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 showeth 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 guests by these Presents, not only that I am alive, but the Favours you have sometime shown me are alive in my thoughts too: Only myself 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 Complete History of Divine Providence, designed e'er 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 yourselves 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,  
'TIS the Prerogative of Human Nature, that me have not only a Lofty Figure and Visage, but Intellectuals too, far superior to all the Brutish 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 ourselves 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 satisfy a little the Curiosity of my Nature, to inform myself 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 myself 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'er 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 'tis 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. Upon 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 inquire 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 Affrighted out of our Wits, to hid 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 surprised, 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 Situation of the Heavens.  CHAP. IU. 
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 ourselves, for our main End, the Glory of God, I shall consider, 

I. The Greatness of the Heavens.  
II. The Quality of them.  
III. Their Situation.  
iv The Stars and Planets.  
V Other Inferior Appurtenances, Comets, Thunder and Lightning, Air and Winds, Storms and Tempests, Hail, Rain, Snow and Frosts, Extraordinary Signs and Apparitions, etc.  
VI The Continuation of them.  
VII. Their Extensiveness and Universality.    
And Lastly, Because amongst all these the Sun is the most Admirable, most Conspicuous, most Glorious Body, I shall Assign a particular Meditation upon This Great and Excellent Luminary by itself.  
But so I shall manage my Discourse from the Beginning to the End, as to intermix it all along with Practical Remarks and Inferences; as accounting it (beneath a Christian especially) but a poor Exercise to expend our Best Thoughts upon Barren Speculations.  

CHAP. I. Of the Greatness of the Heavens.  
1. THen I shall consider the Greatness of the Heavens. By the Heavens, I mean not the Supreme Imperial Part, not the Seat of the Blessed, which is out of sight, and the reach of Human Sense, but the outward, lower invisible parts of the Heavenly Orbs; those parts which may be seen: And how great these are you cannot expect, that we should be able certainly to tell you; they are very great, that we all know; so vast, that they comprehend within the cavity of them the whole Universe, besides all the Earth, Seas, Air, and every thing that belongs to them. Astronomers say, the Primum Mobile is 1960 times bigger than the Earth; whatever 'tis, the magnitude is wonderful, past our fathom, and enough to fill us with the admiration of Him that made it.   

CHAP. II. Of the Quality of the Heavens.  
OF such a subtle, diaphinous nature, that it will not terminate our sight, a man may see through it, if the distance did not hinder; more thin and perspicuous than the Air itself, clearer than the Crystal, or the finest Glass, Ezek. 1.22. Rev. 21.11. Rev. 4.6. So immutable, that for near upon 6000 years it hath not been impaired, or decayed, or altered with continual exercise and motion. Every thing here below the Moon is subject to change: The outward and courser Arches of the Heavens suffer no damage; even Stones and Monuments, in this lower World, die with age: The Posts and Pillars, the outward Scaffold of the World above, is in its own nature, by the Law of the Supreme Architect, immortal, I mean so, that no creature can endamage them, till the God that made them, forbidden them to be any more.  
The nearer to God and Heaven, the more pure, firm and lasting the Constitution of the Creature is.  
If the Outward Heavens are such, what is the Seat of the Blessed, which (if terminated in any place) lies beyond them! What are the Angels that tread that Floor, those Arches under Feet! What is God Himself, that made them, and looks after them!  
The FIGURE also is very Wonderful: So vastly Great, and yet exactly Round: Without any Unevennesses, or Angles and Turn; of a perfect Circular Figure. Circulus (said the Philosophers) est Divinum quid. And the Egyptians portrayed one of their Divinities (named Kneph) as a Beautiful Man, with Feathers on his Head, a Girdle, and a Sceptre in his Hand, with an Egg, (the Hieroglyphic of the World) proceeding out of his Mouth. And some of them did adore the Circle of the Heavens, as an expression of his Power and Perfections. And 'tis true, there is no Figure so capacious as the Round One; because (as I said) it admits no corners, no unevenness, etc. Nor is there any Being so perfect as God, without any Infirmity or Defect. How great then in Power and Wisdom must this God be, that stretched out the Heavens like a Round Canopy, and hung it over this lower World, in so exact and Circular a Figure, that no inequality can be found in it!   

CHAP. III. Of the Situation of the Heavens.  
ALL this Great Body, hung with an Innumerable Number of Stars and Planets, (each Body big enough to make a World of), all this hung upon Nothing; no Material Arches, no visible Pillars to support it! Nothing but the Power of him that made it. It surpasses Humane Skill, the Wit of all Men in the World, to hang a little Ball, or an Eggshell in the Air, without somewhat material to support it. God hath not only hung the Earth, (but the Heavens also) upon nothing. What cannot the God of all the World do! Let Him but speak the Word, and he can make a World stand without Pillars! His World is enough for a World to stand upon! and shall poor sneaking man be afraid to venture upon his Promise! He spoke the World, and the World was created; He spoke the Word, and the Heavens were stretched forth over the Empty Places! He may speak the World Ten Thousand Times, and Man shall despond and be afraid to venture out any further than he can stand upon his own Legs! If St. Peter step forth upon the Sea at the voice of his Saviour, he gins to sink: And if the sinner do but essay to trust upon the Word of the Almighty, when no outward supply is ready at Hand, his Faith fails him, and he sinks into Despair! So long as we have money in our pockets, or a Remedy in sight, we can keep our feet, but inpoverty, distress, and danger, all the promises in the Gospel, sealedwith the World and Oath of a God, are not ground enough for man to set his foot upon!   

CHAP. IU. Of the Stars and Planets.  
WHich deserve to be considered, 1 As Many. How many I know not. You have heard the phrases, as the Stars of Heaven for multitude, and as the Sands upon the Seashore, used promiscuously, sometimes one, sometimes the other. Astronomers have long ago reckoned up 1022 of them that are visible; and 'tis concluded, those that are invisible are far the greater number; Psalm 17.. He telleth the number of the Stars, and call them all by their Names, If the Stars of Heaven be so numerous, what are the Inhabitants that dwell beyond! I grant 'tis a LittleFlock that goes to Heaven, compared with the many, many Damnel Souls that go to Hell, but as God to Abraham, Gen. 15.5. Look now towards Heaven and tell, etc. The nnmber of them them that stand about the Throne, is ten thousand timesten thousand, and thousands of thousands stand before him! Rev. 5.11. He keepeth mercy for thousand of them that love him, and keep him Commands. And let not any think, that amongst so many Children God will forget or overlook any of them, he knows them all, and will lose none of them. He calls his own Sheep by name, and leads them out, john 10.3. He counts our wander, put our Tears into a Bottle, the very Hairs of our Head are allnumbred: There's not a word in our Mouth, nor a thought in our Heart, but he knows it altogether! Such knowledge is too great for us; it with an awful Reverence of the Divine Omnipotence and Wisdom. Consider then a little Sinner, how many thy sins are, how many the Mercies of God bestowed upon thee, how many invitations thou hast had to Repeintance, and how 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 Skilful 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 eagle's 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 Scroll: 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 Body's 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 Horsehair, had no such rouson of an awful fear upon him, as we have; if he that Governed 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 dazzle 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 'tis 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 justify himself to these men, before Angels and Devils; and show in spite of all their spiteful infidelity, 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 i'll, 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 Are 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 Bonfire 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 cheerful 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, Cherubin and Seraphim! Let us say as Psalm 4. many say, who will show us any good,— etc. 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 Imperial 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, etc. 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 manned to destruction; again be, etc. Psal. 90.3, 5, 6. Bsal. 107, 31, 32, etc.  
3. Other secret Influences and Operations unknown to us, as to Wether, 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 Inseulour Appurtenances of Heaven, I choose to range them under that notion, because I intent 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 censured 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 Lances, Flying Dragons, Skipping Goats, Ignes Fatui and licking Fires, as exhalations of inferior 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 Celestial 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 inquire 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 shown 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 shows 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 Judgement.  
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, etc. It is enough to say, that 'tis a stupendious Meteor, and may well be called the Voice of the Divine Excellency— Job 37.2, 3, 4, etc. Job 26.6,— 14. It is said of Nero, that a Thunderbolt fell upon his Table, and struck the Cup out of the Emperor's Hand. And we have known in our Age some strong Towers and high buildings demolished to the very ground 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 thundered; to his Companion telling him of it, made answer— 'tis 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 vie 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.— etc. Give unto the Lord (O ye Mighty) etc. and Psal. 97.1, 2, 3, 4. To see all the lower World covered 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 own to the Divine Majesty; and may well put that Question into our Mouths— Who shall be able to stand, when God appears! When this Great and Terrible God shall by the sound of this Trumpet, or the Voice of an Archangel, summon the World to Judgement, who shall dare to appear before him! If the giving of the Law, and the enacting, or rather promulgation of our Religion upon Mount Sinai was so dreadful— as Exod. 19.16.— Chap. 20.18, 19— What will the Great Assizes be, when all the men that ever lived in the World shall be called to give up their last Account, and receive their Final Doom! Then Oh!— Come ye Mountains and fall upon us, and ye Rocks cover us, and hid us from the Wrath of the Lamb! Then Oh! Where will the Heart and Stoutness of the Presumptuous Sinner show itself! How will he that braved it here with the Almighty, be able then to stand his Ground, and maintain his Cause! Psal. 50.1, 2, 3, 4.  
3. Air and Winds, which what to make of, we know not; 'tis such an invisible, and yet real Meteor, that it will puzzle the Natural Reason of the most subtle Philosopher to tell the Nature of it. The Air is so like the Nature of the Souls in our Bodies, or a 〈◊〉 in general, that we know little 〈◊〉 of either one or other, than what we know by the sensible effects, John 3.8. The Wind, etc. If Man be so dim in Naturals, with what face can he boast his knowledge of Spiritual Objects! We neither know the Air that surrounds us every where, nor the Wind that whistles in our Ears, nor the Souls that lodge in our own Bodies! We are so blind, so near home! And 'tis enough to make us blush at our own weakness; and such ignorance should make us humble; and such humility should make us learn! and till we are thus qualified, we are not fit to learn.  
What a proud lump of Clay is foolish Man, that cannot comprehend things so near him, things merely natural, things so common and ordinary; and yet will call every Point of his Religion, even the sublimest Mysteries to the Tribunal of Mear Reason! And edetermine in particular Branches and Punctilios as peremptorily and decisively, as if he had been Privy Counsellor to the Almighty! and judge others censoriously, unkindly, for differing from him but in the lesser, doubtful, difficult Points of Religion! and prosecute severely for not knowing and believing with equal clearness as himself.  
But besides,— We are often wondering at the Nature of God himself; and cannot tell how to frame a Notion of a Being every where present: Is not the Air and Wind a fit Emblem to shadow-forth this Attribute of the Divinity to us! Is not the Air in every Creviss of our Houses! in our Nostrils! in our very Bowels! Doth it not fill the World! and enter into the smallest pores of our Bodies! and yet 'tis but a Creature, and we see it not! Why should we think it such an impossible thing for the God of Heaven to fill all places with his Presence, and yet be limited to no bounds! nor visible to any Eyes! The same word that we use to signify Air, is used also to express the Spirit of God by, in almost all the Languages, viz. Spiritus, Latin; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Greek; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. And we find the Spirit of God choosing sometimes to come down and show himself under this representation, as 1 Kings 19.11, 12. to Elijah in a still small Voice, qu. only the whistling noise of a Calm Air: But Acts 2.2. to the apprehension, in the sound of a rushing mighty Wind.  
I have one thing more to remark upon this Meteor, as tending very much to set forth the Glory of God; and that is, its divers Uses and Effects. 'Tis a wonder that such a thin, tenuious, invisible Body as that is, should serve for such divers and excellent purposes. Consider them and wonder. It carries all the Fowls of the Air, (which would no more be able to fly without it, than the Fishes of the Sea to swim without Water;) it bears up the heavy Clouds, and fans, purges and transports them from place to place; so that we say truly, as Psal. 18.10. that the Divine Glory doth ride upon the Cherubs, and flies upon the Wings of the Wind:— it is a Faithful Messenger in the Hand of the Almighty to bring Tokens of Kindness, or Judgements to a People: One while Flies and Caterpillars innumerable, Frogs and Lice; Plagues and pestilential infections; another while Quails and Manna, Flesh and Feathered Fowl, Rain, Plenty and Prosperity: In short, it fans our Lungs, and walks to and fro through our Nostrils every moment, and we are not able to breathe without it: And yet this so useful, so necessary, so common a Creature we cannot see, we cannot comprehend! In God we live, move and have our being, he is within us and without us, and we know him not! and no absurdity in all this!  
4. I might add to these, Storms and Tempests, not as specifically different from them, but yet such as may require a consideration by themselves. I mean those more violent eruptions of Wind and Vapours, or other watery Exhalations commixed, as either by their suddainness or violence, or surprising and contrary motion seem prodigious, or prove hurtful to us. These are sometimes so dreadful, that they overturn Trees, Houses, Cities; overrun whole Countries with a deluge of Waters! drowning or swallowing up the Inhabitants! rending sometimes Rocks asunder, and carrying them into the midst of the Sea; sometimes dividing parcels of Land from the Continent, and carring them into the Ocean, for Islands; of which Histories are full of Examples. All that I shall remark upon this Particular is, that as the Storms are of God's sending, so they are subject to his Government, Nah. 1.3, 4. The Lord hath his way in the Whirlwind, etc. vide Psal. 107.25, 26, 27,— 29. and Psal. 148.8. The stormy wind fulfilling his word. You know the story Mat. 8.23, 24, 25, 26, 27. But that which I drive at in these quotations is this, that he who rules the raging of the Sea, and stilleth the violent Storms of the Wind, and Waters, is able also to appease the madness of a People; to hush the noise and tumult of the World into a deep silence; to turn our Spears into Pruning-hooks, and our Swords into Plough-shears; to give us instead of a Storm a Calm; in our own Breasts, in our Houses and Families, in our Churches and Nations! Had not we best then in such cases, arise from our sleep every one and call upon his God— as Jonah 1.4, 5, 6. and if our Lord seem to sleep too, let us go and awaken him, in good earnest, and say, Lord save us, or we perish. And then he that keepeth Israel, and never slumbers nor sleeps, will arise and scatter our Enemies, and show himself mighty in our Salvation; upon the ungodly he will rain down Snares, Fire and Brimstone and an horrible Tempest; This shall be the portion of their Cup, Psal. 11.6. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his Countenance doth behold the upright.  
5. Hail, Rain, Snow and Frosts, etc. I will not stay now to show the particular usefulness of all these in their Kind, Order and Seasons; nor if I cared to spend time upon it, have I skill to do it perfectly. Something might be said, which perhaps every one is not well sensible of, concerning the Wisdom, as well as the Power and Goodness of God in using such a divers method in manuring of the Earth, and nursing of Sublunary Bodies. I shall conclude this with only that emphatical exhortation of the Psalmist, 147.12. ad finem.  
6. To pass over Eclipses, Conjunctions and Rain-bows, etc. I shall instance only in Extraordinary Signs and Apparitions; as that of Angels appearing to Abraham, to Lot, to Jacob, to Manaoh, to David, to divers others; the extraordinary chasms of Light in the Heavens at our Saviour's Baptism, his Transfiguration, his Ascension; the Cloud and Pillar of Fire to the Israelites; the Darkness at our Saviour's Passion; the Holy Ghost in the likeness of a Dove; the Apparition exhibited to Saul, to St. Stephen, the Revelations of St. John; the Prodigies before the Destruction of Jerusalem; Armies conflicting in the Air; with a thousand more such wonders, which I list not to relate particularly. I confess they are often mixed with false incredible relations; yet not therefore all to be rejected. Our Saviour hath given us warning to expect some such, Mat. 24. and Act. 2.20.19, and every Age almost is witness of some Miracle or other of this nature; though not so many as many would believe. Even Heathen and Mahometan History, as well as Christian, give suffrage to this.  
From the whole— we have this lesson briskly intimated to us, viz. if the outward insensate Heavens, that are neither endued with Sense nor Reason, but are of a brutish nature, declare to the World the Glory of God, what would be expected from us men, to whom all these Creatures are given but as Servants! If these mute senseless things preach so expressly the Glory of Him that made them, what should not man do, who though he lives in place below them, yet is endowed with an Excellency far above them! God himself sometimes appeals to them, for testimony against us, to upbraid our disobedience! Hear O Heavens, and give Ear, etc. All the Host of the Inferior Heavens keep their place, and observe the Laws of their Creation, the very Clouds and Winds obey him! Only Man is an Unruly; undutiful, Disingenuous Obstinate Thing! that will neither keep his Orb, nor serve the ends of his Creation, nor attend his Master's Will, nor pursue diligently his own Happiness. Tho our Feet are upon the Earth, our Heads reach above the Clouds, and we are near akin to the other World, and have very great concernments beyond the Stars; and yet that we should let our Affections sink into the Earth, and our Souls incline so strongly towards Hell! For shame, Sirs, let us set forth the Glory of God a little better in our Generations, than commonly we do: Let us vie here upon the Earth by the excellency of our Conversations with those twinkling Lamps that shine over our Heads; let it never be said to our disgrace, that these (senseless Creatures) glorify God better in their place than we! Let our Faces, our Graces outshine the Sun! Let men look on the Humility, Honesty, Sobriety, Charity, Piety and Patience of our Lives, and give Glory to Him, that hath given such Graces unto Men! and let these Graces never be darkened with any unworthy unchristian practices; let us appear Glorious to the World, and no Hypocrisy or Apostasy ever pull down our Professions, or lay our Glory in the Dust: It's possible we may meet with strong, with close Temptations; O let not our shining Stars fall from Heaven,— (nor let our Moon be turned into Blood,) and then we shall be shortly removed from Grace to Glory, and shortly shine like Stars in the highest Heavens, yea as the Sun in the Firmament for ever. 1 Cor. 15.41. As we shine in Grace now,— so in Glory hereafter.   

