The same Author hath also published,  
THE Virtuous Woman found, her Loss bewailed, and Character exemplified. In a Sermon preached at the Funeral of that most Excellent and Religious Lady, the Right Honourable MARY Countess Dowager of WARWICK, the most Illustrious Pattern of sincere Piety and solid Goodness this Age hath produced; to which is annexed some of her ladyship's pious and useful Meditations.  
The great Evil of Procrastination; or the Sinfulness and Danger of deferring Repentance. In several Discourses.  
A Sermon preached before the Company of Apothecaries on Eccles. 10.1. published at the Request of the said Company.  
Say on: Or, a seasonable Plea for a full hearing betwixt Man and Man; and a serious Plea for the like hearing betwixt God and Man: in a Sermon preached at the Assizes at Chelmsford in Essex.  
All four sold by Nathaniel Ranew, at the King's-Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard.   

Fax Fonte Accensa, Fire out of Water: OR, An Endeavour to kindle Devotion, from the Consideration of the FOUNTAINS God hath made.  
Designed for the Benefit of those who use the Waters of TUNBRIDGWELLS, the Bath, Epsom, Scarborough, Chigwell, Astrop, Northall, etc.  
Two SERMONS preached at New Chapel by Tunbridg-Wells.  
With Devout Meditations of Cardinal Bellarmin upon Fountains of Waters.  
Also some Forms of Meditations, Prayers, and Thanksgivings, suited to the occasion.  
By ANTHONY WALKER, D.D.  O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. Song of the three Children. 
London, Printed for Nathaniel Ranew at the King's-Arms in St. Paul'● Churchyard. MDCLXXXV.   

THE Epistle Dedicatory TO Mr. NATHANIEL HAWS, Citizen of London, and Treasurer of Christ-Church Hospital.  
Honoured Friend;  
THOUGH the mutual Intercourse of kind and good Offices, which hath some Years passed betwixt us, and especially at Tunbridg-Wells, might excuse, yea oblige me to so open an Acknowledgement of the Sense I have of your Civilities and Friendship, and the inscribing your Name upon these Papers without further prospect of you, than in your single and personal Capacity, would be too small a return for those Kindnesses, by which I am become your Debtor.  
Yet give me leave to tell you, I herein consider you under that more public Character, wherewith your Zeal, your Cost, your Pains about the erecting of that commodious, beautiful and Elegant Structure of the Chapel, we all here enjoy the benefit of, justly invests you.  
And if I could represent your Effigies in the Front of these few Sheets, it should be with your green Book in your Hand; gratefully receiving, modestly soliciting, and faithfully recording, the royal, noble, generous Contributions to this pious useful Work, which have amounted to about Eleven hundred Pounds, by your prudent Care and Industry, faithfully expended in the erecting and adoining of it.  
And I hereby, as much as in me lies, constitute you, who was for the greater part, receiver of their Money; Receiver-general in their Name, of all the Honour I can do them, and the best Gratitude I can return them, for their so large and pious Liberality.  
And in this Inscription which I make to you, as their Trustee and Representative, I dedicate these Papers to them all, with deepest Submission, begging both their Pardon and Acceptance of so faint and disproportionable a return from the meanest of those Divines who willingly bestow our Pains amongst them, till some of those excellent Persons, of greater Ability, Name and Merit, be pleased to do it, with actual Performances, which may equal my Wishes and Desires to do them Honour, and edify and inflame their Devotion.  
The late fresh Accession of Princely Bounty, set as a Crown upon the Head of the preceding Charity, will not only be the lasting Ornament and Glory of the public Table, you have exposed in the Chapel to every Man's view, of all moneys received and expended, (to prevent Obloquy and Suspicion in them who know you not, for those who know you, do not need it;) But I hope is a good Omen, that in due time, it may be as conveniently endowed as it is commodiously built, that there may be Wells of Salvation for the poor Neighbourhood all the Year; and if I may without imputation of Lightness, allude to St. Paul's Expression, The Word may be preached in season, and out of (Water) season. Let not this unexpected Address, be as unwelcome as unlooked for; neither let the Meanness of it cool the Reciprocation of that Esteem and Friendship, which hath hitherto been so obligingly allowed to, Honoured Sir,  
Your cordial Friend, and willing Servant, ANTHONY WALKER. From my Lodgings near Tunbridg-Wells, July 24. 1684.   

THE PREFACE TO THE Christian Reader, Especially Such as use the Mineral Waters.  
Good Reader;  
AS it is unquestionably the Duty and Interest of every Christian, both to acquire and retain a deep and most serious sense of God upon his own Heart; and as much as possibly he can, to impress the like upon his fellow Christians.  
So this Care is in a greater and more eminent degree incumbent upon Christ's Ministers, whom he hath singled out and appointed to attend upon this most important Affair, and Business. And as no means are to be esteemed improper or superfluous which God hath afforded or designed to this end; we ought ourselves to learn, and teach others, from both the Books which God hath written for our Institution and Instruction. Now these Books are that of the Creatures, and that of the Scriptures; of his Works, and of his Word; of his Providences, and of his Ordinances; of Nature and of Grace. Holy David joins both these together in the 19th Psalm. He gins with the first, The Heavens declare the Glory of God, the Firmament shows his handiwork; to Verse the 7th, where he proceeds to the second, The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the Soul: the Testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the Statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the Heart, etc.  
And as it cannot be denied, that both these great Volumes are full of the glorious Discoveries of God; so it must be confessed, that the Waters are one of the fairest and most legible Characters in which God's Name is written in the Book of Nature.  
The Rains, the Seas, the Rivers and the Fountains are as authentic witnesses of the the Being, and of the Power, Wisdom and Goodness of God, as any of those other visibles, which reflect the invisible Perfections of the great Creator, Preserver and Governor of all things. The Water● are a natural Looking-glass, or Mirror; in them, Face answers to Face as the Wiseman tells us, Prov. 27 19 And the Face of God may b● seen reflected in them, as clearly and distinctly as in any of his providential Manifestations. And if the ordinary Properties of common Waters in their cleansing, fructifying, softening, moistening, thirst-quenching, and uniting Qualities, perform this so well; how much more do the Mineral Springs, by their extraordinary Virtues of healing, opening, purging, dulcifying, mollifying, strengthening, etc. and being most signally beneficial, loudly proclaim it? That it must argue great Stupidness not to observe it, and greater Ingratitude, yea Impiety, not to admire, love and praise him for them, who hath endued them with these Virtues, especially in those who use them, and have found them beneficial, and reaped Advantage by the use of them.  
These things considered, and seeing so many hundreds, yea thousands in this and other Nations, yearly use such Waters, both by Bathing and Potation; I cannot but wonder that nothing hath hitherto been published, (that I could ever hear of) to provoke, promote, or assist their Devotion from this particular Topick.  
Certainly if the Scale or Ladder of the Creatures be excellently fitted, to help the Minds ascent to God; there is no round or step, in all that Ladder more steady and firm (how unstable soever Water be of itself) than this of the Waters.  
Cardinal Bellarmin in the Treatise which he wrote (De ascensione mentis in Deum, per scalas rerum creaturum) not as an engaged Disputant, and peevish angry Controvertist, but as becomes a serious pious Christian, in his September, the Month he reserved for Contemplation and Devotion; with a calm and sedate Spirit, relishing of no Heats, but those decent and commendable ones of Zeal Devotion, Admiration, Love and Thankfulness, hath one of the most considerable Chapters [Gradus Quartus] upon this Subject; the sum of which, for the sake of English Readers, I have subjoined amongst the Meditations and Prayers.  
I have therefore, (like Elihu in the Book of Job) provoked by the silence of those who were fit for it, adventured to adapt a Discourse, and add some Forms of Meditation, Prayers and Thanksgivings, for the use of those who attend the Mineral Waters. I hearty wish it had come a few days, or weeks, sooner into my mind; that I might have had a little more time to have rendered it less incomplete.  
But I was loath wholly to slip this Water-season, and therefore must adventure it abroad, so unpolisht as it is: It may provoke some abler Hand: or, if it find but tolerable Acceptance, put me upon the trial, what I can do to its melioration, with some more leisure and intention of thoughts. Much of it was written at the Wells (since my coming down this Season, and all transcribed and sent up sheet by sheet;) where, 'tis true, I had my Text daily before mine Eyes, but wanted my Books to comment on it.  
But though 'twas partly writ at Tunbridg-Wells, and chief calculated for those who use them; yet I had a Prospect of their Benefit, who use other Mineral Waters, whether for inward or outward Distempers, by drinking, or by bathing.  
Amongst many other strange Fountains, St. Augustin writes of two: One which is always full of Fish. De Genesi ad lit. lib. 3. cap. 8. Another, that will light or kindle Torches, though its Water of itself be cold. De Civ. Dei, lib. 21. cap. 5.  
And there is in Lancashire the like Fountain, (as I was lately here informed by a Person of Reputation, whose Testimony I do not in the least question, he being an Eye-witness of it) that being stirred at the bottom, the steam of it will kindle Paper into a flame.  
If I can at these Fountains catch any Fish, in his sense who said, henceforth you shall become Fishers of Men, I shall sacrifice my Praises, not to my Net, but unto Him at whose Word I let it down. For to fish for any thing else in such an Undertaking, I look upon as so unmanly, so unpriestly, so unchristian; that I should greatly despise myself, should I not despise so low, so muddy motives.  
And if I can bring Fire out of this Water, and kindle a Torch of Religion, and inflame my own, and other men's Devotion; the most ascending of those flames shall mount up to Him in humble Acknowledgements, who put the price into my hand, and gave me a heart in any measure to improve it. I will trouble you with no Apologies for my publishing these Papers, they seldom are free from Blame, never from sinister Suspicion; and such Gildings oftener make them keck, for whom they are prepared, than the Pills themselves they were designed to cover.  
I thank God, I can sincerely and with comfort say, I meant well, and aimed at the Glory of God, and the Edification of those into whose hands they may come, how weakly soever I have performed: and this will yield me inward satisfaction, though it should render me in some men's eyes, as David's dancing before the Ark rendered him in the eyes of Michal.  
I shall conclude with these few Requests: and the first thing I ask of thee, good Reader, is, That thou wouldst be like to God, in accepting of a willing mind.  
Secondly; If thou meetest here and there with an expression out of the road of common phrase, thou wouldst not impute it to a vain affectation of hard words, but consider, that the nature of the Subject constrained me to the use of them. For though I am a very incompetent Judge of Oratory; yet I know that the most masculine Eloquence is made up of plain expressive words (provided they be not slovenly and rude) which suitably  the Notions of the Speaker, and aptly convey them to the Understandings of the Hearers. My Age allows me not to be a florid Speaker, had I ability to be so. I remember it was the reproach of Hortensius, to be at once both green and grey, a verdant Orator in his fading, withered years. In a word,  knows the Auditory to which I spoke, cannot deny, that speaking as I did, and excusing of myself that I could speak no better, needs no excuse.  
Thirdly; That if thou wilt not be so humble and so pious, as to be made better by it thyself, yet be not so unjust and unkind as to reproach it, and thereby hinder others from being benefited by it.  
last; If but one or two shall employ some of those vacant hours this time and place affords them, and shall thereby be helped to pray to God, or to praise him; I entreat them to beg a Blessing on this Work, and him who is their Christian Brother and Servant, for Jesus sake,  
A. W.   

Reader, Whereas the Title over the Pages are, A Sermon preached at Tunbridg, it should have been, Two Sermons preached at Tunbridg-Wells.   
Jo. Hen. Alstedius Encyclop lib. 18. cap. 6. de Fontibus praecipuis. Peroratio Hydrographiae. 
HAEC est Hydrographia Marium, Lacuum, Fluminum & Fontium: Qu●● quatuor praecones Potentiae Sapientiae & Clementiae Divinae: Surda qui praetervehitur a●re, nè ille plusquam ingratus: Nam siv● quantitatem consideres, illa est stupenda; sieve qualitates illae sunt utilissimae, sive motum ille est admirandus. Quae omnia nos manu ducunt ad Dei Opt. Max. admirationem & adorationem, cui soli sit laus in solidum.  
The Seas, the Lakes, the Rivers, and the Fountains, are four loud Proclaimer● of the Divine Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, to which who ever turns a deaf Ear, he is worse than ingrateful: For whether you consider the Quantity, it is stupendous; or the Qualities, they are most beneficial; or their Motion, it is wonderful. All which do lead us by the Hand to the Admiration and Adoration of that God, who is superlatively Great and Good; to whom alone be everlasting Praises.   

A SERMON ON REV. 14.7. 
— And worship him that made the Fountains of Waters.   
THE Words I have read, and the Place where we are, have so agreeable an Aspect upon each other, that it needs no farther Intimation, to show what I design, or aim at, in the choice of them.  
Nor will an Apology for my fixing on them be more necessary, to any who will allow (and who is not ashamed to disallow it?) that the Wisdom and Example of our Master CHRIST, who is the essential Wisdom of the only wise God, is the best and most Authentic Copy for all his Servants to write after.  
For nothing is more notorious, than that most of his Sermons were occasional, preached upon visible Texts; Improvements of earthly Objects, to heavenly Purposes. A Method which insensibly prepares the Auditors, and innocently charms them to Attention, without bespeaking it. Such was that in the 4th of St. John to the Woman of Samaria, who came to draw Water at Jacob's Well, to stir up her desire after that living Water which he gives, and of which whoever drinks, shall thirst no more: but it becomes in him a Well of Water, springing up unto Everlasting Life. And such was that in the sixth of the same Evangelist, of the Bread of Life, the true Bread which comes down from Heaven, which he exhorts them to labour for, from his observing how they followed him, because he had fed them with the multiplied Loaves.  
I shall supersede more Instances, lest I seem indecently to suspect your observing that, which is so obvious and remarkable, that he who runs may read it.  
But it may possibly more need excuse, that I have pitched upon a Passage in that Book, which partly by its enigmatical, prophetical Style, and partly by the Misadventures of those who have adventured to unriddle it, seems like that little Book in the Angel's Hand, Chap. 5.1, 2, 3. of which none on Earth have been found worthy to unloose the Seals, and bless the World with a clear Interpretation of it. But I hope this modest short Reply, may suffice to remove that Prejudice: What St. Augustin observed of the whole Scripture is applicable to this part of it, the Apocalypse; Tho there be depths in which the Elephant may swim, there are also Shallows, in which the Lamb may wade. And though its Prophecies are so profound, we want a Line to sound and fathom them; and must wait till Events and Completions, (their best and only infallible Interpreters) render them intelligible and plain; and which might be written, not to gratify our Curiosity with the foreknowledge of what is future, but to confirm their Faith who shall live to see them fulfilled, that they who see them come to pass may believe, as our Saviour speaks on the like account, St. John 14.29. Yet are there many doctrinal Truths, and moral practical Duties, in this very Book, most easy, plain and clear, and no where to be found more intelligibly expressed, or more positively asserted: Such as are the Divinity of Christ: The truth and efficacy of his Death and Resurrection: that there are Eternal Rewards and Punishments for good and bad Men: That the true God is only to be worshipped; that he is to be adored and celebrated for his wonderful Works, and for that Wisdom, Power and Goodness, which shines forth in them▪ I might give many more Instances of the like kind, and say of them all, as St. Augustin doth expressly of many Passages in this Book; Tanta luce dicta sunt, ut nulla debeamus in literis sacris quaerere vel legere manifesta, si haec putaverimus obscura. See De Civitate Dei lib. 20. cap. 17. They are spoken with so much Light and Clearness, that nothing in sacred Writ is to be esteemed plain and easy, if these Truths be reckoned obscure and unintelligible.  
But I need no other, no clearer Instance than this Verse, which contains the Sum of the everlasting Gospel, which the Angel, whom St. John saw in the preceding Verse, flying in the midst of Heaven, had to preach to all Nations, Kindred's, Tongues, and People; and he executes and discharges his Trust with great Faithfulness and Boldness, with a loud Voice, that all might hear, in Isaiah's Phrase, a Voice lift up like a Trumpet. The main design and scope of his preaching is, to call the World from their Idolatry, to the Worship and Service of the true God only; and to show, that in this consists the Life, the Soul, the Spirit of true Religion, the Sum and Substance of the Gospel, to admit no Competitors with God in the matter of his Worship.  
The whole Sermon is reduceable to two Points; The Duty exhorted to, and the Motive by which that Duty is pressed. Both which, are in their kind, of the highest Importance; no Duty can be more necessary and indispensible, no Motive can be more cogent and irresistible. The hour of his Judgement is come; 'tis spoken of in the present Tense, to show the immutable certainty; shall as surely come, as if it were come already. And he that considers this, and is not awakened by it, is not restrained from worshipping what is not God, and provoked effectually to serve and worship him, hath an Heart harder than an Anvil, or an Adamant.  
The Duty is one for Substance, but hath three Parts or Degrees, preparatory or subservient to one another.  

