corporall The Soule is at all parts more precious then the Body It is that principall most diuine and excellent halfe of man Dum viuisicat anima dum vult animus dum scit mens dum recolit memoria dum iudicat ratio dum spirat spiritus dum sentit sensus It is called for quickning a soule for knowing mind for remembring memory for iudging reason for breathing spirit for feeling sense when the soule is sicke all these are sicke with it The soule is compared to heauen the body to earth The heauen is glorious with Sun Moon Starres so the soule with vnderstanding memory reason faith hope c. The body like the earth whereof it was made is squallid with lusts The earth hath no heate nor nourishment but from heauen nor the body comfort but from the soule How then oh how terrible is the soules sicknes or death How indulgently should wee tender the health thereof Wee keepe our chicken from the kite our lambe from the Wolfe our fawne from the hound our doues from the vermine and shall wee yeeld our darling to the Lyons our soule to those murdering spirits which endeuour to deuoure them The Soule may bee well when the body is full of griefes but ill goes it with the body when the soule is sicke Nay euen corporall diseases are ofen a means to procure spirituall soundnesse Therefore one cals it optabile malum cum mali remedium sit maioris a happy euill which is the remedy of a greater euill Wee may say of many healthfull bodies tutius aegrotassent they might with lesse danger haue beene sicke Nusquam peius quam in sano corpore ager animus habitat A sicke minde dwels not rightly in a sound body But to find a healthfull and sound soule in a weake sickly body is no wonder Since the Soule before smothered with the cloudes of health is now suffered to see that through the breaches of her prison which former ignorance suspected not Corporall sickenes is a perpetuall Monitor to the conscience euery pang a reproofe and euery stitch reades a lesson of mortality ready euer to checke for euill or to inuite to good which duty weighed a man hath lesse reason to be ouer feareful of sicknesse then ouer glad of health The Spirituall detriment that may ensue on health is more dangerous then the bodily paine that pursues sicknes If a man feare not death what power hath sicknes to make him miserable Tolerabilis est morbipraesentia si contempseris id quod extreâ—um minatur Sicknesse hath little terrour in it if thou shall contemne that which it threatneth Death If it teach thee by the sight of the first death instant to preuent the fury of the second behold it makes thee blessed Such good vse may the wise Soule make of the bodies enemie I haue read it said that singulus morbus paruula mors euery disease is a little death Therefore God sends vs many little deathes to instruct our preparation for the great death The oftner a man dies the better hee may know to die well I yeelde if in sicknes we contract and narrow vp the powers of our soule and direct them as our finger to the griefe of our bodies only forgetting either that God strikes vs or that we haue first stricken God eyther flying to ill meanes or affying to good meanes more then to God our sicknesse may be deadly to body and soule too Asa was sicke but of his feete his feet stood far from his hart yet because he relyed more on his Physitians then on his Maker he died Or if there shall bee no lesse confusion and hurly butly in the faculties of the Soule then there is distemperature in the partes of the body when Reason which should be the Queene and dwell in the highest and choisest roome is deposed from her gouernement When the Senses which are the Court-guardes and the Princesses attendants that giue all admission into the Presence are corrupted when the supreme faculties which are the Peeres are reuolted and the Affections which are the Commons peruerted and all this insurrection and disturbance dethroning the Queene corrupting the Guard drawing from fealty the Peeres and the Commons from alleageance wrought by those violent passions which are refractory and headstrong Rebels hauing once gotten head Alas how far is this miserable distemper and perturbation of these spirituall parts aboue the distresse or distraction of the corporall members neither is the future perill hereof onely more full of prodigious desolation but euen the present sense is also more tetricall piercing and amazing with horror We shall finde the perplexity of this spirituall sicknesse how far exceeding the corporall if wee either compare them generally or particularly instance in any speciall disease 1 Generally The excellency of health is measured according to the Life which holds it and the dignity of Life is considered by the cause that giues it 1. The Life of the Plant is basest because it consists but