CHAP. VI Of the Continuation of the Heavenly Bodies.  
DAY unto Day uttereth Speech, and Night unto Night showeth Knowledge, (q.d.) one Day informeth another, and one Night gives in fresh evidence to another to prove the Truth of it: Not a Day nor a Night passeth over our Heads, but the Heavens preach this Sermon to us: We have a Continual Rehearsal of this Doctrine from Age to Age, from one Year to another, from the beginning of the World to this present time. This Preacher is never silent; this Exercise never over.  
All that I can think necessary to be said upon this particular, may be referred to two Heads.  

1. The wonderfulness of this Continuation.  
2. The practical Lessons we should learn from it.   
1. Wherein the wonder of it lies.  
1. In the multitude of the Bodies concerned. We observe of Mechanical Instruments made by the Hands of Men, that an Engine consisting of very many wheels, or very many Motions, or other parts, are the most difficult to be kept in order. An Orchard with many Trees, or Garden with many Herbs and Flowers, require more Culture and dressing, or some will decay. A Society of many Members is apt to disorder: 'Tis a harder task to manage a Nation than a Family. The Hosts of Heaven are Thousands, and the Appurtenances relating to them, more; and yet all keep still their appointed Courses. We have lost none of the Stars out of their Orbs, since their first coming there.  
Some People tell us of some new ones; as that in Cassiopea, which was first discovered in the Heavens, about the beginning of the Reformation; what Salvo to give for that I know not; it may be it was there before; but not discovered: But however 'twas a case extraordinary; and no prejudice to the order of the rest; we have lost none of our Seasons, Day and Night, Summer and Winter have kept their times: The Sun its Revolutions, the Moon its due Changes; the Stars their proper Periods and exact motions; the standing still of the Sun in Joshua's time; and the going back of it on Ahaz Dial, are Miraculous instances, and not to be paralleled in other Ages.  
2. The Greatness of them. Small Bodies are easily managed, and apt to motion; but Great Ones move slowly, according to the Course of Sublunary Nature. But they in the Etherial Orbs are of so vast a bigness, that that Consideration doth mightily accumulate and greaten the Wonder. That the Sun, Moon and Stars, all of them so big, should move continually without disorder, or period, is an Accent upon the Miracle.  
3. The various Qualities they are of, and the different motions they make, do yet raise the Wonder to a higher Strain, to keep all one motion, especially if all of one nature, were not so very much: but to move from East to West, from West to East from North to South, from South to North again, as some of them do; and this continually, is an augmentation of the wonder.  
4. Without Period. Flowers whither: Trees rot: Stones decay: Man dies. The very Face of things below will shortly cease to be; and another succeed. The Day dies, and so doth the year: And Stones and Castles here decay; every thing here is weary of Motion. The Apostle tells us— The whole Creation groans: But here it Groans and Dies; only what is a kin more nearly to Heaven, and borders upon that Court, is of a more lasting Constitution, of a more constant Motion, of a more perpetual Duration. Since the Fathers fell asleep, all things (of that kind relating to the upper Regions) continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation, 2 Pet. 3.4, 7. For the Heavens are by the same word of God, by which they were Created, kept in store, reserved unto Fire against the Day of Judgement.  
5. Without Interruption. No falter in their Courses, no breach of Continuity in this long space of time: Nothing hath been able to stop these great Bodies in the progress of their Motion, or intermit the exercise of their Virtues and Operations.  
6. Without Error, or Mistake, or Deviation. Tho great and many and various in their Qualities, and incredibly swift in their Motions; yet have they committed no remarkable fault in all this tract of years and revolutions. They have all kept close to the Path Chalked out for them by their Creator, and have never leapt out of their Orbs. Nothing hath been able to tempt them from the Faithful Execution of their Offices and Employments: Who hath ever beckoned the Sun out the Firmament, or pushed the Moon out of its place? or made the Stars wander into strange courses? Or amidst all their divers Motions, Mingled them into confusion or disorder? When was ever Day and Night jumbled together; or the Seasons of the year reversed; or the Order of the Celestial Bodies turned backward? Illic justo foeders rerum, veterem servant sidera pacem.  
2. Practical Inferences, Learn we then—  
1. To hold on from day to day, from night to night, in the excellent Offices of a Christian Life; let day to day utter speech, and night to night show knowledge, of our continual goodness. Mankind is born with his Eyes higher set than all the rest of the Creation besides, his looks are by Nature more sublime and lofty: Let us look up earnestly towards those lucid Spangles, those sparkling Globes over our Heads, and use our Eyes to some good purpose: Let us make thence some Practical Deductions for our imitation, at least emulation; and scorn to Truant and Loiter here, at that rate, as usually we do. Let no Temptation sosten our Spirits into an unnecessary repose, nothing provoke us unduly to departed our Orbs, to run back, or start aside. Let us never be weary of well doing. Particularly,  
1. Let us never be weary of the duty of Prayer. 'Tis an excellent exercise, and such as we ought continually to be intent upon: Our Saviour spoke a Parable (Luke 18.1, 2.) unto his Disciples, that men ought always to Pray, and not to Faint. And the Apostle, Col. 4.2. Continue in Prayer and Watch in the same with thanksgiving, etc. And 1 Thes. 5.17. Pray without ceasing. And let this amongst many others be one Argument to persuade us to assiduity in this kind of Devotion, viz. That God Almighty is continually from day to day, from night to night, serving and supplying our necessities, by the Ministry of the lower Heavens, (all the Hosts of the Etherial Regions are in continual employment for our Good) why then should we disdain to bestow some few Minutes upon warm and serious Addresses to the God of Heaven? Let neither the Day or Night go away without a Testimony of our Devotion. Let not God hereafter ever cite the Sun, Moon, or Stars, for to bear witness to our Ingratitude. You know the Story of Daniel, Recorded to the honour of his Memory, That three times every day he opened his Windows, and set his Face towards Jerusalem, and Prayed to the God of Heaven, even then, when pinched with the close Temptations of the Court under a Heathen Emperor.  
Let us (at least) twice a day do Obeisance to Heaven,— Offer (as God appointed to the Jews) a Morning and Evening Sacrifice continually: Let our Altars burn with Incense, at least so often; and this shall not only perfume our Days and Nights, and make our Conversations smell sweeter to ourselves and Neighbours, but be a fragrant Odour in the Nostrils of the Almighty, And please the Lord better than a Bullock, etc. Job 1.5.  
2. Let us Praise God continually, as long as we live let us praise the Lord; yea, let us sing praises to him, whilst we have any being, Psal. 34.1. His Praises continue in my mouth, Psal. 36.9.  
3. Let us be continually employed in doing Good to others. And let us remember this, that our God causeth his Sun to shine, and Rain to Descend on the Just and Unjust. Let us try what we can to be like him; like our Heavenly Father, diffusing our Rays to as wide a Circuit as possibly we can; not limiting our goodness to a few individual Persons, or a Single Party, or a narrow bound, but (as our faculties will extend) to the Church Catholic, and the wide World in general. This is to be in truth— like the God of Heaven. And let our Charity never be discouraged, never tired. To do good, and to distribute, forget not, etc. To make it plainer yet; God hath given us a Copy of his Infinite Goodness in General, to the whole World, in the face of the outward Heavens (as of his special goodness to the Church in the Revelation of the Gospel.) If we contemplate seriously the structure and Properties and several Virtues of the Heavenly Bodies, we may read there in legible Characters, not only the Greatness and Glory, but the infinite Goodness also of him that made them, and that to the whole Race of Mankind; and that not for a spurt, a short fit of two or three Ages, but of continual Duration; his Patience is Indefatigable, and his Beneficence reacheth to the end of time. Let us then, if we will aim at Perfection, and try to tread in our Father's steps, Do good unto all men, without weariness, and Communicate the Light of our Graces, to a whole Nation, a whole World if possible, and never grudge to lend our Candles to the Assistance of those that are about us. And as for those narrow Souls that confine their goodness to a Canton, or whose Light is like that of a flaming Meteor, or an Ignis Fatuus, or a Falling Star, they deserve to lie down in Darkness, and never more rise up again to Light or Glory. Levit 24.2. 'Cause the Lamps to burn continually.  
2. Let us consider a little the Employment of the Saints and Angels in Heaven. 'Tis pretty hard to conceive with our present apprehensions, the business of Eternity, and reconcile the Notion of a Complete Happiness, to the exercise of a continual Devotion, and yet this is handsomely 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, senseless 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 possessed 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 Heavened 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. Inclined to perform the Statutes of the Lord always, or Psal. 1.2. Exercising ourselves 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 (though 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 though 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 jacob's 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 ourselves,— 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 Celestial 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 straggling 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 falter (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 straight, let us take care for the time to come to move upright, steady and straight 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 outvie 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 Commonwealths;  
Entice the Trusty Sun, if that you can, From his Eccliptick Line; beckon the Sky.  
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 expressly 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. Whether the darkest— Nations— have heard this Voice!  
Answ. Yes, Their sound hath gone out to all the ends of the World. And it is very easily made out. For,  
1. They had no other Bible to read in, than that of Nature; and this of the Heavens was the most legible Page in the whole Book. They were without the written Law, but they were not without this Natural Light. They had neither Moses nor the Prophets, nor Evangelists, nor Apostles, and therefore whither else should they go, but to the word writ upon the Book of the Creation, the Divine Handiworks in the Make of the World! Rom. 1.20.—  
2. We find them confessing it, making use of this Book, reading studiously amongst the Stars, poring with an inquisitive Eye upon the Heavens and Firmament, to gather some scraps of a Religious Philosophy, and trace the Principles of a Spiritual Divinity. Seneca when he hath placed the Wise Man walking to and fro, by the contemplation of his mind, amongst the Stars— Illic demum discit— (saith he) quod diu quaesivit; illic incipit Deum nosse. And in the beginning of his Book of Natural Questions, having undertaken some Philosophical Account of the Heavenly Bodies, we find him no where in such a Rapture of Divinity, as upon that Thesis, Nisi ad haec (the study of Divine Things, the Contemplations of the Heavenly Bodies, etc.) admitterer, non fuerat operae— pretium nasci:— O quam contempta res est Homo, nisi supra humana se erexerit!  
Nay more than this, they had generally the original of all their Theology from the Firmament: Their Gods were amongst the Stars, nay— the Stars were their only Gods.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Homer.  
Even the Egyptians themselves are accounted to have lead the way to this Superstition. And for this reason it was chief, that their several Priests, Prophets and Magis amongst the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Persians, etc. were so well-skilled commonly in the Curious Arts of Astrology and Divination; which have been since derived and diffused from them to us, and the rest of the World. Their Hermes Tresmegistus, Ptolemy and Haly, being Authors of great request still with our Astrologers and Prognosticators.  
2. What did they learn from hence? Truly a great deal more than some Christians learn from Nature and Revelation both. I speak not of all the poor dark Heathen World; but of some who were more serious and contemplative amongst them. Who took more pains than their Fellows. And I dare safely say, that though their Eyes were dim, and the Light they saw by but like the obscure Twilight, or the first Dawning of the Morning, that they might well School and Catechise some of our old Professors, Gray-haired Christians, for seven years together. It would be too large a task now to tell you what Lessons they learned from the Contemplation and Study of these Things. Their Books of Moral Philosophy, writ by Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Seneca, Isocrates, etc. were they preached in our Pulpits, were enough to fill some number of years with Sermons strong enough for our Auditors of the Lower Form: And convictive enough to shame the major part of Christians among us into blushing and confusion. Read over but the Roman Twelve Tables, Plato's Republic. the Laws of the several Heathen Nations about Religion, Sobriety, Justice, etc. And you'll find reason to fear left the Queen of the South, and the Inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, the Greek, Scythian and Barbarian will escape better, some of them at the Day of Judgement, than many of Christendom that have both the Books wide open before them all the days of their life, Rom. 2.14, 15.  
3. What might they learn? Answ. All the Articles of our Christian Creed, and all the Precepts of our Christian Religion, except those which refer to the Cause and Cure of our Misery; viz. The fall of Adam, and the Intercession of the Second Adam: That there was a God, one only Supreme Maker of Heaven and Earth, Infinite in the Attributes of Wisdom, Power, Truth, Justice, Mercy, worthy to be worshipped with a Holy Life, Prayer, Praise, Obedience, and a pure Heart and Affection; one that had a Good Will to save us, one that would reward us with excellent Rewards or Punishments, according to our Actions, in the other World: All this, and more than this they might have discerned by their Glimmering Light of Nature in only the Frontispiece of Heaven, if they had but used their Eyes. And so much many of them did not only learn, but teach, and make a public and stout profession of it to the World. The Existence of one Supreme God, the Divine Governance of the World, the Immortality of the Soul, a Mediation between God and us, and almost all the Moral Duties of the Law in Substance; the distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life, distinct Places and times of Worship, Priests and Priestly maintenance, and Atonements, and Purifications, and something like the Dedicating of their Infants to God by Baptism, with secret Devotions, and Family Worship, as well as that which was public in the Temples; All these, and much more, were adopted into the Body of the Heathen Religion: And excepting only some few Articles of our Creed, referring to the Trinity, and especially the business of our Redemption, and the True Notion of our two Sacraments, and it may be the Resurrection of our Bodies, it were not very hard, to make out all the rest of our Religion demonstrable by the mere Light of Reason. The invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.  
4. What Practical Deductions may be made from hence?  
How great is God? A Contemplation of the Heavenly Fabric will directly lead us to this point, viz. an admiration of the Divine Eternal Power of the Godhead. For Rom. 1.19. that which may be known of God is manifest to all the World, for God hath showed it to them. He hath showed his Face in the Glass of his Works, and his Features there appear so glorious, that 'tis a wonder it doth not fill our apprehensions with a pregnant and awful conceit of his Infinite Majesty and Power. The Splendour of the Divine Attributes gives shine to all the World, so that now all the Inhabitants of the Round World have scope enough for Spiritual Contemplation, and the exercise of their Rational Faculties; and the Turk and Pagan both have a book large and voluminous enough, lying wide open before them, enough to employ all their studies in, all the days of their Life. Who that considers a while the Nature of that God that made the Heavens, how he must stretch his Compass over the whole Universe, how he must meet out the Heavens with a Span, and comprehend the Dust of the Earth in a Measure, and weigh the Mountains in Scales, and the Hills in a Balance, and take up the Isles as a very little thing, and measure the Waters in the hollow of his Hand, and make the Clouds his Chariot, and ride upon the Wings of the Wind; and climb up to the highest Orbs, and extend every Globe with the present thought; and hang not only the Earth, but the Heavens upon nothing; and this in the exactest order and perfection, that no remarkable default shall appear in 6000 years in any part of all this Magnificent Building.— Who that considers a little the Nature of the Supreme Architect, shall not be ready to cry out with the Psalmist, Psal. 8.1, 9 O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth! who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth!  
2. What little low worthless Creatures are we? That God who is the Author of such excellent Handiwork, that dwells in that inaccessible Light, in such a glorious Palace, who can make Heavens at his pleasure, and garnish them in a moment, and fill the whole World with the Beams of his Glory, should yet place his Affections so much on such little silly things as we are! Psal. 8.3, etc. Shall I speak my Opinion freely in this matter? I do conceive, that one great Reason why God hath laid out so much of his Excellency, and bestowed so much of his Infinite Wisdom and Power upon the creation of the Things that are above us, especially the Heavens over our Heads,— was on purpose, to astonish proud man into a Religious Admiration of his, God, and an humble detestation of himself; for that's the very frame and temper which disposeth man for the impressions of Religion, and the exercise of a devout affection. Isa. 66.1, 2. Thus saith the Lord, the Heaven is my Throne.  
3. A due consideration of the Creation of the World, and especially of the Heavens, belongs unto us all. Os Homini sublime— etc. if God doth preach to us by these things that are seen, and thereby reveal to the World the invisible properties of the Divinity, then— we ought to hearken to this Voice, and make some good use of their Language. The Curious Spectator looks up to the Heavens, and examines every particular there, Quidni quaerat? Scit ill ad se pertinere. Tunc contemnit domicilii prioris angustias. Seneca. And (as he goes on) what is all the distance from the utmost Coasts of Spain to the Indies? But a Voyage of a very few days, if thou fail with a good Wind: But that Heavenly Country above, for many hundreds of years affords space for the swiftest Stars to travel in, without  or molestation. In short, the very Natural Propensity of Mankind to inquire into those upper Regions, and peer amongst the Stars, is some argument of our concernment that way.  
4. Let us beware of Idolatry, the fault of the Old Pagan World: Who when they saw those Lights hung out at the Windows of Heaven, which should have been but ministerial to help them in the search of him that made them, sell down and worshipped the Servants instead of their Master, the Candles at the Door instead of the Lord of the House. Deut. 4.19. yet the Jews themselves were so forgetful of this Precept, that we find them often taxed for burning Incense to the Queen of Heaven; and worshipping the Star Remphan. And 'tis too well known, that the Heathens generally worshipped the Sun, Moon and Stars; becoming vain in their imaginations; and though they professed themselves Wise, they became Fools, changing the Glory of the Incorruptible God into the Image of his Corruptible Creatures.  
5. By this Law, they who want a special Revelation, shall be judged, Rom. 2.12, 13, 14, 15. Let no man then (whether within or without the Pale of the Church) think to shroud his guilt under the Cloak of Ignorance. There's no Corner of the World so remote, no People so dark, where this Voice hath not been heard; the Music of the Spheres is soft and still, but such as shortly will make even both the Ears of the guilty sinner tingle! The Language wherein these Sermons are preached to the World, is temperate and equal, it makes no great noise at present to them, who are busy digging low in the Bowels of the Earth, but it hath a sharp and heavy accent at the End. Let no man then upbraid the Almighty, as if he were a Severe Judge for calling all men to the same Judgement; for damning men that never had the knowledge of his Laws. Fear not, God will be just; he'll vindicate his Righteousness from the foul aspersions and abuses of a Scandalous World. Hast thou sinned without Law? without Law then thou shalt be tried, and a hundred to one but condemned too; and yet God clear from thy Blood, and just in all this! What a black List of sins doth the Apostle present thee with (Rom. 1.29, etc.) all chargeable upon all Nations of the World, Jew and Christian, and Turk and Heathen, and damnable by the very Law of Nature! unrighteousness, fornication, etc. but that which affects us most in all this, is, that not only the poor Infidel is guilty in this Case, but a great part of Christendom also! Not only they that have no other Law to read in, no other Rule to go by, but the Book of the Creation; but they also who have the Bibles in their hands, and the Creed upon their tongue's end, and have all the advantages of Nature and Revelation both! When these very sins (and as bad, or worse) walk barefaced within the Confines of the Church, and men of the best Creed and Profession in the World are not ashamed to commit the foulest sins, and sometimes account it their glory to boast of such vices which ought not so much as to be named amongst Christians.  
There are several live amongst us, (it may be in this place now) whose ordinary conversations are stained with such blots, as both the lights (both that of Positive Religion, and that of mere Natural Reason too) do abhor and condemn. And yet, which is mighty strange, these very men do please themselves with the hopes of escaping safely the Sentence of the Judge at the last day! And upon their Repentance they may; but else I cannot think of any plausible Argument that will stand their Friend at the day of Judgement. And to drive the Nail farther yet;— it will not be enough for men to plead their Interest in a Church or Party in such cases: Let the Church be never so pure, nor the Profession never so good, nor the advantages of Knowledge and Information never so great; if under all these pretensions thou shouldst play the Hypocrite, and live ill, thy own Mouth would condemn thee, and a whole Cloud of Witnesses depose evidence against thee! And yet notwithstanding all this, we may take up the complaint of the Prophet, Jer 18.13. Ask now among the Heathen, who hath heard such things? the Virgins of Israel have done very horrible things. Thy poor men are tenacious of their Superstitious Vanities; 'tis hard to make a Proselyte to Christianity amongst them; they will Dispute, Fight, die for their mere shadow of Faith: But Christians will barter away their Conscience, their Creed, their Heaven, their God for mere Vanities! Vers. 14, 15. In short, if it be true, what some of the poor ignorant Gentiles fancied, that the Sun, Moon and Stars do all look upon us, and are daily Spectators and witnesses of all we do, it were well for many— if the Sun were indeed turned into Darkness, and the Moon into Blood, and the Stars would leave off their Shining, and the whole Face of the Heavens were reversed, than thus to stand over our Heads and remark our Actions, in order to a Solemn Convictive Testimony against us, Jer. 2.9, 10, 11.   