1. Fear God.  
2. Give him Glory.  
3. Worship him.   
To which last is added a most august Periphasis to describe him, viz. Who made the Heaven, the Earth, the Sea and the Fountains. The first prepares for the other two.  
1. The Fear of God is the Foundation and Cornerstone of all Religion. Both David and Solomon assure us, that 'tis the Beginning, the Head, the Top of Wisdom, even of that by which Men become wise unto Salvation.  
'Tis the Character of the worst of Men, to have no fear of God before their Eyes. An awful Dread of the Divine Majesty is the greatest and best Restraint and Barrier against all Impiety. Where this is removed or broken down, the boldest Wickedness flows in as a Flood, as a Torrent, and bears down all before it. When carnal Security hath erased the Notions of a Divine Being, there's no Impiety so bad, and boundless, into which Men will not run and rush. And little hope remains, that instituted and revealed Religion should avail, where the very Seeds and Roots of all natural Religion are choked and plucked up. They will never give God Glory, who do not acknowledge his Being and Providence, and retain not a deep Awe, and profound Veneration for him.  
2. The second step or degree in the enjoined Duty is, Give Glory to him. This is the Superstructure, to be next erected, and built upon it, when and where the Foundation of it, his Fear, is laid and well settled.  
Glory is Excellency manifested. And to give God Glory, is to acknowledge the excellent Perfections of his Nature, with Affections and Actions suitable to those acknowledged Perfections, and to praise him for them.  
Now both because this is expressly called the everlasting Gospel, which is the glad Tidings of Salvation to lost Mankind by Jesus Christ, which the Angel (that is the Ministers of the Gospel) was to preach: and also because the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God, shines in the Face of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 4.6. that is, the Gospel, and is therein most clearly manifested. We give Glory to God most eminently, most acceptably, by believing and obeying the Gospel.  
That's the true Tabernacle in which his Glory dwells in the World. He hath made all his Glory pass before him, in the Accomplishment of Man's Salvation by his Son's Mediation, which he strives with us by his Spirit to persuade and draw us to accept and improve: Herein he hath gloriously displayed his unsearchable Wisdom, his infinite Power, the inexhaustible Treasuries of his Grace and Mercy, and the Immutability of his Truth and Faithfulness, which cannot shrink or shake, but stands faster than the ancient Hills. And we then give him the Glory he expects, when by obeying the Gospel we openly profess, that we esteem him to be such, as the Gospel hath declared him to be; so wise, so great, so good, so true, as he is worthy to be acknowledged, for what he hath done for us in and by the Gospel of his Son.  
3. The third degree or step in the enjoined Duty is— And worship him which made the Heavens, and the Earth, and the Sea, and the Fountains of Water. In this third Branch he calls the World from their Superstitions to the Worship of the only true God, of whom he gives a most August Description by his incommunicable Works, and excludes and shuts out all Competitors from being worshipped, who cannot show their Title to it, by such stupendous Works as these. And as in the first he laid the Foundation, and in the second raised the Superstructure, so in this third he secures its standing; Nothing so much threatening the overthrow and ruin of God's Glory as giving religious Worship to any thing that by nature is not God.  
But our present Concern and Business permits me not to grasp at the whole of this Angelic Sermon; nor allows me to inquire into the scope, and give the Explication of the whole Prophetic Scene, but confines me to the third Branch, and even in that, excludes a great part of the Periphrasis, by which he who may, and must be worshipped, is described; that is, He that made the Heaven, Earth and Sea: which is a Character of the true God, so proper, so peculiar, so exclusive of all Competitors, so intelligible, so awful and affecting, that we meet with it every where most frequently in holy Writ, in the Law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the New Testament.  
But my own choice and design, and I suppose your Expectation, limits me to the last Syllable of this glorious Name— The Fountains of Waters, which when I have joined to the preceptive Words in the beginning, by an innocent omission of the intermediate, comes to this,— Worship him that made the Fountains of Waters.  
In which Words we have three Particulars to be observed.  
1. A Description of the Object of Religious Adoration, which may and which must be worshipped, Him that made the Fountains of Waters.  
2. An employed Reason of the requiring us to give such Worship to him: Because he made the Fountains of Waters.  
3. An actual enjoining the Payment of this Homage to him, under that Notion, and upon that account: Worship him who made the Fountains, and do it for that reason, because he made them.  
Now for the clearer understanding, and more useful improvement of these Particulars, and to demonstrate the argumentative force of this Reason, that he who made the Fountains must therefore be worshipped, I shall reduce all I have to speak to them to this easy method.  

I. To inquire what is the sole Object, adequate Reason, and right Notion of Religious Worship.  
II. Who made, and in a short Digression, how he made the Fountains.  
III. Why the Angel propounds him to be worshipped under this Notion, Maker of the Fountains; and how it may appear that this is a good and sufficient Reason to oblige us to it.  
iv Draw practical Inferences from the whole, proper to us at this Place and Time.   
I begin with the first Inquiry, concerning the Object, Reason and right Notion of Religious Worship.  
The true God is the sole Object of Religious Worship. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And the adequate reason of his Worship, is, because he is God, that is, a Being absolutely perfect, which is the best Notion of God. A Being which hath infinite Wisdom, Power, Goodness, and full Authority and Dominion over us; Alsufficient Ability, and most gracious Willingness to help us. And there are as many Reasons for his Worship, as there are Proofs and Manifestations of these his adorable Perfections, either in the Works of Creation and Providence, as he is God of Nature; or in the Work of Redemption, by the Renovation and Salvation of Sinners, as he is the God of all Grace. Now, though I do not equalise these Reasons, and affirm all of them to be of the same Evidence and Cogency: Yet I say, whatever Works of Nature or of Grace, manifest these and the like adorable Perfections to be in him, render him, for that reason, a suitable Object of Adoration, and bind us to perform it to him.  
Now the Worship we own, and must pay him, is sometimes taken largely for the whole of true Religion, by which we expect Salvation. In colendo rectè Deo una salus est. St. Augustin. Our whole Salvation depends upon our right worshipping of God. And again, To love God with all our Heart, and Soul, and Strength, and to commend God as much as possibly we can to the Love of our Neighbour. Hic est Dei cultus, haec vera Religio, haec recta Pietas, haec tantùm Deo debita Servitus. De Civ. Dei, lib. 5. c. 4. This is God's Worship, this is true Religion, this is right Godliness, this is the only Service due to God. So that to worship God, is to be truly godly, and sincerely religious, good in good earnest, and to pay him all the Service our holy Religion exacts from us towards him.  
But secondly; The Notion of Worship is more confined and restrained, and is either internal or external.  
1. Internal, again, is either the Act of the Mind, Reason and Judgement: Or of the Heart, Soul, Will and Affections.  
In the first respect, as it is an Act of our Reason, Mind and Understanding, it implies our knowing and acknowledging his Superiority and full Dominion over us, and esteeming him a Being so fully and absolutely perfect, that in fruition of him, we may be completely and absolutely happy and blessed. Solus ille colendus est, quo solo fruens beatus est cultor ejus: & quo solo non fruens omnis mens misera est, qualibet re alia perfruatur. Aug. lib. 20. contra Faustum Manich. cap. 5.  
He only is to be worshipped, by enjoying whom alone his Worshipper is made blessed, and by the want of whom alone every Soul is miserable what ever else he doth enjoy.  
In the second respect, as it is an Act of our Will and Affections, it implies our choice of him, and adherence to him, by loving, fearing, trusting and delighting in him, submitting to him, obeying and imitating of him, as a Being, which is the chiefest Good, Great, True, Just, Holy, and the perfect Idea of all most amiable and desirable Excellencies. Optimus cultus quem colis imitari, saith Lactantius, that is the most acceptable Worship, to imitate and endeavour to be like him whom we worship. Pietas cultus Dei est, nec colitur ille nisi amando, Aug. Epist. 120. No Worship is accepted but what proceeds from Love.  
2. External Worship is that which expresses the inward Frame and Disposition of our Minds and Souls, by apt and suitable signs of bodily Gestures, as bowing our Knees, uncovering our Heads, Prostration of our Bodies, confessing of him, praying to him, giving him Thanks with our Mouths, and performing all the parts of his instituted Worship according to his Will and Word: for not only the second Commandment requires this, but the Light of Nature; for Socrates, a heathen Philosopher, could say, Vnumquemque Deum sic coli oportet quomodo se ipse colendum praeceperit, Every God ought to be worshipped, as he commands himself to be worshipped.  
So that the Worship of God reaches to, and is to be performed by, the whole inward and outward Man, and we must thereby glorify him in our Bodies and our Spirits, which are both his, 1 Cor. 6.20. first with our Spirits and Minds, knowing, acknowledging and esteeming him as a Being absolutely perfect and all-sufficient, most able and willing to help and make us happy.  
Secondly; Loving him, fearing him, trusting in him, as most good, and great, and true, etc.  
Thirdly; With our Bodies, by all those reverential Gestures, which are proper Signs and Indications of the right Frame and Disposition of our Hearts towards him; and this last seems to be implied in the very Notation of the Greek Word here used προσκυνήσατε, which is (as some say) derived from the Verb κύω, osculor, to kiss, because it was the Custom of the Eastern Nations to worship by kissing the Hand, the Knee, etc. Psal. 2. Kiss the Son, etc. Hos. 13.2. Let the Men that sacrifice, kiss the Calves. Or else from κυὼν Canis, a Dog, from the humble Posture of a Spaniel lying at and licking of his Master's Feet. For things in their own Nature low and mean, may afford Allusions to, and be Illustrations of, matters of the highest and greatest moment and importance. It implies a willing Acknowledgement of his Height, and our Lowness; his Dominion, and our Subjection; his All-sufficiency, and our Indigency.  
Thus much for the first Particular propounded, the Sum of which is this, That the true God must be worshipped with our Spirit, Soul, and Body; and whatever proves him to be such, is a good and sufficient Reason to engage us to perform such Worship to him, whether it proceed from him as the God of Nature, or of Grace.  
II. The second thing propounded to be inquired into was, Who made the Fountains of Waters, and how he made them? that we may both try and prove his Title to Religious Adoration upon that account.  
The Solution of the first Branch of this Enquiry, is easy by the Principles of Divinity; but the second is more difficult by the Principles of Philosophy.  
To the first therefore I may answer briefly, The true God made them: which the holy Scriptures both assert and prove.  
1. They assert it. Prov. 8. seems both to be very express, and very emphatical: for there Solomon brings in Wisdom, that is, Christ, the essential Wisdom of God, asserting and proving his own eternal Being, and everlasting Subsistence. And he proves it by a double Medium, or two Arguments; first, because he was before God's oldest Works.  
Secondly, because he was present at the making of them.  
The first he does in five Verses, from the 22d to 26, inclusively. Vers. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his Ways, before his Works of old. Then he enumerates and gives Instances of those Works: as the Earth, Vers. 23. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the Earth was. Next in the Depth and Fountains, Vers. 24. When there were no Depths was I brought forth, when there were no Fountains abounding with Water. Where the Earth, the Depths, and the Fountains of Waters, are expressly called his Works, yea the most ancient, the earliest, the firstborn of his Works, which he glories in being known by, as the Father and Maker of them.  
The second Argument by which he proves the Eternity of his Subsistence is, That he was present with God when he prepared the Heavens, established the Clouds above, and strengthened the Fountains of the deep: where the making the Fountains is as directly ascribed to him, as the making of the Heavens. This place is so full and clear, it might suffice alone, with the Text, without adding more.  
The Spirit of Christ, speaking by the Mouth of Solomon, gives us assurance, that his Father made the Fountains.  
And David saith no less: for, speaking of God, he saith, Psal. 104.10. He sendeth forth his Springs into the Valleys, which run among the Hills; they are his Springs, and he sends them forth.  
Psal. 107.33, & 35. He turneth the Rivers into a Wilderness, and the Water-Springs into dry Ground. Then again, He turneth the Wilderness into a standing-water, and dry Ground into Water-Springs.  
Isa. 35.6, 7. In the Wilderness shall Waters break out, and Streams in the Desert; and the parched Land shall become a Pool, and the thirsty Land Springs of Water. And let it be supposed and granted, that these Expressions are figurative, and signify the pouring out of his Spirit in the Graces and Comforts of it, upon desolate and weary Souls: yet the thing must be first true in the literal and natural Sense, that God can and doth perform such things in the course of Nature, and Providence, and can and will do what is like them, in the Operations of his Grace. Again,  
Isa. 41.18. I will open Rivers in high places, and Fountains in the midst of the Valleys; I will make the Wilderness a Pool of Water, and the dry Land Springs of Water.  
