AL though this age wherein we live hath béen an Age full of wonders, and none have béen more frequent or more remarkable then in our owne Land: yet this wonder which I shall now declare unto you, will be sound to transcend all o­ther Wonders whatsoever.

Not only invention, but Histories Ec­clesiasttical and Civil, have told us of some [Page 2] rersans, who from the grave have [...]een re­stored unto life, We have red of the dead Child which was revived by the Prophet, and of the wonder wrought by our Savi­our upon Lazarus, who payed to Nature one debt more then he owed: But of a man who from the age of one hundred and six­téen years was restored to a youthfull and vigorous constitution, to have a new strength of light, to have new téeth, and new haire, to receive a new youth in all the faculties of Soul and Body, that no age but this no Land but our can parallel.

We shall find that the Prophet Daniel, a though in the thankful acknowledgement of Gods mercies to him, he saith, I hou hast renewed my dayes like and Eagle, ye before all extraordinary progresse of time he stoop­ed to the infirmities of age, and being co­vered with cloathes he could get no heat; He found that true in himself which he said of others; The age of a man is three score and ten, if he attain to four score yeers, his dayes are but sorrow and wearinesse: But this man of whom we speak being almost one hundred and twenty years old, had his eyes that were dimm enlightned, and did say by his Spectacles which before he used, he might well take up this in the Ec­clesiastes, [Page 3] and make the strength of his age as much his gratitude as his wonder. The Keepers of the house did not tremble, nor the strong men did bow themselves, the Grindders did not cease because they were few, and those that look out at the win­dow were not darkned, the Almond tree did not as yet flourish on his head, the sil­ver cord was not loosed, nor the golden Bowle broken, nor the pitcher broken at the well, nor the wheele broken at the Ci­storn, &c.

Neverthelesse it is not to be dissembled, that if you will wipe off the dust of Anti­quity from some of the Greek Poem we shall find that the Father of Jason being of a great age, and having a body laden with diseases, was made young again by the charmes of his daughter in Law A [...]dea, we shall read also of & wonder wrought on Virbius, but these are inventions which have nothing but Fable to maintain their reputation in the world. The Narration of this is true, and sent in Letters from the North to severall Persons of almost the highest account in this Nation.

His age was quickned into youth, and it was at this pregnant season of the yeare, when Winter is quickned into Spring, I [Page 4] may call it his Renovation, or his Resur­rection from the ruines of Age, to the strength and beauties of youth. Indéed there are many things in nature which séem to point at a resurrection such as this, and would perswade us by their examples to a more easie entertainment and belief of this Wonder, and in the first place,

We may look upon the solemn Poetry of the Phonix, a Creature rarer then the Resurrection, though not so admirable, in whose Ashes she may sée the fire of life ex­pecting to be fammed to the resurrection of a flame as if this Creature by a Riddle of Fate should by a fire both perish and re­vive, you shall find that it recovereth it self from diseases and corruptions of age, in­to the vigour and the courage of youth.

But in earnest we may behold the Eagle shooting forth her new quills, by which she doth testific her indeavours and desires of immortality.

But why should we in the sloth of con­templation study so broad an object: Let us with more gracefull industry confine our eyes to the small séed of Corn, and at least take the paines to sée the pains of the Husband man, where behold the delightful Arithmatick of Nature, we may sée the [Page 5] séed, whose hope séems small at it self, by being cast away to be found, by destruction to receive increase, and from the same sur­row to take both its buriall, and its birth.

Thus both the divine indulgence gradu­ally chastise the difficulty of the length of instruction, and by things more obvious both surpasse our understandings to things that are not, so the Phenix out of her ashes to reassume new life, is both read and received: For the Eagle to renew her beak and her youth together, is approved of by experience. For the séed of Corne to rise up from the surrow, and to be young again and multiply, is the daily obserbati­on of the Farmer▪ But for an old man of one hundred and sixtéen years of age, to cast away at once both his Spectecles and his Crutch, to leap from the infirmities of age, into the height and strength at youth­full age, to have his heart warme againe with desire, and his beins with blood, is such a miracle, That not only Reason, but Nature her self doth startle at.

Son of man can these bones live? Saith God himself to the Prophet Ezekiel, Those Bones whose hopes are as dry, and as much exhausted as is their narrow; This is a Taske for God himselfe to doe, be on­ly [Page 6] can revive him, who did create him; It is he that can bring flesh again upon him, and can gird it about them with sinews, it is he that can cover them with skin, and can cause his breath to enter into him, it is he alone can bestow complexion upon him, and having made smooth the furrows, can plant the flowers of youth, on the brow of Age, it is he alone y^t returned the extream age of this old man to a youthfull and vi­gorous constitution, and hallowed be his name.

There are a generation of men in this age who live like the Sadduces, as if there were no resurrection, they adde lust unto oppression, and murder to bypocrisie and vainly minding the glory of this world, they quite forget the Kingdome of God, let them therefore understand and tremble at the apprehension of it, the same Omni­potent God that gave both health & youth to this aged man, when he had one foote in the grave, hath a day at hand, when at the sound of the Trumpet he will call all flesh to judgement, The oppressor shall then give an account of his wealth, and the con­querer of his conquest, and in what holiness of Spirit they have lived in the height o [Page 7] their fortunes, for though Heaven be high, no step so néere as humility.

