we may expect Salvation Isa 4.2 And is it not so far a decent Worship to adore such a God by the Mediation of such a Jesus to Pray to God in the Name of Christ to be usher'd into the Audience of the Father by the Intercession of his only Son to have access into the Court of Heaven in the Name of the Son of God who hath loved us and given himself for us Hag. 2.7 The Desire of all Nations 3. The Ministers by the Instrumentality of whom c. I mean not those Pseudoes that run before they are sent those lying Spirits that under pretence of Teaching deceive the People but those Ministers of the Gospel which Preach the Word faithfully and divide it skilfully and administer all the Sacred and Sacramental Ordinances impartially without addition or diminution that Preach with zeal and Pray with fervour and live well and study to approve themselves honest Pastors that need not be ashamed they that endeavour to reduce the straying sheep to warn the unruly to rebuke the gain-sayer to comfort the weak commending themselves to the Consciences of their Hearers in the sight of God and these I say if we have any such amongst us as no doubt but we have tho' I wish their number were greater are Men of a welcome Presence of beautiful Feet of pleasant Countenances Isa 52.7 The very Office it self is an Ornament thoh ' the Church never wanted those Adversaries that in despite to the Light threw Stones at the Lanthorn The Minister is a Terrestrial Angel they should be so and good Ministers are so To the Angel of the Church c. Rev. 2.1 of Ephesus Sardis c. they are Starrs and shining Lights in the dark World and Starrs ye know enamel the Hemispheres They are the Servants of the living God which shew to us the way to everlasting Salvation I would not say these things to puff the Clergy up with Pride and Vain-glory but I would have the People know those Men that are set over them and admonish them and give double Honour to them that labour faithfully in Word and Doctrine and acknowledge the beauty of their feet which run to them upon these Evangelical Errands and pay a due and humble deference to that Sacred Function and account them more than the Horse-men of Israel and the Chariots thereof 4. The Place where Whether it be a ' Tabernacle or a Temple or other place consign'd to the Holy Service not that we attribute any inherent Holiness to such places now especially under the Gospel but what depends meerly upon the relation it bears to the Work and Employment 't is devoted to and upon this score the Place ought to be dear to us and appear amiable in our Eyes and we should be so in love with the Place for the Works sake as to say of it as the Patriarch of Bethel How dreadful is this place this is none other than the House of God! and lo here the Angels of Heaven ascending and descending as it were upon a Ladder or as the Prophet David Psal 84.1 c. How amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts 't is the perfection of Beauty shinning with the light of the Divine Countenance Psal 50.2 't is that Zion which the Lord hath chosen and desired for his habitation saying this is my rest for ever here will I dwell here will I treat my Spouse the Church with the sweetest Wines the fattest Delicates the choicest Ordinances in the World Manna from Heaven Angels Food the Waters of Life Nectar and Ambrosia Nourishment for Souls to fit them for Eternity Forgive me Sirs if I speak with some spice of Fondness and Admiration all the World besides is common ground compared to this Sacred Appartment and all our Employment besides in comparison of this is nauseous and impertinent here 's the Vineyard of red Wine that the Lord himself doth keep Isa 25.6 better far than all the Taverns than all the Theaters than all the Elysian Camps of the wide Universe Glad then may we be when they say unto us We will go into the house of the Lord we will worship towards his holy Temple we will go and keep holy-day in the Courts of the Lord's house on the hill of Zion in the midst of Jerusalem Hallelujah Here we have better Company than any where in the World besides I mean in a more especial manner here more peculiarly than any where else we have Heaven it self in Emblem Mount Zion in Effigie the Coelestial Jerusalem the City of the living God the Coier of Angels the Court of Saints a sweet correspondency with the best of Spirits in both the Churches in both the Worlds Militant and Triumphant Earth and Heaven which brings me to 5. The People who The Holy Church the best of Men and Angels and Spirits separate the select Company called out from the rest of the World to adore their Lord and communicate of his Grace and prepare for and partake of his Glory not that all who are called are accepted the Chaff and Wheat the Corn and Tares the good and bad Fish the Sheep and Goats the Sincere and Hypocrite are both for a while jumbled together in promiscuous Company but none are real Communicants in this sweetness but real Believers the rest feed upon the shell these eat the Kernel the rest look on these taste the Comforts the rest fill up a space and serve for some purposes they hew wood and draw water for the use of the Tabernacles these are invested in the Communities Priviledges and Dignities of the Place they have all one Coat and Creed and Profession but these all have one Mind one Mouth one Hope one Way and one End they mutually partake and Communicate together in the same Prayers Praises Promises Priviledges every thing that is sweet and salutary and tho' their Faces differ their Natures do not tho' in Opinions about some lesser punctillio's they consent not in their Charity they are all one One so entirely that all the Cunning and Violence in the World shall not be able to dissolve the Knot One so entirely that their Interests their Intercessions their Cares and Crosses are the same the whole Company espouse the same Cause all drive at the same End all mean the Divine Glory and the good of Mankind in general if one be weak the other is weak if one be offended the other burns all the Members of the same Body do sweetly and amicably sympathize together Christians as widely distant one from the other as the two Poles meet in their Prayers in their Eucharists even the Angels stoop to us and we aspire to them we are all carrying on the same Work we shall all receive the same Wages we shall all shortly together be with the Lord Tho' our Brains be different yet our Hearts are not Bishop Hall nor our Ends shall not The Church is lovely orderly unanimous as an Army with Banners In short the Churches