And in the Canticle, Benedicite omnia opera, commonly called the Song of the three Children, which in our Liturgy is appointed to be said or sung after the first Lesson at Morning Prayer, Te Deum, or that, and is taken out of the Additions to Dan●el; Where all the Magnalia, the signal Works of God are reckoned up, and excited to bless the Lord, which is to provoke Men to bless God for them. There we find Fountains or Wells, in the List or Catalogue of those famous Works of God. O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever. And I wish that in this place at least that Canticle were sometimes read, as the Liturgy appoints; for not only that Versicle is very proper, but the whole very warming and enflaming.  
I stay not to descant upon every Scripture I have cited, nor to show wherein their Strength lay, to prove what I produced them for, because I suppose such Evidence to accompany them, that 'tis needless, and would be superfluous. I may subjoin Arguments to prove that God made the Fountains, though very transiently.  
1. Our Text supposes it, and takes it for granted. And both this Text and the 8th of Proverbs, and many other Scriptures, rank them in the same Order and Series with the Heaven, the Earth, and the Sea, to signify that God is as undoubtedly the Maker of those, as of these.  
2. The true God made the Waters above the Heavens; He is the Father of the Rain, and he begets the drops of Dew. Job 38.28. And by parity of Reason, He makes the Waters under the Earth, and the Mists, the Vapours, and the Springs that rise from thence.  
3. He makes the miraculous extraordinary Fountains, and Streams that flow from them: as that, Exod. 17.6. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the Rock, and thou shalt smite the Rock, and there shall come forth Waters out of it. Which the Psalmist ascribes to God, Psa. 78.15. He clavae the Rock in the Wilderness, and gave them Drink as out of the great Depths. And Psal. 105.41. He opened the Rock, and the Waters gushed out: they ran in dry places like a River. And the other Fountains are the effects of the same Power, and are accounted less miraculous, only because they are more common.  
4. God is the great Artificer and Maker of Universal Nature. He that made all things is God. And whatever second causes he hath appointed and constituted, as instrumental to produce the Fountains, he is as truly the Maker of them still, as he is the Maker of every one of us, though we had Fathers who begat us, and Mothers in whose Wombs we were all form. Job 31.15. Did not he that made me in the Womb, make him, and did not one fashion us in the Womb? Causa causae est causa causati. He is as truly to be entitled to what he produceth mediately, as to his most immediate Productions.  
5. last; The Scripture, which is exceeding jealous of the Glory of God in point of Worship, and can endure Competitors and Copartners, less than a King in his Throne, or an Husband in his Bed, (My Glory will I not give to another, Isa. 42.8.) yet allows and requires the Glory of Religious Worship to be given to him that made the Fountains; which is an infallible Inference, that by the Scriptures Testimony, he that made them, is the true God.  
This may suffice to prove that God made the Fountains. But to demonstrate how he made them, is more difficult.  
'Tis a noble and delightful, but withal a busy and perplexed Inquiry, both amongst Divines and Philosophers, concerning the Origine of Fountains, their various useful Qualities, and how they became enriched with them; their Perennity, and constant flowing for so many Ages; their vast depth in the lowest Bowels of the Earth, where they are often found; and again, their strange ascent and height, and breaking out, as they sometimes do, in the highest Tops and Summities of Mountains, and many more of no less difficult Solution.  
But though the search into these things be exceeding pleasant to inquisitive Minds, and it might not be unwelcome to many of you to discuss them; Yet it is not so proper for the Pulpit, as the Schools; and would not well become a Discourse, which designs to minister to Devotion, rather than to gratify your Curiosity, and delight your Fancies.  
Yet that I may not tantalise your Minds by a mere starting of Questions, nor disoblige you by a vexing Disappointment, I will first refer you to those Authors, who by what they say themselves, and by directing you to near an hundred more, may, if not satisfy the curious, yet weary the most inquisitive and industrious: and having done that, though I wade not through, shall dip a little into these Questions.  
In that Age, which was Ingeniorum ferax, about our Saviour's Birth, when it seemed good to God to raise up in, and adorn the World with Wits of the first Magnitude, to usher in and attend upon the Incarnation of his eternal Wisdom, such as Virgil, Tully, Ovid, Horace; lived L. Annaeus, Seneca, that excellent, and I may say, Divine Moralist, and learned natural Philosopher, who hath fine Discourses on this Subject, lib. 3. of his natural Questions. And few have gone beyond him, notwithstanding the advantage of coming so long in time behind him.  
The laborious and diligent Polonian, Johan. Jonstonus, Thaumatographia naturalis. Clasis secundae Capit. 4. de origine Fontium, where you may meet with the Epitome of what our own Countryman, Tho. Lydiat, hath written most accutely on this Subject.  
Voetius in his select Disputations, both discusses the Questions relating to this matter, and gives copious References. Corn. a Lapide, on Ecclesiastes 1.7. is large in both disputing it himself, and in referring to the Greek and Latin Fathers and Philosophers. What Alstedius says is in no wise despicable, Encyclop. lib. 13. Physicorum, part 2. cap. 8. Regula 3. and part 4. c. 2. and lib. 18. Hydrograph. cap. 6.  
I forbear to name Aristotle, and those who follow the Tract of the old Philosophy, or Cartesius and his Sectators in the new; because they are well known to those, who can, or will puruse them, and are referred to (the first epecially) in those I have named already; and though it may seem an ignorant or culpable Omission to take no notice of the ingenious Mr. Thomas Burnet's new Theory of the Earth, both in Latin and English, I shall have occasion to mention him hereafter.  
But not to tyre myself and you with naming more, the English Reader may meet with more Satisfaction, than he could expect in so few Pages from any other Pen, in the acurately learned, and truly great Man, the Author of Origines Sacrae, lib. 3. cap. 4. §. 6. whose great Happiness it is to speak much in a little, and be short without Obscurity, at once concise and perspicuous, brief and clear.  
And having before, I hope, satisfyingly, proved that God made the Fountains: Let me briefly touch the Way, the Manner, the Art by which that great and wise Artificer performed this Work, produced and made them. And to dismiss and wave the rest, there are three Opinions, which almost all that writ on this Subject, chief insist upon.  
1. First; Some ascribe the Origine of Fountains, to the Transmutation of the Elements; Air and Vapours, say they, getting into the Caverns and hollow Recesses of the Earth, are by the Coldness of the Rocks and Stones condensed and turned into Waters, as we see in Vaults and Cellars; the Stone Walls will stand with Drops, especially when the Air is thick and moist. This Opinion glories in no less Author, than him who was the great Secretary of Nature, Aristotle.  
This, I confess, may do something, produce some little Rills and fainter Springs; but the Objection against it seems rationally strong, and unanswerable; as to more noble Fountains, which flow ubere venâ, from the vast quantities of Waters they send forth, which we cannot conceive, how this means alone can possibly supply and furnish.  
2. Others suppose them to arise from the falling of Rain, and dissolution of Snow, soaking into the Bowels of the Earth, and when it sinks into the hollow Caverns of it, glides through them, till it finds some vent, and makes a Spring at its Eruption, or place of breaking forth. And though there may be some colour for this in some Times and Places, as near the Alps, yet this is beset with greater Difficulties than the former: from the exceeding depth of many subterraneous Waters, and the Times and Places, where the Rains and Snows, are none, or few and small, and yet afford both plenteous and constant Fountains.  
3. Therefore the third and best Opinion, and which is beset with easiest Objections, is, That Fountains arise from the Sea, and from vast Stores and Treasuries of Water, made by God, and reserved under ground, in vast capacious Cisterns and Cellars, for this end and use.  
And this Opinion fairly claims and pleads both the patronage of Scripture, and the suffrage of Reason.  
First, of Scripture, which often mentions the great Abyss, the Deep, the Depths, (the same with Plato's Barathron) as the Womb and Mother of Springs. Gen. 7.11. The Fountains of the great Deep were broken up, to make the Flood. And again, chap. 8.2. The Fountains of the Deep were stopped. And Job 38.16. they are called the Springs of the Sea. Psal. 33.7. He layeth up the Depth in Storehouses, to be thus broached and issued forth. Eccles. 1.7. All the Rivers run into the Sea, and yet the Sea is not full: unto the place from whence the Rivers come, thither they return again. They come from the Sea through the Bowels of the Earth; and return unto it, through the Channels in the Surface of it. Fountains are the Mouths by which the Sea and great Abyss vomit, and cast forth those mighty Streams, the Rivers.  
And with the Scripture-Testimony concur Plato and Seneca, and other Naturalists. And the Sum of this Opinion is, That there are vast prodigious Quantities of Water reserved under ground, in huge Caverns and hollow Receptacles: and that the Sea hath also in the sides and bottom of it, either lose spongy Earth, which the Waters easily penetrate, and soak through: Or else large Ostia, wide Clefts and gaping Orifices, and Whirl-pits; by which it empties out, and disburdens itself of its superfluous Waters: without which Evacuations, and discharging of itself of that vast mass of Waters, which flow continually into it by so many Rivers, it must necessarily and unavoidably overflow the Earth, which is most obviously manifest in the Caspian Sea, which hath no visible Intercourse with, or outlet into the main Ocean, and yet the Waters which run into it from the might Volga in one Year, were sufficient to drown that part of the World, should it not have secret conveyances and ways of Evacuations to prevent its overflowing.  
Some have ingeniously compared this Terraqueous Globe, to a great Animal: the vast Abyss is as the Heart or Liver (or the Blood-bowl in the rustic Phrase); these Waters are the Blood; the hollow Caverns under Ground, and the Channels of the Rivers in the Surface, are as the Arteries and Veins, by which this Blood circulates, and where its Apertures, and places of breaking forth are, there are the Springs and Fountains, which resemble the Orifices upon the pricking or opening of a Vein by Phleboromy.  
And whereas the Sea is salt, and many Fountains fresh; this account is given, That God at first made all the Waters sweet and fresh, and those vast stores treasured up in the Bowels of the Earth retain those their primitive Qualities; though in great Wisdom, he after made the Sea salt, to prevent its Putrefaction by Stagnation; and to make it fit for the Nourishment of living Creatures in it, and more commodious for Navigation, the strength of the salt Water bearing those Vessels of Burden, which were it fresh, would sink to the bottom with their own weight: an Egg will swim in strong Brine.  
And for the Sea-Water, which passes out, as aforesaid, the fixed Salt is strained off by Percollation: and the volatile Salt, partly by Evaporation by the subterraneous Fires, and partly by mixing with the sweet Waters in the bowels of the Earth, as also of those made of transmuted Air and Vapours; and farther by Accession of Rain which soaks in, and dissolved Snows which mingle with it, it becomes lympid, sweet, and wholesome.  
And by passing through different Soils or Minerals, as Gold, Silver, Antimony, Copper, Led, Tin, and Iron, Vitriol, Nitre, Sulphur, Allom, and God only knows how many more, it is impregnated by them, imbibes their Properties and Virtues; besides what useful Qualities God may in his kind Providence infuse into them and communicate immediately, to render them useful and beneficial to Mankind: of which no account can be given, but the goodness of him, who doth what ever he pleaseth in Heaven, in Earth, and all deep places, and worketh all things according to his own good Pleasure.  
But to sum up and reduce to order, this more lax Discourse, I will lay down these following Propositions.  
1. 'Tis demonstrable by Scripture, that God made the Fountains.  
2. He made them not as a necessary, but a voluntary Agent: they are not the product of his Nature, but his Will.  
3. The Knowledge we have of the Origine of them as to their second and immediate causes, is not certain and demonstrative, but only probable and conjectural.  
4. 'Tis probable some are made, and others are increased by Transmutation, or change of grosser and moister Air and Vapours into Water.  
5. 'Tis very probable, that the wise Builder of Universal Nature hath so disposed and fashioned the whole System of this Terraqueous Globe, that there are in it, as it were Furnaces of subterraneous Fires: and vast hollow Caves and winding Meanders, not unlike to natural Stills, and Alymbecks, and Retorts, which turn salt Waters into Vapours, and then change both those Vapours, and others sucked into the Chinks and Caverns of the Earth, from the ambient Air and Mists, into sweet and wholesome Waters.  
6. 'Tis possible that some Springs arise, or at least may be augmented (such as are vulgarly called Land-springs) from Rains and dissolved Snows, soaking into, and reserved in the prepared void Places or Caverns of the Earth, which fail and dry up the times of Drought.  
7. 'Tis of all Opinions most probable, that the principal Fountains have their Origen from the Sea, and great Abyss, or huge store and treasury of Waters, made and reserved in the deep Cellars of the Earth, for that very end and purpose.  
8. 'Tis very likely that the Fountain-Waters receive their several useful Qualities from the various Soils and Minerals through which they glide and imbibe, and are impregnated by their different Properties, while they are percollated and strained through them; and become beneficial for Bathing or Potation, outward or inward Application.  
9 'Tis probable that besides the second Causes, God makes use of (at least so far as any Philosophy hitherto hath, or can give a full and satisfactory account) God doth impress upon them and communicate to them immediately, many of those useful Qualities, by which they become so beneneficial to Mankind.  
10. last; whatever second Causes they proceed from, or are rendered fit to be helpful and healthful by, that is no prejudice to the main Truth, that God makes them; nor derogates aught from the Glory that is due to him for the making of them, whether we consider them as ordinary Fountains for common use, or extraordinary for Health and Cure of Distempers.   

