In the spring, the earth, Hke a most bountiful parent, opens her bosom, produces variety of herbs, adorns the meadows with abundance of flowers ; the trees which had been stript of their for- mer green leaves are clothed >vith new ones ; the cold being now driven away, the air becomes warm, and the cattle bring home udders full of milk ;
Then joyous birds frequent the lonely groves.
All nature is renewed and smiles ; the season is kindly favour- able, and admirably well adapted to the benefit of all things, chiefly of those endued with life. All which things have been, in a very elaborate and ingenuous manner, applied by our learned countryman, Brightman, to that remarkable period, when Cyrus published that edict of his, .(which can never be sufficiently com- mended) for setting God's people at hberty. The enhvening
* This letter was originally wrote in Latin, the author judgijig it necessary to be so, as what allowed him a greater freedom of expression, than might seem con- venient at that time in the common language; yet, that every reader might be profited by it, the publisher of this edition hath thought fit to translate it into English. It has a reference to the troubles before, and the bles&iogs after the Itevolution.
beams of a like providential interposition, like the sun entering tlie sign of Aries, have made us who were half dead to revive.
We are not insensible, as our wounds are yet green, what great and sharp afflictions we have suffered for many years by-past, for conscience sake. Alas, what sad things have we not seen ! what oppressions have we not unjustly endured, during this rough, dis- mal, and every- way destructive winter ? We have seen the sea swell- ing with dreadful storms, by reason of which, some, being amazed and confounded, have hoisted sail to any wind whatsoever : we have seen trees that excelled others, both in fruitfulness and comeliness, beat down and laid low by the stormy winds ; others which bare neither fruit nor leaves, have been, as it were, blasted. Mountains have we seen become white with hoar-frost, rivers locked up in ice, lands covered, yea, buried in snow ; flocks of fowls, and herds of cattle starved with hunger, wandering up and down in great want ; cunning fowlers spreading their nets, and ensnaring many : In a word, we have seen Christ's church (alas !) pierced with arrows winged with her own feathers ; the civil state founded on laws, al- most subverted by laws ; every thing having a bad aspect, and grow- ing daily worse and worse.
Long and sore have we been tossed in the sea of trouble ; in our youth we were plunged into it, we are come out of it in old age ; our case has been the same with what happened at the siege of Tyre, Ezek. xxix. 18. Every head is made hald, and every shoidder is peeled ; but yet all these things seem troublesome rather than wonderful, to any one who seriously considers the thing prophesied by the great apostle, 2 Tim. iii. 1. In the last days perilous times shall come. Of which perilous times, * Lactantius writes thus ;
* When the end of this world is approaching, the state of human
* affairs must needs be greatly changed, and grow worse, through
* the prevalency of wickedness ; in so much that this present age,
* wherein sin and wickedness have arrived to the greatest pitch, ' may, wlien compared with that abandoned and incorrigible age, ' be justly deemed the happy and golden one. For then righ-
* teousness shall decrease, and ungodHness, avarice, ambition, and
* lust increase : so that whosoever shall happen then to be sober ' and religious, shall become a prey to the bricked, and be greatly ' harassed by the unrighteous ; the vicious alone shall be prosper- ' ous and happy, while the people of God shall meet with every ' kind of bad treatment, and be reduced to extreme poverty. All ' right shaU be confounded, laws shaU perish ; then no body shall ' possess any thing but what is iU got, or what he is obliged to de-
* fend by force ; rapine and violence shall carry every thing before —————— , , _^ — ■ ■ I ■
* Lactan, iib. 70. de divino in-amio, p. 578, 579t
* them : there shall be no fidelity among men, no peace, no hu- ' manity, no shame, no truth, and neither safety nor order, nor ' any rest from trouble ; for the whole earth shall be in confusion, ' and the noise of din and war heard every where ; all nations ' shall be up in arms, and attack one another ; neighbouring states
* shall war among themselves ; destruction shall run over the face ' of the earth, cutting down every thing, and laying it along, as ^ corn-fields are in harvest. The reason of which dreadful cala- ' mity and strange confusion, will be this. That the Roman Name, ' which has subdued the whole world, shall then (I tremble to ut- ' ter it, but, since it is certain, utter it I must) be quite extinct."
What think you, reader, is not this a description of our own times, or must we wait longer, till that pernicious and wicked race of men shall appear upon the stage ? That this hath been fulfilled in our late troubles, none sure can hesitate that hath any discern- ment.
But God at length, pitying our distresses, hath raised up a man *, both zealous for the truth, and a lover of godliness, boldly to as- sert his cause in the face of danger and toil, and to put a new face on things. Concerning this time it shall be said. What wonderful ihings hath God done ? Now every impediment being removed, and the dreadful storm calmed, (which scatters up and down like stubble) our gracious God doth in this manner bespeak us. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away ; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the jiowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. As if he had said, You have been long enough con- fined at home, come now (for you may safely come) abroad. There is the greatest appearance of safety and incitement to labour every where. Thus, the severity of the Winter recommends to us the pleasui es of the Spring.
For my part, I had no sooner heard the joyful news of Liberty, than presently I began to prepare myself for my proper and much longed for work ; for if so much pleasure is found in the study of the mathematics, that when one has tasted of it, he is so ravished and bewitched with it, that he cannot be taken off from the study of them ; it will certainly be the sweetest pleasure of all, to em- ploy our labours, however much sve are exhausted, for the glory of Christ, and good of souls : it gives me therefore no small plea- sure that at length I may put in my sickle, which hath been long in disuse, into the Lord's harvest, together with the rest of my fellow-labourers. Thanks to my God, who hath not only season- ably opened a door of opportunity, but hath also (which I earnestly
* WILLIAM-III. Prince of Oranqe.