SECT. I.

THE Mind of Infinite Wisdome in the first making of the World, was that Humane Bodies should be sup­ported by the use of Creatures; this was the reason that the great Architect did in such a copious manner provide all convenient necessaries for the supply of A­dam in the State of Innocency; there was a full Table ready furnished for him, that he might upon his first approach into life, and his stately Dwelling, see the way how to maintain himself there. The first of Genesis is a very ample dis­covery of this: God tells him he had not only made the inferour Creatures for his Dominion, Solace, and Advantage, but also for meat to live upon, in the 29, and 30. Verses; nay, he gives him a command to use them for that end, Chap. 2. Verse 16. Yet, though it be thus ac­cording to the ordinary dispensation of Heaven, it cannot be deny'd, but that God is an unli­mited Agent, he must not be always bound up to one Method in the Actings of his Providence, [Page 2] He onely can do what he pleaseth, and which way he pleaseth: Many things seem impossible with Men, but with God all things are possible, Mat. 19.26. That our poor, frail, dying, Bo­dies, should be preserved alive for forty days together, without the ordinary use of creature props, seems to us an impossibility, yet with God 'tis possible. There are many vast Myste­ries in the Operations of Divine Providence, that now and then make their appearance in this nether Region, concerning which the most knowing man are at a great losse, and far to seek; of which they may speak in the language of the Psalmist, That when they think to know these, they are too painful for them; or as the Margent reads it from the Hebrew, they are la­bour in their eyes, Hic labor, hoc opus est, Dif­ficulties on every side, too hard for them to overcome.

Now the most are ready to hiss every thing off the Stage of the World, which doth not fall within their own cognizance or experience: All things that are strange they reduce presently to their own ken, and try them by their own con­victions and former knowledge, to which if these wonders do not bear a very fair correspon­dence, then away with them, they are present­ly thrown over board for Imposters. But if these men had weighed them in another, far truer Ballance, the Almighty Power of a won­der-working God, then its likely they might [Page 3] have found a due weigh in this Coyn, which would have put them upon a further and better search, as to see whose superscription was im­prest upon it, and what was its innate truth and worth. I must confess, there is a miscarriage on both hands, I dare not commend an easie be­lief, nor an obstinate unbelief, in the concern of the stupendious productions of Nature, to be­lieve every thing, and to believe nothing, as they are opposites, so they are equal extreams and absurdities; as the one degrades the great­est Truths, so the other advanceth the most ir­rational falshoods: The one hath low thoughts of the most sacred Verity, because there are many things in it, which are higher then the reach of sense and carnal reason; the other hath a very great esteem for a meer Legend of lyes, because it is full of seeming wonders. In things which fall within the limits of nature, there's no question but the most prudent rational way is to strike a middle stroake, between the two dangerous extreames of unadvis'd credulity, and sensless incredulity. There are several Magnalia or Wonderments of Art and Nature found out within these two or three last Cen­turies, which our most inquisitive Progenitors did not so much as dream on: Had some diving Head-pieces but run the venter in those times to have whispered forth, by a probable conje­cture, the hidden world in America, the amazing Nature of the Load-stone, the profitable Inven­tion [Page 4] of Printing, or the like, those ingenious ones its very likely had got no more credence, then we use to give, though upon better grounds, to them who now tell us of a world in the Moon. The rational Bishop Virgilius was in the year of Christ 745. condemned by Pope Zachary for an Heretick, because he asserted, and stood to it, that there were Antipodes; which was a thing generally decry'd by the learning of that Age to be a fable, a fond, and a foolish thing; of this humour were Lactan­tius, Austin, and Lucretius, as Alstead tells you in his Geography c. 7. reg. 4. That gallant Sea­man Magalanus, who had the happiness first to purpose to discover the vast Continent in the West Indies, might as soon have perswaded his Country-men, the Genoues, to whom he first laid bare his mind, that there was an habitable earth in each Planet, as one in that unthought-at Coast. You see by this time, that 'tis not the wise-mans part to discredit every thing that my lye beyond the limits of his own present Apprehensions, but rather to do what he can to climb over the difficulty, and then he will see not only the probability and reallity, but also the rarity of the thing: Thus do you in the en­suing Story, which I do not question hath as much of Truth, as Strangeness in it

SECT. II. Martha Taylor's Parentage, Place of Dwelling, the Time of her Birth, and her Childhood.

1. HEr Fathers name is William Taylor, one who is Originally, and as to his present state or degree, a plain Country-man, whose employment lyes in the Lead Mines: He hath no more easie way to advance a livelihood, then that which was of Divine determination, by the sweat of his Brow: A man of no larger Politicks, then how to get an homely, honest maintenance for him and his; he has so much of Religion in him as to keep free from Lying, Loosness, or the Debauchery of the Age, and to have a good esteem for holy things. The Man is of good Credit amongst the better sort of Neighbours. His Wife was of somthing an higher Rank then himself, both as to Birth and Education; A per­son in her common carriage very careful, and cautious about her words and actions; I am ready to suppose, in the judgement of charity, upon some trial of her, that she hath a tast of those good things which refer to another world. This couple hath lived many years together, had several Children, and among the rest this Martha, which is the occasion of this Discourse.

2. The Place of her Dwelling is Over-Had­don, so called as I conjecture from its being high, [Page 6] and looking over Haddon-hall, from which fair House of the Earl of Rutland, it is about a mile distant, as such from Bakewell a considerable Market-Town, in the High Peak in Derbyshire; The House they dwell in is but an ordinary Cot­tage, yet not so little but there is room enough for God to do great things in; Wonders have been brought forth in a Stable or a Manger be­fore now; tis not the highness of the place that should make us turn our eyes towards it, but the greatness of the work that may be done there. But now to her that lies in it.

3. Martha Taylor, the talk, the wonder of that Countrey, was born about the beginning of February in the year 1651. Her Childhood was not guilty (that ever I heard) of any extra­vi [...]ant Actions: The Buds which then appear'd did not foresignifie any distastful fruits in a more blow [...]age; Her early blossoms did not predict four grapes in an Autumn season. Some sober, prudent Observers have told me, That from her fi [...]st Confinement to her Couch, when growing In­firmities began to chain her to her weary Bed, that then Pi [...]u [...] Discoveries in a more considerable way began to display themselves; then rousing afflicti­ons, the usual Prognosticks of a dying state, made [...] to purpose begin to enquire after life. This [...] her labour after the knowledge of the Word of Go [...], and delight h [...]r self in turning over those [...] P [...]g [...]s; where frequently she would be ga­thering Pearls to ad [...]rn her self and others with. [Page 7] Yet you must suppose it was but stil morning here, you may expect greater things when you proceed nearer the Noon of Heavens Dispensati­ons with her.

SECT. III. The Beginning and Progress of her Afflictions, and what they were.

1. I Am ready to suppose, that the Fountain-Head of all her Afflictions was her lame­ness, which took its beginning in the year 1661. which is now about eight years ago, by the unhappy stroke of a Miller her next Neigh­bour, over the Hips or small of the Back: whe­ther he did it in jest or earnest I cannot certainly determine, but I think the latter was affirmed to me; however the occasion was no offence given on her side, she was so happy as to be harmless, her Innocence in this case might be a good piece of a Pillar for her to lean her self upon, when wearied under that great weight of Afflictions, which was bound fast unto her. Poor Martha, upon this fatal stroke, was taken with a lameness in the lower parts, indisposing them for their proper use; which was followed at the heels with a general indisposition and incomposure of the whole inward and o tward frame; for her distempers did so croud in upon her, that she was suddenly compell'd to lay down the whole Body [Page 8] as an useless lump; to which condition she hath been confined ever since; onely once or twice about April 1662. for some few days, she made a shift to go abroad: But upon the be­ginning of May in the said Year 1662. she bid farewell to the open, refreshing Air, and then entred close Prisoner to her tedious Bed. From which place, since that time, she hath never moved, without the help of other hands and feet besides her own; where I suppose she is like to lye till Death bring her an Habeas-Cor­pus, and make her free among the dead; in which estate only the weary be at rest, and op­pressing Diseases cease from troubling.

All along this tract of time, she hath been troubled with other infirmities besides lame­ness, as private bleeding, often sick, and seldome free from less or more of a Feaver.

2. But to make a neerer approach to the time of her constrained Fast; you must know that there were many Afflictions gathered together to bring about the thing; though she had for four or five years together by times lain under various Distempers, yet about the close of Au­gust, and beginning of the following Month, in the Year 1667. they combine together into a body, and add others to their number, that they might the more vigorously produce the strange ensuing Effects. For in the entrance of November, in the mention'd Year, did begin her strange and wonderful Bleedings at several ex­ternal [Page 9] Parts, as at the Mouth, the Nose, the Ear, the Eye, from which last part did continually distill perfect Tears of blood, so that one would have thought Life would have Wept it self a­way out at the Eye. One very probable cause of this her admir'd Bleeding, might arise from her violent continued Vomiting, which broke open convenient Passages, through which the Blood might vent it self; 'tis an ordinary known case, that the over-straining of the Body does break the Veins, and so less or more pro­duceth an Efflux of Blood from some or other parts. This extraordinary Vomiting continued all along November, so that she neither took in meat nor drink, but presently threw it up again, nothing could be perswaded to abide within her Stomack. This strong Vomiting did arise (as I conjecture) from those Corrupt Crudities, Nauseating Vapours, and Filthy Humours, be­got by her long lying in Bed, and the want of convenient Exercise, which did weaken and vi­tiate the natural Attractive, Retentive, and Concoctive Faculties, and stir up the Stomach against every thing that was sent down into it. This preternatural Vomiting did further intro­duce a very strange Hiccough, audible many paces from the house, which would move her whole Body, and pluck down her Head with great torment: To which was adjoyned a sort of Convulsions, or the often Distortion of her Joynts by the Cramp: So that now Cramps, [Page 10] Convulsions, Strange sighings, and the Hic­cough, (all of them the Genuine Off-spring of a disordered Stomack, and continued violent Vomiting) were all in open War against the Ease and Life of this poor tormented Creature. These things had made her the real wonder of all So­ber, Sympathizing Spectators; to see a poor Fellow-creature almost constantly upon the Rack, under the most Exquisite Pains, Burnings, Cramps, Vomitings, and the most strange Bleed­ings and Hiccoughs, that ever I read or heard of. Now these all laid together, by the begin­ning of the ensuing December, had neer upon reduced the Microcosme into a Chaos, had al­most wholly taken Nature off the hinges, and well neer shattered into pieces, a poor, frail dy­ing Body; so that for certain, her more Noble Immortal Part, had then bid farewel to its fal­ling House of Clay, had not Divine Providence stept in, and put under an everlasting Arm.

Yet these Distempers prevail so far, as for a Fort-night together within December, they take away the use of Speech and Senses, so that she had very little to witness she was alive, ex­cepting some remaining heat and breath.

3. About the middle of this Month she re­vives a little, gets something of the exercise of Sense and Speech; but still hath that violent Hiccough, and frequent sick fits: As she had re­ceived neither meat nor drink for this fourteen days, so now being come to her self she finds an [Page 11] utter loathing of, and an inability to receive necessary Food for the support of Life: The ve [...]y approach of Meat or Drink was a great trouble to her, the very sight or smell of either, though at a remove, would beget her sorrow; yea, the very thoughts of either would make her sick before hand. She found now so much ease and satisfaction in the abstaining from the use or thoughts of any Food, that now she lays down the first fixed Determinations to have to do with neither come Life or Death. This makes her give her self over into the Hands of an Almighty Power, and there to rest satisfied, hoping and expecting to be upheld in some ex­traordinary way by immediate support, or else to be transported to that place where none of these things were necessary: Seeing the sensi­ble streams would not run, she resolves to be contented without them, till she could ascend to the Fount in-head. No question but we may expect, hope, and pray to be enabled to live without the use of means, when the Great Lord of the Universe denies the enjoyment of it. That holy Man in our Queen Mary's days (of whom Mr. Fox speaks in his Acts and Monu­ments) who through the inhumanity of his barbarous Persecutors, was deni'd any thing at all to live upon, believes and prays, That God would either find Meat, or take away the Sto­mack, and enable him to live without it, was to a wonder answered in the latter of his Petitions, so [Page 12] that he subsisted to his Martyrdom with great de [...]ight, without the thoughts of Meat or Drink, or the sense of any need of either. As I hinted in the Introduction, so I say again, That Infinite Wisdome and Power hath done many stupendi­ous Actions, without the use of means. That God which Created the World, without any pre-existent matter to work upon, can when it pleaseth him, support and under-prop it, or any of its Inhabitants, without borrowing the aid of any Sublunary Means, Second Cause, or Crea­ture Help.

