thrown away their Lives and were accessary to their own Deaths Pag. 60. he says That Contempt is the Immobility of the Heart But this cannot be for when the Pulse ceases to beat the Man can no longer live and consequently this Author contemning all sorts of Laws Learning and Religion could never have lived to finish his Leviathan Our Saviour acknowledges that if he had not done such Miracles as no Man else could do the Scribes and Pharisees might have had for their Unbelief some just pretence But this Author avers pag. 148. That Miracles are not at all sufficient to give evidence But sure I am that this bold Assertion of his which is a Wonder though not a Miracle gives the whole World a sufficient Evidence of his great Arrogance and Impudence Our Saviour says That the Reprobates shall go into everlasting Punishment And St. Paul says That this Mortal must put on Immortality but this Author says p. 345. That the Reprobates Bodies shall not be immortal And pag 245. That no individual Person shall be punished with Torment Eternal Pag. 360. he says That to pray to the King for fair Weather is Idolatry But if the King command a Man to do so and he do it it is no Idolatry Pag. 360. he tells us That if a Man who is no Pastor worships an Idol and others follow him this is no Scandal given However I wonder he should not think this to be a very scandalous Doctrine If the Author were yet living I should take the boldness to give him this civil Item oportet mendacem esse memorem especially since he asserts pag. 60. That Imagination and Memory are the same thing For if so I greatly wonder how he could imagine so many Falsities and Contradictions and yet at the same time not remember them For my part I must confess I do not apprehend Imagination and Memory to be the same thing and if it were practicable I should thus reason the Case with him Sir Your Leviathan is a product of meer Imagination for never any such thing yet was But of that which never yet was you could have no Remembrance Egregie magister ergo falleris I cannot here omit his positive Assertion in the same page That all Men have equal Faculties of Body and Mind but God forbid it should be true for then every Man equal to him as to Education and acquired Learning would write and publish a Leviathan and by that means all Booksellers shops would soon be fill'd with impious and pernicious Books What other Men may judge of this his positive Assertion I know not For my part I am not of that Opinion That a Marius Dioclesian Julius Caesar or Tamberlane had not Gifts and Endowments of Nature far above a Plebeian or Common Souldier or that every Pesant or Country Thatcher had equal parts to compare with Jack Straw or Wat Tyler I must needs confess That if all other Men were like the Author of this Leviathan I should then conclude That all Men are indeed both by Nature and Art in a State of War It 's too plain That he was in War with the whole World and its great pitty the whole World was not in War with him when he first published his accursed Leviathan He was in War with Man's Creation and in War with his Redemption in War with the Law of Moses and in War with the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles in War with the Subsistence of Departed Souls and in War with that of Angels and Spirits and yet I have heard it reported of him that he was afraid to be alone in a dark Room in War with the marvellous Act and Deeds of the Old Prophets and in War with our blessed Saviour's Miracles in War with those Heavenly Mansions which the holy Jesus is gone before to prepare for his blessed Saints and Martyrs and in War with the place of Eternal Torments prepared for the Devil and his Angels or else if it be true what is commonly said of him when his Man was rubbing his Body in a Morning he would never have adventured to pronounce such Words in raillery as Rub you Rogue for Eternity in War with all civil Common Wealths and Established Laws and in War with all Church Governments and Gospel Ordinances in War with all Moral Honesty and Rules of Sobriety and in War with Religion and all its Fundamentals in War with the Works of Aristotle and the Heathen Philosophers and in War with Euclid's Elements and Mathematical Demonstrations in War with Schools and Universities and in War with all the Liberal Sciences in War with his own Definitions and in War with his own pernicious Principles between many of which there is a much greater Contrariety and Distance than he allows at the Resurrection between the Saints and Reprobates making all both Good and Bad to stand at the last Day upon the Earth's superficies pag. 242. And making the Punishment of the one to consist only in beholding for a short time the Glory and Happiness of the other How they must be placed I do not well understand some few of the Reprobates I confess might look over the shoulders of others but they being so exceeding numerous the Saints Antecii and Perecii must certainly have great difficulty to see them plainly But how to find Expedients or how to make Spectacles for the eyes of their Antipodes would have been past the Author 's little Skill in Geometry or Opticks As to the Design in general of this impious Discourse I am willing to believe that the Author 's Res Angusta Domi and personal Vain-glory might move him in such a juncture as that was to fish in troubled waters in hopes to advance his Fortune and get himself a Name But Satan who stood behind the Curtain and prompted him to this Undertaking had undoubtedly a further and deeper Design namely to encourage all Persons whatever to follow the Devices and Desires of their own hearts without the least fear or dread of burning Lakes or endless Torments by shamefully distorting and wresting the plain Texts of the holy Scriptures by searching for Errours in the Books of Moses by undervaluing and lessening our Saviour's Miracles and so endeavouring to overthrow the Fundamentals of Christian Faith by calling in question the Subsistence of blessed Angels Unclean Spirits and Departed Souls by turning heavenly Mansions and the place of Eternal Torments into meer Metaphors And lastly by setting up a New Common-Wealth and a Soveraign who by an incomprehensible Law of Nature must have the absolute Command not only of the Estates and Bodies but also of the Souls and Consciences of all his Subjects though it be to deny the Doctrine of Christ and his and to Worships Idols and Sacrifice to Devils This Arch Enemy of Souls is alas too well acquainted with Humane Frailties which are in truth the effects of his beguiling our First Parents and knows That Quicquid volumus facile credimus that very slender
to all intents and purposes most spiteful and malicious O cruel Satan Was there not room enough for thee and all thy Infernal Crew to range up and down in the vast and wide Expanse without intruding so rudely and abruptly into Paradise O spiteful old Dragon What Wrong or Injury did our first Parents do to thee while they were dressing the Garden which their MAKER had so lately placed them in that thou shouldest invent so hellish a Stratagem and in Masquerade make so fatal an Address at once to rob them of their Innocence disturb their present Peace and disappoint them of their future Happiness Be therefore for ever accursed O Beelzebub Thou Prince of Devils and true Original of all Sin and Wickedness for thy malicious Practises to deceive all the Nations of the World for so many Thousand Years whenas thou canst not be ignorant but that the Sins of every Soul that thou has tempted be it Saved or be it Damned shall one Day be set to thy Accompt and add Degrees to thy Eternal Torment From all Evil and Mischief and from all the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits Good Lord deliver us Now here I doubt not but that the ingenious Reader will expect I should insert some short Discourse concerning Blessed and Apostate Spirits and I could heartily wish I had a sufficient Knowledge of and Insight into those Mysteries to answer fully his desires But I am afraid on the one side that he would be very little satisfied with my Endeavours in case I should in imitation of a late learned Author try to squeeze a plausible Description of LOST PARADISE out of St. John's Vision in the Isle of Patmos and fancy to my self a formal and pitcht Battle upon a vast and wide Plain in the North part of Heaven fought between two mighty Hosts of Blessed and Revolted Spirits conducted and led up by mighty Arch-Angels for their Generals riding in Brazen Chariots drawn by foaming Steeds and clad with Adamantine Coats one of which was by a massy Sword cut down to the wast and stain'd with Angelick blood Where the one of these Armies dug up the Terrain of Heaven and with the Materials they there found made Powder Bullets and great Guns it is pity that Bombs were not in use when he wrote that Treatise and with them did great Execution upon their Enemies who in Revenge tore up great Mountains by the Roots and hurl'd them at their Heads with a great number of other Romantick Stories which is Ludere cum Sacris and much fitter for Poets and Painters who when they are got to the top of their Pâ—rnassus frame to themselves Idea's of what Chimera's or Goblins they please And on the other side I judge it altogether needless to make use of the Dark-Lanterns of Homer Ovid Virgil or any of the old Heathen Poets or to borrow the dim Tapers and blinking Lights of Plato Aristotle Seneca or any of those Half-Divine Philosophers or to be beholding to the School-men for their vain Distinctions and splitting of Hairs with their lame Definitions and Explanations of Obscurum per Obscurius Neither am I willing to tire my Reader with endless Quotations out of the Ancient Pious and Learned Fathers who were for the most part somewhat tender in delivering their Opinions about the Doctrin of Spirits but wisely waved the positive Determination of Questions relating to the Invisible World and those deep Mysteries of Incorporeal Beings as not to be fathom'd by the Line and Plummet of Human Understanding And therefore I shall content my self with what Light I can get from the Holy Scriptures and where those are either obscure or silent to be very cautious sober and modest 1. That there were are and ever shall be true and real Subsistencies of Good and Evil Angels the following Passages of Sacred Writ do plainly inform us viz. Before the Angels of God 12 Luke 8. He shall come with all his holy Angels 25 Matth. 31. If God spared not the Angels that sinned 2 Pet. 2. 4. The Angels that kept not their first Estate Jud. 6. The Angels came 4 Matth. 11. Out of whom went 7 Devils 8 Luke 2. Everlasting Fire Prepared for the Devil and his Angels 25 Matth. 41. But are as the Angels in Heaven 22 Matth. 30. 