great reckoning day till thou hast heard all mens Accounts cast up and those Actions which are then approved confidentlie pronounce no sins but not all those that survive the heaviest Judgments here on earth which may be sent to punish and reform those that were guiltie of them since hardned sinners may frustrate some ends of an Affliction and all are not followed here as Pharaoh was No I say do not justifie all such Actions though thou shouldst hear them openlie defended and applauded and those men punish't that dare to oppose and contradict them and that opposition made the onlie sin This lower World is full of such mad mistakes and confusions but all will shortlie be set strait The other miscarriages that I feared men would be apt to run into and which I have laboured to provide against was That though they might be convinc't that sin in the general was the cause of all our miseries yet hardly that it was their sin or their friends but some bodies else that they don't love and so shift it off to this or that Party whom they would have punish't had they been in Gods stead Such a strong self-love there is in everie man that his fancie shapes God verie much in a likeness to himself Even the vilest sinners Psal 50. 21. thought God such an one as themselves And consequentlie they account themselves and all their Concernments dear to God and so would interpret all his Providences in favour of them to right their quarrel and to avenge them of their enemies for thus would they prescribe God might they be call d to his counsel All would fain carrie it that God is of their Partie and against those whom they are against everie man will be more inclined to accuse others than himself Nay and hence it oft falls out that they who have espoused anie sin will be so far alone from thinking ill of it that they 'l rather accuse the contrarie vertue and so godliness it self may sometimes bear the blame or however the most godlie and unblameable men The Pillars of a Land sometimes are accounted the Pests of it on which whilst some men blind with rage lay their hands to pluck them down they are about to do themselves and the people with whom they are the same courtesie that Sampson did to the Philistine Lords They who were the Salt to savour a corrupt World were accounted the filth and off-scouring of all things Ahab will sooner count Elijah than himself a troubler of Israel And when anie mischief befalls the Empire then the poor Christians must be thrown to the Lyons Thus I fear amongst us manie bitter and undeserved censures will be past by one against another which great sin I have done my best to consult against whil'st I have chieflie laboured to bring everie man to a reflection upon himself whil'st I have studied faithfullie to deal both to this man and that his share in procuring our miseries and whil'st I have made the Divisions and Parties that are amongst us which occasion this Censoriousness one great cause of our Sufferings However one or otber may interpret what I have done I am prettie indifferent only I hope I have said nothing which need make anie man presentlie fall a confuting me which I le promise you it 's an hard thing in these dayes to escape say what you will 't is against Sin onlie I have a quarrel If any guiltie person as the Pharisees when Christ preach't shall think I mean him let him once again know That it is not against Small or Great but the Sins of All that I am entered into the Lists and I hope they 'l rather see to forsake than vindicate them But if otherwise if leave may be granted I dare undertake to evidence That Sin is that which brings Suffering and that those things I have mentioned as the sins of our Nation are indeed such Yea and if it be not thought Immodestie to forestall the Readers judgment I dare add That I have spoken verie great Truth and Reason in the matters most liable to Exception notwithstanding all the weaknesses and disadvantages in the representing which I readilie acknowledge to be manie and great But I have alreadie exceeded the due bounds of a Preface wherefore to conclude Let all censure as they shall find meet only let me make a solemn Profession which is the more credible from one who hath no great reason to expect to out-live the General Desolation that so far as I know my own heart I have spoke nothing with a design to exasperate any or to humor and gratifie one Faction by disgracing or inveighing against another but it hath been my care to speak the very truth according to the infallible Word of God and the clearest apprehensions of my own Soul with an unfeigned desire to discover what indeed those sins are which we especiallie smart for that the inconsiderate and ignorant may be informed the guiltie humbled wickedness rooted out God appeased and all our mercies both spiritual and temporal restored and continued and these designs shall be followed with my prayers and I hope with thine too that read'st me but how far the success may answer either I must leave to the Readers improvement of and Gods blessing upon my well-intended though weak endeavours Thine in the Service of the Gospel M. M. I KINGS 8. 