4. Yet, to come to my main business, I must tell you, That this poor afflicted Maid, being (as I told you) troubled with a Feavorish heat upon her, did sometimes desire a drop of Wine, or Milk, or Water, in which Prunes had been laid, or for the most part simple Water to cool her Lips withal; but then she received it with the greatest struggling, and self-countest that ever I saw in my life; as if so be it had been something which ha [...] come to have tormented her. The bringing neer her a little Water in a Spoon would make her very sick, and awaken her vio­lent Hiccough, so that she for the most part was forced to strive-long with her self before she could receive the Water to her Lips; which she made so small use of, that when the Spoon was brought away again, the most Critical Eye could perceive little or nothing wanting. I am perswaded, that the refreshing coolness which [Page 13] the Senses then made use of, did enjoy from the Water in the Spoon, were sufficient satisfaction without letting any of it down into the Sto­mach, for coolness and refreshing smells were very delightsome to her; as is abundantly evi­denc'd by her living many Weeks together without touching any thing with her Lips, only she had Spring-water, or Green-herbs, or Fresh-flowers, held or laid at a distance from her, for nigh her she could not admit them, They being (as her self would language it) too strong for her Brain.

5. At this rate she hath liv'd for about six­teen Months together: only once in the begin­ning she sucked some small quantity of a Baked Apple; and it may be, some very few times she hath taken an inconsiderable bit of Sugar, about the bigness of a small Pease; and since the close of the last Year, instead of a small drop or two of liquids, in the space sometimes of one, two, or more days, she hath delighted her tast by the sucking of a Raisin, Prune, or Fig, one of which will last her a long while together; and when when she has done with it, all the Pulp is left behind: Once, I confess, out of curiosity, or a desire to eat if possible, she did swallow down part of a Fig, but had like to have dyed for the space of twenty four hours after it, till by Vo­miting she threw it up again. This might be, either because of the loss of the Concoctive Fa­culty, and the Offensive Humors in the Sto­mach, [Page 14] or because the common Passages by which Nature should convey such things through the body are removed and displaced. There hath long lain behind and before, something fallen out of the Body; which some noted Practitio­ners in Physick and Chyrurgery, several judici­ous Women, and at least two approved, expe­rienc'd Mid-wives, do really judge and assert to be the Bowels or Guts behind, and the Bladder and Matrix before. Now, 'tis no wonder that such great and continued weakness should bring down these, for it has often been known in the like case. These ejected or dilapsed inward Parts, did for a long time lye by her dry and consuming away, and put her to great unknown torments, before her modesty would permit her to make her case known; which afterward was something eased by anointing or bathing.

6. Now you may stand and wonder here, at the way of the preservation of this poor Crea­ture, how she should have been upheld thus long in time, under these multitudes of st [...]ange Di­stempers, though she cou'd have made some competent use of Meats and Medicines, Physi­cal Cordials or Spirits; but, then that she used none of these, and yet is preserved out of the jaws of Death: Here, here is the wonder!

Thus I have shew'd you the whole of what Martha Taylor has had to live upon.

7. Thus also I have given you an account of several of her Bodily Afflictions: Many others [Page 15] I suppose here were which I forgot, or never heard of; I shall Subjoyn one or two more, to those mentioned above; as, her Want of Sleep, when she slept most, it was but very little, and not sound, but meer Slumber-like, the usual time of it was in the Morning, the continuance seldome above an Hour or Two. But the she did often live whole Weeks without any sleep at all, and sometimes many of these Weeks to­gether; as the United Acknowledgment of several that Waked with her did sufficiently testifie. Further, she was often much afflicted in the weakne [...]s or loss of the external Senses; as, sometimes Seeing was weak, sometimes Hear­ing was weak; these two more Noble Senses, which do contribute so much to the comfort and advantage of the Rational Creature, were often at a low ebb, little or nothing serviceable to our afflicted Martha: Her Smelling also was now and then quite gone: The Vomiting, and the strong Hiccough or Convulsions forementi­oned, were beyond all controversie the ground of this weakness, or deficiency of the Senses, blocking up or blemishing their Organs or In­struments, and their hidden, useful, natural hu­mours or qualities. Thus much with brevity for her External Afflictions.

8. I shall now proceed in a word or two to give you a glance at her more Inward Sorrows, which were much comprized under, and caused by two things; Reproach and Temptations. For [Page 16] the Reproach, it was her happiness they deser­ved that name, they might have been far greater ground of trouble if they had been just Accu­sations; but yet at the first, she was but too ready to lay these heavy to her heart, as you have it spoken of one eminently pious, Psal. 69.20. Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. Who is not so tender of a good Name, as that the least blemish and asper­sion cast upon it, seemeth more wounding then the cutting of a Sword? Slander and Calumny looks but too insufferable, even to good and worthy natures. The constant reproach and scoffs of disbelievers did very often add bitterness to her wormwood. Divers sorts of Persons there were who employed themselves to vilifie her, and cry her up for a Cheat, round about the Country: Though the best Arguments they enforced their unworthy Reports with, were only Suspicion, Conjecture, or Malice, what could they otherwise rise from, seeing they spoke without tryal; they did, Audabatarum more pugnare, wink and fight against the Truth in her concern. Ignorance of the cause, possibili­ty, or former experiences, concerning things truly admirable, is looked upon by some as rea­son good enough, not only to question them, but also to deny their reality. How rational these were in Martha's case, will be shown in third Part of this Treatise, to which I refer you. But as these were the cause of her in­ward [Page 17] Trouble, so also were her Temptations. The Devil, the grand Tempter, who constant­ly drives a great Trade this way, took all ad­vantages to disturb her peace, to draw her over to his side, or at leastwise to draw her from her God; he shewed his malice in doing his ut­most to hinder her from a way of grace; he laid what Remoras his craft could invent to stop her in the way to JESƲS CHRIST. He would either have her rest satisfi'd in a State of Nature, or contented in the bare external per­formances of Practical Duties; or else, bid fare­well to Religion, to all Hopes of Help from Christ, and future Happinesse in Heaven; or lastly, run her self upon one of the two destructive Rocks of Presumption or Dis­pair.

With this Crafty and Unwearied Adversary Martha had about a year ago very sharp Contests; and afterward the like with some of his Instruments, Heretical Ones, who did their utmost to Proselite her to their Whim­sies and Conceits. Camden in his Britannia tells us, That the Peak had formerly in it noysome and hurtful Wolves, whence he saith Worme-hill had its Name from Wolf-haunt; though the care and industry of former times hath utterly destroyed those Brutes, yet there abide others which deserve their Name, and are of a more [Page 18] dangerous Nature. With these Martha, under her great distress, was put to many a tough Dis­spute, and large and troublesome Discourses.

9. Her troubles of Body and Mind, were often much aggravated by her being at a re­move from many necessary helps: External helps for the Body, such as should allay or mitigate the pains of the afflicted Members and Parts: In­ward helps, about Soul concernments, by her solitariness, her own inquisitive thoughtfulness, about the urgent business of a dying state, and appearance in another world, her great distance from sound, serious, and pious Acquaintance. But in all these, she found some mitigation, yea, some considerable ease, by casting Anchor upon Divine goodness, and by seating down upon some or other Shelf of the Rock of Ages. Though she was in her greatest weakness, often at Ebbs and Tydes, sometimes driven out by Storms upon the blustering Waves, sometimes again shor'd upon a convenient Lee-harbour.

SECT. IV. The frame of her Body all the time of this her being debarr'd Meat or Drink.

1. HEr Upper Parts were the most fresh and flourishing. As, her Face, excepting that it was a little fallen in about the ends of [Page 19] the Mouth, was pretty plump or fleshy, conside­rably free from decay, and of a rud [...]y or lively colour. This pure Complexion of her Face, was the admiration of all intelligent Behol­ders, to see a frail, brittle Body, under those great Afflictions, and that continued Abstinence from outward Supplies, look so lovely, so beau­tiful, not reduced to Skin and Bone, not at all gastly or terrifying, but rather a delightful Ob­ject, worth the looking on, and taking pleasure in. Thus she continued for three Quarters of a Year or more together; and for the following Month held the same quantity of Flesh, though I think not altogether so fair in the Face.

Her Armes also all along this tract of time have been well covered over.

Her Pulse pretty smooth, even, and lively in its motions; seldom diverted out of the usual course, but when she was under some immediate sorrow of Body or Mind.

Her Eyes, though often very weak, were sometimes quick and durable in their beholding or dwelling upon objects, so that she would know that she looked upon at the first glance, and continue reading for an hour or more toge­ther.

Her Lungs commonly shew'd themselves un­decay'd by the audibleness and continuation of her Discourse: She would, when freed from the troublesome Hiccough, talk pretty loud and long together.

[Page 20]Now do but ly these Considerations in the Bal­lance with her great sorrows, and no sustenance, and you will see they are ponderous; especially if you consider,

2. That her lower Parts from top of the Ribs and downwards were a meer Sceleton, a dry Carkass covered over with Skin. You might have laid your Fingers betwixt the Ribs, and feel the Belly (thorow double Lin­nen) fallen down from the Brest to the Back­bone, where it lay as flat, as if Nature had ne­ver enjoy'd any hollow place betwixt, or any proper Inhabitants in that Dwelling. When you had been satisfying your Curiosity by a strict search here, you would have supposed your Hand to have been examining an half-consum'd Carkass within a Grave. Here also modest Inquisition might have stood amazed to behold that colour and flesh on the Face and Armes, and yet find that vast decay in the ne­ther Parts.

The late sober and searching Observation of some well-skill'd in Anatomy hath told us, that the Vertebrae or Joynts in the Back, are easily felt through the Belly by the touch of the Finger: And that her Body is devoid of Mus­cles or fleshly Membranes. It may have been long thus with her, but was not known before the close of the last year, for want of some know­ing Ones to make the Trial.

[Page 21]3. She hath since the beginning of the year 1668. avoided no Excrements by Stool or Urin; neither hath she had any moisture in her Mouth or Nose. She did (I think) at the first sometimes sweat a little, and since had now and then some small Pimples or Out-breaks upon the Wrists of her Armes, which some suppose to be the result of those few drops of weak Liquids, which might sometimes passe down into her Stomack; and that the abiding Power of Nature, having no other way left, doth use that strong one, to Evacuate her Dregs. Others, again say, That as long as there is my remaining blood, which is in her like water in a standing Pool, it will corrupt, and that the corrupted part doth in that man­ner Vent it self by the Pores: We all know, as to our own Bodies, that Nature, with very small help, doth by these little insensible Holes in the Skin, send forth those Vapors and Humors which would endanger the Body, if they should take up their lodging within the same.

4. The two Senses of Hearing and Smelling were once (that I say not oftner) so incompa­rably acute and quick, that she would appre­hend and distinguish their several Objects at a vast remove. A considerable Ecclesiastick Per­son, who did many times visit her, told me, That for most of the time he had taken notice of her, he found she had all her Faculties and senses, excepting that of Seeing, in as great [Page 22] vigour, as he thought it possible to be in an un­glorified Body.

Our gross way of feeding doth very much dull and clogg up the Senses in their exercise; we little know the great comfort we should enjoy in them, if we did not so much indulge to the irregular Appetite: Temperance or sobriety, both as to the quantity and quality of what we live upon, would abundantly quicken and put into right motion all the Senses. 'Tis undeni­able, that many Brutes, who are compell'd to sa­tisfie themselves with a spare and thrifty way of feeding, do quite exceed us in Sense. But, I suppose, if you take them in their greatest ex­cellency, our Martha did once out-vie them, and that was in Smelling; not onely that she could take pleasure in Smells, for in that its ve­ry probable Man exceeds all other Animals; but she over-did them in the very thing, in which some say they surpass Man, which was the draw­ing nourishment out of Odors; for, as I told you in the preceding Section, thus she lived for many Weeks together.