2. As concerning the Time when the Angels were Created it may be conjectured by comparing several Texts of Scripture and making the following Inference viz. The Sons of God and the Morning-Stars are put together and the Morning-Stars were made before the Earth Job 38. And the Earth was made three Days before the Stars in the Firmament Gen. 1. And consequently Morning Stars cannot be meant Stars of the Firmament Again by Stars are meant Angels 12 Rev. 4. And by the Heavenly Host are meant Angels 2 Luke 13. and 1 Kings 19. 21. And the Heavens and Heavenly Hosts are joined together 2 Gen. And the Heavens said to be Created the First Day Therefore it seems probable that the Sons of God otherwise the Morning-Stars or which is the same thing Angels or the Host of Heaven were created on the first of the Six Days in the Morning 3. That there were great Numbers of both Blessed and Apostate Angels we are assured from several Passages in the Old and New Testament More than 12 Legions or as some compute it 79992 Angels 26 Matth. 23. Thousand Thousands ministred unto him and Ten Thousand times Ten Thousand stood before him 7 Dan. 10. and 5 Rev. 11. An innumerable Company of Angels 12. Heb. 22. A multitude of the Heavenly Host 2 Luke 13. His Tail drew a Third part of the Stars of Heaven 12 Rev. 4. My Name is Legion for we are many 5 Mark 9. Now if Solomon who was LORD but of a very small Spot of the Terrestrial Globe which Globe is by us thought to be little more than a Point if compared with the Starry Firmament had so many Attendants What Number should we think a fit Retinue for the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS Myriades Myriadum will be too small a Summ And so will our ordinary Terms of Arithmetick and we must be forced to borrow some of the learned Commentator upon Archimedes his Arenarius and say Billions Trillions Quadrillions c. of blessed Angels to attend his Throne and to make up the Court of Heaven 4. That there were different Orders and Degrees of Good and Evil Spirits we have reason to believe from the following Texts viz. The great Prince Michael 12 Dan. 1. Beelzebub the Prince of Devils 11 Luke 15. The Prince of the Power of the Air 2 Ephes 2. The Voice of the Arch-Angel 2 Thess 4. 16. Thrones or Dominions Principalities or Powers 1 Coloss 16. Michael and his Angels and the Devil and his Angels 12 Rev. 3. 9. 5. That all the blessed Angels which attend God's Throne are Ministring Spirits and sometimes appeared in Humane shapes we find in the following Texts
the help of either Weight or Springs for the space of Nine Hundred sixty and nine Years which time would certainly wear out the Wheels and Pinions of a great many Brass and Iron Clocks If there were but room enough in so small a Treatise there are yet behind many and great Wonders of the Almighty Maker's Mechany and Contrivance relating to Motion and Sense According to that small Skill I formerly had in Opticks it was my Opinion with submission to better Judgments that the Figure and Colour or Colours of a visible Object however situated or in what posture soever it be placed make the Base of an imaginary Cone composed of infinite visical Rays which is conveyed in an instant through a Lucid Medium to the Superficies of every Beholders Eye where a small section of the Apex of that Cone is refracted by the several Waters and Tunicks and then the Figure of the said Object being inverted by the Humor Chrystallinus is in the same posture lodged in the Tunica Retina from whence it is conveyed into the common Sensory Again by those Experiments I have heretofore made in Acousticks I then judged that different Percussions of the Air do beget infinite spherical Figures of Aereal Motions as a Stone thrown into the midst of a Pool of standing Water or which is much more curious a stroak with a Pin's head upon the supersicies of a long Vessel of Quick-silver begets in the first infinite numbers of Circles or in the last infinite Arches which spread themselves every way till they meet with some harder Body that makes resistance which let us suppose to be a Man's Ear in the Cavity of which the aforesaid Figures of Aereal Motions suffer several Reverberations and then make a Percussion upon the Tympanum or Drum which is a Nervous and almost pellucid Membrane and of most exquisite Sense and from thence are conveyed into the Brain And by the help of these and other Experiments I then made which were many Years since and the Blessing of God upon my Endeavours I found out the Tubastentero-phonica or Speaking-Trumpet and improved that Invention so far as to make humane Voice both audible and intelligible either in plain Words and Sentences or else in Cypher for conveighing Secrets into or out of besieged Places over the heads of their Enemies or for one Ship to speak to another at the distance of three English Miles or thereabouts and had I not received some Discouragement which then I did not think I deserved I did not doubt but to have improved it to the distance of eight nine or ten Miles I did likewise at the same time contrive and cause to be made by my Directions a very large Otocoustacon one end whereof being laid to my Ear in a still Evening in the middle of St. Jame's Park brought into it as I thought innumerable Sounds of Coach and Cart-wheels and humane Voices in and throughout all the Streets as well those of Westminster St. James's and Pickadilly as the others between White-hall and London-Bridge but those Sounds being often confused and those that were nearer drowning those which were more remote and sometimes offending the Ear by the sharpness of the noise not to mention the large Dimensions and great Weight of such Instruments I then desisted from my making any further Experiments However some years since having received several Visits in the behalf of several deaf Persons and believing that it might be an acceptable Service to all Mankind I determined to proceed not doubting to contrive such a Machine as would have taken a just Gage or Measure of the Degrees of any Persons deafness and likewise to invent another small Instrument to hang upon the Ear as an Ornament whereby those Degrees of Deafness should have been in a great measure or altogether restored had it not pleased Almighty GOD in the interim to visit me with Blindness But now in all the aforementioned Operations how the Soul of Man by the help of the Brain which is the general Organ of Sense perceives and judges Sensations of all sentient parts and out of it as out of a Fountain by the help of eight or ten pair of Nerves whose Origin is derived from the Medulla-substance of the Brain it communicateth the Animal Spirits being first elaborated to all the sentient parts of the Body and thereby endows them with the faculty of performing Animal Actions For example how and in what mysterious manner the Soul sends out the Animal Spirits so many several ways to receive in and judge of the Figures and Colours of so many hundred Objects in one Minutes space and so many different Sounds of Vocal and Instrumental Musick within the compass and measure of a Semibref and that without confounding visual Rays or Aereal Percussions which must of necessity very often interfere with each other or what manner of Creatures those Animal Spirits are which have never yet been discerned by the sharpest Eye or best Glasses Let the ablest Philosopher in the World tell me otherwise than by the empty Terms of Anatomy Et erit mihi magnus Apollo And this is all I have here room to treat of relating to Sense There is yet something that very well deserves to be taken notice of concerning The Motion of the Limbs and their great force in lifting up thrusting from them or pulling to them great weights with the nimble Motion of all the Parts some of those Operations agreeing with and others confounding our ordinary Doctrine of Staticks I know very well That a pound weight suspended at one end of an iron Rod placed horizontally at six foot distance from its Fulcrum or perpendicular Axis equiponderates a Weight of six pounds suspended at the other end of the said iron Rod at one foot distance from the said Fulcrum or Axis the length of one foot of that Rod on the one side of the Axis being first made equal in Weight to the aforesaid length of six foot of the same Rod on the other side of the Axis And if the aforesaid Weight of six pound be raised two Inches in perpendicular height by the force of the said one pound with some small addition that one pound weight must of necessity descend Twelve Inches or one Foot Likewise I am not ignorant that if a Globular weight of six pound be suspended at one end of an Iron Rod of six foot in length hanging perpendicularly upon a small Pin or Joint the force of two pound weight being fastned by a Pack-thread to the Center of Gravity of that Globular weight and conveniently placed so as to move up and down over a Pulley will heave up that Globular weight a proportional part of the said Rod being first equiponderated to the perpendicular height of two foot Again the weight of four pound applied in the same manner will heave up the said Globular weight to the perpendicular height of four foot and the force of six pound Weight will heave it up
