A Rare, True, and Wonderful RELATION, OF A TOWN IN THE PRINCIPALITY OF PIEDMONT, Within these few Weeks sunk under Ground, so as nothing of it appears, only two of the Inhabitants survive the misery.  
With Philosophical, Historical, Political, and Theological Reflections upon the same.  Non est muta Natura rerum, said undique loquax, Eras. 

With Allowance.   
London, Printed for T. Simmons, 1679.   

A Rare, true, and Wonderful RELATION, of a Town in the Principality of Piedmont, within these few Weeks wholly sunk under Ground, so as nothing of it appears, &c.  
THings admirable seem much to be the enquiry of this knowing Age; it's only the Idle and Ignorant that stand pe●ing over the Trifles of this dying World: much soo●er may Eagles catch at Flys, than Learned and Experienced Men stoop below themselves, to wonder at mean and common things. We are now very happily got beyond those Times which made the mathematics Conjuration, and the Assertion of Antipodes to be no less than a Grand and Capital heresy: Now only Things Extraordinary, such as are ●aised far above every days Observation, can be the inducements of Adm●ra●ion; among which Number we may justly rank the following Relation, sent to this City by a Person of no mean Quality, residing at the Duke of Savoy's Court: You may take his own words, as follow.  

Turin April 8. N. S.  
Some few days since happened a strange Accident to a Town in Piedmont, not far from hence, the place is called Bosia, it suddenly sunk down into the Earth, so that neither House, nor any thing else hath since appeared; more than two hundred persons are lost, only two of the whole Town escaping.  
W. S.   
This is also fully confirmed by the Gazette, bearing date from April 21. to 24. I do not take this to be a mere Accident of Nature, but to be come to pass by the wise disposal of the Almighty governor and Director of all Things, Causes, Events, or Persons in this inferior Region: It was the undeny'd Opinion of the best of Ministers in the Church of Christ, in the most bright and first days of the Gospel, That God by his Providence orders and mannageth all things in this lower World, be they never so mean and ordinary; much more those that are great, and awaken Admiration even in the wisest Men; which are therefore not to be slighted by Us, by Us, I say, whom God made to contemplate and improve all his doings.  
Allow me therefore to befriend the less Intelligent, by discoursing a little upon this awaking Providence; its distance from us should not make us less sensible, but more thankful, than if it had been the miserable lot of some Neighbour Town, where, with an easy walk, our Eyes might have affencted our Hearts. Here I'll attempt two things; First, to show you whence such amazing Providences derive their Original. Secondly, give you some Moral, or Political Improvement of them.  
First, To show you whence they derive their Original, or how they come to be. This I'll show you Philosophically, and Theologically.  
1. Philosophically,( or Naturally,) I'll wave all extraordinary causes, because they are miraculous; I mean such as are performed immediately by the Divine Power, or by the Operation of Angels at the permission or command of God; and pitch upon two things as Natural causes, viz. either, 1. The violent force of those vapours, or Exhalations, that war and contest within the Bowels and spacious Caverns of the Earth, put into a rage by some approaching heat, which for want of a convenient Exit make Towns and Countries tremble, and sometimes tumble into ruins, and also utterly disappear. This is easily illustrated into the Experience of him that pleaseth to set before the Fire a Glass Bottle full of Water( especially if thick and slimy) closed with a good Cork well tied down; for as the Fire heats the Water, so the Bottle moves or cracks, if it do not fly all in pieces with a noise at one crash: So Water and Air mingled with Spirits, rarefied by some approaching heat, either within the Bowels of the Earth, by an higher Ferment, or by Internal Flames; or without the Bowels of the Earth by the Sun, do usually either break out by some narrower Passages, or else burst their way forth by violence and destruction, or at least shake their Prison in a manner competently terrible to those that dwell above it. This may be the cause. Or, 2. The thinness of the Earth, or Rock, upon which Towns are built; which may stand a great while but yet fall at length, without having any thing of an Earth-quake as its Cause, only make one as its Effect; as we see strong Walls of Towns and Houses crack and moulder down with length of age; or make a more speedy fall by some greater rush, or knock, when weakly founded, or in a tottering case. So Thrasymachus tells us of one riding in his Chariot to the Theban War, who going over such a thin sort of Earth, the place broken in immediately, and beyond recovery swallowed up him and that which carried him.  