As concerning other things referring to the temper or frame of her Body under her Afflicti­ons, you had them touched upon before.

SECTION I. Concerning her Parts and Piety.

THough she may appear eminent in these, especially the latter, yet the rariety of them does not lye so much in their greatness, as the way of their Attainment: She was not Cultivated by Education at home or abroad; the Country where she was Born and Bred, is but too great a stranger to Accomplishments of either Nature. The Inhabitants are more taken up with a strict search about the hidden things of Nature among the Rock and Hills, then they are about those more enriching ones of Reason and Religion. Their Hands and Thoughts are so much em­ploy'd about that dull and heavy Mineral, which is the standing Traffick of those Parts, that they cannot afford to wear time or pains upon the more refined or spiritual Ornament of Body or Mind. The very Breeding of that Country [Page 24] has been noted for something more then ordi­nary Rustick: The Religion of very many there is but few degrees beyond ignorance. Vulgar and pedantick conceptions look upon those more noble improvements to be requi­sites onely becoming them who have great estates and leasure; of this barren and low-spirited humour were the most of Martha's Neighbourhood, and first acquaintaince; so that she had in the beginning none to discipline or direct her, I mean very little Humane or Christian help; this may make what follows cast forth brighter beams.

2. Her Parts or External Excellencies, which made her so taking to the Eyes and Ears of her unprejudiced Visitors, were her Deportment, Reading, Prayer, and Discourse. For,

1. Her Deportment, which was very lovely, raising up her head in Bed, and bowing her self to all with a smiling grateful Countenance, continually giving sutable terms of Respect and Decency. Her Courtesie, her Candour, and Comely Carriage, quite over-acted her original as to place and persons. She was in the [...]e things handsome without humour, and courteous without being conceited. None experienced the contrary carriage in her, but them who did openly declare themselves small Friends to her Person, true Religion, or her God.

2 Her Reading; though she was pretty ex­act in her Mothers Tongue, yet the greatest ob­servable [Page 25] was the way of her attaining it, which was by her own industry, having but little di­rection beyond the bare knowledge of the Al­phabet. She did of her self pursue Letters into Words, Words into so [...] [...]es, and Sen­tences into her own Heart, [...] were but spi­ritual. A desire of inform [...] [...] her self with her own Eyes out of the Book of Life, was the first motive to lay out her afflicted hours upon the learning to Read; which having fully and happily obtained, she laid out upon the holy Bible, or some, or other chosen Books: And here now she bestow'd all her Breathing Seasons, all the Spare Minutes, which the Absence from Company, violent Pains of Body, or the Weak­ness of the Eyes would befriend her with.

3. For Prayer; She was observed to be constant in it, either in Confessing Sin, Begging Mercy, or Praising God. She seemed to be made up of Prayer when most afflicted. The neer approach of the By-standers Ear might be satisfi'd in this, That her Voice, when at the weakest, would be spending it self upon her God, by fervent, pious Ejaculati­ons, to hold up an heart-chearing Inter­course between Heaven and her hungering Soul. For an affectionate Joyner in this great Duty, when I Visited her, I must con­fess, I never found her Parallel: She seem­ed by a sensible, serious, struggling, melt­ing frame of Spirit, to go (as it were) out of [Page 26] her self into an upper Region; so that when a rousing Prayer hath been ended, she would be puzzled to reduce her self, and compose the humane frame. Her own personal way of pray­ing, which was much concealed, and to her self, was usually short and sententions, but very sig­nificant, comprehensive, humble, and power­ful.

4. Her Discourse; which, if you consider the Style of it, and compare it with the com­mon Dialect of that Country, you will find it did for the most part very much excel. The Peak Country has a very course Language, very thick and home-spun; but hers was of a finer, unaffected m [...]ke; usually pretty fluent and ora­torical, but never dull and sordid. Some took much notice of this, as a thing rather strange then contemptible; no question, but 'tis a ve­ry lawful Art to advantage good discourse, and pious conference, with powerful taking Lan­guage. 'Tis, if I may so call it, a sacred Fraud, every way lawful to steal the Ears and Hearts of those with whom we converse to the consi­derate observation of the deep concernments of an Eternal and better State. The Sword of Rhetorick in a Wife Mans hand may wound the Champions of Irreligion, and win the Day for Heaven. The applauded wit of the Age, in which we live, doth but too much prostitute it self to the greatest Ribaldry. Our Martha had the happiness, to enjoy a considerable, [Page 27] clear, smooth Phrase, not guilty of bombast or boyish vanity; which for the most part she be­stow'd upon the best of things. I confess her ignorance of other Tongues then what she was born to, did sometimes in the beginning Months of her afflictions produce some small mistakes of Words and Terms, which afterwards were po­lished to a more acute and regular way of speaking.

5. But the manner of her Speech was not worth the taking notice of, if you compare it with the matter of the same.

Her ordinary sayings were very considerable; with which I question not but I by my own, or friends Collections, might have Stuft more Sheets, then at this time I must have leave to Bestow▪ upon Her Story. Most of these were Scripture Dialects and of them I shall give you no account: I know others who have writ up­on Young Maids, under some such like Visita­tions, have bestow'd twenty, forty, or more Pages, upon the meer repetition of Scripture Passages: These I do not, I dare not reflect up­on, though I shall not imitate.

It was the good Assertion of one of her Judi­cious Visitors, That he never heard her speak any thing untheological; and that, though she pre­tended to nothing of Inspiration, nor any thing ex­traordinary, but what was the Effect of her Read­ing and Diligence; yet whatsoever Discourse did [Page 28] c [...]urr, he never found her lost in it, but that she was clearly with good Language, and to purpose able to talk of it.

The ordinary Subjects of her Discourse were upon the Blacks and Whites, the Storms and Sun-shine of the Christians Life.

She thought no time lost in which she could but say something against sin, and for Holiness; in which she could but cry up the Promises to lost returning sinners, and the Advantages of Affliction to them that belong to God; in which she could but sufficiently dilate upon the mise­ries of a besotted World, and the glorious en­joyments of the New Jerusalem.

SECT. II.

BUt I shall here give you a Copy of some of her ordinary sayings, as they were not much above a Month ago taken from her own Mouth, by the Hand of a Friend: They were short An­swers to Questions proposed, but I shall take no notice of the Questions.

I blesse my God he hath wrought in me a de­sire exercise my self in all wayes and duties of Holinesse, so as he may receive glory, others edification, and I comfort in the Day of Je­sus.

[Page 29]I desire, I resolve for sincerity: I know that its God that works all in me and for me; of my self, as to pious actions, I can do just nothing; it's He, He, that is become all to me, and I am nothing but what I am in him; my motion, my being, is in Him, and of Him.

The Reproaches of the World, which are many, and crowd in upon me, do not, cannot rob me of my Joy which I have in Christ Jesus, my Lord, my Portion, my Righteousness, my Life, my All.

I in Christ, or rather in me, doth oppose Sin, Errour, Deceit, yea, all manner of uncleannesse both of Flesh and Spirit: and it is He that giv­eth me the Victory over all Enemies Visible and In­visible. So that to him belongs all the Praise, and be shall have it: I discaim any share in it, let him have all. I know by Nature wrath was my Portion, and that I was born in open Rebellion to God: Now if Christ through his unspeakable goodnesse and sorrow did redeem me to himself, I am sure I ought to be zealous of good works, and to glorifie Him with my Soul and Body which are his.

If I was able to feed upon all the good Crea­tures of God, where as n [...]w I cannot, yet they could none of them satisfie or solace my poor, weak, hungry Soul: It is the enjoyment of him, who is the Bread of Life, the Life of my Life, that is, my satisfaction, to whom be glory.

[Page 30] 2. Sin is the Serpents fruit, and so it come [...] to be of that Poisonous Nature, that it infects th [...] World, sets God and Men at difference, wound [...] the soul, and begets the sting of Death.

Holiness, as I shall speak of it, is a Believer [...] serious Conversation which he lives in Christ, by which he is doing what he can to re-gain tha [...] Image of God he lost in Paradise, and to get him­self ready for an happy estate in Heaven, where all Holiness dwells.

Afflictions are the actings of Gods dear love to­wards Believers, for whom the Lord loveth he af­flicteth; Afflictions are those strange seeds, which while they are taking root in the Believers heart do beget war, weeping, and sorrow, but yet at length they do bring forth the profitable, the plea­sant, and peaceable fruits of righteousness.

The promises, which are many, great, and pre­cious, are the rich manifestations and assurances of Divine goodness; by which God designs to en­courage the poor Believer, and bear up his heart under all his sorrows. The Reconciliation of the Promises and Providences of God, seems to be one of the greatest mysteries, and sweetest studies in the world: To see how sweetly these joyn them­selves together at the journies end, though they seem to thwart one the other all the way.

The Word of God, I mean the Word of Recon­ciliation, is (as it were) God speaking forth him­self to us in Jesus Christ. It is the rule and Guide to Holiness, to God, and Happiness.

[Page 31]To speak of Heaven is a very great difficulty, for 'tis unspeakable kingdom of Glory; eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it en­tered into the heart of man to conceive of those things which God hath there prepared for them that love him. How should I then tell what Hea­ven is, any further then thus, That there is ful­ness of joy and pleasures for evermore; and that which makes all these excellent, is that they are everlasting.

Death is no evil Messenger to the Saint, for the Sting is taken away, and he gains by dying: Christ hath been the death of Death, and so Death is no death to the Saint: It is but, as it were his dis­solver out of Flesh into Spirit, so that when Death comes the Saint may tryumph, and bid it welcome.

What I said of Heaven, I may speak just back­ward concerning Hell. The torments are unutte­rable, and for their extremity express'd by weep­ing, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, these also are the more terrible because everlasting.

As I am crucified to the world, and the world to me; and as I know the Devil is my Adversary, and God a present Help in time of trouble; so I look upon all the scandals that are cast upon me to be as Pearls in my Crown.

I look upon my preservation without the use of creatures to be the manifestation of Infinite Power, for the benefit and advantage of them that fear God, to let them see how God can preserve life by [Page 32] and if himself, and for the hardening of the ob­sti [...] and impenitent; for my own awakening, and [...]ging into a way of holiness,

3. Thus I have given you a taste of her say­ings, out of the Paper above mentioned; which I have compendiz'd and put something into another order, inserting also some few short Sentences which I heard my self, or were com­municated to me by worthy friends; doing what I could to keep to her very words. But I can assure you, that much of what she used to dis­course was little inferiour to these, for she is well versed in the Scripture, and of a quick ap­prehension.

SECT. III.

I Suppose its now time to shew you something of her Piety or Person.

1. Of these you may have gathered somthing by what went before. They were introduc'd by a great work upon her Spirit: For you must know, that all November, and in the beginning of December in the year 1667. she were exceed­ingly puzled to know what would become of her to all Eternity, having Sin and Death be­fore her, she was put to her utmost shifts to obtain a Christ. There are many indeed that think men Mortality may land them in Heaven witho [...]t a work or Grace, which we usually [Page 33] call Regeneration; upon which conceit (its very probable) that notable Ruler of the Jews, mentioned John 3.1. had built a very high Fabrick of Hope; he comes in a secret manner to own Christ as a Teacher come from God because of his Miracles, vers. 2. but Christ takes little or no notice of what he says, but does upon the matter tell him all this will not serve thy turn, though thou be a Pharasee, one of the strictest Sect, yet thou must either be born again, or else thou cannot see the Kingdom of God, vers. 3. Nicodemus was here at a ve­ry great stand, he could not tell what to make of the words of Christ, vers. 4. But Christ affirms the same again with as great vehemency, and rather greater fulness, with the reason of what he says, verses 5, 6. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and will be flesh and corrupt, notwithstanding external Profession; nay, the outward washing of Baptism will not serve the turn alone without the Laver of Regenerati­on, not Works of Righteousness, which we have done, will do the business for us, but there must be the washing of Regeneration, and renew­ing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. 3.5. There must be a transformation by the renewing of the mind, Rom. 12.2 This being born of the Holy Ghost, or being Baptized with it and fire, as Mat. 3.11. This being bathed and burnt, till the filth and d [...]oss of Nature was done away, was the grant difficulty with our afflicted Martha. She told [Page 34] me, That upon this account she was once in great darkness, and under sad distress; to allude to that [...]f Paul, Rom. 7.9. Being without the Law she thought her self alive, in a condition good enough to carry her to Heaven; but when the Com­mandement came, when she understood her own and [...]e condition by the Word of God; then sin revived, then she found it rouse up it self and discover life and strength, and then she died, she found her self dead under trespasses and sins: This kept her for a season upon the Waves, under Storms and Winds (as I said before) without sight of Sun or Star, but (as she told me) it was her happiness that bef [...]re she was split upon the Rock of Despair, the Sun of Righteousness broke forth from behind the Clouds, with healing under his wings. She was often put to cry out, Phos­phere redde diem: But the glorious Day-star ap­pearing, brought in hope and hearts-ease with it: So that (upon her own Confession) she has enjoy'd much comfort, calm, and Halcyon dayes [...].

