Present Retribution to the Charitable Dr. Hammond in his Sermon on Deut. 26.12 13. layeth down this Proposition That Alms-giving or Mercifulness was never the wasting or lessening of any Mans Estate to himself or his Posterity but rather the encreasing of it And thereupon addeth If I have delivered a new Doctrine which will not presently be believed such as every Auditor will not consent to I doubt not but there be plain Texts of Scripture more then one which will assure every Christian of the Truth of it Consider them at your leisure Psal 41.1 2. Psal 112. all to this purpose Prov. 11.25 and 12.9 and 19.17 and 28.27 Add to these the Words of Christ Mark 10.30 which though more generally delivered of any kind
of parting with Possessions for Christ's sake are applied by St. Hierom to the Words of Solomon Prov. 11.24 There is that scattereth and yet encreaseth because saith he they receive an hundred fold in this World This saith he I am resolved on 't is want of Belief and nothing else that keeps Men from the Practice of this Duty Could this one Mountain be removed the lessening of our Wealth that Alms-giving is accused of Could that one Scandal to Flesh and Blood be kicked out of the way there is no other Devil would take the unmerciful Man's part no other Temptation molest the Alms-giver And let me tell you that you have no more Evidence for the truth of Christ's coming for all the Fundamentals of your Faith on which you are content your Salvation should depend then such as I have given you for your security in this point Arch-bishop Tillotson tells us in his Sermon upon Acts 10. v. 38. That to do good is the most pleasant Employment in the World It is natural and whatever is so is delightful We do like our selves when ever we relieve the Wants and Distresses of others And therefore this Virtue among all other hath peculiarly entituled it self to the name of Humanity We answer our own Nature and obey our Reason and shew our selves Men in shewing Mercy to the Miserable when ever we consider the Evils and Afflictions of others we do with the greatest Reason collect our Duty from our Nature and Inclination and make our own Wishes and Desires and Expectations from others a Law and Rule to our selves And this is pleasant to follow our Nature and to gratifie the importunate Dictates of our own Reason So that the Benefits we do to others are not more welcome to them that receive them then they are delightful to us that do them We ease our own Nature and Bowels when ever we help and relieve those who are in Want and necessity As on the contrary no Man that hath not divested himself of Humanity can be cruel and hard-hearted to others without feeling some Pain in himself There is no sensual Pleasure in the World comparable to the Delight and Satisfaction that a good Man takes in doing good This Cato in Tully boasts of as the great Comfort and Joy of his old Age That nothing was more pleasant to him than the Conscience of a well spent Life and the remembrance of many Benefits and Kindnesses done to others Sensual Pleasures are not lasting but presently vanish and expire But that is not the worst of them they leave a Sting behind them as the Pleasure goes off Succedit frigida cura Sadness and Melancholy come in the place of it But the Pleasure of doing good remains after a thing is done the thoughts of its lie easie in our Minds and the reflection upon it afterwards does for ever minister Joy and Delight to us In a word That Frame of Mind which enclines us to do Good is the very Temper and Disposition of Happiness Solomon after all his Experience of worldly Pleasures pitches at last upon this as the greatest Felicity of Human Life and the only good Use that is to be made of a prosperous and plentiful Fortune Eccl. 3.12 I know that there is no good in them but for a Man to rejoyce and do god in his Life And a greater and wiser then Solomon had said That it is more blessed to give then to receive Thus far Arch-bishop Tillotson I now proceed to Instances of present Retribution to the Charitable 1. St. Alban whom Mr. Fox in his first Tome mentioned amongst the Martyrs who suffered for the Name and Cause of Christ having received a poor persecuted Minister into his House was by his godly Life and gracious Exhortations so wrought upon that he turned from Heathenism to Christianity and at last suffered as a Martyr for the Truth of Jesus Christ as Beda and others write of hâ—â— His kindness to a poor persecuted Minister was recompenced not only with his Conversion to the true Religion but likewise with the honour of Martyrdom 2. St. Austin having set forth the mercifulness an liberality of Constantine the Great saith Bonus Deus Constantinum magnum tantis terrenis implevit muneribus c. God gave Constantine that merciful Prince more Wealth than Heart could wish for his bounty to the Poor Aug. de Civitate Dei l. 5. 3. Dr. Hammond in his forementioned Treatise mentioned an ancient Story out of Cedrenus of a Jew who upon reading those words of Solomon Prov. 19.17 He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again resolved to try whether God would be as good as his word thereupon gave all that he had but two pieces of Silver to the Poor and then waited and expected to see it come again But being not presently answered in that Expectation grew angry and went up to Jerusalem to expostulate with God for not performing his Promise And going on his way found two Men a striving engaged in an unreconcileable Quarrel about a Stone that both walk together had found in the way and so had both equal right to it but being but one and not capable of being divided they could not both enjoy and therefore to make them Friends he having two pieces of Silver doth upon contract divide them betwixt the Contenders and hath the Stone in exchange for them having it he goes on his Journey and coming to Jerusalem shews it the Goldsmith who tells him it was a Jewel of great Value being a Stone fallen and lost out of the High Priests Ephod to whom if he carried it he should certainly receive a great Reward He did so and accordingly it proved the High Priest took it of him gave him a great Reward and withal sharply reproved him for questioning the truth of God's Promise bidding him trust God the next time 4. The Story of Tiberius the Second is pertinent to this purpose which take in the Words of that Reverend Person before-mentioned in his Sermon at the Spittle This Tiberius was very Famous for his Bounty to the Poor insomuch that his Wife was wont to blame him for it and speaking to him once how he wasted his Treasury that way he told her He should never want Money so long as in obedience to Christ's Commands he did supply the necessity of the Poor And presently see how Providence ordered it Immediately after he had given much this way under a Marble Table which was taken up he found a great Treasury and news was brought him too of the Death of one Narses a very rich Man who had given his whole Estate unto him 5. Famous is the Story of that charitable Bishop of Millain who as he was Travelling with his Servant overtook some poor People who begged an Alms of him whereupon he asked his Man what Money he had about him who answered Three Crowns which he commanded him to give
of blasphemous Imitations of certain things recorded about our Saviour or the Prophets or the Saints in the Kingdom of God II. Secondly It seems an unaccountable thing how the Witches can render Themselves and Tools invisible or indeed how the Devils themselves can do it and yet that they do so is most undoubted Matter of Fact This strange Operation makes our Author think that Witchcraft principally consists in a Skill how to abuse the plastick Spirit of the World unto some unlawful Purposes by means of a Confederacy with Evil Spirits to whom Witches are engaged by a Magical Sacrament And here to confute those Persons that are so dogmatical against these Points he inserts three strange Instances of the Truth of them which I shall repeat in few words One of the bewitched People of whom he speaks pretending she was Assaulted by a Spectre with a Spindle though no body but she could see it at last in her Pains she gave a snatch at the Spectre and pulled away the Spindle which as soon as she got into her Hand became visible to others then present who found it to be a real solid iron Spindle belonging they knew to whom which though they locked up safe it was unaccountably stolen away again by Demons Secondly Another Woman was haunted by a very abusive Spectre that she said came to her in a Sheet at which she likewise giving a snatch tore away a Corner of it which in her Hand immediately became visible to a Room full of Spectators and was sound to be a palpable Corner of a Sheet Her Father who was then holding her catch'd that he might hold what his Daughter had so strangely seised but the unseen Spectre had like to have torn off his Hand endeavouring to wrest it from him However he still held it and has it says the Author as he supposes still it being but a few Hours before his Writing this it being at the beginning of October 1692. That this Accident happened in the Family of one Pitman at Manchester Thirdly A young Man delaying to procure Testimonials for his Parents who were in Prison upon suspicion of Witchcraft was persued with very odd Inconveniencies and once above the rest an Officer going to put his Brand on the Horns of some Cows that belonged to those People which though he had seised for their Debts yet he was willing to leave in their Possession for the subsistance of the poor Family This young Man helped him in holding the Cows thus to be Branded the first three Cows he held well enough but when the hot Brand was clapt upon the fourth he winced at such a rate that he could hold the Cow no longer and being asked the reason he said That at the same instant the Brand entred the Cows Horn he felt exactly the like burning Brand clapt upon his own Thigh and shewed the lasting Marks of it to such as desired to see them Now let our Sadducees unriddle these Phaenomena's if they can A third remarkable Curiosity is That the Execution of some of these Witches has been immediately attended with the strange Recovery of some Persons that had lain for many Years in a most