2. Theologically, They derive their Original from the Almighty Will. Job 9.5, 6. This removeth the Mountains, and overturneth them; this shaketh the Earth out of her place, and the Pillars thereof tremble. They come to pass as Predictions of God's Displeasure, or Executions of the same. 1. They very often predict the Displeasure of God: Though they are not always Predictions of this, yet they are usually. They give warning that God is angry; God is gracious and loth to be severe with Man, therefore this way gives him notice that he is displeased. Ps. 18.7. The Earth shook, and trembled; the Foundations also of the Hills moved and were shaken, because he was wrath. Pliny testifies, That Rome was never shaken with an Earth-quake, but it proved the fore-runner of some great mischief to that City, and a certain Evidence of an angry Deity. The miseries of Greece by the Peloponesian War was foretold by an Earth-quake. A terrible Famine, and many other Calamities, were ushered into the World in the days of Justinian, by the shaking of the Earth, and the sinking of Towns. Livy, and other Writers among the Heathen Romans, tells us plainly, That the Earth falling in, and leaving behind it a wide and terrifying gulf, not far from Rome, the Oracle being consulted,  told them, That it was an undoubted Signal of the displeasure of their Gods. Plutarch also in his Parallels gives us a resembling History. But to come much nearer our present Subject, the Author of the History of this Iron Age says, That the late most bloody Wars of the French in Savoy were premonstrated by an Earth-quake, so terrible as to overwhelm sixteen thousand Persons. Or, 2. They are the Executions of God's Displeasure. Of this we have one of the most eminent and greatest Instances in the World, Numb. 16. in the Case of konrah, Dathan, and Abiram, with those that followed them.( See verses 30, 31, 32, 33.) The Earth opened her Mouth wide, and swallowed them up alive with all their concerns; and this was purely the Execution of God's high Displeasure.  
Thus I have shewed you whence these things come to have a Being. I now come,  
Secondly, To give you some Moral or Political Improvement, so as to bring this strange Providence, and others of the like nature, into use for the advancement of Wisdom and Holy Life, it was well said by the Poet, Faelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum. This improvement is what God looks for from us, as the result of such Providences: Isa. 26.9. When thy Judgments are abroad in the Earth, the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness. It was a rare practise in the Emperour Justinus, who hearing of a terrible destructive Earthquake at Antioch, laid aside his Crown and Royal Robes, and put on Sack-cloth and Ashes, and lamented for many days. If he took so deep an impression, no doubt but we should take some; which is best done by a wise governing and managing our Enjoyments, Affairs and Lives; which, that we may do, I'll propose some few Directions, as pertinent to the thing in hand as my skill and leisure will permit.  
1. We are not to be fond of Towns and Habitations, nor too Ornamental in them. It's like this Town in Piedmont might seemingly be as well fixed and as durable as those we inhabit, which now lies butted in utter destruction: Who then would be fond of houses of day, whose Foundations are in the Dust: But this is our common guilt, fostered by our pride and forgetfulness: Worldly Glory, and Ignorance of our Duty, Mortality, and the Mutability of Earthly things, makes us run upon this Transgression. The Divine hand hath sometimes visibly corrected human Vanity and ambition in these things; as in the Reign of Theodosius signior, fifty seven Ornamental Towers, newly erected upon the Walls of the Imperial City of Constantinople, were thrown down and destroyed by an Earthquake: Multitudes of the most lofty and stately Dwellings in the World, in many different Kingdoms, have been thus ruined. Thus fell the splendid Temple of Apollo, in the Isle of Delphus: Thus fell once the glorious Cities of Bithynia, Smyrna, Catana, Ferara, and lacedaemon, &c. and many others of greater name. And for common Houses to dwell in, we red they have been thus destroyed by hundreds and thousands, in all Ages and Parts of the World, together with all the household Goods usually, and with the very Inhabitants too often.  