2. Now I have shew'd you a little of the be­ginning Work; here was the Foundation, as laid upon the great, elect, and precious Corner Stone. But to proceed, I shall a little shew you the Superstructure in some few things, as her Knowledge, Gratitude, Patience, Hope, Zeal, Love, and Perseverance.

SECT. IV.

1. HEr Knowledge; She was very large in this comprehending skill in all the most neces­sary Truths and Duties, notably read in the Bi­ble, and several other good Books. She en­joy'd but a short while to labour in, but had done abundance of work. She was able to dis­course in ail the ordinary known things within the Sphere of Religion. The strangness of this appear'd in her small helps at the first, all were ignorant about her, no knowing Heads to con­ferr with, and then she was far from the Church, and the ordinary use of means; but of these something hath been said. Her Knowledge was not only Speculative and Notional, it was not Aiery, and only dwelling in the Head, but Pra­ctical and Experimental. She had the happiness not only to know, but also to tast the Truth of the Gospel: She did not only know there was a God, but she tasted and saw how good this God was. This was a means to lead her up to God and Christ, to fill her heart with thoughts of them, and to breed strong and warm affections to­ward them. Her Knowledge did discover it self to be a gracious Illumination, by its foundness, humility, and self-applications; it did not only know God, but was ready to glorifie him as God, it shew'd it self to be a good understanding in that it did the commandements of God. The [Page 36] strength of her Knowledge was made apparent by her discovering the Sophismes, and detecting the strange whimsies and wild practices of va­rious Opinionists, who did every day assault her.

2. Her Gratitude did stream forth both to God and Men: To Men, in being exceeding thankful for the least Cou [...]tisie imaginable, an humble ra­tional [...]eproof should have been received with chearful thanks: I saw her once weep that she was not able to make any re [...]uital to those her Friends, who [...]owa [...]d then came to visit her out of pure Love, and for Pious ends. It also appeared in her constant importuning Heavens Remuneration to be given into the Bosome of them, who did her but the meanest good turn. Her thankfulness to God was much of her busi­ness, she was not only happily employ'd in return­ing Praise to the Great Provider for those things which all serious Hearts would have made Argu­ments of Gratitude, but also (which was the wonder) she was usually thankful for the greatest afflictions which lay upon her. She forne [...] that before afflicted she went astray, and that mi­series of Body made her enquire the more indu­strio fly for the good old way, the way of eas [...] and happiness.

She would bless God for every thing; like good and holy Bradford the Martyr, in his Rep [...] to [...], saith he, If the Queen will give me [...], I will thank her; if she will Banish me, I [Page 37] will thank her: If she will burn me, I will thank her: If she will condemn me to perpetual Impri­sonment, I will thank her. I never saw, nor heard, that Martha, under her greatest sorrow, did the least repine at the hand of God, but was ready always to vent her Groans with this Language, Blessed be God. She continually having a fixed eye upon the great undeserved mercy of God, would not so much as send forth one Sigh without improving that breath to the praise of God. Thus Servulus a [...]rimi­tive Saint, lying a long time under grievous af­flictions, in such a condition as one could scarce­ly make a distinction between Life and Death, would often and ordinarily be breathing forth, God be thanked. The poor persecuted Members of Christ have been formerly known by the Name of, The praising People.

3. Her Patience was so eminent when she was most exercised under sorrows, that one of her constant impartial Visitors, told me, That in her afflictions she had exercised as much patience as ever he read or heard of, excepting Christ himself. She would ordinarily witness her pati­ence by her lying still and quiet under her great­est troubles: She would with a very composed countenance bear up head and heart under sick­ness and pains of body, and scoffes and reproaches upon her Name and Innocency; never complain­ing of the greatness or continuance of these. It is the glory of Patience to be silent and submissive [Page 38] under the greatest lashes of Providence, to re­ceive the Rod with a smiling Face, to bear its own burden chearfully without inordinate sor­row, or fretting discontent.

The truly patient Soul labours more to im­prove, then remove the Cross.

This can (as it were) stand still upon the floting Waves, contemplating the All-seeing Eyes of Heaven. It can with Paul and Sil [...] sing in the Stocks, and exalt and triumph though the Enemies gets the day. Thus the Followers of Jesus in the first days of the Go­spel did take chearfully the spoiling of their goods, they went away rejoycing that they were counted Worthy to suffer Affliction; they did joy, nay, they did glory in tribulation.

I will not say, but Martha might be a little startled when affliction did at first make the on­set, but she would presently re-assume her forces, and stand out against the shock, or combined strength opposition. Patience is well-skill'd in Chymistry, it an draw meat out of the eater, and fetch sweet out of the strong; it can ex­stract matter of serving and praising God out of the greatest paenal evils that can fall upon it, while on this side the bounds of Eternity. One once asking Martha, Why she blessed God for the evil of sorrow, she replyed to this purpose, That she tasted Honey at the end of the Rod.

4. Her Hope, or if you will Faith, for I shall unite these together; they being pretty neer [Page 39] akin, or at the least neer Neighbours, usually living under one roof, and drawing breath to­gether. She had an advantageous Art of cast­ing Anchor upward, and of Hawking Expecta­tion within the Vail; she would live very well upon a Promise; this was the ground of her stocking up such precious Treasures; yea, she would make a good shift to live upon things not seen. Because there was no use of these rare Graces in another world, therefore, I sup­pose, she determined to make her utmost ad­vantage of them while she was in this. By these she stay'd and supported her Soul upon the chief Corner-stone, under the greatest sorrows, difficulties, improbabilities, and contradictions of Sense and carnal Reason: She looked upon the engaged Power and Truth of an ever gra­cious God, to be sufficient for her to content her self, and bear up her heart withal. This was the ground of her solemn Resignation and sound Dependance; this made her give her All to God, and expect and look for All from God. She did not only roll her self on God, but ac­quiess and rest satisfied in him alone: She saw the barrenness, nay, the baseness, and univer­sal emptiness of Self and the Creature, and this made her go beyond both to Christ, as one willing to close in with and stick to him upon any terms. She looked upon a Christ obtained by the greatest losses to be the greatest gain; this made her think her shipwrack very happy, [Page 40] because by it she was unexpectedly thrown upon the sho [...]s of Eternity: She was ready to think ad say, That [...] had not perished and been mi­serable s;he should [...] have been saved or ha [...] ­py. She so employ'd these two noble useful Grace [...] [...]at she alwayes lived either by Evi­dence, or [...] Recumbence. She was often ob­served to make very fair for Assurance, though she delighted to language all her Discourse in thi [...] affair by those humble, sweet, and commen­dable words, Good Hope.

5. Her Zeal was notably display'd in the warmth and fervour of her Love and Language for God and the Gospel: She would not hear the Holy Name of the one abused, but she would throw forth some prudent Reproof or R [...]m [...]r [...] into the way of the Prophane: She would not hear the Duties or Dignities of the other set light by, or scoff'd at, but she would with humble boldness attempt their vindication. Pious zeal, not only puts a lustre upon, but life into all the Affections of the Soul; its that which makes us run and not be weary, and walk and not f [...]int; it makes us in a manner fly about the business of God. Where this is prudent, know­ing, and sanctifi'd, it puts valour into the heart of the [...]hristian, and makes him do all that ever he can, keeping his proper sphere against Sin, and for a life of Holiness. When our Affections gro [...] du [...]l and heavy, its good to put life into them again, by fetching this Coal from the Alter, [Page 41] not from the common Hearth. The warmest Re­gion is not too hot for the well-advised, sober Saint, yet indiscreet Zeal, which is the Torrid Zone, proves too hot for him to dwell in.

6. Her Love was once so happy as to embrace every thing that came from God; by this Affe­ction she would run and pursue after the desi­rables of another world. Her soul seemed to act freely and superlatively in this: It was her judgment, That the best way to Love God in a due measure, was to love him out of measure. Some have observed her weep and sigh for love to God. Its the good saying of an eminent Per­son of this Nation, speaking concerning Sera­phick Love, That he alone loves Gods as much as he ought, that loving him as much as he can, strives to repair the deplored imperfection of that Love, with an extream regret to find it no great­er. Once a pious Suffolk Minister, weeping as he sat at Table, and being asked the reason of it, he answered, Because he could love Christ no more. True Evangelick Love knows no doubts, no dangers, no difficulties; this ha­ving God for its only object, can do as Jacob did, Endure the scorching heat by day, and the most bitter pinching cold by night: The words of the Spouse in that last of the Song of Solo­mon, are surpassing to this purpose, Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arme, for Love is as strong as death, [Page 42] jealousie [or ardent burning love] is as cruel as the Grave; the Coals thereof are Coals of Fire, which have a most vehement Flame. Many Wa­ters cannot quench Love, neither can the Floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his House for Love it would be utterly con­temned.

7. Her Perseverance did consist in her abi­ding Patient under sorrows; her continuing firm in the Faith, notwithstanding reproaches and frequent temptations to the contrary. Its an humane thing to err, but an hellish one to persevere in errour. Its very good to enter into Heavens way, but a thousand times better to go to the far end of it. Perseverance sets the Grown upon the Head of all the Vertues and Graces, which the Believer is the owner of. These considerations taught Martha how to di­stinguish between Sin and Duty, what was Or­nament and what disgrace.

Thus I have given you a brief Account of some of this Maids Inward Excellencies, as they discovered themselves in her Actions: You may call them by what Names you please, onely I am sure they do very much adorn the true Believer, and may fitly enough be c [...]lled the Vertues or Graces of the truly Rational and Reformed Soul.

You must do me the favour to take this as an account of her Actings or Behaviour only in [Page 43] the year 1668. which was her more afflicted sea­son. I suppose she did never to purpose know what God or Sin was before. Few there are that do sufficiently discern the way to Heaven, till they come to Weeping-cross. Afflictions are like the Fullers Teasles, which are very sharp and scratching in themselves, yet serve to make the Cloth pure and fine. The most excellent Water-springs are hottest in the coldest Win­ter-season. The more the Camomil is trodden with the Feet, the mope it spreads and grows. It has been an old observation, that some Ver­tues and Graces are like Starrs that shine not in the day of Prosperity, but shine only in the night of Adversity: 'Tis probable we had ne­ver known Jobs eminent Patience, had we not known his extraordinary Afflictions. There is a very odoriferous water in the Damask-rose, but not to be obtained till extracted by fire. We may allude to Job 22.29. When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, there is lifting up. When an Holy Man was asked which we [...] the most pleasant and comfortable days that ever he enjoy'd, he answered, His Mourning days, these were his most joyful days, and therefore he cryed out, O give me my Mourning Day, give me my Mourning Days, for they were the days of my greatest joy.

Thus I know it was with Martha Taylor, she was most eminent when most under sorrow: If at any time she was guilty of humane failings, [Page 44] or did incline an ear to the charms of the Flesh or Seducers, it was when most at ease, and freed from afflictions.

But for the year above named she seemed very famous in the foregoing Particulars: and was not dull or drowsie, but very lively in their ex­ercise.