sad Condition under they knew not what evil Hands And the Author inclines to believe That many of the Self-murders lately committed in those parts were the Effects of Witchcraft letting fly Demons to disturb the Minds of those poor Wretches because several who were before distracted and under the like Terrors of a despairing Humour and the like Temptations to Self-murther had marvellously recovered their Senses and a calmness of Mind upon the Execution of the late Witches Fourthly The frequent Apparitions of Ghosts of murdered People together with the Spectres of the Witches is another strange Remarkable and so much the stranger because all those People whose Ghosts have so seemed to appear to the bewitched Persons have been found in Fact to have died very unaccountably And no less astonishing is the frequent Apparitions of Ghosts even to other Persons not bewitched by which old Murthers have been revealed had considered of which our Author gives a very signal and fresh Instance concerning a poor Man lately prest to Death because he refused to plead for his Life which he Inserts in an Extract of a Letter written to the honourable Samuel Sewall Esq by one Mr. Putnam to which I refer you Having already insisted longer on this Matter than the Room we have here will well permit tho' I shall not think my Labour ill spent if it may serve but to convince any Unbeliever in the Points now so mainly contested about the Being and Operation of Spirits and other Wonders of the Invisible World CHAP. XCIII Satan Restrained in Hurting c. GOD only is Absolute and restrained with no Limits all the Creatures are dependent upon his Will tied with a Chain to his Throne they have Bounds set them Pillars of Non-ultra beyond which they may not pass And 't is well for us that not only Satan but all his Agents are in Chains that God hath set a Hook in Leviathan 's Jaws that he can move no whither without leave and permission for it would be a sad World if the Devil were absolute Ranger and Lord Paramount in it 1. Upon a time a certain Wizzard sent his Spirits to kill Ambrose but they returned Answer That God had hedged him in as he did Job Another came with his Sword to his Bed-side to have killed him but he could not stir his Hand 'till repenting he was by the Prayer of Ambrose restored to the Use of his Hands again Clark's Mar. of Eccl. Hist 2. Wolphius wrote to Skenkius That near Zurick the Devil vexed a Melancholly Woman and sollicited her to drown herself she went and sate long on the Flood-gate of a Pond at last by his Importunity she yielded saying If it must be so on Gods Name let it be so and cast herself into the Water where she lay three Hours on her Back and could not sink and being found and brought home her Body was light as Straw and she recovered her Health Hist Disc of Apparitions and Witches p. 97. 3. About the Year 1644. the Lord Grandison a Scottish Noble-man took up his Habitation for some time at Berwick upon Tweed and brought his Family with him in which amongst others was the Steward of his House who was a very Religious Man but was then very much afflicted in Mind among others Mr. Robert Balsam a very Religious Minister in those Parts came to Visit him and spake comfortably to him whereupon the Man's Tongue swelled out of his Mouth and a Voice came out of his Throat without any Motion of his Tongue saying What dost thou talk to him of Promises and Free Grace he is mine Mr. Balsom replying That Satan was a Lyar and bound and that the Blood of Christ cleanses us from all Sin Satan beginning to Curse Swear and Blaspheme in a most terrible manner Mr. Balsom
the King's Absence these Penalties were inflicted upon the chief Officer whose manifest Corruptions the Hatred of the People to Men of that Profession who are apt to abuse their Science and Authority procured in Parliament to be thus punished Sir Ralph Hengham Chief Justice of the King's-Bench was Fined 7000 Marks Sir John Loveton Justice of the Lower Bench 3000 Sir William Brompton Justice 6000 Sir Solomon Rochester 4000 All Itenerant Justices Sir Richard Boyland 4000 All Itenerant Justices Sir Tho. Sadington 2000 All Itenerant Justices Sir Walter Hopton 2000 All Itenerant Justices Sir W. Sakam 3000 Robert Lithbury Master of the Rolls 1000 Roger Leicester 1000 Henry Bray Escheator and Judge for the Jews 1000 Sir Adam Stratton Chief Baron of the Exchequer was Fined 34000 Marks See the Relation of that memorable Parliament begun An. Regni 10. Richard II. p. 36 37. 2. Sir Francis Bacon Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans that Atlas of Learning suffer'd for but his Connivance at the Bribery and Corruption of his Servants and was by the Parliament put out of the Office of Lord Chancellor Ibid. 3. Judge Morgan who gave the Sentence of Death upon the Lady Jane Grey presently after fell and and in all his distracted Fits cried out continually Take away the Lady Jane Take away the Lady Jane from me and in this extream Distemper ended his Life Fox's Martyrol 4. June 24. 1678. Mr. Daniel Bachelor Minister told me of a Citizen of London to whom he was sent for in his Sickness whâ—n God had let loose Conscience upon him The Man repeated over all the Commandments and confessed the Sins be was guilty of against each Command such as Incest and Adultery lived in many Years The Chastity of his Servant he sollicited but was repulsed But his Master-Sin was Perjury taking false Oaths and hiring Met Knights of the Post as they are called frequently to do so The Devil led him into that Sin first as he said thus He wanted Proof for a Debt that was a just Debt and hired one of those who procured his Debt that was just in this unjust way By this he contracted Hardness of Heart and plunged himself in Villainies of that nature There were above an Hundred Actions against him when he died He fell sick on a Friday lay about ten Days under the horrid gnawings of the Worm that dieth not upon his Bed not in Distraction but Desperation crying out once in his presence I am damned for ever and added most fearful to hear Amen Amen Amen and had an Expression so blasphemous of the Holy and Ever-blessed God that for Horror I shall draw a Veil over it Yet some have Robb'd hard by the Gallows And this poor Wretch thus hung up in Chains by the Lord did not awaken sufficiently one of his Knights of the Post that came to see him while the Minister my Friend was present O take heed said he by my Example now I smart for what I have done and put you upon doing The Man in Health told him he was melancholick and was not moved He had a Charge to relate this woful Death of his to his Sister with whom he had been incestuously Wicked She gave a seemingly courteous Reception to him and seemed sensible of it The Minister my Friend when he had done his Errand coming down from her Chamber at the Door of which he had left his Galosho's missing them went up again and over-heard her say to a Companion of hers there The Fool thought I had been in earnest The Man though he had unjustly ravish'd Thousands out of Men died miserably poor This Relation was sent me by the Reverend Mr. Singleton now living in Hoxdon-Square near the City of London and is printed in the same Words I received it 5. It may not be altogether impertinent to take notice here what King Charles the I. applied to himself on the Scaffold that for one unjust Sentence which he had suffer'd to pass meaning the Earl of Strafford God had suffered the like unjust Judgment to be passed on him â—ee his Speech on the Scaffold 6. Sir P. P. in Letter to the Bishop of Lincoln saith That in the famous Marriage-Cause between Mrs. Isabella Jones and Sir Robert Carr in the Arches where Sir Robert Carr was claimed by her for her Husband though for want of full Proof of the Marriage Sir Giles Sweit the Dean of the Arches pronounced Sentence against the Marriage yet condemning Sir Robert Carr in 1500 Pound Costs to Mrs. Jones Which the Judge did because he was in Conscience convinced that Sir Robert Carr and Mrs. Jones were really married To this Sir Peter Pett in the aforesaid Letter adds I can saith he at any time acquaint you with the Circumstances of that Cause and give you an Account of the Remarkable Judgments of God inflicted on the Persons who tampered with the Witness in that Cause whereby the Marriage failed of Sentence Remains of Dr. Barlow Bishop of Lincoln p. 368. 7. The Emperor of Muscovy sent for a Judge who had taken a Bribe viz. a Goose with its Belly full of Gold commanded him and the other Judges to appear before him not discovering the least Displeasure They all appeared chearful he commanded the Hangman to be brought in and ask'd him if he knew how to cut up a Goose Answer being made very well Then said the Emperor take away that Judge and cut him up after the same manner which was forthwith done accordingly Smythy's Treatise of Restitution p. 19. who says he had the Relation from a Minister whose Brother was an Eye-witness CHAP. CXXXV Divine Judgments upon Lying and Slandering OVR Tongues are the Indexes of our Mind to signifie the Thoughts and Meanings thereof to the World if the one agree not to the other the Motions are false and the Wheels out of order What is a Clâ—â—k good for if it doth not tell the true Hour of the Day Lyars are shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven and deserve but little Favour upon Earth and some times meet with just Punishments Prov. 19.5 1. Alexander the Great having read a History out of Aristobulus wherein the Author had intermingled certain counterfeit Praises flung the Book into the River saying the said Writer deserved to be flung there himself Coguet's Polit. Disc p. 130. 2. The Emperor Trajan sirnamed the Good Prince took away from the Son of Cabalus the Kingdom of Dacia that is Transilvania and Valachia only because he caught him in a Lye and told him That Rome the Mother of Truth could not permit a Lyar to possess a Kingdom Ibid. 3. Cyrus told the King of Armenia That a Lye was not capable of Pardon Ibid. 4. Monstrelet writes That Popiel King of Poland who had ever in his Mouth these Words If it be not true I would the Rats might cat me that he was so assailed by Rats in a Banquet that neither his Guards nor Fire nor Water could preserve him from them Ibid.