SERMON II.  REV. 14.7. 
— Worship him that made the Fountains of Waters.  
LED by the Authority of our Lord's Example, whose Sermons mostly were occasional, preached upon visible Texts, I singled out these Words, as not unsuitable to this Assembly, the Centre of which are the adjoining Wells.  
In the handling of them I reduced all I designed to speak, unto this easy Method. To inquire,  
1. What is the sole Object, adequate Reason, and right Notion of Religious Worship?  
2. Who made the Fountains, and in a short Digression how he made them.  
3. Why the Angel propounds him to be worshipped under that Notion, Maker of the Fountains; and how it may appear that this is a good and sufficient Reason to oblige us to it.  
4. To draw practical Inferences from the whole, proper to us at this Time and Place.  
The two former I have finished, and summed up the philosophic part of my Discourse, of the Origine of Fountains, in ten Propositions: To which Discouse my Subject almost necessitated me. For as it had been a fault to have affected it, and pressed and dragged it in reluctantly, so had it been blame-worthy to have refused the Service it so freely and so fairly offered us, to assist us in our main Hypothesis.  
'Twas an Observation worthy that great Man's Wisdom who first made it, I mean the wise Lord Verulam. That a smattering in Philosophy disposes to Atheism, but a deeper search into it, and knowledge of it, makes a good Divine, and a better Christian.  
We have a common saying; Vbi desinit Philosophus, ibi incipit Theologus: what Philosophy gins, Divinity finisheth. I shall therefore now proceed to entertain you as becomes a Divine and Preacher, in answering the third inquiry, begging only those Allowances which are but equal to be given to one, the obscurity of whose Station can hardly avoid contracting an habit of flat Expression, and lower Notion.  
I haste to the third and last Enquiry, Why the Angel propounds him to be worshipped under this Notion, Maker of the Fountains? And how it may appear, that this is a good and sufficient Reason, to oblige us to it?  
We may conceive a double Reason of it.  
1. To obviate the Superstition and Idolatry of the World, which was used to worship the Fountains themselves.  
All parts of the Creation were abused to Idolatry, especially what appeared most glorious, and was found most beneficial: As the Heavens and their Host, the Sun, Moon, and Stars for their Beauty and Influences, under the Names of Jupiter, Apollo, Juno, Diana, etc. by the Romans; and of Baal, and Astaroth, etc. by the Eastern Nations: so the Earth for its Fruitfulness, by the Name of Ceres and Tellus: And the Waters almost as much as any part of the World. The Sea for its vastness by the Name of Neptune, and the Rivers and Fountains, for the many benefits they yielded, for the perennity and constancy of their flowing, which seemed to resemble an eternal being, and for the cool and shady places, in which they mostly were, which struck an awe, and represented some kind of Sacredness. Thus they had their Aquatic Goddess and Nymphs, their Naiads, which they supposed to dwell in them, or preside over them.  
Now as 'twas usual to obviate the worship of the Host of Heaven, by directing to worship him that made the Heavens, and debasing the Gods that made them not: The Gods which did not make the Heavens, shall be destroyed from under the Heavens, Jer. 10.11. Which Verse was written in the Chaldee Tongue, that the Babylonians might understand it, though all the rest of the Book be written in the Hebrew Language: So to convince them of the evil of worshipping the Fountains, and divert them from it, he calls them to worship him that made them.  
And we may see the more evident need of it, if we consider of how large a spread, this Superstition was, and how deep root it had taken: for there being so many Miranda, and so great Beneficia; so many stupendous and unaccountable natural Wonders, and so many Advantages accrueing to Men from Fountains of so various kinds: we need not be surprised at it, that they who worshipped every thing, that was either very extraordinary, or very beneficial to their Life or Health, should idolise them. And this continued so long, and the World was so pertinacious in it, that the Fathers of the Primitive Church, were forced to preach and write most instantly and severely against it. To name but one. St. Aug. Serm. de Temp. 241. de Auguriis. Nec ad Arbores debent Christiani vota reddere, nec ad Fontem orare, si se volunt per gratiam Dei de aeterno supplicio liberari; Christians ought neither to pay Vows to Trees, nor pray at or to the Wells, if by the Grace of God they would be freed from Eternal Punishment. And a little after, Contestor vos coram Deo & Angelis ejus ac de Nuncio, ut nec ad illa diabolica Convivia, quae aut ad fanum, ad Fontesque aut ad aliquas Arbores fiant, veniatis; I adjure ye before God and his Angels, that ye come not to those Diabolical Feasts which are made at Fountains and certain Trees.  
And how many Superstitions have been used almost, if not wholly to this very day, about Fountains, and the supposed tutelar Guardians of them, is not unknown to many, as might be instanced in the imaginary St. Richard at the salt Wells in Worcester-shire, and many others elsewhere.  
Now to obviate these evil Practices, saith this preaching Angel, worship not the Wells or Fountains, or any supposed tutelary Deities, or Daemons residing in them, or presiding over them; but him that made them, and alone can bless them. Idolise not the likeness of any thing that is in the Waters under the Earth, nor the Virtues of those Waters, nor the faint Resemblance there seems to be of an eternal Being in their Perennity, nor any thing in them, or in any other Being which is made, but him that is the Maker of them, and the great Creator and Preserver of all things else; for nil factum adorandum, God made nothing to be worshipted, and nothing must be worshipped that is made.  
2. But the second, and more positive Reason why he directs us to worship him that made the Fountains, is, because the making of them is a signal proof that he is the true God, and witness those Perfections to be in him, for which he is truly adorable, and a meet Object, capable and worthy of Religious Adoration.  
I before suggested, that whatever Work of Nature or of Grace, manifests the Author of it to be endued with infinite Perfections, or that he is a Being absolutely and infinitely perfect, is a good and sufficient Reason for the worshipping of him.  
Now not to inquire into all, or more than the signal Trinity of Attributes, infinite Power, infinite Wisdom, infinite Goodness; if the making of the Fountains be a valid and convincing Argument, that he who made them hath all these, is infinitely powerful, wise and good, nay hath but any of them, (supposing that they might be parted) is perfect in Power only, or in Wisdom, or in Goodness; that alone were a good Argument, both that he might and ought to be worshipped.  
Not that the making of the Fountains proves no more: for I think it is easy to evince, that their Maker is an Eternal Being, from Prov. 8. and Eternal is truly an incommunicable Attribute, and a most adorable Perfection. And more might be named, but we may safely confine ourselves to the three afore specified; and if the making of them proves him to be all, or any of these, he must be worshipped that is such, because he is such. I will touch them in order.  
First; The making the Fountains proves him infinitely powerful, which we may consider in several respects.  
1. 'Tis a Work, and a Demonstration of Almighty Power, to produce out of nothing that which was not, to give that a Being which had none before. Now there was a time when, or rather before time itself was, there were no Fountains abounding with Water; Prov. 8.24. And his Almighty Fiat gave them Being, who spoke the Word, and they were made; who commanded and they were brought forth. By the Word of the Lord were the Waters made, and all the kinds and regions of them by the breath of his Mouth; and the first of Genesis makes at least as signal, and more repeated mention of the Waters, the Deep, the Seas, then of Heaven and Earth.  
Some think that the first matter, the Platonists ὕλη, the Scriptures Tohu and Bohu, which we call the Chaos, was a watery fluid Mass. Mr. Burnet's Theory of the Earth is chief built upon this Hypothesis. And the great Abyss, or Barathron, was the first or oldest of God's Works of Power; and the Issues and Outlets thereof, are the Effects of the same Power, and they are those we call the Fountains of the great Deep: so that the making them, evidences him to be an Almighty Creator.  
2. Having made and shut up those vast Stores and Treasuries of Water, 'tis a proof of his Power to unlock and unbar those mighty Rocks and Mountains which imprisoned and shut them in, and give them vent and passage, and open the very Womb of the Earth and Nature, that they may issue out. The Jews have a saying, that God keeps three Keys in his own Hand, the Key of the Womb, the Key of the Grave, and the Key of the Barn: sinifying thereby, that Fruitfulness or Barrenness, Life and Death, Plenty and Scarcity, depend immediately on him, and are great Evidences of his Power; and certainly it is no less to have the Key of the great Abyss. 'Tis one of the most majestic Proofs of the Divine Power, which God himself insists upon, Job 38.8, 11. To shut up the Sea with doors, and to say to it, Hither shalt thou go and no further, and here shall thy proud Wave stop themselves. And 'tis no less Power which cleaves the mighty Rocks to let it out, than to bridle its swelling Surges, by the smallest Sand.  
3. He makes new, sudden extraordinary Fountains when he pleases, without and beyond any natural apparent Causes strikes the flinty Rock, and Waters gush forth more readily than Sparks or Fire would by striking it with Steel. He must certainly be the Almighty Lord of Nature who can unhinge it, and change its Laws when ever he pleases, turning the dry Ground into Water-springs.  
4. As the making Heaven and Earth prove his Omnipotence, for 'tis upon that account we profess in our Creed to believe him Almighty, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, etc. No less doth the making of the Sea and Fountains prove the same; for they are ranked in the same Series in this very Text.  
5. 'Tis a mighty proof of his Power to continue them, to supply and feed them for so many Ages, that they die not, but are justly styled living Waters. Preservation is a continued Creation.  
Secondly; The making of the Fountains is a proof of his Wisdom: as may appear,  
1. In his contriving and building the whole System of universal Nature so admirably, so commodiously, every piece thereof agreeing so excellently with all the others, that they are mutually subservient. This harmonious Fabric, this exact Composition of the whole, is a Work of that deep, that infinite and adorable Wisdom: that it is an unanswerable Argument for an intelligent Providence. And may put to shame and to silence all the Atheists, and Semi-Atheists in the World. And though I confess 'tis more usual to instance in the Heavens, as being more visible, and to argue from the Situation, Motion and Position of the Sun, Moon and Stars towards the Earth, to render their Influences more propitious, that the whole may be fruitful, and a commodious Habitation, that all may in good degree enjoy their Comfort and their Blessing, and none be wholly deprived or destitute, nor scorched or spoiled by them. Yet with the like advantage might we argue from the Sea and Fountains; the spreading and diffusing of which through so many hidden Veins within the Earth, and dislodging themselves in so many commodious places, and flowing in so many crystal, cooling, healthful Streams, both greatly beautifies and garnisheth the Earth, and renders it fertile and delightful for benefit of Man and Beasts.  
2. As they are so contrived, that all the Phaenomena about them, are unaccountable, and the wisest and most inquisitive Indigaters, are at a loss, and cannot solve them, and find out the Reasons of them: but must cry out in admiration of their Maker, his Wisdom is unsearchable, and (in this, as much as in any Works of Nature) past finding out. They must confess themselves posed, and say with David, Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me, 'tis high, 'tis deep, I cannot attain to it. Psal. 139.6. And with the indefatigable Alstedius, not be ashamed to say, the best answer to the Inquiries about them, is by that word of Modesty, Nescio, I cannot tell; and with the great Philosopher, dying, to Euripus, Non capio te, I cannot comprehend thee.  
3. There appeareth great Wisdom in cutting out their Channels, spreading their Veins, proportioning their Depth, and Breadth, and Length, that they be not too rapid or too slow, that by a longer Tract they may be duly percolated, refined, concocted, imbued, and impregnated sufficiently, and not excessively, with the virtues of the Mineral Soils, that make them useful. How wise is he who proportions all these, and an hundred more, in Number, Weight, and Measure?  
4. In the admirable and almost infinite variety, and sorts, and kinds of them. A Poet would call them, Lusus naturae lascivientis, and tell you that wanton Nature never sported itself more gaily, then in the various sorts and shapes of Springs and Fountains; and in their strange and stupendous Properties; some ebbing and flowing as the Sea; some hot to seething, others as cold to freezing: some both, in every twenty four hours, hot in the Night, cold in the Day; some petrifying all that's put into them, others changing white the Hairs scattered on them, and of them who drink them: Some diutetick, some purging; some mollifying, other consolidating; some salt, some sweet; some acid, some insipid; some limpid, others thick; some harsh, others soft, smooth, oily, etc. In a word, the Sea hath not so many kinds of Fish, nor the Earth so many sorts of Beasts, or Fruits, nor the Air such diversity of Fowls and Birds, as there are variety of Springs and Fountains. O Lord, how manifold are these Works of thine! in Wisdom hast thou made them all; the Earth is full of thy Goodness.  
Thirdly; This, his Goodness, is the last of God's adorable Perfections, which bubbles up, yea flows exuberantly upon us, in the Fountains which he makes. And if any be so senseless as to ask me, how the making of the Fountains prove him to be good? It might be sufficient to answer such a Question, by ask of another, viz. Art thou not ashamed to ask it? or canst thou move it without blushing?  
But to clear it; I mean by his Goodness, his Beneficence, or doing Good. Thou art good, and dost good, saith David unto God, Psal. 119.68. He therefore doth good because he is good: But he is thereby known to be good, because he doth good; and every Benefit he bestows upon his Creatures, witness him to be a good God. Acts 14.17. how do the Wells and Fountains proclaim him to be so, as David, Psal. 93.3. of the Floods, we may say, The Springs, O Lord, have lifted up their Voice, the Springs lift up their Voice to shout forth the Goodness of their Maker, yea, they clap their Hands, (Psal. 98.8.) applaudingly, to celebrate his Praises.  
When grateful David had said, Psal. 33.5. The Earth is full of the Goodness of the Lord, he proves it, vers. 7. because he layeth up the Depth in Storehouses, thereby to feed the Fountains. When Moses, speaking of the promised Land, saith to the Israelites, The Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good Land. The Character he gives of that Goodness, is, that 'twas a Land of Brooks of Water, of Fountains and Depths, that spring out of the Valleys and Hills.  
And God is said to open his good Treasure, the Treasures of his Goodness, Deut. 28.12. When he gives Rain from above, and so when he gives Fountains from beneath.  
Water is a great Mercy in the common use of it, the World could not continue or subsist without it; and unspeakably sweet and kind is that Clemency of God that makes and gives it. It is impossible to reckon up how many Benefits it yields us, or to declare how great that Godness is by which we do enjoy it; 'tis a Work fit for our Admiration, than our Reckoning; for Rhetoric than Arithmetic. And Spring-water is the best of Waters, the Life, the Spirits, the Quintessence of that beneficial Element, the most pure, pleasant, wholesome, lasting, and every way most excellent and valuable.  
And because ungrateful, we are more prone to make a right Judgement of the worth of our Mercies, by their Wants, than their Enjoyments, consider how deplorable and sad the want of Water is, and we shall soon know how good it is to have it; and thence learn to acknowledge how good he is that gives it. But if common Waters be so great a Blessing, then extraordinary Springs are no common Mercies. And God is to be confessed very good for making such mollifying Baths, God's own Bethesdahs' and Siloam-pools; which seem attended constantly with some good Angel, and not only visited at rare and seldom Seasons. Purging-Springs, abstirging Wells, opening Obstructions, sweetening the Blood, thinning tough viscous Humours, preventing some, and grappling with and conquering other most obstinate and chronical Distempers, which were opprobria Medicorrm, baffled the best experienced, the eldest, the firstborn Sons of Apollo and Aesculapius: which Leviathan-like, esteemed the choicest Recipes, the keenest Shafts of Galen or Hypocrates, Paracelsus or Vanhelmont, but as Straw or rotten Wood Such are these Wells, God hath enriched this barren Country with, which we come hither to make use of, and to wait upon his Providence in the using of them. How exuberantly doth God's Goodness flow in these? O that with becoming Gratitude, and Love we could with a spiritual Gust relish and taste it in every Glass we drink! These are his Laboratories, who styles himself Jehova Rophi, Exod. 15.26. I am the Lord that healeth thee; and whom David (Psal. 103.3.) exhorts us to bless for healing all our Diseases. These are Alimbecks, where Almighty Goodness draws the Tinctures and the Extracts, prepares the Spirits, makes the Infusion, mixes the healthful Potions. And how unseemly is it to open our Lips to drink them in, and not to open them again, to confess his Goodness, and give out due Praises unto him that made them!  
3. His Goodness appears in discovering the Virtues of such Waters. How many useful things are lost for want of being known? Divine Clemency is seldom single, content with one Act; 'twas one Mercy to make them what they are; a second to let us know what he had made them; and thirdly, to vouchsafe us Liberty and Opportunity to use them.  
4. 'Tis great Goodness in God to make them useful and beneficial, either the common or the mineral Springs. Man lives not by Bread only, but by the Word which proceedeth out of God's Mouth. Dead things cannot minister to our Lives, but by the blessing of the living God; neither can Physick prepared by Nature or by Art, heal or help us without the concurrent Influence of him, who immediately makes one, and must as immediately bless both.  
5. last; Let me add one further Manifestation of his Goodness in making the Fountains, which may sensibly affect those who are concerned, how little soever it may signify to others. David justly ascribes it to the Goodness of God to provide for the Poor; Thou, Lord, hast of thy Goodness provided for the Poor. How many poor Families doth God provide for by the Wells! They are truly Silver Streams, they feed the Hungry, and  the Naked, enrich the Country, yield a plentiful Crop, and large Harvest to them who neither plough nor sow. O that Men would praise the Lord for this Goodness, and for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men!  
Thus have I showed you why we are most justly called upon to worship him that made the Fountains of Waters: Because in his making of them, there is a glorious discovery of many adorable Perfections, and amongst the rest, his Almighty Power, his unsearchable Wisdom, and his inexhaustible Goodness. All which not only allow and give leave, but oblige and give good reason, why we should worship him with all the Zeal and Love and Fervour that we can.  
Which Consideration leads me to the fourth and last thing propounded in the beginning of this Discourse, that is, To draw practical Inferences from the whole, and make Improvement of it, proper to us at this Place and Time.  
If we must worship him that made the Fountains, that is, honour, love, fear, serve him, pray to him, and give him Thanks, because he made them, and discovers so many adorable Perfections to be in him by his making of them: Then let us briefly inquire, 

