forc'd and if it be stopt of one side it will find Passage in another Love fears nothing dares all things conquereth all things thinks nothing hard or impossible to it self Lastly a lesser Love will yield to none but to that Love that 's greater and more mighty so carnal Love whether it pursue the Riches or Delights of the World will only yield unto the Love of God As soon as the Water of the holy Spirit begins to drop into the Heart of any Man forthwith carnal Love begins to wax cold Blessed Augustine may be our Witness who being accustomed to indulge his Lust and held it impossible for him to live without a Female Consort yet when he began to taste the Grace of the holy Spirit cry'd out in the ninth Book of his Confessions How sweet did it presently become to me to want the Suavities of Trifles and the loss of those that were my greatest Fear now was my Joy to be rid off for thou didst cast them out who art thy self the true and highest Sweetness thou didst cast them out and didst thy self enter in their stead who art sweeter than all Pleasure but not to Flesh and Blood brighter than all Light but more inward than any Secret higher than all Honour but not to the high-minded CHAP. III. FUrther Water slakes the Thirst and nothing but this heavenly Water can put an end to the various most troublesome and almost infinite desires of the Hearts of Men. So Truth it self speaking to the Samaritan Woman hath taught us John 4.13 Whosoever drinketh of this Water shall thirst again but whosoever shall drink of the Water that I shall give him shall never thirst And the case is plainly this The Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear filled with hearing Eccles 1.8 What ever can be offered to a Man cannot satiate his desire seeing he is capable of infinite Good and all created things are finite but he that begins to drink of celestial Water in which are comprehended all things desires nothing seeks for nothing more CHAP. IV. WAter conjoyns and brings into one the things that seem impossible to be united So many Grains of Bread-Corn by mixture of Water are made one Loaf and of many Particles of Earth by adding Water to them Bricks are made but much more easily and indissolubly the Water of the holy Spirit causeth many Men to become one Heart and one Soul as is spoken in the Acts of the Apostles Chap. 4.22 of the first Christians on whom the Holy Ghost had immediately before descended And our Lord when going to his Father both commended and foretold this Unity which the Water of the holy Spirit maketh when he saith John 17.20 Neither pray I for these alone but for them also that shall believe on me through their Word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us And a little after that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one To which Unity also the Apostle exhorts in his Epistle to the Ephesians Chap. 4.3 Endeavouring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace There is one Body and one Spirit even as ye are called in one hope of your Calling O happy Union which makes many Men to be one Body of Christ which is govern'd by one Head and eats of one Bread and drinks of one Cup and lives of one Spirit and cleaving to God is made one Spirit with him What can a Servant more desire than that he should not only be made partaker of all his Lord's Goods but also by the indissoluble Bond of Love be made one with him his almighty and most wise and most beautiful Lord But all this does the Grace of the holy Spirit effect as living and enlivening Water when it is devoutly received in the Heart and preserv'd with all Diligence and sollicitous Care CHAP. V. LAstly Water ascends so high as it descends from above and because the holy Spirit comes down from the highest Heaven upon Earth therefore in that Man in whose Heart he is receiv'd he becomes a Fountain of Water springing up into Eternal Life as our Lord speaks to the Woman of Samaria that is to say a Man born again of Water and the holy Spirit and hath the same Spirit dwelling in his Heart lifts up thither the Fruits of his Grace from whence that Grace descended therefore O my Soul being taught and excited by these Words of Scripture say to thy Father again and again with groanings that cannot be utter'd Give me this Water which may scour off all my Spots which may quench the heat of Concupiscence which may satisfy all Thirst and all Desires which may make thee one Spirit with thy God which may become in thee a Well of Water springing up to eternal Life that thou mayest send thy Services thither before where thou hopest thy self to abide to endless Ages Not without cause did the Son of God say You being evil know how to give good Gifts to your Children how much more shall your Father in Heaven give his good Spirit to them that ask it And he said not will give Bread or Raiment or Wisdom or Charity or the Kingdom of Heaven or eternal Life but he said will give his good Spirit because in that all things are contain'd Thou therefore cease not daily to mind the Father of his Son's Promise and to say with mighty Affection and an undoubted hope of obtaining O holy Father not in confidence of mine own Righteousness but trusting in the Promise of thine only begotten Son do I pour out my Prayers to thee 'T was he that said to us How much more shall your Father give his good Spirit to them that ask him assuredly thy Son which is Truth it self cannot deceive therefore fulfil the Promise of thy Son who glorified thee upon Earth being every where obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross give thy holy Spirit to me who ask it give me the Spirit of thy Fear and Love that thy Servant may fear nothing but to offend thee and may love nothing besides thee and his Neighbour in thee Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Psal 51.10 11 12. CHAP. VI. I Come now to the Similitude the Fountains of Water have with God for from hence the Mind may be raised up to the Contemplation of the truly wonderful and excellent Perfections of him that made them For not without just cause is God in holy Scripture called The Fountain of Life and the Fountain of Wisdom and Fountain of living Water Psal 35. Eccles 1. Jer. 2.13 And that he is the very Fountain of being
The same Author hath also published THE Vertuous Woman found her Loss bewail'd and Character exemplified In a Sermon preached at the Funeral of that most Exellent and Religious Lady the Right Honourable MARY Countess Dowager of VVARVVICK the most Illustrious Patern of sincere Piety and solid Goodness this Age hath produced to which is annexed some of her Ladiship 's pious and useful Meditations The great Evil of Procrastination or the Sinfulness and Danger of deferring Repentance In several Discourses A Sermon preached before the Company of Apothecaries on Eccles 10.1 published at the Request of the said Company Say on Or a seasonable Plea for a full hearing betwixt Man and Man and a serious Plea for the like hearing betwixt God and Man in a Sermon preached at the Assizes at Chelmsford in Essex All four sold by Nathaniel Ranew at the King's-Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard Fax Fonte Accensa Fire out of Water OR An Endeavour to kindle Devotion from the Consideration of the FOUNTAINS God hath made Designed for the Benefit of those who use the Waters of TUNBRIDGWELLS the Bath Epsom Scarborough Chigwell Astrop Northall c. Two SERMONS preached at New Chappel by Tunbridg-Wells With Devout Meditations of Cardinal Bellarmin upon Fountains of Waters Also some Forms of Meditations Prayers and Thanksgivings suited to the occasion By ANTHONY WALKER D.D. O ye Wells bless ye the Lord praise him and magnify him for ever Song of the three Children London Printed for Nathaniel Ranew at the King's-Arms in St. Paul'â— Church-Yard MDCLXXXV THE Epistle Dedicatory TO Mr. NATHANIEL HAWS Citizen of London and Treasurer of Christ-Church Hospital Honoured Friend THO the mutual Intercourse of kind and good Offices which hath some Years past betwixt us and especially at Tunbridg-Wells might excuse yea oblige me to so open an Acknowledgment of the Sense I have of your Civilities and Friendship and the inscribing your Name upon these Papers without further prospect of you than in your single and personal Capacity would be too small a return for those Kindnesses by which I am become your Debtor Yet give me leave to tell you I herein consider you under that more publick Character wherewith your Zeal your Cost your Pains about the erecting of that commodious beautiful and Elegant Structure of the Chappel we all here injoy the benefit of justly invests you And if I could represent your Effigies in the Front of these few Sheets it should be with your green Book in your Hand gratefully receiving modestly solliciting and faithfully recording the royal noble generous Contributions to this pious useful Work which have amounted to about Eleven hundred Pounds by your prudent Care and Industry faithfully expended in the erecting and adoining of it And I hereby as much as in me lies constitute