Designs of it which it is capable of being interested in Nor is there any thing else worth speaking of that must be foregone except Health and the Momentaneousness of all Bodily Torments will make them very tolerable My Resolutions be That I will not expect by devoting myself unto the Fear of God to gain any thing as to my Body in this World That through the Grace of Christ I will use the Strength Ease Health of my Body yea my whole Body in subordination to my Soul in the Service of the Lord Jesus With such Meditations as these he kept mellowing of his own Soul and preparing it for the State wherein Faith is turned into Sight But there was yet a more delightful and surprizing way of Thinking after which he did aspire He considered that the whole Creation was full of God and that there was not a Leaf of Grass in the Field which might not make an Observer to be sensible of the Lord. He apprehended that the idle Minutes of our Lives were many more than a short Liver should allow that the very Filings of Gold and of Time were exceeding precious and that there were little Fragments of Hours intervening between our more stated Businesses wherein Thoughts of God might be no less pleasant than frequent with us Thus far Mr. Mather 17. A short Account of Mrs. Elizabeth Moore 's Evidences for Heaven as I find 'em in Mr. Calamy's Godly Mans Ark. I. Her Design in this Collection IN the Examination of myself I find that my Aims and Ends why I desire to gather together and clear up my Evidences for Heaven if my deceitful Heart doth not deceive me are these following 1. That hereby as a means I may be enabled to glorifie God in the great Work of Believing 2. My Aim is to strengthen that longed-for Grace of Assurance a Grace which though it be not of absolute necessity for the Being and Salvation yet is of absolute necessity for the Well-being and Consolation of a Christian without this Grace I can neither live nor die comfortably 3. My Aim is to obey God in his Word who hath commanded me by his Apostle To work out my own salvation with fear and trembling and to give all diligence to make my calling and election sure A brief Collection of her Evidences for Heaven I. Evidence BLessed be God who hath through his free Mercy begotten me to a hope that I am regenerated and born from above and converted unto God Reason Because the Lord hath gone the same usual way with me as with those he pleaseth to convert to himself and this I shall make to appear in five or six particulars 1. The Lord by his Spirit accompanying the Preaching of his Word caused the Scales to fall from my Eyes and opened them and set up a clear Light in my Understanding and made me to see Sin to be exceeding sinful 2. The Lord brought me to see the Misery that I was in by reason of my Sins I thought I was utterly forsaken of God and I thought that God would never accept of such a Wretch as I saw myself to be 3. The Lord brought me to a Spiritual Astonishment that I cried out What shall I do to be saved and said with Paul Lord What wouldst thou have me to do Do but make known to thy poor Creature what thy Will is and I thought I could do any thing or suffer any thing for the Lord. 4. The Lord took me off my own bottom off my own Righteousness and made me to see that that was but a sandy Foundation and would not hold out 5. The Lord brought me to see a Soul-sanctification in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and I think I should be as fully satisfied with Christ alone as my Heart can desire If I know my Heart it panteth after Christ and Christ alone None but Christ none but Christ. II. My Second Scripture-Evidence is taken from Mark 2.17 where Christ saith They that are whole have no need of the Physitian but they that are sick and he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Now through God's Mercy I can say I am a Sin-sick-Sinner III. From Mat. 11.28 29. I am weary and heavy laden Now Christ hath promised to give Ease to such IV. I can say with David That my Sins are a heavy Burden to me they are too heavy for me Psal 38.4 And I can say that I mourn because I can mourn no more for my Sins V. From Mat. 5.3 I think if my Heart do not deceive me I am poor in spirit now theirs is the kingdom of heaven saith Christ VI. From Mat. 12.20 I am a bruised reed and smeaking flax And therefore Christ hath promised he will not break such a Reed nor quench the Smoak of Grace if it be true Grace but he will increase it more and more VII From 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation saith Paul that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners And so say I too it is worthy all acceptation that Christ should come from the Bosom of his Father who was infinitely glorious and happy that he should come into the World to save me me a sinner me the chief of sinners VIII I can say with Paul that I delight in the Law of God after the inward man and I am grieved that I cannot keep it I find that Spiritual War in me between Flesh and Spirit which Paul complains of and I can say that Paul doth confess over my Heart in his Confessions Rom. 7. IX I can say that the Lord hath in some measure put his fear into my Heart and I fear to offend him X. I can say with the Church to Christ Cant. 1.7 O thou whom my soul loveth And if I know any thing at all of mine own Heart Christ is altogether lovely and most desirable to my Soul I think I can truly say with David That I have none in heaven but thee and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides thee in comparison of thee in competition with thee XI I find my Heart much inflamed with Love to all the Children of God because they are God's Children and the more I see or find or hear of God in them the more I find my Heart cleaving to them and I think I can truly say with David That my delight is in the saints and those that excel in grace XII I do not only love God and the Children of God but I labour to keep his Commandments and they are not grievous to me XIII I find I am one that is very thirty after Jesus Christ and the Grace of Christ and I thirst to have his Image more and more stamped upon me and I would fain be assured by God's Spirit that I am transplanted into Christ and therefore I long and endeavour after a true and lively Faith XIV I am willing to confess and with all my Heart to
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
by Heart and as it were made them his own He testifies likewise of Paula that she had most of the Bible by Heart and of Nepotian that with daily reading and meditating he had made his Heart Bibliothecani Christi The Library of Christ Clark's Examp. 16. Constantine the Great used to shew so much Reverence and Attention to the Word of God preached that many times he would stand up all the Sermon-time and when some of his Courtiers told him That it would tend to his Disparagement he answered That it was in the Service of the Great God who is no Respecter of Persons Clark in his Life 17. Charles the Great used to set his Crown upon the Bible as our Canutus sometime put his Crown upon the Rood both of them to intimate their Reverence c. Clark's Exam. Vol. 1. C. 119. 18. King Edward the Sixth was a diligent Attender upon Sermons heard them with great Reverence and penned them with his own Hand and studied them diligently afterwards Ibid. 19. The greatest delight of Queen Elizabeth was often to read the Bible and hear Sermons Ibid. 20. The young Lord Harrington was mighty attentive in hearing the Word of God preach'd or read Ibid. 21. Bugenhagius a Dutch Divine was so joyful when Luther and he and some others had finished the Translation of the Bible into Dutch that on that Day whereon they finished their Work he ever after invited his Friends to a Feast which he called A Feast of the Translation of the Bible Ibid. 22. Chrysostome preaching to his People used this Expression Get you Bibles by all means whatever they cost you you may better want Bread Light than the Knowledge of the Scriptures Ibid. ex Trapp 23. I can speak it by Experience saith Erasmus that there is little good to be got by the Scripture if a Man read it cursorily and carelesly but if he exercise himself therein constantly and conscionably he shall find such an efficacy in it as is not to be found in any other Book whatsoever Ibid. 24. Robert King of Sicily was so wonderfully affected with the Scriptures that speaking to Franc. Petrarcha he thus said of them I swear to you Petrarch that my Learning is more dear to me than my Kingdom and if I must want the one or the other I had much rather want my Diadem than my Learning Idem ex Cornel. de Lapide 25. I know saith Peter Martyr there are many that will never believe what we say of the Power of God's Word hidden in the Heart and not a few that will jeer us and think that we are mad for saying so But oh that they would be pleased but to make Trial Malè mihi sit ita enim in tantâ causâ juvare ausim nisi tandem capiantur Let it never go well with me for I am bold to swear in so weighty a Business if they find not themselves strangely taken and transformed into the same Image if they pass not into the Likeness of this Heavenly Pattern So Ephes 1.13 1 Thes 1.5 8. Ibid. 26. In all the Bible says the Reverend Mr. Burgesse in his Sermon in the Coll. Morn Exercise though it be an History of more than 4000 Years we read of but of One that was converted just before his Death And we do believe that he also did convert at his first Convincing Call Rarely do any savingly convert who do not upon their first Convictions convert St. Austin's stifled Convictions cost him dear You that will make so bold with Conscience as Spira did should expect to roar for it here as he did or hereafter to fare worse than many hope him to do They are considerable Divines who are not hopeless of his Salvation Thus far Mr. Burgesse 27. John an Egyptian Confessor whom Eusebius saw and heard tho' his Eyes were out and his Body mangled could repeat any passages out of the Old or New Testament whom I supposed saith he to be reading in a Book 'till coming near I was struck with great admiration Dr. Cave ' s Primitive Christian 28. Nazianzen professeth that he had willingly relinquished all other things for the sake of this Book Ibid. 29. Luther said He would not live in Paradise without the Word but with it he could live well enough in Hell Mr. Calamy 's Godly Man's Ark. 30. Gildas hath scarce one Paragraph in his Epistle unstored with Scripture and one of his chief Lamentations in Dioclesian's Persecution is for their Bibles being burnt in the Publick Markets Tho. Jones Sovereign of the Heart 31. Mr. Bradford to Willerton Bishop Bonner's Chaplain when he told him The People must learn all at the Priests not meddling with the Scriptures answered Then I see you would bring the People to hang up Christ and let Barabbas go as the Priests perswaded the People to do At which words Willerton was so offended that he had no lust to talk with him any more Fox Martyr 32. The Christians at the beginning of the Reformation were so in love with the Bible and studied it so diligently and used it in their Discourses and Disputations so frequently and boldly that Darbyshire Principal of Broadgates told Mr. Hawkes in Bishop Bonner's House You will have nothing but your little pretty God's Book Ibid. 33. Blesilla a devout Widow weak and sickly was never found without a Bible in her Hands S. Hierom. 34. Olympia Fulvia Morata born at Ferrara in a Letter to the young Princess of that place after getting out of the Idolatry of that Country saith It may seem incredible to you what a change the Lord then made upon my Spirit that former aversion I had to read the Scripture was then turned to have it as the greatest delight and pleasure in the World Anonym 35. One Captain Knox being a Prisoner in Ceilon in the East-Indies for near Twenty Years was extreamly pleased when he found there an English Bible which he purchased at a Rate and professeth That he never found Prayer so sweet to him as it was then See his Description of Ceilon 36. The Lady Jane Grey the Night before her Execution sent her Sister the Lady Catherine the Greek Testament in the end of which she wrote thus I Have here sent you Good Sister Catherine a Book which altho' it be not outwardly Printed with Gold yet inwardly it is more worth than precious Stones It is the Book dear Sister of the Law of the Lord it is his Testament and Last Will which he bequeathed to us Wretches which shall lead you to the Path of Eternal Joy and if you with a good Mind read it and with an earnest Heart purpose to follow it it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting Life it shall teach you to live and learn you to die it shall win you more than you would have gained by the possession of your woful Father's Lands which if God had prospered you you should have inherited so that if you apply diligently this Book
Practice of the Independant Church and in that Faith I die depending on the Merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ for my Eternal Salvation His Blessing be with you all Farewel to thee poor England Farewel 16. Mr. Josias Askew's Letter to his Father Honoured Father I Not having an Opportunity to make my Gratitude known to you for all your Endeavours for the saving a poor vain perishing and troublesome Life and seeing it is all in vain I would desire you both to acquiesce in the Will of God and rejoyce with me for this happy Day of my departure from this State of Pilgrimage home to the Possession of those Heavenly Mansions which my God and Father hath provided for me in and through my Lord Jesus Christ It is in him alone I put my Trust and Confidence and therefore can boldly say Who is he that Condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again and is set down at the Right Hand of God making Intercession for all those that have a well-grounded Confidence in him My Time is but short and by reason of Company I am disturbed Therefore I conclude with my last Breath begging of God that he would keep you constant in his Fear in this Day of great Temptation and at last receive you to his Glory where we shall once more unite in praising without interruption or distraction World without end Amen Until which time the Grace of God the Father the Love of God the Son the comfortable Refreshing of God the holy Ghost be with you all yours and the whole Israel of God both now and for ever Which is the hearty Prayer of your Son JOSIAS ASKEW Pray remember me to all with Joy The Account his Friend gives of him TO prevent your further Trouble in suing for a Pardon I think it convenient to let you know I do not question but my dear Cousin hath had his Pardon sealed by the King of Kings and is in everlasting Blessedness singing Hallelujahs Salvation Glory and Honour to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever For God did so carry him through to drink that bitter Cup with so much Courage and Chearfulness to the last as was to the Admiration of all Spectators notwithstanding the terrible Sight he saw at the Place of Suffering and so vehemently as he was tried by the Adversary yet it did not in the least discompose him or alter his Countenance for he continued with a smiling Countenance to the last and was transported above measure I want Words to express it he was like one wrapp'd up in Heaven with his Heart there and his Eyes fixed thereon I could wish you had been there it would have driven away all cause of Sorrow from your Heart to see his Deportment and hear the Gracious Words that proceeded out of his Mouth He remembreth his Duty to you both and left Paul's Blessing with you Grace Mercy and Peace his Love to his dear Sister He desires her not to be troubled for him for he hath made his Peace with God and was assured he should go to eternal Happiness He would have written more to you and to his Sister but that he had so short a time after Sentence that he wanted Opportunity When he went out of Prison he said Gentlemen Now I am going and it is the Time I much longed for I would not change with him that passeth Sentence upon me for a World I was with him to the last and seeing his Courage it did very much encourage me though I never saw such a sight with my Eyes 17. The Behaviour of JOHN HOLWAY before and at the Place of Execution at Warham in the County of Dorset HE lived in Lime where the Duke landed and appeared in Arms at that time until his Captain left him then took up Arms under the Duke of Monmouth and went with him until the King's Proclamation came forth That all that would lay down their Arms before some Justice of the Peace in Four Days after and take a Certificate for their so doing they should be acquitted and have his Majesty's Pardon which this Person did though one Day too late He received his Sentence with much Courage and Resolution and by the means of one Mr. Tiller who was to suffer with him was brought to that settled frame of Spirit as is fit for one in that Condition As he was riding in the Cart toward the Place of Execution the Troopers being just behind the Cart he told them They shewed like brave Fellows But said he if I were to have my Life for fighting the best Five of you I would not question it At the Place of Execution he said not much But that he thought his and other Mens Blood would be revenged one time or another and said Forgive me have Mercy on my poor Soul pardon all my Sins and the like and so the Executioner did his Office 18. The Last Speech and Prayer of Mr. Matthews at the Place of Execution HE was much concerned the Morning before he died to see his Wife weep and to be in such a Passion for him which drew Tears from his Eyes and taking her in his Arms said My Dear Prithee do not disturb me at this time but endeavour to submit to the Will of God and although thy Husband is going from thee yet I trust God will be All in All to thee Sure my Dear you will make my Passage into Eternity more troublesome than otherwise if you thus lament and take on for me I am very sensible of thy tender Love towards me but would have you consider that this Separation will be so much for my Advantage as your Loss cannot parallel I thank God I am willing to die and to be with my Jesus Be satisfied the Will of God must be done Thy Will be done O God in Earth as it is in Heaven So embracing her he took his Last Farewel of her and prepared to go to the Place of Execution where being come he with a very modest sober composed frame of Spirit stood while he saw several Executed before him His Turn being come he thus spake Dear Countrymen I Suppose we are all of one Kingdom and Nation and I hope Protestants O I wonder we should be so Cruel and Blood-thirsty one towards another I have heard it said heretofore that England could never be ruin'd but by her self which now I frear is a doing Lord have Mercy on poor England Turn the Hearts of the Inhabitants thereof cause them to love one another and to forget one anothers Infirmities Have Mercy O Lord on me Give me Strength and Patience to fulfil thy Will Comfort my dear and sorrowful Wife be a Husband unto her stand by her in the greatest Trouble and Affliction Let her depend upon thy Providence Be merciful to all Men. Preserve this Nation from Popery Find out a way for its Deliverance if it be thy good Will and give all Men
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
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
into the Lungs and so into the Arteria Venosa and thence again into the left Ventricle of the Heart and so into his Arteries and Veins and whose Body at last I speak not of the dreggy part of Nourishment But what should I talk of the Whole Man take but one of his smallest Parts his Eye see its variety of Colours warry glassy and chrystalline Humors consider the Ends and Uses of them the one to defend the bordering Parts from driness to break the Brightness of Objects continually flowing in and to greaten the Representations of them the other to prepare Nourishment for the Chrystalline and to give to passage for the Species to the Retina that it may refract them from Perpendiculars the last to receive and collect the Representations of Things See its Muscles six in number the first to lift the second to press down the third to move the Eye inwards the fourth outwards the two last to rowl and which it about to the outward and inner Corner See its Nerves a seeing and moving Pair those to carry the Faculty of Seeing with the Species from the Brain or the Visible Represeatation of Things to the Brain those to stir and move them to and fro See its Coats the Tunica Admata fastning the Eye to the Socket the Scleretica divided again into the Cornea and Choroides and Retina all which have their particular Uses Consider their Situation in the most eminent place like Watchmen in long Sockets for the better Safeguard sake Consider the Eye-lidsof how soft a Coat they are made left they hurt that tender part how loose to shut and open that they may be in a constant readiness to cover it from harm or danger how eminent in place to overshadow the Picture and render it more illustrious Consider how between the Musâ—es and sundry Vessels there is Fat interspersed left for want of Heat and Moisture the Motion of the Eye should be hindred And lastly take Notice of that little portion of Flesh placed at the great Corner of the Eye spongy to liquor it but placed over a Hole which goes into the Nose-Bone to stop a continual Weeping Consider these things and withal that the Hundredth part hath not been told thee And say if the Finger of a GOD be not plainly discernable in all this Take some time now and then to know thyself and view but the Contexture of thy Body how thou art trusted with Bones and Sinews how curiously thou art wrought in every Part in every Limb and speak the Truth if a wiser Hand than thine than any Creature 's be not concerned there 2. If thou distrustest thy own Judgment ask thy Neighbours If thy own Convictions be not sufficient in the Case we will give thee leave enough to consult others Go ask thy Fathers and they will tell thee and thy Forefathers thy furthermost Ancestors and they will account to thee what God did in their Days and in the Old Time before them Nay enquire of the Nations round about hee Spain and Turkey and the barbarous Tartary the wild Africans and ignorant Americans and they will all confess with one Mouth this undeniable Truth That there is a God 'T is a Universal Dictate of Nature implanted in all Breasts inserted in all Common-wealths of as large a Spread as Reason and Mankind in the World Rom. 1.19 3. From Miracles Prithee Reader answer me whether or no those Wonders in Nature which we call Miracles be nothing else but a meer Lye and Forgery If not then how comes the World to be so generally imposed on How comes not only the Christian but Jewish Religion to be confirmed and ratified in so fixed a posture as they have been amongst Men Or what makes our Scriptures and Annals and Books of History so big with them If yea then I hope they speak a Divinity and a supernatural Power concerned in the performance of them If it be indeed certain that is constantly reported among us for a Truth That Nature's Bounds are sometimes broken and the ordinary Method of Things and Actions is crossed and turned quite another way if ever the Sun stood still or Angels were seen in an Embassy from Heaven if ever God appeared in a flaming Bush or talked with Man in Clouds and Thunder if ever Sin were immediately punished with a Shower of Brimstone if ever Diseases were cured with a Word and the Dead raised to Life by a Groan or Prayer if ever Blasphemies were smitten with present Vengeance and those who have denied or palpably injured the God of Heaven have smarted immediately for the Guile and Sin as our own Age and Country if we will not deafen our Ears and wink with our Eyes will afford us now and then a notorious Instance I say if these Things are so resolve me who it is so able and bold as to transgress the Laws of Nature And I am sure it can be no other than a God Consider these Things raise up thy Thoughts into an admiration of Him with that Heathen King Nebuchadnezzar when he saw the Children saved in the burning Furnace Dan. 4.23 This Knowledge of God is insufficient to save and bless us Here 't is true we may know so much as will reader us inexcusable but yet not enough to instruct and edifie us unto perfect Salvation In the Scripture we may take a more deliberate View of him we may acquaint our selves better with him we may see him look through the Lattices and commune with his Church in a free and familiar way entertaining a Patriarch in solemn Discourses appearing in Visions in Dreams by Prophets by Vrim by Oracles to his Children and People Having briefly proved the Being of a GOD I shall next prove that GOD is a Spirit I hope I need not spend time here in proving the Existence of a Spirit That there are such Things in Nature i. e. immaterial Beings Substances naked of any Matter or Corporeal Parts invisible to the Eye undiscernable to the Touch without Flesh and Bones as ordinary Creatures have Beings hidden from our outward Senses either filling or traversing the World unseen unobserved for the most part by our weak Intellectuals is so certain a Truth attested by the whole Bulk of Holy Writ by a â—ong Train of History and Tradition both amongst Jews Heathens and Christians by the Suggestions of our own Souls the very exact Character and Pourtraicture of immaterial Spirits that I need not now employ my Pen to enlarge upon this Subject only I shall prove that GOD is a Spirit 1. Because he is the Father of Spirits Heb. 12.9 He it is who is the prime Parent of all such Spiritual and Immaterial Substances out of his Bosome did they all come ripened to that Maturity and Perfection of an Existence in the World 't was he made the Angels and Man little lower than them breathing into his Nostrils a more sublime and defecated Substance than any could be squeez'd out of his
God first a wonderful preservation of his Life in a publick tumult at Lyons in France must make way which forces from him the Acknowledgement of a Deity Then his Father sends for him home and with much gentleness perswades him to read the Scriptures he lights upon the first of John and with it he feels a Divine Supernatural Majesty and Power seizing his Soul which brought him over by a compleat Conversion to Jesus Christ Thus as the Woman of Tekoa told David doth God devise means to bring back his Banished Flav. Divine Conduct p. 61. 4. Lavater tells us that many Spanish Souldiers going into the Wars of Germany were there converted to Christ by falling into the Cities and Towns where Godly Ministers and Christians were Ibid. 5. A Minister of Wales who had two Livings but took little care of either being at a Fair bought something at a Pedlars standing and rent off a Leaf of Mr. Perkin's Catechism to wrap it in and reading a line or two in it God set it home so as it did the work Ibid. 6. The Marriage of a Godly Man into a Carnal Family hath been ordered by Providence for the Conversion and Salvation of many therein Thus we read in the Life of that renowned English worthy Mr. John Bruen that in his second Match it was agreed that he should have one Years Diet in his Mother-in-Laws House During his abode there that year saith Mr. Clark the Lord was pleased by his means Graciously to work upon her Soul as also upon his Wifes Sister and half Sister their Brothers Mr. William and Thomas Fox with one or two of the Servants in that Family Ibid. p. 62. 7. Augustine once Preaching to his Congregation forgot the Argument which first he proposed and fell upon the Error of the Manichees beside his first intention By which discourse he converted one Firmus his Auditor who fell down at his Feet Weeping and Confessing he had lived a Manichee many Years Possidonius in vita Augustini c. 15. Flavel's Div. Conduct p. 63. 8. I knew one saith Mr. Flavel who going to Preach took up another Bible than that he designed in which not onely missing the Notes but the Chapter also in which his Text by was put to some loss thereby But after a short pause he resolved to speak to any other Scripture that might be presented to him and accordingly read that Text 2 Pet. 3.9 The Lord is not slack concerning his Promise c. And tho he had nothing prepared yet the Lord helpt him to speak both Methodically and Pertinently from it By which discourse a Gracious change was wrought upon one in that Congregration who hath since given good Evidence of a sound Conversion and Acknowledged this Sermon to be that first and onely means thereof Mr. Flavel's Div. Conduct p. 63. 9. One who had lived many Years in a Town where Christ had been as clearly and as long Preached as in any Town of England when he was about Seventy Six Years of Age went to visit a Sick Neighbour A Christian Friend of mine saith mine Author came to see him also and finding this Old Man there whom he Judged to be one that lived upon his own Stock Civility good Works c. He purposely fell into that Discourse to shew how many Persons lived upon their Duties but never came to Christ The Old Man sitting by the Bed-side heard him and God was pleased to convince him that he was such a Parson who had lived upon himself without Christ to that day and would say afterwards had I died before Threescore and Sixteen I had perisht for I knew not Christ Mr. Firmin in his Real Christian p. 97 98. 10. In the Year 1673. There came into this Port saith Mr. Flavel meaning Dartmouth a Ship of Poole in her return from Virginia in which Ship was one of that place a lusty Young Man of Twenty Three Years of Age who was a Chirurgeon in the Ship This Person in the Voyage fell into a deep Melancholly which the Devil greatly improved to serve his own design for the ruin of this Poor Man however it pleased God to restrain him from any attempts upon his own Life until he arrived here But shortly after his arrival upon the Lords Day early in the morning being in Bed with his Brother he took a Knife prepared for that purpose and cut his own Throat and withal leapt out of the Bed and tho the wound was deep and large yet thinking it might not soon enough dispatch his wretched Life desperately thrust it into his Stomach and so lay wallowing in his own Blood till his Brother awaking made a cry for help Hereupon a Physician and a Chirurgeon coming in found the wound in his Throat mortal and all they could do at present was onely to stitch it and apply a Plaister with design rather to enable him to speak for a little while than with any Expectation of cure for before that he breathed through the wound and his Voice was Inarticulate In this condition I found him that morning and apprehending him to be within a few Minutes of Eternity I laboured to work upon his Heart the sence of his condition telling him I had but little time to do any thing for him and therefore desired him to let me know what his own apprehensions of his present condition were He told me he hoped in God for Eternal Life I replyed that I feared his hopes were ungrounded for that the Scripture tell us No Murderer hath Eternal Life abiding in him but that was self-murther the grossest of all murthers And insisting upon the Aggravation and Heinousness of the Fact I perceived his vain Confidence began to fall and some Moltings of Heart appear'd in him He then began to lament with many Tears his Sin and Misery and asked me if there might yet be hope for one that had destroy'd himself and shed his own Blood I reply'd the Sin indeed is great but not unpardonable and if the Lord gave him Repentance unto Life and Faith to apply Jesus Christ it should be certainly pardon'd to him And finding him unacquainted with these things I open'd to him the Nature and Necessity of Faith and Repentance which he greedily suckt in and with great Vehemency cried to God that he would work them upon his Soul and intreated me also to pray with him and for him that it might be so I pray'd with him and the Lord thaw'd his Heart exceedingly The Duties of the Day necessitating me to leave him I briefly summ'd up what was most necessary in my parting counsel to him and took my leave never expecting to see him any more in this World But beyond my own and all Men's Expectation he continued all that day and panted most ardently after Christ Jesus no Discourses pleased him but Christ and Faith and in this Frame I found him in the Evening He rejoiced greatly to see me again and entreated me to continue my