to the Horizontal Line or 90 Degrees which Experiment being exactly performed gives great light to young Practitioners in the Mechanicks Lastly I know by Experience that an Engineer standing on the top of a Tower may by the help of Ropes and Pullies with a small force heave up a Tun weight or more to the perpendicular height of 10 or 20 Foot provided there be proportionable time given him for that Operation and also that he has a sufficient Fulcrum or place to which he may fasten one of his Blocks I can likewise imagine the Soul of a Man whilst his Body stands bolt up right to be a spiritual Engineer and to be seated in the Brain as in its Watch-Tower and there to make use of each hand and arm to lift up a ponderous Weight to the perpendicular height of 6 or 12 Inches But I must at the same time ingeniously acknowledge that I do not at all apprehend neither have I any Idea or Imagination by what secret power the Soul contracts or dilates the Muscles how it elaborates and sends forth the Animal Spirits or how it makes use of any of the ten pair of Nerves whose Origin is derived from the Medulla substance of the Brain which is in a manner as soft as Butter And I leave to the Contemplation of the most skilful and subtil Mechanick or Philosopher in the World the innumerable Difficulties that will arise from all the following Instances 1. Of a Porter taking up great and ponderous Burthens from off the ground and heaving them on his shoulders 2. Of a Waterman who upon a Wager pulls in his Oars with both his Arms towards his body and at the same time thrusts from him with his Thighs and Legs in which Motion viz. that of his Arms and Hands he works with a Quintiple disadvantage according to the Doctrine of Staticks because the Muscle of the Humerus is fastned but to a 6th part of the Cubitus or Radius as I my self have measured upon a dead Man's bones 3. Of a Seaman working at a Drum-Capstan a Contrivance I presented to the late King Charles the Second many years ago to weight up the ponderous Anchors of great Ships which has since saved great Numbers of English Sea-men's lives 4. Of one who distorts all the Parts Members and Joints of his Body so as to make it appear in many different Figures and strange Shapes Such a one I have seen at Paris and such a one there was not long since in the City of London who went by the Name of Posture John 5. Of one who jumps wrestles throws the Bar runs a Race or fights a Prize 6. Of one who performs strange Feats of Activity Vaults and cuts Capers in the Air to a great height as he is dancing on the Stage or on the Ropes 7. A skilful and active Musician the different Motions of whose Fingers are of incredible swiftness Ejaculation O Almighty GOD Maker of all things Visible and Invisible How wonderful and unsearchable are all thy Works How deep are all thy Thoughts and thy Ways past finding out by us poor Mortals or indeed by any finite Creatures All that I shall add to what has been already mentioned upon this Subject shall be only this That if there are so many insuperable Difficulties about Bodily Operations as to Motion and Sense how much greater must of necessity be the Difficulties of the Souls Operations which are wholly abstracted from and have no Correspondence at all with Bodies or Sense Of this Sort as I think is a late learned Philosopher's Cogito though I understand not at all his Inference of Ergo sum But whatever he intends my meaning is the Soul 's drawing necessary Conclusions from undoubted Premises and so forming within it self Syllogisms As likewise its Apprehensions of a Supreme Diety or an Almighty MAKER of all Things who is from Everlasting to Everlasting and depends upon none And its Reflections of Conscience either Accusing or Excusing Moral Actions Forgive me Courteous Reader I am already lost in a Labyrinth of Thoughts and my Soul is over-whelmed with a Deluge of Imaginations and can make no further progress At the Resurrection you and I shall know more and be much wiser than we now are When this Mortal shall put on Immortality When our Understandings shall be more illuminated and when the Eyes of our Souls shall be no longer forced to look or peep through such thick Humors muddy Waters dull Tunicks and horny Spectacles The Second Question THE Second Question Q. Where hast thou been Answer Alas I do not well know where Nor how Nor when Nor what I have been doing Of my Infant-days I have no Knowledge or Remembrance but admire God's infinite Goodness who I verily believe sends his blessed Angels to watch over young Babes and tender Infants who of all other living Creatures are the least able to help themselves Ejaculation Thou O Lord art he who took'st me from the Womb And thou hast been my hope ever since I hung upon my Mothers Breasts In the Morning of my Life for several Hours I stood idle in the Market-place with others of my Companions pleasing my self with childish Toys and youthful Vanities In my more mature Age though I had frequent Calls and Invitations to labour in God's Vineyard yet nevertheless I rather chose to gratify my own roving Fancy and satisfy my vain Curiosity in ranging Abroad and making enquiry into the Customs and Manners of foreign Countries and then to enter into the secret Intregues and mysterious Transactions of my own where I had opportunity to hear see and observe many things which must be buried in Oblivion And here I must acknowledge I met with no small variety of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Crosses and Disappointments and found my self at the brink of many a deep pit and steep precipice and in great danger to have perished without a wonderful preservation and deliverance Besides all this I leave it to Men of greater Wisdom and Experience to consider how hard and difficult a thing it is to be entangled with the Cross-purposes of publick Affairs and yet have leisure to mind that one Thing necessary The Salvation of our Souls with which all the Riches Honours and Pleasures which this World affords are not worthy to be laid in the Ballance Ejaculation Remember not O Lord the unaccountable Follies and Vanities of my Childhood and Touth nor the innumerable Transgressions of my riper Tears Blot out of thy Remembrance the many Breaches of solemn Vows and Promises by me made in Times of Danger and Sickness or any prevarications with the God and Father of Mercies and the hazarding my Soul's Eternal Welfare and Happiness for the sake of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Methinks this World does not unfitly resemble a Theatre or Stage whereon every Man presents himself Acts his Part and so makes his Exit But in all the various Passages of his Life and frequent
of what he teaches he commits a Crime and may be justly punished for the same now this Lobster-like-argument of his being artificially thrown forward does again naturally crawl backwards His meaning is as he has too plainly exprest in many places That if a Man go from hence and preach a New Doctrine in Africa he commits a Crime and consequently St. Jude did very ill after Christ's Resurrection to take a Journey from Jerusalem into Persia and there to take upon him to rebuke the Superstition of the Magi and to preach a New Doctrine and so was put to death deservedly The like may be said of St. Paul for his making a Mutiny and Uproar at Athens and disturbing the Worship of the great Goddess Diana of the Ephesians And in fine both he and all the Apostles committed great Crimes in presuming to preach New Doctrine amongst all Nations where Idolatry was Established and owned by publick Authority for says the same Author page 152. To maintain a Doctrine contrary to the Religion Established is a greater Fault in an authorized Preacher than in a private Person And therefore they all suffered condign Punishments and were accessary to their own cruel Deaths But now this reflects more severely upon our blessed Saviour who gave his Disciples their Commissions Matth. 28. 19. Go yee and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And which is yet more it reflects upon God the Father who sent his Son into the World for that end and purpose and also the Holy Spirit which was sent down from Heaven after our Saviour's Resurrection to inspire those Apostles with diversity of Tongues and such other miraculous Gifts as might rightly qualify them for the preaching the Gospel throughout all the Nations of the World So that this last Assertion is in effect Blasphemy against the Three Persons of the sacred Trinity Our blessed Saviour 10 Matth. 33. Says Whosoever shall deny me before Men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven And in another place By your Words you shall be justified and by your Words condemned So that to deny Christ before Men is our Saviour's sense in a Crime that excludes and shuts a Man out of Heaven But this Author affirms positively page 271. That the denying of Christ before an Infidel Prince is not a Christian's Act but his Soveraign's Act and consequently no Sin And so he plainly gives the Son of God the Lye Our blessed Saviour when he sent out his Disciples 10 Matth. 15. Tells them That into whatsoever City they entred and were not received it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than for that City That is to say the refusing to receive and hear the Doctrine of Christ's Disciples was a greater Sin then that of Sodom But this Author tells us page 286. That those who refused so to hear and receive them did not Sin in so doing And here we see again the Arrogance and Impudence of the same Author in giving the Lye to the Lord Jesus Our Hebrew Masters do indeed teach us to read the Words and Sentences of part of the Scriptures but this politick Pedagogue would instruct us to read not only the Words and Sentences but the true Sense and Meaning of them backwards Our Saviour Christ in divers places owns his casting out Devils and unclean Spirits and sometimes these unclean Spirits owned him to be the Son of the most high God as did the Legion of Devils with which the Man was possessed in the Country of the Gadarenes 5 Mark 7. and divers others And the Pharisees the worst and most malicious of his Enemies acknowledged his casting out Devils Yet notwithstanding the composer of this Treatise had the Confidence to affirm page 354. That no Man was ever possessed with any other Spirit than that by which his Body was naturally moved And so gives the Lye not only to our Saviour but to all the Four Evangelists who have left upon Record most remarkable Instances of those Miracles In page 62 63 and 64. this Author tells us That Man by Nature is in a State of War every Man against every Man and every Man has a right to every thing over the Goods and Body of his Neighbour And yet in his next Chapter which is not above eight pages further he sets down Ten Laws of Nature which Laws of Nature are immutable and eternal and stamped upon Men's Souls and every of them tends to Peace and Quietness Love and Kindness Gratitude and doing to others as we would be willing they should do to us and these two Assertions are as contrary one to the other as Light is to Darkness however it is much more modest to give himself the Lye then to give it so often as he has done to the Saviour of the World and the second Person of the Trinity In page 88. he acquaints us That by the People assembled are transferr'd all their Right on him whom they chose their Soveraign which Soveraign can do no Injustice though at his pleasure he take away any of their Lives And yet page 152. he asserts That no Man in the institution of their Soveraign can be supposed to give away the Right of preserving his own Body And page 112. If an Assembly meet and agree together they may rebel and make War against their Soveraign And I affirm that no Man of Sense or Reason can be supposed to defend the Authors reputation in so notorious a Contradiction In page 285. and divers other places he affirms That Christ's Kingdom not being of this World he left the Jews to the Law of Moses and other Nations to their respective Soveraigns and yet page 106. he plainly affirms That Christ acted in this World as King of the Jews and by his Soveraign Power and Authority sent two of his Disciples to untie and bring away the She-ass and her Colt on which he was to ride into Jerusalem Page 62. He affirms That the Desires and Passions of Man are no Sin though it be an absolute Breach of the Tenth Commandment Our Saviour forbids swearing by Heaven Earth Jerusalem or a Man 's own head 5 Matth. 34 35 36. but this Author asserts page 71. That such kind of Oaths is no swearing and so makes our Saviour guilty of Lying Page 152. he says That every man is supposed to know the Law of Nature it being so plain and yet pag. 141. he avers That the Law of Nature is of all Laws the most obscure Pag. 261. he says Christ s death did not satisfy God 's justice and yet pag. 356. he acknowledges That the Passion of Christ is a full Ransom for all manner of Sins Pag. 272. he affirms That there were no true Martyrs but those who conversed with our Saviour while he was here upon Earth and that he who is no Minister can be no Martyr Now if so all other Martyrs have