37 38 39. If there be in the Land a Famine If there be Pestilence Blasting Mildew Locust or if there be Caterpillar if their Enemy besiege them in the Land of their Cities whatsoever Plague whatsoever sicknesse there be What Prayer and Supplication soever be made by any man or by all thy People Israel which shall know every man the Plague of his own heart and spread forth his hands towards this House Then hear thou in Heaven thy dwelling place and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou only knowest the hearts of the children of men THE good and gracious God the Ruler and Governour of the world and the disposer of all events doth nothing rashly or in vain and therefore hath made it the duty of the sons of men wisely to weigh and consider of his Providences and to learn Instructions thence as well as from the Revelations of his mind in his written Word Micah 6. 9. We are bid to hear the Rod. And though in the bounteous dispensations of his favours we can assign no higher cause than his own meer grace and good Will which is accomplish't in the doing good to his Creatures Yet in the inflicting of Judgment which is his strange work we may be sure to find something out of himself moving him to it It cannot be well conceived how man should ever be the subject of pain or sorrow did not sin render him passible and open a way for the Sword to enter his bowels and give it that edge and force which causeth it to
SOLOMON'S PRESCRIPTION For the Removal of the PESTILENCE OR The Discovery of the PLAGUE of our Hearts in order to the Healing of that in our Flesh By M. M. LAMENT 3. 39 40 41. Wherefore doth a living man complain A man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our wayes and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the Heavens PSAL. 106. 29 30. Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions and the Plague brake in upon them Then stood up Phinehas and executed Judgment and so the Plague was stayed LONDON Printed in the Year M. DC LXV The Preface to the Reader Reader I Had more Objections in my own thoughts to the sending forth this Paper and can fore-think more faults like to be found with it when sent forth then I shall now stand to tell thee of or make any answer for But because amongst all those Objections I met not with this That it was impossible it should do anie good I thought the rest answerable and because amongst all its faults thou canst not trulie find this That it was not intended for anie good I perswade my self all the rest are pardonable What the design of it is if thou art in haste the Title will tell thee if thou art at leasure and think'st it worth thy while thou may'st find it in the Book it self so either way I might be excused from saying ought of it here But somewhat for thy satisfaction know when I considered the sore Judgment wherewith we have been visited which so evidentlie declares Wrath to be gone forth from the Lord against us I thought it might be an Essay verie acceptablè to God and profitable to our selves to do the best I could to make the voyce of the Rod Articulate that in the print of its lashes not onlie Gods Wrath but the sin he scourgeth us for and the duty he would drive us to might be found in legible Characters that even he that runs may read them When I lookt on Affliction as a Medicine for a distempered Nation I thought it was exceeding necessarie in order to its kindlie working with us to tell the nature import and use of it and to give directions how it ought to be received And though I acknowledge my self the meanest of Ten thousand for so great a Work yet when I saw or heard of nothing so particular and distinct as I thought the matter required humblie depending upon and imploring Divine assistance I made this attempt wherein whil'st I have guided my self by the Physitians own Rules and an impartial consideration of the nature of the Patient I hope I have made no material I am sure no wilful mistakes This then was my great desire and hope to be by this undertaking a worker together with Gods Providence for some good to the Nation And surely no man hath cause to be angry with this intention or with any thing that flows sincerelie from it Had anie man though the meanest among the People in the time when Nineveh was threatned with destruction given in a Catalogue of those sins they were guiltie of the removal of which could onlie prevent their Ruine I am perswaded his endeavours would have been grateful to the Prince his Nobles and the People though he had spoke to them all with more plainness and boldness than I have done And I dare confidentlie expect the same if our Fasting and Prayers be not onlie for fashion-sake but in as good earnest as theirs Two great miscarriages moreover I was prone to fear the most would be guiltie of which I have especiallie consulted against The first of being swallowed up so much with a sense of their Suffering as to be indispose for all profitable Reflections and therefore fain would I turn mens eyes and thoughts from off this to the sin that brought it and have them onlie to consider the former so much as to inform themselves more clearlie of the evil of the latter Oh what Out-cryes we may hear up and down what doleful times these are So manie Thousands dead this Week so manie another The Plague got to this Town and then to that All Trading as well as Persons dead and