of Ireland once had but I have been assured from my Honoured Friend James Tyrrel Esq his Lordship's Grand-son that this was not an Ecstasie but that his Lordship upon reading the 12 13 14 c. Chapters of the Revelation and farther Reflecting upon the great increase of the Sectaries in England supposed that they would let in Popery which consideration put him into a great Transport at the time when his Daughter the Lady Tyrrel came into the Room when he Discoursed to her divers things tho' not all contained in the said Printed Paper Thus far Mr. Aubery 10. Mr. Brewen of Sâ—apleford as he excelled others in the Holiness of his Life so he much excelled himself towards his death his Motions towards Heaven being then most vigorous and quick The Day before his last sickness he had such extraordinary Inlargements of Heart in his Closet-Duty that he seemed to forget all the Concernments of his Body and this lower World and when his Wife told him Sir I fear you have done your self hurt with Rising so early He Answer'd If you had seen such glorious things as I saw this Morning in private Prayer with God you would not have said so for they were so wonderful and unspeakable that whether I was in the Body or out of the Body with Paul I cannot tell And so it was with the Learned and Holy Mr. Rivet who seemed as a Man in Heaven just before he went thither 11. It is Recorded of our Famous Jewel That about the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign the Inquisition taking hold of him in Oxford he fled to London by Night but providentially losing the Road he escaped the Inquisitors who pursued him However he fell that Night into another eminent hazard of Life for wandring up and down in the Snow he fainted and lay starving in the way panting and labouring for Life at which time Mr. Latimer's Servant found and saved him See his Life 12. The Protestants besieged in Bezier's in France were delivered by a Drunken Drummer who going to his Quarters at Mid-night rang the Alarm-Bell of the Town not knowing what he did and just then were their Enemies making their Assault And as weak and improbable means have been blessed with Success to the Church in general so to the preservation of its particular Members also William of Nassau Prince of Orange as he lay in Camp near to the Duke of Alva's Army some Spaniards in the Night brake into his Camp and some of them ran as far as the Prince of Orange's Tent where he was fast asleep but he had a Dog lying by him on the Bed that never left Barking and Scratching him by the Face till he had awaked him whereby he escaped the Danger Strada 13. Queen Elizabeth's Preservation in the Tower in the time of her Imprisonment is a Remarkable Providence not to be forgot viz. When her Bloody Sister Queen Mary had design'd her Death she was preserved by King Philip Queen Mary's Husband who had not perhaps his Fellow in Christendom at that time for Cruelty and Persecution of the Reformed and was moved to the Saving the Princess Elizabeth's Life not so much by his Bowels of Compassion as a Principle of Policy For if Queen Mary should die Childless as indeed he feared if the Princess Elizabeth had been taken out of the way the Queen of Scots a Papist would have come to the Crown of England who being inseparably joyned in League with France might both of them together been too hard for Spain and that his Gentleness to the Princess could be on no other account appears plainly by his putting his Eldest Son to death upon no other Account than for his being so mercifully inclined to the Protestants in the Netherlands This remarkable Providence needs no vouching but however it may be found in a Book that goes under the Name of Mr. Slingsby Bethel in Octavo p. 6. Printed in London A. C. 1694. 14. When several oppressed with the Cruelty and Tyranny of Richard the Third did confederate to Raise Henry Earl of Richmond to the Crown and by his Marriage with Elizabeth Eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth to Unite the Houses of York and Lancaster Mr. Henry Wiat was one therein Ingaged and Intrusted in the Association and Correspondence between the Duke beyond Sea and his Friends in England and passed with Messages for which he was Suspected and Examined but for want of Proof discharged he was afterwards thereof Accused committed to the Tower and Tortured for Discovery of the Duke's Design and Friends in England but neither Threats Torture or fair Promises of Reward could prevail so that he was cast into the Dungeon and Fed with Bread and Water and there lay at the Duke's Descent and Victory where a Cat did use to come to him and bring Provision or he had been Starved He for his Fidelity was preferred made a Knight Baronet by Henry the Seventh and of the Privy Council to Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth This Relation hath been received true in the Family in Kent and in Memory thereof his Picture is preserved with a Cat creeping in at a Grate with a Pidgeon in its Mouth and these Verses added Hunc macrum rigidum maestum fame frigore cura Pavi fovi acui carne calore Joco This Relation was sent me November 16. 1696. by Counsellor Wiat now Living at Serjeants Inn near Fleet-street II. Sea-Dangers and Deliverances 1. Great were the Dangers and wonderful the Deliverances of Will. Okely and his Company the Relation of which from his own Book I have thus Contracted An. Dom. 1639. We took Ship at Gravesend in the Mary of London Mr. Boarder Master bound for the Isle of Providence in the West-Indies Five Weeks we lay in the Downs waiting for a Wind and then we set Sail and came to Anchor near the Isle of Wight but by this time all our Beer in the Ship stunk and we were forced to throw it over-board and to take Vinegar to mix with Water for our Voyage The next Lord's Day we set Sail again and coming between the Island and the main Land we stuck fast in the Sands but the Tide coming in heaved us off The sixth Day after our setting Sail from the Isle of Wight we discovered three Turks Men of War who Chased us and at break of Day boarded and took us Having kept us close Prisoners at Sea at the end of five or six Weeks they brought us to Algiers where I was sold for a Slave the first Market-Day to a Patron who told me I must allow him two Dollars a Month and live ashoar where I would and get it where I could though I knew not where to Levy the least Mite of it Wandering up and down I light of an English-Man in his little Shop that Traded with Tobacco and a few other Things His Partner I became with a little Money I had reserved and a small modicum my Patron had allowed me for my
the Odiousness of the Fact and to impute the Treason to the discontented Puritans Fawkes coming into Flanders found Owen unto whom after the Oath he declared the Plot which he very well approved of but Sir William Stanley being now in Spain Owen said that he would hardly be drawn into the Business having Suits now in England at the Court Yet he promised to engage him all that he could and to send into England with the first so soon as the Plot had taken Effect Upon this Fawkes to avoid further Suspicion kept still in Flanders all the beginning of September and then returning receiv'd the Keys of the Cellar and laid more Powder Billets and Faggots which done he retired into the Country and there kept till the end of October In the mean time Catesby and Peircy meeting at the Bath it was there concluded that because their numbec was but few Catesby himself should have power to call in whom he would to assist their design by which Authority he took in Sir Everard Digby of Rutlandshire and Francis Tresham Esq of Northamptonshire both of them of sufficient State and Wealth For Sir Everard offer'd Fifteen Hundred Pounds to forward the Action and Tresham Two Thousand But Peircy disdaining that any should out-run him in Evil promised Four Thousand Pounds out of the Earl of Northumberland's Rents and ten swift Horses to be used when the Blow was past Against which time to provide Ammunition Catesby also took in Ambrose Rookwood and John Grant two Recusant Gentlemen and without doubt others were acquainted also with it had these two grand Electors been apprehended alive whose own Tongues only could have given an Account of it The business being thus forwarded abroad by their Complices they at home were no less active For Peircy Winter and Fawkes had stored the Cellar with thirty fix Barrels of Gunpowder and instead of Shot has said upon them Bars of Iron Logs of Timber Massie stones Iron Crows Pickaxes and all their working Tools and to cover all great Store of Billets and Faggots so that nothing was wanting against that great and terrible day Neither were the Priests and Jesuits slack on their parts who usually concluded their Masses with Prayers for the good Success of their expected Hopes Upon Thursday in the Evening ten Days before the Parliament was to begin a Letter directed to the Lord Monteagle was deliver'd by an unknown Person to his Footman in the Street with a strict Charge to give it into his Lords own Hands which accordingly he did The Letter had neither Date nor Subscription and was somewhat unlegible This Letter was imparted to the Earl of Salisbury then Principal Secretary and they both presently acquainted the Lord Chamberlain next to the Earl of Worcester and Northampton and last to the King as followeth My Lord Out of the Love I bear to some of your Friends I have a care of your Preservation Therefore I would advise you as you tender your Life to devise some Excuse to shift off your Attendance at this Parliament For God and Man have concurr'd to punish the Wickedness of this time And think not slightly of this Advertisement but retire your self into your Country where you may expect the Event in safety For though there be no Appearance of any Stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible Blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurts them This Counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm For the danger is past so soon as you have burnt the Letter and I hope God will give you the Grace to make a good use of it to whose holy Protection I commend you His Majesty after reading this Letter pausing a while and then reading it again deliver'd his Judgment that the Stile of it was too quick and pithy to be a Libel proceeding from the Superfluities of an idle Brain and by these Words That they should receive a terrible Blow at this Parliament and yet should not see who hurt them he presently apprehended that a sudden Danger by a Blast of Gunpowder was intended by some base Villain in a Corner though no Insurrection Rebellion or desperate Attempt appear'd And therefore wished that the Rooms under the Parliament-House should be thoroughly searched before himself or Peers should sit therein Hereupon it was concluded that the Lord-Chamberlain according to his Office should view all Rooms above and below but yet to prevent idle Rumours and to let things ripen further it was resolved that this Search should be deferr'd till Monday the day before the Parliament met and that then it should be done with a seeming slight Eye to avoid Suspect According to this Conclusion the Earl of Suffolk Lord-Chamberlain upon Monday in the Afternoon accompanied with the Lord Monteagle repair'd into these Under-Rooms and finding the Cellar so fully stored with Wood and Coals demanded of Fawkes the counteffeit Johnson who stood there attending as a Servant of small Repute who owned the place He answer'd that the Lodgings belong'd to Master Thomas Peircy and the Cellar also to lay in his Winter-Provision himself being the Keeper of it and Master Thomas Peircy's Servant whereunto the Earl as void of any Suspicion told him That his Master was well provided for Winter Blasts But when they were come forth the Lord Monteagle told him That he did much suspect Peircy to be the Inditer of the Letter knowing his Affection in Religion and the Friendship betwixt them professed so that his Heart gave him as he said when heard Peircy named that his Hand was in act The Lord-Chamberlain returning related to the King and Council what he had seen and the Suspition that the Lord Monteagle had of Peircy and himself of Johnson his Man all which increased His Majesties Jealousie so that he insisted contrary to the Opinion of some that a harrow Search should be made and the Billets and Coals turn'd up to the bottom and accordingly the Search was concluded to be made but under colour of searching for certain Hangings belonging to the House which were missing and conveyed away Sir Thomas Knevet a Gentleman of His Majesties Privy-Chamber was employ'd herein who about Midnight before the Parliament was to begin went to the place with a small but trusty number of Persons And at the Cellar Door entring in finding one who was Guy Fawkes at so unseasonable an Hour cloaked and booted he apprehended him and ransacking the Billets he found the Serpent's Nest stored with Thirty six Barrels of Powder and then searching the Villain he found a Dark-Lanthorn about him three Matches and other Instruments for blowing up the Powder And being no whit daunted he instantly confessed his Guiltiness vowing that if he had been within the House he would have blown up House and self and all and before the Council lamented nothing so much as that the Deed was not done saying The Devil and not God was the Discoverer
without Covering The whole Countrey round about where she dwelt will bear her Witness that she visited and relieved the Sick and cloathed the Naked She fed the Hungry and healed the Wounded Her Purse her Hand her Heart were all open for their Relief She bought many Precious Drugs and Cordial Waters She made several precious Salves and gave them all away to such as stood in need of them She spared not her best Pains being never weary of well-doing insomuch that in the extremity of her great Sickness such bowels of Compassion yearned in her she compounded several Medicines with her own Hands and applied them Thus will her Works praise her in the Gate and being dead she yet speaks Prov. 31.31 Heb. 11.14 for her precious Name lives The Lord will have the Name of the Righteous to be in everlasting Remembrance Psalm 112.6 and the Memory of the Just is blessed Clark's Examp. Vol. 2. c. 15. 4. Mr. John Bruen of Bruen-Stapleford for three years together whilst he lived in Chester maintained the Poor of his own Parish in the County allowing them all the Profit of his two Mills He relieved the Poor in Chester both daily at his Gate and otherwise Weekly as he was rated Ibid. 5. Mr. John Dod though his Means was very small yet was much given to Hospitality Scarce any Sabbath in the year but he dined both Poor and Rich commonly three or four Poor besides Strangers that came to hear him He had so large a Heart that upon occasion he hath given to some three Shillings to some five Shillings to some ten Shillings yea to some twenty Shillings and when the Poor came to buy Butter or Cheese he would command his Maid to take no Money of them Ibid. 6. Mr. Samuel Crook of Wrington in Sommersetshire was very bountiful to his Kindred that needed it and then he shewed it most when their Necessities swelled highest He was very charitable and open-handed to the poor Members of Jesus Christ And albeit his Charity shined most to those of his own Flock yet was it not shut up from Strangers but he was very liberal to them also upon good Occasions Yea when he went abroad to bestow the Gospel freely upon other Congregations adjacent such Poor as he found to be Hearers unless they were known to him to take up Hearing as a Cloak to cover their Idleness and Neglect of their Callings never went home empty-handed but he always warmed and cheered them with his Bounty as well as instructed them with his Doctrine Ibid. 7. Mr. John Carter sometime Minister of Delstead was very diligent in Visiting the Sick especily the poorer sort and he never went to the House of any poor Creature but he lest a Purse-Alms as well as a Spiritual-Alms of good and heavenly Advice and Prayer No poor body ever came to his Door that went away unhanded his Wife also looking unto that as well as himself Ibid. 8. Dr. William Gouge was very charitable especially to the Houshold of Faith He maintained some poor Schollars in the University wholly at his own Charge and contributed liberally towards the Maintenance of others He set a-part a Sacred Stock as he called it a Portion for the Poor proportionable to his Encoms which also he faithfully distributed Ibid. 9. Dr. Harris in his Works of Charity to the Poor was no less discreet than private When he met with fit Objects his Hand was more ready to give then his Tongue to proclaim it Indeed he was no Friend to idle lazy canting Persons who live on the Sweat of other Mens Brows Whosoever shall survey his Large Bills of Weekly and Quarterly Allowances besides considerable Sums given to poor Ministers and especially to poor Widows and Orphans who never knew whence it came and shall add thereunto his Legacies bequeathed in his Will to charitable Uses cannot but judge that his Charity exceeded the ordinary Proportions of his Revenues Ibid. 10. Mr. Ignatius Jordan of Exeter was famous for his Charity both in his Life and at his Death In his Life he was a free-hearted and open-handed Man He was a great Patron of the Poor another Job in that respect He could truly say with him as Job 30.25 Was not my Soul grieved for the Poor No doubt it was and did earnestly plead for them and especially for God's Poor honest poor Persons whose Hearts and Faces were set God-ward and Heaven-ward and his Hands were very open to relieve them He did that for them which many that had far greater Estates had not Hearts to do Ibid. He would often say That he wondred what rich Men meant that they gave so little to the Poor and raked so much together for their Children Do you not see quoth he what comes of it And hereupon he would reckon up divers Examples of such as heaped up much for their Children who within a short time had scattered and consumed all And on the Morth-side he often spake of such as had small beginnings and afterwards became rich or of a competent Estate giving a particular Instance in himself I came said he but with a Groat or Six pence in my Purse Had I had a Shilling in my Purse I had never been Mayor of Exeter Therefore leave Children but a little and they by God's Blessing upon their Labours and Industry may become Rich but leave them a great deal and they are in danger to become Beggars His Care for the Poor was most remarkable in the time of a great Plague in that City which was Anno Christi 1625. For in the absence of the Mayor he was chosen his Deputy and he seeing the sad and deplorable Condition of the City accepted of it and wrote his Letters to divers Towns in Devonshire and to some in Dorcet and Somersetshire by which means he procured several Sums of Money for the Supplial of the Wants of many Hundred of Poor that in that time were in a distressed Condition One that was an Eye-witness Related that he had seen Morning after Morning coming to his Door sometimes Thirty sometimes Forty yea Fifty Sixty or more wringing their Hands Some crying that their Husbands are Dead others that their Wives were Dead others that their Children are Dead and all that they had not wherewith to Bury them Some again cryed that their Families are Sick and they had not wherewithal to Relieve them others that they had divers Children but had neither Bread nor Money to Buy it for them Some cryed for Bread some for Physick others for Shrouds for their Dead and he not only heard them patiently but his Bowels yearned towards them and his Hands were stretched out for their Relief For standing in his Shop with his own Hands he ministred Supplies unto them all and so dismissed them for the present The next Morning when there was a renewal of their sad Complaints his charitable Care of them was renewed also And thus he continued Morning by Morning even for the space
you put your Endeavours that Christ his Religion may be brought again unto a chast and simple Purity For what should be desired of all Godly Hearts than that all things by little and little should be clean taken away and cut off which have very little or nothing in them that can be referred wholly to Edification but rather be judged of the Godly to be superfluous 8. Bishop Latimer speaking to the Clergy saith How think ye by the Ceremonies that are in England oftentimes with no little Offence of weak Consciences continued more often with Superstition so defiled and so depraved that you may doubt whether it were better for them to tarry still or utterly to take them away Have not our Fore-Fathers complained of the Ceremonies of the Superstitions and Estimation of them In Concione ad Clerum 9. Bishop Vsher then Mr. Vsher when a Commission was granted by K. James to Sir Arthur Chichester then Lord-Deputy of Ireland to Assemble the Irish Bishops and others together to consult about the Reduction of Ireland to the same Ecclesiastical Government of England but willing them to consult with Mr. Vsher about it and do nothing without his Approbation Bishop Vsher I say finding by accident his own Name in the Commission by glancing upon a letter which he saw laid down in the Window by a Bishop whom he went to visit communicated the same to Dean Hill his Good Friend and a Devout Man desiring his Prayers to God for him in that Obscure Case and hearing what the business was when the Assembly was summoned made his Appearance and being demanded his Consent to what they had agreed upon he replied That the Matter concerned more than himself for said he if I had all Mens Consciences in my keeping I could in these Disputable Cases give Laws unto them as well as unto my self but it 's one thing what I can do and another thing what all other Men must do c. Adding The Kings and Queens of England imposed those Ceremonies that thereby they might decline the charge of Schismaticks wherewith the Church of Rome laboured to brand them seeing it did appear hereby that they left them only in such Doctrinal Points wherein they left the Truth Again Hereby they would testify howfar they would willingly stopp to win and gain them by yielding to meet them as far as they might in their own way But saith he the Experience of many years hath shewed that this Condescension hath rather hardned them in their Errours than brought them to a liking of our Religion this being their usual Saying if our Flesh be not Good why do you drink of our Broth c. See his Life by Mr. Clark p. 286. 10. Dr. Wilkins afterwards Bishop of Chester a Man of as great a Mind as true a Judgment as eminent Vertues and of as good a Soul as any I ever knew together with the Lord-Keeper Bridgeman setting up for a Comprehension of the Dissenters and a limitted Indulgence towards others got Sir Matthew Hale Lord-Chief-Baron on their side who after several Meetings and Conferences with two of the most eminent Presbyterian Divines and Heads were agreed upon the Lord-Chief-Baron put them in form of a Bill to be presented to the next Session of Parliament CHAP. XLV Retractations of Censorious Protestants LEwis du Moulin Doctor of Physick being in his last Sickness visited by Dr. Burnet and admonished of the foul Language used in his Books against Dr. Stillingfleet Dean of Pauls Dr. Durel Dean of Windsor Dr. Patrick Dean of Peterborough c. desired Dr. Burnet to ask them pardon in his name and when he spake of the Dean of St. Pauls he expressed much Sorrow and shed some Tears and upon their motion sign'd this Recantation following As for my Books in which I mixed many personal Reflections I am now sensible I vented too much of my own Passion and Bitterness and therefore I disclaim all that is Personal in them and am heartily sorry for every thing I have written to the defaming of any Person I humbly beg God and all those whom I have so wronged pardon for Jesus Christ his sake and am resolved if God shall spare my Life never to meddle more with such Personal things and do earnestly exhort all People as a dying Man that they will study more Love and mutual Forbearance in their Differences and will avoid all bitter and uncharitable Reflections on one anothers Persons And as I earnestly pray those worthy Men of the Church of England to have Charity and Tenderness for the Dissenters from them so I beg of the Dissenters that they would have a due Regard and Respect to those of the Church of England Of many of whom I say now Let my Soul be with theirs and that all true Protestants among us may heartily unite and concur in the Defence and Preservation of the holy Reformed Religion now by the Mercy of God settled among us And that Men of all sides may according to St. Paul's Rule Cease to bite and devour one another lest we be destroyed one of another and that whereunto we have already attained we may walk by the same Rule hoping that if any Man is otherwise minded in some lesser things God shall either reveal that to them or mercifully forgive it through Jesus Christ into whose hands I commend my Spirit and desire to appear before God in and through him Who gave himself for me and the refore do now study to learn of him to be meek and lowly in Heart and to love all the Brethren as he loved me This is Sincerity of Heart I Sign Lewis du Moulin Octob. 5. 1680. See his last Words p. 12. Mr. John Child having written a Book called The Second Argument for a more firm Vnion amongst Protestants where he fell foul upon the Nonconformists was thereupon smitten with Remorse and to one Mr. H. C. coming to visit him taking up the Book in his Hand began to read where he saith The greatest number of Disseners do hold Principles dangerously heretical and most abominably abusing the most Holy God c. But before he could end that Paragraph being under extream Agony of Mind and weeping bitterly put the Book from him and spake to this effect viz. I have represented those Calvin's Principles beyond whatever they conceived strained their Opinions beyond their Intentions and drawing such Consequences as never were in their Minds And striking his Breast with uch Anguish said These words lie close I shall never get over this I write in Prejudice against them calling them a villanous Body of People which was unjust Professing that be could not repent and with a very grim Countenance said I shall go to Hell I am broken in Judgment when I think to pray either I have a Flushing in my Face as if I were in a flame or I am dumb and cannot speak or else I fall asleep upon my Knees all the Signs of one whom God hath left
forsaken and hardned Another time to Mrs. N. How deplorable a thing is this that I who have preached so much of the Glory of another World should now be deprived of it all You will as surely see me damned as you now see e stand here And again being prest to publish his Repentance for his Book that had caused him so much Trouble he answered I have thought sometimes so to do but I am so confused and confounded in my Mind that I know not what to do I can do nothing to purpose Again with a deep Sign said The black Tokens of Reprobation are upon me I cannot stoop to the Sovereignty of God I would be above him In short he drew three Papers of Recantation written with his own Hand The first of which begins thus That it is a Dishonour to the Church and Clergy of England to have such an one that hath no more Wit so little Justice Reason and Conscience plead for them that the Author of this Libel is worthily so represented appears by divers base false devillish and most scandalous Passages therein contained They are represented as a People weak and phantastical and not rendring a tolerable Reason for their differing from others which is a devillish stroke made by a black blow to assert the Nonconformists have no kind of Order in sending forth their Ministers that Preachers run on their own Head upon a phansiful Supposition that they are able to Preach or at the most have but the Consent and Connivance of a few weak Persons is a Devillish Lie as thousands can witness to say it is a true State or the Case being truly thus as we are able to make it good is a Lie if possible more than damnable c. After which he miserable destroyed himself Octob. 13. 1684. See the Narrative attested by Tho Blunt and Ben. Dennis and printed May the 7. 1688. CHAP. XLVI Good People extreamly Afflicted and mightily Comforted THE sharpest Afflictions often befal the best of Men not only Outward and Temporal but Inward and Spiritual insomuch that they are ready sometimes to cry out with our Blessed Saviour Eli Eli Lama-Sabachtheni God withdraws his glorious Countenance and Satan shews his ugly Visage and all this on purpose to rouse and startle a secure World and convince us that it is no very easy matter to get to Heaven and that 't is the safest way to work out our Salvation with Fear and Trembling Besides it serves to shew the Sincerity of the poor deserted Christian for in such cases the Man is mightily humbled and confesseth all his Sins and strips himself stark naked of any Merit or Conceit of his own inherent Righteousness and freely acknowledges that he hath none else to fly to for Succour and Consolation but God only 1. Mr. Tho. Peacock Batchelor of Divinity and Fellow of Brazen-Nose Colledge in Oxford in his Illness was strangely Afflicted and as strangely comforted as may be collected by these Despairing and Comfortable Expressions of his in the time of his Visitation compared together 1st His Despairing Expressions were such as these ' I thought I had been in a good Estate but I see it now sat otherwise for these things my Conscience lays against me First I brought up my Scholars in Gluttony while I was talking they did undo themselves And further I did unadvisedly expound many places of Scripture many times at the Table and for these I now feel a Hell in my Conscience Again I have procured my own Death by often eating like a Beast when I came jostling up and down to my Friends in the Country and now I see before my Face those Dishes of Meat wherewith I clogged my Stomach Sin Sin Sin I am uncapable of Prayers A damnable wretched c. O! how woful and miserable is my Estate that thus must converse with Hell-hounds The Lord hath cursed me I have no Grace I was a foolish glorious Hypocrite it is against the Course of God's Proceeding to save me he hath otherwise decreed he cannot I can put my Trust in God no more than a Horse I desire to believe no more than a Post than a Horse-shooe I have no more Sense of Grace than these Curtains than a Goose than that Block O! O miserable and woful the burden of my Sin lieth heavy upon me I doubt it will break my Heart Comforts They are nothing to me hold your Peace do not trouble your selves idly you vex me your words are as Daggers to my Heart To one saying Good Sir endeavour to settle your Mind he answered Yes to play with Hell-hounds I cannot desire Grace I can as well leap over the Church I fear to be damned for my Sins I cannot so much as name Jesus I had rather be in the Fire than here Cursed be the day when I took Scholars c. 2d His Gracious and Comfortable Expressions As O if God! O God give me a Spark of Grace c. O if God would give me a drop O if I had O if it would please God! I had rather than any thing in this or other three thousand Worlds I thank God he hath began to ease me O I love your Company to Dr. Aiery and Mr. Dod c. for the Graces in you O God reconcile me unto thee that I may taste one dram of thy Grace Being put in mind of that place Isaiah 45.8 11 c. he lift up his Eyes saying Take heed be not too bold look to the Foundation Lord grantme the Comfort of the Deliverance c. Blessed be God! blessed be God! blessed c. I am a thousand times happy to have such Felicity thrown upon me a poor wretched Miscreant Lord Jesus unto thy hands Lord receive my Soul Lord lift thou up the Light of thy Countenance upon me and be merciful unto me Then very weak he repeated the Lord's-Prayer twice his Belief once with a strong Voice and so slept in the Lord. The last Conflicts and Death of Mr. Tho. Peacock Published by E. B. 1646. 2. See the Story of Mrs. Joan Drake and her great Afflictions together with her subsequent Comforts in the foregoing Chapter Of Earnests of a Future Retribution of Mr. Honywood and others in the Chap. of Doubts strangely Resolved 3. Mr. Paul Baynes on his Death-Bed had many Doubts and Fears upon him so that he went out of the World with her less Comfort than many weaker Christians saith my Author Mrs. Harris Dr. Harris's last Wife though a pious Woman yet was much afflicted and delivered up to the Buffetings of Satan and such hellish Temptations that the ablest Divines were at their Wits-end to answer them and her poor self was put even beyond herself But as her Husband would often say The Difference is not great whether Comfort come a little before Death or an hour after Death See Dr. Harris 's Life 4. Mr. Richard Rothwell that bold Divine that often encountred the Devil with a Courage extraordinary yet was
prospect of Peace or Help and yet God hath revived me thro' his Soveraign Grace and Mercy and there have been several heretofore forely perplex'd with great inward and outward trouble whom God aftr that wonderfully refreshed Mr. Robert Bruce some time ago Minister at Edinburgh was Twenty years in Terrors of Conscience and yet delivered afterwards You may also direct them to the Lives of Mrs. Brettergh Mrs. Drake Mr. Peacock and Mrs. Wight where they will see a very chearful day returning after a black and stormy night and that the Issue from their Afflictions was more glorious than their Conflict was troublesome They went forth weeping they sowed in Tears but they reaped an Harvest of wonderful Joys afterwards You have in the Book of Martyrs written by Mr. Fox an instance of Mr. Glover who was worn and consumed with inward Trouble for the space of Five years that he neither had any Comfort in his Meat nor any Quietness of Sleep nor any Pleasure of Life he was so perplexed as if he had been in the deepest Pit of Hell yet at last this good Servant of God after so sharp Tempetations and the strong Buffetings of Satan was freed from all his trouble and was thereby framed to great Mortification and was like one already placed in Heaven and led a Life altogether Celestial abhorring in his Mind all propahen things and you have a remarkable instance of mighty Joy in Mr. Holland a Minister who having the day before he died meditated upon the 8th of the Romans he cried on a sudden Stay your Reading What Brightness is it that I see They told him it was the Sun-shine Nay saith he my Saviour's shine Now farewell World and welcome Heaven the day-star from an high hath visited my Heart O speak it when I am gone and let it be Preached at my Funeral God dealeth familiarly with Man I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the Body or out of the Body God he knoweth but I see things unutterale And in the Morning following he shut up his blessed Life with these blessed words O! what an happy Change shall I make from Night to Day from Darkness to Light from Death to Life from Sorrow to Solace from a factious World to an Heavenly Being O! my dear Friends it pitieth me to leave you behind yet remember what I now feel I hope you shall find e're you die That God doth and will deal familiarly with Men. And now thou fiery Chariot that came down to fetch up Eliah carry me to my happy hold and all the blessed Angels who attended the Soul of Lazarus to bring it up to Heaven bear me O bear me into the Bosom of my best Beloved Amen Amen Come Lord Jesus come quickly And so he fell asleep See this and several other Instances in Mr. Robert Bolton's Instructions for Afflicted Consciences p. 87. and 235 c. Thus far Mr. Rogers I shall next add what dreadful Apprehensions a Soul has that is under Desertion from Mr. Rogers's own Experience and I shall give it you in his own words viz. The time of God's Forsaking of a Soul is a very dark and mournful time 't is not only night but a weeping stormy Night and it may not be unuseful to you who have it may be hitherto lived in the Beams and chearful Light of Day to know what passes in this sorrowful and doleful Night and in this Matter I will not borrow Information from others but give you my own Experience 1. In this Night the deserted Soul in overwhelmed with continual Thoughts of the Holiness and Majesty and Glory of the Lord not does in think of him with any manner of Delight acording to that of Asaph Psal 77.3 I remembred God and was troubled I complained and my Spirit was over-whelmed And in how deplorable a case is such a Soul that cannot think of its God and its Creator but with Grief and Sorrow 2. The Deserted Soul in this mournful Night does look upon God as its Enemy and as intending its Hurt and Ruin by the Sharpness of his Dispensations and this makes it to be incapable of receiving any Consolation from the Creatures for will it say to them Alas if God be my Enemy as I apprehend him to be which of you can be my Friend He is with his People ut he has forsaken me he has east me into a fiery Furnace where I am daily burnt and scorcht and he is not with me there I dare not says the mourning Person look up to Heaven for there I see how great a God I have against me I dare not look into his Word for there I see all his Threats as so many barbed Arrows to strike me to the Heart I dare not look into the Grave because thence I am like to have a doleful Resurection and what can a poor Creature do that apprehends the Almighty to be his Enemy It is a common thing to say Why do you so lament and mourn you have many Mercies left many Friends that pray for you and that pity you Alas what help is there in all this if God himself be gone Nothing is then lookt upon as a Mercy and as for the Prayers of others will the distressed Person say They can do me no good unless I have Faith and I find I have none at all for that wou'd purify and cleanse my Heart and I do nothing else but sin 3. In this doleful Night the Soul hath no evidence at all of its former Grace so that in this Night the Sun is not only set but there is not one Star appears such an one look upon himself as altogether void of the Grace of God he looks upon all his former Duties to have been Insincere or Hypocrital he feels his Heart hardned at present and concludes that it was never tender I am an Apostate if I had any share in the Intercession of the great Redeemer he wou'd not leave me thus sad and desolate O! how greatly have I been deceived that imagined my self to be an Heir of Heaven and am now seized with the Pangs of Hell 4. During this Sadness the Soul cannot think of Christ himself with any Comfort For thus it argues he will be a Saviour to none but those that believe I have no Faith and therefore he will be no Saviour to me he that is to his Servants as the Lamb of God will be to me as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah he that deals gently with them will tear me to pieces He seems to be angry and enraged against me for my Disobedience and though I have cried sometimes Have Mercy on me thou Son of David he passes away and does not regard my Cries and O what shall I do when he comes in the Clouds of Heaven when I am to stand at his Bar and to be punished as an Unbeliever 5. In this Night the Soul is full of Terror and how can it be otherwise when every