you who was for the greater part receiver of their Money Receiver-general in their Name of all the Honour I can do them and the best Gratitude I can return them for their so large and pious Liberality And in this Inscription which I make to you as their Trustee and Representative I dedicate these Papers to them all with deepest Submission begging both their Pardon and Acceptance of so faint and disproportionable a return from the meanest of those Divines who willingly bestow our Pains amongst them till some of those excellent Persons of greater Ability Name and Merit be pleas'd to do it with actual Performances which may equal my Wishes and Desires to do them Honour and edify and inflame their Devotion The late fresh Accession of Princely Bounty set as a Crown upon the Head of the preceding Charity will not only be the lasting Ornament and Glory of the publick Table you have exposed in the Chappel to every Mans view of all Monies received and expended to prevent Obloquy and Suspicion in them who know you not for those who know you do not need it But I hope is a good Omen that in due time it may be as conveniently endow'd as it is commodiously built that there may be Wells of Salvation for the poor Neighbourhood all the Year and if I may without imputation of Lightness allude to St. Paul's Expression The Word may be preach'd in season and out of Water season Let not this unexpected Address be as unwelcome as unlook'd for neither let the Meanness of it cool the Reciprocation of that Esteem and Friendship which hath hitherto been so obligingly allow'd to Honoured Sir Your cordial Friend and willing Servant ANTHONY WALKER From my Lodgings near Tunbridg-Wells July 24. 1684. THE PREFACE TO THE Christian Reader Especially Such as use the Mineral Waters Good Reader AS it is unquestionably the Duty and Interest of every Christian both to acquire and retain a deep and most serious sense of God upon his own Heart and as much as possibly he can to impress the like upon his fellow Christians So this Care is in a greater and more eminent degree incumbent upon Christ's Ministers whom he hath singled out and appointed to attend upon this most important Affair and Business And as no means are to be esteem'd improper or superfluous which God hath afforded or designed to this end we ought our selves to learn and teach others from both the Books which God hath written for our Institution and Instruction Now these Books are that of the Creatures and that of the Scriptures of his Works and of his Word of his Providences and of his Ordinances of Nature and of Grace Holy David joyns both these together in the 19th Psalm He begins with the first The Heavens declare the Glory of God the Firmament shews his handy-work to Verse the 7th where he proceeds to the second The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the Heart c. And as it cannot be denied that both these great Volumes are full of the glorious Discoveries of God so it must be confest that the Waters are one of the fairest and most legible Characters in which God's Name is written in the Book of Nature The Rains the Seas the Rivers and the Fountains are as authentick witnesses of the the Being and of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God as any of those other visibles which reflect the invisible Perfections of the great Creator Preserver and Governour of all things The Waterâ— are a natural Looking-glass or Mirror in them Face answers to Face as the Wise-Man tells us Prov. 27 19. And the Face of God may bâ— seen reflected in them as clearly and distinctly as in any of his providentiaâ— Manifestations And if the ordinary Properties of common Waters in their cleansing fructifying softning moistning thirst-quenching and uniting Qualities perform this so well how much more do the Mineraâ— Springs by their extraordinary Virtues of healing opening purging dulcifying mollifying strengthning c. and being most signally beneficial loudly proclaim it That it must
Morning Prayer Te Deum or that and is taken out of the Additions to Danâ—el Where all the Magnalia the signal Works of God are reckoned up and excited to bless the Lord which is to provoke Men to bless God for them There we find Fountains or Wells in the List or Catalogue of those famous Works of God O ye Wells bless ye the Lord praise him and magnify him for ever And I wish that in this place at least that Canticle were sometimes read as the Liturgy appoints for not only that Versicle is very proper but the whole very warming and enflaming I stay not to descant upon every Scripture I have cited nor to shew wherein their Strength lay to prove what I produc'd them for because I suppose such Evidence to accompany them that 't is needless and would be superfluous I may subjoin Arguments to prove that God made the Fountains though very transiently 1. Our Text supposes it and takes it for granted And both this Text and the 8th of Proverbs and many other Scriptures rank them in the same Order and Series with the Heaven the Earth and the Sea to signifie that God is as undoubtedly the Maker of those as of these 2. The true God made the Waters above the Heavens He is the Father of the Rain and he begets the drops of Dew Job 38.28 And by parity of Reason He makes the Waters under the Earth and the Mists the Vapors and the Springs that rise from thence 3. He makes the miraculous extraordinary Fountains and Streams that flow from them as that Exod. 17.6 Behold I will stand before thee there upon the Rock and thou shalt smite the Rock and there shall come forth Waters out of it Which the Psalmist ascribes to God Psa 78.15 He clave the Rock in the Wilderness and gave them Drink as out of the great Depths And Psal 105.41 He opened the Rock and the Waters gushed out they ran in dry places like a River And the other Fountains are the effects of the same Power and are accounted less miraculous only because they are more common 4. God is the great Artificer and Maker of Universal Nature He that made all things is God And whatever second causes he hath appointed and constituted as instrumental to produce the Fountains he is as truly the Maker of them still as he is the Maker of every one of us tho we had Fathers who begat us and Mothers in whose Wombs we were all formed Job 31.15 Did not he that made me in the Womb make him and did not one fashion us in the Womb Causa causae est causa causati He is as truly to be intitled to what he produceth mediately as to his most immediate Productions 5. Lastly The Scripture which is exceeding jealous of the Glory of God in point of Worship and can endure Competitors and Copartners less than a King in his Throne or an Husband in his Bed My Glory will I not give to another Isa 42.8 yet allows and requires the Glory of Religious Worship to be given to him that made the Fountains which is an infallible Inference that by the Scriptures Testimony he that made them is the true God This may suffice to prove that God made the Fountains But to demonstrate how he made them is more difficult 'T is a noble and delightful but withall a busy and perplexed Inquiry both amongst Divines and Philosophers concerning the Origine of Fountains their various useful Qualities and how they became inriched with them their Perennity and constant flowing for so many Ages their vast depth in the lowest Bowels of the Earth where they are often found and again their strange ascent and heighth and breaking out as they sometimes do in the highest Tops and Summities of Mountains and many more of no less difficult Solution But tho the search into these things be exceeding pleasant to inquisitive Minds and it might not be unwelcome to many of you to discuss them Yet it is not so proper for the Pulpit as the Schools and would not well become a Discourse which designs to minister to Devotion rather than to gratify your Curiosity and delight your Fancies Yet that I may not tantalize your Minds by a meer starting of Questions nor disoblige you by a vexing Disappointment I will first refer you to those Authors who by what they say themselves and by directing you to near an hundred more may if not satisfy the curious yet weary the most inquisitive and industrious and having done that tho I wade not through shall dip a little into these Questions In that Age which was Ingeniorum ferax about our Saviour's Birth when it seem'd good to God to raise up in and adorn the World with Wits of the first Magnitude to usher in and attend upon the Incarnation of his eternal Wisdom such as Virgil Tully Ovid Horace liv'd L. Annaeus Seneca that excellent and I may say Divine Moralist and learned natural Philosopher who hath fine Discourses on this Subject lib. 3. of his natural Questions And few have gone beyond him notwithstanding the advantage of coming so long in time behind him The laborious and diligent Polonian Johan Jonstonus Thaumatographia naturalis Clasis secundae Capit. 