in the iuyce which is administred by the earth to the root thereof and thence deriued and spred to the parts 2. The Life of the brute creature excels because it is sensitiue and hath power of feeling 3. The Life of man is better then both because it is reasonable conceiuing iudging of things by vnderstanding 4. The Life of a spirituall man is better then all the former and it hath two degrees 1. The life of inchoate regeneration and it consists in grace 2. the perfect life of imputed righteousnes conferred and confirmed by Iesus Christ 5. The Life of Glory exceedes all whereof there are also two degrees 1. the fruition of glory in soule 2. the ful possession in the vnion of the body to it These two last sorts of Life transcend the former in two maine respects 1. Because the other may die must die these haue a patent of eternity sealed them 2. Because the other haue transient causes These haue the Grace and Glory of God Now as by all consent the Life of reasonable man is better then the vegetable of plants or sensitiue of beasts so the health of man must needes be more precious and as that vertue excels in goodnesse so doth the defect exceede in miserablenesse Respect man distinctiuly as hee is a Body onely and then to bee sicke and die are common to him with plants and beastes and what suffering is there in the one more then in the other saue that as the Beast is more sensible of paine then the tree so man is more apprehensiue then the beast the bodies of all returne to the earth But man hath a soule wherein his reason is placed which fainting or sickening through sinne or the punishment for sinne there is offered a passion and griefe whereof the other are not capable Death to the rest is not so terrible as this sickenesse The goodlier the building is the more lamentable the ruine 2
bloud The Sun in the heauen passeth through the 12. Signes of the Zodiacke Christ is our Sun the 12. Articles of our Creed the 12. Signes Faith is our Zodiacke do you wonder why in this day of the Gospell the Sunne beames of grace liu'd in so few hearts They haue lost their Zodiacke Their faith is forme and the cloudes of infidelity haue ecclipsed those Signes They beliue not beyond the extension of sense they haue a sensuall a senseles faith It is the forest shipwracke which the vast sea of this world and the Pyrates of sinne can put men to the sinking of their faith It was Pauls happy triumph that he had kept the faith though he bore about in his body the market of our Lord Iesus Needes must the soule bee sicke whose faith is not sound 2 The other degree of our spirituall sicknesse is in conuersation Our liues are diseased the ill beating of those pulses shew wee are not well The fruites manifest the tree Vbicaro est regnant peccatum est praegnans Sinnes are rife where the flesh raignes plentifull effects will arise from such a working cause In vaine and not without the more hazard doe we plead our soundnesse when the infallible symptomes of our disobedience euince the contrary Saul stands vpon his obseruation of Gods charge What then saith Samuel meaneth the bleating of the sheepe in mine eares and the lowing of the oxen which I heare Whence flow those streames of impiety mercilesse oppressions Church-deuouring sacriledges bestiall luxuries cunning circumuentions detracting slaunders heauen-threatning blasphemies malicious fires of rage hatred monstrous treacheries behauiours compounded of scorne and pride close Atheisme open profanenesse guilded hypocrisie Whence if these vitious corruptions if not from our vlcerous conuersations Shame wee not to call sicknesse health and to maintaine that Atheisticall Paradox Adoxe Pseudodox which iudgeth euill good and darknes light If thy life be so vnsound suspect thy selfe thou art not well 2 Now not vnfitly after the sicknes in sinne followes the sicknes for sinne which distributes it selfe into a double passion corporall and spirituall 1 All corporall sickenesse is for sinne The sicke man heard it from his heauenly Physitian Goe thy wayes sinne no more least a worse thing come vnto thee So sung Dauid in the Psalme Fooles because of their iniquities are afflicted their soule abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw neer to the gates of death This Elihu grounds against Iob that sinne causeth sicknesse So that his life abhorreth bread and his soule dainty meat His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seene and his bones that were not seene sticke out Weakenes proceedeth from wickednesse if the Soule had not sinned his body should not haue smarted Indeede this blow is easie if wee respect the cause that drew it on vs. For if the Wages of sinne be death Sicknes is a gentle payment Sicknesse is the maladie of the body Death is the malady of sicknesse