and at last sacrificed his Right Hand for but tampering a little this way 'T is ill jesting with God and our own Consciences who will neither of them be mocked 17. Berengarius tried this and therefore though he retracted his Doctrine against Transubstantiation he relapsed again and retracted and relapsed again or rather returned and repented finding no Peace for his Conscience whilst he had not Truth in his Possesston CHAP. CXLI Great Effects wrought by weak means IT is pleasant to observe how God delights to shew his Power by using weak and contemptible Instruments and to werk â—â—eat Effects by little secondary Causes to make a World by speaking a Word or two to punish and subdue a slout-hearted Pharaoh with Frogs and Lice and Locusts and Darkness to baffle a Giant-like People in Canaan with a handful of Men to make the Walls of Jericho fall down and the Peoples Hearts quail with only a Shout and the Noise of Rams Horns to overthrow the two great Religions of the World Judaisin and Pagan Idolatry with the Foolishness of Preaching and the Piety and Patience of Confessors and Martyrs to turn Sinners Thoughts into a Case of Knives or a Nest of Wasps or Serpents to sting and torment them with 1. The Duke of Arcos Viceroy of Naples under the King of Spain having imposed many Gabels or Taxes both vendible and eatable at last imposed a Gabel upon Fruit also which more irritated and offended that Multitude than all the former Whereupon by the publick Cries and Lamentations of Men and Women they daily solicited the Viceroy as he passed through the Market-place to ease them of the said Burthen they used also the Mediation of others and not prevailing they were ready to raise a Mutiny Which so affrighted the Viceroy that he promised quite to take off the said Gabel but delaying to do it some of the enraged People one Night but fire to some Powder in the Market-place where the said Gabel was exacted and blew it up There were also from Day to Day bitter Invectives and fiery Protests against the publick Officers fixed up in sundry Places of the City The Viceroy being alarmed thereby often assembled the six Precincts of the City to consult about this Business But they were divided some perswading him to ease and please the People others advising him to Repair the Toll-house that was burnt down and continue the Gabel saying That they were but a few Tatterdemallions that had made that Noise Besides divers of the great Men and Merchants of the City had advanced upon the said Gabel above 600000 Crowns and were to pay 85000 Crowns of annual Rent This was noised abroad and the Report went That if this Tax was taken off there would be a new one set upon â—orn and Wine Whereupon the enraged People protested That they would never endure the same and whilst these Discontents were hot July 17. 1647. this Occasion suddenly presented it self A young Man of about 24 Years old being spritely pleasant and of a middle stature in Linen-Slops Blew Wastcoat and bare-foot with a Mariner's Cap on his Head happened to be in the Market-place His Profession was to angle for little Fishes as also to buy Fish and carry them about to sell He was vulgarly called Massianello and being naturally Crafty he observed the general Murmurings of the People and so went up and down to the Fruiterers Shops and advised them That meeting together the next Day in the Market-place they should tell the Country Fruiterers That they would buy no more gabelled Fruit. Upon this he listed many Boys under him to the number of Two Thousand giving every one of them a little Cane in their Hand Against a great Festival that was approaching a Feast that used to be made by the Boys and meaner fort of People in the Market-place he gathered to the number of Fifty Thousand Upon this Success the number of People encreased exclaiming aloud against their Oppressions protesting to pay no more Gabel crying out Let the King of Spain live and let the ill Government die Massianello being thus attended with his Boys and an infinite Company of loose People who were now armed with Pikes and Partizans he leaped up on a Table and with a loud Voice cried Be merry my dear Companions and give God Thanks that the Hour of your Redemption draws near This poor bare-footed Fellow as another Moses who freed the Israelites from Pharaoh's Rod shall redeem you from all Gabâ—ls Peter a Fisherman redeemed with his Voice Rome and with it all the World from Satan's Slavery to the Liberty of Christ Now another Fisher-man which is Massianello shall release Naples and with it a whole Kingdom from the Tyranny of Gabels c. Nor to effect this do I care a Rush to be torn in pieces and to be dragged up and down the Gutters of Naples let all the Blood in my Body spin out of these Veins let my Head skip from my Shoulders by a fatal Steel and be pearched in this Market-place on a Pole yet I shall die contentedly and gloriously It will be Honour enough to me to think that my Blood and Life perish in so glorious a Cause In short he afterwards brought the Viceroy to an Agreement but after some time falling into a Frensie by either Excess of Wine or Watching and Cares died See more in the printed Narrative or Clark 's Examples 2. The Inhabitants of Myons a City of Jonia were so pester'd with Gnats which were bred in a muddy Pond near them that they were constrain'd thereupon to leave the City and fly to Milerum This I read many Years ago when a Student in the University but took no care then to Record my Author 3. Luther by his Preaching and Disputing baffled the Arguments Arts and Power of two very potent Enemies the Pope and Emperor and procured a happy Reformation in the Church 4. Francis Spira was punished in this World for his Apostacy with the keen Reflections of a guilty Conscience and many others besides Our own Thoughts may be sufficient to make a Hell of 5. Some have been convicted of Murder by the Barking of a Dog the Flight of Birds the Shaking of Leaves Anacreon was choaked with a Grape-stone Adrian with a Gnat others with the Excrements of Birds flying over their Heads An Acquaintance of mine dislocated her Thigh-bone with only turning a Custard at the Fire and died upon it 7. This very Year a Woman near Hanmer going over a Hedge was hung to Death with her Head-string catching accidentally in the Sticks as was related to me by Mr. Henry of Broad-oak in Flintshire CHAP. CXLII Remarkable Passages relating to Sickness Death and Funerals WHat was long since decreed in Heaven God hath sent Warrants to execute on Earth Semel mori For us once to die Then be acquainted with Death betimes for through acquaintance Death will lose his Horror like unto an ill Face though it be as formidable as a
He hath done it already Brother And to one that had been helpful to him in his Sickness The God that made you and bought you with a great Price Redeem your Body and Soul unto himself Which were his last words Decemb. 23. 1652. aged 68. Ibid. p. 229. 94. Dr. Will. Gouge after three days illness complained Alas I have lost three days And to a Friend visiting him I am willing to die having I bless God nothing to do but to die And to his Sister being afraid to leave him alone Why Sister said he I shall I am sure be with Christ when I die Which he did Decemb. 12. 1653. aged 79. Ibid. p. 246. 95. Mr. Tho. Gataker gave this his last Charge to his Relations Sister Son Daughter c. My heart fails and my strength fails but God is my Fortress and the strong Rock of my Salvation into thy hands therefore I commend my Soul for thou hast redeemed me O God of Truth Son you have a great Charge look to it Instruct your Wife and Family in the fear of God and discharge your Ministry conscientiously To his Sister two Years older than himself he said Sister I thought you might have gone before me but God calls for me first I hope we shall meet in Heaven I pray God to bless you He admonished his Daughter to mind the World less and God more for that all things without Piety and the true fear of God are nothing worth Advising his Son Draper to Entertain some Pious Minister in his House to teach his Children and instruct his Family exhorting them all to Love and Unity And then commanded them all to withdraw He died July 27. 1654. aged near 80. Ibid. p. 259. 96. Mr. Bolton dying told his Children That none of them should dare think to meet him at God's Tribunal in an unregenerate Estate And when some of his Parish desired him to express what he felt in his Soul of the exceeding Comforts that are in Christ answered I am by the wonderful Mercy of God as full of Comfort as my heart can hold and feel nothing in my Soul but Christ with whom I heartily desire to be And looking upon some that were weeping said Oh what a deal of do there is ere one can die Chetwind's Collections 97. Mr. Whitaker Do not complain but bless God for me and entreat him to open the Prison-door He died 1654. aged 55. Ibid. p. 272. 98. Mr. Rich. Capel Sept. 21. 1656. preached twice taking his leave of the World by pressing Faith in God That Evening he repeated both his Sermons in his Family read his Chapter went to Prayer and so to Bed and died immediately Sept. 21. 1656. He often said That if God saw fit one had better die of a quick than lingring Death Ibid. p. 313. 99. Mr. Jessey the last Night he lived cried out Oh the unspeakable Love of God! Oh the vilest Oh the vilest that he should reach me when I could not reach him And then rehearsing over and over Blessed be that ever ever ever Blessed and Glorious Majesty And when a Cordial appointed for him was brought Trouble me not upon your own Peril trouble me not Then shewing his care for the Poor Widows and Fatherless and desiring Prayers and afterwards repeating Acts 2.27 and calling for more Julip more Julip meaning more Scriptures by and by he sang this Hymn Jerusalem my heart's Delight I come I come to thee Then shall my sorrows have an end When I thy Joys shall see Then often repeating those words Praises for ever Amen Amen Praises to the Amen for ever and ever Amen After a while he fell asleep Sept. 4. 