4. de origine Fontium where you may meet with the Epitome of what our own Country-man Tho. Lydiat hath written most accutely on this Subject Voetius in his select Disputations both discusses the Questions relating to this matter and gives copious References Corn. a Lapide on Ecclesiastes 1.7 is large in both disputing it himself and in referring to the Greek and Latin Fathers and Philosophers What Alstedius says is in no wise despicable Encyclop lib. 13. Physicorum part 2. cap. 8. Regula 3. and part 4. c. 2. and lib. 18. Hydrograph cap. 6. I forbear to name Aristotle and those who follow the Tract of the old Philosophy or Cartesius and his Sectators in the new because they are well known to those who can or will puruse them and are referred to the first epecially in those I have nam'd already and tho it may seem an ignorant or culpable Omission to take no notice of the ingenious Mr. Thomas Burnet's new Theory of the Earth both in Latin and English I shall have occasion to mention him hereafter But not to tire my self and you with naming more the English Reader may meet with more Satisfaction than he could expect in so few Pages from any other Pen in the acurately learned and truly great Man the Author of Origines Sacrae lib. 3. cap. 4. § 6. whose great Happiness it is to speak much in a little and be short without Obscurity at once concise and perspicuous brief and clear And having before I hope satisfyingly prov'd that God made the Fountains Let me briefly touch the Way the Manner the Art by which that great and wise Artificer perform'd this Work produc'd and made them And to dismiss and wave the rest there are
three Opinions which almost all that write on this Subject chiefly insist upon 1. First Some ascribe the Origine of Fountains to the Transmutation of the Elements Air and Vapours say they getting into the Caverns and hollow Recesses of the Earth are by the Coldness of the Rocks and Stones condensed and turned into Waters as we see in Vaults and Cellers the Stone Walls will stand with Drops especially when the Air is thick and moist This Opinion glories in no less Author than him who was the great Secretary of Nature Aristotle This I confess may do something produce some little Rills and fainter Springs but the Objection against it seems rationally strong and unanswerable as to more noble Fountains which flow ubere venâ from the vast quantities of Waters they send forth which we cannot conceive how this means alone can possibly supply and furnish 2. Others suppose them to arise from the falling of Rain and dissolution of Snow soaking into the Bowels of the Earth and when it sinks into the hollow Caverns of it glides through them till it finds some vent and makes a Spring at its Eruption or place of breaking forth And tho there may be some colour for this in some Times and Places as near the Alps yet this is beset with greater Difficulties than the former from the exceeding depth of many subterraneous Waters and the Times and Places where the Rains and Snows are none or few and small and yet afford both plenteous and constant Fountains 3. Therefore the third and best Opinion and which is beset with easiest Objections is That Fountains arise from the Sea and from vast Stores and Treasuries of Water made by God and reserved under ground in vast capacious Cisterns and Cellars for this end and use And this Opinion fairly claims and pleads both the patronage of Scripture and the suffrage of Reason First of Scripture which often mentions the great Abyss the Deep the Depths the same with Plato's Barathron as the Womb and Mother of Springs Gen. 7.11 The Fountains of the great Deep were broken up to make the Flood And again chap. 8.2 The Fountains of the Deep were stopped And Job 38.16 they are call'd the Springs of the Sea Psal 33.7 He layeth up the Depth in Store-houses to be thus broach'd and issued forth Eccles 1.7 All the Rivers run into the Sea and yet the Sea is not full unto the place from whence the Rivers come thither they return again They come from the Sea through the Bowels of the Earth and return unto it through the Chanels in the Surface of it Fountains are the Mouths by which the Sea and great Abyss vomit and cast forth those mighty Streams the Rivers And with the Scripture-Testimony concur Plato and Seneca and other Naturalists And the Sum of this Opinion is That there are vast prodigious Quantities of Water reserved under ground in huge Caverns and hollow Receptacles and that the Sea hath also in the sides and bottom of it either loose spungy Earth which the Waters easily penetrate and soak through Or else large Ostia wide Clefts and gaping Orifices and Whirl-pits by which it empties out and disburdens it self of its superfluous Waters without which Evacuations and discharging of it self of that vast mass of Waters which flow continually into it by so many Rivers it must necessarily and unavoidably overflow the Earth which is most obviously manifest in the Caspian Sea which hath no visible Intercourse with or outlet into the main Ocean and yet the Waters which run into it from the might Volga in one Year were sufficient to drown that part of the World should it not have secret conveyances and ways of Evacuations to prevent its over-flowing Some have ingeniously compar'd this Terraqueous Globe to a great Animal the vast Abyss is as the Heart or Liver or the Blood-bowl in the rustick Phrase these Waters are the Blood the hollow Caverns under Ground and the Chanels of the Rivers in the Surface are as the Arteries and Veins by which this Blood circulates and where its Apertures and places of breaking forth are there are the Springs and Fountains which resemble the Orifices upon the pricking or opening of a Vein by Phleboromy And whereas the Sea is salt and many Fountains fresh this account is given That God at first made all the Waters sweet and fresh and those vast stores treasured up in the Bowels of the Earth retain those their primitive Qualities tho in great Wisdom he after made the Sea salt to prevent its Putrefaction by Stagnation and to make it fitter for the Nourishment of living Creatures in it and more commodious for Navigation the strength of the salt Water bearing those Vessels of Burden which were it fresh would sink to the bottom with their own weight an Egg will swim in strong Brine And for the Sea-Water which passes out as aforesaid the fixed Salt is strained off by Percollation and the volatil Salt partly by Evaporation by the subterraneous Fires and partly by mixing with the sweet Waters in the bowels of the Earth as also of those made of transmuted Air and Vapours and farther by Accession of Rain which soaks in and dissolved Snows which mingle with it it becomes lympid sweet and wholsome And by passing through different Soils or Minerals as Gold Silver Antimony Copper Lead Tin and Iron Vitriol Nitre Sulphur Allom and God only knows how many more it is impregnated by them imbibes their Properties and Vertues besides what useful Qualities God may in his kind Providence infuse into them and communicate immediately to render them useful and beneficial to Mankind of which no account can be given but the goodness of him who doth what ever he pleaseth in Heaven in Earth and all deep places and worketh all things according to his own good Pleasure But to sum up and reduce to order this more lax Discourse I will lay down these following Propositions 1. 'T is demonstrable by Scripture that God made the Fountains 2. He made them not as a necessary but a voluntary Agent they are not the product of his Nature but his Will 3. The Knowledg we have of the Origine of them as to their second and immediate causes is not certain and demonstrative but only probable and conjectural 4. 'T is probable some are made and others are encreas'd by Transmutation or change of grosser and moister Air and Vapours into Water 5. 'T is very probable that the wise Builder of Universal Nature hath so dispos'd and fashioned the whole System of this Terraqueous Globe that there are in it as it were Furnaces of subterraneous Fires and vast hollow Caves and winding Meanders not unlike to natural Stills and Alymbecks and Retorts which turn salt Waters into Vapours and then change both those Vapours and others suckt into the Chinks and Caverns of the Earth from the ambient Air and Mists into sweet and wholsome Waters 6. 'T is possible that some Springs arise
