to an Interpreter which we much wanted viz. one Mr. Samois who had been a Traveller in the Turkish parts and so knew very well how to accost him in that Language which is usually spoken amongst them in those Territories which is the Frank Language or bastard Italian This Gentleman was but lately returned from his Travels to his Country and since that return made another happier then that from the errors and Superstitions of Popery to the true Christian Catholick Apostolick Religion professed by the Church of England to which God brought him by the advice and instruction of his learned and worthy Kinsman Mr. Samois lately Chaplain to my Lord of Elgin and so as Andrew having found out Christ brought his brother Simon unto him as Philip found out Nathanael so the Lord was pleased to honor him who had been but now very lately converted from his own Errors and Superstitions to the embracement of the Truth by making him a very great and active instrument of the conversion of another even of this our lately baptized Christian from the Mahumetan Delusions and Blasphemies to the holy Gospel of Christ Jesus But to the farther and surer promotion of our designe Mr. Thirscross with my self thought good to engage that worthy and learned Divine Mr. Peter Guning who hath shewed himself a very able and worthy Champion of Gods Truth and his Church both against Papists and others that he might employ his excellent abilities for the bringing of this work begun unto a happy Issue The motion was no sooner made but readily embraced by him To this purpose he with Mr. Samois addresseth himself unto Chelsey to the house of the Lady Laurence who was pleased to give a very favourable and courteouss entertainment to all that came about that holy business which I hope will be returned in many blessings upon her Family Upon the first Discourse that Mr. Guning and my self together had with him wherein Mr. Guning took great and effectuall pains there was yet no conclusion produced in him answerable to desire But the Lord himself the night after it seems took him in hand and seconded our endeavors with a very strange and Wonderful dream which the Convert himself related the next Morning and seemed not a little affected with it CHAP. VI. The Relation of a strange Dream that the Convert had after some Discourse had with him before his Conversion The Dream was this HE thought he saw a Table with a very fair Vessel like a Bason standing upon it and two men standing by it And presently after he dreamt that he was standing by a streame wherein he had a great Desire to wash himself but the Stream was such a filthy stincking puddle water that he could not wash himself in it In this filthy stream he thought he saw a Hen lie dead with her head or neck cut and that a woman came and took this dead Hen out of the puddle water and when she had set it down upon its leggs it ran away alive After this as he was troubled that he could not wash himself in that filthy stream that was then before him he thought he saw upon the suddain a very fair full and clear chrystal stream break forth of a certain place which came with great force and gushed upon the filthy stream and drove it clear away and presented it self in the place of it Into this pure stream he entred though with some fearfulness at the first and but by Degrees washed himself in it and swam over it When he was gotten over the stream and now as it seemed at some distance from it he began to be very thirsty and knew not how to get water to drink But in this his necessity there fell a showre from Heaven which when he saw he betook himself unto a poor house and knockt at the door upon that a woman came out unto him who upon request gave him a little dish with which he took some of the heavenly showre that fell and therewith quenched his thirst CHAP. VII An occasional Discourse concerning Dreams THE Relation of this Dream raised some hope in us that God had been pleased to own and second our endeavours So great compliance was then between it and the holy designe we had in hand which God was pleased as it seems to act over in the praeludium of this Dream as afterwards he brought it to pass in a waking performance And indeed though many and most Dreams may go for the idle and impertinent issues of the wandring and extravagant fantasies of men and of the impressions which they receive either from predominant humors in the body or vein and evill affections in the mind or from the representations that are made in the time of sleep by the subtile operations of wicked Spirits and so are either not to be much regarded or else to be thought upon with humiliation and sorrow as those Evidences and fruits which break forth in our very sleeps of our corrupt vain and sinfull inclinations yet some of them are of such excellent harmony in their frame and Method and have such a stamp of sobriety and holiness upon them in their design and drift that they ought not to be slightly passed over or forgotten but to be diligently weighed and thought upon that we may receive instructions and admonitions from them especially since we find tâ—â—t this hath been one way whereby God hath been pleased in very eminent maner to make known his holy will and pleasure to his people and to admonish and direct them both for the avoiding that which is Evill and for the pursuance and embracement of that which is good and profitable unto them and well pleasing unto him as is manifest in the notable and weighty Dreams recorded in the Scriptures as of Abimelech Gen. 20. The Dream of Jacob Gen. 28. of Joseph Gen. 37. of Pharoah Gen. 41. of Nebuchadnezzar Daniel 2. Daniel 4. of Daniel Daniel 7. see Daniel 8. c. Of the man of Israel Judges 7.13 of Solomon 1 Kings 3.5.15 of Joseph the husband of the Mother of Christ Matth. 2.12.22 And that this is a way wherein God hath heretofore promised to manifest himself unto his people you may learn by that which is written Numb 12.6 Job 33.15 Jer. 23.28 Joel 2.28 Act. 2.17 Nor dare I condemn that which is said to be related by Antoninus that famous Emperor concerning cures by Dreams Casaub of Enthus ch 5 not only saith a learned Writter of our Church approved unto himself by his own but unto others also by frequent experience Galen is said often to have had a Dream to write such or such a Book to go or forbear such a Journey which puts me in mind of that which befell St. Paul Act. 16.9 unto whom a man of Macedonia appeared in a Vision or Dream by night and prayed him saying Come over into Macedonea and help us Ecclesiastical History and other Monuments that are left us of