Musick-meetings publick Shows or other vain and sinful Pastimes I have been present at either to please my self or to gratify others On the contrary What would I now give or rather What would I not give to have spent the greatest part of those precious Hours in private Prayer and Meditation And the expence of all in casting my Bread upon the Waters and administring to the Necessities of the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless As for Stage-plays not to mention other vain and unnecessary Divertisements I am inclined to believe that the Original intent of them was to applaud Vertuous Actions and to discountenance Vitious Livers But I appeal to all sober Persons whether the Practice of this last Age has not produced contrary effects And I crave leave to ask one short Question of young Gentlemen and Ladies and their Inferiours of both Sexes What satisfaction they hope to have when they come to lie on their sick or Death-beds none of them knowing how soon they may receive the fatal Summons for having been the Auditors and Spectators of so many Prophane and and Obscene Plays Or to have read so many vain and idle Romances where they learn little else than to make or receive unlawful Courtships or to gain such a kind of Knowledge as their Mother Eve got by eating the Forbidden Fruit or to be instructed in those Intregues which otherwise its possible they had never known or thought of all their lives I would also demand of the Authors and Actors of some certain Plays with what face they can ask of God from day to day a Blessing upon their Labours and Endeavours Or what Account they will one day give at the Bar of his Tribunal for having been the unhappy Instruments of corrupting and debauching so many hopeful Persons of both Sexes who otherwise might have been eminent Examples of Piety and Godliness in their several Generations Prayer And I beseech God Almighty of His infinite Goodness and Mercy to incline the Hearts of all those Writers and Readers Authors and Actors Auditors and Spectators while they have Time and Opportunities to make suitable and seasonable Reflections I am going But O blessed Redeemer How shall I ever find the way or get to my Journeys end with safety unless Thou be pleased to send some Guardian Angel as well to lead and guide as to aid and assist me When I stumble in rugged and uneven Ways to hold me up in his Arms. When I turn aside into crooked and by-paths to pull me back by force When I am near a Pit or Precipice to give me a friendly Item and timely notice When I am dull and heavy and grow slothful in the performance of my Duty to stir up and awaken me When I am Hungry and Thirsty as Travellers are led by their Guides into their Oberges for a Viaticum and there refresh themselves to conduct me to thine House and holy Place there to sit down at thine own Table and be fed with the true Bread which came down from Heaven and to drink of the Fruit of the true Vine and the Water of Life of which whoever once drinks shall never thirst again Parlate Parlate i cadaveri sepolti When I am assaulted with Enemies from without or from within whether they be my own private Lusts and Passions or whether they be Principalities or Powers the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and spiritual Wickednesses in high Places those invisible Enemies of mighty Power and perfect knowledge of wonderful Subtilty and long Experience then gracious Father let me be furnished with all sorts of spiritual Armour the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Shield of Faith the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit That so as a valiant Souldier I may sight under thy Banner and be able to resist all the Wiles Assaults and fiery Darts of the Devil and all his Infernal Spirits and to subdue and bring under my own unruly Lusts and Passions When I meet with Troubles and Afflictions Crosses and Disappointments Wrongs and Injuries let me be armed with such a measure of Humility Meekness Long-suffering Patience and Equanimity as may bear me up through all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and during my earthly Pilgrimage When I fall into Fainting-Fits through Age and Bodily Distempers let thy blessed Spirit administer to me such comfortable Cordials as may support my drooping Spirits Reflection Why then art thou cast down so often O my Soul And why for the Trifles of Mortality art thou so disquieted within me Trust still in God who will never leave nor forsake thee For sure I am that I shall yet praise Him for His loving Kindness and tender Mercies to me the least and meanest of all his Servants When I draw nigh to my last Agonies then blessed Lord O then be pleased of thy infinite Mercy and Goodness to chain up that great Enemy of Souls and Prince of Darkness with all his Infernal Legions who always make their most furious and fierce Assaults upon poor departing Souls that so neither Height nor Depth nor Things present nor Things to come may ever be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord or make me let go my hold or quit my hope of Eternal Life and Happiness In the last and critical Moment of my departure out of this troublesome World let my Soul be safely conveyed by some Guardian Angel to the place appointed for the Spirits of God's Elect there to rest with chearfulness and to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with this Body of mine at the Resurrection when it shall be raised out of the Dust with Immortality and Incorruption And then let both Soul and Body thus united be received into that Coelestial Paradise where being very far from imitating the rebuked Ambition of Zebedee's two Children to be the meanest and lowest of all the Redeemed and happy Individuals of Human Race is the height of my Ambition and the utmost of my Desires A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Ordinary Week-Days LET now the Words of our Mouths and the Meditations of our Hearts find Grace and Favour with Thee O LORD our Strength and our Redeemer Almighty GOD and most merciful FATHER who of thy wonted Goodness and Mercy hast protected and preserved us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which otherwise might have befallen us and safely brought us to the Light of another Day defend us we pray Thee in the same with thy mighty Power and so prevent us with thy gracious favour and further us with thy continual help that in all our Works begun continued and ended in Thee we may ever seek thy HONOUR and GLORY and finally by thy Mercy obtain Everlasting Life through JESUS CHRIST our blessed LORD and SAVIOUR For whose SAKE We humbly pray Thee to blot out of thy Remembrance all our past Sins and Provocations and to work in our Hearts a godly Sorrow and a sincere
the Night shineth as the Day The Darkness and the Night are both alike to Thee And forasmuch as the closing of our Eyes to Rest so nearly resembles Death and our Beds are but models of our Graves out of which we must one Day be called by the sound of the last Trump to Arise and come to Judgment Let this and every Evening and every Morning of our Lives put us in mind of our dying Hours And let no worldly Affairs hinder us from being always in a readiness for our last and final Conflict with the Prince and Powers of Darkness who knowing their time is but short will be sure to make their fiercest Assaults upon Departing-Souls when they find them struggling with Bodily pains and sharp Diseases and drawing nigh to their last Agonies And sometimes to terrify them with frightful Dreams and Visions to make them if possible utterly to despair of God's Mercies and to let go their hold and quit their Hopes of Eternal Life and Happiness Make us therefore sensible how highly it concerns us while we have Health of Body and soundness of Mind to arm our selves like good Souldiers with Christian Courage and Resolution for those Death-bed Combats and critical Hours Minutes and Moments of our Lives And because we are to wrestle with invisible Enemies of mighty Power and wonderful Knowledge great Subtilty and long Experience who know too well our Tempers Inclinations and Infirmities and where and how to set upon us with the greatest Advantage Be pleased to send thy blessed Angels and Ministring-Spirits to comfort and assist us in all those siery Tryals and Temptations That so Death which is to so many others the King of Terrors may be to us a kind Friend and a welcome Guest and we may with all cheerfulness quit these Houses of Clay and fleshy Tabernacles and exchange the Troubles and Sorrows of a painful Pilgrimage in a Valley of Tears for the Joys of Heaven and Everlasting Happiness with blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens All which with whatever else Thou knowest to be needful either for us or for any of ours or for any of Thine we humbly beg in the Name and for the sake of the blessed Jesus who in compassion to our Infirmities has taught us thus to pray Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen A MORNING-PRAYER FOR Sundays Fasts and Festivals LET us now fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Most Holy Blessed Glorious and incomprehensible Triniry Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God Almighty Maker of all Things and Judge of all Men Have mercy upon us miserable Sinners who are by Nature Children of Disobedience and by our actual Sins every Day and Hour of our Lives liable to Divine Wrath and Vengeance Remember not O Lord the many Follies and Vanities of our Child-hood and Youth nor the innumerable Transgressions of our riper Years and how we have always erred and strayed from the Ways of Truth and Righteousness and trod in forbidden Paths through the several Stages of our Lives leaving undone those things which thou hast absolutely commanded and doing those things which thou hast exprelly forbidden and many times drawing upon our selves the guilt of other Men's Sins by our Encouragement Connivance or ill Examples breaking the solemn Vows