this preaching Angel worship not the Wells or Fountains or any supposed tutelary Deities or Daemons residing in them or presiding over them but him that made them and alone can bless them Idolize not the likeness of any thing that is in the Waters under the Earth nor the Virtues of those Waters nor the faint Resemblance there seems to be of an eternal Being in their Perennity nor any thing in them or in any other Being which is made but him that is the Maker of them and the great Creator and Preserver of all things else for nil factum adorandum God made nothing to be worshipt'd and nothing must be worship'd that is made 2. But the second and more positive Reason why he directs us to worship him that made the Fountains is because the making of them is a signal proof that he is the true God and witness those Perfections to be in him for which he is truly adorable and a meet Object capable and worthy of Religious Adoration I before suggested that whatever Work of Nature or of Grace manifests the Author of it to be indued with infinite Perfections or that he is a Being absolutely and infinitely perfect is a good and sufficient Reason for the worshipping of him Now not to enquire into all or more than the signal Trinity of Attributes infinite Power infinite Wisdom infinite Goodness if the making of the Fountains be a valid and convincing Argument that he who made them hath all these is infinitely powerful wise and good nay hath but any of them supposing that they might be parted is perfect in Power only or in Wisdom or in Goodness that alone were a good Argument both that he might and ought to be worshipped Not that the making of the Fountains proves no more for I think it is easy to evince that their Maker is an Eternal Being from Prov. 8. and Eternal is truly an incommunicable Attribute and a most adorable Perfection And more might be named but we may safely confine our selves to the three afore specified and if the making of them proves him to be all or any of these he must be worship'd that is such because he is such I will touch them in order First The making the Fountains proves him infinitely powerful which we may consider in several respects 1. 'T is a Work and a Demonstration of Almighty Power to produce out of nothing that which was not to give that a Being which had none before Now there was a time when or rather before time it self was there were no Fountains abounding with Water Prov. 8.24 And his Almighty Fiat gave them Being who spake the Word and they were made who commanded and they were brought forth By the Word of the Lord were the Waters made and all the kinds and regions of them by the breath of his Mouth and the first of Genesis makes at least as signal and more repeated mention of the Waters the Deep the Seas then of Heaven and Earth Some think that the first matter the Platonists ὕλη the Scriptures Tohu and Bohu which we call the Chaos was a watery fluid Mass Mr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth is chiefly built upon this Hypothesis And the great Abyss or Barathron was the first or oldest of God's Works of Power and the Issues and Outlets thereof are the Effects of the same Power and they are those we call the Fountains of the great Deep so that the making them evidences him to be an Almighty Creator 2. Having made and shut up those vast Stores and Treasuries of Water 't is a proof of his Power to unlock and unbar those mighty Rocks and Mountains which imprisoned and shut them in and give them vent and passage and open the very Womb of the Earth and Nature that they may issue out The Jews have a saying that God keeps three Keys in his own Hand the Key of the Womb the Key of the Grave and the Key of the Barn sinifying thereby that Fruitfulness or Barrenness Life and Death Plenty and Scarcity depend immediately on him and are great Evidences of his Power and certainly it is no less to have the Key of the great Abyss 'T is one of the most majestick Proofs of the Divine Power which God himself insists upon Job 38.8 11. To shut up the Sea with doors and to say to it Hither shalt thou go and no further and here shall thy proud Wave stop themselves And 't is no less Power which cleaves the mighty Rocks to let it out than to bridle its swelling Surges by the smallest Sand. 3. He makes new sudden extraordinary Fountains when he pleases without and beyond any natural apparent Causes strikes the flinty Rock and Waters gush forth more readily than Sparks or Fire would by strikeing it with Steel He must certainly be the Almighty Lord of Nature who can unhinge it and change its Laws when ever he pleases turning the dry Ground into Water-springs 4. As the making Heaven and Earth prove his Omnipotence for 't is upon that account we profess in our Creed to believe him Almighty I believe in God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth c. No less doth the making of the Sea and Fountains prove the same for they are rank'd in the same Series in this very Text. 5. 'T is a mighty proof of his Power to continue them to supply and feed them for so many Ages that they die not but are justly stiled living Waters Preservation is a continued Creation Secondly The making of the Fountains is a proof of his Wisdom as may appear 1. In his contriving and building the whole System of universal Nature so admirably so commodiously every piece thereof agreeing so excellently with all the others that they are mutually subservient This harmonious Fabrick this exact Composition of the whole is a Work of that deep that infinite and adorable Wisdom that it is an unanswerable Argument for an intelligent Providence And may put to shame and to silence all the Atheists and Semi-Atheists in the World And tho I confess 't is more usual to instance in the Heavens as being more visible and to argue from the Scituation Motion and Position of the Sun Moon and Stars towards the Earth to render their Influences more propitious that the whole may be fruitful and a commodious Habitation that all may in good degree injoy their Comfort and their Blessing and none be wholly depriv'd or destitute nor scorch'd or spoiled by them Yet with the like advantage might we argue from the Sea and Fountains the spreading and diffusing of which through so many hidden Veins within the Earth and dislodging themselves in so many commodious places and flowing in so many chrystal cooling healthful Streams both greatly beautifies and garnisheth the Earth and renders it fertile and delightful for benefit of Man and Beasts 2. As they are so contrived that all the Phaenomena about them are unaccountable and the wisest and most inquisitive
Indigaters are at a loss and cannot solve them and find out the Reasons of them but must cry out in admiration of their Maker his Wisdom is unsearchable and in this as much as in any Works of Nature past finding out They must confess themselves posed and say with David Such Knowledg is too wonderful for me 't is high 't is deep I cannot attain to it Psal 139.6 And with the indefatigable Alstedius not be asham'd to say the best answer to the Enquiries about them is by that word of Modesty Nescio I cannot tell and with the great Philosopher dying to Euripus Non capio te I cannot comprehend thee 3. There appeareth great Wisdom in cutting out their Chanels spreading their Veins proportioning their Depth and Breadth and Length that they be not too rapid or too slow that by a longer Tract they may be duly percolated refin'd concocted imbued and impregnated sufficiently and not excessively with the virtues of the Mineral Soils that make them useful How wise is he who proportions all these and an hundred more in Number Weight and Measure 4. In the admirable and almost infinite variety and sorts and kinds of them A Poet would call them Lusus naturae lascivientis and tell you that wanton Nature never sported it self more gaily then in the various sorts and shapes of Springs and Fountains and in their strange and stupendous Properties some ebbing and flowing as the Sea some hot to seething others as cold to freezing some both in every twenty four hours hot in the Night cold in the Day some petrifying all that 's put into them others changing white the Hairs scattered on them and of them who drink them Some diutetick some purging some molifying other consolidating some salt some sweet some acid some insipid some limpid others thick some harsh others soft smooth oily c. In a word the Sea hath not so many kinds of Fish nor the Earth so many sorts of Beasts or Fruits nor the Air such diversity of Fowls and Birds as there are variety of Springs and Fountains O Lord how manifold are these Works of thine in Wisdom hast thou made them all the Earth is full of thy Goodness Thirdly This his Goodness is the last of God's adorable Perfections which bubbles up yea flows exuberantly upon us in the Fountains which he makes And if any be so senceless as to ask me how the making of the Fountains prove him to be good It might be sufficient to answer such a Question by asking of another viz. Art thou not asham'd to ask it or canst thou move it without blushing But to clear it I mean by his Goodness his Beneficence or doing Good Thou art good and dost good saith David unto God Psal 119.68 He therefore doth good because he is good But he is thereby known to be good because he doth good and every Benefit he bestows upon his Creatures witness him to be a good God Acts 14.17 how do the Wells and Fountains proclaim him to be so as David Psal 93.3 of the Floods we may say The Springs O Lord have lifted up their Voice the Springs lift up their Voice to shout forth the Goodness of their Maker yea they clap their Hands Psal 98.8 applaudingly to celebrate his Praises When grateful David had said Psal 33.5 The Earth is full of the Goodness of the Lord he proves it vers 7. because he layeth up the Depth in Store-houses thereby to feed the