A26888:400
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls…
The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadducees and infidels, by Richard Baxter.The certainty of the worlds of spirits and, consequently, of the immortality of souls of the malice and misery of the devils and the damned : and of the blessedness of the justified, fully evinced by the unquestionable histories of apparitions, operations, witchcrafts, voices &c. / written, as an addition to many other treatises for the conviction of Sadduces and infidels, by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for T. Parkhurst, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Mr. William Thomas's Letter concerning the Glaston-Thorn: Together with two other Enclosed Letters to the same purpose.
SIR,
Understanding by my Son, your Desire to enquire about Glaston. Thorn, I did immediately (being not able to travel my self in such a Season) send to such as I thought might best inform me; whose Information you have in the two enclosed Letters; the one from the Minister of Glaston, the other from Mr. Che•wind, Pastor at Wells; both of them understanding and Godly Men. I was not satisfied with Mr. Winney's Letter, because he wrote not of the Graft taken from this Thorn, now growing, (when the old Thorn is gone.) Something it seems there was in the nature of the Plant, for that Graft shoots forth much sooner than any other Thorn, and about that time, though i• ⟨p. 205⟩do not the Feat in blossoming just on the Day, but after it; which may be because the Soil is not so suitable to it, as that was to the other.— I should have thought this had been all the Wonder, viz. the natural, rare and rath Blossoming of that Thorn, got perhaps from Foreign Parts,) made (by Fame) to cry Christmas; but that the Information in the first Letter (and Testimony) is so punctual, that it seems to evince more. But (howsoever) that which we call Christmas-Day is not to gain its Estimation from such a Providence, but from Scripture, from Reason, at least, from a due Demonstration that that was (indeed) the Day of Christ's Birth; which (perhaps) nothing will prove, unless it be the Thorn. I speak not against the Custom of the Church, in remembering the Birth of Christ, though I conceive Christ's own Day is better for it than any other; I mean, the Lord's Day; unto which, when Men's Days be added, the Lord's Day, and the Lord of that Day, suffer by their jostling with it. A Subordination will not serve, but it ariseth to a Coordination and Competition; yea, a Prelation.