2. We are not to be too confident and secure in strong Holds and Fortresses. Sometimes the Walls have fallen down and let in the Assailants; as at Jericho, Joshua 6.20. Other sometimes the Walls have fallen down and destroyed the Defendants, even to the number of twenty seven thousand men, as at Aphek, 1 Kings 20.30. About the year 1590. a noble Fortress in Canisia, in the Confines of Hungaria, contrived by the best warriors for their retirement and security from their Enemies, divided in two by an Earthquake, and left those that trusted in it to the mercy of those that besieged them. So Tacitus tells us, That in the fifth year of the Emperour Tiberius there fell out so dreadful an Earthquake in Asia, that thirteen walled Towns and Cities were destroyed: So Eusebius tells us, That in the seventh year of Trajan nine several strong Cities in Asia, Greece, and Calabria, were by a like Earthquake laid upon a ruinous heap: So also the Turkish History tells us, That the strong Walls of the magnificent Constantinople were by the like means tumbled down, and made passable by the weakest Assailant. Thus you see that even Rocks of Brass, contrived into a Fortress, founded upon this Terrestrial Globe, are only to be confided in under the Divine security, and no otherwise.  
3. We are not wholly to take Land-security for the best Inheritance or Estate. This( in the affirmative) is the ordinary Method of the most, but yet is far from infallible certainty, as I shall show in two instances, because— 1. Sometimes this hath suddenly sunk down and disappeared. So in Chersonesus whole Parishes sunk into the ground at once. About the year 105, many Mountains and Hills sunk and disappeared in the Eastern parts of Europe. In Laconia( before the Lacedemonian War, created by Slaves and Bond men) the Earth opened in many places, and fell as into a Bottemless Pit. By some such like way as this, in the time of William Rufus, Earl Godwin lost all his Lands in Kent; and the Flemmings, in our Henry the First's time, had their Patrimony in a great part of Flanders wholly swallowed up. Earthquakes have sometimes removed two opposite Fields, and placed them in one anothers room, as those two Fields in Italy, where the Marrucini were seated in the reign of Nero. But to close with a strange passage in our times, A. D. 1657. a parcel of Land in Cheshire, not far from Hampton Post, was swallowed up, so as not to be seen again.— 2. Other sometimes this hath start up and wandered away from the true Proprietors. As in Lombardy in Italy, an Earthquake, continuing forty days, removed a Town from the place where it stood a great way of. But one Instance more may serve, allowing me to be particular in it, because of its strangeness and fullness to my purpose; both Mr. cambden and Mr. Speed tell us, That in the Year 1571. in the County of Hereford, the Earth began to open at six a Clock in the Evening; and an Hill with a Rock upon it( making at first a great bellowing noise, which was heard a great way off) lifted itself up a great height and began to travail, bearing along with it the Trees that grew upon it, the Sheep-folds and Flocks of Sheep abiding there at the same time: In the place from whence it first moved it left a gaping distance, carrying along with it about 26 Acres of Ground; passing along it overthrew a chapel standing in its way: With the like force it thrust before it the Highways, Houses, and Trees; it made Tilled Ground become Pasture, and turned Pasture into Tillage. Having thus walked from Saturday in the Evening till monday Noon, it then stood still and moved no more.  
4. We are not to walk up and down the surface of this lower World, without a providential and divine Sense, Care, and Awe; because we trade and travail upon an uncertain and dangerous Earth, such as may( for any thing we know) cleave asunder and swallow us up; or at least destroy us by its violent shaking: as Lanquet in his Chronicle tells us of thirty thousand Persons that were destroyed in Jewry 29 Years before the Birth of Christ, by a sudden and terrible shaking. In like manner perished about Puell and Naples 40000 People, in the Year 1456. In the time of the third persecution Multitudes of Men were so dashed together by an Earthquake, as to be miserable killed, trading together, and endeavouring to help one another. We are not to be insensible, but live and act with a divine care; for few places in England but what have sometimes suffered by Earthquakes, and other-sometimes the whole Nation at once.  
5. We are humbly to aclowledge the Power and Goodness of God: his Power in preserving us, his Goodness because we deserve it not; and also herein distinguishing between us and others. Thus in the days of Bajazet the Turkish Emperour, three millions of Men were destroyed about Constantinople, and whole Multitudes of stately Buildings, Churches, Towers, and the Emperour's Palace itself, did all suffer very much; whereas the Christians suffered little in their concerns, and not one of their Churches perished. The words of my Author are, Templa Christianorum manserunt integra.  
To close the whole, see and imitate Acts 16. from 26. to 31.  
FINIS.