Fountains When Moses speaking of the promis'd Land saith to the Israelites The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good Land The Character he gives of that Goodness is that 't was a Land of Brooks of Water of Fountains and Depths that spring out of the Valleys and Hills And God is said to open his good Treasure the Treasures of his Goodness Deut. 28.12 When he gives Rain from above and so when he gives Fountains from beneath Water is a great Mercy in the common use of it the World could not continue or subsist without it and unspeakably sweet and kind is that Clemency of God that makes and gives it It is impossible to reckon up how many Benefits it yields us or to declare how great that Godness is by which we do injoy it 't is a Work fitter for our Admiration then our Reckoning for Rhetorick than Arithmetick And Spring-water is the best of Waters the Life the Spirits the Quintessence of that beneficial Element the most pure pleasant wholsome lasting and every way most excellent and valuable And because ungrateful we are more prone to make a right Judgment of the worth of our Mercies by their Wants than their Injoyments consider how deplorable and sad the want of Water is and we shall soon know how good it is to have it and thence learn to acknowledg how good he is that gives it But if common Waters be so great a Blessing then extraordinary Springs are no common Mercies And God is to be confessed very good for making such mollifying Baths God's own Bethesdahs and Siloam-pools which seem attended constantly with some good Angel and not only visited at rare and seldom Seasons Purging-Springs abstirging Wells opening Obstructions sweetning the Blood thinning tough viscous Humours preventing some and grapling with and conquering other most obstinate and chronical Distempers which were opprobria Medicorrm bafled the best experienced the eldest the first-born Sons of Apollo and Aesculapius which Leviathan-like esteem'd the choicest Recipes the keenest Shafts of Galen or Hippocrates Paracelsus or Vanhelmont but as Straw or rotten Wood. Such are these Wells God hath inrich'd this barren Country with which we come hither to make use of and to wait upon his Providence in the using of them How exuberantly doth God's Goodness flow in these O that with becoming Gratitude and Love we could with a spiritual Gust relish and taste it in every Glass we drink These are his Laboratories who stiles himself Jehova Rophi Exod. 15.26 I am the Lord that healeth thee and whom David Psal 103.3 exhorts us to bless for healing all our Diseases These are Alimbecks where Almighty Goodness draws the Tinctures and the Extracts prepares the Spirits makes the Infusion mixes the healthful Potions And how unseemly is it to open our Lips to drink them in and not to open them again to confess his Goodness and give out due Praises unto him that made them 3. His Goodness appears in discovering the Vertues of such Waters How many useful things are lost for want of being known Divine Clemency is seldom single content with one Act 't was one Mercy to make them what they are a second to let us know what he had made them and thirdly to vouchsafe us Liberty and Opportunity to use them 4. 'T is great Goodness in God to make them useful and beneficial either the common or the mineral Springs Man lives not by Bread only but by the Word which proceedeth out of God's Mouth Dead things cannot minister to our
Streams and Virtues you would endow this House built to his Name so near them that the Waters of the Sanctuary may flow from hence with a constant Perennity like to the Waters of these Wells and with an Healthfulness to the Souls of those that dwell here which may equal or exceed the Usefulness of the Waters to the Bodies of us Strangers who come hither to drink them And now Oh thou most glorious Lord who hast made the Fountains of Waters and thereby manifested forth thy Almighty Power thy unsearchable Wisdom and inexhaustible Goodness which render thee a most sutable Object of all possible Adoration Love and Service Accept we beseech thee the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving and Praise which we offer to thee from the Altar of an humble Heart for making of these Fountains and making known and continuing their useful Virtues and for blessing them to any of us And we further bless thy glorious Name who art the Fountain of Living Waters and in whom are all our Springs for all the Streams of Mercy that flow from thee especially for thy Son and thy Spirit thy Word and thy Sacraments and that sutable Portion of it we have now been made partakers of Beseeching thee so to write in our Hearts by the Finger of thy Spirit what we have heard with our outward Ears that it may bring forth in us the Fruit of good Living to the Glory of thy holy Name the good Example of our fellow Christians the present Comfort and the eternal Salvation of our precious Souls through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord To whom with thy Majesty and eternal Spirit be rendred as is most due all Honour Love Thanksgiving Praise and Adoration now and for evermore Amen FINIS Devout Meditations of Cardinal Bellarmine made English Of the Consideration of the Waters and chiefly of Fountains CHAP. I. THE Water holds the second place amongst the Elements of this World and if that be rightly look'd upon a step may be made of it to assist the Heart's Ascent to God And if we will premise a general Consideration of Water then draw out of the Fountains a special Ascent to God Water is moist and cold and from hence it hath these five Properties For 1. It washeth and cleanseth away Spots and Defilements 2. It quencheth Fire 3. It cools and slakes the heat of Thirst 4. It joyns into one many and different things Lastly So low as it descends so high it will ascend again All which are manifest Symbols and Foot-steps of that God who is the maker of all things 1. Water washeth off bodily Stains God washeth off those that are spiritual Thou shalt wash me saith David and I shall be whiter than Snow Psal 51.7 For altho Contrition Sacraments Priests Alms-deeds do wash away Sins which are the Stains of the Heart All these are but Instruments and Dispositions He that is the Author of this washing is God alone I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake saith God by Isaiah Chap. 43.25 And therefore the Pharisees murmuring against Christ said Who can forgive Sins but God only Luke 7. 49. And they were not mistaken in ascribing unto God only the supream Power of forgiving Sins But in that that they believ'd not Christ to be 〈◊〉 God and so blasphem'd and spake Truth in the same breath Neither doth God only like Water wash away Spots but will also be called by the Name of Water John 7.38 He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of living Water But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive for the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified Therefore the holy Spirit which is very God is living Water And of this Water speaks Ezekiel Chap. 36.25 I will sprinkle clean Water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness and from your Idols will I cleanse you And because this celestial and uncreated Water far excels the Virtues of this terrestrial and created Water we will take notice of three Differences betwixt the washing of created and uncreated Water First That which is created washeth the Bodies Spots but not all for many it cannot get out unless it be help'd by Soap and other Instruments but uncreated Water washeth out throughly all kind of Spots for in the fore-cited place 't is said You shall be clean from all your Filthiness Secondly Created Water rarely washeth Spots so clean away as to leave no Marks or Shadows of them But uncreated Water washeth so that what is washed with it is whiter and fairer then it was before it was defiled Thou shalt wash me saith David and I shall be whiter than Snow And the Lord himself saith by Isaiah Chap. 1.18 Tho your Sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow tho they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wooll Lastly Created Water washeth away natural Spots which resist not him that washeth them But uncreated Water washeth away voluntary Spots which cannot be rinsed off unless the Soul be willing and spontaneously consent to him that rinseth it But so great and admirable is the Virtue of this Water that it sweetly penetrates hearts of Stone and is resisted by no hard Heart because it makes it not to resist as St. Augustin rightly observes Lib. de Praed SS cap. 8. Who can understand O Lord with how admirable Methods thou breathest Faith into the Hearts of the Unbelievers and pourest Humility in-the Heats of the proud and instillest Love into the Hearts of thy Enemies that he who a little before breathing Threatnings and Slaughter did persecute thee in thy Disciples being suddenly chang'd did willingly bear the Threats and Violences of the Persecutors for thee and for thy Church It is too much for me to search into thy Secrets and I had rather know the efficacy of thy Grace by sweet Experience than by search and because I know this Water of thine to be a voluntary Shower design'd for thine own Heritage as thy Prophet singS therefore I most humbly and submissly beg that I may be found in thine Inheritance and it may please thy Grace to descend into the Earth of my Heart that it continue not towards thee like Earth without Water dry and barren as 't is of it self being not sufficient so much as to think the least that 's good But let 's us proceed CHAP. II. VVAter quencheth Fire and that heavenly Water viz. the Grace of the holy Spirit in an admirable way and manner quencheth the Fire of carnal Lusts 'T is true Fastings and corporal Mortifications do much avail to quench this Burning but provided they be used as Instruments of the Grace of the Holy Ghost otherwise of themselves alone they signifie but very little For Love is the principal of the Affections and Passions of the Mind that governs them all and all obey it Love will not be