But such is Gods mercy that hee is content to punish sometimes corporaliter non mortaliter and to put into our hearts a sense of our sinnes by casting vs downe not by casting vs out But whether the affliction be quoad introitum or quoad interitum a more gentle entrance or more piercing to death all is produced by our sinne You will say that many afflictions wherewith God scourgeth his children are the Fatherly corrections of loue yet they are corrections and their intention is to better vs. Now what need the bestowing such paines on vs to make vs good if sinne had not made vs euill Still Sinne is the cause whether it be sickenesse therefore I will make thee sicke in smiting thee because of thy sinnes Or whether more despairefull calamity I will waile and howle I will make a wailing like the Dragons mournings as the owles for her wound is incurable Still the reason is verse 5. For the transgression of Iacob is all this and for the sinnes of the house of Israel Oh that our sicke bodies when the hand of Visitation hath cast them down would conuey this lesson to our soules All is for our wickednesse Our stomackes loath meate because we haue ouerburdened them with Gods abused blessings Wee haue made the Creatures ordained for our comforts an occasion of our falling And now loe wee abhorre to be cheered by those things wherewith we haue earst oppressed our selues That delicates powred vpon a mouth shut vp are as messes of meate set vpon a graue Our sinnes that remaine vnpurged by repentance in our bosomes are not only diseases themselues to our consciences but vigorous and rigorous enough to engender diseases in our carcases Wee are framed and composed of foure Elements Fire Ayre Water Earth and haue the kindly concurrence of those foure originall and principal qualities heate and colde moysture and drinesse to our making vp Their harmony and peacefull content preserue our little world in health but if those brethren of one house fal at variance with themselues their strife will vndoevâ— So easie is it for God to take roddes from our owne bodies wherewith to whip vs. Though those outward Elements fire water and the rest forbeare to lay on vs the strokes of vengeance yet wee haue those primordial humours within vs whose redundance defect or distemperature are meanes able enough to take our breath from vs. How euident is this when Some haue beene burned in the pestilent flames of their hote diseases the violence whereof hath set their bloud on fire wasted their bowels scorched their veines withered away their vitall spirites and left the whole body flagrantem rogum as it were a burning pyle Some haue beene choked vp with the fumes and vapours ascending from their owne crude and corrupted stomackes and poysoned their spirites no lesse then with the contagion of infected ayres How many obstructed lungs sucke in farre better ayre then they breath out Others haue beene drowned with a deluge of waters in their owne bodies a â—â—oud running betwixt their skin and bowels glutting and ouercharging nature so violently that the life hath not been able to hold vp her head and the soule like Noahs Doue returnes vnto God the Arke of her strength as not able to set her foote drie in her former habitation And yet others haue buried themselues aliue in the graue of their owne earthly melancholy which casteth such a thicke fogge and darke obscurity ouer the braine that it not onely chokes vp the spirits of life like the damp in a vault that extinguisheth the lightes but euen offers offensiue violence to the Soule Melancholy men are as it were buried before they be dead and as not staying for a graue in the ground make their owne heauy dull cloudy cloddy earthen cogitations their owne Sepulchres From what sinke arise all these corrupt steames but from the sinnes in our owneselues as
waues tottered scaâ—tered them on the waters like chaffe on the face of the earth before the wind and tempest of his indignation All their intentions their contentions their presumption of conquest were disappointed dissolued discomfited These things though they haue not seene let our childrens children to the last generation that shall inhabite this land neuer forget that we and they may praise God who hath made fast the barres of our gates and hath setled peace in our borders 2. Famine is a sore outward sickenesse an affliction sent by the immediate hand of God For it is he that withholdeth the influence of heauen and the kindly heate of the Sunne and the nourishing sappe of the earth I haue giuen you cleannesse of teeth in all your cities and want of bread in all your places saith the Lord. As it is his blessing that our valleies are couered ouer with corne so it is his plague that we haue sowen much and bring in little that the mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth sheaues his bosome When he is pleased he will heare the heauens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and wine and oyle and they shall heare vs. England hath felt the smart of this sickenes and she that out of her abundance hath been able to lend others hath also been glad to borrow of her neighbours The satte kinâ— of Bashan rich gormondizers haue not been acquainted indeed with this miserie and therefore haue not sorrowed for the affliction of Ioseph But the poore the poore haue greeued groned vnder this burden whiles cleannesse of teeth and swarthinesse of looke were perceiued in the common face Whiles these arrowes of famine wounded our sides and our staffe of bread whereon our very life leanes was broken we could then cry hic digitus dei here is the finger of God In our plenty saturity satietie of these earthly blessings we acknowledge not manum expansam his whole hand of bountie opened to vs though then we confessed digitum extensum his finger striking vs and bewailed the smart Famine is terrible ynough of it selfe more dire and tetricall in regard of the company she bringes along with her For Saua farmes semper magnorum prima malorum Est comes Raging famine is the prime companion of many fellowmischiefes Ex vno grano oritur aceruus of one graine of this staruing misery ariseth a whole heape of lamentable woes The attendants of famine are murthers robberies rapes killing of children that the same vessels become the wombes and toombs of little ones and innumerable stretchings of conscience to the reuoking of former and prouoking of future iudgements No maruell if hunger disregard the mounds and fences of Gods laws and mans when it breakes through stone walls The Poet somwhat morally describes Famine Quâ—esit am que famem lapidoso vidit in antro c. Behold hunger in her stony denne tearing vp the grasse with her long nayles and sharpe teeth her neglected haires growne rough and tangled her eyes hollow her cheekes pale her skinne rugged and swarthy left onely as a thinne scarse to hide her lanke entrals nothing cleane about her but her teeth her dry bones starting vp her breasts hangiâ—g ouer in the aire her ioynts swolne bigge and huge her sinewes shrunke as vnwilling to hold her limbes together This is that monster that turnes men into Canibals vnnaturally to deuoure one anothers flesh I haue read that at Turwyn in France the famine was so deadly that mans flesh was solde for food This sicknesse is worse then death Happy are we that Gods mercy hath banished this plague from our land Oh let not our iniquities reuoke it 3 The Pestilence wee better know as one that hath but a little while bin kept out of our dores and watcheth when our iniquities shall againe let him in Hee sculkes about and will not be rid away till repentance hath made our coast cleare This is Gods Purseuant that hath rode circuit in our land and to whomesoeuer God hath sent him he neuer returned with a non est muentus but alwaies brought Si non corpus taemen animam sum causa if not the body yet the soule with the cause before his iudgement seate This is he that rides on the pale horse Reu. 6. and catcheth men as with a snare perhaps when they haue most hasted from him How hath this plague left the verie streetes of our Cities emptie when they seemed to haue beene sowed with the seed of man how astonied the liuing frighted the dying disioyned the mutuall societie and succour of friend to friend and that in a time when comfort would haue been most seasonably welcome trembling hands pulling dead bodies into the graues with hookes or rolling them into pits Turne backe your eyes that now liue in the Appeniue height of peace and health and thinke you see the lamentable state of your Country as few years past discouered it Imagine you behold the hand-wringing widdowes beating their bosomes ouer their departing husbands the distracted mothers falling into swounes whiles they kisse the insensible colde lippes of their breathlesse Infants poore desolate Orphanes that now mourne the vntimely losse of their parentes as being made by yeares more sensible of their want then when deathes pestilentiall hand tooke them away the loude grones and strugling pangs of soules departing seruants crying out for Masters Wiues for Husbands parents for children children for mothers griefe in euery house striking vp alarums belles heauily tolling in one place ringing out in another Numbers of people that not many howres before had their seuerall Chambers delicatelie highted now confusedly thrust together into one close roome a little noysome hole not twelue foote square They haue marble bosomes that will not be shaken with these terrors and haue sucked Tygresses in the wildernesse that cannot