The most WONDERED And true RELATION of Master JOHN MACKLAIN Minister of God's Word at Lesbury in the County of Northumberland, who being one hundred and sixteen years of age, was miraculously restored to a youthful vigour and complexion, new hair growing upon his head, new teeth in his mouth, and his eyes restored to a most clear and perfect sight, after the use of Spectacles for almost forty years together.  
As also his recovery to a perfect strength again in every part of his body, so that now he preacheth constantly every Lord's day in the Parish aforesaid.  
Printed for T. Vere & W. Gilberson, 1657.   

A most Wonderful and true Relation of Mr John Marklain Minister of God's Word at Lesbury in the County of Northumberland, etc.  
ALL though this age wherein we live hath been an Age full of wonders, and none have been more frequent or more remarkable then in our own Land: yet this wonder which I shall now declare unto you, will be sound to transcend all other Wonders whatsoever.  
Not only invention, but Histories Ecclesiasttical and Civil, have told us of some rersans, who from the grave have ●een restored unto life, We have red of the dead Child which was revived by the Prophet, and of the wonder wrought by our Saviour upon Lazarus, who paid to Nature one debt more than he owed: But of a man who from the age of one hundred and sixtéen years was restored to a youthful and vigorous constitution, to have a new strength of light, to have new tooth, and new hair, to receive a new youth in all the faculties of Soul and Body, that no age but this no Land but our can parallel.  
We shall find that the Prophet Daniel, a though in the thankful acknowledgement of God's mercies to him, he saith, I how hast renewed my days like and Eagle, ye before all extraordinary progress of time he stooped to the infirmities of age, and being covered with  he could get no heat; He found that true in himself which he said of others; The age of a man is three score and ten, if he attain to four score years, his days are but sorrow and weariness: But this man of whom we speak being almost one hundred and twenty years old, had his eyes that were dim enlightened, and did say by his Spectacles which before he used, he might well take up this in the Ecclesiastes, and make the strength of his age as much his gratitude as his wonder. The Keepers of the house did not tremble, nor the strong men did bow themselves, the Grindders did not cease because they were few, and those that look out at the window were not darkened, the Almond tree did not as yet flourish on his head, the silver cord was not loosed, nor the golden Bowl broken, nor the pitcher broken at the well, nor the wheel broken at the Cistorn, etc.  
Nevertheless it is not to be dissembled, that if you will wipe off the dust of Antiquity from some of the Greek Poem we shall find that the Father of Jason being of a great age, and having a body laden with diseases, was made young again by the charms of his daughter in Law A●●dea, we shall read also of & wonder wrought on Virbius, but these are inventions which have nothing but Fable to maintain their reputation in the world. The Narration of this is true, and sent in Letters from the North to several Persons of almost the highest account in this Nation.  
His age was quickened into youth, and it was at this pregnant season of the year, when Winter is quickened into Spring, I may call it his Renovation, or his Resurrection from the ruins of Age, to the strength and beauties of youth. Indeed there are many things in nature which seem to point at a resurrection such as this, and would persuade us by their examples to a more easy entertainment and belief of this Wonder, and in the first place,  
We may look upon the solemn Poetry of the Phonix, a Creature rarer than the Resurrection, though not so admirable, in whose Ashes she may see the fire of life expecting to be fammed to the resurrection of a flame as if this Creature by a Riddle of Fate should by a fire both perish and revive, you shall find that it recovereth itself from diseases and corruptions of age, into the vigour and the courage of youth.  
But in earnest we may behold the Eagle shooting forth her new quills, by which she doth testific her endeavours and desires of immortality.  
But why should we in the sloth of contemplation study so broad an object: Let us with more graceful industry confine our eyes to the small séed of Corn, and at least take the pains to see the pains of the Husband man, where behold the delightful Arithmetic of Nature, we may see the séed, whose hope seems small at itself, by being cast away to be found, by destruction to receive increase, and from the same furrow to take both its burial, and its birth.  
Thus both the divine indulgence gradually chastise the difficulty of the length of instruction, and by things more obvious both surpass our understandings to things that are not, so the Phoenix out of her ashes to reassume new life, is both read and received: For the Eagle to renew her beak and her youth together, is approved of by experience. For the séed of Corn to rise up from the furrow, and to be young again and multiply, is the daily obserbation of the Farmer▪ But for an old man of one hundred and sixtéen years of age, to cast away at once both his Spectecles and his Crutch, to leap from the infirmities of age, into the height and strength at youthful age, to have his heart warm again with desire, and his beins with blood, is such a miracle, That not only Reason, but Nature herself doth startle at.  
Son of man can these bones live? Saith God himself to the Prophet Ezekiel, Those Bones whose hopes are as dry, and as much exhausted as is their narrow; This is a Task for God himself to do, be only can revive him, who did create him; It is he that can bring flesh again upon him, and can gird it about them with sinews, it is he that can cover them with skin, and can cause his breath to enter into him, it is he alone can bestow complexion upon him, and having made smooth the furrows, can plant the flowers of youth, on the brow of Age, it is he alone that returned the extreme age of this old man to a youthful and vigorous constitution, and hallowed be his name.  