then will the Fire of this Desire blaze forth above all Desires How great will then thy Happiness O my Soul be when thy Beloved and thy Lover CHRIST will shew thee all the Treasures of the Knowledg and Wisdom of God But that such hopes may not be frustrate strive to keep Christ's Precepts for he hath said If any Man loves me he will keep my Words and he that loves me not keepeth not my Words Mean while let thy Wisdom be such as holy Job describes The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom and to depart from evil is Vnderstanding And what good soever thou beholdest in the Creatures know that it flows from God the Fountain of all Goodness and so with blessed Francis learn to to taste the Goodness of the Fountain in every Creature as in Rivolets that are derived from it Devotions for Water-drinkers OR Meditations Prayers and Thanksgiving fitted to that occasion MEDITATION I. Upon the many kinds of Diseases cured by these Waters HOW great is that Evil which Fools make a Mock of The Cause may be seen in the Effects Had there been no Sin there had been no Sorrow nor Sickness no Diseases Pain or Death The great number of Distempers is no small evidence of the great Evil of Sin 'T is a prolifick Root which bears such variety such multitude of Fruit. The great Physician Fernelius cries out Totus Homo totus Morbus which we may english by the Prophet Isaiah's Words From the sole of the Foot even to the Head there is no Soundness and not only from top to bottom but from outside to within the whole Head is sick and the whole Heart is faint And the Prince of Physicians Galen sums up the Diseases to which the Eye alone is subject to amount to no less than three hundred how many then of the whole Head how many are there of the whole Body And yet the most of what we know is the least of what we know not How many hidden Distempers and which yet know no Name are we subject to And Art is posed to keep pace with Nature and fit new Names to new Diseases And almost every Year some comes upon the Stage known by no other dress call'd by no other title but the New Fever or New Disease And yet O Lord the number of our Sins which exceed the number of our Diseases is more exceeded by the multitude of thy Mercies than the Stars outshine the Gloworms or thy Throne in Heaven is higher than thy Foot-stool on Earth He 's blind which doth not see he deserves to be struck dumb who will not confess this Truth which every day which every place proclaims but few more loudly or significantly than this Place or Season How many Miracles of Mercy doth thy Power and Goodness daily work here How many Patients wait upon thee the Great Physician How many chronical and stubborn Distempers which had baffled all the Sons of Art yield to the God of Nature Should the vast number which daily drink of this Fountain of thy Pleasure strictly confer Notes their Distempers would be found as different as their Faces not two exactly alike yet all expect and most obtain Relief O Lord by the multitude of thy unknown Mercies heal all the known and unknown Diseases of our Bodies and Sins of our Souls MEDITAT II. With Allusion to John 5.3 In them lay a multitude of Impotent Folk waiting for the moving of the Water THE mighty Confluence of which these Wells are the Centre is a very humbling a very mortifying Consideration For tho the Gallantry and Rich Attire of the Company may emulate the Courts of greatest Princes and make this Desert forget its Solitude and we may in this Wilderness find such Softness and Delicacy as uses to be in King's Houses Yet in very truth this place is but a great Hospital and the splendid Buildings which rise so fast at South-borough Rust-Hall and about Mount-Ephraim are but so many Apartments in this great Infirmatory And the Guests who fill them are but so many Impotent Lazars under the Vests of Dives Every Glass we drink for cure is a tacite Confession of our hidden Infirmities and inward Distempers and that tho array'd as the Lillies of the Field as very Grass as they Gay Beggars which wait at these Wells which are the Celler of the great House-keeper for a dole of Mercy Nothing is more insufferable than an insolent Beggar Nothing more despicable than to be poor and proud to need Relief and provoke him from whom we expect it The first Prescription every wise Physician gives his Patient is that he must be regular take what he orders and as he orders Thou Lord art our Physician we are thy Patients these Wells are thy Shop their Waters are thy Medicines thy Word the Prescription how we must use them and all thy other Gifts with Prayer and Thanks-giving O that we all may humbly and sincerely do so Amen MEDITAT III. Upon an Herse passing by towards the Wells July 22. BEing return'd to my Lodgings from the Wells and sitting in the pleasant Tent of my honoured Friend I saw an Herse pass towards the Wells And tho I had not heard of the Death of any Person of Quality hereabouts yet it put me in mind of a Passage of the wise Moralist Seneca which I think for I dare not affirm it at this distance from my Books is in 101 Epist wrote on the sudden Death of Senecio Because thou knowest not when Death will expect thee do thou expect it in every time and because thou knowest not where it will meet thee do thou look for it in every place 'T is in hope of Health and Life that Men come hither yet some who come down in a Coach have changed it for an Herse to be carried up in and when they were knocking at the Doors of Health had the the Gates of the Grave unlock'd to receive them and found what was ordained for Life to be unto Death O how good how wise is it to be always prepared to die and every day to strike Tallies with Life O Lord Jesus who wilt certainly be my Judg when I die give me Wisdom give me thy Grace to take thy Counsel while I live while I am in Health to be always ready as a wise Virgin for the coming of the Bridegroom Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find watching Good Lord vouchsafe to make me of that happy number Amen MEDITAT IV. Upon the plentiful Supply with which God hath furnished the World both for Food and Physick 'T Is a great Aggravation of our Sins that we commit them all against our Benefactor and abuse all the Creatures of God to his Dishonour To take as the Prophet Hoseah speaks his Silver his Gold his Wooll and his Flax his Bread and his Flesh his Wine and his Water his Time and his Talents and to turn them against himself and as with Weapons of Unrighteousness
to fight against him Yet O Lord so inconquerable is thy Goodness that thy Patience seconds thy Bounty in continuing to us what our ill Deserts have forfeited as thou gav'st it freely without any good Desert of ours And not only in supplying our bare Necessities but furnishing of us for Convenience for Pleasure and Delight yea for recovery of those Distempers which we possibly have brought upon our selves by the abuse of thy own Blessings for the whole World is thy well-stor'd Shop and every Element is furnish'd with Supply The Air with Fowls the Water with Fish the Earth with small and great Cattel and with a numberless variety of Plants and Minerals and the Fire is the common Servant to them all to concoct their Crudities to dress and make them fit for Use and Nourishment Neither are they less apt for Physick than for Food for Medicine than for Meat To pass the rest in a grateful tho silent Admiration The Fountains are not only thy Cellars to quench our Thirst but thy Baths and thy Alimbecks where Almighty Goodness is the Operator and the God of Nature prevents the Trouble and Charge of Art O let this thy Goodness at length conquer the Obstinacy of our Rebellions that our Ingratitude and Provocations may never overcome thy Clemency and Patience that we may be so weary and asham'd of sinning against thee that thou mayest never be weary nor repent the doing of us good Amen MEDITAT V. Upon the Water of Jealousy Numbers the 5th THere are many righteous Laws and severe Threatnings in holy Scripture of the Execution of which we meet