and Promises either made for us by others in Baptism or by our selves in Times of Danger or Sickness unthankful for Mercies and incorrigible under Judgments rejecting the Motiors of thy blessed Spirit and following the Devices Desires and vain Imaginations of our own Hearts and so running the hazard of losing our precious and immortal Souls for the enjoyment of a few sinful and short-liv'd Pleasures Blessed LORD we cannot but confess and acknowledge with shame and confusion of face that it is a wonder of thy patience and forbearance that we are yet alive and that thou hast not cut us of in the midst of our Sins and Doom'd us to dwell with everlasting Burnings among damned Souls and Spirits But this is our hope and humble confidence that we have to do with the God and Father of Mercies who takes no delight in the death of Sinners but is slow to Anger and ready to forgive all those who sincerely repent and truely believe in our blessed Lord and Saviour CHRIST JESUS for whose coming into the world to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers with Angels and Arch-Angels and all the Company of Heaven we laud and magnify thy great and holy NAME as we likewise do for thy other Mercies and Favours daily and hourly bestowed upon us We bless and praise Thee for giving us a Being in the World for that admirable Frame and Structure of our Bodies while we lay inclosed in our Mother's Wombs for breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after thine own Image and Likeness for being Born where the Gospel of thy SON is openly preached and professed and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels For the unparallel'd Pattern of all Goodness in the Life of the holy JESUS and for the pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostâ—â—s and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true Way to Life and Happiness beseeching thee that we following their good Examples may with them be made partakers of Everlasting Life in the World to come We thank Thee LORD of Heaven and Earth for the wonderful Works of the Creation of which we all enjoy our shares and proportions for the Sun that shines by Day and for the Moon and Stars That rule by Night and by their regular Motions and sweet Influences serve for Signs and Seasons Days and Years for the Clouds that give Rain and drop Fatness upon our Fields and Pastures and for the Springs that go up by the Mountains and run down among the Vallies for reserving to us the appointed Times of Harvest and giving us the kindly Fruits of the Earth in their due and proper Seasons for our Food and Raiment and all the good things of this Life and our manifold preservations from sundry Dâ—â—â—â— and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's Breasts for protecting us this last Night from many calamitous Accidents which in a Night might have befallen us and bringing us safely to the light of another Day and so giving us a longer time and space for Repentance and Amendment of our Lives most humbly beseeching Thee to continue these thy Mercies and Favours to us and to keep us the remainder of this Day and of our Lives from
and Delusions and Idolatrous Worship of divers kinds so as to make sure of them in the main and always hold them fast within his Clutches Thus in the foregoing Instance of the Tunquineses the Hermite Chacabout left behind him Ten Commandements which he enjoined his Followers to observe with all manner of strictness viz. First Not to Kill Secondly Not to Steal Thirdly Not to defile their Bodies Fourthly Not to Lye Fifthly Not to falsify their Words Sixthly To restrain their inordinate Desires Seventhly Not to do Injury to any Man Eighthly Not to be great Talkers Ninthly Not to give way to their Anger Tenthly To labour to their utmost to get Knowledge Besides all this They who designed to lead a Religious Life must renounce the Delights of this Life be Charitable to the Poor overcome their Passions and give themselves up to Meditation He taught moreover That after this Life there were Ten distinct Places of Joy and Torment and that the Contemners of these Laws should feel Torment proportionable to their Offences without any End of their Torments That they who endeavoured to fulfil his Law and had failed in any point should wander in divers Bodies holding Transmigration of Souls for the space of Three Thousand Years before they entred into Happiness But that those who had perfectly Obeyed his Laws should be rewarded without suffering any Change of their Bodies And that he himself had been Born ten times before he enjoyed the Bliss that he possessed not having in his first Youth been illuminated with that Knowledge which he afterwards attained Reflection As for his Ten Commands and his other Instructions immediately following one would think at first sight that this Impostor had collected them out of the Holy Scriptures save only that there is not a Word therein that has the least regard to a Saviour or Messias But alass that subtil old Serpent and Prince of Darkness who is so perfect a Hater of the Saviour of the World and of Humane Race makes it his principal Care and Caution to keep all his Subjects and Vassals from the least Knowledge of those divine Mysteries which relate to the holy JESUS For my part I am apt to believe altho' so many Ages have past since the Martyrdom of the blessed Apostles among the Pagans and Barbarians who undoubtedly converted very great numbers of them while they lived amongst them that some of these Converts left behind them many pious Instructions to their Children who also left the same to their Children and so from Generation to Generation which in process of time were corrupted by Satan's Artifices being confounded and intermingled with a great number of foolish and extravagant Traditions Of this I shall here take the freedom to mention one famous Instance There were about fifteen Years since as a Traveller assures me who was himself in those parts and probably are to this day living above Twenty thousand Families of a certain People who call themselves Christians or Disciples of St. John from whom they pretend to have received their Faith their Books and Traditions These people inhabit at present at Balsara about ten days Voyage from that place where the River Tigris divides it self into two Arms the one running through the ancient Chaldaea and the other towards Mesopotamia in view of which stands an old Wall of about a League in compass which the Chronicles of that Country say was the Ruins of the ancient Babylon upon which Wall six Coaches may go abreast being made of burnt Brick each Brick ten Foot square and three Foot thick These Christians of St. John anciently lived by the River of Jordan where St. John baptized and so from him they took their Name But since the time that Mahomet conquered Palestine although he had given them his Hand and Letter of Privilege not to be molested his Successors resolved to extirpate them ruining their Churches burning their Books and exercising all manner of Cruelties upon their Persons which obliged them to retire into Mesopotamia and Chaldaea and for some time they were under the Patriarch of Babylon from whom they separated about 175 Years since and then removed into Persia and Arabia and the Towns round about Balsara Their Creed is full of Fables and soul Errors They never Baptize but in Rivers and only upon Sundays But before they go to the River they carry the Infant to Church where there is a Bishop who reads certain prayers over the head of the Child from thence they carry it to the River with a train of Men and Women who together with the Bishop go up to the knees in Water then the Bishop reads again certain prayers out of a Book which he holds in his hand which done he sprinkles the Infant three times saying Beesme brad Er-rabi Kaddemin Akreri Menhal el Gennet Alli Koulli Kralek which is in English In the Name of the LORD first and last of the WORLD and of PARADISE the high Creator of all Things After that the Bishop reads something again out of his Book while the Godfather plunges the Child all over in the water after which they all go to the Parents house to feast If any tax their Baptism for insufficient in regard the Three Persons of the Trinity are not mentioned therein they give no reasonable Answer nor have they any knowledge of that Mystery only they say that Christ is the Spirit and Word of the Eternal Father They believe the Angel Gabriel to be the Son of God begotten upon Light yet will not believe the Eternal Generation of Christ as God although they confess he became Man to free us from the punishment of Sin and that he was conceived in the Womb of a Virgin without the knowledge of Man by means of the Water of a certain Fountain which she drank of They believe he was Crucisied by the Jews That he rose the Third Day and that his Soul ascended up to Heaven his Body remaining upon Earth but withal That Christ vanished when the Jews came to take him and that he deluded their Cruelty with his shadow In the Eueharist they make use of Meal kneaded up with Wine and Oil the Wine they make with Grapes dried in the Sun and casting water upon them let them steep a long time and with that they Consecrate the Cup The Arabians under whose Government they live not permitting them the use of ordinary Wine The Words of their Consecration are no other then long Prayers but make no mention of Christ's Body or Blood which they say is not necessary because God knows their intention After the Ceremonies are ended the Priest eats some of the Bread and distributes the rest to the people All their Bishops wear their Hair long with a little Cross wrought with a needle These People believe and say That the Angel Gabriel undertaking to create the World according to God's Command took along with him Three hundred thirty six Thousand Demons and made the Earth so fertile