THE Baptized Turk OR A NARRATIVE Of the happy Conversion of Signior Rigep Dandulo THE Onely Son of a Silk Merchant in the Isle of TZIO from the Delusions of that great Impostor Mahomet unto the Christian Religion AND Of his Admission unto Baptism by Mr. GUNNING at Excester-house Chappel the 8th of Novemb. 1657. Drawn up by THO. WARMSTRY D.D. Psal 68.31 The Morians Land shall soon stretch out her hands to God London Printed for J. Williams T. Garthwait in St. Pauls Church-yard and Henry Marsh at the Princes Arms at the lower end of Chancery-lane near the inner-Temple-gate in Fleetstreet 1658. To the Right Honorable The Countess of Dorset The Honorable The Lord Gorge And the Worshipful Philip Warwick Esq Witnesses at the Baptism of Signior DANDULO the Convert Right Honorable Honorable and Worshipful TRue Honor is the splendor of Vertue and holiness and where it hath its just derivation and place it is a shadow of that sacred combination of Greatness and Goodness which are originally conjoyned and even the same in God himself and which should never be separated in the Creatures indeed all true Greatness is the issue of Goodness if it be rightly begotten and then like a good Childe it is ordained to be the Nurse of its own Mother it being dispensed by God unto the Sons and Daughters of men to be an advantage and encouragement as well as an engagement unto vertuous honourable and generous undertakings Of which however the blear-eyed and doating world is mistaken there are none so truly and eminently glorious as those that are conversant in Religion and divine Worship which as it is the highest end that God did or could aim at in the creation of Man so it must therefore needs be the greatest eminency and perfection that the generations of men are capable of for every thing is by so much more excellent by how much the more it is advanced towards the scope and design of its being and draweth nearer if we may so speak where there is no comparison or proportion to be found unto him who is the sum of all that perfection which is in the accumulation of all Greatness and Goodness together and truly earthly Honor is then in its increment and exaltation when it is made the ornament of Religion and Godliness or rather is adorned by it When the rayes of Eminency of Birth Place or Reputation wherewith God shines upon persons of Dignity and Honor reflect back again in holy gleams of heavenly love to God and holy beams of illustration upon his Worship and Ordinances and when they raise that holy return unto God that was in Davids soul at the dedication of his house Psal 30.1 I will extol thee O Lord because thou hast lifted me up and not made my foes to triumph over me And certainly this is the greatest end for which God bestows Honor upon the greatest men that they may be the more conspicuous and the more exemplary in the service and adoration of God and not be as too many in our Age and Nation like unthankful clouds obscuring the Sun that raised them or like the Moon in the Dragons Tail eclipsing that glory from whence she receiveth all her light It is therefore the greatest advancement that you can give to your State and Dignity to let it shine in the Sanctuary of the Lord that you may by your holy and eminent patterns help to undeceive the besotted World that looks upon Offices of Religion as if they were a business fit onely for those that are of a low condition that you may make them know that Crowns and Diadems and Robes of Honor ate never so resplendent as when they are cast before the Throne of the great God How amiable was it to see you of late as so many Stars in your several sphears and degrees of Glory shining as a propitious constellation at the new birth of this our Convert when you were Witnesses at his Baptism and I hope you were orient and ascendent at that hour and then I need not doubt but you had your happy influence as well in the procurement of a spiritual blessing upon his Soul as you honorable Madam have been special and noble in taking care for his supportance and encouragement And I wish you may never want the milk of the divine breast of that God unto whose new-born Child you are become so bountiful a Nurse wherein you have provided not onely for him but for the honour of the Christian yea of the poor English Church and for the encouragement of others to come in to the embracement of Gods Truth in the entire reliance upon the divine mercy which I wish you may see effectual in a happy confluence of many multitudes unto the Gospel of Christ to the advancing of the reward of your piety from his hand whose abundant blessing I wish upon you all who am Honoured Madam Noble Lord Worthy Sir Your humble Servant in Christ Jesus THO. WARMSTRY A POSTSCRIPT Giving an Account of the last Conference betwixt Mr. Gunning and Signior Dandulo After these words pag. 96. line 23. After our departure it pleased God to send reverend Mr. Gunning who after some strugglings obtained from him at length as if some violent beam of light and grace had broken in upon his soul c. not onely a consent to be baptised but an earnest desire that it might be done without delay saying Let it be done to morrow THat the Reader may be satisfied who will probably desire to know what that last Discourse was betwixt Mr. Gunning and Signior Dandulo which obtained from him his consent to be Baptized Dr. Warmstry by Letter intreated Mr Gunning that he would be pleased to set down that last Discourse which at Dr. Warmstry's request Mr. Gunning hath done in the following account Mr. Gunning SIgnior You may remember that when I was with you before I told you that we must found our discourse concerning our two different Religions on that wherein we both are agreed concerning Religion which was this That the Light of Nature and Right Reason common to us both hath confessedly taught us both that one onely true God is to be worshipped the Maker Conserver Governor and Judge of the world and that the Dictates of Right Reason and of the Law of Nature are the Laws of that One God in obedience whereto to serve that One God true Religion Now whatever Religion supe adds more then this which the light of Nature teacheth pretending supernatural Revelation for its perfecting clearing and repairing what by sin is become maimed corrupt and obliterate in the dim light of Nature which needeth medicine as both Christianity and Turcism do superadd must either bring proofs of such their superaddition pretended supernatural Revelation or must justly be suspected of Imposture The proof of a supernatural Revelation and Religion made by Jesus Christ to the world I having instantly offered you you tell me it is unnecessary
this life is to be infinitely preferred before any such considerations of such worldly and temporary losses and that the one true living God which Right Reason teaches is the Author of all good things Temporal and Eternal and All-sufficient to make good to us any thing we lose for his sake and is most certainly the rewarder of them that seek out the true Religion and honestly follow it when they finde it Also when you began any discourse about Religion we took it for granted on both sides that they are most unworthy to hear or make any such discourse who are not resolved to adhere to the Truth whatever worldly inconvenience come thereby Also I now inform you of one part of the Revelation made by Jesus Christ viz. That there is no man who forsakes Father or Mother or Brethren or Sisters or Houses or Lands for his sake and the Gospels but he shall receive in this world an hundred fold however in spiritual benedictions and consolations with persecutions and in the world to come everlasting life Having food and rayment we are bid therewith to be content and that he hath promised to our prayers and honest endeavors having left us this assurance that the godliness of Christian Religion hath the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come But tell me Signior is it not everlasting life and the true Religion which leads thereto concerning which you desired to discourse with me Sig D. Yes that that only is considerable whatever becomes of my Body But tell me I pray Sir may I not hold this Religion which you have taught me without being baptized which is the onely thing will bring