with no recorded Instance or Example Such is that of the rebellious Son being ston'd to death upon his Parents Complaint of him and testifying against him for his Disobedience Deut. 21.18 And that of the bitter Water to be drunk by the Wife of the jealous Husband which Water was to be mixt with the Dust of the Floor of the Tabernacle probably to make the Punishment Sins Anagram and to signify it should not fail of its dire Effects on them who trampled under foot the Authority of him who dwelt in it which caused her Belly to swell and Thigh to rot who was defiled Numb 5. There is a great Affinity and Likeness between God's Books of his Word and of his Works the Laws of both have righteous Sanctions either expressed or imply'd and tho we read not Examples of the Punishments of those who brake the first nor have observed instances of their Misery who have transgrest the latter yet assuredly wilful Offenders shall not escape the smart and burden of vindictive Justice O my Soul thy Maker is thy Husband provoke him not to Jealousy let not the Impunity of others imbolden thee they may feel that those surda verbera which thou canst take no notice of or he who sees their day is coming may reserve severer Wrath against that day What ever others do do thou thy Duty Love flows in these Waters make sutable returns of Love Provoke not him whose Help thou always needest and here most signally expectest not only lest thy Hopes abuse thee with a Disappointment but the expected Blessing be turn'd into a Curse and instead of opening Obstructions and yielding Help and Health they make thy Belly swell and occasion Sorrow Pain and Death MEDITAT VI. WHen I observe the great Quantities of Water drunk every Morning at these Wells it calls to my mind that Expression of David of some who drink Iniquity like Water Lust is a very thirsty and insatiable thing it never saith it is enough 't is an hydropick Sickness of the Soul the more it drinks the more it thirsts The Fountain of Corruption cannot be stopt it is impatient of a Damm If one Outlet be shut it will find or make another But O how poisonous how deadly are those draughts it swallows down with so greedy a delight We here drink innocent Healths But such Men drink much worse than Circean Cups their own Damnation How can any Sinner hope for impunity when every Sin carries its own Hell a bottomless desire after more And O most Righteous Lord 't is just and equal that they who have forsaken Thee the satisfying Fountain of Living Waters should weary themselves in their labouring after Disappointment in hewing out such broken Cisterns as can hold no Water O Thou who hast given me a Soul capable of thy Self and incapable of rest till it rest in thy self who art the Center of its Being and Desires draw me to thy Self fit me for thy Self fill me with thy Self give me to drink of those Waters of Paradise every drop of which is bigger than the Ocean Give me to hunger and thirst after Righteousness and I have the Security of his Word who cannot lie that I shall be satisfied that having a Well of Water in my self derived from thee the living Fountain I may thirst no more with an uneasy vexing deadly Thirst MEDITAT VII Ezek. 47.9 And every thing shall live whither the River cometh THe latter part of this Prophet is so dark that all Interpreters are ready to cry out as I remember Carthusianus doth when he comes to it I now enter into the thick darkness 'T is no wonder therefore that the heads of that River which brake out in those Regions of Obscurity should be more hidden than those of Nile yet undoubtedly this is that River which David saith makes glad the City of God and which he elsewhere calls the River of his Pleasure What can this be but those Waters of the Sanctuary which flow from the Throne of God and the Lamb the Graces and Comforts of thy Spirit O let that Blessed Spirit which proceedeth from the Father and the Son and whom the Nicene Creed teacheth us to call the Lord and Giver of Life come down upon us and effect more in and for our Souls than we expect or look for to our Bodies from the Waters of these Wells that by the coming of this River to us we may live the life of Grace here and may be fitted for the Life of Everlasting Glory hereafter MEDITAT VIII Upon 2 Kings 5.12 Are not Abana and Pharphar Rivers of Damascus better than all the Waters of Israel May I not wash in them and be clean and he went away in a rage With vers 17. Thy Servant will henceforth offer neither Burnt-Offering nor Sacrifice unto other Gods but unto the LORD THere 's not a greater difference betwixt the Waters in which he wash'd and the Fire by which he offered burnt Sacrifice than between the Sentiments and Language of the Syrian Leper and the cleansed Proselyte How did the Rage of his insolent Mind flame out at his disdainful Lips But when that Jordan which wash'd his Body had baptiz'd his Soul healing both with how sedate a Calmness and humble and resolved Firmness doth he devote himself to Israel's God and to the Rights of his before despised Worship Tho right
nor any Inconvenience to us but prove useful and beneficial to us for the continuance restauration and confirmation of Health to our frail Bodies And as we beg thy leave to use thy Grace to use aright and thy Blessing upon the use of these Waters of the nether Springs So with humble earnestness we beg that the Waters of the Sanctuary which flow from the Throne of the Lamb of God the promised Floods of thy holy Spirit may be plentifully poured forth upon us to refresh to satisfie to cleanse to heal our parched weary and polluted Souls that so both with our Bodies and our Spirits which thou hast made by thy Power and bought with the price of thy Son's Blood we may glorify Thee our great Creator and gracious Redeemer for ever Amen II. O most holy Lord God who tho Thou art most merciful in providing relieving Remedies for thy Creatures yet art most jealous of thy Glory and expectest to be owned and acknowledged in all the Works of thy Power and Goodness to the Sons of Men. We pray thee raise up our Hearts by these Waters and beyond the Virtues of them to thy Self whose Providence hath made them what they are And as we abhor that gross Idolatry of worshipping the likeness of any thing that is in the Waters under the Earth So we pray thee preserve us from a more refined but not less criminal Idolatry of placing our Confidence in their Qualities and Virtues and forgetting Thee the Maker of them lest we provoke Thee to withdraw the Blessing we expect and inflict the Curse we have cause to fear and to make them the Instruments of thy Vengeance because we made them the Objects of our Trust and Occasions of thy Jealousie Grant this O Lord for Christ his sake Amen III. O most gracious God who delightest in Mercy and pardonest Iniquity Transgression and Sin We thy poor sinful Creatures humbly cast down our selves before thee begging the Forgiveness of our Offences which may justly cause thee to with-hold good things from us yea to turn our Blessings into Curses that what is made for the good of others might become to us a Snare and occasion of falling But we beseech thee deal not with us according to our deserts but bless to us the use of these Waters that we may receive those Benefits by them for which we may have great cause to honour love and serve thee for ever And we pray thee give us good Hearts to do accordingly for thy Mercy sake Amen IV. O Lord who art the Fountain of living Waters we confess with shame we have forsaken Thee and have hewen out to our selves empty and broken Cisterns which can hold no Water for which it might be just with thee to forsake and cast us off for ever But good Lord convince us of this Folly pardon and turn us from it Do us good by these Wells we daily see and taste of and open our Eyes as thou didst the Eyes of Hagar to see those Wells of Salvation which are hid from all but those to whom thou art pleased to shew them and help us with joy to draw from thence what may so suffice and satisfie us that we may thirst no more Amen V. Almighty God the Fountain of all Goodness we reade that thy Manna relisht agreeably and pleased the various Palats of all that ate it O that these Waters may profit every person that drinks of them how different so ever the Distempers are for which they drink them That thy Wisdom and Power may more signally appear by thy producing such various Effects from one and the same single Cause And help us all who drink of one Well to be knit together in the Bond of true Christian Charity and to praise thee for the Mercies thou bestowest on our selves and for the Mercies thou vouchsafest unto others as heartily as for our own for Christ his sake who is our common Head Amen VI. O most blessed Lord God who givest thy Blessings and alone canst bless thy Gifts We beseech thee remove thy Curse which our Sins have deserved from us from all our Injoyments and particularly from these Waters we are gathered hither to make use of and let thy Blessing so accompany and follow our drinking of them that we may be both