1. What Prohibitions.  
2. What positive Duties flow from hence.    
God's Word is a twoedged Sword, utrinque acutus, it cuts on both sides. When it enjoins a Duty, it prohibits what is contrary; and when it prohibits Sin, it enjoins the Good, which is contrary to the Evil it forbids.  
If therefore we must worship him that made the Fountains: Then, 

1. We must not neglect him.  
2. Not do any thing that is contrary to his Worship.    
1. Let us not neglect, forget, or leave out him that made them, gave them their Virtues, and must bless them, if they do us good. Let us not drink as the Beasts of the Earth, which all the while they drink, look only down upon the Waters they are drinking of; but as the Birds of Heaven, which sip and look upward. When we drink we lift up our Heads, 'tis a necessary Posture: make a virtue of this necessity; and when you lift up your Heads in drinking, lift up your Eyes, your Hearts to God, in some devout Ejaculations, in some spiritual Hallelujahs.  
Good Lord vouchsafe to bless these Waters both to me, and to all that drink them; O thou that madest the Fountains, give me cause, and give me an Heart to praise thee for the making of them. O ye Wells, bless ye the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever! who forgiveth all thy Sins, and healeth all thy Diseases. Glory be to thee, O God, whose Power, Wisdom, Goodness these Wells proclaim; thou gavest them their Virtues, thou continuest their flowing, thou hast made them helpful to me and many others; O continue forth thy Loving kindness to us, and grant us all thy Grace to spend the Health we wait upon thee for, in the Service of the Giver.  
2. Secondly; If we must worship him that made these Fountains, then let us do nothing that's contrary to it, or misbecoming those that worship him.  
1. In general: Provoke him not in any kind to Jealousy, lest they become as the Waters of Jealousy to the the guilty Woman, Numb. 5.27. a Curse, and cause the Belly to swell, and Thigh to rot. God hath us here at our Good-behaviour. 'Twas no small Aggravation of the Israelites Sin, that they provoked God at the Sea, even at the red Sea, Psal. 106.7. where he signalised his Mercy, by the Waters covering their Enemies, that there was not any of them left, vers. 11. Your Distempers are your Enemies; if you expect to have them drowned, or washed away, provoke him not at the Wells, even at Tunbridg-Wells, where you expect his Help for your Cure; render them not as the Waters of Meribah.  
I am neither of so stoical a Temper, morose Humour, or affected Conversation, as to censure other men's Liberties, or to refuse to take my part in innocent Divertisements, and healthful Recreations. Take your Pleasures in God's Name. But love not your Pleasures more than God: neither let your Pleasures be ungodly, nor the pursuit of your Body's Health run you into Souls Sickness. Be merry, but withal be wise. Divert yourselves, but turn not out of God's way: use your Liberties, but abuse them not, use them not unlawfully: Provide for your Satisfaction; always provided, you make not Provision for the Flesh to fulfil its Lusts.  
In a word, so walk, so bowl, so dance, so play, that you stake not your Souls, nor by any of these, or other Pastimes, rob yourselves of time to pray to, or to praise that God, who made those Wells, which are the Centre of this great Confluence: or may render you ashamed, afraid, or otherwise unfit, to bow your Knees, or lift up your Faces, Hands or Hearts unto his holy Habitation; and that neither the Foams of impure Lusts, nor the Froth of less criminal Vanities, may pollute or damp the Altar, nor render unsavoury the Incense of your Evening Sacrifice. Tertullian hath left a brave and noble Character of the Primitive Christians, worthy our Imitation, yea our Ambition. That they so eaten, so drank, so traded, so conversed in the day, as became those who remembered that they were to pray ere they slept at Night. O that I could always do so. And I can wish you nothing better, though I love you as myself.  
2. Secondly, and more particularly. Look upon these Wells as consecrated and made sacred by an extraordinary Presence of the God of Nature, in and with them; and by the helpful Virtues, and healing Qualities, that he that makes the Fountains, hath endued them with. And so procul procul esto prophani.  
After the Command which enjoins God's Worship, follows that which so severely forbids the taking of his Name in vain. What doth this signify less, then that in vain we worship him, if we cease not to take his Name in vain?  
I beseech you therefore give me leave, with that Zeal which becomes my Sacerdotal Character, and yet with that Modesty, which knows my own meaness in that Sacred Order, to beseech you to be tender of the Honour of the Name of God.  
I hope I understand the difference betwixt reproving and reproaching; and though we are allowed and commanded to reprove some Sinners sharply, cuttingly, as the Greek Word signifies, yet to add reproachful Reflections to needful Reproofs, would be as if a Chirurgeon should invenom the point of his Lancet, or Edge of his Incision-knife; and thereby add a throbbing Anguish, a vexing Torment, and deadly Inflammation, to the unavoidable, but safe and beneficial smart, to which the Patient would be persuaded to submit with Willingness, in hope of Cure.  
I can sincerely say, I honour your Persons, and love your Souls, and would not displease you, lest I thereby hinder your profiting by my Entreaties or Advice.  
I beseech you therefore, yea I again and again beseech you, let not the most guilty, the most criminal Offender think himself reproached, while I reprove the Sin of common Swearing, the too frequent noise of which, greatly abates the innocent Pleasures of this Place and Season. 'Tis the direct Antithesis to the Worship we are required to give Him that made the Fountains; 'tis a casting off his Fear, 'tis a trampling his Glory under foot; 'tis a rendering his great, his holy, his adorable Name, vile and contemptible, cheap and base, a low, a common thing.  
I hope I may without Offence profess, that I cannot but pity the Errors of their Education, who esteem it a piece of good Breeding to blaspheme the Name of God, and account it the most ornamental and graceful Accomplishment of their Language, with a graceless Fool-hardiness to dare him to his Face to damn them. If you believe there is a God, (and who hath the Patience to be esteemed an Atheist?) and that he is a God indeed, a Being absolutely perfect, infinitely great and good, omniscient, holy, just and true, you may take his word, He will not hold him guiltless that takes his Name in vain. And I assure you 'tis much wiser and safer to believe in time, then to find to Eternity, how fearful a thing it is to fall into the Hands of the everlasting God.  
As for myself, (and I am confident in this, I speak the joint Sense of my Brethren in the same sacred Order) I speak it freely: He desecrates his Sacerdotal Character, and is unworthy to be a Priest in our holy Church, who is so unfaithful and unkind, as not to mind them of their Failings, who in this kind sin through Inadvertency and Weakness, or so cowardly, as through want of Zeal for God, and love to his Brother, dares not admonish them, who thus sin in an affected Contempt of God and Religion. It was the custom of the Jews, to rend their Garments when they heard the Name of the holy blessed God blasphemed. And for us of the Clergy, we deserve no pity, if it rend not our Hearts to hear the sacred Name of God so vilely rend in pieces, though our Gowns were rend from off our Backs.  
But I hasten to the positive Inferences.  
1. If we must worship Him that made the Fountains: Then by parity of Reason, let us learn to enforce upon ourselves, a due, an awful Sense of God: from every Creature, in the making of which he hath manifested forth his glorious, his adorable Perfections; God's Name is written on them all; Praesentemque Deum quaelibet herba refert.  
This Universe is a great Volume, and every Creature is a Letter in it; as in their orderly Conjunction, you may spell and read his adorable Excellencies completely and at large, so every single Letter hath its Signification and Sound. But as in the Alphabet, some are Vowels, sound singly, and give a sound to others: so in the Book of Nature, some of God's Works are Vowels, very vocal; such as the Heaven, the Earth, the Sea and the Fountains; worship him, love and admire him in the least: for God is Magnus in minimis, great in the least that he hath made: Digitus Dei may be seen in them. But,  
2. Worship him more signally for making the Fountains. Psal. 104.1. David stirs up himself, Bless the Lord O my Soul: and then he gives the Reasons why, and a principal one is laid down Vers. 10. Because he sends the Springs into the Valleys, Psal. 95. which the Church hath wisely chosen as a Preface to our Public Worship every Morning, Vers. 1. O come let us sing unto the Lord, let us hearty rejoice in the Strength of our Salvation; Vers. 4. Because in his Hands are the deep places of the Earth; Vers. 5. The Sea is his, and he made it, and the Fountains of it. Vers. 6. O come, let us therefore worship and fall down before his Footstool.  
3. Then him that made the extraordinary Fountains for Medicine, for Health: shall so much Power, Wisdom, Goodness shine forth in them, and we be blind and not observe them? or dumb, and not express a deep and grateful sense of them? O that a blessed God would superadd one healing Virtue more unto them, a Power to cure the Indevotion of our too little thankful Hearts! Shall they be counted worthy so great Expense, of Travel, Time and Money, and not be worthy our thankful Praises, Love and Service? O thou that madest these Wells, and hast opened the flinty Rocks, so that Streams have issued out, open our stony Hearts, that sweetest Streams of Love, of Praise and Adoration, may flow from thence, and never be dried up!  
4. If he must be worshipped that made the Fountains in the Fields and Deserts, how much more he that made those in the Garden, in the Paradise of God, I mean his Church. We call that sacred Vessel, where the Covenant of Christianity was sealed 'twixt God and us, the Font. He makes the other as the God of Nature; but the Fountain of our Baptism is signally made by him, as the God of Grace. 'Twas he that sent St. John Baptist to baptise with Water, John 1.33.  
And his blessed Son, the holy Jesus, after he was risen from the Dead, and entered into his state of Exaltation, gave Commission and Command to his Disciples to baptise all Nations in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy-Ghost.  
Our Baptism is a most solemn Primitive Act of Worship, and Primitive Acts are engaging Acts. 'Tis as the boaring of our Ear at the door-post of God's House, to show that we must serve him for ever. We therein receive the mark of the Lamb of God on our Foreheads, and on our Right-hands; 'tis the very Badge and Cognizance of the Worshippers of the true God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Ghost, in all whose Names we receive it, and to whose Service we are consecrated by it: we thereby oblige ourselves to his Worship both in the largest and strictest Notions, to his entire Service in universal unreserved Obedience, and all inward and external Acts of Adoration, both in Soul and Body. And by how much the Privileges of Baptism are more and greater, and the Obligations of it stronger and more indispensable; so much more zealously should we worship him that made it for us, and hath admitted us unto it.  
Few Aggravations enhance and heighten the guilt and provocation of our Sins so much, as that they are the Sins of baptised one's: this dies them of a deeper Purple than those of Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah.  
These mineral Waters may, by many things put to them, lose both their Taste and Virtue, in the Chemist Phrase be precipitated, that though they are drunk, they neither heal nor help. Every deliberate and wilful Sin desecrates the Waters, which were consecrated to the mystical washing away of Sin: Precipitates baptismal Waters, that their Virtue subsides and sinks, to the bottom of the Font, that though they still may wet, they will not wash; though they may be sprinkled, they will not cleanse.  
How unpardonable an Affront would it be to this honourable Company, if any should be so impudently rude or wicked, as to pollute or poison these Wells we come to drink of? What is it then to abuse that Blood of sprinkling, by which we were sanctified, and to do despite to that Spirit of Grace which over-shadows these sacred Waters?  
An involuntary innocent staining of the Font, hath branded an imperial Name in all succeeding Ages, Leo Coproninus. The casting of a dead Dog into a Well, which was the only supply for the Garrison which kept it, lost one of the strongest and most impregnable Forts, Stetguard. Our voluntary sinning after and against our Baptism, poisons the very Font, casts a dead Dog into the Well of Grace, nay, is an actual surrender into his Hands whom we have renounced, and should stand in defiance of for ever.  
I beseech you, I adjure you therefore, worship that God which made the Font of your Baptism, by a sound believing of the good Promises he made to you, and making good the Promises you there made to him: for as there is no greater cause of the decay of Christian Piety, than the not understanding or forgetting our Baptismal Covenant, and the indispensable Obligation it brings us under, to Faith, Repentance, and unreserved new Obedience; so there is no Remedy more likely to retrieve its Honour, and to restore the power of it in the World, than a daily serious remembering of it, and hearty desire and study to live up to it.  
5. If we must worship him, love, serve, adore him that made the Fountains, and made the Font; how much more him that made the Source and Spring of that very Fountain, that Fountain opened for Sin and for Uncleanness, Zech. 13.1. the Blood, the Spirit of Christ?  
When Longinus, as Tradition names him, with that accursed Spear pierced the Side and Heart of our most blessed Lord, yet hanging on that more accursed Tree, forthwith there came out Blood and Water; John 19.34. The Church hath always reckoned these the vital Springs of the Health-giving Sacraments. Christ calls himself the living Water, John 4. and he calls the Spirit by the same Name, John 7.38, 39 He that believes in me, out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of living Water; this spoke he of the Spirit.  
And 'tis agreeable to his Father's Language, Psal. 44.3. I will pour Water upon him that is thirsty, and Floods upon the dry Ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed, Isa. 44.3.  
If the love of God in giving his Son be set forth so emphatically with an ἑςτως, God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, so freely, so fully, so inconceivably, as no Tongue can express, as no Heart can conceive; with what Fervours of Love and Thankfulness should we receive it and return it?  
6. Worship him that is not only the Maker of the Fountains, but the very Fountain of all things; ὁ ῶν, the Fountain of living Waters: Jer. 2.13. The Fountain of our Being, in whom we live, and move, and have our Being; and for whom, as well as by whom, we were all made. God made us all to worship himself: for he made the World to manifest his Glory, that he might be known to be, and to be such as indeed he is, and have the Glory of being such; and to give him that Glory (which is peculiar to intelligent Natures) is properly to worship him.  
And the Fountain of all our Temporal, Spiritual, and Eternal Mercies present, future, all we have, and all we hope for.  
Nay, the Fountain of the very Deity, as the Schools call God the Father, Fontem Dietatis, who communicates the Divine Nature to the Son and Holy Ghost, as Light and Heat flow from the Body of the Sun, though they abide in it, and be one with it.  
last; If all must worship him that made the Fountains; Then they especially who have built him an House for his Worship at these famous Fountains: And it will be little better than a mocking of him, to erect him an House for his Worship, and to neglect that Worship for which it was erected.  
And though I am very far from imposing Laws, or prescribing Rules to this Honourable Assembly; yet give me leave with that modest freedom which becomes my Office, to remind you of somewhat at least very unseemly; and which I charitably hope, proceeds solely or chief from want of Consideration.  
You exactly understand all the Punctilios of Honour, all the Measures of what is Decent, Just and Fit. Let me therefore appeal to you what Respect, what Deference is due to God, who is, and calls himself a Great King. How comely it would be, (or rather how uncomely 'tis to do the contrary) not to continue your Gaming upon the very spot, in time of Public Prayer. I beseech you, if you will not join with us in our solemn Worship, yet modestly forbear to affront it, and Him to whom we pay it.  
Give me leave to conclude with one more humble Motion. 'Tis an express Branch of Divine Worship to build God an House, 'twill be no less to endow it now 'tis built. An easy Liberality from New comers, who find a Chapel ready prepared by our Charge and Care, (not excluding the pious Charity of those who have already given to its building) may settle a decent Maintenance for an Able Minister, constantly to offioiate in it, and preach to the Neighbouring Inhabitants all the Year.  
'Tis a certainly desolate place in the depth of Winter, still, notwithstanding the many fair Houses which are lately built. And the badness of the Ways, and distance of the Churches, I fear, occasions in many, too great a neglect of God's Worship, and their own Souls. Had they an Able Minister to reside constantly among them, the Woe of dwelling in this Mesech would be much abated, and these Deserts would become a Mount Zion, and these Tents of Kedar like the Curtains of Solomon, an Emblem of Jerusalem.  
We of the Clergy, who come hither for preservation, or recovery of Health, give you our Labours freely, though we have no cause to be ashamed of what we gave to the Erection of the Place we labour in. And you may the better bear with us, while in the behalf of them that serve us here, we plead with you to leave a Blessing behind you, That as God hath endowed these Wells with lasting Streams and Virtues, you would endow this House built to his Name so near them, that the Waters of the Sanctuary may flow from hence, with a constant Perennity, like to the Waters of these Wells, and with an Healthfulness to the Souls of those that dwell here, which may equal, or exceed the Usefulness of the Waters to the Bodies of us Strangers, who come hither to drink them.  
And now, Oh thou most glorious Lord, who hast made the Fountains of Waters, and thereby manifested forth thy Almighty Power, thy unsearchable Wisdom, and inexhaustible Goodness, which render thee a most suitable Object of all possible Adoration, Love and Service; Accept we beseech thee, the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving and Praise, which we offer to thee from the Altar of an humble Heart, for making of these Fountains, and making known and continuing their useful Virtues, and for blessing them to any of us. And we further bless thy glorious Name, who art the Fountain of Living Waters, and in whom are all our Springs, for all the Streams of Mercy that flow from thee, especially for thy Son, and thy Spirit, thy Word, and thy Sacraments, and that suitable Portion of it we have now been made partakers of: Beseeching thee so to write in our Hearts by the Finger of thy Spirit, what we have heard with our outward Ears, that it may bring forth in us the Fruit of good Living, to the Glory of thy holy Name, the good Example of our fellow Christians, the present Comfort, and the eternal Salvation of our precious Souls, through Jesus Christ our dearest Lord: To whom with thy Majesty, and eternal Spirit, be rendered, as is most due, all Honour, Love, Thanksgiving, Praise and Adoration, now and for evermore. Amen.  
FINIS.   

Devout Meditations of Cardinal Bellarmine, made English. Of the Consideration of the Waters, and chief of Fountains,  

CHAP. I.  
THE Water holds the second place amongst the Elements of this World: and if that be rightly looked upon, a step may be made of it to assist the Heart's Ascent to God. And if we will premise a general Consideration of Water, then draw out of the Fountains a special Ascent to God.  
Water is moist and cold, and from hence it hath these five Properties: For, 1. It washeth and cleanseth away Spots and Defilements. 2. It quencheth Fire. 3. It cools and slakes the heat of Thirst. 4. It joins into one many and different things. last; So low as it descends, so high it will ascend again: All which are manifest Symbols and Footsteps of that God who is the maker of all things.  
1. Water washeth off bodily Stains: God washeth off those that are spiritual. Thou shalt wash me, saith David, and I shall be whiter than Snow; Psal. 51.7. For although Contrition, Sacraments, Priests, Alms-deeds, do wash away Sins, which are the Stains of the Heart: All these are but Instruments and Dispositions. He that is the Author of this washing, is God alone. I even I am he that blotteth out thy Transgressions, for mine own sake, saith God by Isaiah, Chap. 43.25. And therefore the Pharisees murmuring against Christ, said, Who can forgive Sins but God only? Luke 7. 49. And they were not mistaken in ascribing unto God only, the supreme Power of forgiving Sins: But in that that they believed not Christ to be 〈◊〉 God, and so blasphemed, and spoke Truth in the same breath.  
Neither doth God only, like Water, wash away Spots, but will also be called by the Name of Water; John 7.38. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of living Water. But this spoke he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Therefore the holy Spirit, which is very God, is living Water. And of this Water speaks Ezekiel, Chap. 36.25. I will sprinkle clean Water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your Filthiness, and from your Idols will I cleanse you. And because this celestial and uncreated Water far excels the Virtues of this terrestrial and created Water, we will take notice of three Differences betwixt the washing of created and uncreated Water.  
First; That which is created, washeth the Body's Spots, but not all, for many it cannot get out unless it be helped by Soap and other Instruments: but uncreated Water washeth out throughly all kind of Spots: for in the forecited place 'tis said, You shall be clean from all your Filthiness.  
Secondly; Created Water rarely washeth Spots so clean away, as to leave no Marks or Shadows of them: But uncreated Water washeth so, that what is washed with it, is whiter and fairer than it was before it was defiled. Thou shalt wash me, saith David, and I shall be whiter than Snow. And the Lord himself saith by Isaiah, Chap. 1.18. Tho your Sins be as Scarlet, they shall be as white as Snow: though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as Wool.  
last; Created Water washeth away natural Spots, which resist not him that washeth them: But uncreated Water washeth away voluntary Spots, which cannot be rinsed off, unless the Soul be willing, and spontaneously consent to him that rinseth it. But so great and admirable is the Virtue of this Water, that it sweetly penetrates hearts of Stone, and is resisted by no hard Heart, because it makes it not to resist, as St. Augustin rightly observes, Lib. de Praed. SS. cap. 8.  
Who can understand, O Lord, with how admirable Methods thou breathest Faith into the Hearts of the Unbelievers, and pourest Humility inthe Heats of the proud, and instillest Love into the Hearts of thy Enemies, that he who a little before breathing Threaten and Slaughter, did persecute thee in thy Disciples, being suddenly changed, did willingly bear the Threats and Violences of the Persecutors for thee, and for thy Church! It is too much for me to search into thy Secrets, and I had rather know the efficacy of thy Grace by sweet Experience, than by search: and because I know this Water of thine, to be a voluntary Shower, designed for thine own Heritage, as thy Prophet singS, therefore I most humbly and submissly beg, that I may be found in thine Inheritance, and it may please thy Grace to descend into the Earth of my Heart, that it continue not towards thee like Earth without Water, dry and barren, as 'tis of itself, being not sufficient so much as to think the least that's good. But let's us proceed.   

CHAP. II.  
Water quencheth Fire, and that heavenly Water, viz. the Grace of the holy Spirit, in an admirable way and manner, quencheth the Fire of carnal Lusts. 'Tis true, Fast and corporal Mortifications do much avail to quench this Burning, but provided they be used as Instruments of the Grace of the Holy Ghost, otherwise of themselves alone they signify but very little: For Love is the principal of the Affections and Passions of the Mind, that governs them all, and all obey it; Love will not be forced, and if it be stopped of one side, it will find Passage in another; Love fears nothing, dares all things, conquereth all things, thinks nothing hard or impossible to itself. last; a lesser Love will yield to none, but to that Love that's greater and more mighty: so carnal Love, whether it pursue the Riches or Delights of the World, will only yield unto the Love of God. As soon as the Water of the holy Spirit gins to drop into the Heart of any Man, forthwith carnal Love gins to wax cold. Blessed Augustine may be our Witness, who being accustomed to indulge his Lust, and held it impossible for him to live without a Female Consort, yet when he began to taste the Grace of the holy Spirit, cried out in the ninth Book of his Confessions, How sweet did it presently become to me, to want the Suavities of Trifles, and the loss of those that were my greatest Fear, now was my Joy to be rid off: for thou didst cast them out, who art thyself the true and highest Sweetness; thou didst cast them out, and didst thyself enter in their stead, who art sweeter than all Pleasure, but not to Flesh and Blood; brighter than all Light, but more inward than any Secret; higher than all Honour, but not to the highminded.   