danger to me from my Country-men Mr. G. Nay you must as believe so also confess the Faith of Jesus Christ and set to your seal that this is the True Religion and receive the seal of Gods Covenant and not be ashamed to renounce that shameful Imposture of Mahomer and own the Faith of the Lord of Glory Jesus Christ whom we teach and preach unto you Sig. D. But where is that in your Books required that I must needs be Baptized Mr. G. Hear me read out of that Book of God I pray you (f) Joh. 3.6 5. Amen Amen I say unto thee except any one be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit (g) Mark 16.15 16 And another place Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature He that believes and is baptized shall be saved he that believes not shall be damned (h) A 22.16 And in another place Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord. Sig. D. To morrow to morrow I will be baptized Mr. G. Nay our Religion and Discipline permits not that hastiness in this weighty matter you must first be more fully instructed in the necessary works of Repentance and Articles of Faith and Vows to be made in your Baptism all which we will immediately go about and within convenient time through the mercy of God you shall receive holy Baptism Sig. D. But what if I should die in the mean time of this deferring Mr. G. God will accept your present will and desires for that deed which it is his will should not be performed but upon due preparation in the mean time let us humbly address our selves to prayers unto God through Jesus Christ and call upon him on whom you have believed that he will fit you for Baptism by perfecting in you true Repentance and a lively faith and vouchsafe you remission of all your sins and renewing of the Holy Ghost in the Laver of holy Baptism PETER GVNNING THE Happy CONVERT OR THE TVRK Baptised GOD having been pleased of his great goodness to give a blessing unto the poor endeavors that have been used for the Conversion of a Soul from the errors and delusions of the Mahumetan Infidelity to the holy Truth of the saving Gospel of Christ Jesus whereby a comfortable access hath been made unto the afflicted Church of England notwithstanding all the discouragements that are upon such designs in these evil times I suppose it may be conducible to the glory of God and to the comfort of his faithful people that desire the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ Jesus and for the stiring up of others to the employment of their labours for the bringing home of such and others that are misled unto the Fold of the Lord Jesus Christ that there may be some account given unto the people of this Nation and that some publick Record may be left unto Posterity of the gracious dispensation of the Almighty in this matter I have therefore thought good to set forth this brief declaration thereof in hope that it will be no unacceptable service to God and his people CHAP. I. Of the Name Linage and Country of this Convert THe name of this person whom God hath thus graciously brought home unto his Church was before his Baptism Rigep or in our Language Joseph Dandulo derived by six or seven Generations or Descents from a noble Family of the Danduli of Venice Of this Name and Family I find divers in the Catalogue of Grimstone who have been advanced to the great Dignity of the Dukedom of that famous and antient Common-wealth The first Henry D' Andule in whose time Constantinople was taken and the Empire of the East gained wherein he assisted the Princes and Barons of the French This Henry D' Andule died General of all the Christian Armie Another Dandule chosen in his absence in whose time the City was afflicted with Water and Earthquakes he made war in Istria against the Patriarch of Aquileia and the Count Caritia at the instance of Pope Nicholas he succoured with Twenty five Galleys the Arch-Bishop of Tripoly The third Francis D' Aridule by whose intercession casting himself at the feet of the Pope with a chain of iron about his neck the Excommunication of the Pope had been formerly taken off from Venice In the time of his Dukedom they of Pola and Valese submitted themselves to the Commonwealth Padua was taken he was of the League of the Christian Princes against the Turk and in his time there were Threescore Ambassadors at once in Venice he governed ten years and ten moneths The fourth Andrew D' Andule who caused the dearth to cease by bringing Corn from Sicily he obtained of the King of Babylon free Navigation into Egypt Zura having rebelled the seventh time was recovered War was made against the Genuois and the City was troubled with Earthquakes and Pestilence he governed about twelve years Besides these that enjoyed the excellency of the Dukedom there is mention also of one Matthew Dandalo who was sent Ambassador together with Nicholas de Ponte from Hierom Prioli then Duke
of Venice to the Council of Trent From this noble Stock of the Venetian Commonwealth was this our Convert it seemeth sprung so that he is derived as we see from Christian Ancestors The corruptions of whose blood have now as I may so speak been restored and purified in him by the water of holy Baptism which he hath now lately through Gods mercy received Some of the braches of that generous Stock have been it seemeth transplanted probably in the various events of those Wars which have been so frequent between the Turk and the Venetians of whom the Father of this our welcome Christian is at this time a silk Merchant of good Estate in the Island of Tzio not far from Smyrna a professed Turk but his Mother is a Christian of the Greek Church whose Christian profession as it did invest him unto a just title unto Baptism even in his infancy for the unbeleeving Husband is sanctified by the Wife and therefore the Childe was holy 1 Cor. 7.14 so it may be the prayers of this Christian Mother like the tears of Monica for her Augustine have ministred unto the good providence of Almighty God for the bringing home of this straied sheep unto the holy Fold of Christ Jesus This happy Convert her Son was the subject of the Divine Providence in many notable passages of his life hitherto through which the Lord hath at last brought him to this happy period of his wandrings and change of his Profession into the bosom of the persecuted English Church CHAP. II. Of his Education and Travails IN his infancy he was bred up with his parents but according to the way of the delusions of his Father whose authority prevailed against thepious inclinations and desires of his Mother which yet now at length God hath blessed with the Victory and with a success even beyond her desires having brought him into a more pure profession of the Christian Religion then that which she embraceth even into that which is embraced by the old and Orthodox part of the Church of England then which I hope we may be allowed to say there is none in the world that doth more soundly embrace the Christian Doctrine and is glorious even in the rubbish the very stones and dust of the ruins which she is under and whom God hath so graciously owned even in this time of her trouble and contempt by giving this extraordinary access unto her Body About the sixth year of his age he was stoln away by the Moors amongst whom he lived for the space of about Nine years and in that time he visited the great City of Grand Cairo in Egypt the place where God was pleased to deliver his people of old that he might