gone But were People formerly thus affected whilst we were bringing this upon our selves Did they cry out then Oh how manie Thousand Oaths are sworn in a Week And how manie Lyes told How manie Thousands Drunk and how manie commit Lewdness Had we had Weeklie Bills of such Sins brought in they would far have exceeded the largest Sums that ever yet the Mortalitie made But alas these with the most were light matters Not half so manie groans and tears for these nor anie such complaints of them nor did the consideration of them make anie sensible alteration amongst us Now this I would fain obtain to have those dayes thought as much worse than these and those actions as much worse than these sufferings as the Disease is worse than Physick and a Childs disobedience to his Parents worse than his being Whip't And he that should weep out of pitie to the Child when he sees it lash't and yet could be content to hear him revile and abuse his father I should think to be a person of more Fondness than Discretion and for him to be more concerned for the Childs Smart than the Parents Honor argues him to have no true love for either And here by the way let me give a Caution viz. That no man bewray so much follie as to argue That because in mercie God may abate and remove his heavy Judgments before manie or perhaps any of these sins I have mentioned are put away from amongst us and because we may have our former health and plentie restor'd whilst there is no such Reformation of disorders as I have exhorted to that therefore our Sufferings were not intended to chastise us for those sins nor to bring us to this Reformation If thou be an Atheist or Infidel that makest this Argument who believest not there is a God or that he concerns not himself with our Affairs but that all things come by Nature or Chance or I know not what I shall then leave thee to receive satisfaction if nothing sooner will give it there where all such as thou by the feeling of Divine Vengeance are at once convinc't what the sin is which hath deserved it and that there is a God who inflicts it but if thou be a Christian then I would wish thee well to examine the nature of the thing that I mean which thou thinkest God hath not punish't us for because it is yet continued and upon the issue of that examination pass thy judgment It 's much to be feared thou wilt see Drunkards and hear Swearers after the Plague may be ceas't and wilt thou think therefore that these and the like Wickednesses did not provoke God to afflict us But rather stay if thou art in doubt till the
they have been found amongst them But at another time so great and general were the Sins of the Jews That God tells this Prophet Though Noah Samuel and Daniel were there they should only deliver their own souls Ezek. 14. 14. Ordinarily 't is an Humiliation in some competent measure proportion'd to the sin which must appease the wrath of God broke out upon a people When all Nineveh had sinned and was threatned it must be a general Repentance that could prevent the Execution of those Threatnings 2. Though particular Persons may not by their Reformation procure mercy to a whole Land nor yet free themselves from the outward stroak which lights upon the Body of the Nation yet shall not their labour be lost but God will have a special eye to them in the common Ruin and what is in wrath to others shall be in love to them They shall have either such preservation from or deliverance out of the temporal Calamity or such support in and advantage by it that they shall have abundant reason to acknowledge that their Repentance and Supplications were not in vain Fear not poor Christian if thou be but a mourner in Zion one whose heart bleeds for thine own and others transgressions though thy Dwelling be in the midst of profane rebellious Sinners yet thou shalt not be lost in a croud It is not the Oaths and Blasphemies and Crying Sins of those about thee that shall drown thy Prayers but God will hear and one way or other graciously answer them If thy Soul thy everlasting Life be given thee for a prey as a temporal Life was promised to Ebedmelech Jer. 39. 19. and to Baruch Jer. 45. 5 thou hast sure no reason to complain What though the same Disease and Death seize thee as doth them It comes not for the same Reason nor shall it have the same effect What though thou wast carried in the same Ship with Traitors into another Countrey where they are to be executed and thou advanc'd to the highest Dignity was this any hurt to thee If Death take thee from the pressures of all sorts under which thou maist now groan and from the Evil to come and translate thee into the glorious Presence and full Fruition of the Ever-blessed God this is sure a different thing from being snatch't away from thy happiness into the society and torments of the Devil and his Angels Wherefore thou hast good reason to acknowledge Gods distinguishing mercy in those his dealings with thee which to sense may be the same with what others meet with I might add also the spiritual advantages which accrue to the Godly by Afflictions sanctified but the other contains this in it and much more 3. Thy Afflictions may perhaps be more for Trial than Punishment and so may be continued notwistanding thy endeavour to find out and