Thought of God and of Christ overwhelms it The Terrors of the Lord we may feel indeed but we cannot express them they are so very terrible that they wound our most sensible and tender part they cause our very Souls to pine and languish away they fix our Minds to the Contemplation of every thing that is sad and doleful they fill us with Confusion and Heman says Ps 88.15 They are Terrors that compass us round about they seize upon every Faculty and distress us in every part to have God against us his Holiness to dazle us his Power to overthrow us his Law to condemn us our Consciences to accuse us is the Sum of Terrors 6. Fear is another occasion of Sorrow We are frighted with the view of our innumerable Sins and with the Dangers that attend them the Thoughts of Heaven fright us because we think we have lost that blessed Place and the Thoughts of Hell are no less frightful because we think we shall soon be there the Thoughts of Life are frightful because 't is with Anguish and Horror that we live nor can we bear the Thoughts of Death because we dare not die 7. 'T is a Night of Weeping to deserted Souls because they find no heart to pray and no life to pray they fall upon their Knees and cover the Altar of the Lord with Tears but he seems not to regard them The Thoughts of such poor People are in a continual hurry and so are very full of Wandrings in the Performance of their Duty Sorrows damp our Faith our Love and our Hope and so spoil our Duties for without these they are without Life and without Acceptance and sometimes our Grief is so violent that it finds no vent it strangles us and we are overcome I am so troubled that I cannot speak Ps 77.4 8. Such have no Patience wherewith to bear their Evils Who is he that can bear the Wrath of God The sight of Heaven inspires our Hearts with vital heat and makes us quiet and submissive under every Dispensation but the daily Sight and Fear of Hell fills us with Tumult and Disorder 9. They usually see no prospect of Relief or Deliverance and that encreases the Sorrows of their doleful Night They have indeed now and then some Intermissions but they are like the small Breathings and Refreshments of a Person that is newly taken off the Rack to be carried to the Rack again 10. This Night of Weeping is the more sorrowful because it is the time of Satan's Cruelty When God is departed then the Devil comes insults and says Where is now your God What think you now of Sin What is now become of all your Hearing your Reading and your many Prayers You thought to have escaped my Power and now I have you within my reach Now remember that at such a time or such a time you sinned and therefore God has forsaken you you weep and your Tears are just for you are miserable and are like to be with me for ever 11. Sometimes this Sorrow is mixed with deep Despair It is a tempestuous and stormy Night and as St. Paul said in another case All hope of their being saved is taken away I shall surely perish saith the Mourning Soul I am damned I am lost for ever I am already as in Hell the Lord will be favourable no more he is gone he is gone from me and he is for ever gone No more shall I behold his shining Face he is my Judge and my Enemity and I am afraid he will be so for ever I am never like to see that Heaven where I once hoped to go and these unbelieving Conclusions produce hard and strange Thoughts of God and an Enemy to him in our Minds 12. Looking upon their present Troubles as an Introduction to more and that these are but the beginning of Sorrows How often do we hear such Saying O! if I cannot bear these Pains and this Wrath what shall I do to bear an eternal Hell If I tremble so now what shall I do when the blow is given and the final Sentence past God knows I dare neither live nor die O what shall I do whether shall I go The Shadows of the Evening are stretched out and what shall I do if it prove an eternal Night For as it is the Glory of Faith to shew us future things as if actually present and to give us JOY from them so considered so it is the TORMENT of Despair to make poor distressed Souls believe they are even as in Hell whilst they are on Earth and that they are actually scorched with that Wrath that is to come in greater measures 13. From all these flow strange Discourses and Expressions of Sorrow they scarce care what they say of God or of themselves My Soul is meary of my Life I will leave my Complaint upon my self I will speak in the Bitterness of my Soul Job 10. c. 3. They frequently proceed to wish they had never been born nay they may proceed so far as to wish even to be destroyed that they may know the worst And there are two things that make their Sorrows more sorrowful 1. As comparing their State with that of others 2. As with their own former State 1. It makes them more sad when they consider the Case of others with that Peace and Joy they have With what Hope and Comfort whilst they are drown'd in Sorrows others says that deserted Soul can sing the Praises of God with Delight whilst I am overwhelmed and my Harp is hung upon the Willows Others can go into the solemn Assemblies and hear his Word but I am confined in my thick Darkness and dare not go thither 2. When the deserted Soul compares its present with its former State To a Person in Misery 't is a great encrease of Misery to have been once happy It was to David an occasion of new Tears when he remembred his former Joys Psal 42.3 4. Time was says the poor Soul when I cou'd read the Bible and treasure up the Promises and Survey of the Land of Canaan as my own Inheritance but now I dare not look into the Word least I read my own Condemnation there The Sabbath was formerly to me as one of the days of Heaven but now it is as well as the rest a sad and mournful day How fair was I once for Heaven and now am like to come short of it These are some of the Sorrows that deserted Souls often meet withal and indeed but a small part of what they feel in this dark and stormy Night Thus far I have given you some of Mr. Rogers 's own Words and have been the larger as thinking his an EXTRAORDINARY CASE and well-deserves the Consideration of every serious Christian but for a more particular Account of it I refer the Reader to his Book intituled A Discourse concerning Trouble of Mind CHAP. XLVII Remarkable Gratitude THankful Returns for Kindnesses and Favours received are but the just
is at best fickle and subject to change We are short sighted and cannot see at first what the Effects of such Love will be And therefore what more ordinary than for Lovers to grow cold and indifferent If the Person be loved for Beauty the Small-Pox or Feaver may put an end to that Love If for good Humour Age and Sickness often alters it if for Money Riches may make themselves Wings and fly away or else any Vnkindness or unsuitable Carriage from the Person loved often alters the Affections Yet with what delight can they talk of these they love 't is hard to put them off with other Discourse Lovers think not the time long they are together Yet O my Soul I am infinitely obliged to God his Love is beyond all Expression I have ever since I was born offended him and brought Sin enough into the World with me to set me at an eternal Distance from him Yet God's great Love was such that he thought nothing too much for fallen Man He knew before ever he fixt his Love on me what I should prove how I should carry it towards him yet that could not hinder his Thoughts of Love O my Soul thou canst never do enough to testify thy Love to God There 's no fear of the Decay of his Love to thee if thou dost but carry it ingenuously towards him There can be no Defect in God all that is is on my part I have cause to bewail my former Miscarriages and now to resolve to walk more holily and humbly before God Christ he is altogether lovely there is nothing in him but what if considered may inflame my Heart with Love to him I may wonder at my self that I do no more love to talk of this lovely Jesus that I do so seldom think of him Well now let me learn something from this Reflection to fill my Soul with Love to him and to set me a longing after Communion with him O that I may for ever have him in my Thoughts whose Thoughts I was never out of from Eternity if I am not mistaken but am truly his REFLECTION III. On her Brother H 's telling her Mother that she lay at Mrs. B 's and her Mother discoursing what her Landlord said of her Febr. 2. 1679. Her Reflections on this were these viz. OH my Soul What use should I make of all this I may see how vain it is to expect Satisfaction in the Creatures when they do in so small a matter disappoint me and prove false Sure the use God would have me to make of all the Disappointments I have ever yet met with is to expect more from God and less from the Creature I see and find by Experience this I may soon expect more from them than is to be had But I never yet expected that from God that is to be had in him I find I may soon loose my good Name and Credit in the World I should from hence learn to make it my business to keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and Man that so whatever the World says or thinks of me I may still be able to approve my Heart to God and to carry it so towards all I converse with as not willingly to give them any just cause to speak Evil of me I see 't is a vain thing nay I shall be the most inexcusable of any one in the World if ever I should expect Satisfaction in the Creature For my Experience tells me it is not there to be had I no sooner promise my self Comfort in any Earthly Enjoyment but some way or other it is imbittered to me I promised my self a great deal of Comfort in Mrs. B 's Acquaintance and now I cannot go to see her without hazarding my good name Well I will now retreat back again to my former SOLITVDE and converse more with God and my own Soul I have found enough of the Vanity of Acquaintance But I never yet had cause to complain of my God The more I acquaint my self with him the better it is I should be so ingenuous in all cases to make a Spiritual Improvement of an Earthly Disappointment that so I may reap real Benefit by outward Vexations REFLECTION IV. Upon her being taken ill in the Night and thinking she was struck with Death OH my Soul thou seest what need I have to be always prepared for Death How soon can God take away Health and Life I am but Tenant at Will to my Maker and therefore I need to be ready I then began to call my self to account to see with what Comfort I could appear before God I find upon Examination and some sight of Eternity here is abundance of Sin to be repented of I dare not think of appearing before God without an Assurance of an Interest in Christ Well O my Soul what use should I make of this Providence I know not how soon I may die Death is a serious thing it is a solemn thing to appear before the Heart-searching God there to be accountable for all I have done in the body and for ever to be doomed to endless Happiness or Misery What a mad Body and Fool am I then to be so negligent in working â—â—t of my Salvation when I am sure I cannot live long The Pain I felt was great but nothing to what the Damned feel I did then bless God that it was not eternal I thought if my Pain was so sad what is it to be tormented in Body and Soul and that for ever I then considered what Sin it was that most disturbed my Peace and find it is trifling with God Well O my Soul it is time for thee now to resolve to be more serious and always prepared because in such an hour as I think not the Son of Man comes REFLECTION V. Upon her Mother's and Sister T 's saying to her She would neither make a fond Wife nor Mother OH my Soul What use should I make of all the Opinions People have of me and of their thinking I shall never be fond of any Relation Sure God hath some end in it that notwithstanding my Willingness to please all manner of Persons I cannot yet have their good word Let me now more than ever endeavour to please God I have great cause to love my Parents for under God I am beholding to them for my Being But I am not only beholden to God for my Creation but I hope for Redemption and a whole Life of Mercies that be hath continually followed me with I have great cause to love Relations but that is nothing if compared with what cause I have to love God Their greatest Love is Hatred when compared with God's Love Well then the use I should make of all this is to consider my Obligations to God I would not willingly displease an Earthly friend sure then had not Sin basely besotted me I should abhor the Thoughts of doing any thing that might displease God I should endeavour
ex Speed Chron. 7. Sir Nathaniel Barnardiston enjoyed his Father a less time than his Grand-Father his Father being removed by Death long before his Grand-Father but yet we may easily gather what his Carriage to him was from the high and extensive Value he set upon his Memory as he used to please himself to Discourse of his Father affirming That he was a very Godly Man and that it was a great Disadvantage for him to part with him so young These things and others he would often declare to his Children and Friends dropping many Tears to shew his great and strong Affection and when he made his Will he there exprest an importunate Desire to his Executors that the Bones of his Father might be digged out of the Earth where they were buried and laid by his own Body in a new vault he order'd his Executors to erect for the same purpose Thus though he could not live with his Father as long as he would have desired yet he designed that their Bodies or Relicks should lie together 'till the happy Resurrection-Day which certainly did denote a Noble Veneration and a most raised Filial Affection See his Life CHAP. LIV. Remarkable Instances of an Early Piety or Children Good betimes TO see young Trees newly planted hopeful and promising is a very lovely and inviting sight A Jeremiah sanctified from his Mother's Womb a Joshua pious in his young years a Timothy well instructed in the Scriptures from a Child are very pleasant in sacred Records And when we see the Seeds of Piety spring up so soon we are ready to impute it to the Influence of Heaven and the Efficacy of Divine Grace And though sometimes these Blossoms die before any Fruit appears and a good Beginning hath not always a good Ending yet certainly and Lot Solomon or our Senses be Witnesses in the case 't is the likeliest way to end well when we begin well 1. Mr. Samuel Crook to shew that his Heart even in his Youth was drawn up towards the Pole of Heaven translated divers of David's Psalms and composed several Hymns of his own Some of which he sung with Tears of Joy and Desire in his last Sickness See his Life p. 4. 2. Origen when a Child was mightily inquisitive into the Meaning of the Scriptures even tiring his Parents with asking Religious Questions comforting his Father in Prison with Letters and hardly forbearing to offer himself to Martyrdom Dr. Cave 's Prim. Christian 3. K. Edward VI. took Notes of such things he heard in Sermons which more nearly related to himself Hist of the Reform 4. Queen Elizabeth wrote a good hand before she was Four years old and understood Italian Ibid. 5. Sir Thomas Moore never offended his Father nor was ever offended by him 6. Arch-bishop Vsher at 10 years old found himself wrought upon by a Sermon on Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God c. Dr. Bernard in his Life 7. Dr. W. Gouge when at School was continually studious even at play-hours conscionable in secret Prayer and sanctifying the Sabbath Clark 's Lives 8. Mr. Tho. Gataker was often chid by his Father from his Book Ibid. 9. Mr. Jeremy Whitaker when a School-Boy would frequently go in company 8 or 10 miles to hear a warming Sermon and took Notes and was helpful to others in repeating them and though his Father often and earnestly endeavoured to divert him yet when a Boy he was unmoveable in his Desires to be a Minister Ibid. 10. Mr. Herbert Palmer was esteemed sanctified even from the Womb at the Age of 4 or 5 years he would cry to go to his Lady Mothers Sir Tho. Palmer being his Father that he might hear somewhat of God When a Child little more than Five years old he wept in reading the Story of Joseph and took much pleasure in learning Chapters by heart he learned the French Tongue almost so soon as he could speak he often affirmed that he never remembred the learning of it by his Discourse he could hardly be distinguished from a Native French-man When at the Latin-School at vacant hours others were at play he was constantly observed to be reading studiously by himself Ibid. 11. Mr. Tho. Cartwright in his younger years rose many times in the night to seek out places to pray in Ibid. 12. Mr. Rich. Sedgwick when he was a School-boy and living with his Uncle and the rest of the Family were at their Games and Dancing he would be in a Corner mourning Ibid. 13. Mr. Julius Herring when a Boy was noted for his Diligence in Reading the Scriptures On Play-days he with 2 or 3 more School-fellows would pray together repeat the Heads of the Catechism with the Sermons which they heard last Lord's-day Ibid. 14. Mrs. Margaret Corbet Daughter of Sir Nathaniel Brent Warden of Merton-Colledge whom about 14 years of Age wrote Sermons with Dexterity and left many Volumes of such Notes writ with her own Hand Ibid. 15. Mrs. Elizabeth Wilkinson was from her Childhood very Docile took much pains in writing Sermons and collecting special Notes out of Practical Divines When I was saith she in a Narrative written with her own Hand about Twelve years old upon reading in the Practice of Piety concerning the happy State of the Godly and the miserable Condition of the Wicked in their Death and so on to all Eternity it pleased the Lord so to affect my Heart as from that time I was wrought over to a desire to walk in the Ways of God Ibid. 16. Mr. Caleb Vernon could read the Bible distinctly at Four years old and by six became very apt in places of Scripture the Theory thereof and moral Regard thereto exactly observant of his Parents with ambition to serve and please them in love To begin a Correspondency with a good Friend of his Mr. R. D. then in London he wrote this his first Letter at Ten years of age Dear Sir I Received your kind Letter for which I thank you and desire the Book which you sent me may be made of good effect to my Soul and that my Soul may be filled with the Love of God ' being ready for the Day of his coming to judge the World in Righteousness when the Kings of the Earth shall tremble and the Rulers shall be astonished at the Brightness of his coming when he shall come with his Holy Angels in Power and Glory to judge the Earth in the Valley of Jehoshaphat O! that my Soul was fit for his Coming that I may be like a flourishing Flower in the Garden of Eden prepared for the Lord Christ This is a Trying-day the Lord is searching Jerusalem with Candles to find out out-side Professors who do make clean the out-side of the Cup and Platter when their Hearts are full of Deceit Oh! that we might be comforting one another with his coming putting on the Breast-plate of Faith and laying aside the Traditions of Men. O! how near is his coming even at the
Things He could not endure to be put to Bed without Family-Duty but would put his Parents upon Duty and would with much Devotion kneel down and with great Patience and Delight continue 'till Duty was at an end When he had committed any fault he was easily convinced of it and would get into some Corner and Secret Place and with Tears beg Pardon of God and Strength against such a Sin He had a Friend that oft watched him and listned at his Chamber-door from whom I received this Narrative A Friend of his asked him Whether he were willing to die when he was first taken sick he answered No because he was afraid of his State as to another World Why Child said the other thou didst pray for a new Heart for an humble and a sincere Heart and I have heard thee Didst thou not pray with thy Heart I hope I did said he Not long after the same Person asked him again Whether he were willing to die He answered Now I am willing for I shall go to Christ He still grew weaker and weaker but carried it with a great deal of sweetness and patience waiting for his Change and at last did cheerfully commit his Spirit unto the Lord and calling upon the Name of the Lord and saying Lord Jesus Lord Jesâ—â— in whose Bosom he sweetly slept dying as I remember when he was about Five or Six Years old 8. Of a little Girl that was wrought upon when she was between Four and Five Years old Mary A. when she was between Four and Five Years old was greatly affected in hearing the Word of God and became very solicitous about her Soul and Everlasting Condition weeping bitterly to think what would become of her in another World asking strange Questions concerning God and Christ and her own Soul So that this little Mary before she was full Five Years old seemed to mind the one thing needful and to choose the better part and sate at the Feet of Christ many a time and oft with Tears She was very Conscientious in keeping the Sabbath spending the whole time either in Reading or Praying or learning her Catechism or teaching her Brethren and Sisters See took great delight in Reading of the Scripture and some part of it was more sweet to her than her appointed Food she would get several choice Scriptures by heart and discourse of them savourly and apply them suitably A little before she died she had a great Conflict with Satan and cried out I am none of his Her Mother seeing her in trouble asked her what was the matter she answered Satan did trouble me but now I thank God all is well I know I am none of his but Christ's After this she had a great Sence of God's Love and a Glorious Sight as if she had seen the very Heavens open and the Angels come to receive her by which her Heart was filled with Joy and her Tongue with Praise Being desired by the Standers-by to give them a particular Account of what she saw she answered You shall know hereafter and so in an Extasie of Joy and holy Triumph she went to Heaven when she was about Twelve Years old Hallelujah 9. Of a Child that began to look towards Heaven when she was about Four Years old A certain little Child when she was about Four Years old had a Conscientious Sence of her Duty towards her Parents because the Commandment saith Honour thy Father and thy Mother And though she had little advantage of Education she carried it with the greatest Reverence to her Parents imaginable so that she was no small Credit as well as Comfort to them She would be very attentive when she read the Scriptures and be much affected with them and would by no means be perswaded to prophane the Lord's Day but would spend it in some good Duties When she was taken sick one asked her Whether she were willing to die she answered Yes if God would pardon her Sins Being asked How her Sins should be pardoned she answered Through the Blood of Christ. There were very many observable Passages in the Life and Death of this Child but the Hurry and Grief that her Friends were in buried them 10. Charles Bridgman had no sooner learned to speak but he betook himself to Prayer His Sentences were wise and weighty and well might become some ancient Christian His Sickness lasted long and at least Three Days before his Death he prophesied his Departure and not only that he must die but the very Day The last Words which he spake were exactly these Pray pray pray nay yet pray and the more Prayers the better all prospers God is the best Physician into his Hands I commend my Spirit O Lord Jesus receive my Soul Now close mine Eyes Forgive me Father Mother Brother Sister all the World Now I am well my Pain is almost gone my Joy is at hand Lord have mercy on me O Lord receive my Soul unto thee And thus he yielded his Spirit up unto the Lord when he was about Twelve Years old This Narrative was taken out of Mr. Ambrose 's Life's Lease 11. Of a poor Child that was awakened when she was about Five Years old A certain very poor Child that had a very bad Father but it was to be hoped a very good Mother was by the Providence of God brought to the sight of a Godly Friend of mine who upon the first sight of the Child had a great pity for him and took an Affection to him and had a mind to bring him for Christ It was not long before the Lord was pleased to strike in with the Spiritual Exhortations of this good Man so that the Child was brought to a liking of the things of God He would ask very excellent Questions and Discourse about the Condition of his Soul and Heavenly Things and seemed mightily concerned what should become of his Soul when he should die so that his Discourse made some Christians even to stand astonished He was greatly taken with the great kindness of Christ in dying for Sinners and would be in Tears at the mention of them and seemed at a strange rate to be affected with the unspeakable Love of Christ After the Death of his Mother he would often repeat some of the Promises that are made unto Fatherless Children especially that in Exod. 22.22 Ye shall not afflict any Widow or the Fatherless Child if thou afflict them in any wise and they cry at all unto me I will surely hear their cry These words he would often repeat with Tears I am Fatherless and Motherless upon Earth yet if any wrong me I have a Father in Heaven who will take my part to him I commit myself and in him is all my trust Thus he continu'd in a Course of Holy Duties living in the fear of God and shewed wonderful Grace for a Child and died sweetly in the Faith of Jesus My Friend is a Judicious Christian of many Years Experience who was
the Vicaridge of Torcester Ibid. 12. The late Earl of Rochester upon his Death-bed acknowledged how unworthily he had treated the Clergy reproaching them that they were proud and prophesied only for Rewards but now he had learned how to value them that he esteemed them as the Servants of the most High God who were to shew Men the Way to everlasting Life Mr. Parsons in his Funeral Sermon 13. Mr. Whitaker was much beloved his House frequented with many and friendly Visits his Sickness laid to heart and many Prayers publick and private put up for him some Fasts also kept with a special Reference to his Afflictions and his Funeral attended with many weeping Eyes See his Life Mr. Fairclough's Ministry was thought to bring a Temporal Blessing to the Parish 14. I think my candid Reader will easily pardon me if for Gratitude's sake I take an occasion here for the Glory of God and the Commendation of the People to make mention of the Respects Love and Kindnesses much beyond my Desert which I received as from the Inhabitants of Arundel and Shipley in Sussex so especially from the Parishioners of Preston Gubbals and Broughton in Shropshire together with the adjacent Neighbourhood which were so freely and plentifully shewed me whilst I was their Minister that I may testify of them they were kind to me even beyond their power some of them and I hope God would return it into their Bosoms and remember them in the day of their Distress for I speak this to their Praise I never met with a more loving People in my Life 15. Mons du Plessis on his Death-bed gave Thanks to the Minister that had assisted him prayed the Lord to prosper the Word in his Mouth prayed for M. Boucherean Minister of the Church in Saumur and said he Let it not trouble him to be patient he hath to do with a troublesome People the Lord impute not their Sins unto them Clark 's Examp. Vol. 2. c. 27. 16. Mrs. Drake on her Death-bed advised her Father to keep a Minister in his House and returned most affectionate Thanks to a Friend I suppose her Minister begging earnestly Forgiveness of him and would needs have his Hand and Promise for it Mrs. Drake revived 17. John Blacknal of Abington Esq by his last Will bequeathed certain Sums of Money to several Ministers for Duties omitted by him in his Life A. 1625. CHAP. LXI Remarkable Zeal and Devotion ZEal is a Composition of all the Passions the Affections warmed and heated into a lively Vigour and Activeness and this is so far from being a Fault that if it be made regular with Prudence and a Christian Discretion 't is good and commendable always in a good Matter And certainly if ever it be seasonable for us to kindle a fire upon the Altar 't is so when we are about to do sacrifice to God Almighty 1. Polycarp going with S. John to a Bath at Ephesus and espying Ceriathus the Heretick in it said ' Let us depart speedily for fear lest the Bath where the Lord's Adversary is do fall upon us Dr. Cave Prim Christ and Clark 's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 2. Origen when a Boy had an eager desire of Martyrdom So had Cyprian and Gregory Nazianzen Ibid. Dr. Cave Prim. Christ c. 3. The Venerable Bede was so devoutly affected in Reading the Scriptures that he would often shed Tears and after he had ended reading conclude with Prayers Clark 's Marr. of Eccl. Hist p. 100. 4. Tertullian used to pray thrice a day at the 3 6 9 hours Clark 5. Peter Chrysologus before he penned any thing would with great Ardency humbly betake to Prayer and seek unto God for Direction therein Clark 's Marr. of Eccl. Hist p. 88. 6. Luther advised George Spalatinus always to begin his Studies with Prayer For saith he there is no Master that can instruct us in Divine Matters but the Author of them Ibid. p. 195. And Melancthon testifies of Luther That he hath heard him so loud and earnest at his Prayers as if some Person were in company discoursing with him Much the same Advice doth Ludovicus Grotius give to all Students in Divinity To pray often And Thomas Aquinas is reported to use that Rule himself always to pray for the Resolution of any difficult and knotty Question and commends to others that Motto Bene orasse est bene studuisse 7. When Erasmus halted between two Opinions Capito continually called upon him to put off that Nicodemus-like Temper Clark 's Eccl. Hist p. 193. 8. Cardinal Wolsey when advanced to great Preferments in both Church and State having all State-business at his disposal and most Church-preferments in his power the Deanry of Lincoln the King's Almonership a House near Bridewel Durham Winchester Bath Worcester Hereford Tourney Lincoln S. Albans and York in his Possession and all other Promotions in his Gift was so devout that he neglected not one Collect of his Prayers for all the Cumbrances of his Place wherein he deceived many of the People who thought he had no time for his Business and his Servants who wondred how he could gain time for his Business from his Devotion Lloyd 's State-Worthies p. 8. 9. Luther was zealous in the Cause of the Reformation that he preached wrote and disputed publickly for it and when discouraged from going to Wormes whither he had been invited by the Emperour with a Promise of safe Conduct lest he should be served as John Husse at the Council of Constance he made Answer If there were as many Devils in the City as Tiles on the Houses to shake the Kingdom of Satan he would go thither And so fervent was he in Prayer that Vitus Theodorus saith of him that no Day passed wherein he spent not at least Three Hours in Prayer Once it fell out saith he that I heard him Good God! what a Spirit what a Confidence was in his very Expression with such a Reverence he sueth for any thing as one begging of God and yet with such Hope and Assurance as if he spake with a Loving Father or Friend Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist p. 141. 10. Sir Thomas Moor was so devour that the Duke of Norfolk coming on a time to Chelsey to Dine with him happened to find him in the Church singing in the Quire with a Surplice on his Back to whom after Service as they went homeward hand in hand together the Duke said God's Body my Lord Chancellor what a Parish-Clark a Parish-Clark you dishonour the King and his Office Nay said Sir Thomas smiling upon the Duke Your Grace may not think your Master and mine will be offended with me for serving of God his Master or thereby count his Office dishonoured England's Worthies by Will. Winstanley p. 201. When the King sent for him once at Mass he answered That when he had done with God he would wait on His Majesty Lloyd's Worthies p. 43. The same Answer Bishop Vsher return'd to Charles the Second Vid.