compassionate these calamities How did they grieue a Church to feele them when they affect afflict and make vs Sicke to heare them I know you haue long looked for an end I neuer delighted in prolixity of speech What remaines but the more terrible wee conceiue these sicknesses of a Church the more wee blesse GOD for the present health of ours Let not our sinnes call backe these plagues let vs not prouoke our GOD least earth ayre heauen renew their strokes vpon vs. Warres and famines from the earth plagues from the ayre iudgementes from the Cloudes they are all restrayned at our repentance let loose at at our rebellions Oh serue wee the Lord our God with feare and obedidience that hee may delight to doe vs good and wee to prayse his name That wee our selues and our Children after vs and the generations yet vnborne may see the Peace of Ierusalem all their dayes That the golden Belles of Aaron may bee freely rung and the Trophees of Victory ouer all Antichristian enemies may still bee seene amongst vs. Euen till
health and he now stands surer by his first fall Such is the greatnesse and goodnesse of God such his power and mercy concurring that it workes health out of sicknesse good out of euill There is an infinite Good but not an infinite euill For the Good cannot by any meanes be diuerted into euill but the euill may be converted to good By the conspiracie of Iewes Gentiles Iudas Deuils against Christ is our saluation wrought From the horridst and most vnnaturall treasons God hath aduanced his owne glory aduantaged his childrens security We labour of three diseases birth life death all these are cured by those three answerable in Christ. Our vncleane birth is sanctified by His so pure from the least spot of sinne Our transgressing life is reformed by the vertue enformed by the example of His. That tyrannizing wounding Serpent Death hath the sting pulled out by His death that we may embrace him in our secured armes The Conquerour of vs all is conquered for vs all by Him that foiled the Gyant in his owne denne the Graue Thankes be to God which giueth vs the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. Oh death where is thy sting Oh graue where is thy victory This is our insultation and holy triumph Prouided euer that He be beleeued of vs that hath thus relieued vs. Beleeue and feare not A good conscience is neuer faild of a good confidence of a good consequence Hence ariseth the soules sanity What can indanger in dammage this health no losses to the estate no crosses to the flesh The spiritually-sounde man values all the fortunes of the world lesse then the freedome and health of the mind Hee that wants this armour is wounded by euery blow of affliction Other security is but a shield of waxe against a sword of power They cannot chuse but feare euen where no feare is and testifie their inward guilt and sicknesse by their pale and trembling lookes Timida nequitia dat testimonium condemnations semper praesumit saeua perturbata conscientia Fearefull wickednesse giues testimony of it owne damnation and the troubled conscience imposeth and presumes to itselfe terrible things but the health of faith is health indeed yea this health is life a life Angelical a life Euangelical whether for obedience or peace inspired spirited sealed assured by the word of Truth Which is life to all that find it and health to all their flesh No feare shall inuade him no troubles inuolue him so that he cannot be extricated For the feare of the Lord tendeth to life and he that hath it shall not be visited with euill His innocency may speed in the world as deserts in a lottery be rewarded with a blank But he in whom he affies shall put the marrow of health into his bones distill the sap of grace inio his spirit Low in the world lowly in himselfe in his estimation who sees not that the clambring goates get vpon rockes and promontory places whiles the humble sheepe feed in the bottomes and deiected vallies Onely one day the Sheepe shall bee aduanced aboue the Sunne and starres and set in heauen with Christ when the goates shall be cast downe to the depth of depthes Rich Diues was well enough knowne to the world yet nameles in the sacred Records So we brand our sheepe let the Goates goe vnmarked God sets his seale on his chosen Nouit qu◠sui sunt lets the wicked run without his cognisance Thus different is the state of Gods seruants and the worlds slaues They thinke none sicke but wee wee know none sicke but they If equall crosses befall vs both our estate is soone descried Wee differ as the Cammell and the Camomell the one is stunted the other thriues by his burthen Afflictions that so scatter them and loosen the ioyntes of their vaine hopes doe more knit and consolidate our healthes As soone as they take themselues it is