that it was but to Sow in the Morning and Reap at Night That the same Angel taught Adam to plant and sow and all other necessary Sciences Moreover That the same Angel made the Seven lower Spheres the least whereof reaches to the Center of the World in the same manner as the Heavens do all continued one within another and that all these Spheres are of different Mettals That next the Center of Iron the Second of Lead the Third of Brass the Fourth of Laten the Fifth of Silver the Sixth of Gold and the Seventh of Earth which contains all the rest They believe that over every Heaven there is Water and that the Sun swims in a Ship upon that Water and that the Mast of that Ship is a Cross and that there are a great number of Boys and Girls to guide the Ships of both Sun and Moon Besides they have the picture of a Bark which they say belonged to the Angel Bachan whom God sends to visit the Sun and Moon to see whether they move exactly and keep close to their Duty In reference to the other World and Life to come They believe there is no other World but where Angels and Divels together with the Souls of Good and Bad reside That in that World there are Cities Houses and Churches and likewise that the Evil Spirits have their Churches where they pray singing and rejoycing upon Instruments and feasting as in this World That when any one lies at the point of Death three hundred and sixty Demons come and carry his Soul to a place full of Serpents Dogs Lions Tigers and Devils who if it be the Soul of a wicked Man tear it in pieces but if it be the Soul of a just Man it creeps under the Bellies of those Creatures into the presence of God who sits in his Seat of Majesty to judge the World That there are also Angels who weigh the Souls of Men in a Ballance and those who are thought worthy are immediately admitted into Glory That Angels and Devils are Male and Female and beget Children and that the Angel Gabriel has a Daughter called Sâ—â—ret who has two Sons That the Angel Gabriel has several Legions of Demons under him who are instead of Souldiers and others that are his Officers of Justice whom he sends from Town to Town and from City to City to punish the wicked They hold that Christ left 12 Apostles to preach to the Nations That the Virgin Mary is not dead but lives somewhere in the World though no body knows where and that next to her St. John is to be the chiefest Saint in Heaven and next to them Zacharias and Elizabeth of whom they recount several Miracles and Apocryphal Tales That when St. John came to be of Age his Father and Mother married him and also that he had four Sons which he begat upon the Waters of Jordan and not upon the Body of his Wife That he died a natural Death but commanded his Disciples to Crucify him after his death that he might be like Christ and lastly that he died in the City of Fuster and was buried in a chrystal Tomb brought to that City by a Miracle and that this Sepulchre was in a certain House near the River Jordan They highly adore the Cross because say they we have a Book wherein it is written That every Day early in the Morning the Angels take the Cross and put it in the middle of the Sun which receives its Light from it as the Moon does also hers And that without these Crosses neither Sunnor Moon would give any Light and the Ships they were in would suffer Shipwrack Their Festivals are Three the one is in Winter that lasts three Days in memory of our First Parent and the Creation of the World The Second in August and called the Feast of St John The Third lasts five Days in June during which time they are all Re-baptized On Sunday they do no work They neither Fast nor do any Penance They have no Canonical Books but a great number of others that treat of nothing but Witchcraft in which they believe their Priests to be very crafty and that the Devils are at their beck They suffer no Women to go to Church nor any of the Laity to kill a Hen or any Fowl They eat of nothing drest by the Turks and after a Turk has drunk in one of their Cups they break it to pieces and picture Mahomet and four of his Parents as shut up in Hell and say That all Turks are carried to the same place to be devoured by wild Beasts They all pretend to Salvation by a Promise made by God to Gabriel on their behalf when he framed the World They have a great Antipathy against the blew Colour called Indigo which they will not so much as touch For say they certain Jews dreaming that their Laws should be abolished by St. John told it their Country-men which they understanding and seeing that St. John prepared to baptize Christ in a great rage fetch a vast quantity of Indigo in their Language Nill and flung it into Jordan which continued unclean for some time and had hindred the Baptism of Christ had not God sent his Angels with a large Vessel of Water which he caused them to fill out of Jordan before the Jews had defiled it with Indigo and that for the foresaid bold Attempt to defile the River God particularly cursed that Colour Ejaculation How long O Lord Holy and True wilt thou cease to be avenged of that Prince of Darkness for tyrannizing and triumphing over the poor Heathens and beguiling them with his Sorceries Witchcrafts and Enchantments for so many thousand Years How long wilt thou suffer that Enemy of Souls secretly to divert and please himself by seeing such vast numbers of his Slaves and Vassals to take more pains undergo more hardships and to endure more exquisite bodily Torments in travelling along the Broad way and passing through the wide Gate that leads to endless Woes and Miseries than thou sufferest a great number of thine own Elect and chosen Servants to meet with in the Narrow Way and in their passage through the straight Gate that leads to Eternal Life But to return to my Observations of the Devil's practices When God had covenanted with Abraham that his Seed should be multiplied as the Stars of Heaven and inherit the Promised Land What Stone did Satan leave unturn'd Or what Opportunities did he ever lose of attempting to frustrate God's gracious Designs His first Atchievement was to exasperate Esaâ— to murder his Brother Jacob upon whose individual Person his aged Father had so lately fixt a Blessing and out of whose Loyns were to come forth 12 Tribes whose Posterity were to be as innumerable as the Sands of the Sea hoping that he being once removed the blessed Effects of all God's promises would be utterly vacated and disappointed When Jacob's Family were kindly received by K. Pharaoh and the Egyptians How
I have yet one question to ask of certain Persons who are rightly stiled Modern Sadduces and that is For what Reason they deny the Resurrection Or why they should at all doubt God's Omnipotence Or once imagine That He who made all things out of nothing should not be able when ever he pleases out of something to make any thing How many Emblems of the Resurrection have we frequently before our Eyes The Night lies down and the Day arises again The Day departs and the Night comes on The Year that dies in Autumn has a Resurrection in the Spring The seed of Herbs Corn and Fruit-Trees first suffer a Dissolution in the Earth some for a few Days others for a few Weeks and then by the Power of the Almighty Maker of all things have a new Body given them of the same Kind or Species If that be true which some have related of the Phoenix a thing I would rather believe than undertake to disprove since there are so many strange things to be found among the Works of the Creation It is a wonderful Type of the Resurrection In Arabia say they there is a certain Bird called a Phoenix of which there is but one at a time and that one lives 500 Years and when the time draws near that it must die it makes it self a Nest of Frankincense and Myrrh and other Spices into which when its time is fulfilled it enters and dies but its Flesh putrifying breeds a certain Worm which being nourished by the Juice of the dead Carcass brings forth a new Phoenix and when it is grown to a perfect Age it takes up the Nest in which the Bones of its Parent lie and carries it from Arabia into Egypt to a City called Heliopolis and flying in open Day in the sight of all Men lays it on the Altar of the Sun and so returns into the Country from whence it came This done the Priests make search into the Records of Time and find that it returneth at the end of 500 Years Whether this Report be true or no sure I am that nothing can be too hard for the Almighty Let us suppose in two or three Instances things that are within the reach of our apprehensions viz. First a Mariner in a Sea-fight to be shot to death and thrown over-board and afterwards the Flesh of his Body to be eaten up by a great number of small Fishes and these Fishes to be taken in Nets and eaten by hundreds of Men Women and Children of different places and abodes and some of them to be drowned in the Sea and devoured by other Fishes and some to be cast into the Earth and eaten up by Worms In the next place Let us suppose a Man to die in a wide Forest or Wilderness and part of his Carcass to be devoured by wild Beasts part by the Fowls of the Air and part by Flies and creeping Things and again those Beasts and Fowls and creeping things to die and part of them to be eaten up by other Creatures Lastly Let us suppose a Man-Child born into the World and as 't is believed the Flesh of that Infant in a few Years to be evaporated and new Flesh grown up in the room of the other and let us suppose this Body to live and change for the space of threescore or fourscore years and then be buried in the Sands as is practised in some very hot Countries and there remain a Thousand or fifteen Hundred Years till such time as it is grown perfectly dry and fit to be made use of for Mummie and this Mummie to be distributed into the hands of several hundreds of Apothecaries and each of these Apothecaries to make use of it in their physical Doses Potions or otherwise and to administer it to as many hundreds of their Patients and each of those Patients to void the same or any part of it by stool and those stools to be carried away by the Scavengers into some common place and there mingled with the Ordours of ten Thousand other Persons and from that place taken up by the Salt-Peter Men and converted into Gun-powder and that Powder shot away into the Air. Give me leave to tell those unbelieving Sadduces my life for theirs that the Almighty God and Maker of Heaven and Earth is able to recall every Particle Dust or Atom of a Human Body in any of the aforesaid Instances to its Original and proper Mass and to form that Mass into its first Original and infant Body As also to give that infant Body its full stature and perfect Dimensions and this done from a Natural and Corruptible to change it into a Spiritual and incorruptible Substance And lastly to reunite it to its own proper and immortal soul and all this in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump and the Voice of the Arch-angel calling for the Dead to arise and come to Judgment I must needs acknowledge That the Disbelief of a future Resurrection is no small encouragement to either Atheist or Libertine to go on in his sin with great presumption For if the Dead rise not our Faith is altogether vain And if this Corruptible shall never put on Incorruption nor this Mortal Immortality then go to Let us Eat Drink and be Merry for to Morrow we die There are some who satisfie themselves that God is so merciful and so just in his Judgments that he will never punish finite Sins with everlasting Punishments but such Men little think how miserably they deceive themselves while they ascribe less Power to the Almighty Maker over his Creatures than an ordinary Potter has over his Clay and earthen Vessels Besides that in the Gospel Dispensation there are propos'd to Fallen Man two things which very well counterballance one the other both as to Time and Measure namely on the one side Eternal and inexpreslible Happiness and on the other endless and unspeakable Miseries Now if the Sinner do voluntarily and with deliberation choose the last of these Volent non fit Injuria he has his choise and desire and has no reason in the World to complain of any hardship much less of any Injury done to him it being a greater Mercy to grant Eternal Life upon a bare Repentance and Believing during our earthly pilgrimage than it is a Severity to inflict eternal Torment for continuing in actual Sin for the very same term of time The Author of Leviathan will by no means admit of a Local Hell or indeed of a Local Heaven For the first of which he has no better Reason than this trusting to his own skill in Geometry and Staticks that it cannot be either in the Cavity of the Earth or any other body of the like magnitude hanging in the expanse forasmuch as in any circumscribed Bodies there cannot be included a Bottomless-Pit which in sacred Stile is sometimes called Hell Whereas if he had considered that our Antipodes tread as heavy on the superficies of the