was the Subject of general Discourse for a long time after and 't is not doubted but that his Lordship's Letter to Mr. Glascock which was never printed but in this Specimen will be as well received and 't is hoped may have the same good Effect as the former had The Gentleman who hath communicated to us these Letters sent by the Earl of Marlbourgh to Sir Hugh Pollard and Mr. Glascock is a Person of Quality now living in London and if any one hath the curiosity to be satisfied from his own mouth about perfect certainty of the matters therein Related if he repairs to Mr. Darker in Bull-head-Court near Cripple-gate he will be always ready to bring any Gentleman to speak with him for further confirmation It must needs be obvious to every considering Reader that the same holy spirit who breath'd from the mouth of Solomon the wisest of men That all things in this World are Vanity and Vexation of Spirit did make this Great Man sensible of the Truth thereof by his own Experience and to express it accordingly and how observable is it that that very Truth which he so ingeniously confesses himself to have neglected and dispised did at last make an entire Conquest over him and force him to submit as if God would thereby let us see that though not many Noble and not many Wise are called yet he does not leave the Gospel without a Testimony even from such but obliges them to confess That the Wisdom of this World is meer Foolishness with God which will appear yet more by the following Instances It 's taken notice of that Sir * In Sir Alan Brodericks Funeral Sermon by Nathan Resbury Minister of Wandsworth Decemb. 3. 1680. Alan Broderick who was a Gentleman of Extraordinary Learning and Accomplishments did own with much Contrition that a Long Scene of his Life had been acted in the Sports and Follies of Sin that he had sometime pursued a Pagan and abandon'd way Scepticism it self not excepted wherein the poinancy of his Wit and the strength of his Reasoning even in that very Argument the using of which proclaims a man in the Language of the Holy Scriptures a Fool may have been the occasion of a great deal of mischief towards some that are already gone to their Accounts Yet some years before his Death the bent and tendency of his Life and Actions was Devout and Religious and in his Private Conversation with his Minister he would alway be Discoursing some Cases of Conscience about Retir'd Closet-prayer or the Nature and Necessity of True Religion and in his last Sickness he thought himself under a mighty Incumbency to Pray but was much harassed and anxious what to do because of his fear of not performing it with all becoming Reverence and Seriousness For look you saith he my Conscience is now as tender as wet Paper torn upon every apprehension of the least guilt before God And as he had much studied the Nature of Repentance he would frequently complain That he had a great jealousie upon himself least he had not yet conceiv'd an horror answerable to his past Exorbitancies of Life and had not made those smart and pungent Reflections upon himself that might become one that had so long and in such Exalted Degrees violated the Laws of his Maker and made himself so Obnoxious to the Vengeance of his Judgment and that if the cutting off one of his Hands with the other were but a proper or likely way through the anguish of such a wound to give him a just horror for his sins he would do that as willingly as he ever did any one Action that had given him the greatest pleasure of Life He also said that by the grace of God he had such a sense of the Conviction and folly and unreasonableness of Sin that no Argument no Tentation should prevail upon him to do the like again Having taken notice that all my Lord Rochesters Religious breathings were accounted by some the Raves and Delirancies of a sick Brain he did resolve to have given the World a publick Account of the sentiments he had of Religion both as to the Faith and Practise of it but was prevented But the next instance of the E. of Rochester is still more convincing who as it appears by his Funeral Sermon did with very much abhorrence exclaim against that absurd and foolish Philosophy which the World so much admired and was propagated by the late Mr. Hobbs and others which had undone him and many more of the best parts of the Nation * See my Lord Rochester's Funeral Sermon preached by Mr. Parsons Aug. 9. 1680. My Lord Rochester being awak'd from his spiritual Slumber by a pungent Sickness as appears by his Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. Parsons Augufl 9. 1680. Upon the Preachers first visit to him May 26. My Lord thank'd God who had in Mercy and good Providence sent him to him who so much needed his Prayers and Counsels acknowledging how unworthily heretofore he had treated that Order of men reproaching them that they were proud and Prophesied only for rewards but now he had learnt how to value them that he esteem'd them the Servants of the most High God who were to shew to him the way to everlasting Life At the same time continues our Author I found him labouring under strange trouble and conflicts of Mind his Spirit wounded and his Conscience full of terrours Upon his Journey he told me that he had been arguing with greater vigour against God and Religion than ever he had done in his Life time before and that he was resolv'd to run them down with all the Arguments and Spite in the World but like the great Convert St. Paul he found it hard to kick against the Pricks for God at that time had so struck his heart by his immediate hand that presently he argued as strongly for God and Vertue as before he had done against it that God strangely opened his heart creating in his mind most awful and tremendous Thoughts and Ideas of the Divine Majesty with a delightful Contemplation of the Divine Nature and Attributes and of the Loveliness of Religion and Vertue I never said he was advanc'd thus far towards happiness in my Life before tho' upon the commissions of some Sins extraordinary I have had some checks and warnings considerable from within but still struggl'd with them and so wore them off again The most observable that I remember was this One day at an Atheistical meeting at a Person of Qualities I undertook to manage the Cause and was the principal Disputant against God and Piety and for my performances receiv'd the Applause of the whole Company upon which my Mind was terribly struck and I immediately replied thus to my self Good God! That a man that walks upright that sees the wonderful Works of God and has the uses of his Sence and Reason should use them to the defying of his Creator But tho' this was