CHAP. VIII. Of the Glorious Body of the Sun.  
COnsider we next the SUN.  

1. In its Motion. 

1. Its Terms a quo & ad quem.  
2. It's Swiftness.  
3. Continuance.    
2. It's Light.  
3.— Heat.   
1. It's Motion, concerning which and the rest of its Attributes I shall have the less to say now, because I have spoken so much of it in the General Notion of the Heavenly Bodies. Yet for Order-sake— Consider we,  
1. Its Terms,— or Bounds,— from Whence, and to Which the Sun moves. From the one end of the Heavens to the other, i.e. according to our apprehension and common sense of things. For in Truth, the Heavens have neither Beginning nor End, but are of a perfect Round Figure. Indeed this Notion was so long hid from the World, that not many hundred years ago, a Germane Bishop was excommunicated for broaching this Doctrine, viz. that there were Antipodes,— and that the Earth in answer to the Heavens, was inhabited round; whereas now 'tis generally agreed upon, with good reason, by all the Learned of late Ages.  
2. It's swiftness. I need say little more upon this point, than what I said before, viz. that the Sun according to the Judgement of some Astronomers, goes in its motion 1000000 Germane miles, in the Judgement of others 261905— in one hour. Whether either of them are in the right or no, I am not much concerned to determine. This is certain, 'tis of a vast body, 166 times bigger than the Earth, say Astronomers, who by the Eclipses say, they have found its Diameter, and by its Diameter, its Compass (periphery) and by that its motson. Indeed its Course is so swift, so incredibly quick, that out late Philosophers would fain find a nearer way to solve the Wisdom of Nature, whose Principle it is to doevery thing the nearest way it can be done; and therefore have racked their Brains to discover, if possibly, a mistake in the case, and to prove that the Earth (which is by many degrees the less Body) doth move round, and not the Sun with so swift and daily a motion: But as yet the Evidence of that Opinion doth not appear; so that we may on this point say,— it rejoiceth as a Giant,— etc.  
3. It's Continuante and Constancy. Intimated in these words— As a Giant— running his Race, etc. Psal. 19.5, 6. his circuit— c. nor need I say more upon this particular. 'Tis demonstrable to every Eye, and agreed upon by all the World, that the Sun hath continued still in motion, from the begmning of the World to this prefent Age, and shall do to the end of time. Itself being the Heavenly Clock, the Original Measure of all our Times.  
2. It's Light.— As a Bridegroom coming out, of his Chamber, i.e. trimmed and decked in splendid and glorious. Apperel, making pleasant the Eyes of all Beholders: So the Sun, who is Condus & promus. Lueis, the Spring of Light, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a pure Flame 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an always Burning Torch, a Universal Candle, that serves the whole World to work and walk by; that makes (with its approach) smiles in the Face, and cheerfulness in the Heart of every Spectator, that hath Eyes to behold it. Even Infants themselves, incapable yet of making distinction between other Objects, are pleased with this; and Beasts themselves can hardly live without it. In a word, 'tis the Eye of Heaven, and the pleasure of Earth; and that we can as ill spare, as the Eyes out of our Head: For take away that, and these are useless, or near upon it.  
3. Heat. Nothing hid from the Heat thereof, Psal. 19.6. Upon this point likewise I have spoken already, and left myself little more to say. It tempers the Air, which we suck with our Nostrils, and produceth the Aliments we take with our Mouths, and cherisheth our Bodies to help Concoction; and is the Universal Cause (under God) of all Sublunary Being's. What shall I say— it brood's the Earth, and moves upon the Waters, and helps to fecundate all things here below. There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.  
I have done with the Natural Consideration.— Let us now deduce something for our Spiritual Meditation.  
1. The Papists tell us,— That Images and Pictures are the laymen's Books, wherein they may Read (without ever a Letter) the Lives of the Saints.— What if I should say— the Sun is a fit Emblem of God, and a Pattern for our Imitation; Imitation (I say, and Admiration) not Adoration.  
1. A fit Emblem or rather Adumbration of God, but with an Infinite Disproportion. For inter finitum & infinitum— no proper Comparison. Yet this I say, is peradventure as fit an Emblem of the Divinity asany we can find within the ken of our senses, and under the cope of Heaven. And methinks God himself doth not disdain the Resemblance; the Holy Ghost himself fetcheth Metaphors thence to attribute unto God. Psal. 84.11. The Lord is a Sun— and Psal. 4. 'Cause the Light of thy Countenance to shine— etc. and Jam. 1.17. The Father of Lights. And the Fathers generally make use of this similitude to portray a little, in faint resemblance, the Majesty of God by.— So Chrysostom, Gregory, Bernard, Tertullian, Hillary, etc. Having therefore so good footing for my Inference, I shall pursue it more clearly The Sun is an Emblem of the Godhead in these respects.  
1. Of his Unity. There is one Sun in the Firmament, and one God in Heaven. Deut. 4.35. Unto thee,— etc. Deut. 6.4. The Lord our God is one Lord. Are there any more Suns in the World than one? 'Tis true, there are sometimes Parelii, or Mock-Suns, two or three or more, which are no other than some Images or faint resemblancies of the Sun, caused by the refraction of its Beams in some plain, thick, watery adjacent Cloud; and so there may be some faint shadow or adumbrations of the Deity in some brave Vertuoso's, some Heroic Saints in the World; but yet he that shall worship these for Gods, and pray to them as if they were his Mediators or Saviour's, commits Idolatry, and offers Sacrilege to the God of Heaven, who calls to the Grandees of the World for an Entire Service,— Worship him all ye Gods. The Gods of the Heathens are but mere Parelii, silly Adumbrations, cyphers compared to this One Johova. An Idol is nothing, so saith the Apostle, i. e. of that which it pretends to represent. And 'tis a bold piece of presumption and sacrilegious Impudence, to set up Rush-Candles or Wax-Tapers to vie with the Saviour, to put mear Creatures in competition with the God of Heaven. Nay the Moon herself is not fit to enter any comparison (in right Judgement) with the Fountain of Lights, the Sun; for what Light she hath, 'tis dim and uncertain, and all borrowed; she hath none of her own: So nor all the Church Catholic put together, that in Heaven, and this on Forth are worthy of the tenth part of that Adoration and Honour we own to the God of all theWorld. And yet there have been some so absurd in their practice, that they have burnt Incense to the Queen of Heaven, (the Moon) when the Sun must be put off with a bare Sacrifice: And some that say ten Ave Mary's to one Pater Noster; saying with that Superstitious Monk— tu spes mea— Thou my Hope, my Tower, in whom I have placed the very End of my Salvation.— if (which God forbidden) I should like a Man mad and rebrobate, forget my God, vere tui nunquam obliviscar.— Thy memory is sweeter than Honey and the Honeycomb in my Mouth, etc. Methinks the Apostle seems, 1 Tim. 6.16. to allude to this similitude of the Unity of the Sun.  
2. Of the Trinity. There are three considerable, distinct affections belonging to the Sun, all which I mentioned but now,— Motion, Heat and Light: They are all of a several different property, and yet inseparable one from the other; and yet these three all concentre in one Sun. Why may not this be a pretty Tolerable Representation of the Trinity of Persons, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost? 'Tis a hard Mysterious Article to Humane Reason: Mankind hath long complained of the depth and difficulty of this Mystery. I will not say— that God meant this consideration of the Sun for a Natural Advantage to our Faith in the case: But I dare say— we are allowed to help our Unbelief with all the Assistances of Nature (as well as Grace) that we can get. And this, if we please, may be one. Nor am I singular here neither! The Ancient Fathers of the Church have started the Notion before me! Dr. Day in his Lectures citys Juslin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian and Lactantius, making use of this Comparison. I humbly acknowledge this Article of our Faith is without a bottom! past Humane Fathom: 'Tis storied of St. Augustin that he endeavoured to found it. He walked abroad to that purpose, at last came to a Riverside; musing with himself, and labouring to conceive it. At length not far off a little Child appeared unto him very busy on the Bank. He had made forsooth a little hole, and with a Spoon which he had in his Hand, was lading of the Water into the aforesaid little hole. St. Augustine draws nearer to him, demands of the Child what he was a doing! Father (quoth he) my purpose is to unlade this whole River into this little hole you here see.  
Augustne. That's impossible,— etc.  
Child. No more will you be ever able to bring to pass that which you are about. And with that the Child vanished. I relate not the Story for a certain Truth. The thing itself in absolute consideration is true, viz. that 'tis as impossible for us to conceive the Blessed Trinity, as with a little Spoon to unlade a Great River into a little hole. The present Emblem may serve a little to take off our suspicions of the Impossibility and Absurdity of the Trinity of Persons in One God: It is not sufficient to expound the thing itself, all the Three Persons are represented under this Notion.  
FATHER.— The Lord is a Sun,— Isa. 60.19.  
SON.— Mal. 4.2. and vide Margin Luk. 1.78. and Mat. 17.2.— Rev. 1.16.  
HOLY GHOST.— He shall baptise with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. — Led you into the way of all Truth.  
Multa sunt quae dici possunt, sed suffioiat fidelibus pauca de Mysterio Trinitatis audivisse. Aug.— In die judicii non damnor, quia dicam nescivi Naturam Creatoris mei, si autem aliquid temere dixero, temeritas poenas luit, ignorantia veniam promeretur. Id.  
3. Of the Divine Glory and Vnsearchableness. He that goes about to stare long upon the Sun, or approach its Light, and dive deep into the Nature of it, may as Demecritus,— stare himself Blind, before he can make any near approaches to it. 'Tis not easy to bear the insivence of the Sun for one whole day, suppose we could possibly be so long under the immediate and direct emission of its Glorious Beams, though upon the Earth. It will burn combustible stuff at the distance of 1000000 miles, should it stand still, and neither remove away, nor be tempered with other cooling Elements. Consider this a little seriously, and apply it.  
The Glory of God is such an amazing wonder, that as the Father saith— in hac mortali vita quicquid ad nos usque pertingit, aliud nihil est quam exiguus quidam rivulus, ac velut parvus magnae Lucis Rivulus. Naz. vide Act. 26.13. 1 Tim. 6.16.— so that when we go about to search into the Divine Nature, we must stand off, and know our distance, and assume modestly to our thoughts, and acknowledge the depth of the Mystery, and cry out with the Apostle Rom. 11.33, etc. O the Depth,— etc. sure I am, though we ought, as much as any thing in the world, to study the Nature and Properties of that God we are concerned with, and account it one of the first points of True Wisdom to acquaint ourselves with that Almighty Being we have to do with, and to pray for more Light and Grace, that we may be able in due time to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth, and length, and height and depth; and to know the Love of God which passeth knowledge: Yet in our highest attainments on this side the veil, we shall know but in part, and prophesy in part; our utmost skill will not be sufficient to comprehend the Infinite God in the Embraces of our Finite Conceptions: And we shall as soon be able to climb the Sun, and stare with open Eyes upon that great Luminary, and comprise all its excellent Rays and Influences within the limits of our narrow Bosom, as— by searching to find out, and trace out the Almighty to perfection. Est in Deo, quod percipi potest; est plane si modo, quod potest, velis: Sicut videre est in Sole quod videas, si hoc velis videre, quod possis; amittas autem quod potes videre, dum quod non potes niteris; it a ut in rebus Doi habes quod intelligas, si intelligere quod potes, velis: Caelum si ultra quam potes, spears, id quod potuisti non poteris. Hilar. Psal. 145.3. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.  
I am loath to leave this Abyss of Meditation! Pardon me, Sirs, if I strain Courtesy a little in the case! This Infinite Being is the Fountain of our Blessedness, and therefore, notwithstanding his Excellent Majesty, can be cooped within no bounds, nor scaled by any Humane Apprehensions, to the height, nor fathomed to the utmost depth by any Line of Humane Reason; yet 'tis pleasant to behold him thro' the Lattices, and spend our deepest thoughts and admirations upon his Glory! And if we cannot comprehend him, let us stand and wonder! And cry out with longing and importunate Desire— Oh! when shall the Veil be taken off our Eyes? When shall the Apartment that separates us, be taken away? When shall we come to know as we are known? But Oh— when shall our finite Natures be exhaled and drawn up with this Sun? And our Souls drawn up into his boundless Glory? and we Eternally Blessed in the warm Embraces of his Divine Love? In those Flames of Pure Affection for ever and ever! To think now of this unsearchable God, the most Infinitely Good and Glorious Being in the whole World, whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain, whom Angels all admire and adore, the Nature of whose Glory we cannot now grasp with our most expanded thoughts: That this God shall first pardon our sins, and then sanctify our natures, and shortly send his Angels to fetch our Souls up to that Heavenly Choir, where we shall be clothed indeed with the Sun, and tread the Moon under our Feet, and look with a holy scorn upon the little silly trifling comforts of the Sublunary World! This is enough to make our Faces smile now at every Beam of Light and Mercy darted upon our Souls from that Divine Countenance, to make our hearts dance within us! To fill us with an unspeakable Joy upon the hopes of that intuitive fruition in the other World! Then, and not till then we shall see the Maker of the Worlds, and come to see and understand the deep and pleasant Mysteries of his Wondrous Works!  
4. Of the Divine Omnipresence: That God should be every where present, as our Religion obligeth us to believe that he is, is a pretty hard Article; in Heaven, on Earth, in Hell: In the one by the especial manifestation of his Glory, in the other by the continual exercise of his Providence, in the last by the Execution of his Justice; and yet thus he is, as both Scripture and Reason oblige us to believe: The Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him, nor the Earth, nor Hell: He transcends all the limits of Nature, and surpasses all those little finite bounds of Man's Conception, Psal. 139.3, 4, 5, etc. yet even the difficulty of this Attribute, as insuperable as it seems to be, is plainly illustrated by this Simile, The Sun is placed in the heavenly Orbs, there it resides continually, yet disperseth its shining rays to the Firmament above, to the Air, to the Earth below; yea, it traverseth round the world, and visits the Antipodes under our Feet; it passeth through our Windows, through the crevices of our Walls, the light breaks in through the Pores of our Curtains, and its Heat through Stonewalls; it shines upon the nasty Dunghills, and yet receives no infection or impurity thence. Why should it seem then a thing impossible, that the God that made it should fill the World with his Presence! and he confined to no bounds!  
5. (Which borders upon it) Of the Divine Omniscience: The Heathens supposed the Sun could see and hear; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Even the Scripture itself sometimes makes use of this Allusion and Metaphor; The Sun hath looked upon me, Cant. 1.6. 2 Sam. 12.11. In the sight of this Sun. And there is so much ground for this Fancy, that take away the Sun, and our Eyes would serve to very little purpose; it is that dispels the darkness, and discovers the Truth in all places of the World, (where it is discovered) and it brings to light the hidden things of darkness: As I said but now, it visits all parts of the World, Air, Earth, Sea, all the corners of the Earth, all the rooms of our Houses; nay, our very Reins and Heart, the most retired parts of our Bodies, are not hid from the Heat of it: Were it possible to bar the Pores of our Skin, and shut the door of our Breasts fast against the Beams and warm influence of it, our very Heartblood would soon congeal into a dead and putrid Humour! What is this but a fair Copy of the Divine Omniscience, so far as an insensate Creature can possibly vie with an intelligent and infinite Creator? Tell me, you now that are ready to object Blindness to the God of Heaven, and say, Tush, the Lord doth not see, nor the God of Jacob regard; can you hid yourselves from the Sun of the Firmament, and live? If not, shall not he that made the Sun search further than an insensate finite Creature of his own making? Shall not he that made the Eye, see? etc. but shall not he that made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Eye of the World, see more than the Eye itself? Go now ye Hypocrites, and shut the Door, and draw the Curtain over your secret Debaucheries, and dare to perpetrate the blodest sins under a Veil,— but remember, that the Light will break in through the narrowest chink, and nothing can hid you from the Omniscient Eye, before whom Hell is naked, and Destruction hath no covering, Job 26.6. vid. Heb. 12.13.  
6. Of the Divine Providence: That God should be still in Heaven, and there safe in the enjoyment of a Complete Happiness, and yet interpose his Power and Government in the Transactions of this lower World, without any Disturbance to his rest and quietness, is a Wonder which some People in the World have not been able to digest: I desire these People but to give themselves leisure to meditate a little upon the present subject of our Discourse, and take notice how the Sun is as quiet in his Orb, and excellently glorious from Age to Age, without any change or diminution, or disturbance from any thing, either in the Spheres above, or the Orbs below, and yet hath still a mighty influence upon all things here beneath; tempering the Air, fanning the Clouds, dissolving the Snow, and Hail, and Frost, and Dew, giving light to the Moon, shining round the Earth; fecundating the very Mines, Trees, Herbs, Grass, Fruits, Flowers; influencing upon the Constitutions of us Men, our Bodies first, and then our Minds; giving light, heat, motion, action, generation, sense and life, to all sublunary living bodies; and then say— Whether it be not very feasible to believe, that God Almighty may govern this lower World, and interpose his Hand in the Concernments of us Men, without any prejudice to the rest of his blessed Attributes! I am very sorry that Men are so apt to suspect the weakness of the Almighty Power, as if he were a mere cipher to the Governance of of all Humane Affairs! but when they are so insensible of the secret and yet notorious concurrence of this eminent Planet with the concerns of Nature, the Wonder is at a stop: And we must say at best, that Men are Fools for want of thinking, and using their Faculties! Men have got a Trick, ever since sin debauched their Natures, of looking low, and creeping upon the Earth, and taking Notice only of things that run directly into their Eyes, fixing upon secundary Causes; and the immediate Effects and Consequences, (like the Dog that quarrels with the Staff, but regards not the Hand that holds it; or the Hogg that gathers the Acorns and Mast, but looks not up to the Tree from whence they fall)— forgetting that the God of Heaven hath an effectual influence upon the Works of his own Hands. Is there evil in the City, and the Lord hath not done it! and is there any good amongst us which comes not from the Fountain of Blessedness, the Author of every good and perfect Gift! Let Men learn a little from this Topic to raise their aspect, and climb the Ladder from Orb to Orb, in the tracing of causes, till they come to the Primum Mobile, the Original Principle of all Motions; and by accustoming themselves to this Method of consideration, peradventure they will find reason to run every remarkable Contingent of their life to the Head, and at last terminate in the Son of Righteousness.  
7. Of the Divine Invisibility: 'Tis true, we may see something of the Sun, but there is something likewise in it, which we cannot see; who can see its Beams or glaring light, or heat, or motion, so as to be able to give any competent account of the nature, substance, colour, and properties of them? You may see the back parts, the Operations, the glimmering and faint representations of the Almighty— But there shall no Man see his Face, and live, Exod. 33.20. Can the Owl see the Sun, or Batts endure the Daylight? no more can we abide the Lustre of the Divine Presence, or see the Essentials of his being, 1 Tim. 6.16.  
8. Incorruptibility and Immortality: The Sun is the same now as he was last Year, last Age, thousands of Years ago; he suffers no decay, infirmity, old age, or declension, but is as fresh and vigorous now, as in the first Morning of its Creation. Doth not this somewhat resemble the Glory of the incorruptible God? the King Immortal, Eternal, Invisible, Jam. 1.17. Who is the same to day, yesterday, and for ever: All things here wax old, as doth a Garment, etc.  
9 Of his Omnipotence: (For all these Attributes are reckoned to the Almighty, as in a manner peculiar to him, and therefore I hope you'll not quarrel with the Number of my Particulars.) What cannot (in reason) the Sun do? I have instanced in many things under the point of Providence; I will add a few more: The Sun can parch our grounds, exhale our Waters, make the Earth barren, destroy our Harvests, and bring a Dearth upon the Land. The Sun can invenom the Air, and shed a Poison into our Constitutions, and destroy us with Plagues and Mortal Distempers; the Sun can burn our Houses, Towers, Steeples, and make a Desolation in the Earth; the Sun can make our Heads ache, our Hearts burn, our Choler domineer, and so dispose to Wars and Bloodshed. Again, the Sun can melt the Clouds, and send Rain upon the Earth to make it fruitful, and turn our dry grounds into springs of Water; can heal the Air, and warm our Constitutions, and preserve our Health, and Wealth, and Peace, and Plenty, but all this under the Permission of God Almighty: He only is the the Supreme Power, whom no Creature can resist: He only is Omnipotent— Our God is a consuming Fire, Heb. 12.29. What a mighty Foundation is this Attribute of the Divine Omnipotence to build our Faith and Affiance upon! and what strong Reasons we have to believe it! and yet we shake like a Bulrush, when we lean upon that strong Arm; the strength of Israel, who will not lie, nor deceive; that mighty God, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we (weak Mortals) can wish or think of: What Conceptions we are able to frame to ourselves now of this Attribute, I know not; this I believe, when once the leaf of this sublunary World is turned over, and the Gates of Heaven are opened, and that Scene of Infinite Glory which lies yet before us out of sight, is presented to our eyes, when the WONDERS of the other World come in view, we shall then cry out, Rev. 19.6. The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.  
10. Purity and Holiness: The Fire is a clean Element, and one of those that we are wont to purify Metals and Vessels made of them with: It was enjoined under the Law. The Sun is pure from any Spot, or Blemish, or Wrinkle, or Cloud, or Earth, or Pollution: Yea, though it visits our Dunghills, 'tis not defiled with them; no uncleanness can stick to the Sunbeams: Yea, it discovers the Spots upon our Garments, the Freckles upon our Faces, and puts a shame upon our Deformities, Eccles. 16.10. What is this, but a lively Emblem of the infinite purity of that God, with whom we have to do? That Refiners fire and Fuller's soap, whose words are all of them purer than Gold tried in the fire, and requires us to be pure as he is pure; and really when we consider this visinity of the Divine Holiness, we may be justly abashed into shame and confusion, to think what deformities our Souls are disfigured with, and what insolences we have committed in the sight of this Sun, and withal, we have reason to cry out,— as 1 Sam. 6.20. Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? if the righteous scarcely be saved, etc. We are apt to please ourselves with the Memoirs of the Divine Goodness and Clemency, the shining light and warmth of the Sunbeams, but seldom remember, that the same Sun, when it looks through a burning glass, is apt to set fire upon combustible Stuff; I mean, that whosoever builds any such light, Tinder, Hay, Straw, Stubble, Wood, false Doctrines and Errors of Judgement, or ungodly Practices, runs the risk of an extraordinary hazard, and that these works must be tried by a Jealous God; and whatever is combustible must be burned up, and if the sinner after that loss have any substance of Purity and Holiness left, he shall be saved, but so as by fire; as a piece of impure Gold or Silver thrown into the Furnace, to prove the Metal and waste the Dross. Our God is a consuming Fire.  
11. Bounty: How beneficial the Sun is to the Earth, I need not stay now to tell you; 'tis sufficient to say, the benignity and beneficence of it is so great, and its good offices so many, that we can as ill spare the Sun out of the firmament, as the Breath almost out of our Nostrils; nor can we live, or move, as Men, as Christians, without the mercies of God: His Mercies are over all his Works! and should I go about to exspatiate upon this Theme, I might as well go wade in the deep and wide Ocean. His mercy is over all his works! He is a gracious God, merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness, pitiful and compassionate, of tender bowels, and a long patience, and plenteous in goodness; keeping mercy for thousands of them. In short, the Prophet seems to make out my Analogy in this point more exactly, when he tells us, Mal. 4.2. The Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.  
12. unchangeableness and Everlastingness: We see nothing visible in the nature of things to prognosticate the ruin of the Sun, at least till the expiration of the whole Elementary World: It neither changes, nor decays, nor dies, it falters not in its motions or influences; 'tis still one, continues the same, and will do so till the end of time— So long as the Sun endures, Psal. 72.5, 17. and in this respect likewise 'tis an adumbration of the Divine Truth, and Faithfulness, and unchangeableness, and Eternity. I am the Lord, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed, Mal. 3.6. The Lord shall endure for ever, Psal. 9.7.  
13. I have one thing more, and I have done: The Sun and Moon represent a Husband and Wife; so the Heathen Poets fancied, and accordingly gave the names of Phoebus to one, and Phebe to the other, Psal. 19.5. And 'tis very certain, the Moon depends entirely upon the Sun for all its light, and attends it in its motions, as becomes an Obsequious Bride; nor am I singular in this conceit; Holy Scripture gives sufficient countenance to it. The Church is fitly compared to the Moon, upon the account of its Changes, Eclipses, borrowed Light, and wanish Complexion. I think, by the seed of David, Psal. 89.37. compared there to the Moon, is meant the Church, and as for the Sun, ye have heard already, that God himself stoops to the Metaphor; the other part is easily made out, viz. That this Sun and this Moon are related one to the other, as the Bridegroom and the Bride, Isa. 62.1, 5. You are this Moon, God hath set his Love upon the children of men, with design to marry them to himself; Christ the Sun of Righteousness, hath died to purchase their affections, and present them to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, etc. As a man loves his wife, so doth Christ the Church; only this, are you willing to accept the Proposal, or will you disdain the motion? shall this Moon scorn to be married to this glorious Sun? or are you willing to take Christ for your wedded Husband, to live together after God's Ordinance, in the sacred Tie of a Matrimonial Relation? God himself courts you, Christ hath died for you, the Spirit and the Bridegroom say, Come, and we his Ambassadors and Ministers say, Come, we beseech you in Christ's stead; the Commission to us is much the same with Abraham's to his Servant, Gen. 24.38. And our answer may be much the same with Abraham's Servant to his Master, v. 39 however, our Address to you is the same with his to Rebecka, v. 49. If you are willing, God is willing, and all things are ready, and the Match is excellent, and no Dowry on your part is required, only as the Psalmist, Psal, 45.10. Harken, O Daughter, etc. And if you are thus far willing, hearty willing, the Espousals may be celebrated now, we will very quickly, God willing, solemnize the Contract, (in the Sacrament) and shortly the Marriage shall be consummate, and the Feast prepared, (when the Scaffold of this World is taken down) and the Compeer of our Bridegroom, the Man of sin is destroyed, and the number of the Guests are completed, and room is made for that great solemnity; then, I say, the Marriage-day will come, and the Feast celebrated, and the Nuptials consummate, and then Rev. 19.7. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his Wife hath made herself ready.  
FINIS.    