There was one thing then appeared in her which is (for any thing I know) highly commen­dable, and that was, That she discover'd a large love to Religion, only upon its own account, or upon the account of the ever-glorious God, to whom Religion tends: She seemed to be very much uninterested, not to close in with it upon the account, of breeding, party, opinion, con­ceit, or the like; but because of the great love­liness, and spiritual advantage which she saw in it. 'Tis beyond all question that some take up a strict way of Religion, that they may be looked upon as singular: But for this, you may take that of the ingenious and illustrious Author of Wis­dom, Tri [...]os, p. 199. An affected singularity (saith he) and that in trifles, is but the adultery and pedantry of Morality: But if the thing be serious, and the singularity without affectation, 'tis so far from being a just shame, that it is indeed the true gallantry of vertue, that dares enjoy and own its single self, and stand fast, amidst the stream of the worlds headiest current.

SECTION I.

1. I Find this commonly asserted among the most famous Transmarine Physitians, though I confess many of our most noted Home-bred ones, with whom I have conversed, have been ready at the first hearing to decry it as an impo [...]sibility. The thing does indeed very strangely thwart ordinary Experience, and vastly go against the grain of our common way of li­ving. Which, I suppose, was the ground of Hip­pocrates conjecture, That it was impossible to live beyond the seventh Fasting-day, in lib. ejus [...] Pliny indeed goes something further, but does not ascend so high as to twice the num­ber of days, lib. 11. cap. 24. This also was the ground of Harvets vigorous opposition against the Learned Joubert, who writ the Story of one of these foodless Creatures.

[Page 46]2. The thing has appeared so far impossible, that it hath made some, who could not deny its reality as to matter of fact, run to refuge their Apprehensions in a Miracle, and think they vin­dicate themselves sufficiently in the three famous instances we meet withal in the Sacred History, concerning Moses, Elijah, and the ever Blessed Jesus.

3. Others fly to the Aid of Angels, as if these good Spirits did in some hidden way su­stain the humane fra [...]e by some unthought-at inward or outward Applications. But I think Sennertus reasons to the contrary are powerful enough to stop the mouth of these; He saith, The most of those that thus lived without the use of Meat or Drink, were Persons little or nothing acquainted with Religion, and some of them no better then Heathens. And it cannot be imagined that the All-glorious God should work a Miracle without a Cause, and that upon (or by) such in whom was found nothing singular or excellent, and for no proposed end. I never heard of any thing mentioned by these Prodigeous, Abstemi­nous Ones, concerning Doctrine, Discipline, or Providence; nor any thing referring to the In­troduction, Illustration, Emendation, or Exal­tation of these. I am sure many eminent Pro­testant Writers, both at home and abroad, do upon good grounds affirm that Miracles (as we understand them here in the stricter sence) are altogether ceased. 'Tis something to the thing [Page 47] in hand, if we consider, That those ever wor­thy Persons mentioned in the Scripture, were under no decays of body, notwithstanding their miraculous fasting; and that they were volun­tary in it, whereas those of latter Ages were al­wayes constrained to this abstinence by some disease, tedious distempers, or defects of na­ture.

4. But further, some have been ready to give up the day to the Devil, as if he either did move and act the body and its members, when the rational soul was stepped forth into another habitation; or else, that he did, in a clanculous and insensible manner, convey necessary food into the body, and in as strange a way carry the excrements out of the same: This cunning trick of the Devil may have been not only possible, but experienc'd; but yet it is altogether unlikely in the case of several of those who have been thus preserved, because some of them have returned again to eating and drinking, and others of them have married and brought forth children; and that which shew'd they were not possest by any evil spirits, was the piety of some of them, their frequency in Prayers, Reading the Scri­ptures, and other Exercises of Devotion and Holiness, as may be seen in the Printed Relati­ons concerning them.

But of these you may see several more in the forenamed eminent Sennertus, Medicinae Pract. lib. 3. par. 1. sect. 2. chap. 2.

SECT. II.

I Shall now give you some few Considerations, which may make the thing probable: As,

1. The Testimonials of some Learned Men, Men of Note and Credit. That pious Father of the Church St. Augustin, in an Epistle of his to Casulanus de jejunio, tells of one, Who in his time lived very many days without either meant or drink; in which relation he gives you a Testi­monial of the probability of vast Abstinence. J. Jo [...]st [...]n of Poland, in his Thaum [...]tographia Natu­ralis, speaking De Inedia stupendia, saith to this purpose, Although the use of Nutriment be ne­cessary for the preserving life, yet there have been very many found, who, notwithstanding the want of the same, have been kept alive. Zaculus Lu­citanus in his History of the chiefest Physitians, lib. 6. Hist. 2. saith, That Authors, not at all to be undervalu'd, do tell us, that several have lived a very long while without meat and drink: And there he gives you his own assent to the thing, with a Catalogue of twelve noted Authors, and their Works, in which you may find the Persons Names, the Places where they lived, and the continuance of their Abstinence. Beyerlink also in his Theatrum Tom. 1. de Abstinen. & de cibo, gives you in an equal number of differing fore­going Author, assuming the same thing. But [Page 49] I shall close up this with the Testimony of our Doctor M. Causabon, in a late Treatise of his concerning Credulity and Incredulity, [...]. 49. where he saith, I will say whom the credit of so many good Authors, and the particular relations of so many examples, delivered with so many cir­cumstances, wherein no mistake or imposture can rationally be suspected, that I do believe i [...], that divers men, and more women have lived several years, some to their lives end, without any bodily food ordinary or extraordinary, liquid or solid; yea, I believe it, as I believe that I my self, with ordinary food and Gods blessing, have lived hi­therto.

2. This may further appear probable, if you consider that there are several inferiour Ani­mals, which live many Months together with­out feeding upon any thing at all. They do, I confess, live a strange, inert, drousie, dead kind of life; but yet live they do, and that as really as when they are more lively and active: Its as certain there is fire in the sparke, or in the unex­tinct embers, as in the burning flame.

All the great searchers into the misteries of the Creation, have given us many wonderful ex­amples of this nature. The two great Begin­ners were Aristotle [...] and Pliny, upon the account cry'd up by after Ages; The Natural History of the one, and the History of Animals writ by the other, hath given you many true Relations re­ferring this way, of which I shall give you some few hints▪

[Page 50]The Bat and Swallow (both of them well known to us) do upon the first approach of Winters bitter blasts, take their leave of the open Air, and betake themselves to Caves, Clifts of Rocks, or Hollow-trees, where they lye hid for five or six Months together, without the reception of any created thing to live upon.

Some Creatures, which seem contemptible to us, are worth the taking notice of upon this ac­count, of which sort there is the Snail, the Fly, the Frog, and the Snake, or Adder, with many others; all which lye hid all along the Winter Months, in some secret holes or cran­nies, where they have no external thing to live upon; but do, as many Philosophick Wits have strongly conjectur'd, subsist by the aid of some unctious matter or humour which is lodg'd within themselves.

Some also say upon their own experience, that Bears and other furred Brutes, in the Northern frozen Parts of the world, do for certain live after the same manner, from the middle of Se­ptember to the middle of April.

Many Pious and Learned Men have wondered at the meanest Creatures, to see their strange Natures, and way of living. Austine could be­stow serious thoughts upon the silly Fly, and for its life (thought, as Voss [...]us saith, not for its use or end) preferr'd it to the glorious Sun in the Firmament. The great Zarchy in his learned T [...]actu [...] de [...]peribus Dei, sits down, and wonders [Page 51] at, and contemplates the glorious Creator and Preserver of the World, even in his meanest Creatures.

3. Another thing that shews the probability and reality of the sometimes foodless subsistence of the Rational Humane Creature, is, the fre­quent Trials that have been made by ca [...]eful Magistrates and skillful Physitians, such as did their utmost not to be deceived: This I shall exemplifie in two or three famous stories.

The first is that writ, experienc'd, and vin­dicated by Franciscus Citesius, whose eminency advanced him to be Physitian to Lewis the thirteenth King of France, and to Cardinal De Richelieu; he tells the Story at large in his Abstinens Consolentanea, Concerning a Maid whose name was Joanna Balam, her Father and Mother were but mean rustick people (which I ac­quaint you with to shew you how much she was parallel to Martha Taylor) she begun in March 1599. and was first taken with a continued Feaver, and then fell to sore Vomiting for twenty days together, and after that was made Speechless for a like number of days, after which she did utterly refuse all sort of Meat and Drink, her Belly also fell down to her Back, the Musculi Intestina, and Viscera, did all appear contracted and dry'd up; from the Ribs to the Thighs she was nothing but skin and bone, and yet her Breasts were full, her Armes and Thighs pretty well fleshed, her Face round, and her Lips somewhat red, she avoided [Page 52] no Excrements from any part, and thus she live [...] from twelve, till she was fourteen years of age. To this Relation the learned Magistrate D. N. Rapinus, bears a sufficient witness by his ingeni­ous Verses, which runs before this Relation of Citesius, some few of which are,

The next I shall give you is of a German Girl, whose Father was a plain and Country-trades-man. She lived about seven years with­out Meat or Drink, the strange report of her to­tal abstinence rous'd up the noted Prince John Ca­simire, then Count Palatine, to do his utmost to try the truth in her case, which he did twice over, first in November 1584. sending two knowing Physitians to try her, who give in their account, that the thing was real: She continuing on to live without food for some years more, he sends again two other deep-sighted Physicians to try her the second time, which they did by the utmost scru­tiny, in April 1588. One of the first of these Doctors of Physick, viz. Henricus Smelius in the [Page 53] tenth Book of his Miscellanies, gives you this Re­lation, with some other strange passages con­cerning her.

I might also have told you of that other Maid of Spire in Germany, whose memory Jou­bert hath made illustrious, and Langius mentions in his Epistles to have lived four years without meat, try'd by Fardinand the Emperour, and other Magistrates in that Country. But the last I shall name, is that famous known story of Apolloniae Scheieriana (or Chrier, as I think Quere [...]tanus calls her) Who was born in the Town of Gats, within the jurisdictions of the celebrated City Berne in Swit­zerland; She first lost the Appetite to Meats, then to Drinks, and shortly after fell under an abhor­rence of all Nutritives: Her fame flying abroad in the Senate of Berne, presently gives forth a strict Order, which brought her and her mother into an Hospital within their City, where she was committed to the through search and observation of many watchful Eyes; who all, after a compe­tent time of trial, give in their Testimony to the Senate, that she did beyond dispute live without any Aliment at all. And thus from the year 1600. for several years on forward, she continued this h [...]r marvelous fast; all which time the whole Ab­domen, or the Belly from the Ribs to the Puden­dum Muliebre, was fallen down and hard, which was frequently view'd by her multitudinous Visi­tors. But you may find her whole History writ by the care and industry of the Learned [Page 54] Paulus Lentulus (who was then Professor of Physick at Berne) with a Collection of several other Remarkables of the like Nature; as also the united Testimonies and Eulogies of se­veral of them, who were his Eminent, Noble, Contemporaries.

I suppose these things makes a total Absti­nence, appear something more probable and real, then many have been free to conjecture.

I confesse, many things of this nature may have been fabulous in all likelihood: As, the A [...]om, a People in India, who are without Mouths, and live onely by Odors and Aire; the Luc m [...]ri [...]s, who Inhabit the Northern Moun­tains, in the most Remote Parts of Muscovy, neer to the F [...]n S [...]a, where the stern Boreas [...]eps his Blustring Court, and hath his Impe­rial Throne Seated; There this People towards the close of N [...]vember every year, are glad to betake themselves to Dens and Caves, where they lye Fro [...]en up till the grateful influence of the Vernal Sun awake them out of this cold Sleep; of these see Cit [...]s [...]us in his Abstin. Confol. [...]57, 103. &c. and Guva [...]ninus in Moscoviae De­s [...] [...] Lu [...]mor. We have also great variety of stories of Eremitical Men, Superstitious Zealots, and Popish Votaries, who are reported to have banished themselves from humane So­ciety, into some or other solitary Places or De­ [...]arts, and there to have lived without Meat or Drink for many Months or Years; as is to be [Page 55] found in Sennertus, the above-nam'd Citesius, and Gasp. Schottus in his Physica Curiofa, p. 408. &c.

Further we read of seven Ephesian Boys, who under the persecution of Decius, being terrified by his cruelty upon the Professors of the Gospel, did fly away into a Cave, not far from the City Ephe­sus, where they were walled up, and are reported to have slept for the long Night of three hundred years space, till the more pleasant days of Theo­dosius the Emperour, in whose time their Prison-doors were pulled down, and they were awaked out of their miraculous sleep. This you may find in the applauded Nic [...]phorus in his Ecclesiastical History, lib. 14. cap. 45.