dies where the Fire that burns is never to be quenched nor the Body that is burning never consumed THE Third Question Q. What art thou now doing Answer I hope through God's great Goodness and Mercy That one Thing necessary For having wandred up and down and made many weary steps in the wide Wilderness of a vain and sinfull World I was at last very desirous to return home to my self but must freely confess some Truths which to my Readers at first sight may seem Paradoxes or Riddles viz. I could never truly get into my self before I was got out of and had wholly left my self My wavering Mind was never rightly composed till it was extreamly disturbed I had no ease till I was in pain nor Peace and quietness till I was in trouble and distress I could enjoy nothing till I was dispossest of all things I was unable to stand up till I was fallen down to make the least progress till I was struck with Lameness or to see my Way till I had lost both my Eyes Ejaculation and Prayer Father of Mercies I do sincerely and with all my Soul bless and praise Thee for all the Changes and Chances the Disgrace and Misfortunes the Crosses and Disappointments and the bodily pains and Torments that have followed one another like Job's messengers and so closely attended this last Scene of my Life and Evening of my Days As really believing that they were all Marks and Tokens of thy favour and loving Kindness and that the great Physician of Soul and Body never does administer those bitter Pills to his Sick Patients but for blessed Ends and Purposes Lord I believe all this help my unbelief and graciously grant that thy poor distressed Servant may at last come out of the Furnace of Affliction and Troubles like Gold and Silver that has been tried in the fire and purified seven times Let others imbarque and hazard their immortal Souls in what false Bottoms they please Let the Ambitious-Man glory in his Honors and Preferments Let the Covetous Man's trust and confidence be his worldly Wealth and Mammon of Unrighteousness Let the Voluptuous Man's Paradise be his Dalilahs and sensual Pleasures But Christian Reader let you and I in this our Day and while we have Time and Opportunity make Provision for Eternity In order to this there are some things which we either do or may know by the Light of Nature and those Principles which we brought into the World with us the visible things of the Creation naturally leading us to the knowledge of one God Almighty Maker and Governor of all things and the Law of Nature that is written in our hearts prompting us to worship that God to be just in our Dealings to honour our Parents and the like And when on the one hand we faithfully perform or on the other hand do any thing contrary to what the Light of Nature dictates to us we have Consciences within us that do either accuse or else excuse our Actions and Behaviours and thus far go the Heathens But now there are other things which more nearly concern us Christians and these are revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures which Scriptures we are to esteem and reverence as undoubted and unquestionable Truths both as to the historical part of them and also the Precepts Promises and Threats contained in them and that for the Reasons alledged in a foregoing part of this Treatise 1. In these Scriptures we are taught and commanded to acknowledge the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity Three Persons and one God who is an infinitely glorious Spirit that was from Everlasting without Beginning and shall be to Everlasting without End That he is no bodily Substance such as our Eyes behold but Spiritual and Invisible whom no Man hath seen or can see who comprehends all things and is only Immense not to be comprehended by any who can never be defined by any Words nor conceived by the Mind That He is infinitely Great and Excellent beyond all that we can possibly imagine That He has received his Being from none and gives Being to all things 2. To acknowledge His Divine excellencies and glorious Attributes as namely His All-sufficiency and admirable Providence in Disposing Governing and preserving all things his Omnipotence Omniscience and Omnipresence his Eternal Truth and Justice his transcendent Purity and Holiness and his infinite Mercy and Goodness 3. To love this God with all our Hearts and Souls as He is the Fountain of all Goodness and Excellency in himself and as He is infinitely kind and merciful towards us both in respect of our Souls and Bodies in giving us a Being in the World in forming and framing us wonderfully in our Mother's wombs in breathing into us the Breath of Life and enduing us with reasonable Souls after his own Image and Likeness in giving us our Birth within the Pale of the Church and not among Heathens Turks or Infidels in leaving us so many pious Examples of the blessed Patriarchs Prophets Apostles and Martyrs who are gone before us and with their own Blood have traced out for us the true way to Life and Happiness But above all that unparallell'd Pattern of Piety and Goodness in the Life of the Holy Jesus who so freely gave up himself as an Offering to save lost Sinners and to open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers in giving us Food and Rayment and all the good Things of this Life and preserving us from sudden Deaths and Dangers ever since we hung upon our Mother's breasts To answer all which Love and Kindness of God to us we must express our Love to him by our hearty and honest Endeavours to please him in all things which we can never do without a sincere Repentance and a firm Resolution to amend our Lives and never to harbour in our Bosoms any secret Lust or live in any known Sin or Sins as likewise by taking all Opportunities of conversing with him as well in our private Closets as in the publick Assemblies by Prayer Fasting and Meditation by reading and hearing his Word and receiving the blessed Sacrament and lastly by our earnest and longing Desire whenever we shall put off these fleshly Tabernacles to enjoy him by Beatifick Vision amongst blessed Saints and Angels in the highest Heavens 4. To fear him not only with an awful fear from the consideration of his Power and Justice he being a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity and also when provoked by our Impieties able to cast both Body and Soul into everlasting Flames which is infinitely more than either Men or Devils can do against us but also with a Filial fear as an obedient and dutiful Child truly fears to offend or displease a loving and tender Father 5. To trust in Him and to depend upon Him at all times and in all Conditions as well in regard of our Spiritual as our Temporal Concerns If we are assaulted by Temptations we are to rely upon him either
Parents and therefore none of their Posterity have any Reason to make use of them so extravagantly as some Persons of this last Age have done to that degree that they have made themselves ridiculous in the Eyes of many sober Beholders The Pride and Vanity of the Daughters of Sion or Jewish Ladies were severely reprehended in the time of the Prophet Isaiah by God Almighty Himself 3 Isai 16 17 18 c. Namely their walking with stretch'd-forth-Necks and wanton Eyes mincing as they went and priding themselves with the bravery of their tinkling Ornaments about their Feet There was likewise particular Notice taken of their Cauls and Round Tires like the Moon of their Chains Bracelets and Mufflers their Bonnets Head-bands and Ornaments of their Legs their Tablets Ear-Rings and Nose-Jewels their Mantles Wimples and Crisping-pins together with their châ—ngeable Suits of Apparel For all which Extravagances and Excesses there were at the same time threatned and denounced very severe Judgments I pray God the Vanities of this latter Age may not give as great offence Reflection Should a plain Country-Gentleman of Wit and Parts who has by any Misfortune been confined and shut up in a close place for twenty or thirty Years last past be suddenly brought forth into some places of publick Shows and Concourse I am apt to believe that he would be extremely surprized with the sight of some strange Dresses that are in use now-a-days and possibly fall into as great fit of Laughter crying Aha! Aha! as those who are stung or bit with a Tarantula And peradventure it might be as difficult to reconcile him and oblige him to approve of their wild Fancies as it would be to compose such a specifick musical Tune as might perfectly cure and bring the others to their right Senses 11. To love our Neighbour as our selves not to slander calumniate reproach backbite or bear false Witness against him Not to lessen or detract from his Worth or Merits or delight to hear it done by others or to envy his Prosperity and Happiness Never to break out into sinful Anger unbridled Passions provoking Language or reviling Speeches much less to do him any kind of violence or give him mortal Wounds Not to rob or steal his Goods or any way to cozen or deceive him by false Wares Weights or Measures or other fraudulent practises Not to covet his House his Wife his Man-servant his Maid-servant his Ox his Ass or any thing that is his Not to let his Ox or his Ass go astray and hide our selves from them but to take particular care of and restore them Not to remove old Land-Marks or enter into the field of the Fatherless and not to oppress the Poor in the Gate or devour Widow's houses Not to judge or set at nought our Brother Nor to lay any stumbling-Block or