AN ESSAY UPON THE WORKS OF Creation and Providence BEING AN Introductory Discourse TO THE History of Remarkable Providences Now preparing for the Press To which is added a FURTHER SPECIMEN of the said WORK AS ALSO Meditations upon the Beauty of Holiness By William Turner M. A. and Vicar of Walberton in Sussex The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his Handy Work Psalm 19.1 LONDON Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in Jewen-street and are also sold by Edm. Richardson near the Poultry Church 1695. To the Worshipful JAMES BUTLER OF Patcham in Sussex Esq AND HIS Virtuous Consort Sir and Madam MY Design is not to offer you here any Flattering Encomium but to acknowledge a Score that I have run upon in your Books for some time to make a little Apology for the seeming negligence and forgetfulness I have been guilty of And this I the rather do because you will guess by these Presents not only that I am alive but the Favours you have sometime shewed me are alive in my thoughts too Only my self lie half-buried in Cares and Books so that I want leisure to pay my Debts and Devoirs in due time and manner and faculty to do it in due measure Be pleased to contemplate a little while with me here the Beauty of the Outward Parts of Heaven and thence make conjecture at the Wisdom of Him that made the World and the Provision He hath made in the Highest Heavens for all that Love and Obey Him in Truth This is but a Harbinger for a more Compleat History of Divine Providence designed e're long for the Press It cannot be improper certainly to Ascend Pisgah by degrees we may see the Outward Skirts of Heaven from the Foot of the Mount When we can get to the Top our desire is to take a prospect of the whole Hemisphere to leave the Stars whilst we make enquiry after all the Invisible Host of the Middle Region that are employed about us either as Friends or Enemies The God of Heaven make your Graces shine more and more in the mean time that they may outshine and outlast the Stars and you your selves be fixed in their room for ever so pray I for you pray you so for Worshipful Sir and Worthy Madam Your Obliged Servant W. T. TO THE READERS SIRS 'T IS the Prerogative of Human Nature that me have not only a Lofty Figure and Visage but Intellectuals too far superiour to all the Bruitish kind And this Endowment bestowed upon us by Him that made us for very Wise and Good Ends Not to be more ingeniously Wicked and Dishonest to immerge our selves deeper in the Concerns and Pleasures of a Material and Sensual World but to live Above it My Design is to climb a Jacob's Ladder to satisfie a little the Curiosity of my Nature to inform my self first of all and then my Fellows so far as soberly and modestly I may with all the Phenomena of the Etherial Region To acquaint my self and others with the Outward Face of Heaven first of all and all the Visible Furniture of the Outward Court Those Glorious Spangles of Stars and Planets those Fiery Meteors and other Strange Exhalations and Vapours that occur to our Senses and common Observations And this not for Bare Contemplation only but with a Design to make as Natural Genuine and Reasonable Deductions for Practice as possible This is all I aim at in this Treatise but with a full purpose if it please God to spare my Life and Health to make a New Survey e're long of that Spiritual and Invisible World where those Dii Medioxami Intermediate Agents are employed as Reporters and Transporters Monitors Couriers Apparitors Guardians Adversaries between This and the other World For certainly 't is lawful whilst we live here to peep out of our Prison and take acquaintance in what degree lawfully we can with Angels and Naked Spirits Vpon the score of our Kindred and Alliance to them and Concernment with them we are obliged so far we must do it or we are not only Disingenuous but blind to our own Interest And why doth the Almighty use so frequently and remarkably in the World those Intelligent and Spiritual Ministers in the Exercise of his Providence if we might not enquire after them and take acquaintance with them Is He ashamed of his Spiritual Train and Family Or are they so mighty strange and foreign to our Natures or so very far above us that we must run away like People Afrighted out of our Wits to hide from all such Apparitions in Corners of Thick Darkness But why should we be so ungrateful to those Angelical Creatures as to suppress all those Occurrences of History all those conspicuous Remarks of the Divine Providence wherein their Footsteps are plainly visible not only to their Grief and Dishonour but to the Great Encouragement of Atheism and Infidelity in the World Thus far I humbly conceive we may safely climb Our Scala Coeli to the Veil that interposeth between us and the Inner Court to the Gate of the New Jerusalem and no farther The Lord Guide us the Angels Guard us in all our ways till we are got safe into that place where we shall be satisfied with Glories which now we little know or comprehend where we shall be sweetly surprized and bravely entertained with Joyous Company and Glorious Objects and Tread not only the Moon but all the Starry Globes under our Feet for evermore Amen Your Servant in all Christian Offices W. T. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the greatness of the Heavens CHAP. II. Of the Quality of the Heavens CHAP. III. Of the Scituation of the Heavens CHAP. IV. Of the Stars and Planets CHAP. V. Of Comets Thunder and Lightning Air and Winds Storms and Tempests Hail Rain Snow and Frosts Extraordinary Signs and Apparitions CHAP. VI. Of the Continuation of the Heavenly Bodies CHAP. VII Of the Extensiveness of the Heavens CHAP. VIII Of the Glorious Body of the Sun Meditations on the Beauty of Holiness A Scheme of the History of Providence A further Specimen of the said History AN ESSAY UPON THE WORKS OF Creation and Providence IN my Contemplation of this Subject my Design is to take measure by the Sublimity of Our Aspect and the Excellency of the Object for the Order and Method of my Thoughts Both these seem naturally disposed to determine my Choice of the Heavens and Heavenly Bodies and the Appurtenances that are more nearly related to them and depend upon them for the Subject of my present Discourse leaving this Globe of Earth the very Sediment of the Creation and the most Dreggy Part of the World for my future Thoughts and Meditations And because in all our Disquisitions and Actions we ought to propound to our selves for our main End the Glory of God I shall consider I. The Greatness of the Heavens II. The Quality of them III. Their Scituation IV. The Stars and Planets V. Other Inferior Appurtenances