1663. aged 63. Mr. Collier in his Life and Death p. 94. 100. Mr. Brand thus Oh! my God my God what is sinful Man Worm-man what manner of Love is this Love indeed O I cannot express it Oh! let me be with thee with thee O my God! Oh! I long for Heaven Oh! welcome Death Oh! happy Death that will put an end to all my Troubles and Afflictions one Moment in Abraham's Bosom will make amends for all turn Sorrow to Joy What a dreadful Appearance will there be at the Great Day what a sad thing to be disappointed and come short of Heaven O my Redeemer liveth I have served a good Master I would not desire Life for a Moment unless to promote the Interest of Christ If God would give me my choice what I would ask I would not ask Life Nay I have prayed to God that I might die Why so said a by-stander That I may be said he with God! O my God I would come to thee Let me live with Thee As he was going to Bed with much concernedness of Mind he said There will be a Cry at Midnight Prepare Prepare Which came to pass accordingly for after going to Bed he was taken with a Vomiting of Blood and after that died Dr. Annesly in his Life 101. Mr. John Janeway for the latter part of his Life he lived like a Man that was quite weary of the World and that looked upon himself as a stranger here and that lived in the constant sight of a better World He plainly declared himself but a Pilgrim that looked for a better Country a City that had Foundations whose builder and maker was God His Habit his Language his Deportment all spoke him one of another World His Meditations were so intense long and frequent that they ripened him apace for Heaven but somewhat weakned his Body Few Christians attain to such a holy contempt of the World and to such clear believing joyful constant Apprehensions of the transcendent Glories of the unseen World On his Death-bed he thus express'd himself O help me to Praise God I have now nothing else to do I have done with Prayer and all other Ordinances I have almost done conversing with Mortals I shall presently be beholding Christ himself that died for me and loved me and washed me in his Blood I shall before a few hours are over be in Eternity singing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. I shall presently stand upon Mount Zion with an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of the Just made perfect and Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant I shall hear the voice of much People and be one amongst them which shall say Hallelujah Salvation Glory Honour and Power unto the Lord our God and again we shall say Hallelujah And yet a very little while and I shall sing unto the Lamb a Song of Praise saying Worthy art thou to receive Praise who wert slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation and hast made us unto our God Kings and Priests and we shall Reign with thee for ever and ever Methinks I stand as it were with one Foot in Heaven and the other upon Earth methinks I hear the Melody of Heaven and by Faith I see the Angels waiting
rise up in Judgment against you My Lord I profess my self a True and Obedient Son to the Church of England to that Church wherein I was born and wherein I was bred Prosperity and Happiness be ever to it And wherein it hath been said That I have been enclined to Popery If it be an Objection worth answering let me say truly That from the Time I was One and twenty Years of Age till this Hour going up Nine and forty I never had thought in my Heart to doubt of the Truth of my Religion in England and never any had the boldness to suggest to me the contrary to the best of my Remembrance and so being reconciled to the Mercies of Christ Jesus my Saviour into whose Bosom I hope shortly to be gathered to enjoy those Eternal Happinesses that shall never have end I desire heartily the Forgiveness of every Man both for any rash or unadvised Word or Deed and desire your Prayers And so my Lords Farewel Farewel all the Things of this World Lord strengthen my Faith give me Confidence and Assurance in the Merits of Christ Jesus I desire that you would be silent and joyn in Prayers with me and I trust in God we shall all meet and live eternally in Heaven there to receive the Accomplishment of all Happiness where every Tear shall be wiped from our Eyes and every sad Thought from our Hearts and so God bless this Kingdom and Jesus have Mercy upon my Soul After this he prayed twice and with a low Obeysance took his Leave submitting to the Block The Relat. of his Execut. 113. Archbishop Laud made this his last Speech on the Scaffold Jan. 10. 1644. GOod People this is an uncomfortable time to preach yet I shall begin with a Text of Scripture Hebr. 12.2 Let us run with patience the race c. I have been long in my Race and how I have look'd to Jesus the Author and Finisher of my Faith he best knows I am now come to the end of my Race and here I find a Cross a Death of Shame but the Shame must be despised or no coming to the Right of God Jesus despised the Shame for me and God forbid but I should despise the Shame for him I am going apace as you see towards the Red Sea and my Feet are now upon the very brink of it an Argument I hope that God is bringing me into the Land of Promise for that was the way through which he led his Prophets but before they came to it he instituted a Passover for them a Lamb it was but to be eaten with sour Herbs I shall obey and labour to digest the sour Herbs as well as the Lamb and I shall remember it is the Lord 's Passover I shall not think of the Herbs nor be angry with the Hand that gathers them but look only to Him who instituted that and governs these for Men can have no more power over me than what is given them from above I am not in love with this Passage through the Red Sea for I have the Weaknesses and Infirmities of Flesh and Blood plentifully in me and I have prayed with my Saviour that this Cup of Red Wine might pass from me but if not God's Will not mine be done And I shall most willingly drink of this Cup as deep as he pleaseth and enter into this Sea yea and pass through it in the way that he shall lead me But I would have it remembred Good People that when God's Servants were in this boisterous Sea and Aaron among them the Egyptians which persecuted them and did in a manner drive them into that Sea were drowned in the same Waters while they were in pursuit of them I know the God whom I serve is able to deliver me from this Sea of Blood as the Three Children from the Furnace And I most humbly thank my Saviour for it my Resolution is now as theirs was then they would not worship the Image the King had set up nor will I the Imaginations which the People are setting up nor will I forsake the Temple and the Truth of God to follow the Bleating of Jeroboam's Calf in Dan and in Bethel And as for this People they are at this Day miserably misled God of his Mercy open their Eyes that they may see the right way for at this Day the Blind lead the Blind and if they go on both will certainly fall into the Ditch For my self I am and I acknowledge it in all Humility a most grievous Sinner many ways by Thought Word and Deed and I cannot doubt but that God hath Mercy in store for me a poor Penitent as well as for other Sinners I have now upon this sad Occasion ransacked every corner of my Heart and yet I thank God I have not found among the many any one Sin which deserves Death by any known Law of this Kingdom And yet hereby I charge nothing upon my Judges for if they proceed upon Proof by valuable Witnesses I or any other Innocent may be justly condemned and I thank God tho' the weight of this Sentence lie heavy upon me I am as quiet within as ever I was in my Life and tho' I am not only the first Archbishop but the first Man that ever died by an Ordinance in Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way tho' not by this means For Elphegus was hurried away and lost his Life by the Danes 3. and Simon Suabury in the Fury of Wat. Tyler and his Fellows before these St. John Baptist had his Head danced off by a lewd Woman and St. Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his Head to a persecuting Sword Many Examples great and good and they teach me Patience for I hope my Cause in Heaven will look of another dye than the Colour that is put upon it here and some Comfort it is to me that I go the way of these Great Men in their several Generations and also that my Charge as foul as it is made looks like that of the Jews against St. Paul Act. 25.3 for he was accused for the Law and the Temple i. e. Religion and like that of St. Stephen Act. 6.14 for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave i. e. Law and Religion the Holy Place and the Temple v. 13. But you will say Do I then compare my self with the Integrity of St. Paul and St. Stephen No! far be that from me I only raise a Comfort to my self that these Great Saints and Servants of God were laid at in their times as I am now and 't is memorable that he who helped on this Accusation against St. Stephen did after all fall under the very same himself Yea but here 's a great Clamour that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by In the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself If we let him alone all men will believe in him venient Romani