with you all this while but I dare not have so any longer wherefore I renounce all Communion with you any more I will cleave to the God that made me My Account of him will be an unfinished Piece unless all the ensuing Strokes go to make it up These things he was exemplary for First He was one that walked by Rule He was very studious to learn the way of Conversing with God in every Duty and there was a Rule which he attended still unto In his private Papers I find a wise Collection of Rules by which he governed himself in the several Duties of Christianity and in all the Seasons and Stations of his Life He consulted the best Authors for Instruction in the Affairs of Practical Religion and not into Paper only but into Action to be transcribed what he most approved in all which the Will of God was the bright Pole-star by which he steer'd his Course The Reader shall enjoy and O that he would follow Two of this Young Man's Directories One of them was this I. O that I might lead a Spiritual Life Wherefore let me regulate my Life by the Word of God and by such Scriptures as these 1. For regulating my Thoughts Jer. 4.14 Isa 55.7 Mal. 3.17 Psal 104.34 Phil. 4.8 Prov. 23.26 Deut. 15.9 Eccles 10.20 Prov. 24.9 Mat. 9.4 Zech. 8.17 2. For Regulating my Affections Col. 3.2 5. Gal. 5.24 For my Delight Psal 1.2 Psal 37.5 For my Joy Phil. 4.4 Psal 43.4 My Desire Isa 26.8 9. Ezek. 7.16 My Love Mat. 22.37 Psal 119.97 My Hatred Psal 97.10 My Fear Luke 12.4 5. My Hope Psal 39.7 My Trust Psal 62.8 Isa 26.4 3. For Regulating my Speech Eph. 4.29 Col. 4.6 Deut. 6.6 7. Psal 119.46 Psal 71.8 24. Prov. 31.26 4. For Regulating my Work Tit. 3.8 2 Tim. 2.12 1 Tim. 5.10 Titus 2.14 Mat. 5.47 1 Tim. 6.8 Rev. 3.2 Rom. 13.12 Acts 26.20 Another of them was form'd into an Hymn the singing of which might produce fresher and stronger Efforts of Soul towards the thing that is good Besides these Rules which concerned his whole Walk he treasured up many more that referr'd to this and that Step in it and it was the predominant Care and Watch of his Heart not to tread awry Thus one might see askilful Christian in him And as he was desirous to live by Precept so he was to live by Promise too He sell into a particular Consideration how to improve the Promises of God in all the Occasions of Life which is indeed one of the most sanctifying Exercises in the World It was a Proposal which I find he made unto himself Let me Salute these Promises once a Day 1. For Supplying the Wants of the Day Phil. 4.19 2. For Growth in Grace Hos 14.5 3. For Subduing my Sins Mic. 7.19 4. For Success in my Vndertakings Psal 1.3 5 For Turning all the Events of the Day for good Rom. 8.28 6. For Audience of my Prayers John 14.13 14. 7. For Strength to manage all the Work of the Day Zech. 10.12 8. For Direction in Difficulty Psal 32.8 9. For Life Eternal Luke 12.31 John 3.16 Besides these Two Mat. 11.28 and Isa 44.3 Certainly that Man must quickly grow another Enoch who does thus walk with God Secondly He was one that lived in Prayer he was oft and long in the Mount with God It was his Custom every Day to enter into his Closet and shut his Door and pray to his Father in secret And And I guess from some of his Writings that he did thus no less than thrice a Day when he met with no Obstruction in it nor did he slubber over his Prayers with hasty Amputations but wrestie in them for a good part of an Hour together It was a most refreshing Communion with God which his Devotions brought him sometimes unto October 1. he meditated on that If a Man does intend to be truly Religious he must expect nothing but to save his Soul But how can this be true Must I lose my Body altogether Must I be willing that the Union between my Body and Soul should for evermore be loosed Must I be willing to be for ever without a Body No no. All that the Lord requires of me is to have my Body for a few Days or Years a few I say for they cannot be many to be wholly at the Service of my Soul and to be willing that the Union between these two Mates then should be dissolved the Soul first taking its Progress into everlasting Bliss the Body being laid in the Dust to rise at the Resurrection accompanying the Soul into its eternal Felicity My present Notion of this thing is this This Dissolution of the Union between the Soul and Body is but a Dismission of the Spirit into its Happiness after a wearisome Conflict here And as long as it shall be best for me to be here here I shall continue Infinite Wisdom is to be the Orderer of this and it will be a grievous and shameful Reflection thereupon for me to say It will be better for me to live than to die at such a time when I am called thereunto With my Body I must expect to lose all the pleasant Enjoyments of this World Liberty Library Study and Relations But yet neither shall I lose these As for my Liberty by True Religion and by dying for it too when need requires I shall gain the only Liberty even from the Body of Sin As for my Library if I die for Christ or in the Lord I shall have no need of it my Understanding shall be enough enlarged and I shall not need to turn over Books for Learning As for my Study my Paradice I shall have a better a larger and a more compleat than this As for my Relations those of them that are truly pious I shall only go before them and if there should be any of them not pious the longer I should stay with them here if they continue impenitent it would but make my Grief more intolerable I think when I leave them that I shall have no Hopes to see them again for ever But this is not all neither My Body must be used as the Soul's Instrument and here all that Strength and Ease which I have must be used for the Soul and truly there is Reason enough for it that so there may be Eternal Happiness for both together In Marriage the Husband and Wife should have the same Design Would it not be inhumane for the one to have a Design which tends to the Ruine of the other Just so my Soul and Body should have the same Design and the Body being the more vile of the two should be subordinate to the Soul And it is a necessary Disjunction either the Body the Strength and Ease and Members of it must be used for the good or for the hurt of the Soul there is no Medium here Let me then herein make my Body useful to my Soul in accomplishing all the good
We Preached in the Indian Tongue above an Hour the Indians attended very diligently professing they understood all that was taught them Then we propounded Questions and desired them to propound Questions to us which they readily did 1. Quest How may we come to know Jesus Christ 2. Quest Whether God or Jesus Christ did understand Indian Prayers 3. Quest Whether English-men were at any time so ignorant of God and Jesus as they These Questions being answered and we demanding If they were not weary They answering No and a time being agreed upon for our coming again Second Time Nov. 11. 1646. Meeting again at Waaubon's Wigwam we found more Indians than at the first After Prayer we ask'd them Three Questions which were thus answered 1. Quest Who made you and all the World Answ God 2. Quest Who do you look should save you from Sin and Hell Answ Jesus Christ 3. Quest How many Commandments Answ Ten. After this we Preached of God Christ Sin Punishment of Sin God's now offering Salvation to them with which some were much affected one wept much They propounded Questions to us 1. An old Man ask'd Is it not too late for one so old as I am to repent c. 2. Seeing we all come from one Father how came the English to know God more than we 3. How may we come to serve God 4. If a Man have stollen and restored again and was not punished by the Sachim Indian Governour what then Answ God's Anger 's burns like Fire against all such Sins but if he fly to God's Mercy in Christ and repent God will forgive him Upon this the Man drew back hung down his Head as smitten at the Heart and his Eyes ready to drop saying Me little know Jesus Christ else I should seek him better Third Time Nov. 26. 46. We met again found more Wigwams built the Preacher hearing that other Indians had discouraged these he encouraged them The same Week one Wimpas a Sage Indian with Two stout young Men brought his Son and Three other Indian Children to be taught English and the Knowledge of God the Two young men offering their Service for the like end and certifying that the Old Man who had asked if such a one could be saved his Wife and one of his Six Sons who were Pawaws or Charming Witches were resolved to hear the Word and seek to the Devil no more Fourth Time At the next Meeting they made Laws Decemb. 4. 1. If any be idle a Week he stall pay 5 s. 2. A Man that commits Whoredom shall pay 20 s. 3. He that beats his Wife his Hand shall be tied behind him and be punished 4. Young Men without Service shall set up Wigwams and Plant. 5. Women that cut their Hair or let it hang loose shall pay 5 s. 6. Women with naked Breasts shall pay 2 s. 6 d. 7. Men that wear long Hair 5 s. 8. They that kill Lice between their Teeth 5 s. This was to oblige the English Fifth Time Decemb. 9. 1646. After Catechising and Preaching the Indians offered all their Children to be brought up by the English complained of their naughty Hearts resolved to Keep the Sabbath c. See more at large in the Book called the Day-break in another called the Sun-shine in Mr. Matthew's Letters and concerning the great Pains and Success of Mr. Elliot and the large spreading of the Gospel amongst them II. A LETTER concerning the Success of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New-England Written by Mr. Increase Mather Minister of the Word of God at Boston and Rector of the Colledge at Cambridge in New-England to Doctor John Leusden Hebrew Professor in the Vniversity af Utrecht Translated out of Latin into English Worthy and much Honoured Sir YOur Letter were very grateful to me by which I undestand that you and others in your famous University of Vtrecht desire to be Informed concerning the Converted Indians in America take therefore a true Account of them in a few Words It is above Forty Years since that truly Godly Man Mr. John Elliot Pastor of the Church at Roxborough about a Mile from Boston in New-England being warmed with a holy Zeal of Converting the Americans set himself to learn the Indian Tongue that he might more easily and successfully open to them the Mysteries of the Gospel upon account of which he has been and not underservedly called The Apostle of the American Indians This Reverend Person not without very great Labour Translated the whole Bible into the Indian Tongue he Translated also several English Treatises of Practical Divinity and Catechisms into their Language About 26 Years ago he gathered a Church of Converted Indians in a Town called Natick these Indians confessed their Sins with Tears and professed their Faith in Christ and afterwards they and their Children were Baptized and they were solemnly joyned together in a Church Covenant The said Mr. Elliot was the first that Administred the Lord's Supper to them the Pastor of that Church now is an Indian his name is Daniel Besides this Church at Natick among our Inhabitants in the Massachusets Colony there are four Indian Assemblies where the Name of the True God and Jesus Christ is solemnly called upon these Assemblies have some American Preachers Mr. Elliot formerly used to Preach to them once every Fortnight but now he is weakned with Labours and Old Age being in the eighty fourth Year of his Age and Preacheth not to the Indians oftner than once in two Months There is another Church consisting only of Converted Indians about fifty Miles from hence in an Indian Town called Mashippaug The first first Pastor of that Church was an English Man who being skilful in the American Language Preached the Gospel to them in their own Tongue this English Pastor is dead and instead of him that Church has an Indian Preacher There are besides that five Assemblies of Indians professing the Name of Christ not far distant from Mashippang which have Indian Preachers John Cotton Pastor of the Church at Plymouth Son of my venerable Father-in-Law John Cotton formerly the famous Teacher of the Church at Boston hath made very great Progress in learning the Indian Tongue and is very skillful in it he Preaches in their own Language to the last five mentioned Congregations every Week Moreover of the Inhabitants of Saconet in Plymouth Colony there is a great Congregation of those who for distinction sake are called Praying Indians because they Pray to God in Christ Not far from 2 Promontory called Cape-Cod there are six Assemblies of Heathens who are to be reckoned as Catechumens amongst whom there are six Indian Preachers Samuel Treat Pastor of a Church at Eastham Preacheth to those Congregations in their own Language There are likewise amongst the Islanders of Nantucket a Church with a Pastor who was lately a Heathen and several Meetings of Catechumens who are instructed by the Converted Indians There is also another Island about seven Leagues long called Martha's
Heart and used to be reciting them when they went about their Work A. C. 1548. They were Translated into English Verse and much Sung by all who loved the Reformation Dr. Burn. Hist Reformation 6. Hierom relates of the place where be lived You could not go into the Field but you might hear the Plow-man at his Halelujahs the Mower at his Hymns and the Vine-dresser singing David 's Psalms Dr. Cave's Prim. Christianity It would take up a great deal of time to recount over the many Instances of Persons singly or Families conjunctly using this Exercise of Devotion many Persons on their Death-beds some in Prison and others at their Execution have cheared themselves with this Exercise and have taken a mighty Pleasure even in the midst of their Troubles and most bitter and heavy Afflictions to ease their Minds and give their Devotions full Vent and Play by singing Praises to the God of Jacob Tho' I know very well that the Children of this World who have no comfort but in things of this Life cannot dance to nor well digest without some Scoff or Censure this Musick 7. Dr. W. Johnson in the Story of his Deliverance at Sea tells us That after his second Shipwrack upon the Coast of Norway being got upon a Rock to save their Lives they betook themselves to their old Remedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Prayers the Danes with them first began their Devotions who having sung one of Luther 's Psalms fell to their Prayers and then saith the Doctor me sung one of our own Psalms and as long as I was able to speak Prayed with the Company Dr. Johnson's Deus Nobiscum p. 34. 8. In the Life of Mr. Herbert writ by Isaac Walton if I mistake not we are told of a Gentleman of good Estate who after his Travels came home with a Resolution to devote the remainder of his time to a close and spiritual Devotion and the Method which he pitcht upon was to Sing over David's Psalms every four and twenty Hours which was so ordered that while some were refreshing themselves and attending upon the Necessities of Life others should continue in the Chappel and keep on the Devotion To this Society Mr. Herbert who was a Man both Devout and Musical joyned himself for some time I have not the Book by me but the Relation may be seen in Mr. Herbert's Life before his Poems 9. Thomas Hudson Martyr in Queen Mary's Reign after walking abroad for certain days openly in the Town crying against Popery at last returned home and seting himself down on his Knees having his Book by him read and sung Psalms continually without ceasing for three Days and three Nights together refusing Meat and other talk to the great wonder of many Fox's Martyrol 10. George Eagles Martyr likewise in the same Reign when he was drawn on a Sled to Execution had in his Hand a Psalm-book wherein he read very devoutly all the way with a loud Voice till he came there Ibid. 11. Five Martyrs in Canterbury viz. John Lucas a young Man Ann Albright John Catmer Agnes Snâ—th Widow Joan Soale Wife when the Fire was flaming about their Ears did sing Psalms whereat the good Knight Sir John Norton being present wept bitterly at the sight Ibid. 12. Mr. John Denly being set in the Fire with a burning Flame about him sung a Psalm but being interrupted by occasion of a Fagot thrown in his Face which made him bleed he left off and clapt both his Hands on his Face Truly quoth Dr. Story to him that hurled the Fagot thou hast marr'd a good old Song at which Mr. Denley still in the Flames resumed Courage put his Hands abroad and sung again Ibid. 13. St. Augustin speaking of the time when he was Baptized at Milan professeth That the sweet Musick and Melody of the Church provoked his Affections so far that the Tears run down his Checks and he was mightily pleased with it Confes l. 9. c. 6 7. 14. St. Hierom speaking not of the universal Church in solemn Assemblies but what the company of the solitary Virgins were wont to do of their own accord in his time saith That in the Morning at three six and nine a Clock at evening and at Midnight they sung Psalms only on Sunday they went into the Church Bullinger 's Decads 15. The first Act of Uniformity in King Edward the Sixth's Reign gives leave for the using of any Psalm agreeable to the Word of God Which Act is not annulled by any subsequent Act but rather confirmed by those which have followed 16. Te Deum's are in Fashion all over Christian Europe at least the Protestant and Popish Churches at this day See more of the Singing and religious Musick of other Churches in my History of all Religions 17. Mr. John Bruen in singing of Psalms had his Spirit so ravished with Joy that his Heart would even spring and leap in his Body was so affected with Praising of God that he took the word Hallelujah for his Motto See his Life in Mr. Clark's second Volume of Lives p. 176. 18. Mr. Peacock after his great Afflictions being at last joyfully delivered and comforted a three Chapter read to him Rev. 19. Rev. 21. Rom. 8. Oh! saith he they be glorious Comforts Will you have any more read said his Friends yea saith he a Psalm if you please and named the 23d one beginning to read it he desired that it might be sung one asking Will you sing yea said he as well as I can The Psalm being sung and then John 17. being read Blessed be God said he I am a Thousand times happy to have such Felicity thrown upon me a poor wretched Miscreant c. See his last Conflicts by E. B from the Copy of Mr. Rob. Bolton 1646. 19. Mrs. Katherine Stubs on her Death-bed sang Psalms with a sweet and pleasant Voice and desired that the 133 Psalm might be sung before her to Church and desired that there might be no Mourning for her See her Life 20. Mr. J. Janeway on his Death-bed cries out thus Come help me with Praises yet all is too little come help me all ye mighty and glorious Angels who are so well skill'd in the haavenly Work of Praise Praise him all ye Creatures upon Earth let every thing that hath Being help me to Praise God Hallelujah Hallelujah hallelujah Praise is now my Work and I shall be engaged in this sweet Work now and for ever Bring the Bible turn to David 's Psalms and let us sing a Psalm of Praise Come let us lift up our Voice in the Praises of the most High I will sing with you as long as my Breath doth last and when I have none I shall do it better See his Life CHAP. LXIV Persons Remarkable for Good Discourse OVR Saviour hath told us we must be accountable for every idle word and the Apostle hath exploded all corrupt Communication and requires strictly of all Christians that their Speech be season'd
a fair Fruit of Arras of which tho' a shred may assure us of the fineness of the Collours and the richness of the Stuff yet the Hangings never appear to their true advantage but when they are display'd to their full Dimensions and seen together Be sure the Scriptures to which we do well to take heed as to a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1.19 will in this prospect clearly shew their Author and Original namely that they came from him who is the Light of Men and shineth in Darkness John 1.4 5.1 John 1.4 5. to the good satisfaction of the Consciences of the honest Beholders themselves whatever Objections may be made by carnal Reasonings to the contrary hereby being far more effectual to convert the Soul and rejoyce the Heart Psalm 19.7 8. than any appearances of prodigious Spectres giving some notice of what passes in the other World could ever do Sith the read Resurrection of Lazarus had no other Influence on some of the Jews than only to give them occasion of turning Informers to the Pharisees against Christ who had just before their Eyes wrought that most notable Miracle John 11.46 In the dispensation of the Word there is an Evidence of Divinity in it commending it self to the Consciences of unprejudiced Men. The ordinary means of Crace being mighty through God to the pulling down of the strong holds 2 Cor. 10.4 5. yea every thing that exalteth is self against the knowledge of God from whom it came and unto whom it directs us Even great ones have been astonish'd at the Doctrine of the Lord Acts 13.12 Psal 119.111 drawn from vicious Courses into virtuous and holy Practices from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God Acts 26.18 when little good comparatively was done by Christ himself preaching at Capernaum Matt. 11. 23.13.58 The Magazine of his Miracles those extraordinary Discoveries of their Author in the use of the ordinary means of Grace even at one Sermon of Peter's we find three Thousand converted Acts 2.41 And afterwards upon hearing of the Word we meet with about five Thousand more that believed Acts 4.4 which may well evidence who was the Author of it and in whose Hand it was an Instrument Eph. 2.20 Many have been built upon this Foundation enlightned and directed by this Light Psal 119.105 fed with this Meat Heb. 5.13 14. regenerated by this Seed 1 Pet. 1.23 which as a grain of Mustard Seed in a matter of sixty six Years space after the sowing of it grew into a great Tree which Pliny †the Proconsul in Bythinia employed by Trajan to root up Christianity which they accounted a Crime did acknowledge Tertullian and others prove the spreading of it in the second and third Centuries So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed Acts 19.20 in the Primitive times ingenerating unconquer'd Constancy of Faith and Godliness in the minds of the Hearers and always victoriously triumphing over the Kingdom of Satan and false Religions In the beginning of the Reformation said Luther ‖ We do everywhere experience in the Church in the Commonwealth in the Family certain Fruits of the Word which as Leaven doth spread it self into all the parts of the Commonwealth the Offices and all the States * Mr. Boyl Stile of Scripture p. 72. †Plin Secund. l. 10. Epist mox ipso tractu us fieri solet diffundente se crimine c. Adversus gentes ipsa multitudine perturbatus ‖ Tom. 4.282 Vbique experimur in Templo in Rep. c. Afterwards we find hoe it did diffuse it self in England Scotland and Ireland c. * Notwithstanding they of the Antichristian state have laboured to keep up their Superstition and Idolatry by feigned Apparitions as may be seen in later Collections of Popish Miracles the History of Jetzer Thus far Mr. Adams See the fulfilling of Scriptures p. 401. Stand fast and fix'd says the Reverend Mr. Woodcock in his Sermon in the Casuistical Morning Exercise in the good Word of God which is settled for ever in Heaven Psal 119.89 as the Copy of the Divine Nature and Law Stand having your Loins girt about with Truth Ephes 6.14 and having on the Breast-plate of Righteousness This is the grand and perfect Rule of Faith Worship and Life Keep within these Trenches and you have an assurance of Protection I remember an Ear-witness told me he heard Dr. Hammond Preach before King Charles the First at Oxford when his Affairs were at a low ebb and he told him While God-dam-me led the Van and the Devil confound me brought up the Rear he would be routed in all his Designs And they are very unlikely to be good Subjects to Princes who are open Rebels to the Laws of God and Men and their own Reason Thus far Mr. Woodcock Many useful Sayings good Precepts and Rules may be fetched from Heathen Authors Plato Seneca Tully Plutarch c. But we need not says the Reverend Mr. Slater in his Sermon in the last Morning Exercise borrow Jewels of Egyptians blessed be God nor go down to the Philistines for the sharpening of our Mattocks It is the Gospel of Christ which is the Power of God to Salvation There is no need of quoting a Philosopher when we have a Paul What Examples can we produce and propound so exact and curious as is that of Christ who did no Sin neither was Guile found in his Mouth He spake so as never Man spake and he walked so as never Man walked What Arguments can we find more convincing than those of the Scripture which are mighty for casting down the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imaginations Conceits Reasonings of a carnal vain and proud Mind What Motives more perswasive and alluring than those of the Gospel which are indeed the Cords of a Man What Thunder-claps can be thought of more terrible or what Terrors more amazing and affrighting then the Terrors of the Lord What Promises more inviting and encouraging than those he hath given us which are exceeding great and precious Where if any one can let him tell us where we shall see sin so clearly and fully in its Deformity and Ugliness in order to a real and thorough aversation from it or Religion Godliness and a Conversation ordered aright more in its Loveliness and enamouring Beauty in order to our setting our Hearts upon it than we do or at least may see it in the Gospel When all is said and done that can be it is the Grace of God Tit. 2.14 The Doctrine the Gospel of Grace which bringeth Salvation and hath appeareth to all men Jews and Gentiles Men of all sorts and ranks it is that yea it is that which teacheth us and all that sit under it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live seberly righteously and godly in this present World CHAP. LXVII Present Retribution to the Faithful BY Faithful I mean here such as dare trust in God whilst they faithfully discharge their Duties though they
other Christians met tegether to pray for her when on a sudden after a terrible Conflict which so much amazed some that they cried out with a confused Noise Jesus help Jesus save the Maid started up out of a wicked Chair wherein she sate and by main Strength lifted up one of the Ministers with her who kneeled behind and held her in his Arms and threw white Froth out of her Throat and Mouth round about the Chamber and on a sudden fell down into the Chair as one really dead with her Head hanging on one side her Neck and Arms limber though before as stiff as if Frozen presently after Life returned into her whole Body and her Eyes and Tongue came into their right place she then looked up with a chearful Countenance round the Chamber and with a loud Voice spoke saying O he is come he is come the Comforter is come the Comforter is come I am delivered I am delivered her Father hearing these Words wept for Joy and with a faultring Vocie said O these were her Grandfather's Words who suffered in Queen Mary 's Days She then kneeled down and gave humble and hearty Thanks and Praise to God for her Deliverance which she continued to do till her Voice grew weak and the Minister desired her to forbear and so they ended the Day with Thanksgiving After which she was committed to the Care of the Minister who writ this Relation least Satan should again assault her His name was Mr. Lewis Haughs then Minister of St. Helens London from whence this Narrative was taken and who doth not mention what became of the Witch nor that the Maid was any more afflicted in this kind History of Demons c. p. 20. What follows is extracted from Mr. Aubrey 's Miscellanies 10. Hugo Grotius in his Annotations on Jonah speaking of Nineve says That History hath divers Examples that after a great and hearty Humiliation God delivered Citys c. from their Calamities Some did observe in the late Civil Wars that the Parliament after a Humiliation did shortly obtain a Victory And as a three-fold Cord is not easily broken so when a whole Nation shall conjoyn in fervent Prayer and Supplication it shall produce wonderful Effects William Lawd Arch-bishop of Canterbury in a Sermon preached before the Parliament about the beginning of the Reign of Kng Charles I. affirms the Power of Prayer to be so great That though there be a Conjunction or Opposition of Saturn or Mars as there was one of them then it will overcome the Malignity of it In the Life of Vâ—vasor Powel is a memorable Account of the Effect of fervent Prayer after an exceeding Drought And Mr. Baxter in his Book afore-mentioned hath several Instances of that kind which see St. Michael and all Angels The Collect. O everlasting God who hast Ordered and Constituted the Services of Men and Angels after a wonderful manner Mercifully grant that as the Holy Angels alway do thy Service in heaven So by thy Appointment they may succour and defend us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen Thus far Mr. Aubrey 11. Mr. Tho. Spatchet late of Dunwich and Cookley was under extraordinary Fits occasion'd by Witchcraft and was by the gracious Effects of fervent Prayer delivered out of them as we are assur'd by the Narrative thereof drawn up by the Reverend Mr. Samuel Petto Minister at Sudbury in Suffolk who was an Eye-witness This Account was Printed for John Harris at the Harrow in Little Britain in June 1693. 12. Mr. John Janeway as his Brother writes was mighty in Prayer and his Spirit was oftentimes so transported in it that he forgot the weakness of his own Body and of others Spirits Indeed the Acquaintance that he had with God was so sweet and his Converse with him so frequent that when he was engaged in Duty he scarce knew how to leave that which was so delightful and suited to his Spirit His constant Course for some Years was this He Prayed at least three times a day in secret sometimes seven times twice a day in the Family or College He was used to converse with God with a holy Familiarity as a Friend and would upon all occasions run to him for advice and had many strange and immediate Answers of Prayer one of which I think it not altogether impertinent to give the World an Account of His honoured Father Mr. William Janeway Minister of Kelshal in Hartford-shire being sick and being under somewhat dark Apprehensions as to the state of his Soul he would often say to his Son John Oh Son this passing upon Eternity is a great thing this Dying is a solemn business and enough to make any ones Heart ake that hath not his Pardon sealed and his Evidences for heaven clear And truly Son I am under no small Fears as to my own Estate for another World Oh that God would clear his Love Oh that I could say chearfully I can die His sweet and dutiful Son made a suitable Reply at present but seeing his dear Father continuing under despondings of Spirit he got by himself and spent some time in wresting with God upon his Father's account After he was risen from his Knees he came down to his sick Father and asked him how he felt himself his Father made no Answer for some time but wept exceedingly and continued for some considerable time in extraordinary Passion of Weeping so that he was not able to speak But at last having recovered himself with unspeakable joy he burst out into such Expressions as these Oh Son now it is come it is come it is come I bless God I can die I know now what that white Stone is wherein a new Name is written which none know but they which have it And that Fit of Weeping which you saw me in was a Fit of overpowring Love and Joy so great that I could not for my heart contain my self neither can I express what glorious Discoveries God hath made of himself unto me And had that Joy been greater I question whether I could have born it and whether it would not have separated Soul and Body You may well think that his Son's Heart was not a little refreshed to hear such Words and see such a Sight and to meet the Messenger that he had sent to Heaven returned back again so speedily He counted himself a sharer with his Father in this Mercy and it was upon a double account welcome as it did so wonderfully satisfie his Father and as it was so immediate and clear an Answer of his own Prayers as if God had from Heaven said unto him Thy Tears and Prayers are heard for thy Father Upon this this precious young Man broke forth into Praises and even into another Extasie of Joy that God should deal so familiarly with him and the Father and Son together were so full of Joy Light Life Love and Praise that there was a little Heaven in the place See his Life 13. Speed in his
be deceived but of Perseverance itself we are uncertain Discourses of God c. in the Appendix containing his Judgment in divers controverted Points p. 88. But by the leave of this learned and worthy Man how is this consistent with the Profession of St. Paul I have fought the good Fight henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown c. How with the Doctrine of the Church of England in her Articles and Homilies How with the Letters of Accord between Bishop Sanderson and Dr. Hammond which I have not leisure now to cite at large And how with the Experiences and Assurances of many Christians 1. The Apprehensions that Death drew near were very comfortable to Mr. Wilson A Gentle-woman of his Society coming to take her leave of him being about to remove out of Maidstone he pleasantly said to her What will you say good Mrs. Crisp if I get the start if you and get to Heaven before you get to Dover When another came to visit him he ask'd her What she thought of him she answered Truly Sir I think you are not far from your Father's House To which he replied That 's good News indeed and is enough to make one laugh for Joy See his Life 2. Mr. John Janeway when he lay upon his Death-bed his Mother and Brethren standing by he said Dear Mother I beseech you as earnestly as ever I desired any thing of you in my Life that you would chearfully give me up to Christ I beseech you do not hinder me now I am going to Rest and Glory I am afraid of your Prayers least they will pull one way and mine another Then turning to his Brethren he thus spake unto them I charge you all do not pray for my Life any more you do me wrong if you do O the Glory the unspeakable Glory that I behold my Heart is full my Heart is full Christ smiles and I cannot choose but smile Can you find in your Heart to stop me who am now going to the compleat and Eternal Enjoyment of Christ Would you keep me from my Crown The Arms of my blessed Saviour are open to embrace me the Angels stand ready to carry my Soul into his Bosom O! did you but see you would all cry out with me How long dear Lord come Lord Jesus come quickly O why are his Chariot-wheels so long a coming See his Life 3. Dr. Samuel Winter lying upon his Death-bed about Six of the Clock on the Lord's-Day Morning he raised himself up in his Bed and with a chearful and loud Voice called to his Wife who lay in a Bed by him saying ' Sweet-heart I have been this Night conversing with Spirits And as in a Rapture he cried out O the Glories that are prepared for the Saints of God! The Lord hath been pleased to shew me this Night the exceeding Weight of Glory which in Heaven is laid up for his Chosen Ones Saying further That he had studied and thought that he knew as much what the Glory which in Heaven was as another Man but the now saw that all the Divines on Earth were but Children in the Knowledge of the Great Mystery of Heavenly Glory which the Lord that Night had given him a clearer sight of than ever formerly he had That it was such a Mystery as could not be comprehended by the Wit of Man With many other such-like Expressions and he had his Soul so wonderfully elevated that he could not declare what he found and felt therein See his Life 4. Mr. Samuel Fairclough kept his Bed but one whole Day before his departure which he had longed and waited for and the very Day before his last Day on Earth some Company being with him he expressed how much Comfort he did then take to consider how that his Saviour had tasted Death for him and that Christ by his Resurrection had given him an assurance that he was the First-fruits of those that sleep in him telling some that stood by him That it was very much the Duty of Believers to rejoyce that Death had lost its Sting and was now disarmed and that the Power of the Grave was quite vanquished and overcome See his Life 5. James Bainham a Martyr in Queen Mary's Reign being at the Stake in the midst of the burning Fire his Legs and Arms half consumed spake thus to the Standers-by O ye Papists behold ye look for Miracles and here now ye may see one for in this Fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a Bed of Down and it is to me as a Bed of Roses Fox Martyrol 6. Robert Smith Martyr being at the Stake ready to be burned exhorted the People to think well of his Cause telling them That God would shew some Token thereof and accordingly when he was half burnt all black with Fire and clustered together on a Lump like a black Coal so that all thought him to be dead on a sudden he rose upright lifted up the Stumps of his Arms and clapt them together Ibid. Clark's Examp. Vol. 1. C. 39. 7. Mr. Robert Glover Martyr was so suddenly replenished with Divine Comfort a little before his Death that clapping his Hands together he called to his Man saying He is come he is come and so died chearfully Ibid. 8. Mr. John Holland a faithful Minister the Day before his Death calling for a Bible continued his Meditation and Exposition on Rom. 8. for the space of Two Hours but on a sudden he said Oh stay your Reading What Brightness is this I see Have you light up any Candles A Stander-by said No it is the Sun-shine for it was about Five a Clock in a clear Summer's Evening Sun-shine saith he nay it is my Saviour's-shine now Farewel World welcome Heaven the Day-star from on high hath visited my Heart O speak it when I am gone and preach it at my Funeral God deals familiarly with Man I feel his Mercy I see his Majesty whether in the Body or out of the Body God be knoweth but I see thhings that are unutterable And being ravished in his Spirit he roamed towards Heaven with a chearful Look and a soft sweet Voice but what he said was not understood With the Sun in the Morning following raising himself as Jacob upon his Staff he shut up his blessed Life with these blessed words O what an happy Change shall I make from Night to Day from Darkness to Light from Death to Life from Sorow to Solace from a factious World to a heavenly Being Oh! my dear Brethren Sisters and Friends it pitieth me to leave you behind yet remember my death when I am gone and what I now feel I hope you shall feel e're you die that God doth and will deal familiarly with Men. And now thou fiery Chariot that camest down to fetch up Elijah carry me to my happy Hold. And all ye blessed Angels that attended the Soul of Lazarus to bring it to Heaven bear me O bear me into the Besom of my