many repusses thou hast given to the Messages of Heaven and withal how if they were ten thousand times ten thousand more God knows and remembers them all and then say with Job c. 9.2 how should men be just with God 2. Their greatness Indeed they seem little to us because they are a great way off Distance of place gives disadvantage to the prospect but lie that saith they are no bigger than they seem is as wife as that Philosopher that thought the Sun was no bigger than his head The Learned and most Skillful Astronomers do generally conclude it for a demonstrative Truth that the least Star in the Firmament is bigger than the Earth we live upon And yet these so great Bodies are carried so high supported only with the hand of the Almighty let not the Penitent Sinner then say can God raise me up from the Grave of Sin from things below and set me up on high and bring me safe to Heaven Tho thou liest now among the Potsherds sunk deep into sin and misery yet God is able to lift thee and thousands more and carry thee as upon Eagles Wings and set you as Stars in Heaven there to shine for ever and ever 4. Dstance from one another especially thePlanets and from the Earth The Moon is next to us Mercury next Venus in the third place the Sun fourth Mars the fifth Jupiter the sixth Saturn highest the Fixed Stars abovethemall Were they all the same Orb they would move together at the same time and make no distinction of Day and Night of Winter and Summer or not so much as would serve for our necessities And should they be all so low as the lowest or should he that holds them there let them fall thence by the reverse of his Decree or the withdrawing of his constant Providence they would soon set this World on fire and send us off the Stage and burn the Universe into a Scrole Should God draw back the hand of his Omnipotence but one moment the Stars would fall upon our Heads and make this whole World into a Hell in the twinkling of an Eye How necessarily do we depend upon the Divine Mercy for our safety and security every hour we live more ways than one than a thousand doth he keep death and destruction from us Let us consider a little this excellent Favour So many Globes as big as Worlds and most of them far greater hanging over our Heads all the days of our Life and westill walking safe under them how much methinks do we owe to the Power and Good Providence of God forsaving our Lives in such eminent danger were those excellent Bodies subject to the like irregularities as we are aptto go out of their place toleave their Orbs to disobey the Will of him that made them as Man generally is what a dangerous condition should we be in Damocles sat down to Table at a Feast with a naked Sword hanging over his Head with a Horse-hair had no such rouson of an awful fear upon him as we have if he that Govern'd the Stars were a Man and not God 5. Their Light Which is so great in all that if but one of the Stats or Planets except the Moon which hath none but borrowed Light that if they were not kept at a distance from us would certainly dazle our weak Eyes into absolute blindness or if removed much farther off would not serve our necessities p. 63. But of this more hereafter 6. Motion Incredibly swift insomuch that as Lessins saith such Stars as are near the Equinoctial Line do move every hour 40 millions ofmiles every million being 1000000 and so in one hour move more than comes to 2000 times the Compass of the Earth The Sun saith the same Author in the compass of one hour goes in its motion 1000000 miles whereupon 't is certain that in the same space of time it equals the Compass of the Earth in its course above 50 times What an amazing wonder of Omnipotence is this Let those Atheistical Sinners think of it that all daily for a Miracle to prove the Being of a God Here 's a Miracle that presents before us every day And every man that hath Eyes in his Head if he hath Brains too may see it and wonder Why what would men have a God todo more than this If he should make a fresh Creations of a World every hour men might still wink and disbelieve and still call for fresh Miracles As if the Almighty Jehovah had nothing else to do than humour the silly Passions of hard hearted sinners of pitiful ineredulous worm Well! it will not be long but God will justifie himself to these men before Angels and Devils and shew in spight of all their spightful insidelity that he did not leave himself without witness in the World 7. Influences which are divers and some of them not known to us or discoverable to us I shall mention some 1. Warming these Sublunary Bodies and insusing sueli a heat into them as is necessary for Life and Motion insomuch that without it there would be no generaton no motion no life in the Creatures of this World Take away but the Sun out of the Firmament and no Spring would appear Man would be no more the Acts of Accretion Growing Feeling Moving Seeing Living would all cease presently Sol Homo generant hominem Nay were the Sun removed but as far from us as the Fixed Stars England would be Ireland and all our year prove a cold Winter our very Senses would prove chill and our Reasons follow hard after them for temperamentum animi sequitur temperamentum Corpois What an excellent God have we to deal with who accommodates us so kindly seasonably suitably with Fire and Fuel from Heaven not only to ferment the Clouds in order to Rain to dissolve the Snow and Hail to warm the Ar that pierceth our Bodies to foment the Earth and make it fruitful but also cherish our Human Bodies and makes our Souls more pleasant which dwell in such warm Stoves If all the Wood and Combustible Matter on the Earth were heaped together to make one Pile in order to a great Bonefire for the benefit of the Earth it would not do so much good but would come infinitely short as the Stars and Planets of Heaven Besides if the warmth of the lower Orbs be so friendly and beneficial to our natures what is the Grace of God that comes down from the Inner Heaven the Light of his Countenance to our Inner Souls If the Sun with its Pleasant Rays makes the Sublunary World smile and laugh and sing shall not the Special Grace and Favour of the Almighty much more put gladness into our hearts and make us chearful in the Service of our Maker If the presence of the Hosts of Heaven the Sun Moon and Stars be so comfortable what is the presence of the Lord of Hosts the Blessed God the Communion of the Holy Jesus the Influences