Ciod of Earth or if she wou'd ' Ise too much a Platonick to tell her I am Flesh and Blood No my Dear when you are gone I can easily part with every thing my Leave then will soon be taken of All but my self Never did any Man bid Adieu to the World more absolutely and purely and shake Hands with all Women in it than I shall do when thou art dead not but I kindly resent thy recommending that dear Saint But she and Argus have nothing to fear For tho' my Flesh is malicious enough yet I 'm as Chast as Ice and a perfect Enemy to Caterwauling I love my Daphne ' cause she pleases me And therefore only pleases ' cause 't is she And therefore in her shake Hands with the whole Sex But tho' I 'm averse to a Second Wife yet to forbid thee Marriage after my Death according to the Property of some Husbands I will not for the Holy Scripture saith The Wife is bound unto the Marriage as long as her Husband liveth If her Husband die she is at Liberty to marry with whom she will only in the Lord. If therefore after my Death thou hast a mind to Marry again as I scarce think it of thee Marry in the Name of the Lord our God but follow not the Practice of doating Widows who couple with those to whom they might more properly have given suck Neither would I have thee engage in a Smithfield Bargain What! Marry for Money or be laying new Foundations of Life now you are half way through it To lay up Goods for many Years was thought by the Primitive Christians fitter for Heathens than Christians for having seen no such thing in their Master they could not tell how it should be proper in his Servants but thou art a Rational Creature tho' a Woman and hast no need of this Advice I come next to tell thee I have made my Will wherein thou art sole Executrix that I might give at the rate I love thee from our Marriage till now I have been wrapp'd in a Circle of Obligations to thee and am so desirous to require thy Love that I am scarce contented with giving All but cou'd grutch my Funeral Expences my very Shroud and Grave that I might add to your future Store I need not press you to believe this for Men in their Last Wills and Speeches appear just as they are they here grow Open and Plain-Hearted and dare not depart with their Hands to a Lye But if you think this Will a Romance or that my Words out-love my Actions I must referr all to Death it self for then will be seen whether the Items in it come only from my Mouth or from my Heart I say I referr you to Death for the Truth of this for my Carriage in Health en't able to shew how Dear you are I have not that Fondness in my natural Temper that trumpets forth great Love and to speak my Conscience I think it unhandsome in a (k) (k) As I hinted in a Letter to the Ingenious Cl s. Marry'd State The Stork is a fond Creature and by always kissing his Mate in publick gives a bad Example to Marry'd People who have learn'd it from him Publick Wantonness is odious between Birds much more so between Man and Wife Believe me Daphne more Souls of our Youth perish this way than any other It pleases not me tho' spoken by an Emperor Give me leave by the Lusts of others to exercise mine own tho' a witty yet a wicked Speech I ever thought an intemperate Man in Wedlock differs little from a Brute for too much Billing in Publick sheweth the way to unexperienc'd Youth to commit Riot in Private Cato accus'd one before the Senate that he had kissed his Wife before his Neighbour's Daughter The very Elephants cry out against the Stork and Marry'd Wantons in this Matter who as Pliny writes make not the least Love one to another except they be covered with Bought 'T was a witty Answer of the Lacedaemouian Virgin who being ask'd in the Morning by her Friend whether or no in the Night she had embrac'd her Husband reply'd Good Words good Man not I him but he me Intimating that Fondness in a Wife was unsufferable and in a Man 't is scandalous Which makes me so little practise it Surely a Landlord may value his House without riding o' th' ridge on 't But I need not bring Arguments to prove I love tho' I am not fond seeing your Charity for me makes you say I out-love every thing Then wonder not I'm grieved at Neither am I less concern'd for the after Reflections so far as they relate to my Dear But pray forgive all my Errors and the Excess of a Love that has nothing of parting in 't 'T will if I do survive you follow thee to thy Dying-Bed 'T is there I 'll attempt to expire that I may if possible follow thee in the same Tract to Heaven where I hope to find and (l) (l) As I lately proved in a Letter upon that Subject know thee hereafter For why may not Husband and Wife that helped forward each others Salvation whose Souls were mutually dear and who went to Heaven as it were Hand in Hand there meet and return each other Thanks for those Christian Offices Holy David cheared up his Thoughts after the Death of his Child with this Meditation (m) (m) 2 Sam. 12.23 I shall go to him but he shall not return to me Which had been little Comfort if he had thought never to have known him there It will be no small Augmentation of our Complacency as I told Ignotus to find those very Friendships which we had contracted here below translated to the Mansions above when I shall see and know thee again with whom I had lived so well and slept so long in the Dust With what Ardours shall we then caress one another With what Transports of Divine Affection shall we mutually embrace and vent those innocent Flames which had so long lain smothering in the Grave How passionately Rhetorical and Elegant will our Expressions be when our Sentiments which Death had frozen up when he congeal'd our Blood shall now be thaw'd again in the warm Airs of Paradise Like Men that have escap'd a common Shipwrack and swim safe to the Shore we shall Congratulate each others Happiness with Joy and Wonder Our first Addresses will be a Dialogue of Interjections and short Periods the most pathetick Language of Surprize and high-wrought Joy and all our after-Converse will be couch'd in the highest Strains of Heavenly Oratory intermixed with Hallelujahs But I 'll stop here to let you see that my Love to your Soul is not so great as to make me forget the House it dwells in No to thy Ashes I 'll keep a Body pure and Troth inviolable for Separation shall have no place in our Union which is too great to be exampled And as to thy Burial it shall speak
was this One Day at an Atheistical Meeting at a Person of Quality's I undertook to manage the Cause and was the principal Disputant against God and Piety and for my Performances receiv'd the Applause of the whole Company upon which my Mind was terribly struck and I immediately replied thus to my self Good God! That a Man that walks upright that sees the wonderful Works of God and has the uses of his Sence and Reason should use them to the defying of his Creator But tho' this was a good beginning to my Conversion to find my Conscience touch'd for my Sins yet it went off again Nay all my Life long I had a secret Value and Reverence for an honest Man and lov'd Morality in others But I had form'd an odd Scheme of Religion to my self which would solve all that God or Conscience might force upon me yet I was not over-well reconcil'd to the Business of Christianity nor had that Reverence for the Gospel of Christ as I ought to have which estate of Mind continu'd till the 53d Chapter of Isaiah was read to him and some other Portions of Scripture by the Power and Efficacy of which Word assisted by his Holy Spirit God so wrought upon his Heart that he declar'd that the Mysteries of the Passion appear'd so clear and plain to him as ever any thing did that was represented in a Glass so that that joy and Admiration which possessed his Soul upon the reading God's Word to him was remarkable to all about him and he had so much delight in his Testimonies that in my absence he begg'd his Mother and Lady to read the same to him frequently and was unsatisfied notwithstanding his great Pains and Weakness till he had learn'd the 53d of Isaiah without Book At the same time discoursing of his Manner of Life from his Youth up which all Men knew was too much devoted to the Service of Sin and that the Lusts of the Flesh the Eye and the Pride of Life had captivated him he was very large and particular in his Acknowledgments about it more ready to accuse himself than any one else could be publickly crying out O blessed God! Can such an horrid Creature as I am be accepted by thee who has denied thy Being and contemn'd thy Power asking often Can there be Mercy and Pardon for me Will God own such a Wretch as I And in the middle of his Sickness said Shall the unspeakable Joys of Heaven be conferr'd on me O mighty Saviour never but through thine infinite Love and Satisfaction O never but by the purchase of thy Blood adding that with all abhorrency he did reflect upon his former Life that sincerely and from his Heart he did repent of all that folly and Madness which he had committed He had a true and lively sense of God's great Mercy to him in striking his hard Heart saying If that God who died for great as well as lesser Sinners did not spâ—edily apply his infinite Merits to his poor Soul his Wound was such as no Man could conceive or bear crying out That he was the vilest Wretch and Dog that the Sun shined upon or the Earth bore That now he saw his Error in not living up to that Reason which God endued him with and which he unworthily vilified and contemned wish'd he had been a starving Leper crawling in a Ditch that he had been a Link-Boy or a Beggar or for his whole Life-time confin'd to a Dungeon rather than thus to have sinend against God How remarkable was his Faith in a hearty embracing an devout Confession of all the Articles of the Christian Religion and all the Divine Mysteries of the Gospel saying that that absurd and foolish Philosophy which the world so much admir'd propagated by the late Mr. Hobbs and others had undone him and many more of the best Parts of the Nation