CHAP. III.  
FUrther; Water slakes the Thirst, and nothing but this heavenly Water can put an end to the various, most troublesome, and almost infinite desires of the Hearts of Men. So Truth itself, speaking to the Samaritan Woman, hath taught us, John 4.13. Whosoever drinketh of this Water, shall thirst again; but whosoever shall drink of the Water that I shall give him, shall never thirst. And the case is plainly this, The Eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the Ear filled with hearing. Eccles. 1.8. What ever can be offered to a Man, cannot satiate his desire, seeing he is capable of infinite Good, and all created things are finite: but he that gins to drink of celestial Water, in which are comprehended all things, desires nothing, seeks for nothing more.   

CHAP. IU.  
WAter conjoins and brings into one the things that seem impossible to be united: So many Grains of Breadcorn, by mixture of Water, are made one Loaf; and of many Particles of Earth, by adding Water to them, Bricks are made: but much more easily and indissolubly the Water of the holy Spirit causeth many Men to become one Heart and one Soul; as is spoken in the Acts of the Apostles, Chap. 4.22. of the first Christians, on whom the Holy Ghost had immediately before descended. And our Lord, when going to his Father, both commended and foretold this Unity, which the Water of the holy Spirit maketh, when he saith, John 17.20. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also that shall believe on me through their Word, that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. And a little after, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. To which Unity also the Apostle exhorts in his Epistle to the Ephesians, Chap. 4.3. Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace. There is one Body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your Calling. O happy Union! which makes many Men to be one Body of Christ, which is governed by one Head, and eats of one Bread, and drinks of one Cup, and lives of one Spirit, and cleaving to God, is made one Spirit with him. What can a Servant more desire, than that he should not only be made partaker of all his Lord's Goods, but also by the indissoluble Bond of Love, be made one with him, his almighty and most wise, and most beautiful Lord? But all this does the Grace of the holy Spirit effect, as living and enlivening Water, when it is devoutly received in the Heart, and preserved with all Diligence, and solicitous Care.   

CHAP. V.  
LAstly; Water ascends so high as it descends from above; and because the holy Spirit comes down from the highest Heaven, upon Earth, therefore in that Man in whose Heart he is received, he becomes a Fountain of Water springing up into Eternal Life, as our Lord speaks to the Woman of Samaria; that is to say, a Man born again of Water and the holy Spirit, and hath the same Spirit dwelling in his Heart, lifts up thither the Fruits of his Grace from whence that Grace descended: therefore, O my Soul, being taught and excited by these Words of Scripture, say to thy Father, again and again, with groan that cannot be uttered, Give me this Water which may scour off all my Spots, which may quench the heat of Concupiscence, which may satisfy all Thirst, and all Desires; which may make thee one Spirit with thy God, which may become in thee a Well of Water springing up to eternal Life, that thou mayest send thy Services thither before, where thou hopest thyself to abide to endless Ages.  
Not without cause did the Son of God say, You being evil, know how to give good Gifts to your Children; how much more shall your Father in Heaven give his good Spirit to them that ask it? And he said not, will give Bread, or Raiment, or Wisdom, or Charity, or the Kingdom of Heaven, or eternal Life, but he said, will give his good Spirit; because in that all things are contained. Thou therefore cease not daily to mind the Father of his Son's Promise, and to say with mighty Affection, and an undoubted hope of obtaining, O holy Father, not in confidence of mine own Righteousness, but trusting in the Promise of thine only begotten Son, do I pour out my Prayers to thee. 'Twas he that said to us, How much more shall your Father give his good Spirit to them that ask him? assuredly thy Son which is Truth itself, cannot deceive: therefore fulfil the Promise of thy Son, who glorified thee upon Earth, being every where obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross; give thy holy Spirit to me who ask it, give me the Spirit of thy Fear and Love, that thy Servant may fear nothing but to offend thee, and may love nothing besides thee, and his Neighbour in thee: Create in me a clean Heart, O God, and renew a right Spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy Presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Psal. 51.10, 11, 12.   

CHAP. VI  
I Come now to the Similitude the Fountains of Water have with God; for from hence the Mind may be raised up to the Contemplation of the truly wonderful and excellent Perfections of him that made them. For not without just cause is God in holy Scripture called, The Fountain of Life, and the Fountain of Wisdom, and Fountain of living Water; Psal. 35. Eccles. 1. Jer. 2.13. And that he is the very Fountain of being, may be gathered from the Words of God to Moses, Exod. 3. I am that I am: he that is hath sent me to you. The Apostle seems to comprehend all these together when he saith, in him we live, and move, and have our Being; for in him we are, as in the Fountain of being, in him we live as in the Fountain of Life, in him we move as in the Fountain of Wisdom: for more movable is Wisdom than all things movable, and by its Purity reacheth every where, as is said in the Book of Wisdom, Chap. 7.  
A Fountain of Water hath with us this proper to itself, that from it the Rivers arise; and if the Fountains cease to feed them, they presently dry up; but the Fountain depends not on the Streams, for it receives not its Waters from them, but hath them in itself, and communicate them to them. This is the true Symbol and Resemblance of the Divinity, for God is the truest Fountain of being; seeing he receives being from no other thing, and all receive from him. God receives from nothing, to be, because it is the Essence of God to be, and Essence itself is his Existence, that it can neither be, nor be conceived in our Thoughts, that God should not have always existed, or not always to exist; other things may be a while, and a while after cease to be, because to be, does not necessarily belong to their Essence: as for example; it is of the Essence of a Man to be a reasonable Creature, and therefore he cannot be a Man, and not be a reasonable Creature; and if Existence were of the Essence of a Man, it were impossible he should not always exist; but because it is not of his Essence to exist, therefore he may be, or cease to be. God is therefore the Fountain of being, because actual Existence is included in his very Essence and this do those words signify, I am that I am, that is, I am Being itself, and receive it not from others, but have it in myself; to me alone it belongs, that my very Essence is to be. And hence it is that Eternity and Immortality are peculiarly proper unto God, as saith the Apostle, To the King eternal, immortal, the only wise God, 1 Tim. 1.17. Who only hath Immortality; 1 Tim. 6.16.  
But all things so receive their Being from God, that unless they always depend on him, and be preserved by his Concourse, they forthwith would cease to be. Hence the same Apostle saith, upholding all things by the Word of his Power; because, unless God should sustain the Creatures, they could not subsist.  
Therefore, O my Soul, adore and wonder at the infinite Goodness of thy Maker, who so lovingly bears up and preserveth all things, though he need them not; and do not less admire and imitate the Patience of the same thy Creator, who is so kind to the unthankful and the evil, that he sustains them that blaspheme him, and upholds them that deserve to be reduced to nothing; neither let it seem grievous unto thee, that thou art sometime required to bear with the Infirmities of thy Brethren, and to do good to them that hate thee.  
Neither is this the only Pre-eminence of him that is the Fountain of Being, that he receives his Being from no other Fountain, and communicates to all other things their Being. For with us the Waters of the Fountains, and the Waters of the Rivers, are of the same kind: and although the Waters of the Fountains receive not their Waters from other Fountains, yet have they some other causes of their Being, to wit, the Vapours; and they again have other causes, till we arrive at the first Cause, which is God.  
But O my Soul, God that is thy Creator, is not of the same kind with created things, but stands at an infinite distance of Dignity and Nobleness, and Excellency from them; and truly and properly is the Fountain of Being, because he not only receiveth not his Being from any other Fountain, or Being, but is wholly without any cause.  
A Fountain of created Water, as it was said, is not from other Water, yet is derived from another cause; the uncreated Fountain of Being, hath nothing before him, depends on nothing, needeth nothing, nothing can hurt him, but all depend on him, and he can extinguish all created things with one wink of his Eye, as saith the most valiant Maccabeus.  
Admire, O my Soul, this Eminence, this Beginning without Beginning, this Cause without a Cause, this infinite, illimited, immense, and absolutely necessary Being, in comparison of whom all other Being's are mere Contingencies; and it may be Truth itself spoke of him when he said, But one thing is necessary: therefore cleave to this One, and serve him only, and delight thyself in the love and desire of him alone, and in comparison of him despise all other things, at least be little solicitous about many things, seeing but one thing is necessary, and that alone may be sufficient both for thyself and all others. But let this be thy only care, that thou mayest never fall from his Grace, and study always and  to please him.   

CHAP. VII.  
MOreover, God is most rightly called the Fountain of Life, because he lives and hath Life in himself, yea, is himself Eternal Life; This is the true God, and eternal Life, saith St. John, Epist. 1. Chap. 5.20. And all things which live, receive Life from this Fountain: and if he cease to communicate Life to them, they perish, and return unto their Dust, as sings the holy Prophet David. It is the Property of all things which have Life, to beget what is like unto themselves: thus God begets his Son most like himself, God God, and Living Living, Deus Deum, & vivens viventem; for as the Father hath Life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself, John 5.26. Now the Father hath life in himself, because he is the Fountain of Life, and receives not Life from any other; and hath given to the Son to have Life in himself, because he hath given him the same Life which he himself hath; and for this reason the Son also is a Fountain of Life, but a Fountain of Life from the Fountain of Life, as he is God of God, and Light of Light. Who can explain, yea who can conceive what kind of Life the Life of God is, and what kind of Fountain of Life that is, from whence all things that live either in the Earth, or the Heavens, do draw all their drops? That Life which we in this state of Exile know, is nothing else but an internal Principle of Motion: for those things are said by us to live which some way move themselves. Hence by way of Similitude they are called Living Waters, which flow in Rivers, and dead, which stagnate in Ponds; because those seem to be moved of themselves, these cannot move, unless they be driven by the Winds, or some other external force.  
Thy God, O my Soul, most truly lives, and is the Author and Spring of Life; for himself in holy Scripture often intimates so much, I live, saith the Lord; and the Prophets often repeat, The Lord liveth, The Lord liveth; and in Jeremy God complains of his People, saying, They have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Water; and yet he is moved neither of himself, nor of any other. I the Lord change not, Mal. 3. and elsewhere, God is not a Man that he should lie, nor the Son of Man that he should repent, or be changed. And there is a Hymn sung daily in the Latin Church to this effect.  
God who strongly all maintainest,  
In thyself unmoved remainest,  
Bounding the times of each days light,  
With the succession of the Night.  
And although God begets his Son, he begets him without change; although he sees, hears, speaks, loves, pities, judges, he does all without Mutation; although he creates and preserves things, or on the contrary destroys and scatters them, and again renews and changeth them, yet he works resting, and changeth other things without being moved; how therefore does he live if he move not himself? And how lives he not, if he be the Fountain and Author of Life? This knot is easily untied; this is absolutely sufficient to Life, if the thing that lives act of itself, and be not moved by another. But Life for the most part in created things, is a Principle of inward Motion, because created things are imperfect, and want many things to perform the Functions of Life: but God is infinite Perfection, and needs nothing out of himself; wherefore he indeeds acts of himself, and not moved by another, but has no need of Motion or Change, needs not Motion or Mutation. Created things need Change, that they may generate and be generated, because they beget out of themselves; and the thing that is begotten must be changed from not being into being; but God begets his Son within himself, and within himself proceeds his holy Spirit, and neither the Son or Holy Ghost ought to be changed from not being unto being, because they receive that Being that always was; and that they receive not in time, but in Eternity. Created things want motion of Increase, because they were born imperfect; but God the Son is born most perfect; and God the Holy Ghost is breathed forth also, and produced most perfect. Created things need the motion of Alteration, that they may obtain the various Qualities they want: but God wants nothing, seeing his Essence is of infinite Perfection. Created things want local motion, because they are not ; but God is  wholly.  
Further; Created things that they may see, that they may hear, that they may speak, that they may work, want many things; because though indeed they have Life, yet it is imperfect and very poor: but God wants nothing out of himself, that he may see all things, hear all, speak to all, and work all in all, because he not only hath Life, but the Life he hath is most opulent and happy, and he himself is Life, and the Fountain of Life. And that we may give an Example in the act of seeing: a Man that he may see, must have a visive Power, which is distinct from the Soul, which properly lives; he must have an Object, some coloured Body placed without himself; he must have the Light of the Sun, or some other luminous Body; he must have a Medium, some diaphanous Body; he must have a sensible Species, which may be carried from the Object to the Eye; he must have a corporal Organ, that is, an Eye sitly made of various Humours and fleshy Tunicles; he must have sensitive Spirits, and optic Nerves, through which those Spirits may pass; he must have a duly proportioned distance; and after all, must apply his Power to the act of Seeing. Behold how many helps both Men and other Creatures want, that they may perform one vital Action: but God who truly hath Life wholly in himself, wants nothing at all. His infinite Essence is to him Power, Object, Species, Light and all things else of himself, and by himself, and in himself; God sees and clearly discovers all things which are, which have been, which shall be, and which can be; and before the World was made God saw all things, neither did any thing new accrue unto his Sight or Knowledge by the Creation of all things. What therefore shalt thou be, O my Soul, when thou shalt be partaker of his Life? what great matter does God command thee, when he requires thee to lay down this corporal, this animal Life, which is so imperfect and full of wants, for thy Brethren, and for God himself, that thou mayest be made partaker of Eternal Life, which is most rich and blessed? And if it be a small matter he requires, when he requires thee to despise Life, how very light and little should it seem, when he bids thee to distribute thy dead Riches liberally to the Poor, to abstain from carnal Lusts, truly to renounce the Devil and his Pomp's; and with thy whole Heart to breath after that Life, which alone is Life indeed, and Truth?   

CHAP. VIII.  
BUT now 'tis time, that as well as we can, we ascend unto the Fountain of Wisdom. The Fountain of Wisdom is the Word of God in the highest, saith Ecclesiasticus; and well he said in the Highest, because the Fountain of Wisdom abundantly and copiously flows forth upon the holy Angels, and the Souls of the Blessed, whose Habitations are the highest Heavens. To us who are conversant in this Pilgrimage and Desert, not so much Wisdom itself, as a slight scent and shadow of it is attainable. Wherefore, O my Soul, affect not things too much above thee; search not the Majesty lest thou be oppressed of the Glory. Admire his Wisdom of whom the Apostle speaks; To God only wise, Rom. 16. and gratulate those blessed Souls that drink out of the Fountain of Wisdom: and though they cannot comprehend God, which is proper to the Fountain of Wisdom itself, yet they see the Face of God, that is, of the first cause without any interposed Veil, and being irradiated by the Beams of his Brightness, can judge rightly of all things; and in that noonday Light of Wisdom, fear neither the Darkness of Errors, nor Obscurity of Ignorance, nor the Dimness of Opinions. Aspire, O my Soul, unto that Happiness. And that thou mayest safely attain it, love with all thy Heart, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom are hidden all the Treasures of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God, Col. 2.3. for he hath said in his Gospel, He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and manifest myself to him, John 14.21. And what else doth this signify, I will manifest myself to him, but I will manifest all the Treasures of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God, which lie hid in me? Assuredly every Man naturally desires to know; and though carnal Lusts do in many lull these desires asleep, yet when we have put off this Body that corrupts and presses down our Soul, then will the Fire of this Desire blaze forth above all Desires. How great will then thy Happiness, O my Soul, be, when thy Beloved and thy Lover CHRIST, will show thee all the Treasures of the Knowledge and Wisdom of God? But that such hopes may not be frustrate, strive to keep Christ's Precepts, for he hath said, If any Man loves me, he will keep my Words; and he that loves me not, keepeth not my Words. Mean while, let thy Wisdom be such as holy Job describes, The Fear of the Lord is Wisdom; and to departed from evil, is Understanding. And what good soever thou beholdest in the Creatures, know that it flows from God, the Fountain of all Goodness, and so with blessed Francis, learn to to taste the Goodness of the Fountain in every Creature, as in Rivulets that are derived from it.    

Devotions for Water-drinkers: OR, Meditations, Prayers, and Thanksgiving fitted to that occasion.  