of the Spirit of Grace the Company of Angels Cherubim and Seraphim Let us say as Psalm 4. many say who will shew us any good c. Besides if the Outward Court of this World be so comforted with the warmth of the Outward Parts of Heaven is there nothing in the Emperial Orbs in the Inner Chambers to refresh and comfort the Church of God! Is the Atrium Gentium so pleasant and is the Sanctum Sanctorum the Holy of Holies devoid and desolate 2. The Flux and Reflux Ebb and Flowing of the Sea that indeed depends as generally concluded upon the Moon only But that is such a Wonder in Nature that it sufficiently illustrates the Power and Wisdom of God Psalm 107.21 22 23. Oh that men would praise the Lord c. Thus God who daily makes the great and wide Seas to Ebb and Flow is able also to make the like changes and visicissiudes in the World in the Church he turneth mand to destruction again be c. Psal 90.3 5 6. Bsal 107 31 32 c. 3. Other secret Influences and Operations unknown to us as to Weather Health Plenty and it may be Wars and Peace Prosperity and Afflictions Life and Death For so far Astrologers go but I would be wise unto sokiety and not peer too far lest I should be taxed for Curiosity in all this the Glory of God appears CHAP. V. Of Comets Thunder and Lightning Air and Winds Storms and Tempests Hail Rain Snow and Frosts Extraordinary Signs and Apparitions I Shall here speak of the other Insevlour Appurtenances of Heaven I choose to range them under that notion because I intend not so much a Lecture of Philosophy as a plain discourse of Divinity I mean the Comets Thunder and Lightning Wind and Air Vapours and Exhabations Storms and Tempests Hail Rain and Snow strange Apparitions and Phenomena I hope my time will not be quite lost nor I censur'd for impertinent in treating on these things God himself therefore exhibiting them that we might duly meditare upon them and deduce Inferences thence for his Glory 1. Comets and Blazing Stars or whatever else of that nature appears in the Heavens above us I pass over those Miteors of lesser moment Falling Stars Burning Launces Flying Dragons Skipping Goats Ignes Fatui and licking Fires as exhalations of inferiour wonder Comets are the most stupendious I hope no body amongst Christians is so silly as Democritus who took them for the Souls of the Saints Trimphing in Glory Or as others Fires carried thither by Spirits only to astonish the World Whatever they are generated of for I will not meddle here with the Physical Consideration their meaning is something the God of Nature who is so Wise as to make nothing in vain without all doubt puts them in the Heavens for some sign or other Nor dare I be peremptory to assign the particular signification I humbly conceive the most that we can read in those Coelestial Hierogliphycks is that God is going to do some great thing in the World and that at the hanging out of those Flags it behoves men to enquire into their Lives and search their ways more narrowly and prepare to meet their God who is coming to judge the World in equity and maketh these Flames of Fire his Harbingers to prepare his way and give notice of his coming I shall not trouble you with particular Instances of these kind of Meteors the Scripture tells us at the Birth of our Saviour a Star appeared which perhaps was the Comet spoken of by Heathen Authors in the days of Angustus of a stupendious greatness upon which the Tibertine Sibyl shewed the Emperor the Divinity of our Saviour in these words Hic Puer Major te est Ipsum adora Our last great Comet I doubt not was of extraordinary signification not to us only but to whole Europe and farther so far as it was conspicuous What a Gracious God have we that never scarce goes about any great Commotions or Changes in the World but he gives warning beforehand as if not willing to take us tardy He shews his signs in the Heavens above when he is about to do any great Work in the Earth beneath And therefore as Darius in the case of Daniel Chap. 6.26 27. Let men tremble and fear before this God for he is the Living God and steadfast for ever his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed and his Dominion shall be even unto the end he delivereth and rescueth and worketh signs and wonders in Heaven and Earth 2. Thunder and Lightning called by the Psalmist the Voice of God and by some supposed to be that Trumpet that shall sound at the last day to raise the Dead and to call to Judgment I will not trouble you with declaring the strange and divers effects of this kind of Meteor its hurting of things Inward when the Outward are safe shattering the Bones when the Flesh is left sound melting the Blade of the Sword when the Scabbard is free breaking the Vessel when the Wine flows not away exempting poisonous Creatures from their Venom and infusing it into those who are not so striking men dead and leaving them in the same posture it found them as if still alive c. It is enough to say that 't is a stupendious Meteor and may well be called the Voice of the Divine Excellency Job 37.2 3 4 c. Job 26.6 14. It is said of Nero that a Thunderbolt fell upon his Table and struck the Cup out of the Emperors Hand And we have known in our Age some strong Towers and high buildings demolished to the very gound with Lightning Some Men struck dead some lamed some blinded Trees clove asunder A Learned Divine of our Nation tells of a profane Person walking abroad with another upon the Lord's Day when it thundred to his Companion telling him of it made answer 't is nothing but a Knave Cooper beating of his Tubs but he had not gone much farther but himself was struck dead This may teach us to put on a Reverential awe of the Divine Majesty at such seasons That Emperor Caligula who used to brave it out as if he meant to vye with the Almighty and cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was an instance of the Divine Patience but no safe example for imitation The Psalmist is more ingenuous Psal 29. c. Give unto the Lord O ye Mighty c. and Psal 97.1 2 3 4. To see all the lower World cover'd with thick Clouds and the Cracks of Thunder shake the very Pillars of the Earth and terrible Flashes and Corruscations of Ligtning with a speedy pace fly from one end of the Heavens to the other is so like the Voice of God and a Type or Shadow of that Black Gloomy Day which shall put a period to the World that it may well be a Memento of our Duty and Reverence we owe to the Divine Majesty and may well put that Question into our Mouths Who shall