He cast himself entirely upon the Mercies of Jesus Christ and the Free Grace of God declared to repenting Sinners through him with a thankful Remembrance of his Life Death and Resurrection begging God to strengthen his Faith and often crying out Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief His mighty Love and Esteem of the Holy Scriptures his Resolutions to read them frequently and meditate upon them if God should spare him having already tasted the good Word for having spoken to his Heart he acknowledged all the seeming Absurdities and Contradictions thereof fancied by Men of corrupt and reprobate Judgments were vanished and the Excellency and Beauty appeared being come to receive the Truth in the Love of it How terribly did the Tempter assault him by casting upon him wicked and lewd Imaginations But I thank God said he I abhor them all and by the Power of his Grace which I am sure is sufficient for me I have overcome them 'T is the Malice of the Devil because I am rescued from him and the Goodness of God that frees me from all my Spiritual Enemies He was greatly rejoiced at his Lady's Conversion from Popery which he called a Faction supported only by Fraud and Cruelty He was heartily concerned for the Pious Education of his Children wishing that his Son might never be a Wit that is as he explain'd it One of those wretched Creatures who pride themselves in abusing God and Religion denying his Being or his Providence but that he might become an Honest and a Religious Man which could only be the Support and Blessing of his Family He gave a strict Charge to those Persons in whose Custody his Papers were to burn all his profane and lewd Writings as being only fit to promote Vice and Immorality by which he had so highly offended God and shamed and blasphemed that holy Religion into which he had been baptized and all his obscene and filthy Pictures which were so notoriously Scandalous I must not pass by his pious and most passionate Exclamation to a Gentleman of some Character who came to visit him upon his Death-Bed O remember that you contemn God no more he is an avenging God and will visit you for your Sins will in Mercy I hope touch your Conscience sooner or later as he has done mine You and I have been Friends and Sinners together a great while therefore I am the more free with you We have been all mistaken in our Conceits and Opinions Our Perswasions have been false and groundless therefore God grant you Repentance And seeing him again next Day said to him Perhaps you were disobliged by my Plainness to you Yesterday I spake the Words of Truth and Soberness to you and striking his Hand upon his Breast said I hope God will touch your Heart He commanded me continues our Author to preach abroad and let all Men know if they knew it not already how severely God had disciplin'd him for his Sins by his afflicting Hand that his Sufferings were most just tho' he had laid Ten thousand times more upon him how he had laid one Stripe upon another
Spirit that he might Labour faithfully and successfully in so holy and excellent a Work which being ended Brousson said Well my Brethren is it then your desire that I should preach the Word of God to you and also administer the Holy Sacrament To whom when the Faithful had made answer That they ardently desired it he added That since it was the Will of God that he should preach the Gospel and administer the Lord's Supper unto them he also Prayed with all his Heart that the Lord would vouchsafe the saving Aids of his Holy Spirit unto him and continually increase of Grace to the end he might for the remainder of his Life Labour successfully to the Glory of the great God the Advancement of his Kingdom and for the Salvation and Consolation of his chosen Ones Then having himself made his Prayer of Consecration he entred upon Preaching and Administring the Ordinances unto them Broussâ—n in the beginning of January 1690 having need of a Companion took Henry Poutant along with him as Vivens did Papus and so they left the high Mountain where they had endured great Hardships and parted Brousson going from Desart to Desart through Câ—vennes and Lower Languedoc to preach the Gospel And tho' there were a great many Soldiers in that Country who moved Night and Day to hinder such Assemblies yet that did not prevent their being frequently held in the Desarts Brousson for the first two Years had a great many of them sometimes three or four Meetings a Week till at last the ill state of his Health and Stomach which he had lost by continual Labour forced him to abstain for some Months but the extream Desolation whereunto the People of God were reduced affected him to that degree that he could not moderate his Zeal so that after he had taken some Repose in one place his manner was to traverse a large Country and to keep Meetings almost at every League 's distance according as he found it necessary for the Instruction and Consolation of the People Nay many times before he rested in any one place he held ten a dozen fifteen to twenty Assemblies sometimes it so happened that for fifteen Nights together he kept Meetings every other Night and yet made use of some part of the intermediate Night to go from one place to another In the ordinary Assemblies he was obliged to speak eagerly for the space of three Hours and when the Sacrament was administred for four or five Hours and an half in the various Exercises of Divine Worship Besides these continual Labours he made three long Prayers every Day one in the Morning another at three in the Afternoon and a third in the Evening for the Consolation of Families he came to as he passed from place to place or for such who took care of him in the Desarts and for those of other faithful Families who could be present at these particular Exercises and these Prayers were also many times accompanied with an Exhortation He also every Lord's Day performed two religious Exercises one in the Morning and the other in the Afternoon with the Faithful who knew the place of his retreat and who could come to Pray to God with him and hear the Reading and Expounding of his Word or the Reading of some one of his Sermons which Reading was also attended with an Exhortation He did not content himself with Preaching the Gospel Viva voce but he Preached it also by Writing for the Night he employed to keep great Meetings or to travel from Place to Place and the Day after having taken a few Hours Repose in the Morning he spent incessantly in making Copies of his Sermons which he composed upon the most Important Matters of Salvation in relation to the State the Church of God was then in in France and in Opposition to the Errors Superstitions Idolatry and Tyrannick and Antichristian Rule that took place in the Romish Church which he took Care to have dispersed in Towns and Villages where he could not go himself to Preach He also Transcribed Copies of several Letters or Prayers which he Composed for the Edification of the People and which he sent also to several Places For this purpose he always carried a little Board with him which serv'd him to write upon in the Woods upon his Knees and which he called the Wilderness-Table insomuch that when the ill State of his Body or the over-great Fury of his Enemies hindred him to continue Holy Assemblies God gave him the Comfort to labour for the Salvation of the People in a way sometimes more efficacious and extensive than if he could have Preached to them in Person Besides which he also laboured from time to time to defend the Truth by other Writings which he sent to the Court in Justification of the Doctrine which he Preached and to serve at the same time for an Apology for the other Servants of God who Preached his Word in France and for the People that met together to serve God and hear his Word Which yet had so little effect that besides the daily Outrages of the Soldiery there was an Order Published in the Year 1691 wherein was promised Five thousand Livres to any one that should take Vivens and Brousson dead or alive At which Vivens being somewhat transported with Indignation thô otherwise of unblamable Conversation of which even the Intendant himself Monsieur de Bavile who hath made so many Martyrs in Lower Languedoc Cevennes Vivares c. bare Testimony when he said That he would not judge that same Man they were so transported against him that having taken one named Valdeiron who was of the Number of those that accompanied him the Violence offered him and the fear of the horrible Punishment prepared for him made him shew them the Cave where Vivens had hid himself which they immediately surrounded with Soldiers in February 1692 the poor Man after he had prayed thrice resolved to sell his Life as dear as he could and so killed three of the most adventurous Men that drew nearest the Cave at last he was killed There were three Men in the Cave with him who could have defended themselves much longer and destroy'd many of their Enemies but the Governour of Alais who Commanded the Soldiers offering them Life if they would surrender they accepted of the Conditions But for all this they were some Days after most injuriously hanged at Alais contrary to the said Capitulation It 's true Brousson did not approve of this immoderate Zeal in his Brother Vivens and the rest and therefore he proposed for his part to combat against his Enemies with the Sword of the Spirit only which is the Word and so continue his Ministry as before and holding a Meeting one time in the Wood of Boncoviran where there happened to be a Person remarkable for his Quality who drew near him through the midst of the People and such being rarely then seen in the like Assemblies this Assembly was
