told you the Pestilence was called the hand of God and Gods hand could haue reach't you at any distance had not He sanctified your flight It was obserued that in the great Plague at Greece if any to auoid the Infection had remoued into some Citie of safety and better Aire they only died that thought by flight to shun it But God dealt not so with you He blest your Flight your Secession your Remoues Neither hath He in them only blest you but in your returne also bringing your Tribes backe againe into your Citie vniting all her scattered Lines vnto their proper Center and assembling them in this very place from whence the growing sicknes this last yeare frighted you making you translate the solemnitie to another Place And He doth still deliuer you by continuing this His Deliuerance whose fruits are Health and Safetie vnto vs all For though the Mortality be now happily stayed yet let me tell you it is rather as yet Slumbred then Extinguished Non desunt venena sed torpent There are bad relicks enough to awake it againe In bedding or garments infected there is Contagio residua a lurking residuous contagion able to cause a Relapse no lesse fearefull then the late Disease Though it be raked vp in Ashes yet amongst these Ashes there be some sparks which now and then discouer themselues that may raise the Flame as high as euer God grant that either our owne Securitie in aduenturing too soone vpon Things or Places that yet may retaine Infection or especially our foule sins which shew we haue forgot God so soone as his Rod is taken off vs doe not kindle His Anger freshly against vs lest we be vtterly consumed Last of all that I may trace Gods mercifull Deliuerance euen as low as the Graue He hath deliuered those that died by this contagion some of them from their pressing wants and exigencies more grieuous then Death A peste aerumnarum as Iunius and Tremelius read it Others from Toile and Seruitude but all of them from a wretched sinfull life so putting a Period to many calamities many forrowes many discontentments by one Death And He hath yet a future Deliuerance for vs later then that which was their last not only from Disease which is the Bayliffe of the first Death but from Sin which exposes vs to the danger of the second Death That greatest Deliuerance in whose purchase He bled and for whose Assurance He rose againe The Deliuerance first of our Soules from our sinfull Bodies when Death by giuing Nature a Bill of Diuorce shall seuer them from each other and they must take seuerall Sanctuaries one aboue in the Bosome of Abraham the other in the Bosome of Earth And then the finall Deliuerance of those Bodies from the Earth againe vnto whose custodie they were committed when by a new indissoluble vnion they shall be remarried one to another and both together vnited to their Head Christ Iesus by which vnion they shall be married to the Ioyes of His Kingdome vnto which in their Election they were contracted On this Assurance as on a Rock rest all our comforts We shall not need to feare what can become of this Earthy stuffe we beare about vs in our Bodies since our Soules like Gedeons lamps shall burne bright when these earthen Pitchers are broken And what euer Fate shall break these Pitchers these Bodies of ours whether the violent hand of an Enemy or a fiercer Disease an Higher hand will recollect the scattered Relicks of our Frailtie and by infusing nobler qualities of Glory and Incorruption for this corruptible must be invested with incorruption make them in stead of Clay vessels of Honour fit for his Kingdome So long as by our Faith we are allowed a recourse vnto this pretious Balsam Death can looke grim in no dresse nor Deaths most fearefull Executioners affright vs. The very name of Resurrection so sweetens the bitternes of Death that enamoured on the Ioyes it leads to we haue rather cause to court then feare it Whether we perish by the sword a Peace softer then Rest shall close our Wounds Or whether by the Pestilence this thought shall abate the horrour of that Noysome Disease Quid est quod pestis nomen exhorreas cum potius solatij genus sit vt comitatior moriaris It may appeare a Comfort rather then a Calamity to fall with a Multitude That company that coÌ„munion in Death shew's vs through a sad Perspectiue the ioyfull communion of Saints vnto which we in the next life