forsake sin but when they have wrought that particular End for which God sent them they shall be removed Or they may befall thee for the Cause of God and a Testimony of a good Conscience and then thou hast more cause to rejoyce in them than impatiently to seek their removal Whatever they be see thou make this use of them to be more deeply humbled for and set against sin which is remotely at least the cause of all Suffering and to demean thy self patiently and submissively under the mighty hand of God and in his due time he will exalt thee It being then evident That the knowledge of Sin is so necessary to the removing the heavy hand of an offended God from off an afflicted Nation Surely the great Work we are all call'd to in this day of our sore Visitation is to give all diligence to know why it is that God contendeth with us and wherein we have incenst him thus to pour out his wrath upon us that so we turning from our particular sins he may turn away his anger and comfort us And in order to this it is the duty of every one who is an Inhabitant of the Land in the first place to call himself to a strict account and impartially to look into his heart and review his life and see what he hath done towards the hastening these Judgments upon us and accordingly apply himself to God to do his utmost for their removal Every man hath brought a faggot to the kindling of the Common flame wherefore every man should bring his bucket to quench it And here let me warn every soul to beware of a most dangerous temptation wherewith its like they 'l be assaulted to wit to think but very meanly and sleightly of their own particular sins as if they had little or no influence to the bringing on us such grievous Calamities and that partly out of self-love which makes us very tender how we accuse our selves and ready to extenuate all our own faults partly because we may yet be free from the smart and therefore take but a cold superficial view of our selves and partly because when we look upon the evils in grosse under which the Nation lies we can discern no proportion betwixt them and our personal offences and this comes much from our ignorance of the hainous nature of the least sin Now reflect on thy self Reader and tell me Hast thou not been very ready in the general to cry out That 't is for the sins of the Nation we are now afflicted and to flie out very bitterly against this party or that this abuse and the other corruption in Church or State but in the mean time hast been very backward to charge and accuse thy self as thou oughtest as if thou wast not a member of this sinful and suffering Nation Let thy Conscience answer whether this hath not been thy way and judge whether this be a just performance of thy duty If every person thus shift it from himself where will Repentance be found and what 's like to become of us If there were an Army to go forth against the Enemy and one person should draw back and say what can he do He cannot be mist in such a Multitude nor can he do much against such a numerous force and therefore desires he may stay at home and another come and use the same excuse and so a third and at length all that have the same reason which indeed every man may pretend to what 's like to become of the War And yet alas how doth this senselesse Objection generally prevail in the World in a case somewhat different from this viz hindring that couragious Zeal and Industry for the promoting of Religion and for the destruction of the Devils Kingdom which beseems every Member of Christ hat is listed into his service by the Baptismal Covenant wherein he was engaged to fight under the Banner of Christ and that without putting in this Condition that he should have good store of Company to joyn with and back him for without this he may come off a Conquerour But yet now cries one What can I do
How notoriously infamous is our Nation grown for filthiness and lewdness It cannot now be charged on the Pope alone That Publick Stews are erected within his Jurisdiction only yet here 's this difference Those are if History and Common Report speak Truth Licenc't Ours are not demolish't Nor yet perhaps are ours so publick or certainly known but yet too publick they are to the disgrace of our Nation and Holy Profession Insomuch that one would think Venice was lost from its foundation and floated into England It is not the loathsomnesse of that disease which in a just judgment attends it that will deter men from this more loathsom sin Yea so common is it grown that by many 't is look'd upon as a very light matter no way so hainous as God and his Preachers would make it And they are ready to censure his Laws as severe for not allowing them the priviledges of Bruits so strangely doth frequency in sin wear out the sense of it And a sensual life doth even blind the understanding and bribe the Conscience till at length with much ado men almost perswade themselves that they may do what they have often done and are resolved still to persist in Whoredom Wine and new Wine take away the heart Hos 4. 