after his waking led him to another Bed lay his Head on a Pillow on the Beds-feet and in his Gown they commit him to his Rest when he waked in the Morning they stood by him and when he denied that he had risen and read and written such things they convinced him by so many circumstances 'T is wonderful that he remembred nothing that he read and writ in his Sleep he saith he observed him for 3 or 4 hours at a time walking in the Night reading and writing and which was more wonderful his Pronounciations was the same as in the day Having left the Schools a long time he married a Vertuous Wife yet concealed it from her he would rise take his Child walk about his House his Wife following him being asked by her he would answer to her demands and discover the Secrets of his Heart with exact Truth c. Henab Heer 's Obs. Med. l. 1. Obs. 2. p. 32. 33. 4. Platerus saith that Johan Oporinus an excellent Printer Night growing on was shut out of the City together with his Father and that they might pass the Night the better they set upon the Correction of a Greek Copy Opirinus read the Text and though falling asleep yet â—â—e continued reading being afterwards awaked he remembred nothing that he had read although it was an intire Page Plater Obs. l. 1. p. 12. 5. Horstius writes of one in his Sleep that rose up in his Cloaths Boots and Spurs got up into the Window where he sate stradling smiting the Walls with his Spurs till he awaked Schenck Obs. l. 1. p. 65. 6. Schenchius writes of a Man at Helmestadt who rose in his Sleep went down the Stairs into a Court from thence towards the Kitchin near which there was a deep Well into this he went down holding fast to the Stones by his Hands and Feet but when he touched the Water with the Cold thereof he was awaked and finding in what danger he was made a pitiful Out-cry which awaked those in the House who having found him got him out and brought him into his Bed where he lay many days Speechless and immoveable being extreamly weakned with Fear Cold and Crying ibid. 7. Strange is the Story of a young Gentleman who in his sleep arose Naked carrying his Shirt in his Hand and by the help of a Rope clambered up to a high Turret in the Castle where he was at that time here he found a Nest of Magpies which he Robbed and put the young ones into his Shirt and so by the same Rope descended and returned to his Bed The next morning being awaked he told his Brother how he dreamed that he had Robbed a Pies Nest and withal wondred what was become of his Shirt rose and found it at his Beds-feet with the young-ones wrapt up in it Schenck Obs. l. 1. Obs. 1. p. 65. 8. Horstius tells of a Kinsman that dwelt with him at Wittenberg who came home in the Evening somewhat in Drink to bed he went slept till Midnight then he got up in his Sleep walked to and fro for a while then hastily went to the Window and got out He lying in the same Chamber awoke called his Servant and asked him if the young-man was in Bed with him who replying no they got up went to the Window hoping to have found him sticking there and to have pulled him back but just as they came he fell into the Paved Street below 14 Ells high where he lay for sometime Speechless and Immoveable and though much hurt yet after sometime he was recovered Fabrit Obs. Chirurg t. 2. Obs. 84. p. 159. CHAP. XVIII Persons remarkable for Waking long HEre certainly the Causes must be contrary to those of the foregoing Chapter and therefore there is less necessity of Descant and Commentary for Opposites set one against the other give a mutual Illustration one to the other and methinks this may suggest to us an occasion of Complaining that we spend too much of our Life in unnecessary repose Nature certainly would be content with much less than we take Lust is a Great Tyrant and an unmerciful Devourer of our Time and Spirits 1. Fernelius speaks of one who lived without sleep 14 Months but this Man was possest with Madness and his Brain it should seem being heated with Melancholy did beget Animal Spirits without much wasting of them Schenck Obs. Med. l. 1 p. 64. 2. Arsenius the Tutor of Arcadius and Honoricus the Emperours being made a Monk did satisfie Nature with so short a sleep that he was used to say that for a Monk it was enough if he slept but one hour in a Night Zuing. Tha. Vol. 2. l. 5. p. 415. 3. George Castriot called Scanderberg was content with so little sleep that it is reported of him that for the whole time he Governed Epirus he never slept above two hours in one Night yet he died in the 63 year of his Age. ibid. 4. Seneca reports of Maecanas Augustus's Favourite that he lived three years entire without sleep and was at last cured of the Distemper by Musick Sen. de Providentiâ 5. It is reported of Nizolus the Treasurer of Ciceroes Words and Phrases that he lived 10 years without sleep Schenck Obs. l. 1. p. 64. Heurinus prax l. 2. c. 7. Ross arcan Microcosm p. 99. 6. We Read of a Noble Lady saith Schenkius that for 35 years lived without sleep and in good Health as her Husband and Family could and did Witness but we leave this to the Faith of the Reader who may take his liberty ibid. CHAP. XIX Abstainers from Drink THE two Grand Precepts of the Stoick Philosophers were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sustine Abstine â—eaâ— and forbear or abstain certainly 't is worthy of Remark how far Powers of Nature and â—â—â—will will go with a Man even upon the Stock of Common Gâ—ace The Government of the Sensitive Appetite especially in respect of Drinks is none of the easiest â—asks incumbent upon Humane Nature and yet we shall find some in this respect commanding themselves to Admiration thô sometime it must be confest the very Texture and Mixtion of Humours with their Constitutions gives an Advantage and sometimes fear of some imminent Danger adds a Spâ—r to their Nature 1. A Noble Man of Piedmont being Sick of the Dropsie sent for Doctor Albertus Roscius who finding the Dropsie confirmed and the Patient averse from all Remedies he told him that he must abstain from all Liquors The Nobleman at the hearing of this did so far abstain from all kind of Drinks that he did not so much as tast of any thing that was Liquid for a Month's time by which means he was restored to his former Health Fab. Obs. Chirurg Cent. 4. Obs. 41. p. 319. 2. It is said of Abraames Bishop of Carras that he drank not nor made use of Water wherein to boil his Herbs but his manner was to feed on Endive Lettuce and Fruiâ— and from these also he used
sick the King carefully enquiring of him every day at last his Physician told him there was no hope of his Life being given over by him for a dead Man No said the King he will not die at this time for this Morning I begged his Life from God in my Prayers and obtained it Which accordingly came to pass and he soon after contrary to all expectation wonderfully recovered This saith Dr. Fuller was attested by the old Earl of Huntington bred up in his Childhood with King Edward to Sir Thomas Cheeke who was alive Anno 1654 and Eighty Years of Age. Lloyd's State-Worthies p. 194. 11. Mrs. Savage Wife of Mr. Savage a Schoolmastet and Minister living in Horse-shooe-lane who having had a very troublesome Lameness in her Hand from a Child her Fingers being so contracted that her Hand was become almost wholly useless to her And in December 1693 having had withal some ilness and weakness of Body and having used some other means for the Cure but without Effect at last by Fasting and Prayer found real amendment and after they Duty ended fitting by the Fire-side the Story of the French Girle came into mind and her Husband having heard of it only by two Persons did not presently give present and full Assent to it but blessed God if it were true at length a strong Impression came into his Mind that his Wife's hand might be cured by that same means as the Girle 's Foot Thereupon he takes the Bible reads St. Matth. 8th chap. and at those Words Lord if thou wilt thou can'st make me clean with an extraordinary Emotion of Spirit he took hold of his Wife's Hand ask'd her If she had Faith adding That his Faith was as much as the Leaper's for though he did absolutely believe the Power of Christ yet he put an If to the Will of Christ. To which she Replyed That she had Faith in the Power of Christ that he was able now he is in Heaven to cure her as he was when upon Earth but whether it was his Pleasure or whether be saw it good for her she could not tell but if he thought fit for her she doubted not but he would heal her or to that purpose Her Husband proceeded Reading till the came to the Faith of the Centurion about his Servant when on a sudden she felt a Pain in her Knuckles and Fingers and pulling off her Glove her Hand instantly stretched out straight and became like the other and she was immediately cured of what was judged by all incurable Her Hand likewise received strength as well as streightness and whereas it used to be extreamly cold it is now as warm as the other And whereas formerly she was not able to go a Mile through weakness of Body she is now able to walk three or four For confirmation enquire at their House afore-mentioned See also the Appendix to the General History of Earthquakes p. 173 174. Take here another Relation as it came in a Letter from Hitchin in Hartford-shire as followeth Hitchin June the 6th 1693. Dear SIR 12. YOurs I received the last Night as to the Person you enquire after and the Lord's Work upon him take it in short as follows His Name is David Wright about twenty seven or twenty eight Years of Age he lived two or three Miles hence for some Years in the capacity of a Shepheard his distemper of Body by the Evil rendring him uncapable of hard Work At Michaelmas 1693 he desired a Religious Woman to take him into her Service which she was not willing to do because he was a profane Wretch and