Meditations UPON THE Beauty of Holiness.  
By WILLIAM TURNER, M. A. and Vicar of Walberton in Sussex.  
Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness,  Psal. 29.2. 
LONDON, Printed by J. Astwood for John Dunton, at the Raven in Jewen-street, and are also to be Sold by Ed. Richardson, near the Poultrey-Church. 1695.   

To my Dear Friends and Acquaintance in Flintshire, Shropshire and Sussex, etc.  
SIRS,  
HAving broke the Ice already, in daring to appear publicly in the World, I was willing next to pitch my Thoughts upon the level, for the benefit of my Friends and Acquaintance: If perhaps I might with a short Discourse, not too tedious for the Ears of any sober Person, that is at leisure from the Noise of Importunate Cares and Business, recommend a Subject that is worthy a bigger Encomium than I am able to give it. I am not ashamed of the Theme, but I am ashamed of myself, as a Person unworthy to handle it; this made me hesitate a while, and consider, whether I were not imprudent, to put myself upon such a Subject as would tempt the Reader to inquire, whether the Author were such a Glorious and Beautiful Saint as he here recommends to the World? To deal freely and ingeniously in the Case of such Objections as these are, I will openly avow it to the World, that I Admire the Rule we are to walk by; I am ashamed every Night upon my Knees of my own and others Transgressions and Prevarications. God forgive us! we live as if we were in love with Deformity, and took a Pride in that which is our shame! Mankind is absolutely the Greatest Blot of all the Visible Creation; and 'tis the saddest Lamentation of all, that the World is growing old, and men no wiser than they were some Thousands of Years ago. We are sensible of Neatness and Beauty in , Faces, Houses, every thing but our Lives and Manners. If this be not an Absurdity, I know not what is: The Heathens (some of them) laughed at it long ago, as a piece of Nonsense not reconcileable to Humane Reason, and yet we still go on to Dote at the same rate, and never Tax our Intellectuals, as if they were to be blamed for the immorality of our Lives. Men are generally tender of the Reputation of their Wit, and choose (of the two) rather to be suspected and accounted Knaves than Fools; but in earnest, in the Account of Religion, 'tis hard to say whether they are fit for, Bridewell or Bedlam. To provoke myself and Reader to shake off (by degrees at least) this Ungodly Tribe, and to live like Men of sense, and somewhat that is solid and brave, to love that which is Truly Lovely, is the sincere Design of  
Dear Sirs, Your Real Friend and Servants, W. TURNER.   

Meditations UPON THE Beauty of Holiness.  
'TIS a laborious Task, to commend unto the sinful World the Love of our Religion, and requires a more than Humane, an Angel's Skill, the Tongue of Cherubims, the most strenuous Arguments and sweetest Eloquence in the World: And when we have done all that we can, unless we can also open blind eyes, and make them see a Beauty there, where with their natural Eyes and Understandings they see nothing but Deformity, our labour is still lost, and we must return without our Errand.  
My Design at this time is to treat upon this Subject, and yet when I have set out the Constitution of our Religion in its Native beauty, and presented the Figure of it in its most amiable Complexion, I must leave it at your Censures, and desire you to beg of God the Illumination of your Understandings, the opening of your Eyes, that you may pass a right Judgement in the Case.  
This will be the drift of my following Discourse, viz.  

I. To show, that Holiness and the Divine Worship, are in themselves beautiful.  
II. To exhort you to keep up, what you can, this Beauty of Divine Worship, and a Holy Life.   
First, That there is a certain Beauty in the Exercise of Religion, and especially in the Divine Worship; and this may be evinced by the opening of these particulars.  