bring them into the land of Canaan And so God hath called even this his Son his newly adopted Son from Egypt The Moor with whom he lived had a great desire to have detained him with him and for an inducement thereunto offered him his Daughter But God who had another and far more happy marriage in store for him would not suffer him to lay hold upon that bait but made use of the natural desire that he had to see his Parents and his Country to bring him from thence that at length he might arrive at a better Country even a Heavenly one which is the Church of God and come home unto better Parents even God himself and the Catholike Church And so as Saul sought his Fathers Asses and found a Kingdom he might by the desire that he had unto a natural blessing be set in the way to the obtaining a supernatural Inheritance So that God that in his wise Providence ordereth all things and motions of the World to the advancement of his Kingdom and for the good and salvation of his People and that maketh Nature it self serve the designs and purposes of his heavenly grace drew this person from his Moorish entertainment by the cords of those inclinations that were in him towards his friends and his native Soil unto his Fathers house where he arrived back again at the age of about Fifteen years But his long absence having dismissed the hopes and discharged the expectation of his Parents to see him again he was become now nowhere a greater stranger then at home The impressions of natural relation were in a great degree worn out and those characters that were yet left almost starved for want of that nourishment which they usually receive from the enterview of presence or entercourse of intelligence even these it seems were so far out-grown by him that there could be little or no compliance found between the species or forms he left behind him in their minds and the favour and garb wherein he returned unto them so that when he came to his Mothers door and renewed his claim unto the Womb that bare him and to the Brests that gave him suck the Mother fulfilled the word of God by the Prophet and had forgotten her own sucking childe she was hardly brought to own him for her Son though she had no other childe of that sex to supply his room in her heart For it is not to be omitted that he is the onely Son of his Parents so that his retirement into the bosom of Gods Church cannot reasonably much less charitably be looked upon as an earthly refuge but as a gracious and heavenly choice since he had so strong an interest as is that of an onely Son both in the affection and care of those parents that were and are so well able to provide for him And indeed though it be true that it is the wonder of the Divine Mercy that the Lord is pleased not to refuse the very rejections and refuses of the world and to take up those whom their Fathers and Mothers forsake To receive a poor returning Prodigal that is driven unto him by the disappointment of the very trough and husks of the Swine and take up even out-casts into his fatherly bosom And though the same most gracions God thinks good to make the unhospitableness and ill entertainment of the Relations and usage of the World a means to bring in many sincere Converts into his House and Family yet it is such an Argument of sincerity as may well advance both our confidence and joy in this our late received Fellow-Christian that he comes unto us upon more noble generous and free inducements then the want of an interest in those earthly friends that were well able to maintain him in that profession that he was in Neither was he long shut out either from the doors or from the bowels of his rechallenged Parents for although at the first he was not acknowledge yet as Mothers are curious speculators of their Children she had it seems laid up in her memory against this time of need a certain mark that she had observed in the body of her Childe to which she thought good to refer the trial of his plea for his restitution unto her
very full of harmony and concent and yet above and beyond the knowledge of him that dreamed it as the cafe was then The Interpretation thereof is clear and easie for the most part The Table with the Vessell upon it like a Bason or Font The Interpretation of the Dream doth very well represent the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord the two great Pledges and Seals of the Christian Religion and communion the one of our admission or initiation the other of our confirmation or growth in the fellowship of Christ and the Church and in the Graces of the Gospel The two men standing by The two Ministers that were especially emploied in the work of his conversion to bring him to the fruition of the blessing of these Ordinances The filthy stinking puddle stream whereby he stood The impure profession of the Religion of Mahomet wherein he was as yet held which he had a desire to continue in but it could give no purgation but rather pollution unto his soul The dead Hen cut about the head and dead of that wound lying in the filthy stream which a woman came and took out of that puddle and set it upon her feet so that it ran away alive we could not very well tell what to make of but he himself after he was baptized which may I conceive without offence be taken for a special work of the Spirit in him he himself I say the evening after his Baptism as near as I can remember the time interpreted it thus or to this purpose Sure saith he that dead Hen that lay in the filthy stream was my Soul that lay dead in the puddle of my errors The Woman was the Church of God which is presented as a woman in the Scripture which hath taken my dead Soul out of the puddle of my errors and restored me to life even to the life of grace which having recovered he now runs from that filthy stream of the Mahometan delusions Let me add this That as that Hen lay dead of a wound in the head so he was dead in the blindness and errors of his Vnderstanding or Minde which is as it were vulnus in capite a wound in the head that being held to be the seat of the knowing or judging Faculties or Powers The full and fair stream that gushed out suddenly and brake in with great force upon that current of corruption and drove it clean away and presentied it self in the place of it which he entred into at first with some timorousness and by degrees and afterward washed himself in it and swam over it The holy water of Baptismal regeneration or the stream of the Truth and grace of the Gospel which hath suddenly through the goodness of the Lord and very powerfully broken in upon his Soul and driven away the puddle of his former corruptions which he was fearful to enter into at the first but hath now washed therein for the cleansing of his soul and will we hope swim through it unto the Haven of eternal happiness The thirst that was upon him after his washing The desire which he expressed after the Lords Supper or an holy longing after spiritual things and the comforts of the Gospel or after happiness which Thirst can finde nothing upon earth to quench it the showre from Heaven the showre or dews of heavenly blessing or of divine illumination and grace which he could not tell how to receive of himself The poor house that he knockt at The habitation of the Church now in a poor afflicted condition destitute of earthly magnificence and glory The woman that came forth That afflicted Church The dish she gave him The Ordinances and