The Urim of conscience to which the author has had recourse for plain answers, in his own particular case (as every man living ought to do in his) to four questions of great weight and importance, viz. 1. who and what art thou? 2. where hast thous been? 3. where art thou now going? 4. whither art thou going? : together with three select prayers for private families / by Sir Samuel Morland.

Reflections.

If God should permit real Miracles to vouch diabolical Delusions, or indeed, suffer any of the Devil's Magick-Arts to stand in competition with his own Almighty works upon such extraordinary Occasions, of either revealing, or confirming any new Truth or Doctrine, it would soon over∣throw

throw Christian Religion: But we always find the contrary throughout the Holy Scriptures.

Pharaoh's Magicians were soon put to silence: Their Rods were swallowed up by Aaron's Rod: They were at a Non-plus in producing a Lowse; and at last were forced to withdraw, and disappear with shame and disgrace.

The priests of Baal, though they cut and mangled their flesh with sharp knives, and from morning to Evening made bit∣ter Cries, were not able to bring down Fire from Heaven upon their Altars.

The Sorcerer Elymas, was, by St. Paul, struck blind at Salamis and St. Peter more than once publickly baffled the famous Sorcerer Simon Magus.

So that whatever was done by Pharaoh's Magicians (which is one of the most re∣markable Instances of the Devil's power and Enchantments) or whatever was at any time after done by any of his Sorcer∣ers, does not in the least derogate from any of our blessed Saviour's Miracles, or the Miracles afterwards performed by any of his Apostles or Disciples, which did im∣mediately prove on both his, and their Testimony to be Divine; And consequently were an absolute Confirmation of our

Saviour's being the true Messias, and sent by God himself from Heaven for the Redemption of lost sinners, and opening the Kingdom of Heaven to all Be∣lievers.

This Argument of Miracles was urged by Christ himself, (who certainly knew best the force of it) against the Scribes, Pharisees, and unbeliving Jewes: And he did acknowledge, that if he had not done those things which no other Man on Earth could do, they might have had a fair ex∣cuse for their Unbelief.

In the time of Tiberius, (says Josephus, a Jew by Nation, and of a contrary Profes∣sion, and wrote his History about 86 years after Christ)

There was one Jesus, a wise Man (if it be lawfull to call him a Man) who was a Worker of great Miracles, and a teacher of such as love the Truth, and had many, as well Jews as Gentiles who clove unto him: This was Christ, and when Pilate, upon his being accused by the Men of our Nation, bad sentenced him to be Crucified, yet did not they who had first loved him, forsake him; for he appeared to them the Third Day alive again; according to what the Prophets, divinely inspired, had foretold concerning him: As they had done an innumerable

number of very strange things besides, and even to this day, both the Names and sort of Persons called Christians so named from him, do remain.

To which Attestation of Josephus, were it necessary, might be added great numbers of Testimonies from ancient Writers.

I must needs acknowledge, That our blessed Saviour's Apostles, though the greatest part of them were poor 〈◊〉〈◊〉 men, of low Birth, small Fortune, and mean Education, were by the Spirit of God, endued with the wonderful Gift of speaking strange Languages, and other miraculous Powers, that so they might be better enabled to disperse the Gospel into many remote Countries, as they after∣wards did: Namely St. Peter in Sicily, Britain and Africa, as likewise at Antioch and Rome. St. Andrew in Galatia, Bithi∣nia, and all along the Euxine Sea: St. James in Spain, Britain and Ireland. St. John in Asia, and other parts of the East. St. Bar∣tholomew in India. St. Thomas among the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Carmans, Hircans, Bachtrians the Asians, Ethiopians and Indi∣ans. Simon the Zelot in Egypt, Syrene and Africk. St. Jude in the Cities of Arabia. St. Matthias in Cappadocia. St. Mark in

Alexandria. And though St. James the Just did stay at Jerusalem, yet probably he might have some Converts of almost all Nations, who frequently resorted to that City, Parthians, Medes and Elamites, Dwellers in Mesopotamia, Cappadocia, Pon∣tus, Asia, and divers other places.