shall be admitted And although like a tempestuous Autumne it shakes vs by heaps into our Graues our Extraction will be more orderly in better Method then was our Buriall For vnusquisque suo ordine we shall Arise in Order That confused tumultuous kind of Death shall not disguise vs from the knowledge of our Maker who will distinguish each Bone and giue it to the right Owner Nor can the deepest dungeon of Earth the lowest Graue deteine vs since our Deliuerer will be our Baile He that hath the Keyes of Dauid keeps also the Key of our Prison By that Master-key He will vnlocke our Graues those doores of Mortalitie and with it will He open the euerlasting doores giuing vs our entrance into Heauen After which happy Resurrection we shall liue not sub vmbrâ altissimi vnder the shadow but in the bright Sunshine of Gods presence and the comforts of his Spirit and the fruition of our Redeemer who is both our Resurrection and our Life Amen FINIS Diuision 1. He. Iob 38. 31. Cant. 4. 16. Iob 38. 8. 11. Verse 1. Matth. 7. 12. * Act. 25. 12. Shall Deliuer Exod. 25. 20. Leo Ser. 11. de Pass Esay 43. 6. Hebr. 13. 8. Dan. 3. Exod. 13. 21. Petr. Galatin de Arcanis Cathol verit l. 3. c. 14. Psal. 90. 1. Habac. 3. 8. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Gen. 3. 15. Esa. 62. 11. Gen. 2. 17. Gen. 3. Psal. 129. 3. Esay 53. 5. Esay 53. 3. Ioh. 19. 34. Col. 1. 20. Reu. 5 9. 1 Cor. 6. 20. Exod. 12. 30. Leo Serm. 5. de Pass Psal. 15. 10. Esay 53. 5. Matth. 27. 33. Matth. 24. 28. Ioh. 19. 40. Psal. 116. 3. Act. 2. 24. Lorinus Luc. 24. 21. Ephes. 5. 23. Iohn 2. 20. Mat. 27 66. Gen. 2. 21. Mat. 27. 60. Leo Serm. de Quadrages Gregor Nazianzon Mat. 28. 2. Hieron Iustin. Mart. Athanasius Psal. 87. 6. Tertullian 1 Cor. 15. 20. Tho. Aquin. part 3. quaest 53. art 1. Arist. Metaph. 2. * Debemus mortem peccato primi hominis sed per eam perueniemus ad vitam aeternam Aug. Tom. 10. Rom. 7. 24. 3. Thee Augustin Leo ser. 3. de Pentecost Petr. Lom lib. 2. dist 21. Psal. 8. 6. Hebr. 2. 12. Hebr. 1. 13. From the Snare of the Hunters Isidor Pelus l. 2. Ep. 135. Esay 32. 2. Ierem. 16. 1 Pet. 5. Abacuc 1. 16. Iohn 8. 44. Psal. 10. 2. Ambros. Ser. 11. in Psal. 118. 1 Cor. 6. 18. Matth. 3. 1. Matth. 22. 15. Psal. 21. 17. Reu. 7. 3. Matth. 16. 18. Esay 53. 5. Psal. 69. 21. Ambros. lib. 1. de Poenit. cap. 15. Psalm 2. Snare Marc. Eremita Prou. 5. 22. Bern. in Psal. 90. Esay 5. Hilarius in Psal. 118. pag. 47. Ecclesiastes 7. 28. Psal. 69. 22. Tho. Aquin. in 1 Tim 6. 1 Tim 6. 9. Habac. 1. 15. Ambros. in Psal. 118. Ser. 14. Psalm 54. 2 Tim. 2. 26. Reu. 2. 20. Mat. 27. 5 6. Ambros. lib. 2. offic cap. 16. Iac. 5. 2 3. Iac. 5. 4. Luc. 20. 25. Iuvenal Malac. 3. 10. Psal. 10. 6. Ezec. 38. 22. And from the Noysome Pestilence Iac. 3. 6. Pestilentia est hamo malus detractor Aug. Hom. 10. Bernard in Psal. 90. Ser. 3. Chald. Paraphr Tho Walsing Hist. Angl. Ed. 2. p. â—â—8 Aâ—nal Stow pag. 218. Iob 5. 26. a Walsingham Histor. Aug. Ed. 3. pag. 168. b Stow Annal. pag. 664. Euagrius Histor. Eccles. lib. 4. cap. 29. Boterus de orig Vrbium lib. 2. cap. 7 11. Zach. 12. 11. Epiphan Aug. Psal. 103. 21. Vers. 6. 2. Sam. 24. 15. Ezek. 7. 15. 2 Sam. 24. 14. Iob 5. 18. Mr. G. Sands Relation lib. 2. pag. 97. Dier Genial lib. 1. cap. 6. Thucid. lib 2. Bel. Pelopones Lactant. lib. 2. de Orig. Erroris cap. 8. 2 Sam. 24. 16. Conclusion Hebr. 10. 30. Rom. 9. 15. Rhem. Test. Annot in Rom. 8. â—7 Iesuit Catechis lib. 1. cap. 10. Leuit. 14. Isych lib. 4. in Leu. cap. 14. 1 Ioh. 2. 2. a Hinc nòn minor ferè extitit Diuorum famulantium turba quà m Deorum quondam apud Romanus Riuius l. 1. ae Superfâ—it b Riuius loc cit c Heur Steph. Apolog. Herocot cap. 38. d Sohn de Cultu Dei Thes. 90. Iudic. 9. 15. Psal. 90. vers 1. Vers. 5. Vers. 6. Marlorat Caluin Vers. 4. Esay 43. 2. Ierem. 46. 8. Ezek. 32. 2. Esay 43. 14. Esay 17. 13. Psal. 124. 7. Cyrill Alexandr Glaphyr lib. 3. de Leprâ Exod. 14. Tho. Walfingham Histor. Anglic. Edw. 3. pag. 168. Annal. Stow. pag. 245. Virgil. Georg. 3. Euseb. Eccles. Histor. l. 9. c. 8. * Histor. Angl. Edw. 2. pag. 108. Euagrius lib 4. Histor. cap. 28. * Nah. 3. 8. Volateran l. 24. pag. 579. Euagrius loc cit Seneca 1 Cor. 15. 33. Petrarch de Remed vtriusque fortu lib. 2. Dialeg 92. 1 Cor. 15. 23.