means of grace whereby the heavenly dews we hope will be more and more conveyed into his soul to the quenching of all evil thirsts after transitory things and to the eternal refreshing of his Spirit CHAP. X. Of some further progress made in the conversion of Mr. Dandule and of another remarkable passage of Providence that fell out for the promotion and encouragement thereof THis strange dream having made some impression upon the heart of this Convert as we may reasonably beleeve whereby the bars of his soul were something shaken and loosened for the setting open of the gates for the admission of that Gospel light wherewith God hath been pleased now to illustrate his soul we renewed our attempts with some earnestness and diligence that morning and prevailed at length so far by the divine assistance as to obtain of him to joyn with us in prayer for the assistance and direction of Almighty God in the carrying on of the work of his conversion and afterwards he was with us in the performance of the service of the Church for that morning at my house and kneeled down joyned with us when we used the Lords Prayer in this we made use of the help of his Interpreter that he might repeat it after us And in this holy business I cannot think fit to omit one remarkable passage of the divine Providence which fell out in the performance of divine Worship at that time whereby the Lord may seem to have seconded that of his Dream and it was this It pleased God which we neither designed nor foresaw so to order the matter in that holy plot that he had laid for the bringing home of this soul into his bosom and for the reducing of this lost sheep into his fold of this lost peice of silver into his treasury and of this Prodigal childe from his Mahometan empty husks unto his Fathers house The holy Church of Christ That in the ordinary course of the Church the Second Lesson which we read appointed for that very morning in the disposition of the Church Calender fell out to be the Fifteenth Chapter of the Gospel of S. Luke where we have the parable of the poor lost wandering sheep brought home upon the shoulders of the good Shepheard unto his flock of the silver piece that was lost and found again and of the Prodigal childe returned unto his Fathers house and Bosom and there entertained with great love melody and rejoycing where also at the seventh verse I found my Text upon which God directed me to preach at the time of his Baptism When in the reading of that Chapter I observed that gracious Providence I could not pass it by without some notes upon it and therefore by his Interpreter I communicated unto him that he might therein have a taste of Gods care of his soul that was pleased so wisely and carefully to order things that we thought not off for the speeding and promoting of the work of his Conversion Withal I offered him some observations upon the Chapter tending to the discovery of the wretched condition of one that was straied and lost from God in the wandrings and wilderness of sin and error and of the wonderful and tender mercy of the Lord in seeking after and receiving into his
Gods Providence proved useful for the clearing of him from those false accusations and disparagements so was it also for the hastening us on in the prosecution of the work of his Conversion we had in hand in order whereunto I made speed unto the pursuance thereof the day before-mentioned And whereas many good undertakings it may be feared come short of an happy issue through that evill selfishness which is in too many whereby they seek to get the glory of the work unto themselves together with that evil confidence and self-conceit which some men have of their own abilities which render them averse from either desiring or admitting that help that they might have from the Association of others which the holy Apostles themselves disdained not to make use of That therefore this work might not want either countenance or assistance nor fail through the weakness or miscarriage of my endeanors of which indeed I was very fearful whereby I might have become answerable for the loss of his Soul and for the disappointment of that glory which hath since by his conversion accrued unto God I prevailed with reverend Dr. Bernard and Dr. Gauden to accompany me that day unto Chelsey who willingly complied with my desires therein and sent withal to desire Mr. Gunning and Mr. Samois the Interpreter to meet us there When I with those two reverend Divines first mentioned had arrived at the place Signior Dandulo was prevailed with to give us a meeting at my house but Mr. Gunning and the Interpreter being not yet come and the reverend persons that were with me being unwilling to stay long by reason of some occasions which it seemeth called them back unto London We as well as we could without the Interpreter entered upon some discourse with him which although it was but short and much disadvantaged for want of Language yet we prevailed so far that it obtained some kinde of consent unto the truth of those things which were offered unto him in order to his imbracement of the Christian Religion An account of the Arguments and discourses that passed in this business from the beginning to the end I have thought good to make the business of a Chapter by it self to avoid the trouble of repeating over and over the same things again both unto my self and to the Reader And although we could not as yet obtain of him a declaration of his full resolution to be baptized which as he had manifested in former communications he desired not to be over-hastily pressed unto but that he might be allowed good time to deliberate and consider of so weighty a business as that was and that was to be resolved on no other terms but the deserting and forsaking of so many earthly comforts as of Parents Country Inheritance and Marriage intended which were all to be drowned unto him in the water of his Baptism yet we obtained this expression of approbation and consent at least unto the main of our discourse E Buono that is to say This is good or true But after our departure back to London the same day it pleased God to send reverend Mr. Gunning and the Interpreter unto him who in my absence accosted him with some fresh discourses at the Lady Lawrences where was his usual abode in Chelsey and after some strugglings obtained from him at length as if some violent beam of light and grace had broken in upon his Soul and had upon the sudden captivated all his contrary imaginatious and scattered the mist of all his waverings and doubtings not onely a consent to be baptized into Christianity but also so earnest a desire and inclination thereunto that over-powered all his former thoughts of deliberation and was so impatient of delay that he cried out upon the sudden De main that is to say Let it be done to morrow and when for the solemnity of the performance and for the obtaining of some convenient space and opportunity for his further instruction and preparation to that great work it was made known unto him that it was not thought convenient to perform the celebration until the Lords Day he seemed to be something troubled at the delay The happy and joyful news of this blessed success was carefully and very respectfully sent by Mr. Gunning unto me at Westminster which drew me from thence unto Chelsey very late at night that I might be a joyful witness of so happy an issue which God had given unto that gracious work he