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
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
foretold it euent hath fulfill'd it Saint Paul giues the symptomes of this generall sicknesse Redeeme the time for the daies are euill Our Sauiour premonishâ—th the great decay of faith and loue to insue the Apostacie of the latter times His Apostles testifie no lesse Paul to Timothie Know that in the last daies perilous times shall come Men shall be louers of their owne selues couetous boasters proud c. read and obserue Peter with others to make vp a cloud of witnesses prophecieth the like if not with addition that men shall be so debauched as euen to deride and scoffe at goodnesse as a thing rather derisory than necessary The plague of sinne ranckles and helped with fit instruments of dispersion infects the times The Scribe points to the Publican and thinkes that destruction comes on the citie for his sake The vngodly Protestant layes the fault on the profane Gallant that the daies are euill and sayes that pride deuoures all The proud on the couetous Churle the well conceited Hypocrite on the dissolute the dissolute on the Hypocrites Euen the wicked thinke the godly the cause but the godly know the wicked the cause Atheists will liue as they list Loquuntur grandia They lift vp their mouthes against heauen and acknowledge no other deitie then their owne guttes If good cheere may be their sicknesse they care not though gluttonie be their graue Grace is faine to giue place to wantonnesse Religion to Idolatry honestie to profanenesse Many liue as the Apostle saith of Himeneus and Philetus as if the resurrection was past or would neuer come I know there was neuer age not complained of not iudged as worst Laudamus veteros c. We see what is not what hath been Some times haue been euill others worse ours worst of all We are so much worse than all because we haue more meanes to be better We haue Atheists that serue no God 〈◊〉 that serue their money Idolaters that serue creatures Apostates that forsake God worldlings temporizers neuters that serue many serue all serue none Loue is banished temperance giues place to drunkennesse humilitie stoopes to pride hope yeelds to sense and religion it selfe is vsed either for a shew of good or for a cloake of euill Mens words disagree from their deeds their hearts from their words If any say this world is not so sicke as we giue it I durst tell them that they are a great part of the sicknesse and but for such we had lesse need to complaine Satans violence now doubling his forces shewes it to be the last and worst time For the Diuell then rageth most when he knowes he shall rage but for a while The world is sicke the dayes are euill You heare what makes them so Shortly eyther doing or suffering ill sinne originally misery by consequent If we would bate of our sinnes God would decrease our miseries What plagues the world with the sword but malice and ambition What turns the poore from their right but iniustice What brings famine but couetousnesse Proud Courtiers make rich Merchants and both make miserable Commons We multiply sinnes against God Gods punishmens vpon vs the former from our vnrighteousnes from his righteousnesse the latter both together make the worlde sicke the dayes euil I would hope it were now vaine to bid you loath the world Is he lesse then mad that can loue and dote on such a cheeke The beauty of it is blacke without by the miseries and more foule within by the sinnes if any wretch shall now make it his choice he is not worthy of enuy if of pity now as a moderne Poet well Ther 's onely one way left not to admit The Worlds infection to be none of it Seeing we are thus sicke why speede wee not to meanes of c Esa 62.11 d Lament 1.15.2.13 e Psal. 137.8 Esa. 21.10 Aug in Psal. 72. ver 4. Obseru 1. f Cant. 2.16 g Hos. 2.19 h Reuel 19 7. i Psal. 45.13 Deut. 32.6 Esa. 1.2 Psal. 103.13 Heb. 12.6 Rom. 8.15.16 k Gal. 4.4.5 Singulariâ—er Generaliâ—er Specialiâ—er l Philip. 3.20 Aug m Galat. 6.16 n 4.26 2. Cor. 5.21 Obseru 2. o 1. Pet. 5.4 p Ezech. 37.7 q Can. 6.8.9 1 Cor. 12.20 Iohn 15.35 Ephes. 2.17 r Act. 4.32 Psal. 133.1 Aug in psal illum Prou. 18.19 t Galat. 2.9 u 2. Sam 10.11 Obseru 3. Lam 1.15.2.13 a Ier. 31.4 Cant. 4.7 b Cant. 6,1 c Psal. 45.13 d Cant. 1.5 e Ioh. 19.34 f Ephes. 5.27 g Ezek. 16.14 h Ver. 3. i Ver. 5.6 c. k Mic. 1.5 l Esa. 64.6 m Psal. 144.3 Conâ—ess 1. 13 cap. 1. Bâ—rn in Cant. n Rom. 6. vlt. o 〈◊〉 medit cap. 2. Colos. 3.9 Aâ—g Coâ—â— lib. 1. cap. 12. r Them in Math. 8. a Ioh. 13.1 Lâ—k 19. b Eph. 4 30. Ioh. 1.29 Râ—u 5.5 d Rom. 5 8. c 2. Pet. 1.4 Obseru 4. f Gal. 4.26 1. Tim. 3.15 g 1 Pet. 1.23 h Ierom. i Aug. k Reuel 3.12 l 2. Cor. 11.2 m Cor. 11.14 n Math. 4.9 Eccles. 1. o 1. Tim. 6.10 p Pro. 15.15 Rom. 12. p 1. Ioh. 2.15 r 1. Cor. 7.30 s 1. Iohn 2.15 t 1. Cor. 7 31 u Heb. 1.19 x 13.8 a Rom. 7.23 24. Ver. 25. Amor. lib. 1. b Cant. 5.9 Ver. 10. Ver. 11. c Chap. 1.3 Reuel 21. Rom. 8.17 Heb. 12. d 2. Cor. 5.20 e Chap. 11.2 Ier. 32.36 Dan. 6.26 Esa. 44.5 Chap. 45.4 Obseru Ezek. 16.46 Ver. 47. Ver. 51. f Esa. 63.18 g Chap. 1.4 h Chap. 63.19 i Iohn 2. k Math. 27.34 Luke 8.18 Eph. 4.230 Tantum tamdiu dilexit indignos c. a Math. 5.46 Martial lib 6 Epigr. 11 b Bern. Ep. 11. August Obserâ— c Heb. 9.14 d Aug. in Psal. 70. e Math. 15.13 f Ioh. 13.1 g Rom. 11.3 Cant. 4.12 Chap 6.10 In 1. Cor. Houâ— 36. Bern. Ephes. 4 13 a Heb. 13.8 b Coloss. 2.19 c Leo ad Palest d Aug. de vnit Eccl. August Tertul. Quisquis cogitando se errarâ— non posse in hoc maxime errat c Rom. 3.4 Asylum errorum c The Pope cals himselfe the head of the Church f Chrysest in Psal. 9 g In opere imperf Hom. 44. Sciunt enim si manifestata essis veritas quod ipsorum Ecclesia relinquenda esset h Hierom. in Esa. i Aug. de tem Serm. 145. k Tertul. in Apologes l Chysost in Math. Hom. 2. m Hoâ— Diabolicae inspiration is opus st non sinentu noâ— aspicere Thesaurum ne ' diuitias acquitamus Chrysâ—st ad Hebraos Hom. â— 17. n Greg. 1 Cor. 8.1 o Coloss. 3.16 Math 13.40 Psal. 119.127 Deut. 11.28 Luk. 2.51 p Chryâ— in Math. 22. q Bern. 1 Tim-3 15 Cant. 6.10 1. Sâ—romaâ— 1.7 s In praesat in Tom. 2. Ieron Psal. 2.2 Ren. 17.13 u In Math. Hom 23. a Esa. 49.26 b Caluin August c Gal. 5.19 d Heb. 4.13 e Et ostendis ostentat Sta â— Theb. 5. f Ier. 9.17 g Veâ— 18. h Rom. 1.32