much given to Swearing and other Vices but upon his promising a Reformation and that he would go to hear the Word preached she hired him yet he afterwards went on his evil Courses and would not go to hear But Novmeber 29th last past having Notice that there was a Sermon to be Preached by one Mr. Edward Coles a worthy Minister his mind was so much fixed to go and hear him that notwithstanding the same day he had a Brother came for him with a Horse to go some Miles another way about urgent Business of his own yet he could by no means be prevail'd with to go with him of which Resolution he saith he can give no reason to himself he came to hear and the Word made such deep Impression upon his Mind that his Soul was converted and his Body healed at the same time He declares that while the Minister was Preaching his hard Heart was softened and the Eyes of his Mind enlightened whereby he had Faith in his blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and that at the same time he found his Body cured of the Evil under which he had long languished and is fully perswaded he shall never have it again But however God may please to do as to that this is certain that he hath been very well from the 29th of November to this very day But the Change upon his Soul is more remarkable then the Cure of his Body to see such a poor grosly ignorant Wretch so suddenly changed and to hear him blessing and praising of God and admiring his Grace and Love to him that he who knew nothing one Hour before should now speak so sensibly of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Things This is to the Astonishment and Admiration of all that knew him As to his bodily Distemper he had the King 's Evil for about fifteen or sixteen Years past and was formerly touched by King Charles the Second At first he was forced to keep his Bed for several Weeks together with great Pains and divers running Sores upon him but for about twelve Years past he hath been in Service for the most part yet never in Health all the while but had running Sores which were sometimes skined over and swelled and then he was at the worst and felt most Pain till they broke and run again He hath had these Sores in many parts of his Body of which the Scars are visible and two continued in the same place in the Small of his Back a long while and at the time when he came to hear the Sermon aforementioned they were skined over and swelled so that he was in very great Pain and cound not keep pace with his Company But while he was hearing the Swelling of his Sores sunk insensibly and he was well on a sudden and all his Pain was gone so that as they returned home he went before them leaping rejoycing and praising God for his great Mercy and loving Kindness to him all the way he went After he came home he continued to admire the exceeding Grace of God to so vile and ignorant a Sinner as he was and spent most part of the Night in this heavenly Exercise and still remains in this admirable frame of Heart Much more might be mentioned but this may suffice at present from Yours c. We whose Names are hereunto Subscribed do hereby attest and declare That
living in the same Family with David Wright we were Eye and Ear-witnesses of the Truth of the foregoing Particulars concerning him and in confirmation of the Verity thereof we have hereto put our Hands both Sons to Wright 's Mistress Slape Drever Thomas Drever Thomas Child Joseph Morgan Ibid. See more in the Chapters of The Existence of Good Angels and Present Retribution to the Devout and Praying c. 13. We have this Account from a credible Hand viz. That about two Years ago the Apprentice of Mr. Welby in East-Smithfield was taken Dumb but recovered by the help of a neighbouring Doctor After a few days he lost his Speech again but by the direction of a second Doctor recovered it once more but falling into a third Relapse the Physicians could give him no help About two Months the young Man had a Vision in his Dream of a Man that advised him to take the Fat of a Lamb and anoint himself therewith and apply the Heart hot to his Throat he had the same Apparition a second time upon which Physicians and Divines were consulted who thought it a Delusion of the Devil and disswaded him from it The Apparition coming the third time told him 'T was no Delusion and as a Token that it was not he should lose the Vse of his left Arm which fell out accordingly and he advised him to use the Remedy upon the â—4th of August and to take the Air for a Month or it would be worse for him Upon which he went to High-Gate and applying the Remedy recovered his Speech next day and had the Use of his Arm restored Postscript to the Flying-Post Aug. 22. 1696. 14. Sozomen tells us That the Queen of Iberia being taken with an incurable Disease was miraculously restored to perfect Health by a Christian Woman at the Invocation of the Name of Christ I shall give my Reader the Story at length out of Socrates Scholasticus There was saith he a certain Godly and Devout Woman taken Captive of the Iberians a People dwelling nigh the Euxine Sea this Woman being a Captive and having her Conversation with Barbarians gave herself wholly to Godliness for she exercised very much the Discipline of Continency using a severe kind of Abstinence and applying herself wholly to fervent Prayer which when the Barbarians perceived they wondered at the strangeness of the Act. It fell out that the King's Son of very tender Years fell into a dangerous Disease the Queen after that Countrey-manner sent the Child to other Women for Physick to try if Experience had taught them any Medicine that might Cure that Malady But when the Nurse had carried the Child about to every Woman I suppose he means every neighbouring Woman that made any Profession of Skill that way and could procure Remedy of none at length he is brought to this Captive Woman who in the presence of many more Women who without the Application of any other Salve or Medicine took the Child laid her Sack-cloth upon him and said only these Words Christ which healed many will also heal this Infant When she had uttered these Words and prayed unto God for his Aid and Assistance the Child forthwith recovered and from that time enjoyed perfect Health The fame of this Act was bruted abroad among all the Barbarian Wives and at length came to the Queen's Ear so that the Captive Woman was much talked of A while after the Queen herself fell sick and this simple Woman was sent for she refused to go lest peradventure some Violence contrary to the Modesty of her Nature should be offered to her the Queen then was conveyed to her she practised the like as she had done before unto the Child the Queen is rid of her Disease thanks the Woman for the Cure but the Woman answered 'T is not my doing but Christ's the Son of God and Maker of Heaven and Earth She exhorts the Queen to call upon him and acknowledge him for the True God The King marveling at this strange Cure commanded that the Woman should be bountifully rewarded Who made Answer That she wanted no Riches but esteemed Godliness a great Treasure and that the King should receive a precious Jewel if he would acknowledge that God whom she professed with these Words she returned back the Rewards The King laid up all these sayings in his Breast the next day as the King went a Hunting the Hills and Forest where his Game lay were over-cast with dark Clouds and a thick Mist the Game was uncertain and doubtful the way stop'd and intricate the King being at his Wits end not knowing what was best to do calls upon the Gods whom he accustomed to serve but they stood him in no stead it came to his mind to think upon the God of the Captive Woman unto him he turns and cries for Help as soon as he had Prayed unto him the Cloud was dissolved and the Mist scattered and the King wondring returns home to his Wife and told what had happened Immediately he fends for the Captive Woman and after some Instructions from her turns Christian erects a House of Prayer and makes a Proclamation to his People to receive the same Faith Sozom. l. 2. c. 6. Socrat. Schol. l. 5. c. 16. Ruffin l. 1. c. 10. Theodorat l. 1. c. 23. Centur. Magd. cent 4. c. 13. Ruffinus saith The King of the Iberian 's Name was Bacurius In the Preface of a French Treatise Entituled Harmonie des Propheties anciennes avec les Modernes which was Printed at Cologn in the Year 1687 I find this very wonderful Passage which I choose to mention in this place as contributing to the Explication of them that are to follow Madam Mingot the Widow of a Chyrurgion of the City of Caen in Normandy had several unaccountable Revelations made unto her that she kept wholly secret but there was one which by a Miracle that accompanied it was put beyond the possibility of Secrecy She was afflicted with a Palsey eight or ten Years together in her Limbs which rendred her altogether Impotent and her Impotency was not the less for her being fourscore Years of Age. But one Day when she was at Prayer before the God of Heaven for the Deliverance of his Church from the Confusions then upon it in the heat and heighth of the French Persecution it was audibly said unto her Thy Prayers are heard the afflicted Church shall be speedily and gloriously delivered but it has yet something more to suffer She was commanded herewithal to make this Revelation known unto her Brethren and that they might give credit unto her Words it was added The Lord has restored thy Health and Strength unto thee She was immediately and miraculously Healed of her Malady and she walked her self and carried unto her Pastors the Account of this Revelation They wondered at the Miracle and would fain have concealed the Prophecy but the Prophecy could not possibly be hid because of the famous Miracle that attended it