226 BAXTER'S DYING THOUGHTS. Without such a miraculous glimpse of .glory,' God, sometime giveth some of his servants such a mental illustration, and inward glimpse and taste of heaven, as greatly overcometh'all the fears of pain and death: such many old and later martyrs have had. It was a .strange wordof the godly Bishop ofSt. David's, Mr. Farrar, to his neighbors, ' Ìf I stir in the fire, believe not my doctrine ;' and, accordingly, he stirred not. If he had not had some prophet- ical inspiration, this could not havebeen justified from being a pre- sumptuous tempting of God. And Mr. Baynam's case was a mere wonder, who, in the flames, called to the Papists to see a miracle, professing to -them, that in the fire he felt no more pain than if he had been laid on a bed-of down, or roses. I am just now reading in Melch. Adam's Lives of the German Philosophers, the Life of Olympia' Fulvia Morata, which ended with some such experience. In many ages, there bath been some one rare woman, who bath excelled men in the languages, philos- ophy, and other human learning. Such an one was this Olympia Fulvia Morata, of Ferrara. She married Andr. Gundler, a phy- sician : she removed with him into Germany ; and was, by the way, convinced of the guard of angels, by her young brother fall- ing out of a high window, on cragged stones, without any more hurt than if it had been on the soft ground. In Germany, she thus wrote to Anna Estensis, a Guisian princess : ` As soon as, by the singular goodness of God, 1 was departed from the Italian idolatry, and came with my husband into Germany, it is incredible how God changed my soul, (or mind,) which being formerly most averse (or abhorring) to thedivine Scriptures, am now delighted in them alone, and place in them all my study, labor, care,. and mind ; and, as much as possible, contemn all the riches; honors, and pleasures, which formerly I was wont to admire.' But the cross presently following, in God's usual method, her husband and she were, by soldiers, stripped naked, save the shift next thebody, and narrowly escaping with life, were put so to wander from place to place, none daring to entertain them, even when she was sick of a fever; till at last they found liberal entertainment, in which she shortly fell into a mortal disease, of whichshe died. And, in her last sickness, and .after much torment of body, near death, she pleasantly smiled. Her husband asked her the cause; who said, ' I saw a certain place, which was full of a most clear and beauteous light;' intimating that she should quickly be there, and saying, '1 am wholly full of joy.' And spoke no more till, her eye-sight failing her, she said, ` I scarce know any ofyou any more ; but all things elseabout seem to be full of most beauteous flowers;' which were lier last words ; having a long time professed, that nothing, seemed
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