Now let any one judge how probable these are, though I know several of them are credited by some sober, prudent Men. Yet we have but small ground to believe the prodigious Stories of the more remote and darker Ages, and Places of the world, in which both Truth and Know­ledge lay long bury'd under a palpable Cimme­rian Darkness. But we have no ground to dis­believe those Things, which are within the Me­mory of those latter Days, and the Relations of inquisitive knowing Men, and the sharp Trials of impartial eminent Magistrates.

SECT. III.

HEre I shall shew you the Possibility of it in point of Nature, according to the judge­ment of Citesius, as above, Joubert Sennertus, and Fortun [...]us Licetus, with some others who have writ on this Sub [...]ect; whom I mention here once for all, that I may not interrupt you with too frequent Citations, which I know to be a great trouble, and little satisfaction to the ordinary Reader.

1. I know very well, that History is copiously stor'd with the true Reports, of several dull and solitary Melancholicks, of many in the more warme parts of the world (which was frequent) and of some in the colder Climates, not at all troubled with crasie Heads; who have fasted for seventeen, and [...]o on to twenty days without de­struction, of my extraordinary decay to their weak and brittle our-sides. This hath been an inducement to stir up the former wits of the world to search for the distaining cause; but the far l [...]rger & more astonishing Abstinence of some in these latter days, hath awak'd the coetaneous profound Head-pieces of Neighbour Nations, to make a much more deep, and double inquiry in­to the way of Natures Support: From these I shall give the following concise Account to evince a Possibility.

The most learned, pristine, and modern Physici­an and Philosophers do say, That the great instru­ment of Life, in all Animate beings, is indwelling [Page 57] Natural heat, which (its possible) hath its seat in the Bloud Now, as the Fire feeds upon the com­bustible matter which is adjoyned to it; or as you see the lighted Match in the Lamp, or the burning Wick in the Candle, live upon the an­nexed Oyle or Tallow; so doth this Innate-heat within the Body live upon a solid, a moist, and a spiritual substance; which the later and more experienced Physicians do comprise under the Humidit [...] radical & pr [...]ge [...]um: This one would think should presently be spent and con­sumed away, without new and fresh supplies from Meat and Drink. So then the wonder is, how this Fire should live without its ordinary and obvious Fewel: For where Natural heat is more abundant, as it is in Children and Young Men, there is the greatest desire, need, and use Meat and Drink.

3. But this you must know, that in these foodlesse Cre [...]tures, this Natural-heat is redu­ced to a very slender proportion, and so can live upon very sma [...]l supplies. [...] [...]s I have seen a Candle, confined to a spare and thrifty way of burning, by the density, or humility, or other deficiency of the ambient Air, continue for some hours together, sending forth flame and light, without any visible or considerable waste of the Wax or Tallow. Which hath often made me think there might be some truth in those m [...]ny Stories which I have read in several credited Authors, concerning Lamps now and [Page 58] then found in Italy, and other places, in ancient Vaults or Urns, which have lasted for many years, that I say not Ages, without extinction, till put forth by the purer and stronger Air. I know one great cause of the duration of these Lights, is from the firm make, and lasting con­stitution of the Burning Materials. It is a thing also commonly known, that a few small pieces of Flaming-wood, buried under their own Ashes, will continue fired for a great number of hours, and yet not much consume away: Some say there is sound Outlandish-wood, that will thus endure for many Months. Now,

4. Thus it is in these great Abstinents, that Natural heat seems (as it were) to be raked up under Embers, that it might spend it self, and its proper Pabulum or food, with the grea­ter Pa [...]cimony. Nature doth greatly lavish, or thrust forth its own supports by Excrements, as, by Stool, Urin, Sweat, Salivation, and the like; but in these admirable Fasters all these Passages are for the most part closely stopped up: And then the Native Fervour (as was said) is brought to such a small Degree, that it may not over-fast consume its Aliment. Thus many whose years are greatly numerous, can live upon a very small, because they have but little Heat, slender Eva­cuation, and [...]old and dense Bodies, and so con­sequently spend the Radical Humours very spa­ringly.

[Page 59]5. When the Cause ceaseth then the Effects must needs fall: Now, in these Abstenious Ones its usually so that the de [...]re and necessity of Meat and Drink is taken away; as the Stomack (especially at the beginning) is distemper'd, stu­p [...]fi'd, and altogether mastered and overcome, by the abundant Influx of Pituitous, Crude, and Naughty Humours, so that [...] can neither retain what it had, nor give entertainment to any fresh Sustenence; and all the Excrementitious Passages being stopped up, the Body cannot that way E [...] it or Evaporate any of its inbred Suppl [...]es; And it hath been the rational Conjecture of Delrius, quoted by Gast. Schottus, That the 'fore­said Flegmatick abounding Humours, which first took away the Stomack, are afterward made a good use of by the Natura [...]-heat, in order to the underpropping Life. The Stomack, upon a small recruit, may be enabled to turn these to a sort of Chyle, and then the Liver falls to work, and draws them into it self, and presently transform­eth them into Blood, which it sendeth by the Vena Porta into the Body, and all its Members. The knowing Ci [...]sius speaking as I think) con­cerning the Chyle, sa [...]th, Attract us ab h [...]t [...], qui v [...]ntriculi fuit excrementum, [...] limen­tum. Abst. Cons. p. 89. For any thing [...] know, the worst of humours may be turned by Natures skill and aid to outrime [...]t, not noxious, but use­ful: 'Tis a known Report, that the grand Ali­th [...]idates did gradat [...]m obtain such an Art in eat­ing [Page 60] Poison, that his Body became invincible to its greatest power, as was afterward experienc'd when he should that way have lost his life. Of which Martial the neat Epigr [...]mmatist gives you an account in one of his Disticks, thus,

This humour, which at first might be putrid, doth in a little time become so tenacious and compact, that it's made very durable to the gentle heat which lives upon it. This the ap­plauded Sennertus thinks very probable in his first and second thoughts upon the thing in hand, as may be seen both in his Institutions and Practick Physick. And when it is once reduced to this solidity, and the Volatile Spirits (or Vapo [...]rs) confined to a fixation, and made to tarry and to do their office, then it is that these Meatless C [...]eatures have their Lamps pretty well supply'd with Oyl, then they do with a greater composure subsist under their total Abstinence, without destruction, though not without de­cay.

6. Usually the Bodies of these Foodlesse ones are inwardly in a dissolving, melting case, which dissolution or consumption may produce adap­ted nourishment, for Natural heat to live upon. The obstruction of all external vents, together with the coldness of their out-sides, and the [Page 61] many humours that do naturally attend their ve­ry Sex, they being usually Women, doth befriend the indwelling Fire with proper Materials for it to live upon

I think it is indubitable that some such like heat▪ by a like supply of humid Matter, is the cause why Herbs and Plants live and thrive. As, our Reason lifts us up above all other Animals, so our Sensation gives us what they have; and Vegeta­tion (or the way of the nourishing the humane frame) communicated to us all the advantages which Plants enjoy; to these our Earthy Bodies do carry a great and real correspondence in the manner and matter of their growth, maintain­ance, and preservation. Doctor Harvet, who was learned Jouberts Antagonist about the possi­bility in point of Nature, being reduced to a strait, concerning the Lucomori, forementioned, whose brumal Fasting he supposed was unquestio­nable, he granted, They did live, but it was onely a Life of Vegetation. Cites. ubi sup. 151.

7. The most excellent Zaculus Lucitanus hath affirm'd, that, though there may be many causes why these are sustain'd alive, yet the in-being, or in-undation of flegmatick humour was the main cause: His own words are, Etsi non negem a multis causis citra cibum diutissime homines posse vitam transigere; tamen frequention, & magis communis est causa, quae ex a [...]undantia humoris piluitosi elicitur. De Med. Prin [...] H [...]st. p. 914.

[Page 62]The Foetus in the Mothers Womb doth live and thrive after a very strange m [...]nner, without either eating or drinking, and (for any thing I know) without emitting any Excrements at all. They live upon a Sanguinal Humour, transmit­ted to them though the Umbellick Veins.

8. The continual inlet of the humid Air, into the Bodies of these by the Mouth and Nostrils, conveyed by certain secret Conduit-pipes into the Heart, and other parts of the Microcosme, may afford some supplement to the Animal Spi­rits and remaining Humours.

The constant, now undeny'd, Motion of the Blood and Heart, doth very much contribute to the being and life, the act and exercise of this innate Heat, and so doth conduce exceedingly to fermentation, and this ferment helps in the continuation of life.

9. Thus I have given you a compendious Ac­count of an appearing Possibility in Nature it self. The [...]e things its true are but barren fare for strong, activ [...], and full Bodies to live upon, but you know these, which have been the sub­ject of our Discourse, are of weak, languish'd, and macerated out-sides, poor meager, almost-dying Carkasses; for if them who are of robust, chearful, and active Bodies could thus live, I should no more question that Miracles were now in being, then I do that they were so in the Pro­phets and Apostles days.

SECT IV.

HEre I shall close up this part of the Dis­course, by giving you some Arguments to prove the vast improbability of a Cheat in our Martha's case; for it has been, and yet is, the inconsiderate (that I [...]ay not irrational) Asser­tion of many (some of them) not far remote from her, That she is an undoubted Cheat, either for the getting gain, or for the advancement of a Faction, or for both of these.

The gre [...]t foundation upon which they built at first was the Cessation of Miracles, the improbability and impossibility in point Nature, and their own inacquaintance with what some Men of splendid and mighty Names had writ in the vindication of this total Abstinence.

But that Martha is no Cheat in the mention'd Affair, will appear by the ensuing things.

1. She doth willingly admit of all Visitors, be they under what ranck or notion soever, a [...] the Great, the Learned, the Mean, the Ortho­dox, and the Erroneous; onely you cannot blame her if she have a care of her Soul, where­in she used to make the Bible (her usual Compa­nion) the Standard and Rule of her Faith and Actions, not the private Thoughts of Men of differing Apprehensions.

2. The plainness, or, if you will, the simpli­city of her Parents; they neither look'd, dis­cours'd, [Page 64] nor acted, like persons skill'd in Poli­ti [...]ks. They d [...]d appear to me, and many others upon considerable tria [...]s to be among the com­mon rank of Country head-pieces, though they were sober, yet not sub [...]ile. They are not so poor, but they can make a very good shift to live w [...]thout this craft. They did their utmost at the first to make their Da [...]hter eat and drink.

3. Martha's experience [...], and approv'd since­rity. Tho [...]gh men of differing humours gave her frequent Visi [...]s, yet I never heard of any who know her well, that could accuse her of a false-hood. She used to tell of every drop of liquids which she took, and would be offended with them, who out of ignorance did diminish the quantity in their relations of her.

4. The Charity, and strong Testimony of her most considerate Neighbours, among whom I could have given you twenty Names of Note and Observation, had I thought it prudent to have bro [...]ght them upon the publick Stage.

5. The Drinesse of her whole Body; her non-evacuation of Excrements, by the lower and larger passages, with the improbability of it, be­cause the Intestines, the Matrix, or the like, were long since erected and dryed together. These things have been often testified by a great num­ber of Eye-witnesse.

6. The continual Cleaving of her Belly to her B [...]k, in such a lose manner, as if they grew together shews sufficiently there can be no in­terposing meat o [...] Drink.

[Page 65]7. The Inspection, and Circumspection of Physitians, Chirurgeons, Mid-wives, and a double Watch that did attend her. The two Watche [...] did consist of forty or threescore Wo­men, who did with strictness▪ observe her night and day by two [...]t a time for several Weeks at differing se [...]sons: The first was set by three Neighbour Towns, for their own and the Coun­tries satisfaction; the other, by the means and appointment of the Right Honourable, and thrice Noble Earl of Devonshire, who did him­self Visit her, and did very commendably lay out much care, cost, and industry, to try her to the uttermost. Now all these, with one com­mon voyce, have given their Vote on Martha's side.