1. The God whom,  
2. The Christ through whom,  
3. The Ministers, by the instrumentality of whom,  
4. The Place where,  
5. The People who,  
6. The Graces wherewith,  
7. The Ordinances wherein,  
8. The Glory, for which we worship,   
Are all Beautiful.  
This I shall show first of all, and afterwards the Deformity of the contrary, Impiety and Irreligion.  
1. The God whom we worship is a Beautiful God: If there be any Beauty in the World, any Comeliness and Excellency in any Creature, any pleasant Figures or Shadows of Decency to be found upon any Being within the Circuit of the wide Universe, they are all but borrowed Beams from this Sun. The Psalmist makes it his most Cordial request, his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, his only Petition to Heaven— to see the Beauty of the Lord, Psal. 27.4. Here he could be content to inhabit all his days, to contemplate the Beauty of the great Jehova, to gaze and spend his Eyes upon the glorious lustre of this Sun; a thousand Mouths, and a thousand Tongues, tho' as fluent all of them as those of Angels, would be too little to praise this Beauty, to describe this Glory; but one Ray of it darted in full vigour upon us now, would be enough not only to strike our Senses with blindness and astonishment but even to crack our mortal Tabernacles, and lay us all flat upon the Dust. Why, the Divine Glory is inaccessible to Creatures dwelling in corruptible bodies, in Houses of mere Clay, not yet purged from the rottenness and rust of Sin, and refined for Glory; the God whom we worship is a God of eminency, of excellent Beauty, of incomprehensible unconceivable Glory! all the Jewels and Inferior Beauties of this sublunary World, and all the Spangles of the Starry Spheres, put together, would be nothing, compared to this excellent amiable Being. Can we but see him a little in his Robes of Majesty, Glory and Beauty, now, as we shall hereafter, Face to Face, a glimpse would be a Charm, Face to Face, a glimpse would be a Charm, and a single Glance a Spell to all the Cares and Pleasures of this poor transitory World: Then we should dote, as David did, upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and cry out in the same manner— One thing, O Lord— this one thing, I desire, this I will seek after, that I may dwell in thy house for ever; that I may spend not only the few Minutes of the present short Life, but may wear an Eternity in thy house, etc. Then with St. Paul after his Visions,— let the World lie all of it under foot, let all the Charms besides of Wealth or Pleasure, be despised, as Dross and Dung, in comparison of this Beauty, this Glory!  
I would, but cannot, speak somewhat worthy of that God, and his desirableness, whom we worship; for not only our Tongues, but our Senses falter, when we soar aloft, and begin to talk of that Infinite Glory! His own Works speak louder for him than our words: All his Works praise him. Every Creature hath a Tongue to say somewhat in the Commendation of him that made them! and can we live in the crowd, in the very midst of his Encomiasts, and hear and see nothing!  
I would not, Sirs, that ye should be put into Raptures now, God finds it not convenient to distribute our Rewards to us till we have done our Work; he hides at present his Beauty from us in retirement, within the Veil— but I would not that Men should be stark-blind, and not see something of his Excellency, whose Glory fills the Heavens, and Mercies extend themselves over all the World.  
2. The Christ through whom we Address ourselves to God, and by whose Intercession we hope for Acceptance in our religious Services. Our Mediator is sweet and lovely, the most amiable amongst ten thousand, fairer than all the Children of Men; his Lips are full of Grace and Truth, his Garments smell of Myrrh, Aloes, and Cassia, out of the Ivory Palaces: His Incarnation, humble Birth, excellent Doctrine, holy Life, divine Miracles, meritorious Death, and glorious Resurrection, all are portrayed to us in the Lineaments of a perfect Beauty; here we may see the blessed Cherubims clasping their Wings over the Propitiatory; Truth and Mercy, Righteousness and Peace issing each other; the Terrors of the Law, and the Blessings of the Gospel met together in the sweetest Embraces; and if there be any profane incredulous Souls, that wink and dazzle at this Prospect, and say as in the Prophet, He hath no form or comeliness, and tho' we see him, we see nothing in him that we should desire him; Isa 53.1. If he be despised and rejected of Men, (as 'tis very true he is by too too many) if this Jewel be a stone of stumbling, we know the reason, 'tis because the God of this World hath blinded their Eyes, and drawn such deep Prejudices over their Understandings, that like Owls of the Desert, they cannot see the Noon-Sun. Away then with that unholy Generation, that prise not their Mediator, nor make their Applications to Heaven in his Name, but make a Mock of that Jesus that died in Jerusalem, and resolve all the Mystery of our Redemption into a mere figure; as if our Jesus were but a shadow, and our Redemption a vanity; and those also that place so much Perfection in themselves, as makes the application of Christ's Merits impertinent and unnecessary; or those either, that patch the Merits of their Saviour with their own Works, and to make him more complete, adjoin other Mediators to him. For us, we know no other Name under Heaven, so sweet, so salutary, so efficacious with God the Father, by whom 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 ushered 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, etc. 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 itself is an Ornament; thoh ' the Church never wanted those Adversaries, that in despite to the Light threw Stones at the Lantern. The Minister is a Terrestrial Angel, (they should be so, and good Ministers are so) To the Angel of the Church, etc. Rev. 2.1. of Ephesus, Sardis, etc. they are Stars, and shining Lights in the dark World; and Stars, ye know, enamel the Hemispheres: They are the Servants of the living God, which show to us the way to everlasting Salvation.  
I would not say these things to puff the Clergy up with Pride and Vainglory; 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 Horsemen of Israel, and the Chariots thereof.  
4. The Place where: Whether it be a ' Tabernacle or a Temple, or other place consigned to the Holy Service; not that we attribute any inherent Holiness to such places now especially under the Gospel, but what depends merely upon the relation it bears to the Work and Employment 'tis 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, etc. How amiable are thy Tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts! 'tis the perfection of Beauty, shining with the light of the Divine Countenance, Psal. 50.2. 'tis 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, Angel's 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 Apartment, 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 theatres, 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 holiday 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 itself in Emblem, Mount Zion in Effigy, the Celestial 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 hue wood, and draw water for the use of the Tabernacles; these are invested in the Communities, Privileges 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, Privileges, every thing that is sweet and salutary; and tho' their Faces differ, their Natures do not; tho' in Opinions about some lesser punctilio'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 sympathise 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 are the Glory of Christ, 2 Cor. 8.23. and therefore may well be accounted the Glory of us, the Beauty of the World, the Jewel of the whole Earth; and tho' it be burnt with the Sun of Temptation and Affliction, tho' it be spotted as the Moon, tho' it be black and homely, yet 'tis orderly and comely, and shall e'er long be presented (all the Body of them) to the Holy Jesus, as a glorious Church, without spot, etc. Psal. 48.1, 2, 3.  
6. The Graces wherewith: And here I have a large Field, a pleasant Garden, full of sweet odoriferous Herbs, and beautiful fragrant Flowers, to walk in; a Bed of Spices, a Baal-Hamon, and better than that, the Vineyard, the Eden of the God of Heaven; for he himself doth not disdain to walk in this Paradise, to gather these Flowers, to divert himself in this Garden, Cant. 5.1. I am come, etc. If ye ask me, What is the Garden of God? Answ. Isa. 5.7. Surely the Vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the Men of Juda his pleasant plant. The Church of the faithful is his Eden, his Habitation, his Diversion, but the Herbs that grow there, and the Flowers that flourish there, are the Virtues and Graces of his People. Here upon these gracious qualities, these holy Habits, I would fain spend some Praises, and set them out in a beautiful dress to the Eye of the World; but two things hinder: One, that 'tis hard to praise sufficiently things excellent; the other, that if I could do it, yet their Beauty is not to be seen with carnal Eyes. We must wink upon the Flesh, if we would see Spirits, and we must be blind to carnal Objects, when we would survey the beauty of spiritual Graces! But really the Graces are the greatest Embellishments of Humane Nature, Coats of Embroidery, and profitable, pleasant, glorious, the most decent wear for rational and immortal Spirits, and durable and fashionable to Eternity. Virtues that make Men's Faces shine, Converlations glister, and every thing that appertains to them appear pardonable, lovely, and inviting, Cant. 4.9. Thou hast ravished my Heart, etc. So God himself is pleased to accept the Beauty of our Graces, the Communications of his Spirit, and so Men too are apt to take a Complacency in these qualities. Bonus Vir Caius seius, etc. Jewel, I could love thee, were't thou not an Heathen in thy Opinions, but surely thou art an Angel in thy Life and Conversation. Give me a Man, of a pious, sober, just, humble, peaceable, charitable Genius; a Man that gives his God, his Prince, his Priest, his Neighbour, his Enemy, his Family, himself, all their due; that keeps up the Rules of Religion, Civility, Order, in Church, Country, Neighbourhood, Household; a Man that keeps his Orb, without disorder, without confusion; that neither flinches for the Sails of Prosperity, nor the frowns of an adverse and cross Fortune: A Man of a smooth brow, an affable Tongue, a charitable Hand, an honest and devout Heart, and an unblameable Lise: A Man that doth no wrong in the World, that doth all the good he can to Friends, to Enemies, to all: A Man that's good in all Relations, as a Child, Husband, Brother, Neighbour, magistrate, Minister, Subject: This is a Man that gives a Reputation to Religion, adorns the Gospel, beautifies the Church, and shines to the World, like Moses coming down from Mount Sinai, or the Disciples of whom they in the Acts took cognizance, that they had been with Jesus. I am very confident, might Men be left to their own sober Thoughts and choice, they could not desire a Husband, Wife, Prince, Subject, Neighbour, Enemy, Family, Kingdom, Parent, Child, any Society or Relation in the World, better accomplished and fitted to the uses of a quiet, peaceable, and sweet Life and Conversation, than the Graces of Christianity will make Men! Why, what are Piety, Charity, Honesty, Meekness, Innocence, Zeal, Modesty, Humility, Faith, Hope, Patience, Sobriety, Justice, Chastity, Liberality, Prudence, with all the rest of the Train of Spiritual and Evangelical Virtues, but the bravest Qualities that flesh and blood can be clothed with, the finest wear for immortal Spirits, raiment of Needlework, Coronets upon the Head, and Chains about the Neck! So Solomon describes the universal Grace of Wisdom in his Proverbs. Pagans saw this Beauty in Virtue, and admired it. Holiness carries a Majesty in its presence, to be adored by Infidels. If the Apostles come into a barbarous Nation, their very Enemies in calm mood shall make them Garlands, and cry them up for Gods descended down from Heaven in the shape of Men; one shall be Jupiter, and another Mercury: He's worse than an Heathen that sees not an excellency in Holiness, a modest loftiness in spiritual Wisdom, that deserves both Esteem and Love: The sweetness of Temper, the Innocency of Deportment, the discreet Managery of Affairs, the Love, Mercy, and Condescension, that is taught by the Christian Graces, is the greatest enoblement of Humane Nature, that 'tis capable of on this side Heaven.  
These Graces shed a Beauty upon our very Breasts and inward Man, as well as upon the outward Life an Actions; they bring us to the best way of living we are capable of in this World, both in respect of God, ourselves, and all others; the Graces and Virtues of our Religion are most transparent beams of Divine Perfection; on; they make up a Complexion in our Humane Nature, according to what is eternally existing in the Holy Nature of God (so far as we are capable of a Conformity to it) and that in the Judgement of right Reason is the highest and noblest account of all good living; for we cannot do better, than in our measure to correspond to Divine Perfection; what underfiled Religion, Worship, and Conversation, is here communicated to us, and made essential to the Christian, by these Graces, without the least mixture of Idolatry and Superstition! what superlative Piety and Virtue, without any spot of Vice of Debauchery! what punctual and perpetual Truth, without the taint of Hypocrisy or Knavery! the outward Cloth is Sheep's Wool, and the inward Temper is the Innocency of the Dove: Here's no rebellion or undutifulness to Superiors, no contempt and scorn offered to Equals, no insulting and revenge put upon inferiors; but Men are modelled and dressed out in a Habit that renders them amiable to God, and pleasant to themselves, and comfortable to all about them. We are enabled by these heavenly qualities not to offend weak ones, to look upon all men with a kind Eye, to interpret them in the best sense they are capable of; to love all Men, to forgive, to pray for, to show kindness to them that wrong us: In short, we are thoroughly furnished to every good work, brought to the best way of living, the noblest principles of suffering, and the best way of dying; and is there not a Beauty in these Divine qualifications?  
Sure I am, not all the Wit of Man, or Policy of Devils, could reduce the World to such a Posture, or put Mankind in such a pleasant frame and temper as these do; could furnish us with such pure and untainted streams of Piety, Virtue and good Nature, as these Graces well got, and thoroughly attained: And therefore— let your light so shine before men, etc. It hath been long since observed, if a Man standing at a great distance see a company Dancing, he wonders at their antic gestures, and seemingly ridiculous Motions, and thinks them a company of Mad men, but if he approaches nearer, and comes within the reach of the harmonious Music and Melody, which guides and measures all these Motions, and observes how regularly one answers to the other, he than admires them, approves their decency and order, and desires to Dance with them; So if a Man takes up the reports of the World concerning serious Christians, or sees them at a distance busily attending all the Duties of their Calling and holy Profession, he thinks of them as Festus of Paul & they are beside themselves, etc.  
But come we nearer to an Intimacy and familiar Acquaintance with the Rule of Holy Living, and Prov. 3.15.17. She is more precious than Rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her; her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.  
7. The Ordinances wherein; whether it be the Preaching of the Word— When the Man Preaches with such life and seriousness, Orthodoxy and Authority, Grace and Eloquence, and such easy Methods, and variety of Matter, that the People are never weary of Hearing; or Prays with heavenly life and fervour, as may take the Souls of them that join with him, or Praises with that alacrity and joyfulness which beseemeth those that are ready to pass into glory; or Administers the Holy Sacraments with that veneration and solemnity, that Pathos and Devotion, as is due to those Sacred Mysteries — this Decency, this Beauty in the Divine Worship is enough to embellish the Church, and make it look like Heaven in Emblem and signification: More particularly,  
1. The Preaching and Hearing of the Word: To speak familiarly, 'tis very becoming the Constitution of our Religion, or any Religion in the World, for an Ezra the Priest to bring the Law before the Congregation, and to read therein from the morning till midday; and the Tribe of Levi, to cause the People to understand the Law, to read distinctly, and give the sense, and cause them to understand the reading, Neh. 8.12. to have a Testimony established in Jacob, and a Law appointed in Israel, which the Fathers are commanded to make known to their Children, Psal. 78.5, 6. to go into the Synagogue on the Sabbath days, and read and expound there the Will of God concerning our Salvation. 'Tis a pleasant thing for the Sons of Aaron to dispense the Manna of the Word with a good Conscience, and in due season, and to try what they can by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe; to fill the Pulpit with Orthodoxy, the Sentiments of the Divine Oracles, the Authority of Heaven, with wholesome Admonitions, and suitable Reproofs, and cordial Promises, and the Ministry of Reconciliation; to throw Coals from the Sacred Altar, to warm the Hearts of all them that come Auditors out of the cold World, and to stir them up to the Offices of Piety, by putting them in remembrance of what God hath left upon record to that purpose in his Gospel.  
And 'tis a comely thing for the People to sit down in humble posture at the feet of Gamaliel, to watch daily at the gates, and wait at the Posts of Wisdom's doors, to search for Knowledge, for spiritual Knowledge, with as much pains and diligence as Men are wont to search for Gold or Silver, or hid Treasures; when Men are glad to go to the house of the Lord, and every Neighbour joggs his Brother, and calls friendly upon him to go in society with him; when the Tribes of Israel go up together, with unanimous Consent, with one Heart, in one body, as an Army with banners, to gather Manna, and eat Angel's Food; when they come with reverence to the House of God, and take heed to their Feet, and be more ready to hear, believe, and mediate, than to offer the Sacrifice of Fools; when the People are more willing to learn and practice, than dispute and censure, and contradict and disobey; when Humility opens the Church door, and Veneration attends their seats, and Faith waits upon their Ears, and Devotion hath taken possession of their Hearts: When the Fields are ripe for Harvest, and the Auditors as willing to learn as the Pastor to teach; when the Lambs cry and bleat with importunity for the Udder, and the Milk of the Word is taken greedily in, and turns not into noxious Humours, but into good Blood and Nourishment, and makes the Conversation shine with good works and Evangelical Graces, the fruits of a Holy Life; when these things accord together, as they should do, then there is a beauty and comeliness of aspect in the Divine Worship.  
2. When they join in Prayers, with that Unanimity and Concord, that Faith and Sincerity, that Devotion and Zeal, as if all the Congregation had a mind to climb Heaven in a fiery Chariot, to attach the Heavenly Jerusalem with a Volley of Prayers; to take the Holy City with a sacred Violence, to Pray the Gates open to that Celestial Paradise, in spite of all the Powers of Earth and Hell; when our Prayers are well grounded, and our Hearts well qualified, and the Holy Jesus is the Fore man, the Intercessor, our High Priest, to carry our Petitions within the Veil, and to offer them there incensed with the Presenee of his own Merits and Mediation; and we are resolved not to rise off our Knees without our Errand, till we find sin bleeding upon the ground, our Hearts melting in a gentle thaw under the benign influence of the Divine Clemency, and we ourselves clasping fast into the Embraces of the Almighty; when the Breast pours out; Prayers, the Eye tears, the Body knelt down, the Soul lies in Paraphrase, and the Man considers that Eternity depends upon the grant, and is resolved to wrestle it out with the Angel of the Covenant till the dawning of the day, the dayspring from on high does visit him.  
3. When they join in Praises and Thanksgivings to the God of Heaven, with that cheerfulness and alacrity as if they would send their Hearts also in their Eucharists, and praise God, not with the Calves of their Lips, but the best Instrument they have, their very Hearts and Souls: When there are no Mutes in the Alphabet, no jarring string in the whole Assembly, no particular Member out of Tune, but every individual Soul contributes to a Psalm, and strives to make up an Harmonious Melody to that God that made their Tongues, and calls for Hallelujahs, Psal. 66.1. Psal. 76.11. Psal. 81.1, 2. Psal. 92.1. 95.1. Psal. 96.1.  
4. When they all join in a serious and solemn Commemoration of the Death Passion, Love and Merits of our dying Lord; when like Brethren of the same Society, and of the same Family, they symbolise together in Celebration of the Holy Eucharist, eating at the same Table, of the same Bread, drinking of the same Wine, in memory of that blessed Body and Blood which were both given for the Nourishment of us to Eternal Life, when we commemorate his Cross with a Crowd of Passions, and crucify our Lusts with a warm Devotion, and look upon our Saviour's immense Love with weeping Eyes and wondering Hearts, Faith, Gladness, and great Delight; and with one Consent enter ourselves afresh under his Banner, to engage all the sinful Powers of the World, and promise faithfully to be all for the time to come better Servants, and more faithful in the precedure of our Lives. When we solemnize the Memory of our dearest Saviour, and his Love, like loving Disciples, with an ingenuous return of hearty Love to him again, and with a mutual Love to one another. When Humility, Faith, Obedience, and Charity, all meet at the Passover together, and we are in quarrel with nothing but what God himself quarrels at, Sin and Hell, Psal. 96.6.  
8. The Glory for which we worship, is exceeding beautiful: If we consider,  
1. The Description given of it in Sacred Scripture, under the Mosaic Oeconomy, it was represented by Types and Emblems, and figurative Expressions; for in truth the Intellectuals of Mankind were then so gross and cloudy, that they had need of Pictures and sensible Ideas to make things spiritual, invisible, and future, intelligible; and 'tis not much better with Mankind now, tho' the World be grown older, yet not much wiser: We have still need of Material Instruments and Optics to help us forward in Quest of the World to come. The Land of Canaan, the Milk, Oil, Honey, and exceeding fruitfulness of the place, were a lively Figure of the promised Inheritance. They stuck then so deep in the Mud, and adhered so close to the present World, that it was hard to draw them over to abstracted and lofty speculations, and therefore God Almighty indulged their Infancy of Reason and Judgement so far, as to give them a Prospect of Heaven in a fine spot of ground here on Earth, A sight of Life everlasting and the World to come, in a piece of clear Landscape in this World: But a Brighter discovery was reserved to these last times of the World, when Men were come to some maturity of Age and Judgement, and able to lay aside their Fescues, and throw away their Pictures and ruder Elements they had been accustomed to, and exercised in; so that now we have as full a Discovery and Description of the future Glory revealed to us, as we are capable at present of receiving. And here I must confess, the Beauty is so dazzling, the Apprehension so amazing, that a deep Meditation upon it would go near to strike our Thoughts into a perfect stupor and incuriousness about the things of this World. Life and Immortality are brought to light through the Gospel; but such a light as we are able to receive, and no more.  
2. The Nature of it, collected from the chief Topics of Consideration: 