MEDITATION I. Upon the many kinds of Diseases cured by these Waters.  
HOW great is that Evil which Fools make a Mock of? The Cause may be seen in the Effects. Had there been no Sin, there had been no Sorrow, nor Sickness, no Diseases, Pain, or Death. The great number of Distempers is no small evidence of the great Evil of Sin. 'Tis a prolific Root which bears such variety, such multitude of Fruit. The great Physician Fernelius cries out, Totus Homo, totus Morbus, which we may english by the Prophet Isaiah's Words, From the sole of the Foot even to the Head there is no Soundness: and not only from top to bottom, but from outside to within, the whole Head is sick, and the whole Heart is faint. And the Prince of Physicians, Galen, sums up the Diseases to which the Eye alone is subject, to amount to no less than three hundred: how many then of the whole Head? how many are there of the whole Body? And yet the most of what we know, is the least of what we know not. How many hidden Distempers, and which yet know no Name, are we subject to? And Art is posed to keep pace with Nature, and fit new Names to new Diseases. And almost every Year, some comes upon the Stage known by no other dress, called by no other title but the New Fever, or New Disease.  
And yet, O Lord, the number of our Sins, which exceed the number of our Diseases, is more exceeded by the multitude of thy Mercies, than the Stars outshine the Glowworms, or thy Throne in Heaven is higher than thy Footstool on Earth.  
He's blind which doth not see, he deserves to be struck dumb who will not confess this Truth, which every day, which every place proclaims; but few more loudly or significantly than this Place or Season. How many Miracles of Mercy doth thy Power and Goodness daily work here? How many Patients wait upon thee the Great Physician? How many chronical and stubborn Distempers, which had baffled all the Sons of Art, yield to the God of Nature? Should the vast number, which daily drink of this Fountain of thy Pleasure, strictly confer Notes, their Distempers would be found as different as their Faces, not two exactly alike, yet all expect, and most obtain Relief? O Lord, by the multitude of thy unknown Mercies, heal all the known, and unknown Diseases of our Bodies, and Sins of our Souls.   

MEDITAT. II. With Allusion to John 5.3.  In them lay a multitude of Impotent Folk, waiting for the moving of the Water. 
THE mighty Confluence, of which these Wells are the Centre, is a very humbling, a very mortifying Consideration. For though the Gallantry and Rich Attire of the Company, may emulate the Courts of greatest Princes, and make this Desert forget its Solitude; and we may in this Wilderness find such Softness and Delicacy, as uses to be in King's Houses: Yet in very truth this place is but a great Hospital, and the splendid Buildings which rise so fast, at South-borough, Rust-Hall and about Mount-Ephraim, are but so many Apartments in this great Infirmatory. And the Guests who fill them are but so many Impotent Lazars, under the Vests of Dives. Every Glass we drink for cure is a  Confession of our hidden Infirmities and inward Distempers; and that though arrayed as the Lilies of the Field, as very Grass as they. Gay Beggars which wait at these Wells, which are the Cellar of the great Housekeeper for a dole of Mercy. Nothing is more insufferable than an insolent Beggar: Nothing more despicable than to be poor and proud; to need Relief, and provoke him from whom we expect it. The first Prescription every wise Physician gives his Patient is, that he must be regular: take what he orders, and as he orders. Thou, Lord, art our Physician, we are thy Patients; these Wells are thy Shop, their Waters are thy Medicines; thy Word the Prescription how we must use them (and all thy other Gifts) with Prayer and . O that we all may humbly and sincerely do so! Amen.   

MEDITAT. III. Upon an Hearse passing by towards the Wells, July 22.  
BEing returned to my Lodgings from the Wells, and sitting in the pleasant Tent of my honoured Friend, I saw an Hearse pass towards the Wells. And though I had not heard of the Death of any Person of Quality hereabouts, yet it put me in mind of a Passage of the wise Moralist Seneca, which I think (for I dare not affirm it at this distance from my Books) is in 101 Epist. wrote on the sudden Death of Senecio. Because thou knowest not when Death will expect thee, do thou expect it in every time: and because thou knowest not where it will meet thee, do thou look for it in every place. 'Tis in hope of Health and Life that Men come hither; yet some who come down in a Coach, have changed it for an Hearse to be carried up in; and when they were knocking at the Doors of Health, had the the Gates of the Grave unlocked to receive them, and found what was ordained for Life to be unto Death. O how good, how wise is it, to be always prepared to die, and every day to strike Tallies with Life! O Lord Jesus, who wilt certainly be my Judge when I die, give me Wisdom, give me thy Grace to take thy Counsel while I live, while I am in Health to be always ready, as a wise Virgin, for the coming of the Bridegroom. Blessed is that Servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find watching. Good Lord vouchsafe to make me of that happy number. Amen.   

MEDITAT. iv Upon the plentiful Supply with which God hath furnished the World both for Food and Physic.  
'TIs a great Aggravation of our Sins that we commit them all against our Benefactor, and abuse all the Creatures of God to his Dishonour. To take, as the Prophet Hoseah speaks, his Silver, his Gold, his Wool and his Flax, his Bread and his Flesh, his Wine, and his Water, his Time and his Talents, and to turn them against himself, and as with Weapons of Unrighteousness to fight against him.  
Yet, O Lord, so inconquerable is thy Goodness, that thy Patience seconds thy Bounty, in continuing to us what our ill Deserts have forfeited, as thou gav'st it freely without any good Desert of ours. And not only in supplying our bare Necessities, but furnishing of us for Convenience, for Pleasure and Delight; yea for recovery of those Distempers which we possibly have brought upon ourselves by the abuse of thy own Blessings: for the whole World is thy well-stored Shop, and every Element is furnished with Supply: The Air with Fowls, the Water with Fish, the Earth with small and great , and with a numberless variety of Plants and Minerals; and the Fire is the common Servant to them all, to concoct their Crudities, to dress and make them fit for Use and Nourishment: Neither are they less apt for Physic than for Food, for Medicine than for Meat.  
To pass the rest in a grateful, though silent Admiration; The Fountains are not only thy Cellars to quench our Thirst; but thy Baths and thy Alimbecks, where Almighty Goodness is the Operator, and the God of Nature prevents the Trouble and Charge of Art.  
O let this thy Goodness at length conquer the Obstinacy of our Rebellions, that our Ingratitude and Provocations may never overcome thy Clemency and Patience; that we may be so weary and ashamed of sinning against thee, that thou mayest never be weary, nor repent the doing of us good. Amen.   

MEDITAT. V Upon the Water of Jealousy, Numbers the 5th.  
THere are many righteous Laws, and severe Threaten in holy Scripture, of the Execution of which we meet with no recorded Instance or Example. Such is that of the rebellious Son being stoned to death upon his Parent's Complaint of him, and testifying against him for his Disobedience; Deut. 21.18. And that of the bitter Water to be drunk by the Wife of the jealous Husband, (which Water was to be mixed with the Dust of the Floor of the Tabernacle, probably to make the Punishment, Sins Anagram; and to signify it should not fail of its dire Effects on them who trampled under foot the Authority of him who dwelled in it) which caused her Belly to swell, and Thigh to rot, who was defiled: Numb. 5.  
There is a great Affinity and Likeness between God's Books of his Word, and of his Works: the Laws of both have righteous Sanctions either expressed or employed; and though we read not Examples of the Punishments of those who broke the first, nor have observed instances of their Misery who have transgressed the latter, yet assuredly wilful Offenders. shall not escape the smart and burden of vindictive Justice.  
O my Soul, thy Maker is thy Husband, provoke him not to Jealousy; let not the Impunity of others embolden thee: they may feel that (those surda verbera) which thou canst take no notice of, or he who sees their day is coming, may reserve severer Wrath against that day. What ever others do, do thou thy Duty. Love flows in these Waters; make suitable returns of Love: Provoke not him whose Help thou always needest, and here most signally expectest, not only lest thy Hopes abuse thee with a Disappointment, but the expected Blessing be turned into a Curse; and instead of opening Obstructions, and yielding Help and Health, they make thy Belly swell, and occasion Sorrow, Pain and Death.   

MEDITAT. VI  
WHen I observe the great Quantities of Water drunk every Morning at these Wells, it calls to my mind that Expression of David, of some who drink Iniquity like Water. Lust is a very thirsty and insatiable thing, it never saith it is enough; 'tis an hydropic Sickness of the Soul: the more it drinks the more it thirsts. The Fountain of Corruption cannot be stopped, it is impatient of a Dam. If one Outlet be shut, it will find or make another. But O how poisonous, how deadly are those draughts it swallows down with so greedy a delight? We here drink innocent Healths. But such Men drink much worse than Circean Cups, their own Damnation. How can any Sinner hope for impunity, when every Sin carries its own Hell, a bottomless desire after more? And O most Righteous Lord, 'tis just and equal that they who have forsaken Thee the satisfying Fountain of Living Waters, should weary themselves in their labouring after Disappointment, in hewing out such broken Cisterns as can hold no Water. O Thou who hast given me a Soul capable of thyself, and incapable of rest till it rest in thyself, who art the Centre of its Being and Desires, draw me to thyself, fit me for thyself, fill me with thyself; give me to drink of those Waters of Paradise, every drop of which is bigger than the Ocean. Give me to hunger and thirst after Righteousness, and I have the Security of his Word, who cannot lie, that I shall be satisfied; that having a Well of Water in myself, derived from thee the living Fountain, I may thirst no more with an uneasy, vexing, deadly Thirst.   

MEDITAT. VII.  Ezek. 47.9. 
— And every thing shall live whither the River cometh.  
THe latter part of this Prophet is so dark, that all Interpreters are ready to cry out, as I remember Carthusianus doth, when he comes to it, I now enter into the thick darkness. 'Tis no wonder therefore that the heads of that River, which broke out in those Regions of Obscurity, should be more hidden than those of Nile; yet undoubtedly this is that River which David saith makes glad the City of God; and which he elsewhere calls the River of his Pleasure. What can this be but those Waters of the Sanctuary which flow from the Throne of God and the Lamb, the Graces and Comforts of thy Spirit? O let that Blessed Spirit, which proceedeth from the Father and the Son, and whom the Nicene Creed teacheth us to call the Lord and Giver of Life, come down upon us, and effect more in and for our Souls, than we expect or look for to our Bodies, from the Waters of these Wells; that by the coming of this River to us, we may live the life of Grace here, and may be fitted for the Life of Everlasting Glory hereafter.   

MEDITAT. VIII. Upon 2 Kings 5.12.  
Are not Abana and Pharphar, Rivers of Damascus, better than all the Waters of Israel? May I not wash in them, and be clean? and he went away in a rage. With vers. 17.— Thy Servant will henceforth offer neither Burnt-Offering nor Sacrifice unto other Gods, but unto the LORD.  
THere's not a greater difference betwixt the Waters in which he washed, and the Fire by which he offered burnt Sacrifice, than between the Sentiments and Language of the Syrian Leper, and the cleansed Proselyte. How did the Rage of his insolent Mind flame out at his disdainful Lips? But when that Jordan which washed his Body, had baptised his Soul, healing both, with how sedate a Calmness, and humble and resolved Firmness doth he devote himself to Israel's God, and to the Rights of his before despised Worship?  
Tho right Reason be the Handmaid of Devotion, and the best Stock on which to graft Religion, (for nothing is more reasonable, than that God should communicate his Grace in his own Methods, and receive our Homage according to his own Appointments,) yet carnal Reason, truly so called, corrupt and blinded with the malignant Influence, and selfish Interest of Flesh and Blood, dares rival God's Wisdom, and more than mate his Authority, deride it.  
It would perhaps sound harsh if some of us should ask, Are not other Waters better than these of Tunbridg-Wells? How uncomely is it then to depress the Wells of Zion below the Cisterns of Sins and Creatures? yet how many Abana's and Pharphar's do most prefer before God's Jordan? not only desecrating the Waters consecrated to the mystical washing away of Sin, (and all his other holy Institutions) by disbeliving God's good Promises, and neglecting to make good their own, but the very Fountain from which they were derived, that opened for Sin and for Uncleanness in the side of Christ?  
Not only the stagnant Pool of our Unrighteousness, and the broken Cisterns of Creature Comforts; but the cleanest Streams of our best Righteousnesses, are Waters of Damascus, compared to the Blood and Spirit of Christ.  
O my Soul, take heed thou equal none of them with Him in thy Esteem and Love. And O my God, give me such a sense of my worthless Emptiness as may make me profoundly humble! And that Humility will make me thankful, and that Thankfulness will inflame my Love, and that Love will constrain my Obedience to a willing observance of all thy Institutions, because they bear the Image and Inscription of thy Authority, of thy Wisdom and thy Goodness; who art thyself the Fountain of every Stream that is desirable and good. Amen.   

MEDITAT. IX. Upon Psal. 87.7.  
All my Springs are in thee.  
GOD is often called a Rock by Moses, and the Prophets; but especially by David; and there's good reason for that Appellation: for there's no Creature, that hath not Life, that hath more, and more lively Resemblances of his Nature, and Properties. He is a strong Refuge, a firm Foundation, a refreshing Shade, a secure Hiding-place. But most eminently, all Springs of Goodness are in Him, and issue from him, as Waters from a Rock. All our Springs are in him, of Life, and Being, of Food and Raiment, of Meat and Medicine, of preservation in Health, and recovery out of Sickness. These nether-Springs, O Lord, gush out upon us by the unlocking of thy Treasuries.  
But more especially those upper Springs of Grace and Comfort, Pardon and Peace: And above all, the Blessing of these Blessings to us, and rendering of them, what we pray they may be, Blessings indeed.  
O Lord my God, thy Goodness is the rich Mineral, through which our Springs do glide! 'tis this which gives them, both their Tincture and their Taste, renders them wholesome, makes them healthful. O that this may impregnate all the Streams which flow so freely to us, may rectify, may sanctify, may bless them to us, that we may bless and glorify thy holy Name in that behalf for ever! Amen.   

MEDITAT. X. Upon Rev. 22.17.  
The Spirit and the Bride say, Come; and whosoever will, let him take the Waters of Life freely.  
Whatever is beneficial, insinuates itself to prove Instructive, and thereby acquires a Right to be so; and by doing of us good, obligeth us to be good.  
These Waters have a Voice, and join the Chorus, which echoing the call of the Spirit, and the Bride, (the Church on Earth, and God from Heaven) invite us to come and take of the Waters of Life freely. The Perennity of their Streams, the free access that, from the Prince to the Peasant, all have to them; their equal Helpfulness to rich and poor, to bad and good; and many more like Properties, are all instructive. They heal no bodily Infirmity, which hath not some Distemper of our Souls, to be relieved by those living Waters.  
They teach us Perseverance and Constancy in doing well, that our Goodness be not as the Morning-Dew, but, like their lasting Streams, to yield a free approach to those who need our Help; to be ready to distribute, willing to communicate, to be forward to do good to all.  
O my Soul, exemplify their Virtues, and improve the advantages thy Body hath obtained by their use to the like helping of the inward Man. Have they washed out the Slime, the Sand, the Gravel, and healed or eased thee of the Stone? Let it melt thy stony Heart into an Heart of flesh: and be encouraged hence to believe, and sue out into Performances, the Promises of the Covenant of Grace (which are the Springs of Salvation) from the Experience of God's fulfilling what his Providence doth tacitly promise, by these natural Fountains; Experience breeds Hope. Have they begot an Appetite? Hunger and thirst thou after Righteousness. Have they sweetened the Blood, thin'd it, and made it circulate, opened and removed Obstructions? put thou away all Superfluity of Naughtiness, all Rancour, Malice and Revenge: fill up the circle of universal Obedience, and let nothing hinder the Grace of God from having a free course through all thy Faculties. Have these cut the tough, the viscous Humours? let those better Waters cut the Iron Sinew, till thy Neck willingly bow to the sweet, to the easy Yoke of Christ. Have they rendered any fruitful? let the barren Soul endeavour to have Christ form in it, that it may bring forth Fruit to God. Have they cooled those Heats you call Heart-burnings? Apply these Waters of Life to the cauterised Conscience, seared as with an hot Iron; that these may quench the Burning, mollify the Tumour, cicatrize the Wound, till your Hearts be cured of an evil Conscience, to serve the living God with Purity and Peace. O my Soul hear thou these kind, these gracious Invitations. And O my God, circumcise my Heart, that I may close with them; and what thou offerest so freely, give effectually, and help me to receive thankfully, and improve savingly, that they may be indeed the Waters of Life in Grace and Glory, that I may thirst no more. Amen.   
The end of the Meditations.   

Some Forms of PRAYER and THANKSGIVING to assist the Devotion of those who drink the Waters of Tunbridg-Wells, or wait upon God's Providence in the use of other Mineral Fountains.  