10 11. Even in a Literal sense the Spirit of Whoredoms cause men to erre And can it seem strange if at length God make use of Arguments which such brutish creatures themselves are capable of to prove to them That their filthiness is highly provoking to his glorious Majesty who is of purer eyes than to endure to behold the least iniquity His Word condemned this before as plainly as it could speak but vile Wretches whose Senses are their Masters would not understand it they acknowledged not his Commands they either believed not or would not consider his threatnings his promises of an everlasting glory were too thin and spiritual for them to relish or be allured by What tell ye them of Rivers of pleasures at Gods right hand They must have their dirt to tumble and wallow in Take those who will for them they must have their Chambering and Wantonnesse and lustful dalliances Nothing must go for reason with them which contradicted their sensual desires and is it not just they should then be dealt with sutable to their Natures That since nothing else would do it Sense and feeling may at length assure them their sweet and pleasant sins are a displeasure to God and most pernicious to themselves And if neither seeing the beginning of Gods wrath upon others nor feeling it themselves will prevail with them God hath judgments in store that shall extort from them will they or will they not most passionate and hearty acknowledgments that whilest they were satisfying their Lusts they were most studiously contriving their own ruine and treasuring up wrath for themselves against the day of wrath If neither Poverty nor Shame Pox nor Plague can bring them to such a confession Hell shall bring them to this and much more But as if we were not content with those ordinary sins of Adultery and Fornication 't is reported that we have amongst us beside the effeminate abusers of themselves with mankind also This in Italy had been no such monstrous thing but can it be accounted lesse in England Both Heathen and Popish Rome indeed hath still been infamous for this amongst other abominations and thence 't is most probable we have derived Sodomy as well as Popery And 't is well if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all other projects for the promotion of Holy Church this be 〈…〉 to debauch our Gentry the better to dispose them for the embracing of tâ—at Religion which can afford them Indulgences at so cheap a Rate Now let any man but seriously consider the Holinesse of God his Infinite purity and justice and withall reflect upon his Omnipresence his All-searching eye that is upon the most secret actions think but how he hath been a Witnesse of all that Lewdnesse that hath been committed in all places in the greatest privacies and retirements not bars and bolts could keep him out not drawn curtains nor the darkest night could hide impure sinners from his view consider we but these things and shall we wonder if for these wickednesses the Lord be wroth with us and pour out the Vyals of his fury upon us How justly might God take up the complaint against us which he did against Israel Jer. 5. 2 8. When I had fed them to the full they then committed Adultery and assembled themselves by Troops in the Harlots houses They were as Jed Horses in the morning every one Neighed after his Neighbours wife And what follows ver 9. Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this And oh now that all those whose Consciences condemn them for these things would presently arise and take shame to themselves and do no more so wickedly lest worse things yet befall them And the good Lord awaken those that are in Authority to greater vigilance and industry for the future in searching after punishing and suppressing this Impiety wherewith we are so polluted that the Visitation now upon us which hath so much the same cause with that laid on the Israelites Num. 25. may also have the same speedy and effectual cure which we may read Psal 106. 29 30. Thus they provok't him to anger with their inventions and the Plague brake in upon them Then stood up Phinehas and executed iudgment and so the Plague was stayed The two next Sins I shall mention may passe for Appendices to this first as having been too apparent promoters of it which yet if they were not may upon other Accounts be deservedly reckoned amongst the provoking sins of the Land 2. The former is the Licentiousnesse of the Stage where wickednesse and amongst other sorts wantonnesse is more effectually taught than it is decryed in the Pulpit Let their Favourers talk what they will of their advancing Virtue and shaming Vice I should put it amongst one of the wonders of the Times to hear of any man Reform'd by a Play If to hear others be the way to make men leave them if to hear the Sacred Name of God profaned his Word jested with Religion it self derided be the way to make men Devout if to hear Lascivious Discourse and see Impudent Persons and Actions be the way to get Modesty then let us all flock to the Play-house And next from the same Reason let Youth be brought up in a Brothel-house to learn Chastity at a Tavern to avoid Drunkennesse at a Gaming-house to keep them from Cursing and Swearing I have heard but few count it any great wisdom in that Nation where they were wont to make their Servants drunk to shew their Children the odiousnesse of it and surely there was lesse charity in it to make some commit wickednesse that they might prevent it in others But when Vice