1. God himself, the Object and Author.  
2. The Design and Intention.    
(1.) God himself, the Object and Author: Of which I shall say but little; for when we stare long upon such Transcendent Objects, our Senses fail us, and we commonly find ourselves at our Wit's end. We may indeed discourse modestly about them, and think at present so far as to make our Thoughts quick, and Devotion lively; but whatsoever is more than this, is more than meet. Can we think, that that God who made the World, and made us with so much Wisdom, and exercised a continual Providence over us for so many thousands of Years, did not mean some excellent admirable End at the last, for the Reward of that Creature which was made the top of all the visible Creation! For my part, I expect to see, and I think upon excellent Reason too (the God of Mercy admit me in favour to that Enjoyment!) the most ravishing sight that ever was, or will be in the Universe. There and then I hope to see, what will be the product and effect of that Infinite Wisdom, Power and Goodness, that first made and now maintains this World: Then the Glory of all his Attributes will be made known, and exposed to open view! and Oh! the Beauty of that Prospect! and therefore,  
2. The Design and Intention of it, being to set forth the Divine Glory, and Man's Happiness, it must needs be full of Beauty: As the Case stands with us now, a little, a lighter kind of Happiness would serve our turns: Our Bodies are very frail, our Intellectuals very infirm, our Natures so bemired with sin and vicious Inclinations, that a Mahomet's Paradise, or an Elysian Field, or a good Constitution of Body, and a pleasant Soul, and some cheerful Company, and a full Purse or Barn, would go a great way with us— But when the Body is raised incorruptible, and all the Man's Faculties renewed and repaired, we shall not be content with that Draff we feed on now, but call for Manna, Angel's food, more glorious Objects and refined Notions, and a clearer Medium for the Conveyance of Ideas, and Communion with Spirits; and then every thing will be and appear in its due place and order; God, Angels, Men, every sense and faculty suited and filled with its meet Object. All things full of beauty and Glory, without any intermixture of Deformity, Defect, or Disorder: The supreme Being in his Throne of Majesty, and all his Creatures in their proper places of Subjection and Glory, reciprocating the Acts of a Holy, Sweet, and blessed Communion one with another: To which Blessed Estate the Lord grant that both he that writes, and he that reads these Lines, may be admitted, for the sake of our dear Redeemer, the Holy Jesus.  
We shall now in the next place come to consider,  
First, The Deformity of an unholy life— opposita juxta se, etc.  
1. Sin is full of Deformity of its own nature: 'Tis all of it an Ireegularity, a divaricating from the Rule, a trangression of the Holy Law of God; a disobedience to the Divine Precept, a going aside into By-paths and Errors.  
2. It renders us uncomely and deformed in the sight of God, Good Angels, and Good Men: They look not upon us with that loving eye, that liking and approbation, that pleasure and delight, as upon the righteous, and him that fears God. As for the former— 'tis called by God in Scripture, Abomination, and that which his soul abhors; so is all injustice, divers weights and measures, proud looks, and hypocritical prayers, and in a word, all the kinds of sin; nay, the Prophet tells us, His Eyes cannot endure to look upon iniquity; and besides he hates them so, that he will never suffer these qualities to come into his immediate presence, into the Court of Heaven, nothing that hath any spot, or blemish, or wrinkle, must come into that Holy Quire. All the dogs, and all the impenitent, unpurified sinners, are banished thence, all those unclean beasts are shut out of the Celestial Ark, No unclean thing shall enter there, etc.  
Good Angels are disobliged by the impurity of our lives, and good Men are ready to say— David, Psal. 101. 3. Depart from me, etc. It leaves a blot of deformity upon our Reputation. Sin is a dishonourable thing, it brings shame to us for its real effect, it brings shame to us for its real effect, and puts our Names into a dark Eclipse; Whose glory is their shame, Phil. 3. 19 What fruit had ye in these things, etc. The Name of the wicked shall rot, Prov. 10. 7.  
In short, almost all the sins that men are guilty of, renders their Actions deformed, their Lives unlovely, their reputation noisome, their Memories putrid in the eyes of God and all good Men; and to make this more evident, suppose a Scheme of our own Societies, our present age exposed to open view in the presence of the Gravest Cato's, the Wisest Senators, the Holy Angels, the Blessed Jesus, the Almighty God, the Searcher of Hearts, and the Book of all men's Actions unclasped, and laid open to the eye of the whole World (as they will shortly be, without any hopes or possibility of Dissimulation or Hypocrisy) how eager then and solicitous do ye think, would all impenitent sinners be, to sew leaves together, to fain Excuses, to hid in rocks, to cover their shame, to veil over their deformity!— In the mean time, what makes the profane Rabble abscond so industriously from the searching eyes of wise and good men? what makes them that are drunken, drunk in the night? and they that commit fornication, do it within the Confines of the close Curtains? and every sinner desire the Twilight, yea, the thickest darkness? and most Men put on Cloak to hid their Wickedness! were it not that sin in its own nature is deformity, at least is so esteemed in the eyes of them that judge according to right reason and the light of Truth! Where's the Man, that dares avow wickedness in its own Colours, and will plead for vice, and profess Debauchery? even Atheists themselves, the grossest sinners of all others, would fain prove Truth and Virtue on their side; and they dare hardly speak with their mouths what they would willingly entertain in their hearts,— That there is no God, nor Heaven, nor Hell, nor Virtue, nor Vice, in the whole World: The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.  
Secondly, I would persuade,— to worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness.  
1. Beauty is an amiable thing: 'Tis lovely and inviting, and as the Orator saith, if we desire to observe a Decorum in those things that relate to our Bodies, to our Garments, to our Gestures, we should be much more so, to keep up a Decency and Beauty in all our Actions; especially when we are conscious that an Omniscient Eye seethe all we do, and Angels do still attend us, and all our secret things shall sortly be broughtly into Cognisance before the whole World, Turpe quid— etc.  
2. All things that are true, wise, and good, are beautiful: Indeed there is nothing of Decency in any thing else, but what is conform to a holy rule, and what dares abide the examen of the Light, and the Trial of a searching eye. Ignorance, Error, and Vice, are apt to sneak, and the guilty sinner hates the light, because his deeds are evil. Only Truth and Goodness, as being conscious of their own Beauty, Order, Loveliness, and Excellency, are bold to appear before the Noon sun: And therefore, Sirs, if there be such excellent qualities as these in the world, be exhorted to pursue after them; if Religion be lavidble, Christinaity excellent, a sincere Devotion, a fervent Zeal, a warm Charity, and an Honest Life, have any thing of Beauty and Commendation belonging to them, if it be a pleasant thing to pour out the Soul in Prayer, to offer Eucharists and Hallelujahs to the God of your Mercies, to pay Devoirs to the King of Heaven, to sing his Praises upon the Harp and Heart, to live humbly, holily, and righteously, in the sight of Men: Do, Sirs, dare to take some pains to pursue carefully after these things, Phil. 4. 4, 8.  
3. This Beauty of Religion commends it to the Approbation of the World, and makes the Church shine to those that are without: It represents it lovely and inviting to all Beholders, and therefore for the sake of those incredulous souls that yet lie under prejudices, and the disadvantages of an ill prospect, we should do what we can to make our light shine before men, and our Graces give a lustre to our Principles, that if it be possible, and as much as lies in us, we may charm Proselytes, court the Love and Embraces of the incredulous world, stop the mouths of contradicting sinners, make Proselytes of all that know us, and are acquainted with our Conversations; let our Words be true, our Speech savoury, our Tables sober, our Port grave, our Actions honest, and our Worship Evangelical, and every instance of our lives impressed with a tincture of Grace, Holiness, and Heaven, and then our faces will shine, and our light extend itself round about us, to the Reputation of our Religion, and the inviting or silencing of very Enemies: 'Tis a pleasant thing to behold the Sun, but 'tis much more so to behold the Son of Righteousness, in his full glory shining in the Church, and communicating his graces in plentiful manner to them that dwell on Mount Zion; to see the Priests clothed with righteousness, and the Saints shouting aloud for joy, Psal. 132. 9, 16. To see the Disciples of the Holy Jesus in their Wedding Garments, clothed with such Raiment as may qualify them for the Espousals of the King of Heaven, the Ring on their hand, and a Crown of Glory upon their head, and the best Robes in the whole World, the best manners, the most amiable Graces, for their common wear, and their heads anointed with Oil, the most costly Ointments, the Consolations of the Holy Ghost, the peace of Conscience, inward and spiritual joy, their feet shod with the preparations of the Gospel of Peace! to see all Orders and Ranks of Men among us, keep up Order, and Decency, and Love in their full strength and vigour, to see the Husband loving the Wife, and Wife reverencing the Husband, the Parents providing carefully for, and instructing their Children, and the Children dutiful, and loving, and faithful to their Parents; Servants obedient to their Masters with fear and trembling, in the singleness of their heart, with good will doing service as to the Lord, and not as to Men, and Masters again doing the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing that they also have a Master in Heaven; the Prince ruling in justice, as a faithful Minister of God, and the People leading under his Government godly and peaceable lives, in quietness and subjection; the Pastor and his flock reciprocating to one another the duties of love and faithfulness. In a word, all the Christian World living soberly, righteously and godly in their proper Orbs, all the Wheels of the same work performing office mutually to one another, and all of them conspiring to set forth the praise of him that made them; this is Beauty, and this is inviting even to the Enemies of our Religion.  
Let us not be ashamed then of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but Glory in our Profession, and make our Lives glorify our Professions, let our Actions give a Reputation to our Creed, let nothing proceed from us ugly and unhandsome, or unbecoming that excellent Gospel we lay claim to; let all turpitude be banished far from us into the outer Court, into the Pagan World, let all the deformities of humane nature, all the ugly, scandalous, and black sins, all the scabs of our Lives and Words, all rotten communication, and all prohaneness, and hypocrisy, all rioting and drunkenness, chambering, etc. Covetuousness, Adultery, Idolatry, Pride, and Vainglory, Malice and Revenge, and all uncharitableness— Let them not be once named amongst us, as becomes Saints.  

APPLICATION.  
1. See we then what actions become Religion: Every thing that is unbeautiful, unseemly, is to be suspected as no part of Christianity.  
Whether it be the Scabs and Leprosy of a vicious Life, or the Rottenness of Hypocrisy, or the Dawbney and Paint of Superstition and Idolatry, the ascilitious and counterfeit Beauty of humane Inventions, (so far as they are made parts of Religion, and are looked upon as of Virtue to commend us unto God) or the Moroseness and Unmannerliness of men in civil Conversation, or odd Gestures and unseemly Actions, or slovenly Addresses in the Divine Worship, or whatever else is of that kind in the matters of Religion, are certainly foreign, heterogeneous, and spurious to the Gospel of our Saviour, which requires nothing from us but what is holy, just, and good, i. e. In our Language comely, decorous, and beautiful, and apt to set all Mankind in a handsome and pleasant dress: Perhaps 'tis not convenient to name the particulars expressly which come under this Head. I leave it to the judgements of those who are discreet, impartial, and unprejudiced, to make Observations this way, and judge according to the Analogy of Faith; but this I am sure of, that many, even well-meaning persons, forget themselves, and adopt such Principles and Practices into their Religion, as are in the judgement of any impartial and judicious Eye, of a Bastard kind, perfectly Aliens to the Commonwealth of Israel, and have no affinity at all with the Gospel of our Saviour; and besides these, even the best of us all sometimes through the imperfection of our holiness, the weakness of our Graces, the strength and predominacy of of the Old Man, do act such things as shed an Ignominy and Disgrace upon our Profession, and represent it unlovely and untaking with the World: And as for those Artificial Embellishments which the superstitious Votary makes use of to curl his Religion with, let us remember how we take upon us to add with our Inventions to the naked purity of Divine Institution, and let us be asraid of being shortly asked by the Dreadful and Jealous God, that Question— Who hath required these things, etc.  
2. This may seem to reprove those, who are so far from aiming at any Beauty in Religion, that they are in good earnest the foe, etc. The Scum and Sweep, the Botches and Leprosy of the Churches of God; which make, as the Patriarch said of his Sons,— the very Name of Religion stink in the Nostrils of the Inhabitants of the land; that lie like Mountains and Affirghtments in the way of coming Proselytes, to terrify and deter men from coming into the Church, and espousing Holiness, and falling in love with our Religion; and I will not stick to say, that almost all the Schisms amongst us are owing to these ill Men, these Judas', that betray their Saviour; these Spots in our Feasts, in our Feasts of Charity; these Scandals and Stumbling blocks, deformed and disfigured Christians that are among us! Sirs, what do ye mean, neither to glorify God, nor his Gospel, nor yourselves! to strike at the Reputation of Holiness, and make a blot upon your Creed with the Carelessness of your Lives! to defile your own Souls, and make your Names rot, and (more than that) to expunge them quite out of the Book of Life! and which is a yet greater aggravation to your sin, to do what ye can to render Religion odious and disgraceful to others; to portray it in hateful Colours and a Monstruous shape, and so neither go to Heaven yourselves, nor suffer them that would to enter in.  
3. Let us be exhorted, if we have contracted any blemish or desilement upon our Souls by sin, if we have in any respect marred the Beauty of our Religion, let us make haste to wash in the Blood of that Immaculate Lamb that takes away the sins of the World, etc. to purge our Consciences, and rinse our Souls, and put on the Robe of Christ's Righeousness to hid our shame and nakedness, that it may no more appear either to the eyes of God, or the World, or our own Consciences; let us wash and be clean, and being once sanctified, let us henceforth endeavour to keep our Garments unspotted.  
Directions to this purpose:  
1. Let us often look our Faces in the Glass of God's Law, James 1. 23. else we may be deformed, and not know it: St. Paul— I had not known sin, but by the Law, etc. Let us search our Beauties with a curious Eye, and take heed lest we take Spots, black Patches, Moles, and Morphew, for any parts of our Beauty: Let us beware of being Wise, and Holy, only in our own conceits. Self-deceit is a common imposture in this case, and how often do we see Men defending the grossest Errors and greatest Vices with the strongest vigour and greatest Zeal, and all this through Ignorance, and want of consulting the Glass sufficiently: Ye do err, not knowing the Scripture. This is the only Rule to judge aright of Beauties by.  
2. Let us often go into the Company of those that excel in Spiritual Beauty: Let the Excellent of the Earth be our Companions, and the best of Men our dearest Associates: Let us say with the Blessed, Psal. 101. 3, 4, etc. and if we do so, by keeping Company with wise Men we shall learn Wisdom, and by often conversing with Holy Men we shall understand mor eof Holiness and Sanctity than we did before; we shall learn by their dress how to dress ourselves better, and by their defects be admonished to beware.  
3. Let us beware of any thing that may soil our beauty: Let not the Sun look upon us, the Sun of Temptation, Sin, the World, and Vanity, which have too much influence upon us; and of Affliction also, for that likewise is apt to shade our Beauty, and make our Services deformed, and our Graces uncomely to the Eyes of the World, and to ourselves also.  
4. Let us acknowledge with thankfulness whence all our Beauty is derived, Psal. 149. 4. 'Tis He that gives us all our fine Robes, that decks our Souls out with the Graces of his Spirit, that pours his Goodness and Mercy upon us, and makes us shine with the Beauty of his own Countenance; and therefore let us be still humble, and give him the Praise of all that little good that appears in us— Not unto us— but to his Name give Glory, etc. let us Pray still for more Grace to be poured out upon us, that our Light may shine every day clearer and brighter, till it come to a perfect day; till we arrive at that blessed state where our Faces shall shine as the Sun in the Firmament, and all our Graces, which be now but in the bud, veiled over with the Infirmity of Humane Nature, and clouded with the remainders of our old Man, be ripened into a Complete Glory, an accomplished and unfading Beauty: And then shall that Song be sung in good earnest, Isa. 59 1. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautfiul Garments, O Jerusalem, the Holy City, for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.  
FINIS.    

A SCHEME OF THE HISTORY OF Remarkable Providences, Now preparing for the Press, viz.  