Eternity and reconcile the Notion of a Compleat Happiness to the exercise of a continual Devotion and yet this is handsomly represented to us in the Scheme of the Heavenly Bodies the Sun Moon and Stars are never weary never decay never wander out of their place but still are exercised in a continual Motion and keep still their brightness and glory and yet they are inanimate sensless Creatures Why should we think it strange or absurd that the blessed Spirits in the other World should be still employed in the Offices of Devotion and yet still possess'd of Ease and Bliss and which I drive at why should we not strike up and mend our pace at present Why do we often mutter and complain as if it were a weariness to serve the Lord And cry out When will the Sabbath be over that we may return to our worldly Cares and Pleasures again Is there so much difference indeed between Grace and Glory between the Apprentice-ship and the Profession between the Church here and hereafter Or is it possible think ye to make so quick a return from one Extreme to another To be all Earth and Flesh and sin here and Heaven and Spirit and Holiness there Or must we not a little at least be Heaven'd in our Minds now and be in a continual Motion to the end of our happiness Having these things always in remembrance 2 Pet. 1.15 or as Psal 119.112 Enclined to perform the Statutes of the Lord always or Psal 1.2 Exercising our selves in his Law day and night And when we can do this and do it with delight we are upon the brink of a blessed Eternity upon the skirts of the Holy Land upon the Borders of Heaven when our Light shines without darkness tho it do Twinkle now and then and shines continually when our Devotion doth not Die with the Day but glimmers through the darkest Night then and not till then we are in a fair way to the Life of Angels and the Spirits of Just men made perfect 3. Learn we hence to look for that which is lasting In this World we have no continuing City nothing durable no lasting motion unless it be that of Changes and Vieissitudes Summer and Winter Day and Night Peace and War Health and Sickness Life and Death even the Earth changes its Face according to the Seasons and the Seas tho they flow continually they are supplied from the Clouds above and both Earth and Sea and every thing here depend upon the Heavenly Bodies for that motion and continuance which they have In Heaven only is to be found the perpetual Motion Everlasting Life an House Eternal durable Riches and Righteousness Rivers of Pleasure for evermore there only is a continual Day a Light that suffers no Darkness a Sun always shining an everlasting Summer along Eternity of Bliss and Happiness This is easily demonstrable to any one that knows the present World and can but see the Skirts of the Holy Land the very Borders of Heaven Were it not Wisdom for us then to leave off building with so much anxiety here to take down our Scaffolds and get a Jacobs Ladder and climb up to that place of Angels to send our Hearts before us and cast our Anchor safe within the Veil and choose that other world for our portion and think and speak of it and provide for it and account it as our own and pack up all our last cares and passions for it that whilst we live upon Earth we may have our Conversations above and then we shall be eternally safe from Hell beneath But especially at the approach of any unkindly stop or period in our worldly comforts whether it be a black Night or a cloudy stormy Day or an ill Winter or Poverty or Shame or Sickness or Death Let us then take the advantage of the opportunity and look up as high as the Firmament and further even beyond the Starry Orbs and say with our selves In those Countries in that World is no Night or Darkness or Sickness or Sea or Hell let us scorn to grovel here as we have done Let us pack hence our Best Goods and be gone Let that be our Home and the Lord of that Country our Father and let us live heavenly holily humbly as becomes Citizens of that Heavenly Jerusalem the Metropolis of both Worlds 4. Let us live by Rule as those Coelestial Bodies all do even the Rule prescribed us by our Maker and fitted to our Natures and conducive to the ends of our being and this without stragling aside deviation or error on the one hand or the other without intermission or passion or weariness or any thing that may disturb our Motion I know as our Natures are more excellent than the Stars so we are upon greater disadvantages upon the score of sin that hath so enfeebled our Spirits and emasculated the courage and vigour of our Piety that as long as we live we shall be apt to flag but then let it be considered that our God hath offered to accommodate us with all the excellent helps of the Gospel and the assistance of his Spirit and therefore in the strength of these let us go on from day to day in the exactest course of a Religious Piety making no considerable blot or faulter if possible in the whole series of our Life or if that thro the frailty of Humane Nature may not be done let the blot be presently washed off by the Tears of a sound Repentance and then by that means all the crookedness of our former ways being made streight let us take care for the time to come to move upright steady and streight according to the excellent Rules prescribed us in the Laws of God and Life of our Saviour Let us try not only to keep pace with the Sun but to out-vy all the Stars of the Firmament and let it be accounted no disgrace to be thus watchful and curious about the keeping of our Orbs and observing our due Postures and modelling our Actions but rather our greatest excellency and glory Slight those who say amidst their sickly Healths Thou liv'st by Rule What doth not so but Man Houses are built by Rule and Common-wealths Entice the Trusty Sun if that you can From his Eccliptick Line becken the Skie Who lives by Rule then keeps good Company Herb. CHAP. VII Of the Extensiveness of the Heavens The Stars and Firmament the expanded Sky and all the Hosts of the Etherial Orbs speak expresly unto all the Nations of the Earth that there is a God to be worshipped and with such a Worship as becomes his Infinite Excellency Their words are so loud they may be heard to all the Ends of the Word Then let us consider 1. WHether the most dark and distant Nations of the Earth have taken notice of this Rule heard this Voice 2. What they have understood by it 3. What they might understand 4. What Inferences we may deduce from the whole for our own use 1.