I suppose enough is said to satisfie the ratio­n [...]l and it would not fall within the limits of wisdom to indeavour the satisfaction of the contrary sort of Men.

The Wise usually think that Abstrusities in Nature, and the unfrequented and more ob­scure Methods in Providence, deserve the atten­dance of [...]nquisition, but not of [...]nfidelity. There ought to be a suspension of the judge­ment in things that are dubious, but not a de­nial of those that are obvious.

CONSECTARY I. 'Tis hence very apparent, that the Providence and Care of God hath not done with the world.

1. AS this sacred Providence looks back­ward towards eternity, a [...] the fore­knowledge and Predetermination of Infinite Wisdome, concerning the future making or management of things in time, so I shall not speak of it; but onely as it refer to the government, and conservation, o [...] pre [...]e [...]vati­on of all things or beings, that [...]re in this ne­ [...]her Region, the visible World. This latter is usually called Actual Providence, and differs from the other, which is Eternal, as the Execu­tion doth from the Decree, or the forehand-design, from the future acting.

[Page 69]2. This Actual Providence of God, is dis­play'd in the external Works o [...] the match­lesse Wisdome and [...]ower of the e [...] blessed Jehovah, in the creating, orde [...]ng, pro [...]ision, and underpropping of the World, and all its In­habitants. This sits at the Stern of all sublu­nary affairs, and sometimes without asking leave of either W [...]l or Tyde; nay, sometimes in spite of all their opposition it can, and doth conduct it's own Barge (or Vessel, whatever) to the designed Port. This is Immediate Pro­vidence, when the Omnipotent, without Crea­ture-Ministration, doth guide and uphold the Universe, and every thing in it; which shews that his using secondary means is not from any want of power, but the result of his own will and well-ordering Wisdome. This is not a common, but an extraordinary administration of Providence, which thus swims against the Stream, and runs up the steepest Hill, with­out any fainting at all; which thus works a­gainst, or besides, the course or usual order of nature or common actings. This employs it self onely in miraculous Productions. So that I question not, but that the first ma­king of the World was a very stupendious Miracle; to raise so vast a Being out of a former Non-entity to such an huge Lump of substantial matter, fit to make all other terrene Essences out of it. [Page 70] But I must not bestow time on this, because I do not look upon Martha Taylor's Case as a Mi­racle.

3. Then there is the ordinary and usual Pro­vidence [...]f God, which hath the Regiment, Dis­posal, and sustentation of the World in its own hands; and this is it of which I shall speak with brevity. This, this is the main Spring which moves the whole Wheels of the Creation: This is the weight which makes the Clock of all created concerns strike at a lower or higher rate.

4. Consider the reallity here of its being or exercise. Many have denyed it, and more there are which take little notice of it, but re­fer all to Nature: These are very unworthy and base to him who gave them their first beings; the poor Ethnick World had better thoughts concerning God and Providence. Men that were meer Heathens could spell out Providence from the whispers of their own Conscience, the admirable Order, Tendency, Disposal, Con­stitution, Mutation, and (foresaid) preservation of all things, and all their actions. To this pur­pose Homer in his Poems written upon Ʋlysses, brings in that wise and valiant Grecian Prince, speaking concerning his many and long dangers, upon the rugged churlish Ocean, in this Lan­guage.

[Page 71] Which doth in the very letter of it signifie, But in those things I did acquiess (or rest satis­fied) which God had appointed in his own mind. And Plato as he is quoted by Aristotle, in his Tract. de Mundo, cap. 7. saith to this effect, That God doth hold (or manage) the beginning, mid­dle, and end of all things. And the learned Sta­gyrite himself declares his mind very fully (de lib. c. 6.) That as all things are from God, so they do all subsist by God; and that if Divine Aid be absent, Nature is not at all sufficient to un­derprop it self: Which he illustrates by these apt Allusions, What the Master or Pilate is to the Ship, what the Driver is to the Cart (or Cha­riot) and what the Captain is to the Souldiers, &c. that God is to the World. They that are curious or troubled with that dangerous dis­ease, Atheisme, may satisfie themselves, if they will not put out the Eye of Nature, by an in­quiry into Cicero lib. 2. de Nat. Deorum, and Seneca de Providentia ad Lucilium, and Galen lib. 3. de usu partium corporis humani.

It's sad to think that there should be so many men, as there are in our seeing Times, who do either with their Lips or Lives refer all things, and their motions, operations, or miseries, one­ly to blind Fortune; or rather to a Stoical Fate or Destiny, by which they bind over the [...]reat Creator unto second Causes; and thus they make Him, if any thing, Natures Servant, It hath been (I think) a thousand times over [Page 72] asserted, That there is a God, and therefore Pro­vidence; and its almost as oft repeated, That to deny actual Providence is to deny God himself. And yet the foolish Epicurus granted that there was a Go [...], but denyed Providence; which the learned (Sophi [...]s) of all Ages have detected as a base absurdity: One, who was otherways a friend to Epicurus, saith, that this was Ep [...]curi gravissimus laps [...] Ca [...]send de vit. &c. Epicur.

5. But I suppo [...]e I may let the [...]e men alone, till the awakening Hand of God make them of another mind. As it did once the bloudy Ca­ligula and cruel N [...]ro, when the terrifying Thunder-cl [...]ps of Heaven made them hide their lofty heads, and (to use my Authors words) agnoso [...]re D [...]um re [...] humanas curare; they then were forced to sneak and acknowledge that God did exercise care and cognizance in reference to the things of the world. Horace tells you, by his own mouth, that it was this angry voice of Heaven, which made him own providence, and throw away the vain and irreligious Notions of Epicurus. Hor! l. 1. Od. 34.

Thus I have indeavoured to sati [...]fie the Men, who may be of the Heathen-humour, That in­finite wisdome and power doth rule and uphold the world.

6. This I know is more believed by the Con­scientious Christian from the Testimony of one Line in H [...]ly Writ, then from a thousand in hu­mane Authors, but yet the great Apostle useth [Page 73] the very same means to prove the same thing in that f [...]ll place for the proof of Actual Provi­dence, Acts 17 speaking concerning the God that made the world, him who is Lord and So­veraign of heaven and earth, ver. 24. He saith in the following verse, He giveth to all life and breath, and all things: He determineth times, and bounds and habitations. And he is not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our beings; as certain also of your own Poets have said, &c. Here and twice more in his Epistles, Paul is pleased to make use of Heathen Poets (as Aratus, Menander, and Epimenedes) to carry on religious designs.

Scripture is very clear in the setting forth the Providence and Care of God, and therefore he's said, To work all things, Ephes. 1.11. By him all things consist, Col. 1.17. He upholdeth all things, Heb. 1.3. And we are enjoyned to east all our care on him for he careth for us, 1 Pet. 5 7. But I shall give you one incomparable place which may serve for all, viz. Psal. 104. the whole of it, which you may read in your Bibles, and there you cannot but see the powerful, wise, universal, and constant actings of Providence.

7. Providence is seen by the serious eye in its most common and lowest acts, as the moti­on of the Clouds and Winds, the running of the liquid wandring Streams, the moving and livelihood of the wilder Animals, as in that [Page 74] 104. Psalm: Yea, the very Birds of the Aire receive their food at the Hand of God; the beauty and lustre of the painted Lillies is from a Divine Art; the poor silly Sparrow stands or falls according to the order of the increated Essence; our ordinary Meat and Drink are from God; whose glorious Arithmetick hath taken observation, and an exact account, of every hair, long or short, which grows upon the Be­lievers Head, Mat. 6.24. to 33. and 10.29, 30. Though many of these meaner things may seem never so fortu [...]tous or contingent, yet the dispo­sal of them is from the Lord, Prov. 16.33. God is every where present, and all things are done by the influence of his Power, so that the most minute things are by his steerage, nothing runs at randome, nor is the product of chance. The Poet (and many others) thought, that Provi­dence was only engaged in the Magnalia of the world, ‘Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Jovis.’ But we know that the mea [...]est creatures, in all their actions, drive on the ends of an Infinite Majesty, who is wonderful in Counsel, and ex­cellent in Working.

8. The sound Believer, by intuition and con­templation, sees God in all things; he's the only man who does practically, and to his comfort, understand that old Verse,

He's ready to give God the Title to every thing, except [...]ng Sin, for he knows, that he who is the summum Bonum, cannot be guil [...]y of that which is the summum malum: He permits, orders, and determines the action, as it is an action, but he cannot possibly have any thing to do with the evil of sin, or the depravity of the Action.

Now, there is few that act l [...]ke the Believer, to see the Hand of Providence in its common and smaller productions.

Though I am sure some among the Heathen Moralists did collect excellent Divinity from this ordinary Manuscript: This was their Scripture, their Theology. The ordinary ef­fects of Nature wrought more Admiration in them, then the most of Christ's Miracles did among the Jews.

Many of them knew better how to conjoyn the Mystical Letters of the Creation, then the heedlesse Professors of this Age, who trample under foot the most obvious and most signifi­cant Hieroglyphicks, without drawing one con­clusion from them, for Soul-advantage, or the honour of God. But,

[Page 76]9. There are the more special and signal act­ings of this Providence, when it does display it self in some or other singular things; and this has the greatest observation bestow'd upon it. The most illustrious Lamp of Heaven is as really in being when it is obscured by the darkest Cloud, as it when it sendeth forth its radiant and clea [...]est Beams; yet only then the beholders eye gives it the most enlarg'd observance. So it is in the matter of Actual Providence, when it improves the meanest helps to great advantage, when it makes second causes in their lowest Ebbe, bear up and carry forward very weighty actions; when it doth in a more hidden method draw streight Lines by crooked Rules, and in a Cry­ptick way, give sufficient support to humane Bodies, under great distempers by very small supp [...]ies, then its most taken notice of.

Hitherto we may refer the most, if not all, the seeming Miracles of these lattes Ages of the World. Which have been [...]ctions not done al­together beyond the power of Nature, or in a total contradiction to natural causes, but Na­ture mightily improved, supported, or success't by the holy skill and Art of sacred Providence, and so they may deservedly be called wonders, though they have not been advanced so high as to be undoubted Miracles.

[Page 77]Thus we are come to Martha Taylors case, which was beyond controversie a more then or­dinary discovery of the Care and Providence of God; whence you may read the ground of my first thoughts, That the Care and Providence of God hath not done with the world. All that have seen her, or heard her story, have presently set the Crown upon the Head of Providence.

10. I shall here close up this with a word of Apology, for the length of this Consectary, and an engagement to greater brevity in those that follow.

Some father every thing upon Providence, others nothing, or the next to nothing. Some are ready to refuge themselves in it, as if it were a proper Asylum for their Enormities; others steal all away from it, and offer it up at the Shrine of Fate, the starry Influence, or any thing before they will come to the Door of God. As there is no need for us to look over, or deny second causes (especially) in natural actions, for this would be presumption and a tempting of God: So there is no need of tying God to give always attendance to second causes in the ordi­nary method, degree, or way of managing them; He is a most free, wise, and powerful Agent; whatsoever he useth (as was said before) is not upon the account of his own weakness, but upon the acount of his own will, which is sacred and not to be disputed.

[Page 78]That I might something open these things was the aim of the antecedaneous Particulars, as also to lay a fair foundation for several of the following ones; and in the last place that I might demonstrate I had no design to derogate the glory of Heaven, or to eclipse the Beauty of Providence; for I am one that dare not dis­own my God, and bow the Head to the Name of Nature; which I had so often occasion to use in the first and second Parts. I dare not put Nature up into the Throne with God, as the smooth Poet seems to do, speaking concern­ing the rude and formeless Chaos, where the seeds of things seemed to the eye of sense to be jumbled up together in an undigested Lump or Embrio, where he saith (Metamorph. lib. 1. fab. 1.) ‘Hanc Deus, & Melior litem Natura diremit.’

For I know nature to be Gods servant, and that it carries on his designs, and is actuated by his Providence; this is it which directeth the operations of all individuals and single Es­sences.

There are many Relations in Sacred History, not carried beyond the bounds of Providence in the use of means, that are so full of Laby­rinths and various turnings, that they were able to convert a Stoick. If you would have an instance, you may read over the stories of Joseph [Page 79] and Moses; where you may find many doub­lings, and redoublings; vast thwartings, and improbabilities, which were not the effects of Chance; neither were they loose and stragling, as they seem'd to be, but all of them had a real tendency, to their own and Israel's advance­ment.