1. APPedrances of God considered.  
2. Apparition of Angels Good,  
3.— of Angels Bad.  
4.— of Separate Souls.  
5. Revelation of future things, or declaring secret things, 

1. By Voice,  
2. By Signs and Tokens, 

1. Prodiges,  
2. Noises, Earthquakes, etc.    
3. By Dreams,  
4. By Prophets,  
5. By Vrim and Thummim,  
6. By Oracles,  
7. By Divination, soothsaying, etc.  
8. By Impulse.    
6. Premonitions of Death.  
7.— of other particular Changes and Accidents of man's life.  
8.— of public Calamities or Revolutions.  
9 Accomplishment of Prophecies, fulfilling of Promises, etc.  
10. Strange ways of 

1. Converting People.  
2. Hindering Sin.  
3. Promoting Virtue and Grace by Education, Company, etc.  
4. Resolving the Doubtful.  
5. Confirming the Wavering.  
6. Clearing the Innocent.  
7. Discovering the Guilty.  
8. Supplying of wants.  
9 Present Retribution to the 

1. Faithful,  
2. Meek,  
3. Charitable, etc.      
12. Earnests of a Future Retribution.  
13. Provision for the posterity of good people.  
14. Protection of the Good in dangers.  
15. Guidance and Guardianship through Difficulties.  
16. Restriction of Satan in the Afflictions of good people.  
17. Men fitted strangely for great Works.  
18. Miraculous Cures of Diseases.  
19 Remarkable Graces and excellencies. Faith, Courage, Patience, Devotion, etc.  
20. Prayers answered in kind.  
21. Satan and ill Spirits permitted, 

1. To Hart the Good,  
2. To punish the Bad.    
22. Satan Hurting by 

1. Interposing with melancholic Diseases.  
2. Temptations, Injections, Dreams.  
3. Storms, earthquakes, diseases.  
4. Witchcraft.  
5. Obsession.  
6. Appuritions, etc.  
7. Accommodating with worldly Wealth, Power, etc.  
8. Death.    
23. Divine Judgements, 

Upon 1. Pride.  
Upon 2. Atheism, etc.  
Upon 3. Blasphemy, etc. Swearing.  
Upon 4. Lying, Perjury.  
Upon 5. Disobedient Children.  
Upon 6. Revengeful persons, etc.  
Upon 7. Theft.  
Upon 8. Hypocrisy.  
Upon 9 Idolatry.  
Upon 10. Covetousness, uncharitableness.  
Upon 11. Drunkenness.  
Upon 12. Gluttony.  
Upon 13. Uncleanness.  
Upon 14. Persecution.  
Upon 15. Sabbath-breakers.  
Upon 16. Curious.  
Upon 17. Apostates.  
Upon 18. Witches, Conjurers.  
Upon 19 Simonical, Sacrilegious, &c  
Upon 20. Murderers.     
This foregoing Scheme (of the History of Remarkable Providences.) is only a Scheme of the first part of that work the Reverend Mr. Turner is engaged in and is the first draught of the said Scheme so that the Reader may expect it much larger and more correct when the work is finished.— As the First Part of this work will contain all the Remarkable Providences which have happened in this present age, etc. So the Second and Third Parts will comprehend all that is curious in the Words of Nature and Art,— of which second and third part the Reverend Author is now drawing up two distinct Schemes that so the Reader may have at one View a clear Idea of the whole undertaking.   

A FURTHER SPECIMEN OF THE HISTORY OF Remarkable Providences: WITH PROPOSALS At Large, For Printing the said WORK By way of SUBSCRIPTION.  
A Work of this Nature was set on foot about 30 years ago, by the Learned Mr. Pool, Author of the Synopsis Criticorum; but, for what Reasons we know not, it was laid aside, and nothing has since appeared on that Subject but a small Essay, to invite some others to go on with the Work. The Reverend Mr. TURNER (whose late History of all Religions hath met with good acceptation) having made Collections proper for such an Undertaking, during the Course of his Reading, and Ministry, for near 30 years, and finding that it is not attempted by any other Hand, is resolved to go on with it, as being fully satisfied, that a Work of this kind, must needs be of Great Use; especially to such pious minds as delight to observe the manifestations which God doth give of himself, both in his Works of CREATION and PROVIDENCE; the former are sufficient to render those who have no other Instructors inexcusable, as we are taught by the Apostle, Rom. 1.20. and the excellency of the latter consists in this, that they are the Real accomplishments of his written word, so that to Record Providences, seems to be one of the best methods that can be pursued against the abounding ATHEISM of this Age, for by works of Providence, the Confession of a God, and the truth of his word have been extorted from those very persons who have boldly denied it; MEMORABLE is that passage of Aeschyles the Persian in Tragedy, who relating his Countrymen's discomfiture by the Greeks, gives us this observation, that when the Grecians pursued them furiously over the great River Strymon, which was then frozen, but began to thaw, he did with his own Eyes see many of those Gallants whom he had heard before maintain so boldly that there was no God, every one upon their knees, with eyes and hands lifted up, begging for mercy; and that the Ice might not break till they got over.  
The Sceptics of this age, may possibly call such a passage in Question, but what can the most Obdurate Atheist say to those Providences about the Jews, which were so clearly foretold in the Scriptures, and part of 'em are visible to their own Eyes. Is not this sufficient to convince them of the being of an Omniscient God, that the sacred Scriptures are his Revealed Will; and that Christianity is the only true Religion. We doubt not but those men who are able to hold out against such a convincing demonstration, will flout at this undertaking, and expose all they can, but they may remember the Conquest which Truth made over their great Champions, Mr. Hobbs, My Lord Rochester, and Sir Alan Broderick, providences which merit their thoughts, and may serve to stop their Mouths. But to come to the design in hand: It being certainly an incumbent duty according to the Psalmist, for one Generation to praise the Works of the Lord to another, and to declare his mighty Acts, Psal. 145.4.  
I. We have consulted many, and design to peruse all Authors that we can meet with, Ancient and Modern, who have writ on this subject (as The Treasury of Ancient and Modern Times, Camerarius, Beard, Clark, Wanly, etc. and others lately published;) and make a Collection of the Choicest Passages, in order to the PARALLEL betwixt ancient and modern instances, which cannot but be very serviceable, considering that many of those Authors are now become scarce, who recorded the providences of former ages; and that there are multitudes of remarkable passages, relating to the present age, scattered in so many Books, which its hardly possible for any one man to have all of 'em by him.  
II. We ourselves have already collected, and received from Credible Hands, many remarkable Passages, which were never yet printed; and design to collect as many more as we can relating to this Present Age.  
III. We do hereby invite all men, especially DIVINES, to impart unto us any such Remarkable Providences as they have recorded, or remember to have befallen themselves, or others, either in Mercy or Judgement.  
iv We desire, for the Improvement of the Collections which we have already made, that such as have any by them, would send to us their Observations— of Extraordinary Deliverances by Sea or Land,— Earthquakes, unusual Thunders, etc. Inundations,— strange Apparitions, (but let these be well attested)— Witchcrafts,— Diabolical Possessions,— Appearances in the Regions of the Air,— remarkable Meteors,— Exhalations issuing out of the Earth, or Prodigies of any sort,— Strange Beasts, Sheep, Horse,— of any unusual Quality, or mixed Generation, or wonderful Bigness, or any other Animal attended with any unusual Circumstances— You are also desired to send us accounts of any strange accidents that have befallen men or women,— remarkable Discoveries of Murder,— any prodigious Births,— Numerous Offsprings,— Persons of extraordinary stature, remarkable either for Excess or Defect,— of prodigious Memories,— any that have strange Antipathies to Meats, Drinks, Animals, parts of Animals,— of unusual Sleep or Watch,— Night-Walkers (in their sleep, we mean)— Predictions that have strangely come to pass,— of men of extreme age,— of sudden Deaths (extraordinarily Circumstantiated)— of any reputed dead that have strangely come to life again,— any thing remarkable that attends a Family, or single person, in their Lives or Deaths, as Lights or Noises, etc.— Dwarves, with their age, and place of abode,— any Improvement in any of the Liberal or Mechanic Arts,— any valuable Manuscripts,— or what else you have remarkable of any kind, the publishing whereof may be either a Service to the public, or to particular persons; which if sent, shall not fail to be inserted in its proper place.  
These are the HEADS we desire the ingenious Reader, wherever they may come maturely to consider, and to send us accounts of as many of them as fall under his own proper Experience and Knowledge, directed to John Dunton, at the Raven in Jewen-street; whence, with all convenient speed, they shall be transmitted to the Press, in the manner already described, with such Improvements on the different Heads, as the Reverend Author (who is to compile this work) can make, either from his own Experience, or the best Writers. But always remember, that what you send be circumstantiated with the Name of the County, Town, and Place, you send it from, and of the particular persons concerned, when the case requires it, (for we shall not take notice of any thing that is trifling, or uncertain) and that you pay the Postage of all Letters (relating to this Work) that so the Undertaker may not be imposed upon, nor discouraged in this useful attempt, which we have now a fair opportunity to accomplish, having received promises of assistance from persons of Great Learning and Curiosity; (We have also the promise of a Folio Manuscript, written by the Famous Mr. Selden, containing the most Memorable Things which have happened in this last Age) and we assure all others that will be so kind as to impart their Observations to us, that they shall be received with all Candour and Gratitude imaginable, and the Names of the Authors published, if permitted, that the public may know to whom they are indebted for the promoting of such an useful Work.  
As the MERCIES and JUDGEMENTS of God are not confined to any particular party, therefore as we have already collected, we design also to embrace all well attested Relations, from Christians of what Denomination soever, provided they have not a Tendency to reflect upon any subdivisions of Protestants; for we will not insert any thing that favours of Faction or Animosity amongst Brethren, but will endeavour to make the Work as unexceptionable as may be, to all moderate and pious men.  
Seeing it hath pleased God to manifest much of his Glory in the Works of Creation, and much of his Goodness to men by inspiring them with useful and delightful Inventions, we desire, that such as have made any Choice Collections, or Observations, relating either to NATURE or ART, (Upon which TWO GENERAL HEADS, we have the Promise of a Large Collection made by an Honourable Person, who has been a MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY many years,) would be pleased to send them to us, and particularly any thing that may contribute to the Natural History of the Three Kingdoms, or advance the Reputation of their Inhabitants, by publishing what useful Arts or Things they have either invented or improved (as any rare or curious Engine, etc.) By means whereof the World will be made acquainted with the Persons eminently curious in any Handicraft, and wherein their Excellency lies.  
We do also invite all Divines and others, to communicate to us any Remarkable EPITAPHS in Churchyards, etc. because many of them contain a short History of the Persons upon whom they are made; which is not to be found elsewhere, as we are fully satisfied by such Collections of that sort as we have made already.  
Moreover, That nothing might be wanting to render our Work perfect, we have been at the charges to purchase what we found for our purpose in Mr. WILLIAM MILLER's Catalogue lately published, (which being a curious Collection of Papers and Pamphlets of all sorts, from the year 1600 down to this day) we have been there accommodated with several Relations from divers parts of the Three Kingdoms, as well as from Foreign Parts, (from whence we have lately received promises of great assistance) as also with Modern Instances upon Atheism, Murder, Adultery, Theft, Drunkenness, and other Subjects, no where else to be found, which will be no small Entertainment to the Reader to find them here collected into One Volume, under proper Heads.  
We design also to consult the Prerogative Office in London, etc. for the WILLS of such Atheistical Wits as Hobbs and others, who being at last overcome by the Truth, were forced to give Solemn Attestations thereunto.  
The Method proposed to be followed, is to rank every thing under its proper Head, with some little Introduction to each, and to cite our Authorities in the Margin, as in the following Specimen; only we shall be more particular in our Collections than any that have preceded us, as to the FEMALE SEX, who are generally too much slighted in Works of this Nature, tho' there have been as remarkable Instances of the Virtues and Vices of that Sex as of our own, as well as of some curious Pieces of Art performed by them, of which the Queen's 
(a) Now to be seen in Green-Court in the Old Jury.  Effigies, and other Curiosities lately done in Wax by Mrs. Goldsmith, is an undeniable argument.— So that this HISTORY of PROVIDENCE, etc. will not only be of singular use to Ministers, in furnishing Topics of Reproof and Exhortation, but may serve as a Monitor to Persons of all Ranks and Qualities, in their Closets and Families. And this particular advantage may be reaped by this Undertaking, that those who have observed any remarkable Providences, either as to themselves or others, or have by 'em in Writing, the DYING WORDS of their Friends,— or the account of their Conversions, (if very remarkable) may have them recorded in this Work: So that their own Posterity, and succeeding Generations may have the advantage of them; whereas they would have otherwise been utterly lost.  
In the LAST PLACE, we think fit to acquaint the public, that in order to the preventing of all Cavils and Exceptions, and avoiding all Causes of Offence, we design that the whole Work shall be perused by some Eminent Divines before it be put to the Press, whose Sentiments thereof under their Hands, shall be published at the Beginning of the Work.  
That the public may be able to form the better Idea of our Design, we have thought sit to subjoin the following Specimen.  
☞ Proposals and Specimens' are to be had of the Undertaker, JOHN DUNTON, at the Raven in Jewen-street, as also of EDM. RICHARDSON, near the Poultry Church, and of most Booksellers in London and the Country.  

PROPOSALS.  
I. THAT this Work, as near as we can judge, will contain about Three Hundred Sheets, Printed in large Folio and upon a fair Letter, and on Paper of the same goodness with the Folio Proposals lately published by the Undertaker.  
II. For the Encourgement of those that Subscribe, it is proposed at 30 s. a Book in Quires, 15 s. to be paid in hand, and 15 s. at Delivery; and if it happens to make above Three Hundred Sheets, the Subscribers shall have it, paying only one Penny for every such additional sheet.  
III. For a further Encouragement to those that Promote it, any Gentleman who will subscribe for six Books shall have a seventh Gratis, which will reduce the Three Hundred Sheets to 1 l. 5 s. 8½ d. per Book in Quires, which, considering the vast Expense for Materials requisite for carrying on, and completing so great a Work, and the extraordinary fineness of the Paper, cannot but be thought very reasonable.  
iv To those that do not subscribe by the first of September next, the said 300 sheets shall not be sold under 35 s. in Quires.  
V All Gentlemen who subscribe shall have their Names and Titles, etc. (if permitted) annexed, when the whole is completed.  
VI The first Volume shall be ready to be delivered to Subscribers next Hillary Term, and the Second with all possible Expedition.  
VII. Those that desire the Publication of this useful Work, and expect the benefit of these Proposals, are requested to send their first payment with what speed they can to the Undertaker, (who will give a receipt for the same) for nothing but the backwardness of the Subscribers can hinder the completing of it at the time prefixed.    

The Specimen, Attestations to the Truth of the Christian Religion, from Atheistical Wits, who had formerly denied the Being of God, and disputed with the greatest strength of their Carnal Reason against all Religion.— To which is added the penitential Letter written by Sir Duncomb Colchester lately deceased, with another Remarkable Instance of that nature never yet in Print.  
THE Concessions of Adversaries is always reckoned a good Argument for the Confirmation of a Controverted Truth, nor does Omnipotence ever manifest itself with greater Majesty, then when it extorts a Confession of God's overruling providence from Wicked Men and Devils; what Emphasis is there in Nebuchadhezzar's acknowledgement that the most high doth according to his will in the Army of Heaven, and among the Inhabitants of the Earth, and none can stay his hand; or say unto him what dost thou? Dan. 6.35. And tho' our blessed Saviour disdained such a Testimony, yet the power and Majesty of God was mightily seen in that confession, which we find so often extorted from the Devils in the Gospel, that he was the Holy one of God, and the Son of the most High, and when we consider those passages, and that Divine Air, which sounds in the declaration of the false prophet Balaam, Num. 24. I shall see him, but not now, I shall behold him but not nigh, there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel. We have no reason to doubt but that the Lofty Rapture of the Oracle of Delphos may be true.  

— 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   
Which I find thus Ingeniously translated into Latin and English.  

Me puer Hebraeus, Divos Deus ipse Gubernans,  
Cedere sede jubet tristemque redire sub orcum  
Aris ergo dehinc tacitis abscedito nostris.   