as easie to proue as to reproue their diseases Though I confesse in the dayes of their Iouialty hee hath greate wisdom that can make them sensible of their sicknes Were Solon nay Salomon aliue to declare it they see t not ' they will not feele it If the want of health were perceiued how amiable admirable would the benefit appear Gratior est saint as redita quā retenta vix aliter quā perdendocognoscimus Returning health is more welcome then if it had not beene lost We scarse know what health is but by the want Let others spend their times wits treasures to procure health to their bodies which I embrace when it is offered and would not loose by my owne errors giue mee a sound and cleare conscience and let mee not want this health till I enuy theirs 2. Thus hauing enquired what health is leauing a while the consideration therof as it is in it selfe let vs descend into it as respectiuely casting an oblique eye vnto that which is diuers from it or aduerse to it There is a significant and lightfull demonstration or commentarie which one contrary nature giues to another when they are diametrally opposed The day would not seeme so cleare if the departing Sunne should not leaue night to follow it The foile addes grace to the Iewell It no lesse then glorifies learning that the malitious tong of ignorance barkes at it He knowes the benefite of heate that hath felt the sharpenes of a freezing colde If there were no sicknesse to trouble vs health it selfe would be thought sicknesse The very enmity of these repugnances helpe the beholders iudgement eyther to embrace or reiect them Euen their opposition is an exposition of their natures deformity darknes sicknesse sinne all those priuatiue corruptiue destructiue things which as they had no creation from God so giue no direction to the good yeeld by a sober meditation an vnwilling lustre to those vertues graces and happy habites against which they vaunt their contrariety That if any lewde vaine ill iudging worse affecting mind shall still loue the desolation of sinne rather then the consolation of spirituall health it may appeare to bee not because this obiect is not wretched but because hee is blind and bewitched There is a twofolde Sicknesse incident to man 1. in sinne 2. for sinne The former of these is only spiritual the latter is not onely corporall but sometimes spirituall also and of all the Vials of Gods wrath holden to the mouth of miserable men by the hand of iustice it is the forest when sinne shall bee punished with sinne and the destitution of grace shall permitte a lapse to impenitency 1 The Sicknesse in sinne is double according to the cause which is a defect either of right belieuing or straight liuing a debility of confidence a sterility of good works lacke of faith wracke of charity These effects or rather defects are produced by two errors in our Soules diet the one excessiue the other deficient 1. By Fasting too much from Christ 2. By feeding too much on
proper and fit to ingender these sicknesses as these sickenesses are to bring desolution It is our owne worke to make death better then a better life or continuall sicknesse that our meate giues no more sent nor sauour then an offering doth to an Idoll He that sinneth before his maker let him fall into the hands of the Physitian 6 Spirituall sicknesse for sinne is yet farre more perilous and mortall nay well were it for some thus sicke if it were mortall If the disease would decease the soule might reuiue and liue It varies as some diseases doe in the body according to the constitution of the sicke thereafter as the soule is that hath it whether regenerate or reprobate The malignancie is great in both but with far lesse danger in the former 1 In the Elect this spirituall sicknes is an afflicted conscience when God wil suffer vs to take a deepe sense of our sinnes and bring vs to the life of grace through the valley â—f death as it were by hell gates vnto heauen There is no anguish to that in the conscience a wounded spirite who can beare They that haue been valiant in bearing wrongs in forbearing delights haue yet had womannish and cowherd spirits in sustaining the terrors of a tumultuous conscience If our strength were as an army and our landes not limitted saue with East and west if our meat were manâ—a and our garments as the Ephod of Aaron yet the afflicted conscience would refuse to be cheared with all these comforts When God shall raise vp our sinnes like dust and smoake in the eyes of our soules and the arrowes of his displeasure drinke vp our bloud and his terrors seeme to fight against vs when he buffets vs from his presence and eyther hides his countenance from vs or beholds vs with an angry looke loe then if any sicknes be like this sicknes any calamity like the fainting soule Many