had begun by so weak and inconsiderable an instrument as I acknowledge my self to be And that I might be serviceable by such advice and further assistance as God should enable me to give in order to the accomplishment of this so comfortable a product of the admirable and excellent mercy of the Lord to whom be all the glory of this and all the works of his gracious goodness And if we glory in any thing let it be in this that God is pleased to be glorified by us or in us that so if we glory we may glory in the Lord. CHAP. XII Of the Advantages found even in the Religion of the Mahometans and in the Turks own acknowledgements for the carrying on of his Conversion ALthough we have obtained one great end of our Narrative in that declaration which hath been already made of that blessed success which God gave unto our endeavors in that ready consent and earnest desire which was wrought in the Soul of our Convert in so little a time as was that of very few weeks to renounce that great Impostor Mahomet with his delusions and to devote and marry his Soul unto Christ Jesus the great and true Prophet of the Church and onely Saviour of the World which is a matter that chalengeth the joy both of Angels in Heaven and all good men upon Earth yet forasmuch as there is an holy and not onely harmless but profitable curiosity that doth usually possess the hearts of Gods people to search as God is pleased to allow them into the great and gracious works of the Almighty and not onely to put that question Num. 23.23 What hath God wrought That they may solace themselves with the spectacle of the sweetness of his mercy but to look also into the ways and means the manner and method whereby the Lord carries on his performances that they may delight and edifie their Souls by the contemplation of his divine wisdom and power shining forth through the weakness and simplicity of the instruments that he is pleased to make use of The holy study of Gods works being the great Philosophy of Gods people and their great learning to understand the loving kindness of the Lord That this knowledge may be the fuel and furniture of their praise and devotion which is the great end of their Creation and Redemption which is the study that they are invited unto in this Treatise the design whereof is to present unto them a great and new work and fresh frame and platform
say that the name of Mahomet was in the Law and in the Gospel And in their Histories they say that his name was also in the Psalms and this they say a certain Monk confessed and that Jesus foretold the coming of Mahomet and his people They say that Abraham professed their Religion under the name of Islamism long before the Law and the Gospel and that he was neither Jew nor Christian They deny that Christ truly died but they say that he was without death translated into Heaven See their impudence against so manifest a truth They say indeed that the Jews were deceived and thought they had slain Christ but they slew him not but that God took him up unto himself And that when the Jews were about to kill Christ he asked his Companions Which of you will be content to have my likeness put upon him that so he may go into Paradise and that one of them said I will and that God presently put the Image of Christ upon him and that he was slain and crucified instead of Christ and that after this the Associates of Christ fell at dissention about this and that some said Christ was God and could not die others that he was killed and crucified others if Jesus were crucified where is our Companion if our Companion was crucified where is then Jesus Others said he was taken up into Heaven They hold that Jesus shall descend from Heaven in the last days and that there shall be no people to whom the Book comes i.e. I conceive the Alcoran which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we the Scriptures the Bible but they shall believe in it So that there shall be but one Religion to wit Islamism and God at that time shall slay the false Messiah and there shall be safety so that the Lions shall eat with the Camels the Leopards with the Oxen Wolves with the Sheep and Children shall play with Serpents And they say Christ shall stay and dwell upon earth Forty years and that then the Muslins or Mussel-men i.e. the Mahometans shall pray over him They say moreover that when Christ shall descend he shall frame himself according to the order of Mahomet and shall poure out prayers turning toward him as he were one of his followers Nor shall the last day appear say they until the descending of Jesus go before They hold also that other dreadful signs shall go before the last day The false Christ or Messiah Gog and Magog and the rising of the Sun in the West Hence that irreligious or prophane Jest whereby the witty Persian deciphereth the manners of a libidinous Judge bringing in the King thus bespeaking the Judge and the Judge replying to the King The King said to the Judge Rise I pray you for the Sun is now risen the Judge said In what part of the world did he rise The King answered in the East as he is wont Then said the Judge Blessed be God for the door is yet open to repentance I wish there were no such presumptuous scoffers amongst Christians CHAP. XIII An account of the Arguments used for the conversion of the Turk with some illnstration and enlargement and of his Baptism WHosoever shall take but a view of those things that have been discovered concerning the madness and vanity of the Mahometan Religion they would have cause enough to wonder that a meteor made up of such earthy and corrupt exhalations should last so long have such a powerful influence upon the minds of such multitudes of those creatures that have principles of Reason and Religion in them but that the terrors of the World and carnal apprehensions and interests have so embased the hearts and dazled the eies of poor mortals that most men worship a flaming Sword especially when the Hilts of it are enchased with transitory delights and advantages And the greatest part of the world may seem to have their Religion cut out unto them by the weapons of their conquering Subduers rather then commended unto them by the force of convincing Arguments And indeed were not the souls of those that profess the Mahometan religion wrapped up in a dark vail of ignorance under the cloud whereof they are purposely kept it might seem almost incredible that they should not easily disclaim such impious errors the falshood and impiety whereof are abundantly convinced by the very display and discovery of the very tenets and practises themselves and yet a very rare thing hath it bin to hear of one bred up in that imposture of Turcism converted to the glorious light of the Gospel It may easily be perceived by what hath been delivered what great advantages there lie before us even in the great absurdity of their opinions where they are at opposition unto us and in those approaches that they make toward Christianity in some other things that they hold as hath been shewed for the undertaking and promoting their conversion which will render it the more unanswerable and unexcusable that there have been no more adventurers to that purpose Since the Church which is the illuminated part of the world as it hath a charge of the great work of the conversion of the rest thereof unto that truth which God hath revealed unto her not onely for her own salvation but also for the guidance