a good beginning to my Conversion to find my Conscience touch'd for my sins yet it went off again Nay all my Life long I had a secret value and reverence for an honest man and lov'd morality in others But I had form'd an odd Scheme of Religion to my self which would solve all that God or Conscience might force upon me yet I was not over-well reconcil'd to the business of Christianity nor had that Reverence for the Gospel of Christ as I ought to have which estate of Mind continu'd till the 53d Chapter of Isaiah was read to him and some other portions of Scripture by the Power and Efficacy of which Word assisted by his Holy Spirit God so wrought upon his heart that he declar'd that the mysteries of the Passion appear'd so clear and plain to him as ever any thing did that was represented in a Glass so that that joy and admiration which possessed his Soul upon the reading God's Word to him was remarkable to all about him and he had so much delight in his Testimonies that in my absence he begg'd his Mother and Lady to read the same to him frequently and was unsatisfied notwithstanding his great pains and weakness till he had learn'd the 53d of Isaiah without Book At the same time discoursing of his Manner of Life from his Youth up which all men knew was too much devoted to the service of Sin and that the Lusts of the Flesh the Eye and the Pride of Life had captivated him he was very large and particular in his acknowledgments about it more ready to accuse himself than any one else could be publickly crying out O blessed God! Can such an horrit Creature as I am be accepted by thee who has denied thy Being and contemn'd thy Power asking often Can there be mercy and Pardon for me Will God own such a Wretch as I and in the middle of his Sickness said Shall the unspeakable joys of Heaven be conferr'd on me O mighty Saviour never but through thine Infinite Love and Satisfaction O never but by the purchase of thy Blood adding that with all abhorrency he did reflect upon his former Life that sincerely and from his heart he did repent of all that folly and madness which he had committed He had a true and lively sence of God's great Mency to him in striking his hard heart saying If that God who died for great as well as lesser Sinners did not speedily apply his infinite Merits to his poor Soul his wound was such as no man could conceive or bear crying out That he was the vilest Wretch and Dog that the Sun shined upon or the Earth bore That now he saw his Error in not living up to that Reason which God endued him with and which he unworthily vilified and contemned wish'd he had been a starving Leper crawling in a Ditch that he had been a Link-Boy or a Beggar or for his whole life time confin'd to a Dungeon rather than thus to have sinned against God How remarkable was his Faith in a hearty embracing and devout Confession of all the Articles of the Christian Religion and all the Divine Mysteries of the Gospel saying that that absurd and foolish Philosophy which the World so much admir'd propagated by the late Mr. Hobs and others had undone him and many more of the best Parts of the Nation He cast himself entirely upon the mercies of Jesus Christ and the Free-Grace of God declared to repenting Sinners through him with a thankful Remembrance of his Life Death and Resurrection begging God to strengthen his Faith and often crying out Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief His mighty love and esteem of the Holy Scriptures his resolutions to read them frequently and meditate upon them if God should spare him having already tasted the good Word for having spoken to his heart he acknowledged all the seeming absurdities and contradictions thereof fancied by men of corrupt and reprobate Judgments were vanished and the Excellency and Beauty appeared being come to receive the Truth in the love of it How terribly did the Tempter assault him by casting upon him wicked and lewd imaginations But I thank God said he I abhor them all and by the power of his grace which I am sure is sufficient for me I have overcome them 't is the malice of the Devil because I am rescued from him and the goodness of God that frees me from all my spiritual enemies He was greatly rejoiced at his Ladies Conversion from Popery which he called a Faction supported only by Fraud and Cruelty He was heartily concerned for the pious education of his Children wishing that his Son might never be a Wit that is as he explain'd it One of those wretched creatures who pride themselves in abusing God and Religion denying his Being or his Providence but that he might become an honest and a religious Man which could only be the support and blessing of his Family He gave a strict charge to those persons in whose custody his Papers were to burn all his prophane and lewd Writings as being only sit to promote Vice and Immorality by which he had so highly offended God and shamed and blasphemed that holy Religion into which he had been baptized and all his obscene and filthy Pictures which were so notoriously scandalous I must not pass by his pious and most passionate exclamation to a Gentleman of some Character who came to visit him upon his Death-Bed O remember that you contemn God no more he is on avenging God and will visit you for your sins will in mercy I hope touch your Conscience sooner or later as he has done mine You and I have been Friends and Sinners together a great while therefore I am the more free with you We have been all mistaken in our Conceits and Opinions Our Persuasions have been false and groundless therefore God grant you repentance And seeing him again next day said to him Perhaps you were disobliged by my plainness to you yesterday I spake the words of truth and soberness to you and striking his hand upon his Breast said I hope God will touch your heart He commanded me continues our Author to Preach abroad and let all men know if they knew it not already how severely God had Disciplin'd him for his sins by his afflicting hand that his Sufferings were most just tho' he had laid ten thousand times more upon him how he had laid one stripe upon another because of his grievous provocations till he had brought him home to himself that in his former Visitations he had not that blessed Effect he was now sensible of He had formerly some loose thoughts and slight resolutions of reforming and designed to be better because even the present consequences of sin were still pestering him and were so troublesome and inconvenient to him but now he had other sentiments of things and acted upon other Principles He was willing to die if it pleased God resigning himself