Lordship I am ignorant in that she herself can best tell if she could be prevailed with so to do and the History of it and the rest of the Passages of her Life would be very acceptable and useful to the most curious and inquisitive Part of Mankind And now my Lord I think good here to put an end to my plain Relation of these very strange Passages of this Ann Jefferies's Life It 's only Matter of Fact which I have here faithfully related I have not made any Observations nor Reflections upon any one Passage I leave your Lordship to your own free Thoughts and Judgment I my self cannot give one natural Reason for any one of these Passages that happened to this poor Woman but must conclude with that great Apostle and Scholar St. Paul Rom. 11.33 34 35 36. O the depths of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out For who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counseller Or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again For of him and through him and to him are all things To whom be Glory for ever Amen I am Your Lordship's most Humble and Dutiful Servant MOSES PITT May 1. 1696. CHAP. LXXXIII Satan and Ill Spirits permitted to Hurt the Good in their Names SAtan hath his Name from Slandering and to shew that he is a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and answers his Name to a Hair he hath not been wanting to reproach back-bite accuse and affix Nick-names and opprobrious Titles all along upon those People that will not list themselves under his Banner and fight under his Colours The Prophets were sufficiently misrepresented under the old Mosaic Oeconomy and the Jewish Church were accused of Treasons and Rebellions nor did our Saviour himself escape the Lash of slanderous Tongues Is not this the Carpenter And worse then that Behold a gluttonous Man and a Wine-bibber and worse yet He casts out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils St. Paul was counted a seditious and busie Man a raiser of Tumults and causer of Rebellion a Heretick Mad a Blasphemer and a Despiser of the Fathers Ordinances to use the Words of Bishop Jewel in his Apology St. Stephen one who had spoke against the Law Moses the Temple and against God himself 1. Who knows not saith Bishop Jewel after what sort our Fathers were railed upon in times past which first of all began to acknowledge and profess the Name of Christ How they made private Conspiracies devised secret Counsels against the Common-wealth and to that end made early and private Meetings in the Dark killed young Babes fed themselves with Man's Flesh and like Savage and Bruit Beasts Drink their Blood In conclusion after they had put out the Candles did commit Adultery among themselves and without regard commit Incest one with another that Brethren lay with their Sisters Sons with their Mothers without any Reverence of Nature or Kin without Shame without Difference c. Bishop Jewel in his Apol. 2. The Waldenses or Vaudois who were a sort of People that stood it out with Constancy against the Corruptions of the Church of Rome had so many opprobrious Titles bestowed upon them by the Agents of that Prince of Darkness as would almost tire a serious Reader to read over Albigenses Fratricelli's Poor Man of Lions Turlupius Sabalpius c. 3. Luther was so hateful to them of the Roman Communion that they slandered him as if he had been begot by an Incubus had familiar Conversation with the Devil was Possessed and at last was carried away by the Devil Body and Soul alive and they published the Story of his shameful Death whilst himself was yet alive 4. Calvin was so odious that the Wits of Bruxels combined together in a Knot to pour as much Satyr upon him as possibly they could introducing the Prince of the bottomless Pit as transported with Rage and Passion and threatning to plague the World with the most pestilential Monster he could procure for the Punishment of Mankind And then telling us that he had been guilty of such Villanie◠that he was Burned in the Shoulder for a Malefactor that he changed his name from Cawin to Calvin that he went to exercise the Devil out of a Person possessed and had like to have been torn in pieces by him c. I know not how now to cite my Authority for this last Paragraph the Book being gone out of my hands but I think the Title of it was Calvino-Mastix Published by the Wits of Bruxels Some gave the name of Calvin to their Dogs and others out of hatred to him abstained from the Lord's Supper Beza in vit Calvin 5. Beza and Oecolampadius and others of the Reformed Church were bespattered with most dirty and devillish Slanders in a Popish Book which I lent formerly to a Neighbour but could never recover the sight of it agen Particularly Beza was reproached as guilty of Adultery Sodomy and Obscenity 6. Bishop Hooper called a Hypocrite a Beast c. 7. And what hath been the meaning of those odious Nick-names raised in this Kingdom in this last Age amongst People and Brethren of the same Faith and Hope Puritans Phanaticks and Roundheads on the one side and Malignants Cavaliers and Papists are Popishly affected on the other side Whigs and Tories and for them that had not Zeal enough to advance to the same height of Bigottry with either Extreams but endeavoured to moderate between them and make Peace Trimmers and Time-observers And these reproachful Titles thrown about with so much Rashness and Bitterness that it broke the Hearts of some very worthy and innocent Persons particularly a Petition full of unjust Accusations being preferred against Mr. Francis Quarles by eight Men whereof he knew not any two nor they him save only by sight the first News of it struck him so to the Heart that he never recovered it but said plainly It would be his Death and accordingly it proved See his Life Writ by his sorrowful Widow Mrs. Vrsula Quarles by way of Preface to his Poetical Paraphrase upon Ecclesiastes And it is observable what Mr. Mather tells us of the Persons Bewitched lately in New-England that the Devil doth often appear before them in the Shape and Representation of some good or creditable Person whom they had no reason to suspect as he did to Isaf Chacus the Turk at London the Night before he was Baptised in the Person of Mr. Durie his Instructor to disswade and affright him from his Purpose as may be seen in the Printed Relation LHAP CXXXIV Satan permitted to Hurt the Good in their Health of Body AS the Christian Religion hath a natural Tendency to the Preservation of Health and long Life length of Days being in her right Hand according to Solomon And God almighty hath 〈◊〉 Health and Prosperity to them that live a godly Life So
upon Reason p. 179. out of Mr. Gage 's New Survey of the West-Indies c. 20. 2. One called John Gondalez in the County and Town aforesaid was reported to change himself into the shape of a Lion and in that shape was shot in the Nose by a poor barmless Spaniard who chiefly got his living by going about the Woods and Mountains and shooting of Wild Dear and other Beasts to make Money of them He espied one day a Lion and having no other aim at him but his Snout behind a Tree he shot at him the Lion run away the same day this Gondalez was taken sick I was sent for to hear his Confession I saw his Face and Nose all bruised and asked how it came he told me then that he had failen from a Tree and almost killed himself yet afterwards accused the poor Spaniard for shooting at him the business was examined by a Spanish Justice my Evidence was taken for what Gondalez told me of his fall from a Tree the Spaniard was put to his Oath who swore that he shot at a Lion in a thick Wood where an Indian could scarce be thought to have any business The Tree was found out in the Wood whereat the Shot had been made and was still marked with the Shot and Bullet which Gondalez confessed to be the place and was examined how he neither fell not was seen by the Spaniard when he came to seek for the Lion thinking he had killed him to which he answered that he ran away least the Spaniard should kill him indeed But his Answers seemed frivolous the Spaniard's Integrity being known and the great suspition that was in the Town of Gondalez his dealing with the Devil cleared the Spaniard from that which was laid against him Idem p. 186. 3. The same Author adds That one John Gomez the chiefest Indian of that Town of near fourscore Years of Age the Head and Ruler of the principallest Tribe among the Indians whose Advice and Councel was taken and preferred before all the rest who seemed to be a very godly Indian and very seldom missed Morning and Evening Prayers in the Church and had bestowed great Riches there This Indian very suddenly was taken sick I being then in my other Town of Mixco the Mayor-domos or Stewards of the Sodality of the Virgin fearing that he might die without Confession and they be chid for their negligence at Mid-night called me up at Mixco desiring me presently to go and help John Gomez to die whom also they said much to see me and receive some comfort from me I judging it to be a Work of Charity though the time of the Night were unseasonable and the great Rain might have stopped my Charity rid nine Miles in the dark and wet visited the sick Gomez who lay with his Face all mufled up thanked me for my Pains and Care confessed wept and shewed a willingness to die and to be with Christ I comforted and prepared him for Death I went home streight to refresh my self was presently called up again to give Gomez the extream Unction As I anointed him on his Nose Lips Hands Eyes and Feet I perceived he was swelled Black and Blew I went home again after a small nap some Indians came to my Door to buy Candles to offer up for John Gomez his Soul whom they told me was departed and that Day to be buried solemnly at Mass I arose with drowsie Eyes went to Church found the Grave preparing met with two or three Spaniards who told me of a great stir made in the Town concerning Gomez his Death I amused at this Information desired a true Account of it They told me that Gomez was the chief Wizard in the Town that he was often changed into a Lion and so walked about the Mountains that he was ever an Enemy to Sebastian Lopez an Ancient Indian and Head of another Tribe and that both of them had two days before met in the Mountain Gomez in the shape of a Lion and Lopez of a Tyger that they fought cruelly till Gomez the older and weaker was tired much bit and bruised and died of it Lopez was then in Prison and the two Tribes striving about it I mightily wondring at this and resolving never more to believe an Indian if Gomez had so much dissembled with me and deceived me went streight to the Prison where I found Lopez in Fetters called Alguazil Major my great Friend and one of the Officers of the Town and enquired of him the cause of his Imprisonment he loath to tell me for fear of the Indians at last being pressed by me and made to know that I had received some notice of it from the Spaniards before at last told me the whole matter This struck me to the very Heart to think that I should live amongst such People whom I saw were spending all they could get upon the Church Saints and in Offerings and yet were so privy to the Counsels of Satan it grieved me that the Word I Preached did then no more good At last came twenty of the chiefest of the Town with the two Majors Jurates and all the Officers of Justice desiring me to forbear that day the Burying of John Gomez for that they had resolved to call a Crown Officer to view his Corps and examine his Death I made as if I knew nothing upon which they related all unto me viz. That there were Witnesses in the Town who saw a Lion and a Tyger fighting and presently lost the sight of the Beasts and saw John Gomez and Sebastian Lopez parting one from another that immediately John Gomez came home much bruised and upon his Death-bed declared to some of his Friends that Sebastian Lopez had killed him whereupon they had him in safe Custody That they had never known much Wickedness of those two chief Heads of their Tribes and prayed me not to conceive the worse of all for a few The Crown Officer came and found the Body all bruised scratched bitten and sore wounded Lopez upon this was had to Guatemala and there hanged Dr. Burthogge ibid. p. 190 191 192. out of Mr. Gage The following Relations are to be found in Mr. Increase Mather's Book of Providences THere have been many in the World who have upon conviction confessed themselves guilty of Familiarity with the Devil A multitude of Instances this way are mentioned by Bodinus Codronchus Delrio Jacquerius Remegius and others Some in this Country have affirmed that they knew a Man in another part of the World above fifty Years ago who having an ambitious desire to be thought a wise Man whilst he was tormented with the Itch of his Wicked Ambition the Devil came to him with promises that he should quickly be in great Reputation for his Wisdom in case he would make a Covenant with him the conditions whereof were That when Men came to him for his Counsel he should labour to perswade them that there is no God nor Devil nor Heaven nor
neither do I fear to pawn my Soul upon it Presently the Devil came indeed in the shape of a tall Man black and terrible with a fearful Noise and roaring Wind and took away the Old Priest that he was never after heard of Fincelius c. Clarks Examples Vol. I. Chap. 38. 3. In Helvetia Anno 1556. a certain Man that earned his Living by making clean foul Linen in his Drunkenness used horrible Cursings wishing that the Devil might break his Neck if ever he went to his old Occupation again yet the next day when he was sober he went into the Field again about it where the Devil attended him in the likeness of a big swarthy Man asking him If he remembred his Wish and withal struck him over the shoulders so that his Feet and Hands presently dried yet the Lord gave not the Devil Power to do him so much hurt as he wish'd to himself Fincelius 4. Lamentable is the Relation of what happened in Holland in June 1681. as it is written by Theodorus Paludamus a Protestant Minister at Lewarden in Friezland a Person named Dowee Sitses a Mason in that County being reported to be in a desperate case I accompanyed a Gentleman who was sent to him by Order from the Lords of the Provincial where we found two Master-Chirurgeons and their two Servants busie in making of Plaisters and dressing the Patient and he in such a lamentable Condition as we could not behold but with Amazement his Hair was burnt off his Head to his Ears his whole Face burnt except his Eyes his Arms burnt in several places his Hands to the end of his Fingers were burnt like a roasted Fowl but could move all his Fingers his Breast and Back burnt in several places and yet his Shirt whole his Belly under the Navel for about the breadth of an hand was as black as a stock in which place the Chirurgeons made several Incisions and he felt it not his Privities Hips Thighs and Legs were terribly burnt yet not his Stockings his Feet were also burnt and indeed no Part was free so that he was a woful sight After the Patient was dress'd and had got a little breath both he and his Wife gave a full Account of the following Passages upon Oath Upon the 15th of June at Evening this Dowee Sitses came Drunk into a Tavern where he with the Man of the House and another drank three Quarts of Wine and coming home at Ten at Night he lay down to sleep upon Cushions in the Kitchen and fell into a Dream about a Story he had read in a Book of Simon de Vries of a certain Company that danced in Masquerade with every one a lighted Torch in their hand wherewith they burnt one another whereupon he awaked and stood up thinking to go into the Yard to make Water and of a sudden he found himself of a light flame in the midst of the Room which burnt him thus dreadfully and some part of his Cloaths upon which he cryed out for Help but none came then he began to faint and in his Distress cryed out O God be gracious unto me a poor sinner and thereupon the flame ceased in the twinkling of an Eye but he growing faint laid his Head upon a Cushion in the Room about Two in the Morning his Wife came down and found him in this sad Condition and felt something under her Feet which was like a parcel of Red-ashes and burnt Rags and taking hold of her Husband had only a burnt piece of his Sleeve in her Hand whereupon she cryed out O Lord Dowee thou art grievously burnt He answered the Devil hath brought me in this case upon which she called in the Neighbours and Chirurgeons His Wife said he had been much given to Drunkenness and often reproved in vain by the Ministers that he drank much Brandy and other strong Liquors though he had often sworn against it and usually cursed himself wishing that if he were Drunk again the Devil might tear him Limb from Limb So that God makes use of the Devil as an Executioner of his Judgment to bring the miserable Man 's own Curse upon him not one Limb or Member being left upon him R. B. his Wonderful Prodigies p. 25. out of a Book called The Drunkard fore-warn'd 5. A Woman in derby-shire having cozened a Boy of some Money was charged with it but she stiffly denyed it and being further urged to confess the Truth she in a fearful manner prayed God that the Earth might open and swallow her up quick if she had it and immediately the Earth under her opened and she sank into it and being afterwards digged for they found her Nine Foot within the Earth and that very Money was found in her Pocket This happened about the beginning of April 1661. and is well attested by the Neighbours as appears by the Printed Narrative And the same Story is abbreviated by Mr. Samuel Clark in his second Vol. of Examples 6. Since my return from Exile says Mr. H. Burton a certain Attorney at Law being in the House of one Mrs. Monday dwelling near Aldersgate Feb. 17th 1640. and mention being made of my Name and Sufferings and Mrs. Monday saying That England had never thriven since he suffered and that though she had never seen him yet she had shed many a Tear for him The said Attorney replyed Could so many wise Men and Judges by deceived for he suffered no more than he deserved nor so much neither and therefore what a Pox should you be sorry for such a Man as he No sooner had these words passed from him but his Right Ear suddenly and strangely fell a bleeding at the lower tip of it and so long it bled as it wet a whole Handkerchief so as it might have been wrung out whereat his Heart so fainted that he sent for half a Pint of Sack and drank it up himself alone Whereat his Brother then present with sundry more said to him You may see Brother what it is to speak against Mr. Burton Yet such was this Man's Spirit that instead of taking notice of the Hand of God herein he continued Cursing saying What a Pox had I not spoken a Word against Mr. Burton my Ear would have bled though he could not at that time shew any Reason or natural Cause why his Ear should then bleed it being whole and sound so as upon the ceasing of the Blood Mr. Monday's Maid wiping the Blood off his Ear and looking wistfully upon it could not discern whence the Blood should issue but only a small bore or hole no bigger than a Pin's point could go into there being neither Scratch nor Scab nor Scar in his Ear. Witnesses of this were the Attorney's Brother and his Wife Mrs. Adcock Mrs. Anne Roe Mrs. Joan Monday and Eleanor Hutton her Servant See his Life p. 50. 7. Mr. Vincent Minister of Bednal in the County of Stafford gives a short but true Relation of a dreadful Judgment that
two Guises the Duke and Cardinal were Assassinated by Command of King Henry the III. The Queen a few Days after them died of Grief lamented of none but hated by every Body as the Bishop of Rhodez affirms and the Duke of Anjou who after the King's Decease came to the Crown under the Name of Henry the III. was slain by a Stab from a Jacobin Friar Author of the Interests of Princes and States 6. Philip King of Spain the II. having once escaped a great Danger at Sea at his Arrival in Spain appointed two Days of Thanksgiving one at Validolid the other at Sevil whither he caused those in Prison for Religion to be brought from several Places of his Kingdom Upon which Days Scaffolds being made which a Distinction of Seats for Spectators according to their Quality the Prisoners were with triumphant Ceremonies and dress'd in Antick manner led to the Fires and burnt before them c. The King also himself put to Death his eldest Son Charles partly upon Suspicion of being a Favourer of them but he died also of Blood issuing from all the Passages of his Body with a continual Vomiting of Vermin as the Bishop of Rhodez in his History of Henry the IV. relates Ibid. 7. George Eagles Martyr hang'd at Chelmsford in Essex was cut down before he was dead and sadly mangled by the Bailiff William Swallow his Body opened his Heart pulled out and his Quarters set up in several Places But shortly after Swallow's Hair fell from his Head his Eyes were so closed that he could scarce see the Nails fell off from his Fingers and Toes a Leprosie overspread his whole Body and his Estate so wasted that he soon fell into Beggery and died wretchedly Fox's Martyrol 8. One Robert Baldwyn a Neighbour having searched the House of Will. Seaman and finding him at home very unneighbourly carried him to Sir Jo. Tyrrel in order to the Prosecuting of him but on the way a strange Light fell from Heaven betwixt them upon which Baldwyn though then in the Flower of his Age was so struck that he pined away till he died Ibid. 9. Mr. Swingfield a Deputy in Thames-street with three others carried one Mrs. Angel a Midwife from a Woman in Labour her self being with Child too to Bishop Bonner who put her into Lollard's Tower but within ten Weeks Swingfield and his three Companions were all dead Ibid. 10. Burton Bailiff of Crowland in Lincolnshire a Protestant in King Edward's Time a Papist in Queen Mary's goes to Church speaks to the Curate then Reading the English Service Sirrah will you not say Mass Buckle your self to it you Knave or by God's Blood I 'll sheath my Dagger in your shoulder Shortly after riding with a Neighbour over Fen-Bank a Crow flew over his Head with her usual Note voided her Excrements on his Nose which ran down upon his Beard and set him so a Vomiting that he hastened home and to Bed where he continued Vomiting Swearing and Cursing at the Crow till at last he died Ibid. CHAP. CX Divine Judgments upon Uncharitableness Covetousness c. WITH what Measure ye mete it shall be meted to you again saith our Saviour and 't is but just and reasonable that those People who shut up their Bowels and Streams of Charity from their Neighbours should suffer by a Retaliation Sometimes Man himself and sometimes God Almighty in a more immediate way remembers and recompenseth the Vnkindnesses of these Men and repays them in their own Coin As they sowed sparingly they shall reap so too and as themselves were not merciful so they shall find no mercy 1. John Cameron Bishop of Glasgow was a very Covetous Man given to Violence and Oppression especially towards his poor Tenants and Vassals but God suffered it not long to go unpunished For the Night before Christmas-day as he lay asleep in his House at Lockwood seven Miles from the City of Glasgow he heard a Voice summoning him to appear before the Tribunal of Christ and give an Account of his doings Whereupon he awaked and being greatly terrified he called to his Servants to bring a Light and sit by him he himself also took a Book in his Hand and began to read But the Voice calling the second time struck all the servants into an Amazement The same Voice calling the third time far louder and more fearfully the Bishop after a heavy groan was found dead in his Bed his Tongue hanging out of his Mouth A fearful Example of God's Judgment against the sin of Covetousness and Oppression Spotswood's History of the Church of Scotland See the Story of Gresham and Rich. Antonio under the Chap. of Discov of things secret by Omens c. Of Hatto Archbishop of Mentz under the Chap. of Divine Judgments upon Murder 2. Sir Walter Rawleigh a Man otherwise of Excellent Parts and a great Soul yet not being able to look Poverty in the Face when he was set at Liberty out of the Tower procures a Commission from King James to make a Voyage to Guiana in hopes of finding there Mines of Gold to enrich both the King and himself though at that time in the 76th Year of his Age sets out for the Indies where the Spaniards having notice before-hand had raised several Fortifications he with Sir Nicholas Kemish and others finding things otherwise than they expected Sir Nicholas kills himself and Sir Walter Storms the Town of St. Thomas where he lost his Son Walter returns home disappointed finds the Court disgusted the King offended and notwithstanding his Commission from the Royal Hand Anno 1618. Octob. 28. after some Months Imprisonment lost his Head Detection of the Court and State of England during the four last Reigns p. 56 57. 3. Cromerus an Author of good Credit tells us of a certain rich Man a Polonian who was very Covetous much given to Rapine and Oppression who falling Sick and being like to die was admonished by his Friends to sue to God for Mercy which he refused to do saying That there was no hope of Salvation for him no place of Pardon left No sooner had he thus spoken but immediately there was heard of the standers by a noise of most vehement Stripes and Blows which appeared manifestly upon the Body of this dying Wretch who presently gave up the Ghost to the great Terror and Amazement of all who were many then present Eye-witnesses of this Tragical Story Clark's Examples Vol. I. p. 115. Anno Christi 1570. at Rye in Sussex there was a strange Example of God's Judgment upon a Covetous Gentleman who living near the Sea had a Marsh wherein upon Poles Fishermen used to dry their Nets for which he received of them Yearly a sufficient Sum of Money But at length being not content with it he caused his Servants to pluck up the Poles not suffering the Fishermen to come upon his Ground any longer except they would compound at a larger Rate But it came to pass the same Night that
And so fell asleep A. C. 1590. aged 61. Ibid. p. 389. 49. Robert Rollock being sick of the Stone which came upon him at last with great violence set his House in Order and commended his Wife after Ten Years Barrenness then with Child to the Care of his Friends requested two Noblemen his Visitants to go from him to the King and entreat him in his Name to have a care of Religion and to persevere in it to the end as hitherto he had done and to Reverence and Esteem the Pastors of the Church as it was meet And to the Pastors of Edinburgh he made an excellent exhortation and Profession of his Sincerity he made such a Divine and Heavenly Speech as astonished the Hearers And when the Physicians were preparing Physick he said Thou Lord wilt heal me Then he prayed fervently that God would Pardon his Sins for Christ's sake and that he might have an Happy Departure and enjoy God's Presence which he had long breathed after Desired the Magistrates to be very careful of the University desiring them to chuse in his room Henry Charter and commended his Wife to their care professing that he had not laid up one Penny of his Stipend and therefore hoped they would provide for her And when he had their Promise for these things he said I bless God I have all my Senses entire but my Heart is in Heaven And Lord Jesus why shouldest not thou have it It hathbeen my care all my Life long to dedicate it to thee I pray thee take it that it may live with thee for ever Come Lord Jesus put an end to this Miserable Life Haste Lord and tarrâ— not Come Lord Jesus and give me that Life for which thou hast redeemed me And when some told him that the next day was the Sabbath he said Thy Sabbath O Lord shall begin my Eternal Sabbath The next Morning to Mr. Belcanqual praying for his long life he said I am weary of this Life all my desire is that I may enjoy the Coelestial Life that is hid with Christ in God And so quietly resigned to his Spirit A. C. 1598. aged 43. Ibid. p. 412. 50. Nic. Hemingius a little before his Death expounded the 103 Psalm with so much Fevour Efficacy and Power of the Holy Ghost that all that heard him wondred at it and shortly after resign'd up his Soul Anno 1600. aged 87. Ibid. p. 414. 51. Chytraeus before his Death made a Confession of his Faith received the Sacrament and lying sick on his Bed if any Discourse were raised about a Controversie called to them to speak out for that he should die with more Comfort if he could learn any new thing before his departure Ibid. p. 421. 52. Tossanus being grown very old and infirm laid down his Professors Place tho' with the Reluctance of the University of Heidelberg and having in his Lectures expounded the Book of Job to the end of the 31st Chapter he concluded with these words The words of Job are ended And presently after falling sick he comforted himself with these Texts of Scripture I have fought the good Fight c. Be you faithful unto the Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life We have a City not made with hands eternal in the Heavens c. And when he had made a good Confession of his Faith c. he departed quietly A. C. 1602. aged 61. Ibid. p. 430. 53. Bishop Andrews was not sick in Thirty Years except once till his last Sickness at Downham in the Isle of Ely the Air of that Place not agreeing with the Constitution of his Body But there he seemed to be prepared for his Dissolution saying often-times in that Sickness It must come once and why not here And at other times The days must come when whether we will or nill we shall say with the Preacher we have no pleasure in them Eccles 12.1 Of his Death he seemed to Presage with himself a year before he died and therefore prepared his Oyl that he might be admitted in due time into the Bride-Chamber That of qualis vita c. might be truly verified of him for as he lived so he died As his Fidelity in his Health was great so the strength of his Faith in his Sickness increased His Gratitude to Men was now changed into Thankfulness to God his Affability to incessant Prayers his Laborious Studies to restless Groans Sighs Cries and Tears his Hands labouring his Eyes lifted up and his Heart beating and panting to see the Living God even to the last of his Breath He departed this Life A. C. 1626. aged 71. Mr. Isaacson in his Life 54. Dr. Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury Twenty Years and Five Months used these his last words to His Majesty who in Person visited him the day before he died when he could hardly be understood Pro Ecclesia Dei pro Eclesiâ— Dei c. For the Church of God for the Church of God Fuller Abel Rediviv p. 463. 55. Beza on the Lord's-day Octob. 13. 1605. rising early and calling his Family to Prayers afterwards Prayers ended walked up and down some few Paces and receiving some small quantity of Wine repaired to his Bed again demanding whether all things were quiet in the City and when Answer was made they were he forthwith gave up his Soul into the hands of Almighty God with all alacrity and chearfulness aged 86. Ibid. p 474. 56. Dr. John Reynolds on his Death-bed being desired to obviate some scandalous Reports raised concerning him by the Papists as if his Conversion were not sincere and a form of Confession being offered him to Subscribe he shook his Head called for his Spectacles and signed the Writing with his Name in very fair Characters at which they all admired because he had that Morning assayed to write but could not through extream weakness The next day he resign'd his Ghost being Holy-Thursday May 21. 1607. Ibid. p. 490. 57. Mr. Tho. Holland born in Shropshire and Regius Professor at Oxford in his old Age growing sickly spent all his time in Fervent Prayers and Holy Meditations and when his End approached he often sighed out Come O Come Lord Jesus thou Morning-star Come Lord Jesus I desire to be dissolved and to be with thee and so quietly departed in the Lord A. C. 1612. aged 73. Ibid. p. 501. 58. John Gerardus having desired the Communion to be administred to him and told his Wife what he would have done after his Death and instructed his Children and laid his Hand on his Youngest Son with those words Disce mi fili Learn my Son the Commandments of the Lord and he will provide for thee and at last turning to the Neighbours and declaring in what Faith he died he fell asleep Anno 1564. aged 53. Ibid. p. 518. 59. Archbishop Parker before his decease some space of time the better to mind him of his Mortality caused his Monument to be made of plain black Marble and to be placed in
the Chapel of Lambeth House where he received his Archiepiscopal Consecration His chief Motto painted on the Walls of his House and in his Windows was that of St. John The World passeth away and the lust thereof Ibid. p. 529. 60. Archbishop Abbot preached upon this his last Text John 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that may abide with you for ever Upon the first Proposal whereof as many of his Hearers presaged his departure from them so it proved his last Farewel-Sermon For soon after he came out of the Pulpit he fell into grievous Fits of the Stone which first stopped the Passages of Nature and within a few days shut up all the Offices of his Senses To those that came to visit him who were not a few and among others the Judges being then at Sarum in their Circuit he comunicated most Christian and grave Advice insisting very much upon the Benefit of a good Conscience the Comfort whereof he felt now in his Extremity admonishing all that heard him so to carry themselves in their most private and secret Actions as well as publick that they might obtain that at the last which would stand them in more stead than what all the World could afford them besides At last with Hands and Eyes lift up to Heaven he gave up the Ghost with these Words Come Lord Jesus come quickly finish in me the Work that thou hast begun Into thy hands I commend my Spirit for thou hast redeemed me Save me for thy Mercy 's sake for I put my whole trust in thee Let thy mercy be shewed upon me for my sure trust is in thee O let me not be confounded for ever Ibid. p. 550. 61. William Cooper born at Edinburgh used these amongst other Meditations in his last Sickness Now my Soul be glad for of all parts of this Prison the Lord hath set to his Pioneers to loose thee Head Feet Milt and Liver are fast failing yea the middle Strength of the whole Body the Stomach is weaken'd long agoe Arise make ready shake off thy Fetters mount up from the Body and go thy way I saw not my Children when they were in the Womb yet there the Lord fed them without my knowledge I shall not see them when I go out of the Body yet shall they not want a Father Death is somewhat dreary and the Streams of that Jordan between us and our Canaan run furiously but they stand still when the Ark comes Let your Anchor be cast within the Veil and fastened on the Rock Jesus Let the end of the three-fold Cord be buckled to the Heart so shall ye go through He expressed a great Willingness to Exchange this Life for a better which he did Anno 1619. Ibid. p. 563. 62. Andrew Willet in a Journey from London homewards had his Leg broken by a Fall from a Horse and was God's Prisoner for 9 Days together being so long confined to his Bed where his Time he spent in meditating upon the Song of Ezekiel Isa 38. his Contemplations being taken down in Writing by his Son who then attended upon him Two Sabbath-Days which happen'd in that time he spent in Conscionatory Exhortations to those who waited upon him Upon the tenth Day on occasion of a Bell tolling for one near Death he discoursed with his Wife touching the Joys of Heaven and then they both sang an Hymn composed by himself which they usually every Morning praised God with Their Spirits being thus raised they continued their Melody and sang the 146 Psalm sometimes stopping a little and glossing upon the Words by way of Self-application till on a sudden fetching a deep Sigh or Groan he sunk down in his Bed but being raised up a little he said Let me alone I shall do well Lord Jesus And with that Word gave up the Ghost ibid. p. 575. 63. Mr. Bolton falling sick of a Quartan-Ague and finding his Distemper get strength revised his Will and having preached upon Death Judgment and Hell he promised next to preach upon Heaven the only fourth and last Thing that remained but never preached more He often breathed forth these Speeches O when will this good Hour come When shall I be dissolved When shall I be with Christ Tho' Life be a great Blessing yet I infinitely more desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ He thanked God for his wonderful Mercy in pulling him out of Hell in sealing his Ministry by the Conversion of Souls which he wholly ascribed to his Glory He called for his Wife and desired her to bear his Dissolution with a Christian Fortitude and turning to his Children told them they should not now expect from him in his Weakness to say any thing to them he had told them enough formerly and hoped they would remember it and verily believed that none of them durst think to meet him at the great Tribunal in an unregenerate State Some of his Neighbours moved to him that he would tell them what he felt in his Soul Alas said he do ye look for that now from me who want Breath and Power to speak I have told ye enough in my Ministry Yet to satisfie you I am by the wonderful Mercies 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 seeing some weeping he said Oh what a deal of Doe there is before one can die The very Pags of Death being upon him after a few gapings for Breath he said I am now drawing on apace to my Dissolution Hold out Faith and Patience your Work will quickly be at an end Then shaking them by the Hand he desired them to make sure of Heaven and remember what he had formerly taught them protesting that it was the Truth of God as he should answer it at the Tribunal of Christ before whom he should shortly appear And a dear Friend taking him by the Hand ask'd him if he did not feel much pain Truly no said he the greatest that I feel is your cold Hand And then being laid down again not long after he yielded up his Spirit unto God Anno 1631. Aged 60. Ibid. p. 591. 64. Mr. Will Whately in his Sickness gave heavenly and wholsome Counsel to his People exhorting them to Redemption of Time Reading Hearing and Meditating on the Word of God to be much in Prayer Brotherly Love and Communion of Saints c. A Minister praying with him That if his time were not expired God would restore him or put an end to his Pains c. he lifting up his Eyes stedfastly towards Heavne and one of his Hands in the close of that Prayer gave up the Ghost shutting his Eyes himself as if he were fallen into a Sleep Anno 1639. Aged 56. a little before the Civil Wars began and before the sad Desolations that befel the Town of Banbury in particular Ibid. p. 599. 65. Dr. Robert Harris when