An Hebrew Child whom the blessed Gods adore,  
Had bid me leave these shrines and pack to Hell,  
So that of Oracles, I can no more:  
In silence leave our Altar, and farewell.   
Upon the return of which Answer from that Oracle, the Emperor Augustus caused an Altar to be erected in the Capitol with this Inscription, 
Julian the Apostate dies, acknowledging the Truth of the Christian Religion.  haec est ara primogeniti Dei. And the famous Acknowledment of Julian the Apostate when mortally wounded by an Arrow, Vicisti tandem Galilee, is another remarkable Instance of the power of God in extorting a confession of the Truth of Christianity from one of its most implacable Enemies.  
This we think sufficient as a Taste of what may be produced, as to Confessions of God and Christ, which have been extorted by Remarkable Providences in preceding Ages; and we have reason to bless his Holy Name, that he hath not jest us without Observable Attestations of the same Nature in this present Age.  
The first we shall mention are the Earl of Marlbourgh's Letters from on Board the Fleet, April 24. 1665.  
The Earl of Marlbourgh, whose two most Devout and Penitential Letters are herewith Published, was a person of great Understanding and Wit: The Scene of his Life lay chief in Voyages and Expeditions by Sea, whereby he made many laborious Attempts to repair the Collapsed Estate of his Ancestors; but it pleased not God to give him the Success he hoped for therein.  
It is wholly unfit for any Writer to touch upon any irreligious Principles or Practices, that were as stains in his Life, since he hath, by his own Noble Pen in the following Letters, acknowledged them, and by his most exemplary Repentance washed them off.  
Mr. Roger Coke in the second Volume of his Detection, p. 142, mentions, That the Fight wherein the Duke of York beat the Dutch, and Opdam was blown up, was the 3d. of June, 1665. and that in this Fight the English lost the Renowned Earl of Marlbourgh, who tho' Admiral in K. Charles the firsts time, died here a private Captain.  
But it pleased God, in that Naval Expedition, to work in him such a sense of his Sins, as did infinitely make amends for the former disappointments he met with by Sea or Land.  
The Date of his first Letter being the 24th. of April, and that of the Second, the 23d of May following, will satisfy any Candid Reader, that the New Birth in him was accompanied with many pangs and efforts of great Consideration during the firmness of his bodily Health, and much transcending the low Nature of poor Deathbed Repentances, which are so justly suspected by our Practical Divines of all persuasions.  
And here it is necessary to acquaint the Reader that these two Letters of distant Dates were sent by his Lordship from the Royal Navy, enclosed in other Letters to Mr Tredewy, his Lordship's Agent in London; with a particular Instruction, both as to that to Sir Hugh Pollard, and that to Mr. Glascok, that each of them was to be delivered when Mr. Tredewy was credibly informed of his Lordship's Death. His design being, that his Pen should Preach Repentance to the World, in case he lived not to be a personal Adviser thereof himself.  
The Publisher hereof assures the Reader, that both the Letters had a happy influence on the lives of the two persons, to whom they were directed, and that Sir Hugh Pollard having lent the Original Letter which was sent to him, to Sir W. Davenant, to show it to whom he pleased, Sir William showed it to the Publisher among many others: And that Mr. Glascock permitted the Publisher to take a Copy of that Letter directed to him. The Reader may then awaken his most serious Thoughts to consider the two following Letters.  
A Letter from the right Honourable James Earl of Marlbourgh, a little before his Death, in the Battle at Sea on the Coast of Holland, 1665.— To the right Honourable Sir Hugh Pollard, controller of His Majesty's Household.  
Sir,  
I Believe the goodness of your Nature, 
See Dr. Loyd's fair warning to a careless world for a Copy of this Letter of the Earl of Marlbourgh to Sir Hugh Pollard.  and the Friendship you have always born me, will receive with kindness this last Office of your Friend: I am in Health enough of Body, and through the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, well disposed in mind: This I premise that you may be satisfied, that what I writ proceeds not from any Fantastic Terror of mind, but from a sober Resolution of what concerns myself, and earnest desire to do you more good after my death, than mine Example (God of his mercy pardon the badness of it) in my Life-time, may have done you harm. I will not speak aught of the Vanity of this World; your own Age and Experience will save that labour; but there is a certain thing that goes up and down in the World, called Religion, Dressed and Presented Fantastically, and to purposes bad enough, which yet by such evil Dealing, loseth not its Being. The great and good God hath not lest it without a Witness more or less, sooner or later in every man's bosom, to direct us in the pursuit of it; and for the avoiding of those Inextricable difficulties and entanglements our own frail Reason would perplex us withal; God in his infinite mercy has given us his Holy Word, in which, as there are many things hard to be Understood, so there is enough plain and easy to be understood, to quiet our minds, and direct us concerning our future being: I confess to God and you, I have been a great neglecter, and I fear, despiser of it. God of his infinite mercy pardon me that dreadful Fault; but when I retired myself from the noise and deceitful Vanities of the world, I found no true comfort in any other Resolution, than what I had from thence: I commend the same from the bottom of my Heart, to your (I hope happy) use. Dear, Sir Hugh, let us be more generous than to believe we die like Beasts that perish, but with a Christian, Manly, brave Ambition, let us look to what is Eternal. I will not trouble you farther, the only Great and Holy God, Father Son and Holy Ghost, direct you to an happy end of your Life, and send us a joyful Resurrection.  
So prays your dear Friend, Marlbourgh Old James, near the Coast of Holland, 24th. of April, 1665.  
I beseech you commend my love to all my Acquaintance: Particularly, I pray you that my Cousin Glascock may have a sight of this Letter, and as many of my Friends beside, as you will, or any else that desireth it. I pray grant this my Request.  
To William Glascock Esq  
May the 23. 1665 Dear Cousin,  
IN case I be called away by God in this present Employment, 
This Letter to Mr. Glascock was never printed before, but is attested to be genuine in the following Specimen.  I have recommended these few Lines to you, first earnestly begging God Almighty his most merciful Pardon, and yours, for the very bad example, and many provocations to sin I have given you. Next, I do most hearty desire you to make use of your Remaining Time, in bestowing it upon his Service, who only can be your Comfort at your latter end, when all the former Pleasures of your Life shall only leave Anguish and Remorse. If God had spared me Life instead of this Paper, I would through his Grace have endeavoured to have been as assistful to you in minding you of true Piety, as the care of my own life could have enabled me; do not think that Melancholy Vapours cause this; it is Gods great mercy that by this Employment hath made me know myself, for which his Name be for ever Praised.  
Lastly, I Pray show these few Lines to my Lord of Portland, by which I in like manner, and for the same cause crave his pardon, wishing you both the blessed peace and content of a good Conscience towards God, and a happy end of your Lives.  
Your truly Loving Cousin, Marlbourgh.  
My Lord Marlbourgh's Letter to Sir Hugh Pollard having been dispersed throughout the Kingdom, this Remarkable Penitence of his Lordship was the Subject of general Discourse for a long time after, and 'tis 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 'tis 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 Cripplegate, 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 breathed 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 despised, 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 mere 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 abandoned way, Scepticism itself 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 always be Discoursing some Cases of Conscience about Retired 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 jealousy upon himself, lest he had not yet conceived 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 Judgement, 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 Rochester's Religious breathe were accounted by some, the Raves and Delirancies of a sick Brain, he did resolve to have given the World a public Account of the sentiments he had of Religion, both as to the Faith and Practice 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 awaked 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 thanked 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 learned how to value them, that he esteemed them the Servants of the most High God, who were to show 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 terrors. 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 resolved 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 Virtue 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 Virtue. I never, said he, was advanced 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 struggled 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, received the Applause of the whole Company, upon which my Mind was terribly struck, and I immediately replied thus to myself, Good God That a man that walks upright, that sees the wonderful Works of God, and has the uses of his Sense and Reason, should use them to the defying of his Creator! But tho' this was a good beginning to my Conversion, to find my Conscience touched 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 loved morality in others. But I had formed an odd Scheme of Religion to myself, which would solve all that God or Conscience might force upon me; yet I was not over-well reconciled to the business of Christianity; nor had that Reverence for the Gospel of Christ as I ought to have, which estate of Mind continued 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 declared that the mysteries of the Passion appeared 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 begged his Mother and Lady to read the same to him frequently, and was unsatisfied notwithstanding his great pains and weakness, till he had learned 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 acknowledgements about it; more ready to accuse himself than any one else could be, publicly crying out, O blessed God Can such an horrit Creature as I am, be accepted by thee, who has denied thy Being and contemned thy Power; ask 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 conferred on me? O mighty Saviour, never but through thine Infinite Love and Satisfaction: O never, but by the purchase of thy Blood; adding, that with all abhorrency he did reflect upon his former Life, that sincerely and from his heart he did repent of all that folly and madness which he had committed. He had a true and lively sense of God's great 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; wished he had been a starving Leper crawling in a Ditch; that he had been a Linkboy or a Beggar; or for his whole life time confined 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 admired, propagated by the late Mr. Hobbs, and others, had undone him and many more of the best Parts of the Nation. He cast himself entirely upon the mercies of Jesus Christ, and the Freegrace 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 Judgements 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; 'tis the malice of the Devil because I am rescued from him; and the goodness of God that frees me from all my spiritual enemies— He was greatly rejoiced at his Lady's Conversion from Popery, which he called, a Faction supported only by Fraud and Cruelty. He was hearty concerned for the pious education of his Children, wishing that his Son might never be a Wit, that is, as he explained it, One of those wretched creatures who pride themselves in abusing God and Religion, denying his Being or his Providence; but that he might become an honest and a religious Man, which could only be the support and blessing of his Family. He gave a strict charge to those persons in whose custody his Papers were to burn all his profane and lewd Writings, as being only 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 baptised; 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 Deathbed. 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 spoke 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 Disciplined 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 lose 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 delirious, he was so much Master of his Reason, and had so clear an understanding, that he never dictated, or spoke more composed in his Life. Three or four days before his Death, he had Comfortable Persuasions 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 Lived 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 despise his Goodness, no more to make a mock of Sin, or contemn the pure and excellent Religion of my ever Blessed Redeemer, through 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 particular Relation than 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 divers persons of quality, who visited him here in Town but little before he died, etc. 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 wilful Sin. He died 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 lies to bring Honour to his Holy Name, to make Reparation for the Mischief I have done by my former vicious Life, and antidote as far as I can, the Poison which my Example has shed round about me: In order whereunto, I do hereby Declare, that I am hearty 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 myself, 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 hearty 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 men's sins, and liable 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 Gild in this particular, to loath and abhor this wicked Practice as I do. And I do also hearty 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 Talon 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 myself 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 hearty 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 and sorrow) to repent of all their sins and provocations, lest God's Vengeance overtake them in their Security, and there be no Remedy. And I beseech them farther to take Notice, that if this Warning be slighted, the wilful neglect and Refusal thereof will at last be charged upon them as a heinous Aggravation of all their Sins they shall hereater commit, will increase their Condemnation, and make their Doom more dreadful and terrible: But that it may have a contrary effect, and be a means to reduce 'em from their Sins to a Holy and Religious Life, that so their Souls may be saved in the great Day of the Lord, is the earnest desire of their  
Languishing and sorrowful Friend, Duncomb Colchester. Who desires this may be read in the Parish Churches of Michael Dean and Westbury, and shown to such Gentlemen, Friends, and others, as may bring God most Glory. Nou. 1693. Signed and Delivered in the presence of several of his Friends.  
The other Letter is written by a Woman, 
The remarkable penitence of J. H.  and one of inferior quality in the World, but not at all inferior in her Repentance. It was that, and the Grace of God in her Heart, which moved her to do it long before it wasdone; and it was the pure effect of that, when at last it was done; and all her own composure, we are assured by a credible person who hath most reason to know it, who gave her absolution, approved her purpose in it, and perused it when she had done it; and hath seen other Letters of her writing, by which he could easily discern the Composure of this, if there had been any other hand in it, or any reason to suspect it. It is published with her consent, who is very ready to embrace any Motion tending to the Honour and Service of God or her own Humiliation. Her Letter was directed to Mr.— Minister in Portsmouth, and is as follows, viz.  
Reverend Sir,  
I Have put Pen to Paper, humbly beseeching you to hear me of your Charity a few Words. The Enemy of my Soul hath raised many Objections to hinder my intended purpose; and I have been almost persuaded to give it over; but now having the advice of a Pious Holy Minister of God, who says it may be of great use, I desire to take shame to myself, and to give Glory to the Majesty of Heaven, who in great Love and Pity hath plucked me as a Firebrand out of the Fire, and I am this day a Living Monument of Mercy. I cannot but be grieved at the many sad Examples I have given at Portsmouth. My Sins have have increased the heap of the public Impieties, and made them cry the louder to Heaven for Vengeance both there and here too. It is very meet, right, and my duty to confess to the Glory of God and Praise of his Grace, my crying sins committed in that place, that some of my Companions in evil may hear and fear, and do no more such wickedness. About 9 or 10 years ago, I came a young Woman (if I deserve that name) to P—, my Husband Cook of a Ship in that Harbour, a very ill Husband, (no excuse for me) Almighty God did suffer two sinners to come together to plague one another; and whilst he acted the part of a Drukard, with shame and confusion of face be it spoken, I acted the part of a Harlot, giving myself over to work all uncleanness with greediness; insomuch that my very Name was a Proverb of Reproach to all Civil Women. Two or three years I lived openly scandalous, and then it pleased the Almighty to visit me with a sore fit fit of Sickness, even to the loss of my Limbs for a Season; at which time I did beg of God to restore me to my Health, and did faithfully promise never more to defile my Marriage Bed; and the Lord was entreated at that time also; and hath added to my life these remaining years. Some time after, it pleased the Alwise Providence to make me a Mother, I was very thankful for the Mercy, and was much reclaimed, and I was in some measure convinced of the great Evil of sin, and did put pen to paper with intent it should come to the Ministers hand; but the Enemies of my Soul prevented and hindered that reasonable design, and I was again lulled to sleep in the Bed of Carnal Security; where I continued three or four years with little Interruption; in which time I buried my Husband and two Children. After this I was in danger of being as bad as ever, living at Service in the very midst of Temptation at Porthridge. I continued there but a short space, for the good hand of Providence brought me to London, where I had time and opportunity to reflect upon my ill spent life. O that I might improve the mercy! O that I could tell you what God hath done for my Soul! He hath brought me out of Darkness into his marvellous light: O that I could prevail with my Companions in evil to seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near! Some of them are old Sinners, grey hairs are upon them, and they know it not, I could be content to stand in a white shut in your Church if I might but prevail with any one Soul to see the heinousness of my sin: Nay, I could be content to be stoned without the walls of the Garrison, so I might but be a means of the Conversion of any one Sinner. O that I could write these Lines with my purest Blood! I am grieved for the Dishonour I have done to God by my abominable sin, and hearty wish my Head were Waters and mine Eyss were a Fountain of Tears that I might weep day and night for abusing mercy. O Sir, you live in a place relating to Sodom, cry aloud, spare not to tell the Flock over which the Holy Ghost, hath made you Overseer, their Sins, and my Companions in evil their Sins. The Lord is coming to reckon with the Nations, and with you: God grant you may be found among the Faithful Shepherds watching them and giving them their meat in due Season. I humbly beg your Blessing, desiring to be remembered in your Prayers; and I humbly beseech the Almighty, that this poor paper may have its designed effect, that God may be glorified, and our Souls saved in the day of the Lord Jesus, Amen and Amen.  
J. H. Jan. 22. 1693/ 4.  
To this SPECIMEM we designed to have added several other Remarkable Instances of this nature never yet in Print, but for want of room could not insert 'em here—  
But though this Specimen will not allow of instances under every head; (for if it would, we had added Specimens upon the Works of Nature and Art, as we have done here upon Providence, having prepared materials for that end); yet by what is here exhibited, the ingenious Reader may easily perceive the usefulness of our design; and as a farther Evidence thereof, we shall only add, That under the Head of [Attestations given to Religion by dying Princes,] who acknowledged the same to be preferable to all things else: We shall (from the best Authorities) Record the last say of our never enough Lamented Sovereign, the late Q. Marry, as a Noble Testimony to Religion, from one whose Parts and Endowments were as high as her Dignity, as if Providence would not leave the profane Age room to say that Religion was only pretended to by the mean and ignorant, but convince them by the dying Breath of a Princess every way so Glorious and Great.  
Under the Head of [Signal Deliverance] we doubt not but the Reader will easily be convinced that the Relation of the Miraculous Deliverance of the Protestants in Ireland, from the Cruelties of Q. Mary I. As also the Account of Sir Henry Wyat's wonderful Preservation in the Tower, will deserve a place; the First being Attested by Bishop Usher, and delivered to the Publisher by a Person of Quality, now living in London; (and is wholly omitted by Mr. Fox in his Acts and Monuments,) and the other being drawn up by a Learned Gentleman, and never Printed before.— Of these things we shall treat more at large in the Body of the Work, but think this sufficient to whet the Readers Curiosity, and to give him a taste of what Entertainment he is to expect under other Heads, as well as these mentioned.—   

BOOKS lately printed for John Dunton.  
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 SCHEME of the said Undertaking,— as also a further SPECIMEN of the Work itself, in which is inserted the Penitential Letter written by Sir DUNCOMB COLCHESTER (late of Westbury in Glocestershire) with other remarkable Instances of that Nature. Price bound 2 s.  
The History of all Religions in the World, from the Creation down to this present time, in 2 parts; the first containing their Theory, and the other relating their Practices, both Written by W. Turner, M. A. and Vicar of Walberton in Sussex.  
Some Remarkable Passages in the Life and Death of her late Majesty not hitherto made public, as they were delivered in a Funeral Oration, pronounced by Public Authority, in the Hall of the most Illustrious States, upon the Day of the Royal Obsequies, March 5. 1695. By Francis Spanheimius, F. F. chief Professor of the Academy of Leyden, Done into English from the Latin Original.  
A Sermon upon the Death of the Queen of England, Preached in the Walloon Church at the Hague, Feb. 6. 1695. upon these words, Acts. 9.36, 37. There was at Joppa a certain Disciple whose name was Tabytha, which signifies Dorcas, who was full of Good Works and the Alms which she did. It happened in those days that she fell sick and died. By Isaac Claude, Minister of the Walloon-Church. Done into English from the Second Edition Printed in French.  
Lacbrymae Sacerdotis. A Pindaric Poem occasioned by the Death of that most Excellent Princess, our late Gracious Sovereign Lady, Mary the Second, of Glorious Memory. By Henry Park Curate of Wentworth in Yorkshire.  
The first and second Volumes of the French Book of Martyr. Published in English with her Majesty's Royal Privilege, price 20 s.— The Third and Fourth Volumes, containing all the Persecutions of Lewis the fourteenth, will be also done into English soon after the said Volumes are published in Holland.  
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THE Second Edition of the Court and State of England, By Roger Coke, Esq; (is now Printing upon an extraordinary fine Paper,) to which will be added many Secret Meomirs, never Printed before.  
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