Observat. 5.

Cor. 12. 12.

struction of the living: I will dispatch the other more briefly, which may seem to be peculiar to this one in respect of the shape thereof.

The twins you see are males; brothers, had they been born alive. To love as brethren, is the duty of Christians: a duty frequently remembered by the Apostles, and powerfully pressed. To love, is to have one soul in two bodies: One, not so much by union of essence as by combination of affection: And lo, here a fit resemblance of this mutual duty: as fit, as lively almost as can be devised: Here are all the parts and members of consultation, and operation for two persons; only here is one body, one breast, one belly: the breast the feet of the heart, the belly of the bowels: One I say, not in the identity of substance; but in the conglutination of external parts from breast to belly: whether one heart, one liver, one community of intestines, is more than we could see; though all reason indeed giveth them to be two throughout in all parts: yet you see, so two in one, that had they lived to the years of expression, we might well have expected from them united hearts, entire affections, and more than sympathy, each to other, as to himself. Surely, these are not more nearly conjoined in breast and belly, than Christians ought to be in heart and affection. These two were one body; Christians are one spirit though several bodies and souls, yet one

and the same spirit diffused into all, to enlive and quicken all. Nor would it have been more prodigious for these twins (suppose they had lived to be men) to have quarreled and contested one against another than it is for Christians to quarrel and contend, specially to live in the mind of irreconciliation. To these twins (had they quarreled) a man might have said, you are one body: To Christians a man may well say, you are one spirit: why do you wrong one to another? Was that an argument in all reason fit to compound the supposed difference of these? And shall not this be able to persuade peace, nay love among Christians? Methinketh it should nay, I am sure, if this do not prevail, the faulty person shall one day smart for it: perhaps when repentance for it will come too late.

Well, I have now acquainted you with my thoughts. I have shewed to you, how this birth, though dead, yet speaketh: Truth it is, faith alone hath ears to hear these lessons, these instructions: Nature is deaf, and reason dull in these occasions: A brutish man knoweth not: neither doth a fool under

stand. Faith quickeneth the understanding to apprehend: the will to believe: the affections to take pleasure to these meditations.

With faith, since it is the gift of God, let us now turn ourselves to him with hearty devotion, desiring him to bestow upon us the gift of faith, and

D

all graces, by which we may learn to make an holy use, as of all his works in general, so of this and the like in special: to the glory of his name, and the eternal comfort of our own souls, through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit, three excellent persons, one glorious God, be ascribed all honour

and praise, now, and for

evermore.

Amen.

FINIS

OR,

Abloody Relation how Anne Hamton dwelling in Weftminster nigh London, by poyfon murthered her deare husband, Sept. 1641. being affifted and counfelled thereunto by Margeret Harwood.

For which they were both committed

to Gaole, and at this time wait

for a tryall.

Women love your owne husbands, as Christ doth the Church.

Printed at London for Tho: Bates, 1641.