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
to carry my Soul to the Bosom of Jesus and I shall be for ever with the Lord in Glory And who can chuse but rejoyce in all this And now my dear Mother Brethren and Sisters Farewel I leave you for a while and I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among all them that are sanctified And now dear Lord my Work is done I have finished my course I have fought the good Fight and henceforth there remaineth for me a Crown of Righteousness Now come dear Lord Jesus come quickly Then a Godly Minister came to give him his last Visit and to do the Office of an inferiour Angel to help to convey his blessed Soul to Glory who was now even upon Mount Pisgah and had a full sight of that goodly Land at a little distance When this Minister spake to him his heart was in a mighty flame of Love and Joy which drew Tears of Joy from that precious Minister being almost amazed to hear a Man just a dying talk as if he had been with Jesus He died June 1657. Aged between 23 and 24 and was buried in Kelshall-Church in Hartfordshire For a larger Account of this Extraordinaay Person see his Life written by his Brother Mr. James Janeway 102. Mrs. Allein in the History of the Life and Death of Mr. Joseph Allein writes thus concerning his Death viz. About Three in the Afternoon he had as we perceived some Conflict with Satan for he uttered these words Away thou foul Fiend thou Enemy of all Mankind thou subtil Sophister art thou come now to molest me Now I am just going Now I am so weak and Death upon me Trouble me not for I am none of thine I am the Lord 's Christ is mine and I am his His by Covenant I have sworn my self to be the Lord's and his I will be Therefore be gone These last words he repeated often which I took much notice of That his Covenanting with God was the means he used to expel the Devil and all his Temptations The time we were in Bath I had very few hours alone with him by reason of his constant using the Bath and Visits of Friends from all Parts thereabouts and sometimes from Taunton and when they were gone he would be either retiring to GOD or to his Rest But what time I had with him he always spent in Heavenly and Profitable Discourse speaking much of the Place he was going to and his Desires to be gone One Morning as I was Dressing him he looked up to Heaven and smiled and I urging him to know why he answered me thus Ah my Love I was thinking of my Marriage-Day it will be shortly O what a joyful Day will that be Will it not thinkest thou my dear heart Another time bringing him some Broth he said Blessed be the Lord for these Refreshments in the way home but O how sweet will Heaven be Another time I hope to be shortly where I shall need no Meat nor Drink nor Cloaths When he looked on his weak consumed hands he would say These shall be changed This vile Body shall be made like to Christ's Glorious Body O what a Glorious Day will the Day of the Resurrection be Methinks I see it by Faith How will the Saints lift up their heads and rejoyce and how sadly will the wicked World look then O come let us make haste our Lord will come shortly let us prepare If we long to be in Heaven let us hasten with our Work for when that is done away we shall be fetch'd O this vain foolish dirty World I wonder how reasonable Creatures can so dote upon it What is in it worth the looking after I care not to be in it longer than while my Master hath either doing or suffering Work for me were that done farewel to Earth Thus far Mrs. Allein 103. Dr. Peter du Moulin Professor of Divinity at Sedan at his last Hour pronounced these Words I shall be satisfied when I awake c. and twice or thrice Come Lord Jesus come Come Lord Jesus come and the last time that Text which he loved so much He that believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life and a little after Lord Jesu receive my Spirit It being said to him You shall see your Redeemer with your eyes laying his Hand on his Heart he answered with an Effort I believe it and so departed 1658. aged 90. Out of the French Copy of his Death 104. Arminius in his Sickness was so far from doubting any whit of that Confession he had publish'd that he stedfastly judged it to agree in all things with the Holy Scriptures and therefore he did persist therein That he was ready at that very moment to appear with that same Belief before the Tribunal of Jesus Christ the Son of God the Judge of the Quick and Dead He died of a Disease in the Bowels which caused Fevers Cough Extension of the Hypochondria Atrophy Gout Iliack Passion Obstruction of the Left Optick Nerve Dimness of the same Eye c. which gave occasion to some Censures He died Oct. 19. In his Life by an unknown Hand 105. Simon Episcopius An. 1643. falling sick of an Ischuria for Eleven Days not being able to make a drop of Water continued ill two Months or more and at last for some Weeks was deprived of his Sight which Loss had been more grievous to him had not his deep and almost continual Sleeping lessened the same For he complained of it to his Friends that he should not be able to serve the Church of Christ any more He died April 4 at Eight of the Clock in the Morning the Moon being then eclipsed saith the Author of his Life p. 26. 106. Gustavus Ericson King of Sweden having lived 70 Years and reigned 38. gave in Charge to his Children to endeavour the Peace and maintain the Liberties of their Country but especially to preserve the Purity of Religion without the Mixture of Human Inventions and to live in Unity as Brethren among themselves and so sealing up his Will he resigned his Spirit to God An. 1562. Clark's Martyrol p. 370. 107. Edward the Sixth King of England in the Time of his Sickness hearing Bishop Ridley preach upon Charity gave him many Thanks for it and thereupon ordered Gray-Friars Church to be a House for Orphans St. Bartholomew's to be an Hospital and his own House at Bridewel to be a Place of Correction And when he had set his Hand to that Work he thank'd God that he had prolong'd his Life till he had finished that good Design About three Hours before his Death having his Eyes clos'd and thinking none near him he prayed thus with himself Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched Life and take me among thy Chosen howbeit not my Will but thine be done Lord I commend my Spirit to thee O Lord thou knowest
they were hardly used and now in their Journey loaded with heavy Irons and more inhumanely dealt with They with great chearfulness profess'd That they were better in a more happy Condition than ever in their Lives from the sense they had of the Pardoning Love of God in Jesus Christ to their Souls wholly referring themselves to their wise and gracious God to chuse for them Life or Death Expressing themselves thus Any thing what pleases God what he sees best so be it We know he is able to deliver but if not blessed be his Name Death is not terrible now but desirable Mr. Benjamin Hewling particularly added As for the World there is nothing in it to make it worth while to live except we may be serviceable to God therein And afterwards said ' Oh! God is a strong Refuge I have found him so indeed The next Opportunity I had was at Dorchester where they both were carried there remaining together four days By reason of their strait Confinement our Converse was much interrupted but this appeared that they had still the same Presence and Support from God no way discourag'd at the approach of their Tryal nor of the event of it whatever it should be The 6th of September Mr. Benjamin Hewling was ordered to Taunton to be tryed there Taking my leave of him he said Oh! Blessed be God for Afflictions I have found such happy Effects that I would not have been without them for all this World I remained still at Dorchester to wait the Issue of Mr. William Hewling to whom after Tryal I had free Access whose Discourse was much filled with Admiring of the Grace of God in Christ that had been manifested towards him in calling him out of his Natural State he said God by his Holy Spirit did suddenly seize upon his Heart when he thought not of it in his retired Abode in Holland as it were secretly whispering in his Heart See ye my Face enabling him to answer his gracious Call and to reflect upon his own Soul shewing him the Evil of Sin and Necessity of Christ from that time carrying him on to a sensible adherence to Christ for Justification and Eternal Life He said Hence he found a Spring of Joy and Sweetness beyond the Comforts of the whole Earth He further said He could not but admire the wonderful Goodness of God in so Preparing him for what he was bringing him to which then he thought not of giving him hope of Eternal Life before he called him to look Death in the face so that he did chearfully resign his Life to God before he came having sought his Guidance in it and that both then and now the Cause did appear to him very Glorious notwithstanding all he had suffered in it or what he further might Although for our Sins God hath with-held these good things from us But he said God had carryed on his blessed Work in his soul in and by all his Sufferings and whatever the Will of God were Life or Death he knew it would be best for him After he had received his Sentence when he returned to Prison he said Methinks I find my Spiritual Comforts increasing ever since my Sentence There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus it 's God that justifies who shall condemn When I came to him the next Morning when he had received News that he must die the next day and in order to it was to be carried to Lyme that day I found him in a more excellent raised Spiritual Frame than before He said he was satisfied God had chosen best for him he knows what the Temptations of Life might have been I might have lived and forgotten God but now I am going where I shall sin no more Oh! it 's a blessed thing to be free from sin and to be with Christ Oh! the Riches of the Love of God in Christ to Sinners Oh! how great were the Sufferings of Christ for me beyond all I can undergo How great is that Glory to which I am going It will soon swallow up all our Sorrow here When he was at Dinner just before his going to Lyme he dropt many abrupt Expressions of his inward Joy such as these Oh! the Grace of God the Love of Christ Oh that blessed Supper of the Lamb to be for ever with the Lord He further said When I went to Holland you knew not what Snares Sins and Miseries I might fall into or whether ever we should meet again But now you know whither I am going and that we shall certainly have a most joyful meeting He said Pray give my particular Recommendations to all my Friends with acknowledgments for all their Kindness I advise them all to make sure of an Interest in Christ for he is the only Comfort when we come to die One of the Prisoners seemed to be troubled at the manner of the Death they were to die to whom he replied I bless God I am reconciled to it all Just as he was going to Lyme he writ these few Lines to a Friend being hardly suffered to stay so long I AM going to Launch into Eternity I hope and trust in the Arm of my Blessed Redeemer to whom I commit you and all my dear Relations my Duty to my dear Mother and Love to all my Sisters and the rest of my Friends William Hewling As they passed through the Town of Dorchester to Lyme multitudes of People beheld them with great Lamentations admiring at his Deportment at his parting with his Sister As they passed upon the Road between Lyme and Dorchester his Discourse was exceeding Spiritual as those declared who were present taking occasion from every thing to speak of the Glory they were going to Looking out on the Country as he passed he said This is a Glorious Creation but what then is the Paradise of God to which we are going 'T is but a few hours and we shall be there and for ever with the Lord. At Lyme just before they went to die reading John 14.18 He said to one of his fellow-Sufferers Here is a sweet Promise for us I will not leave you comfortless I will come unto you Christ will be with us to the last One taking leaving of him he said Farewel till we meet in Heaven Presently I shall be with Christ Oh! I would not change conditions with any in this World I would not stay behind for Ten Thousand Worlds To another that ask'd him how he did now He said Very well he bless'd God And farther asking him if he could look Death in the face with Comfort now it approach'd so near He said Yes I bless God I can with great Comfort God hath made this a good Night to me my Comforts are much increased since I left Dorchester Then taking leave of him said Farewel I shall see you no more To which he replied How see me no more Yes I hope to meet you in Glory To another that was by him to the last
are of all other most suitable sweet and satisfactory to immortal Souls And also I see that he that departs from iniquity makes himself a Prey and so many plunging themselves into the ways of Iniquity lest they should be accounted odious and vile which makes them so much degenerate not only from Christianity but from Humanity it self as if they were scarce the Excrement of either contemning even that most Noble Generous Heroick Spirit that dwelt in many Heathens who accounted it most honourable and glorious to contend for their Rights and Liberties yea to suffer Death and the worst of Deaths in Defence of the same and judge them accursed and most execrable in the World that do so and not only so but for their own Profit and Advantage have many of them enslaved their Posterity by it and are most industrious and laborious most fierce and furious to destroy them whereby they are become as unnatural as Children that seek the ruine of their Parents that begot them and brought them forth or them that lay violent hands upon themselves dashing out their own Brains cutting their own Throats hanging and drawing themselves ripping up their own Bellies tearing out their own Bowels they being in different senses Children and Members of that Body Politick they design and attempt the Destruction of and when I know not how long the Duration and Continuance of these things shall be or a Conclusion or End by God shall be put thereto who by Divine and Unerring Wisdom Governs the World why shall my Soul be unwilling to take its flight into the unseen and eternal World Where no sullied sordid or impious thing most incongruous and unbecoming Nature shall be seen and found and where I shall behold no narrow conclusive contracted Soul there habitually preferring their private before a publick good but all most unanimously and equally centre in one common universal good and where the sighs and groans and cries of the afflicted and persecuted shall be heard no more for ever I earnestly exhort all most highly to prize and value Time and diligently improve it for Eternity to be wise seriously and seasonably to consider of their latter End For by the irrepealable and irreversible Law of Heaven we must all die yet we know not how where or when Live with your Souls full of solicitude and care with a most deep concernedness and most diligent industriousness whilst you have time and opportunity and the means of Grace Health and Strength make sure of these two great things viz. 1. What merits for you a Right and Title to Eternal Life and Glory and the future unchangeable Blessedness as the Redeemer's most precious Blood and Righteousness that thereby a real Application and Imputation may be unto you by sincere Believing 2. That that which makes you qualified Subjects for it is the great work of Regeneration wrought in your Souls being renewed in the Spirit of your Minds the Divine Nature being imprest upon them repairing of the depraved Image of God in you that being transformed into his own likeness thereby in the World you may mind and savour more the things of the Spirit than the things of the Flesh Coelestial and Heavenly more than Terrestrial and Earthly Superiour more than Inferiour things And therewith have a holy Life and Conversation conjoyned that results and springs from the same as Fruit from the Root and Acts from the Habits Let all in order thereto seriously consider these few Texts of Sacred Scripture let them predominately possess you let them be deeply and indelibly Transcribed upon your Souls let them be assimilated thereunto and made the written Epistles the lively Pictures thereof Matth. 5.8 20. Blessed be the pure in heart for they shall see God Vers 20. For I say unto you except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven John 3.3 Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God c. Gal. 5.19 20 to 23. Now the works of the Flesh are manifest which are these Adultery c. James 1.18 Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his Creatures 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Vers 13. Wherefore gird up the loyns of your Minds c. Colos 3.1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above Set your affections on things above not c. Gal. 5.24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts c. Ephes 2.1 And you hath he quickned who were dead in trespasses and sins Rev. 20.6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Rom. 8.1 There is therefore now no Condemnation c. 1 Pet. 1.15 But as he that hath called you is holy so be ye c. Vers 23. Being born again not of corruptible Seed c. Psal 4.3 But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself c. I shall mention now no more the whole Bible abounds with these Texts with what a Renovation and Change of our Carnal and Corrupt Hearts and Natures there must be with Holiness of Life and Conversation before we can be capable of a future and blessed Immortality and of inheriting the Kingdom of God for ever and ever Amen 15. Captain Abraham Ansley 's Last Speech I AM come to pay a Debt to Nature 't is a Debt that all must pay though some after one manner and some after another The way that I pay it may be thought by some few ignominious but not so by me having long since as a true English-man thought it my Duty to venture my Life in defence of the Protestant Religion against Popery and Arbitrary Power For this same purpose I came from my House to the Duke of Monmouth's Army At first I was a Lieutenant and then a Captain and I was in all the Action the Foot was engaged in which I do not repent For had I a Thousand Lives they should all have been engaged in the same Cause although it has pleased the wise God for Reasons best known to himself to blast our Designs but he will deliver his People by ways we know nor think not of I might have saved my Life if I would have done as some narrow-soul'd Persons have done by impeaching others but I abhor such ways of Deliverance choosing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy Life with Sin As to my Religion I own the way and
is a certain way by which some Men make Trial what Death is but for my own part I cou'd ne'er yet find it out But let Death be what it will 't is certain 't is less troublesome than Sleep for in Sleep I may have disquieting Pains or Dreams and yet I fear not going to Bed I hope these Thoughts will put a gloss upon the Face of Death and to make Death yet the easier to thee think with thy self I shall not be long after thee for 't is but t'other Day I came into the World and anon I am leaving it I now take my leave of every Place I depart from There is says Feltham no fooling with Life when 't is once turned beyond Thirty Silence was a full Answer of him that being ask'd what he thought of Humane Life said nothing turn'd him round and vanish'd Abraham see how he beginneth to possess the World by no Land Pasture or Arable Lordship the first thing is a Grave The first Houshold-stuff that ever Seleucus brought into Babylon was a Sepulchre-stone a Stone to lay upon him when he was dead that he kept in his Garden and you know my Dear a Friend of ours tho' in perfect Health that 's now making his Coffin as a daily Monitor of his own Mortality Life at best is uncertain yet as to outward Appearance I am likely to go first But should'st thou die before me But what a melancholy thing wou'd the World then appear I 'll retire to God and my own Heart whence no Malice Time nor Death can banish thee The variety of Beauty and Faces I shou'd see after thy Decease tho' they are quick Underminers of Constancy in others to me wou'd be Pillars to support it since they 'd then please me most when I most thought of you I 've graved thy Picture so deep in my Breast that 't will ne'er out till I find the Original in the other World Don't think my Dear that conjugal Affection can be dissolved by Death The Arms of Love are long enough to reach from Earth to Heaven Fruition and Possession principally appertain to the Imagination If we enjoy nothing but what we touch we may say Farewel to the Money in our Closets and to our Friends when they go to Agford Part us and you kill us nay if we wou'd we cannot part Death 't is true may divide our Bodies but nothing else We have Souls to be sure and whilst they can meet and caress one another we may enjoy each other were we the length of the Map asunder Thus we may double Bliss stol'n Love enjoy And all the Spight of Place and Friends defie For ever thus we might each other bless For none cou'd trace out this new Happiness No Argus here to spoil or make it less 'T is not properly Absence when we can see one another as to be sure we shall tho' in a State of Separation For sight of Spirits in unprescrib'd by space What see they not who see the Eternal Face The Eyes of the Saints shall out-see the Sun and behold without Perspective the extreamest Distances for if there shall be in our glorified Eyes the Faculty of Sight and Reception of Objects I could think the visible Species there to be in as unlimitable a way as now the intellectual The bright transforming Rays of Heavenly Light Immense Immortal Pure and Infinite Does likewise with its Light communicate The Spirit exalt and all its frame dilate St. Augustine tells us The Saints of God even with the Eyes of their Bodies closed up shall see all things not only present but also from which they are corporally absent for then shall be the Perfection whereof the Apostle saith we Prophecy but in part then the Imperfect shall be taken away Whether this be so I cannot say yet sure I am that nothing can deprive me of the Enjoyment of the Vertues while I enjoy my self Nay I have sometimes made good use of my Separation from thee we better fill'd and farther extended the Possession of our Lives in being parted you lived rejoyced and saw for me and I for you as plainly as if you had your self been there But sure I dream for lo on a sudden all the Arguments I use to sweeten our parting are as so many Daggers thrust into my Heart and now it comes to the push I can't bear the Thoughts on 't Part bless me how it sounds 't is impossible it shou'd be so it does not hang together What part after so many Vows of never parting here or scarce a Minute in the other World 'T is true we first came together with this Design to help and prepare one another for Death but now the Asthma is digging thy Grave and thy Coffin lies in view I am fainting quite away methinks I feel already the Torments to which a Heart is expos'd that loses what it loves never did Man love as I have loved my Sentiments have a certain Delicacy unknown to any others but my self and my Hearts loves Daphne more in one Hour than others do in all their Lives Say dear Possessor of my Heart can this consist with parting No With Gare on your Last Hour I will attend And least like Souls should me deceive I closely will embrace my new-born Friend And never after my dear Pithia leave 'T is my Desire to Die first or that we expire together in thy tender Arms I wou'd imitate herein the Mayor of Litomentia's Daughter who leaping into the River where her Husband was drowned she clasped him about the middle and expires with him in her Arms and which is very Remarkable they were found the next Day embracing one another I likewise admire the Resolution of the Indian Wives who in Contempt of Death scorn to survive their Husbands Funeral Pile but with chast Zeal and undaunted Courage throw themselves into the same Flames as if they were then going to the Nuptial Bed As Remarkable is that of Laodomia the Wife of Protesilaus who hearing that her Husband was killed at Troy slew her self because she would not out-live him Neither is Artemisia to be less valued who after the Death of her Husband lived in continual Mourning and dy'd before she had finished his Tomb having drunken the Bones of her Husband beaten into Powder which she buried in her own Body as the choicest Sepulchre she cou'd provide for him And if we look back into ancient Times we find there was hardly a (g) (g) Dr. Horneck's Lives of the Primitive Christians Widow among the Primitive Christians that complained of Solitariness or sought Comfort in a Second Marriage Second Marriage then was counted little better than Adultery their Widows were the same that they were whilst their Husbands lived Neither are the Men without Ancient and Modern Instances of this Nature For C. Plautius Numida a Senator having heard of the Death of his Wife and not able to bear the Weight of so great a Grief thrust his Sword into
away and so the Fact was discovered After his Condemnation being remanded back to Newgate O said he had the happy Words of a Text which I lately heard been but well observed by me how happy had I now been And O that all young Men would seriously mind them viz. Wherewithal shall a young Man cleanse his way by ruling himself after the Word of God And then commenting on the First Psalm he said But O Wretch that I am I walked in the Counsel of the Vngodly and stood in the way of Sinners and sate in the Seat of the Scornful Confessing himself at the Place of Execution to be a young Man but a great Sinner 12. John Atherton executed at Dublin in Ireland for unnatural Concupiscence One thing he said troubled him much which was his Neglect and Disrespect of his Mother acknowledging according to the Fifth Commandment that his Days were therefore justly shortned The Morning of the Day of his Execution when the Divines came to visit him he cried out as in a Rapture O my God hath heard me about Four or Five of the Clock this Morning for the space of an Hour and an half I have had that Sweetness in my Soul that Refreshment in my Heart that I am not able to express Comparing it to the hidden Manna and the white Stone which no Man knows but he that hath it Finding such Joy as if he had been in the Suburbs of Heaven already When he was in view of the Gallows he said There is my Mount Calvary from whence I hope to ascend to Heaven He confessed and lamented his Neglect of Private Prayer in his Family for which and other Sins God suffered him to fall 13. Thomas Holland Executed near Southwark Anno 1687. for the Murder of his Wife Being apprehended and committed to the Marshalsea he confessed and lamented his Drunkenness Sabbath-breaking and other Sins his Neglect of Prayer and the Publick Worship of God which brought him to that untimely End Exhorting the People at the Place of Execution to the well-spending of their Time laying up for themselves Treasures in Heaven c. 14. Thomas Watson Executed for murdering his Wife on Kenington-Common in the County of Surrey March the 19th 1687. made this his last Speech I beseech you Good People who come to see my shameful and ignominious End and Death which I little expected one day to come to that you would take Warning and not give way to Passion which many times makes Men do what they least design For when a Man is enraged the Devil many times prevails against him with his Temptations As for my part I did no more design to act the Crime for which I suffer than to do hurt to my own Heart but what I did I did out of a sudden Rashness and I hope in Christ Jesus I shall find Pardon for it See the Narrative 15. Captain Winterflood condemn'd for Pyracy 1675. at the Gallows begg'd all to consider his Condition and acquainted them with his Life and Conversation He told them he had been a great Sinner but most of all he lamented his Sin of Swearing He said it was a common Thing for him to swear by the precious Blood of his dear Saviour A Saying so common amongst the Seamen when they should be admiring God's Wonders in the Deep when they are in a Storm and know not but the next Billow will turn them to the bottom of the Sea and their Souls before the Righteous Judge of Quick and Dead yet they in the midst of such Dangers did usually swear most He begged that they would take Warning by him and learn to get an honest Livelihood and then God would bless them He call'd a Psalm and pray'd very heartily to God that he would forgive him though his Sins were great yet he said he knew there was Vertue enough in Christ's Blood to cleanse him at whose Feet he would throw himself who I hope had Mercy on him as he had on the Thief on the Cross See the Narrative published 1675. 16. A Brief Account of the Penitential End of Thomas Mackerness extracted from the larger Narrative written by Mr. Burroughs Minister at Wisbech THomas Mackerness late of March in the Isle of Ely was a Man of a most Profligate and Heinously Wicked course of Life As to his Parentage and Education being utterly a stranger to him till after his Condemnation I can say nothing nor is it much material But by his own Confession to me and others he was famous or rather infamous for all manner of Impieties living many Years in such a Dissolute Flagitious and Atheistical way as was extreamly hazardous to his Soul 's Eternal welfare and exposed him to the Fatal stroke of Justice even from Men here He told me that for Drunkenness Swearing Whoring and Theft none had exceeded him that in these Capital and Epidemical Sins of the Age it was not possible to apprehend how Notorious he had been I observed in him some kindly beginnings of True Repentance which I laboured to promote with utmost diligence He shewed me several Books lent to him concerning which he asked my Advice My Reply was That he had not time to read Books and that I judged it best to lay them all aside except the Bible and a little Book Entituled A Guide for Heaven because it contained Excellent Directions for a saving Close with Christ I directed him to several Texts of Scripture which I desired him to Peruse and Meditate upon in my absence He thankfully accepted my Directions and when I returned in the Evening he saluted me on this manner Welcome welcome Guest indeed I can now tell you that you and none but such as you are that come to do my Soul good are welcome to me One might read a marvellous change of his inward Disposition in his Countenance he seemed transported with more than ordinary sense of the Quickening and Comforting Influences of Divine Grace I have been considering saith he the Advice you gave me and Meditating on those Scriptures you directed me to And Oh! I see it is Nothing but a Christ will do me good Oh the sweet Promises that God hath made to Returning Sinners Blessed be God I am out of Hell I had thought I had been in Hell in the Night I saw as it were Hell Gaping the Devil Roaring and my own Conscience Condemning me to the Pit of Hell and indeed crying out with Horror Blood gushed from my Nose Some that lay in the Room with me said I had been in a Slumber whether I was or no I could not well tell but thought I might be so However when I found my self out of Hell Oh how it affected me Then he wept and melted kindly saying Oh what a Wretch am I that I should sin against so good a God as this who hath declared himself so ready to forgive I am resolved to lie at his Feet I am convinced that I am a lost undone Creature out
of Christ It is not all I can do that will or can save me Were I to live my Days over again and spend them in nothing but Prayers and Tears that could not Save me no it is nothing but the Mercy of God in Christ that must save me and upon this will I trust I am resolved that at the last I will lay my self wholly at the Feet of God's Mercy in Jesus Christ and there I will die This he uttered with raised and enlarged Affections They have brought my Coffin and I am not afraid to see it proceeded he I thank God I can freely lie down in it These Shackles about my Legs are as if they were not I do not regard them My Heart is so cheared with the consideration of the Precious Promises God hath made to poor perishing Sinners and why not to me And why not to thee indeed said I She loved much to whom much was forgiven Ah reply'd he it is much must be forgiven me Much indeed More to this purpose passed between us Several other Ministers were with him that Day and prayed with him as he told me what Discourse they had with him I know not A little before Execution enquiring of him what Confession he thought to make he said he was not inclined to speak much publickly in that respect for this reason That he judged it useless and at most would only gratifie some who came for nothing else but to hear him tell a long Story of a Vicious Life which was more likely to discompose his own Minds than tend to their Edification Moreover he said I cannot affect the Guilty and for others some may believe me some may not The Guilty know themselves I will therefore leave them to God and their own Consciences wishing them true Repentance that they may never come to this miserable End He did not think fit to go out of the World accusing others whom he could no more than accuse and neither bring them to deserved Punishment for what they had done hor prevent thereby their proceeding in the same course of Wickedness No for said he God must convince them and change their hearts which he did and would Pray earnestly for to his last He was desirous to employ all his little space in seeking God and giving up himself to Jesus Christ in humble Prayer now and then saying Oh! my Time is short within a few hours yea moments I shall be in Eternity O vain World Requesting me oft not to leave him till Death separated us I accompanied him to the Place of Execution where I prayed with him committing his Soul to God he joyned with me with great Ardency Then was sung the latter part of the 39th Psalm by his Appointment in singing whereof he seemed elevated in Heart and Voice above most present At last turning about and looking round on the Multitude he took his Farewel in these words or words to the like effect Gentle Spectators You are come to see a sinful miserable Wretch suffer this Ignominious Death I thank God it is not terrible to me for I trust that I shall find Mercy with God for my poor Soul through the precious Blood of my sweet Jesus You may see here what Sin will bring you to Oh take warning by me take heed of Sin shun Temptationsâ— flee Ezsil Company beware of Sabbath-breaking for by this Sin the Devil begins with many to draw them to all manner of Wickedness so he did with me Oh forsake all your Evil Wars turn to the Lord he is a gracious God Oh vile Wretch that I have so sinned against a holy just and merciful God I have been a Prodigal indeed but I hope now a Returning one Oh that they that have been my Companions in Mischief may Repent before it be too late I beg of them to fear God and mind their Souls There may be some of them that hear me at this time the Lord touch their hearts Oh do not still go on you are known to God who will call you to Account for all one day Think of it I beseech you the Lord give you true Repentance and Pardon your Sins that you may not come to this miserable End you see me come to With more to the like purpose Then Resigning himself to God and begging Acceptance with him for the Merits of a Dear and All-sufficient Redeemer he ended this Temporal and Miserable Life Thus far Mr. Burroughs CHAP. CXLV The Last Wills of Persons Remarkable for their Oddness and Singularity HAving had occasion to mention before several Wills with a particular Respect to Charities bestowed and some which were Remarkably Serious and Devout here I shall present the Reader with a few that I thought not very suitable to either of those Heads having something of Oddness or Levity or Brevity in them extraordinary 1. I have already spoken of Endamidas the Corinthian who dying Poor left his Aged Mother to Aretaeus and his Young Daughter to Charixenus two Rich Friends of his the one to be maintained till she died and the other till she married She the Chapter of Remarkable Friendship 2. Hilarion is reported at Eighty Years Old to have made this Will All my Wealth that is the Gospel and one Hair Vest my Coat and little Cloak I leave to my most loving Friend Hesychius Mourning Ring 3. Antonius the Great this As for the Place of my Burial let none know but your own Love my Felt and old Cloak give it to Athanasius which he gave me when it was new Let Serapion take the other which is somewhat better Do you take my Hair Garment And so Farewel my Bowels for Antony is going Ibid. 4. I Acathius Victor have been running to Eternity from A.C. 1581. and have Eternity in my Mind Now I commend my Spirit to God my Body to the Earth and Worms But as for Estate nothing now is mine but Good-Will which I carry with me to the Tribunal of God Ibid. 5. S. Hierom Martyr left his Estate to his Mother and Sister but to Rusticius the Chief Magistrate of Ancyra his Right-hand already cut off Ibid. 6. Zisca bequeath'd his Skin to make a Drum and his Flesh to the Fowls of the Air and Wild Beasts Ibid. 7. A Woman left her Cat 500 Crowns to maintain her with Food so long as she lived 8. I have mentioned already an Old Witch that on her Death-bed bequeathed her Imp the Devil to her Daughter 9. Luther was more serious and wise when he in his Last Will bequeath'd his Wife to God who gave her 10. Cardinal Bellarmine as I have noted before makes a long sputter in his Last Will about his Disposal of a few Cloaths and fine Pictures c. 11. I have been credibly informed that a certain School-Master in Shropshire making his Will his Wife who had always the Whip-hand over him standing by took occasion frequently to Advise the Clerk that wrote for him or rather to Correct and altar what