To all these may be very well added St. Paul, who though he was none of the Twelve, yet he was not the least of the Apostles; and having received his Com∣mission from Christ himself in a Vision, left Damascus, and preached the Gospel at Antioch, Seleusia, Cyprus, Pamphilia, Iconium, Lystra, Pisidia, Galatia, Macedonia, Samo∣thracia, Neapolis, Thessalonica, Beraea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Jerusalem, Illiricum, Sclavonia, Troas and Rome.

Yet notwithstanding all this, it was im∣possible that these poor Men should, at the same time, carry on any private Design of their own, being all of them sent forth as Lambs among Wolves, and foretold by their own Master (whom all, but Judas, had seen scourged, Spit on, and crucified between two Thieves,) that they should be persecuted and hated of all Nations for his Name sake, and the Gospel, (which yet at their peril they were to preach and publish) and after all sorts of Affronts,

and cruel Usage, should suffer shameful and ignominious Deaths, which they all did, as ancient Historians assures us, St. John (Christ's beloved Disciple) excepted; neither had he escaped, as one of them tells us, had God permitted the Cauldron of burning Oil, into which he was thrown by Domitian's Order, to put an end to his life.

As for St. Peter, he, for baffling Simon Magus, was, by the Command of the Emperor Nero, crucified at Rome with his Head downwards.

St. Andrew was at Patra, a City of Achaia by the Proconsul's Order, first scourged, (seven Lictors successively whipping his naked Body) and then tied (not nailed) to the Cross, to prolong his Torments, and was two whole days before he ex∣pired.

St. James was beheaded in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa, Son of Aristobulus, and Grand-child to Herod the Great, in whose Reign Christ was born.

St. Bartholomew was first flead alive, and then crucified at Albanople in Armenia.

St. Matthew is said to be Martyred at Naddaba in Ethiopia.

St. Thomas suffered Martyrdom at Mali∣pur, in the Kingdon of Cormandel, where,

by the Brachmans, he was first loaded with stones and Darts, and then run through with a Launce.

St. James the Less was thrown down from a Pinnacle of the Temple.

Simon the Zelot is said to have suffered great Cruelties in Britain, and then to be crucified by the Infidels.

Jude suffered Martyrdom in Persia, for rebuking the Superstitions of the Magi.

St. Matthias, as is conjectured, was crucified by the barbarous people of Cap∣padocia.

St. Mark was seized on by the Alexan∣drians, at the celebration of their God Serapis, where they dragg'd him by the legs over rugged and uneven ways, till his flesh was torn, his blood wasted, his Spirits decayed and his blessed Soul expired.

To these may be added the cruel Usage of St. Paul and St. Luke.

St. Luke was by the Infidels hang'd on an Olive Tree in Greece.

St. Paul was, by Nero's cominand, be∣headed at Aquae Salvae, about three Miles from Rome, for having converted one of the Emperor's Concubines, so that she utterly refused any further compliance with his wanton desires.

One man in an Age may throw away his Life, on purpose to get himself a Name, and be famous as Erostratus, who set on fire the Temple of Ephesus, or Ravillac, who stabb'd a King of France: But for all these Apostles, and many thousands of their Disciples and Converts to throw away their Lives, and thereby to purchase nothing but ignominy and disgrace, (for alas! they were accounted as the Scum of the Earth, and the Off∣scouring of all things) it can never so much as enter into the Thoughts of any Man of Reason or Sense.

Besides, there were hardly ever commit∣ted in the World, any kind of notorious Crimes, or treacherous Designs contrived, but at some time or other, they were disco∣vered, by one or more of the Crimi∣nals: But let the ablest Historian in the World, (if he can) produce a real Instance of any of the Apostles or Martyrs, among so many thousands (possi∣bly Millions) whose cruel Sufferings for the Faith of Jesus, made them openly recant, or confess themselves guilty of any fraudulent Practises, or setting up a false Worship to deceive all Nations.

After all this, tell me, ye foolish and perverse Atheists, Who has bewitcht you

to build your Tabernacles of Happiness upon such sandy Foundations, or to sell your immortal souls to the Devil at so cheap and easy rates?