corporis sui that I may vse S. Pauls phrase though in another sense by repossessing the power he put off as well as by releeuing vs His Passion spake him Man His Resurrection God Euery circumstance of his Arising raising vs by so many steps and staires to the confession of his Diuinitie How well did He interpret that Text of S. Iohn Habeo potestatem ponendi animam reassumendi when in a most powerfull manner He reassumed that life which was not rauish't from Him by the Iewes Tyrannie but laid downe by Himselfe The strong guard that was set to make good his Monument nor the Monument which was sealed vp to make Him safe being vnable to resist his passage In a God-like disdaine of the vigilant Malice of the Iewes He made a dead sleepe like that which fell vpon the first Man when his Rib was taken forth lock vp the senses of his drowzie watchmen that thought to haue lockt Him vp and kept his Body like a Relike cased vp in Marble And though the iawes of his Tombe were close shut vpon Him without any externall helpe to wrench them open or to remoue that weighty stone which lay at the mouth of the Graue He issued out making his Escape as subtile as vnconceiueable For Aire to breath out at the least cranny and vent it selfe when it is imprisoned is Naturall but for one bodie to passe through an other I say not by Penetration of the Dimensions but a Miraculous Cession is aboue the Power of Nature For flesh and bones thus to make way through the solid Rock is euen more then Miracle and not lesse than Diuinitie Cui peruium est omne solidum to which Nature though to her owne preiudice giues way It was very much I confes Propriâ virtute by his owne Power to raise His Body from Death but to raise it in this fashion by such a proud vnpractised experiment for a close Prisoner to Baile Himselfe to quit the Iayle yet be beholding to no Key to let Him out saue his owne Power which is the True Key of Dauid must needs aduance the Dignity of the Deliuerance and of Him that wrought it Thus did our blessed Sauiour arise from his Graue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He came forth of Himselfe when the Vault was shut For though we reade that the stone was rolled away from the mouth of the Graue by the Angell Yet saith Hierome Non putamus Angelum ideo venisse vt aperiret sepulchrum Christo We must not thinke the Angell came to open the Sepulchre and helpe Christ out That stone was not remoued by the Angell till he was gone saith Iustin Martyr and the cause why it was remoued this only vt declararetur spectantibus Resurrectio to declare the truth of his Resurrection An Action worthy of Him and most sutable to his Birth as Athanasius infers Ille qui per portam clausam Matris suae virginis Mariae in carne natus fuit saluà virginitate Matris Ille ex visceribus Terrae per sigilla viuus corporaliter surgit He that through the Virgin doores of his Mothers wombe came into the world without impeachment to her Virginitie He at his second Birth came from the Wombe of the Earth without any violation of the Seales that closed Him in This glorious though scornefull Triumph did He make ouer His Enemies to let them see that it was His owne sentence not their Power which made them His Executioners and that when He was pleased to reuoke their Commission no Fetters could bind or Prisons immure Him being as the Psalmist speaks Solus inter mortuos liber And also to confirme vs that He who being bound was without other help able to vnloose Himselfe is much more able to enlarge vs when He is free This Act of His Resurrection was but as a Tutor to indoctrinate our Faith an Exemplary Act to assure our Arising Resurrexit in exemplum spei nostrae And not only to be the Example of our Rising but the Cause too For His owne dignity was He Primitiae Mortuorum the first-fruits of the Dead the first that rose t was fit His sacred Body should haue the Precedence from Death to Life and it was necessarie for vs that He should be first vt nostrae Resurrectionis causa esset that so He might be the cause of our Resurrection according to that rule giuen vs by Aristotle Illud quod est primum in quolibet genere est causa omnium quae sunt post As therefore the fruit of this Deliuerance by his Resurrection was wholly ours so should the acknowledgment too as it was the greatest victory so it should haue the largest Panegyrick I read that the Grecian Churches in memory of our Sauiours Resurrection were continually wont from Easter to Whitsontide