obliged and inabled to praise thy Name through Christ our Lord. Amen VII O most gracious God who hast made a gracious Promise that all things shall work for the good of them that love thee ingraft in our Hearts such love to thy Name as may intitle us to this good Promise And altho we have forfeited our present Comforts and future Expectations of Good yet take not the Forfeitures we have made but crown with continual Patience thy former Bounty and add new Favours and suffer none of us where and while we seek for help and Ease and Health and Life to meet with Pain or Sorrow Sickness Death and Judgment But by by these Waters heal our Diseases and by a better Fountain purge away and pardon all our Sins through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Mediator Amen VIII O Lord our God who art the inexhaustible Fountain of all both spiritual and temporal good things for our Souls and for our Bodies we lift up our Hearts and Hands to Thee in Heaven for a merciful Supply of all our inward and outward Wants and that Thou wouldst sanctify and bless to us all those Supplies thy Goodness doth vouchsafe us both for our Souls and Bodies whether for Meat or Medicine and particularly these Waters that they may do us much good and no hurt and for all the benefits we receive from Thee we pray thee inable us to render to Thee such returns of Service Love and Thankfulness as Thou mayest expect and wilt accept through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen IX O most mighty God who makest the Fountains of Waters those in the Fields and Deserts as Thou art the God of Nature and that in thy Church the Fountain of our Baptism as Thou art the God of Grace We most humbly beseech Thee baptize us with the Holy Ghost and let it be the constant study of our lives to keep the Covenant we made with Thee in our Baptism and to exemplify it by such a Conversation as becomes the Gospel receiving by Faith the good Promises thou hast made to us and making good with faithfulness the Promises we then made to Thee to thy Glory the good example of all our fellow-Christians and the Comfort and Salvation of our Souls by Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen X. O most merciful Lord God who hast opened a Fountain for Sin and for Uncleanness in the Side in the Heart of thy own dear Son whom Thou sentest into this World to save his People from their Sins from all their Sins and all that is in Sin O let nothing be in vain to our Souls of all that he hath done or suffered instituted or ordained for his Peoples good
argue great Stupidness not to observe it and greater Ingratitude yea Impiety not to admire love and praise him for them who hath indued them with these Virtues especially in those who use them and have found them beneficial and reap'd Advantage by the use of them These things considered and seeing so many hundreds yea thousands in this and other Nations yearly use such Waters both by Bathing and Potation I cannot but wonder that nothing hath hitherto been publish'd that I could ever hear of to provoke promote or assist their Devotion from this particular Topick Certainly if the Scale or Ladder of the Creatures be excellently fitted to help the Minds ascent to God there is no round or step in all that Ladder more steady and firm how unstable soever Water be of it self than this of the Waters Cardinal Bellarmin in the Treatise which he wrote De ascensione mentis in Deum per scalas rerum creaturum not as an ingaged Disputant and peevish angry Controvertist but as becomes a serious pious Christian in his September the Month he reserved for Contemplation and Devotion with a calm and sedate Spirit relishing of no Heats but those decent and commendable ones of Zeal Devotion Admiration Love and Thankfulness hath one of the most considerable Chapters Gradus Quartus upon this Subject the sum of which for the sake of English Readers I have subjoyned amongst the Meditations and Prayers I have therefore like Elihu in the Book of Job provoked by the silence of those who were fitter for it adventured to adapt a Discourse and add some Forms of Meditation Prayers and Thanksgivings for the use of those who attend the Mineral Waters I heartily wish it had come a few days or weeks sooner into my mind that I might have had a little more time to have rendred it less incompleat But I was loth wholly to slip this Water-season and therefore must adventure it abroad so unpolisht as it is It may provoke some abler Hand or if it find but tolerable Acceptance put me upon the trial what I can do to its melioration with some more leisure and intention of thoughts Much of it was written at the Wells since my coming down this Season and all transcrib'd and sent up sheet by sheet where 't is true I had my Text daily before mine Eyes but wanted my Books to comment on it But tho 't was partly writ at Tunbridg-Wells and chiefly calculated for those who use them yet I had a Prospect of their Benefit who use other Mineral Waters whether for inward or outward Distempers by drinking or by bathing Amongst many other strange Fountains St. Augustin writes of two One which is always full of Fish De Genesi ad lit lib. 3. cap. 8. Another that will light or kindle Torches tho its Water of it self be cold De Civ Dei lib. 21. cap. 5. And there is in Lancashire the like Fountain as I was lately here informed by a Person of Reputation whose Testimony I do not in the least question he being an Eye-witness of it that being stirr'd at the bottom the steam of it will kindle Paper into a flame If I can at these Fountains catch any Fish in his sense who said henceforth you shall become Fishers of Men I shall sacrifice my Praises not to my Net but unto Him at whose Word I let it down For to fish for any thing else in such an Undertaking I look upon as so unmanly so unpriestly so unchristian that I should greatly despise my self should I not despise so low so muddy motives And if I can bring Fire out of this Water and kindle a Torch of Religion and inflame my own and other Mens Devotion the most ascending of those flames shall mount up to Him in humble Acknowledgments who put the price into my hand and gave me a heart in any measure to improve it I will trouble you with no Apologies for my publishing these Papers they seldom are free from Blame never from sinister Suspicion and such Gildings oftner make them keck for whom they are prepared than the Pills themselves they were designed to cover I thank God I can sincerely and with comfort say I meant well and aimed at the Glory of God and the Edification of those into whose hands they may come how weakly soever I have performed and this will yield me inward satisfaction tho it should render me in some Mens eyes as David's dancing before the Ark rendred him in the eyes of Michal I shall conclude with these few Requests and the first thing I ask of thee good Reader is That thou wouldst be like to God in accepting of a willing mind Secondly If thou meetest here and there with an expression out of the road of common phrase thou wouldst not impute it to a vain affectation of hard words but consider that the nature of the Subject constrain'd me to the use of them For tho I am a very incompetent Judge of Oratory yet I know that the most masculine Eloquence is made up of plain expressive words provided they be not slovenly and rude which suitably cloath the Notions of the Speaker and aptly convey them to the Understandings of the Hearers My Age allows me not to be a florid Speaker had I ability to be so I remember it was the reproach of Hortensius to be at once both green and gray a verdant Orator in his fading withered years In a word who-ever knows the Auditory to which I spake cannot deny that speaking as I did and excusing of my self that I could speak no better needs no excuse Thirdly That if thou wilt not be so humble and so pious as to be made better by it thy self yet be not so unjust and unkind as to reproach it and thereby hinder others from being benefited by it Lastly If but one or two shall imploy some of those vacant hours this time and place affords them and shall thereby be helpt to pray to God or to praise him I entreat them to beg a Blessing on this Work and him who is their Christian Brother and Servant for Jesus sake A. W. Reader Whereas the Title over the Pages are A Sermon preached at Tunbridg it should have been Two Sermons preached at Tunbridg-Wells Jo. Hen. Alstedius Encyclop lib. 18. cap. 6. de Fontibus praecipuis Peroratio Hydrographiae HAEC est Hydrographia Marium Lacuum Fluminum Fontium Quâ—â— quatuor praecones Potentiae Sapientiae Clementiae Divinae Surda qui praetervehitur aâ—re nè ille plusquam ingratus Nam sivâ— quantitatem consideres illa est stupenda sivâ— qualitates illae sunt utilissimae sive motum ille est admirandus Quae omnia nos manu ducunt ad Dei Opt. Max. admirationem adorationem cui soli sit laus in solidum The Seas the Lakes the Rivers and the Fountains are four loud Proclaimerâ— of the Divine Power VVisdom and Goodness to which who ever turns a deaf Ear he is worse than