I have yet one question to ask of certain Persons, who are rightly stiled Modern Sad∣duces, and that is, For what Reason they deny the Resurrection? Or why they should at all doubt God's Omnipotence? Or once imagine, That He who made all things out of nothing, should not be able, when ever he pleases, out of some∣thing to make any thing?

How many Emblems of the Resurrection have we frequently before our Eyes? The Night lies down, and the Day arises; a∣gain, The Day departs, and the Night comes on: The Year that dies in Autumn, has a Resurrection in the Spring: The seed of Herbs, Corn and Fruit-Trees, first suffer a Dissolution in the Earth, (some for a few Days, others for a few Weeks) and then, by the Power of the Almighty Maker of all things, have a new Body gi∣ven them of the same Kind or Species.

If that be true which some have related of the Phoenix, (a thing I would rather believe, than undertake to disprove since there are so many strange things to be found among the Works of the Creation) It is a wonderful Type of the Resur∣rection.

In Arabia (say they) there is a certain Bird called a Phoenix, of which there is but one at a time, and that one lives 500 Years; and when the time draws near that it must die, it makes it self a Nest of Frankincense and Myrrh, and o∣ther Spices, into which, when its time is fulfilled, it enters and dies; but its Flesh putrifying, breeds a certain Worm, which being nourished by the Juice of the dead Carcass brings forth a new Phoenix, and when it is grown to a perfect Age, it takes up the Nest, in which the Bones of its Parent lie, and carries it from Arabia into Egypt, to a City called Heliopolis, and flying in open Day, in the sight of all Men, lays it on the Altar of the Sun, and so returns into the Country from whence it came: This done, the Priests make search into the Records of Time, and find that it re∣turneth at the end of 500 Years.

Whether this Report be true or no, sure I am, that nothing can be too hard for the Almighty.

Let us suppose, in two or three Instan∣ces, things that are within the reach of our apprehensions, viz. First, a Mariner in a Sea-fight to be shot to death, and thrown over-board, and afterwards the Flesh of

his Body to be eaten up by a great number of small Fishes, and these Fishes to be taken in Nets, and eaten by hundreds of Men, Women, and Children, of different places and abodes, and some of them to be drowned in the Sea, and devoured by o∣ther Fishes, and some to be cast into the Earth, and eaten up by Worms.

In the next place, Let us suppose a Man to die in a wide Forest or Wilderness, and part of his Carcass to be devoured by wild Beasts, part by the Fowls of the Air, and part by Flies and creeping▪ Things; and again, those Beasts and Fowls, and creeping things to die, and part of them to be eaten up by other Creatures.

Lastly Let us suppose a Man-Child born into the World, and (as 'tis believed) the Flesh of that Infant, in a few Years, to be evaporated, and new Flesh grown up in the room of the other; and let us sup∣pose this Body to live and change for the space of threescore or fourscore years, and then be buried in the Sands, (as is practised in some very hot Countries) and there remain a Thousand or fifteen Hundred Years, till such time, as it is grown perfectly dry, and fit to be made use of for Mummie; and this Mummie to be distributed into the hands of several

hundreds of Apothecaries, and each of these Apothecaries to make use of it in their physical Doses, Potions, or other∣wise, and to administer it to as many hundreds of their Patients, and each of those Patients to void the same, or any part of it, by stool and those stools to be carried away by the Scavengers, into some common place, and there mingled with the Ordours of ten Thousand other Per∣sons, and from that place taken up by the Salt-Peter Men and converted into Gun-powder, and that Powder shot away into the Air.