and direction of others according to that Commission which is yet in force and hath in it the power of a command or heavenly injunction from Christ Go and teach or make Disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Ghost and if there had been but the tenth part of those lives ventured upon a suffering account for the propagating of Gods truth that have been hazarded and lost in the bloody quarrels of Ambition Covetousness and Revenge and for the propagating of Dominion by invading of the rights of other Princes and people in the way of bloody and active violence in all probability the world ere this time might have been reduced unto the holy Gospel of Christ Jesus and that Prophesie fulfilled which we yet hope for and God may promote it even from such a beginning as this that in the last days the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 and set above the hills and all Nations shall flow unto it But this is like to be the work rather of the cross then of the Sword In hoc signo vinces is still the Christians Motto Our Victories are to be obtained under the Banner of the cross But that I may draw to a Conclusion The more then ordinary knowledge that our Convert seemed to have obtained not onely of the Turkish Religion but also in some measure of the Christian by means as it may be conceived of his Christian Mother gave some good advantage to our work The first attempt whereof was an endeavor to bring him into some good sense of the great
concernment of his Soul in the embracement or rejection of the truth no less then in his eternal greatest good or evill and to bring him into dislike or at least into a doubt of that erroneous and impious way that he embraced as being uncorrespondent and unsatisfactory to that which is and needs must be the aim of every wise and serious man in the choice or embracement of any Religion which is a well grounded hope and succeeding attainment of the salvation of his Soul in another world and here in this life the peace of a good Conscience next to the glory and honour of God which as it was shewed him could not be found without a remedy for sin which exposed unto Gods wrath and to eternal death and condemnation And that there could be no remedy for this deadly disease but by a satisfaction to Gods Justice That Mercy and Truth might meet together and Righteousness and Peace might kiss each other which remedy or satisfaction was not at all offered in that Religion that he embraced He said that God gave pardon upon repentance but it was shewed him that his repentance and the repentance of all others was imperfect and no man was so cleared thereby from sin but that there would still need a satisfaction for the failings even of repentance and of the best ordered life that is to be found amongst men in this life That this satisfaction is clearly and fully offered in the Christian Religion in the blood and sufferings and righteousness of Christ Jesus who being God and Man and the eternal Son of God became a fit Mediator between God and Man and offered himself a sufficient Sacrifice unto the Divine Justice for the sins of the whole World The benefit whereof as it is proposed in the Gospel unto repentance and to all true penitent sinners so it is to be received onely from and in Christ Jesus and by the true faith of the Gospel Upon this discourse or to this purpose with some other which I cannot well now remember he seemed to be something startled and to doubt whether the ground whereon he stood was sound or no And as I remember expressed some desire that God would direct him to the Truth Some further Argumenrs were used to discover yet further unto him not onely the insufficiency but the impiety and vanity and great uncertainty of that Religion he had embraced as that which countenanced cruelty and oppression was carried on by violence and carnal ways and proposed low and carnal delights for the reward below the excellency of the spiritual Soul of Man Countenanced wickedness as Impurity and Revenge and proceeded from a person of a carnal and lascivious temper and conversation who pretended a more then ordinary Commission and allowance for lust as a priviledge belonging to him as the great Prophet That pretended indeed revelation from Heaven but had no testimony from God to commend it to the Souls of men but depended upon the bare assertion of Mahomet which if he be considered in the singleness of his person being a man subject to error as well as others especially if he be considered in his lascivious and wicked quality and condition is too sandy a foundation and of more then much too weak a credit that the venture of the eternal good and safety of one single Soul should be committed thereto much less of many millions or of the whole world That it was a Religion stuffed with monstrous lies and legends as may be seen by those things that have been set down Whereas on the other side the Christian Religion hath upon it the very stamp of Gods image which is his seal in the high excellent mysterious and spiritual wisdom too high for humane Imposture in any likelihood to invent since it is so far too high for humane Wisdom or Understanding even since it is revealed to conceive which is exactly answerable and uniform and correspondent to it self in all the members and parts thereof which all make up a sweet and excellent tune and harmony amongst themselves without any jar or discord between them and all the Writers thereof though being many and living in many and several Ages and places were forbidden thereby to conspire in falshood with one another wherein there must needs have been much boggling in matters so high above humane reason and comprehension if there had not been an infallible rule of divine Light and Truth to guide and unite them together at so great a distance Besides the wonderful and excellent consent that is between the Types and Prophesies and the fulfilled events thereof The former whereof are for the most part consigned over unto us by the Jews professed enemies unto the Christian Truth who maintain themselves and have delivered over unto us the predictions the completions whereof yet themselves now deny And so it is fulfilled of that blinded Nation of the Jews that is said by one I know not whom of them that it is Asinus portanus vinum bibens aquam An Ass that carrieth wine and drinketh water They carry the wine of the holy Prophesies and drink the water of their own foolish and malicious mis-interpretations and traditions It hath the stamp of the Divine wisdom and goodness upon it in that holy policy established in the bond of Divine and Christian Love whereby it unites all in the love of God and in a mutual love unto and a mutual charge of one another and of all men even greatest Enemies in all their concernments and in holy peace providing for all and carrying on all things with a heavenly and publick spirit so that if it were but generally embraced it would make the world happy and establish a kinde of Heaven upon Earth when every man should have a care of another as of himself in soul and spiritual good in matter of Life Estate Health Reputation and all other matters wherein their good is concerned whereby that wicked voice of Cain which crieth so loud in the hearts and practices of the world would be silenced and excluded out of the society of mankinde Am I my Brothes keeper since it maketh all men keepers of one another and teacheth all to take care of the publike good of all and thereby enlargeth the riches and content of all particulars teaching them to joy and delight in the good and blessing of others as well as their own It hath the stamp of Gods Holiness and Righteousness upon it in the utter opposition that it hath unto all sin in the admirable and perfect rules of Justice and Piety and purity which it establisheth both in regard of inward motions thoughts and affections and in outward carriage and conversation of life setting up the right mark before us which is Gods glory and eternal happiness in him to be pursued by all in all thoughts words and actions in all their Offices Trades and Vocations so bringing in the whole life of man to be an holy sacrifice