PRAYER I.  
O Almighty God, and our most merciful Father in Jesus Christ, who by the Mouth of him thy dearest Son hast taught us, that Man lives not by Bread only, but by the Word which proceedeth out of thy Mouth. We know that dead things cannot give us Life without the Influence and Blessing of Thee, who art the living God; nor any preparations of Art or Nature heal us, without thy Healing Concurrence, who stilest thyself, The Lord that healeth. We therefore most humbly beseech thee, to accompany with thy Blessing, and to crown with a desided and merciful Success, the use we make of these Medicinal Waters; that they may occasion neither Sin nor Sickness, nor any Inconvenience to us: but prove useful and beneficial to us, for the continuance, restauration, and confirmation of Health to our frail Bodies. And as we beg thy leave to use, thy Grace to use aright, and thy Blessing upon the use of, these Waters of the nether Springs: So with humble earnestness we beg, that the Waters of the Sanctuary, which flow from the Throne of the Lamb of God, the promised Floods of thy holy Spirit, may be plentifully poured forth upon us, to refresh, to satisfy, to cleanse, to heal our parched, weary, and polluted Souls: that so both with our Bodies and our Spirits, which thou hast made by thy Power, and bought with the price of thy Son's Blood, we may glorify Thee our great Creator, and gracious Redeemer for ever. Amen.   

II.  
O most holy Lord God, who though Thou art most merciful, in providing relieving Remedies for thy Creatures, yet art most jealous of thy Glory, and expectest to be owned and acknowledged in all the Works of thy Power and Goodness to the Sons of Men. We pray thee raise up our Hearts by these Waters, and beyond the Virtues of them, to thyself, whose Providence hath made them what they are. And as we abhor that gross Idolatry, of worshipping the likeness of any thing that is in the Waters under the Earth: So we pray thee preserve us from a more refined, but not less criminal Idolatry, of placing our Confidence in their Qualities and Virtues, and forgetting Thee the Maker of them: lest we provoke Thee to withdraw the Blessing we expect, and inflict the Curse we have cause to fear; and to make them the Instruments of thy Vengeance, because we made them the Objects of our Trust, and Occasions of thy Jealousy. Grant this, O Lord, for Christ his sake. Amen.   

III.  
O most gracious God, who delightest in Mercy, and pardonest Iniquity, Transgression and Sin: We thy poor sinful Creatures humbly cast down ourselves before thee; begging the Forgiveness of our Offences, which may justly cause thee to withhold good things from us, yea to turn our Blessings into Curses; that what is made for the good of others, might become to us a Snare and occasion of falling But we beseech thee deal not with us according to our deserts: but bless to us the use of these Waters, that we may receive those Benefits by them, for which we may have great cause to honour, love and serve thee for ever. And we pray thee give us good Hearts to do accordingly, for thy Mercy sake. Amen.   

iv  
O Lord, who art the Fountain of living Waters, we confess with shame, we have forsaken Thee, and have hewn out to ourselves empty and broken Cisterns, which can hold no Water: for which it might be just with thee, to forsake and cast us off for ever. But good Lord, convince us of this Folly; pardon, and turn us from it. Do us good by these Wells we daily see and taste of, and open our Eyes, as thou didst the Eyes of Hagar, to see those Wells of Salvation which are hid from all but those to whom thou art pleased to show them: and help us with joy to draw from thence, what may so suffice and satisfy us, that we may thirst no more. Amen.   

V  
Almighty God, the Fountain of all Goodness; we read that thy Manna relished agreeably, and pleased the various Palates of all that eaten it. O that these Waters may profit every person that drinks of them, how different so ever the Distempers are for which they drink them: That thy Wisdom and Power may more signally appear, by thy producing such various Effects from one and the same single Cause. And help us all who drink of one Well, to be knit together in the Bond of true Christian Charity; and to praise thee for the Mercies thou bestowest on ourselves, and for the Mercies thou vouchsafest unto others, as hearty as for our own; for Christ his sake who is our common Head. Amen.   

VI  
O most blessed Lord God, who givest thy Blessings, and alone canst bless thy Gifts: We beseech thee remove thy Curse which our Sins have deserved, from us, from all our Enjoyments, and particularly from these Waters we are gathered hither to make use of: and let thy Blessing so accompany and follow our drinking of them, that we may be both obliged and enabled to praise thy Name, through Christ our Lord. Amen.   

VII.  
O most gracious God, who hast made a gracious Promise, that all things shall work for the good of them that love thee: engraft in our Hearts such love to thy Name, as may entitle us to this good Promise. And although we have forfeited our present Comforts, and future Expectations of Good; yet take not the Forfeitures we have made, but crown with continual Patience, thy former Bounty; and add new Favours, and suffer none of us where and while we seek for help, and Ease, and Health, and Life, to meet with Pain, or Sorrow, Sickness, Death and Judgement: But by by these Waters heal our Diseases, and by a better Fountain purge away, and pardon all our Sins, through Jesus Christ our Lord and only Mediator. Amen.   

VIII.  
O Lord our God, who art the inexhaustible Fountain of all both spiritual and temporal good things, for our Souls, and for our Bodies: we lift up our Hearts and Hands to Thee in Heaven, for a merciful Supply of all our inward and outward Wants, and that Thou wouldst sanctify and bless to us all those Supplies thy Goodness doth vouchsafe us, both for our Souls and Bodies, whether for Meat or Medicine; and particularly these Waters, that they may do us much good, and no hurt; and for all the benefits we receive from Thee, we pray thee enable us to render to Thee such returns of Service, Love, and Thankfulness as Thou mayest expect, and wilt accept, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

IX.  
O most mighty God, who makest the Fountains of Waters, those in the Fields and Deserts, as Thou art the God of Nature; and that in thy Church (the Fountain of our Baptism) as Thou art the God of Grace: We most humbly beseech Thee baptise us with the Holy Ghost, and let it be the constant study of our lives, to keep the Covenant we made with Thee in our Baptism; and to exemplify it by such a Conversation as becomes the Gospel, receiving by Faith the good Promises thou hast made to us, and making good with faithfulness the Promises we then made to Thee, to thy Glory, the good example of all our fellow-Christians, and the Comfort and Salvation of our Souls by Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

X.  
O most merciful Lord God, who hast opened a Fountain for Sin and for Uncleanness in the Side, in the Heart of thy own dear Son; whom Thou sentest into this World to save his People from their Sins, from all their Sins, and all that is in Sin. O let nothing be in vain to our Souls of all that he hath done or suffered, instituted or ordained for his People's good. Justify us freely in his Blood, sanctify us throughly by his Spirit; and let him be made of God to us, Wisdom, to preserve us from the deceitfulness of Sin; Sanctification, to deliver us from the filthiness of Sin; Redemption, to free us from the bondage and dominion of Sin; and Righteousness, to save us from the guilt and damnation of Sin; that we may never perish, but have Everlasting Life. All which we beg for his sake, who is thy Christ, and our Jesus: to whom with thyself, and thy eternal Spirit, be ascribed everlasting Praise and Glory for evermore. Amen.   
The end of the Prayers.   

Forms of Thanksgiving.  

I.  
O LORD most Mighty, the great Creator of all things in Heaven and Earth: whose Works are the Witnesses of Thy Being; and of the adorable Perfections of thy Nature: We bless and magnify thy glorious Name for all thy wondrous Works; for making the Heavens and their Host, the Earth, and its Store; the Sea, and all the Waters in it, and that spring from it: and in particular for making these Healing Fountains; for making known their Virtues; for giving us liberty to use them; and for any Blessing formerly, or at this season vouchsafed to us by the use of them. And we pray Thee to crown these Mercies with one better than the rest, even so thankful an Heart as may improve all to thy Glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

II.  
O Lord, who art good, and dost good: We bless thy glorious Name for what thou art, and what thou dost; for the Healing Fountain of thy free Grace, and for the free Fountain of these Healing Waters; for the Blessings of thy Throne, and of thy Footstool; for our Life, and for our Livelihood; for our Food, and for our Physic; for the Waters of the upper and the nether Springs; for all thy Fountains, and for all their Streams. Good Lord, create one Fountain more, even a Fountain of Love and Thankfulness in all our Hearts, and cause it to flow with constant streams of Obedience and Praise, which may be acceptable in thy sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.   

III.  
O Lord, who art pleased to declare, That whoso offereth Thee Thanks and Praise, honoureth Thee; Accept our unfeigned desires to honour Thee, by giving thee Thanks and Praise with our whole Hearts, and our whole Souls, for thy manifold and inestimable Mercies vouchsafed unto us. Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to thy holy Name be given Glory. We are less than the least of thy Mercies: We deserved none before we had them: we have forfeited all since we had them; yet art thou pleased of thy Astonishing Goodness, to give us new Instances of Mercy every day; Lord, give us a renewed sense of them all, and an holy Zeal, with humble Hearts to honour Thee for them all; through Him by whom they are conveyed to us, that is, thy Son, our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.   

iv  
O Almighty and infinitely gracious Lord God, we desire to fear Thee, to give Thee Glory, and to worship Thee that madest the Heaven and the Earth, and the Sea and the Fountains of Water; and for making these in particular, of which we drink daily with so much satisfaction, and expectation of relief: We beseech Thee let not our Provocations disappoint our Hopes, but pardon those, and nourish these, and crown them with a blessed success; that we may ever give Thee Thanks, and live thy Praises, through Christ our Lord. Amen.   

V  
What shall we render to the Lord for all his Benefits? Let us take the Cup of Salvation and call upon the Name of the Lord most high. But who can show forth all his Praises, who can reckon up the Mercies of one Water-season, Our safe Arrival under his Protection from our Habitations, needful Conveniences in this place for Soul and for Body, for daily Worship and for daily Bread. O Lord we bless thee that we have so many Mercies to bless thee for, that we have an House, a Chapel built to bless thee in. O let us not want Hearts to bless thee with, for Christ his sake. Amen.   

VI  
O Lord our God, whose Power, Wisdom and Goodness are signally manifested in making the Fountains of Waters: We praise thee for these and all other Manifestations of thy Almighty Power, unsearchable Wisdom, and inexhaustible Goodness. And we beseech thee help us to walk before thee, as become those who do indeed believe Thee to be such, by fearing thee for thy Power, following the conduct of thy Wisdom, and loving thee for thy Goodness, and all the Manifestations of it, both by thy Providence and Grace. Grant this, O most merciful Father, for the sake of thy dearest Son, and our dearest Lord and Saviour, to whom with thyself and thy most blessed Spirit be ascribed everlasting Honour, Praise and Glory. Amen.   

VII.  
Almighty Lord God, who by thy Power and Wisdom hast made the Fountains of the great Deep, and out of the depth of thy Mercy, that Fountain of Baptism, the Waters of which thou hast consecrated to the mystical washing away of Sin; We most hearty bless thee for creating us after thy Image, for our being born in the bosom of thy Church, of Christian Parents, in whose right and by whose care we were dedicated to thee in holy Baptism, and after brought up in the true Religion. We beseech thee baptise us by the Holy Ghost: Wash us from the guilt and filth of all our Sins: Justify us freely: Sanctify us throughly: Create in us, O Lord, a clean Heart, and renew in us a right Spirit. In our Baptismal Waters enable us to quench all the fiery Darts of the Devil, and to wash off all the Defilements of our sinful Flesh, and to dissolve all the Snares of the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World; all which we have solemnly renounced. And let the same Waters so moisten our Hearts, that they may be fruitful in Faith, Repentance and new Obedience, that we may walk before thee in Righteousness and true Holiness all our days. To the Glory of God the Father who created us, and God the Son who redeemed us, and God the Holy Ghost, who, we hope, hath sanctified us, to whose Name we were consecrated, and to promote whose Glory is not less our Interest than it is our Duty, to which undivided Trinity, and eternal Unity be everlasting Praise and Adoration. Amen.    

Short Meditations and Ejaculations to be used whilst the Waters are drinking.  
HOW early do we rise to drink these Waters? In the Morning shall my Prayer prevent thee, O thou whose Compassions are new every morning.  
No Man can tell the Date of these Fountains, nor can any Man foretell their Period: Yet are they but as yesterday to Him, who is yesterday, to day, and the same for ever: Who was, who is, and is to come.  
How many Glasses have been drunk from these Wells? how much more Water hath run waste? how many yet remain in their pregnant Womb? and how many Millions of Drops would these amount to? yet all those Drops, with all the Sands of these sandy Deserts, would not equal the Years of that Eternity, to which O my Soul, thou hastenest so fast.  
These rich Wells are in a low Valley, surrounded with high, sandy, dry and barren Hills: The meek and lowly God will enrich with his Grace. He resists the Proud, and gives Grace to the Humble.  
The method of our Water-drinking is instructive: We begin with fewer Glasses, and rise gradually till we arrive at a due Proportion: this we should imitate.  
We must grow in Grace, go from Strength to Strength. The way of the Just is as the Morning-Light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect Day.  
A Christian should know no Period, but Perfection. He that thinks he hath Grace enough, may thereby be convinced he hath too little.  
When we are going off, we then decrease our Number, this we must avoid; 'tis bad to stand at a stay; for not to go forward is to go backward in the things of God. But to decline, sadly forebodes our final going off.  
That Question of our Lord, Where are the nine? was a cutting and upbraiding one. Ten were healed, and but one among them was found thankful. How mean and despicable soever I am, Lord, make me truly humble and thankful. 'Tis better to be a grateful Samaritan, than a graceless Israelite.  
Lord, bless these Waters to us.  
Lord give us leave to use them. And Lord, give us both Cause and Hearts to be thankful for them.  
O thou maker of the Fountains, make these useful to us all who drink of them.  
Lord give us to drink plenteously of the Wells of Salvation.  
O Lord who givest these Waters without our ask, We humbly ask thy Blessing upon the use of them.  
O thou Fountain of Living Waters, evermore give us of those Streams which flow from thee.  
Give us this day our daily Bread; whatever is needful for Health or Strength, whether Food or Physic.  
Impregnate these Waters, O Lord, with thine own Goodness.  
Lord let us have the use of these Waters by thy Leave; and a Blessing upon them by thy Love.  
Lord suffer us not to provoke thee to Anger, where we come to seek Relief from thee.  
O Lamb of God, from under whose Throne flow Living Waters, wash away our Sins by those Waters.  
O thou Son of God, who wast with thy Father when as yet there were no created Fountains abounding with Water, Manifest that Love to me which flows from the eternal Fountain of free Grace, and that Love wherewith thou lovedst thine before the World was.  
Lord remove that Curse our Sins have deserved these Waters should be embittered by, and sweeten them with Blessings we neither have nor can deserve from thee.  
Good Lord help us to improve for thee all the Mercies we here or elsewhere receive, or hope for from thee.   

Ejaculatory Praises.  
BLessed be the Maker of these Fountains, for all that Power, Wisdom, Goodness manifested in the making of them. Blessed be God for any Blessing, now or formerly received by them.  
O thou Fountain of Goodness, who art Good, and dost Good, we praise thee for all the Good thou ever didst for any by these Good Fountains.  
O that we could praise thee as thankfully, as thou givest these Waters freely.  
Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and all that is within me bless his holy Name. Bless the Lord, O my Soul, and forget not all his Benefits; who forgiveth all thy Sins, and healeth all thy Diseases.  
O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever.  
O ye Tunbridg-Wells, bless ye the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever.  
O let all who ever received Benefit by the Waters of these Wells, bless the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever.  
O my Soul, bless thou the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for ever.  
Blessed be God for all the natural and supernatural Fountains he hath made, as the God of Nature, as the God of Grace.  
Blessed be God for making us, and blessed be God for making all things for us: blessed be God for Springs of Common Water, and of Mineral Waters, for the Fountain of free Grace, and for the Covenant of Grace, for his Son and for his Spirit, for his Word and for his Sacraments, for all the means of Grace, and hopes of Glory. Amen.   
FINIS.  

Books lately printed for Nathaniel Ranew at the King's-Arms in St. Paul's Churchyard.  
THE Works of Josephus, with great Diligence revised and amended according to the excellent French Translation of Monsieur D'ANDILLY. Also the Embassy of Philo Judaeus to the Emperor Caligula, with the References of Scripture, a Map of the Holy Land, and divers other Copper Plates.  
The Principles of Christian Religion, with a large Body of Divinity methodically and familiarly handled by way of Question and Answer, for the use of Families; together with Immanuel, or the mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God: By the most Reverend James Usher, late Archbishop of Armagh; to which is now added in this seventh Edition, twenty Sermons preached at Oxford before the King, and elsewhere, with the Life of the Author, and an Alphabetical Table never before extant.  
Redemption of Time, the Duty and Wisdom of Christians in evil Days: Or, A Practical Discourse, showing what special Opportunities ought to be redeemed, what Mispences of Time are to be avoided, with convincing Reasons, quickening Motives, and proper Directions for the right Improvement of precious Time. By John Wade Minister of Hammersmith.