Give me leave to tell those unbelieving Sadduces, (my life for theirs) that the Al∣mighty God, and Maker of Heaven and Earth, is able to recall every Particle, Dust or Atom of a Human Body, in any of the aforesaid Instances to its Original and proper Mass, and to form that Mass into its first Original and infant Body: As also to give that infant Body its full stature, and perfect Dimensions; and this done, from a Natural and Corruptible, to change it into a Spiritual and incorruptible Substance: And lastly, to reunite it to its own proper and immortal soul; and all this in a moment,—in the twinkling of an Eye,—at the last Trump,—and the

Voice of the Arch-angel, calling for the Dead to arise and come to Judgment.—

I must needs acknowledge, That the Disbelief of a future Resurrection, is no small encouragement to either Atheist or Libertine, to go on in his sin with great presumption: For if the Dead rise not, our Faith is altogether vain; And if this Corruptible shall never put on Incor∣ruption, nor this Mortal, Immortality; then go to, Let us Eat, Drink and be Merry, for to Morrow we die.

There are some who satisfie themselves, that God is so merciful, and so just in his Judgments, that he will never punish finite Sins with everlasting Punishments, but such Men little think how miserably they deceive themselves, while they ascribe less Power to the Almighty Maker over his Creatures, than an ordinary Potter has over his Clay and earthen Vessels: Besides, that in the Gospel Dispensation there are propos'd to Fallen Man two things, which very well counterballance one the other, both as to Time and Measure; namely, on the one side Eternal and inexpreslible Happiness; and on the other, endless and unspeakable Miseries. Now, if the Sin∣ner do voluntarily, and with deliberation choose the last of these, Volent non fit Injuria,

he has his choise and desire, and has no reason in the World to complain of any hardship, much less of any Injury done to him, it being a greater Mercy to grant Eternal Life upon a bare Repentance and Believing, during our earthly pilgrimage, than it is a Severity to inflict eternal Tor∣ment, for continuing in actual Sin, for the very same term of time.

The Author of Leviathan will, by no means admit of a Local Hell, or indeed of a Local Heaven: For the first of which he has no better Reason than this, (trusting to his own skill in Geometry and Staticks) that it cannot be either in the Cavity of the Earth, or any other body of the like magnitude hanging in the expanse; for∣asmuch as in any circumscribed Bodies there cannot be included a Bottomless-Pit, which, in sacred Stile, is sometimes called Hell: Whereas if he had considered, that our Antipodes tread as heavy on the super∣ficies of the Earth, and carry their Bo∣dies as upright towards Heaven, as any of us; and that showres of Hail and Rain in calm Weather, fall upon any part of this Terrestial Globe directly towards the Center, in a straight line; He might very easily have judged, that this Globe of Earth hanging in the expanse, by nothing

but the Almighties Word and Power, has its own proper Center, as all other Bodies of the same or greater Magnitude have; and consequently, that if underneath there were a great Cavity▪ and that Cavity fil∣led with a fluid body of Fire and Brim∣stone, the convex Superficies of that glo∣bular fiery Lake, would in every part of it be the uppermost, and the parts adjoin∣ing to its Center would be the lowest, and probably the Bodies of damned Re∣probates being thrown into this Lake, would sometimes float upon it, and some∣times plunge to and fro in it: But foras∣much as the Center of this globular Lake, would be but an imaginary point, those Bodies would plunge and move to and fro within it in Saecula Saeculorum, without finding any solid Fulcrum, or firm Bottom; neither could the most learned Philoso∣phers, or skilful Geometricians in the whole World, be ever able, by contem∣plating all their Lives, the Dimensions of that fiery Lake, and its Center of Gravity, to make any other thing of it then truly and properly a Bottomless-pit.

And if those learned Men should allow in that case, the shell of this Terrestial Globe to be no more then 17 or 18 hun∣dred Yards in thickness, and then compute

how many cubick Yards and Feet would be contained within its concave Superficies, they would perhaps find room enough, and to spare, for all the Bodies of Human Reprobates, from the first Creation to this present time, and for some Thousands of Years to come. As for the Devil and his Angels, if above six Thousand of them were crowded into the body of one Gada∣rene, a few thousands of cubick yards might very probably contain all his Infernal Legions: And as for the Bodies of Human Reprobates, they being once Spiritualiz'd, may, for ought any Man knows, be pres∣sed into a much less compass, than ours that are of a grosser substance.

Besides all this, who knows whether the Confinement of both Devils and Re∣probates, within a small compass and nar∣row space, may not rather augment and encrease, than any way lessen or diminish their everlasting Torments.