to vse no complement when they met but only this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is risen from the dead It was the salutation which past betwixt them in stead of a God saue or giuing the good time of the day Christ is risen And the others were wont to make no Reply to thanke them in no other Phrase then this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t is true to his Glory and our Comfort Christ is risen O that this happy Meditation might so incorporate with our thoughts that our sleeps and our wakings our dayes our nights our studies and whole discourse might be nothing else but Resurrection We cannot in any lower gratitude discharge the obligation we owe Him then to remember and mention this his Deliuerance hourely which was performed for his Glory but our Good God said he would get him honour vpon Pharaoh but Israel had the spoile the fruit the Deliuerance so Christs was the War but ours the Peace setled by that War Peace with God Peace within our selues to calme all those distractions which from the apprehension of Death might arise to trouble vs. Quare tumultuaris anima Wherefore then shouldst thou be disquieted O my soule trust in God for He is thy Defender thy Saluation Why shouldst thou be afraid to meet with that death which thy Sauiour hath so tamed and corrected for thy sake that it is not now so much a punishment as an Entrance to a better Life Lex est non paena perire Thou canst now no sooner cry with Saint Paul Quis liberabit Wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from the Body of this Death but thy Faith will make a sweet reply from this Text Ipse liberabit He shall deliuer thee Mercy presupposes Misery for Mala est causa quae misericordiam requirit and a Deliuerance presumes a danger Both which misfortunes met in this one subiect to make Mans condition wretched and hazardous at once I stand not to repeat the priuiledges which Man lost Since the ruine of our first Father we haue no Story that is
Goe yee cursed into euerlasting fire I fixe not vpon this Interpretation though very warrantable but follow our English Translation which iustly agrees with the Hebrew From the noysome pestilence which literally imports that contagion a Schooleman defines to be Morbus venenosus vel lues bominum a sicknes which vsually is to all and hath lately bin to vs so mortall Thus Lormus also out of Authentique Copies reads it A peste pessima seu quâlibet pestilenti or de peste aerumniosissimâ The Chaldee paraphrase is de Morte atque Tumultu from Death and Tumult which I take to be a iust Periphrasis of the Plague that being of all others the most tumultuous kind of Death Since like a furious Torrent that beares downe trees and houses it sweeps whole Families whole streets nay whole Cities insomuch that the liuing haue not bin sufficient to burie the dead Such a Mortalitie as this was there in the ninth yeere of Edward the second Nor is it only tumultuous in regard of the Numbers that die but in regard of their Buriall too When euery Churchyard is made vallis Mortis the valley of Death and the bodies piled and built one vpon another make in Iobs phrase a rick rather then a Graue where for want of earth one coarse is couered with another Which must needs beget this Epithet Noysome putrifie the Aire so much that as Solinus reports of the Lake Avernus and the dead Sea whose steame kills all that draw it in birds flying ouer those Cemeteries haue dropt downe and Men that suckt it vp like children ouerlayed by their Nurses haue bin impoysoned by that Aire which nourished them Kingdoms and States are called Bodies because Metaphorically they are so The King is the Heart the Counsell the Braine the Magistrate the Hand And there is this true Accord betwixt those Politicall and the Naturall Bodies that they haue distempers like vs their Agues that shake them their sicknesses and their Deaths too As there is an appointed Time for Man vpon Earth so for all Man is Lord of Empires haue their Periods and those Periods to them as Graues to vs. Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome which successiuely buried one another the last Suruiuer as Executor to the rest inheriting all that the Three first had shew that Monarchies sicken like Men die sometimes of Age oftner of Wounds It hath bin obserued that one whole part of the Earth hath bin sick at once For in the yeres 1349. and 1579. an Epidemicall sicknes ran thorow all Europe But Euagrius writes of a Plague that ouerspread the whole World To speake more directly some diligent Obseruers haue deliuered it as Dogmaticall that particular Cities haue their Criticall Dayes their Climactericall Yeares and that most constantly Euery third yeare saith Boterus is a climacterick dangerous and fatall to the Grand Cairo in Aegypt in which three hundred thousand commonly die of the Plague And the fift or seuenth to Constantinople the Mortalitie costing her scarcely fewer then two hundred thousand Our Land and in it our Metropolis London our Mother Citie hath like Ierusalem mourned in the Dust for the calamitie of her Children and death of her Inhabitants We haue had our Climactericall yeares as well as other places Some haue noted the Twentieth or thereabouts to haue bin mortall to vs which though it hath held currant for these two last Visitations I draw not into conclusion that it should still hold I thinke rather the whole Land sensible of the losse of her DEBORAH and our late most gratious SALOMON of euer blessed Memorie whose Exequies deseru'd a lamentation not lesse then that which was made for Iosiah in the valley of Hadadremmon to performe rites worthy such Funerals mourned in Death shedding Liues in stead of Teares For any other cause certainly I am perswaded it is not in the discretion of Nature to dyet her selfe to set out her sicke dayes no more then to appoint her well but meerly in the direction of God who vses her but as his handmaid to effect his purposes when and how He pleaseth It was one of Manes his Phanaticall dreames amongst many others that a certaine Spirit in the aire called Messor diffuses that contagion which breeds the Pestilence His drift was only to establish that Diabolicall conclusion of his concerning his Two beginnings one whereof produces good the other bad and so to ioyne an other Power in commission with God And surely they that impute Gods iudgements to Nature and because they are able to trace an Infection to the first Body that died or can distinguish betwixt a contagion receiued Per contactum from other bodies or occasioned by an infected Aire conclude a Pestilence to be nothing else but a Malignitie of course proceeding from an ill coniunction of Planets or the concurrence of some other disaffected causes in Nature derogate from God and are in a faire way to Atheisme I can by the helpe of Philosophie and obseruation assigne some probable reason of the Earthquake or Thunder defining the one to be a vapour included in the bodie of Earth which with strugling to get out shakes it and the other to be but the collision of two Clouds and in them the contestation of two repugnant qualities whose strife begets that fearefull Blow But yet if I looke not beyond Nature if I apprehend no Power beyond these that directs and formes those fearefull Iudgements I might iustly feare to be the next marke at which those Iudgements should aime to be swallowed vp or to be Thunderstrooke Let not Sophistrie or Philosophie deceiue you let them not lull you into a securitie to make you feareles of Gods anger by fathering his Iudgements vpon Chance and Nature There is no Iudgement as there is no Mercy wherein you may not discerne Digitum Dei the hand of God directing it be it Wind or Storme or Haile or Lightning or Infection all are but his ministers to fulfill his will The Pestilence is his Arrow T is called Sagitta noctu volans directed against his People either for disobedience and breach of his Lawes as Deuteron 28. 21. or for Pride For Dauids presumption to number the people God abated Seuenty Thousand of his number by the Pestilence Or for vniust Auarice for Extortion or Simony Or for Lasciuiousnes by the example of Sodom drown'd in Mari pestilentico and turn'd into a Lake Or for Gluttonie and Excesse as Numb 11. 33. Whilst the flesh was yet betweene their teeth the wrath of the Lord kindled and smote the people with an exceeding great Plague Nay it hath yet a neerer dependance vpon His will insomuch that it is called Manus Dei the hand of God so Exod. 9. 3. 15. and Ieremy the 21. 5 6. And Dauid making choise of the Pestilence rather then of any of the two other punishments there proposed vnto him by the Prophet Gad accepts it in this