There are a generation of men in this age who live like the Sadduces, as if there were no resurrection, they add lust unto oppression, and murder to hypocrisy and vainly minding the glory of this world, they quite forget the Kingdom of God, let them therefore understand and tremble at the apprehension of it, the same Omnipotent God that gave both health & youth to this aged man, when he had one foot in the grave, hath a day at hand, when at the sound of the Trumpet he will call all flesh to judgement, The oppressor shall then give an account of his wealth, and the conqueror of his conquest, and in what holiness of Spirit they have lived in the height o their fortunes, for though Heaven be high, no step so near as humility.  
There is also a generation of men, who hanging their Harps on the Willows do sit down on the banks of the rivers, and do increase them with their tears, who are either lying on the ground, or are laid in it, exhecting the resurrection of the just, the same God who against hope did miraculously revive this man unto youth, will raise them unto glory, for the day is appoaching when corruption shall put on incorruption, when lose dust by the warmth and moisture of blood shall be kneaded into man, when there shall be a resurrection of the grave, of rottenness, of sickness, of the winding sheet of consumptions, all which shall be purified into joy, into strength, into perfect beauty, into a robe of glory, into a throne of glory, into life, into health, into immortality; when there shall be a renovation even of Majesty itself, whose glory which seemed here to be buried in this world, shall then illustriously arise in the face of heaven, when the transitory condition of all good men living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mainly be exchanged 〈…〉   

I shall now dissend to give you a particular account of the Birth and Profession of this man, on whom God was pleased to confer this Wonder.  
By Birth he is a Scotch man, by Education a Scholar, bred up in the university of Scotland in which having taken his degrees, and attained to the formality of Master of Arts, he professeth the study of Divinity, and at a Village called Lesbury in the County of Northumberland, some five and twenty miles distant from Newcastle, he was chosen to be Parson and Rector of the said place: his name is John Marklaine, he was noted always to be a great Student, and to execute his Function with great industry and diligence, he was so temperate of life, and withal so strong of constitution, that notwithstanding his restless lucubratious, he was almost fourscore before his eye grew dim or any tooth did begin to fail him, when he was three score and fifteen years of age, or thereabouts, he began to use Spectacles, which he continuen full forty years together, until lately he found by degrees his eyesight every day to grow stronger and stronger, and at last to be so perfect, that without any Spectacles he was able to read the smallest Print that could be brought unto him.  
The report of this seemed so strange to many Ministers and Gentlemen thereabout, that they hardly could give any credit to it, until taking the pains to come to his house, their eyes did prove that to be true which their ears did hear: and the Wonder thereof being spread up and down the Country, it did draw many more of all sorts unto him, who as they were Spectators of the blessing, so they were partakers in the joy, and departed giving thanks to God for what they had heard and seen.  
As his eyesight did improve itself, so did his hearing, for hearing before but heavily, and when they did speak aloud unto him, his hearing was as quick and perfect as in the time of his strongest youth.  
His tooth also which were most of them decayed, and many of them quite lost by the injury of age, did begin to break forth again, and in a short time did appear in as even and as full a row as at the first.  
And whereas his hair was but thin before and grey with the tincture of age, his hair doth grow forth again very thick, and is of the same complexion as it was when he was but thirty years of age.  
Neither was this reparation of nature only in his head and tongue, for speaking before but softly he now peracheth again very audibly, and with a good voice, but his whole body in all the faculties thereof, is miraculously renewed in his strength, insomuch that he now studieth as closely as in those days of his youth when the greatest employments were upon him & he preacheth constantly every Lord's day, both in the forenoon and in the afternoon, having his memory, his apprehension and elocution as good as at the first time when he did take the Ministry upon him.  
These things being very true, and attested by a cloud of witnesses, methinks those men who had the Ministers of the word of God in contempt, should now be taught to give them a more mamerly rerespect, since we see that he was here pleased to make use of a Minister of his word for the manifestation of his power. And it is obser babble that he granted to this Minister so long a time of life, and almost thirty years beyond the custom of ordinary men, on purpose the more to manifest the greatness of his power, for surely it ever any man since the Creation deserved to be called Virbius, that is to say, twice a man, it was this Minister, what did we think could put new eyes into this old man's head, but the resurrection, what could fasten them in his Sums but Resurrection. That history of the Tooth that were sowed by Cadmus, and of the armed men that sprang forth thereby, though otherwise wonderful, is but a sluggish miracle compared to this. It God who is both the resurrection and the life, who did breach a new into this old man the breach of life, it was he that did endue him with a new warmth, and did create new spirits within him.  
And since be hath been pleased to give us so large a proof of the dispensation of his goodness, let us walk worthy of his mercies, and believe that he who raised this man when he was falling into the grave, will also raise us, and that the manifestation of his Providence in this is a sure sign unto us of the resurrection shortly to come, when Age shall be exchanged into youth, and imperfection into perfection, when all things shall be new, when there shall be a new Heaven, a Earth, and a new Jerusalem, when the Son of man shall appear in the Clouds, attended with an innumerable company of Angels, who are the Youth of Heaven, when the glory of this World shall vanish into nothing, and God shall be all in all, to whom be all Honour Dominion, and Obedience, now and for over more, Amen.  
FINIS.  figure of a man dressed in priest's clothes  figure of a man