the Comforts which God gave them in Times past or that from the great Number of Copies of his Sermons Letters and Prayers which he took care to disperse amongst them during his Sickness and which had been read by Persons of Quality and other wealthy Ones who 'till that time would not frequent the Religious Assemblies the Zeal of the most Cold and the Courage of the most Fearful had been influenced and raised up it matters not to determine but Persons of Quality and others who 'till then had testified less Zeal for the Truth came now to give Glory to God in the Holy Assemblies in the midst of all the People insomuch that afterwards it was one of Brousson's greatest care to prevent the Assemblies becoming too numerous to the end they might not make too much Noise and that the People might not be exposed to too great Evils however these Assemblies made so much Noise in the Kingdom that the People of other parts where those who preach'd in Cevennes and Lower Languedoc could not go were edified and strengthned Brousson also sent as far as possibly he could Copies of his Sermons Letters and Prayers to give part of those Instructions and Consolations to them afar off which God by his Ministry bestowed upon the People of Cevennes and Lower Languedoc He was seconded in the same good Work by Papus of whom you have heard somewhat before and who was saved by Divine Providence when Vivens was killed for he had been gone but a Minute out of the Cave where Vivens was invested on him God had bestowed the Spirit of Prayer in a great degree he had before the Death of Vivens begun to labour for the Consolation of the People by excellent Prayers and this he continued after his Death and went from place to place to keep small Meetings where he read the Holy Scriptures and some of the Sermons afore-mentioned and of which he had desired Copies besides whom there was another young Man whose Name was Vzes about twenty Years old who having got together ten or a dozen of the same Sermons got them by Heart and went also to repeat them from place to place and to comfort the People by Praying amongst them But what is more surprising than any thing hitherto related is that God was pleased to raise up the young Maidens for to labour for the Salvation and Comfort of that distressed People one whereof was called Isabel Redostiere about eighteen Years old the Daughter of a Country-man that lived at the foot of the Mountain Liron and the other Pintarde about sixteen or seventeen the Daughter of another Peasant near St. Hipolite They did not take upon them to administer the Sacraments but they went asunder from Place to Place and Desart to Desart to keep Meetings where they exhorted the People out of the Word of God to be converted sanctified be zealous for God come out of impure Babylon to give Glory to God and serve him in purity of Heart according to his Commandments and to be faithful to him unto Death and at the same time edisying comforting and strengthning the People by ardent and excellent Prayers Redostiere coming to know that Broussin with some other faithful Friends that accompanied him were upon an high Mountain she came thither to see them with another faithful Maiden that was elder than herself and who usually kept her Company in whom Brousson and his Friends observed such a Character of Modesty Humility Simplicity and Piety that ravished them with admiration When she happened to be in the same part of the Country where Brousson was she would often come to see and to confer with him about Religious Matters and especially she came frequently to those Assemblies where he administred the Lord's Supper and Brousson hath always testified that she was filled with the Grace of God After this same Maiden had for about two Years laboured for the Salvation and Support of the People she was taken and carried before the Intendant who said unto her So are you one of those Maidens who concern themselves in Preaching I have replied she given some Exhortations to my Brethren and have pray'd to God with them when occasion hat served if you call that Preaching I have Preached But do not you know said the Intendant that the King hath forbidden it I know it well said she again my Lord but the King of Kings the God of Heaven and Earth hath commanded it and I am obliged to obey him rather than Men. Then the Intendant proceeded and told her She deserved Death and that she ought not to expect any other Treatment than that which others had already suffered who had been so adventurous as to preach against the King's Orders But she made him answer She was not disinay'd at that and that she was fully resolved to suffer Death for the Glory and Service of God After many such Discourses the Intendant seeing this young Maiden dispos'd to suffer Martyrdom did not think fit to put her to Death for fear without doubt least the Constancy of this young Maiden should produce a quite contrary Effect to his Intentions he therefore contented himself to sentence her to a perpetual Imprisonment where she is still in the Tower of Constance in Aâ—guemortes with several other Women and faithful Maidens The other Maiden whote Name we told you was Pintarde laboured 〈◊〉 on her part in the Work of the Lord. Brousson had several times an opportunity to confer also 〈◊〉 her and to joyn with her in many an excellent Prayer she made to God that she for the most part drew out of the Psalms and those Old Prophets which agreed exactly to the then State of the Church of God in France and which she delivered with very great fervency One Night as Brousson drew nigh to a place where he had appointed a Meeting to be in the Neighbourhood of St. Hipolite he heard her make a Controversial Sermon or Discourse with great strenuousness She oftentimes kept Meetings where she prenched the Word of God and where she made excellent Prayers and this she continued two Years or better But at last this good Maiden fell into the Hands of her Enemies also with whom the Intendant had much the same Discourse as that already mentioned with the other Maiden but finding she was also very ready to go and suffer Martyrdom he contented himself to condemn her to perpetual Prison where she is still in the Castle of Sommieres These two holy Maidens had not been long Imprisoned but that God was pleased to raise up in Low Cevennes three other Maidens who also edified the People much by their excellent Prayers One of them among the rest and whom perhaps it 's not fit I should name did many times Extempore pray for Half an Hour and Three Quarters of an Hour wherein she very pathetically brought in and applied several Texts of Scripture insomuch that at the very same time she spake to God and
thee Well since thou art so resolved we will send thee back again to the loathsome place from whence thou camest that they may dispatch thee and â—â—sume thy obdurate Heart To which he replied in the words of holy patient Job I know that after Worms have eaten this Body that in my Flesh I shall see God And having so said he was remanded back to his Jail 14. Some Dragoons quartered with a Person whom they could not pervert they forced him to dance barefoot upon the sharp Points of Glass which when they had continued so long as they were able to keep him on his Legs they laid him on a Bed and stripping him stark naked rolled his Body from one end of the Room to the other upon the sharp Glass 'till his Skin was stuck full of the Fragments and returning him to his Bed sent for a Surgeon to take out all the pieces of Glass out of his Body which was not done without frequent Incisions and horrible and extream pain 15. Another having the unwelcome Company of these villanous Soldiers and having suffered extreamly by them with the utmost Constancy one of them looking earnestly on him told him he disfigured himself with letting his Beard grow so long who answering That they were the Cause of it who would not let him stir out of Doors to go to the Barber The Dragoon replied I can do that for you as well as your Barber telling him he must needs try his Skill upon him and so fell to work but instead of shaving him flead all the Skin off his Face One of his Companions coming at the Cry of this poor Sufferer and seeing what he had done seemingly blamed him for it and said he was a Bungler and then said to his Host Come your Hair wants cutting too And thereupon begins in a most cruel manner to pluck the Hair Skin and all off his Head and flead that as the other had done his Chin. Thus making a Sport and Merriment of the extream Sufferings of these miserable Wretches By these Inventions they endeavour to subdue their Courage telling them The King will have obedient Subjects but neither Martyrs nor Rebels and that they have order to convert them but not to kill them Let us conclude with a Prayer used by these blessed Souls in the Agony of their Spirits O Great GOD who from thy heavenly Throne dost behold all the Outrages done to thy People haste thee to help us Great GOD whose Compassions are infinite suffer thy self to be moved by our extream Desolation If Men be insensible of the Calamities we suffer If they be deaf to our Cries not regarding our Groans or Supplications yet let thy Bowels O Lord be moved and affect thee on our behalf Glorious GOD for whose Name's-sake we suffer all these things who knowest our Innocency and Weakness as well as the Fury and Rage of our Adversaries and the small Support and Help we find in the World behold we perish if thy Pity do not rouze thee up to our Relief It is thou art our Rock our God our Father our Deliverer We do not place our Confidence in any but in thee alone Let us not be confounded because we put our Trust in thee Haste thee to our help make no long tarrying O Lord our God and our Redeemer Amen Thus far for Martyrs in Flames I would proceed in the History of the Martyrdom of the French Protestants but that as I said in the beginning of this Chapter the Third and Fourth Volumes of the French Book of Martyrs a History of the famous Edict of Nantes are now preparing for the Press Which Four Volumes including the First and Second already Publish'd contain an Account of all the Persecutions that have been in France from the beginning of the Reformation there down to this present time comprehending the Reigns of Henry III. Henry IV. Lewis XIII and Lewis IV. the whole Work faithfully Extracted from all the Publick and Secret Memoirs that cou'd possibly be procured by that Learned and Judicious Divine Monsieur Bennoit Printed first in French by the Authority of the States of Holland and West-Friesland and now Translated into English Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in Jewen-street who alone has Queen Mary's Royal Priviledge for the Publishing of it THE First and Second Volumes of this French Martyrology already Publish'd having fully answered the Expectations of the Curious it has occasion'd several Gentlemen to desire a speedy Publication of the whole Work And 't is not doubted but that such a Seasonable Work as this is which has been Patronized by the States of Holland and born a Second Impression there in a few Weeks will meet with answerable Encouragement here seeing Her Majesty's Royal License for the Printing of it and the Expectations of so many Great Persons as have desir'd it in our own Language will not a little recommend it to the English Nation As for the Author his Preface to the First Volume does yet promise fairer Things as his Correspondence for the carrying on so Great a Work extending to such distant Places his Access to so many Publick and Private Libraries as well as to the Cabinets and Studies of the Exacter sort where Fugitive Pieces secure themselves His Assistances by Manuscripts and Collections especially those of the Learned and Ingenious Monsieur Tesserau and the Memoirs he left at his Death with other Helps which will best appear in the Work itself If History be properly Consecrated to preserve to Posterity the Remembrance of Things the most remarkable that fall out in the World it cannot be deny'd but that the deplorable End of the Liberty which the Protestants enjoy'd so long a time in France is one of the most Memorable Accidents that merits to be taken in hand for the Information of succeeding Ages There is not any thing in that Revolution which does not deserve particular Reflections upon whatever Circumstance a Man fixes his Mind he shall find enough to exercise his Thoughts either in wondring at the Malice and Fury of those that were the Authors of it or in admiring at the Patience of those that were invelop'd in it It is not to be imagin'd what has pass'd in that Kingdom upon this occasion especially within these last Thirty Years It was very necessary therefore to establish Things in their true Light and to collect into a History all the sorrowful Accidents of this Revolution we having as yet no faithful Collection extant to the intent that thereby a durable and perpetual Monument might be erected of a Catastrophe worthy to be Eterniz'd in all its Circumstances and therein an Account given of all the Martyrdoms and Persecutions which in France have befallen those who for these Fourscore and ten Years have lived in that Kingdom under the Faith of the most solemn Edict that ever was publish'd CHAP. CLII. The Memorable Speeches and Sayings of the late Queen MARY from her Childhood down to the Time of
years she had a Beard from her youth which she suffered to grow so that in her Age it reach'd to the Pit of her Stomach Zacut. Lusitan l. 3. Obs 92. p. 394. Francis Alvares a Father of the Jesuits Procurator of China upon his return to Rome had a Beard that reached down to his Feet he used to have it girt about with a Girdle Bartho Hist Anat. Cent. 1 Hist 43. p. 61. 2. I my self saw a Dutch Woman of about 40 years Old at Oxford with a great Beard She was carried about to be seen IV. The TEETH 1. In the Reign of Christian the Fourth King of Denmark was brought to Copenhagen a Greenlander that had but one continued Tooth which reached from the one end of the Jaw to the other Barth Hist Anat. Cent. 1. Hist 35. p. 48. 2. Lewis the XIII King of France had a double row of Teeth in one of his Jaws and Lewis the XIV was born with Teeth in his Mouth Barth ibid. 3. A Nobleman being above 90 years of Age cast his Teeth and had a New Set in the place of those that were fallen out Korm de mir viv p. 92. This is pretty common V. The TONGVE VOICE and SPEECH 1. Maximilian Son of the Emperour Ferdinand III. was Mute and Dumb till the 9th year of his Age but afterwards he spake very Eloquently Schenck Obs. Med. l. 1 Obs. 4. p. 180. 2. John the Dumb being taken by the Turks they cut off the rolling part of his Tongue and by that means deprived him of his Speech and so he continued three years when being frighted with Lightning which so affected his fearful mind that it freed his Tongue that he recovered his Speech Nich. Tulp Obs. Med. l. 1. c. 4. p. 77. VI. The EYE 1. Caesar Borgia his Eyes were so Fiery and Sparkling that his very Friends were not able to look upon them though when sporting among Ladies he could convert his cruel looks into Lenity Jov. Elog. l. 4. p. 4. p. 201. Luther had so vivacious an Eye that Men could not look directly on him and one being sent to Pistol him was so amazed and affrighted with the vigour of his Eyes that he fled from him Zuing. Theat Vol. 2. l. 2. p. 295. 2. The Brasilians have some of them but one Eye Petr. Appian Descript Ind. Occid 3. About blesgithea near the Caspian Sea there is an one Ey'd Nation Solinus c. VII The NOSE The Tartarian Women cut and pare their Noses between their Eyes that they may seem more feat and saddle-Nosed leaving themselves no Noses at all in that place anointing the place with a black Oyntment which makes them look most ugly the Queen her self is so Purchas Pilq 3. l. 1. Cyrus had an Aquiline or Hawks-Nose and the Persians suffer none to Reign over them but Princes with such Imperial Noses and they use Art to the young Princes to shape them so Mercur l. de Decor The Antient Romans loved a prominent Nose thence called a Roman Nose and the Austrian Nose bears sway now in Germany ibid. VIII The EARS Some Indians are said to have Ears hanging to the Ground Strabo calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they use their Ears for a Couch to sleep on Strab. Geogr. l. 15. Solinus speaks of such a Nation likewise called fanasii So doth Pliny Munster Cosmogr l. 5. c. 126. Isidore Petrus Simon Ant. Daca Maximel Transylvanus Purchas c. Bulver's Anthropometamorph p. 142. IX The LIPS The Indians have many of them holes in their Lips beset with Precious Stones some wear Crystal others Iron Rings there hoops of Brass Turquoises Emeralds small Bones ibid. p. 180 The Negroes have generally great Lips by Nature X. The FACE 1. The Caraqui in Pervacus want an Occiput and Sinciput with a most broad Face for as soon as the Children are born they shut in their Heads behind and before in boards on purpose to dilate the Face and make it plain this is reported by divers Authors as Pet. Martyr Decad. 8. Korn de mirac vivorum c. 2. They have flat Faces in Java Major saith Scaliger and Linschot l. 1. c. 10. in Zanfera and Norimbega saith Leo Hist de Afric c. In the Island Dâ—dya saith Sir John Mandeâ—ile Fulwer's Anthrop p. 240. 3. In some Countreys as Cumana they have long and thin Cheeks in China square as also in the Province of Old-Port in Peugniu some have Faces like Dogs ibid. XI The SHOVLDERS 1. Plato was broad Shoulder'd and Cresollius saith in imitation of him the Italians bombasted their Doublets that they might appear so as the Women in Ovid's time did adhibere analectides use Bolsters or Pillows for that purpose But Purchas saith the Wywapanami in the West-Indies had Shoulders higher then their Heads and Bulwer saith in all the parts of Tartaria the Men are naturly broad Shoulder'd ibid. p. 280. 2. Franciscus Fernandus in his Manuscript reports of certain Nations in India that are all bunch-back'd ibid. p. 283. XII The HANDS I pass by all the Histories of Monstrosities in Nature as of infants born with four three or one Hand c. In Tartary some are born with one Leg and Foot some have been born without any Hands My fast cited Author speaks of a Young Man in his time born near Abington named John Simon born without Arms Hands Thighs or Knees with only one continued bone from his Hip unto his Foot ibid. p. 302. and we have seen saith Alex. Benedictus a Woman born without Arms that could Spin and Sow with her Feet ibid. XIII ENTRAILS HEART and GVTS c. The Pancreaâ— hath a Passage spread sometimes in a strait sometime in a crooked Line the Liver is sometime swelled and causeth shortness of breath sometime 't is undivided and entire with a little lob of softer Flesh covered with a thin membrane 't is bigger then ordinary in bodies of a cold Complexion great Eaters and fearful Persons and some Consumptive Persons sometime 't is consumed or very small and yet at the same time a great Spleen sometimes Worms are found in the Membranes of the Liver The Spleen is for the most part only one sometimes two sometimes three sometimes none at all as Bartholinus Schenckius and Laurentius tells us sometimes instead of Lungs there hath been found only a bladder The Kidneys have been found to rest upon the back-bone of the Loins Pliny and valerius Maximus tell of Aristomenes who had a Heart rough with Hair Caelius Rhodiginus Benevenius Zacutus Lusitanus and Murelus affirm that they saw such hairy Hearts in certain famous Thieves Aemilius Parisanus Veslingius c. have observed three Ventricles in the Hearts of some sometimes Fat and sometimes Particles of Flesh have been found in the Heart Salvius hath observed Worms and so hath Horstius at Conflâ—cntia May a Twibladed Snake at London and Severinus the like at Naples Hollerius Stones Gemma and Riolanus Bones c. Riolanus tells of
very wonderful and hardly credible which was a certain species of Madness raging a long time especially in Germany wherewith Persons of all Conditions but mostly the Commonalty were seized Shoomakers Taylors and Country-fellows throwing aside their Shooes their Garments and their Ploughs being seized with a horrid fury and meeting together in certain places without any lying down would carry on their Dances so long till their very Breach failed them unless they were restrained by force for oftentimes they proceeded to such a degree of fury if there were not care taken that they offered violence to themselves Sometimes they would Dance upon high Precipices of Rocks till they threw themselves down and brake their Necks and sometimes upon the Banks of the Rhine and other Rivers into which they would precipitate and drown themselves They would run hooting about and bawling and dancing with geminated Clamours truculent Aspect and foaming Mouths that their Friends were fain to lay high Forms and Seats in their way on purpose for them to leap over Women with Child did not escape this fury but ran about up and down in the Dance without any inconvenience to their Burthen The Magistrates were fain to appoint Musicians and Drumers and the stoutest Fellows they could get to lead and assist them in their Dances out of the publick Treasury till their furious Fits expired They betook themselves by Prayer to St. Vitus or John Baptist in hopes of recovering their Health See more of this in Schenck Obs Med. l. 1. p. 144. also in Camerar Syllog Memorah Cent. 11. p. 84. Bodin l. 5. de Repub. cap. 1. c. 25. Schenckius tells of a Nobleman's Son who playing with a couple of Cherry-Stones to shew some Tricks put one of them into his Ear to make a shew â—ow speedily he could convey it from the one Ear to the other but put it so far in that it could not be got out again no not by the help of Physicians till at last by the help of Nature the Stone began to germinate with the warmth and moisture of the Ear and being cleft in two parts it was by a small pair of Pinchers got out Schenck Ibid. p. 178. 26. Donatus tells the like Story of one Bonardus who had got a Karobe Seed in his Ear and at last by the help of an Aposthume which it caused in the place the Seed sprouted forth and so was drawn out Donat. Flist Mirab. l. 2. c. 12. 27. A certain Nobleman of Venice aged 46. whose smelling and spitting was hindred being dead had his Brain Diffected and therein was found a Stone near the Basis his Bowels being opened his Liver was found hard and stony and the Blood contained in it as black as Ink. Ibid. 28. Physicians tell us of some Prodigious Haemorrhagies wherein sometimes 18 sometimes 20. and sometimes 40 pounds of Blood hath flowed forth 29. Hollerius tells of a Girl who on the 9th of April Anno 1553 at St. James's-Gate voided a large white Worm thick and longer than a Span at her Nostrils without any cough or Vomiting going before And Trincavel tells of a Noble Venetian who in a Fever voided at his Nose a Worm almost four Fingers long Ibid. 30. Scaliger tells us of a Man whose Tongue was so big that he durst nor declare in particular how large it was for fear he should be suspected of a Lye Scal. Exercitat 199. c. 2. Many other of portentous Tumours in this part we have from other Physicians 31. Lusitanus relates how one Jacob Offlood had great Hairs growing on his Tongue and he guessed that he had them in his Heart too Stones are often found to breed under the Tongue and so are Worms too and sometimes Warts 32. I saw a man whose Gums by daily vomiting of an acid Humour grew so big that they covered all his Teeth Cardan l. 12. de Subtil 33. A Periodical Flux of Blood out of the Gums have been sometimes observed by Physicians particularly in the late famous Archbistop Vsher who had such a Flux twice or thrice a year which in his younger years was so great that it put him sometimes in danger of Life but afterwards more sparing and by drops yet without any intermission day or night for one Natural Day sometimes two or more together Arnold Boâ—â— c. 7. 34. Some have been Born with Teeth some have had 26 in number others 28 others 32 in some saith Columbus there is a double Row yet in my Son Phâ—hus there are 3 Rows Columb Anatom Some have had only one Bone instead of Teeth others have had Teeth breed in the Pallat of their Mouths as both Alexander de Benedictus Eustachius c. do testifie 35. Columbus found Bones in the Lungs of one Francis Capellus l. 15. Anat. Some by Coughing have Spit up Gravel Gabriel Falopius found in the Lungs of a young man that he Dissected at Padua Anno 1565. 4 Stones each of them as big as a large Bean c. Physicians mention Flies Worms and other little Animals as generated in the Lungs the rough Artery and the Region of the Vital Instruments 36. Nicolaus de Podio had an Asthma every Friday Nicol. Serm. 4. Tract 2. c. 25. 37. One Daniel Bonricius on the 8th of January 1559. spit Blood mixt with Phlegm the next day a Vein being opened he continued to Spit Bloody his difficulty of Breathing increased so that he continued Waking some Nights together Blood perpetually issued forth out of his Nostrils yet without any Cough in great plenty In a Twelve-month besides Blood he Spit out a great deal of Phlegm black and not deep and yet without any mixture of Blood The same day a light Cough seized him and a greater difficulty of Breathing and his Spittle was more bloody Not long after he grew very cold sweat breathed hard and his Voice was intercepted Upon taking of the Antidote of Diamose he grew warm again slopt and breathed more easily and promised recovery the next night his watching difficulty of breathing phlegmatick black and bloody Spittle returned in great plenty and so continued till he died Cardanus 38. A young Gentleman of Arles Caesar sa Sata being wounded in his Back and Sides by a clownish Servant of the Family after two days died his Body being opened upon the command of his Parents and the Magistrate there was so great plenty of Phlegm found in his Breast as amounted to 20 Sextarii I know not whether he means the Greek of the Roman Measure Quarts of Pints Valeriola l. 4. Obs 7. Nicolaus tells us That he saw a Woman distempered with an Empyema that Spit 8 pounds every day and continued so for 6 days together Jacobus Comm. 1. ad Aph. 5. Sect. 2. l. 6. Coact Hipp. 39. Campejus saw at Lunevil a little Town of Lotharingia two young men begotten by the same Father so extenuated and dried with a Consumption that the very Skin being chapt represented the Bones naked and exposed them to sight
the Skin was married to the Bones with so close a conjunction that their Bodies seemed all Boney and tied together only with Nerves truly saith he you would have taken them for the very Images of Death The Younger of them walked well enough for he seemed not much unlike an Ape yet in walking the Bones cracket together very like the dry shells of Nuts Their Father continually attended the Furnace Symph Campej l. 4. c. 13. c Narat Histor Galeni 40. Worms have been found sometimes breed in the Heart which hath caused Palpitation and the Lunatick Passion and consquently Death 41. Arculanus relates that he saw a sharp Bone that stuck in the Throat of one at two months end come out through the Skin Forest l. 15. c. 42. A certain Student in the Colledge of Preleum who had swallowed down a branch of Grass voided it afterwards whole through the intercostal space Parcus l. 24. c. 19. 43. A certain Shepherd being forced to swallow a Knife with a Horn handle half a Foot long after a fortnights space and much pain upon an Aposthume breaking out of his Groins voided it there Idem Dr. Brown tells us That either this Knife or another is to be seen in the Emperor of Germany's Library I say this or another for there is the like Story of a Boy in Prussia that swallowed his Knife and had it taken out again by a Chirurgion Several Persons have swallowed Pins most of which they have voided again by Urine One Mrs. Skâ—ymsher of Aqualat in Shropshire near Newport as it was related to my Lord Paget in my hearing after she had swallowed down a Pin took it out of her Arm many years 44. Sudor Anglicus or the Sweating-sickness was a Pestilent kind of Fever which either killed or delivered the Patient in a day or two mostly peculiar to England but by its Contagion communicating it self sometimes to Holland it ended commonly in Sweating and there was hopes of Recovery by no other Medicines but Sudorificks This arose first of all Anno 1486. in the Summer time and in one day with an excessive Flux of Sweat would carry away many thousands They that were seized with it would be Sowed presently up in the Sheets and Blankets and earnestly intreat their Friends not to leave them till their 24 hours were out which Friends perhaps being seized presently after and thrust into the same Bed to them where being mightly covered with heaps of Cloaths they cried out wretchedly earnestly imploring the Favour of God and Man Gemma Cosmo l. 1. c. 8. 45. Lues Pannoniae or the Hungarian Fever Theriodes vulgarly the worm of the Brain began in the Expedition of the Emperor Maximilian II. against Soliman the Turkish Emperor Anno 1566. in Hungary and carried away a vast number of People insomuch that you might see dead Bodies lie in the Streets of Vienna whither the Army hastned daily First they were taken with a light rigour and coldness within less than an hour with extream heat and pain of the Head and Breast and unsatiable Thirst so that you might see them out of their Tents at Pitchers and Bowls of cold Water drinking till they had Breathed their last The 2d or at most the 3d day they grew Delirious sometimes there was attending a Disentary or Flux of the Liver sometimes the Colick and pain of their sides Matter thrown out by Stool or out of the Head into either Ear causing Deafness gave hopes of Recovery They all had spots like Flea-bitings upon their Body especially their Breast and Back Arms and Shoulders Jordanus de Pestis Phaenomini c. 19. Tract 1. 46. Febris Stigmatica otherwise called Lenticula or Punticula appeared first Anno 1505. and 1528. in Italy especially Cyprus and the Neighbouring Islands it was contagious upon contact at first it was easie and pleasant enough but afterwards was attended with uneasiness and weariness of Body heaviness of the Head or dulness of the Senses Delirium redness of Eyes Talkativeness red Spots about the seventh day in the Arms Back and Breast little or no Thirst c. few Women were taken with this Fever very sew old Men almost no Jews c. Tracaster l. 2 3. c. 6 7. de Contag Morb. 47. Morbus Gallicus was brought first by the Spaniards out of the Indies and shewed it self first in the Camp of Charles V. at Naples it spared none of what degree so ever Kings Lords or Ladies infected the Head Eyes Nose Pallat of the Mouch Skin Flesh Bones Ligaments and inward parts of the Body produced a lumpish heaviness in the Members wandring Pains faint Complexions Sadness Tumours Pustules Ulcers Buboes c. Barrow's method of Physick l. 6. c. 1 2 3. 48. Brunnae Lues of Lues Nova Moraviae not very mortal yet of an unusual form and strange Symptoms and very Contagious it began about Anno 1577. upon occasion of going into the Baths near Brunna The hurt did not appear until a formight or a month after Afterwards these Symptoms followed sluggishness and torture of Body a dejected Mind a sad Countenance pale Face a brown Circle about the Eyes a frowning Forehead an extraordinary heat in such places where they had used Cupping glasses in the day it produced Ulcers and much Corruption sometimes a kind of Scab all over the Body like the Small-Pox Callouses in the Head which broke and run pricking Pains all over the Body no rest perpetual crying out roaring tears avoiding all Conversation and sight of Men c. Jordanus de Lue Nova Moraviae CHAP. XXXVII Strange Birds I Do not intend to present my Reader here with a Complete Aviary or to tell him only what he knows already though perhaps the Book may fall into the hands of some who know more than I can tell them but only to speak of some of those Inhabitants of the Airy Region these Winged People of the Sky that common Eyes are least acquainted with and which we do not see every day whereof there is so great a variety and wherein there is such a pleasant sight of the Creator's Infinite Wisdom and Workmanship as is enough to allure our Eyes to a further Prospect and Disquisition of what there is above these 1. The Eagle is justly esteemed King of Birds The right Foot is reported greater than the left the Brain is so hot that mingled with Hemlock Juice and drank in Powder it will make one Mad. It drinks not because the Blood of what it Preys upon sufficeth it But in old Age when the Beak is crooked with dryness it preserves it self by drinking Aelian They have been seen a Cubit in largeness and some young ones whose Wings stretched out would reach 7 Ells the Claws were bigger than a great Man's Fingers and the Thighs greater than a Lions When the young ones are hatcht she holds them in her Talons against the Sun and having proved them to be Legitimate she takes them on her Wings and carries them
flie forth in Troops and meet these pestilent Multitudes in the Air before they waste their Coasts Marcel Ibid. 11. The Chough peculiar to Cornwal haunts the Seas but feeds not upon Fish his bill is sharp long and red his Legs red and his Feathers black It is a very unlucky Bird and mischievous like a Pie for he will hide Money and other little things and will carry Sticks of Fire about and will set Barns Stacks c. on Fire he is frequent about the Alps Quere if he be not in the Clifts of Isle of Wight CHAP. XXXVIII Strange Beasts FOR the sake of those People that never Travell'd either with their Legs or Intellectuals beyond the narrow Horizon of their own Countrey I have here Collected a short Catalogue and Description of such strange Beasts as are bred only in Foreign Parts or but rarely in our own still with the same Design to Illustrate the Power and Wisdom both of the Divine Creation and Providence Yet I dare not say that I have all here that were in Noah's Ark nor have I searched all the Desarts of Arabia and wide Wildernesles of the World sor so I might have lost my self 1. The Lions bones have no Marrow in them they have Teeth like Saws their Neck is made of one stiff bone without any Vertebrae they have 5 Claws on their Fore-feet and but 4 on their Hinder feet the Balls of their Eyes are black Arist They sleep but little and when they do Sleep their Eyes are half open Aristotle says they eat and drink but once in two days he is mild to them that yield he will scarce hurt those that lie down and when he is not Hungry he will seize on Men rather then Women but not upon Children unless he be extream Hungry they are frighted with Coach Wheels running round and with the Combs and crowing of Cocks but chiefly by Fire Johnston Hist Nat. Clas 7. cap. 22. p. 223. 2. The Elephant is the greatest of all Land Creatures it is certain that in Old time they carried Castles of armed Men into the Field Aldrovandus tells of one of their Teeth sold for 36 Ducars it was 14 spans long and 4 spans thick so heavy that he could not take it up from the Ground and in his Heart he hath a Bone wonderful big that he saw in one that was killed Johnston Hist Nat. Clas 7. p. 219. Some of the Indian Elephants are reported by Aelian to be 9 Cubits high 9 long and 5 broad or thick 3. The Crocodiles lay one Egg as big as a Goose Egg yet from this small beginning they grow to a vast bigness sometimes they are more then 18 Cubits long Aristotle says their Tongue sticks all fast When Nilus runs back to its Channel the Crocodiles will lie hid in the Mud watching to satisfie their Hunger and they strike those that come and Strangle them with their Tails The Trochilus is his Guard and the Tentyritae are his Enemies he awakes him when the Ichneumon is like to do him hurt and entring into his wide Jaws he pulls out Flesh from amongst his rows of Teeth with his beak when he flies away he warns to close up his upper Chap but these swim in the River and getting upon their Backs as if they rid they thrust a Bough into their Mouths and compell them to Vomit up the Bodies they have Newly devoâ—red Johnston's Hist Nat. Clas 7. p. 217. 4. The Ichneumon is a Creature in Egypt with a long Tail like to a Serpent's Oppian without the Chin he hath an Excreesence beset with Hair when it is hot it openeth that his Mouth being shut they will catch Mice as Cats When he observes the Crocodile Sleeping he rolls himself in Clay and goes into his Mouth and so into his Belly and eats his Liver and then leaps forth again Johnston's Hist Nat. p. 223. 5. The Chamaeleon he changeth his colour oft-times both in his Eyes his Tail and his whole Body and he changeth like that thing he next toucheth except Red and White when dead he is pale It is certain that sometimes he lives by the Air for he will suffer Hunger a whole years some say that he turns to the Sun and draws in the Sun-beams and follows them with open Mouth Zandius says he will hunt Flies who saith he dissected the Tongue of one that was as long as one Hands breadth hollow and empty in the top was a Hole with Snivel in it with which he catcht his Prey Johnston's Hist Nat. Clas 7. cap. 13. p. 216. 6. The Panther smells so sweet that it will allure all the Wild Beasts but the frowning Countenance it hath frights them wherefore he hides his Head and so they come and are caught In the Right Shoulder they have a Mark like the Moon and as that increaseth this increaseth and decreaseth Albert. Demetrius Physicus writes that one of them lay in the way waiting for a Man and suddenly appeared to him he was frighted and began to run away but the Panther came and tumbled before him and was grieved at it for she had littered and her Whelps were fallen into a Pit she gently laying her Claws and drawing him by the Garments and he had his Life for a reward for taking out her Whelps and she having got her young ones again guarded him out of the Desart and she was jocund and merry that it might easily appear how grateful she was and not to wrong him for his good deeds which is a rare thing in a Man Johnston's Hist Nat. Clas 7. p. 230. 7. The Rhinoceros is a Beast as big as an Elephant he hath one Horn in his Nose it is moderatly bent and so sharp that it will pierce Stones and Iron his Skin is very thick with Scaly Crusts in Colour and Figure like a Tortoise-shell it is so fast that a Dart can hardly enter it He is the Elephants Enemy when he Fights with him he whets his Horn on a Stone then puts his Horn under the Elephant's Belly where it is softest he rends him Johnston's Hist Nat. Clas 7. cap. 32. p. 232. 8. The Camel Puddle Water is sweet to him nor will he drink river Water till he have troubled it with his Foot they serve the Indians to Travel with and will go hundred Miles a day for eight days together with very little Meat they never couple with their Dams they are very docil when they are longer in their Journey than ordinary between Ethiopia and Barbary they do not whip them forward but they sing to them whereby they will run so fast that Men can hardly follow them At Alcair they dance at the sound of a Taber being Taught by a strange Art for when they are young they are brought into a Stove the Pavement being very hot one plays on a Taber at the Dore they because of the heat lifts up their Feet they continue their Exercise and use them to it a whole Year so that