occasion to fall in his way or to censure him for strickly observing Meats or Drinks or Days Not to draw him into any Sin or Wickedness by our Encouragements Connivance or ill Examples When we converse with others to be assable and courteous and to behave our selves with all humility and meekness condescending to Men of low Estates and esteeming others better than our selves To follow Peace with all Men as much as in us lies and to be Peace-makers our selves To let our Love be without dissimulation and hypocrisy and to be kindly affectioned one to another rejoycing with them that rejoyce and weeping with them that weep To shew kindness as we have occasion to our very Enemies and to pray for those that hate persecute and despitefully use us To shew mercy with chearfulness and alacrity and never to let our Alms be accompanied with harsh and uncomfortable words And thus to deal our Bread to the Hungry to give Drink to the Thirsty to cloath the Naked to visit the Sick to relieve the Prisoners to redeem the Captives to help the Poor the Widow and the Fatherless to comfort and assist the Desolate and Oppressed and never to shut up the bowels of our Compassion from any without distinction of Persons or Qualifications who stand in need of our asssistance To conclude all Persons whatever are bound in Conscience to behave themselves with all sincerity and uprightness in their several and respective Stations and Relations Wives are to submit themselves to their own Husbands as unto the Lord for the Husband is the Head of the Wife even as Christ is the Head of the Church and as the Church is subject unto Christ so are the Wives to be to their own Husbands in every thing 5 Ephes 22 23 24. Again Husband are to love their Wives even as Christ also loved the Church so ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies He that loveth his Wife loveth himself for no Man yet hateth his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it For which cause shall a Man leave his Father and his Mother and shall be joined unto his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh 5 Ephes 25 26. c. Children are to obey their Parents in the Lord To honour their Father and Mother which is the first Commandement with promise that it may be well with them 6 Ephes 1 2 3. Parents are enjoined to bring up their Children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord and according to their Abilities to make suitable provision for their Maintenance It is no small Trust that Parents repose in Governours and Governesses but more especially in School-Masters and Mistresses for the pious and virtuous Education of the Youth of both Sexes which Trust if it be faithfully and honestly perform'd is of unspeakable Benefit and Use in a Common-wealth and such School-Masters and Mistresses deserve to be valued and respected according to their Merits On the other side if this Trust be not rightly perform'd but neglected and abused it is of pernicious consequence of which I my self have seen some woful effects and have heard very bitter Complaints It is and has been a daily practise in some Schools by harsh and cruel Masters and by peevish hard-hearted and ill natur'd Mistresses to beat and bruise poor Childrens heads as if their double Fists were so many Mallats their Scholars heads as so many Blocks and they themselves Hemp-beaters And the truth is Beating of Hemp would be a much fitter Employment for the meaner sort of those unmerciful Wretches and it 's great pity that there are not very severe Laws made against such barbarous and inhumane Practises which so manifestly obstruct and hinder the Soul whose principal seat the head is in sending too and fro and rightly making use of the Vital and Animal Spirits for the due performance of their several and respective Operations of which the natural consequences are oftimes Deafness Imposthumes and other dangerous Disorders and Distempers And God alone knows how many persons there are and have been in this very Kingdom within the space of forty or fifty Years who promised Wonders in their
Repentance with a stedfast and firm Resolution to reform and amend our Lives Bless us in our going out and our coming in when we are upon the Way when we lay us down and when we rise up When we are in our private Closets lend an Ear to our Prayers and answer the Desires of our Souls When we are employed about our Lawful Callings give success to our honest Labours and Endeavours When we are conversing with others let us behave our selves with all humility and meekness in all our Words and Actions esteeming others better than our selves and doing to others what we would be willing they should do unto us Being patient gentle and easy to be entreated slow to wrath and ready to forgive all those who have trespassed against us until seventy seven times Loving our Enemies doing good and shewing kindness as we have opportunities to those who hate persecute and despitefully use us Living in humble Obedience to and heartily praying for Him who hath the supreme Power over us together with all those who are related to Him or who are in Authority under Him Being no Busy-bodies in other Men's Matters no Whisperers Tale-bearers Slanderers or Back-biters No Deceivers or Covenant-breakers but sincere and upright in all our Dealings and Transactions No lovers of Earthly Treasure no Worshippers of Gold or Silver or greedy of filthy Lucre. With all chearfulness and alacrity dealing our Bread to the Hungry giving Drink to the Thirsty Clothing the Naked visiting the Sick relieving Prisoners redeeming Captives helping the Fatherless and Widows comforting and assisting the Desolate and Oppressed and never shutting up the Bowels of our Compassion from any who want our Help or Assistance And forasmuch as we are here but Strangers and Pilgrims let thy good Spirit guide and conduct us in our Way to our long Homes through the vast and wide Wilderness of this sinful World where there are so many Turnings and Windings Cross-ways and By-paths Thorns and Briars Pits and Precipices Traps and Snares laid for us by the Devil and his Emissaries to entice us to Sin and Wickedness and then to plunge us into endless Woe and Miseries Where there is no true content or Satisfaction to be found and where the most refined of Human Pleasures and Delights are allayed with the mixture of Cares and Troubles Fears and Jealousies Sicknesses and Diseases Crosses and Disappointments where Love and Kindness is often repaid with Hatred and Malice and the most bountiful Actions with ungrateful Returns Where the Poor are oppressed by Men of Power and innocent Lambs made a prey to ravenous Wolves where our Eyes are too often entertained with doleful Spectacles and our Ears filled with Sighs and Groans and bitter Lamentations And therefore Gracious FATHER be thou pleased to give us such a measure of Faith Hope and Patience as may bear us up in all the Changes and Chances of this Mortal Life and enable us in whatever State or Condition we are therewith to be content as well to be abased as to be exalted to want as to abound to have nothing as to possess all things And though the Fig-tree should be withered and no Fruit be found on the Vine the labour of the Olive fail and the Field yield no increase though there should be no Sheep in the Fold or Herd in the Stall no Cattel in the pasture or Stores in the Garner no Water in the Bottle or Oil in the Cruce yet still to trust in that GOD who feeds the Ravens and the young Lions when they call upon him who can make Rivers to flow out of hard Rocks and furnish a Table in the Wilderness With whom the very Hairs of our heads are all numbred and in whom none ever trusted and were confounded That so having finished our Course and run our Race and lived the Life of the Righteous our last END may be like unto his And whenever these Houses of Clay shall be dissolved our Souls may be safely conveyed by some blessed Guardian Angels to the place appointed for the Spirits of GOD's Elect there to wait with patience for a joyful Re-union with their respective Bodies at the Resurrection and second coming of CHRIST in Glory with all his holy Angels in whose Name and Words we farther desire to call upon Thee Saying Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy NAME thy Kingdom come thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Give us this Day our daily Bread and forgive us our Trespasses as we forgive them that Trespass against us and lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil for thine is the Kingdom the Power and the Glory for ever and ever Amen AN EVENING-PRAYER FOR Every Day in the Week MOST Glorious LORD GOD and merciful Father in Christ Jesus who inhabitest the highest Heavens and yet art pleased to dwell in the lowest Hearts and hast graciously promised That where-ever Two or Three are gathered together in thy Name and Fear Thou wilt be there in the midst of them Look down in mercy upon us who are now before Thee and dare not give sleep to our Eyes or slumber to our Eye-lids till we have renewed our Covenant with the GOD and FATHER of Mercies and have humbly offered unto Him our Selves our Souls and Bodies as a reasonable service Be therefore pleased O Lord to forgive all the Sins of our past Lives particularly the Omissions and Commissions of this Day for which alone shouldst Thou enter into Judgment with us Thou mightst justly condemn us to the lowest Hell and give ns our portion with Hypocrites in utter Darkness Blessed LORD we desire from the bottom of our Hearts to be sensible of our manifold Frailties and Infirmities and of that Law in our Members that is always Warring against the Law of our Minds so that whenever we would do Good Evil is present with us and intermingles with our very Prayers and disturbs our most religious Duties and Performances And therefore it is that utterly renouncing our own Righteousness as Dung â—nd Dross we fly to Him who is our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous to wash away our Sins with his own precious Blood and to present us unto Thee our GOD pure and spotless And for his sake we humbly beseech Thee O LORD to lighten our Darkness and by thy great mercy to defend us from all perils and dangers this Night giving us a moderate and refreshing Rest free from frightful Dreams and sinful Imaginations which are the evil Effects of our corrupt Natures When we awake let our Souls be filled with heavenly Thoughts and pious Meditations always remembring That we are in the presence of a God who knows our down-sitting and our up-rising who understands our Thoughts a farr off and is acquainted with all our ways If we should be so vain and foolish to believe that the Darkness would cover us the Night shall be light about us the Darkness hideth not from Thee but