There is also a generation of men, who hanging their Harps on the Willows do sit down on the banks of the rivers, and do increase them with their tears, who are either lying on the ground, or are laid in it, exhecting the resurrection of the just, the same God who against hope did miraculous­ly revive this man unto youth, will raise them unto glory, for the day is appoaching when corruption shall put on incorruption, when loose dust by the warmth and moi­sture of bloud shall be kneaded into man, when there shall be a resurrection of the grave, of rottennesse, of sicknesse, of the winding sheet of consumptions, all which shall be purified into joy, into strength, into perfect beauty, into a robe of glory, into a throne of glory, into life, into health, into immortality; when there shall be a reno­vation even of Majesty it self, whose glory which seemed here to be buried in this world, shall then illustriously arise in the face of heaven, when the transitory condi­tion of all good men living [...] mainly be exchanged [...]

By Birth he is a Scotch man, by Edu­cation a Schollar, bred up in the university of Scotland in which having taken his degrees, and attained to the formality of Master of Arts, he professeth the study of Divinity, and at a Village called Lesbury in the County of Northumberland, some five and twenty miles distant from New­castle, he was chosen to be Parson and Rector of the said place: his name is John Marklaine, he was noted alwayes to be a great Student, and to execute his Fun­ction with great industry and diligence, he was so temperate of life, and withall so strong of constitution, that notwithstand­ing his restlesse lucubratious, he was al­most fourescore before his eye grew dimm or any toth did begin to faile him, when he [Page 9] was three score and fifteen years of age, or thereabouts, he began to use Spectacles, which he continuen full forty years toge­ther, untill lately he found by degrees his eye-sight every day to grow stronger and stronger, and at last to be so perfect, that without any Spectacles he was able to reade the smallest Print that could be brought unto him.

The report of this seemed so strange to many Ministers and Gentlemen therea­bout, that they hardly could give any cre­dit to it, untill taking the pains to come to his house, their eyes did prove that to be true which their ears did heare: and the Wonder thereof being spread up and down the Country, it did draw many more of all sorts unto him, who as they were Specta­tors of the blessing, so they were partakers in the joy, and departed giving thanks to God for what they had heard and seen.

As his eyesight did improve it selfe, so did his hearing, for hearing before but hea­vily, and when they did speak aloud unto him, his hearing was as quick and perfect as in the time of his strongest youth.

[Page 10] His téeth also which were most of them decayed, and many of them quite lost by the injury of age, did begin to break forth again, and in a short time did appear in as even and as full a row as at the first.

And whereas his haire was but thin be­fore and gray witth the tincture of age, his haire doth grow forth again very thick, and is of the same complexion as it was when he was but thirty years of age.

Neither was this reparation of nature only in his head and tongue, for speaking before but softly he now peracheth again very audibly, and with a good voice, but his whole body in all the faculties thereof, is miraculously renewed in his strength, inso­much that he now studieth as closely as in those dayes of his youth when the greatest imployments were upon him & he preach­eth constantly euery Lords day, both in the forenoone and in the afternoone, hauing his memory, his apprehension and elocution as good as at the first time when he did take the Ministry upon him.

[Page 11] These things being very true, and at­tested by a cloud of witnesses, methinks those men who had the Ministers of the word of God in contempt, should now be taught to give them a more mamerly re­respect, since we sée that he was here plea­sed to make use of a Minister of his word for the manifestation of his power. And it is obser bable that he granted to this Mi­nister so long a time of life, and almost thirty years beyond the custome of ordina­ry men, on purpose the more to manifest the greatnesse of his power, for surely it e­uer any man since the Creation deserved to be called Virbius, that is to say, twice a man, it was this Minister, what did we think could put new eys into this old mans head, but the resurrection, what could fa­sten them in his Sums but Resurrection. That history of the Téeth that were sow­ed by Cadmus, and of the armed men that sprang forth thereby, though otherwise wonderfull, is but a sluggish miracle com­pared to this. It God who is both the re­surrection and the life, who did breach a new into this old man the breach of life, it was he that did indue him with a new warmth, and did create new spirits within him.

[Page 12] And since be hath béen pleased to giue us so large a proof of the dispensation of his goodnesse, let us walk worthy of his mer­cies, and beléeve that he who raised this man when he was falling into the grave, will also raise us, and that the manifesta­tion of his Providence in this is a sure sign unto us of the resurrection shortly to come, when Age shall be exchanged into youth, and imperfection into perfection, when all things shall be new, when there shall be a new Heaven, a Earth, and a new Jerusa­lem, when the Son of man shall appear in the Clouds, attended with an innume­rable company of Angels, who are the Youth of Heaven, when the glory of this World shall vanish into nothing, and God shall be all in all, to whom be all Honour Dominion, and Obedience, now and for over more, Amen.