offences touch the body which extende not to the soule but if the soule be grieued the sympathizing flesh suffers deepely with it The bloud is dried vp the marrow wasted the flesh pined as if the powers and pores of the body opened themselues like so many windowes to discouer the passions of the distressed Prisoner within It was not the sense of outward sufferings for meere men haue borne the agonies of death vndaunted but the wrastling of Gods wrath with his spirite that drew from Christ that complaint able to make heauen and earth stand agast My soule is heauy vnto the death There is comfort euen in death when the clocke of our life runs vpon her last minutes but is there any disease during the torments of a racked conscience This wearisome guest doth God often lodge with his owne children suffring the eye of faith to be shut and the eyes of flesh and bloud open that sorrow is their bread and teares their drinke and the still perplexed mind knows not where to refuse it selfe Alwayes reseruing and and preseruing his Children but neuer dâ—ing grace of his Spirite in their hearts a substance of blâ—ssing 〈◊〉 the oke though it hath cast the leaues though the barrennes of the boughes drines of the barke giue it for dead and withered Faith being in a swoune may draw the breath inwardly not perceiued but destroy it not for there is a blâ—ssing in it Neyther is this sicknesse and trouble of conscience properly good in it selfe nor any grace of God but vsed by God as an instrument of good to his as when by the spirite of bondage he brings vs to adoption So the Needle that drawes the thread through the cloth is some meanes to ioyne it together This is the godly soules sicknesse for sin full of sharpe and bitter ingredients but neuer destitute of a glorious euent and victorious triumph I may say of it as Physitians speake of agues which make a man sicke for a while that hee may bee the sounder a long time after This sickenesse is physicke to procure better health 2 Spirituall sickenesse for sinne in the reprobate hath other effects To restraine their number they principall appeare in two diseases or disasters rather Impenitency and Despaire 1. Impenitencie the symptome of an obdurate and remorselesse heart Who being past feeling haue giuen themselues ouer vnto lasciuiousnes to worke all vncleannesse with gredinesse Saint Paul cals it a reprobate minde a death rather then a sickenesse He that labours hereof is rather deceased then diseased This is a heart so hard and impenetrable that all the holy dewes of instructions cannot soften it all the blowes of Gods striking rod put no sense into it It is inuulnerable to any stroke saue that which makes a fatall and finall end with it Thou hast stricken them but they haue not grieued c. It is iust with God but fearefull on whom soeuer this iuâ—gement lights to plague sin with sinne that peccatum sit paena peccantis For there is euermore some precedent impietie in those vngratious persons procuring God to deale thus with them For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeue a lie That they all might be damned that beleeued not the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse First Pharaoh hardens his owne heart c. God all this while holds his peace giues him the hearing and looking on In the end he saith I will harden Pharaohs heart and then puts yron to yron adamant to adamant and there is perfected a relentlesse repentlesse obduracy This is that retaliation of sinne which God returnes into their bosomes that foster it that since they loued cursing it shall be vnto them So Dauid in the Psalme Though indeed it was not in him Precantis votum but Prophetantis vaticinium he did not desire it should be so but he knew it would be so Adde iniquitieto their iniquitie Neither doth God this by infusion of wickednesse but by substraction of his spirit He is causa deficiens not efficiens as the reuoking of the sunne from vs causeth darkenesse the priuation of grace the position of all vngodlines It is in him not peccatum sed iudicium not sinne but iudgement When he leaues vs to our selues it is no wonder if we fall into horrid and prodigious sinnes Peccatum est malum in se effectum prioris mali causa subsequentis est supplicium causa supplicij Sinne is euill in it selfe the effect of former euill the cause of future It is both punishment it selfe and the cause of punishment In all the store house of Gods plagues there is not a greater vengance With other punishments the body smarteth the soule groneth vnder this Hence sinnes multiply without limits that the plagues may be without end Euery affliction is sore that offends vs but that is direfull which withall offends God Such do at once act and suffer it is both an actiue and a passiue sinne The punishment