to God And directing us unto this glorious Goal or prize in the holy road or way of the holy commands of God encouraging and facilitating our obedience thereunto by gracious promises outbidding all that the World or the Flesh or the Devil can offer to hire us or move us to sin or wickedness and so by another great and holy policy engrafting our interest into all our duty so that we cannot sin against God but we must sin against our own felicity nor advance in holiness but we must also advance in happiness making holiness and happiness upon the matter one and the same thing though they seem two unto us by the weakness of our sight as one Candle seemeth two unto a distempered or weak eye It hath the stamp of Gods Meekness and Mercy upon it not onely in revealing it unto us and pouring it out upon us in the wonderful works of Redemption and Salvation by Christ Jesus at which the Angels and host of Heaven stand amazed whilst wicked and unthankful mortals despise and contemn it but in the holy conformity which it enjoineth unto all and worketh in the hearts and practices of true Christians thereunto forbidding all manner and every degree of cruelty and violence of hatred malice envy and revenge both in the root and the fruit thereof and enjoining all acts of Mercy and compassion towards others even our greatest adversaries and strangers however different from us in judgment or affection allowing no hatred unto any thing but sin thereby opening a door of love unto the whole world for their edification and bringing in unto Christ Jesus and to the Truth Grace and Salvation of the Gospel which is too little thought on and less practised by the new and strange Christians of our days whom God will convince either to condemnation or to conversion as may be hoped by such as this our Convert and others whom he shall bring home unto his truth and love making even them to provoke us to jealousie and to be not onely Professors with us but Reformers of us And these Rules of Love Compassion and Mercy are established in an excellent and most exact and perfect order and method both in regard of the objects and operations thereof they being first to be regarded that are nearest and dearest to God and us or whose preservation and good is of greatest or most general concernment And the operations to be exercised as in none but just and pure and holy so chiefly and specially in spiritual ways And this mark of love and tender compassion amongst Christians was that that made them antiently as glorious in the eyes of God and Man as the contrary cruelty and unmercifulness hath rendred inglorious and ignominious the degenerate and false Christians of our days So that the very Heathens are said to have fallen into an admiration of their mutual mercy with an Ecce quam se invicem diligunt ecce quam pro se invicem mori parati sunt Behold how these Christians love one another Behold how these Christians are ready to die for one another As now Turks and Heathens may cry out with abomination against the Christians and self Canonizing Saints of our days Ecce quam se invicem oderint ecce quam se invicem interficere parati sunt it is translated in letters and language of blood and written all over our age and Nations Behold how these Christians hate one another behold how these Christians are ready to kill and destroy one another This and other wicked practises of those that walk under the names of Christians so diametrally opposite unto the holy and merciful rule and constitution of Christ Jesus are those that have cast reproach upon the name of Christ and have clouded up the beauty and splendor of the Gospel and the Christian Religion and do continually blast and hinder the conversion of Jews Turks Heathens and others thereunto who are thereby confirmed and encouraged in their evill ways For the love of God and our own souls let us think upon it The wicked lives of Christians will answer for and be charged with the destruction of the rest of the world as well as for their own and theirs amongst whom they live But God is true though every man be a lyar Christian Religion hath upon it the stamp and testimony of the great and unblemished innocency and piety of Christ Jesus in the holiness of his Life and Doctrine acknowledged by the Turks themselves Of the great power of God in his wondrous Incarnation and miraculous conception and birth whereby he was a miracle himself above all other miracles whatsoever The latter whereof to wit his wonderful conception and birth is acknowledged by the Mahometans themselves In the many and great wonders that he wrought which they themselves also confess it is testified unto As also by his Resurrection from the dead and his Ascention ineo Heauen which to wit his Ascention they aver though they deny his Death and Resurrection By the voice from Heaven at his Baptism and transfiguration By the descending of the Holy Ghost both upon himself in the form of a Dove and upon his Disciples in the form of fiery cloven tongues after his ascention upon the day of Pentecost to the enduing of them with those wonderful gifts of all Languages which they exercised in the presence of many witnesses of several parts and Nations who by Gods providence were then at Jerusalem which was then made as it were the Representative of the World that it might be the Theater of so glorious a spectacle To this may be added the great efficacy and power of the Gospel grace shining in the lives of true Christians and in the glorious sufferings of the Martyrs The spiritual and heavenly proposals of the Gospel And the spiritual wayes contrary to humane wisdom and carnal interest without humane force whereby it hath been carried on And the standing testimony that is unto this day in the dissipation and afflicted and wretched and hateful condition of the banished Jewish Nation scattered over the world having been under that judgement for the space of One thousand six hundred years and upwards as was foretold by Daniel and our Blessed Saviour himself that they may be witnesses to the world in the several Nations where they are scattered and against themselves of the truth of the Gospel and the glory of Christ whose blood is upon them to this day according to that dreadful curse that they laid upon themselves I have been bold to enlarge something more upon this then I did in the pressing of it upon the Turk I hope it may be for the good of him and others Now because we found that he acknowledged the Law and Prophets and the holy Evangelists we had recourse unto them for the conviction of him in the Three great points of Christianity which he opposed viz. The God-head of Christ and that he is the Son of God and that he died and