Let this suffice to demonstrate the exercise of the Care and Providence of God; which will be further opened by what ensues.

CONSECT. II. That humane unlikelihoods, or supposed Improba­bilities in the course of Nature, cannot hedge up the way against Omnipotency.

1. I Shall not speak to this glorious Attribute of God, as it is considered Absolutely and in an Extraordinary way; for thus every act of it is a Miracle, thus it works without means, contrary to means, and above all means: This is altogether Independent and Unlimited, and therefore it is Infinite, and can do every thing which doth not imply a Contradiction or im­perfection; for these are the result of Weak­ness, not of Power; nay, therefore it is Omni­potency, because it cannot (if I may use the word cannot) do these things which argue Impoten­cy. But,

[Page 80]2. That which I design in this Consectary, is the ordinary or actual power of God; and that as it doth sometimes manifest it self in the accom­plishment of very great Actions, by weak and low Me [...]ns. As in the combate between young David, and that mighty man of war G [...]liah; to see the unarmed David, in his blooming day, over-come and throw-down at his feet that moving Rock, the mighty Champion of the Philistines, hedged round about with brass or steel. This is the reason why five may chase an hundred, and the [...]tter number put a thousand unto flight; why the weak things of the world confound them that are mighty, and things which are not, bring to nought things that are.

3. It is the same mighty Hand of God by which this lower and so [...]d Globe is so firmly fixed in the midd [...]e of the moving yeilding air. Is it not a very unlikely thing that such a vast heavy body as the Earth is (round by nature and so fitted for motion) should keep its Center so many thousands of years without tumbling out of its place.

The World hath no other prop but the invi­sible hand of Heaven, Job 26.7. & 38.6.

[Page 81]4. But to keep close to the thing in hand; this Almighty Power doth step over all the Improbabi­lities that stand in the way of it, when it doth uphold the human body, without the external Use of Crea­ture-help. What a wonderful thing is it, to see a poor tattering Clay-house keep its foundation, and remain not beaten down, when strong and violent Storms drive against it! to see poor worm-eaten Clay-Walls stand out against the stern Encounters of the strong­est Winds, without any visible supports; nay, to see these abide unbattered down, when they have no foundation but the Dust, not the firm Earth, nor the Rock, but the loose and moving Dust, which every little Puff of Air blows away before it! Job 4.19. This must of necessity be ascrib'd to the curious and ado­red Art, of the Great Master-Builder of the World.

5. There lay many Improbabilities in the way of Martha Taylor's Life; whole Troops of Distempers, for several of the beginning Months; did almost con­stantly scale the Walls, of the Souls crazy Habitati­on; and then she did altogether abstain from Meat, Drink, or Cordials; so that all that were round about her, expected her dying every day: How can we then but say, That underneath were everlasting Arms!

6. What a strange thing it is, that the Body should live only upon Nature's cost and charges; and have no provision to subsist upon, but what it makes with­in its own Doors. How unlikely is it, that a lit­tle Flegm, Rheum, moist Humours, and such like things, should be the real supply of Life; as far as it is upheld by second causes! for the Bodies of the [Page 82] most healthful and strong Men, which are best able to make a sufficient use of Meat and Drink, are not preserved alive only by these second causes; for it is in God we live, move, and have our beings, and by him all things consist, and he upholds all things by the word of his power.

7. As Infinite Wisdom is the Eye, so this truly admirable Power of God is the Hand of that most vigilant Providence which conducts us safe through a thousand Dangers and Miseries which we are con­tinually subject to between our Cradle, and our Graves. Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upwards, Job. 5.7 What a wonderful story is that of Paul concerning himself, 2 Cor. 11? I was— in prisons more frequent, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered ship­wrack, a night and a day I have been in the deep In perils of robbers, in perils by my own Country m [...]n, in perils by the Heathen, in perils in the City, in perils in the Wilderness, in perils in the Waters, in perils a­mong false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and zakedness: And yet Paul lived through all these. Who (but an Atheist) would not stand here and admire, and adore the wonderful Power and Providence of God! Scultetus speaking concerning himself, saith, Totum vitae meae curriculum plenum est mirandarum divinarum liberationum ex magnis [...] periculis, calamitatibus; nullum elementum, est, à quonon infestatus sum. Praesat. ad curric. vitae.

[Page 83]8. This Power of God is the Hindg upon which the whole course of Nature turneth; nay, it is the Hand that moves it. It's the saying of one, very per­tinent in this case, That it is not with the work of God as with the Artificers Clock, which put into a Frame and hang'd with weights, will go, though the Arti­ficer be off from it; but though God set all the Creatures in frame, yet the motion of every wheel depends on God: There is not a drop of rain falls till God utter his voice, and cause the vapours to as­cend from the ends of the earth, Jer. 10.13.

The groaning Creation which travels in birth to be delivered of sin, (Rom. 8.22.) hid been long since up in Armes against the great Rebel, Man, who was the cause of all its Miseries, had not the interpositi­on of an Infinite Arm, caused it lie down with quiet­ness. The angry and churlish Ocean had many an Age ago broke over its weak and sandy Bounds, and had for certain entomb'd the Earth, and all Inhabi­tants within its own bosom, had not the Omnipotent confin'd it to the Womb of his Decree, wrapt it up within the swadling-bands of darkness, and still'd [...] by rocking it in the Cradle of his Providence; as you may see Job 38.8, 9, 10, 11.

SECT. III. Infinite Wisdom now and then chuseth forth some of the meanest things to do its mighty Works upon.

1. I Have read of very many who have been brought under a total Abstinence, and continually lived [Page 84] for many Moneths or Years, together without either Meat or Drink; and all of these have been of or­dinary, if not poor and low, Original. Some of the most curious Artists of them who have been most profoundly learned, who have shone in their differ­ing Spheres as Starrs of the first Magnitude, have taken their rise from the lowest ground, and have been only of vulgar Extraction.

This Wisdom, at the Creation of the World, made choice of the meanest Dust as a convenient Material, out of which to make the most ennobled sublunary Creature: So that the most Rational and Magnanimous Men that are in the World, are (as to their out-side) but moving lumps of Clay, meer walking heaps of congealed Atoms.

2. As to Spirituals; very many of them who have been famous for Religion and Holiness, have sprung from the Plow and Distaff. The Image of God has often been very splendid when it has only hung in a plain and homely Frame. I could name you an hundred Martyrs and precious Saints, whose Re­venues have not amounted to a Farthing by the yea [...].

Ruffinus in his Ecclesiastick History, tells of a poor Captive-Woman, who, by her exceeding holy lif [...], and abstinence, as well as other means, was the occasion and instrument of converting the Nation inhabiting Iberia.

The holy and blessed Apostles, who made the whole World ring with Wonders, were at the fir [...] but ordinary Men, only illiterate Mechanicks.

This now is much for the advance of Infinit [...] [Page 85] Wisdom; for God hath (for this end) chosen the foolish, weak, and mean things of the World, to confound (or shame) the wise, the strong and noble. 1 Cor. 1.26, 27, 28, 29, 31. James. 2.5. Eccles. 9.15. Magnates non semper sapientes.

SECT. IV. That Spiritual Comforts may be enjoyed, and Se­rious Holiness exercised, under great and conti­nued Bodily Afflictions.

1. That Spiritual Comforts may be enjoyed under Bodily Afflictions, was evidenced in our Darby-shire Damsel, who was usually of a Serene Tem­per, as to her Mind; the Sun did usually shine, after the first Storms were over; I seldom or never heard of the gathering of Clouds again.

This sweet Flower grows not in every Believer's Garden, especially in the Winter-season. To have Peace within Doors, when all is War without, is a very excellent and rare thing. Few Children use to rejoyce when they are whipt, though it be by a Father's Hand, and that for their advantage; the most give Grief a free Dominion, and send forth Sighs and Sobs to bear witness how they are affected. But

2. All are not of this Drooping, or Discontent­ed Constitution; for, some there are, who can drown all external Sorrows, under the pleasant Streams of that Joy they have within: Thus you find Peter and his Fellows, after they had been im­prisoned, [Page 86] threatned, whipt, and commanded, to speak no more in the Name of Jesus, departing from the presence of the Councel, rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame, Act. 5.41. So the Apostle of the Gentiles saith, We glory in tri­bulations, Rom. 5.3. Many of those ever worthy and renowned Witnesses, who sealed the Gospel with their Blood who mounted Heaven in a Fiery Char­riot, who afforded the Clay-lodgings of their Souls to the undeserved malice of their Adversaries, to make Bond-fires on, for the Glory of the Truth: Many (I say) of these Witnesses, did run to, and kiss the Stake, meet the Fire with kind Embraces, and sing and triumph in the Flames, whiles their Bodies were burning down to ashes.

3. Se [...]ious Holiness may be exercised under great and continued corporal Distempers. Stars may, nay do, shine brightest in the darkest night: The Lil­ly looks the more lovely, for growing among the Thorns. The real Saint usually makes misery amia­ble, by a lovely pious deportment. The true Be­liever having a right understanding of that of the ancient Worthy of the Church, Periissem, nisi pe­riissem, can with comfort write for his Motto, Sit miser, qui miser esse potest, 2 Cor. 4.8.9. & 6.10. I am sure Martha Taylor was most eminent, when she was most under trouble, in the year, 1668. We had once, a rare English Matron, who lying under great Afflictions of Body, lamented the re­covery out of them, because of that Heart-warm­ing Communion, she enjoyed with God under them; and she was afraid, that the warmer and [Page 87] more parching Influences of the Sun of Prosperity would cause those tender Plants to wither, which the quickening Showrs of Affliction, had but a little before made to spring and grow. Prosperi­ty makes Weeds to grow in the exuberant Flesh, but adversity doth [...], beat or club down this body; that this slave may not rule over its lord, the Soul.

SECT. V. We gather how imprudent, yea, how much beneath a life of faith it is, to lay our expectations, hopes, or dependance upon the Creature.

Either the ordinary streams of the Creature may be dried up, or, if they run so as to fill the Banks, we may be made incapable (as in Martha's case or otherways) to make any use of them at all. The wise and great Disposer of these Earthly Enjoyments, doth sometimes either withdraw the Table, or else wholly take away our Appetite, that we may see our happi­ness doth not lie in these things. To depend upon the Creature, is to lean upon a bruised Reed, to under-prop Hopes and Expectation with a rotten Post, yea, to lay the Foundation upon the Sand, and raise an imaginary Castle in the air, where we may think to supply and save our selves when wants and dangers are abroad. When the Creature is most full and over­flows, yet it's but a fallible enjoyment. Meat and Drink, Houses and Lands, Honours and Pleasures, and Riches, and smiles of Grandees, are as poor empty Bubbles, meer impertinent Cyphers; set a thousand of these together, and they all signifie no­thing, without God stand by them. Sit not down in [Page 88] the dust: never desire a childs portion in this barren Land.

SECT. VI. This invites us to the boundless and unconfin'd Creator seeing the Creature is now and then so useless.

VVHether the World wax or wane, whether it ebb or flow, God is still the same to them that fear him. Come, Fondlings, come, and throw the world out of your Arms, and take up God. Do not say as that vile French Cardinal once did, That he would not exchange his part in Paris for his part in Paradise. Let not the Creature prevail over the brutish Appetite, but be so wise as to make an adventure for an Happiness not known to Sense. Psal. 73.25, 26, 27, 28. The Sun of Righteousness is com­pleatly able to make it day to the true Believer, though all the Stars of Creature-comforts should creep under a cloud, and disappear, Psal. 36.7, 9. & 44.6, 8. & 121.1, 2. Hab. 3.17, 18. Phil. 3.8. The Channels and visible Cisterns may be dry; make sure work then, you have the Key to the Fountain head. 'Tis no Paradox to say, That the man who enjoys God hath all things when he hath nothing. ‘Qui habeth habentem omnia, habet omnia.’ The good Musculus, a man often poor enough, was ma­ny times compell'd to fetch meat, drink, and clothing, out of the following double Meeter,

When streams are lowest, and the Creature gone. Let's then be satisfi'd in God alone.