Fume whereby the Beams of the Eyes they corrupt the Visive Spirit They go half upright and have a Comb like a Cock fear'd by all other Serpents if seen or heard but they themselves fear the Weasel Ibid. 19. Sagitta Jacularis Serpens volens the Dart so called because he will leap or shoot himself at least 10 yards he is about 3 or 4 foot long Its Poison is present Death scarce Curable Ibid. 20 The Salamander is a four footed Creature a kind of a Lizard black and full of yellow specks with a great Head It is a bold Creature delights in moist places and clear Springs They are reported to live in Fire but that is a Story for they no otherwise live there but by quenching it by a cold moist humour which issues from them when that is exhausted if the Fire continues they are subject to destruction They have as many Venoms as colours If they once Bite they never let go The Cure is by Decoction of Frogs drink Milk c. Ibid. 21 Seps Sepidon Selsi◠has a broad Head slender Tail of many colours about a yard long He causes the part to Rot which he bites For the Cure wash with Vinegar and Oximel Ibid. 22. The Serpent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a kind of Snake a crafty Creature lying all the Winter under the Earth or Roots of Birch or Hasel casting its Skin every Spring and Autumn They are best in the Spring when they have cast their Skins and recruited their Flesh with Food The Head Gall and Tail and to be cast away The Heart Liver Flesh and Bones are a precious Treasure in Physick concerning which see more in Salmon's Dispensatory l. 2. c. 5. p. 252. 23. The Snake Anguis Chersydrus the Water Snake their Poison is not inferiour to that of other Serpents when they Bite there ensueth great Pain Inflammation blackness in the Wound the Vertigo and Death within four days The Water Snake has a fiery Poison which disperses it self over the whole Body which when it comes to the Heart the Creature immediately falls down dead Therefore it is best if a part be bitten presently to cut it off otherwise to apply Organy beaten with Oil of Tartar and Oil Olive or Oak-Ashes mixt with Barly-Meal Pitch Water and Honey boiled to Poultis 1. The Liver of a Snake breaks the Stone in the Bladder 2. The Flesh eaten cures the Leprosie and Pox applied it helps Wounds 3. The Skin boiled in Wine and that Wine Dropt into the Ears easeth the Pains of them Ibid. p. 247. 24. The Viper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Creature that brings forth alive exceeding other Serpents in Venom sleeping all the Winter under the Earth in Rocks The young Females are the best being taken in the Spring Vipers have stronger Virtues than Serpents and they have also the same preparation In the Viper there is nothing Venemous but the Head and Gall. Concerning its excellent Virtues in Physick See Salmon's Dispensatory p. 253. Having given this Account of the Particular Species of Serpents out of Mr. Salmon we will conclude with some general Remarks out of Jo. Jonston's History of the wonderful things of Nature In the Province of Caraia under the King of Tartary some Serpents are 10 yards long and 10 hands broad some want fore feet but have Claws in the room of them their Eyes are as great as two small Loaves for which he cites Paul Venetus Americus Vespasius saw some in the Indies which Men did Eat as big as Kids a yard and an half long with long feet strong claws of divers colours nosed like Serpents having from the Ears to the Tail a certain Bristle going quire through the Back Ludovic Rom. Sais Calicut breeds the like as great as Boars with fore-feet no Venom yet biting dangerously Anno 1543. there appeared four footed Beasts in the Borders of Germany near to Styria like Lizards with Wings whose Biting was incurable Anno 1550. about St. Margarets-Day in Hungary near Zisca about the River Theysse they were found in the Bodies of many They killed about three thousand men Some came out of Men's mouths but they went in again It is almost incredible what is reported of those places that multitudes of them were found in piles or handfuls of Wheat and when the Countrymen thought to burn them there came a great many more forth and charged them with Man's Voice to forbear saying That they were not bred naturally but sent by God to punish Men for their Sins Johnston's Nat. Hist Class 7. c. 33. This puts me in mind of a Story related by Matt. Paris which is this Anno 1234. Walter Grey Archbishop of York having 5 years Corn under hand would not thresh it out for the Relief of the Poor in three year Famine hoping still that the price would encrease being told by his Officers it was greatly to be fear'd least the Corn were consumed by Mice he willed them to deliver it to Husbandmen who dwelt in his Mannor upon Condition they should pay him as much new for it after Harvest They attempting to take down a great Mow of Corn which he had at Rippon saw the heads of many Snakes Toads and other Venemous Creatures peering out at the end of the Sheaves The Bishop hereupon forces certain poor Men to go up with Ladders they were scarcely up when they saw a great Smoak rising out of the Corn and felt withall a loathsome Stink which compelled them with all haste possible to hasten down again Moreover they heard an unknown Voice saying unto them Let the Corn alone for the Archbishop and all that he has belongs to the Devil In fine saith the Story they were fain to build a Wall about the Corn and then set it on Fire fearing least such a huge number of Venemous Creatures should impoison or annoy the whole Country Charles Fitz-Jeffery's Curse of Corn-holders p. 24. Schiltbertus a Hollander tells a Story of a Combat between Sea and Land Serpents thus In the Kingdom of Genyck there is a City called Sampson where Water-Snakes and Land Serpents innumerable did surround it for a Mile about These came forth of the Woods which are many in the Countries adjoyning and these forth of the Sea Whilst these met for 9 days no man for fear durst stir forth yet they hurt neither Man nor any other living Creature On the 10th day these two kinds of Serpents began to fight early in the morning and continued till Sun-set and then the Water-Serpents yielded to the Land-Serpents the next day 8000 of them were found dead It is most certain that there are Serpents in the Sea Aristotle says they will overthrow Gallies and kill Men. Olaus Magnus writes That about Norway when the Sea is Calm Serpents will shew themselves that are an hundred or two hundred foot long and sometimes will catch Men from their Ships Johnst Nat. Hist c. 9. c. 18. Jacob Hollerius writes that by the frequent smelling of the
Herb Basil an Italian had a Scorpion that bred in his Brain Hol. de Morb. intern l. 1. c. 1. Camerarius tells a Young Nobleman in Germany who being in a Mortal Disease was desired to leave his Effigies Painted or Engraven to Posterity because of his Beauty refused but gave them leave after a few days to open his Tomb and as they found his Body then to have it pourtray'd ' but when they opened it they found his Carkass half consumed with Worms and many Serpents about his Diaphragma and back-bone His Monument it yet to be seen in Gentilitio Sacelio saith Camerarius who himself was an Eye-witness It a Natura quasi-digito antorem Calamitatum nostrarum Corruptionum monstrat scilicet Serpentem CHAP. XLI Strange Insects IF saith Lessius Pythagoras finding out a Demonstration in Mathematicks did so immoderately rejoyce that for the time he did not perfectly enjoy himself then how much Joy would so clear Knowledge of so many and great Mysteries bring which are in themselves discoverable in making of the least Fly such as may entertain a most sweet and serious Speculation of them for the space of many Years And I remember Gazeus in his Pia Hilaria spends a whole Poem in admiring and describing the Singing of a Grashopper near one of their Saints Cells concluding the whole with this short Epiphonema O quam magnus est in parvis Deus viz. Oh! how great is God in little Things 1. Apis the Bee is of a protuberant Oval Figure black and drilled full of innumerable Holes like a Grater or Thimble only the Holes are of a square Figure like an Honey-comb and stuff'd full of small Hairs If you divide the Bee near the Neck the Heart which is a white pulsing Vesicle may be seen without a Glass to beat most lively The Sting in all Bees are hollow and tubulous like a Shoemaker's Punch so that when they prick the Flesh they do also through that Channel transfuse the Poison into it For if you take a Bee Wasp or Humble-Bee especially and gently squeeze her Tail so that you may see the Sting you shall perceive a drop of Diaphanous Liquor at the very end of it which if you wipe off you shall distinctly see it renewed again that Humour passing down the Cavity into the end thereof The Sting of a Bee seems to be a Weapon of Offence and is as great an Instance that Nature did really intend Revenge as any and that 1. Because there seems to be no other use of it 2. By reason of its admirable Shape which seems to be designed for that very end 3. From the Virulency of the Liquor it ejects and the sad Effects that follow it Through the Microscope it appears to consist of two Parts a Sheath and a Sword or Dart The Sheath without a Chape or Top almost like the Holster of Pistol hollow of several Joints armed near the Top with several Crooks like Cats Claws The Sting or Sword appears quite through at the smaller End sharp pointed armed likewise with Claws as the Sheath These Crooks or Claws can be closed up or laid flat to the sides of the Sword when drawn into the Scabard and serves for drawing in and holding the Sting in the Flesh They seem to sting thus 1. They enter the Crooks and lay hold on the Skin on either side which keeps the Sheath from sliding back and then throughout the top of the Sting by an alternate and successive retracting and emitting it out of the Sheath and thereby also perhaps does force out the poisonous Liquor and make it hang at the end of the Sheath in a Drop The Crooks are supposed to the cause why these angry Creatures being in haste leave then Sting behind Hook's Microg p. 163 164. In windy Weather Bees often hold a little Stone in their hinder Feet for Ballast Mouf de Insect c. 1. The Honey-Bag is the Stomach which they always fill to satisfie and to spare vomiting up the greater part to be kept against Winter They have a King who is so much honoured that he never goes forth but they all attend him when he cannot fly they carry him saith Aristotle They are so Chaste that they will sting those that smell of Copulation and love to stall themselves in Virgins Sepulchres saith Plutarch Augustinus Gallus saith That at Verona they crept into the Sepulchre of two Sisters that were Virgins they made abundance of Combs in the dead Bodies of them both The Matter two Years after their Burial was made manifest by the fall of Thunder without any hurt to the Carcases of the Bees and Combs There were some found also in the Tomb of Hippocrates 2. Araneus the Spider is a poisonous Insect which hurts by Stinging being of divers sorts as the Asterius Caeruleus Lyeos Myrmerion Phalangium and Tarantula 1. They that are hurt by the Asterius presently rage are heavy and sleepy and have a Relaxation of the Nerves 2. The Ceruleus causeth a Pain at the Heart deep Sleep and Vomiting 3. The Myrmerion causeth a Swelling in the Wound by Pain and want of Breath 4. The Phalangium affects the whole Body by Heat Cold Horror Tumor Inflamation Trembling and a Diabetes 5. The Tarantulus causeth Singing Trembling Fear Phrenzy and Madness The Cure is done by bathing with Decoction of Stinking Trefoil and Oil fomenting the Parts with a Sponge dipt in Vinegar c. Against the Tarantula some use Musick Salmon's Dispen p. 257. Spiders have six or eight Eyes eight Feet are Insects of Prey hairy of thirty sorts in England in projecting a Thread cross a Room in plano Horizontalis raise themselves on their Legs and turning themselves up on their hinder Parts shoot out a Thread at a great distance 3. Asellus Millipedes Multipedes Tilus Sows or Hog-Lice they breed in most Places under Stones c. any being touched gather themselves up round They are of thin Volatile Parts digesting cleansing opening and a great Resolver of all Tartarious Matter of great Use in Physick for the Stone all Obstructions especially of the Urine Jaundice c. Ibid. 4. Auricularia Forficula Mordella Vellicula Fallo the Earwig in Powder with Hare's Urine cures Deafness Ibid. 5. Blatta Tinea the Moth hurts Books Bee-hives and Woolen Clothes and may be gathered together by Moth Mullen Ibid. 6. Bombyx the Silkworm differs not from the Caterpillar save that the Caterpillar is a little hairy and the Silkworm is stronger than the Web of the Caterpillar and of another Colour but as to the Figure and Bulk there is little difference between them Whereto may be added that their Production is much at one as being as it were hatched of certain Eggs living on Leaves inclosing themselves in certain Webs out of which they make their way after which they become a kind of Butterflies by a strange Metamorphosis which forces them from one Extremity to another i. e. from the Nature of Reptiles to that of Volatiles
here neither the Ancient Fathers of the Church have started the Notion before me Dr. Day in his Lectures cites Justin Martyr Tertullian Cyprian and Lactantius making use of this Comparison I humbly acknowledge this Article of our faith is without a bottom past Human Fathom 'T is storied of St. Augustin that he endeavoured to sound it He walk'd abroad to that purpose at last came to a River-side musign with himself and labouring to conceive it At length not far off a little Child appeared unto him very busie on the Bank He had made forsooth a little Hole and with a Spoon which he had in his Hand was lading of the Water into the aforesaid little Hole St. Augustin draws nearer to him demands of the Child what he was a doing Father quoth he my purpose is to unlade this whole River into this little hole you here see Augustin That 's impossible c. Child No more will you be ever able to bring to pass that which you are about And with that the Child vanished I relate not the Story for a certain Truth The Thing itself in absolute Consideration is true viz. That 't is as impossible for us to conceive the Blessed Trinity as with a little Spoon to unlade a great River into a little Hole The present Emblem may serve a little to take off our Suspicions of the Impossibility and Absurdity of the Trinity of Persons in One God It is not sufficient to Expound the Thing itelf all the Three Persons are represented under this Notion FATHER The Lord is a Sun Isa 60.19 SON Mal. 4 2. And Vide Margent Luke 1.78 And Mat. 17.2 Rev. 1.16 HOLY GHOST He shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Lead you into the Way of all Truth Multa sunt quae dici possunt sed sufficiat fidelibus pauca de Mysterio Trinitatis audivisse Aug. In die judicii non damnor quia dicam nescivi Naturam Creatoris mei si autem aliquid temere dixero temeritas poenas luit ignorantia veniam promeretur Id. 3. Of the Divine Glory and Vnsearchableness He that goes about to stare long upon the Sun or approach its Light and dive deep into the Nature of it may as Democritus stare himself blind before he can make any near approaches to it 'T is not easie to bear the Influence of the Sun for one whole Day suppose we could possibly be so long under the immediate and direct Emission of its glorious Beams tho' upon the Earth It will burn combustible Stuff at the distance of 1000000 Miles should it stand still and neither remove away nor be tempered with other cooling Elements Consider this a little seriously and apply it The Glory of God is such an amazing Wonder that as the Father saith In hac mortali vita quicquid ad nos usque pertingit aliud nihil est quam exiguus quidam rivulus ac velut parvus magnae Lucis Rivulus Naz. vide Act. 26.13 1 Tim. 6.16 So that when we go about to search into the Divine Nature we must stand off and know our distance and assume modestly to our Thoughts and acknowledge the Depth of the Mystery and cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11.33 c. O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his Judgments and his Ways past finding out For who hath known the ind of the Lord Or who hath bee his Counsellour Or who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto him again For of him and through him and to him are all Things To whom be Glory for ever Amen Sure I am thô we ought as much as any thing in the World to study the Nature and Properties of that God we are concerned with and account it one of the first Points of True Wisdom to acquaint our selves with that Almighty Being we have to do with and to pray for more Light and Grace that we may be able in due time to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the Love of God which passeth knowledge Yet in our highest Attainments on this side the Veil we shall know but in part and prophesie in part our utmost Skill will not be sufficient to comprehend the Infinite God in the Embraces of our Finite Conceptions And we shall as soon be able to climb the Sun and stare with open Eyes upon that great Luminary and comprize all is excellent Rays and Influences within the Limits of our narrow Bosom as by searching to find out and trace out the Almighty to Perfection Est in Deo quod percepi potest est plane si modo quod potest velis Sicut videre est in Sole quod videas si hoc velis videre quod possis amittas autem quod potes videre dum quod non poes niteris ita ut in rebus Dei habes quod inelligas si intelligere quod potes velis Caelum si ultra quam potes speres id quod potuisti non poteris Hilar. Psal 145.3 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his Greatness is unsearchable I am loth ro leave this Abyss of Meditation Pardon me Reader if I strain Courtesie a little in the Case This Infinite Being is the Fountain of our Blessedness and therefore notwithstanding his excellent Majesty can be cooped within no Bounds nor scaled by any Human Apprehensions to the Height nor fathomed to the utmost Depth by any Line of Human Reason yer 't is pleasant to behold him through the Lattices and spend our deepest Thoughts and Admirations upon his Glory and if we cannot comprehend him let us stand and wonder And cry out with longing and importunate Desire Oh! when shall the Veil be taken off our Eyes When shall the Apartment that separates us be taken away When shall we come to know as we are known But Oh! when shall our finite Natures be exhaled and drawn up with this Sun and our Souls drawn up into his boundless Glory and we eternally blessed in the warm Embraces of his Divine Love In those Flames of pure Affection for ever and ever To think now of this unsearchable God the most infinitely good and glorious Being in the whole World whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain whom Angels all admire and adore the Nature of whose Glory we cannot now grasp with our most expanded Thoughts That this God shall first pardon our Sins and then sanctifie our Natures and shortly send his Angels of fetch our Souls up to that Heavenly Choire where we shall be cloathed indeed with the Sun and tread the Moon under our Feet and look with a holy scorn upon the little silly trifling Comforts of the sublunary World This is enough to make our Faces smile now at every Beam of Light and Mercy darted upon our Souls from that Divine Countenance to make our Hearts dance within us To fill us with an
unspeakable Joy upon the hopes of that Intuitive Fruition in the other World Then and not till then we shall see the Maker of the Worlds and come to see and understand the deep and pleasant Mysteries of his wondrous Works 4. Of the Divine Omnipresence That God should be every-where preent as our Religion obligeth us to believe that he is is a pretty hard Article in Heaven on Earth in Hell In the one by the especial Manifestation of his Glory in the other by the continual Exercise of his Providence in the last by the Execution of his Justice and yet thus he is as both Scripture and Reason oblige us to believe The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him nor the Earth nor Hell He transcends all the Limits of Nature and surpasses all those finite little Bounds of Man's Conception Psal 139.3.4 5. c. yet even the difficulty of this Attribute as insuperable as it seems to be is plainly illustrated by this Simile The Sun is placed in the heavenly Orbs there it resides continually yet disperseth its shining Rays to the Firmament above to the Air to the Earth below yea it traverseth round the World and visits the Antipodes under our Feet it passeth through our Windows through the Crevises of our Walls the Light breaks in through the Pores of our Curtains and its Heat through Stone-walls it shines upon the nasty Dunghils and yet receives no Infection or Impurity thence Why should it seem then a thing impossible that the God that made it should fill the World with his Presence and be confin'd to no Bounds 5. Of the Divine Omniscience This borders upon the former Head The Heathens supposed the Sun could see and hear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Even the Scripture itself sometimes makes use of this Allusion and Metaphor The Sun hath looked upon me Cant. 1.6 2 Sam. 12.11 In the sight of this Sun And there is so much Ground for this Fancy that take away the Sun and our Eyes would serve to very little purpose it is that dispels the Darkness and discovers the Truth in all places of the World where it is discovered and it brings to light the hidden things of darkness As I said but now it visits all parts of the World Air Earth Sea all the Corners of the Earth all the Rooms of our Houses nay our very Reins and Heart the most retired parts of our bodies are not hid from the Heat of it Were it possible to bar the Pores of our Skin and shut the Door of our Breasts fast against the Beams and warm Influence of it our very Heart-blood would soon congeal into a dead and putrid Humour What is this but a fair Copy of the Divine Omniscience so far as an insensate Creature can possibly vie with an intelligent and infinite Creator Tell me you now that are ready to object Blindness to the God of Heaven and say Tush the Lord doth not see nor the God of Jacob regard Can you hide your selves from the Sun of the Firmament and live If not shall not he that made the Sun search further than an insensate finite Creature of his own making shall not he that made the Eye see c. But shall not he that made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eye of the World see more than the Eye itself Go now ye Hypocrites and shut the Door and draw the Curtain over your secret Debaucheries and dare to perpetrate the boldest Sins under a Veil but remember that the Light will break in through the narrowest Chink and nothing can hide you from the Omniscient Eye before whom Hell is naked and Destruction hath no covering Job 26.6 vid. Heb. 12.13 6. Of the Divine Providence That God should be still in Heaven and there safe in the Enjoyment of a compleat Happiness and yet interpose his Power and Government in the Transactions of this lower World withut any Disturbance to his Rest and Quietness is a Wonder which some People in the World have not been able to digest I desire these People but to give themselves leisure to meditate a little upon the present Subject of our Discourse and take Notice how the Sun is as quiet in his Orb and excellently glorious from Age to Age without any change or diminution or disturbance from any thing either in the Spheres above or the Orbs below and yet hath still a mighty Influence upon all Things here beneath tempering the Air fanning the Clouds dissolving the Snow and Hail and Frost and Dew giving Light to the Moon shining round the Earth fecundating the very Mines Trees Herbs Grass Fruits Flowers influencing upon the Constitutions of us Men our Bodies first and then our Minds giving Light Heat Motion Action Generation Sense and Life to all sublunary living Bodies and then say Whether it be not very feasible to believe that God Almighty may govern this lower World and interpose his Hand in the Concernments of us Men without any prejudice to the rest of his blessed Attributes I am very sorry that Men are so apt to suspect the weakness of the Almighty Power as if he were a meer Cypher to the Governance of all Human Affairs But when they are so insensible of the secret and yet notorious Concurrence of this eminent Planet with the Concerns of Nature the Wonder is at a stop And we must say at best that Men are Fools for want of Thinking and using their Faculties Men have got a Trick ever since Sin debauch'd their Natures of looking low and creeping upon the Earth and taking Notice only of things that run directly into their Eyes fixing upon Secondary Causes and the immediate Effects and Consequences like the Dog that quarrels with the Staff but regards not the Hand that holds it or the Hog that gathers the Acorns and Mast but looks not up to the Tree from whence they fall forgetting that the God of Heaven hath an effectual Influence upon the Works of his own Hands Is there Evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it And is there any Godo amongst us which comes not from the Fountain of Blessedness the Author of every good and perfect Gift Let Men learn a little from this Topick to raise their Aspect and climb the Ladder from Orb to Orb in the tracing of Causes 'till they come to the Primum Mobile the Oriignal Principle of all Motions and by accustoming themselves to this Method of Consideration peradventure they will find Reason to run every remarkable Contingent of their Life to the Head and at last terminate in the Son of Righteousness 7. Of the Divine Invisibility 'T is true we may see something of the Sun but there is something likewise in it which we cannot see who can see its Beams or glaring Light or Heat or Motion so as to be able to give any competent Account of the Nature Substance Colour and Properties of them You may see the Back-parts the Operations the glimmering and faint Representations
him he was to acquaint him with it that he might the better understand it when it should come to be heard in Court Upon which the Lord Chief Baron interrupted him and said He did not deal fairly to come to his Chamber about such Affairs for he never received any Information of Causes but in open Court where both Parties were to be heard alike so he would not suffer him to go on Whereupon his Grace for he was a Duke went away not a little dissatisfied and complain'd of it to the King as a Rudeness that was not to be endured But his Majesty bid him content himself that he was no worse used and said He verily believed he would have used himself no better if he had gone to sollicite him in any of his own Causes Another passage fell out in one of his Circuits which was somewhat censured as an Affection of an unreasonable Strictness but it flowed from his Exactness to the Rules he had set himself A Gentleman had sent him a Buck for his Table that had a Tryal at the Assizes so when he heard his Name he asked if he was not the same Person that had sent him Venison And finding he was the same he told him he could not suffer the Tryal to go on till he had paid him for his Buck To which the Gentleman answer'd That he never sold his Venison and that he had done nothing to him which he did not do to every Judge that had gone that Circuit which was confirmed by several Gentlemen then present but all would not do for the Lord Chief Baron had learned from Solomon that a Gift perverteth the ways of Judgment and therefore he would not suffer the Tryal to go on till he had paid for the present upon which the Gentleman withdrew the Record And at Salisbury the Dean nnd Chapter having according to the Custom presented him with six Sugar-Loaves in his Circuit he made his Servants pay for the Sugar before he would try their Cause Dr. Burnet in his Life CHAP. XXXII Remarkable Temperance in Meats THE Vse of a sober and moderate Diet is none of the least Virtues commended to us by our Religion The ancient Hebrews summ'd up their Victuals in that short Bill of Fare Bread and Water Flesh and Milk Wine and Oyl were extraordinary Daniel fed upon Pulse and so did the three Children and did well and appear'd plump and in good liking with such Food Solomon adviseth us when we were set down at the Table of Great Men and see Dainties before us to direct our Knife not to the Trencher but to our Throat especially if we have not got a Habit of Temperance but are Persons of a greedy Appetite and our Saviour bids us beware of Surfeiting and some Christians we may find not unskilful this way 1. Ambrose was very Abstinent full of Watchings and Prayer never dining but on the Sabbaths Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist. 2. Chrysostom seldom went to Feasts when invited Ibid. Luther grudged at the Expence of his time upon the same Score Fuller 3. S. Augustine's Diet was usually Broth and Roots using to say that he feared not the Vncleanness of Meat so much as the Vncleanness of Appetite for for his Guests and Kinsfolk he had better His Dishes for his Meat were of Earth Wood or Marble his Table was more for Disputation than rich Banquetting Clark's Marr. of Eccl. Hist 4. Gregory the Great was very abstenious in his Diet frequent in Fasting and Prayer and so studious of the Sacred Scriptures that he could scarce find leisure to eat his Food till necessity urged him thereunto and indeed his Abstinence was so great that he much impair'd his Health thereby yet would he not give over his Employments of Praying Reading Writing or Dictating to others Ibid. 5. Philippus Nerius at Nineteen Years of Age made it a Law to himself that he should refresh his Body but once a day and that only with Bread and Water and sometimes he would abstain even from these cold Delights unto the third Day Being made Priest his manner was to eat some small thing in the Morning and then abstain till Supper which never consisted of more than two poched Eggs or instead of these some Pulse or Herbs He would not suffer more Dishes than one to be set upon his Table he seldom eat of Flesh or Fish and of white Meats he never tasted his Wine was little and that much diluted with Water and which is most wonderful he seemed never to be delighted with one Dish more than another Drexel Oper. tom 2. de Jejun Abstin Part. 1. Chap. 11. Sect. 8. P. 796. 6. Cardinal Carolus Borromoeus was of that Abstinence that he kept a daily Fast with Bread and Water Sundays and Holydays only excepted and this manner of Life he continued till his Death He kept even Festivals with that Frugality that he usually fed upon Pulse Apples or Herbs Pope Gregory the Thirteenth sent to him not only to advise but to command him to moderate these Rigours But the Cardinal wrote back to him that he was most ready to obey but that withal he had learned by Experience that his spare-eating was conducing to Health and that it was subservient to the drying up the Flegm and Humours wherewith his Body did abound Whereupon the Pope left him to his Pleasure He persisted therein therefore with so rigid a Constancy that even in the heat of Summer and when he had drawn out his Labours beyond his accustomed time he would not indulge himself so far as to taste of a little Wine nor allow his Thirst so much as a drop of Water Ibid. 7. The Meat upon which Mr. Eliot lived was a Cibus Simplex an homely but a wholesome Diet rich Varities costly Viands and Poinant Sawces came not upon his own Table and when he found them upon other Men's he rarely tasted of them One Dish and a plain one was his Dinner and when invited to a Feast I have seen him sit magnifying of God for the Plenty which his People in this Wilderness were within a few Years risen to but not more than a Bit or two of all the Dainties did he take into his own Mouth all the while And for a Supper he had learned of his Loved and Blessed Patron old Mr. Cotton either wholly to omit it or make but a small Sup or two the utmost of it Cotton Mather in the Life of Mr. Eliot p. 32 33. 8. Fulgentius tho he had been tenderly and delicately brought up in his Youth yet after he entred into a Monastery he wholly abstained from Wine and Oyl and was so rigorous in Fasting that it much debilitated and weakned his Body and brought some Diseases upon him But his Heart being wholly set upon the working forth his Salvation with Fear and Trembling he committed himself to God's Providence saying The daintiest Feeders cannot prevent Sickness and having a while habituated himself to this course of
Life he recover'd his former Health and Beauty See Mr. Clark 's Lives of the Fathers p. 160. 9. Philip Melancthon was very sparing in his Diet In his Apparel he had Respect only to his Health and was well content with a small Stipend On a time Prince Maurice Elector of Saxony asked him if he wanted any thing for the Supply of his Necessities He said No. The Elector bad him ask what he would he answer'd That he had his Stipend with which he was well content The Elector wonder'd that he was so well pleased with so small Means Ibid. p. 571. 10. Dr. William Whitaker was always very Temperate in his Diet from his Childhood and afterwards he drank very little Wine and in the Summer time he mixed it with water He never overloaded his Stomach with Meat no not in the greatest Feasts but always used a sparing and moderate Diet. Ibid. p. 815. 11. Dr. Harris was exactly Temperate confining himself to hours for Diet Sleep c. He would often say That he would rather pour Liquor into his Boots than into his Mouth between Meals He was a strict observer of those Laws of Sobriety which St. Paul had Pressed upon Ministers and which himself in his Drunkards Cup had taught to others He used to Eat seasonably and sparingly which without question was one great means of preserving such vigourous Spirits to so great an Age. See his Life in Mr. Clark's 3 vol. of Lives 12. Bishop Joseph Hall saith thus of himself If I see a Dish to tempt my Palat I fear a Serpent in that Apple and would please my self in a wilful denial 13. Dr. Hopkins late Bishop of London-Derry in his Discourse of the Vanity of the World tells us That Epicurus himself the great Master and Servant of Pleasure who made it the highest Good and chiefest Happiness of Man set himself certain Days of Abstinence in course wherein he would but niggardly satisfie his Stomach well knowing that the pleasure of Gluttony could never be so much enhanc'd as an Interval of Hunger for that continues the same Author is a furnisht Table to him whose constant Meals overtake one another but only the heaping of Food upon Crudities and Indigestion What the Titles of Honour to a Person Born Noble They signifie no more to him than it doth to another Man when he hears himself called by his ordinary Name What is Respect and Honour to a Man long accustomed to it It brings him no great content when he hath it but torments him when he fails of it give these things to those that are unacquainted with them If you would have them valued Bring a poor Man to a Table of Delicates Invest an Ignoble Person with Honours and Dignities give Respect to a dispised Person and for the present you bless him but Time and Custom will wear of this Content and Tediousness even of such a Life as this will make them willing at least for their Divertisment and Recreation to retire to their homely Cells and Station For as it is with those that are accustomed to strong Perfumes they themselves cannot scent those Odours which to others that use them not are most Sweet and Fragrant So it fares with us in the long continuance of Worldy Engagements our Senses are so stuft and even Soffocated with them that we cannot perceive them and unless we purchase Pleasure by Alternate Sorrow they are but lost upon us Now how vain must the World needs be whose Comforts are not valuable while we have them but while we have them not And how vain are those Joyes for which we must pay down as much Grief as the Joyes themselves are worth So that upon Ballancing the Accompt there remains nothing to us And it had been altogether as good to have enjoyed nothing Thus far Bishop Hopkins 14. 'T is said of Martin Luther though he was big of Body and in very good Health that he would usually continue four Days together without Eating or Drinking any thing at all and that for many Days together he would content himself with a little Bread and one single Herring Melanchton in Vita Lutheri CHAP. XXXIII Remarkable Temperance in Drinks DRunkenness is a Vice not fit to be Named much less Practised among Christians nay we are forbid so much as to look upon the Wine when it is Red when it sparkles in the Cup or to rise early in the Morning to follow the Strong Drink and as to the Quantity these Sinners are marked with a Note of Infamy that drink Wine in Bowles When at the same time they are Incurious as commonly such Persons are about the Poverty and Afflictions of their Brethren And we have frequently in Sacred Scriptures the ill Effects of Intemperate Drinking intimated to us for which reason we find all along that the best Christians are generally the Soberest Persons 1. Pontanns writes that in his time there was a Woman who in all her Life time did never drink either Wine or Water and that being once enforced to drink Wine by Command of Ladislaus King of Naples she received much hurt thereby Marcel Donat. Hist Med. Mira. l. 6. c. 3. p. 306. But this seems a natural Infirmity rather than a Christian Virtue and the next hath some Affinity with it 2. A Noble Man of Piedmont being Sick of that kind of Dropsie which is called Ascites sent for Dr. Albertus Roscius who finding the Dropsie confirmed and the Patient averse from all kind of Remedies he said thus to him Noble Sir if you will be cured and perfectly freed of this mighty Swelling that is if you desire to live there is an absolute necessity that you Determine with your self to dye of that Thurst wherewith you are so Tormented if you will do this I hope to cure you in a short time The Noble Man at the hearing of this did so command himself that for a Month he refrained not only all kind of Drink but not so much as tasted of any thing that was liquid by which means he was restored to his former Health Fabi Obs Chirurg Cent. 4. Obs 41. p. 319. 3. Paul the Hermit St. Anthony St. Hierom Patroclus drank Water Alcibiades Martyr Water with Salt Amodeus the Spaniard Simeon of Antioch Sisinnius the Monk Serapion Nicolaus Torlentinas Maxentius the Abbot c. all drank Water 4. The Drink which Mr. John Eliot still used was very small he cared not for Wines or Drams and I believe he never once in all his Life knew what it was to feel so much as a noxious Fume in his Head from any of them Good clear Water was more precious as well as more usual with him than of those Liquors with which Men do so frequently spoil their own Healths while perhaps they drink those of other Men. When at a Stranger 's House in the Summer time he hath been entertained with a Glass which they told him was of Water and Wine he hath with a Complaisant Gravity