always to the Divine Disposal but if God should spare him yet a longer time here he hoped to bring Glory to the Name of God in the whole course of his Life and particularly by his endeavours to convince others and to assure them of the danger of their condition if they continued impenitent and how graciously God had dealt with him The time of his Sickness and Repentance was just nine Weeks in all which time 30 hours about the middle of it excepted wherein he was delirous he was so much Master of his Reason and had so clear an understanding that he never dictated or spake more composed in his Life Three or four days before his Death he had Comfortable Perswasions of God's accepting him to his Mercy saying I shall Die but Oh what unspeakable Glories do I see What Joys beyond Thought or Expression am I sensible of I am assured of God's mercy to me through Jesus Christ O! how I long to die and to be with my Saviour His Dying Remonstrance For the benefit of all those whom I may have drawn into sin by my example and Encouragement The Lord Rochester's dying Remonstrance I leave to the World this my last Declaration which I deliver in the presence of the great God who knows the Secrets of all Hearts and before whom I am now appearing to be Judged That from the bottom of my Soul I detest and abhor the whole Course of my former wicked Life that I think I can never sufficiently admire the Goodness of God who has given me a lively sense of my pernicious Opinions and vile practices by which I have hitherto Liv'd without hope and without God in the World have been an open Enemy to Jesus Christ doing the Utmost despite to the holy Spirit of Grace and that the greatest Testimony of my Charity to such is to warn them in the name of God and as they regard the welfare of their immortal Souls no more to deny his being or his providence or dispise his Goodness no more to make a mock of Sin or contemn the pure and excellent Religion of my ever Blessed Redemer thro' whose Merits alone I one of the Greatest of Sinners do yet hope for Mercy and Forgiveness Amen Declared in the presence of Anne Rochester Rob. Parsons J. Rochester To this we shall add two Penitential Letters the one of Sir Duncomb Colchester late of Westbury in Gloucestershire a Gentleman well known to have been a person of Wit and Parts whose Repentance and Reformation may deserve a more perticular Relation then is proper for this place and occasion For the truth and certainty of it that is beyond all doubt there being Copies of it in many hands both in City and Country long before his Death and seen and perused by his acquaintance and by diverse persons of quality who visited him here in Town but little before he dyed c. He continued his Repentance and Resolution to the last often and very freely declaring upon all occasions the Horror he had suffered in his Soul for his sinful life past far exceeding all that he suffered in his Body which was very great his sense of the Wonderful Mercy of God to him and that he would die rather than commit the least wilfull Sin He dyed 25th May 1694. in his return from London toward Gloucestershire Sir Duncomb Colchester's Penitential Letter Gentlemen and Friends SInce it hath pleased Almighty God of his great and undeserved Mercy and Goodness to bring me one of the chiefest of Sinners Sir Duncomb Colchester's penitential Letter by a long and sharp Visitation to a sense of my Sins for which with all Humility of Soul I adore and praise him it is a Duty I know incumbent on me as ever I hope for his Pardon and Forgiveness to do what in me lyes to bring Honour to his Holy Name to make Reparation for the Mischief I have done by my former vitious Life and antidote as far as I can the Poyson which my Example has shed round about me In order whereunto I do hereby Declare that I am heartily sorry for all the Sins of my past life the remembrance whereof however pleasant they formerly seemed to be is now Grief and Bitterness to my Soul More particularly that I may take shame to my self I do with the deepest sorrow lament my Rioting and Drunkenness my Chambering and Wantonness those daring and presumptuous Sins which had so long dominion over me I do also most heartily lament that great sin which I was so frequently guilty of of encouraging and drawing others to Excess which has made me partaker O sad thought of other Mens sins and lyable to answer for more than mine own I am sensible that as it hath been my Practice so it is still of too many Gentlemen and that they as I did reckon excessive Drinking so far from a Fault as to be rather one of the best Indications of a hearty Respect and true Affection to the Persons they entertain But O false Love O treacherous Friendship to receive their Friends Men and send them out of their Houses Beasts I wish from the bottom of my Soul that any thing I could say would make all those whose Consciences accuse them of Guilt in this particular to loath and abhor this wicked Practice as I do And I do also heartily lament my great Neglect of putting the Laws in execution against common Drunkards Swearers and such like scandalous Sinners and do earnestly beseech all such as are in Authority and whose business it is to see the Laws executed if any such come to hear this Paper read that they will be more careful in that particular and consider that as their Power is a Talent entrusted in them whereof they must give a strict Account to their heavenly Lord so by their being duly conscientious in the discharge of their Duty herein we may hope for a Reformation amongst us and then with confidence expect God's Blessing to rest upon us And as I abhor my self for my Neglect in this particular now mentioned and all my great sins and Provocations against an Infinite Majesty so I do farther hereby deelare my full Purpose and Resolution if it shall please Almighty God with whom all things are possible to restore me to Health or prolong my days by his special Grace and Assistance without which I shall be able to do nothing to lead a New Life in all Holy Obedience to his Will and Commands and desire that this Declaration of mine if I fail to do so may be produced as a Testimony against me to my Shame and Reproach But since my Recovery is very uncertain and what I have the least reason in the world to hope for being heartily desirous to do what good I can in the Circumstances I am in I do hereby earnestly warn and beseech all Sinners especially those whom my Example has at any time encouraged the remembrance whereof still sills me with shame